//------------------------------// // Chapter 29 // Story: Ponystuck // by confoundtheseponies //------------------------------// "Well, I certainly wasn't expecting this," Summer said. "I mean, I've seen a couple of denizens in my day. Cetus attacked us for no reason, and Hemera was almost suspiciously cooperative. But..." "But at least they all turned up," Applejack finished, as the three ponies walked further into the completely empty throne room. "Does this mean we win?" The lack of a giant mountain of grist seemed to suggest that the answer was 'no', which was rather frustrating. "Well, what do we do now?" "I suggest we get drunk and set fire to things," Summer suggested, smiling innocently when Applejack shot her an odd look. "Then again, we don't have anything to drink. Hey Applejack, how long would it take you to grow an apple tree, harvest it, and then make cider out of the apples? Give or take?" "Ah'm not going to justify that with a response," Applejack responded. "What's up, anyway? Y'all've been acting strange lately." Summer was quiet for a few minutes, as she struggled through Applejack's impressive command of apostrophes. "No I haven't," she eventually replied. "I've just been... you know, thinking. About... stuff." "Thinking is the one thing you ain't been doing," Applejack pointed out. "And before you ask again for the umpteenth time, no, for the love of cinnamon swirls, that was not a euphemism... whatever that even means." "Point taken," Summer said. "Sorry." "Now, can we try to think of some helpful suggestions?" Applejack asked meaningfully. Summer nodded. "How about you, Luna?" The winged and horned earth pony looked up from the floor at the mention of her name. "You've been quiet for a while." "Oh, yeah, sorry..." Luna apologised, her attention already returning to the carvings on the stone floor of the throne room. They clearly had some sort of meaning... "Can anyone speak consort?" "I had to once, for a puzzle," Summer said, walking over to where Luna was standing. "But I think that each species has its own language. I can only speak iguana." "Well, that's OK," Luna said happily. "My consorts were iguanas. Before they all died, anyway." Summer glanced back at Applejack and winked. "It's a good thing we have Luck on our side, right?" Summer said, glancing down to inspect the carvings. "OK, let's see what we've got here..." An assortment of amphibians and intricate punctuation marks stared up at her from the stone. Briefly, Summer wondered if the excessively anxious personalities that most of the consorts shared had anything to do with how unnerving it was to read their language. Each individual letter stared blankly outwards with cold, dead eyes, highlighting the difficulties associated with trying to draw on a stone slab. Frankly, a culture that lived in fear of its own alphabet wouldn't have surprised Summer in the slightest. She shook her head. "Yeah, denizen, chosen hero, blah blah blah... It's all pretty standard fare for a denizen throne room. Nothing looks particularly different." "Oh. Well, it was worth a try," Luna sighed exasperatedly. A few seconds of silence passed, which the Witch spent fuming silently. This planet was starting to rub her up the wrong way. "Was that a euphemism?" Summer asked. Luna and Applejack exchanged confused glances. "Neither of us said anything," Luna said, to which Summer shrugged. "I know. I just got the strangest feeling that I was needed." Summer shook her head. "But I'll be damned if I have the slightest idea what's going on. Maybe this is just another puzzle?" "What exactly are ya suggesting?" Applejack asked. "Nyx is still waiting around somewhere?" "I don't know, I'm not the one with the Void powers. You're up, Luna," Summer said cheerfully, before leaping away and leaving Luna in the middle of the throne room by herself. Well, anything would be better than doing nothing, Luna reasoned, so she closed her eyes and did a Voidy thing. Almost instantly, the temperature in the throne room dropped rapidly, and huge plumes of black cloud accumulated around Luna in an expanding sphere. She closed her eyes, her mind reaching through the darkness for any sign of the missing denizen. I am a tree. Suddenly, Luna's mind was filled with the image of a huge forest, stretching for miles in all directions. Hundreds of thousands of trees, all distinct, but all the same. Except one. I am a tree. How will you find a tree in the forest? Luna, in her mind's eye, paused in contemplation above the trees, before sending huge fireballs careering through the trees, demolishing huge swathes of green, and filling the air with smoke and flames. And then, almost as quickly as the destruction had started, it stopped. Luna was alone in a plain covered in lush grass, except for one tree. The tree. Nyx? I am a tree, and I am hiding in a forest. Luna blinked, and in that instant the scene around her changed completely, as she once again found herself surrounded by dense forest. Gasping in surprise, her eyes opened, and her awareness returned to the empty throne room. Not that she could see any of it, because it was still flooded by darkness. What was all of that forest nonsense about? Nyx was hiding somewhere in the dark? For apparently no reason, Luna suddenly recalled the stone tablet she had found on the surface. something about nyx shes important i think i guess you could just fly around until you see something Searching through the forest, or the mist, until she found Nyx was entirely the wrong way to go about finding the missing denizen. Nyx wasn't hiding herself in the darkness... Nyx was the darkness. To find her, all Luna had to do was fly around and watch the clouds below. At that moment, it suddenly occurred to Luna that she was surrounded on all sides by the most powerful entity on her entire planet. Boo. A few seconds later, Luna was vaguely aware of Summer and Applejack helping her to her feet, after she had been tossed effortlessly into the stone wall. In the centre of the throne room, the mist collected itself, huge amounts of the solid black cloud appearing from the edges of the room and joining the large clump of darkness in the centre. Eventually, two gleaming white eyes appeared from within the dark. "So sorry to keep you in the dark for so long," Nyx said, in a horribly loud whisper that echoed off the walls in ways that defied explanation. "But I had to make sure that there was enough atmosphere." Summer groaned dramatically. "Don't tell me that this conversation is going to be non-stop darkness and/or cloud puns... I don't think I could take it." "It's true, I don't have the witty lines I once did," Nyx admitted, almost sounding hurt. "I'm just a shade of my former self." "GOG DAMNIT!" Summer yelled, equipping her rifle and firing a few shots directly into the large clump of darkness, which promptly dispersed and began drifting across the ground towards the three heroes. "I am NOT going to sit here and listen to this bullshit. Does anypony have a problem with that?" "Nope." "Can't say Ah do." "Well then," Summer said, clubbing away an approaching tendril of cloud, "I guess this quest is finally getting interesting." *** "'Oh, it's just a little way in, Silver'," Silver Heart grumbled under her breath as she trudged through the winding caverns beneath the surface of LOWAF. "'There's no way you can miss it Silver, it's right there in front of you Silver.'" She had spent the last 10 minutes staggering aimlessly through the tunnels, and still she hadn't found any frogs. "'It's right there Silver, just go in and grab it Silver', stupid lousy... oh, shit." Silver's complaining was cut short, as she came face to face with a fork in the path. Two tunnels stretched away from her in opposite directions, both of them equally ominous. Celestia hadn't mentioned anything about this. She sighed deeply. "Well, it's a 50/50 chance, but I am a hero of Hope... maybe that'll make a difference?" Probably not, she reflected, as she cautiously proceeded down the left path. *** "Frankly, it bothers me," Mild stated. "Sure, there's nothing they can do with it, and ultimately it makes no difference either way, but..." He shrugged. "I don't know, as long as they're working towards that frog it feels like they're plotting something." "Then what do you want to do about it?" Silver asked, already bored of the conversation. "If you're so worried about it, let's go kill them all. Wouldn't that be the easiest thing to do?" "But, we kill all of them." Mild pointed out. "It's not the right time for some of them." Silver shrugged. "Frankly I don't give a shit. Your obsession with preserving the timeline has caused more problems than it's solved," Silver said. "The sooner you realise that all of our actions fit exactly into a Nash equilibrium, the better." "You're just making up words now," Mild accused. Silver rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you keep on believing that. The point is, the only reason the future happens is because we, acting on our own impulses and opinions combined with our knowledge of the future, have made it happen," Silver explained. "We can decide the degree to which we let the future decide our actions, but whatever we decide will be represented in the future that we already know about. Which means that what we know about the future, through a combination of our independent actions and the actions which we make based on our knowledge of the future, must and will come to pass. Anything else is not in equilibrium." Mild was quiet for a few moments. "Right... so, when did you get a doctorate in temporal bullshit?" He gave her a strange look. "You're Hope, not Time." "True," Silver agreed. "But what does that prove, anyway? Neither of us are Space, but we know enough about it to understand our current situation better than Ember ever could." "The same applies to everyone else, about everything," Mild stated. "That doesn't mean either of us could explain why all three sessions are arranged in the pattern that they're arranged in. Well, I mean, he probably could, but... I guess he's a special case." Silver nodded. "So I'm going to assume that one of the Time guys told you about it?" "Kind of, I guess..." Silver waved a hoof around in a way that suggested that she didn't want to talk about it any more. "So anyway... we were just about to go and kill everyone on LOWAF?" Mild shrugged. "You can go and do something if you want. I'm going to stick with the old plan," the Thief said. "Which, if you remember, was to kill as many of our old group as you can before he gets here." "Yeah, sure, whatever," Silver said absently. "But like I said, even you can't do anything wrong. Or at least, you can't do anything that will change the future. It's going to happen the way we know it will." "Keep holding onto that," Mild said. "I wonder how far you'll get believing that." *** "Ah, hello," Abraxas called happily to the three approaching ponies, his light hearted tone catching them off guard. "I'm Abraxas, otherwise known as the 'ugly son of a bitch' who lives here." Star Swirl and Twilight turned to glare at Comet. "What!?" Comet demanded. "He's the denizen of Hope, not the denizen of Sound, how the hell was I supposed to know he could hear me?" "I think you're missing the point," Star Swirl said. "But never mind. The point is," he turned to Abraxas, who seemed happy enough despite Comet's stellar negotiation skills. "The point is that we're on a tight schedule at the moment, and we don't really have to time to put up with denizens who try to get clever. So I don't suppose you could just hand over the grist and save all of us a lot of time?" "Well, when you put it like that..." the rooster-snake tapped his head with the tip of his tail thoughtfully. "Nah. Why would I miss out on a perfectly good fight? This is going to be fun!" "Oh gog," Comet said. "He's Ember. He's Ember, only smarter, and more powerful, and he's actively trying to kill us instead of just accidentally killing us with his own stupidity." "There's another difference," Twilight called out as the three ponies leapt in different directions to escape the collapsing platform that they had been standing on. "We can do everything in our power to kill this guy." In response, Comet's encyclopaedia shot forwards and upwards, swinging into the denizen's head from below. Leaping towards the distracted enemy, and catching the fifty tomes which suddenly appeared around him, Comet unleashed a devastating whirlwind of light reading upon a defenceless Abraxas, before sending all fifty books back in time by several seconds and rushing over to where Twilight was standing. He gave her an odd look. "What do you mean by 'difference'?" Twilight shook her head. "Never mind. Let's just go already." Comet nodded, and the two ponies began charging towards a very angry Abraxas, their respective time travelling books at the ready. Quickly drawing closer, even while dodging the oncoming attacks, both Comet and Twilight were becoming increasingly worried by the amount of awesomeness that wasn't happening. "Hey, Twilight," Comet said calmly, while ducking under the oncoming boulders as Abraxas began knocking huge chunks of his throne towards them, which carved up huge slabs of stone from the floor as they crashed towards the two heroes. "The plan is for us to attack and then go back in time to join the attack, and so ad infinitum, right?" "Yeah," Twilight said, sharing similar concerns. "So... where are our future selves?" Both ponies leapt across a large gash in the floor, leaving them almost directly beneath the denizen. "Well, I can think of one explanation," Comet said. Twilight nodded. "But either way, it's been a pleasure, Sparkles." "Yeah," Twilight agreed, drawing her quill as a large green tail began swinging towards them. "Hey, where's Star Swirl?" As they watched, the tail's descent slowed, before stopping completely. Turning around, Twilight was greeted with the sight of a very exhausted-looking Star Swirl, his eyes closed in concentration and his horn glowing brightly. "Guys." Star Swirl managed through gritted teeth. "Don't. Just. Stand. There. This. Isn't. Easy. Do. Something. Quickly. Would. Make. My. Day." "That's pretty impressive," Comet mused, as a small army of Comets gathered around him. "For a Seer to be able to do something like that. Anyway, time to finish this." And finish it, he did. All one hundred and eight of him. *** SS: what do you mean there's a fork in the path? ES: well ES: ASTOUNDING though it may be ES: what I mean is that there is a motherfucking FORK IN THE PATH SS: OK, OK, jegus, no need to claw my eyes out. SS: not that you have claws. ES: can we please stay on topic for more than three lines? ES: seriously, I feel like I’m talking to cleverbot SS: woah, OK, calm down! SS: let's see. is there any sign of which way she went? ES: no SS: urgh... why the hell did Silver have her laptop out before going in there anyway? SS: why, given what always always happens in this game, would anyone ever go somewhere without their laptop? ES: idk SS: OK, which way do you have a good feeling about? which path calls to you the most? ES: uh... idk, the left one? SS: in that case, I think you should take the right one. ES: why? SS: because all of your ideas are terrible. ES: awwww SS: quit your bitching and go save your friend who just so happens to be a girl. ES: my what? SS: that's the term that Silver insists I use. go figure. SS: anyway, later. ES: yeah, BYE [eclecticSage ceased pestering suspiciousSerpent (SS)] *** "Summer!" Applejack cried out, as she saw the pegasus knocked into the ground with a sickening crunch, and thick cloud blocked her from getting through to her friend. Slashing desperately at the darkness, Applejack began cutting a path, only to feel a sudden chill as Nyx appeared behind her. "Oh, now, isn't that sweet," the denizen smiled thinly. "And a little tragic. Such good friends, having all of these adventures, only for one of you to be cut down. It almost makes me tear up a little." Before Applejack could react, she was soaring through the air, before landing on the ground painfully. "Still, if both of you die then I guess it won't be quite so tragic." "Now that's just insulting," Luna said, almost completely knocking away the darkness, which quickly returned to Nyx. "I'm the hero of Void, I'm the most important player here at the moment. I'm the last one you should forget about." Nyx tilted her head, as large funnels of black cloud snaked towards Luna. "Remind me, which one were you again?" The clouds leapt towards Luna, who narrowly avoided being crushed between them. "Were you the one that poor old Star Swirl has spent gog knows how long doting over, or were you the one that spent gog knows how long doting over poor old Star Swirl?" Another funnel of cloud caught Luna unawards, knocking her backwards as the first wave of cloud regathered itself for another attempt. "Or is that the same thing? My, wouldn't it be really stupid if that was true?" Dodging over the wave as it surged towards her, Luna picked up on her opening and sprinted towards the denizen. "Oh wait, no, now I remember. You're the one who helped a pony escape a fate worse than death. Or maybe you haven't done that yet? I get confused." Lashing out at the approaching Witch only to miss, Nyx leapt into the air to avoid Luna's attack. "Weren't you the one who started this whole mess? Although to be honest, all of you are as bad as each other. No respect for the laws of time and space, you lot. I mean, really!" "Do you ever shut up?" Luna asked, preparing to leap up into the air, before noticing that her hooves were trapped in a thick cloud. "Oh gog damn it." Worse than her situation was Nyx's piercing laugh, as the denizen descended to the floor of the throne room. "Oh Luna, you don't stand a chance against me when you're so transparent. I can see absolutely everything about you: your thoughts, your moves, your past - even the parts which you don't understand yourself." Nyx sighed sadly, as the cloud binding Luna's legs began to swell and envelop the rest of her. "Maybe you could do with a little... cloud cover?" The last thing Luna saw before the black cloud covered her eyes was Nyx smiling wickedly. A rifle shot rang out, followed almost immediately by a horrific shriek of pain. The cloud covering Luna instantly dispersed, to reveal Nyx writing in pain as cloud began evaporating off of her body. On the other side of the throne room, Summer and Applejack were calmly watching the denizen. Noticing Luna's perplexed expression, Summer nodded. "I did say that I wasn't going to sit here and listen to terrible jokes," Summer pointed out. She glanced at Applejack. "Thanks for fixing me up, by the way." Applejack shrugged. "Don't mention it. Ah would've done that for anypony." "Uh, yeah," Summer said quickly. "I know that. I'm just saying, thanks." She coughed loudly. "Is it dusty in here? I think it's dusty in here." She coughed again. "Anyway," Luna said, after making sure that Nyx actually was dead and that there was a giant mountain of grist waiting for them in the newly opened chamber. "Did anyone hear what she was saying back when I was fighting her? Anything about a particular unicorn? Anyone?" "Uh..." Summer thought for a moment. "Nope. I was a bit busy dying at that point." "Good," Luna said, visibly relieved. She thought for a moment. "Wait, I mean, it's not good that you were dying. I mean, it's... uh. Never mind." "Right. So, where next?" Summer asked, as she and Applejack rose to their hooves. Luna retrieved the Paradox Gate, and glanced over it quickly. "Next is Golden's planet. But I think we should head back to LOWAF now that we're done here, so we can all regroup. For one thing, Golden might want to help take out his denizen," Luna reasoned. "Anyway, let's go." *** "Oh wow," Silver gasped in surprise, as she turned a corner to be confronted by a big red frog. "There actually was a frog down here? I was expecting a note from Celestia saying 'IOU 1 FROG KTHXBAI'." She paused. "Wait, who am I talking to?" Shaking her head free of the tiny voices which rose to answer the question, Silver stepped forwards and picked up the frog. Then she paused, waiting for something to go wrong. Nothing did, which was more than a little unnerving. Shrugging off her anxiety, she turned around and almost walked straight into the pony that was standing behind her. "Gash!" Leaping backwards into the small alcove where the frog had been sitting patiently, Silver Heart narrowed her eyes as she recognised the enemy. "Hey," Silver Edge called brightly, axe in hoof. "Hey Silver, let me axe you a question." *** "OK," Ember said, inspecting the latest result of Fluttershy’s attempts at exobiology. "I'm no expert in this, but we must be getting close... right?" In response, Fluttershy bent down next to the small frog and listened intently. A tiny croak made its way out of the amphibian. For a few moments, it passed across Fluttershy's awareness, traversing solar systems in milliseconds, unravelling and recreating matter as it went, entire galaxies resonating to its harmonies. Almost. Opening her eyes, Fluttershy nodded encouragingly. "Yes, we're almost there," she confirmed. Two out of the three other ponies cheered at the news. Everyone except for Ember. "Is there a reason why your frog is taking so much longer than mine did?" Ember asked. Fluttershy shrugged as the four ponies jumped out of the convenient exit which Ember had smashed out of the building during his fight with Silver, returning to the frog hunt in the trees below. "Well, Comet probably manipulated time to skip a few generations. And he's a Page of Time, which means he has a reasonable understanding of Space as well," Fluttershy explained. "I'm really just playing it by ear." "Hey, don't make it sound like you're terrible at this," Rainbow protested. "You've come this far without any help." Ember began to raise an objection, only to be quickly shot down. "I mean, without anyone helping with the technical know-how side of things." "I suppose you're right," Fluttershy conceded. "Still, I am a little worried about what will happen next. I mean, even if we make the frog, it'll be all for nothing unless we can place it in Skaia." "I wouldn't worry about it," Acapella offered. "By the time we've finished, the others will have come back. And then they can help us finish off the denizens, and then we'll take on Mild and Discord in some kind of huge ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny! Except with a slightly more original name." "I hope you're right," Rainbow said. "I can't wait to get my revenge." "Uh, you mean you can't wait to avenge our friends, right?" Fluttershy asked. "Well, yeah," Rainbow admitted. "But I also want to get revenge." "Oh dear..." *** "So then," Comet began. "Where are we going next?" Star Swirl thought about it for a moment. "Well, first of all we should get back to LOWAF and regroup. And then we'll have to get to my planet," Star Swirl said. "Where we'll have to deal with a denizen that you've dealt with two times already." "Yay," Comet cheered sarcastically. "I can hardly wait. Just a guess; I predict that the answer is blue lorry." "It's a long story," Twilight said in response to Star Swirl's confused expression. "Let's just say that Comet doesn't like riddles any more, and that I am the best there is when it comes to loopholes." "Oh right, yeah, I know what you mean," Star Swirl said, suddenly making the connection with the story he had been told. Comet narrowed his eyes. "You do? How?" Comet demanded. Star Swirl shrugged and looked away awkwardly, as he had done so many times before. Comet rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, I forgot. You're not meant to tell me. I realise what's going on, you know. Don't think that you've fooled me." "Comet?" Twilight asked, ignoring the increasing feeling that she was being left out of the loop. Probably because she fell out of it through some kind of loophole. "What are you talking about?" "OK, well, basically," Comet began, clearly eager to make Star Swirl feel uncomfortable. "Swirls - no, wait, not just him. Everyone in this session has been doing some kind of temporal loop bullshit and somehow know everything, but for some reason they can't tell me what's going on. And it's doing my head in." "Well, I haven't noticed it," Twilight replied, much to Star Swirl's relief. "So it's probably just you being paranoid." "Oh, you would say that," Comet retorted. "You're one of them!" The three ponies were silent for a few seconds, after which Comet coughed lightly. "Heheh. Yeah, sorry." "I give up," Twilight sighed. "Right then. Shall we?" Star Swirl nodded. "Wait a minute!" A voice called, causing Comet, Twilight, and Star Swirl to look upwards. There, with an incredibly smug expression on his face was Mild. "Has anyone got the Time?" He paused for a few seconds. "Oh wait, yeah, I do." He laughed at his own joke, while the ponies below him waited patiently for him to continue his monologue. "Right then, you guys are now my watches." Grinning maniacally, he pointed a hoof at each of them in turn. "From now on, your names are Sundial, Pocket Watch, and Obtuse Fucktard." "Hey!" Comet yelled angrily. "No one talks about Twilight like that! Ow," he cried out, as Twilight knocked him on the back of the head and glared at him. "Oh right, he meant me," he said in mock surprise. "Well, I'm still pretty annoyed about that." *** "Honestly," Celestia complained, "what the hell is taking so long?" "You know," Diamond pointed out, "Golden did say that there was a fork. And that was quite far in." "Yeah, so?" Celestia wasn't looking for excuses. She was looking for frogs, and now she had to wait around because of those two idiots. "So, maybe you were wrong about how short the tunnel was?" Diamond sighed. While it probably wasn't much fun to be lost underground, it couldn't have been any worse than attempting to soothe an irritated Celestia. "They'll be here in a bit." "You know what I think?" Celestia asked meaningfully. "I don't think they're lost at all." That was, apparently, all she had to say about that. "What do you mean?" Diamond asked. "If they weren't lost then where would they-" Realisation dawned, accompanied by a smug grin from Celestia. "Oh for gog's sake, grow up." "OH!" Celestia cried, smiling like an idiot. "Oh, that was just uncalled for Diamond! Besides, don't go acting like it didn't cross your mind." "Frankly, I have better things to do than imagine what two of my friends - one of which looks exactly like me, for crying out loud - are doing behind my back!" Silence fell for a few minutes. "Hey, Diamond?" "What?" Diamond asked warily, unsure whether or not Celestia had calmed down. "Do you... do you feel any kind of connection to Silver?" Diamond thought about the question. "Uh. Not really. I kind of did with Silver Edge, since we shared a body and everything. But... no, I... wait, what's that look for?" Although Celestia had initially hid it well, her smirk was rapidly developing a mind of its own. "Sorry, sorry, but..." Celestia paused to catch her breath. "Did you just say that the two of you shared a body?" Quickly leaping to one side, Celestia sprinted away cackling maniacally, as Diamond chased after her with murder in her eyes. *** Golden's ability to not panic was rapidly decaying as he realised that he had reached the end of the path without finding any sign of Silver. There hadn't even been a frog. What had happened? "Silver!" he called out, in the hopes that plot mechanics might succeed where common sense and logic had failed. To his surprise, he heard Silver's voice, surprisingly close. "Golden?" "Where are you!?" A thousand and one explanations rushed through Golden's head, ranging from a tunnel collapse to sheer stupidity on his part. "I'm at the end of the path," came the reply, which Golden had kind of been expecting. "But that's where I am!" There was silence for a few seconds. "I mean the end of the left path," Silver said simply, causing Golden to repeatedly hit himself in the head. Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid. "I guess that they must finish pretty close to each other?" "Yeah. I guess. That seems kind of redundant..." Golden shook his head. This was no time to be discussing the efficiency of an underground tunnel system. "So hey, are you OK?" "I'm fine," Silver said. "Although to be honest, I've had enough of this quest." "I know what you mean," Golden agreed. "It does drag on a bit. Hey, uh, Silver, while we're both here, uh..." He looked down at his hooves. Wait, why did he do that? Silver couldn't even see him! "Well, I guess I did get better, so... I need to tell you something." "Golden?" Silver said quietly, which made it almost impossible to hear her through whatever gap in the wall that made it possible for them to speak. "Maybe you should wait until later to tell me whatever it is? I just mean, uh... there's a lot to do, and... the others will be worried about us?" Golden thought about that. "Uh, I guess... um," Golden floundered. This was no good. He was second guessing himself now. It did seem that Silver was intent on changing the subject whenever he tried to talk to her. "Silver, have I done something wrong?" On the other side of the wall, Silver Edge closed her eyes. "No, Golden. Quite the opposite." Considering the dead unicorn at her feet, Silver Edge wondered absently why her life was so fucked up. She sighed. Mild wasn't going to like what she had decided to do next. Then again, she had an extravagantly long list of reasons why Mild's opinion counted for shit. "Hey, Golden?" "Yeah?" "Uh, can you come around to my side of the wall?" There was no way that Silver Heart was still alive, of course, but that wasn't necessarily a requirement for her continued existence. "Um. Sure. Why?" "I'll tell you... once I'm better." And with that, Silver transportalised the hell out of there.