In the gloomy basement of the abandoned building, Taharis held a grim look as he made his way to the staircase. Windows mounted up at the ceiling streamed the amber light of a bright, fleeting twilight. Grumbling to himself, the warlock took off the transformation glove and pocketed it.
The three teenagers he had brought with him from the museum, the three ponies... from the experiment, he had found a flaw. He had carved the ritual glyph on the glove to influence the transformation to limit it to that of an earth pony. But yet, one of the test subjects he had brought back had become a unicorn. How could that be?
He stopped beside another door, wooden and locked like the others. With a flare of his chi, Taharis' magic rippled through his vision, and the contents of the room behind the door came into his sight. There laid a black and white dog, its long black fur covering its back and face, while the white covered the rest. It was a border collie, lying on its side, exhausted and hopeless from the leash strapping it to the room's broken radiator.
The former man, Maxwell P. Scott, had transformed into a border collie... "... even when I had influenced the ritual to turn him into a pug."
But even still, the transformation for him had made him a dog, just a different subspecies... just like those ponies. All of them had transformed correctly, but one had become a different subspecies.
Years of Taharis' experience with the workings of chi trickled through his mind as he turned away, making his way up to the main floor of the building. Chi, the energy in every person that carried the very essence of souls, differed between each individual. Everytime the warlock had used his own chi, none of these sort of complications came up...
... But for these transformations, he wasn't using his own... Could that be the reason this problem was occurring? Were their souls retaliating from the drain of power he placed on them?
Taharis hissed in agitation, removing his mask and tossing it into the corner of the main room. With a quick motion, he did the same with his coat. "Nevertheless, I've come too far to back down because of some insignificant detail. No matter which species of pony I transform them into, they'll still be powerless while they accustom themselves to their new forms."
But what of the ones that were already accustomed to it? Like that yellow one he had brought back. What if there were others like him?
Taharis glowered, making his way towards the exit, "If others like him show themselves, I'll have to deal with them personally. But as for them..." His thoughts turned towards those three ponies downstairs. With one of them already used to his pony body, he knew the leashes wouldn't hold, especially with another of them being a unicorn. If or when they learned how to use unicorn magic, not even the locked door would be able to hold them.
In truth, he hadn't been prepared for such turn of events, but he didn't have any time left to remedy the problem.
Grumbling, Taharis exited the beginning, his car standing in wait for him in the disappearing afternoon, Do what they will. I already warned them; If they come after me, or send others to stop me, I won't hesitate to kill.
____________________________________
Fiora growled through the back of her throat as she bit the leash keeping her strapped to the wall. But despite her now stronger equine teeth, the leash wouldn't even rip. All the while, she shouted curses through her teeth, "Phucin' ell! 'Et ris corrar oph me!"
Dale had tears at the corners of his eyes. He looked just as terrified as when he first saw himself transformed, "F-fiora... c-calm down. We-"
Fiora spat out the leash when she realized she was making any headway with it, "Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down when we're all trapped in a basement as ponies and the guy who tied us up down here says he's going to destroy the country! He's a bloody terrorist!"
"U-um..." Dale gritted his teeth in silence. But then, his eyes fell on me and they bulged out of their sockets, "Lyle? W-what are you doing?"
At the moment, I was taking off my pants.
Fiora turned to look at me, only to immediately shriek in surprise, turning away in disgust, "What the hell, Lyle?! Ew, a little warning next time!"
I only rolled my eyes I squeezed my hindlegs out of the stretched neck of my shirt, since the leash was in the way of the normal way of taking it off. "Hey, just because I'm taking off my clothes doesn't mean I'm naked. I'm literally covered everywhere in fur. Losing my dignity is the least of my concern."
Hesitantly and grudgingly, Fiora turned back to look at me, only to find the sight wasn't nearly as bad. She huffed, "Whatever. Just don't expect me to go stripping, too."
I shrugged, "I don't expect either of you to do it. But I'm just saying, don't complain later if your clothes get too hot over a layer of fur. And not to mention your tail may feel uncomfortable bunched up when wearing pants, unless you cut a hole for it that is."
Fiora frowned as she glanced down at her shorts, where her brunette tail snaked out of a leg like an oddly placed feather boa. From the look on her face, she definitely felt it was uncomfortable.
Blushing slightly beneath her mossy green fur, she grumbled, "Dale, take off your clothes."
"What?!" Dale exclaimed, panic on his face.
"Just shut up and do it." Fiora hissed, her face growing redder, "If I'm going to strip, you're going down with me." Her face instantly turned beet red, "And you better not dare think I meant that as an innuendo!"
Dale held a small blush himself, fidgeting silently. Finally, he started to worm his way out of the neck of his T-shirt. Fiora, now slightly satisfied with her request, started trying to kick her shorts off of her hindlegs. After a few minutes of tripping over hooves and loose clothing, as well as a few pointers from me on how to properly move with pony legs, the two of them had discard their extra layers, now only covered in fur.
Dale chuckled hesitantly, watching his frost colored tail whip from side to side in freedom, "Heh... that... actually feels better."
Fiora only humphed, crossing her forelegs shooting looks that could've killed towards me and Dale, "Whatever... Don't get any ideas."
Now that they weren't covered, I was able to have a better look at Fiora and Dale's pony selves.
Fiora was a well-toned, earth pony mare with mossy green fur. Her brunette mane and tail were spiked similarly like her hairstyle before, though noticeably longer now. Her eyes had turned a shade of rich soil, and on her flank was a cutie mark that resembled a pair of roller blades.
Dale was noticeably smaller in stature than me, but that could have been due to the horn on his forehead. It, like the rest of her fur, was a very dark brown, almost grey color. His mane and tail were short and disheveled, colored like a blue glacier that contrasted with his umber fur. But his eyes, however, were a stark shade of indigo. His cutie mark was three snowflakes falling through a waving breeze of wind.
Fiora grumbled as she kicked her discarded clothes to the wall behind her, "Okay, now that that's out of the way, will the two of you get off your lazy asses and help find a way out of here?"
Dale stammered, "But y-you heard what that guy... Taharis said. If we get out of here, he'd kill more people."
"Only if we run for help," Fiora snapped, "He never said we couldn't escape."
"But that's what you're going to do when we get out of here anyways," Dale countered, "I don't want more people to die because of us!"
"I- Well, yes- but-" Fiora sputtered, "Gah, Dale! He's going to destroy the country! We can't just sit back and let him do that!"
I sighed from where I stood, "Would you two quit arguing?"
The two of them paused as they glanced towards me, before resigning from the discussion. Hm, I didn't even think that would work. I just wanted them to be quiet. Their shouting was starting to hurt my ears.
"Thank you." I turned towards Fiora, "First of all, we don't even know how this Taharis guy plans to do something like that. Even if we could go for help, where would we even send them searching?"
I glanced towards Dale, "But I also agree with Fiora. We should find a way to get out of these leashes." My eyes fell towards the desk on the other side of the room. On top of it sat mine, Dale's, and Fiora's bags from the museum. Apparently they had been on us all the way here. Kind of made me wonder how exactly Taharis brought us here if he never bothered to get rid of them. However, beside the bags were three phones, one of which I recognized as mine. Taharis must have searched our clothes while we were unconscious too. This guy seemed like he prepared for almost everything.
"I also need to get my phone over there. There's someone I need to call."
"Your witch friend?" Fiora guessed.
I nodded, "But first things first," My hooves went up to the clip on my collar, "This thing has to go."
My hooves fumbled with the clip, as hooves were never the most dexterous appendages to begin with. Heck, I could even play video games with them, but something this small was not meant for pony use. Too bad it was around my neck, cause I could have easily taken the clip off with my teeth.
When it was apparent I couldn't get it off, my eyes glanced over towards Dale; The unicorn stared silently at the floor.
Guess it was time for him to know he was pretty much our only key to get these collars off.
____________________________________
A few minutes of 'what's, explanations, and the best darn coaching in unicorn magic ever (not really), Dale only stared back at me with a puzzled look on his face.
Dale held his face in one of his hooves, "Ugh, this sounds so insane." He definitely didn't mean that in a good way, "Pardon me while everything I believed in is thrown out the window. I can't believe I'm even going to try to use magic, which shouldn't even exist to begin with."
"Dale!" Fiora shouted at him, "You can have a belief crisis later. Get to the magic and get these collars off us."
"Alright, alright." Dale sighed, closing his eyes, "Hope this works."
Dale furrowed his brow in concentration, mumbling to himself, "Focus on... the collar..." As he drew his focus in, it could be seen visibly by his horn beginning to glow with an indigo color that matched his eyes. The same glowing aura trailed down onto the plastic clip of Dale's collar.
Dale opened his eyes, only to widen them in surprise to see the glow surrounding his collar, but that only caused the glow to waver as he lost focus.
"Keep focusing on it. Don't stop." I encouraged, and Dale composed his concentration before the glow faded. He furrowed his brow as he stared down at his collar. He gritted his teeth with the effort, but his horn and the aura surrounding the collar began glowing brighter as a result; They kept growing brighter, and brighter, and brighter.
At that moment, a sense of dread came to me, "Uh oh... that's a bit too bright."
And then, Dale's collar exploded.
"AGH! FIRE!" Dale yelped in horror as he ran and bucked as far as the leash would let him as his collar burned with tiny tendrils of flame, "PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!"
But just as quickly, the fire ate through the collar's threads and fell off Dale's neck, who then proceeded to start stamping out the fire hazard in a panicked frenzy, "Die, die, die, die, die!"
When the fire was finally nothing but smoldering remains of a dog leash, Dale finally stopped stomping, catching his breath with giant breaths.
Fiora deadpanned from the side, "Geez, you could've handled that better."
I chuckled sheepishly, "Yeah, but how can you blame him. I didn't expect it to go up in flames either."
Dale, on the other hoof, stared in confusion at the smoldering collar, scratching the back of his head with a hoof, "Hm... I thought if I was just putting energy into my... magic, I'd need a lot to even undo the collar. I guess I put too much in and it ignited instead."
I nodded, grinning slightly, "See? Magic really isn't as much fantasy as you think. It still has physics and mechanics behind it."
Dale blinked for a moment, though still slightly unsure, "Um... yeah, I guess so."
"Alright, now that you're out, mind getting these leashes off us, Dale?" Fiora suggested.
"Oh, um... right." Dale then furrowed his brow, his horn beginning to glow.
Fiora raised her forelegs in a panic, "No, use your teeth or something! I don't want to become a furry charbroil today!"
Dale immediately cut off his concentration, chuckling nervously, "Heh heh, right... I knew that."
The umber unicorn made his way over to Fiora, "Um, pardon me." He leaned forwards and grabbed the clip between his teeth. With a slight bit trouble grasping it, he finally bit down on the sides of the clip and the collar came free. And once Fiora was freed, Dale did the same for me.
Once my collar dropped to the floor with a clatter, I trotted over to the desk and grabbed my phone, laying it down on the ground and switching it on. I'd used a phone before as a pony, so I didn't have as much trouble with it as the Dale and Fiora would've no doubt had.
As I sat on my haunches, Dale came up from the side, looking down at the phone as I scrolled through my contacts list with my nose. He gave me a curious look, "What're you calling your friend for?"
Finally, I found Angela's number and started a call, "I want to ask her about what Taharis said."
Dale sat on his haunches, "Was it about how long he said the transformation would last?"
I nodded as I switched the call to speaker-phone, because it was hard enough to hold a phone to your ear with hooves, "When he told me to figure out the answer, I had no idea what it could've been. But if anyone could figure it out, it would be Angela."
Fiora joined us in a circle around the phone, and just then, Angela picked up from the other end, "Heya, Lyle!"
The three of us winced as the shout rang through our sensitive ears. Fiora mouthed towards me, 'Loud much?'
I merely shrugged, looking back to the phone, "Hey, Angela."
"What's up? How's DC so far?"
"Um, it could be better." I admitted, "You know, 'cause me and couple of my friends got kidnapped and we're now locked in a basement as ponies."
Angela paused on the other end, "Um... wait, what?!"
"Way to drop the bomb-shell," Fiora muttered.
"Who's that?" Angela's voice asked.
"Oh, these are my friends I mentioned," I replied, "Introduce yourselves, guys."
"Fine. Hey, Angela. My name's Fiora."
"H-hi," Dale squirmed uncomfortably; I guessed he wasn't much better at over the phone introductions. "I-I'm Dale."
"Hi! I'm Angela! Nice to meet you!" Her voice had turned chipper for that moment, before switching back to a more serious one, "But seriously Lyle? Are you kidding? You guys got transformed into ponies, and kidnapped? Or did the transformation happen after you guys were locked up?"
"No, before." I proceeded to explain what happened at the museum, all the way up to Taharis revealing himself just earlier.
"Yeesh, so this Taharis guy must be a descendant of the first witches," Angela commented. A humph from her was audible over the phone, "Though that's a total buzz-kill. Only those with the blood of the true witches can use true magic? And here I was hoping I could expand my prank list exponentially."
Dale looked down at the phone in dismay, "You learn about this guy's crazy magic and the first thing you think of is pranks you can pull off with it?"
I shrugged, "That's Angela for ya."
"Oh yeah, Dale, Fiora!" Angela called out, "How're you two holding up? This is probably your first transformations ever, and a doozie of one if I ever knew it. Not a lot of people can say they've gone through an instant transformation before. That had to hurt!"
"We're fine." Fiora replied, folding her forelegs.
"Are you su-"
"Angela," I cut her off, "We don't have a lot of time. We're all fine, rest assured. But Taharis is a problem; we have no idea what he can do with that much power at his disposal, and he must already have a plan or something if he says he'll destroy the country in less than a day."
"Right," Angela agreed, "But truth be told, he must have a hell of a chi reserve if he can transform five people willy-nilly like he did. You know I'd only be able to transform one person and I'd be drained for the day."
I frowned, "Yeah, that's the main reason I called you though. Before he left, Taharis said he only had a chi reserve as big as yours."
A pause rolled through the other end, "What? But that doesn't make sense. Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure. He said the way he was able to transform five people instead of one also affected how long we'd remain as ponies. I called to see if you had any idea what he meant by that."
Angela hummed in though from the other end, "Hm... he would've had to use another source of chi... but what source did he use that would-" Suddenly, her end went quiet. For a moment, I had thought the call had been dropped, but when I looked at my phone, the call was still going.
"Angela?"
No answer.
Worry clutched my stomach, "Hello? Angela? Are you there?"
I could here a tiny, ragged breathing from her end of the phone, as if she were trying to breath through a straw.
"Angela, what's wrong?"
Her grim voice replied from the other end, quiet and almost light headed, "I-I'm sorry. Lyle, Dale, Fiora... you're not going to like the answer I've got. I... I'm so, so sorry."
The three of us looked up and exchanged worried looks between ourselves. I looked back to the phone, "What is it?"
Angela paused for a second, before quietly answering, "The transformation ritual only wears off when it no longer has chi to feed off of. Once it has no more chi to keep the transformation active, it'll vanish from its target. When I cast it usually, all the chi I put into it acts as the timer for the spell, and when it runs out, the transformation reverts.
"But," Her voice choked slightly, "The only thing that makes sense here is that has Taharis has tapped the transformation into your own chi reserves. That being said, the ritual should still only last the normal amount of time... but unless Taharis lied when he said your time length as ponies has been modified, the only other thing that could physically happen is he' s set the ritual to continually tap into your chi reserves."
I frowned, "Um, what? You kind of lost me."
"Your transformation is drawing off your own chi... but it looks like Taharis modified just how much chi the ritual takes. Instead of the 'one-time-withdrawl' for 24 hours you're used to, the ritual is constantly drawing off your chi reserves.
"Even now, it's draining your chi to feed the transformation. Normally, the ritual uses your chi as fast as you normally regenerate it." Angela's voiced choked into a slight sob over the other end, "I-I'm sorry, but as long as you three are regenerating chi, the ritual will continue to feed itself."
"Wait, what do you mean?" Dale asked, wide-eyed.
"In shorter words, as long as your body regenerates chi, the ritual will never wear off. If I'm right... you three will remain transformed for the rest of your lives. Y-you'll never be humans again."
...
"I-I am so sorry."
WOAH! that's so wrong on so many levels, come on Taharis, you jerk!
Anyway, THAT CHAPTER WAS AWESOME! keep up the good work, man! ;)
Dammit all I was right! I don't like being right!
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I hate you being right too
6428124
Yeah, that's just a dick move
6428155 It was literally the first answer that came to mind when I put 'malicious', 'forced transformation' and the known limitations of the spells together... should I be worried that I so easily think like an evil
witchwarlock? I mean, I already have legit possibilities of being related to a magic bloodline from both sides of the family from what I here from aunts and uncles...whether you get this reference or not,
"Bum! Bum! Bummmm!!!! *dramatic reverb*!"
Oh crap. Crap crap crap nuts in pants and dangit all to Tartarus. I also sort of predicted that this would happen. My next prediction for the next chapter, our three permanent ponies are so going to freak, then pull themselves together and get out of there. Maybe they could take Max with them. It just seems mean to leave him there. The freakout and escape part is prediction. The Max part is a sort of hope. He could be a great help and he would probably be more than happy to take a bite out of the guy who did this to him.
Taharish!!! I will end you for taking their humanity away!
Pretty sure Angela could study this guy's glove glyph and make a curse that transform them into human.
That is even worse!
How?
They would have parts of themselves changing all the time! It would never end!
So, they become anthros?
Shut up!
6428218 XD That's actually kinda hilarious. But it's risky. It might work, or it might lock them in a form of equilibrium between forms. Towards the 'worse case' end of the scale, it just might not work, since one curse already has chi priority, or it might lock them in a state of continuous pain as both transformations try to work.
what if there is a way to cut the connection from their chi to the spell?
6428218
.....
....
...
..
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TARAHIS! YOU FREAKING JERK! HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO THESE INNOCENT TEENAGERS!!! You rigged the ritual so that Lyle, Dale, and Fiora will be ponies forever!!!!!!!!! Now I've seen everything!!! Death is too good for you! I want to see you suffer for the rest of your life for committing such atrocity! RAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!
media.giphy.com/media/IStvQ1VdxLaWk/giphy.gif
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6428279
Just imagine if Shadow could have that planned out, how weird would it be for Lyle, Fiona and Dale to walk about at school and act like nothing has happened. Don't know how Emily or Lyle's family would react. XD
There's one thing I will dread if it happens here.
What?
If news go out that it's possible to transform into ponies, we are seeing so many bronies wanting to change......
........
..........
..........No.
Exactly.
6428341 Form an army of bronies to go against him! He might transform them in retaliation. He also may kill them, but hey, people have taking bigger risks for less reward.
6428347 Maybe. But I do have to wonder if this means Earth will have a connection to Equestria now, seeing as this is basically connected to one of Shadow's story, a new friend I believe.
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damn your tropic blood!!! I swear if I end up like Matt cause of you....
6428334
Dude.... Permission to freak out has been granted... Calm down
I mean this series is awesome. I loved the first one. The second was pretty awesome too. But you my friend have just blown my expectations out of the water. The first two were fun little stories but I like how you've taken this one a step further. Am I a sick human being for liking how you've basically made them ponies for the rest of their lives?
6428512
I am quite livid after reading the chapter, because it pretty much showed that Taharis stripped away Lyle, Fiora, and Dale's humanity from them. That is a crime worse than murder IMO, and I think Taharis should probably be banished to another planet or something for his vile actions.
Or actually, I've got a better idea. He should be taken to Detroit for what he did to the trio.
....
....
....
....
....
....
....
....Kill this mother fucker....
6428621
I agree but Detroit is a little hardh
Ya! THE USA now wit ponies.
Great chapter, but taharis is a jerk, next thing you know, hes going to be bringing ponies from equestria over... oh dear celestia... about go down, expecially if rowan returns... with a vengance
Why did he leave their phones and bags there?
In any case if they could just use up more chi than now would this not turn them back into humans?
Time to go psycho murder on this guy
6434497
It's not like they could do much with them. Taharis even admits that one of them being a unicorn was an oversight on his part, but he doesn't do anything about that or their bags, because they wouldn't be a threat to him. They have no idea what he's going to do, or where he's going to do it, aside from the fact he's trying to destroy the country. Even if they called for help from authorities, they wouldn't be able to do much on that lead alone.
Again, Taharis admits to himself that they would likely escape, but he has already threatened them with the death of them as well as others, and given what he's already shown them, that threat is very viable, and very real.
So, conclusion: leaving their phones and bags doesn't pose any threat to Taharis, so he didn't bother hiding them away from their owners.
I called it! Ponies forever! I sooo called it!
Oh, man. What are they going to do now? Looks like the wait is on again! Though it hasn't been too long of a wait for the last few chapters, so I'm optimistic. I'm looking forward to the next chapter. MOAR PONIES!
6436218 Well sure but I am quite sure this is gonna cost him.
6436335 Overriding the transformation-spell with another transformation-spell, or double the tapping of chi by using a second spell of a different kind or the same one tapping continously.
6436218 Calling it now: All unicorns are descendants of witches / magicians / wizards / warlocks / other magic users, and becoming a unicorn only makes it easier for them to use their potential. Or if that is not it, then stronger unicorn-mages are also stronger human-mages too (descendant and / or bigger chi-reserve)
That might even be the key to un-transforming one of them...
6436714 I don't know...wouldn't that be pretty anticlimactic? All this drama over some big consequence, only to have the solution be extremely simple, and make that consequence mean nothing at all? I kind of hope the solution is a bit more complicated then that, if there is one. Also, I only add 'if there is one, because I get the impression that there isn't one with the way the information is delivered.
Edit: Also, I forgot. If a second spell drew too much chi, wouldn't that just kill them? That's the impression I get anyway.
6438233 Angela already stated in one of the prequels that she uses up all her chi, didn't she?
Maybe the spell was designed not to stop when the chi is gone, but then there probably is a counterspell... for which they need to find another magus who knows about those.
*Insert hype gif here*
What?
I ran out....
:)
1st story: Heh, nice idea!
2nd story: Have some dates, also very cool.
3rd/this story: WTF? This idea is genius!
I already expected something like you have done to them to happen and I'm looking forward to see how this ends.
PS: Taharis how could you?!
6439469 Yeah...let's just wait and see what happens. I've had my fill for speculation with this chapter.
You really stepped it up this time. Great job!
I cast Dispel Magic on Fiora.
now I am curious I must admit, no spell is without it's counterpart. no enchantment cannot be broken.
like the rest of his fur,
a panicked frenzy, "Die, die, die, die, die!"
2:00
happen is he's set
My theory is that Liz is in the witch family since her magic is powerful.
Fic Theory:
Taharis grew up to be Reaper from Overwatch
-Teleportation abilities
-Says "die, die, die"
-Frequently wears a mask
Fudge! that is not good!
10205217
Fudge diddly crumpets!