Day 8: Part 2
Sound of talons clicking against the rough stone floor echoed in the empty hallway as Gilda made her way down it. Behind her, traveling on a squeaking wagon hitched to her back, were two metal pails filled with fishes of varying sizes. Some were half eaten, other had barely any meat left on them. All of which, to be kind, looked a bit stale with swarm of flies circling and crawling over them. However, the grimace on her face was not because of the stench from the slightly rotten fishes. Instead, it was what stood by the pair of steel gates that came into view when she rounded a bend in the tunnel.
Two burly griffins, each a full head taller than Gilda, stood guard by the gate. The two guards noted her presence, and both sneered at her as she stopped in front of them.
"So... what's this?" asked the guard to her right condescendingly. "Take out the trash day?"
Here we go again... thought Gilda bitterly.
"Nah!" snorted the guard to her left. "I think those are for the prisoner... and her daddy."
"I guess it's fitting." commented the guard dismissively as he picked up one of the half eaten fish. He gave it a sniff before pulling it away. "Trash for trash."
Gilda resolutely kept up an impassive look, even while she was screaming out strings of obscenity in her mind. Everyday, it was the same. The guards always took joy from making insult, whether veiled or direct, at her, her tribe, or her father. Of course, it gave them great satisfaction if she snapped back. For no other reason than it gave them a reason to use her as a punching bag, as her blackened eye could testify.
"What? Not going to say anything?" asked the guard who just implied that her tribe and father were trash.
"Could you please..." said Gilda, doing everything in her power to keep the anger out of her voice. "... let me through so I can finish my round?"
To Gilda's satisfaction, however minor, the guards exchanged a disappointed look before they unlocked the steel doors.
"Just get that... thing away from me." ordered the guard to her right. Without saying another word, Gilda made her way through the gate with her cargo.
"You have thirty minutes! Don't let me catch you dawdling!" yelled the guard as soon as she was clear. The gate shut with a resounding clang behind her. The ringing cleared after a short while, and was replaced by hushed groans and moans.
All along the the corridors were cages, each holding a single griffin within them. There were many such corridors, formerly mining tunnels, abandoned after its riches had being exploited by the last griffin tribe who sought it. The Blackwing had bolted down cages in an isolated section of the mine and re-purposed it as their prison. It made navigation somewhat difficult and confusing, but Gilda had long since remember her route. She made her way down the myriad twists and turns in the tunnels, passing griffins of different tribes as she passed out the content of the metal pails to the imprisoned griffins.
There was one thing the guards were right about. The food she was giving them were trash, leftover from the near nightly feast where the Blackwings gorged themselves on the "tributes" from the enslaved tribes. Every morning, she would pick through the rotting remains leftover from last night. Fortunately, the Blackwings were quite a picky lot in terms of food, some were discarded whole for being too small, while others were simply half-eaten before being discarded for reasons unknown. However, despite such waste, it wasn't enough, considering the sheer number of griffins trapped here. For that reason, all of them were in a pitiful state from malnourishment.
Having said that, the problem with malnourishment may soon solve itself, as Gilda noted the occasional empty cages that once held a griffin. Some she knew died during those lavish feasts, where the Blackwings will on occasions force a couple of prisoners to fight to the death for their entertainment. Those who survived were in a state of catatonia, spending most of their time whimpering and sobbing in the cage.
The rest, on the other wing, simply disappeared. Long sections of cages laid empty, their former occupants forcefully removed as one and marched elsewhere, at least according to the prisoners that remained. Gilda had no idea where they went, but she could guess that they're probably dead too, or worse.
She made another turn, and felt relief when she noted that the cages here were occupied. For within the third cage on her right laid the sleeping form his father, Leo. His coat was a dull amber, lacking the radiance that Gilda remember from just weeks ago. His similarly colored wings rested against the cage floor with clumps of feathers missing, partly from battle wound, and partly from the rough treatment by the guards.
"Father?" called out Gilda as she stopped by the cage. The form stirred, and paused for a second before turning around. His tired eyes brightened up almost instantly when the two met.
"Gilda. It's good to see you." Leo reached out through the bar and exchanged a brief embrace with each other.
"You say that every time." said Gilda with a rare smile.
"Doesn't make it any less true." said Leo while Gilda dug a somewhat edible looking fish from the pail. "So, how are you doing?"
"Pretty well..." said Gilda as she reached into the cage and deposited her father's dinner into his metal bowl. "... and Damien is gone for the day, so I guess today is going to be... fairly good. How about you?"
"Same old, same old." chuckled her father in a tired tone. "The guards are, probably, starting to get got tired of picking on little old me."
The two stood there for a few seconds, waiting for the other to talk about anything else. In truth, there wasn't much to talk about in this place, at least nothing positive. Finding nothing else to say, Gilda pressed her face up against the bar.
"I love you, dad." she said. Her father reached out with his forelegs and wrapped them around her.
"I love you too." he replied, and Gilda returned the gesture by wrapping her forelegs around her father. It was this moment that kept Gilda going. A precious moment where she could convince herself that they would make it. A moment where she could forget about the Tartarus she's living in.
A moment that's always over far too soon. Gilda reluctantly pulled away.
"I have to finish the round." said Gilda. Her father nodded with understanding as Gilda resumed her route. But before she could make a few steps away...
"Gilda! Wait..." Gilda turned around, and froze at what she saw.
The corridor was gone, along with the cages of griffin that lined said corridor. The sole exception being her father's cage, which appeared to be suspended in mid-air.
"Dad?" stuttered Gilda.
"There's... something I wanted to tell you." said Leo. Gilda moved toward the suspended cage, but found that she wasn't getting any closer..
"I... I'm sorry... about everything" Leo continued, seemingly oblivious to the strangeness that happened around him.
"Dad... what are you talking about?" said Gilda as she increased her pace. But instead of her closing the distance, the cage retreated further and further away. In the distance, a gateway that gave off an ominous glow drew near.
"I should've protected you... from all this... horrors..." said Leo, looking ashamed. "... and I failed."
"Dad! I... I told you already! I don't blame you! Why do you keep saying that?" shouted Gilda as she broke off into a run. Yet, she couldn't make any progress. The gateway loomed as an intense heat accompanied by the sinister orange glow. Above it, hanging like a guillotine, was an enormous slab of metal, creaking as if it was about to fall at any moment.
"Forgive me Gilda..." continued Leo.
"I forgive you! I forgive you, dad!" cried out Gilda, urging herself to run faster. "I forgive you for everything! Just please! Come back!"
Her efforts were in vain as the cage retreated into the gateway. The metal slab give way an instant later, rumbling as it descend.
"DAD!" screamed Gilda, moments before the cold, steel gate slammed down in front of her.
=====================================================================
"... dad!" a gray, rough wall greeted Gilda as she woke with a start. Her breath was quick and short, and her eyes darted about rapidly as she tried to make sense of her situation. She looked down, and saw a sleeping, pink-maned pony cradled in her forelegs. A piece of rag, soaked through with dried blood, wrapped around the pony's head and covered her eyes, or the empty socket of her eyes as Gilda quickly remembered what happened last night.
"Pinkie Pie..." muttered Gilda, gazing at the sleeping pony beneath her. She had stayed with the pony, who clung to her like she was her last friend in the world. Although given the circumstance, the pony's belief might not be too far off. In any case, she had planned to stay until the pony had fallen asleep. But by the look of things, the stress from last night must have taken a toll on her.
... how long had I been sleeping? thought Gilda. The constant illumination from the gas lamps made it impossible to tell the time. But if Gilda had to guess, based on her biological clock, it was sometime near morning. More specifically, time for her to delivery the captive griffins' one and only meal of the day.
With care, Gilda laid Pinkie Pie on the ground before making her ways to the barred door. Making as little noise as possible so she wouldn't wake Pinkie Pie up, Gilda left the cage. As she closed the door behind her, she took one last look at the sleeping pony.
"... good luck..." muttered Gilda.
"Hey pony lover!" she jumped when a steel clad talon slammed into the cage bar in front of her. Gilda turned to her left, and to her dread, found Bane standing there leering down at her. Dread turned to revulsion when she noticed the necklace around Bane's neck, from which dangled two cyan eyeballs. Bane noticed Gilda's gaze and smiled.
"Admit it, they look nice, don't they?" asked Bane as he dangled the eyeballs in front of Gilda, who pulled away in disgust. "Yep, look much better on me than that dirt eating pony."
"What do you want?" asked Gilda, desperately trying to get away from the revolting griffin.
"Looking for you, what else?" Bane gave her a lopsided grin.
"Well, you found me." answered Gilda, trying to edge her way past the griffin.
"I must say." continued Bane stood in Gilda's way, blocking her escape. "I know your kinds are pony lovers, but never in a million years would I have imagine that you would sleep with one. What would your father say?"
"Please, just let me through." said Gilda, who tried to head another way. But to her shock, Bane grabbed her by the neck and slammed her against the solid ground.
"Why the rush?" asked Bane with barely contained glee as he lorded over her. "Don't want to have your precious daddy starve? Well, it's not like he's going to need it... at least, not for long."
"... what... what are you..." choked out Gilda as fear gripped her.
"Oh, didn't you know?" said Bane with a widening grin. "Lord Seth has some... surprises planned today, every griffin who's any griffin is going! Now, I'm not sure what IT is, but I know it involves all you pony-lovers... and I'm pretty sure it's not going to be... survivable."
"He can't do this!" shouted Gilda. "We had a deal! We..."
"YOU had a deal with Damien." interrupted Bane. "Not me, not Lord Seth, but his scrawny little son Damien. And guess what? He never came back last night. So I guess he can't help you now, not that I believe he would..."
"No!" Gilda struggled beneath the leering griffin, lashing out with her talons. "You can't do this!"
One of her claws found their mark in Bane's face, leaving behind three thin welts. Bane chuckled before slapping Gilda across her face with the back of his free claw. Stars exploded in Gilda's eyes as the crack of metal talon against beak reverberated through the corridors.
"Ooh a little fight! I like that!" growled Bane at the stunned griffin beneath him. His grip tightened as his voice dropped low and threatening. A lecherous grin plastered across his face as he leered at her. "You know, I'm gonna do you a little favor before you... reach the end of your line. I'm gonna let you know what it feels like to ma..."
"Gilda?" an inquisitive cry interrupted Bane. "Gilda? is that you? I heard you screaming, are you okay?"
Gilda blinked out the stars in her eyes and found Pinkie Pie sitting upright within her cage. Her head swiveled left and right as Pinkie Pie tried to locate her.
"Well, well, well, it looks like we're going to have an audience." declared Bane. Pinkie Pie's ears twitched toward them before her head followed suit.
"Hey! I know that voice!" called out Pinkie Pie, her right hoof pointing out in an accusing gesture. "You're that bad griffin! What did you do to Gilda? If you hurt her! I'll... I'll..."
"You'll... what?" taunted Bane, never releasing his grip on Gilda's neck.
"I'll... I'll kick your flank!" shouted Pinkie Pie, stomping her hoof to the ground. Bane looked stunned for a second before breaking out into a cackling laugh.
"Kick... Kick my flank?" asked Bane as he struggled to catch his breath.
"I mean it! If you hurt Gilda, I'll kick your flank!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie.
"If I... hurt Gilda?" asked Bane malicious as he got control of his laughter. Gilda let out a series choking sound when the grip around her neck tightened. "You mean like this?"
"HEY! STOP HURTING HER!" shouted Pinkie Pie, who was visibly alarmed at the gagging sound Gilda was making. She got up and tried to gallop to her, but the only thing she accomplished was slamming her head against the unyielding bars of the cage. Pinkie Pie recoiled from the impact and collapsed to a heap on a ground.
"Please... stop hurting her..." pleaded the pony as she pushed herself back up. Her hooves resting against the bars.
"Let me think..." Bane grinned as he relaxed his grip on Gilda, who drew in a deep breath and coughed. Bane scratched his beak with his free claw before his grin widened further. "... you did promise this weakling here that she will be okay..."
"... yes..." uttered Pinkie Pie in a wispy voice.
"Well, maybe if do that promise again, I'll decide not to hurt her again."
Gilda stared in confusion. But she didn't have time to make sense of Bane's statement before the grip around her neck tightened and she started choking again.
"Promise to her that she'll be fine." said Bane, snarling at Pinkie Pie. "THEN... maybe... I'll stop hurting her."
Gilda soon found herself struggling, and failing, to draw breath due to Bane's increasingly vice-like grip on her. She clawed at the talons around her throat while desperately trying to kick the leering griffin off her. But the vast difference in size and strength meant all her efforts were for naught. Her vision started to darken as the lack of oxygen took its toll and her struggle began to wane.
"Gilda..." Pinkie Pie started with a shaky voice. "... I... I promise..."
Almost immediately, Gilda felt the choke-hold on her loosened up. She gasped, drawing a deep breath of the life-giving air.
"... I promise that we'll make it out of here..." continued Pinkie Pie with her ears drooped. Her voice were shaky as if she was trying to stop herself from crying.
"... cross my heart... and hope to fly..." she made a halfhearted crossing motion with her right hoof in front of her chest.
"... stick a cupcake... in... my..." Pinkie Pie hesitated for a moment and sniffed, before putting her right hoof over her heavily bandaged right eye. "... eye..."
"Hm... not bad... not bad..." commented Bane with feigned seriousness. "But, there's something missing... what is it... Oh RIGHT!"
Bane took a deliberate glance at Pinkie Pie's eyeballs on his chest before continuing with a grin.
"How do you 'stick a cupcake in your eye'..." Bane hopped off Gilda, dangling the necklace of Pinkie's eyeballs between him and the pony they belonged to. "... if I got your eyes right here!?"
Bane roared with laughter. He stumbled to the side, leaning against the wall opposite of the cage for support as he howled and cackled. Gilda averted her eyes from the griffin with disgust before setting her sight on the pony with pity... then with confusion.
"Pin... kie?" Gilda blinked at Pinkie Pie. The pony's ears were perked up as if out of curiosity while her right hoof jabbed at the bandage a few more times. Then, to Gilda further surprise, Pinkie Pie smiled.
"Hey! Maybe... you can... find somewhere... else... to stick... that cupcake..." said Bane as he tried to talk in between his fits of laughter. "I... can suggest... a few..."
"Nope!" answered Pinkie Pie with an impossibly cheery voice, which caught Bane's attention. With her right hoof, she pushed bloody bandage off her head. Her mane seems to inflate back to its former fluffiness as it passed through the wrappings. Then...
"Ta-dah!"... she opened her eyes.
Gilda and Bane were rendered speechless. Sparkling by the flickering flame of the gas lamps, a pair of bright, cyan-blue eyes that exuded happiness stared back at them from the pony's formerly empty eye sockets.
"What... how..." stuttered Bane as his own eyes darted between the ones that were in Pinkie Pie and the ones in his talons.
"I've got my eyes back! I've got my eyes back!" shouted Pinkie Pie in a sing-song as she hopped in a circuit around the cage. Once she's facing them after her round, she sat back down and jabbed her right hoof against her closed right eye. "Now I can stick the cupcake in my OWN eye! How do you like THAT? Pft..."
Pinkie Pie pulled down her right eyelid and blew a raspberry at Bane, or at least she tried. Faster Gilda could blink, something long, slimy, and black with a hint of pink shot out of Pinkie's mouth and wrapped itself around Bane. Gilda barely had the time to register the surprised look on Bane when he suddenly vanished, accompanied by a gust of wind and a sharp, metallic crash. All that's left was a trail of floating feathers that were slowly drifting down. Gilda followed it with her eyes, and found it leading toward Pinkie's cage.
A few bars near the center of the cage were slightly bowed in and to the side with blood and feathers smeared on them. The trail of hovering feathers ended just in front of Pinkie Pie, who looked like she had been gorging herself. Her stomach was comically inflated to a size that, Gilda quickly realized, was the same size as that of Bane. Pinkie Pie blinked back at her with equal measure of surprise and confusion.
"Ooh!" the looks of surprise on the pony turned into one of realization as her stomach began to shrink and her form started to change.
=====================================================================
"Bane." a voice, deep and imposing, boomed and echoed.
"Yes, my lord." answered Bane. His voice was quieter in comparison, but confident.
"Come forward." commanded the voice. A griffin swam into view. The left-half of his face was covered in a metal mask from which peaked a yellowish eyes that contrasted with his uncovered blue right eye.
"Do you swear to serve me, and no one else but me, in order to further the glory of the Blackwings?"
"Yes, Lord Seth." answered Bane. Seth lifted a bowl from the ground in front of him. A bowl that contained what looked like a pile of glittering red dust within it.
"Then accept this gift of the red star, and become one with the Blackwings!" declared the masked griffin before he blew the red dust into Bane's face.
A red fog obscured the screen as Pinkie Pie noticed herself staring at it. Taking a quick look around she found herself sitting in a small and featureless room. A bright light shone from the back of the room and projected images to a screen in the front, which provided the only source of light in the other pitch-black room. A plush looking sofa rested between her and the screen.
"... where is..." uttered Pinkie Pie, and as if in response to her outburst, the screen froze and a pony poked its head out from behind the sofa. The pair of cyan-blue eyes, the only feature Pinkie Pie could make out of against the bright screen, regarded her for a while before hopping off the sofa. The pony briskly trotted toward her and away from the harsh glare of the screen, allowing Pinkie Pie to recognize who it was.
"Hello, Pinkie Pie." greeted Pinkamena with a smile.
"Pinkamena!" called out Pinkie Pie excitedly as she hopped up and down on the spot. "We got our eyes back! We got our eyes back!"
"Yes, yes, I've noticed." said Pinkamena, who waved her right hoof at her to calm her down. She obliged and stopped bouncing, but that didn't mean she's going to stop talking.
"And I think I swallowed that... jerk that took our eyes." continued Pinkie Pie. She blinked a few times, glancing toward the flickering screen. "Ooh! So is that his memory or something?" Pinkie Pie raised her right hoof and pointed at the screen.
"Yep." answered Pinkamena with a nod.
"Ooh, so that's what it looked like... Can I watch it with you?" asked Pinkie Pie excitedly.
"Maybe later." said Pinkamena. "Who else is going to control our body if you stay here?"
"Oh that's right!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "My friends still need me! Oh well, I'll just take a rain-check then!"
With that, a door opened for a fraction of a second in the back of the room, just enough time for Pinkie Pie to dash out before closing and vanishing into the wall itself. Now alone in the room once more, Pinkamena climbed back into the comfortable sofa.
"Fluttershy!... or whoever... or whatever you are, hit it!" Pinkamena made of spinning motion with her hoof in the air, and the light flickered once more as the film started rolling again. Without her eyes leaving the screen, Pinkamena took a mouthful of popcorn out of the bowl on the side table.
"Wow... that's REALLY messed up." commented Pinkamena as she chewed on the popcorn and watched Bane participate in his first slaughter against another griffin tribe.
=====================================================================
Gilda stared with wide eyes and open beak as she watched the groggy looking Bane pushing himself up within the cage. He rubbed his head a few times with his right claw a few time before pausing, as if he's confused. Moving both his claws in front of her, Bane examined them with great interest as he flexed his metal covered talons and clicked a few together.
"Cool...!" uttered Bane. He looked up and saw Gilda staring at her. "Hi Gilda!" said Bane with a suspiciously familiar happy tone.
"Pin... kie Pie?" asked Gilda with uncertainty.
"Yep! It's me!" said Bane cheerfully. He looked at himself over again before turning back up to Gilda with a sheepish face. "Oops, forgot. Hang on."
Just when she felt like her beak couldn't open any wider, it did as black and pink tendrils enveloped Bane. He shrunk rapidly until he was the size of a pony. The flesh-like coils vanished, revealing a sitting Pinkie Pie with a wide smile on her face.
"But... but how?" stuttered Gilda. The pony's "wild" stories from last night came back to her, stories about her friends exploits and fanciful description on what they were capable of... "Wait! Those... those stories about Rainbow Dash... about your friends... were real?"
"Of course! Why would I lie about that? Now, enough chit-chat, let's bust out this joint! But how..." Pinkie Pie tapped her right hoof against her head with her tail tapping the floor as she went deep in thought. Gilda could see the problem. Even with the damaged state of the bars, they still looked pretty solid. And despite the bent in the bar that was caused Bane's forced passage in between them, it still wasn't wide enough for Pinkie Pie to get through.
A heavy thump and crack from somewhere behind Pinkie Pie caught their attention. They exchanged a look before checking behind the pony. To further Gilda's confusion of the situation, she found herself staring at Pinkie's tail, or what was Pinkie's tail. The formerly puff of fluffy and curly pink hair had transformed into a solid, sack-like mass composed of black and pink tendrils. It started out narrow where the tail meet the body before growing into a bowling-ball sized mass near the end. Beneath the mass, the spider-web like cracks spread across the stone floor.
"Hey, what's this?" questioned Pinkie Pie as she lifted her tail, or the fleshy mass that's now her tail, off the ground. Then, she dropped the mass back to the ground, which crashed into the ground with sharp crack and created more spider-web cracks from the point of impact.
"Cool!" Pinkie Pie did it again, except this time she slapped her tail to the ground harder. On impact, the ball of hardened flesh threw chunks of rocks out as it made a crater in the rough stone floor. "I know how I can get out of here!"
Pinkie Pie stood up and faced the door. She planted her hooves into the ground as she started to spin her transformed tail above her like a flail. "Gilda, you might wanna move away a bit."
Seeing the mass that, just recently, demonstrated being capable of breaking rocking flying in the air with ever increasing speed was all that's needed to convince Gilda to take the pony's warning seriously. She quickly scrambled to the side, away from the cage itself and watched. The spherical mass spun faster and faster until it was nothing but a black and pink blur.
"WHEE!" the fleshy mass surged forward, dragging the cheering pony along with it. The cage door, solid and unyielding at first glance, proved to be no match for the flying projectile. With the bang of metals snapping, Pinkie's transformed tail hammered through gate, tearing it off its joint as if they were made out of toothpicks. It continued on its trajectory until it slammed into the stone wall opposite of the cage with a thundering crash. Gilda ducked and covered her head with her forelegs as the impact sent fragments of rock flying towards her. Pieces of rock pelted her harmlessly as she felt a cloud of dust settled over her.
"Woo! That was fun!" cheered Pinkie Pie. Convinced that it was safe, Gilda uncovered herself and took in the aftermath. Amidst the settling cloud of dust, Pinkie Pie dragged her club like tail out of a pony sized crater in the wall. The cage door, bent and warped, was embedded within the hole as if it had became part of the wall itself. Chunks of rocks continued to break away, adding themselves to the small pile of rubble that settled beneath the crater.
The sound of destruction didn't go unnoticed. From the corner not too far down the corridor of cages, the sound of metal talons clattering and the guards shouting grew closer and closer by the second. For a short while, a reflexive flash of fear and panic gripped Gilda. But those feelings were soon blown away by a gust of pink. With her flail-like tail swinging above her again, Pinkie Pie charged down the hallway, just in time to meet the four griffins that guarded this section of the prison.
"Hey! Wha..." one of the guard shouted, but he never did finish his sentence. Pinkie Pie's tail, dragging its owner along, smashed into the griffin's face. The rest of the guards stared, wide-eyed, in shock and confusion as they watch the black and pink mass crushed their comrade's head against the wall in a spray of blood and brain matter. The moment of shock proved to be fatal for two of the guards. With a fluid pivot on her front legs, Pinkie Pie yanked her mutated tail out of the wall and straight into a second griffin, flattening his rib-cage against the cage bars. Another quick twitch of her rump connected her organic flail to the lower beak of one of the remaining pair of griffins. His head, and only his head, flew up and smashed itself to into the stone ceiling. The last remaining griffin quickly turned tail and ran, but it was an act of futility. A long and fleshy mass shot out Pinkie Pie's mouth, and just as it did to Bane, wrapped itself around the fleeing griffin. Gilda didn't even have time to blink before the griffin vanished, just as Bane did, and Pinkie Pie's stomach swelled up for a second before it shrunk back to normal just as quickly.
"Come on! Gildy! We still got more joints to bust!" called out Pinkie Pie as she paced excitedly on the spot. Gilda, her mind still reeling from all that happening, galloped after the pony as if her body was moving of its own accord. A jumble of emotions swirled within Gilda, the strongest of which being fear: Fear for her own, fear for her tribe, and, above all else, fear for her father. But as she ran past the bodies of the griffin guards, part of her former tormentors that she once believed to be invincible, one emotion surfaced above all else.
Hope.
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Alright, part 2 of day 8.
).
).
Going for shorter "parts" so that I don't have to drag on the writing processes for much more than a month (probably make reader happier too
Also, more parts means more cliff-hangers (not an intentional plan, no siree
Yesss MOAR MOAR!!!!!!!...if that's ok with you...
Nice to see this updated. I was kind of hoping for more from how long the wait between the chapters was, but anything is better then nothing.
Keep up the good work!
Where did Pinkie get the infection from? I was expecting one of the others to infect her in a questionable decision to heal her.
1571900
Real-life obligations had resulted in limited time to work on this. I've decided to break the chapter up into smaller pieces so I can release them in more reasonable interval (which, in my own opinion, is around 1~2 months per chapter).
1571937
No comment.
1572661
Actually I fear I may sound stupid because I also didn't notice when Pinkie was infected...
1574948
You're not stupid.
But no comment.
Okay, some comment: It's a mystery to be solved.
1575755
I suspect as much. English isn't exactly my first language.
is one of the ponies going to turn corrupted by the virus like Alex Mercer did?
1576840 When was Mercer corrupted by the virus, is that something from the second game?
1576840
Do you mean the part in Prototype 1 where Alex Mercer gets "infected" by the cure that he couldn't get rid of for a while?
Or do you mean in Prototype 2 where Alex Mercer turns "evil". That wasn't exactly the virus' fault, but mostly because the human he encountered were... well, a bunch of a**holes.
Oh dear. Pinkie and hammerfist
some serious stuff is gonna go down now 
1625381
"Some seriously heavy stuff is gonna go down now" you mean.
...
Okay, seriously bad pun is seriously bad pun.
How Long till next chapter is up. This story is just so amazing! I must know where your at?
1636571
I think I can keep my interval between 1 ~ 2 month. There's a lot of real-life going on recently so...
Would you happen to Edit/Proof read your own stories or do you do it yourself?
1779175
Currently I'm Edit/Proofing my own story as a practice for my grammar.
As far as I understand, my grammar... not that good.
Damn it, this story is too good to have to wait so long between updates. I'm gonna go crazy waiting. I do hope you try to update more often. Keep up the great work and update soon!
EDIT: I can't believe I didn't see it sooner, but I now know how Pinkie became infected. Bonus points for being so clever. I'm not about to say it in the comments though, cause I don't wanna give spoilers. But I am 100% positive I'm right. And if I'm wrong, I'll be shocked.
1797824
I will try to update more often. But I do have a lot of real-life obligations to attend to (especially recently).
1798999 Understandable. I can't help but be a little impatient though. As long as we're not waiting several months between chapters it shouldn't be too bad. A few weeks is survivable, but when it starts to get to 2 months between updates its harder to remember what happened the last time, and then you've gotta reread half the story. I personally think that an update rate of one chapter per 2 weeks is ideal, but if a schedule can't permit that (or the story isn't pre-written, as is the case in most of the stories I read that tend to update that often), then once a month is at least tolerable. You've got a really great story here, so I'd love to see it succeed and keep the attention of its readers.
I'm especially curious as to what has been happening with Twilight while everyone else has been doing stuff. Based on the last time she showed up, and went all Avatar State on the griffons (or would it be Magic State in this case? No clue, though I still suspect that was her drawing on her Element), I expect things will really have been difficult for her. I can hardly wait.
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I understand your impatience. I'll try to figure out how to work out better stopping points in the story to reduce the turn around time.
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Of course, this being my first fiction story, pointers on release frequency is always welcome.
I'm going to move to a plan of releasing around 1 chapter a month (hopefully). Obviously it would mean that each chapter would be shorter. However that would work better.
1801355 As a recommendation for the future, if at all possible, completing a story (or mostly completing it, or at least having a "buffer" of chapters written) before posting lets you upload it at a regular schedule far easier. You may give that a try if you write a second story in the future.
Wait, did i miss something? I dont remember Pinkie getting infected.
PLOT HOLE!
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On the other hoof... the monstrous looking transformations would probably turn Rarity off on that...
On a side note...
Ugh... so much real-life bogging things down...
I know why pinkie got the infection, but I'm not telling
SMOKER!