//------------------------------// // 15. #NothingCanStopIt // Story: Ciderfest BOAS APP Stories: 86?! // by Janicethelight //------------------------------// Story Deep inside the Volcano of Doom, Hydia stands over her cauldron. In her odd green sludge of ingredients shimmers the land of Equestria, where Caramel sits down in a sunny meadow full of flowers, putting out a picnic lunch while Barley walks up to her. "I'm really worried about Fizzy," Caramel sighs. "I want to help Fizzy too, but we have our hooves full with all of these pages wreaking havoc!" Barley looks out towards the town. "Could you imagine if one got into the wrong hooves and changed anything?!" "Anything, eh?!" Hydia laughs, before calling out, "Reeka! Draggle! Get over here now!" Hydia's two daughters come up, Reeka wiping her mouth from eating roaches, Draggle stumbling over, knocking a spoon off the edge of the cauldron and on the floor. "Yes mother?" they ask in unison. "Do you remember the weird paper you saw in the woods? Go get it! Now!" Hydia demands. Reeka and Draggle scurry off in opposite directions, looking high and low. They run into each other repeatedly in their rush. Finally, they manage to find the glowing page under a trash pile, which they then bring over to their mother.  Hydia grabs it from their grasp, laughing. "For once in your lives, you two did something useful, so I will give you one chance. This page can change anything! Think of a way to ruin those little pony's world and make things dark, dank, and dreary. Let's see what your evil hearts cook up. If I think it's good enough, we'll do it. Otherwise, I'll show you how to be truly terrifying!" Reeka and Draggle put their heads together. "What if we change their disgusting food into something delicious?" Reeka suggests. "Are you nuts?! Think with more than just your stomach for once. If that's all we come up with, ma-I mean, Hydia will be furious," Draggle points out. "Yeah. You're right. What if we make the food come alive and have all sorts of fun creepy crawly critters covering all of the pony world!" Reeka thinks aloud. "I think you're getting warmer. How about…" The two whisper for a while.  "Well, girls, what has your terrible mindset cooked up?" "Well ma-Hydia." Draggle coughs out before taking a breath and continuing, "we thought about how they are proud to be these disgusting, colorful ponies they are, and how dreary it would be to…turn them into something else." "Something revolting!" Reeka pipes in, "Imagine instead of pastel ponies, having pythons!" "Porcupines!" Draggle adds. "And purple tarantulas!" they finish together. Hydia thinks on this a moment, "I will say, girls, that I am impressed. That is a solidly dark idea. We can work on the animals. Maybe bats, pythons, and rhinoceroses…or even use animals they fear. Yes. I could see that!" Hydia laughs. "My plan involves an old friend." As Hydia speaks, the green ooze changes to a scene where Tree Hugger is singing to an ever-smiling green Smooze. "But I think both ideas work well. Which should we choose?!" [CHOICE] Which idea should they choose? > Hydia's idea. (Villain)  > Reeka and Dragle's idea. (Chaos)  [ENDING A: VILLAIN] The two girls whisper to each other before nodding and turning to their mother. "We like your idea best momma!" Draggle pipes in. "What did you call me?!" Hydia growls. "Hydia. Hydia. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to call you mama." "Yes she did!" Reeka sneers. "No. I meant…we only meant that you are the most heinous of us. Your ideas would always be better than ours." "Yeah. You can show us how to truly be despicable!" Reeka adds, taking a bite of a rat tail sandwich. "True. True. Very well." Hydia recites a powerful incantation over her full cauldron, holding the page which glows orange. The orange glow dives into the green sludge, portaling straight into the Smooze. The Smooze stops smiling. "What's that, something still off? Like, what's suddenly harshed your vibe?" Tree Hugger wonders. The Smooze looks up at her eyelessly. The green hue begins to slowly turn purple. "Run? What do you—" Treehugger stops as if interrupted and nods. "Okay. I'll go. Fight this as long as you can. I'll get help." As the purple absorbs the green, the Smoozes' once gentle smile turns to an evil sneer before bubbles start appearing. Eyes appear on his face. His hat falls off. The sneer opens up to a giant black ever open smile, and the Smooze expands, covering the room in seconds, and forcing the doors and windows of Treehugger’s home. Ponies scream as the Smooze races to cover the town, covering pony after pony until the entirety of Tree Hugger's home is covered by purple sludge. Ponies who were touched by the Smooze but not consumed by it walk away without a thought to helping their trapped friends or warning others, only caring for themselves. "And that, my girls, is how you do dark, dank, and dreary!" Hydia laughs. (+1 page for Villains) [ENDING B: CHAOS] The two girls whisper to each other before nodding and turning to their mother. "We like our idea best momma!" Draggle pipes in. "What did you call me?!" Hydia growls. "Hydia. Hydia. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to call you mama." "Yes she did!" Reeka sneers. "No. No! I meant. I mean, we only meant that we are your apprentice witches, so it would be a good chance to see how far we've come," Draggle nods vehemently. "Yeah. Let us show you how despicable we can be!" Reeka adds, taking a bite of a rat tail sandwich. "Oh. Very well. Let's see your plan in action, girls." Hydia sweeps her hand over to the cauldron before adding, "But if I may make a suggestion!" Hydia whispers something into their ear and all three laugh before Reeka and Draggle walk over to the bubbling goo. Draggle holds onto the glowing page while Reeka recites an incantation. The page turns into an orange glow. The glow races straight into the green goo.  Back at the picnic, Hoof Work stops by to speak to Barley and Caramel. "This whole thing is a mess. I hope you two are having a better time." "Not really. We want to help Fizzy, but every time we turn around, another page is causing mischief or terror and we gotta help put a stop to it!" Barley stomps his hoof in frustration.  "Come on, fellas, let's just enjoy a small picnic lunch before we keep working on helping Fizzy and dealing with these pages," Caramel offers. The two shrug and sit down to eat. Just after eating a few bits, Barley notices an orange glow expanding towards them. "Oh no. What now?!" The orange glow blankets the world. Barley opens his eyes to see the picnic looks exactly the same. "Well, I guess that wasn't so—sweet Celestia!" Barley flies up with a screech, "Caramel? Hoof Work? Where did you go?!" "...Barley…now don't freak out," Hoof Work tries to speak calmly, but the slight tremor of his voice betrays him, "but um…maybe you should look in a mirror or something…" "Wait. Hoof Work. That's you?!" Barley gasps, "Then that must mean that-I think we all need to see what we look like right now!" Barley, Hoof Work, and Caramel find a nearby lake and look in the crystalline waters. All three gasp and jump away before slowly looking again to confirm.  "I'm…a grootslang I think?" Hoof Work notes. "Definitely some sort of reptilian critter." "I'm a vampire fruit bat!" Barley gasps. "And I'm a timberwolf." Caramel sighs. "Looks like somepony decided to use a page for a terrible prank.” "See?! We can't even have lunch without something absolutely bonkers happening! And now I really want some apples!" Barley screeches. "Come on. Maybe Twilight or Zecora can help find a way to make this better," Caramel suggests hopefully. The three walk off to town, where everypony has been turned into one of the three creatures.  The girls look back at their mother. Hydia shrugs. "It could have been darker, danker, and drearier, but I suppose it's a start."  (+1 page for Chaos)