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Prologue1,047 words
10 Years Later1,823 words
Meet the Family2,484 words
Finding Answers6,463 words
Change3,578 words
Unfair4,621 words
The Lizard4,126 words
Great Power3,472 words
Great Responsibility3,709 words
First Encounter6,554 words
Becoming a Hero3,394 words
Revelations3,583 words
Head Games2,953 words
The Lizard's Last Stand4,282 words
Unspoken Farewells964 words
Epilogue493 words

Change

Scootaloo and Dinky walked along the dimly lit city street in silence, towards the bakery. Neither really knew where to start, both quietly wondering what had just happened on the subway.

“What in Equestria happened back there Scootaloo?” Dinky finally asked, stopping in her tracks and giving Scootaloo a questioning look.

“I told you, I don’t know,” Scootaloo replied somewhat sharply. She was eager to get home at this point. She had been sweating bullets for the remainder of the train ride and had been having strange hot and cold flashes and the distinct feeling in her stomach that she might vomit.

“Maybe you don’t know, but you have to have some clue.” Dinky said, pressing the issue. “I mean, seriously Scootaloo, ponies don’t just up and karate ponies like that on the subway. Have you been secretly been taking karate lessons to get back at Babs or something?”

Scootaloo didn’t say anything; she just averted her eyes, looking at the ground instead; her mind slightly foggy for some reason. She thought back to the spider bite. The thought of suddenly dropping dead of poisoning flew past her mind’s eye.

“Scootaloo!” Dinky said, sternly, snapping the orange Pegasus back into reality.

Scootaloo looked at Dinky. Dinky had a concerned look on her face. “You’re in a cold sweat.” She said, motioning towards Scootaloo.

“What? Really?” Scootaloo wiped her head and looked at her hand. It was totally soaked.

“Are you okay Scootaloo? You look a little green.” Dinky said.

Scootaloo’s vision went fuzzy for a second, but snapped back into focus when she shook her head. “Yeah, this walk was just more of a work out than I’m used to,” Scootaloo said, shaking the sweat off her hand. “I’m fine I swear.” She smiled awkwardly.

Dinky didn’t look convinced. “You sure? Maybe your sick.”

Scootaloo shook her head. “Nah, I’m fine…I’m fine…don’t need to worry yourself. Look,” she paused as they arrived at the bakery. “I think I’ve just had a long day you know? Talk tomorrow?”

Dinky looked somewhat apprehensive. “Okay then, just stay safe okay? You look a little piqued.”

Scootaloo nodded. “Of course don’t worry about it. I’m sure I’ll be fine in the morning. Just need some rest.” She gave Dinky her best reassuring smile, which wasn’t much, considering that Scootaloo felt as if she had been run over by a herd of buffalo.

“Okay, see ya then,” Dinky replied waving goodbye, a somewhat worried look on her face. “But we aren’t done talking about this,” she trotted off down the street, before fading into the night.

Scootaloo sighed as she walked up the stairs. “Wow. My first friend and she's practically a clone of Aunt Cup,” she chuckled as she entered the house.

//////////////////

The Cake family patiently sat at the dinner table, waiting for Scootaloo.

“Momma can we eat yet? I’m hungry!” Pound complained, making an overdramatic sad puppy face. Cup Cake shook her head.

“Not yet Pound, you know we have to wait for Scootaloo. Now please, be quiet, I’m sure she’ll be here soon,” Cup Cake said, sounding slightly impatient as she looked at the clock on the wall behind her.

As if on cue, Scootaloo walked into the dining room, looking strangely tired and sweaty.

“Hey guys, sorry I’m late…” she murmured, looking a little light headed.

“Are you okay honey? You look a little sick,” Cup Cake asked, concerned.

Scootaloo shrugged. “Just a little tired that’s all…” she wiped her noticeably wet forehead, causing her hand to become soaking wet.

“Wow Scoots you look green!” Pound said from the table, before being quickly shushed by his mother.

“Pound, that was rude. Say you’re sorry.” She motioned towards Scootaloo. Pound hung his head in embarrassment.

“Sorry Scoots…” he said, looking quite dejected.

Scootaloo smiled. “That’s okay sport, I’m just feeling a little tired is all…” she shook her head as if to clear it. “Um…Uncle Carrot…is it okay if I just skip dinner tonight? I honestly just don’t feel well.”

Carrot Cake nodded. “Of course Scootaloo. You’re excused.”

Scootaloo gave him an exhausted smile and started up the stairs. “Thanks…”

There was an awkward pause as the four ponies watched Scootaloo go up the stairs. Once she was out of sight, Pumpkin spoke up.

“What’s wrong with Scootaloo momma?” she raised an eyebrow.

Carrot Cake shrugged. “I’m not sure, but she’s probably just tired after a good, long day of school. Now eat your dinner or you can’t have desert okay?”

//////////////////

Scootaloo flopped onto her bed unable to move. She didn’t even bother to close the door she was so exhausted and she was too sick to bother changing her clothes. Her whole body was now completely soaked from her cold sweat, causing her mane to stick to her forehead like a greasy mop. Her sheets were soaked as soon as she lay down, and now stuck to her body like glue. The nauseous feelings showed no signs of disappearing. It almost felt like someone was trying to twist her stomach in a pretzel knot. Her whole body ached and the back of her neck had a burning sensation, as if someone had dropped acid on it. She tried to fall asleep, but her own body seemingly fought against it.

Her stomach twisted once more, the disgusting feeling of her stomach contents making a reappearance welling up in her throat. Scootaloo darted toward the bathroom as fast as she could. She got there just in time, empting her stomach into the toilet.

“Ugh….” Was the only sound she could muster as she dragged herself to her feet and dragged herself back to her room, only stopping to wash out the gross taste in her mouth and at least try to freshen up.

As she dragged herself back to her bed she noticed a slip of paper on the floor. It was the algorithm. She picked the paper up off the floor and looked at it. Suddenly she felt her stomach twist and she gagged and dropped the slip of paper, doing her best to avoid vomiting all over the floor. She eventually brought herself under control and picked up the slip of paper again. She was about to set it on her desk when she noticed a sentence written on the backside that was now facing up.

NOTE: Do not use magic to mix. Outcome may be unpredictable.

“I’ll have to let Dr. Cheerilee know tomorrow,” Scootaloo muttered as she flopped back to her bed and collapsed, surrendering to the forces of exhaustion.

//////////////////

Cheerilee sat at her desk. She glanced up at the clock. It was 11:30 at night. Most of her research team had gone home, but she stayed behind, completely enraptured in discovering the secrets of the algorithm that Scootaloo had brought her that afternoon. That morning, Cheerilee had felt that she had reached the end of the line, that there was no answer to her dilemma, no freedom from the strange stares, the constant snickers, and mockery she had endured since the accident. She glanced down at her shoulder stump. It had brought more then its fare share of awkward stares and gawking. Not anymore.

She turned attention to the notepad that was now completely covered in dozens of mathematical algorithms and equations. She had written the algorithm that Scootaloo gave her backwards and forwards and now, she knew it by heart. She glanced up at the clock. It was almost midnight.

“Alright, well that should do for now,” she muttered to herself as she made her way to the door. She paused in the threshold. She glanced back at her desk, her eyes fixed on the scrap of paper. The scrap of paper that held the key to untold medical miracles, it almost seemed as if it where calling out to her, begging her to test it and unlock its hidden potential.

I could test it. Make sure that it works, she thought. She walked over to the paper and was about to pick it up when the phone number in the corner of the paper caught her eye. You should wait Cheerilee, She thought. After all, you promised that filly that you’d wait. It’s as much hers as yours. Her father made it after all….

“Oh what the hay,” she finally said aloud. “I’ve been waiting ten years for this, I’m sure she’ll understand,” Cheerilee said to herself, trying to reason with herself. “After all,” she chuckled, “it’s not like if the filly was in my shoes she wouldn’t do the same…” she sat at her computer and started to eagerly type away.

She set about running several simulations with the algorithm, testing to see how it would change or react to any of her own serums that she had made. Most of the time, it would barely change anything, but she finally hit the jack pot when she got around to using her lizard DNA serum. A broad smile crossed her face. “Okay then, now we’re in business!” she printed out the formula and eagerly made her way towards the lab, skipping like a school filly.

She entered the lab and started collecting the chemicals needed to craft the formula. She then took the various vials of chemicals and mixed them as carefully as possible, keeping careful track of her progress. Once she felt she had the proper mixture, which was a soft reddish color that bubbled slightly, she gingerly poured the mixture into a large machine that hummed. The machine’s purpose was to mix various chemical compounds as thoroughly as possible through the use of magic stored in a synthetic crystal, allowing earth pony and pegasi scientists to get the same results as unicorns.

In this case, the machine’s job was to magically mix compounds and cast minor spells over them, in case a unicorn was not available for the task.

Cheerilee waited impatiently, watching the little progress bar move along slowly.

“Please…come on…come on…” she whispered, as if her pleading would somehow speed the machine’s mixing process. A small sonar like ping announced that the machine had finished its mixing project.

She gingerly removed the glass vial, smiling eagerly and placed it into a syringe.

She held the syringe in her hands and eyed it with wonder. “There it is Cheerilee…the key to your freedom.” She moved the needle to the shoulder of her missing arm and took a deep breath, hesitating slightly.

Oh come on, what are you waiting for? A voice in her head told her. You’ve waited long enough. Just do it. She took a deep breath and pushed the needle through her skin. She winced at the slight pinch. She slowly injected the serum into her arm, biting her lip in expectation. Once the syringe was empty, she gently removed it and placed it in a biohazard box.

“Okay,” she sighed in relief. “That wasn’t so bad…so far no wild mutations…now all I have to do is take a blood sample and- AHG!” she cut off by a piercing pain shot through her, originating from where she had injected herself. Before she had a chance to properly react, another stab of pain caused her to drop to the floor. It felt as though her shoulder was being burned by both hot acid and fire at the same time. Cheerilee’s vision became fuzzy as the pain quickly grew to be too much and overcame her, causing her to pass out.

////////////////

When sleep finally did claim Scootaloo, she was plagued by strange nightmares. She tried to move only to find her arms were stuck to her sides, a gross, sticky feeling enveloping her body. She struggled against whatever was preventing her from moving, only to discover she was trapped in a thick cocoon of webs. Panicking, she tried to struggle, her movements pulling on the strands of the truly tremendous web around her. A shadow appeared over her and Scootaloo looked up, her eyes widening in terror. Standing over her was a mammoth spider easily three times her size. The monstrous creature began to move towards the young Pegasus, slowly and deliberately. Scootaloo started to struggle wildly, her survival instincts kicking in. The spider marched towards her, its jaws widening, its fangs dripping venom. It finally reached her and opened its jaws wide and it let out a deafening sound.

////////////////

Scootaloo bolted awake with the sound of her alarm clock screaming in her ears. She tried to locate it through her blurry vision, but gave up, instead reaching for her glasses. Her hand reached out to the spot on her nightstand where she usually put them before going to bed, but felt empty space instead. Oh come on… she thought. Most likely the twins were playing a joke on her. She put a hand to her face. “Uhhh…it’s too early for…this,” she grumbled, her sentence trailing off as she felt her muzzle. Her hand traced the rim of her lenses. Then it dawned on her. She hadn’t taken her glasses off last night. She slowly lowered the lenses from her eyes and her vision cleared immediately.

“What?” Scootaloo muttered, completely confused. She sorted through all the potential causes for the sudden change in the quality of her vision. She absentmindedly rubbed the back of her neck, her mind still very much confused. Her hand however, felt a small welt on her neck and her eyes widened in realization. “The spider bite?” she said aloud, more of a question then a statement. She then laughed. “No way…I mean, that’s just crazy!” she chuckled to herself, trying to calm herself. That only happened in comic books right?

She climbed out of bed, making sure to stop the dreaded alarm that was still honking like a car horn directly in her ear. The first thing she noted that she was feeling considerably better than she had been the night before. Her nausea had faded along with the dizziness and she was no longer drenched in sticky sweat, although her clothes were still a bit damp.

A hopeful smile crossed her face. This wasn’t exactly the best thing to happen in the last twenty-four hours, but it was in the top five for sure. Certainly better then ending up dead from the bite or something.

“Hmm, I should probably tell somepony about this, just in case,” she muttered to herself as she started changing into clean clothes and searched for everything she’d need for school. As she packed her backpack, making sure to take the algorithm as well, she felt a strange tingling sensation and before she even had a chance to properly process it, spun around and caught a foam dart an inch from her face. She looked for the source of the dart and saw Pound sitting in her doorway with a dart gun pointing at her, a confused look on his face.

“How did you get so fast?” he asked, his voice a mix of shock and awe.

Scootaloo simply blinked for a second, just as confused as he was. “That’s my secret kid,” she replied, her confusion quickly replaced by pride as she finished packing her bag, and trotted past him. She grabbed her scooter from its spot by the stairs and walked down to the bakery.

“Morning Auntie,” she said cheerily as she gave her aunt, who was setting some muffins out for breakfast, a peck on the cheek.

“Oh, good morning Scootaloo. Feeling any better?” Aunt Cup Cake asked, giving her a kiss on the cheek in response.

“To put it mildly, yeah,” Scootaloo replied, smiling. She quickly grabbed a muffin and started for the door. She got the tingling sensation again and dodged to the right, a foam dart stuck to the door. She turned to look at Pound, sitting on the stairs with the dart gun, his face the very portrait of shock.

“Better luck next time short stuff,” Scootaloo winked as she walked out the door. She flipped her scooter open and began the journey to school.

Her Aunt looked at the door in bewilderment. “Did she forget her glasses?” she asked looking at the colt on the stairs.

/////////////

Cheerilee slowly awoke in a daze. She slowly opened her eyes, wearily scanning the room. Her head felt as if it was in a vice. “What the hay just happened…” she asked herself as her eyes drifted to her amputated arm, a dull pain throbbing in it. “What? Where’s this coming from?” she asked, confused by the phantom pain. She'd stopped having them years ago.

She was lying on the floor of her living room, which was completely and utterly decimated. Her couch was ripped in several places, with the stuffing pulled out and littering the floor. The coffee table that usually sat in the middle of the room was obliterated, reduced to a pile of broken glass and splinters. “What is…what?” she asked no one in particular, completely dumbfounded by the sight before her. She noticed something else too. A strange smell reached her nose. It smelled like something died. Her eyes drifted down towards the ground. She was overcome with a sudden queasiness at the horrifying sight before her.

Surrounding her were several dozen piles of blood stained feathers, tufts of fur and scattered bones that seemed to have come from some kind of small animal. She finally noticed the strange metallic taste in her mouth. It tasted like blood. She was suddenly overwhelmed by the urge to vomit and she bolted to her feet, staggering as best she could over the debris of the room and towards the bathroom, emptying her stomach into the toilet. She let out a groan and looked down at the disgusting sight before her. Floating amongst the rest of her stomach contents were bits of bone, feathers and fur. “W-what in Equestria?” she croaked, fear overcoming her as the realization that she had just eaten a living thing dawned on her.

She once more emptied her stomach into the toilet, slumping next to it and groaning. She dragged herself to her feet and started to wash her mouth out over and over again, in an attempt to purge the horrible taste from her mouth. After about twenty rinses, she flushed the toilet and reentered the living room

“What in Equestria happened in here?” she wondered aloud, as she started to clean up the debris as fast as she could. She didn’t know what could have possibly caused this damage, but the sight of various small animals ripped to shreds was simply unbearable.

Before she had a chance to clean the disgusting sight up, however, her phone began ringing, causing her to jump in fright. She looked around for her phone, since it wasn’t anywhere on her body. She rummaged through the remains of the couch and found it, inexplicitly stuffed between what was left of the cushions. She fumbled with the phone for a few seconds, and finally managed to answer it.

“Hello?” she asked hesitantly, not knowing who was on the other end.

“Dr. Cheerilee, where have you been? We’ve been trying to reach you all morning!” A voice on the other end asked, his voice panicked.

“I… I slept in,” Cheerilee said, not sure what else to say as she scanned the room again.

“Well you’d better get here quick.” The voice on the other end said.

“Why?” Cheerilee replied, rubbing her head to try to alleviate her headache. “Is something wrong?”

“Yeah, there was a break in last night and the boss is out for blood.” the other voice replied.

“Oh okay then. I’ll be there soon,” Cheerilee said, attempting to assure her coworker. She hanged up the phone and looked around the room.

I can’t leave the house looking like this, she thought as she dragged herself to her feet and started to clean up the mess as best as she could. She wiped up the blood, bones and fur, sure to use as much bleach and floor cleaner as possible to purge away the disgusting sight. She then went about attempting to make the room look at least moderately presentable, ending up piling most stuff into a rather sloppy pile in the corner of the room.

She flopped down on the destroyed couch, completely exhausted and incredibly confused. Her headache only seemed to get worst as time passed.

She let out a heavy sigh and started to get ready for work. She took a quick shower, dried herself off, and took a pain killer to at least try to alleviate the massive headache. And was about to leave when she caught sight of something jammed into the door frame.

Reaching over, she pulled out the object. It looked like a scale. And not just any normal scale, but rather a massive scale, as if it were off of a dragon. It was a dark emerald color and it glinted in the sunlight, only managing to add to her confusion.

“What in Celestia’s name is going on?”

Author's Note:

Okay another one down. And this will be the point where we actually start to deviate and create something a little more original. I hope you enjoyed and we should have the next chapter up soon.

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