Things Change
HISTORY REPEATS
By Saddlesoap Opera
CHAPTER SIX: Things Change
Rainbow Dash cut multihued streaks into the forced-night sky, her path creating a fading grid pattern above the eye-speckled ocean of Smooze below. She paused in her patrol as an ash-grey Pegasus stallion swooped in to block her path.
“It’s too dark, Rainbow!” he said, gesturing to the gloom. “We’ll never find her in this! And even if we do, she’s got to be-”
Dash narrowed her eyes. “Got to be what, Thunderlane?”
The stallion backed up, his ears drooping.
“Uh… w-well, I just meant, what with all that sludge down there… we… uh…”
He trailed off, his voice robbed of volume under the force of Dash’s glare.
“I am not quitting,” Dash said gravely. “Not until I find Lightning Dust. If you wanna go home, then you go.”
Thunderlane frowned. “But, the dark…”
“So find me a lantern!” Dash snapped, and then took off before the stallion could see the anguished tightness in her eyes.
She flew on, pushing herself until she felt air-friction stir tickling electrical crackles through her wings. She spread the grid wider, her sharp eyes narrow, scanning every inch of the shadows below.
Eventually she came to the edge of the Everfree Forest, and pushed on without a moment’s hesitation. The wild, unmanaged weather of the place buffeted and battered her, making the wind seem alive. And hungry.
“Lightning Dust!” she cried out at the night for the dozenth time. “Dust! Can you hear me?”
Tiny lights half-smothered by the deep dark of the forest canopy caught Rainbow Dash’s sight; she swooped down to investigate, and found herself above the clearing surrounding Zecora’s wooden home. Tall torches dotted the area, providing flickering light. At the fringes of their glow, Dash could see that the Smooze had failed to intrude on the ominous woods, as though it were as hesitant about the place as Ponies were.
She alighted at a trot and headed for the front door, only to nearly crash right into the Zebra as she hurried out of her home.
“Zecora!” Dash said. “I’m looking for a crashed Pegasus. She’s green, with an orange mane. Have you seen her?”
Zecora nodded. “I have found the one you seek. She was wounded, tired and very weak.”
Dash’s eyes brightened. “You did? Where is she? Can I see her?” Dash barrelled past Zecora, heading into the hut.
“I wish you could, but I fear Lightning Dust’s no longer here.”
Dash turned, her ears and wings lowering.
“Do… do you mean she’s…?”
Zecora shook her head and then looked up at the dark sky. “She lives, but maybe not for long. She said she’s fine… I fear she’s wrong.”
“Fine?” Dash frowned. “But you said she’s hurt!”
Zecora said nothing.
Dash stomped a front hoof in frustration, and then paced back and forth as she ranted.
“Rggh! Dust, you dummy! This is just like her! There’s a difference between awesome and just plain stupid! We barely took out those Dragons, she fell from cloud-level to the ground, and now she already took off again?”
Zecora heaved a dejected sigh. “She is a lot like you, my friend. Brave but stubborn, to the end.”
Dash stepped closer to the Zebra, taking a deep, steadying breath and adjusting her wings.
“...Which way did she fly?”
• • • • •
“MINE!”
Nightmare Moon crashed onto the flagstones with a bestial Dragon five times her weight bearing down on top of her and its muscular talons squeezing her armor-plated throat. The polished Equinium groaned under the strain.
The dark Alicorn tried to ignite her horn, but the thing that was Spike reacted by giving a fierce jerk and pounding her head on the ground, cracking both the stone and her concentration.
The Dragon’s tail coiled greedily… only to find that the glowing orbs he’d been hoarding were now nowhere to be found. He craned his neck back to stare at his absent prizes. He growled, green embers escaping his nostrils, and then jerked back to roar into his prey’s face and bellow:
“Mine! Mine-mine-mine!”
Spike pounded Nightmare Moon’s head into the flagstones to punctuate each word. He squeezed her neck tighter, and she wheezed out a breathless cough.
Twilight Sparkle only paused a moment to stare at the black Alicorn in dismay before galloping forward to her aid.
“Spike!” Twilight shouted, stopping and leaping back to avoid her assistant’s lashing tail. “Stop it! Let her go!”
Twilight started to ignite her horn, but then a white, feathery wall buffeted her off her hooves. She got her bearings and looked up to see her golden-armoured mentor folding one massive wing.
“Twilight Sparkle, you mustn’t,” said Princess Celestia gravely. “The Dragons brought the Smooze to Canterlot. If you use enough magic to lift or teleport a monster that size at ground level, it will overwhelm us. Your arrival already cost us dearly.”
Celestia nodded at the dollops and small puddles of the stuff nearby, all squirming and growing and gathering with noxious vitality and hungry, staring eyes.
Twilight stood up and shook out her wings.
“Princess, that isn’t a monster! That’s Spike! We were in Tambelon, and the magic there did this to him! Is something like that what happened to Luna?” Twilight’s eyes widened. “Princess… what are you doing?”
Celestia was facing the pair of dark creatures wrestling on the stone, and a tiny bead of searing-hot magic was gathered at the blade-braced tip of her horn. The minuscule battle-spell was bright enough to leave ghostly scars across a watcher’s vision.
“I can’t let him kill her, Twilight!” Celestia’s eyes were sick with sorrow, but hard as steel. “He’s too strong to pull off her, his scales are too tough to knock him out, we can’t use enough magic to move him, and Luna’s armour won’t hold out much longer! I have to help her! I… I have to end this.”
The tightly-wound, efficient little spell glowed even brighter. Battle-magic as narrowly focused as sunlight through a lens. As neat and sharp and lethal as a stiletto.
Realization soaked Twilight’s innards in ice-water.
“Princess! NO!”
Twilight raced forward, her horn igniting.
• • • • •
Rarity was falling, and then she was burning.
After a dizzying sense of speed and vertigo she came to rest back in her body, sprawled on her belly. She opened her eyes to a wall of Smooze-streaked rubble, and then squeezed them shut against a crushing wave of pain. The purple filth covering her body weighed her down, heavy as despair, cold and searing and miserable as loneliness. She tried to sob, but the sounds never reached her mouth. She cast about blindly, desperate for relief.
A nearby warmth offered some hint of solace, and she found the strength to crawl towards it. Jagged chunks of stone scraped her Smooze-soaked hide, but she pressed on, crippled by her pain and guided solely by that merciful, gentle presence.
It soothed her.
The unbearable weight of the Smooze’s emotional onslaught eased somewhat, and her scattered thoughts slid into order like cloth assembling into a gown:
The town. The Smooze. The empty, bleak empire. Helpless isolation, surrounded by fellow spiritual prisoners.
Spike.
Rarity raised herself onto her hooves, moving like a mare five times her age, and opened her eyes once more.
“....P-Pinkie?” she croaked. “Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy stood with a similarly decrepit pose next to Pinkie, leaning toward her as though she were huddling by a fire in a snowstorm. But neither she nor Pinkie looked at Rarity.
“Girls…? Wh-What’s-”
Rarity turned to follow their gazes with her own, and her voice failed her.
The sky was dark, but the devastated courtyard was as bright as day. Apple Bloom knelt close by. Pinkie and Fluttershy and Rarity were not looking at her. Discord’s Smoozed, serpentine form lay sprawled around and behind them. They ignored him. A little further off, a creature of legend, The Megan, was raising herself up onto her knees. They were not looking at her, either. All eyes in the courtyard were locked on the source of the light.
A mare hovered above the centre of the rubble-strewn space. The ground beneath her was a smooth and shallow bowl of pale volcanic glass, streaked with rainbow colours like a huge abalone shell.
She was several heads taller than the gathered Ponies, easily a match for Celestia’s height. Her sleek, copper-coloured flanks were lean and toned, densely packed with elegant muscle. Her long, flowing mane and tail rippled like liquid gold. Soft light emanated from her like a summer dawn. Her eyes were closed, and her mouth held a faint, beatific smile.
And beneath her, as she lowered to the ground, four pairs of powerful legs shifted and set down eight unshod hooves that shone like polished marble.
Rarity forgot the relentless gnawing pain of the Smooze. She forgot how hideous she looked and how unkempt her mane was and how savagely fatigue pulled her downward. A tear of awe slid down her stained cheek.
“Merciful heavens…” she whispered. “Is… is that SLEIPNIR?”
Apple Bloom got to her hooves and looked back the Smooze-covered trio. Her face was wet with tears, but her grateful smile spread from ear to ear.
“No,” she replied. She nodded at the Human. “That’s The Megan.” She turned to face her reborn sister. “An’ that means this... is The Applejack!”
At the sound of her name, the eight-legged mare opened her eyes. They gleamed like emeralds.
Rarity gasped. She and Pinkie and Fluttershy galloped forward to stand by Apple Bloom, careful not to let the Smooze they bore touch the little foal.
“Applejack…” Fluttershy said softly, her voice raspy from her pain. “Is it really you?”
“Did it work?” Pinkie asked. “Are you okay? Oh, wow… you’ve got more legs! A whole extra Applejack’s worth!”
The Megan knelt before Applejack, her heart-shaped amulet sitting open and empty in one hand. She raised the other, reaching into Applejack’s glowing aura.
“I don’t believe it…” she said, and let out a small chuckle.
Apple Bloom took one more step forward and then craned her neck to meet her now-massive sibling’s eyes.
“C’mon, big sister!” she said. “Say somethin’!”
Applejack took a slow, deep breath, and the light surrounding her pulled back as though drawn in with her breath. The glow dimmed to only a faint glimmer, and the shadows in the courtyard returned. She let out the breath slowly in a soft sigh and then lifted her four forelegs one at a time. She finally spoke, with a deep and resonant voice that still held a slight country twang:
“Boy howdy... this feels mighty strange!”
Apple Bloom laughed joyfully and raced forward to hug her sister. Applejack stooped down to return the hug, burying the foal in her embrace.
Bloom wheezed, her eyes bulging, and cried out: “Oof! Careful! Yer really strong!”
Applejack smiled and eased off. She held her sister with two legs while mussing her loose mane with a third. She turned to look at her friends, and then at Megan.
But, awash with joy and relief or not, something else had caught the Megan’s attention.
Megan’s eyes were locked on the Smooze-soaked chimerical beast lying on the flagstones. On the mismatched legs and the snaggle-teeth. Her eyes narrowed. Her jaw clenched.
“Megan…?” Applejack said softly.
The Human said nothing. Instead, she looped the locket back around her neck, walked up to Discord, stooped down… and picked up a large rock in both hands.
• • • • •
Twilight Sparkle formed a shield-spell as narrow and economical as her mentor’s lethal sun-stab, and braced it against the onslaught as she skidded on the flagstones to interpose herself between Celestia and Spike.
The two spells clashed with the resonant peal of a huge glass bell; white-hot sparks scattered in all directions. Both Alicorns immediately snuffed their horns.
“Twilight!” Celestia snapped. “What are you doing?”
“You can’t do this, Princess!” Twilight shouted back. “I… I won’t let You! I won’t let You hurt Spike!”
Twilight had seen the chilling fire of genuine rage from Celestia only rarely in their years of association, and she’d never before been its target. But now, eyes that had seen centuries of love and hope and horror and despair narrowed menacingly in her direction.
“Twilight,” Celestia said, her voice cold and hard and final as a tombstone, “Stand. Aside.”
The tip of the Princess’s horn ignited with a fresh battle-spell.
Twilight’s knees quivered. Her wings trembled. Her ears drooped.
But she held her ground.
“I’m n-not moving.”
Behind Twilight, Nightmare Moon’s one unpinned hoof pawed at the flagstones. The armour on her neck creaked.
The tidy, well-tended flames of Celestia’s fury flared, threatening to run rampant. She stomped an armoured hoof, cracking the stone.
“I have no choice, Twilight!” she shouted. “If you won’t move…”
Celestia stepped closer, looming above her former student and staring down at her.
A fresh surge of squirming, coiling, frost-toothed fear gnawed at Twilight, but she forced herself to meet Celestia’s fierce stare and softly say:
“The Celestia I know would never do something like this.”
The sting of Twilight’s imprecation seemed to soften Celestia’s anger; she drew back slightly. But then a fresh wheeze from her Sister sent a ripple of anguish through the royal Alicorn. Her head lowered, her lips pressed tight and thin, and a tear slid down her alabaster cheek.
“I never would, Twilight,” Celestia whispered. “ I would never draw innocent blood. I wouldn’t harm one of my subjects for anything else.” She met Twilight’s eyes. “Only for her.”
The battle-spell brightened, and Celestia’s expression darkened.
“Don’t make me do this. Because I will. I would do anything to keep Luna alive, Twilight. Anything. For her sake, I faced a Chaos God in a world gone mad. I kept her alive even at the cost of a thousand years of loneliness. Even at the cost of losing my hold on the Elements. There is nopony in Equestria I love more dearly than Luna, Twilight. Not even you.”
Twilight winced, but held firm. She did her best to keep her voice steady as she replied:
“Spike may not be my flesh and blood, but I promised You that I would raise him, and love him, and keep him safe. He was with me when… when Discord broke my spirit. We faced King Sombra together in the Crystal Empire. He’s never let me down. I promised I’d keep him safe, Princess. And I will. Even from You!”
The two Alicorns stared each other down, neither welcoming the grim standoff nor willing to draw back. Grim purpose draped over teacher and mentor like a shroud. And then, a low, rumbling voice whispered:
“T-Twilight…?”
Twilight and Celestia turned to look at the deadly struggle that had sparked their confrontation.
Spike’s savage snarl had softened to a confused stare, and his grip on the Alicorn beneath him had slackened. His voice grew lighter, something more like his natural lilt:
“Twilight…” he repeated. “E-Even though I… you w-would… do that just for me?”
Twilight nodded, offering a small and bittersweet smile.
Nightmare Moon shook her head to clear it; her slit-pupiled eyes narrowed.
“I… I can’t…I-” Spike grimaced, feeling a vengeful sting from the darkness he’d absorbed. The clearheadedness Twilight’s confession had won him wouldn’t last.
Before Spike could act on his impulses, Nightmare Moon lunged at him. She clamped her jaws onto his throat, and her fiendish fangs pierced his dense scales like parchment.
“SPIKE!” Twilight cried, moving to intervene
“Wait!” Celestia said sternly, reaching out with a hoof. “Don’t.”
Acting on long-ingrained reflexes, Twilight obeyed. Her eyes widened as she watched.
Spike shuddered and wailed in pain, his tail lashing. But at the tips of his claws, the blackness was pulling away - leaving only his natural purple tint in its wake.
Nightmare Moon squeezed her eyes tightly shut and maintained her grip, and bit by bit she drank in the foulness suffusing the little Dragon as if sucking venom from a snakebite.
Spike’s thrashing grew weaker, and his mighty body thinned and shrank as the blackness was drained out of him. Soon he was back to his normal size, hanging limply from the black Alicorn’s jaws like a rabbit caught by a hound.
She let him fall to the flagstones and then staggered back, dizzied and unsteady.
Twilight moved in to check on her fallen assistant.
Celestia took a step toward her sister. “L-Luna…?”
The black Alicorn trembled, her knees shaking. She coughed, and occult filth speckled the air.
“Sister…” she croaked, “thou wouldst even smite thy student… to save me?”
Celestia paused, but no sign of doubt clouded her features. “You mean everything to me, Luna.”
Nightmare Moon’s eyes glowed, and their pupils widened until Luna’s eyes once more peeked out from that corrupted, doubly blackened body. Even her mane and tail were shot through with inky stains. She trembled again, and her wings drooped.
“Are you in pain?” Celestia asked, her brows knitting. “Can we help?”
Luna shook her head. “Waste not your time on me. Carrying such ugliness is a familiar pain, and I am better suited to endure it than is Twilight Sparkle’s little Dragon.” She coughed again, and then clenched her teeth against a full-body tremor. She staggered to the side to stay on her hooves, but then forced herself upright. “T’will pass.”
Celestia frowned in worry, her eyes shining. “You’re lying.”
Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle gently roused Spike from his daze; the baby Dragon leaped to dangle around Twilight’s neck, his paws gripping her mane and his face buried in her chest.
“I’m sorry!” he sobbed. “It was so dark and c-cold, and I f-felt so empty, and then…!” Words briefly failed him, and he looked up at Twilight with wide, watery eyes. “I’m so sorry, Twilight! I almost m-made you…”
“It’s not your fault, Spike!” Twilight replied as she crouched down to hug her assistant back. “Don’t be sorry… I’m just happy you’re okay!”
At the same time, Celestia approached her sister and gently stooped to nuzzle her neck, as she had done not so long ago in the ruins of their old palace. But where before their soft hides had touched, now polished battle-armour creaked and clacked.
Luna leaned into the gesture regardless, and shuddered against her tears.
“S-Sister…” she whispered. “You should have let the beast s-slay me. My sins are too many to count. I… I d-deserve to-”
“Sister…” Celestia whispered, “you deserve to be forgiven, nothing more. I haven’t made Equestria the land it is in spite of you. I’ve done it because of you. The Tree… Discord… Sombra… all of it. We faced them together.”
Luna tensed, her wings folding in tight. A response sat unspoken in her mouth, as bitter as bile.
“Yes, Luna,” Celestia said, answering the unsaid words. “Even Nightmare Moon. Love for you made me brave enough to face you, even at your darkest.”
Luna coughed again, and the black ichor sizzled into vapour as it landed on Celestia’s armour.
“I… I do not merit thy mercy,” she whimpered. “Better this darkness devour me. How can I ask thy forgiveness n-now, after failing so many times?”
Celestia held Luna close, warming her shivering body. “Luna, I forgive you whether you ask for it or not. And you’ve begun to forgive me for what I had to do back then. But please, Luna… most of all… forgive yourself!”
Spike and Twilight sniffled back tears of their own as they watched the ancient sisters silently hug and weep.
And then, from a nearby lane, slow and sarcastic stomped applause rattled in the night air.
“How sweet,” Grogar rasped as he trotted into view. “How touching. At least you won’t die with unsettled business...”
• • • • •
Lightning Dust cried out with every downflap as she cut an unsteady and lurching path through the dark sky. Each short, coughing grunt was a fierce denial of the pain of her wounds.
She moved faster injured than most Pegasi could at their best, but her progress still made her ashamed. There was no time for self-pity. No time to suffer. Not yet. She had to put things right.
“C’mon, you lazy Buzzard…” she snarled as she watched the skyline loom higher while she dropped lower, “stop foaling around and MOVE!”
A rust-coloured stain slowly spread across the gauze wrapped around her wounded wing as she flapped faster, groaned louder, and fought her way back to cruising altitude.
The Everfree and Zecora were miles behind her now, and the toxic ocean of the Smooze stretched out seemingly forever before her. But far ahead, on the rising-and-falling horizon, she could see the mountain. The tainted volcano where she’d made her world-ending mistake lent the peak a hellish purple-red glow.
Dust flapped harder.
“Just a f-few... more... miles!” she wheezed between grunts. “Just… a…”
The rest of the pep-talk never left her lips, as a riot of blackness swallowed her vision, and for a moment she lost track of her flight-path, her body, and everything else.
No!
Consciousness splashed back with a jarring buffet of wind, and Dust scrambled to right herself from the spinout.
The mountain towered higher and the horizon heaved; up and down fought for dominance through a blur of nausea and dizziness.
Dust flapped harder.
She leveled out, but the air seemed to be growing thinner; her frantic wingbeats cut through it without purchase. The hungry purple morass far below her rippled, and a false night sky of eyes opened on its surface.
Dust strained to straighten her wings to glide, but she couldn’t keep her pitch or yaw stable. She raged against the air, flapping fiercely, but yard after yard of altitude slipped away. Her hooves galloped on nothing.
“You loser!” she roared to herself. “You’re gonna let them down AGAIN!”
Stinging tears skidded across her forehead and flew up above her in the wind of her fall. Droplets of blood from her bandaged wing joined them. The Smooze was closer with every heartbeat.
Lightning Dust screamed through gritted teeth, denying the doom she feared she deserved. Another heartbeat, and she could count those lidless, staring eyes. Another, and a hundred of them turned to focus on her. Another-
And lean cyan legs wrapped around her waist, followed that same instant by a crushing wrench of competing G-forces, a deafening blast, and a nova of scintillating colours.
The Smooze rippled from the backblast and its eyes sunk beneath its surface against the glow of the Sonic Rainboom, and then all of it receded into the distance as Dust was carried up and up and up.
“You... you came after me!” Dust said, her weak voice half swallowed by the wind.
“Yeah, that’s right,” Rainbow Dash replied as her blazing contrail began to fade. “I’m not gonna turn my back on my wingpony - even when she’s doing something really, really stupid, like going out alone when she’s all messed up!”
Dust shifted in Dash’s grasp.
“I’m fine,” she said. “I just gotta get to that volcano.”
Dash leveled out her trajectory, pointing her and her passenger at the baleful mountain on the horizon.
“Okay, cool. Then that’s where we’re both going.”
Dust’s body sagged in Dash’s hold, the toll of her overexertion coming due. But the tension never left her golden eyes.
• • • • •
Megan couldn’t even remember how she’d gotten to Ponyville the last time.
She’d been consumed by the pain of her banishment - of failing the Ponies when they’d needed her. She’d stopped sleeping. Stopped eating. She ran away. Everything had fallen apart into a blur of shame and heartache. And then one day, she’d opened her eyes in hell.
A deformed, mutilated Ponyland, lurid and lethal, populated by tortured and tormented Ponies and overseen by a patchwork devil.
And now that hideous beast lay helpless and Smoozed on the ground at her feet.
Megan felt a low growl leave her throat as she raised the rock above her head with both hands.
“Megan, wait!” Applejack took a few halting steps forward on her many hooves.
Megan started to bring the rock down, but she jerked to a halt as Fluttershy threw herself across the monster’s body in the way of her strike.
“S-Stop!” the trembling Pegasus cried. “Don’t hurt him!”
“What are you doing?” Megan shouted fiercely. “Do you KNOW what that thing is? Do you know what he DID? He deserves way worse than this!”
Fluttershy’s expression grew firmer. She met Megan’s eyes with an unwavering cyan stare.
“Then let somepony way worse do it to him.”
Megan said nothing. She held onto the rock, but it lowered to waist-height.
“I know Discord’s a bad seed,” Applejack said gently, “I sure as sugar ain’t gonna deny it. Fer now, though, we got bigger stumps ta pull, awright?”
“Although he’s done… terrible things,” Rarity said as tactfully as she could, “this isn’t our way, Your Meganity. Ah, Meganness. Erm…” For lack of a proper honorific, Rarity curtseyed.
“He’s a meanie, but Fluttershy’s teaching him to be…” Pinkie stalled on the word better. “Uh.. less… mean?”
Fluttershy stared up at Megan with those huge, emotional eyes. Eyes so much like sweet, quiet, long-dead little Posey’s. Her lip trembled, but her gaze stayed firm, and she whispered:
“Please.”
Megan let out a weary sigh, and let the rock fall at her feet.
“You’re right,” she said. “First thing’s first. We need to get rid of this Smooze, and stop Grogar. After that… we’ll see.”
Fluttershy sagged in relief, and offered a weak smile of thanks.
Applejack met Megan’s gaze and gave a firm nod. “Awright. Now that that’s taken care of, what do we do now, Megan?”
The Human was silent for a long moment, her brows knitting as she struggled to return to the heroic mindset that had served her so well as a child. It had all seemed so simple, before she-
Megan looked the reborn Applejack up and down. Her expression brightened, and she nodded back to her old friend.
“We’re going to find some Flutter Ponies.”
Applejack drew back by reflex, her many hooves shifting.
“Uh, I dunno if that’s a good idea. From what you said, those critters are what we Pony-folks call Changelings, and they ain’t exactly the most helpful sorts.”
“That is an understatement!” said Rarity. “Horrid vermin! They almost ruined Twilight’s brother’s wedding!”
“They’re so icky and mean!” said Pinkie. “And they’re TERRIBLE at Pinkie Pie impressions!”
“All those awful holes…” added Fluttershy with a sickened shudder.
Applejack huffed in agreement. “Oh, and not to mention, they actually EAT love!”
Megan shrugged, and dusted her hands off on her pants.
“Honestly… I’ve dealt with worse.”
Apple Bloom looked up at the legendary creature, her eyes brightening. “Awright! Then we oughta get goin’!”
Applejack stepped forward, looming over her sister.
“Whoa, there, Apple Bloom!” she said. “I almost lost ya once - I’m not takin’ you into Changeling territory! It’s too dangerous for you!”
Apple Bloom frowned. “... Says the Pony who almost died just now.”
Applejack stomped several hooves. “That’s different! I’ve NEVER felt this strong before! I’m… well, LOOK at me!”
Pinkie obliged, craning her neck and letting out a suitably awestruck “Oooooh!”
“It’s not like there’s anywhere safer fer me right now!” Apple Bloom persisted. “No way ta know where those Ponies in the tunnel are now, our home’s full o’ this Smooze stuff, and nopony put that magic on my hooves ta walk on clouds! If I don’t stick with you, where else can I go?”
Rarity’s eyes shone with inspiration, and she blurted out: “Indefatigable!”
“Gesundheit,” Fluttershy replied.
The Smooze-splattered Unicorn frowned. “No, no! The Indefatigable! You know - Canterlot’s newest dirigible?”
The assembled Ponies and Megan stared.
Rarity frowned. “Oh, for the love of - the BALLOON! The big balloon!”
The group shared a mutual “Ohhhh!”
Rarity pointed at a shadowed lozenge sticking out of a tower in the distance. “It’s moored to a tall spire, far above all the Smooze. And it can fly even higher than Dragons can!”
Applejack’s brows knitted. She inhaled to respond, but then a rumble in the ground and the sound of tumbling stones drowned her out.
The huge Dragon was waking up.
“Shewt!” Applejack shouted. Her emerald eyes passed over Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy. “No time ta fuss! All o’ y’all - get my sister ta that ballon, y’hear? Me an’ Megan will keep this fella busy, an’ then head fer the Changelings!”
“You can count on us!” Pinkie chirped, giving a resolute nod.
“I’ll keep her safe, Applejack,” Rarity agreed. “I promise - one big sister to another.”
“But… what about the Smooze?” Fluttershy asked, looking over in worry as a purple-streaked wing spread up from the rubble-pile. “How will you cross it? It’s everywhere!”
Applejack smiled. “We got it covered. Megan’s rainbow taught me a trick or two.”
She dipped her head down to address her little sister.
“You get there as quick as you can, y’hear? I can’t do this if I don’t know you’re safe.”
For lack of words she could voice through a sudden lump in her throat, Apple Bloom simply hugged her sister’s neck.
“Right!” Applejack barked, straightening and turning to face Megan. “I’ve read the stories - I’m ready ta carry you inta battle!” She turned sidelong and crouched slightly.
Megan stared at the graceful sweep of the eight-legged Pony’s back and the flowing gold of her mane. Countless memories of panic and delight, horror and wonder, swarmed in her mind. She’d come within a hairsbreadth of death a dozen times astride the bare backs of Ponyland’s citizens, and triumphed every time. But since then…
Applejack tilted her head and glared at the hero of legend.
“Well..? C’mon! We’re outta time!”
As if in reply, a low growl hummed through the piled debris, and a fresh cascade of smaller chunks scattered down around Applejack’s hooves.
“I… I...” Megan reached out a shaking hand, and felt Applejack’s mane tickle her fingers. She drew it back, her hand darting to the emptied heart-locket around her neck. She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath before opening them once more. In that hidden moment, her gaze had turned from water to steel.
“...I’m not afraid.”
For the first time in more than a decade, Megan leaped up and settled on horseback. As Applejack rose up to her full height, Megan was back among the clouds, hearing Firefly’s rambunctious voice ringing in her ears through the roar of wind and the flap of wings on that very first trip to Ponyland.
As she directed a Rainbow-blessed steed with her knees to turn and face a sinister Dragon rising up from shattered stone while innocent Ponies fled into the distance behind her…
Megan was home.
• • • • •
I’LL FIND A WAY
(Applejack rears showily and then turns to gallop off with Megan,
pursued by the Dragon)
MEGAN
There’s a monster on my heels, like years ago,
Raging Dragons, pounding hooves, and here we go!
(Applejack gallops through the streets at high speed,
just out of the Dragon’s reach)
It was all so very scary way back when,
But now I’m just so glad to be here again!
(She and Applejack duck as flames roar past above them)
A second chance to save the day,
A second chance to make him paaaaaay!
(Applejack lashes out with four back legs, smashing the Dragon’s muzzle
after it near-misses a bite and propelling herself forward)
Might be tough, might be rough - I’ll find a way!
(The view shifts to Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy and Apple Bloom
running through the city streets toward the blimp-tower)
RARITY
(The group gallops past spreading puddles of Smooze,
the adults flanking Apple Bloom to protect her)
I’ve quite had my fill of Smooze, thank you so much,
Ugh, its positively dreadful smell and touch!
(They spot a small pack of lesser Dragons, and skid into a turn)
Though it’s painful you won’t hear me moan or yelp,
Because Applejack’s dear sister needs our help!
If it wants her as its prey,
I’ll meet its eyes and bellow neeeeeeeeigh!
(They leap and scramble over piled crates and gallop,
leaving the Dragons behind)
I’ll bring Bloom to the balloon - I’ll find a way!
(The view shifts to Rainbow Dash carrying Lightning Dust
through the sky, heading for the volcano)
LIGHTNING DUST
I haven’t been the best Pony, I confess -
I was foalish and it caused this awful mess!
(Dust looks up at Rainbow Dash)
But now Rainbow’s here to watch me do my best,
So I hope that I can pass this final test!
(She looks out at the volcano)
I know I went astray -
I owe a debt I can’t repaaaaaay!
Just you wait, I’ll set things straight - I’ll find a way!
(The view shifts to Celestia, Twilight, Spike and a sickened Luna
squaring off against Grogar surrounded by puddles of Smooze)
TWILIGHT
I’ve faced evil creatures with my friends before -
Shadow kings and parasites from days of yore!
(Grogar charges, head down, horns glowing;
Celestia and Twilight cross horns to parry)
Magic’s risky with the Smooze, so it looks like
We’ll be fighting horn-to-horn - BE CAREFUL, SPIKE!
(Twilight and Celestia skid backward;
Spike dives out of their path, hopscotching between Smooze puddles)
Nothing else to say,
Let’s jump into the fraaaaaay!
(As Twilight and Celestia push back and counter,
the view rapidly shifts to the others)
MEGAN
Might be tough, might be rough…
RARITY
I’ll bring Bloom to the balloon…
LIGHTNING DUST
Just you wait, I’ll set things straight…
TWILIGHT
Evil fails, and good prevails!
ALL
I’LL FIND A WAY!
• • • • •
Megan clung tight to Applejack’s mane and squeezed her sides with her legs as her eight-legged friend raced through Canterlot’s streets at a thunderous gallop. The Dragon was long behind them, and none of its smaller fellows could match the empowered Earth Pony’s speed. The outskirts of the capital and the winding road down into the vast Smooze-covered plains spread out before them.
“Applejack!” Megan shouted over the rumble of pounding hooves. “Are you SURE about this?”
Applejack thrust her head forward, narrowing her eyes, and grinned.
“Couldn’t rightly tell ya why, but yeah. I am. Now… HOLD ON!”
Applejack poured on still more speed, cutting divots out of the hard-packed earthen road with every hoofbeat, and charged straight toward the Smooze.
Megan clenched her jaw tight and her eyes closed. She let out a tense cry as Applejack plowed into that ghastly purple filth…
...And then opened her eyes wide and whooped for joy as the Pony cut through the stuff like soap dripped into an oil slick. Everywhere her hooves landed the Smooze pulled back, and the countless eyes stared at the blessed mare in sullen frustration. They left a slowly closing green path in their wake.
“YEE-HAH!” Megan hollered, straightening up on Applejack’s back and letting go of her mane with one hand to wave above her head like a rodeo champ.
Applejack peered over her shoulder as she galloped, raising an eyebrow.
“Y’all okay up there?”
“Okay?” Megan asked, her smile so wide it made her cheeks ache. “I’m dancing on air!”
Applejack smiled back, and then her expression grew firm and determined. She turned back ahead, and her eight legs blurred with the speed of her hammering gait.
They streaked southward toward the barren wasteland once known as Flutter Valley, in search of the once-kindly creatures who still called it home.
TO BE CONCLUDED
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So... Smooze... *eyetwitches* The Smooze...
The god-damned Smooze...
From The Movie...
That Smooze...
*Alondro almost downvotes instinctively!*
No no... I must read it. Nothing could ever be as bad as the movie.
Totally awesome.
Twilight Vs. Celestia Ultimate Momma Bear Showdown this Sunday Sunday SUNDAY!
>>>“We’re going to find some Flutter Ponies.”
Applejack drew back by reflex, her many hooves shifting.
“Uh, I dunno if that’s a good idea. From what you said, those critters are what we Pony-folks call Changelings, and they ain’t exactly the most helpful sorts.”>>>
Ooooooo... someone else who's thought up the Changelings = mutated/corrupted Flutterponies idea!
That's one story I really do need to write. And why they chose their fate willingly to save them from frozen despair when the ponies brought the Windigos to their beautiful land (I worked the Hearth Warming Story and a Discord origin into it and it all fits together so perfectly!)
4333596
The concept was kinda terrific if you think about it: a colossal Shoggoth summoned by mad witches, engulfing an entire country and draining the helpless inhabitants from all their positive emotions, driving them into absolute apathy and despair.
Epic chapter as always. Only one complaint which is that no talk about how crazy it is that Pinkie dragged two ponies and a god through the Smooze muck for many miles and getting them to Canterlot? Man some ponies get all the praise.
4333940 >>>a colossal Shoggoth summoned by mad witches, engulfing an entire country and draining the helpless inhabitants from all their positive emotions, driving them into absolute apathy and despair. >>>
Ah, the Federal Reserve.
Great job. Hope dust isn't planning a "sacrifice myself to volcano to save land" sort of plan because those almost never work. Nice to see a week before we may see the FiM incarnation of Tirek (hopefully).
4334330
Nice to see I'm not the only one who thinks that about the finale!
A red-skinned demonic male with clawed hands and dreams of pony slavery... sure does seem pretty familiar, to say the least...
I guess we'll see soon enough!
4334371
i.imgur.com/71PLg.jpg
You continue to prove your epic writing skills, don't you?^^
4334371
Also in this is there any connection between Breezies and Changelings? Perhaps with Flutterponies as a common ancestor?
4334406
You know, the Celestia vs Twilight "I-kill-you-for-the-one-I-love-the-most" is the kind of scenario which would have make Heath Ledger´s Joker jelly. I´m a bit disappointed Grogar wasted such a chance for a good "The Reason You Suck" speech to crew their heads further.
If we're going to the Changeling Kingdom, then I hope we see Topsy Turvy again.
Am I the only person who finds an eight-legged pony to be kind of... eww...? Seriously, that's just creepy.
4337627
It might seem a little weird, I admit, but Sleipnir is a mythological critter almost as old as Unicorns are! No more or less bizarre than a two-headed dog or a Chimera...
"The Slipper" was Odin's steed, and was both incredibly fast and strongly linked to death imagery - even being able to carry a rider to the underworld and back.
Sleipnir is also described as "the best horse among gods and men," so for the moment at least, it seems Applejack is Best Pony at last!
4337685 I Agree with the choice here, i was hesitant to read this because i am a bit annoyed by earth Ponies becoming Alicorns...
Now i think Earth Ponies got a BETTER Uber Form then Unicorn and Pegasi!
(Cadence was born a Pegasus, so at the very least, Unicorns and Pegasi both end up as Alicorns)
Yeah, i Squee'd, in part because Slipnier, and another part because she wasn't Spontaneously Alicorn.
Eight legged AJ? Interesting to see that mythological element brought in.
And it sounds like my guess last chapter was correct and Spike did bring Rarity and Fluttershy's orbs with.
I love the effort you put into your songs, makes me wish I was not tone deaf and could actually sing the songs.
4337627
No kidding!
I really like this adventure hardened Megan and I think the next chapter is just going to be great because I'm thinking that Chrysalis knows Megan personally, or at least knows someone who has, an ancestor or the like.
4383865
Yes, it's an interesting contrast, to be sure.
In Celestia's case, Luna is the only living Pony who remembers the ancient times. They were apart from each other for centuries, but now her sister is Celestia's only link to her foalhood.
And in Twilight's case, Spike has been with her for more consecutive time than anypony - perhaps even her parents, depending on how the years of foalhood/school/adulthood divvy up. She lived with Spike in Canterlot, in Ponyville, as a foal, a filly and a mare.
Danger to connections that supremely intimate can push Ponies to extremes they'd never consider otherwise, no matter how abjectly they know they'd regret the consequences. I really enjoyed creating a moment with that kind of tension... and creating a chance for Spike and Luna to witness first-hoof just how much they really mean to their respective relatives.
finally flutter ponies!
is Rosedust Queen Chrysalis? because that would be pretty cool if she DID remember Megan and everything that happened. We don't know how long changelings/flutter ponies live, so its possible that Megan will see more ponies she remembers 
oooooooooh!!! can't wait 4 the next chapter...
So Tirek should be slinking around in the background at this point, keeping a low profile, assuming you are keeping that aspect of season 4 canon. On the one hand, that gives you so much to work with as a twist or climax or as a sequel to this. On the other hand, I can see Tirek learning of Megan's return and deciding that finding magic to steal somewhere else on the planet might be the best course of action.
GO MEGAN!
SO AWESOME!!!!! LOVE THIS STORY!!!!
I wish someone would sing and record your songs..... Shit I wish this was a comic or better yet animated..... THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!!!!
4572175
I agree - and thanks!
It's not quite the same, but there IS an example of my lyrics being sung, actually.
If you check out my story The Nightmare After Nightmare Night, there's a link to a great YouTube reading of it, complete with music, audio effects on the Royal Canterlot Voice and a full sing-through of the song!
4580274
Awesome, I'll check it out; hope to see more of this though.
Here's eagerly awaiting the conclusion of it all!
4980445
It's happening, honest!
Real Life has been a bastard lately, but the finale is allllmost done!
4991798
Yay
i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/7835832320/h8D8CCA50/
4991798
Ooo I hope it has some epic Pinkie Pie. And some ponies need to acknowledge her awesomeness she only dragged three bodies for miles in the Smooze to rescue them all lol!
In all seriousness I love this story and will love to read the next chapter. Your Pinkie is so in character and epically awesome that it makes this a must read every time.
Just finished reading the entire work and all I gotta say is wow. Can't wait to see how things turn out!
Didn't see Applejack's transformation coming, but I like it. I'm a fan of several mythologies, including Norse.
Man, this was an awesome chapter.
I'm loving the camaraderie between Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust. Those two, who use to not like each other during the beginning of this story, are having each other's backs and doing their best to work together. Rainbow Dash really has shown why she embodies the element of loyalty.
VERY GLAD that Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy have returned to the battlefield.
Applejack's transformation came as a.........surprise, because I have never heard of an eight-legged horse before, so that was pretty different. Either way, I'm really loving the bonding and camaraderie between Megan and Applejack. Their friendship is the biggest highlight for me.
And PHEW. Glad that the situation between Twi, the royal sisters and Spike has been resolved.
And the song at the end was a nice touch. And now, to read the final chapter.
AWESOME....AWESOME....AWSOMENESS ABOUNDS !!!!!!!!!
i've heard of giving someone a hand but this is ridiculous
it's do princesses dream of magic sheep, but way less metaphorical
lets get dangerous.