• Published 27th Jun 2013
  • 1,537 Views, 25 Comments

Spritelight - Makitk



The borders between planets are disappearing, and a human girl and her girlfriend are the only ones able to stop it.

  • ...
12
 25
 1,537

Spritelight 1, Chapter 9

I woke to the sound of hoofpounding and shouting, and flicked my ears at the sounds before I was truly awake. As I opened my weary eyes, Turkey was still sitting in the back of the room, staring in my direction. Not at me, but at something behind me - the closed door, perhaps. It was also the direction the sounds were coming from.

There was evidence that Turkey did move in the time I had been unconscious, as the groceries from the bag were now placed on the table, instead of resting against one of its legs. The bag itself was pinned under Turkey's left forehoof, and she was nervously sliding her hoof back and forth over it without applying much pressure.

"Hmn... Turkey, how long have I been out?" I wondered, knowing Turkey could read the time on the display of the microwave on the counter.

"Three hours," Turkey coughed uneasily, "or just about three hours anyway."

"And what's that infernal noise about?" I continued, and watched Turkey wince.

"Those would be the humans you transformed. They have been pounding on the door for a while now," Turkey muttered.

I turned my head to look at the door separating the employee lounge from the storefront, and tilted my ears up toward it. "What's their deal? Can't they let a pony get her rest?"

"I don't think they're very happy about what you did to them," Turkey murmured ever softer, her voice barely audible over the shouting outside.

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, then pushed up properly and looked over the items Turkey had managed to gather during the chaos. Some biscuits, a few oranges, a bottle with orange juice, and a pacifier.

"Why is there a pacifier here?" I wondered, but Turkey's response was inaudible.

"Have you even eaten any of this?" I asked her, but as I turned to look at her she had fallen flat on the ground and was covering her ears with her hooves.

I turned my attention to the door, and levitated an orange over while I made my way to the front. As soon as I opened the door leading into the storefront, the sound doubled in intensity and I felt my own ears fall flat against my head from the ferocity of it.

"Will you cut it out already!?!" I shouted, and there was a momentary respite of yelling as my voice carried out through the glass door.

I unlocked the storefront door and moved into the opening as I pulled it open, sitting down on my rear and starting to peel my orange while looking at the multicolored crowd of ponies standing in front of it. There were looks of confusion at my actions, but some were looking at me with anger and disgust, and it was they who resumed their shouting first.

"What's the big deal?" "How did you do this?" "Turn us back!" and various sentences in the same vein were uttered, and even with my ears flat against my head the volume was enough to make my headache return.

"As I said;" I started, using my magic to boost my voice to carry across the crowd of ponies leading from my hiding place all the way down to the lower level, "WILL YOU CUT IT OUT ALREADY!?!"

Silence fell again, and I nodded slowly as I put a piece of orange in my mouth.

"Thank you," I offered after swallowing, "Now, can ONE of you please tell me what this commotion is about?"

A number of ponies started shouting through one another again, their faces livid with anger, and I rolled my eyes at them as I teleported them out of the crowd to random locations on the ground floor of the mall.

"Again; one at a time," I stated to the remaining ponies, who looked around them in surprise at the others having disappeared from where they had stood. They looked between themselves for a moment, before a small Earthpony colt pushed forward through the crowd and pointed his hoof up at me. His dark blue coat was accented by a yellow mane, and his blue eyes showed signs of an intelligent mind behind them.

"HOW did you DO this??" he demanded, and I offered a smile in his direction while chewing on another bit of my orange.

"Magic," I shrugged. "Next question?"

I noticed some of the ponies in the crowd had sat down, or were attempting to, and the general mood started to calm down as well. Behind me I heard the sound of Turkey's hooves approaching, but carefully so, and they stopped once she reached the door leading out of the employee lounge.

"Can you change us back?" the blue colt wondered, but I saw he was dreading the answer.

"Yes, I can change you back," I nodded. "At least, I think I should be able to." I broke another piece off of my orange and moved it to my mouth. "But I'm not going to."

The crowd erupted in angry outcries again while I chewed on my food, but the colt in front of me just sat down, his ears moving on his head as he tried to come to terms with what I just told him. I waited for the rest of the ponies to calm down as well, finishing with my orange as I did.

"Can you get me another orange from the table, Turkey?" I called back, "And would you come sit with me?"

Turkey mumbled something, but soon moved up beside me with an orange held between her lips. I took it from her with my magic, peeled it, and offered her a piece as the last of the crowd calmed down.

"Why did you do this?" the colt finally asked, over the last remaining vocal protestors.

I made sure Turkey ate her piece of orange before I returned my attention to the colt before us.

"I have my reasons. Why, are you not happy to be ponies?"

Some voices in the crowd started to protest, but they were quickly silenced by the rest as they realized I was just going to wait for them to be calm enough before I would answer more of their questions.

"It's... different?" the colt remarked, and I noticed several heads moving up and down in agreement behind him.

I continued to feed Turkey her breakfast while looking at the colt, waiting for him to bring his next question.

"I've seen reports of this on the news," the colt started instead, and I nodded in tune with some others around us, while hearing the whispers of those passing on the conversation to those unable to hear it themselves.

"A pony fad in schools. Children suddenly wearing all kinds of strange pony-related gear. Fake tails, ears, manes," the colt continued, and I sensed his question coming before he voiced it.

"Yeah, they weren't fake," I shrugged matter-of-factly, and pushed the last of the bits of orange into Turkey's mouth.

"So, them disappearing?" the colt wondered, looking up while already knowing the answer.

"As Turkey taught me, humans are not the best at accepting those who differ from the norm, right?" I asked him, and several in the crowd turned away in shame. "They hid away."

The colt nodded and held up his right forehoof. "I'm Bill. I was a mallcop here before... this."

I smiled and pressed my own right forehoof against his, gently shaking it up and down. "I'm Spritelight. May I suggest that you all find somewhere else to sit so we can talk about what is going on exactly? It's a bit cramped here, don't you think?"

Bill looked back at the crowd and nodded. "There's a stage we use for special events. We rolled it over into the unused part of the mall after last event. There's a presidential candidate coming here in a few weeks, so we thought we'd best keep it around. If we move the vendor carts out from around the fountain, there's plenty of room to set it up again."

"If you ponies set it up, and get everypony to stay calm, I'll answer every question you have for me," I offered.

Bill made an awkward salute with his forehoof, and turned to the rest. "You heard her. Let's set up the stage. Those of you who still have trouble with our new bodies can just sit out of the way. We'll get our answers yet!"

"Who says she's going to give us anything?" One of the mares wondered, casting me an angry glance.

"I'm not going anywhere," I shrugged, getting up and turning back for the store. "Are you coming, Turkey dear?"

Turkey quickly scrambled to her hooves and rushed back inside as I closed the door of the store again behind us. Bill would sort all that stuff out.

"Now we're in a pickle," Turkey sighed, shaking her head as she passed me by to grab her plastic cup from the floor.

"I don't think so," I returned with a smile. "I am getting the feeling I should have done this a long time ago. Did you see all those ambassadors just now? They could spread the word so much faster than I can alone. And if I teach the unicorns among them how to use my transformation spell, that might get Discord off of my back."

Turkey shook her head at me and refilled her cup with water from the tap, then carried it back to where she had the plastic bag laying around. "I hope you know what you're doing. That could have been a lynchmob out there just now."

"No, dear," I corrected her, "a pony mob."

Turkey groaned at that.