One worm for the Apples

Evil was a very busy cat, he either was torturing souls or coordinating his demons, other times he was taking care of Heck and its endless pits and seas of lava and finally, he would sometimes accept auditions from beings that wanted something with the promise of giving their souls to the cat. However, he would enjoy a chat with some of the universe´s most prominent villains and close tools from when he needed them, but there would not always be friendly chats and the one he had right now, was a clear example of that.

“You boarded my ship and blew it!” Screamed Slugg-for-Butt, her anger clearly noticeable by everyone, however, it did not intimidate Evil in the slightlest, who was just simply staring at her with a bored expression. The queen was very known for her cruelty and incomparable power that she held, but for Evil, she was just a two bit magician.

Yawing rather calmly and much to the queen´s anger, Evil simply continued playing with a ball he had on his paws.

“For how long are you going to remain silent? I asked for this audition to avoid wasting my time!” Slugg-for-a-Butt replied, finally getting the attention of the cat, who simply turned to look at her.

“As far as I know,” he finally said, “it was the worm who activated the ship´s auto destruction.”

The queen roared in anger. “The ship has no auto destruction visible in plain sight for any idiot to come and press it! You changed my cruiser´s functionality and it is going to cost you, cat!”

“Careful my dear queen,” Evil replied rather calmly, “remember your place in this galaxy.”

The queen wide open her eyes in pure fury. “My place? My place!? I will...”

Before she could finish her sentence, a barrage of fire appeared around her, burning her Insectican guards to a crisp and leaving a scared queen looking at the pair of yellow eyes staring at her, an angry look now visible on his face. Getting the hint clearly, Slugg-for-a-Butt lowered her scepter and backed away, she was scared and it made Evil happy.

“Glad I made myself clear, queen.” He said.

Slug-for-a-Butt hated this kind of moments, she was normally in control of everything, enjoying the benefit of having the universe under her might, but she was nothing compared to what this cat could do. There was simply no saying on what his limits were and she was sure she didn´t want to find out ever. Evil the cat was a being you would not want to anger and she knew it, it was this thought that frustrated her.

Tightening her grip on her scepter in frustration, Slugg-for-a-Butt made an effort to breath calmly and avoid her rage getting to her. “I din´t came here to start a dispute, Evil.” The cat smiled, he was in control and he knew it. “Jim has not appeared ever since his encounter with you and I know he didn´t die in that explosion.”

“And how do you know that?” Asked the still smiling cat.

Sadly for him, the queen had the right answer. “You think I can´t feel your frustration? You may be stronger than me, but I am no weakling, I know you wouldn´t be this ´calm´ and I want to know what happened to him.” Evil´s smile faded, she was right and it angered him. “I was thinking you could accompany me to Insectica, maybe we could help each other to finally get rid of that worm.”

Evil moved his upper body to the front, still sitting on his throne and gave the queen a frown. “That worm is mine.” He was not yelling, but Slugg-for-a-Butt could feel the weight and anger in the cat´s words. She gulped.

“You are not the only one that suffers because of him and there´s something preventing you from getting him, which is why I suspect you haven´t done anything.” Once more, the queen was right. Evil gritted his teeth. “I want nothing more than to see that worm erased from existence, I really don´t care who does it and you clearly need help to find him. I´m simply asking you to come with me and discuss this, maybe you could find something that could benefit you further.”

Giving a deep breath to calm himself, Evil placed his paw under his chin, thinking about this. He knew he couldn´t trust her, not that he was worried, but the moment he showed a hint of weakness, all around him could simply collapse. He could always find the worm by himself, but would probably take longer, he needed help.

Evil had figured that going with Slugg-for-a-Butt was the best course of action, however, he would not simply launch himself blindly, thankfully he had already things planned in case something went astray.

Finally going out of his trance, Evil looked at the queen and gave her a nod.

“Glad you took this decision.” Said Slugg-for-a-Butt, as Evil got up from his throne. “Come, we have a long way to start discussing this.”

The queen had just turned around, as she proceeded to her ship. She was nervous about bringing him a top of the cruiser, but there was so much she could take from this.

Soon enough, the queen entered the ship from the giant ramp, with Evil going behind her, however, before he got inside, the cat turned to his left. Not far from his position, a rock formation greeted him. Evil nodded, with this, he returned his eyes to the ship and entered it.

The engines roared, accompanying the now levitating ship, as a pair of eyes silently watched it leave the surface. It wasn´t long before a wide yellow smile was seen between the darkness.

If there was one thing Fluttershy simply loved, was seeing her animals happy. Some liked being pet, others enjoyed the moments when the played with each other and others simply adored eating time. Snott, certainly entered all three categories.

Fluttershy found it amusing, for such a small being, it sure had a lot of appetite. The mucus creature was going for his third plate and there still wasn´t sign of him being stuffed. Fluttershy analyzed the little creature, she had certainly never seen an animal like him and she knew a lot about animals. Maybe it was her fault for being so close minded about the subject. In the end, Fluttershy liked knowing new species. Thoughts aside, she wondered if there were more like him and Jim.

Suddenly going out of her trance while watching Snott, Fluttershy remembered the big worm and wondered what had happened. The little mucus animal had a lot of luck for being inside the back pack all the time, but she felt bad for Jim for having gone through whatever he went.

Contrary to the pegasus, a certain bunny was shooting daggers at Snott. How dare this guy eat all of his food? This was shaping up to be a great day for Angel: First, returning home, then belly scratching time, after this, that woman would go to the kitchen to prepare him a sandwich while she scratched his ear... All in all, a fantastic day for him, but hen this thing came and suddenly all of Fluttershy´s attention was directed towards him. Angel didn´t like this at all, but there was nothing he could do about this, because anything he could do to Snott, the pegasus would scold him. Thankfully for Angel, he would have an opportunity.

Fluttershy had just finished observing Snott, when she took the decision of checking out the creature´s friend. “I´l bee right back, Snott.” She said, getting a friendly and rather adorable nod from the mucus creature.

A smiling pegasus went out of the kitchen, leaving Angel and Snott alone... The bunny released an evil smirk.

Taking an apple from Snott´s plate, Angel took aim against the open window of the kitchen, then made a few sounds to get the slime creature´s attention and teased him with the delicious fruit, to which Snott feel for quickly. Like a dog, his gaze followed the red delicacy, as it was waved in the air by the sinister bunny. Suddenly and with enough force, Angel threw the fruit against the opened window and was naturally followed by Snott, who almost instantly jumped from his place.

For Angel, this was a rather delightful moment, as he would soon see this guy out of the house and he would surely waste no time to close the window, saddly for him, the bunny had miscalculated the throw and the red apple crashed against the mark of the window and bounced back to Angel, Snott following close behind.

SQUISH!

Much for the bunny´s dismay, his body was covered by a bruise from the fruit and the slime of Snott, who was now licking Angel´s face and if this wasn´t enough, Fluttershy was just entering the room.

For Angel, this had been a wasted opportunity to get rid of the slime creature, ending with his humiliation, for Fluttershy, though, this was a rather cute scene.

“Oh! I´m so happy that you managed to befriend him, Angel!” The bunny launched a death stare towards Fluttershy, but this went unnoticed by the shy pegasus, who got closer to the duo and used her hoof to scratch Snott´s back. “Didn´t I tell you he was sweetheart?”

Snott made a few noises with his mouth and rubbed his face against Fluttershy´s hooves, causing the pegasus to release a chuckle, Angel, however, opted to roll his eyes.

Soon enough and thankfully for Angel, scratching time was over, with Fluttershy getting a good look at Snott´s empty plate, immediately making her cover her mouth. “Oh my!” Her gaze returned to the slime creature. “You were really hungry, Snott.” However, Snott was not without feelings and his face showed a sad and concerned look as soon as the words left from Fluttershy´s mouth, but far from angering the shy pegasus, it actually made her chuckle. “Don´t worry Snott, that´s what food is for, besides, I was in the mood of visiting the market.” With that, Fluttershy turned around to head towards the door. “I´ll be right back, come on Angel.”

As the bunny prepeared to leave the kitchen, he turned around to stick his tongue out towards Snott, trying to rub his victory in the rival´s face, however, the slime creature simply smiled and gave a friendly wave to the bunny, who grunted in response... At least he wouldn´t have to deal with him on the time being...

“Actually,” Fluttershy said, suddenly stopping at the door, “why don´t you come with us, Snott?” Angel´s ears went up high as soon as he heard this and wasted no time to shake his head against the pegasus´ idea, however, this went unnoticed by her. “That way I can show you Ponyville.”

As soon as Snott gave her the hugest of smiles and jumped to set himself over Fluttershy´s back, Angel face palmed, his exasperation unnerving him.

As the smiling Fluttershy left the kitchen with Snott on her back, Angel went behind her, launching death threats with his hands against the mucus creature, who simply interpreted them as some kind of game, one which he followed, furthering angering the bunny, who simply opted to stop the ´game´and keep walking. This first try wasn´t successful but he had plenty of time to craft a master plan.

With this thought in mind, the sinister bunny let out an evil smile.

Like thunderous storm, an enormous ship entered Heck´s atmosphere, flying across the hellish skies.

Several denizens of hell prepared to receive the guests and plenty more took flight to greet these new poor souls. Suddenly, a black smoke was raising from the rocky atmosphere and towards the sky behemoths, with the intention of showing them why Heck was the most feared planet on the universe.

The space ship held the name ´Winter´s Fury´ on its side and inside it, Jim´s friends were waiting to get to the surface.

The door to the bridge opened to give entrance to Dalus, who made his way towards the front window, with the intention of getting a good look at the planet. In all honesty, he was terrified of being here, as he was sure most Endorians aboard were as well. None had ever dared set foot in Heck and now here they were, in search of a lost giant worm in a space suit.

Soon enough, the admiral´s thoughts were cut short by the voice of a young Endorian, who had just taken a look at his monitor.

“Sir!” He spoke, catching the admiral´s attention. “I´ve detected movement on the back of the ship, multiple hostiles incoming!”

“Let a squadron out to protect the Winter´s Fury, we need to land on the surface.” Dalus replied, getting a nod from the Endorian, but before he could return to follow the command, he noticed something else.

“There is a ship going out of the planet.” Dalus raised an eyebrow at this. “It is Insectican in nature.”

The admiral placed one hand under his chin, thinking about this for a second. “Leave it be, maybe the bug queen tried to get an audience with Evil.”

With one final nod from the young Endorian, Dalus took sit in front of the bridge´s window to observe the incoming spectacle.

The black mantle of demons had been erected and were making their way towards the ships engines. The sounds of wings an claws clenched themselves to the tubes, getting ready to rip apart the metal, until several blue blasts disintegrated the black creatures. Soon enough the demons´ attention was switched towards the incoming squadron, smiles appearing on their face as they prepared to strip Endorian flesh from its bones and so it was that the battle began.

Between blaster sounds and screams from both sides, the Winter´s Fury came down towards Heck´s surface. The planet had become a war ground, with several explosions giving the ship a dread entrance.

Dalus had remained on the bridge, often grabbing his chair to avoid falling from one of the ship´s violent quakes. It wasn´t too long before the door of the room opened to reveal three figures.

“Admiral, what´s happening?” Bonikka´s voice placed Dalus on his feet, who almost immediately walked towards the Endorian queen, who had just arrived the bridge with What´s-her-name and a still sick Peter.

“Ship´s under attack, those damned creatures trying to tear us from the sky.” Dalus answered, clenching his fist, however, this did not worried Bonikka, who did her best to remain calm.

“What is the status?”

Another violent shake made them almost fall to the floor, with Dalus releasing a grunt. “We´ll make it to the ground in a few moments, but I don´t suspect these bastards to receive us with open arms and baskets full of flowers.”

Far from ending Bonikka´s confidence, her face showed determination. “Then start rounding up your forces to repel any hostile.” They were there already, just a few moments to arrive to the surface and search for Jim and there would be nothing that would stop the queen from doing it.

Dalus really had to admire her courage. He simply smiled at her decision. “Yes ma´am.”

Of course, a rude comment from the princess could not falter, even if the situation was critical. “At last! I was getting tired of this flying wuss ship!”

With a roll from her eyes, Bonikka decided not to bother looking at the princess. “I will pretend I didn´t hear that and that the sound was just an annoying mosquito.”

“Yeah, you better.”

Bonikka released a grunt as a response, then turned around to leave the bridge with her two companions, getting ready to step on Heck´s surface.

The beautiful afternoon gave way to the lively market in Ponyville, as multiple ponies went left and right to buy whatever they needed.

From the several equines, Fluttershy was making her way to buy some carrots, the rest of the list being filled with everything she needed.

The trip hadn't been a shore, as Angel had done his best to remain calm... There were simply too many witnesses. Contrary to the frowning bunny, Snott was trotting lazily posing on Fluttershy´s back, enjoying the view of the place. The shy pegasus had to admit that Snott wasn´t heavy nor uncomfortable to carry around, to the contrary, his unusual slimy body was rather calming, so much in fact, that it had prevented her from seeing Angel who was shooting daggers at Snott the whole time.

Soon enough, Fluttershy arrived at the stand, where a pale brown mare with orange mane received her with a smile. “Hello, Fluttershy.” She greeted. “Same as always?”

“If you don´t mind.” Answered the timid pegasus. Not much time passed before the mare brought her two pairs of carrots to which Fluttershy received before giving the mare her payment.

After the bits were received with a nod, the shy pegasus turned around to start the way home, but in the process, a blue blur greeted her.

“Hey there, Flutters!” Rainbow stopped her flight in front of the yellow pegasus, who after giving a small jump of surprise, gave a deep sigh and greeted her friend.

“Good afternoon, Rainbow, what are you doing here? If you don´t mind me asking, that is.”

“Just came back from Morpheus arms and got in the mood the stretch these beauties when I found Twilight and told me to round up the girls.”

Fluttershy cocked her head to the side upon this newly arrived set of news. “Why?” She asked. It wasn´t everyday Twilight asked the Elements to have a meeting and when it happened it usually meant something happened, still, she had to now the nature of this.

“She told me we were going to the crystal king...” Suddenly, the rainbow colored pegasus noticed the green ball waving at her with a huge smile on its face. The stunned mare flew in front of Fluttershy, staring blankly at the creature. “Umm.. Flutters? There is something hideously ugly waving at me and it is on your back.”

Fluttershy opened wide her eyes for a moment, before a hint of recognition hit her, instantly releasing a smile. “Oh, don´t worry, Rainbow, this is just Snott, I found him close to the Everfree.”

The rainbow pegasus alarmed upon hearing this. “Wow, from the Everfree? Kill it before it lay eggs!” The timid pegasus released a chuckle at rainbow´s reaction, just as the the smiling slime creature got off Fluttershy´s back and walked closer to Rainbow. “Stand back, buddy!”

“Calm down, Snott is not dangerous.” Fluttershy said, catching the attention of the rainbow pegasus.

“Not dangerous but very ugly!”

Upon hearing the words, Snott´s face fell, his eyes grew wide open, giving them a crystalline look, something that made Fluttershy frown. “You hurt his feelings!”

“It has feelings?”

Rainbow´s momentum wouldn´t last, as she noticed a very sinister stare coming from the yellow pegasus. With a grunt, the rainbow colored pegasus got closer to the small creature and extended her hoof. “Hey there, little buddy.”

Snott´s face turned from sad to happy in an instant, making him rub his face in a gently manner across all of Rainbow´s hoof, who as soon as she felt the texture, wide opened her eyes and released a quick scream, while trying to get the slime off from her. “Geez, Flutters, what is he made of, mucus?”

Fluttershy placed her right hoof on her chin, thinking about Rainbow´s question. Certainly this idea never came into her mind. “Actually, I really don´t know,” Soon her mind returned to the matter at hoof, “but either way, Snott is a living thing with feelings and deserves to be treated well.”

Both Rainbow and Angel rolled their eyes at the same time. It was simply impossible to argue with Fluttershy when referring to animals.

On his part, Snott got closer to the blue pegasus, making a bunch of sounds which caught the mare´s attention, who turned to look at the mucus creature. “Nothing personal bud,” she said, “but slime and Rainbow don´t mix, I´m sure you have an incredible personality.”

With a gentle caught, Fluttershy got Rainbow´s attention back. “So... You were telling me about Twilight?”

“Oh yeah!” Exclaimed Rainbow, going out of her trance and remembering the reason of her appearance. “Twilight told me to get you and the girls, we´re going to the crystal kingdom.”

Fluttershy´s face showed concern as soon as she heard the pegasus´ words. “Oh my! I hope everything´s okay.”

“I suppose, she just told me something about a princess´ duty or whatever.” Replied Rainbow, getting a nod Fluttershy as a response.

“I guess I should be getting this back home and head to the library.” Answered the shy pegasus.

“Yep! No pressure Fluttershy, I´ll be seeing you!” Rainbow answered, as she prepared to head of flying, but stopped mid air and turned to look at her friend. “Oh and... You might want to consider moving out from the Everfree.”

Fluttershy released a chuckle as a response. With a wave, the two mares parted ways, with the shy pegasus returning to her home, preparing herself for the journey.

On her way, Fluttershy went through this request from Twilight and thought about her new guests. She couldn´t simply leave Jim, but Twilight´s request sounded important, maybe if she left the giant worm at the paws of Angel and Snott. She knew the bunny was capable of taking care of their home and now she had Snott. The pegasus knew the small creature would be happy to help his friend and this meant less work for Angel to carry, plus, the bunny and Snott seemed to be getting along pretty well.

Unknown to Fluttershy, Angel was launching death threats with his paws, towards Snott who was simply laughing at the ´entertainment´ the bunny was providing... Soon enough a vein popped from Angel´s forehead.

Between the slime creature´s laughs, Fluttershy thought they were simply playing, further confirming her thoughts. Perhaps nothing bad would happen with this plan.

The journey to her home continued, as Fluttershy thought about Jim and Snott, was had she never seen beings like them? The Everfree would occasionally spew out weird thing after weird thing, but she had never seen anything like them. Her mind went from the two creatures to the stranger white suit, it sure didn´t look like anything she had ever seen before, but the weird part was that it actually resembled Twilight´s description of humans from when she went through the mirror, was there a possibility of another mirror like portal inside the forest? If so, did they came from the human world? As far as she knew, humans didn´t look like Jim or Snott, but then again, she never went inside the mirror and there would always be the possibility of other kid of species living amongst them.

Setting the thoughts aside, Fluttershy spotted her home within reach and sped up her walk. She had to hurry and let everything ready so that she could get to the library.

The door of the cottage was soon opened, giving way to Fluttershy and her two companions. Giving one look at the sofa, she noticed Jim still sleeping, her eyes then shifted from the worm to the now sitting suit, wait... Did it move from its original place?

Fluttershy stood at the entrance, staring blanly at the white thing, meanwhile Angel and Snott proceeded to enter the house. The bunny went straight to the kitchen, while the slime creature opted to sit alongside his friend.

Fluttershy meanwhile, was at a loss from words. She waited a few more seconds to see if something else happened and when she saw there was no movement, decided to shrug the weird occurrence off and set the thing she bought inside the kitchen.

Fluttershy knew she had to hurry, but she was also very patient, fact clearly shown by the way she calmly proceeded to place the groceries on their respective places. Angel had taken sit at the table, carrot in hand while being lost in his own thoughts.

Not too much time had passed before Fluttershy finished placing the groceries on their respective places, then directed her gaze towards the bunny. “Come on Angel, I need to set up some rules before I get to Twilight´s home.”

The bunny grunted in response, as he got off the chair and followed Fluttershy to the living room ,where Snott received her with a smile. As soon as the shy pegasus got the attention of the two, she took a deep breath. “Okay, I´m going out a few days and I need the two of you to take care of Jim and the house.” Her gaze shifted from bunny to Snott. “Angel knows how to take care of the house, he´s going to help you take care of your friend, but I need you to help him out, con you do that for me?”

With a rather excited nod from Snott´s head, Fluttershy got an answer which made her smile. She was glad that for now, one of the two new creatures was so kind and with the little creature´s eagerness, she now had less to worry about. Soon, her face released a preoccupied expression. “I should hurry to Twilight´s house.” She said, quickly walking towards the door. With one last look, Fluttershy noticed a certain bunny staring at the still sitting suit and launched a warning. “I want you away from that suit, are we clear, Angel?”

The bunny rolled his eyes and nodded, then hurried the pegasus to get out of the house with his paws.

“I trust in you, Angel.” Fluttershy said, these being her last words before she opened the door to head outside.

Soon enough there was silence inside the room. Fluttershy had left, leaving the animals, Angel and Snott alone.

While resting a top of the worm, Snott noticed Angel giving away a long yawn before he head out of the living room and upstairs, leaving Snott alone with Jim.

The slime creature´s eyes returned to his friend. He was worried about him, but at least he was safe inside Fluttershy´s home. It was unfortunate Jim would not meet her right away, she seemed like a very nice pony and Snott certainly liked her, still, for now, the health of his friend was the thing that mattered most.

Setting these thoughts aside, Snott tried to imagine how exactly they arrived here and adventures they were about to get involved.

His life had always been entertaining for a mucus creature, but ever since he got inside Jim´s backpack on the mucus planet, his life had taken a shift and become even more interesting. Snott would end up loving his new home and his new friends, still, they were not home and he had no idea where this place was located. He could only hope they could find a way back.