> A Dawning Transformation > by The Blue EM2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Friendship is, indeed, not a waste of time... > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A few weeks had passed since Manteo's own celebration of Independence Day, which had been noticably more muted than previous years owing to the virus. No fireworks, no parades, no games, and most certainly no public barbeque. What a pity. Oh well. Apparently, Tom and Katrina had marked it in Britain, and Jimmy had ultimately settled on marking it his own way in his home, which had consisted of a reading of the Declaration of Independence, an enthusiastic if not entirely in tune rendition of The Star Spangled Banner, and a traditional seafood dinner, in honour of those pioneers from the East Coast who threw tea into a harbour and fought against the world's most powerful empire. And succeeded, because they were driven forward by a driving belief that no military could overcome. The desire to be free. Of course, the basic idea hasn't always been applied 100%, but its spirit has lived on nontheless. Jimmy knew this well, and soon made his way out of his bed (today being the 18th July, that most auspicious of days) and soon rolled downstairs, not even in day clothing but still firmly clad in nightwear, his clock having fallen off his nightstand again and crashed into pieces, princes and nations on the floor. Sorry, Mendellsohn. Anyways, Jimmy was now on the bottom floor, but how he had teleported to the top floor when another person occupied the top floor was unclear. That person had no reaction to Jimmy's falling down the stairs, however, and simply went on with their life as Jimmy got up off the floor, brushed off the dirt that had accumulated on his clothing, and headed onwards into his kitchen, keen to produce a breakfast fit for a King. However, before he could start this most important of tasks, he suddenly noticed that his portable telephone had begun to ring, so he went over to it, and answered it, and heard what the person on the other end had to say. "Hey little bro!" said the voice on the other end. It was Jimmy's older brother, David, currently locked down in Memphis owing to the virus. Oh well. Digital art and design paid well and could be done remotely. "Hi Dave," Jimmy replied. "Of course, to call me 'little' when I'm physically larger than you is a bit of a misnomer..." "You know what I meant. Pedantry is annoying, I have no idea who you get it from." There was a pause, before the line resumed. "Sorry I couldn't make it out to Manteo today, but you know how things are. I'm not convinced its safe to leave lockdown yet, even though huge numbers of people are. I hope they enjoy swamping our medical system with excess cases, because it sure is selfish and doesn't help the rest of us." "That's the state of affairs right now. Ever since the cockwomble took power, it's been everybody for himself." There was a laugh at the other end of the line. "Cockwomble?" "It's a really interesting word. It's a Scottish term for a person who talks at great length about how much they know and act as if they know a great deal, but in reality know very little at all." "Fits a certain orange guy very well," David replied. "I'm stuck indoors here with boiling temperatures outside. Good thing I have AC. How's the old house holding up? You still got the AC working?" "I was moved into a new property as the old one got destroyed." This was, indeed, true, but Jimmy neglected to mention that he was the one who had destroyed it. "It's nice. Smaller, but nice. I still have the model ship dad gave me." "Good lad. Well, I must be getting back to work. Catch you later!" "See ya." Jimmy placed the device down, and walked over to another table. There was something odd going on. A plushie of a pony sat on his table, a plushie that most certainly had not been there previously. "Is that a Luster Dawn one? I had no idea Hasbro made the character, given the show's ended and all." He walked closer, and piced- no, picked- it up so he could examine it with great attention. Instead, it electrocuted him. Jimmy knew, and indeed felt, where all of this was going, as his body set about the usual shenanigans. He got a pretty good hint when the world suddenly began increasing in size all around as his very frame was reduced in size, limbs starting to shift and fat and muscle melting into the ether like hot wax. Once it seemed to be done, and he had lost at least three feet of height, his facial hair fell off, and his eyes turned a shade of orange. His ears grew taller and taller, until they resembled a pair of conical radar dishes before sliding slightly up his head. His nose started to tingle, but he was so caught up in his clothing he couldn't easily reach up and comfort it as it began growing out of his face. His mouth joined in, and both merged to create a muzzle afront his face. The muzzle of a female horse. His shoulders yanked in and reshaped into an equine shape as his arms snapped backwards to create what looked like front legs. His hands closed up, balling into a pair of hooves, which soon made an irritating clopping noise (not that type of clop. Stop laughing. Yes, including you at the back. I can see you). Moments later, he gained a horn. A pink horn. Not long after that, his hair turned orange with yellow streaks and pulled back in, threading itself and attaching to the back of his neck, and hanging messily over to the right hand side of his face. His chest soon began swelling up, creating a pony barrel in next to no time. This mare sleemed slightly chubby, but Jimmy had no chance to think about this as his manhood was pulled inwards and replaced by the female equivalent. Her legs snapped backwards to create, well, back legs I suppose, and his feet morphed as well into hooves. His ass then began to tingle as a tail, the same colour as the mane, flowed out and backwards in a chaotic mixture of orange and yellow, and seemingly in need of a good brush. A symbol of an orange sun with yellow sunbeams appeared on her flanks as it ended, and Jimmy extricated herself from the damaged clothing. "Who is this?" she asked, now with a radically different voice to before. "I don't recognise this- oh. I'm Luster Dawn." She focused her mind and magic, and suddenly a portal opened, through which she went and landed in a garden somewhere. Nearby was pony Twilight, and a woman Luster identified as Katrina Miller from previous visits. "Twilight?" she asked. "What happened to your wings?" "Earlier Twilight," Twilight replied. "Can you help with something? Remember that firework spell we worked on?" "Sure thing! I'll have a set of fireworks put together in no time!" "You won't," Twilight said. "What do you mean?" "WE will," the Lavender Unicorn (had to do it at least once) smiled, and looked up at the sky. "Ready?" "Ready," Luster smiled, and the pair charged their horns. Once both had held in their respective positions for a few seconds, both grimacing with the energy produced and the level of concentration required, they let the spell go into the sky. The sky over Nottingham erupted in a spectacular mixure of fireworks and bright lights. Red, white, and blue light scattered and zoomed across the field of the air, followed by rapid trails of smoke, whizzers, and loud noises. Catherine wheels spun midair, and flaming fires flew through the skies. The most spectacular display detonated all at once, producing a marvellous vision of the Stars and Stripes, in firework form that made even the most Anti American of British people awed and proud of the great nation across the pond. As the smoke cleared, Katrina turned to the pair of unicorns who had made this possible. "Happy Independence Day, you two," she smiled. "Happy Independence Day to you too," Twilight smiled in response. "And a happy new year!" Luster added, before noticing the Lavender Unicorn looking at her. "What?"