//------------------------------//
// Gorgonzola 
// Story: Randomzied 
// by BlazingAngel 
//------------------------------//

Pony World

Silver Spoon P.O.V.

I watched the blood drain from Diamond Tiara's face. Her mouth dropped open like her jaw muscles had been slit. Her eyes bulged as if someone had jammed high-pressure air hoses into both her ears and her snout. She pointed a trembling hoof at my parents' kitchen table.

"That is the most horrible thing I've ever seen. Or smelled." She clutched her snout and ran out of the kitchen.

I really couldn't argue. Even when they changed their way of personally, my parent ate some totally disgusting stuff. "Wait for me," I called.

"What was that?" Diamond Tiara asked when I caught up with her in the living room.

"Gorgonzola," I said. "It's kind of like blue cheese."

"Ugh, it smells like someone blew out their butt." She shook her head. "Who'd make something like that?"

I shrugged. "Not a clue."

But the question got me wondering. That night, after the cheese was safely wrapped up, I opened the fridge and looked at the label, Gorgon Farms Gorgonzola. The address was on Ponyville-Bayerton Road, the two-lane highway that, no surprise, ran between Ponyville, where we lived, and Bayerton. I told Diamond Tiara about it the next day in school.

"Hey, you know what a Gorgon is right?" she said.

"Nope."

"That's like Medusa." She said with an expression that I couldn't read.

This wasn't clearing things up at all. "Who?"

"Medusa. We read about it in last week during history class."

"Oh, it quite amazing that you actually paid attention for once."

"Well, it actually a cool story." She said it with an evil smile across her face.

I really hated that smile so I kept at it. "And you're going to tell me, no matter what I say. Right?"

"Right."

I didn't try to fight it. Diamond Tiara loved telling me stuff. So she told me about Medusa, who was so ugly that ponies who looked at her turned to stone. This stallion named Perseus killed her by using his shield as a mirror. When she saw her own face, she turned to stone. Then Perseus cut off her head. I didn't bother asking Diamond Tiara how you cut off a head when somepony's turned to stone. Perseus must have a decent sword.

"We are totally going to check this place out." She said."

"No, we don't. It's just some stupid farm. Probably a bunch of old hippies or something, living with cows or goats. Smelly ponies with smelly animals making smelly cheese. There's nothing to see."

"There must be," she said." A cheese that horrible has to come from a horrifying cheesemaker. We're going there right after school."

I knew better than to argue. Once Diamond Tiara decided to do something, it was easier to go along. So, after school, Diamond Tiara and I caught the bus to Bayerton.

The whole was there, she kept touching her backpack, like she had something important inside.

"What's in there?" I asked.

"Nothing."

"It has to be something."

"I'll show you later."

I could tell she wasn't going to give me a real answer. I sat back until we got close to our stop. Finally, the bus pulled over to the side of the road next to a small wooden sign for Gorgon Farms.

"This is such a total waste of time," I said as we got out.

"You have no sense of adventure." Diamond Tiara said.

"Adventure isn't always a good thing." I looked past the sign.

There was a gravel road curving out of sight beyond the trees.

Diamond Tiara led the way. I followed her along the road, which ran through a dense forest of trees. Eventually, we reached a field.

"I told you there'd be goats." I said.

Sure enough, behind a fence, I saw goats and cows. Chickens, too. The cows were grazing near a barn. There was a brick building behind the barn that looked like a small factory.

"Let's check it out," Diamond Tiara said, nudging me in the shoulder to follow her.

We walked up to the building, then crouched on either side of a window.

"Someone there," Diamond Tiara whispered.

A mare, dressed in a long white robe that reminded me of a bedsheet, was in the room, with her back to us. She had thick, wavy hair that reached past her shoulders. A large cage on a table held three chickens. The mare reached into the cage, pulled out a chicken, and raised it up in both hooves so it was level with her head.

The chicken jolted and jerked, like it had seen something startling. It let out a really pathetic squawk. And then it froze.

But that wasn't the weird part. It didn't just freeze. It changed color. The chicken wasn't brown and yellow anymore. It was white, with green and blue veins.

"Cheese!" Diamond Tiara gasped. I slapped my hoof over her mouth before she could say anything else. I didn't want the mare to hear us.

In the room, the mare took the cheese chicken to a table and started to cut it up into pieces. It wasn't bloody. There weren't any guts. The thing was solid cheese. Solid Gorgonzola.

I think guts would have been less disgusting.

The mare's mane wriggled and writhed. I realized it wasn't thick curls-it was thin snakes.

"We have to get out of here." I whispered.

"Not yet." Diamond Tiara put her backpack down, unzipped it slowly enough that it didn't make much noise, and pulled out a mirror. It was about the size of a sheet of typing paper. "I borrowed this from Ms. Cheerle."

"Are you crazy?" I couldn't believe she was going to try to turn the Gorgon into stone. I mean, cheese.

"I have to see what happens so that way ponies will recognize me for saving Ponyville from this horrible monster." She held the mirror in front of her face, stood up and shouted, "Hey! Look here!"

Not very subtle, but I guess it got her attention. I heard a pathetic squawk from inside.

Diamond Tiara grinned at me. "I knew it would work." She tilted her head downward and raised the mirror a little bit. So she could see beneath it. I looked away, just in case.

"Cheese feet," Diamond Tiara said. She raised the mirror higher. "Cheese legs."

She raised the mirror all the way. Then she let out a pathetic squawk and froze.

"Diamond Tiara!"

I touched her arm. My hoof sank into something soft and creamy. It was solid Gorgonzola. I guess the Gorgon was still too horrifying to look at, even after she was turned into cheese. Maybe she was even more horrifying now.

As sad as it was to lose a friend, there wasn't any point sticking around. It's not like I could do anything for Diamond Tiara.

I thought about breaking off a hunk of her for my parents, but that just seem wrong, somehow.

It took a lot of willpower not to sneak a peek at the Gorgon for myself, but I managed to keep turning my head toward the cheesy fate as I hurried away from the building.

I didn't relax until I got back to the road. Then, without thinking, I licked my hoof.

Hmmm. Not bad. Kind of tangy and buttery. It tasted a lot better than it smelled. Actually, it tasted really good. I'd bet it would be great on crackers. But I was pretty sure it would never become my favorite cheese. Not now I knew where it came from.