Spritelight

by Makitk

Spritelight 1, Chapter 8

The mall was packed. Packed with loudmouth foals, rushed elders, and every color and breed of human I could have imagined. They moved in waves, going in one store, coming out another, and they were all carrying bags and pushing trolleys about as they went their merry ways.

Turkey and I stood on the balcony in front of our hiding place, my invisibility spell keeping us out of sight while we looked over the railing at the movement below.

"There is no way I can get us through that mess, Turkey," I offered to the turquoise mare to my side, and she turned her head to look at me. "This spell only hides us from sight, it doesn't make us incorporeal. They'd be bumping into us every other step."

"Can't you do that thing that you did to the doors?" Turkey asked, and I shook my head slowly.

"Not at the same time as making us invisible, no. The spells require a lot of energy and focus, and I can't keep that up while weaving my way through that crowd."

Turkey turned her head back to look at the people below, a thoughtful frown moving on her face. "I could do it."

"Hm?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Do what?"

"I could go down there and walk among them without them noticing," she started, turning her head to look back at me, "as long as you keep me invisible, that is. I'm used to crowds like these. I used to be human, I know the way they think. I would be able to navigate the pockets between them, see?"

She pointed a hoof down at a small gap in-between groups of humans, then at another, and I started to see a pattern in them. These pockets would open up whenever a human would decide to walk into a store, and fill up again when someone moved out of one. They'd appear when someone would sit down on a bench, move in line, or otherwise disrupted the flow of bodies, and then slowly fill up again as the event was lost to the tide of new humans moving into the same general area. Even so, I could not find a link between these empty spots. They appeared seemingly randomly throughout the crowd, and then disappeared again moments later.

"Are you sure?" I asked Turkey, turning back to face her. "I can't see how you would do that."

"Well, if I get in danger of being stuck, I could always fly out, right?" Turkey shrugged, looking back at her wings. "I mean, these should work?"

I glanced back at the crowd, then at Turkey again. "If they give you enough room to fully extend them, yes."

"I could always just bowl a few of them over," Turkey mused. "If I'm invisible they'll just blame each other."

I sighed and stared back down. "I don't know..."

"Well, you want to eat, don't you?" Turkey asked, and I licked around my lips before I knew what I was doing. "How else are you going to get the food up here? By levitating it with your magic? Can you do so and make the food invisible at the same time? People would follow floating food right up to us if they could see it, you know?"

"I was aware of that, thank you," I grumbled, judging the distance between the nearest staircase leading down and the food vendors. "You'd have to be quick. Grab some food and run back up the stairs. There's no time for secondguessing what you're taking."

"Right. Which leaves me with one problem; how do I take stuff with me?" Turkey asked.

"Just grab something between your teeth. You need your hooves to run, and there's no room for you to spread your wings," I shrugged.

"If you say so... can't promise everything will make it up in one piece, in that case," she winked, and I narrowed my eyes at her.

"I could just take away my spell just as you're in the thick of it," I suggested, feeling my mouth pull into a sly smile.

Turkey's eyes grew to twice their size and she immediately shook her head! "No! I'll behave, I'll just have to keep from biting too hard then!"

"Good girl. Now I'm going to have to stand in the shadow here, because if I'm turning you invisible I can't do so to myself," I told her, and withdrew into the darkest corner I could find. "We're lucky they turned the lights off in this section, or I couldn't do this at all."

"I think the lamp's busted, actually," Turkey mused, looking up at the ceiling.

"The lamp's not the issue; our lack of food is. Get going already, silly filly," I sighed, moving my invisibility spell from surrounding the both of us to only covering Turkey.

I watched her as she turned tail and ran to the staircase, the sound of her hooves barely audible over the murmur of people talking and the PA system reminding people to be mindful of pickpockets. If it wasn't for the bond my spell created between us, I would not be able to see her at all, and she made her way down to the lower steps of the staircase in a few short moments. It was there that she paused, and I saw her ears turn on her head as she scouted the crowd in front of her, waiting for the right moment.

I increased my focus on her and time seemed to slow to a crawl as I did. It felt like it took forever for her to finally make that first step to push herself into the crowd, using a small pocket between people, and I followed her as she weaved her way through the larger bodies in the mall. It was a bit like watching someone in a river try to fight the current; there was a definite drift of her moving away from the vendors, only to suddenly make some strides back toward them, and back around them, to return to the front from the other side.

Turkey hopped up on a bench, and from there into the foliage set up for decoration, most likely to catch her breath before she would cross the remaining distance to the vendors. The nearest was still several hoofbeats away, and there were over two dozen people in-between. Turkey glanced back in my direction for a moment, then turned for the crowd and spread her wings.

"No.." I started, but it was already too late; with a quick push of her wings, she soared into the air - flying over the heads of the crowd parting her from the vendors, and straight into a spiraling dive as she lost control.

I watched with horror as her form impacted with a queue of people waiting for assorted drinks, and tried my best to keep up my spell while Turkey flailed wildly around herself trying to get her hooves back under her!

It was to no avail. The humans believed someone had intentionally shoved them aside and a small fight broke out, the chaos only increasing as a mall cop walked up to the area and tumbled over poor Turkey. The mare was being shoved left and right by people who didn't even know what they were pushing about, and with one fell move, Turkey was lost to me.

One moment she was there, the next I lost sight of her and my magic lost its target.

It didn't take long for the crowds to realize something was going on beside the fight, and when I found Turkey again I noticed there was a ring of people forming around her... all staring straight at her with various expressions of confusion, downright denial, and horror.

"Damnit, Turkey... This was what I was afraid of!" I shouted, my voice ringing out in the, suddenly, dead silence that fell over the mall, and a hundred pairs of eyes tried to find the source of my voice.

There was only one way out. Only one way that would prevent these humans from seeking authorities.

With a sigh I powered up my transformation spell and stepped into the light. Gasps came from the crowd as they realized there was not just the one Pegasus, but also a Unicorn with her horn sparkling in bright blue. These gasps quickly turned to a panicked frenzy as I unleashed my spell upon them. My magic washed out over the humans like a tidal wave, its energy washing out over every human, in every store, in every last corner of the mall - and the transformations were quick to follow.

"OHMYGAWD I HAVE A TAIL!!!" someone decried, "What's happening to my ears??" another demanded, and the sound of popping bones and cries of pain soon filled the mall, with Turkey standing among them in sheer shock.

"Move, you ridiculous excuse for a foal!" I bit to her, both audibly and mentally, and Turkey snapped out of her stupor, grabbed something from the ground near to her, and rushed back through the crowd of spasming and transforming almost-ponies - back up the staircase.

We both pushed back into our hiding place, and I opted to lock the door leading in before joining Turkey in the employee lounge in the back again, and closed the door behind me.

Turkey sat, panting, in the very back of the room, her eyes wide open but her pupils as small as they could be. Dangling from her mouth was a plastic bag, half filled with whatever groceries its original owner had managed to buy before the chaos unfolded. I sat down on my rear as I felt the onset of a headache, and just looked at her from across the room.

Turkey was the first to move, dropping the bag in front of her and watching an orange roll out of it until it came to a stop against one of the table's legs.

I smirked at that, but returned my attention to her as she scraped her throat.

"So, er," she started.

"Yes," I responded flatly.

"That didn't go as planned, did it?" she mused, her pupils slowly growing to a normal size again while she awkwardly moved her wings a bit.

"No," I stated, again in a flat tone of voice.

"So is that... out there... what happened to me?" she asked, and I opted to nod. "Oh."

"It wouldn't have been necessary," I sighed, sinking through my forehooves until my chin came to rest on the ground, and looking up at Turkey with a smirk. "If only somepony could have kept her wings to herself..."

Turkey looked away at that.

"I expended more energy just now than I had left," I muttered, closing my eyes. "I need to take a quick nap."

Turkey mumbled something in response, but my ears didn't quite get it, and my brain didn't register it as I fell unconscious. At least I would not have to feel my headache as I slept.