...and the Problem
A few hours later would land the clock at a dozen minutes past one in the afternoon back in the world, the dimension, and the reality of Canterlot High. The sun above was a little below its peak and, so far, was taking its normal and sluggish course through the sky.
Inside Bon Bon’s house, Sunny Flare the unicorn basked in the little glimmer of sunlight that pierced through the window. Vinyl Scratch did the same thing beside her though she was not smiling like sunny Sunny.
Thud!
Sour Sweet fell down again, getting up with a groan as she adjusted her new feathery wings. She glared at them. “Are you going to freeze every time I try to flap you?!” She shook her head.
And, sitting at the corner was a wet-eyed Lyra, mourning over the loss of her former self, forehooves drenched with tears.
As for the ones who had not turned into ponies, the remaining Shadowbolts plus Bon Bon and Octavia had the couches to themselves, all facing each other in serious discussion.
“...which means there’s a pattern,” Bon Bon said, holding her hands out sideways to illustrate her point. “First, it’s becoming a vegetarian. Next, weird magical stuff happens,” then frowning… “sometimes, ‘cause I didn’t see Lyra become dark-allergic.”
“Maybe it’s a disease that jumps around,” Indigo suggested. “Didn’t Mister Small Plate say something about strains?”
“Like how, for some people,” Sugarcoat added, “they get turned into ponies very soon, but for us, we haven’t reached that point yet.”
Lemon gasped, putting out half of her headphones. “It’s like you get turned into a pony without warning!”
“That’s what just happened with Sour Sweet!” Octavia said, gesturing towards Sour Sweet who had managed to get on top of the television.
The pegasus spread her wings. “Fly or else!”
Apparently, her wings chose the “or else” option, evidenced by Sour falling to the floor yet another time.
Lemon half-stood up from her couch. “I think I should help—“
“No!” Sour shouted, getting up on her hooves again and scratching her bruised freckled cheeks. “I-I’m not letting you get close to me!”
“We’ve been in the same room for hours!” Indigo said in a huff. “We haven’t turned into ponies all this time!”
Bon Bon sighed and threw her hands into the air, her explanation interrupted.
Sugarcoat leaned closer. “Continue.”
Bon Bon placed both hands on her knees, adding another sigh to her list of sighs. “So, where was I?...well, after the magical part, the final stage is neighing, whinnying or whatever—“
“But Sour didn’t do that,” Sugarcoat said. “Nor did Sunny Flare.”
“It’s a general model,” Bon Bon replied, stretching her arm out to point at an absent whiteboard. “Besides, it’s not like anyone’s researched this!”
“It never happened before, that’s why.”
Bon Bon glanced at the door, finding solace there. “The point is: If one of us starts making horse noises, she’s about to become a pony.”
Octavia nodded beside her. “That makes sense.””
Ding-dong!
And everyone looked at the door.
Bon Bon stood up, checking the clock on the wall. “I don’t remember—“
“Hello!” greeted a cheery voice from outside. “Pizza delivery!”
Bon Bon blinked, turning to the rest of the girls. “I didn’t order pizza! Lyra?”
Lyra was still crying at the corner.
Then, Lemon laughed nervously. “That was me! I wanted to have chocolate pizza for dessert, but it’d be awkward to call while we were eating.”
“You ordered chocolate pizza?!” Indigo exclaimed, recoiling at the idea of pizza she deemed too sweet. “Where’d you find that?!”
Lemon smiled as she stood up and walked to the door. “Secret menus!”
“Wait!” Octavia yelled, reaching out to her.
And everyone froze, including Lemon Zest whose hand was on the doorknob.
Lemon frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“You can’t let him see these!” Bon Bon said, pointing at the ponies. “If he sees them, we’re toast!”
Sour Sweet rubbed her head, about to climb up the TV. “Uh, is that the cue to hide?”
“Hide!” Indigo yelled.
And the ponies scampered into the kitchen, galloping and almost stumbling on their hooves and four legs.
Except for Lyra who was still crying.
Bon Bon picked her up, feeling the tears dropping to her hands. “Lemon! Take the pizza now!”
Then, she disappeared into the kitchen, her pony friend weighing down on her arms.
After putting on a smile, Lemon opened the door. The other Shadowbolts and Octavia sat in place, taking out their phones to give off the air that they were busy, and the scene was set.
Outside, the pizza delivery guy was none other than Flash Sentry in red and yellow uniform, a motorcycle whirring behind him as he held a box of pizza; plugged to his ears was a pair of earphones. “Hi! It’s a surprise to see you crashing at Bon Bon’s!”
Lemon nodded, then tilted her head. “Who are you again? You seem very familiar.”
He chuckled. “Flash. Flash Sentry. You know, from CHS?”
Lemon looked at him, rubbing her chin and then scratching her hair and then turning down the music on her headphones. Then, she opened her mouth wide and snapped some fingers. “Oh! I remember you! You’re the one who made bread in the baking contest!”
Flash rolled his eyes. “I’ve gotten better at listening to instructions since then.” He extended the box to her, wearing a smile that could only speak of pride in the job. “That’d be thirteen ninety-nine!”
Lemon took out the wallet from her pocket.
Poof! and a flash from behind Flash.
Lemon’s eyes widened as she gulped at what she saw in the front yard.
Sunny Flare, dazed as she looked around on the grass, saying, “Wh-Where am I?!”
Flash turned his head—
“Uh, wh-where am I?” Lemon copied, as she dropped a coin and pointed at her face. “What was I doing with this—“ gasped, stepping back to make the coin shine under the spotlight “—fallen money?!”
“Don’t worry!” Flash said as he crouched to pick the coin up.
Lemon then looked past Flash and saw Sunny Flare again. The unicorn was waving a hoof at her and mouthing, “What should I do?!”
Lemon gave her a thumbs up, and placed a hand on Flash’s shoulder while he was still bent. “Uh, what about you go inside? We, uh, have some free snacks for you, in the, um, kitchen!”
Inside, Indigo smacked herself on the head.
Then, Lemon felt a budge as Octavia barged in and pulled Flash inside, making him almost drop the pizza.
Sunny Flare then glowed her horn—
And she vanished.
Lemon gasped, seeing her no longer, her teeth shivering.
“What’s going on outside?” Flash asked, turning around to see nothing but a lush and well-trimmed lawn.
“It’s the weather, dude!” Lemon answered, taking the box from Octavia’s hands and opening it to reveal a pizza not of red and yellow but of brown and black, oozing with chocolate: chocolate sauce, chocolate sprinkles, chocolate candies, chocolate chips, chocolate chocolates—
And then she pushed Flash out of the house. “Thank you for coming, bye!”
Closed and locked the door.
Bon Bon then walked out of the kitchen, no longer holding Lyra. “OK, I need a good reason why Sunny Flare just popped up!”
Lemon put the pizza on the chair and smiled, hands behind her back. “Oh, haven’t you noticed? Sunny Flare appeared outside!”
“Outside?!” Bon Bon yelled.
“Teleportation, I think,” Sunny Flare said as she walked back into the living room, looking at her horn still glowing magenta. “I feel much better after having some sunshine out there...” then pouted, realizing what she just said, “and this is getting ridiculous. Is my magic based on light or what?!”
“Let’s hope Indigo doesn’t turn out the lights!” Sour cried out from inside the kitchen.
And in the middle of it all, Lyra broke down again inside the kitchen, crying once more.
Bon Bon made a fist, watching the kitchen with an anxious eye. “OK, so we have to make sure the ponies stay here while also making sure no one knocks on our door so no questions will be asked.”
“But then people will ask where we are,” Sugarcoat said, raising a flat palm. “If we have to sleepover to keep the cover up, we’d have to be very convincing. No sane parent would want their children at someone else’s house during an epidemic.”
Sunny stomped a hoof and made everyone look at her. “You know what? I’m fine with sleeping here if it means less trouble.”
Bon Bon then counted with her fingers as she said, “So, we have to keep the turning-into-ponies stuff hush-hush, ward away suspicion by going out some of the time, make good answers and alibis for why our pony friends aren’t available, and somehow not turn into ponies ourselves by a magical cold or curse or whatever.”
Everyone looked at her, showing worry in their eyes.
Octavia groaned, looking at the ceiling. “How long do we have to wait until we find the cure?”
“Until Sunset Shimmer and her friends return from Equestria,” Sugarcoat said.
“That’s the thing,” Octavia said, slowly becoming frantic. “When?”
“Your vice principal said something about a broken portal,” Sugarcoat replied. “That would usher in complications.”
“Thanks, Miss Obvious,” Indigo mumbled.
Fwip!
And they all looked at the table.
“What was that?!” Sunny asked, pointing there.
Sour Sweet and Lyra trotted into the living room, looking worried, too—especially for Lyra with her reddened eyes. “What is it?!” asked the both of them together.
Bon Bon saw the empty table. Then, hand on her head as she remembered: “The salad! Where did it go?!”
Indigo took off the goggles from her hair, remembering that little detail as well. “Magic ponies, and now magic salad. What next?”
Meanwhile, Lemon Zest chomped on her chocolate pizza.
Neither the salad nor the bowl was magical. What was magical was the portal that transported both salad and bowl through a great journey which lasted a grand and excruciating total of seventy milliseconds on to the Apple family’s dining table.
As everyone there—Big Mac, his three horses which were no longer his, and Apple Bloom—were all eating sandwiches behind closed windows and locked doors.
The salad bowl wobbled to a halt.
And everyone was silent for a while, wanting to see if the bowl would explode or do something else unusual.
“This is getting very strange very quickly,” Apple Bloom remarked, putting her half-eaten sandwich back on her plate.
“You must’ve been so exhausted from your hours-long timeout!” Cookie said in a cheery tone, devouring her seventh tomato sandwich while hoofing some of the salad to fit into her eighth.
“You’re sure you never overheard us?” Oakley said.
Cinnamon rolled her eyes. “Come on, guys. She couldn’t overhear us because she spent her timeout outdoors.”
As the three rambled on about Apple Bloom’s timeout, the freshman herself hesitated before picking up the sandwich, having just witnessed the family horses—or the family ponies—talk again in perfect English. She then spoke up, “I, uh...I’m still gettin’ used to this.”
Big Mac sighed, pawing his empty plate. “Me, too, Apple Bloom. Me, too.”
Apple Bloom turned on her phone and saw the time which was several minutes before one-thirty. Then, looking back at the horses: “How did y’all turn into magic ponies anyway? ‘Specially you, Big Mac.”
Big Mac’s ears drooped, becoming embarrassed now.
Cinnamon then patted him on his head. “Looks like he’s not entirely comfortable with it, Apple Bloom.”
“Which means it’s my turn!” Cookie exclaimed, waving her forehooves around like a pretend ghost.
Oakley glanced at her. “This isn’t a contest.”
“I call dibs!” Cookie shouted as he pulled his yellow mane.
“Ow-ow-ow-ow!” He pushed the offending hoof out of the way, now seeing it bedraggled. “Fine, you go first!”
Cookie’s eyes glittered, oblivious to Oakley’s irritation, then faced Apple Bloom with tapping forehooves. “You see, we were just minding our own business in the field trotting and grazing, then suddenly—whaplam!—we all glowed so bright, I couldn’t see! Next thing I knew, I was a little smaller, but I realized I was much more...whatcha’ call it?” Then, spreading a hoof across the air: “Alive!”
Apple Bloom tilted her head. “The whole havin’ yer’ free will and stuff, right?”
“We did have free will before it happened,” Cinnamon chimed in, “but we just never thought of doing anything more than what we needed to do to survive and stave off boredom.”
“So, ya’ never thought why we sometimes do what we do?” Apple Bloom asked, still in utter disbelief over how she was talking to horses she had ridden as a little kid.
“Some of the time,” Cinnamon replied. She levitated a cup of coffee beans and crunched a mouthful before swallowing them. “However, we could never know why you did it anyway if it didn’t fit our mindset of survival-and-care first.”
Cookie glared at her unicorn friend for interrupting the story, and then continued: “It wasn’t just being more alive than being...alive, if you know what I mean—my brain just expanded with all kinds of things, like I became smarter but not ‘practice’ or ‘dressage’ kind of smarter!”
“Basically,” Oakley said, nudging Cookie on the ear, “we were uplifted, to take a more expensive word from your vocabulary.”
“Correct,” cut in Cinnamon.
Cookie smiled at having a fellow equine being correct. Then, turning to Apple Bloom again: “I know we said it the first time, but, I promise, we’ve all thought it out the second time...this time.”
“Uh, it’s just you,” Oakley said.
Cookie bobbed her head. “Eh! I’ll represent the both of you!”
“In what?”
Cookie placed both her forehooves on the table again, looking at a still stunned Apple Bloom. “Well, we just wanted to say that we love you, Big Mac, Applejack, and Granny Smith all so much! It’s true that we weren’t born here, but we were little foals when Granny took Big Mac out to buy us—like, he just knew we would have so much fun together!” She placed a hoof on her chin like she was snuggling a pillow. “We had lots of good times together when Big Mac, Applejack, and then you came along to run around, feed us, ride us, comb our manes, and watch us roam around. Oh, all the laughs we had! It’s like one of those things you watch on the fancy screen!”
“Television,” Oakley corrected.
“B-But,” Cookie said, putting a hoof on Oakley’s head, much to his displeasure, “we never deserved to be here! Sure, our former owner was great and there was nothing wrong with him, but you were much more...I don’t know, real!”
Apple Bloom felt her eyes becoming misty.
“I don’t know why you never sold us, why you kept caring for us even though we were so much of a hassle—and we’ve had our stubborn streaks once in awhile,” as her ears folded back, those not-so-good times coming to memory “—but, you did it for us anyway...and, lately, I wanted to say thanks and the others wanted to say thanks, too, but we just didn’t know how other than—“ and neighed and whinnied “—yeah, that. Wh-When we figured out we could just say it now, we just wanted to show it to you...you know?”
Apple Bloom kept looking at Cookie’s innocent, sincere smile.
“We never, ever, want to have this new thing taken away from us,” she said, spreading her forelegs out, ready for a big hug. “I...I can’t express my feelings any other way now, and it’d be great to spend the rest of my days finally able to really understand all of you! We could share each other’s joys, struggles, in-betweens—and, of course, we’ll still love you and all the Apples!”
Cinnamon sniffed. “Aww, you’re making me sentimental!”
But it was Oakley who pushed everyone, including Big Mac and Apple Bloom, into the anticipated group hug.
Apple Bloom suffered from the grip of raw horsepower, but the hug was quick enough for her to recover before she could faint.
Then, the ponies laughed, even prompting Apple Bloom to laugh in tears of joy at a merry dream: she, Applejack, and Big Mac, all hanging out with their horses as equals, sitting at a diner while laughing over a very funny joke.
Except she imagined Big Mac with two legs and two hands.
This made her turn to the Big Mac back in reality, to her brother with no hands and four hooves.
Apple Bloom then frowned. “So, what happened to you?”
Big Mac sighed, trying to make as big a smile as he could. “What ya’ see. Turned into a pony, and—“ sighed again “—don’t know if I’ll turn back. Nothin’ frilly.”
“Doesn’t Applejack have a magical friend?” Cinnamon asked, spinning a hoof around.
Cookie gasped and slammed the table. “How could I forget?!” Flicking Oakley’s ear in excitement: “Hey, guys, remember when Applejack talked about how there’s another dimension and it’s filled with magical, talking ponies?! How I wished so hard back then that she could take me there!”
Bee-doo! Bee-doo!
Apple Bloom picked up her ringing phone as everyone looked at her standing up. “Heh-heh! It’s Sweetie Belle! Hold on!”
Then, walking out of the dining room and running back outside, she answered the call. “Yeah, Belle?”
Was it hard to sweep the streets and pick up garbage while handling a phone call?
However hard it was, Sweetie Belle was surely struggling with it, leaning her head to the side as she tried to clinch her phone between her cheek and her shoulder.
“What is it, Sweetie Belle?” Apple Bloom’s voice cracked through. “I’m kinda’ busy here!”
Sweetie gulped. “You know how you think things can’t get any worse?”
Apple Bloom gulped back. “Things jus’ got worse, didn’t they?”
“Yup.”
She heard wheezing from the phone. “OK. What’s goin’ on there?”
Sweetie faced Canterlot High on the other side of the street. “Diamond Tiara shared something with me.”
“Wait, wuh’?! She shared somethin’ with you?!”
“Uh-huh.” Sweetie gandered at the school’s glass dome on the top. “She just went back from the school library—“
“Why’s she there? Doesn’t she ‘ave books and a fancy computer at home?”
“After hearing how she has sixteen gigabytes of RAM there, I—“ then something clicked in her head. “Huh. Isn’t that inconsistent?” She shook her head. “I’ll take note of that...but she told me something and—“
“Spit it out!” Apple Bloom yelled.
“Alright, alright!” Then, a big gasp of breath later: “She saw Vice Principal Luna and Principal Cadance in the library along with a new restricted section.”
“Restricted section?” repeated Apple Bloom.
“Well, it was just a big white cloth over a part of the library, and that’s it.”
“Ok...wait, Cadance is in CHS? Why?”
“Beats me,” Sweetie said, “but maybe they’re talking about what to do with the cold.”
Apple Bloom sighed. “Makes sense. Not really that big of a deal.”
Sweetie wanted to sigh, too, but then froze. “But, you know I know you know what, so….”
Apple Bloom gasped again. “With Big Mac an’ potentially all of us becomin’ ponies.”
Sweetie stopped cleaning the sidewalk with her broom, opting to just hold it. “So, you remember how your sister raved about the crazy things Sunset told her about Equestria? Like how our principals are their princesses who raise the sun and moon everyday?”
“Yeah.”
A pause, gripping her phone tighter. “I don’t think Tiara knows about the pony stuff just yet, and she told me this off-the-cuff, but she laughed at Luna because, in Diamond’s words, ‘she said “everypony”, not “everybody”.’”
Silence from Apple Bloom.
Then: “Uh, Sweetie Belle? One question.”
“What?”
“Did Tiara see Principal Celestia at school?”
Sweetie shook her head again, hearing the blare of an ambulance and then that of a police car. “No. She asked Luna why Celestia wasn’t there, and she said her sister was really down with the cold and—“ zipped her mouth.
Dropped her broom.
Grabbed her phone and put it by her ear.
“She’s probably a princess now, isn’t she?” Apple Bloom asked.
Sweetie raised a hand over her eyes and looked indirectly at the sun. “I’m checking the sun now and there’s nothing wrong with it.”
“Yet.” A long, distressing pause. “What about Luna? Is she ponyin’ up or somethin’?”
“Just the ‘everypony’ bit,” Sweetie said. “It’s a—“
Crack!
And a yellow beam shot out of the dome, breaking more than a few glass panes, and zoomed to the sky, disappearing above.
Sweetie looked up and dropped her jaw along with the garbage bags.
Stared at the sky, then the broken dome.
“Apple Bloom?”
“What?”
“If anyone asks, we never had this call.”
Heistation in silence. “Sure.”
Call cut.
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Huh. A human world-to-human world portal? That doesn't imply anything good about the local spacetime.
Also, I don't think you've ever really established why Lyrabon et al. are so adamant about no one seeing ponies. If nothing else, people are going to find out as the "disease" progresses.
It's kinda impressive how fast the situation in the Human world is deteriorating with the Rainbooms trapped in Equestria.
9101940
The fabric of spacetime has gone wibbly. And judging from that magic beam, the Sun is next.
I loved how happy the Apple horses are to be sapient and can show their appreciation for their family.
I know it's probably insensitive, but I'm kind of tired of Lyra crying so much. Is that wrong?
9102015
Eyup, the moment a solar aspect appeared in-system, Nicolaus Copernicus was run out of town on a rail. This, along with the latest members of the Apple family, is one of the biggest reasons why things likely won't be going back to normal.
9101940
If the general public finds out that people are turning into ponies and then finds some of those that have been affected then they're probably going to either a. quarantine them, b. panic, or c. do something rash. Even if none of that happened, they'd still find themselves suddenly the center of attention during what could be described as a world-altering disaster. I'm sure none of them want that.
I’m really concerned about Lyra. She took it worse than I thought.
9102203
No. She's really being an oversensitive crybaby about this. It's like the reverse of the normal hand-obsessed Lyra. Like this one HAS hands and is super proud of them, but now she doesn't and her life is over. ... Given her complaints that might actually be the case.
9102216
Fun fact: Copernicus was never chased out of town by the Christian Church. He was actually on the church’s dime, and when he published his findings on heliocentrism, dedicating the book to the Pope at the time, they didn’t really care about it, and even taught it at several major catholic universities, as an alternative interpretation of how our world is set up. The total opposition didn’t come from the Christian Church didn’t come until decades after his death, when the Protestant Church declared his findings as blasphemy, as they contradicted passages in the Bible, and that anyone who promotes these teachings are damned to hell. This, coupled with the masses leaving the church and joining the Protestants as a result of this declaration and the fact that Galileo was starting to add to Copernicus’ studies, cause the church to backtrack their stance on heliocentrism, if anything just to save some face with their followers and hoping to gain back influence.
It’s a tangent to what you were actually talking about, but hey, you learn something new everyday!
Oh no. Now I'm not sure if I want de-ponification!
9102444
Maybe they can pony panic, like the Flower Trio. At least then nopony gets hurt.
There goes the sun?
9105228
I will riot if Cinnamon, Cookie, and Oakley don't get a happy, sapient ending at the end of all this.