//------------------------------// // Friendship Magic Works like Science, Right? // Story: When: "Pony Up" Becomes a bit too Literal // by Feelzy101 //------------------------------// Twilight, who had been severely startled by the sudden flash of light, had fallen backwards into the pile of boxes she was sitting on. She continued to stay there for the several minutes as she had to cover her eyes completely to not be blinded by the light emitted from her friends. During this time, everything fell silent for Twilight, except for a quiet noise that sounded like fairy dust being sprinkled. She had no idea what was going on, and started to worry about what was happening. There were no screams of pain or anything else of the sort, so she knew they weren't being hurt. But she wasn't hearing anything from them, which wasn't a good sign. After about five minutes of waiting, the noise was silenced, and replaced several seconds later with a low groan. Twilight knew that noise all too well, the sound of somebody that didn't want to wake up. She moved her hands away from her face slowly, and found no scorching light met her eyes. What she did find however, was something, or six somethings that scared her just as much as they made her want to scoop them up into a hug. Lying on the floor were six technicolour ponies, five of which looked to be asleep. Twilight quickly got to her feet and brushed off any dust on her skirt that remained from the old boxes. The movement caught the attention of one of ponies, specifically the flame-maned one, who was the only one to actually be awake. She opened her groggy eyes a little bit further and looked directly at Twilight, who had a confused look on her face. "Twilight, what happened?" said the orange pony. It spoke, Twilight thought quickly, but that voice, could it be? "Sunset? Is that you?" "What do mean? Did we transform back or-" Sunset reached to the top of her head to check her ears, her hoof hitting the unicorn horn that was sticking out of her forehead first. "Am I a pony?" she said, with concern in her voice. Twilight was simply dumbfounded. Not only did she have a friend who used to be a pony from a different world, but now that friend was a pony in her world! The half-pony transformations were one thing, something she didn't understand at all, but six actual ponies? Her mind had no idea where to begin. She sat back down on the semi-crushed boxes, hand on her forehead, trying to piece together what happened. Sunset by this point had noticed Twilight's reaction, and came to the conclusion that she was in fact, a pony again. She got to her hooves, her mind switching back to her birth instincts, and looked around her. She put two and two together and knew that somehow, the other five ponies laying there were her friends. She walked over to each of them and gave a slight nudge in the side to try and wake them up. Slowly, but surely, each of her friends awoke, and realized where they were. Sunset just stopped and listened, as one by one, they realized what happened to them and started there own mini freak-outs, except for Fluttershy. The yellow, animal loving pegasus was caught in the same dilemma that Twilight initially was. She wasn't sure whether to scream or to SQUEE, the result being a mixture of the two. The confused sound made everyone else in the small garage turn towards her in shock, silencing their own cries. Sunset quickly seized upon the silence. "So girls, uh, we're ponies now," she said with an sheepish grin. "Something definitely went wrong, and while I'm used to being like this seeing as I was born a pony, I can understand what you girls are feeling right now. I had no clue what to do with myself when I first walked through the portal, I didn't know that I was a bipedal species, or that I didn't have magic. But for right now, I just need you calm down while I can figure out a solution." "Calm down?" Applejack started, trying shakily to stand up, only to fall back onto her haunches. "We just went and turned from magical half pony-humans into actual ponies, and you want us to calm down? Ah have hooves for pete's sake!" she said while waving a hoof around in the air. Sunset could tell by her heavy breathing that Applejack wasn't taking this very well. "Applejack," said Rarity, "I agree with Sunset, freaking out isn't going to help us solve anything." Rarity slowly got up, having an easier time then than her friend, and walked over to her. She draped herself over Applejack in an awkward pony-human hybrid hug. Sunset couldn't help but snicker to herself about how weird they looked. They stayed that way for a couple of minutes, until Applejack broke the hug. "Thanks Rarity," she said with a small blush. "And Ah'm sorry Sunset, ah don't know what came over me," she was almost crying at this point from the mental stress she went through. Unbeknownst to the three girls, their friends were sitting on the other side of the garage, looking over their new bodies. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were closely examining each other's wings. They had had wings, whenever they "ponied up" before. The only difference now was that they could actually look at them without worrying about changing back like when they played music. Close by the two pegasi, a now intrigued Twilight was sitting with Pinkie Pie, lifting and lowering her hooves like a water pump. She had the notepad in hand and was writing down notes about the new species in front of her. The pink mare could hardly sit still and was almost bouncing, her tail shaking back and forth like a dog's. Sunset walked into the center of the room and with got the attention of her friends. "I'm going to be honest with you girls, I have no idea how to fix this. I'm still learning friendship magic myself, and I was wrong about the first solution. I should've been more careful, and I won't make that mistake again. "Which is why I don't want to actually try anything to fix this until I ask Princess Twilight for help. I'll keep trying to figure it from the research I have, but for all I know, something far worse could've happened than us being turned into ponies." Surprisingly to Sunset, Twilight was the one to respond. "From a scientific standpoint, that's probably the best bet for now. Better to be sure about your next attempt, than make it worse." Everyone else nodded as well. They had to admit, the idea of doing magical "tests" on themselves wasn't very appealing. "So until Princess Twilight responds, we're stuck like this? You all remember how long it took for her to get Sunset's message before the friendship games. What will we do if she's busy again?" said Rarity. "What about school?" "Well, I guess we can't go to school until we can hear from Twilight, what a shame," Rainbow Dash said with a sarcastic sigh. "But where will we stay?" Pinkie Pie said, pulling her ear away from Twilight and her notepad. "I don't think my family would be very happy if I went home as a little pink pony. Well, I'm sure Maud would find it hilarious, she loves fun stuff like this!" Having met her sister Maud before, the other five ponies in the room simply gave her a hesitant "yeaaaaaa," trying not to let on that her sister didn't seem like the fun type. "But, if I can't go home, how will I feed all my animals?" Fluttershy gasped. "Fluttershy, you carry all your animals and their food around in your backpack, remember?" said Rainbow Dash, pointing a hoof to the open pack near the garage door. It was open, with a bunny and a hamster sleeping inside, a cat beside them licking its paws, and a bird resting on the cat's head. "Oh, right," she whispered. "But where will we stay?" "Sunset," Twilight spoke up, "You said this morning that the family you live with was only gone for tonight, right?" At the pony's nod she continued. "My parents are gone on a two week business trip, so I guess you girls could stay at my house." "A sleepover?" Pinkie Pie nearly hit the ceiling with how high she jumped. "Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh!" "That sounds like a marvelous idea!" Rarity said excitedly. "But how will we get to your house Twilight, we can't exactly run there and not expect to be seen." "Actually Rarity, we would be galloping, not runn-," Sunset started, only to be cutoff by the glare that Rarity shot at her. "Errrr, never mind." "Ah have an idea," Applejack stood up, this time figuring out how to not fall back onto her haunches again. "Twilight, you said you got your license a few days ago, right?" She walked over to her backpack and stuck her head inside the pouch to look for something. "Yeah," she replied. "But my parent's car is our family's only car, and they took it for the business trip." "Well, isn't just lucky that Big Mac let me borrow his truck to get here today?" she said with a huge grin, using her hoof the scrape the apple shaped key-ring out of her backpack. "Excellent. Alright girls, grab your backpacks and lets head out! Just leave your instruments here, and we'll grab them when we figure everything out," said Sunset as walked over to her backpack and sat down beside it. The pony couldn't help but smile about everything that had happened. I can't believe I'm finally a pony again, I feels good to be back! About five minutes later, and everyone was ready to go. Twilight opened the garage door slowly and looked around for anyone that might have been walking or driving by. Everything seemed clear, and she gave the the word to her friends. "Ok y'all follow me, I parked just over there," Applejack said, pointing towards the old red pickup truck. Everyone broke into a quick gallop, save for Twilight, who was constantly watching for anyone that might be passing by. Luckily, nobody did. After lifting her non-winged friends, one by one into the truck, Twilight draped a large white sheet from Sunset's garage over everyone. "Ugh!" Rarity coughed. "This thing is simply covered in dust, couldn't you have shook it out first?" Everyone seemed to roll their eyes in unison, and Twilight walked over the driver's side door, got in, and checked all of her mirrors. She didn't ace her driving exam by forgetting her mental, pre-driving, checklist. And finally, after a couple failed engine starts, they were on the road. "I guess while we wait, I'll start writing a letter to Princess Twilight to explain the situation we're in here. Hopefully she won't be as busy as last time. I'd suggest that you girls call your parents when we get to Twilight's house," Sunset said, fishing the enchanted book and a pen out of her backpack. As if it was instinctual by this point, Sunset started to dictate her letter as she wrote. Dear Princess Twilight, I'm going to be honest, friendship magic makes NO sense. After a band practice with the girls, we were left with our pony ears and hair. I assumed that playing another song would fix the problem, but instead I made it worse. We all turned into our pony selves, except for Twilight. (I guess because she wasn't part of the initial friendship magic group... I think.) I haven't really worked out all the details myself. We're staying at Twilight's house to avoid the public eye, but we need your expertise. Please write back as soon as you can. Your friend, Sunset Shimmer.