//------------------------------// // Chapter 76 - Everything Coming Up Anon // Story: Dadonequus Discord (Book 2) // by CrazedLaughter //------------------------------// Both you and Discord made your way back to the main hall, ready for what awaited the both of you. In your mind, you were prepping yourself for a talk with Diamond. You decided you’d tell her, for sure, what transpired today, as well as convince her to come to Twilight’s castle tonight for a game of O&O. When you both finally reached the main hall, The Riches were already there getting ready for the picture, Silver Spoon hanging back to let them do it. Filthy, of course, was stalling for time until you arrived, boasting to the cameraponies and reporters about this and that. “...And of course, besides donating the colosseum for our dear Princesses’s school, I’d also like to mention, that given today is right special, that we’ll be having a special thirty percent discount for the next four hours down at Barnyard Bargains. Yessiree, it may cut down on profits some, but I feel everypony in town should have a sense of them good feelings we all shared here today and… Ah, and will you look at how right lucky we are right now. Not only has Mr. Anon arrived to join us, but he brought his father too. Let me tell you, despite the oddity of it all, I see them both as official family members. Come over here you two, and let’s get some pictures. Oh, and might I say, you are looking rather sharp today, Mr. Discord.” Man, Filthy was really hamming it up here. But you couldn’t say he was faking it, he was pretty genuine with his words. “I do declare” Discord says as he straightens his vest, changing his tone to a southern flair “I will have to say the same thing about you, Mr. Rich. And may I say to our fine journalistic folk that it is a real honor to have witnessed the preliminary wedding of my future stepdaughter and my wonderful boy here. Indeed, I’d like to remind everypony here that you’d all have been doomed had I not adopted this fine colt. Who knows what would have happened with all that nasty business with the Storm King if I didn’t have such foresight, am I right?” Goddammit Discord… Just wanted all the glory for himself. Trying to make sure his 'foresight' gets in the fucking paper just to bolster his own ego for something he wasn’t even there for. The reporters and cameraponies didn’t look too moved by his words, nor did they look like they were denying it too much. Really, it was your glory, but it looked like they didn’t want to argue with a being that could turn them inside out on a whim. Mr. Rich began to reposition the group for a better picture. He had you next to Diamond at the front, just standing about two feet away from her for symmetry. She was already nearly shaking with excitement for just being near you. Mrs. Rich stood next to her husband, with Discord standing on the other side of Mr. Rich, putting on his best dignified post. Before everyone was ready, Mr. Rich just leaned over enough to whisper “How’s the chest, son? Can’t imagine your tux shrinking on you felt like drinking fresh apple cider.” Awww, was he really worried about that? “Yeah, I’m alright, no worries here. Barely felt it. But thanks for asking, Mr. Rich.” “No trouble, son, just making sure you’re ok. Now let’s put on a smile and make this look good.” Filthy said as he positioned himself for the picture, giving out a nice bright and honest smile. Hell, the picture taking went really well. A couple of pictures, more questions for Filthy, as well as you and even Discord, and finally, The Riches and Discord himself let you and Diamond walk out of Town Hall to enjoy the rest of the day together, even Silver Spoon giving her blessing to the both of you as she decides to not accompany you both, not wanting to be a third wheel. So you were finally outside after that entire mess, and man did the air feel good, especially with a cute filly cuddling on your side. Still, you had some heavy things on your mind. You were thinking of telling Diamond about Chrysalis showing up… Or hell, you should tell her. Given you’d want to see if she would want to go to a resort over you ‘wanting’ to stay for a game of O&O, you’d also need to see how serious she truly was about being your partner by seeing how she reacts to this information, although you’ll leave out the whole ‘try to murder you’ thing. “Anon, wasn’t that all so dreamy? Hmm? Would you say that was the best wedding ever?” Diamond ask, fawning over you like you were a rock star. “Yeah, it was, if I do say so myself” You say, only wanting to make her happy. “What? No!” Diamond gives you a gentle whap on the head, then gives you a snooty look as she raises her head “It was an imperfect wedding. So it can’t be the best, you should know that.” “Oh, well. Considering that was my first pony wedding, I have nothing else to compare it to.” Ok, Anon, time to make a recovery, just sound suave. “Except when we have our real wedding, which will be the best wedding in any universe.” You say as you give her dreamy bedroomy gaze. “O-oh…” Diamond blushes, looking at with with a bashful, yet emotionally taken face “I-I suppose that’s right, c-considering who you are. And uhm…” She gives her head a shake to recover her senses, then gives a stoic stare as she nods “Also true, our real wedding will totally be the best ever.” You chuckle at that, she was being rather adorable. Man, if only you both were a little older… Bah, get that out of your head, Anon, it’s time to get to business. “Yep, the super best. But uh, I kinda wanted to have a practice honeymoon with you an-woah!” You are suddenly stopped as Diamond brings her nose to yours, squeeing in excitement. “Really?! Even though you didn’t need to! Ohhhhh, very scandalous. I see, keep it a secret so we don’t get followed around by the press. I like it! So, where are we going?!” She said, trying her best to contain her excitement. “Oh, well, it was a resort over at Las Pegasus, but…” You reach into your saddlebag, and pull out the tickets, holding it over to her for her to have a look. “Look who owns the place.” “Hmmm?” Diamond takes the golden looking tickets, and has herself a closer look. And almost instantly, she had a look of pure disdain and disgust on her face as she noticed the brothers faces printed on the ticket. “Oh, those two hacks. Hmph, after all the scams they’ve tried to pull in the past, we’d have to be total morons to go to their resort. In fact, I can probably get Mother to get your money back and maybe even get the place closed down. There’s no way they aren’t doing anything shifty in there. there's totally something we can get them with.” Wew, so far so good, seems she did care over the fact it was the Flim Flam brothers’ resort as it seemed she still had some ill will towards them. And could you blame her? These guys would take over Equestria if they had the chance, quite literally too. “Yeah well, truthfully? It was your mom who got the tickets, for free too, so it’s not like we’re obligated to go or anything. So yeah, I wasn’t too keen on going either when I found out they owned the resort. But I do have a solution. See, sometimes me and Dad and a few friends do this thing every night…” And you then go on to explain some of Ogres and Oubliettes to Diamond, and how it’s done in your sessions. From heroic adventuring as anyone you wish, to treasure hunting and saving entire lands, to even getting to be the hero you imagine yourself to be, the whole shebang. “So, it’s like when we went into Miss Cheerilee’s chalkboard? But an actual adventure?” Diamond asks. “Sorta, yeah. It’s like the best game of pretend that’s ever existed. To put it simply, the Oubliette Master makes an adventure for us to go through, and the players have to find a way to win, survive, and defeat all in their path. And because you’re playing as your dream character, you’ll be able to do whatever they can do. For example, I am Conan, the mighty barbarian, and I can cleave even the mightiest bad guy in half with my battle axe.” You say as you decide to strike a heroic pose. Diamond just tilts her head in confusion “A barbarian? Really? Not like a knight or anything like that? Aren’t barbarians mean and just pillage and other things like that?” “Well, I mean…” Dammit, of course she’d have a problem with you being a brutish barbarian. “I just like to get to the point, then cleave it in two.” You say with a chuckle “Besides, my character is a noble barbarian adventurer, who saves everypony and slices his enemies in half. And that’s the beauty of the game, even a class such as a thief or berserker can be heroic nobleponies. If you want to play, you could be a royal knight if you want.” “Royal knight?” Diamond began to ponder for a moment “But you can be anypony you want to be… Hmmm…” Diamond just sat there, thinking, she even took a look at the tickets for a moment, until… “I want to be a thief.” “Royal knight it is-wha huh?” Woah, what? A thief? You mentioned it as a class, but you didn’t expect her to pick it. “Seriously?” “Yeah, a thief princess in fact! Think of it, Anon.” Diamond gives a conniving expression as she looks left and right suspiciously. “Princess by day, thief by the moonlight. Oooh! That’s a good name too, Moonlight Garnet! A master thief who hunts for treasure and steals the riches of evil barons and villains to give to her people… and keep some for herself too.” Diamond has herself a self satisfied titter as she gives you a rather dreamy look “Pretty cool, right? Actually, I don’t need you to tell me, I already know my ideas are perfect. Well, near perfect, I’ll have the whole idea down by the time we play tonight.” Well, that was easy. Unexpected, but easy. Moonlight Garnet, huh? Yeah, that works. Better yet, that pretty much secures your three days of power. Oh baby, tomorrow was gonna be good. “Oh, I’m sure of it. But uh…” And here it comes, the true test of her loyalty to you. “There’s something else we need to talk about. This time it’s pretty important.” “Important?” Diamond was stunned for a moment, she didn’t even think it was something serious at first. But she could see the growing concern on your face. She didn’t know what was up, but she thought it strange you’d go from inviting her to a fun sounding night to whatever this was. “What’s wrong?” “Well, I don’t want to alarm you or anything, but Chrysalis…” Prepare yourself, Anon, you have no idea how she is going to react to this. “Showed up at the wedding.” “W-what?!” Diamond said out loud, catching the ear of some of the ponies around town. Though, she thankfully realized how important it was to keep it a secret, you just didn’t expect her to shove you in between some houses with her face, poking your side with her tiara, just to find a place to talk. “...She was there? Does that mean she’s totally good now? Did she like it? How did you know it was her? I didn’t notice her at all. Tell me, Anon, tell me!” Man, she was suddenly super curious. And that tiara, damn, it was kind of sharp. Nothing punctured, but you'll have to make sure she never uses it on you as a weapon. Anyway, you decide to tell her, leaving out the more violent details. You essentially told Diamond a version where you both just caught up with each other, mentioning the fact that she cared about Diamond’s opinion of her as the most important piece to your explanation. “...And then she just left to the Everfree. What do you think, Diamond?” She wasn’t freaking out, so that was a good sign. “It sounds like she just misses her kids. It sounds like she was so focused on being evil that she even drove her entire hive to hate her when they realized there was a better way…” Diamond began to frown more and more, as her thoughts began to compare the situation with her own when it came to her mother. “She tried to force them to do things her way, when it just turned out to be a bad way. And because of that, she’s lonely now. She doesn’t know what to do, and she’s trying to hold on to everypony who does care about her while still thinking being evil is ok. My mother was kind of like that for awhile. I mean she wasn’t evil or anything, but… You know how she was. She just needed help understanding that her way wasn’t helping anypony, but that we still cared about her either way. I think that’s what Chrysalis needs, she just needs a little brother, and of course, a little sister to help her be the changeling she knows she can be. I wish I had a chance to talk to her, maybe I could have done something. We’ll still have a chance to help her, right?” Yep, you were really glad you didn’t mention the whole ‘killing you thing’, as Diamond is not only remarkably calm about this, but seems to care enough to want to help with this. This was good, very very good indeed, meant you didn’t really have to hide or do that kind of shady shit that gets characters in trouble when they try to cover something up. You were in the clear. “We do, it’s actually why I plan to talk to Princess Twilight today. I want the help of all four princesses, I need their ok so not only does she realize she really is welcomed, but also so none of them suddenly decide to banish her or something on a whim.” “Well, that shouldn’t be too hard, they are the princesses. After speaking to Princess Luna, I can already guess they are super understanding. I would be if I was a princess, but we all knew that already. In fact, let’s go ask Princess Twilight about it now!” Diamond said as she began to march off to Twilight’s castle. “Woah, wha?!” Wait, she was actually wanting to do this? As adorable and caring as she was about this, you didn’t know if her form of diplomacy would work on Twilight. You also don’t think Twilight would take her too seriously. “I dunno, Diamond. This is something more between me and her.” “We’re partners, right? And soon to be married. That means if you need help, then I’ll be there. Besides, mother does this kind of thing all the time, how hard can it be?” Diamond says as she just continues her march towards the castle without hesitation “Princess Twilight is the Princess of Friendship, so this should be something she’d already be willing to do. C’mon, Anon, it won’t be that tough.” Christ, if only she knew how stubborn Twilight could actually be. Was it really wise to let her come along? Wait… Maybe it would be. If Twilight sees that ponies are willing to look past Chrysalis’s evil to give her a chance to reform, then she’d be more willing to keep that promise. Fine then, that’ll work. “You’re right, with you at my side, this shouldn’t be very hard at a-WAH!” Diamond jumps on you and snuggles along your body, happy to hear you agree. “Yeah! I knew you’d realize it! This is why we’ll make the perfect couple! When we’re together, nothing can bring us down! My Daddy says that sometimes, and this is totally proof that it’s true.” Well, it seems that it really is true. You now had a two on one against Twilight, and three days of unlimited power, all thanks to Diamond. Man, you actually felt pumped, with Twilight’s agreeance, the other three should follow suit soon after. You'd have to be careful though, simply because Spike would still be with the clones to help make this a three on one. Then again, with him not being there, you might be able push a little harder than originally planned if Twilight proved to be difficult.