“Spike!” Twilight screamed.
A series of heavy clawsteps sounded as the dragon thudded down the steps of the tree house.
“What is it Twilight?” he said, looking around.
“Did you leave a love potion out somewhere around, oh, I don’t know, the Gala?”
“Uh...why?”
“Sun dammit Spike.” Twilight took a breath, then continued rapidly, “The Smooze got into it when Discord brought it to the Gala, and now it keeps going after Sunset Shimmer. She can’t get rid of it; it can apparently teleport. Through dimensions.”
“Um. Oops?”
Twilight glared at him.
“I’ll go ask Discord to undo it,” Spike said, scurrying toward the door.
“I already did.”
He froze.
“The Smooze is apparently actually in love with her now.”
“Sooo...”
“I don’t know, Spike,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “I don’t know.”
“No, I don’t care if you brought flowers!” Sunset said, stomping at the ground.
She had hooves now. It was easier to use magic in Equestria than it was on Earth, so she’d had to move here so that she could erect wards strong enough to get more than a moment’s piece.
But by Luna she missed her hands. Levitation was an adequate replacement, but there was nothing quite like actually handling an object, feeling it.
The Smooze drooped. Turning into a puddle on the floor of her new house.
“No! Get off,” she told it.
It slowly glooped into its normal shape, falling into its sulking position. The floor was still slippery.
“And clean up your mess,” she snapped.
It slimed over her floor, polishing it to a sparkling shine. Handy.
“Good. Now get out of my sight.”
It stayed where it was. Sunset sighed and gathered her magic, preparing to teleport.
It jiggled urgently, shaking its...head region.
“What?” she said, still gathering her magic.
The Smooze gave her a jiggle and then slimed into to a wall, spreading itself so thinly that it was almost like it wasn’t there.
“So you’re still going to stalk me, but you’ll stay out of sight?”
A glob of slime poked out of the wall and formed a fist with the thumb sticking up. It apparently knew human expressions.
Sunset considered it. She was pretty tired, the Smooze having found her a mere two days ago. And despite having a pension from the crown for not being evil, she wasn’t made of money.
“One day,” she told it.
One day, then she would teleport to the other side of Equestria. And, ugh, rent another house.
She walked upstairs and collapsed into her bed.
“Bunnies are evil!” Sunset shouted.
Oh. Never mind, it was just a dream.
A bird chirped.
Well, she should probably get up. The earlier she prepared for the Smooze, the better.
She yawned and stumbled down the stairs. Waffles sounded good. Or an omelet. Or some fresh strawberries…
She stopped at the site of a table covered with what could only be called a feast. She didn’t even have most of those ingredients. How did…?
Oh, right. The Smooze was in her house. And it could teleport. She must’ve been more tired than she’d thought. Letting the Smooze stay here instead of running away as soon as it found her was a bad idea. She needed to get away from here as soon as possible.
Still, the floor wasn’t covered in slime like the first time. She wasn’t covered in slime. And that food did look delicious…
She turned her head from side to side. No Smooze. Maybe it had left? Well, it didn’t appear to be here now...and a bite wouldn’t hurt.
She dragged a chair up to the table and dug in.
“We have to help her, Princess! She’s been chased all across Equestria. The map found no less than fifteen continent-wide teleport signatures in the last month.”
“I’m sorry Twilight. She needs to learn that she can rely on others for help. As long as the Smooze isn’t hurting anyone, we can’t interfere,” Celestia said as she moved another piece on the map.
Luna scowled at her sister from across the illusory scene on the table. “You may have toppled my mage tower, but with this,” she said, flourishing a hoof and moving a piece of her own, “I summon Discord into your main camp.”
Twilight sighed. “Is that the real reason, or do you just want to play Siege of Equestria in my castle?”
“Yes, yes, very astute...I mean, as my most faithful student and Princess of friendship, don’t you see the opportunity? Sunset Shimmer will learn a valuable lesson about being able to rely on her friends, and we get to play this magnificent game. Truly, your castle is a delight.”
“She’s probably too tired to contact us! That many long-range teleports so close together would have burned out me if I wasn’t an alicorn,” Twilight said, kicking at the map in frustration. It hurt.
“Twilight,” Celestia said, finally looking at her instead of that stupid map. “I understand you may be concerned. But as she has not contacted us, we cannot do anything. Interfering with our subjects lives has only led to disaster in the past. Along with the fact that she is a recovering villain...”
Twilight opened her mouth, but Celestia interrupted her.
“However, I know what it’s like to be concerned about a friend. If you really feel that she may be in trouble, you can visit her yourself to make sure all is well.”
Twilight stood silently for a moment, putting on her contemplating face. She thought it made her resemble Starswirl the Bearded. At least a little. Spike said it just made her look constipated, but what did he know about pony facial expressions? He was a dragon.
“Twilight do you need to use the facilities?” Celestia asked.
“What? No, I was thinking,” Twilight said.
Face burning, she teleported to the last location the map had marked. At least Sunset wouldn’t judge her. If she did, she could always bring up the fact that she’d turned into a demon monster in front of hundreds of people. And the pictures.
“Twilight! Thank goodness you’re here!” Sunset said, polishing off the last pancake.
It was delicious. Then she took another look at the alicorn.
“Um...Twilight, there’s a restroom at the other end of the hall to the left if you need to use it...”
“I. Have. Pictures.” Twilight said, visibly grinding her teeth together.
“Uh...alright then. Want some breakfast?” she said, gesturing to the magnificent spread in front of her.
Twilight paused. “Actually...I would, if you don’t mind. I’m a bit stressed right now.”
Sunset shrugged and reached for another pancake, only for her magic to envelope empty air.
“Huh?”
The food was gone. The table was completely empty, with not a crumb left.
“Smooze! Put that back,” Sunset said.
That stupid blob of jelly. Why couldn’t it just leave her alone? She had to admit that it did make a good spread, though.
The house vibrated, almost as if it was…growling.
“Don’t be jealous, you obnoxious piece of jelly,” Sunset said. “It’s just Twilight. Besides, I don’t like you.”
Her house whimpered, and then the food...oozed back onto the table.
On second thought, she wasn’t that hungry anymore. Twilight looked like she felt the same way.
“Did the Smooze possess your house?”
“I don’t think so,” Sunset said, pushing a plate of what appeared to be delicious waffles away from herself. “But the Smooze is kind of like Discord. You never can tell.”
“Um. Do you need...help? We could probably get rid of the Smooze if we all worked together. I looked into the lore, and the Smooze is listed in there. It apparently has a curse on it that freezes it during winter. We could see if Rainbow Dash could replicate the effect in an area large enough that the Smooze couldn’t enter without freezing itself solid.”
Sunset considered it.
“Nah. I can handle myself. Besides, I was terrible to you guys. I can’t ask for any favors until I repay you.”
“Alright...if you’re sure. If you ever need to get rid of it, just send us a message, okay?”
“Sure thing Twilight,” Sunset said, going back to her food. As long as it tasted alright, the fact that it was made out of goo was fine.
Twilight turned green. “Okay then. See you.”
“I put on my robe and wizard hat!”
“Luna, no. Just...no.”
“But—”
“Oh, look! Twilight’s back! Say hi to Twilight, Luna,” Celestia said.
“But I was really getting into it,” Luna grumbled.
“Um...Is this a bad time?” Twilight asked, looking around. The Princesses appeared to have invited changelings over. A lot of changelings. Changeling goo was spread all over her map room, and there were cocoons dangling from the ceiling.
“Of course not. It’s never a bad time to talk to my most faithful student,” Celestia said with a warm smile, and brought a hoof up to her throat and drew it back and forth several times, mouthing something Twilight couldn’t make out at someone behind her.
She turned around and saw another Twilight sneaking away.
“Uh...”
“So. Sunset Shimmer?” Celestia said with a forced upbeat tone.
“Yeaaah...”
“Sister, perhaps we should include Twilight in our games? She is old enough, and it would add more to the authenticity of the—”
“Aaand, that’s quite enough of that, thank you sister,” Celestia said, an aura of her magic surrounding her sister’s muzzle.
“Mmmf! Mmmf!” Luna growled.
“Twilight, I’m afraid your report will have to wait. My sister and I need to have a little discussion on what is appropriate to bring up in polite conversation,” Celestia said.
Twilight took one last look at her map room and teleported away before she could see anything she wouldn’t be able to forget.
“No Smooze, for the last time, you can’t show yourself in public. I know it upsets you seeing other ponies just talking to me, but you’ll just have to deal with it.”
The Smooze let out a sad jiggle and sank back into the cobblestones. Sunset let out a sigh of exasperation. The pile of jelly was a lifesaver at cleaning, especially since she had to deal with having hooves, and magic was not the most tactile sense. But it could be a complete embarrassment in public.
At least she was back in Ponyville, where things like the odd Draconequus or baby alicorn were common sights.
“Hey Shimmy, still going out with that pile of goo?” a brown unicorn said scathingly.
One drawback to living in a town that was used to the Avatar of Chaos himself prancing around all over it was that the inhabitants tended to be vocal with their opinions. Having the Elements around to undo whatever a scary monster did in revenge for a rude remark made threats rather pointless.
“For your information, I am not, and never was ‘going out’ with it. Its infatuation was caused by a love potion, as you very well know,” Sunset said. By this point she’d used this response so many times that she could repeat it word for word at a moment’s thought.
“Hmph. As if you expect us to believe that when you’re letting it live in your house?” he scoffed, then walked off.
Out of the corner of her eye, Sunset saw Spike blush and scurry away. He was still embarrassed about what had happened, even after he’d apologized profusely and Sunset had expressly forgiven him.
She reached the market, dismissing the stallion from her mind.
“I’d like a basket of cherries, please,” she told to a shopkeeper.
For some reason, the Smooze couldn’t make the things. Pinecones? Check. Pancakes? Fine. Blueberries? Easy. But when it tried to make cherries, they came out looking like pieces of vomit.
“Sure thing hon,” the mare manning the stall said, turning around and filling a basket with her stock. Sunset set down a few bits on the counter.
“You’re lucky you came today. We’re almost out. Winter’s coming. But you must already know that. Probably marking the days ‘till it comes off on a calendar,” she said with a chuckle.
Cold swept through Sunset.
“What do you mean? Why would I be doing that?” she said, ignoring the basket as the shopkeeper plunked it down in front of her.
“Why, because of the Smooze, of course. The weather’s apparently the only thing that’ll get it to leave you alone.”
Sunset stood still for a moment, frozen.
“I have to go,” she said, and galloped toward Twilight’s castle.
“But you forgot your cherries!”
She ignored the shopkeeper calling after her.
“What? No! Get out! Spike and I spent weeks cleaning this room after the Princesses…were here,” Twilight said.
“Um. Twilight? Can you let him in? He won’t make a mess,” Sunset promised.
Twilight stared at her as if her horn had fallen off.
“You want to let it in? You know we don’t have to catch it to make it leave you alone.”
“I don’t want it to leave me alone!” Sunset shouted.
Twilight looked flabbergasted.
Sunset continued in a calmer voice, “So...winter is coming. When it does, the Smooze will be kind of...frozen. And it helps me clean my house, and makes me food, and it’s actually pretty funny when it wants to be...”
Twilight continued to look at her as if she’d gone insane.
“I want a spell,” Sunset rushed out. “Something that’ll keep it from freezing.”
Twilight’s expression softened. “Sunset...”
“It doesn’t have to be a really powerful one or anything,” Sunset forged on. “Just something small that’ll keep it from freezing up completely. I can power it myself.”
“Sunset. The Smooze is immune to magic. Even Discord finds it difficult to keep it contained.”
“But I thought that was just because he likes chaos.”
Twilight hesitated. “That…may be a little bit true. But we were talking about putting a spell on the Smooze. And...I can’t do it. Even if everypony in Equestria lent their magic to the spell, it won’t last more than a few seconds.”
“But...”
“I’m sorry. I hadn’t realized that you’d...um...”
“It’s fine. I’m going. Bye.”
Sunset rushed out of the castle, Smooze close behind, feeling tears drip out of her eyes.
The seasons were changing, and winter was coming. The Smooze would soon become a block of ice. Its actual temperature apparently didn’t matter. It had something to do with windigos, and ancient ritual weather magic, and then Sunset had stopped listening.
Even going back to the human dimension wouldn’t help. It was an ancient piece of magic, a curse levied against the Smooze that had once frozen it year-round. Then it had started to decay, letting the Smooze free for greater and greater amounts of time. But it wouldn’t completely expire for centuries.
Sunset galloped back to her house. She wouldn’t try to stop the curse. It was apparently unbreakable, even for a magical being that could shrug off all the magic in Equestria, and she’d heard of what had happened when Rainbow Dash had attempted to stave off winter.
She would make the most of every moment. She could live without the Smooze’s presence. She’d detested his presence. Had thought she still did, until she considered how life would be without it. Sure, she had Twilight and the rest of the Elements of Harmony as ‘friends,’ but they didn’t really treat her as one, and they were always busy with each other, and saving Equestria. And the rest of Ponyville was out of the question.
So she headed home. She would have a heart-to-goo with the Smooze, and once they both understood how the other felt, they could go and have some fun. Sunset had heard that Twilight’s map table could play some pretty cool games...
