//------------------------------// // The Penultimate Snuggle // Story: Rarity Snuggles Everypony (Whether They Like It Or Not) // by PropMaster //------------------------------// The door to Rarity’s parents home burst asunder, blown apart by the chromatic pegasus-pony-turned-cannonball that was Rainbow Dash. She landed on her rear hooves, skidding to a barely-contained halt inside the foyer of the abode, panting and planting her front hooves on the carpet. “We’re through!” Twilight arrived next. Mane frazzled, horn sparking, and wings askew; she looked like hell. She slumped down on her side as soon as she entered, coughing up bits of fluffy stuffing of various pastel colors. “That… that was awful.” Applejack was next, jumping through the destroyed front door and avoiding the splinters around her hooves. The earth pony’s mane was a mess, her ponytail undone, and her hat was conspicuously missing. Fluttershy lay across Applejack’s back, her eyes covered and hyperventilating, but appeared completely unmarred. Applejack pivoted in place and rendered a fantastic kick to a knit tentacle that slithered after her, rocking the fuzzy menace and sending it careening back through the shattered doorway and out of view. As the stunned tentacle flew out the door, Rarity arrived, followed closely by Pinkie Pie. Rarity collapsed beside Twilight, wheezing dramatically as though she was on her death bed. “That… was… terrible!” “Wowie-zowie! What a fight scene!” Pinkie Pie said with a manic giggle, bouncing on her hooves, “That was so cool! Rainbow Dash was like zoom! And Twilight was like pew pew pew! And Applejack was like kerpow! And Princess Luna was like forsooth!” Pinkie punctuated her sound effects with hoof motions, animating the epic scene that her friends had all just lived through. Twilight rolled onto her hooves again, shaking out her wings and mane. “We’re all here... except for Princess Luna and her guards! They were right behind us!” she said, turning to face the doorway with wide eyes. Applejack peered through the entryway of the house and towards the rest of Ponyville. All she could see were tentacles. Thousands upon thousands of them writhed from the slowly widening portal to the edge of the Cuddleverse. There was no sign of Princess Luna or her retinue of guards. “Darlin’, I think they all got… cuddled.” As she spoke, a midnight-blue figure appeared, held aloft by a dozen of the fluffy, snuggly appendages of the Snugglegod. “This! Is! Undignifiiiiiiiiiiiiiiied!” screamed Princess Luna, as she was hoisted deeper into the tentacles to have the stuffing figuratively snuggled out of her. “Luna!” Twilight made as if to venture back outside, but Rainbow Dash and Applejack blocked her path. “Ain’t no use, sugarcube! The only way we’re savin’ anypony is if we get rid of that there monstrosity,” Applejack said, placing one hoof on Twilight’s shoulder gently. Twilight stared out at the spot where Princess Luna had disappeared for a long moment, before relaxing and letting out a sigh. “You’re right. Rarity, get up, we need to find your family.” Rarity shook her head. “Twilight, I am at my wit’s end. This has all been so dreadful. Some of those guard ponies… they sacrificed themselves to the tentacles! For me, Twilight! Other ponies are having terrible, unspeakable, cuddly things happen to them for my sake.” Twilight bent down and pulled Rarity into a sitting position. “You can’t let Snuggoth win, Rarity. We’re so, so close. You just need to feel that real love, and then everything will be okay.” Rarity stared up at Twilight, eyes full of tears. “Do… do you promise, Twilight?” Twilight gave her a hug. “I promise.” Rarity leaned into the hug for a long moment, before getting to her hooves. “You’re right, Twilight. I’m sorry everyone, I’m just feeling very overwhelmed.” Applejack smiled at Rarity. “We all are, darlin’. I can’t even tell ya how much ah want to run for the Acres and make sure my family is all right, but I know that if we can end it, here an’ now, everythin’ is gonna work itself out.” Fluttershy peeked out from behind her hooves, trembling. “I’m s-sorry I’m being such a burden, I’m just not cut out for things like this… but I hope that just being present to support you is helping, Rarity.” Rarity offered Fluttershy a soft smile. “Of course.” Rainbow Dash shuffled her hooves uncomfortably, blushing. “I… yeah. I mean, I love excitement and danger! But this needs to be over. Do or… be snuggled for eternity, I guess? But I’m here for you, Rares.” “Thank you, Rainbow Dash.” Rarity exhaled slowly and turned to face the quiet interior of the house. “Mother? Father? Sweetie Belle? I’m home! Where are you?” Rarity led the rest of the girls into her parent’s home, walking quickly from room to room. With each empty room, her voice grew more worried. “Hello? Anypony?” “Rarity?” came a muffled reply. Rarity’s ears perked forward, and she trotted quickly towards the closed door to her younger sister’s room. “Sweetie Belle, are you in there?” she asked, pushing the door open. Sweetie Belle’s room was a sweetly decorated, pastel affair, the picture of a perfect young mare’s room, with colorful posters adorning the wall and soft Hearth’s Warming lights strung near the ceiling. Sweetie Belle’s bed was a large four-post, covered in stuffed animals and pillows. A pair of trembling eyes peered meekly out from beneath a pile of blankets. “Rarity!” Sweetie Belle cried, dashing out from her hiding place to meet her sister as she rushed inside. “Rarity! I was so worried!” she gasped, clinging to her big sister as tears streamed down her face. “There, there, darling. I was worried, too!” Rarity buried her face in Sweetie Belle’s mane, holding her little sister close. There was a muffled roar from outside. Twilight gasped, ran to the curtains by the window of Sweetie Belle’s room and pulled them open. The tentacle fall had slowed again, but the portal continued to widen inexorably. In the distance, the furthest edge had just met with the tallest spire of Canterlot. Twilight groaned. “This isn’t working. We need more love to push Snuggoth back.” Rarity clutched Sweetie Belle close. “Sweetie, do you know where mother and father are?” Sweetie stared up at Rarity, eyes filling with redoubled tears. “Th-they… they went outside.” Rarity stared at her sister, uncomprehending. “They went outside?” Sweetie Belle nodded, hiccuping as she nearly hyperventilated. “They-.... They… they left me here!” she wailed, burying her face in Rarity’s neck. The rest of the mares were quiet as Rarity comforted her distraught sister and processed the evident loss of her parents to the snuggly tentacles outside. “They’re gone, then,” Rarity said quietly, looking at Twilight with wide eyes. “I’m afraid, my dearest Twilight, that our last plan is in shambles.” Applejack slumped to her haunches, causing Fluttershy to fall to the floor with a small squeak. “Well, shoot. I’m plumb outta ideas.” Twilight sighed, ears drooping. “Me too. I thought that, if anypony would have been enough, it would be Rarity’s family.” Scowling, Rarity shook her head. “I think that even if we did go out into that mess and find them, my love for my parents is currently,” she looked pointedly at the sobbing Sweetie Belle, “on the rather thin side. Honestly! Abandoning Sweetie Belle like this!” Rarity held her sibling tightly. Downstairs, there was the sound of crashing. Rainbow Dash leapt into the air and swooped away, returning a moment later. “Those fuzzy jerks are pushing in through the front door. We need to figure something else out.” “There must be something I’m missing, here,” Twilight said, tapping her forehead with one hoof. “I need more time to get this problem worked out.” “Well, we don’t have time, Twi,” Rainbow Dash said, pointing towards the rest of the house, “at least not here.” Twilight blinked, leaping to her hooves. “Oh, of course! The basement of the library is totally secure. I had to make sure it was pretty much apocalypse-proof, due to the unstable nature of some of the experiments I conduct down there. We can go there, and I can have access to the Library and my equipment in the basement to do a little last-minute research!” “It’s safe there?” Rarity asked, standing beside her sister and throwing one hoof over Sweetie Belle’s shoulders, keeping her close. “Undoubtedly, unless Spike panicked and opened up all the doors and windows or something,” Twilight said, before blinking. “Oh, gosh! I hope Spike is okay. I told him to hold up in the basement if things got too scary for him.” Rarity smiled, “I’m certain Spike is fine. He’s very mature for his age. Knowing him, he’s kept the library safe for you in case you need anything else that your home offers.” Rainbow Dash smirked, “Yeah, I’m sure Spike is, like, battling the Elder Snuggle-whatever.” She snickered, “I can’t hardly imagine that he’s been doing anything other than hiding out in your basement, Twi.” Rarity frowned. “Come now, Rainbow Dash. You must agree, Spike is more than capable of handling himself when the metaphorical cards are on the table.” Fluttershy spoke up, “Let’s not forget that he saved the Crystal Heart.” “And stopped that accident in th’ Crystal Games,” Applejack added. Twilight smiled as her friends came to her assistant’s defense. “Spike has proven himself to all of us. I’m surprised you’d question that, Rainbow Dash.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay, but… I mean, it’s Spike we’re talking about, here. How much could he do?” Meanwhile, across Ponyville… “AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Spike screamed a savage war cry, smashing two encroaching tentacles with his trusty broom, stunning the invaders. With a sweep of the broad-bristled end of his improvised weapon, he shoved the two tentacles back out of the window. He shoved the window closed with a quick shoulder-check and pulled a bookshelf over, blocking it from being pushed open from the outside again. All around him, the library was a mass of severed, scorched, and woozy tentacles that were unceremoniously being shoved out of open doors and windows by Spike and Owlowiscious. Owlowiscious flapped hard, the end of a tentacle in his talons, and threw the limp appendage out of one of the upper story windows. Another tentacle pressed in as Owlowiscious turned to return to the interior of the library, but Spike was there in an instant, his eyes flaring with emerald rage, and he breathed a gout of flame. “RAAAAH!” FWOOSH! The tentacle ignited, part of it turning to ash instantaneously, and Spike used his broom like a spear, thrusting the burned mess out the window from whence it came. Owlowiscious hooted a quick thank you, retreating. Spike ran back downstairs. “Those barricades on the front door won’t hold much longer! Can you find any more furniture?” “Who!” Owlowiscious swooped away. Spike shook his head, frowning, “YOU, you feather duster! Get more furniture!” As he shouted, the front door splintered, and three tentacles shoved their way in around the improvised barricade, seeking something to give a severe snuggle to. Spike was there to greet them. “Sorry, the LIBRARY!” WHACK! “IS!” SMASH! “CLOSED!” CRUNCH! The tentacles flailed at him, trying to work their way past his whirling broom, but Spike was ready, lashing out with a double-handed overhead smash that knocked the literal stuffing out of one tentacle. Cotton exploded around Spike, filling the air. The other two tentacles hesitated, then lashed out at the same time, pushing through the cloud of cotton to hit… nothing. Spike had pole vaulted up to the second floor landing, and now took his opportunity leapt down atop the two tentacles, discarding his broom as he stomped down with all his weight on one. SMASH! Flattened, one tentacle twitched feebly. Spike grabbed the other with both hands and bit down on the appendage, slicing through the knit and cotton stuffing with his sharp teeth and severing it from the rest of its mass. Colorful confetti sprayed as he shook his head, shredding the tentacle and leaving it lifeless on the floor, before he gave another stomp on the tentacle below him. It stiffened briefly, shuddering, then went limp. Spike spat fluff and thread out of his mouth. “Ugh.” Owlowiscious returned, dragging a chair behind him in his talons, and flapped to a standstill as he surveyed the destroyed tentacles. “Who?” For once, his meaning was literal. “ME.” Spike noticed the stunned expression on Owlowiscious’ face. “Yeah, I did this. Now, gimmie that chair. I told Twilight that I’d keep the library safe, and I’m not going to break that promise.” Owlicious gave Spike the chair. Upstairs, out of sight, was the sound of shattering glass. Spike growled, emerald flame licking from between his determined grimace. “Well, they found the bathroom window. Let’s go, buddy.” “Who!” “AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!” CRASH!