Ponystuck

by confoundtheseponies

Chapter 43

While the ponies made their last few preparations before boarding the warship, there was a grim mood in the air. With their brief numerical advantage now shattered, many of them certainly had a little less confidence about the upcoming struggle. Where Pinkie had vanished to upon their arrival, none of them could guess, but it was generally assumed by all that she would not be available for some time.

Twilight, surprisingly, was the only one who did not seem particularly depressed about fighting Discord. Instead she seemed impatient to get started, as she had stashed herself and Spike away into the engine room to get the warship running as quickly as possible. Celestia had stopped anyone from going after, saying that it was better to leave her alone for a while. Comet had pointed out that she wasn't alone because Spike was with her, but had to concede the point when Celestia replied that Spike never said or did anything noticeable. And so the remaining ponies had made a few short-lived attempts at conversation, before falling into silence as they contemplated what lay ahead.

With a mixture of relief and despair, they were roused from their thoughts as the warship suddenly blazed into life, seemingly better and healthier than it had ever been, lifting up into the air as it span around to present them with the large gap in its side. Looking down at them from the gap stood Twilight and Spike. Twilight was wearing the smile of someone-who-had-killed-the-dragon-that-had-burnt-their-village-and-was-feeling-good-about-it-but-was-still-pretty-pissed-and-could-go-for-a-few-cave-trolls-or-something-to-finish-off, but it was a smile nonetheless, so a few ponies were able to relax a little. Comet remained on edge, as it seemed likely he would be one of the cave trolls, but still boarded the warship along with the others.

"Shall we be off?" Twilight asked, once they had all boarded. "It's about time we got started, isn't it?"

Room 217702988324556021314531333103452334358935571183505382e156 explodes into a billion fragments of refined taste and impeccable style as an enraged Discord tears through it and a thousand other rooms, searching desperately for his foe. Not that he has any chance of finding me, as I am well hidden. Speaking of which, I should probably address the change in management to avoid confusion. I am Pinkie Pie, and I will be your narrator for the remainder of what is still stubbornly being called an evening for the purposes of mood setting. I suppose if you read the whole thing in one go from the start, it could fit into an evening.

I don't really know why I said that, but my Voidy powers have a habit of telling me good things to say even if I don't quite see why. That's also the reason why I have such a very clear grasp of the situation, and why I am always at least fifty steps ahead of Discord as he and I dance through this all-too short wing of the infinite hotel. I must be careful that he does not find me, but equally careful that he continues to try. If nothing else I must keep him distracted until Twilight and the others arrive. I am rather capable in a fight, of course, but alone in a fight against Discord I would no doubt be dead by the 185th move. This isn't a terrible setback for a god, of course, but I'd still rather avoid that kind of thing. I am aware that by buying time for Twilight I am, arguably, being heroic, so avoiding Discord is that much more important now. The judgement of the fates can be especially tricky at times like this.

Very nearly making a mistake, I halt and jump behind a corner as Discord bursts through the floor and incinerates everything in his immediate vicinity. He really is terribly angry at the moment, and if he finds me... well, it doesn't do thinking about.

For now, at least, I am safe. But I can't help but think about what Silver said to me before reality was restored, and I can't help but think that her request might be just a little bit beyond my means. Save Golden? I almost laugh as the entire hotel shakes violently. Give me a break, I'm the one that needs saving from him.

CFA: what did you expect
PFA: i don't know. maybe i thought that future me could have finally sorted out all the issues between us
CFA: listen to yourself. this is you you're talking about. how the hell could you have sorted out all of the issues between you and twilight
PFA: urgh

The journey towards their epic destiny seemed, in Comet's eyes, entirely too long, and something of a let-down after all the nonsense he'd bothered through previously. Being saved by complete chance by a pony pressing buttons she didn't understand, evading the end of two different universes, getting shot at by a trigger-happy unicorn, and now a good day's worth of waiting around on a boat. And they were only halfway there, according to Celestia's rough guess. Why she couldn't just teleport them all there was what Comet had wanted to know, to which she had replied that they didn't know the exact location of the centre of the Paradox Loop. Comet had pointed out that it was probably in the fucking centre where else would it be, and she had asked him to point to where exactly that was, and he had said wasn't it just the point equidistant from the three sessions which would make it the dice in the middle of the Paradox Gate. She had said yes, it was, but unfortunately they didn't have a Paradox Gate. He had asked why not and she had said because deal with it.

Then he had said hold on a second. The dice? There were dice in the middle of the Gate, weren't there? The dice were in the segment of the Gate which corresponded to their destination. Did that mean that...?

"I am stupid and lonely and I have no friends," he had said, earning a confused look from some and a nod of agreement from Twilight. Then he had rushed off to his laptop to tell himself about the dice and how important they were, and also how he had forced them into the same temporal corner that they would later force his younger self into. And now, he had settled for simply bothering his younger self, which was always amusing. It was only now that he realised why his future self had enjoyed bothering him so much. This led him onto another train of thought. It had been a while since he had spoken with his future self. Maybe that meant what it obviously implied, or maybe it meant that his laptop would be destroyed, or he would be too busy to chat. Perhaps his future's silence was nothing more than a spoiler warning. In any case, it seemed clear to him that things were drawing to a close.

That was the problem with time travel, he reflected, or at least it was the problem with maintaining relations with your future self. From the slightest hint of things going badly, the most elaborate schemes to change history could develop. It was all too easy to get carried away trying to save yourself. He looked over at Twilight, who was speaking with Spike on the other side of the bridge. She had lost far more friends than he had. She had also seen the futility in trying to save them. Or, perhaps, she had saved them in a billion doomed timelines. Briefly, Comet closed his eyes, thinking back to Summer's death.

"OK, let's go," Comet said, as he helped Summer and Applejack fight off Mild's minions. "We don't have much time."

"Why, what's the rush?" Summer asked. Oh, it's nothing, just that you're going to die in a few minutes, Comet thought, but he just shrugged.

"Stuff's happening over there, and we need all the firepower we can get." Summer thought about this for a few seconds.

"It's nothing you can't handle, right?"

"Just hurry up!" Comet kept glancing upwards impatiently, to make sure he still had time.

"OK, OK, fine," Summer sighed. "AJ, let's-" she stopped suddenly, cutting off. Applejack was lying on the ground, in a rapidly growing pool of blood. "AJ!" As Summer rushed towards her friend and viciously kicked away the remaining soldiers, Comet stood back as she realised what had happened. A soldier had stabbed her in the back while Summer had been talking.

"Summer, I-" Comet began, before getting kicked in the face as Summer stood up again.

"Just go," Summer said quietly.

"... OK," Comet said, once again taking out his book.

"OK, let's go," Comet said, as he helped Summer and Applejack fight off Mild's minions. "We don't have much time."

"Why, what's the rush?" Summer asked. Comet shrugged, as he turned around and crushed several minions surrounding Applejack with his dictionary.

"Stuff's happening over there, and we need all the firepower we can get." Summer thought about this for a few seconds.

"It's nothing you can't handle, right?"

"Just hurry up!" Comet snapped, as a certain soldier who was attempting to sneak up on Applejack suddenly misplaced his skull.

"OK, OK, fine," Summer sighed. "AJ, let's go." Applejack nodded, and the two ponies followed Comet as they fought through the endless minions towards where he knew the others would be gathering. "But really, I don't get what's going on or why you're being so pushy about this. What could be so important? I thought we were winning the battle?"

"It's a long story," Comet said, glancing upwards to check on Prospit. "Suffice it to say that-"

"AJ!" A chill ran down Comet's spine as he turned towards Summer, who was sitting beside Applejack as she lay in a pool of-

"Well, at least we all made it," Luna said, as everypony appearified on LOPAD. Comet breathed a sigh of relief as he looked over at Summer and Applejack, who were finally both alive. "Now we can-Summer!" Luna cried, as a new figure suddenly transportalised into place next to Summer and Applejack, beheading them both with a flick of his wrists.

"Is this a bad time?" Discord asked, even as the others charged towards him and Comet retrieved his book from his sylladex.

"Right then, a bit of rest now, and then we can take on the King," Summer said, while everyone made their preparations. "Well done everyone on not dying for so long." Comet laughed bitterly, but said nothing when everyone gave him confused glances.

"It's nothing," he said, as he got out his laptop. "Nothing at all."

[CURRENT fractalAbomination began responding to memo FIX EVERYTHING]
CFA: aw yeah
CFA: i totally rule
[FUTURE fractalAbomination began responding to memo FIX EVERYTHING]
FFA: bro
FFA: go back. now. you have to go back now
CFA: huh?
FFA: before you saved summer and aj
FFA: you can't save them, seriously
CFA: what the hell are you talking about
CFA: i did not just see my friend die 500 times to just give up
FFA: listen to me you stubborn ass
FFA: you saved aj
FFA: meaning celestia is fine
CFA: yeah
FFA: so she didn't ascend to god tier
CFA: so? we'll do it later
FFA: fucking listen because i don't have long
FFA: you need her to be god tier
FFA: you are all about to be screwed over forever because without the god tier mages of time and space you're going to be stuck in an alternate universe forever
FFA: ok, i'll admit, it's a damn awesome universe and i can think of worse places to spend eternity
FFA: that's not the damn point
CFA: look, i'm not going to undo everything i've spent the last week or so doing
CFA: i'm saving them. so deal with it
FFA: was it worth it
CFA: what the hell? of course it was worth it
FFA: was it worth seeing her die 500 times
FFA: do you feel like you've come out of this emotionally better off
CFA: it doesn't matter. the point is that i've saved her
FFA: until the next time she dies
FFA: reality has been trying very hard to tell you that she needed to die
CFA: fuck reality
CFA: i'm not giving up
FFA: isn't that just because you're too stubborn to admit you were wrong
CFA: same difference. she's going to survive
FFA: i'm sure you have some noble intentions besides your own ego
FFA: but you're a page. you can't overturn the alpha timeline
CFA: ...
FFA: just listen to me. if you continue down this path then shit is going to be a million times worse than if you let her die
CFA: fuck you for saying that
FFA: fuck you for listening
CFA: ...
[CURRENT fractalAbomination stopped responding to memo FIX EVERYTHING]

"Hey, Summer," Comet said, as he took his book out of his sylladex one last time. Summer looked up.

"What do you want?" she asked irritably. Comet smiled.

"... sorry."

For a few seconds, Comet watched as the Heir of Light and the Knight of Life fought off the horde of Derse atop the hill where they were making their final stand, before helplessly turning back and running to safety.

Comet wondered if Twilight had spent as long saving Applejack. Or Fluttershy. Or any of her friends. He wondered how long it had taken her to realise the inevitable truth. He supposed it was only natural that he had sort of forgotten she was a hero of Time. When you spend so long manipulating the timeline and dealing with people who don't understand what's happening, it made sense that you would start thinking that only you could time travel. On the other hand, it seemed almost impossible that Twilight hadn't been up to at least as many shenanigans as he had, and gone equally unnoticed.

"What are you moping about?" Twilight asked, as she walked over to his side of the warship. It was only able to move because of Twilight's magic supplying it with power, but because it didn't require much steering she didn't need to pay too much attention to it. "I'm sort of counting on you in this battle, you know. I don't know what we'll do if you're not on form."

"It hurts, doesn't it," Comet said, looking up at her. "So you stop trying. You have to, because it just hurts too much." He didn't wait for Twilight to acknowledge that she was following him. He knew she was. "But then... no matter how much you try before you give in... you're always, always thinking that maybe there was one other thing you didn't try."

"Maybe it'll work out," Twilight said. "Maybe the fate we tried to avoid isn't so bad?"

"Maybe," Comet said quietly. "Maybe."

"Are we there yet?" Luna asked in a bored voice, as she stood up, walked around the small cabin, and sat down again in boredom. She supposed that this kind of thing was to be expected, after all. Wasn't it just typical game design to have a massive tedious journey preceding the final battle? She supposed it was odd to think of this as the final battle of the game. Recent events had quite clearly gone above and beyond the expected routine of this game - although she had a feeling that such deviations from the plan were probably rather common - and besides that, there was nothing to say this would be the final battle. Still, everypony seemed to share the feeling that all they had to do was to defeat Discord. Exactly what would happen after that was rather hard to say. Absently, she did another lap of the cabin where she and Star Swirl had come to get away from the depressing mood on the deck. Not that this was any better, she supposed. Star Swirl watched her for a while, before offering his reply.

"Probably not."

"Urgggh," Luna groaned, bringing a hoof to her head. "Swirly, think of something for us to do."

"I think I have some playing cards somewhere in my sylladex," Star Swirl said. "I might also have a spare monopony board."

"Monopony?" Luna laughed. "Thanks, but I'd rather be bored than wanting to kill myself. Especially since doing so wouldn't work."

"Heh, I guess."

"... When we do get there," Luna said, her face becoming serious. "I want you to promise me that you won't do anything stupid."

"Come on, Luna, it's me," Star Swirl protested. "Would I do something stupid?"

"Yes," Luna said, without a moment of hesitation. "Which is why I'm telling you. Don't do anything stupid." She looked away. "I'll let you fight. Because I know you won't listen if I tell you to stay behind. But... but I'm not going to let you get killed. Not if it's to defeat Discord. Not if it's to save me."

"You can't ask me not to save you," Star Swirl said.

"I can and I am," Luna replied. "I don't care if I'm being selfish, Swirly. Just promise me that you won't let yourself be killed."

"... OK. I promise." Star Swirl was quiet for a few minutes. "Hey, Luna. After... after this game is over and done with, do you think we... we could go out somewhere? Just us?" Luna gave him a look. "Uh. I mean, that's not... only if you'd be interested. That is." Luna held his gaze for a full minute, with neither of them moving, before she looked up at the ceiling. She smiled.

"... Yeah. I'd like that."

It is everything I can do to keep Discord away from the study as he chases me through the hotel. At the very least I would like to keep that room intact, although given the state of this wing I should imagine that the poor soul who borrowed it from the hotel proper is going to be in quite a lot of hot water. I don't know how long it takes to repair an infinite amount of rooms and it makes me rather queasy just thinking about it. As was mentioned earlier, the corridors do not strictly follow time and space, and so as I run through the building I am careful not to run into myself. At one point, I found myself at a hole in the wall of one corridor, through which the same corridor several days earlier can be observed. As might be expected, on stepping through the gap I found myself trapped in it, as several days earlier no such gap existed. There are several side effects to having an insane Heir of Rage tearing apart a building which doesn't strictly make sense, and that kind of thing is just one of them.

It is some small consolation to me that, just like me, Discord has no mastery over the rules of Time or Space. He is capable of manipulating them with a greater ease than I am, but is no better off when it comes to navigating these twisting corridors. Not that he makes any attempt to navigate them as opposed to simply running forwards and destroying everything in his way. It is a good thing that, being infinite, the hotel does not have a defined centre of gravity; otherwise it would probably have collapsed in on itself a long time ago from all of the important-looking walls which are now missing. Although of course, if it did so, it rather makes my head spin to think of how the hotel's warped timeline would react.

Turning a corner, I come to a corridor which is badly charred and devastated. It seems Discord has already been this way, so it is with confidence that I begin running down the passage. Almost immediately, I regret doing so, as the charred carpet and stained walls around me begin to reform. As I sprint down the corridor, it quickly reforms itself from a ruined mess to its previous neat shape. Realising what is happening a moment too late, I stop dead at the end of the corridor as Discord runs in front of me, and pauses.

"Got you," he says, grinning evilly as he charges forwards, knocking me off my feet as he knocks me the whole length of the corridor back the way I came, his magic wildly lashing around him and destroying the corridor as he runs down it, returning it to the state it was in a few minutes ago. This is to say, the state it was in a few minutes after when I was seeing it. If that makes any sense. I apologise if it doesn't, but I am too busy being beaten to a bloody pulp to explain four-dimensional topology.

It is all my magic can do to fend off as many of his attacks as I can, even as I am sent reeling to the ground in a bruised and broken mess. It seems that he has finally and completely given himself over to rage. If I had to guess, the sudden disappearance of Silver Edge is probably to blame. I realise that this is entirely his fault, but I refrain from pointing that out.

"Why can't you just die?" Discord roars, slamming his fist into the wall. In response, the whole of the right wall of the corridor rushes to the left, crushing me between the two walls, while Discord simply burns away the approaching wall. It is beginning to get difficult to maintain my composure, for which I can only apologise.

"She's worried about you," I whisper, unsure of whether this will help or simply bring about my death all the sooner. "She told me... to save you..." I assume the second option, especially as the entire corridor collapses at my words, as Discord's magic causes the entirety of the surrounding rooms to fracture into a thousand segments. These are sent crashing into the remaining portions of structure, as he and I float opposite each other in a confusing limbo that he has created in this floor of the hotel.

"... No," Discord whispers, but I am able to hear him perfectly against the complete silence which has fallen. "I can't... I can't be saved now."

"She asked me to," I assert. "So I have to try."

"Try?" Discord shouts. "What are you going to do? Silver couldn't save me, so what the hell are you going to do?" I suddenly get a glimpse of Golden Shine, angrily yelling at the world which has done this to him, scared and alone. "I... I just..."

"It will only be too late if you continue like this," I say. "There's time. There's still time."

"Time?" Golden looks at me hopefully. "Time for what?" His eyes darken, as Discord shakes his head at me. "It was noble of you to fight for so long for your friends," he says. "Just die. There's nothing you can do now. There's nothing anyone can do now."

"Golden-" I say, before being cut off as he rushes towards me and punches me in the stomach before I can finish. Coughing, I am sent flying back into the hotel proper, and he chases after me with an axe in his hand.

"I'm not Golden," Discord says, slashing down at me with the axe before I manage to parry the attack just in time. "Not now. Use my name. My real name." Easily knocking away my weapon, he grabs me by the throat and throws me at the wall. Although I managed to deflect his attack, in truth I am entirely exhausted.

"... Discord," I mutter grimly. "Is the name you've chosen for yourself, right?"

"Discord," he says, readying his axe again, "is the name I was born to have."

"FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-" Celestia yelled, as she landed on the water company for the fifth time and Acapella cackled gleefully. Grumbling, Celestia handed over a fistful of boonbucks. "Here, take your money, you sadistic bitch."

"Woah, calm down," Acapella said as she counted up her haul. "It's just a game, you know."

"Bullshit it's just a game," Celestia said. "And I don't know what you're smiling about, Ember. You're the one who started this game of Monopony but you don't seem to be faring much better than me." Ember shrugged as he rolled the dice.

"I've got plenty of money anyway, I don't mind." Moving his piece forwards, Ember groaned dramatically as he moved his piece to jail. "Oh come on, not again."

"Seriously, you two suck at this," Acapella said reprimandingly, before looking down. "Though, to be honest, Diamond would be winning if she were still here."

"Hey, stop that right there," Celestia said. "We don't even know for certain where Diamond is. She could have ascended somewhere, and we just need to find her."

"But, we never found her in any of those alternate universes," Acapella said, taking her turn. "I just hope she's OK. She was kind of my best friend, you know?" Ember coughed loudly. "Oh, sorry, here," she said as she handed over her rent.

"I know what you're saying," Celestia said. "But you've got to look on the bright side. Even if she's not here, she's probably doing just fine. I mean, she should be a God now, right? No matter where she is she'll be able to handle herself."

"In any case," Ember said, while Celestia rolled the dice again, "I want to know what happened to Mild. Where did he even end up?"

"I expect he'll turn up at some point as well," Celestia said, as she handed over some notes to Ember. "Not that I'll be particularly fussed if he doesn't. That'll be one hotel, please."

"Well, I didn't mean it like that," Ember said as he handed over the requested wooden block. "I just don't like the idea of not knowing where he is."

"Oh, that I can understand," Acapella said. "But I don't think he'll try anything, assuming he's in any position to. I mean, on paper, our team has a huge advantage. There's no way he'd join a losing team, so I'd imagine he'd stay with us."

"We don't have such an advantage at all, really," Celestia said. "Haven't you seen what Discord can do? Do you think that in any of the battles so far, he's been even close to getting serious?"

"Well..." Acapella shrugged. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, right? By the way, I've been wondering, but... why do you all call him Discord?" Celestia tilted her head questioningly. "I mean, Twilight's met him before as Discord, or met someone just like him or something, I don't really get that bit... but your session... you know, you used to know him."

"No we didn't," Celestia said firmly. "We had a friend called Golden Shine, who we all liked a lot. He's dead, and that's a shame, but please don't confuse the issue. Discord is not our friend."

"Is it really like that?" Acapella pressed.

"We call him Discord," Celestia said, sighing, "Because if it comes down to it, no matter what bullshit he's pulled, I don't think a single one of us could kill Golden."

"PINKIE!!!!" Discord roars several floors below me as I continue my desperate flight through the hotel. I really hate to break the tradition of narrators being killed in overwhelmingly unfair battles, but I have a feeling that something pretty bad would happen if I died without anyone left to take over the mantle of narrator. I am just thankful that my surprise fancy Santa attack went off without a hitch. I doubt a second Santa will be met with the same level of success, however. Also, I am rather injured, so I don't know for how much longer I will be of use as a narrator. Rest assured that I will do my utmost to not leave this tale in dangerous hands. Or claws. Or whatever.

Rounding a corner, I stop myself before falling down the next passage, which is vertical for some reason. Tentatively raising a hoof above the gap, I feel around for the gravity, which thankfully does seem to obey the direction the shape of the corridor would suggest. A little hesitantly, I drop into the passage and fall onto the ground behind me. Not the most elegant of landings, but a landing nonetheless. Getting to my feet, I resume running through what remains of the structure. Surely, Twilight and the others can't be too far away. Surely.

Or at least, that is what I keep telling myself, as the explosions behind me draw nearer and nearer.

Rounding the next corner, I freeze. In front of me stands Discord, and he does not look like someone in the mood for messing around.

"Game over," he says bluntly. And, strangely, I feel no desire to correct him.

"Are... are we here?" Acapella asks, as she and the others gather together on the deck of the warship.

"Looks like it," Comet says. "Although I have to say, they've really let the place go." In front of them, suspended in space, is a colossal skyscraper. In fact it is only a segment of a skyscraper, and appeared to be cubic. In actuality it's a polyhedron comprised of several billion faces, most of which extended infinitely into themselves. The more time spent looking at a certain point, the more the brain was forced to acknowledge the impossible angles and hideously warped geometry of the structure. Simply glancing at it passed it off as a cube, because cubes were a lot easier to understand. The walls were solid grey, and each face was dotted with millions upon billions of small dark windows, some of which were lit up in a bright white.

That was, at least, what most of the structure looks like. However, even from the outside it is clear that large portions of the building were damaged. An entire network of corridors had seemingly peeled away from the main building, and scattered around the outside was the residual of a thousand massive explosions. In one large face, every window had been smashed apart, and a large amount of the grey steel was twisted out of shape. In short, the entire cube looked like a battlefield. Which, to be fair, is exactly what it was.

"Well," Twilight says uneasily. "There's no time like the present. Shall we?" The others nod, and the warship draws in closer. It then suddenly halts as another huge explosion, visible from outside, sends large chunks of the wall flying outwards. "Is... is that..." The others follow Twilight's line of sight, and have similar reactions when they see what is standing in the gap left by the explosion. "Pinkie!?" I am standing in front of them, my clothes and body badly torn up. I am breathing heavily, and it is hard for them to tell whether I have actually seen them. "Pinkie! It's me!" I blink, and gasp as if seeing Twilight for the first time. I smile.

"Twilight..." I say, just loud enough for them to hear as the ship draws closer. "I'm sorry that I couldn't be of any more use..." I close my eyes, and am overcome with a sense of peace as I collapse, dropping out of the hotel and plummeting downwards.

"Pinkie!" Twilight yells, as she rushes towards the edge of the boat just in time to see me crash into a fractured segment of the hotel far below. "Pinkie!!"

Below the commotion, I lie quietly as I wait for death. I don't believe that I will revive, which is a shame, but at the least I hope that I can survive long enough to narrate the battle taking place above.

"Oh, Twilight, how nice of you to show up," a voice calls from the hole that I had fallen out of. Glancing up, Twilight and the others recoil as they see Discord waving at them cheerily, a dark look in his eyes. "Nice boat."

"I've been waiting for this," Twilight says grimly, as the others take their positions behind her.

"As have I," Discord says, grinning wickedly as he equips a large axe in each hand. "Shall we?"

"Bring it," Twilight says. "Let's see just how-" she is cut off, as a brilliant light suddenly exploded from the space between her and Discord, who had a similar reaction to the sudden inferno. "Wha-" As the light fades enough to see, Twilight stares into the heart of the bright glow, her question dying in her throat at what she saw. "But... that's..."

"..." Discord blinks. "Is... that...?"

In front of them, a purple winged unicorn now floats in the void, looking at them with eyes of red and blue. Her clothes are white and dark green, bearing the logo of a winged skull. The Sylph of Hope and Doom now hovers proudly before them.

"Hey," Diamond Edge says casually. "Did you guys miss me?"