~Catt~

I was having a pretty weird dream. And that in itself was pretty weird, considering I never remember my dreams. But what was weird about this one was where it took place. Normally, if I even do remember a dream, I’d be in some kind of forest or in my local neighborhood. This time, I was in a pretty awesome looking space ship, flying through the universe. I just couldn’t help but stare, aware this was a dream, yet too stunned by the sights to care.

“Heh… pretty amazing, huh kid?” Someone said behind me. I turned, only to see… myself? No, that was the one this body belonged to. The Captain. “Yeah, space is a pretty amazing place to travel. All kinds of adventure and danger… but this isn’t why I’m here with you right now.”

“You… want to talk to me, don’t you? Is this the real you?” I asked. She chuckled at me.

“Yeah, it’s the real me. But I ain’t the captain anymore. You are.” she said, taking a particular hat off her head and putting it on mine.

“Wh-what? But why?” I asked, a bit surprised.

“Well, you’re in my body now. I can’t take it back, my soul is in too many pieces. My body needs someone strong to keep it going. And with some help, you could be as strong as me some day. Maybe stronger.” she told me with a confident smirk.

“Really? But… Catrina said….” She shushed me.

“Ignore that old bag of circuits. You wanna know what she told me when I faced of with Cthulhu? She told me the chances of winning were so low, I might as well just turn around and start running. And well… I still won.” she said with a proud smirk.

“So… she overestimates everything you fight?” I asked with a bit of a smile on my own face. She nodded with a chuckle.

“Yeah, that’s about the size of it… but hey, at least she keeps ya on your toes. Now look, you might not have a ship anymore, but there’s something you gotta know. At some point, a group that’s been hunting me could show up. They’re merciless. Well… you know the cliche. Won’t stop till you’re dead, blah blah blah… but hey, you can handle it, right? You’re already picking up some of my skills. Not to mention some of the enhancements that crazy old guy gave us.”

“I guess… Who are they?” I asked.

“They’re a cult of Florans I pissed off a while back. These guys are actually pretty teched out, almost to the point where you could barely call them Florans anymore. More than I can say for that crazy old dude that stole all my tech implants, anyway… speaking of which, you should probably get those back. You’ll need them.” She said completely seriously.

“Oh… well crap. I heard about them from Catrina. Is there anything else I should do to prepare?” I asked. I wanted to be as ready as possible. Maybe it’s a gaming habit I got from my dad, or maybe it was more of her going into me, but either way, I wanted to be as ready as possible.

“Well, you could go find the cloning machine Old Fido hijacked. Link back up to it, bring it back to Canterlot, and as long as you have money, you won’t stay dead. I had a lot before I broke though, so you should be fine.” she assured me.

“Wait, what kind of money? How am I going to get more if I can’t even get off the planet?” I asked, worried I’d run out of money.

“Oh, uh… Well, I guess you could ask Catrina to modify our Matter Manipulator to turn materials directly into Pixels. But then again, you’d have to find it, and the Upgrade modules to do that… Ugh, it's like some tedious video game all over again.... Well, just don’t die.”

“I won’t.” I promised.

“Good. Now, on to more present matters, let’s talk about those two recruits you switched.” she said, getting up on her feet, walking up to the captain’s chair, putting in a few commands on the dashboard. “I’ve been looking into our new magic. From what I can tell, you have quite the task ahead of you. Not only was that incident earlier a total fluke, but you still lack the mental discipline to pull off something like that on purpose. Thankfully, the second thing should come to you naturally if you at least try some mental exercise. The hard part is the actual spell. It’s something I never had access to, so you’ll have to figure it out yourself. But that doesn’t mean I can’t help you with it, if I’m reading this right, and I’m reading this right, you should have the ability to perceive souls of others, that is your first goal in at least gaining control over that ability.”

“Aw… but that means I can’t help those two tomorrow.” I complained with a pout.

“Hey look, the gloves should help a lot. But, now that you can do magic without them, they’ll only be a crutch. Maybe once they’re fixed, you can use them to try and switch those guys back, but then you should try and figure it out without them.” she told me. Seeing as I’d asked to get them fixed two days ago, they should be done soon. I smiled at that small hope.

“Alright… I’ll give it a go.” I promised.

“Alright. Hey, I’ve got more work to do, so you go ahead and get to having your own dreams. You still have a night to enjoy.” she said. I noticed out the window the sight of space dimming a bit.

“Wait, you can’t train me yourself?” I asked, trying to stop the dream from shifting away somehow.

“Relax, you’re still young. I want you to enjoy it while you can.” she replied. That was all there was left of her, before I slipped into a peaceful dream, full of the usual forest with cute little bunnies and foxes, playing around and dancing together.

“Hey, kid! Rise and shine, you got another morning ahead of ya!” Catrina heartily woke me up. I grumbled, wanting to just go back to sleep. “... Well, so much for hoping you weren’t a heavy sleeper like the Cap… Come on, don’t make me get to the extreme measures.” For some reason, the mention of that sent a chill down my back, and I felt my tails stiffen up in fear.

“Okay, okay… I’m up.” I groaned, sitting up. I noted my tails flicking about with agitation from being woken up. I’m really loving how fluffy they are. They make really good pillows.

“Have a good sleep? I noticed you were drooling a bit.” Catrina said in a teasing way.

“Yeah, best cake I ever tasted. But you know it’s kinda creepy to watch someone in their sleep.” I said, counter teasing. She just stuck her tongue out at me. “I met the captain, by the way. She’s pretty cool.”

“Wait, what? I thought Sonya was gone.” Catrina said, shocked.

“She is, in a way… she just kinda popped up in my dreams, said hi, and told me to watch out for a few things. Also told me there’s not enough of her left to appear in anything but my subconscious.” I replied with a slight frown.

“Huh… well then. What exactly did she warn you about?” Catrina asked, worried.

“A cult of mechanical Floran. And an old guy that took some tech implants.” I told her.

“Oh, those guys… no idea where the heck they get their numbers, but they have been persistent. Well, Sonya’s been kinda dead for who knows how long. They’ve probably moved on. Hopefully.” Catrina said. “Anyway, we should probably get some breakfast.”

“Yeah. I wonder what they can make…” I said, getting up. As I walked through the castle, I got a lot of odd looks. Some were good, some were… kinda creepy, and some were full of fear and hate. Lot more of that last one. I heard a few snooty sounding ponies ask why I wasn’t locked up yet, but Catrina got me to ignore them. I got to the dining hall without too much trouble, and I found Celly there, already ordering breakfast.

“Hey, Celly? I… I heard some ponies saying some pretty mean things about me… someone even asked why I haven’t been locked up already.” I told her when I sat by her. Her eyes narrowed in clear anger.

“Would you happen to know who it was? I’m going to give them a stern talking to.” she replied. “If anyone’s talking that way, then obviously I haven’t been as thorough as I thought about getting rid of such narrow minded thinking.”

“Uh, yeah… he had a blonde mane and white coat. And something like a tux…” I trailed off as I noticed Celly groan.

“Him again? Sometimes I wonder why I haven’t already kicked him out onto the street…” she got out of her seat, and started pacing agitatedly. “Still, the reactions are at least somewhat reasonable. I mean, you did use forbidden magic… but my scientists have told me the natural use of it was kinda stuffed into your body while there was still no soul in it, so it falls under the “Natural Dark” clause of the law. Those reports should be common knowledge…” She grumbled on for another few minutes before her breakfast showed up, which surprised me. Her breakfast… was a giant cake.

“...Why are you having cake for breakfast?” I asked with a deadpan.

“Alicorn metabolism. Gotta keep on the calories, or I’m going to turn into a stick. Kinda like how you gotta keep eating to use magic.” she replied.

“Uh… huh.” I said, not quite believing her. Turning to the golden maned cook. “Can I get a few pop tarts please?” I asked. He nodded, happy to serve.

“Going simple, huh?” she asked. “Must be eager to start training. Sorry I can’t stick with ya though, but I’ve got day court to run. Those two you switched should be back with you for training today.”

“You sure? They didn’t just switch bodies, they’ve got parts they aren’t familiar with too. Wings and horn switched, and all?” I asked.

“Yeah, but my captain tells me they’re already getting used to it. You can help them train each other too.” she encouraged. I shrugged. I guess it makes sense their superior would turn that accident into a new training regimen. I wonder if he’s some kind of super drill sergeant…?

“Hey, Princess. We’re here.” I heard a buzzing voice behind me. Turning around, I saw some kind of bug like alien pony with a candy colored mane, standing by a small grey Unicorn filly with almost neon blue highlights in her mane. And that filly was also staring at me with wide eyes.
“That filly… there’s something off about her, my scans can’t decide between normal and off the charts weird. It’s sticking with normal mostly though, so maybe that bug thing’s messing with my scans.” Catrina muttered.

“Oh hey, glad you’re here. Those two recruits are out by the training yard.” Celly said, pointing off towards said place. The chef came back with those pop tarts I asked for and I thanked him, before following Celly and the Bug out. As I followed the bug, I felt a small urge to stalk the heck out of it, maybe play with it like prey for a bit, and my tails reflected that in the way they shot back and forth. But the worst I did was creep up on her without making a sound and make some funny faces in the hope she’d turn around. The filly seemed to try a bit hard not to laugh at my faces though.

Eventually, the bug thing caught on, and turned around. She stared for a good few seconds, during which time Celly looked to find out what everyone was staring at. She fell over and laughed her flank off. Soon, the bug followed that example. I couldn’t exactly keep myself from laughing with them any longer, and joined them, rolling on the floor. I was interrupted when the grey filly jumped on my back and latched on with surprising strength.

“Gah, what the-” I turned around, trying to get her off. It ended up leading to a pretty funny (from the outside view) game of chase, with my tails being the hapless victims of my paws. At one point I tried getting down on all fours and bucking her off like a bull, but even that failed. Though I did accidentally find out I could run better on all fours from that ordeal.

“Oh jeeze, this is too hilarious…” Catrina laughed. I almost stopped to laugh with her… but then decided to keep the laughs rolling in by continuing to freak out. But then the filly stopped it by letting go and sliding off, using my tails as a slide. Then was a good time to stop and laugh, and the filly apparently agreed with that notion too.

“What is everypony laughing so hard about?” I heard another voice ask. Turning to it, I saw a midnight blue pony walking in, looking somewhere around my age, or maybe twice the filly’s. Seeing both wings and a horn on her, I quickly assumed it was a relative of Celly’s.

“Ohai. I’m just being a silly kitty.” I greeted her. The blue pony stared at me with wide eyes.

“...Sister? What the buck is this?” she asked, still staring at me.

“That’s a Magician Space Cat we rescued from an evil experiment stuffing her with forbidden magic in an attempt to prepare a new body for a senile megalomaniac. Don’t worry Luna, she’s on our side and protected by the Natural Dark clause.” Celly summed up rather bluntly. Just because I thought it might be funny after that, I just booped her nose and said “nya~”

“...Can we keep her?” Luna asked with a wide smile. Celly stuck her tongue out.

“Mine.” she jokingly said, pulling me into a hug. Luna giggled along, before looking at everyone else.

“We see thou have a greatly assorted party with thou. A changeling agent, a feline alien, and a filly naturally in possession of some dark magic, similar in some aspects to mine own.” Luna pointed out. The filly’s eyes bulged out and she took a step back from Luna, apparently surprised and shocked that she sensed it.

“Wait, Dark magic? I knew she wasn’t tripping out my scans for nothing…” Catrina said, staring the filly down. Not that she could see it.

“Looks like my AI wasn’t mistaken after all.” I said, staring at the filly myself.

“Wait, AI? Where the hell’d you get one of those?” the bug asked in shock.

“It belonged to me. Or at least, the last one this body belonged to, but whatever. How about some introductions? Not all of us know each other.” I suggested. Luna nodded in agreement.

“Verily. You may address me as Luna. We have recently returned from… a rather dark and painful chapter of mine life.” she introduced herself, more to me than the rest, it seemed.

“Alright, nice to meet you, Luna. I’m Catt, pretty much an unintentional body jacker filling in for a broken soul. And I have with me in my head an AI named Catrina who does the smart things for me.”

“N-Nice to meet you. My name is Spectral Ember, but you can call me Spec. I’m staying with Drops until my… brother recovers.” Said the filly. Luna narrowed her eyes at the filly.

“We can tell that thou art not being perfectly honest… but we can see thou hath a reason for such, and shall not pry.” Luna said, moving on and looking at the bug.

“Heh, you never could do subtle. Still, Honesty chose you for a reason, back in the day.” Celly commented.

“Right… anyway, my name is BonBon, or at least that’s my cover. I’m Agent Sweetie Drops, Celestia’s best in covert ops.” the bug introduced herself with a bow. “Happy to make your acquaintance, Princess Luna.”

“Right, so onward to the body swapped recruits!” Celly said jovially. Luna recoiled at that.

“What?! You mean the rumors are true?!” she freaked out, before rounding on me. I was surprisingly quick to react, throwing my paws up to try casting a shield spell in case of anything, though nothing happened… on either part.

“It was an accident.” I assured her. “I never meant for it to happen, and I’m doing my best to figure out how to fix it.”

“She has done nothing to deserve imprisonment, Luna. Lay off.” Celly sternly commanded. Luna glanced at her sister in surprise. Then after a moment thinking to herself, she sighed.

“Very well. We apologize for being so quick to assume. We have had rather poor experiences regarding the magic thou hath command of.” Luna said sincerely.

“It’s okay. And for the record, I don’t actually have command of it, just possession of it.” I told her, reminded of what Sonya told me last night.

“Don’t spread that around, it wouldn’t end well for you if you did.” Spec suddenly interjected. I was confused as to how.

“Why?” I asked. “I’m trying to figure out how to control it. All I need is some mental discipline and to know how to cast the spells in the first place. At least, that what this body’s owner says.”

“Ponies assume. A lot. And if the worst assumers of them hear that, they’ll assume you’re uncontrollably dangerous on account of you having dangerous and forbidden magic you can’t control.” Celestia clarified.

“Oh… would it make it any better if I clarified that I just can’t use it yet?” I asked, hoping there’s at least some saving grace for that mistake.

“But you already used it once. They have all the evidence they need.” Spec somberly pointed out.

“Oh… Okay, I’ll just keep it quiet.” I said, hoping I could figure things out before I had to prove anything.

We all moved on, Luna coming along just because I was super cute, and we got to the training grounds without further interruptions. When we got there though, we got hit by a pretty amusing surprise.

“LOOK OUT BELOW!” a frantic mare’s voice screamed. That was immediately followed by something knocking me off my feet. We ended up tumbling into Luna in a tangled mess of hooves, paws and tails.

“Well, that happened…” the dazed mare muttered. I recognised her as Razor Wing, from the other day, though I guess now it’s Red Alert, considering I switched them.

“Hai der.” I said, though I ended up having to spit some fur out of my mouth after speaking. Some of my tails and her mane got caught in it. “Bleh… what kind of hair care do you use, it tastes terrible!” I complained. Whatever it was, I could tell the stuff practically saturated with it or something.

“Ugh… That would be Red not using my shower right. Or my makeup.” Razor stated over on the other side of the training yard. I spotted her… him? Trotting over to help untangle us. “How was that by the way? You didn’t get to that part.” he said teasingly.

“Awkward. It was very awkward.” Red said with a deadpan as the two of us were engulfed in an amber aura. As Razor started trying to untangle us though, she ended up pulling on my tails. A lot. And it really hurt.

“Hey! Watch the tails! Ugh, why the heck do Kineptic even have this many tails?!” I complained.

“Hell if I know. I’m no scientist.” Catrina replied with a shrug. “Maybe it’s something to do with storing calories, so you can use more magic?”

I rolled my eyes and helped as much as I could with untangling us, whacking Luna in the face with one when it got untangled unintentionally. When we finally did get untangled, Red was quick to take air again.

“You sure you’re up to fly? You did just crash.” Razor asked.

“Yeah. I gotta keep practicing until I get it right. If I can’t stay in the air for more than 2 minutes at the least, then I’m not done.” Red replied.

“Heh… I think you’re getting a bit of my attitude.” Razor commented.

“So whom is whom?” Luna asked when she was finished spitting my fur out.

“Each is the other one?” Spec oh so helpfully supplied, while carefully poking the unicorn in his leg. Said unicorn giggled in a very not man-like fashion.

“Yeah, I’m Razor Wing. And that perv in my body is Red Alert.” Razor introduced. We all observed Red as he was trying to stay in the air. It took him about half a minute to once again lose control and crash, this time by smacking into a wall, prompting Razor’s eye to twitch.

“Just what is he doing?” Spec said with a tone of utter confusion.

“Apparently trying to be a flying brick.” Razor muttered with a deadpan.

“I’m trying to learn how to fly!” Red shouted back, though I spotted a bit of work on Catrina’s part, animating a red vein popping on her head. I tried not to laugh, but…. Well, trying didn’t work.

“I’ve been working on magic, but him flying around like that is pretty distracting.” Razor commented. I nodded in response.

“Yeah, I can see why. Nothing like watching your own body slam face first into a wall to distract you from something you really oughta be doing.” I agreed, watching Red try once again to stabilize. Spec meanwhile managed to climb on top of a nearby dummy’s head and was frowning in Red’s direction.

“And you haven’t been giving tips because…?” Celly asked.

“It’s more amusing this way.” Razor laughed.

“You’re probably gonna feel that when you get your body back.” Sweetie Drops warned. Razor just smirked.

“He’s over controlling his magic.” Spec muttered just loud enough for us to hear, but not loud enough for Red. Taking note of that observation, I watched Red for a moment, a few ideas popping into my head for some magitech accessories I could use to mimic pegasus flight… but I knew the ideas weren’t from me. Still, the idea of flying was very appealing. Red managed for a whole minute, this time, before he just stalled and fell.

“Agh, damn it…” Red cursed, glaring back at his… her wings. “These things are really hard to keep working.” he complained to Razor.

“Hey, not my fault you’re doing it wrong. Bright side of it at least is that for the next week, you get to fly.” she said, effectively turning Red’s focus off of complaining and onto gathering up some courage. As she did though, I noticed Spec’s expression. It looked like she was up to something… Being the fun loving kid I was, I was eager to find out.

She waited until Red was back in the air and somewhat stable, then she lit up her horn with almost neon blue magic and her face scrunched up in concentration.

“Whoa now… she’s using dark magic. What the heck is she doing?” Catrina said, staring Spec down. Luna turned toward Spec, tensing up and watching with caution, but thankfully not acting out.

After a few seconds of concentration I saw a change in Spec’s eyes. There were several small neon lights just… floating in her iris, it looked almost like small embers of some kind of... spectral… flame. Huh, is that where her name comes from? Evidently, Luna could see what Spec was aiming to do. Spec’s horn first let out a few sparks before blasting some bright blue embers straight at Red, whose eyes widened in surprise. Immediately, she pushed a lot of magic into her wings and jet straight up to get out of harm’s way, barrel rolling on her way, before cutting off and stalling for a second, before just hovering there. Then, as if realizing what she’d just done, she laughed in utter joy as she spun out, just letting her magic flow naturally as she dived.

“I totally got it!” she shouted in joy as she made a few loops. Razor chuckled.

“Nice move, kid. Thanks for that.” he said, smiling at Red taking joy in flight.

“OW!” Red shouted as she hit something. Turning, I saw she’d slammed into the training weapon’s rack. “Okay, note to self. Do not close eyes while doing tricks.” I heard her mutter.

“Welp. So much for that moment.” I said bitterly. It was a good moment too…

“You are welcome…” Spec weakly muttered from the floor, where she is now laying sprawled out and resting. I had to chuckle. I guess it took a lot out of her.

“That was an advanced spell for someone her age. It was similar enough to one of the base Kineptic spells though, but with the added benefit of Dark Fire. Maybe we could find a way to copy the effect in the Pulse module in your gloves?” Catrina theorized.

“We already have Soul Magic, Catrina. I’m not about to give anyone any more reason to lock me away.” I countered with a slight glare. Moving on though, I turned to Celly. “That reminds me though, hey Celly? Are my gloves done yet?” I asked, cutting into Luna’s rant about how dangerous Spec’s move was.

“Gloves? Pray tell, what gloves dost thou speak of?” she asked. I took a moment to appreciate just how weird Luna was talking, and how it seemed to get weirder the more distressed she was.

“They’re something the original owner of this body used to cast spells. Though due to experiments, I don’t need them, and they’re more of a pair of enhancers. Sort of a crutch for me when I need to do something currently out of my reach.” I said.

“Yeah, they should be. I’ll send for someone to get them for you.” she said. Her horn lit up for a few seconds, before it was over. Almost right after, there was a magenta flash, and suddenly I was staring at a purple unicorn, staring at the gloves like they were some kind of epic treasure. I guess this one must have some extreme love for science or something… He did hand them over though, and shortly teleported off somewhere else.

Putting them on, I held out my palm, and Catrina displayed on top. “Hey! Looks like they put it back together quite nicely. And it looks like someone even installed a few adaptive scanners. I should be able to function better, thanks to these.”

“Cool.” I commented with a smirk.

“Whoa…” Luna muttered as she stared at Catrina. “Tis very advanced… art thou certain it’s not just a personality moved from a living being?”

“I guess I could be, but if I was, I have no way of remembering anything before waking as an AI. Dad, or what you might call my inventor, made me specifically as a partner for Sonya. Or Catt now, since Sonya’s soul is kinda nothing but shards.” Catrina replied. Luna blinked, looking between me and Catrina.

“Catt has mentioned it before, but… now that We’ve heard it in more detail, We are interested. What happened?” Luna asked.

“Mad scientist found an alien’s ship and abused the knowledge it held, as well as its original inhabitant, tried to mess with soul magic so he could steal the space cat’s body, and it ended up going off like a bomb, nearly destroying every soul in the blast radius. Old guy got away, and now nearly two weeks later, new souls are filling in. First was a mercenary group’s spy, a changeling you now know as Summer Dash, and now the cat’s got a new soul. I think you know where this could lead.” Celly summarized. Luna paled a bit, though I perked a bit at the mention of Summer. I recognised that name… My brother always used that name for some character he used in roleplays online and stuff. Could it be…?

“Who else was in that blast?” Luna asked… no, demanded.

“One of my dragon agents. His name is Hidden Fang, but… his body was never found.” Celly replied with a somber tone. “He was likely the first to obtain a new soul, and whoever it is doesn’t know a thing about who he once was.”

“Oh boy… Hey, maybe if we can get a few Upgrade Modules, I can upgrade these gloves more so we can help find that guy.” Catrina suggested. I stepped in finally, wanting to get in my own question.

“Hey, back up a second. Did you say someone’s going about calling themself Summer now?” I asked, referring to the recognition I had earlier. Celly was a bit surprised.

“Uh yeah. Why, you recognise them?” she asked. I nodded.

“That’s the name of a character my brother used for Roleplays.” I clarified.

“Wow, really? Talk about coincidence.” Catrina remarked.

“I don’t think so…” I replied, glaring a bit. “I’m willing to bet that somehow, my brother got the two of us dragged here for some reason. And I wanna find out how and why.”

“Well when I met with Summer once, she mentioned a deal of some kind… and then she almost got killed trying to face off with Nightmare Moon.” Bonbon spoke up.

“Yes…” Luna said with a slight cringe. “We remember her mentioning that before she began the duel. How she fears not death, for it shall only send her back home… to a place she hates. She spoke of another world as well, so there is no doubts about her origins.”

“Wait, he almost died?! How?!” I exclaimed.

“She is a changeling, a race sensitive to extreme emotion. She faced Us at the height of my guilt and Nightmare’s rage, and both emotions took their toll on her. We also hit her several times with powerful spells… if her song hadn’t motivated Us so, the first strike surely would have ended her.” Luna recalled.

“... He won in the end though, right?” I asked, just wanting to be sure. “He’s still alive?”

“That she is… and she has fully recovered from mine wrath as well, or so We are told.” Luna replied.

“... He lost, didn’t he?”

“... She picked a fight with an Alicorn. Honestly, what did you expect?” Celly interjected with a deadpan. “Especially when she refused to even try to land a single blow.”

“Ugh… he’s insane.” I groaned.

“She still helped bring Us back from the darkness. She now bears a newly generated Element of Harmony, along with one Twilight Sparkle and her friends.”

“Pfft… typical. Always trying to be a hero, doing reckless things and getting something cool out of it. If dad were here, he’d end up grounded for weeks because of that stunt.” I groaned.

“So, you gonna try out that soul magic?” Celly prompted, easily changing the subject. “And before you switch Razor and Red back, my captain has suspended them to each others bodies for a week for… some grievance he didn’t tell me about.”

“It was attitude.” Razor replied. “I gave him grief for marking this experience up as training, and he saw fit to show me why I shouldn’t question his methods. Because they really are good methods.”

Celly’s next comment was cut off as I tested the soul switching spell with Catrina’s help, targeting Luna and BonBon. As I worked it, I could actually feel and make out what I was doing. I could even feel how I’d connected the two through some kind of line, and how a bit of them passed through it. And I could sense their shock and surprise as they switched in almost the blink of an eye. Once it was over, Luna, now in the buggy body, glared at me.

“You could have warned me, you know. I didn’t even agree to this.” she complained. I blinked, seeing she wasn’t talking weird.

“Agreed. Tis a… Bleh, what the hay?!” Bonbon made a face when she talked weird. “This archaic speak has to go…”

“What? Hey come on, what’s wrong with it?” Luna pouted.

“Firstly, it is a dead language, and secondly, it may confuse some ponies. Some ponies may even fear thou- you more for it, as it sounds far too… commanding, imposing, and official. It also makes tho- You sound rather angry.” Bonbon explained.

“I see your point…” Luna admitted. “But it’s not an easy habit to get rid of.”

“I can tell.” Bonbon replied, and I could hear the grating effort it took to just say I.

Spec was at this point apparently rested enough to get back to her hooves, and was occupying herself by circling and poking Luna, who turned to stare at her.

“...What are you doing?” she asked, looking a little annoyed, but mostly curious.

“I’m just… looking how cool this is!” Spec supplied, moving her poking to Bonbon.

“Sure you are.” Luna deadpanned, causing Spec to splay her ears back but otherwise nothing else, save for a faint glow around her horn and a sound of scribbling.

“Well, I’m good to switch you guys back if you’re ready.” I spoke up.

“Yes please. Being an emotion sensing bug is kind of unsettling.” Luna pleaded.

“And being a cute Alicorn just does not suit my tastes.” Bonbon agreed.

“Cute?!” Luna cried out. But then I got to casting to cut off the argument. As I quickly worked the spell, it soon became Luna’s own cheeks that were blushing in embarrassment.

“You’re cuter when you blush like that.” Bonbon stated when she saw it. Luna groaned, hiding her face.

“Hey come on, Woona. As long as you look like that, you might as well embrace the idea of being cute.” Celly pitched in. Oh god, even that nickname was cute… they’re really pounding it in, aren’t they.

“Spec, why are you taking notes?” I asked, since no one else seemed to be even curious.

“I… err… why are you asking?” Spec nervously responded, hiding the floating scroll behind her.

“Just curious. I didn’t take you for the studious type.” I said nonchalantly.

“You seem to understand a lot more about magic than you, or your age, might let on.” Catrina noted, causing Spec to sigh.

“My brother couldn’t come on account of still recovering, so he asked me to make notes for him. He is the real expert after all.” She said with a glance at Luna and resumed her writing. I glanced too, noticing her narrowing her eyes just the slightest bit, but making no comment. Red hovered a bit over Spec’s head, looking down at the notes she was writing, but looked a bit confused.

“What kind of language is that?” she asked.

“A special one.” Spec smugly commented before rolling up the scroll and giving it to Bonbon, probably for safekeeping.

“What? What does it look like?” Razor asked.

“Like a bunch of pictures…” Red replied.

“Sounds like hieroglyphics.” Catrina guessed. Spec just smiled and shrugged.

“Could be.” Celly said with much the same smile and shrug. “Hey Catt, how about we pay your brother a visit? I was thinking of heading down there anyway to check on a student of mine.”

“Sure. I’ll need some time to prepare though, I’ve still gotta practice the Soul Magic thingy without my gloves.” I agreed.

“Alright. I’ve got about four days to prepare. Take all the time you need.” she said, before grabbing Luna and leading her off somewhere else. “Now sister I think it’s time I started expl…” Her voice trailed off as she left.