Soundwavesby KiperChaptersIt's a what?ReinforcementsAn Immovable ObjectIt's a what?"Twilight! It's not working!" a familiar cyan pegasus called down to her friend. "Keep trying Rainbow!" the purple alicorn responded from the ground, firing a beam of light from her horn at the monster before them. A fifth shot that hit and still did no more damage than the previous four. "Fluttershy! Any luck yet?" The yellow pegasus had flown down from higher up to give her report. "I am so sorry Twilight. I've been trying, but I don't speak Goop. I can't even see where its mouth might be to get a response." "This feels like buckin' a sackful of mud. Nothin' is stoppin' it, Twi." The orange earth pony ran up to the group, panting with exertion. "At least its still not movin' fast." Applejack gave the creature a scornful look. "Probly slowed down from eatin' all the trees." A shout from above turned into a grunt as they watched Rainbow Dash attempt a dive bomb before bouncing off and coming to hover near the group. "What do we do? It's like hitting a rubber cloud. I don't think it even felt that one." Twilight Sparkle gazed upon the impervious object before them. The house-sized, slowly moving pile of goo had continued to resist their combined assault upon it. Which wasn't entirely surprising. I know the book said these things were tough. But I had thought we'd make some kind of scratch on it. She noted with growing concern how the creature's skin continued to darken. Where could Rarity and Pinkie Pie be? They should have been back by now... Two hours earlier "Wait. What do you mean you're 'apples are being eaten by the mud'?" Twilight tilted her head and looked at the farm pony quizzically. "Just what Ah said. There's a... somethin' in the old Apple orchard. Looks like a pile of bright green mud. It's eatin' the wild apple trees and makin' a straight shot from the forest to town." Applejack replied, having finally caught her breath from the run to the library. "I aint never seen anythin' like it." Twilight looked around the room to her friends who seemed equally baffled. "Well. Let's all go take a look at it then." The alicorn pulled a worn copy of Equestrian Field Guide to Rare Creatures from the shelf with her magic and put it in her saddlebags before trotting out the door as her friends followed behind. "Uh, Twilight? We need to head west. Towards Everfree." Applejack said. Pointing towards the dense forest distance. "I thought you said it was at the Apple orchard?" Twilight halted her march towards the Northeast farm. "Oh. This is in the old orchard. Back when my great-grandpappy started the farm. They built it up on the outskirts of the forest. The magic of Everfree forest let the trees grow bigger, faster." Applejack led the way outside of town. "Once we got settled, we moved to the other side of town. We still maintain the old orchard, but it's mostly left alone to grow as it will. The apples there are wilder than what we grow and harvest now. Taste different too." Now farther outside town, and getting closer than preferred to the magical forest, all of them kept an eye out for the dangerous mud. "The upside of bein' on the North end is a much quicker walk through town to get anythin' too." "I don't sense anything nearby" Twilight said, as they entered the overgrown orchard. "Rainbow Dash. Think you can fly reconnaissance? We'll head towards where Applejack saw it last." "Finally. I could have been there and back three times now at the speeds you trot." Rainbow flew over the treeline and began flying in widening circles, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Seeing a trail of missing trees on the far side of the orchard, she flew in for a closer inspection. Below her was a pile of greenish mud. Hovering for a moment allowed her to watch as it moved forward, two tendrils coming out of the side of the mud, and casually grab and rip a tree out of the ground. The creature suspended the tree over itself before allowing the tree to smash down violently upon it. Rather than fall over however, the tree remained standing upright on top of the goo. Rainbow watched in amazement as the tree grew shorter as it was apparently consumed by the creature. Within a minute, the entire 20 foot tree had disappeared. The creature paused a moment, then moved to the next nearest tree in the line. "That is creepy and awesome." With that, she turned and flew back to find the group continuing slowly through the orchard. "Half a mile more. It's... seriously a pile of green mud eating the trees." Rainbow shrugged at the group. "You just gotta see it." The others picked up the pace and made it to the clearing in time to watch as the creature pulled another large tree out of the ground and began to eat it. "See? It's like watching Pinkie eat a cake. If the cake was a full grown 20 foot tall apple tree." Applejack looked the large creature over from a safe distance. "It's not the same as before. It was a brighter green. And it's gotten bigger. It was only pony sized then." Twilight pulled the large tome out of her saddlebags and flipped through it frantically. "No. It's not a mud monster. Or a animation spell on dirt and algae. Although the color is close...." She glanced at it again before flipping to the end of the book. "And it isn't a transformation spell on some poor creature from the forest." She glanced nervously towards the others. "I have no idea what it is. Only that it's not natural to anything around Ponyville." A pink hoof suddenly flew up in front of Twilight's face. "Ooh! I know, I know! Pick me!" Pinkie Pie started bouncing up and down in order to get everyone's attention. "It's a Prismatic Ooze!" She stopped bouncing and beamed at everyone with a huge smile. "Um. A what?" Twilight stared blankly at Pinkie Pie. "An ooze silly. Specifically, a prismatic one. They are the second most dangerous kind." Pinkie reached into her mane and dug around before coming out with a red and black book. "Here you go! Page 54." She resumed bouncing as she handed Twilight the book. Twilight looked at the page in question. "Prismatic Ooze. Neutral... large ooze... CR 17? What the..." Twilight looked at the cover of the book. Ogres and Oubliettes: Monster Manual 3rd ed "Pinkie! This is one of Spike's game books!" The pink pony continued bouncing happily. "Yep! Last night was the weekly O&O meeting. Since it was so much fun last time, Spike invited Discord back to help make it even more fun! It was the best game ever! But, when we were cleaning up, we lost the final boss. It must have been hiding over here all day!" Pinkie stopped in mid-air and rushed to the confused alicorn as a thought occurred to her. "Twilight! We must vanquish this ooze." She said surprisingly seriously. "What? Why?" Twilight looked at the others. All of them shared similar confused glances. "I know the damage to the orchard is impressive, and the town is nearby, but that doesn't seem like your normal reaction." "We. Could. Level. UP!" The pink pony resumed bouncing. "We were so close. It was supposed to happen after beating the boss, but we couldn't find it. Then everypony had to go home." Twilight facehoofed. "Really, Pinkie? Besides, we don't need to 'vanquish' it. A reverse summoning spell should send it back just fine." Twilight turned towards the ooze as her horn glowed a bright purple before a beam of magic fired out and hit the dull green creature resulting in a small explosion. "See? Magically summoned creatures can easily be banished with-" A loud crash interrupted her as yet another tree was ripped from the ground by the completely unharmed ooze. "Nope! It's in the book! Even low level oozes can have resistance to magic. This is a higher level Prismatic Ooze. It's stats should be in there." Pinkie pointed towards the book still in the other ponies hoof. Twilight looked back to the page in the book. "Okay. 'Prismatic Ooze. DR 20/ -. Immune to all non-sonic based magic. Special Abilities: Consume and Prismatic Shift?' What does that even mean?" "Ooh! That is a mean ooze. The DR is Damage Reduction. It means that unless we hit it really really hard, we won't do much. And magical fire and lightning is out. Only sound based magic works." Pinkie started bouncing again. "It wouldn't be hard with game magic. I was playing a Bardpony! I could cast magic music and sing spells! My favorites were Pinkie's Brew and Gypsy Bard. The music was only a starter though. It weakens creatures so the other adventurers can defeat it! Lets see. I think Consume means that it gets stronger the more it eats." "What if we call for Discord?" Rainbow Dash asked from above. "Have him come by and set up the game world. Once it is in place, we can kick ooze butt. It'll be awesome!" A quiet voice spoke up reminding everypony of her presence. "I don't think so. I'm so sorry. He told me he was going on a vacation for the next week. Something about an election and more chaos than he could ever hope for." "So no Discord. And I don't know any spells to create an entire game world." Twilight said, beginning to pace. "Hmm. Magic, sound, magic music. Of course!" She turned back to Pinkie Pie. "Pinkie, we need you to go back to town and bring all the instruments you can carry. Rarity, can you go with her? We need as much sound as we can get. We'll see if we can stop it with game rules if not game magic." "Of course, dear. It should be simple enough. What will you four be doing?" Rarity asked. "We'll stay here and see if it can be slowed down, or at least turned." Twilight watched as yet another tree fell before the ooze. "It's heading in a straight line and only eating the trees in front of it. At this pace it will be out of the orchard within a couple hours. After that, there is nothing between it and Ponyville. We need to keep it here." "Okie dokie. You can count on us, Twilight." With that, the pink pony took off at a gallop with the white unicorn following behind. "How we gonna slow it down Twilight?" Applejack asked. "I have no idea." Twilight responded. "But we have to find a way." The purple pony looked back to the book in her magic. "'Prismatic Shift: As the Prismatic Ooze consumes organic material, its skin will shift colors from yellow to green to brown and black. Upon shifting to brown its speed and size increases. Once completely black, its strength triples and it rages, striking out at closest targets.'" She watched the ooze as there was almost no green left in its coloring. "There isn't much time." She glanced once more at the manual in her hoof before putting it away in her saddlebags. Present "Hey, Twilight!" a voice called from directly behind the alicorn. "Gwah! Pinkie, don't do that! Glad you made it. Now if we each grab-" Twilight looked around. "Pinkie. Where are your instruments? Please tell me they are in your mane." She looked again. "And where is Rarity?" "I left them in Ponyville. I think I overloaded." She gave her mane a quick ruffle, producing static electricity but nothing else. "But I found something even better! Rarity is catching a ride back. Can't you feel them coming?" The pink pony pointed beyond a hill slightly to the north. Twilight turned to where she pointed, only now noticing the rumble beneath her. It was as if a thunder storm was in the ground. Small pebbles began to dance as the noise grew. Even as that noise got louder, another noise ended abruptly. The purple alicorn looked to where the ooze had stopped, tendrils reaching towards a tree, apparently frozen. The rumble grew even louder as Twilight turned back to Pinkie. "What is tha-" and stopped abruptly. The earth pony was suddenly clad in denim fabric, with a white sweatshirt, buckball cap, and sunglasses. Standing on her hind legs with her forelegs crossed in front of her, she said "I brought the bass." Author's Note This was my first attempt at writing anything. Got the first chapter done over a year ago, and then blank. Oddly, I know how I want the story to end. Getting there is the hard part. I figure I'll post what I have and see if inspiration strikes. Reinforcements1 hour earlier "Pinkie Pie, dear. Just... how?" Rarity watched as Pinkie ran up to yet another tree at random, reach a hoof into a hole barely big enough for it, and pull out a trombone. The large object was then tossed into a growing pile of instruments sitting in a little red wagon that Pinkie had pulled out of the second tree she came across. "It's the simple side affect of breaking causality by tearing holes in space time. In an infinite amount of universes there is always at least one where anything that could happen, has happened. I reach into the void and pull what I need from that universe into this one." Pinkie said seriously staring straight at the unicorn. "I see." she said eyeing the growing pile of instruments. "Reaching into... wait. What?!" "Haha. Oh. You should see your face." The pink pony clutched her side as she went into gales of laughter. Wiping her eyes she said "I just store these here in case I meet somepony new. I never know when or where it might happen, so it's good to always be prepared." She bounced to another tree and looked up. "Discord said something similar during last night's game. Your face is even better than Spikes!" With that the pony crouched down on all four hooves before bouncing straight up into the tree and coming back down with a drum set. "Do you think this is enough?" "Um. Yes, Pinkie." The unicorn shook her head to clear her thoughts. "But how are we going to get these back to the girls? The cart is going to be far too heavy to pull there." "Ooh! I know!" With that Pinkie pushed the drum set into her mane where it disappeared. Grabbing the trombone she did the same. It was when she got to the tuba that she started having some troubles before her hair poofed into all directions. Pinkie was suddenly surrounded by a multitude of objects. "Whoa. Bummer. I think my frizz has freaked." Rarity looked at the debris littering the ground. "Indeed darling. I suppose we should load up the lighter instruments and head back then? I'm getting a bit worried about Twilight." She picked up a trumpet and the drum set with her magic before placing them back in the cart. "Come now. Grab the trombone and tuba. We'll just have to come back and clean up the rest when we are done." "Aww. But I wanted to play them all." In the brief silence that followed, Pinkie suddenly stood up, turned her head 180 degrees and looked over her tail. "Wait! New bestest plan ever!" With that, she jumped, rotating her lower half to match her head before running down the path. "Pinkie! Wait! ... Oh why do I bother trying." The unicorn sighed as she followed in her friend's wake. Walking down the path she began to hear a deep melody that grew louder as she continued, before stopping suddenly. Around a final bend brought her before a fairly large house that was surprisingly two-toned. One side being brown with a green roof, while the other was a striking bluish purple with a brown roof. More surprising was the fact that the house appeared to be perfectly divided between the two. The line of paint going through the main entrance itself. Pinkie was sitting on the stoop watching the door expectantly. "Pinkie, why did you run-" Rarity began before the door's opening interrupted her question. A tan grey mare's head with a pink bow popped out looking at Pinkie Pie curiously. "Pinkie Pie..." the eyes came up to see Rarity approaching. "and Rarity? What brings you both to my doorstep?" "Hey Octavia! We were in the neighborhood collecting instruments when I got too many to carry at once and broke my mane and then I heard your music and remembered that you lived out here so I came to see if DJ Pon-3 was home cause we could really use her help to destroy a monster ooze in the orchard." Pinkie managed to say in one breath to an even more confused Octavia. "Come again?" the mare looked to Rarity for a translation. "It's a long story darling. To summarize, we need a loud source of music to counteract a monster that has appeared near town. Is your roommate home? Time is of the essence. We can explain further on the way." A simple answer appeared as a sleepy white unicorn with blue hair and sunglasses stuck her head over Octavia's shoulder. DJ Pon-3 looked the two over before turning back to Octavia with a raised eyebrow. A shrug in response led the unicorn to levitate her headphones from the floor as she walked out the door to the two waiting ponies. Octavia followed asking, "What kind of music do you need?" She pulled a Cello from where it had been sitting behind the door before walking outside. "It shouldn't matter. As long as it's loud and a lot." Pinkie responded as the two newcomers joined them. "Do you still have that cool moving synthesizer from Cranky and Matilda's wedding?" the pink pony asked eagerly. "It was so loud I could hear it from the far side of town as you gathered the guests." Octavia glanced to her roommate who was now attempting 'sad puppy dog eyes' which was limited by the sunglasses she still wore. A sigh and eye roll from Octavia was enough permission for the other pony to run around the house excitedly. "Indeed." she said dryly. "Though I am loathe to bring it out of the shed. We had a stack of noise complaints from last time. However, given what you have said, it seems this might be the answer." A shudder through the ground signified that the machine had successfully started. Coming around the back of the house was a device that looked like little more than two speakers on wheels with a very excited unicorn behind the synthesizer. Octavia merely shook her head at her roommates antics. "Very well. Let us be off." An Immovable ObjectThe five ponies watched as the brown monstrosity stopped devouring trees and turned to face them directly. (How it did this without any facial features, none could explain.) The stalemate was broken as the mobile electronic synthesizer came over the last hill and the music that was loud before became deafening. With a roar from a newly made mouth, the ooze proceeded to use its tentacles to smash through another group of trees in an attempt to find and silence its newest opponent. "CRANK IT UP!!" the pink party pony yelled as she pulled five pairs of earmuffs out of a nearby, unbroken apple tree. Tossing one to each of the others she dodged a tentacle as the synthesizer came to a stop. The reverberations of the pounding base made conversations moot as the remaining trees released their apples on the group. The unicorn behind the turntables smiled maniacally before twisting a few dials and pressing a large red button at the top of the mixer. A brief pause heralded a wave of sound that seemed almost a physical force as it knocked the ponies to the ground. Even more impressive was the effect it had on the ooze. The monster shuddered as its brown exterior began to harden and crack under the onslaught. Its tentacles smashed more trees and shattered still against others as it began waving frantically in the direction of the synthesizer. Seeing a chance the group stood once more and began a new assault upon the creature. While beams of magic from the alicorn remained ineffective, bucks and dives from Applejack and Rainbow Dash became much more useful as each blow broke off parts of the creature as it continued to flail about. Suddenly, the creature surged forward. As its skin began to darken once more, all of its tentacles retracted before one massive spike shot out and mowed through the area in front of it. The ponies barely dodged the weapon as it cleared their heads, but was still low enough to smash into the towers of the synthesizer behind them. The blow demolished the machine as the DJ was thrown back from the attack. The sudden silence that followed seemed as deafening as the music that preceded it. As Octavia ran to her roommate, Rarity and Fluttershy came out from behind a downed apple tree where they had been observing (not hiding) and grouped up with the other four near the destroyed machine. "Are you all right, darling?" Rarity asked as she helped Twilight get to her hooves. "That was an impressive show of force. Was it enough to stop it though?" "I certainly hope so...." Twilight trailed off as she watched the monster. Already the cracks were sealing back up. While the damage they had inflicted had certainly hurt, it was still moving and already regenerating where chunks had been broken off. The one piece of good news seemed to be that the pieces of hardened and broken ooze remained scattered around the creature and showed no signs of life. "Bummer. Sorry Twi, that was barely three rounds of music. We would need at least six rounds to drop its HP to zero." Pinkie bounced next to Twilight. "And even then, we'd have to really crank up the damage output. We don't have enough melee. Might actually need ten rounds to win." Twilight's response was cut short as the healing creature bellowed and took another swing at the group of ponies in front of it. "Spread out! I think we made it mad!" The group scattered as the monster continued to swing its tentacles at individual ponies. Hampered by a lack of visible eyes, most of its attacks missed the quick moving ponies before a lucky swing caught Rainbow Dash on the wing sending the pegasus to the ground. "I got her!" Applejack dodged a falling tree before tackling the prone pegasus and shoving her away from a falling tentacle. The impact shook the ground and left a crater where the two ponies would have been. "Rainbow! Applejack! Are you all right?" Twilight asked, as the others ran to the two's aid. "Ya, I'm fine. How about you, RD?" Applejack shook her head to clear dust from her eyes. "I don't know about y'all but I think we need some new ideas." The blue pegasus hopped up and shook the dirt from her wings, checking for sprains. "Psh. I've hit the ground harder falling out of your trees." Finding everything in working order Rainbow Dash jumped into a low hover. "I'm gonna distract the blob. You guys think up a new eggheady thing to stop it." With that, she took off once more beginning to fly circles around the ooze to confuse it. "Alright. We will need another loud source of noise, correct?" Rarity turned to the bouncing pink pony. "Do you have anything left in your, ahem, mane, darling?" Pinkie Pie ruffled a hoof through her mane, producing a lot of static, but nothing else. "Nope. Still frizzed out. This looked a lot easier last night. I didn't realize how hard it is to produce sonic damage outside of a game." "This is bad. Very, very bad. I should have had Spike send a letter to Princess Celestia before we left," the purple alicorn began to panic. "She could have given us advice on how to reverse the spell. We don't have the elements anymore. I wish even Princess Luna was here. A blast from her Royal Canterlot Voice would probably send it running for the hills." The five paused as that statement sank in before a very quiet voice whispered from the back, "But, um, Twilight, you're a princess. Couldn't you do the Royal Canterlot Voice?" Fluttershy wilted as the other four looked at her "Um, if it's not too much trouble that is." "Of course! Fluttershy, that's brilliant." Brief excitement fled quickly however, "But I don't really know how. I'm not sure if it just happens or requires some kind of special training." Twilight's wings fluttered briefly as she considered other options. "Looks like the only way is to try." Being careful to stay out of the ooze's impressive range, Twilight gave a command with all her princessly might. "Stop." The ooze remained as unimpressed as her friends. "Perhaps if you tried from deeper in the diaphragm darling?" Rarity called from behind her. "You have to believe in your own grandeur." "Trixie does it all the time. I'm sure you can too, Twilight." added the bouncing pink pony. "Iron Will was able to help me with that," murmured Flutershy. "I believe it was in lesson three of "Fake it till you Make it", "Establishing Dominance"." Twilight smiled back at her friends before trying a new and more commanding "Stop". Unfortunately, the ooze remained unfazed. "Try it again, but with some magic?" suggested Applejack. "Somethin' to raise your voice?" Concentrating on her inner alicorn, she focused on the core of magic that had been augmented upon ascension. Remembering the reasons for why she needed this creature to cease its destruction and return to its own plane; Twilight gave a truly impressive shout. "STOP!" Not expecting the force from the command, Twilight knocked herself backwards before being caught by her friends. "Oh, wow..." she growled out, "that feels worse then Applejacks special reserve cider." A few coughs and a wheeze punctuated her statements. "How does Princess Luna do that without losing her voice?" Before her ground-bound friends could answer, a voice from above asked "Hey Twi, that was good! Can you do it again? I think it worked." The five mares looked at Rainbow Dash before focusing back on their primary target. It had paused again, as it had after destroying the synthesizer, and parts of its body that had hardened began to flake off as it healed up. "I don't think so, Rainbow Dash." she growled. A cough followed as she cleared her throat. "I don't have the practice or control to maintain it." It had taken moments for the ooze to heal up from the assault and it slowly began to rumble towards them once more. "I think we may need to return to town, I can have Spike send an emergency message to the princess and have her come-" A cultured voice interrupted, "Excuse me. Sorry to be rude, but we have an idea." A somber white unicorn mourned the death of her synthesizer. The towering speakers reduced to rubble and customized turntable in pieces. A quick scramble to her roommate proved that the grey mare was still okay, but shaken from the attack. A quirk of an eyebrow was more than enough to start a conversation between the two longtime friends. "Yes, Vinyl. I am fine. Barely a scratch." Octavia looked over the ruins of her prized machine, "So sorry about your amplifier. I know you two were close." The unicorn rolled her eyes in response. A gesture mostly lost due to the omnipresent shades upon her muzzle. A tilt of her head brought the two's attention back to the other six as they continued to devise strategies while dodging attacks from an angry ooze. "I don't know how they do this all the time. To face nigh certain death on a regular basis and still return hale and healthy." Octavia shook her head, "I don't know if I should be terrified or slightly envious." The two watched as a lucky swing caught Rainbow Dash and sent her to the ground, only to be saved by Applejack as both were nearly slammed by another blow. "If this continues, Ponyville could be in danger. We should run back and inform the mayor. She must have a way to get a hold of Princess Celestia." Watching Rainbow Dash begin to fly loops, the quiet unicorn nodded in agreement as they both turned to run back to town. However, before taking their first steps, they paused together at a command. Stop. Looking back, they saw that it wasn't directed at them as Twilight seemed to have regressed to the "asking nicely/begging" stage of negotiations. Vinyl tilted her head in curiosity as her partner asked "What is she trying-" "STOP!" Not being the target of the RCV allowed the two ponies to see the quick, devastating effect it had upon the ooze as parts hardened and flaked off immediately. A glance at the group of friends and their wheezing alicorn gave evidence that a repeat performance would not be forthcoming. The grey mare's vision became filled with white as an excited pony jumped in front of her. "What? Vinyl, calm down." Octavia took a step back to get a better view and the quickly flailing unicorn in front of her. "Slowly. What is it?" The unicorn sat down and slowly but still urgently pointed to the group of ponies, the ooze, and herself in quick order. "Yes. We both want to help, but-" she cut off as Vinyl pointed to herself emphatically. As the white pony pointed to her horn, mouth, and throat, the grey mare paled and almost matched her companion in color. "No! Absolutely not!" The unicorn began waving her hooves frantically in response as she waved at the destruction caused to the orchard and pointed towards the town behind them. "Well, yes, we need to stop it from reaching town. But-" she was cut off once again as the unicorn took a moment to remove her glasses and the brilliant magenta eyes were giving her a very begging look. "No! That's how you got me to go see Rammstein. Put those back on!" A lower lip added to the display. "Blast!" A sigh of defeat followed. "You are a dangerous mare, Vinyl Scratch. Let's go." The now smiling unicorn stood up and followed behind her more vocal companion. "And what, pray tell, am I suppose to say to get them out of here quickly?" A shrug from the happy unicorn was the only response. "That's what I thought." The grey mare trotted over to the others that were engaged in an animated discussion. "-emergency message to the princess and have her come-" "Excuse me. Sorry to be rude, but we have an idea." Octavia paused as she received their attention. "Are you aware of the warehouse on this side of Ponyville? Within, is one of Vinyl's more egregious experiments in sound manipulation. The synthesizer is mobile, but not to the degree of this smaller version. If you can get us there, we should have plenty of time to bring it out and utilize it against this creature." "I remember that one. It shook the apples on the far side of the northern orchard from the south side of town. I thought the Mayor ordered it destroyed?" Applejack looked at Octavia suspiciously. She'd told the truth, but something was held back. "Technically, it was ordered to be dismantled and removed from Ponyville. It was carefully broken down, and the warehouse is outside the town limits. Nothing said it couldn't be rebuilt there." A crash reminded them of their timetable as the ooze had begun to roll towards them again. "Regardless, we are out of time. Can you do it, Princess Twilight?" "Yes. Everypony gather as close as you can. I'm going to teleport us to the edge of town. I don't want to leave anypony behind." Twilight watched as they all gathered into a circle. Powering up her horn for the group teleport, she was too focused on the magic to notice the blue-haired unicorn jump out of the group at the last moment. Leaving her behind as they disappeared from the orchard.
It's a what?"Twilight! It's not working!" a familiar cyan pegasus called down to her friend. "Keep trying Rainbow!" the purple alicorn responded from the ground, firing a beam of light from her horn at the monster before them. A fifth shot that hit and still did no more damage than the previous four. "Fluttershy! Any luck yet?" The yellow pegasus had flown down from higher up to give her report. "I am so sorry Twilight. I've been trying, but I don't speak Goop. I can't even see where its mouth might be to get a response." "This feels like buckin' a sackful of mud. Nothin' is stoppin' it, Twi." The orange earth pony ran up to the group, panting with exertion. "At least its still not movin' fast." Applejack gave the creature a scornful look. "Probly slowed down from eatin' all the trees." A shout from above turned into a grunt as they watched Rainbow Dash attempt a dive bomb before bouncing off and coming to hover near the group. "What do we do? It's like hitting a rubber cloud. I don't think it even felt that one." Twilight Sparkle gazed upon the impervious object before them. The house-sized, slowly moving pile of goo had continued to resist their combined assault upon it. Which wasn't entirely surprising. I know the book said these things were tough. But I had thought we'd make some kind of scratch on it. She noted with growing concern how the creature's skin continued to darken. Where could Rarity and Pinkie Pie be? They should have been back by now... Two hours earlier "Wait. What do you mean you're 'apples are being eaten by the mud'?" Twilight tilted her head and looked at the farm pony quizzically. "Just what Ah said. There's a... somethin' in the old Apple orchard. Looks like a pile of bright green mud. It's eatin' the wild apple trees and makin' a straight shot from the forest to town." Applejack replied, having finally caught her breath from the run to the library. "I aint never seen anythin' like it." Twilight looked around the room to her friends who seemed equally baffled. "Well. Let's all go take a look at it then." The alicorn pulled a worn copy of Equestrian Field Guide to Rare Creatures from the shelf with her magic and put it in her saddlebags before trotting out the door as her friends followed behind. "Uh, Twilight? We need to head west. Towards Everfree." Applejack said. Pointing towards the dense forest distance. "I thought you said it was at the Apple orchard?" Twilight halted her march towards the Northeast farm. "Oh. This is in the old orchard. Back when my great-grandpappy started the farm. They built it up on the outskirts of the forest. The magic of Everfree forest let the trees grow bigger, faster." Applejack led the way outside of town. "Once we got settled, we moved to the other side of town. We still maintain the old orchard, but it's mostly left alone to grow as it will. The apples there are wilder than what we grow and harvest now. Taste different too." Now farther outside town, and getting closer than preferred to the magical forest, all of them kept an eye out for the dangerous mud. "The upside of bein' on the North end is a much quicker walk through town to get anythin' too." "I don't sense anything nearby" Twilight said, as they entered the overgrown orchard. "Rainbow Dash. Think you can fly reconnaissance? We'll head towards where Applejack saw it last." "Finally. I could have been there and back three times now at the speeds you trot." Rainbow flew over the treeline and began flying in widening circles, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Seeing a trail of missing trees on the far side of the orchard, she flew in for a closer inspection. Below her was a pile of greenish mud. Hovering for a moment allowed her to watch as it moved forward, two tendrils coming out of the side of the mud, and casually grab and rip a tree out of the ground. The creature suspended the tree over itself before allowing the tree to smash down violently upon it. Rather than fall over however, the tree remained standing upright on top of the goo. Rainbow watched in amazement as the tree grew shorter as it was apparently consumed by the creature. Within a minute, the entire 20 foot tree had disappeared. The creature paused a moment, then moved to the next nearest tree in the line. "That is creepy and awesome." With that, she turned and flew back to find the group continuing slowly through the orchard. "Half a mile more. It's... seriously a pile of green mud eating the trees." Rainbow shrugged at the group. "You just gotta see it." The others picked up the pace and made it to the clearing in time to watch as the creature pulled another large tree out of the ground and began to eat it. "See? It's like watching Pinkie eat a cake. If the cake was a full grown 20 foot tall apple tree." Applejack looked the large creature over from a safe distance. "It's not the same as before. It was a brighter green. And it's gotten bigger. It was only pony sized then." Twilight pulled the large tome out of her saddlebags and flipped through it frantically. "No. It's not a mud monster. Or a animation spell on dirt and algae. Although the color is close...." She glanced at it again before flipping to the end of the book. "And it isn't a transformation spell on some poor creature from the forest." She glanced nervously towards the others. "I have no idea what it is. Only that it's not natural to anything around Ponyville." A pink hoof suddenly flew up in front of Twilight's face. "Ooh! I know, I know! Pick me!" Pinkie Pie started bouncing up and down in order to get everyone's attention. "It's a Prismatic Ooze!" She stopped bouncing and beamed at everyone with a huge smile. "Um. A what?" Twilight stared blankly at Pinkie Pie. "An ooze silly. Specifically, a prismatic one. They are the second most dangerous kind." Pinkie reached into her mane and dug around before coming out with a red and black book. "Here you go! Page 54." She resumed bouncing as she handed Twilight the book. Twilight looked at the page in question. "Prismatic Ooze. Neutral... large ooze... CR 17? What the..." Twilight looked at the cover of the book. Ogres and Oubliettes: Monster Manual 3rd ed "Pinkie! This is one of Spike's game books!" The pink pony continued bouncing happily. "Yep! Last night was the weekly O&O meeting. Since it was so much fun last time, Spike invited Discord back to help make it even more fun! It was the best game ever! But, when we were cleaning up, we lost the final boss. It must have been hiding over here all day!" Pinkie stopped in mid-air and rushed to the confused alicorn as a thought occurred to her. "Twilight! We must vanquish this ooze." She said surprisingly seriously. "What? Why?" Twilight looked at the others. All of them shared similar confused glances. "I know the damage to the orchard is impressive, and the town is nearby, but that doesn't seem like your normal reaction." "We. Could. Level. UP!" The pink pony resumed bouncing. "We were so close. It was supposed to happen after beating the boss, but we couldn't find it. Then everypony had to go home." Twilight facehoofed. "Really, Pinkie? Besides, we don't need to 'vanquish' it. A reverse summoning spell should send it back just fine." Twilight turned towards the ooze as her horn glowed a bright purple before a beam of magic fired out and hit the dull green creature resulting in a small explosion. "See? Magically summoned creatures can easily be banished with-" A loud crash interrupted her as yet another tree was ripped from the ground by the completely unharmed ooze. "Nope! It's in the book! Even low level oozes can have resistance to magic. This is a higher level Prismatic Ooze. It's stats should be in there." Pinkie pointed towards the book still in the other ponies hoof. Twilight looked back to the page in the book. "Okay. 'Prismatic Ooze. DR 20/ -. Immune to all non-sonic based magic. Special Abilities: Consume and Prismatic Shift?' What does that even mean?" "Ooh! That is a mean ooze. The DR is Damage Reduction. It means that unless we hit it really really hard, we won't do much. And magical fire and lightning is out. Only sound based magic works." Pinkie started bouncing again. "It wouldn't be hard with game magic. I was playing a Bardpony! I could cast magic music and sing spells! My favorites were Pinkie's Brew and Gypsy Bard. The music was only a starter though. It weakens creatures so the other adventurers can defeat it! Lets see. I think Consume means that it gets stronger the more it eats." "What if we call for Discord?" Rainbow Dash asked from above. "Have him come by and set up the game world. Once it is in place, we can kick ooze butt. It'll be awesome!" A quiet voice spoke up reminding everypony of her presence. "I don't think so. I'm so sorry. He told me he was going on a vacation for the next week. Something about an election and more chaos than he could ever hope for." "So no Discord. And I don't know any spells to create an entire game world." Twilight said, beginning to pace. "Hmm. Magic, sound, magic music. Of course!" She turned back to Pinkie Pie. "Pinkie, we need you to go back to town and bring all the instruments you can carry. Rarity, can you go with her? We need as much sound as we can get. We'll see if we can stop it with game rules if not game magic." "Of course, dear. It should be simple enough. What will you four be doing?" Rarity asked. "We'll stay here and see if it can be slowed down, or at least turned." Twilight watched as yet another tree fell before the ooze. "It's heading in a straight line and only eating the trees in front of it. At this pace it will be out of the orchard within a couple hours. After that, there is nothing between it and Ponyville. We need to keep it here." "Okie dokie. You can count on us, Twilight." With that, the pink pony took off at a gallop with the white unicorn following behind. "How we gonna slow it down Twilight?" Applejack asked. "I have no idea." Twilight responded. "But we have to find a way." The purple pony looked back to the book in her magic. "'Prismatic Shift: As the Prismatic Ooze consumes organic material, its skin will shift colors from yellow to green to brown and black. Upon shifting to brown its speed and size increases. Once completely black, its strength triples and it rages, striking out at closest targets.'" She watched the ooze as there was almost no green left in its coloring. "There isn't much time." She glanced once more at the manual in her hoof before putting it away in her saddlebags. Present "Hey, Twilight!" a voice called from directly behind the alicorn. "Gwah! Pinkie, don't do that! Glad you made it. Now if we each grab-" Twilight looked around. "Pinkie. Where are your instruments? Please tell me they are in your mane." She looked again. "And where is Rarity?" "I left them in Ponyville. I think I overloaded." She gave her mane a quick ruffle, producing static electricity but nothing else. "But I found something even better! Rarity is catching a ride back. Can't you feel them coming?" The pink pony pointed beyond a hill slightly to the north. Twilight turned to where she pointed, only now noticing the rumble beneath her. It was as if a thunder storm was in the ground. Small pebbles began to dance as the noise grew. Even as that noise got louder, another noise ended abruptly. The purple alicorn looked to where the ooze had stopped, tendrils reaching towards a tree, apparently frozen. The rumble grew even louder as Twilight turned back to Pinkie. "What is tha-" and stopped abruptly. The earth pony was suddenly clad in denim fabric, with a white sweatshirt, buckball cap, and sunglasses. Standing on her hind legs with her forelegs crossed in front of her, she said "I brought the bass." Author's Note This was my first attempt at writing anything. Got the first chapter done over a year ago, and then blank. Oddly, I know how I want the story to end. Getting there is the hard part. I figure I'll post what I have and see if inspiration strikes.
Reinforcements1 hour earlier "Pinkie Pie, dear. Just... how?" Rarity watched as Pinkie ran up to yet another tree at random, reach a hoof into a hole barely big enough for it, and pull out a trombone. The large object was then tossed into a growing pile of instruments sitting in a little red wagon that Pinkie had pulled out of the second tree she came across. "It's the simple side affect of breaking causality by tearing holes in space time. In an infinite amount of universes there is always at least one where anything that could happen, has happened. I reach into the void and pull what I need from that universe into this one." Pinkie said seriously staring straight at the unicorn. "I see." she said eyeing the growing pile of instruments. "Reaching into... wait. What?!" "Haha. Oh. You should see your face." The pink pony clutched her side as she went into gales of laughter. Wiping her eyes she said "I just store these here in case I meet somepony new. I never know when or where it might happen, so it's good to always be prepared." She bounced to another tree and looked up. "Discord said something similar during last night's game. Your face is even better than Spikes!" With that the pony crouched down on all four hooves before bouncing straight up into the tree and coming back down with a drum set. "Do you think this is enough?" "Um. Yes, Pinkie." The unicorn shook her head to clear her thoughts. "But how are we going to get these back to the girls? The cart is going to be far too heavy to pull there." "Ooh! I know!" With that Pinkie pushed the drum set into her mane where it disappeared. Grabbing the trombone she did the same. It was when she got to the tuba that she started having some troubles before her hair poofed into all directions. Pinkie was suddenly surrounded by a multitude of objects. "Whoa. Bummer. I think my frizz has freaked." Rarity looked at the debris littering the ground. "Indeed darling. I suppose we should load up the lighter instruments and head back then? I'm getting a bit worried about Twilight." She picked up a trumpet and the drum set with her magic before placing them back in the cart. "Come now. Grab the trombone and tuba. We'll just have to come back and clean up the rest when we are done." "Aww. But I wanted to play them all." In the brief silence that followed, Pinkie suddenly stood up, turned her head 180 degrees and looked over her tail. "Wait! New bestest plan ever!" With that, she jumped, rotating her lower half to match her head before running down the path. "Pinkie! Wait! ... Oh why do I bother trying." The unicorn sighed as she followed in her friend's wake. Walking down the path she began to hear a deep melody that grew louder as she continued, before stopping suddenly. Around a final bend brought her before a fairly large house that was surprisingly two-toned. One side being brown with a green roof, while the other was a striking bluish purple with a brown roof. More surprising was the fact that the house appeared to be perfectly divided between the two. The line of paint going through the main entrance itself. Pinkie was sitting on the stoop watching the door expectantly. "Pinkie, why did you run-" Rarity began before the door's opening interrupted her question. A tan grey mare's head with a pink bow popped out looking at Pinkie Pie curiously. "Pinkie Pie..." the eyes came up to see Rarity approaching. "and Rarity? What brings you both to my doorstep?" "Hey Octavia! We were in the neighborhood collecting instruments when I got too many to carry at once and broke my mane and then I heard your music and remembered that you lived out here so I came to see if DJ Pon-3 was home cause we could really use her help to destroy a monster ooze in the orchard." Pinkie managed to say in one breath to an even more confused Octavia. "Come again?" the mare looked to Rarity for a translation. "It's a long story darling. To summarize, we need a loud source of music to counteract a monster that has appeared near town. Is your roommate home? Time is of the essence. We can explain further on the way." A simple answer appeared as a sleepy white unicorn with blue hair and sunglasses stuck her head over Octavia's shoulder. DJ Pon-3 looked the two over before turning back to Octavia with a raised eyebrow. A shrug in response led the unicorn to levitate her headphones from the floor as she walked out the door to the two waiting ponies. Octavia followed asking, "What kind of music do you need?" She pulled a Cello from where it had been sitting behind the door before walking outside. "It shouldn't matter. As long as it's loud and a lot." Pinkie responded as the two newcomers joined them. "Do you still have that cool moving synthesizer from Cranky and Matilda's wedding?" the pink pony asked eagerly. "It was so loud I could hear it from the far side of town as you gathered the guests." Octavia glanced to her roommate who was now attempting 'sad puppy dog eyes' which was limited by the sunglasses she still wore. A sigh and eye roll from Octavia was enough permission for the other pony to run around the house excitedly. "Indeed." she said dryly. "Though I am loathe to bring it out of the shed. We had a stack of noise complaints from last time. However, given what you have said, it seems this might be the answer." A shudder through the ground signified that the machine had successfully started. Coming around the back of the house was a device that looked like little more than two speakers on wheels with a very excited unicorn behind the synthesizer. Octavia merely shook her head at her roommates antics. "Very well. Let us be off."
An Immovable ObjectThe five ponies watched as the brown monstrosity stopped devouring trees and turned to face them directly. (How it did this without any facial features, none could explain.) The stalemate was broken as the mobile electronic synthesizer came over the last hill and the music that was loud before became deafening. With a roar from a newly made mouth, the ooze proceeded to use its tentacles to smash through another group of trees in an attempt to find and silence its newest opponent. "CRANK IT UP!!" the pink party pony yelled as she pulled five pairs of earmuffs out of a nearby, unbroken apple tree. Tossing one to each of the others she dodged a tentacle as the synthesizer came to a stop. The reverberations of the pounding base made conversations moot as the remaining trees released their apples on the group. The unicorn behind the turntables smiled maniacally before twisting a few dials and pressing a large red button at the top of the mixer. A brief pause heralded a wave of sound that seemed almost a physical force as it knocked the ponies to the ground. Even more impressive was the effect it had on the ooze. The monster shuddered as its brown exterior began to harden and crack under the onslaught. Its tentacles smashed more trees and shattered still against others as it began waving frantically in the direction of the synthesizer. Seeing a chance the group stood once more and began a new assault upon the creature. While beams of magic from the alicorn remained ineffective, bucks and dives from Applejack and Rainbow Dash became much more useful as each blow broke off parts of the creature as it continued to flail about. Suddenly, the creature surged forward. As its skin began to darken once more, all of its tentacles retracted before one massive spike shot out and mowed through the area in front of it. The ponies barely dodged the weapon as it cleared their heads, but was still low enough to smash into the towers of the synthesizer behind them. The blow demolished the machine as the DJ was thrown back from the attack. The sudden silence that followed seemed as deafening as the music that preceded it. As Octavia ran to her roommate, Rarity and Fluttershy came out from behind a downed apple tree where they had been observing (not hiding) and grouped up with the other four near the destroyed machine. "Are you all right, darling?" Rarity asked as she helped Twilight get to her hooves. "That was an impressive show of force. Was it enough to stop it though?" "I certainly hope so...." Twilight trailed off as she watched the monster. Already the cracks were sealing back up. While the damage they had inflicted had certainly hurt, it was still moving and already regenerating where chunks had been broken off. The one piece of good news seemed to be that the pieces of hardened and broken ooze remained scattered around the creature and showed no signs of life. "Bummer. Sorry Twi, that was barely three rounds of music. We would need at least six rounds to drop its HP to zero." Pinkie bounced next to Twilight. "And even then, we'd have to really crank up the damage output. We don't have enough melee. Might actually need ten rounds to win." Twilight's response was cut short as the healing creature bellowed and took another swing at the group of ponies in front of it. "Spread out! I think we made it mad!" The group scattered as the monster continued to swing its tentacles at individual ponies. Hampered by a lack of visible eyes, most of its attacks missed the quick moving ponies before a lucky swing caught Rainbow Dash on the wing sending the pegasus to the ground. "I got her!" Applejack dodged a falling tree before tackling the prone pegasus and shoving her away from a falling tentacle. The impact shook the ground and left a crater where the two ponies would have been. "Rainbow! Applejack! Are you all right?" Twilight asked, as the others ran to the two's aid. "Ya, I'm fine. How about you, RD?" Applejack shook her head to clear dust from her eyes. "I don't know about y'all but I think we need some new ideas." The blue pegasus hopped up and shook the dirt from her wings, checking for sprains. "Psh. I've hit the ground harder falling out of your trees." Finding everything in working order Rainbow Dash jumped into a low hover. "I'm gonna distract the blob. You guys think up a new eggheady thing to stop it." With that, she took off once more beginning to fly circles around the ooze to confuse it. "Alright. We will need another loud source of noise, correct?" Rarity turned to the bouncing pink pony. "Do you have anything left in your, ahem, mane, darling?" Pinkie Pie ruffled a hoof through her mane, producing a lot of static, but nothing else. "Nope. Still frizzed out. This looked a lot easier last night. I didn't realize how hard it is to produce sonic damage outside of a game." "This is bad. Very, very bad. I should have had Spike send a letter to Princess Celestia before we left," the purple alicorn began to panic. "She could have given us advice on how to reverse the spell. We don't have the elements anymore. I wish even Princess Luna was here. A blast from her Royal Canterlot Voice would probably send it running for the hills." The five paused as that statement sank in before a very quiet voice whispered from the back, "But, um, Twilight, you're a princess. Couldn't you do the Royal Canterlot Voice?" Fluttershy wilted as the other four looked at her "Um, if it's not too much trouble that is." "Of course! Fluttershy, that's brilliant." Brief excitement fled quickly however, "But I don't really know how. I'm not sure if it just happens or requires some kind of special training." Twilight's wings fluttered briefly as she considered other options. "Looks like the only way is to try." Being careful to stay out of the ooze's impressive range, Twilight gave a command with all her princessly might. "Stop." The ooze remained as unimpressed as her friends. "Perhaps if you tried from deeper in the diaphragm darling?" Rarity called from behind her. "You have to believe in your own grandeur." "Trixie does it all the time. I'm sure you can too, Twilight." added the bouncing pink pony. "Iron Will was able to help me with that," murmured Flutershy. "I believe it was in lesson three of "Fake it till you Make it", "Establishing Dominance"." Twilight smiled back at her friends before trying a new and more commanding "Stop". Unfortunately, the ooze remained unfazed. "Try it again, but with some magic?" suggested Applejack. "Somethin' to raise your voice?" Concentrating on her inner alicorn, she focused on the core of magic that had been augmented upon ascension. Remembering the reasons for why she needed this creature to cease its destruction and return to its own plane; Twilight gave a truly impressive shout. "STOP!" Not expecting the force from the command, Twilight knocked herself backwards before being caught by her friends. "Oh, wow..." she growled out, "that feels worse then Applejacks special reserve cider." A few coughs and a wheeze punctuated her statements. "How does Princess Luna do that without losing her voice?" Before her ground-bound friends could answer, a voice from above asked "Hey Twi, that was good! Can you do it again? I think it worked." The five mares looked at Rainbow Dash before focusing back on their primary target. It had paused again, as it had after destroying the synthesizer, and parts of its body that had hardened began to flake off as it healed up. "I don't think so, Rainbow Dash." she growled. A cough followed as she cleared her throat. "I don't have the practice or control to maintain it." It had taken moments for the ooze to heal up from the assault and it slowly began to rumble towards them once more. "I think we may need to return to town, I can have Spike send an emergency message to the princess and have her come-" A cultured voice interrupted, "Excuse me. Sorry to be rude, but we have an idea." A somber white unicorn mourned the death of her synthesizer. The towering speakers reduced to rubble and customized turntable in pieces. A quick scramble to her roommate proved that the grey mare was still okay, but shaken from the attack. A quirk of an eyebrow was more than enough to start a conversation between the two longtime friends. "Yes, Vinyl. I am fine. Barely a scratch." Octavia looked over the ruins of her prized machine, "So sorry about your amplifier. I know you two were close." The unicorn rolled her eyes in response. A gesture mostly lost due to the omnipresent shades upon her muzzle. A tilt of her head brought the two's attention back to the other six as they continued to devise strategies while dodging attacks from an angry ooze. "I don't know how they do this all the time. To face nigh certain death on a regular basis and still return hale and healthy." Octavia shook her head, "I don't know if I should be terrified or slightly envious." The two watched as a lucky swing caught Rainbow Dash and sent her to the ground, only to be saved by Applejack as both were nearly slammed by another blow. "If this continues, Ponyville could be in danger. We should run back and inform the mayor. She must have a way to get a hold of Princess Celestia." Watching Rainbow Dash begin to fly loops, the quiet unicorn nodded in agreement as they both turned to run back to town. However, before taking their first steps, they paused together at a command. Stop. Looking back, they saw that it wasn't directed at them as Twilight seemed to have regressed to the "asking nicely/begging" stage of negotiations. Vinyl tilted her head in curiosity as her partner asked "What is she trying-" "STOP!" Not being the target of the RCV allowed the two ponies to see the quick, devastating effect it had upon the ooze as parts hardened and flaked off immediately. A glance at the group of friends and their wheezing alicorn gave evidence that a repeat performance would not be forthcoming. The grey mare's vision became filled with white as an excited pony jumped in front of her. "What? Vinyl, calm down." Octavia took a step back to get a better view and the quickly flailing unicorn in front of her. "Slowly. What is it?" The unicorn sat down and slowly but still urgently pointed to the group of ponies, the ooze, and herself in quick order. "Yes. We both want to help, but-" she cut off as Vinyl pointed to herself emphatically. As the white pony pointed to her horn, mouth, and throat, the grey mare paled and almost matched her companion in color. "No! Absolutely not!" The unicorn began waving her hooves frantically in response as she waved at the destruction caused to the orchard and pointed towards the town behind them. "Well, yes, we need to stop it from reaching town. But-" she was cut off once again as the unicorn took a moment to remove her glasses and the brilliant magenta eyes were giving her a very begging look. "No! That's how you got me to go see Rammstein. Put those back on!" A lower lip added to the display. "Blast!" A sigh of defeat followed. "You are a dangerous mare, Vinyl Scratch. Let's go." The now smiling unicorn stood up and followed behind her more vocal companion. "And what, pray tell, am I suppose to say to get them out of here quickly?" A shrug from the happy unicorn was the only response. "That's what I thought." The grey mare trotted over to the others that were engaged in an animated discussion. "-emergency message to the princess and have her come-" "Excuse me. Sorry to be rude, but we have an idea." Octavia paused as she received their attention. "Are you aware of the warehouse on this side of Ponyville? Within, is one of Vinyl's more egregious experiments in sound manipulation. The synthesizer is mobile, but not to the degree of this smaller version. If you can get us there, we should have plenty of time to bring it out and utilize it against this creature." "I remember that one. It shook the apples on the far side of the northern orchard from the south side of town. I thought the Mayor ordered it destroyed?" Applejack looked at Octavia suspiciously. She'd told the truth, but something was held back. "Technically, it was ordered to be dismantled and removed from Ponyville. It was carefully broken down, and the warehouse is outside the town limits. Nothing said it couldn't be rebuilt there." A crash reminded them of their timetable as the ooze had begun to roll towards them again. "Regardless, we are out of time. Can you do it, Princess Twilight?" "Yes. Everypony gather as close as you can. I'm going to teleport us to the edge of town. I don't want to leave anypony behind." Twilight watched as they all gathered into a circle. Powering up her horn for the group teleport, she was too focused on the magic to notice the blue-haired unicorn jump out of the group at the last moment. Leaving her behind as they disappeared from the orchard.
