//------------------------------// // There's a Distinct Difference Between Semi-Transparent and Invisible // Story: Ghostly Spells of the Night // by Razor Blade the Unicron //------------------------------// Starlight Glimmer's horn lit up as she looked down at the spell book in front of her. She hadn't used a spell to make herself semi-transparent before, but wasn't worried in the slightest. Magic was very easy for her, as long as nopony broke her concentration. "My costume for Nightmare Night is going o be great!" said Starlight to herself, "Twilight's going to think it's amazing!" Starlight hadn't even noticed that she had wandered on to the balcony, and was standing in a patch of darkness in the middle of the moonlight. High above in the sky, Raindrops the pegasus was going for a flight. She loved flying at night, as the sky was clear of other ponies. "The stars are so pretty!" said Raindrops happily, "I can't believe how many there are!" She turned to fly back to her house, when her right wing suddenly cramped up. Surprised, Raindrops tried to stay airborne by flapping her other wing, but flinched as she ended up pulling a muscle. She starting dropping like a stone, and tried to see where she was landing. She saw a glimpse of a unicorn below her before crashing into her. "Sorry!" cried out Raindrops, not noticing that the unicorn had uncontrollably launched off a spell. "Ouch..." muttered Starlight, "Wait, did I complete my spell?" Starlight levitated the pegasus off of her and looked around for a bolt of magic. Raindrops stretched out her wings, but flinched when she was met with pain. "Duck!" yelled Starlight, pushing Raindrops out of the way of her bolt of magic, that had been bouncing around. Raindrops quickly ducked as the bolt barely missed her, and went flying up into the sky. "Whoa!" she said in surprise before looking up at the bolt, "Wait, is that going to hit one of the clouds?" "Yeah, I think so," said Starlight, "Why? I don't really know all that much about pegasus magic." "Because it-" started Raindrops when the bolt of magic hit the cloud, and the cloud let out a lighting bolt of the same color, that struck both her and Starlight. "Ouuuuuch..." muttered Starlight, "That hurt... Wait, what happened?" She got to her hooves, feeling very dizzy and lightheaded. Starlight saw that she was still standing on the balcony, and the pegasus who had crashed into her was lying next to her, unconscious. "Oh!" Starlight gently shook the pegasus, "Are you okay?" "Ugh..." muttered Raindrops, "I'm kay... What just happened?" "I'm not sure. My spell hit the cloud and then it-" "Does it really matter?" asked a high-pitched voice. Raindrops and Starlight were both silent. "Did you hear that voice?" they whispered at the same time. "Although, Nightmare Night isn't even until tomorrow!" said the voice, "Then again, where would be the fun if it happened tomorrow?" "Show yourself!" yelled Starlight, "Who are you?" "I could show myself, but I could not. I suppose I could do either, as neither of you have any power." "What's that supposed to mean?" asked Raindrops. "No power until Nightmare Night! That's when everyghost gets recharged!" "Did you just say 'everyghost'?" asked Starlight. "Aw, guess I can't hide any longer!" A unicorn appeared on the edge of the balcony suddenly. She looked semi-transparent, with a mane and coat of the same blue-ish color. She had no cutie mark, and instead of normal-looking eyes, only had glowing yellow orbs. She walked towards Starlight without her hooves even making a sound. "Can't you tell what you did?" asked the unicorn, "You turned yourself into a ghost!" Starlight was completely speechless for a moment before managing to find her voice. "I'm sorry, what?" asked Starlight, "You're joking, right?" "Not a joke at all!" said the unicorn in a sing-song voice, "Oh, it's going to be so much fun showing you around ghost town!" Raindrops slowly backed away from the unicorn towards the Castle of Friendship, but bumped into a blue-ish force field that shimmered with magic. "Don't even bother trying to escape!" said the unicorn with glee, "You can't unless I let you, and I don't want you to!" the unicorn threw her hoof around Starlight, and pulled her close, "You're really fuzzy, did you know that?" Starlight broke away from the unicorn and backed away from her rather quickly. She also bumped into the blue-ish force field, and continued to back away until she bumped into Raindrops. "I may have all of eternity, but I don't have all day!" said the unicorn, "I need to give you a wonderful tour, and I don't want you to miss Nightmare Night tomorrow!" "We're not ghosts," said Raindrops, finally speaking, "You're crazy!" "Am I? Am I really?" the unicorn walked up to the two and batted her eyelashes, "I'm just a sweet lil' tour guide! Nothing crazy about that, now is there?" the unicorn's horn lit up with magic the same color as her eyes, and she grinned, "Why don't you use magic, too?" Starlight took a step forward, and her horn lit up blue. The glow remained for about a second, before fading away. "Hey!" cried Starlight, "What did you do with my magic?" "I told you, neither of you have any power until Nightmare Night!" the unicorn spun around in a circle, "You can go panic with your girlfriend now, if you want to." "We're not girlfriends!" yelled Raindrops and Starlight simultaneously, both blushing. "I don't really care if you are or not, because I compulsively ship you!" Raindrops and Starlight both froze and stared at the unicorn. "You're completely insane." said Starlight. "So what if I am? You're stuck with me until I say so!" the unicorn pulled Raindrops and Starlight towards her with her magic and put a hoof around each of them, "Let's go to Ghostville!" Starlight pushed away from the unicorn again and glared at her. "We're not going anywhere with you! You're insane!" she said angrily. "You're a stubborn one, aren't you?" asked the unicorn, sounding a bit irritated, "Do I really have to do this the hard way?" she turned towards Raindrops, "By the way, can you drape your wing around me?" Raindrops instantly broke away from the unicorn and backed away as far as she possibly could. The unicorn rolled her eyes, which were being to change to orange. "Fine, we can do this the hard way," she said, no longer sounding playful at all, "All I'm going to say is that I warned you." She shot off two beams of magic, one at Starlight and the other at Raindrops. Both instantly ducked, and the magic beams flew past them. "Stay still!" the unicorn's eyes were starting to change to red. "No thanks!" said Starlight, dodging another beam that the unicorn shot. The unicorn let out a rapid volley of magic beams, which Starlight and Raindrops both dodged. "Stop moving!" she snapped, her eyes glowing red, "It's not like you can even escape unless I say that you can leave!" "Unless you say what?" asked Raindrops. "That you can leave!" she yelled angrily. The force field instantly vanished from around the three, and Raindrops grinned. "You tricked me?" asked the unicorn, her coat and mane beginning to change from blue-ish to black, "YOU TRICKED ME!" Both Starlight and Raindrops jumped off the balcony as the unicorn shot huge beams of magic towards them. They landed on the ground, and took off towards Ponyville at a gallop, the unicorn chasing after them. "We're so dead!" said Raindrops. "We're already dead!" said Starlight, "Wait, that gives me an idea! Ghosts can pass through walls!" "So? Even if we can pass through walls, so can she!" "Ghosts also don't need to eat, so they don't need energy!" "What good does that do for us right now?" "We get our power back on Nightmare Night, so we just need to avoid her until midnight!" "But won't we get tired- oh, right! No energy needed!" "So just run as fast as possible!" The two took off at top speed in the opposite direction from the unicorn, who was following them with her eyes blazing with anger. After running through Ponyville for the eleventh time, they ended up running into the Everfree Forest, with the unicorn still following behind them. "Why did we run in here?" moaned Raindrops. "We're ghosts!" said Starlight, "Nothing in here can hurt us!" "It's the Everfree Forest! There could be anything in here!" Starlight ignored Raindrops' last statement and concentrated on trying to use her magic. Her horn would only remain glowing for a few seconds before fading away again, so it wasn't midnight, yet. "Go left!" said Raindrops, catching Starlight's attention. They quickly veered left, just as a magic barrier was thrown up on their right side. "You can't outrun me forever!" yelled the unicorn from behind them, "It won't be much longer until I have you both!" "What is wrong with her?" asked Raindrops. "I have no idea!" said Starlight. They suddenly crashed into the wall of a cave, and both winced in pain. "What just happened?" asked Starlight, "We should have run through that!" "It's the Everfree Forest, why are you questioning it?" asked Raindrops. "Looks like you can't run any farther!" said the unicorn, approaching them menacingly, "Why did you even try to run away?" "Because you're insane!" they both yelled. "That doesn't matter, because you're coming with me!" the unicorn shot off a beam from her horn, when Starlight suddenly launched one back, "WHAT?!?" "Oh my gosh, it's finally midnight!" said Starlight. "YOU HAVE YOUR POWER?!?" "You said it would come back on Nightmare Night, and now it's Nightmare Night!" "Oh, you really, really want to do this the hard way, don't you?" the unicorn's horn was glowing a deep red, and her eyes were blazing with anger, "We can do this in the hardest way possible!" The unicorn began to fade away, a malicious grin on her face. She let out a loud cackle, and then suddenly vanished. "What just happened?" asked Raindrops. "We're not ghosts!" said Starlight happily, "I can tell because I feel really tired!" "We're not ghosts?" Raindrops froze and looked around, "And we're in the Everfree Forest?" Starlight froze as a loud howl emanated from nearby. "Oh no." was all she said before a pack of Timberwolves surrounded them, and pinned them up against the cave wall. "What do we do, what do we do?!?" asked Raindrops. "Uh, shield!" said Starlight, quickly throwing a bubble around them that an attacking Timberwolf crashed up against. "We're gonna die, we're gonna die, we're gonna die..." muttered Raindrops, curling up in a ball. "That's what she did!" cried Starlight. "Huh?" "The unicorn ghost! She made us alive somehow so we would die and lose all of our power!" "Wait, so she's still here?" You are obnoxiously smart, said the unicorn, appearing right in front of them, her eyes still glowing red, Why can't you cooperate? "Y-you can't do anything to us!" said Starlight, "You're a ghost and we're not!" Stop talking. You may be smart, but you're still foolish enough to think that you'll get out of this forest alive. "Go away!" cried Raindrops fearfully. I think that I'll just stand here until you turn into ghosts again so you can't escape! Raindrops completely lost it with fear, and flew into the side of the bubble. She crashed on to the bottom of the bubble, and the bubble rolled a little bit to the side. Both Starlight and the unicorn stared at Raindrops until Starlight also ran into the side of the bubble, and it began rolling. Hey! Where do you think you're going? Raindrops and Starlight both slammed into the side of the bubble on more time, and it really began rolling. It rolled over one of the Timberwolves, causing it to split into many sticks. The bubble slowed down a bit, before speeding up as it rolled down a hill that neither pony had noticed. "This was a bad idea!" yelled Raindrops, as she and Starlight tumbled around in the bubble. "Just give me a second!" cried Starlight, her horn lighting up again. Starlight quickly levitated herself and Raindrops in the center of the bubble, and stayed there as the bubbled rolled. "Whoa..." said Raindrops in surprise, "Magic is cool..." The bubble suddenly crashed into a manitcore, and Starlight and Raindrops were flung out of it and landed in front of the manticore. What are you going to do now? asked the unicorn, appearing behind them, The manticore will gobble you up and- The unicorn stopped talking as Raindrops stood up and bucked the manticore as hard as she possibly could. The manticore went flying in the direction that Raindrops had kicked it, and slammed into a tree. "Were you saying something?" asked Raindrops. But- You- What- I- If- Starlight's horn lit up, and her magic shimmered over Raindrops' legs. Raindrops then turned towards the unicorn, and bucked her as hard as possible, sending her flying away. Both Starlight and Raindrops were silent for a few moments before Starlight spoke. "I vote we go to Zecora's and sleep for the next eight hours so we can forget about everything that just happened." she said. "Agreed." said Raindrops. The two walked off into the Everfree Forest, towards Zecora's house. "You know, I don't actually even know your name." said Starlight. "It's Raindrops. Ugh, why do weird things happen to me when I'm with unicorns?" Raindrops paused for a moment, and then turned towards Starlight, "By the way, I think we're invisible now." "I know. I don't want to try the semi-transparent spell, again." "Oh."