6 Universal Nights

by The Blue EM2

Night 6: Return of the Princess

Day six of the Great Universal Expedition ^TM finally dawned, and the sun opened his sleepy eye upon the world. As this act awoke the residents asleep in the Hard Rock Hotel, Katrina climbed out of her bed and adjusted the curtains, to be blinded by the amount of bright light.

"Ahh!" she cried, stepping backwards as she did so. "Please turn the brightness settings down!"

The brightness of the sun was an odd one. Normally, last days somewhere were meant to be dark and gloomy, and pathetic fallacy was wherever you went. But not here. Their last day had some of the most glorious weather yet, reminding her of that last day at Disney. The trip that had changed her life in more ways than one, if the fact that Sweetie Belle's jacket was still lying on the floor next to her usual garments was any indicator. Not that it would fit anyways, being designed for a twelve year old and not a woman on the cusp of her twenties.

"At least this time I knew it was coming," she added to herself, when her phone abruptly went off. She picked it up to answer it.

"Hey big sis! How are you?"

Katrina smiled. It was Annabelle, her little sister, who, like her parents, was conspicously unaware of her affliction. When she had last visited them and the WDW incident had been referenced on the news, she'd passed it off as marketing for a film. "And good morning to you! How are you?"

"Pretty tired. Things have been a bit crazy back in Kansas with all the random weather."

"Well, that's one of the perils of living in the Random Weather State."

"And it's foggy right now. I've asked the man upstairs to adjust the detail slider, but our visibility is still restricted at the moment."

"Anna! Time for breakfast! You can finish talking to your sister later!" called a voice.

"Sorry, gotta go! See ya!"

"Catch you later!" Katrina replied, and ended the call. Annabelle had wanted to come with them, but the lack of people in her age group had been a deciding factor in her parents saying no. No no no no no no.

Oh mamma mia, mamma mia.

Mamma mia let me go!

That, and the only person remotely approaching her age group that she knew from her friend circle was Rebecca, Tom's younger sister, and she was still in Britain as term had resumed and was readying for her GCSEs in a year's time. She decided, rather than just stand about in here and muse to herself, that she should probably get ready, although she was a bit more sluggish than previous days, endlessly transformations and early mornings wearing her down somewhat. Generally, when home, the TF sprees stopped, though whether this would hold true was not clear, as Jimmy's seemed to be endlessly changing and developing, what with the duplicating characters and other whatnot. She went into the shower and locked the door, switching the shower on.

"Oh I do like to be beside the- YIKES! WHO TURNED THE HOT WATER PIPE OFF?"

---

Getting sprayed in the face with extremely cold water is never a fun experience, as Katrina could now tell you, although she had eventually got the hot water running, which was nothing short of a miracle. John had mentioned one place he had stayed where the Bed and Breakfast had advertised 'hot and cold running water', but somebody had crossed out the word 'and' and replaced it with 'or', on account of the fact the place had plumbing problems. Or that bedsit where wine had started flowing out of the taps. What weird times.

So, there they were, friends six, all sat around the table together once more, for the penultimate time. "Hey, this food's better than yesterday!" Ink said randomly, taking a bite out of a hash brown that looked rather more like a hash yellow.

"So, how's everybody for our last day in the parks?" Tom asked, glancing at his watch. "That's not good. I've been getting up later and later these last few weeks, apart from yesterday when I woke in the middle of the night."

"And got a visit from Celestia," Jimmy added.

"You did?" Steph exclaimed, her eyes wide in astonishment.

"Yes, I did," Tom replied. "Just like Jimmy gets visits from Luna."

"That must've been interesting," John said quietly, adjusting something on his plate.

"It was," Tom replied. "But it proves that Equestria is real."

"Dude, we always knew that."

"Quickly changing the subject," Katrina said suddenly, "I have a suggestion for where we could eat tonight. There's a nice pizza place in the Citywalk that looked good. I suggest we eat there tonight, as a way of remembering the trip."

"That sounds good to me," Ink smiled. "As nice as most theme park food is, Busch Gardens does the best."

"And that bratwurst I had in Epcot was one of the worst," Jimmy admitted. "Then again, I was one of PostCrush at the time."

"So that wasn't flawless, then," Katrina joked.

"Nope, it was a true original."

"Don't try their currywurst," Tom warned. "It's disgusting. And that's coming from a person who was born in Germany."

"Agreed," Steph said, as she got up from her seat, her plate empty and her stomach full. "Thanks for organising this, Tom. I feel like I could lift a house now!"

"Who knows? You could be Supergirl in disguise, for all we know. Just hopefully not Brightburn."

"Who?"

"Supervillain."

"Well, hopefully a superhero will stop him."

There was much agreement at that sentiment. And so, they returned their plates and food, and cups, and headed out into the grey day to see what they could see and do.

---

Once more, the team were somewhat scattered through the parks, but a few of them were near each other enough that they could feasibly stay in contact. Tom and Katrina, as per the old tradition, chose to head into the main Universal Studios park together, heading under the gates with the sun finally emerging from the clouds.

"So, apart from certain ongoing shenanigans, how has this trip been for you?" Tom asked.

"It sure has been fun, alright," Katrina smiled. "I've been able to catch up on some reading in the downtime, and of course keeping everything meticulously planned and organised."

"OK then, Twilight," Tom joked. "It's been nice to get away from my usual life and just relax a bit with my friends."

"I certainly needed that. It also lets me escape from the unwanted press attention." Katrina suddenly stopped, and leaned against a wall. "Urgh, that was some nasty indigestion."

Tom turned back to check if she was OK, and then pointed. "Lavender splotch on hand, spreading."

Katrina sighed. "Oh not again. Really, I've already been Sci-Twi!"

Sure enough, it started up once more for the final time that trip, as lavender pigment continued to spread across Katrina's body, though mostly invisible due to her attire of choice that day. Her eyes began to shift, and the world began to blur so much she could barely see a thing. She reached for her glasses (and not the stars) and removed them, to suddenly see her vision was back to normal. Or normal as it could be for a group used to metamorphosing on a regular basis.

"Definitely Twilight," Tom said. "Your eyes are now purple."

"You're not really helping- yikes, that feels weird." Katrina was referring to the fact her waist had narrowed slightly, and her limbs were starting to get shorter, her hands noticably smaller and her shoes and socks barely staying on due to her reduced feet. "Not as bad as last time, mind you, but-" There was another pop as her hips widened, before her hair flopped into her face in a mixture of dark blue, purple and pink, the latter two colours replacing the normal coloured streaks in her hair. The same colours tumbled down her back and hung partway down, bizarrely long and in obvious need of being tied in place, before her chest began tingling. Glancing down, her breasts grew slightly, before again stopping.

"Well that's never happened before."

Moments later, her clothing came to life, her normally brown shoes merging into odd shapes, with the laces vanishing into thin air and the tops growing until they reached her knees, which made walking seriously hard. Said boots turned pink, with white toecaps, purple bases, and white backing on the leg components over which sat purple crisscrossing laces. Her pants had, in the meantime, shrunk up her legs and terminated halfway up her thighs, before the legs merged into a skirt. Her shirt suddenly lost its sleeves and collar, which shrank into the garment, and the shirt attached itself to the skirt before it tightened around her chest to stay in place. From her waist down, the skirt suddenly poofed outwards like a layer cake. The middle of the bodice gained a purple stripe flanked by two white ones, with the middle layer of the skirt gained a white and purple line respectively. Three white stars appeared on the top layer of said skirt, whilst a white bow appeared around her waist.

Katrina, or should I say Princess Twilight, groaned. "Oh for the love of- I look like a funnel cake!"

Tom sighed. "I half imagined you weren't too keen on that particular outfit. I had a similar reaction when I first saw Equestria Girls."

Twilight tried to pull the skirt down, with minimal success. "This is way too short! I'll need to find something else later, but-"

Suddenly, she looked up. Where Revenge of the Mummy should have been, Kongfrontation was instead. "That wasn't there yesterday. This phenomena needs investigating right away!" She then sped off towards the queue line.

"Twilight, aren't you-!" Tom called. "Oh, never mind." He then headed toward Diagon Alley.

---

The queue line was very grubby, like an old New York subway before Rudy Giuliani had become mayor and cleaned the place up. After a long wait, as bemused visitors joined the lines of a long closed attraction, the aerial tram docked at the platform and they boarded, Twilight trying not to mess up her dress. As the train set off, a radio warning told riders they were being evacuated from King Kong's rampage, and that the Army was moving in to contain the problem. New York was in a state of dissaray. Streets were blocked, road vehicles were on fire, and several railway bridges had been flattened, with trains falling off them and through the ground below. The train rounded a bend and then, a panicked voice warned them.

There he was. King Kong. All 39 feet of him. Twilight started taking notes. "That is one impressive animatronic," she said. It suddenly swung at them, sending a chopper crashing into a building.

The tram then turned toward the island, the final destination, before the lights went out and the ride abruptly stopped. Kong was stuck in place, and the car swung helplessly in the darkness.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we do apologise for the delay. We are having technical problems and will get the ride moving again soon."

"Way to ruin the illusion," said somebody. "Oh well."

Before long, the lights came back on and the tram got back underway, almost reaching the island before Kong was there again, holding the tram in place with his hands and shaking it violently. It flew up and down.

"This is terrifying!" said somebody.

Twilight went green. "I'm gonna be sick."

But, the police opened fire on Kong, and the tram succesfully got away, and the passengers deboarded at Roosevelt Island. Twilight staggered down the stairway before she lost her lunch.

---

Twilight sat outside and glanced at the wall, not sure if she yet had her balance back. No sooner had she looked up, she saw Scootaloo running towards her "Hello, you two!" she said.

"Princess Twilight! We need your help!" Scootaloo cried. "She's gone mad!"

"Take me there! I hope nothing too bad is going on..."

Author's Note:

As much fun as EqG was, some of the costuming was less than brilliant. This is a prime example, but Katrina has once again TFed into the character that started her TF journey. Don't worry Misty; Kat will wear the other dress at some point this night.

Kongfrontation is another closed ride at the park. Themed around the 1976 King Kong remake, the ride was too complex for its own good, causing frequent power failures at the resort. Revenge of the Mummy was subsequently installed in the same building, and some of Kongfrontation's track can still be seen if you know where to look.

Comments

[Thunderous]

Coolio!

I actually forgot there's a sixth night, whoops! I thought it ended on the fifth night.

[The Blue EM2]

10178781
Hey, no worries.

[The Blue EM2]

10178784
It will appear, I assure you of that.

[The Blue EM2]

10178855
Otherwise, it seems the 'affliction' is intent on annoying Kat today.

[The Blue EM2]

10178886
And the closed attractions. Hmmm. Wonder what's going on there...

[The Blue EM2]

10178910
Well, you'll get more clues tomorrow.

[JimmyHook19]

"Well, that's one of the perils of living in the Random Weather State."

Heh... didn't know that was another state nickname for Kansas though. ^^;

[The Blue EM2]

10179073
It is, according to Misty.

[JimmyHook19]

10179126
Noice :3

[The Blue EM2]

10179159
Ok then.

[Godslittleprincess]

I vaguely remember going on that ride as a kid. Unless I'm misremembering, I think the ride might have malfunctioned for a little bit while my family and I were on it.

[The Blue EM2]

10387364
Kongfrontation was operational between 1990 and 2002. I never had a chance to ride this as I was born in the late 90s and didn't make my first visit until 2005. Though if it broke down whilst you were on it, I hope it wasn't with Kong staring at you...