September 2 – 12:06 PM
“Ugh...” Scootaloo groaned. “How on earth did we manage to find a way to make tree sap even sappier? More importantly, how did we manage to get covered in it again?” The dark brown goo that had coated the net was already oozing into her mane and wings, and her initial attempts to pull the net off had only resulted in getting one of her forehooves even more tangled than it already was.
“In case you forgot, we used pine tar ta make it hard for the human to escape from the net,” Apple Bloom said. “No surprise it works just as well on us.” The earth pony managed to rise to a standing position, but in so doing, she shifted the net and inadvertently plucked a few sticky feathers from one of Scootaloo’s wings.
“Ow!” the pegasus cried. “Watch it!”
“Serves you right,” Sweetie Belle said as the volume of her voice dropped dramatically from its strident, arguing tone. “If we’d stayed at the party, the trap wouldn’t have been triggered, and you to wouldn’t be such a mess.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Apple Bloom said. “What goes around, comes around, and all those other old-timey sayings. You should talk to Granny Smith; she’s got a million of ’em. Now how about you find us some water so we can wash off the pine tar an’ get outta this net?”
Sweetie Belle sighed. “Are you sure you don’t want me to go get some help?”
“No way!” Scootaloo said. “Not only will that take way too much time, but if you bring a grownup out here, they’ll never give us a chance to reset the trap before the humans show up.”
Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. “What’s the point? It takes so long for this thing to go off that there’s no way a human is going to stand still long enough to get caught.” The tirade stalled briefly as an obvious exception popped into Sweetie Belle’s mind. “I mean, unless that human is too busy arguing with its friends to move around.”
Scootaloo sighed. “I guess you have a point there...”
Sweetie Belle leaned forward and placed a hoof near her ear. “What was that you said? I’m not sure I understood you.”
“You were right, okay?” Scootaloo groaned. “We should have gone with a simple plan like digging a pit. In fact, I think if you get us out of here, and we use that jackhammer to loosen up the soil a bit, we can still pull that plan off.”
“Really?” Sweetie Belle asked. For the first time since they’d left the party, a smile crept onto her face. Somehow, it was difficult to maintain her moral indignation towards ponies who were admitting that she was right.
“It ain’t like we got any other options,” Apple Bloom said. “So are ya gonna help us out or what?”
“Sure!” Sweetie Belle said brightly as she turned and cheerfully cantered off towards the trap.
“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?” Scootaloo shouted.
“I’m going to get the jackhammer, obviously,” Sweetie Belle said as turned around. She cocked one of her eyebrows bemusedly. “Didn’t you just say you wanted to dig a pit?”
“Yeah, but unless you wanna dig that pit all by your lonesome, first you’re gonna hafta get us outta this net,” Apple Bloom said. “And that means gettin’ some water.”
“Oh, come on. It’s not like the two of you can’t coordinate well enough to walk to the nearest water pump on your own.”
“Walking? Sweetie Belle, right now, we’re having trouble standing,” Scootaloo said.
“So? With a little more practice...” Sweetie Belle trailed off as her attention was drawn to a sudden drop in the ambient temperature. She looked at her friends and blinked a few times. “Um, is it just me, or are the two of you looking... blurrier?”
Apple Bloom forced her head through the net and took a look around. “I don’t think we’re blurry,” she said with a note of concern in her voice. “I... I think the orchard’s gettin’ misty.”
September 2 – 12:10 PM
Twilight Sparkle pressed her eye against the telescope on her observation deck. She wasn’t used to using it in the daylight, but it still seemed to be functioning well—though the upside-down image it produced was a bit more difficult to get used to when it wasn’t pointed at the night sky. Still, the image was clear enough to corroborate Thunderlane’s report. She walked back inside of the library where the others were waiting for her. She paused at the top of the stairway in the library’s central room and looked down towards the floor, making eye contact with the most important pony in the room. “The fog has reached the edge of Sweet Apple Acres, Fluttershy.”
“Okay,” Fluttershy replied with a slight nod. “Can you see how far in it’s gotten?”
“Well, it’s not particularly easy, given my viewing angle, but I can have another look to see if I can make more specific observations.”
“Thank you, Twilight,” Fluttershy said. “Keep a lookout for any sudden changes, but be sure to come inside before the fog reaches Ponyville.”
Twilight briefly nodded her head before heading back outside to the observation deck. Meanwhile, Fluttershy’s attention moved to the other two occupants of the room. She idly raised a hoof to straighten out her cravat. Rarity had only agreed to stop pestering her about the fashion faux-pas of wearing a burgundy cravat with a reflective silver fog suit when Fluttershy had agreed to remove it if she reached the point where she’d need to pull the suit’s cowl over her head, though Fluttershy suspected the nagging would resume once Rarity returned with lunch, albeit far less overtly.
Satisfied that she was properly conveying her authority through her neckwear, Fluttershy cleared her throat and addressed the black stallion who was, at that moment, pacing the outer edges of the library and staring at the bookshelves without really reading anything on the spines. “Thank you very much for your report, Thunderlane.”
“Huh? Oh, no problem,” Thunderlane replied. “What should I do next?”
Fluttershy tapped her hoof against her chin for a second before answering: “I think you’d better head over to the town hall. Applejack needs to alert the rest of the safety patrol. Oh, and when you’re done with that, perhaps you could observe the fog as it enters the Everfree Forest. If the plan doesn’t work out the way I think it will, I’ll need to know as soon as possible.”
“I think I can handle telling Applejack, but you might want to find another pegasus to observe the fog,” Thunderland said. “You can’t really sit on a cloud when you’re wearing a fog suit, after all, and I’m not too keen on hovering until the fog reaches the forest to get a decent top-down view.”
“Well, you don’t really need to be up in the air the whole time, do you?” Fluttershy asked. “If you wait on the ground near the forest, you can take off when the fog passes by.”
Thunderlane didn’t seem particularly keen on standing around that close to the Everfree Forest, either, but he didn’t bother arguing the point. “Okay,” he said, “I’ll go talk to the safety patrol, and I’ll be back once the fog hits Everfree.” He walked over to the library’s front door, pushed it open, and took off.
Fluttershy turned to the third fog-suited pegasus in the room, who was sitting on a stool and meticulously preening her feathers to maximize the efficiency of her wing-flaps, which explained why she hadn’t joined in with the previous conversations. “Rainbow, could you head over to the party and let Pinkie know that the fog is moving?”
Rainbow Dash quickly folded her wing to her side and stood up. “Not a problem. Do you want me to gather more data for Twilight when I’m done?”
“I probably will,” Fluttershy replied, “but first, you should report back here to let me know if any issues have come up at the party.”
“Got it,” Rainbow said as she walked out of the door and took flight.
Alone in the library’s main room, Fluttershy returned her attention to the large weather map of the area spread out on a table before her. She began carefully marking off various sections and adding notes with a pencil. She’d need to monitor the fog’s progress very closely if she was to do her job properly.
Well, that, and it would give her something to think about other than Pencil Pusher.
September 2 – 12:17 PM
As Rainbow Dash was rather pressed for time, she didn’t really have the luxury of heading down into the party to speak with Pinkie Pie directly, which meant that she had to leave a message with the pony at the door. Fortunately, that pony happened to deliver messages for a living in the first place.
“So, you got all of that, Derpy?”
“I think so,” Derpy said. “The fog’s headed towards Ponyville right now, and everypony here needs to stay inside until somepony tells them it’s safe.”
Rainbow smiled. “I think that just about covers it,” she said with a light chuckle. “So, how’s the party going? Anything major that Fluttershy needs to worry about?”
Derpy shook her head. “I don’t think so. Should I ask Pinkie Pie for you?”
“Nah,” Rainbow said with a wave of her forehoof. “If something really important happened, she’d probably have let you know about it already. Besides, ponies from the safety patrol are going to be popping in all day anyway, so it’s not like this is her only chance to get a message to Fluttershy.”
She was just about to leave when an odd look on Derpy’s face made her pause. “Uh, are you sure you’re okay?’ Rainbow asked as she leaned slightly closer to Derpy. “You kind of look like you’ve got motion sickness. Were you trying to pull off some aerobatics to entertain the foals?”
“No,” Derpy said with a shake of her head. “I’m pretty sure it was just a muffin. I think the blueberries weren’t quite ripe yet, and it didn’t sit well with my stomach, that’s all.”
“Well, if you’re sure you’ll be okay...”
Derpy waved one of her hooves dismissively. “I’ll be fine. Anyway, is this message something that Pinkie needs to hear right away, or can it wait fifteen minutes until somepony else takes their shift at the door?”
Rainbow Dash rubbed her chin for a few seconds as she considered her answer. “Eh, I suppose it can wait. Even if the fog manages to get to town before then, this bunker is sealed off, right?”
“Uh-huh,” Derpy replied with a nod.
“Cool,” Rainbow said. “I’ll see you around, Derpy.”
“Stay safe,” Derpy called back as Rainbow Dash left the bunker and exited the candy shop.
Once she was outside again, Rainbow took to the air and flew back towards the library. Though the journey was brief, she still had time to glance to the northwest, where the grey mass had already poured down the mountain and had already swallowed most of Sweet Apple Acres in its gloom.
Whoa, that thing’s moving pretty fast, Rainbow thought to herself as she looked at the seething miasma. It’s kinda like a flash flood, only with fog instead of water. I guess that would make it... what, a flash fog, then? The weatherpony made a mental note to ask the local fog specialist if that was the right phrase when the whole ordeal was over. Right now, her job was more important than proper terminology.
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4910346 if they are done right that is. a lot of guys just as au as an excuse to do whatever they want without build up. such as making an au where for some reason twilight can be a psychopath yet still the element of magic without proper explanation.
Ah, so nopony actually knows what's going on because the three of them haven't been missed.....yet. It should dawn on somepony that they're not there because...well.....something like this should happen.
Derpy: It's awfully QUIET in here even with all the foals ins......[series of curses that would make Malcolm Tucker yell "HEY! LANGUAGE!!!!"]
Oh so many ways this could go even more horribly wrong... I just hope the Crusaders can recognize deadly peril when it's drifting into their faces.
Looking forward to more. This is one of the most enjoyably suspenseful stories I've read on the site.
Good
Please don't kill off best fillies.
Thank celestia Derpy is alright! :D And I still find the title to be awesome for this story. I always thought a flash flood was a flood that started "in a flash". lol
As usual, great chapter!
I don't think the CMC's plan to get out of the net is going to get very far. From what I remember of being CMC-aged, pine sap is quite hard to wash off with just water. I'm pretty sure pine tar is even harder...
For some reason I'm expecting the fog to react with the pine tar in unexpectedly hilarious and/or dangerous ways.
Once again, thank Celestia for Applejack, otherwise Fluttershy would be thinking about Rainbow thinking about Pencil Pusher.
4932682
Flash Fog: Directed by Michael Bray.
mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw1818-Ahmrw.gif
The CMC can potentially save themselves. There's enough raw materials from their "human trap," to throw together an insulated shelter of some kind. Perhaps as suggested use the jackhammer to dig a deep pit then put an insulated roof over it. The only question is will they realize just how deadly the fog is in time to act?
Given how sticky that net is, Im wondering if there is enough loose ground cover detritus to make an insulating layer, like that shrimp that sticks grains of sand together to make itself a carry around home? that way they could cap off the hole for Sweetie, keeping them all at ground level?
Great chapter!
Ooooooooh boy.
I wonder who is going g to save the girls. My money is on Flutters.
4933915 Nah, Pinkie and Pencil Pusher are the best bets.
4932734 With the role of Spike the Dragon played by Shia Labeuf...... god help us all.
There's the title drop!
I'd hate to burst anyone's bubble, but since the CMC are ostensibly at Sweet Apple Acres, and the fog's swallowed most of the place in the last ten minutes, they probably only have a couple minutes at most. It'll be interesting to see how this goes.
So close to time. You need to release one more chapter within the next day, and we'll be synchronized.
If the mane six find out about the cmc.
"Huh, why would they feed her a muffin that cause throwing up i would've use something to put her to sleep." RD said just as the penny dropped "OH CRUD THERE LOST IN THERE!?"
Title drop!
The CMC have nobody but themselves to blame for their current predicament. That said, Sweetie seems a tad...bitter...still. Hope that won't interfere with her common sense.
Crap, the CMC are on the road of a very bad day if someone don't come to their aid. Dash would have done so already, if she didn't become lazy on her brief assignment. Though, there might still be a chance she might find them, but the odd of her overlooking them is good.
Short C&C:
...and you to wouldn’t be such a mess.
> Change 'to' with 'two'.
"Apple Bloom! Sweetie Belle! I can't believe you're still alive!"
"Thank goodness there was a convenient blast furnace addition to our clubhouse."
"Where's Scootaloo?"
"Up against that building over there,"
"I don't see her..."
"She's dead!"
"How?!"
"She didn't have a fog suit."
"Does anypony have a spatula?"
There is a ' too much and a " too few.
And of course I also keep my fingers crossed to the crusaders
It's still a good title, IMO.
Roll Credits! *DING*
So, how long till somepony realizes the CMC snuck out?
Also yes, still an awesome title.
Wow! I love a good Rube Goldberg device! Thanks!
So Fluttershy is pushing a pencil to preemptively prevent pondering Pencil Pusher?!
Ponderous...