//------------------------------//
// Chapter 22: The Smooze: One's a Child 
// Story: Mechaniquus 
// by DougtheLoremaster 
//------------------------------//

“We shouldn’t be here.”
“What’s got you so afraid, Pinkie?”
Staring into the massive maw of the giant archway, Chrysi’s companion seemed on edge.
“If Starlight catches us, she’ll be furious, and she might not be able to kill us, but there are things far worse than death when it comes to her.”
Even with her grating mechanical voice, Chrysi could hear the desperation in her words. Something had spooked her unshakable ex-serial killer. Looking at the stone cavern opening, Chrysi couldn’t help but notice it resembled a giant, gaping mouth, complete with fangs. In fact, was it the bright light of the apocalyptic sun, or were the rocks of the massive cavern bleached white; almost like…bone. The entire thing is the skull of a dragon. But not one I’ve ever seen. Then that means-
“Come on, Chrysi, we have to hurry if we are going at all. She won’t be long in recharging and she will no doubt want to know where we are.”
Clambering over one of the fangs, Pinkie continued.
“And what we’ve been doing. So let’s hurry up and get out of here.”





For several minutes the two had been walking, Chrysi noticing the massive ribs they were passing through, protruding through the rocky floor. As the two walked, they drew nearer to a single spot where the rays of the scorching sun streamed down through holes in the cavern roof, in a very specific way; almost like a cage.
“Are you sure she’s here?”
“Yup. But we need to hurry. I don’t want to be here long.”
“Visitorsss!”
The sickeningly squelchy voice of the creature imprisoned within the light-filled the cavern and she sounded…excited. She seems excited. And is that my voice? Chrysi listened in astonishment as her own voice shouted again and again.
“Visitors to see us! Ssssweet Visssitors!”
Chrysi blinked in surprise, staring into the blinding light as her scanners indicated an organic lifeform. She called out to it.
“Y-you don’t mind us being here?”
The wet voice sputtered and hissed forth in reply.
“Been so long sssince we had visitorsss. We were so bored. Come. Come closssser. Let us sssee you.”
Sharing a glance with Pinkie, she was surprised to see Pinkie nod.
“Go ahead, she can’t hurt you or possess you. The light will protect you.”
“Come come, We won’t bitesss you.”
Turning towards the cage of sunlight, Chrysi cautiously walked forward towards the mare within, as the mare gestured towards her.
“Come, come Chrysalisss, yes, yesss we know who you are.”
“Wha- How do you-”
“It’s been many yearsss but we ssstill know our voice. Yes, yes. We know you, we know usss. Come to us, talk to usss. Why have you come here?”
Chrysi spoke up, her voice normal, but her words held an underlying meaning.
“I’ve come to see you, the killer of my world; the Smooze.”
The creature took pause at this accusation before responding in a sloppily waterlogged voice.
“We once had that name but that was not usss, we did no such thing.”
“You killed the Princesses!”
Rearing up with a loud Splish, splosh, her ooze dripped and splattered onto the superheated rock due to the sudden movement.
“We only did what we were told to!”
Pinkie looked shocked as she interjected.
“Hold on. Told to?”
Settling down, the oozing Chrysalis crossed her gooey hooves as she resumed laying down. Nodding her head, she bubbled with delight at the memory.
“We remember it quite clearly.”





Blip, blop, The dark. Oh, how it loved the dark; the damp, rank, dark of its little container. The same container it had been confined to for millennia without interruption. It wasn’t very big, but then again neither was this reincarnation of The Smooze. Just a Smoozling, it bubbled and swished happily from one side of its home to another; not a care in the world.
And then the blinding light shone in as the lid was removed and a sinister voice spoke to The Smooze.
“Why hello there, little one.”
Instinctively the little Smooze tried to hide within its container only to find its way blocked by a forehoof, upon which it crawled slowly up; inching its way along the lavender-furred foreleg as the feminine voice spoke once more.
“Oh, you’re a cutie aren’t you? Are you having fun, little one?”
The Smooze blooped and slid happily over the strange new surface before the hoof was lowered back into the container and the Smooze slid down and back onto the container’s floor. Sploosh, splat, splish, it bubbled happily, excited about its new adventure.
“Aw, there’s a good Smooze. I’ll come to visit you again, little one. I promise.”
And so it was, every few days the Smooze would receive a visit from the mysterious mare. Visits the little oozeling would look forward to; crawling about outside of its containment. It came to treasure those moments, during which the lavender-furred, winged mare would fill its mind with tales of freedom. The freedom it had never known. The freedom it grew to crave.
Hours upon hours, it would crawl and squirm up and down the mare’s forelegs; it learned primitive means of communication, jiggling side to side for no and bobbing up and down for yes. As it was doted on, it grew; larger and larger, until it barely fit in its container. And then came the final visit.
“Oh, you’ve grown so large, who’s my adorable little oozer?”
The Smooze oozed and slithered over the mare like always, but this time, it was lowered onto the stone flooring of the dungeon it had been stored in. It bubbled and hiss in excitement as the mare; the only creature it knew, spoke to it.
“Oh I’m so proud of you, and it’s almost time for you to be as free as me, but first you must do one thing for momma: Kill Princess Luna. She’s an Alicorn, like me, a body of navy-blue fur and a cutiemark of a crescent moon in the midnight sky.”
The lavender-furred mare paused before continuing.
“She’s hurt many, and oppressed all, robbing us of our lives and free will. We live by her will, do as she commands, and suffer because of it. She’s broken our backs, our legs, our spines, but you, my little one, will break her spirit.”
A voice called from the stairwell.
“Twilight, it’s time to go.”
The mare nodded, calling out.
“I’m coming Starlight!”
Gesturing to the Smooze, Twilight smiled as she felt it crawl up her back to hide beneath her wings.
“The night mare’s reign ends tonight.”





The oozing Changeling shrugged and smiled her gooey smile.
“And ssso we killed the Luna.”
There was no guilt, no remorse. If anything her words were spoken with pride. Pinkie and Chrysi stared silently at the gooey bubbling creature, aghast at this sudden revelation. Chrysi couldn’t believe it, the genocide of the dragons, the griffons, all of it was because of this child-like, playful, creature? 
A creature that only did as it had been taught by its ‘momma’. Innocent and playful, Chrysi watched The Smooze roll over, like a dog, with a sickening squelching sound. It almost seemed like it couldn’t sit still and was genuinely excited to tell them its tale. But if this one had no idea what it was doing was wrong, what about the one from my world? 
Pinkie stared at the creature with her ocular receptors, blinking in confusion.
“What about you absorbing Chrysalis?”
Once again the amalgamation merging of Changeling and Smooze looked affronted.
“Absssorbed? We did not absssorbs each other, we became one with the other. We are one. We are usss. Nothing elssse.”
Pondering this answer, Chrysalis stiffened as she heard a grating, metallic voice loudly call out from behind.
“Well, well, what have we here?”
Pinkamena whirled around at the voice, her knife clenched in her muzzle, only to find a more terrifying sight than she could have expected. Starlight stood framed in the sunlight of the cavern’s archway with her wings flared. And she wasn’t smiling.