//------------------------------//
// We...? 
// Story: Cool Story Bro... MOAR PONIES! 
// by Shadowflame 
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	I stared at Agent Gnome, aghast, "What the frick do you mean?!"

"Exactly what I said, Mr. Anderson," The suited man replied coldly, "The three of you will be unable to return to the public in your current forms to keep the existence of magic hidden. As far as we have observed the spell placed on you is permanent. . I have already had this same discussion with the other two victims of this incident, and just like them, until some way is found to reverse the spell, you will live in another facility not too far from here."

"That's bullshit!" Fiora shouted.

"Yeah, what she said!" Liz defiantly added, rising from her seat.

Agent Gnome continued, unfazed, "I know all of you are... least to say, pissed. But rest assured you won't be completely cut off from your old lives. You may still be in contact with your families as you stay in our other facility." He glanced at the other non-ponies in the room, "But as for you four, you and the families of these three will be sworn to secrecy about this agency and their situation."

"Like I could keep a secret about some half-ass agency holding people against their will," Ben growled, "It's all to hide magic, isn't it? Well we did fine on our own when we were keeping the transformation ritual a secret. But even then, what's it matter if the world knows that magic is real or not?"

The DISPEL agent sighed, "It appears you don't understand just how severe it is that humanity stays ignorant to the supernatural's existence. Then allow me to enlighten you,

"Magic has been feared since the beginning of time. No doubt you've heard of the Salem Witch trials, as well as countless witch hunts in history before and after then. Wherever someone possesses magic, humans have always been driven to fight against it out of fear of it being used against them."

Emily spoke up, "But that was because they didn't understand what it was. It's normal to be afraid of something you don't know."

Agent Gnome glanced at her patiently, "While it is true many hunted witches out of paranoia of the unknown, there were just as many who hunted down magic users because they knew all too well what it was. All throughout time and civilizations, humans have fallen victim to this magic, witchery, sorcery. Among the most dangerous weapons in the world, magic sits at the potential of a nuclear bomb, depending on the user."

The agent cast his eyes about the now silent room. Ben spoke up, "You make it sound like anyone would try to destroy the world as soon as they get their hands on it. But I didn't. Angela didn't. All of us used it without harming anybody."

"That was only transformation rituals," Agent Gnome gruffly retorted, "There are plenty of rituals a non-witch could use, ranging between raising an entire mountain, to bringing about a storm that could have indirectly affected the weather of the whole planet. While you all may have been responsible for yourselves and those around you, there are too many people who hunger for that kind of power. It's power that can be wielded, used for threats, used to raise one's status in the world the same way a tyrant would.

"Tell me then," I questioned, "What would happen if the world found out about magic now?"

"Countless things could happen," The man replied, "But for the sake of time, I'll only bring up the ones that are of the most concern. There are enough power-hungry warlords across the world that would no doubt use force, deceit, bribery, and whatever else is at their disposal to gather the secrets to magic. It wouldn't be a long shot either to suggest they'd put their efforts into kidnapping witches and warlocks into their military force. The very dynamic of war would change completely, and no doubt it would only entice certain countries to jump into battles against one another with more ferocity than before.

"'But what about domestically', you may ask. There's already plenty of paranoid people in this country that would go berserk if they saw anyone using witchery. There would be no doubt people searching for magic, knowing that it's real, and given we're in a world where information leaks out like wildfire, how could they resist using it when everything they'd need to know is at their fingertips. Religions would cry out in rebellion to the whole thing, petty revenges using rituals would no doubt happen across the country, mostly by stupid teenagers, and let's not even discuss how many other people would transform themselves just for the sake of it, not even mentioning the other uses for rituals.

"The country could very well be thrown into chaos, even more than we had seen before." Agent Gnome's expression took on something akin to stone seriousness, "Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, would be at the risk of losing their lives at a power like magic, and that is the very reason why we can't have magical, talking ponies walking about in the open. One thing would come to another and suddenly the whole world would know too much about the supernatural realm. They must remain ignorant. This is no longer the medieval period where anything could be brushed off as a drunk man's imagination. This is the twenty-first century, where everything spirals out of control at even the tiniest of instances. Everyone in the world would have more access to magic than they would have to a gun, and need I remind you that every human on Earth possess chi, and would therefore be able to use at least part of it?

"Too many things could go wrong, and because of that, too many people could, and no doubt many, would die. Because of that, it was decided from the beginning of time that magic must be kept secret. This agency, DISPEL, was formed when countries began growing too large for their own good. Other organizations like us exist around the world doing the same work as us, preventing this crisis from happening."

Agent Gnome sighed as he composed himself once again, "While it's true, magic is the source of many wonders, and it has potential for great help, it has too many risks to now be allowed to run freely through the world."

I stared at him, slack-jawed. The others were only silent... actually, now that I noticed it, both Angela and Dale had been silent the entire time Agent Gnome had spoken. I glanced between my friends, the girl in pink and the umber unicorn, "Angela? Dale? You guys have been silent the whole time... What do you think?"

Angela slowly shook her head, keeping her eyes down at the table, "I think Agent Gnome's right. I mean, I only know the transformation ritual and a few tiny enchantments, but there's still a lot I don't know. But even then, I know how powerful they are. I don't even want to think of how many horrible things somebody could do by misusing them."

Dale had a similar look on his face, "I can't imagine how much worse a battlefront would be with magic. If some country started using weapons and rituals, they could decimate any army they'd come up against." He glanced at me, "You saw how easily Taharis nabbed us at the museum. Could you imagine how easily anyone could kill with that kind of power?"

"I..." I fell silent, knowing he was right. Granted I doubted most people would kill if they had magic, but there were always some that would... and if Agent Gnome was right, accidents could always happen.

I glanced back towards Agent Gnome, "It'd... be only till we find a way to reverse the ritual, right?"

The man nodded, "Yes. In that time, you three will remain here, your families and friends sworn to secrecy, and then after we find a reversal method, you'll go back to the lives you had." He glanced towards Angela, Liz, and Ben, "Though, as an agent of DISPEL, we'll have to ask you all to refrain from using witchcraft anymore."

"Because that's all DISPEL is all about," A voice suddenly cut in as the steel door swung open, the one speaking stepping through it, "Destroying all magic in this cold and dreary world.

All eyes widened at the sight of the man in the black overcoat and a mask covering his face, as he entered the room.

"Taharis!" Dale, Fiora, and I shouted in unison, our tones ranging between anger and fear among us.

"Freeze!" Agent Gnome reached inside his coat, as if drawing a weapon, but Taharis suddenly vanished, appearing behind the agent with a glowing glove raised towards him.

"Nice try," Gnome muttered, whirling around and catching Taharis' arm before the glove could make contact, "I've seen the museum footage plenty of times to know how you use that trick."

Again, Taharis disappeared, reappearing to the side to make another attempt. But Gnome suddenly pulled out something akin to stone gauntlets over his hands. The agent ducked the glove, throwing a punch with his stone covered hand towards Taharis. However, Taharis dodged, but what came from the gauntlet felt like a shockwave that punched through the rest of the room.

Everyone else yelped or screamed as they were practically thrown from their chairs as the furniture toppled over from the force. My ears rang as I stumbled back onto my hooves, backing away from the fight between two magic wielders. Everyone had a similar idea as they we took cover either behind the table or at the back of the room. Dale, Fiora, Ben, and Angela took the cover of the table, while Liz, Emily, and I hunkered between a chair and the back wall.

Max barked violently at the brawl, no doubt wanting to help, but he could tell from just looking that he didn't want to get caught in the firefight.

But as for Gnome, he seemed to hold his own against Taharis. Wherever Taharis moved quickly, the suited agent seemed to always find him. But whenever Taharis outpaced Gnome, the man managed to block the transforming glove with his stone gauntlet. Gnome caught Taharis' gloved hand with his guantlet, throwing a countering punch with his other, but like smoke, Taharis flew out of the agent's grip, the battle continuing with ferocity. While the two of them exchanged blows, with no clear effect on each other, the room took the brunt of the force as the chairs were blown back and the table splintered into sawdust from the power of Gnome's gauntlet and the occasional blast of wind Taharis threw in an attempt to trip up the agent.

Emily and Liz screamed as bits of wood flew across the room, over them, but not without me covering them the best a small pony could. "Stay down!" I shouted, wincing as what felt like a broken arm of a chair bounced off my shoulders, along with small pieces of sharp wood.

Over my shoulder, I could only make out bits of the battle going on.

Gnome growled beneath his breath as he never seemed to be able to land a hit on this man that moved like smoke, "I didn't think such a talented warlock would be so stupid. I sent up an alarm to HQ Control during our tussle. By now, the other agents and soldiers in this facility are already on their way." Bringing up his gauntlet, he smacked away the gloved hand of Taharis, "You had the best chance to escape if you hadn't come into this room. Your spacial warping spell should have told you the exit was just down the hall. Why stay and be captured again when you could have escaped?"

Taharis threw another gust of wind along his arm into the agent's face, though it didn't seem to faze the agent, "If there are any I haven't made into little farm animals, let your agents come. 'Escape' was never part of the plan." Again, he vanished before warping behind Gnome, "You have something I need access to, something only you can open. I can read it in your chi; I know you're the one I'm after." His hand clashed with the gauntlet once more, but Taharis felt no pain against the stone surface of it, "I think you know what I'm talking about."

Suddenly, Agent Gnome's eyes went wide, and his movement faltered slightly; this was all Taharis needed. The warlock suddenly warped behind the man, and Gnome followed, but slower than before. Lashing out a spell of wind, Taharis held a smirk behind his mask as he threw a kick to Gnome's head. The agent stood his ground against the blast of wind, which only distracted him before he felt Taharis' boot strike to the side of his head.

Gnome staggered from the blow, and in the very same instant, Taharis was on him as he shoved the palm of this gloved hand over Gnome's chest, the circle on the back of it glowing fiercely.

"No!"

A pained growl escaped Gnome through gritted teeth as the effects of the transformation took over in only an instant. His bones broke and melded, shrinking with the rest of his frame, but only slightly. Light blue fur sprouted over his newly formed muzzle, and his short hair grew slightly as it gained an orange color.

Gnome didn't scream, but his muzzle was twisted in pain as the transformation completed itself. In dreadful seconds, a large, blue, earth pony stallion laid before Taharis, tense from the shock of pain.

Taharis gave grumble beneath his mask, "Hm, it seems you're more sturdy than I thought." The warlock stooped down and grabbed the ponified Gnome by the neck of the agent's suit. Lifting him up, Gnome's slacks fell loosely off his legs, letting a short orange tail into view. Taharis merely looked over his work once, "All your comrades that ran into on the way here fell unconscious from the strain of the transformations. Nobody else has stayed awake at this point... save for one."

Taharis turned his masked gaze towards the back of the room, where we were peering out from cover. I could feel his gaze single me out. His gruff voice resonated through the silence of the room, "I warned you already; Follow me and die."

Next thing I knew, Taharis vanished with Gnome in hand, before the steel door to the room slammed shut behind him.

Like that wasn't anything I'd already seen before. I turned to Emily and Liz, who looked a bit frazzled from the magic fight, "You alright?"

Emily nodded, "We're fine."

"Who was that?" Liz exclaimed.

"That was Taharis." Fiora bluntly replied climbing out from beneath the table with Dale. Ben did the same, helping Angela back up to her feet with him. Max merely opted to stay beneath the table. There was only so much weirdness a human-turned-dog can handle. Fiora gave Liz a wry look, "You know, big douche bag that turns people into ponies so they can never be humans again?"

Liz rolled her eyes, crossing her arms, "I know that. I meant how does he have that much power? I've never seen anybody use chi that quickly..." She frowned, "But then again, I've never seen anybody use magic like that before in the first place."

Ben held a similar expression on his face, "But what I don't get is why Taharis would even come in here in the first place. With that kind of teleportation power, it's a wonder he even got caught. He definitely didn't get arrested and brought here only because he couldn't teleport, like we saw just barely."

I nodded, brushing some stray slivers of wood out of my fur, "Yeah, but I heard Taharis say he needed Gnome for something he couldn't access, like Gnome was the key to it or something like that." I frowned, "Something tells me it has to do with his whole plan to destroy the country."

Angela bit her lip as she leaned back against what was left of the conference table, a grim look dominating her features, "If that's the case... then that means Taharis must have let himself be captured on purpose, so he could get to Gnome. Haha, it sounds like something out of a movie."

Dale shivered slightly, looking at Angela in shock, "But, if Gnome was the key, and Taharis took him, then where's the 'lock'?"

"Taharis said not to follow him, so I'm betting it's close," Ben answered, "If it's something magical, it'd make sense that DISPEL would keep it here where they can keep their eye on it."

I gritted my teeth, "Then we need to find Taharis and stop him before he can get to it. He's going to destroy the country if nobody stops him," I glanced towards the wreckage Gnome and Taharis had made, "And my hopes that DISPEL can stop him are kind of dwindling at the moment."

"But where's he going?" Dale inquired, "We can't just scramble through the facility. We don't know how big this place is, and not to mention we don't even know where he is." Out of the corner of the unicorn's eye, he caught Fiora giving him an odd look, "What?"

Fiora raised an eyebrow at him, "When have you been all for going after a guy who threatened to kill us?"

Dale narrowed his eyes, but a twinkle of uncertainty still remained in them, "We already decided we'd play it safe, right? We'll go after Taharis, and hopefully we can find somebody from DISPEL to help us stop him." Fiora merely smiled in response.

"He's heading deeper underground... very deep."

"What?" All eyes turned to Angela, mine in particular in shock.

To my surprise, Angela's eyes had a green tint surrounding them. I blinked, making sure I wasn't seeing things, "How do you know that?"

A tiny grin flashed across Angela's face. The pink witch glanced between Liz and Emily, "Girls, I think we're good to lose our disguises."

Sharing a collective grin, the three girls suddenly erupted in green flames. Max immediately erupted into whining barks at the sudden sight, wiggling farther back under the table. My eyes widened, but I felt my shocked look slowly shift to a grin as the flames dissipated, leaving behind-

Fiora screamed in shock, "AGH! Demon bug horses!"

Dale shook his head, though equally shocked, "Nope... changelings."

The changeling that stood where Angela had been, one with a long, molting green mane with holes in it, just like her pony mane, grinned back through pupil-less, green eyes, "Surprise!"

I raised an eyebrow at her, Emily, and Liz, not losing my smile, "So... when did this happen?"

Emily, a changeling with a short, pink, molting mane, chuckled sheepishly as she scratched the back of her head with a hole-ridden hoof, "Um, well it happened after you called Angela today." She smiled wryly at me, "We... may have started planning a rescue mission after Angela told us you'd been kidnapped."

I let out a small chuckle, "Um, thanks." Emily only blushed in response.

Fiora glanced between the changelings, unamused at being startled so badly, "Okay, so why didn't anybody say anything about this before?"

Liz, now a changeling with a white holey mane done in a ponytail, narrowed her pure white eyes, crossed her forelegs with a humph, "Our transformation finished just before those FBI guys from DISPEL showed up on Angela's doorstep. I think showing off that you're a bug horse that feeds off love at the moment is the last thing you want to do in an agency that wants to get rid of magic."

Fiora paused for a moment, "Good point."

Dale glanced towards Angela, "But how'd you find where Taharis is? Some kind of tracking spell?"

Angela shook her head slightly, frowning a bit, "I'm not sure... It has something to do with changeling senses, of course, but other than that," She shrugged, "I got diddly-squat."

"Wait, Lyle?"

I turned to Emily, "Yeah?"

The pink eyed changeling frowned, "Did Taharis ever say why he was doing all of this?"

I nodded, "He said, 'revenge', but for what or who, I don't know; He never said."

Her eyes widened somewhat, "So that's why..." She glanced towards the others, "He must be doing this out of love for somebody, because that love is what Angela's picking up with our changeling senses. If Taharis is doing this for revenge, then he's going to destroy the country... for the sake of the one he loves..."

All eyes stared at her in silence. Ben muttered, "That's kind of messed up. How does that make sense at all?"

"I have no idea." Emily admitted. "But I've always been a fan of the philosophy that love makes people do crazy things."

"Then, let's go!" Angela called out, her eyes flashing a darker tint of green, "Taharis is heading deeper, and the longer we wait here, the harder it'll be for us to find his 'love signal'." She glanced up towards Ben, "You better steer clear of the warlock. As changelings, the transformation on us means he can't use his glove on us, but you're still just yourself. Better not let him get you turned into a pony forever either."

Ben was about to argue otherwise, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he paused, before begrudgingly closing it and nodding, "Fine."

"No," I glanced back at Emily, "I won't let you go down there after Taharis." I glanced at everyone else, "He said he'd kill-"

"Everyone?" Ben finished, snapping back, "Lyle, if Taharis succeeds, everyone in the country will get hurt, possibly die. We need everyone we can get our hands on to stop him." He glanced down at the green maned changeling at his side, "It's bad enough that I'm about to let Angela go down there with you."

I felt Emily's hoof over my shoulder. I looked back to find her smiling back, "Sorry, Lyle. But even if you don't want me, I'm going down there with you guys. It's sweet that you want to protect me, but..." She blushed through her black chitin, before planting a kiss on my lips, "I'll watch your back if you watch mine, kay?"

After a small pause, I finally nodded, "Fine, but don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"Then this is already out of your league," Angela giggled, mirthfully, "All you've ever done as a pony so far is run." She glanced down at her own body, "Ironic how we're going to try doing the opposite."

Ben crouched down to Angela's height, "Here, you'll need all the changeling power you can get when you find Taharis."

Angela laughed, "Care to lend me some?"

"I'll be glad to." Ben and Angela leaned in, before sharing a kiss between human and changeling... although oddly, that wasn't even close to the oddest thing I've ever seen before... what the hell has happened to my life?

Fiora simply rolled her eyes as she watched the two couples doing their own thing, "Geez, if this room wasn't already half-destroyed, I'd say go find your own." A moment later, though, a mischievous grin split over her mossy green muzzle as she glanced between Dale and Liz. Laughing to herself on the inside, Fiora smacked Dale's shoulder with a hoof, "You heard Ben, all the changelings need some magic love power to take on Taharis."

Dale blinked in confusion, "What?"

Fiora gestured towards Liz, "C'mon, lover-boy. Go give that... er, changeling girl some sugar."

"Wait, lover-boy?!" Dale's eyes were wide open now as he entered panic mode. Liz shared a very same look, that is, until Fiora gave her a tiny wink with just the right message added to it.

Slowly, a mischievous, toothy grin of her own came to Liz's face, realizing the situation was just a tease. With a smile, she shot Dale a seductive look, waltzing closer to the unicorn with a bit of hip sway in her gait, "Yeah, come on. I need some magic in my arsenal if we're going after a powerful warlock like Taharis."

Sweat droplets were visibly on Dale's umber fur as a full blush burned beneath it. Just behind him, Fiora was struggling to contain her torrent of giggles at his expression. Liz only pressed it further, "You don't want to deny me some magic and leave me drained when I need it, do you? Just a nice, little kiss is all... I.... need...." She was inches from his face, drawing out those last words hotly.

For a moment, Liz only grinned as she stared at Dale, straight in the eyes, letting her tail flick around her hips as if egging the unicorn into doing-

Suddenly, Dale leaned forwards and kissed her, the umber color of his fur burned out by the red glow of his face. The moment Dale's lips pressed against hers, Liz's white eyes flew open in shock, her body freezing in place as her mind short circuited at the spark the kiss created. Fiora felt as the giggles in her throat disappeared- no, perished into nothing, her jaw dropping with an expression similar to Liz's.

The kiss lasted a good three seconds, the two second mark being the one where Liz finally comprehended what was happening. The moment she did, her black chitin over her face grew pinker than a peach, matching that garden variety hue that Dale had acquired with his tomato red face.

Dale finally pulled away his lips from hers as the last of his willpower became crushed beneath his nerves and he hurriedly stood up. The unicorn took great care in not taking another look at Liz as he exclaimed in a squeaky voice, "Alright, warlock hunting time! Let's go! Now! Allons-y!"

As everyone else watched Dale rush towards the steel door, surprisingly opening it with his magic with desperate force that could have ripped it from its hinges, Liz and Fiora were frozen as the gears in their heads violently clinked together, trying to process what just happened.

It took a moment before Liz finally regained control, "I... didn't think... he'd actually... do... it..."

Emily giggled from the side, a black hoof over her mouth at what she just watched, "Aww, my little sis' first kiss!"

The next moment, Fiora was on her hooves, galloping after the runaway unicorn through the ajar doorway, "I'M GONNA KILL HIM!"

Meanwhile, the pink faced Liz still stood frozen. Sighing, Emily grabbed her sister in the pink aura of her changeling horn and draped her over my back, "Here, can you carry her? She should snap out of it before we find Taharis." She glanced between me and Angela, "Shall we go?"

I chuckled sheepishly, "Yeah, before those two get too far, or start going the wrong way."

With that, Emily and I raced out of the room, with Liz in tow. Angela and Ben shared one last hug, before Angela buzzed her insect wings, flying after us as she shouted back, "See if you can find some DISPEL agents to help!"

"On it!" Ben shouted back, running out of the room and into the hallway of the facility.

From under the table, Max sighed at the weirdness his life had become, putting his forepaws over his snout in a hope that this was just a dream. He wasn't sure if he preferred this level of madness compared to still being locked in that basement. Well, whining wouldn't help him, so he opted to follow after Ben, sprinting out the door after the teen. At least this kid was the sane one in this group of friends, sane being a relative term, of course.