//------------------------------// // Ain't Easy Bein' Cheesy // Story: The Day of Discord // by GJT_Productions //------------------------------// "Ha! Take that... and that... and THAT! This is actually kinda... AH! Get off get off get off! Who turned off the sun?!" "Twilight, Rainbow Dash is in trouble!" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The battle between the Element Bearers and the squadrons of "quesadilla bugs", for lack of a better term, was still raging as the train inched its way down the elevated tracks toward Canterlot, some sections precariously both greased and gummed up by the melty cheese spewed by the attackers. On one side of the train, an attack squadron continued to divebomb the train despite many of its members falling to their well-toasted deaths by magic blasts of Twilight Sparkle. On the other side, a second squadron had been engaged by Rainbow Dash flying among them and using aerial moves to knock them out of the sky, at least until one of the bugs slathered their cheesy grip over Rainbow Dash's face. Fluttershy, watching Rainbow Dash through one of the cheese-streaked train windows, saw Rainbow Dash in distress and called Twilight for help from across the train seats. The yellow pegasus scrambled out of the way as the purple unicorn raced across to beside her looking through the window, observing Rainbow Dash trying to pull a quesadilla bug off her face as others circle around to attack. The window goes up with blinding speed and Twilight launches a few time-delayed magic "bombs", aimed on each side of Rainbow Dash. The delayed blasts scatter the attackers around Rainbow Dash, frying a few of them in the process, as the somersaulting Rainbow Dash finally manages to get a hoof between her face and the attacker's clamping grip, prying the attacker off and sending it downward with a hard downward strike. Her face, as well as one of her forehooves, was covered in cheesy gunge, but otherwise the rainbow-maned pegasus was fine. "Thanks Twilight, I owe you one!" Rainbow Dash calls down to Twilight in the train, before going back to smashing the attackers around her... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Ah! Get back, get back, get back!" Rarity shouts from behind Twilight and Fluttershy. The two Element Bearers turn to see attacking bugs sneaking in through the window Twilight had left open from the other side of the train, Rarity swatting at them with her closed umbrella to try to drive them back out the window. Twilight springs to beside Rarity, swatting at the attackers now inside the train carriage with her own hooves instead of risking damaging the train from the inside with her own magic blasts. Fluttershy scrambles to join Pinkie and Applejack in the far corner of the train carriage, trying to stay as far away from the cheesy opponents as possible. Meanwhile, Rarity and Twilight work together to drive out or knock down the bugs that had made it inside, throwing the KOed bugs back out the unguarded open window before slamming it shut again. The Element Bearers still in the train were trying to figure out what to do next when they hear pounding coming from the door leading to the train engine, followed by loud calls for help from the train conductor. The immediate conclusion is that the quesadilla bugs are starting to attack the front of the train, and Applejack starts racing down the length of the passenger carriage to go to their aid. "Rarity, go with her, make sure she doesn't get herself in trouble!" Twilight orders Rarity after Applejack blows past both of them, which Rarity only reluctantly follows after Applejack bursts her way through the door leading toward the train engine... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When Rarity catches up with Applejack at the train engine, she sees both the train engineer and conductor being harassed by the flying attackers, which were hovering in through the windows and spewing cheese all throughout the engine cabin despite the engineer trying to use a blackened coal shovel to try to swat them away. "We gotta do somethin' to help 'em out!" Applejack shouts, leaping into the fray - and onto the melty cheese covered floor. "Applejack, not only is this cabin getting very crowded, but I am not stepping hoof into all that cheese on the floor!" Rarity objects, deciding to use the umbrella she had brought with her as a floating weapon while staying in the relative safety just outside the door. The reinforcements up front tipped the initiative of the attack, quesadilla bugs falling either from the physical attacks or the floating umbrella skewering them straight through. The bugs kept coming, but as the number of injured and dead continued to increase they eventually pulled back, retreating back toward the dark cloud that had spawned them. The floor and walls of the train engine was left a sticky mess, gooey cheese covering the floor and dripping down the walls. In the cheese layer were several dead or critically injured quesadilla bugs, which the train operators began to gingerly pick out of the layer and toss out the side windows. Applejack, meanwhile, was only able to make her way back toward the exit of the engine with great difficulty; Rarity ended up having to yank her the last few steps back into the carriage behind it. "Rarity, remind me never to do that again." Applejack tells the white unicorn, looking down at her cheese covered hooves with a disguised look. "Oh, I don't think I'll need a reminder, dahling." Rarity comments, wearing the same disgusted look on observing her "gunged" and damaged umbrella, which she reluctantly hovers beside her and tosses out a window she opens briefly before closing again to prevent new infiltration. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By the time Applejack and Rarity make it back to their fellow Element Bearers, they have noticed through the windows that the attacking bugs are in general retreat back toward the dark cloud they had spawned from, which was tracking beside the slow-moving train. About half a minute later, they also see Rainbow Dash returning back toward the carriage and Twilight stop launching her magic missile counterattack. "Did we win? Are they going to stop spewing cheese at us?" Applejack asks Twilight as soon as she and Rarity make it back to the passenger carriage. "I don't know, all the bugs are going back toward that cloud..." Twilight comments. "Eek! Look where it's moving!" Fluttershy squeaks out from beside Twilight, which prompts the entire crew to look out the windows. And indeed the cloud was indeed moving, heading in the direction of the train as the last of the buggy attackers disappear back into it! The general direction is toward the front of the train, and the group hears the train's brakes squealing into life as the train is stopped again, still perched over a drop into the craggy valley below. Windows are opened again, the ponies temporarily ignoring the cheese still dripping down the sides of the train. All six heads poke out of various different windows as the group of mares try to get a good view of what's happening down the track, where the black cloud is now hovering over. The cloud slowly descends over the track, stopping directly in front of the train. "What's it doing?" Rainbow Dash asks as the cloud begins twisting and contorting again, assuming a more flattened shape. "I'm afraid we're going to find out whether we want to or not!" Twilight calls back. The flattened shape of the cloud suddenly appears to grow six bug-like "legs", then "perch" upon the track ahead of the stopped train. The cloud began changing into a lighter color, which prompted the following comment from Rainbow Dash: "Uh-oh, if it's turning into what I think it is..." "No, not again!" Fluttershy exclaims, pulling her head back into the train and slamming her window shut. The worry and confusion is quickly replaced by horror as the cloud manifests as a giant version of the "quesadilla bugs" the Element Bearers had been battling, roughly matching the train's engine in size! The giant bug lets out a loud roar, exposing cheesy insides, then blasts out a huge spread of cheese, the watching ponies only pulling in just in time as the entire train is covered now in the sticky yellow mess. "Great, now what do we do?" Applejack shouts, her attitude temporarily shared by the rest of the Element Bearers at the new turn of events...