//------------------------------//
// Josey 1, Chapter 4 
// Story: Spritelight 
// by Makitk 
//------------------------------//

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.