The spell sent Shining Armor wheeling backwards, knocking him hard against the wall on the other side of the room; all the while jolts of magic ravaged his body, causing Shining Armor to spasm violently. When the shaking finally subsided, Shining Armor attempted to stand, but his body was still numb from the surge of magic and he toppled over onto his stomach.
“Shining Armor,” Twilight called from somewhere across the room, “are you alri…oh sweet Celestia, what have I done?”
Shining Armor’s eyes shot open and sought out Twilight; she had a terrified look on her face that worried the trembling stallion.
“Twi?” he said, his voice straining as he struggled to pull himself to his hooves. “Twi, what is it? What’s…” Shining Armor’s hoof shot up to his mouth as if to hold his words back. The voice that came out still wasn’t his own, yet it was different than it had been moments ago; while his colt voice had sounded high pitched and childish, it still had a masculine tone to it. This new voice sounded almost girly. No, thought Shining Armor, that’s ridiculous, I must have bumped my head when the spell hit me. But just to be sure, Shining Armor ran over to check himself out in the mirror that Twilight had conjured.
The pony in the mirror was very similar to the colt from before, but this one was smaller, with a sleeker build, his eyes were wider with longer, more prominent lashes, and the mane and tail were longer and lighter shades of blue than they had been when he was a stallion.
Shining Armor turned to face his sister, but she wouldn’t look him in the eyes. She didn’t, he thought as an awful realization came to mind. He looked back at the mirror horror struck, not wanting to believe what he saw. Then again, it could have all been just a trick of the mind caused by the shock of the magic that had angrily coursed through him, but there was really only one way of knowing the truth. Shining Armor nervously reached a hoof down between his hind legs, gingerly searching for something that should have been there, something that every colt and stallion would have. Then, he collapsed on the floor, tears welling up in his eyes; it was true.
“A f-filly,” he said through chocked sobs, “you changed me into a filly!?”
“I’m so so sorry big brother, I was distracted,” Twilight hastily tried to explain. “Just as I was starting the spell, I saw my friends’ little sisters outside. I tried to stop, I really did, but it was too late. I guess the combination of you concentrating on what you’re supposed to look like, and me picturing those three fillies must have been what caused you to change into a female version of yourself.”
Twilight watched Shining Armor wipe away his tears and trot irritably around the room.
“I can change you back, Shining Armor, I just need to cast a spell that should remove any spell you’re under.”
Shining Armor stopped his pacing and glared at his sister.
“Why didn’t you cast that spell instead.”
Twilight gave her brother an apologetic look.
“Actually, I hadn’t even thought about it until now. But it doesn’t really matter because-”
“No, please, you don’t have to explain, just cast the spell already.”
Twilight shook her head.
“You don’t understand Shining Armor, the spell I have in mind is very old, and written in Ancient Equestrian; it’s going to take me time just to translate it.”
“How much time?”
Twilight hesitated, too afraid to answer.
“Twi, how long do I have to stay like this?”
“About a week.” She gave her brother a weak, unconvincing smile.
Shining Armor started storming around the room again.
“Great!” he shouted in his little filly voice. “Just great; I had hoped to come here for a nice relaxing vacation and what happens? I get turned into a little filly. And now you’re tell me that I’m supposed to stay like this for a whole week!?”
The purple Alicorn sat beside her brother and put a foreleg around him in an attempt to calm him down.
“Hey now, it’s alright Shining Armor; sure, your body may have changed, but you’re still my big brother.” She gave her brother a more reassuring smile. “And, you can still have fun while you’re here; I might be busy, but that shouldn’t stop you from going out and enjoying yourself.”
“Yeah right, like I would ever want anypony to see me like-”
Shining Armor stopped when he heard the sound of hooves urgently knocking on the library door.
“Oh no, hide me.” He dove behind Twilight. “I can’t let anypony see me like this.”
Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled at her brother.
“Relax big brother, no one would be able to recognize you looking like that.”
But that didn’t stop Shining Armor from diving under the table just as the door burst open and three young fillies bolted into the library.
“Quick Scootaloo, go check the window” said the earth pony with the red bow in her hair.
The second filly, a little orange pegasus, nodded and rushed over to a chair under a window, jumped up on it and pressed her face against the glass, frantically searching outside for something.
“Well,” the third, a purple and pink maned unicorn chimed in, “Is she out there?”
“I don’t see her.” Scootaloo said, returning to her friends. “Whew, that was close, wasn’t it girls?”
“Close? Close!? We wouldn’t have needed to run if you’d been watchin’ where you were drivin’ yer scooter.” The earth pony chided.
“Come on Apple Bloom, that wasn’t my fault.” The little pegasus glared at her friend. “Roseluck should have been watching where she was going with her cart. Right Sweetie Belle?”
Both fillies stared expectantly at the little unicorn who shook her head furiously.
“Oh no, don’t you two go dragging me into this.”
While the two fillies fought, Shining Armor watched from the safety of his hiding place under the table. As soon as he had seen the trio, he instantly knew who they were: the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Although he had only ever met them once, over a year ago during his wedding, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo had been a topic of interest in a few of the letters that Twilight had sent him since she had moved to Ponyville.
At one point, Shining Armor thought Apple Bloom had seen him, but she must have just missed him because she never ceased bickering with her friend. Still, it had scared him into readjusting his hiding place under the table.
On the other side of the room, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo continued to argue until a voice from behind them made all three fillies jump.
“Can I help you?” Twilight asked as she approached the three ponies.
“Oh, hey Twilight,” said Apple Bloom cheerfully, seeming to forget her feud with Scootaloo. “Sorry for bargin’ in on you like this, we were just lookin’ for a place to hide from Roseluck; she’s mighty sore with us for crashin’ into her flower cart. The library was the closest buildin’ to us, so we decided to hunker down here ‘til she decided to give up the chase.”
Twilight frowned at the three fillies.
“Did you at least apologize to Roseluck before you ran from her?”
All three fillies shifted around in a nervous silence.
“Well, you see, we would have but…no, we didn’t’” Sweetie Belle finally admitted. “She was scowling and yelling at us. We were scared, so we ran away.”
“We thought if we gave her some time, she might forget and not be mad at us anymore,” added Scootaloo.
“Girls, you know that isn’t the responsible thing to do.” Twilight said in a lecturing voice.
“Yeah, we know,” the Crusaders said with a unified sigh.
“Come on girls,” said Apple Bloom in a gloomy voice as she started for the door, “let’s go and tell Roseluck that we’re sorry.” The other two nodded and they followed their friend.
That’s it, thought Shining Armor, just a few more steps and I’m in the clear. But just as Apple Bloom was about to open the door, a small bit of dust, which had been disturbed from all of Shining Armor’s shifting, found it’s way up his nose, forcing the poor faux filly to sneeze.
“What was that?” Apple Bloom asked, as she turned around to face the direction where she thought she heard the sound come from?”
“What was what?” Twilight said nervously; she felt beads of sweat begin to trickle down her face.
“That sneezin’ sound; is there somepony else in here?”
“Nuh-uh, nope, nopony else here. That was just me,” Twilight gave a fake sneeze in order to cover up for her brother. “Oh, excuse me; I must have allergies or something. Anyway, you three best be-”
“Hang on,” Sweetie Belle said, inching towards the table, her eyes landing on the small, lumpy shadow that was Shining Armor’s rump sticking out from behind one of the large table legs, “who’s under there?”
There was no fighting it; Shining Armor had been found out. Slowly, he got to his hooves and walked out from under the table.
"Oh there you are!" Twilight said as she rushed over to her brother. "I've been looking everywhere for you."
“Hello,” said Sweetie Belle as she trotted over to meet Shining Armor. “Who are you?”
Shining Armor’s eyes shifted nervously.
“My name’s Shi-”
“SHIELD!” Twilight said a little too excitedly. “Her name is, uh, Gleaming Shield. She’s my, uh, little cousin visiting from Canterlot; she’s going to be staying with me for a little while.”
“Well howdy Gleamin’ Shield,” Apple Bloom said as she took Shining Armor’s hoof in both of her’s and rapidly shook it, “Pleased to meet’cha. My name’s Apple Bloom, and this here’s Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. And we’re-”
“The Cutie Mark Crusaders!” All three fillies shouted in unison and gave each other a three-way high hoof.
“Our mission,” Scootaloo continued, “is to do anything and everything until we find our special talents and earn our cutie marks.”
Shining Armor just stood there, staring at the three fillies who were giving him their most welcoming smiles.
Suddenly Sweetie Belle let loose a loud, excited gasp.
“Hey,” she said, walking around to Shining Armor's rump. “You don’t have your cutie mark either.”
Shining Armor whipped his head around and stared at his flank; sure enough it had remained as blank as it had when Twilight first changed him into a colt.
“Hey yeah,” said Apple Bloom. “Since you’re a blank flank too, why don’t you join our organization.”
“I, uh, I d-don’t-”
“Yeah, come on Gleaming Shield,” Scootaloo said, wrapping a foreleg around Shining Armor’s and pulling him towards the door. “It’ll be fun; while you’re here, we’ll go on some awesome adventures. And since you're new in town, we can even give you the grand tour; we’ve been all over Ponyville looking for opportunities to find our special talents, so nopony knows this town better than we do.”
“B-but I…” Shining Armor turned to his sister and gave her a pleading look, but she just smiled back.
“Don’t be shy Gleaming Shield,” she said, “you should go with them. I’m going to be here for a while working on that special project we were talking about, and I know you’ll just be bored being stuck sitting around inside all week.”
Shining Armor suddenly felt two more sets of hooves holding onto him, moving him towards the door.
“Come on girls,” said Apple Bloom leading the way, “let’s do our very best to show Twilight’s cousin all the amazin’ things there is to do in Ponyville; maybe we’ll even get our cutie marks as tour guides.”
“Cutie Mark Crusaders Tour Guides, Yay!” the three chirped.
“Have fun you four,” Twilight said as the fillies made their way out of the library with her brother. “Just make sure that Gleaming Shield is home in time for dinner.”
“We will,” the Cutie Mark Crusaders called back in unison.
When the fillies were gone, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief as she trotted back to her worktable where she sat and began levitating various books off of her bookshelves and leafed through them, placing the appropriate ones on the table and the others in a neat stack beside her.
I’m sorry Shining Armor, she thought, I’m so so sorry. I didn’t mean to send you off like that, but I need absolute concentration in order to prepare this spell properly; I just wouldn’t be able to finish my work with you moping around all week. She looked out the window and saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders racing by, and Shining Armor, who had finally given into his fate, walking slowly behind the happy trio. Don’t worry B.B.B.F.F., I promise that I’ll change you back as soon as possible, just please, hang in there, just for a little while.
What will happen now? I can see "Gleaming Shield" pointing out what they're doing wrong in their search for cutie marks. Will s/he be able to survive a week with the CMC?
In other things to say Here's a punctuation error I noticed
I don't think that quotation mark at the end of the paragraph is supposed to be there.
2422634
Thanks for pointing that out; I just went and fixed it. What's coming up next? All I can say is that he'll be going off on a few adventures with the CMC. As for what happens on those adventures, well, that's something I can't give away.
Just noticed another error
A very common grammar error, I think that it's supposed to be you're. I won't point out any more, just fix any others you see yourself. I don't want to embarass you.
2422959
Thanks again. I swear, every time I tried to write you're I ended up writing your. I thought I got every one, but I guess at least one slipped through.
Only complaint at this stage is that the first part of this new chapter is extremely short. Too much brevity.
2423148
Yeah, before posting, I had an inkling that the the beginning was a bit short, but I ignored it only because I really wasn't quite sure how I could make it longer. I think I have an idea how I can bulk it up a bit, but I'm too tired to do any writing right now so I'll work on it tomorrow. This is one of those rare instances when I say I'm going to edit edit it and actually go back and make changes (I tend to have a habit of, you know, not doing that).
2423186
Another, minor suggestion?
Alter your title image as well. Focus more on 'Gleaming.'
Maybe give her the longer tail option. Even Scoot has that. :D
Best, of course, would be a hand-drawn picture, but I know that can be hard to get for a good price.
2423198
Yeah the reason I went with the pony creator image is because I looked around and could not find a picture of Gleaming Shield as a filly, and I try to avoid having to pay for pics (as I don't really have the money to be spending on custom pics). And I gave her a short tail because I wanted to leave some sort of semblance of Shining Armor (other than the coat and mane/tail color), and because they didn't have a longer tail that I liked. But I suppose I could go back and redo it.
And then they completely forgot to apologize to Roseluck.
Something really freaking awkward has to be coming down the line for poor Shining. My money is on Snips or Snails taking a fancy to the pretty new Unicorn Filly in town.
2424316
You know, I had toyed with the idea of having a colt fall for Shining Armor, but I wasn't really sure how to work it into the story...but I do now.
The way Twilight sending off Gleaming Shield/Shining Armor like makes me just want to hit her in the face with a pillow filled with wet sponges and a mixtures of ghost peppers.
2425514
Yup, Chapter 3 is when all the craziness starts (that's right, it gets crazier), I just started work on it, and, if things go according to plan, then chapter 4 will also be hilarious.
Yeah, I tried to bulk up the beginning a little bit to slow the pace down, but I just couldn't find enough that I wanted to add that wouldn't work better in different chapters (I did have a couple of ideas that I almost added to chapter 2,, but I decided they would be best suited for a later chapter). When I first posted it, the first half of the chapter was a lot more rushed than it is now.
I'm glad you found the chapter enjoyable. Those interactions were really to write; I was trying to keep them realistic feeling, while maintaining elements from the show.
I'm definitely going to read this but the description had me confused for a bit, did you mean to say HE as in Shining or did you really mean HER like as in Twilight?
2428918
I was referring to Shining Armor, but as I said in the description, Shining Armor was turned into a filly, and that's what the CMC think he is, so I wrote she instead of he.
2428938 Oh, wow, just read it and I completely missed the whole filly part. Huh, this is going to be interesting.
Navigate guard training to become head captain, easy
Repel Evil changing attack from homeland, no sweat.
Fight evil sorcerer to protect a lost empire, no problem.
Surviving a week with the CMC... Where are the changing when you need them.
Now what will happen this is quite enjoyable.
I could not see any major problems.
You did a good start.
keep it up.
Good luck in the future and hope for the best
2429497
Hey now, it's not like those three are always...getting...into..............I'm sorry I couldn't even finish that sentence; where were the changlings again? Glad you liked it
Now this is a story that I agree with. The concept where you don't bend the characters into doing what you want but rather you bend the events around so that they remain in character the entire time while they're forced to come to terms with events taking place. While the events leading up to Shining Armor's transformation into a filly have been shall we say a "Special Snowflake" situation, meaning a 1 in a million chance of happening, you still came up with good reasonings behind them. This story is running pretty smoothly reasoning-wise.
Although personality-wise I think Twilight would have been obsessed enough to remove any form of dust during Shining Armor's visit. Whether that was on the shelves or under a table.
So shining is a mare (a fillies body but he's been alive long enough to be an adult) and so is Cadence. Cadence and Shining are married, thus they are now lesbians (a straight man's favourite kind of gay). I like this concept so far.
Oh twi ....
He isn't your big bro.....
HE'S YOU LITTLE SISTER
If I may the suggestion, do a CTRL-F for 'Sheild' on each of your chapters. There is at least one instance of it here, and it is a very common spelling mistake.
Yay helping!
Good so far!!!
Twilight you bastard! you took away something that every man cares about!
Great job, Twi. You've turned you BBBFF into your LSBFF.
I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but why didn't Twilight just cast the transforming spell on Shining again?
Gender bend? I thought no pony could do that spell!
5064231
Ah, but that was season 3 Twilight! We are dealing with post season 3 Alicorn Twilight!
So, you know, Alicorn magical steroids.
2429497 i agree with you if i had to choose between a week with the crusaders or a week fighting sombra, timberwolves, a manticore and changelings id pick the latter much safer then the crusader
Not bad so far... I shall continue my reading
God damn it, Twilight!
You forgot one of the most important lesson! A true mage isn't destracted. A true mage is always aware of surrounding environment. Distraction and absolute concentration is an excuse those old and so called great mages use when they miscast!