> Cool Story Bro... MOAR PONIES!
>  by Shadowflame
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Where Trouble Bred
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Pale moonlight shined through the window of the dark office. The cool summer breeze crept into the decrepit building, years of inactivity visible from flourishing weeds around it, faded paint on its walls, and cracked windows as its only source of illumination, as its power had been shut off from the time the business shut down. The office itself was empty of furniture, save for a wooden desk and chair in the corner.

A single man sat in the office, gagged with a cloth and duct tape, his hands and legs bound in a similar fashion to an old, rusted radiator that just proclaimed the age of the building with its musty smell. The man, an average man with black hair and darker skin, had struggled with his bindings for hours, but the only results he had to show for it were red rings of skin beneath his wrists and bruises on his legs.

The man had a particular bruise on the side of his face, where his captor had slugged him into unconsciousness. It stung at the touch, but it made his head spin if he moved too much.

Because of that, he had resigned himself to waiting and resting, for he knew his captor would come back for him eventually. Then he could possibly figure out why in hell he was here.

But from what he could tell, just by looking about the ruined office, he figured it wasn’t for a good reason. The walls and especially the floor were etched with strange symbols, just circles with what appeared to by glyphs written inside. Half of them looked like pentagrams, or even signs of Satanism.

Was he merely kidnapped to be some kind of sacrifice to a pagan god or something of the sort? The thought made the man’s teeth grit into his gag. He had watched a TV show with a similar plot, but it had seemed unbelievable until now.

Suddenly, the light of a flashlight trickled in from beneath the door leading into the office, and the portal unlocked with a click and was thrown open by a dark figure. From what the man could tell, it was a male, with its blocky figure beneath a black coat and dark slacks. A hockey mask covered the captor’s face, shielding his identity from view.

The man struggled beneath his bindings again, a clench of fear in his stomach.

But his captor merely chuckled, the mask muffling the sound to that of shifting gravel, “Mr. Maxwell P. Scott, I presume. Feeling comfortable?”

Maxwell, or as he preferred to be called Max, couldn’t reply more than a muffled shout of anger due to his gag.

Sighing, the masked figure approached, bending down to rip the duct tape off the man’s face with the victim howling from the sting, and removing his gag.

With his mouth free, Max screamed, “Help! Get me out of here! Somebody! Anybody!”

His masked captor shook his head, replying with a unnervingly calm voice, “Quiet. No one else is within a mile of this place, so stop barking, you bastard dog.”

That only made Max more angry than terrified, “What did you call me?! When the police find you, I am going to sue your ass of everything you own!”

The captor only ignored him, turning towards the only desk in the room. On top of it was a strange glove, colored black, but that back of its hand had a plate of metal melded into it. The metal part of it, Max could see, had another strange glyph circle carved into it, very similar to the strange marks on the ground around the room.

The masked figure put on the glove, before turning back to where Max sat, “Let’s proceed with the experiment.” Suddenly, the man’s gloved hand was on top of his captive’s head, the runes on the back of it starting to glow ominously, “A person like you just doesn’t fit being human,” The masked man chuckled, “I can remedy that.”

The light coming from the glove instantly became brighter, glowing at the point where it was almost blinding. But Max couldn’t notice it as sharp pain suddenly racked his whole body and a scream exploded from his longs. He felt his bones break and shift, snapping into different shapes, while his intestines were crushed into a compact form.

His skin prickled as tufts of black fur grew like weeds across his body. He could feel his skull molding itself like plaster, and his own ears migrate to the top of his head. His spine felt like it was being torn apart from both ends as it stretched downwards to form a new appendage. Despite the searing pain he wished would just stop, Max managed to get himself to look down at his hands, only to watch in horror as his fingers melded together into paws beneath his bindings.

Max screamed louder, but it only came out as a howl; the legitimate howl of a canine.

Finally, the pain ended, and Max collapsed sideways on his stomach, too weak to even move, much less sit straight again.

His masked captor grinned beneath his mask at the success of the experiment. Where a man had been sitting before, a black and white dog now lay on its side, its front and hind legs barely bound with loose rope and the man’s old clothes that no longer fit him anymore.

This was definitely a success to the masked man, for in the past, in order for him to do this transformation, he needed a full size circle glyph to account for the transfer of magic power and the distance it needed to cover between it and the target.

But now, this experiment proved it could be done with the target’s own magical power by merely physical contact with a circle he could fit on the back of his hand.

While the result of his work was currently incapacitated, he decided to change the dog’s bindings, trading out the ropes for a chained collar he had bought earlier for this situation.

As the masked man clasped the buckle of Max’s collar, the man-turned-dog began to realize the reality of his current state. In a mad frenzy, he jumped to his paws, snapping his fangs towards his captor in rage. But the masked man calmly stepped away, past the reach of the leash connecting Max’s collar to the radiator.

Max, choked by the collar and tripping over his unfamiliar limbs, was forced to resign himself to the ground, still glaring and barking the words he wished he could scream at his captor.

The masked man simply smirked, “Yes, this form definitely suits you, you little ‘bastard dog’.” He allowed himself a laugh, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be taking my leave tonight.”

The man turned his back on the raving dog, chuckling loud enough so his victim could hear it. The barking was like a melody to his ears, the trumpet of his success. He opened the office door, shutting it and the dog’s barking behind him and locking it tight.

That was when the man allowed his smile to disappear, leaving a frown behind his mask. Despite his achievement tonight, he was still missing a crucial flaw in his plans. He had several targets, but he couldn’t just turn all of them into dogs; dogs were dangerous without something holding them back like Max.

He needed a different prospect to turn them into; A relatively harmless creature, and preferably one that could speak or communicate easily; His targets would most likely have information he’d need once he started unraveling his plan, and who knows how he would get it if the few who knew it were incapable of communication.

This was a tall order, but hopefully doable.

The man removed his mask and took off the black coat, laying them in a more hidden corner of the building, before exiting to his car out back. No one else was around in the dead of night, but that statement could have been true even during the day. This building was at the edge of a very small town, and nobody else had a reason to come this direction.

Getting to his car, the man sighed as he figured he’d most likely have to resolve to using parakeets as a prospect for his targets. Unfortunately, that came with the risk that they could learn to fly and escape if he wasn’t careful. But unless he thought of something else, that would be his only option.

Silently, he drove away from the broken down building, driving further into town, soon reaching the suburbs. In moments, he pulled up to his house, only to find the lights still on in the windows.

Sighing with a shake of his head, the man got out of his car, “Don’t tell me McKenna is still awake.”

Making his way to the front door, he unlocked the deadbolt and let himself in. There he found his little eight-year old daughter in the living room, sitting on the couch, curled up with a blanket, wearing her pink pajamas, and watching TV.

The sound of the deadbolt unlocking made McKenna’s head turn and she gasped in excitement when she saw him at the door, “Dad!”

The man felt a smile quirk at his lips as his daughter jumped up to her feet on the seat cushions, “’Kenna? Why are you still awake?” He checked the old clock on the wall, “It’s past midnight!”

A sorry look crossed her face, “But dad~ you went out again, and I really, really wanted to watch ponies with you again!”

The father looked up at the TV, and sure enough, an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was currently playing. From the small credits at the bottom of the picture, it seemed the episode was just starting. It seemed like months since he had sat down to watch of these with her. That was back before he started his… personal endeavors.

He looked back at his daughter, who was giving him a wide-eyed, grinning, puppy-dog look, “Pleeeeease~?”

He couldn’t say no to that. With a loving smile, he sighed, “Alright, ‘Kenna. I’ll watch just this one, but then you need to go to bed, okay? But only because you don’t have school tomorrow.”

“Yay!” Kenna celebrated, flopping back down on the couch, while her father walked around and sat beside her.

Now with his daughter leaning on him, the man resigned himself to watching the technicolored ponies on the screen. It was the one about that purple pony receiving an extra ticket to some gala, and all of her friends pleaded to have it. Every once in a while, McKenna would point out something he already knew, sometimes giggling along with the characters on the screen. The father even found a joke or two to laugh at in the episode as well.

This show definitely had a good charm to it. Everything in it, the ponies, the world of… Equestria, was it?... all of it just seemed so happy, so safe…

… so harmless.

The man’s eyes slowly widened as the thought occurred to him. Harmless…

His eyes focused on the TV, just as the purple pony yelled, “PINKIE!” before getting dropped onto the ground by other ponies.

The pink one in question popped her head in purple’s vision, eyes fluttering, “Yes, Twilight?”

Capable of speech…

A feeling of amazement, like finding a genius idea, welled up in his chest. Even when he watched the purple unicorn teleport to escape a crowd of ponies who were after her ticket, the feeling didn’t disappear.

If I restrict the transformation to that of an Earth Pony… They’d still be small, hence the name, ‘My Little Pony’…

Would this even work? He didn’t even know. Yet still, a grin crossed his face, That’s what experiments are for.

He had possibly found the prospect he needed.

McKenna, on the other hand, glanced up, and couldn’t help but feel joyful at seeing her Dad smile like he was now. This was the happiest he’d looked in a long, long time.

If he was happy, she was happy, and that was all she knew.


_______________________________


I slumped onto the couch on my belly, letting out a long sigh. It wasn’t one of relaxation, but rather one that could suitably be replaced by a groan.

The cause was my little sister, who was standing beside the couch, constantly prodding my side with a finger. Marta pouted in her normal, eight year old way, “Lyle! I want a pony ride!”

This time I groaned, putting my hooves over my muzzle in the unlikely hope that it’d make Marta disappear. Honestly, this pestering happened every time I turned into an Earth Pony. Apparently her older brother turning into an equine was enough reason for her to ride a pony like any generic girl loves to do.

After Marta had poked me way too many times, I took my yellow hooves off my face in exasperation. A little strand of my blue mane hung down in front of my eyes; I never liked how my hair grew too long after each transformation. But hey, at least having a tail makes up for that.

Anyways, my name is Lyle Anderson; age, seventeen, a Junior at Lone Peak High School and a part-time pony… though it’s more like part-time human these days. For those of you who are wondering why I’m covered in fur and why I have a human sister begging me for a pony ride, you can blame that on my childhood friend, Angela.

Angela is… strange to say the least. She’s the typical blonde girl that adores fluffy stuff like unicorns and everything pink… especially anything pink. But her biggest hobby is dabbling in witchcraft. Sounds a bit bipolar, right? Well, she had been studying ‘witchcraft’ for fun for years, but none of it was actually real… that is, until she found something that did work: Transformation Circles, powered by a human’s natural magic, also known as chi.

Well, long story short, her first test subject was me, and she started the transformation sequence into a pony on me during school! I just about gave one of my teachers a heart attack when I suddenly grew horse ears on her, though thankfully she never remembered that, but that’s a story for another time.

Ever since that fiasco, after having found legitimate magic, Angela started doing all kinds of experiments with transformations, and not all of them being ponies though. And almost every time, she somehow roped me into being her guinea pig for her experiments; One time she literally turned me into a guinea pig.

Tonight was no exception. All I got was a call from Angela, saying she wanted to test a relatively painless speed transformation on me. One downside about these transformations was that they usually took about six to eight hours to complete, before completely reverting by the time 24 hours have passed; any faster, and it’d start to hurt… like, a lot.

Basically, I agreed, and within a few minutes, I was growing fur where I sat in my room, thanks to the fact the spell is long-range and Angela could cast it on me from her house a few blocks away.

Unfortunately, it was still frickin painful! Apparently ‘relatively painless’ is relative, cause my body felt like it was being put through a dryer on full tumble with razor blades… that or being hit by a semi at top speed and getting caught in its grate.

But hey, it didn’t hurt that bad… well, afterwards anyway. I mean, I’ve gone through hasty transformations before and have come out just fine. Heck, the first hasty transformation Angela did on my got me my girlfriend because of it. I think I’m beginning to get used to it… and I’m probably used to the fact that my life completely left ordinary the first time my hair turned blue.

Anyways, the good thing was, I could experience the pain of a failed speed transformation in the comfort of my own home. My family normally would have flipped their panicky lids over me turning into a small yellow horse, but you can thank Angela for 'fixing' that. She turned me into a griffin that one time, which inadvertently let the cat out of the bag for them. Heh, get it?… ‘cause a griffin’s half cat and… nevermind.

As you can tell, they took it all very swimmingly, especially my little sis in particular.

Turning towards my begging sister as I sat up on my haunches, I gave a groan, “Marta, you know you could have easily called Angela to turn you into a pony, too. She would have cast the spell on you.”

Marta was a short little girl with the same brown hair I usually had, which she wore in a ponytail today. In her T-shirt and skirt attire, she just crossed her arms and gave me a look she had picked up from Mom. It was one that read, ‘do you think I’m stupid?’.

“Nuh-uh, she wouldn’t!” Marta pouted, “But I don’t want to be a pony. I want to ride a pony!”

Rolling my eyes, I sighed, “Alright, fine. I’ll give you a pony ride.”

Marta wore a smug smile as she cheered, “Yippee!” That only prompted another eye roll from me as I stood up off the couch and onto my four legs. As soon as I was up though, Marta jumped onto my back. Thank goodness for natural Earth Pony strength, otherwise she would have been heaaavy.

“C’mon, go!” Marta prompted me, tugging on my mane, “Yee-haw!”

“Ow! Alright, alright.” I glanced out the window of the living room, only to find the sky had gotten dark, barely a sliver of the moon was shining. I started trotting through the house with Marta, glancing back at my sister, “But this ride will be a short one. Emily’s coming over to hang out before I leave for my trip tomorrow.”

Marta’s grin almost split her face in half at that. She loved seeing my girlfriend almost as much as I did; Almost, though. “Emily’s coming?”

I nodded as trotted us into the kitchen, where Mom sat at the counter, her laptop and a metric butt ton of papers spread out in front of her. Behold, the life of a High School teacher. But the fact that there were only a few weeks until finals added more assignments to her quota to grade.

“Hey, Mom.” I would have waved, but I was occupied with carrying a little girl around on my back.

Mom glanced up from her grading, smiling slightly at the sight of me and Marta, “Hey, Lyle. I see Marta is taking advantage of you again.”

I gave her a wry smile, “Yeah, she wouldn’t stop bugging me.”

Marta pulled one of my ears in protest, getting a wince out of me, “Hey, I wasn’t bugging you.”

I turned my neck to give her a flat stare, “Uh- huh, riiiight.”

“Kids.” Mom’s voice hinted with the tone of an army commander, one that made us both freeze in our skins, “If you’re going to argue, get out.” She pointed back towards the living room.

Well, so much for a trip through the kitchen. “Okay.” I replied, turning back around.

But as I was trotting us out of the room, Mom called me from behind, “Oh, Lyle? Are you all packed for your trip tomorrow? You better be packed to survive a full week in Washington D.C.” I glanced back over my shoulder to see her giving me a look of warning, “I better not hear you had to buy something to replace what you forgot to pack.”

“Come on, Mom, this is ‘me’ we’re talking about.” I replied jokingly, “I’ve been ready for this trip ever since I signed up for it.”

Of course, that was an exaggeration. But it might as well have been the truth. My school was providing a week-long trip to Washington D.C. for a few students who’d like to pay for their own portion of the cost for it. I was stoked to go, but it wasn’t because I liked travelling to new places. I’m kind of a history nut, and History is my favorite class. There was no way I’d turn down a chance to see a place so rich with the history of the country, as shown currently by the mark on my flank; a history textbook with an ‘SPQR’ written on the front.

Mom nodded, “Okay, just making sure. I’m just glad you’re taking a week off from home.” There was a joking glint in her eye, “Heaven knows you need a break from Angela’s… magic.” Just the way she said that gave me the feeling she wasn’t quite used to my recently exposed part of my life.

I just shrugged as I trotted out of the kitchen, feeling Marta’s patience wearing thin at me stopping to chat during her pony ride, “Meh, I’d be fine either way.”

Suddenly, a knock came from the back door.

Marta gasped before squealing in excitement, “Emily!” She tugged on my mane again, pointing in the direction of the back door, “Mush!”

“Wrong animal.” I deadpanned, still galloping to the door anyway.

When we reached the sliding, glass door that led to the backyard, Marta hopped off me and yanked it open. Standing there on the porch was a light blue pegasus filly, her height only a head shorter than me. She had a long, pink mane that curled slightly over her shoulders and down to her hooves for her tail. Her cutie mark showed a still pond of water, clear enough to resemble a mirror of sorts.

I grinned at her, “Hey, Emily! I didn’t think you’d be flying over.”

She shrugged, “I didn’t either, but Liz wanted to try something out with her own experiments.” Emily’s sister, Liz, was currently learning witchcraft from Angela as a pseudo-apprentice, ever since that whole ‘first speed transformation’ fiasco that I mentioned before. During that time, we had discovered Liz actually had more potential in witchcraft than even Angela did, and so she took Liz under her wing.

Emily gave me a wry smile, “Liz wanted to see if she could shorten the transformation sequence down to three hours.” I spotted a wince on her face, “It… kind of hurt.” She just shrugged it off, “But I’m fine now.”

“That’s good,” I smiled, stepping back and gesturing inside, “Wanna come in?”

Smiling, Emily trotted inside, “Thank you.” As she passed me, she planted a small kiss on my cheek, to which Marta gave the coo of a nuisance from the side.

Ignoring my little sister, I slid the door shut and turned back to Emily. She glanced at me in amusement, more specifically at the fact I too was a pony, “So, what experiment did Angela want you for?”

I chuckled, “She cut down the transformation sequence to two hours, and I basically got the same result you did. I’m just glad she kept in mind to shorten the duration of the spell too, so I can show up for the bus tomorrow as a human.”

Emily just sighed at that, still smiling, “It doesn’t seem either of our witches have figured out how to make the change painless. Sure, a ‘painless’ transformation only takes eight hours, but that cuts into how much time we have to be ponies.”

I shrugged, “I don’t know, maybe all that extra pain is the price we pay to be ponies longer.”

Emily tapped her chin with a hoof at the thought, “Hm… I can see that being a reason.” Her wings extended slightly and she ruffled her feathers, “I know it’s definitely worth it to have my wings for a few hours longer.”

“Yeah,” I nodded, “Since the initial price is all the chi Angela and Liz have to spend, what other price would there be?”

Before Emily had time to respond, she was glomped into a hug from the side by Marta, “Emily! You’re so fluffy!”

Emily staggered on her hooves, but still giggled as my sister clung to her, “Hey there, Marta. What’s up?”

“Do you wanna play a game?” Marta asked, excitement on her face.

“Sure, Nintendo or Playstation?”

“Nintendo!” Marta exclaimed, making both me and Emily chuckle.

“Alright, Marta. Why don’t you find Kale and see if he wants to play?” I suggested.

With a sound of agreement, Marta raced upstairs to find our brother, leaving me and Emily. Together, the two of us made our way to the den where the TV waited.

But as we walked, Emily pressed her side into mine, pulling me close with a wing. Now that we were alone, she whispered, “I’m going to miss you when you’re gone to D.C.”

I smiled warmly, leaning in to give her a small nuzzle, “I know, but it’s only a week.”

Emily’s smile disappeared slightly, replaced with a hint of worry, “I just hope you don’t get caught up in something too adventurous. That does tend to happen a lot to you, you know.”

I waved a hoof dismissively, “Don’t worry. I doubt anything too exciting is going to happen. It’s just a school trip. What’s the worst that can happen?”

“Don’t tell me you invoked Murphey’s Law just now.” Emily deadpanned.

“Phht, no way.” I replied, “I’ve already invoked Murphey hundreds of times, and look what’s become of it,” I held up a hoof; “I’m covered in fur half the time and I got a girlfriend out of it.”

Emily giggled, “True.” She planted a small kiss on my lips, “Thanks, now I don’t feel so worried.”

“You're welcome.” I replied with a grin.

And so, the two of us, and my two little siblings, gathered in the den and were carried away into the night by an evening of gaming; the perfect way to relax before I embarked on an adventure tomorrow.

I just hoped Murphey wasn’t going to get crafty on me now that I’m leaving home for a while.
> Where Acquaintances Met
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The next morning I found myself on a bus filled with about twenty other kids, plus all of their luggage and crap shoved either at the back of the bus or at everybody's feet. Yeah, not exactly comfortable, but I doubted it was any better in the other bus. Behind our bus was another just like it, packed in the same way with teenagers and possessions alike. Oh, and we can't forget about the teachers either, two of them in each bus. They sat at the front near the driver, doing whatever they could to block out their noisy students.

I sat alone on my bench, just duking the ride out with my 3DS in hand. Yeah, that's right, you're never too old for Pokemon. However, don't peg me as an introvert or an anti-social. While that may be slightly true, I was just passing the time this way because there really wasn't anyone I wanted to talk to. Nobody bothered to share a bench with me, not that I'm complaining about that one. It definitely gave me some room to lounge. But there was also the fact I didn't really know anybody else on this bus, besides the teachers.

I took a look up from my game and glanced around the noisy bus. There were a few like me who kept more to themselves, or with their friends they decided to come with. However, it was easy to spot the groups of friends, the more extroverted kids who juggled around twenty different people daily in their routines. They were mostly the source of the noise on the bus, and whenever I heard or saw them, I had to wonder whether or not they came on this trip to see the capitol or escape home for a week.

Shrugging, I paid them no mind. Everyone came for their own reasons and so did I, so why not let them enjoy their trip while I enjoyed mine?

I turned my focus back towards my game... that is, until I heard someone hiss across the aisle between benches.

"Why not?" The voice, a girl's whispered, just barely audible to me through the noise, "He's right there, so why not talk to him?"

I glanced at the next bench over out of the corner of my eye.

Across the aisle sat two teenagers, a guy and a girl, both about a year younger than me. The guy sat at the end of the bench, but he seemed visibly uncomfortable about it... or maybe that was because of the subject they were talking about.

... Wait, were they talking about me?

The guy had straight brown hair, which flopped down a few inches around his scalp, as if he never bothered to do anything with his hair besides wash it. He wore a simple pair of khaki shorts, with a T-shirt and tennis shoes. His face seemed... softer, compared to other high schoolers, and his eyes seemed to have some timid look in them. He was glancing warily from me, to the girl he shared the bench with, and back again.

I had to glance back down at my game again, otherwise they would have noticed me watching them... and that situation is always kind of awkward. But there was no denying it, they were talking about me... but for what?

He definitely seemed like the type that got picked on a lot in school, but I wasn't one to judge on stereotypes.

The girl, however, seemed like the exact opposite from the guy. She was much tanner, with sharper features across her face, as well as eyes that didn't betray the rest of her demeanor. Her hair was cut down to only a few inches and stood spiking upwards. If it wasn't for her clothes, it could've been easy to mistake her for a guy; She wore a purple tank-top, jean shorts cut at the middle of the thigh, and strap-on, velcro sandals.

The girl was giving the guy next to her a hard look as she whispered, annoyed, "Look, you wanted to make new friends on this trip, not just latch on me like you did all year at school."

"I know, I know," The guy mumbled back, "But I can't make friends as easily as you."

The girl deadpanned back, "I don't have any friends." The guy opened his mouth to voice otherwise. "...besides you," The girl added, shutting him up.

She sighed in annoyance, "You know what, you asked me to help you make some friends, so that's what I'm gonna do." Suddenly, she lifted one leg up onto the seat and proceeded to less-than-gently shove the guy off the bench and sprawling into the aisle with a yelp.

Thankfully, for the guy's sake, the bus was full enough with chaos that no one really paid any mind to his fall. He quickly stood up again, only to find the girl was now lounging on the bench with her feet taking up where he'd been sitting before. She smirked at him with a demure smile, "Go find someone else to sit with, and you're not allowed back on this bench until you're buddy-buddy with them, got it?"

"What?!" The guy exclaimed, "But you can't-"

"Hey!" The girl snapped back pointedly, "No arguing about this. So help me, I will get you to meet someone you can hang with before we get to D.C. tonight. Now, go on, shoo!"

The guy just stared at her, most likely in horror, but I couldn't quite see his face from where I sat. Needless to say, those two were... an odd duo. It kind of made me wonder just how those two became friends in the first place.

I glanced sideways at the guy, who was looking around the bus for an available seat, probably to see who would be likely to get along with him... But lo and behold, after a few moments of timid looks around the bus, he reluctantly took the seat by me on my bench. Well, I wasn't exactly complaining, since I did hear most of his conversation with that girl. This guy was just looking for another friend on this trip. He seemed like a nice enough person, albeit a somewhat timid one.

Oh, well. I kept on playing my game, waiting for the guy to speak up. I mean, he did mention he wasn't good at making friends, but I was hoping I could help him see it wouldn't be that hard... or at least, not that hard with me. He seemed really nervous about it, so why not give him a confidence boost? He wasn't that bad at making new friends, was he?

...

...

...

...

Okay, I take that back. After about a full minute of full silence between me and him, he still hadn't said a word. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him sitting quietly, his hand scratching his other arm idly and his eyes glancing back and forth between my 3DS' screen and the back of the bench in front of us. The longer I waited for him to speak, with no avail, the more awkward I started to feel. I hated to admit it, but this guy was a terrible 'ice breaker'... but then again, so was I, but not nearly on this level.

But thankfully, the agony of the awkwardness had extended to the next bench over, and I saw the girl, who had booted this guy off the bench, proceed to full-on facepalm, "Oh, for the love of-"

To both mine and his surprise, she stood up in the aisle, giving the guy a peeved look that read, 'seriously?!' She then glanced back at me, "Hey, buddy, you got a sec?"

I blinked in surprise, closing my game and stowing the console in my backpack under my seat, "Um, sure."

The guy glanced up at the girl with an astonished look on his face, "Fiora! What are you doing? I told you, I've go-"

"Got this?" The girl, Fiora, finished, "Sorry Dale, but at this rate, you wouldn't have even said 'hi' to him before we reached Virginia. Five minutes of that was way too painful to watch."

Fiora glanced towards me, "What's your name?"

"I'm Lyle," I replied.

Fiora nodded, throwing an arm around Dale's shoulders, "Well, Lyle, I'd like you to meet my socially helpless friend, Dale."

Dale muttered under his breath peevishly, "I'm not helpless..."

"Sure, sure," Fiora replied, dismissively, glancing back towards me, "So here's the deal. Dale here doesn't know anybody on this trip, besides me, but this poor guy needs someone to lean on, and since girls and boys are going to be separated at the hotel, he needs a friend to be with. So how about it? Think you can be Dale's buddy for the trip?"

Well, that's one way to make a friend, just have someone ask for you... But I doubted if I hadn't already heard their previous conversation, I would have been confused as frick.

But still, I managed a friendly smile, "Erm, sure."

Fiora, looking satisfied, proceeded to then flop back down on her own bench, as if our brief interaction hadn't even occurred. I turned back to Dale, who looked more peeved than before.

Well, since we've been... er, 'properly' introduced, might as well actually talk to him. "So, uh, how's it going?"

Dale simply huffed, crossing his arms, "Fiora's always treating me like a little kid. It's driving me nuts!"

I nodded a bit, "Yeah, quite the friend you've got there. She certainly seems more... out there." Way out there, I added to myself. Although, I still think Angela still has Fiora beat there.

Dale blinked in surprise, glancing towards me. He immediately grimaced, as if he had just realized he had said that out loud, "Uh... yeah." He glanced away, slightly embarrassed, "... But I guess I understand why she treats me that way. Our parents were friends, so we ended up friends, too. I've known her for as long as I can remember." All the while, he looked even more uncomfortable the longer he talked about it.

"That's cool," I replied, wanting to change the subject, "So, what do you do for fun?"

Dale glanced back at me, his discomfort vanishing as he thought to himself, "Umm, I dunno. I like reading, I guess."

"Reading what?"

Dale shrugged, "Anything, I guess. My dad has a bunch of books in his study, so I tend to hang out there." He bit the inside of his lip, "People think I'm weird though, 'cause I like reading documentaries as much as any novels, even when it wasn't for school."

I blinked in surprise, "Really?"

"Yeah, I never heard the end of it in Middle School." Dale frowned momentarily, "It sounds weird, doesn't it?"

"Hm, a little," I admitted, "But hey, not everyone likes the same things. Heck, you'd probably think I'm weird too."

Dale raised a cautious eyebrow at me, "... What do you like to do for fun?"

I grinned sheepishly, "History, which is my all-time favorite subject, and video games." And not to mention the occasional transformation into a pony... Yup, can't get any weirder...

... Wait, I take that back, and I doubt I even need to explain why.

Dale looked at me in surprise, "History? That's... odd. I hardly hear anybody say they like that class."

I scratched the back of my head, chuckling, "I know, right? But anything in history has always kind of clicked for me. It's like hearing a story you really like and remember later, except it happened centuries and millennia ago."

Dale bit his cheek in thought, crossing his arms, "... I never really thought of it like that. But then again, history wasn't exactly my favorite thing to read."

"What's your favorite then?"

"Well... mainly science, I guess. I like learning how the world work. It's kind of... amazing." A small smile came to his face, "Biology and Physics are my favorite classes, even."

"That's cool," I replied, glad to see Dale actually break a smile. I chuckled sheepishly, "I'm actually not all that good at physics, but that's just because I'm not good with numbers." I let out a laugh, "The same thing for girls as well. Celestia knows how I have a girlfriend now."

Oh... wait, did I just say that?

Dale stared at me in surprise, "Wait, Celest- You're a brony?"

I grinned mirthfully. Oops "Um, yeah."

Dale paused for a moment, before lowering his head, embarrassed, "Um... I'm one, too. But I don't like mentioning it. A few guys in my neighborhood found out I watched ponies and picked on me."

"Yeesh, I feel your pain," I sympathized. I spared a glance towards Fiora, who was still lounging on the other bench, earphones blocking out all outside sound. "Is Fiora..."

Dale shook his head, chuckling slightly, "No way she'd watch something like that, not even with me."

"Oh well," I shrugged, reaching into my bag for my 3DS, "Hey, you like Pokemon?"


________________________________________


The next few hours passed by swimmingly while in Dale's company. In that time, I learned he was actually a pretty cool guy. You know, the type of person I could easily get along with.

I had thought him completely timid at first, but after talking to him for the first while, he began to visibly relax. We talked about subjects between home, school, and even just strange or interesting sights passing by in the window. After an hour or two, he seemed to be more or less out of his 'shell' around me. Heck, even Fiora jumped into the conversation once in a while from across the aisle, and I got to know her a little better as well.

By the end of the ride towards D.C., I had learned quite a bit about both of them.

Dale wasn't really as timid as I had thought him to be, just very uneasy when it came to social interactions with strangers or acquaintances, rather than friends. Other than that, he was pretty much a normal guy. His love for science rivaled my own towards History, and he knew quite a bit more about other subjects, including details I never heard in the classroom. He was pretty well-versed in a few of my favorite video games, though understandably, he didn't play those a lot. He said he'd rather read, but a good few rounds of Smash Bros. or something else was a welcome break.

As for Fiora, she definitely seemed like Dale's opposite, though I say that in the best way possible. I don't mean that Dale's kind while Fiora's a jerk. It's more like opposite in personality and character. During the occasional times she joined into the conversation, I learned she liked more physical things like sports, though more specifically anything on wheels. Thanks to the rules for this trip, she had to leave her bike at home, and both Dale and I could tell she was pretty pissed about it. From what Dale told me, Fiora could pull off many a trick with quite a few wheels, though her bike was her favorite.

The whole bus ride was spent talking to those two, from everything like school, interests, expectations of D.C., movies, and everything in between. But pretty soon, our buses reached their destination, a hotel just at the edge of Virginia's border with the capitol. After that, the teachers wasted no time in ushering everyone to grab their stuff and head up to our reserved rooms. Fiora left the bus first with the other girls, while Dale stuck with me and we followed the other guys up to our rooms.

There were about twenty guys on the trip, so the teachers crammed us into two large rooms and we started unpacking and grabbing any decent places to sleep before any of the other guys took them. Thankfully, Dale and I were able to grab a couch and a recliner in the midst of the chaos. I let Dale take the couch, while I grabbed the recliner.

Although, Dale seemed a bit uncomfortable still as we put our stuff in order, "..."

"What's wrong?" I asked, catching his wry expression.

"Er..." He shook his head, "Nothing. It's just... I've never really slept in the same place with people I don't know... I guess I'm just a bit self-conscious."

"Don't worry about it," I re-assured him, throwing a pillow onto my recliner, "It's not like they're gonna try anything while you're asleep..." I paused for a moment, "Heck, if that happened, I'm thinking Fiora would probably 'go ham' on them before the teachers hear about it."

Dale winced slightly, "That's... not a pretty picture." He smiled, though still slightly unnerved, "Thanks anyways for trying to reassure me."

"No problem." However, just then, I heard my cell phone ring in my pocket. I pulled it out and checked who was calling:




Incoming Call From Angela




Well, I guess that's nice timing, if anything. Although, I wasn't expecting Angela to call me at all today. I glanced back towards Dale, "I'm gonna step out to take this."

He nodded in reply, turning back to his duffel bag. Meanwhile, I stepped out into the hallway and accepted the call.

I put the phone to my ear, seeing there was no one else in the hall at the moment, "Hello?"

Angela's voice resounded through the phone, "Heya, Lanky! How was the drive? You're in D.C. now, aren't you?"

"No, not yet. The hotel we're at is just outside the district." I then asked with a bit of curiosity, "Any reason you're calling me this late? You know I can't do any of your experiments out here. Don't even dare aiming that circle at me while I'm literally surrounded by these guys."

Angela laughed on the other end, "No, I wasn't gonna do anything like that. But I do have a reason for calling you. You're going to a bunch of museums and histori-lish places, right?"

"That's not even a real word, Angela," I deadpanned, "But yeah. Last I heard, the plan for tomorrow, we were going to be at the Smithsonian Museum all day."

"Great, while you're there, I want you to try to find something for me."

I raised an eyebrow at that. Angela's not usually this interested in history... unless... "What is it?" I asked.

She cleared her throat, ready for a long explanation, "Well, a while ago, I thought it was strange that only the circle transformation magic I found online had been the only kind I've ever found that ever worked... but why not anything else? All magic, whether fake or real, comes from an individual craft, and if the transformation spells work, then it's more than likely that if I found this particular craft it comes from, there would be more spells that could actually work."

"And what did you find?" I asked.

"Not much," Angela replied a bit sourly, "For a few weeks, I searched off and on for any leads back to the transformation circle's creator, but I always turned up with nothing. Even the site where I found the transformation circle before, it was taken down weeks ago for some odd reason.  I wasn't able to find any leads... at least, until tonight."

"Really?" I blinked in surprise.

"Really," Angela replied, "Have you ever heard of the Salem Witch Trials?"

"Yeah." Asking that to a history nut like me was like asking if I've ever heard thunder strike during a storm, "It was a big conspiracy massacre that happened in early Massachusetts. From what I remember, about twenty people were executed after being accused as witches."

"Exactly, and the transformation circles are Witchery."

"Wait, are you saying they were the ones who created that spell?"

"No, back when America was being colonized, there were plenty other witch hunts in the other colonies, not just Massachusetts. And from what I've found, the witches that created the circle came to America just before the Revolutionary War broke out, to Virginia."

I raised an eyebrow, "That's... interesting. But how'd you find that out?"

"A lot of surfing the web. You can basically find just about anything if you dig deep enough." She replied, chuckling for a moment, "But information on these guys isn't very obvious. You'd have to know the mechanics of their magic to be able to identify who they were, even more so if you're reading from vague online sources."

I nodded slowly, "Okay, I think I'm catching on. You want me to see if I can find any vague hints towards magic that anybody except us would overlook in the Smithsonian? You want me to find more information on these guys?"

"Yep," Angela happily replied, "They definitely had more magic with them besides transformations, and I want to find it. What better place than to look in one of the biggest history nerd expos in the world?"

I grimaced, "You just added 'nerd' in there to peeve me off, didn't you?"

"Well, we're both nerds in different fields. Take it as a compliment." Angela snickered on the other end, "But here's something else that might help with your search. The people who made this type of witchcraft, it said they were very family oriented. They kept almost all of their secrets within their immediate family, with a very close eye on them. It wouldn't hurt to guess they kept their magic in the family as well."

I nodded, "Got it. Just look for any mention of secretive families, and one of them would most likely be the guys we're looking for."

"Yup, you got it! Good luck searching tomorrow!"


_______________________________________



Meanwhile...


The musty workshop, filled in its corners by cobwebs that glinted slightly beneath the light of the single light-bulb hanging from its ceiling, came alive by sparks flying occasionally above the roar of a power tool. The only man in the room wore a welding mask and rough leather gloves as he worked with absolute precision and care.




"Wait, Angela?

"Yes, Lyle?"




The man kept his eyes trained on his little project before him, his hands working steadily and slowly. He couldn't bear to make a mistake now, or else he would have to scrap it. Messing up now would cost him what little precious time he had. It had to be finished by tonight, and after carving this glyph for hours, he wouldn't have enough time to start it over again should he create a flaw.




"This family of witches you mentioned... Do you think they're still, you know, alive? Do their descendants have their same magic with them?"

"I'm not sure. It's possible there's a secret family witches somewhere in the world, maybe somewhere in the country.




The man cut off the power to his power drill, lifting it away from the sheet of metal before him. He picked up the sheet, which was about the size of his palm, inspecting it closely. To his relief and silent satisfaction, the circle glyph had been fully completed, without so much as a scratch out of place. It was perfect.




"... Although, Lyle, it's also possible this family died out, or just separated and its secrets of magic disappeared over the generations."

"But if there's an actual source of magic, another power man could use in this world, why would it die out or just vanish?"




The man grabbed a glove from the edge of the table, the one he had used before on that man... Markus, was it? Either way, the glyph had been tweaked to suit the man's needs, and with a few clicks, the metal sheet was attached to the back of the glove.




"... I don't know..."




The man grinned viciously as he pulled the glove over his hand, feeling as his chi flowed through the glyph softly with a hum, his eyes glinting with a manic glee,

"Finally. Tomorrow, a test run is in order."
> How Murphey Struck
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The next morning, we found ourselves loaded on the busses once more, driving over the border of Virginia, crossing over into Washington D.C.

Everyone on the bus was equipped with bags, daypacks, sunglasses, and anything else they’d need in the capitol city. The day was bright, almost blinding through the bus windows, and the interior was rich with the musk of sunscreen. However, it was just as loud today as it was yesterday.

One of the teachers stood at the front of the bus, a younger guy wearing a casual flannel shirt and khakis. He put his fingers to his mouth and letting out shrill whistles to get everyone’s attention. After a moment, the bus was relatively quiet.

“Alrighty, first day, everyone! We’ll be heading to the Smithsonian this morning! We’ll let you all go to which museums you want to, just don’t do anything stupid.” A few chuckles rolled through the bus, along with a few snide comments from certain kids.

The teacher continued, “No matter what, stick with a buddy, alright? This is a national museum that won’t take kindly to a few teenagers off alone making fools of themselves. We’ll regroup for lunch before heading out again to the monuments, use your time wisely.”

With that, he sat back down, and the chaos resumed just as if it hadn’t been halted in the first place.

In the middle of all the ruckus, I sat on a bench with Dale, with Fiora sitting one bench behind us, draping her shoulders over the back or ours. The three of us had our own bags with us, though Fiora wore a pair of sunglasses over her face.

Fiora glanced towards me, “Well, since Dale and you are obviously buds, mind if I come along?”

I shrugged, “Sure. I don’t see why not.” I blinked for a second, “Although, could I choose which exhibit we go see first?”

Fiora raised an eyebrow, deadpanning, “Of course you’d actually go in the museum, you and Dale both.” She unzipped her backpack, pulling out a folded-up scooter just so it was visible to them, “If it were up to me, I’d rip up the sidewalk on this all day.”

Dale chuckled politely, before turning back to me, “Sure, where do you want to go first?”

“To the building with American History in it.”

Fiora pointed a finger down her throat, gagging, “Ugh, I hated that class. Why’d you want to go there?”

“Well, American History was my favorite class,” I replied a bit smugly, “But also a friend of mine wanted me to see if I could figure something out for her there from looking at the exhibits.”

“Figure out what?” Dale asked, now curious.

I inwardly grimaced. It wasn’t like I could tell them I was searching for any signs of a possible witch family in the American Colonies. Even if I did, they probably wouldn’t have believed me.

“Just something about colonizing America,” I replied, avoiding the less believable parts.

Dale smiled slightly, “Okay, but can I choose the next museum? I really want to see the natural history building if we can.”

Fiora only sighed, “Great, now I’ve just doubled the geeking to be had on this trip between you two.”


____________________________________


Not long after, the busses stopped in a visitors’ parking lot, and our whole group walked to the National Mall. (Though to my sheer disbelief, a few kids in our group looked severely disappointed to find it wasn’t a shopping mall. Seriously, who doesn’t know this stuff?!) It was a wide open strip of grass separating the rows of museum buildings on either side of it. A small breeze rippled through the grass cut short enough that the effect was only barely noticable.

The capitol city itself was pretty busy with tourists and district residents alike, and here at the National Mall, it was no exception. From what I could see, hundreds of people were milling about the Smithsonian. But though the are was big, people still walked around with the air that they were inside a museum.

... Well, some people, anyways. I thought to myself, glancing towards Fiora. She had pulled her scooter out of her backpack and had ridden all the way here.

However, upon reaching the mall, we were excused to go on our own to any of the museums. Once our whole group split up, it was up to me and Dale to try to keep up with Fiora as she rode ahead on her scooter. Of course, she didn’t wait for us until she reached the Museum of American History. Long story short, Dale and I ran to catch up to her, and the three of us ended up entering the museum, with two of us slightly short of breath, and the last acting mockingly peeved that she had to put away her scooter yet again.

Of course, my shortness of breath basically vanished as soon as we entered the building. I say that with absolute delight, because the moment I stepped through the museum’s threshold, it felt like I had walked onto cloud nine. Immediately, I was greeted by the sight of pictures depicting old events, relics within darkened, glass cabinets, and the smell of aged paper and fabric mingled with air conditioner. Anything and everything beyond the front doors just screamed with history and stories of the past.

Yup, just my little slice of heaven.

“So, where’s this colony exhibit we’re looking for?” Fiora asked, visibly trying to hide the fact she already wanted to leave.

Dale, looking slightly uncomfortable at how many people there were in the museum with us, hurried back to us from the reception desk in the corner. He carried a pamphlet in hand, opened up to a map of the museum, “Found it.” He pointed down a hallway nearby, “It should be about three- no, four rooms that way.”

I smiled, “Thanks, let’s get going.”

Dale chuckled nervously, “Y-yeah… hopefully the Natural History Museum isn’t this crowded.”

Fiora sighed, rolling her eyes as the three of us started moving through the building, “Dale, there aren’t that many people here. You’re just over exaggerating.”

“Er… you’re right. Sorry.”

Again, she rolled her eyes, "You don't have to apologize either."


______________________________________


The man sighed as he stood in a random exhibit in just a random museum he had chosen to come to. It didn’t matter where he went, so long as he performed his experiment today. The only prerequisites he had decided on before was it needed to be near Capitol Hill, but not swarmed with security and other armed guards.

Sure, they wouldn’t be a problem for him, but he needed to conserve his energy for later. He was sure of that.

At the moment, he waited in the Smithsonian Museum of American History, right beside an exhibit depicting some history from World War 1. Several people had passed him already, but the man had been careful to keep his face at least out of sight, either beneath his hat or his sunglasses he wore. He would have preferred his overcoat and mask he’d used on the first capture, but they stood out too much in public at this time of year.

For now, he just needed to blend into the crowd, until he spotted the perfect test subject, whomever they may be. He wasn’t sure what the extended results of the transformation glove would be now size-wise, so it’d have to be someone small enough he could carry away with him. His getaway vehicle was just out behind the museum, so if he could just reach it, he could easily escape capture.

But why bother going through all this trouble? Why risk capture for a measly experiment? Because, this wasn’t just a test. This would be a threat to the public, and more directly, his targets. He wanted them to know that he had power… and that was one thing they couldn’t take from him.

A frown creased across his mouth, the man glanced up around the museum, out into the hallway outside the exhibit. He needed to find a test subject soon; the sooner, the better.

But that’s when he spotted some likely candidates. Walking down the hallway towards his position were three teenagers, two boys, and one girl. They were definitely ideal, compared to the other people here he had come across thus far, except for one of the two boys. The taller one was lanky, and since his proportions would carry over into the transformation, he wouldn't be easy to carry away. The girl was the ideal height, but from her sleeveless arms, he could tell she wasn't a weakling. She would most likely put up a difficult fight when trying to drag her away.

But as the man's eyes fell on the last boy, a smile flashed across his mouth. This boy was a good size, and would mostly likely be easy to carry away, and that fact was only all the more clear, because this boy definitely wasn't very strong. He would do.

The man watched beneath his sunglasses as the three teenagers turned and walked into another exhibit. Out of their sight, the man moved from his spot towards the exhibit as well.

The time was drawing nearer for the experiment... his smile drew into a sneer. It was time for results... and for terror to strike-

But as the man reached the doorway to the exhibit, he gritted his teeth in annoyance. In the exhibit, there stood about ten people, including the three teenagers he had watched enter. But among them was a security guard, standing just inside the doorway.

The man sighed to himself. The security guard would have to go first, but that left the risk of his target, that teenager, from getting away.

Grimacing, the man glanced towards the threshold of the exhibit's entrance, spotting a handle in the wall. He recognized it as a sliding door or steel bars, used to secure the building during closing time.

"... That'll do," The man muttered, reaching into his pocket and pulling on the glove.


________________________________


The exhibit was just like I expected it to be. Pictures and plaques were scattered across the room, detailing the history of the colonization of America. Several glass cases sat along the walls, all of them containing some kind of relic from the colonies: Rusted tools, worn and faded clothing, and sketches and models showing what colony life would have looked like.

It seemed like a great place to start looking for that possible magical family that came to America with the colonists... but as Dale, Fiora, and I entered the room, I felt a bit of doubt gnawing in my gut. There was only one room dedicated to colony history, and a single room in a museum can only hold so much information.

I inwardly sighed, taking a once-over glance on all of the exhibit I passed by, Oh well, I'll search here first. Even if I don't find anything in particular, I could always try searching in the Library of Congress. I scratched the back of my head, Wait... is that even part of this trip? If not, I'm going to be kind of pissed!

"So Lyle," Fiora snapped me out of my thought, standing leaning by a display case with her arms crossed, "What are you looking for exactly?" I glanced at her, and she wore a common look I saw plenty of times in History class: Boredom.

I shrugged as I skimmed through some plaques along the wall, but they only told about troubles all the colonies faced in general; You know, starvation, heat stroke, etc. "Um, well, my friend wanted me to see if I could find something more... supernatural, in the colony histories. You know, like the Salem Witch Trials, though, not quite that."

Dale frowned worriedly as he glanced about the room, "... I doubt we'll find any specifics in here. Wouldn't you have more luck at a library, or even the internet?"

"I was planning on checking the library later," I replied, though to myself I remembered, I doubt I'd find anything online though. If the circle ritual Angela found was taken down only a day later, and not to mention the fact that she couldn't find anything else... Strangely, I had an odd feeling that this family didn't want to be found... maybe that's what Angela figured, too.

The moment that thought entered my head, I heard a commanding shout coming from the exhibit's entrance.

"Hey! What are you doing?! Get- ARGH!"

Startled, I glanced towards the doorway like everybody else in the room, only to freeze in shock.

At the doorway stood a security guard. He was the one who had shouted, and for good reason. Another man had his hands around the guard's neck, and the guard was struggling with the man's arms as he tried to pry them off. Gasps of surprise and shouts sounded from the other witnesses, and I immediately rushed towards the man to stop him, like any good person would.

What the heck was this guy trying to do, kill the guard? This guy had to be crazy to do something like that in a National Museum!

But suddenly, as I ran towards the man, time seemed to almost slow as I spotted a faint glow coming off the back of his gloved hand. And I could only watch as everything else happened in a split moment.

As if someone were twisting a knife in his gut, the guard screamed, his eyes wide with pain. His body twitched and cracked at his joints, as if... he was changing... Instantly, navy blue fur erupted from the guard's skin, sprouting across his arms, his face, beneath his clothes, as his hair grew in length, fading in color to grey.

I felt my body freeze as I stopped running. My eyes were as wide as they'd ever been in my life. What the-

The guard's hands fumbled in the grip of his assailant, but it was no use. Pain rendered his hands useless as his fingers seemed to fuse together, becoming blue hooves. At the same time, his neck lengthened and his body shrank, a pair of pony ears springing through his grey mane.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. There was no doubt about what was happening, but... just what?! How the frick could this guy transform that guard like that?! I couldn't even see a circle for the ritual, that is, even if this guy was even using one.

The whole transformation had only taken a few seconds, faster than any I had ever seen or felt. The man, the guard's attacker, wore a satisfied grin as he now held a limp, blue earth pony stallion by the neck. As if he were a child tossing away a toy he had lost interest in, the man dropped the stallion. There, he laid immobile on the ground, still breathing, heavily.

As the man turned towards the others in the room, towards me, I saw it on the back of his glove. My breath caught in my throat as I spotted the faint, familiar, glowing transformation circle etched into the back of the glove.

How did he have it though? The only person who knew that circle was Angela, so-

Shouts of surprise and panic rang through the exhibit, and even past the doorway the man stood in. I could hear footsteps outside, most likely people running from what they just saw. There was no doubt more security would come, too. I could feel the tension in the room; everyone wanted to run from this psychopath, but he was blocking the only exit. There was no way anyone want to risk the same thing happening to them that happened to the guard, and none of these people knew what exactly happened either.

But suddenly, the man waved an arm behind himself, and as if it were pulled by invisible hands, a barred door slid across the entrance to the exhibit, clicking and locking shut with a metallic slam of steel.

"What the-" I glanced to my side, finding Dale standing there, a look of astonishment written across his face. Soundless words hung from his open mouth as he just witnessed something that defied physics.

Standing on Dale's opposite side, Fiora had her hands clenched in fists as she stepped in front of Dale protectively, shouting at the man who had locked us all in this room, "What the hell is going on?! Who are you and what do you want?"

The man merely smirked, "... Who volunteers as the next test subject?"

I gritted my teeth, hands in fists. Test subject? Was this guy seriously going around blatantly transforming bystanders, just to see what would happen?! That's the same as abusing that power!

... Er, come to think of it, that's kind of what happened when Angela first turned me into a pony.... Whatever! At least she only did it on a friend, and not terrorize a whole museum doing it.

Unfortunately, a lady near the back of the room had chosen that moment to pull out her cell phone and try to call 911. But immediately, the man spotted it. In one swift motion, he raised his open hand towards the woman, and her phone exploded in her hand before she raised it to her ear.

I felt my breath skip a beat as I watched what had unfolded, and I could briefly hear Dale doing the same.

Shocked cries rang through the room, and the woman clutched her hand, yelling in pain. Her phone being destroyed... by whatever it was the man did,  must have injured her.

Confused and angry, Fiora turned back towards the man, "What the fu- huh?" Her eyes widened as she realized the man was no longer there.

A scream later, all eyes turned towards the woman, only to find the man suddenly standing over her, his glowing, gloved hand pressed over her face.

No! But just like with the guard, the effect was almost immediate. The woman began changing, screaming as pain coursed through her body. I cringed at the sound of it; Speeding up a transformation was always painful, even just halving the time caused me to collapse to the ground. I couldn't imagine what pain she was feeling with an almost instantaneous transformation.

In less than a few, mere seconds, a daisy colored mare with a mane like cream crumpled to the ground in the pile of her clothes that were now too big for her. Her breathing was shallow and her eyes were closed with phantoms of pain etched across her face.

The man glanced up towards everyone else, and the others began backing away from him in fright. However, the man only clicked his tongue, as if chiding children, "Now, I can't be having interruptions. I have limited time as it is."

As if on que, alarms suddenly began blaring through the building, like the kind someone could hear from breaking into a bank.

Sighing, the man shook his head, "Looks like I have less time than I thought." Just like before, he vanished in an instant, and a gasp escaped my throat as he reappeared just beside me, in front of Dale.

He raised his glove towards Dale, but my reaction wouldn't let Dale experience the pain that would follow being touched by it. Without thinking, I jumped between the man and Dale, and the gloved hand slammed against my shoulder.

Crap... Oh well, I was just going to transform. It wasn't that big a de-AAAAGGH! HOLY MOTH#ER OF PEARL< THAT SMA@RTS!

You know how I described the pain the guard felt like a knife twisting in his gut? Let me rephrase that. IT FELT LIKE A FRICKIN' CHAINSAW! It felt like someone took a giant hammer and busted my kneecaps; like a bed of nails was laying on me; like a medieval torturer and a rabid weasel had a hay-day on my chest and then used my skin as a doormat on their way out; like... Well, you get the idea.

But despite the horrific agony I felt, which felt like it lasted through forever and eternity having a very tedious baby... this was still a transformation, one that I've been through time and time again. Despite it's intensity, it still felt familiar. I knew, if that hadn't been the case, then this would have hurt a lot worse.

Buuuut, it still felt like a dentist tried cleaning out a cavity through every single opening in my body except my mouth; Just saying.

During the time I was transforming, I had lost track of everything else. By the time I regained my senses, I found myself belly down on the ground, my own yellow hooves in my sight, stray blue hairs of my mane poking in at the corner of my vision. My body ached everywhere, but I found that I could still move... barely.

I glanced up, only to hear Fiora scream. The man was still after Dale, but Fiora had stepped in his way.

"Get away from him, or I'll knock your lights out!" Fiora screamed at the man, but quicker than a flash, he shoved her away with his gloved hand.

She screamed as she toppled away, in my direction, the transformation taking effect just as quickly as mine had. As the pain hit and her body changed, she lost her balance and fell over.

"-Fi-ohgra-" My breathing rasped as I quickly pulled myself up, my legs trembling. But thankfully, I moved quick enough for Fiora to land over my back. My legs almost gave out though, due to the fact I still had my backpack and my now baggy clothes on. Holding her up wasn't helping the fact that my body was still throbbing from the transformation.

However, in an instant, the transformation had completely changed Fiora. I glanced over my back, only to find a moss green earth pony lying on her belly, draped over my backpack and back. Her mane had grown longer, becoming a brunette color, though still pointing upwards in a way akin to Spitfire's from the show, the tips of hair ending in a lighter brown color. Her clothes and bag hung loosely from her, and her face was scrunched in an angry wince as she lay immobile.

At least she was fine for now. I quickly glanced back towards Dale.

Dale's eyes were wide as they fixed on the man. He was backing away from the man, gritting his teeth as the man only walked closer to him.

The man's smirk was gone, seeming to have faded the longer the alarms blared through the room, "Come here, boy. I have a schedule to keep, so-"

"Freeze! FBI!"

My eyes turned towards the entrance to the exhibit, past the barred door. To my relief, standing behind it was a group of armed officers. But from the looks of two of them trying to pry the door open, they were having trouble getting in. But that didn't mean they couldn't shoot through the bars. The rest had their gun barrels aimed through the door's openings, all trained on the man.

Back by Dale, the man cursed under his breath, "Shit." Suddenly, just like before, the man vanished, reappearing just in front of Dale, his arm reaching out towards the scared boy.

"Urgh, no!" As quickly as I could, I leaped with as much strength as I could muster towards the man. The weight of me and Fiora together, along with the element of surprise, was enough to push the man slightly, while still making sure Fiora didn't slip off my back and faceplant on the tiled floor.

But despite my effort, the man must have still managed to touch Dale; He collapsed to the ground, clutching himself as he let out a horrifying scream, as if he couldn't possibly handle the pain he was in.

"Crap, no!" I gritted my teeth as I could only watch his body warp and crack into the shape of a pony. Umber colored fur grew over his whole body as a horn of the same color protruded from his forehead. His hair grew to a mane as long as mine as it turned as blue as arctic ice. Within only seconds, a unicorn smaller than me lay on the ground, shaking slightly, his eyes closed as he breathed in short, sharp breaths. His expression was one on the verge of tears because of the pain he had gone through.

"What?" I turned in time to see the man glaring down at me through his sunglasses. "The pain you felt through that transformation should have incapacitated you for an hour at least. How are you still moving?"

He slowly moved towards me, ignoring the shouts at him from the FBI agents still locked outside. He didn't even looked fazed that their guns were trained on him. I tried to back away, but my legs only gave out on me and I stumbled to keep upright. Fiora moaned on my back, and to the side, Dale whimpered as his body shook.

I glared up at the man, unable to move away as he stood towering over me, "... What do you think y-you're doing?"

"...Revenge."

I blinked in surprise, "Wha-?"

Before I could even say the one word, the man's fist connected to the side of my head and my vision turned black as I felt myself hit the tiled floor.

... I hate falling unconsci...ous... uugh...
> What Captors Hide
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	When I came to, what woke me up wasn't what I was expecting to hear... but then again, what had I been expecting? Ambulance sirens? A symphony and choir at the foot of my bed singing 'Actual Cannibal Shia Labeouf'?

No such luck.

"What the hell am I?!"

That scream... it sounded like Fiora. Groaning, my eyes slowly peeked open. My head throbbed like someone had dropped a brick on it, and my body still ached from the transform- ... oh yeah, that's what happened.

Well, now I knew what Fiora was screaming about.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself on my back, looking up at a darkened ceiling above me. Barely any light illuminated the room, the only source being a small window on the wall, up almost against the ceiling. The walls were covered in cracks in its plaster, decorated with chipped and faded paint. The room itself was no bigger than an office, almost empty of all furniture, save for a desk in a corner, as well as a radiator attached to a wall.

The next thing I became aware of was a moss green earth pony nearby, fidgeting uncontrollably as she screamed. Her forehooves scraped at the floor in front of her, as if trying to push them off of her, but only in vain. She still wore her clothing that hung loose on her pony body, which only made it clearer this pony was Fiora.

"WHY DO I HAVE... HOOVES?!" She shouted, suddenly trying to stand back up on two legs like a human, only to overextend and fall backwards onto her back. She shook herself off quicker than a flash, rolling back onto all fours, before noticing something else, eliciting another scream, "WHY DO I HAVE A TAIL!?"

Screaming again, she tried galloping to the other side of the room in panic, but her scream died in her throat as something tugged against her neck. With a closer look, I realized she was wearing a dog collar, attached to a leash that was tied to a pipe running up along the wall. The sudden force of the restricting leash caused Fiora to gag and collapse back to the ground, coughing as a groan escaped from her.

"Fiora," I finally felt my hooves beneath me and stood up, moving to help her, "Are you alri- gah!" I stopped as I felt a tug around my throat. Glancing down, I realized I was also wearing a collar, with a leash tied to a different pipe in the corner of the room.

When I glanced back, Fiora slowly stood back up onto her hooves, panting slightly. Her body was trembling, no doubt aching from the pain of the transformation. She must have been out of breath as well, after screaming and running in panic.

A quiet voice croaked from another end of the room, "F-fiora? Lyle?"

Fiora gasped as she and I glanced across the small room, only to find dark brown, almost gray, unicorn with a frosty mane. He shakily stood up from the floor, one eye open as he winced from the effort. However, when his eyes fell on us, they widened in shock, "Wait, y-you're..." He trailed off as he remembered what had just happened before, "... that means..."

"Dale, are you alright?" Fiora asked.

Dale blinked, distractedly, "Uh, y-yeah, I..." he suddenly shook his head, "No! Actually, I'm not fine! Where are we? Why do we- why are we-What is going on?" He cried out, his voice quivering in worry. His hooves nervously pawed against the cement floor beneath him.

"Well..." Glancing between Fiora and Dale, they both looked like they were shell-shocked. I wanted to calm them down, so the least I could do was answer what I could. I glanced around the room again, taking in the other details I'd missed, "Well, it looks like we're some kind of an older building... I wouldn't doubt if it's been abandoned or something." My head throbbed slightly, as if reminding me of something, "We were probably brought here by that guy from the museum... and it seems that he turned us into ponies." I looked down at my yellow hooves, frowning slightly.

And here I had been hoping to catch a break from transformation spells. So much for that plan.

When I glanced back up, Dale and Fiora were looking at me with incredulous looks. I shrugged with my hooves, "What?"

"How can you be so calm about this?!" Fiora shouted.

"This shouldn't even be possible!" Dale added, "Transforming like this only happens in fantasy!'

Fiora made her way as close to my face as her leash would allow her, which was only a few inches shy of me, so she could shout, "Why aren't you freaking out?! Do you realize what's happened to us?!"

I sighed, my ears ringing from the shouting. It was times like this that I despised having acute hearing... of course, the only times this usually happened was because either I or somebody else grew said ears. Irony's a cruel mistress.

"Please stop shouting, both of you." I grumbled, "I swear, it's bad enough that all of us have super hearing now. I don't intend on going deaf anytime soon. So if you want to hear what I have to say, just sit down and listen."

After a short pause, Fiora grumbled under her breath, before backing up closer to Dale and sitting down on her rump. Dale also sat down, though he still looked down at his new form with uncertainty.

"Thank you." I sighed, "Now then, I know you have a lot of questions going through your heads-"

"Why aren't you freaking out?" Fiora demanded.

I shot her a wry look, to which she only retorted, "You said to stop shouting. So just answer the question."

I rolled my eyes, "Fine. If you really want to know why I'm not panicking, it's because this has happened to me before."

Fiora and Dale both stared at me in silence. For a while, neither of them spoke. Until Dale glanced towards Fiora, "Um... I think he's gone insane."

"What?" I deadpanned.

Fiora buried her face in her hooves, groaning, "No doubt about it."

"Hey, I'm not crazy!" I protested.

"Do you think it's permanent?" Dale asked.

Fiora frowned at the unicorn, "The question is, was he like this before or after this happened?"

"Gah, for the love of-" I shouted in exasperation, "I'm not crazy! For all you two know, you guys could be the ones hallucinating that the three of us have all become cartoon ponies!"

They both blinked in surprise, each glancing down at themselves, confused. Dale stuttered, "H-he's got a point."

I sighed, "Now, before you go thinking I've gone bat-shit crazy, would you please let me explain?"

Fiora shot me a sharp look, "Fine, tell me why we're tied up here like this!" She waved her hooves in the air for emphasis.

I nodded, "Okay, so like I was saying, believe it or not, this isn't my first time transforming into a pony." I let out a small chuckle, "Far from it."

"But how?" Dale asked, "This shouldn't even be possible!" The unicorn's tail swished, as if protesting its owner's statement that it did, in fact, exist.

"Magic," Came my blunt reply. I held up a hoof for silence as Fiora and Dale opened their mouths to speak, "Again, I don't need you calling me crazy. You know my friend I mentioned? The one who wanted me to find something in the museum?"

The two of them nodded.

"Weeell," I explained scratching the back of my head, "Her name's Angela. She's... kind of strange; she likes delving into the supernatural, more headfirst than you'd think. For a while, it was just her blabbing on about fake rituals, none of which had any real magic behind it. But then, she finally came across something that did work, a spell in the realm of witchcraft: The transformation circle."

"What's... that?" Dale asked, hesitant, but he seemed to at least understand the bare minimum of what it was by its name alone.

"It's a glyph or a magic that actually draws on magic, real magic. When Angela found it, she decided to test to see if it was real. But the problem was, this time, it was real." I chuckled sheepishly at the memory, "I just wish she hadn't used it on me during school. I just about gave Mrs. White a heart attack when she saw me go full pony, but thankfully she fainted, so her memory's a bit hazy."

"Wait a sec," Fiora jabbed a hoof accusingly at me, "You have blue hair!"

"Um, mane actually," I replied, raising an eyebrow. "Are you just noticing that now?"

She shook her head, "No! I mean, earlier this year, I heard some other guys saying some dude had dyed their hair blue in first period, even though some of them saw him walk into class with perfectly brown hair! That was you?!"

I rubbed the back of my neck, "Um... Heh, yeah. It's kind of a wonder everyone's forgotten about it at this point. I thought for sure I was dead when I sprouted ears right after that."

"But why a pony though?" Fiora demanded, stomping a foreleg on the floor, "The last thing I want to be is some pretty, prissy pony."

"It doesn't always have to be a pony, it's just how the circle is drawn," I explained, "But that's besides the point.

"B-but," Dale inputted, "Are you saying that man in the museum used a transformation circle on us, too?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I saw it being used back in the exhibit. The guy had it on the back of his glove." I frowned, "I've never seen it be used that way, but apparently it works just as well..." Suddenly, a thought occurred to me, "... Or maybe even better."

"What was that?" Fiora asked me.

I glanced back towards her, "Whenever Angela talks about the transformation circle, she tends to geek out about it and I get to hear a lot of the details. But what I just remembered was, whenever she used the circle, she could only do it once every twenty-four hours."

"So?"

"Well, that's the thing; Using a circle to transform someone takes a lot of magic power, or chi as Angela calls it, and using it once basically drains a whole person's reserve of chi. It takes basically a full day to recharge it all... so how was this guy able to pull off five in less than a minute?"

Fiora grumbled, "I don't know! It's magic, isn't it? It's not really supposed to make sense, is it?"

Before I could say otherwise, Dale added on, "Well, we saw that man transform... us." His fur seemed to bristle, as if shivering, "But what about all that other stuff he did? He closed the gate to the exhibit without touching it. He made a woman's phone explode by pointing at it. And how was he able to vanish- teleport, too? If magic's... real, doesn't mean that was magic, too?"

I frowned. Come to think of it, that man was doing crazy things, nothing like I've seen before... wouldn't that mean... that was magic, wasn't it?

I nodded, "Probably. But if so, then at least I can tell Angela I found what she was looking for."

"What do you mean by that?" Fiora asked, jabbing a hoof in my ribs.

Wincing, I explained that Angela had been searching for other magic that came from the same source as the transformation circle, and how searching in the museum could have lead me to possible answers.

"So then... you were looking for more magic?" Fiora summed up.

I nodded, "Yeah, and I have a hunch that's what the man was using... But how did he get that magic is the question."

"Simple," A chilling voice spoke from the corner of the room.

The three of us ponies gasped in shock as our gazes turned towards the voice, only to find a shadowy figure standing just beside the door. He wore a hockey mask and a large, black overcoat, and over his hands, he wore gloves, one of them shimmering slightly with a transformation circle glowing on its black.

Fiora was on all fours in an instant, teeth bared almost like a growling dog. But Dale, on the other hoof, meagerly shuffled back against away from the man, staring in fright with wide eyes, his body shaking. I simply stood, glowering at the man.

The man, merely chuckled, "How did I come to possess this magic, this witchcraft? Family secret."

I narrowed my eyes. I hadn't heard him walk in, and from the looks of Fiora and Dale, neither had they. He definitely hadn't been in the room beforehand... had he? All three of us had been sure we were alone...

"How long were you listening?" I asked.

"The whole time," The man replied bluntly. "I was curious about a few things, especially concerning you, 'Little Yellow'. But thankfully, I learned all the answers I wanted, and then some."

His masked gaze turned towards me, "I wondered how you were able to move again in such short time after your painful transformation, but it seems you've already become accustomed to the feeling. I'll admit it took me by surprise to hear someone else knows the transformation ritual," He chuckled darkly, "But that can always be remedied."

Fiora glowered at the man, trying to lash out at him, but only to be restrained by her leash, "Who are you? What do you want? Let us go!"

"Ah, yes. Introductions..." The man glanced towards her, stepping forwards just out of her reach in a taunting way, "If you need a name to call me by, then you can call me my coven name." He raised a glove hand, and instantly a ball of fire flashed into existence in his grip, "I am Taharis, one of the few remaining true warlocks in this world."

"Few?" I wondered aloud.

Taharis seemed to smirk at me beneath his mask, "Only a handful of people have held on to the old magic of my ancestors, but only few can." He smirked in my direction, "Your pitiful friend who calls herself a witch may have learned the transformation ritual, but that is all she will ever be able to achieve. She will never learn true magic."

"What?"

His expression hardened, "I heard you were searching for magic for her, and you believe you found it through me. You three will never be able to escape this place before it's too late, so I'll let you in on an old family secret.

"Not just anyone can wield true magic. While the transformation ritual is something anyone can use, only the descendants of the true witches can use magic drawn from the soul." He towered over me, not even a hint of amusement in his voice, "In other words, your friend's search is in vain. Unless she has the same blood as I in her, it will be physically impossible to use the magic she seeks."

Wordlessly, Taharis turned on his heel, walking towards the door. Before he could leave, however, Fiora shouted, "Where you going?! Let us go! Change us back or I'll kick your ass!"

Taharis stopped in the doorway, his back towards us, "That's right... your friend there never told you about the transformation ritual's drawback."

"W-what do you mean?" Dale inquired.

A sound like a smirk escaped from Taharis, "The transformation ritual is a curse. It can't be reversed, only worn off in time."

I nodded, "We'll change back in twenty four hours-"

"Normally," The warlock interrupted, "But I'm afraid I've made some adjustments to this particular ritual."

I almost found myself to scared to ask, "...What did you do?"

He glanced back, and I could almost see a smile on his hidden face, "How do you think I was able to use the ritual on five people when I only have a chi reserve as large as your friends? The answer has quite an impact on long your curse lasts this time around."

I only stared at him in confusion. He chuckled at my dim look, "I'll leave you to figure out that one." However, he paused for a moment, his amused expression disappearing, "Back at the exhibit, you asked why I was doing this."

"You said 'revenge'," I replied, narrowing my eyes, "What did you mean by that?"

Taharis said nothing, letting a long silence pass by. Finally, he replied, "This world has become the foulest pit of hell, but I intend to change that. I'll stop it at the source." He turned his back on us, "In twenty-four hours, this country will be no more. Anyone who stands in my way, I will kill."

Silence rolled through the room between us three ponies and the warlock. Back at the museum, we had seen what Taharis was capable of... He could kill anyone with the raise of his hand.

Taharis opened the door, calling back as he stepped through it, "I suggest you heed my words before you undoubtedly try to escape. The more people you bring into this, the bigger the bloodbath this will be."

The door slammed behind him, leaving us in silence.

Fiora breathed, her fur standing on end, "... whoa..."

Dale was visibly trembling, tears at the corners of his eyes, "H-he'lll.... k-kill?

I found myself speechless. This was unlike anything I'd ever gone through before... but a question passed through my head at the same moment.

HOW THE FRICK DID I GET CAUGHT UP IN THIS?!
> When Realizations Surface
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	In the gloomy basement of the abandoned building, Taharis held a grim look as he made his way to the staircase. Windows mounted up at the ceiling streamed the amber light of a bright, fleeting twilight. Grumbling to himself, the warlock took off the transformation glove and pocketed it.

The three teenagers he had brought with him from the museum, the three ponies... from the experiment, he had found a flaw. He had carved the ritual glyph on the glove to influence the transformation to limit it to that of an earth pony. But yet, one of the test subjects he had brought back had become a unicorn. How could that be?

He stopped beside another door, wooden and locked like the others. With a flare of his chi, Taharis' magic rippled through his vision, and the contents of the room behind the door came into his sight. There laid a black and white dog, its long black fur covering its back and face, while the white covered the rest. It was a border collie, lying on its side, exhausted and hopeless from the leash strapping it to the room's broken radiator.

The former man, Maxwell P. Scott, had transformed into a border collie... "... even when I had influenced the ritual to turn him into a pug."

But even still, the transformation for him had made him a dog, just a different subspecies... just like those ponies. All of them had transformed correctly, but one had become a different subspecies.

Years of Taharis' experience with the workings of chi trickled through his mind as he turned away, making his way up to the main floor of the building. Chi, the energy in every person that carried the very essence of souls, differed between each individual. Everytime the warlock had used his own chi, none of these sort of complications came up...

... But for these transformations, he wasn't using his own... Could that be the reason this problem was occurring? Were their souls retaliating from the drain of power he placed on them?

Taharis hissed in agitation, removing his mask and tossing it into the corner of the main room. With a quick motion, he did the same with his coat. "Nevertheless, I've come too far to back down because of some insignificant detail. No matter which species of pony I transform them into, they'll still be powerless while they accustom themselves to their new forms."

But what of the ones that were already accustomed to it? Like that yellow one he had brought back. What if there were others like him?

Taharis glowered, making his way towards the exit, "If others like him show themselves, I'll have to deal with them personally. But as for them..." His thoughts turned towards those three ponies downstairs. With one of them already used to his pony body, he knew the leashes wouldn't hold, especially with another of them being a unicorn. If or when they learned how to use unicorn magic, not even the locked door would be able to hold them.

In truth, he hadn't been prepared for such turn of events, but he didn't have any time left to remedy the problem.

Grumbling, Taharis exited the beginning, his car standing in wait for him in the disappearing afternoon, Do what they will. I already warned them; If they come after me, or send others to stop me, I won't hesitate to kill.


____________________________________


Fiora growled through the back of her throat as she bit the leash keeping her strapped to the wall. But despite her now stronger equine teeth, the leash wouldn't even rip. All the while, she shouted curses through her teeth, "Phucin' ell! 'Et ris corrar oph me!"

Dale had tears at the corners of his eyes. He looked just as terrified as when he first saw himself transformed, "F-fiora... c-calm down. We-"

Fiora spat out the leash when she realized she was making any headway with it, "Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down when we're all trapped in a basement as ponies and the guy who tied us up down here says he's going to destroy the country! He's a bloody terrorist!"

"U-um..." Dale gritted his teeth in silence. But then, his eyes fell on me and they bulged out of their sockets, "Lyle? W-what are you doing?"

At the moment, I was taking off my pants.

Fiora turned to look at me, only to immediately shriek in surprise, turning away  in disgust, "What the hell, Lyle?! Ew, a little warning next time!"

I only rolled my eyes I squeezed my hindlegs out of the stretched neck of my shirt, since the leash was in the way of the normal way of taking it off. "Hey, just because I'm taking off my clothes doesn't mean I'm naked. I'm literally covered everywhere in fur. Losing my dignity is the least of my concern."

Hesitantly and grudgingly, Fiora turned back to look at me, only to find the sight wasn't nearly as bad. She huffed, "Whatever. Just don't expect me to go stripping, too."

I shrugged, "I don't expect either of you to do it. But I'm just saying, don't complain later if your clothes get too hot over a layer of fur. And not to mention your tail may feel uncomfortable bunched up when wearing pants, unless you cut a hole for it that is."

Fiora frowned as she glanced down at her shorts, where her brunette tail snaked out of a leg like an oddly placed feather boa. From the look on her face, she definitely felt it was uncomfortable.

Blushing slightly beneath her mossy green fur, she grumbled, "Dale, take off your clothes."

"What?!" Dale exclaimed, panic on his face.

"Just shut up and do it." Fiora hissed, her face growing redder, "If I'm going to strip, you're going down with me." Her face instantly turned beet red, "And you better not dare think I meant that as an innuendo!"

Dale held a small blush himself, fidgeting silently. Finally, he started to worm his way out of the neck of his T-shirt. Fiora, now slightly satisfied with her request, started trying to kick her shorts off of her hindlegs. After a few minutes of tripping over hooves and loose clothing, as well as a few pointers from me on how to properly move with pony legs, the two of them had discard their extra layers, now only covered in fur.

Dale chuckled hesitantly, watching his frost colored tail whip from side to side in freedom, "Heh... that... actually feels better."

Fiora only humphed, crossing her forelegs shooting looks that could've killed towards me and Dale, "Whatever... Don't get any ideas."

Now that they weren't covered, I was able to have a better look at Fiora and Dale's pony selves.

Fiora was a well-toned, earth pony mare with mossy green fur. Her brunette mane and tail were spiked similarly like her hairstyle before, though noticeably longer now. Her eyes had turned a shade of rich soil, and on her flank was a cutie mark that resembled a pair of roller blades.

Dale was noticeably smaller in stature than me, but that could have been due to the horn on his forehead. It, like the rest of her fur, was a very dark brown, almost grey color. His mane and tail were short and disheveled, colored like a blue glacier that contrasted with his umber fur. But his eyes, however, were a stark shade of indigo. His cutie mark was three snowflakes falling through a waving breeze of wind.

Fiora grumbled as she kicked her discarded clothes to the wall behind her, "Okay, now that that's out of the way, will the two of you get off your lazy asses and help find a way out of here?"

Dale stammered, "But y-you heard what that guy... Taharis said. If we get out of here, he'd kill more people."

"Only if we run for help," Fiora snapped, "He never said we couldn't escape."

"But that's what you're going to do when we get out of here anyways," Dale countered, "I don't want more people to die because of us!"

"I- Well, yes- but-" Fiora sputtered, "Gah, Dale! He's going to destroy the country! We can't just sit back and let him do that!"

I sighed from where I stood, "Would you two quit arguing?"

The two of them paused as they glanced towards me, before resigning from the discussion. Hm, I didn't even think that would work. I just wanted them to be quiet. Their shouting was starting to hurt my ears.

"Thank you." I turned towards Fiora, "First of all, we don't even know how this Taharis guy plans to do something like that. Even if we could go for help, where would we even send them searching?"

I glanced towards Dale, "But I also agree with Fiora. We should find a way to get out of these leashes." My eyes fell towards the desk on the other side of the room. On top of it sat mine, Dale's, and Fiora's bags from the museum. Apparently they had been on us all the way here. Kind of made me wonder how exactly Taharis brought us here if he never bothered to get rid of them. However, beside the bags were three phones, one of which I recognized as mine. Taharis must have searched our clothes while we were unconscious too. This guy seemed like he prepared for almost everything.

"I also need to get my phone over there. There's someone I need to call."

"Your witch friend?" Fiora guessed.

I nodded, "But first things first," My hooves went up to the clip on my collar, "This thing has to go."

My hooves fumbled with the clip, as hooves were never the most dexterous appendages to begin with. Heck, I could even play video games with them, but something this small was not meant for pony use. Too bad it was around my neck, cause I could have easily taken the clip off with my teeth.

When it was apparent I couldn't get it off, my eyes glanced over towards Dale; The unicorn stared silently at the floor.

Guess it was time for him to know he was pretty much our only key to get these collars off.


____________________________________


A few minutes of 'what's, explanations, and the best darn coaching in unicorn magic ever (not really), Dale only stared back at me with a puzzled look on his face.

Dale held his face in one of his hooves, "Ugh, this sounds so insane." He definitely didn't mean that in a good way, "Pardon me while everything I believed in is thrown out the window. I can't believe I'm even going to try to use magic, which shouldn't even exist to begin with."

"Dale!" Fiora shouted at him, "You can have a belief crisis later. Get to the magic and get these collars off us."

"Alright, alright." Dale sighed, closing his eyes, "Hope this works."

Dale furrowed his brow in concentration, mumbling to himself, "Focus on... the collar..." As he drew his focus in, it could be seen visibly by his horn beginning to glow with an indigo color that matched his eyes. The same glowing aura trailed down onto the plastic clip of Dale's collar.

Dale opened his eyes, only to widen them in surprise to see the glow surrounding his collar, but that only caused the glow to waver as he lost focus.

"Keep focusing on it. Don't stop." I encouraged, and Dale composed his concentration before the glow faded. He furrowed his brow as he stared down at his collar. He gritted his teeth with the effort, but his horn and the aura surrounding the collar began glowing brighter as a result; They kept growing brighter, and brighter, and brighter.

At that moment, a sense of dread came to me, "Uh oh... that's a bit too bright."

And then, Dale's collar exploded.

"AGH! FIRE!" Dale yelped in horror as he ran and bucked as far as the leash would let him as his collar burned with tiny tendrils of flame, "PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!"

But just as quickly, the fire ate through the collar's threads and fell off Dale's neck, who then proceeded to start stamping out the fire hazard in a panicked frenzy, "Die, die, die, die, die!"

When the fire was finally nothing but smoldering remains of a dog leash, Dale finally stopped stomping, catching his breath with giant breaths.

Fiora deadpanned from the side, "Geez, you could've handled that better."

I chuckled sheepishly, "Yeah, but how can you blame him. I didn't expect it to go up in flames either."

Dale, on the other hoof, stared in confusion at the smoldering collar, scratching the back of his head with a hoof, "Hm... I thought if I was just putting energy into my... magic, I'd need a lot to even undo the collar. I guess I put too much in and it ignited instead."

I nodded, grinning slightly, "See? Magic really isn't as much fantasy as you think. It still has physics and mechanics behind it."

Dale blinked for a moment, though still slightly unsure, "Um... yeah, I guess so."

"Alright, now that you're out, mind getting these leashes off us, Dale?" Fiora suggested.

"Oh, um... right." Dale then furrowed his brow, his horn beginning to glow.

Fiora raised her forelegs in a panic, "No, use your teeth or something! I don't want to become a furry charbroil today!"

Dale immediately cut off his concentration, chuckling nervously, "Heh heh, right... I knew that."

The umber unicorn made his way over to Fiora, "Um, pardon me." He leaned forwards and grabbed the clip between his teeth. With a slight bit trouble grasping it, he finally bit down on the sides of the clip and the collar came free. And once Fiora was freed, Dale did the same for me.

Once my collar dropped to the floor with a clatter, I trotted over to the desk and grabbed my phone, laying it down on the ground and switching it on. I'd used a phone before as a pony, so I didn't have as much trouble with it as the Dale and Fiora would've no doubt had.

As I sat on my haunches, Dale came up from the side, looking down at the phone as I scrolled through my contacts list with my nose. He gave me a curious look, "What're you calling your friend for?"

Finally, I found Angela's number and started a call, "I want to ask her about what Taharis said."

Dale sat on his haunches, "Was it about how long he said the transformation would last?"

I nodded as I switched the call to speaker-phone, because it was hard enough to hold a phone to your ear with hooves, "When he told me to figure out the answer, I had no idea what it could've been. But if anyone could figure it out, it would be Angela."

Fiora joined us in a circle around the phone, and just then, Angela picked up from the other end, "Heya, Lyle!"

The three of us winced as the shout rang through our sensitive ears. Fiora mouthed towards me, 'Loud much?'

I merely shrugged, looking back to the phone, "Hey, Angela."

"What's up? How's DC so far?"

"Um, it could be better." I admitted, "You know, 'cause me and couple of my friends got kidnapped and we're now locked in a basement as ponies."

Angela paused on the other end, "Um... wait, what?!"

"Way to drop the bomb-shell," Fiora muttered.

"Who's that?" Angela's voice asked.

"Oh, these are my friends I mentioned," I replied, "Introduce yourselves, guys."

"Fine. Hey, Angela. My name's Fiora."

"H-hi," Dale squirmed uncomfortably; I guessed he wasn't much better at over the phone introductions. "I-I'm Dale."

"Hi! I'm Angela! Nice to meet you!" Her voice had turned chipper for that moment, before switching back to a more serious one, "But seriously Lyle? Are you kidding? You guys got transformed into ponies, and kidnapped? Or did the transformation happen after you guys were locked up?"

"No, before." I proceeded to explain what happened at the museum, all the way up to Taharis revealing himself just earlier.

"Yeesh, so this Taharis guy must be a descendant of the first witches," Angela commented. A humph from her was audible over the phone, "Though that's a total buzz-kill. Only those with the blood of the true witches can use true magic? And here I was hoping I could expand my prank list exponentially."

Dale looked down at the phone in dismay, "You learn about this guy's crazy magic and the first thing you think of is pranks you can pull off with it?"

I shrugged, "That's Angela for ya."

"Oh yeah, Dale, Fiora!" Angela called out, "How're you two holding up? This is probably your first transformations ever, and a doozie of one if I ever knew it. Not a lot of people can say they've gone through an instant transformation before. That had to hurt!"

"We're fine." Fiora replied, folding her forelegs.

"Are you su-"

"Angela," I cut her off, "We don't have a lot of time. We're all fine, rest assured. But Taharis is a problem; we have no idea what he can do with that much power at his disposal, and he must already have a plan or something if he says he'll destroy the country in less than a day."

"Right," Angela agreed, "But truth be told, he must have a hell of a chi reserve if he can transform five people willy-nilly like he did. You know I'd only be able to transform one person and I'd be drained for the day."

I frowned, "Yeah, that's the main reason I called you though. Before he left, Taharis said he only had a chi reserve as big as yours."

A pause rolled through the other end, "What? But that doesn't make sense. Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. He said the way he was able to transform five people instead of one also affected how long we'd remain as ponies. I called to see if you had any idea what he meant by that."

Angela hummed in though from the other end, "Hm... he would've had to use another source of chi... but what source did he use that would-" Suddenly, her end went quiet. For a moment, I had thought the call had been dropped, but when I looked at my phone, the call was still going.

"Angela?"

No answer.

Worry clutched my stomach, "Hello? Angela? Are you there?"

I could here a tiny, ragged breathing from her end of the phone, as if she were trying to breath through a straw.

"Angela, what's wrong?"

Her grim voice replied from the other end, quiet and almost light headed, "I-I'm sorry. Lyle, Dale, Fiora... you're not going to like the answer I've got. I... I'm so, so sorry."

The three of us looked up and exchanged worried looks between ourselves. I looked back to the phone, "What is it?"

Angela paused for a second, before quietly answering, "The transformation ritual only wears off when it no longer has chi to feed off of. Once it has no more chi to keep the transformation active, it'll vanish from its target. When I cast it usually, all the chi I put into it acts as the timer for the spell, and when it runs out, the transformation reverts.

"But," Her voice choked slightly, "The only thing that makes sense here is that has Taharis has tapped the transformation into your own chi reserves. That being said, the ritual should still only last the normal amount of time... but unless Taharis lied when he said your time length as ponies has been modified, the only other thing that could physically happen is he' s set the ritual to continually tap into your chi reserves."

I frowned, "Um, what? You kind of lost me."

"Your transformation is drawing off your own chi... but it looks like Taharis modified just how much chi the ritual takes. Instead of the 'one-time-withdrawl' for 24 hours you're used to, the ritual is constantly drawing off your chi reserves.

"Even now, it's draining your chi to feed the transformation. Normally, the ritual uses your chi as fast as you normally regenerate it." Angela's voiced choked into a slight sob over the other end, "I-I'm sorry, but as long as you three are regenerating chi, the ritual will continue to feed itself."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Dale asked, wide-eyed.

"In shorter words, as long as your body regenerates chi, the ritual will never wear off. If I'm right... you three will remain transformed for the rest of your lives. Y-you'll never be humans again."

...

"I-I am so sorry."
> Why...?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Angela's voice echoed from my phone, "I-I am so sorry"

Only silence reigned for a time between the three of us... the victims...

Dale gasped as sobs came rolling with tears trickling down his cheeks, "W-what..." He whispered in a quiet, choked voice, "N-no... no..."

Just after, whether or not it was from the sound of Dale's crying, Fiora slammed her clenched hooves like fist against the ground, "NO! Damn it! I don't want to be like this forever!" Immediately, she dashed to the door, trying to open the locked door with her hooves and mouth, "Come back here! Change us back, you bastard!"

"Fiora," The simple call of her name from me made the mare suddenly stop, but only because my voice lacked anything but murky seriousness, a deep contrast from how I usually sounded.

I gritted my teeth, "I've decided what we're going to do." I glanced down towards the phone, where Angela was still listening, "Angela, we're getting out of here and we're going to stop Taharis. I'll call you back when we know more."

"Wait, Lyle!" Angela's voice cut off as I ended the call and grabbed the phone with my teeth.

Fiora didn't look like she had any complaints, but Dale stared at me aghast, "W-wait, what? But Taharis said he'd kill-"

"If we went for help," I finished, as I spit my phone into my backpack, before turning to retrieve my pile of clothes on the floor, "That's why we're not going to the authorities for help. They wouldn't have any idea of what they're up against, and not to mention any idea of what Taharis would be trying to do in the first place. It'd be up to us to stop him."

"But why us then?" Dale countered, "He'll kill us with magic before we could do anything!"

"What difference would that make?" Fiora snapped at the unicorn, "We're ponies forever now. Do you think we could possible go back to our normal lives like this? Everyone would look at us like we're freaks, or some fanboy's pets. What's the point of living a human life when you'll never be one again?"

Dale flinched from Fiora's rebuke, before collapsing to the ground, his snout wedged between his forelegs as tears trickled from his eyes, "I-I... I'm s-sorry. I'm j-just... scared."

All at once, Fiora's anger seemed to vanish, replaced with a look of guilt, "Dale?" The unicorn gave no reply.

Fiora still persisted, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled at you. I'm..." She sighed as she made her way towards him, laying on her stomach beside him, "Truth is, I'm scared, too."

For a moment, Dale stopped crying, glancing at Fiora in quiet surprise, "You're... scared?"

Fiora glanced away with a humph, "Of course I am. Mostly about what's happening... exactly what you're afraid of right now. But that doesn't make it right for me to yell at you. Sorry about that."

Dale paused for a moment, before putting his forelegs around her in a hug, tears still streaming from his eyes as he sniffled.

"Ack!" Fiora yelped in surprise, but not moving. Eventually, she resigned herself to defeat, sighing, "Fine. But you're always too clingy when you're moody."

"Sorry." Dale apologized quietly, "... thanks."

Despite learning what we just had, the tiniest of smiles came to the corner of my mouth at the sight of Fiora and Dale like that. They looked more like brother and sister, rather than friends. I remembered that the two of them had been friends since they were little kids, so I guess that even remained true all this time later.

With a sigh, my thoughts were drawn back to Angela. With a bit of guilt, I supposed I shouldn't have cut Angela off like that on the phone... that wasn't like me, I realized.

That only raised my anger for Taharis for causing me to act like that. Every second we let pass by in here, the further he could be from being found and stopped.

With all my things packed up, I slung my backpack over my shoulders, before glancing at Fiora and Dale, who were pulling themselves off the ground.

"You alright now?" Fiora asked.

"Yeah." Dale quietly nodded.

"Good."

I glanced between the two of them, "Alright, I heard a car drive off from here not too long ago, and I'm betting it was Taharis'. We need to find out where he's going before he gets too far." I glanced towards the door, a wooden one with a rusted knob; no doubt the deadbolt was in a similar condition. "You guys gather your stuff, and I'll start getting that door open."

"Wait, I-" Dale grimaced, "Well, um... I agree with you guys, Taharis needs to be stopped. But I don't think we should be running straight after him. We need some kind of plan to stop him before he go headlong into whatever he's doing."

I nodded, "I know, but honestly, we don't know what to expect right now. For now, all we should do is tail Taharis and see where he goes, and once it looks like he's about to do something that'll destroy the country, we'll step in and try to stop it in any way we can."

Dale slowly nodded, "That... sounds pretty safe." He paused, "But what if we can't do it alone?"

A frown came to my mouth as I went silent. Grimly, I replied, "I'm not sure. We'll just have to figure something out.

Fiora shared my expression as she moved to reclaim her bag and pack it up, "Okay... but how're you going to get the door open? I tried already and it was locked tight."

I chuckled as I made my way over to the door, "Well, personally I think Taharis made a huge mistake turning us into ponies. We should be able to do a bunch of things we weren't able to before. For example," I turned my hind legs towards the door, leaning forwards. I raised my hind legs, aiming them towards the door's hinges, before kicking them back in a powerful buck.

The part of the door I hit shattered into splintered wood, and the rest of the door was torn away from its hinges, hitting the wall of a hallway on the other side with a slam like thunder. The dust of molted wood danced in the air for a moment, before settling over the remains of the door.

Even I grimaced at that. I never had tested my strength as an earth pony before, so I surprised myself. Guess an earth pony's natural strength is nothing to sneeze at. Speaking of sneezing, the dust from the door went up my nose and- well, you get the joke.

I glanced back at Fiora and Dale to see them staring back at me with wide eyes. I chuckled sheepishly, "For example... that?" I wiped the smile off my face, "Grab your stuff. We need to see where Taharis could've gone to, before he gets too far."

A few moments later, the three of us stepped out of the room into the dusty hallway outside, our belongings strapped to our backs. The hallway we trotted down was musty and smelled slightly of mold, but mostly of rust and sawdust. The only source of light guiding us were windows up against the ceiling, shedding the light of a orange sunset into the building. From the looks of weeds growing around the base of the windows, we were definitely in a basement, and a staircase we found around the next corner only confirmed it even more.

"Let's see where we are," I muttered as we turned towards the stairs, but suddenly we stopped as a loud series of barks came from behind us.

All eyes turned towards another door directly behind us. It was wooden just like the one from the room we were locked in, but there was no mistake that the barking came from the other side of it.

"Is that a dog?" Fiora asked.

Dale looked slightly disgusted, "Taharis keeps a dog locked up in his basement? That's terrible!"

Before either I or Fiora could speak out, or even if we even would considering we were both as curious, Dale galloped to the door and grabbed the knob in his mouth. Surprisingly, the door opened, apparently unlocked as he twisted the knob. The door swung open, and behind it stood a large, black and white dog, standing just about as tall as the three of us were.

The dog's long fur looked frazzled, and it stared at us wide-eyed, without even barking. It just stood there confused, restricted in movement by the collar and leash around its neck tied to a radiator. Overall, it didn't even look hostile towards us, just confused. 

Fiora and I gathered around the doorway, peering in as Dale cautiously made his way towards the dog. I muttered, "That's weird. What's a dog doing down here?"

"I don't know," Dale answered, reaching the dog. He looked at the dog's face, and the dog looked cautiously back.

"Why are you down here?" Dale whispered, rhetorically.

To Dale's surprise, the dog let out a low whine. It sounded dry and hoarse, as if it hadn't had a drink in days. And upon closer, Dale noticed the dog looked a bit thin as well, underfed.

"You look like you haven't eaten in a while. Who left you down here? Was it Taharis?"

Surprisingly, the dog nodded in earnest, growling slightly in his throat. Dale only stared back at the dog in shock, "You can... understand me?"

Again, the dog nodded.

Then it was my turn to gasp, making my way farther into the room, "Don't tell me... did you used to be human, too?"

Another nod.

Dale and Fiora glanced towards me, confused. "But I thought the transformation ritual turned people into ponies, not dogs," Dale wondered, before undoing the clip on the dog's collar with his teeth.

"No, it doesn't always have to be ponies," I replied, "What the target turns into is something that can be modified when making the circle."

Fiora grumbled under her breath, "So he's in the same boat as us."

Grimly, I nodded, knowing what she meant by that, "Probably."

Dale glanced towards the dog, the former human, "Well, if that's the case, why don't you come with us? We're..." He grimaced, "We're going after Taharis to stop him from destroying the country, and we'll need all the help we can get."

The dog stood up, happy to be free from his collar after so long. With a slight growl in his throat, he nodded, pawing his front leg against the concrete floor, anxious to go.

Dale smiled, relieved, "Thanks."

"What's his name though?" Fiora asked.

I shrugged my shoulders, "No idea, and there's no way he could speak it to us right now."

Dale bit his top lip in thought, "Then for now, how about we call you 'Max'?"

Fiora raised an eyebrow, "Wasn't that the name of your last dog?"

Dale only smiled sheepishly. But as for the dog, now dubbed Max, just stared at the unicorn with wide eyes, even more surprised than when he had first seen us cartoon ponies. Dale glanced back at Max, "You like the name?"

Max nodded, vigorously. His tail wagged for the first time.

"You're kidding me," I deadpanned, "That's your real name, Max?"

Max merely gave me a dog's version of a toothy grin.

Dale managed a laugh himself, "Well, I guess that settles that."

"I'll say," Fiora agreed, "Let's get out of here."

So, the four of us headed upstairs, only to find ourselves in a place I expected us to be the least. It looked like an abandoned mechanic's shop, an auto shop for fixing up cars. The windows were boarded up, some even broken, only streams of sunlight dimly illuminating the room. Rusted tools and metal plating covered in dust littered the corners and shelves on the walls from years without use. But yet, there were several signs of use throughout the room, like a table with a brand-new welder on it, meaning Taharis or even someone else had been using it recently.

As the four of us wandered around the shop, I stared in wonder at the rundown shop, "What is this place?"

Dale and Fiora took looks around the room, but there didn't seem to be anywhere else in the building to go, besides the basement. The only doors were the broken garage doors and the front and back doors. Gingerly, I made my way to the front door, finding it was shut with thankfully a handle, making it easier to open with hooves.

I glanced outside, Max slipping out of the door past me as he ran out of the building. From the cover of the door, I could see the cracked pavement of a road less traveled running beside the building, the grass and beside it completely unkept and most likely abandoned. In the distance, I could hear to rumble of cars driving on a road, but far away. From what I could tell, we were at the edge of some city or town, but where in particular, I couldn't tell.

Seeing there was no one about, I stepped outside, feeling the warm air of a Summer day's end breeze through my fur. It felt great compared to the stuffy basement dungeon.

Dale and Fiora eventually joined me outside with Max, but they both had frowns on their faces.

Fiora mumbled, "I remember Taharis transformed the guard, and then that lady back at the museum. But Dale and I looked everywhere; there's nobody else in there."

Dale scratched the back of his head, "I guess Taharis didn't take them like he dragged us away. In hindsight, it would be hard to carry five ponies with you. I don't even know how he brought us three here."

"Then here's to hoping those other two are okay," I added, "But right now we need to find where Taharis has gone. We need to find some kind of clue to whe-"

Max interrupted me with a gruff bark. All eyes turned towards the collie as he gestured towards the street with a shake of his head.

"What?" Dale inquired.

Again, Max, gestured towards the road, before tapping his snout with a paw.

I frowned, "I think I get what he's saying. Taharis left by car; I heard him pull out when we were locked in that room... I think Max says he's got his scent."

Max nodded, tapping his nose with a paw again for emphasis.

"Can you even follow that scent?" Fiora asked. "You're not exactly a true hunting dog."

Max paused, seemingly unsure. But eventually, he nodded. The dog turned around, sniffing the ground once more, before pointing his nose in the right direction down the street. With a shake of his head, he motioned for us to follow. Shakily, he started to lope, before breaking into a run, with the rest of us galloping after him, hoping Max could really bring us to Taharis.

But as we ran, I glanced back over my shoulder at the abandoned auto-shop, seeing for the first time a worn sign nailed on its tallest wall. Even through its faded colors, I could read: "Parkway Auto"

Why on earth would Taharis have locked us up there? Was it just the first abandoned building he could find... or was it something else.

I don't know what it was, but for some reason, a feeling built up in my gut, one that I couldn't ignore. There was some kind of history between this place and Taharis, something important that happened here. I could feel it.

Little did I know, that if I had been looking at my flanks, I would have seen my cutie mark glow slightly, a book marked SPQR enlightened by the hidden history waiting to be uncovered.
> Are...?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The sun had set about an hour ago, but Fiora, Dale, Max, and I continued to trek on through the darkness. Thankfully, ponies had slightly better sight in the dark than humans, and we had Max guiding us, whose senses in the dark were unmatched by anything we had.

Of course, though, we hadn't been travelling the entire time. There came a point where Max looked like he was about to collapse, so we took a break, hidden by a dumpster we found by some barber shop that was closed for the night. Between mine, Fiora's, and Dale's packs, we had enough water and snacks for all of us (Except for some beef jerky Fiora had. She was not happy about finding she'd never be able to eat meat again. The jerky went to Max)

After a quick rest, we had continued on the scent trail Max led us along.

Dale and I held a decent trotting pace behind Max as he kept on the scent. However, Fiora was literally riding circles around us. Apparently, she found she could still use the scooter in her backpack just fine, even if she only had hooves to steer with.

Fiora laughed as she continued speeding about, adjusting to rolling in her new body, "Even if I'll have to be a pony forever, at least changing species won't keep me from shredding it up!"

"Shh!" Dale hissed, glancing around in worry. Thankfully the trail led them over mostly empty roads, so no one had seen them yet. "Not so loud," Dale reminded Fiora, "Anyone could show up and see us."

"Yeah, let's not go attract unwanted attention," I agreed.

Fiora merely sighed as she wheeled back alongside them at a slower pace, "Fine."

Dale trotted up beside Max, "Hey, can you tell if we're close yet, or no?"

Max, distracted by focusing on the already vanishing scent, just shook his head.

Dale sighed, as his hooves were beginning to hurt from walking for so long. It was bad enough that he wasn't familiar with walking with hooves for this long, so the aches in his legs were alien and bothered him more than they normally would as a human.

Fiora didn't share his problem though, since the mossy green mare learned how to use her scooter.

But as for me, I was fine, mostly because I had already experienced walking in the dark for this long before... back with Emily... a smile came to my face at the thought. I remembered back to how she had gotten dragged into this whole pony business with me, and we had to run all across the neighborhood just to hide. A chuckle escaped me as I remembered the good times we had then. Compared to this, back then had been a fun adventure.

"What's so funny?" Fiora asked, noticing my chuckle.

I shrugged, "Oh, it's just this situation reminded me of another time I had to run about hiding as a pony. It was with my girlfriend, who got caught in the transformation, too."

Fiora giggled slightly, "I take it she broke up with you for that."

"The opposite, actually." I went on to tell Dale and Fiora, as well as Max, about my last big escapade, which had started with Angela doing what she that was 'helping', and ending with more friends to share mine and Angela's secret with.

Dale managed to find a laugh from my story, "Geez, it's like you have bad luck. You manage to drag everyone around you into this pony stuff, don't you?"

I chuckled sheepishly, "I guess." But my thoughts began to spiral into less happy ones, "If that's true, I hope you guys aren't angry at me for getting you caught up in this."

Fiora rolled her eyes, "Like you have to apologize. It's not even your fault." She raised an eyebrow at me, "Haven't I been saying I'd pound Taharis' face in for making us furry half-pints forever?"

Dale held a small smile of his own, "Yeah, we can't really blame you for something you didn't cause."

That at least made me feel a little better. "Right. Thanks." But another thought kept nagging at my head. We weren't ever going to turn back into humans, were we? After this was over, and Taharis was somehow stopped, how would my family react? Would it be the same as every time I became a pony at home? What about Emily? Could we even keep our relationship going when I'd be a different species from her? I know she liked me as a pony as well, but could she stand it for longer than the moments we had together? Would she break up with me to find someone who's actually human?

The thought filled me with worry, scaring me almost to tears. The thought of Emily leaving me was too frightening.

"What's that sound?" Dale asked, his ears perked up. Max had already picked up on it, his eyes glancing towards the sky.

All thoughts suddenly evaporated from my head as I could hear it as well. It was... a helicopter... and sound like it was right above us.

Suddenly, the dark street was illuminated by a massive spotlight, pointing directly down on top of us. Shielding my eyes, everyone glanced up in surprise as we saw a helicopter holding the spotlight slowly descend onto the street in front of us.

Everyone stood tense as the whipping blades of the helicopter blew wind akin to a vortex around us. I seriously wanted to run, and I bet everyone else had the same idea in their heads. But the way this chopper suddenly found us couldn't have been a coincidence. Was it Taharis? Or was it, maybe, help?

Soon, the helicopter landed, and while its blades still turned, ready to take off again, someone opened the side door and stepped out of the machine. It was a man in a black suit, who turned and approached us.

From the light of the helicopter, he showed no surprise or any reaction towards seeing us. He simply called out, "Lyle Anderson, Dale Ford, Fiora Maywary?"

Confused, the three of us nodded, gathering around the man, including Max. "Um, who are you?" I asked.

"FBI," He stated, "Now, if you all will come with me, we need to take you to a safer location."


____________________________________________________



Hours Earlier...


Sweat trickled down Taharis' brow as he drove to his destination, his home. But to his relief, the house was clear in the light of sunset. If they weren't here yet, that meant everything was going to plan... so far.

Still, the warlock glowered as he parked and hopped out of the car, "I knew I shouldn't have stayed to listen to those kids chat. Curiosity could have killed more than just the cat for my carelessness."

Quickly, he made his way inside. As soon as he did, an excited gasp came from his daughter, "Dad! You're back!"

McKenna came running to the door, arms wide open to hug her dad around his legs. Taharis stooped down to return the hug.

McKenna pouted as she looked up at him, "You're late, Dad! You said you were gonna be home sooner!"

Despite the still present worry in his gut, Taharis wouldn't let it show. Instead, he smiled, "Sorry, sweetie. But I'll need to go again soon."

"You're leaving?" McKenna whined.

Taharis nodded, "Yes, Kenna. But when I go, I need you to do something for me."

McKenna's eyes lit in excitement, expecting a game of some sort, "Yes?"

Taharis could feel his worry beginning to creep to his face. Every fiber in his body seemed to scream that they were coming. "It's not safe to be here for much longer."

"What? What is it, Daddy?" McKenna, seeing her father's worry, asked in confusion.

Taharis held his daughter's hands, "Sweetie, I'm going to take you somewhere else, somewhere safe. I won't be able to stay with you, so I need you to be a good girl and wait there until I get back."

"Daddy! Where are you going?" McKenna asked, worried.

"I'll be fine," Taharis reassured her, "But I need you to be safe, Kenna. Can you be strong and wait for me?"

McKenna stared at him, open-mouthed. Even for a little girl, she could understand just how worried her dad was. Silently, she asked, "Like Mommy was?"

That was the final chink in the Taharis' mask. All at once, the worry covered his face, mixed with sorrow. Tears threatened to come to his eyes as he looked down at little McKenna, "Yes... sweetie, be strong like Mommy."

McKenna began crying, "But I want to come with you! I want to protect you like Mom did!"

A pang of fear gripped Taharis' heart at those words. He shook his head, "No, sweetie. I need you to be strong and wait for me, okay?"

Sniffling, wiping her eyes, McKenna slowly nodded..

A small smile came to Taharis' face as he pulled McKenna into another hug, holding her head close to his, "That's my good girl." She held onto him tightly with her small arms as Taharis' hand felt her long hair. It was just like her mother's... McKenna had always looked more like her mother, making it impossible for Taharis to forget how beautiful she had... been...

Suddenly, a twinge shot through Taharis' body, and he jerked his eyes up in shock. They're here! I didn't think they would find this place so quickly.

He whispered to McKenna, "Be stong. I will come find you as soon as I can." Before she could answer, Taharis snapped his fingers and his daughter vanished.

Not a moment later, the front door burst open as several armored men broke it down, "FBI! Breach and clear!"

As soon as Taharis turned to face them, he found himself staring down the barrels of almost every gun they held. More shouts and loud bangs rolled through the house as more armed men forced their way into the house.

"Freeze! Hands where I can see them!"

Taharis stayed down on his knees, but every trace of worry was gone from his face. McKenna was gone, in a place no one else would find her, except only himself. As long as no one could take the only one important to him, the warlock had nothing to fear.

He gave no retaliation as he was surrounded by FBI officers, not even drawing upon his reserve of magic. But apparently they weren't taking any chances. Taharis suddenly found two bolts shot into his chest, attached to wires. With a quick jolt of electricity, his vision faded to black as unconsciousness overtook him.


_________________________________________________________


I had never actually ridden in a helicopter before, but I found it was actually very enjoyable... though I would have enjoyed it better if they didn't confiscate my bag. Or better yet, I would have enjoyed it if I even knew where mister FBI man was taking us. But from looking out the helicopter's cockpit, I could tell it wasn't anywhere near civilization, as the lights of any city or town nearby disappeared into the night behind us.

Pretty soon, however, out in almost the middle of nowhere, the helicopter slowed near a densely wooded area of wilderness, with only moonlit treetops below us. Soon, we descended, and to my surprise, the trees were only a cover for a facility beneath it. It was as if the trees themselves had moved to make way for the helicopter landing.

We were now outside of a stone building, one that looked more like a bunker than anything else, but I couldn't see most of it, because of the darkness and the dense vegetation surrounding it. The doors to the helicopter opened, and all of us hopped out, the man in the suit leading us along.

"Whoa..." Dale stared at trees surrounding the stone building, amazement on his face, "Those trees must be at least forty years old. How could they build something like this so long ago and still have all these plants covering it?"

"Where are we?" Fiora demanded the man we were following.

A rumble came from the building as we approached it, and a wall of it sank into the ground to reveal an entrance. The man motioned for us to go inside, keeping an extra close eye on Max, thinking the dog might run off like most dogs do, "We are at the headquarters for a special sub-section of the FBI."

"Like that helps," She muttered in reply, "Why're we here?"

"Your questions will be answered soon. Please be patient."

Once we were inside, the door closed shut, and the man led us farther inside. We were walking down a long hallway now. The interior of it was plain, with a mixture of concrete and metal structures making up the ceiling, walls, all except for the floor, which seemed to be made only from some kind of metal. However, several steel doors lined the hall on either side. Soon, the FBI agent led us to one such door, and it opened as we approached it.

Silently, the man motioned us inside. But when I stepped inside, I was met with a chorus of voices shouting, "LYLE!"

I blinked in surprise to find the room only had a long conference table in it, lined with chairs around it. The surprising part was that a few of the seats were taken by a lot of familiar faces.

Angela, Emily, Liz, Ben... everyone who knew about Angela's transformation rituals was here. The moment they saw me, relief filled their expressions.

Emily was the first the jump out of her chair, "Lyle!" She hurried to where I stood. I trotted to meet her, glad to see her. She caught me in a bone-crushing hug, "Oh my gosh! I was so worried! What happened? Where were you?"

"Gah! Babe! Need to breath!"

"Oops, sorry." Emily let go of me, blushing slightly.

Angela was right behind her, running up to me, "Lyle, you okay?"

I sighed, "I'm fine, really. Also, I'm sorry for hanging up on you back then. I was just... angry. I didn't mean to snap at you."

"I'm just glad to see you didn't go do something stupid," Angela replied, "Everyone was worried about you, especially after... we heard..." She meekly tugged her arm sadly.

I glanced back at Emily in understanding, "So... you know?"

She nodded, a frown coming to her face as well, "Y-yeah. I heard from Angela. We all did while we were waiting for you."

I paused in silence, sighing, "Emily, I-"

She merely leaned in and gave me a peck on the cheek, stopping me, "Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere. We'll work this thing out."

I felt like a wall of bricks had fallen off my lungs, and I was able to breathe with some relief. "Great, took the words right out of my mouth," I smiled.

Liz coughed into her fist, bringing attention to her, "Um, so who are they?"

All eyes turned towards Dale and Fiora awkwardly standing by the door, Max already sitting on his haunches just beside them.

"Oh, right." I smiled sheepishly, "Guys, this is Fiora," Fiora waved, looking unsure, "And this is Dale," Dale only glanced away, too nervous to even say hello.

By the time I finished introducing them to everyone else, another question had come to my head, "But just asking, but what are all you guys doing here?"

"You got me," Ben shrugged from his seat, "All I know was the FBI picked me and everyone else up in a helicopter and flew us here."

The FBI agent we had followed here called us to attention, "Well, if you all would take a seat, we can begin." Truth be told, I had forgotten about that guy being there.

Taking that as a que, Emily and Angela returned to their seats, and Fiora, Dale, and I took three vacant ones. Even Max opted for an empty seat near the door, which was odd to see a dog sitting at a conference table. A brief thought passed through my head as to who exactly Max had been before he was transformed.

Shrugging the thought away, all eyes turned to the FBI guy as he cleared his throat, "Now, let's get right to business.

"Right now, all of you are in the headquarters for a special division of the FBI, one in charge of handling and concealing earthly supernaturals from public knowledge. We are known as the Supernatural Prevention Team, but we prefer to call ourselves DISPEL."

"Wait, mister agent guy? 'Supernatural Prevention'?" Angela inquired, "This place wants to hide magic from the public?"

The agent nodded, "Yes, but please, call me Agent Gnome." Angela stifled a giggle, and Agent Gnome's brow furrowed, "It's a code name, so I'd prefer it if you didn't laugh, Ms. Ravensdale."

As Angela subdued her giggling, Fiora harshly added her input, "Why would you want to hide magic? It's obviously real, and it would have saved me a panic attack today if I knew about it before." She waved a green hoof up to emphasize her point.

"To put it bluntly, magic is too powerful," Agent Gnome replied, "Ever since the dawn of time, it has been a force that can warp reality and the very world as we know it. Imagine if that kind of power fell into the hands more power-hungry individuals, or even a child who doesn't understand just how much power they possess alone."

Dale couldn't help but cringe, "... You've got a point." From what we'd seen from Taharis today, he alone could cause more damage than I thought. If just anyone could use magic, any accidents with it could be catastrophic.

Agent Gnome continued, "While it is true only people with the blood of the first witches in them may use magic to manipulate nature and everything associated with it, other spells like the transformation ritual can be used by anyone that possesses chi. Even with transformations alone, that power is still deemed too great to be used by anyone.

"This agency was devised to hide the presence of true magic in the world, so no one could use this power, either responsibly or irresponsibly." The man glanced from face to face of everyone before him, "The only ones who know about this agency are our own agents and a select, trusted few higher up in the government. Not even our current presidents knows of this agency's existence while we work under the name of the FBI."

I perked up, putting my front hooves on the table. These guys could definitely help with our problem, "Well, if you guys are here to stop magic, there's a warlock out there right now that needs to be stopped! His name is Taharis, and he's going to destroy the country!"

Agent Gnome held up a hand to silence me, "Do not worry. Taharis, or rather known as Scott Martin, has already been taken into custody by FBI operatives earlier, before we brought you here."

"He has?" Dale asked in shock, "Where is he?"

"He's currently in this facility, unconscious," He replied, straightening his tie, "There's nothing to worry about, mind you. He'll be detained in a way where he'll unable to use his magic, similar to cryosleep, for the moment anyways." He glanced towards my direction, "However, we had detained him for using magic to attack a museum, and transforming five innocents, including one guard. We-"

"Oh wait, there were two others!" Fiora blurted out, "Where are they?"

Agent Gnome glanced at her, annoyed that he'd been interrupted, "Rest assured, they've already been found by us and are being taken care of until we solve this matter." He cleared his throat, "But as I was saying, we never heard of any threat Taharis had against the country. Would you care to explain more into detail on that?"

"Um..." I rubbed the back of my head, sheepishly, "Well, besides the fact he said the country would be destroyed by tomorrow, I don't really know anything else. Sorry."

"Very well, not that it was too important anyways. Taharis has been arrested and that's all that matters." He looked around the table, "However, now I have something else I have to speak with you all about." The tone in his voice sounded more serious than when he was talking about Taharis... that couldn't have been good.

"What is it?" Angela asked, unsure. Apparently she had picked up on his tone as well.

The Agent glanced towards the three ponies in the room, "I am assuming you three know that the spell put on you was designed to be eternal, to never dispel until you have no chi left."

I nodded, "Yeah, but I've been wondering, couldn't we just cut off our flows of chi, or just get rid of enough that the chi to stop the transformation?"

Agent Gnome shook his head, "No. The flow of chi works like a kind of stream, where some chi goes, the rest follows. It is impossible to break the chi flow of another person. The only way to cause a break would be under your own will and control, but the ravenous nature of the transformation ritual would make that impossible for you to achieve.

"That being said, speaking from an agency whose sole purpose is to keep magic hidden, we can't allow you three to return back to your homes and live the lives you had before."

...

"WHAT?!?!"


___________________________________________



Deeper Inside DISPEL's HQ...


Agent Alchemist waited down in the main lab, laying out the necessary serums in syringes on a white stand in anticipation for the prisoner coming. He was a middle aged man, having done this job for many years already. But despite his years, he never lost the curly hairstyle he had dawned from High School. The Alchemist, or how other agents called him Al for short, was preparing for the arrival of some warlock that had been stupid enough to expose himself. From what he heard, this one, some fellow calling himself Taharis, was quite dangerous and quite powerful.

But when he heard that, all Al could do was shrug. He knew another witch would be delivering the prisoner, and with her nearby, he wasn't in any danger. And if he ever was, nobody in their right mind should underestimate a potions master.

Just then, the steel door to the lab opened, and a woman and a few armed guards stepped into the room. With them was another man, unconscious and strapped to a table as the others rolled him into the room. Al recognized the face from the picture he received; it was Taharis.

Al gave a friendly smile to the woman at the front of the guards, "Evening, Wand. I take it the extraction went well."

Agent Wand, a slim woman whose figure did her code name good service, smile back with red lips, "Perfectly, actually. This warlock didn't even put up a fight when we breached his home. However, he apparently hid his only daughter away. From my own readings, he sent her out of his home in a fifty mile radius," She glanced down towards the man strapped to the table with a frown, "His power surprises even me. We still have teams searching for the girl, but nothing has been found yet."

Al merely shrugged as he picked up the first syringe, "Oh, well. Can't apprehend them all." He chuckled to himself for a moment, before clearing his throat, "It's not like this guy's going anywhere, or even going to be awake for that matter." He laughed again, "If he was, I'd tell him how hilarious I thought it was that he used a transformation ritual to turn people into ponies. Ha, ponies! I bet the looks on their faces were the best!"

"Glad you liked it," A low voice grumbled.

Startled, Al glanced down at the apparently conscious man, only to feel a gloved hand touch his chest. Suddenly, a sharp pain ran through his body as his legs buckled and began to change with the Alchemist screaming.

"Freeze!" Agent Wand shouted as the guards with her lifted their guns towards Taharis on the table. Electricity danced through Wand's fingers as she launched a spell to subdue the man, but before it even his, Taharis had vanished. The next moment, she was pushed aside by a gloved hand, and her body screamed as the transformation took effect.

The other guards shouted, one trying to pull up a radio to call in the situation, but none of them got the chance to fight back as Taharis popped between all of them quicker than smoke through vent. Soon, all of them collapsed to the ground, screaming as fur sprouted across their bodies and they shrank slightly beneath their clothes.

In only moments, Taharis stood in the middle of the underground lab, his glove shimmering slightly with power on his hand. With a look of satisfaction, he glanced at his handiwork. A rose red unicorn mare with a mane the color of dandelions groaned where she lay in the corner, a sandy earth pony in a lab coat with a lime mane was sprawled beneath his clothes that no longer fit him, and three other ponies lay on the ground, buried mostly from visibility by their protective gear and equipment.

Not an alarm had been sounded, and no one else knew of his escape... yet.

Taharis smiled to himself. With a snap of his fingers, his black overcoat covered his shoulders once more, just like how he had called his glove back to his hand just moments ago. Another snap, and his mask covered his face once more. It was time he made use of this element of surprise he had acquired. With a smirk, he walked out of the lab, "Now we begin."
> We...?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I stared at Agent Gnome, aghast, "What the frick do you mean?!"

"Exactly what I said, Mr. Anderson," The suited man replied coldly, "The three of you will be unable to return to the public in your current forms to keep the existence of magic hidden. As far as we have observed the spell placed on you is permanent. . I have already had this same discussion with the other two victims of this incident, and just like them, until some way is found to reverse the spell, you will live in another facility not too far from here."

"That's bullshit!" Fiora shouted.

"Yeah, what she said!" Liz defiantly added, rising from her seat.

Agent Gnome continued, unfazed, "I know all of you are... least to say, pissed. But rest assured you won't be completely cut off from your old lives. You may still be in contact with your families as you stay in our other facility." He glanced at the other non-ponies in the room, "But as for you four, you and the families of these three will be sworn to secrecy about this agency and their situation."

"Like I could keep a secret about some half-ass agency holding people against their will," Ben growled, "It's all to hide magic, isn't it? Well we did fine on our own when we were keeping the transformation ritual a secret. But even then, what's it matter if the world knows that magic is real or not?"

The DISPEL agent sighed, "It appears you don't understand just how severe it is that humanity stays ignorant to the supernatural's existence. Then allow me to enlighten you,

"Magic has been feared since the beginning of time. No doubt you've heard of the Salem Witch trials, as well as countless witch hunts in history before and after then. Wherever someone possesses magic, humans have always been driven to fight against it out of fear of it being used against them."

Emily spoke up, "But that was because they didn't understand what it was. It's normal to be afraid of something you don't know."

Agent Gnome glanced at her patiently, "While it is true many hunted witches out of paranoia of the unknown, there were just as many who hunted down magic users because they knew all too well what it was. All throughout time and civilizations, humans have fallen victim to this magic, witchery, sorcery. Among the most dangerous weapons in the world, magic sits at the potential of a nuclear bomb, depending on the user."

The agent cast his eyes about the now silent room. Ben spoke up, "You make it sound like anyone would try to destroy the world as soon as they get their hands on it. But I didn't. Angela didn't. All of us used it without harming anybody."

"That was only transformation rituals," Agent Gnome gruffly retorted, "There are plenty of rituals a non-witch could use, ranging between raising an entire mountain, to bringing about a storm that could have indirectly affected the weather of the whole planet. While you all may have been responsible for yourselves and those around you, there are too many people who hunger for that kind of power. It's power that can be wielded, used for threats, used to raise one's status in the world the same way a tyrant would.

"Tell me then," I questioned, "What would happen if the world found out about magic now?"

"Countless things could happen," The man replied, "But for the sake of time, I'll only bring up the ones that are of the most concern. There are enough power-hungry warlords across the world that would no doubt use force, deceit, bribery, and whatever else is at their disposal to gather the secrets to magic. It wouldn't be a long shot either to suggest they'd put their efforts into kidnapping witches and warlocks into their military force. The very dynamic of war would change completely, and no doubt it would only entice certain countries to jump into battles against one another with more ferocity than before.

"'But what about domestically', you may ask. There's already plenty of paranoid people in this country that would go berserk if they saw anyone using witchery. There would be no doubt people searching for magic, knowing that it's real, and given we're in a world where information leaks out like wildfire, how could they resist using it when everything they'd need to know is at their fingertips. Religions would cry out in rebellion to the whole thing, petty revenges using rituals would no doubt happen across the country, mostly by stupid teenagers, and let's not even discuss how many other people would transform themselves just for the sake of it, not even mentioning the other uses for rituals.

"The country could very well be thrown into chaos, even more than we had seen before." Agent Gnome's expression took on something akin to stone seriousness, "Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, would be at the risk of losing their lives at a power like magic, and that is the very reason why we can't have magical, talking ponies walking about in the open. One thing would come to another and suddenly the whole world would know too much about the supernatural realm. They must remain ignorant. This is no longer the medieval period where anything could be brushed off as a drunk man's imagination. This is the twenty-first century, where everything spirals out of control at even the tiniest of instances. Everyone in the world would have more access to magic than they would have to a gun, and need I remind you that every human on Earth possess chi, and would therefore be able to use at least part of it?

"Too many things could go wrong, and because of that, too many people could, and no doubt many, would die. Because of that, it was decided from the beginning of time that magic must be kept secret. This agency, DISPEL, was formed when countries began growing too large for their own good. Other organizations like us exist around the world doing the same work as us, preventing this crisis from happening."

Agent Gnome sighed as he composed himself once again, "While it's true, magic is the source of many wonders, and it has potential for great help, it has too many risks to now be allowed to run freely through the world."

I stared at him, slack-jawed. The others were only silent... actually, now that I noticed it, both Angela and Dale had been silent the entire time Agent Gnome had spoken. I glanced between my friends, the girl in pink and the umber unicorn, "Angela? Dale? You guys have been silent the whole time... What do you think?"

Angela slowly shook her head, keeping her eyes down at the table, "I think Agent Gnome's right. I mean, I only know the transformation ritual and a few tiny enchantments, but there's still a lot I don't know. But even then, I know how powerful they are. I don't even want to think of how many horrible things somebody could do by misusing them."

Dale had a similar look on his face, "I can't imagine how much worse a battlefront would be with magic. If some country started using weapons and rituals, they could decimate any army they'd come up against." He glanced at me, "You saw how easily Taharis nabbed us at the museum. Could you imagine how easily anyone could kill with that kind of power?"

"I..." I fell silent, knowing he was right. Granted I doubted most people would kill if they had magic, but there were always some that would... and if Agent Gnome was right, accidents could always happen.

I glanced back towards Agent Gnome, "It'd... be only till we find a way to reverse the ritual, right?"

The man nodded, "Yes. In that time, you three will remain here, your families and friends sworn to secrecy, and then after we find a reversal method, you'll go back to the lives you had." He glanced towards Angela, Liz, and Ben, "Though, as an agent of DISPEL, we'll have to ask you all to refrain from using witchcraft anymore."

"Because that's all DISPEL is all about," A voice suddenly cut in as the steel door swung open, the one speaking stepping through it, "Destroying all magic in this cold and dreary world.

All eyes widened at the sight of the man in the black overcoat and a mask covering his face, as he entered the room.

"Taharis!" Dale, Fiora, and I shouted in unison, our tones ranging between anger and fear among us.

"Freeze!" Agent Gnome reached inside his coat, as if drawing a weapon, but Taharis suddenly vanished, appearing behind the agent with a glowing glove raised towards him.

"Nice try," Gnome muttered, whirling around and catching Taharis' arm before the glove could make contact, "I've seen the museum footage plenty of times to know how you use that trick."

Again, Taharis disappeared, reappearing to the side to make another attempt. But Gnome suddenly pulled out something akin to stone gauntlets over his hands. The agent ducked the glove, throwing a punch with his stone covered hand towards Taharis. However, Taharis dodged, but what came from the gauntlet felt like a shockwave that punched through the rest of the room.

Everyone else yelped or screamed as they were practically thrown from their chairs as the furniture toppled over from the force. My ears rang as I stumbled back onto my hooves, backing away from the fight between two magic wielders. Everyone had a similar idea as they we took cover either behind the table or at the back of the room. Dale, Fiora, Ben, and Angela took the cover of the table, while Liz, Emily, and I hunkered between a chair and the back wall.

Max barked violently at the brawl, no doubt wanting to help, but he could tell from just looking that he didn't want to get caught in the firefight.

But as for Gnome, he seemed to hold his own against Taharis. Wherever Taharis moved quickly, the suited agent seemed to always find him. But whenever Taharis outpaced Gnome, the man managed to block the transforming glove with his stone gauntlet. Gnome caught Taharis' gloved hand with his guantlet, throwing a countering punch with his other, but like smoke, Taharis flew out of the agent's grip, the battle continuing with ferocity. While the two of them exchanged blows, with no clear effect on each other, the room took the brunt of the force as the chairs were blown back and the table splintered into sawdust from the power of Gnome's gauntlet and the occasional blast of wind Taharis threw in an attempt to trip up the agent.

Emily and Liz screamed as bits of wood flew across the room, over them, but not without me covering them the best a small pony could. "Stay down!" I shouted, wincing as what felt like a broken arm of a chair bounced off my shoulders, along with small pieces of sharp wood.

Over my shoulder, I could only make out bits of the battle going on.

Gnome growled beneath his breath as he never seemed to be able to land a hit on this man that moved like smoke, "I didn't think such a talented warlock would be so stupid. I sent up an alarm to HQ Control during our tussle. By now, the other agents and soldiers in this facility are already on their way." Bringing up his gauntlet, he smacked away the gloved hand of Taharis, "You had the best chance to escape if you hadn't come into this room. Your spacial warping spell should have told you the exit was just down the hall. Why stay and be captured again when you could have escaped?"

Taharis threw another gust of wind along his arm into the agent's face, though it didn't seem to faze the agent, "If there are any I haven't made into little farm animals, let your agents come. 'Escape' was never part of the plan." Again, he vanished before warping behind Gnome, "You have something I need access to, something only you can open. I can read it in your chi; I know you're the one I'm after." His hand clashed with the gauntlet once more, but Taharis felt no pain against the stone surface of it, "I think you know what I'm talking about."

Suddenly, Agent Gnome's eyes went wide, and his movement faltered slightly; this was all Taharis needed. The warlock suddenly warped behind the man, and Gnome followed, but slower than before. Lashing out a spell of wind, Taharis held a smirk behind his mask as he threw a kick to Gnome's head. The agent stood his ground against the blast of wind, which only distracted him before he felt Taharis' boot strike to the side of his head.

Gnome staggered from the blow, and in the very same instant, Taharis was on him as he shoved the palm of this gloved hand over Gnome's chest, the circle on the back of it glowing fiercely.

"No!"

A pained growl escaped Gnome through gritted teeth as the effects of the transformation took over in only an instant. His bones broke and melded, shrinking with the rest of his frame, but only slightly. Light blue fur sprouted over his newly formed muzzle, and his short hair grew slightly as it gained an orange color.

Gnome didn't scream, but his muzzle was twisted in pain as the transformation completed itself. In dreadful seconds, a large, blue, earth pony stallion laid before Taharis, tense from the shock of pain.

Taharis gave grumble beneath his mask, "Hm, it seems you're more sturdy than I thought." The warlock stooped down and grabbed the ponified Gnome by the neck of the agent's suit. Lifting him up, Gnome's slacks fell loosely off his legs, letting a short orange tail into view. Taharis merely looked over his work once, "All your comrades that ran into on the way here fell unconscious from the strain of the transformations. Nobody else has stayed awake at this point... save for one."

Taharis turned his masked gaze towards the back of the room, where we were peering out from cover. I could feel his gaze single me out. His gruff voice resonated through the silence of the room, "I warned you already; Follow me and die."

Next thing I knew, Taharis vanished with Gnome in hand, before the steel door to the room slammed shut behind him.

Like that wasn't anything I'd already seen before. I turned to Emily and Liz, who looked a bit frazzled from the magic fight, "You alright?"

Emily nodded, "We're fine."

"Who was that?" Liz exclaimed.

"That was Taharis." Fiora bluntly replied climbing out from beneath the table with Dale. Ben did the same, helping Angela back up to her feet with him. Max merely opted to stay beneath the table. There was only so much weirdness a human-turned-dog can handle. Fiora gave Liz a wry look, "You know, big douche bag that turns people into ponies so they can never be humans again?"

Liz rolled her eyes, crossing her arms, "I know that. I meant how does he have that much power? I've never seen anybody use chi that quickly..." She frowned, "But then again, I've never seen anybody use magic like that before in the first place."

Ben held a similar expression on his face, "But what I don't get is why Taharis would even come in here in the first place. With that kind of teleportation power, it's a wonder he even got caught. He definitely didn't get arrested and brought here only because he couldn't teleport, like we saw just barely."

I nodded, brushing some stray slivers of wood out of my fur, "Yeah, but I heard Taharis say he needed Gnome for something he couldn't access, like Gnome was the key to it or something like that." I frowned, "Something tells me it has to do with his whole plan to destroy the country."

Angela bit her lip as she leaned back against what was left of the conference table, a grim look dominating her features, "If that's the case... then that means Taharis must have let himself be captured on purpose, so he could get to Gnome. Haha, it sounds like something out of a movie."

Dale shivered slightly, looking at Angela in shock, "But, if Gnome was the key, and Taharis took him, then where's the 'lock'?"

"Taharis said not to follow him, so I'm betting it's close," Ben answered, "If it's something magical, it'd make sense that DISPEL would keep it here where they can keep their eye on it."

I gritted my teeth, "Then we need to find Taharis and stop him before he can get to it. He's going to destroy the country if nobody stops him," I glanced towards the wreckage Gnome and Taharis had made, "And my hopes that DISPEL can stop him are kind of dwindling at the moment."

"But where's he going?" Dale inquired, "We can't just scramble through the facility. We don't know how big this place is, and not to mention we don't even know where he is." Out of the corner of the unicorn's eye, he caught Fiora giving him an odd look, "What?"

Fiora raised an eyebrow at him, "When have you been all for going after a guy who threatened to kill us?"

Dale narrowed his eyes, but a twinkle of uncertainty still remained in them, "We already decided we'd play it safe, right? We'll go after Taharis, and hopefully we can find somebody from DISPEL to help us stop him." Fiora merely smiled in response.

"He's heading deeper underground... very deep."

"What?" All eyes turned to Angela, mine in particular in shock.

To my surprise, Angela's eyes had a green tint surrounding them. I blinked, making sure I wasn't seeing things, "How do you know that?"

A tiny grin flashed across Angela's face. The pink witch glanced between Liz and Emily, "Girls, I think we're good to lose our disguises."

Sharing a collective grin, the three girls suddenly erupted in green flames. Max immediately erupted into whining barks at the sudden sight, wiggling farther back under the table. My eyes widened, but I felt my shocked look slowly shift to a grin as the flames dissipated, leaving behind-

Fiora screamed in shock, "AGH! Demon bug horses!"

Dale shook his head, though equally shocked, "Nope... changelings."

The changeling that stood where Angela had been, one with a long, molting green mane with holes in it, just like her pony mane, grinned back through pupil-less, green eyes, "Surprise!"

I raised an eyebrow at her, Emily, and Liz, not losing my smile, "So... when did this happen?"

Emily, a changeling with a short, pink, molting mane, chuckled sheepishly as she scratched the back of her head with a hole-ridden hoof, "Um, well it happened after you called Angela today." She smiled wryly at me, "We... may have started planning a rescue mission after Angela told us you'd been kidnapped."

I let out a small chuckle, "Um, thanks." Emily only blushed in response.

Fiora glanced between the changelings, unamused at being startled so badly, "Okay, so why didn't anybody say anything about this before?"

Liz, now a changeling with a white holey mane done in a ponytail, narrowed her pure white eyes, crossed her forelegs with a humph, "Our transformation finished just before those FBI guys from DISPEL showed up on Angela's doorstep. I think showing off that you're a bug horse that feeds off love at the moment is the last thing you want to do in an agency that wants to get rid of magic."

Fiora paused for a moment, "Good point."

Dale glanced towards Angela, "But how'd you find where Taharis is? Some kind of tracking spell?"

Angela shook her head slightly, frowning a bit, "I'm not sure... It has something to do with changeling senses, of course, but other than that," She shrugged, "I got diddly-squat."

"Wait, Lyle?"

I turned to Emily, "Yeah?"

The pink eyed changeling frowned, "Did Taharis ever say why he was doing all of this?"

I nodded, "He said, 'revenge', but for what or who, I don't know; He never said."

Her eyes widened somewhat, "So that's why..." She glanced towards the others, "He must be doing this out of love for somebody, because that love is what Angela's picking up with our changeling senses. If Taharis is doing this for revenge, then he's going to destroy the country... for the sake of the one he loves..."

All eyes stared at her in silence. Ben muttered, "That's kind of messed up. How does that make sense at all?"

"I have no idea." Emily admitted. "But I've always been a fan of the philosophy that love makes people do crazy things."

"Then, let's go!" Angela called out, her eyes flashing a darker tint of green, "Taharis is heading deeper, and the longer we wait here, the harder it'll be for us to find his 'love signal'." She glanced up towards Ben, "You better steer clear of the warlock. As changelings, the transformation on us means he can't use his glove on us, but you're still just yourself. Better not let him get you turned into a pony forever either."

Ben was about to argue otherwise, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he paused, before begrudgingly closing it and nodding, "Fine."

"No," I glanced back at Emily, "I won't let you go down there after Taharis." I glanced at everyone else, "He said he'd kill-"

"Everyone?" Ben finished, snapping back, "Lyle, if Taharis succeeds, everyone in the country will get hurt, possibly die. We need everyone we can get our hands on to stop him." He glanced down at the green maned changeling at his side, "It's bad enough that I'm about to let Angela go down there with you."

I felt Emily's hoof over my shoulder. I looked back to find her smiling back, "Sorry, Lyle. But even if you don't want me, I'm going down there with you guys. It's sweet that you want to protect me, but..." She blushed through her black chitin, before planting a kiss on my lips, "I'll watch your back if you watch mine, kay?"

After a small pause, I finally nodded, "Fine, but don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"Then this is already out of your league," Angela giggled, mirthfully, "All you've ever done as a pony so far is run." She glanced down at her own body, "Ironic how we're going to try doing the opposite."

Ben crouched down to Angela's height, "Here, you'll need all the changeling power you can get when you find Taharis."

Angela laughed, "Care to lend me some?"

"I'll be glad to." Ben and Angela leaned in, before sharing a kiss between human and changeling... although oddly, that wasn't even close to the oddest thing I've ever seen before... what the hell has happened to my life?

Fiora simply rolled her eyes as she watched the two couples doing their own thing, "Geez, if this room wasn't already half-destroyed, I'd say go find your own." A moment later, though, a mischievous grin split over her mossy green muzzle as she glanced between Dale and Liz. Laughing to herself on the inside, Fiora smacked Dale's shoulder with a hoof, "You heard Ben, all the changelings need some magic love power to take on Taharis."

Dale blinked in confusion, "What?"

Fiora gestured towards Liz, "C'mon, lover-boy. Go give that... er, changeling girl some sugar."

"Wait, lover-boy?!" Dale's eyes were wide open now as he entered panic mode. Liz shared a very same look, that is, until Fiora gave her a tiny wink with just the right message added to it.

Slowly, a mischievous, toothy grin of her own came to Liz's face, realizing the situation was just a tease. With a smile, she shot Dale a seductive look, waltzing closer to the unicorn with a bit of hip sway in her gait, "Yeah, come on. I need some magic in my arsenal if we're going after a powerful warlock like Taharis."

Sweat droplets were visibly on Dale's umber fur as a full blush burned beneath it. Just behind him, Fiora was struggling to contain her torrent of giggles at his expression. Liz only pressed it further, "You don't want to deny me some magic and leave me drained when I need it, do you? Just a nice, little kiss is all... I.... need...." She was inches from his face, drawing out those last words hotly.

For a moment, Liz only grinned as she stared at Dale, straight in the eyes, letting her tail flick around her hips as if egging the unicorn into doing-

Suddenly, Dale leaned forwards and kissed her, the umber color of his fur burned out by the red glow of his face. The moment Dale's lips pressed against hers, Liz's white eyes flew open in shock, her body freezing in place as her mind short circuited at the spark the kiss created. Fiora felt as the giggles in her throat disappeared- no, perished into nothing, her jaw dropping with an expression similar to Liz's.

The kiss lasted a good three seconds, the two second mark being the one where Liz finally comprehended what was happening. The moment she did, her black chitin over her face grew pinker than a peach, matching that garden variety hue that Dale had acquired with his tomato red face.

Dale finally pulled away his lips from hers as the last of his willpower became crushed beneath his nerves and he hurriedly stood up. The unicorn took great care in not taking another look at Liz as he exclaimed in a squeaky voice, "Alright, warlock hunting time! Let's go! Now! Allons-y!"

As everyone else watched Dale rush towards the steel door, surprisingly opening it with his magic with desperate force that could have ripped it from its hinges, Liz and Fiora were frozen as the gears in their heads violently clinked together, trying to process what just happened.

It took a moment before Liz finally regained control, "I... didn't think... he'd actually... do... it..."

Emily giggled from the side, a black hoof over her mouth at what she just watched, "Aww, my little sis' first kiss!"

The next moment, Fiora was on her hooves, galloping after the runaway unicorn through the ajar doorway, "I'M GONNA KILL HIM!"

Meanwhile, the pink faced Liz still stood frozen. Sighing, Emily grabbed her sister in the pink aura of her changeling horn and draped her over my back, "Here, can you carry her? She should snap out of it before we find Taharis." She glanced between me and Angela, "Shall we go?"

I chuckled sheepishly, "Yeah, before those two get too far, or start going the wrong way."

With that, Emily and I raced out of the room, with Liz in tow. Angela and Ben shared one last hug, before Angela buzzed her insect wings, flying after us as she shouted back, "See if you can find some DISPEL agents to help!"

"On it!" Ben shouted back, running out of the room and into the hallway of the facility.

From under the table, Max sighed at the weirdness his life had become, putting his forepaws over his snout in a hope that this was just a dream. He wasn't sure if he preferred this level of madness compared to still being locked in that basement. Well, whining wouldn't help him, so he opted to follow after Ben, sprinting out the door after the teen. At least this kid was the sane one in this group of friends, sane being a relative term, of course.
> Frickin'...?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Taharis' breathing felt more shallow with every step he took through DISPEL's facility, his arm straining slightly as he dragged the pony Agent Gnome through the underground hallways leading deeper into the Earth. His grip cried out for release, aching at carrying something this heavy for so long; he wished he could use his magic to carry the agent instead, but that wasn't an option he'd risk using. His magic was dangerously low as it was, and he needed to make absolutely certain he had enough power to begin the ritual.

Sure, he had taken precautions to conserve his chi, by using the transformation glove to incapacitate any of his enemies with their own chi, as well as general illusions as well. Thanks to a simple misguiding, thin spread of power, he had thrown DISPEL off of his daughter's trail; he had never warped her fifty miles away, only less than a hundred feet below ground, in a secret bunker he had constructed beneath the house.

But still, despite his careful planning to conserve his chi, the unexpected still occurred. While he knew he'd encounter DISPEL agents, he hadn't counted on facing an agent like Gnome, who managed to stand his ground against him. Couple that with the fact DISPEL was alerted to his presence and Taharis had to use what little magic he had to bypass them. On multiple occasions, steel walls had risen in his path, ones that had been enchanted to prevent warping to the other side of it, which the warlock had to burn his way through. Not to mention, DISPEL's agents and guards were becoming annoyances, ones that always ended up sprouting fur and growing hooves.

However, Taharis could feel he was getting close. The deeper the tunnel he walked down, the more he could feel an enormous presence of chi around him.

"Y-y-you're..." A voice struggled to growl out.

Taharis gave a sideways glance towards the stallion he dragged behind him, not letting his own weariness show, "Ah, finally able to speak, are you? I find that surprising, given the ride we've been through on the way down here." He let out a low chuckle, "It's a shame I wasn't able to find any agents quite like you."

Gnome growled under his breath, "Where... are they?"

"Your comrades?" Taharis presumed, "They fell like flies before me. Now they resemble your likeness more than ever." The warlock chuckled, "I don't suppose they have any field training against someone like myself, do they?"

The stallion only glared over his shoulder, "Traces of magic have become scarce with our generation of agents. You can't blame them for serving as best they have under me."

Taharis only grumbled back, "Just shows how mundane this world has become, so devoid of magic that makes life worth living."

Silence rolled through the dim passage as the two progressed deeper and deeper. After another pesky wall rising to bar Taharis' way, the metallic walls and corridors melded with stone and earth, before only a tunnel cut out of stone remained. Taharis felt a small bit of relief that no more walls would appear now, save for the last lock between him and his target.

"You're after its power." Gnome growled with hostility, his limbs aching too much to move enough to fight the grip on his suit coat. Even if he could move like he did before in this new body, he could feel his chi reserve was dangerously low, with almost none at all to spare. He'd be at a disadvantage that could cost him his life.

Taharis simply replied, "Yes, the Archterra. It's my key to my final goal for this world."

Suddenly, the warlock smiled as what appeared to be a stone wall came into sight. It was engraved with intricate designs running through its entirety, like a spider's web.

Or a chi flow, all encompassing. Taharis stepped before the door, pulling Gnome just in front of him, "I find it quite clever how you sealed it off so intricately by using the very force you want to subdue in this world. But unfortunately, any warlock worth his salt would be able to sense who holds the key to this door."

Forcefully, Taharis grabbed Gnome's hoof, but despite the agent's best attempt to resist and pull back, the warlock pressed the blue hoof against the stone wall. Grinning, Taharis quipped, "Just a little drop of your chi will do."

The wall responded at Gnome's hoof making contact with it, the lines engraved into it glowing brightly as chi filled their grooves. The whole structure rumbled violently, before crumbling to dust before them, as if it had never been there before.

What lay just beyond the doorway, however, caused a grin to spread beneath his mask. The tunnel opened up a few feet ahead into a large cavern that could have housed a building itself. And in the center of the cavern stood a giant alter, a raised platform that dug into the ground with its sediment, yet strangely, it appeared as if it were as natural as the dirt and rocks it sat atop.

With a chuckle, Taharis shoved Gnome against the dirt wall, and with a pulse of magic, rocks protruded from the wall and wrapped around the pony's hooves like shackles. The warlock didn't bother with giving him so much as a passing glance as he strode towards the alter, "This is where we part ways, little gnome. Thanks for your usefulness, but I'm afraid yours has come to an end."

Gnome didn't speak back, only grunting as he struggled to free himself from the shackles of stone.

Taharis left him behind, travelling up the alter's craggy stairs to its top, a wide, flat slab, perfectly smooth and ready to be used. Feeling more confident than he had ever before, he pulled the mask from his face, tossing it aside so he could bask in the great moment to come. "Finally, the Archterra," From his overcoat's pocket, he pulled out a stick of chalk, crouching down to begin drawing the ritual, "The heart of the continent."


__________________________________


The metal halls of DISPEL's facility echoed with the sound of two dozen hooves as Angela, Liz, Emily, Dale, Fiora, and I all ran deeper underground, with Angela leading the way. But the whole way we had ran, we had seen other ponies incapacitated, dressed in oversized clothes or battle gear. They were DISPEL's agents and officers, and from the looks of it, none of them were in any state to take on Taharis with us.

If only we could run into somebody who wasn't a pony. Yeesh, and here I was, starting to miss seeing normal, human people. Unfortunately, those were becoming a ...rarity these days. YYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH\/

Fiora grumbled as she galloped past a white unicorn mare with a purple mane buried beneath a bulletproof vest too big for her, "Is it just me, or is looking more and more like we're on our own the farther we go?"

"Shouldn't we stop to help these peo- er, ponies?" Dale asked.

Emily gave him a wry look, "I'm sure they'll be fine. They did just go through the same thing you and Lyle did, and you two are fine." She winced slightly, "Though, that's if you consider being a pony for the foreseeable future 'fine'."

"Yeah," Liz agreed, having gotten back on her hooves a bit earlier in the journey downwards, though she still gave distracted sideways glances in Dale's direction on occasion. "We'll take care of them on the way back up after we smack some sense into the Taharis guy."

Again, we found a steel wall just ahead of us, but like all the others we had encountered before, a hole had been torn through it. I cringed slightly as we stepped one by one through the opening, "Liz, no offense, but you say that as if it's going to be easy."

Liz took a glance at the open wall as she stepped through herself, "Um... good point."

"To the right," Angela directed, turning the corner to a set of stairs, and we descended lower into the facility. Honestly, this place was like a maze. I couldn't understand how Taharis could navigate through this place at all without going blindly through it.

"How much farther?" I asked Angela as we continued to gallop.

"We shouldn't be going down any more stairs." She replied, her green eyes glowing slightly, "Taharis should be straight down this hallway."

"Great."

"But he's stopped moving."

"Even better," Fiora commented, "Now we can catch up to him."

"No, that's bad," Dale argued, "That could mean he's already where he wants to be."

Fiora deadpanned, "Oh... that's bad."

"So what's the plan then?" Liz asked, "Just run in, hope Taharis doesn't blow us up right away, and knock his lights out?"

I winced slightly, "I don't think gang rushing him is the smartest way to go." I glanced towards Angela, "I'm thinking everyone who can use magic act as long-range cover while everyone else tries to find an opening to take him out."

Angela gave me a fanged grin, "That sounded like something you say when you play Starwars Battlefront."

Liz gave a wince of her own, "Given Lyle's track record on that game, I don't think this plan's going to go well."

"Ow, harsh." To the side, I noticed Emily had gone oddly silent, "What's wrong?"

"I'm not sure if this is something to go off of, but..."

"What?"

"Even with all the ponies we passed in the hall, it doesn't look like Taharis has killed anyone, or really hurt any of them," Emily replied, but uncertainty still covered her features.

A silent moment of thought rolled by before I realized she was right. Nobody looked injured, or even dead, albeit they were transformed into ponies with a curse that was meant to be permanent.

I shook my head, "I know what you're thinking, Emily, but I don't think we should try to work peacefully with this guy. He says he's going to destroy the country for revenge, and if he's willing to go that far, I don't think he'll stop to think twice before he tries to kill any of us." I turned my focus forward, "We'll have to improvise, do what we can to stop him, without putting ourselves in too much danger."

"Well, better start improvising," Dale whispered, "Cause I think that's him up ahead."

The tunnel had gradually changed to one made of stone, and after a little bit, it opened up into a giant chamber. But shackled to the side of the tunnel, struggling under his restraints, was Agent Gnome the pony.

"Gnome!" The weakened pony glanced up at the sound of us and no doubt our hooves stomping against the dirt floor.

"What are you doing here?" He snapped.

Fiora only fixed him with a glare as she eyed his restraints, deadpanning, "Look, Mr. Agent guy, we're the only help you're getting at the moment. Nobody else seemed conscious enough to even walk right."

Suddenly, a cold, familiar voice echoed through the chamber, "You... I warned you what would happen if you followed me."

All eyes turned towards Taharis, standing on top of a giant, earthen alter, a piece of chalk in his hand. To my surprise, he no longer had his mask on. He looked just like any ordinary person, not a crazed man I had thought him to be. His eyes seemed focused, full of knowledge, as if nothing fazed him.

Taharis raised a gloved hand towards the six of us as we entered the chamber. A quick glance around the chamber showed nowhere to hide, or even take cover. We either would need to be pretty darn good at dodging, or take him out quickly. Luck would normally be an option there too, but honestly, our luck wasn't about to turn around for us very soon at this rate.

The warlock narrowed his eyes, "I told you kids I wouldn't hesitate to kill you all if you followed me... yet you still came." He sighed, shaking his head while keeping his eyes trained on us, "You're all too young to be playing hero."

"Well, we're the only ones that can stop you," I grumbled, stomping my hoof against the ground, "It's either we fight back, or let you destroy the country."

"It's bad enough you turned us into ponies for who knows how long!" Fiora shouted.

Taharis glowered back at her, "At least because of your transformation, you will be better off than anyone else on this continent." His hand suddenly pulsed green with power, "I'll warn you one last time. Run away, or I'll make your deaths quick and painful." We could feel the pressure his chi gave off in just his hand alone.

The changelings of our group charged their horns on reflex, ready to strike back. The air seemed to vibrate with the intensity of an inevitable battle of magic as the two sides of the incoming combat stared each other down. Silence passed the gab between us and Taharis, as if goading somebody to make the first move. I had never felt so much intensity in my life by just standing before this warlock; I could feel the hairs of my fur standing on end in anticipation.

For long moments, it was only this stalemate between ponies and warlock, as both waited for one to strike, ready to strike back when that first blow came.

However, those moments of intensity suddenly shattered as Dale tried to charge his horn, but to everyone's horror, he charged too much and a shot of magic sailed from his horn, flying just past Taharis by inches. Everything paused for a split second at what had just occurred. Everyone stared at Dale in shock, and the unicorn just glanced back sheepishly.

He scratched the back of his head nervously, "U-um... oops?"

Liz only sighed in annoyance while Fiora facehooved.

As for Taharis, the warlock on the alter glared at the umber unicorn, "So be it." His chi flared about his hand, and-

"Wait!" Emily shouted, suddenly running in between Taharis and Dale. My heart skipped a beat as she stood still there, Taharis' raised hand just inches from dropping and throwing the spell he was about to cast. But to my relief, the warlock halted momentarily, his steeled gaze never wavering.

Emily took advantage on the warlock's pause, "Before anyone has to fight... I just want to ask something."

"What is it?" Taharis coldly asked.

Emily locked up at him in the eyes, sincere as she asked, "Why are you doing this? Who are you avenging?"

For a moment, Taharis glared down at Emily in silence, his hand ready to strike with magic as his mouth made a tight line across his face. But to everyone's surprise, the warlock dropped his arm harmlessly to his side.

Taharis steely gaze pierced like knives down at the pink maned changeling in front of him, "You wish to know why I seek to change the world for the better? Why I go through this trouble for revenge?"

Emily nodded, not showing any sign of fear, only genuine curiosity.

"Very well," The warlock growled, "You shall know my tale.

"It began seven years ago. I was married once, and despite my heritage, my wife, Terese, thought nothing of my magic. She saw past it and came to be the love of my life. For a time, we were happy, living a normal life we built together. We used to own an auto shop, which we had built from the ground up."

"Parkway Auto," I gasped, remembering the rusted building Taharis had lock us in.

Taharis glare fell on me, "Yes... as you saw, that business didn't last for very long." His voice turned grim, sorrowful, "But that didn't happen... until I lost Terese.

"It was only months after we had our first daughter, McKenna. Our little girl was being watched at home, but Terese and I were caught in a car wreck. If it weren't for my magic, both of us would have surely died." Slowly, his face twisted into a snarl, "But some superstitious saw the magic I used, and like the coward he was, he attacked to rid this world of unholy witchcraft."

Taharis' eyes burned with hatred I could have only imagined before as his voice bellowed through the chamber, "That son of a bitch mistook Terese for a witch and murdered her! I had all the power I could ever need, but I didn't see that worthless bag of scum until that shard of a windowshield was in her throat! I couldn't do anything to save her, not even my magic can bring back the dead!" His shouting was the very definition of rage, but yet there was no look of frenzy. His face was controlled, but menacing, like a crazed lion on a leash.

Taharis huffed, hissing between his teeth, "He was imprisoned for murder, but rumors spread like fire in those parts. Soon, DISPEL came knocking on our door and forced me and my little McKenna into hiding. I lost the business Terese and I built up, for the sake of hiding any relation to magic I held with the love of my life. I despised every moment of it, and I hated everyone that made me do it." His blazing eyes glanced slightly towards Gnome shackled to the wall.

"But why now? Why not then?" I asked, "That happened years ago. Why are you taking your anger out on the whole country just for that, so long after what happened?"

Taharis glared at me with a ferocity that could have made snakes keel over. My own stomach flopped at the sight. "After DISPEL forced McKenna and I underground, they kept tabs on us. But now my daughter has come to the age where her chi is blossoming, and she'll learn how to be a witch." His teeth gnashed together, "But because of that, DISPEL was going to take my daughter away from me. They claim they'll only teach her to control her powers, but they'll brainwash her as well. By doing so, they could ensure they had another witch to work in this agency for them later in life. How do you think they find so many magic wielders when only a handful exist in the world?"

The look in his eyes only affirmed truth to his statement. This wasn't just a claim made out of paranoia. It was clear that Taharis knew what he was talking about.

Emily gasped in shock, and the rest of us fell silent. This guy was willing to go so far, all for his daughter... but what about his wife, and everything else he lost?

Emily spoke up, "But... why do you have to destroy the country? Isn't there some other way for your daughter to stay safe from DISPEL? Is there anything else that can be done?"

Taharis narrowed his eyes, the snarl disappearing from his features. But the firmness of his face remained, "My daughter is all I have left, but this matter is no longer just about her. All the misfortunes in my life have been caused by DISPEL and civilization's expulsion of magic. They could never accept the power that magic is, always acting out of fear that this power they don't understand will be turned against them. It's the same everywhere, witches are shunned and live as outcasts, magic is looked at as either party tricks or acts of the demons, and all of this, despite the fact that magic existed on this Earth long before humans could even build a dirt hut.

"They could never accept magic, and they never will. I've seen too much tragedy in my life to let my daughter face the very same for possessing power that will become rightfully hers." For a moment, I could have sworn I saw a tear shed from Taharis' eyes, but he turned to the side before I could see it. "I will never let her experience such heartbreak as I have."

The warlock pointed down at the alter he stood on, "This is the Archterra, the Heart of the Continent. This is the heart of the chi that flows through this land. Chi flows through nature continually, and all of it circulates through this point." He narrowed his eyes as he glanced back at us, "From here, I will have access to all the chi running through the veins of this continent, and with this amount of power, I will change the world."

"What?!" Angela gasped, awestruck, "But... how-"

"How will I do it?" Taharis answered impatiently. He pointed the chalk in his hand at the alter he stood on, "I have drawn a transformation circle on the concentrated point of chi. It isn't merely a transformation of humans into animals, mind you. This ritual is called Nature's Uprising.

"Once I activate this ritual, everyone on the continent shall see their world crumble back to a world before man dominated the land. Buildings will become buried beneath the earth as stone, machines shall shatter into nothingness, all of man's work to 'develop' this land will vanish before their eyes," A proud, almost manic look gleamed in the warlock's eyes, "And as for the worthless people of this land, they will become animals of any kind, in both body and mind. Every shred of their humanity will be gone, completely forgotten." Taharis' face split with in a wide grin, "This continent will return to its most natural state, one where magic will be able to exist freely and spread like it was meant to."

"That's insane!" Dale cried.

"Don't do this!" I shouted, "We won't let you!"

Taharis merely smirked, "Too bad, I never planned on fighting anyways. I need all of the magic I still have to activate this." Suddenly, the warlock dropped to the ground, slamming both of his hands against the alter's surface, and instantly it came alive as the glyph chalked into glowed with vibrancy that could only be imagined.

"No!" Angela shouted, rushing at Taharis at top speed with her wings.

Taharis simply chuckled weakly as he watched her fly at him, "Too late. You of all people should know you can't stop a ritual this powerful once it's activated.... Say goodbye... to the world as you know it..."
> PONIES!?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Angela tackled Taharis off of the alter, and the two of them tumbled off of the alter. The warlock gave no resistance against his assailant, only wincing as he landed on his back on the hard dirt off to the side of the underground chamber.

Despite her efforts, Angela only watched as Taharis chuckled weakly, more of a cough than a laugh. His face had grown sickly pale as he whispered hoarsely, "Too... late... It doesn't matter... what happens to me.. now..."

Everyone gasped as an surge of power rippled through the room. All eyes widened and turned towards the alter, where rays of glowing light shot like ethereal pillars towards the ceiling. They burned with the color of deep green moss, casting a sickly, earthly hue over everything in sight.

"We've got to stop it!" Liz shouted, galloping towards the alter's stairs, "Stomp out the ritual's chalk!"

Fearful of Taharis had explained concerning this ritual, the others and I ran right behind Liz onto the alter. Angela remained beside Taharis, the collapsed warlock.

Angela glared down at Taharis, urgency written over face in the green light of the alter, "How long will the alter glow before the ritual takes effect?"

Taharis held a weak smirk, his features like a ghost's, "It... won't... matter... None of you shall stop Nature's Uprising. None of you have... the... guts... to..." Just like that, the warlock's body went limp as unconsciousness overtook him.

Angela cursed to herself, a rare occurrence for her, "Buck, he drained too much of his mana to activate the alter." She knew, if Taharis had used anymore, he would have drained the rest of his soul, leaving him as only an empty shell. But by the looks of it, his soul was intact... barely.

Up on the alter, the glowing green glyph of Nature's Uprising only grew brighter as everyone and I tried to scrape away the chalk lines under our hooves. The white chalk came away scattered beneath my hooves, the white powder clinging to my fur. But despite me breaking the circle, the glowing pillars of light seemed to only grow in intensity. But that was impossible! Any normal circle ritual would have been snuffed out by breaking the circle, so why wasn't this one?!

Fear clutched my innards as I realized the others must have had the same luck as me. The glowing pillars of light remained, even over the places where the chalk lines had been erased.

"It's not working!" Dale exclaimed in fright.

"What do we do now?" Fiora shouted, glancing at anybody who knew how these rituals worked better than her. Her eyes fell on Liz, who shouted back, "I don't know! That should have worked!"

Suddenly, the glowing intensified, to the point it started to hurt to look at it, and at the same time, the chamber began to quake. Loose dirt trickled down over us as the shaking began to steadily grow.

Emily gasped, "What's happening? Earthquake?"

I looked up, and through the bright glow of the room, I could see crevices crack open in the ceiling above us. "We need to get out of here! The chamber's going to come down on us!"

"But what about the ritual?" Emily cried, "If we don't stop it, everything and everyone we know will disappear! I can't let that happen!"

"I-" I gritted my teeth. I didn't know what to do; Nobody did. The chamber was collapsing, and if we were still here when it did, we wouldn't make it out of here in one piece. But we couldn't run and give up on trying to stop the ritual. Everyone, the whole country- no, the whole continent was going to be wiped clean of humanity!

Off to the side, Angela only stared down at Taharis' limp form, listening to everything going on on the alter. She said nothing as her mind raced, trying to come up with any possibility to stop the ritual, but for one this powerful... it seemed impossible. With all the chi of the continent in use here, the ritual would be able to sustain its design, no matter if the glyph is completely destroyed; no matter if even the alter was destroyed...

... but that didn't mean they couldn't try to alter the effects of the spell.

Angela's eyes fell to Taharis' glove, the glyph on its back from the lack of chi in its range of use. As she stared at it, Taharis' words echoed through her mind, "It... won't... matter... None of you shall stop Nature's Uprising. You don't have... the... strength... to..."

At once, Angela realized what the warlock had meant by what he said. He knew there was a way to stop his plan, to alter the effects of the ritual. But as Angela used her magic to pull Taharis' glove from his hand, she knew this was the only way to save everyone, and to hell with her soul if she didn't do it herself.

"Everyone get off the alter!" Angela shouted, running towards the alter.

I turned around in surprise, looking towards her only to find her climb onto the alter, Taharis' glove in her grasp.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"We can't stop this ritual, but I can alter it to one where everything won't disappear, and nobody will turn into mindless animals."

Dale looked at the green-maned changeling in wonder, "Wait, how?"

A booming rumble through the chamber, growing louder and louder, cut off the others. Angela shouted over the rumble, squinting her eyes as the light of the alter became more and more blinding, "It's only an alteration! It won't stop it! Everyone will be turned into something else!"

"Turn into what?" Emily shouted.

"Ponies," Angela replied, regretfully, as she held up the transformation glove for all to see, "By using the glyph on this as an offering, I can divert the effects. We don't have time to draw another circle for a different result, but because of Nature's Uprising's effects, the transformations it'll cause may end up being permanent too!"

Everyone fell silent at the statement. With barely any time left to either run or change this ritual, we were faced with the choice for either everyone on the continent becoming ponies for the rest of their lives, or having all traces of humanity wiped from the land forever.

Which poison would we choose?

I grimaced as I nodded towards Angela, "Do it! I'd rather I still have my family and friends than have them become mindless beasts!"

"I agree," Emily agreed, on the brink of tears, "I just wish we had another option."

Fiora growled, "While I hate the thought of everyone being ponies too, it's better than what that sadistic warlock was trying to do."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Liz shouted.

"Everyone off the alter! Let's go!" Dale called, running off the alter.

As the others followed, I looked back at Angela, "Will you be fine? The ceiling's coming down!"

Angela only gave her toothy grin back, "Don't worry about me! If I get this right, the shaking should stop! Now get going!"

Begrudgingly, I followed with the others as we ran towards the entrance to the chamber, the entire floor shaking beneath my hooves as the green light of the ritual consumed the rest. I knew Angela had remained on the alter with the glove to change the ritual, but the light of the ritual had become to bright to even see her there.

I brought up the rear as everyone else galloped into the tunnel's opening, but partway through, I saw Agent Gnome still shackled to the wall.

"Keep going!" I shouted to the others as I stopped by the shackled agent, before turning and delivering a bucking kick towards one of the agent's shackles. The stone cracked and crumbled at the impact, weakening enough for Gnome to rip his hoof out of it.

"What are you doing? Where's Miss Ravensdale?" Gnome shouted over the deafening rumble.

I grunted as I kicked off the last shackle, "She's going to alter the Nature's Uprising ritual before it activates!"

"What?!" Gnome practically screamed, his eyes wide, "Are you crazy?! You're just going to let her do that?!"

My eyes widened at his outburst, "What do you mean? It's better than letting all of humanity be wiped off the continent!"

"You don't understand!" Gnome grabbed my shoulders, his eyes narrowed with urgency, "Altering a ritual of that power requires more than just an offering of another glyph! If she succeeds, your friend will die!"

In that moment, it was as if all time stopped. 

"What...?"

My heart stopped beating as my eyes turned towards the end of the tunnel, back into the chamber. My jaw dropped in horror as realization dawned on me.

"Angela!"


_________________________________________


Angela watched as Lyle followed the others off the alter, the sound of their hooves running lost in the quaking earth. She smiled as she held the glove in front of her, a tear rolling down her face in remorse where no one else could see it.

Silent among the rumbles of the chamber, she whispered as she closed her wet eyes, "See, Taharis? I was strong enough to do it." With a flare of her black horn, the glove she held in her magical grip burst into flames, the ashes of leather dropping to the ground with a singed metal plate.

As soon as the plate touched the surface of the alter, the glyph on it began to glow white with power. Like blood in water, the white instantly surged through the green glow of the air, until there was none left. She felt a surge of chi all around her, practically engulfing her in its power.

And the moment it did so, Angela felt the ritual take its toll, but yet, it felt painless.

She had done it.

"Angela!"

Now she only had moments left to live. Moments left to say sorry.

Moments to say... goodbye.


________________________________________________


"Angela!"

As I shouted her name, the rumbling suddenly died and the ground stopped shaking. The green light from before had dimmed slightly, becoming a pure, white pillar rising from the alter.

"No..."

Quickly, I raced to the alter in a panic, "No, it can't be!" But when I reached the stairs of the alter, I was met with a sight that stopped me in my tracks. Above the alter, in the pillar of light, was Angela, floating above the ground as a human again.

My eyes widened, "Angela?"

From where she stood suspended in the light, she smiled sheepishly down at me. There were tears in her eyes, "Hi, Lyle."

"Hi? Is that all you're going to say?" I called out, gritting my teeth, "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell anyone this would kill you!?"

Angela gave me a sorrowful look, "We both know if I told you, you'd never have let me go along with it in time to alter Nature's Uprising. This was the only way to stop Taharis' ritual... somebody needed to do it."

"But why couldn't we help? You didn't have to do this alone!"

Tears began to stream out of her eyes. I suddenly felt terrible that I had screamed at her. "I had to do this alone, otherwise, we all would have ended up like me. The only way to alter a ritual of this size was to give my soul and body as tribute." She shook her head, "The soul is the source of every person's chi, and my body, even now, is becoming pure magic. Look."

She held up a hand for me to see. To my shock, they were slowly becoming ethereal from the start of her fingertips, working slowly up the rest of her arm. Angela giggled sadly, "Hehe, look, I can see through my fingers."

I couldn't help it anymore. Tears began welling up as a choked sob gripped my throat, "W-why? What about your family? What about Ben? They'll miss you... I'll... miss you..."

Angela blinked the wetness from her eyes, a small smile on her face, "And I'll miss them, too. But I did this so everyone could be happy. I'd rather have them keep their minds instead of me living without them." She beamed, yet hiccuping a sob, "I'll miss you, and Liz, and Emily..."

By now, her whole body had become transparent. But now, her arms and legs were slowly disintegrating into specks of magic, disappearing entirely. I gasped, trying to reach a hoof out to her in desperation, "No! Angela! Don't leave!"

Angela tried to reach out to meet my hoof, but her hands were already gone. But despite her streaming eyes, her smile still remained, "Lyle... Tell my mom and dad I love them. Say goodbye for me... please?" She sobbed once, "And tell... tell Ben I loved him, too. Can you please do that for me?"

My eyes became blurry from their moisture as I sat there, staring at her. With the shimmering lights of the alter enveloping her, Angela looked like an angel, a pink, giddy, nonsensical angel that had put me through more trouble than I could have needed in a lifetime. She was a headache at times, a clown at others, but she helped me make new friends, helped me get a girlfriend. She could always make me laugh when I needed it.

... Why couldn't she make me laugh now?

Biting back tears, I nodded, "I can do that."

Angela grinned back, her whole body almost gone. Her long, blonde hair was beginning fade away into the pillars of light as she sobbed out, "Goodbye... best friend."

I had never heard Angela use those words to describe me before. In a horrible instant, I had realized something... maybe I had taken our friendship for granted... she had always been there. Sure, she had been a pain in my side sometimes, but that didn't change just how important she was to me... how could I have been so stupid to not see that until now, when I was losing her?

I sobbed, a bitter taste of guilt in my throat, "Goodbye, Angela... my best friend."

The last I saw of her was her blue eyes, before they ultimately disappeared with the rest of her, glowing as vibrantly as the white pillars of light behind them. The instant she was gone though, the light faded, vanishing into the stone ceiling above the alter as the spell was finally completed. Thus the chamber of the Archterra was plunged into darkness.


__________________________________________________________


Ben and Max traversed the corridors of DISPEL's HQ, the dog following the teen as they helped ponified agents they found in the halls get back on their hooves, making sure everyone was alright.

"You alright?" Ben asked a charcoal stallion, leaning against the wall in a bulletproof vest, the guard's unfit helmet laid beside him. The stallion nodded in reply.

"You shouldn't take our guards too lightly." Ben glanced over his shoulder to find a slender, red unicorn mare giving him a raised eyebrow. This unicorn, by the name of Agent Wand, had met them partway through their search for help to fight against Taharis. Now she was giving the teen an unamused look, "Anyone that's in DISPEL is expected to be able to handle any sort of pain and still be fine."

Ben shrugged his shoulders, "I only asked if he was alright."

"Well of course he-" Agent wand stopped short suddenly, brushing her long dandelion mane aside with a look that read 'I must be seeing things', "I don't mean to alarm you, but I believe your hair is turning black."

"Um, what?"

"And your nose is turning blue," Wand added.

Ben froze as his eyes widened, "Blue?" He quickly glanced down at his hand, only to find his fingers slowly begin to meld together into a hard, blue surface: a hoof. The teen sighed slightly, "Oh boy." But in his gut, his worry grew for Angela and the others that went after Taharis. What was going on?

"What the heck?" All eyes suddenly turned to Max in surprise, as those words hadn't come from any of them. Instead, they only found the dog suddenly sporting a muzzle that was far too long to be a dog's. Max meanwhile, ignoring the odd looks he was getting, kept his eyes trained on his paws, which were slowly becoming a pair of white and black hooves.

Now was the time that Ben voiced his thoughts, "What the hell is going on?!"


_______________________________________________


"Daddy?" McKenna Martin finally took the courage to climb out of the bunker in the basement, the exit being a trapdoor in the basement living area. She knew her dad had told her to stay in the 'safe room' until he got back, but now Kenna was really worried. Maybe he wouldn't get too mad if she just took a peek to see if he was back yet. If not, then she'd go back in the bunker again. She was pretty tired, but she refused to go to bed without daddy with her.

As Kenna climbed out of the trapdoor, a tiny yawn escaped her. She rubbed one of her eyes with a balled fist, "Daddy? Dad?"

Maybe he was upstairs? Kenna made her way upstairs, but as she reached the top step, she felt a pinch in her backside.

"Yeowch!" She squeaked. It felt sort of like that time daddy spanked her for saying a dirty word, but it didn't hurt as much this time. Yet to Kenna, she felt a strange stretch in her pajama pants, like something was stuffed in there. Curiously, she reached back there and pulled whatever it was out.

Imagine her surprise when she pulled out a purple pony tail, which after a pinching little tug, she realized it belonged to her.

With a gasp, Kenna squealed with delight, all traces of sleepiness gone in this exciting instant, "I have a pony tail! Oh my gosh, it's so soft!" She giggled as she ran her fingers through her own little tail, hopping onto the living room couch so she could sit. As she tousled with her new, soft limb, little did she realize she then sprouted two peach pony ears.

But despite her excitement, the late hour of the night mercilessly forced drowsiness back on the child, and McKenna passed out on the couch. That next morning, she would awaken to a cute surprise: herself.


____________________________________________________________



Emily's POV


Emily galloped back down through the tunnel leading to the Archterra's chamber. Her thoughts were in a jumble with worry. First she discovered Lyle hadn't followed them back up into DISPEL's HQ, then she and Liz suddenly turned back into their pony forms out of the blue, which shouldn't have been even possible! From Liz said, the alteration ritual Angela used must have overridden their changeling transformations out of sheer power.

Now a as a sky blue pegasus mare, Emily's pink mane and tail trailed behind her as her feathered wings added more propulsion to her gallop. Even after the minutes it took for the transformation back into a pegasus to finish, Lyle still hadn't returned, and neither had Angela.

But then, Emily entered the chamber of the Archterra. There, on the ground, was Lyle, sitting alone.

"Lyle!" Emily immediately grabbed the earth pony from behind in a hug, relieved to see he was okay. But something was wrong. The alter of the Archterra was gone from where it had once been, not a trace of it left. And even more importantly... where was Angela?

"Wait, what happened to the alter?" Emily wondered aloud.

"It sank into the ground. It's gone," Lyle replied, but Emily only just barely caught the monotone of his voice.

A pang of worry hit the blue pegasus, as she looked at Lyle's face, "Where's Angela?" But immediately, she gasped at what she saw.

To her shock, tears were streaming down his face as he stared blankly at the ground, letting wet drops fall with a drip against the dirt. A small mud puddle had formed in front of the yellow earth pony. He hadn't moved for minutes from that spot.

In a choked whisper, Lyle answered, "She's... gone..."

Emily fell speechless, as if words could help now. She felt herself begin to cry in shock, before she hugged Lyle closer. "W-what... what happened?"

Lyle only whispered, "She... sacrificed herself... that was the only way. She didn't tell us..." His shoulders began to shake, "She's gone... she's... never coming... back."

Emily felt his trembling body against her own. She sniffled, but she knew what needed to be done to help Lyle now. She pulled her head next to his and whispered, "It's alright... just let it out."

Lyle sniffed once, gritting his teeth as he began to cry harder. He took a deep breath, and in the dark emptiness of the chamber, he began to wail at the top of his lungs, out of sadness and frustration, one for Angela and the other directed at himself. With no words that could describe the hollow feeling in his heart, Lyle screamed his grief at the world.

Why couldn't I have been a better friend?


_____________________________________________________________



Several Weeks Later...


I sighed as I lay back on my bed, hooves out in spread eagle. It was still early, six in the morning. I had slept for a little bit, I was sure of it. But of course, my swirling thoughts woke me up once again, not letting me fall back asleep once I did. Believe me, I tried. But once my alarm clock sounded, I stopped attempting the futile effort, instead getting up off my bed to get ready for the day. After all, today was the day I finally went back to school. Summer was over; it had been for a week already.

After the whole continent had been ponified, life had gotten interesting. At first it seemed as if mass panic was about to overrun every country in North America, but fortunately DISPEL had come forward to explain and take the blame. It had been decided that Taharis, who had been promptly imprisoned, would be pushed out of the picture for his safety, and locked away for life, just so nobody would come trying to murder him for causing this widespread ponification. (it was a wonder he wasn't given a death sentence) Thankfully, after days worth of explanations, most things began to calm down some. Of course, not everybody liked being turned into ponies, and a lot of people demanded that DISPEL use the Archterra to reverse the ritual. However, that was impossible for the agency.

Part of the reason DISPEL came forward was that this continent wide transformation mimicked the effects of Taharis' glove, using everyone's own chi to fuel the transformation. Now that everyone in North America was unable to use rituals anymore, DISPEL found it safe to let the knowledge of its existence into the open. But even then, the only way to reverse the transformation on everybody would be to use the Archterra again. But the alter had disappeared.

Apparently the whole land was 'transformed' in a way as well by 'The Ponifying', as some people called it. The clouds seemed to have stopped, only able to move over North America under pegasi power, rainbows had become actual liquid cascading from clouds, and animals seemed to have grown a bit more intelligent as well. Not to mention, plants with mystical properties began sprouting across the continent. It was like the continent itself had become like Equestria. I was just hoping I wouldn't find Poison Joke growing in my backyard anytime soon.

But, as DISPEL had explained, because of this change, the Heart of the Continent, the Archterra, had moved to another place. And with hundreds of thousands of square miles to scour for it below ground, it would probably take centuries to find it again unless we got lucky.

However, that all went down in the first week. By now, most people had grown fairly accustomed to being ponies, some even finding its perks far better than being a human could have yielded. However, there were those who were dead set on changing back despite the knowledge nothing could be done, while others grudgingly accepted that fact and tried to make the most of life.

As you could probably guess, this transformation was a great boon mostly for little girls and boys, as well as among a certain fanbase of grown adults.

Yawning loudly, I stepped out of my room, making my way to the bathroom. But on the way, I passed a certain yellow, earth pony filly with azure pigtails skip past me.

I raised an eyebrow at my sister, "Marta? What are you doing up this early? You don't have school for another two hours."

Marta only shrugged, grinning that little grin she had never let go since she woke up that first morning with hooves, "I wanted to look my cutest today! Maybe it'd help me get my cutie mark today."

"Yeah, right. Cutie marks don't come from being cute." A quiet voice spoke as he climbed the stairs. Marta and I glanced towards our little brother, Kale, a mustard colored bat-pony with an indigo mane. How did we have a sibling who's a bat-pony? You got me.

"Morning, Kale, "I yawned.

"It's goodnight for me," He mumbled, trotting past me and Marta.

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Taking this nocturnal thing a bit seriously, are we?"

"What's... nocta- noctunra-"

"It means you sleep in the day," Marta put in.

"Yeah," Kale mumbled, before slinking off to his room. The moment he walked into his room, closing the door behind him, we could hear his snores.

"Mom's gonna get mad at him for missing school again," Marta muttered. The little filly looked back at me curiously,  "You're going to school today?"

"Yup, finally," I replied, though wincing slightly. I had honestly been dreading going back to school. It wouldn't be the same without Angela... That was the main reason I hadn't gone to school for the first week it started.

I sighed again, turning back to head to the bathroom, "Better go get ready."


______________________________________________


One of the cons to being pony was how hard it was to take a shower these days. Being covered in fur meant you usually had to shampoo your whole body if you didn't want to look like a walking mop head. Let's say showering took about twice as long now, even longer if you want to count the time it takes to dry out your fur. 

Finally, after a while of prep, I finally trotted downstairs in one of my hoodies, my backpack strapped over my shoulders. Down in the kitchen, I found Marta eating breakfast at the table, while Mom was cooking something in a skillet she held by her mouth, wrapped in a hot pad. Just like me and my sister, she had become a yellow earth pony, but her mane flowed out in a brilliant purple hue.

Mom had taken to being a pony well... er, well enough, I mean. She was pretty pissed while she relearned how to cook and write using her fingerless appendages and her mouth. At least being a pony didn't impact her teaching job too badly, besides all the paperwork.

"Morning, Mom," I called out, sitting down at the table.

"Morning, Lyle." She replied, letting the pan down on a hot pad by the stove. "Ready to go back to school today?"

I sighed, "Yeah, I guess."

Mom looked at me solemnly, "Honey, I know it won't be the same, now that Angela's gone, but you need to go on in life. She wouldn't want you to wallow like you have these past few days."

"I know," I replied as Mom hoofed me a plate of eggs and a few veggies. While fruits and vegetables became more delectable with a pony's taste buds, I was sort of missing the taste of meat. Out of our family, only Kale had remained an omnivore, lucky little bastard. "Thanks Mom."

"Want me to drive you to school?" Mom offered, "You are coming in a week late and you should see all your teachers before class starts to find out what you missed."

I shook my head, "No thanks. I think I'll just hoof it today." Ever since I became a pony for the long term, I felt like running anywhere I could. It definitely felt better when I could sprint all the way somewhere without losing my breath, unlike how I could have as a human.

After shoveling my breakfast down, I thanked Mom again and galloped out the door. When I got outside, the sun was peeking over the horizon at the dawn of a new day. Up above, clouds flew by, pushed by pegasi that managed the weather. Apparently, there would only be clear weather today. From what I remembered from the forecast, those clouds would taken to another weather team down south who needed the rain for their area.

Below where the weather ponies flew, a few dozen other pegasi could be seen soaring over the neighborhood, either on their way to school, work, or anywhere else in general. Flight definitely was faster than driving short distances, better traffic and all, so it was rare to see pegasi driving vehicles, unless they needed the cargo space their own wings couldn't carry.

"Hey!" A voice called from above. I glanced up in time to see Emily up in the air, before she lighted down beside me. These days, her mane had grown out to her shoulder, though today it was noticeably curled. She wore a frilled, green top, holes cut out for her wings, with a matching, white skirt modified for pony use

I smiled, giving her a peck on the cheek, "Hey, babe."

She giggled, "I'm glad to see you finally coming to school today. Can you believe it? We're seniors this year."

I nodded, "Yeah, I know." And so, we began walking towards school together.

As we passed by a fence line, where on top were perched a few birds, none of them flying away frightened by our presence nearby. If anything, they seemed to acknowledge us as we passed by, chirping as if to say good morning. A small smile came to my face once more.

"So, is the school as packed as always this year?" I asked Emily.

"Just about," She replied, "It looks like everyone there is taking pony life in stride now." She glanced at me, "Hey, did you know I have two classes with Dale and Fiora, too?"

"I... did not hear that." I admitted, "That's cool."

"Plus this is Liz's first year in High School, too!" Emily giggled again, "I'm no expert in relationships, but I think she's got a thing going on for Dale."

I chuckled in reply, "Heh, no kidding."

It was a nice walk, full of conversation between us. Time flew by and before we knew it, we arrived at the school. Just like usual, cars were lined up and either parking or dropping off students. However, it was definitely an odd scene to see some students flying onto the school grounds, and a mosh pit of rainbow colored ponies filing into the building.

I took a deep breath, sighing slightly, "Well, here goes nothing."

Emily only smiled as she gave me a quick nuzzle, "It'll be fine. Come on."

I nodded, and we began walking to the school.

But suddenly, something caused me to stop in surprise... I thought I had heard... something. It had been oddly familiar.

Emily noticed my pause, giving me an odd look, "Lyle? You coming?"

Shaking out of a daze, I smiled reassuringly, "Yeah, I'm fine. You go on, I'll see you later."

"Okay, see you in class!" Emily called out, taking off and gliding to the school's front door.

Once I was alone, I glanced about, searching for the source of the noise. I distinctly heard it, but it didn't seem like Emily had. Had I imagined it?

No, I remember what I heard. It finally came to me; it had been a voice. A very familiar voice.

My eyes widened, as I whispered to no one in particular, "Angela?"

And then, there, in the cool mist of an autumn morning, something rippled through the air, appearing in my vision. But what I saw made my heart skip a beat.

She was an alicorn, standing in the middle of the school yard. Her pink wings were curled against her body while her long green mane trailed to the side in the air, like ripples of wind in the grass. She bore a smile as she looked at me.

I gasped in quiet shock, recognizing those colors and that face, "Angela..." I glanced about, but no one had taken notice of the pink alicorn in front of the school, despite there being dozens of students around me.

"Hiya, Lyle," Angela's voice echoed, like a whisper on the wind, "Don't worry, nobody else can see or hear me, except you."

I kept my voice to a whisper, staring at Angela in awe, "What happened to you? You're-"

"I'm only an embodiment of pure magic," Angela chimed in, "It won't be a while until I have a physical body again, but even then, it'll be made of magic."

I blinked, "So, you're... not really here?"

Angela only shrugged, "I'm really kind of everywhere to be honest. Apparently, I've become some kind of spirit of the land, or something crazy like that." She giggled mirthfully, "Ever since the continent changed to the way it has, I've been keeping nature in balance. There's a lot of magic that needs to be spread over the continent to keep it sustained. The land's chi flow kind of got jacked after I altered that ritual, but I've been fixing it."

"So you're not dead?" I asked, hopeful.

Angela's smile turned to one of slight sorrow, "In a way, I have. But even then, I still exist."

"Oh... I see," My ears drooped slightly. Around me, a few strange looks passed my direction from other students, but I ignored them. I smiled at Angela, "I'm... just glad to see you're not entirely gone."

"Me too," Angela beamed, "The reason I came to see you is that while I may be gone for now, I just wanted to tell you, we will see each other again."

My smile grew to a grin. "Really?" I breathed.

"It will take a while for my strength to let me manifest in the physical realm, but after it does, I'll be free to be with everyone again."She nodded happily, "Best friends still?"

I laughed in relief, as if a weight had been removed from my chest, "Of course."

"I'm glad." Suddenly, Angela's form in the mist began to waver, making her frown a bit in annoyance, "Well, my time is drawing short. Just don't forget, I'll always be watching out for my friends." A mischievous smirk crossed the alicorn's muzzle, "But even though I may be some kind of harmony spirit now, that doesn't mean I won't throw few pranks at anyone anymore."

I stopped laughing, "Um, what do you mean?"

As Angela's form started to fade into the mist, I saw her horn glow for a moment, "Like this."

Suddenly, I felt a tingle on my snout. I looked down at it in time to see it begin to grow scales and stretch out into a thinner face. At the same time, my hooves began to shift into yellow-scaled claws, and my tail grew longer, becoming more reptilian.

My eyes widened as dragon horns began sprouting on my head, "What the frick?!"

When I glanced up, Angela's form was gone, but her giggling voice danced in my ears, "Don't worry, it'll wear off in about twelve hours, I'm sure. Have fun at school!"

For a moment I was silent, staring at the entrance to Lone Peak High School. Sighing, I let out a laugh, "Gosh dang it, Angela."

Her voice only giggled louder as I fully transformed into a teenage, yellow dragon with blue spines. Well, it was either go home now and face my teacher mom's wrath, or give a few students a good scare just by showing up. Chuckling all the way, I chose the latter and lumbered to the school's doors, a few jaw-dropped ponies who had witnessed the transformation staring at me the whole way.

Geez, life will never be simple for me, will it?

Angela only giggled back in my mind, Nope, not while I'm your friend.

I sighed laughably, Well then, I wouldn't have it any other way. A chuckle came to my throat, Can't wait to see Dale's reaction to this.

Ooh, this is going to be the best!


__________________________________________________



FIN