Chapter 20
“W-who are you?” the merchant questioned, fear flickering in her eyes. The pegasus peddler’s wings were poised for immediate takeoff. Rarity doubted that the elderly mare could’ve gotten far, and besides, with Firefly on her tail she most likely wouldn’t have made it to the tree line at the edge of town. “What do you want?”
“What you’re selling,” Rarity answered calmly, trying to put on her kindest smile. “We can pay—er, trade—or, uh…”
The white unicorn stopped, drawing a blank. She couldn’t believe it. She’d never had any bits in this frightening new era, and the only thing she could have used to trade had been force-fed down the throat of a tree-shaped abomination. She certainly didn’t want to steal the Disks, but she COULDN’T have come all this way for nothing!
“Do… any of you have anything with which we can pay this nice pony?” Rarity inquired lamely of her companions.
“Not unless she accepts lethal explosives as legal tender,” Surprise replied.
“President Rainbow paid for everything I needed,” Firefly answered.
“As a matter of fact, I do,” Megan responded with a smile. “My computer is only able to create certain objects it’s scanned, with a few exceptions. Matter blueprints for basic survival gear are preprogrammed, including everything from food to water to gold. I can’t produce human money on command—that stuff’s all digital transactions—but I can form as much gold as necessary, in any shape I want.”
Rarity’s face lit up as the human snapped her fingers and plucked a featureless gold coin from thin air. The merchant reacted with a small squeak of shock that was quickly mixed with a glint of want.
“Not that I’m complaining,” Firefly spoke up. “But since when did gold become basic survival gear?”
“The ULE isn’t the only… place… we humans keep in contact, remember,” Megan explained as she handed the coin to the pegasus peddler, who hesitantly took it. “I don’t even know the exact number of places we interact with. But a common theme in all of them is the value of gold. Thus, just in case we ever find ourselves stranded, we can always purchase anything we might need that our computers haven’t yet had a chance to scan.”
Rarity didn’t really care how or why Megan possessed what she claimed to be an infinite supply of gold. She was just happy that such a fortunate break would finally bring her however many Disks this merchant had in her stock. Judging by all the magical recording devices stacked in boxes and laying out on the makeshift stand itself, it seemed that such mechanisms were all that the merchant sold. With any more fortune, she would have collected at least a somewhat sizeable chunk of the Disks Rarity’s friends had left her.
“This will do nicely as payment,” the pegasus peddler mused, still ogling the sparkling yellow metal in her hooves. Apparently her fear had abated with the appearance of such monetary compensation. Rarity had the sneaking suspicion that that single gold piece was worth more than all the magical recording devices the elder pony had to sell, but then again, the white unicorn supposed that it really didn’t matter. Megan had said she could make as much gold as she needed, hadn’t she? “How many antique recording devices were you looking to purchase?”
“You see, we’re only looking for a… special set of Disks,” Rarity replied. “They all have gemstones in their center, and they can only be played be a certain individual, being useless to anypony else.”
“You mean the crack Disks?” the peddler asked.
“They’re cracked?!” the white unicorn gasped. Would they still be able to function if damaged? How could they have been damaged at all anyway? Even Daybreak hadn’t seemed to be able to destroy one with all her magical power back in the skirmish with the skywhales!
“Oh, no,” the pegasus subsided Rarity’s fears, allowing the unicorn a relieved sigh. “I just call them that because, like you say, they aren’t of any use to anypony. I only keep them around for kicks, mainly. They make almost everypony who tries to use them crack with frustration, and they eventually bring them back to me demanding a refund. All sales are final, of course, but I must admit it is quite humorous to see them get so flabbergasted. I mean, I do warn them that nopony’s ever worked them, but they don’t listen. I’m guessing you’re one such… er, pony?”
“Yes, I am one such pony,” Rarity answered, putting extra emphasis on her last word. “And I would like to buy every ‘crack Disk,’ as you call them, that you have.”
“Certainly,” the old pegasus agreed, looking back at the coin with even more giddiness than before. If Rarity had thought the merchant was cheating them before, there was no doubt about it now that the pegasus realized she wouldn’t be parting with all of her wares. But once again, it didn’t really matter. Megan had plenty more bits were that one had come from, even if it wasn’t a proper bit. “Let me gather them for you.”
The merchant ducked down, picking up the magical recording device she had dropped at the sight of the group. Placing it in a box of other such Disks, the old mare lifted the unexpectedly large container onto the stand’s counter and pushed it towards Rarity.
Rarity’s draconic optics opened wide, their green glint almost seeming to glow with disbelieving shock.
There were so many! Could every one of them really be a Disk?
The white unicorn lit up her horn once more, levitating the box to the ground where she could get a better look into it. Casting the locator spell, she was almost yanked headfirst into the crate.
“This can’t be…” Rarity whispered to herself as an idea sparked in her mind. Then, turning to her companions, she instructed “Wait right here!”
The white unicorn galloped off a ways and then cast the spell again. It tugged her horn hard, but only in the direction of the box far behind her.
No... That was impossible! Were they… was this really all of them?
But how could that be?! Rarity wanted so desperately for it to be true, but how could every single Disk be here in one place? After the raid on Pinkie Pie’s Party Supplies during the war so many centuries ago, it was only logical to assume that they had been scattered across the globe. Even if they hadn’t been, how could they all end up in the possession of an old pegasus merchant?!
Because here they were. Hers. Finally.
Tears of joy in her eyes, Rarity galloped back over to the crate and her friends.
“We need a secluded place to view these,” she announced to them. “And then we need to celebrate.”
. . .
“Okay,” Rarity mused, looking over the contents of the crate which she had just dumped on the floor of the room the group was renting. Just like the pegasus peddler, whatever gut-wrenching fear the zebra innkeeper had expressed at their appearance had all but vanished when Megan produced another imitation-bit. “I don’t know which order these go in, so I suppose I shall just have to start at random and work my way through until I’m done.”
So what if they were out of order? The very first Disk she’d seen had been the very last recorded, after all.
“In that case, I think we better step out,” Megan intoned.
Rarity, confused, turned back to look at her new friends.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“We can tell this is something important to you,” Firefly responded. “And we wouldn’t feel right watching something so personal.”
“Oh,” Rarity stated. It was all she could think to say. She had never had any qualms with viewing Applejack’s Disk with the others back in the forest. It had just seemed natural, whether it was personal or not, to view it with her friends.
“And besides, we don’t want to wait around for however long it takes you to view those things,” Surprise added. “Especially when you’re the only one of us who understands any of it.”
“Oh,” Rarity repeated, with a different intonation this time. Surprise, as insensitively honest as always, did have a point. Rarity instantly felt beyond selfish, having led the only friends she had in this frightening new time on a purely personal search. She had never once asked what they had wanted to do. The search had just been that important to her.
But did it deserve to be? Megan had only wanted to see The ULE, and though it wasn’t always pleasant, that’s exactly what the human had gotten through journeying with the group. Surprise had never really expressed any desires or needs of any kind, staying with Rarity even when the white unicorn didn’t want her to, so Rarity felt no regret there. However, wasn’t Firefly’s predicament more important than a search for thousand-year-old messages? Viewing the messages wouldn’t bring her original friends back, after all. But Firefly was alive, here and now, and she needed help.
Sure, they had found temporary help in the form of the fruits only by being on this search, as well as discovering a potential permanent cure for the multicolored pegasus’ condition. But shouldn’t helping Firefly have been Rarity’s top priority? Shouldn’t the slow, agonizing mental death of a friend who was alive more be more important to the white unicorn than what was essentially nothing more than the goodbyes of friends long dead and gone?
“Yes, you all go ahead and enjoy yourselves,” Rarity agreed, trying to keep a smiling face but not quite succeeding. “I believe I saw a spa when we came into town, and a restaurant that looked lovely.”
Her companions each gave her funny looks, seeing her strained expression, but seemed to be unable to identify it as a horrified realization of her own actions. Perhaps they viewed her look as melancholic at being about to finally say goodbye to her friends for real, even if their lives had long since ended. Either that, or they were simply too emotionally, physically, and mentally drained themselves right now to decipher the truth. Nevertheless, they strode out of the room in search of some well-deserved relaxation, leaving Rarity to the Disks.
‘I shall definitely have to ask them what they want to do from here on out,’ the white unicorn thought to herself as the door clicked closed behind her exiting friends. ‘Firefly’s predicament shall come first, and Megan will have to come along for that, but she’ll still be seeing the world. Surprise will probably come with me no matter what, though it wouldn’t hurt to ask her if there’s something I could help her with after all she’s done to help me. And then there’s the matter of finding Firefly’s parents, but what do I do after that?’
She supposed she would have to find a place to settle down in this frightening new era. As creepy as the startlingly sober remains of Pinkie’s psyche were, at least the pink imprint wasn’t psychotically dangerous, so Rarity assumed she could always ask the imprint to help her get a new Carousel Boutique started. But would anypony in this new time even want to buy her designs? She was a millennium behind the times when it came to fashion, for crying out loud!
“I… I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” Rarity realized. Back in her own time, ever since receiving her cutie mark, she had known exactly who she was and who she was supposed to be. After making such steadfast friends, she had learned even more of who she was and her sense of belonging in the world had only increased. She had been a sister, a daughter, a friend, an artist, a lover of beauty, and the bearer of The Element of Generosity.
But she was definitely not several of those things any more. She was still a friend and still a lover of beauty. But her family had long since passed away. How could she be an artist if she didn’t even know if modern ponies would embrace her art? And even the title of Element Bearer had long since passed on to somepony new, even if Rarity had heard no mention of the modern Bearers in all her time here.
What was her purpose in this new time? Whatever it was, Sweetie Belle would want her to fulfill it to her fullest. And, since she had gained more hope from her real sister’s farewell than from anything else in her life, she would do just that. Thus, determinedly, she promised herself “But whatever it is, I will find it!”
First, though, there were some ponies… some pieces of herself… she needed to say goodbye to. She knew they would never really leave her, but she still needed to say farewell to the ponies themselves, even if only through memories made of magical light.
. . .
And so they had said goodbye. To each other, from Rarity to her friends and from them back again to her, across the centuries, across the tides of time.
Rarity had watched as her friends’ lives played out before her. She saw the rise of their companies, each of which was a wonder to benefit all ponykind, long before they fell to the whims of their insane imprints in all cases but Pinkie’s. She saw Twilight’s family, and for the first time saw the original Daybreak. She saw how each of her friends had settled down (or in Rainbow Dash’s case, refused to) and gone on to live happy, long, full lives.
Rarity spent hours staring into the structured displays of light, watching Disk after Disk in no particular order. She had watched her friends’ older selves only to watch their younger selves immediately after, followed by ages in between and then all over the spectrum once more. There really was no way to know in which order the Disks were meant to be viewed, but it didn’t matter.
All that mattered was that was that Rarity got to see her friends again.
That, and the rather startling thing Rarity found near the end of her viewing.
The Disk that had revealed the thing in question had sported a butterscotch cream-colored gem with traces of pink. Rarity had by now caught on that each gemstone represented one of her friends, from the bright pink of Pinkie Pie’s last Disk to the orange of Applejack’s Disk in which Sweetie Belle had given Rarity the most hope she’d ever had. This being so, Rarity had assumed that this would be a Disk featuring Fluttershy, long before her imprint went dangerously insane. Rarity had seen several Disks bearing Fluttershy’s gem so far, and was all too happy to see her again (and would have been to see any of her friends again, for that matter), but what the Disk truly held was not at all what Rarity had been expecting.
It had started out simply enough.
“Hello, Rarity,” Fluttershy’s face had greeted her, sprung up larger than life in a grainy green hologram. She was very, very old at this time, and spectacles perched on the pegasus’ muzzle while incredibly light streaks raced through her mane. She was smiling, but her smile held so much melancholy that it was somehow even more disheartening than a saddened frown.
Whatever could have upset Fluttershy so? She had seemed so happy in her other Disks… “I guess this is the final Disk I can give you.”
What? This was Fluttershy’s last message? It wouldn’t be the first of her friends to say their final goodbyes. Rarity had already witnessed the final recordings of Twilight, Applejack, and… Pinkie… But even though they had long since passed, the last Disk of each friend was always a bit bittersweet. It was still a chance to see them, but it also meant that no matter how many times she reviewed the Disks there would never be anything new for her to see.
“I’m so sorry that we couldn’t find a way for you to wake up,” Fluttershy’s aged image went on. “I really did want to say goodbye to your face rather than through some spell.”
Rarity knew how hard each of her friends had tried to wake her. Their various attempts filled many of the Disks. She never would’ve blamed them for giving up that she would wake, but they never had, and she would always love them for that.
“But anyways, I just wanted to say goodbye, old friend,” Fluttershy smiled with genuine warmth. “I never forgot you, and I never will.”
Rarity smiled and sniffed, biting back a tear that was equal part misery that her friend was truly gone and joy that she had always been Rarity’s friend even at the end of her long life.
And then—
“INCOMING!!”
Was that… Pinkie’s voice? But why did it sound so far away, and how could her voice even be here at all? Rarity could tell by the background that this Disk had been recorded in Fluttershy’s tree-based office.
Fluttershy seemed to be having the same thoughts.
“Pinkie Pie…?” the wizened pegasus questioned, looking around her uncertainly. “I must be hearing things. Sorry about that, Rarity, but for a moment there I thought I heard Pinkie Pie. That can’t be, of course. Pinkie Pie’s working on that special project she’s been so worked up about over at her factory. I suppose she could’ve teleported here with Twilight, but then the tree would’ve sensed the magic immediately and told me of their arrival. I guess that’s just old age for you, huh?”
Fluttershy seemed to be talking more to herself than Rarity now, as she had seen some of her friends occasionally do in their later Disks. Only this time, Rarity had heard whatever Fluttershy thought was just in her head. What was going on? And what was that project Fluttershy was talking about? Neither Pinkie nor any of her other friends had mentioned anything about a project at the Party Supplies factory.
“Hi, Fluttershy!!” Pinkie Pie announced, literally coming out of nowhere and popping up in front of her equally-old friend’s face.
“Pinkie?!” Fluttershy and Rarity gasped, at once simultaneously and a thousand years apart.
“Pinkie Pie, you could have given me a heart attack!” Fluttershy breathed frantically. “What are you doing here? How did you even get here anyway? The tree didn’t tell me any magic had happened in the area…”
“What, you think it takes magic to translocate halfway around the world?” Pinkie Pie giggled.
“Yes!” Fluttershy harrumphed angrily.
“Well it doesn’t,” Pinkie Pie assured her nonchalantly. “And I’ll tell you why! Oh, well, I guess I won’t, but my project will!”
“You mean you’re done already?” Fluttershy, still obviously very flustered, inquired. “You said you’d been planning that for years but had never had the time to do it until now. How can it be done so quickly?”
“The same way I got across an entire ocean without magic!” Pinkie explained, or rather, simply made things more confusing. “Not that I expect you to understand that, but you will if you use my project! That is, if you don’t go insane from the attempt. And I didn’t say I didn’t have time until now, I said I didn’t know the situation was so dire that I needed to do this project at all… Until now. Er, then. Back when I started.”
“Pinkie, what are you talking about?” Fluttershy demanded. “You’re not making any sense, and you’re interrupting my final recording for Rarity!”
“Rarity!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “Thanks for reminding me, Fluttershy! I almost forgot. And I’m so sorry that I have to barge in on your final goodbye like this, but if my plan works, you’ll thank me later and you won’t have to say goodbye to Rarity at all anyway! So don’t worry, your auntie Pinkie Pie will take care of this for you!”
“I’m a year older than you,” the wizened pegasus reminded the slightly younger earth pony. “And I’m not letting you take away my last chance to say something to Rarity! Those assertive classes taught me not to let myself be pushed around, even by my friends. I know you mean well with whatever you’re doing, but I’m afraid it’ll have to stop. In fact, I think you may have finally gone senile…”
“I’M NOT CRAZY!!” Pinkie Pie all but screamed at the ceiling, raging at something that wasn’t Fluttershy even though it clearly frightened the pegasus, and understandably so. “I’m the only sane pony in this crazy universe! But that’s not important right now—what is important is that Rarity gets my project and uses it!”
Pinkie turned to face the magical recording device’s eye head-on now.
“Rarity, my project is all detailed in a book—I’ve taken to calling it ‘The Pink Book of Parties, Pantaloons, and Paprika,’ but you might just want to call it ‘The Pink Book’ for short (and no, its contents have nothing to do with anything in the title)—that I will leave behind for you in my factory. It’ll be hidden under a magical false bottom in the saddlebags my imprint will give to you when you wake up! I only hope that WHEN you wake up, it won’t be too late…”
WHAT?!
“You have to read this book, Rarity, and PLEASE don’t go insane when you do!” Pinkie pleaded, trying to stay in the view of the device’s eye even as Fluttershy attempted to push her out of the way. “Follow the instructions, and you can save the world! If you don’t accidentally destroy it, that is, but if you don’t try to save the world then it will be destroyed anyway!
“You’re the only one who can do this, Rarity!” Pinkie called as Fluttershy finally succeeded in pushing the pink party pony away. "You’re the only pony I know I can trust. I’d get our friends to do it, but we’re too old to make the journey. I would’ve acted sooner, but I didn’t want to risk the world unless I knew it was too much at risk anyway. You have to save the world, Rarity! You have to save the world from The Seekers! You have to save it from TIREK!”
. . .
“Tirek?” Firefly echoed after Rarity had joined her friends again. She had reviewed the last of the Disks after Pinkie’s impromptu interruption, but there had never been another mention of Pinkie’s project or that name. The Seekers had been in there plenty, but according to the recordings the secret society had been eradicated just as quickly as it had shown up. Rarity remembered that there hadn’t been any other recorded instances of Seeker activity in the last thousand years, so she had assumed they were long dead and gone as well. “Who’s Tirek?”
“I was hoping you would know,” Rarity admitted, taking a sip of her fruit juice and savoring the rich, exotic flavor. The group was enjoying the luxuries of a local restaurant. Once again, the magic of instant gold had quickly abated any fear towards them exuded by both the other customers and the restaurant proprietors. “If it has something to do with The Seekers, then I certainly wouldn’t know, but everypony else in The ULE seems to know quite a lot about those dreadful pony-shaped monsters.”
“Tirek, Tirek, Tirek…” Surprise mused. “Nope, doesn’t ring a bell with me!”
‘Not that I was really expecting it to,’ Rarity thought absentmindedly.
‘I mean, I do know about everything else in your tale,’ came Surprise’s voice into Rarity’s mind without passing through her ears first. ‘Just not the ‘Tirek’ part.’
“How do you keep doing that?!” Rarity blurted, turning to face her snowy pegasus companion.
“Do what?” Surprise grinned, almost tauntingly. “Read your thoughts and then speak back to them? Pull weapons from nowhere? Et cetera, et cetera?”
“Yes…?” Rarity agreed, looking at Surprise with what might quickly evolve from uneasiness to fear. Her white pegasus friend had never looked this focused, this intelligent…
“I don't know,” Surprise announced dismissively. “But I do know that whoever Tirek is, if he’s involved with The Seekers, then we better get that Pink Book from your saddlebags before he, she, or it does. From the sound of it that book is just as apt to destroy the world as you learning about the secret past I don’t have is.”
There was a rather uncomfortably awkward silence.
“You mean we need to go back into that abominable tree?” Rarity inquired.
There was another silence.
This silence was swiftly broken by a chorus of raucous laughter from everypony and human.
“Seriously, though,” Surprise chortled as the laughter died off from each of them. “We need to get that book or the world is going to end.”
“What are you talking about?” Rarity demanded.
“I’m saying exactly what Pinkie Pie was saying to you back on the Disk,” Surprise replied, taking another bite out of the odd steaming vegetable she had ordered for dinner. It looked like a cross between a purple spider and abstract art, but the smell was heavenly. “Well, maybe not one-hundred percent exactly what she said, but the message is the same. I didn’t know it was this bad, but if my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-so-many-greats grandmother thought it was and went to all the trouble of actually writing about it, then things must be really, REALLY dire.”
“I might be inclined to believe you if not for two reasons,” Rarity spoke evenly. “First of all, you have yet to tell me why the world is in danger. And, although it’s certainly gone downhill since my time, I see no way in which it is nearing total destruction. Secondly, there is no way in Tartarus that I am going back to that psychotic monstrosity of a tree! Besides, that book will be melted by now, having been in the factory’s digestive recycling plant for all this time.”
“The Pink Book will be indestructible, mostly,” Surprise assured them. “Pinkie will have pushed it so that it's not entirely in reality anymore. And you really won’t go back to get the book unless I tell you why the world is in danger, is that it?”
“I won’t be going back to that tree period,” Rarity asserted.
“I didn’t want it to have to come to this,” Surprise sighed. “But I can’t do this on my own. I’ll need your help if I’m to get that book. And I think you will help me once I show you why the world is in danger.”
. . .
I see Surprise inherited her great-great-great-great-great-great-great-so many greats-grandmother's ability of breaking the fourth wall quite cleanly.
And I lost it when she said "LOL." Only Surprise. I love this fic. So very much.
Edit: WHOA HOLY CRAP HOW DID I GET FIRST. That never happens.
That chapter was pretty great, it just felt a bit different. The whole 4th wall breaking thing was a bit jarring, especially because it came out of nowhere, But I love Ponydora Prancypants, so all is forgiven.
-Minty
Surprise breaking the fourth wall...
She got it from her ancestor
Okay, this did just take a turn out of "dark" - and swerved right into "completely and utterly strange". I hope the explanations given don't get any more meta than this, because fourth-wall-breaking stuff like what Pinkie and Surprise did here can derail a story even faster than Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy, simply because it utterly destroys any kind of immersion. Since that was a strength of this fic so far, I hope it's just another sign of Surprise's utter insanity.
But at least they managed to achieve something. I liked that a lot, though I have to say, I would have liked to see a final goodbye from Spike somewhere in there. As much as her other friends did for Rarity, none of them went the Rory-Williams-as-a-plastic-Roman-guarding-the-Pandorica route.
Definitely a good chapter, though could all the Surprise's forth wall breaking cool down a bit? It going to endearing to a bit annoying and repetitive. I know in this chapter it's almost kind of a plot point, but when it's not necessary and you know there is already a lot, it might be best to skip out on a few.
PINKIE!!!... I mean SURPRISE!!!
Hmm, not sure I like all the fourth wall breaking in this chapter but it was still an interesting one. I'm curious to find out what exactly is dire enough to warrant a return trip to the Tree House Of Horror. How come Megan doesn't have any weapons built into her computer? It seems like something that would come in handy for the whole survival thing, or armor for that matter? Feel free to ignore those rambling bits, it's just something that's been bugging me. Anyways, good chapter and I look forward to the next one.
And the fourth wall was forever broken that day....
Tirek, Scorpan, seaponies.........:? pinkiegasp:
go on
Whatever the fuck is Surprise...
*Checks comments in the previous chapter*
Well played...
(And it's .net by the way :3)
As Pinkie Pie (and Surprise) as that is, I have to say that I found the fourth wall breaking a little jarring in this story. I think "Forcing" the story that way is, well... Forced. However, I'll take this as a world bound by the Laws of Narrative Causality (e.g. Discworld) and keep on enjoying it. Geronimo!
"I dunno, LOL" I lost it at that sentence. Another great chapter to a great story.
1088719
Agreed, I'm actually a bit disappointed that we've heard nothing from Spike this entire time. Sure, there are vestiges of his presence throught the story, but nothing concrete.
Finally a fourth wall breaker moment and it's by the great decedent of Pinkie Pie herself.
Nice update and I wonder what other surprises that Fluttershy imprint has for the gang if they return to the tree.
Well it also seems that Rarity finally got to see how everything turned out for her friends, even though it ended up in a sad way.
Nice update overall, and it seems that the overall plot to this storyline is about to pick itself up a bit.
Please do keep up the good work upon such a great storyline like this one.
What the hell just happened? Cuz it sounds like you run out of ideas and decided to accelerate the story...
1088997
Actually I didn't. This was the plan for the plot all along, even if the story itself did accelerate before I had planned for it too.
1089017
So I just have to attribute it to Pinkie being Pinkie?
This story hit the nitro and is speeding down the road. Surprise seems to much like Pinkie now. Really my only complaint, please continue.
Well, any semblance of a fourth wall was just completely and utterly blasted away into explodey 3D particles.
Meanwhile, various audience members
took off their glassesooh'ed and aah'ed at the screen as the shiny virtual particles flew towards them.You got featured, 'grats
Now to read
Edit: I've read.
Surprise...just don't change yeah?
SO. MUCH. LAMPSHADING. I love it! Do keep it coming, please.
1089285
I truly thank you for all the time you spent reading this tale.
However, if you had a complaint about the story, you could have easily formed it into a piece of constructive criticism. You could have even advised me to rewrite the entire latest chapter.
After I post this comment I will find Ponydora Prancypants then shower them in fangasms.
Surprise is very meta in this chapter
Hmmm... I find the fact that all the remaining discs were in one place oddly... convenient. I hope you explain why that happened later. Like some others have stated, the fourth-wall breaking was a bit jarring, but if you tone it down from now on I think it should be fine.
Daybreak's copy warned them about the contents of the discs, so I assume that Pinkie's Pink Book will probably contain information on something that can also end the world as much as save it.
Anyways, looking forward to more!
Thanks for getting the message, Pinkie! Things are looking good. Once this became a G1 reunion, I saw Tirek coming a mile away, but that doesn't mean I love this new direction any less.
It. Is. On.
AAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW SHIT, SON! FUCK'N HELL IS ABOUT TO GET REAL!
Normally Pinkie Pie leans on the fourth wall a bit. Maybe cause a few small breaks. Right now, I'm sure the fourth wall is in a freezing cold shower since I'm quite sure Surprise just raped the fourth wall.
1089610 Pretty sure they were just acting goofy. While some people may think it's too fast, I think it's pretty good. I mean sometimes events happen at very fast speeds, leaving people barely enough time to breath.
Hmm, not sure I like the way this is going. I'll hang on a bit longer, but I may have to go 1089285 's route.
1089610
Whoa, whoa whoa!
That wasn't an insult. I absolutely LOVE Millenium Wake, and I'm sorry if that came off as being negative.
I meant that comment as a sort of weird meta-thing imagining a bunch of people watching the fourth wall explode as a cheap effect in a movie. I have no qualms with this particular breach myself, though.
On second thought, I could've left out that part.
Please ignore that comment. CONTINUE THE STORY GOOD MAN!
1090243
Dammit, now I've got people agreeing with me! When I don't want them to!
Hurrrgh.
I searched Tirek and found out he was an antagonist in one of the mlp generations.
images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2011/4/26/80d49dd3-26ed-4132-add0-085ba0f1fc6f.jpg
HOLD ON A MINUTE!! How in the hay did Mecha-Daybreak find out about The Pink Book? Or am I the only one scratching their heads over that one after this chapter? Given all her screaming a couple chapters ago about how the Disks would bring about the end of the world...
Mary Sue saves the day again! 'Hey girls, did I forget to mention I'm also infinitely rich?'
Seriously though, that aside, it was interesting. Finally progressing into a new story arc. The meta moments were amusing enough. Surprise saying 'LOL' made my teeth hurt, but then I remembered it's Surprise, and it works for her...
One grammar note I'd like to point out: 'Shouldn’t the slow, agonizing mental death of a friend who was alive more be more important to the white unicorn than what was essentially nothing more than the goodbyes of friends long dead and gone?' Notice the repetitive use of any words here?
Good luck, and keep up the great work!
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Thank you for your support!
Uhh...
Alright. We'll roll with it. Hey, at least it's not depressing and horrifying anymore! For a little while, at least.
That was amazing.
I lost it so much when Surprise broke through the fourth wall, along with Pinkie.
Though, I wonder who Tirek is. But then again, all will tell in time.
I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL THE NEXT CHAPTER!
But, I guess it's time to play the waiting game.
Oh Surprise, you're so silly...
And the 4th wall was never seen again in its full glory, remaining forever broken and torn asunder.
Now that I'm all caught up to this, I can give my actual thoughts on the story. As I said back in chapter 1, this story concept terrified me. And it still does. But that's a good thing. This story has been fantastic since the start, and I've enjoyed every bit of it. Well done, sir. I eagerly anticipate all future updates
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I hope you know it took me quite a while to make that.
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Do you even pony.
Tirek was the G1 main villain. He was actually the inspiration for Nightmare Moon and the first two episodes' plot. Of course, the difference is that Nightmare Moon was a tall, powerful mare with an inferiority complex and a huge ego, and Tirek was a half-goat demon spawn from Tartarus bent on destroying the world and turning the ponies into horrible monsters. And he had an evil flying Yeti manservant! And he was defeated by none other than a bunch of frolicky, happy-go-lucky ponies. What a way to go.
Interestingly, we've already seen plenty of the G1 cast already. Surprise, Firefly (albeit differently colored), Megan... Applejack and Twilight were there, too, but not exactly the same characters as the new ones.
I smell adventure on the horizon. Here we go.
Fourth Wall breaks. You just cant argue with them
Good job and reading the comments about Tirek, I see that your devotion in placing earlier generation characters and putting amazing storylines is really spectacular and I thank you for your effort in this odd incredible adventure
A toast to Surprise for making all the sense and no sense at all
Heres a mustache just for u
I am sooo hoping to hear Surprise's back story.. pleeeeease?
"Once again, the magic of instant gold had quickly abated any fear towards them exuded by both the other customers and the restaurant proprietors."
My Little Computer: Instant Gold is Magic?
I'm not a huge fan of Megan's plot-convenient "get anything you want whenever it's handy" thing, but I'll admit that it keeps the story from getting bogged down in a lot of the specifics like money and such. I'm here for the adventure, not Rarity working a waitress job 1000 years in the future or Firefly pickpocketing ponies. Still: Megan needs more characterization beyond "sorry for that xenocide, humans did bad shit," I wanna travel around wherever, and plot-device insta-stuff.
It was something of a twist to find all the disks in one place. A pleasant surprise, of sorts. I keep expecting bad stuff to happen, so it's a subversion when it doesn't. I wish we could have seen more of what Rarity saw, but finding all the disks now and then skimming over their contents displays a distinct turn in the story. It's no longer about Rarity focusing on the past and the disks. She realizes the priority shift right around then too. Yeah: her friends are dead and gone. But the story is an adventure about saving the world. If it was just about Rare getting her emotional closure with her dead friends, this would have been the last chapter.
I've never been fond of 4th wall breaking as a plot device, and it feels odd to me for Surprise to now suddenly be painting a mural on it, but I'm willing to accept it as long as it doesn't break the challenge. You've managed both Megan and Surprise's abilities well enough before now, so I don't anticipate problems, but be careful. Too much 4th wall breakage just gets irritating, and this isn't really a comedy.
I almost feel sorry for the 4th wall here
1092642 And my heart rejoices.
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I'm pretty sure Megan's hax machine is a result of the fact that humans technically created Equestria. It's the reason why Pinkie and Surprise have fourth walls to break (well, to be fair, Pinkie broke two SEPARATE fourth walls. Both in-universe and out. Fifth wall, much?), and why the Fillydelphia Fire went on after a bunch of ponies decided that they weren't actually real.
Also: had ther only been a few disks made; say, six, one for each, it would've been more fun to discover them one by one (think Legend of Zelda here) and gain their knowledge before defeating some big bad. However, we now know there was quite a few of them made, and it wouldn't have been fun to watch them search for fifty different disks scattered around the ULE.
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Good point with the disks. If their discovery had been spread out and each one had a distinct, important message (like Pinkie's death, Sweetie Belle not hating Rare, etc) it would have been cool to see. If this was the end of the story, I would have expected a disk or two from each of them to get a character arc conclusion for Rarity, but since this isn't the end of the story, it's definitely best that we skim it. Keep the momentum, etc. And LoZ is awesome.
As far as the 4th wall... I don't mind the occasional joke, but if it's going to be a legitimate plot point kind of thing... it just needs careful handling. Having Surprise be a little insane helps reign it all in, since she'll only be genre-aware and stuff when the plot demands it. I just really like this fic, and when 4th wall is done badly it just feels like the characters and writer are cheating. I don't want that to happen here
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I agree with you on the fourth wall. I love the occasional shoutout from Pinkie, but when everything she says has to do with being meta and commenting on plot devices and the author, it ruins it a little for me.
As for Surprise, she doesn't know half of what she even does as it is. One moment, she is entirely sober and explaining the finer details of the current plot scheme, and the next she's bouncing up and down completely oblivious to her previous action. She's literally completely random.