A Gizmonk in Ponyville

by Moheart7

Chapter 25 - Aftermath

“RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!” Goggles screamed as he quickly climbed through the hole in the basement door. “WE’RE BUSTED!!!”

At those words everyone looked up from what they were doing and turned towards the screams of the Gizmonk, who had quickly darted towards the front door of Sugarcube Corner. While they were thankful that Pinkie Pie had finally managed to fall into stage 3 of the tea and passed out on one of the tables, every pony’s eyes widened with terror as they looked into the kitchen to see Applejack’s hoof coming out of the hole in the door and reaching for the handle.

“Get back here you miserable little varmint!!!” Applejack’s vice screamed from the other side of the door. “When ah get out of here ah’m gonna skin ya alive and sow you into a hat!”

That had to have been the scariest thing Apple Bloom had ever heard her older sister say, as she and the other ponies looked in horror as Applejack began forcing her way through, the now weakened door, they decided to follow Goggles’ example and bolt for it before the furious Earth Pony took out her heated rampage on them. Before long, Applejack had finally managed to get the basement door open, and for a few brief moments she took in her new surroundings.

“We were in Sugarcube Corner this whole time!?!” she snapped. “Ah’m gonna kill that Gizmonk!”

At those words Applejack rushed out of the kitchen and through the dining area, ignoring the fact that two of her friends were passed out around her with white, polka-dotted manes, Applejack noticed that the front door was wide open, indicating that the one she was after had just left the building. Stomping her fore-hoof to the ground like a bull, Applejack then rushed out of Sugarcube corner and into the street, thankfully not noticing the four fillies hiding behind the door.

“Aw Pony-feathers!” Apple Bloom squealed, as soon as she was sure her sister had disappeared from earshot. “Ah’ve never seen my sister THIS mad.”

“And now Goggles is gonna get it big!” Sweetie Belle added.

“All those in favour of never mentioning our involvement in this?” Scootaloo asked nervously, raising her hoof and receiving angry glares from the other Crusaders. “What?”

#

Meanwhile, while Trixie and Goggles tried their best to get as far away from Sugarcube Corner as possible, Applejack was running them down as though they were mice running from a cat.

“I knew it!” Trixie yelled in Goggles’ ear, letting out her frustration with the whole scenario. “I knew this was a stupid idea!”

“Just shut up and run!!!” Goggles retorted as Applejack began to catch up with them.

It was pretty close to dusk at this point in time, by now Celestia had begun to bring the sun down and the sky was turning a deep orange, by now there weren’t as many ponies out on the streets save for a small number, and thankfully they weren’t really interested as to Why Applejack was chasing down Goggles and Trixie, in fact they had just assumed that Trixie was the one Applejack was really after given the knowledge of her past misdeeds. As Applejack managed to pull herself closer and closer towards the two, her eyes red with fury as he targeted the Gizmonk, Goggles quickly looked up at Trixie with a deep concern in his voice.

“Listen,” he said. “She only wants to kill me! Save yourself!”

However instead of being overcome with emotion, Trixie merely shifted to the right and began running a different direction.

“Okay!” she called out. “I’ll see you at the hospital!”

As Trixie disappeared from sight Goggles scowled.

“You know, you could have at least TRIED to say no to that!” he screamed, though in all honesty not expecting anything less from her.

After what seemed like an hour of running, Goggles soon managed to catch a break in the form of a supposed safe haven in a nearby tree. As he climbed up and hide amongst the foliage, Goggles hoped that he had managed to stay out of Applejack’s sight long enough for her to just run past the tree, however just like the rest of his bad luck today, he was wrong. Suddenly feeling the vibration from Applejack’s buck to the trunk of the tree, Goggles instantly fell off the branch he was sitting on and fell face-first into the mud below. As soon as his head stopped spinning, and he wiped the brown gunk off his face, Goggles looked up tom see an angry Applejack staring down at him with a fierce gaze.

“Oh uh… hey AJ,” he nervously said with a gulp. “You’re looking lovely this evening.”

“Don’t think that pile of swill’s gonna work ya little varmint!” Applejack snapped, causing Goggles to cringe with fear of what she would do to him. “Ah want an explanation NOW!”

Applejack had her suspicions as to why Goggles did this, in fact she was certain of his reason since he pretty much told them to her the day before she was kidnapped, however given the circumstances she needed to hear it from his own mouth. However for some reason Goggles didn’t want to say anything, in fact when Applejack demanded his explanation, his look of fear turned into a stern gaze.

“I had my reasons,” he said plainly.

But that was not the answer Applejack was looking for.

“That’s not good enough!” she retorted, only for Goggles to cross his arms and turn away.

“I ain’t saying!” he said.

At those words, Applejack’s blood really began to boil over, so much so that she was on the verge of tears, the least this Gizmonk could was give her a reason why he betrayed her trust like this. At this point she thrust her hoof against the Gizmonk’s chest and pinned him against the tree.

“Why’d you do it Goggles!?!” she shouted in his face. “Tell me!!!”

But once again, Goggles said nothing, he tried to look away but Applejack used her other hoof to turn his face towards her again.

“TELL ME!!!” she screamed again.

Finally Goggles couldn’t take anymore of Applejack’ interrogation, seeing the look of hate in Applejack’s tearful eyes was simply too much for him.

“I DID IT BECAUSE I DON’T WANT YOU TO FEEL AS ALONE AS I AM!!!” he blurted out.

At those words Applejack’s gaze softened, needless to say that last sentence caused her to be taken aback a bit.

“What?” she exclaimed with a raised eyebrow, lifting her hooves away from his and giving him a chance to speak.

“Do you have any idea of how hard life is for me?” he sighed. “To wake up every day, look in the mirror and know that my own reflection is the only face that I will ever get to see that’s the same as my own? I’ve spent so many years amongst ponies and yet not once seeing another member of my species, do you have any idea how lonely that is?”

Applejack didn’t know why Goggles was telling her this, after all is certainly wasn’t the answer to her question, but regardless she began to feel a slight bit of sympathy for him despite her anger, so she allowed him to continue speaking

“I’ve been alone ever since my parents disappeared all those years ago,” Goggles continued. “I’ve come to accept the fact that I may be the last of my kind, I’ve even come to accept that I may never be able to feel the same love you do for Spike. Sure, you two are different species, but that doesn’t stop you from feeling the way you do, and if I had the same chance then I would take it.”

Now Applejack began to understand, even if it was only slightly, as she listened to the Gizmonk’s words, she felt her heart ache.

“Goggles…” she exclaimed.

“Look, I’m not saying what we did was right, if anything it was going too far,” Goggles admitted. “But I’ve come to care about you just as I would a sister, and even if I can’t fall in love with anyone that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be honest with your feelings and not be too stubborn to admit them. You have a chance to be happy, all I wanted was to make sure you took that chance. I… I just don’t want you to feel lonely, like I do.”

Applejack couldn’t help but feel ashamed of herself, upon hearing that even though Goggles had taken some extremely drastic measures to do so, he really did lock her and Spike up together all because he cared about her. At this point Applejack was stuck between deciding whether she should take out her anger on the Gizmonk anyway or an alternative route. What things even worse was the fact that she knew that there was a strong possibility that Goggles was the last of his kind, but all Applejack did was mull over her own emotional problems with him and not consider how HE must have felt as he listened to every word. And yet here he was, trying his best to make sure that Applejack took her chance to express her feelings for the one she loved, she didn’t know whether he was a selfless saint, or an idiotic lunatic. It was then that Applejack’s face turned from a glare to a soft smile.

“It WAS going too far,” she said, softening her gaze.

Goggle half expected Applejack’s words to be bait for upcoming lash, but regardless he responded.

“It was, yes,” he admitted.

“But in all honesty, ah’m actually glad you did it,” Applejack said with a slight chuckle.

To say that Goggles was shocked to hear that particular sentence would have been an understatement, in fact the second he heard he thought that he had finally went insane after all the chaos of this afternoon. After all, just a few minutes ago Applejack wanted to beat him to a pulp, and now she was… glad?

“You… you are?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Ah am,” Applejack answered, placing a hoof on his shoulder. “And for what it’s worth, this whole scheme of yours did bring me and Spike that much closer, even if you did knock him out.”

Now Goggles was sure he had gone insane, Applejack was too stubborn to change her mind so easily. Perhaps he was more convincing with his words than he thought he was, either way the whole situation made him happy with the fact that he wasn’t going to the hospital tonight.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” he apologised. “Listen, no one else has to know about this whole thing right? And there’s no hard feelings?”

“Of course there’s no hard feelings, and ah promise that me and Spike won’t tell a soul about what happened,” Applejack assured him, however she didn’t stop there for her eyes then returned to a glare. “However, that doesn’t mean that you’re gonna go unpunished for what you did.”

Goggles gulped at that, he knew it was too good to be true.

“After y’all have fixed up all the damage in Sugarcube corner, for the next month you’re gonna scoop out the pig sty, clean out the septic tank and wait on me paw and foot.,” Applejack explained, though Goggles was pretty sure that she only added that last one just to rub everything that has happened in his face.

“I suppose that’s fair,” Goggles sighed in defeat.

However Applejack still wasn’t finished.

“Oh and all that time you are completely cut off from your tea supply,” she said, causing Goggles to widen his eye with terror. “Got it? You are not to have a single drop for an entire month.”

Now Goggles believed that Applejack was just being cruel, sure he locked her and Spike up in a basement for three days, but that doesn’t mean she has the right to cut off his favourite beverage, right? After a few minutes of having a minor nervous breakdown, Goggles finally managed to calm down long enough to speak.

“Well I guess I did have THAT coming,” he admitted, the truth of the matter making him sick to his stomach.

Applejack rolled her eyes at that, after spending so much time with Goggles living with her and the Apples, she simply knew that the only thing this Gizmonk loved more than Inventing was his tea addiction. This next month is just gonna be pure torture for him.

“Yeah, you DID have it coming,” she chuckled with a smug look on her face. “Now come here.”

At those words, Applejack pulled him into a gentle hug, not showing that she forgave him, but more to show him that she understands his reason. After a few brief moments of embrace, their train of thought was interrupted by a loud crunching noise coming from behind them.

“Oh I do love moments like this,” said a smooth voice between the crunches.

At those words, Goggles and Applejack’s eyes widened and they turned their heads towards the voice. There, hovering above them in mid-air with a big bowl of popcorn in his lion paw, was a creature Goggles had never met before, a creature that was a jumble of every animal he could think of.

“What the heck are you doing here!?!” Applejack angrily asked the Draconequus.

“Oh nothing,” the Draconequus, known as Discord responded with a smirk on his face. “Just wanted to make my cameo in this story, Toodles!”

And with that Discord, snapped his Eagle claw and disappeared in a flash of light, leaving Applejack alone with a VERY confused Gizmonk.

“That was… random,” Goggles finally said.

#

In the aftermath of the whole ordeal, everything soon began to fall back into something close to a normal evening. After taking Goggles back to Sugarcube corner to apologise to Spike for what happened, Applejack was surprised to find her little sister and the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders waiting for them. After all four fillies grovelled at Applejack’s hooves, begging her for forgiveness for their involvement in the whole plan, Applejack couldn’t help but roll her eyes, she should have guessed that Goggles had convinced these four to help him out, after all he WAS their mascot. And just as Applejack was done giving the CMC a scolding they would never forget, eventually even Trixie came crawling back to Sugarcube Corner, actually feeling guilty about leaving Goggles in the dust like she did, perhaps she DID have a conscience after all. At this point in time Applejack rubbed her temples with irritation, wondering just how many ponies were involved with this whole scheme, needless to say everyone thought it best not to mention the Diamond Dogs’ involvement.

What was worse was when Applejack finally noticed Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Diamond Tiara all passed out in the dining are with their manes turning white with multi-coloured polka-dots, it was then that Goggles had to explain what happened while she and Spike were trapped, needless to say that only made her even more irritated. Luckily Trixie had a solution for the whole situation, she didn’t mention it before but she did know a spell that should help them out, as it turns out Trixie knew an Amnesia spell she used to cast on audiences who considered her shows terrible, unfortunately she couldn’t get the spell right and the spell became too powerful since the subject would not only forget the past few minutes but also the last three days, thus she stopped using it altogether. However in this case it seemed that three days is EXACTLY what they needed these three to forget, and after some hard convincing on Goggles part, Applejack agreed to have Spike undergo the spell too, to avoid any more loose ends to the whole ordeal. However even as Trixie casted her spell on all four subjects, Applejack remembered the kind words Spike said to her earlier, still believing that the real shame was the fact that Spike would never remember he said them in the first place, but SHE will. And it was that fact that gave her a better perspective of what Goggles tried to do for her, she may not have approved of his methods in the slightest, but at least now she would have some idea of what to expect when she really is ready to admit her feelings for the young dragon.

By the end of the night, the only ones who would remember the whole ordeal was Applejack, Goggles, Trixie, the Cuties Mark Crusaders, all of whom were sworn to secrecy as they secretly placed each individual pony and dragon back in their respective homes. Needless to say after waking up in their own beds with white, polka-dotted manes, Twilight and Diamond Tiara both screamed with terror upon looking at themselves in the mirror, of course Pinkie pie on the other hand simply laughed at the situation, and since neither one of them could remember the last three days, they had no idea how they got them or how to get rid of them. Luckily, both for them and Goggles, the manes returned to normal only 2 hours later so the whole thing was brushed off pretty quickly.

#

After the next two weeks, winter had finally come to Equestria, as the Pegasi began to pour fresh snow all across the land the atmosphere at Sweet Apple Acres was somewhat different than the gentle blanket of cool joy covering the ground. After admitting their involvement with Goggles’ plan, both Trixie and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were to share his punishment, after helping him fix all the damages Pinkie Pie had done to Sugarcube Corner, each and everyone one of them had to assist him with scooping out the pig sty and cleaning out the sceptic tank, however they also had their own individual punishments too. While Goggles was stuck waiting on Applejack, completely cut off from his tea, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were banned from doing any crusading until further notice, in fact after telling their parents a few twisted truths, Applejack made sure each of them were grounded for a certain amount of time. As for Trixie, her punishment was to have her wages halved until Goggles was off probation, something she of course threatened to kill the Gizmonk for, in fact as soon as she heard the news from Applejack, she instantly tried to turn him into a lemon, luckily Trixie’s magic wasn’t that advanced and only managed to turn him yellow for an hour.

It may have taken a short while but eventually, everyone managed to move on from what happened, question had finally stopped going around as to why Sugarcube Corner was apparently “renovated” with the Cakes’ knowledge, Diamond Tiara’s mother wasn’t even considering a lawsuit since she had no idea who changed her daughter’s hair white, and best of all, no pony, apart from those sworn to secrecy, had any knowledge of the whole kidnapping incident. As a fresh cover of snow began to cover Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack couldn’t help but smile as she walked out of her bedroom one morning, looking back towards her bedside table she saw the Crystal Lilly Spike gave her still reflecting a rainbow-coloured radiance as it shone in the winter’s light, she may have known Spike wouldn’t remember giving it to her, in fact he still thinks that he lost it before he could give it to Rarity, but Applejack felt no guilt in keeping it. To her it served as a reminder of Spike’s kind words and her promise to herself to eventually tell him how she really felt.

“Applejack!” Granny Smith’s voice called from downstairs, snapping her out of her trance. “You coming down or what!?!”

“Coming Granny!” Applejack called back, looking back at the Lilly one last time before closing her door behind her.

Heading downstairs, towards the kitchen, Applejack found her Granny Smith standing by the stove, it wasn’t really a surprise to see her cooking around this time, after all, she always liked to stock up on some of her cinnamon-seasoned jams in the earliest weeks of winter.

“What were y’all doing up there?” she asked, turning her head towards Applejack. “It ain’t like you to miss out on helping your Granny make our winter jam.”

“Oh nothing Granny, just needed to do something upstairs is all,” Applejack answered. “So what can ah help ya with?”

“Well you can start with…” Granny Smith began, before suddenly being cut off by a loud sound of an explosion. “What in tarnation?”

Both running towards the kitchen window, Granny Smith and Applejack gasped to see what the cause of the explosion was. As they gazed through frosted glass of the window, they saw bright flashes of lightning bursting through the roof of the barn, needless to say both of them knew that that meant.

“Goggles,” the both deadpanned simultaneously.

Comments

[solartiger]

Awesome chapter

[Tatsurou]

That big wall of text towards the end is hard to read through. Might want to break it into paragraphs.

[Moheart7]

5832766 Thanks :)

[Moheart7]

5832867 Oh don't worry, I took care of that

[solartiger]

5833852 You're welcome