//------------------------------// // Laughter Mare // Story: Mega Mare // by CluelessDetective //------------------------------// An orange portal appeared with a very quiet screech as Mega Mare stepped out of it. With a confident grin she trotted over to her next destination, which was located in the desolate mega city of Ponyville. Once she reached her target, she looked at it with her mouth agape. A giant gingerbread house. This just couldn't be the right place for a rogue robotic mare. This was just silly! She honestly couldn't believe that this was the destination. After staring at the confectionery compound for a good minute, she shook her self out of shock and trotted towards the door, but before she could knock on it, a robot, red eye came out of it. "STATE YOUR BUSINESS." It said, getting closer to Mega Mare. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. “STATE YOUR BUSINESS.” It said again. Mega Mare felt a sudden vibration in one of her hoofs as the butterfly necklace appeared in front of her. She shrugged and grabbed the necklace and put on her neck, feeling power course through her body. “Um... Hello.” The voice said, “Do you want to know how to use the stare?” She nodded her head furiously. “Okay... first you need to be looking at your target.” The voice commanded in a quite voice, which Mega Mare did as it said as she looked at the red eye. “Now you need to open your eyes to the fullest.” The voice said. Open your eyes to the fullest? She opened her eyes and stared at the red eye, it shrinking back a bit. “Now, you can either now shoot with your buster, or you could open your mouth and let me do the talking... If that's okay with you.” The voice said, and Mega Mare opened her mouth allowing some sound to go out of it. “Now, listen here mister! You're going to let my friends and I go through here and enter the building,” The voice commanded, before making Mega Mare step towards the red eye, cocking her head and asking in a hellish tone, “Do you understand me?” The red eye nodded before running into the gingerbread house and opening the door, allowing passage for Mega Mare. “That concludes the tutorial for 'The Stare'.” The voice finished before going silent. Mega Mare then stepped into the building, ready to fight anything. The gingerbread house had a very nice interior with it's colorful falls and the like, but Mega Mare still felt that this was just some joke meant to get her in some false sense of security. That's when the ice cream approached her. It was a floating cone of ice cream! Just as she looked at it she fell to the ground, probably because of laughter. The ice cream's top scope floated upwards and a rush of flame was shot towards her. She was able to roll away in time as the flame hit her exact spot she was in, singeing the tiles. Ice cream with a flamethrower? This is insane! Yelled Mega Mare in her mind as she raised her mega buster, firing a round at the ice cream cone causing it to melt as the cone fell to the ground with a clatter. She sighed as she trotted over to an open door, it leading to the kitchen. On the kitchen's tables were cakes, along with some ice cream cones and a... P Tank! She rushed over and grabbed it as she proceeded to put it in one of her hooves. As she did, the ice cream and cakes began to rise. The ice creams raised their top scoops and fired a blast of flame while the cakes fired a barrage of candles towards her. She was able to doge most of the fire and candles, but took a candle to the side. It wasn't like most candles, for this one had a sharp point at the end. She winced as she ducked for cover and started to charge her mega buster for a charged shot. Once she felt the power in her hoof increasing, she released the blast causing all but one cake to turn into ash. The last cake charged towards her, but it got destroyed by a simple mega buster shot. In the ash laid some of those yellow spheres, which Mega Mare picked up, feeling their healing powers as the pain in her side ebbed away. As she walked out of the kitchen, she noticed a flight of stairs near the entrance. Might as well. She thought as she walked up them and spotted a door, just like the one with the eye, but it opened, allowing her passage. She stepped through the door, it leading her to a big room. The room was decorated with balloons and streamers, but the strangest was a baby alligator in the middle of the room. Just then, the door to the room slammed shut, followed by a locking sound. She looked over to the alligator as it charged forward, it clamping on her with a tremendous force... except that it didn't hurt. No, it actually tickled! She swatted the alligator as it drifted back to the middle of the room revealing it to have no teeth. As she looked over at it, the alligator grew a set of teeth. The teeth then launched out of the mouth impacting the ground near her with a devastating boom. She flew backwards and hit the door. The pain was unbearable as she got to her hooves and raised her buster. She was able to fire a few rounds at the alligator as it opened it's mouth, a bright light growing inside of it. A beam of great energy shot out of the alligator as it made it's way behind Mega Mare, an explosion launching her towards the alligator as it got stuck in it's mouth. She fired shots from her mega buster to save herself. Once she was free, she put Honesty Mare's necklace on her neck and kicked the alligator, sending it out a window to which it fell on the hard ground bellow self-destructing into flame. The door opened once the alligator exploded, allowing Mega Mare to exit, but before she could leave, she drank the P Tank, feeling all the pain go away. Once she got down the stairs, she noticed something that wasn't there before. A basement door. She approached it as it opened up, and made her way down. To say it was out of a nightmare would be an overstatement. The room was decorated with balloons, and streamers, much like the other room, but this one was more... friendly. The walls were pink and vibrant, and even the Pink pony in the background was having a smile on her face... Wait... What!?! “Oh! You're here! You're here!” it yelled, approaching Mega Mare and extending a hoof “My name's Laughter Mare, and I made this party just for you!” Mega Mare didn't smile. “Oh, you don't like parties?” she asked with a concern in her voice. She shook her head. “Then why aren't you smiling?” she asked. She pointed a hoof at her. “It's because I'm rogue isn't it?” She nodded. “Okay! Then do you want to fight?” she asked with joy. Mega Mare said nothing, but got into a fighting stance. “Ready? Set? Go!” Laughter Mare yelled, charging towards Mega Mare. She tried to use the apple buck to hit Laughter Mare, but she jumped into the air, shooting Mega Mare with her buster. She felt a sting of pain as she tried to shoot Laughter Mare, but she was too fast to even shoot! Before she even knew it, Mega Mare looked to her side, seeing Laughter Mare point some sort of cannon at her and firing. Confetti hit her hard as she slammed into one of the colorful walls. She decided to put on the butterfly necklace and tried to use the stare ,and to her surprise, it worked. Laughter Mare stood, frozen in time as Mega Mare fired a few rounds at her as Laughter Mare became thawed and made her way to her cannon, firing again. This time, she was able to avoid the confetti blast and returned fire on Laughter Mare. Laughter Mare started to move faster, firing two shots of confetti from the cannon as Mega Mare used The Stare, stopping the confetti and stopping Laughter Mare. She fired one final shot at the pink pony, causing it to fall on the ground, twitching. She walked over to her and a necklace fell to the ground as Mega Mare picked it up. “That contains The Party Cannon,” explained Laughter, “It'll allow you to get rid of a big number of enemies on the field and restores your health if it's robot food like ice cream cones or cakes.” Mega Mare cocked an eyebrow at Laughter Mare as if saying “What the hell do you mean field and health?” Laughter Mare giggled, but soon started coughing up oil “Don't worry, the readers will get it. Now you need to get into this portal,” she pointed a hoof as a red portal appeared “it should lead you to Generosity Mare. Good luck and don't forget to smile.” With that Laughter Mare shut down. Mega Mare nodded as she walked into the portal as it lead her to her next target.