Spritelight

Chapters

Chapter 2, Josey 2
Chapter 3, Josey 3
Chapter 4, Josey 4
Chapter 5, Josey 5
Chapter 6, Josey 6
Chapter 7, Josey 7
Chapter 8, Josey 8
Chapter 9, Josey 9
Chapter 10, Josey 10
Chapter 11, Josey 11
Chapter 12, Josey 12
Chapter 13, Spritelight 1
Chapter 14, Spritelight 2
Chapter 15, Spritelight 3
Chapter 17, Spritelight 5
Chapter 18, Spritelight 6
Chapter 19, Spritelight 7
Chapter 20, Spritelight 8
Chapter 21, Spritelight 9
Chapter 22, Spritelight 10
Chapter 23, Spritelight 11
Chapter 24, Spritelight 12
Chapter 25, April 1
Chapter 26, April 2
Chapter 27, April 3
Chapter 28, April 4
Chapter 29, April 5
Chapter 30, April 6
Chapter 31, April 7
Chapter 32, April 8
Chapter 33, April 9
Chapter 34, April 10
Chapter 35, April 11
Chapter 36, April 12
Chapter 37, Josey 13
Chapter 38, Josey 14
Chapter 39, Josey 15
Chapter 40, Josey 16
Chapter 41, Josey 17
Chapter 42, Josey 18
Chapter 43, Josey 19
Chapter 44, Josey 20
Chapter 45, Josey 21
Chapter 46, Josey 22
Chapter 47, Josey 23
Chapter 48, Josey 24
Chapter 49, Spritelight 13
Chapter 1, Josey 1
Chapter 16, Spritelight 4

Chapter 2, Josey 2

Dinner helped Rhonda relax a little even if she kept blushing at the jokes my parents kept making. How they would have to hire a moving truck whenever she decided to move in with us, the expenses that would bring with it, how they would have to get a second job just to pay for Rhonda's tuition, and not to mention the amounts of extra groceries they had to buy...

Mom at least shut dad down when he started about "female hygiene products", saying she could tell him a thing or two about them that would make him lose his appetite and wondering if her cooking was really bad enough that he would chance that. Dad immediately jumped in with all sorts of reasons why mom's cooking was the best, and mom milked it for all it was worth.

When we were finally done with dinner, we excused ourselves to return to our homework assignments and I caught mom and dad share a glance between one another. Maybe Rhonda was right and they were starting to think I was lesbian even before I was really sure of my own sexuality? What is it with parents?

I followed Rhonda up the stairs, making sure her tail would be hidden even if there was some reason why the hairs would poke out of her pants, and we went back into the, now darkened, room. I turned on the lights while Rhonda freed her tail from its confinement, and I reached for the brush to help her.

"Hey, didn't we leave the brush here on the bed?", I wondered, not being able to find it, the comb, or any of the hair bands where I had last seen them.

Rhonda absentmindedly responded as she was far too occupied reaching back to feel at her tail as if she was still coming to terms with the whole idea of having it. "You must've put it back in the dresser before we went down?"

I was sure I hadn't done so, but when I opened the dresser I found the comb, brush, and even the hair bands all neatly organized within. "Hm. I suppose I did," I mumbled, picking up the brush and staring at it a bit.

It was clean. Not a single hair on it. Not mine, not Rhonda's, not Rhonda's tail's. No hair. The comb and hair bands were similarly void of hairs and this made me frown. No matter how hard I tried to keep things like those clean, I was always left with a hair or two on it. It made no sense.

I closed the drawer with a suspicious look on my face, caught myself in the mirror, and shook the feeling off. It was just another mystery on top of my best friend suddenly growing a tail, and Rhonda's problem came first on my list.

I gently combed out her tail and we went to sit at the desk again to finish our homework, with Rhonda leaning into me a little more than usual. I didn't mind. I was trying to focus on the problems we needed to solve so I wouldn't think about how the brush could've cleaned itself and put itself away.

Something didn't add up, and that was the whole problem with calculus. I found Rhonda correcting me several times as I made some mistakes that I should have normally caught, but we got through the assignment before bedtime at least.

Rhonda put on one of my longer nightgowns so her tail wouldn't be inconvenienced, and I slipped into my regular PJs. While it would help her overnight, her tail did keep flicking as we were brushing our teeth, sending the gown moving this way or that as if there was an odd breeze localized around her.

It made me giggle and spill all of my toothpaste over the bathroom sink until Rhonda realized what was going on and moved to stand behind me so I wouldn't get distracted by it. She was done brushing her teeth before I was, of course. I mean, I had to clean the toothpaste from the sink and mirror and walls. It was a mess.

Rhonda had already fallen asleep by the time I entered my room again, laying as close to the wall as she could, with ample space for me to crawl in bed beside her. She had taken to hug a large teddy bear I won at a carnival once and which she'd adopted as Mister Safety after it helped her calm down when she'd suffered a particularly bad panic attack.

I didn't know everything there was to know about Rhonda, but she was a collection of fears and shyness wrapped in a bundle of cuteness and I had felt I needed to protect her ever since I met her in elementary.

She was a bit like Fluttershy, in a way, and her innocence was refreshing in the otherwise dark and gloomy world around us. I turned off the light, crawled in bed beside her and closed my eyes to go sleep.

Two hours, and a dozen restless turns later, I found myself laying on my left side staring at the alarm clock on the dresser. Just a few minutes past midnight. We'd gone to bed around ten. What was it that kept me up?

It wasn't the tail. It was just another facet of Rhonda to me. I had accepted it as such and moved on. Of course there were the questions of why and how and what next, but those could wait. We would take care of those questions together.

Was it the brush? How did it move to my dresser? There was no-one in the house except for me, my parents, and Rhonda. And all four of us had been at the dinner table.

My window wasn't easily accessible from the outside, mom's thorny rose bushes underneath it made sure of that. The dining room was right next to the hallway and we would have seen anyone going up or down the stairs. How did it move? On its own? Objects like that couldn't move on their own.

I sighed and blinked at the clock. 0:14 just ticked away to 0:15. I reached up to rub at my forehead a bit. It made no sense. The tail, nor the brush.

I stopped rubbing my forehead as I felt something odd on it and sat up in bed to feel at it. There was a bump there that shouldn't have been there. It hurt a little as I pressed against it. Had I bumped my head and not realized it?

I pushed it again and winced from the pain. Whatever it was, it didn't feel right. I pushed up out of bed and walked over to the dresser, trying in the light of the moon to figure out what was on my forehead but couldn't see it. I had no choice. I had to turn on the light and hope Rhonda would sleep through it.

As I turned for the light switch near the door, I caught a glimpse in the mirror of a shadow moving behind me in the darkness and quickly whirled around to look at it. As I did, a dizzy spell overtook me and I slumped to the ground like a puppet suddenly getting its wires cut.

It was there that I woke up, with Rhonda gently nudging me as she sat beside me with a worried look on her face. "Jo? Wake up please, Jo? Are you ok? What happened?"

I stirred and felt my muscles cramp up. I had been laying in the wrong position, on a cold floor, and every joint in my body protested as they had to move again.

"Ngrrf," I groaned, reaching up to rub at my forehead in an attempt to wake up and snapping to full consciousness as I felt the bump in the middle of it. "OUCH!", I exclaimed loudly, the pain from touching it even worse than it had been during the night.

"Did you hit your head, Josey?", Rhonda asked, helping me get up and sit on the side of the bed. "Did you really sleep on the floor all night?"

I stared blankly at her, using both my hands to feel at the area surrounding the bump. "I don't fully remember. I think I went to bed?", I started, wincing lightly as I found the edges of the painful area surrounding the bump as I gently prodded at it with my fingertips.

"I got up after midnight to, er..." The memories were there, but they were getting more and more foggy as I tried to recall them. "Went to the dresser? I..." The shadow!

I quickly looked around the room but got a dizzy spell immediately following the rash movement of my head and sank sideways against Rhonda's form while trying to stop the room from spinning. "Not feeling too good."

"Want me to get some water?", I heard Rhonda ask, but her voice sounded like it came from far away. "Jo? Josey?", she called out in concern as I lost consciousness again, the darkness at least giving me a respite from the pain.

I woke up with a wet cloth getting dabbed to my forehead, laying on my back in the bed with the blankets covering me. I blinked up at Rhonda's worried face staring down at me again and a feeling of Deja-Vu came over me.

"Why is it always you who comes to my aid?", I asked her, and she smirked while taking the cloth from my head and dabbing it in a bowl of water.

"Because it's always you who comes to mine, Josey."

Rhonda smiled weakly, putting the cloth back to my forehead. The cold thing felt like a saving grace to the headache I had, dampening it a little and allowing my thoughts to surface more easily.

"What happened?", I asked, trying to remember what happened through the fog in my head.

"I woke to find you on the floor. You must have hit your head because there's a big bump on it. When I asked you about it earlier, you suddenly fainted again. I don't know anything beside that," she offered, and I freed a hand from under the blankets to reach out for hers.

"Thank you for taking care of me," I sighed with a smile, closing my eyes and falling asleep properly.

It was dark when I woke up again, and found Rhonda snuggled up to my side in the bed again. The smell of soup lingered in the air and I tasted some remnant of it in my mouth.

I licked around my mouth a little to get the taste out and my saliva production going, while trying to get the shadows in the room in focus and failing miserably at it. I noticed a slight movement in the room and tried to look at it, but something kept me from moving my head.

An unfamiliar voice whispered something in my ear, but it wasn't in a language I knew. It just sounded like "boshashdemburibiboshbu," or something... I don't know, I was not in the right state of mind to memorize it.

Somewhere inside I felt that it was all going to be ok, but I don't know why I felt like that. It did help me close my eyes again to sleep, all fears surrounding the shadow or the voice disappearing from my mind.

Chapter 3, Josey 3

I woke up refreshed in the morning, with Rhonda still clinging to my side, and turned my head to face her. Something moved with my head and I frowned a little at it. When I tried to turn my head to get a better look at it, the darn thing moved with my head again, constantly staying just out of sight!

I could barely catch a glimpse of a shadow of a thing that looked like I was wearing a baseball cap or something, but not as wide. But I couldn't tell what it was exactly. My movements roused Rhonda, and I turned my attention back to the sleepy girl blinking her eyes open to the morning light.

"Hey, good morning, Rho-Rho. Did you sleep well?" I asked, my voice sounding a bit raw due to lack of moist in my throat.

Rhonda stretched herself with a long yawn, which had me yawning with her, but then nodded and looked up at me to answer. Her mouth opened, but instead of words coming out of it, I saw her eyes go wide and her face get pale while her mouth just opened up a little farther.

"What? What's wrong? Do I have something on my face?" I asked, snapping to full consciousness, and she nodded quickly. "I do? Well, get it off then!" I meeped, and Rhonda quickly shook her head.

"Rho? What's going on?" Rhonda pointed silently at the mirror above the dresser, and I sighed while moving to pull the blankets off of myself. I swung my legs to the side and put my arms underneath me to push up into a sitting position. "Fine, fine, I'll go look," I muttered.

With Rhonda still in a state of shock, I pushed up from the bed to walk on over to the dresser. I still felt a little dizzy, and had to put my hands on top of it before I felt stable enough to look up at the mirror suspended above it.

"I don't see any," I started, not seeing anything out of the ordinary on my face, but stopped mid-sentence as I spotted the protrusion extending about two inches from my forehead.

It looked like, well, as if there was a bone growing underneath my skin.

My skin looked stretched out over it. Just my normal skin. Nothing abnormal about my skin, except for how it was sticking out. It looked a bit cone-shaped. A round, cone shaped, protrusion...

"You're growing a horn," I heard Rhonda gasp from the bed, and swallowed at the reality of things.

I was.

There was a horn growing out of my forehead!

I had to stabilize myself against the dresser as I felt my knees grow weak staring at the thing.

"How is... What... I don't even," I started, dropping to my knees and still staring at my reflection in the mirror. Here I was, a human girl, with a horn protruding from my forehead!

Rhonda quickly rushed to my side as I fell down, supporting me both physically and emotionally as I felt my tears break when her arms wrapped around me.

"I don't," I started, then turned toward Rhonda's form and cried without reservation. Rhonda let me. Even if I was parched from having just woken up, from not having had more to drink than whatever Rhonda had fed me during the previous day as I had laid unconscious in the bed, the tears just rolled down my cheeks and dropped onto her shoulder and upper back.

We sat like that for a few minutes until Rhonda's words started to register in my mind and I slowly started to regain my composure while listening to her babbling into my ear.

"...maybe a hat or something. I could go wear skirts again, I guess? We'll go through this together. You said so yourself. I'll never leave you, Josey. You've always been there for me and didn't throw me out when you saw my tail. I will help you with finding something to mask this. Cause I love you, you know? You've been my best friend for so long, I wouldn't know what to do without you. I just wish you'd had a tail as well. I don't think we're allowed to wear hats in school."

I rested my head on her shoulder and squeezed her gently. "Rho and Jo forever," I muttered through the tears, and Rhonda leaned her head sideways against mine and repeated the last word.

"Forever."

"Forever is a long time, you know?" Discord's voice sounded in the room, and both Rhonda and me looked up and around ourselves to try and find where the words came.

It took us both a moment, but then Rhonda gasped and pointed to a poster on my wall. The poster featured the actor John Barrowman in his role as Captain Jack Harkness, wearing a military overcoat. He looked quite the imposing figure, if not for the Draconequus curled around the man's shoulders like a boa.

Discord looked far too real to be there, and his movements, while the rest of the sun-bleached poster remained stationary, was enough to cause a feeling of unease in the both of us.

He didn't look like how he was depicted in the show at all. Well, he did, goatee and all, but he didn't look drawn. His head looked like a real goat's head. His claws like real claws. His scaled tail like real scales. They shined in the light coming in from the window as if he was really there in the room with us. As a two-dimensional representation of himself simply projected onto the poster.

Except he wasn't projected onto the poster. He really hung over Captain Jack's shoulders. His body disappeared where it went around behind the man's neck. He even had the tip of his tail tucked into Jack's overcoat, the dragon talons of his right leg disappearing under a lapel of it.

He seemed to bask in the attention that we gave him as our minds tried to come to terms with what we were seeing. His bird-like claw was stroking his goatee slowly while he was waiting for us to make the next move.

"You're not real," Rhonda finally breathed out, and I shook my head to it as well.

"I'm not?" Discord returned, mockingly pretending to be hurt at her statement. "Maybe you would listen to me better if," he stated, disappearing from the poster and suddenly appearing on the television - which was turned OFF - and continuing, "I was here instead? A media personality coming to you live from Equestria?"

We turned our heads to follow the sounds and Rhonda shivered. I pulled her a little closer against me and frowned at Discord on the television leaning against one of the edges of the screen as he proceeded to do stretch exercises.

"Is this your doing?" I bit to him, pointing up to my forehead.

Discord stopped doing exercises and moved his head closer to mine to inspect my horn. It was a really strange effect to see his body in the television but his head mere inches away from mine.

It was like watching a 3D movie but the effect was accompanied by a feeling of unease worse than any movie I'd seen before then.

"Why, you seem to be growing a horn. How quaint," he remarked, and I felt the urge to punch him. "No, that's not me. That's you and you alone."

Discord smiled and pulled himself back into the television with a sucking sound that only added to the uneasiness. It sounded somewhat like the sound wet dog food makes as it drops out of the can, but played in reverse.

"Well, maybe you did have a little help. You see, we have a small problem which has regrettably galloped off into this world," Discord continued, and Rhonda and me shared a glance between us.

"What kind of a problem?" I asked, seeming more up to the task to talking with a fictional character than Rhonda was at the time.

"Well, one of my, ahem, students... has gone rogue," Discord admitted with a flush, seeming genuinely embarrassed for just a brief moment. It didn't take long before he reasserted himself as the king of chaos however, and he returned to smiling enigmatically toward us.

"She's got the weird little idea in her head that Earth should become the new Equestria since it has so much more room than we have in this little box here," he offered, growing in size on the screen until he had to fold himself up just to fit within its borders. "See how cramped it is?"

I sighed, then mumbled under my breath, "I wonder who gave her that idea."

Discord fell out of the television screen and onto the table my television was set up on, falling flat on his back and gripping at his chest.

"Oh. OH! I'm HURT that you think I had anything to do with it!" he decried, then got up to sit on the edge of the table staring at us, one leg hooked over the other and his arms folded in front of him.

"Now look here, I do love a bit of chaos now and again. But Fluttershy opened my eyes to the concept of moderation. If Earth succumbs to this filly's magical tricks, it will offset the balance in a way that goes beyond chaos. There are things out there that are far, far worse than I could ever be," he revealed, his eyes narrowing at us.

"The more she destabilizes this dimension, the more they're drawn to Earth to destroy everything and everyone within it. And how can I play with this dimension when there's nothing left in it? Hmm? You tell me that."

I stared at him, flabbergasted at his sudden candor. Rhonda was the first to snap out of it and pushed herself up from the ground to approach Discord.

"Rho?" I tried, but she made a motion with her left hand that silenced me again.

"I have a tail," Rhonda started, as Discord just peered up at her in mild amusement.

"So have I, aren't they great?" Discord replied with a grin, flicking his tail behind him.

"Josey has a horn growing out of her forehead," Rhonda continued, and Discord reached up to his own horns.

"Oh, just wait until the skin breaks. Fever dreams are so wonderfully chaotic," he offered to me, looking past Rhonda and almost missing the movement of her hand until it was too late.

Just as I thought she was going to hit him, he disappeared in a flash and appeared life size beside me in the middle of the room. "Now that wasn't very friendly," he huffed as Rhonda's attempt to slap him ended in her moving her hand through empty space.

She let out a frustrated sigh and turned to face Discord again, her eyes glaring at him with barely held-back anger.

"To be fair, I don't think either of us is very happy with what happened. First she grows a tail, then I grow a horn, and then you drop in and... what? What do you expect of us? Why do you explain these things to us?" I asked, feeling my own anger rise at Discord's continued games.

Discord knelt down beside me and reached out to tap my horn once with his bird-like talon. "Because your magic potential is the highest of all her victims so far."

I winced at the pain shooting through my head, then looked up in confusion once it settled. "What does that even mean?"

"There's no magic in this world," Rhonda stated, joining me by my side again and helping me stand up so we were both at Discord's eye-level.

Discord smirked at her statement and placed his feline hand on her left shoulder.

"Au contraire! It has always been here. And some of you have been using it. But now this filly is unlocking it at a faster rate than it gets used and is drawing the wrong kind of attention to herself. Zecora came to check up on you yesterday, as she has with all of this filly's victims. All the princesses are hard at work to find a solution for this problem. So, they sent me, her teacher, to come explain things and, well... take you to Equestria."

He moved his paw from Rhonda's shoulder and waved it toward the center of the room, a portal appearing there as he did. The shimmering oval showed a colorful landscape behind it, with the white walls of Canterlot not too far away.

Rhonda clung to my side and shivered uncontrollably, and I looked down at her to see her face wrought with fear. "You can't make us," I told Discord, pulling Rhonda closer and letting her hide her face against me. "I'm not going unless Rhonda's going and you can see how she's feeling about the idea."

Discord smirked at us both, then stuck his head into the portal and looked around to the left and right before pulling it out again. "I will be right back," he stated, disappearing in a flash and leaving the portal there in the middle of the room.

I helped Rhonda shuffle over to the bed and sat us down on it, pulling her close and just softly stroking her back. "It's ok, ssh... it's ok," I cooed to her, but I wasn't too sure myself. I had to keep up appearances for Rhonda's sake though. I had to be the strong one. All those panicky thoughts could wait until after Rhonda calmed down.

Chapter 4, Josey 4

We didn't have long to wait before Discord's voice started drifting into the room from the other side of the portal, sounding as distorted as the shimmering of the world we saw through it. It sounded like he was approaching it from the other side, but he was nowhere that I could see.

"...have to explain it to them. I'm not getting anywhere. Rainbow sorbet?"

Another voice replied, sounding almost an octave lower than Discord's, "No thank you, I had a big lunch."

"Suit yourself," Discord continued as he stuck his head around the left side of the portal - right into the room - and looked around to find us.

"Ah, there they are. I'll leave this to you then," he spoke to his unseen company, and pulled his head back. "Are you sure you don't want one?", he asked to someone to his left, but then shrugged at them repeating their earlier sentence and started walked off toward the walls in the distance, holding a sorbet that looked to be made of rainbows in his clawed hand.

I looked down at Rhonda who was still shivering in fear, but as Discord moved away she seemed to shiver a little less so. I wondered at the significance of that and totally missed the stallion stepping into the room until he stood right in front of us.

His coat was blue. Blue like the kind of blue you find at the bottom of swimming pools. His mauve eyes were staring up at us and his unicorn horn was so close to us that, if I would have reached out toward it, I could have touched it without stretching my arm out fully.

He was standing on all four hooves and he barely reached four feet from his hooves to his mane. The term 'little pony' really applied to him. His light purple mane had been combed back and looked like it took a lot of grease to keep it there, and his tail flicked idly behind him.

I couldn't see his cutiemark until later, but it was a quill on an open roll of parchment. He cleared his throat at my scrutinizing gaze and raised an eyebrow at me. "Do I have something on my face?"

I didn't know if I had to laugh or cry at that, and ended up doing both. "Yes you do!" I exclaimed, "And so do I!" I continued, and Rhonda peered up in confusion, her panic spell broken from my sudden eruption.

"Oh gods. This is so... so crazy," I sniffled in-between giggles, trying to calm down again. "So crazy. This. I don't even," I stumbled, ending up crying more than I was laughing and just staring at the colt's horn.

"How, er," I tried, wiping a bit more at my eyes while calming down again.

"You both have horns," Rhonda stated the obvious, and sent me back into a giggle fit.

"They're quite common for unicorns to have, yes," the stallion offered. "I'm Magic Ink. You can call me Magic, or Ink. Either works. As long as you don't call me Mink."

I just couldn't stop myself laughing from the absurdity of it all until I suddenly felt Rhonda's hand impact with my right cheek in rather a painful way. "Snap out of it, Josey! You're being hysterical!"

I reached up to feel at my burning cheek and stared up at her in shock. "I... I'm sorry?" I offered, but Rhonda already moved on to kneeling beside Magic Ink and smiled at him.

"It's nice to meet you, sir," she offered, making the pony blush lightly.

"Oh, I'm not a sir. Just Magic or Ink would work? Ink would be shorter," the pony responded in an awkward fashion.

"I usually spend my time in the archives, but now with everypony so riled up about this situation, I guess mister Discord couldn't find anypony else to help you two out? Er, I mean, it's nice to meet you two as well, misses Rho and Jo?"

"Rhonda and Josey," I corrected him, still rubbing at my cheek. "Is there any way to get out of this with our sanity intact? Because if my cheek wasn't hurting so badly I would be thinking this was all a dream."

"I'm very sorry, miss Josey," Magic apologized at my correction. "Mister Discord is the one who told me your names."

I smirked at this as I had half expected that to be the case.

"If it was a dream, you'd be talking with Princess Luna, miss. Not to me," Magic offered in response, and took a step away from Rhonda who had leaned in to look at his tail. "Er, I don't know what your local customs are, but could you not do that please?"

Rhonda pulled away as well, blushing fiercely as she moved to my side again.

"She's grown a tail of her own in the past week," I explained to the pony. "I think she just wanted to see the difference between hers and yours. Look, I know Discord said we are to come with to Equestria and all, but can we get dressed first please? We're still in our nightclothes."

Ink looked between us a moment, unsure of what I meant, and I realized the concept of nudity being an embarrassing thing was unfamiliar to him.

"Humans don't usually show themselves naked to others," I tried. "We don't have fur to cover us?"

Ink stared blankly at my further explanation, but then his ears suddenly perked up and he took another step back, right into a chair that fell over with a loud sound!

"Oh! I didn't... I don't usually... Oh, I'm so sorry! Let me, er... I will just be on the other side of the portal then. I won't look!" he quickly decided, galloping through the portal and moving to stand in front of it on the other side with his eyes facing away.

"Ah, Ink?" I called out after him.

"Yes miss?" came the reply.

"Do you think being in Equestria may speed up whatever's happening to us? Because if there's any other changes we're going to look forward to, we may not want to put on too tight-fitting clothes?", I asked, "I mean, Discord did say that someone is trying to make the earth into a new Equestria, and suddenly we have pony stuff growing on us. What's the end result?"

"Er... none of the old texts said anything about Equestria speeding up anything, but the spell she stole was created to make a pony out of something else, yes. You're most likely going to be like us if we can't stop its effects," he returned.

I sighed and looked at Rhonda, who looked back with big eyes filled with fear. "That's what I feared ever since Discord showed his face. Ok, easy-to-dispose of clothes it is."

"Halloween last year?", Rhonda quipped, and I winced at that.

"I'm not going to walk around Equestria looking like a pirate."

"I thought you looked cute," Rhonda replied with a shrug, trying to keep her fear down while focusing on getting us some clothes.

"Are you sure we're not a couple?", I sighed, walking over to the dresser and pulling out the brush, a pair of scissors, some needle and thread and the first-aid kit.

"Rho-Rho? If the skin breaks," I started, putting everything in a shoulder bag and putting it aside as I joined Rhonda near the bed, looking at what she'd put out for me to wear.

"I'll be there to help you through it," she offered with a weak smile, looking at my horn with a bit of trepidation.

A pair of baggy pants, a baggy shirt, and some walking shoes without laces later and we were ready to head into Equestria. I grabbed the bag, slung it over my shoulder, and joined hands with Rhonda as we stepped in front of the portal.

"We're ready, Ink. Unless you want us to step on your tail, you may want to move out of the way," I joked, and Rhonda looked up with a frown.

"Don't joke about that. You don't know what it feels like to have those hairs pulled," she muttered.

Ink moved out to the side and looked in our direction. "Just step through. It won't hurt you."

Rhonda and I didn't move. We just held hands and looked at one another, steeling ourselves for what was to come. And it was in that moment that I realized how deep our relationship had grown. How much I needed her.

And I saw it in her eyes as well. A shimmer of a tear growing in the corner of her eye. I reached up and wiped it away with my thumb. "Rho?"

"Yes?", she said, her voice laced with emotion.

"Forever," I told her and smiled as she nodded softly in reply.

"I'll never leave your side," she almost whispered as her tears started to roll.

"I'll never leave you alone. My Rho," I promised, and pulled her to me.

It wasn't until she clung to my chest that I took the step that sent us both through the portal and into Equestria.

Chapter 5, Josey 5

The feeling of passing through the portal was a little bit like stepping into a store that has a large heater hanging above the entrance; A waft of warm air that washed over us until we realized that it was warmer in Equestria than it had been in my room.

Still holding onto Rhonda, I looked around and noticed the portal shimmering and disappearing as I looked at it. There was no way back anymore unless someone could make a new one.

It appeared we were standing in one of Canterlot's gardens, the white walls we had seen in the distance being the outer walls of the capital itself. The inner walls were not two steps away from us and looked as imposing as they probably should, given the castle's position as the seat of government.

The movement of halberds along the top of the walls, and the clanging of armor from up there, clearly indicated Celestia's guards were moving around just out of sight from us. Fierce ponies doing important work. I was feeling a little awestruck at it all.

"You arrived just as the guards are changing," Ink explained, following my gaze, while Rhonda slowly detached from me and reached behind her to feel over the area where her pants were hiding her tail.

"Something wrong, Rho?", I asked, already digging into my bag.

"It's tingling," she answered, but meeped as I produced a pair of scissors, "Don't cut it off!"

I stared at her with a dumbfounded expression. "Now why would I do that? I was planning to make a hole in your pants so your tail could be free to swing about."

"Oh," Rhonda replied, biting her lower lip in embarrassment.

I moved toward her with the scissors and carefully cut a hole out of the back of it, then reached in with my fingers to pull her long tail hairs out in small bundles.

To my surprise I could see them grow as they came out of the pants and by the time all of them were out they were already hanging down to her knees.

"You may want to write this into the archives, Ink; Hairs do grow faster here than they do on Earth," I chuckled weakly, putting the patch of cloth and the scissors back into my bag. "Let's hope unicorn horns don't," I sighed, moving my eyes in an attempt to stare up at the thing.

"Well, hm... Let me take you to the guest wing of the palace then. Princess Twilight and her friends left for the Crystal Empire to confer with Princess Cadance, so the rooms should be empty," Ink decided, and moved to lead the way.

I pulled Rhonda to my side and smiled at her. "We only need one room anyway. But let's. That way, if I end up fainting again, we'll have a bed I can collapse onto," I sighed. "Like I did yesterday."

Rhonda looked around at the colors surrounding us while we followed behind the blue stallion. Where Discord had looked a bit too real for comfort on Earth, this trend continued in Equestria; The colors were more vibrant, and there were more of them than in most places on Earth, but it all looked too real.

The stone was real stone. It looked like real stone. I was afraid if I touched the pristine white walls I would smudge them.

The grass was real grass. Brighter than that at home, but it looked very real indeed. There were all the slight blemishes in the otherwise unbroken grass field that we had at home. Small weeds trying to grow where they shouldn't, little flowers and other plants poking their heads up above the grass shoots. It had looked a lot more uniform on the television than it did in reality.

Heh, reality. "You're sure we're not dreaming, right? This is real, right?", I asked of Magic Ink as we headed for an opening in the inner walls. A long flight of steps was waiting there for us to climb it and two white-coated stallions in armor were standing guard on either side.

"If only it was a dream," he sighed, nodding to the guards as he passed them. I noticed their glances at us, but they didn't stop us.

"We must look so odd to all you ponies," Rhonda giggled softly.

"There are records of humans having visited our world before, miss Rhonda," Ink offered, "But we haven't seen one here in centuries. Or none that still resembled their old selves, that is. There are records of ponies who were formerly human, or even of ponies disappearing from our world and being found again on Earth. Some ponies have claimed the barriers between our worlds are growing weaker every day. There are even some that claim Equestria and Earth were once the same place. And it's that dangerous assumption that is giving us so much trouble right now."

"You mean Equestria could have been a place on Earth?", I wondered, trying to keep up with what Magic was saying.

"Or Earth a place in Equestria. Both are possible," Ink mused with a light smile, looking back and stopping dead in his tracks. "Miss Rhonda, your mane!"

I looked at Rhonda as well and noticed her beautiful brown hair was changing color. "Oh dear. Rho, your hair is turning pink!"

Rhonda went pale and flailed her arms at the pony before us. "Quick! A mirror!"

"This way!" Magic exclaimed, galloping ahead with Rhonda not far behind.

I found myself watching them run off before I realized I had to follow them! I tried to set my legs in motion, but every step I took felt like a chore, causing me to follow at a slower speed than intended. A great feeling of exhaustion and despair fell over me and I barely managed to make it up the steps before I had to sit down to catch my breath.

I stumbled to the left of the stairway, dropping heavily onto the edge of the nearest wall. My mind was in turmoil, going over the events of the previous days and trying to make sense of it all.

I looked up in time to see Rhonda and Ink disappear into the main building just ahead of the stairway, unknowing of my inability to follow directly behind. I turned my head in the opposite direction and found myself looking out over the lands of Equestria.

There was a train moving through the land, smoke wafting up from it as it took its passengers where they wanted to go. Lakes, forests, fields of grass, the occasional city here or there. I idly wondered where Ponyville was.

A guard moved up to me and looked out over the lands as well. "Are you ok, miss?", he asked casually, and I looked over to him.

"Isn't it strange to see a human here?", I asked instead of answering him.

The Guard set his forehooves up on the wall beside me and stretched himself a little, looking down at the lower plateau. "Not as strange as you would think, miss. The Princess has a lot of visitors. Not all from this realm. I will always remember the Changeling invasion. Captain... I mean, Prince Shining Armor kept us up day and night guarding this place. Compared to those pests, you're a welcomed guest."

I chuckled at that. "Back where I'm from those tales are told as a form of entertainment, sir guard."

"It does make for a good story to tell one's grandfoals, yes," he offered. "Be careful not to fall. It's a long way down."

"Thank you, I will. By the way, would you know which town out there is Ponyville?" I asked, waving my hand toward the towns in the distance.

"I think Ponyville is on the other side of the palace, miss. But I wouldn't know. You could ask lady Zecora if you see her? She's roaming around the palace grounds somewhere," he replied with a shrug. "If there's nothing else I can do for you, miss, I'll be returning to my rounds now? Have a good day."

I nodded and felt a little dizzy as I did. "Thank you. I think I'll find Magic Ink and see about that guest room he was talking about. I'm starting to feel a little dizzy," I returned, and stood up from where I was sitting, starting off toward the main building.

I was surprised to find the guard moving to my side after only a few paces and only then noticed I wasn't walking in a straight line. "Please lean on me, miss. I'll take you to the guest rooms," he suggested, looking up with concern on his face.

With my right hand resting on the guard's flank to stabilize myself, we made it to the guest room where Rhonda was sitting in front of a mirror watching the last few strands of her formerly brown mane turn pink.

I sank onto the bed and moved to lay on my back when I felt the muscles in my lower back contract. It was only a small spasm, but the tingling that followed lingered and I didn't even have to look to know I was starting to grow a tail as well.

"Rho? I don't feel too good. I'm going to lay down a bit," I exhumed tiredly, "Can you get the scissors out to cut a hole in my pants please?"

Rhonda turned away from the mirror with a blank look on her face and nodded. "Your tail came out too, didn't it?"

"It's starting to, yes... but my headache is getting worse and I'm feeling dizzy," I replied, turning over on my right side to have my back exposed toward the edge of the bed. "It feels like my horn's growing as well."

"Fascinating," Magic Ink breathed out, producing a small notepad and scribbling some things down.

"Glad to hear you're having fun," I groaned, and he blushed as he looked away.

Rhonda took the bag from me and pulled out the scissors, then knelt beside the bed and I felt her tugging on my pants as she started to cut into them.

"He's just doing his job, Jo," she muttered, then pulled my pants down a little and pushed my shirt up. "Yours are green."

"Eh?"

"Your tail is green," Rhonda remarked, and suddenly I felt a sharp sting where my tail would have been. "Sorry for that. Here, look," she said, offering me a small green hair which she held between her thumb and index finger.

I groaned and swatted it away with a hand. "Could've waited until my mane changed color?", I snapped, but then had to squeeze my eyes closed from the pain radiating from my horn.

"Is there a thing like aspirin here? Anything to keep this headache down?" I asked of Magic Ink, and he nodded.

"Miss Zecora has a lot of potions for that. I'll go get one for you," he offered, and ran out the door.

"You hear that, RhoRho? Zecora has potions for that. If we have to deal with that rhyming zebra, will you please shoot me?", I sighed, my head feeling far from wanting to deal with rhymes of any kind.

"You'll be ok, Josey. I'm here with you. Forever," Rhonda offered, gently helping my growing tail hairs out through the hole in my pants while leaning her head against me.

The gentle strokes of her hands on my tail, while soothing, were not enough to keep the pain and dizziness from getting worse, and soon I had to close my eyes as the room started to swerve and sway around me in an increasingly chaotic manner.

It didn't take long before I was lost to the fever dreams.

Chapter 6, Josey 6

"Blond hairs turn green if you use too much bleach, you know?", the cookie offered as he lazed in the hot batter springs beside me and a pancake holding onto a spoon. "You don't need to be a rocket scientist to tie your shoelaces, but it helps."

I agreed with a nod that made the world around me shimmer and get replaced by an endless desert. A scarecrow was swatting at a vulture sitting on top of a large cactus plant with a face cut into it.

"Do you know the way to Tipperary?" the cactus asked, as if it was the most normal thing to do, and I stumbled sideways into a wall of ice cream.

"There's only so much fun one can have sliding down a slope. Why not slide up it?", Discord's voice called out, and I saw him ice-skating up a vertical slope.

"Didn't I tell you fever dreams are amazingly fun?" he asked with a wink, but then I fell backward into a tub of red gelatin. The taste of strawberries hit me and I felt panic rise up.

I had to swim! I would drown if I wasn't swimming! I flailed my arms around and hit something that shouted "OUCH!"

I sat up straight in bed and looked around me at the things surrounding me. It was so NORMAL! There were no talking cookies! "WHERE ARE THE TALKING COOKIES?!?", I demanded, while blood leaked down from my forehead into my eyes.

A pink-haired girl with one eye looking bigger than the other moved into view, her one hand rubbing at her face while the other started to push me back.

"NO! You can't make me drown in the gelatin tub!" I exclaimed in fear and panic, but as I fell backward I saw the world around me starting to spin until the ride stopped and everyone climbed out of the teacups to go to the other rides in the park.

I had a biiiiig fluffy ball of cotton candy in my hands and they were sticking to everything! I was trying to get out of the ride, really I was. But the cotton candy spider wouldn't let me. She was weaving me into the teacup web and then the world started to spin again spinning around and around and around.

And then it stopped and something started to push everything away. I was all alone. Just a little child sitting on a black plane. Nothing around me for miles. The floor wasn't even really there. It was just a black plane without form or definable surface.

But from the darkness a pair of eyes started to form, and then the shape of a horse followed behind. The stars came out around her, spreading out through the sky, and the plane I was sitting on became a comfortable bed.

"Calm down, little Josey," Princess Luna cooed, sitting down beside me and using a wing to pull me closer to her. "Let us sit and watch the stars. You're doing very good. You just have to hold on for a little longer. Do you understand?"

I nodded and pressed my small form to the side of the big pony lady, smiling up at her as her wing folded around me to protect me from the scary things. She had a calming aura around her. I liked her. It was easy to calm down and just lay against her and fall asleep and know no fear.

I woke up to the sounds of talking in the room. Rhonda lay on the bed beside me, half covered by the bloodstained sheets. I stirred in shock as I noticed them, but then felt a dark wing drape over me and felt peace return to my mind.

I slowly turned to see Luna standing beside the bed, a wing casually draped over me while she was talking to her sister Celestia. I wasn't fully awake yet and only got shards of their conversation. Nothing I could make sense of.

Instead of focusing on them talking, I looked up at the big thing poking out of my head. I knew it was a horn. It was a big one too. It stuck out of my head several inches to the point where I could actually see the tip of it if I looked up.

Ten inches at least. Thin and wiry and looking a bit like mint canes with the dried-up blood still in the dimples of the otherwise white object. I blinked my eyes at it a few times, then reached up to touch it but was stopped by Luna moving her wing up as well.

"You don't want to touch your horn just yet, little Josey. Give it some time to settle," she spoke to me directly, and I turned my weary eyes in her direction.

"You've been in and out of your fever dreams for the entire night. Rhonda wouldn't leave your side. Celestia and I have been taking turns watching over you as well. It is not often that we see a true princess being born."

"A princess?", I wondered.

Luna nodded toward my horn. "It is as long as our own."

Celestia joined her side and smiled lightly. "Zecora said you had magic potential, but to find one of our own among you humans is a rare gift indeed."

I felt my cheeks burn at all that, but didn't really know what to say, so I looked off to my side instead. A lock of green hair fell over my eyes and I absentmindedly blew it out of my face before realizing what it meant. "My.. my mane!"

"It was an interesting sight to see, miss Josey," Magic Ink offered. "The process was very gradual, quite similar to what happened with miss Rhonda's mane."

I stared at the blue pony on the other side of the bed, still with the notepad and quill floating in front of him and watched him scrape a hoof over the floor in an uneasy manner before he walked over to hide behind Celestia.

I then looked up at the sisters Celestia and Luna and reached a hand up again. Luna moved to stop me with her wing, but I moved my arm around it and rubbed at the side of my head, taking her note of leaving my horn alone for now for good advice.

"I have no idea what all happened. I think I ate a cookie with Discord or something. I wake up with this bump sticking out of my head one morning, and the next I know we're whisked away to Equestria to do... what? I don't even know what is expected of us."

Celestia and Luna shared a look between them, then looked back at me and Celestia took a step closer to the bed. "This situation is new to us as well. It has been hinted at in the archives for thousands of years, but to have somepony go out and try to prove it is... unheard of. We sent Twilight Sparkle out to the library in the Crystal Empire in the hopes there are any records there that were lost in time when the empire got sealed away, but we're unsure if there is anything to help us with this. Zecora tries to slow down the growth of Spritelight's magic on Earth, but it's a losing battle. The more humans that get affected by it, the faster they change. Discord has been keeping an eye on Earth and said we've got a little over two-hundred cases already. Most of which are bronies."

I just stared up blankly at that. "We're pegasisters," I offered, reaching sideways to lightly brush my hand through Rhonda's mane.

"We are still learning the right terminology," Celestia replied with a smirk. "What Discord has found is both discouraging as well as remarkable. Most of the affected humans are hiding their newfound changes from the rest of the world or are using little tricks to make them seem like a new fashion style. It's actually catching on to those that aren't affected yet. Discord tries his best to keep the two separate and only send Zecora to the affected ones, but it's proving difficult. Zecora has already visited several people that were not yet changing."

"So... what you're saying is that people are turning into ponies and they're ok with it?", I wondered, not sure what to think of it all.

"It's more that they're treating it like a fad, Jo," Rhonda muttered, crawling up a bit closer to my side and resting her head against my bosom. "You bled a lot... I did what I could to stop the bleeding but it just wouldn't stop. I was so worried."

I looked down at her and gently stroked my hand through her mane. "I'm.. feeling ok? I could use a drink, but I don't have a headache anymore? It's just a little strange.. the weight of the thing," I pondered, moving my head about a little and feeling my horn swish through the air as I did. "It's not heavy, but it's.."

"Awkward?", both Celestia and Luna offered at the same time, and we all giggled a little at that.

"Yeah.. it feels weird to move it around. I'm not used to it," I decided with a shrug.

"Hm.. I remember when we were just young foals. I kept popping the balloons at our birthday party by looking around myself," Celestia chuckled. "It'll grow on you. Just give it a few centuries."

Luna frowned at that. "It doesn't really take that long. Just look at Twilight," she remarked, and Celestia turned her head to face her sister's, the tips of their horns barely missing one another as she did.

"Twilight was a good student. I expected nothing less," Celestia stated, beaming proudly at that. "Cadance had more trouble with it."

"You don't just turn a Pegasus into an Alicorn. I could have told you that, dear sister," Luna snorted, shaking her head a little. "If I hadn't been stuck in the moon at the time, she would've still been a Pegasus."

"And we would have Sombra in charge of the Crystal Empire, dearest sister," Celestia retorted, to which Luna blushed and looked away.

"Er.. excuse me.. are we still in the conversation?" I quipped, blinking between the two a bit.

"Since when was Cadance a Pegasus?", Rhonda asked with a frown.

"They're all yours, big sis." Luna grinned, stepping away and looking out of the window. "It is daytime, after all. I will come back when night falls."

"Very mature," Celestia chuckled, giving a nod to her younger sister. "See you tonight, dear sister."

Luna bowed to us and then stepped out of the door, spreading her wings and taking to the air. Magic Ink had to close the door behind her.

Celestia then turned to us and smiled weakly. "When I first met Cadance her loving heart had helped a poor deluded pony see the error of their ways. Missing my sister Luna and finding the Pegasus had no family but the Earth ponies that adopted her, I decided to adopt her as my royal niece and gave her the gift of being an Alicorn."

Rhonda nodded at that. "Like with Twilight?"

"Oh no," Celestia offered with a smile, sinking through her hooves so we wouldn't have to look up at her too much. "Twilight did that all on her own. I just helped guide her to her destiny."

"So what's going to happen to me?" I asked, not getting much help from those explanations.

Celestia sighed and looked a bit more solemn. "Your bodies will adjust to become like ours. Rhonda's horn would have started to grow already if she were a Unicorn. Unless she starts sprouting wings soon, she will become an Earth pony. In your case, Josey, your wings will start to sprout soon. And I'm sorry to say that Spritelight's magic seems to enjoy hurting you.. We will do everything in our power to keep you from going through another fever like that."

"Oh, joy," I sighed, while Rhonda clung to me a bit tighter. "Any idea when that will happen?"

Celestia shook her head. "Magic Ink here is keeping track of your progress so we can help others like you if it ever happens again. But you're the first ponies we felt we could bring to Canterlot. Your magic potential combined with the love you two feel for one another reminds me of Cadance and Shining Armor."

"We're not a couple, though," I protested, but Rhonda poked me immediately after I said so and looked up with her puppy eyes.

"Or.. maybe we are," I corrected myself at seeing her, and she broke into a smile which could have raised the sun if Celestia hadn't done it already. I had to chuckle at it and reached down to gently pet the top of her head.

Celestia just watched us with a smile on her face. "As I said, you two are special."

"Is this allowed, though? In Equestria?", I wondered, looking back up at the princess. "I mean, we're both girls.. Or fillies.. or mares.. or how you want to call us. There are some people on Earth who are very opposed to our kind of relationship."

Celestia frowned at that. "It is impossible to put restraints on love, Josey. Anypony who would try such is deluding themselves. As Chrysalis found out; true love will always find a way to break through any restriction."

Rhonda nodded at that. "Josey and me have known each other for years and years now. We're never going to be apart. Rho and Jo forever, right Jo?"

I smiled down and just continued petting my sweet.. well.. girlfriend. "Forever, Rho. I will never leave you alone."

"Forever is a long time, you know?", Discord offered, sticking his head in the room. "Hello Celestia, how are the kids?", the Draconequus wondered, sauntering into the room as if he owned the place.

"The kids?", Rhonda meeped, clinging a bit tighter to me.

"Why, you of course. It's such a precious sight seeing you two grow up to become proper ponies," Discord spoke with a wink in our direction. "I had a lovely time ice skating, by the way. Thank you for dreaming up that mountain," he offered to me in particular, then sat down on Magic Ink's back. "Is this seat taken?"

"Discord..." Celestia sighed, standing up and walking over. "What did we tell you about using ponies as chairs?"

"That they weren't as comfortable as they should be?", Discord grinned, but got up regardless. "So this is where I give him a cloud sorbet?"

"What is it with you and sorbets?", I cut in, "Didn't you already offer him a rainbow sorbet when you made the portal in my room?"

"Ooh, she's witty," Discord gasped in amusement, snaking past Celestia and holding out a pair of rainbow-colored sorbets to Rhonda and myself.

"Er.. no, thank you. I saw how Pinkie Pie reacted when she had a taste of rainbow.. that stuff is a little too spicy for my tastes," I offered, warding it off with my free hand while keeping Rhonda nice and close with my other. "And I don't think Rhonda trusts you," I sighed, looking down at her while she tried to hide away from him.

"Suit yourself. More for me," Discord giggled, putting one sorbet on top of the other and taking a bite out of the upside-down glass bowl covering the top one.

"Discord! Was there anything you wanted to say?" Celestia demanded.

"Fine, fine, be boring like that. I found another couple of affected humans. That brings the total to," he looked over to the side where a large sign appeared with "This many humans turned into ponies:" with a digital counter underneath quickly counting up from zero. As the counter hit 255 the numbers started to blink and confetti cannons shot colorful snippets of paper up in the air to fall around us. "Two-hundred and fifty-five humans!", Discord exclaimed like a television show host, taking on a very dramatic pose.

The room got quiet as everypony in it just stared at him until he finally straightened his back, patted himself down, and made the counter and confetti disappear with a snap of his fingers. "You're all boring," he huffed, then disappeared himself with a flash.

"I don't even," I started, shaking my head a little while Rhonda dared to let go of me a little more.

"He tries to be good, but it is difficult for him to control his urges," Celestia smirked, then looked towards Magic Ink. "Got that? 2-5-5. Let's send a message to Zecora in case Discord conveniently forgets to fill her in. And while you're out there, have a bath prepared. Josey and Rhonda look like they could use one."

The blue stallion nodded at receiving his orders and galloped off while Celestia approached us again. "That said, you dears may want to get out of bed so we can have housekeeping clean the sheets. And to be on the safe side, I'll have a guard keep tabs on you at all times until your wings sprout. We don't want you falling off of the walls before you learned how to fly, do we?"

"Yeah.. that would be bad," I agreed, helping Rhonda sit up before pulling the sheets off of me. "It does look like a lot of blood for something that grew out of my forehead, though.. I mean.. I don't feel lightheaded or anything? I would have expected at least that much?", I offered, moving my head around a little bit to see if the dizzy spells would come back, but they didn't.

"It's a magical horn. The blood did not so much come from your body as from the manifestation of your horn appearing," Celestia explained. "It's purely because of Spritelight's magic that this happened. She used a very old scroll from before the pony factions joined together. I think it is known as blood magic? It is a long lost dark art. We rarely speak of it."

"Is it the kind of magic Sombra was using when he was in charge of the Crystal Empire, princess?", I wondered, pushing up out of bed and noticing how tall Celestia really was.

I mean, she had looked tall both in the show as well as when I was laying in bed, but standing up.. she still towered over me. I was just five foot, four inches myself. The princess took a foot or two on top of that.

"I didn't realize," I gasped, reaching out with my hand towards her face. "You're as big as the horses on Earth."

Celestia allowed me to touch the side of her muzzle and smiled down at me. "Rhonda said the same thing, but no. Sombra's magic wasn't blood magic. True, it was very dark magic, but if it had been blood magic not even Luna and me would have been able to stop him."

"So we're dealing with magic that you and Luna can't handle by yourself? And what about the Elements of Harmony? Or Twilight's own magic? Or a combination of them all?", I inquired, trying to figure out why something was not done about it already.

"Calm down, dear," Celestia offered with a warm smile, "there's ample time for questions when your transformations are complete. Why don't you two take a bath first and join me for lunch in the great hall?"

I looked back towards Rhonda who was climbing off of the bed as if she had trouble finding her footing. "A bath does sound nice," I mumbled, reaching out a hand to help my girlfriend stabilize herself. "Dizzy?", I asked, but she shook her head at my assumption.

"Tingly. Like my legs have fallen asleep," Rhonda replied, moving to my side and wrapping her arms around my waist to keep her balance.

Celestia's eyes narrowed slightly at the answer, but then turned for the door. "Guard? Bring these girls to the bathroom in the East wing and keep watch over them."

"Erm.. he will be standing outside, right?", Rhonda quipped, and I couldn't suppress a giggle.

Chapter 7, Josey 7

The bathroom we were led to was just like one would have expected in a palace; marble and lavish decorations were found everywhere and gold accents were the norm rather than the exception.

The baths themselves were varied, with single-pony baths in their own rooms and multi-pony communal baths of varied shapes and designs in larger rooms.

All smaller bathrooms were connected to the main room, which held an Olympic-size swimming pool and various benches in niches in-between the entryways.

The room we ended up in held just two square bathtubs, sunk down halfway into the floor so any pony could easily step over the edges into them, and long and wide enough for them to disappear fully underwater if they felt the need to.

The room was more sparsely decorated than the main room, but still overwhelmed us as we weren't used to this kind of luxury.

The guard left us at the door, but we were greeted by a couple of mares who looked not too dissimilar from Ponyville's spa ponies Lotus Blossom and Aloe; Expertly done makeup, smartly polished hooves, well-kept manes and tails, they clearly knew how to keep themselves - and others - looking their best.

The one thing that set them aside from the spa ponies were their cutiemarks which were a bar of pink soap with a waft of fragrance seen drifting up from it on the blue pony, and a mascara-wand and an eyelash-curler on the pink mare's flank.

Rhonda seemed a little calmer among mares than she had been with the stallion around, and let the blue-maned pony with the pink coat guide her to a table where her bloodstained clothes were carefully taken from her.

The pink-maned pony with the blue coat waved a hoof toward a similar table and, following Rhonda's example, I walked over to it to undress myself as well.

Remembering Luna's warning about the sensitivity of my horn, and not knowing how to get my shirt off without touching it, I decided to start with my pants.

I hooked my thumbs over the elastic band and moved to pull the pants down in one go, but was immediately stopped by a sharp sting in my lower back before they had dropped even so much as an inch!

"Oh dear, you really should be more careful with your tail," the pony gasped, rushing to my back. She moved to use her hooves to gently help my pants down lower, all the while making sure I didn't pull more hairs out.

I felt quite embarrassed about the situation, but Rhonda saw the lighter side of things;

"I told you," she chuckled from the other end of the room, "you got to be careful with your tail, Jo."

I stuck my tongue out at her and felt my tail flick at doing so. It was a rather odd sensation, feeling muscles in my lower back contract and release that I had not felt before.

It was somewhat like the contraction of butt cheeks when making certain dance moves (hey, I played DDR in my day!), but a little higher than expected. Plus, I wasn't dancing.

I looked back at it and it flicked again. It didn't feel like I had much control of it, it was just moving on its own accord.

The pink-maned pony cut into my thoughts, leaning into my field of vision while looking up at me. "Your shirt, miss?"

I sighed and looked up at my horn. "I dunno if that's wise.."

"If you tilt your head down, miss, your horn will point toward the ground and you could let gravity do the rest?", she offered, and I felt a blush creep on my cheeks. I should have come up with that idea myself, but this whole situation had my brain quite occupied already.

"Ah, thanks," I managed to mutter out, starting to slip my arms out of the shirt's sleeves to bundle it up around my neck for the great escape trick to follow.

Lowering my head, I glanced sideways toward the pony standing ready to help in case I needed it. "I didn't quite catch your name, miss?"

"It's Cherry, miss," the pink pony offered, gently helping me slide my shirt up over my head.

Once it slipped passed my ears, we both let go at the same time and the shirt just dropped down to the floor without touching my horn even once.

"Cherry?", I asked, lifting my head again and pulling my hands up to cover my chest even while I was wearing a bra.

"Yes miss," Cherry answered, moving in to fold my shirt up neatly. "It's short for Cherry Blossom."

"And your.. coworker?", I continued, looking over to the blue pony who was helping a naked Rhonda into one of the bathtubs.

"Sister, miss," Cherry corrected me, putting my folded shirt away. "Her name's Magnolia. May I please have the rest of your clothing?"

I obliged with the pony's request, slipping out of my underwear and handing them over. They joined the pile of clothes already folded and the pink pony motioned toward the unoccupied tub.

I looked over towards Rhonda as I approached, and she looked up with one of her eyes a fair amount larger than the other. I frowned at it a little as I put my foot into the bath, but as soon as the warm water slipped up around my leg, I stopped caring about what other changes my girlfriend was going through. They could wait. This was bliss.

I let out a happy sigh as I climbed in the tub properly and sank down into the water until it came up to my neck, feeling the warm tingles going over my skin. When was the last time I had a proper bath? Several years ago at least.. we only had a shower at our place, and we had lost contact with the uncle and aunt who did have a bath. My last bath must've been in their place.

I slowly sank further down in the water, immersing my head in the warm liquid while the world around me muted. When my horn finally broke the surface and slipped down, I felt the water flow around it as if it had been an arm or a leg, but about twice as sensitive.

It made me moan in pleasure, air escaping me in a long stream of bubbles, which forced me up again to get my air back.

Rhonda sounded like she was making small-talk with the pony caring for her, but my ear was filled up with water and I couldn't quite make out what she was saying. It was all a muted buzzing that made little or no sense to me.

Another voice spoke up, but on my other side, and I turned my head towards Cherry. "Huh? I didn't quite.. my ears are full of water," I explained, and she shook her head at me.

Why would she say no? It's like she. Oh! Right! I shook my head quickly, feeling the air whish around my horn, but also feeling the water break out of my ears, restoring my hearing again.

Cherry's head ducked down as my horn passed over her, but she smiled up weakly again once I stopped shaking my head.

"..and then he put down a portal in the middle of the room," Rhonda explained to Magnolia, and I nodded to myself.

It was good for her to be able to talk to somepony about this, even if it was a pony who would forget about it all moments after we'd leave out of sheer respect for their clients' privacy. Or so I would guess. I never worked in a spa myself, after all.

"Thank you, Cherry," I offered to the pony beside me, and watched as she approached with a soft brush in her mouth.

She put it down on the edge of the tub and smiled up at me. "Until you get your ears, miss, you won't be able to flick them to get the water out. Shall I brush your mane, miss?"

I smirked at her first statement, reaching up with a hand to feel over my human ears. Of course they would change at some point as well. And, looking at Cherry's ears, they would probably move a little up as well.

I sank down in the water to allow the pink pony to reach for my hair without having to stretch herself too much, and closed my eyes as I felt the brush make contact with the back of my head. I knew she was holding it in her mouth, but her brush strokes were gentle and expertly weaved through my hair.

The brush strokes, the warm water, and Rhonda's voice babbling on to my left all helped soothe my worried mind and I ended up drifting on a cloud of contentment.

I don't know how long I was subject to this wonderful feeling, but I woke with a shock when Rhonda let out a shriek!

"Something's wrong! Oh nononono.. what's going on?", she cried out, and I pushed up in a sitting position in my own tub to look her way.

"What's happening, RhoRho?", I asked, reaching out towards her with my left hand, but blinking as she turned her face towards me.

Besides the shock and horror at whatever was happening that she had shrieked at, there were two large eyes on her face that didn't look to fit on it. They were pony eyes. Proper pony eyes, the pupils currently small from her rising fear, which only helped to make the whites of her eyes look that much bigger on her changing face.

"I can't feel my legs anymore!", Rhonda whined, looking between me and the tub before splashing her face down into the water to look at her limbs.

I stared at her strange behavior until she came up again with water flowing past her blinking pony eyes. "They're changing," she sniffled, reaching up to rub at her eyes with hands that looked comically small in comparison.

"Can you lift one up, sweety?", I asked, casting a glance down at my own legs but they were as I expected them to be. 100% Human.

Rhonda bit her lower lip, then slipped down a little in the water so she could pull her right leg up.

I stared at it as it changed in front of my eyes; the toes started to merge together, forming a hoof, her foot grew in size while her lower leg seemed to shrink, her former ankle-joint rising up closer to her knee as it did.

Soon enough she had two fully formed pony legs attached to her hips. There wasn't any fur growing on them yet however, and it only made them look more alien from the human limbs they had once been.

"You're not feeling any of that?", I asked of Rhonda, and she shook her head.

I reached up for my horn and dared to finally touch it, letting out a sigh. She went numb, while I got hurt. Life was so unfair!

"Josey, how am I supposed to walk with these?", Rhonda whimpered, and I shook my head softly.

"We'll work it out together, ok?", I offered, reaching out with my left hand again until she put her right in it and then squeezed it. "But at some point we'll have to get used to walking on all fours."

Rhonda sighed at that and looked down at our joined hands. "I guess."

I looked past Rhonda to see Magnolia stand beside her tub, her tail flicking nervously behind her. It made me wonder about the other one and I looked around the room until I spotted Cherry Blossom walk back in from the door leading outside.

"Hey, I think your sister's a little overwhelmed," I started, and Cherry nodded to me as she moved towards Magnolia to give her a soft nuzzle and whisper something in her ear. Whatever was said, it visibly relaxed the blue pony, and she moved over to a table to get a brush not unlike the one her sister had used on my mane before.

I squeezed Rhonda's hand again and smiled at her. "Whatever changes, my love for you will remain. You'll never lose me. I promise."

Rhonda smiled weakly at that and nodded. "I know.. thank you."

I let go of her hand as Magnolia moved in with the brush and sank back in the tub I was in since Rhonda was no longer in a state of panic.

As Cherry joined me again, I looked up at her with a concerned frown on my face and motioned towards my eyes. "Did they change yet?"

The pink pony nodded slowly at that. "One is almost fully changed, the other looks to be halfway there."

I nodded back at that and sank down further in the bath again. I had not even noticed anything changing in my perception. I looked through one eye, then the other, then the first again, and slowly it dawned on me.

While my eyes had been growing, giving me a slowly increasing field of vision, the process had been so gradual that my mind would have automatically corrected anything that would have otherwise led to me noticing it. I just accepted it because by the time I noticed the changes, my brain had already accepted them as default.

I would have facepalmed if I did not have my horn there..

Chapter 8, Josey 8

I had asked Cherry Blossom to get me a mirror, and dipped my head and horn underwater while she went to retrieve one. Little trails of blood leaked away from my horn and I let out an occasional set of bubbles until I ran out of air and had to come up.

The feeling of the water rushing down my horn to then leak down my face was interesting in and of itself, the grooves in my horn working like a kind of water slide which aided the flow of water until it would impact with my forehead. I let out a surprised squeak at the feeling, and Rhonda giggled a little.

"I'm not the only pone who feels weird, then?", she offered, moving her newly formed pony legs through the water to form waves on the surface of it.

I stuck out my tongue at her and finally dared to reach up to gently touch my horn's base. It was still sensitive, but the warm water had helped it heal and my fingers playing over it only sent shivers down my back, not pain.

"I wonder what your coat's color is going to be, RhoRho," I mused, then held my arm up in front of my face and chuckled. "Or mine, for that matter. With your pink hair, I would imagine something like Fluttershy's colors; yellow coat. But with my green?"

"Why not white for my coat?", Rhonda frowned, and I stared at her.

"Well, I dunno," I started, "Pink and white.. that makes me think of those nurse ponies."

"I could be your private nurse pony, princess Josey?", Rhonda winked, and we both giggled a bit.

"Gods, I never thought I'd end up a princess," I sighed out, still a bit overwhelmed at the idea. "But if Celestia is right, that means my wings would come before my hooves.. and you already have yours.."

I started to feel a bit uncomfortable at the idea. "Rho.. my horn coming out really really hurt me."

Rhonda looked down at her hooves as if trying to come up with a response to that, but then suddenly moved her hands up and started to feel over her face. Ah, she finally noticed.

"What happened to my face?!?", she cried out, and I smirked at her.

"Same thing that's happening to mine, RhoRho," I offered, and Rhonda stared blankly at me as if she had only now seen my eyes change.

"But they're like these big round.. things," Rho breathed out. "How did I not notice it changing before?"

I looked down at the water in front of me and tried to get a good look at my eyes. "Where's Cherry with that mirror?", I mumbled, the water's reflection showing me only part of what I wanted to see.

"Josey? What's my eye color? I can't make it out. It looks like pink?", I heard Rhonda say beside me, and looked up and straight in her eyes.

"Yeah, they're a lighter shade of pink than your mane," I agreed. "I would call it orchid?"

"My mane," Rhonda tasted the word, then looked back at the water. "Fuchsia mane and tail, orchid eyes.."

I looked behind me at my tail and pulled the hairs up out of the water. "My hairs are jade, aren't they? What are my eyes like?"

Rhonda looked over at me again and I kept my eyes open for her to look at. "Mint."

"Mint?", I repeated.

"They're more of a pine green, miss," Magnolia interjected, looking at me as well.

I looked over at the blue pony and nodded. "Thank you."

"So.. pink for you and green for me. Really wondering what our coats will turn out like," I mused.

"Yeah.. me too," my sweet girlfriend sighed, pulling one of her legs out of the water again and staring at the bald limb. "This should have fur on it. It looks weird all bald like that."

I cast a sideways glance at her and nodded. "Yeah."

"Do you have any shampoo, Magnolia?", Rhonda wondered, "I want to wash my mane while I still have fingers to work the shampoo in."

I chuckled at her. "Good idea, Rho. I'll just relax a bit myself until Cherry comes back."

With that, I leaned back against the tub's edge, only to wince and jump forward again the moment my back touched it!

I quickly glanced over to Rho to see if she'd noticed it, but she was looking in the other direction, watching Magnolia pick up a bottle of shampoo.

I sank down until my chin hit the water, then reached behind me and felt two nubs growing out of my back. They were set in-between my shoulder blades, or bordering the edges of both, and even my soft presses were painful.

I looked up towards the door, wondering what was keeping Cherry. How difficult was it to find a damned mirror??

The pain in my back increased by the moment, and I was feeling the nubs grow even without having to touch them with my hands. I squinted my eyes closed at it and tried not to make a sound. I did not want to upset Rhonda again now she was feeling relaxed enough to enjoy washing her hair.

I tried to focus on other things but the growing pain in my upper back. Puppies! Puppies were always cute. How they would.. but the pain cut my train of thought off and I let out a soft whimper. It was quickly getting unbearable.

If it had just been a continuous pain it would have been fine, I would have been able to tune it out a bit better. But this pain was pulsating. And the nubs in my back grew at the apex of every pulse, then stopped for a moment to make the pain recede before starting the cycle all over again.

Celestia had been right; Spritelight's magic loved to hurt me.

I reached behind me again while doing my best to stifle my whimpers and groans. The nubs were protruding about two finger-widths now and a large area around them was sensitive to the point of hurting if it received any pressure.

The next wave of pain came with specks of light mottling my vision, and I had to grab the edges of the bath to not slip down in it. "Hnng.."

"Jo?", Rhonda perked up at finally hearing my groan, her shampooed mane sticking up weirdly from the top of her head.

I gave her a weak smile, pointing behind me as I did not trust my voice.

"Magnolia, her wings are coming out! Go get Cherry! Or Celestia! Or BOTH!", Rhonda cried out, clambering out of the bath with her awkward pony legs and moving beside the tub I was in, reaching for my left hand with both of her own and squeezing it softly. "I'm here, Josey. Focus on me."

I tried, but the pain was just too much. I screamed out in anguish as the next wave came, and as blood started to drift around my body from the back, it mixed with the salty droplets of my tears hitting the water's surface.

With Rhonda by my side, I weathered the pain as good as I could. Which, to be completely honest, was not at all. There was no defense I could put up against the pain spreading from my back, and if it wasn't for Rhonda pulling me back out, I would have drowned a couple of times already as I smashed my face into the water from involuntary spasms and then couldn't straighten my back on my own again.

It was impossible to measure time, and I lost track of how fast the spasms were following one another. My breathing came and went with the pain, I took my breaths in the shallows, and exhumed in agony at the peaks, and I was feeling lightheaded from lack of oxygen.

At some point a whole bunch of ponies rushed back into the room, Celestia among them, and that rhyming Zebra soon pushed something to my lips and told me to drink.

I must have started to hallucinate at some point, as the ponies became more and more blurry with every breath I took. They were talking, but I was barely registering what they were saying. All I knew was the pain and the blood.

So much blood.. I think there was more blood in the bath than actual water.

I drank the potion Zecora pushed up against my lips of course, I mean I wasn't really able to protest or think clearly at that point anymore. When somepony tells you to drink something, you'll drink it.

I don't even know what the taste was. The room bathed in the smell of blood, scented shampoo, and the pheromones from every pony in the room, and the taste was corrupted by it. It could have been blood. Or shampoo. Or pheromone extract. I wouldn't have known.

Whatever it was, it made the world around me fall away into darkness but just as I thought I was going to fall asleep from it, I instead found myself drifting up and out of my body!

The room around me was dark, excepting a small circular area around my body still convulsing involuntarily in the bathtub. The ponies, Rhonda, and Zecora were standing in the light radius, and I could see them talking among themselves while they were keeping me from dropping in the bath.

From up here, I got a good look at my back and the awkward way two long bones were sticking out from it. They looked a bit like a pair of long fingers, and with each spasm from my body they slipped out a bit more.

Celestia's horn started to glow and I saw the same glow around my body as it got lifted up by Celestia's magic, Cherry Blossom and Magnolia rushing to Rhonda's aid as the girl sank sideways, her shuddering shoulders clearly indicating she broke down crying.

Who was that beside Zecora? I didn't know that pony. She had a purple mane and tail, with lighter streaks going through them, a blue coat, and a pair of glasses on her nose which she was moving a little with one of her hooves. She looked to be responding to something Zecora said, stretching her own wings out as much as they could so the zebra could look at them.

I realized the blue pegasus' eyes had two different colors! Huh.. heterochromia in Equestria? Her right eye was blue, and her left brown. They had a bit of a painful look in them as she looked at my body spasming while in Celestia's magical grasp, and I turned my attention back to my body.

The bony fingers had slipped out enough to show joints, and I could see how they would be similar to the bone structure the blue pony's wings would have underneath the feathery exterior.

Zecora seemed to have come to the same conclusion, nodding at Celestia as the blue pony folded her wings again and settled them to her side.

Wait, her side?

My wings were growing from my back, not from my side!

I stared down at them as they continued to grow, while the spa ponies worked on cleaning Rhonda's mane and help her stand on her pony limbs. I could see them from a corner of my eyes but my wings were more interesting.

Muscles and flesh grew out over the wings as they were stretched out to my sides, Celestia's magic still helping my body stay up above the surface of the water, and as the wings finalized I started to see feathers growing from them.

They were stained with blood, but I could see their actual color emerge the more of them sprouted from my wings; yellow. Lemon yellow.

Zecora used a hoof to wash water over my back, and I felt the shudders of my spine as I started to slowly drift down again towards my body. It was a weird feeling to reconnect like that, and I glanced over towards Rhonda before I sank low enough to make it impossible for me to see her.

Her hooves had started to sprout fur the color of pink lace. A pink mane, pink eyes, and now pink fur?

I shook my head and snapped to consciousness as my horn hit the side of the tub, sending a searing pain through my forehead!

"Ow," I whimpered, and felt Celestia's magic slowly let go of me. I put my hands on the tub's edge in front of me and supported myself, feeling the muscles in my back twitch involuntarily.

The wings themselves felt like I was wearing a backpack with something inside of it poking me at my shoulder blades. They were a little uncomfortable, and I mostly felt their weight pressing down on me.

"Welcome back, Josey," Celestia offered, staring down at me from where she was standing. I peered up with weary eyes, feeling the fatigue of the transformation in every limb.

"Are they done now?", I asked, my throat raw from the guttural sounds I must have been making while going through this.

"Your wings are fully formed, my dear," I heard Zecora's voice from behind me and to the right, "But you are far from done, I fear."

I sighed out and dropped my chin on the edge of the bath, leering tiredly over it. "Somepony shoot me."

Chapter 9, Josey 9

The spa ponies came around to gently brush the blood out of my wings after they were done with Rhonda, and my, now satyr, girlfriend came to sit on the floor in front of me, awkwardly folding her hoofed legs underneath herself.

We held hands and we looked at one another in silence for a long while.

I barely registered Celestia excusing herself, Zecora and the blue Pegasus lingering for a little while longer. The Pegasus left before Zecora did, but to me it was almost like everything was a dream I was trying to wake up from. I barely heard them talk, I barely saw them go, I only stared in my girlfriend's large orchid eyes.

The soft strokes and dabs of cloth and soft brush that hit my wings helped me to relax however, and I pulled Rhonda a little closer to carefully press a kiss on her forehead. "How are your legs feeling?", I asked, scraping my throat a bit as my voice still sounded raw.

Rhonda looked down at her hoofed limbs with a blush. The fur had almost completely covered them now and it only enhanced the cute marshmallow-hoof look they had going for them. "Tingly. I'm going to be a bad excuse for a pinkie pie replica, aren't I?", Rhonda sighed, and I had to giggle a little at that.

"Nonono," I started, smiling at her. "You're entirely your own pony, my love. Just because you share a similar color scheme doesn't mean you have to start pulling confetti cannons out of thin air, ok? Although it would be awesome if you could."

Rhonda smiled weakly at that and pulled her hands away from mine, turning sideways a moment and making grabby motions with them at the air in front of her. "Nope.. not yet."

I laughed at her antics and felt my wings move with the shuddering of my form. "Soon!", I exclaimed, and Rhonda giggled back up at me.

"Your wings are clean, miss," Cherry Blossom's voice came from behind me, and I turned my head to look over my right shoulder at the large collection of yellow feathers protruding from my back. They looked as pristine as a canary's freshly preened plumage, and I found myself tilting my wing a little to see the damp feathers glisten in the light.

"They look beautiful, Jo," Rhonda breathed out in admiration, and I found myself smiling back down at her with a small feeling of pride.

These were my wings. No matter who caused them to grow on me, no matter the magic used, no matter the painful way in which they appeared. In that short moment I felt my mind connect to my wings and I spread them out behind me, feeling the shiver run down my back as I imagined myself as majestic-looking as an eagle depicted on ancient Roman standards.

The moment didn't last, and I came crashing down from it as I realized in horror that my wings had effectively robbed me of the ability to wear a shirt. I looked down at my naked chest and the way I had pushed myself up in a standing position in the bathtub, and felt my cheeks start to burn.

"Rho-Rho?" I started, and my girlfriend peered up from a point lower on my body to stare up at my face with her big eyes.

"Yes, Josey?"

"I'm naked, aren't I?" I asked, swallowing some saliva down my throat.

"Yes, Josey," came the truthful answer. "But everypone here is right now."

I sighed and slowly sank down in the tub again, my wings folding on my back as I did. "But you three at least have fur," I muttered, looking away in shame.

"I still have a bare chest, Jo," Rhonda retorted, and I looked back at her, trying very hard to not look at that particular part of her body. She had her arms folded in front of it anyway.

"We're the same in that regard then," I chuckled softly, then closed my eyes and rubbed at my forehead, my fingers sort of automatically moving underneath my horn while my thumb moved to stick up, the soft skin between my thumb and index finger bumping into my horn's base as I rubbed around it.

"Ok, let me get up out of this bath before I get all wrinkly and end up looking like Granny Smith," I finally decided, pushing away from the bath's edge and standing up in the middle of it. My legs were still fully human and I wriggled my toes in the water a bit before moving to step out via the long side of the rectangular bath.

Cherry approached with a towel, and I thankfully accepted it to dry myself off. My mane and horn were surprisingly easy to handle, even if my hairs felt like they were thicker than my human hairs had ever been, and I soon got to the point where I would usually just wrap the towel around my back and sort of zig-zag it down to get the water from it.

"Rhonda, can you help me with my back please?" I asked instead, and she pushed up on her hooves to walk on over with an unsteady gait. I handed her the towel and leaned in to give her another kiss on her forehead, then turned my back toward her and sighed as I felt her soft hands gently dab around my wing bases.

"How do Pegasi do this?" I asked of Cherry, who smiled up enigmatically.

"They just turn their heads, miss. Like so," she explained, turning her head around and nuzzling herself in the side. My jaw dropped and I moved my hand up to slap my forehead, but stopped myself in time before I would have hit my horn again.

"I should have realized," I smirked, using my hand to rub at the side of my head instead. "So how come you're taking us being humans transforming into ponies so easily while everypony else has been gawking at us since we came here?"

Cherry shrugged at the question. "You're ponies inside, miss. It is only what's inside that matters to me. While it is true your forms right now are strange and exotic, the Princess told us you will look the same as any pony in Equestria when your transformations are complete. Why would we treat you any different than any other Equestrian if that's the case?"

Rhonda's face moved in to nuzzle at my wings and she sighed out warmly as her arms wrapped around my waist. "I like that."

I looked back over my shoulder, but my wing was in the way of seeing Rhonda properly. "The sentiment, you mean?"

She nodded into my wing and I shivered from the feeling.

"I agree it is a good thought to have. Thank you, Cherry Blossom," I smiled, turning my attention back to the pony before me.

"It is only natural for me, miss," Cherry smiled up with a light blush on her cheeks.

"Not everypone would agree," I offered, and the pony nodded slowly.

"Yes, that is a shame," she sighed. "I would think we'd have a lot more Nightguards here if they were more accepted."

"Hmm? Nightguards?" I wondered, dabbing at my upper legs with the towel Rhonda was still holding onto.

"Yes Miss," Cherry offered with an eager smile. "I must admit I love their leathery wings. It is a rare treat when one of Princess Luna's private guards comes in and allows me to rub oils in their wings. It's such a pretty sight to see them shine in the moonlight."

I chuckled a bit at the pony's obvious admiration for something that few ponies would have a second thought about. "So what you're saying is that feathery wings are not half as interesting to you, hmm? I see how it is." I winked, and Cherry's blush deepened immediately.

"Oh, no miss! I mean.. they're lovely and I enjoy working on them but.. I.. erm..."

"I'm just teasing you, Cherry," I offered, slowly sinking through my knees with Rhonda still clinging to my back. "You've been a great help to me while we've been here. You and your sister both." I added the last bit, looking over in Magnolia's direction and motioning for the two to come closer.

"Rhonda and I appreciate what you've done for us, don't we Rho?" I offered as the two spa ponies drew near, reaching my hands toward them and gently placing it to the sides of their muzzles. Magnolia inched away from my hand at first, but then carefully placed her muzzle against it as she found I didn't do anything scary to Cherry.

"Hmm-mm," Rhonda replied, still having her face buried into my feathers, her weight leaning into me.

I gently stroked my hands over the sides of the spa ponies' muzzles, and Cherry quickly closed her eyes while she leaned into the stroking. Magnolia tried to fight it, keeping her eyes on me, but soon succumbed to the stroking as well and closed her eyes with a soft whimper escaping her.

"I hope you accept this small gift a simple human can give you as a thank you for your caring attentions," I continued, leading my stroking hands up to softly scritch behind both ponies' ears. "I won't be able to do this once my hands turn to hooves."

The spa ponies sank through their forehooves at my continued scratching, and I leaned in a bit more to trail my hands down their mane line while gently scritching through their soft fur.

Soon I, too, would wear such fur on my form. Like Rhonda, it would most likely start at my legs and then.. go from there. I idly wondered how much longer it would take, and smiled at the blissful look on the faces of the ponies before me.

This Spritelight pony the Princess had told us about was changing humans into ponies. Hands would be turning into hooves. There would be so many pets to go without pettings.

I sighed and pulled my hands back, and Magnolia almost immediately jumped up with a blush, moving back and hiding behind her sister. Cherry was slower to come out of her reverie, and had to blink her eyes a few times before she could push up on her hooves properly, her ears turning on her head as if she was feeling confused at what just happened.

"I'm sorry if that was too forward of me," I started, "but this is how humans back home reward other creatures for having done a good job."

Cherry shivered in place, her cheeks reddening. "You mean pets."

I shrugged at that.

"It felt nice. Thank you, Princess Josey," Cherry smiled up weakly, idly scraping her right forehoof over the floor.

I heard Rhonda giggle at that and looked away with a blush. "I'm not sure I'm a princess yet, but it was the only thing I could think of to show our appreciation."

Magnolia mumbled something I couldn't quite catch, and I peered over Cherry's form to look at her sister. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that?"

"She said thank you, Princess," Cherry responded in place of Magnolia, and I smirked at the title being used again.

"I'm not sure I can get used to that title," I muttered, and Rhonda gave me a squeeze. "Or to having a Rhonda backpack. Are you going to let go at some point in time, love? We have to meet Celestia for lunch soon."

"But your wings are so soft!" Came the reply from my back.

"You can nuzzle into them at any time, Rho-Rho," I sighed, moving my hands down to try and pull myself out of Rhonda's pincer-like grasp.

If it wasn't for her also trying to hold onto the towel, I would not have succeeded, as she hid some surprising strength in her arms, but fortunately for me having knelt before, I was able to slide her arms further down and sort of step out of the circle she was making with them.

"Aww," Rhonda pouted, and pushed up on her hooves, clinging the towel to her chest instead.

"Cherry, do you have anything that could cover us up a bit before we go meet with Celestia?" I wondered of the spa pony, and she tilted her head at me. "Maybe something ponies wear that could be a few sizes too big so any further changes won't damage them?"

"We could probably find a coat for miss Rhonda, Princess Josey, but your wings come out at the wrong angle for any Pegasus outfit to work on you," Cherry replied in all honesty.

"What about some pants?" I pressed, but Cherry raised an eyebrow at that. "Ok, so a skirt?"

"Skirts should be no problem at all," the pony nodded. "We have a wide variety of those."

"Can you find us a couple that works with our colors?" I asked, "I would think my coat will look yellow as well, considering my wings?"

"Most likely, yes Princess Josey," she agreed. "Shall I send a guard out to find the court tailor for your top?"

I looked back at Rhonda, still hiding her chest from sight with the wet towel, and then stretched my wings out behind me to look at their size. "That might be wise, yes. Maybe something with an open back would work, until we change more."

"Like a chest guard, Princess?" Magnolia piped up, and I looked in her direction with some surprise.

"Er... yeah, like a chest guard, I guess," I replied, reaching up to scratch an itch behind my right ear.

"Just make sure it's made of cloth and hangs down to about waist level," I continued, marking the location by placing my left hand at my lowermost ribs.

Magnolia nodded and turned to her sister. "I'll go get their clothes then, Cherry?"

Cherry nodded slowly, the movement of her ears and tail indicating she was as surprised as I was at the other pony's sudden initiative, and Magnolia all-but galloped out of the bathrooms.

"Perhaps she was a bit more overwhelmed by us than she let on?" I mused, and Cherry smiled up weakly.

"It looks to be that way, Princess. I do hope she remembers to bring the skirts as well."

I moved to pull Rhonda into a hug, her naked form pressing into mine, and I smiled back at Cherry while Rhonda rested her head atop my chest. "It's not like it will matter in a few hours. At the rate we're changing, we'll be fully transformed before the end of the day."

Cherry nodded slowly at that, flicking one of her ears, and I felt a twitch to the side of my head. So the ears would be next, then. I leaned down to press a kiss on top of Rhonda's head and looked past her mane at her right ear, letting out a soft chuckle as it started to look a bit elven in appearance...

Chapter 10, Josey 10

With new clothes courtesy of the court tailor Uniquity, a flamboyant unicorn who looked as much like a stereotypical gay fashion designer as any pony could, Rhonda and I left the baths in search of the main dining hall, where Celestia would be waiting for us.

Followed by two of the princess' guards we walked arm-in-arm to allow Rhonda to use me as a crutch. She had some trouble keeping balance, but with every step I felt her lean into me for support less and less.

By the time we made it to the great hall, she was walking beside me as if she'd always walked on hooves instead of feet, and I gave her a warm smile before turning my attention to our hostess.

"Thank you for not letting me drown just now, princess Celestia," I offered, bowing down lightly and feeling my wings spread behind me almost automatically.

Rhonda giggled and played her fingers through my feathers as my wing stopped her from moving forward, and I felt a shiver run down my spine at the nice feeling it evoked. I was going to miss her fingers most once our transformations completed.

"Of course, princess Josey," Celestia smiled, bowing her head a bit to me as well. "Would you both join me for lunch?"

I straightened my back again, my wings folding in the same motion, and smiled up. "We would be honored to."

Celestia took a few steps aside to show the long table filled with platters of varying sizes on which a large assortment of food was laid out for the taking. There were cupcakes, truffles, layered cakes, and ice cream for those with a sweet tooth. Carrots, celery, lettuce, and a variety of flowers and leaves I didn't recognize for those seeking a healthier diet. And then there were at least six pails of liquid of various colorations standing around a glass punchbowl in the center of the table.

I looked around myself in wonder and did a quick head count. Besides Celestia, Rhonda, and myself, there were eight guards standing along the long sides of the room, two off in the distance near the doors leading further through the palace, two behind us at the doors through which we made our entry, and the two which had been following us.

"Do the guards eat with us, princess?" I wondered, and she let out a curious chuckle.

"Now that would be an idea," she giggled, but shook her head immediately after. "No, it's just us three."

I stared at the food on the table again and then scratched the back of my neck. "That's a lot of food for just three ponies, princess."

Celestia raised an eyebrow, nudging her head toward Rhonda. "I would not be too worried about that, dear Josey. But please, call me Celestia. We're both princesses."

I turned my head to look at Rhonda and immediately saw the hunger on her face, her ears tilted forward a little even if they still looked far too human, and her tail flicking behind her as if she was waiting to be told she could dig in.

"Rho?" I tried, but Celestia chuckled.

"Why don't you two sit down and we can talk some more while we're having lunch?"

There was a pink blur before Celestia was good and well done with her question, and I followed it to see Rhonda seated on one of the cushions set out around the table, eagerly scanning all the food in front of her.

I followed at a slightly slower pace, taking my seat beside Rhonda and watched as Celestia set herself down opposite us rather than at the head of the table.

The princess' horn glowed as she reached for a pail of milk and poured herself a glass of it, then offered it to us.

"I didn't know ponies drank milk?" I wondered, holding my glass up with my hand for her to fill.

Celestia smiled enigmatically and filled my glass halfway, then moved the pail back to its original position. "Have a sip, Josey. And please feel free to take what you want to eat. The palace staff can make more when necessary."

The latter sentence was aimed more at Rhonda than at me, and my girlfriend moved along the table like a whirlwind, scooping up food from several different platters before sitting down beside me again and stuffing her mouth.

I shook my head in amusement as I lifted the glass of milk to my face, and sniffed it. It smelled like normal milk which we got from cows back home, but there was a light tinge of acidity to it which cow's milk only had when it started to go bad.

Celestia noticed the pull of my facial muscles and leaned in over the table. "It is mother's milk, donated by pregnant mares who started to lactate before they deliver their foals. It is a delicacy in our world."

I stared down at the milk and raised an eyebrow. "Donated?"

"There's a rare condition in our world where pregnant mares start to lactate several months before their foals are ready to be born," Celestia further clarified. "Their breasts fill to the point where they start to leak, but there's no foal to drink from them yet."

I nodded slowly, taking a soft sip from the milk. It tasted different from cow's milk back home, but it didn't taste bad at all. The mild acidity actually helped its unique taste to come out better.

"In the past, such mares would turn to their stallions," Celestia continued, "which had the unintended side-effect of their stallions getting drunk."

I peered out over my glass and raised an eyebrow, but still took another sip of the milk. It was strange to think someone could get drunk over a glass of milk, but there was still something about the taste I couldn't quite place.

"You see," Celestia chuckled, taking a sip from her own glass before continuing, "there's a relatively high amount of salt in mother's milk. This won't affect a newborn foal, but an adult pony is more susceptible to an overabundance of salt and will get drunk from it. Especially when the milk is consumed in large quantities."

Salt. That was it. It was slightly salty. I took a bit of a bigger gulp of milk and let it rest in my mouth for a moment before swallowing. "You're right. It is somewhat salty," I nodded, putting my glass back down near my plate and promptly watching a chunk of cake fall in it.

"Rhonda, love, do watch where your food is flying?" I sighed, plucking the cake out of my glass and dispensing it on my girlfriend's half-empty plate.

Rhonda, her face and hands smeared with chocolate and bits of cake and other confectionery, nodded to my words and jumped up to get a refill.

I looked down at my own empty plate and smirked. "Perhaps I should get some food for myself before Rhonda finishes everything that's on the table?"

Celestia smiled in my direction and her horn glowed as she levitated some plant leaves over, and topped it off with a few flowers.

"Can I," I started, hesitantly, then looked up at where my horn was. "How would I... er..."

Celestia tilted her head at me. "How would you use your magic, you mean?"

I nodded and reached up to touch my horn, playing my fingers along the grooves.

"I'm not sure if you're able to yet, considering your half-finished transformation," Celestia spoke her concern, "but if you feel you are ready to try, it is fairly simple to explain but difficult to master."

I looked her right in the eyes and nodded. "I want to know."

"I assume you want to learn how to levitate things first, considering the question came up as I filled my plate?" Celestia chuckled, and I blushed as I nodded.

"It looked a whole lot more effective than running around grabbing everything separately. A lot more hygienic as well."

The princess looked down at her plate and levitated a small flower over from it to mine. It was a daisy, looking to be freshly cut from its stem as its petals were still brimming with life. "Let's start small. Focus on the daisy and imagine it floating upward from its plate. When you have that image in your head, try to push that image into your horn and, from there, to the daisy."

I stared at the flower on my plate and narrowed my eyes at it. "Ok, little thing, you're going to go up a few inches until you're hovering above the plate. I'm going to imagine you there now," I mumbled to myself.

In my head, I tried to place the image of the flower as an overlay over where it was as I looked at it, then tried to push that image through my forehead into my horn. I needed a few tries before I got my thoughts under control, but then had enough focus to make the image drift off until it hovered where my horn was.

"Now from my horn to the flower," I whispered in utter concentration, moving the mental image down to the plate until it was a perfect overlay again.

Nothing happened.

Nothing continued to happen.

I blinked and looked up at Celestia, who was staring very hard onto her own plate, her face scrunched up as if she was holding back her laughter.

I sighed and folded my arms in front of my chest. "That's not fair, Celestia," I pouted. "You've had a thousand years and then some to perfect your magic. I've only started to turn into a pony yesterday."

Celestia tried to regain her composure, but I saw the twinkle in her eyes as she turned them up to look at me.

"You knew it wasn't going to work, did you?" I asked, and she immediately turned serious.

"No, Josey, I didn't," she assured me. "Trust me when I say that, over the years, a lot of different ponies have amazed me with what they could do against all odds. I did warn you that it may be too soon, but I was rooting for you."

I sighed and looked down at my plate, noticing the daisy had gone missing from it, but a pair of chocolate smears had been left in its place.

"Rhonda," I sighed, looking beside me and seeing Pinkie Pie look back at me. "Rhonda?"

"Yes Josey?" 'Pinkie' said, pausing a moment from stuffing her fully formed and furred muzzle with food.

I tentatively reached out to touch her cake-stained face, shaking my head in bewilderment. "Wow.. I didn't.. How did that?" I stammered, and Rhonda nuzzled softly into my hand.

"Hmm," Celestia hummed, calling one of her guards over and sending him on his way to fetch Magic Ink.

I was still captivated by my lover's fully formed pony face and did not notice the other changes, until a pink hoof moved up to touch my hand.

Shocked by the touch, I fell over backward and shook my head at the fully formed pony sitting where Rhonda had not a moment ago.

She was pink. Everything about her was pink. Pink mane, pink coat, pink eyes. Different shades of pink, to be sure, but she was pink all over!

Rhonda looked confused at my reaction, but followed my gaze downward until she spotted her forehooves and quickly held them up in front of her face. "My hands!"

"Hooves," Celestia corrected.

"When did this happen? I didn't even notice!" Rhonda exclaimed, looking around herself from where she was sitting. "I was just eating until Josey called my name, and then she went all confused and now I have hooves?"

"I wonder if it's the food," Celestia mused, leaning down to take a bite out of her own while studying Rhonda's responses from the corner of her eyes.

"I had some of that milk, Celestia," I reminded her, "Shouldn't I be showing signs of changes as well if that was the case?"

Celestia narrowed her eyes at the thought, then swallowed and looked back at Rhonda again. "Can you please stand up, dear?"

Rhonda blinked up and turned her eyes toward the princess. "Stand up?"

"Yes, my little pony," Celestia offered with a smile. "Just stand up from your cushion, please."

Rhonda shrugged and put her forehooves down on the ground, then pushed her rump up so she was standing on all fours, her clothes dropping on the floor beside her. "Like this?"

"Does that feel natural to you?" Celestia asked, and Rhonda shrugged lightly.

"I guess?"

I got up and walked over to my girlfriend, looking down at how small she was in comparison. Her flank barely reached up to my hips, with the top of her head still below where my breasts... had been.

I stared down at myself and patted down my chest area. "Where'd my boobs go?"

Celestia's laughter filled the room again and I looked up to watch her move a hoof in a downward motion.

I pulled my shirt up to look at my belly, and there they were; two floppy-looking teats.

"That's..." I started.

"Pretty normal for a pony, dear Josey," Celestia finished my sentence for me. "You will find Rhonda's in the same location."

"I didn't even notice the change!" I exclaimed, then pointed back at my wings as I spread them open. "I FELT THOSE!"

"It may have something to do with the nature of the mother's milk, dear," Celestia smiled, lifting her own glass to her lips and taking a sip of it.

I stared at her in confusion, my wings still spread but slowly sinking down a little as my arms fell down to my sides again. "I'm not a foal."

"But you are a pony," Celestia returned. "A pony who may be slightly intoxicated already. Are you, by chance, feeling dizzy?"

I shrugged and reached a hand up again to feel at the side of my head. "A little. I wasn't going to bring it up."

Celestia just nodded with a knowing smile. "You may not want to finish your drink then, Josey."

I sighed and folded my wings again, looking down at the pink pony called Rhonda beside me. "You were eating way too fast."

"And you've not eaten anything yet, silly," she chuckled up at me, licking her muzzle clean.

"You look too cute like that," I sighed, sinking through my legs and wrapping my arms around her neck, leaning my head in against her mane. "Not as puffy a mane as Pinkie's, but it suits you."

I felt her lean in against me as well and she nuzzled back up at me. "Probably because I'm not Pinkie Pie. I'm my own pony."

"Without a cutiemark," I chuckled, poking her blank flank with a finger.

Her head turned to look back at herself and her ears flopped down against her head. "Aww.. I was actually curious at what it would be."

The doors opened and Magic Ink trotted in, moving to Celestia's side and pulling his notepad out of a saddlebag. I could hear Celestia's whispers as my ears turned in their direction. She was filling him in on what had happened so far.

"Josey?" Rhonda wondered, and I pulled away from her a bit so she could turn to look at me.

"Yes Rho?"

"You should eat something," she offered with a concerned look on her face. "And take another sip of that milk too."

I looked up at the table, then winced a bit from a twinge of pain shooting through my leg. "I'm not feeling that hungry, Rho."

"Trust me. You want to go eat something," Rhonda insisted. "And don't try to stand up."

I raised an eyebrow at that last part, then looked down at my legs as I felt another flash of pain.

"Oh. Oh, right," I stammered, looking away from what looked like boiling bubbling flesh surrounding my lower limbs and crawling over to the table to grab a hold of the glass of milk. "Damn the consequences, I really don't want to feel this!" I cried out, downing the remainder of the milk down my throat.

Chapter 11, Josey 11

My head was throbbing by the time I woke up again, and I groaned in misery as I carefully opened an eye to the darkness of the room. It was clear that it was the middle of the night, and I was resting on my back in the room Rhonda and I had stayed in before.

A weight shifted against my right side and I looked at it, watching pony Rhonda rest with her back against me, her head on a pillow and my arm stuck under her neck.

She was sleeping soundly and I didn't want to wake her, so I reached my other arm up and held my hand up in front of my face. "Still human," I croaked, my throat feeling dry.

A movement near one of the windows drew my attention to it and I watched as Luna moved away from it to silently walk over to the bed.

"I'm glad to see you have regained consciousness," she spoke in a soft tone, pouring some water into a glass and lifting it up toward me with her magic. "Drink some. It will help against your hangover."

I reached for the glass with my hand, but grabbed thin air instead. I was sure I had aimed correctly, but my hand was slightly to the left of the glass.

I tried again, moving my hand sideways until it bumped into the glass and then closing my fingers around it once I was assured I had it. Success! I reached the glass down and proceeded to splash the contents of it over my face rather than pouring it down my throat.

Luna raised an eyebrow and levitated the glass out of my hand again. "It is common for a state of inebriation to affect one's motor skills. Don't worry. I will move the glass for you."

I nodded up while carefully lowering my hand so I could wipe my face. "Thank you."

"My sister told me what happened," Luna smirked, bringing a newly filled glass to my lips and tilting it a little to let the water flow into my mouth. "You are a lightweight by our standards, but it is to be expected. Have you ever had any salt before?"

I swallowed the water and felt it rush down my parched throat, nodding softly as Luna lifted the glass a little again. "Back on Earth it's used to add flavour to various dishes. Humans don't get drunk from it," I explained, pushing myself up a little on my left elbow and carefully trying to slide my arm out from under Rhonda.

A dark blue light enveloped the pony beside me and she was lifted gently up in the air as I pulled my arm out from under her, then laid down gently once again. Rubbing my right arm with my left hand to get the blood flowing through it again, I nodded in Luna's direction.

"Thanks."

"You would have woken her. And she is having such a sweet dream right now," Luna revealed, smiling in Rhonda's direction much like a parent would to their sleeping child.

"Oh, right," I realized, "You can see into others' dreams. I just thought you had to be physically there?"

Luna reached the glass back up to my lips and I took a sip from it as she tilted it, moving the muscles in my back a little without opening my wings up. I could feel the tension in them from having laid on them.

"Dreams are not physical, Josey. I would not be able to have a physical presence in them," Luna smiled. "It is purely a representation of my spiritual energy which transfers into other ponies' dreamworlds."

"I see," I mumbled, daring to stretch my wings out slowly over the bed and Rhonda on one side, and out beside Luna on the other side.

"Do you remember what happened before we put you to bed, Josey?" Luna asked, and I shook my head slowly.

"I remember sitting on the floor with Rhonda, and then.. something.. and OH!" I reached down and flung the covers off of my legs, staring down at the bare pony legs attached to my hips. They felt normal enough, from the hip down to the hoof, but it was still a weird thing to see after almost twenty years of having had feet.

Luna looked down at my legs as well, and I could feel her breath fall over the exposed limbs.

"I'm not wearing any clothes," I realized, and Luna shrugged lightly.

I didn't feel embarrassed even with Luna looking me over. She felt safe. I had felt this before, I realized. Luna was safe. "Safe from the spiders," I mumbled, vaguely remembering part of the dream.

The princess of the night looked up with a smile and moved the glass over again. "It is always nice to hear somepony remembering their dreams," she confided in me as I drank more of the water. "Most ponies forget them as soon as they wake."

I gave her a nod and emptied my glass, then reached out to put it on the bedside table. Only with Luna's help did it make it there in one piece, and I looked down in embarrassment.

"I've never been drunk before," I offered, "It's very strange."

"You were acting very strange yesterday as well, as far as I heard," Luna chuckled. "Once the shock of your transformed legs had settled, you apparently danced on the table kicking food around everywhere."

"I... did?" I blinked, moving to turn so I could dangle my legs over the side of the bed and face Luna properly. They hit the ground before I had thought they would, and I had to move a little to sit comfortably.

"Oh, it did not end there. You ran off into the palace garden, disrobed yourself, and started to eat from Celestia's prized flowerbeds. If you are feeling a stomach ache, that would be why."

I looked down and poked at my stomach, a pocket of air quickly rising up through my esophagus as a result. I stifled my burp with the back of my other hand, but Luna still shook her head.

"There is a reason why some flowers are for eating, and others for looking pretty," the princess smirked. "I would not recommend eating nightshade, for example."

I blushed deeply and nodded at her. "Noted."

I looked at Luna's mane and watched it as it moved as if there was a gust of wind moving around the princess' head, and reached my hand out for it. "May I touch your mane, princess?"

Luna raised an eyebrow, but nodded slowly. "If you feel the need to?"

I gently brushed my hand against the dark form, feeling the soft hairs flow around my hand like a cool night's breeze. With my fingers parting the hairs I could make out the individual strands which flowed together so perfectly to form the illusion of a starry night's sky.

"It's beautiful," I breathed out, and Luna smiled up more.

"It took some time to grow it out to this length," she muttered.

"I saw your mane after the Elements of Harmony had broken Nightmare Moon's spell," I offered, and Luna winced visibly. "Your mane wasn't this long then, and it did not move like this."

Luna shook her head at that, gently pulling away from my hand and I withdrew it. "No, it did not."

"Did Celestia's look as it does now, back when she was young?" I inquired, and Luna shook her head. "So you both used magic then."

Luna looked away and licked her lips, not answering my question.

I studied her for a moment, but then shrugged and looked down at my hooves standing on the ground beside the bed. "It doesn't matter. It looks good on you."

Luna dared to look back at that, her smile returning.

"But there's something wrong with my legs," I huffed. "They're too long."

Luna moved closer and turned to put her own back leg beside mine and then looked back at both of them for a size comparison.

"Maybe a little," she agreed, "but they're still shorter than my sister's."

I pushed up from the bed into a standing position and looked at where my hip was in relation to Luna's, and nodded. "I'm sorry if this puts me in-between you and Celestia, height wise."

"Why would you apologize for that?" Luna wondered, turning around to face me again. "I am still catching up to a thousand years of development. Even Cadance is slightly taller than me."

"She is?" I wondered, and Luna nodded.

"Her horn is smaller than mine, but she is a few inches taller overall."

I looked between Luna's flank and my own hips again and flushed as I realized something. "That puts me between Cadance and Celestia, then."

Luna smiled and nodded. "So it seems. Let us wait until your transformation completes, Josey. It is easier to see that way."

Luna walked over to a box set up on the dresser and lifted the top off of it with her magic. "Would you care for a midnight snack? As far as my sister told me, you have not eaten anything all day yesterday."

I felt my stomach growl and nodded, walking closer to find a stack of sandwiches on a silver platter hidden within the box.

"I am hungry, yes. But will this force my body to transform faster, like lunch did to Rhonda?" I wondered, motioning back to the still sleeping pink one on the bed.

Luna shrugged and sat down on her haunches. "That question goes beyond my knowledge. It is mainly alfalfa bread with some grass and flowers."

"Any daisies?" I asked, giggling softly as I sat down opposite Luna beside the dresser.

"Why are daisies so funny?" Luna wondered, lowering the box between us so I could more easily reach for the sandwiches within and pulling one out for herself.

I shrugged and reached for a sandwich with my right hand. "It's just that Celestia tried to teach me how to levitate a daisy during lunch. Didn't work. It didn't move at all."

"She did the picture thing again, did she not?" Luna wondered after swallowing the bite she'd taken.

"Yeah, imagining the flower to fly up or something," I muttered, lifting the top piece of bread up a bit to look at the green stuff held in-between. "Looks like mostly grass and some leaves I don't know."

"Every pony is different, Josey," Luna sighed, using her magic to close my sandwich up again. "If you are going to be a picky eater, I will not help you to understand your magic."

I looked up at her frowning face and took a quick bite from the sandwich in my hands. "Sowwy."

Luna nodded and continued with a light smile. "When we learn to use our magic, we instinctively use what feels right to us. In my sister's case it was to envision what she wanted to have happen in her head, and then make that image a reality."

I nodded while chewing on my food. It had an odd taste to it, not unlike tea drawn up from nettle leaves, and I was surprised by how well it worked with the grass and bread together. My stomach growled again to remind me how hungry I was, and I quickly swallowed to take another bite from my sandwich.

"Other ponies are more instinctive and do not need to build a picture in their head to focus their magic. I personally believe it allows for us to respond quicker than those working along Celestia's image magic."

I finished my sandwich and nodded, reaching for a new one to resume eating.

"My sister and I fought Discord together, and I sent off a volley of magic bursts into him before Celestia even hit him once. She took too much time preparing her spells and we would have lost if she had not quickened her pace halfway through the battle. She slowed me down. It did not work to help me fight my jealousy afterward, when she received all the praise."

I reached for my third sandwich but kept my ears perked, this was something I didn't know yet!

"In time it caused me to rebel against Celestia. We stood opposite one another on the battlefield with our armies ready to gallop forward and see which would be stronger; the day, or the night."

Luna sighed and took a thoughtful bite out of her own sandwich, while I reached for the fourth or fifth? I don't know, I lost count. It tasted so good I just had to continue eating!

"By the time I realized she had been working on a spell long before we met for the final battle, it was too late. She had been powering it up for a long while and I could see the exhaustion in her eyes as she banished me to the moon. Nothing but a shadow printed on its surface."

A light chuckle escaped her and she shook her head. "What I mean to say is that if you have the time to use Celestia's technique, by all means do so. But if you need to respond quickly, there is no use in creating an image in your head and only then putting it out there. You will want to put it out there immediately."

"Take these sandwiches, for instance," Luna offered, looking down and motioning at the, now empty, box with a forehoof.

I swallowed my last bit of sandwich and fell back, sighing out in relief. My stomach was nice and full again and I was feeling oddly ecstatic.

Luna raised an eyebrow at me. "So you did," she mumbled, then finished the rest of her own sandwich in silence.

Luna remained silent, even as my body convulsed and spasmed as it transformed further with the help of the Equestrian food fueling it.

I felt sick laying on the ground in front of the dresser, puking out blood as my internal organs rearranged themselves and generally feeling like I was going to die on the spot. The blood rushing up through my throat had one positive; I could not scream out in pain, leaving Rhonda in blissful sleep on the bed.

Before my bloodshot eyes I saw my hands bloat up into hooves, the joints popping and shifting as my arms turned into a pair of forelegs. As with Rhonda before, the changes passed by faster than they had in the past, and it didn't take long for them to subside, leaving me shuddering in the cold early morning air.

I pulled my hooves up close to my chest underside and trembled from the cold, spitting out a few remaining bits of blood from my newly formed muzzle.

Luna stood up and I felt myself get lifted up by her magic. The blood I had been laying in dripped down from my form and I watched her levitating some water from the jug on the bedside table over to gently wash it out of my coat and mane.

I had some difficulty focusing as she did, getting moved around by her magic, but once she was done I was lowered onto the bed beside my love Rhonda. I almost automatically wrapped my forelegs around her and pulled her close, with me being the big spoon.

Luna tucked us in under the blankets and cleaned up after me, and I took the time to stare down my muzzle at the pale yellow fur covering my newly formed limbs. I felt a little like a citrus fruit.

I lay my head down on the pillow and mused at feeling Rhonda's smaller form. As far as I could judge she was about half my size, and she fitted perfectly as little spoon as we rested on the bed.

I brought my head forward a little to sniff at her mane and smiled at the scent coming from her. Definitely my Rhonda.

Comforted by the familiar smell, and exhausted from what must have been the final stage of my transformation, I closed my eyes with my chin resting on top of Rhonda's head.

Chapter 12, Josey 12

Luna remained in our room until we woke up, Rhonda's excitement at seeing my changes finalized causing her to jump around me like a puppy getting a treat. She even shot underneath me from left to right and back again, making it difficult for me to walk toward the door.

"Thank you again for keeping watch over us, princess Luna," I smiled at the, now shorter, princess and she nodded slowly.

"I guard the night, princess Josey. I was happy to help." Luna opened the door and motioned toward it. "Cadance and Twilight have arrived from the Crystal Empire. My sister is expecting us all for breakfast."

I stretched my wings out a bit as I let out a yawn, and felt they were more comfortable stretched than they were folded at my side, I looked over at Luna and realized hers were unfolded as well.

"I'm starting to see why all Alicorns keep their wings stretched," I muttered, but then put a hoof down in front of Rhonda to stop her from running around. "How about we focus on getting some breakfast first, and you can run around me after?" I suggested, and she went wide-eyed at the thought!

"YAY! FOOD!" she exclaimed, and rushed out through the open door before I could comment on her seemingly boundless energy.

"Does she remind you of somepony?" I wondered of Luna as I passed her by, shaking my head lightly as Rhonda had already disappeared down the next hallway.

Luna closed the door behind us and trotted up to my left side, looking up. "She is just as excited, yes."

"And as pink," I added.

"If not for her eyes, they would be a perfect match," Luna nodded, leading me into the turn to our right.

I smiled down at her before looking up ahead at the double doors behind which the great hall was located.

"I did not do too much damage, did I? Just some flowerbeds?" I asked with some trepidation.

"You have already been forgiven for what you did," Luna replied, smiling up at me. "Do not worry. The most she would do is banish you to the moon for a thousand years."

I missed a step and had to find my hoofing again, but Luna was laughing merrily at her own joke.

I caught up to her and snorted. "That was not funny."

"Indeed. But I do so love how you responded to it," Luna grinned mischievously.

We stopped at the door and Luna motioned to the guards to keep the doors closed for a moment longer, turning to face me.

"Before we join the others, there is one thing I need to ask of you," she said, her tone as serious as the look on her face.

I raised an eyebrow. "What would that be, princess Luna?"

"If you ever feel any jealousy, any dark thoughts, any desire to do harm to another, please let me know?" Luna almost pleaded, and I could see how deep her fear was of another Nightmare Moon rising.

I reached my left forehoof up and held it to my chest. "I promise, Luna. Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a cupcake in my eye." I mimicked the last bit, putting my hoof over my closed eye.

Luna chuckled lightly, turning back to the doors. "If there was any question of why your girlfriend turned into a Pinkie Pie clone, you just answered it."

"Oh, ha-ha," I stated, before taking a deep breath and turning for the doors myself.

Luna gave a nod to the guards and they moved to push the doors open, revealing the large table with its many cushions stacked around it and with various items used during breakfast laid out on it. A few ponies were sitting around it already.

I raised an eyebrow as Rhonda was seated all cuddled-up to Cadance's left side, her forelegs hugged around the princess while Cadance gently stroked a hoof through Rhonda's mane, but I followed Luna into the room regardless.

"...but found no useful information," Twilight Sparkle finished what she was saying, then looked up and waved a wing in our direction.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Twilight. But all hope is not yet lost. Josey here may prove to be our trump card," Celestia smiled, and I felt my cheeks darken.

"Trump card? I'm not sure what you're talking about, Celestia," I smirked, returning the wingwaves from Twilight and Cadance both.

Luna walked over to sit on the left beside Celestia, stifling a yawn before levitating some food her way, and I looked between Celestia and Luna on the one side of the table, and Twilight, Cadance, Rhonda, and Shining Armor on the other.

"Would you terribly mind if I come sit beside you, Celestia?" I wondered, and the sun princess laughed softly to that.

"Not at all, Josey, please feel free to," she returned, pulling a glass and a plate over from a stack further down the table and setting them down in front of me as I sat down on the pillow to her right.

I looked over at Twilight Sparkle's face, her pondering gaze having followed me as I made my way around the table, and tilted my head a little at her. The movement shocked her from her thoughts, and she looked down a little.

"I must say, I would have never imagined myself to be sitting opposite the world-famous Twilight Sparkle," I started, and Twilight's face darkened with a blush as she looked up. "Do you know that your adventures are broadcast around the world back on Earth? So many little girls and boys look up to you, although they can't seem to come to a consensus about whether it was a good thing you became an Alicorn or not. I'd imagine they'd say the same about me," I chuckled.

Twilight just stared at me, so I looked around at the items on the table. There were a few types of cereal, some bread, two types of cupcake; one set with glazing and one set without, and an assortment of freshly picked greens with some flowers on the side. To drink there was water, several types of juice, and a pail of milk.

"More mother's milk, Celestia?" I wondered, but the pony to my left shook her head. I turned mine to face her and noticed we really didn't differ that much in height. I was only a little shorter than her.

"This is fresh cow's milk," she revealed. "Also donated."

I shrugged and moved some cereal into a bowl, then poured some of the cow's milk over it. "As long as it doesn't make me drunk, I'm fine with it."

Celestia's giggling reached my ears at about the same time as I reached a spoonful of cereal to my lips, and I looked up to see practically every pony around the table looking at me with various odd looks on their faces.

"What? Did I say something wrong?" I wondered, putting my lips around the spoon and licking the cereal off of it.

Celestia was laughing too hard for me to get anything worthwhile out of her response, Luna just smiled with some sense of pride in her gaze, but otherwise remained silent. Across the table Shining Armor looked at me as if he was trying to judge whether I would be a threat, and Twilight's jaw had just about dropped under the table. Rhonda was staring at me as if she'd seen a ghost, and that just left Cadance.

I pulled the spoon from my mouth, swallowed, and looked her straight in her love-filled eyes. "What's going on, Cadance?"

"Celestia just told us you were incapable of using your magic," Cadance offered with a warm smile. "Whatever happened overnight, you just made yourself breakfast. It's quite an achievement to go from being unable to use your magic, to levitating items across a fair distance with not so much as a wobble."

"Impossible, I'd say," Twilight murmured, having finally gotten her composure back.

"Now why would it have to be impossible?" Luna sighed, "Did you not write in one of your reports that a newborn unicorn foal had given your friend Pinkie Pie a run for her money?"

"That's different," Twilight remarked with a snort, "Pumpkin Cake was born a unicorn. Josey has been a human all her life."

"But she was reborn as an Alicorn during the night, Twilight," Cadance cut in again, but then looked down at the catatonic pink pony to her side. "Although perhaps Rhonda was not aware she could do magic yet."

"Calm down, everypony," Celestia finally stated after recovering from her laughing fit, and turned to face me.

I was feeling just about like the joke of the century here. I had not even realized I was using my magic!

"Josey, dear, do you know what you just did?" Celestia asked, and I shrugged dumbly.

"Apparently I used my magic," I responded.

"Not only that, but you proved you're the best pony for the job of dealing with Spritelight," Celestia smiled.

I turned my head down to look at my cereal. "Why's that?"

"Shining, how high was her mana expenditure there?" Celestia asked, and I looked up at the stallion at the unfamiliar sentence.

"Very low. I could barely register she was using any at all," Shining replied, shaking his head in disbelief. "Does this mean what I think it does, Celestia?"

The sun princess turned to her former student. "Mana expenditure is related to what, Twilight?"

Twilight coughed and recited "The amount of mana expenditure per magic act is directly related to the amount of total mana a pony can tap into."

"And a low mana expenditure means that such a pony has? Anypony?" Celestia asked as if she was teaching a class of foals.

"The sheer.. unlimited.. things... we could... do with that.." Rhonda gasped, and everypony's head turned to her.

"Pardon?" Celestia blinked.

"JUST IMAGINE!" Rhonda exclaimed, jumping up on the table and pointing around as if seeing the whole world unfold in front of her. "We could end wars! Bring happiness to the depressed! Rain chocolate from the sky!"

I felt my ears tilt down and winced as a tricolor of magic enveloped Rhonda, sitting her down beside Cadance again. Celestia, Luna, and Twilight frowned at my girlfriend and Cadance wrapped her forelegs protectively around her.

"Ssh," Cadance hushed, and Rhonda slowly calmed down again.

A collective sigh came from around the table and Celestia turned her suddenly weary head toward me. "And this is what happened to Spritelight. It is these, and thoughts along a similar vein, which make her so dangerous."

I nodded slowly and felt everypony except for Cadance looking in my direction again.

"I don't think it's right to take choice away from anypony," I started softly, but then scraped my throat and looked up, directly into Rhonda's eyes. "If Earth changes, it will be because its people decide to change. I can't make that decision for them."

Rhonda opened her mouth, but Cadance put her hoof to it and Rhonda's eyes turned down.

"A superhero back on Earth kept repeating the same sentence; With great power comes great responsibility," I continued, looking away from Rhonda as I saw she got it and looking at each of the ponies around the table in turn, until I looked in Luna's eyes. "I don't understand how I'm suddenly able to use my magic. I don't get this talk about mana. But I do get the gist of the conversation."

Luna smiled weakly under my enduring gaze, and I smiled toward her. "I had a great teacher in Luna," I turned my eyes back to Twilight, "in Twilight," and then finally turned to look at Celestia, "and in Celestia. The show back home taught us so much about how some would abuse their power and only hurt themselves and others in the process."

I paused a moment and felt my tail twitch. "I don't want to be that pony."

Everypony nodded at that. "This is what we all decided, Josey," Celestia offered in a soft tone. "At one point or another the choice comes for us all; do we want to use our power for good, or do we want to force our opinions upon others?"

Luna sniffled and I looked up to see her leaning into Celestia's side, one of Celestia's wings folded around her.

"Luna made a mistake, once. Blinded as she was by her jealousy. As did Twilight, when she forced the citizens of Ponyville to fight over one of her toys," Celestia continued, and I looked up to see Twilight looking away. "But they both returned to doing good. They learned from their mistakes. We're able to keep Equestria a safe place because of their choices."

"And now I must make one," I cut in, knowing where this was headed. "Do I want to help Spritelight by doing everything I can to find her and make her see what she is doing? Giving her the choice to make things right again? Or do I want to hunt her down and kill her for the pain she's caused me and others?"

Celestia nodded at that. "We did not kill Discord. I did not kill my sister Luna. In both cases I chose to give them time to think about what they had done. In the hopes that they would turn for the better."

"Sombra is a lost cause," Shining sighed.

Celestia agreed, "Yes. Unfortunately some are too lost for us to help them. We will have to keep Sombra away from the Crystal Empire for now. But I still have hope he, too, will come to see the error of his ways. It may take a thousand years, or a million. We may not be here when it happens, but one day perhaps."

I nodded in unison with the other ponies around the table. "When Discord came for Rhonda and myself, he made mention of the borders between worlds. Of creatures far worse than him waiting for their time to strike."

Twilight perked up and nodded quickly. "Yes, we read about that in the Crystal Empire library. Worldeaters they're called."

"I don't care what they are called," I shrugged, and looked around the table. "If I find Spritelight. If I manage to help her become good again, or even if I don't. Is there a chance for these things to be locked away again?"

Celestia looked over at Twilight, and everypony else followed her gaze.

"I," Twilight started, looking troubled. "There was no mention of any ritual or spell that locked them away. All the books said was that they would appear when the dimensional walls would break. That they would cause the end of the world."

"Then it is high time I started to look for Spritelight," I decided, pushing up from my cushion. "When do I leave?"

Rhonda jumped up and ran around the table, quickly clinging to both my forelegs. "WE! You mean WE! You're not going alone, Josey! Together forever, remember?"

I winced and looked down, nuzzling my muzzle in against Rhonda's mane and pressing a kiss on top of her head, feeling my tears press against the back of my eyes. "I can't, Rhonda.. You're an Earthpony with no magic potential. What if we were being chased by Earth's governments? What if Spritelight decided to use you as a means to blackmail me?"

Rhonda looked up with tears rolling down her face. "B..but you promised. Y..y.. you promised, Jo... Rho and Jo forever.. You'd always protect me, you said."

I sank down through my hooves and let her hug her forelegs around my neck instead of around my own forelegs. "That's what I'm doing, Rho. You'll be safe here, with the other princesses. Maybe you can visit Ponyville and get Pinkie to teach you how to pull things out of thin air, hmm?"

A tear drooped down my muzzle and I shook it off before it would have landed on Rhonda's back.

"She's right, Rhonda," Celestia spoke gently, her face wrought in pain at the inevitable parting to come. "We will keep you safe here, but Josey needs to go alone."

"It's not fair!" Rhonda cried out, bawling loudly as she clung to me for dear life.

"No, it's not," I sniffled, not able to stop the tears from coming no matter how strong I wanted to appear to her. "But I will make it right, Rhonda. And then we'll be together. Forever."

Chapter 13, Spritelight 1

Spritelight

"And in local news, several students of the Martin Luther King Jr. high school have gone missing after the school instituted a rule banning the new ponygear fad from their grounds," the human on the news said, and the screen cut to a video of children wearing potentially fake pony tails, fake pony ears, and some who had shaved their hair to make it look like a pony mane.

"Parents are blaming the school for the disappearances," the voice continued, "and the police have started an investigation in the mass disappearance of these students, aged fourteen to eighteen." The screen returned to showing the presenter again, now with a number overlayed on the desk they were sitting behind.

"If you have any information with regards to any of the children as shown on these photographs, please contact your local police station or call the national Amber alert hotline on this number. And now for sports, with..."

The room returned to darkness as I pressed my hoof down on the TV-remote, which rested in front of me on the couch, and I shook my head at what I had just seen. It had taken me a few weeks to familiarize myself with the devices the humans used to keep tabs on what happened around them, since there was no Free Pony Express here.

The papers the humans did have contained unintelligible letters I could not decypher, no matter how I tried with my magic, so they were of no use to me. However, this 'television' thing worked fairly well to keep track of how the humans responded to the chosen few I had transformed so far. And it was not how I had expected them to respond.

"Gone missing," I snorted in disbelief, "I give them the best gift they will ever know, make them the ambassadors of the new times to come, and they hide away?"

I got up from where I had been lying on the couch and walked out to one of the streetside windows, pushing away the dark drapes with my left hoof as I drew near. The night was mostly quiet, the streets illuminated by the tall lamps on either side of it.

The building across the street was where one of my newest targets was sleeping. It was not someone I had imagined choosing for this important task, but I had been forced to deviate from my original plan several times now.

Zecora, and my former mentor Discord, were hot on my hooves and I had resorted to randomly selecting new ambassadors to keep them from anticipating my next move. There was no time to select humans on their magic potential, their good will, or even whether they liked equines or not. I instead moved from one town to the next, randomly picking a school, and just used my spell on whatever group looked most like the ones before them.

It depended on the day and town whether this meant transforming just a few, or more than a dozen, and there had been many a restless night where I had sat in whatever shelter I could find - usually the empty home of some human or some other place like it - silently hoping Discord would not find me before my mana replenished.

As a result of these weeks of restless nights, I could feel my head pounding from a headache that just wouldn't go away. I had been going through the humans' storerooms wherever I managed to gain access to their homes, but few of the items I had found in them matched up to Equestrian products. And some tasted downright nasty when I had sampled them on the tip of my tongue. If the humans had medicine against headaches, I could not find them.

The young boy across the street would wake up tomorrow with the start of a tail growing from his rear. I could just imagine the excited squeal the human foal would give upon realizing he would be turning into a proper colt, instead of having to deal with this damaged human society.

Once the worlds combined, he would have a future that actually led somewhere, instead of dealing with these weird machines and inedible items the humans surrounded themselves with. For a moment I caught myself wondering whether the combining of the worlds would also fix the changes that had happened to me?

Back in Equestria, before I opened the portal to bring me here, my colors had been vibrant, my hooves smooth and functional. Once I set hoof on Earth however, all that changed. My former bright blue mane and tail started to feel heavier on me, their sheen lost when I saw them in the mirror and rogue hairs sticking out from them at odd angles.

My hooves had taken an awkward turn for the worst, with my recent pedicure barely covering the imperfections on them anymore. Had my silver coat covered them in the past, now the hairs stopped just short of them almost like fetlocks. It was a big shock when I first arrived here.

Without the vibrancy of colors of my coat and mane, I could hardly be called Spritelight anymore. Had I been born with this dreary grey coat, I would have perhaps been called Spritedark... It would have launched me into a depression, if I did not have a task to complete.

I nodded to myself and turned away from the window again, looking at the ornaments placed in this abandoned house's living room. Half of the items made no sense. Oddly shaped figurines which looked like nothing in nature that I had ever seen, humanoid figures with parts missing, a bag with weirdly shaped sticks and white balls with little dents in them in a corner of the room. Humans were weird.

I headed back to the wall of glass at the back of the house and used a quick spell to allow myself to pass through the material as if it was not there at all. I lowered my head as I reached the edge of the pool and took a careful sip of it. I would not normally drink from a pool, but the faucets used by the humans were impossible to operate with hooves and I was trying to conserve my magic.

Some of these humans used additives in their pools which made the water taste weird and which made my eyes sting from the fumes coming from them, but there was either a very low concentration of it in this one or not at all. I silently thanked the absent home owner as I needily drank from their pool, my ears turning as they caught the night's sounds.

There was some car revving off in the distance. Probably an impatient driver waiting for the red light to turn green. Those things were nasty. The difference between an Invisibility spell or an Invincibility spell were that the former did not protect against cars speeding towards you, and the latter is non-existent. I already had to jump out of the way several times now on account of drivers who did not see me crossing the roads due to my invisibility spell.

I do not have wings, like the Alicorn princesses or the Pegasi back home, and the transformation spells drain my mana too much to use teleport spells effectively, so walking was how I got from one place to the next.

It took some effort to stay out of sight, but I felt I was making some good progress nonetheless. I did not get to follow my original plan anymore, but I was still making more ambassadors who would lead this world into the new times. Any progress is good progress, right?

I looked at the stars above and tried to gauge the time by them. It was still early in the night, I knew, and the humans had a strange way of filling up empty streets shortly before midnight as they returned home from wherever they had gone earlier that evening, so I knew I should stay away from the main roads for a little while longer.

Still, I could start making my way to the next town and arrive there before morning if I galloped along the highway. I would have to see about finding another school and place to rest at when I arrived there.

I pushed my way out of the backyard of the house through the broken fence and hid behind a small bush as I surveyed my surroundings. It was nice and peaceful except for a man and his dog walking across the road. The dog was leashed, of course. I had yet to see a human who allowed their pets to roam free.

I waited for them to pass, then quickly cantered in the other direction. There was plenty of shelter between me and the main roads, and I stuck to the shadows where possible to evade what few humans were actually outside as well.

I had to duck behind a house when a car suddenly swerved into the street from a crossroads up ahead, a bright light mounted on top of it swerving left and right as it surveyed the area around it. Police officers, I knew. They were most likely looking for the 'missing' children or anyone who may be responsible for it. There was no way I was going to show myself to those people.

Once the car pulled away I moved away from the building and watched the red lights on the back of the car disappear as I rounded the corner from the driveway onto the sidewalk again - straight into some human walking there.

"Ooph," the human exhumed as I bumped into their stomach, and they fell back onto the pavement while I felt all my hairs stand on end.

I swiveled my head back to face the human on the ground before me, and before I realized I was doing it, I felt my magic leave my horn... My sensitive ears, perked up as they were due to alarm, picked up the human's faint groan as they got hit again - and then they emitted a louder one as the changes started...

I watched in amazement as my transformation spell, fueled by my sudden panic at being discovered, forced this human into a faster transformation than any of my previous victims: I gasped as I saw their body deform under cover of their clothing, accompanied by the loud snapping of bones being restructured and the painful whining of the soon-to-be new pony.

I quickly moved in to put a hoof to their muzzle as it grew out of their human face, but could not prevent their glasses from falling off of their nose in the process. The fortunate soul stared up at me with fear and confusion as their eyes grew into proper pony eyes, and I soon was fighting off randomly flailing limbs as they tried to push me away.

"I'm sorry for the unexpected change," I started, looking around to see if anyone had come to the sounds the thrashing pony was making, "but it's for the best. I promise. You're receiving a gift that would be yours eventually anyways, you're just lucky to get it before most others."

My words were met with a loud howl as the changes finalized, and the human's clothes tore open around the pony's new body while fur sprouted all over their form. It was a light blue, almost the color of turquoise - although it was hard to tell exactly in the orange light from the streetlamps.

The pony's struggling wound down while they closed their rose-coloured eyes, and I lifted my hoof from their muzzle as they stopped grumbling, moving it instead to wipe their long mane out of their face. It was shaded in a darker tone at the base, leading to lighter tips, but it had a rose color to it as well.

I sighed and looked them over, using my magic to disintegrate their clothes from around them and realizing at once the former human had turned into a small mare. The fur of her coat was stuck together in places from the sweat of the transformation, but that was nothing a brush couldn't fix.

Her former jacket had hidden a pair of lovely wings from sight, and I admired them even as they twitched from the mare's brain finishing the connections to her new limbs. If she managed to use those, she could do what I could only dream of, or do with great magical effort; to soar above the clouds and see my magic wash out from human to human - turning them all into proper ponies.

"Ah, but I'd have to be an Alicorn for that to work," I chided myself, and turned away from the new ambassador to the Earthborn Pegasi to continue on my way.

A pair of hooves immediately grabbed a hold of my right hindleg and I jerked to a stop, looking back to find a determined look on the new mare's face as she held onto me for dear life, her ears facing front and trembling lightly.

"What's the big id-eep!" she exclaimed, then immediately moved her wings to cover her muzzle at the sound of her own voice. Her eyes grew even more when she realized what she was covering her mouth with, and I could just see the cogs turning in her head as her body language revealed all.

"Yes, you're a pony. Yes, you're a mare. If you weren't female before, I'm sorry. You are now. Also, I kind of have to go, so if you would let me go?" I offered, but my words only led to her clinging to my leg tighter than before.

"No, really. I have to go," I repeated, trying to tug my hoof out of her grasp.

I needed a few tugs to get it free, and I briskly turned back for the direction of the main road. My ears turned on my head as I heard awkward flapping and stumbling hoofsteps behind me, but I had no time to wait for the newfound pony to find her hoofing. I had to get as close to the main road as possible before the nighttime traffic would catch up to me.

"Hey!" the mare called out, and I sighed to myself as the hoofbeats started to fall in with a proper trot. I sped up to a canter, which led to more stumbling behind me, but then I heard the mare's speed up to a gallop..

I, too, started to gallop to stay ahead, chancing to look back to see the stumbling pony follow me with her wings flapping oddly in an attempt to get her more speed. She was swerving left to right and barely managed to get her hooves under her each step she took, but was still closing in for some reason.

I grumbled and slowed to a trot again, my ears falling back in annoyance as I waited for her to catch up. It didn't take long for her to fall in with my trot to my left side, her wings still moving awkwardly as she tried to get them to fold to her side.

"Hey, don't go like that!" she snorted, half out of breath, and I looked sideways at her.

"I told you I have to go. I can't wait for some random filly like you to come to terms with the gift they're given. I have a deadline, you know?" I bit to her, and her ears flopped down while she fell behind a little, a flush marring her cheeks.

"Well, I didn't want to.. Hey!" she started, then realized she was falling behind and ran up to close the distance. "I mean, I just wanted to.. er.. Am I dreaming or did I die or something?"

I shook my head at the stumbling mare, crossing the empty crossroads over to the next block of houses. "Not a dream, and my magic was certainly not intended to kill," I answered. "Why?"

The mare finally got her wings to fold right and looked thoughtful. "Not a dream?"

I shook my head, flicking my left ear from annoyance at having to repeat myself, but turning for the nearest bush as I saw some headlights in the distance. "No, not a dream. Now get down here or they'll see you."

The mare obediently followed me to hide behind the bush, awkwardly sitting herself down beside me with her eyes flicking back and forth between her own legs and mine as if trying to see if she did it right.

"Well, I mean," she started, then blushed deeply and looked away.

"What?" I asked, my ears turned up to listen for the sound of the approaching car.

"I can't fucking believe this is real!" the cute mare exclaimed, and I felt the need to facehoof.

Chapter 14, Spritelight 2

The car passed us by without slowing, and I pushed up on my hooves to look down the road to see if any others may follow. Seeing another car come from the same direction as the first one had, with more headlights trailing behind it, I lowered myself on the soft grass with a deep sigh.

"Well, this is just marvellous," I grumbled to myself with a quick shake of my head. "I should have reached the main road already instead of being stuck here with a hopeless mare."

"Hey!" the mare to my side exclaimed to that, but I paid her no mind. I instead reached out with my magic to tentatively feel for the energy signatures of Discord or Zecora.

"Ooh," the mare cooed, and I flattened my ears. "I didn't know unicorn horns really glowed when they used magic. I always thought it was just a gimmick."

It was difficult to focus with someone babbling in my ears, but I managed to finish my sweep of the surrounding energy. Zecora's was the only energy signature I could find, and she was still two towns out from where we were. I smiled at that, knowing my decision to transform groups, instead of individuals, was making it harder for her to follow behind. She had to go visit each and every single one of my ambassadors, while I could just gallop ahead.

"So did someone transform you too, or were you born like this? It hurt a lot when you transformed me, but I guess that's natural? It's not like I didn't know pain before this; I've always had bad knees," the babbling continued, and I turned my attention to the turquoise mare beside me.

"Do you have an off switch?" I asked, not trying to hide my annoyance in the least.

The mare scrunched her nose and huffed, then looked down. "Well, I'm sorry for just trying to make conversation," she grumbled.

"You'd better think of how you can make this world accept you as an ambassador. Accept the inevitable merger between this world and Equestria. Accept that they will all become ponies before this is done," I stated, lifting myself up from the ground a little to look down the road.

"Or maybe you should just wait until the traffic dies down and return to your home," I added. "I need to be in the next town over before dawn."

"Why?" the mare wondered, looking up at me again. "Can't I tag behind? I have so much to ask you!"

I shook my head at that. "I can't be slowed down by a stumbling mare who doesn't have her proper hoofing yet. I need to stay ahead of things and get enough ambassadors made on this planet to make the humans see there's no stopping this."

"Stopping what?"

I facehoofed. "Didn't you listen? The merger of Equestria and Earth."

"When's that going to happen?"

"When there's enough of you to automate the process, I'd imagine," I sighed. "I know there needs to be enough magical potential on this world to establish the link, and there should be enough ponies to get the desired effect. The last we'd want is to give the changelings more of an edge than proper ponies, right?"

"I'm not sure what you're saying," the mare muttered, looking completely lost.

"I'm saying I'm wasting my time trying to explain this to you while I should have been on the highway leading out of town already!" I snapped, and her ears flopped down low as she looked away in shame.

I turned my attention back to the road, while trying to figure out my next move. This new pony was testing my patience. It was no use explaining magic to a Pegasus anyway, but this one used to be a human. I had yet to see a human wield magic in any of its forms.

The mare beside me coughed uneasily, and I glanced in her direction again.

"Er, if you're trying to get out of town, why are you on this road?" she asked carefully, her ears moving on her head as if she was expecting me to snap at her again.

"Because this road leads out to the main road which leads out to the highway," I explained, but the mare quickly shook her head.

"No it doesn't," she offered, and I frowned at her.

"What do you mean, it doesn't?" I asked.

"The main road doesn't connect to the highway for a while. They removed the overpass that used to be there after a truck flew off of it and into a building last year. They're still busy building a tunnel instead. Traffic has been redirected through town ever since the accident. If you want to get to the highway, you have to use the detour which goes that way." she explained, pointing behind us with a hoof, and almost falling over where she was seated.

I turned my head to look in the direction she was pointing at, and raised an eyebrow. "But every town before this had its highway connected to the main road," I started.

"Yeah, but the accident caused such outrage against overpasses that the town council decided to dig a tunnel instead. Did you use an old map or something?"

I flushed and looked away, frowning at myself. "I can't read your stupid human alphabet."

"Oh," the mare realized, looking away herself but then quickly looking back at me again with a bright smile. "I can!"

I raised an eyebrow at her and tilted my head a little. "So?"

"So, I could help you read things you can't read, duh," she returned.

I blinked as I realized with a shock that she was right. What was the one thing that had stopped my progress in the past weeks? Not my former mentor Discord. Not Zecora. It had been my inability to read up on where I was headed. My inability to read maps.

Sure, I could go stand at one of the maps around town and sort of plot my course on it, but I mostly had to go from the layout of things. The red dot was me, I had quickly figured out, and then there were all those lines that were roads, and the blue things were lakes and rivers... It had not been too different from the maps back home.

The real issue had been the names of places, roads, everything. I could not read any of it. Nor the signs plastered over the maps. Nor those along the road. Considering what the mare had told me earlier, I must have missed something important on the yellow and red and white and blue signs on the lampposts on either side of the road I had been following.

"You know," I started, smirking lightly to myself, "you have a point there."

"Yeah, see? You need me!" the mare exclaimed excitedly. "And I can hang about and ask you questions in return for my help, right?"

I sighed and stared at her. "Don't you have other things to do though?"

"Like what?" she wondered.

"Well, job, school, working to get the humans to accept your new fate?" I mused.

"Can't do my job with hooves, don't have school, and if I show myself like this to the wrong kind of person they'd capture me and dissect me," the mare shrugged matter-of-factly.

I felt all blood pull away from my face and shook my head in disgust. "Dissect you?"

The mare smirked and nodded in shame. "Yeah, humans aren't that good at accepting people or ponies who differ from the norm..."

All of a sudden the disappearances of my ambassadors started to make sense, and I felt my stomach turn. Could this mean that they... No. No, I couldn't think like that. This mare here followed me into hiding within moments after she was transformed. The others would have done the same. I had to think they were still alive, but in hiding.

This changed everything, however. No longer could I just randomly select my ambassadors. If they were to be taken by the humans, and murdered for being the ponies they had every right to be, I had to pick those capable of dealing with it. No longer going for the innocent ones who would be most accepted, but for the stronger ones who could actually make a difference.

A turquoise hoof moved in front of my face and I blinked.

"Hello? You still there?" the mare wondered, looking concerned.

I smiled at her and offered my right forehoof to her. "Yes, I am. If we're going to be traveling together, we may as well exchange names. My name's Spritelight. What shall we call you?"

Chapter 15, Spritelight 3

I stared at the slight curl in the mare's tail as it flicked this way and that while she ambled along the road. Soft muttering came from her as she led me down the right road leading for the quickest way out of town, and I shook my head as variations on the same name broke through the silence of the night:

"Turquoise Flyer, Turquoise Speedster, Turquoise Runner, Turquoise Cloudchaser, Tur..."

"Turkey Headless," I suggested, making the mare in front of me stumble over her own hooves and turn back to face me with a flush on her cheeks!

"H...hey, that's not fair," she pouted. "You have a neat name already and I just have my stupid human name that doesn't fit me anymore."

"You do know you don't need to have a colour in your name, right?" I returned to her as I continued walking, passing her by as she worked on a reply to that. "Or have two names, for that matter."

"But you have two names too," the mare protested. "Sprite and Light, right?"

"You might think that," I started, with an annoyed flick of my tail in her direction, "but, contrary to popular belief, it's just the one word; Spritelight. No space."

"And you don't have a family name or something?" came the question as the mare hurried to trot up to my left side.

I shrugged at the question. "Never knew my family."

The mare's head dipped down a moment, and I suddenly found her bumping into my side, her head nuzzling up at the side of my neck. I immediately stopped walking and watched her need another step or two before she did as well.

"What was that?" I demanded, feeling my ears twitch on my head from the strangeness of what had just happened.

The mare scraped a hoof over the ground and shrugged lightly. "I dunno... I felt like you needed some comforting. I don't know how ponies usually do it, but that felt like the most natural?"

I snorted and made a show of stepping around her before continuing on my way. "I did not need any such thing," I dismissed her words, trying to fight back the tears I felt burning behind my eyes. "Don't do it again, ok? Or I may call you Turkeyhead from now on."

There was a stomp of a hoof behind me as the mare clearly disagreed with my words, but then I heard her hooves fall back in rhythm with mine and a meek voice said "Have it your way..."

I nodded quickly to that as I regained my composure, but stopped walking as we reached the crossroads we had been heading for. I looked in all directions, trying to remember what the other mare had told me. "We have to turn right here, right?"

"Left, actually," she mumbled as she moved past, turning for the direction she had said.

"Right," I nodded, falling in line behind her again.

"No, we went left," she corrected me, and I sent a spark of electricity from my horn to her flank. She yelped from the sensation, launched herself forward, missed the step she was trying to make, and fell down on her face.

"Don't be wise with me, you know what I meant," I chuckled, using my magic to help her up on her hooves again.

She smiled weakly at me, and I found I could not but smile back. "Just get us over to the next town before dawn, ok?" I asked, "We'll need to find a shelter there before we can make plans on what to do exactly."

"What do you want to do, exactly, anyway?" she wondered, trotting up to my right side for once and looking sideways at me.

"I already told you; I need to turn the right kinds of people into ponies, so that Equestria and this world can merge, and you all can lead happier lives. The two worlds were torn apart in the past, and nopony has tried mending it before, to my knowledge. It has led to such destruction on Earth, and so much pain. This has to be corrected."

She nodded slowly at that, but I could see she didn't grasp it in its entirety.

"Don't worry, I'll deal with the details," I offered, "You just find us a shelter and whatever else we need along the way."

The mare put her right forehoof up to her head in an awkward salute. "Yes ma'am," she stated, then faceplanted herself on the pavement again.

"And you may want to work on your balance," I decided to add, shaking my head with a chuckle as I lifted her from the floor again.

We walked side-by-side until we got to the highway. We quickened our pace to a canter as we traveled along it, gallopping in short bursts before returning to a canter again to save our energy. The turquoise mare was still trying to come up with a name for herself, and her lack of focus caused her to have to catch up to me more often than not.

We eventually made it to the next town and came to a stop in a copse of trees between the highway and the nearby buildings. I checked the sky again to see how much time had passed, but a mass of clouds had moved in and it was impossible for me to get any hint as to where the moon could be.

"Damn clouds," I grumbled, and sank through my hooves to catch my breath.

"What's wrong with the clouds?" the mare wondered in-between panting breaths.

"I can't see how low the moon is with the clouds hiding it away," I offered, "I don't know how much time we have remaining before dawn breaks if I can't see the passing of time in the sky."

"It's about five," the mare shrugged. "The sun comes up in an hour or two."

"How do you know?" I asked in confusion.

"There's a clock down the road there at the bus station. It says 5:03," she explained, and I stared in the direction she was pointing at.

"Yeah, see, that's not a clock," I snorted. "A clock is round and has two or three horns to point at the time."

"Horns?"

"Or feathers, or fake hoofs. It depends on where they were made," I nodded. "Now what you have over there is just some weird display thing with wobbly lines and scratches over it that I can't make heads or tails of. That's not a clock."

"Yes it is," the mare decided. "What you're talking about sounds like an analog clock. But that there is a digital one. Most clocks around are digital these days."

"Which is why I have to look at the sky for the time," I sighed. "I can't read that digital stuff."

"But you have me now? I can tell you what the time is?" the mare offered, and I smirked back up to her.

"The time, yes. Your own name, not quite."

She huffed and looked away, and I grinned at the back of her head. She was so easy to tease! I was starting to enjoy her company.

Chapter 17, Spritelight 5

The storefront was empty, dark, and had about a year's worth of dust covering every surface. From the empty shelves to the register, to the rat's skeleton in a corner of the room - there was dust everywhere.

The employee lounge in the back was not much better off, although the mice and rats had had a feast on whatever had been left in the storage cabinets long before we arrived. There were droppings everywhere, and it wasn't long before I felt one fall apart under my forehoof.

"Ew," I said, lifting my hoof and using my magic to get the gritty material out from under it.

"Yeah, it may need a bit of cleaning, Spritey," Turkey offered, "but that's easily done with your magic, right?"

I glared at her and took a step back, poking her left wing with my horn. "How about I open the door, and you use your wings to blow all of this stuff out through it?"

Turkey blinked and looked back at her wing, tentatively lifting it from where it had rested against her side. "Oh, hey, forgot I had these things..."

"You also forgot my name is Spritelight, not Spritey," I smirked, walking over to the front of the store again and opening the door. "Go on, flap them. Get a storm going. Should be easy for a Pegasus like you."

Turkey stood in the opening of the employee lounge, just looking at me in confusion.

"Your wings. Flap them," I repeated.

Turkey looked back at her wings and slowly unfolded them. "Just flap them?"

"Yeah. Just flap them," I told her.

Turkey slowly moved her wings up and down, looking very uncomfortable at the motion. Even with them moving at such a slow speed, it was enough to cause the dust in her immediate area to move and drift up in a small cloud.

"Ok, so just flap them a bit harder, and don't breathe in," I warned, placing my hoof to my forehead - just beside my horn - as she did just that.

"Ha..." Turkey started, her wings moving up a bit, and I took a step back out of the store.

"Haa..." Turkey continued, and I took another step as her wings rose up higher.

"TCHOOO!!!" Turkey finally sneezed and, with a massive flap of her wings, launched herself deeper into the store!

The fast movement of her wings was all the dust needed to blast out of the open door like it got shot from a cannon, and I had to jump to the side to prevent getting it all plastered over my coat! Laying there off to the side, I heard Turkey prepare for another sneeze, and quickly used my magic to keep the door open.

Another blast of dust flew past as she did, and I shook my head at the poor Pegasi inside. "I told you not to breathe in," I muttered as a third sneeze followed, then a fourth, with considerably less dust following after the sounds.

When Turkey finally calmed down I chanced to look into the store and saw her laying in a crumpled mess in the far corner of the employee lounge, somehow having turned herself upside-down with her rear up against the wall and her wings drooped to either side of her. She was still sniffling and her eyes looked red from the dust that had gotten into them.

There was little dust still floating around, the majority of which having been ejected through the open door, or forced in a thick layer up against the glass panes to either side of it, so I trotted back inside and closed the door behind me, pulling the curtain down to keep prying eyes out.

"I told you not to breathe it in, Turkey," I muttered, walking calmly into the employee lounge while the mare rubbed at her muzzle with a hoof.

"I don't think I've ever sneezed this much when I was still a human," Turkey muttered from her upside-down position.

"I would imagine human noses aren't as sensitive as ours, considering how small they are," I chuckled, using my magic to pick her up and turn her right-side up. "You have some powerful wings there, hun."

"I thought my name was Turkey?" Turkey wondered, trying to get her wings to fold again.

"You may want to preen those before you fold them. I see some misaligned feathers here and there," I warned her.

"Preen them? Are you serious?" she returned, letting out a whine after as she turned her head to look back at her wings. "Aww, man... I don't know the first thing about preening."

"Well, don't look at me. I'm a Unicorn," I sighed. "Ask me about magic, and I know what to do. Wings, not so much."

Turkey sat down on her rear, moving her wings a little awkwardly. "Oh, great."

"Hey, you used to be a human, right?" I asked, prancing about a little.

"Until you bumped into me, yes," Turkey muttered, trying to get at her wings with her hooves and failing miserably.

"I think Pegasi use their teeth," I commented. "Do you know of anything that could get rid of this headache I've been having? I've tried to find some in the last few houses I stayed at, but I haven't been able to find any."

"Yeah, it's called aspirin," Turkey replied absentmindedly, reaching down with her head to bite at the rogue feathers sticking out of her wings.

"Asprin?" I repeated, and raised an eyebrow at her humming an answer.

"Asprin," I said to myself, looking around the empty room. "I won't find any asprin in this place. Where do humans usually keep it?"

"Drugstore," Turkey mumbled, her eyes focused on nothing in particular as she was putting her feathers back in place.

"Hey, are you ok?" I wondered, lowering my head to look at her. Her eyes looked a bit glazed over, and it took her a moment to realize I was staring at her.

She pulled back with a flush on her cheeks, blinking her eyes heavily. "Huh? What?"

"You zoned out there a moment, didn't you?" I realized.

Turkey blinked some more, then lowered her ears and nodded with a dumb smile on her face. "Y...yeah."

"So, asprin?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Er, well, can I finish this first?" Turkey asked, and I sat down with a sigh.

"Yeah, sure, don't mind me..." I muttered, watching with some annoyance as Turkey returned to straightening out her wings with a look as if she was in some kind of trance.

"Heh, Turkey Trance," I chuckled to myself.

Chapter 18, Spritelight 6

The light of the early dawn shone through the windows above while the sound of our hoofsteps reverberated in the empty mall. Turkey was leading me to something called a "drugstore", to get some "asprin".

"Aspirin," Turkey corrected me again.

"That's what I'm saying; asprin," I threw back at her. "Besides, I don't care what it's called, as long as it gets rid of this headache I've been having."

"It should," Turkey mused, "unless pony physiology differs too much from that of humans. We're here."

I looked up at the metal shutters of the store and then back at Turkey. "Really? More of these things?"

Turkey shrugged helplessly. "It's to keep thieves out. And, considering I don't have my wallet on me, we kind of count as thieves ourselves."

"It's a necessity in our case," I returned with a smirk. "Ok, same as before; you go first and I'll follow behind."

Turkey nodded and I sent my magic out to help her through the shutters, then followed behind immediately after. Turkey continued into the store, nodding at some weird gates.

"Make sure to levitate the package I'm giving you over those gates or the alarm will go off," she warned. "All of the stuff in the store is electronically tagged."

"Er, sure.. whatever," I shrugged, following behind.

Turkey turned into an aisle and looked around herself, then pointed a wing at one particular section of it. "There it is. Do you know if you get side effects from caffeine?"

I just stared at her.

"Yeah, let's play it safe. Take the white box there," she pointed. "Second from the left next to the one with the yellow stripe on it. That's without caffeine and should be strong enough for any headache."

I stared at the box, a few shelves above us, and rose up on my hind legs to take the package between my teeth. "Fwish one?"

"Yeah, that's it," Turkey giggled as I fell down on all fours again.

A sudden noise startled us, and all four of our ears turned to the back of the store.

"That sounds like a store employee arriving early," Turkey offered with a wince. "We got to get out of here, now!"

We both ran for the front of the store, and I started to prepare my spell to let Turkey through - completely forgetting about the alarm. The high-pitched sound made my headache only grow worse, and I heard the sound of something falling further back in the store.

Knowing we had little time before whomever was there would come rushing to the front, I continued with my spell and Turkey quickly passed through the shutters. I looked back at the store employee rushing into the front and fired off my transformation spell at them before passing through the shutters myself, gallopping after Turkey - back towards the safety of our store shelter!

As we passed the other stores along the way, some of the shutters started to slide up, adding to our sense of urgency. We galloped up the stairs to the upper floor, down the gallery, and skidded to a stop in front of the store we chose as a shelter.

Turkey waited for me to unlock the door, then bolted through it, and straight into the employee lounge. I closed the door behind us, followed behind, and spat out the box to the floor of the lounge once I had closed that door as well.

"That was close," Turkey panted, and I nodded at her.

"But I have a new ambassador because of it," I chuckled.

"A new ambassador?" Turkey wondered, nudging the box on the floor with her right hoof.

"That employee will be a pony like yourself in a few days' time," I revealed, and Turkey's eyes went wide. "Call it an extra safety measure. She won't cause a scene once she realizes she's growing a tail. You said it yourself; humans dissect people who look funny."

"I didn't say that!" Turkey protested, shaking her head. "But even so, you shouldn't turn random people into ponies!"

"And why not?" I asked of her, raising an eyebrow. "Everyone on this planet will be transformed into a pony before the worlds merge anyway, what does it matter who gets transformed first?"

I didn't wait for her to answer, but levitated the box of 'aspirin' in front of her face. "Now can you please tell me how to use this stuff so I can get rid of my headache?"

Turkey walked me through the steps of using the medicine, but the small package meant I had to use my magic to get the pills out. She said I had to drink water with it, so we looked around for something to pour the water in. One of the cabinets had a package of plastic cups, and I pulled some from it to give both of us a cup of water from the faucet.

I left the knob turned loose enough when I closed the tap to allow Turkey to open the faucet with her teeth if needed, and lay down on the ground while the aspirin did its work.

"So all I had needed to look for was a box with these symbols on it?" I asked, but Turkey immediately shook her head.

"No. Unless you actually know how to read what's in the package, you shouldn't open what you find," she answered. "There's some dangerous stuff in this world, which could cause you to feel really sick, or even cause you to die if you ingest it."

"Why would humans store something that could kill them?" I wondered.

"Because it's not for them. It's mostly pesticides to keep unwanted insects and animals out of their homes, stores, farms..."

"Oh. And they store that in with their medicines?" I asked, taking a sip of my water.

"Not usually, no. But out of the way of children and pets where possible," Turkey stated, taking a sip of her own cup of water but spilling most of it.

"Don't worry about that. You get used to it eventually," I told her, smiling gently in her direction.

"And you turned me into this because the worlds of Earth and Equestria are supposedly merging together?" she asked, wiping some droplets from the fur on her chin.

"Well, more to let them merge together again. They were once the same place, you know?" I offered.

"No, I don't know. That's why I'm asking," Turkey said. "What if this doesn't work out? What if you only end up with a bunch of ponies here on Earth and a bunch of ponies there in Equestria, and these worlds just stay apart?"

I stared down at my cup and shrugged softly.

"You don't know, do you?" Turkey mused.

"I don't, no. I only know what I've managed to put together from the information in the Canterlot archives, the Crystal Empire's library, and other lost tomes," I explained.

"There's every evidence that these two worlds are supposed to be the same single world, but I don't know how they split, or if this is even going to work. But it's the best bet I've got," I told her.

"So what if you transform some humans into ponies and they feel absolutely miserable about it?" Turkey asked.

"Do you?" I returned.

Turkey looked down at herself but shook her head. "Not me. I actually feel liberated."

I chuckled at that and rested my head on the floor, falling sideways. "It's been a long night, Turkey. I need to get a few hours of rest in. We can talk about this after I wake up again, if you want?"

Turkey nodded and stifled a yawn. "Good idea."

"I'm full of good ideas," I chuckled, closing my eyes to rest.

Chapter 19, Spritelight 7

I woke to the sound of heavy breathing, and blinked my eyes open to the most awkward-looking sight I had seen since I had seen myself do it in a mirror; Turkey lay with her face smooshed against the floor, one of her forelegs resting beside it. Her hind legs held her rump up in the air, her tail resting over her back, while the other of her forelegs was awkwardly rubbing up against her wet vagina.

I blinked a few times, then felt the need to squeeze my hindlegs together as the sight stirred something inside. I had seen Turkey in the light of my magic, her colours as vibrant as they would be in Equestria, and it had been enough for me to develop feelings for her. Feelings I couldn't quite explain.

No, wait. It had started before. When she leaned in against me on the road. That soft touch I had been so unfamiliar with.

Or had it been the simple fact I had watched her transform while I held her down with my hooves? Had that created some kind of magical bond between us that had festered and taken possession of me?

I fidgeted a little as my mind was trying to figure out when I had started to feel for this former human, this pony now exploring her mare bits in plain sight of me, but my mind was slowly drowned out by the smells and sounds wafting through the air.

Ignoring the sounds of a thousand humans all talking among one another while shopping. Those were two closed doors away. No, the stuttering breaths let out by Turkey, the withheld moans as she imagined me still being asleep, the soft squish of her hoof pressing up against her nethers.

The smell of her arousal was clear, even above that of the cinnamon buns wafting in from the mall area. To be honest, the cinnamon scent added to my own arousal from the smell, and I soon was on my hooves to push my muzzle up against her wet rump, breathing her scent in deeply!

"A-Ahn!" Turkey exclaimed as my muzzle joined her hoof, and I felt her shudder in place from the unexpected touch. Knowing she would protest if I gave her a chance, my tongue quickly lashed out to lap over her crotch and I found her hoof fall down as she lost all control over it.

I licked my muzzle and ducked my head between her hindlegs, making sure my horn rested right up against her vagina. "Tongue or horn?" I simply asked, and I saw the confusion on the mare's face.

"I... I don't... I..." Turkey started, and I pressed my horn up against her nethers a bit more, the tip barely slipping in. "AAH... H...hor... nnngh..." she gasped, and I tilted my head to let my horn slip in more.

Turkey moaned from the feeling and I tilted my head further, letting my horn slip in until it was at the right angle, and then pushing it slowly into her body. I stopped as her rump hit my forehead, and then grinned softly to myself as I focused my energy into my horn, making it spark with magic potential.

It was just a tease, really, I did not mean for her to suddenly orgasm on my face... but she did, and I closed my eyes from the splashes of her climax washing out against them! The mare's voice rang out in her excitement, and her wings were flapping oddly in just about any direction, but there was nothing I could do about it. Trying to silence her with my magic would just send her into another orgasm...

As her first orgasm as a mare ran its course, I felt Turkey's weight settle on my horn and slowly lowered my head to let her rest on the floor, then pulled my horn out from her once she stopped grabbing at it with her inner muscles. I lifted a hoof up to wipe my face clean, then looked at the spasming pony on the floor.

"Well, now... I said you were getting a gift when I accidentally transformed you," I started with a grin, still keeping my hind legs close together as the event had made me quite aroused myself. "I just didn't know you were this excited about it."

Turkey cast me a hopeless attempt at an evil stare, but then drooped her ears while trying to catch her breath. I took a few steps around her to stand closer to her face, then put my soiled foreleg in front of her.

"Now, considering I was so kind to help you just now," I started, and I saw Turkey's eyes grow larger as she seemed to get the point before I had voiced it, "perhaps you can repay the favor by cleaning my hoof for me? Just look at the mess you made."

Turkey swallowed and looked up from my hoof, shaking her head meekly.

"No?" I wondered, raising an eyebrow and feeling something wet slide down the side of my face. "It's a natural thing for us ponies to lick each other clean after copulation, you know?"

Turkey winced and struggled to scamper away, only leading to her falling properly on her side and flailing her weakened limbs at me. "Please..."

I frowned at Turkey and felt a larger blob of wetness droop down in the middle between my eyes, then off the side of my muzzle. I licked it away and had to close my eyes a moment as I savoured the taste. "Hm... for Celestia's sake... if you don't do it soon, I'll have to lick it myself. You taste... hmm..." I found myself muttering.

Turkey let out a soft whine, but I felt her head move closer to my hoof and then a tongue carefully touching just a single part of it before retreating again. "Ew..." she muttered, and pulled back again, trying to get her hooves under her.

I shrugged at her and leaned my head down myself, watching droplets fall on the floor as I proceeded to lick my own hoof clean, then used it to wipe my face again. "Suit yourself," I shrugged.

It took me a while to get everything out of my fur, and I even had to use my magic and some tapwater to clean my face properly. All the while Turkey just stood awkwardly in a corner of the room, her rump up in the corner, her head hung low, and her eyes watching me in a mixture of horror and genuine interest at watching me clean myself.

Considering she most likely would not come out of that corner on her own, I simply picked her up with my magic, turned her upside-down so her flailing hooves would be facing the ceiling, and used more tapwater to clean her where needed. Once that was done I set her down again and snorted at her.

"You're going to have to face facts here sometime, Turkey hun," I offered to her. "Next time I may not be around to clean you, so you best get used to doing it yourself."

Turkey shuffled a hoof over the floor and blushed, looking away. "I just..." she started, and I turned an ear to her while using my magic to clean the wet spots off of the floor.

"You just?" I repeated.

Turkey shrugged and flopped down on the floor, and I could clearly hear her stomach growl. My own decided to follow suit and I raised an eyebrow.

"Turkey? What time is it?" I asked, turning the faucet off and walking over to the lounge door to look out into the storefront. "It's still light outside, so it can't be evening yet."

"Around four in the afternoon, I would guess?" Turkey offered, happy for the change in subject.

"How would you come to that conclusion?" I wondered, looking back at her past my rump.

"Well, there were a lot of children coming in a little while ago," Turkey revealed. "The schools close around three and it takes them a bit to get from there to here, so it's somewhere between half past three and four."

"It's amazing how you were able to deduce that what with your hoof half buried in your crotch, hun," I joked, but Turkey immediately looked away again. I closed the door and wandered over, moving my right forehoof under her cheek and lifting it so she was looking at me.

"Hey, it's ok. I used to experiment as well when I was going through puberty," I offered to her rose eyes, and she stared up at my own blue ones. "It's a perfectly normal thing for mares to do. Don't let anypony tell you different."

"Yeah, but that's the whole problem, isn't it?" Turkey wondered, her cheeks flushing again.

"Is it?" I asked, letting my hoof drop and sitting down in front of the Pegasus mare to get on the same level with her.

Turkey nodded and started to look away, but as I raised my eyebrow she stopped herself. "Y...yeah, it is."

I shrugged and leaned in to kiss her on her nose. "So you weren't a mare before, big deal. The fact is that you are one now. Whatever you were when you were a human, it doesn't matter," I told her.

"It doesn't?" she asked, her ears flicking in confusion.

"No, hun. You're a pony in your own right, and cute to boot," I offered with a wink. "As for hoofing yourself off just now, I already said that that's natural. Don't be too embarrassed about it, ok? I'm not."

"You weren't the one getting fucked by a horn," Turkey muttered, then went wide-eyed and repeated it to herself. "I got fucked by a unicorn's horn..."

I rolled my eyes at her and used a hoof to give her a noogie. "Right, and if you're a good filly I may do it again."

Turkey's face blanked at the offer, and I shook my head at her in amusement.

"So, how about we figure out where that cinnamon smell comes from and we go steal us some food, hm?" I tried, changing the subject for the benefit of the turquoise Pegasus' mental health.

Chapter 20, Spritelight 8

The mall was packed. Packed with loudmouth foals, rushed elders, and every color and breed of human I could have imagined. They moved in waves, going in one store, coming out another, and they were all carrying bags and pushing trolleys about as they went their merry ways.

Turkey and I stood on the balcony in front of our hiding place, my invisibility spell keeping us out of sight while we looked over the railing at the movement below.

"There is no way I can get us through that mess, Turkey," I offered to the turquoise mare to my side, and she turned her head to look at me. "This spell only hides us from sight, it doesn't make us incorporeal. They'd be bumping into us every other step."

"Can't you do that thing that you did to the doors?" Turkey asked, and I shook my head slowly.

"Not at the same time as making us invisible, no. The spells require a lot of energy and focus, and I can't keep that up while weaving my way through that crowd."

Turkey turned her head back to look at the people below, a thoughtful frown moving on her face. "I could do it."

"Hm?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Do what?"

"I could go down there and walk among them without them noticing," she started, turning her head to look back at me, "as long as you keep me invisible, that is. I'm used to crowds like these. I used to be human, I know the way they think. I would be able to navigate the pockets between them, see?"

She pointed a hoof down at a small gap in-between groups of humans, then at another, and I started to see a pattern in them. These pockets would open up whenever a human would decide to walk into a store, and fill up again when someone moved out of one. They'd appear when someone would sit down on a bench, move in line, or otherwise disrupted the flow of bodies, and then slowly fill up again as the event was lost to the tide of new humans moving into the same general area. Even so, I could not find a link between these empty spots. They appeared seemingly randomly throughout the crowd, and then disappeared again moments later.

"Are you sure?" I asked Turkey, turning back to face her. "I can't see how you would do that."

"Well, if I get in danger of being stuck, I could always fly out, right?" Turkey shrugged, looking back at her wings. "I mean, these should work?"

I glanced back at the crowd, then at Turkey again. "If they give you enough room to fully extend them, yes."

"I could always just bowl a few of them over," Turkey mused. "If I'm invisible they'll just blame each other."

I sighed and stared back down. "I don't know..."

"Well, you want to eat, don't you?" Turkey asked, and I licked around my lips before I knew what I was doing. "How else are you going to get the food up here? By levitating it with your magic? Can you do so and make the food invisible at the same time? People would follow floating food right up to us if they could see it, you know?"

"I was aware of that, thank you," I grumbled, judging the distance between the nearest staircase leading down and the food vendors. "You'd have to be quick. Grab some food and run back up the stairs. There's no time for secondguessing what you're taking."

"Right. Which leaves me with one problem; how do I take stuff with me?" Turkey asked.

"Just grab something between your teeth. You need your hooves to run, and there's no room for you to spread your wings," I shrugged.

"If you say so... can't promise everything will make it up in one piece, in that case," she winked, and I narrowed my eyes at her.

"I could just take away my spell just as you're in the thick of it," I suggested, feeling my mouth pull into a sly smile.

Turkey's eyes grew to twice their size and she immediately shook her head! "No! I'll behave, I'll just have to keep from biting too hard then!"

"Good girl. Now I'm going to have to stand in the shadow here, because if I'm turning you invisible I can't do so to myself," I told her, and withdrew into the darkest corner I could find. "We're lucky they turned the lights off in this section, or I couldn't do this at all."

"I think the lamp's busted, actually," Turkey mused, looking up at the ceiling.

"The lamp's not the issue; our lack of food is. Get going already, silly filly," I sighed, moving my invisibility spell from surrounding the both of us to only covering Turkey.

I watched her as she turned tail and ran to the staircase, the sound of her hooves barely audible over the murmur of people talking and the PA system reminding people to be mindful of pickpockets. If it wasn't for the bond my spell created between us, I would not be able to see her at all, and she made her way down to the lower steps of the staircase in a few short moments. It was there that she paused, and I saw her ears turn on her head as she scouted the crowd in front of her, waiting for the right moment.

I increased my focus on her and time seemed to slow to a crawl as I did. It felt like it took forever for her to finally make that first step to push herself into the crowd, using a small pocket between people, and I followed her as she weaved her way through the larger bodies in the mall. It was a bit like watching someone in a river try to fight the current; there was a definite drift of her moving away from the vendors, only to suddenly make some strides back toward them, and back around them, to return to the front from the other side.

Turkey hopped up on a bench, and from there into the foliage set up for decoration, most likely to catch her breath before she would cross the remaining distance to the vendors. The nearest was still several hoofbeats away, and there were over two dozen people in-between. Turkey glanced back in my direction for a moment, then turned for the crowd and spread her wings.

"No.." I started, but it was already too late; with a quick push of her wings, she soared into the air - flying over the heads of the crowd parting her from the vendors, and straight into a spiraling dive as she lost control.

I watched with horror as her form impacted with a queue of people waiting for assorted drinks, and tried my best to keep up my spell while Turkey flailed wildly around herself trying to get her hooves back under her!

It was to no avail. The humans believed someone had intentionally shoved them aside and a small fight broke out, the chaos only increasing as a mall cop walked up to the area and tumbled over poor Turkey. The mare was being shoved left and right by people who didn't even know what they were pushing about, and with one fell move, Turkey was lost to me.

One moment she was there, the next I lost sight of her and my magic lost its target.

It didn't take long for the crowds to realize something was going on beside the fight, and when I found Turkey again I noticed there was a ring of people forming around her... all staring straight at her with various expressions of confusion, downright denial, and horror.

"Damnit, Turkey... This was what I was afraid of!" I shouted, my voice ringing out in the, suddenly, dead silence that fell over the mall, and a hundred pairs of eyes tried to find the source of my voice.

There was only one way out. Only one way that would prevent these humans from seeking authorities.

With a sigh I powered up my transformation spell and stepped into the light. Gasps came from the crowd as they realized there was not just the one Pegasus, but also a Unicorn with her horn sparkling in bright blue. These gasps quickly turned to a panicked frenzy as I unleashed my spell upon them. My magic washed out over the humans like a tidal wave, its energy washing out over every human, in every store, in every last corner of the mall - and the transformations were quick to follow.

"OHMYGAWD I HAVE A TAIL!!!" someone decried, "What's happening to my ears??" another demanded, and the sound of popping bones and cries of pain soon filled the mall, with Turkey standing among them in sheer shock.

"Move, you ridiculous excuse for a foal!" I bit to her, both audibly and mentally, and Turkey snapped out of her stupor, grabbed something from the ground near to her, and rushed back through the crowd of spasming and transforming almost-ponies - back up the staircase.

We both pushed back into our hiding place, and I opted to lock the door leading in before joining Turkey in the employee lounge in the back again, and closed the door behind me.

Turkey sat, panting, in the very back of the room, her eyes wide open but her pupils as small as they could be. Dangling from her mouth was a plastic bag, half filled with whatever groceries its original owner had managed to buy before the chaos unfolded. I sat down on my rear as I felt the onset of a headache, and just looked at her from across the room.

Turkey was the first to move, dropping the bag in front of her and watching an orange roll out of it until it came to a stop against one of the table's legs.

I smirked at that, but returned my attention to her as she scraped her throat.

"So, er," she started.

"Yes," I responded flatly.

"That didn't go as planned, did it?" she mused, her pupils slowly growing to a normal size again while she awkwardly moved her wings a bit.

"No," I stated, again in a flat tone of voice.

"So is that... out there... what happened to me?" she asked, and I opted to nod. "Oh."

"It wouldn't have been necessary," I sighed, sinking through my forehooves until my chin came to rest on the ground, and looking up at Turkey with a smirk. "If only somepony could have kept her wings to herself..."

Turkey looked away at that.

"I expended more energy just now than I had left," I muttered, closing my eyes. "I need to take a quick nap."

Turkey mumbled something in response, but my ears didn't quite get it, and my brain didn't register it as I fell unconscious. At least I would not have to feel my headache as I slept.

Chapter 21, Spritelight 9

I woke to the sound of hoofpounding and shouting, and flicked my ears at the sounds before I was truly awake. As I opened my weary eyes, Turkey was still sitting in the back of the room, staring in my direction. Not at me, but at something behind me - the closed door, perhaps. It was also the direction the sounds were coming from.

There was evidence that Turkey did move in the time I had been unconscious, as the groceries from the bag were now placed on the table, instead of resting against one of its legs. The bag itself was pinned under Turkey's left forehoof, and she was nervously sliding her hoof back and forth over it without applying much pressure.

"Hmn... Turkey, how long have I been out?" I wondered, knowing Turkey could read the time on the display of the microwave on the counter.

"Three hours," Turkey coughed uneasily, "or just about three hours anyway."

"And what's that infernal noise about?" I continued, and watched Turkey wince.

"Those would be the humans you transformed. They have been pounding on the door for a while now," Turkey muttered.

I turned my head to look at the door separating the employee lounge from the storefront, and tilted my ears up toward it. "What's their deal? Can't they let a pony get her rest?"

"I don't think they're very happy about what you did to them," Turkey murmured ever softer, her voice barely audible over the shouting outside.

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, then pushed up properly and looked over the items Turkey had managed to gather during the chaos. Some biscuits, a few oranges, a bottle with orange juice, and a pacifier.

"Why is there a pacifier here?" I wondered, but Turkey's response was inaudible.

"Have you even eaten any of this?" I asked her, but as I turned to look at her she had fallen flat on the ground and was covering her ears with her hooves.

I turned my attention to the door, and levitated an orange over while I made my way to the front. As soon as I opened the door leading into the storefront, the sound doubled in intensity and I felt my own ears fall flat against my head from the ferocity of it.

"Will you cut it out already!?!" I shouted, and there was a momentary respite of yelling as my voice carried out through the glass door.

I unlocked the storefront door and moved into the opening as I pulled it open, sitting down on my rear and starting to peel my orange while looking at the multicolored crowd of ponies standing in front of it. There were looks of confusion at my actions, but some were looking at me with anger and disgust, and it was they who resumed their shouting first.

"What's the big deal?" "How did you do this?" "Turn us back!" and various sentences in the same vein were uttered, and even with my ears flat against my head the volume was enough to make my headache return.

"As I said;" I started, using my magic to boost my voice to carry across the crowd of ponies leading from my hiding place all the way down to the lower level, "WILL YOU CUT IT OUT ALREADY!?!"

Silence fell again, and I nodded slowly as I put a piece of orange in my mouth.

"Thank you," I offered after swallowing, "Now, can ONE of you please tell me what this commotion is about?"

A number of ponies started shouting through one another again, their faces livid with anger, and I rolled my eyes at them as I teleported them out of the crowd to random locations on the ground floor of the mall.

"Again; one at a time," I stated to the remaining ponies, who looked around them in surprise at the others having disappeared from where they had stood. They looked between themselves for a moment, before a small Earthpony colt pushed forward through the crowd and pointed his hoof up at me. His dark blue coat was accented by a yellow mane, and his blue eyes showed signs of an intelligent mind behind them.

"HOW did you DO this??" he demanded, and I offered a smile in his direction while chewing on another bit of my orange.

"Magic," I shrugged. "Next question?"

I noticed some of the ponies in the crowd had sat down, or were attempting to, and the general mood started to calm down as well. Behind me I heard the sound of Turkey's hooves approaching, but carefully so, and they stopped once she reached the door leading out of the employee lounge.

"Can you change us back?" the blue colt wondered, but I saw he was dreading the answer.

"Yes, I can change you back," I nodded. "At least, I think I should be able to." I broke another piece off of my orange and moved it to my mouth. "But I'm not going to."

The crowd erupted in angry outcries again while I chewed on my food, but the colt in front of me just sat down, his ears moving on his head as he tried to come to terms with what I just told him. I waited for the rest of the ponies to calm down as well, finishing with my orange as I did.

"Can you get me another orange from the table, Turkey?" I called back, "And would you come sit with me?"

Turkey mumbled something, but soon moved up beside me with an orange held between her lips. I took it from her with my magic, peeled it, and offered her a piece as the last of the crowd calmed down.

"Why did you do this?" the colt finally asked, over the last remaining vocal protestors.

I made sure Turkey ate her piece of orange before I returned my attention to the colt before us.

"I have my reasons. Why, are you not happy to be ponies?"

Some voices in the crowd started to protest, but they were quickly silenced by the rest as they realized I was just going to wait for them to be calm enough before I would answer more of their questions.

"It's... different?" the colt remarked, and I noticed several heads moving up and down in agreement behind him.

I continued to feed Turkey her breakfast while looking at the colt, waiting for him to bring his next question.

"I've seen reports of this on the news," the colt started instead, and I nodded in tune with some others around us, while hearing the whispers of those passing on the conversation to those unable to hear it themselves.

"A pony fad in schools. Children suddenly wearing all kinds of strange pony-related gear. Fake tails, ears, manes," the colt continued, and I sensed his question coming before he voiced it.

"Yeah, they weren't fake," I shrugged matter-of-factly, and pushed the last of the bits of orange into Turkey's mouth.

"So, them disappearing?" the colt wondered, looking up while already knowing the answer.

"As Turkey taught me, humans are not the best at accepting those who differ from the norm, right?" I asked him, and several in the crowd turned away in shame. "They hid away."

The colt nodded and held up his right forehoof. "I'm Bill. I was a mallcop here before... this."

I smiled and pressed my own right forehoof against his, gently shaking it up and down. "I'm Spritelight. May I suggest that you all find somewhere else to sit so we can talk about what is going on exactly? It's a bit cramped here, don't you think?"

Bill looked back at the crowd and nodded. "There's a stage we use for special events. We rolled it over into the unused part of the mall after last event. There's a presidential candidate coming here in a few weeks, so we thought we'd best keep it around. If we move the vendor carts out from around the fountain, there's plenty of room to set it up again."

"If you ponies set it up, and get everypony to stay calm, I'll answer every question you have for me," I offered.

Bill made an awkward salute with his forehoof, and turned to the rest. "You heard her. Let's set up the stage. Those of you who still have trouble with our new bodies can just sit out of the way. We'll get our answers yet!"

"Who says she's going to give us anything?" One of the mares wondered, casting me an angry glance.

"I'm not going anywhere," I shrugged, getting up and turning back for the store. "Are you coming, Turkey dear?"

Turkey quickly scrambled to her hooves and rushed back inside as I closed the door of the store again behind us. Bill would sort all that stuff out.

"Now we're in a pickle," Turkey sighed, shaking her head as she passed me by to grab her plastic cup from the floor.

"I don't think so," I returned with a smile. "I am getting the feeling I should have done this a long time ago. Did you see all those ambassadors just now? They could spread the word so much faster than I can alone. And if I teach the unicorns among them how to use my transformation spell, that might get Discord off of my back."

Turkey shook her head at me and refilled her cup with water from the tap, then carried it back to where she had the plastic bag laying around. "I hope you know what you're doing. That could have been a lynchmob out there just now."

"No, dear," I corrected her, "a pony mob."

Turkey groaned at that.

Chapter 22, Spritelight 10

After having calmed down, and having had a drink or two between us, Turkey and I left our store to find a bulky Earthpony stallion waiting outside of it, looking like he didn't know what he was doing there either. We watched from the balcony as the Earthponies used their strength to move items aside, while the Unicorns tried their hardest to get their glitchy magic to help out as well.

They had only been ponies for about four hours, but I was already spotting some who were faster at learning the potential of their magic than others. I even saw a pair of foals playing with a ball from a toy store, pushing it back and forth between them with their magic as if they were playing soccer.

And then there were those who were hopelessly lost to the idea of moderate use of magic. Exploding fruit, drinks splashing into faces, and the occasional two-by-four flying off in a random direction - only to be caught by someone more versed in magic - were among the humorous misjudgements of just how much energy needed to be put into items to make them levitate.

And all the while we were watching them clear the area and build up the stage, the Earthpony stallion was uneasily shuffling a hoof while he was watching us.

I turned to him and looked him over. White coat, muscular, blue mane and tail, he could almost be one of Celestia's guards if he were to apply to the position. He had the build for it. Looked a bit like Shining Armor, but there were clear differences between the faces of the two.

"Are you ok, dear?" I asked of him, and a blush immediately crept onto his cheeks. "You keep rubbing your hoof over the floor like that and you'll grind it down until it's useless."

The stallion looked down at his hoof and stopped it moving about, his ears flicking uneasily.

"You look like you have something to ask me, but you're unsure where to start. Am I right?" I tried, and the stallion nodded in silence.

"Ok, so let's start with the basics; I'm Spritelight," I introduced myself. "I'm a Unicorn mare from Equestria. Now who are you?"

The stallion drooped more and then a quiet voice came from his large form, "I'm Stacey, I'm a girl... or I was... I don't know."

Turkey perked up at this revelation and moved up to my side, looking the stallion over. "No you're not. You're a stallion," she corrected the other.

The stallion looked away more, and quietly shook his head.

"Hey, look at me," Turkey demanded, stepping up to the stallion and putting her hoof under the other's chin to force him to stare at her. "What I used to be, what you used to be, what we used to be, it doesn't matter! I'm a Pegasus mare now, named Turkey. That's who I am."

I tilted my head at this interaction, and the stallion cast a pleading glance at me. Before I could open my mouth, Turkey had moved in-between us.

"Am I getting through to you? I'm a Pegasus mare. I didn't used to be, but I am now. That's all that matters," she told the stallion again, and locked eyes with him. "And you are a stallion. An Earthpony stallion. A strong and fierce pony, who may one day be a royal guard."

"R... really?" the stallion stuttered, his ears turning indecisively on his head.

"Yes! Now repeat after me; I'm a fierce and proud Earthpony stallion!" Turkey all-but shouted.

"I... I'm a fierce... and... er... proud... Earthpony st... sta..." the stallion started, but Turkey narrowed her eyes at him and hit him in the side of his face with her left forehoof. Hard enough to cause the stallion to back away from shock, but not hard enough to break anything.

"Not good. Again!" Turkey shouted like a drill sergeant, and I sat my butt down in amazement at her assertiveness.

"I'm a fierce and... proud Earthpony stall... stallion!" the stallion whined.

"Again!" Turkey demanded, standing in a proud stance herself, her chin up, her tail held up just enough to still keep her modest.

"I'm a fierce and proud Earthpony stallion!" the stallion cried out, his eyes closed.

"Again!" Turkey repeated, and I raised an eyebrow.

"I'm a fierce and proud Earthpony stallion!" the stallion droned, and at the last word opened his eyes to stare straight at mine.

I stumbled back a little from the sight of those eyes. Gone was the embarrassment and unease in them, and what had replaced them was a grim determination.

"I'm a fierce and proud Earthpony stallion, and I am to keep watch over you to make sure you don't leave before we get to question you!" the stallion repeated, putting his hooves down and pushing his chest forward as he took a proud stance.

Turkey smirked and gave a light nod. "It's in there, you see? It's been part of you since before Spritelight came to our world. It was the same with me."

I flicked an ear in confusion, looking between the two. The stallion slowly relaxed a bit more, and looked over at Turkey.

"I wouldn't accept it. I was still in shock over what happened. Tried to stick around her, to find out what exactly happened. I couldn't believe it," Turkey rattled, but then turned to me and nuzzled her cheek up against mine. "I was a mare before I was transformed."

I just sat there, with Turkey nuzzling into me, while the stallion tilted his head at us. "Yeah, I don't know either," I offered with a shrug.

Turkey punched me in the chest with her right forehoof, then broke away from me and sat down a little to my left, letting out a snort. "You should know! You said your magic turns us into what we are inside. Our deepest desire. Our true identity!"

"I didn't actually say," I started, but Turkey snorted again.

"That's what was implied!" she shouted. "I used to be a businessman. I used to go about from one house to another, buying up property and renting it back to people for more than it was worth. I was a despicable person. I'm GLAD I'm a mare now! Clean slate; tabula rasa!"

I could do nothing but blink at that, and Turkey continued her ranting.

"You know what I was doing when you bumped into me and transformed me? I was on the way to some girl's place. Someone I met in a bar who was only after my money. And I? I was only after her... well, you know."

Turkey paused a moment and looked down between her hind legs. "And now I have one of those myself."

The stallion let out an awkward whistle, then turned to look at me. "Hey, does this mean I won't have a period anymore?"

I glanced between the two, then put my hoof to my face to rub at it. "Ok, so I didn't know all of that about you, Turkey. But I'm not going to judge you for something you did as a human. As you said; clean slate. And, no. You won't get a period anymore because you're a guy now, Stacey. You may want to think of a new name for yourself."

I lowered my hoof to the ground again and smirked up at Turkey. "You, on the other hoof, can start to look forward to when you get your first heat. If you think that little self-exploration you did the other night was strange and confusing, you have seen nothing yet."

Turkey's face went blank and her ears and tail slowly drooped down as she slowly started to realize what my words meant.

I cast a glance over the balcony's edge and realized the other ponies had just about finished setting up the podium below.

"We may want to start going downstairs," I suggested. "They're going to want some answers soon."

As the stallion named Stacey nudged Turkey into motion and I fell into line behind them, I found I started to feel a bit nervous.

Nervous not in the sense of "oh shit I have to talk to a lot of ponies", but more of the "oh shit someone is watching me" variety.

I looked behind me, but there was no-one there. I quickly checked for the presence of Discord or Zecora, but they were probably in Equestria somewhere, as I could not find their energy on Earth.

But there was someone, somehow, staring at me. I could feel their eyes on me, I could just not find where they were looking at me from.

I shook off the feeling as we reached the top of the stairs. My audience was waiting. My ambassadors, waiting for an explanation. Waiting for someone to tell me what to do next, now they were no longer humans.

Chapter 23, Spritelight 11

Rows of ponies had gathered in front of the stage by the time I got to the ground floor, and Bill, the colt, had taken to stage to remind them all to stay calm. After all, I had told him I would explain everything, and, he trusted to them, he had seen I was a pony of my word.

I shook my head lightly at that, but took to stage while the stallion moved to join the others in front of the stage. Turkey stopped at the edge of the stage, but followed me quickly as I zapped her butt with my magic.

"Ow.. That wasn't fair, you know?" she muttered, and I motioned for her to sit beside me to my left as I looked the crowd over.

There were more ponies than I had initially realized, and they covered the ground from side-to-side and even into some of the stores. And all were looking at me. About a hundred ponies if not more. I could feel the pressure rise again, and scraped my throat before I started.

"Hello everypony, I'm Spritelight. And I am responsible for giving you the gift of becoming ponies," I started.

Half the crowd erupted in angry shouting, and I used my magic to dodge a couple of items that were haphazardly tossed at me with the use of magic, wings, or hooves.

"As I said;" I resumed, a little louder to overpower the neighsayers, "I gave you all a gift. You are the forerunners of the new times to come. It is only by chance that you were chosen as ambassadors, but you are in no way any less important than the others who already learned to live as ponies."

Bill jumped on stage as there were more shouts of anger and frustration, and he slammed both of his forehooves onto the wooden stage. The resulting sound caused everypony to fall quiet again and he glared over the crowd. "I told you; be quiet! Let her speak, let her answer our questions, and let us decide what to do with her and ourselves AFTERWARDS!"

Several heads bobbed up and down, and some of the more outspoken angry ponies were calmed down by those sitting around them.

"Thank you, Bill. I already said I would answer all your questions, but I hope that I can answer most of them already in explaining why I am here, and why I have done this to you all."

I half expected another eruption, but the few who started to voice their concern were immediately faced with others urging them to be quiet.

"I'm a Unicorn mare from the land of Equestria," I continued. "I have studied magic and history for most of my life, and managed to gain access to some ancient tomes hidden away in Equestria's eldest libraries. These tomes date back thousands of years - back to when Earth and Equestria were still the same planet."

The faces before me almost all showed their confusion at what I told them. Equestria and Earth having been one planet in the past? How could this be? I knew their thoughts well, as I had had doubts myself when I first explored the ancient tomes.

"I know what you are thinking; Earth and Equestria are two separate places! How could they have been one and the same? Why, here on Earth it is even thought that Equestria is an imaginary world only real to foals!"

There were some nods from the crowd, and I noticed I had got the attention of most of them.

"As you may notice from me being here, from your new pony bodies, Equestria -IS- a real place. As real as Earth. It has its own economy, ecology, even its own markets spread around the country. Instead of humans however, ponies make up the majority species."

Bill turned to look at me, and I smiled at him as I waved a hoof over the crowd. "Ponies, like you. Earthponies, Unicorns, Pegasi..."

"AND ALICORNS!" a voice called out from the back, and I squinted my eyes to try and figure out who said that, and with such a powerful voice...

I did not have to wait long before I saw her; an green-maned Alicorn, with a canary-yellow coat, with the light of the sun following in her wake - illuminating her from behind.

She made her way through the center of the crowd of ponies scurrying away from her with gasps of "this can't be real" as they did, until she stood face-to-face with me in front of the stage. I mean, I was standing on my hooves, on a stage, and she was standing in front of the stage, on only her hooves, and was still on eye-level with me.

"This... I..." I stammered, trying to remember if I had seen this Alicorn in Equestria before. She wasn't Celestia or Luna, not Cadance, not even that fool of a filly Twilight Sparkle - who bested me at magic long before she was given the gift of being a princess. No, this was someone new.

"Spritelight, I presume?" the Alicorn princess offered with a slight rise of an eyebrow, and I nodded automatically. "We need to talk."

"Er, sorry, but who are you?" Turkey wondered, pushing herself in-between the Alicorn and myself.

The green-maned one turned to look at Turkey, and I noticed the green glow of her horn as she looked her over. I felt my own energy force itself out of my horn as it grabbed a hold of Turkey, and I teleported her behind me.

"Don't you lay one iota of energy on Turkey," I warned the Alicorn before me, my horn sparkling with magic potential.

The Alicorn's own magic dissipated from around her horn, and she smirked in my direction. "I'm Josey. Princess Josey, according to most I meet these days," she chuckled. "And I guess I have to thank you, Spritelight, for what you did to help me become myself."

I froze, my magical energy dropping away from the realization. "Wait... you're one of my ambassadors?"

Turkey pushed up to my side and looked at this Josey. "She is?"

Bill rubbed the side of his head with a hoof. "I don't know if you ponies realized, but there are women and children here. People who used to have a life and had places to go, appointments to keep. If we can get back to the part where one of you - ANY one of you - could explain what exactly is going on, that would be great."

Josey nodded slowly and turned around to face the crowd. "I am sorry for the interruption, dears. And even more so for the news I am about to bestow upon you."

The crowd of ponies slowly gathered around the stage again, having pretty much pushed themselves out of the way and into the surrounding stores when Josey first appeared. Their faces were full of wonder, confusion, denial.

"All of your questions will be answered. But not here," Josey spoke, her horn powering up until it sent a large amount of energy out from it in a wide circle. I could hear the ping as it rang through my horn and, from the looks of the Unicorns in the crowd, so did the others who were magically affiliated.

Josey looked back at me past her large form and smirked. "Wait for it; he loves a dramatic entrance."

I opened my mouth to ask who, but then immediately dove down onto the stage as the fountain behind me exploded in a sea of...

"Hey, that's lemonade!" Bill exclaimed as the sticky fluid washed over everyone present.

"Grenadine, actually," Discord's voice came. "Oh Spritelight, my dearest student. How I have missed you!"

I groaned and turned to face the Draconequus, who was wearing a large-rimmed hat and held a cocktail glass in his claw-like hand. "I was just over in Mechico, and, well, don't you just love this sombrero?"

"Mexico, Discord," Josey corrected him. "Could you please open a portal to Equestria? These ponies need to be evacuated."

"Bah, you princesses are all business," Discord pouted, but snapped his fingers to make an oval portal appear on stage. "All aboard!"

"Wait, evacuated?" Turkey wondered, and I put my hoof around her withers to pull her close.

"If you would please step through the portal, dears? We will explain everything on the other side," Josey offered to the crowd, who started to queue up for the portal with complete looks of confusion and devastation on their faces. They clearly didn't know what else to do, and with an Alicorn and a Draconequus around, magic portals leading who-knows-where were the least of their concerns.

Bill was one of the few who actually remained where they had stood, and I could see him thinking deeply about something as the others slowly passed into the portal.

Josey turned back to the stage, nodding at Discord. "So, Mexico?"

Discord smirked. "It is as you expected, which was quite unexpected to me, really. I mean, who would have thought a former mortal might actually be right?"

Josey shook her head and I could see a tear leak down her face. "It's coming up here next then. We don't have much time left."

Turkey looked between the two, but it was Bill who opened his mouth first; "I'm sorry, but I have to ask this; what is the big idea here?"

Discord wafted a claw at Josey, who rolled her eyes at the former and then looked between Bill, Turkey, and myself. "Spritelight's magic has been upsetting the borders between worlds."

I sighed. "Duh. That was the whole idea. To bring Earth and Equestria back together."

"Except, that you're not bringing Earth and Equestria back together, Spritelight," Josey stated. "All you've done is give entry into this world to demons that are more powerful than you could ever imagine."

I frowned at that and shook my head in denial. "No I haven't! The ancient texts said that Earth and Equestria were once the same planet! I'm just restoring the balance!"

"What you read was Chancellor Puddinghead naming the land of Equestria "Earth". Not this planet," Josey sighed. "Pegasopolis, Unicornia, Earth, they all became one Equestria when the Windigoes were defeated by the warm hearts of the three tribe leader's assistants."

"But," I started, feeling my beliefs starting to shake - as well as the ground under my hooves.

"H...hey, what's going on?" Turkey wondered.

"EARTHQUAKE! EVERYPONY FOR THEMSELVES!" the crowd suddenly screamed, and the organized queue of ponies going through the portal fell apart in a stampede of ponies running for safety as the mall shook around them!

"There goes the neighbourhood," Discord offered, and disappeared in a flash.

Chapter 24, Spritelight 12

With the mall shaking on its foundation, various objects falling off of the myriad of shelves in it, the Alicorn princess Josey tried to lead the remainder of the ponies into the portal to the safety of Equestria.

Turkey and I looked up as parts of the ceiling started to come down around us, and I used my magic to blast away the pieces coming too close to us or the stampeding crowd.

Turkey did her part by shielding me and little Bill with her wings, but soon enough we were staring up at the swirling red sky above.

"Hey, guys?" Bill was the first to remark, "Is the sky supposed to be the color of blood?"

Turkey swallowed as she looked up as well, and I took the moment between falling debris to stare up at the demonic eyes in the swirling mass of blood staring down at us from above.

"Spritelight, I need to know what the name of the spell is that you used to turn these people into ponies, and where you found it!" Josey shouted over the sound of the wind howling around us. "The only way to restore the balance is to reverse your spell and return these ponies to human form!"

I blasted away another piece of the ceiling that would have otherwise struck the portal and the last few ponies rushing through it, then shook my head to Josey. "You can't do that! At least give them the choice! Turkey here is happy to be a pony! You can't take my gift away from them!"

Turkey slapped me across the back of my head with the wing she'd used to cover me before, and shouted at me; "I DO feel better as a pony, but it's not worth the destruction of Earth, you daft filly!"

"And I think a lot of those ponies who just ran through into that portal thing would love to be human again, actually," Bill added. "I would too."

I shook my head at them and backed away. "But that would mean all of my work has been for nothing..."

"Nothing is exactly what this world is going to be if we don't do something," Josey shouted back, ushering the last of the ponies through the portal before turning to face me. "Spritelight, please tell me I don't have to take your knowledge by force."

I backed away from the Alicorn princess and shook my head. "You can't! I had such big plans! These humans would get an actual future in Equestria! Didn't you see how bad this place has gotten? Don't you watch the news? So many murders, people suffering in countries I didn't even know existed. We ponies take much better care of our own!"

Turkey approached me and put her forelegs around my neck, pulling me into a tight hug. "You're right. But if this world is destroyed, nopony will live to learn from their mistakes. Nopony will get to live in peace and harmony. Do you really want to be responsible for the deaths of over six billion humans?"

I froze. "I didn't know there were that many..."

"Equestria has no room for all of them, Spritelight dear," Josey offered, taking a few steps closer. "You know we are going to have to put this right. Restore them to their true forms."

"But they are ponies inside," I tried.

"Some are. Some are foxes. Others are wolves," Bill spoke. "Then some are birds, or aquatic animals. There are a lof of animal spirits in this world, not all equine. You can't force them all to be ponies against their will."

A large portion of the wall behind me collapsed, and we collectively jumped up from the sound.

They were right, I realized, as the dust flew past me. How could I have made that mistake? How could I have done this? The flesh in the sky, blood rain, demon eyes watching us from above.. that there was my fault. I caused that. An entire world in danger of dying, being eaten by something worse than Discord could ever be.

I shouted the name of the tome to Josey as the contents of a store were swept up by a hurricane wind, and she nodded, using her magic to pull Bill back toward the portal. She told him something I could not hear as the howling wind overtook all other sounds, and thrust him through the portal. I saw the green light of her magic as it dispelled the portal, then as it took a hold of Turkey and me both.

and then there was silence -

We were in a dark room, the window showing the light of the moon partially hidden by normal looking clouds. The Alicorn princess sighed deeply as her magic receded, then put a hoof to a lightswitch on the wall.

We were in a room I faintly remembered. A room with a large bed, posters, a mirror, a television.

Josey moved to lay down on the bed, using her magic to levitate a remote control over and turned on the television. "Come lay with me for a moment, Spritelight. And you as well, Turkey was it?"

Turkey nodded and carefully climbed up on the bed. "Yes ma'am."

"Call me Josey, please," the Alicorn offered. "Everyone's been calling me princess this, miss that, madam such, since my changes finalized. It's a bit tiring."

I looked up at the television where an emergency news broadcast was showing pictures of a highly unnatural storm going from town to town. I spotted something and lifted my hoof to point. "Wasn't that..."

"The mall we were just in, yes," Josey sighed. "We barely made it out alive."

I blinked and moved to lay down on the bed beside Turkey, looking around the room again.

"I think I know this room," I realized.

Josey smiled in my direction. "It's mine. It's where Rhonda showed me her tail, and where my horn started to grow. I think I saw you during that first night, but you knocked me unconscious, didn't you?"

I swallowed at the flashback. "How is your friend doing?"

"She's the spitting image of Pinkie Pie," Josey chuckled, "with her own unique attributes of course. We sent her to Ponyville to keep her safe."

"We?" Turkey wondered.

"Us princesses; Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Twilight," Josey paused a moment, then shook her head at herself, "and me."

"So what's the plan now?" I had to ask, looking up at the television just in time to see a reporter being pulled out of screen by something I could not even try to describe.

Josey shook her head and looked out of the window. "This destruction will continue as long as there is an imbalance. The other princesses are working on finding a means to stop it by turning your victims back to human form. And I'm here... as the secret weapon."

I hung my head low at the word 'victim'. "I guess I really screwed up. Story of my life, really... My parents must have left me because they knew I would never amount to anything."

I felt the tears break, and then felt a pair of feathery wings fall on my back, Turkey's smaller one underneath the larger of Josey.

"I don't know your past, Spritelight. I don't know what hardships you've gone through," Josey offered in a soft tone, "But you alone did what no princess could have done. You used a kind of magic nopony realized was still in existence. You've stumped all of us, and Celestia has a few thousand years on us in terms of magic knowledge."

I shrugged at that.

"What I mean to say is; as long as you don't go throwing worlds into disarray, I think you'll be offered a good position in Canterlot's magic university," Josey continued. "This is a whole new field of magic they want to explore. To defend themselves against it if needed, but also to work on practical applications for it. We couldn't stop Twilight talking about those; the practical applications of it."

I carefully lifted my head to look up, and saw Josey - all smiles - looking back with nothing but genuine love. Turkey looked like one confused Pegasus what with all the talk about magic, but she nodded as she noticed me looking back at her as well.

"The only problem now is to fight these demons until they return to their own dimension," Josey stated. "And I'm going to need your help with that."

"You have my horn," I offered up to the princess.

"And my wings!" Turkey added with a grin.

"You need to learn how to fly first, Turkey," I told her, shaking my head a bit.

"Hey now, I was doing ok," Turkey protested.

"Oh, right, flight," Josey realized, looking back at her wings.

"Don't tell me you're a princess who doesn't know how to fly?" I gasped, shaking my head. "I'm a Unicorn! I know next to nothing about flying! Who's going to teach you two?"

"Tadaa!" Pinkie Pie offered from behind us.

All three of us turned our heads back to watch not one, but two Pinkie Pies stand behind us as if they'd just walked out of the wall. One with her usual blue eyes and balloon cutiemark, the other with pink eyes and a party cannon for a cutiemark.

"R...Rhonda?" Josey stammered, and I looked between them.

"I'm called Patty Cannon now, but yes Josey, it's me," one of the pink ones said, and I realized it was a cannon firing patties that was pasted on her flank.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were in Ponyville?" Josey asked of the pink ones.

"Ah, well, see," the one with the cannon cutiemark started, but another voice came from behind her.

"Can I come out now?"

"Sure, Dashie!" Pinkie Pie giggled, producing a small square gift box and pulling the lid open.

A rainbow-colored mane was the first to push out of the box, then followed by a blue coated body, and a rainbow tail, which left a rainbow trail behind it as Equestria's foremost flyer launched herself into the room, bounced off of a wall, and came to a stop in the dead center of the room, her wings flapping lazily behind her.

"No way," Turkey gasped.

"Oh, didn't I see you at Twilight Sparkle's coronation?" I wondered.

"What's the meaning of this, Rainbow Dash?" Josey demanded.

"Oh, you know, just Equestria's number one flyer coming over to help out," Rainbow chuckled. "I heard somepony needed to learn how to fly, and I taught Twilight all she knows about flying, so Celestia decided I should teach you as well."

I turned back to look at the two pinkies, who had mysteriously vanished. "Where'd they go?"

"Oh, they'll be back," Dash offered mysteriously. "Now, then, shall we begin the lessons?"

Chapter 25, April 1

April

St. George's was your regular run-of-the-mill offshoot of a British boarding school for girls, built somewhere in the last hundred years, but with rules which had not updated as time progressed into the next millennium.

Between the school uniforms, early curfew, and overly zealous Christian teachers with archaic principles, it was not a place I would have gone to willingly, but my parents gave me little choice.

In the first few years of arriving at St. George's I had tried just about every escape attempt I could think of, incurring every punishment for such when I inevitably got caught and returned to my dorm.

Third year in, I took to a different approach; if I could not escape St. George's, maybe I could just make use of the many hiding places it offered to get out of the way of those teachers who felt I was destined for nothing but a fast-track to Hell.

Knowing the right girls helped in this, as they could get me contraband in the form of candy, teen magazines, and even a music player with the latest songs on it.

It did not take me too long to find the perfect place to make into my private den, and soon I had disappeared off of the headmistress' radar.

I was hiding in my den, as usually the case during Latin, when the blood rain started.

First I heard about it was through the grating in the wall leading into one of the bathrooms; A couple of girls ran into it in a panic, chattering about how it was the end of the world, and crying out how they were too young to die.

Curiosity washed over me, and I made my way out of my hiding place to the main air vent connected to it.

There were small cut-outs in the metal shaft before me, made over the years with nothing but a knife stolen from the mess hall, and I used these to climb up to the floor above me.

There were voices in a panic all around, echoing through the vents from every connecting shaft, and I continued on to where the vents opened onto the roof to see what all the commotion was about.

Even without opening the grating in front of me, I could see the red liquid covering the roof of the building.

The strange cloud formations above looked more like constantly shifting blobs of sickeningly grey flesh than their usual puffy selves.

The red rain poured out of the many demonic-looking eyes set in this ceiling of flesh as if each eye was crying for the lost souls of the damned.

I had to swallow seeing this before me, and I found myself thinking back to remember what the Bible had said about this day.

I softly admonished myself for not paying more attention during Bible studies...

I quickly clambered down the shaft again to the third floor of the building, took a side shaft out towards the dorms, and quickly exited the ventilation system through a grate set in-between two bookcases in the study room.

There were textbooks about all subjects taught in St. George lined up in the bookcases set in this room, tables with desk lamps on them set in-between them for students to do their studying.

A few such tables still had open books on them, and it looked as if the room was vacated in a hurry.

I ran over to the doors only to find them locked.

Behind them voices were heard shouting, crying, praying, and footsteps of people running rampant in just about every direction.

I was not going to get out through this room, and climbed back into the ventilation system to head for the next option for me to use; the kitchen which connected to the mess hall on the ground floor.

I heard the clattering of plates and cutlery as I approached, and saw a few of the more obese of the girls and staff fighting over what food they could get.

I shook my head thinking of the seven deadly sins which the headmistress had me write out time and again when she caught me doing something wrong. Was gluttony not one of them?

I went back into the main shaft and went over my options.

The communal hall would be full of teachers trying to get the students in one location, the gym was its own building and not connected to the one I was in.

The headmistress had put a glass cabinet with trophies in it under one of my other escape routes leading into the hallways... so back up to the roof would be my only option.

I climbed up again to the ventilation shaft's roof access, and looked out over the redness surrounding the building.

I looked down at my relatively clean school uniform and considered the red rain coming down.

The rain would probably stain my clothes the moment I got outside, making it easy to see I had been outside.

Maybe I could run into my dorm room and slip into a replacement set before anyone would notice?

They were running around like headless chickens down there anyway...

I pushed the grate open and climbed out of the ventilation shaft, closing it again behind me.

The rain pelleting down on me made red blotches where it hit my clothes.

I ran for the access door leading to a maintenance staircase and gave a pull on it.

...locked.

I suddenly remembered why; the headmistress had locked it a few days ago after catching a few girls smoking on the roof.

The key was in her office downstairs, so that was not an option right now.

I looked around to figure out my next move while trying to repress my rising panic over the situation.

I was a good four floors above ground level on the roof, and the only access to or from it was the door that was locked and the ventilation shaft I had just come from.

This building had no ladders on the side of it leading down, no escape staircases, nothing like that.

It had been built like a prison for kids like me who would try to escape from their teachings, and it was practically impossible to find an escape route once on the roof.

And in the meantime the rain just kept falling... I spat out some of it as I accidentally got some in my mouth.

It tasted salty, and not at all like normal rain.

I ran over to the side of the building and looked down towards the gym hall just beside of it.

Two floors down and a few feet away... I could not make that distance if I jumped, I knew from PE-class.

Especially not on the slippery wetness the rain provided; one false move and I would tumble down to the ground instead of making a jump for the other rooftop.

While I was considering this, something moved on the horizon and I looked up to see the silhouettes of four horses flying through the air, obviously heading in my direction.

My mind caught up to itself and I shook my head. No, impossible.

I rubbed my eyes and looked again through the red haze of the blood rain.

There were definitely three horses flying towards me by the strength of their own wings.

A fourth, I saw now they drew closer, was sitting in a basket underneath a balloon which was being dragged along by two of the three others.

I rubbed my eyes again, but no matter how much I did, the vision remained and they were steadily getting closer as I tried to formulate a coherent thought about them.

The red rain made all of them look as red as if they were painted with paint onto a canvas, but some specks of a different colour hiding underneath their wet fur were visible as they drew closer and closer.

There were no riders on their backs, but that said nothing.

Nothing at all.

The Bible texts were little more to me than confusing sentences strung together to form some kind of misogynistic patronymic allegory.

For them to have the description of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse wrong would be nothing new to me.

I backed away as the one in front pointed a forehoof down in my direction and turned its neck to shout something at its compatriots.

As they started to descent straight for me, I found my own panic finally hitting home, and let out a scream of terror as I ran for cover.

I hid behind the brickwork of the chimney stacks, my heart pounding in my throat.

Was this really the end of the world?

Had my teachers actually been right about this thing?

Was this the last day of my life?

The sound of hooves hitting the rooftop on the other side of the chimney stack made me cringe.

Then another such sound, and a third, before the thud of a basket touching down on the roof.

"This is the only place for miles where we can rest, Josey," a voice exclaimed. "Wish we could get out of the rain, but we'll have to make due."

"Can we not enter the building at a lower level?" another voice wondered.

"You've seen what follows after the rain, Turkey," a third remarked. "You know as well as I do that the humans down there have no chance when the sea of flesh arrives. If we were to make contact, we would have to make another portal into Equestria and evacuate them. Equestria has enough refugees as it is."

I carefully peeked my head around the stones to see all four horses stand in a circle talking with one another and realised the horses themselves were actually talking.

I shook my head in disbelief, falling back into cover.

"It may already be too late," I heard one of the horses say to the others as it turned in my direction, their voice clear over the sound of the rain falling down around us. "Come out, please. We know you're here. We mean you no harm."

I swallowed strongly before standing up, made an effort to pat my drenched skirt down, and decided to walk out in the open as bold as my waning sanity could muster.

If I were to die here, today, better to get it over with.

It was the same facade I had adopted every time I had received punishment from the headmistress or any of the teachers in the past couple of years, and it had served me well to bury my fear of what was to come deep within.

The four horses were watching me as I stepped out, and I approached to within a few feet of them before my feet refused to take another step.

I quickly realised only one of the horses in front of me could be said to be a true horse-size.

It was a large horse with a surprisingly regal appearance.

She sported a large horn on her head and a pair of large feathery wings folded to her side.

I had heard of unicorns and pegasi before, but she was definitely something different.

Her smart green eyes looked me over as I stood before her, and I had to quickly look away as her gaze met my own.

The other three were much smaller than the green-eyed horse, and while two out of three sported wings and the third a horn, none of them had both at the same time as the larger of them had.

The large horse took a step forward and lowered her head to look at me a little closer, her horn aimed at a point somewhere over my right shoulder.

"Do not be afraid," she said in a voice that was oddly soothing, "we are not here to harm you. My name is Josey, and my companions are Rainbow Dash, Spritelight, and Turkey. May we know your name?"

Chapter 26, April 2

I looked between the ponies standing in front of me on the rooftop, dumbfounded at hearing their individual names.

Josey, Rainbow Dash, Spritelight, and Turkey?

There was a Josephine in my math class, and I could imagine that being shortened to Josey, but the other names were way out there.

Then again, these were horses staring me down. Talking horses which had flown through the sky not a moment ago.

"My name's April," I answered in a voice that sounded disturbingly tiny to me.

The large horse named Josey nodded slowly and smiled. "It is nice to meet you, April. Could you tell us where we are?"

I shrugged and pointed down at the building we were standing on. "This is St. George's, a girls-only boarding school."

"What's that?" the one named Rainbow Dash wondered, and the Pegasus beside it whispered something in her ear.

"Oh! Must be a human thing," she decided as if that explained everything.

Josey turned her head away from me and all horses perked their ears up as a howling sound could be heard in the distance, and I turned to look in the direction of the sound as well.

"The sea of flesh is approaching," Josey muttered, to herself more than anyone. "We don't have much time. April, dear. How many people are in the building below us?"

"Josey, you can't be serious!" the Unicorn protested as if the question was a curse or something.

The large horse turned to face the Unicorn and stared her down. "We can't let these girls become just another number now we're here. If we had any more time left I would not ask this of you."

The Unicorn snorted in return, but soon looked away from the larger one. "Fine..."

With the large horse named Josey turning her attention back upon me, I realised I had not answered her question yet.

I scratched the back of my neck a bit. "I don't know... around a hundred people total? That's counting teachers and students both."

"Less than in the mall," said the Pegasus named Turkey enigmatically.

"I know that, Turkey, thank you," the Unicorn replied as some sparks started to come off her horn.

"How do we get down from here, April dear?" Josey wondered, and I pointed at the door leading to the maintenance staircase.

"Through there, but it's locked," I suggested, watching the sparkling horn on the unicorn with considerable interest. "Is that normal?"

Josey ignored my question and instead turned to the pegasus not named Turkey. "Rainbow?"

"I'm on it!" came the eager reply.

They immediately set in motion to the door, turned around just in front of it, and promptly bucked her back hooves into the door proper.

It splintered apart the moment her hooves made contact with it, chunks of wood falling down the stairs behind it with a loud clattering which I was sure the headmistress would have heard clearly on any other day.

The wailing of the girls below, taken by the panic of the obvious apocalypse come down upon them, could clearly be heard from the staircase entry.

The one called Rainbow Dash pointed a hoof at it. "After you."

A wet wing fell over my shoulders and I found Josey having moved up to my side.

"Would you lead the way for us, please?" she asked, and my addled brain took me forward as if I was being compelled to by an outside force before I could answer.

The ponies followed a few paces behind me as I descended down the stairs to the third floor.

Most of the students were praying wherever they could find room to pray; sitting on their beds in their dorm rooms, in the open doorways to their dorm rooms, or in random locations throughout the hallway.

It was the latter group that first noticed the ponies following me, and a panicked pandemonium started as they all tried to get as much distance from the bloodstained group as possible.

"The four horsemen!" one cried out, and the avalanche of bodies trying to get out of our way was only interrupted when the Unicorn sent a flash of lightning or something past my left shoulder and into the group.

When my eyes could see again from the blinding flash of light, the first group of girls had been transformed into a group of ponies, still dressed in their school uniforms, awkwardly trying to figure out how to stand on their newly gained hooves.

I stared in shock as Josey and Spritelight pushed past me, one after the other, and went around from room to room.

More magic flashes quickly followed as they found more girls hiding, until they returned to the staircase with the entire floor now a mess of bawling ponies from normal ones to pegasi to Unicorns themselves.

And they were all pastel coloured...

"Shall we move to the next floor, girls?" Josey suggested, and once again I found myself compelled to lead the way.

My mind was suspended in an odd blank state where I knew what I was doing, but I couldn't formulate a thought or emotion to explain whether I was feeling good or bad about it.

A strange state of ennui in which I was just going through the motions as I was prompted to by Josey, my emotions blocked off so they could not overtake me.

The process repeated itself on the floor below, and the classrooms on the first floor were similarly taken care of.

"The headmistress' room, mess hall, and communal hall are below," I offered to the ponies following me as I walked down the first floor stairs with them in tow. "There's probably a lot of students in the communal hall and the headmistress may be there as well."

"Take us there first, then?" Josey suggested, and I turned a right when we got to the ground floor, pointing at the double doors up ahead.

"We have mass in there every Sunday. They're probably praying for their lives," I spoke flatly.

As Josey and Spritelight walked into the hall, I stayed behind with Turkey and Rainbow Dash.

Turkey nudged my side with a wing, and I looked in her direction.

"Hey, are you ok April?" she asked, genuine concern in her own voice.

I looked around myself at the chaos; magic being thrown around, people being turned into ponies, prayer to be saved from the pending apocalypse changing to prayer to not be found.

I turned my head to look down at my bloodstained clothes; the uniform of the school which I hated drenched in red to the extent where the logo was barely visible against the rest of the fabric.

I finally turned my attention over at the talking Pegasus pony, my face a blank slate of ennui, and just shook my head quietly to answer her question.

She nodded slowly and leaned her head in to nuzzle at me. "You will be, trust me. You're saving all these people an..."

A loud BANG was heard behind us, and we all jumped in response.

"What was that?" Rainbow Dash shouted.

"Was that a gunshot?" Turkey asked in sudden terror.

I just turned and stared in the direction the sound had been coming from. "T..that came from the headmistress' office."

Josey rushed by me from the other direction in which she had gone not a moment after I had said it, sending a bolt of lightning into the closed door to the headmistress' office a moment before she would have hit them.

The doors exploded into a hail of splinters as she passed through it and disappeared into the room.

As the gunshot took down my expertly crafted emotional walls, panic overtook me and I quickly followed the horse into the room, hoping beyond hope that I was not going to find what my imagination brought to mind.

I ran in with Turkey and Rainbow Dash hot on my heels, Spritelight following a moment later as she returned from the communal hall, Josey stood blocking off the view to the headmistress' desk with her large form and outstretched wings.

"Get out," she spoke as tears started to leak down her cheeks, revealing the yellow fur under the redness covering her.

I stood nailed to the ground as I spotted the redness on the walls behind Josey, even with her attempting to shield us from it, but then moved back into the hall again as Rainbow Dash nudged me.

My mind was a mess; emotions fighting over control, the walls which held them shattered from the recent events.

Josey needed a minute to join us, and used her magic to repair the door she had broken down moments before as if it had never been opened in the first place.

"This is up to the local authorities to handle if we can get this world corrected," she spoke, then turned to the last remaining humans and the humans-turned-pony who had gathered in the hall upon hearing the shot.

"Listen closely!" she shouted in a voice I was sure carried up to the top floor of the building, and potentially the gym as well. "There is a flood coming this way and the only way you will survive it is to do exactly as we say."

Rainbow Dash nudged me off to the side with one of her wings to let Spritelight move past me and the Unicorn's magic immediately hit the group of humans that had come from the mess hall.

I could only watch the last of my fellow students turned into multicoloured pastel ponies as I had watched the others change before them.

"I want you all to gather in the communal room," Josey continued, pointing a hoof in the direction of the hall.

"You will have to move the chairs there due to your new bodies, but it will only be a momentary issue. We will create a doorway for you all to escape to safety," she continued.

"Take nothing with you; anything you try to bring with you will not make it to the other side," the horse concluded quizzically.

Dazed and confused, the ponies in the hallway started to walk into the communal hall as instructed.

Turkey walked up to offer the stumbling ones some advice on how to use their hooves, how not to poke eyes out with Unicorn horns, and how to fold Pegasus wings so they would be comfortable.

Still pressed against the wall by Rainbow Dash's wing, I could do nothing but watch this happen while my mind trying to reconcile with reality.

Did the headmistress really... Josey's reaction was clear enough. And all these ponies...

"Were you once human as well?" I asked of Rainbow Dash, who lowered her wing to give me some breathing room and shook her head.

"Oh no, not me! Spritelight and I are from Equestria. We've been ponies all our lives, as far as I am aware," she explained.

I noted her words and pointed at Josey. "And her?"

"Spritelight got to her, yes," Rainbow Dash nodded.

Spritelight snorted at Rainbow's explanation while looking up at me. "It's a long story. I thought you humans needed to be ponies to survive, but then all hell broke loose."

"Which is what we are here to try and correct," Josey offered in a soft voice. "I will go set up the portal."

I watched her follow the students-turned-ponies into the communal hall, and heard her call out to those already present even as more ponies awkwardly made their way down the stairs from the floors above.

Spritelight continued to size me up, and I saw the sparks on her horn a moment before a flash of light hit me.

"I'm sorry for this," I heard her say even as I felt my balance shift and I blindly fell to my four hooves...

Chapter 27, April 3

When the light returned to my eyes again I found myself on eye-level with the unicorn named Spritelight and the pegasus named Rainbow.

Turkey was off amidst the sea of other ponies filing into the communal room as if she was trying to control the traffic, but I couldn't see her anymore now Spritelight stood mere inches from my own face.

"Okay, this is... new," I spoke, trying to figure out what my tongue was doing in my more elongated mouth.

"Give yourself a moment," Spritelight entrusted to me. "I know this has been a lot to take in, but you've been a great help to us and everypony in this building."

"We don't have too long, considering what's coming," Rainbow warned with a shake of her head.

Some dried up bits of blood flaked from her mane and I could spot different pastel colours in it.

Her mane was dyed the colours of the rainbow, I realised with some surprise.

"Right... Rainbow," I muttered to myself. "How did I not make that link?"

"What link?" the pegasus asked, ears turned in my direction.

"That must have been one hell of a dye job," I pointed out, motioning my left forehoof in her direction.

I caught myself and stared down at the raised limb while slowly turning it this way or that a bit.

Yep, a hoof. Just like the other three I was standing on.

Spritelight scraped her throat to get our attention and I looked up at her.

"So, the wall of flesh is upon us. You should head through the portal to escape with your friends," the unicorn decided.

"But what about you?" I asked, honestly concerned. "I overheard you all talking on the rooftop; you came here to find rest, right?"

Spritelight sighed warily. "Yes, we needed a brief stop before continuing on. The three of us who can fly are probably feeling it in their wings right now, right Rainbow?"

Rainbow Dash stood upright in a defiantly proud pose. "Hey, I could fly on forever if I had to! I'm just thinking of poor Turkey and Josey; they're still new flyers and need their breaks."

"Keep telling yourself that, Dash," the unicorn scoffed. "We can't run the risk of any of us falling out of the sky from exhaustion."

I looked between the two a moment, then raised an eyebrow as I felt my ears swivel on my head. "Just a question, but where are you going off to? Because... well, we're kind of outside of town and... people don't usually come flying up to our roof or anything..."

"There's a nexus of energy to the North. The wall of flesh is attracted to it. We have honestly been barely ahead of it as it's gradually speeding up," Spritelight explained. "Every one of you humans who turns into ponies makes it go faster, so... you know, the whole turning your school into ponies probably gave us less time again."

"So why do it?" I pressed, shaking my head at it all. "I don't get it. This is so fantastical, out of both my most horrific nightmares and wildest dreams. Why are you here? Why is that rain of blood here? Why are you turning us into ponies?"

"We can't stand here explaining it all, sorry," Spritelight sighed. "You should join your friends and go through the portal."

"But why?" I asked again, but for Rainbow to nudge me with a wing again.

"In short? To survive this, April was it?" she spoke with a grimace. "I'm not into all that magic stuff like you unicorns, but I know that thing that's coming is bad for us."

"Unicorns like us?" I caught, turning my eyes up to the little shadow which had been moving around with the movements of my head, just at the top of my vision.

"Yeah," Spritelight smirked. "Look, you really should join the rest of your friends so Josey can close the portal and we can go on with our day."

I realised she was right, but there were so many questions rising in my mind now that the initial panic had died down again.

The amount of information which had forced itself upon me warranted investigation; The whole wall of flesh thing, people turning into ponies, the sheer fact they existed, and that horn that was now protruding from my forehead.

I wearily put one hoof in front of the other, nodding at the other unicorn. "Yes, okay, you're right. I don't know the half of what's going on here so I would just get in the way."

"I didn't mean to say it like that, but yes," Spritelight agreed, turning her head to keep an eye on me as I passed her by.

The light from the communal room dimmed and there was a decided change in atmosphere as if someone closed a door and the room repressurized.

I could feel it on my horn more than anything, and blinked at the sensation.

"Wait," Spritelight started, turning fully in the direction I was going and suddenly pushing past me. "Josey, you're missing one!"

I felt spurred on by her sudden anxiety and quickened my pace as she ran for the communal room, joining her as she ran into the large empty space.

The only ones still in the spacious room were the big horse named Josey and the smaller pegasus named Turkey; all my fellow students and the faculty staff having evacuated through this portal thing.

There was no such portal in the room.

Josey, the large horse with both a horn and pair of wings, turned to us as Rainbow Dash zoomed past us with a few strong wingflaps, the air she displaced pushing me sideways a little.

"What do you mean Spritelight? I... oh," Josey started, but stopped as she spotted me.

Rainbow landed next to the other pegasus and addressed her while folding her wings again. "Everyone else get out okay?"

Turkey nodded while staring straight at me. "Yeah, they did. A unicorn, huh?"

I felt a sense of dread settle on me. "So, what now? Make another one of those portals and such?"

"Not for a while, I'm afraid," Josey responded to my question. "It takes too much energy to make a connection between worlds like that."

"You would have been safe in Equestria by now," Spritelight mumbled, turning to face me again. "If you had only waited to ask your questions until then..."

"What questions were those?" Josey asked, walking closer. "I can only guess at what a newly transformed unicorn might ask. I most likely had similar questions when I started to transform. So did Turkey upon her transformation."

I looked between the two, feeling my tail twitch. "You're both human too?"

"You already asked that," Rainbow pointed out. "Spritelight and me are the only Equestrians here. The rest of you are from Earth."

"Although none of us are Earthponies," Turkey pointed out. "Those are the ponies without a horn or wings."

Josey stopped walking a noselength away from me and leaned down to gently nuzzle her muzzle into my hair.

It felt oddly comforting.

"How are you feeling April?" she asked.

"Overwhelmed doesn't begin to describe it," I breathed out, lowering my head down a bit.

"I'm with you on that," Turkey offered, walking closer herself. "When Spritey here transformed me while I was out and about on the streets, I didn't know what to do with myself."

"You ran after me like a filly in love," Spritelight protested. "Wings fluttering and all."

Turkey's cheeks turned a slightly deeper shade. "Either way... I had no chance to really come to terms with suddenly being a pony until later."

"We have a few hours before we have to get on the move again, I think," Josey decided, finally pulling away from my hair. "There, that should have straightened out the wild hairs in your mane."

"Mane?" I started, looking up at her.

"The hairs on your head," Turkey pointed out. "They're a lovely red tone. Kind of reminds me of those Italian race cars they've got on the tracks; the same kind of... racing red."

"Racing red?" I repeated blankly, reaching up with my right forehoof in an effort to stroke some of my hairs down to have a look at.

"Yeah, that's what they call it in Italian; Rosso Corsa," Turkey noted. "I watched a few races as a guy, so..."

I stopped doing what I was doing and stared at Turkey with rising surprise. "As a guy?"

"Here we go again," Spritelight sighed. "Yes; the magic calls out the pony inside you. You effectively become your true pony self. Doesn't matter what your body used to look like before."

"I much prefer being a mare, honestly," Turkey coughed uneasily.

"I much prefer you being a mare as well," Spritelight returned with a light smile.

I glanced between the two. "Wait, are you two an item? Don't let the headmistress notice or she'll... oh, right."

I sank through my hooves to end up resting on the floor while my ears and tail drooped down as I remembered the fate of the woman in the other room.

"God frowns on suicide... she won't make it to Heaven, if she ever had a chance to begin with what with all her judging," I mumbled to myself, my mood taking a dip.

Josey lowered one of her wings over my back and sat down beside me. "Let her rest. Let us all rest."

"Yes, good idea," Spritelight agreed. "We only have a few short hours before we have to be on the move again... and now I'm going to have to share my balloon with April here."

"Oh great, more weight to pull," Rainbow grumbled. "I might as well get a nap in then."

"Good idea," Turkey agreed, looking back at her wings. "I'm sore in muscles I didn't have before."

Josey chuckled and leaned her head down to my level. "We're going to have to take you along with us, so let me or Spritelight know if you have any questions?"

I watched Spritelight take up position just off to the left opposite me, in-between where Rainbow now sought to rest on one of the tables pushed aside by the ponies passing through the space earlier.

Turkey moved to where Rainbow was, moving to rest underneath the same table instead.

"Questions," I started, looking down at the soft light blue fur covering my snout. "Well, first off... I'm a blue unicorn 'mare' with red hair?"

"Yes," Spritelight agreed. "Green eyes."

"Green eyes, typical for a redhead," I chuckled weakly.

"You're not into redheads?" Josey asked curiously. "My girlfriend Rhonda turned into a pink pony, I'm yellow with a green mane, and Turkey over there is blue."

"Turquoise, which is what she took her name from," Spritelight corrected Josey.

"Oh? I hadn't asked but I thought it had to do with the bird," Josey realised. "What with the wings..."

"A little bit of both, I guess," Spritelight giggled. "See, she was trying to find a name for herself using her Turquoise coat, but the way she was going about things made me think of her like a headless chicken; no intelligence in her. So I jokingly called her a headless turkey. The name Turkey stuck around."

I shook my head at that. "That wasn't nice. I know a few girls in school here who would tease others for their names. She wouldn't have survived the first week here."

"Fortunately Equestria is a lot more welcoming than Earth," Josey offered up. "Rhonda and me were brought there while still partway through our transformation; still mostly human, but barely anypony treated us with anything other than the utmost respect."

I looked up at the taller horse. "You didn't transform instantly then?"

"No, it took me a few days of excruciating pain," Josey revealed. "Especially my horn gave me the darndest headache. I was not... fully there for my wings growing out."

I turned my head to peer back at the other's wings. "I wouldn't know what to do with those, so I'm actually glad I don't have them."

"It's surprisingly easy if you have a good teacher," Josey suggested with a smile, casting a glance over at the pair of sleeping Pegasi. "Rainbow gave Turkey and me a crash course. Almost literally so in Turkey's case."

"You should have seen her collide into the crowd in the mall where you found us," Spritelight chuckled.

"I was still on my way over, but I felt the resulting wave of magic from that spell you released after," Josey smirked. "Not surprising the wall of flesh is drawn to your magic."

"Hold up," I started. "That wall of flesh thing, what's that about?"

Both Spritelight and Josey's expressions darkened.

"In short; the end of the world if we can't stop it," the mare beside me grumbled.

Chapter 28, April 4

"No, really," I scoffed. "I hadn't at all considered that. You do know you're in a Christian boarding school?"

"Considering everyone was praying when we found them, yes." Josey agreed.

"The book of Revelations explains that Jesus Christ will wash away our sins in His blood. That rain out there certainly fits the bill," I pointed out, motioning my head toward the nearest window.

"Let's see if I remember the verse... 'behold, he comes with clouds; and every eye shall see him'. I saw a lot of eyes up in the clouds while we were on the rooftop," I suggested.

"That does sound like what we were seeing, yes," Spritelight agreed with me.

"All the children of the Earth shall wail because of him, I think the next verse goes," I pondered. "I honestly didn't pay too much attention during Bible study, but the signs of the apocalypse, the four horsemen... it's all in there."

Josey looked around at Turkey, Rainbow, Spritelight, and myself. "I guess I see how the four of us descending upon your school could have made someone think we were the four horsemen, but none of us are guys... Well, Turkey used to be."

"But she's not," Spritelight decided forcefully. "So what's this stuff you two are talking about then?"

"Religion," Josey pointed out, looking around the room until she spotted a Bible laying around.

Her horn shimmered a light green as she picked it up with her magic, and I watched the book fly over with considerable interest.

I had a horn too, so this was part of what I could potentially do myself now?

How did she do it?

Josey hovered the book in front of us and flipped through the pages until arriving at Revelation 1, then put it on the floor between us.

"Here, verse 5 is what April mentioned;" she spoke, reciting from the book before us; " 'And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,' definitely could point to the rain outside."

"Then there's verse 7; 'Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.', so April was almost right," Josey chuckled. "Kindred, not children."

Spritelight snorted. "It sounds like an old language, like the old tomes I read in the archives in Canterlot. Difficult to wrap your head around nowadays. That's why I ended up here on Earth, instead of staying in Equestria where Earth used to be."

Josey flipped to the next page of the Bible. "Can't... find anything about the horsemen here?"

"I think it's later on in Revelation," I pointed out. "It's where they're talking about seals."

Josey kept flipping on to Revelation six, then nodded. "Right, here it is, verse 2; 'And I saw, and behold a white horse; and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.' Hm."

"Yeah, no rider on any of you, although Spritelight is closest to being white?" I suggested.

"Silver, actually. My coat has been a bland grey ever since I arrived here. It's more vibrant in Equestria," Spritelight defended herself.

"Yeah, but it's going farther than that; 'And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.' So the first horse would be the leader, then the second would be war, or strife..." Josey pondered.

She continued reading, "Then there's the third horse; 'And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.' I think I remember that one; it's famine."

"Right," I agreed. "And the fourth one would be Death."

Josey gave a curt nod. " 'And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.' Lovely stuff."

I noted the sarcastic undertone to Josey's words and shrugged at it. "This is why my brain tunes out during Bible study. I grasp half of it, but there are too many words. I don't have that kind of attention span."

"Exactly," Spritelight agreed. "That's the same with me and the old tomes of magic, although they hold a power within them which draws me to them."

"The headmistress would have let you believe that there's a great power hidden in the Bible as well," I pointed out.

"Maybe there is," Josey mused. "Maybe Spritelight isn't far off with her idea that our worlds used to be one. What if it actually describes the situation we're in right now?"

"What, we're in the Apocalypse right now?" I whimpered. "So we're all going to die?"

"Not necessarily," Spritelight scoffed. "Your old life as a human might be over, but you're transformed into a pony now. Maybe they didn't have words to describe that?"

"Maybe they did have words to describe that, but they became lost in translation," Josey mumbled to herself, then spoke up louder. "This is a two-thousand year old book. It has been translated to every language known to mankind, edited by people who thought they knew better than others, and has been interpreted so many different ways that it might as well be describing a recipe for making popsicles for all we know."

"Hey now," I protested. "That's no way to talk about the Bible... A lot of people find comfort in it."

"Oh, no, I'm not denying that," Josey warded off. "I'm simply saying there might be something here in the texts which has been hidden in plain sight. Some way we can stop this thing from destroying the world."

"I'm pretty sure the Apocalypse is unstoppable once it starts," I coughed warily, laying my head down on the floor. "But what do I know?"

"That's a good question; what do you know?" Spritelight countered. "You said yourself you have had to study this book. Can you give me a brief synopsis about it?"

"Er," I started. "Let's see... God created the Heavens, the world and everything on it, and then put humans on it. They didn't really behave in Eden, so got cast out and multiplied among themselves. Then they didn't behave again and God washed the sinners away with a great flood. Then He sent His son down to Earth to try and teach people to stop sinning, but they betrayed Him and put Him on a cross where he died. Then there's a whole lot of warning stuff about how He will return one day, and of course the whole Apocalypse thing."

"He will return," Spritelight caught.

"Yeah, The Second Coming of Christ," I listed. "That's mostly in Matthew, if I remember correctly."

Josey instantly started flipping pages again.

"So how are you doing that, if I may ask?" I asked, pulling my head up from the ground to look sideways at the bigger horse.

"Just... do it," Josey offered enigmatically. "Celestia told me to envision an image of what I wanted to do in my head and then push that out through my horn, but Luna and I can just sort of do it instinctively without having to envision it first. It's somewhat faster."

"Ah, here," she continued when she found the passage she was looking for. "Matthew 24, verse 29; 'Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.' apparently."

"That sounds about right; it's long-winded enough," Spritelight commented.

"It continues; 'And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.' " Josey listed, then skimmed a few lines. "Apparently half of everyone would be saved and the rest left to die."

"Yeah, the rapture; ascension of the faithful," I agreed.

"I wonder," Josey pondered. "Would us going around transforming people into ponies be a decent allegory to that? We can't save them all, but we can save a lot of people if we're smart about it."

"I'm not so sure I want to test that theory; we'd have to go through the wall of flesh and end up unscathed on the other side of it to be sure," Spritelight considered.

"What actually is this wall of flesh, since you've mentioned it a few times now?" I asked, turning my head to look between the both of them.

"Exactly what it sounds like; it's a giant wall made out of the flesh of the humans it encountered in its path; everyone merged together into an unholy abomination several miles across and reaching up to the sky, crying out in pain as it moves forward across the planet in an effort to find more victims," Josey muttered with a frightful shudder.

"It leaves empty buildings behind. No human survivors. How has this not been in the news yet?" Spritelight asked curiously. "There were reports about the pony 'fad' while I was transforming my ambassadors. Nopony mentioned the wall?"

"We don't have a television here. It's school and Bible study, and nothing else," I pointed out.

"So no way to know what the world is thinking about it until someone decides to launch nukes at it, I guess," Josey sighed darkly.

"We do have a radio," I suggested, and both Spritelight and Josey stared at me.

"Where?" Josey demanded.

"Next to the headmistress' office; we have a little radiobooth for announcements and such," I remarked, and Josey immediately pushed up on her four hooves. "I don't have a key to it..."

"We don't need a key," the tall horse chuckled; "I have alicorn magic."

Chapter 29, April 5

I followed behind Josey and Spritelight as the pair of them filed into the hallway again to get to the radio, feeling my tail flick idly behind me.

I was nervous. I was overwhelmed. I was trying to stitch the events from the past hour or so together and make sense of it all.

All I could do was go with it, accept I was now a pony, and that the world was effectively doomed unless something changed.

Something we had to change, apparently.

I was now included in this group of ponies since I had missed my chance to go through the portal into Equestria.

Josey arrived at the door to the headmistress' office and slowed down, bending her head down a little in a respectful manner as she passed it, but then got to the single door leading into the radio room beside it and lifted her head up again.

Spritelight and I followed her example in respect for the dead woman inside her office.

Josey's magic reached out for the door to open it. "Locked, as you said. Let me undo that."

I waited patiently to Spritelight's right side, looking sideways at her.

Most of her back was still stained with red from the blood rain, but it had flaked or dripped out of her grey fur from halfway down her sides.

I could see how it could be mistaken for silver in the right light.

"I can see the silver now I'm up close to you," I suggested. "Your fur reflects the light a little. It's definitely not some common grey."

Spritelight peered sideways at me, a light raising of her lips betraying my compliment hit its target. "Why, thank you. That was a nice thing to say. I've been bothered by it ever since I arrived here."

"You did say that, yes," I returned with a smile. "I'm sure you're just getting used to our world just the same as I'm getting used to being like you."

"Hm, I had not considered that; I was too busy trying to make ambassadors and had the nastiest headache for the first weeks being here," the other unicorn explained. "Got me in a foul mood, to be sure."

"Why didn't you get some medicine for that headache? Weeks is a long time to be having one of those," I reacted surprised.

"I can't read human text," Spritelight stated to that. "Turkey told me she was glad I didn't experiment with your array of human medicines as some of it's poisonous. Don't tell her I actually did try; tasting a little of what I found on the tip of my tongue to figure out what it was. I just didn't realise I had come across this asprin stuff multiple times already before Turkey pointed me at the right box."

I stared at the other pony, feeling my left ear twitch on top of my head.

"That sounds awful, I'm not going to lie," I decided in considerable empathy to her plight.

There was an audible click and the door to the radioroom opened up.

"There we go," Josey spoke as she walked into the small room. "Now what's all this? A little studio? Any way to tune it to a local news station?"

I walked over to the open doorway, noticing half of Josey's body was still sticking out of the small space. "There should be a button labeled radio. Just tune the system to it instead of the microphone."

"I'm glad I don't have to try and make sense of that," Spritelight chuckled.

"There are dozens of buttons here," Josey called back, moving her head at an awkward angle to not get her horn stuck on the foam covering the walls.

"Yeah, look to the left? Like the far wall from the doorway? The radio should be there. Turn that on, then on the main panel to the right should be a source selector? I've only ever been in this room three or four times," I tried to explain. "They don't let delinquents like me into the radio room but it also has one of the only phones in the building, so..."

"You broke in," Spritelight finished my sentence.

"Yeah, while everyone was asleep," I admitted. "I tried to call someone to get me out of here. It's not a fun place to be."

"Schools never are," Josey called back from the room. "I think I found the radio button. Let me put it through the selector."

There was an audible click through the speakers set up through the building, and the voice of a newscaster followed immediately after.

Josey turned the volume up until we could more easily make out what the person on the radio was saying, but not so loud that it might wake the two sleeping mares in the communal room.

"...now passed through the Nevada desert. Reports from the affected area are... I have no words for it. If you're just tuning in, maybe waking up in one of our overseas territories, I hope you're with your loved ones. This is truly the end of days..." the obviously distraught newscaster stated through the radio.

"Well, it's clear they do know about it," Spritelight pointed out as Josey turned the radio off again.

"That much is obvious," Josey agreed, backing out of the cramped studio. "The question is what the army is doing about it. We run the risk of getting in harm's way if they go all out and throw nukes at it."

"You said that word before; nuke," Spritelight queried. "What does it mean?"

I looked the pony over in confusion. "You know; nuclear missile..."

"I forget you're from a different world," Josey coughed uneasily. "We've had a couple of worldwide wars here in recent history. One of the ways humans have tried to kill other humans has been with bombs."

"Right," Spritelight agreed. "One of the reasons I was coming here; to stop the wars."

"Two of these bombs were instrumental at ending the second world war; the ones dropped on the Japanese towns of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," Josey listed. "Considering you know about our wars, maybe those ring a bell?"

Spritelight obviously tried to remember something, and I wondered just how much she really knew about our world.

"The... atom bombs?" Spritelight finally spoke, the emotions on her face shifting from one of confusion to one of despair. "Don't tell me..."

"Yeah, development on them never really stopped. They're still the go-to deterrent against another world war, even if everyone claims they're not using them anymore," Josey pointed out. "They get launched by missiles nowadays, not dropped from planes."

"Humans love killing other humans," I added for good measure.

"Unfortunately all too true," Josey agreed.

Spritelight stood in shock, blinked, and then shook her head at us. "No. No, we can't allow them to do that."

"What are we going to do about it, Sprite? Honestly? We're stuck here trying to stay ahead of the wall of flesh and figure out how to stop it destroying the world," Josey pointed out. "We can't take on the whole US Army at the same time."

"What exactly was the plan to begin with?" I asked, confused beyond measure. "I'm not entirely sure either of you had a plan when you arrived here, other than 'staying ahead of the wall of flesh', or you haven't shared it with me yet."

"There's a mana well in Yellowstone. We're trying to get me over there so I can tap into it and potentially restore the barriers between worlds," Josey explained.

"A mana well?" I asked, and Spritelight lifted her left hoof up to her own horn.

"Our magic uses mana. We regenerate mana inside our bodies naturally, but having an outside source like a crystal or a natural mana well allows us to use more magic than we have stored inside ourselves," she explained quickly.

"I'm an alicorn because I already had a lot of magic potential inside me, even as a human," Josey added. "If I could get to that mana well, combined with my own magic..."

"She would temporarily become the most powerful pony we have available," Spritelight finished explaining. "On the same level as Celestia and Luna in their prime."

That was a lot to take in, even with the unfamiliar names being used as reference.

"So this magic potential," I started, lifting my left hoof to touch the base of my own horn, "is the reason I'm a unicorn as well?"

"Yes," Spritelight agreed. "If you had less magic potential but more of an affinity for flying, you'd have become a Pegasus like Turkey. Less of even that, and you'd have become an Earthpony. Neither horn nor wings."

"Like my girlfriend Rhonda," Josey pointed out. "Although she's a Pinkie, and they are special. The both of them break through conventionality like Discord."

"Hm, yes. I did not expect that to happen to her when I chose her as an ambassador; she just felt like there was potential to her," Spritelight pointed out.

"Okay, so to Yellowstone. That's a day's drive from here by car. We've gone there on a school outing to have a look at the geysers," I noted. "There should still be a map or two littering about in someone's room."

"Oh, that would be helpful," Josey offered with a smile. "Any idea where to start looking?"

"Any of the bedrooms, probably in one of the cabinets. The headmistress won't allow us to put posters up," I suggested.

"Three floors above us, so we each take a floor then?" Spritelight wondered.

"Sure, take the top floor since you can sense the wall's approach. Maybe make sure the balloon is still secure on the roof," Josey delegated, then motioned at me. "Middle. Keep you between Spritelight and myself so you can call to either of us if you need help. I'll take the lower floor so I can move in either direction to help out in case Rainbow or Turkey need me."

Spritelight snorted to Josey's proposal. "Sure, let me walk the distance AND get out in the blood rain to get my coat stained more."

"Do I have to remind you we wouldn't be in this situation if not for your little mistake, Spritelight dear?" Josey pressed.

"Fine," the unicorn sighed. "Make your bed and lie in it, I suppose."

"On that note; there should be two beds per room. Make sure to look under them and behind the bedside cabinets," I pointed out. "There are little hiding places in every room which only the girls who live there know about. They might have propped their maps in one of those."

"Oh, the joys of a controlled environment," Josey chuckled. "Doesn't matter how beautifully dressed a prison is; the inmates will always find ways around the system."

"You have personal experience?" I asked, to which she shook her head.

"No, just movies," she explained. "What floor is your room on?"

"Middle, so you sent me to the right one," I chuckled. "Don't have a map of Yellowstone, but I know where Bridget hides her cigarettes and where Marianne hides tampons."

"What, you're not allowed tampons here?" Josey asked incredulous.

"No, you're only allowed pads. Insertion is for sex with your husband after you marry, that's the Christian way don't you know?" I replied with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

Josey glanced in the direction of the headmistress' office. "Well, let's see how many of your fellow students end up returning here after we're done."

"My guess? Five or six at most; they're true believers," I shrugged, noting Spritelight finally setting in motion.

"This world and its ways are all sorts of dumb," she breathed out. "You would benefit from Equestrian rule."

"That's what the colonizers said when they came to this land," Josey pointed out. "We were wrong then as well. Best restore order and worry about those details later. Maybe we can set up a bidirectional portal or something; give people a choice."

"Right," Spritelight mused, cantering over to the staircase. "Let's find that darn map already."

Chapter 30, April 6

The three of us scoured the different bedrooms, each on our own floor.

I pitied Spritelight since she couldn't read human script, but a map should be easy enough to figure out since it had more than writing on it.

I knew I didn't have a map of Yellowstone, but I still went to my own room first to check if my roommate kept hers.

My first problem came when I arrived at the closed door, but the doorhandle gave way easy enough with a gentle push from my horn.

I didn't like the feeling of my horn pressing onto the metal handle; it was like someone tried to push a finger through the skin on my forehead into my skull or something.

Even if it was the lightest of touches, the briefest of moments, my horn amplified the sensation and made me feel like I should come up with a different idea for the next door.

I pranced up to my roommate's dresser and stared at the drawers for a moment.

It was clear my hooves wouldn't do it; I lifted my left forehoof up to check, but there was no way I could paw at them to pull them open.

The solution dawned on me after I considered what other options I had, and I sighed. "Teeth it is..."

I took the bottom drawer's handle between my front teeth and pulled on it until it was open enough that I could look into it for the map I was searching for.

The taste of my roommate's hand lotion lingered in my mouth as I rifled through her possessions, and I had to lick around my muzzle to get the saliva production going in an effort to get rid of it.

No luck with the first drawer, so onto the next.

Having figured out my teeth were handy enough tools in the absence of hands, I just went from my room to the next while trying to ignore the various tastes lingering on doorknobs and handles.

"Anything yet?" came the question from upstairs as I walked past the stairway, and I looked up it to spot Spritelight looking down at me; her coat drenched in blood-red moisture again.

"No, but I've only got half of the hallway so far. I see you secured the balloon?" I called back.

"Yeah, it should be fine for us to use tomorrow," the other unicorn returned. "Are you getting a hang of your magic yet?"

"No," I replied honestly. "I've just been tugging at things with my mouth. I don't know how to use my magic."

Spritelight's horn started to shimmer and she sent a bolt of magic my way.

I could barely dodge it, rolling over to my left side and briefly experiencing the awkward sensation of my horn resting against the floor before I could self-right again.

"What did you do that for??" I cried out.

"Use your magic; imagine what you want to do and do it," Spritelight threw at me.

"Or just do it," Josey's voice came from a floor below. "You don't necessarily need to imagine it."

"Right," the unicorn above me agreed. "Just use your magic, and I'll help you with the details tomorrow during our balloon trip."

"I'll give it a try," I promised, turning in the direction of the rooms I had not visited yet.

"Call for me if you need help," Spritelight told me as I left the stairway.

Just use your magic. Right...

I approached yet another closed door and stared at it.

"Open sesame," I spoke, expecting the door to open up. Nothing.

"Abracadabra," I tried, with the same result as before.

"Mellon," I opted, wondering if Elvish worked. Nil.

I sighed and poked the door with my right forehoof. "It would be lovely if you just opened up for me." No go.

"Hey Spritelight?" I called back in the direction of the stairway. "How do I open a door?"

Spritelight's voice came from some distance away. "Just will it open."

"I tried asking it, but it doesn't want to," I returned.

"Really?!?" the other unicorn's voice called out with a clear tone of exasperation to it. "Just WILL IT open! You're in control!"

I turned my attention back to the door and considered Spritelight's words.

Just will the door open. Okay, fine; I decided that the door should be open.

A strange sort of energy flooded my horn as I made my decision, then jumped off the tip of it into the wood before me.

I watched in amazement as the door swung itself open partway.

"Oh... my God... I did it!" I cried out in amazement. "I did a magic!"

"Congrats!" Josey shouted from some distance further away than I had heard Spritelight's voice from.

"Great! Now keep doing that," Spritelight returned, her voice more muffled than Josey's.

Proud as a peacock, I pushed into the room and walked up to the nearest dresser.

I focused on the lowermost drawer, and decided it should open.

The energy flooded my horn again, not an unpleasant feeling, but then jumped off the tip again and into the drawer proper.

It opened not a moment later, roughly to the extent where I had decided it should open up to.

I quickly searched through it with my left hoof, then willed the next drawer open.

This repeated with me getting a hang of this magic thing with each new drawer I pulled open.

I opened the next dresser's drawers almost without thinking; just walked up to them and considered the drawers should open themselves in turn as I needed to rife through them.

"Actually," I pondered as I moved some underwear aside, "this would work so much better if I could just will the clothing out of the way as well."

I pulled forward the energy again, released it from the tip of my horn, and sent it into the underwear in question.

It flew up and out of the drawer and landed on the nearby bed, giving me a clear view of the space under them.

Now getting the hang of this magic thing, I went through the room at a much faster pace than the earlier ones and soon moved to the next.

No map there either, even if the dressers somewhat pulled themselves apart and deposited their contents on the beds they stood beside in my eagerness to get through them.

Onto the next room. And the next room.

I pranced out of the next room, happy as a clam that this magic thing wasn't all that difficult to grasp once you realised things just sort of did what you willed them to, and bumped into a tall horse's front leg.

"Careful now," Josey chuckled, taking a step aside while looking past me into the room and the mess I had made of it. "Having fun?"

I felt my cheeks flush as I gathered my wits about me, looking up at the taller mare and her taller horn.

"Ah, I... I think I'm getting the hang of this magic stuff," I replied.

"It certainly looks it. How are you manifesting it?" Josey wondered, lowering her head to my level.

"Er, I just sort of will the things to do something, like the clothing to jump out of the drawer and onto the bed so they're out of the way, and then there's this feeling of energy rushing into my horn and jumping off the tip of it," I explained as good as I could.

"Right," Josey stated with a slow nod. "That's most definitely the basics. I'm sure Spritelight can work with that."

"The basics," I repeated. "So how much more is there to it?"

Josey chuckled and motioned ahead to the next room. "Let's talk about it while searching the next room, hm?"

"Oh, right, sure, lead the way," I agreed, stammering a bit. "Say, you're... taller than the rest of us. Why?"

"Ah, because I'm a princess," Josey mumbled with a blush. "Not like I had much of any say in the matter, but here we are."

She turned for the door at the same time her magic jumped from her horn into it, the door swinging open before I had realised she was charging her horn.

"Wow, that was smooth," I realised.

"Supposedly I have quite a large amount of mana. It caught Celestia offguard as well," Josey mumbled, walking over to the far bed and its dresser.

I turned for the dresser nearer to the door and pulled the bottom drawer open with my magic.

"I see," Josey spoke, glancing in my direction. "You're commanding the items to do what you want them to do, aren't you? Even if you're not saying it out loud, you're making a demand of them in your mind."

I frowned at the suggestion. "No, I'm deciding they should do these things."

"That is what I said," Josey pointed out. "It should be enough to just expect the end result. Lose the in-between and you'll expend less energy."

She turned for the dresser before her and pulled the top drawer open, its contents instantly starting to drift up out of it and hover a few inches above it in the air.

I stared at this 'princess' at work. That was some show of magic prowess; I couldn't even detect the energy coming off her horn.

Josey's eyes lit up as I stared at her and a folded-up map freed itself from the rest of the items.

As the rest lowered themselves back into the drawer again and it slid closed, Josey moved the map in-between us and offered me a grin. "Definitely a map of Yellowstone National Park."

I shook my head at it all. "That was so smooth... The way you moved the clothes out, the map, putting it all back in again..."

"Ah, well, as I said; princess," Josey coughed uneasily. "Let's tell Sprite she can stop searching."

"Whatever you say princess," I agreed. "I'll have to talk with her about that magic training she promised. I can't wait to start on it."

"Oh, you know what?" Josey started, moving the map closer to me. "Hold onto this map with your magic."

I stared at her thinking she made a joke, but no; she looked serious about it.

"Er, how?" I asked, not sure whether I could figure that out on my own just yet.

"Just hold onto it with your magic," Josey repeated herself.

I focused on the map and considered for the first time in my life to just do what the authority figure told me to, mentally 'taking a hold' of the map.

Josey stared at me, lowering her head a little. "What are you doing right now, April?"

"I'm thinking about just holding onto the map," I offered back.

"Push that thought into your horn," Josey spoke gently, clearly trying to give me pointers.

I considered where my thoughts were; that gray mass in my skull which they call a brain.

Where was my horn? Attached to my skull and sticking out of my forehead.

So if I just push the thought of holding the map forward through my forehead, it would end up in my horn, right?

There was an immediate charge of energy drawing into my horn as I did, a red glow emanating from it.

"Good, good," Josey cooed at me. "That's one way of loading your horn with mana. Now just hold onto the map. I'm going to take my magic off it the second I feel you grab hold of it yourself, so keep holding on."

I once more focused on the map hovering in mid-air in front of me, and just 'held onto it' as instructed.

Josey's green glow surrounding the map mixed in with a new red glow which soon became the dominant color keeping the map afloat.

"You're doing it," the alicorn princess spoke softly. "Now keep holding it and take a step toward the door."

I did as instructed, my mind operating on a whole new level now magic was involved, and as I turned my head to the door the map moved as well, staying roughly in the same place and distance from my horn.

"Huh, that's convenient," I mumbled.

"Objects you manipulate with your magic will remain where you put them until you let go of them or move them somewhere else," Josey explained the obvious. "Let's go get Spritelight."

With the map found and Spritelight retrieved from the top floor, the three of us who searched the top floor went down again to the communal room to find Rainbow and Turkey still fast asleep.

Josey mentioned we too, should get a nap in at the very least but my suggestion that I'd do it upstairs in my bedroom was met with a wry smile from her.

"Don't forget you have transformed now; your body is heavier than your human body used to be. You might break through the bed if it's not strong enough," she warned.

I looked back at the sleeping pair of ponies; one on top of a table and one underneath it.

"Rainbow manages fine on the table? I would think my bed can take more weight?" I protested.

"Rainbow is a Pegasus," Spritelight scoffed. "They are a lot lighter than us Unicorns since they need to be able to fly. I could easily carry Turkey if I had to, but she would have a worse time if the situation was reversed."

"At least none of us are Earthponies; they bring more weight with them but have a lot of strength to make up for that," she concluded.

"Alicorns have a little of all three races in them, but I'm surprisingly light given my height," Josey chuckled. "The benefits of being a princess, I guess."

"So where do we sleep, if not in a bed?" I asked, looking around myself. "You don't intend for us to sleep on the ground?"

"Why not?" asked Spritelight, moving over to lie down on the ground next to Turkey to illustrate. "If you're wondering how to keep yourself warm; you've got fur. You're not a naked human."

"You could rest against me if you want?" Josey suggested, lying down herself. "My earthpony girlfriend Rhonda thinks I'm quite comfortable, I'll have you know."

I glanced between the pair of them, wondering what else my poor brain had to come to terms with before all this was over.

"I guess that's better than nothing," I mumbled. "Just don't look surprised if I kick you in my sleep or something if I have a nightmare."

"You won't," Josey answered with a surprising amount of certainty to her voice.

She changed her position a bit to make it clear where she wanted me to lie down myself, so I walked on over and lay where she indicated.

"How can you be so sure?" I asked, peering up at the princess.

Josey just smiled down at me and leaned down to peck a kiss on top of my head, in-between my ears. "Because our dreams are protected by princess Luna, my little pony. If you'll ever suffer a nightmare, you'll see for yourself."

I blinked at the reply, but the kiss on my head soothed me nonetheless.

Glancing over to Spritelight, she had already fallen asleep against 'her' Turkey. She looked peaceful enough, considering the circumstances.

I decided to get comfortable as well, closing my eyes.

"We'll fly for Yellowstone in the morning," Josey mumbled to herself. "I wonder what we'll find when we get there."

I wondered that as well.

Chapter 31, April 7

Our rest was too short, and the ground not nearly as comfortable as the bed I had wanted to sleep in.

My legs hurt, my eyes had crusts in them I didn't dare try to wipe from them with either hooves or magic, and the rain outside had not let up in the least bit.

Rainbow and Turkey were the only two out of the five of us who had more sleep than a few hours, and they were eager to get into the air.

I followed behind Spritelight as we filed up the stairs to get onto the roof again, my hooves feeling heavy as I moved them from step to step.

"At least we don't have to fly," Spritelight grumbled. "Might as well try to get a bit of extra rest in once we're in the basket."

"If it's more comfortable than the ground, I'm all for it," I agreed. "I don't think I should be learning more about magic while too tired to focus."

"No, you shouldn't," the other unicorn replied.

"Fortunately you have Equestria's Number One Flyer Rainbow Dash to get you safely to your destination," Rainbow Dash spoke, in much too excited a tone for my weary ears.

She paused on the landing before the last flight of stairs, letting Josey and Turkey head up to the roof before her.

"You two okay back there?" the blue pegasus with her rainbow mane and tail wondered as she watched us pull up the rear. "I could crawl faster than you two."

Spritelight snorted at her. "Why don't you focus that hot air on blowing up the balloon so we get airborne?"

"We only had two hours of sleep," I told Rainbow as I got up to her level. "I spent most of last night looking for a map with my mouth until I found out how my magic worked."

"So?" Rainbow asked curiously. "I frequently pick things up with my mouth as well."

"You probably learned not to lick random things when you were still a filly," Spritelight chuckled weakly while looking back in my direction.

I winced as I recalled some of the more... interesting of tastes from the various handles and items I had interacted with the other day.

"Yeah, make fun of the new pony," I snorted defiantly. "Not like there wasn't enough already to keep my brain occupied."

"Oh, well, you Earthians learn fast enough. I'm sure you'll be doing magic tricks like you were born that way soon enough," Rainbow trusted to me, a broad smile on her face.

"I appreciate the sentiment," I returned with a smile as I passed by her on the landing.

Rainbow followed after me as I trailed Spritelight onto the rooftop where Turkey and Josey were already preparing the balloon in the pouring rain.

The balloon was mostly just a big cloth bladder with a net around it which connected to the basket which usually dangled underneath it.

It was your typical hot air balloon with one change; there was no burner in the basket.

Instead of a gas-powered burner being used to put hot air into the bladder, Josey was using her magic to inflate the balloon.

Turkey's job was to make sure the ropes wouldn't get tangled into one another by fluttering around and pulling them into position.

Rainbow soon joined the effort, speeding past me and Spritelight again as she took flight, and I noticed that her control in the air was much smoother than that of the other pegasus.

I recalled hearing that Turkey and Josey both were in my position; former humans, but Turkey clearly had more trouble with her pony form than Josey did.

The princess had that royal air around her even if she kept being embarrassed when it was brought up. All of her movements were of a kind of grace which the other four of us sorely missed.

I could swear her green mane danced like a patch of long grass moving in the wind when she moved her head this way or that. It was almost magical to see.

Spritelight bumped my right shoulder with her own, having doubled back when she noticed I stood staring.

"Hey. Focus. We need to get that balloon filled, so I need you to listen and follow my instructions," she demanded as she looked at me from under her bright blue mane.

It was flattening against her skull now it was rained down upon again, much the same as my red mane, although hers showed the effects of the rain more.

I looked into her yellow eyes and perked my ears up. "What do you need me to do?"

Spritelight turned and motioned her head in the direction of the balloon, sending some moisture flying off the tip of her horn from the motion.

"You see how Josey is heating up the air as she forces it into the balloon?" she pointed out, "It's a good exercise to get you in control of your magic while on the rooftop. If you can muster the focus to help out, we'll be in the air sooner rather than later."

"I think I could try, if nothing else?" I suggested as a reply, following her as she cantered off to where Josey stood.

"If you think you're losing control of your magic for any reason, aim your horn away from anything important. Just look up at that damn sky and the eyes in it. Better to pop one or two of those than anything else," Spritelight warned.

"Right," I answered, trying not to slip on the wet rooftop. "Look up at the sky if I think I'm losing control."

"Now, just remember how you found that map. Put focus on what you want your magic to do and send it out through your horn. In this case; we want it to fill up with air which is warmer than the air surrounding it," the unicorn explained.

"Easy enough in this cold rain," Josey remarked, her horn's green glow making the blood on her face look infected, shaking her wings a bit to get the wetness off them. "Just think of a warm summer's day or something."

"Not hot, but warm," Spritelight added as her own horn started to glow a light blue as she moved to stand next to the taller Josey.

I felt the wind pick up as Spritelight's magic joined Josey's and moved to stand next to them as well, focusing on my own magic.

"Warm air, move warm air into the balloon," I mumbled to myself, feeling that strange sensation of an almost electric force pour up out of my forehead and into my horn.

Nothing happened; there was just energy into my horn, charging it up, making this red glow come off it.

I wondered if I shouldn't feel it connect to something? Like the sensation of my magic grabbing hold of particles in the air or maybe the wind picking up more like with Spritelight, and turned to her to ask.

"Don't look at me with a charged horn," she warned quickly as she noticed me start to turn my head. "Aim it up in the air and discharge or pull that energy back in first!"

Josey peered sideways at me as I turned my head upward and tried to figure out how to release the energy from my horn while more was seeping into it.

"...how?" I finally gasped, the building pressure in my horn starting to feel uncomfortable to me.

"What do you mean 'how'?" Spritelight gasped in exasperation. "Just let go of it!"

Josey turned her head to face me and I noticed a gentle tug from an unseen hand at my horn.

"Turn it into a ball and set it on its way," she spoke over Spritelight's back. "I'll take the energy from you once you release it so it won't do harm."

That honestly felt comforting to know, and I just balled all the energy from my horn up and set it on its way like it was a ball I was throwing in PE class.

My red magic impacted with Josey's and this small red orb coming out of the tip of my horn was held in place as it grew... and grew...

Spritelight's own horn stopped glowing as she turned her head to look in my direction.

The red and green ball of energy just kept growing as my horn unloaded into the protected space created by Josey's magic, quickly going past the size of a tennis ball to that of a basket ball.

"What," Spritelight started, flatly.

"That's a little more magic than I thought you had in you," Josey coughed, intensifying her hold.

I just kept looking up at the tip of my horn and the small sun that grew out of it.

"Send it up, Josey," Spritelight suggested, her ears flattening against her head. "Need me to help out?"

"I got it, I got it," Josey threw back, her horn sparking as the green glow of her magic enveloped the red above my head.

I finally noticed the pressure dissipating from my horn and the ball of energy detached from the tip, now the size of four to five feet in diameter.

"Oof, I'm spent," I breathed, sitting down on my rear as the lightshow started to ascend upward.

Josey was obviously straining herself as she forced this mess of red and green energy up. "A little push, Sprite?"

Spritelight's blue glow hit the bottom of the orb not a moment after the question was uttered and it finally started to rise up properly, rising faster and faster until Josey let go of it.

"And go!" she exclaimed, to which the Unicorn between us also stopped pushing.

The three of us watched as the orb made from my magic ascended up to the flesh-covered heavens and the many eyes in it, all of them turning to look at it as it approached them.

It finally hit between two of the eyes, erupted in a bright flash, and then a pressure wave descended back down toward us.

"Turkey, Rainbow, land!" Spritelight called out, even as Josey's magic erected a dome-shaped shield over the rooftop.

The pressure wave hit the dome, and my ears popped from the sensation even as I fell to the roof proper, covering my head with my forelegs as best I could.

It was over as fast as it had begun, and I dared to look up again to spot Rainbow and Turkey having landed roughly in the same spot, holding onto one another for comfort.

Josey's green dome disappeared again as her horn stopped glowing, and I noticed her and Spritelight looking startled up at the sky.

I followed suit and found a sizeable hole in the fleshy firmament; several demonic eyes having disappeared to make way for sunbeams pouring in through the gap, the edge of which several miles across and singed as if the flesh had been cauterized.

"If that's the power of an untrained Earth-born Unicorn," Spritelight gasped, "...then what power does an Earth-born Alicorn hide?"

Josey shook her head at the thought. "I haven't used my full power yet, so don't ask me."

"And you're telling me you need to use a mana well to use even more energy to fix the damages between worlds?" the unicorn breathed out in full respect to the meaning of her words.

"Uh-huh," Josey agreed, finally looking down and toward me with her green eyes as small as they could be. "Now I'm starting to get an idea of how Celestia and Luna can control the sun and moon..."

Chapter 32, April 8

Josey's muttering about Luna and Celestia went right past me; I just felt tired and a little overwhelmed by it all again.

"So, I don't know how I did -that-," I coughed uneasily, "but I couldn't get my magic to connect to the air and... well, it just loaded up on my horn until it got painful."

"You have too few magic users in your world," Spritelight snorted, regaining her composure. "That must be it; nopony is using the latent magical energy your world builds up on its own, so when somepony attuned to it starts to use it they get overwhelmed. It's the only explanation."

Josey's pupils grew to their regular size again and she tilted her head at Spritelight. "Yet you haven't felt anything off about the magic in this world since you arrived here?"

"I'm not attuned to," Spritelight started.

"Aren't you though?" Josey cut into the excuse. "You went around for months transforming people into ponies. Wouldn't that get you more attuned to this world from one day to the next?"

"Well, I did have a nasty headache throughout," the unicorn defended herself. "It could have been caused by something like that..."

I reached up to rub at the left side of my horn. "So too much magic around us? Not my fault?"

"Oh no, you're not evading the blame for that hole in the sky that easily," Spritelight decided, turning on me again.

Josey sighed and flopped her left wing over the other's head, obscuring her view.

"Ignore Spritelight for a moment. What you said; you couldn't find your magic connect? Our magic is an energy; you just have to excite the atoms, so to speak," the Alicorn explained to me.

"I told her that," Spritelight protested from under the other's wing, trying to find her way out. "In any case, we should get airborne soon. Take your wing off me already."

"She didn't say anything about exciting atoms though," I pointed out, "but I'm honestly too tired to try again for now..."

"That's fine, I'll fill the balloon with Sprite here," Josey trusted to me, finally pulling her wing up from the unicorn again. "Let's get back to it."

Rainbow and Turkey had picked themselves up as well and had wandered on over.

"I'm on it, Turkey can take care of April for a moment," the blue pegasus with rainbow hair decided before zooming off to redo the ropes which had become entangled again from the pressure wave.

Turkey approached me carefully, looking at me with some worry on her face. "I'm so glad I'm not a unicorn... how do you deal with that amount of force?"

I looked her over, her mane, coat, and wings as drenched by the blood rain as my own mane and fur.

"Same to you with the wings, I guess," I threw back, stifling a yawn a moment later. "I don't know, I just follow their instructions. It's a lot of grasping at straws, honestly."

"You could have said you're just winging it, like me?" Turkey suggested. "It would have been a good pun."

"I've had two hours of sleep last night, if that much," I reminded her. "Thinking is not in the cards right now."

"Right, sorry," the pegasus apologized. "There's a lot of faking involved, isn't there? This whole thing, I mean?"

I stared up in her rose coloured eyes. "Faking?"

"The whole 'doing okay' thing. You're not, I can see that," Turkey pressed.

"Oh," I returned. I looked down at my forehooves, firmly planted on the wet rooftop. "I guess it's... a lot."

"I know what you mean," the other pony offered in empathy. "Then again, I am older than you and have had more time to think about my place in life. This... is turning a new leaf for me, and I can't look a gift horse in the mouth."

My right ear flicked at the pun, and when I turned my eyes up to face her again she was all smiles.

"Pony," I corrected her, motioning my head in Josey's direction. "She's more like a horse than the both of us stacked on top of one another."

"As long as I'm on top when we try; I'm lighter than you," Turkey offered back with a grin. "You're right, though. I would have expected to be taller than, what, two... three feet?"

"Roughly. I haven't had a measuring tape on han... hoof," I caught myself.

"Yeah, they're some getting used to. I have to say the wings are not as bothersome as I thought they would be. Even if I have to take care to preen them regularly," the pegasus suggested.

"How does it feel?" I asked, motioning at the nearest edge of the rooftop and the empty sky past it.

"It feels stupid," Turkey started, her expression turning to a more serious one. "Like, you're basically constantly falling. Pull your wings in and you'll dive. Tilt them this way or that and you'll turn in the sky or crash into something. It's stupid."

I looked down again. "Oh, I'm sorry to..."

"But also? I'm a goddamned pegasus mare! I can fly to my heart's content and... well," her voice softened to a conspiratorial whisper, "I didn't used to be a girl before, but I can't say I hate that either."

"Right," I started, my brain slow to respond. "...how did that work exactly?"

"What do you mean?" the pegasus wondered, tilting her head slightly. "We both transformed much the same way; we met Spritelight, she sent her magic into us, and we became the ponies we truly were inside of ourselves all along. What part confuses you?"

"You used to be a guy?" I pointed out.

"Yes, what about it?" Turkey asked, sitting her rump down in a pool of red water.

"You can't tell me you were a girl inside all along? That's not right. God doesn't make mistakes," I put forward, knowing how my parents thought about those things.

"Well, God didn't cast magic upon me, now did she? That was Spritelight. If it was God's plan to have me walk around as a dusty old human guy, then I'm sure she would have interfered already," Turkey reasoned.

She turned her head up to look at the sky above. "So far all I see from God's side is a whole lot of nothing. Those light beams up there pouring in through the hole in the meat? That was you, not some faceless deity."

I looked up at the hole as well, noting the burnt edges were slowly healing and growing closer together again.

Turkey put her attention back to me. "All I've seen from God throughout my life was a whole lot of neglect. Spritelight has taken me under her proverbial wing ever since we met. I trust in her explanation of how her magic works."

I scrunched up my nose, my ears moving a bit on my head as I turned it back down to face the pegasus before me.

She was right, in a way; God had not spoken to me or shown any sign that He cared about me all through my life going to church with my parents, praying at bedtime, or even here at the boarding school.

I had been slowly sliding down a slope going from little princess who was given everything she could possibly ask for to moody teenager they'd rather get rid of.

I prayed so much for my parents to understand me and the things I asked of them, but to no avail; I still ended up getting whisked away to this boarding school.

Religion had done nothing for me so far, nor for the rest of my family who had been praying for their own private reasons.

On the flip side, Spritelight and Josey had thrown my world entirely upside down; transforming myself and everyone I knew into ponies as they had.

They showed fantastical abilities I could have only dreamt witnessing or being able to use myself before my transformation.

And Josey especially did so with a caring smile, speaking for her good nature and loving heart. Spritelight was more dismissive, but still tried.

I could see where Turkey was coming from, and that scared me. It reminded me of the warnings of the devil coming in many guises to make you stray from your path.

"It's a bit of humanity you're clinging to, isn't it?" Turkey asked, noticing my expression as I was deeply in thought.

"Sorry, what is?" I asked, snapped out of my ponderings.

"Your religion. You probably grew up in a religious household so you don't want to betray your folks, am I right?" the pegasus pressed.

"No, I mean... Yes, but my parents put me in here to get rid of me anyway, it's not like I owe them anything," I threw back.

Turkey's ears drooped and she shook her head slowly. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sure they tried their best in their own way... I mean, I'm sure you're getting a decent education here that will last you through your life?"

"What good is that education going to do me as a pony?" I returned.

Turkey stretched her wings out and shrugged. "I don't know, maybe there's a way for us to go to that Equestria Spritelight has been talking about, live the rest of our lives there? Maybe we'd find a spot here to live as ponies? Maybe we'll get turned back eventually... I don't know the future. You might find more use for your education than you think right now."

"That's not very helpful," I snorted.

"At least I'm trying to look forward, that's something," the pegasus decided, looking me straight in the eyes. "You shouldn't worry so much."

"If there's something to your belief in God, then hang on to it. If you don't have that, hang on to something else," she decided, then winked at me. "Just don't hang on to me while I'm in flight; I have enough trouble as it is keeping up with Dash over there without someone else weighing me down more."

I glanced over to where Rainbow Dash was, noting the balloon was almost fully inflated now and the ropes dangling down from it to the basket were pulling taut.

Rainbow was flying around the balloon, poking it with her hooves to get the air to smoothen the bladder out properly while Spritelight and Josey continued filling the thing with warm air from below.

"Oh, well, it looks like I'll be sharing a basket with Spritelight anyway," I returned to Turkey, leaning into the joke now we were off the subject of religion. "No hanging off you yet."

"Yeah, pulling that rope is enough of a strain as it is. I'm fine with that. Josey's larger wings and Rainbow Dash's experience just makes me the weakest link is all," Turkey chuckled.

"You keep up well enough," Josey finally piped up, giving a smile in the pegasus' direction. "I'm cheating by being an Alicorn, I'm sure."

"I'm just glad I don't have to try to keep up with you flyers," Spritelight remarked, the glow of her horn pulling away. "You can do the last bit right Josey?"

"Yep," the princess agreed. "You and April should get in the basket and get comfortable. It's a few hours flight still. I had expected the wall of flesh to be here by now, but it looks like we can take it a little slower and still arrive in time."

"Not too slow, I hope. We don't know where that mana well is for you to tap in to. We might find it at the bottom of a cavern or something," the unicorn pointed out before turning toward me and Turkey.

"Are you both also ready to go? No charge in your horn which you need to shoot up at the sky again? Your wings doing okay Turkey dear?" Spritelight wondered, addressing us in turn.

"I'm ready to fly at a moment's notice," Turkey agreed, getting up on all fours.

I followed suit and shook my head at Spritelight, deliberately turning my head in her direction.

"Nope, my horn is all empty. I just have a very minor existential crisis thanks to a certain pegasus, that's all," I joked, glancing at Turkey.

"Turkey said nothing wrong; I stood right here listening with a half ear," Spritelight decided. "Your religion is backwards compared to what we have in Equestria. We at least know our Gods; they walk among us. Can you say the same?"

"Spritelight, come on now," Josey protested. "Just because someone believes something you don't doesn't mean you have to be nasty like that."

"You've seen the other Princesses and Discord. Am I wrong?" Spritelight threw back. "We can reach them and ask them for help any time. Praying to something that might or might not be there is ridiculous."

"If she needs her faith to feel good about life and her place within it, then I think she should hold onto it," Turkey threw in the mix. "I spoke before my turn earlier. I'm sure that God is looking down upon April if she needs her."

"Him, The Lord," I mumbled. "I don't know why you keep saying her and she."

"I honestly love the idea of a Mother Gaia protecting the Earth and us upon it," Turkey revealed. "I'm sorry, this is what I mean with speaking before my turn."

"Yes, remind me to teach you some manners when this is all over and done with," Spritelight chuckled. "I'm abducting you to Equestria no matter what happens, just so you know."

"Well, that's my future sorted," Turkey laughed brightly. "We'll see what happens."

I glanced between the pair of them again. "You're acting like an old couple and it's both endearing and concerning."

"Why concerning?" asked Turkey, while Spritelight at the same time went "Why endearing?"

They stared at one another, then laughed at the different priorities between them.

"That's why," I pointed out.

"Okay, okay, let's get in the basket already, you two," Josey interjected. "The balloon's about ready to take it up in the air."

"Yes, let's," Spritelight agreed, moving toward the basket before me. "Can you climb in yourself or do I need to lift you?"

I felt my ears flatten against my head at the joke, but as I approached the basket it looked like an ordeal to get in on my own. "I guess I could use a boost..."

Light blue magic enveloped me and lifted me from the ground, most of the lift centering itself around my chest, and I was unceremoniously dropped into the basket a moment after.

Spritelight lifted herself on over immediately after and settled next to me in the somewhat cramped basket, her right hip pressing against my left.

"Passengers loaded up, let's take flight!" she called out to the flying team.

Chapter 33, April 9

I shifted a little to make more room in the basket, watching the other unicorn's horn glow a light blue again and feeling the rush of warm air rising up from around the basket to push into the balloon above us more.

"Don't worry about your magic during the trip; I said I'd train you, but we'd have to start with energy conservation first," Spritelight told me with a sideways glance.

"Energy conservation?" I wondered, peering over the edge of the basket to where the other three were looping ropes around their shoulders and forehooves so they could pull us once in the air.

"Yes; it won't do to overload your horn like that. You only ever need a small amount of magic to do common everyday tasks, after all," Spritelight explained calmly.

"Ah," I returned as the balloon set in motion with a light jerk. "I didn't mean to, honestly. I had no problem using my magic yesterday while Josey and me were looking for the map, but that was because it connected to objects when I thought about them. How do you grab at air?"

"You don't," the other sighed. "We told you to warm up the air around you; it's more like sending a vibration into the space around you than trying to grab at something as small as air particles."

"While it's certainly possible, given enough training," she continued, the magic glow around her horn fading out, "it takes years to get to that point. You have heaters in this world, right? Of course you do. They don't grab hold of the air they're warming up either, do they?"

"No," I agreed. "They get warm themselves and the air flows by them naturally."

"Convection, yes. Warm air rises," Spritelight agreed. "You should think of it that way. Josey was surprisingly fast on learning how to control the flow of air, and I've been studying magic all my life. You don't have a hope catching up to either of us if you don't grasp the mechanics behind it."

There was that dig again. She kept doing that, I had noticed; tried to be nice and uplifting, only for then to tag on something which made it seem like it was not worth it.

"Why do you keep doing that? Putting others down, I mean? You're nice one moment, and dismissive the next?" I pointed out, and Spritelight shifted her weight a bit before looking at me.

"I'm not being dismissive," she denied flatly.

"You are though. What's that about not even trying to catch up? It's like you don't think I'm capable," I snorted. "And earlier you were giving off on Christianity like it didn't matter that half the world believes in it. Just because you apparently have gods walking among you doesn't mean our religion is less important to us."

"Well, your planet is so backwards compared to Equestria, is all," Spritelight mumbled dismissively.

"In what way?" I pressed. "Why are we using a balloon which is getting pulled through the air by the others when we could just as well have taken a plane?"

"Do you have a plane on you?" Spritelight demanded, frowning at me. "Do you know how to fly it? Can it take off from that rooftop we were on?"

I frowned back. "Well, no, but..."

"What good is your technology if you can't use it?" the Equestrian unicorn decided. "Our magic is inside of us, always at the ready. We learn to control it from a young age and then it's ours to do with as we please."

"I came into your world trying to help fix those wars that are ongoing on your planet. There's no hope for your future if you keep destroying one another," Spritelight sighed, her expression darkening. "There's too much grief in this place. Not enough kindness."

I stared at her, finally starting to get a hint at the full picture which led to my eventual transformation. "So you did something to cause this."

"Well, yeah, that's the short of it," she agreed with a sigh. "Turns out the magic I'm using to turn you all into ponies was banned for a good reason."

"So why do you keep transforming people?" I wondered, shaking my head at her. "If you know it's bad magic, why not stop doing it?"

"Because the wall of flesh will consume all human life on this planet if we don't stop it and I can't in good conscience leave a group of humans behind when I had to rest in their midst, and Josey agrees with me on that," she threw back.

I stared.

"If we have to evacuate the people of your world anywhere, the only place which is safe for them is Equestria," Spritelight continued. "I can't just throw a bunch of humans into my homeworld. They wouldn't survive in our society without first becoming ponies."

"...why not?" I asked, not getting the big deal.

"Because we need a wholly different diet than you humans do, our homes are made smaller because we are smaller. We don't have the resources to take care of humans," she explained. "We might end up having to put them all out in a field somewhere and let them fend for themselves. And that would have given the Changelings a chance to transform them instead, which would destabilise Equestria."

"I don't understand... you're doing fine over here in our world. You had no trouble making breakfast using our kitchen," I pointed out. "Why not just do that but in reverse for humans?"

"I did," Spritelight sighed, nudging my left shoulder. "I turned you all into ponies so you could all be taken care of by your peers; earthponies by earthponies, pegasi by pegasi, and us unicorns by unicorns. It's far easier than having to figure out how to cater to humans."

"How??? How is it easier?!?" I decried.

Spritelight looked away at my outburst. "It just is. Don't... I'm using blood magic to help out. It's not like I'm doing this for fun or because I intended to destroy our worlds or anything."

I forced myself to calm down and consider her situation.

She was clearly from a different world, theirs as alien to ours as we were to them.

She made a decision to help us, however misguided it ended up being, and went around doing what she thought was right.

...and had brought forth the end of days in the process.

I lowered my ears and sighed. "There's so much of this I don't know the full story behind... so much that makes no sense... and you being dismissive of my faith, however much I'm doubting it myself, doesn't really help when you, yourself, came here on faith."

"Well, no, I wouldn't call it that," Spritelight protested.

I closed my eyes and leaned my chin against the edge of the basket. "So what do you call it when you just go to a different world to change it without knowing exactly what's going on there? I would call that faith. Maybe not religion, but faith nonetheless."

It was quiet for a brief moment, only the pelting blood rain and wind passing by the balloon as we drifted through the air in the direction of Yellowstone, but then she snorted.

"Okay, maybe I took a leap of faith with this, I can see that," the other unicorn finally decided. "But, tell me; doesn't your world need outside help? You've been at war with one another for so long. All your previous efforts to stop it have been for naught. What about poverty? Famine? Disease? Equestria could help out so much."

"I don't know. I'm just a teenager," I threw back. "But I'd think you could have reached out to the world's governments or something... get diplomatic relations going or such."

"And they would have driven their tanks into Equestria through whatever portal we set up, no thanks," Spritelight grumbled.

I considered her words, opening my left eye to glance at her.

"How would you even know about our situation here? I didn't know about this Equestria place you keep talking about until you dropped out of the sky yesterday," I asked.

"I found documents describing humans visiting our world before, way in the past," Spritelight revealed, shifting her weight a little to get more comfortable. "They mentioned a world called Earth, so I dug deeper."

"The archives at the royal palace in Canterlot only go back so far. A lot of tomes from before its founding are still missing or misplaced. So I went to the palace of the two sisters in the hope of finding more information," she continued.

"I don't know either of those places, or their history," I reiterated.

Spritelight turned her head to study me. "Right, I should simplify it even more. There are written books and scrolls hidden in our world which describe yours, in surprising detail if you can translate the old language used."

"I went from place to place to find them, piecing together that our worlds were once one and the same before something split them apart," she listed. "The documents spoke of a connection existing even after the split, with a mirror allowing one to view the other realm at will in order to do teleconferences with those left on the other side."

I turned my head to face her proper. "A mirror?"

"Yes, it was conveniently located in Canterlot, our main capital, so I headed there next and found the mirror," the other unicorn explained with a surprising amount of patience. "When I activated it, I was met with the most horrendous images I had ever seen; death and destruction all around. I will spare you the details."

"Yes please, we got enough of that on the news already," I agreed.

"It made me realise the worlds were out of balance; Equestria is mostly a harmonious place where everypony can live in peace with each other and their surroundings," she reiterated. "Some small exceptions remain, but nothing as bad as over here."

"So you're a utopia, got it," I yawned. "Sorry, I am just tired, not bored."

"Lean into me if you need to; we can't exactly lie down in this basket," Spritelight offered, smiling weakly. "I tried pleading with our rulers; princesses Celestia and Luna, to try and make a difference here, but they didn't even entertain the thought that Earth was a different place from ours. They still don't, given how Josey said it was just Councillor Puddinghead's name for what is now Canterlot."

Spritelight got a thoughtful look on her face, even as I dared to lean sideways into her soft form.

"I still think they're wrong. There might have been two Earths, but this one could still have been linked to Equestria," she mumbled more to herself than me. "Took me months to find the right spell to open a portal to go see for myself. That one was hidden in the Crystal Empire, next to a scroll describing blood magic. I simply had to read it while I was there."

I closed my eyes and gave a small nod. "Uh-huh... got to do that learning no matter what world you're in, huh?"

"Yes, blood magic is a very different kind of magic from what we unicorns use normally," the other kept going on, not caring that I was slowly drifting off.

Her words started to bleed together as she continued into an explanation of the differences between using the natural energy we stored inside ourselves or the lifeforce of our surroundings or something... I was too tired.

Tired, wet from the blood rain, and a little cold from the wind passing by as we travelled through the air, I leaned in more against her warm pony body and sought comfort in her presence.

The light shaking of the basket definitely helped me to drift off, like a crib being gently rocked by a parent.

Spritelight's words became a murmur, the red light of the apocalyptic sky darkened, and I was out.

Chapter 34, April 10

I was walking through a costume shop with my best friend, looking for costumes for the both of us for Halloween.

"Oh, this is a cute one," she exclaimed, pointing to a rack on our left.

I turned to look at where she was pointing only to find a turkey suit for sale; mostly made from a leotard with large fabric feathers stuck to it to create a mockery of the feathered body, wings, and tail. A pair of tights, shoecovers, and a mask were included.

"Do you think they need to sell overstock from Thanksgiving?" I asked in reply. "I couldn't see either of us dressed up like a turkey. Let's continue on."

"Psh, you're in a fowl mood today," Light complained, taking a sip of her Sprite.

"Careful or I'll let the store owner know you're drinking soda in here," I grumbled. "You could've bought a bottle instead of a can; you can close the lid on those."

"Bah, the can was cheaper. How about this pony outfit for you?" she wondered, motioning to a display on our right.

I turned to face the display and looked over the outfit; it was a light blue full body pony suit which would cover both arms and legs.

It featured an expressive mask with big jade green eyes set under a red mane, which also showed in the tail attached to the rear of the suit.

A unicorn horn peeked out from the mask's forehead, covered in the same light blue fur as the body.

"It would be perfect for you," Light pressed. "Why don't you try it on?"

I turned to her to suggest she should be the one to try such a pony outfit if she liked it so much, only to lose balance and fall forward onto my hooves as I did.

I shook my head at the vertigo from falling down in that fashion, noting the red mane flicking about and the blue horn sweeping through the air as it stuck out from my forehead.

A quick glance back revealed I was now wearing the pony suit I had looked at only moments ago.

No, I realized with horror as my tail flicked behind me; I was the pony suit!

"See? You look amazing like that," Light... no, Spritelight commented, and as I turned my attention back to face her I saw the familiar silver-grey unicorn with her light blue mane and yellow eyes stand opposite me on her own four hooves.

"Oh, we're going to get so much candy this coming Nightmare Night. There's no way that Nightmare Moon will gobble us up now," the other pony giggled merrily.

"I... what," I started, looking down as I felt liquid rising up around my hooves.

"Let's go show our parents! I'm sure they'll be thrilled as well," Spritelight suggested unabated, turning tail and running out of the aisle to disappear to the right.

I tried to set myself in motion to follow behind, but the liquid rising around my ankles sucked onto my hooves as if they were embedded in quick-hardening rubber cement.

"Spritelight? Hey, what's going on? Don't leave me here?!" I called out, even as the costumes around me started to shift and come to life.

Their fake faces grinned down upon me while their eyes started to glow, various characters extending their hands or claws toward me as they approached.

"ENOUGH!" a booming female voice called out, and the costumes around me shuddered in place, looking frightened.

A tall blue Alicorn walked into view from an aisle to my left, her blue mane dancing around her head as if wind was blowing through it and her tail doing much the same.

I watched as this unfamiliar pony stepped closer, her long horn glowing in the same tone of blue as her mane, her blue eyes aflame with a fury I had never seen before.

"This nightmare ends now!" she demanded, her voice ringing out through the aisle we were both in.

I involuntarily flattened my ears against my head from the sound of her voice.

The wetness around my legs pulled away while the costumes on either side returned to their former inanimate state.

I looked around me as the store's lights increased in intensity, intensifying the colors around me as if a blacklight shone upon them.

The blue alicorn took another few steps closer to me, the fire in her eyes pulling away at the same time as her horn stopped glowing.

Now she was standing closer to me I could see specks of light in her mane, which was still moving as if wind passed through it.

It almost looked like a starry night's sky...

"Are you okay April dear?" the horse asked, in a surprisingly gentle motherly tone.

I peered up at her taller stature with great confusion. "How do you know my name? What... what is going on?"

"You are asleep, April. You were having a nightmare, perhaps spurred on by the events of the past day?" she explained. "I am Luna, and it is my task to care for every pony in their dreams. You can call upon me any time you have a nightmare."

Luna. That name was familiar to me. It was mentioned before, by Spritelight and Josey...

"Oh!" I realised with some shock. "The Equestrian princess from... Canterlot, was it?"

Luna smiled down at me and gave a slow nod. "Yes, you are correct. I am the princess of the night and reside in Canterlot with my sister Celestia, who herself rules the day."

"Spritelight and Josey mentioned you both, but... how are you here?" I wondered, looking around myself a moment after. "For what that's worth; where -is- here?"

Luna spread her wings out and pointed them up behind her like I had seen Josey do before.

"I rule over the night, April," she explained once again. "I am tasked with caring for everypony in their dreams. I am there when you have good dreams, and I am there to fight off nightmares. This obviously counted as the latter."

I nodded slowly as her words finally reached me proper, then looked back at myself. "I'm... still a pony."

"Yes," Luna agreed.

"I wasn't one when the dream started," I pointed out, looking back up at her.

"You fell asleep as a pony," she countered.

I frowned. "Yes, but... I was a human again for a brief spell..."

Luna slowly shook her head at me, leaning her head down to my level. "Please accept I don't intend to cause you grief, but you were not. The human appearance you had when the dream started was as much a costume as those hanging around us right now."

I swallowed strongly as the princess denied me even that small thing.

"But... I never wanted to be a pony," I threw back while tears welled up in my eyes. "I never chose this."

Luna looked at me with a surprising amount of sympathy in her eyes. "You can shape your dream to appear human again if you really wish, but you know as well as I; you are not human right now."

"...how do you know that? Why can't I be?" I protested, warm tears starting to leak down my fuzzy cheeks.

"Because if you were a human, I would not have been able to enter your dreams," the princess of the night explained calmly. "I am a pony princess and may only rule over other ponies. And I am here for you, for as long as you are a pony."

Her horn glowed blue again and a paper tissue floated through the air toward me.

I sort of automatically tried to grab hold of it with my left hand, but stopped it in mid-air as I noticed the hoof reaching up instead.

The reality hit me and I sank through all four of my hooves, pulling my forelegs up to cover my eyes as I started to bawl in earnest.

Luna sat down in front of me in the costume shop aisle while I cried my eyes out, close enough by that I could feel her presence even without opening my eyes, but far enough away that she was not touching me or intruded upon my personal space.

I cried over having lost my humanity, the way everybody else was just whisked away to safety while I was left behind to deal with the four ponies which had descended upon the school.

The obvious endtimes playing out, the weird radio message, the headmistress opting to do the unthinkable.

I cried until I could not cry anymore, and slowly became aware of a soothing melody being hummed as I did.

With my emotions calming down, I felt my ears perk up from their flattened position and the humming instantly became more profound even if it was soft and gentle.

I rubbed at my eyes with my ankles, opening my eyes to Luna calmly watching me, waiting until I had regained control of myself.

She was the source of the humming, the melody simple but foreign, soothing but unfamiliar.

She smiled warmly at me as I looked up at her in mild confusion, feeling so vulnerable before her.

Here she was, one of those alicorns like Josey, a princess of Equestria, inside my dream.

While she was calm and caring right now, she had come in with a fury I had not witnessed before; forcing the nightmarish scene I found myself in out of the way.

She was as powerful as Josey, if not more so. Yet here she was, simply humming a melody to me in a clear effort to comfort me.

I sniffled a bit to clear my airways. "Why... why do you care?" I had to ask.

Luna raised an eyebrow, stopping her humming. "I told you twice before; I am the princess of the night. I am tasked with caring for everypony in their dreams. To aid them when they have a nightmare."

I started to get the idea now, simple as it seemed. "So, because I'm a pony now... you automatically care for me?"

"You are not mistaken," Luna chuckled weakly. "Then again, I have been more worried about you former humans coming to terms with being ponies now than I have with those in Equestria who were already born as such."

My turn to raise an eyebrow. "How so?"

"Some of your peers aren't taking it half as well as you," the alicorn revealed. "You at least are calm enough to start asking questions."

"Others have not been for days after," she continued with a sad expression. "It has been a gargantuan task to help them find peace with the current situation."

I rubbed my left hoof at my left cheek a bit in an effort to get the wetness out of my fur. "I wonder why..."

"Sarcasm doesn't suit you," the princess remarked. "I have been assured Spritelight had her reasons, however misguided, to turn you all into ponies the way she did. I had nothing to do with that. I simply try to help those ponies in my care to the best of my abilities."

I put my forehooves on the ground and pushed up to a sitting position so I could look at Luna at the same level as her while she was still lying down.

"Where do you even begin?" I asked, shaking my head. "The end of days have come and our humanity was stolen from us. Being able to do magic now barely makes up for it."

Luna sighed and nodded at my words. "You are right, but I am not the one responsible. I am here to help you with your nightmares and to listen to your grief. There's little I can do to change your situation; it was done with a forbidden magic I don't have access to."

I tried to recall what it was that Spritelight was talking about as I was falling asleep. "Spritelight talked about how... regular magic uses the energy we store inside ourselves. Energy drawn from the world around us."

"Yes," the alicorn agreed. "The latent energy of the world we live in pulls into us as we walk upon it. This is a natural thing true for all forms of life. We breathe it in, and release it back into the world again just the same if we don't use it."

I paid more attention as she was saying similar things Josey and Spritelight had mentioned about our magic.

"Unicorns and alicorns like myself can tap into this constant ebb and flow and focus the energy into our horns, as you well know," Luna continued as her horn started to glow blue again.

I looked up at the tip of my own horn and then at hers. "She mentioned something about blood magic using the other's energy, not our own? If I heard it right, that is; I was almost asleep at that point."

The princess looked thoughtful at that, but then slowly nodded. "Yes, that would make it a forbidden magic. Even as I am here now, in your dream, it is my own energy I use."

She shook her head with some amount of disgust flashing over her features. "To use another's energy without their permission, it is an intrusion upon them which even I won't entertain."

"Not even in my darkest of nights have I considered usurping the power of another like that," Luna continued, her face darkening.

There was more to that story than she was telling me. A sadness, a deep regret.

If even the supposed gods of Equestria were dealing with problems, then how small were mine in comparison?

Chapter 35, April 11

Luna quickly collected herself again. "Enough about blood magic. How are you feeling April?"

I considered the openness with which she had answered my questions, the care she had shown in trying to comfort me, and took a deep breath.

"I'm... less bothered by being a pony right now than I am about the apocalypse to come," I suggested carefully. "Blood magic or no, I barely have control over it. I don't know if Josey is going to be able do anything against what's in the sky, even if I blew a hole in it myself."

That caught Luna's attention. "You blew a hole in the sky?"

"Well, in the flesh which covers the firmament right now," I corrected myself. "I lost control of my magic because I was just loading it into my horn without it having anywhere to go to, so Josey told me to send it flying up to the sky."

"So this giant ball of red energy ascended up to the demonic eyes up there and then exploded with a shockwave which forced Josey to set up a protective shield around us while Turkey and Rainbow had to land for their safety," I continued.

"When we looked back up there was a hole in the flesh ceiling several miles across, with the sun shining in from behind it," I finished, noting Luna's pupils had become smaller as I talked, just like Josey's had when she observed it happening.

"Pardon me," she started, looking me over, "but how much energy did you load into your horn?"

"Er... enough to make it feel like it was about to crack?" I suggested. "I don't know how to measure that."

Luna's ears fell flat and her mane stopped flowing like wind was passing through it. "...you have a recently born alicorn with a natural affinity for magic and a unicorn who has been using magic at an expert level since she was a foal among you. Did nopony tell you how to restrain yourself?"

I shrugged at that. "Not exactly, no? We've been busy with other things. They just said 'if you feel like you're losing control of your magic, aim it into the sky before you let go of it' and left it at that."

The princess shook her head. "I will have to have some words with them next I see either of them. There should be no event where you'd charge yourself to such an extent."

"Then what would you have done? I had loaded up too much energy into my horn and had nowhere else for it to go," I protested.

Luna tilted her head to the side while her starry mane started to flow again in that rhythmic pattern as if wind was passing through it.

"Ah," I exhumed as realisation dawned on me.

"There is always something you can do with an overabundance of magic, April dear," the alicorn told me calmly, turning her head back to look at me properly. "Firing it into the sky is usually not one of those things."

"Few unicorns in Equestria have to resort to such excesses because they don't build up enough of a charge in themselves for it to become a problem. They use their magic freely throughout their day's affairs without considering what it would be like for there to be an overabundance of it," she explained.

"Alicorns like my sister and myself have more mana to draw from and find... innovative ways to prevent such a situation from occuring in the first place," Luna chuckled.

I looked down at my forehooves and sort of scraped the left one back and forth over the floor a little.

There was so much more to being a pony than there was to being a human, I realised, starting with differences between pony races; I had heard about alicorns, unicorns, pegasi, and earthponies so far.

Then there was the difference between unicorn/alicorn magic and blood magic. Basically whether you'd use the energy of yourself or the person you were trying to target.

And that was just the start of it. There was a whole other world out there, full of these ponies. Where being a pony was as common as being a human on Earth.

I idly wondered at the religion I was born into. God did create the heavens and earth and all that lived therein.

So did that apply to Equestria as well?

Luna just looked at me as I was letting my thoughts run wild, giving me the time to figure things out without interruption.

I looked back up at her and sighed. Luna just waited for me to form my words.

"So, once we get Josey to Yellowstone and she does whatever it is she has to do with that mana well they've been talking about, what happens to those of us who have been transformed?" I asked.

Luna raised an eyebrow at my question. "Yellowstone?"

"It's a national park which is known for its geysers," I briefly explained. "Josey and Spritelight think there's a large amount of 'mana' hidden there? Josey apparently needs to use it to fix the worlds?"

Luna looked thoughtful. "That explains something which happened today... hm. I will have to forward that to my sister."

"You haven't answered my question," I realised.

"I don't honestly know, April," Luna finally admitted. "Of course we would like to give you all a choice to be turned back to your human selves and return you to your world. Hopefully the damages done so far will have also been corrected before that time."

"And if that's not possible?" I pushed.

Luna sighed out deeply and shrugged. "I'm the princess of the night. The logistics of what happens within Equestria during daytime is largely my sister Celestia's foray. I'm sure there's enough room for you all to be given a new home."

"A new home..." I repeated, considering the implications.

"You are not slipping back into despair over having been transformed, I hope? Your emotional state directly affects the dream world," the princess of the night warned.

I shook my head and repressed those emotions to the best of my ability, not too different from when I had to act unfazed while still a human.

"I'm just starting to wonder at the idea of Eden now," I revealed. "God created the heavens and the earth and put the first humans in a peaceful realm called Eden. They were cast out from it by ignoring the basic rules set by the Lord and ended up populating our world."

Luna raised an eyebrow. "Is this the history of your planet? The more recent arrivals have had similar stories to tell, but not all of them believe it to be true."

"Spritelight only had unkind words to say about our religion," I grumbled.

"Ah, religion. Not quite history but definitely important for some to make sense of the world they live in," the princess realised. "We all need some strength in tough times."

I peered at her face to see if she was making fun, but there was no sign of it.

"Huh, Spritelight said there's no religion in Equestria and called it a stupid thing while giving off on all other things about my world she thought were dumb," I explained. "I thought you would say similar things."

The alicorn shook her head at me. "No, why would I? Of course there is religion in Equestria; my sister Celestia and myself are prime targets for such ourselves. Why would I be dismissive of another's views?"

I blinked at the rationale. "You know, I'm starting to get that this Equestria of yours isn't that different from my world; Some people are very angry about people having different religious ideas while others are more friendly with one another."

Luna smiled and gave a nod to my words. "There are more similarities between our worlds. We just look different from one another."

"Sometimes that's enough to start a war over on Earth," I pointed out.

The princess sighed. "Again; we are not too dissimilar from one another. There are some issues between ponies and other races, but a state of war only exists between changelings and ourselves."

"Changelings?" I wondered.

"Insects which can mimic the appearance of anypony they wish. They take over from a loved one and feed upon the love you have for them," Luna briefly explained. "They have infiltrated and attacked our cities on more than one occasion."

I frowned at this news. "Well, that doesn't really sound like a good thing."

"I'm sure you have your Earth equivalent to this," the princess waved off. "We are used to magical creatures and plants in our midst. They are largely pacified, save some holdouts like the changelings."

"No? I don't think we have any infiltrators who feed on love on Earth," I threw back. "Unless you listen to some people in my family; they would consider any immigrant a parasite."

"Then there you go," Luna decided. "You might not be at war with them, but they are considered invasive nonetheless?"

"Only to a small group of people," I tried to deflect once more. "It's nonsense anyway."

There was a nudge to my left and I looked to the side to find nothing but the costume rack there. "What was that?"

"Spritelight is trying to get your attention," the princess explained. "You're about to wake up."

I opened my eyes as Spritelight nudged my left shoulder lightly.

"Hey sleepyhead," she spoke, looking sideways at me. "You've slept for three hours now. We're over the park area."

There was a faint remnant of a dream swimming through my brain and I reached my right forehoof up to rub at my eyes.

"How do you know? I thought the map was with Josey?" I asked with a half yawn.

"She called back just now to say we were passing by Colt village? They changed direction slightly to follow that road down there," the unicorn pointed out, motioning her head over the edge of the basket.

I carefully peered down to spot a lot of trees and a highway running through them, far below us.

"I think we drove down that highway when we went here with the school," I remembered. "It goes by a lake on the left before leading on to Grant Village next to the main lake's West Thumb?"

"Thumb being that digit you humans have instead of hooves," Spritelight recalled. "The one Turkey kept complaining about missing and which Josey said put you humans apart from cats?"

I chuckled weakly. "Yeah... Hey Spritelight, what do you think of Luna?"

"The princess? She's one of the two main rulers of Equestria, together with her sister; princess Celestia," Spritelight explained. "Celestia brings up the sun and takes care of the day, while princess Luna brings up the moon and safeguards our dreams. Why?"

"I think she visited me in my dream," I recalled, although the memory of it was getting fuzzy. "I'm not entirely sure what she said, but I feel... calmer now."

Spritelight raised an eyebrow at me. "The barriers between worlds must truly be weakened if she could do that from Canterlot..."

"I think I was having a nightmare or something," I muttered, trying to focus on my dream. "Something to do with changelings?"

The unicorn in the basket beside me snorted in disgust. "Changelings are bad news. I hope we don't have to deal with them here on Earth."

"I'll hope for the same then," I decided.

Chapter 36, April 12

As the balloon continued through the air, following the road below toward Yellowstone proper, I idly rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

"Three hours, you say? It's not long enough; I still feel tired," I complained to Spritelight.

The other unicorn didn't immediately reply, instead using her magic to heat up some more air to make sure we stayed afloat.

She looked back at me once her horn stopped glowing, smirking lightly. "And here I have been making sure we don't drop from the sky. Poor you with your three hours of sleep."

I felt my ears fall back against my head. "I could help with that if you trust me to not blow a hole through it."

"Ah, let's not," Spritelight decided. "So, you have met Luna then?"

I shrugged at the question. "I guess? If dreaming about her is the same as meeting her?"

The unicorn chuckled. "Yes, but that's only true for the princess Luna. She protects us against our nightmares, as you have found out."

"I honestly can't remember," I grumbled. "Just my luck; I meet a princess and can't remember anything of it."

Spritelight stared sideways at me, then nudged her head forward. "Josey counts; she's an alicorn princess as well."

I peered on ahead at the three flyers and their wings moving up and down, Josey at the head of them with the map held somewhat in front of her by her magic.

"You're right, but she's from Earth like Turkey and me," I decided. "It felt different somehow when I dreamt of Luna."

"More like an older sister or aunt, right?" Spritelight agreed. "They're older than most buildings in Equestria. There's something about being in the same room with them which makes you wonder about your own mortality."

I tried to grasp at the remnants of the dream, but to no avail.

"I don't remember," I honestly admitted, looking away at the sky around us.

There were no clouds; only flesh in the sky and the blood rain falling down from it as if the many demonic eyes were crying and bleeding all at once.

Rainbow Dash, princess Josey, and Turkey were flying through that rain and were absolutely soaked by it.

Every flap of their wings made the red liquid fly away from them.

With the balloon above our heads you'd think Spritelight and me were safe from the rain, but it fell upon us just the same.

What rain fell upon the outer skin of the balloon leaked down it and the ropes tethering it to the basket we were in, and then rained from the opening in the bottom onto our heads.

At least the basket itself was porous so it didn't fill up with it.

I mused on this. "What an umbrella could've done at this point..."

"Yes, we should have brought one," Spritelight agreed. "I'm going to need a long vacation at the hot springs after this is done."

"Oh yeah, hot springs are amazing. Or how about a sauna?" I suggested with a smile.

"And don't forget a visit to the spa. My hooves are going to need a pedicure after running around those hard roads of yours," the unicorn beside me pointed out, pulling her left forehoof up so I could look at it.

Just like my legs were a sort of marshmallow shape of fur leading down to partly cover the harder hoof structure from sight, lifting it up was the first real good look I got of Spritelight's hooves.

Where mine were still pristine since I had only just been transformed the other day, hers were clearly showing signs of damage like if a human would have dragged their fingernail across a piece of rough sandpaper or such.

"Oh right," I realised. "None of us are shod, are we?"

"...shod?" Spritelight started, lowering her hoof again.

"You know, metal horseshoes? We don't have any to walk on?" I pointed out, lifting my own more pristine right forehoof up to look at the bottom of it.

The other pony snorted. "No, of course we don't have horseshoes to walk on. Those are from a bygone era when ponies were still barbaric."

I raised an eyebrow at the outburst. "Barbaric?"

"Yes! Can you imagine having to hammer nails into your own hooves?" Spritelight asked me with some disgust to her voice. "It would ruin the hard work we put into our hoof care."

I winced at the idea of putting a nail into my hooves, somewhat knowing how it might feel as I had once had an unfortunate accident with a fingernail and a pushpin. "Oooh, and it wouldn't feel good either."

"Exactly!" my companion agreed wholeheartedly. "No, no... If you ever make it to Equestria we can visit a shoe store for some well-made hoofwear, but there will be no metal horseshoes or the like."

I chuckled weakly. "Sorry, that was just my inexperience coming out I guess."

"You have only recently become a pony, so it's to be expected," Spritelight offered with a wry smile. "How could I have ever considered making proper ambassadors out of humans without staying around to teach you what it means to be a pony?"

"Well, maybe you just thought more about trying to fix the problem at ha... hoof, than the details?" I pointed out. "You know, given that you also missed a detail like the end of the world..."

Spritelight's mood soured again and she looked away. "Bah... I was sure I was doing the right thing."

"I'm sure you thought you were, just like when I thought I was helping my mom by putting all the cake ingredients in the bowl without realising eggs had to be cracked," I suggested.

The other pony's ears lowered and she shivered. "That must have been a crunchy cake."

"My mom didn't bake it, so we had no cake. Such was the sad tale of the five year old who had storebought cake for her birthday party," I revealed. "My mom was smarter than me in that regard. I'm not so sure about some other things as I get older and can do my own research on them."

Spritelight's eyes set themselves upon the horizon to our left. "Isn't that just the case that foals grow up to become smarter than their parents? We all stumble as we try to prove ourselves, but then have to pick ourselves back up again as we mature on our own."

"I guess so, did I mention I'm a teenager? I'm still doing that stumbling right now," I pointed out. "One of those moments got me sent to boarding school, so there's that one for me to recover from."

Spritelight glanced over to me and seemed to make a decision. "Tell me more about your life here on Earth. I could ask Turkey, but she's flying ahead of us."

"What do you want to know?" I wondered.

"How do you deal with the death and destruction you have in the news all the time?" she wondered.

"Don't pay attention to it, for the most part. It's not like it's in my power to solve it," I revealed to her. "I mean, it's sad that people aren't nicer to one another, but what am I going to do? It's governments and big organisations which do those things."

"But what if you could do something about it? Why not pressure your government into brokering peace?" the unicorn suggested.

"There's a hundred million people living in my country, if not more," I reasoned. "I'm just one voice in many. There are groups who try to move the government to action, sure, but until I'm living on my own and have my own income and such, I can't really do much to anger my parents more than I already did."

"Can I ask what that was?" Spritelight asked cautiously, tilting her head slightly.

"I kissed my girlfriend and my dad walked in on us," I explained way too casually.

It wasn't like I had gotten over it yet, it was just that I knew how much of a raging homophobe my dad was and I still risked it.

"I don't get it," the Equestrian pony responded.

"Then you must live in a utopia where people aren't judged over who they love," I sighed out longingly. "There are too many people who want to decide how others live their lives over here on Earth."

"Yeah, no... we mostly leave everypony be," the unicorn agreed. "I mean, just look at Turkey and me. We've only known one another for a few days now, and she used to be a male human, but I don't want to part with her. She caught me entirely off guard."

"Same with me and my ex," I sighed longingly. "We just sort of grew together on the playground and only slowly realised that that was actually love and not just some fun hanging out time."

"Well, if your father can't see how beautiful your love for another is, I don't think he's a very good dad," Spritelight decided. "If I ever had foals, I would love them regardless of what they do."

I felt my throat pinch shut. "Ah, yeah, no..."

"I'm sorry, I'm crossing boundaries again... Just like me treading into your world and throwing it into upheaval, I guess," she sighed. "I guess I'm also quick to judge."

I was fighting back tears thinking of how simple this pony's thoughts about it were; if you loved your kids you would do so regardless of what they would decide to do with their lives.

And yet my parents had decided to ream me for daring to kiss a girl. Something that they claimed was unholy, against our religious views, and would damn me to eternity.

And then they threw me into that boarding school where I ended up being turned into a pony...

"Well, it's not like I'm going into Heaven as a pony anyway," I reasoned, getting some control back over my emotions. "It's not like I turned out the way they wanted me to or anything. I don't think their opinion should matter as much to me as it still does."

Spritelight nudged me with her shoulder. "Don't think like that. I'm sure your parents try their best even if they have issues to overcome themselves."

"What if the issue is a religion they're so bound to that I'm not sure they can see past the sermons they hear every Sunday?" I wondered.

The unicorn peered over the edge of the basket. "It's a big world out there. Two of them; Equestria and Earth. We don't even know what all of our planet looks like; so many undiscovered places. So many new experiences."

I eyed her, trying to figure out where this was going.

"Since coming to your world I've been fighting this turmoil in my brain. It's not what I expected your world to be. Not at all. Some of you have given me food for thought," Spritelight continued. "Made me realise I might have come at this problem the wrong way."

"The blood rain didn't tell you that?" I chuckled.

"There was no blood rain when I transformed Josey, or when I met Turkey," Spritelight explained. "That's just a thing which followed after I destabilised the world. And the flesh in the sky, and the storms, and the wall of flesh moving across the planet..."

"Yeah, about that... That sounds like something I don't want to ever meet," I decided, shivering at the thought. The eyes in the sky raining blood down on us were bad enough for me; I at least knew I could blow a hole in them with my magic.

"Oh, it's coming; it's also headed for Yellowstone's mana well," the other suggested matter-of-factly. "I'm wondering if Josey can fight the effects before it catches up to us."

"Let's both hope and pray for that, then," I coughed uneasily.

"Yeah, let's," Spritelight agreed.

Chapter 37, Josey 13

Josey 2

The rugged terrain of Yellowstone passed by under me as I flew through the air while tracking our progress on the map of the area.

It was held firmly in a bubble of my magic, which also helped to shield it from the never-ending rain of blood weighing me down as it seeped into my fur and in-between the individual feathers on my wings.

We were following US Route 89, or 191, or 287 up from the South into Yellowstone proper, with Mount Sheridan on our right and Lewis Lake coming up on the left.

In a short while we would be flying over the continental divide and I had yet to feel this mana well which was supposed to be near.

I was hoping we would find it near to Old Faithful, literally the only place I remembered Yellowstone for as I had lived nowhere near the area.

I glanced behind me at Rainbow Dash and Turkey, giving them a questioning gaze to see if they could keep flying or were getting tired after the long trek.

Rainbow just grinned and gave a nod my way; she had no problems whatsoever, while Turkey put up a brave face but was clearly struggling more.

I realised my privileged position as an Alicorn had not only given me more magic, but the bigger wings allowed me to get more lift with less motion.

I could even glide through the air for a few seconds in-between flaps if I wanted to, which definitely helped me keep my energy for longer flights.

Rainbow Dash was an experienced flyer from Equestria; born and raised as a Pegasus, and she had been instrumental in teaching Turkey and myself to fly.

Turkey was the weakest of us three; both inexperienced like myself but also with a smaller wingspan which kept her from gliding properly.

I looked forward again for a place up ahead where we could land if we needed to give her a place to rest.

With the tourism in the area there were a few places for us to land comfortably with our balloon in tow, but the question was whether these areas would have humans at them right now.

There was a flash up ahead in the air and my eyes focused on the spray of multicolored flares raining down in a patterned arc up ahead in the distance.

The sound of the fireworks exploding in mid-air reached our ears not a second later and I glanced back at the other two to notice their confused glances and turned-away ears.

I studied the map to try and pinpoint where the fireworks could have been shot up from.

The Grant Village Visitor Center was up ahead, just past the continental divide.

Maybe a group of humans was stuck there, shooting up flares in the hope of rescue?

Another flare shot up in the sky, this one a bright fountain of colors like the first.

These were proper fireworks like one would use for the Fourth of July or New Year's, not emergency flares.

They were also shot from a ways beyond the visitor center, nearer to the large body of water known as Yellowstone Lake.

I motioned to Rainbow and Turkey that we should head in its direction to at least figure out what was going on.

They followed my lead as I turned slightly to more clearly head in that direction while checking the map for where exactly we would be going.

I looked at the map to figure out where it could be that these fireworks were being sent up from.

A third explosion; a lovely flower of light in the dreary blood rain dead ahead of us.

If we kept flying at this altitude we would surely be hit by another such explosion.

I motioned my head down and started descending to a safer altitude, Rainbow instantly noticing what I was doing and following suit.

Turkey dropped down a little too fast once she realised what was going on, but then corrected her flight path.

I cast a smile back in her direction in an effort to boost her confidence. She was honestly doing well and needed to trust in her own abilities.

A fourth rocket shot up from an area near a body of water up ahead, a smaller lake than lake Yellowstone perhaps, but still sizeable.

I looked it up on the map; Delusion Lake.

The fireworks were being shot up from a strip of land between Delusion Lake and Yellowstone Lake, from a clearing between the trees growing there.

Another course correction had us flying directly at the area now, lowering even more so we would skim over the treeline between us.

If we had a better angle on our approach I would have skimmed even lower across the surface of the water to avoid the balloon getting hit with fireworks, but this would have to do.

As we approached the clearing I looked down at the source of the fireworks.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing at first; two pink Earthponies stood tail-to-tail beside one another on the ground, next to a comically large cannon.

They were both looking up in different directions, searching the sky above them, while slowly turning around as one to adjust their view.

A very familiar Draconequus was resting on a chaise lounge beach chair a few feet away from them, a pair of sunglasses on his face and a tanning mirror on his chest, ostensibly in the act of sunbathing in the pouring blood rain.

As we neared the clearing, the pink ones turned so that one of them was looking directly at us, and I could see their pupils grow to twice their original size.

The pink pony staring in our direction started to bounce up and down while loudly proclaiming "I see them! I see them!"

The other of these pink 'twins' turned in confusion to see what the hubbub was all about, but then noticed us as well and joined in the jumping and excited shouting.

The pair of them started to dance and jump around in their excitement, while Discord reached up with his bird-like claw and lowered his sunglasses to peer over them in mild amusement.

"Oh, so you're finally here," he remarked as we found ourselves a landing spot in the clearing.

I snorted in annoyance as my hooves hit the ground, folding my wings to give them some rest.

"Turkey, Rainbow, can you help Spritelight and April with the balloon please?" I asked of my fellow flyers, pulling the rope I pulled the thing along with off over my head as I did.

I turned to face the Draconequus as he moved to stand up from his chair, noticing the bouncing pair behind him, and cantered on over.

"Been waiting long, have you?" I asked, not hiding my annoyance in having to deal with Discord again.

"Oh, not at all! We had a lovely picnic with some fireworks," Discord suggested, magically apperating a plate on his upturned feline palm. "Want a sandwich?"

I looked at the offered sandwich, noticing a piece of fireworks stuck between two slices of whole wheat bread, the fuse already lit and shook my head at the Draconequus.

"No thanks, we ate before flying over," I suggested calmly.

"Suit yourself," Discord offered with a shrug before biting down on the sandwich himself, taking a good chunk out of the bread, the fireworks, and the plate all. "Waste not..."

I grumbled to myself at his usual antics. "Why are you here, though?"

One of the pink earthponies walked over past Discord's left side and grinned up at me.

"Josey! I know you told me to stay behind because I would get in the way, but Pinkie and me found out that there's this amazing thing hidden here and I just had to, I mean, I just HAD TO come and help you out with it because, well, I mean, you can't expect me to let you go into this by yourself, can you? Jo and Rho forever, remember? Also, that's not necessarily true anymore since I'm now called Patty Cannon, but we can change it to Patty and Jo? Jo and Pat? We'll figure something out," the pink one rattled off.

I felt my left ear flick from the barrage of sound, then felt compelled to lift my right forehoof up to tousle through Rhonda's hair. "It's good to see you again Rhonda dear."

She puffed her cheeks up at me, but blushed at the headrub. "It's Patty Cannon, I just told you."

"And Pinkie Pie," I noticed, looking past her at Pinkie bouncing up to join in the conversation.

"Dashie told you we would be back," she decided with a bright smile which almost made me forget the situation we were in.

"Hmm," Discord mused, looking us all over. "Something's missing."

I peered back at him after giving Pinkie Pie a warm smile in return. "What are you on about now?"

"Look at us; two earth ponies, two pegasi, two unicorns, but only one alicorn and one of little old me," Discord listed, pointing at each grouping in turn.

I looked around and realised he was right; Pinkie Pie and Rhonda, excuse me Patty Cannon, made two earth ponies. Rainbow Dash and Turkey were the two pegasi in question. Spritelight and April were both unicorns.

This left Discord and myself in the awkward position of not having someone like us to call a partner.

"Where are you going with this?" I asked cautiously.

Discord ignored me and instead started feeling around his sides as if he was rifling through a coat or long jacket's inside pockets. "Now where did I put her, she can't have gone far?"

"Put who?" I asked, wondering at this goat-faced agent of chaos and his antics.

"Ah-ha!" Discord finally exclaimed, tugging at the shadow down his right side and pulling a pink horn out of mid-air. "There she is!"

I watched in amazement as he pulled princess Cadance out of thin air and unceremoniously plopped her down on the dirt beside him.

"Now we're a full group," Discord proclaimed, now suddenly wearing a long robe and holding a pipe to his mouth from which he started to blow smoke rings. "One could even call us a fellowship now."

I just stared at this new fascimile of a wizard before me, while Cadance was trying to figure out what had just happened.

She opened her mouth to speak, caught herself in a cough, and spat out a golden ring.

Discord instantly swiped it off the ground and twirled it around in his bird-like claw. "Fellowship's got such a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

Cadance recovered from her ordeal and glared at Discord. "I was just about to feed Flurry Heart, now where am I?"

"Oh, I'm sure your husband can do that for you, now what was his name again? Shining Lout, was it?" the Draconequus wafted the other alicorn's concern away. "It's not like he has anything better to do."

"Armor," I knew. "Shining Armor."

"My husband has been very hard at work to maintain the peace in the Crystal Empire, I'll have you know," Cadance threw back at Discord, then finally looked around herself properly.

Rainbow and Turkey were still pushing the balloon down onto the ground with Spritelight's magic to help them, while April somewhat stood idly by.

Knowing how April's magic had surprised us earlier in the day, I thought it was a wise decision of her to not attempt to help folding the balloon up so it would fit in its basket.

Cadance's eyes moved from the ponies gathered here to look up at the sky and her pupils shrunk while her ears pulled back and her wings lowered themselves.

"Yeah, welcome to the end of the world," I chuckled darkly. "Apparently Discord felt you were needed here."

Discord simply puffed a ring of smoke up in the air while Cadance collected her thoughts.

"I'm sure you already know Pinkie, Rhonda, Rainbow, me, and even Spritelight since we discussed her back in Canterlot. The other two are the pegasus Turkey and unicorn April. We were forced to take the latter with us after making a pit stop on her school's rooftop," I explained to the other princess.

"Turkey," Cadance considered.

"Spritelight supposedly named her," I revealed with a shrug.

The other alicorn folded her wings to her sides and made a face. "And we're gathered out here in the open, because?"

"Oh! OH! I can answer that!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

"No, let me!" Rhonda... No, Patty Cannon decided immediately after.

"Well, okay then, but only because I like you," Pinkie agreed.

"Aww, well, I like you too! You're my new B.M.F.F.A.W.F!" Patty Cannon offered back with a grin. "You can tell them if you really want to."

I raised an eyebrow. "B.M.F.F.A.W.F?"

"Best Mare Friend From Another World Forever!" both Pinkie Pie and Patty Cannon exclaimed together, then looked at one another and giggled.

"Will somepony just spill the tea already?" I grumbled, quickly getting a headache.

Discord scoffed and tapped out his pipe against the back of his free hand, tea pouring out of it. "Well, someone is getting impatient..."

"If you really want to know," the Draconequus continued, motioning with the wet pipe at the water of Delusion Lake. "Twilight Sparkle figured out that the mana well you're looking for is there, under the surface of the lake."

I looked in the direction he was pointing and the large body of water we had almost flown directly over during our approach.

"I can't sense any large source of mana?" I revealed, noticing Cadance peering in the same direction.

"Nor can I," she concurred. "How far under the surface?"

"Far enough that we couldn't just make a portal to it," Discord spoke surprisingly matter-of-factly. "There is supposed to be an entryway into the temple somewhere around here however."

"Oh, Patty Cannon and me already found it," Pinkie Pie decided with a grin. "We were just waiting for everypony to get here."

Chapter 38, Josey 14

Three heads turned to face Pinkie Pie and her B.M.F.F.A.W.F. in sheer surprise at their joint statement.

"You already found it?" Discord offered, just as shocked as I was. "Why, we could have been out of this rain hours ago then! Why didn't you mention that sooner?"

I had to chuckle at his exasperation. Obviously the red droplets sticking to his fur were just as bothersome to this chaotic being as they were to the rest of us.

"You didn't ask," Pinkie declared.

"No, he didn't," Patty Cannon agreed.

"I would have told you if you had asked, but you wanted us to look for Josey and the rest," Pinkie explained.

"And draw their attention with fireworks," Patty Cannon added as if they shared one mind. "So we did."

"They make a good point there," Cadance giggled, enjoying how the tables turned on Discord.

The Draconequus at least had the decency to look a little taken aback by it.

"I swear you have fallen into your role as a pony like none other," I breathed out toward Patty Cannon. "Teach me how to?"

"Just be yourself, duh!" Patty Cannon exclaimed as if I had asked a dumb question.

"Hey, that's what I'm trying to do as well," Turkey suggested as she walked up beside me, followed by Spritelight, April, and at last Rainbow Dash.

"What else can you do but be yourself?" asked April.

"What's the conversation about?" Spritelight wondered, sidling up against Turkey with a wet squish as their bodies impacting squeezed the rain out of their fur.

"Apparently there's a way down under that lake over there," I pointed out with a nod of my head.

"It's a curious thought to be so close to a mana well and not feel it," Cadance pondered. "The ground here must be a good isolator."

"Oh, hi princess," Rainbow interjected. "I didn't expect to see you here with us."

"It wasn't my idea, believe me," Cadance returned with a glance in Discord's direction. "But since I am present now, I might as well make the best of it. What dreary weather to meet up in again."

Cadance's attention moved from Rainbow Dash to Turkey and she offered a warm smile at seeing the affection between the pegasus and Spritelight.

I looked in their direction as well, noticing how Spritelight was half covered under Turkey's right wing while the unicorn's head lay across Turkey's withers in a clear sign of affection and protection.

"If we're all done with the introductions," Spritelight muttered as she was stared at by us two alicorns, "You said 'under' the lake? You don't mean for us to swim, do you?"

"Oh, no, there's a door over there, but it's buried under the sand," Patty Cannon explained, pointing off at a slight incline some distance away from us.

"Fortunately there's four of you magic users to dig it out, right?" Turkey wondered. "We did the flying and all."

"And you flew very well for a novice," Rainbow complimented the other pegasus.

"I can't deny that," I agreed. "Turkey is right; we should be able to dig it out even if Discord doesn't help out with it."

Discord chortled at the thought of helping out. "Oh, you wouldn't even allow me to had I offered."

I stared at him and gave a nod at his words. "Too true. How about you show us the way, Rho... Patty?"

"Okey-dokey-lokey," my Rhonda, now known as Patty Cannon, responded before bouncing off to the incline she had pointed at before.

"Wait for me!" Pinkie Pie called after her, joining her friend as they led the rest of us toward this hidden passage they apparently knew the location of.

I followed after them with Discord tagging onto my left side. He was holding onto a candy cane which led up to a fish bowl which was suspended over his head.

The water in this bowl used as an umbrella was quickly turning red as the blood rain fell down upon it.

"I can't wait to be out of this rain. You know I like the odd joke and all, but this is truly bothering me. You have no idea, Josephine," he complained.

"I can't imagine you get bothered by a lot of things," I threw his way. "And it's Josey."

"Josey, of course," he returned. "This is not so much a venture into lovely discordance as it is a dreary slide into extinction. I told you before I would rather have this place continue to exist."

"You're being oddly straightforward," I pointed out, giving him a sideglance.

His face had a solemn expression on it. He was clearly rattled by the events unfolding around us, much like everyone else in our group.

"We all would like to see Josey succeed to turn this around," Cadance spoke from directly behind us.

"Oh, put it all on my shoulders, why don't you," I half-joked.

"It can't be helped," Discord mumbled. "This is destruction on a scale even I wouldn't entertain. And entertaining this is not, mon pouliche."

"Is that you, Q?" I wondered, having seen my fair share of science fiction with Rhonda before this all started.

"Q, who?" Discord wondered, looking at me without a sign of recognition on his face.

"Never mind," I decided, noticing the two earthponies had stopped in front of a pair of trees growing up at an odd angle. "I think we're here."

"Yep," Pinkie Pie agreed, poking a hoof at the ground in the center between these two unique trees. "It's under here."

"And how, exactly, did you two figure that out?" Spritelight demanded, walking up beside me.

"It's simple," Patty Cannon started. "It was the only place with an echo."

"An echo?" I asked with some confusion.

"An echo?" Cadance wondered as well.

"What echo?" April added for good measure.

"Like that, yeah," Patty grinned. "When we set off the fireworks in our party cannon, this spot echoed the explosion."

"So this area resonated differently when you set off an explosion?" Spritelight translated for the rest of us.

"That's what we said. It was very clear for anypony paying attention," Pinkie Pie decided while marking a spot on the ground with her left forehoof. "Here."

I peered over at Discord. "You were too busy sunbathing to notice, weren't you?"

"Why, you don't honestly believe I can get this complexion without putting some work in?" Discord suggested, motioning at the red stains on himself. "Besides, we've been waiting so long I honestly got bored."

"So, let's start digging," Spritelight decided. "April, help us out here?"

"But I last shot a hole into the sky," April protested. "You don't want me to do that here."

"Why not? It might get enough of the sand out of the way that we'll find the entrance that much quicker," Spritelight suggested. "You said you had trouble grabbing onto air, right? Sand is more dense. Shouldn't be the problem."

"I agree with Spritelight there, this should be easier than heating up air," I pointed out, my own horn starting to glow green. "With Cadance, Spritelight, me, and you working on this, we should find that entrance in no time."

"It's been a while since I've had to do menial work like this," Cadance chuckled. "And back then I wasn't even an alicorn yet."

"Pegasus, right?" I wondered, glancing back. "So we both used to be something else before becoming princesses."

Cadance looked at me with a questioning glance. "How do you know about that? Not even Twilight has brought that up and I've known her since she was a foal."

"We have comic books in this world which detail about yours. Remind me to fill you in about them if we get through this," I explained. "For what it's worth; you make a wonderful princess."

Cadance smiled at my compliment as her own horn started to glow. "From what I've seen from you so far Josey, so do you. You lead by example, which is what a lot of ponies need but don't dare to ask for."

"Can we get to digging yet?" Spritelight grumbled. "You princesses praising one another into the heavens is not going to improve our situation."

"Right you are," I agreed, starting to scoop sand away from where Pinkie had marked the ground.

With the four of us starting to dig at the ground, the area between the trees was slowly but surely dipping down.

It took a good few minutes of us moving dirt away, with the surrounding area falling back into the hole we were making once too many times, before a square structure started to become visible.

A row of brickwork laid horizontally under the sand, and we somewhat automatically started to dig around it to free it up.

Soon enough we ended up with two clear edges on either side of it and realised it was the top of the 'doorway' the pinkies had claimed to be under the dirt.

We focused on removing the sand from lower, in-between the two vertical columns of brickwork which were appearing as we continued.

"You know, I think I read an Indiana Jones fanfiction once which had a doorway like this," Turkey suggested.

"Who's Indiana Jones?" Rainbow wondered.

"Oh, he's an adventurer who found a temple of doom and fought nazis with a whip," Turkey answered.

I gave a glance back at the pair of them. "It's our world's equivalent to Daring Do, Dash."

"You know about Daring Do?" Rainbow Dash perked up.

"Who doesn't?" I posited, much to Rainbow Dash' excitement.

"Oh, I can't wait for A.K. Yearling to release the next book in the series," she exclaimed eagerly.

"Yearling?" Turkey wondered in turn.

"That sounds like she meant Rowling, you know from that wizard boy's books?" April suggested, taking a break from digging.

"Oh, right, you're young so you would have read those," Turkey realised like she was an aging mare.

"Actually, my parents thought they were the devil's books considering they were about magic," April explained. "I never read them but those movies were hyped so much that I know about them."

"I'm so lost right now," Rainbow gasped. "You have a Daring Do in your world?"

"Short answer; yes," I decided to make quick work of the conversation. "Long answer; it's not like how you know Daring Do."

I looked back down at our digging effort. "Cadance, Spritelight, can you stop digging for a moment please?"

The both of them did as I asked, with Spritelight looking back at me with some annoyance.

"Why?" the unicorn demanded.

"April, can you do that overcharging of your horn again? I think we've got enough sand out of the way that you might open the entrance with one quick blow," I asked of the unicorn mare.

She looked apprehensive at my request. "What if I cause a cave-in?"

"I'm sure it will be fine. Let's work together to direct your energy into it so it opens the way for us," I suggested calmly. "Trust in yourself."

April sighed but started to charge her magic regardless. "I'm going to try... don't blame me if it goes wrong."

I charged my own horn, using my magic to form a shape in front of April's which would guide the release of her energy like a shaped charge down into the dirt in front of us.

If there was a tunnel, like it appeared there was, the blast released from the unicorn should be enough to clear it of the years of dust and dirt which had accumulated in it.

Her magic was powerful, but less so than my own, Cadance, or even Spritelight.

Her inexperience helped us in this venture; if any wall collapsed from it, it would be better it did so without us being in the tunnel to suffer the resulting cave-in.

It was a long shot, but it would be quicker than continuing to dig as we had so far.

"Ready," April offered, straining to keep the magic in her horn.

"Then, by all means," I suggested, making ready to catch and direct the blast from her.

April's red magic exploded outward from the tip of her horn, met the cone shape of my own in front of it, and burst through the small tip I had left open and had aimed at the entryway.

The focused beam burst out like a red laser, disintegrating the remaining dirt in front of the opening, hitting the cover to the tunnel proper, and burning a sizeable hole through it as well.

I noticed in that moment that the entryway had once been two locked doors, one of which had fallen into the passageway to let the dirt in while the other had been supported by this very same dirt now heaped up behind it.

April's magic was burning away this obstruction like it was paper, digging deeper and deeper into the hallway beyond.

The unicorn's eyes closed as the last of her magic burst escaped her, and she wobbled on her legs. "Oof, that was all I've got in me... How did we do?"

I dropped my magic as soon as hers left my control and stared down into the darkness. "Amazing. This went better than expected."

Chapter 39, Josey 15

Our little group of nine stood looking at this obvious doorway, large enough for even an alicorn like Cadance or me to walk into if we kept our wings folded.

The stones looked old, really old, and so did what we could see of the passage beyond the entryway.

Cadance cast a magic light down into it, moving it around a little to check for the hallway's integrity. "It looks safe enough; those are some thick stones."

"Not unlike the walls of one of those temples from the Daring Do stories, I suppose," I muttered, noting the intricate engravings on the sandstone.

I could just feel Rainbow's growing excitement at being part of this. This was a story she could share with her friend A.K. Yearling, also known as Daring Do, once we got through it all.

With the right spin on it, Daring Do could have been the one venturing forth into what depths this hallway led to, find the treasure at the inevitable end, and save the world from Ahuizotl's many schemes. It would certainly be a book her fans would love to read.

"Who's ready to go first?" I wondered, looking back at the others.

"Obviously you're going to need light down there," Spritelight grumbled. "So let me do right by my name and suggest to take point. Turkey, you're with me."

"Fair enough, now I'd like Rhon... Patty Cannon to join me since we're making teams," I suggested quickly before I lost my chance. "How about Rainbow sticks with April, and Cadance with Pinkie Pie? Then we have a magical pony with a non-magical one just in case something goes wrong."

"And what about me?" Discord wondered in a sad tone of voice, definitely pouting. "I'll be all on my own."

"Why don't you stick in the middle between us then so you've got ponies all around you?" I suggested. "Then it'll be Spritelight and Turkey ahead, me and Patty Cake... Cannon second, Discord in the middle, April and Rainbow, and then Cadance and Pinkie pulling the rear?"

"Okey-dokey-lokey," Pinkie Pie agreed merrily.

"Sounds good to me," Rainbow agreed.

"It does make sense to pair up like that," Cadance considered. "If anything goes wrong I have enough experience and magical power to do something about it."

"How do you make a light?" April wondered, addressing Spritelight.

"You focus on the tip of your horn and just hold a ball of magic there," Spritelight returned, showing by example. "Don't overcharge it."

I watched as April carefully did as Spritelight showed her, and then gave her a warm smile as she succeeded in her effort. "There you go April, you're doing marvellous. Don't let your insecurities get the better of you."

"I'll try," April agreed.

"I'll be with you down there," Rainbow offered the unicorn with a grin. "I can fly you out of dangerous situations if they happen, so don't you worry."

"Discord," Cadance started, drawing the Draconequus' attention. "Remind me to have you and Fluttershy come babysit Flurry Heart. You owe me that much for the effort."

Discord visibly swallowed. "Why, I'm sure I can babysit those two without Fluttershy's help. Don't you trust me?"

"No," Cadance stated flatly. "I know you value your friendship with Fluttershy, but the Crystal Empire has had one too many close calls to let you run free in it without supervision. You might give my foal bad ideas I won't be able to turn her away from."

"She's got you there," I chuckled at Discord. "You know you'll fall for the temptation of making a joke here or there and then forget about yourself."

Discord looked shocked at the admonishment. "Why won't anybody accept I'm a reformed man?"

"It will take time," Spritelight answered. "Just like it will take time for ponies back home to forgive me for this mess I caused... and I might not have your lifespan to see them do that."

"Hopefully," I started, motioning Spritelight to take the lead, "we can fix this thing and restore what was lost. If there's anything in my power which will allow me to change the events which happened so far, I will try to do so."

Spritelight hummed in thought at my words, but then nudged Turkey to follow her into the passageway.

I watched as the pair of them wandered in, Turkey on the left, Spritelight on the right, and looked over at Patty Cannon.

"Care to join me, Patty? I'm going to have to get used to your name. I'm still plain old Josey myself," I suggested, sticking to the left wall as I dipped into the passageway, so Rhonda/Patty Cannon would join on my right side.

With Spritelight on the right and me on the left, the light we both emitted from our horns cast over and past our partners to spread out more evenly than if I had followed directly after Spritelight.

Discord groaned as he had to lean down to fit in the passage, following behind us with some effort.

"Well, this is just entirely too uncomfortable," he complained.

I looked back past Rhonda's flank. "You can shrink and grow at will."

"Doesn't make it any more comfortable, I'll assure you," the draconequus grumbled, but shrunk to a height which allowed him to walk upright behind us without his horns scraping against the ceiling nonetheless.

Patty Cannon giggled lightly as she followed beside me, and I smiled down at her.

"I've missed you, you know? I had to send you to Ponyville for your own protection but I'm glad you found a friend in Pinkie Pie," I told her.

"Oh yes," Patty returned with a bright smile. "You know how we used to watch the episodes and wondered how Pinkie did what she did in the show? I get that now."

"You do?" I asked curiously.

"Oh yes, you know how illusionists do these fantastical tricks on stage which people marvel at but they're all able to do it with some training and we're just all like 'ooh' and 'aah' because we don't get how they do it because we haven't learned it ourselves but it's really an easy trick when you learn it and it's not so special but they keep that to themselves so we go and watch their shows?" Patty Cannon rattled off.

I missed a step trying to follow her train of thought, then just nodded slowly to her. "I... I think I do, yes. It's a little like how I'm using my magic now I'm an alicorn but I would have never considered how that worked as a human?"

My earthpony girlfriend gave an eager nod to that. "Yes, I think it's like that. Although Pinkie and I don't use magic."

"Because you're earthponies," I stated.

"Because we're earthponies, yes. We don't have magic, but we have gimmicks which look like it," Patty Cannon agreed. "Anything beyond that is just sleight of ha... hoof. Which is how we can do this."

She turned her head to her flank facing away from me for a brief moment, then faced me again. Within that brief second she had put on a Groucho Marx-style pair of glasses and mustache and I could not help but snort in withheld laughter.

"Okay, that's honestly amazing," I told her. "I didn't expect that."

"Expect what?" she asked, doing the same thing again but now turning back to me with just a red clown's nose on her muzzle, her face painted in full clown makeup.

I stumbled again, needing to find my footing anew. "No, but that was too short a time for you to put all that makeup on!"

"Not if you know the trick, silly," Patty Cannon told me with a bright grin. "That's how Pinkie does it. It's all party tricks."

"Sometimes I wonder at that," Discord threw up his own two cents from behind us. "I know interdimensional magic when I see it."

"But we can't use magic," Patty Cannon returned, her clown makeup and nose gone again. "We're earthponies."

"Still," I suggested. "There's something supernatural about the way you and your friend are able to do things, and I'm happy that you figured it out for yourself."

"Oh yes, Pinkie loves making everypony smile, and so do I," my Rhonda agreed. "I'm very happy that Pinkie trusted me with her secrets."

"Well, don't tell me," I chuckled, looking around as the patterns on the wall looked familiar. "I've got enough of a headache dealing with my own magic. Hey Spritelight, do these figures on the walls mean anything to you?"

The unicorn diagonally ahead of me looked up and around herself, then stopped walking. "This looks like ancient Equestrian..."

"It looks like Egyptian hieroglyphs to me. Not that I know how to read them, but it's like... pictographs, I think they're called?" I revealed.

Spritelight studied the wall to her right while I turned to my left to look at the figures on the wall.

Humans and horses, no; ponies, were depicted side-by-side in a scene I could only describe as a party surrounding a bonfire.

The images were like that found on ancient grotto walls, heavily stylized but recognizable.

Similar patterns were set in blocks beside it, obviously a type of writing using images like the hieroglyphs I had mentioned to Spritelight.

The patterns appeared top-to-bottom rather than left-to-right, each 'word' with a border with round corners drawn around it.

"Can you make any sense of these, Spritelight?" I wondered out loud.

Spritelight was looking at the scene on the wall next to her, this one looking more like a meeting than a party. She studied the 'words' next to the scene with great interest.

"The meeting of... great minds," she spoke with some difficulty. "This predates even the magic scrolls I've read. I can only make it out because of the familiarity I have with this kind of ancient writing."

"Hey, what's the holdup?" Rainbow called out from behind Discord.

"Have you looked at the wall, Rainbow? Daring Do would love to know about these stories," I called back, using my knowledge of the show to tempt her into being more patient.

"Ooh, there's humans and ponies on this one," April called out in wonder.

"All of the scenes depict people from our worlds in unison," Spritelight realised as she walked a little further ahead. "I knew our worlds were united in the past."

"Yes, it does seem that way," I agreed, following behind while studying the walls around us in more detail.

"Do we really have the time to be studying these pictures what with certain death looming over us?" Discord asked in uncharacteristic concern.

"We're passing them by as it is," I threw back. "There's no crime in trying to translate what we can while we continue on. But yes, let's keep walking."

Spritelight gave a nod in agreement, the light on the tip of her horn dancing and sending shadows changing through the hallway ahead.

We spent the next minutes walking at a slightly slower pace than before, with both Spritelight and me turning our heads left or right depending on what wall drawing we were looking at.

The script didn't mean much to me, but the graphic depictions beside them said enough.

The scenes started off jolly enough; humans and ponies put together having meetings and parties and sitting in schoolbenches in mixed classes.

Everything showed that this was a happy time where both races enjoyed the peace together.

But then the drawings started to change. Humans and ponies started to be grouped together more, spaced apart from one another, set opposite one another.

Were they mixed before, now they were steadily drifting apart and taking up more hostile stances where each group clearly tried to keep the other out.

An uneasy feeling crept over me. "Spritelight, is this saying what I think it is?"

The unicorn gave a nod and translated it; "The humans grew weary of not having magic, not having the ability to fly, and drew up impossible demands of the ponies."

"Are you sure it's saying that the humans started this?" I had to ask, not putting it past my former species given we were happily murdering our way through entire countries just because their people had access to resources not available in other regions.

"Not just the humans; the pegasi were unhappy with the unicorns' magic. The earthponies were as bothered by both, just like the humans were," Spritelight pointed out as we walked by another scene.

"The humans then tried to recruit the earthponies to their cause, if I'm reading this right. Some followed them, others resisted," the unicorn continued to translate.

"This ties in with the stories we know about the period from before Equestria's forming, doesn't it?" I wondered, to which Patty Cannon nodded.

"Yes, it sounds like that. Unicorns, pegasi, and earthponies going to war with one another, forgetting that they were essentially the same and stronger together," my girlfriend stated eagerly. "That's why they have Hearth's Warming Eve now."

"No, this is older," Spritelight decided from up ahead. "There were no humans in that time. No depictions of them in any book or scroll that I've read."

I studied the scenes we were walking past. "Are these humans riding on the backs of earthponies?"

"And pegasi," Turkey pointed out.

"Unicorns as well," Spritelight added. "These humans and ponies were standing opposite the other ponies, but note that there are a few humans remaining on the other side of the scenes as well."

I did notice; they were not riding on the backs of any ponies but standing among them as equals. The ponies themselves also grouped together again after having previously stood apart from one another depending on their features.

"Don't tell me this is going where I think it's going?" I grumbled. "This looks like an all-out war between humans and their pony friends against ponies and their human friends."

"A splitting of worlds," Spritelight gasped up ahead and I looked over her shoulders at the image on the wall to her right.

A rift was clearly drawn between the two warring groups, some of each of them depicted falling into it as it formed.

This was what Spritelight had expected to find; Earth and Equestria having been one, a long long time in the past. And now we were witnessing an account of the two worlds coming apart.

Every image we walked past made this point clearer than the previous, the rift growing larger and keeping the groups of humans with their few pony companions on one side and ponies with their few human companions on the other.

And then the group of ponies disappeared from the next scene and Spritelight stopped in front of it.

"That's it. There's no contact between Earth and Equestria anymore," she pointed out. "This is just Earth."

I looked at the picture; the humans were standing tall over the remaining few ponies. Some of the ponies had their legs tied together or had tack put upon them.

The beginning of the domestication of the ponies we now had on Earth...

I shuddered at the thought of these animals having once been as intelligent as us, and where had the unicorns and pegasi gone since?

Had they gone extinct because of something humans had done to them?

Too many unknowns for a history which went back so far in the past nobody would be around to answer the questions that arose.

Chapter 40, Josey 16

With a wary heart I followed Spritelight further down the hallway still, wondering what horrors the next wall drawing would show us.

"This is strange," Spritelight mused as she stopped once more in front of the mural. "This shows an uprising."

I looked on over and saw a number of unicorns, pegasi, and even some earthponies now split off the group of humans and bound ponies.

Spritelight moved to the next wall, looking it over closely. "Led by the unicorns, they left with as many ponies as they could free from the humans' grasp but there were losses on both sides."

I watched her move from one mural to the next, now fully drawn into this odd writeup of our history.

"They... moved to a new land, carried by the pegasi they freed," Spritelight pointed out, then moved to the next picture.

I walked up to the one she was looking at, noticing how the pegasi were shown carrying single ponies, unicorns and earthponies both, from right to left across a body of water.

"It took them months to travel the cold wastelands they encountered, running from the humans as they did," Spritelight continued to transcribe what was said in the odd hieroglyphs.

I followed behind her and Turkey, who was grabbed by the story almost as much as I was. Rhonda/Patty Cannon just walked along with me in silence.

"They passed by a land of ice and volcanos, then into lands with a better climate," Spritelight pointed out, again showing the ponies going across a body of water. Smaller now than before, but still wider than a river.

"That sounds like they travelled across Greenland to arrive in America," Patty Cannon breathed out in awe. "That is a long, long, loooong way to travel."

"Months turning into years, if I translated this correctly," Spritelight agreed with my Rhonda. "There they found other humans as well, look here; these are outlined red."

"Sounds like the native Americans," I realised.

"They were welcomed," Spritelight pointed out. "Revered as beings of great power and intelligence."

"They went further inland, staying together, not mingling too much with the humans because of past experiences," the unicorn continued as she moved ever further from one painting to the next.

"They were smart to do so," Turkey brought up. "No matter where we're from, humans have a tendency to want to control that which is different from them. If I remember correctly the tribes were also fighting among themselves even before Columbus set foot here."

"They did, yes," Rhonda knew. "I read up about that because I might be one-fifteenth native, if that genealogy site has to be believed."

"Oh now? One whole fifteenth?" Discord scoffed. "I'm more a mixed race than you'll ever be."

I glanced back to note the uncomfortable expression on the Draconequus' face. "Something bothering you?"

"Oh, no, not at all," he obviously lied. "We have gone so deep underground that I'm having trouble feeling the natural energies I'm usually surrounded by. This is a bothersome dead zone for magic in case you hadn't noticed?"

I peered up at the light still shining from the tip of my horn but then realised I had a wellspring of energy stored within myself. "Spritelight, you're better with feeling out the energies around us, is Discord right on that?"

"Yeah," the unicorn agreed. "These walls seem to absorb the mana and redirect it down to where we're going. I can sense it going down hidden pipes or something, but there's none of it in the hallway with us."

"Curious. Not only is this a record of our planets' history, but it's expressly drawing magic out of the world?" I realised. "That might be why the amount of magic on Earth has remained as low as it has been."

Spritelight coughed uneasily. "That means that those who drew on these walls..."

"They would have had to have been your ancestors; the unicorns, pegasi, and even earthponies which escaped their human captors and traversed all the way over here to Yellowstone," I finished.

"My ancestors? No, not unless they made it back to Equestria somehow," Spritelight decided quickly.

"Perhaps they did," Turkey suggested, having walked up a little further while still remaining in the light coming from Spritelight and my horns. "Look at this mural."

The unicorn and me both wandered up to have a look at what the pegasus was pointing at.

The image clearly showed the ponies whose story we had been following so far, with a pair of rectangular windows set up amidst them spaced a little distance away from one another.

One of them was drawn going into one of these windows and coming out the other; their head and forelegs on one side while their hind legs and tail were on the other side.

"These look like the mirrors described in the scrolls I've read," Spritelight realised. "Not proper magic portals like the ones we made to cross worlds recently, but physical objects used to channel the energy between them and only them.

I shook my head at the thought. "The worlds split, humans trying to control ponies, the ponies rebelled, fled, ended up in Yellowstone, and started making magic mirrors?"

"There's more," Spritelight realised as she wandered further. "This shows they used all the power of the remaining unicorns to force a portal to Equestria and sent a few of their own through with one of the mirrors."

I followed behind as she went on again, considering the ramifications of all of this. Once a single planet, torn apart by something the humans did.

The ponies stuck on this side of the rift must have felt absolutely horrible; their peers trapped in bondage, used as little more than tools by their human captors.

And then their attempted escape back to their former home. To return to their brethren with what little magic power they had left.

I looked at the next mural and it showed a horrible picture. Most of the unicorns responsible for the portal had clearly fallen ill.

Soon enough the number of remaining magic users dwindled to the single digits leaving just the pegasi and earthponies to keep up the effort.

While they were shown gathered around the mirror left on Earth, it was clear their attempt at making a bridge between worlds had failed.

Everything about the scenes showed the mirrors were clearly used to converse but not to traverse; even if they had been designed them to.

"It didn't work, did it?" I pointed out.

Spritelight shook her head, the light on the tip of her horn swaying through the space as she did. "The walls between worlds were probably too dense. The mirrors only worked as communication devices. They couldn't pass through them."

"And with the unicorns dying out on this side of the divide, there was no way for them to make something new," I sighed. "That must have been a horrible realisation."

The next drawing just showed a single unicorn amidst the larger grouping of pegasi and earthponies, their peers having succumbed to whatever illness had befallen them.

And then there were no unicorns on the next image, just pegasi and earthponies.

I shuddered to think of what the next images would show us, but we had no other option but to press on.

As expected, the number of pegasi started to fall off as well.

The earthponies were shown putting brick upon brick, laying the foundations for a temple while the pegasi were shown falling ill next.

"I'm not liking any of this," Patty Cannon whimpered. "Nothing about this is very fun."

"No, no it's not. We're watching these ponies die out," I agreed as we passed on to the next drawing.

The earthponies were soon by themselves, finishing up this temple of theirs which looked a lot like the Aztec-influenced temples from the Daring Do books.

"Oh no," Spritelight gasped, and I rushed to her side, bowling over Turkey in the process.

"A volcanic eruption?" I asked, but the drawing was clear on this.

Yellowstone was known for having a supervolcano under it, but this showed the immediate results; the temple had collapsed down from such an eruption and the earthquakes accompanying it.

Without unicorn magic or pegasi to help them lift things, the earthponies made do with the new situation, building out a long hallway out to higher ground while the water started to submerge their temple.

They obviously succeeded, as we were now walking through this tunnel of theirs.

"There are less of them again, and less on the next," Spritelight considered. "There's only one way this ends; the last remaining few are going to be ahead of us."

"Most likely," I agreed, now walking side-by-side with Spritelight while Turkey and Patty Cannon followed directly behind us.

"There's very little moisture in the air," Spritelight considered.

"It has been closed off for countless years," I added.

"No bacterial or plant growth on the walls," Spritelight stated, and we glanced at one another.

"What are you two saying?" Turkey wondered, "Like are we going to find a mummy or something?"

"If there's a corpse of the last remaining member of this group of ponies," Spritelight started, "then they are most likely well-preserved."

"Not a mummy perhaps," Turkey mused, "but maybe still whole?"

"Do we even want to translate those last drawings?" I wondered, looking ahead into the darkness. "If that last one was any indication, we're not far from the entry into the temple."

"We owe it to them," Spritelight decided and turned to face the next one. "They might not be my ancestors, or yours, but we're the first to come upon their story, and potentially the only ones to ever do so."

I looked at what she was looking at and noticed the water had now submerged the temple completely, with the number of ponies dwindling even further.

"This is just going to be their last numbers going down..." I sighed. "What a horrible fate."

The next image showed a room inside the temple with the mirror placed on a podium so all six surviving ponies could look upon it.

A few more steps ahead and the image was that of four remaining ponies in the same room.

I steeled myself before joining Spritelight at the next image. One pony remaining, putting three of their compatriots to rest.

As we took another few steps forward to the next image our combined light shone upon a closed door up ahead.

"They broke the mirror," Spritelight pointed out.

I stared at the image of the pony throwing something at the mirror, shattering it in the process.

"The feeling of loneliness, maybe not receiving a reply from Equestria anymore. No place for them in this world, no escape back to Equestria. Just a horrible thing to think about..." I mumbled, tears welling up in my eyes.

"I can't imagine," Patty Cannon breathed out. "That's just the worst."

"I can, surprisingly," Turkey grumbled. "I've been alone for most of my life."

"Me too," Spritelight added, turning to face Turkey. "And I'm never letting you out of my sight. I told you I'm taking you to Equestria."

I looked between the pair of them while dabbing an ankle at my eyes to dry them. "I hope that's possible. Rho... Patty and me are going to be together forever as well. I wish you both the same."

"You're going to need a new name if you're going to stay a pony," Patty Cannon suggested. "Something which works well with mine."

"Do I have to?" I protested, but noticed both Patty Cannon and Turkey nodding their heads eagerly and Discord just standing behind them grinning.

"Oh come now, mon pouliche. You didn't think you could continue on with your old name, did you?" Discord chuckled. "If you are to come with us all to Equestria, you'll have to act like you were born as one of these precious pony folk."

I stared at the Draconequus for the longest time, then sighed and looked down at my precious Patty Cannon's orchid-colored eyes.

"Of course, if we're staying in Equestria, or staying ponies at all, I will gladly change my name to a more appropriate one," I agreed with a smile in her direction. "Just... we don't yet know what the result will be of me tapping into this mana well."

Rhonda stared up at me with a strange sort of smile, a strange flash of the light passing over her eyes. Or was it just Spritelight moving her head behind me?

"Anyway, we're at the temple door," I decided, turning around again to face it and Spritelight again.

"Finally," Rainbow Dash called out from behind Discord. "We've been walking for ever now!"

"Calm down Dashie," Pinkie's voice carried through the hallway. "You'll love this next part."

I flicked my left ear at her statement which clearly implied Pinkie Pie might know something more than the rest of us.

"Stage magic," I had to remind myself. "Do you think you can open this door without needing April's magic to blow another hole in something, Spritelight?"

"Yeah, it's closed from the inside but I think it's just a simple latch," Spritelight answered, feeling at the heavy stone door with her magic. "It should be an easy shift of... ah."

I heard the soft sound of something dropping to the floor on the other side of the double doors, and then Spritelight pushed them open with her right hoof.

"Let's see what this temple is all about," she said, taking the first step through...

Chapter 41, Josey 17

As we walked after Spritelight into the temple proper, the light from her horn reached farther into the darkness than before yet touched no wall on either side.

The unicorn put more energy into her horn so her light shone brighter than before, and I followed suit to help illuminate the larger room we had ventured into.

The room's width was double or triple that of the hallway, in which we could easily walk side-by-side, but the slanted ceiling of stones set halfway upon those under them allowed it to rise ever higher as we made our way into the larger space.

Columns set some distance away from one another and decorated with engravings of the three pony races upon them supported the ceiling.

Spritelight's light swished around from left to right as she took the room in, much like my own, and once Discord had passed through the doorway was soon followed by the lights from April and Cadance as well.

"Wooooooooow," Pinkie Pie's voice called out into the otherwise almost reverent silence. "This is a biiiiig room!"

"Isn't it?" Patty Cannon replied just as loud and clear. "I can almost hear an echo! Echo!"

"Echo!" Pinkie replied.

"Echo Echo!" Patty giggled in return.

"Okay you two, we need to find a way to the mana well and I'm not sensing it here, why don't we focus?" Spritelight suggested, walking over to a tapestry suspended above a doorway in the back wall.

"This is surprisingly well made," she realised as she looked over the cloth.

The tapestry in question showed a number of ponies, two for each of the races, standing side by side and facing forward toward the viewer against a blue background.

A rising sun was located above and behind them, as if to invoke an image of unity, of moving forward together. An image of hope.

Cadance walked by me to join Spritelight in looking over the tapestry, sizing it up with an expert eye.

"You're right, Spritelight. This quality of stitching could easily find its way into one of the royal palaces or a rich homestead," the princess suggested.

I walked over to them as well but used my magic to test the door underneath. "Main door into the temple proper, tapestry above it, this is most likely our best chance to find the mana well."

"There's a door on the right here as well," April noted, having wandered past the pillars together with Rainbow Dash. "There's a symbol like a pegasus resting on a cloud on a plaque next to it?"

"It could be a door leading to their bedrooms? My home in Cloudsdale is made of clouds and I do like sleeping on them," Dash mentioned.

"That begs the question of what's located on the other side," I wondered, walking on over past the pillars to check for doors there.

"Spritelight, can you make out what this sign says?" I wondered, looking at a plaque with scribbles on it. Nothing as easy to understand as a pegasus on a cloud.

The unicorn joined me and glanced at the pictograph in question. "Hm, I think it's food storage or preparation. Either could work in this case."

"Food??" Patty Cannon asked in a burst of excitement.

"Makes sense," I told Spritelight. "We're only in the first area of the temple so having bedrooms and storage near the entrance would allow them to have their immediate needs met upon arriving back home."

"The mana well is most likely beyond the center door in the back of this hallway then, as you suggested," Spritelight agreed.

Cadance chuckled as she walked on over to this door on the left of the room as well. "Knowing Pinkie Pie as I do, and seeing Patty Cannon's response, I'm going to suggest to be the one exploring past this doorway with the both of them. We might find ourselves a kitchen and prepare a midday snack if anything is still edible."

I gave her a smile and a nod. "That sounds great. April, can you take Rainbow Dash and Turkey into the bedroom area?"

As I looked back, April stared at me with a shocked expression. "Me?"

"Yes, you've got the ability to light the area and they both could use a rest after flying us over here," I pointed out. "I know Rainbow can probably fly on for half a day or more, but Turkey is stumbling on her hooves."

"I was bowled over in the hallway," Turkey protested.

"Oh please, you were lagging behind the other two even while in flight," Spritelight threw back. "Go get a nap in. I'll stay with Josey to find that mana well since I can read ancient Equestrian and sense the mana flow."

"And we'll bring Discord with us," I decided. "That makes three groups of three. None of us are left by ourselves that way."

Discord stood idly observing the tapestry, seemingly lost in thought.

"Discord, did you hear me?" I called out, and he snapped to attention.

"What, you actually want me with you?" he wondered in genuine surprise.

"It's not like you to get this discombobulated. What were you thinking about?" Spritelight wondered, walking up to her supposed teacher.

Discord frowned at her. "Why, I've got the strange feeling I have seen that tapestry before, or the symbol on it, but it can't be. That was so long ago..."

"Considering the history on the walls in the hallway, this place is fairly old," I pointed out. "Like centuries... Maybe a thousand years or more."

"It must be," Discord agreed. "This symbol is from my early days of walking across the surface of Equestria. The flag of the First Alliance, if my memory serves me well. To put it in terms your little pony brains can understand; from long before even Celestia or Luna were born."

Silence fell over the room again as those who knew the princesses and their expected ages considered just what those words meant, and those who didn't just looked around in confusion.

"I have never even heard of this first alliance," Spritelight spoke first, looking the Draconequus over with a curious glance. "But you know more."

"Why, of course I know more. I'm nigh immortal compared to the short little lives you ponies have," Discord scoffed. "The First Alliance was around when I was but a teenager, but it was of no interest to me. I was far more interested in the affairs of dragons at the time as they fought among themselves to find their prophesized lord or king or something."

I stared at the Draconequus with wonder. "A dragon king?"

"Lord, most likely. Dragon Lord Torch rules over the Dragon Lands at the moment," Cadance knew. "He has been in power since before I was born."

"Torch, yes. Scrawny little thing, but he did love to prove himself by fighting others," Discord chuckled, clearly thinking back on it. "Oh, the faces of those he beat; they never figured he could take them!"

"I don't believe I have ever heard the Dragon Lord being described as 'scrawny' before now," Cadance offered with a surprised look on her face. "As far as I know he is the largest and strongest of all the dragons currently residing in the Dragon Lands."

"How long has he been in power for?" I wondered, thinking about what I knew of dragons and their supposed lifespan.

"Considering I was locked away in a stone prison for a thousand years, at least that long," Discord posited. "He rather enjoyed it when I skated up the lava flows beside him."

"It sounds like you two had quite the friendship," I realised. "I thought Fluttershy was the first true friend you had."

"Oh, my friendship with Torch was but a short one in the grand scheme of things. A passing fancy, nothing more," the draconequus suggested off-handedly. "He and I fell out when I turned his favourite mountain into jell-o. His loss; it was absolutely delicious!"

"That's more like you, yes," Spritelight grumbled.

"So if that was over a thousand years ago, we can expect this temple to be at least that old as well," I remarked. "A thousand years of it buried under the surface of Yellowstone."

"A thousand years of it draining mana from Earth, collecting it somewhere deeper," Spritelight added, looking at the door under the tapestry. "That should be enough to fix the problem we're faced with... if we can tap into it without getting destroyed by it."

I swallowed at that last sentence of hers and looked up at the light shining from my horn. "According to Celestia and Twilight Sparkle, I should be able to manage that... I don't know how, but the least I can do is try."

"First we'll have to find it," Cadance noted, walking back to the doorway supposedly leading to a storage area, where the two pink earthponies were still waiting. "Let us start our exploring and perhaps we can find some old cake batter which would allow Pinkie here to make one of her famous cakes, hm?"

"And we'll see about that bedroom before Turkey falls over," Rainbow laughed. "That poor filly's been wobbling more and more since we arrived here. She's going to need a nap."

"H...hey," Turkey protested. "I'm still standing, aren't I?"

"Yeah, but you're not flying in my wing unless you take a nap," Rainbow Dash decided. "We might as well figure out what's beyond this door."

"Let me," April offered up, and I could feel her mana release from her as she used it to open the door in front of her with barely a flicker of the light she was still maintaining.

I smiled in her direction. She was getting better at controlling her magic now she's had to keep a light going for a while.

"Then we'll take this central doorway as discussed," I spoke out loud, using my own magic to push the double doors open and ducking my head down so I wouldn't bump my horn against the top of the doorway clearly designed for shorter ponies.

The wall between rooms was thicker than I expected and there was a short passage before I arrived at another double door.

I pushed it open in the hopes to get out of the more cramped space and was glad to find what looked like an elongated conference room, a rectangular stone table with a number of chairs set on either side of it placed in the center.

As I walked around it on the left side, I noticed the last chair on the right was missing; there were six stone chairs on the side where I was walking, but only five on the opposite.

I looked ahead past the table to the opposite end of the room from where we had entered, putting more energy into my horn to shine light on it.

A pedestal was placed opposite the end of the table, shards of reflective glass laying across and around it in a disorganised pattern.

The missing chair was resting on its side in this mess of broken glass, and I realised I had stumbled upon the last of the drawings from the hallway through which we had entered the temple.

"Well, I guess we found the mirror," I threw back to Spritelight and Discord coming up behind me.

Spritelight wandered around the table on the right side, Discord following closely behind.

"A conference room? They must have had contact with the group they sent back to Equestria then," the unicorn realised.

"And yet, the last of the ponies here obviously shattered the mirror here," I pointed out. "Maybe they lost contact with the others or were told something they didn't want to hear?"

"Perhaps they survived until the alliance fell apart?" Discord mused, rubbing the hairs on his chin thoughtfully.

"Maybe you should tell us how that happened, since you were alive when it did?" I suggested. "You may have been more interested in dragons, but you recognized the tapestry, so obviously you took notice of them."

Discord smirked weirdly. I wasn't so sure if it was admiration or regret I saw on his face.

"Oh, the alliance was doomed the moment they started to quarrel among themselves," he explained while walking toward the remains of the mirror and the pedestal upon which it once stood.

"The pegasi were told they could only fly according to the roadmap of their settlement, the unicorns were berated for using magic for everything, earthponies had a problem with humans not watching where they were walking," the draconequus listed. "They didn't need me to sow discord among themselves; they were doing fine on their own."

Spritelight perked up. "It's hard to believe there were humans left on Equestria after the split..."

"The wall paintings did show that," I pointed out. "I'm having trouble believing it myself, but Discord was there to see it."

"See it? I was there when it inevitably fell," Discord laughed. "Oh, what a chaos it was! Certainly drew my attention!"

With Spritelight and me staring him down, Discord quickly defended himself, "I had nothing to do with it, I swear! I was just there to drink in the view! It was a distraction from my affairs in the Dragon Lands, I'll tell you."

"Are you sure?" Spritelight wondered, not trusting her former teacher in the least bit.

Knowing what I knew of Discord from the show, I also had a hard time believing him.

"Quite sure, I will cross my heart and hope to die, sticking a cupcake in my eye, if that will prove it to you? That pink one does love tricking ponies into doing it to prove they are honest," the draconequus suggested with a motion of his feline paw in the direction of the door through which we entered the room.

"No need," I sighed. "We'll trust you for now. But this is obviously not the room the mana well is in."

"No, but I can sense it is close," Spritelight agreed.

"Yes," I offered back with a nod. "It's just a matter of finding the door leading to it."

Chapter 42, Josey 18

Spritelight and me turned away from the broken mirror and started to look around the room for other doors beside the one we had entered through.

Shining a light on the brickwork on my side of the room, I was surprised to notice it was marred by round holes large enough to stick a hoof into, spaced evenly from one another.

I wondered at the drawing in the entry hallway and the chair obviously thrown at the mirror.

These holes did not appear to be made in anger; they were too clean, too perfectly placed for it to have been done in any way other than meticulous planning.

"Spritelight, how's the wall on your side?" I called out, noticing that my voice disappeared into the brickwork and left no echo.

"There are a large number of holes in it," the unicorn called back from the other side of the room. "No door yet."

"It sounds like these holes are to keep conversations from creating an echo," I suggested in a loud enough voice for her to hear.

"Only natural for a room in which they would do teleconference calls, don't you think?" Discord added his two cents.

I looked over to where the draconequus was and found him moving shards of glass around in order to piece the mirror back together on the floor in front of the pedestal.

I decided to leave him to his devices and instead focused on exploring more of the wall.

Coming to the center of the room I realised there was a surge of energy passing over me which made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge.

I took another step and it was gone again.

Moving back, there was a thin strip where I could definitely feel this energy passing through me, but moving too far left or right from it made it almost unnoticeable.

"I think I found it," I called out. "There's a definite flow of mana coming from a spot here."

I turned my head to watch Spritelight make her way around the table to join me, and I motioned at where I had found the energy flowing through the wall.

I watched as the unicorn moved a little in a similar fashion I had; her own hairs standing on edge as she found the spot as if she was statically charged for a moment.

"This definitely feels like a source of mana in this otherwise dead room," she agreed with me. "The question is; is this just a gap in the brickwork or is there a door hidden somewhere?"

"I can't see a door; it's just bricks with holes in them. Nothing on the other side?" I answered, looking at where Spritelight had come from.

"Maybe it is hidden. Old buildings like these back on Equestria have a lot of secret doors in them leading into tight passageways running throughout them," Spritelight knew, looking carefully at the wall in front of her.

"How would we find such a door?" I asked, also looking over the wall; it was just brickwork with holes drilled into them, no noticeable panel or button or anything suggesting that a door was anywhere nearby.

"The idea is to hide them in plain sight," Spritelight considered. "Even a handle or button would be too obvious."

"There's just holes," I considered. "Don't tell me there's like... a switch or something in one of them?"

The smaller pony lifted her right forehoof up and placed it to one of the holes in front of her. "Big enough for even an earthpony leg."

"Are you really going to test that theory by pushing your leg into a random hole until you find it?" I worried.

Spritelight shook her head at me and then spread her mana out from her horn to cover a large area around her.

Ghostly images of her right forehoof appeared in the air near her, all lined up with the holes in the wall, and she smiled weakly.

"Why try one hole at a time when you can explore many?" she asked, pushing all of the magic hooves forward so they stuck into the wall.

There was a bit of magical wriggling of these ghostly limbs, but then there was an audible click.

All but one of these magic limbs disappeared, and Spritelight focused on the remaining one, moving it a little more until a second click was heard.

"That's more than just a pressure plate," I noted.

"Quiet please," the unicorn suggested with great focus on her face.

She turned the magical hoof a little as it still stuck in the hole in the wall, and a third click followed.

"This is a very well-designed lock. They didn't want this door to open for just any reason," Spritelight mused. "I hope this is the..."

Another move of the magic hoof caused a fourth click, but then part of the wall fell away from us to show an opening big enough for us to walk through.

As it did, a wave of mana poured out of this opening and washed over Spritelight and myself.

I had to take a step back from the ferocity with which it hit me, spreading my legs out a bit more to find my balance back.

"Found it, have you?" Discord grinned, popping up between us and laying his arms over both Spritelight and my withers.

Spritelight almost instantly ducked away from her former teacher and snorted at him. "Don't touch me..."

"Touchy, touchy," the draconequus chuckled, his eyes glimmering as he turned them to look sideways at me. "Can you feel the mana pouring out of there, mon pouliche?"

I gave him a curt nod. "Oh yes, that passageway leads to the mana well we're looking for. There's no doubt about it."

Discord plucked a sticker shaped like a gold star out of mid air and placed it on my nose. "Bingo. You get full credit. Just feel that raw power... Why, one could do so many fun things with even a small amount of that. Even here, just standing in the fumes, I feel reinvigorated!"

"Don't get any funny ideas," I warned him. "I may have been born human, but I don't fear you."

"What's there to fear about little old me?" Discord wondered, letting go of me and standing upright beside me. "No, no... I told you; I'm here to help you fix things. At least put a smile on that face of yours, hmm? We're in the last stretch now!"

I turned to look at him and noticed he was wearing an athletic tracksuit and was running in place.

"Not far now, coach! I can do it!" he told me, wiping some sweat off his brow.

I sighed and ducked my head down to take my first steps into this hidden passageway, the mana flowing past me filling me with an unearthly feeling of energy.

It was like being bombarded by the rays of the sun on a warm summer's day, but more ferocious. Like being in the desert for too long and feeling your skin get scorched.

Yet, at the same time, it felt rejuvenating. This energy was filling me like a... well, three-course meal.

It was enveloping me, encapsulating me, feeding me... and I wasn't even at the source of it; this was just the edge of it.

I shuddered as I fought against these feelings, moving my legs to walk further and further down this passage and noting it was sloped downward slightly.

Pushing onward, ever onward, I felt like I was wading into a pool of ever denser water. Molasses, something of a liquid which gave a pushback when you tried moving through it.

I heard a second group of hooves hit the ground behind me and spread my wings out a little to protect Spritelight from the onslaught of mana flowing her way.

"This is intense," I called out.

"I'm right behind you," Spritelight stated from closer than I thought she had been.

"Don't get overwhelmed by it. Take shelter behind me if you need to," I suggested.

"Already on it," the unicorn returned, nudging my tail with her horn. "Keep moving."

I felt like I couldn't let her down. She was the reason we had to do this, but also the reason I was now able to do this.

She had given me a new form, a new life, an understanding of magic.

I had to prove to her that I could use this understanding to stop the destruction of my world, and potentially hers with it given how they had once been one and the same.

I kept going on until we had passed by where the pedestal had been in the other room, then past where that room ended, and then it finally opened up before me.

This room was round, big, and illuminated by a giant ball of mana floating in its center.

I could barely look straight at it considering how my eyes had gotten used to the low light conditions before, and instead focused on other elements in the room.

The round wall had alcoves set in it which held bundles of something wrapped in light cloth. I instantly recognized these bundles from having played the odd game or two in which similar ones were depicted.

"...It's a mausoleum," I breathed out in shock. "Those are the final resting places of the deceased ponies."

"You don't mean," Spritelight gasped, coming up behind me on my left side since the big ball of mana was slightly off to our right.

I extended my left wing to better shield her from the continuous outpouring of energy from the center of the room.

"We haven't buried ponies like this for centuries," the unicorn beside me breathed out in shock.

"Of course you haven't; this place is over a thousand years old," Discord reminded us, not seeming to care whether he got blasted by the energy as he stepped out past me on my right side. "Are you paying attention to these statues?"

"What statues?" I asked, turning my attention to the center of the room as Discord motioned to it.

I had to squint my eyes to look into the light from the large ball of energy there, but then I noticed what he meant.

Set in a perfect circle in the center of the room were statues of unicorns all stood in a proud pose with their horns aimed toward the middle and slightly up.

The ball of energy was hanging in the perfect center between them, with all of their horns aiming straight at it.

Set beside the unicorns were equally proudly posed pegasi with their wings spread open, also aiming in the direction of the ball of mana.

Earthponies were stood in a similar fashion, staring up at this well of energy between them.

"This is how they created the mana well," I realised. "All those flows of energy you felt must lead here, to these statues."

Spritelight dared to peer past my left wing and gave a slow nod. "Yes, that must be it."

"It's the only explanation, look at how their horns are pointing straight at it. Even the pegasi have their wings aimed at it as if they were mirrors reflecting the energy to a single point," I pointed out, noticing how Spritelight was moving further from my shadow as her curiosity got the better of her.

I watched her take a few awkward steps but she appeared to acclimatise to the sheer volume of mana in this room, much the same as I was.

The longer I stayed in this overabundance of energy, the more it felt less like a stifling pressure and more like a warm blanket.

I moved my wing away from the unicorn and pointed it up behind me as I usually did, the ceiling in this room high enough to allow me this luxury.

"So, we've found the mana well we were looking for," I stated, watching Discord walk around the room taking everything in as much as we were doing. "Now what do we do with it?"

Chapter 43, Josey 19

Discord stopped walking near to a set of ponies laid to rest in their alcoves and I could see him lean forward to take a closer look at them.

Spritelight just stared at the mana well in the center of the room and shook her head. "Mana is more usually stored within a crystal, or a living tree, or some such. I've never before seen it contained in a ball like this."

"It's like the pegasus wings are placed in such a way that they form a shield of sorts," she pondered. "This was by design."

"Remember the drawings from the hallway; they started construction on the temple before all the unicorns had fallen," I remembered. "You think it was part of a larger plan?"

"Maybe just a pool to draw from to more easily create a portal between Equestria and Earth," Spritelight considered. "And perhaps even to make sure the humans had no easy access to magic as a way to protect themselves. Siphoning all this mana away from the world..."

"You know, there are legends about humans using magic in the past, but nothing recent. Some monks are thought to have abilities bordering on magic through deep meditation, but nothing like the stories of old," I mused. "Maybe this is the reason for it?"

"The continued draining of magic from the world in this fashion could very easily be the reason," the unicorn agreed. "Magic plants need to have their seedlings undisturbed as they sprout in mana-rich soil or they will wither away, and they're the primary way for mana to replenish."

I studied Spritelight's face as she spoke, noticing an air to her which I had seen before.

"You should consider taking up teaching when all of this is over," I pointed out. "You make me want to listen to you speak about how magic spreads around the world. Not just because of the task ahead of me, but also to know just how Equestria differs from Earth."

"Magic plants grow in magic soil, magic animals eat magic plants, and the dead return mana back to the soil again," Discord muttered, straightening his back again. "It's a circle of life and mana replenishment. Keeping these bodies here, wrapped up in a mausoleum, keeps their mana from returning to the soil."

"So, there's every indication they wanted to keep the humans from having access to magic," I decided. "Like Spritelight said."

"Considering what we saw depicted on the walls, it was likely to prevent a repeat of what happened before," the unicorn pondered, her gaze moving across the room. "Keeping all mana contained in this room would prevent humans from gaining the upper hand again and storming Equestria to get more captives."

"They did travel halfway across the world before settling here. They were very careful about it," I noted.

"Except for when they decided to leave their fallen comrades here," Discord remarked, motioning at the alcove beside him. "Not only did they keep the magic they had in life from returning to the soil, but these bodies have been filling up with more of it while resting here."

Spritelight and I turned to the alcove closest to us and I tried to sense the magic energy within the bundles before me.

"No, this might be by design as well," Spritelight considered.

I frowned as I could sense the energy coming from these dead ponies. I could clearly sense where they were in relation to the cold stone around them which was void of it.

"How do you figure it was by design?" I asked of Spritelight.

"How do you store a thousand years of energy if you don't want to use crystals or other storage which can only take a limited amount before breaking apart?" the unicorn asked me, motioning with her head at the dead pony beside us.

"Our bodies naturally take in mana from our surroundings," Spritelight spoke as if she were teaching a class. "If we don't use any of it, we simply store it inside ourselves until we're full of it. But we do use it even a little of it just by being alive, so there's a constant ebb and flow of mana in any living being."

"...but dead ponies don't use up the magic they store in themselves," I realised. "They're like batteries! And this temple was built to keep out moisture and other things which would cause them to rot away. A climate-controlled tomb."

"Not the most respectful of ways of dealing with the dead," the unicorn sighed, "but I can see where they were coming from."

"Why, it was because of these wonderful ponies that we now have this immense amount of mana at our disposal," Discord chortled, drawing our attention.

"Even just half of this would be enough to reshape the world to your own image," he continued as I raised my head to get a better look at him.

The shadow cast upon the wall behind him by the light of the ball of energy in the center of the room seemed to grow and darken as the draconequus spoke and I started to feel worried seeing it.

"Just imagine how beautiful Earth could be under new management," Discord suggested, now suddenly wearing a manager's gilet over his oddly shaped body.

"Discord, are you doing okay over there?" I asked, cautiously. I had seen from the show what happened when he went out of control, and I had no interest being there when it happened.

"Oh, I'm absolutely fine, just fine," he returned, peering at the orb of mana in the center of the room. "Just being here in this room is charging us up with the mana it draws from the world around us, haven't you ponies noticed? It's not just the dead who get charged."

I considered his words, then tried to figure out how I could tell how much mana I had actually stored within myself. "How... would you know?"

Discord was beside me in the blink of an eye, leaning against my right side, and whispered in my right ear. "Just feel for the energy inside. That force of life which is eager to come out and play. The pressure of barely withheld music ready to pop on stage if only you decided to let it loose."

I flicked my ear at him and took a half-step away to get some distance from the draconequus. Ever since my transformation I had felt this sensation in the back of my mind, a sort of background noise of available energy which I had manifested through my horn in the form of magic.

I had been aware of it, but had been using it more instinctively than I was sure Spritelight was doing. I lacked the training she'd had back in Equestria.

Focusing on it now, there was definitely more of a metaphysical pressure within. Like that bloated feeling you get when you've eaten too much and your stomach is distended.

I felt it somewhat naturally gravitate to my horn as I put my attention on it, but then remembered what Luna had told me about the way Celestia and her were using their mane and tail to offload excess energy.

I directed this pressure into my mane, into my tail, letting it flow freely through the individual strands of hair. The pressure subsided almost instantly, went down to a low simmer, and then stayed there at a more comfortable level.

Opening my eyes again, I found Spritelight staring at me with an annoyed look on her face, while Discord could barely contain his proud smile.

"What?" I wondered, looking behind myself to see my tail moving behind me in the air as if a gust of wind was continuously moving through it.

As it moved, the green hairs were shimmering like small emeralds were woven through them and were reflecting the light from the orb in the center of the room.

I moved my head more until I could catch sight of my mane and noticed it was doing much the same as my tail.

"Oh, that worked out better than I had imagined," I exclaimed, turning my attention back to the others.

Discord had taken to wearing an old press outfit and was aiming a photo camera at me. "Strike a pose, Josey. Oh, our little girl is growing up so fast."

Spritelight narrowed her eyes at her teacher's antics, then frowned in my direction. "I'm just not going to ask how you've managed to do that."

"A little trick Luna taught me," I suggested back to the unicorn. "You should be able to do it yourself with the energy floating around in this room, although it might be more dificult a trick to perform when we're not being bombarded with mana to replenish our own energy."

Spritelight raised an eyebrow at that.

"Just send your excess energy out through your mane and tail instead of your horn, I suppose," I explained to the student of magic. "Luna suggested it's how Celestia and herself keep from overloading on mana, but also said that unicorns may not have enough mana to do it under normal circumstances."

Discord took a photograph and half-blinded me with the flash. "Why, I'd almost ask you to help me teach the youngsters, Josey dear. In my case I just summon assorted items around myself in order to offload the energy at my disposal."

"So I've seen," I coughed uneasily. "I'd say the mane thing is less disruptive."

"But also less fun," Discord posited, manifesting a cup of tea to sip from, the press kit and camera gone in the same instant.

I sighed at his antics, noting Spritelight was turning to watch the orb in the center of the room again beside him.

"You know you've always given me a headache?" I asked of the Draconequus. "You just never seem to take things seriously. How much of a mask is it, I wonder? There's just the three of us here."

Discord simply sipped from his drink, but Spritelight drew my attention away from him.

She clearly had taken my instructions to heart as her mane and tail started to move and shimmer.

Her light blue hairs made the light reflecting off them look like light reflecting off the waves on a clear blue ocean.

It looked good on her, even if it was an awkward thing to see on a unicorn rather than an alicorn.

"How are you doing, Spritelight?" I wondered, knowing how much of my own energy was flowing into my hairs to maintain the appearance.

She turned to look back at me, a bead of sweat rolling down her forehead as she did.

"I definitely wouldn't be able to do this without an external source of mana to tap into," she returned in a slow but deliberate statement.

"Too much of a drain?" I surmised. "Too bad; it looks good on you."

She dared to smile at the compliment, turning her head to look back at her magic at work.

"It does, doesn't it?" she realised, but then had to drop the effect a moment after. "It was nice to try once, but the drain is too much to maintain."

"Perhaps you should wait until after you become an alicorn?" Discord suggested, bending over awkwardly to be able to look at Spritelight at her height.

"Shut up," Spritelight bit to him, shaking her head to make her mane fall back in place properly. "Like that's ever going to happen."

"Oh, like you're not as smart with magic as Twilight Sparkle? She managed to push through the boundary, so why can't you?" Discord posed with a grin.

I considered the possibility. "There's something to that, honestly. And, you know, Cadance got a special consideration or something. I'm sure I can put a good word in for you with Celestia?"

The unicorn dashed forward in the direction of the door to the room, clearly aiming to get out from between Discord and myself, then turned around to face us, her cheeks flushed.

"I'll get there if I get there on my own. I don't need help from either of you," she protested.

"Get where?" a voice called out from the passage behind Spritelight, and I could barely see Cadance approaching us, struggling to put one hoof in front of the other as she battled the strong force from the mana well in the center.

"Oh, Cadance," I spoke, rushing past Spritelight and raising my wings up to block the flow of mana to the hallway. "Let me help you. You should acclimatise to it once you're in the room with us, but it's a bit of a struggle to get there."

"Thank you Josey," the other princess sighed out as the ferocity of the energy hitting her let up a little. "You found the mana well then?"

"What does it look like?" Spritelight grumbled, nodding her head back at the orb in the center of the room.

"Enough power in this room to create a new Equestria, if we would so choose," Discord offered up. "The ponies who built this place have done a marvellous job collecting it for us."

I saw the twitch in Cadance's right eye because I was close to her, but she managed to keep her composure fairly well regardless.

"Well, I'd rather go back to the Equestria I know and love, if you don't terribly mind, Discord?" she called out past me, stopping her forward motion after arriving in the room proper.

I was still shielding her from the blast of energy, but I knew it was bouncing off the floor, walls, and ceiling as much as coming at us directly. I considered for a moment that my own body was radiating almost as much mana now.

"Oh, I love what you've done with your hair, Josey," Cadance suggested, looking me over. "Taking a page out of Celestia's book?"

"Luna, actually," I returned with a smile. "She's been far more helpful for me to learn how to use my magic; I'm more instinctive like Luna is."

"Ah, yes," the other alicorn agreed. "There's something to be said for building a magic spell with a cool head, but I fell short of the more instinctive magic used against me by Chrysalis when she displaced me. I tried to learn it as well but I'm too set in my ways."

"Ah, well, we're both a lot younger than those two. Maybe we can get together with Twilight Sparkle after this is all over and work on our understanding of magic?" I remarked. "Let me know when you feel prepared enough for me to drop my wings."

"Ah, a moment longer please?" Cadance warded off. "I am feeling stronger by the moment, but this is an amount of energy I have not felt before. It is intense."

"And so tempting," Discord mused, stroking his chin. "If we didn't need this to save the worlds, I would have loved to play with it."

"About that; we're miles under the surface, aren't we? How are we going to get this energy back up to defeat the wall of flesh coming our way?" Spritelight wondered, having regained her own composure.

"Why, we lift the temple to the surface and take the top off, of course," Discord answered as if it was the most natural of solutions to think of.

"You... lift the temple?" I repeated, not having considered it myself.

"Oh yes, that's the easy part," Discord returned with a smile. "After that, you're going to have to figure out how to use this to restore the borders between worlds and restore the damages done. I don't envy you."

"I'm not sure this ancient brickwork can handle being moved that far," Spritelight considered, looking around. "And if we open the ceiling to the atmosphere, these bodies are going to decompose rapidly. They're only held together by the mana flooding them."

"Bodies?" Cadance asked, peering past my left wing.

I lowered my left wing enough for her to see past more clearly, motioning with a nod from my head in the direction of the many alcoves set in the walls.

"The ponies here have slept for centuries. I would rather not disturb their final resting place any more than we have already done," I spoke. "We need a different plan."

Chapter 44, Josey 20

"Actually, I'm going to say Discord's plan isn't that far-fetched," Spritelight spoke, turning her attention to the ceiling above the mana well. "If you look at the brickwork up there, there's a larger gap between the middle four panels than the surrounding ones."

I took a step closer after ensuring Cadance could take the force of the mana pouring into her, looking up as well.

She was right in her statement; directly above the mana well was a noticeable gap in the brickwork.

"My senses are too overwhelmed by the mana in this room, but I'm sure that leads up to somewhere else. Somewhat like the traces leading up here from the temple's entrance," Spritelight mused.

"Perhaps there's a room above this one?" Cadance supposed, daring a step closer to the orb of energy in the center of the room. "This reminds me of the Crystal Heart in the Crystal Empire; a place for energy to gather so it can be used to protect the kingdom. It won't do anything on its own unless the energy is tapped into somehow."

"Of course! Why didn't I think of that? The murals in the hallway leading up to this temple showed us a portal, right? They had created a portal to Equestria, and the mirror from the other room was used for communication?" I recalled.

"Right, but it took them a lot of powerful unicorns to create the portal in the first place. The murals showed the unicorns died from a disease and only the earthponies were left," Spritelight realised. "Maybe there could be a device in a room adjacent to this one to allow them to siphon the energy so earthponies could use it as well?"

"Well now," Discord chuckled. "We'll just have to have a look, won't we? Do we do this the easy way or the boring way?"

"Boring way," I decided. "There's bound to be a hallway leading up to it. We might just have to go back to the communal room to find the right door. Perhaps it is hidden."

Discord rolled his eyes and took on an annoyed stance. "It's your party, but I'll have you know we'd be done so much quicker if only you'd let me do my thing."

"Your thing entails pulling this temple apart just to see its inner workings. We might break something in the process. This temple has stood for millennia without anypony interfering with it," Spritelight scoffed.

"You're talking about this place as if it's an ancient clockwork," Discord chuckled, a large wind-up key appearing on his back and rotating slowly.

"We won't find out unless we get a move on," I suggested, turning back for the entry into the room and stepping past Cadance to head into the cramped passage. I had to charge energy into my horn to light my way as it was a deep dark chasm compared to the brightly lit room I was leaving.

As I walked away from the mana well through the hallway leading up to it, I noticed how well the brickwork dampened the energy to prevent it from leaking into the communal room beyond.

Each step deeper into the hallway felt like something was taken away from me as the ambient energy dropped away to ever lower levels.

Once I reached the room with the pedestal in it, I could barely feel the surge of energy which had initially revealed the existence of the hidden passageway to me. It had only been a short amount of time since then, but I had been at a much lower energy level when I had uncovered it.

Now, I was buzzing with energy myself. I had a full tank of mana stored within myself, so to speak. In comparison, the leakage from the passage was barely anything of note.

Cadance soon popped into view, her own horn glowing as brightly as mine did, and I stepped aside to allow her to walk out into the room proper.

"You weren't here when we found this passage, but it was actually hidden away behind a fake wall," I revealed to her. "I'm thinking the same might hold true for this other room we're looking for."

Cadance briefly glanced back at the wall surrounding the passage she had just left, then gave a thoughtful nod.

"More than likely," she said. "I believe most ancient structures have hidden doors like it. It is certainly true for the Crystal Palace I reside in, and for the Royal Palace in Canterlot."

"The Palace of the Two Sisters has them too," I knew. "It's like these ancient architects all loved their hidden doors."

"It is likely another hidden door would have a similar mechanism as this one. How did you come upon this?" Cadance asked. "We might be able to use the same method to find the other door."

I drooped my head a little at the thought. "No, I only found this one because it was radiating mana through the cracks. I doubt the room we are looking for has as much energy behind it. It was indistinguishable from the rest of the wall otherwise."

"Maybe I can detect it?" Spritelight offered as she stepped out of the passageway. "After all, I did attune myself to the mechanism which opened this one? We're just looking for a wall with holes in it."

I smiled at her. "That sounds like a plan. We'll go through this room first, then meet up with the others and check the rooms they're in."

"How methodical of you ponies," Discord chuckled as he came up behind Spritelight.

He clambered out of the small passageway as if he had walked through it on all fours, his long body stretching up again now there was more space in this room we were all in.

"How would you do it?" I asked him pointedly.

"Ah, it would be so much easier to see the rooms if we did away with the ceiling so we could peer over the walls, wouldn't it?" Discord suggested.

He opened the palm of his feline paw and a hologram of a three-dimensional mockup of the room we were in appeared floating above it. He then took the ceiling off it and crumpled it up as if it was a wad of paper before throwing the holographic crumpled paper beind him where it disappeared into nothingness.

"Or just remove the walls altogether," the draconequus continued.

He picked at the individual walls of his little scale model until there were none left, then closed his claw around the pieces he had picked up in this fashion. When it opened anew, there was an open doorframe instead of a crumpled wad of holographic walls on his palm. He then promptly placed this in a seemingly random position on the scale model.

I realised the location where he placed the door was where one of the walls had been just before, and turned around to face that way in the room properly.

"What would be the chances Discord accidentally-on-purpose showed us where the other hidden door was?" I mused out loud.

Spritelight walked up to my left side and looked sideways up at me. "I hate how we're thinking the same thing."

"Oh, you ponies know me so well, it's adorable," Discord cooed as he wrapped his arms around Spritelight and my own necks, sticking his head between ours.

"Unfortunately," Spritelight grumbled. She then used her magic to stab at the holes in the wall before us like she had done before. All the metaphysical hooves she manifested to test for the possible location of a switch disappeared, except for one.

I looked sideways down at her. "He's your teacher."

The unicorn looked back up at me. "He's somehow infatuated with you."

Discord just gloated as he hovered between us. "Oh, stop it. You're making me blush."

I watched as Spritelight used her magic to feel out at the door lock embedded in the wall. "Similar to the other door. Different settings, but the same mechanism. If I do this... and got it."

The wall opened up to reveal a similar passage to the one on the other side of the room, with the floor very clearly leading upward.

"Okay, that clearly leads to the room we want to go to," I noted. "Let's wake the others up so we can tell them about our findings and do this properly."

"Do you really want an audience for this?" Spritelight wondered with a raised eyebrow.

"Not an audience; support," I pointed out. "There's a reason we ended up having two of every pony race in our group. We're going to need the combined efforts of all of us considering this temple was built to unite them all here. This won't work if it all rests on my shoulders and the magic I can call forth."

"Given what I know of fate's workings, Josey's right," Cadance agreed.

"We're putting the band back together," Discord added, wearing a pair of dark sunglasses and a pork pie hat. He had somehow managed to squeeze his lanky body in a black suit with tie, completing the look.

"We're on a mission from God," I quoted back at him.

"Let's not tell April that," Spritelight warned. "Religion means a lot to humans, I've found."

"It's from a movie," I told Spritelight flatly. "I'm fairly sure Discord doesn't care where he gets his material from. I know he deflected it earlier, but he very much reminds me of another kind of creature from popular media on my world."

"Oh, and here I thought you knew me so well; a joke only lands if the audience knows what the references are," Discord felt the need to teach us. "Pinkie Pie suggested that there's a lovely amount of discord in the art of entertainment."

"Don't go full Pinkie Pie, please. We already have two of them and that's one too many," I warned the Draconequus. "Let's wake the others up so you can bother them instead of attaching yourself to my metaphysical hip."

I felt a weight land on my right hip and turned my head to look in that direction. Discord was now seated across my back, legs on one side, and part of his snake like body used as a counterweight on the other.

"That wasn't an invitation," I told him flatly.

"Oh, but you're ever-so-comfortable to rest on," he protested, not moving from where he sat.

I moved my wings to flap at him and he begrudgingly disappeared into thin air.

"Fine, be that way. Cadance is more comfortable anyway," he spoke, now seated across Cadance's back in much the same way.

The princess looked befuddled at being used at furniture as well, but then recovered and narrowed her eyes at the draconequus.

"Three weeks of foal-sitting," she simply stated.

"Bah, you're no fun," Discord huffed, popping up next to Cadance in as full an upright position as the room allowed him.

"So, princess Cadance, you left Pinkie Pie and Patty Cannon after they joined up with April, Turkey and Rainbow Dash?" I remembered, "So we'd find them all in the sleeping quarters, then?"

"Unless something happened to part them, yes," Cadance responded. "But do call me Cadance. We're both princesses, or do you keep forgetting that?"

"Kinda," I answered truthfully. "I'm going to need to talk to a therapist after all this is over. Too much has happened in too short amount of time."

"Ah, quite. If you have a chance to come visit the Crystal Empire, I have just the pony for the job," Cadance suggested as she led the way toward the entrance of the temple and the sleeping quarters not far off from it.

"If the walls between worlds won't break over it, and if this pony thing sticks, I might have to hold you up on that," I chuckled weakly, following directly after her.

Upon passing Discord, I gave the draconequus a sideglance but he feigned ignorance for his antics, and I turned my attention to Spritelight as she joined me to my right side instead.

"All signs point to there being a tuning crystal in that room," she offered her thoughts on the situation. "You're about as much in control of your magic as I am, which is honestly a little bothersome given how much I have had to train to get where I am today."

"I'm having the worst trial by fire in that regard, I'll tell you," I chuckled. "Zero out of ten, can't recommend it."

"Zero out of ten?" Spritelight repeated with a rise of her left eyebrow.

"Internet lingo; rating life's situations as if they were products. Sometimes using five stars, or just an ambiguous number like ten, where the larger number is usually the better," I explained quickly to this student of magic. "I honestly feel like I might prefer your way of getting used to it over a longer period of time. It's much less potentially world-ending."

"Ah," Spritelight spoke, but clearly didn't quite grasp what the use of my statement was.

Her bland reaction made me realise the dissonance between her experiences on Earth and mine in Equestria; where I was helped by ponies at every step, she had to figure out how my world worked all by herself. The experiences, like our rightful homes, were worlds apart.

Chapter 45, Josey 21

We passed through the large communal room without talking with one another, Cadance taking the lead into the side door to the sleeping quarters, Spritelight and myself following behind her, and Discord pulling up the rear.

Spritelight seemed to consider the differences between our two homeworlds as much as I had, or was otherwise lost in thought, and I was taking the chance to collect myself.

So much had happened, and I needed to ground myself in reality to try and not forget what it was we were fighting for; both worlds were at stake, and a lot of people on both sides relied on us stopping this nonsense.

There was my family, Rhonda / Patty Cannon, and our combined group of online and offline friends. There were the ponies in Equestria, whose antics we had followed first on the show we both watched, but then as part of a collective of actually existing beings on a world beside ours, just a dimension hop away.

There was a lot riding on my shoulders, not the least of which being the regal wings which were part of my new pony form. A lot of beings with their unique lives and needs and wants who would be negatively impacted if we failed to do this thing... whatever this thing ended up being.

Spritelight, Discord, and even Cadance put so much trust in my ability to figure it out once we got to the room the supposed crystal was in, it was honestly a bit too much pressure.

The door to the sleeping quarters opened up to a larger hallway than the entryway into the temple or both passages to the mausoleum and the room above it, more doors interspaced on either side of it.

With Cadance's light shining the way, I could see it reflect off a T-junction up ahead, making me consider just how far this reached through the supposed lowermost level of this pyramid-like structure.

Now was not the time for further exploration, considering we were on a schedule to prevent the end of the world, but perhaps once it was all over someone should map it all out.

Cadance walked up to the third door on the left and gave a gentle knock on it with her right forehoof. No answer was forthcoming, so she repeated the gesture, a little louder this time.

With no response from the room beyond, she turned to look back in our direction and chuckled. "I'm sure they are all fast asleep."

"I wish we could let them dream," I sighed, hoping their dreams were a lot more soothing than the reality of the situation we were in.

Cadance gave a solemn nod to my words but used her magic to open the door regardless. A loud snoring immediately washed out of the space and I felt my ears flop down and back to protect against it.

The other princess was undeterred and strode forward into the bedroom. I dared not follow since I didn't know how much room there was for all of us to potentially file in to.

The hallway offered a lot more space for us to spread out in than the rooms, I figured.

I did look in as Cadance took up position in the center of the room beyond, and noted the space beyond with its bunkbed arrangement on either side of the door and to the far wall, allowing for eight ponies to rest in it.

This was clearly not a bedroom meant for comfort, but a sparsely decorated one close to the entrance of the temple, most likely intended for guards to rest in between shifts.

A moment passed with Cadance looking around herself, the light she emitted from her horn protruding out through the doorway, but then suddenly her voice called out like a mother scorned;

"Rainbow Dash, wake up!" she exclaimed as if the pegasus had done something utterly despicable. I wondered why she chose that particular tone of voice, but it was very effective as the snoring stopped instantly.

Rainbow Dash's voice called out in a sudden panic, her sleep so rudely interrupted; "Huh? What? I'm up, I'm up! Where's the fire?"

"Oh damn, that was louder than Dash's snoring," Turkey's voice followed, the other pegasus shook in a similar fashion.

"That wasn't loud," Pinkie retorted, somehow her cheery self already even with the rude awakening.

"If you want loud, there's this..." Patty Cannon started in almost as cheerful a manner, but was interrupted by April.

"Oh God, no. Save me from these two," she decried, a slight slurring to her voice as if she had far more trouble waking.

"Calm down, all," Cadance interjected. "It would probably be unwise to shoot a cannon in this temple, Patty dear."

"Aww, you're right. I'll save it for when we're outside again. The hills here might create a nice echo," Patty Cannon agreed.

"Echo!" Pinkie giggled.

"Echo echo!" Patty Cannon laughed.

"That's enough, you two," Turkey grumbled. "We get the gist of it."

Their voices were crisp and clearly audible in the hallway we were standing in, the conversation easy to follow, and my mind was filling in the blanks of what I couldn't see myself.

It would be very Pinkie-like for Patty to pull a cannon out of whatever dimensional space her and Pinkie had access to and place it in the room with them, even if I had trouble making it out from where I stood.

My belly rumbled at the idea of a patty being shot out of such a cannon, perhaps covered in juicy salad, sauces, and placed between two parts of a sesame-seed covered bun, placed on a plate in front of me.

A vegetarian patty, that is. I was a pony now and I wasn't sure I could stomach meat as I was.

Cadance wrangled the waking group and filled them in about our findings, which led to the occasional outcry of surprise or anguish. I felt a shiver run through my form as I recalled the sight of the mausoleum.

I had been too occupied with the ferocity of the energy assaulting me from the center of the room, but it was still an eerie idea to have a room full of dead people like that.

When Cadance mentioned the room above it and the potential for a tuning crystal to be located there, Spritelight nudged me in the right foreleg.

"What's up, Spritelight?" I wondered as I turned my attention down to her.

"What I was trying to say earlier," she returned. "When we get to that crystal, be careful reaching out to it with your magic. If it is as old as this building and has been charging up with mana all that time, it might as well contain the energies of those ponies down in the room below it."

"The... energies of those ponies?" I repeated. "You mean their souls?"

"Not really their souls, but more the hopes and dreams they were unable to realise in their lifetimes. Echoes, not true souls," she explained. "I've read about such crystals and other magical items in Equestria reacting strangely, as if they had conflicting ideas about how they should be put to use."

"A little like the Tree of Harmony Twilight Sparkle and her friends had interactions with, then. There was a clear push from it to move the element bearers down a particular path so they would learn to use their innate powers," I mused. "I had wondered about that."

"I don't know about this tree," Spritelight stated defensively. "If it was a living tree, then it might have had its natural energies warped by the magic imbued in it. Our magic wants to flow out into the world around us, and it is up to us to guide it to do constructive things, or it will lead to... well, him."

Spritelight turned herself around to pointedly look at Discord, who suddenly had a deer-in-headlights look.

"What did I do now?" he warded off. "I swear, you ponies think I'm guilty even when I'm not plotting things."

"You do have a track record," I suggested to him. "Spritelight was just explaining how magic has a tendency to get chaotic when not constrained."

"Oh? Oh, yes. Not sure what that has to do with me, I'm the least chaotic person in our merry band of misfits," Discord replied, a halo appearing above his head to illustrate his point.

"Given Pinkie Pie and Patty Cannon seem to be two peas in a pod, I could see that. They might very well be able to outdo you," I agreed.

April walked out of the room before I had fully finished my sentence, her mane looking frazzled like anyone's hair would in the morning.

"Oh, Spritelight! I didn't see princess Luna this time, I don't think. I'm not even sure I had a dream, actually," she spoke as a complete non sequitur.

"Luna always checks in on our dreams, but she won't show herself unless she needs to intervene," Spritelight knew. "Come over here and let me comb your mane out, it's an absolute mess. I'm sure I'll have to do it for Turkey as well once she's good and ready to come out."

"Oh, how sweet of you to care for one of your pupils. It reminds me of when I had to clean you up after one of your magic spells went awry. Good times," Discord reminisced. "How far you have come since."

Spritelight grumbled and just focused on using her magic to smoothen out April's mane, ignoring Discord as he wiped away an imaginary tear like he was a proud parent witnessing their child achieving a milestone of sorts.

"So the plan is to get to some crystal and then what?" April asked of Spritelight.

She winced a bit a moment afer as some of her hairs were tugged at by the other unicorn's magic.

"Josey is going to have to do the brunt of the work; tapping into the tuning crystal and then letting us know what she expects of us," Spritelight explained matter-of-factly. "If there's a need for you to unleash your magic, just do what you're told by her. I'm sure we'll all need to put in some work to get through this."

"Ah, okay. Follow orders, then. That's not too different from things at the school you picked me up at," April chuckled wearily. "I'll try to listen better than I did there."

"Yes please," I asked of her. "I'm not sure what is going to happen, or how to describe it when it does come to that, so try to make sense of things from what little guidance I can give in the moment. I'll have to trust you're here with us for a reason, so you have it in you to jump in when needed."

"Yes ma'am," April agreed, turning her eyes upward in an attempt to see what Spritelight was doing with her mane.

"Hold still," Spritelight chided. "How did you get your mane so entangled? You've been asleep for only a short amount of time. How much have you been tossing and turning?"

"Fussy, fussy," Discord chuckled, but there was a glint of pride on his face at seeing how much effort the unicorn put in to help another out.

Given what I knew of Spritelight and her brusque behavior before, I could see how much the recent experiences had mellowed her down. I was sure Turkey had a hoof or two to do with that. They were very clearly an item in the same fashion Rhonda / Patty Cannon and myself were, even if they had only known one another for a short amount of time in comparison.

"Okay, that's your mane done," Spritelight finally decided, and I gave April an agreeing nod.

"Yeah, that looks a lot better. Have you ever considered doing that for a living, Spritelight? You know, once this is all over and done with you might want to open a hair salon?" I teased.

"No thanks, I just unentangled the hairs and let them fall into place. I wouldn't know how to do more than that," the unicorn replied.

She then turned for the door to the room as another pony exited and smiled broadly. "Turkey! Okay, your turn to get your mane sorted, get over here."

"Still, I'm getting this motherly vibe from how you're dealing with those two. You could work at a daycare or something?" I pressed.

"Oh please, she'd throw the foals in the nearest well if they got on her nerves," Turkey responded. "Spritelight's temper is--ack! Don't tug so hard!"

"Don't conspire against me then," Spritelight threw back, working her magic on the pegasus' mane.

"At least get out of her range before making a dig about her," I suggested to Turkey. "Although I feel like you might be a glutton for punishment seeing how you two interact with one another. You fell for her hook, line, and sinker didn't you?"

"It's not every day you get to become a pony and be part of a world-changing event," the other remarked. "My life as a human was pretty bland in comparison to what Spritelight has given me. I have no way to thank her for opening me to this reality besides sticking to her side whatever may come."

"Well, you better do your best when we get to the crystal. And be sure to not break a wing or something while doing so; I don't know how to mend those and I'm not sure when we can get you to a doctor," Spritelight grumbled. "Also, don't die on me. I have got to show you Equestria before this is all over."

"I'll do my best," the pegasus trusted to her.

"Are the rest of you ready to get going as well?" I called out into the bedroom, wondering what was keeping them.

Patty Cannon was beside me the moment after I stopped talking, instantly nuzzling into me. "I'm ready, Freddy!"

"Party cannon locked and loaded," Pinkie Pie offered while wearing a US army military helmet from the world war two era, saluting me from where she stood beside Patty Cannon.

I noticed how serious her facial expression was and instantly glanced at whether the hairs escaping from under the helmet were straight or curly. They were curly, and I sighed with some relief.

"It's high time to put this show back on track and put smiles on everypony's faces again," Pinkie continued. "We need to put our best hoof forward and give them the show of a lifetime."

I nodded at Pinkie Pie, but then turned my attention back to the room again. "What's the hold up, Rainbow Dash?"

"I'm coming, I'm coming, jeez," Rainbow Dash whined as she dragged herself out of the room as well, closely followed by Cadance.

"Knowing how fast you can be, it's a rare occurance to see you almost being the last one out, Rainbow Dash," I noted.

"I needed a moment to pat my mane down again," she tried. "Looking this cool takes work, you know?"

"You should've let Spritelight here do the honours," I chuckled.

"No thank you, I'm more than capable of doing it myself," Rainbow suggested.

"She slept so deep that she didn't even wake up when Pinkie and I joined them to rest up," Patty offered up.

"Deep, and loud," Cadance remarked from behind the blue pegasus mare. "That snoring earlier was pretty much all from her."

"I don't snore," Rainbow Dash protested with a huff. "I've never heard myself snore."

"Of course you haven't," I sighed. "If we're all here now, let's head over to the room we found so we can figure out how to stop this thing."

Chapter 46, Josey 22

The group of nine of us filed away from the sleeping quarters through the common room, the mirror room, and then into the passageway we had found.

Given my assigned role as the defacto leader of this weird expedition, I took point into the tight space, followed closely by Spritelight who wanted to be one of the first to figure out whether her idea of a tuning crystal was correct or not.

The hallway clearly tilted upward to a higher floor and seemed to have no end to it until I hit a turn leftways.

I turned the corner, then was almost immediately met with another turn leftways.

I turned the corner again to find another long passageway up.

There was nothing to it but to follow this further, leading us closer to the tip of this rough pyramid-shaped temple.

With it buried under the soil of Yellowstone Park, there was little I could say about its actual shape from the outside of it. It could be styled more like the Egyptian pyramids, or more like the Mesoamerican ones.

In either case, this passageway once again ended in a corner, this way bending to the right, and another corner like it following directly behind it.

If I could judge where we were in relation to the mirror room, we might be dead center above it now.

The remainder of the hallway ended when I walked up to a stone facade, a circular carving set in the middle of it. A thin support coming up from the bottom center of this circle led up to a diamond shape. A widening beam projected out from this diamond's right upper facet to the edges of the circle surrounding it again.

I moved to my left as much as possible in the cramped space, turning my head a bit to glance back at the unicorn following me.

"Another hidden switch for this door? Or how does it open?" I wondered.

Spritelight tried squeezing past me, and I had to press my legs together to give her enough room to do so until she had managed to pass me by.

She studied the logo on this facade blocking our way, then looked to the wall left and right of it with a pensive look on her face.

"I don't... honestly know. Let me try to sense what is going on," she offered.

Her horn glowed stronger as she tried to find a hidden mechanism in the stone surrounding us, her magic scanning the area in a slow but deliberate fashion.

Now having felt her magic at work twice before, I could actually feel the way she sent ripples of energy around her as if it was a form of echolocation, relying on the feedback from it reflecting back to her to give her an indication of what the state of things was.

I waited for her to conclude her investigation, and watched as she put her right forehoof up against the diamond shape in front of us.

"There's a very thin, barely noticeable split straight down the middle of this diamond. I'm pretty sure it's two doors closed up so tightly together that it appears to be a solid wall. If I just push here," she listed as she pushed her hoof forward.

The facade before us split in two, both sides swinging open as smoothly as if they were guided by electronic motors, until I could hear them 'click' in place when they met with the walls inside the space they had swung open into.

"And that's now locked open, huh..." Spritelight commented, daring to take the first steps into the room ahead.

I followed to find a square room, the ceiling of which was a stepped inside of a pyramid shape upward, leading to a single point in the center of the room. Directly below it, held in place by a circular harness suspended from the ceiling by two metal wires, was a large crystal.

Spritelight opted to turn clockwise around it, and I decided to go counter-clockwise to allow the others to file into the room as well.

As I rounded the crystal, I counted the facets on it; four triangular faces on top, four similar ones below. The metal ring held itself to the widest part of the crystal at the four tips there.

The crystal itself was almost fully clear, with a blue sheen to it like it was a type of glass which was expertly crafted to let through only a specific wavelength of light. I could tell it wasn't glass, or not any that we humans would consider such. This thing was something crafted with magic, using a technique long since lost to time.

I peered through one of the facets at the others filing into the room and staring up at it in as much awe as I must have. Their bodies appeared warped through the prismatic effect of the crystal, their colours different from how I knew them.

The blue coat of Rainbow Dash looked more purple, yet had a green shimmer to it. Pinkie Pie's pink coat appeared far more like a red tone, with a yellow sheen to it. It was a wild chromatic shift I had difficulty coming to terms with, so I turned my eyes downward in the hopes of finding the hole leading to the mausoleum and the mana well present there.

There was a cap on the floor beneath the crystal; a very clearly marked ring surrounding a small cylindrical stop which was cut in four sections. Each section was seated on a small shelf of sorts, itself embedded in a gutter in the floor. Nearer to me, and several of the others in the room with me now, was a small hoofhold mounted to this shelf as if it was a mechanism for pulling the four sections apart.

"It's an iris. A very old style, but an iris nonetheless," Spritelight commented, having snuck up to my right side again. "That ring can only be removed by magical means; there's a ward on it. Once it's removed, these sliding sections open up the passage below so the mana well's energy can project up into this crystal."

I gave a nod to her explanation.

"Yes, I can see how that works. So this thing has not loaded itself up with the souls of the dead below, then?" I queried, feeling a little more relaxed now I supposedly wouldn't have to fight the effects of such.

"Doesn't look like it, no. This crystal is pristine. It looks like it remained untouched from the day it was made and placed in this room. I'm not sure it has ever been put to use," she breathed with barely held back awe. "I have never seen anything so precious in my life. Any archeologist, or student of magic of yore, would give their left foreleg to find something like this."

"It's a virgin crystal," I realised from her words. "Left here by its creators in the hopes it would never have to be used?"

"Pretty much. But that gives us a new problem; it is an untested crystal. We don't know if it will do what it was created to do," Spritelight pointed out.

"It looks like some glass we use here on Earth; in our case it blocks out ultraviolet light, but this does something different? It's got a weird prism effect," I pointed out.

Spritelight stared into the crystal directly, and I could see others looking right back through it at her.

"Four sides, eight facets total. There are nine of us; two earthponies, two unicorns, two pegasi, two alicorns, and one Discord," spritelight listed. "Four of us can fly, four of us cannot. Discord is the odd one out, but we can each take a facet beside that."

"Oh, what, you're going to exclude your dear old teacher now we're getting to the fun stuff?" Discord whined.

"I don't know what this crystal is going to do, and that scares me to no end," Spritelight commented with great respect for the item before us. "There are only eight facets, unless you're seeing something we're not seeing?"

"No, no, you're right. Of course you're right," Discord sighed sadly. "I'm sure the ponies who built this place didn't take little old me into account when they built this."

"Did you even exist on Equestria when they ended up here? Were they aware of your existence?" I noted, recalling some things the Draconequus had let slip. "This was obviously meant to be a last stand sort of thing for them, here on a hostile world. You can't hold it against them that they forgot to include you."

Discord wandered around the room, taking great care to evade each of the ponies staring at the crystal and listening to Spritelight and myself trying to make sense of it. His shape warped and changed hue every time he moved from one facet to another, and I followed him with my eyes as he did.

"It sure is a work of art, isn't it? Each one of these facets bends the light in a slightly different way. Each facet aims the light at the center of the crystal so they all individually see what every other facet can see," Discord pointed out as he made a full circle around the room.

He finally finished his observation and decided to lean his feline paw on my back, in-between my wings, making a point to lean in forward so his face was inches away from mine.

"This crystal works much like those cute little elements of harmony, if you ask me," he whispered to me. "Each facet connects to the pony standing or hovering in front of it, and imbues them with a different frequency of mana from the well below. Using it will change you, and I cannot say in which way."

He seemed genuinely worried for a second, but then pulled away with a theatrical spin. "Oh, how exciting! I can't wait to see what you ponies can do with this little toy, but alas! Poor old Discord is not invited to this party!"

I turned to face him, but he poofed out of existence and re-appeared on the other side of the room, hugging his arms around Pinkie Pie and Patty Cannon's shoulders both. "I'll just have to rely on you both to fill me in after the fact, hmm? Make it the best party this world has seen in the entirety of its existence. I know you two are the best ponies for that job."

Discord gave them both a wry smile, then disappeared again and reappeared in the doorway, giving a bow in our direction. "And with that, I bid you all an adieu. But not before I leave you with a parting gift."

Spritelight opened her mouth to speak, her eyebrows lowering in a frown, but she was interrupted as a shudder went through the foundation of the structure we were in and our stomachs sank with the feeling of a sudden application of G-forces applied to them.

We all instinctively sought to widen our stance, to keep from falling, and then the feeling subsided again.

Discord chuckled darkly and gave a look around the room.

"Always the bridesmaid, never the bride," he spoke with a sad undertone to his voice, then tapped both doors on either side of him with the palms of his oddly-shapen hands.

The stone slabs broke away again from where they had been sat against the walls, then closed up the doorway with the Draconequus on the outside of it.

Now it was just the eight of us inside this awkward room, left with a crystal and no idea what that weird feeling in our stomachs had been about.

"That was... awkward. That was awkward, right? Wasn't that awkward?" Turkey asked out loud, looking around.

"No, that was a bit too much like a last farewell. You're absolutely right about it being awkward. Kind of sad, too. I'm not sure he liked having to leave," April responded.

"Yeah, well, I'm sure we can do this without him. Twilight and us have saved Equestria from certain doom before, and I'm sure we can do something like that here, today, for your world," Rainbow Dash professed in an attempt to bolster our spirits.

I could sense a slight quiver in her voice as she spoke. Discord acted very much against what I knew him to be like. He had been all over the place, emotionally, since we met again here in Yellowstone.

This temple was a far bigger deal than he let on, and being unable to sit in on this final stage of our fight had very clearly hurt him.

"So, one facet for each of us... maybe we should take up positions," I spoke, trying to take on my role as a leader. "Let's spread around a bit; earthpony, unicorn, earthpony, unicorn to start us off with. None of you can fly so you're taking the lower facets."

There was some shuffling of positions as Pinkie Pie moved to swap out her position with April, leaving the group to be Patty Cannon, Spritelight, Pinkie Pie, and April in a clockwise fashion.

I considered how to best connect the next group. "Okay, so... we two Alicorns should take up position above the earthponies. Rhonda, sorry, Patty Cannon and me are very much connected but I feel like I should be on the opposite side of the room from her. That way our facets directly face one another."

Cadance gave a thoughtful nod to that. "I agree. I will hover over Patty Cannon to be opposite Pinkie Pie then."

"Thank you," I answered to her. "Turkey, you have a connection to Spritelight. Get up above April so your two facets link up opposite in a similar fashion. Then Rainbow can come here over Spritelight to match with April."

Some more shuffling around as the pegasi in question moved to their initial positions and took flight.

I gave a quick flap of my wings to get airborne and took up my own position over Pinkie Pie while Cadance took flight on the other side of the room as instructed.

"Okay, you four on the ground should open up the iris once we get started for real. I'm not sure what will happen once we get to that point, but this room was very obviously designed for this. Spritelight, I'll have to ask you to remove the ring since you have an idea of what kind of magic is holding it in place."

"As you wish, Josey. Good luck everypony," Spritelight spoke out loud.

The nervous tension in the room grew as she let her magic flood to the ring before her. I had to peer past the crystal and its support ring to see what was going on, but it looked as if the ring disintegrated as her magic hit it, leaving no trace of it behind.

"Put your hooves in these grooves here," Spritelight told the others on the ground with her. "When Josey says go, we'll pull the sliders toward us and open up the iris."

I glanced around the room, wondering just what would happen to us all once the mana from below poured into the crystal and, through it, into us.

I felt extremely hesitant to give the order, sick to my stomach actually, but I had come this far and there was no going back now.

Whatever was going to happen, was planned centuries ago by the ponies who built this place. Whatever was going to happen, had been meticulously guided by fate to get us all in this place, at this time.

I had to bury these feelings of trepidation, bury the doubts, put up a masque to give strength to the others looking to me for guidance.

As an Alicorn princess, they needed me to be the regal figure to rely on. The one to make the decisions and take the responsibility.

"Go," I commanded.

Chapter 47, Josey 23

Light shot up from the room below as soon as the iris was pulled open and mana from the mausoleum below poured into the room we were in. The crystal in the center of the room lit up brightly, then emitted eight distinctly differently coloured beams from each of its facets towards the ponies around it.

I felt myself grasped by a green beam which held onto me with a vise grip of similar ferocity as the pressure of mana which I had felt within the mausoleum below.

The bright light flooding my vision kept me from seeing much of the room around me, yet I knew a similar beam had been emitted to those ponies closest to me, each a different colour from the others.

I felt a sudden hard tug forward, but my body remained suspended in mid-air by the magic surrounding it; it was my consciousness, not my body, now falling into the crystal and the ocean of energy swirling in its center.

I felt myself quickly getting submerged by it until I was enveloped by it completely, the mana washing over me like I was being hugged from all sides by a warm living blanket.

And then my whole world upended itself...

Without forewarning I was April, the poor girl who had found joy in the embrace of another only to be punished by parents who could not comprehend and had found hatred instead of love for what their daughter had become.

Parents who had sent her away to a faraway school to be 'corrected' rather than accept and rejoice in the budding romance between the two girls.

The heartache from being parted, the new swath of rules to abide by, it had kept her from growing as a person, until a set of ponies landed on the roof she had been on and gave her a new future to consider.

No, I was Turkey now; a man caught in a web of lies, a romance which had turned into betrayal and had become a string of legal paperwork and monthly payments, with a daughter kept out of reach.

He was passed up for promotion at work no less than three times, making him realise there was no growth in the company he had slaved for all these years.

With rising rent and his only friend at the bottom of a bottle, there was no hope left for him until he fell over a pastel pony in the streets.

As far as she was concerned, it was a lucky lottery number giving her a new chance at life.

Yet, I was Rainbow Dash; the daring do who pressured herself to do the best in the hope she could pull herself up out of her insecurities from being pestered at a young age.

A pony who detested bullies and held justice at such a high degree she fell over herself trying to secure it for others.

A loyal friend who would move mountains and clouds for anyone, yet was not beyond pulling pranks when you weren't paying attention.

Somepony who had flown to another world in the hopes of saving it and the innocents living there, with a lingering thought in the back of her mind being that her name might be remembered for doing so.

And also Cadance; who had risen from humble beginnings to become a princess, a wife, and a parent.

Who had become the ruler of a land once thought to be lost to the darkness of the banished king Sombra.

Somepony who cared so much for her subjects that her heart pained if they were feeling unwell.

Who had been learning about the Crystal Ponies' customs in an effort to make them her own to better serve as their leader.

Who had been thrust into a fight for a world which had been similarily threatened by a darkness, and had embraced this task just as how she had embraced every other thing thrown on her path through life before it.

I was Rhonda, the one who wanted to hide away, to be unseen by those wanting to take advantage of her in school and private life.

Who had found love in the strangest of places and melted into the arms of her Josey, yet always feared losing that relationship again.

One who constantly thought she couldn't truly be loved and that it was surely a long-running joke which would at some point reveal itself, but leaned into it for as long as it would last.

One who had found a way to turn her frown upside down after turning into a pony, and had decided to give it her all for the good of those friends and 'her' princess Josey.

Now I was Spritelight, who was worried about the insanity of worlds which once were one and then split apart because ponies and humans were being stupid and couldn't learn to live together for some reason.

She who needed to give every pony and every human the chance to find one another, to come together in unison, for her own sanity as much as anything else.

How did nopony learn from the Hearth's Warming Eve story and the existence of her teacher Discord living among them under an uneasy truce?

It was high time to correct this mistake, yet... then everything fell apart. The idea was sound, the execution misguided.

But for Pinkie Pie, who sat upon a rock on her parents' rock farm and dreamt of there being more to life, dreamt of parties, dreamt of making ponies smile.

That desperate need for everypony to have a good time, forget about their woes, and live to their fullest potential.

Everypony was her friend, friends could be friendly with other friends, and there was an array of tricks in her book to get them to see this way of living.

And here was a world in dire need of some lighthearted fun to help it deal with the horrors unleashed upon it.

And I was Josey as well; the strong one who had taken in a lost girl who really needed protection in school and outside of it.

Who had a strong urge to protect others, to fight injustice at every level, and was, now, the right princess for the job.

Josey, who was trying so hard to not falter in her new role as a princess, to show how she could lead by example, to right this wrong that was taking over the world.

It was a melding of minds, with each facet having its own reason for being part of the whole, for being there as one and as all at the same time.

Eight pairs of eyes blinked in unison, eight pairs of ears rose to attention, eight mouths pronounced the same words in chorus;

"Let's do this."

We were the crystal, the mana, the hopes and dreams of the ponies stored in the mausoleum, the ones who had lived here and were lost to time, those in Equestria, the humans on Earth.

We were the pyramid now lifted up from the depths underneath Yellowstone to stand out as a strange amalgamation of every pyramid style found on Earth; Egyptian tippy top, yet ornamental sides like Hindu or Buddhist temples, yet also a stairway leading up to the doorway which once had a tunnel connected to it in a similar fashion as the Mesoamerican temples of old.

The pyramid stood tall, stood proud upon the landscape as a newly erected mountainous structure, visible for miles around.

The focus now moved to a particular section near the top, an exit route further up above the crystal chamber through narrow passageways laid out between the stones in all four directions.

The mana seeped out of it, played around the pyramid's top as four lightning bolts arcing in chaotic patterns before stabilising and forming into the ghostly image of a towering alicorn bigger than even the largest dragon.

It turned to face Southwest in the direction of the horror from beyond the realm of men or equine; a large wall of flesh moving slowly but surely in the direction of Yellowstone.

The sky of demonic eyes bled its blood rain onto the world as the many eyes in the wall crawling forward focused upon this new world wonder in its path. The energy from within was what it hungered for, what had drawn it to this place, and now it was being used by others.

It stretched out its many limbs, stolen from the people it had absorbed within itself, toward the pyramid in a vain attempt to call the energy toward itself. To claim the mana for itself.

The wall cried out from its many mouths, awkwardly speckled over its surface, but there was no intelligence behind it. It was the primal howl of something which should not be, wishing for something it should not have hold of.

The alicorn made of this mana this unholy wall coveted so much grew and stood tall over the pyramid it manifested from.

We spread our wings and focused with grim determination upon the horror.

"You do not belong here," We decided, our voice rolling over the hillsides around us like a loud thunderclap.

Our energy poured into our horn as we focused on our deep desire to wipe the world clean of this unholiest of unholy. To fix the damages it had done, to restore those who were lost to it, and fix the walls between worlds.

A beam of energy the size of the full wingspan of a passenger plane erupted from our ghostly visage and lit up the sky like a huge fluorescent lamp being flicked on.

It impacted with the wall moments later, tearing into its flesh like a serrated blade, yet finding its forward motion stopped almost instantly as the wall blocked it.

The wall patched up the hole which was forming from the mana blast almost as fast as the flesh was rendered asunder, and even increased the speed at which it was pushing forward toward us as it now realised the mana well was protected.

It howled in pain, in anger, in sheer hatred for those who dared try to hold it back with the energy it had wanted to absorb itself.

We doubled our efforts, putting all our strength into the continued beam of energy forced into the horrendous thing in front of us.

The hole grew larger, new flesh barely managing to keep up with the old getting incinerated by the energy tearing into it, but the wall continued forward, ever forward.

The sides of the wall moved inward as it started to compact itself in an effort to weather the onslaught, the howling becoming more desperate.

We flattened our ears against the unholy screeching, but felt anger well up inside us at its attempts to persist.

"Begone, you monster! There is no place for you in this, or any other realm!" we decried with renewed vigor as we saw signs of our efforts having a clear result, however slow the progress was.

The wall pulled its sides in further, tried to compact itself where the beam struck it, so we changed where we struck it.

The energy punctured a hole through the flesh again, yet it recovered by layering itself on that spot as well. And still it was pushing toward us as it did.

We changed to a different spot again and ripped through the thinning skin there before it managed to thicken and patch itself up there again.

We resorted to short pulses of energy sent into multiple directions, hitting the wall at multiple spots at once, attempting to find a weakness in its defense.

Seven out of ten spots tore apart, three patched themselves almost instantly. This was obviously a better tactic than just one sustained beam.

We continued in this fashion; changing where we sent the mana flying as it flowed up through us from the mana well and tried to pattern it in a way to rip away at the wall's structural integrity. Our beams punctured a few rows of holes through it horizontally, vertically, and diagonally.

The wall of flesh had more and more trouble patching up the new holes, shrinking into itself to use the flesh at its farther sides in order to maintain cohesion near the center.

The howling became ever so much more desperate as it started to realise it was losing the fight, but we did not let up.

The continued barrage from the pyramid it was trying to reach finally caused a large part of the wall on the left side to get ripped apart and it folded over onto itself with a sickening squelching sound, the limp flap dangling for a moment before it was re-absorbed into the whole.

It was a nasty thing to behold but it also meant we were getting somewhere and our confidence in our ability to deter this monstrosity grew.

Another pattern change as it lurched forward in desperation, and another flap tore off the main part of it, now falling to the ground like a separate part of the main horror. A well-aimed blast evaporated it into nothing before it could rejoin with the main body of the wall.

The approaching horror shrunk from each consecutive assault tearing into it, and finally the whole thing split in two along one of the horizontal lines of perforation; one of its sections dangling from the fleshy firmament, the other collapsing into a writhing heap on the ground.

The anguished howl coming from the mouths in both separated parts had no equal in the history of Earth or Equestria. It was the pain of a thousand absorbed souls crying in pain across dimensions.

We recovered a second later and focused on blasting away the separate bits of the thing before it could aim to restore itself somehow, noting that the mass of flesh was reaching for its twin while remaining in place as if the motion forward had only been possible while they had been in connection with one another.

We didn't stop until the very last of the horrific entity had been thoroughly burnt away.

However, our job was not yet done...

Chapter 48, Josey 24

With the wall of flesh defeated, we turned our attention to the demonic eyes set in the fleshy cocoon which encompassed the world.

The eyes continued to cry their blood rain down upon us as they had witnessed the destruction of the other entity, but were obviously a different source of evil to excise.

We aimed our spectral horn upward and charged it with energy, noting the eyes in the sky all turning to look directly at us. They could do naught but watch and cry tears of red as we sent a blast of superheated plasma up toward them.

The ball of plasma evaporated the rain it came into contact with and grew to twice its original size while moving upward, before it impacted with the ceiling above us.

It instantly punctured a hole through this firmament of flesh, much like April's magic had done before, and then started to spread in all directions like a massive shockwave, burning away at the skin and the eyes set in it as it did.

As the hole above us grew and spread outward to all horizons, leaving blue sky in its wake, the fire tugged at the air around the pyramid, pulling it up and out to follow the plasma in order to fuel it.

Yellowstone was subjected to a massive gale wind pulling everything in the pyramid's surroundings toward it; trees, water, animals, and any object not bolted down flew in our direction and up into the sky from the slanted walls of the pyramid.

We changed focus to the borders between worlds as the plasma cleansed the world without us needing to pay further heed to it and found them weak enough that anyone and anything could force their way through with little effort.

Even an unlucky human tripping over a pebble might suddenly find themselves in Equestria if they happened to fall close to one of these borders, we thought. If that person did so under a new moon on Friday the 13th, with a black cat crossing the street in front of them, that is.

This weakness was the reason the horrors had managed to make it onto Earth and these borders needed to be restored as quickly as possible to prevent another such thing manifesting now we had excised the first and were working on removing the other.

We exhumed mana out and into what remained of the existing borders in an effort to repair them, and erected a new one for good measure. Yet we also needed to established one, and only one, very sturdy and stable connection between Equestria and Earth in the process.

There were ponies on Earth who needed to be able to return to Equestria, and there were humans-turned-ponies on Equestria who needed to be able to return to Earth. Neither group would be served by us closing the borders completely.

The mirror inside of the pyramid was easily patched up; the pieces drawn together from where they had lain broken on the ground, fused into a whole again as if it had never been shattered by a chair thrown in desperation.

We tied it into the energies swirling naturally around Earth to power it, and then reconnected it to its twin in Equestria. As we did, we found this mirror stored in a storage room in Canterlot's palace.

It was just a lone mirror of ages past which had been housed in the archives as an obscura nopony knew how to use. Since it was now useful again, we lifted it from its dark tomb by our magic, phasing it through stone walls and wooden doors and placing it in the throne room where Celestia held audience.

We felt the shock of it manifesting in the midst of the crowd present there, the rushed clearing of souls from the space as guards moved in to protect their ruler, but had to move our attention elsewhere as there were more pressing matters to deal with.

With the last of the interdimensional horrors cleansed from the sky, the gust of wind settled and what objects had still made it into the sky rained down around the pyramid.

We waited for the world to calm down in such a fashion before focusing on the remnants of energy of the humans who had found themselves in the path of, and could not escape from, the wall before it had rolled over them and made them a part of its horrendously malformed body.

The immense sadness we felt from the realisation man, woman, and child had been swept up into this thing and were more than likely consciously part of it the entire time it had moved across the landscape made us draw from the collective wellspring of the universe's energy as well as that which was provided from the pyramid we stood upon.

For one brief moment we were a goddess of life, death, time, space, and everything else as we drew upon the primal force of nature and all within it to recall these lost souls from the beyond.

Bodies were restored to how they were before Spritelight's magic started this whole ordeal, spirits imbued within them anew, their memories wiped from all the atrocities they had been unwillingly subjected to.

A thousand and more humans suddenly stood on the ground surrounding the pyramid, left in a daze as their spirits were rejuvenated through a process none should have access to unless in the most dire of circumstances.

They were confused, and rightly so, to have been displaced from their lives from a moment shortly before the horrors had become publicly known.

They came from different parts of the world, spoke different languages, but now all found themselves as one part of a larger group of restored souls given a new chance to live full, complete lives.

They tried to make sense of it and the strange pyramid in their midst with the ornamental pony statues on its surface staring them down. A pyramid like none other on Earth, with a radiant alicorn made of energy suspended above it, towering over them like a creature from mythology.

Some fell to their knees as if they had found a new religion, others stared dumbfounded as their brains could not comprehend, some turned away or tried to wake themselves as if they could not accept what was right before them.

The sheer overload of energy we had drawn upon to restore these humans was too much for the ages-old crystal, which had obviously not been designed to hold the unbridled power of the universe.

It shattered into eight fragments of roughly equal size, each still shining with the remnants of energy they had been charged with as they fell to the floor like a multicoloured array of magic lamps.

The Alicorn goddess' psyche similarily cracked and broke into eight separate selves, and I felt my facet of its consciousness flung backwards into the body of the princess named Josey.

The energy which had suspended me in the air pulled away while I was trying to come to terms with being myself again, and gravity took hold of me once more.

With all of my energy spent, I hardly put up a struggle to remain airborne and collapsed down onto something soft and fluffy which itself also fell down as her tired legs couldn't bear the weight of another suddenly resting atop her.

Pinkie Pie's pink mane tickled my nose as I lay sprawled across her back, and I sneezed involuntarily.

"Gesundheit," the pink Earthpony underneath me spoke in a tired, yet surprisingly cheery fashion.

She reached up with her left forehoof as well it could to offer me a paper tissue she had pulled from nowhere in particular, and my brain finally caught up to what just happened.

I quickly scrambled to pick myself up onto my own four hooves and noticed a similar situation was happening all around me; the ones in our group who had been in the air when the iris opened had all fallen down upon the ponies stood on the ground underneath them and were now scrambling to stand up on their own again.

Turkey was having a tough time getting off April's back, the younger unicorn looking especially bothered by the errant flapping of Turkey's wings.

Cadance was already standing beside Patty Cannon, her head bent down to check up on how my Earthpony girlfriend was doing.

Rainbow Dash had had no problem getting off Spritelight, the both of them side-eyeing one another with a look which clearly stated "we're never talking about this with anyone else".

I wasn't sure I could describe what had just happened with all of us if I had to explain it to someone else either, but as I checked up on Pinkie Pie beside me the Earthpony in question just forced her usual smile on her lips in an effort to make me feel better about it all.

"Did we... win?" Turkey finally dared ask after managing to get off April's back, her voice barely above a whisper.

"God help me, I think my back's broken after that," April breathed out, tested getting up on her own hooves, and then shook her head. "Oh good, it's not broken. It does hurt."

"I didn't mean to fall on top of you, sorry," Turkey apologized, daring a gentle pat of her wing across April's back.

Patty Cannon suddenly braved striding across the room in a straight line, past the glowing crystal shards and the still-opened iris, to bury her muzzle in against my fur coat.

"You are plenty enough for me, and so much more than I could have ever dared hope for," she spoke in earnest, and I could feel the warm wetness of her tears starting to flow as she poured her all into me.

I bent my head down to nuzzle into her as well, knowing now how much we both needed one another. "So are you, my darling. Rho and Jo forever, remember? I'll always be there for you."

"Turkey, I had... no idea," Spritelight voiced from our right.

"I didn't really talk about it, now did I?" Turkey huffed in exasperation. "It's not like I wanted to talk about it. It's no use lingering on."

"I do believe we could all use a moment to collect our thoughts," Cadance spoke calmly, offering up a motherly smile to all present as if to try and prevent a sudden panic taking hold of our group.

"I can't believe this happened," April exhumed.

She sat down on her rear end and turned her head up to look at the ceiling.

"Just a week ago I was debating with myself whether God existed and why He was so determined to punish me, and now I..." she caught herself and shook her head. "No, we... We pretty much became a goddess? Is that right? Was that what happened just now?"

Spritelight walked past me and Rhonda, avoiding the shards in the middle of the room as she made her way toward where April and Turkey were.

"I don't think we can tell anypony about this," Rainbow sighed. "That must have been the biggest accomplishment of my life, of OUR lives, and we can't even tell anypony about it! They wouldn't believe us if we did."

"You'll always have your Sonic Rainboom, Dashie," Pinkie Pie offered as solace.

I pulled my head away from nuzzling into Rhonda / Patty Cannon and noticed Spritelight had not just made her way to April and Turkey, but had pulled both of them into an embrace; her forelegs wrapped around the others' withers.

She didn't say anything, but it was clear she had to show them she cared about the pair.

Cadance, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie each stood by themselves, or at least a little distance away from each other, with Pinkie looking like she was recovering quicker than the rest of us from our tiresome ordeal.

The princess across the room was looking at me directly and I gave her a slow, respectful nod. She returned it in silence and turned her eyes to the empty ring still dangling in the middle of the room from its metal chains.

We would forever carry the knowledge of one another's past and reason for being, longer perhaps than the others present in the room with us since there was no way to tell how long our lives would be given Celestia and Luna's advanced ages.

I watched her look down, now to the multicoloured gemstones on the ground. There was one for each colour of the rainbow; pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

I was reminded of the Elements of Harmony from the show, but they had each been a different shape as well as colouration. These shards had split almost evenly.

Pinkie Pie bounced past between Cadance and myself, breaking my concentration as she made her way over to Rainbow Dash and promptly pulled the Pegasus into a hug, the pair of them sharing a moment between themselves as well.

I knew now that we had shared a combined consciousness, that Rainbow desperately sought that closeness from her friends, but also needed to maintain the air of being untouchable to others she had less of a bond with.

She was similar to me in that respect; we both wanted to be the strong ones, the ones others could look up to and pull themselves up to the same level as. We both had a strong sense of justice and the drive to help others.

Patty Cannon calmed down and brushed her tears from her cheeks. "Now what do we do? Discord locked us in when he left."

"I'm sure we can open the doors from in here as well," I offered down to her, then looked in Spritelight's direction.

"Do you think you can find the way to open the doors after you're done consoling your wards, Spritelight?" I spoke.

"Hm, wards," Spritelight mused. "That could allow Turkey to have a second chance at this family thing."

"Sorry, what?" Turkey spoke in confusion.

"You could help me help April here get a life away from the parents who want her to change who she is?" Spritelight offered. "I'm not sure how your world deals with this sort of stuff, but maybe you could adopt her?"

"Adoption when her own parents are still alive? I'm not sure that's an option. Perhaps she should move to Equestria with us? I don't intend to go back to life as a human if I can help it," Turkey considered.

"Wait a moment, wait a moment, do I have a say in this?" April asked with growing worry in her voice.

"Not really," Spritelight decided. "We'll have to figure out some way to keep you out of that school we found you at. We'll work on the details later, let me see if I can find us a way out of this room first."

Spritelight detached herself from the pair and turned for the double doors. "It's most likely a pressure plate on the wall here on the inside. The doors don't have the logo on them which they did have on the outside, so it's not the same mechanism which opened them earlier."

"So, which part of the wall is the pressure plate?" I asked. "Back in the other rooms there were dimples for a hoof to fit in, but this is just smoothed brickwork."

Patty Cannon took a few steps forward past me to end up on Spritelight's left side and bumped her left hoof against one of the stones which made up the wall.

"This stone is loose. If you push it in a little it will trigger the doors," she just stated as if reading it from a manual. "Knowing more innately now how Pinkie and I do things, this is ridiculously simple."

Patty Cannon looked back at the broken crystal with a pensive frown as if she was seeing something the rest of us were not.

"I think we're all going to benefit from getting out of this room sooner rather than later," she considered. "There are no jokes to make here to soothe our nerves with."

"Amen, sister," Pinkie Pie agreed. "What we did here was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too serious to make jokes about."

"Yeah, let's get out of here before something else weird happens," Rainbow agreed.

Spritelight put her own hoof against the part of the wall Patty Cannon had indicated and gave it a good push.

There was an audible click from within the brickwork and the double doors swung open inward again and locked themselves in place against the wall as they had done before.

I glanced into the hallway beyond for any sign of the draconequus, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Let's figure out where Discord has gone off to, shall we?" I suggested. "Considering what we've done to the mirrors, he might be in the mirror room to explain things to Celestia or something."

"Explain things? Discord?" Spritelight scoffed. "He'll be making half a mockery out of it to string Celestia along until we show up to set the record straight. Let's save her from him."

Chapter 49, Spritelight 13

I walked up ahead with my horn shining faintly due to the low amount of mana I had in reserve.

Patty Cannon came up directly behind me, followed by her Josey. April and Turkey followed in the princess' footsteps.

Cadance then led Rainbow Dash, with Pinkie Pie coming up at the rear of the group.

We rounded the first of the set of turns and found another light coming up to meet us; a group of royal guards from Canterlot.

They were surprised to find us, but instantly decided to lead us into the mirror room themselves, sending one of their own up ahead to inform Celestia.

So it was that I walked out into the mirror room after three of Celestia's royal guards. I stopped the light coming off my horn as I noticed the bright light of Equestria's sun shining brightly into the room from the mirror portal.

More guards were placed around the room to keep the princess safe in this place, their eyes upon us as we eight emerged from the doorway to the right of the mirror.

Celestia stood close to the portal, clearly being given reports from her guards, with Discord lounging nearby.

"Oh, there's the rest of the fellowship!" Discord chortled as he laid eyes on us.

Celestia turned her head to look our way, shock clear on her face.

"You look like you have gone through an ordeal," the princess offered. "And Cadance is among you? Shining Armor will be pleased to hear that. I will send for some food and drinks to be brought over and you can inform me about what this place is and what has happened here."

She acted upon her words, sending a few of her guards back through the portal into Equestria to get meals made and brought over.

"There's a larger table in the other room," Josey pointed out, motioning in the direction of the door leading to the temple's entrance.

"There is also a large group of humans climbing the stairs on that side of this structure," Celestia informed us. "My guards are keeping an eye on them. They haven't yet made it halfway up, but they continue to make progress."

"You would feel safer with the portal a short distance away from you," Josey realised. "You have the luxury of returning to your own realm, while I am faced with a tough decision to make."

I looked at the taller alicorn mare and the grim expression she had on her face.

"Do I have myself transformed back to a human, or do I remain an alicorn?" she spoke, more as a way to point out what the dilemma was than to ask a question.

"I know how Patty Cannon feels about it, how Turkey feels, even how April doubts herself on this very subject and is frightened of the prospect of leaving Earth behind to see what Equestria has to offer," the princess pointed out, looking at each in turn as she spoke their names.

"I also know what Spritelight thinks on this issue, and how this all started with her assuming, correctly I may add, that Earth and Equestria have a shared history," she decided, now focusing on me.

I felt more ponies looking in my direction and grimaced at the attention.

"Well, I didn't know the details exactly. The murals did help fill in the blanks. I think I know what you are getting at, though," I realised. "You're thinking of staying here, as an alicorn."

"We are on, or near a supervolcano right now, are you aware of that?" Josey told me, then looked back at Turkey. "I'll bet Turkey knows. April as well, considering her school outing here."

"A super volcano?" I repeated, trying to figure out what was so great about a volcano.

"Yes, it's been asleep for thousands of years now, but it is a matter of time before pressure underground will force an eruption. If I am to remain here as an Alicorn, I can keep an eye on things and use magic to stave off the inevitable so humanity won't suffer a sudden extinction-level event," Josey explained, now focusing on Celestia.

"If you give me a day or two to get my strength back, I would likely be on par with you and your sister," she decided. "This is not a boast, this is more an offer for me to set myself up to protect this portal from this end so you can rest assured it won't be used by the wrong people."

"I can confirm Josey's statement as I have had a good look at her abilities and we all have grown stronger thanks to our ordeal today," Cadance added. "Josey would be a good choice for this role; to defend Equestria's outpost here on Earth, so to speak. Another option would be to find a way to break this connection between worlds now it has been established, but I am sure I remember we made it fairly strong."

"We did," Josey agreed, smiling in Cadance's direction. "There's no easy way to destroy this portal now, for better or worse. The mirrors may be moved from where they stand now using magic, but they will continue to be linked to one another for the foreseeable future."

I turned my head to look back at Celestia and found an expression on her face which I had never seen on her in all the time I had known the princess. For the first time since I could remember having seen her when I was a young foal, she appeared distraught.

Celestia was distraught because she had been presented with a situation she had no control over, a situation presented to her with really only one solution; to accept Josey as an equal and have her remain here on Earth. To be the ambassador I had made her, and have her deal with the consequences of what had all transpired.

Given what I had read from princess Cadance's memories while we were a single consciousness, this was a very bad situation for a ruler to be in. Especially for somepony like Celestia, who was revered as somewhat of a God back home somewhat like the one April had been talking about.

Celestia had to maintain the idea that she was in control of things to ensure her subjects would continue to have faith in her and continue to live in peace and harmony with one another.

There had been some scary things in Canterlot's past where Celestia had been caught by surprise, and all of Equestria had felt the shock of those moments. Every one of her subjects had seen at least one of those; either Nightmare Moon returning, Changelings attacking, Discord taking over, or similar events.

Somehow this had always been corrected within a few short days, and Josey and Patty Cannon's memories had shown me that 'cartoon' the humans had made to explain how Twilight Sparkle had been the cause of this.

I knew Twilight Sparkle was behind some of it, but the reports I had read were far more sober than that cartoon had shown them. And in all those reports Celestia had come out on top, as having either planned the outcome or had masterfully maneuvered ponies in positions where they could defeat the threat.

There was a pull of one of the muscles in Celestia's face and she quickly regained her composure.

"I knew you would say that," she spoke to Josey. "The humans on Earth need a leader who can teach them to live in harmony like we do in Equestria. I am glad you have come to that conclusion yourself as well."

"Well, perhaps not Earth as whole," Josey coughed with some trepidation. "But I may at least try to secure this part of the States, and perhaps the idea will spread from here outward on its own?"

Cadance took a few steps toward Josey and gave her a slow nod. "I'm sure you can do it. You have seen how I handle the Crystal Empire, small as it is in comparison to all of Equestria. If you need my help with anything in the future, I am but a messenger away."

"That is good to know," the earthborn alicorn replied.

A number of ponies carrying plates full of food and carafs full of drink walked out of the mirror portal, and all our attention turned toward them.

Celestia motioned to the conference table. "No need to make it fancy, just ensure the table is prepared for eight."

"Yes princess," her servants answered, placing plates and carafs and what-have-you on the table before returning through the mirror to get more items.

It was a back-and-forth of ponies moving around for a brief period, but then the table was set and only two of the servants remained on this side of the portal to keep an eye on things.

"Please, feel free to eat your fill. If anything runs out, we can have more brought from Canterlot," Celestia suggested to us. "Let us continue the discussion afterwards."

Pinkie Pie was at the table only moments after Celestia spoke, followed closely behind by Patty Cannon who sat down on a chair to the other's right side. The two had voracious appetites, Patty even before she had become a pony if I could go by her memories, and it was clear to any in the room that they weren't going to let the offer of food go by them.

Rainbow Dash decided to sit to Pinkie Pie's left, while Turkey offered April the seat on Patty Cannon's right side.

"You're not a guy anymore, Turkey," I grumbled. "Fake chivalry to make April feel better about the choice she has to make is not going to get you far."

"Let me do my own thing already," Turkey threw back. "I'm sitting opposite April, so you can take a seat further away if you don't like it."

I rolled my eyes before walking around the table and taking a seat opposite Patty Cannon, looking over the table and the goods on it at how fast she was making food disappear down her mouth. It was a different kind of magic; the ability to eat so fast without choking on your food.

I grabbed hold of a nearby caraf with my magic and levitated it over, sniffing what was in it. Mother's milk. I quickly put it a little further away from myself and reached for another caraf. This one was filled with sweet smelling cider, and I poured it into the empty cup nearest to me.

Rainbow stopped eating and craned her neck to look at my pouring.

"Is that cider?" she asked, to which I gave a quick nod. "Can you pour me a cup too, please?"

"Only because you said please," I offered back with a tired smile. "Hold out your cup so I don't have to move this thing halfway across the table already."

Rainbow grabbed her cup with both forehooves and eagerly shoved it forward in my direction, so I poured cider into it from the caraf I was still holding with my magic.

"There you go, enjoy," I suggested to her, placing the caraf on the table between us. "Get yourself a refill if you need it."

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou," Rainbow exclaimed, pulling the cup back to her and instantly taking a big gulp from it.

I shook my head at her eagerness, knowing from her memories how much she enjoyed the drink. A little too much if you asked me, but she well-deserved it after what we all did today.

Looking around myself again I noticed April had sat diagonally opposite me in the chair Turkey had held out for her, with Turkey directly to my left.

The Pegasus had a sheepish grin on her face and motioned her right foreleg toward the caraf I had just put away.

"Could I bother you to," she started.

"No," I decided. "Get it yourself. You said you wanted me to let you do your own thing, didn't you?"

"You know that's not what I meant," Turkey protested, her wings lowering slightly. "I just think April deserves some kindness after all she's been through. It's not an easy decision to make."

"Sure it is!" Patty Cannon interjected from across the table, then motioned around with her left forehoof to point at everypony sitting at the table and the two princesses walking up to join us. "We're all gonna be ponies, of course."

"And what makes you say that?" I had to ask as I turned my attention to April instead of looking at Patty for a reply.

April had very carefully levitated a sandwich over from one of the platters between us and was tentatively taking a bite out of it, trying to ignore the discussion.

"Because she's going to get her mind blown in three... two... one..." Patty Cannon counted down, looking sideways at April.

Once the taste hit her tongue, April's eyes widened and a shiver ran down her body from her ears down to her tail. The sandwich was gone in an instant after, devoured as if the taste of Equestrian food had awakened something primal within her.

She instantly reached out for another sandwich with her magic... and exploded it in her eagerness.

"Focus!" I pressed to her, noting her cheeks darkening under her fur.

She more deliberately took hold of another sandwich after my admonishment, and quickly stuffed her mouth with it. I saw her revel in the taste, wriggling a little on her seat.

"See?" Patty Cannon pointed out, reaching out to wrap a food-covered right foreleg around April's neck and pull her in for a hug. "We're all going to be BPFF's!"

April swallowed her food, then looked curiously at the Earthpony hugging her. "BPFF's?"

"Best Pony Friends Forever!" Pinkie Pie and Patty Cannon shouted in unison.

Chapter 1, Josey 1

Josey

"It's not something you can see, really. I mean, I hide it well. A few long sweaters, a little tucking here and there... it's easy enough to keep people from seeing it. But it starts to hurt after a while, you know?", my best friend Rhonda told me, and I looked up from our homework assignment to look at her in mild confusion.

It was just past 4pm on a Friday and Rhonda had followed me home from school to stay the weekend. We're both students at the only public school in the county, and with my house just a block away and hers outside of the town's borders we often spent our free time at my place. She spends more time in my room than I do myself, really. My mom sometimes jokes that Rhonda should just bunk up with me since she's practically living with us anyway.

The sun's light was shining into the room from the rectangular window in the West wall, reflecting off of the mirror over the dresser, and illuminated Rhonda's face in a way that made her curious statement and worried look all the more daunting. There was a light in her eyes that wasn't supposed to be there and I wasn't sure if the sunlight was the only reason for it.

"What are you talking about, Rho-Rho?", I wondered, lifting my left hand up to shield my eyes from the sunlight trying to blind me. "I thought we were doing calculus?"

Rhonda looked down in sudden embarrassment and her hands dropped to her lap to fidget. "I... I dunno? I guess I just need to talk about it to someone? And you, er... You're my best friend, Jo. You know that, right?" She looked up with a hopeful expression at that and I dropped my pencil on the table and reached out to hold her hands in mine.

"You know I am. Rho and Jo forever. We made that promise when we were like ten." I smiled, and saw her lips move into a thankful smile as well before her face darkened again.

"You can't tell anyone, ok?", she asked with a light tone of fear to her voice, and I nodded.

"You know I keep your secrets safe, hun. Now will you spill it already so we can finish our homework assignments before dinner?", I joked, nudging her side with a wink, but Rhonda looked down at our hands in her lap and seemed to need a moment to steel herself. "Rho? It's ok. Whatever it is, it's ok. You know that. You can tell me anything," I tried, moving my right hand up to lift her chin a bit and make her see my smile, hoping to help her relax.

Rhonda tried to look away as I did, but then her eyes locked with mine and her shoulders dropped in defeat. "I'm growing a tail."

I blinked as my thoughts ground to a halt. "A... tail?"

"I'm growing a tail, Jo. I don't know why or how... I just... it's," Rhonda continued, breaking away from me and standing up. "Don't laugh, ok? Don't. Just... Look at it!", she exclaimed, pulling her long brown sweater up to reveal a bundled up collection of purple hairs just above her hip-hugging jeans. Where her tail bone would be.

I stared at it for a moment, then blinked and stared at it again. I don't think I moved in the time it took for my mind to come to the realization that something - a tail or a ball of hairs of some sort of twine or whatever it was - was stuck to my dearest friend's back.

I found myself reaching out with my left hand to touch it, and it moved when I did! I could see the muscles underneath Rhonda's skin contract as it did as well! I backed away immediately as it did, putting my hands to my mouth and trying to come to terms with the impossibility of it: Humans didn't grow tails! It was evolutionary impossible! Or so our biology teachers had told us, right?

"Jo?", Rhonda wondered, looking back at me and quickly hiding her tail from sight again as she saw my shocked expression. "I... I'm sorry, I shouldn't have bothered you with this. I just... I don't know what to do with this," she muttered, falling down on her knees beside me and looking up in great worry.

I brought my hands up from my mouth to rub heavily at my temples, trying to get my thoughts organized. I was trying to figure out how that tail could have come into existence. Evolution? Magic? Religious retribution for the pranks we played in the past? Even if I was more of the instigator in those and Rhonda just followed along?

"Jo? Are you mad at me?"

I quickly snapped out of it at that question and reached down to grab Rhonda's head with both hands, leaning in to press a kiss on top of her head. "Never. I'll never be mad at you. When have I ever been mad at you, Rho-Rho? I just... how... er... I don't..." I pulled back again and my confusion must have been clear enough to be felt from miles away.

"I don't know how! It just started as some small pains and then the hairs started growing. And they kept growing! Every day they just got longer and longer... I don't know what to do about them! And I feel it... I felt you touching it. I felt it twitch... I don't know what it means," Rhonda whimpered, tears forming in her eyes.

I slipped off of my chair and wrapped my dear friend in a tight embrace, feeling her shudder against me as she started to cry, gently rubbing her upper back while we sat like that. "It's ok, you're still you. Nothing changed. Let's find out together, ok? We can go to the library and look up what could have been the cause? Or just look it up online if dad ever stops playing his silly games."

Rhonda sniffled and poked my side. "Your dad."

I snickered at my own mistake. "Right, MY dad. Sorry. You're just the closest thing I have to a sister, Rho-Rho. And we'll deal with it as sisters if you want. We got all weekend, right?"

I felt her head bob up and down as she tried to compose herself again, her hand moving up behind my back to rub at her face. "You're still the same girl I played hopscotch with back in elementary. I'm never going to abandon you. And I won't tell anyone about it. Cross my heart and hope to die," I moved back a little and crossed a finger over my heart with Rhonda smiling up weakly and mouthing the second part of the sentence with me, "stick a cupcake in my eye!" and we both covered an eye with an open hand while laughing at the craziness of it all.

It was a silly little thing we picked up from a show we watch every Saturday; My Little Pony. I never really got into the old series since they were far too childish for my tastes. But the new series that started back in 2010? Friendship is Magic? Rhonda and me watched that so often that we memorized almost every episode of it.

The mane six - Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy - were kicking ass while looking cute and had decent stories written around them to boot!

"You know, come to think of it," I started, motioning for Rhonda to turn around and watching her faithfully follow my suggestions. She really was too much of a follower. "Lift your sweater again?" She did, and I stared at the way she'd used several hair bands to make a bundle of hair. "Would you mind if I untangle this, Rho?"

She looked back with a painful expression. "Please be careful if you do? I keep pulling the hairs out whenever I try to."

"That's because you're working behind your back, silly. I can actually see what I'm doing," I chuckled, and she relaxed a little more. "Ok, let me find a comb first."

"Top drawer."

I gently slapped the back of Rhonda's head at that. "Why do you know my room so much better than I do?" I got up and picked the comb and a hairbrush from the top drawer of the dresser, then moved back to where Rhonda was still sitting on the floor and looked down at her.

"You know, this may work better if you lay down on the bed," I realized, and helped her off of the ground. "Higher work area and all that. And you can just let me do my thing while you watch ponies or something."

"Dragonshy?"

"Didn't we see that yesterday?", I asked, but Rhonda immediately put up her puppy eyes at me. "You know that doesn't work on me, but sure," I sighed, dropping the comb and brush on the bed and walking over to the television to put the right disc in.

"You just lay down while, er, it's not still in the tray is it? Oh, yes it is," I sighed and went through the menus to find the right episode, pressed play, and walked back with the remote still in my hands to drop down on the bed beside Rhonda. "You ok, Rho-Rho?", I asked, and she nodded slowly while focusing on the television more than on me.

I smirked and turned to face the bundle of knotted-up hairs and carefully started to undo them while the title song to the series played in the background. "They're not exactly purple, though," I mumbled, trying to find the right word for the color of the hairs as they got untangled from the multicolored hair bands.

It didn't look like there was much hair to begin with, but as the knot started to get unraveled the hairs got longer and longer. When I finally got the last hairs freed up I had a bundle of hair in my hands that I could wrap both my hands around and still have it stick out. The hairs stuck to the hair bands were of similar length and were straightening themselves out on the bed beside Rhonda.

"It's more of a fuchsia?", I commented, looking at the strands as I grabbed the brush and gently combed through them.

"Isn't that purple?", Rhonda wondered, looking up from the end credits and blushing lightly. "That feels nice, Josey."

"It's pink, actually. How does it feel exactly? A bit like when I brush your hair?", I asked, taking my time with her tail.

"I think they're technically my hairs as well, Jo," Rhonda remarked, and I smirked.

"We could just start referring to your hair as your mane. This looks like a pony's tail," I rebutted, and Rhonda went pale. "Just relax, Rho-Rho. There's a lot of knots in this. How long have you had them bundled up like that?"

"It started last week after I came home from watching the rerun of 'It's About Time'."

"So six days ago. But they couldn't have been this long back then?", I reasoned, putting the brush aside and taking the comb to a particularly nasty patch of hair that just wouldn't come loose with the brush.

Rhonda sighed and buried her face in the pillow she was lying on. I could barely make out her mumbling into the fabric. "Tuesday."

I looked at the hairs and tried to judge their growing speed. Six days. Two hands and a bit. About nine or ten inches, or around 25 centimeters to keep my math teacher happy, so a growth rate of about one-and-a-half inch per day. And my math teacher can do the metric conversion on that if he so badly wants it. "So you've just been adding hair band after hair band whenever it got too long to keep in place otherwise?"

Rhonda nodded and looked back at me with a painful expression. "I couldn't let anyone see it! You know why."

"Rho-Rho, those movies aren't real. They're not going to lock you up and experiment on you," I sighed, finally freeing up the hairs I was working on and combing through the entire length of her tail without encountering more issues. "That's about it then. Shall we put a little bow around it?" I winked and Rhonda's face turned beet-red.

"Don't you dare, Jo! Don't joke about it!", she exclaimed, turning her body to move her tail away from me and flicking it in the process. I raised an eyebrow at that, then poked Rho's side.

"I'm not judging you, silly. But I'm still getting to terms with this as well, ok? You're the one with the tail, but I vowed to protect you back when David and his "gang" tried to make you into their designated victim. Remember? I'm wondering how we can keep you from feeling uncomfortable while also hiding your tail. Or at least making it seem like a fashion accessory. Maybe I could start wearing a belt with a fake tail attached to it and we could act as if we're just starting a new trend?"

Rhonda bit her lower lip at that while she pulled herself into a little ball on the bed. "I never asked for this."

I reached out and gently stroked a hand through her hair. The ones on her head, that is. "I know. But we're in this together. I'll always be there for you." I smiled down at her and she gave a weak smile back, reaching up to grab my hand in hers.

"Thanks, Jo."

"Kids! Dinner!", my mom called from downstairs, and we both looked up at the door before looking at each other again.

"Ok, so, let's get you one of my baggy pants and we'll tuck the hairs in there for now?", I offered, and got up to get them when Rhonda's hand stopped me.

"Let me?" she asked, moving to get off of the bed herself.

I blinked back at her but dropped back to sit on the edge of the bed at her insisting gaze. "Er, sure?"

"You wouldn't know where to find them anyway," Rhonda joked, flicking her tail at me as she walked away. I'm not sure if she did so consciously or unconsciously, but it was too cute a move for me to be able to come up with a reply.

She walked over to my "walk-in closet", which was basically just a door with a foot of shelf space behind it, the shelves removed to allow me to hang up my jackets and dresses on one side and stack up boxes with shoes and out-of-season clothing on the other side.

As she rummaged through the boxes, half bent over, her tail was flicking idly this way or that, happily using its newfound freedom to show itself off like a diva on stage. It was almost hypnotic to look at.

Rhonda finally found the right box and pulled some baggy slacks from it before turning to return to the bed. Seeing me stare at her with a blush on my cheeks sent her own cheeks ablaze and she quickly raised the pants up to hide her face with. "What?"

I grinned and pointed behind her at her tail flicking restlessly. "That tail makes you look so incredibly cute, Rho," I couldn't help saying to tease her, "you have no idea."

Rhonda threw the pants at me with a frown. "No fair joking around it. You have no idea what it feels like. It just keeps twitching," she muttered, taking off her jeans and throwing them my way for good measure as well. I held out the baggy pants she threw at me and got up from the bed, moving behind her to help her tuck the hairs down in them so they would stay out of sight from my parents, then gave her a soft hug.

"I'm actually kind of jealous of you, Rho-Rho. That tail just looks like the ultimate fashion accessory. If we ever find out how this happened to you, I may need to get myself one as well." I winked at her and turned for the door. "Want to go ahead so I can watch your rear?"

Rhonda winced at that. "If you keep saying stuff like that your mom is going to think we're lesbians, you know?"

I shrugged at that and looked away at a random corner of my room. "Better that than having her try to marry me to yet another dumb jock who happens to be her colleague's son. Erf. Frederick was so..."

"So not you?" Rhonda giggled softly, passing by me onto the landing.

"Exactly!", I exclaimed, throwing my hands up in the air before following behind and closing the door behind us.

I didn't notice it back then.

I attributed the shimmer in the center of my room to the sun's rays as it dropped down after another successful day of warming up the region.

It looked similar to the shimmer you see over the streets on a warm day; The distortion shown over any hot surface.

The strangest thing about it, the thing my brain immediately threw out as being just my imagination, was that it was shaped like a pony.

Chapter 16, Spritelight 4

"Ok, so the recent economic crisis hit hard in this state. A lot of buildings that were under construction never got finished, and those that did have been empty ever since," the mare spoke as we trotted into town, and I found myself nodding slowly at her words.

"If we're lucky, the local mall should have some empty stores which could make for great shelter, and we could probably get some grub to boot!" she stated excitedly, grinning back at me.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Get some grub?"

"Get food. I don't know about you, but I'm as hungry as a horse!"

"You are a hor... you know what, never mind," I sighed, rubbing my face with a hoof. "Where is this mall you spoke of?"

"Just around the corner, really," she giggled, leading the way.

I followed her around the corner, but stopped as the place got into view. A large tarmac field stretched out for what seemed like miles, with storefronts found on three of its sides. Hedges, streetlamps, trashcans, and rectangular stones were placed in an odd pattern on the tarmac, creating a strange sort of maze.

The mare was trotting past the stores on the left, but was not even paying them much attention. She looked to be heading for the largest storefront at the back of the tarmac, a store with a large red sign over the entrance.

"This is a mall?" I asked, looking around and feeling about as small as when I first set hoof in Canterlot.

"Well, these are just the outside shops. Over there's the actual mall. Sixty stores with supermarkets and shoestores and everything under one roof," the mare chuckled, pointing over to the large glass wall under the big red sign.

"Sixty?" I repeated, looking around myself at the dozen stores on either side. "Including these ones?"

"No, these are just the outside stores," the turquoise mare sighed, stopping to look at me. "I just told you, Spritey."

"Spritelight," I corrected her. "You mean to tell me that there's three times as many stores inside there than there are outside here, 'Turkey'?"

The mare's ears drooped a bit as I used that name for her, but then she nodded slowly. "Two floors of stores, thirty stores per floor."

"And you think we're safe there?" I continued.

"Well, yeah.. the beauty of it is that there's so many stores there that they can't possibly find us," she reasoned.

I shrugged and cantered over to the glass wall, peering through it at the heavy metal shutters behind it. "And you have a plan to get us inside, I take it?"

The mare trotted after me, looking up at the wall herself. "Well, I was thinking..."

I turned to face her, "Yes?"

"With your magic and all," she coughed uneasily.

I sighed and looked back at the glass wall. "Great. I do need to conserve my mana so I can do what I came here for, but sure... how does this work?"

"Well, when they open the mall they put a key in that device over there," the mare pointed at a small box, "and then the shutters will roll up. The doors are automatic and should open once the shutters are up."

"Or I could just use a spell to make us ethereal so we can walk through these walls," I shrugged.

"YOU CAN DO THAT?!?" the mare shouted, and I winced as her voice rang out across the tarmac field.

"...don't shout, Turkey," I chided her, then focused on the door again. "Glass and some kind of metal. Few inches between. You should go first because I have to focus my magic to surround you. Don't hesitate, just walk forward when I..."

I stopped as the mare promptly walked forward - into the glass wall. She shook her head from the bump, and stumbled back.

"As I was saying," I sighed, "Walk forward when I say so."

The mare rubbed her forehead with a hoof and nodded in embarrassment. "Thanks for the warning."

I shook my head in mild amusement, but then focused my energy into my horn, sending it off to surround the other. As the silver light of my magic covered her, her colours became more vibrant and for a moment I caught a glimpse of what she would look like in Equestria.

"...beautiful..." I gasped out.

"Huh?" the mare wondered, and I shook my head.

"Nothing! Just walk forward," I quickly stated. "It should be fine now."

She raised an eyebrow in confusion, but still turned around to tentatively push a hoof up against the glass. It passed through without effort, and she quickly cantered through with a squeal of excitement! I waited for her to pass through completely before I pulled my magic away from her. A moment later, and I passed through the double walls myself.

The mare was happily gallopping around in the large space behind the walls, running circles around a large fountain set up in the center of the place. A place far larger than I had ever seen. Large hallways led off in four directions from the center plaza, each holding some fifteen stores on two levels.

Most of the upper level stores looked to be vacant, with large signs plastered all over the glass walls and nothing in the displays. There were just one or two of them with their displays filled with assorted items, but even those had signs plastered over them.

I slowly walked up to the center plaza, looking around in amazement, up until the other mare cantered over and grinned at me. "What do you think, Spritelight?"

I shook my head a moment. "It's big."

"And largely empty. We have plenty of space to choose from!" the other grinned.

"Considering most of the upper level stores seem to be empty, those would be our best bet, right?" I asked, and she nodded. "Although I can't understand those signs."

"Oh! Right, so most of those say "space for rent"," the mare offered, pointing around. "But those stores there which aren't closed yet have signs that say "sale" and "closing soon". Most of the items they offer are down in price for like 75% or so. It will attract a lot of customers when they open."

I pondered that explanation, looking at where those stores were located. "Ok, so we may want to find a place out of the way of those places."

"Good thinking," the mare giggled.

"Thinking is one thing I'm good at, Turkey," I winked.

"My name's not," she started to protest, but then she lowered her head. "Fine. I guess I'm going to have to watch my back around Thanksgiving now..."