Chapter 2
Twilight knew she couldn’t remain in the kitchen for any length of time without getting caught. It was the highest-traffic part of the castle, with dozens of ponies passing through it along their daily routines. Anything she did would have to be subtle, using her most careful stealth to avoid being seen.
Then again, nopony knows what I look like. How would they know it’s me taking things from the kitchen? Of course if they had, she wouldn’t have had to worry. It was her castle, her food to take if she wanted it.
Twilight crept carefully through the low doorway, eyes scanning the room for any sign of activity. Her strange positional senses still seemed to be working—she could feel motion by one of the stoves. She glanced cautiously in that direction, and sure enough there was Galette working on the evening meal with one of his sous-chefs. Twilight didn’t want an unfinished soup, that was for sure. But she knew with total confidence what was tucked away in a remote corner of her pantry, just waiting for her to acquire.
Twilight frequently treated visitors at her castle, and some of those had tastes that ordinary ponies would not appreciate. Now Twilight was probably one of those, though she didn’t particularly care. Why should she be bothered with what ponies thought about her choices?
She waited until just the right moment, then darted across the kitchen towards the pantry door. It was shut, but her magic quickly solved that, yanking on the knob and pulling it out. There was no need to twist, since it was made to be easy to use by non-unicorns. The room beyond was dark, but even without her eyes she could feel the exact borders of every object around her. She hopped carefully up from the floor, balancing on the edge of a shelf filled with cans. She stalked along it towards the next ledge, then hopped up.
Maybe less gracefully than she’d hoped, because her back legs caught over open air and swung for a few seconds, dislodging a can in the process. It thumped to the floor, but she ignored it. There were more important things to worry about, like not falling.
She grunted, then shoved herself up onto the top shelf. Here were the rarest, most valuable ingredients, reserved for special occasions and important guests. Twilight ignored priceless jars of spices from Saddle Arabia, stepped carelessly over packets of saffron, and reached the back corner. There, cans marked with griffon labels sat in isolation, as though the pony who had put them here was afraid it would contaminate the rest of the kitchen by proximity.
There were images of fish on the side of the cans, food that Twilight herself had tried and not hated, though the idea of it still rubbed her the wrong way. Well, it had rubbed her the wrong way in the past. Now she couldn’t care less as she levitated one of the cans off the stack, lifting it to the floor below.
As she followed it, she realized something that had been only a distant fact in her mind a few moments prior—she wasn’t alone.
Galette stood in the doorway, staring up at her with wide, speechless eyes. His wings spread at his sides, an instinctive reaction to fear. His fear was an unpleasant stink on the air, one that didn’t mix well with the real odors of food. “This isn’t a subject for concern,” she told him, hopping down to the ground in a single graceful stride.
It didn’t matter that she’d been scrambling for her life to avoid that same fall moments before—now that she was ready to go down, it was an effortless hop. She walked a few steps closer to her can, protecting it with one shoulder.
Galette slammed the door shut in her face.
That was good—it meant that she was now free of distractions and could return to doing something that actually mattered. Twilight flicked the light on—no sense hiding if the kitchen knew she was here—and turned to stare at the can.
She didn’t have an opener, nor did the pantry seem to contain any tools she might use for that purpose. But she did have her magic, maybe there was some way to use that? Twilight knocked over the can, inspecting the lid.
It wasn’t flat, but had a little tab on top, fastened to the metal. So she’d been worried for nothing! Twilight gripped the object firmly to the ground, and yanked on the fastener with all her magical might.
It came off with a “pop” of compressed air, and a smell of food inside. The water the fish was stored in spilled out on the ground at her paws, splashing all over her in the process. But she didn’t care about that either—her hunger mattered more.
Outside the pantry, she heard voices. Galette was there, along with one of the guards, and several others Twilight didn’t know. Whoever they were, it couldn’t matter too much. I just have to stay safe until Starlight Glimmer finds me. That can’t be too hard.
Her student would make this better, just as Twilight would’ve done for her if the positions were reversed. It would be simple!
Once Twilight finished eating—not the least bothered that her fish was slightly old and also completely raw, she became suddenly concerned with the fishy-smelling liquid all over her body.
There was only one solution to that—she started grooming herself, sitting up primly and licking away at her coat until she couldn’t smell the fish anymore.
She was just about finished with her work when the door swung abruptly open. There was Spike, along with a pair of Twilight’s own castle guard, and the single pony Twilight actually wanted to see.
“That’s her,” Spike said, pointing directly at her. “Sorry for the trouble, Galette.”
“I can’t work under these conditions!” he raged, storming away. But Twilight didn’t listen to the other things he said. She shook herself out, advancing on Starlight and preparing her response.
“Starlight, I’ve been waiting for you. You’re the only pony I have any faith of reversing this.”
Starlight Glimmer froze in the doorway, expression twisting into one of confusion. Just like the others, even though Twilight felt like she was speaking just fine.
After a few seconds, Starlight Glimmer took a cautious step forward, looking directly at Twilight. Her worry was a slight electric buzz in the air around her, but it was nowhere near as intense as Spike’s had been. There was a powerful undercurrent of thought there beside it, as though Twilight’s predicament inspired more planning than fear.
“Twilight. If you can understand me, I need you to nod, okay?”
Twilight nodded, her motions just as exaggerated as Starlight’s words were slow. “I already went through this with Spike. Yes I can understand you, no I don’t know why you can’t understand me, and I don’t know what caused this. I wasn’t doing anything that could’ve caused a complete transformation like this, and I’m bucking sure I don’t run full-body transformations on myself.”
Starlight looked back at Spike. He nodded. “What did I tell you? You can almost hear Twilight in there when she talks. I think she’s lecturing you like she lectured me.”
“Probably about how I need to fix this,” Starlight muttered. “Because she doesn’t have a horn. One of the princesses of Equestria is an animal and I have to fix it.” She turned slightly away. “Well, come on out then. We’re, uh… I guess we’ll use your lab? I need to take some observations, and… samples! Lots of samples. Magical samples, so I can try to figure out exactly how to reverse this before anypony notices. Unless… do you know what went wrong? Can you nod for me if you know?”
Twilight shook her head, following Starlight from the closet. “I just explained this. I don’t know what happened.”
“At least she can understand us,” Starlight said again. “So you should know that we’re going to the lab to do some research.”
“Yes, yes,” Twilight said, impatient. “I heard you.” The real question was, how long would that research take? There was a whole world outside, one she could smell a little as they walked past an open balcony door. Ponyville would be a fascinating place to explore. Once she was away from her castle, there would be no reason for the ponies who saw her to suspect that Twilight was involved. Ponyville had plenty of cats, stray or otherwise. She didn’t look that magical at a distance.
She attracted plenty of stares as she made her way through the castle. Some part of her—quieter now, the longer she spent like this—knew those whispers had somehow found out what had happened to her. Nevermind that she’d been very explicit with Spike about how he wasn’t supposed to share with anyone. Now they knew, and they appeared to pass the information on.
Her castle could keep secrets, for a while. But nothing could stay in the castle for long.
Eventually they climbed up near the crown of the great crystal tree, past flights of tremendously boring stairs. Twilight slipped past Starlight into the vast space, which was roofed by a wide clear dome that gave her a good view of the stars at night for stargazing or spellcasting purposes.
But now she was fascinated by all the scents of her various ingredients, and Twilight immediately hopped onto the nearest table to inspect them.
A second later Starlight Glimmer reached her, and she felt herself lifting into the air. Starlight’s magic was strong, and she gripped Twilight just behind the neck along with under the belly. Her legs gave out and her body went rigid, and she suddenly lost interest in whatever she was doing. Any thought of resistance faded, and she looked up at Starlight with a placid, vacant grin.
“You would not want to walk around with my Immolation experiment,” Starlight said. “Just a little pressure in the wrong place, and… I already know cats aren’t fireproof.” She lifted her across the room, towards a circle of crystals set into the floor. They began to glow as pony magic approached, humming in anticipation of containing whatever would go inside.
A second later, Twilight went inside, and a shimmering barrier appeared around her. “I’m sorry,” Starlight said, not sounding even a little sorry. “But just because you can understand doesn’t mean you’re in control of your faculties. You seem to be causing quite a bit of trouble. And I don’t think you’d forgive me if I let you hurt ponies while you didn’t know what you were doing.”
Twilight batted at the side of the shield anyway, considering whether or not she would try to break through it. Then she realized that would be rather dull, and she just sat down instead.
She’d always expected the magical analyzer to be more… invasive, from the things it sometimes did to magical samples. Ponies used their powers without control, manifesting their racial abilities or their special talents. Potions boiled over, enchanted objects flared and could even be damaged by too much exposure.
But Twilight Sparkle felt almost nothing. A few moments later, and the crystals went dark again.
Starlight’s expression fell as she approached the printer. A thin stream of tape belched out the end, and Starlight leaned down to inspect it. “Hmm. That isn’t what I was hoping to see. There’s no active spell on you, Twilight. What kind of transformation wouldn’t still be active?”
“Discord’s,” Twilight suggested, knowing full well that Starlight wouldn’t understand her. “This chaos does seem like something he would try. Even if it wasn’t him, he might have an idea of what else could’ve caused it.”
Starlight Glimmer nodded to herself as the barrier finally faded. “Stay down here, Twilight,” she said, crossing to the door and shutting it behind her. She leaned close to the wood, and her voice carried through easily. “I’m going to see if Fluttershy can get me in touch with Discord. I’ll be down to feed you in a few hours.”
“Sure thing!” Twilight called, without even the slightest intention of waiting like she suggested. As soon as she was sure her friend was gone, Twilight crept up to the door, unlocked it from the other side, and strode through.
Stats
Page generated in 0.02 seconds
Total duration
962 users online
442,943 hits today, 2,156,967 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Well one thing's for sure, Discord is going to love this. Twilight's finally figured out how to loosen up and enjoy life! He always hoped this day might come, he just had to keep setting a good example!
maybe just get fluttershy to see if she can speak with twilight or understand twilight in her new form
Looks like there isn't enough room in that skull for silly things like rational neurotic unicorn thoughts when superintelligent cat-thing-brain is in charge.
Oh no! Twilight became worse than the CMC
10091387
Nah, she's just a cat. Sure, she's the goddess of her domain and above the worries of mortals, but she wouldn't go around causing explosions for exploding's sake. That's just bad form.
I'm getting a vague feeling that the rest of the Mane 6 are different forms of Eevees.
The way she said that worries me.
Twilight was starting to have cat's attitude. Spike would have a hard time in the incoming days.
I always imagine Fluttershy as a Gourgeist. Lefeon or Vaporeon works too. (Vaporeon invisibility in water thing)
Pinkie would definitely be a Sylveon. (The evolution powered by joy? No brainer.)
Rainbow could be a Vaporeon or a Jolteon. (Pegasi manipulate both water and energy.)
Rarity would make a good Glaceon or Umbreon. (Glaceon is fairly prissy, Umbreon would be more dark and mysterious... plus black goes with any color.)
Applejack is a Flareon, relative to her temper. Lefeon if you want to be more earth pony centric.
I mean, at least she's not having a panic attack?
You're capturing the feel of a cat very well here, or at least how we lowly humans usually imagine cats would think/act. Definitely enjoying the shenanigans so far.
This is looking good so far.
I like how her physic powers let her sense every thing around her like that.
It will certainly make things interesting.
nice story.
10091359
And then right after we discover Fluttershy can translate, Fluttershy turns into an Eeveelution and can't translate any more!
what staggeringly perfect cover art
10092166
thank
I just realised, most transformation fanfics don’t address the transformee’s new species having a different diet, so kudos to you for including that detail.
That's cats for you. You can be as smart as you want, but it won't do you much good if you have no trace of impulse control.
I do love how Twilight's experiences have an Animorphs-esque energy to them. New body, new brain, new instincts. You have to wrestle for control and find where you can compromise... or you risk getting lost in there. At least it isn't quite Discworld levels of risk, though that may only be because there is enough room in a Pokémon's head for a whole person.
And I do love the idea of a magical analyzer that causes uncontrollable outbursts in living subjects. It sounds miserable for them, but fascinating from an analytical standpoint. I can only imagine how Pinkie would react to one. Discord is best kept far away from the things.
10091597
It's fine; Opalescence's fur grew back eventually.
10091597
She's Starlight Glimmer. Her canon atrocities trump anything involving cats being set on fire.
10092667
That's right. Pokemon as a whole (or atleast a decent chunk of population and I'm talking non legendaries) have the have or atleast have the capacity of regular human level intelligence.
10093475
Pretty much all of them do, really. I can't think of a single one that isn't at least as intelligent as a human child.
Slowpoke and Slowbro are, well, slow, but that doesn't really hinder their actual intelligence; it just takes a while for them to process and act.
Maybe Zygarde cells? *Shrug*
You know it occurs to me, Meowth confirms that Pokemon can speak English if they learn how.
Twilight already knows how to speak English so I'm not sure why this is even an issue. Not that it's gonna matter once Twilight learns to use her telepathic powers.
10094595 It’s common in fanfics from Pokémon’s perspective (eg: Mystery Dungeon, most crossovers on this site) for Pokémon to speak a language that sounds the same as what non-Pokémon speak to them, but non-Pokémon hear it as saying their names. This has some basis in canon, but it doesn’t really make sense.
10091577
And I hope for that
10092667
You read Animorphs?
I just realised... did Starlight end up seeing Fluttershy?