//------------------------------//
// 32- The Dragon's Keep 
// Story: Bound by Scales 
// by FrostTheWolf 
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Bound by Scales- The Dragon’s Keep







When all of us originally went back to Flamerock Refuge, each of us decided to do our own thing when it came to preparing ourselves for our final battle with the Handsome Sorcerer. For Wuzz, he decided to go shopping and grab more items and curatives we would’ve needed for the last leg of the journey. For McBiggun, he was reforging, repairing and also putting on new forms of equipment for him to use in combat since all of his old items took a serious beating. Garbuckle himself was practicing his magic and sorcery along with getting enough mana potions.

However… for me… well, after turning in some quests to Mr. Torgue and Athena, the gladiator had an additional task for me… after Mr. Torgue was shouting out about what the hell is an e-sport and other obscene questions. The job I was asked to do was… simple enough to say the least and it involved a bit of backtracking, but I had a feeling that what the reward for this will be will be helpful. And I was reminded of it when I was walking back the way we came along the beach outside Flamerock Refuge just by myself. “There’s a… uh… let’s say unmotivated golem somewhere around here with a pretty sweet sword stuck in it’s back. I’d appreciate it if you bring it back to me.”

My only thought on the subject was that she would possible need the sword for when we were to face the Handsome Sorcerer. Despite the fact that she already had a sword, this one could have some magical properties that may be helpful in a pinch. But if she really wanted me to get this weapon for her, she would have to give me something just as good in exchange right? I guess I was going to find out for myself, especially since I was now going to the area called “The Unrelatively Unvisited Shoreline”.

“Stay safe. Once we get out of this, I’ll give you my magical sword gun.” Woah woah woah woah, hold the f*cking phone!! Did she just say what I think she just said?

“Wait, so that’s a gun that shoots freaking swords?” Shayne then asked, sounding both confused and rather surprised by that statement.

“You know it,” I heard Tina say, shortly before I heard her voicing Athena again. “That gun shoots magical swords… and it is tight as hell. Bad guys won’t know what hit ‘em… But they’ll probably assume it’s swords.” I was liking the sound of that already… but it seemed like someone else was far too enthusiastic about it as I heard Wuzz shout from all the way in Flamerock to where I was right now.

“This is THE BEST GAME I’VE EVER PLAYED!!!” Dear God… if Tina earlier almost made me lose the hearing in both of my ears, then Wuzz’s shouting just now might’ve made me go deaf with how loud it was.

There were several skeletons along the beach and also a few golems too, but none of those golems had any form of sword or weapon stuck in their back at all. But the farther I went up the beach, the closer to what looked like an abandoned temple. Or as the map named it, the Temple of Unwarranted Self Importance… and face down on the ground was actually what looked like a small series of boulders and a sword stuck in the middle of one of them.

“There he is… Look like he’s taking a nap,” I… am not sure if Golems can actually take naps, but that’s beside the point. What do I do now? “Just sneak up and grab the sword…” Sound simple right?

More like anything but that. Because once I tried to nudge the sword just a little, all the stones in the area began to reform into the golem that now was really wanting to pound my face into the dirt. “Ooh, looks like you got him angry! Just kill him and yank out the sword, huggabutt!” Tina… that’s not how my mom tries to encourage me or give directions at all.

“It’s still super weird when you make her talk like that.” Shayne replied, only to hear Tina come up with a snarky comeback as I focused on trying to take this golem down.

“Your FACE is super weird! Ohhh WHAT!? Gimme five, Aaron! Oomph!!” She proclaimed, before sounding like she gave Aaron a high five in response.

“Hell yeah!” Sure… you guys celebrate while I try to not get myself killed by an golem that’s highly motivated to murder me now. That’s basically the worst trade off… ever. Eventually though, I was able to take it down as I raced back over there. Trying to pull out the blade quickly in order to get it out, but it didn’t move an inch.

“It didn’t budge, you gotta keep yanking-.” I was going to do that… if it weren’t for the fact that the golem was reforming itself again as now seemed even more pissed off at me. “Oh CRAP! The sword’s cursed! It’s reviving him!!” And around now is when I begin to realize how difficult having to finish this quest will be.

Each time I try to get the sword out, the weapon will resurrect the golem. And each time the golem gets revived, he gets even more angry. Which in turn increases how much damage he can dish out… and how much pain he can deliver. Unfortunately for me, I had to experience that firsthand… and since I was doing this by myself, I didn’t get any kind of support from the rest of my party and I was forced to do this on my own.

Luckily, after a few minutes of trying to figure out what this golem can and can’t do, I was able to actually know where I could hurt it as I attacked it a few more times and had it fall to the ground. Prompting me to pull the sword again. Even though I didn’t actually remove it, what I heard from Athena knew that at least I was getting somewhere. “It’s nearly out! Keep pulling!!”

Yet, what I now realized was the Perturbed Golem I was originally facing… was now an enraged- no no no… more like incredibly pissed off golem. The red glow where it’s eyes would be were a blood red like if Aurox or someone else had gone into a blood enraged frenzy. Which prompted me to stay the hell away from it as best as I can. Going as far as to use my arm to try and traverse around the area quickly so I could actually able to get a shot off. Some of my other arrows, like normal, incendiary and bolt arrows (shock element) did not do so well against a creature of this particular size. But the explosive blast ones that Tina made for me before I agreed to jump in headfirst into this game? That had a better result.

Depending on where the arrows landed of course. Unlike with skeletons, knights or the dwarves, headshots weren’t exactly the best method of blowing up a golem. In fact, what the rest of us found out while we were in the Mines of Avarice was that a golem’s weak point was actually the core that’s in the center of their body. However, some attacks from the front of the golem won’t do so well… as attacking it from behind.

Hence, why I was trying to get behind it before it noticed where I was as I fired off a blast arrow at it’s core as it exploded. It was enough to weaken it, but not kill it just yet. One more shot had to do the trick, but I needed to keep moving or-.

SMACK!

Or that happens. Damn, who knew golems could pack that much of a punch? Thankfully, none of my bones are broken… I hope. I could still feel the pain from that golem’s last attack as I tried to shoot it one last time. Sure, my arms and pretty much the rest of my entire body were in utter pain, but when has that stopped me before?

Pulling back as far as I could, I released one last arrow and the explosion from that one had the golem go down… hopefully for good this time. Walking over, I managed to pull out the weapon fully… Yet, I was caught off guard when I notice the stones from the golem reform again. Which wasn’t good because before I pulled out the sword, I put away my own weapons so it would be easier for me to pull it out with both hands rather than just one.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me-!” That was before they all fell apart and now laid on the ground… Lifeless. “Oh… well… that happened.”

“Well done… now bring that sword back to me now, would ya?” One moment please, Athena. I need to see if there was anything in the chests nearby to patch up my injuries before making the long walk back.

Kicking open two of the more common chests at the bottom of the temple’s stairwell, I found a couple of healing vials to restore my present injuries and more arrows so I didn’t run out of the ones in my quiver. Along with that though, I came across something… new. A particular form of arrows that had green markings all over the arrowhead and shaft as I placed it away in my inventory.

“Ooh… Looks like Kenny’s got something that could most definitely help him and the party now…” Tina responded in delight.

“Seriously? Ah can’t tell what the hay is so special about that arrow he just picked up.” I then heard AJ comment as Tina sighed for a moment before clearing her throat as she began to explain to her what she was exactly talking about. Which… of course… I also listened in because I was just as curious as to what I actually picked up.

“In this world, along with different kinds of enchanted weapons, there are also elemental ones. So far, you have seen Kendov, our mighty and indestructible Scalebound use normal arrows, Blast Arrows for making things go ka-boom, Bolt Arrows for when he needed to get through any shields a wizard can construct and Incendiary Arrows for when he needed to set those stumpy’s on fire. However, there’s one more element that he had yet to uncover that will help him and his companions against any targets that very durable sets of armor that can not so easily be broken by blade or arrow.”

Now that only narrowed my guesses down to one choice… and as I was opening up some other chests at the top of the temple, Aaron had the correct guess. “You’re talking about corrosive, aren’t you?”

“Ding ding ding ding! Someone give this huggabutt a prize!!” Tina hollered, before taking a breath and being a bit more serious with what she said next. “But yeah, these arrows should help them deal with armored targets a lot easier. Only downside is that I can’t come up with a stupid name. I though Poison Arrows, but that’s too simple. Corro-arrows sounds like a tongue twister and-.”

“What about Toxic?” I was honestly surprised to hear that answer… from Twilight of all ponies. But then again, she does know a massive amount of knowledge. “Most forms of poisons, whether it’s an air based one or some kind of mixture, are made up of various toxins. Perhaps they should be called Toxic Arrows?”

“Ehh, sure. Thanks Sparkle butt.” Despite Twilight’s help, that last comment had me facepalm… but there was something about Tina over the last few moments that… didn’t really set in well right now. I’m not sure if it’s because of how close we are to finishing this game or if it’s because there’s… well a real reason behind some of the choices for characters that Tina made other than just out of pure randomness.

Once back to town, I went back over to what looked like an old and empty stable that she was leaning against as I brought out the weapon I was getting for her and handed it over. She looked at the old inscription of the blade before turning back to me. “This sword has the power to revive the dead… should come in handy,” I heard her say before she handed something back to me in exchange. “Here, take my sword gun.”

Yet, before I could use my ECHO to examine the weapon, I heard a certain someone shout so loud that almost had me lose my footing. “Aw MAN!! But what if the sword you shoot EXPLODES and then turns into three smaller swords which would then EXPLODE!! It’ll be like a SWORDSPLOSION!!! Tina, make Athena’s gun do the things I just said!”

“Kay!” Ironically, when looking back at the weapon details and the prefixes for the weapon I just got, had a rather… interesting flavor text to it. Now, when it comes to weapons from Borderlands games, weapons with red text in the description that is called ‘flavor text’ can mean different things and also sometimes reference many things in pop culture if you get the reference. For example, one of the weapons I liked in Borderlands 2 called the “Emperor”, a DAHL manufactured smg that was a reference to… I think it was Warhammer 40k? I haven’t played in so long that my memory of things back home was a bit sketchy. All I just know is that it may be something that Sebaste or one of his friends might look into.

For the weapon I got though… the flavor text caption for this one was… well to put it lightly… surprising.

Because Mr. Torgue said so!

“Hey, Tina… Can I see the prefixes of that weapon for a second?” Aaron asked as I noticed the rest of the group join up with me while hearing Tina hand something over to Aaron in the background. “Woah… Ken’s one lucky bastard now, that’s for sure.”

“What the hay are ya talking about? And what do ya mean by these… prefixes?” AJ then asked him, sounding rather puzzled. Shayne was with Applejack on that and so was Twilight and Aurox, leaving Aaron to have to explain everything to all four of them.

“For different weapons Ken and some of us can acquire in the game and… given that you have Mr. Torgue and a few other people from Borderlands,” He said, muttering the second part to himself from the sounds of it. “Different weapons can have different kinds of perks and outcomes depending on the parts assigned for it. With this one, the weapon he got was the swordsplosion and normally, for two shots you fire one sword that explodes and such. Yet, with the casual prefix on there, Ken can fire that same shot, but have three swords form instead of one and not cost him extra ammunition.”

“Woah… that seems like… well overkill,” Shayne then commented for a moment. “Don’t you want to give these guys a bit of challenge or something. You can’t make this too easy for them.” I understood what Shayne was saying… but Tina did not say anything. In fact, she ignored the whole question that she was trying to ask him… Okay, something about this whole thing feels off.

“So… shall we finish off this sorcerer once and for all?” Garbuckle asked in a triumphant manner. “It seems like everyone’s ready. I’ll teleport us back.” With a wave on his staff and slamming it on the ground, we suddenly returned to where we were before we had to kill Sombra earlier. The door that was locked on the other side was now open, taking the chance to go through there and ignore the crappy items that spawned from the chest afterwards since they were nothing compared to what we were equipped with.

Yet, one we were outside… that’s when things got kind of dark. “Oooooh yes, you made it to the tower. Now I can watch from my balcony as I separate you from everyone you know and proceed to watch you be torn limb from screaming bloody limb.”

“Woah there… that was rather… graphic.” We heard Twilight comment once all of us got on the last lift up as Wuzz pulled the lever. Unlike last time though, we actually were able to get up this time as we watched several dragons fly around the keep.

“Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” Yeah, something about this whole thing did not quite feel right… In fact, with what the sorcerer just said… he sounded like someone I knew from back home. What was Tina exactly trying to do?

The lift finally reached the top as we stepped out to what was known as The Handsome Tower as we had a few different things to interact with. One was a portable merchant that acted like a vending machine that could have me sell any crap I might get and make room in my inventory for anything else we might acquire. Just as I was about to sell off a lot of junk I didn’t need… We got another message from the Sorcerer… and this sounded like he was definitely trying to provoke up.

“You better hurry! If you don’t get up here, I’m going to have my men bust into your precious queen’s cell and murder her ass!! Good luck with trying to bring light back to the world when your savior is nothing but a pile of ashes, chumps!!” Okay, something at this point was definitely not right… and I think Shayne and a few others outside the game would agree with me on that.

“Woah woah… you wouldn’t kill the queen before you give the players a chance to save her now, would you Tina?” Yeah, Tina… would you?

“Like I said girl… no rules.” Wait, when exactly did she actually say that? You know what, screw it. We gotta hurry!!

The moment that we heard that, all of us took off running. Not even bothering to fight through any of the enemies that were coming out and even going as far as having to carry Garbuckle on my shoulders so we wouldn’t leave the little dragon wizard behind. Yet, just as we made it halfway up the stairwell and almost to the point where what looked like a portal gate was in sight, we got another message.

Yet, this one from the sorcerer… made me realize who Tina was doing him based off of… and I was honestly shocked and a bit startled by this. “Yeah, uh quick update buddy… I’m not going to lie, I got bored and ordered my men to kill the queen and her daughter anyways. They’re probably using their heads as a pair of soccer balls now. See you soon!”

That had me stop before the portal as I looked back at everyone else before hearing McBiggun. “Darnit, we better hurry!” Yet, when he realized I stopped shortly before the portal up, he noticed something wasn’t right. “Kendov, is something wrong?”

“I… am not sure. I didn’t realize it before, but…” I looked at everyone before clearing my throat and speaking again. “I think Tina is doing the Sorcerer based off of someone I know… something here does not make any sense…”

“You told us that Tina normally doesn’t make much sense,” Garbuckle pointed out, “What makes this any different?”

Thinking it over, I then looked back at the portal before taking his words into account as I returned to face my friends and my companions. “The only way we’ll know for sure is if we see him in person.” With that, I placed my best foot forward into the teleporter as I warped up to the peak of the tower with everyone else that was with me as we were now on a clear and open platform and seeing the sorcerer himself, in dark robes and all, appear before us.

“So, you all made it at last… Shame that you’re too late to save your precious little queen, but hey… At least you get to die in unimaginable FREAKING PAIN!!”

No… f*cking way… Tina, this is beyond uncalled for. “Ken, can you tell who he is?”

I nodded my head to McBiggun, but had to clear whatever I had in my throat first before speaking. “Oh I can tell alright… But why Tina chose him to be the villain is beyond my understanding…… Guys… that’s suppose to be my-.”

“Here it is!! The BIG BOSS!! Are you sure that you don’t want to wait for Athena?” Tina interrupted me before I could say anything.

“Tina, wait a second! Why does that boss look like-?!”

“FINE, BOO HOO!! You know what, who cares about this life wrecker! He’s gonna get it anyways, FIGHT!!!” Okay, now was when we all were beginning to notice that Tina was losing her cool. Just as we notice the Sorcerer conjure a powerful shield before him and create two doppelgangers of himself to try and trick us.

“Ken, what were you trying to say-!?” Despite everyone else’s best attempts to try and communicate with me right now, this final boss was beginning to be a major handful. He all the abilities and spells of a normal sorcerer, but could also make multiple doppelgangers to trick us and not tell who’s who.

Only after a few minutes of trying to fight him normally, I realized that I may need to think outside the box with this one and try a different strategy. “I hope this works…” I muttered to myself, before grabbing my newly acquired sword gun, taking aim and pulling the trigger. Firing off a trio of swords four times before I needed to reload the weapon… which was done using my energy just like how I would reload Hawkmoon.

But the best part about my small gamble was the look on my face when I turned to see the swords I fired and the explosions that resulted from it destroying the doppelgangers that were giving us a hard time. Which also depleted the sorcerer’s personal shield as he grit his teeth and shouted back at us. “I am going to kill EVERYONE you love and burn that stupid village into the ground!!”

Not on our watch you won’t. Taking initiative, I used my newfound swordsplosion to shoot any projectiles he would send in our direction, letting McBiggun get in close and slash at him mercilessly with his sword. Since most of spells were ice and lightning based, Garbuckle and Wuzz counterattacked using fireballs and incendiary arrows to have the Sorcerer’s magic be less effective.

To be honest, the whole fight right now was actually kind of simple… but at one point, when the sorcerer was critically wounded, he used his magic to drop through the floor and disappear. “What? Tired already? That’s just lame… Give us more of a challenge already!” Despite Wuzz’s comments on the matter, I heard something come from my left as I turned around to see that the Handsome Sorcerer… was now known as the Necrotic Sorcerer. And summoning skeletons that were eager to murder all of us.

“You just had to ask, didn’t you?” I had to agree with McBiggun on that statement. Because of… recent developments, we needed to take on a new strategy. Now that the sorcerer was now using the abilities of a necromancer, we needed to not only attack the sorcerer, but deal with the skeletons from his army that he was summoning here to fight us. And unlike when McBiggun tried to get close to hurting him with his sword, the sorcerer now would lash out with his staff and push them away, while also severely hurting them.

Too bad for the warrior, he unfortunately found that out firsthand. “Mac!!” I raced over, not caring if I was out of character with calling him by his actual name. I was not going to let him get defeated so easily after suffering such a major injury like that.

I needed to hurry and help him… Now where did I put those damn things, I swear I had something to help him-. Ah! There it is!! Never thought I have a spare healing item on me in my pants pocket. Honestly, I thought that being beaten the sh*t out of by a golem earlier would destroy it, but who cares at this rate.

Going over, I cracked open the healing elixir I had and placed some of it over his wounds while having him drink the rest. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Handled worse,” He said, coughing a small bit before looking at me. “How the hay are we suppose to fight these things if I can’t be able to attack from a distance?” That brought up a valid point… though that was when I noticed something out of the blue that I didn’t happen to notice until now.

The horn on his head. Now that explains how he had been able to hold his sword the whole time! Wuzz must’ve had him be a unicorn so he wouldn’t have to carry the weapon using his teeth… Now that got me an idea. “I know one possible way… but I’m going to need you to trust me on this one.”

What I had thought of would possibly make Aaron and the others think I was crazy or have some kind of plan… but as it turns out, the plan I had in mind was actually a simple one. “Take this,” I told him, tossing my newly acquired sword gun to McBiggun, which he caught with his magic. “Just point, aim and pull the trigger by the handle. I’m letting you use this now because it’s the best way for you to strike him with swords… without having to actually get close to him. Got it?”

He nodded, hesitant at first before actually being a little more confident as I took out a different weapon for me to use. Hawkmoon. True, it may not have the explosive capabilities that swordsplosion had, but Hawkmoon was just as effective in more ways than one. First, it had kinetic based properties to it, which was a bonus. Second, out of any of the shots I do fire, one might have the chance to dish out bonus damage to whoever I was attacking. Lastly, two additional shots from what I fired can deal more damage on top of the first one.

From that alone… I think we got this covered.From Garbuckle’s newly unlocked Fire Storm spell raining fireballs onto the skeletons that were summoned to McBiggun using the Swordsplosion to deliver damage to both the sorcerer and the skeletons. That just left Wuzz and I to focus on trying to play a supporting role as we began to chip away at the health of the Necrotic Sorcerer.

The plan was working… but even though we were close to defeating the sorcerer, we weren’t out of the woods yet. Just as we thought we were going to get the final blow on the Necrotic Sorcerer… he fled out of the place the same way he did before as all the skeletons that he originally had summoned had now died and become lifeless. “What the-? Where did he go!?”

“Ah… don’t know,” McBiggun then told us as he, for some strange reason, tossed back the gun I gave him and armed himself with his sword again. “Whatever the case, be on your guard. Ah have a feeling this is far from over.”

Strangely enough, that was something I could agree with. Especially with what I heard next as we heard the sorcerer shout from behind us. Seeing him float in the air as he now was on fire, had burning wings and a set of horns on his head. Becoming the Demonic Sorcerer.

“No offense Tina…” I heard Wuzz speak softly to himself. “But that is kind of overkill.” We’ll only know that for sure once we actually try to survive what was next. Especially with the fact that not only was this sorcerer taking on the powers of a pyromancer… but he was also summoning dragonlings to attack us like he did with the skeletons previously.

“I’ll cover ya!” McBiggun declared, putting himself in between Garbuckle and the sorcerer’s minions as the wizard got on his back. “Just focus on taking him down!”

“Uhh… No offense McBiggun… but why didn’t you come up with this idea sooner?” Garbuckle asked as the two of them were fighting alongside each other and had each other’s backs in the process.

“Ah was busy with tryin’ to… well… not die.” He sighed, smashing another dragonling before Garbuckle blasted it with lightning.

“Fair enough.” He sighed as the two of them were focusing on fighting the dragons as they swarmed the area while Wuzz was covering them from range. I was wanting to help them, but Wuzz insisted that my priority was defeating the Sorcerer. Because if he was stopped, then he could not be able to call upon anymore monsters in order to kill us. Taking initiative, I switched weapons again. Back to my bow now as I planted my feet and fired off arrows at rapid speeds to tear away at his health.

We kept this up for a while… before the Sorcerer retreated to the same ledge that we were at when we first encountered the boss. Wounded and hurt as I fired one last arrow. Causing it to fall forward on the ground.

“You’ve done it!! The Handsome Sorcerer is dead!! And guess who showed up to celebrate?! Everyone’s favorite invincible knight/gladiator! Athena!!”

“Tina, that’s enough.” Shayne told her, trying to get her to actually be speaking a bit more as to why she was doing this as we saw Athena turn around and look at us.

“You did it, well done.”

“And Athena was really happy, everyone went on to live forever, no one needed to be taken away and it was great, the end-!”

“Sugarcube, stop it. There’s something obviously bothering you and I need you to tell us right now!”

“Can’t hear you~.”

“Applejack’s right, Tina. Ken can tell as well.”

Now was when Tina was beginning to crack under pressure. Stuttering with what she was saying as she tried to change the subject. “S-so do you want to do some sidequests or-?”

“Tina, you need to stop avoiding our questions.” Aaron then contributed. But what he had to say next made Tina’s emotions break. And answer the main question that was on my mind too. “Why did you have the villain be Ken’s father-?”

“BECAUSE IT’S ALL HIS FAULT!!!!!”

Woah…… That statement… had everything around us turn pitch black. Not only that… but now, I was hearing Tina… cry. “I-if he didn’t let Ken go on his trip…… H-he wouldn’t have disappeared… He wouldn’t have l-left me… because h-h-he’s more than family to me… He’s m-my only friend.”

It was now all beginning to make sense… my dad had allowed me to go to japan… and on that same trip to Japan was when I was displaced. Since he had let me go… Tina blamed him because if I didn’t go… I wouldn’t have disappeared. Which also meant that upon coming here, she found out from Tina that I was alive… making my mom, in her mind, the hero… while making my dad, who did not do anything at all… the villain.

It was then that I turned to Wuzz, breaking out of character as I asked him something. “Discord… can you let me out of the game for a moment?” All he did was nod his head, shortly before snapping his finger as I felt myself return to Twilight’s Castle. That way… I could try my best to at least make her feel better.

The first thing to do is have her calm down… If she was calm, then I can try to help her think straight. If there was one thing about Tina that I knew for heart, that was that she has trouble saying goodbye… especially with loved ones. When I disappeared, she must’ve thought that somehow, I could still be alive… and kept on thinking that to the point that it would drive her crazy. “It’s okay, Tina… I’m still here… No one is to blame for this…”

“B-but… if he…” Tina tried to speak at first… only for me to speak and calm her down.

“I was the one who chose to go on that day…… I never expected anything that resulted from the day I first step foot here to actually happen at first. But you’re here with us now… and all of us can be your friend Tina.” When she heard that, Tina looked at everyone else in the room, who nodded their heads and gave her some encouragement.

“You don’t have ta be alone, Sugarcube. We can be here for you.” Applejack replied as she trotted next to me and help provide support for Tina.

“We’ll always be there for you and Ken when you need it, Tina. All of us.” Aaron replied, while Twilight nodded in agreement as she took a turn in order to speak to her.

“After all, the story right now is still unfinished.” Twilight told her, patting her on the shoulder with a hoof as Shayne looked back at her now. “Yeah girl, keep going. I think all of us here want to know how the story ends.” That… helped Tina come back to her senses. Everypony here, encouraging her, got her to overcome her sorrows and for her to continue her story.

“Thank you… all of you…” She spoke, prompting my return back to the game with Discord and the others as the story picked up from where we left off. Now though… with a change in the mood. Back to what looked like Athena and I had our back turned as the Sorcerer cast one last spell to try and kill us “As the Sorcerer’s spell… hurled towards the oblivious Scalebound, the heroic knight, and the rest of their companions, it was clear that only a miracle could save them…”

Shortly though, we both heard a familiar roar as something soon swooped in from nearby. “But luckily for them… a miracle was exactly what they got!” Out of nowhere, I saw two figures swoop down and not only stop the spell, but sent the Sorcerer falling to his demise. But it was when I felt something land on my shoulder that I realized who these two figures were… and it was something I honestly did not see coming.

Magma and Ruby… I was saved… by my own kids. Wow… talk about surprises. “Heck yeah!” Well, looks like Applejack’s excited, that’s for sure.

“So what do you guys think of that fight? I’m looking for some feedback.” Tina then said, now sounding just like her usual self as Magma and Ruby perched themselves on my shoulders.

“I liked it when we killed him. Had a pretty good amount of challenge and difficulty to it as well.” Aaron commented.

“Same here,” Shayne commented for a moment before speaking again. “What do you think about it, big guy?”

“IT WASN’T BAD… I GUESS.” Well, at least Aurox was not too bored from the looks of it… which reminds me, weren’t we suppose to be doing something?

“Don’t forget!! The queen and the princess are still trapped in their cells!” Ah right, we needed to let them out. Thanks Tina.

As the gate opened though, we were greeted by the sight of knight’s corpses being ripped apart and pinned to the wall by crystals and gemstones as we heard a sound of hooves on the other end of the hall. “You enter the hall and find the mutilated bodies of those who have tried to murder the queen… For who else can bring light back to the world? Who else but the most beautiful… most glamorous… and most graceful queen in history…”

“Oh my… Is that Ra-.”

“BUTT STALLION!!!”

Rarity (AKA Butt Stallion in Tina’s mind) as the queen… now who would’ve seen that coming-. “Followed by her adorable, shy daughter that is also beyond charming…” When I heard that, who I saw honestly made my jaw drop… and maybe might’ve made me blush at well.

It was Pinkis. That’s right… Pinkis Cupcake. Or as Tina referred to her as… “PRINCESS FLUFFYBUTT!!!”

… It was only a matter of time before she started calling somepony that… and I was surprised that she chose Pinkis for that role. But hell, I’ll take it.

“H-hello…” Pinkis- Princess Fluffybutt said shyly, hiding behind her hair as she stared at the ground. Out of respect, I got down on one knee as if I were bowing to her and then asked her a question that formed inside my head.

“Are you alright, princess?” It was a start, but I wanted to make sure that she was okay first before asking her anymore questions.

“I… I’m f-fine…” She looked so vulnerable, and… was that a blush I saw?

Before I could speak, I had to make sure that I was focused and not distracted by how adorable she was acting right now. It took a bit of time to refocus, but soon I was able to speak. “I’m glad to see that you and your mother are both unharmed,” I told her, looking back to the rest of my companions before facing her again. “My fellow adventurers and I came looking for both of you when we heard that you had gone missing from your bodyguard, Brutalight. With the Handsome Sorcerer defeated, we were hoping that the queen can bring light back to the world.”

“Sh-she can, but her p-powers were weakened. You must help her r-restore her powers and the light…” Turning towards the queen, I had the princess walk next to me as I went back over to everyone else and informed them of what she told me.

Though… I got the strangest of reactions from Garbuckle in that moment. “Dibs.”

Seriously? Since when do you call dibs on who restores her powers. Yet before we could be able to speak up, Garbuckle had already proceeded to give the queen his strength so she could cast her spell. Or as Tina described it… “With a clop of her hooves and a whip of her fine ass mane, the queen brought back light to the world once and for all!! …… The end.”

Oh come on now, we’re done? We can’t be done now. We still need to escort them back to safety for pete's sake… Not to mention that there still may be some sidequests that we haven’t done yet. Yet, when I looked at Athena, she smiled and looked back at us as the queen began to speak.

“Well done, fine adventurers. Thank you for rescuing my daughter and I. We are very grateful for your heroism,” She spoke to us. “The roads will be a lot safer to travel on. But I believe that my daughter and I learned firsthoof that it is too dangerous to go alone. Would you be so kind as to escort us back to town?”

That… only made the blush on the princess’ face intensify even more.

“A-alright… If you insist.” The Princess replied.



Throughout the whole time we walked back to town, I was able to have the opportunity to speak more with the princess at her own pace. Like with Pinkis outside the game, she was rather shy and took some time for her to warm up to me first before we were able to fully conversate. I told her of our adventures and the kind of people that we met, how the Handsome Sorcerer had tricked us on our journey, meeting Athena, going through the dwarven mines and also bracing the climb up to the top of the Sorcerer’s tower to come and rescue them. Of course though, I left out all the sidequest and other endeavours we had to go on so I wouldn’t confuse her by all the sheer random series of events that happened on our trip.

By the time we returned back, we made sure to say our final goodbyes to everyone before the four of us were brought back out into the grand hall that was Twilight’s Castle. However, when we got out… Mac, Spike and I came out in a big mess while Discord himself was just floating without a care in the world.

“Aww man… are we done?” Shayne then asked, pouting a bit. “We can’t be done.”

“Pfffffft, Hell naw!! I got TONS of sidequests for you guys and also got all the time in the world~” Did Tina really had to say that like she was singing a melody? You know what, nevermind. “It is getting late. Perhaps we should go back and see how your other marefriend Pinkis is doing.”

That… definitely seemed like a good idea. It had been a while since I had left the hollow, and from what AJ told me, we had been playing for a few hours already. So it was settled for us to go return back… but as we were leaving… that was when Aaron pointed something out.

“Uhh… is it just me, or is that the same sword gun that Ken got in the game now on his back?” Wait, what-?

I looked behind me, only to realize what he just said. For some reason, the same gun that I somehow got in Tina’s game materialized and was now holstered on my back… Hunh… That’s awesome.

Yet, I only distracted me for a few seconds as I looked back at AJ and Tina, before all three of us decided to go back to the hollow. Aaron said that he and Shayne would come back later while Spike was going to sleep and Twilight needed to do some more research on something. Not to mention that Big Mac was heading back to Sweet Apple Acres to keep an eye on Apple Bloom.

Leaving the three of us to come back and see how Pinkis was doing. Shortly after I placed swordsplosion in the armory with my other weapons, all three of us walked over to Pinkis’ room as I softly knocked on the door. Trying not to be too loud for if she was sleeping.

“Wha…?” Pinkis replied after opening the door, clearly having woken up and having a severe bedhead.

“Ah man… sorry for disturbing you, Pinkis. But AJ and I wanted to come by and see if we can spend some time with you and help you too.” I told her, surprised that she was up and moving to get the door, even if she was pregnant.

“Morning Princess Fluffybutt!!” Tina… really? Is now the best time to say that?!

“Screw off…” Was Pinkis’ only reply to that.

“I love you too…” She said before skipping off joyfully as Applejack decided to speak up now.

“May we come in Pinkis… or is this not the best time?” She asked her, politely might I add as we looked back at her.

“When is a good time? Just get in, I’ve been through worse…” Pinkis rolled her eyes. We followed her inside, looking around for a place to sit down as we closed the door behind her. She didn’t seem to have changed a whole lot in the time that I have been gone, but her mood was a bit… different than before.

“Is there anything we can do to help you? I got some more time on my side now and I want to use it to help you however I can.” I offered to her, watching her trot back over to her bed.

“I don’t need help, Ken, I’ve got this…” Pinkis waved me off… But failed to climb back into bed. Now that I really look, her stomach’s grown larger. Walking over, I used the strength in my arms to help her up onto the bed so she didn’t have any trouble with getting in. Though, I did not say anything. Mostly because I don’t want to come off as being a jerk and telling her ‘I told you so’. In fact, Applejack was actually the next one coming along.

“How's the baby doing, Pinkis?” she asked.

“She’s fine, but her appetite scares Brutalight.” Pinkis said plainly. Wait just a moment… it scares… Brutalight? From what I know, she is mostly the one that scared some of the ponies that are living in the hollow. In fact, I’ve honestly never heard of a time where she was… actually scared.

“Oh? How so, sugarcube?”

“Well… She might eat as much as me, and I’ve been known to eat entire orchards.” Pinkis stated. “The EoI have starved more than once while I was on patrol…” That… could make her seem worried. But given the fact that AJ and her family grow more than enough apples on her farm, I think food would be of little concern when her kid would be born.

“Like, daily.” She added. “Daily orchards.”

Oh…… that was… well different. But Applejack herself just saw it more as a challenge than anything else. “It’ll be alright, Pinkis. We’re gonna raise Candy Apple the best we can and all of us are going to help out. Right Ken?”

I nodded my head to that. “Definitely. We’ll do anything we can to help you out. After all, we are family.”

“Alright… Could you two… Stay with me...?” Pinkis asked, her ears folding. I looked back at Applejack, who looked back to me as we both nodded our heads and had the same answer for her as we came closer to her bedside.

“Sure.”



When I woke up the next morning, it wasn’t to the sound of Applejack snoozing next to me, birds chirping… or god forbid, Tina blowing something up. No, this time, it was something else that both Applejack and I were awoken by… and that was Pinkis.

She sounded distressed and in pain, looking back at us as we were trying to figure out what was wrong. “Pinkis, are you okay? What happened?” I asked her, hoping to hear an answer from her. Any kind of answer at all so we can figure out how we can help her.

However… the answer she did give us… was not one I think any of us were prepared for.

“OH F*CK! MY WATER BROKE!!!”




End Chapter 32