• Published 4th Mar 2020
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The Little Curiosities - Comma Typer



Everyone's turned into Equestrian creatures and reality's turned magical. The former humans of Canterlot City and beyond try to restart their lives. These are their stories.

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Age of Enlightenment

“So, to put it simply, you know some former cult leader, now student of the Princess of Friendship, because you grew up with her, and you’re indirectly the reason why she started her cult in the first place?”

“That’s right, Sunburst.”

“Uh… could you tone it down? Having myself calling myself by my own name freaks me out.”

Two Sunbusts sit at the table in the house of the local analogue, a chemist and part-time historian in Everton City. Stacks of papers and books lay sorted in his wall-lining bookcases. The only mess here is the rejected thesis drafts scattered few and far between.

“It doesn’t seem like you’re taking it well,” the foreign mage says, creasing his brow.

“Oh, it’s not that; not like I’m trying to reject reality here, especially when that reality is plainly undeniable.” He looks over his white lab coat which magically adapted to his equine body when the Change came over. “It’s just… just that, as a scientist, it's been both a humbling and a wondrous experience.”

The wizard nudges his glasses up with magic. “As a fellow scientist, I think I’d be able to relate.”

Nervously, the white-coat researcher scratches his mane. “See, what you just said illustrates my point.”

He slumps down on his chair: not an easy thing to do when ponies usually place all their hooves on the seat.

“In this world, we grew up believing magic was just a myth. Might’ve been a shocker to you, but to us, that’s what’s real. Although The Accounts of Neighnia was my favorite book series and I GM’d much of the O&O club back in college, we always did it knowing that magic didn’t exist. It was just a fake thing we took part in some of the time.”

“What about when the Geodes of Harmony came over?” asks the wizard. “Surely, that must’ve been unheard of in this world.”

“That’s true: it was unheard of. I even got excited at first, thinking it was a real game changer. However, it was mostly isolated in one city, and the ones who dove in first and tried to study it told us, 'Don't bother.' Our models and machines couldn’t work on something that never operated by our rules, so we left magic alone. We just trusted that whoever was using the magic knew what they were doing.”

“But then the Change happened,” the visitor chimes in.

The researcher curls his lips. “Yes, that… this Change... it’s the most extreme paradigm shift known to humanity. We now live in a world where someone who’s studying magic can seriously be called a scientist, two high school principals raise the sun and moon and the stars, and once-mythological abominations can be defeated by the laser power of friendship! The world’s turned into a mockery of itself!” His forelegs splay out on the table.

But, the wizard notes the slight happiness in those last words. “So, what are you saying?”

The researcher’s horn lights up, levitating a cup of coffee from the coffee machine which just dinged to complete the brew. “For one, reality as we knew it got broken. Everything we thought was the closest to the truth? It’s all mixed up now.”

The researcher nudges his own glasses up with a hoof. “But, tell me this, wizard me: did you ever get bored studying magic, even for just a second?”

The wizard's stocking hoof strokes his goatee, something the other Sunburst lacks. “Hmm… yes, I confess that I have been bored in my mystical endeavors. Why do you ask?”

“See, that was part of why I wasn’t as bummed out as I thought I’d be when I turned into a unicorn. We’ve just completed the standard Periodical Element Chart, and we’ve been slowing down with breakthroughs with regard to the elements, especially the later ones on which we have little data on. To be honest, I was beginning to run out of time; it’s a publish or perish world out there, after all. I was pretty much begging the elements to please do something interesting.”

Like his namesake, a smile slowly bursts onto his face. “Then, the Change happened. The day after that, they fired me anyway. They said it's downsizing to cope with the worldwide transformations.”

The revelation catches the wizard off his guard. “Wait, you’re fired? But they said you work for Futurities and Tailor!“

“People still say that? Huh. Guess the Change really hit the old grapevine hard.

“But, yes, I’ve since gone independent for the most part. I banded up with some firees with one simple goal: figure out what kind of brave new world we live in today. Magic plants, exotic creatures, locations and artifacts charged with thaumaturgic energy, completely different demographics with wildly different physiologies, and so much more. There are so many things to explore, so many things to uncover, that even with collaboration from your side, we’d still have a gargantuan task to map out as much as we can!

“So, I guess it took becoming a unicorn and getting booted out of Futurities to get that spark back. Back then, I felt like I was fruitlessly slaving away at a white-collar dead end. Now? I gotta say: it’s been pretty good.” To top it off, he slurps down his coffee.

Wizard Sunburst's horn glows with excitement. “I’m sure Starlight and the other mages helping out would love to hear your story! But, I must let you know—“ he casts a glance upon the high-tech coffee machine “—I am also quite interested in the many inventions humans have made, and I'm sure the others are too. Perhaps we could, if you want….”

Research Sunburst extends an open hoof. “I’ll see what my co-workers have to say about that, but teaming up for a project doesn’t sound like a bad idea at all, Sunburst.”

The two Sunbursts thus shake hooves.

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