Spike sighed as he was carried by Gia, feeling a little emasculated at having to be carried. He'd get wings! Someday. Maybe.
When they got to Rainbow's house, he remembered about Tank and was worried about the tortoise. When he went inside and found him, he was already dead - probably from a broken heart, seeing as Rainbow Dash had set up a way for him to get food easily seeing as she often forgot to feed him. Spike was distraught and looked around. Gia put a claw on his shoulder, telling him to relax. Gia was used to this sort of thing, and knew what it would probably do to Spike. She picked him up and gave a hug, letting him know it was alright to cry for a lost friend. Spike consented, but within ten to twenty seconds had wiped away his tears and brought his will up. He was weak, but he'd get stronger. He brought out the computer he had been given and gave Twilight the bad news, who was shocked. Don't kill the messenger.
Twilight nodded, thinking, and telling him to get ready to start the game. He'd be the first one in, and he'd be prototyping first. Spike followed the instructions he had been given with a heavy heart. Spike went to go look for something cool to prototype with and came across RD's old shadow bolt costume from Nightmare Night, and decided this'd be cool enough. When he got downstairs, Twilight was already throwing things around, giving him the instructions, Gia helping with the prototyping, who didn't know RD would have issues with turtle/shadowbolt-looking enemies. Spike was quick to get everything ready, ending with him making the entry item. His pupils dilated when he saw it.
Twilight was surprised how her fear of the stations being deployed hadn't come true - in fact, it's like the machines were ready for these kind of surroundings.
Spike looked at the gold-shimmering white diamond. It had his reflection, and he could see inside himself. Who he was and what he wanted, and how easily he could fall prey to greed. He didn't know whether to destroy it or eat it. It was so beautiful - such a rare-looking treasure - much better than the fire ruby he was saving - and he wanted to keep it for his own hoard. He started growing slightly taller before Gia wrapped him in a big hug, her sylph of heart and mind powers aiding Spike in his decision. He couldn't keep the light to himself, and crushed the gold-shining diamond, which seemed to break like rotting wood. He looked at the many pieces, and wanted to keep them all for himself, but he gathered them all up, deciding to give them to his friends as good luck charms. He kept one for himself, patting the captchalogue card he kept it in, and put the other shards in another after giving one to Gia, who took it with thanks. The home made of clouds disappeared from Equestria.
Twilight and Phynicxs, as they watched, were curious about how no meteors had shown up yet - especially after Spike told her there hadn't been a countdown. Kraine and DW had been expecting something to go wrong, but they didn't know what, considering the questionable nature of what was going on here. Twilight messaged them about it, and they told her to relax and get everyone into the session. They'd be staying behind after all.
Twilight sent another message - this one to Jordan - who received it and gave them the A-OK after telling them Cheerilee would be joining them. This confused Twilight, having not expected her of all ponies. Derpy? Maybe. But Cheerilee? That made almost no sense. She barely even knew the teacher. Twilight sent one more message, this one to Pinkie, telling Ying and her to get ready.
Prism looked from the highest point of Prospit and squealed with excitement and joy when she saw another planet come into existence in front of her. Until the shock of information hit her like a brick. It felt like she'd been there before - checked things out - but didn't remember much of it other than the terrain, apparently having mapped it out much like Daring Do using her breath powers to control her writing implement. It hurt pretty bad and she grabbed onto her head. It was weird knowing that the planet had only just now appeared, but it's like she gained memories that weren't hers that blatantly said that this planet had been there the whole time. And one new piece of information that she couldn't've figured out until now. Her house was on that planet. Prism was about to rush off but Sleuth held her back, telling her that if she interfered she might interrupt the game's start. She would have to wait until everyone was in. Prism sighed, defeated, realizing that this wasn't the first time she'd almost gone off the alpha timeline. The original one that was only about good things. Prism grumbled and started polishing her wing blades and sharpening them using her breath powers to hold things, as she thought about changing her name to Prism officially.
Land of Towers and Treasure.
Spike was amazed. There was treasure littered everywhere, and a few of the towers were made from treasure. His eyes diluted and he salivated a little, while at the same time wanting to hoard all of it. This was his. Gia put her claw on Spike again, trying to calm him down before he did something he'd regret. He was thankful right now to have Gia there to calm him down and bring him back, but had a feeling sooner or later he was going to be on his own. Rainbow Dash's cloud house was much like a small tower.
Most of the ground was some form of mud, be it wet or dry, and Spike was pretty certain at least a few of them would turn into sinkholes. Meaning he'd have to be careful and in control at all times. Gia let the sprite talk to Spike as he looked back to her. ShadowboltTanksprite informed him of how a dark half and a light have of the sprites always split so that one could go to a prospit tower and the other to a derse tower. He didn't explain any more of that and just wanted to find Rainbow Dash, knowing that she was here in the session, even if he kept that information to himself. He'd find her soon, he felt.
Gia started explaining a little bit of what Derse was and what Prospit was in words he could easily understand. Spike was torn between exploring and being responsible, and with Gia's help did the responsible thing, contacting Twilight and telling her the jump was successful. Twilight told him to make notes on what he could see.
---
Sleuth was doing a little scouting on the new arrivals in a very subtle way before he heard two voices and looked over. They were getting close, and they seemed to be closing in on Prism's planet. One of them was leading, the other following, and the guy behind the leader's voice was mostly the one. Sleuth hurried to Prism and told her what was happening. He wasn't sure if they were good guys or bad guys, but they were going to find out before they tried to mess up the session. Prism and Sleuth hurried.
Snowskeeper was the one in front, and had the attire of a Gent of Change.
Snowskeeper pulled out two pistols from holsters and held them at the ready. "Hey there! We're looking for a fellow named Rainbow Dash, have you seen her?" He seemed extremely peppy and cheery. Sleuth got into a ready position and Prism glared at them. The one behind Snowskeeper kept his mouth shut for a bit.
"Why?"
"Oh, I don't know... Maybe we want to make friends with her?" The statement/question was dripping with sarcasm.
"She's not here. Be gone with you." Sleuth moved forward a little.
Obviously Snowskeeper already knew who she was and whispered to the one next to him, calling him Lunacy. Lunacy nodded and brought his hands up. He wore very unfamiliar clothing, but you could tell it was godtier. The guy started shouting obscenties, sarcasm, ignorance, and rage. The words and voice made the area around them pulsate harshly, green-looking glowing wires starting to show itself around them, as though something were revealing the game. It sounded like gears were having a hard time turning. Prism and Sleuth covered their ears before Lunacy shot two digital-looking spider webs at Sleuth and Prism. They hadn't been expecting it and got caught quick. Sleuth was quick to react as he saw Snows rage, coming at them and about to shoot at him. He focused on his powers, and surged it into Snows and Lunacy. Both floated stock still, as though their memories had been wiped. But Snows was about to get going before Lunacy yelled and rushed at Prism with a knife. Sleuth couldn't get to her and shouted. "NO!"
Prism struggled against the binds, and used her breath powers to shoot air bullets through the net at Lunacy. The breath was torn up just as it exited her mouth. What did she have all the worst luck? She struggled and Lunacy brought the knife up, Snows slowly remembering what he was doing and rushed over to make sure Prism's death was permanent. Lunacy seemed to have a problem with those he didn't like, and quickly proved that fact on Prism.
It was not pretty.
A flash of light appeared behind them. It was unicorn, dressed in rogue of time clothing that fit her well. Her horn stuck out of the hood, and it gathered power, drawing it from the enemy, and shot two bolts of lightning that struck their marks. Lunacy and Snowskeeper were surprised, as a few other ponies started to come through - not to mention other players. Prism was supposed to survive if they had any chance of beating the big bad, and then with Twilight's help, things were mostly restored - but the future for the current players looked bleak even still. As the two ran away, not wanting to deal with this outnumbered situation, Fluttershy came over and used her power to destroy the nets. Prism wasn't looking very good at the moment. That much was certain. Fluttershy, before going off with the rest who were headed deeper into Paradox Space, told Sleuth to go to the Land of Fusion and Mechanics. They'd be in soon. She pointed in the direction the planet would be in and rushed off, as if they had more they needed to do.
Sleuth pulled out his syringe of life (one of a few syringes he used - the others mostly for the administration of chemicals,) and shot it into Prism, who woke up and her wounds healed so she wouldn't bleed to death, but she was missing some pieces still. She almost screamed, but instead sighed and asked why this always happened to her, implying something similar had happened before but with less limb loss. Not wanting to torture Prism, Sleuth immediately put her to sleep and carried her to the place Fluttershy had pointed.
There was a huge sound behind them. Like an explosion, but deeper. Startled, Sleuth looked behind him as he hurried across space to get to where the planet was supposed to be. And what he saw startled him beyond recognition. He had never seen ANYTHING like this before, and had never even READ of anything like it. As far as he knew this was a completely new game aspect, and he had a feeling that this was a bad omen.
Prism's planet had just imploded on itself. There were faint screams as the planet's imploded corpse started to flicker and waver, before slowly deteriorating. A number of white portals started appearing that ran to Skaia as the space around the planet's spot pulsated and started to grind, as though something like this wasn't supposed to happen. The planet that came into space was completely black. It camouflaged with the space around it so much it's like it wasn't even there. If it weren't for the portals and the small mountain peek that poked up out of the darkness with a solitary house imbedded into the mountain. The whole thing took Sleuth's breath away, and felt fear like he'd never known before. What the hell was going on? Occasionally the planet pulsated with wire-looking rainbow colors that covered the entire planet. But it was at least a minute between each pulsation, as though the thing was alive.