//------------------------------// // 3. Continued Craziness // Story: Crystals: Dancing While Equestria Goes to Tartarus // by mlpsuperfan //------------------------------// Pyrite snapped awake suddenly to find herself lying on the kitchen floor with a bottle clutched in her right hoof. She picked herself up, muttering "I really need to stop pulling all-nighters" to herself, and put the bottle of orange juice back in the fridge. She was still rather upset that all she had stolen was a chunk of fool's gold. Going upstairs to wash up, she stopped in front of her bedroom mirror. Staring back was Pyrite, but something was different. The eyes seemed to be less pronounced, and her muzzle looked larger and blockier. Pyrite closed her eyes and shook her head, and felt a strange shifting in her stomach. Opening her eyes again, she saw that her reflection was normal, except for her chest. Lodged in her tawny gold fur was the chunk of useless from last night. When Pyrite tried to dislodge it, first with her hooves and then magic, it stayed stuck. "Oh, bucking Princess plot, this isn't happening!" Pyrite scowled. "I do not have a chunk of bucking FOOL'S GOLD in my chest!" Taking a deep breath, Pyrite counted to ten. The pyrite was still there when she opened her eyes. "SON OF A BUCKING DIAMOND DOG!" She yelled. Starting to panic, Pyrite mentally put the stupid pony she had stolen from at number three on her revenge list. "Calm down, it's going to be fine, you just need to go to a doctor, and they'll fix it!" Still panicking slightly, she continued to the bathroom. At the very least she needed to shower before going. _____ Blue Topaz trotted toward the bakery. His boss was sure to have opened the store a while ago, and he needed to get get everything arranged in the display case before the morning rush. Ms. Candyfloss had been so nice to him after he got booted from the Royal Guard. As he trotted closer, Blue noticed something strange: not a single light was on in the bakery. Had his boss overslept? Retrieving the spare key from its hidden spot, he unlocked the door and turned on some of the lights. "Ms. Candyfloss? Hello?" He called, his voice echoing slightly in the empty shop. He heard a faint noise, almost like glass tapping on the tile floor. "Ms. Sugar? Is that you?" Following the noise to the back room, he found a rather upset crystal pegasus curled up in a ball on the worn tiles. Sugar started. "Oh Celestia dammit! I forgot about the spare." She sighed and got up, her crystalline muzzle still wet with tears. "Look, can you please handle the register today? Too many ponies are going to ask questions." "What's wrong?" Blue asked, concerned for one of his few friends. "How did this happen?" Sitting Sugar on the threadbare couch, he managed to calm her down enough to make sense of her words. "Sunny gave me this gem *hic* and I said I would let them know if anything *sniff* happened, but nothing did so I went home and *sniff* this morning I was crystal and now the *hic* gem is attached to me and I don't want any-*hic*pony to see me because then they'll ask questions, and I *sniff* don't want to lie, but I can't tell the truth either!" Sugar took a deep, shuddering breath. "Hold on... Sunny as in Sunstone?" Blue Topaz glanced at his left forehoof, which now had a sizable chunk of his namesake stuck there. "She, er they gave this to me because I helped stop a thief." "Well, *sniff* at least you haven't gone through any drastic changes." Sugar smiled, but paled when Topaz did the same. "And I immediately stand corrected." "What, is there something in my teeth?" Blue reached up to discover a row of sharp fangs in place of his usual pearly whites. "So... do you know where Ms. Sunstone lives?" "As a matter of fact, I do." She replied almost too cheerfully. "In fact, I bet that's where they are right now." And with that the two smiling bakers left the shop. _____ Sunstone was just heading out the door when three rather peeved ponies and another fainted pony blocked their path. "Hi Sugar, Crystal. Would you mind moving out of the way?" They asked. "As a matter of fact," Sugar replied curtly. "We would mind a great deal, especially since you're the reason all of us are like this." Sunstone looked at the ponies and saw that all of them had indeed changed. Each had a crystal attached to themselves, and each looked a bit different. "Look I know you're upset, but you all got it better off than me." Sunstone pushed back some of their hair to reveal that their gem had replaced their eye entirely. A faint firy light flickered behind the gem. Sugar took a small step back, as did Crystal. "That's why I'm leaving, as a matter of fact. I want to see if the Canterlot Archives have anything on transformational crystals. In the meantime, I need you to all try and go about your daily business." "And how in the name of Princess Sparkle are we supposed to go about our day like this?" squeaked Crystal Quartz. *sigh* Sunstone began to remember why she didn't have many friends. "I don't know, ok? Just try acting as you normally would. I need to go. I'll send you a message when I find something. Now if you all will excuse me." And with that, Sunstone walked off, leaving a group of confused ponies. Black Jasper woke up, stretched, and asked. "What did I miss?"