//------------------------------//
// Project Erroria Arc Part 5: Arrival & Confession 
// Story: MLDC: SHAZAM, Equestria's Mightest Mare! 
// by Michael_Ravencroft 
//------------------------------//

The train ride was nice, if not long. Babs had been looking forward to this Summer Break for a long time. Because it would be the first Summer Break she would get to spend with her favorite cousin, Apple Bloom.

Three whole months of nothing but hanging around with Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo; she had hoped to bring along Kool Kat, Arnold, Cera, and Helga with her, but unfortunately they had plans as well, either some going to camps while others were going on family vacations. Babs understood, but still, she couldn’t help but think of how fun it would’ve been to have the Manehattan Branch CMC and the Mane CMC together.

Probably get into so much trouble we’d be labeled the new spirits of chaos, thought Babs.

If Babs was honest with herself, which was more or less mandatory since she was an Apple, she did have an ulterior motive in coming. Yes, she wanted to spend time with her friends, she wasn’t denying that. But it was mostly to get closer to Apple Bloom.

Babs found her heart racing every time she thought back to that night when she confessed her forbidden feelings to Scootaloo about her cousin. She trusted the pegasus filly to not say a word about her feelings to Apple Bloom, just as she trusted them with her secret identity as Shazam.

Still, there were nights when she would wake up, heart racing again. Expecting her parents or sister to come barging into her room and throw her out for how she felt. Honestly, Babs never imagined herself feeling this way for another filly, especially her own family. Guess those corny love songs have a point, the heart wants what the heart wants, ya can’t help who ya fall for sometimes.

These three months with Apple Bloom would decide for Babs if she was confident enough, and really sure of her feelings, to tell Apple Bloom how she felt. Of course she wasn’t going to just blurt it out all at once the moment she saw her. No, only way I can really tell Cuz is when we’ve spent enough time together to really get to know each other. Heck, I don’t even know if she likes fillies or even if…if she feels the same way.

And there was Babs’ greatest fear. What if she confessed and Apple Bloom didn’t feel the same way? Well, she expected to be a heartbroken, but that’s not the root of the fear. It’s what Apple Bloom thought of her afterword. Would she call Babs disgusting and never want to see her again?

And if she did feel the same way and they became fillyfriends, the day would come when their family and friends would find out about them. Babs knew Scootaloo had their backs, she was pretty sure Sweetie Belle would be okay with it.

What it really boiled down to was what would her cousin Applejack and the matriarch of the Apple Family, Granny Smith, would do. There were so many things that could go wrong, so many ways this could all end badly for one or both of them.

Sometimes Babs wondered if it was worth it at all, to just let these feelings stay in the back of her heart and just go on pretending that her love for Apple Bloom was nothing more than that of two close cousins. But if she never tried, never said a thing, it would be just as bad as, or worse than, confessing.

Babs sighed heavily, she was a thirteen-year-old filly, and already she had anxieties about her love life. Can’t let what ifs bog me down, no guts no glory. I’ll just take it one day at a time. Babs gazed out the window, seeing Castle Concordia in the distance and the fast approaching train station. It was a pain in the flank to get Mom and Pops to let me come here after that mess a couple of days ago, no point in wussin’ out now.

The familiar hissing of the steam engine and slight jerking jolt let Babs know that the train coming to a stop, when the train had fully docked into the station the conductor came out yelling, “PONYVILLE! NEXT STOP, FILLYDELPHIA, ALL ABOARD WHO’S COMIN’ ABOARD!”

Babs grabbed her suitcase and got off the train before she accidentally found herself in Fillydelphia. Once she had disembarked, Babs spotted the very filly who had occupied her thoughts the whole way here.

Apple Bloom came bounding towards Babs with the biggest smile on her face, and Babs couldn’t help but mimic it. The Manehattan filly dropped her luggage and allowed Apple Bloom to wrap her forelegs around her and hug her. Babs blushed a little as she returned the hug and slight nuzzle.

“Babs Ah can’t believe you were able to still come!”

“Yeah, took some negotiatin’ to get my ‘rents to let me spend summer in Ponyville, but I talked ‘em down. There’s no way I was goin’ to miss out on spendin’ time with my favorite cousin,” said Babs.

“Ah’m really glad too, stuffs been crazy ‘round here…well…crazier anyway.” 

“Seein’ as you guys have yer own Princess livin’ next door in that huge castle, I’d expect crazier.”

Both fillies chuckled for a bit before Babs got her backs and proceeded to let Apple Bloom lead her through town and to Sweet Apple Acres. During their walk, Babs noted some the damage to the castle as they passed by it.

She sort of didn’t want to believe it, but the evidence of the event was staring her right in the face. Princess Twilight Sparkle had an assassination attempt on her life, thanks to the Neighponese delegates and Shazam, the assassin was stopped.

Babs had never heard of anypony ever attempting to assassinate a Princess, at least, not nowadays. She imagined way back when, during medieval times, that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna probably had their fair share of attempts.

But this was the modern age, and everypony was pretty much living happily. What need was there to assassinate a Princess, and Twilight Sparkle at that, a mare who had recently gained a castle and official title. “I’m glad Scoots was there to stop the whole thing.”

“Tell me about it. Sweetie and Ah didn’t get to see the fight, honestly Ah didn’t really want to after seein’ that crazy unicorn walk out of a twister made of fire!”

Babs nearly tripped on her own hooves after hearing that. “Seriously?! Wowza! I knew it was bad, but I didn’t think it was that bad!”

“Yeah, but what was really bad was what happened when Pinkie Pie was takin’ me and Sweetie back to the farm. We found one our classmates, Alula, sick and hurtin’. We brought her back to Sweet Apple Acres, and after a bit she looked like she got better.”

“Is she alright?” Babs asked.

“Oh yeah, she’s fine now last Ah heard.” Apple Bloom sighed. “With all this goin’ on, it’ll be nice just to hang out.”

Babs Seed chuckled a bit. “I seriously gotta move here one day, I thought Manehattan had crazy stuff goin’ on, but Ponyville is crazy central.”

“You’d move here just fer that?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Well, yeah, d’at, and…um…well, to be closer to youse. ‘Cause you’re my favorite cousin!” She added. 

Apple Bloom averted her gaze for a bit, feeling her cheeks grow surprisingly warm at what Babs said. “Ah’d like that Babs, but ya don’t hafta. Ah mean, if ya get your cutie mark before me then you’ll need to stay in Manehattan. You’ll be able to do more there than here when it appears.”

“I know, but hey, who says my cutie mark won’t be somethin’ to do with apples, it is in the family. Ah, hold on.” Babs’ bangs got into her field of vision. She gave a quick puff up at the unruly locks and made them move out of her eyes. “I really need to see a barber or somethin’.”

“Ah don’t know, it’s kinda cute when ya do that.”

“Cuz!” Babs exclaimed, her cheeks tinting red.

“Heh, heh, gotcha back for Manehattan when ya said Ah was cute when Ah smile! So there!”

“Why you little – c’mere!”

Apple Bloom took off for the farm with Babs Seed right behind her. Despite the vague threat, both fillies were giggling and laughing the whole way home, with Babs feeling a familiar warmth in her heart at seeing her cousin just ahead of her. I hope you feel the same way. I hope I’m doin’ the right thing…
 







ELSEWHERE…


I hope I’m doing the right thing.

Scootaloo was pacing the ground outside Wayward House, she had made her decision about what to do about her feelings about Alula, and Alula’s feelings about her. It wasn’t an easy decision to come to, and she was kind of going behind Twilight’s back with what she had planned on doing. But it had to be done, she needed to make sure of the reason why Alula feels this way towards her.

She arrived early this morning, which spoke volumes to how serious she took this since there were only two things that got her out of bed early. Flying lessons with Rainbow Dash, and having to turn into Shazam to save somepony.

The pegasus filly had asked Mrs. Milano if she could speak to Alula alone this morning, for some reason the matron of the orphanage had a strange look on her face when she asked. She also blushed a little and stumbled over her words a bit before eventually saying yes and for her to wait a moment. Scootaloo believed she should’ve pondered that reaction, but shrugged it off, she had other things to think about.

Scootaloo’s ears perked and swiveled in the direction of the door. She glanced towards the opening door of the orphanage and saw the familiar vanilla colored filly exit, but when she exited fully, Scootaloo’s jaw dropped.

Alula was sporting a unicorn horn, her wings completely gone. Scootaloo had to rub her eyes and shake her head a couple of times to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating this. The – now unicorn – filly walked towards Scootaloo and stood a couple of feet in front of her.

“Morning Scootaloo,” said Alula.

“Morning…did, uh, did you switch again?”

Alula nodded.

“Did anypony see you?”

Alula shook her head.

Scootaloo sighed in relief. “That’s good.”

“Um, Scootaloo, Mrs. Milano said you wanted to talk to me about something.”

“Y-Yeah I do…uh, not here though. You mind walking with me?”

“No, I don’t mind.”

Scootaloo turned around and Alula stood next to her. With the pegasus filly leading, the two of them left Wayward House and proceeded to some unknown destination. The whole trip was nothing but silence, awkward silence, but at the same time it felt nice. Just being near each other made them feel nice inside, calm almost. Scootaloo began wondering what she should do in this situation.

Normally she had seen pegasi drape their wing over their special somepony. Scootaloo glanced over at Alula, the unicorn filly was just gazing about at the scenery. With a gulp, Scootaloo extended her right wing very, very slowly, but just as quickly jerked it back to its resting position.

You featherbrain, don’t go and do something like that! Alula might take it the wrong way, plus…after today she might not even…

“Um, Scootaloo, where are we going exactly?” Alula asked.

Scootaloo was snapped out of her inner thoughts and brought back to the present. “Oh, it’s…it’s someplace special…and secret, very secret. Like, only two ponies know about it at all, and one of them is me.”

Alula was now intrigued and a little elated that Scootaloo was taking her someplace that very few got to go. “Wait, if you’re the one of the two, then who’s the second?”

“Princess Twilight, but keep that under wraps. Oh that’ll do!”

Before Alula could ask she found herself watching Scootaloo rush on forward to an old tool shack. It most likely belonged to one of the farming ponies around town, but to whom Alula knew not. Scootaloo then opened the shack door and took a look inside, she inspected it for a couple of seconds and nodded her approval.

“This’ll do. Okay Alula, I need you go inside.”

Alula cocked an eyebrow at that. “Why do you want me to go into an old tool shack?”

“I promise it’ll make sense when we’re both in there.”

Alula’s face went red, her mind already jumping to something that she had heard some of the slightly older colts and fillies talk about. A game that consisted of a colt and a filly, sometimes two of the same gender, entering a somewhat cramped space like a closet and the two inside would…kiss and do other things.

Is…Does Scootaloo want to play that Seven Minutes in Heaven game with me?! Does that mean she likes me enough to want to do that?! I…I mean I did kiss her already but that was a spur of the moment thing! I don’t know if I could…and for seven whole minutes!

“Alula what’s wrong, you look a little flushed?”

“I fine!” Alula answered in a strangely high-pitched voice. “I’m perfectly fine! Whelp, let’s head in!”

Scootaloo watched as Alula marched into the shack, a strange mixture of trepidation and nervousness was plastered onto her face as she did so.

Weird filly, but it’s kinda cute, thought Scootaloo.

Once Alula was inside Scootaloo took one last look around and carefully closed the door. Alula’s heart was racing, beating so hard she thought it would burst out of her chest. She was alone with Scootaloo, in a place nopony would think to look for them, and only just enough space to do…whatever it was that ponies in this situation could or would do.

“Alright Alula, like I said earlier, I’m going to take you someplace special.”

“Um, o-o-okay Scootaloo. Just…Just know that I’ve only ever kissed so I don’t know what else to do in this kind of place.”

Scootaloo tilted her head in confusion. “What are you talking about? When did I say anything about kissing?”

“But you brought me in here, to this special, secret place!” Alula pointed out.

“Oh this place? Pfft, no, no, this isn’t it.”

Now Alula was confused. “Then, why here?”

“Because we can only get there if we’re in a closed space like this. It’s not underground, but with my powers that shouldn’t matter. Just stay close to me and try not to freak out.”

Scootaloo closed her eyes and extended her wings, Alula looked on curiously but noticed something strange. She wasn’t sure, but it felt like the room had gone completely still, and the sounds of the outside had vanished and gone silent. What little light was in the room began to fade away, giving rise to darkness.

The cramped space began to expand within the darkness, making Alula dance around on her hooves to try and avoid it. Despite the growing darkness Scootaloo seemed to glow within it.

Alula quickly stood next to Scootaloo, practically meshing their fur together. The contents of the shack, its walls, ceiling, floor, and its various assortment of tools, all of it vanished and two fillies were left standing in nothingness, as if they were in an abyss. Suddenly lightning arced off of Scootaloo’s body and surged forward, creating a road made of azure magical light.

The lightning struck against something solid and the symbol of Shazam appeared. The symbol morphed into a door and opened, allowing light to shine into the abyss. Scootaloo closed her wings and opened her eyes, with a nod in the door’s direction, the pegasus filly began walking down the light path.

Alula followed suit, not wanting to be left alone in the darkness. The two fillies continued along the path and went through the door. Bright light blinded Alula for a few seconds before giving way to what laid beyond the door of light. She gasped when she got a clear look at their surroundings.

Columns of stone jutted up and held up the ceiling, a few feet away was a marble throne with the lightning bolt insignia etched into the top of it. A crystal ball was set up just a foot away, and the throne itself was situated on top of a three-step pyramid, with a long red carpet leading from the foot of the throne all the way down a hallway.

The unicorn filly turned around and watched as the door of light they entered from disappeared, revealing nothing but empty space behind them. She had thought they entered from another room, but in reality, they had entered through another dimension.

“What…What is this place, Scootaloo?!”

“This is the Rock of Eternity, and I’m its keeper and protector. It’s part of the whole superhero package. I get powers, a costume, and a secret base.”

Alula continued to stare in awe of the throne room, still trying to come to grips with the fact that Scootaloo had brought her to hidden base of her alter ego. Just as she was admiring the throne room, something else caught her attention. A swarm of pink, glowing butterflies fluttered into the room.

The swarm flew around Alula and Scootaloo, tickling the unicorn filly a little as their wings brushed against her sides, causing her to giggle. The swarm began to coalesce on Scootaloo’s right. The pink glowing constructs meshed into one being, forming a body. With a brief flash of pink light Alula was now staring at a young mare.

She was unsure of what tribe she was, seeing that she had a horn, but also possessed beautiful butterfly wings at her sides. The flutterpony gave a small bow to the new guest of the Rock of Eternity. “Greetings Mistress Scootaloo, and to you esteemed guest. My name is Murmur, and I am the steward of the Rock of Eternity.”

“H-Hi, I-I’m Alula.”

“Left her a little speechless there Murmur,” said Scootaloo.

“Oh dear, I did not mean to frighten you.” Murmur apologized as her ears drooped a little.

Alula shook her head vigorously in protest. “Oh no, no, no, I was just surprised! I-I’ve never seen a pony like you before, and you just looked, um, pretty with your wings and all.”

Murmur blushed from the compliment and bowed again. “Oh, well thank you Miss Alula.”

“Murmur’s been living here for…well, a lot longer than the Princesses have been around, I think?”

“Um, Scootaloo, not to seem rude, but why did you bring me here?” Alula asked.

The pegasus filly rubbed the back of her head nervously, earning her a confused look from Murmur and a worried one from Alula. Scootaloo released a heavy sigh and then looked to Murmur. “Hey, Murmur, do you mind giving us a minute?”

The pink flutterpony nodded. “Certainly Mistress, I will be in the library researching, call me if you have need of me.”

Murmur’s body turned into a swarm of butterflies made of light that flew off into the distance. Now alone once again, Scootaloo looked to the filly whom she brought to the magical fortress.

“Alula…you said I was like you when you…k-kissed me.”

Alula cringed and rubbed her left foreleg. “I’m sorry, I was just really happy and…”

“It’s okay, you don’t have to be sorry, I…I liked it when you kissed me. Which is why I’ve been thinking hard on what I wanted to say to you.” Scootaloo took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. “I’ve…I’ve had things happen to me…bad things Alula…things that made me wonder about myself, about if I could like-like another pony. And if…if my feelings were – are messed up because of that…I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”

Alula already knew what Scootaloo was talking about, but hearing the pain in her voice, just talking about it was hard. Inside Alula prepared herself for the worst, steeling her heart for when Scootaloo said that she couldn’t like her that way. Even though she knew it wasn’t because she might not like her, it was still going to be hard to hear.

“That’s why…I needed to tell you that…I’m not like you.”

Alula cocked an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Earlier, you said you were happy that I was like you. You meant it like I could switch tribes like you. The truth is I can’t switch like you, my changing is mostly due to magic, really, really, really old and powerful magic. I only change into an alicorn when I do superhero stuff, but when I’m done, I change back to what I was born as, a pegasus.”

Scootaloo took a few steps back. She channeled the ancient magic of the Rock of Eternity, concentrating on the good and righteous strength within her heart.

“SHAZAM!!!”

A bolt of lightning shot down from the ceiling and struck Scootaloo, wrapping her in a cloud of pure white smoke. Alula watched as the smoke cleared, and revealed the super powered mare, Shazam, or more accurately, Scootaloo as Shazam. The, now taller and older, Scootaloo walked over to Alula and sat down in front of her.

Alula looked up at her, now getting a good look at her without the hood and cape. Looking upon Scootaloo now made her cheeks grow warmer by the second. In this magical form, Scootaloo was, well, beautiful and yet handsome at the same time.

Like a warrior mare from the fairytales Alula read, a perfect combination of beauty and strength. And the fact that some of Scootaloo’s purple bangs were covering one of her eyes, and gave her a sort of mystique, was an added bonus.

“Now do you understand? That’s why I brought you here, to see all this, because I’m not like you…I can only become this when I say the word ‘Shazam’. I’m sorry…” The alicorn mare lowered her head in remorse.

Alula sat on her haunches and looked up to Scootaloo. “So…does that mean you don’t like me? ‘Cause, Scootaloo, that wasn’t the only reason why I like you.”

Scootaloo raised her head a little. “It’s…It’s not?”

Alula shook her head. “No Scootaloo, I mean, it would’ve been cool if you were like me, but it’s not the only reason! I liked you way before I found this out!”

Scootaloo perked her head up. “Y-You did?! You do?!”

“Of course I do!” Alula placed her hooves over her mouth, a little embarrassed that she yelled that. “O-Of course I do…but, do you feel the same way?”

Scootaloo ran her hoof through her mane. “I do, I know do…I just don’t want to mess it up…I mean…if you knew what happened to me before I came to Ponyville, you might not even want to be with me…”

Alula placed her left hoof over Scootlaoo’s right. “And what if I didn’t care about all that? Scootaloo, whatever happened to you, I…I’m sure it was bad, and that you’d rather not talk about it, but I’m fine with it. ‘Cause that’s what you do if you care about somepony, you take the good and the bad.”

“You…You would?” Scootaloo asked hopeful.

Alula nodded, giving Scootaloo her biggest smile. “Of course. Um, Scoots, do you mind changing back? Looking up at you is kinda giving me a kink in my neck.”

“Oh sorry!” Scootaloo stepped back. “SHAZAM.”

A bolt of lightning shot down and struck Scootaloo for the second time, changing her back to her original form. The young filly walked up to Alula, heart fluttering as a queasy sensation filled her stomach, not the bad kind, but the kind that you got when you felt nervous. Both fillies sat there in silence for what felt like hours, neither one not knowing what to do.

“So…you really don’t mind being my…fillyfriend?” Scootaloo asked.

“No, but only if you don’t mind having a weird fillyfriend who changes her tribe every other day…?” Alula asked with a chuckle.

“Heh, heh, not a problem with me, so long as you don’t mind having a fillyfriend that’s a superhero and is kinda messed up.”

“Sounds like we’re a good match then.”

Both Alula and Scootaloo giggled at that, realizing in their own unique ways, they were both odd ducks, but that only made this feel all the more special. The young fillies looked nervously to each other, with Scootaloo rubbing one of her forelegs and Alula’s playing with her mane nervously.

“So do we kiss or something?”

“O-Only if you think we should.”

“Well, it’d be better than that surprise kiss that you gave me a couple of days ago.”

“Sorry about that, again.”

“Nah, don’t sweat it…To tell you the truth, I want to, but I’m kind of scared to, if that makes sense,” said Scootaloo.

“We could just kiss each other on the cheeks, it doesn’t have to be on the lips. Would that be better?” Alula asked.

Scootaloo nodded. The orange filly scooted closer to the vanilla colored filly, she leaned forward and gently gave Alula a light peck on the cheek. It was only for a few short seconds, but that small kiss on the cheek was enough to make Alula’s horn spark with excitement. When Scootaloo pulled away, she stood still and awaited Alula’s response.

The vanilla unicorn moved with the same careful and slow movements that Scootaloo had done, her lips meeting the fur covered cheek of the orange pegasus. Scootaloo’s reaction was visible, her ears stood up, wings flared, and her face became a darker shade of red. Even though it was that one area, Scootaloo felt like her whole body was tingling. When Alula pulled away, Scootaloo noticed she had an equally fierce blush on her face.

“I guess we’re fillyfriends now, do you think we should tell your friends?”

“Our friends Alula, my friends are your friends too. And let’s wait a couple of days. With everything that’s happened lately, I don’t want to throw this on top of it. Sound good?”

Alula scooted closer to Scootaloo, now at her left side and brushing her fur against her new fillyfriend’s. “That’s okay with me.”

Scootaloo stiffened at the sensation of Alula’s fur against her own, but at the same time it comforted her. This was the right decision, I’m sure. I like Alula, this feels right. I just hope I don’t mess this up…