Ponystuck

by confoundtheseponies

Chapter 2

"PS: Don't forget to prototype your kernelsprite at least once before entering." As he completed his recital of Celestia's reply to Twilight, Spike rolled up the scroll and went to add it to the steadily growing pile of Celestia's correspondence. Some of the messages in the pile were months old, but Twilight insisted on keeping them. And, as Spike wearily recalled, for every scroll in this mountain of parchment there was at least one more that he had sent to Celestia in reply. While his fire was technically infinite, it still took a lot out of him to keep it going.

Returning to the room where he had left Twilight, he found her in conversation with one of the other girls. He couldn't see the screen to find out who, but in any case it probably wasn't the best idea to try and spy on Twilight's conversations. Leaving her to it, the dragon instead occupied himself with trying to replicate the incident that had taken place earlier - when he had stored a book inside a small white card instead of turning it into ash.

[crespucularMagicant began talking with reticentButterfly]

CM: OK Fluttershy, I think I'm good to go on my end.

CM: Are you ready?

RB: Uh...

Twilight was vaguely aware of some noise coming from the other room, but she dismissed it after a moment's thought. Spike was probably just getting some supplies together for the journey ahead. Which was a good idea. But those noises were awfully loud. Just as she was about to decide to investigate, however, Fluttershy replied.

RB: Let's do this.

CM: Great!

CM: So, activate your server scroll when you're ready, and it will connect to the first active client without a server that it finds.

CM: At the moment, that's only mine, so go ahead and turn it on when you're ready.

RB: Right, here I go.

While she waited, Twilight positioned herself closer to her client scroll. It was currently on her desk waiting for a server to connect to it, the large circle of runes inscribed on it pulsating faintly. As she watched, and more and more time passed without any result, a small piece of her mind began asking if she was sure that this was going to work. She had been in an awful rush, and it wasn't out of the question that she had misplaced a rune here and there. After all, her magical endeavours were not without the occasional mishap. Twilight could remember all too well the time she had found herself battling her way through a horde of toothless alligators to deactivate the cloning spell.

These thoughts were soon dispelled as Fluttershy activated her server scroll. Both scrolls lit up, and were surrounded by a whirlwind of arcane power. Above each scroll appeared a small white bar, and above that an intricate green spirograph that hovered in mid air. While the ponies watched, their spirographs began to move, rotating and warping, returning to their original form at intervals. This hypnotic motion continued for some time, while the white bar began to fill with light blue, until the bar was full - after which the spirograph faded away. Fluttershy was presented with a large blank screen that hovered in front of her, taking up most of her small living room, whereas nothing had been left in the library. Both ponies simply stood in their respective homes, wearing looks of confusion and amazement at what had just happened. Eventually, Fluttershy recovered enough to resume their conversation.

RB: What was that?

CM: I think that was the enchantments connecting to the main spell.

CM: The spell, by its nature, is self sustaining, so it will still be active.

CM: It just won't strictly exist in a physical sense.

RB: So... uh... how do we use it?

CM: Well, I don't need to use the client spell at all.

CM: You should have a blank screen, right?

RB: Yeah.

CM: You should be able to open the server interface just by asking it to.

RB: Uh... ok...

CM: I'll leave you to figure that out for a moment, if that's OK. I just have to go and check up on Spike.

RB: Sure.

[crespucularMagicant stopped talking with reticentButterfly]

Now that the connection between her and Fluttershy was set up, Twilight decided that now would be a good time to make sure Spike was ready to begin the game. Unfortunately, after taking in the sight that greeted her when she entered the room he was in, making sure he was alright was the last thing on Twilight's mind. In fact it was the exact opposite of what was currently on her mind, as she glared magical daggers at the small dragon standing amid a pile of charred books.

"Spike." Twilight's voice was the voice that she reserved for times when she got really angry. It was a voice that said 'unless you have a good explanation for this, you are going to find out exactly what my last slave died of'. Spike laughed nervously, temporarily forgetting that laughing nervously was the best way of making Twilight even angrier when she was like this. "Would you mind telling me what's going on?" The words were delivered in a slow, steady tone, although a faint quiver in her voice could be heard that betrayed the rage she was holding back. This was ridiculously terrifying, and Spike was tempted to make a break for the window. Instead, he simply swallowed his fear, which was a bad idea because it then proceeded to stab him repeatedly from inside his stomach.

"I... I know what this looks like, Twilight, really, but..." taking a brief pause, Spike mentally kicked himself for how stupid what he was about to say was. "I was trying to... um..." another pause, this time to gather his breath as he prepared to deliver his explanation as quickly as possible. With any luck, Twilight wouldn't pick up on the particularly bad parts of what he was going to confess to. It was a tactic he employed frequently, and that never worked. Not that it hurt to try, right?

"I was trying to make a book into one of those cards like I did before because of how Celestia said that I'd need to do it a lot in the future and so I thought that I should practice and then the first book I tried I just ended up burning so I thought that maybe it was only some books so I tried a thicker one and then that got burned and then I decided to see if it was only important books so I tried to do it to that big almanac but it was outdated anyway so it's not that bad and please stop looking at me like that and anyway that didn't work so then I figured that after I'd burnt so many books there was no going back so I carried on and then it still didn't work and now you're here and oh man I'm really really really really really really really Twilight please don't kill me!"

This was rattled off at a speed that would have made Pinkie Pie jealous, but Twilight's anger gave her enough focus to pick out the words. Once she realised what Spike was saying, however, she almost laughed at how stupid he was being. She almost cried at how pointless the destruction was. In the end, she just let out a loud cry that was somewhere in between hilarity and despair, which simply confused Spike even further.

"Oh, Spike..." her tone was half endearing, and half lecturing. In any case it was an improvement over earlier, so Spike allowed himself to relax slightly. "Sometimes you can be a complete idiot!" Walking over to him, she bent down towards one of the books. As she did so, completely beyond his control, Spike let out another burst of fire, which devoured the already charred book. The book disappeared completely, but a few moments later a second burst of fire formed a small white card bearing the image of a burned book, which Twilight levitated before her triumphantly. "Like Celestia said, Spike, you're apparently my 'fetch modus' now, thanks to this game. Which means I need you to turn objects into these small cards, and back again. But if I'm not around, it's just you doing your own thing, so you're just breathing normal fire." She gestured towards the main room where she had been talking to Fluttershy. "Now come on. We've got a lot of work to do."

Visibly relieved, Spike ran on past her and into the main room. Suddenly, he yelped in surprise as he was nearly skewered by a quill shooting towards him. Hitting the floor just in time, he glanced back to see Twilight casually writing some notes with the quill while chuckling quietly.

"That was for the almanac." she said as she walked past him, pausing briefly to captchalogue the paper she had written on with yet more magical fire from Spike. She was going to do the same thing with the quill, but somehow it sensed her intention and became a card by itself. This card was different somehow - though it had a similar layout to the other cards, instead of 'captchalogue' there was text along the top reading 'Strife Specibus'. Rather than a picture of the specific quill she had been holding, there was a silhouette of a generic quill shape. And beneath that was the word 'quillkind'. Interesting.

The card would have to wait, however, as Twilight decided that before asking Princess Celestia about this latest development, it would be a better use of her time to investigate the large machine that had suddenly appeared in the middle of her house.

***

CM: You should be able to open the server interface just by asking it to.

RB: Uh... ok...

CM: I'll leave you to figure that out for a moment, if that's OK. I just have to go and check up on Spike.

RB: Sure.

[crespucularMagicant stopped talking with reticentButterfly]

"Could you... uh, open the server interface? Please?" In the quiet of her cottage, the words resounded in Fluttershy's head pitifully, as apparently only she had heard them. For a few moments, nothing continued to happen, and the blank screen was unresponsive. A few more moments of confused silence, before the screen lit up with a brilliant light. This quickly fell away, to a display from some unseen viewpoint - apparently high up - in Ponyville library. Fluttershy knew it was Ponyville library, because in the room she could see Twilight and Spike. Twilight seemed angry about something, but Fluttershy couldn't hear any sound even though Twilight was clearly talking.

Before she could talk to Twilight about this, there was a loud pinging noise and a white box appeared on top of the image of the library.

Hint 1 of 10: Welcome to Sburb! If you're reading this then you must have connected to your client player. Congratulations! These messages will help you through the first section of the game, and teach you the various functions of the game interface. All operations performed with the interface are voice activated.

Below this message was a small box containing the word 'next'.

"Next."

Hint 2 of 10: Now, let's get started. You will notice that along the top of your screen, above where your client player is running around, there are several options, which are voice activated. From left to right, they are: Select, Revise, Deploy, Phernalia Registry, Grist Cache, Explore Atheneum, and Alchemy Excursus. With the Select, Revise, and Deploy tools you can change your client's physical environment. Feel free to experiment with this feature, but be aware that changing their home will come at the cost of Build Grist. You can obtain more of this later in the game, but for now try to not use any if you can help it. To view the amounts of different grist types that you have gathered at any time, simply open the Grist Cache.

".... next." This was a lot for Fluttershy to take in at once, especially since she didn't understand some of the words - not that 'grist' was even a word.

Hint 3 of 10: Now, let's get started. The first thing to do is to deploy the machines necessary for alchemy: a process that allows you to create any item imaginable! The machines you need are in your Phernalia Registry, which will gain additional - but expensive - machines over time. For now, you can only access the bare minimum, which luckily is all you need! Open your Phernalia Registry, and then Deploy the Cruxtruder, Totem Lathe and Alchemiter somewhere in your client's home. Take care not to obstruct any paths or exits!

This time, the box below the message read 'close'. Presumably the game had decided that she'd been given enough information for now.

"Close." The box disappeared, and Fluttershy was able to view Twilight again. Deciding that the best thing to do would be to follow the advice the game had given her, she navigated away from Twilight and into the large central room that her front door led into. Now to test what she had learned. "Open... uh..." what was it called again? She spent a few moments trying to remember, while on the screen a quill flung itself at Spike. Then it came to her.

"Open Phernalia Registry!" At her command, the icon at the top of the screen activated, and images of several strange machines appeared. Reading the labels, Fluttershy realised that these were the machines the message had told her to deploy. "Deploy... deploy the cruxtruder." A faint outline of the machine appeared on the display of the library, allowing Fluttershy to select exactly where to place it. What was it that the message had said about exits? In front of exits? Just in case, she instructed the game to move the outline so that it was right in front of the door, and confirmed the action. There was a loud ding, and a real machine - a tall cylinder rising out of a large square base, appeared in the library. Interesting.

The technical and philosophical implications of having such a high level of control over Twilight's environment would have to wait, however, as the smaller screen of the communication spell formed before her.

[crespucularMagicant began talking with reticentButterfly]

CM: I couldn't help but notice that there is now a giant machine blocking my front door.

CM: Was that you?

RB: Oh, yes.

CM: I take it that you've got the server working?

RB: Yes, and now it's coming up with some messages that are explaining what to do.

RB: Just now it told me that I need to put some machines down in your home.

RB: So I thought I should follow its advice...

RB: Right?

CM: Hm.

CM: I suppose we should, at least until I can get a better idea of what we're meant to be doing here.

CM: I only know a little about how this 'countdown' thing works, I'm afraid.

CM: As I understand it, the aim is to create a special item out of 'cruxite', using a kind of alchemy to do so.

CM: Beyond that, I have no idea what the actual mechanics of this alchemy are, or how we get Cruxite, or even what the item is.

CM: So advice from the game could be useful.

RB: Then, should I continue creating these machines?

CM: Yeah, but...

CM: Could you try and avoid putting them in front of important things?

CM: Like, for instance, my front door.

CM: Because now I'm basically trapped in here.

Oh. Maybe the message had said to avoid exits, not to place them next to exits. Never mind though, it was an easy mistake to make under pressure. Probably.

RB: :S

CM: ... but yes, you should put the rest of the machines down.

RB: OK.

Taking care to avoid any important areas of the library, Fluttershy quickly placed the alchemiter (a round platform with a piece of complex machinery attached to it) and the totem lathe (a narrow machine decorated with an assortment of wheels and buttons). There were some other items, as the game had mentioned, but they weren't deployable. Also in the registry was a small card covered in holes, but it hadn't been mentioned yet so Fluttershy decided it would be best to leave it alone for now. Having deployed all of the machines, the game's message box opened up again.

Hint 4 of 10: You have now given your client access to machines that will be incredibly useful in the future. They will be used for alchemy, a process which allow you to create many items over the course of the game. However, this is only possible using punched captchalogue cards. At the moment, you do not have any way to punch captchalogue cards, so until then you will only be able to make two items - a Perfectly Generic Object, and the item made with the Pre-Punched card that you can find in your Phernalia Registry. Before making this pre-punched item, we will practice alchemy by making a Perfectly Generic Object.

RB: It, uh... it says that these machines are for alchemy.

CM: Ah, so the alchemy we'll be using is performed with these machines?

RB: I think so.

CM: Hm...

RB: But apparently we need 'punched captchalogue cards' to do it, and it says that we can't make those yet.

CM: Captchalogue cards?

CM: Oh! Right, before I forget, I should tell you this since it almost certainly applies to you as well.

CM: As a result of this game, we now have access to a storage system called a sylladex. Basically, by picking something up with the intent of storing it for later, you can store it in a captchalogue card.

CM: Which you can then retrieve using your fetch modus.

RB: Uh... what's that?

CM: I don't know what it will be for you, it's different for all of us. Spike's magic fire acts as mine, but apparently that's something of a special case since I need him to turn objects into cards as well as taking them out.

CM: But I don't know what it means by punched card.

RB: It doesn't really explain it...

RB: It just says that we will be able to make punched cards later on, but for now we can only make two items.

RB: And now it wants us to practice by making a Perfectly Generic Object.

CM: Interesting.

CM: Well, let's continue to follow its advice. That seems like the only logical course of action.

Hint 5 of 10: First of all you will need to activate your Cruxtruder. This machine has three key properties, which will become apparent when you activate it. To activate your Cruxtruder, you have to open the lid in some way, such as by dropping something heavy onto it.

"Close." Once the message box had disappeared, Fluttershy inspected the cruxtruder on the screen. The lid that the message had mentioned was at the tip of the cylinder, above a wheel that was attached to the side. So presumably she simply had to find something heavy and put it on top of the cruxtruder. She quickly scanned the room Twilight was in, settling on the largest book she could find in the shelves surrounding her friend. Using the Select tool to pick it up, she dragged it over to the cruxtruder and let go. Apparently this worked; as the book connected, the cruxtruder flashed purple, and the entire screen filled with light. Eventually it faded away, and Fluttershy noticed several things. Firstly, she had succeeded in separating the lid from the cruxtruder. Secondly, there was now a countdown being displayed on the machine that was currently at 8:01. And, interestingly, there was also a large pulsating purple sphere hovering above Twilight's head.

RB: What... what is that?

CM: I have no idea, but...

RB: ?

CM: I think it's talking to me.

In Ponyville library, a purple ball of light was floating in front of Twilight, emitting a series of strange beeps, pings, and other noises that were a lot harder to convey with onomatopoeia. It was, as far as she could tell, entirely meaningless.

Turning her attention away from the strange light and its ridiculous noises, Twilight inspected the machine in front of her more closely. The book that Fluttershy had dropped on it had clearly done something; the cylinder was now open at the top, near the wheel which Twilight's attention was now drawn to. Since there were no instructions - at least, not on her end - she decided that the best way to find out what it did would be to give it a try. Magically spinning the wheel, a small cylinder of a strange purple material was spat out of the machine. Interesting.

Investigating this strange cylinder would have to wait, however, as Fluttershy returned with the latest game message.

RB: Uh, Twilight, I don't want to worry you, but...

RB: You should probably know about this.

CM: What is it?

RB: Uh...

RB: Can you see the countdown on the cruxtruder?

CM: The what?

Looking back over the machine, Twilight now saw what she had missed earlier - a small screen displaying some numbers. The style of the numbers was reminiscent of that fancy magic clock in Manehattan, the one that displayed the time in 24 hours. It was a nice idea, she supposed, but it didn't have the same charm as the traditional mechanical clocks. Realising that she was somehow rambling without even speaking, Twilight forced herself to concentrate on the matter at hand.

CM: Yeah, I can see it.

RB: Well, uh...

RB: It's counting down to... well...

CM: Yes?

RB: Apparently it's... that is...

RB: It's counting down to the exact moment when... um...

RB: When the meteor will hit.

CM: Oh. I guess that's why it's called a 'sburban countdown'.

CM: Or at least, that's why it's called a 'countdown'.

CM: I have no idea what 'sburban' is all about.

RB: Oh, I think that this game is called 'Sburb'.

RB: It mentioned it a while ago.

CM: I see. That makes sense, I guess.

CM: Wait a second, we've only got a little over 7 minutes!

RB: Uh... yeah, I suppose we do.

CM: Well, what do we do next!?

RB: It said to take a cruxite dowel from the cruxtruder...

RB: But I think you've done that.

CM: Yeah.

CM: Oh, so this is cruxite?

Using her magic to pick up the small cylinder she had produced from the cruxtruder, Twilight held it up and turned it round. It was perfectly smooth, without any scratches or dust on it. The way it caught the light as it turned gave it a strange, almost unrealistic quality, as if it was made from a material that didn't strictly exist unless you were paying attention to it. Producing a captchalogue card from somewhere, Twilight glanced at the book pictured within. 'Cruxite ore and you: 1002 ways to not die slowly and horribly'. Celestia had mentioned it when she had been talking to Twilight about the game, apparently hinting that it would be important. It looked like Celestia had been right, at least - this game did involve cruxite in some way. Not that the book had been much help. After a few pages of information about cruxite and some of its properties, the list devolved into simply repeating the sentence 'never never ever forget to prototype the kernelsprite' over and over again. Which annoyed Twilight. Not only was it a cheap way of coming up with 1002 pieces of advice, but as far as she could tell cruxite had nothing to do with a kernelsprite - whatever a kernelsprite was. Kernelsprite wasn't even a word.

RB: That's what it says...

CM: So this is what Celestia was talking about.

CM: OK, this is all starting to fit together, so...

CM: What do I do with the cruxite now?

RB: Uh...

RB: It says that normally you would need to use the totem lathe...

RB: But we're making Perfectly Generic Objects, so apparently we don't have to.

CM: Right, OK.

Hint 7 of 10: After cutting the Cruxite dowel into a totem - or not, as in this case - the client player must take the totem to the Alchemiter. Beside the large platform is a small pedestal for placing totems onto. Doing so will activate the machine, and it will scan the totem. Then either you or your client player will be able to set the amount of items you wish to produce, and then confirm the action to create the items. For this exercise, try to make 3 Perfectly Generic Objects, which will consume 6 units of build grist. Don't worry though, as you can restore this grist by recycling the objects later on if you need to do so.

RB: OK, so now you have to... uh...

RB: You have to take the cruxite up to the alchemiter.

CM: I assume that's another machine of some kind?

RB: Yes.

CM: Where did you put it?

RB: Oh, on your balcony.

RB: Is... is that OK?

CM: Yeah, that's fine. I'll head up there now.

Temporarily dismissing the screen while she moved, Twilight headed up the stairs of the library towards the balcony, not without first noticing that she had just under 7 minutes before either succeeding or being incinerated. That was still plenty of time, of course. As she climbed, she remembered the 'strife specibus' card that her quill had turned into. Retrieving it, she noticed that beneath the basic quill shape that filled the main white space, there was a smaller image of a captchalogue card containing her quill. So, her strife specibus - whatever that actually meant - stored captchalogue cards containing quills? That would be the natural assumption to make, given the word 'quillkind' written on it. She had a theory that would need testing, but in the meantime it seemed a good idea to focus on the alchemiter now that she had arrived on the balcony.

Approaching the large, squat platform, she noted the smaller circle which was presumably where to place the cruxite. Next to this was a strange piece of machinery which seemed to be a long tube that had been folded several times. At the end of this tube was a device that she couldn't even begin to define, so instead Twilight simply placed the cruxite cylinder onto the pedestal to see what happened.

What happened was that the tube twisted at the points where it was bent, until the device at the end was aimed at the cruxite. This device then emitted a beam of light, which it dragged along the height of the purple cylinder. Then, apparently having completed whatever task it was performing, the device folded away once again.

After this had happened, a small box with the number 1 in it appeared on Fluttershy's screen, along with an up arrow and a down arrow. Next to this box was a picture of a small blue diamond like shape, and the number -2 in red characters. Which was interesting, because she had a feeling that she had seen that blue diamond before, somewhere... glancing around, she caught sight of another box in the bottom left corner of the screen that she had all but forgotten about. It also showed a blue diamond, next to a bar of blue that was labelled: 'Build Grist 20/20'. So, she presumed, the blue diamond (which, it is worth pointing out, wasn't really a diamond - more of a hexagonal prism, in case you cared) was what 'build grist' looked like. So a 1 in the box meant she would lose 2 build grist... which led to the conclusion that the box with the number 1 in was the mechanism through which she could change how many items would be made.

"Uh... 3?" After the small delay that the game always seemed to take before it processed what she had said, the number in the box dutifully changed to 3. "Confirm." She noticed a change in the box in the bottom left; some of the blue in the bar had disappeared, and the label now read 'Build Grist 14/20'. More interestingly, three large green cubes had now appeared on the surface of the alchemiter. They appeared to be completely boring and uninteresting. Or, Fluttershy corrected herself, they appeared to be Perfectly Generic.

CM: Wow, what do these do?

RB: Well, they're the Perfectly Generic Objects we were making.

CM: Oh.

CM: So I guess the answer to my question is...

CM: Nothing.

RB: I guess...

CM: Right, I remember you mentioning that we were only making these things to practice alchemy.

RB: Oh, yeah.

CM: OK, so... is there anything that we can do which will get me closer to not dying quickly and violently?

RB: I'll check.

RB: Oh, by the way...

RB: Did you notice that the...

RB: Uh...

RB: The whatever it is, seems to be following you?

After reading Fluttershy's message, Twilight turned looked up, and saw the strange ball of light that had emerged from the cruxtruder. It did seem to be following her, as looking into it gave her the distinct impression that it was looking back. Unfortunately, it was apparently oblivious to the fact that Twilight couldn't understand its strange and irritating noises, and continued to bleep and vwoop urgently. She decided to ignore it for now.

Trying to phase out the strange noises, Twilight turned her eyes skyward. It was beginning to get dark, so she should be able to see the OH GOD THAT'S HUGE. Suddenly remembering that the meteor was roughly 5 minutes away, the unicorn could do nothing but stare up in awe at the rapidly approaching fireball. How had she been so calm about this? There was a meteor flying towards her! She was going to die! What in Celestia's name was she thinking? What was - her panicked thoughts were silenced by the dinging noise which accompanied a new message whenever she wasn't viewing the screen of the communication spell. Fluttershy was back.

RB: OK, I think I know what to do...

CM: What? Hurry!

RB: Uh...

RB: Remember when you said that we needed to make a item?

RB: Made of cruxite?

CM: Yeah...

RB: I think that we're making that now.

CM: OK...

RB: You need to go to the totem lathe downstairs...

RB: And you have to take the cruxite, and this pre-punched card.

A captchalogue card appeared, seemingly from nowhere. Although the holes it was covered in made it hard to make out, it seemed to contain the picture of a purple tube of some description. Twilight assumed that the holes would make it impossible to retrieve, and the lack of involuntary fire breath from Spike when she attempted to retrieve it confirmed this theory. She was, however, able to captchalogue the captchalogue card, which made her head hurt a little. Regardless, she captchalogued the Cruxite as well and took the cards back into her house. After a brief pause to catch his breath, Spike - and the ball of light - followed.

Ignoring the fact that she now had 4 minutes and 47 seconds left to complete whatever it was she was actually doing, Twilight entered the room where Fluttershy had placed the Totem Lathe. On it were several wheels, buttons, and other nonsense, which on any other day Twilight would have loved to reverse engineer. Right now though, she literally didn't have the time.

CM: What am I doing with this thing?

RB: Uh... do you see that there's...

RB: Hm.

RB: There's sort of a clamp thing?

CM: Uh... yeah, OK, I think I see what you mean.

CM: So do I just have to put the cruxite into there?

RB: Yeah.

RB: And then you have to put the card I gave you into the machine.

CM: Where?

RB: Uh...

RB: One moment.

CM: Hurry!

RB: It says that there should be a slot in the side that the card will fit into.

Inspecting the device closer, Twilight found the slot in question, which indeed appeared to be just the right size to slot a captchalogue card into. Retrieving the pre-punched card, she inserted it. As the card entered the machine, sounds of whirring and clanging came from within. After a few moments, a series of unbelievably sharp blades extended from a part of the machine directly above where the cruxite was clamped into place. The aim, clearly, was to cut the totem in some way.

RB: Right, now you just have to turn it on and it will cut the cruxite into a totem.

Twilight did so, and watched as the blades were lowered onto the cruxite. Almost as soon as they had done so, they raised up again, but not before taking a considerable chunk out of the cruxite. What was once a perfect cylinder was now a strange, wavy pattern. It was still perfect though, as Twilight noted while retrieving it from the clamp - the carving had left it just as smooth and scratch-less as it had been before. Not waiting to hear Fluttershy's next instructions, she captchalogued the carved totem and headed upstairs towards the alchemiter. She ignored the fact that she had just over 4 minutes left.

RB: Where are you going?

CM: To the alchemiter, so that I can use this totem.

CM: Presumably with the result of creating the item that was on the pre-punched card, correct?

RB: I don't know, it hasn't said anything yet...

RB: Oh, here we go.

RB: ... oh, yes, it does say that.

CM: Great.

CM: I think I'm starting to get the hang of this.

Rushing up to the pedestal, she took out the totem's captchalogue card and attempted to retrieve the totem. Nothing happened, except for the faint sound of a distant explosion, but Twilight was far too busy with not being killed by a meteor to pay attention to silly things like that. Confused by the lack of fire, she shot a look behind her to where Spike was only just completing the journey up the stairs. He looked exhausted. Nearby, the ball of light offered a few sympathetic pings for the tired dragon.

"Spike! We're running out of time!"

"I know, but I'm tired! I've been running around all day, plus you've had me making way more fire than I normally do." On any other day, Twilight would have taken offence at his attitude. But it was true, he had been making a lot of fire today - not all of which was appreciated, her mind added angrily - and it was getting late.

"OK, I'm sorry, and I promise you can rest after we get this done, but we're so close to the end!" She paused.

CM: We're getting close to the end of this, right?

RB: Uh... I think so.

RB: There are 10 hints, I think.

RB: And we're at number 9.

CM: Right.

"We're so close to the end!" she resumed. "And, at the same time, we're also really close to dying, so we really do need to get this done now." She held out the card to him, and he begrudgingly breathed yet another burst of fire onto it. "Thanks, Spike."

Turning her attention back to the pressing matter of the meteor which was stupidly close to her house, Twilight placed the totem onto the alchemiter's pedestal and pressed the button that allowed her to make the items herself. A few seconds passed, while the device once again scanned the beam of light across the totem, before a large purple writing desk appeared with a sheet of paper on it. As she watched, the paper rolled up into a scroll, and the writing desk beneath it disappeared with a flash of light. Taking a look at the obscured image on the pre-punched card, Twilight realised that the tube must have been this purple scroll. Which was all well and good, except she had no idea what to do with this.

CM: OK, Fluttershy, what do I do with this?

There was a pause, so Twilight waited, as calmly as it is possible to wait when there's a meteor 3 minutes and 48 seconds from your house.

And waited.

If Twilight was being completely honest, this was getting a little unnerving.

CM: Fluttershy? Are you there?

Of course, there wasn't any need to panic. Fluttershy was probably just reading the next game message. It was probably really long and complicated, so it was taking a while. It had to be long and complicated, Twilight reasoned, because it was explaining the method through which this scroll would somehow transport Twilight to the bubble universe where the game world was located. It was only natural that it would take a while... Twilight just wished it wasn't taking quite this long.

CM: Fluttershy?

"Alright, calm down Twilight, there's nothing to be afraid of. Fluttershy isn't going to leave you hanging." If anything, hearing the fear in her own voice just made things worse. "If she's been distracted by something, it must be something important. But don't worry, she'll get back to you. Of course she'll get back to you."

CM: Please, just say something!

CM: ... Fluttershy?

Looking out across Ponyville from her library, Twilight tried to see Fluttershy's cottage. She couldn't, of course, because it was on the other side of town. The closest she could see to the cottage was the edge of the Everfree Forest creeping around the side of Ponyville. Unfortunately that was enough to see what had grabbed Fluttershy's attention.

The whole forest was on fire.

Comments

[Fallen Prime]

First server player and approaching forest fire. Thus further solidifying Fluttershy's role as the Rose of the Mane Six. Minus anything that could tie significantly into Rose's personality.

If 'Shy goes grimdark, I so called it.

132600 If you call that I call Ranbow knee deep in smuppet ass

So much fucking win I'm a huge homestuck and mlp fan make more flipping chapters now

[eeveeextreme]

Throughout the the chapter I've been mentally screaming "THROW SOMETHING INTO THE DAMN KERNALSPRITE OR YOU WILL FAIL!! DO IIIIT!!!"

[Skeeter The Lurker]

And the lunacy continues! Just like the real one.

Well done, indeed, dude.

~Skeeter The Lurker

[GMBlackjack]

I want a Spikesprite. Or Owlsprite. But seeing as Spike serves the role of Sylladex I'm expecting Owlsprite and...

...My gosh will it be Angelsprite for Fluttershy? ...The horrors.

-GM, master of sprites.