17 - Conundrums of Philosophy - Part 4
Ad’ika’s Personal Log
The screeching siren and flashing red lights were their own kind of terror. Why on earth anyone would build a system to constantly remind you an emergency was going on by screaming and strobing at you is beyond me. It seriously just made the situation worse.
Even worse was the point three seconds between the emergency alert going off and Celestia’s guards bursting into the room.
“Everypony surround the princess! You, changeling, if that door bolts, bolt it!” Shining armor ordered. I recognized him from newspapers.
“Are you crazy?” I shot back, “Her Highness said they are portaling in! Sealing the door just means we have to unseal it to run!”
“She has an excellent point.” A tall mare I didn’t recognize said.
The guards formed a wedge around the door, apparently deciding whoever the tall red mare was and I were right. Celestia stood up from the table and frowned, sniffing the air every few moments. “Does anyone smell burnt almonds?” She asked in a scary-serious tone.
“It’s more of a burning fur and molten iron scent to me, Princess.” A guard answered.
Shining nodded his head, “Something definitely smells foul but I wouldn’t call it either of those.”
Taylor sniffed the air, frowned, closed her eyes and sniffed again, “That’s brimstone, and it’s getting strong-”
I swear Taylor eyes flashed with fire for a second, “Oh hell no! I’m not fighting demons today!”
Something wasn’t adding up. Taylor was not behaving at all like a Captain should. I had figured maybe she simply had been the captain of a garbage scow, but no Fleet captain would panic in these kind of situations! They literally trained them with no win scenarios to keep cool under any circumstances.
A thunderclap boomed through the hallway, shattering my thoughts. A flash of black blotted out the entire corridor for a moment, the air filled with the stench of burnt meat and gunpowder. I swore I could see the actual smell in the air like fog.
A blur of coal black glittering scales shot into the room, coiled around the formation of guards, and crushed them with a sickening snap. The creature was easily eighty feet long, it had the tail of an obsidian snake, the upper body of a pony with flint shards for fur, it’s hooves were twisted into taloned hands but still made of keratin, it’s face was a drawn back lizard like grinning muzzle filled with shark teeth, a pair of huge bat wings plumed from it’s back and it’s eyes were literally two glowing agates.
Shining threw a shield spell around everyone, the creature surged forward, hooked it’s talons into the shield, and somehow ripped through it like fabric!
“Down!” Celestia bellowed. My entire left side burned as a bolt of white-hot fire surged past me punching a hole through the creature.
It slammed into the deck, a smoking hole where it’s ribcage had been. Somehow the thing managed to push itself up and hiss, “Greetings from Tambelon, Princess!” before collapsing into a heap of violet ashes.
“Nopony breath in any of that ash!” Celestia ordered. She looked out into the hallway, “We need to move. Shining, keep point. Spark, bring up our rear and torch anything that isn't a pony or changeling. You to keep to the middle with me.”
We quickly fell into formation and began to move down the hall. The siren was punctuated every few moments by the boom of a portal opening, the hiss of monsters
“What are we up against?” Shining asked.
“Hopefully not many more lamias.” the tall red mare, Spark, sighed, “It seems some of these portals the machine opened lead of the heart of Tartarus.”
“It’s ancient history Shining.” Celestia said, eyes narrowed and scanning the hallway. “Suffice to say there is a half-fiend goat whom I should have destroyed instead of banished, and he is back. Again.”
The bulkhead to our left exploded! A huge bile-green furred dragon with cloven hooves pulled itself through the hole in the wall, roaring in rage as it clawed it’s way towards us. Shining spun and fired a ray that creature, the blue light lanced into its left side but only angered the beast.
I threw a flurry of spell bolts. They spattered off the monster’s hide like spit wads. Taylor snapped her omniblade into existence and sliced at the beast’s hand as it’s swiped at her. Celestia threw a blinding white bolt of flame, the monster shrugged it off like it was nothing.
“Run! I’ll buy us time!” Spark shouted. She vanished in a flash of green light, re-appearing on the beat’s back. An instant later a green force shield wreathed in lightning surrounded the monster, but trapped her inside the bubble with it.
“No!” Celestia cried, reaching towards her with a hoof.
“Princess, we can’t scratch it! We have to run!” Shining shouted.
“I’m not leaving a loyal pony behind!” Celestia exclaimed then charged the monster head on.
Taylor looked at me and asked, “Should we run?”
My line of thought from earlier came back in a flash. “Who are you? Because you are not a starfleet captain.”
Taylor’s mouth opened, twisted, then formed a frown. “Oh dear god I can’t lie… No. No I’m not. It’s a TV show, I’m a random nerd, we were attending what’s basically a giant costume party.”
My jaw dropped open in shock. Of all the answers I had not expected- The shield around the monster exploded in a burst of light!
Suddenly a fist the size of me rammed itself into the floor an inch from where I had been standing! As I slid into the dent it left behind I caught sight of Celestia and Shining firing ray after ray into the creature’s back. The smell of burnt fur filled the air, thick black smoke poured off the monster’s back, yet it just threw a second punch at me!
An explosion of blue light washed out my vision, the monster roared in anger, Taylor shouted in pain, “Ah fuck!”
I looked up, Taylor had put herself between the creature’s fist and me. A shimmer of blue washed over her as her uniform’s force field recharged. “We talk when not being goomba stomped!”
“Resolve your dispute later!” Shining called as he ran up and threw a punch at the monster’s left leg.
“Fair point!” I shouted.
Hoping to blind the monster I threw a flurry of spellbolts towards its face. The monster screamed as one bolt smaller into it’s left eye. He staggered back a few steps, wiping at his eyes.
“Go for it’s face!” I called, firing another volley of green bolts.
Celestia jumped to her left, spun, and fired a golden ray directly into the monster’s remaining eye. The monster fell flat to the deck, buckling the damaged plate slightly.
“A curious weakness.” she mused. A moment later she lifted Spark’s limp, burn covered body in her magic and turned towards me. “You mentioned a friend of yours was in a… med bay. Is that a hospital? Can you lead us there?”
I nodded. Taylor gently placed a hand on Spark’s right flank, “Hold on I can help. Um-Light of the heavens give you strength?”
There was a small silver flash of light from Taylor’s palm, some of the burnt flesh faded away as freshly healed skin replaced it. “How did you do that?” Shining asked curiously.
“She’s a paladin.” Celestia explained. “She can heal … what is it for your level two dee six hit points per use?”
Taylor nodded, “Yeah, plus charisma mod due to a feat. I think one more should do it… Oh right mercies! How do I use those… umm.”
“Wait, you have tabletop powers?” Shining asked incredulously, “I demand you show me how to get them!”
“Apparently it’s a cutiemark related thing, and you already have a shield on your butt.” Taylor informed. Turning her attention back to Spark she shrugged and muttered, “Something religious sounding.”
The silver flash flared into existence for a split second, this time Spark stirred, moaned, and croaked, “I think… my lungs… are on… fire…”
Celestial pulled the red furred mare close to her in a hug then set her down gently, “Can you walk? Ms Ad’ika is going to lead us to a hospital.”
She nodded, climbed to her hooves, and looked over at the dead monster. “Are we sure that’s dead?”
I thought about it for a moment then shook my head, “No. But if we see it or another one shoot it in the face.”
“The face?” She asked.
“The face.” Taylor confirmed.
“I know,” Shining said with a nervous laugh, “It’s a pretty stupid weak spot, let’s not question it too hard. Just in case.”
I turned and pointed a hoof down the hallway towards the tram station. “This way. We will need to take the tram one section down.”
We ran to the tram station as quickly as we could manage with Spark limping every few steps. The platform was wreathed in green fire. Three changelings in security uniform sashes turned to look as we came out of the hallway. One of them flew over, hovering with one hoof raised.
“Please stay in the section! We are erecting force fields to try and contain the monsters. You could be trapped.” She called, looking nervously towards one of the burning areas of the deck, “Also apparently lamia's are literally falling from the ceiling.”
Celestia nodded, “We know. My court mage is injured, we are taking her to the… medbay.”
Another thunderclap shook the deck. I winced as a large black and purple rip in reality forced it’s way open just in front of the tram car. Chaos erupted. The three security officers fall into formation to charge the portal. Shining threw up a double layer of shields. Taylor activated her omnishield and braced herself.
Eight creatures sprinted from the portal. They were bipeds, looked sort of like griffons, but with their wings and arms the same limb, and the head and body of a pony. While each one's fur had a different dull, muted color, their feathers were all the same rusty red color.
The guards fired a volley of spell bolts. A green energy field intercepted them with a flash of blinding light
“No! Stop! They’re just harpies!” Spark coughed. Turning her head towards the eight creatures, one of whom I could now see was shielding an egg with her wings.
“If they're coming from one of the portals they are hostile!” a security officer insisted.
“Discord’s beard they are! Watch,” Spark shouted before calling, “'IjmeH nIv tob, naDev 'emDaq SoH 'Ijjaj jIH!”
Taylor blinked and turned to Spark. I looked at her equally confused. Insanely enough one harpy called back, “Hegh Haw' maH, pagh harm qej maH!”
“See! They talk, they’re people. They just live in the worst shithole imaginable.” Spark called to the guards.
“What?” we exclaimed together as Spark spat out a few more lines of Klingon.
“They’ve agreed to let me use a translation spell. Hold on.” her horn flashed green as Spark cast a spell then slumped from the effort.
“Can they understand us now?” the lead harpy asked.
Celestia nodded, “I do not rule this place, but I know your kind is fairly peaceful. If you promise to obey these three changelings orders, I will ask they protect you and give you asylum from your master. I have a village of your kind within my kingdom.”
She nodded. The guards buzzed about nervously for a moment before conceding, “All right. They can stay. But the moment they can leave our hive they have to.”
“Thank you.” The harpy’s leader and Celesta said in unison.
“Why were they speaking klingon?” Taylor asked remaining completely baffled. Just like me.
“They were speaking tlhIngan. It’s the most common language in Tartarus.” Spark informed quietly. “What’s this Klingon you speak of?”
The portal closed with a sound like molten iron cooling in a bucket of water.
“N-never mind.” I said clearing my throat. I was already confused enough with Taylor being some nameless nerd. “Let’s get on the tram. I can drive it.”
Chief Engineer’s Log
Apparently one thing that comes with being a bard is an internal sound track which is thematically appropriate. I had made it to a tram, and two helpful changeling guards had just started escorting me to the engine room when a portal finally opened right in the middle of the track and a giant snake-pony-dragon-thing that was on fire surged out onto the track and derailed the car.
Instantly the theme to Doom started playing in my head. The two changelings escorting me panicked, but somehow the midi metal song kept me from fleeing back up the tunnel with them. Well, the song and the knowledge that I had a few second level spells up my sleeve.
I hit the thing with Suggestion, told it that it should sit down and take a rest after crossing dimensions like that, then simply walked around it and sprinted off down the tunnel. You know, in case it shook of the spell. Without a tram it would have been easily an hour’s walk. I didn’t want it to take that long, so I called Phee up on the comm and had her send another tram my way.
By pure luck Armored’s tram was nearby and since there was only one line to the engine room her car was easily diverted to pick me up. I had hoped we would have an uneventful ride to the engine room, unfortunately life was a pnp rpg now.
A swarm of head sized wasps made of green glowing crystals exploded from a portal which opened just above our tram!
“Ah! Shield!” I screamed, a pale blue barrier formed a globe around me instantly, sparking as a huge stinger scraped across it inches from my face. “I love you magic physics warping hip tattoo.” I squeaked as the glowing crystal insect started at me perched on the shield.
Something made the actual transformer’s noise. Looking over I saw armored had reared up onto her hind hooves, her left forehoof had transformed into what I swore was Samus’s arm cannon, only white. She began to fire a rapid series of football sized plasma pulses into the swarm of wasps screaming obscenities and terrified shrieks along the lines of “Ahhh! Hell bees! Die Luna you damned evil things! Sweet Celestia why!?”
I joined her in the terrified babbling for a good minute. Then I remembered I was a bard. I had magic. I reached back, grabbed my guitar and fumbled to strum a chord.
“This isn’t the time to play music!” Armored shouted from the corner of the tram she was taking cover in.
I stepped in front of her to block her body with my shield. “It’s a magic thing!” I called back then pressed what I hoped was a cord and strummed.
A single loud, reverberating note blasted from my guitar in a variable shock wave. Six of the crystal demon bees shattered in the air.
“Whoa!” I gasped. Looks like I figured out how to cast thunderclap. According to my sheet I had twenty five of the spell per day. It was time to rock!
Having no real idea how to play a Guitar I flailed my hands over the strings, every few notes another shock wave lanced out, shattering, or knocking back any of the swarm that got too close. As the tram lurched to a stop Armored rolled out from behind me, and fired a few more shots from her arm cannon, taking out the last few of the bees.
“So… I guess your special talent is playing music so bad you hurt things?” She asked me with a nervous terrified laugh.
I wanted to be mad at her, but on her rear legs she was simply too cute looking to be mad at. Even while I could hear demonic screaming echoing through the tram tunnels.
“Yeah? Well, I guess your species evolved cuteness as a defense mechanism.” I shot back equally frazzled.
She gave me a little grin, “Um, well… yes actually. Engines are through there.” She said pointing with her gun arm as it transformed back into a hoof, complete with sound effect.
“I have to ask, the sound your arm makes when-”
“Yeah, it is. I ripped it from a copy of the G1 cartoon. Now, lets stop the engines from summoning more hell bees.” Armored said dropping onto all four legs.
I shuddered and nodded, “Right, yeah, good idea!”
She zipped off towards a pair of large double doors labeled ‘Engine room access’. The door hissed open automatically revealing a swirling black and purple vortex directly behind them. A massive glowing red goat eye gazed back at us out of the portal. It’s gaze fixed on us. The pupil dilated.
Armored's forehooves quickly morphed into hands, grabbed each door and pulled them shut with a screeching protest of metal. I ran forwards, activated my omnitool, brought up it’s welding torch and spot welded the doors shut. All the while he two of us were screaming, “Nope-nope-nope-nope-nope!”
Armored spun and rested her back on the door, fingers digging into the metal to hold it shut.
“Nope!” she exclaimed with an expression of pure terror.
“Nope!” I agreed.
“Wrong door!” Armored squeaked.
“Wrong door!” I agreed. Taking a few nervous steps away from the doors I asked quietly, “Is there any other way into the engine room?”
“Yeah, maintenance tunnels. This way.” Armored morphed her left hand into it’s gun mode and jogged off to the left.
I followed her to a small hatch in the wall a fair distance away from the doors. Armored ripped a small cover off a touch screen panel next to the door, tapped in a command sequence, and the hatch hissed open. “I’ll go first, I know the way.” she said as she slid into the meter tall tunnel on her knees, gun arm pointed down the tunnel.
The tunnel was big enough for me to get in on my hands and knees. Some sadist had made the floors from a hexagonal mesh which dug into my knees and hands painfully. After a few meters I smacked my head into a bit of pipe running across the tunnel. “Ow… I wish I was your size.” I muttered.
“You would look way cuter with fur too.” Armored agreed. “You should ask Phee for some cosmetic tweaks after this. You deserve them. Fair warning, odds are one in three she’d make you a herm if you do ask for that though.”
“Seriously? Why?” I asked completely perplexed.
“The bare skin thing is honestly pretty ugly.” She replied. “Offense not meant.”
“No the herm thing.” Any sort of conversation to help me forget the giant glowing demonic goat eye was so incredibly welcome right now.
“Oh. It’s a bug in her medical systems. At least it is sometimes. See, sometimes her medical subs see a gender difference as well, you’re missing parts, meaning you have been maimed, so she ‘fixes’ you. The other times are because I swear she’s attracted to them. We have like, eighty, or so mares like Taylor aboard thanks to Phee’s shenanigans. Weirdly, everyone’s always happy about it.”
“That’s… actually that bug makes perfect sense.” I mused. “I mean it’s not like in New Vegas where if you steal Security Chief Hannon’s baton from his locker, taking it outside, dropping it on a specific ledge, then tossing it over the railing on the ledge your computer freezes entirely.”
Armored turned around and looked at me with a horrified expression, “Oh my god! What sort of computers do you people use? That doesn't even… how?”
“My friends and I are from a thousand years or so before Phoenix was built. Twenty-Fifteen. Our computers and coding is like, well bronze age by comparison to her probably.”
Armored groaned, “Crap… Can you even do anything to help with the engines?”
“Oh yeah totally!” I flashed her a grin, “Eidetic memory. I read the tech manuals. Or at least the intro to engineering texts. I haven't gotten to the more advanced ones yet.”
“Oh thank Luna.” Armored sighed in relief. “Here we are.”
Armored timidly slid a hatch in front of her open a small ways, carefully looked around the room then pulled the hatch open the rest of the way. “No demon goat eye. We’re sa- um it’s clear.”
“Good catch.” I praised as she slid out of the tunnel. There was no need to tempt fate.
I wormed my out a second later. The engine room was not as huge as I thought it would be. Instead, there was simply a large living room sized room with a circular console with a holographic display and a ton of doors on the far wall.
“Huh, not how I pictured it.” I said curiously.
“This is just the central control. Her engines are all over the hull, but those eight doors take you right to the manual controls for each engine’s power relay.” Armored informed. She ran over to the console and began tapping on a projected hardlight keyboard which appeared as she approached the console. “Keep me covered, I’m going to try to shut them down from here first.”
“Right!” I nodded and began to scan the room for signs of anything.
Armored continued to type for a few minutes. Annoyed sighs, groans, and curses escaped her lips every few moments. Suddenly she slammed her fist against the keyboard, “It’s no good! The engines are locked out completely, and the code to turn them off is booby trapped.
“I’d have to completely resynchronize the primary and auxiliary auto-sequencers, or the resulting output decay will fry the control program for every primary system!”
It was time to think. How would Star Trek do it? “Um, what if we reroute power away from the engines until they shut down from lack of voltage?”
“No good, the engines are directly fed by the main reactor. There is no way to route power away from them. It’s a security measure and performance thing.” Armored sighed. “We have to shut the engines down manually.”
She typed a command into the console and the doors hissed open. Immediately the room lit up a bright red, a horrible chill flooded the room, and a deep, diabolic voice reverberated from every corner of the room. “I see you little pony, and you too half breed.”
“Ignore it! What do we do to turn them off?” I shouted running for the door on the furthest left.
“Flip the big red switch!” Armored called back running for the door on the far right.
“This is a wonderful shortcut home,” The voice said, “I would hate to see you suffer for barring my return through it.”
The hallway was only twenty meters long. I made it down in a couple seconds, the power relay was massive. A huge circular room almost entirely filled with a blue glowing clear pipe covered in other smaller pipes, with a control panel and a large red circuit breaker lever.
I sprinted to the lever, yanked it down, ignored the ass clenching hiss of ungodly amounts of electricity shutting off and ran for the central room to go for the next breaker.
“Just ten minutes. That’s all. Can you sit still for ten short minutes? I could give you riches beyond your imagining.” The voice informed, still calm, still cold.
I ran down the second hallway. Turned, found the breaker, flipped it, turned around, sprinted back. “I could send you home half breed. Or give you the power to win over any other mortal you so desired.”
I couldn’t resist replying to that one. “Oh please, I’m a bard! I can already win over anyone I like.”
Third hallway, third room, third breaker, another terrifying hiss of energy. “Everything has it’s price. Name yours.”
“Rule number five of adventuring, demonic deals never work in your favor.” I called back as I moved into the fourth and final hallway.
“There is nothing I can give you to make you stop?” The voice asked sounding just a little annoyed.
“That’s right.” I said as I reached the final relay.
I ran forward, grabbed the lever, started to pull down-
“Then become dust.” The voice rumbled.
A single iron bell rang once. A jolt of energy passed through my body like I had been stabbed with a live electrical cable. I felt he lever click into place. The power started to hiss and die down, time seemed to slow, the world began to fade out to white, and suddenly I was falling.
Somepony
I watched as the Pile of ash which had been Kaily hit the floor like a handful of dropped sand.
"Ponyfeathers!" I cursed, slamming a hoof into the ground angrily. This has not been how any of us wanted things to go.
"Has anypony figured out how Grogar got the rifts to lead exclusively to Tartarus?" One asked urgently.
"That's not important now we jsut lost Kaily!" I groaned.
"What? How?" Four yelped running over to the array to see for herself.
"Grogar disintegrated her! He somehow combined six of the rifts that he was pulling himself through." I groaned, "Kaily stopped the portals before made it, but not in time to prevent his spell from going through."
Every pony was quiet for a few somber minutes. After a while Five shook her head, "It's a good thing we got replacements."
"According to the rule book, players can be revived. Is there anything we can do?" Four asked looking at me. "Maybe you could talk Dusk into letting her come back?"
"She doesn't have a body anymore. That won't work." I sighed sadly.
One shook her head, "Yeah but technically she isn't dead dead. This all works like the game right? She wasn't reduced to negative constitution-"
"She doesn't have a body anymore! There's nothing left to be alive!" Five protested.
Everypony looked over to Discord, hoping he could explain what the rules said.
"Don't look at me, I didn't write the game. I just like it." He objected.
My ears drooped, my mane lost what little frizziness it had left. I covered my face with my hooves and did my best not to sob. "I just wanted to get everypony to bond and learn to trust each other! I didn't mean for this to happen!"
A taloned hand gently gripped my shoulder. I looked back to see Discord stroking his beard in through, "Actually, I have an idea. It's a long shot, and it probably wont work at all. But if it does, and assuming you can pull off an even longer shot by getting Dust to cooperate with us again. Well, maybe we can salvage at least a little bit of this mess."
"I hate asking friends for favors though." I sighed, ears drooping. "But... I guess I have no choice."
Discord nodded. "Right, here's what we do."
Stats
Page generated in 0.045 seconds
Total duration
677 users online
993,728 hits today, 2,151,698 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Oh good! I guess getting upgraded with cybernetics keeps you from making mistakes that make me want to flip tables.
------
route
5971484
No that's just Royal Guard - Mage division training. Do not tempt the irony gods.
Unfortunately for Kaily, she forgot rule number six of adventuring. "Do not provoke the eldritch horror from beyond space and time."
5971504
well...
holy shit...
I want bardic music in my head syndrome!
Rule number 2 of business, if you've already sold your soul demonic deals are free.
5971709 HA! Nice one!
5971715 What can I say, I know the Devil personally.
Despite the fact that I knew Kaily couldn't play the guitar. You put Doom in my head, so her random chord striking produced this:
(In my head anyway, cause I was listening to it while reading that part.)
5971724 I haven't seen old Bezel in years! How;s he doing? AC still broken?
5971724 Unless you're from Georgia. I hear he doesn't go there anymore after losing a fiddle competition.
5971750 I would appreciate your thought's on the story so far as an FYI. You're one of three really big fans. This is kind of one of the mile stones after all. 100k words and all that.
5971752 Yep! And so is the dishwasher!
5971756 Actually we had a discussion about that last Tuesday, he say's he's not coming back to my state after I beat him at a poker game. But I still visit him, we just don't do poker night anymore.
5972077 Thanks! I'm putting a lot of love into this story. Sorry for the typos, it's hard to type with hooves using a human keyboard, and pony-compatible keyboards make like 0 seance.
5972134 Yeah, I've seen the ponyboard. Half a billion bits and the damn thing doesn't even work right.
5972269 The fact that the economy is basically a sign wave and if I wait a day it will be like 3 bits and a random gem docent help. Why? They don't actually plug into USB or PS2 ports. They use serial bus. Which no PC made today has.
Oh wow, that was foreshadowed. It was a little...cold of those five to have replacements waiting in the wings, but yeah. Not much they could do about Kaily getting killed by the demon goat she abortively got the attention of when she tried using the dragon slave.
It was a well done scene, I have to say I was surprised to see one of the main characters die. Had some impact.
Side note, be interesting to see how Tess reacts to how screwed everything got while she was out.
5973505 Im glad you're liking it so far! I'm working on the next portion now, and it's exactly that.
5973505 I've stopped being surprised when main characters die.
Thanks TV Tropes
I imagine Tess's reaction being something like this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wi1U30V-g-c
I'm guessing Kaily got killed off to increase the dramatic tension, plus free up Tess as a love interest for adika?
5973749 Since one thing I am using this story to say is "monogamy is kinda stupid", no Kaily was not killed off to open Tess for another partner.
5973628 Stopped being surprised? Heh. I'll see about that.
5973825 Damn. I guess I'm not immune to tempting fate.
5973857 My good man or woman, I am not George R.R Martian (first off because my work isn't 100% cliche). I garentee you will be surprised.
5973866 Let's just say, although I may not be surprised if a character dies. I'm usually surprised by how they died.
5973894 Disintegrated by goat daemon overlord wasn't surprising? Yeah I agree. No worries, stuff will be more crazy later.
Oh, I got that. I mostly meant in the literary device fashion. IE Kaily dies, bonds are formed, Tess and adika bond. Said bond helps them get over the fact that Tess was basically lieing about who she was the whole time.
That kind of thing.
5973916 Oh that. Yes that did occur.
5973900
I expect nothing less.
man who enjoys tf/tg stories way too much for his own good.
5973953 X3 I'm begnning to think that everyone on this site but me is a guy
5973957 No, but it's pretty skewed toward the male side. Especially for a show meant for little girls.
5973957
https://www.fimfiction.net/user/Drizzle+Quill
https://www.fimfiction.net/user/Foals+Errand
There you go, you are not alone. :P
On a more grizzly note, elderitch hell spawn demon god goat probably are Kailys soul as a snack. :/
Cause, yeah. Gen one villan was grimdark levels of evil.
5974023 Amazing! Let us rally together to become a minority, and therefore get more rights then the majority via bitching about being the minority!
5974047 Yeah Grogar is pretty pants darkeningly terrifying. Somthing about 80's villeins made them way more scary, even today, as opposed to modern bad guys.
Why is everyone so certain that Kaily is dead and removed from the story? Do they have no optimism? I... like to imagine good things and not terrible outcomes.
5975069 It's probably because Game of Throwns has Anyone Can Die stories at the forefront of people's minds.
Everypony, pay no attention to that canary in the coalmine!
I am avidly waiting for next chapter. I hope Ad’ika understands why she was deceived.
5975492 T minus 6 hours till completion of chapter 18. Posting to Follow in morning most likely.
5975512 Oh Good! I will still be perusing this site by then so that is wonderful news.
5975525 Allow me to explain how my story works. If you see a chapter title and it has a proper name and a part number, it's part of an adventure arc I drafted out ahead of time. I work on the ark asynchronously, daily, for about 12 or so hours (I have no other entertainment). So at any given time the story is more complete as a whole then is seen here. For instance chapter 19 is already completed, but 18 is not, and chapter 20 is half finished. I do this so I can make my story more self consistent by implementing foreshadowing, twists, and red herrings more accurately, since releasing a story all in one go gets you no views a more... shotgun like approach to writing was required for my stories.
On any given day what I do is connect the outlined plot with threads of narrative then make it make seance and release a chapter as it's available.
5975561 Ah! i see! You are very ordered. Commendable. That would explain the intricate plot twists and links between various chapters and sections. I like to see such a well ordered mind ( SMILES. ). I can honestly say at this point that this story will be saved for offline examination later.
5975583 I am flattered at your complements, and would be honored if you saved my work locally. Feel free to print, or otherwise create readable versions of this.
That goes for everyone FYI.
5975599 That "Download Story (epub)" button is great for that. Especially for long car/bus/plane trips. Just you, your tablet/phone, and an epic sci-fi tale.
It's either that or convert it to a kids fairy tale: Once upon a time in the magical land of Las Vegas, three Trekkies ventured across the land in their mystical Winnebago. One day, after stopping at a Chevron...
5975836 I might punch myself if I ever write a kid's story.
It's just how I think of fantasy stuff. Plus, Grogar as a character would not be out of place in a Grimdark setting like Warhammer 40k.
I mean, soul crushing hell goat.
I don't think that we'll see Kaily come back in a sane/useful fashion.
Hellspawn created from the twisted remnants of her spirit, used as cannon fodder to destroy the moral of her friends?
Much more likely.
5976155 The creamer of light epic science-fantasy shall dull the bitterness of thy evil, unholy, coffee Grimdark taste!
2.bp.blogspot.com/-BrVYKaFAO0E/TgJxR4t9FCI/AAAAAAAAGU8/YMqg22CqffI/s1600/knight_of_equestria_by_capt_nemo-d3jo1z2.png
5976175 We're also out of
grimdarkcoffee...I need to go to bed...
Ouch, it really doesn't pay to be a redshirt.
Hahaha! Focus on the crisis, Shining!
Peaceful harpies? Neat.
No kidding.
So, Kaily got four out of eight before Grogar did whatever that chapter ending spell was? Hopefully Armored got the other four. And that she's not dead or otherwise permanently disabled. Well, I suppose Phoenix would be able to fix most anything other than death given the abilities of her med bay, so let's just hope for no death.
that addon seemed it up pretty well, thanks
I'm willing to bet that the numbered ponies are the Mane Six because two sounds a lot like Pinkie Pie. Unless of course, you know someone else who talks like her.