• Published 3rd Dec 2016
  • 613 Views, 5 Comments

Portraits and Chaos - Dragonborne Fox



Two people follow a strange something that manages to ditch them. When they find a suspicious-looking painting, they find themselves in a place that is very unfamiliar to them. And then a chain of events sparks as soon as they arrive...

  • ...
 5
 613

Chapter II- Violet Haze

A noise that sounded like a mixture between a 'pop' and a ‘poof’ echoed throughout the house, gracing the ears of the bandaged duo. Both sat bolt upright once more, one with another frown on his face and the other with a brow quirked. “What was that?” Jonathan asked, shooting a glance at Charlotte.

Charlotte shrugged and shook her head, her eyes wide. “Beats me; I couldn’t tell you if that was a burst of mana or a kettle expelling steam to save my life right now,” she answered in an exasperated tone.

“Whatever that painting did to you, it did to you good,” Jonathan muttered, raising a hand and running it through his bangs. He paused, turning back to the foot of the bed as the sounds of hooves hitting wood echoed into the room, gradually getting louder in volume. He whipped his head around and spotted a flight of stairs to the side, from which Fluttershy emerged, and this time she wasn’t alone—a purple alicorn had stepped into the room not long after she did.

Twilight turned to the two with a level look on her face. “Are you... humans?" she asked warily, and Jonathan and Charlotte nodded their heads to answer. "Well, whoever you two are, you have some explaining to do,” she said simply, brow furrowing slightly. "Who are you two, and how did you end up in the Everfree Forest?"

Charlotte and Jonathan exchanged a glance as Twilight demanded an explanation, but the sound of a hoof impatiently tapping on hard wood like a drumming finger caused them to glance back to her.

With a cough that belied her understandable wariness, Charlotte began in a tight voice, "I'll summarize the whole thing in a nutshell: in order, I'm Charlotte, and the man next to me is Jonathan. We found a magic painting and I recited a spell to let us... enter it, so to speak. Next thing we know, we're badly wounded and in the middle of a dark forest."

Jonathan continued for his companion, fists briefly clenching as he spoke, "That's when Fluttershy found us, after we barely dragged ourselves to our feet. An animal she had with her—I think it was a bear, but I'm still not sure of that—carried us as we both went straight into la-la land. Then we woke up here, in this room, and were told to stay put."

Twilight slowly nodded, an eyebrow raised all the while. "Uh-huh," she sighed skeptically, "and why'd you enter the painting?"

"We were... following a long, serpent-like thing that radiated so much chaotic energy I'd been under the impression that it could affect entire continents on a drastic scale. I couldn't get a good look at it, because it constantly moved and eventually ditched us. We barely found it as it entered the painting before we did," Charlotte replied, briefly grimacing at the thought.

"That sort of thing's dangerous," Twilight groaned, flaring her wings and waving a hoof dismissively. "Why did you feel the need to follow it, if you felt that much energy?"

"Long story short: we're hunters, and that thing—whatever in hell it was—was a monster. If I were to go on some random guess, I'd think that it was really a vampire that decided to screw with us," Jonathan answered simply, punctuating his response with a huff.

As soon as he finished speaking, a thick silence blanketed the room and held for a few long, tense minutes that felt like hours on end. Twilight stared at him, and he stared back; both man and pony held unblinking gazes. One donned slightly narrowed eyes; the other had irises twinkling with some kind of spark.

Finally, though, Twilight broke the silence with a voice laced in disbelief, "You're... vampire hunters?"

"Technically speaking, yes, but we aren't just limited to vampires. Werewolves, chimeras that can chant curses, zombies, ghosts—those and a vast number of other things are fair game for us, so to say," Charlotte answered, noticing the mare's spread wings betraying a flinch. "And no, small equines with horns and wings aren't on that list, so long as they don't give us incentive to initiate combat."

Twilight relaxed a little, closing her wings as she fixed her gaze towards the woman. "Do you... er, kill without reason?" she asked tentatively.

Jonathan shook his head. "No, but we have had..." He stopped as Charlotte rose a hand and waved it within his peripheral sight, signaling for him to stop.

"We've had near-instances of slipping up, which would have ended badly if we followed said slipping up to a T. Almost attacked a benevolent ghost and two mind-controlled women once, and that was all in the span of a single night, amidst a myriad of other hectic shenanigans," Charlotte sighed. "Let's just say we needed a nice, long nap after that mess got sorted out."

"That sounds horrible," Fluttershy finally spoke, her voice near-silent.

Charlotte turned to Fluttershy and blinked with wide eyes. "Beg your pardon? I'm sorry, I couldn't hear a word you said," she murmured.

Twilight scooted closer to Fluttershy with shuffling hooves and wrapped a foreleg around her companion's neck. She shot the humans a rather sly grin as she said, "Now if you'll excuse us, me and my friend need to have a little chat downstairs. Stay put, you two." With that, her horn flared up and in a flash of violet light, the two were gone.

The two exchanged another glance. "I am starting to think the horse with the horn just used magic," Jonathan groaned in exasperation.

"Frankly, given the situation, I am quite jealous if that's the case," Charlotte huffed, frowning. She crossed her arms in a pout as she went on, "Though, I do wonder... how was she able to do it without using a spellbook?"

Jonathan shrugged and shook his head. "You tell me," he replied.

Charlotte made to move off of the bed, hesitating for a few seconds before letting her bandaged feet touch the wood. She stood up and walked to the open window to peer outside, her gaze vacant as she surveyed the woodland beyond. "Something doesn't feel right; it's calm and serene outside, and I can hear birds chirping. Still... I can't quite put my finger on what's wrong," she said to nobody in particular.

Jonathan also got out of the bed from the opposite side and weaved around it before finding himself standing next to his friend. "A gut feeling, I take it?" he asked.

Charlotte nodded rather slowly, as if not really noticing that Jonathan stood next to her. "Something along those lines," she admitted simply, letting her arms rest on the open windowsill. A hand gripped her shoulder, and only then did she pry her attention away from the calm outside to her friend.

"Let's just relax a little. Besides, that purple winged horse owes us an answer as to where in the hell we are," Jonathan said simply, letting a small smile spread on his face.

Charlotte smiled back, "I doubt that the equines actually went downstairs. Maybe we should explore the house a bit; my legs nearly fell asleep from all that sitting and lying in bed."

Jonathan's grin widened. "If the horses are downstairs, let's hope they don't rattle our ears off," he replied, retracting his hand and walking to the stairs.

Charlotte followed suit, and the two descended to find themselves in a quaint living room with a fireplace, a few sofas and chairs, pictures hanging on the walls, and bird cages here and there. All of this was accentuated by a nice square rug on the center of the hardwood floor, woven in soothing green hues.

On one of the sofas sat a small, white rabbit that glared at the duo, with one paw pointing upwards at an angle. The two took no notice of the critter at first, until they glanced at everything else the room had to offer.

"Is it me, or does the rabbit hate us?" Jonathan asked, gesturing to the critter. The rabbit's glare only hardened as it hopped off the sofa and bounded towards them, whereupon Charlotte noticed something being clutched in its paws as it ran.

The critter jumped and managed to perch itself on the railing in a single bound, almost shoving the thing it held into Charlotte's hands. "What the—a piece of folded paper?" she uttered as she jumped and nearly bumped into the opposite wall, hands trying to grasp at the paper with the grace of flailing chicken wings.

"What's it say?" Jonathan asked, a brow quirking as his companion finally managed to grip the damn thing, and he watched as she steadied herself before beginning to unfold it.

Charlotte stared at the paper for a moment and groaned, "Joy, it's got the same gobbledygook as the spell scroll we found in the abandoned house." She turned to the rabbit and handed back the paper with an exasperated sigh. "Sorry, but I cannot read it. It's not a language I know."

The rabbit proceeded to scowl and slam a paw onto its forehead, chittering something unintelligible in the process. Upon removing the appendage from its face, it chattered angrily, face hardening still as it pointed its limb up the flight of stairs.

Jonathan stared at the rabbit for a second before he doubled over laughing. "O-oh lord, we're getting bossed around by a rabbit!" he howled, hunched over as the cackling fit rocked his body.

Charlotte held a hand over her mouth and giggled into it, her words partially muffled as her body trembled with her own growing fit, "This is so damn adorable I don't know what to make of it anymore."

The bunny kept on scowling and jabbered on in a louder tone of voice, as if it began to cuss the two humans ten different ways to Sunday. It waved its pointing limb at the stairs, eyes gleaming red as anger brilliantly blossomed on its face. The duo left and filed down into another room once their laughter had ceased, finding themselves in a quaint kitchen filled to the brim with all sorts of foodstuffs. There were bags of birdseed, some baskets of fish, bread, canned goods; you name it, the place had been absolutely stocked.

Jonathan let off a low whistle upon seeing just how full the pantry cupboards and shelves and whatnot were. "Damn, just how big is Fluttershy's family?" he asked, turning to Charlotte as the sound of a door opening and closing filled the room.

"Pretty massive, and it seems they have a lot of pets too. Don't ask me for rough estimates," Charlotte answered after echoing her companion's whistle. A loud thumping sound tore her attention away from the goods and towards the living room, and instantly her pupils shrank as a wobbly smile splayed on her face. "Uh, Jonathan..."

"What?" Jonathan asked, whirling around and instantly donning a similar expression at what now stood before him and his friend. "A bear... let's hope he doesn't maul us."

The bear scoffed and grabbed the duo, lifting them and holding them by the waists under its arms, all the while keeping them facing towards its back. Charlotte instantly spotted the white bunny from before, now perched on a sofa, sending a wicked grin her way. "Great, the rabbit had a posse," she grumbled.

"I'm not going to ask," Jonathan bemoaned just as the bear turned around, narrowly missing getting clocked by the doorframe to the kitchen. "Hey, you big hairball, watch where you turn!" he snarled angrily, trying to glare at the beast's face from his current position. The bear shrugged and dragged the two upstairs with startling ease, culminating in it throwing them onto the bed in a way that Charlotte found herself piled on by her friend in a very awkward position.

"This is beyond inappropriate! Next time, don't throw him onto me while my back's turned, you lug!" Charlotte hissed at the bear as she shoved Jonathan off, shooting the beast a glare that got coupled with a raging blush.

The bear snarled, ending whatever it wanted to convey to Charlotte with a huff before marching back downstairs. Jonathan sat up on the bed, frowning with an equally reddened face. "Please tell me the bear didn't make it feel like I straight-up took you," he grumbled, fists clenching.

"Unfortunately, the bear did just that. Personally, I feel violated now," Charlotte replied, shifting so she could sit on her knees upon the quilted mattress. Her blush faded as she continued, "Well, now we know what the pegasus and... winged unicorn meant by 'stay put.'"

"True." Jonathan nodded, his flush fading. He blinked upon hearing a chirp, and turned to the still-open window to find that an assortment of birds had taken residence upon the sill. Among them were a falcon, a bluejay, and a raven. "I think they're staring at us," he groaned, and when his friend turned to him, he gestured to the birds.

"Great, we're getting watched in every room like a bunch of thieves," Charlotte bemoaned, her head dropping as she saw the birds. "All we did was leave the room to see the rest of the house better."

The raven cawed once, and instantly, the rest of the bird posse began squawking in unison. The avians prattled on and on in birdspeak, which only resulted in the humans sending them annoyed glares in response. The fowl kept babbling for a few minutes longer, until a violet flash of light flared in the room and diminished as fast as it had come. Twilight and Fluttershy were, once again, in the room, and the latter darted to the humans with an unreadable look on her face.

"Angel told me you two left the bed and strayed to the kitchen. Is it true?" she asked.

"Yeah, we went downstairs. A bunny handed me a note scrawled in complete gibberish, and after that, a bear carried us up here and made it look like..." Charlotte trailed off, her cheeks once again reddening, "like me and my friend were mating."

Fluttershy momentarily gaped. "I'll talk with Harry about that later; you two should've known better than to leave bed when you're still hurt. I was hoping you could read the note I left for you if you did leave the room and got spotted by my bunny," she sighed.

"Whatever language is on that paper, I'm gonna need a translator for. What is up with the horseshoes, unicorn heads, and wings? It looks like pure gibberish to me!" Charlotte exclaimed defensively, her face still quite red.

"Fluttershy, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this isn't the first time we left bed with bloodied bandages. To be honest, it's far from the first," Jonathan sighed, shaking his head. "Heck, the night before we found the painting and wound up here, I got into a rather hectic fistfight with someone that tried to stab me and Charlotte."

"Hold up," Twilight interjected with a hoof raised, garnering the attention of all as she spoke, birds included. "You're saying that A: you can't read Equestrian, and B: you've been attacked just days ago?"

"Yeah. The guy who decided to try and stick a knife in us managed to get me above my left elbow." Jonathan nodded, gesturing to an area on his left forearm. He then pried off the wrappings with one hand, revealing a healing but nasty wound that scarred the flesh. The area around the scab was a fading red, with several little scars surrounding it, making the whole area looked like he did something that left him with welts after.

"So... the horseshoes, wings, and unicorn heads... are..." Charlotte trailed off, looking at Twilight as she connected the dots in her head. Her eyes lit up in revelation, and she hastily fumbled for her spellbook before opening the blasted thing and frantically turning the pages, only stopping to pry out the scroll from the abandoned house. "You're telling me that this scroll's in your language?" she asked, rolling it up and handing it to Fluttershy, who in turn flew back and forked it over to Twilight.

The scroll was embraced in a soft violet aura, opening and hovering in front of Twilight's face. She read it for a bit before turning her attention to the woman who procured the parchment. "This is a transformation spell; how in the hay did you get this?" she asked with a level look.

"We found it in the same place we found the painting at," Jonathan replied simply, shrugging his shoulders. "Don't ask me what it was doing there; I have no idea, either."

"A transformation spell?" Charlotte murmured, blinking. "What's it turn the caster into? Or is it one of those that the caster can use to transform something else?"

"Weeell... lemme do something right quick before I try it out; I have to be sure of something," Twilight sighed begrudgingly, flaring her wings and flying to the duo. Her horn glowed, and a violet aura embraced them as she eyed them head to toe. It vanished from Jonathan's form in the span of a moment, but held Charlotte for three minutes longer before dissipating just the same.

"Have you found anything, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked, eyes fixed on the alicorn as she flew back down to land on the floor.

"Yeah; there's a weak mana flow with Jonathan, and a strong but out-of-whack flow with Charlotte. The mana they have is... not in tune here; basically, they can't access it, if they could before," Twilight answered with a frown, before said frown morphed into a triumphant smirk. "However, with this transformation spell, I believe that should rectify the situation so we can... analyze these two a little more closely."

The two humans exchanged wide-eyed glances and gulped simultaneously. Whatever Twilight had planned for them, it probably wasn't pretty. They felt the aura embracing them again, and let off whines of protest as every single wrapping came off and exposed their wounds and everything else to the world. Their wounds healed ever so slightly before a blinding flash of light embraced them entirely, lifting them into the air while they began flailing about.

"S-something's growing out of my forehead!" Charlotte shrieked in pain, eyes screwed shut as her entire body began to ache spontaneously.

"M-my back's itching like crazy! Make it stop already!" Jonathan complained, curled into a ball with his arms frantically reaching around in a vain attempt to get at his backside. Both felt strange, and their nerves flared in renewed agony as their bodies morphed and morphed, the world but a spinning violet blur as bones popped and cracked.

Twilight's brow started producing sweat as she channeled the magic into the spell she cast, seeing nothing but two human silhouettes flail in panic as things grew, changed, transformed by pure arcane force. Steadily, but surely, she felt their natural waves of mana begin to resonate with the humans once more in harmony as they had been molded further still. More magic seized them, keeping them still for a few seconds before forcing them to take on an all-fours stance mid-air.

By the time the spell ended, the duo had flopped back down onto the bed, now a dark red pegasus and a pale blue unicorn with sweat coating their foreheads and tears prickling at the corners of their scrunched eyes. They struggled to catch their breath, their garments clinging to their new bodies, and they laid on that bed for a long while.

Fluttershy looked at them worriedly prior to jerking her gaze towards Twilight as she asked, "Was it really necessary to transform them against their will?"

"Unfortunately, yes. I'd recommend they'd stay put for a few days longer, until their new... and hopefully temporary forms stop aching and their mana returns to normal. Let me know if Charlotte has any magic surges while she recovers, because frankly, I have no clue what kind of spells she even knows," Twilight answered, turning to her friend and drawing a heavy sigh as she frowned. "If you can, coax them back to sleep; they're gonna need to rest off the pain of the spell. I didn't expect it to actually hurt them... but I suppose that I gotta reap what I sow."

"I... is it over now?" Charlotte asked in a shuddering, rasping, wheezing tone of voice. Not once did she open her eyes, as though fearing the violet light would deprive her of her eyesight yet again.

Fluttershy flew to the two and hovered near the human-turned-unicorn. "Yes, it's over now. Just try to get some rest," she cooed in a soft voice, faintly smiling as her guest gave a very weak nod. She carefully used her hooves to position them on the bed and grabbed the quilt with her teeth before tossing it over their prone forms, letting it fall just shy of their chins. Soon, the transformed humans drifted off to sleep, briefly shuddering as the last vestiges of pain gave way to a dull sense of numbness.