A Slimy Nightmare Night

by Scyphi

Little of the Slime

As the sun rose at the normal time over the School of Friendship, the occupants within slowly began waking. Some began it brightly by springing right out of bed, ready to start a new day. Others began it reluctantly, full of regret from staying up a tad too long the night previous.

Smolder was the latter, cursing the light of the sun as had become her tradition and stumbled out of her dorm room grumbling and looking closer to the undead than anything else. She didn’t have much interest in starting the day at all, nor was she keen for reminders that she was going to have to anyway.

Unfortunately, Silverstream was the former. “Good morning, Smolder!” the hippogriff cheerily greeted as she strolled out of their dorm room, about as close to literally bright-eyed and bushy tailed as one could ever get.

Just the sight of such exuberance hurt the dragoness’s tired eyes. “Sure doesn’t feel like it,” Smolder grumbled, rubbing at her eyes.

“Aw, did you stay up too late again last night?” Silverstream asked, leaning closer and still acting entirely too cheery.

If it was anyone other than Silverstream, Smolder would’ve tried to slap that cheeriness right out of her. “That’s a question that doesn’t need answering, Sil,” she glumly responded instead as they headed down the hall and out of the dorms.

“Were you up studying or something, then?”

“Heck, no! If I’m going to lose sleep, I’m certainly not losing it over something like studying.”

“Okay, but then you’d at least have a good excuse.”

“Uuuuugh, don’t remind me!”

They headed out into the school courtyard, using it as a shortcut for the main building. The early morning air was still quite nippy as was typical for the time of year. It always sent a jolt of discomfort through Smolder, missing the consistently warm weather of the Dragon Lands, but it also only scared away some of the sleep still riddling her body. So she made it a point to dunk her head into the cold water of the courtyard’s central fountain as they passed. If that wasn’t going to wake her up, nothing would.

Silverstream politely stood to one side and waited for Smolder to finish. While she did, she watched a few other students walking through the courtyard, giving them friendly greetings as they passed. “Hi Gallus!” she was heard greeting as Smolder’s head emerged from the fountain at last, shaking herself off.

Gallus just sleepily made a grumble that sounded like it might approximate something like a greeting.

Smolder appreciatively took notice. “Oh, thank the gemstones, I’m not the only one that can’t do mornings like this!” she declared, wiping residual water off her orange scales.

“It’s always nice to have things in common with good company,” Silverstream remarked with a grin. She waited for Smolder to finish drying herself a bit more before continuing. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah, let’s go get some breakfast,” Smolder said, looking a little more awake while following the hippogriff.

They followed the slow trickle of other students into the school’s cafeteria, where a hot breakfast was being served by the kitchen staff. As the majority of the students were still ponies, most of the food prepared had their diets in mind, but the staff still kept their non-pony students in consideration, willing to step up and prepare dishes specific to them when needed, or even permit (with supervision) such students access to the kitchens so to prepare their own meals. But both Smolder and Silverstream decided to stick with what everyone else was having and helped themselves to a bowl of warm oatmeal apiece. The only unique additions was Smolder grabbing a handful of gems from a bowl set out explicitly for the use of the dragon students in the school (which currently consisted of just Smolder anyway), intending to use them to garnish her oatmeal later.

First, though, both of them took their bowls and turned to face the rest of the cafeteria, a sizeable room filled with tables set about in rough rows. However, unlike usual, they weren’t already mostly filled with breakfasting students, and indeed, there seemed to be far fewer than normal altogether. This left plenty of open spots for them to sit at, but Smolder nevertheless blankly surveyed the room, confused.

She blinked a few times to see if that would clear some of the sleepy cobwebs still in her brain and help clarify things. It didn’t. “Where the heck is everybody?” she finally just asked.

“Did you forget?” Silverstream replied. “Today’s Nightmare Night!”

Smolder stopped dead in her tracks, eyes growing wide as she realized that it was. “You’re right!” she declared, stunned that she had forgotten. She gazed around at the interior of the room, taking in the holiday decorations that had been adorning it all week—long enough for her to get used to it and think little of it. “It is Nightmare Night today! Which is on a Saturday this year! Which means we don’t have classes today!”

“Yup!” Silverstream happily confirmed, not appreciating Smolder’s dismay over it.

“Gaaaaah!” the dragon bellowed, throwing her head back to send the growl of frustration up at the cafeteria ceiling. “Then I don’t have to be up right now! I could’ve slept in!” If she didn’t have a bowl of oatmeal in her claws at the moment, she would’ve slapped them both over her face right about now.

“Oh, well, no harm in getting up early anyway,” Silverstream remarked, waving the matter aside like it was no big deal. “As my mom always says, it’s the early hippogriff who gets the best worm for breakfast!”

Smolder pulled a face. “That’s disgusting.”

“No it isn’t! Worms are delish!” Silverstream licked her beak with her tongue in a craving manner only another hippogriff could appreciate.

Smolder just glared at her for a long moment, no more comforted.

“So,” Silverstream finally remarked, changing the subject like nothing had happened, “sit at the usual table?”

Smolder sighed. “Yeah, sure.”

They started for a table on the far side of the room where a familiar griffon sat, munching on his own breakfast. “Hi again, Gallus!” Silverstream greeted their friend, Smolder trailing behind her. “You saving these seats for anybody?”

“Nah, just got here late like you two,” Gallus replied before motioning at the empty seats with one paw. “So go ahead and take a seat.”

They did, sitting across from him. “Are you having a good morning thus far?” Silverstream asked happily as she and Smolder settled in.

“Well, good enough, I guess,” Gallus replied with a shrug as he scooped up another bite of his oatmeal with his spoon. “I mean, it’s both Nightmare Night and the weekend, so we get no school, a night of fun activities, and all the other cool stuff we’ve got planned for today.” He made a pleased grin. “Can’t complain to that.”

“You can if you still got up too early today,” Smolder grumbled, glaring into her oatmeal as she glumly dug in.

Gallus gave Smolder a bemused look. “And good morning to you too, Smolder,” he quipped with a smirk. “Nice of you to pull yourself out of bed so to join the rest of us.”

Smolder grunted and waved off the remark while Silverstream giggled.

“Smolder wanted to sleep in but forgot today wasn’t a school day,” she explained.

Gallus grunted, sympathetic. “If it helps, I also got woken up early by Sandbar banging around in our dorm room,” he explained. “Which sucks, because otherwise I’d be doing the same thing too. But you know Sandbar, he’s a bit of an early riser.”

“Great, another morning creature,” Smolder grumbled as she took a gem and started grinding it up with her claws, stirring the resulting sparkly dust into her oatmeal.

“At least he’s got a good excuse today, being a little wound up about what we’ve all got planned for later.”

“Ooh, how could you not?” Silverstream agreed eagerly, showing her own excitement. “We get to join the rest of his family for a Nightmare Night barbeque, and then go and do all of the Nightmare Night games and activities after that!” She gave Smolder an unwelcome nudge. “So it’s just as well you got up early—gives you more time to prepare and get ready! You know, with the costumes, and…”

“That’s why Sandbar was up so early, so he could go help get everything ready,” Gallus added, cutting off Silverstream before she carried on too much further. “That, and he wanted to use the time to visit with his family a bit.” He turned and surveyed the mostly empty cafeteria. “Looks like a lot of other students had the same idea.”

“Is that where the others are?” Silverstream asked, looking for their other friends. “Gone to visit family? Because I thought their homes were a little far off to go and visit and come back in just one day.”

“Besides, Yona loves Nightmare Night,” Smolder added. “You couldn’t drag her away from missing this.”

“Nah, I think they just haven’t gotten in here yet,” Gallus said, glancing around for the missing three from their group too. “Don’t exactly need to today, do they? But if they aren’t in here by the time we finish, I guess we can go looking for them if you all want.”

“Good,” Smolder groused, “Because if I can’t sleep in, they can’t either.”

Gallus snorted, sipping from an open can of soda he was having with his breakfast. “Boy, you really did get up on the wrong side of the bed,” he noted. “It being Nightmare Night can’t even fix that, huh?”

Smolder sighed. “No, I’m still looking forward to all that too,” she promised, and she really was. She yawned. “Sorry, I’m just still waking up. You know I’m no morning dragon.” She dropped her spoon so to rub the sleep she still hadn’t shaken from her eyes. “Gaaaaah, I just need something to get me to wake up properly, is all. If this keeps up, I’ll never be able to enjoy today properly.” She then stopped and studied Gallus for a moment, noting how awake he now appeared to be. “Wait a minute, Sil and I passed you earlier in the courtyard and you were pretty much dead on your paws then…how come you’re not now?”

Gallus raised a smug eyebrow at her while sipping at his soda, before setting the can down between them and turning it so they could read the label.

Silverstream squinted her eyes so to make out the exotic text in the logo. “Tsar Bomba?” she read aloud, confused.

“It’s an energy drink,” Gallus explained, still smug. “I bought a whole case at Barnyard Bargains a little while back.”

“I’ve heard of these!” Smolder said, picking up the can to curiously examine. “You drink it and it somehow revitalizes you, right?”

“Kind of,” Gallus said, taking the drink back before Smolder thought to sample it. “Basically, the drink’s chock full of stuff like caffeine, sugar…all the stuff that stimulates your body, makes it want to get moving.”

“So…basically you’d be drinking liquid energy,” Silverstream summarized.

“Yup,” Gallus confirmed, taking another sip from the can. He smacked his beak afterwards. “Just a few sips of this and you feel like you can take on the world!” He excitedly raised a claw for an additional point. “And! Get this—absolutely no aftertaste!”

“Oooh!” Silverstream cooed, impressed.

Smolder seemed a bit skeptical still…until her body forced out another yawn against her will and she shook her head, trying to loosen the metaphorical cobwebs still wrapping around it. “Okay, I have got to try some of this stuff, or today’s just going to be miserable for me,” she concluded flatly.

Silverstream bit the bottom of her beak. “I don’t know, Smolder…wouldn’t just going back to bed and getting some more sleep be a better—?”

“Gallus, any chance I can get you to hook me up with some of that stuff?” Smolder all but begged, ignoring Silverstream’s attempt at reasonability.

“For you? Absolutely. We can stop and grab one after breakfast.” Gallus set down the can. “But this stuff’s potent, so we still need to go over some ground rules first…”

---

“…So dragons obviously do have a basic education system to teach reading, writing, counting, adding, subtracting—all that stuff you need to maintain a horde and communicate with others and all that stuff in which we dragons like to call “doing mentoring,” where you meet in groups with a mentor specializing in teaching a particular skill level, and then you move up to the next skill level, and on and on and on and on until you finish sometime after your second molt,” Smolder much later rambled on at a mile a minute and seemingly without any end while she led the others down the hallway.

“Uh-huh,” Gallus replied, nodding his head as he half-heartedly tried to follow along.

“…and typically you just go through all of these skill levels at a set speed, like, one every year or so without exception. I had never heard of anyone breaking that trend before in my life and neither has my brother, my mother, my father, or basically any other dragon I know except of course Spike, because, you know, raised by ponies. But then Dragon Lord Ember goes and becomes the dragon lord, and she goes through all of the dragons in each skill level to see how they are all doing, and then she comes upon me, and, to her, I seem to being doing better than every dragon else, and so she decides I’m, like, leaps and bounds ahead of everybody else.”

“Uh-huh.” Gallus threw in the added emphasis partly to sound like he was interested and partly out of sarcasm.

“So she moved me up a skill level, the first time any dragon has done that in, like, ever, all because she said I wasn’t fitting in, but then I’m even more not fitting in! And I was getting good marks too, you know? Like, all As and everything! But Ember said ‘you need stimulation,’ and I went, ‘No, I’m stimulated enough right now!’”

“That’s for sure!” Silverstream chirped, having been watching Smolder go on like this for the past few minutes with some amusement.

“So she goes, ‘nuh-uh, you don’t have a challenge!’ So then I’m challenged, all right, I’M CHALLENEGED to hold onto my lunch gems, because all of the big dragons wanted to pound me because I’m the shrimpy dork who thought I’m smarter than them! But I didn’t think I’m smarter, I just did the stupid homework! If everyone JUST DID THE STUPID HOMEWORK, they could’ve moved up a skill level and get pounded too!” Smolder then abruptly whirled around and faced Gallus hopefully. “Is there any more energy drink I can have after this?”

Gallus regarded her for a moment, and then gently took the can of energy drink she held in her claws from her. “Noooooo, I think you just might’ve had enough of this one.”

Smolder regarded the can dismissively. “Eh, it was empty anyway,” she said before flipping back around and marching onward determinedly. She was moving at a fast enough gait that Gallus and Silverstream had to up theirs just to keep up. “But I feel great! That stuff was just the trick to get me to wake up, and now I feel like, like, I’ve been supercharged! Blood’s pumping and everything, my heart’s just going boom, boom, boom, BOOM!”

Silverstream winced. “…doesn’t that sound worryingly like the start of a heart attack?” she whispered to Gallus.

“If it is, maybe it’ll finally slow her down,” Gallus groused back.

“Yeaaaaah, Smolder, are you sure you’re okay?” Silverstream asked the dragoness, who kept right on going at her intense pace.

“Never better!” Smolder declared confidently. “I feel like I could take a few laps around Yakyakistan! Let’s run to Yakyakistan!”

“Yeah, better hold off on that, champ,” Gallus interrupted, hurrying close so to grab her shoulder and stop her, just in case she actually tried it. “You know, when I gave you a can of this stuff, I told you to sip it. Just sip it…not chug it all down in one go!”

“But why not?” Smolder asked, enthusiastically whirling on him. “Why just give me a mere taste of the energy locked in that stuff when I can go the whole distance and have it all right now?”

“Well, after you chugged it down like that, you did make a pretty big belch of flames afterwards,” Silverstream reasoned with a wince. “I was worried for a second it was going to set something on fire.”

“And because, it’s potent!” Gallus added, repeating this not for the first time. “By sipping it, you can pace yourself, control the effects, keep it from getting…you know…too out of control!”

“Out of control? Are you kidding me? You make it all sound like a bad thing—how could any of this be a bad thing? I mean, you drink it, and you’re fine!”

“Well, for starters, if you’re anything to go by, sipping it’ll keep you from going out of sync with the rest of the universe like you are right now,” Gallus commented. “Seriously, you’re beyond rivalling Silverstream at this point! Heck, Pinkie Pie even, and she’s the most energetic creature I know!”

“Gosh, I wonder what Professor Pinkie Pie would be like if she drank some of this…” Silverstream murmured, eyes wide at the thought.

“The world would basically end, so don’t do it,” Gallus calmly informed her before turning back to Smolder. “Look, Smolder, the point is that this energy drink works by stimulating you.”

“I know! Isn’t it great?”

“I mean, to work like it does, it stimulates more than just the heart and mind! It stimulates basically everything else of you, too, including your other organs!”

Smolder gave him an incredulous look. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means…oh, forget it!” Gallus glanced at a clock hanging on the hallway wall. “It’s been long enough since you guzzled down that drink that you’re probably going to start feeling it any second now.”

“What do you mean I’m going to—” Smolder abruptly trailed off when, as if on cue, her stomach suddenly let out an ominous gurgle and she clamped a paw tightly to it, starting to prance in place. “Ooh! I—I gotta—I mean I think—I mean, uh—ooh!—I need to go use the little dragon’s room!” She then took to the air and shot off down the hall, flapping her wings urgently as she shouted for everybody to get out of the way…even though there was absolutely no one else in the hallway.

“Next time just SIP the dang drink!” Gallus shouted after her just as she vanished around the corner. He then sighed and turned back to Silverstream, rolling his eyes. “Boy, I’d hate to be the poor sap that’s going to have to clean that toilet.”

“Who is in charge of doing that sort of thing, anyway?” Silverstream asked, thinking about it and realizing she didn’t know, having never seen anyone engaged in the task.

“Beats me,” Gallus remarked as they both resumed their original course. He then chuckled. “But I guess whoever it is, they must be some kind of miracle worker, considering all the junk we, the student body, have put this school through since it opened.”

Silverstream laughed. “Yeah, I guess that’s true.” She glanced back in the direction Smolder had disappeared in. “Should we wait for Smolder?”

“Nah. Trust me, she’s going to be awhile.”

“…you sound like you’re speaking from experience.”

Gallus winced and regarded the empty can he took from Smolder. “Admittedly, they could probably use a few more warning labels on how not to consume this energy drink,” he said as he chucked the can into a nearby recycling bin. “Then none of us would ever have to learn from experience like this.”

“Ah.” Silverstream winced to herself. “I think I’ll pass on having any of that drink myself, if that’s okay.”

“That’s good, because I wouldn’t give you some even if you paid me. You do not need the extra energy, Sil.”

They kept walking until they arrived at the dorms—specifically, the one Yona and Ocellus shared, hoping to find out what had kept the others from joining them at breakfast. As they arrived though, they found Sandbar starting to arrive at the same door, coming from the other direction.

“Yo, Sandbar!” Gallus called as they arrived, drawing the earth pony’s attention. “Where you been all morning?”

“Oh, going around, getting supplies for tonight,” Sandbar replied, motioning to his saddlebags ladened with Nightmare Night supplies. “There’s lots that still needs to be done, especially for the barbeque later. My folks are still getting everything set up for that now.”

“Speaking of,” Gallus continued eagerly. “You still got that package I gave you for the barbeque, right?”

Sandbar sighed, rolling his eyes. “Yes, Gallus, we still have that package of…meat…you provided for us, and we’ve been keeping it in the freezer until tonight, like you instructed.” He then swallowed uncomfortably. “Well, I should say my dad’s been looking over it—everybody else in my family won’t even touch it.” He poked Gallus in the chest with his hoof. “You’re darn lucky my dad’s so interested in the challenge of cooking meat or you probably would’ve been out of luck on this.”

“And see, that’s why I like your dad so much,” Gallus replied back, unrepentant. “Besides, it’s a barbeque—what’s a barbeque without some grilled meat?”

Sandbar gave him a disturbed look. “You and I have very different ideas about barbeques, then.”

Gallus snorted and started grumbling an impolite comment about all the vegetarian ponies he was stuck with when Silverstream butted in with a question of her own. “So Sandy, if you really have so much you still need to do for tonight, what brings you back here?” she asked.

“Oh, well,” Sandbar said, “I came back here to get Yona. She promised to help set up for the barbeque, and then after that work on our Nightmare Night costumes.”

“Ooh!” Silverstream squealed at this, giving Sandbar a sly look. “Are you two going to do one of those matching costumes things that couples do?”

Sandbar blushed and didn’t answer.

“Well, we’re here looking for Ocellus and Yona too,” Gallus explained, taking much restraint to let the chance to tease the pony further pass him by. “They didn’t show up for breakfast this morning.”

“Really?” Sandbar said, surprised. “That’s weird…Yona told me yesterday that she had wanted to get an early start today…I didn’t think she’d sleep in…”

“Ocellus is usually an early riser too,” Silverstream added with a shrug. Her brow furrowed slightly. “You don’t think they’re sick, do you? Oh, that’d be horrible to have happen on today of all days!”

“Well, only one way to find out,” Sandbar reasoned, turning to the dorm room door and politely rapping on it with one hoof. “Yona, you in there?” he called politely. “Gallus and Silverstream are here with me, they say you didn’t turn up for breakfast!”

“Yona here!” Yona was heard calling back. “One moment, please!” There were some scuffling sounds and then the door opened, revealing the young yak, looking a little ruffled but otherwise the same as always. “Sandbar forgive yak, hectic morning today!”

“Well, it is Nightmare Night,” Sandbar reasoned as he and the others started to step into the room. “That’s exciting enough as it is, and with all of our plans for today, I can believe this morning being a…little…” he trailed off as they got a good look at the room for the first time.

“Uh, Yona?” Gallus remarked aloud after a moment of taking it in. “…what’s up in here?”

“Well…” Yona began, uncertain how to explain, before just sweeping a hoof inside the room, “…see for self.”

So they all peered at the other side of the room. Past Yona was the dorm room’s other occupant, Ocellus, deep in work to a degree they weren’t sure how to react to. Their eyes went wide at the sight though, starting to understand what had kept these two from breakfast. Their changeling friend was seated at her desk, completely engrossed in using what could only be described as a mad scientist set-up of vials and tubes through which mysterious fluids and magical energies were currently coursing and percolating.

“Sooo…” Gallus uttered, staring blankly as the changeling worked, seemingly oblivious that they were at the door. “…what’s going on?”

“Been like that since last night,” Yona murmured conspiratorially into the griffon’s ear. “Yak not sure she’s slept.”

“Yikes,” Silverstream hissed and stepped closer. Sure enough, now that she could see Ocellus up close, she had bags under her eyes (which Silverstream hadn’t even known was possible for a chitinous changeling to have), and instead of her usual calm and quiet attitude, she seemed to have a worryingly frenzied look in her eye. “Uh…Ocellus? You okay?”

“Shh-shh-shh!” Ocellus eagerly hissed, waving a hoof blindly in their direction but didn’t look up from the concoction she was making…whatever that was. “I’m on the verge of a breakthrough that could change the lives of changelings everywhere!”

Silverstream was taken aback by her uncharacteristic enthusiasm. “Uhhh…” she murmured again, at a loss, and turned to the others for help.

But the others looked just as blank, and Yona could simply shrug. “Ocellus been working on personal project all week, but now keeps saying close to breakthrough without explaining what. Yona been trying to make her stop since morning. But changeling won’t.”

“Ohhhhhkay, I think an intervention might be in order here, then,” Gallus murmured in conclusion, rubbing his chin with one paw as he pondered how to best proceed.

“Yak been trying,” Yona repeated. “But Ocellus adamant about finishing first.”

“Should we even try?” Sandbar reasoned, watching the changeling. “I mean, is what she working on even really harming anything?”

“Just look at her, Sandbar!” Gallus added, throwing his talons out at Ocellus. If she was hearing what they were saying, she was ignoring them. “She’s got a whole mad scientist set up thing going on here!”

“And she’s doing it all on Nightmare Night!” Silverstream added pointedly.

“Exactly!” Gallus agreed. “When has that ever ended well for anybody?”

Sandbar still wasn’t convinced. “But do we even know what she’s working on?”

They all looked at Ocellus and her array of bubbling vials and tubes for a moment. “Well,” Silverstream reasoned, approaching the changeling, “Probably should try to ask…” She moved to stand beside where the changeling sat, intently watching the chemicals flow from beaker to beaker. “Um, Ocellus? Just what is it that you’re working on?”

“Change, Silverstream!” Ocellus replied cryptically, barely moving to acknowledge Silverstream’s, or for that matter anyone’s, presence in the room. Her eyes were alight with a wild intensity. “I am so close to a massive breakthrough that—”

“Yeah, yeah, change things for changelings everywhere, we got that,” Gallus finished, moving to stand at Ocellus’s other side, “but just how is all of this going to do that? Just what are you even trying to make?”

“Intelligent gel,” Ocellus finally clarified.

The others blinked at her. “Intelligent gel,” Sandbar repeated skeptically.

“Yeeesssssss,” Ocellus hissed pleasantly, eyeing a vial that all of the chemicals she was working with now seemed to be gradually flowing into.

They waited for her to elaborate, but as before, Ocellus didn’t explain further. “Okay, I’ll bite,” Gallus finally said, placing his talons on the desk so to lean closer, trying to get her full attention. “What’s intelligent gel, and what does it got to do with anything?”

“Gallus, be careful!” Ocellus suddenly hissed when Gallus nearly bumped the delicate arrangement of equipment. She held out her hooves to protectively shield it from the griffon, who quickly removed his talons and held them up placatingly. “This is all very delicate! One wrong move and you could ruin the whole experiment!”

“Okay, okay!” Gallus said, keeping his distance. “But you gotta fill us in then. What’s intelligent gel?”

“Is it this green slimy stuff flowing through these tubes?” Silverstream started to ask, moving to poke one of them with her talon.

She never got the chance to touch it though, as Ocellus suddenly hocked up a ball of sticky green changeling gel and spat it at Silverstream’s offending paw, adhering it instead to the surface of the desk. “It’s like that,” Ocellus replied crossly, pointing a hoof at the ball of slime that now covered the hippogriff’s paw, “but able to automatically adapt to its environment.”

The others all pulled faces of mild disgust as Silverstream attempted to pry her paw free again, stretching the offending slime unpleasantly.

“…what do you mean, automatically adapt?” Sandbar asked slowly, averting his gaze from Silverstream’s plight.

Ocellus sighed wearily. Clearly, she wasn’t in the mood for all the distractions they were providing, so focused as she was. “Back in the hive, changeling gel has numerous uses all through out. A good example all of you would be familiar with is the cocoons we would trap prey in, at least until our Enlightenment. But it requires constant monitoring and manual adjusting from the changeling using it.”

“I think I get it then,” Gallus said as Silverstream finally yanked her paw free with a disgustingly wet pop. “You want this intelligent slime or whatever to be able to do all of that on its own, so changelings won’t have to do it themselves.”

Ocellus nodded, her gaze going back to watching the green solution she was brewing drip into a final beaker. “I’ve been working on it off and on for a while now, but last night I think I finally figured out the solution. So if all of my calculations are correct, this special batch of gel should be able to do that, and if so…this could be changeling history in the making.”

Starting to understand why she was so worked up about it then, the others all leaned closer, watching the finished solution gradually collect in the beaker, waiting in eager silence for the final verdict.

Then Smolder barged into the room. “I’m back!” she brightly called.

The other five all jumped in surprise. “GAH!”

Smolder laughed at the sight. “Sheesh, you guys are all more tightly wound up than my brother trying to sneak out of the family cave back before his first molt, you know like you do,” she rambled on in a rush, clearly not over her caffeine high yet. “Aw, that takes me back, to the days when we both young and care free and would go and shove each other off of rock piles, tracking lava all throughout the cave and driving my mom up the walls, and whoa, Ocellus, you look like you haven’t slept in a week!” She hurried forward eagerly holding out a familiar can of soda to the changeling. “Here, you should try drinking some of this, it’ll do wonders for waking you back up, and—”

“Oh no, I think getting Ocellus on a caffeine high is the very last thing we want at the moment,” Gallus quickly intervened, pushing Smolder’s proffering paw away before the changeling could accept the energy drink. “She’s a little too obsessed with what she’s doing already, so she doesn’t need any more help with that.” Gallus then frowned, looking at the unopened can in the dragoness’s claws. “And where did you get that anyway? You already finished the last can I gave you.”

“Yeah, but I wanted more so to keep staying awake,” Smolder explained as she shrugged and popped open the can for herself. “So after I finished in the restroom, I stopped by your dorm and got another from your stash and—”

“Hey, no, that’s mine!” Gallus objected and snatched the can from her before she could take a drink. “Give me that!”

“Hey!” Smolder objected, trying to snatch it back. “You said you would hook me up with some of that stuff!”

“I was happy to give you a can this morning because you were dead on your feet!” Gallus relented, keeping the dragon at arm’s reach and holding the can as far away from her as he could. “But if you’re just going to keep guzzling down cans like there’s no tomorrow, you can go buy your own!”

Smolder harrumphed and turned away, indignantly sticking her tongue out at the griffon. Gallus merely rolled his eyes and ignored her.

“What’s up with Smolder?” Sandbar asked, noticing she seemed a little over-energized.

“Oh, I made the mistake of introducing her to energy drinks is all,” Gallus sighed wearily, taking a sup from the open can of soda so it wouldn’t go to waste. He then changed the subject, pointing at the beaker of solution they had been watching. “So…is the slime intelligent yet?”

Ocellus turned her attention back to the beaker just in time for the last few drops to dribble in. “Only one way to find out,” she said, lighting her horn and leaning close to examine the greenish slime she had collected.

“What’s this about slime?” Smolder asked as they all leaned in closer to watch. “Why are we all watching slime? I don’t understand what’s happening here.”

“That’s what you get for not being here for the explainy parts!” Silverstream replied brightly, but then added as a promise, “We’ll explain later.”

So they quietly watched as Ocellus hovered her horn over the beaker of gel. At first glance it appeared to be the same as the normal gel that had adhered Silverstream’s paw to the desk earlier, but in reality, it had a more blue-green color and a faint glow to it as well. This glow amplified as Ocellus brought her lit horn within inches of the beaker’s open top, a reaction which pleased her.

“Yes, that’s good,” she remarked hopefully.

The others leaned closer.

Ocellus switched to a different spell which created a small ball of heat at the tip, and waved her horn onto one side of the beaker. In response, the gel within shifted of its own volition, pressing itself up against the side of the beaker furthest away from the heat source.

Ocellus’s expression grew more excited. “Yes,” she murmured at these promising results.

The others leaned even closer to the point of almost tipping themselves over, pressing on top of each other so to watch over the changeling’s shoulder.

Ocellus then moved her horn to the other side of the beaker, only for the gel to again respond by trying to move away from that heat source. It did this no matter which way she waved it around the beaker.

Ocellus’s eyes grew wide. “Yes!” she declared, victorious. “I think I’ve done it! Intelligent slime, that adapts to its environment! Finally! After moons of constant research, experimenting, theorizing, and hard, hard, work, I’ve finally, finally, succeeded!”

And then Gallus leaned a little too far and accidentally caused some his energy drink to dribble out of its can and into the open beaker. The drink fizzled immediately on contact with the gel, which reacted by turning a teal color as it briefly swelled up, then with a hiss deflated in upon itself and moved no more, becoming inert.

“…Whoops.” It was all Gallus could think to say in that moment.

Ocellus, meanwhile, had stiffened, suddenly going very still and quiet as an ominous silence settled upon the dorm room.

Then Silverstream nervously clapped her talons together. “Well!” she declared with forced cheeriness. “This has been fun! But I just remembered I still need to finish preparing my Nightmare Night costume!” She then beat a hasty retreat out of the room.

“Speaking of!” Sandbar added in a similar tone of voice. “Me and Yona still need to work out our own Nightmare Night costumes!”

“Yes!” Yona agreed a little too quickly as she and Sandbar also made hurried exits. “Yak must go do that! Right now!”

“Annnnnd I need to go do…a thing…” Smolder also offered lamely, rushing for the door.

Gallus moved to follow her. “And I need to go help Smolder with the…thing.”

“Hold it.”

Unlike the others, he didn’t get as far as out the door before an aura of magic wrapped itself around his blue lion-like tail and yanked, immediately halting him before slowly dragging him back towards the none-too-happy changeling by said tail.

“You are not going anywhere, until you and I have both gone through every LAST ingredient of that drink of yours and figured out just went wrong,” Ocellus stated clearly, succinctly, but in a very dark tone that was quite rare for the changeling.

Which all just told Gallus what he already knew—he was in deep trouble.

Author's Note:

So, for this spook month, I decided to come back and revisit this fic, adding in new content, new cover, and some in-story illustrations!

I've also broken up the story into chapters, so if you're here because you got sudden notifications about new chapters for this fic--that's why. However, I deliberately arranged things so that what was once the original version of the story is now the last chapter, so any comments on the story left before this update should still be there.

Enjoy the additions!