Since the blog commentors have voted for a Hive tie it, so shall it be. However, whether it is changeling or alicorn Twilight, she'll ultimately only play a short role in this story.
In the following morning, Changeling Queen Twilight Sparkle jumped through the Earth-side portal and found herself in the second basement under Sparkle Manor. The section of the old Canterlot High statue’s pedestal had been moved years ago into a pleasant oak-paneled room. Lights blinked on in reaction to her arrival. The queen herself looked almost identical to her human counterpart, save for unmistakably vertically-slitted eyes and slightly elongated canines. As always when she crossed the portal, the ever-present hive mind was muffled to be nearly unintelligible.
I swear, the one time I let Gentle Touch talk me into a resort retreat is the one time a serious issue crops up here that really can’t be fixed by anyone else! The fact that no one had thought to keep tabs on the journal for the past week didn’t help her mood in the slightest.
Queen Twilight wasted no time in departing the portal room to race for the lab above. ’It’ll be great,’ she said. ‘What could happen,’ she said. ‘If anything pops up we can contact you immediately,’ they all said. Bah! She shifted her duffle bag full of books and one research tool in particular over her shoulder. At least… I hope I can fix it, she fretted as a cold sweat took hold.
Queen Twilight knocked on the lab doors before entering. There she found Sunset Shimmer, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, and her human counterpart. Human (well, mostly human) Twilight and Sunset Shimmer were using their magic to probe Applejack and Rainbow Dash respectively while Rarity watched on with deep concern written across her furrowed brow.
“Hey, everyone!” Queen Twilight called out apologetically at being so late to help. The reactions of Sunset and the other girls ranged from elation to being borderline manic at her arrival. Rarity and Sunset were the first to race over and squash the humanized changeling in a vice-like hug, causing her to drop the bag with a crash. Rainbow, Applejack, and human Twilight joined in a few moments later with less force, if only to keep the queen from being suffocated.
“Finally, you’re here!” Rainbow cheered from her hovering position after letting go. “How’s my favorite vampire?”
Queen Twilight scrunched her mouth in mild yet friendly irritation. “Just fine miss fuzzy.”
“Yeah, about that. You’re going to fix this right?” Rainbow asked rapidly while gesturing more at her legs than anything else.
Rarity interposed herself between Rainbow and Queen Twilight. “Have some tact, Rainbow.” Rarity flashed her friend an apologetic smile. “While time is of the essence, I just want to thank you again for assisting us with this rather peculiar problem. I know you must be extremely busy back home.”
“Trust me, Rarity,” Twilight said as she waved off the supposed slight. “I get that kind of thing all the time from my world’s Rainbow.”
Now that she actually had a spare moment to look at her changing friends, and otherworldly twin, Queen Twilight was taken aback by the sight of them. Rainbow Dash took up the lion’s share of that silent and stunned observation. Partially because of her advanced metamorphosis, and partially because of the unexpected sight of her wearing no clothing at all. “I – wow… You weren’t kidding, Sunset.”
“I wish I had been.” Sunset was caught between the joy of seeing her friend and the niggling fear in the back of her mind about the prospect that Twilight might not able to find a solution. “We could really use your expertise on this one.”
Queen Twilight’s human counterpart couldn’t get over the irony that the queen was currently far more human than she was. I hope my friends won’t start calling me mostly-human Twilight. Shaking the thought aside, she hastened to follow the group as Sunset started moving them deeper into the lab. “We’re in a real jam in trying to figure all this out. Sunny’s kinda out of practice with high level magic research, and I’m used to being able to see data on readouts or on screens, not… best guess sort of things.”
The more human than Human-Twilight, Twilight was fixated on observing her friends’ pony features. “It’s certainly an art that takes time to master. I’ll do my best to guide you through it. But it’s a good sign that I came through the portal fully human.”
Applejack had been around the three scientists long enough to know when technobabble was about to get underway. “Do ya need me ta clear out, or t’ gather the rest of th’ band for more tests and what not?”
Queen Twilight found a clipboard with blank paper and swiped a pen from the desk. “Please gather the others, AJ. I’ll need data on everyone.”
“Alright, Ah’ll be back soon.” Applejack stepped away to make the necessary calls, and dragged Rainbow away to give the trio some time to set themselves up, while Rarity excused herself to make everyone some tea.
Human-Twilight gathered a laptop from a second desk and started pulling up files and datasheets. “I don’t know how much they’ll help since we’re moving entirely to this whole analogue magic scanning, but I’ll bring up all the data we gathered before switching over to our horns.”
Sunset pulled out some paper of her own and rolled over a chair to sit next to Queen Twilight. “As much as I want to catch up, we really do need to get some data on you as soon as possible.”
“Why me? I’m not changing,” the queen mildly protested as Sunset already started using her magic to probe her, specifically where her carbuncle would be.
“You will be within an hour,” her human counterpart stated directly with a grim frown. She started rubbing her other arm and looked down with a glum face. “M-my parents along with several of the Department’s agents and Soarin have started changing too.”
“We think it’s because of the excess mana we’re radiating,” Sunset added with a similar expression.
“Well then it’s a good thing I brought this.” Queen Twilight heaved her duffle bag onto an empty spot on the desk, and rummaged through the books to find a box. “Ah, good. It wasn’t damaged by that hug/tackle.”
The other two girls looked on in curiosity as Queen Twilight withdrew two objects out of the box. The first looked like a bronze and gold wrap around for a unicorn horn. It had a very cobbled together look about it which was compounded by the second item she gathered. That one looked like a web of gold and bronze that could wrap around the head. “I had to cobble together a prototype of a prototype so it doesn’t look that good.
“It’s called the MAgic Sensory Transference device, or MAST for short, but this will allow me to feel what you detect with your magic.” Human Twilight immediately thought of brain scanners while Sunset Shimmer was truly astonished. “Oh wow. Did you invent this?”
“Can’t claim that feat,” Queen Twilight chuckled, “nor did it come from my hive, but I’ll tell you about it later.” She handed Sunset the piece for the unicorn, before starting to put on its counterpart. “If you can only give me an hour before I start going back to my normal self, we need to get as much data on my pure human form as possible.”
Rainbow Dash tried to busy herself up in the indoor patio by continuing her attempts to walk on hooves. Mostly to distract herself from the faint stretchy feeling she was getting from her face, and the fact that her hairline was already halfway down the back of her neck.
She was having mixed results at best, and wobbled constantly. Applejack was leaning against a wall so that Rainbow was between her and the brilliant view of the landscape beyond. Sparkle Manor was situated perfectly where its north face observed the city while the southern face had a majestic view of the Everfree Forest Nature Preserve.
“Have ya tried thinkin’ of it like wearin’ high heels?” Applejack offered after Rainbow started using her wings to compensate for her lack of balance.
Rainbow might have risked turning around to scowl at the farmer, but she feared the shift in balance might cause her to topple over, so she opted to just give a sidelong glare. “You’re kidding right? Even if I ever put myself through the torment of high heels, these legs work differently. You know, in case you hadn’t noticed!”
Applejack waved her arms placatingly. “Easy there, RD. We’re all in the same boat. Iff’n it takes Sunset and the Twi Twins too long to fix this the rest of us’ll be right thar with ya on hooves.”
Rainbow grumbled and refocused on her legwork. “Yeah well, by that time I’ll probably be on all fours. What if they can only stop these changes, but not reverse them?”
“Well if that happens then ya won’t have Rarity naggin’ you ‘bout need’n ta wear clothes anymore.”
Rainbow chanced a look back at her farming friend to see Applejack was only wearing a tattered old blue jean skirt herself. “Speaking of which, I thought I was the only one to show off. What happened to that southern decency?”
Applejack huffed and found a chair to sit in so that she could rub her sore feet. Her boots were feeling very confining to the point of being painful. “There’s a reason people don’t wear fur coats in summer time, RD. You try workin’ in the sun all day on the farm with fur from head to toe and see if you don’t sweat like a dog in a sauna. There’s a reason Big Mac hardly ever wears a shirt durin’ summer.”
“Just one more reason for me. Clothes are redundant for us now if you ask me.” Rainbow Dash quipped.
Rarity overheard it, and fully expected the comment was bait. I’ll not give her the satisfaction. Besides, her arguments don’t mean much considering she’s a shameless exhibitionist anyway. Even then, Rarity cast a worried glance at Applejack who didn’t give Rainbow’s quirks the same dismissive snort as usual.
However, Rainbow’s snarky smile didn’t last long as she purred at the memory of the big farmer’s muscle bound chest that rippled with muscle. “Big Mac’s quite a sight, that’s for sure. Too bad for him Soarin has him beat.” Fluttershy blushed tremendously at the mental image of her own escapades with Big Mac and tried to hide her burning cheeks with her hair. Speaking of which, I need to call Soarin to come over. Maybe Spitfire can give him a ride.
“How ‘bout we drop that particular subject matter about mah brother, thank you very much.” Applejack tried to let go of her irritation after seeing Rainbow snicker at her expense. She finally managed to yank her left boot and sock off, only to find her foot was deforming. Her toes were beginning to merge, leaving Applejack with only three toes which had very thick nails developing. “Ga dang it! Now that’s not a pretty sight.”
Hearing that, Rainbow flew over to see what her friend was getting worked up about. She backed up a bit after seeing what had become of Applejack’s feet. “Gross. Maybe I got lucky with getting hooves all at once. Does it hurt?”
“A little, yeah.” Applejack rubbed her foot, trying to ease the dull ache giving Rainbow the excuse to return to her walking exercise. Ah really hope RD is frettin’ over nothing. Sunset and th’ twins will fix things no problem… I hope
On the other side of the house, Agent Thompson was on a short lived break in the bathroom, trying to get a new hat to properly conceal his prominent lime-green pony ears. Given the nature of the agency, and the girls themselves, he had been hand-picked for his mental flexibility which let him roll with even the weirdest of punches.
If anything he was actually delighted to have the ears in a morbid way. Once all this is fixed and the girls find a way to reverse it, perhaps I could end up with permanent magic at the end of this. That could be an interesting little wrinkle, assuming I don’t blow my head off trying to use it.
His musings of the future paused as the new fedora seemed to fully encase his new ears. He took a step away from the mirror and turned his head this way and that to see how nonchalant the hat looked. It took him all of about four seconds to give up and toss the fedora back onto the sink with a huff. Yeah right. These hats just scream ‘look at me, I’m suspicious’. And it muffles everything. He rubbed the side of his head, taking in the unnerving oddity of smooth skin where his ears should be. A pinch in his lower back soured his mood even further. “Not that a hat could hide the tail coming in.”
Resolving to simply enjoy a few quiet moments until his break was over, Thompson collected the fedora, intending to get a refund from the store, he was living off a government salary after all, only for his phone to start buzzing. With practiced swiftness, he unclipped it off his belt and answered right as the second ring started. “Hello.”
A highly professional sounding woman answered back. “Agent 2205.”
“Reply code: lightning whisky niner two,” Thompson replied mechanically. He quickly pressed the volume on his phone to maximum so his distant ears could hear his handler better.
“Very good. I have the latest intelligence update for you. This information is classified, but can be shared with your charges as you see fit.” The woman paused briefly to give him time to mentally prepare, since she would not repeat herself. “The incidences around Canterlot City yesterday were isolated to just Canterlot. It is believed to be either a proof of concept attack, or a declaration that the group responsible for the attack at the concert is willing and able to achieve their stated goals.
“All of perpetrators of yesterday’s ‘bombings’ completely deny any and all involvement with the group, claiming that they were unaware of the mana bombs they carried with them.”
Thompson scowled at his reflection in the mirror. “You’re not seriously telling me they were all innocent pawns are you?”
The woman’s tone was just as bothered by the news as he was. “The Director isn’t taking chances, so we’re keeping them in custody for the time being, and before you ask, we had the police round up as many victims of these bombings as we could into isolation wards in city hospitals. Although we hold no illusions that we got everyone.”
“Br-” Thompson caught himself before saying a real name. “But Papa Bear knows normal NBC protocols don’t work against mana radiation! That’s going to infect all of our ground staff and any medical personnel working there.” Not to mention the media fallout.
“Our ground teams took an oath of service, as you should well know. We told the medical staff of the risks, their fate is of their own making.” Thompson was not happy, but there was little he could do outside of venting his frustrations. Not that his handler gave him the chance just yet. “I am also to inform you that the CDC and National Guard have been alerted to the situation, and are already mobilizing.”
Thompson half expected this, but feared it all the same. “Martial law under quarantine? What if this gets bigger than one city? Even if the Guard managed to get into position within the hour, we don’t know if we can stop every last individual involved with the organization that started all of this.”
“That is outside of your purview, agent. Your orders are to remain with your charges and make sure they devise a cure uninterrupted. Luck willing, we’ll have one soon.”
It was left unsaid, but Thompson knew riots would break out once numerous people started showing signs of the pony epidemic. Assuming the whole thing stays in the city at all. “Orders received…” At least I was able to fast track the approval for shipping a few of the mana devices over here so that the ladies can analyze them. Thompson grumbled at the impossibilities his job tossed his way from time to time. “I’ll let them know.”
“Very well. Carry on, agent. Pappa Bear has faith in you.” With that, Thompson’s handler hung up.
He pocketed the phone and rubbed his face as a sense of helplessness washed over him. I hope this doesn’t get any worse than the Tirek incident.
A few hours later, with the exception of the two Twilights and Sunset Shimmer, all of the girls were trying to keep themselves preoccupied in Sparkle Manor while they waited for a solution. Although most of them were here because it was getting nearly impossible to walk due to the fact their legs and feet were caught halfway between human and pony. When she wasn’t retraining herself to walk, Rainbow Dash was busy trying in vain to push her face back. Her nose and mouth were starting to jut forward into a muzzle. Even her eyes were starting to grow larger.
For the most part, the room was largely quiet as the group of friends stayed close for mutual support. The silence was broken by the television flicking on after Applejack finally had enough of the oppressive worry hanging over everyone.
“Come on, yall, I wanna see if people know what’s goin’ on out there.”
As much as misery loved company, no one present loved misery. As such the girls agreed to have a distraction. Pinkie Pie seemed to have no trouble running and bouncing over to her favorite bean bag chair and snatching the remote control. “OOO! The baking channel right? I get the feeling Chef Moriarty is going to unveil a new pumpkin cake recipe!”
Please no more talk of food right now,” Rarity said with her signature whine as she went a little green in the face. “I had to eat a salad made by my sister and…” Rarity couldn’t finish her thought and just groaned in pain and rolled onto her side, begging her stomach to keep it down because she was in no position to run anywhere.
“We could watch the nature channel,” Fluttershy offered hopefully.
“Sounds like a plan ta me,” Applejack agreed with a smile with Rainbow Dash giving mild disinterest, but no objections. Rainbow Dash flew over to join in while still trying to mash her proto-muzzle back.
Seeing Fluttershy had the majority, Pinkie Pie started pressing buttons. “Then nature it is!”
In her bubbly haste, Pinkie pressed the wrong number, bringing up the local news station. “Woops.” Yet Pinkie hesitated before correcting herself when she saw the picture next to the news anchor was the University stage with the Rainbooms present.
“-are currently unknown. The Canterlot Police Department states that the people or organization that caused the unusual explosion at the student concert was also responsible for the thirty eight similar explosions yesterday.”
The image swept to enlarge the video of the Rainbooms being hit by a distant beam of magic. “As you can see, some form of energy detonated outward, knocking people down, but strangely causing little property damage.” The video looped a couple of times before returning to the news anchor. “And here we see a similar anomaly happened just yesterday. Viewer discretion is advised,” the news anchor continued as a new video popped up.
This time it was someone’s camera phone from a second story balcony as the camera followed a very fuzzy Rainbow Dash as she walked down the street.
“Look Dashie! You’re on TV!” Pinkie cheered, only fanning the flames of Rainbow’s ego, letting her forget her growing muzzle for a moment and watch. Rarity simply sighed with empathic embarrassment for what her friend should be feeling. Applejack just huffed and watched her friend strut down the street. However, Rainbow wasn’t the focus of the video for long.
Rainbow Dash felt a chill crawl up her spine when that familiar screaming of the sign spinner started. Just like the concert, the mana exploded outward right as the camera caught Rainbow Dash trying to fly over the street. However after that, the camera man had been thrown backward with the phone clattering onto a patio table.
Fluttershy cupped her hands over her mouth in shock while Pinkie Pie cringed in shared pain. Rarity however, was livid at Rainbow. “You flew above people’s heads wearing practically nothing!?”
“And?” Rainbow challenged with a raised eyebrow. “I think my choice in attire is not the issue here.”
The video feed cut ahead to where the cameraman had recovered and brought his phone back over to the scene. The screen quickly focused on Rainbow Dash who was trying to shake off the aftereffects. The video froze and zoomed in on Rainbow’s new pony legs and hooves.
The girls’ blood ran cold as the reporter spoke as the video was now split between Rainbow’s human legs before the mana shockwave and the pony legs afterwards. “As evidenced in this alteration of local celebrity Rainbow Dash,” the news anchor continued with an edge of fear in her tone. “This is much more than a common terrorist attack.”
“Girls!” Queen Twilight called out from the room’s entryway. “I think we found a way to at least halt the changes!”
Rainbow and the others turned back with hope in their eyes only to be shocked by what they saw. Queen Twilight Sparkle was humanoid, but that was it. She was covered in purple fur and sported a full mane and tail. Her legs mirrored Rainbow Dash’s exactly. Twilight had a short yet unmistakable muzzle with fangs that jutted past her lips. Her eyes were almost twice as large as a human’s, making her friendly slitted lavender irises stand starkly out.
Twilight’s horn sat prominently on her head, yet it had no groove like a unicorn. Instead it was entirely smooth and ended in a razor sharp point and curved backwards like a scimitar. Unlike human Twilight and Sunset’s horns, the purple ivory of the queen’s horn turned starkly red towards the tip.
The large horn also brought a small purple crown with four deeper purple nodes, which nestled between her horn and ears. The changeling queen had broad vibrantly crimson insectile wings that looked severely tattered on the edges. The wings were visible only briefly before they folded in behind Twilight’s back.
“Somehow I doubt that,” Rainbow prodded verbally in an attempt to break herself out of her stunned state.
There had always been the slitted eyes and fangs with Twilight, but this moment truly stunned them all. Fluttershy tilted her head at the sight of her friend. “I don’t mean to be rude, but how does you changing so fast mean you have a cure?”
Twilight looked down at herself and saw how confusion could spread. “We had to do some trial runs on the three of us to make sure our math was right.” She turned to Rainbow Dash. “You need to hurry. You’re nearly beyond the point where we can help, I think.”
“For real?!” All it took was a nod from Twilight to make Rainbow jump to the air and bolt for the lab, flying by Twilight so fast, the Queen’s hair was plastered all over her face.
After taking a moment to get the hair out of her eyes, Twilight flew over to her other friends who were trapped by ill-working legs. Applejack used the back of the sofa to prop herself up so she could be eye level with Twilight. “Ah knew you’d come through for us.”
“Never any doubt!” Pinkie cheered, bouncing around as if walking was as easy as ever. “If eggs were heads, you three would be the eggiest of them all.”
Twilight chuckled as Pinkie Pie skipped her way to the lab. While Fluttershy typically prefered the ground, here at least she kept to the air. “Thank goodness, Twilight. What fix did you come up with?”
“I’m dying to know myself,” Rarity stated as she felt Twilight’s magic lift her off of her currently less than useful legs. Twilight easily also took Applejack into her magic as well before guiding her friends to the basement laboratory. “Oo. It's so strange traveling like this.” Rarity shook her head to remain on topic. “It must have been simple if you did it within a day.”
Twilight did her best to shake off a dull headache from being without the full voice of the hive mind for so long. “Well, the people who did this didn’t enact any sort of curse or enchantment to keep us from interfering. The root of the problem is that your magic was forcibly destabilized by the blast. However, we found out that as you become more and more pony, that instability diminishes.
“So after tweaking that device Thompson gave us, we accelerated my changes. We figured since I live in Equestria and not here, it would be best to find out where I would be stable enough for us to work with. Sunset found a way to loop my magic into an runic array that would create a counter-resonance wave that helped in calming my magic down-” Queen Twilight paused when she noticed how deeply lost her friends were. “Short version?” she asked, half expecting the answer.
“Please,” Rarity replied with all the tact she could muster. Fluttershy and Applejack nodded in friendly agreement.
Twilight gave an amused huff. Human or pony, some people never change. “You have to be as pony as I am now for us to be able to freeze your transformation.”
The group reached the carpeted stairs, which thankfully had a railing since it was too narrow for anyone to fly. “Not for nuthing, Twi, but you’re not exactly much of a pony ta begin with.”
“Eehhh, I’m close enough in all the ways that matter this time.”
“Says the girl who’s just grown a crown on her head.”
A brief round of stifled laughter filtered through them. The group of friends reached the bottom and entered the lab to find Rainbow Dash shakily standing in the middle of a white holographic magic array on the floor. Oddly, there was a large collection of pillows surrounding the one meter diameter array. What shouldn’t have surprised them, and yet did anyway, was that both Human Twilight and Sunset Shimmer were as ponified as Queen Twilight was changelified. The two scientists had a few blackened scorch marks on their clothes, and had badly frazzled manes, Twilight’s more so than Sunset. Yet despite this, they were charging their horns in preparation to do the same to Rainbow Dash, which at this point wouldn’t be very much. Pinkie Pie was standing several meters away with a bag of popcorn to keep herself from ruining the charging spell.
Fluttershy found some rolling chairs and brought a couple over so that Rarity and Applejack could sit down. After a round of thanks, Queen Twilight alighted through the air to join her fellow scientists. “Okay, girls, are we ready to go?”
Human Twilight kept her magic at the ready, an act that felt akin to holding her breath, as she quadruple checked the array pattern displayed on a computer screen. “We’re looking good… The array is displaying normal energy levels.”
The two Twilights looked to Sunset Shimmer who gulped at the coming test. Let’s hope this works on pegasi the same way it does on unicorns and former-unicorns. “Activate the array in five, four, three, two, one, go!”
The scientific trio flared their horns along with the array. Human Twilight found it immensely easier to focus her magic by outstretching her arms and cupping her hands towards the array. Rainbow Dash jumped a little when the array lit up and reached out from the floor to encase her like a spider would a fly. She did her best to keep from crying out in short lived panic, if only to maintain her cool status.
The array held onto her tightly as Queen Twilight watched their progress. “Good… Keep it steady, we still have a ways to go.”
Everyone watched in frightful anticipation as the color of the array turned a shade of purplish-red, matching Rainbow’s eye color. Rainbow Dash’s muzzle was jutted out the last inch needed to match that of the scientists. What surprised Applejack and the rest of the bystanders was a thick white ring manifested on her thighs.
Rainbow Dash didn’t get much of a chance to contemplate the odd addition to her fur when the array sank far deeper than before, making her cry out in surprise.
“We’re on track,” Queen Twilight called out, more for Rainbow’s benefit than Sunset Shimmer and Human Twilight. “We’re almost done.”
The array flared even brighter than before. Rainbow Dash bit back a cry of pain as the two circles burned like firebrands as the magic surging around and through her like a torrential river. Then the heat shifted to become pleasent, like the sun warming her face on a cold day.
That warmth spread through her entire being, burning away an aching pain she didn’t know she had. Rainbow Dash felt her muscles relax as if she had just walked away from a masseuse.
The lights around her dimmed tremendously, leaving Rainbow Dash too dazed to remain on her hooves. She fell, unable to process the fact that her face had a date with the floor of pillows. The last thing she heard before her relaxed mind could succumb to the sudden drowsiness was four words: “...And down she goes.”