//------------------------------// // Search in Chunks // Story: A Fear Worse Than Most Feared // by Josh Crapo //------------------------------// The nine ponies walk around the low visibility that once was Ponyville. In what looks like nine shooting stars nearly aligned in the night-like day, the glow is a lime green, unlike the normal dandelion gold that most shooting stars have. Aura Draft is astounded. "Wait a minute. A-are those..." "What? Meteors?" Dry Stone asks. Aura Draft shakes her head. "No. Meteors only glow golden when falling, not lime." The realization hits Air Wiff first. "Oh, goddesses! Changelings!" "What do they want?" Cool Aid curiously asks. Suddenly, the first of nine shockwaves cause, by instinct, Air Wiff, Snow Flake and Cool Aid, all to leap. The three land after a few seconds in the air. About fifteen seconds pass as nine changelings sprint into view. Their names are Wrench, Jig, Hut, Lean, Node, Rep, Map, Loan and Will. "Er... may I help you?" The front changeling, Wrench, changes into a duplicate of Dry Stone. "Um. Yes. Well, actually, no. We want to help you. We’ve heard about your troubles, but this? Oh, you can barely see around here. Changelings, change into the pony you want to specifically help." In response, the other eight changelings change into the ponies they desire to help. "So, what’s your name?" "Dry Stone." "Dry Stone. Okay," Wrench responds. "So Dry Stone. Queen Shell has heard about the rising dust phenomenon. She’s actually sent us here to find out what happened. I see you guys were up here to investigate, so how about we collaborate?" Aura Draft gets intrigued. "Really?" Jig nods. "Yeah. We’ve been dying for answers for a few days now. Plus, it’s gotten unbearably hot over at Changico ever since eternal day has emerged. Would you want to move north if that happened to you?" "Of course I would, and so would all of us. But I think it’d work especially for Air Wiff, with asthma and all. But hey, not only is it cooler up here by default, but I guess we have this dust to thank for keeping the heat away," Aura Draft starts to shudder at the thought of Changico during eternal day. "So, what do you say?" Hut asks. "A collaboration will definitely help us out. Dust is so heavy here, our goggles and our masks cloud up the moment we step out of our radohome." The thought of the dust clouding up Air Wiff's mask on her makes her also shudder. "Well, lucky for you nine, we all can perform dust shields so your visibility isn’t further hindered." Dry Stone smiles under Wrench's assurance. "Thanks. And since there’s enough ponies for each changeling..." Aura Draft opens her eyes in realization. "Are you suggesting we should split up?" Dry Stone nods in response to Aura’s question; at the same time, the changelings change back to their forms when they first appeared, afterwards charging up a dust shield for each changeling and pony. Hours of investigation around former Ponyville pass; yet, no unusual landscapes come across the ponies and the changelings with such low visibility. Now that the oxygen in one of the masks need to be refilled for the pony wearing it, Air Wiff, the groups come together in the entrance of the radohome via teleportation. "Okay, we may need to investigate further within the next few hours," Aura Draft remarks, giving Air Wiff a different idea. "Or maybe I could stay behind and watch over the radohome." "Well, we have to search too, right? We need to see every bit of landscape of we can lay eyes on. And we need as many eyes as we can get to investigate," Hut points out. "True. But if that’s the case, would you want that now, or at least, as soon as equinely possible?" Air Wiff's debunking is still in for a challenge. "Yeah, but what I said applies for when we do," Hut says, trying to let the oxygen fill before she could get outside again, with the rest of the ponies watching over her. Suddenly, Air Wiff holds up another oxygen mask. "But if you needed my oxygen mask to stay here to refill, could we just get a spare so I could use that?" Dry Stone gasps. "Air Wiff, that’s a great idea! That way, while you use the spare as we investigate, yours will refill. Let’s just hope this one still works after a few days down here." Dry Stone takes Air Wiff’s mask, using her mouth to grab the back of it, and hangs it on the soil wall with the edge touching. Grabbing the other the same way, Dry Stone approaches Air Wiff, who, in response, ducks to give Dry Stone room to put the mask on her. "Thanks, Dry." "No problem, Air Wiff. And we’re off!" The changelings teleport the ponies back where each of them previously were. Thankfully, for the ponies, the dust shield is reactivated by the changelings. Half an hour later, something unusual comes upon one of the changelings. "What the hell?" "What is it?" Cool Aid turns to Lean. "How’d this fence split in half?" "Well, we haven’t been struck with anything yet," Cool Aid notes. "Yes, I know, but how could this place have a split fence and not a single natural disaster happens that could cause this?" Cool Aid tells Lean her thoughts. "Well, we’ve heard rumors about other radohomes getting struck with earthshakes. Not sure if that’s a connection to Ponyville’s mysterious destruction, but I do know it could hit here. And yet, even with the split fence over here, the ground looks in one piece." "Who knows?"