Princess Flurry Heart Versus the Mud Monstersby kudzuhaikuChaptersWipe-Outs! Assemble! The competition is metA lesson is learnedQuick, sing carols! Either get busy princessin' or get busy dyin'Wipe-Outs! Assemble! Wipe-Outs! Assemble! When the door opened, Princess Flurry Heart lifted her head to watch and wait, as did her companions. Moondancer could be seen for a brief moment, and she was holding a yowling, spitting, sputtering, screeching furball in her magic. She unceremoniously dumped Megara into the room, let out a sniff, and then slammed the door shut as she departed to deal with the crisis. Right away, Megara began to beat on the door. “It’s not fair,” Flurry Heart muttered to her companions. “A crisis comes, and rather than let us help, they lock us up in prison.” The little princess lifted her head and struck a noble pose, something she borrowed from her father. “Meg, save your strength. They’ve learned from our previous escape attempts. The room is ray shielded, warded, the lock cannot be picked, we’re trapped.” Hearing this, Megara let out a feline yowl of displeasure, it sounded like two violas screeching during a romantic stringy interlude to create a little violin, but she ceased beating her paws against the door. The manticore spawn turned about, paused for a moment, and then waved at her accomplice, Boomer. “Hiya, Boom Boom. How’s things?” “Boring, ya know,” Boomer replied. “Professor Egghead, do you have a plan to get us out yet?” Flurry Heart asked as she turned her head to look at Sumac. One eyebrow arched and for a moment, Flurry was a duplicate of her mother. “Actually, yes.” Sumac lifted a hoof and gestured at Boomer. “My dragon assistant is the key to our escape.” “Professor Egghead, may I remind you, the locks are protected against both magical and mundane means of manipulation.” Flurry Heart gave Sumac a sour, disappointed look. “Her lock picking skills have been rendered moot. It’s not right that they do this to us.” A somewhat crazy grin spread across Sumac’s muzzle, the sort of grin that made his companions all shiver. “Yeah, but they are not warded against high yield explosives.” Lips puckering into a somewhat fearful moue, Flurry Heart took a moment to consider Professor Egghead’s words. She also took a moment to think about what her nanny, Sleet, and her tutor, Sunburst, might do to her if she continued in her course of action. Her mother had warned her that Lady Lulamoon’s son was just a teensy, weensy bit on the crazy side, and she was seeing the undeniable evidence that her mother was right. “Professor Egghead, might I ask, what is going to keep us from being blown to smithereens?” “I think you can shield us,” Sumac replied. The little princess took a moment to consider her subject’s words. He was confident in her abilities, and who was she to disappoint him? She probably could shield them from the explosive blast in the tight confines of their prison. Flurry wondered if Sumac was using his slick grifting magic on her, and was curious if she would succeed through her own power, or because she had been conned into believing that she could. Sunburst had spent a great deal of time trying to explain to her how Sumac’s magic worked, and Flurry found it a source of fascination. Sumac could make ponies do things they normally couldn’t do, simply because he made them believe that they could. It was a subtle, clever power, and little Princess Flurry Heart considered it one of her most valuable assets. Professor Egghead was hers, the other princesses just didn’t know it yet. “Boomer, we need some explosives,” Flurry Heart announced. “I can’t poop with everypony watching,” Boomer replied as she clutched her claws together and somehow managed to look very shy. “Let’s see you take a poop with somepony watching.” Frowning, Flurry didn’t like being told no. It was right up there with being told it was bedtime or that she had to eat her alfalfa sprouts. Blech! “Meg, give Boomer a motivational speech to help her achieve her potential, if you please.” The much larger manticore spawn advanced upon the much smaller tree dragon, and Boomer backed away. Meg smiled, revealing her horrendous teeth and her lion’s tail swished from side to side. Her claws tapped upon the floor of their miraculous prison, making clicking sounds. With a smooth, fluid motion, Meg pounced, and she captured Boomer in a fierce hug. “GIVE ME YOUR POOPS!” Megara roared, drenching Boomer’s face in manticore spawn slobber. There was a faint whiff of something that smelled like rotten eggs and charcoal, then there were three distinct plops as something hard fell to the tiles. It sounded like three marbles being dropped to bounce upon the floor. After a delay, a fourth plink-clink could be heard as something else that was also hard hit the tile, and Boomer let out a tiny grunt of embarrassment. Then, there was a squeaky sound like a balloon deflating, and an eye watering sulfurous stench filled the room. “Splendid!” Flurry Heart shouted, sounding very much like her mother in her moment of triumph. “Soon, we shall be free from this prison and we’ll be able to save Ponyville from the mud monsters. Professor Egghead, blow the door, if you please.” Flurry stomped her hoof to show that she meant business and that she was in charge. “I’m sorry, Boom Boom,” Megara said, apologising to her friend. “You’re buying me a milkshake for this,” Boomer growled as she gave her friend and fellow accomplice the stinkeye. “A big one. A chocolate and celery milkshake from Sugarcube Corner.” Humming to himself, Sumac collected the four hard, flinty dragonstones, the highly explosive droppings of dragons. He had done this for so long that it didn’t bother him in the slightest. Lifting them, Sumac cast a sticky spell and then began attaching them around the door latch. Princess Flurry Heart admired his courage, as the colt showed no signs of concern that he was handling high yield explosives. There could be no doubt, he was the son of Lady Lulamoon, noted explosives expert and maker of the exquisite fireworks loved by the Crystal Empire. “Yeah, this door is gonna go,” Sumac said as he squinted at what he had done. “I think four will do it.” The colt retreated from the door and Flurry Heart pulled her companions into the corner with her. With her tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth, she cast a shield spell, something she had learned from her daddy. After a moment’s thought, she also cast a sound muffling spell, as this was going to get loud, no doubt. For some reason, all the adventures she had with her friends got loud, and her mother liked to lay the blame on the crazy Lulamoon colt. Which was fine, because Flurry, like her mother, knew that she was innocent. In fact, Sumac was about to make a big noise right now, because she saw his horn sparking. He was going to ignite the dragon dookie dynamite and blow the door. It was going to be loud and the door was going to go away. Hopefully, she and her friends would not share the door’s fate, and Flurry doubled down on her efforts to hold her shield up. The room was filled with a thick, choking smoke. The door and most of the wall were gone and Flurry’s ears were ringing. She had muffled most of the sound, but the force of the explosion striking her shields had done a number on her head. Again, she wondered if she could have shielded them on her own, or if Sumac had somehow influenced her ability with his suggestion, a confidence trick done by her treasured con artist. Megara the Lioness, her loyal and most trusted henchcreature took the lead. Boomer fell in behind Meg and Flurry shoved Professor Egghead into place in front of her. Any adults that came along would have to be dealt with, as Flurry wasn’t in the mood for play. Ponyville was in trouble, and it was up to Flurry Heart to save them. Megara’s enormous batlike wings fanned away the smoke and dust from them, clearing the way. Sumac’s horn was glowing, an indicator that he was at the ready, and Boomer was using her keen senses to detect any incoming threat as the group made their way down the crystalline hallway of Twilight Sparkle’s castle. “You scared the poop outta me, Meg!” “I said I was sorry,” Meg replied. “One day I scare the poop outta you, mammal!” Flurry listened as Sumac began laughing with Megara and Boomer. Morale was good, she felt. She had learned about the importance of morale amongst her own troops from her father and her mother, both experts. Already, she was planning her next moves, her next steps. She needed something to give her sorcerer some zing and they needed to get out of Twilight’s castle. Also, some sort of emergency plan had to be thought up quick, just in case they ran into Twinkleshine. Her nanny Sleet, could be dealt with, her tutor, Sunburst, he could be reasoned with, his logic could be appealed to, but Twinkleshine was death incarnate, the end of all things. Of Sumac’s three mothers, Twinkleshine was the fierce one, the protector, and Flurry had listened to her mother’s lectures about maternal love and fury. Twinkleshine could not be appeased, she could only be stopped by returning Sumac unharmed so she could fawn over him. A very rude sound made Flurry halt, and so did the others. As the four companions watched, one of the mud monsters came waltzing into view. It was a short, squat, bipedal creature made of mud and a cloud of dust swirled around it. Everywhere it went, it left behind a trail of filth. In front of the companions, it paused, turned about, and presented its disgusting butt crack, wiggling it at the young ones. Reaching back, it slapped its butt cheeks with hands made of mud, making gross squelches, and then it farted, spewing out cloud of dust with a few muddy squirts. The hand slapping continued, making a staccato rhythm. It farted again and a muddle puddle formed in the hallway. “Gross! It farted at me!” Princess Flurry Heart cried in a disgusted voice. “Meg! Kill it!” “I dunno if I wanna—” “Meg! Kill!” Flurry demanded in a way that only an alicorn princess could. It was Boomer who reacted, she inflated, causing her spines and frills to stand out. Like a furious chuckwalla, Boomer appeared to grow three sizes, and then she countered the disgusting mud monster’s flatulence with a belch. A gross, gurgling, horrendous belch issued forth, it rattled the walls and Boomer’s companions, and then Boomer’s blastastic burp ignited. Green flames spewed forth and curled around the super-grody mud monster. Princess Flurry Heart suffered a bad, bad reaction. She sat down, her pale pink posteriour hitting the floor, and she pounded her barrel with her dainty front hoof. She too, burped, she burped in a way that only an alicorn princess raised around soldiers could. The mud monster in front of Boomer vanished in wisps of smoke, and reappeared a moment later when Flurry Heart belched it out. Gagging, Flurry Heart almost spewed, because this taste was never coming out of her mouth. The mud monster gave Flurry a crepitatious goodbye, squirting mud and filth in Flurry’s face. It fell to the floor with a splat, picked itself up, and then ran away, squirting slimy, sticky, bubbling mud and farting with each step of its stubby, disgusting legs. “Sorry!” Boomer cried as she clapped her claws over her mouth. “I can’t control that just yet!” “Your princess demands a toothbrush and some toothpaste!” Flurry Heart stomped her hoof upon the floor, gagged, and then tried spitting her own tongue out of her mouth. “Serves you right for having Megara scare the poop out of Boomer.” Turning her head around, Flurry faced Professor Egghead and gave him a frosty, domineering, Storm Princess Glare from beneath her mud mask. He didn’t seem impressed though, not at all, and Flurry knew that her Storm Princess Glare needed work. She gagged again and wondered if this taste would ever come out of her mouth. In the distance, screams could be heard along with squishy, trumpeting blasts. “Ponyville needs us!” Megara cried, spreading her wings and revealing a glimpse of the manticore spawn that she would one day become. A grotesque wet splattering could be heard nearby, and Megara turned her head in the general direction of it. “Wipe-Outs! Assemble!” Flurry Heart commanded, still trying to recover her princessly composure after spewing out a mud monster dragon mailed to her by Boomer. “Prepare to be heroes! Prepare for glory! Prepare to be majestic!” “Prepare to be grounded forever,” Boomer added with a smokey huff. “Yeah, maybe that too, but that’s the price of a good deed!” Flurry Heart, still sputtering a bit, struck a regal alicorn pose, spreading her enormous wings that she still needed to grow into, wings only rivaled by Megara’s for sheer, ridiculous size. “I’m gonna show my fellow princesses that I gots what it takes and all of you are my special princess helpers!” “Twilight usually spends less time chatting and more time splatting,” Megara remarked, her deadpan sounding very much like her mother’s. “Quiet, you big hairy mug, or I’ll murderise ya!” Flurry cried, sounding very much like her uncle. Reaching out with one wing, she gave Megara a hearty swat to the side of the head, which Megara ignored. It was nice having friends who were as nigh-invulnerable as she was. “Come, friends, let’s go save Ponyville!” Author's Note This'll be a short romp. I wrote this for my friends. Yes, you. Yes, you right there. That's right, you. You know who you are. The competition is metLittle Princess Flurry Heart found it funny that nopony was trying to stop them. It had to be that kind of crisis. She did find all of the running away and screaming to be a bit over dramatic though. Parts of Twilight’s castle were under siege and quite filthy. Some of the ponies, the earth ponies, they wandered around in a daze, something felt off about them, but there wasn’t anything she could do. When the alchemy supply pantry came into view, Flurry paused and said, “Here we go, Professor Egghead.” “Might take me a while.” Sumac looked at the door. “She changes the wards each time as a test.” “We don’t have time for a test.” Grimacing, Flurry eyed the door and her horn began to glow. Reaching out with her mind, she grabbed the door in her telekinesis, it resisted a bit, but the door was only really warded against conjuration spells. Gritting her teeth, she ripped the door from its hinges and tossed it aside. It clattered to the floor with a terrific crash and she pranced in place in triumph. “Tada!” “Twilight is gonna kill me!” Sumac whined. “No she won’t.” Flurry Heart gave Sumac a royal, regal nod. “I will protect you.” “Twilight is gonna go right through you and kill me,” Sumac insisted. “I’ll demand that she punish me.” Flurry made a gesture at the supply closet. “Get those zap apple lozenges you need, because I need a supercharged sorcerer.” “I’m s’posed to work through the wards as a puzzle… the lesson… the lesson… Twilight is gonna be super-duper angry that I didn’t learn the lesson… she won’t care about the door, but she is gonna be all kinds of alicorn-angry that I didn’t learn the lesson!” Sumac, close to panicking, began to gulp in great lungfuls of air and he sat down on the floor while almost wheezing. “I will protect you, my friend,” Flurry Heart promised. She glanced at Megara, seeking help or reassurance, she didn’t know what she needed at the moment, and then at Boomer. Neither seemed to know how to fix this. “Sumac?” “Twilight is more than my teacher, she’s my friend and my aunt! I don’t want to let her down! The lessons are what matters!” Sensing Sumac’s distress, Flurry Heart went to him, sat down beside him, and wrapped one of her ginormous wings around him. She pulled him close, hugging him, trying to reassure him, knowing that they had to get moving, but also knowing that one of her little ponies was suffering. “When this is all over, I’ll apologise to Twilight to help smooth things over, then we’ll have Twilight fix the door, and when the door is fixed, you and I will sit down and work through the lesson together. Okay? It’ll be a great lesson, because we’ll do it together.” “Okay.” Sumac let out a shudder and looked at the torn away door laying on the ground. “I don’t mind getting in trouble, but Twilight gets peculiar about her lessons. That’s the only time she really ever seems disappointed in me and I hate it. It hurts more than anything. I don’t mind getting in trouble, but there is a line I just don’t cross.” Flurry understood. Having Sunburst, her tutor, angry with her was bad enough, but having him disappointed with her—UGH—that was the worst. Leaning over, she kissed Sumac on the cheek to cheer him up, then she adjusted his glasses, which had gone lopsided at some point. Giving him another squeeze, she gestured at the alchemy supply pantry. “We have ponies to save,” Flurry said to her downcast companion, friend, and penpal. Their first look at Ponyville was a dreadful one. Things had gone downhill fast. The sky overhead was filled with thick, gritty dust. Smoke rose from burning buildings. The sounds of mayhem were all around them. The tinkle of shattering glass, the splintering of wood, the earthy thud of bricks being broken. Flurry took it all in with her now sorcerer-charged senses and felt rage. Her little ponies were in such terrible danger. Looking up, she saw a pegasus pony plummeting from the sky, his wings coated in a thick layer of goopy mud. With an eerie calm, she gave Megara a command. “Meg! Save!” This time, there was no hesitation, as there had been when Flurry had commanded, “Meg! Kill!” Megara spread her oversized bat-like wings, her membranes and tendons creaking. With an effortless leap, she launched herself up into the air and flew in a way that only cats could. Then, when she had her prey targeted, Megara went shooting off with a shocking burst of speed to intercept. Flurry gave a nod when the pegasus pony was caught mid-air, and she watched Meg bring him down, unharmed. Already, she was starting to assess the situation, it seemed that the mud monsters had some effect on earth ponies, and could rob pegasus ponies of their flight somehow. More would need to be learned, but with Professor Egghead’s supercharging, learning would be easy. The pegasus pony was laid out on the steps of Twilight’s castle, which had been badly damaged in the fighting so far. There were cracks and broken off places. Flurry wasn’t worried, like the living crystal structures of her home, the castle would repair itself in time, so long as it had love and friendship to draw from. The downed pegasus was hauled away by a unicorn mare, who pulled him into Twilight’s castle. Megara lept down the stairs and glided on her wings. She landed where Flurry stood, and then loomed over her much smaller friends, hoping to protect them. In the distance, there was a loud crash followed by the unmistakable sound of a building collapsing. “I pity the foal that hurts ponies when I’m around!” Megara growled. “Right.” Flurry spread her wings and struck a noble pose. “Wipe-Outs, let’s go find trouble!” Trouble was in no short supply and easy to find. Rounding a corner, Flurry found herself staring up at a pair of ten foot tall mud monsters. Making a dainty dodge, she sidestepped a stream of mud being squirted at her and then raised a shield to be safe. The second stream of mud hit her shield and made it go blinky. It flickered, crackled, and threatened to drop. Something in the mud was shorting out her magic, and she knew that Professor Egghead’s sorcery worked both ways. She was made stronger, but so were her enemies. Nearby, a unicorn was encased in mud and frozen in place somehow. Some earth ponies were wandering around in a daze, their eyes filled with a strange green glow. As they shuffled around, their hooves kicked up more dust. Flurry didn’t have time to study everything though, because two ten foot tall mud mooks were farting mud at her while slapping their big flabby butt cheeks. “Oh, that’s just yucko!” Boomer shouted as she pressed up against Flurry’s side. Flurry opened fire, not knowing what else to do, and each of her shots caused the mud mooks to boil in the spot where they were struck. Now, they were steaming mud mooks, which Flurry thought was rather more dangerous. With her tongue sticking out, she let rip, giving one all she had. It exploded, sending bubbling mud spattering all around them in a wide radius. Professor Egghead joined in and was firing blasts at the other one, but it wasn’t doing much good. Flurry admired him for trying though. His real strength wasn’t in the spells he could cast, but rather in how he made others stronger. He was the sorcerer, the all powerful and almighty sorcerer, the prize of every princess. Flurry Heart felt accomplished that he was hers. The blasted apart mud monster was already reforming and dozens of little ten inch tall miniature mud mooks were now running around, slapping their bellies together, farting, spraying mud everywhere. Some of the little ones were merging together, forming larger mud mooks. Oh, this was bad and Flurry knew it. Some of the mud monsters were pulling up soil and digging into the ground. “We need a plan, Professor Egghead!” Flurry commanded while trying very hard to not sound panicked. “If you don’t think of something, we’re going to be up to our wingpits in mud monsters!” “I don’t have wingpits,” Sumac replied. “Don’t tempt me! I’ll figure out a way to make you an alicorn!” Flurry began taking potshots at the smaller mud mooks, hoping to slow down their reformation into something larger. “No!” Sumac whined, looking and sounding stricken by the very idea. There was something that was almost like a supersonic crack and it made Flurry’s ears ring as the shockwave enveloped her. Her alicorn eyes allowed her to see with some detail as Pebble Pie went flying overhead, one front hoof held forwards in front of her, one front hoof held back in a punchy-punchy position. All around her, buildings and glassed rattled, and Flurry’s heightened, sorcerer-boosted alicorn intelligence informed her that Pebble was travelling at approximately three-hundred metres per second. There was going to be an epic collision and the resulting energy release would be a mathematical equation that she didn’t understand. Grabbing all three of her friends, Flurry pulled them close and then threw everything she had into her shields, all of this taking place in less than an eyeblink. Pebble collided with the ten foot tall mud monster and the resulting shockwave blinded Flurry Heart, who was unable to see what dreadful mayhem had been released. Pebble, spattered in mud, stood on three legs, and she was flexing the leg she had struck the mud mook with. The mud mook was gone, just gone, all that was left was mud droplets and splatters that covered every available surface for yards and yards around them. Flurry was impressed. “Hello, Professor Egghead,” Pebble deadpanned as she slung mud from her foreleg. “Hi, Pebble!” With a goofy grin on his face, Sumac waved. As the two special someponies exchanged a friendly hello, another pony joined them. Olive, streaked with mud, trotted up to Pebble and then looked around, wary for danger. Flurry waved, glad to see another friend and fellow superhero. The Bashers were always a welcome sight, even if they were competition and Professor Egghead was sweet on both of them. The Bashers weren’t much on creativity or nuance, they just hit things really hard, that was their superpower. Sometimes, hitting things really hard was enough. ‘Cause when love was gone, there was always justice. When justice was gone, there was force. And when force was gone, or wasn’t enough, there was always Mom. Mom, in turn, would go through the various levels of escalation, love, justice, force, and then there was Auntie. “I see the Wipe-Outs have escaped.” Olive smirked and gave Flurry a nod of sarcasm-laced respect. “No prison will ever hold us,” Megara said to Olive. Lifting a paw, she waved at Pebble. “Hiya, Sis!” “What’s the situation?” Flurry felt that more information was in order, and Pebble was a smart, smart pony, just like her mother. She was an excellent resource, and kinda cute, though Flurry would never say it aloud. That would be embarrassing and weird. “The mud monsters are nasty and won’t stay down,” Pebble replied as she gave her sister Megara a wave. “The dust and mud interferes with the flight abilities of pegasus ponies. The same dust and mud has a nullifying effect on weaker unicorns, robbing them of their magic. Weak minded earth ponies fall under the control of the mud monsters and they run around in circles, generating more dust that goes up into the air, messing with the pegasus ponies and making more mud monsters.” “Sounds messy.” Flurry didn’t like what she was hearing at all. Nope. Not one bit. As words were being exchanged, the little mud mooks around them were growing into bigger mud mooks. Olive blasted one back into mud droplets while keeping an eye on the crowd, looking and waiting for an actual threat. The air was filled with flatulent squishes and disgusting squelches. The ground began to tremble and Flurry Heart let slip a squeaky, “Meep!” Olive dropped into a defensive crouch, and Pebble pressed up against Olive’s side. Megara spread her wings while flexing her retractable claws. Sumac’s ears perked while he listened for trouble, and Boomer’s spines stood out. Something was happening, but none of the gathered heroes knew what. With a startling suddenness, the ground ripped open and the air filled with the fragrant stink of sewage. There was a gross squish, a sloshing sound, and more of the earth erupted upwards as the ground trembled. Something horrendous climbed up out of the freshly torn open septic tank, something awful, the stuff of nightmares. It was no common mud mook. Flurry’s mouth fell open and she gazed up at the massive monster as it was still growing, horrified by the sight and nauseated by the smell. This was a foe beyond any of them, yet Flurry knew that she would fight it. She would fight it because she was an alicorn, and this was an abomination against harmony. It was also full of corn and the sight of all that yellow made Flurry feel weak in the knees for reasons she could not explain. “EXCREMENTAL!” Professor Egghead hollered at the top of his lungs. “OH SHIT!” Author's Note The world is ill-prepared for heroes such as these... A lesson is learnedEyebrow arched in a most excellent, most graceful way, Princess Flurry Heart eyeballed her foe. This was a real enemy, a true and credible threat. This was something that could kill the little ponies that she cared about. A strange hatred bubbled in her heart as the fine pink hairs along her spine stood up. Her lips curled back in a snarl, revealing perfect, flawless, square teeth. Megara was readying herself for violence and she had a wagon axle held in her front paws while she stood in a bipedal stance, her wings extended to aid her balance. Flurry valued Megara’s strength; she was no earth pony, but she could fly and she was agile. Olive’s horn was charging up and Pebble, Megara’s devoted sister, had also adopted a bipedal stance of readiness. Boomer had inflated herself and was now shaking her frills and spines at the big poo monster. It might not have seemed like much, but Boomer was a willing distraction that kept Sumac safe by looking like a much more dangerous threat. “Keep Sumac safe,” Flurry commanded as she put herself between the excremental and her treasured sorcerer. “I pity the foal that hurts our sorcerer!” With that, Megara launched herself at the amorphous mass that menaced her and her friends. The wagon axle was raised high over her head, and she brought it down in a mighty chop, burying it in the muddy-poo monster. Spatters of mud, feces, and bits of corn flew outward in a shower of filth while the wagon axle cut halfway through the golem of grody-grossness. There was a hideous burbling sound and the fecal foe began to come back together. Lightning fast, it twisted its body around, whipping the wagon axle out of Megara’s paws, then it reversed its movement. There was a thunderous crack when Megara was hit in the head with her own wagon axle, and the manticore spawn staggered away dazed, but not downed. In an act of defiance, she raised one middle claw on her paw at the mud monster, as Megara wanted to keep its ire focused on her, and not her friends. Pebble lept forward to defend her sister, but the mud monster was quick, too quick, and with a vulgar, disgusting squish, it shape shifted, pushing the axle out and forming an arm, which held the axle as a club. It swung its corn-coated cudgel and struck Pebble with a mighty blow, sending her flying in a high arc. So high and so far and so fast that she flew, that she waved her goodbye and vanished from view. “Pebble!” Sumac cried out in panic. Olive fired off a powerful pulse, but it went wide because she tried to dodge mid-blast. A steaming, toilet papered tendril shot out of the dookie mook and connected with Olive, covering her with filth and slapping her away. Megara charged, claws out, but the mud monster formed more treacle tentacles to deal with the charging mighty manticore spawn. Megara let out a yowl as she was grabbed, swung around, and then hurled away with a great deal of force. The bizarre bat-winged cat-pony collided with a house, and it being a house, and her being Megara the Lioness, the house gave way, as demanded by the natural order of things. The wall crumbled and with a pained, feline screech of rage, Megara cannonballed through the dwelling, which collapsed in upon her with a terrific sound. Dust rose as the dwelling tumbled down and the roof came to rest upon the ground. “Meouch!” Megara’s cry filtered up through the rubble she was now buried beneath and let her friends know that she was alive. Trembling with rage, Flurry let go with everything she had, something she was told to never do under any circumstances. The shot went wide, missing, and a huge chunk of Twilight’s castle turned into so much smoke. Flurry, reeling from her own blast, had no defense when the mud monster slammed her with a filth tendril. She went sailing backwards, stars in her vision, and in that moment, she realised that she wasn’t as nigh-invulnerable as she might have hoped. It was pretty much the worst pain she had ever experienced in her life—no, scratch that—she cried out as her body slammed into a house and she got to find out what it felt like to be Megara. Head first, she went through the wall, through timbers, through bricks, through plaster. This was the worst pain she had ever experienced in her life. Remaining beneath her mother’s protective wing had not prepared her for this, this was the worst. To make matters worse, half of the house collapsed upon her, the house that was made of things like nails, glass, wood, bricks, and other painful, unrelenting, awful things that she now found impaling her. In that dreadful, horrible moment, Flurry realised just how much her mother, her father, her aunts, and her uncle had protected her, kept her from harm. The remains of the house shifted and a heavy roofing beam collapsed. It landed on her barrel, putting an enormous strain on her ribs, squishing the wind out of her, and leaving her helpless. She could feel hot, sticky blood dribbling from all over. Things, unknown things had pierced her flesh and were cutting deep into her. It wasn’t supposed to end this way. This was supposed to be fun, a romp, she was supposed to crush her enemies and show off all of her power and majesty as an alicorn princess. Little Flurry wanted to cry, but was determined not to do so. Outside, she heard a terrible scream and she hoped that Sumac was somehow okay. Hot tears began to sting her eyes and the rubble shifted once more. Megara, looking much worse for wear came into Flurry’s field of view. The mighty manticore spawn sunk her claws into the massive roof beam pinning Flurry, and then, with a resonating roar that caused the rubble to rumble, she heaved with all of her manticore might. The beam lifted, along with all of the ruined house-bits on top of it, and Flurry felt her body being tugged free. Tilting her head, she saw a bespectacled Sumac standing on a ruined table top to protect his frogs from broken glass and she was quite relieved to see that he was okay. “Round two!” Megara snarled as Flurry got to her hooves. Stepping out of the rubble, Flurry was treated to a majestic sight. Pebble was running down the road, bipedal, and in her forelegs she hugged a telegraph pole. Where and how Pebble had found a telegraph pole was unknown. Even more of an unknown was how Pebble was running with a forty foot long telegraph pole. Flurry’s mouth dropped open in astonishment as Pebble skidded to a halt, but maintained her momentum by swinging for the excremental. There was an indescribable sound as the telegraph pole collided with the poo monster—it was like a spoon smacking pudding, but far, far worse, somehow far more vulgar. With a wet splat, the excremental was launched—it did not explode as Flurry had expected—and it flew for quite some distance. Running once more, Pebble launched her makeshift caber, the telegraph pole, something that had to weigh over seven-hundred pounds. Flurry’s mouth fell open a little wider as she watched the makeshift caber fly end over end through the air, and with a gross, burbling splat, it connected with the mud monster mid-flight, going right up its thunderous, squirting crack while making a lewd squish that sounded a lot like coleslaw and custard being smacked together. Flurry did not know why she thought of this, but think of this she did. Pebble was a titan, that much was clear to Flurry now, and she feared for Sumac’s safety when the inevitable marriage happened. She gave herself a shake, sending splinters, debris, and broken glass flying from her body and her wings. With a roar, Megara took to the air and Flurry followed, shaken from her state of awe. The muddy poo monster was growing larger as smaller mud monsters merged with it. It was as vile as it was dangerous, and Flurry had learned the hard way to respect a dangerous foe. This was not a silly game. Flapping her wings, she kept her distance as she took pot shots and Megara acted as a shield for her, intercepting anything hurled through the air. On the ground, Pebble was running interference, dodging and weaving, keeping the monster distracted. Olive too, was taking pot shots and her powerful telekinetic bursts were already the stuff of story and legend, something that made Flurry jealous. She wanted respect and recognition, and Olive had a surplus of that. Olive also had so much control. Sumac was hunkered down behind a stone retaining wall, keeping himself out of harm's way, and Boomer was his last ditch defense. Try as they might, no headway could be made. For each bit of the monster shot off, more grew back when other little mud monsters came and merged with the big one. Almost gliding, Flurry circled around the monster’s head, and reckoned that it had to be twenty feet tall or more now. She dodged a hurled wagon and was thankful that Megara got out of the way as well. Sumac made all of them strong, but his sorcerous power also made the poo monster strong as well. Flurry realised the danger that the sorcerer posed, and there was a lesson to be learned; strength was nothing without experience. Flurry and her Wipe-Outs were just strength, no experience. Against a foe of equal strength, they could do very little but extensive property damage, which they seemed to excel at. It was with great regret that Flurry realised that they were at a stalemate. Help came in the form of the seasoned protectors of Ponyville. Rainbow Dash wobbled through the air, her wings caked with filth, but somehow she still flew. Twilight Sparkle was much the same, but far, far clumsier. And then there was the majestic Lady Lulamoon, who did not fly, but trotted through the streets, looking sleek, clean, and perfect. Flurry was grudgingly impressed. “Mom!” Hope could be heard in Sumac’s voice. “Kiddo, how’s it going?” Confidence could be heard in Trixie’s voice. “Not good, Mom.” Flurry had trouble hearing what was said. Rainbow began flying as a distraction and Twilight flew over to where Flurry was. She had some trouble looking her aunt in the eye, but she did it anyway, defiant, proud, and refusing to admit wrongdoing. Flurry too, was an alicorn princess, it didn’t matter if she was born as one, and she would prove her worth somehow, she would earn the respect that she demanded and craved more than anything else in the whole wide world. “You are not where I left you,” Twilight remarked in a deadpan snark. “I might’ve blown up your castle just a little bit,” Flurry confessed and then she rolled out of the way of a corn-coated mud-missile. The mud monster, perhaps offended by Trixie’s clean, gleaming coat, launched a blistering offensive at the smug-looking unicorn. A funnel of filth was launched at Lady Lulamoon, a tornado of turds, and Twilight went streaking off to intercept. Flurry watched in horror, knowing that the swirling vortex had powerful suction. Trixie was struck, slathered in mud, filth, and worse, she was buried under a wash of waste. It hardened and Trixie became a statue of corn and tissue paper encrusted scat, leaving poor Flurry Heart’s heart pounding in her throat. Flurry shrieked, hating that Sumac had witnessed his mother’s dreadful demise. She started to swoop down to go to Sumac, but something happened that made her pause. With a brilliant burst of flames, Trixie exploded, sending the filth entrapping her flying. Looking quite irked, she lifted her head high and her silvery mane billowed around her head as heat rose in radiant shimmers from her body, her immaculate, clean, spotless body. “YOU DARE TO SULLY THE HIDE OF THE GREAT AND POWERFUL LADY LULAMOON? I, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE, SHALL WIPE YOU FROM EXISTENCE!” “Mom!” “There’ll be no living with her after this,” Twilight grumbled. Turning about in the air, Twilight faced her niece. “Flurry! Freeze it!” Oh. Why hadn’t she thought of that? Feeling more than a little embarrassed, Flurry realised that her foe was mostly water, and she was Flurry Heart, she was the Storm Princess, she was the Heart of Winter. Well, when her mother let her, that was. Most of the time she used her powers to make vast batches of ice cream during summer festivals under carefully monitored and controlled conditions. Trixie raised a glowing telekinetic wall that served as a shield and she moved forwards, confident, cocky, and cool. Sumac had darted to his mother’s side, and Boomer was right there behind him. Twilight formed a powerful shield bubble around herself, Megara, and Flurry Heart. Meanwhile, Flurry was getting warmed up… or was it cooled down? The temperature dropped and a cold breeze blew though Ponyville as Flurry Heart’s horn began to glow. Pebble and Olive had retreated and now stood beside Trixie, joining Sumac and Boomer. Flurry felt a prickle of fear—she had trouble controlling her storm powers—and her mother didn’t like letting her practice. Her mother just kept saying that training would come when she was older and her powers matured, but Flurry, being the petulant foal that she was, wanted to practice now. It was a source of much fighting between her and her mother. So it was with a great deal of hesitation that Flurry Heart summoned up a storm, a vast blizzard, a source of cold for her to draw from and help her Auntie Twilight take out the mud monsters threatening Ponyville. Overhead, the skies darkened, turning grey, clouds formed, and a fierce, wintry wind began to howl. “Flurry,” Twilight said in a calm voice. “You won’t mess this up… I believe in you…” Author's Note Hi. This is Kudzu Haiku, and I really hope that you are having a nice day. And if you are not having a nice day, I hope that this makes it just a tiny bit better. A lot of love went into this chapter, and I had a hoot writing it. Thank you for reading. Quick, sing carols! Quick, sing carols! With her aunt, her sorcerer, and her friends by her side, there was nothing that she couldn’t do, and Flurry felt empowered. It was difficult to fly, the dust coating her wings did something to her, it was like the air didn’t want to move around her wings. It was an odd condition, as Megara didn’t seem affected at all. Of course, Megara had very different wings than Flurry did. She thought about what her teacher, Sunburst, was fond of saying: Celebrate differences. Things were looking pretty grim. Other giant mud monsters could been seen and they were lumbering over to where the big muddy poo monster was. Flurry knew that when they got together, they would merge, and become an even bigger monster. Some had very distinct looks, and one that approached seemed to be made out of garbage or compost. Maybe garbage and compost. Whatever it was, it would merge with the poo monster to become something super-grody. Overhead, a storm swirled, and Flurry felt her power growing as the storm gained intensity. She and the storm were connected in ways she did not understand. Tarnished Teapot, Hero of the Realm and Heliophant of the Druids, had tried to help her explore her talents, but as it turns out, he didn’t know very much about it either. They had summoned quite a storm together though, and Mommy had freaked out a bit, but it was okay because she and Tarnish were on an island off of Equestria’s coast and the storm stayed on the ocean. As Twilight and Trixie were blasting chunks off of the mud monster to keep it busy, Flurry circled and let her power build. Everypony seemed safe enough and with Twilight here, nothing could go wrong. Of course, Flurry was battered, bloody, and still bleeding from too many places to list, but it would be okay. This would soon be over. “I’m not having a good time!” The voice was too familiar and Flurry began to look about. “Oh, come on Sunburst, this has been a wonderful date!” “I didn’t come to Ponyville to fight mud monsters!” “No, I suppose you didn’t. You came to Ponyville with Flurry Heart with the hopes of snogging me when and if you had some free time.” Shrill laughter echoed between the houses, some ruined, some still standing. “No, I didn’t come with the hopes of just snogging you, either.” “Oh, that hurts, Sunny, that hurts!” Even the muddy poo monster seemed curious about this development, and it paused to listen. With a distinct lull in the action, Twilight ceased firing and took a breather. Trixie recast her shield spell and began to super-charge her horn, which glowed with a frightening intensity. When she let go, it would be a doosie. “Glimmy, I didn’t mean it like that!” “Well, how did you mean it?” The two unicorns came into view, covered in mud and filthy. Sunburst’s glasses were crooked and his cape was encrusted with grossness. Starlight Glimmer had a bit of dance in her prance, even though she looked rather upset at the moment. Flurry was used to this, as these two were always arguing when they got together, and then there would be lots of slurpy make up kisses. “Glimmy, I came to Ponyville to ask you a very important question—” “Yes?” Starlight paused, midstep. “And I wanted everything to be perfect when I asked this question and the mud monsters just sort of ruined everything and now, I just don’t know. This is really hard for me.” The hulking excremental hunched over and looked at the couple whilst they stared at one another. A bit of sweet yellow corn dribbled from the corner of two black tarry eyes that had formed in its disgusting, claggy face. Olive was now hugging Pebble, and both fillies eyes shimmered with warm, feminine emotion. “Well, go on, ask me your question,” Starlight Glimmer demanded and she pressed her muddy muzzle against Sunburst’s. Flurry’s heart now felt soft and squishy—she didn’t care about her injuries, the goose-egg sized lump on the back of her skull, her dozens of lacerations, and her many bruises that would turn into varying shades of ugliness later. She just wanted her tutor to be happy, and everypony agreed, this was long overdue. Fate had conspired to keep the two lovers apart. Well, fate and Flurry Heart herself. Sunburst had his job as her tutor, and she always felt such awful guilt. She didn’t know how this ended, or what might change, but she hoped that her tutor could be happy, because he deserved it. Sunburst had been her best friend for as long as Flurry could remember, going all the way to her hazy first memories as a yearling. He was family, he was a face seen every morning at the breakfast table, and he was always there for her, right along with Sleet, her nanny. Whatever great romantic moment that was about to happen was not meant to be. The excremental had other, more horrible, more terrible, less romantic plans. It’s face contorted, changing shape, and it became a giant amorphous pair of muddy butt cheeks. With a gross gurgle, it squirted out a stream of filth with a flatulent florp and bombarded the two lovers having a tender moment. Sunburst and Starlight Glimmer became two statues as the mud hardened like stone around them. Flurry let out an angry shriek, Megara roared, Boomer let out a much smaller, much squeakier roar, and Twilight charged up to attack. Trixie let go with her super-charged horn and the resulting blast blew a hole the size of a giant pumpkin in the chest area of the mud monster. “RUDE!” Pebble cried as she assumed a more action ready stance than hugging Olive. “I was emotionally invested in that!” Olive hollered as the mud monster began to reform after having an enormous smoking hole blown through its torso. Horn glowing, Olive began to lift chunks of rubble from around her, she did so without effort, without strain, and she began hurling it at at the claggy, smelly, horrendous excremental that had destroyed such a sweet, tender moment. The flight cancelling dust in the air became too much for Rainbow Dash, and she began to spiral out of control. She fell, streaming out dust, dirt, and debris behind her as she plummeted to the ground, her wings too caked to fly, her magic suffocated. Trixie moved into place for rescue and caught Rainbow with ease before Rainbow picked up too much momentum to be managed. The ground trembled as the other giant mud monsters approached and Flurry heard a distant roar. Turning her head, she saw a giant Spike over near the hospital, he was big, much, much bigger than he had been at breakfast. Twilight or somepony had embiggenated him with much hugeness and now, Spike was going nuts. Flurry’s keen alicorn eyes could see a tiny pearlescent unicorn with a pastel pink mane standing atop his head. The tiny little unicorn on Spike’s head was more terrifying than Spike would ever be, because Twinkleshine was just that sort of pony. Twinkleshine had overprotective-mommy-issues after giving up a part of her soul for Sumac, Flurry’s mama had said so. At least the hospital was safe. With the blizzard to draw power from, Flurry unleashed a bolt of cold. It slowed the mud monster, but did not freeze him. Trixie was working on freeing Starlight and Sunburst. Pebble and Olive worked together to make a distraction so that Trixie could work in relative safety. Starlight, for all of her power, couldn’t free herself from the magic sapping mud shell and Flurry knew that there would be words later, words that she wasn’t supposed to hear or know about. Awful words, words like Sumac might say if he lost his temper. At least Starlight’s words didn’t have magic to them. Snow swirled all around them, big white fluffy flakes. The temperature was dropping and Flurry could feel herself growing strong, so very strong. She drew power from storms, so much power, and she could summon storms, gain power, summon a larger storm, gain more power, and keep doing this until something interesting happened. No one quite knew what might happen if Flurry kept doing this. But Tarnish had said it would be neat, and Flurry was inclined to agree. Gritting her teeth together, Flurry unleashed a beam of pure cryothurgical energy, raw elemental cold, and parts of the great muddy poo monster hardened, went brittle, and crumbled away. It encouraged her and gave her hope, actually seeing damage. The temperature around her began to plummet and the winds grew fierce, making it difficult to fly. “Flurry!” Sunburst’s voice was magically amplified so he could be heard over the storm. “Think of ice cream! Think of all those times you made ice cream! That’s how your mother and I figured out how to teach you to use your powers in a safe way!” Oh! Flurry, realising that she had once again been outsmarted by her own mother, gave a moment of thought to what she was doing. The poo monster wasn’t too different from ice cream, or sorbet, or frozen desserts. It was solids of various types, and liquids. It was just super-gross and not a frozen treat one would want to eat. All this time, her mother had been teaching her to use her storm powers… Flurry felt kind of dumb, but that was okay, because she was kind of dumb and she knew it. She had a lot to learn. No more dangerous beam attacks, no more shooting willy-nilly. It was ice cream time. She needed to focus her power and radiate cold from within the mud monster. She had to freeze its heart, its core. The burning, freezing touch of winter had to consume it from within, just like when she made ice cream or frozen custard. Flurry’s wings ceased flapping as she was overcome by her own magic. She remained suspended in the air, consumed by the power of the storm. Lightning crackled around her and static could be seen along her wings. A bubble of blue freezing mist formed around her and she could feel herself becoming at one with the storm. Below, the mud monsters converged and began slapping their bellies together like great, fat diamond dog sumo wrestlers. The wet, muddy slaps made thunderous sounds, but Flurry’s thunder was far, far louder. Trixie had formed a powerful triple-thick shield all around her and had pulled the little ones to her side. Olive, Pebble, Sumac, Boomer, and Megara were all pressed up against her legs. Starlight had Sunburst shielded, and Rainbow Dash as well. There was an ominous crackle as Flurry began to draw from her other source of power, love. The special love that happened during winter, the coldest months, when ponies came together to snuggle, to be cosy together. There was no word for this in modern times, but the ancient tongues made mention of it. Hygge. Cosy love, togetherness, the special love of home, hearth, and family when winter was at its coldest and most bitter. Flurry could feel it, just a trickle of it, coming from Trixie and the foals gathered around her. There was a need to cuddle, to snuggle, to be warm together. Warm crackling fires, big, fluffy blankets, hot cocoa, delicious winter treats, Hygge. This special love, this wonderful, magical, cosy love, had brought Hearthfire into the world. Flurry blinked and when her eyes opened, they were glowing white with power. She was the gathering storm and the feeling of cosy love that came with it. As the temperatures around her plummeted, she felt the closeness, the love of the ponies around her grow stronger, and this gave Flurry Heart strength. “I need you to sing Hearth’s Warming Eve carols,” Flurry commanded in a booming voice that seemed far too large and far too powerful to have come from a filly. “While we’re fighting mud monsters?” Starlight asked. “YES!” Flurry replied, and her voice was like a thundercrack. It was Sumac who started to sing, the first to answer Flurry’s call. “As dawn shines on us every morn…” Lifting her head, Megara joined in, adding her unique voice to the song. “The fire of friendship is reborn!” Boomer, who had a surprisingly good voice, joined in. “And all the friendships we have made…” Rising into a bipedal stance and pulling Sumac close to her, Pebble’s voice joined the choir. “We cherish in every way!” All together, the gathered ponies began to sing, “Loyalty binds us and makes us strong, honesty shows that we belong, and kindness shared will unite us through each day!” Lost in her magic, Flurry didn’t hear the rest. She was thoroughly consumed by Hygge, the cosy love that comes with the storm. She was Flurry Heart, the almost paradoxical love powered by winter’s cruel, freezing touch. There was no confusion, no fear, no doubt, no hesitation. Flurry’s horn grew by almost an inch as the special magic of winter love consumed her body. There was a thunderous crackle as Flurry Heart’s true power began to manifest… Author's Note Here we go... Either get busy princessin' or get busy dyin'Princess Flurry Heart channeled the chill of winter into the mud monsters’ hearts. The big ones were slowing; one day, she might freeze them solid in an eyeblink, but today was not that day, and that was fine. Twilight was flying in a protective circle around her, but Flurry did not see her. She was too caught up in the glory of her magic. The muddy poo monster and the muddy compost monster merged, like two great masses of mucky molasses, they melded together, becoming larger, stronger, and more powerful. Flurry was already nullifying them, her storm was driving the dust from the air to purify it. The little alicorn filly was filled with cool confidence. Not only was she finally getting her time to shine, she was with her friends, and they too, were getting their moment of glory. For once, they hadn’t screwed things up too badly. Down below, Flurry could sense a rush of warm, cosy love, and she knew that her tutor and Starlight Glimmer were having a bit of a snog. It was like a spark or a match that lit a fire and Flurry manifested a cold that was proportional to their warmth. The ginormous giant of a muddy poo-compost monster now moved with comical slow motion, and the smaller, far less threatening mud monsters had stopped moving altogether. Borne upon the winds of winter, Flurry swooped down, leaving behind a wake that smelled of peppermints, of spice, of gingerbread cookies, all of the scents associated with the holidays. She flew up to the massive mud monster, the disgusting creature made of filth, and she heard its burbling roar that was growing weaker with each passing moment. Wings flapping, she placed a hoof upon it with a light touch and a blue glow radiated outwards from where she had tapped it. It froze, becoming hard and brittle, thunderous crackling sounds like the movements of glaciers filled the air. In that moment, for that second, Princess Flurry Heart was the majestic princess that she had dreamed of being. She had nullified a credible threat and she had saved her subjects. Okay, maybe they were Twilight Sparkle’s subjects, but she had saved them. The day, now grey with snow clouds, was being saved. Flurry, waited, patient, as the liquid mass of the muddy poo-compost monster froze. This was more like freezing custard, due to the thick consistency, and she had a lot of experience doing this. She realised that her mother and her tutor had trained her well. Freezing them was not enough though, and she knew it. “Where is Tarnished Teapot?” Flurry asked in a booming voice, a mighty display of her princess power. “He’s coming,” Twilight replied. “That’s all I know. He’s coming. The last message that came out of the magic mirror said to sit tight until he could arrive to nullify the bad magic in the dirt.” Tapping her hoof against the now frozen mud, Flurry nodded. This soil, this earth, had been tainted with bad magic. Malicious, malevolent magic, the kind that only Mister Teapot could deal with. This walking chunk of garden fertiliser needed to be purged so that it could be used to grow fruits and vegetables. “Bashers!” Flurry boomed in the voice of a commanding holiday spirit. “Destroy this abomination! It offends your princess!” Flapping her wings, she rose, moving away from the mud monster that was now frozen solid, unmoving, a thing now as hard as stone. Flurry knew exactly what to do with a hunk of stone that needed destroyed. Below her, Olive lifted up Pebble in her telekinesis, and then round and round Pebble went over Olive’s head. Crazy, insane amounts of momentum was built up, something only an alicorn or a stone pony might survive, and then with a banshee scream, Olive launched Pebble, turning friend and fellow Basher into a ballistic missile of mass destruction. Pebble went streaking away, once again moving at around three-hundred metres per second or so, just under the speed of sound, just as Flurry had seen her do once already. Pebble was the bomb and just like her mother and her father, she was classified as a living weapon of mass destruction. She was a being of immense physical power who was just coming into her own as she was graced with adolescence. A mere fraction of a second before impact, a heavy shield surrounded Flurry and Twilight could be seen gritting her teeth. Olive had thrown a Pebble at their enemy, and now, the enemy was about to go away in a dramatic fashion. Flurry, capable of dealing with time in a way that normal ponies could not, watched all of this as it played out, her eyes taking in every detail, she was capable of seeing everything. Pebble had adopted her ‘superpony’ pose, one front hoof forward, one reared back, and she collided with the frozen fifty foot tall behemoth with terrific force. There was a sound like glass shattering, but worse. A shockwave of energy buffeted the shield around Flurry and then a second later there were a thousand impacts as shards of frozen filth pummeled the shield that Twilight had projected. Houses toppled, a water tower leaned over, its metal struts bending, creaking, the sound of metal fatigue filled the air, and the resulting explosion sent an immense shockwave of devastation radiating outwards from the epicenter where the Pebble-bomb had struck. The great muddy monster was now nothing more than freeze dried slivers and shards of nastiness. The sound was indescribable, other than it was the noise of utter and complete destruction. The big mud monster exploding caused the smaller, less impressive mud monsters to also pop and shatter—along with pretty much every window in town. Winter had come to Ponyville and unleashed its destructive fury. In its wake there would be a fertile spring, the soil renewed, revitalised, rich in compost and fertiliser. Such was the way of things, such was harmony. Flurry knew her place now, she understood, and her mind knew a peace previously unexperienced. She was Flurry Heart, Alicorn Princess, the Heart of Winter, and the leader of the Wipe-Outs. Seeing her tutor, Sunburst, and Starlight Glimmer wrapped up together in a blanket made Flurry’s heart feel warm and squishy. Both were holding mugs of warm cocoa, which was fine for them, but Flurry wasn’t in the mood for cocoa after fighting a mighty excremental monster. She flinched and let out a hiss as the nurse drove yet another staple into a very delicate place on her southern reaches. “Meouch!” Nearby, Megara too, was being stapled and glued back together with body spackle. Flurry braced herself, knowing that more staples were forthcoming. She was tired, but satisfied. There was a tremendous feeling of euphoria from her victory, a sense of accomplishment. The Wipe-Outs had saved the day and Flurry hoped that whatever punishment was coming for their escape would be minimal. “Ow!” Flurry let out a hiss as the staple gun made an ear-raising metallic clunk and a stabbing pain went shooting through her backside. The gash in her dock had to be closed and Flurry was having a hard time maintaining her princessly demeanour. Not far away, Olive’s whimpers could also be heard, as she was being sutured as well while Pebble was holding tight to her hoof. Heroism had a cost in staples, stitches, and body spackle. Turning her head, Flurry looked over at Sumac, who had escaped unharmed, for the most part. For once, their adventures didn’t involve him getting his head stapled back together or being mummified in bandages. He was smothered by his mothers, all three of them, and somewhere in that mess of overprotective mares was Boomer, buried. With a click, the door opened and Flurry glanced over to see who it was. Twilight Sparkle came in, looking only a little worse for wear, a little dirty, a little damp, and she had some cuts that needed tending to. Biting her lip, Flurry choked back a cry as another staple went in, and one fat tear rolled down from the twitching corner of her eye. Flurry was determined to take this like a princess. “Tarnish has arrived and he is purging the area of bad magic,” Twilight reported as she came over to where Flurry Heart was being tended to. Drawing herself up to her full majestic height, the regal alicorn and aunt looked down at her niece with a smile. “I owe you a debt of thanks, Princess Flurry Heart.” Heart thumping, Flurry hardly even felt the next staple as it pierced the tender flesh of her damaged dock. Nearby, Megara yowled and let out a snarl of pain. Flurry’s ears pivoted towards the source of the sound, but her eyes remained on Twilight, who had just addressed her as a princess, and not in a teasing way. “You’ve grown so much, Flurry,” Twilight said as liquid pride shimmered in her eyes. “Because you saved Ponyville, I’m willing to forgive you for wrecking my castle. Again.” A broad smile crossed Twilight’s face, and she beamed down at her niece, her face like a miniature lavender sun. “You did very well. Destruction was minimal and acceptable. You kept the smallest, most vulnerable members of your team safe. Sumac is unharmed, as far as I know, and that’s not how these things usually end.” Flurry nodded. Typically, these adventures ended with Sumac and her other teammates in the intensive care unit. Twilight was right, this had gone well. Pride burned inside of Flurry’s little alicorn heart like embers in a furnace. “You actually worked with Olive and Pebble, and didn’t compete with them, trying to show them up. That shows maturity… you put the safety and security of others ahead of your own glory and the need to prove yourself.” Again, Flurry nodded, and she winced as another staple pierced her dock. A tear spilled from her eye and she squirmed a bit, but not too much. Things had gone better, Twilight was right. This time, there had been no silly contest to prove who was bigger, better, faster, stronger, or more capable. “Are you… are you gonna… will you tell Sleet that I was bad?” Flurry asked, her voice hitching somewhat from her hesitation. “No.” Twilight let out a resigned sigh. “Sometimes, the most important lesson that a princess can learn is when to cause trouble.” Reaching out a wing, Twilight stroked her niece as the final staple was applied to close up the horrendous gash in her dock. “You had the right skills for the job, and the right team, too.” Drawing in a deep breath, Twilight continued, “It’s a hard lesson to learn, knowing when to rebel. It took me a long time to learn this lesson, when to break away from my mentor Princess Celestia and do things my own way. It caused me a lot of fear, worry, and doubt, but as it turns out, Princess Celestia wanted me to defy her… it was the final lesson that I had to learn and truly become the princess she believed me to be.” “Really?” Flurry tried very hard to understand what her aunt was saying. “Really.” Twilight gave her niece a nod. “In fact, I found out after the fact that Princess Celestia would put me into a situation with a set of instructions that made it almost impossible to achieve the desired results. The instructions made it very difficult, very dangerous, and in many cases, made the situation so much worse, but I followed those instructions, because Princess Celestia had given them.” Blinking, she let out a sigh of regret and then added, “I was so eager to please.” “Princessing is tricky,” Flurry said to her aunt as the nurse began to wrap gauze around her dock. “It is,” Twilight replied with a nod. “But you have your Wipe-Outs. They’re your best friends, Flurry, your accomplices. Being your friends, they’ll be very forgiving if you make a mistake, and they’ll steer you in the right direction. Everything you will ever need to know about princessing, you will learn from your friends, just like I learned how to be a princess by being with my friends.” “Yeah, I guess the four of us are pretty special.” Flurry squirmed a bit as more gauze was applied, the pressure pushed down on the staples and brought some serious discomfort. “Six,” Pebble corrected. “Huh?” Flurry looked away from her aunt and stared at Pebble. “I propose a merger. Olive and I were outclassed today and I think the six of us stand a better chance in future engagements if we work together.” Pebble gave Olive’s hoof a squeeze, and Olive nodded. “You didn’t screw up today, Flurry.” Pebble’s compliment almost floored Flurry, and she felt a lump grow in her throat. “Hey a group of friends and a dragon,” Twilight remarked as she began to chuckle. “That’s all you need to change the world. I know, because I’ve done it. You’ve got everything a princess in training needs, Flurry Heart.” “I do, don’t I?” Shifting her weight a bit, Flurry wiped her eyes with her foreleg and began to sniffle. The team was going to need a new name, or so she thought. Feeling eyes on her, she looked around the room and found that everypony was looking at her. Everypony. Trixie, Lemon Hearts, even Twinkleshine. Was that pride that she saw in Twinkleshine’s eyes? Acceptance? Like her beloved pink cherry blossoms in spring, Flurry felt hope blossom. “Congratulations, Flurry Heart, you’ve proven your worth as a Princess of Equestria.” And with that, Twilight bowed her head. Others followed suit, some sitting, some standing, but all bowed their heads, even the nurses took a moment to do so. Flurry felt a peculiar sensation, one of worry, and she realised that now that she had their respect, she was going to have to work even harder to make sure that she did not let them down. As Twilight had once said, a princess’ work was never done. Flurry’s work was just beginning and the little princess began to make plans. Author's Note And so ends our tale. But our hero's story is just beginning. Tell me what you think in the comments.
Wipe-Outs! Assemble! Wipe-Outs! Assemble! When the door opened, Princess Flurry Heart lifted her head to watch and wait, as did her companions. Moondancer could be seen for a brief moment, and she was holding a yowling, spitting, sputtering, screeching furball in her magic. She unceremoniously dumped Megara into the room, let out a sniff, and then slammed the door shut as she departed to deal with the crisis. Right away, Megara began to beat on the door. “It’s not fair,” Flurry Heart muttered to her companions. “A crisis comes, and rather than let us help, they lock us up in prison.” The little princess lifted her head and struck a noble pose, something she borrowed from her father. “Meg, save your strength. They’ve learned from our previous escape attempts. The room is ray shielded, warded, the lock cannot be picked, we’re trapped.” Hearing this, Megara let out a feline yowl of displeasure, it sounded like two violas screeching during a romantic stringy interlude to create a little violin, but she ceased beating her paws against the door. The manticore spawn turned about, paused for a moment, and then waved at her accomplice, Boomer. “Hiya, Boom Boom. How’s things?” “Boring, ya know,” Boomer replied. “Professor Egghead, do you have a plan to get us out yet?” Flurry Heart asked as she turned her head to look at Sumac. One eyebrow arched and for a moment, Flurry was a duplicate of her mother. “Actually, yes.” Sumac lifted a hoof and gestured at Boomer. “My dragon assistant is the key to our escape.” “Professor Egghead, may I remind you, the locks are protected against both magical and mundane means of manipulation.” Flurry Heart gave Sumac a sour, disappointed look. “Her lock picking skills have been rendered moot. It’s not right that they do this to us.” A somewhat crazy grin spread across Sumac’s muzzle, the sort of grin that made his companions all shiver. “Yeah, but they are not warded against high yield explosives.” Lips puckering into a somewhat fearful moue, Flurry Heart took a moment to consider Professor Egghead’s words. She also took a moment to think about what her nanny, Sleet, and her tutor, Sunburst, might do to her if she continued in her course of action. Her mother had warned her that Lady Lulamoon’s son was just a teensy, weensy bit on the crazy side, and she was seeing the undeniable evidence that her mother was right. “Professor Egghead, might I ask, what is going to keep us from being blown to smithereens?” “I think you can shield us,” Sumac replied. The little princess took a moment to consider her subject’s words. He was confident in her abilities, and who was she to disappoint him? She probably could shield them from the explosive blast in the tight confines of their prison. Flurry wondered if Sumac was using his slick grifting magic on her, and was curious if she would succeed through her own power, or because she had been conned into believing that she could. Sunburst had spent a great deal of time trying to explain to her how Sumac’s magic worked, and Flurry found it a source of fascination. Sumac could make ponies do things they normally couldn’t do, simply because he made them believe that they could. It was a subtle, clever power, and little Princess Flurry Heart considered it one of her most valuable assets. Professor Egghead was hers, the other princesses just didn’t know it yet. “Boomer, we need some explosives,” Flurry Heart announced. “I can’t poop with everypony watching,” Boomer replied as she clutched her claws together and somehow managed to look very shy. “Let’s see you take a poop with somepony watching.” Frowning, Flurry didn’t like being told no. It was right up there with being told it was bedtime or that she had to eat her alfalfa sprouts. Blech! “Meg, give Boomer a motivational speech to help her achieve her potential, if you please.” The much larger manticore spawn advanced upon the much smaller tree dragon, and Boomer backed away. Meg smiled, revealing her horrendous teeth and her lion’s tail swished from side to side. Her claws tapped upon the floor of their miraculous prison, making clicking sounds. With a smooth, fluid motion, Meg pounced, and she captured Boomer in a fierce hug. “GIVE ME YOUR POOPS!” Megara roared, drenching Boomer’s face in manticore spawn slobber. There was a faint whiff of something that smelled like rotten eggs and charcoal, then there were three distinct plops as something hard fell to the tiles. It sounded like three marbles being dropped to bounce upon the floor. After a delay, a fourth plink-clink could be heard as something else that was also hard hit the tile, and Boomer let out a tiny grunt of embarrassment. Then, there was a squeaky sound like a balloon deflating, and an eye watering sulfurous stench filled the room. “Splendid!” Flurry Heart shouted, sounding very much like her mother in her moment of triumph. “Soon, we shall be free from this prison and we’ll be able to save Ponyville from the mud monsters. Professor Egghead, blow the door, if you please.” Flurry stomped her hoof to show that she meant business and that she was in charge. “I’m sorry, Boom Boom,” Megara said, apologising to her friend. “You’re buying me a milkshake for this,” Boomer growled as she gave her friend and fellow accomplice the stinkeye. “A big one. A chocolate and celery milkshake from Sugarcube Corner.” Humming to himself, Sumac collected the four hard, flinty dragonstones, the highly explosive droppings of dragons. He had done this for so long that it didn’t bother him in the slightest. Lifting them, Sumac cast a sticky spell and then began attaching them around the door latch. Princess Flurry Heart admired his courage, as the colt showed no signs of concern that he was handling high yield explosives. There could be no doubt, he was the son of Lady Lulamoon, noted explosives expert and maker of the exquisite fireworks loved by the Crystal Empire. “Yeah, this door is gonna go,” Sumac said as he squinted at what he had done. “I think four will do it.” The colt retreated from the door and Flurry Heart pulled her companions into the corner with her. With her tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth, she cast a shield spell, something she had learned from her daddy. After a moment’s thought, she also cast a sound muffling spell, as this was going to get loud, no doubt. For some reason, all the adventures she had with her friends got loud, and her mother liked to lay the blame on the crazy Lulamoon colt. Which was fine, because Flurry, like her mother, knew that she was innocent. In fact, Sumac was about to make a big noise right now, because she saw his horn sparking. He was going to ignite the dragon dookie dynamite and blow the door. It was going to be loud and the door was going to go away. Hopefully, she and her friends would not share the door’s fate, and Flurry doubled down on her efforts to hold her shield up. The room was filled with a thick, choking smoke. The door and most of the wall were gone and Flurry’s ears were ringing. She had muffled most of the sound, but the force of the explosion striking her shields had done a number on her head. Again, she wondered if she could have shielded them on her own, or if Sumac had somehow influenced her ability with his suggestion, a confidence trick done by her treasured con artist. Megara the Lioness, her loyal and most trusted henchcreature took the lead. Boomer fell in behind Meg and Flurry shoved Professor Egghead into place in front of her. Any adults that came along would have to be dealt with, as Flurry wasn’t in the mood for play. Ponyville was in trouble, and it was up to Flurry Heart to save them. Megara’s enormous batlike wings fanned away the smoke and dust from them, clearing the way. Sumac’s horn was glowing, an indicator that he was at the ready, and Boomer was using her keen senses to detect any incoming threat as the group made their way down the crystalline hallway of Twilight Sparkle’s castle. “You scared the poop outta me, Meg!” “I said I was sorry,” Meg replied. “One day I scare the poop outta you, mammal!” Flurry listened as Sumac began laughing with Megara and Boomer. Morale was good, she felt. She had learned about the importance of morale amongst her own troops from her father and her mother, both experts. Already, she was planning her next moves, her next steps. She needed something to give her sorcerer some zing and they needed to get out of Twilight’s castle. Also, some sort of emergency plan had to be thought up quick, just in case they ran into Twinkleshine. Her nanny Sleet, could be dealt with, her tutor, Sunburst, he could be reasoned with, his logic could be appealed to, but Twinkleshine was death incarnate, the end of all things. Of Sumac’s three mothers, Twinkleshine was the fierce one, the protector, and Flurry had listened to her mother’s lectures about maternal love and fury. Twinkleshine could not be appeased, she could only be stopped by returning Sumac unharmed so she could fawn over him. A very rude sound made Flurry halt, and so did the others. As the four companions watched, one of the mud monsters came waltzing into view. It was a short, squat, bipedal creature made of mud and a cloud of dust swirled around it. Everywhere it went, it left behind a trail of filth. In front of the companions, it paused, turned about, and presented its disgusting butt crack, wiggling it at the young ones. Reaching back, it slapped its butt cheeks with hands made of mud, making gross squelches, and then it farted, spewing out cloud of dust with a few muddy squirts. The hand slapping continued, making a staccato rhythm. It farted again and a muddle puddle formed in the hallway. “Gross! It farted at me!” Princess Flurry Heart cried in a disgusted voice. “Meg! Kill it!” “I dunno if I wanna—” “Meg! Kill!” Flurry demanded in a way that only an alicorn princess could. It was Boomer who reacted, she inflated, causing her spines and frills to stand out. Like a furious chuckwalla, Boomer appeared to grow three sizes, and then she countered the disgusting mud monster’s flatulence with a belch. A gross, gurgling, horrendous belch issued forth, it rattled the walls and Boomer’s companions, and then Boomer’s blastastic burp ignited. Green flames spewed forth and curled around the super-grody mud monster. Princess Flurry Heart suffered a bad, bad reaction. She sat down, her pale pink posteriour hitting the floor, and she pounded her barrel with her dainty front hoof. She too, burped, she burped in a way that only an alicorn princess raised around soldiers could. The mud monster in front of Boomer vanished in wisps of smoke, and reappeared a moment later when Flurry Heart belched it out. Gagging, Flurry Heart almost spewed, because this taste was never coming out of her mouth. The mud monster gave Flurry a crepitatious goodbye, squirting mud and filth in Flurry’s face. It fell to the floor with a splat, picked itself up, and then ran away, squirting slimy, sticky, bubbling mud and farting with each step of its stubby, disgusting legs. “Sorry!” Boomer cried as she clapped her claws over her mouth. “I can’t control that just yet!” “Your princess demands a toothbrush and some toothpaste!” Flurry Heart stomped her hoof upon the floor, gagged, and then tried spitting her own tongue out of her mouth. “Serves you right for having Megara scare the poop out of Boomer.” Turning her head around, Flurry faced Professor Egghead and gave him a frosty, domineering, Storm Princess Glare from beneath her mud mask. He didn’t seem impressed though, not at all, and Flurry knew that her Storm Princess Glare needed work. She gagged again and wondered if this taste would ever come out of her mouth. In the distance, screams could be heard along with squishy, trumpeting blasts. “Ponyville needs us!” Megara cried, spreading her wings and revealing a glimpse of the manticore spawn that she would one day become. A grotesque wet splattering could be heard nearby, and Megara turned her head in the general direction of it. “Wipe-Outs! Assemble!” Flurry Heart commanded, still trying to recover her princessly composure after spewing out a mud monster dragon mailed to her by Boomer. “Prepare to be heroes! Prepare for glory! Prepare to be majestic!” “Prepare to be grounded forever,” Boomer added with a smokey huff. “Yeah, maybe that too, but that’s the price of a good deed!” Flurry Heart, still sputtering a bit, struck a regal alicorn pose, spreading her enormous wings that she still needed to grow into, wings only rivaled by Megara’s for sheer, ridiculous size. “I’m gonna show my fellow princesses that I gots what it takes and all of you are my special princess helpers!” “Twilight usually spends less time chatting and more time splatting,” Megara remarked, her deadpan sounding very much like her mother’s. “Quiet, you big hairy mug, or I’ll murderise ya!” Flurry cried, sounding very much like her uncle. Reaching out with one wing, she gave Megara a hearty swat to the side of the head, which Megara ignored. It was nice having friends who were as nigh-invulnerable as she was. “Come, friends, let’s go save Ponyville!” Author's Note This'll be a short romp. I wrote this for my friends. Yes, you. Yes, you right there. That's right, you. You know who you are.
The competition is metLittle Princess Flurry Heart found it funny that nopony was trying to stop them. It had to be that kind of crisis. She did find all of the running away and screaming to be a bit over dramatic though. Parts of Twilight’s castle were under siege and quite filthy. Some of the ponies, the earth ponies, they wandered around in a daze, something felt off about them, but there wasn’t anything she could do. When the alchemy supply pantry came into view, Flurry paused and said, “Here we go, Professor Egghead.” “Might take me a while.” Sumac looked at the door. “She changes the wards each time as a test.” “We don’t have time for a test.” Grimacing, Flurry eyed the door and her horn began to glow. Reaching out with her mind, she grabbed the door in her telekinesis, it resisted a bit, but the door was only really warded against conjuration spells. Gritting her teeth, she ripped the door from its hinges and tossed it aside. It clattered to the floor with a terrific crash and she pranced in place in triumph. “Tada!” “Twilight is gonna kill me!” Sumac whined. “No she won’t.” Flurry Heart gave Sumac a royal, regal nod. “I will protect you.” “Twilight is gonna go right through you and kill me,” Sumac insisted. “I’ll demand that she punish me.” Flurry made a gesture at the supply closet. “Get those zap apple lozenges you need, because I need a supercharged sorcerer.” “I’m s’posed to work through the wards as a puzzle… the lesson… the lesson… Twilight is gonna be super-duper angry that I didn’t learn the lesson… she won’t care about the door, but she is gonna be all kinds of alicorn-angry that I didn’t learn the lesson!” Sumac, close to panicking, began to gulp in great lungfuls of air and he sat down on the floor while almost wheezing. “I will protect you, my friend,” Flurry Heart promised. She glanced at Megara, seeking help or reassurance, she didn’t know what she needed at the moment, and then at Boomer. Neither seemed to know how to fix this. “Sumac?” “Twilight is more than my teacher, she’s my friend and my aunt! I don’t want to let her down! The lessons are what matters!” Sensing Sumac’s distress, Flurry Heart went to him, sat down beside him, and wrapped one of her ginormous wings around him. She pulled him close, hugging him, trying to reassure him, knowing that they had to get moving, but also knowing that one of her little ponies was suffering. “When this is all over, I’ll apologise to Twilight to help smooth things over, then we’ll have Twilight fix the door, and when the door is fixed, you and I will sit down and work through the lesson together. Okay? It’ll be a great lesson, because we’ll do it together.” “Okay.” Sumac let out a shudder and looked at the torn away door laying on the ground. “I don’t mind getting in trouble, but Twilight gets peculiar about her lessons. That’s the only time she really ever seems disappointed in me and I hate it. It hurts more than anything. I don’t mind getting in trouble, but there is a line I just don’t cross.” Flurry understood. Having Sunburst, her tutor, angry with her was bad enough, but having him disappointed with her—UGH—that was the worst. Leaning over, she kissed Sumac on the cheek to cheer him up, then she adjusted his glasses, which had gone lopsided at some point. Giving him another squeeze, she gestured at the alchemy supply pantry. “We have ponies to save,” Flurry said to her downcast companion, friend, and penpal. Their first look at Ponyville was a dreadful one. Things had gone downhill fast. The sky overhead was filled with thick, gritty dust. Smoke rose from burning buildings. The sounds of mayhem were all around them. The tinkle of shattering glass, the splintering of wood, the earthy thud of bricks being broken. Flurry took it all in with her now sorcerer-charged senses and felt rage. Her little ponies were in such terrible danger. Looking up, she saw a pegasus pony plummeting from the sky, his wings coated in a thick layer of goopy mud. With an eerie calm, she gave Megara a command. “Meg! Save!” This time, there was no hesitation, as there had been when Flurry had commanded, “Meg! Kill!” Megara spread her oversized bat-like wings, her membranes and tendons creaking. With an effortless leap, she launched herself up into the air and flew in a way that only cats could. Then, when she had her prey targeted, Megara went shooting off with a shocking burst of speed to intercept. Flurry gave a nod when the pegasus pony was caught mid-air, and she watched Meg bring him down, unharmed. Already, she was starting to assess the situation, it seemed that the mud monsters had some effect on earth ponies, and could rob pegasus ponies of their flight somehow. More would need to be learned, but with Professor Egghead’s supercharging, learning would be easy. The pegasus pony was laid out on the steps of Twilight’s castle, which had been badly damaged in the fighting so far. There were cracks and broken off places. Flurry wasn’t worried, like the living crystal structures of her home, the castle would repair itself in time, so long as it had love and friendship to draw from. The downed pegasus was hauled away by a unicorn mare, who pulled him into Twilight’s castle. Megara lept down the stairs and glided on her wings. She landed where Flurry stood, and then loomed over her much smaller friends, hoping to protect them. In the distance, there was a loud crash followed by the unmistakable sound of a building collapsing. “I pity the foal that hurts ponies when I’m around!” Megara growled. “Right.” Flurry spread her wings and struck a noble pose. “Wipe-Outs, let’s go find trouble!” Trouble was in no short supply and easy to find. Rounding a corner, Flurry found herself staring up at a pair of ten foot tall mud monsters. Making a dainty dodge, she sidestepped a stream of mud being squirted at her and then raised a shield to be safe. The second stream of mud hit her shield and made it go blinky. It flickered, crackled, and threatened to drop. Something in the mud was shorting out her magic, and she knew that Professor Egghead’s sorcery worked both ways. She was made stronger, but so were her enemies. Nearby, a unicorn was encased in mud and frozen in place somehow. Some earth ponies were wandering around in a daze, their eyes filled with a strange green glow. As they shuffled around, their hooves kicked up more dust. Flurry didn’t have time to study everything though, because two ten foot tall mud mooks were farting mud at her while slapping their big flabby butt cheeks. “Oh, that’s just yucko!” Boomer shouted as she pressed up against Flurry’s side. Flurry opened fire, not knowing what else to do, and each of her shots caused the mud mooks to boil in the spot where they were struck. Now, they were steaming mud mooks, which Flurry thought was rather more dangerous. With her tongue sticking out, she let rip, giving one all she had. It exploded, sending bubbling mud spattering all around them in a wide radius. Professor Egghead joined in and was firing blasts at the other one, but it wasn’t doing much good. Flurry admired him for trying though. His real strength wasn’t in the spells he could cast, but rather in how he made others stronger. He was the sorcerer, the all powerful and almighty sorcerer, the prize of every princess. Flurry Heart felt accomplished that he was hers. The blasted apart mud monster was already reforming and dozens of little ten inch tall miniature mud mooks were now running around, slapping their bellies together, farting, spraying mud everywhere. Some of the little ones were merging together, forming larger mud mooks. Oh, this was bad and Flurry knew it. Some of the mud monsters were pulling up soil and digging into the ground. “We need a plan, Professor Egghead!” Flurry commanded while trying very hard to not sound panicked. “If you don’t think of something, we’re going to be up to our wingpits in mud monsters!” “I don’t have wingpits,” Sumac replied. “Don’t tempt me! I’ll figure out a way to make you an alicorn!” Flurry began taking potshots at the smaller mud mooks, hoping to slow down their reformation into something larger. “No!” Sumac whined, looking and sounding stricken by the very idea. There was something that was almost like a supersonic crack and it made Flurry’s ears ring as the shockwave enveloped her. Her alicorn eyes allowed her to see with some detail as Pebble Pie went flying overhead, one front hoof held forwards in front of her, one front hoof held back in a punchy-punchy position. All around her, buildings and glassed rattled, and Flurry’s heightened, sorcerer-boosted alicorn intelligence informed her that Pebble was travelling at approximately three-hundred metres per second. There was going to be an epic collision and the resulting energy release would be a mathematical equation that she didn’t understand. Grabbing all three of her friends, Flurry pulled them close and then threw everything she had into her shields, all of this taking place in less than an eyeblink. Pebble collided with the ten foot tall mud monster and the resulting shockwave blinded Flurry Heart, who was unable to see what dreadful mayhem had been released. Pebble, spattered in mud, stood on three legs, and she was flexing the leg she had struck the mud mook with. The mud mook was gone, just gone, all that was left was mud droplets and splatters that covered every available surface for yards and yards around them. Flurry was impressed. “Hello, Professor Egghead,” Pebble deadpanned as she slung mud from her foreleg. “Hi, Pebble!” With a goofy grin on his face, Sumac waved. As the two special someponies exchanged a friendly hello, another pony joined them. Olive, streaked with mud, trotted up to Pebble and then looked around, wary for danger. Flurry waved, glad to see another friend and fellow superhero. The Bashers were always a welcome sight, even if they were competition and Professor Egghead was sweet on both of them. The Bashers weren’t much on creativity or nuance, they just hit things really hard, that was their superpower. Sometimes, hitting things really hard was enough. ‘Cause when love was gone, there was always justice. When justice was gone, there was force. And when force was gone, or wasn’t enough, there was always Mom. Mom, in turn, would go through the various levels of escalation, love, justice, force, and then there was Auntie. “I see the Wipe-Outs have escaped.” Olive smirked and gave Flurry a nod of sarcasm-laced respect. “No prison will ever hold us,” Megara said to Olive. Lifting a paw, she waved at Pebble. “Hiya, Sis!” “What’s the situation?” Flurry felt that more information was in order, and Pebble was a smart, smart pony, just like her mother. She was an excellent resource, and kinda cute, though Flurry would never say it aloud. That would be embarrassing and weird. “The mud monsters are nasty and won’t stay down,” Pebble replied as she gave her sister Megara a wave. “The dust and mud interferes with the flight abilities of pegasus ponies. The same dust and mud has a nullifying effect on weaker unicorns, robbing them of their magic. Weak minded earth ponies fall under the control of the mud monsters and they run around in circles, generating more dust that goes up into the air, messing with the pegasus ponies and making more mud monsters.” “Sounds messy.” Flurry didn’t like what she was hearing at all. Nope. Not one bit. As words were being exchanged, the little mud mooks around them were growing into bigger mud mooks. Olive blasted one back into mud droplets while keeping an eye on the crowd, looking and waiting for an actual threat. The air was filled with flatulent squishes and disgusting squelches. The ground began to tremble and Flurry Heart let slip a squeaky, “Meep!” Olive dropped into a defensive crouch, and Pebble pressed up against Olive’s side. Megara spread her wings while flexing her retractable claws. Sumac’s ears perked while he listened for trouble, and Boomer’s spines stood out. Something was happening, but none of the gathered heroes knew what. With a startling suddenness, the ground ripped open and the air filled with the fragrant stink of sewage. There was a gross squish, a sloshing sound, and more of the earth erupted upwards as the ground trembled. Something horrendous climbed up out of the freshly torn open septic tank, something awful, the stuff of nightmares. It was no common mud mook. Flurry’s mouth fell open and she gazed up at the massive monster as it was still growing, horrified by the sight and nauseated by the smell. This was a foe beyond any of them, yet Flurry knew that she would fight it. She would fight it because she was an alicorn, and this was an abomination against harmony. It was also full of corn and the sight of all that yellow made Flurry feel weak in the knees for reasons she could not explain. “EXCREMENTAL!” Professor Egghead hollered at the top of his lungs. “OH SHIT!” Author's Note The world is ill-prepared for heroes such as these...
A lesson is learnedEyebrow arched in a most excellent, most graceful way, Princess Flurry Heart eyeballed her foe. This was a real enemy, a true and credible threat. This was something that could kill the little ponies that she cared about. A strange hatred bubbled in her heart as the fine pink hairs along her spine stood up. Her lips curled back in a snarl, revealing perfect, flawless, square teeth. Megara was readying herself for violence and she had a wagon axle held in her front paws while she stood in a bipedal stance, her wings extended to aid her balance. Flurry valued Megara’s strength; she was no earth pony, but she could fly and she was agile. Olive’s horn was charging up and Pebble, Megara’s devoted sister, had also adopted a bipedal stance of readiness. Boomer had inflated herself and was now shaking her frills and spines at the big poo monster. It might not have seemed like much, but Boomer was a willing distraction that kept Sumac safe by looking like a much more dangerous threat. “Keep Sumac safe,” Flurry commanded as she put herself between the excremental and her treasured sorcerer. “I pity the foal that hurts our sorcerer!” With that, Megara launched herself at the amorphous mass that menaced her and her friends. The wagon axle was raised high over her head, and she brought it down in a mighty chop, burying it in the muddy-poo monster. Spatters of mud, feces, and bits of corn flew outward in a shower of filth while the wagon axle cut halfway through the golem of grody-grossness. There was a hideous burbling sound and the fecal foe began to come back together. Lightning fast, it twisted its body around, whipping the wagon axle out of Megara’s paws, then it reversed its movement. There was a thunderous crack when Megara was hit in the head with her own wagon axle, and the manticore spawn staggered away dazed, but not downed. In an act of defiance, she raised one middle claw on her paw at the mud monster, as Megara wanted to keep its ire focused on her, and not her friends. Pebble lept forward to defend her sister, but the mud monster was quick, too quick, and with a vulgar, disgusting squish, it shape shifted, pushing the axle out and forming an arm, which held the axle as a club. It swung its corn-coated cudgel and struck Pebble with a mighty blow, sending her flying in a high arc. So high and so far and so fast that she flew, that she waved her goodbye and vanished from view. “Pebble!” Sumac cried out in panic. Olive fired off a powerful pulse, but it went wide because she tried to dodge mid-blast. A steaming, toilet papered tendril shot out of the dookie mook and connected with Olive, covering her with filth and slapping her away. Megara charged, claws out, but the mud monster formed more treacle tentacles to deal with the charging mighty manticore spawn. Megara let out a yowl as she was grabbed, swung around, and then hurled away with a great deal of force. The bizarre bat-winged cat-pony collided with a house, and it being a house, and her being Megara the Lioness, the house gave way, as demanded by the natural order of things. The wall crumbled and with a pained, feline screech of rage, Megara cannonballed through the dwelling, which collapsed in upon her with a terrific sound. Dust rose as the dwelling tumbled down and the roof came to rest upon the ground. “Meouch!” Megara’s cry filtered up through the rubble she was now buried beneath and let her friends know that she was alive. Trembling with rage, Flurry let go with everything she had, something she was told to never do under any circumstances. The shot went wide, missing, and a huge chunk of Twilight’s castle turned into so much smoke. Flurry, reeling from her own blast, had no defense when the mud monster slammed her with a filth tendril. She went sailing backwards, stars in her vision, and in that moment, she realised that she wasn’t as nigh-invulnerable as she might have hoped. It was pretty much the worst pain she had ever experienced in her life—no, scratch that—she cried out as her body slammed into a house and she got to find out what it felt like to be Megara. Head first, she went through the wall, through timbers, through bricks, through plaster. This was the worst pain she had ever experienced in her life. Remaining beneath her mother’s protective wing had not prepared her for this, this was the worst. To make matters worse, half of the house collapsed upon her, the house that was made of things like nails, glass, wood, bricks, and other painful, unrelenting, awful things that she now found impaling her. In that dreadful, horrible moment, Flurry realised just how much her mother, her father, her aunts, and her uncle had protected her, kept her from harm. The remains of the house shifted and a heavy roofing beam collapsed. It landed on her barrel, putting an enormous strain on her ribs, squishing the wind out of her, and leaving her helpless. She could feel hot, sticky blood dribbling from all over. Things, unknown things had pierced her flesh and were cutting deep into her. It wasn’t supposed to end this way. This was supposed to be fun, a romp, she was supposed to crush her enemies and show off all of her power and majesty as an alicorn princess. Little Flurry wanted to cry, but was determined not to do so. Outside, she heard a terrible scream and she hoped that Sumac was somehow okay. Hot tears began to sting her eyes and the rubble shifted once more. Megara, looking much worse for wear came into Flurry’s field of view. The mighty manticore spawn sunk her claws into the massive roof beam pinning Flurry, and then, with a resonating roar that caused the rubble to rumble, she heaved with all of her manticore might. The beam lifted, along with all of the ruined house-bits on top of it, and Flurry felt her body being tugged free. Tilting her head, she saw a bespectacled Sumac standing on a ruined table top to protect his frogs from broken glass and she was quite relieved to see that he was okay. “Round two!” Megara snarled as Flurry got to her hooves. Stepping out of the rubble, Flurry was treated to a majestic sight. Pebble was running down the road, bipedal, and in her forelegs she hugged a telegraph pole. Where and how Pebble had found a telegraph pole was unknown. Even more of an unknown was how Pebble was running with a forty foot long telegraph pole. Flurry’s mouth dropped open in astonishment as Pebble skidded to a halt, but maintained her momentum by swinging for the excremental. There was an indescribable sound as the telegraph pole collided with the poo monster—it was like a spoon smacking pudding, but far, far worse, somehow far more vulgar. With a wet splat, the excremental was launched—it did not explode as Flurry had expected—and it flew for quite some distance. Running once more, Pebble launched her makeshift caber, the telegraph pole, something that had to weigh over seven-hundred pounds. Flurry’s mouth fell open a little wider as she watched the makeshift caber fly end over end through the air, and with a gross, burbling splat, it connected with the mud monster mid-flight, going right up its thunderous, squirting crack while making a lewd squish that sounded a lot like coleslaw and custard being smacked together. Flurry did not know why she thought of this, but think of this she did. Pebble was a titan, that much was clear to Flurry now, and she feared for Sumac’s safety when the inevitable marriage happened. She gave herself a shake, sending splinters, debris, and broken glass flying from her body and her wings. With a roar, Megara took to the air and Flurry followed, shaken from her state of awe. The muddy poo monster was growing larger as smaller mud monsters merged with it. It was as vile as it was dangerous, and Flurry had learned the hard way to respect a dangerous foe. This was not a silly game. Flapping her wings, she kept her distance as she took pot shots and Megara acted as a shield for her, intercepting anything hurled through the air. On the ground, Pebble was running interference, dodging and weaving, keeping the monster distracted. Olive too, was taking pot shots and her powerful telekinetic bursts were already the stuff of story and legend, something that made Flurry jealous. She wanted respect and recognition, and Olive had a surplus of that. Olive also had so much control. Sumac was hunkered down behind a stone retaining wall, keeping himself out of harm's way, and Boomer was his last ditch defense. Try as they might, no headway could be made. For each bit of the monster shot off, more grew back when other little mud monsters came and merged with the big one. Almost gliding, Flurry circled around the monster’s head, and reckoned that it had to be twenty feet tall or more now. She dodged a hurled wagon and was thankful that Megara got out of the way as well. Sumac made all of them strong, but his sorcerous power also made the poo monster strong as well. Flurry realised the danger that the sorcerer posed, and there was a lesson to be learned; strength was nothing without experience. Flurry and her Wipe-Outs were just strength, no experience. Against a foe of equal strength, they could do very little but extensive property damage, which they seemed to excel at. It was with great regret that Flurry realised that they were at a stalemate. Help came in the form of the seasoned protectors of Ponyville. Rainbow Dash wobbled through the air, her wings caked with filth, but somehow she still flew. Twilight Sparkle was much the same, but far, far clumsier. And then there was the majestic Lady Lulamoon, who did not fly, but trotted through the streets, looking sleek, clean, and perfect. Flurry was grudgingly impressed. “Mom!” Hope could be heard in Sumac’s voice. “Kiddo, how’s it going?” Confidence could be heard in Trixie’s voice. “Not good, Mom.” Flurry had trouble hearing what was said. Rainbow began flying as a distraction and Twilight flew over to where Flurry was. She had some trouble looking her aunt in the eye, but she did it anyway, defiant, proud, and refusing to admit wrongdoing. Flurry too, was an alicorn princess, it didn’t matter if she was born as one, and she would prove her worth somehow, she would earn the respect that she demanded and craved more than anything else in the whole wide world. “You are not where I left you,” Twilight remarked in a deadpan snark. “I might’ve blown up your castle just a little bit,” Flurry confessed and then she rolled out of the way of a corn-coated mud-missile. The mud monster, perhaps offended by Trixie’s clean, gleaming coat, launched a blistering offensive at the smug-looking unicorn. A funnel of filth was launched at Lady Lulamoon, a tornado of turds, and Twilight went streaking off to intercept. Flurry watched in horror, knowing that the swirling vortex had powerful suction. Trixie was struck, slathered in mud, filth, and worse, she was buried under a wash of waste. It hardened and Trixie became a statue of corn and tissue paper encrusted scat, leaving poor Flurry Heart’s heart pounding in her throat. Flurry shrieked, hating that Sumac had witnessed his mother’s dreadful demise. She started to swoop down to go to Sumac, but something happened that made her pause. With a brilliant burst of flames, Trixie exploded, sending the filth entrapping her flying. Looking quite irked, she lifted her head high and her silvery mane billowed around her head as heat rose in radiant shimmers from her body, her immaculate, clean, spotless body. “YOU DARE TO SULLY THE HIDE OF THE GREAT AND POWERFUL LADY LULAMOON? I, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE, SHALL WIPE YOU FROM EXISTENCE!” “Mom!” “There’ll be no living with her after this,” Twilight grumbled. Turning about in the air, Twilight faced her niece. “Flurry! Freeze it!” Oh. Why hadn’t she thought of that? Feeling more than a little embarrassed, Flurry realised that her foe was mostly water, and she was Flurry Heart, she was the Storm Princess, she was the Heart of Winter. Well, when her mother let her, that was. Most of the time she used her powers to make vast batches of ice cream during summer festivals under carefully monitored and controlled conditions. Trixie raised a glowing telekinetic wall that served as a shield and she moved forwards, confident, cocky, and cool. Sumac had darted to his mother’s side, and Boomer was right there behind him. Twilight formed a powerful shield bubble around herself, Megara, and Flurry Heart. Meanwhile, Flurry was getting warmed up… or was it cooled down? The temperature dropped and a cold breeze blew though Ponyville as Flurry Heart’s horn began to glow. Pebble and Olive had retreated and now stood beside Trixie, joining Sumac and Boomer. Flurry felt a prickle of fear—she had trouble controlling her storm powers—and her mother didn’t like letting her practice. Her mother just kept saying that training would come when she was older and her powers matured, but Flurry, being the petulant foal that she was, wanted to practice now. It was a source of much fighting between her and her mother. So it was with a great deal of hesitation that Flurry Heart summoned up a storm, a vast blizzard, a source of cold for her to draw from and help her Auntie Twilight take out the mud monsters threatening Ponyville. Overhead, the skies darkened, turning grey, clouds formed, and a fierce, wintry wind began to howl. “Flurry,” Twilight said in a calm voice. “You won’t mess this up… I believe in you…” Author's Note Hi. This is Kudzu Haiku, and I really hope that you are having a nice day. And if you are not having a nice day, I hope that this makes it just a tiny bit better. A lot of love went into this chapter, and I had a hoot writing it. Thank you for reading.
Quick, sing carols! Quick, sing carols! With her aunt, her sorcerer, and her friends by her side, there was nothing that she couldn’t do, and Flurry felt empowered. It was difficult to fly, the dust coating her wings did something to her, it was like the air didn’t want to move around her wings. It was an odd condition, as Megara didn’t seem affected at all. Of course, Megara had very different wings than Flurry did. She thought about what her teacher, Sunburst, was fond of saying: Celebrate differences. Things were looking pretty grim. Other giant mud monsters could been seen and they were lumbering over to where the big muddy poo monster was. Flurry knew that when they got together, they would merge, and become an even bigger monster. Some had very distinct looks, and one that approached seemed to be made out of garbage or compost. Maybe garbage and compost. Whatever it was, it would merge with the poo monster to become something super-grody. Overhead, a storm swirled, and Flurry felt her power growing as the storm gained intensity. She and the storm were connected in ways she did not understand. Tarnished Teapot, Hero of the Realm and Heliophant of the Druids, had tried to help her explore her talents, but as it turns out, he didn’t know very much about it either. They had summoned quite a storm together though, and Mommy had freaked out a bit, but it was okay because she and Tarnish were on an island off of Equestria’s coast and the storm stayed on the ocean. As Twilight and Trixie were blasting chunks off of the mud monster to keep it busy, Flurry circled and let her power build. Everypony seemed safe enough and with Twilight here, nothing could go wrong. Of course, Flurry was battered, bloody, and still bleeding from too many places to list, but it would be okay. This would soon be over. “I’m not having a good time!” The voice was too familiar and Flurry began to look about. “Oh, come on Sunburst, this has been a wonderful date!” “I didn’t come to Ponyville to fight mud monsters!” “No, I suppose you didn’t. You came to Ponyville with Flurry Heart with the hopes of snogging me when and if you had some free time.” Shrill laughter echoed between the houses, some ruined, some still standing. “No, I didn’t come with the hopes of just snogging you, either.” “Oh, that hurts, Sunny, that hurts!” Even the muddy poo monster seemed curious about this development, and it paused to listen. With a distinct lull in the action, Twilight ceased firing and took a breather. Trixie recast her shield spell and began to super-charge her horn, which glowed with a frightening intensity. When she let go, it would be a doosie. “Glimmy, I didn’t mean it like that!” “Well, how did you mean it?” The two unicorns came into view, covered in mud and filthy. Sunburst’s glasses were crooked and his cape was encrusted with grossness. Starlight Glimmer had a bit of dance in her prance, even though she looked rather upset at the moment. Flurry was used to this, as these two were always arguing when they got together, and then there would be lots of slurpy make up kisses. “Glimmy, I came to Ponyville to ask you a very important question—” “Yes?” Starlight paused, midstep. “And I wanted everything to be perfect when I asked this question and the mud monsters just sort of ruined everything and now, I just don’t know. This is really hard for me.” The hulking excremental hunched over and looked at the couple whilst they stared at one another. A bit of sweet yellow corn dribbled from the corner of two black tarry eyes that had formed in its disgusting, claggy face. Olive was now hugging Pebble, and both fillies eyes shimmered with warm, feminine emotion. “Well, go on, ask me your question,” Starlight Glimmer demanded and she pressed her muddy muzzle against Sunburst’s. Flurry’s heart now felt soft and squishy—she didn’t care about her injuries, the goose-egg sized lump on the back of her skull, her dozens of lacerations, and her many bruises that would turn into varying shades of ugliness later. She just wanted her tutor to be happy, and everypony agreed, this was long overdue. Fate had conspired to keep the two lovers apart. Well, fate and Flurry Heart herself. Sunburst had his job as her tutor, and she always felt such awful guilt. She didn’t know how this ended, or what might change, but she hoped that her tutor could be happy, because he deserved it. Sunburst had been her best friend for as long as Flurry could remember, going all the way to her hazy first memories as a yearling. He was family, he was a face seen every morning at the breakfast table, and he was always there for her, right along with Sleet, her nanny. Whatever great romantic moment that was about to happen was not meant to be. The excremental had other, more horrible, more terrible, less romantic plans. It’s face contorted, changing shape, and it became a giant amorphous pair of muddy butt cheeks. With a gross gurgle, it squirted out a stream of filth with a flatulent florp and bombarded the two lovers having a tender moment. Sunburst and Starlight Glimmer became two statues as the mud hardened like stone around them. Flurry let out an angry shriek, Megara roared, Boomer let out a much smaller, much squeakier roar, and Twilight charged up to attack. Trixie let go with her super-charged horn and the resulting blast blew a hole the size of a giant pumpkin in the chest area of the mud monster. “RUDE!” Pebble cried as she assumed a more action ready stance than hugging Olive. “I was emotionally invested in that!” Olive hollered as the mud monster began to reform after having an enormous smoking hole blown through its torso. Horn glowing, Olive began to lift chunks of rubble from around her, she did so without effort, without strain, and she began hurling it at at the claggy, smelly, horrendous excremental that had destroyed such a sweet, tender moment. The flight cancelling dust in the air became too much for Rainbow Dash, and she began to spiral out of control. She fell, streaming out dust, dirt, and debris behind her as she plummeted to the ground, her wings too caked to fly, her magic suffocated. Trixie moved into place for rescue and caught Rainbow with ease before Rainbow picked up too much momentum to be managed. The ground trembled as the other giant mud monsters approached and Flurry heard a distant roar. Turning her head, she saw a giant Spike over near the hospital, he was big, much, much bigger than he had been at breakfast. Twilight or somepony had embiggenated him with much hugeness and now, Spike was going nuts. Flurry’s keen alicorn eyes could see a tiny pearlescent unicorn with a pastel pink mane standing atop his head. The tiny little unicorn on Spike’s head was more terrifying than Spike would ever be, because Twinkleshine was just that sort of pony. Twinkleshine had overprotective-mommy-issues after giving up a part of her soul for Sumac, Flurry’s mama had said so. At least the hospital was safe. With the blizzard to draw power from, Flurry unleashed a bolt of cold. It slowed the mud monster, but did not freeze him. Trixie was working on freeing Starlight and Sunburst. Pebble and Olive worked together to make a distraction so that Trixie could work in relative safety. Starlight, for all of her power, couldn’t free herself from the magic sapping mud shell and Flurry knew that there would be words later, words that she wasn’t supposed to hear or know about. Awful words, words like Sumac might say if he lost his temper. At least Starlight’s words didn’t have magic to them. Snow swirled all around them, big white fluffy flakes. The temperature was dropping and Flurry could feel herself growing strong, so very strong. She drew power from storms, so much power, and she could summon storms, gain power, summon a larger storm, gain more power, and keep doing this until something interesting happened. No one quite knew what might happen if Flurry kept doing this. But Tarnish had said it would be neat, and Flurry was inclined to agree. Gritting her teeth together, Flurry unleashed a beam of pure cryothurgical energy, raw elemental cold, and parts of the great muddy poo monster hardened, went brittle, and crumbled away. It encouraged her and gave her hope, actually seeing damage. The temperature around her began to plummet and the winds grew fierce, making it difficult to fly. “Flurry!” Sunburst’s voice was magically amplified so he could be heard over the storm. “Think of ice cream! Think of all those times you made ice cream! That’s how your mother and I figured out how to teach you to use your powers in a safe way!” Oh! Flurry, realising that she had once again been outsmarted by her own mother, gave a moment of thought to what she was doing. The poo monster wasn’t too different from ice cream, or sorbet, or frozen desserts. It was solids of various types, and liquids. It was just super-gross and not a frozen treat one would want to eat. All this time, her mother had been teaching her to use her storm powers… Flurry felt kind of dumb, but that was okay, because she was kind of dumb and she knew it. She had a lot to learn. No more dangerous beam attacks, no more shooting willy-nilly. It was ice cream time. She needed to focus her power and radiate cold from within the mud monster. She had to freeze its heart, its core. The burning, freezing touch of winter had to consume it from within, just like when she made ice cream or frozen custard. Flurry’s wings ceased flapping as she was overcome by her own magic. She remained suspended in the air, consumed by the power of the storm. Lightning crackled around her and static could be seen along her wings. A bubble of blue freezing mist formed around her and she could feel herself becoming at one with the storm. Below, the mud monsters converged and began slapping their bellies together like great, fat diamond dog sumo wrestlers. The wet, muddy slaps made thunderous sounds, but Flurry’s thunder was far, far louder. Trixie had formed a powerful triple-thick shield all around her and had pulled the little ones to her side. Olive, Pebble, Sumac, Boomer, and Megara were all pressed up against her legs. Starlight had Sunburst shielded, and Rainbow Dash as well. There was an ominous crackle as Flurry began to draw from her other source of power, love. The special love that happened during winter, the coldest months, when ponies came together to snuggle, to be cosy together. There was no word for this in modern times, but the ancient tongues made mention of it. Hygge. Cosy love, togetherness, the special love of home, hearth, and family when winter was at its coldest and most bitter. Flurry could feel it, just a trickle of it, coming from Trixie and the foals gathered around her. There was a need to cuddle, to snuggle, to be warm together. Warm crackling fires, big, fluffy blankets, hot cocoa, delicious winter treats, Hygge. This special love, this wonderful, magical, cosy love, had brought Hearthfire into the world. Flurry blinked and when her eyes opened, they were glowing white with power. She was the gathering storm and the feeling of cosy love that came with it. As the temperatures around her plummeted, she felt the closeness, the love of the ponies around her grow stronger, and this gave Flurry Heart strength. “I need you to sing Hearth’s Warming Eve carols,” Flurry commanded in a booming voice that seemed far too large and far too powerful to have come from a filly. “While we’re fighting mud monsters?” Starlight asked. “YES!” Flurry replied, and her voice was like a thundercrack. It was Sumac who started to sing, the first to answer Flurry’s call. “As dawn shines on us every morn…” Lifting her head, Megara joined in, adding her unique voice to the song. “The fire of friendship is reborn!” Boomer, who had a surprisingly good voice, joined in. “And all the friendships we have made…” Rising into a bipedal stance and pulling Sumac close to her, Pebble’s voice joined the choir. “We cherish in every way!” All together, the gathered ponies began to sing, “Loyalty binds us and makes us strong, honesty shows that we belong, and kindness shared will unite us through each day!” Lost in her magic, Flurry didn’t hear the rest. She was thoroughly consumed by Hygge, the cosy love that comes with the storm. She was Flurry Heart, the almost paradoxical love powered by winter’s cruel, freezing touch. There was no confusion, no fear, no doubt, no hesitation. Flurry’s horn grew by almost an inch as the special magic of winter love consumed her body. There was a thunderous crackle as Flurry Heart’s true power began to manifest… Author's Note Here we go...
Either get busy princessin' or get busy dyin'Princess Flurry Heart channeled the chill of winter into the mud monsters’ hearts. The big ones were slowing; one day, she might freeze them solid in an eyeblink, but today was not that day, and that was fine. Twilight was flying in a protective circle around her, but Flurry did not see her. She was too caught up in the glory of her magic. The muddy poo monster and the muddy compost monster merged, like two great masses of mucky molasses, they melded together, becoming larger, stronger, and more powerful. Flurry was already nullifying them, her storm was driving the dust from the air to purify it. The little alicorn filly was filled with cool confidence. Not only was she finally getting her time to shine, she was with her friends, and they too, were getting their moment of glory. For once, they hadn’t screwed things up too badly. Down below, Flurry could sense a rush of warm, cosy love, and she knew that her tutor and Starlight Glimmer were having a bit of a snog. It was like a spark or a match that lit a fire and Flurry manifested a cold that was proportional to their warmth. The ginormous giant of a muddy poo-compost monster now moved with comical slow motion, and the smaller, far less threatening mud monsters had stopped moving altogether. Borne upon the winds of winter, Flurry swooped down, leaving behind a wake that smelled of peppermints, of spice, of gingerbread cookies, all of the scents associated with the holidays. She flew up to the massive mud monster, the disgusting creature made of filth, and she heard its burbling roar that was growing weaker with each passing moment. Wings flapping, she placed a hoof upon it with a light touch and a blue glow radiated outwards from where she had tapped it. It froze, becoming hard and brittle, thunderous crackling sounds like the movements of glaciers filled the air. In that moment, for that second, Princess Flurry Heart was the majestic princess that she had dreamed of being. She had nullified a credible threat and she had saved her subjects. Okay, maybe they were Twilight Sparkle’s subjects, but she had saved them. The day, now grey with snow clouds, was being saved. Flurry, waited, patient, as the liquid mass of the muddy poo-compost monster froze. This was more like freezing custard, due to the thick consistency, and she had a lot of experience doing this. She realised that her mother and her tutor had trained her well. Freezing them was not enough though, and she knew it. “Where is Tarnished Teapot?” Flurry asked in a booming voice, a mighty display of her princess power. “He’s coming,” Twilight replied. “That’s all I know. He’s coming. The last message that came out of the magic mirror said to sit tight until he could arrive to nullify the bad magic in the dirt.” Tapping her hoof against the now frozen mud, Flurry nodded. This soil, this earth, had been tainted with bad magic. Malicious, malevolent magic, the kind that only Mister Teapot could deal with. This walking chunk of garden fertiliser needed to be purged so that it could be used to grow fruits and vegetables. “Bashers!” Flurry boomed in the voice of a commanding holiday spirit. “Destroy this abomination! It offends your princess!” Flapping her wings, she rose, moving away from the mud monster that was now frozen solid, unmoving, a thing now as hard as stone. Flurry knew exactly what to do with a hunk of stone that needed destroyed. Below her, Olive lifted up Pebble in her telekinesis, and then round and round Pebble went over Olive’s head. Crazy, insane amounts of momentum was built up, something only an alicorn or a stone pony might survive, and then with a banshee scream, Olive launched Pebble, turning friend and fellow Basher into a ballistic missile of mass destruction. Pebble went streaking away, once again moving at around three-hundred metres per second or so, just under the speed of sound, just as Flurry had seen her do once already. Pebble was the bomb and just like her mother and her father, she was classified as a living weapon of mass destruction. She was a being of immense physical power who was just coming into her own as she was graced with adolescence. A mere fraction of a second before impact, a heavy shield surrounded Flurry and Twilight could be seen gritting her teeth. Olive had thrown a Pebble at their enemy, and now, the enemy was about to go away in a dramatic fashion. Flurry, capable of dealing with time in a way that normal ponies could not, watched all of this as it played out, her eyes taking in every detail, she was capable of seeing everything. Pebble had adopted her ‘superpony’ pose, one front hoof forward, one reared back, and she collided with the frozen fifty foot tall behemoth with terrific force. There was a sound like glass shattering, but worse. A shockwave of energy buffeted the shield around Flurry and then a second later there were a thousand impacts as shards of frozen filth pummeled the shield that Twilight had projected. Houses toppled, a water tower leaned over, its metal struts bending, creaking, the sound of metal fatigue filled the air, and the resulting explosion sent an immense shockwave of devastation radiating outwards from the epicenter where the Pebble-bomb had struck. The great muddy monster was now nothing more than freeze dried slivers and shards of nastiness. The sound was indescribable, other than it was the noise of utter and complete destruction. The big mud monster exploding caused the smaller, less impressive mud monsters to also pop and shatter—along with pretty much every window in town. Winter had come to Ponyville and unleashed its destructive fury. In its wake there would be a fertile spring, the soil renewed, revitalised, rich in compost and fertiliser. Such was the way of things, such was harmony. Flurry knew her place now, she understood, and her mind knew a peace previously unexperienced. She was Flurry Heart, Alicorn Princess, the Heart of Winter, and the leader of the Wipe-Outs. Seeing her tutor, Sunburst, and Starlight Glimmer wrapped up together in a blanket made Flurry’s heart feel warm and squishy. Both were holding mugs of warm cocoa, which was fine for them, but Flurry wasn’t in the mood for cocoa after fighting a mighty excremental monster. She flinched and let out a hiss as the nurse drove yet another staple into a very delicate place on her southern reaches. “Meouch!” Nearby, Megara too, was being stapled and glued back together with body spackle. Flurry braced herself, knowing that more staples were forthcoming. She was tired, but satisfied. There was a tremendous feeling of euphoria from her victory, a sense of accomplishment. The Wipe-Outs had saved the day and Flurry hoped that whatever punishment was coming for their escape would be minimal. “Ow!” Flurry let out a hiss as the staple gun made an ear-raising metallic clunk and a stabbing pain went shooting through her backside. The gash in her dock had to be closed and Flurry was having a hard time maintaining her princessly demeanour. Not far away, Olive’s whimpers could also be heard, as she was being sutured as well while Pebble was holding tight to her hoof. Heroism had a cost in staples, stitches, and body spackle. Turning her head, Flurry looked over at Sumac, who had escaped unharmed, for the most part. For once, their adventures didn’t involve him getting his head stapled back together or being mummified in bandages. He was smothered by his mothers, all three of them, and somewhere in that mess of overprotective mares was Boomer, buried. With a click, the door opened and Flurry glanced over to see who it was. Twilight Sparkle came in, looking only a little worse for wear, a little dirty, a little damp, and she had some cuts that needed tending to. Biting her lip, Flurry choked back a cry as another staple went in, and one fat tear rolled down from the twitching corner of her eye. Flurry was determined to take this like a princess. “Tarnish has arrived and he is purging the area of bad magic,” Twilight reported as she came over to where Flurry Heart was being tended to. Drawing herself up to her full majestic height, the regal alicorn and aunt looked down at her niece with a smile. “I owe you a debt of thanks, Princess Flurry Heart.” Heart thumping, Flurry hardly even felt the next staple as it pierced the tender flesh of her damaged dock. Nearby, Megara yowled and let out a snarl of pain. Flurry’s ears pivoted towards the source of the sound, but her eyes remained on Twilight, who had just addressed her as a princess, and not in a teasing way. “You’ve grown so much, Flurry,” Twilight said as liquid pride shimmered in her eyes. “Because you saved Ponyville, I’m willing to forgive you for wrecking my castle. Again.” A broad smile crossed Twilight’s face, and she beamed down at her niece, her face like a miniature lavender sun. “You did very well. Destruction was minimal and acceptable. You kept the smallest, most vulnerable members of your team safe. Sumac is unharmed, as far as I know, and that’s not how these things usually end.” Flurry nodded. Typically, these adventures ended with Sumac and her other teammates in the intensive care unit. Twilight was right, this had gone well. Pride burned inside of Flurry’s little alicorn heart like embers in a furnace. “You actually worked with Olive and Pebble, and didn’t compete with them, trying to show them up. That shows maturity… you put the safety and security of others ahead of your own glory and the need to prove yourself.” Again, Flurry nodded, and she winced as another staple pierced her dock. A tear spilled from her eye and she squirmed a bit, but not too much. Things had gone better, Twilight was right. This time, there had been no silly contest to prove who was bigger, better, faster, stronger, or more capable. “Are you… are you gonna… will you tell Sleet that I was bad?” Flurry asked, her voice hitching somewhat from her hesitation. “No.” Twilight let out a resigned sigh. “Sometimes, the most important lesson that a princess can learn is when to cause trouble.” Reaching out a wing, Twilight stroked her niece as the final staple was applied to close up the horrendous gash in her dock. “You had the right skills for the job, and the right team, too.” Drawing in a deep breath, Twilight continued, “It’s a hard lesson to learn, knowing when to rebel. It took me a long time to learn this lesson, when to break away from my mentor Princess Celestia and do things my own way. It caused me a lot of fear, worry, and doubt, but as it turns out, Princess Celestia wanted me to defy her… it was the final lesson that I had to learn and truly become the princess she believed me to be.” “Really?” Flurry tried very hard to understand what her aunt was saying. “Really.” Twilight gave her niece a nod. “In fact, I found out after the fact that Princess Celestia would put me into a situation with a set of instructions that made it almost impossible to achieve the desired results. The instructions made it very difficult, very dangerous, and in many cases, made the situation so much worse, but I followed those instructions, because Princess Celestia had given them.” Blinking, she let out a sigh of regret and then added, “I was so eager to please.” “Princessing is tricky,” Flurry said to her aunt as the nurse began to wrap gauze around her dock. “It is,” Twilight replied with a nod. “But you have your Wipe-Outs. They’re your best friends, Flurry, your accomplices. Being your friends, they’ll be very forgiving if you make a mistake, and they’ll steer you in the right direction. Everything you will ever need to know about princessing, you will learn from your friends, just like I learned how to be a princess by being with my friends.” “Yeah, I guess the four of us are pretty special.” Flurry squirmed a bit as more gauze was applied, the pressure pushed down on the staples and brought some serious discomfort. “Six,” Pebble corrected. “Huh?” Flurry looked away from her aunt and stared at Pebble. “I propose a merger. Olive and I were outclassed today and I think the six of us stand a better chance in future engagements if we work together.” Pebble gave Olive’s hoof a squeeze, and Olive nodded. “You didn’t screw up today, Flurry.” Pebble’s compliment almost floored Flurry, and she felt a lump grow in her throat. “Hey a group of friends and a dragon,” Twilight remarked as she began to chuckle. “That’s all you need to change the world. I know, because I’ve done it. You’ve got everything a princess in training needs, Flurry Heart.” “I do, don’t I?” Shifting her weight a bit, Flurry wiped her eyes with her foreleg and began to sniffle. The team was going to need a new name, or so she thought. Feeling eyes on her, she looked around the room and found that everypony was looking at her. Everypony. Trixie, Lemon Hearts, even Twinkleshine. Was that pride that she saw in Twinkleshine’s eyes? Acceptance? Like her beloved pink cherry blossoms in spring, Flurry felt hope blossom. “Congratulations, Flurry Heart, you’ve proven your worth as a Princess of Equestria.” And with that, Twilight bowed her head. Others followed suit, some sitting, some standing, but all bowed their heads, even the nurses took a moment to do so. Flurry felt a peculiar sensation, one of worry, and she realised that now that she had their respect, she was going to have to work even harder to make sure that she did not let them down. As Twilight had once said, a princess’ work was never done. Flurry’s work was just beginning and the little princess began to make plans. Author's Note And so ends our tale. But our hero's story is just beginning. Tell me what you think in the comments.
