Thread 48: Stories 61-70

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 “Oh, bother bother bother.”

He snapped and he snapped, getting rid of this, getting rid of that. With every failure, the kooky thing of many a beast let out a childish little “drat!”

His prey had gone far, and he himself had traveled wide. Searching high and low for where these strange things did hide. Clones of his friend, who he really did like a lot. But these strange things made his head grow hot.

He ranted and he stamped, “Get back here!” he said! Casting a candy cane right for the pink topped head.

The little thing dodged, a giggle on it's lips. It made him so mad he brought out his taffy whips.

But again and again, it avoided every striking blow. This was quite embarrassing for one as powerful as he, you know.

At last it stopped, and he saw his chance to end this game. “At last!” he crowed, thankful none around could see his shame.

But before he dropped a bomb that would surely spell the clones end... something happened, something so curious to the thing so similar to his friend.

Spots of red dotted her legs, her chest and her face. It curled upward, covering her in a icky looking embrace.

He had no time to think, for this was surely nothing good. He snapped his fingers once more, launching a blast where she stood.

She wibbled and wobbled, but yet the thing did not fall down. Instead the red seemed to grow, circling her head like a sick little crown.

Again and again he did his little snap, hitting her again and again with a chaos zap.

But the clone yet stood, she would not fall yet. In the face of this, he began to fret.

She moved as suddenly as a spring, snapping her head to the side. From parted lips, her throat rumbled as she cried.

“What is this?” the beast said to himself. Continuing on he roared “This is not right, explain yourself!”

But she just cried and she cried, letting out a little wail. Soon he knew why, and he began to grow pale.

From all around, they come from every corner. Pony, gryphon, buffalo and many another foreigner.

He snapped and he snapped, but they would not go away. He did not understand it, but something had happened this day.

The thing of red could not think, it was true. But it had done something else, something that made poor Discord quite blue.

It could not use the chaos magic, of course. But it didn't need to, the real answer was in this yellow horse.

It showed the thing the way, how to prevent it's end. A snap here, a snap there, and away from it the chaos did bend.

Every trick, the thing Discord did love. It only made it stronger as it wore the clone as a glove.

A snap and a snap and a snap came again. Slowly but surely, the chimera of chaos knew he would not win.

He made them stronger, with every blink of his power. If they got a hold of him, who knows how high it would tower.

A final snap, as quick as he could. He did not want to, but he knows he should.

In the space up above, he realized it was too late. It spread far and wide, far too much for just this date.

No matter where he would go, he would only be a danger. His power once again made to him a stranger.

Alone in space, he knew he could only sit and pray. That they would find a cure alone, and save the day...

In the vacuum of space, none could hear his cry.

His silent words...

"Good luck Fluttershy."
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 The changeling with the moniker 55 was unsure.

He had done his patrol last night, same as he always did, but last night was harder than normal, longer than normal. It was far later in the day than he was used to, almost afternoon, before he arrived back home. He had been worn out chasing a particularly rough bunch of bandits with robot guards all night, and as such, he wondered if he was just tired.

It was the only reason he could deduce why he felt like something was... wrong, over there. He didn't have a clue what that could mean, but he knew something was wrong.

Still, it can't be too wrong, from his sky-high view, he saw ponies in the streets, on the edge, moving all about and...

Moving really fast, actually.

...Really, really fast....

>Oh no!

He dove down like a bolt cast from heaven, screeches filling his ears as he neared the frontier town. His eyes focused as he got closer, letting him see the red, misshapen creatures prowling through the streets.

He didn't even think, simply lashed out with his chains and flames, beating back the creatures that screeched upon spotting him, and dove at him with everything they had. His chains beat them back, lashing them to any structure he could find that he felt would be strong enough, wrapping them up just as he knew he should.

>Hello!? Is anyone in here!?

He looked around as he battled them, seeing only more and more and more creatures come forth. His eyes trailed outward, looking for any sign of...

>THERE!

Some might call it foolish that he dispelled his fire, but he knew better. You never grab someone when they're on fire, he knew. He didn't know much, but he knew that. Not that it mattered. The tuft of red hair he shot towards clearly had her back to him. She couldn't see him, obviously, so his identity was safe!

He was almost a little too proud of that though as his chitinous hooves wrapped around the waist of the owner of that red hair, hefting her up into the skies on wings that... well, he admits it, those things should not be able to fly, but they could!

>Oh thank goodness! Okay, don't worry, I can carry everyone out and then-

She hissed at him.

She... she hissed at him.

Just like...

It was almost painful to tear his eyes from the back of her head and look down, but he knew he must.

At last, he could see them. The things with red, bulging growths all over them, the shrieking monsters that attacked him before and even know tried to attack him. Those creatures...

They were his friends.

He couldn't process it, couldn't wrap his mind around the hateful, angry growls and shrieks coming from his friends normally happy and carefree lips, couldn't believe what he was seeing before him even resembled them at all...

But there was Silver Star's badge, Tiny Trot's lucky hat, Girders chipped tooth... it was them.

And they were making that sound.

Which means...

Which means...

>I'm sorry...

He didn't know who he was apologizing to, to be honest. He didn't know who he needed to ask forgiveness for, who to make this up to, who he could go to so he could set this right. He just thought, to himself, this must be my fault.

His Queen had said they weren't allowed things, that was the rule. If he obtained it, it was the hives, not his. He had to share with her first, and then everyone else. That was the rule. It was his Queen's, not his. She got to decide.

He thought this was a dumb rule. He thought it was unfair, cruel, sad. If the Queen could have things, why couldn't he have things?

But he never questioned it, of course. Oh no, he would never do something like that. She was Queen for a reason, after all. He didn't know what that reason was, but he was sure it was a good one. But still, he always thought that rule was dumb.

And... his new Queen agreed! At least, he thinks she did. He got his gas cans, but she never took them away. He said he got drinks, but she never made him share. He told her all about his shack, but she just said he could keep it all. For the first time, he had things. A blanket, some fuel, a roof... it was his, and nobody made him give it up.

He was the luckiest changeling in the world.

But now... was his Queen right? The first one. Was that rule there for a reason?

He had been happy with everything he had, really. Just that was enough for him, he promised. But then...

Then she had written him a note.

She had wanted to meet him.

She had wanted to talk with him.

The real him, not the him he was when he was all flames and stuff. Not the him he was when he put on the disguise. She wanted to know him.

And... and he wanted to know her right back.

And then he found out she was bright, and pretty, and amazing, and so smart and kind and wonderful and...

Was it too much?

Did he take just a bit too much?

Is it his fault... that he's looking at her now, and she's not happy and bouncy and so full of life... she's covered in red, and snarling, and attacking him. He doesn't see the real her when he looks into her eyes. There's something else there, and he doesn't like it.

Is that his fault?

>...Do you want my pictures?

The beasts did not answer his words. They simply attacked, as they had been, without a single pause.

>Do you want my gas cans? Do you want my bits? Do you want my drinks?

Again and again he was forced to hit them, no matter how little he wanted to. To kick them back down, to knock them away as they leapt for him, to prevent them from reaching himself, or her. He had to hurt them, and it hurt him too. His chains felt so much heavier than normal...

>Can I give you my letters? Can I give you my pencils? Can I give you my lighters and my fuel?

He struck, and struck, and struck again, the weight in his chest dragging him down.

>...If I give you my shack, can...

He held her, even as she thrashed and bit at him, not quite able with the angle. She kicked and bucked and did everything she could, but he only gripped harder.

>If I give it all back, can I... can I just keep you? I... I love my things, but...

He looked at her, into those eyes that couldn't quite see him, into a vision clouded by something he couldn't hope to understand or comprehend.

>...The things don't love me back...

For a moment, a single, flickering speck of a moment, she paused.

She stilled in his grip, no longer struggling, no longer fighting, no longer moving at all. She looked to him, and for an all too brief moment, he saw something in those eyes, something familiar, something he remembered.

The instant passed...

And it was gone.

She hissed again, striking him across the head with a blow far beyond her strength, he knew. She was strong, but not like this.

She dropped back to earth, pulling him along with a grip to his leg. Dust kicked up everywhere as she slammed him down, battering him into the ground before snapping her head to the side and tossing him like a ragdoll.

He kicked back into a stance mid flight, skidding along the ground with all four hooves. Instinctively, he lashed out, beating back the infected form of the old sherif. A second strike, right to the deputies face, fended off enough that they no longer jumped at him. Instead, they surrounded him, snarling, hissing creatures that had once been his friends, monsters that looked like those he had seen everyday in his new home.

His gaze remained downward, even when he heard it. That first crack, that bend of wood and splintering sound coming from a place he knew so well he could tell you the placement of every rock.

He didn't need to look to know, really. He knew, without his sight, what was happening as the wood of his new home bowed outward.

And shattered.

From the collapsed ruins of his magic shack, a wave of... something slithered out. Like red dust given life, pulsating with something beneath its shroud. This thing, this bubbling creation, pushed aside the remains as it moved forward, straight towards him.

The crowd parted, as if in reverence to the thing. Like a slug it shifted upon the ground, inching its way towards him with every second, even as he remained still. He fell back onto his haunches as it neared, letting him look up, up, up enough he could see the shattered remains within it, bits of everything he had held within his shack floating about like debris in liquid. It towered over him, blotting out the sun above.

He couldn't help it as his eyes trailed over to her once more, still in the crowd. She was watching him, just as they all were. No different.

His eyes remained locked with hers as the misty thing let out something akin to a gurgle, and reared back.

>I'm not a smart changeling.

With a fury, it shot forward, and consumed him.

And through the bubbling, rippling and babbling as the red swarmed all around, they heard it.

>...But I'm not that dumb!

Light.

Glorious, beautiful red light ignited within the thing, shining outward against it's form. It let out something akin to a shriek, a sound shared by those who still surrounded him, before that red light reached it's glorious apex at the very top of that foaming thing.

And exploded.

The roar of the fire mixed with his cackle as he shot up into the skies, a canister of his favorite gas now in his hooves and a smile upon his face, seemingly uncaring as his once treasured possessions joined the crimson spored creature as it burnt away.

>CITIZENS! Have no fear! I may be unable to fix you in your current state, but there is always a way! I shall go off, and find it for you! Until then, I think a little something is in order...

Like a missile he shot off, off to the very corner of Appleoosa. He banked hard, and from his hooftip the flames danced out, touching upon the ground.

His speed only increased as he began to circle, faster, faster, faster still! Around and around the frontier town he went, that same flame firing out.

They screeched with the closest approximation to horror they could manage when they realized what he had done, albeit only the most basic of ideas.

Be it by magic or some other means, they could not say, but they had been surrounded by a tower of flame. Too far out to ever threaten the town, of course.

>Ha ha!

He struck a pose in the skies, above those that shrieked and shied away in fear.

>That should keep you all from going out and hurting anyone else! Now... I leave you, but I shall return! I shall not give up until you are all saved! SO SAYS FIREJACK!... That's right! We talked about it and Firejack sounds like a fun name! It was either that or... getting off topic. RIGHT! Focus! I shall return!

He gave one last look. Pointed, unmistakably directed at one out of the entire crowd.

>...I promise...

In a flash of red flame, he was gone. Arcing through the air, and off to that great city of white.

He had been so silly now, he knew. Why, his Queen would laugh at him, really! Either of them, both of them, whichever! So silly to think like that.

So silly...

The creatures he left behind shuffled around, unsure. Their job of 'spread' had been hindered, and there was no way around it. They could only sit, and wait. Unused like forgotten toys.

But one, of all of them, still moved. Something instinctual moved it, told it to walk to the twisted pile of scrap wood and dented cans of metal. Something compelled it, something beyond the thing that inhabited it's body.

The entity that drove these creatures did not know why it's host picked up the cloth blanket from the rubble, saw no reason why it would hold tightly to it, but it did.

It, of course, had no idea what this blanket meant, but somewhere, in the weakened grip of the thing, the host did. A memory flickered, just for a moment. Faint, but there.

As every other infected creature stumbled about, undirected and unsure, she sat down.

Two hooves held the very first gift she had ever given him close, and she waited.

She waited... but she did not worry.
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 >32
"Sucker Punch"
'41'

>...

"..."

'...'

>So who in this room is not a virgin, I know I'm not-

"'SHUT UP!'"

>Or what, you'll call me a baka?

"..."

>The last fan fiction that lout, High Roller supplied me with had a Sailor Luna crossover, I'm hip to the lingo thoroughly against my will.

"Fan Fiction?"

>Hm? Oh yes, it was the best reading material I could muster before dear-You, Diet Punchbug.

'What?'

>Earmuffs.

'Excuse me?'

>Earmuffs, I don't want you running off to tell the worst whore in the world who my one lifeline to a presentable standard of living is.

"But it's okay if I hear it?"

>You don't seem like the type to sell out POW's so no.

'What makes me untrustworthy?'

>Changeling.

'YOU RACIS-...'

>...

'Shut up.'

Petulantly, she crammed her ears in her mouth.

>Ahem, 48, yes, he's the one who did it, 48, he gave me allllll the nice things.

"...isn't that the one that eats paste?"

>You act like I even come from a culture that recognizes individual persons, or that they don't all probably eat it too. Tell me, what got you assigned here?

"Doing a favor."

>Foooor?

"You know who."

>Indeed I do. And how is his ex-lady love handling the news?

"She broke down crying, docs gave her the day off, emotional stress and all that. We're going to take her to get a pizza tomorrow."

>Yick, speak no more of that slop, in the cell during that hellish weekend, I devoured far too much. But that's beside the point, you, with the silly cloth around your head!

'It's a headband, you dick!'

>I give so few fucks I am actually actively taking them from someone else, but what's holding you here?

'I made the command decision to monitor your activities for the good of the hive.'

>Ahhh...you know you can just press that button there and I'll be out of sight, you can rut to your heart's conten-

"'SHUT UP ABOUT THAT!'"

>I refuse! Someone around here has to repopulate our race, and you've got the best chance out of anyone bar the fellow who knocked up the nightguard! Follow his example, Chun-Leech, be a credit to our race!

"...I'm gonna just turn on the metal barrier now."

>Fun-fact, playlist: 'Sleepover' on that console over there makes great mood music.

'Oh my Love, SHUT UP ALREADY!'

>Oh thiiiiis is the niiiight, it's a beautifuuuuul niiiight-

The metal barrier encases the cell.

"Jackass."

'I will never forgive High Roller for this.'

"He went through this for three days? No wonder he wanted out of here."

'...'

"..."

'Wanna see if can simulate Wrestlemaneia with the evil murderbox?'

"Hell yeah!"

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 NCOmake

>Twilight
"Sucker Punch"
'41'
-32-

>Guys just coming to make sure things are getting along-

The lab is empty aside from 32 sitting on his cot, inexplicably in possession of a foam finger and a soda watching a monitor showing Sucker Punch and 41 grappling in the middle of a ring inside a large stadium.

"You're goin' down, Lovebug!"

'In your dreams, puny pony!'

"Hyaaa!"

'Grrrahhh!'

>Uh...

-Freudian doesn't even begin to describe it.-

>Uhhhh...

-Dare you to turn the arena into a mud pit.-

"Germane Suplex!"

'Oh no ya don't, snapmare!'

>Why do they say the moves?

-We had to reference Neighponese cartoons somewhere.-
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 NCOMAKE
>29
"55"
~~~~

>So... wait. You have, like, a love interest?

"I don't know what that means."

>Marefriend.

"She's more than just a friend!"

>You are dating someone.

"I thought that you only dated really old stuff, she's pretty young."

>You are in a relationship.

"Yeah, lots of kinds!"

>Romantic kind.

"I told you, she's not that old! Rome was, like, a really long time ago!"

>You kiss her and stuff.

"HEE HEE!... Uh huuuuhh!"

>...OH DEAR GOD HE'LL BREED SOMEDAY!

"Hey, whoa now! We're working up to stuff like that, take it easy!"

>...

"...I know what that one meant."

>WE'RE DOOMED
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 NCOMAKE
>88
"32"
~~~

>You know, it took a while to get going with me...

"Well, we had the NMN stuff to do. Needed some happiness before we started ruining everything."

>I guess... still, my screentime is freaking nil here!

"Well, I'm sure that'll-"

>Oh! I know! I'll sleep with Shining Armor!

"...What?"

>What, isn't that how you get screentime around here?

"NO!"

>Oooooohhh... you sure?

"YES!"

>Darn.

"What!?"

>Nothing...
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 NCOMAKE
>SA
"Cadence"
'Chrysalis'
[18]
{42}
~???~
~~~

>Man, this is a long line.

"Now, Shiny, Applejack is very busy right now, let's just be thankful we got here before those guys all the way down there."

'HAH! Poor bastards.'

[So, what do you guys think? This this'll go fast?]

{Hopefully.}

[Cause it's kind of stalled up there.]

>Great, the one time I actually get to be ranty...

"SNUGGLING HARDER!"

'Cadence, please, you're in public!'

"...EEP!"

[What? You're allowed to sleep with your husband in public. I know. I slipped that law in.]

"..."

[I think ahead!]

{CAN WE PLEASE GET OFF THE SUBJECT!}

[Fiiiine... what's your story?]

~Ah', uh... Ah' jus' wanted ta' show mah' big sister all the candy Ah' got last night...~

>"'[{...}]'"

~Can Ah' cut in line with you guys?~

>You know what? I think I'd feel bad if you didn't.
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 NCOMAKE!
>PD
~~~

She leans back into her chair inside her airship, relaxing as the pleasant hum of the engines drives her forward.

>...I wonder what's on the radio...

*CLICK*

~LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR! LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR-~

*CLICK*

~You mother get up, come on get down with the sickness!~

*CLICK*

~I'm just a lonely zombieee...~

*CLICK*

~I feel it deep within, It's just beneath the skin. I must confess that I feel like a monster~

*CLICK*

>Is someone screwing with me?...

*CLICK*

~Cheeseburger in paradise! Heaven on earth with an onion slice-~

*CLICK*

>...Music's overrated...
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 NCOMAKE!
>AJ
"???"
~~~

>HAH! Ain't nobody gonna think ta' look fer me IN SPACE! NOBODY'S GONNA-

"A-hem."

>...Discord. How are ya'll?

"Could be doing better."

>Oh?

"Yes, for instance, if this wasn't non-canon, I could in fact tell you all about the zombies about to hit Canterlot."

>THE WHAT!?

"But thanks to the fact this is a cute little after thing, you won't remember it next thread."

>NEXT WHAT NOW!?

"And that's not even getting into what's happening to poor Spike next thread."

>WAIT WHAT?! WHAT'S GONNA-

"Oh dear, here comes the cut to black."

>DISCORD YOU EXPLAIN THIS RIGH
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 >Pinkie
~~~~
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2X4asYYWQw

>Well, we all had a grand old time at Nightmare Night, didn't we fellas? But oh no! Ten revealed her secret, Applejack had a confrontation with Chrysalis and now everyone's mad at her, how could it get any worse!?... Oh, yeah, ZOMBIIIIEEEEESSSSS!

>NEXT TIME! The Cordyceps makes its way to Canterlot while the infection continues to spread over the planet! Applejack has to deal with the fallout of her actions, Shiny continues to be ranty, 18 reveals the change with her and Shining Armor to Chrysalis and the secret to everything might lie in the most unexpected source, the rainbolts! See all this and more next time! Thread 49: I didn't order these zombies with my wine! Oh, and plenty of undead fanservice!... Wait, ew.
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