//------------------------------// // Ch. 6 Pics, Pissed Dragons, and Pumpkin Chuckin' // Story: Misunderstood and Mutated // by TheGoldenDragon //------------------------------// [Medulla’s POV] It didn’t feel like it was very long after I fell asleep that the door creaked open and Twilight called down, “Are you ready to answer some questions?” I responded with my tone dripping with sarcasm, “Yes, the answer to that one is NO!” She closed the door in huff. I could have sworn that it was only a few minutes before the door slammed open and Twilight yelled down, “DO YOU WANT TO ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS?!” Her tone suggested that the world might end if I didn’t. I just moaned like I was half asleep. The door slammed shut so hard dust fell from the ceiling. The room went silent for what seemed like only ten minutes. Again Twilight, intent on waking me up, opened the door and asked somewhat annoyed, “Are you even still alive down there?” “Yes, Twilight, I’m alive. Can a guy get just five minutes of rest in this place?” I shouted a bit angrier than I probable should have. “It’s been three days.” She said flatly. “Wut?” My eyes shot open. I then noticed that Twilight was wearing a costume. “...Why are you dressed like Starswirl?” “It’s Nightmare Night. And thank you for noticing… Wait, how did you recognise my costume on the spot?” Twilight said with a mixture of pride and confusion. “Had a run in with him in Transylmaneia. He died before I could call in the favor he owed me from that debacle.” I stated, rather upset. “You said Nightmare Night?” “Yes, and you said you knew Starswirl the Bearded?” Twilight asked, almost in shock at this. “It’s long boring story, and I have no intent on telling all of it anytime soon. But. YOU. SAID. NIGHTMARE. NIGHT!” I was getting very excited. “But!” Twilight started to object. “I’ll be up in a minute.” I said, the joy was seeping into my thoughts. “I’m heading out for the night. I’m not going to stay here and question you when I can be having fun with my friends.” She was upset by the idea of staying here when her friend were out there. “Who said anything about questions? If you couldn’t tell from what I said before, I’M EXCITED ABOUT NIGHTMARE NIGHT! IT MEANS THAT IT’S THE ONE NIGHT OUT OF THE YEAR WHERE MOST PONIES EXPECT TO BE SCARED! AND ABOVE ALL ELSE IT MEAN CANDY!!!” My eyes were noticeably dilated. “How can the thought of candy make anypony so manic?” She muttered to herself as she walked away. Ooooohh, This is going to be fun. Candy, friendly scares, amusements, CANDY!, I thought as I floated to the bathroom. I don’t really need a costume, maybe a hat? What I saw when I looked in the mirror made me laugh so hard my stomach hurt. Someone had drawn as goatee on my face. If I had to guess it was the purple and green dragon that lived here. I couldn’t even be mad at the little guy, the craftsmanship was impeccable, and he would have had to use a ladder. It was the best ‘sharpie goatee’ I’d ever seen. As I turned to float away, I noticed something something gray and gold flash past the mirror. I looked back but it was just a normal mirror. Just a trick of the light. Maybe? … I hope so. But just in case… Blizzard, Ice Punch, Psystrike, and Shadow Ball. As I walked through town, I began to realize just how hard it would be for me to get any candy on my own. Hmmmm, that Max seemed like she might be fun. I walked into the alley by Sugar Cube Corner, pulled out Max’s photo, and focused my thoughts into the selfie. “Hey Max, This is Medulla, it’s Nightmare Night over here on my end want to mess around for a bit?” I hear as I hit the bed. “Ugh, looks like we’ll have to continue this when I get back,” I said as Cadence pulled back. She quirked an eyebrow, “What do you mean?” “Some other Displaced is Summoning me and I don’t know how to reject them yet.” I pushed her off of me and stood up just as the portal opened under me. “Let ‘Tia know that I got summoned so she doesn’t get upset.” Max’s butterfly effect portal appearing on the exterior wall of Sugarcube Corner was unexpected. The girl on the polaroid photo stepped out and floated to the ground like a dry leaf. “Whoa, gravity’s off a little,” she said as she tried to stand, only to launch herself up a few feet and float down to land on her head. “I can fix that if you’d like.” I said, trying to avoid laughing. “Nah, I’ll get used to it. At least I’m not gravitating towards the sky this time.” ”You don’t need to say much more about that, the rest of that story flashed through your mind.” Max looked at me and her mind became unreadable for a few seconds. “Yeah, I did go a little overboard with that. But their reactions were hilarious.” ”Sorry about my token, I had no idea it could hit someone that hard. And don’t worry, I’ll try to respect your privacy. But I do have to project my thoughts to speak to you,” I said with regret. “Nah, I just never really got hit before then,” she said waving it off as she tried to stand again, this time succeeding. ”One thing before we go crazy here, I haven’t had the ‘Your entire world was a show where I’m from’ talk with anyone yet, so try not to obliquely foreshadow anything.” Max dusted herself off as she said, “I haven’t either, but then again mine isn’t conforming to it exactly.” I smirked, “ Mine is as well so far, and I’d like to avoid causality spoilers.” Suddenly I got a very clear thought from Max. I wonder if this Celestia would mind a visit~.... I reeled back at the thought, “Dear lord, that image… That was intentional wasn’t it?” She just looked at me with an innocent little smile on her face and a little halo actually dinged into existence over her head. “Might’ve been. But then again, you might’ve seen something you shouldn't have.” “Probably, and I thought I enjoyed teasing people like that.” At that moment a pink pony wearing a chicken costume raced towards us, but Max intercepted her. “Yay! Pink party pony’s here!” she said as she tackled Pinkie. ... I’m not even going to try to understand how she knows what Pinkie tastes like. I sighed, “This is Max, she’s just visiting so no need to throw an impromptu party.” The pony I knew was Pinkie just laughed, “Don’t be silly, It’s Nightmare Night! The entire night is one big party!” Thanks for that, I want my first Pinkie party to be from mine. Max thought as she flipped off of Pinkie, lightly landing next to me. No problem. The pink mare spoke up again, “That reminds me, I still need to get your welcome to Ponyville Part ready.” “Well miss, I’d love to help you come up with ideas for it tomorrow. But right now I need candy,” I declared. Max, as flattering as that thought was I literally can’t feel that way anymore. Max turned to me and unloaded her thoughts about losing a reproductive system. Sorry for your loss I guess. I gained something else.... I guess I can’t really understand your position, then., I like to think is was a small price to pay for a brain to match most supercomputers. The pink one took advantage of the moment of silence to respond, “You can just call me Pinkie, and I need some candy too.” ” Pinkie hmm.. I’m Medulla, but could you just every once in a while call me Brain.” I was starting to have some fun. “Okey, Dokey Brain.” Pinkie said in a sing song voice. I squee-ed with joy internally, If only she actually sounded like Pinky. . I picked up a thought from Max about not being a mouse before she said, “Glad I wasn’t the only one thinking that.” She turned towards the edge of town. “Come on, time’s a wastin’, and I can only affect it so much.” “Where do you want to head first? There’s some games, and a hall of mirrors? “Candy first, then eye-candy, maybe the hall last.” ”Alright, let’s head around and look for games with candy as the reward. I mean not many houses will hand out candy to beings like us. I said with determination. “Says you,” Max scoffed. “There’s always more than one way to get chocolate. You just have to get creative.” I contemplated that for a second, ”My methods of persuasion are less than honorable, and I deplore theft.” “Please, I’m not talking about stealing -- I’ll only do that to thieves -- I’m thinking something like this.” Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a yellow polaroid camera and some film for it. ”Trade?” I asked as I tilted my head to the side. “Oh yes, I’d give away my only camera for a few candy bars,” Max deadpanned. ”You’re just being obtuse now, you knew I meant pictures. “... Oh. I was thinking of selling them then buying candy from foals, but that works as well.” I thought for a second, ”You could do both, some ponies like most adults would pay money, but foals and some other could trade for candy. ‘Cut out the middleman’” Max stood there for a few seconds before she said, “Okay, got the pictures. Just need a sign and a table.” I almost forgot you had time powers of some kind. I said a little shocked. I can take care of the sign. Pinkie pulled a folding table from out of nowhere, “And here’s a table! Thanks for giving me another night of candy!” Max stared at Pinkie. “Um.... You’re welcome?” As Pinkie skipped away, I thought,”Great! another anomaly I’ll have to check on later. Let’s set up shop on the side of the road.” I snapped my fingers twice, the table levitated and set itself up next to the road. Then ghostly flames burst into existence above the table spelling out, “Max’s photography: We take bits or candy!” “Don’t try to understand Pinkie, I’m trying not to myself,” Max said as thoughts of her licking what looked like whipped cream off of the pink mare came to me from her. I snickered, “First off, who said anything about understanding her, I just need to make sure her awareness of this type of stuff can’t damage the space-time continuum significantly. Secondly, that’s unsanitary. I suddenly got an image of Pinkie with a balloon coming towards Max, a sultry look on her face. “Had a fun time, though~.” ”Kinky! Let’s just sell these pictures and get some candy!” We sat there for the next few hours selling Pictures and Max dodging questions of how she got them before she started selling some very risque photos when no foals were around. Unsurprisingly, no one asked about those. Once all the photos were sold, we had a huge pile of candy and bits. “I think we messed up with not separating the bits and the candy,” Max said as she bit into a bit thinking it was a chocolate coin. “Anything sour?“ I asked, with a little dribble on my chin. “I think I saw some that looked like Warheads in there somewhere,” she replied as she pulled out a bar of chocolate and made the whole pile collapse on us. ”This will only take a second.” I licked my lips. I slammed both hands on the table, levitating all the candy and bits sorting them in a matter of seconds. The bits were on one side, the chocolate, sour, spicy, normal candy in piles on the other. “Hey, I was about to eat that!” Max complained when her teeth closed on nothing but air. “It’s right here.” I levitated it out of the pile of chocolates, and gave it back. “Any games you want to do before the hall of mirrors.” Max hummed thoughtfully. “Well, they won’t be much of a challenge for me and there aren’t any where you can build your own catapult from scratch. The one with launching the pumpkins was fun, but could be better....” “How would you improve it; fire, coller targets, stronger launchers?” “Nope. Turn it into its own competition; introduce them to Pumpkin Chunkin’,” she said with a smile. “Get me Rainbow Dash, and Applejack. This will happen!” If I had a mirror my smile would probably have scared me. Max saluted then disappeared. In only half an hour we had the two most competitive ponies in town working together to build a catapult to launch a pumpkin farther than I could. Apparently Max had told Pinkie to spread the word that a new competition was being made as the entire town watched and three fillies joined in the construction. “So this is something from your world?” Rainbow asked as she set a board in place. “Oh Yes! Normally the competitors have a decent amount of prep time, this is more impromptu.” I just stood there with a smug look on my face. “You almost ready?” “Yeah, you have a whole year to plan, build, repair, and tweak your ‘Chunker,” Max said as she tugged the arm down, with help from Applejack. “ready for launch.” As they launched the first pumpkin, the air began to shimmer. It was almost like looking into a mirror. The sky rippled and a gray serpent with black and red rings, gold spikes, and six black and red prehensile spines on its back. The gourd smashed right into the legendary dragon’s face. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Max cover her mouth with a hand, her shoulders shaking in mirth. ” Well, should have seen that coming.” I ‘muttered’ as I formed a pumpkin cannon with Psystrike, loaded the pumpkin and infused it with the power of Shadow Ball. “He did!” Max exclaimed before falling over, joining Rainbow in laughter. Facepalming, I fired it at Giratina’s main body. The ghost dragon was knocked out of the sky. As the dust settled Giratina rose to its feet that were now there in its altered form. He then roared so loud that Big Mac hid behind Granny Smith. Everything went silent. “You dare STRIKE THE MIGHTY GIRATINA WITH DISGUSTING FRUIT?!” “ His chest still smoking, from the empowered pumpkin. “He doesn’t even know that they’re gourds?” Max asked when she recovered. “The name matters not! What does is you have insulted me!” Exclaimed the dragon only getting angrier. “The first one was an accident, mine wasn’t!” Getting his attention. Max put her hand on her face. “Seriously? I thought legendaries....” “Think of this one like a super violent Lulu.” “So basically he’s like my Celly, except he has PMS.” “Only it’s all the time, not just every month.” I seem to keep forgetting to pay attention when these big bads are around, because Giratina used Dark Pulse on me, sending me flying into the nearest building. ... Or it would have if it was moving faster than a snail. “This is what happens when you try to interrupt a conversation,” Max yelled as she shot the Pulse with a laser rifle, making it explode in the dragon’s face. “Thanks, now let’s learn this brute some MANNERS!” I shouted in a super fake southern accent, as I called upon Ice Punch, and recreated Frostmourne from WoW out of solid ice. I charged at Giratina with a battle cry and the sword in hand. “Yeehaw!” Max said as she stood on the edge of the blade. She pulled out an iPod and put on a song that was slightly familiar. I ‘jumped’ just before reaching the confused dragon. Max leaped off and pulled out a second gun, firing both into Giratina’s back. While I quickly hovered around, slashing at him with my frozen sword and dodging his wings that had turned metallic wings, scratching me a few times. Giratina, being very lucky, hit Max square in the back of her head with a metal wing, sending her flying into a building. Now I was pissed. I called upon the power of Psystrike to make a claymore again, now wielding two swords. “ DIDN’T ANYONE EVER TEACH YOU TO NEVER HIT A LADY!?” I was now slashing and stabbing Giratina with an incredible fervor. Until Giratina disappeared. ”MAX, YOU OKAY?” I shouted, but staying where I was to not get blindsided by the attack that was bound to arrive soon. “Did someone get the number on that bus?” Max asked as she stumbled out of the wall she had been slammed through. “Everypony stay back, and get to safety! Max if you're able I need you to turn back time once I get hit, and let me know when and where it’s coming, if you can’t I still might be able to take it.” “It’s coming from below you,” Max yelled, still holding her head. I was just barely able to dodge out of the way, my tail was still grazed though. Then Giratina decided that this was getting fun, ”None have been able to escaped that attack before, I’m impressed! But I tire of this, you defended a worthless town from my brother, why not do so again?” Almost immediately the sky filled with an eerie red light. He had called down Draco Meteor. ”That’s a dick move bro!” “And I won’t be able to do anything about it except slow it down,” Max said. “Do that, please! Now Giratina, I’ll end this!” .The temperature of the air around me began to drop rapidly. Snowflakes began to fall. I channeled more strength I could usually justify into one massive blast of ice and wind. The most powerful Blizzard I’d ever summoned. As he became encased in ice sent out one last dark pulse, that hit me in the shoulder, leaving my left arm useless. I then turned my attention to the slowly falling meteorite. ”Here comes the fun part” I floated up to meet the hunk of empowered rock. I clenched my fist, and focused on the power of Rock Smash. I began flying around the rock, hitting it in strategic points and breaking off chunks, until the it was more of a meteor shower. Finally, I used Gravity to send them flying into the unpopulated mountains nearby. I floated back to Giratina, letting him thaw. I then surrounded him with a barrage of Shadow Balls to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. ”Now Giratina, let’s talk about what you’re going to do now?” ”I serve Lord Arceus, You will never control me!” Giratina declare defiantly. “Everything you do from here on out is your decision. But let me give you some advice. What has the high and mighty bastard ever done for you? He banished you, because you were a little too violent. That is bull shit, Palkia was almost just as violent you, and I’m pretty sure Dialga won’t be much better. You’re the Renegade! What do you owe Arceus? You should just leave here, take your Distortion World, and go anywhere in the multiverse you want.” With that the Renegade dragon smiled and melted into the ground, as he said, “I’ve always wanted to see other worlds based off of TV shows.” “You could come with me!” Max said after Giratina was gone. ”You’re hurt, Max, sit down.” I let my concern leak into my ‘voice’. She sighed, “Yeah, I guess he wouldn’t want to hang with someone he hurt.” ”Look at me, please.” I said in a somewhat stern voice. She turned to me looking a bit annoyed. I ignored the stare. One of her eyes was slightly more dilated than the other ”Looks like a concussion but I can’t tell how severe. If you have any mental barriers I’m going to need you to let me through so I can see how bad the injury to your head is.” I started scanning her mind as best I could. Nothing life threatening. There were a few things that were off… ”Here, drink this.” I handed Max a glass bottle of Berry Juice. "Thanks,” Max said before downing it. “Tasty.” ”Mixed it myself, should help you heal much faster.” I couldn’t help but smile at what I figured out about Max that even she didn’t know yet. “Wow, must’ve been hard to find berries that you mixed.” Max reached into her bag and pulled out a tube with what looked like a blue double helix inside. “Here, I doubt I’ll ever need Nemesis’ raw power. You sure could use it, though.” ”At first it was, but then I made an orchard. Need to find some time to find it. Thanks, who knows when you might need the most deadly living biohazard. Max your contract is complete, you may return to your Equestria. Be sure to see a doctor once you get back… Oh, and congratulations! You’ll have to contract me again once the baby is born. ” I said smirking as her portal opened. Her right eye twitched and she slowly sank into her portal. It was almost completely closed when I heard her scream, “WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!!!!!” Twilight and Luna both approached me then, with Twilight looking curious while and Luna was furious. "I'll explain everything relevant about today to Twilight tomorrow. Right now I need to eat five pounds of candy and sleep." Luna tried to protest but I sent a thought specifically to her, When has someone sleeping ever stopped you from getting information from them? Once back in Golden Oaks Library, I happened to walk past a mirror. Something about my face had changed. Max got the last laugh of the night, she drew a monocle to match my goatee at some point and made sure I wouldn't remember. I'll clean it tomorrow.