Evening was settling upon Ponyville as the Nightmare Night barbeque at Sandbar family’s home started to get into full swing in their backyard. It was a little affair with two picnic tables set side-by-side near where Sandbar’s dad was grilling the food. Meanwhile, Sandbar’s mother was going around alternating between setting things up and setting out finished food. As part of a probable tongue-in-cheek on this, they had both dressed up for Nightmare Night as bottles of ketchup and mustard, respectively.
Sandbar, Yona, and Silverstream had also donned Nightmare Night costumes of their own, with Sandbar and Yona continuing the trend of themed costumes, though theirs was a little less obvious to the untrained eye—Sandbar was dressed in an entirely black suit with a matching black bandana wrapping entirely over the top half of his head, as well as matching boots for each of his hooves. Strapped to his belt was a fake, but still impressive-looking rapier. He looked like some sort of medieval masked vigilante. Yona, meanwhile, was simply dressed in a long and elegant-looking, but rather basic, red gown.
Silverstream, meanwhile, had dressed herself in a pink sweater purportedly of her own making, bearing a shooting star streaking across its front and leaving behind it a rainbow trail. She was in the process of making the final touches to this costume at one of the picnic tables while Smolder, the only one who wasn’t wearing a costume, sat and watched.
“Ta-da!” Silverstream finally announced as she held up the finished product. “Nacho earrings!” She then clipped them onto her ears, making a silly sound effect for each one as she did so. “Beep, boop!”
“So, what is this costume of again?” Smolder asked hesitantly as she opened up the case of energy drink she had bought at the store earlier in the day, seeing she couldn’t count on Gallus to provide her with a supply anymore.
“It’s a character from a series of graphic novels I’ve been reading!” Silverstream happily explained. “They’re about this brother and sister who go on adventures about all the weird things that happen in this little town they’re spending the summer in! It’s really good!”
“Yona and Sandbar costumes are also from book!” Yona piped in excitedly, drawing Sandbar into the conversation as well. “Guess which one!”
“Well…I figure since it’s a couple-themed thing, I’m guessing Sandbar’s supposed to be the hero and Yona the damsel in distress,” Smolder reasoned as she pulled out a can of energy drink.
“Hmm,” Silverstream hummed, rubbing a talon along her beak as she thought. “Is it the one with the guy with the sword? Mask of…something with a Z?”
“No, but a good guess,” Sandbar answered. He winked to Yona. “Maybe they need a hint.”
Yona nodded and drew herself up. “Farm boy,” she remarked to Sandbar in a proper-sounding tone, “Fetch Yona a glass of punch.”
Sandbar made a bow. “As you wish,” he replied with deliberate phrasing, before scurrying off to fulfill the request.
“Oh brother,” Smolder groaned at the sappiness of the whole exchange, while Silverstream let out an excited squee at it.
“I get it!” the hippogriff squealed at the idea. “Oh, that’s an adorable idea for a costume!”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Smolder snarked as she opened the new can of soda. Seeing Silverstream shoot her an annoyed look, she shrugged. “Look, it just seems a little cliché, y’know? So the idea of them choosing that book of all books just seems a little…inconceivable.”
Silverstream snorted, looking away. “Oh, I think you’re just being a little—” she then stopped and, with wide eyes and a big grin of realization, looked back at Smolder, who was hiding a smirk. “Oh! I see what you did there! Ha! Clever!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Smolder said, waving it off as she proceeded to chug down her can of energy drink. She then let out a mighty belch afterwards, inadvertently sending a massive blast of flames skyward in the process. “Whoo! That was a big one!”
“Goodness!” Sandbar’s mother remarked as she strolled past. “But what do we say after that?”
“Must be a barge coming through!” Smolder cheekily replied.
“No,” Sandbar’s mother answered patiently and prompted again. “What do we say?”
“That sure tasted better going down than coming back up!”
Sandbar’s mother placed her elbow on the table and cradled her head in her hoof, raising one eyebrow challengingly at the dragoness. “Three strikes and you’re history, kiddo.”
“Excuse me,” Smolder sheepishly relented.
“Hey Sandbar,” Sandbar’s dad called from the grill. “I’m just about ready to try my hoof at that meat your friend was asking for.”
“Better hold off on that, Dad,” Sandbar called back, returning with Yona’s drink which she happily gulped down. “Gallus still isn’t here yet.”
“Yeah, where is Gallus?” Silverstream asked, looking around as if their griffon friend was simply hiding nearby. “I would’ve thought he’d be here by now.”
“Maybe griffon still working on Nightmare Night costume?” Yona suggested.
“Gallus did indicate he hadn’t quite worked out one for himself yet,” Sandbar relented aloud. “I mean, he was considering dressing up as a royal guard at one point, but then decided he just couldn’t see himself be a royal guard ever, so…”
“Heh, wouldn’t it be funny if he ultimately ends up one someday anyway then?” Smolder chuckled as she finished off the last of her energy drink. She shook her head. “Anyway, I betcha he’s still just getting held up by Ocellus forcing him to make up for her science experiment.”
Silverstream frowned. “Well…it would explain why Ocellus isn’t here yet either…” she reasoned.
“Oh c’mon, I know Gallus, he isn’t going to let Ocellus make him miss this for that,” Sandbar said.
“It makes more sense than him not having a costume though,” Silverstream reasoned. “I mean, he didn’t even wear one last year, so…”
They were interrupted when Smolder suddenly belched another spout of flames, but this one was smaller, which neatly coalesced into a scroll and dropped onto the tabletop in front of her. Confused, Smolder picked it up to examine.
“I didn’t know you could get mail like how Spike does, too!” Silverstream remarked.
“Pfft, Spike doing it is nothing special, a lot of dragons can do it,” Smolder explained as she proceeded to unroll the scroll. “How do you think dragons communicate with each other over long distances?”
“I dunno—by shouting at each other?” Silverstream answered.
“That only works for up to about a mile. Now hush, I’m reading.” Smolder turned her attention to reading the text on the scroll for a moment. It didn’t take long, and by the end, her eyebrows had gone up in an expression that was a mix between surprise and concern.
“I don’t like that look, Smolder,” Sandbar said, scooting closer. “Has something bad happened?”
Smolder hesitated. “Depends on how you want to interpret this,” she responded before holding out the scroll so they could read too. “Here, see for yourself.”
They gathered around to read the scroll, which had been written in a hurried and haphazard scrawl and was very vague and to the point. It said:
Smolder,
Trouble at the school. Need help.
Get friends and meet me at headmare’s office ASAP.
STAY AWAY from the giant slime ball.
Will explain more once you’re all here.
-Gallus
The others glanced at each other, confused. “What griffon mean by giant slime ball?” Yona asked, confused by that.
Smolder shrugged. “You think he’s trying to pull some kind of prank on us? I mean, it is Nightmare Night after all, and he’d be the one most likely to try it.”
“But why at the school and not here, then?” Sandbar asked, not convinced. He looked genuinely concerned. “Besides, this is all phrased too seriously…I think Gallus means it and he’s really in trouble.”
Silverstream gasped. “What if he’s hurt? Ooh, we better go now!”
“Take it easy there, Shooting Star,” Smolder remarked to Silverstream, stopping her before she could run off. “Something still seems off about all of this to me.”
“Well, it still couldn’t hurt to go back to the school real quick, make sure everything’s all right, right?” Silverstream reasoned.
“Sil’s right,” Sandbar said, getting up to go and motioning for the others to follow. “We need to at least look into this, or we wouldn’t be very good friends.” He turned to call to his parents. “Mom! Dad! Something’s come up at the school! We’re going to run over there real quick! We’ll try to be back soon! Keep some food warm for us!”
The School of Friendship sat on its hilltop like a beacon, the light warmly shining from its interior lighting and shedding some cheery glow in the increasing gloom of Nightmare Night. It didn’t seem to appear any more or less different than it usually appeared any other day of the year, which gave the group of students a momentary pause as they all gathered in front of its entrance.
“Nothing seems wrong,” Yona remarked aloud, sounding confused.
“For some reason, that’s not reassuring me,” Sandbar remarked, starting to feel an odd tension in the air that he didn’t like.
Smolder waved it off, though. “Aw, you’re all just being a bunch of weaselly wimps!” she said as she strolled confidently for the doors. “Whatever this is, I’ll betcha Gallus is blowing it out of proportion, so c’mon already.”
They stepped into the school’s lobby and continued to find nothing immediately out of place, though the school did seem empty and quiet…almost eerily so.
“Hello?” Silverstream called out as they made their way deeper into the building. “Anybody here?” She stopped to listen to the sound of her voice echo back to her, but there was no response.
“All of the others students are probably out celebrating Nightmare Night or visiting family for the holiday,” Sandbar reasoned.
“Most of the professors probably aren’t even here either,” Smolder added with a shrug. “It’s after hours on a holiday weekend, so why would they be? I’m not even sure our new headmare is here.”
“But Gallus said to meet at headmare office,” Yona pointed out. “Suggests headmare is here too…right?”
Silverstream frowned, gaze turning distant as she walked. “I dunno, maybe Sandbar’s right to be uneasy…something doesn’t feel like it’s adding up about all—YIPE!” she suddenly slipped in something wet, her feet shooting out from under her and sending her crashing to the floor. As she started to pick herself up, she saw what she’d slipped on was a track of teal-colored slime. “Eww!” she squealed, disgusted as she wiped the slime off her talons. “Where did this come from?”
“There’s more!” Yona said, following the trail where it led around the corner and on down an adjoining hallway, like something large and slimy had been dragged through it. They all turned their gazes to follow its path.
“Weird,” Smolder mumbled. “What do you think this is about?”
“Well…Gallus did mention something about a giant slime ball,” Sandbar reminded hesitantly, like he didn’t really want to.
They all fell silent for an uneasy moment.
“Well…the slime trail goes in the same direction we need to, so…I guess we’ll find out?” Silverstream said, trying to sound positive as they started forward again.
Smolder was frowning. “I still say this is Gallus trying to pull a prank on us.”
But the further they went, the more they started to notice other things amiss, such as various objects like plants, benches, or tables being bumped out of place or totally missing from their customary spots altogether. Further, though none of them wanted to be the one to point it out, the further they went, the more the trail of slime roughly following their course seemed to widen in size. Soon, it was getting to the point that it was hard to avoid stepping in it. Then, as they rounded a corner into a new hallway, a distant electrical buzz could be heard followed by the lights suddenly starting to fluctuate, as if something was disrupting the magic powering them.
“…and now the lights are flickering,” Sandbar noted with nervous sarcasm, “Great, that’s totally helping to improve my mood right now.”
“Still think this is prank?” Yona asked Smolder, shooting her a look.
“More than ever,” Smolder persisted. “I mean, c’mon, creepy flickering lights and an ominous trail of weird slime found in the empty school building after Gallus sent us a worrying but vague note asking us to come here, all on Nightmare Night of all nights? It’s just too…spot on, y’know?”
“Well, I suppose, when you put it like that…” Silverstream said, not totally convinced.
“I guess I still gotta give him props and all for the effort?” Smolder went on uncertain as they started walking past one of the lecture halls, its door left open, “But the timing…it just makes it too obvious. Now, if he tried pulling something like this on, say, a normal school day, then that might be enough to make me go—WHAT THE HECK?!”
For a second Smolder’s exclamation and abrupt change in tone didn’t register given what she’d been saying, until, wide-eyed, she pointed through the open lecture hall door and the others turned and gasped at the sight within. The room had been put into complete disarray, with objects scattered everywhere and slime covering most of the floor and walls, some even dripping from the ceiling. But most ominous of all wasn’t the slime or the chaotic state of the room, it was the large, green, and bulbous objects that dangled, wet and slimy, from the ceiling.
Sandbar, unfortunately, recognized them. “Those are changeling cocoons,” he observed with dread. “Just like the ones that were left over after the last time the changelings tried to invade.”
“…Didn’t they use those to capture creatures to…you know…feed on?” Smolder said, starting to look uneasy finally.
“But…the changelings are all good now! We know one!” Silverstream objected. “And…why would they even be here anyway?”
“Wait,” Yona said, motioning for them to be silent. “Does that mean creatures are trapped in cocoons?”
Another uneasy silence passed between them.
“Well…one way to find out,” Smolder said with a sigh, and, spreading her wings, started to fly up to the closest of them.
“Be careful, Smolder!” Silverstream called, biting at her talons as the dragon drew near, trying to peer into them.
They watched her hover around the nearest cluster for a few moments. “Who’s in there?” Sandbar finally dared to ask.
“No one,” Smolder replied, scratching at her spines, confused. She motioned to the closest. “This one just contains a table.” She pointed at a few others. “That one holds a chair. And that one holds a houseplant. That one over there just contains a random selection of objects, but certainly nothing living.”
Silverstream gasped. “The changelings are planning to capture all of our household objects!” she declared.
“No, no,” Sandbar said, waving his hoof to dismiss that idea. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but it can’t be that. Why would changelings want to steal…well, any of this stuff?”
“Are we sure it’s even changelings?” Smolder asked as she landed and rejoined the group. “I mean, just because it looks like their cocoons doesn’t mean they’re actually responsible for them.”
“Smolder has point,” Yona concurred. “What if something else make cocoons?”
“That still doesn’t explain why,” Sandbar stressed.
“I’m not sure I care at the moment,” Smolder said, motioning them all back out of the room and back on course. “Never mind the whys when it’s the whats that are going to be the troublemakers. Look, let’s just find Gallus already. He probably knows more than we do.”
They continued onward in silence. Eventually, the slime trail they had been walking around veered down a different hallway and vanished from view. This helped to relieve some of the building tension among them, but it didn’t eliminate it entirely, especially when, as they drew near the headmare’s office, the lights started flickering again.
“What is causing that?” Sandbar asked, annoyed. “It’s not helping me to stay calm any.”
“Listen!” Silverstream said, cupping her talons around one ear. “You can hear something like a short somewhere!”
“Did the school blow a magic fuse or something?” Smolder asked. She glanced at Sandbar, knowing he’d know better than she. “Is that even a thing?”
“…kind of?” Sandbar replied. “The lights in Ponyville get their power from a distribution network running magical energy into homes and stuff, and fuses usually help make it all work…but the only times I’ve ever seen fuses get blown out is when something considerable overloads them. I haven’t seen anything in here yet that could do that.”
And yet, as they neared another intersection in the hallways, the lights flickered again, and this time they could hear something sparking around the corner nearby. Thinking herself to be the one most resilient to any accidental shocks, Smolder took the lead and motioned for the others to follow at a safe distance before creeping towards the corner, peeking around it. Slowly and cautiously, the others did the same. Ahead about another ten feet was an open fuse box. At regular intervals of every few seconds, something in it would let out a quick arc of magical energy in loud snaps.
Sandbar let out the breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding. “I guess that explains why the lights are flickering,” he reasoned. He pointed a hoof at the box. “There should be a switch inside that’ll shut it off, and then we can go tell somepony it needs fixing.”
“I’ll do it,” Smolder volunteered, and strolled straight for the open fuse box.
She found the switch Sandbar spoke of within seconds of arriving at it. She paused only long enough to time it between the snapping arcs of magical energy before quickly flipping it with one fluid stroke. This cut the power to the hallway lighting, plunging the hallway into darkness, though there was still a faint tealish glow that presented lighting enough to see by. Smolder let out a relived sigh and took a step back to make sure everything about the fuse box was sorted. She became confused though when she started to hear a wet rippling sound somewhere nearby that she couldn’t quite identify.
She turned to look back at her friends still leaning around the corner. “You guys hear—?” She trailed off abruptly when she saw they all looked pale as sheets, staring not at Smolder but at something above her.
“Smolder…” Silverstream hissed, frightened, as she slowly jabbed a talon upwards, motioning for her to look up.
It was then something wet fell and hit Smolder’s shoulder with a thick plap sound. Looking at it, Smolder saw it was more teal slime. A chill suddenly running through her, she slowly let her gaze wander upwards at the hallway ceiling, hoping she wasn’t about to regret doing so.
She regretted it.
Slithering under its own power across the ceiling, faintly glowing with some sort of internal energy, was an absolutely massive ball of slime more than twice her size—big enough that if it wasn’t for the high vaulted ceilings the school tended to sport, the blob would likely absolutely fill the hallway with its mass. Its movements made the rippling sound Smolder was hearing, getting louder as the slime started arrive almost directly above the dragon. By that point Smolder decided she didn’t want to see what it did next and dove back for the corner where her friends were hiding. It was a good thing she did because the slime monster abruptly detached itself from the ceiling, smashing to the floor exactly where Smolder had been standing just a second earlier with an almighty slap.
Convinced it was going to chase her next, Smolder hit the floor at the end of her dive, rolled smoothly back onto her feet, and kept running out the hallway, rounding the corner and back onto their original path as she raced for the next hallway intersection further ahead. Her friends followed in a panic of their own, Silverstream screaming her head off for most of the way. When they arrived at the next intersection, they ducked around the corner and then peered back the way they came to see if the monster slime was chasing them.
It seemed it was, coming into the hallway and turning to follow the path they had taken, but it didn’t seem in too much of a hurry to do so as it moved quite idly.
“Where in the name of gemstones did THAT thing come from?” Smolder finally demanded of her friends since they had a moment, claws over her beating heart and trying to calm herself.
“It slid into view almost the same time as when you shut off the fuse box!” Sandbar gasped, his breathing heavy.
“What is it?” Yona asked, bewildered and disgusted as the slime ball leisurely moved in their direction.
“Guess it’s the giant slime ball Gallus was talking about,” Silverstream reasoned with a weak, forced, chuckle.
“Yona knew that. But where slime ball come from?”
“More importantly, what are we going to do about it, because that thing’s getting awfully close to us again,” Smolder said, resisting the urge to back away as it drew ever closer to where they were hiding, watching it come.
“Maybe we can scare it off…?” Silverstream started to suggest weakly.
Sandbar then stepped out before any of them could stop him, going to stand in the middle of the hallway and blocking the abnormality’s path. He then pulled out the false rapier he wore as part of his costume and thrust it at the giant slime monster with a determined scowl. “My name is Sandbar the pony,” he told the slime ball, which paused as if intimidated. “You’ve threated my friends. Prepare to die.”
He then stabbed it deep into the slime’s gooey side. This only resulted in the sword ineffectively getting sucked out of his hooves, being pulled deeper into it.
Sandbar stared as the sword vanished within the monster, then blankly turned to his friends hiding around the corner and shrugged. “Well, I’m out of ideas.”
That was all Silverstream needed to hear. “RUN!” she bellowed, and they all bolted back down the—now dark—weave of hallways that made up their school. The rippling sound behind them said the slime was still following.
They had nearly forgotten in their panic why they had even come to the school when the doors to the headmare’s office ahead of them suddenly burst open and Gallus’s head poked out urgently. “Everybody in here, quickly!” the griffon ordered.
His friends, seeing potential shelter, quickly obeyed, ducking through the opened door. The moment they were all through, Gallus slammed it shut again, throwing his back against it in case the slime ball attempted to follow. It didn’t though, and could be heard slithering on down the hallway past the office. But it was only when the rippling sounds of its movements faded from detection that they relaxed with relieved sighs all around.
Then Gallus turned on his friends. “I thought I told you guys to stay away from the giant slime ball in the message I sent!” he shouted at them.
“Hey, it found us!” Smolder shouted back.
“That and Smolder didn’t take your message seriously,” Silverstream added.
“That’s right, I—wait.” Smolder trailed off, realizing this wasn’t helping her case.
“Look, we’re safe now, right?” Sandbar intervened in an attempt to prevent the imminent argument.
“Should be,” Gallus said with a relenting sigh, strolling back across the solely candlelit and spacious office they were all inside of. “At least, I hope so. That thing hasn’t managed to get in here yet, at any rate. I think there’s some sort of magic protection in place on the doors, though I don’t know if that’s really going to help in the long run.”
“Why’s that?” Silverstream asked.
“The thing eats magic, apparently,” Gallus said with a wince and sigh. “Magic attacks have no effect on it, so I can only assume magic protections and shields aren’t going to be any better.”
The others exchanged uneasy glances with one another as Gallus went to the headmare’s desk where a small pile of food was stacked. It looked like the same sort of food that was served in the school cafeteria, and Gallus collected up some of it and passed it around to his friends. They thankfully accepted the little pick-me-ups after their brief chase with the slime monster.
“What is that thing anyway, and how did it get here?” Sandbar finally asked as they ate.
“Remember that intelligent gel Ocellus was working on earlier today?” Gallus asked.
Smolder’s eyes grew as she jabbed a finger back at the doors. “Don’t tell me that giant slime ball is that same gel?” she asked, awed.
“Unfortunately, it is,” Gallus replied with a sigh as he started walking to one side of the room. “See, apparently that energy drink I accidentally spilled on it affected it somehow, and now when it feeds on magic, it grows bigger. Ocellus said there might be no limit to it.”
“Speaking of Ocellus,” Silverstream began as they watched the griffon cross the room, “Where is—Oh!” She trailed off as they saw Ocellus was in the room too, lying stretched out in an armchair and mostly hidden by a blanket Gallus had courteously tucked over her at some point. She seemed deeply asleep as they gathered closer, though she occasionally stirred. “Is she all right?” Silverstream asked, concerned.
“I’m pretty sure she is,” Gallus replied hesitantly as he checked her over. “She wasn’t hurt physically, she just passed out after the intelligent gel ate Starlight and Trixie and hasn’t come to again yet.” He looked up in time to see his other friends all staring at him with wide eyes and winced. “Oh right, Starlight and Trixie…yeah, that…that was a thing that actually happened. We went to them for help dealing with that slime ball, and I think they spooked it or something and it…just slurped them up like noodles.”
“So…they’re actually inside of that thing?” Smolder asked, shocked. “Like, right now?”
Gallus shrugged helplessly. Despite his relative calmness, the subject clearly still bothered him. “Last I saw. There wasn’t anything either of us could do to stop it.”
A heavy silence fell for a moment as the others attempted to process this. “Did they…” Sandbar began uncertainly. “I mean, they aren’t…are they…?”
“I don’t know,” Gallus admitted, his tone heavy. “I certainly hope they aren’t, but…there’s no way for me to be sure.” He gazed sadly at Ocellus. “Like I said, that was Ocellus’s breaking point, so I figured we were in over our heads and it was better to run and hide and get help. So I got myself and Ocellus in here so to keep away from that thing…managed to sneak down to the cafeteria to sneak some supplies…” he motioned to the food he had stacked on the desk then at all the non-magical candles lighting the room, “…shut off everything magical that I could find so to keep the gel from taking an interest in getting in here, and sent that message to you guys, hoping you could all come help.” He averted his gaze. “Sorry, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but it’s looking more like I’ve just put you all in the same boat as me and Ocellus…and on Nightmare Night, of all nights…”
“No, Gallus did right thing,” Yona quickly reassured him and motioned to Ocellus. “Kept changeling friend safe, right?”
“Maybe…but I wish she’d wake up,” Gallus bemoaned, sitting down with a sigh. “She’s the one that’ll have the best chance of understanding this stuff and working out a plan, seeing she made the gel and all.”
Sandbar examined Ocellus over a bit himself. “You know, I think she’s fine, she’s just sleeping,” he observed.
“That makes sense,” Yona said. “Ocellus not sleep much last night.”
“She was getting a little stressed and scatterbrained right before this all went down,” Gallus added. “She’s probably needed the chance to rest up.”
“But Gallus has a point too,” Smolder added, who had taken to surveying the room while the others talked. “We probably could really use her help right about now.”
Sandbar went quiet as he mulled upon the problem for a moment. He then suddenly jabbed a hoof in a random direction and shouted, “Look! A bunch of love-happy hippies gathered together for a peaceful ‘make love, not war’ demonstration!”
Ocellus was awake and sitting up in an instant. “Where?!” she exclaimed, eyes excited and hungry. She then turned sheepish as she instead saw all of her friends staring at her instead. “Oh…there’s not actually any…oh…” she grimaced, rubbing at her eyes with her hooves. “Sorry, I’m just feeling a little hungry. I missed breakfast…and lunch…” she noticed how dark it was outside the office’s windows, “…and I guess dinner as well…oh dear. That…that would probably explain it, then.”
“Gotcha covered anyway,” Gallus said, grabbing a flask of bottled emotion from their supplies that he had also snagged from the cafeteria and handed it over to her.
Ocellus happily accepted it and chugged down the entire contents. She sighed, relaxing back in the chair. “Sorry again if I worried any of you,” she said to her friends, looking at each of them in turn thankfully. “I guess it’s been a bit of an off-day for me.” She rubbed at her eyes again and chuckled a little. “I was having this bizarre dream, though…it was Nightmare Night, and I had cracked intelligent gel for the hive, but then Gallus spilled a soda drink on it, and it started growing really big, and then it ate Headmare Starlight and Counselor Trixie, and…” She saw their expressions and her face fell. “…that wasn’t a dream, was it?”
“’Fraid not,” Silverstream said sadly, giving the changeling’s shoulder a rub.
Ocellus glanced around at their surroundings, taking it in for the first time. “I’m assuming that’s also why we’re all in the headmare’s office and half of you are in Nightmare Night costumes.” She pointed a hoof at Silverstream. “Nice sweater, by the way.”
“Thank you!” Silversteam said, looking down at the garment she wore. “I made it myself!”
“But yeah, I brought you here to hide,” Gallus explained, getting back on subject.
“And then he dragged the rest of us into it too,” Smolder added.
“Sorry again about that,” Gallus said.
Smolder shrugged. “Eh, what are friends for?”
Ocellus took a deep breath to steady her nerves. “Okay then…tell me honestly, how bad are things?”
“Well, your science project is now the size of a carriage and loose in the school,” Gallus summed up. “Luckily, we seem to be the only ones still in the school right now, but I’m sure it’s making a real mess of things out there still.”
“So that’s only a small comfort at the moment,” Silverstream said.
“And it’s feeding off the school’s magical supply for the lights,” Sandbar added before looking at the others. “That’s probably why the lights were flickering when we arrived. It was from it feeding.”
“Maybe it’s what’s putting random stuff in the cocoons we saw earlier too?” Smolder hazarded to guess. “I mean, that was what this gel stuff was originally for, right?”
“In part,” Ocellus confirmed. “The gel was programmed with a set of basic instructions for things for it to do. Aiding in the creation of cocoons is one of them.” She tapped her chin, thinking. “I suppose, in lieu of any other instructions or outside guidance of a proper user, it’s trying to carry out those basic instructions however it can in the way it best understands.” She hummed thoughtfully. “I’d be intrigued, honestly…if I wasn’t also so terrified of what trouble it might cause next. And with it loose in the school now…” She rubbed at her temples, dismayed. “Oh, this is all my fault…I shouldn’t have made this gel in the first place…”
“Oh, don’t go beating yourself up over it,” Gallus said. “I still get the blame for pouring Tsar Bomba all over it. It had been working fine up until then.”
“I guess I ought to take some blame for even getting the energy drink in the room too,” Smolder added sheepishly. “Maybe none of this would’ve happened if I hadn’t gone raiding Gallus’s supply like that.”
“Yona not so worried about blame,” Yona interrupted. “Yona more worried about how we fix it.”
“Yona’s right,” Sandbar agreed. “We can worry about blame later. Right now, we need to work out a plan.”
“Yeah…anybody got one of those yet?” Gallus asked.
“Can’t we just blast it?” Silverstream asked. When this drew a couple of surprised glances her way as she wasn’t normally the one to make suggestions like this, she added, “What? I mean, it’s just smart goo, right?”
“I wish it were that simple, Silverstream,” Ocellus said. “But as the intelligent gel will just feed off of it, we can’t use any sort of magical attack on it. And with it so big and…starting to swallow ponies whole…that greatly limits our number of options.” She surveyed her collection of friends. “So unless someone has something non-magical that might be able to destroy it…”
They paused, considering this for a moment. “Hey, pony in black, I don’t suppose you’ve got some iocane powder on you, do you?” Smolder jokingly snarked to Sandbar, eyeing his costume.
Sandbar shot her a sour look.
“Well…how do changelings get rid of normal changeling gel?” Silverstream asked after another moment.
“Usually, once applied, you have to scrape it off with force,” Ocellus said. “By design, the gel is supposed to be resilient enough that you can’t just…you know…wipe it off. But seeing the intelligent gel is both mobile and reactive to outside threats, that won’t work so well here.”
“Now wait,” Sandbar said, realizing something. “Ocellus, I realize this isn’t the best of memories for you, but after the changelings attempted to invade Canterlot, a lot of changeling gel was left over from the attack, and we had no changelings around to get to clean it off. And yet, it was all mostly cleaned up enough for the city to mostly return to normal affairs by that same evening. That suggests there was some way to clean it all up faster than having to scrape it off by force.”
“Maybe ponies used cleaning spray?” Yona suggested innocently.
Ocellus’s head suddenly jerked upright, eyes alight with realization. “That’s it!” she declared, excited. “King Thorax discovered once back when he was still staying at the Crystal Empire that the crystal ponies had a certain bleach-laced cleaner that proved very effective at dissolving changeling gel, dry or wet!”
“We’ve got loads of that sort of stuff for cleaning here at the school already, don’t we?” Smolder asked. “We can just raid that supply to use on our slime monster!”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Gallus asked, pointing a talon to the office doors. “To the nearest janitor’s closet!”