//------------------------------//
// Chapter 25 
// Story: Ponystuck 
// by confoundtheseponies 
//------------------------------//

	[eclecticSage began pestering desertedDestiny]
ES: hey
DD: Uh. Hi?
DD: Who are you?
ES: i'm golden
ES: not that that's important right now
ES: i need you to back me up here
DD: ?
DD: What do you mean?
ES: ok, BASICALLY
ES: my friend and i are having a little disagreement
DD: Uh... OK...
ES: i'm trying to argue that umbrellas are just as capable a weapon, if not more so, than axes
DD: Axes?
ES: AXES
ES: i mean, there's nothing WRONG with axes per se
ES: but neither is there anything wrong with an umbrella
ES: or any of the less conventional forms of weaponry
ES: do you agree?
DD: Um.
DD: I guess?
DD: My friend uses books, so...
DD: I suppose that counts as unconventional?
ES: actually it's pretty common from what i hear
ES: but yeah
ES: that's what i'm SAYING
DD: Heh.
ES: well anyway
ES: i can't stop to chat, but
ES: i'll be talking to you later
DD: Sure. Whoever you are.
ES: i told you, i'm golden
DD: Right. That helps.
DD: Bye, then.
ES: yeah, BYE
[eclecticSage ceased pestering desertedDestiny]


***A LITTLE EARLIER***


"That should do it," Celestia said at last, stepping back from the machine to admire her handiwork. Exactly why there was a machine controlling a volcano that no one knew how to operate, she wasn't quite sure, but finally the thing had started working. "Step 1 is complete!"

"Yeah, great, well done. Now, about step 1.5..." Star Swirl began, gesturing at the puzzle she had just solved. "Specifically, getting out of here before the volcano starts working..."

"Oh, that? Don't worry, I've got a plan." She smiled happily, while Star Swirl waited patiently. A few seconds passed, before Lector coughed politely and Celestia continued. "Basically, we run as fast as we can."

Another few seconds passed uneventfully. The unicorn simply stood dumbfounded, the earth pony continued to grin like a madmare, and the crocodile stood between them nervously. Then, finally coming to his senses, Star Swirl magically lifted Lector off of his tiny legs and began hurtling down the tunnel through which they had entered the Forge, a cackling Celestia close behind him.

"Celestia, I kind of hate you," the wizard called back to the Mage, who seemed oblivious to the trembling rock surrounding them. Taking a sudden left fork, Star Swirl glanced behind him as Celestia followed, and a plume of smoke filled the tunnel they had just been running through. This was not cool, in any sense of the word. Reaching another fork, he began to head to the right turn, only for Celestia to suddenly rush forwards and push him through the left path. A few moments and one huge tremor later, a huge river of lava was suddenly flowing out of the right-hand path and down into the path where they were now running.

"Knock it off," Celestia said, beginning to sound more than a little out of breath as she and Star Swirl continued at full pelt, all manner of explosions and rock falls close behind them. Neither of them had any idea where they were going, only that stopping would be a terrible idea. "You can never stay mad at me." 

"If I might make a suggestion, Mage?" Lector asked, a little bemused by his current situation. "Now would be an excellent time for you to figure out what your powers are."

"How the fuck should I know what my powers are?" Celestia asked desperately, as both ponies rapidly came to a halt as they rounded a corner only to find themselves at a dead end blocked off by fallen rock. "I don't even know why this game made me a Mage! I can't even do any magic! Star Swirl should be the Mage!"

"I AM a mage, by occupation," Star Swirl pointed out, as he tried to assess how much time they had left. Not enough, that was for sure. "OK, there's one thing I can try, but it's kind of dangerous..." Celestia looked at him incredulously, as though he had suggested that she used her monopony board as a life raft.

"Star Swirl. We're about to be killed by a volcanic eruption. HOW THE FUCK CAN YOUR IDEA PUT US IN ANY MORE DANGER!?!"

"Point taken. Stand back, this might end badly." Closing his eyes, Star Swirl tried to recall the necessary steps. How did time travel work? Visualisation, formation, realisation, just like any spell. The key was that the order was inverted. But, how could a spell take effect before it had been created? The answer, quite simply, was that it had already been created as a result of its own effect. Easy, at least in theory.


***A LOT EARLIER***


"Hi Luna!" Silver called happily, as Luna returned to the Land of Cold and Dark. Understandably, the God was caught a little off guard by her friend. Silver didn't seem to mind, or indeed notice. "I was wondering when you were going to turn up."

"You were waiting for me?" Luna asked, a little confused about the situation. "What about Golden?" The unicorn blinked.

"What about him?" Silver asked innocently, in a way that was very clearly an attempt to make Luna drop the subject. Luna decided to drop the subject.

"Ah. OK, never mind then. So-" Luna was interrupted, as a large cloud of darkness suddenly enveloped the two of them. Damn, where was Star Swirl when she needed him? Although Luna had a horn now, it wasn't as if she suddenly understood how to use magic.

But then, maybe she didn't need to. Leaping up into the sky, Luna cleared the cloud barrier before pausing and hovering in mid-air. One Voidy thing later, and all of the thick black clouds halted their endless journeys across the land, as they were drawn in towards her. As they neared, they lifted, spiralled around her, and eventually they dispersed into a thin layer of cloud far off of the ground. So her Void powers apparently gave her influence over these clouds? That seemed pretty useful. Regardless, the clouds weren't going to be a problem anymore, so Luna quickly flew back down to where Silver had been waiting.

"Wow, that was..." Silver began, quickly closing the laptop she had been using while Luna had been flying around being impressive, to which Luna took a little offense. It hadn't taken that long, had it? "That was the correct way to show off. You are simply the best at flashy powers."

"You're just jealous because I have wings," Luna said, lowering her hood. It, just like the rest of her God tier outfit, was surprisingly comfortable, but she still preferred to have her head unrestricted. The only kind of headgear that she could imagine herself wearing long term would be some kind of crown or tiara type construction. Not that she could think of any reason why she would ever wear something like that. "Anyway, shall we?" Silver nodded. "Great. Who were you talking to, by the way?"

"Oh, nopony that you know," Silver replied, captchaloguing her laptop and beginning to walk after Luna. "Just a friend."

Although there is no known way to get into anyone else's sylladex, if there was some mechanism by which we might see Silver's conversation, it could possibly look something like this...

[shiningSeraphim (ss) began pestering psychoticDeceiver]
ss: This is a terrible plan and i dont like you
ss: But its going good so far
PD: Of course it is. My plan is great.
ss: Keep telling yourself that
ss: If you believe in something enough then that makes it slightly less fake
PD: Hmph.
PD: Just keep an eye on her, be helpful, etc.
PD: The point of this is purely for recon, and to keep her distracted.
PD: That said, if you have your axe out and she let's her guard down...
ss: Good idea
ss: Ill be sure to take the first opportunity to kill the immortal
ss: Thereby giving the game away and accomplishing nothing
PD: Oh, whatever.
ss: Damn it shes coming back
ss: Brb
PD: Fine.
[shiningSeraphim (ss) ceased pestering psychoticDeceiver]


***


PD: I doubt that I ever will.
ES: ohohohoh, that's where you're WRONG
ES: ^^
[eclecticSage ceased pestering psychoticDeceiver]

"As suspicious as that guy was," Golden noted, "This upgraded chat client is badass." Soon after installing the CD that the teal unicorn had given him, Golden had sent the files to the others as well. The CD had apparently consisted of a hugely upgraded program, which seemed to have time powers somehow? He wasn't terribly sure what it did or how it did it. What he did think was that by far the most significant feature of the upgrade was a small window that allowed him to view whoever he was talking to, whenever he was talking to them. Silver was noticeably less impressed.

"Uhuh. Now can we please get a move on? We don't exactly have the luxury of time," she reminded him. Luna had warned everyone that something called a Reckoning had started, and that they now had a limited amount of time to finish the game. Golden sighed, knowing that she was right.

"Yeah, OK. Let me just-" A beep drew his attention, and he turned back to his laptop. "Huh, I wonder what this is." And with that, he clicked the tiny button which had appeared.

FA: hey, click this for no reason
FA: #THISISSTUPID
[CURRENT eclecticSage began responding to memo THISISSTUPID]
CES: what am i DOING here?

And then a bunch of really dumb and pointless loose ends that no one even cares about were thoroughly tied up.


***


"That hurt, dumbass!" Celestia shouted, taking a decidedly negative reaction to being shoved several hours back into the past. Lector, at least, was polite enough to hold his tongue if he had any objections. Star Swirl took a moment to catch his breath. That had gone better than expected. This was to say, they were still alive and intact. "Are you listening to me!?"

"Yeah, sorry about that," Star Swirl said, walking forwards through the currently unblocked tunnel ahead of them. "I know how you really wanted to die horribly while trapped underneath a volcano. Saving you like that was just a dick move on my part, I apologise." He was not entirely unsurprised when a hoof connected with the back of his head.

"You know what I meant," Celestia said grumpily. "But... thanks. I owe you one. Now, let's get out of here. I'm sick of this mountain." Star Swirl nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. Let's go home."


***


Having tied up the more pressing loose ends, Silver and Golden had been making good progress across Golden's planet. The Land of Gardens and Statues was a curious place, filled with salamanders tending to the plants and doing their very best to stay out of sight. There were no actual buildings on the planet, and civilisation took the form of summer fêtes on a grand scale - a typical city might consist of a colossal field filled with vintage cars, arranged around an arbitrarily designated centre which would usually consist of a maypole and a few dozen ice cream trucks. Cricket was often involved in some way. It was certainly an original setting for the widespread destruction that battles with the colossal underlings often involved. Unlike the consorts of the other planets, however, most of the salamanders on LOGAS were either uninterested or simply unaware of Golden's significance to their planet. He and Silver hadn't heard so much as a whisper of his role, which was a little frustrating. Even Silver, in her brief time spent on LOsAS, had gathered that she was a Sylph of something or other.

"You know," Silver thought aloud, grinning as the ogre they were fighting roared in pain while she slashed at it viciously with her axe. "There is one NPC on this planet that will definitely know what you are." Ducking beneath a flailing limb, she ran around to the other side of the ogre to keep it off balance. "We could try going to see your denizen."

"I think I want to be a little more competent with this before we do that," Golden said, opening up his umbrella and using it as a shield to deflect an incoming blow. Somehow, it worked. "Besides, it's not a huge deal. It just makes me rage a little is all." Leaping forwards, he jabbed the umbrella into the ogre's shoulder, causing it to stagger backwards onto one foot.

"I guess you're right. Now..." Waiting for her moment, Silver ran towards the ogre from behind and magically shoved the one foot it was balancing on. Its leg went flying up from underneath it, and the underling began to plummet downwards. Right towards where Silver was standing. "Grist shower. Make it happen." Rolling his eyes, Golden rushed towards where she was waiting, stabbing upwards with his umbrella as the ogre drew ever closer. Dealing just enough damage to finish the ogre off, he opened the umbrella as the underling collapsed into a colossal gristfall. The two ponies stood in silence underneath the umbrella, as multi-coloured gaming abstractions of all shapes and sizes dripped around them. "Thanks," Silver said, as she stepped out from under the umbrella and began collecting the grist.

"You're welcome," Golden replied dryly. "Now, I'm going to check up with Luna and see what she's doing." And so he did, quickly retrieving his laptop. A small box opened, displaying a picture of Luna, in all her God tier glory.

[eclecticSage began pestering midnightEclipse]
ES: HEY LUNA
ME: Oh, hey Golden!
ME: What's up?
ES: atm?
ES: nothing but me and silver completely OWNING at this game! 
ES: ^^
ME: ... wait.
ME: What?
ES: oh, don't be like that. is it really so hard to believe that me and silver are actually good at this?
ES: granted, silver's not the best at games, but i like to think that i'm pretty good
ES: also, i did NOT say that she's not the best at games, in case she asks
ME: No, I mean... Silver?
ES: yes. silver heart, one of our best friends, remember?
ME: But she's here. With me.
ES: hey, i sent you the improved chat client thing
ES: so... you can see me, right?
ME: Uh, yes?

"Hey, Silver, come over here," Golden said, waving a hoof in her general direction. She did so, with a confused expression. "Luna doesn't think you're here with me for some reason," he explained, which only made the confused expression worse.

ES: there, see?
ME: Uh. Hold on.

On the screen, Luna called out to some unseen pony. A few seconds of waiting, and the subject of her attention wandered into view. Both Golden and Silver simultaneously gasped in surprise as they saw who it was. It was Silver.

ES: i suddenly understand jack shit about anything


***


	You make the MONOPONY IS ALREADY A PUN!

"You know what my favourite thing about this game is?" Celestia asked, as she inspected her newly alchemised popamatic monopony board. "It has the best sense of humour. Great job with the puns, you really did us proud."

"How many times do I need to remind you," Star Swirl sighed, lifting the MAP out of Celestia's hooves and inspecting its layout. "I didn't make the game. I have changed nothing about how the mechanics work. Which, I suppose, is a missed opportunity." As well as their homes on each of the five planets, and Skaia, the MAP also allowed the user to travel to any of the world gates or return nodes. Which meant that instead of charging through an hour or so of questing and fighting off waves of enemies, they could simply head to the return node found at the end of a gauntlet and follow the path back to the end of the quest. "But it doesn't matter, not when we have items as broken as this."

"You broke it already!?" Celestia reached out and grabbed the MAP out of the air. "This is why we can't have nice things, Star Swirl. Anyway, where should we go?"

"Go?" Star Swirl asked, gesturing around them to her drastically altered planet. Since their past selves had caught up to them and lit the Forge, the planet was now drastically different. A thick layer of cloud now blotted out the terribly bright and red light in the sky, meaning that the entirety of LOWAF was now moderately dim and temperate. Star Swirl wasn't convinced that the science actually worked that way, but global climate change was the last thing about this game that he was going to start criticising. "We've lit the Forge, but we still need to find all of the remaining frogs. We need to stay here if we're going to have any chance of finishing in time!" Celestia stared at him, clearly unimpressed by his boring ideas.

"Yeah... or we could go somewhere else and quickly have a few new adventures. I pick Silver's planet." Making the correct adjustments to the MAP, Celestia moved to push the button.

"You can't just do that-" Star Swirl began, before being cut off as Celestia just did that.


***


"Silver?" Luna asked, suddenly very unsure of herself. Who was this? She had little doubt that the real Silver was with Golden on LOGAS. But the pony in front of her... she looked exactly like Silver. Creepily so. What the hell was going on?

No. Wait. There was one difference, now that she really looked closely. In fact, she wondered why it had taken her so long to notice.

"Yes?" 'Silver' asked, not yet aware of Luna's suspicions.

"What's wrong with your eyes?" 'Silver' raised her eyebrows, but said nothing. "They're red. Your eyes are blue. What happened?"

"Uh..." 'Silver' floundered, the time limit Luna was prepared to deem unsuspicious rapidly declining. "Are they? Really? I hadn't noticed, but then, why would I have?"

"I don't know," Luna said. "I don't suppose you've been doing any time travel recently?"

"Uh... no?" 'Silver' said, a little confused by the strange question. "Why, could that have anything to do with it?"

"Not particularly," Luna said, turning her laptop so that 'Silver' could see the image of LOGAS. "But it might explain why you're both here and on LOGAS with Golden." 'Silver' froze.

"Ah. Uh... hm. I... oh dear." Silver Edge's increasingly half-hearted attempts to explain herself trailed off, as Luna's expression rapidly went through intensifying degrees of 'shut the fuck up'. Just as she began to think that it might be a good idea to get moving, the thin shell of dark cloud above them descended and thickened at Luna's command, enveloping the two mares. This was not a good place to get on Luna's bad side, Silver thought to herself. "Luna?"

"Don't worry, I'm right here," Luna's voice whispered right behind her. Quickly turning and swinging her axe into the darkness, Silver completely failed to hit anything. Was that a bad thing, reinforcing the fact that Luna completely outmatched her in this environment, or was it a relief that Luna wasn't right behind her? "Then again, maybe that isn't exactly going to reassure you," came Luna's voice, again whispered right into her ear. And again, Silver's axe did nothing but make her feel slightly more insecure about her surroundings. "I can't say I particularly care either way." An arrow shot right past her head, its fletching scraping against her horn, almost making her drop her axe in surprise. Was Luna also hindered by the darkness, or had that been a warning shot? Maybe it didn't matter.

"You're enjoying this," Silver stated, instinctively leaping to one side as another arrow flew towards her. Rolling smoothly to her hooves and flinging her axe forwards, she sprinted away without waiting to find out if her attack had accomplished anything in particular. Miraculously, she breached the cloud barrier without impaling herself on any obstacles, and wasted no time in retrieving the Gate from her sylladex. Quickly, she made the necessary adjustments. LOsAS, here she came. The moment after she had prepared the gate, however, it was shot out of her hands by another arrow. Then, almost immediately, the clouds dispersed completely to reveal a thoroughly pissed off Maid of Void. Hovering beside her was an axe. "Uh. Hey, Luna." Not taking her eyes off of Luna for more than a split second, Silver quickly glanced to the side. The Gate wasn't far away. She could potentially make it.

"Go on," Luna said, the axe circled around her head, traitorously mocking Silver. "Make my day." The moment the sentence had left her mouth, the axe flung forwards, and so did Silver. Ducking as the axe reached her, and rolling unceremoniously the remaining distance to the Gate, Silver picked up the item and glanced back to a furious Luna.

"Better luck next time," Silver said, activating the Gate and sendificating herself to safety. Luna stood alone for a while, catching her breath and deciding her next move. Retrieving Silver's axe, she reopened her laptop.

[midnightEclipse began pestering eclecticSage]
ME: I don't know how much of that you saw, but the point is that we have a fake Silver running around.
ES: eep
ME: Get yourselves over to Silver's planet right now.
ME: I'm not letting her get away that easily.
ES: sure thing
ES: what about star swirl?
ME: If he's not involved in this by the time we get there, I'll be surprised.
ME: I'll meet you and the real Silver there.
ES: OK
[midnightEclipse ceased pestering eclecticSage]


***


"So, Silver," Star Swirl said, trying to break the silence that had fallen since he and Celestia had met up with the unicorn on her planet. "Where's Golden?" While he waited for an answer, he busied himself with making tea. Celestia had not approved when she had learned that he had brought a kettle with him, but he was not about to listen to her judgement on drinking. She had wanted some all the same. Silver Edge paused, deciding how to handle the question this time around, before replying.

"He's on LOCAD with Luna. They should turn up soon enough."

"And why's that?" Celestia asked. "What's so great about your planet? No offense, of course. I just don't see why they would be heading here as well."

"Well, me and Golden and Luna are sort of going around as a whole minigroup at the moment." Silver shrugged, attempting to give the impression that the matter was not going to be explained any further. Where the hell was Mild when she needed him? "So I'm just getting on with my quests."

"That almost seems like a waste of an opportunity to me," Celestia commented. "I mean, it was just you and Golden together, having your little adventures, without any of us in the way... and now you're going around with Luna." She paused, thinking things over. "Or at least, I assume it's a waste. But then again, I'm not sure how open minded Luna is." A spluttering sound distracted her from her point, as Star Swirl almost choked on the tea he was drinking. Calmly sitting and watching, Celestia waited patiently for his coughing fit to subside before continuing. "Steady on there, Swirly."

"I had something caught in my throat," Star Swirl protested, to which Celestia simply nodded condescendingly.

"Well, I'm sure I don't know what you mean," Silver said, looking more angry than uncomfortable. "Golden and I are friends. That's it."

"Yeah. Maybe I just forgot to eat my special stardust this morning or something, but I like to think I have at least a little credibility. I'm not that stupid." When Silver refused to comment, Celestia simply rolled her eyes and snatched up the teacup which Star Swirl had poured for her. "Besides, regardless of what you two were or weren't planning on doing, it's downright selfish of you to take up all of Luna's time. Poor old Swirly here doesn't stand a chance at this rate."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Star Swirl asked. He knew exactly what she meant, and Celestia knew that he knew. His role in this conversation was to ask as many rhetorical questions and give as many ambiguous responses as possible.

"You know, Swirly, what I want to know is: if you can deliberately make yourself so incredibly dense, why can't you get Luna to be attracted to you?" Celestia replied, waiting for a few smug moments for Star Swirl to get the joke.

"That doesn't even work," he eventually said. "Density has no effect on gravitational field strength, mass does." Celestia rolled her eyes, giving an exaggerated sigh.

"I made the leap of imagination that, given that you remain the same size when you're being stupid, your density is increasing while your volume remains constant. Therefore, more mass," she ranted, taking occasional pauses to drink her tea. "Besides which, it's a fucking joke, based around the double meaning of the word density. And also, this tea is actually pretty good."

"Thank you," Star Swirl said, and for a few minutes silence returned. Silver Edge suddenly felt very awkward. "So, uh," Star Swirl began, looking decidedly more nervous than before. "Did Luna actually say that she wasn't attracted to me, or..."

"I'm saying nothing," Celestia said, as she retrieved her laptop. If they were going to be sitting around for some time, she may as well save the timeline in her spare time.

[heliacalDreamer began pestering mechanicalNoisemaker]
HD: HELLO SUMMER!


***


Appearifying out of the gate on LOsAS, Golden Shine and Silver Heart took a moment to get their bearings. There was no sign of Luna, and so there wasn't much else that they could do besides sit and wait by Silver's home. On the plus side, the view was tremendous.

"It's a beautiful planet, isn't it?" Silver asked, axe at the ready in case Golden decided to give a stupidly cliché response. Instead, he shrugged.

"It's alright. Personally, I find that kind of architecture en masse just looks a bit much." Well, at least he was being honest, although Silver felt a little disappointed that she hadn't gotten to use her axe. "So, uh... what do you think about this... fake Silver?"

"I'm not sure," Silver replied. "I don't know what to think. I mean, who is she? Where did she come from?"

"I don't know," Luna answered, suddenly dropping down out of the sky to meet them. "But I've got an axe with her name on it, so I sure as hell know where she's going."

"Axes aren't that great," Golden commented, as he rose to his feet and joined Luna and Silver as they began to head out into the landscape of the planet. "Umbrellas are just as good as weapons, plus they have a practical purpose."

"Will you shut up about umbrellas!" Silver complained, rolling her eyes apologetically at Luna, who simply smiled and shook her head. "And also, axes are great."

"Right, that does it," Golden said, retrieving his laptop as they walked. "I'm getting a second opinion on this."

[eclecticSage began pestering desertedDestiny]
ES: HEY


***


HD: And that is why Monopony has so many uses.
RB: Oh, uh, thanks... I think?
RB: I'm still not really sure who you are.
HD: I KNOW! And I'd really love to tell you, because you're just so nice.
HD: :(
HD: Maybe one day soon I'll tell you!
RB: :)
HD: BYE FLUTTERSHY!
RB: Oh, OK... bye!
[heliacalDreamer ceased pestering reticentButterfly]

"Heh, I'm just so awesome," Celestia said happily, as she captchalogued her laptop again. "Anyway, break time's over, I think." Star Swirl nodded, and all three ponies got to their feet.

"Hey, is that Luna?" Star Swirl asked, pointing a hoof in the general direction of a nearby hill. Celestia squinted at the top; the edge of the hill was blurred by the heat, but shapes that could potentially resemble ponies were apparently coming over the hill towards them.

"I think you've got Luna on the brain," Celestia said. "But it might be. What do you think, Silver?" There was no reply. "Silver?" A few seconds later, and it came to her attention that Silver was no longer in their immediate vicinity. That was odd.

"Wait, she's over there," Star Swirl pointed out. "With Luna and Golden." And, when Celestia looked, there she was. "Hm."

Walking forwards, Star Swirl and Celestia met the approaching group of three halfway, at the base of the hill, whereupon they compared notes on what had happened so far.

"Huh. So the Silver we just spent however long talking to... wasn't actually Silver?" Celestia summarised.

"Well, we don't know about that," Luna corrected. "She might be called Silver, but she's not OUR Silver."

"Well, whoever she is," Silver Heart pointed out, "We need to put a stop to this before it gets silly. Where is she?" A cackling laugh drew the group's attention, and they all looked upwards to see two ponies floating above them. One, a grey winged and horned earth pony, and the other a light purple unicorn. "Oh."

"I hate to interrupt this little group meeting," Mild said, drawing multiple knives out of his strife deck. "But we're on a tight schedule here, so I'd appreciate it if we could cut straight to the heart of the matter." He paused for effect. "Or the heart of the pony, either one would be fine." With that, Silver Edge dived sharply downwards, her replacement axe swinging straight for Golden. In response, Luna threw the axe she had taken earlier, deflecting the blow, and giving Star Swirl time to reach Golden. Seizing control of both axes, Star Swirl tossed one back to Luna while using the other to keep Silver busy dodging his attacks.

Unfortunately for him, Silver wasn't alone. After spending the first few strikes of the fight watching from his vantage point, Mild quickly flew down behind Star Swirl, flinging a series of knives towards him. Most of these were deflected off of the magical shield which he quickly raised in response - but the shield was only set up after the first two knives had embedded into his leg. Before Mild could capitalise on this, however, Luna was on the offensive, knocking his knives out of the air with her arrows.

While Star Swirl and Luna dealt with Mild, the others were attempting to take down Silver Edge. Celestia was having the most success in this endeavour, using her staff - which apparently had Spacey powers now - to shoot her enemy downwards into the ground. After doing so, she would wait for Golden and Silver to attack the enemy, until she was in a position where the damage from the staff would be significant. Even so, the strategy was having diminishing returns as she began to formulate ways of mitigating the damage.

"You know, Celestia," Silver Edge managed, as she nimbly dodged between an axe and an umbrella. "You're really starting to get me down." Focusing her strength into one large push of magic, she lashed out at the earth pony, knocking the staff from Celestia's grasp. There. Now she could capitalise on the advantage her flight gave her. Flipping herself up and over Golden, she landed directly behind Silver Heart, summoning her axe to her from where it had been dropped by Star Swirl after he had been stabbed.

As Golden watched the axe being magically picked up from its resting place, time seemed to slow as he began running. Silver Edge had almost gotten the axe. Then she had the axe. Then she was beginning to turn. Now, Silver Heart's face suggested she was beginning to realise what was happening, as Golden drew ever closer to her. The axe was swinging, and then Golden was knocking its intended victim out of the way, and then the axe carried on swinging, and then time stopped being slow and started being painful.


***


"Urgh," Mild spat, as he and Silver descended from the Medium, finally arriving on LOPAD. "That did not go very well at all. That bastard got me few times." Of course, taking damage meant basically nothing when you were a God. It had still hurt though.

"Suck it up," Silver said. "You gave as good as you got, and I gave better than I got. And, at the end of the day, mission accomplished."

"But even so, I feel like we were cheated out of a complete victory," Mild complained. Still, it wasn't like he could have predicted that Celestia would have had a MAP.

"We needed some of them alive anyway. You know what has to happen for this to work."

"Yes, yes." Mild still seemed rather annoyed, although whether that was because of his incomplete victory or because Silver seemed more in control than he did, it was impossible to say. "Now let's get this sucker loaded up before it really is too late."

"Yeah. OK."


***


Celestia wasn't a doctor by any means, but she was pretty sure that blood didn't work unless it was inside the body. Unable to suggest an alternative course of action, she poked Golden experimentally. The unicorn grunted in annoyance.

"Ow." Golden didn't particularly feel like saying anything else at that moment, so he decided to remain silent.

"He's fine," Celestia said. "No one says 'ow' when they're in actual pain."

"It's not about whether he's in pain. I'm in pain, but I'm not dying," Star Swirl noted. "It's about whether or not he needs all of that blood." Golden looked down, inspecting the wounds Star Swirl was referring to.

"To be fair, there's not really that much blood. I mean, it would be better if there wasn't any, but the fact that there is blood isn't necessarily a bad thing. If nothing else, it means that I have a functioning circulatory system, which is always reassuring. I am actually in pain as well," Golden interjected. "In case anyone cares."

"Well there we go," Celestia said, smiling wickedly. "He's in pain. We'll have to kill him, it's the only way."

"Oh, shut up." Golden groaned. "I don't really feel that bad, anyway."

"In that case, my work here is done," Celestia said with more than a hint of pride. "Come on Swirly, let's go wait for Luna to get back." Star Swirl nodded, following Celestia - albeit with a noticeable limp - away from her house and towards the large temple where Luna had ventured to speak with Echidna. More than a few moments of calm passed, as Silver and Golden sat around awkwardly.

"Are you actually OK, or were you just saying that?" Silver asked, something in her voice stopping Golden from giving the sarcastic response that Celestia or Star Swirl might have received.

"Honestly? It hurts like hell, and the only noticeable change I've felt so far is that it doesn't just hurt to speak any more. Now it hurts to breathe as well." Golden glanced to the side, to make sure that Star Swirl and Celestia had gone. "Hey, uh. Just in case, I don't know, I'm not able to-"

"Shut up," Silver said quickly. "Don't say anything." Golden shook his head adamantly.

"No. I need to tell you this, in case I-"

"Shut up," Silver repeated. "If there's something you need to tell me, you can tell me when you're better."

"I might not get better."

"Well then," she said, a barely perceptible quiver in her voice, "if you MIGHT not get better, you'll just have to make sure that you DO get better, won't you?" Golden was silent while he thought about that.

"And we're sure that this is normal you, not the bitchy version of you that tried to kill me?"

"If you weren't on your deathbed, I'd punch you."


***


"All right," Luna said, glaring at the enormous creature in front of her. "I've had enough of this rubbish. Help us. Now." Echidna considered the demand, although she didn't raise her eyebrows due to not having any.

"I don't think you understand your position, Maid," Echidna replied calmly. "Your group is all but finished, while your enemies will soon become more powerful than ever. You are hardly in a position to make demands."

"Shut it, before I show you just how 'finished' we are," Luna said angrily, her bow at the ready. What she was saying was true. There had been far too much pain, far too much frustration, and far too much fucking around doing nothing. She was ending this. "Make your stupid deal and help me." The denizen sighed deeply, a slight disturbance appearing in her otherwise serene face.

"Patience, Maid. There are procedures to which we must adhere. You wish for aid, but what is it that you seek?" Luna paused. She hadn't really thought about a specific method through which their situation would improve. Or, for that matter, how their situation needed to improve. Her answer depended on whether or not she trusted the vague predictions she had been given. Which, ultimately, she did.

"I want a way to travel beyond this universe, to other sessions. We need to find help if we're going to stop those bastards." Which was true, of course. Even with her Voidy thing, she and her friends hadn't stood a chance. "Can you help us or not?"

"Yes, I can help you," Echidna replied after a moment's thought. Her expression was decidedly tired as she explained herself, as though she had been hiding this knowledge for some time. "But the question is, do you want me to help you? I can provide the means for you to attempt to salvage your session and save your friends, that is true. However, know this - by doing so, your enemies will be able to ascend to even greater heights before this comes to an end. By saving your friends temporarily, you will be endangering not only every other game session, but every conceivable corner of reality." She paused, allowing Luna to react to what had been said. Luna's reaction consisted of several attempts to speak followed by stunned silence at how hugely flawed Echidna's emergency backup strategy apparently was. "I will create the object you desire, as my part of the deal we will make. And your role... your role will be to safeguard the situation which will arise as a result."

"Wait, what? Can you go back over that?" Luna was sure that she had missed a step somewhere along the line. "So you want me to... stop the bad guys from gaining their awesome powers that they're apparently going to get?"

"No. No one can prevent that outcome. However, what happens next is in flux. As a result of this favour, much more than your session will become vulnerable. I am asking you to protect that vulnerability from those who would do it harm. Do not worry if this is request is confusing; you will understand when the time comes. Do you accept these terms?" Luna thought for a few minutes. Everything about this proposal felt off, as though it was an elaborate trap that she was ultimately going to regret making. Everything told her that she should decline. And then she thought about her group waiting for her back on the surface, nursing their wounds. Star Swirl wasn't going to be doing a lot of walking in the immediate future, and Golden... well, Luna was trying not to think too hard about what Golden's long-term prospects were.

"OK. Do it." Echidna smiled gracefully, tilting her head slightly in recognition.

"As you command."


***END OF ACT 3 ACT 1***