102 - Clear as Crystal
Chapter 102 - Clear as Crystal
Her hat had seen better days.
For years, it had been torn, smashed, and charred, but just like her unbreakable spirit, it would spring back up to rest on her blonde mane. Applejack did not know it ejected out of her Tele-Orb, but that was dragon magic for you. With her hat stained with oil and dust, the orange rebel pony proudly placed it back on her head like a worn battle helmet on a soldier ready to return to battle.
The rebel mare thought of passing notes through the Tele-Orb system in order to locate her friends, but her gut feeling told her that it might not be the right time. Her friends might still be unconscious, and if their Tele-Orbs popped open in front of the enemy, then they would be done for. Applejack would have to wait, at least for a little while longer. Her friends could not have been blown too far off.
She trotted through the ruined hallways of the Factory amazed at the result of the explosion. Applejack had seen some big ones in the past. She even caused a few herself, but this one was Pinkie-level maddening. It was a miracle that she was the first to rise back up to her hooves. As for the fallen ponies she passed by, it was also a miracle that they all still had a pulse, and many of them were pegasus warriors.
Not far into her trek, she heard a feminine cough. Applejack trotted closer, but still she had to be cautious. Even the warrior mares were known to be vicious when cornered, and after about minute of careful listening, silence resumed. Whoever uttered it had likely quieted herself for fear of being found out. Applejack kept on searching for the source among the twisted debris, even if she ended up finding the enemy. Then underneath a pile of debris in front of her, she found a faint outline of a hoof and a leg. After a brief moment it twitched.
She gulped hard. Applejack could rescue the mare, but she could be lying in wait for the attack. Her heart beat anxiously when she should remain calm. She could not shake off that worry despite her Element of Truth throbbing reassuringly on her chest.
"Sugarcube?"
The hoof stirred, and a muzzle lowered into view.
"Applejack?" answered a voice.
"Twilight? Hold on, I'll getcha."
Applejack bent over and used both her natural earth pony strength and her Geosense skills to lift the metal debris. Out crawled a purple pony, Twilight Sparkle, who had kept her horn hidden with her low-level magic in order to disguise herself as an earth pony slave. Applejack barely let go of the debris when Twilight suddenly surprised her with a tight hug.
Not good. Now's not the time. Applejack's heart beat even faster, and she was sweating despite it being cold in the halls. At least Twilight could not see her rapidly blushing face, and it was a surprise her dear friend had yet to notice all this. Applejack pushed her away gently so she could turn around and lower the Stetson over her eyes.
"Are you okay, Applejack?" Twilight asked.
"I'm jus' bein' nervous about being knee-deep in pegasus territory," lied Applejack. "That's all."
"Me too. Have you seen any of our friends?"
"Just you, Twi. It looks like we're the only ones who are together."
"And lost. Though, I do have a map of Cloud 2 stored in one of my Tele-Orbs, but from the looks of it, they have really changed the layout. They used to have marble floors instead of steel."
"We've been blown to earth knows where, and I'm guessin' an old map of Cloud 2 ain't gonna do us any good. Maybe we should follow the arrows on the signs. Are you able to read pegasese?"
"My mother had lots of books on ancient pegasus culture, so yes, I can. It looks like the dialect hasn't changed much over the years."
"What does the sign say?"
“’Bomb Plant’.”
Applejack gulped hard again. She did not know if she should be glad that they had clear access to Pegasopolis’s bomb factory, but the mission did not call for sabotage. Even if it did, their friends were still somewhere in the Factory and likely incapacitated along with scores of slaves and guards.
The situation started to become suspicious. Clearly she could see the security cameras above her at almost every corner, but Applejack heard no guards or sirens echoing down the halls. The explosion might have been big, but it could not have taken out every guard or disabled the surveillance system.
Then there was that sickening smell again. Before she could say anything about it, Twilight had already hurried ahead, and the smell immediately disappeared. Applejack wasn’t sure if her Element of Truth throbbed in the presence of falsehoods, but she quickly dismissed it and followed after Twilight. They did not encounter anypony yet, but Applejack could feel somepony watching them. She wondered if Twilight noticed it too, and if she did, the purple mare kept her composure as she followed the arrows on the posted signs.
The path took them upwards on a stairway curving alongside a cylindrical wall. The thought that they encountered nopony as of yet worried Applejack even more, and she even wished one would jump out so she could impress Twilight with two bucks to the enemy's muzzle. When they emerged onto the top, they entered a round and cavernous chamber of black steel and of little lighting. A web of wires hung above the ceiling, reminding Applejack of the top of the Crystal Spire back at the Crystal Empire. Though this place had robotic arms, they were all smaller, numbered about a hundred or so, and they all lined up against the main wall.
Applejack followed her curious unicorn friend to the railing, and their mouths opened when they looked down. They both knew this chamber held something big, but this was outright monstrous. The rebel mare had seen her fair share of missiles and bombs, but this was far larger than anything Gaea could ever produce. Technology and magic: they were two diametrically opposing methodologies that the Three Tribes used to varying degrees, but the pegasi of Pegasopolis had synergized them as an unholy byproduct seen here. In her youth, Applejack would have never thought Pegasopolis and Gaea would thrust themselves in a war of mutual annihilation. Here she leaned nervously against the railing to stare at the massive cylindrical monstrosity that pointed straight down to the surface below. She knew not the unsettling purpose of the weapon's demonic engravings, and many of its rings had a repeating image of a serpent-like chimeric creature with a horse's head among other various limbs of different animal species.
"We have to go," said Twilight.
"What about this bomb?" Applejack asked. "If that thing fell on Gaea, it's gonna kill a lotta ponies."
"It pains me to admit it, but you better than anypony else know that sabotaging this weapon is not our primary mission. I don't want to risk doing so since our friends are still deep in this Factory and probably in danger. Also, I don't believe it's completed, but once we gather all the Elements, we'll find a way to stop both Pegasopolis and Gaea's weapons of mass destruction before they could even use them."
Grudgingly, Applejack admitted that she too need to focus on the mission. Even with this bomb unprotected, she and Twilight would cause a lot more problems if they attempted to do anything to it, whether through magic or brute force.
The rebel mare resumed following Twilight as they made their way alongside the bomb. With each step, Applejack could feel the demonic engravings shift with unsettling fluidity at the corner her eye, and for one instance, it came alive to point and laugh at her. She would turn around, and find that the engraving had not changed at all. Or maybe it did…
Twilight spared her from finding out as she finally led her out of the bomb hangar one half-arc away from their starting point. They took another curving stairwell until they reached a hallway with a flat floor, a flat ceiling, and flat walls, all of which were made of the same dimly-lit dark steel. When asked where the signs now directed them towards, Twilight replied, "Magic Research Wing."
Magic? Applejack never thought of pegasi casting spells, though the government of Gaea refers to their Atmos Arts as a form of passive magic. Passive indeed. She heard stories of pegasi cutting through steel through wind and blowing up entire cities with rainbows. Pegasi would be too proud to refer to their abilities as magic, and calling it as such would be an offense to them.
However, a research wing dedicated to magic got Twilight moving faster towards it, and Applejack hurried to keep up with her unicorn friend. That bad feeling felt worse, and she swore that sickening smell continued to trail them.
"Twi, I hope we're goin' the right way," said Applejack.
"Maybe," replied Twilight, "but I can't pass up Pegasopolis's Magic Research Wing."
"We ain't got time to look."
"I promise, Applejack, it will only be quick."
They arrived, but the door was locked. Applejack surrendered to Twilight's eager expression and obliged her curiosity by using her Sword of Truth to slice through the lock. The steel door creaked open and revealed a sterile and lighted area containing various tables holding various weapons in varying degrees of disassembly. Applejack recognized a few damaged Gaean weaponry like heat-seeking missiles and assault rifles. She also found one of those fork-like weapons the Clone Soldiers used against Twilight's fellow unicorns when she first met them in Unicornia.
Further down, they found something very disconcerting: crystals. Not just any crystals, but the very same crystals mined from the Crystal Empire. There were Crystaltech missiles, armor, and various other crystal weaponry found on many more tables. Applejack was not sure if she should be shocked. The Chroma Pirates had their own Crystal Empire exile as a part of their crew, and the other exile hid himself in the slums of Manehattan. Surely the Empire did not exile any more of her citizens before and after Vinyl Scratch and her brother Longplay, though in their case, the two siblings consciously made the decision to exile themselves. For some reason, the image of a pair of song-and-dance twins and a snobby white stallion came to mind.
There was that smell again, and it was stronger. Her Sword of Truth throbbed in her mouth and emitted a high pitched cry through her teeth. Applejack saw Twilight taking one step further into the Magic Research Wing, and immediately knew what was coming.
She dove in and tackled Twilight to the ground. Something snapped, and a shower of ice shards shot out from the side to obliterate the table right next to them. Applejack reverted her Element of Truth back into its golden necklace form and pulled Twilight away with her teeth right before another shower of ice shards rained down and pulverized the floor. They needed to escape back into the hallway where they came before…
Too late. Applejack tripped on something cold and sticky. Something snapped, and she saw a glint of light behind her right before the ice shards fired. The rebel mare prepared herself to turn around and deflect those shards with her Sword of Truth, but then a magenta barrier stopped the ice in midair. Twilight's horn reappeared and glowed, and several beads of sweat ran down her forehead until the ice shards shattered into dust.
"Right back at you," smiled Twilight as she dropped her Aegis Shield spell.
"Let's save the thanks for later," said Applejack. "Figures we're bein' watched the entire time, and whoever shot those shards at us ain't playin' fair. Not that pegasi were known to play fair. Did your hooves feel like they tripped on somethin'?"
"It did. I'm not sure if it is magic or an advanced pegasus ability. Either way, we can't stand still with somepony hunting us down."
"I reckon wholeheartedly, Twi."
"I'm glad you and I think the same way. That's what I love about you."
Not again. Applejack's heart raced for all the wrong reasons. She resisted turning her face away to hide her embarrassment. At least the hallway lights were dim enough to hide her blushing cheeks.
She shook her head to break herself back into focus. Twilight had already stepped ahead and ignited her horn with some sort of glowing light spell. Barely did the orange earth mare caught up to her, and damn the noise her hooves made on the steel floor. No use hiding. No use sneaking. Whoever was stalking them should reveal themselves and put up their dukes in an old fashioned hoof-to-hoof tussle.
Unfortunately, the time between the surprise attack and now wore Applejack's patience. They had been wandering around what appeared to be lower levels of the Factory for earth knows how long, and the maze of hallways began to look familiar to her. Most of the signs point to the Atmos Chemical Storage Chamber, but they did not want a repeat of what happened last time. The two mares made every conscious attempt to avoid it whenever they saw the signs. Or least tried to, and that was when they ran into a block.
Twilight was the first to run into it, and Applejack nearly ran into her. They nearly fell over each other, and they stood side by side wondering what they ran into when clearly the view ahead appeared unobstructed. It did not feel like magic, but when Applejack went ahead and pressed her hoof on it, it felt as cold as ice. When she let go, it had a strangely sticky feel to it.
"We shouldn't cut it with your Sword," said Twilight. "If anything, it'll react and fire more ice shards at us like last time."
It was almost as if Twilight read her mind. Even if she did not have to, Applejack pressed her hoof on her Element of Truth as if to suppress its desires to cut through all barriers to the truth. Whether Twilight was wrong or not, cutting through the clear ice wall was what the enemy would want. Slowly she stepped back and turned around, and allowed to Twilight to lead the way again.
Now these transparent ice blocks blocked every path they desired to take, forcing them to backtrack to familiar areas. Any attempts to do a double backtrack was met with the same ice blocks. Applejack could see the frustration rising from within Twilight, who stopped in the middle of their trek to pop open her Tele-Orbs to reveal the meticulous notes she had taken ever since they descended into these halls. Her horn flared red as she furiously sorted through her notes on the floor and in midair. She broke pencil lead when she furiously checked off her checklists. Then she ripped pieces of paper. The purple unicorn sat on her haunches breathing heavily and ready to admit defeat.
A wave of empathic emotions overcame Applejack, and she found her own body moving on its own to hug Twilight from behind. She felt her friend shudder momentarily by the surprise embrace, and eventually Twilight's heart calmed down to a smooth tempo. It took everything within Applejack to suppress her own beating heart. She almost wished she could hold her for a little longer, and perhaps nuzzle her nose in her soft mane. Realizing these impure thoughts, Applejack pushed herself back. She did not want to, but her action did the deed as intended. Her dear friend had calmed down, and she turned towards her with a smile.
"Thanks," said Twilight. "I didn't mean to worry you like that."
"Erm, don't mention it," replied a beat-red Applejack. "You don't suppose you discovered somethin' in your notes, did ya?"
"Not really, but it definitely confirms the suspicions I've been having ever since we left that bomb bay. It might explain why we haven't run into any guards or heard any alarms. You would imagine the full force of Pegasopolis would come down on us after an attempt on the Empress Commander, but that has yet to happen. Somepony is trying to trap us and lead us back into the Atmos Chemical Storage Chamber, but the reason for this is really starting to worry me. A normal pegasus warrior would have already challenged us out in the open. This pegasus, however, is toying with us, and perhaps he or she has a sadistic angle in all this."
"So all that's left for us to do is oblige our stalker and spring the trap."
"From the looks of things, we don't have any other choice. In an enclosed area like this, we're done for, but if we can find an open area with lots of hiding spots..."
"Heh. Whether they play dirty or not, pegasus warriors are always cocky about their abilities. You hear that stalker? We're callin' you out! We ain't afraid of you and your tricks!"
"Shh!"
"Sorry. Got a lil' excited at beatin' our lil' stalker at her own game."
"We still have to be careful. Here, our stalker has the upper hoof, but if we work together, we can win. Let's head over to that Atmos Chemical Storage Chamber."
There was no need to suppress her grin. Applejack did not expect her hug to rile Twilight into action as she followed her back towards the direction of the Chemical Storage Chamber. This time they deliberately followed the signs.
Her blood was pumping. Applejack transformed her Element into her Sword of Truth and her teeth gripped hard on its ornate handle. She stood across Twilight beside the metal doors. They exchanged no words when they nodded in synchronization. With magic horn and sword, both Twilight and Applejack finally burst into the Atmos Chemical Storage Chamber.
Then nothing. Nothing except towering storage tanks containing all sorts of liquids the weather ponies of old had concocted. Some were so volatile that they glowed in various unnatural hues past their metal containers. If Applejack did not know any better, this would certainly be the place where the pegasi, according to legend, manufactured their rainbows. But nopony would know the truth due to the forever war occurring between Pegasopolis and Gaea. The fact that these tanks showed rust meant that Pegasopolis had stopped producing rainbows for the surface dwellers below a long time ago.
This was a large area with a high ceiling, but it had lots of hiding places on the ground. Twilight and Applejack could definitely turn the odds in their favor here. All they need to do was wait for their stalker or stalkers to reveal themselves, spring the trap, or both. They had yet to trip any invisible ice wires or run into a crystal clear ice block.
Instead, they discovered something else entirely and altogether horrific. Twilight became the first notice due to her gaping eyes peering straight up to the ceiling. Applejack half-dreaded looking up, but she needed to anticipate any falling hazards to save herself and Twilight from.
It was no hazard, but she did not agree to the sight of it anyway. Hundreds upon hundreds of large cocoon-like icicles dangled from the high ceiling, and each one of them were clear enough to reveal its trapped occupant. Pegasus guards and slaves alike were encased and frozen in a state of shock. On top of that, whether it was through hypothermia or malnourishment, each encased pony appeared dreadfully emaciated. This was clearly the stalker's work, but whoever he or she was, this was downright sadistic, even for a pegasus.
Soon, the stalker revealed herself as two floodlights flashed upon her at the top of the stairwell high up on the metallic catwalk. She was a beautiful white pegasus with a flowing turquoise mane and tail. She was dressed in a black and purple uniform with a few yellow accents close to her hooves and a wing and skull emblem on each of her flanks. Applejack could feel her Sword of Truth throbbing angrily between her teeth. Clearly this mare was bad news, and even Twilight glowered at her.
And that smell. Oh god, that smell.
"You called, I answered," smiled the pegasus mare. "I am Crystal Clear of the Shadowbolts Stealth Division. I congratulate you two in dodging my 20-Meter Sapphire Splash twice in a row, but don't think that because you survived them that you've seen the full extent of my abilities."
"You..." Twilight said "You trapped your own comrades in these ice-cocoons?"
"You mean these weaklings? They were in the way of me attaining glory for the Holy Nation of Pegasopolis. These grunts are so inflexible in their tactics of dealing with intruders, but the Shadowbolts Stealth Division uses guile and cunning to defeat their enemies. Enemies such as yourselves, and enemies such as weak pegasi who were defeated by a mere explosion. Might makes right in Pegasopolis. The weak must be purged from our ranks, and the enemies of the Holy Nation must be dealt with extreme prejudice. Now prepare yourselves! Atmos Arts: 200-meter Sapphire Splash!"
Crystal's wings extended and she shot out her right hoof. The air became colder. Fog exhaled from Applejack and Twilight's breaths, and they could see frost forming on the floor and the liquid storage tanks. Thick tendrils of ice shot out from almost everywhere and filled nearly every cubic foot of the chamber with its Atmos death web. The hapless earth pony and unicorn followed their first instinct and fled from Crystal Clear's line of sight and hid themselves deep in the nest of towering liquid tanks. Even here, the thick ice wires snaked themselves within close proximity of each other, giving Applejack and Twilight only a small pocket of space to rest.
"This ain't lookin' good," said Applejack. "If that Sapphire Splash we encountered before was a spring shower, then this one must be as powerful as a tropical storm."
"As long as we don't trip them, we should be fine," said Twilight, "but I am more worried about Crystal Clear's next move. We need to find her in order to defeat her."
Easier said than done, but Applejack wasn't going to be wait to be attacked. She gestured Twilight to stay still even though she knew well that her friend silently protested the orange mare's next course of action. Applejack peered past the sturdy metal lattice stand of the liquid tank she behind. Nothing in front. Nothing on the side.
She shivered from the growing cold and accompanying fog. The infectious ice crept further over every surface in Applejack's line of sight. She stepped backwards towards her hiding spot, but froze when she something looming in her peripheral vision.
Whew! It wasn't a pony, but rather the silhouette of another one of these towering liquid tanks. Or so she initially thought. The oncoming smell of something terrible made her look again, and this time she was not mistaken. The silhouette had grown, and it began taking the shape of something wide, pointed, and jagged. The sound of a pegasus mare's barely-suppressed laughter soon pierced the fog and reached Applejack's ears.
"RUN!" Applejack yelled at the top of her lungs. She ran back towards Twilight, and then the two ran through the thicket of ice wires and away from their hiding spot. Applejack and Twilight were too frightened to turn around when something huge fell and tore through the tanks and the floor behind them.
Another giant icicle crashed down right in front of them. It forced Applejack and Twilight to turn right and inadvertently trip through the thick web of ice wires. A flurry of ice shards shot at them at every direction, and many of them pounded upon Applejack’s body as they grazed her fur and skin. At the corner of her eye, she could see the glow of Twilight’s spells flashing incessantly, as she had trouble blasting and blocking the ice shards flying from every direction. They had no other alternative in dodging them. The giant icicles crashed behind them, to their sides, and in front of them. With each aerial attack, Crystal filled the chamber’s floors with giant holes, and the unicorn and the earth mare quickly ran out of places to run and hide.
At the latest flash of Twilight’s magic, Applejack felt her body being pulled and twisted through Aether Space, and they arrived at a dark corner of the Chemical Storage Chamber underneath the catwalk. Off towards the center, Crystal Clear hovered in the air and sent another one of her giant icicles crashing down. Her destruction sent shockwaves throughout the area, if not the entire Factory, and it caused snow to flake off the catwalk railings and fall on the hapless earth pony and unicorn.
Bruised and bleeding, Applejack could still run. However, her beloved Twilight suffered the same injuries, and seeing her in such a state made the orange earth mare’s teeth gnash hard. This mad pegasus needed to be stopped.
"Twi, I'm sure you got a million counterattack plans swimmin' in your head,” said Applejack, “but right now, there's one I'm gonna have to take a gamble on."
"Applejack," said Twilight, "if you're planning on sacrificing yourself, I won't allow it."
"I ain't, but we got no time to discuss strategies. All I ask for you is to protect yourself for at least one minute. Wish me luck."
"Wait!"
She could not wait any longer, because this place was either going to be Swiss cheese or collapse altogether. Applejack dashed out from the dark corner, leapt over the remaining ice wire traps, and slid to a stop on what appeared to the last stable patch of floor.
Applejack slammed her hooves and shattered all the surface frost into dust. Good. It got Crystal Clear's attention, and when she spotted Applejack, she began forming a ball of ice between her front two hooves. It grew and grew, and with a graceful stroke of her front hoof, Crystal Clear elongated it into a sharp lance before she expanded its girth to monstrous proportions. It was designed to both pierce and pulverize the target. Complete and utter destruction.
The rebel mare licked her lips as she stared up to her opponent with a cocky grin. She focused on gathering her Geosense energies from what remained of this chamber and beyond. This was the closest she could muster from mother earth. She could feel all the metal in the Chamber creaking and their molecules vibrating faster than ever. Geosense had the potential to cause the collapse of the Factory, but it also meant that she could save herself and Twilight.
Crystal Clear threw down the giant icicle. Twilight screamed out for her friend, and Applejack stared dead-on at the projectile without a flinch. Geosense was all about listening, waiting, and attacking at the right moment.
That moment arrived. With the icicle mere inches from her muzzle, Applejack reached in and bit off its spiked tip. In less than a second, she rose up to her hind legs and caught the remaining icicle with her entire body.
A sharp blow to her solar plexus nearly blacked her out. Every muscle and bone in her body screamed in agony, and she could taste the blood secreting through the gaps of her teeth. She could not give up. The steel beneath her hooves were her, and she was the steel.
"Impossible!" cried Crystal Clear. "There's no way anypony could stop my Sapphire Meteor!"
"That's the power of Geosense for ya!" Applejack retorted. "And now for the final home run!"
Her rear legs wobbled, but somehow Applejack managed to swing the icicle towards the right and then swung it back down to Crystal Clear before she flew away. The pegasus's limp and broken body crashed into one of the nearest remaining liquid tanks, and the impact caused its green contents to pour out down to one of the large holes she opened. Dead or not, Applejack was glad that this pegasus had been defeated.
The remainder of the giant icicle shattered on its own right as Applejack released it. What little Geosense power she gathered helped her survive the blow, but it left her exhausted. She allowed herself to collapse on the floor, but the searing pain prevented her from losing complete consciousness. It was also a painful struggle to turn her head in response to the sound of familiar hooves treading over cold steel. In a sick way, Applejack felt joy to see Twilight running towards her worriedly and almost in tears.
"I can't believe you would do that!" Twilight cried. "I had a plan ready for us to defeat Crystal Clear without any of us getting hurt!"
"I know," Applejack smiled weakly. "Now let's skedaddle outta here before the ponycicles above us melt. Ow!"
"At least stay still and so I can dress your wounds."
"Shouldn't you bandage yourself up first? Ow!"
Twilight ignored her as she sprayed disinfectant on her shoulder. It was for the best, anyway, and Applejack decided to relish in being pampered by the most important pony in the world. The touch of her purple hooves and the teasing spark of her telekinetic magic could easily put a mare to a blissful sleep.
Several minutes of bandaging had passed, and Applejack's eyes roused open to something suspicious. She thought she caught a glimpse of Crystal Clear moving, but her unconscious body remained stuck against the imploded tank. She was imagining things. The blows Applejack suffered made her see other things, like that thin and nearly invisible line of ice leading up to Twilight's right hind hoof.
But it was no illusion. Applejack heard a faint chuckle, and she saw Crystal Clear regaining consciousness to stretch out a sinister smile across her bruised face. The wounded pegasus allowed herself to fall into the nearest hole in the floor, and the thin line of ice revealed itself once more. By the earth, Applejack wished she had the strength to warn her, for Twilight suddenly jolted backwards.
Applejack braved through the pain that riddled her body and chased after beloved friend. She was too weak to scream for Twilight to teleport or do something, but Crystal's last ditch attack was too quick for both the unicorn and the earth pony. Applejack pulled out her lasso that she had tucked underneath her hat and threw it towards the screaming purple unicorn as she slid closer to the hole. She was not going to let her go again.
Twilight fell in, and her cries faded to the surface below. Applejack grunted with anguish as she slammed one of her hooves on the floor and dented it several inches. But then the rope at the other end finally tugged. The rebel mare quickly anchored her body to the nearest tank stand and pulled. Her Twilight felt heavier. A lot heavier. Hooves and a strong jaw were barely enough to pull the frayed lasso for what felt like an eternity, but she kept pressing on. When she saw the tip of her best friend's horn poke out, she got very excited and made one last pull.
That last pull inadvertently caused her to throw Twilight upwards into the air, and Applejack slid towards the hole just in time to catch Twilight in the most compromising position ever. Twilight landed on her four hooves on top of Applejack with their muzzles barely touching each other. Applejack felt her heart racing yet again, and this time she could not hide her reddening face and the wrinkling of her nose caused by that god-awful smell…
Just like that, the smell disappeared. Applejack began to feel very lightheaded as if she had one too many mugs of cider.
Stats
Page generated in 0.036 seconds
Total duration
949 users online
1,247,610 hits today, 2,004,447 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Good chapter and hope Applejack survive
I'm getting a changeling vibe from "twilight"... (that's not just me, is it...?
)
6689004
Well, not necessarily...
Changeling, Crystal Clear is a changeling. But why do people add that smell to them?
6702183 I think Crystal took Twilight's place.
6702237 Because it's how changelings smell when they go to perform their transformation magic. It's been there every time a shapeshifting has occurred. It's even been there on the Spitfire, when the ship activates its active camouflage.
I'm thinking that Crystal took Twilight's place, which mean the real Twilight is currently falling to her death far below. Or, the real Twilight is still safe in the facility, and the Twilight that "fell" was simply another changeling under Crystal's employ.
6702379 but why did the author decide to put that in in the first palce. Twilight never mentioned a smell in the show and it makes no sense for a species that needs to mimic others to have it.
6702388
Probably to give the reader a way to see it coming or if you don't a way to go "oh yea I should have seen that coming". Assuming that is what it is of course.
6702388 This isn't the show, either. This is an entirely new alternate universe, and nothing is the same from the show except for the character names and the Elements of Harmony.
6703340 I still apply logic in that it makes no sense for a species that is design to mimic others emit a smell so alien. I can blow their cover.
6702201 The author changed it to that and it wouldn't technically be a prostate anyway; it doesn't exactly produce seminal fluid, does it?
6703358 Logic has no place in a world where beings can manipulate everything around them with horns, wings, and hooves. The author included that "stench" to the story as a means of determining when changelings have been involved. We as readers can deduce that's where the smell comes from, but the characters don't really have a clue what causes it-- and in "alien" surroundings that the characters are unfamiliar with, that smell could come from anything. Starcross seems to have went great lengths to ensure that changelings appear in mainly unfamiliar settings, where the main characters are likely to not realize what the smell actually is until it is far too late.
I don't think any of the characters have managed to tie that smell to the changelings, and they've never mentioned it to each other that I recall, so they're still effectively in the dark to what the odor means.
6703946 each world has logic of itself. so that excuse doesn't work.
A new Shadowbolt appear, and just like her ability, her personality is freaking cold. And just when the good guys seems like they had won, she pulled out a cheap shot. Can't wait to read more, but I'm off to get read for bed.
C&Cs will be PM.
6702237maybe it's what happens when they don't have a real queen? Sickly-sweet is how you would describe the smell of death...
And they feed on love. In the midst of a thousand year old race war that shows no sign of stopping.