Turkey was off amidst the sea of other ponies filing into the communal room as if she was trying to control the traffic, but I couldn't see her anymore now Spritelight stood mere inches from my own face.
"Okay, this is... new," I spoke, trying to figure out what my tongue was doing in my more elongated mouth.
"Give yourself a moment," Spritelight entrusted to me. "I know this has been a lot to take in, but you've been a great help to us and everypony in this building."
"We don't have too long, considering what's coming," Rainbow warned with a shake of her head.
Some dried up bits of blood flaked from her mane and I could spot different pastel colours in it.
Her mane was dyed the colours of the rainbow, I realised with some surprise.
"Right... Rainbow," I muttered to myself. "How did I not make that link?"
"What link?" the pegasus asked, ears turned in my direction.
"That must have been one hell of a dye job," I pointed out, motioning my left forehoof in her direction.
I caught myself and stared down at the raised limb while slowly turning it this way or that a bit.
Yep, a hoof. Just like the other three I was standing on.
Spritelight scraped her throat to get our attention and I looked up at her.
"So, the wall of flesh is upon us. You should head through the portal to escape with your friends," the unicorn decided.
"But what about you?" I asked, honestly concerned. "I overheard you all talking on the rooftop; you came here to find rest, right?"
Spritelight sighed warily. "Yes, we needed a brief stop before continuing on. The three of us who can fly are probably feeling it in their wings right now, right Rainbow?"
Rainbow Dash stood upright in a defiantly proud pose. "Hey, I could fly on forever if I had to! I'm just thinking of poor Turkey and Josey; they're still new flyers and need their breaks."
"Keep telling yourself that, Dash," the unicorn scoffed. "We can't run the risk of any of us falling out of the sky from exhaustion."
I looked between the two a moment, then raised an eyebrow as I felt my ears swivel on my head. "Just a question, but where are you going off to? Because... well, we're kind of outside of town and... people don't usually come flying up to our roof or anything..."
"There's a nexus of energy to the North. The wall of flesh is attracted to it. We have honestly been barely ahead of it as it's gradually speeding up," Spritelight explained. "Every one of you humans who turns into ponies makes it go faster, so... you know, the whole turning your school into ponies probably gave us less time again."
"So why do it?" I pressed, shaking my head at it all. "I don't get it. This is so fantastical, out of both my most horrific nightmares and wildest dreams. Why are you here? Why is that rain of blood here? Why are you turning us into ponies?"
"We can't stand here explaining it all, sorry," Spritelight sighed. "You should join your friends and go through the portal."
"But why?" I asked again, but for Rainbow to nudge me with a wing again.
"In short? To survive this, April was it?" she spoke with a grimace. "I'm not into all that magic stuff like you unicorns, but I know that thing that's coming is bad for us."
"Unicorns like us?" I caught, turning my eyes up to the little shadow which had been moving around with the movements of my head, just at the top of my vision.
"Yeah," Spritelight smirked. "Look, you really should join the rest of your friends so Josey can close the portal and we can go on with our day."
I realised she was right, but there were so many questions rising in my mind now that the initial panic had died down again.
The amount of information which had forced itself upon me warranted investigation; The whole wall of flesh thing, people turning into ponies, the sheer fact they existed, and that horn that was now protruding from my forehead.
I wearily put one hoof in front of the other, nodding at the other unicorn. "Yes, okay, you're right. I don't know the half of what's going on here so I would just get in the way."
"I didn't mean to say it like that, but yes," Spritelight agreed, turning her head to keep an eye on me as I passed her by.
The light from the communal room dimmed and there was a decided change in atmosphere as if someone closed a door and the room repressurized.
I could feel it on my horn more than anything, and blinked at the sensation.
"Wait," Spritelight started, turning fully in the direction I was going and suddenly pushing past me. "Josey, you're missing one!"
I felt spurred on by her sudden anxiety and quickened my pace as she ran for the communal room, joining her as she ran into the large empty space.
The only ones still in the spacious room were the big horse named Josey and the smaller pegasus named Turkey; all my fellow students and the faculty staff having evacuated through this portal thing.
There was no such portal in the room.
Josey, the large horse with both a horn and pair of wings, turned to us as Rainbow Dash zoomed past us with a few strong wingflaps, the air she displaced pushing me sideways a little.
"What do you mean Spritelight? I... oh," Josey started, but stopped as she spotted me.
Rainbow landed next to the other pegasus and addressed her while folding her wings again. "Everyone else get out okay?"
Turkey nodded while staring straight at me. "Yeah, they did. A unicorn, huh?"
I felt a sense of dread settle on me. "So, what now? Make another one of those portals and such?"
"Not for a while, I'm afraid," Josey responded to my question. "It takes too much energy to make a connection between worlds like that."
"You would have been safe in Equestria by now," Spritelight mumbled, turning to face me again. "If you had only waited to ask your questions until then..."
"What questions were those?" Josey asked, walking closer. "I can only guess at what a newly transformed unicorn might ask. I most likely had similar questions when I started to transform. So did Turkey upon her transformation."
I looked between the two, feeling my tail twitch. "You're both human too?"
"You already asked that," Rainbow pointed out. "Spritelight and me are the only Equestrians here. The rest of you are from Earth."
"Although none of us are Earthponies," Turkey pointed out. "Those are the ponies without a horn or wings."
Josey stopped walking a noselength away from me and leaned down to gently nuzzle her muzzle into my hair.
It felt oddly comforting.
"How are you feeling April?" she asked.
"Overwhelmed doesn't begin to describe it," I breathed out, lowering my head down a bit.
"I'm with you on that," Turkey offered, walking closer herself. "When Spritey here transformed me while I was out and about on the streets, I didn't know what to do with myself."
"You ran after me like a filly in love," Spritelight protested. "Wings fluttering and all."
Turkey's cheeks turned a slightly deeper shade. "Either way... I had no chance to really come to terms with suddenly being a pony until later."
"We have a few hours before we have to get on the move again, I think," Josey decided, finally pulling away from my hair. "There, that should have straightened out the wild hairs in your mane."
"Mane?" I started, looking up at her.
"The hairs on your head," Turkey pointed out. "They're a lovely red tone. Kind of reminds me of those Italian race cars they've got on the tracks; the same kind of... racing red."
"Racing red?" I repeated blankly, reaching up with my right forehoof in an effort to stroke some of my hairs down to have a look at.
"Yeah, that's what they call it in Italian; Rosso Corsa," Turkey noted. "I watched a few races as a guy, so..."
I stopped doing what I was doing and stared at Turkey with rising surprise. "As a guy?"
"Here we go again," Spritelight sighed. "Yes; the magic calls out the pony inside you. You effectively become your true pony self. Doesn't matter what your body used to look like before."
"I much prefer being a mare, honestly," Turkey coughed uneasily.
"I much prefer you being a mare as well," Spritelight returned with a light smile.
I glanced between the two. "Wait, are you two an item? Don't let the headmistress notice or she'll... oh, right."
I sank through my hooves to end up resting on the floor while my ears and tail drooped down as I remembered the fate of the woman in the other room.
"God frowns on suicide... she won't make it to Heaven, if she ever had a chance to begin with what with all her judging," I mumbled to myself, my mood taking a dip.
Josey lowered one of her wings over my back and sat down beside me. "Let her rest. Let us all rest."
"Yes, good idea," Spritelight agreed. "We only have a few short hours before we have to be on the move again... and now I'm going to have to share my balloon with April here."
"Oh great, more weight to pull," Rainbow grumbled. "I might as well get a nap in then."
"Good idea," Turkey agreed, looking back at her wings. "I'm sore in muscles I didn't have before."
Josey chuckled and leaned her head down to my level. "We're going to have to take you along with us, so let me or Spritelight know if you have any questions?"
I watched Spritelight take up position just off to the left opposite me, in-between where Rainbow now sought to rest on one of the tables pushed aside by the ponies passing through the space earlier.
Turkey moved to where Rainbow was, moving to rest underneath the same table instead.
"Questions," I started, looking down at the soft light blue fur covering my snout. "Well, first off... I'm a blue unicorn 'mare' with red hair?"
"Yes," Spritelight agreed. "Green eyes."
"Green eyes, typical for a redhead," I chuckled weakly.
"You're not into redheads?" Josey asked curiously. "My girlfriend Rhonda turned into a pink pony, I'm yellow with a green mane, and Turkey over there is blue."
"Turquoise, which is what she took her name from," Spritelight corrected Josey.
"Oh? I hadn't asked but I thought it had to do with the bird," Josey realised. "What with the wings..."
"A little bit of both, I guess," Spritelight giggled. "See, she was trying to find a name for herself using her Turquoise coat, but the way she was going about things made me think of her like a headless chicken; no intelligence in her. So I jokingly called her a headless turkey. The name Turkey stuck around."
I shook my head at that. "That wasn't nice. I know a few girls in school here who would tease others for their names. She wouldn't have survived the first week here."
"Fortunately Equestria is a lot more welcoming than Earth," Josey offered up. "Rhonda and me were brought there while still partway through our transformation; still mostly human, but barely anypony treated us with anything other than the utmost respect."
I looked up at the taller horse. "You didn't transform instantly then?"
"No, it took me a few days of excruciating pain," Josey revealed. "Especially my horn gave me the darndest headache. I was not... fully there for my wings growing out."
I turned my head to peer back at the other's wings. "I wouldn't know what to do with those, so I'm actually glad I don't have them."
"It's surprisingly easy if you have a good teacher," Josey suggested with a smile, casting a glance over at the pair of sleeping Pegasi. "Rainbow gave Turkey and me a crash course. Almost literally so in Turkey's case."
"You should have seen her collide into the crowd in the mall where you found us," Spritelight chuckled.
"I was still on my way over, but I felt the resulting wave of magic from that spell you released after," Josey smirked. "Not surprising the wall of flesh is drawn to your magic."
"Hold up," I started. "That wall of flesh thing, what's that about?"
Both Spritelight and Josey's expressions darkened.
"In short; the end of the world if we can't stop it," the mare beside me grumbled.