Spritelight

by Makitk

Spritelight 1, Chapter 12

With the mall shaking on its foundation, various objects falling off of the myriad of shelves in it, the Alicorn princess Josey tried to lead the remainder of the ponies into the portal to the safety of Equestria. Turkey and I looked up as parts of the ceiling started to come down around us, and I used my magic to blast away the pieces coming too close to us or the stampeding crowd. Turkey did her part by shielding me and little Bill with her wings, but soon enough we were staring up at the swirling red sky above.

"Hey, guys?" Bill was the first to remark, "Is the sky supposed to be the color of blood?"

Turkey swallowed as she looked up as well, and I took the moment between falling debris to stare up at the demonic eyes in the swirling mass of blood staring down at us from above.

"Spritelight, I need to know what the name of the spell is that you used to turn these people into ponies, and where you found it!" Josey shouted over the sound of the wind howling around us. "The only way to restore the balance is to reverse your spell and return these ponies to human form!"

I blasted away another piece of the ceiling that would have otherwise struck the portal and the last few ponies rushing through it, then shook my head to Josey. "You can't do that! At least give them the choice! Turkey here is happy to be a pony! You can't take my gift away from them!"

Turkey slapped me across the back of my head with the wing she'd used to cover me before, and shouted at me; "I DO feel better as a pony, but it's not worth the destruction of Earth, you daft filly!"

"And I think a lot of those ponies who just ran through into that portal thing would love to be human again, actually," Bill added. "I would too."

I shook my head at them and backed away. "But that would mean all of my work has been for nothing..."

"Nothing is exactly what this world is going to be if we don't do something," Josey shouted back, ushering the last of the ponies through the portal before turning to face me. "Spritelight, please tell me I don't have to take your knowledge by force."

I backed away from the Alicorn princess and shook my head. "You can't! I had such big plans! These humans would get an actual future in Equestria! Didn't you see how bad this place has gotten? Don't you watch the news? So many murders, people suffering in countries I didn't even know existed. We ponies take much better care of our own!"

Turkey approached me and put her forelegs around my neck, pulling me into a tight hug. "You're right. But if this world is destroyed, nopony will live to learn from their mistakes. Nopony will get to live in peace and harmony. Do you really want to be responsible for the deaths of over six billion humans?"

I froze. "I didn't know there were that many..."

"Equestria has no room for all of them, Spritelight dear," Josey offered, taking a few steps closer. "You know we are going to have to put this right. Restore them to their true forms."

"But they are ponies inside," I tried.

"Some are. Some are foxes. Others are wolves," Bill spoke. "Then some are birds, or aquatic animals. There are a lof of animal spirits in this world, not all equine. You can't force them all to be ponies against their will."

A large portion of the wall behind me collapsed, and we collectively jumped up from the sound.

They were right, I realized, as the dust flew past me. How could I have made that mistake? How could I have done this? The flesh in the sky, blood rain, demon eyes watching us from above.. that there was my fault. I caused that. An entire world in danger of dying, being eaten by something worse than Discord could ever be.

I shouted the name of the tome to Josey as the contents of a store were swept up by a hurricane wind, and she nodded, using her magic to pull Bill back toward the portal. She told him something I could not hear as the howling wind overtook all other sounds, and thrust him through the portal. I saw the green light of her magic as it dispelled the portal, then as it took a hold of Turkey and me both.

- and then there was silence -

We were in a dark room, the window showing the light of the moon partially hidden by normal looking clouds. The Alicorn princess sighed deeply as her magic receded, then put a hoof to a lightswitch on the wall.

We were in a room I faintly remembered. A room with a large bed, posters, a mirror, a television.

Josey moved to lay down on the bed, using her magic to levitate a remote control over and turned on the television. "Come lay with me for a moment, Spritelight. And you as well, Turkey was it?"

Turkey nodded and carefully climbed up on the bed. "Yes ma'am."

"Call me Josey, please," the Alicorn offered. "Everyone's been calling me princess this, miss that, madam such, since my changes finalized. It's a bit tiring."

I looked up at the television where an emergency news broadcast was showing pictures of a highly unnatural storm going from town to town. I spotted something and lifted my hoof to point. "Wasn't that..."

"The mall we were just in, yes," Josey sighed. "We barely made it out alive."

I blinked and moved to lay down on the bed beside Turkey, looking around the room again.

"I think I know this room," I realized.

Josey smiled in my direction. "It's mine. It's where Rhonda showed me her tail, and where my horn started to grow. I think I saw you during that first night, but you knocked me unconscious, didn't you?"

I swallowed at the flashback. "How is your friend doing?"

"She's the spitting image of Pinkie Pie," Josey chuckled, "with her own unique attributes of course. We sent her to Ponyville to keep her safe."

"We?" Turkey wondered.

"Us princesses; Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Twilight," Josey paused a moment, then shook her head at herself, "and me."

"So what's the plan now?" I had to ask, looking up at the television just in time to see a reporter being pulled out of screen by something I could not even try to describe.

Josey shook her head and looked out of the window. "This destruction will continue as long as there is an imbalance. The other princesses are working on finding a means to stop it by turning your victims back to human form. And I'm here... as the secret weapon."

I hung my head low at the word 'victim'. "I guess I really screwed up. Story of my life, really... My parents must have left me because they knew I would never amount to anything."

I felt the tears break, and then felt a pair of feathery wings fall on my back, Turkey's smaller one underneath the larger of Josey.

"I don't know your past, Spritelight. I don't know what hardships you've gone through," Josey offered in a soft tone, "But you alone did what no princess could have done. You used a kind of magic nopony realized was still in existence. You've stumped all of us, and Celestia has a few thousand years on us in terms of magic knowledge."

I shrugged at that.

"What I mean to say is; as long as you don't go throwing worlds into disarray, I think you'll be offered a good position in Canterlot's magic university," Josey continued. "This is a whole new field of magic they want to explore. To defend themselves against it if needed, but also to work on practical applications for it. We couldn't stop Twilight talking about those; the practical applications of it."

I carefully lifted my head to look up, and saw Josey - all smiles - looking back with nothing but genuine love. Turkey looked like one confused Pegasus what with all the talk about magic, but she nodded as she noticed me looking back at her as well.

"The only problem now is to fight these demons until they return to their own dimension," Josey stated. "And I'm going to need your help with that."

"You have my horn," I offered up to the princess.

"And my wings!" Turkey added with a grin.

"You need to learn how to fly first, Turkey," I told her, shaking my head a bit.

"Hey now, I was doing ok," Turkey protested.

"Oh, right, flight," Josey realized, looking back at her wings.

"Don't tell me you're a princess who doesn't know how to fly?" I gasped, shaking my head. "I'm a Unicorn! I know next to nothing about flying! Who's going to teach you two?"

"Tadaa!" Pinkie Pie offered from behind us.

All three of us turned our heads back to watch not one, but two Pinkie Pies stand behind us as if they'd just walked out of the wall. One with her usual blue eyes and balloon cutiemark, the other with pink eyes and a party cannon for a cutiemark.

"R...Rhonda?" Josey stammered, and I looked between them.

"I'm called Patty Cannon now, but yes Josey, it's me," one of the pink ones said, and I realized it was a cannon firing patties that was pasted on her flank.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were in Ponyville?" Josey asked of the pink ones.

"Ah, well, see," the one with the cannon cutiemark started, but another voice came from behind her.

"Can I come out now?"

"Sure, Dashie!" Pinkie Pie giggled, producing a small square gift box and pulling the lid open.

A rainbow-colored mane was the first to push out of the box, then followed by a blue coated body, and a rainbow tail, which left a rainbow trail behind it as Equestria's foremost flyer launched herself into the room, bounced off of a wall, and came to a stop in the dead center of the room, her wings flapping lazily behind her.

"No way," Turkey gasped.

"Oh, didn't I see you at Twilight Sparkle's coronation?" I wondered.

"What's the meaning of this, Rainbow Dash?" Josey demanded.

"Oh, you know, just Equestria's number one flyer coming over to help out," Rainbow chuckled. "I heard somepony needed to learn how to fly, and I taught Twilight all she knows about flying, so Celestia decided I should teach you as well."

I turned back to look at the two pinkies, who had mysteriously vanished. "Where'd they go?"

"Oh, they'll be back," Dash offered mysteriously. "Now, then, shall we begin the lessons?"

Comments

[TealArc]

What? She immediately sees the error of her ways after misreading a text book? That's just lazy and you know it. Pick it up m8