The Doom Patrol: A Midwinter's Nightmare
Doom Patrol #4. The first night
Note: This chapter takes place between chapters thee and four of The Doom Patrol.
-Ponyville. Around 03:00 AM.
The front door of Sugarcube Corner opened as ten figures exited it. The first six were two ponies of each tribe, all mares in their mid twenties. Next to one of the unicorns was a young dragon. They reunited next to the door to talk with each other before going to their respective homes. At a moment like this, it would be expected parting words and good nights between friends, but instead there were only questions and doubts.
"How I'm gonna explain this to Mac and Granny?"
"And what i'm supposed to do? I have no idea what's going on anymore."
"Indeed. I believe we all will have some difficulties about it."
Yeah, questions and dubs. Just like you, out reader, who may be wondering why there are ten characters in the first sentence but only seven have been mentioned so far. The reason of all of this were the last three ones with them...
It's... complicated to describe those three.
The first one looked like the missing link between arthropod and equine. As a pony, it walked in four limbs ended in hooves, had a dark amaranth mane and tail with eyes wide and bright gamboge. So far it could be a pony, maybe an infant considering it stature and, by the form of her muzzle, a filly. But then comes the rest of 'her'. Instead of skin, she had what seemed like an exoskeleton, dark yellow and articulated in the joints, just like an insect. Following that line, a pair of translucent wings an a chitin colored as her mane covered her back. To end the details, she had a curved horn on her head and two sharp fangs sticking out from her mouth. As long as appearances went, he was a unusually colored changeling and nothing else. But she wasn't.
Next to her walked a figure of about the same stature. It looked more like a pony than her insect-looking companion, but one could tell something was very different about her. At first it was just the eyes. Nothing different in shape or size, but those two olive eyes were constantly shinning, like two greenish fireflies in the middle of the nigh. From a closer distance, a soft buzzing sound coming from the silver unicorn filly, perfectly coordinated her movements. An inquisitive observer would notice that what only seemed like a surprisingly bright coat was't fur at all, it was metal. Hard, cold and lifeless metal. The same with her mane, looking like real light pink hair but made out of plastic instead. Nothing about this pony looked biological at all, just a clockwork piece. A robot.
Closing the line came a pegasus filly covered completely in bandages. The yellowish white pieces of fabric covered every inch of her body, leaving only her silhouette to plain sight. All of her except for the eyes. Over her head, instead of only bandages, her eyes were covered by a pair of goggles. She could have passed for a normal pony under a curious costume if it wasn't for the purple glow coming from the lenses of her goggles. Also, around the pony was an electric feel, like the one around a place before being hit by the storm. Without knowing too much, somepony would say that she was surrounded by energy. Somepony would be wrong, very wrong. There was no magical or physical energy around her. She WAS energy.
The three oddities, walking at a slow and tired pace product of a very eventful day, each one next to one of the adults. The changeling-pony rubbing her head with the shoulder of an orange earth pony wearing a stetson hat. The robot kept its pace with an alabaster unicorn whose mane was perfectly combed in a stylized curl. Finally, the pony-shaped energy trotted right under a rainbow maned pegasus.
The group walked down the lonely streets of Ponyville under the silent veil of the night, separating at one point. Each one going home.
***
FIMFiction (not so) proudly presents:
Transformed by Discord, the trio known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders was turned into three monster mares. Now they use their new found powers to protect ponies as Equestria's strangest heroes. By their own they’re Apple Ling, Sweetie Bot and Energyloo but together they are...
The Doom Patrol
in
A Midwinter's Nightmare (part one): The first night.
Written by Wave (running out of time) Blaster.
Edited by Diamond (awesome with editions) Dust
The Doom Patrol created by Arnold Drake, Bob Haney y Bruno Premiani.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic created by Lauren Faust (and others I suppose).
Copyrights lololol.
***
-The Apple Changeling.
Applejack and Apple Bloom arrived at Sweet Apple Acres some minutes before four in the morning. Both ponies were really tired and the calming silence of the farm at night was only making them to grow sleepier with each step. By the time the were at the door, Apple Bloom just gave up in trying to stay awake, curled in a ball and felt sleep right next to Applejack. The older sister could only watch her, while trying to get the door open, and think about the day's events.
First she's called by a frightened Twilight , telling her that Discord was free again. No time to do anything else, she followed her friend into get the others together and go to Canterlot as soon as possible. Then, find out that apparently the all-mighty spirit of chaos did basically nothing big. And THEN she discovered that he actually did something. By 'nothing big' he meant transforming her cute little sister into a predatory beast.
"What I'm supposed to do?" She muttered to herself as finally finding the key under the mat. Opening the door, she registered the living room, searching for anyone else inside the void of darkness. Nopony. 'Big Mac and Granny Smith must be sleeping.' She thought, considering the idea of just carrying the little foal to her bed, go to sleep herself and wait for the morning to start with the explanations. 'Yeah, that sounds alright.'
Applejack turned around to pick her sister, putting her on her back and started trotting inside. She didn't noticed it a while ago, but Apple Bloom looked effectively menacing as a changeling. As on cue, the little pony yawned and Applejack had a very good sight of her sister's new set of fangs. Two silver knifes now adorned the small muzzle, ready to tear something, or someone, to shreds. She shook that thought of her head when a loose plank squeaked in front of her. *click*
"Ahh! My eyes!" Applejack cried in pain as the unholy light of the living room's light bulb assaulted her. Although her first instinct was to stand in her hind legs, kicking with the front ones, she held herself in four in order to not awake Apple Bloom, who seemed complete oblivious to the older sister's recent shout.
"Applejack?" Granny Smith called for her. "Oh Applejack, thanks Celestia, is Apple Bloom with ya?" She seemed sick worried.
"Don't worry Granny, ah got her."Applejack replied, trying to hide Apple Bloom from her sight. 'Enough troubles for one night.'
"Well." Granny said. "Let me see her."
"See who?" Applejack tried (and failed) to smile innocently.
"My grandchild."
"Ah'm right here." Sweating bullets.
"My other grandchild."
"Ah don't know where is Big Mac." By this point, Applejack was more nervous than the proverbial long-tailed cat in the proverbial room full of rocking chairs.
"Applejack!" Granny Smith finished the gag. " Where is Apple Bloom?!"
"Alright, alright. Calm down." She waved her hooves defensively. "She's right behind me, but I warn ya, she's a--" But the surprisingly agile Granny Smith moved her aside.
"Changeling!" She jumped back as her familiar voice finally managed to awake the heavy sleeping Apple Bloom. The filly by her part, looked up and saw through blurry eyes how her dearest granny was running at her. With a broom.
"AHH!" Applejack could only stare in awe as her grandma physically assaulted her little sis. But Applejack was younger and faster, so she easily stopped Granny's broom with her hoof and positioned herself between both of them again. Looking defiantly at her granny, Applejack spoke slow and clear.
"Granny, she IS your grandchild." She started. "She may look different now but I can assure you she is the same Apple Bloom we know and love, so calm down."
Granny Smith looked again at the unholy creature over her granddaughter's shoulder. Just now she noticed how oddly colored it was to be a changeling, and that it was actually shaking. Then, she looked at its eyes. Those eyes, now in tears, weren't the ones from a predator or a beast. Black Smith Apple knew those two eyes pretty well. Those teary eyes could only belong to one pony.
"Apple Bloom, is that you?" She let the broom fall from her hooves as the small creature came closer. When they were close enough, both ponies comforted each other in a hug.
***
-The Sweet Robot.
Sweetie Belle just had a very hard day, sadly followed by an equally hard night. First, not knowing her own strength, she managed to smash the front door of Carousel Boutique into pieces purely by accident when she tried to open it. Then, when she went upstairs, her hoof broke through the first step as if it was made of cardboard, making her lose her balance and open a pony shaped hole in the wall next to her.
Behind her, Rarity made her best effort to not faint at the constant property damage made to her home, as also doing her best to fix all she could. Sure, she wan't a magical powerhouse like Twilight, but living in Ponyville taught her to be prepared. The quick-fix spell was one of the few ones she ever learned that wasn't directly fashion or gems related, and after the fifth or sixth crash she was thankful of learning it.
Deciding it would be less straining than slowly rebuilding her house, Rarity decided to pick Sweetie Belle up and levitate her to her room. She immediately regretted it.
A flesh and bone filly was easy to pick up and take upstairs to her room. An alloy filly on the other hoof was like lifting a heavy dumbbell. Although the promethium was actually lighter than other heavy metals, it was still almost too much for a dressmaker, almost. Determined to help her sister, and to avoid further damage to her house, Rarity used all her willpower to carry the mechanic filly upstairs.
It's been thirty three minutes and seventeen seconds since Rarity put her in the bed, wished her goodnight and left the room. Sweetie didn't know how, but she knew the exact time without even thinking about it. Twenty six minutes and forty two seconds later and she decided she couldn't sleep.
She shut her eyes tight, shifted position (producing a crack sound from the bed), stayed as quiet as she could but nothing. Two minutes and fifty eight seconds and she noticed she wasn't even tired. After a half day of crusading, encountering Discord, running in circles shouting for help around town and basically being awake for almost twenty hours and she didn't felt tired. Actually, she noticed something very strange just right now. She wasn't feeling a lot.
Back in Pinkamena's cave with her sister and the others, she discovered she had a very sensible hearing and could even see in the dark. But that was it. Now, alone with her thoughts, she realized she couldn't feel the softness of her bed sheets and it's been a while since since she remembered feeling any smell. She tested with her tongue by licking her hoof. Nothing.
Sweetie Belle was scared. She wasn't feeling anything. She just smashed a door and a wall without even noticing, for Celestia's sake. What was she?!
Coming to this realization, she jumped out of her bed. If she wasn't scared, she would notice the hoof-shaped crack she left in the floor next to the bed. But she still ran to the only pony who could offer some comfort to her.
"Rarity!" She called as entering in her bedroom (smashing the door in the process). The white unicorn, whose senses where actually ready to jump at any Sweetie Belle related emergency, jumped two solids meters in the air before turning the lights on and finding a very familiar sight. It wasn't out of the ordinary that Sweetie Belle would have a nightmare and run into her room. What WAS out of ordinary was that instead of the soft little pony she was used to find in this circumstances was replaced by what looked like a mannequin made out of metal that resembled her sister. Rarity shook the unease feeling for her sake.
"What's the problem Sweetie?"
"Rarity, I--" Sweetie Belle wasn't sure of what to say. She wasn't even sure of what was happening anymore. By this point, she couldn't even tell if this was real or if at any moment she would hear an alarm clock and Rarity calling her for breakfast before school.
Seeing the unease clear, even in her still metallic face, Rarity spoke first. "Want to sleep here tonight?" The filly nodded vigorously and Rarity made way in the bed for her. Remembering how her own bed cracked under her new weight and not wanting to break anything else, Sweetie slowly climbed the bed and snuggled near to her sister. Rarity was expecting her sister's 'skin' to be cold as any other metal, but to her surprise it wasn't.
Sweetie Belle on her part felt calmer being with her sister. It took her a few seconds to realize it and only lasted some more before she fell into the soft embrace of sleep. But, for the first time since it all started, she felt something.
***
-Energy is just accelerated mass.
"...and that's about what happened." Rainbow Dash finished her story to a very astounded Cheerilee and Spitfire. She decided it would be important to tell Scootaloo's legal tutor first and her older sister arrived some minutes after she and Scoot. Actually, right after Twilight send her letter to the Princesses, Spitfire flew as fast a she could to see what was happening with her sister-- Wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait! What?!
Well, it's a hard thing to explain, but long story short; Spitfire is Scootaloo's older sister but, because of her life as head of a third of Equestria's militia, little old Scoots lives with a tutor in Ponyville. That tutor is Cheerilee. Since Rainbow offered to be Scootaloo's mentor, and after a long talk about responsibility between the three adults involved, Scootaloo started to spend her weekends in Rainbow's house. There, explanation served, lets go back to the story.
Rainbow Dash, Spitfire and Cheerilee were talking about what to do about the physics impossibility sleeping upstairs.
"So, what now?" Asked the rainbow pony, not entirely sure.
"I- I don't know. I want to see her first." Spitfire replied. "Where is she?"
"Upstairs, but sleeping." Cheerille said.
"I suppose it's better that way. Maybe she don't even want to see me."
The three ponies were so tense than none of them was able to pull more than just one sentence at a time. If they weren't in that state, at least one of them would have noticed how the silhouette of a filly's head with two purple eyes was peeking from the ceiling. Although the emotionally heavy day, Scootaloo wasn't feeling in any way tired. She actually tried to sleep but, she was way to agitated to do so. Unlike Apple Bloom who didn't know how, or Sweetie Belle who was too scared to, she managed to test some of her abilities early in the day. Because of that she was now making a little experimentation on her new found abilities.
"Flight? check." She wrote happily on her school's notebook. At first she was too scared to notice, but when things cooled down enough, she discovered she was actually flying. Flying! 'At least Discord didn't lied when he said he would make me fly. HA! In your face bro!'
Writing some more, she made a short list of every superpower she could remember from her comic collection.
"Super-strength, super-senses, heat vision, invulnerability." She wasn't sure of how to test them, but since the bandages were supposed to 'contain' her (that was the word Pinkamena used) she deduced she needed to take them off. Carefully to not rip them, she slowly unwrapped herself from the cloth.
"First, super strength." She said to herself as trying to lift her bed with her bare hooves. But, since without the chemically treated bandages, Scootaloo's body wasn't more solid than radio waves, her hooves just passed as if the bed wasn't even there. "Dang it!"
But she was standing in the floor, wasn't she? Sure she could touch something if she was focused enough. She tried again, this time concentrating into it. At first it didn't worked. Two or three tries more and her hooves finally touched the wooden cot of her bed. Scootaloo tried with all her might, but the bed barely moved, much less left the floor.
"Well, close enough." She scratched 'super strength from her list and read the next. "Super-senses?"
Going to the window, she looked at Ponyville under the veil of night. Searching for something to see, Scootaloo noticed a pony standing in a rooftop. She wanted to see it better, so she concentrated into it. Not even breathing, she looked as hard as she could till a headache forced her to stop it. Looking away, she never saw how the pony covered in a mauve an purple costume jumped from the rooftop and fired an arrow with a wire to swing between buildings.
"So, no super-sight. What about super-hearing?" Scootaloo closed her eyes, expecting to hear something. After a minute, what she heard surprised her. "Spitie?" She couldn't believe it. Sure, Spitfire would be there at some point after the news reached her, but right that night? Her first reaction was to run downstairs and greet her sister but. What if she doesn't react well? Although Spitfire never was anything but supportive with her, Scootaloo didn't know how was Spitfire going to react. Scared? Confused? Angry? Maybe she wasn't even to recognize her.
"I mean." She talked to herself. "I'm not even a pony anymore! I am a-- What the heck am I anyways?" She looked at the mirror in her closet's door. A black silhouette and two purple circles looked back at her. She opened her mouth and the 'thing' in the mirror did the same, showing a glowing mouth, not different from her eyes. She didn't wanted to show that to her sister, but also she didn't wanted to show herself wrapped in those ridiculous bandages.
Thinking about it, she decided to give her powers a good use. Bowing her head, she managed to pass her head through the floor and right over the Miss Cheerilee's living room. She could hear how her sisters, Rainbow Dash and Spitfire, were debating on what to do.
"Of course she will be happy to see you in the morning. Why wouldn't she?" Rainbow asked to Spitfire.
"Because." Spitfire bit her lip, really not wanting to say next word. "Because I failed her." There, she said it. "I couldn't be with her when she was a baby because of the Academy. Now I'm missing her foalhood for the Wonderbolts. Hell, she may don't even think about me as a sister anymore." As she talked, tears started to pour from her eyes. "And now, Discord attacked and I was too damn busy patroling to be here. I'm a failure of a sister!"
"Don't be so hard on yourself, you didn't know." Cheerilee put a hoof over her shoulder to comfort her.
"And you don't have to worry, you know I'm here to watch for her too." Rainbow added.
"That's my point." She looked away. "You're more her sister than I could ever dream to be. Maybe I should just leave the Wonderbolts and--"
"NO!" A filly's voice interrupted her from the ceiling. The three mares looked how Scootaloo's figure, all in black and purple, descended to the floor and galloped right next to spitfire. "Spit, please don't say that."
"Scootaloo!" Spitfire exclaimed, reaching to her but stopped by a cyan hoof. Rainbow shook her head, reminding her about the filly's electric touch. But Spitfire wasn't the Captain of the Wonderbolt by fearing some little electricity. Shaking the hoof away, she jumped to hold her sister. Purple bolts immediately running through her body.
"For-forgive me." Her voice breaking. "I-I'm sorry for no-not being he-here." Maybe it was the electricity or the sadness, but Spitfire's entire body was shaking. Noticing this, Scootaloo pulled away, revealing scorch marks over her sister's yellow coat. Spitfire was panting, but still continued with her apology. "I'm sorry, Scootaloo."
"I'm alright sis, see?" Scootaloo opened her hooves. "Don't be sad, I love you and I really would like to live together but." She stomped her hoof. "The Wonderbolts is your dream, please don't leave it for me."
Spitfire looked at her, this wasn't even close to the first time they had this conversation. Both of them loved their lives in Ponyville and with the Wonderbolts, so they always agreed that being away would be unfair for any of them. She reconsidered about it.
"Scootaloo, you still this?" The same question, after all those times discussing it, they both reduced it to a single question from the older sister to the younger. Scootaloo nodded vigorously. Spitfire looked at Rainbow Dash. "Rainbow, can I trust you?"
"Does Celestia controls the sun?" She answered before saluting with her hoof over her head. "It will be a nice day in Tartarus before I fail with this."
Spitfire could only thank for having such a good pony watching over her sister. Cheerilee suggested to talk about this in the morning, so the four ponies decided to call it a day and go to sleep. Spitfire and Rainbow Dash in the floor, right next to Sootaloo's bed.
