//------------------------------//
// A lesson is learned 
// Story: Princess Flurry Heart Versus the Mud Monsters 
// by kudzuhaiku 
//------------------------------//

	Eyebrow arched in a most excellent, most graceful way, Princess Flurry Heart eyeballed her foe. This was a real enemy, a true and credible threat. This was something that could kill the little ponies that she cared about. A strange hatred bubbled in her heart as the fine pink hairs along her spine stood up. Her lips curled back in a snarl, revealing perfect, flawless, square teeth.

Megara was readying herself for violence and she had a wagon axle held in her front paws while she stood in a bipedal stance, her wings extended to aid her balance. Flurry valued Megara’s strength; she was no earth pony, but she could fly and she was agile. Olive’s horn was charging up and Pebble, Megara’s devoted sister, had also adopted a bipedal stance of readiness. Boomer had inflated herself and was now shaking her frills and spines at the big poo monster. It might not have seemed like much, but Boomer was a willing distraction that kept Sumac safe by looking like a much more dangerous threat. 

“Keep Sumac safe,” Flurry commanded as she put herself between the excremental and her treasured sorcerer. 

“I pity the foal that hurts our sorcerer!” With that, Megara launched herself at the amorphous mass that menaced her and her friends. The wagon axle was raised high over her head, and she brought it down in a mighty chop, burying it in the muddy-poo monster. Spatters of mud, feces, and bits of corn flew outward in a shower of filth while the wagon axle cut halfway through the golem of grody-grossness. 

There was a hideous burbling sound and the fecal foe began to come back together. Lightning fast, it twisted its body around, whipping the wagon axle out of Megara’s paws, then it reversed its movement. There was a thunderous crack when Megara was hit in the head with her own wagon axle, and the manticore spawn staggered away dazed, but not downed. In an act of defiance, she raised one middle claw on her paw at the mud monster, as Megara wanted to keep its ire focused on her, and not her friends. 

Pebble lept forward to defend her sister, but the mud monster was quick, too quick, and with a vulgar, disgusting squish, it shape shifted, pushing the axle out and forming an arm, which held the axle as a club. It swung its corn-coated cudgel and struck Pebble with a mighty blow, sending her flying in a high arc. So high and so far and so fast that she flew, that she waved her goodbye and vanished from view. 

“Pebble!” Sumac cried out in panic. 

Olive fired off a powerful pulse, but it went wide because she tried to dodge mid-blast. A steaming, toilet papered tendril shot out of the dookie mook and connected with Olive, covering her with filth and slapping her away. Megara charged, claws out, but the mud monster formed more treacle tentacles to deal with the charging mighty manticore spawn. Megara let out a yowl as she was grabbed, swung around, and then hurled away with a great deal of force. 

The bizarre bat-winged cat-pony collided with a house, and it being a house, and her being Megara the Lioness, the house gave way, as demanded by the natural order of things. The wall crumbled and with a pained, feline screech of rage, Megara cannonballed through the dwelling, which collapsed in upon her with a terrific sound. Dust rose as the dwelling tumbled down and the roof came to rest upon the ground.

“Meouch!” Megara’s cry filtered up through the rubble she was now buried beneath and let her friends know that she was alive. 

Trembling with rage, Flurry let go with everything she had, something she was told to never do under any circumstances. The shot went wide, missing, and a huge chunk of Twilight’s castle turned into so much smoke. Flurry, reeling from her own blast, had no defense when the mud monster slammed her with a filth tendril. 

She went sailing backwards, stars in her vision, and in that moment, she realised that she wasn’t as nigh-invulnerable as she might have hoped. It was pretty much the worst pain she had ever experienced in her life—no, scratch that—she cried out as her body slammed into a house and she got to find out what it felt like to be Megara. Head first, she went through the wall, through timbers, through bricks, through plaster. This was the worst pain she had ever experienced in her life. Remaining beneath her mother’s protective wing had not prepared her for this, this was the worst.

To make matters worse, half of the house collapsed upon her, the house that was made of things like nails, glass, wood, bricks, and other painful, unrelenting, awful things that she now found impaling her. In that dreadful, horrible moment, Flurry realised just how much her mother, her father, her aunts, and her uncle had protected her, kept her from harm. The remains of the house shifted and a heavy roofing beam collapsed. It landed on her barrel, putting an enormous strain on her ribs, squishing the wind out of her, and leaving her helpless. 

She could feel hot, sticky blood dribbling from all over. Things, unknown things had pierced her flesh and were cutting deep into her. It wasn’t supposed to end this way. This was supposed to be fun, a romp, she was supposed to crush her enemies and show off all of her power and majesty as an alicorn princess. Little Flurry wanted to cry, but was determined not to do so. Outside, she heard a terrible scream and she hoped that Sumac was somehow okay. Hot tears began to sting her eyes and the rubble shifted once more. 

Megara, looking much worse for wear came into Flurry’s field of view. The mighty manticore spawn sunk her claws into the massive roof beam pinning Flurry, and then, with a resonating roar that caused the rubble to rumble, she heaved with all of her manticore might. The beam lifted, along with all of the ruined house-bits on top of it, and Flurry felt her body being tugged free. Tilting her head, she saw a bespectacled Sumac standing on a ruined table top to protect his frogs from broken glass and she was quite relieved to see that he was okay. 

“Round two!” Megara snarled as Flurry got to her hooves. 



 

Stepping out of the rubble, Flurry was treated to a majestic sight. Pebble was running down the road, bipedal, and in her forelegs she hugged a telegraph pole. Where and how Pebble had found a telegraph pole was unknown. Even more of an unknown was how Pebble was running with a forty foot long telegraph pole. Flurry’s mouth dropped open in astonishment as Pebble skidded to a halt, but maintained her momentum by swinging for the excremental. 

There was an indescribable sound as the telegraph pole collided with the poo monster—it was like a spoon smacking pudding, but far, far worse, somehow far more vulgar. With a wet splat, the excremental was launched—it did not explode as Flurry had expected—and it flew for quite some distance. 

Running once more, Pebble launched her makeshift caber, the telegraph pole, something that had to weigh over seven-hundred pounds. Flurry’s mouth fell open a little wider as she watched the makeshift caber fly end over end through the air, and with a gross, burbling splat, it connected with the mud monster mid-flight, going right up its thunderous, squirting crack while making a lewd squish that sounded a lot like coleslaw and custard being smacked together. Flurry did not know why she thought of this, but think of this she did. 

Pebble was a titan, that much was clear to Flurry now, and she feared for Sumac’s safety when the inevitable marriage happened. She gave herself a shake, sending splinters, debris, and broken glass flying from her body and her wings. With a roar, Megara took to the air and Flurry followed, shaken from her state of awe. 



 

The muddy poo monster was growing larger as smaller mud monsters merged with it. It was as vile as it was dangerous, and Flurry had learned the hard way to respect a dangerous foe. This was not a silly game. Flapping her wings, she kept her distance as she took pot shots and Megara acted as a shield for her, intercepting anything hurled through the air. 

On the ground, Pebble was running interference, dodging and weaving, keeping the monster distracted. Olive too, was taking pot shots and her powerful telekinetic bursts were already the stuff of story and legend, something that made Flurry jealous. She wanted respect and recognition, and Olive had a surplus of that. Olive also had so much control. Sumac was hunkered down behind a stone retaining wall, keeping himself out of harm's way, and Boomer was his last ditch defense.

Try as they might, no headway could be made. For each bit of the monster shot off, more grew back when other little mud monsters came and merged with the big one. Almost gliding, Flurry circled around the monster’s head, and reckoned that it had to be twenty feet tall or more now. She dodged a hurled wagon and was thankful that Megara got out of the way as well. 

Sumac made all of them strong, but his sorcerous power also made the poo monster strong as well. Flurry realised the danger that the sorcerer posed, and there was a lesson to be learned; strength was nothing without experience. Flurry and her Wipe-Outs were just strength, no experience. Against a foe of equal strength, they could do very little but extensive property damage, which they seemed to excel at. 

It was with great regret that Flurry realised that they were at a stalemate. 



 

Help came in the form of the seasoned protectors of Ponyville. Rainbow Dash wobbled through the air, her wings caked with filth, but somehow she still flew. Twilight Sparkle was much the same, but far, far clumsier. And then there was the majestic Lady Lulamoon, who did not fly, but trotted through the streets, looking sleek, clean, and perfect. 

Flurry was grudgingly impressed. 

“Mom!” Hope could be heard in Sumac’s voice. 

“Kiddo, how’s it going?” Confidence could be heard in Trixie’s voice. 

“Not good, Mom.” 

Flurry had trouble hearing what was said. Rainbow began flying as a distraction and Twilight flew over to where Flurry was. She had some trouble looking her aunt in the eye, but she did it anyway, defiant, proud, and refusing to admit wrongdoing. Flurry too, was an alicorn princess, it didn’t matter if she was born as one, and she would prove her worth somehow, she would earn the respect that she demanded and craved more than anything else in the whole wide world. 

“You are not where I left you,” Twilight remarked in a deadpan snark.

“I might’ve blown up your castle just a little bit,” Flurry confessed and then she rolled out of the way of a corn-coated mud-missile. 

The mud monster, perhaps offended by Trixie’s clean, gleaming coat, launched a blistering offensive at the smug-looking unicorn. A funnel of filth was launched at Lady Lulamoon, a tornado of turds, and Twilight went streaking off to intercept. Flurry watched in horror, knowing that the swirling vortex had powerful suction. 

Trixie was struck, slathered in mud, filth, and worse, she was buried under a wash of waste. It hardened and Trixie became a statue of corn and tissue paper encrusted scat, leaving poor Flurry Heart’s heart pounding in her throat. Flurry shrieked, hating that Sumac had witnessed his mother’s dreadful demise. She started to swoop down to go to Sumac, but something happened that made her pause.

With a brilliant burst of flames, Trixie exploded, sending the filth entrapping her flying. Looking quite irked, she lifted her head high and her silvery mane billowed around her head as heat rose in radiant shimmers from her body, her immaculate, clean, spotless body.

“YOU DARE TO SULLY THE HIDE OF THE GREAT AND POWERFUL LADY LULAMOON? I, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE, SHALL WIPE YOU FROM EXISTENCE!” 

“Mom!” 

“There’ll be no living with her after this,” Twilight grumbled. Turning about in the air, Twilight faced her niece. “Flurry! Freeze it!” 

Oh. Why hadn’t she thought of that? Feeling more than a little embarrassed, Flurry realised that her foe was mostly water, and she was Flurry Heart, she was the Storm Princess, she was the Heart of Winter. Well, when her mother let her, that was. Most of the time she used her powers to make vast batches of ice cream during summer festivals under carefully monitored and controlled conditions. 

Trixie raised a glowing telekinetic wall that served as a shield and she moved forwards, confident, cocky, and cool. Sumac had darted to his mother’s side, and Boomer was right there behind him. Twilight formed a powerful shield bubble around herself, Megara, and Flurry Heart. Meanwhile, Flurry was getting warmed up… or was it cooled down? 

The temperature dropped and a cold breeze blew though Ponyville as Flurry Heart’s horn began to glow. Pebble and Olive had retreated and now stood beside Trixie, joining Sumac and Boomer. Flurry felt a prickle of fear—she had trouble controlling her storm powers—and her mother didn’t like letting her practice. Her mother just kept saying that training would come when she was older and her powers matured, but Flurry, being the petulant foal that she was, wanted to practice now. It was a source of much fighting between her and her mother. 

So it was with a great deal of hesitation that Flurry Heart summoned up a storm, a vast blizzard, a source of cold for her to draw from and help her Auntie Twilight take out the mud monsters threatening Ponyville. Overhead, the skies darkened, turning grey, clouds formed, and a fierce, wintry wind began to howl. 

“Flurry,” Twilight said in a calm voice. “You won’t mess this up… I believe in you…”