Ciderfest 2023 Mane Story Saturday Morning - "Realization"

by Vivid Syntax

Heroes

“Hey, Barley?” Caramel asked as she bucked an evil clay golem in the chest.

The golem staggered back with an “Ooloolooloo!!!” before exploding in a preposterous rain of clay.

“Kinda busy right now, Caramel!” Barley spun around and kicked several clay golems away from him. They fell to the ground and exploded in a suspiciously similar fashion.

A monstrous, brown-and-purple, pig-badger-jellyfish creature stepped forward and shouted, “You Pony Rangers will never defeat me, the almighty PB&J!” His mouth moved, but it didn’t quite sync up to what he was saying. “For the glory of the Monster Empire!”

Caramel snorted. “Excuse me, but we’re having a conversation here.” She looked back to Barley. “It’s an important question, though. Are we the bad guys?”

Barley looked like he’d been hit with a frying pan. “Caramel, I literally wrote us into a campy superhero story with our last Page. I can’t think of anything more ‘good guy’ than that. Speaking of which…” From his belt, he pulled a shiny medallion made of green metal, performed an elaborate series of poses, and shouted, “It’s Transformin’ Time!” Green lightning flashed all around him. “Green Pony Ranger Power, Go!”

The lightning grew brighter, and as Barley posed and spun – very unnecessarily – an elaborate, green spandex costume appeared all over him, complete with a helmet that bore the symbol of wheat.

Caramel smiled broadly. “Oooh, I always loved this part! Pink Pony Ranger Power, Go!” She followed Barley’s motions and transformed in a similar fashion, albeit with a mug of cider emblazoned all over her gear.

The villains waited patiently for the transformation to finish, at which point PB&J pointed and shouted, “Attack!”

The Pony Rangers leapt into action! Using all kinds of martial arts, they fought off the rest of the clay golems. Hooves flew like lightning! Clay rained down and conveniently disappeared! Sparks flew, often a second or two after our heroes landed a blow!

As they fought, Caramel continued. “I just mean, I feel so bad for Fizzy. The way we treated her, how we shot down her ideas… That doesn’t feel like something that the good guys would do.”

“Yeah, I know,” Barley sighed as he suplexed PB&J. “Still, things are getting out of hand.”

“This was your idea - hiya!” Caramel countered - both Barley’s point and the charging golem.

“I mean with the factions and stuff! The villains are loose, and who knows what Discord is up to. The guests could get hurt–huhuhuhuHUHA!” Barley finished his observation with a 20 strike combo that sent PB&J flying end over end oddly slowly. He let out a huff and waited for the wires to lower PB&J back to earth and looked back to Caramel. “We don’t even know why she did this.”

“I guess that’s true,” Caramel paused to sweep the legs out from under a golem, causing it to topple backwards into four others coming up the slope towards her. “Still, it can’t hurt. We just have to find her.”

The monster rolled away after landing, gasping and panting for breath. “You’ll never find Fizzy Glitch!”

Just then, a massive image of Fizzy Glitch’s nirik form appeared in the sky.

“Drat!” PB&J yelled as he beat the earth.

Caramel called to the sky. “Fizzy! Fizzy, it’s us!!” She waved up to the image.

Barley stepped forward. “Fizzy! We need to talk!”

“I mean, obviously,” the giant Fizzy rolled her eyes. “I haven’t even asked you guys what you thought, yet! Seems like you’re having fun!

“Fizzy, if you’re mad about what happened before the con, we’re sorry about your idea!” Caramel shouted up at her. “Things like that happen, really! I promise we’ll do better!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Fizzy’s grin didn’t seem to reach her white, blank eyes. “Water under the bridge!”

Caramel frowned, but Barley stepped in front of her.

“If that’s the case, we really need to talk, Fizz. This whole multidimensional story thing is causing a lot of trouble–”

“Oh, like letting you live out your childhood fantasy of being a Pony Ranger?” Fizzy’s grin showed an uncomfortable number of teeth.

“That’s not–”

“Come on, Barley, live a little! I’ve got this.” Her grin disappeared in an instant. “For once you could try appreciating what I’m doing for you.” The bitterness suddenly fell from her face. “I know!” The image of a Page appeared in the sky next to Fizzy, and she narrated as she wrote. “And then Pig-Badger-Jellyfish grew to the size of a skyscraper!”

The monster cackled with delight. “Mwahahaha!!!” His voice boomed across the valley as his body swelled, larger and larger, until he was enormous! “Now not even the Pony Rangers can stop me!”

Barley staggered back. “What do we do? I don’t have any Pages left to write us a giant robot!”

Fizzy threw up her hooves in confused frustration.

“It’s Pony Rangers! You’ll figure it out. Just enjoy the ride!” She shook her head. “I swear, trying to do the guy a favor.” The image of Fizzy spun around and disappeared from sight.

“If we don’t have a giant robot, what do we do?” Caramel asked, concerned.

“Well, usually, in dire straights that the normal team couldn’t handle, the Extra Ranger would show up and–”

A voice shouted from behind them, “Sounds like you ponies could use a little help!”

Caramel and Barley turned and said together, “Lavender Alicorn Ranger!”

Behind them, standing daintily but heroically, was a Pony Ranger with wings! She posed as she pulled out a Page and wrote with her magic, “Luckily, nothing can beat the power of friendship!” She leapt, did several flips and twirls, and landed dramatically by the other rangers. “Let’s do this!”

They all joined hooves and called in unison, “Orbital Friendship Cannon Blast!” They glowed, and high above them, a star glinted with bright light. From it, a massive rainbow laser descended, right onto the monster.

“What? Nooooo!” cried PB&J. The rainbow laser enveloped him as over-the-top rock-and-roll music played in the background. The monster pulsed with energy, and he toppled over with a large BOOM as his body disintegrated in a shower of sparks.

Barley mumbled to himself, “Why do they always explode?”

Lavender Alicorn Ranger removed her helmet and shook out her mane, revealing that she was none other than Twilight Sparkle. “Nice work, everypony. Looks like the day is saved.”

Caramel removed her helmet as well. “Yeah, but Fizzy wouldn’t listen to us. I even tried apologizing, but she blew it off.” She frowned. “I think it’s more than just that idea, Bar. We hurt her feelings badly.”

Barley gasped as he pulled off his helmet as well. “She said I could try appreciating her for once…”

“Yeah, and she got annoyed when you didn’t want to play along with the giant monster!” Caramel pointed out.

“We’ve gotta figure out what’s made her so upset…” Barley’s eyes slowly lit up. “But we don’t have to do it alone!”

“Thankfully, I came to help you–” Twilight stepped forward.

“The guests!” Caramel gasped, her face lighting up with excitement.

“Exactly!” Barley said, slapping down his hoof in excitement. “If we can get everyone at the con to interact with Fizzy, maybe we can figure out what to say to her!”

“Yeah!” Caramel nodded along. “They can go talk with her, enter into pages about her, and even do activities related to her! Maybe even do stuff to show they appreciate her! Every little bit will help us figure this out and get through to her.” She turned to Twilight. “Right? This is a great idea.”

Twilight stood stalk still, smile and stare mismatched, like a deer in headlights for a second, and then loosened up and gave a beatific smile.

“These are all great ideas, you two! But, you should also really try to find her and talk with her.”

“I mean, yeah, of course.” Caramel said. “We just have to do all this first!”

“Yeah, let’s get to it!” Barley said, turning and trotting off. Caramel quickly followed after him.

Twilight lingered for a second more, that smile still on her face… only for it to slip into a scowl for just a second.

“You coming?” Caramel shouted back over her shoulder.

“Anything to help friends in need!” Twilight said, trotting along after them, pleased as could be.