//------------------------------//
// PONIES!? 
// Story: Cool Story Bro... MOAR PONIES! 
// by Shadowflame 
//------------------------------//

	Angela tackled Taharis off of the alter, and the two of them tumbled off of the alter. The warlock gave no resistance against his assailant, only wincing as he landed on his back on the hard dirt off to the side of the underground chamber.

Despite her efforts, Angela only watched as Taharis chuckled weakly, more of a cough than a laugh. His face had grown sickly pale as he whispered hoarsely, "Too... late... It doesn't matter... what happens to me.. now..."

Everyone gasped as an surge of power rippled through the room. All eyes widened and turned towards the alter, where rays of glowing light shot like ethereal pillars towards the ceiling. They burned with the color of deep green moss, casting a sickly, earthly hue over everything in sight.

"We've got to stop it!" Liz shouted, galloping towards the alter's stairs, "Stomp out the ritual's chalk!"

Fearful of Taharis had explained concerning this ritual, the others and I ran right behind Liz onto the alter. Angela remained beside Taharis, the collapsed warlock.

Angela glared down at Taharis, urgency written over face in the green light of the alter, "How long will the alter glow before the ritual takes effect?"

Taharis held a weak smirk, his features like a ghost's, "It... won't... matter... None of you shall stop Nature's Uprising. None of you have... the... guts... to..." Just like that, the warlock's body went limp as unconsciousness overtook him.

Angela cursed to herself, a rare occurrence for her, "Buck, he drained too much of his mana to activate the alter." She knew, if Taharis had used anymore, he would have drained the rest of his soul, leaving him as only an empty shell. But by the looks of it, his soul was intact... barely.

Up on the alter, the glowing green glyph of Nature's Uprising only grew brighter as everyone and I tried to scrape away the chalk lines under our hooves. The white chalk came away scattered beneath my hooves, the white powder clinging to my fur. But despite me breaking the circle, the glowing pillars of light seemed to only grow in intensity. But that was impossible! Any normal circle ritual would have been snuffed out by breaking the circle, so why wasn't this one?!

Fear clutched my innards as I realized the others must have had the same luck as me. The glowing pillars of light remained, even over the places where the chalk lines had been erased.

"It's not working!" Dale exclaimed in fright.

"What do we do now?" Fiora shouted, glancing at anybody who knew how these rituals worked better than her. Her eyes fell on Liz, who shouted back, "I don't know! That should have worked!"

Suddenly, the glowing intensified, to the point it started to hurt to look at it, and at the same time, the chamber began to quake. Loose dirt trickled down over us as the shaking began to steadily grow.

Emily gasped, "What's happening? Earthquake?"

I looked up, and through the bright glow of the room, I could see crevices crack open in the ceiling above us. "We need to get out of here! The chamber's going to come down on us!"

"But what about the ritual?" Emily cried, "If we don't stop it, everything and everyone we know will disappear! I can't let that happen!"

"I-" I gritted my teeth. I didn't know what to do; Nobody did. The chamber was collapsing, and if we were still here when it did, we wouldn't make it out of here in one piece. But we couldn't run and give up on trying to stop the ritual. Everyone, the whole country- no, the whole continent was going to be wiped clean of humanity!

Off to the side, Angela only stared down at Taharis' limp form, listening to everything going on on the alter. She said nothing as her mind raced, trying to come up with any possibility to stop the ritual, but for one this powerful... it seemed impossible. With all the chi of the continent in use here, the ritual would be able to sustain its design, no matter if the glyph is completely destroyed; no matter if even the alter was destroyed...

... but that didn't mean they couldn't try to alter the effects of the spell.

Angela's eyes fell to Taharis' glove, the glyph on its back from the lack of chi in its range of use. As she stared at it, Taharis' words echoed through her mind, "It... won't... matter... None of you shall stop Nature's Uprising. You don't have... the... strength... to..."

At once, Angela realized what the warlock had meant by what he said. He knew there was a way to stop his plan, to alter the effects of the ritual. But as Angela used her magic to pull Taharis' glove from his hand, she knew this was the only way to save everyone, and to hell with her soul if she didn't do it herself.

"Everyone get off the alter!" Angela shouted, running towards the alter.

I turned around in surprise, looking towards her only to find her climb onto the alter, Taharis' glove in her grasp.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"We can't stop this ritual, but I can alter it to one where everything won't disappear, and nobody will turn into mindless animals."

Dale looked at the green-maned changeling in wonder, "Wait, how?"

A booming rumble through the chamber, growing louder and louder, cut off the others. Angela shouted over the rumble, squinting her eyes as the light of the alter became more and more blinding, "It's only an alteration! It won't stop it! Everyone will be turned into something else!"

"Turn into what?" Emily shouted.

"Ponies," Angela replied, regretfully, as she held up the transformation glove for all to see, "By using the glyph on this as an offering, I can divert the effects. We don't have time to draw another circle for a different result, but because of Nature's Uprising's effects, the transformations it'll cause may end up being permanent too!"

Everyone fell silent at the statement. With barely any time left to either run or change this ritual, we were faced with the choice for either everyone on the continent becoming ponies for the rest of their lives, or having all traces of humanity wiped from the land forever.

Which poison would we choose?

I grimaced as I nodded towards Angela, "Do it! I'd rather I still have my family and friends than have them become mindless beasts!"

"I agree," Emily agreed, on the brink of tears, "I just wish we had another option."

Fiora growled, "While I hate the thought of everyone being ponies too, it's better than what that sadistic warlock was trying to do."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Liz shouted.

"Everyone off the alter! Let's go!" Dale called, running off the alter.

As the others followed, I looked back at Angela, "Will you be fine? The ceiling's coming down!"

Angela only gave her toothy grin back, "Don't worry about me! If I get this right, the shaking should stop! Now get going!"

Begrudgingly, I followed with the others as we ran towards the entrance to the chamber, the entire floor shaking beneath my hooves as the green light of the ritual consumed the rest. I knew Angela had remained on the alter with the glove to change the ritual, but the light of the ritual had become to bright to even see her there.

I brought up the rear as everyone else galloped into the tunnel's opening, but partway through, I saw Agent Gnome still shackled to the wall.

"Keep going!" I shouted to the others as I stopped by the shackled agent, before turning and delivering a bucking kick towards one of the agent's shackles. The stone cracked and crumbled at the impact, weakening enough for Gnome to rip his hoof out of it.

"What are you doing? Where's Miss Ravensdale?" Gnome shouted over the deafening rumble.

I grunted as I kicked off the last shackle, "She's going to alter the Nature's Uprising ritual before it activates!"

"What?!" Gnome practically screamed, his eyes wide, "Are you crazy?! You're just going to let her do that?!"

My eyes widened at his outburst, "What do you mean? It's better than letting all of humanity be wiped off the continent!"

"You don't understand!" Gnome grabbed my shoulders, his eyes narrowed with urgency, "Altering a ritual of that power requires more than just an offering of another glyph! If she succeeds, your friend will die!"

In that moment, it was as if all time stopped. 

"What...?"

My heart stopped beating as my eyes turned towards the end of the tunnel, back into the chamber. My jaw dropped in horror as realization dawned on me.

"Angela!"


_________________________________________


Angela watched as Lyle followed the others off the alter, the sound of their hooves running lost in the quaking earth. She smiled as she held the glove in front of her, a tear rolling down her face in remorse where no one else could see it.

Silent among the rumbles of the chamber, she whispered as she closed her wet eyes, "See, Taharis? I was strong enough to do it." With a flare of her black horn, the glove she held in her magical grip burst into flames, the ashes of leather dropping to the ground with a singed metal plate.

As soon as the plate touched the surface of the alter, the glyph on it began to glow white with power. Like blood in water, the white instantly surged through the green glow of the air, until there was none left. She felt a surge of chi all around her, practically engulfing her in its power.

And the moment it did so, Angela felt the ritual take its toll, but yet, it felt painless.

She had done it.

"Angela!"

Now she only had moments left to live. Moments left to say sorry.

Moments to say... goodbye.


________________________________________________


"Angela!"

As I shouted her name, the rumbling suddenly died and the ground stopped shaking. The green light from before had dimmed slightly, becoming a pure, white pillar rising from the alter.

"No..."

Quickly, I raced to the alter in a panic, "No, it can't be!" But when I reached the stairs of the alter, I was met with a sight that stopped me in my tracks. Above the alter, in the pillar of light, was Angela, floating above the ground as a human again.

My eyes widened, "Angela?"

From where she stood suspended in the light, she smiled sheepishly down at me. There were tears in her eyes, "Hi, Lyle."

"Hi? Is that all you're going to say?" I called out, gritting my teeth, "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell anyone this would kill you!?"

Angela gave me a sorrowful look, "We both know if I told you, you'd never have let me go along with it in time to alter Nature's Uprising. This was the only way to stop Taharis' ritual... somebody needed to do it."

"But why couldn't we help? You didn't have to do this alone!"

Tears began to stream out of her eyes. I suddenly felt terrible that I had screamed at her. "I had to do this alone, otherwise, we all would have ended up like me. The only way to alter a ritual of this size was to give my soul and body as tribute." She shook her head, "The soul is the source of every person's chi, and my body, even now, is becoming pure magic. Look."

She held up a hand for me to see. To my shock, they were slowly becoming ethereal from the start of her fingertips, working slowly up the rest of her arm. Angela giggled sadly, "Hehe, look, I can see through my fingers."

I couldn't help it anymore. Tears began welling up as a choked sob gripped my throat, "W-why? What about your family? What about Ben? They'll miss you... I'll... miss you..."

Angela blinked the wetness from her eyes, a small smile on her face, "And I'll miss them, too. But I did this so everyone could be happy. I'd rather have them keep their minds instead of me living without them." She beamed, yet hiccuping a sob, "I'll miss you, and Liz, and Emily..."

By now, her whole body had become transparent. But now, her arms and legs were slowly disintegrating into specks of magic, disappearing entirely. I gasped, trying to reach a hoof out to her in desperation, "No! Angela! Don't leave!"

Angela tried to reach out to meet my hoof, but her hands were already gone. But despite her streaming eyes, her smile still remained, "Lyle... Tell my mom and dad I love them. Say goodbye for me... please?" She sobbed once, "And tell... tell Ben I loved him, too. Can you please do that for me?"

My eyes became blurry from their moisture as I sat there, staring at her. With the shimmering lights of the alter enveloping her, Angela looked like an angel, a pink, giddy, nonsensical angel that had put me through more trouble than I could have needed in a lifetime. She was a headache at times, a clown at others, but she helped me make new friends, helped me get a girlfriend. She could always make me laugh when I needed it.

... Why couldn't she make me laugh now?

Biting back tears, I nodded, "I can do that."

Angela grinned back, her whole body almost gone. Her long, blonde hair was beginning fade away into the pillars of light as she sobbed out, "Goodbye... best friend."

I had never heard Angela use those words to describe me before. In a horrible instant, I had realized something... maybe I had taken our friendship for granted... she had always been there. Sure, she had been a pain in my side sometimes, but that didn't change just how important she was to me... how could I have been so stupid to not see that until now, when I was losing her?

I sobbed, a bitter taste of guilt in my throat, "Goodbye, Angela... my best friend."

The last I saw of her was her blue eyes, before they ultimately disappeared with the rest of her, glowing as vibrantly as the white pillars of light behind them. The instant she was gone though, the light faded, vanishing into the stone ceiling above the alter as the spell was finally completed. Thus the chamber of the Archterra was plunged into darkness.


__________________________________________________________


Ben and Max traversed the corridors of DISPEL's HQ, the dog following the teen as they helped ponified agents they found in the halls get back on their hooves, making sure everyone was alright.

"You alright?" Ben asked a charcoal stallion, leaning against the wall in a bulletproof vest, the guard's unfit helmet laid beside him. The stallion nodded in reply.

"You shouldn't take our guards too lightly." Ben glanced over his shoulder to find a slender, red unicorn mare giving him a raised eyebrow. This unicorn, by the name of Agent Wand, had met them partway through their search for help to fight against Taharis. Now she was giving the teen an unamused look, "Anyone that's in DISPEL is expected to be able to handle any sort of pain and still be fine."

Ben shrugged his shoulders, "I only asked if he was alright."

"Well of course he-" Agent wand stopped short suddenly, brushing her long dandelion mane aside with a look that read 'I must be seeing things', "I don't mean to alarm you, but I believe your hair is turning black."

"Um, what?"

"And your nose is turning blue," Wand added.

Ben froze as his eyes widened, "Blue?" He quickly glanced down at his hand, only to find his fingers slowly begin to meld together into a hard, blue surface: a hoof. The teen sighed slightly, "Oh boy." But in his gut, his worry grew for Angela and the others that went after Taharis. What was going on?

"What the heck?" All eyes suddenly turned to Max in surprise, as those words hadn't come from any of them. Instead, they only found the dog suddenly sporting a muzzle that was far too long to be a dog's. Max meanwhile, ignoring the odd looks he was getting, kept his eyes trained on his paws, which were slowly becoming a pair of white and black hooves.

Now was the time that Ben voiced his thoughts, "What the hell is going on?!"


_______________________________________________


"Daddy?" McKenna Martin finally took the courage to climb out of the bunker in the basement, the exit being a trapdoor in the basement living area. She knew her dad had told her to stay in the 'safe room' until he got back, but now Kenna was really worried. Maybe he wouldn't get too mad if she just took a peek to see if he was back yet. If not, then she'd go back in the bunker again. She was pretty tired, but she refused to go to bed without daddy with her.

As Kenna climbed out of the trapdoor, a tiny yawn escaped her. She rubbed one of her eyes with a balled fist, "Daddy? Dad?"

Maybe he was upstairs? Kenna made her way upstairs, but as she reached the top step, she felt a pinch in her backside.

"Yeowch!" She squeaked. It felt sort of like that time daddy spanked her for saying a dirty word, but it didn't hurt as much this time. Yet to Kenna, she felt a strange stretch in her pajama pants, like something was stuffed in there. Curiously, she reached back there and pulled whatever it was out.

Imagine her surprise when she pulled out a purple pony tail, which after a pinching little tug, she realized it belonged to her.

With a gasp, Kenna squealed with delight, all traces of sleepiness gone in this exciting instant, "I have a pony tail! Oh my gosh, it's so soft!" She giggled as she ran her fingers through her own little tail, hopping onto the living room couch so she could sit. As she tousled with her new, soft limb, little did she realize she then sprouted two peach pony ears.

But despite her excitement, the late hour of the night mercilessly forced drowsiness back on the child, and McKenna passed out on the couch. That next morning, she would awaken to a cute surprise: herself.


____________________________________________________________



Emily's POV


Emily galloped back down through the tunnel leading to the Archterra's chamber. Her thoughts were in a jumble with worry. First she discovered Lyle hadn't followed them back up into DISPEL's HQ, then she and Liz suddenly turned back into their pony forms out of the blue, which shouldn't have been even possible! From Liz said, the alteration ritual Angela used must have overridden their changeling transformations out of sheer power.

Now a as a sky blue pegasus mare, Emily's pink mane and tail trailed behind her as her feathered wings added more propulsion to her gallop. Even after the minutes it took for the transformation back into a pegasus to finish, Lyle still hadn't returned, and neither had Angela.

But then, Emily entered the chamber of the Archterra. There, on the ground, was Lyle, sitting alone.

"Lyle!" Emily immediately grabbed the earth pony from behind in a hug, relieved to see he was okay. But something was wrong. The alter of the Archterra was gone from where it had once been, not a trace of it left. And even more importantly... where was Angela?

"Wait, what happened to the alter?" Emily wondered aloud.

"It sank into the ground. It's gone," Lyle replied, but Emily only just barely caught the monotone of his voice.

A pang of worry hit the blue pegasus, as she looked at Lyle's face, "Where's Angela?" But immediately, she gasped at what she saw.

To her shock, tears were streaming down his face as he stared blankly at the ground, letting wet drops fall with a drip against the dirt. A small mud puddle had formed in front of the yellow earth pony. He hadn't moved for minutes from that spot.

In a choked whisper, Lyle answered, "She's... gone..."

Emily fell speechless, as if words could help now. She felt herself begin to cry in shock, before she hugged Lyle closer. "W-what... what happened?"

Lyle only whispered, "She... sacrificed herself... that was the only way. She didn't tell us..." His shoulders began to shake, "She's gone... she's... never coming... back."

Emily felt his trembling body against her own. She sniffled, but she knew what needed to be done to help Lyle now. She pulled her head next to his and whispered, "It's alright... just let it out."

Lyle sniffed once, gritting his teeth as he began to cry harder. He took a deep breath, and in the dark emptiness of the chamber, he began to wail at the top of his lungs, out of sadness and frustration, one for Angela and the other directed at himself. With no words that could describe the hollow feeling in his heart, Lyle screamed his grief at the world.

Why couldn't I have been a better friend?


_____________________________________________________________



Several Weeks Later...


I sighed as I lay back on my bed, hooves out in spread eagle. It was still early, six in the morning. I had slept for a little bit, I was sure of it. But of course, my swirling thoughts woke me up once again, not letting me fall back asleep once I did. Believe me, I tried. But once my alarm clock sounded, I stopped attempting the futile effort, instead getting up off my bed to get ready for the day. After all, today was the day I finally went back to school. Summer was over; it had been for a week already.

After the whole continent had been ponified, life had gotten interesting. At first it seemed as if mass panic was about to overrun every country in North America, but fortunately DISPEL had come forward to explain and take the blame. It had been decided that Taharis, who had been promptly imprisoned, would be pushed out of the picture for his safety, and locked away for life, just so nobody would come trying to murder him for causing this widespread ponification. (it was a wonder he wasn't given a death sentence) Thankfully, after days worth of explanations, most things began to calm down some. Of course, not everybody liked being turned into ponies, and a lot of people demanded that DISPEL use the Archterra to reverse the ritual. However, that was impossible for the agency.

Part of the reason DISPEL came forward was that this continent wide transformation mimicked the effects of Taharis' glove, using everyone's own chi to fuel the transformation. Now that everyone in North America was unable to use rituals anymore, DISPEL found it safe to let the knowledge of its existence into the open. But even then, the only way to reverse the transformation on everybody would be to use the Archterra again. But the alter had disappeared.

Apparently the whole land was 'transformed' in a way as well by 'The Ponifying', as some people called it. The clouds seemed to have stopped, only able to move over North America under pegasi power, rainbows had become actual liquid cascading from clouds, and animals seemed to have grown a bit more intelligent as well. Not to mention, plants with mystical properties began sprouting across the continent. It was like the continent itself had become like Equestria. I was just hoping I wouldn't find Poison Joke growing in my backyard anytime soon.

But, as DISPEL had explained, because of this change, the Heart of the Continent, the Archterra, had moved to another place. And with hundreds of thousands of square miles to scour for it below ground, it would probably take centuries to find it again unless we got lucky.

However, that all went down in the first week. By now, most people had grown fairly accustomed to being ponies, some even finding its perks far better than being a human could have yielded. However, there were those who were dead set on changing back despite the knowledge nothing could be done, while others grudgingly accepted that fact and tried to make the most of life.

As you could probably guess, this transformation was a great boon mostly for little girls and boys, as well as among a certain fanbase of grown adults.

Yawning loudly, I stepped out of my room, making my way to the bathroom. But on the way, I passed a certain yellow, earth pony filly with azure pigtails skip past me.

I raised an eyebrow at my sister, "Marta? What are you doing up this early? You don't have school for another two hours."

Marta only shrugged, grinning that little grin she had never let go since she woke up that first morning with hooves, "I wanted to look my cutest today! Maybe it'd help me get my cutie mark today."

"Yeah, right. Cutie marks don't come from being cute." A quiet voice spoke as he climbed the stairs. Marta and I glanced towards our little brother, Kale, a mustard colored bat-pony with an indigo mane. How did we have a sibling who's a bat-pony? You got me.

"Morning, Kale, "I yawned.

"It's goodnight for me," He mumbled, trotting past me and Marta.

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Taking this nocturnal thing a bit seriously, are we?"

"What's... nocta- noctunra-"

"It means you sleep in the day," Marta put in.

"Yeah," Kale mumbled, before slinking off to his room. The moment he walked into his room, closing the door behind him, we could hear his snores.

"Mom's gonna get mad at him for missing school again," Marta muttered. The little filly looked back at me curiously,  "You're going to school today?"

"Yup, finally," I replied, though wincing slightly. I had honestly been dreading going back to school. It wouldn't be the same without Angela... That was the main reason I hadn't gone to school for the first week it started.

I sighed again, turning back to head to the bathroom, "Better go get ready."


______________________________________________


One of the cons to being pony was how hard it was to take a shower these days. Being covered in fur meant you usually had to shampoo your whole body if you didn't want to look like a walking mop head. Let's say showering took about twice as long now, even longer if you want to count the time it takes to dry out your fur. 

Finally, after a while of prep, I finally trotted downstairs in one of my hoodies, my backpack strapped over my shoulders. Down in the kitchen, I found Marta eating breakfast at the table, while Mom was cooking something in a skillet she held by her mouth, wrapped in a hot pad. Just like me and my sister, she had become a yellow earth pony, but her mane flowed out in a brilliant purple hue.

Mom had taken to being a pony well... er, well enough, I mean. She was pretty pissed while she relearned how to cook and write using her fingerless appendages and her mouth. At least being a pony didn't impact her teaching job too badly, besides all the paperwork.

"Morning, Mom," I called out, sitting down at the table.

"Morning, Lyle." She replied, letting the pan down on a hot pad by the stove. "Ready to go back to school today?"

I sighed, "Yeah, I guess."

Mom looked at me solemnly, "Honey, I know it won't be the same, now that Angela's gone, but you need to go on in life. She wouldn't want you to wallow like you have these past few days."

"I know," I replied as Mom hoofed me a plate of eggs and a few veggies. While fruits and vegetables became more delectable with a pony's taste buds, I was sort of missing the taste of meat. Out of our family, only Kale had remained an omnivore, lucky little bastard. "Thanks Mom."

"Want me to drive you to school?" Mom offered, "You are coming in a week late and you should see all your teachers before class starts to find out what you missed."

I shook my head, "No thanks. I think I'll just hoof it today." Ever since I became a pony for the long term, I felt like running anywhere I could. It definitely felt better when I could sprint all the way somewhere without losing my breath, unlike how I could have as a human.

After shoveling my breakfast down, I thanked Mom again and galloped out the door. When I got outside, the sun was peeking over the horizon at the dawn of a new day. Up above, clouds flew by, pushed by pegasi that managed the weather. Apparently, there would only be clear weather today. From what I remembered from the forecast, those clouds would taken to another weather team down south who needed the rain for their area.

Below where the weather ponies flew, a few dozen other pegasi could be seen soaring over the neighborhood, either on their way to school, work, or anywhere else in general. Flight definitely was faster than driving short distances, better traffic and all, so it was rare to see pegasi driving vehicles, unless they needed the cargo space their own wings couldn't carry.

"Hey!" A voice called from above. I glanced up in time to see Emily up in the air, before she lighted down beside me. These days, her mane had grown out to her shoulder, though today it was noticeably curled. She wore a frilled, green top, holes cut out for her wings, with a matching, white skirt modified for pony use

I smiled, giving her a peck on the cheek, "Hey, babe."

She giggled, "I'm glad to see you finally coming to school today. Can you believe it? We're seniors this year."

I nodded, "Yeah, I know." And so, we began walking towards school together.

As we passed by a fence line, where on top were perched a few birds, none of them flying away frightened by our presence nearby. If anything, they seemed to acknowledge us as we passed by, chirping as if to say good morning. A small smile came to my face once more.

"So, is the school as packed as always this year?" I asked Emily.

"Just about," She replied, "It looks like everyone there is taking pony life in stride now." She glanced at me, "Hey, did you know I have two classes with Dale and Fiora, too?"

"I... did not hear that." I admitted, "That's cool."

"Plus this is Liz's first year in High School, too!" Emily giggled again, "I'm no expert in relationships, but I think she's got a thing going on for Dale."

I chuckled in reply, "Heh, no kidding."

It was a nice walk, full of conversation between us. Time flew by and before we knew it, we arrived at the school. Just like usual, cars were lined up and either parking or dropping off students. However, it was definitely an odd scene to see some students flying onto the school grounds, and a mosh pit of rainbow colored ponies filing into the building.

I took a deep breath, sighing slightly, "Well, here goes nothing."

Emily only smiled as she gave me a quick nuzzle, "It'll be fine. Come on."

I nodded, and we began walking to the school.

But suddenly, something caused me to stop in surprise... I thought I had heard... something. It had been oddly familiar.

Emily noticed my pause, giving me an odd look, "Lyle? You coming?"

Shaking out of a daze, I smiled reassuringly, "Yeah, I'm fine. You go on, I'll see you later."

"Okay, see you in class!" Emily called out, taking off and gliding to the school's front door.

Once I was alone, I glanced about, searching for the source of the noise. I distinctly heard it, but it didn't seem like Emily had. Had I imagined it?

No, I remember what I heard. It finally came to me; it had been a voice. A very familiar voice.

My eyes widened, as I whispered to no one in particular, "Angela?"

And then, there, in the cool mist of an autumn morning, something rippled through the air, appearing in my vision. But what I saw made my heart skip a beat.

She was an alicorn, standing in the middle of the school yard. Her pink wings were curled against her body while her long green mane trailed to the side in the air, like ripples of wind in the grass. She bore a smile as she looked at me.

I gasped in quiet shock, recognizing those colors and that face, "Angela..." I glanced about, but no one had taken notice of the pink alicorn in front of the school, despite there being dozens of students around me.

"Hiya, Lyle," Angela's voice echoed, like a whisper on the wind, "Don't worry, nobody else can see or hear me, except you."

I kept my voice to a whisper, staring at Angela in awe, "What happened to you? You're-"

"I'm only an embodiment of pure magic," Angela chimed in, "It won't be a while until I have a physical body again, but even then, it'll be made of magic."

I blinked, "So, you're... not really here?"

Angela only shrugged, "I'm really kind of everywhere to be honest. Apparently, I've become some kind of spirit of the land, or something crazy like that." She giggled mirthfully, "Ever since the continent changed to the way it has, I've been keeping nature in balance. There's a lot of magic that needs to be spread over the continent to keep it sustained. The land's chi flow kind of got jacked after I altered that ritual, but I've been fixing it."

"So you're not dead?" I asked, hopeful.

Angela's smile turned to one of slight sorrow, "In a way, I have. But even then, I still exist."

"Oh... I see," My ears drooped slightly. Around me, a few strange looks passed my direction from other students, but I ignored them. I smiled at Angela, "I'm... just glad to see you're not entirely gone."

"Me too," Angela beamed, "The reason I came to see you is that while I may be gone for now, I just wanted to tell you, we will see each other again."

My smile grew to a grin. "Really?" I breathed.

"It will take a while for my strength to let me manifest in the physical realm, but after it does, I'll be free to be with everyone again."She nodded happily, "Best friends still?"

I laughed in relief, as if a weight had been removed from my chest, "Of course."

"I'm glad." Suddenly, Angela's form in the mist began to waver, making her frown a bit in annoyance, "Well, my time is drawing short. Just don't forget, I'll always be watching out for my friends." A mischievous smirk crossed the alicorn's muzzle, "But even though I may be some kind of harmony spirit now, that doesn't mean I won't throw few pranks at anyone anymore."

I stopped laughing, "Um, what do you mean?"

As Angela's form started to fade into the mist, I saw her horn glow for a moment, "Like this."

Suddenly, I felt a tingle on my snout. I looked down at it in time to see it begin to grow scales and stretch out into a thinner face. At the same time, my hooves began to shift into yellow-scaled claws, and my tail grew longer, becoming more reptilian.

My eyes widened as dragon horns began sprouting on my head, "What the frick?!"

When I glanced up, Angela's form was gone, but her giggling voice danced in my ears, "Don't worry, it'll wear off in about twelve hours, I'm sure. Have fun at school!"

For a moment I was silent, staring at the entrance to Lone Peak High School. Sighing, I let out a laugh, "Gosh dang it, Angela."

Her voice only giggled louder as I fully transformed into a teenage, yellow dragon with blue spines. Well, it was either go home now and face my teacher mom's wrath, or give a few students a good scare just by showing up. Chuckling all the way, I chose the latter and lumbered to the school's doors, a few jaw-dropped ponies who had witnessed the transformation staring at me the whole way.

Geez, life will never be simple for me, will it?

Angela only giggled back in my mind, Nope, not while I'm your friend.

I sighed laughably, Well then, I wouldn't have it any other way. A chuckle came to my throat, Can't wait to see Dale's reaction to this.

Ooh, this is going to be the best!


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FIN