Spritelight, 11

My head was throbbing by the time I woke up again, and I groaned in misery as I carefully opened an eye to the darkness of the room. It was clear that it was the middle of the night, and I was resting on my back in the room Rhonda and I had stayed in before.
A weight shifted against my right side and I looked at it, watching pony Rhonda rest with her back against me, her head on a pillow and my arm stuck under her neck.
She was sleeping soundly and I didn't want to wake her, so I reached my other arm up and held my hand up in front of my face. "Still human," I croaked, my throat feeling dry.
A movement near one of the windows drew my attention to it and I watched as Luna moved away from it to silently walk over to the bed.
"I'm glad to see you have regained consciousness," she spoke in a soft tone, pouring some water into a glass and lifting it up toward me with her magic. "Drink some. It will help against your hangover."
I reached for the glass with my hand, but grabbed thin air instead. I was sure I had aimed correctly, but my hand was slightly to the left of the glass.
I tried again, moving my hand sideways until it bumped into the glass and then closing my fingers around it once I was assured I had it. Success! I reached the glass down and proceeded to splash the contents of it over my face rather than pouring it down my throat.
Luna raised an eyebrow and levitated the glass out of my hand again. "It is common for a state of inebriation to affect one's motor skills. Don't worry. I will move the glass for you."
I nodded up while carefully lowering my hand so I could wipe my face. "Thank you."
"My sister told me what happened," Luna smirked, bringing a newly filled glass to my lips and tilting it a little to let the water flow into my mouth. "You are a lightweight by our standards, but it is to be expected. Have you ever had any salt before?"
I swallowed the water and felt it rush down my parched throat, nodding softly as Luna lifted the glass a little again. "Back on Earth it's used to add flavour to various dishes. Humans don't get drunk from it," I explained, pushing myself up a little on my left elbow and carefully trying to slide my arm out from under Rhonda.
A dark blue light enveloped the pony beside me and she was lifted gently up in the air as I pulled my arm out from under her, then laid down gently once again. Rubbing my right arm with my left hand to get the blood flowing through it again, I nodded in Luna's direction.
"Thanks."
"You would have woken her. And she is having such a sweet dream right now," Luna revealed, smiling in Rhonda's direction much like a parent would to their sleeping child.
"Oh, right," I realized, "You can see into others' dreams. I just thought you had to be physically there?"
Luna reached the glass back up to my lips and I took a sip from it as she tilted it, moving the muscles in my back a little without opening my wings up. I could feel the tension in them from having laid on them.
"Dreams are not physical, Josey. I would not be able to have a physical presence in them," Luna smiled. "It is purely a representation of my spiritual energy which transfers into other ponies' dreamworlds."
"I see," I mumbled, daring to stretch my wings out slowly over the bed and Rhonda on one side, and out beside Luna on the other side.

"Do you remember what happened before we put you to bed, Josey?" Luna asked, and I shook my head slowly.
"I remember sitting on the floor with Rhonda, and then.. something.. and OH!" I reached down and flung the covers off of my legs, staring down at the bare pony legs attached to my hips. They felt normal enough, from the hip down to the hoof, but it was still a weird thing to see after almost twenty years of having had feet.
Luna looked down at my legs as well, and I could feel her breath fall over the exposed limbs.
"I'm not wearing any clothes," I realized, and Luna shrugged lightly.
I didn't feel embarrassed even with Luna looking me over. She felt safe. I had felt this before, I realized. Luna was safe. "Safe from the spiders," I mumbled, vaguely remembering part of the dream.
The princess of the night looked up with a smile and moved the glass over again. "It is always nice to hear somepony remembering their dreams," she confided in me as I drank more of the water. "Most ponies forget them as soon as they wake."
I gave her a nod and emptied my glass, then reached out to put it on the bedside table. Only with Luna's help did it make it there in one piece, and I looked down in embarrassment.
"I've never been drunk before," I offered, "It's very strange."
"You were acting very strange yesterday as well, as far as I heard," Luna chuckled. "Once the shock of your transformed legs had settled, you apparently danced on the table kicking food around everywhere."
"I... did?" I blinked, moving to turn so I could dangle my legs over the side of the bed and face Luna properly. They hit the ground before I had thought they would, and I had to move a little to sit comfortably.
"Oh, it did not end there. You ran off into the palace garden, disrobed yourself, and started to eat from Celestia's prized flowerbeds. If you are feeling a stomach ache, that would be why."
I looked down and poked at my stomach, a pocket of air quickly rising up through my esophagus as a result. I stifled my burp with the back of my other hand, but Luna still shook her head.
"There is a reason why some flowers are for eating, and others for looking pretty," the princess smirked. "I would not recommend eating nightshade, for example."
I blushed deeply and nodded at her. "Noted."
I looked at Luna's mane and watched it as it moved as if there was a gust of wind moving around the princess' head, and reached my hand out for it. "May I touch your mane, princess?"
Luna raised an eyebrow, but nodded slowly. "If you feel the need to?"
I gently brushed my hand against the dark form, feeling the soft hairs flow around my hand like a cool night's breeze. With my fingers parting the hairs I could make out the individual strands which flowed together so perfectly to form the illusion of a starry night's sky.
"It's beautiful," I breathed out, and Luna smiled up more.
"It took some time to grow it out to this length," she muttered.
"I saw your mane after the Elements of Harmony had broken Nightmare Moon's spell," I offered, and Luna winced visibly. "Your mane wasn't this long then, and it did not move like this."
Luna shook her head at that, gently pulling away from my hand and I withdrew it. "No, it did not."
"Did Celestia's look as it does now, back when she was young?" I inquired, and Luna shook her head. "So you both used magic then."
Luna looked away and licked her lips, not answering my question.

I studied her for a moment, but then shrugged and looked down at my hooves standing on the ground beside the bed. "It doesn't matter. It looks good on you."
Luna dared to look back at that, her smile returning.
"But there's something wrong with my legs," I huffed. "They're too long."
Luna moved closer and turned to put her own back leg beside mine and then looked back at both of them for a size comparison.
"Maybe a little," she agreed, "but they're still shorter than my sister's."
I pushed up from the bed into a standing position and looked at where my hip was in relation to Luna's, and nodded. "I'm sorry if this puts me in-between you and Celestia, height wise."
"Why would you apologize for that?" Luna wondered, turning around to face me again. "I am still catching up to a thousand years of development. Even Cadance is slightly taller than me."
"She is?" I wondered, and Luna nodded.
"Her horn is smaller than mine, but she is a few inches taller overall."
I looked between Luna's flank and my own hips again and flushed as I realized something. "That puts me between Cadance and Celestia, then."
Luna smiled and nodded. "So it seems. Let us wait until your transformation completes, Josey. It is easier to see that way."
Luna walked over to a box set up on the dresser and lifted the top off of it with her magic. "Would you care for a midnight snack? As far as my sister told me, you have not eaten anything all day yesterday."
I felt my stomach growl and nodded, walking closer to find a stack of sandwiches on a silver platter hidden within the box.
"I am hungry, yes. But will this force my body to transform faster, like lunch did to Rhonda?" I wondered, motioning back to the still sleeping pink one on the bed.
Luna shrugged and sat down on her haunches. "That question goes beyond my knowledge. It is mainly alfalfa bread with some grass and flowers."
"Any daisies?" I asked, giggling softly as I sat down opposite Luna beside the dresser.
"Why are daisies so funny?" Luna wondered, lowering the box between us so I could more easily reach for the sandwiches within and pulling one out for herself.
I shrugged and reached for a sandwich with my right hand. "It's just that Celestia tried to teach me how to levitate a daisy during lunch. Didn't work. It didn't move at all."
"She did the picture thing again, did she not?" Luna wondered after swallowing the bite she'd taken.
"Yeah, imagining the flower to fly up or something," I muttered, lifting the top piece of bread up a bit to look at the green stuff held in-between. "Looks like mostly grass and some leaves I don't know."
"Every pony is different, Josey," Luna sighed, using her magic to close my sandwich up again. "If you are going to be a picky eater, I will not help you to understand your magic."

I looked up at her frowning face and took a quick bite from the sandwich in my hands. "Sowwy."
Luna nodded and continued with a light smile. "When we learn to use our magic, we instinctively use what feels right to us. In my sister's case it was to envision what she wanted to have happen in her head, and then make that image a reality."
I nodded while chewing on my food. It had an odd taste to it, not unlike tea drawn up from nettle leaves, and I was surprised by how well it worked with the grass and bread together. My stomach growled again to remind me how hungry I was, and I quickly swallowed to take another bite from my sandwich.
"Other ponies are more instinctive and do not need to build a picture in their head to focus their magic. I personally believe it allows for us to respond quicker than those working along Celestia's image magic."
I finished my sandwich and nodded, reaching for a new one to resume eating.
"My sister and I fought Discord together, and I sent off a volley of magic bursts into him before Celestia even hit him once. She took too much time preparing her spells and we would have lost if she had not quickened her pace halfway through the battle. She slowed me down. It did not work to help me fight my jealousy afterward, when she received all the praise."
I reached for my third sandwich but kept my ears perked, this was something I didn't know yet!
"In time it caused me to rebel against Celestia. We stood opposite one another on the battlefield with our armies ready to gallop forward and see which would be stronger; the day, or the night."
Luna sighed and took a thoughtful bite out of her own sandwich, while I reached for the fourth or fifth? I don't know, I lost count. It tasted so good I just had to continue eating!
"By the time I realized she had been working on a spell long before we met for the final battle, it was too late. She had been powering it up for a long while and I could see the exhaustion in her eyes as she banished me to the moon. Nothing but a shadow printed on its surface."
A light chuckle escaped her and she shook her head. "What I mean to say is that if you have the time to use Celestia's technique, by all means do so. But if you need to respond quickly, there is no use in creating an image in your head and only then putting it out there. You will want to put it out there immediately."
"Take these sandwiches, for instance," Luna offered, looking down and motioning at the, now empty, box with a forehoof.
I swallowed my last bit of sandwich and fell back, sighing out in relief. My stomach was nice and full again and I was feeling oddly ecstatic.
Luna raised an eyebrow at me. "So you did," she mumbled, then finished the rest of her own sandwich in silence.

Luna remained silent, even as my body convulsed and spasmed as it transformed further with the help of the Equestrian food fueling it.
I felt sick laying on the ground in front of the dresser, puking out blood as my internal organs rearranged themselves and generally feeling like I was going to die on the spot. The blood rushing up through my throat had one positive; I could not scream out in pain, leaving Rhonda in blissful sleep on the bed.
Before my bloodshot eyes I saw my hands bloat up into hooves, the joints popping and shifting as my arms turned into a pair of forelegs. As with Rhonda before, the changes passed by faster than they had in the past, and it didn't take long for them to subside, leaving me shuddering in the cold early morning air.
I pulled my hooves up close to my chest underside and trembled from the cold, spitting out a few remaining bits of blood from my newly formed muzzle.
Luna stood up and I felt myself get lifted up by her magic. The blood I had been laying in dripped down from my form and I watched her levitating some water from the jug on the bedside table over to gently wash it out of my coat and mane.
I had some difficulty focusing as she did, getting moved around by her magic, but once she was done I was lowered onto the bed beside my love Rhonda. I almost automatically wrapped my forelegs around her and pulled her close, with me being the big spoon.
Luna tucked us in under the blankets and cleaned up after me, and I took the time to stare down my muzzle at the pale yellow fur covering my newly formed limbs. I felt a little like a citrus fruit.
I lay my head down on the pillow and mused at feeling Rhonda's smaller form. As far as I could judge she was about half my size, and she fitted perfectly as little spoon as we rested on the bed.
I brought my head forward a little to sniff at her mane and smiled at the scent coming from her. Definitely my Rhonda.
Comforted by the familiar smell, and exhausted from what must have been the final stage of my transformation, I closed my eyes with my chin resting on top of Rhonda's head.