When the Stars Align

by Borsuq


Enjoying the Show

Prism was looking at the colt with a mixture of anger, annoyance, and disbelief, which strangely matched how Starburst felt herself. All this time they had tried to catch him, and the cloaked pony was treating it like some sort of game. Now, though, it looked that he - in his own aberrant way - was about to get serious-
 
“Knight, Damsel, are you ready?”
 
-er.
 
“Listen, kid,” Prism growled from beside her; the snicker of laughter erupting in the crowd hadn’t warmed his heart to the colt, who was now theatrically pointing at the two of them; “call me a ‘damsel’ one more time, and spending some time in reformatory will be the least of your worries.”
 
“Oh, come now, don’t be like that,” he replied, frowning from the roof. “Everypony has to pitch in for this play to work, Damse-”
 
“Then you be the freakin’ Damsel!” the pegasus snapped. If Starburst wasn’t too busy trying to think of a way to capture the mysterious colt, she might have laughed at the comical expression of Prism’s face as he tried to argue. “You look like a filly!”
 
“Ow,” the frown deepened, “now you’re just mean!”
 
As Prism facehoofed, Starburst searched the crowd for Whirlwind. She found the purple pegasus still standing near T, Annie and Candy; all four of them were having a hard time containing their amusement. Taking advantage from the colt’s attention being focused on Prism, Starburst quickly flew to them.
 
“Wind,” she said quietly, “wait a while, and then when he’s not looking fly to find some guards.” Starburst waited for her friend to nod before she continued: “Tell them to bring magic-suppressing nets and inhibitor rings.” After a brief hesitation, she added: “After that, go get my mom; he-”
 
Starburst wanted to tell Whirlwind about those strange eyes this colt had; she had no idea what could they possibly mean, but she didn’t like them one bit. They were definitely not eyes a pony could normally have - aside from bat ponies, but theirs were yellow - nor did they remind her of anything else other than draconequus’ eyes, but even then that didn’t match. If anypony would be able to solve just what exactly is this colt, then it would be her mother.
 
However, just when Starburst was about to describe them to her friend, the colt had spoken up.
 
“An excellent idea, Knight!” he shouted cheerfully, spreading his front hooves into the air. At the same time, his horn glowed with a pale blue light, creating a few fireworks around him that exploded in a spectrum of colors. “Does anypony else from the audience wants to volunteer for the show?! C’mon, everypony, the more the merrier!”
 
“Tell ya what, whippersnapper.” Starburst turned her head to look at Mrs. Applejack. She was clearly not in her best mood right now, but unlike Prism, she looked more annoyed than angry. Another rope was on her back - the one she used previously was still tied to the chimney - but seeing how the end of it wasn’t in her mouth, Starburst assumed that her mom’s friend must have also realized how useless it would be. “Ya will quit foolin’ around, pay for the apple, apologize to those two for makin’ fun of ‘em, and nopony will mention this to the Royal Guard. Then maybe ya can try doin’ a less intrusive show, for which I’m sure ya’d get a lot of volunteers. Sounds fair?”
 
A lot more fair than he deserves, Starburst commented in her head. Stealing, disruption of peace… it would add up to a few good days of public service as a punishment. The fact that he was apparently not right in the head was an extenuation to an extent, but not enough for him to completely escape punishment for his actions, as Mrs. Applejack was offering him.
 
The princess was somewhat relieved and further infuriated when the colt declined her offer... or at least seemed to.

“Oh, why do you say that?” he said, sounding hurt; at this point, Starburst had no idea whether he was being honest or just fooling around. “You make it sound like nopony would want to enjoy my show if I wouldn’t do all that.” He then fell down on his haunches, his ears dropping. “Maybe you’re right. After all, nopony here knows me… It’s not easy when you’re new in town…”
 
His words caused a few ponies, moved by the sadness of a pony that until now had practically smiled all the time, to utter “Awww…” Starburst might have felt a bit sad, too, but after seeing everything he’s been capable of doing, she instead waited…
 
“Except…”
 
Ah, there we go, she thought as she observed the colt’s brightened face intensively.
 
“When you got…” he continued, smiling. Starburst braced herself, expecting his horn to shine.
 
He disappeared.
 
Starburst blinked. What?! There was no flash of light, no noise, nothing that happened when a unicorn used a teleportation spell. His horn hadn’t even glowed! He just… vanished!
 
“A spell that makes frikkin bubbles!” the voice of the colt came from the direction of the fountain.
 
Without waiting for Prism, Starburst dashed to it. The thief was standing - once again on his hind legs - atop the fountain statue depicting a unicorn. His horn was now glowing with silvery light.
 
A whoosh announced her friend’s arrival. “What’s he up to now?” Prism muttered from beside her.
 
He didn’t have to await his answer long. Almost as soon as those words left his mouth, bubbles begin to form on the surface of the water in the fountain and rose to the same high as the colt was. They were about the size of a chicken egg… and there were dozens of them.
 
Didn’t he call himself a ‘flame’ or whatever earlier? Starburst briefly wondered before she shook the thought away. What did it matter what he called himself while singing? He was clearly insane.
 
“Are you seriously making bubbles right now?” she asked.
 
It didn’t make much sense. Granted, he didn’t seem to want to cause a real damage to anything or anypony, but he must have noticed that they wanted to capture him.
 
“Not just any bubbles!” the colt replied, grinning. “I’m making colorful bubbles!”
 
His horn’s glowing grew more intense for a split second, and all the bubbles changed colors around him. Now there were orbs of every shade of rainbow floating around him.
 
As Starburst shot the colt a deadpan look, his grin grew wider. “Come one, come all! The first part of the show has begun!”
 
Once again fireworks erupted around him, momentary hiding him and his bubbles from everypony’s sight. Starburst quickly covered her eyes with a wing from the onslaught of colors, and when she looked back at the fountain, she saw that the bubbles had disappeared.
 
Oddly, the colt seemed not concerned. With his eyes closed, he began singing again: “♪I am creating all the bubbles tonight...♪
 
“It’s frikkin daytime!” Prism shouted in irritation.
 
A ripple of laughter accompanied his comment, but the colt wasn’t disheartened by it. “You’re chasing round trying to pop them all the time
 
Starburst eyelid began to twitch again, and Prism uttered a frustrated groan, burying his face in his hooves. “I’ve. Had. It!” the pegasus shouted, rising higher before she lunged at the colt. “I’m about to-”
 
“Prism, don’t!”
 
Both of the pegasi glanced sharply at the one that uttered the scream. It came from the middle of the crowd, and even though she recognized her voice, Starburst was shocked to see Annie trying to stop Prism, an alarmed expression on her face.
 
Their rainbow-maned friend hadn’t listened to her warning in time, though. In the heartbeat he began to rapidly stop in mid-air, something next to him exploded in a small flash of light. As Prism yelped and backed away, Starburst looked in alarm at her friend…
 
Who was soaking wet.
 
While everypony gasped in surprise, the colt didn’t even acknowledge that he saw that. “♪You don't need to trust a single thing you see, I’m creating all the bubbles at play♪” he sang, his eyes closed as he did a pirouette.
 
“What in the world…” Starburst murmured, surprised. Her eyes darted between the colt and Prism, who was now wiping his face off the water. “Did he make all of them invisible?”
 
“No, that’s not what he did,” came a voice from beside her, almost startling her.
 
Starburst had been so absorbed by the event that she didn’t notice Annie approaching her. Behind her she could see T hurrying after her, along with Candy and Gold. Having spared a second to look around for Whirlwind and finding that she must have already left, Starburst quickly landed beside Annie.
 
It did not escape her notice that everypony else was leaving the town square. Apparently, a mild explosion of water was a little too much for the crowd to handle, and they moved to a safer distance. Starburst was actually glad for that: ponies were far away enough for her to not worry about anypony getting hurt, but they were still within eyesight, so this insane thief shouldn’t feel like they lost interest. She didn’t want to see how he would react to that.
 
“What do you mean, Annie?” she asked her in hushed voice. “He must have cast an invisibility spell on those bubbles when he distracted everypony with those fireworks, and then make them explode like that on contact.”
 
But the unicorn shook her head. “Casting a spell that would make all those bubbles invisible should take much more time than he had, and it would require a lot of magic. He isn’t even breathing heavily.”
 
Glancing at the colt, Starburst had to admit her friend was right. There was no sign of him being tired at all. While she was a pegasus, and therefore couldn’t use magic, Starburst was the daughter of Twilight Sparkle - she knew enough about magic to understand that depending on the kind of spell, the one using it would grew more or less exhausted, just as if they went through a physical effort.
 
Turning her eyes from the giggling colt - Prism once again had tried to get closer to him and another bubble exploded in his face - Starburst asked Annie: “So what do you think he did?”
 
If somepony present here could figure it out, it would be her. The young unicorn had a great talent for magic; in fact, she could have easily enrolled into Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns if she wanted to. But she liked her school in Ponyville too much to leave it. Or, as probably everypony by now had figured it out, she liked a specific green-coated, winged, big half-dragon half-pony too much to study elsewhere.

However, she still learned a great deal about magic from Starburst’s mother. Her mom was very enthusiastic to teach somepony who was like a family to her, as back then Nighty was too young to learn magic. Starburst, who had little in common with her mother, had been a bit jealous of the attention Anthea was getting from her, although she had gotten over it in time… mostly.
 
The other mare smiled, her milky eyes sparkling with amusement. “Didn’t you notice before that what colors he made those bubbles take?”
 
“Well, there were a lot of them…” she murmured. What did it matter?
 
But her friend once more shook her head, smiling. “No, it was just an optical illusion. You thought you saw many different colors because they were all next to each other. In fact, though, there were only three: green, blue and red.”
 
“Um…” Candy hummed thoughtfully, and then looked at Annie with confusion. “So?”
 
But Starburst had understood what her friend meant. “Three primary colors of light!” she snapped, her eyes growing wide. That sneaky colt“When combined together, they give white light! By just changing their colors, he made those bubbles invisible in the sunlight!”
 
“Bravo!” the colt shouted from the fountain. His forelegs rose into the air, and his horn flashed, causing another volly of fireworks.
 
He’s just like Candy’s mom, only instead of confetti he does that with fireworks, Starburst concluded.
 
“Bravo for the audience!” the colt continued, smiling in their direction. The soaking Prism, who was being completely ignored, returned back to hover next to them. “For the first time ever, the secret behind my Invisible Bubble Barrage has been revealed!”
 
His horn glowed brighter. Starburst watched in confusion as his bubbles become visible once again. She was about to ask Annie if she could do that, but for some reason the colt went out of his way for them.
 
“Aw, don’t look so surprised,” he smirked, as if reading her thoughts… which by now she could only hope he couldn’t do. “What’s the point for continuing the trick once the audience knows how it works?” The bubbles then bursted at the same time, as droplets of water fall all around. Starburst felt a few of them drop on her. “No, once that happens, one has to move on to… the next trick!” he exclaimed, firing fireworks.
 
I think I identified the pattern here, the pegasus noted with annoyance.
 
“So, are our volunteers ready?” the colt continued. “I sure hope so, because the next part of the show has already begun! And you!” he said in a higher voice. His hoof was pointing at Annie. “Don’t think your sharp eyes will help you this time!”
 
Starburst’s eyes grew wide hearing him say that. While the colt had probably meant that as a compliment, his words in fact were having an opposite effect. Her three male friends tensed, even T and Gold, who were the last to anger in their group. Starburst herself also had a problem to not grow offended on her friend’s behalf.
 
Annie, thought, while also seemed surprised like her at first, a heartbeat later smiled oddly.
 
“Now…” the colt’s voice drew Starburst attention. She turned her head in time to see him jump down from the statue’s head to her back, and then…
 
Her jaw dropped as the thief’s neck grew longer, his head shooting into the air towards them. It didn’t just extend, it also bent slightly, isolated segments of it, and gave it an appearance of a snake. His head landed a few paces away from them, causing everypony save her and Annie to shriek and back away, even the ponies on the edges of the town square.
 
“Who’s ready for some madness?” the head asked, as it rose vertically with its neck coiling under it, further drawing parallels to snakes.
 
With a quick glance, Starburst saw that his main body had disappeared, and now the end of the neck - or more precisely, the tail - was hurrying after this snake-form of his. This… she tried to think of anything that would make sense. Madness indeed!
 
He must be a draconequus, she finally decided. That’s the only explanation.
 
Only that could explain how the colt changed his body so quickly. Even changelings wouldn’t be able to just extend themselves, not without visibly using their magic. And heck, even his personality reminded her of Illusion’s dad.
 
“So,” Annie’s amused voice pulled her out of her musing, “you’re saying that I have ‘sharp eyes’?”
 
Starburst glanced at her friend. Where is she going with this?
 
“Why, yes!” the colt-snake… thingy, replied, grinning. He rolled his eyes. “Invisible Bubble Barrage is one of my oldest tricks, and not once has anypony noticed that there were only three colors that I changed my bubbles into, even when I repeated the process more slowly,” the thief sighed, his face briefly expressing boredom. That quickly disappeared, as he lowered his head to rest it on Annie’s level, right in front of her. “But you managed to see through it at the first glance!”
 
What in the… Starburst thought, her eyes going between the two of them. In the corner of her vision she could see a similar confusion was all that was stopping Prism, T and Gold from pulling Annie away from him. There’s no way he cannot notice it when standing so close to her!
 
Annie, however, continued to smile, not taken aback by the closeness of the bizarre pony, or by his rudeness/obliviousness. “Well, that’s funny you say that.”
 
“Oh?” the colt asked, and Starburst managed to notice a small furrow of his brows. “And why’s that?”
 
Annie smile grew wider “Because I’m blind.”
 
Her comment had finally forced the colt to react differently than he had up until this point. His eyes became wide as plates - figuratively, actually - as he opened his mouth in disbelief.
 
“I can well enough see the colors, though, but that’s just about it,” the unicorn continued, and Starburst watched as her friend began to giggle.
 
That did not shock her. Despite her disability, Annie was one of the most cheerful ponies Starburst knew. With her acute hearing and ability to tell the colors apart ponies wouldn’t even be able to tell she is blind if it weren’t for her milky eyes.
 
What did shock her, however, was that the colt quickly joined her.
 
He threw his head back laughing, and before everypony’s eyes he became all-pony once more. The colt slapped his forehooves to his face as he landed on his back, still acting as if what Annie had told him was the best joke he ever heard.
 
“Oh boy, did I walk into this one!” he exclaimed humorously.
 
Starbursts quickly exchanged looks with T, Prism, Gold and Candy. Even the latter, who usually could find everything to be funny, was having a hard time understanding how their visually impaired friend was still laughing along with the strange colt.
 
“Um… Annie?” Candy asked her uncertainly. “Care to clue us in on the joke? We don’t get the punchline.”
 
Annie glanced at her, still smiling. “I can see him,” she explained, much to the shock of everypony. “Which means…” Annie added, turning to the colt, “that this is an illusion.”
 
“Bravo!” the colt exclaimed, rising on his hind legs, and… taking his head off his neck and juggling with it. Two other heads appeared in his front hooves, all grinning at them. “You’ve seen through my Mirage Field!”
 
The heads exploded in flashes of light, and the body that was left behind was scattered, like smoke or dust by the wind. A strange, flickering sensation went through her body, and as Starburst looked up, she saw the colt again standing on the statue’s head… because in fact he hadn’t moved from there at all.
 
But… how did he do that? Illusion spells are usually casted on the eyes of a pony. He didn’t do as much as flash his horn briefly. When did he cast the spell?! Starburst wondered. Furthermore, illusion spells usually affect only sight, not hearing as well. Just how skilled is he?!
 
“Never before has there been a pony that could figure out two of my tricks!” the colt continued, his words accompanied by flashes of light. “And all in a one show, no less! This deserves-”
 
“-some serious tail kicking for you!” Prism shouted, taking an advantage from the fact that there were no more bubbles or mirages shielding the colt and charging at him.
 
The colt looked at him with pity, and just a second before he would crush into him, the unicorn disappeared.
 
“-some reward!” his voice came from behind. Starburst turned around to see him standing on one of the street lamp. She was a tad surprised to see his happy face become a bit more serious for a moment as he looked at Annie. “And how about, as a reward-”
 
“-I’ll tell ya something nice?” the colt said from beside Starburst.
 
Despite her shock, she managed to shake it off and tried to knock him out after a heartbeat. She should have succeeded; he had his back turned to her, and his attention was on Annie. However, the cloaked pony still managed to disappear right before her hoof collided with his head.
 
“Excuse me,” he said, standing on one leg on a pole and frowning, “I was talking. Rude!” His horn flashed, and for the first time, he teleported like a normal unicorn. He appeared next to Annie (on the opposite side from Starburst) and began talking again. “Where was I… oh, right!”
 
Starburst pondered what to do now. She wanted to try attacking him again, but… was it even possible to hit him? This colt not only could teleport instantly, but also apparently had eyes on the back of his head.
 
She glanced at T, who was now behind the colt, but the dragon/pony hybrid shook his head and looked at the thief with interest. Starburst frowned; was she the only one interested in bringing him to justice?
 
Returning her attention to the colt, she heard him tell Annie: “You’re not blind!”
 
His comment made everypony gape at him.
 
“You just can’t see!” the cloaked colt finished, smiling.
 
It said something about the surrealness of this situation that none of Annie’s friends that were around him hadn’t try to punch him.
 
“You know, there’s a difference between the two, right?” he asked Annie, who was about as confused as everypony else. He took a step back and rose on his hind legs. “Take this green fella for example.” he said, tapping T’s chest. “Since he’s apparently your friend, I’m sure you know he looks like a…” he paused to look at him, before turning back to Annie, “some sort of a mix between a dragon and a pony.”
 
There is no way he’s that dumb.
 
“Most ponies, when seeing him, would think that he is some sort of foal-eating, blood-drinking, vomit-causing, flesh-rendering monster. But that is what being blind is! You know that he’s not like that,” the colt pointed his hoof at Annie, then quickly covered his mouth and spoke to T in a supposedly hushed voice: “You’re not a foal-eating, blood-drinking, vomit-causing, flesh-rendering monster, right? Because if you are, then I’m totally making an idiot out of myself.”
 
A snort of laughter escaped Annie and Candy, while Starburst joined T and Gold in stating at the colt as if he lost his mind. “Oh, don’t worry, he isn’t foal-eating, blood-drinking, vomit-causing, flesh-rendering monster,” Annie said, smiling at T. “In fact, he’s a real sweetheart.”
 
“Awww!” the colt exclaimed while T blushed, but his… whatever it was, was interrupted by Prism once again trying to catch him off-guard.
 
“Honestly, aren’t you bored of this?” he asked from the top of the fountain. “In case you haven’t noticed by now, you’ll never catch me. I’m the fastest pony there ever was!”
 
Prism snorted as a few fireworks flashed again. “Oh please, a unicorn? The fastest pony? Get real.”
 
He obviously missed the look of annoyance Annie and a few unicorns in the audience shoot him.
 
“All you are doing is teleporting yourself,” Prism continued.
 
“So? You’re using your wings.”
 
“That’s not the same!”
 
“Yes, it is,” the colt replied, grinning. “Now, if you think yourself fast, I’ll happy educate you…” he narrowed his eyes, “what a real speed is.”
 
He disappeared once again… and appeared right in front of Prism in mid-air.
 
“Boop!” he said cheerfully as he touched his nose lightly with his hoof, before jumping again to the street light.
 
Starburst had barely noticed him there before he jumped to stand between T and Annie, then on the fountain, on the pole, next to her, and then once more within the air besides Prism, but this time… with a pillow in his hooves.
 
He slammed it against the pegasus head, and disappeared, leaving the pillow behind. A second later he appeared with a new one and repeated the process. And again and again… Starburst glanced at the nearby "Quills and Sofas - now with Pillows!” where she saw the appearing and disappearing colt through the store’s window.
 
Returning her attention to her friend, Starburst watched, unsure what to do, as he was slowly buried beneath a pile of pillows.
 
“So, Damsel, now do you believe me?” the colt asked a few heartbeats later. He was sitting atop the pile, which was strangely shaped like a throne. “Because I’m technically taking my time off the show to educate you here.”

Clearing his throat, the colt wiggled to sit more comfortably on the “throne”, and threw one foreleg into the air. “Ask me what is best in life!” he proclaimed in a strangely accented voice. “And I shall say: ‘to crush your enemies with piles of pillows, see them squatted under you, and to hear the lamentation of damsels in distress’!”
 
Prism grinded his teeth in frustration hearing the offense as he tried to get out of the pile.
 
Starburst felt somepony poke her side. Taking her eyes off her friend, she turned… to stare right into the strange eyes of the thieving colt. “Is your friend allergic to feathers?”
 
She whirled around trying to kick him. He didn’t bother with this odd teleportation of his and simply jumped back a little. “Cause you know, I just dropped a few pounds worth of feathers on him- whoa!” Starburst spun around, performing three successive roundhouse kicks, with the last one almost hitting him. “You know, Knight, I begin to think that you don’t like me,” he said from behind her where he teleported to, sounding hurt.
 
Starburst stopped attacking him. Standing on the ground and turning to him, she tried to think of some way to get him, as she tried to occupy him with talk. “Do you live in your own little world?” she asked in annoyance, referring to his comment.
 
“Yes!” he replied cheerfully, sitting relaxedly just within her reach as if they were best of friends. “But I am gracious enough to share it with everypony!”
 
That did it. Starburst facehoofed, her mind broken.
 
“Stand down!”
 
The pegasus raised her head, searching for the source of the firm voice that barked the order. A small unit of the Royal Guard, composed of six ponies (two earth ponies, two pegasi and two unicorns) entered the town’s square. The crowd of ponies parted to let them pass, and now they returned to watching them with interest.
 
“I’m sitting down, silly!” the colt called back, but Starburst didn’t miss the subtle change in his voice. It no longer was cheerful, but rather… mocking.
 
She managed to take a quick glance at his face before he jumped again, appearing on the top of the pole. He was observing the guards intensively, and though his mouth was twisted into a smile, it didn’t reach his eyes.
 
“Welcome, welcome!” he called out as the guards moved to stand between him and Starburst and her friends. “I must say, I am pleased that you managed to make it in time for the next part of the show. Truly, it’s amazing how fast the Royal Guard can react to a colt causing some disturbance.”
 
Starburst shook. There was no mistake; the last comment was definitely a sneer at the guards’ expense. What’s his problem with the royal guard? She thought as she hastened to help her friends get Prism out of the pile of pillows. Did they try to capture him before? That wouldn’t actually be a surprise, but…
 
“You have been reported disturbing peace and committing a petty theft, and you I see you’re going to face several other charges as well, young colt,” the highest ranking guard spoke to the colt, glancing at the pile of pillows. “Further resistance to the arrest will have its consequences. I advise you to give yourself away.”
 
“And stop in the middle of the show?!” the colt replied, pretending to be horrified by the notion. “Never!”
 
His horn flashed, and Starburst noticed that the guards had tensed. However, they soon relaxed once they saw that the cloaked pony used his magic just to levitate some bottle from the abandoned stand.
 
“You know…” he spoke, turning the bottle upside down and pouring out its contents. A glow surrounded the weird liquid, making it hover next to him, “given that it’s been a while since the Royal Guard had come to enjoy my show, I think I will do something… special.”
 
He and the liquid disappeared. When Starburst blinked, she saw him standing on the top of the fountain’s statue again.
 
“Fillies and gentlecolts!” he called out, as the liquid still hovered next to him, changing its shape slowly. On his other side, the water from the fountain rose. He took much more water than the other substance, but a blob of it still laid suspended in the air in the similar matter. Only it its case, the blob resembled a pony in shape. “Today, for the first time on my show, here in Ponyville, ponies can bear witness to the mastery of magic and art! On my right, water!” he paused to point at it with his right front hoof. “On my left, oil!”
 
So that’s what this is… Starburst watched, interested despite herself where the odd colt was going with this.
 
“Now!” the colt shouted, clasping his hooves together. “Watch, as I merge those two together, using a touch of magic…”
 
A small, glowing orb emerged from his hoof. Starburst looked at it in confusion. It wasn’t the color of his magic, which was… blue? In all this excitement, she wasn’t paying attention to that. But it definitely wasn’t a multicolored glow, like the lights of the Crystal Empire!
 
The orb hovered in front of him, and was joined by the oil and water. They began swirling together, but just as he did so earlier with the bubbles, the colt fired a barrage of fireworks around the fountain. Starburst waited impatiently to see what exactly planned to do.
 
Once she was able to, she directed her eyes towards the fountain… and gasped. What stood there beside the statue looked like a caricature of a pony, more specifically, a caricature of the pony that was atop of the fountain. It was the same size as he, but that was about where the similarities had ended. The thing was without any clothing, leaving its very pale blue coat bare. Its mane was short and spiky, and also whiter, and the tail was similar. But it face was stranger, even borderline frightening.
 
It wasn’t that it didn’t have a horn. What made it so creepy was the very wide smile it bore, and the black dots it had instead of eyes.
 
“Ponyville…” the colt called out, seemingly pleased with himself, “this is… Jōki Cōlt!”