//------------------------------// // 13-Where Loyalties Lie // Story: A Changeling Queen Under the Griffon's Crown // by DungeonMiner //------------------------------// Chapter 13 Hatred was not a patient creature. He had never been. He could not sit still for more than a century without murdering one of his own imps. But he was respected, for Hatred was a creature that was almost identical to their original form. But he was definitely not patient. In the two millenia of waiting that Hatred endured, he murdered hundreds of his own kind. During his slaughters, however, his hatred distilled and his murders become more elaborate, more twisted and corrupted. All of these murders and death were pale substitute, however, for what Hatred truly wanted to do. Of all of reality, it hated two things the most; Faust, and itself. Of all the things it wanted, it wanted most of all to hurt the One. Hatred was not patient. But he was cunning. He knew he could not harm her, even in his original form he could not, but in his hatred, he studied her. His efforts and obsessive vigil was eventually rewarded, and he soon learned her one weakness; her children. She loved nothing more than her children. If he could corrupt them, keep them away from her, rip them from her grasp by making them hate her, then he would deal her a blow. That was how he would hurt her. He would attack her heart. Hatred was not patient. He was cruel. <<<|Ω|>>> No. She couldn’t die. He wouldn’t let her die. His hooves slammed into the giving flesh of his enemy. He couldn’t let her die. Her rose-colored eyes stared up at him, the light slowly dying as they pleaded for help from behind the thick liquid that was slowly drowning her. His hooves were a blur, trying to free her. He couldn’t let her die. The last of her breath bubbled and left her mouth. She was dying. <<<|Ω|>>> Thunderlane and Rainbow Dash walked in relative silence, deeper and deeper into the black hallways cut from dark stone. “It’s so dark down here…” Thunderlane said. “Right? I mean, I’ve flown through storm clouds that were easier to see through.” “Wish we had some cloth or something.” “Why?” “Well,” Thunderlane said, “I could use some of the lighting in my hoof claws to set it on fire, and then we’d have a makeshift torch we could use.” “Wow, nice thinking, Thunder.” “Thanks. It helps being really into adventure stories.” “Well, Daring Do is awesome.” “That she is,” Thunderlane agreed. “Hey, I gotta know, how’d you find her?” “Oh, well my mom used read me those kinds of stories all the time when I was young, so the first time I had to take care of Rumble over the summer, I decided I go read him a story like the ones Mom used to tell, and well, that’s how I met Daring Do.” “Nice,” Dash said with a nod. “Yeah, what about you? Did your mom read you any stories?” “Nah, my Mom was crazy about getting me into flight school. She was on her way to being a Wonderbolt herself before she got in an accident that messed her wings up pretty bad.” Thunderlane blinked. “Oh. Wow.” “Yeah, she can still fly and all, but she lost like all of her wingpower.” “How did she take it?” “Meh…” Rainbow said, “not really great. My Dad, Bifröst, was super awesome about it, kept telling her she was awesome and stuff. But you know how parents can get when they can’t fill their dreams.” “They...push them onto their kids?” “Yeah,” she replied, “I mean, being a Wonderbolt was right up my alley anyway, but when she started pushing me into it, I kinda went into a rebellion phase, if you can believe that.” Thunderlane gave her a look. “What?” she asked. “Look, don’t tell me you’ve never gone through a rebellion phase when you were a teen.” “I was a good kid, thank you very much,” Thunderlane replied. “Boring, sounds more like it.” Thunderlane shook his head. “Hey, do you hear that?” Rainbow asked. “Hear what?” “Sh!” Both ears peaked, the two listened to the silence and stillness of the hallway before them. They heard someone sobbing. Somewhere in the darkness before them, somepony, or rather, someone was crying. The broken sobs bounced and echoed down the hall, creating a faint, staccato cry. “Do...do you think we should help?” Thunderlane asked. “I...I don’t know…” she admitted. Thunderlane stared into the distance. “Well...we only have one way to go…” “Right.” “Claws out?” “Claws out,” she confirmed, before the blades on their shoes opened up. The two hovered their way forward, sticking to the walls as they moved forward. “I…” Thunderlane began, “I think I see a light up ahead.” The two quickly approached a stairway with a warm, orange glow flickering from the base down below. There was no other sound but the broken sobs. As the two pegasi came to the landing, they paused. “Didn’t Julius say not to go down?” Thunderlane asked. “Yeah.” “And we have nowhere else to go, do we?” “Nope.” “Awesome,” he deadpanned. They stared down towards the flickering light. “Well, here goes nothing,” the stallion said before descending. Dash followed closely behind. “Oh, wow…”she said as they came down to the landing. They stood in a perfectly square thirty by thirty foot room. A brazier blazed in it’s center, and a set of double doors sat in the opposite wall. The floor was decorated with an elaborate mosaic of a long-dead griffon hero, and scattered all across it were dry skeletons and empty exoskeletons. “That’s not a good sign,” Thunderlane commented. The sobbing caught their attention again, as their eyes landed on a small figure huddled in the corner. There, lay a single changeling, hugging its small tail as sobs racked its body and tears ran down its face. It rocked slowly back and forth, mumbling to itself. “This One doesn’t want to die. This One doesn’t want to die. This One doesn’t want to die. This One…” The two pegasi gave the whimpering thing a look, before checking the husks on the floor. There were seven changeling husks and four griffon skeletons, all sucked dry so not a scrap of meat remained. “Well,” Thunderlane said, “something happened here. The changelings are a recent thing in the griffon army, so they couldn’t have been here too long.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you go check that out with the whole detective thing. I’ll be over here,” she said before walking over to the changeling. “Yo, dude, what happened here?” “This One doesn’t want to die. This One doesn’t want to die.” Rainbow sighed. “You’re asking him?” Thunderlane asked. “Yeah, he was here to see it, no point in going through all that work if he can just tell us.” Thunderlane shook his head. “Hey, dude,” she said again, poking the Changeling’s head. “Well, are you even a dude? Changeling guy, come on, get up!” The changeling’s muttering faded, and it slowly opened his eyes to see Rainbow Dash staring down at him. “You awake, dude?” Rainbow asked. “Because we’d like to talk to you.” It looked up at her. “You don’t want to kill This One?” “Nah, as of right now, you’re a prisoner, and the Pendragon has pretty tight rules on prisoner treatment.” The changeling blinked. “So what happened here?” she asked. The changeling shook, slowly sitting up. “They’re not here?” “What aren’t here?” Thunderlane asked. “They’re not here!” “Who aren’t here?” Rainbow echoed. “They’re not here!” the changeling cried with glee, before slowly calming down. “They’re not here, they’re not here. This One is going to live! Ha ha!” “Yeah, yeah, great story. Look, buddy, what happened here?” The changeling cackled madly. “This One is alive! Alive! Haha!” “And if you want to stay that way, you’ll start answering my questions.” The changeling instantly sobered from his ecstasy. “Ah...This One...understands. Sorry.” “Now are you ready to listen and answer?” Thunderlane asked. The changeling took a deep breath before nodding. “Good. Now, if you refuse to answer, we will kill you. If you give us false information, we will kill you. If you lead us astray, we will kill you. Understand?” “Yes,” the changeling said with a nod. “Good,” Rainbow said, before being interrupted. “Dash, can I speak with you for a second, real quick?” She turned to him, a confused look on her face, but followed him to the corner. “What’s up?” “What are you doing?” “Interrogating the changeling.” “Yeah, but why?” Dash sighed. “Look, everypony’s counting on us to get to the throne room as fast as possible, right?” “Right.” “I figure we can use this guy to help us get there. You know, like how Daring Do did in Daring Do and the Star of Wisdom.” Thunderlane blinked. “You’re going to keep a changeling around, and have him lead us to the throne room because you read it in a book once?!” “Yeah, this kinda stuff work for Twilight all the time. How hard can it be?” The stallion’s eye twitched. “And besides,” Dash continued. “There’s two of us and one of him. If he makes any kind of trouble we’ll deal with him. Thunderlane gave her a long, hard look. She stared back. He sighed before motioning back to the changeling. “Let’s start with your name,” she said, trotting back up the the equniod insect. “Changelings do not posses names,” it said. “Really?” “None save the Queen.” “Weird,” Rainbow said. “What do you want us to call you, then?” The changeling blinked. “Th-This One does not know. This One has always been known as This One. At times This One was a pony with a name, but This One is not a pony with a name—” “Okay, that’s getting way too complicated,” Rainbow interrupted. “I’m just going to call you Buggy, alright?” The changeling blinked, before sitting down. “This...One agrees with this.” “Alright. So Buggy, what happened here?” “Thi-Buggy does not know,” Buggy said. “We were coming down here to apprehend, well, you, when we...we were attacked.” “By what?” Buggy shivered. “S-slimes,” he said. “They...they came out of the walls, tore right through us. Ate many of us until we were nothing but bones or husks. Buggy is lucky to be alive.” “Alright, well that answers that,” Dash said, before turning to her partner. “Told you we could get the answer faster that way.” Thunderlane rolled his eyes. “Alright, Buggy, one more question. Can you lead us up to the throne room?” “Buggy...can.” “Then you get to go ahead and lead the way.” “And...and why should I?” the changeling asked. “You can stay here and wait for the slimes to come back.” Buggy blinked, before smartly turning around and marching for the door. “The throne room is this way!” Rainbow smirked. Thunderlane kept his claws out. Just in case. <<<|Ω|>>> Buggy didn’t know what to make of her. She was his enemy, but she had given him a name. He had never had a name before. He had pretended to have a name, of course. Any good changeling had, but he had never had one to call his own. As he led them upward, Buggy began to ask himself questions, the same questions he would ask about any other identity. What was Buggy’s favorite food? What’s his parent’s names? Was he a cheery pony or depressed? What was his favorite hobby? What was his purpose, his destiny? Those questions were not easy to answer. Buggy didn’t have a favorite food. The idea of taste and flavor had been all but repressed in changeling schools, all a part of becoming the perfect actor. A properly trained changeling could eat garbage and survive. Survive poorly, but still. Buggy only had one parent, Chrysalis, Queen of Changelings. His father was a drone, and that’s about as far as anyone knew. A drone was a drone. They held no importance. Was Buggy cheery? No. Not especially. Was he depressed? No. He was simply neutral. Buggy did not have a hobby. Buggy’s purpose… What...what was his purpose? He had to serve the queen, but… Was that it? Was that all he had? Serving a queen until he died? Ponies could paint, sing, dance, write, plant, sew, and so many other things. He...he just… Buggy didn’t like Buggy. Buggy was boring. Buggy would not make a good cover, certainly. He didn’t have any dreams and aspirations. He was hardly even really an identity. He was...he was a template more than anything, something that could become an identity in time, but was just a boring, bland not-even-identity. Buggy didn’t like Buggy. Buggy didn’t like This One. He stopped walking for a second. Is...is that why ponies didn’t like changelings? Because they were boring? Could he blame them for that? No...no he couldn’t now that he thought about it. Wait...Buggy….Buggy thought being boring was a bad thing… Buggy’s face lit up at the thought. That-that’s something! That’s a characteristic! Buggy’s not boring! “Buggy? You alright?” Dash said from behind him. Buggy looked at her. Her, this...this angel that gave him a new identity to explore, a whole new cover that was his and his alone. “Oh! Sorry! Buggy was just thinking!” “Well, it’d be awesome if you could keep moving while you thought,” she deadpanned. “You got it, boss!” Buggy said with a chirp before marching forward. Hm...marching. Did Buggy like marching? Yes, yes he did! Buggy giggled. He wondered what else he liked. Maybe golf? Or what about drawing? Yeah. Yeah, drawing sounded fun. <<<|Ω|>>> Rainbow raised an eyebrow at the changeling marched in front of her. She could swear it was smiling. That, and the whole ‘boss’ comment and giggle really threw her off. She was starting to have second thoughts about this plan of hers. But Buggy hadn’t led them into any traps yet, so maybe this was worth it. Maybe… “Still think this is a good plan?” Thunderlane asked. “Of course it is!” she answered. “When have I ever come up with a bad plan?” Thunderlane glanced her way. “Look, we can take him if he turns. And even if he leads us into a trap we’ll be closer to the throne room, right?” “I hope you’re right, Dash,” Thunderlane said. Truth be told, so was she. She was kinda going out on a limb here, trusting this changeling. The only reason why she had was...well... Rainbow Dash was not afraid. A pony as awesome as her could never, ever, ever, be afraid. But she was... Nervous? No, awesome ponies are never nervous either… Uncertain? Yes! Yes that’s it, she was uncertain. She was uncertain, and this changeling guide they had was a great distraction from her uncertainty! Yeah… “I’m totally right,” she said with a smirk. “What’s the worse that can happen? We get caught in a trap? There’s no way they could handle our combined awesomeness.” Thunderlane gave her his best deadpan glare. “Come on, even Buggy knows it, right Buggy?” Buggy turned to her. “Sorry, what?” “Nevermind, just keep leading.” Buggy nodded, still smiling. Okay, now he was just starting to worry her. “What are you smiling about?” “Buggy is just...excited is all.” “Excited about what?” “Just...being Buggy.” Rainbow Dash shook her head. The three compatriots suddenly entered a large rectangular room. Eighty feet long and twenty feet wide, the room was hardly more than a larger corridor. Pillars set close to the walls flanked the main part of the room, leaving a wide empty space littered with small flat stones. A set of double doors faced them on the opposite side of the room. Buggy began to shake. “B-be careful here. It may have come back.” “What came back?” Thunderlane asked. Buggy didn’t answer, but only carefully walked into the room. Thunderlane and Rainbow glanced at each other. Buggy walked forward slowly, his eyes glancing at the walls with nervous looks. “Buggy?” Rainbow called. “Come quickly, move quietly,” was the only answer. The two pegasi shared a worried look, before following Buggy in. “Buggy, dude, are you alright?” Buggy didn’t answer. “Buggy?” Thunderlane asked. No answer. “Alright, what’s going on?” he asked again. “Why won’t you answer us?” Schlorp. The three slowly turned to find the source of the noise behind them. A grey, almost transparent ooze began to collect behind them, falling from the ceiling in large drops that schlorp-ed to the ground. The ooze began to spread and coalesce, and tides of digestive acid swirled angrily as more of the monster began to drip from the ceiling. Buggy’s eyes went wide. “It...It came back,” he whimpered, before running to the nearest corner. Neither pegasi noticed his retreat, their eyes glued to the abomination of magic that was now forming in the middle of the room. The grey goo bubbled and gurgled as if formed, growing larger and larger with each disgusting drop. Suddenly, five growths began to form on the monster, each one snaking into the air as the discarded stones from underneath it began to migrate upward. Soon, each growth ended in a draconic head filled with sharp, stone teeth. Unbeknownst to the two pegasi, they were now staring up at a creature called only “the Hydra Ooze.” An alchemical experiment gone awry, the Ooze was born with a feral intellect, and its regenerative properties allowed it to take on this form with ease. Upon its discovery, the Imperial army pushed it back down into the depths of the fortress, locking it away in the labyrinth beneath the mountain until it was all but forgotten. Of course, neither of the two pegasi particularly cared. “Run!” Thunderlane yelled, before taking flight, grabbing Rainbow’s hoof at the last moment to drag her towards the door. The Hydra Ooze roared in response, its middle head vomiting up a mass of goo that sailed past the fleeing pegasi. Thunderlane and Rainbow Dash screeched to a halt as the ooze projectile splat against the doors. They were about to turn and face their enemy, but were halted by morbid curiosity as they watched the puddle form as a separate identity to block their path. Buggy huddled in the corner, muttering. “Buggy doesn’t want to die. Buggy doesn’t want to die. Buggy doesn’t want to die.” Flanked, the two pegasi stood back to back. “So,” Rainbow said, “how do you want to split this?” “Well...there’s no easy way to do it, is there?” “Nope. One of us is definitely getting the short end of the stick here.” A spark of lightning ran down the lengths of Thunderlane’s claws. “Alright, well then, you take the small guy. Once you’re awesomeness has finished him, come back to help me.” “You got it,” she answered in a smirk. Thunderlane shot forward, his claws crackling with electricity as he charged the leftmost head on the beast. His blades cut cleanly through the slime’s flesh, and lopped the head clean off. Thunderlane spun in the air, turning to face the Hydra Ooze as it bent and turned its head back toward him. Already the stump was bubbling and growing. “Thought so,” Thunderlane mumbled. The black-coated pegasus charged again, this time aiming for the body. A powerful punch slammed into the ooze’s body, his claws digging deep. Thunderlane began to pull his hoof back, but was stopped by a pair of pseudopods that latched onto him. The ooze growled as its four remaining heads turned to face him, its teeth gnashing. Thunderlane smirked. Lightning shot through the ooze, forcing its heads to shoot out at crazy angles as it was suddenly electrocuted. The grasping tentacles that had him by the hoof released him weakly as it tried to pull away from the source of its pain. “Best part of being a pegasus,” Thunderlane said before he dug his second claw into it. “I’m not always grounded.” A second bolt tore through the Hydra Ooze, causing all of its heads to roar even as a new pair formed from the first stump. “Eat lightning, you overgrown puddle! Eat it!” Thunderlane smirked. As the whole ooze practically lit up from the electricity that flowed through it, Thunderlane’s eye caught sight of something. As the whole ooze lit up, a small network of tendrils that ran through the entire blob was twice as bright. What’s more, as Thunderlane traced them with his eyes, he saw that they all lead to the center of the ooze, where a big, bright ball of light now hung. Thunderlane smirked. “How cute, you do have a heart,” he said. Then Thunderlane began to do what he was born to do. Hit things. Really hard. Thunderlane’s hooves began to slam into the ooze’s body, the open claws sending electricity through its body with every hit. The Hydra Ooze shrieked and roared as bolt after bolt of lightning ran through its body, all the while, Thunderlane continued to pound away at the yielding flesh of the ooze. His hooves began to almost blur as he slammed into the goo, digging into it as goo flew off with every hit. The pegasus slammed into the slime, his blows breaking the ooze open, allowing him to tunnel towards the core of the Hydra Ooze. The secret to killing a Hydra was to kill the body. The secret to killing an ooze was to destroy its core. A Hydra Ooze? Thunderlane was willing to gamble on it. “Thunder! Thunder! I—” Rainbow cired. The stallion paused, his eyes turning to see his partner slowly being swallowed by her ooze. Thunderlane’s wings snapped, throwing him towards the smaller ooze. “Let her go!” he yelled. His powerful hooves slammed into the smaller ooze, causing it to deform and buckle under the force. “Let her go!” Thunderlane roared again, repeatedly punching the blob. Rainbow tried to reach for him through the blob, only to be stopped by unseen currents and pseudopods. “I said, let. Her. Go!” he roared before an electrified claw came down on the blob. Rainbow Dash unleashed a muffled scream, her breath escaping into the electrified ooze as a pair of bubbles. The stallion’s eyes widened as he saw her pain. He swore. But, as with its parent, the core of the ooze lit up with electricity. He had to reach the core. Closing the claws, Thunderlane began to punch his way towards the core. Rainbow Dash couldn’t breath. She would suffocate if he didn’t free her soon. No. She couldn’t die. He wouldn’t let her die. His hooves slammed into the giving flesh of the ooze. He couldn’t let her die. He had to reach the core. Her rose-colored eyes stared up at him, the light slowly dying as they pleaded for help from behind the thick liquid that was slowly drowning her. His hooves were a blur, trying to free her. He couldn’t let her die. The last of her breath bubbled and left her mouth. Sharp stones ripped into his stomach as the Hydra Ooze grabbed him from behind in one set of teeth. With a violent yank, the ooze pulled him away. “No! Let her go!” Thunderlane yelled. The Hydra Oozed swallowed him, forcing him down into its stomach, where Thunderlane pushed and struggled against the unseen currents. He was trapped. And she was dying. He gave a silent scream in anger, letting the grey fluids flood his mouth. The Hydra Ooze smiled, grinning as these two meals would soon die before being completely digested, leaving only three things in the room. The Hydra Ooze, the child ooze, and the changeling. Buggy sobbed in the corner, his eyes shut tight, his muttering and the gurgling of the ooze being the only sound that reached his ears. He chanced, dared, to open one eye, to see what was waiting for him. He saw Thunderlane, struggling to reach the mare. His worry and love for her filling the room with the most delicious scent. There she was, caught in the other, dying before his eyes. The one who gave him a name. The one who made him Buggy. Now, a changeling is an interesting creature. In many ways, a changeling is like a large species of grasshopper. Alone, a grasshopper is harmless, hardly even a pest at times. However, once enough grasshoppers congregate in a single area, their body chemistry changes, and their physical form alters into that of the locust, a terrifying swarm of monstrosities that will clear whole fields and farmlands of even the smallest scrap of food. Changelings, very similarly, act and behave differently depending on the concentration of their brethren nearby. A changeling in swarm will normally act for the betterment of the hive, gladly throwing his or her life away at the slightest hint of danger to the hive. A lone changeling, on the other hand, are more survival focused. A dead changeling, after all, could single handedly reveal a whole collection crew of his brethren, and wind up killing them all. In short, a lone, single changeling will do whatever it can to protect its life, and its cover. But Buggy wasn’t just a changeling anymore. Buggy, shaking, slowly stood up, getting his hooves under him. This was for her. This was for the pony who gave him an identity all his own. This was for the mare who gave him everything. He stepped forward, still shaking, and slowly approached the pair of oozes. He...he had seen them at their worst. He had watched in horror as the soft flesh of the his fellow changelings were dissolved in seconds by the ooze, their powerful exoskeleton providing no protection to the digestive acids that griffons and, thankfully, ponies were so much more resilient to. He knew what would happen if he did this. And so, as he began to get closer, he did something he had never done before. He prayed. “Faust, if you're really there, help Buggy do this. Give...give me the strength to do this.” He wondered how you were supposed to end a prayer. And then his horn began to glow. Acidic green magic filled the air, as the changeling steadied himself. He inhaled deeply, and then charged. The green magick slammed into the ooze, drilling through it as the changeling galloped forward. A cone of air opened up in the smaller ooze, and suddenly, Rainbow Dash found herself free for just a moment. Buggy grabbed her, wrapping her in his magic aura, and threw her with all of his might, launching her from ooze’s grasp. She landed, rolling as her lungs filled with air. Buggy ran to follow her. But the ooze had recovered, tentacles wrapped around the changeling exoskeleton. “No! No! Let Buggy go!” he cried. Rainbow Dash coughed, gulping down air. “Boss! Boss, help me!” Buggy yelled. “No,” he paused. “No! Don’t help me! Help your friend! Boss!” Rainbow Dash sat up recovering slowly. “Boss!” The cry snapped her out of it. “Buggy!” “Forget about me!” Buggy yelled. “Save your friend!” “Buggy!” Rainbow Dash called, running for him. “No! Save the other pony!” He cried as the ooze closed in on him. “I’ll save you!” Dash yelled, charging the ooze. Buggy’s horn lit up, and Dash’s faced was yanked to the side. She saw Thunderlane, hovering there in the Hydra Ooze, all six heads huddled close to its body. The changeling brought the mares attention back to him. “It’s trying to save its energy to digest him. It will kill him quickly. It’s already too late for me. Go.” Rainbow looked at him. <<<|Ω|>>> Rainbow Dash. The Bearer of the Element of Loyalty. She, like many ponies, was quick to make friends, and when she made a friend, she stuck with them. To the death if she needed to. Buggy...Buggy was nice. He was a changeling, sure, but he was just so helpless when they found him, and then he turned out to be kinda sweet. In that weird, changeling sort of way. By, you know, not eating their emotions. That, and he just saved her life, and that counted for something, didn’t it? So, in a way, Buggy was a friend. This only made things complicated. Rainbow Dash was not a great thinker. She did not wax eloquent when speaking about any subject. She did not take time from her day to ponder the mysteries of the universe. She did not even take more than a few seconds or so to strategize. This meant she was also not good at making decisions. She looked at Thunderlane. She looked at Buggy. Her mind was screaming at her, telling her to save them both. She needed to be there for both of them. Buggy told her to go. Time was running out. She had to save both. But she could only choose one. She had to abandon one to save the other. <<<|Ω|>>> “Sometimes you have to choose where your loyalties lie. Go,” Buggy told her. Dash looked at him. “I’ll be fine, Boss. Go.” And she went. The blue pegasus flew towards the sleeping Hydra Ooze, leaving Buggy behind. She flew fast, coming around in a large swipe that sliced all six heads from the Ooze’s neck. The six stumps flew upward, trying to retaliate against the sudden attack. Dash didn’t give it a chance. Her own claws, while not magical, still tore at the Hydra Ooze’s membrane. Buggy watched it all, and smiled. It may have been a short run for him, but he liked being Buggy. Buggy was cheerful, kind, and...and maybe even a little brave. He was proud to say he was Buggy. Yeah...it was a good identity. Yeah... <<<|Ω|>>> Rainbow Dash cut through the Ooze’s body, her eyes narrowed as she carved her way to Thunderlane. She was thankful Buggy didn’t scream. If he had screamed, she wasn’t sure what she’d do. She ignored the damp trails on her face, she had a friend to save. Her claws bit into the Ooze, even as its heads began to regrow, and Dash tunneled her way towards the unconscious stallion. She clawed and sliced, cutting until she had freed one hoof. She grabbed his hoof and pulled, freeing the stallion. He instantly began coughing up goo. Dash ripped off one of his shoes, slipping it on in favor of one of her own before launching again at the ooze. She roared as she charged, bringing the claws of the storm down on the Hydra Ooze. It roared in pain as electricity ran through it. She brought it down again. And again. And again. And again. As Thunderlane recovered, he brought himself up. Rainbow Dash made the Hydra Ooze roar, hitting it over and over again. Thunderlane got up, his head spinning as the roars of the larger ooze echoed in the room and the smaller one began to retreat. Rainbow Dash roared. She hit the monstrosity again, shocking it again and again and again. Tears hit the floor below her. She fought and ripped at body, carving a path straight to the core of the ooze. Bolts of lightning arched from the heads and back to its body as strike after strike came down. With a vicious roar, she ripped at the core, tearing it out and away from the Hydra Ooze’s body. The ooze exploded, coating the walls in small puddles and splashes of weak, nearly transparent acid on the walls and floor. There was silence. Thunderlane, now fully recovered, watched as the mare turned and flew to the husk that now inhabited the room. She slumped in front of it. Thunderlane approached her as sobs racked her body, and gently laid a hoof on her wither. “Don’t...don’t make me choose. Don’t ever make me choose.” The smiling husk of Buggy simply stared up at her. “Don’t make me choose.” -------------------------------- Alright. So I don’t feel super awesome about this chapter… “Well it’s too late now!” Yeah...well, hopefully it reads better than it writes. Next time we have, uh...let me see the list. “Here you go!” Uh...Ah! Big Mac and Fluttershy! “Ooh! Ooh! Does that mean that we’ll get to see—” It does! “Yay! Recurring characters!” And we’ll see who that recurring character is next time. “Be sure to do the normal stuff you readers do!” Bye!