//------------------------------//
// Assault Part 3 
// Story: Vacant Niches 
// by Jongoji245 
//------------------------------//

“AGGGHHH!!!” Strapped to a lab chair kept you from writhing while Apple Bloom holds your twisted limb. “Can’t you just administer some numbing medicine?”

“Not if you keep struggling.” She passes you a wooden object. “Bite on this.”

“Why-” Before your finish, Apple Bloom places the wood in your mouth and quickly snaps your arm in place. You bite hard, yelling with clenched teeth and teary eyes. The operation’s over, but you feel the pain reaching over you. You then Diver holding a bottle of fizzy apple cider; unlike the other bottles you drank, this one has a rainbow apple. Holding a wooden object made your mouth dry, why not drink to your suffering? You not only quench your thirst but feel a soothing burn in your turned limb. After a short while, you feel your muscles stretch and stitch themselves, and the pain subsides. When your arm is released, you lift your arm, twist it, move it around, but feel no pain.

“What drugs are in that bottle.” You ask.

“No drugs, that’s the power of the Zap Apple.” Diver answers, putting the bottle away.

“Zap Apple?” You look at the label again. “Why not Technicolored Apple or Rainbow Apple?”

“Well, one we’d get sued.” Sweetie Belle answers. “And two, one of us learned the hard way.”

Seeing her look ahead, you turn around, seeing the young boy getting bandaged. Another fact that you missed before you and your mother moved here. You look ahead, seeing many of your classmates gathered around a TV monitor. You stand up and walk to the crowd. This time you’re able to weave through the taller individuals. You squint at the bright screen, getting your eyes adjusted to the grid map of Colorado. A few boxes to the right, you see a pink dot. Dinky clicks a few buttons, magnifying the view to a forest with a small wooden settlement. You can see one of the buildings already demolished, replaced by a metallic object.

“There.” Cosgrove pokes the monitor. “The drones are rebuilding another ground bridge.”

“That’s not all.” You look at Dinky pressing another command, illuminating her face with green light and text. “Take a gander at these coordinates.”

You look at the screen. In one section there are three numbers in parenthesis. The first and third numbers keep changing while the second number remains massive.

“What’s she trying to raid, an airplane?”

“Nuh uh.” Scootaloo disagrees. “That’s too high for an airplane.”

Remembering that they’ve went on adventures for relics, you think up another question.

“Sacred treasure in Mount Everest?”

You see them look at the sky.

“Higher than that.” Said Tex. You look up, seeing a small sliver of a perforated space rock that’s always been orbiting the planet.

“Whoa, whoa!” You move your arms several times. “There’s a relic on the moon?”

“Something, or someone.” said Chelsey. After looking at her for a moment, you look to the moon once more.

“You think she’s alive?” You ask once more in a sympathetic tone.

“If there’s any chance, we’ll take it.” You see Cosgrove turn around. “We’ll start a siege mission in Camp Friendship, keep the Changelings occupied before we can use the bridge.”

“Do we bring any of them back?” Asks Sweetie Belle.

Cosgrove closes his eyes, pinching his chin. “Not this time, except for Blackarachnia.”





You join everyone outside, watching them stretch and pop their bodies. Scootaloo notices you not stretching as she sits down and reaches for her toes.

“You really should exercise.” She says. “Missions like these can be the death of you. Seriously.”

Having survived Luna’s rampage, a snake woman, a first assault against the Changelings, and getting your arm snapped by Cogsworth (Both of which happening on the same day), you take her word to heart. You find that you’re more out of shape than you realized; you bend forward to touch your toes, snapping your back from top to bottom, then pop your hips when you reach for your toes by bending sideways. Surely a little more practice and you’ll be right as rain.

“Ready, everyone?” Asks Cosgrove.

“Ready.” Everyone answers except you.

You turn to Dinky flipping a few switches before pulling a lever, opening up another Ground Bridge. Already your friends older and one younger charge at the portal, getting you on your toes before screaming like a madman. You make a long jump Super Mario Sixty-Four style across the sea-green tunnel to a forested area with a few ornery wooden huts for civilization.

“All right, bring it!” Your yelling while assuming a fisticuffs stance is in vain; none of those black-shelled bugs are there. The only evidence that they are there is a machine made of rusty parts with a jewel attached on top of the ring. “They vanished?”

“Oh no, They’re here.” You turn to Diver looking up, sniffing the air. “I can smell them.”

“Hello.” You see everyone turn to their left. Looking through the gaps, you find the a woman with black hair. “Welcome to Camp, uh, Friendship. How may I help you?”

You see Apple Bloom squint her eyes before casually walking over to the manager.

“Nothing much…” You see her close her fist before punching the manager in the face. In a veil of green fire, the human became the enemy. “Bug.”

The beast screeching is joined by other screeching in the trees. Dozens of the beasts drop to the gravel, baring their teeth and buzzing their wings. You join the others in a defensive ring, looking precariously for the next move. Seeing no one making such a move, you do the same, but you feel the adrenaline rush inside you once more.

“Long time, no see.”

You dare not turn your back, but you turn your head around, getting a brief glance of the Changeling from the security footage landing on a fence post. You look ahead just in time to see a Changeling lunge at you before getting a good licking from Snails.

“Blackarachnia.” You hear Cosgrove growl. “What brings you to make another Ground Bridge, after all we’ve gone through? Money? Power?”

“Actually, Nightmare Moon forced me.” You hear Blackarachnia answer in a gruff, yet seductive tone. “Something about, ‘If I’m unable to kill Celestia, you will have to take my place.’”

“Nightmare Moon… is cured.” Said Scootaloo.

“Well.” She makes a few chittering sounds. “Might as well not make it vain. Let’s play a game, if you can beat me to Celestia, than you win.”

“And you have a chance at winning?” While hearing Chelsey talk, you feel the ground vibrate. “Don’t make us-!”

You hear an explosion inside your protective ring, then you are grabbed by the shirt and flung a great distance to your right. After slamming on the wooden stairs of the cabin, you lift your battered body with groan. Now among the Changeling drones are three larger robotic insects resembling a stag beetle, a mantis, and a pillbug. Without a moment to lose, your pals begin their fight with the Changelings big and small. Chelsey grapples with the stag beetle drone, but the latter proved to be the better of her as she is tossed like a ragdoll at the totem pole.

“Well look at that.” You turn to the purple Changeling cackling. “Ransack’s big and tough as you!”

As you stand up, you hear muffing behind the door. You jiggle the handle, unable to get it to turn. Time to put watching every action movie you’ve seen to the test. You lift your right leg and kick at the door; it only sprained your ankle. A moment of whining and ankle rubbing, you look behind and yelp before dodging the large ball. You crawl to the hole and sneak a peek at the damage that now reached the other side of the house. You look inside and find three camp managers bound in fossilized goo. Unable to break it with your bare hands, you look around to find a hammer or crowbar. Alas, none are available, and with your stronger friends dishing out the Changelings, you’ll have to find another solution. 

Your eyes spy Blackarachnia reaching for her Stargate-esque machine and decide give a little interrogation a chance. With the loud noises at your side, your footsteps are muffled as you approach the working Changeling. You switch to a run, getting closer to her before noticing her right ear shift a little. She grabs your throat with surprising strength and brings you to your knees.

“Did you really think that you can sneak up on me so easily?” You see her press a button, opening another, red-pink, portal. “Time for you to enter the final stretch.”





You are flung into the portal; this one is more, so to speak, forceful. Before long, you are pulled across the void and into the barren blue-white surface that is the Moon. You immediately clutch your throat, hoping to preserve whatever oxygen you have left. After a good thirty seconds, you collapse, waiting for the sweet hand of death to take you to heavens ethereal.

“It’s okay, you’re safe here.” Says a feminine voice. You open your eyes; true to her word, there is air, breathable air. You sit up and look up at the eternal night sky; the Earth, the planet of blue and green, appears like that of a larger moon. It’s astonishing; you, in outer space, without any protective wear. You look to your left, seeing the person who talked to you: an individual who resembled Principal Luna, but her skin is of a white rose and her hair is four colors: grass green, Easter blue and pink, and sky blue. From her dusty clothes, you can tell she's been here for a long while.

“You.” You lift a finger at her. “You’re Celestia?”

“Yes. It was getting lonesome.”

“Okay, question.” You stand up, keeping eye contact with the principal. “How did you get from Earth to here?”

“I… don’t know.” She looks at the planet. “When Luna was… Consumed by magic, she attacked me, then sent me here. How is she?”

“She’s back to normal,” You point at the Earth with both arms. “Cosgrove made sure of that. Now let’s get you out of here before-”

“Before what?” You look ahead, seeing the purple Changeling emerge from the tainted Ground Bridge. She looks at Celestia. “So she was right, and now I’ll make keep my end of the bargain.”

Seeing her shift her leg, you figured a battle is coming up. You get yourself between your enemy and your “host.”

“We had a deal!” You remind her, spreading your legs and clench your fists. 

“Yes, her deal!” She immediately jumps at a height greater than you could ever accomplish. When she tilts forward, you grab Celestia and jump away from the attack. It doesn’t take you long to notice that you and Celestia aren’t slowing down.

“Why aren’t we stopping?” You look around wildly for an opportunity to slow down. You grab the chalky surface, slowing you and Celestia a little, but not fast enough as you find the hill approacheth. “Stop, stop!”

You collide with the hill, getting moondust in your nose, face and clothes. You cough like mad as you roll around. You rub your eyes and find the most unlikely of objects: a NASA surveillance drone.

“Well,” You chuckle in embarrassment. “this is awkward.” 

You hear another hum and look back to a Ground Bridge opening up. The first object that goes through is the pill bug, followed by Snips and the stag beetle rolling to the side, and finally the mantis in a grip with Chelsey. She grabs the bug by the waist, slaps its thorax a few times, then tosses it aside. You look down, seeing Blackarachnia rushing at you with bare teeth. She jumps at you when a tan blur ram her side. Dapplewood “hovered” a little before you grab his soft, leather boot and pull him down. You see Blackarachnia in a comatose state, floating aimlessly before she is held in Zipper’s arms.

Soon you find everyone else entering the moon, and subduing the mechanical beasts. You find Cosgrove approaching approaching you and Celestia.

“Are you alright?” He asks to the both of you.

“We are.” You look at the drone. “But I think Wall-E here recorded everything.”

Cosgrove looks at the drone, then back to you. “Not exactly when it’s night time on the moon.”

You see a little ray of light pierce your eyes. The sun appears to rise over the Earth. It’s a spectacle that made Sweetie Belle coo in astonishment. You find the Bridge is still open.

“Let’s get you home before we all get a solar sunburn.”





The following dusk, you lean on the tree planted in front of a large house. Way bigger, and to say fancier, than your little family shack, you let out a little whistle. Then you hear sobbing from Luna, screaming at the top of her lungs. You hear the front door creak, seeing Cosgrove come out and gently close the door. When he walks past you, you join him.

“So, does that mean Discord is going to be Principal?” You ask.

“It’ll be a while before both of them come back to school.” He speeds up, and stands in front of you. “I’m sorry for getting you through this mess, but I’m glad you stuck around.”

You rub your arm. “Thanks,” - You see him walk away before you decide to add - “boss.”

You see him stop for a moment, breathe a little, then continue on. Now it’s time for you to come home as well. Upon opening the door, you find your mother standing there, arms crossed, looking angry.

"Where have you been?" She asks, tapping her forearm. Having gone through a snake hunt, went through a special section of the zoo, fought Changelings in a mansion, got your arm broken by Cogsworth, and fought Changelings again before being sent on the moon, you try to come up with a good answer.

"I... Went places."