10 - Shall We Play a Game? (Part 3 - End)
Twilight Sparkle - 22th of Megan, 29 AE
The Distant Future Year of 1992 - Simulated Reality
The collapsing colossus’ cracked crystalline carapace crunched beneath my hooves as I ran up its back towards its bulbous head. Below us, a host of adequately equipped Goblin Techno-Barbarians fired up at us, no longer concerned about striking the colossus now that it had been slain.
“Incoming at six o’clock!” Gadget warned over the sound of her twin shoulder mounted laser turrets scorching various projectiles out of the air.
I hesitated, Gadget wanted me to stay as stable as possible in order to aid her aim, and I didn’t want to take a bullet or arrow to the snoot again (If only Gadget’s power armor mode included a helmet! Curse you, action/adventure film tropes!). Hence why I was running down the collapsing colossus rather than flying away.
Deciding to risk it, I spread my wings and used them to flip myself up into the air, preforming a micro-aileron roll and landing facing the opposite direction I had before. Dash’s flight lessons paid off in spades as her maneuver allowed me just enough time to parry a death-blow from a Goblin Warlord as he leapt down off the back of a Lunar Dragon!
I caught the edge of his crystal-laser battleaxe with the Astral Hammer’s haft, a shower of green sparks covering the two of us as my weapon’s godly enchantments detected the level of drama, and reacted with appropriate visuals. The Warlord screeched something in Goblish, its see-a-doctor-now-poop-black face twisting into an enraged snarl as it pressed its axe against my hammer, trying to break through my guard.
I braced my rear hooves, readying myself to twist in just the right way to slip past his strike, letting the force of his blow amplify my own telekinetic might so I could-
Gadget sighed, rotated one of her turrets, and shot the Overlord five times in the chest. He screeched in agony, tumbling down the colossal crystalline cephalopod before vanishing in a flash of red mist.
“Gadget!” I cried in mock anger. “That was my kill!”
“I’m tired, need some Energon to munch on, and we have a bigger evil to fight,” she responded grumpily.
I winced as I heard her tone of voice. The poor girl was genuinely fatigued. She just couldn’t keep up with a fully re-powered Alicorn. I’d been looking for some good armor in the real world… And ‘Zeneanus’ did promise me a reward if I won. Maybe he could make Gadget real!
I’m certain Sky could give her an overhaul for me.
“We’re almost inside the castle,” I reminded her as comfortingly as I could while putting on a fresh burst of speed as I resumed my run towards the slain colossus’ head.
We were nearly there. This thing was five kilometers tall. And in the low gravity there should be-
“Not enough time! If it falls over before we get into position...” I yelped as my brain finished the math for me. “Gadget! Full power to boosters.”
I felt the four ports on my back and flanks pop open, and another as her hooves rotated downwards, forming wheels. The transformation sent a metallic shudder through my entire body even before the plasma-jets kicked in, rocketing us forwards.
We surged forwards, riding a bright gold arc of plasma, arriving at the top of the dead monstrosities’ head just as its body began to slam into the obsidian castle’s central keep. Zeneanus’ ace in the hole crushed a quarter of his army flat beneath its crystalline bulk even while smashing a hole in the side of his inner sanctum.
Obsidian cracked and crumbled, producing a hellish sound which would have sent me running in fear if I weren’t riding the biggest adrenaline high of my life! It’s one thing to read about over the top fantasy adventures. It’s another to live them.
My real adventures were scary, dangerous, and had far flung consequences. This? This was pure fun!
The slain colossus slammed onto the moon’s surface at long last, sending a huge plume of reflective dust into the air. Everything behind me sparkled in Sol’s light as I stepped off the very edge of the slain monster’s head and onto the black marble floor of Zeneanus’ innermost sanctum where ‘Rarity’ hung in her crystal prison like a chandelier.
The ‘evil wizard’ sat upon an elegantly carved ebony throne with two skulls decorating the ends of the armrests. One Equine, one Cybertronian. I swore I’d seen that throne before, probably on one of Rarity’s album covers.
Two points of dull red light glowed behind his mirrored visor. Eyes, narrowing in rage.
I reached into my saddlebags with my telekinesis and produced the seven Crystal Keys, holding them out to Zeneanus with a playful smile.
“Hello, neighbor! I noticed you dropped your house keys while out murdering my parents this morning,” I said, grinning ear to ear.
I couldn’t wait to see what he had planned for the boss fight!
Zeneanus raised his hands above his head and clapped them three times. Each individual clap echoed menacingly, despite the gaping hole I had made in the wall.
“Welcome, warriors of Selene,” he said as he stood up, his robes billowing in accordance with the Rule of Cool. “You have proven yourselves to be mighty indeed! Such valor must be met with an appropriate… Offering.”
His hands began to glow with a bright green light. He raised them dramatically, the power crackling around them building upon itself, forming two blinding spheres of scintillating light.
YEEEESSSS! This was it! It was going to be so cool!
The top of the keep exploded as he released his spell. The obsidian shards flew away from us, trailing green energy as each individual chip was flung not by simple physics, but by telekinetic force. Only Rarity’s crystal and the floor beneath us remained, the rest of the castle vanished within the violent blast.
The starscape above clouded over, thick, rolling coal-black clouds oozed into the world from someplace outside of it. The air crackled and rumbled, green lightning surging through the clouds before they erupted unleashing an endless torrent of lightning bolts and a thick rain of fireballs.
The deadly rain fell upon everything my eyes could see save for the floor Zeneanus and I stood upon. I felt a bit disappointed at his display.
The third dungeon had contained a section where I fought my own shadow brought to life, aided by dark echoes of my past lovers, who could not be stopped through violent means, but could only be dispelled by reminding the warped reflections of who they were. And doing that caused the Outer God who had created them to emerge from the shadows and attack!
But this was just a standard-
“You have your friends, Princess. I have friends as well,” Zeneanus said calmly.
The world shook. Thunder rumbled in the distance. The ground covering the mountains behind Zeneanus seemed to crumble, slide, and ooze. I squinted past Zeneanus for just a moment, peering into the distance.
An army of technologically infused undead unicorns charged down from the mountains. The entirety of the Kingdom of Selene, reanimated as robot zombie soldiers. Nice touch, Chem! But a simple background element wont-
A loud almost musical tone blasted from the heavens, drawing my attention away from the tech-zombies. They slid down slowly through the sky, their four talon-like legs seeming to reach out for the ground. I could only describe them as robotic squids, or perhaps cuttlefish. Gray, with a sheen of deep purple, like rotting meat.
Four of them slammed into the ground, one in each cardinal direction. They towered above everything, bigger than every building I’d ever seen, their four legs propelling them slowly towards our arena in an insectoid manner.
Four panels on their backs slid open, revealing large obvious weapons which began to glow with a red light and enough Dark Magic for me to FEEL at this distance. The things had heads which hung beneath their bodies, each of which seems to stare directly at me.
“What are you doing?” I quietly hissed, giving Chem a suspicious look. “This is off script!”
“I’m setting up a sequel, giving this battle artillery support so you have a fun timing element, and hopefully getting you interested in playing a role in some fanfiction I’ve been working on,” Chem answered.
Gadget beeped in confusion. ”Uh, why are you two talking like old friends? And what do you mean script!?” She demanded, making me stamp a hoof in anger.
My eyes widened even more. “Wait, what!? Why can she tell that we’re out of character?” I demanded worriedly.
Chem coughed into a fist awkwardly. “Well, in order to make a companion for your story which had the level of reactivity you wanted it was simplest to just create an actual living mind… So uh, yeah. She’s real too,” he answered before crouching down to look me in the barrel. Or rather to look Gadget in the face. “I’m afraid this is all just a game Sparkle and I have created for our personal entertainment.”
I felt my heart stop for a moment. “Y-you just MADE a person!?” I asked incredulously.
“Um, well, yes. I did. Sorry… It was wrong of me, but I can’t just unmake Gadget now that she exists,” Chem said, nervously tapping his fingers. “I just didn’t want you to be dissatisfied with our gameworld…”
“W-well I do prefer it when characters feel real, but that doesn't mean I want every book I ever read to actually create people!” I objected.
“Yes. This occurred to me AFTER I did it. I know I made a mistake. I’m not perfect. But it’s fine. I have a solution,” Chem promised.
“It had better be a good one!” Gadget demanded stamping my hoof.
“Oh but it is!” Chem insisted, holding up his hands defensively. “If Twilight hadn’t decided to break the fourth wall just now, and I never thought she would in a million years, you would never have known the truth of your origins.
“There are infinite universes out there. I would have placed you into a universe identical to this one save you died in the climactic battle. That way you could have lived a happy life, none the wiser while that universe's Sparkle would just be happy to have her best friend back. You’d both be a bit confused, but happy.”
I raised an eyebrow. That was a good plan. With one flaw.
“She knows now. So do I. That plan won’t work,” I said suspiciously.
Gadget nodded her turrets in agreement. “Yeah, that won’t work.
Chem sighed. “No… But I can delete this information if you want the veil to be sewn back together, then we can finish out game-”
Gadget reaered up with me inside, waving her forelegs in a ‘stop’ gesture. Which is good, because I wanted to do the same thing!
“WAIT!” She demanded. “You keep saying it’s a game. All of this, ALL OF THIS, is a game!? Like, you two are LARPING!?”
“Um… Well, yes?” I said, embarrassment making my cheeks flush before I looked back at Chem with a little disappointment. “Why didn’t you tell me you made her real!? I would have been nicer to her!”
Gadget scrunched around me slightly. “N-nicer? But I’d already ask if I could date you if you weren't married. W-wait… Are you married?”
I bit my lip awkwardly. “Yes, but we’re open… Not that that is an invite.”
“Aww…” Gadget whimpered. “Still looking forward to being treated even nicer!”
“Because I didn’t think it would matter?” Chem said, answering me at last. “At the end all real entities would have found a home and lived happily ever after. Nothing immoral here. Save for keeping some deception to myself for the sake of not making anyone feel weird.”
“Yeah! Good job there,” Gadget mumbled angrily. “What ARE we going to do about me? And why did you think this would be a good idea to do?!”
Chem sighed, “ I’m sorry. I’m just really lonely… And Twilight asked for a LOT of reactivity. It was either write millions of lines and make an ‘AI’ which wouldn’t have done the job well enough without me spending way too much of my own lifeforce on it, or create a real person who I later find a home which matches this world we made.
“I took the best option, in my opinion. At least in my opinion at the time. I know I made a mistake, and I have been working to make it right. That’s the best anyone can do.
“As for what this is for us, yes, it’s LARP. I’m sorry for not informing you, but it didn’t feel right to create someone who knew they had been poofed into existence for one express purpose. That’s how I came to be and I hated it so much I found a way to twist it so I could be good. I wouldn’t wish the need for that sort of destiny mangling on anyone.”
Begrudgingly, I had to admit he did have a point. I had asked for a LOT in my character’s companion… And he really did seem to feel bad. I couldn’t see his face but I could hear it in his voice.
I guess I backed him into a corner. The poor guy had been desperate for someone to play with, I guess he was afraid if he didn’t meet my every whim I’d go away?
Gadget made us stand back up, letting out a relieved sigh. “It’s LARP. Thank Primus! No one is actually hurt, I presumably can’t really lose the only real friend I have, and this is just a sporting match between friends. I am SO HAPPY the world isn’t literally ending around me. Especially since I can punch you in the nose for making me feel all this stress!”
Chem tilted his head, seemingly taken aback. “Y-you’re cool with it? Then, we can be friends after this is all said and done?”
“Yes. But only because I get to hit you now, and only if I get to keep being her armor outside of this simulation” Gadget said gleefully. “That would make us even.”
“That’s fair,” Chem decided after a moment’s thought. “Let’s see who wins this, and then we can figure out what to do with you since you’re now aware that this world is fictional.”
“I um… I didn’t expect you to be… Well, real,” I said to Gadget apologetically. “I actually was thinking about that reward promised if I beat you, Chem. I um, I sort of was wondering if you could make her real. Because I could use some good armor back home.”
“Good! I’m glad we’re on the same page. You may have wanted to avoid creating me for a singular purpose, but all of my memories have me being built to be Sparkle’s armor and companion. It’s what I want to do, and I don't care that those memories are just made up. They are MINE, fake as they may be.
“Now stop talking so I can beat the crap out of you and make us all square!” Gadget demanded.
“Right!” Chem said with a nod, clearing his throat to get back into character.
I shifted my stance to get back into a dramatic fighting pose as well.
“In this battle begins the final war,” Zeneanus said calmly. “No hope. No mercy. The universe you knew is nothing but a memory and I have no intention of leaving anyone alive to honor it. This is my gift to you, Sparkle”
I narrowed my eyes. “Then we’ll just have to stop you!” I declared.
Zeneanus laughed and raised his hand, a green lighting bolt crackling between his fingertips!
I cast a shield spell, bringing the Astral hammer to bear with my telekinesis as Gadget deployed her turrets as well as her micro-missile launcher. The two of us charged, reality seeming to move in slow motion as a single grandiose note left the amp of an electric guitar to join us seemingly from nowhere.
”You got the touch!
You got the power!
Yeah!”
“... THAT’S why reality has a soundtrack!” Gadget quietly mused.
Zeneanus let his lightning fly, it raced towards my shield and-
And everything went black.
“DAMNIT!” Chem swore, his voice coming from everywhere but nowhere. “Sorry, Twilight. I’m out of energy. I didn’t realize how much this game was drawing from me. If I spend anymore I’ll die and be unable to reawaken you, as well as preserve Gadget’s consciousness pending her getting a proper body.
“We’ll have to pick this up in a day or two. Standby for the return trip h-”
Lyra Heartstrings - 22th of Megan, 29 AE
Equestria - Ponyville
“NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Twilight screeched as she sat bolt-upright in bed, making every last one of us jump a whole meter into the air.
I scarcely had time to process the fact that Twilight was awake before she jumped out of bed, using her wings to pull off a sort of double jump and land next to Chem. Thankfully, Chem finally seemed to be fully conscious and-
Oh. Duh. The game must be over and-
Twilight grabbed Chem by the shoulders. “We were not done! Start it up again! SISTERS! Is she okay?”
“I can’t! I’m out of ‘mana’,” Chem protested defensively, gently pulling Twilight’s hooves off his shoulders before producing a small white crystal ball from beneath his cloak. “And yes, she’s fine. Here, keep her safe. Don’t worry she’s paused. Won't know any time has passed at all.
“Please be careful! I feel bad enough that she exists, I shouldn’t have.... I won't allow her to have a bad end.”
My ears drooped in a mixture of panic and confusion. Twilight had clearly figured out exactly what Chem was. Well, poop. But she wasn’t dumb. She could keep a secret.
BUT EVERYPONY ELSE IN THE ROOM WASN'T AS TIGHT LIPPED!
Thinking quickly I stood up and ran over to Twilight as she gingerly took the crystal from Chem and placed it on her desk with a worried look on her face.
“Twilight! Thank goodness you’re okay. You were out for four hours,” I said as loudly as I could, hoping that would be enough to snap everyone’s focus away from the fact that Chem had clearly been the architect of her ‘dream’.
Twilight’s ears stood up in shock. “Four hours!? Chem, I thought you said you set up a time differential!” she said with an accusatory glare.
“I did. But you adventured for eighty days of in universe time,” He laughed, flashing her a huge innocent grin. “Don't blame me for the lost real-space time.”
Twilight’s ears flopped over as she blushed. “Oh, that’s right… Well you shouldn’t have made things so fun!”
Luna cleared her throat. I knew that particular version of her polite ‘a-hem’. My plan did not work. Not at all.
Luna stood up, and crossed the distance to Chem, looking down at him with a mixture of suspicion, curiosity, and astonishment.
“I take it you were the architect of Twilight’s dream, my little pony?” Luna said, using one of her sister’s turns of phrase for… Uh… I had no clue why, actually.
Chem nodded once. “Indeed I was, my tallest pony,” he replied calmly enough.
Luna’s mouth flipped from suspicious frown to a genuine grin for half a second thanks to Chem’s little remark. But her smile faded quickly.
“I was informed that Twilight’s incapacitation was the result of a simple stun charm. Can you explain the discrepancy?” Luna asked quite seriously. “And can you also explain how you were able to manipulate her dreams?”
Chem nodded. “Yes. I can,” he replied evenly as he looked up at Luna.
He made a face as if he was about to keep talking, then stretched his head up as much as his neck would allow, preceding to fidgit for a few moments before his ears grumpily flopped down, and he climbed up onto one of Twilight’s chairs, standing on it so he could look at Luna on her eye level.
I couldn’t help but bite my lip to hold in a giggle, and from the sounds of things neither could anyone else. Either Chem was an expert at diffusing situations via humor, or-
“Sorry. That was just really annoying,” Chem admitted bashfully.
Pfff! HA! It really bothered him that much!
Luna faked a sneeze to prevent herself from laughing. “T-that’s fine,” she said through a barely held mass of seriousness. “Please, explain yourself.”
Chem looked across the room at the assembled knights, then returned his gaze to Luna. “Are all of these people in your service? And do you work with the local Chaos God? I believe his name was This Chord.”
“Discord,” Luna corrected reflexively.
Chem blinked then facehooved. “Yes, that makes much more sense as a name,” he grumbled to himself.
“And they are, and I do. Why is that important?” Luna said, appending the new question to her previous list.
Chem cleared his throat. “It’s important because I am allowed to live her by virtue of Discord’s permission,” he answered with a polite smile. “Part of this promise includes keeping my true identity secret. However as a member of his pantheon, I assume you simply have not yet been informed. Feel free to double check with him later if you disbelieve me.”
“Um, Luna’s not a deity,” Twilight pointed out for me as she stepped over to Luna’s side. “You saw me before her, and I’m more powerful than she is. Do you think I’m a goddess too? Alicorns are not deities. We sit right on the edge of the god/mortal line.”
Chem shook his head. “No no no. I am referring to the vast amount of dark energy oozing from her very being. That’s not a mortal thing that’s a-”
Luna nodded to herself. “Ahhh, I see. Not many can sense that part of my aura. At one point I was possessed by a Nightmare. Many decades ago, it gave me its essence to use since I had demonstrated that I could contain it flawlessly and it wanted me to destroy a monster which hurt a person it had made which saw it as her mother.
“But I’m not a goddess either. I simply have a measure of power byond my natural means.”
Chem raised an eyebrow. “You should really reevaluate that opinion. Especially given what your vassal, Lyra, has discovered about Nightmares. Regardless, an entity of your type, young age, and power should be brought up to speed.”
While Luna simply looked at Chem in confusion, I looked at Luna in genuine shock. Closing my eyes I quickly cast my detection spell. If chem was right then that meant-
The hidden layers of reality appeared before my eyes. Luna didn’t look like everypony else. Nor did she look like Twilight. Alicorns DO have a different aura after all. But this wasn’t an aura.
Luna looked like a hole in reality. Just like Chem did. Exactly the same. None of the flecky weirdness that infused Sherbert or Vinyl. They looked identical, aside from their shape.
Luna had become an eldritch entity herself…
“Ohhhh, shit he’s right!” I eeped, ears laying flat as I realized now that I had said that allowed-
Luna turned around quickly, looking at me with a confused look stamped across her entire being. “What’s he right about?” she asked worriedly.
“Y-you, Uh…” I stammered, shuffling my hooves. “Um… Soooo, as far as I can tell nightmares, and all Dream Magic, is a very slightly modified version of a different sort of creature and magic. His kind. I uh… The two of us are pretty certain that the entire Dream Realm was created by basically taking a pocket of his ‘universe’ so to speak, and sewing it onto our own.”
“It’s complicated, there’s time to go into it later,” Chem promised. “But for now…”
He held out his right hoof. “Hello! I’m an extra dimensional entity most commonly referred to as ‘Eldritch Horrors’ by three dimensional creatures such as yourself. I’m not going to hurt anyone, I like the trappings of villainy but actual villaining never sat right with me.
“I’d give you my true name, but that’s a very bad idea for everyone involved. Instead, you may call me by any of my favorite names I’ve acquired over the years. The Darkness, Zeneanus the Ever-Living, Ublaz Mad Eyes, Prince Regal, Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, Richard, Melkor, Mr Dark, Zim!, The Horned King, or by my latest moniker, Chemical Fire.
“They are all masks, naturally, and some of them I copied from fiction as I enjoy cosplay. Oh, and one of them is just a thing I did when I needed a break from being remotely competent at anything. However, since my actual name being uttered would attract the attention of my kin, and almost all of us are bad news, nicknames will have to do.”
Chem glanced around the room as if expecting to have to try and comfort an entire room full of terrified ponies. His eyes saw the exact opposite.
“Huh,” Octavia remarked. “Neat!”
Luna sighed. “I knew Celestia turning Ponyville into a weirdness magnet would produce something like this sooner or later,” she said softly to herself.
Chem raised an eyebrow. “Is this ‘everyone’s cool with everything’ day?” He asked incredulously. “Not that I’m complaining, but I expected a reaction out of everyone.”
Frankly, I had too. I stood still in stunned disbelief while everyone just sort of shrugged things off.
“Discord wouldn’t knowingly let anyone who was a danger live here,” Twilight explained with a smile. “Besides, when I attacked you out of nowhere, you responded by making a whole fake reality where we could punch things out without hurting anyone. Not even each other. That’s not a bad guy thing.”
Luna nodded in agreement. “This is quite true and- Wait you made a REALITY for you two to have a duel in?”
Chem shook his head. “No. I ‘hacked’ her nervous system and made a virtual reality. I’m sort of starved half to death at the moment. Making real things is not something I can do without prep work and spare power. I nearly killed myself just now. I’ve been told that I feed like your changelings do, is there any nearby party or other source of joy?”
“We can take you to Sugarcube Corner in a few minutes,” Octavia offered casually with a polite smile. “Pinkie Pie always attracts a small group of traveling Changelings for that exact reason. I don't think she’d mind another psychic mouth to feed.”
Chem flinched slightly. “You know, that mare creeps me out. I mean, what even IS she… But she doesn't seem dangerous, so why not? And you guys are REALLY seriously okay with this? How and why?!”
Colgate giggled and flashed Chem one of her perfect smiles. “Besides Twilight and Sherbert, nopony in this room is normal. In fact, we’re all technically monsters. I’m a windigo, Meep is a changeling, Lyra, Bon, and Vinyl are all pure blood vampires, Octavia is half vampire half werewolf, and it seems Luna has finally joined our ranks as an Eldritch Entity. So even our boss is a monster. Hehe!”
Bon snickered. “I wonder how long it will be till Sherbert transforms somehow?” She asked rhetorically.
Vinyl and I giggled. “Actually, she’s sort of infused with Eldritch energy,” Vinyl elaborated. “She doesn't eat ponies or pony products, so she’s not a monster, but she’s not a normal pony either.”
Chem blinked twice. “Wait, wait, wait, wait… This is a universe, populated by sapient adorably diminutive equines who are gifted in magic, but have also embraced technology to the point where I am standing in the middle of a Renaissance themed village next to a haunted forest, which is guarded by plate armored soldiers who wield arcane enhanced plasma rifles, and somewhere in this beautiful world is an entire nation protected from giant monsters via equity giant quadrupedal battle mechs, while the kingdom I am in is protected by a heroic squad of actual vampire knights, along with other mythical monsters?!”
Luna flashed Chem a huge grin. “Yes! And since Sherbert is a ninja, every one of my Knights of the Rampant Moon has a nocturnal theme. Cool, huh?” She asked, her grin making her look like a huge dork.
Chem returned her grin, managing to make himself look equally dorky. “Five stars! Best universe I’ve been too in 4 x TREE(3) years. It is going to be SO HARD not to do my usual thing here and fake the return of some ancient evil so I can have a good fight with your world’s heros,” he half squeed half moaned.
Octavia frowned slightly. “Your usual thing? What do you mean by that?”
“Oh, well, we Voidborn are created from nothingness. Quite often were the embodiment of a thought, or a concept. Or we latch onto such things for the sake of having any identity at all. I was formed as the ultimate antagonist, True Evil. But I HATED it. I hated it so much that I’ve never done that which my inborn purpose demanded for real.
“Unfortunately, I have to be who I am. Even if I’d rather not. SO over my lifetime I’ve lived relatively normal lives being as good of a person as I can while using games to get things out of my system. I also had my sister, who was my exact opposite. She was only too happy to always stop me from doing anything actually evil. Especially since I didn’t want to.
“For the last quarter of my life, all that remains of my once strong urges and leanings is my love of cheesy villain cliches, physical combat, and hammy acting. I don't think I am capable of changing more than I have. But that’s fine with me!
“What I do for fun now is I find the greatest heros of a universe and pretend to be some horrible threat so they’ll attack me and then I play with them. They almost always win, even if my sister isn’t helping them, but that’s not the point. The point is I trick people into attacking me, and then give them the most fun and challenging experience I can provide.”
Bonbon tilted her head to one side and raised an eyebrow. “Um, have you ever thought about just, you know, asking them to LARP with you? Because that’s what you’re talking about, right? Live Action Role Playing?” she asked heastently.
“Well, yes. That is one way you could describe it. I like to think that I provide a much more entertaining experience than some costumes and foam prop weapons can provide though,” Chem said, looking at the floor, seemingly hurt by the comparison.
“I’m certain you can,” Luna said diplomatically. “I also know of plenty of people who would enjoy a danger-free adventure.”
I raised my hoof eagerly. “One adventure, please!” I asked with an enthusiastic smile.
Vi laughed in agreement. “Yeah! That would be fun. The only bad part about this job is well, the pain and suffering… If it wasn’t for that, fighting a kaiju by climbing up it and stabbing at the vital spots would have been awesome.”
Chem blushed a bright pink. “I, um… You’re saying that I could actually just ask people? But- Why would anyone willingly seek danger? It’s fun, but you guys generally are ruled in part by fear and-”
Twilight cleared her throat to get everypony’s attention. “So… I just noticed Luna’s dream projection floating above my bed. Were you guys watching us?” She asked calmly.
My ears twitched fearfully. “Um, y-yes? I hope you’re not mad,” I said with a wince.
Twilight shook her head. “Of course not. I gave Luna permission to share my dreams. I intended her to share them with scientists and mages since I often dream about various theorems and- well, that’s not important. What is important is that Chem and I sat down and planned all of that out. And then he brought it to life. Literally in the case of Gadget.
“My point is, you girls have been playing Oubliettes and Ogres for almost a century now, and Vinyl has been your Game Master for the entire time as far as I know. Maybe you should give her a break?”
“Because I LIKE Game Mastering. But it would be fun to co-GM with someone,” Vinyl replied instantly.
She turned to Chem and looked at him over the top of her glasses. “Hey, little bro, you’re standing in a room full of gamer geeks who would be completely down for Deep Dive game nights. We should see about adapting some of our planned adventures into your sims.”
Chem’s eyes widened like a teenage colt’s who had just been accidentally teleported into the public ‘baths’ in the Crystal Empire. “Y-you mean you guys WANT to have fun adventures?”
“Well, I don’t play,” Sherbert said with a shrug. “But I’m sure everypony else would like it.”
Vinyl turned and gave Sherbert a hurt look. “You said you liked playing with us,” she accused.
Sherbert nodded, kicking her hoof against the floor awkwardly. “Y-yeah… You’re my boss… And you’re all cool! I like spending time with you. I just don't enjoy the game much. That’s all.”
Chem’s eyes narrowed in mock anger. “Did she hurt your feelings, sis?” He asked.
“A little,” Vi admitted. “Sherbert, you need to be honest with everyone. Don't worry about scoring cool points or fitting in prefect-”
“I could throw her into orbit for you, if you’d like,” Chem joked only to instantly backpedal as Luna's head snapped around. “I was kidding! I’d only do that if she actually physically hurt her and we weren't inside. Property damage and-”
“Nononono,” Luna said, shaking her head rapidly. “I knew you were joking. Do you mean to tell me that Vinyl is your actual sister? That it’s not just a cover? Meaning she’s really the embodiment of the prefect good and ultimate hero?!”
“Sort of,” Vi admitted shyly.
Chem nodded. “Yes, and also no. Mostly no. She was stillborn. Her parents brought her to me and asked me to animate her for them. I did, but I used the shredded remains of my sister’s soul to do it. So in a way Vinyl is a reincarnation of Martina. Oh! That was your name, by the way. It’s safe to say since you’re dead.”
Twilight hummed her face twisting into her trademark ‘SCIENCE!’ expression as her eyes seemed to burn into Vinyl, analyzing her down to her very molecules. “Does that give her any enhanced abilities or special powers?”
“No,” Chem sad with a sad sigh. “She doesn't remember anything either. I just did it so that I could have someone I could sort of call family again. The only effect is her personality is the same. But that’s all. They have different likes and dislikes. Example, Martina was straight. Vinyl is married to an adorable mare. Then again, you guys are so cute that I’m entertaining the idea of trying out romance myself… And I’ve never done that before. So maybe that’s just your species being absurdly cute and cuddly looking.”
Luna nodded, satisfied. “Well then, since you are starving we should go and allow you to eat. I want to see you feeding for myself just to be absolutely certain it’s safe for you to be here.”
Chem laughed. “It is! But if I do hurt someone somehow, please let me know. I’ll fix it.”
“Speaking of fixing things…” Twilight said, suddenly taking in a deep breath. “Once you’ve got more energy, we’re going to finish this! I REFUSE to be cheated out of the ending to a good story!”
Chem laughed and hopped off his perch atop the chair to hug Twilight around her shoulders.
“I’d feel bad if I didn’t. But that will have to wait a few days. I imagine we’d get a bit too into things again, besides, you want me to bring Gadget here, right? That will take some doing. I also have to keep helping Lyra with her problem, as I promised. But don't worry, we’ll finish our game as soon as we can,” Chem promised. “After all, I’ve never gotten to fight a wizard powered by friendship before! It’s an interesting difference! And when you’re as old as I am, new things are a treasure.”
“That begs the question, how old are you?” I asked tilting my head curiously.
Chem closed his eyes seemingly in annoyance, and inhaled as if he were about to say a really, really big number. “I’m twenty three years old. But that’s in Voidborn years. TO convert to your years that would be around Twenty Three times TREE-Three years old.
“Now, TREE-Three is a number which cannot be spoken or written down in a reasonable amount of time for you, so it gets an equation. To understand that equation you’ll need to take in the following logic. Pay attention. For this purpose a Tree is undirected graph in which any two vertices are connected by exactly one path.
“Given a tree T with a root, and given vertices v, w, call v a successor of w if the unique path from the root to v contains w, and call v an immediate successor of w if additionally the path from w to v contains no other vertex. Take X to be a partially ordered set. Taking T 1 , T 2 to be rooted trees with vertices labeled in X, we say that T 1 is inf-embeddable in T 2 and write T 1 ≤ T 2 if there is a map F from the vertices of T 1 to the vertices of T 2 such that-”
I flinched. “So uh… Really old?” I asked interrupting his explanation before the math killed somepony.
Chem nodded solemnly.
“You have no idea,” he and Twilight said in unison.
I shook my head slowly. “You’d think that with how old you are, you’d be able to just lift the curse for me because you’ve done it before for someone else,” I muttered grumpily.
“Sorry, you’re also one of those rare new things. But I do have some ideas of what we can do now that I’ve seen Luna. If that’s how Nightmares work, well… Eh, we can discuss this later during work hours. I really am on my last legs at the moment. So please, can we walk and talk?”
Sherbert closed her eyes in frustration. “All of the void stuff was supposed to stay classified! Discord was very clear about that,” she grumbled.
Luna laughed. “This is Ponyville. Celestia’s First Law of Shenanigans should have told you there wasn’t a chance of that happening. But we should talk in code in public. Why don’t you tell us about yourself as a person using your cover identity, Chem? I think I’d like to get to know you as well.”
“I’d like that,” he replied with a happy smile. “Lets go. Quickly please.”
The room became a sudden buzz of conversation as everyone moved for the door, excitedly talking about what new possibilities our gaming group had now that we basically had a Deep Dive VR system and a dedicated creative ‘pony’ to run it for us.
I was eager to talk about the possibilities too, but as we began to leave, Chem tapped me on the shoulder, and leaned in to whisper to me. “Luna became a Voidborn by absorbing a Nightmare. The process by which it was ‘slain’ is identical to how you would kill me. Or any of my kind. I do know something that will work on it. But we will discuss it later. In total private, after you swear to me to never use it on me, tell anypony else, or write down what I tell you. Understood?”
My heart leapt in my chest, filling with hope. “Understood!”
“Splendid! Now let's go get a bite to eat from the Keter Class SCP Pony,” Chem said with nervous laugh trotting off towards the door.
I frowned despite the hope welling up within me. One of these days, I would have to ask him for a book of all his references or something. What did that even mean?
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Wait theirs a fic on here about a pony spaceship is that what you are referencing here
8535391No. It's this.
Interesting kind of want to see how Ash and Tami are doing. We heard a little about Kazi... Then waiting for the fireworks with Padlock to start because there is almost no way that isn't going to happen also wondering how many times Mia will be killed before she is finally gone for good
Oh my gosh SCP. Haven't visited that site in a while... Oooo, Imma do that right now.
And the idea of an armor being a person always intrigued me, so nice seeing that here. The thing with Luna is really interesting... If she's a voidborn what can't she do?
DMing in that must be a nightmare. So much fun stuff, but also SO MUCH to run cross interference with.
If it can happen, it will happen in ponyville with potentially hilarious results?
What about the other laws? Would Twilight's Find Law of Friendship be "If it can be befriended, it will."? And the Second "If it can't be befriended, it will be "befriended", and third "We don't talk about the exceptions."?
Cadence's Law of Love is pretty much R34 with an extra serving of d'aww, I imagine
Over eighty days... Twilight, you're insatiable
Sherb doesn't like game nights? HERESY!!!
I dunno if pinkie is Keter class... Certainly that dangerous, but too happy to do it.
8535617 Yay! Neece is back :D
Well, Chem is TERRIFIED of her and would likely exaggerate due to emotions. But I have a logical argument for why Pinkie could be classed as keter:
1) Not every keter class object is always hostile.
-- a) SCP-112-ARC isn't hostile untill one of it's reasonable requests is refused.
-- b) SCP-090 was formorly euclid, but upped to keter when it caused a breech in response to being tampered with.
-- c) SCP-140 isn't even sapient, it's not able to be hostile, or friendly.
-- d) The Foudnation seems to put more importance on what an SCP CAN do rather than what it is LIKELY to do when classifying it.
2) Pinkie has had moments where her normal happy nature alters significantly.
-- a) Remember that time AJ broke a Pinkie Promise? Pinkie CAN become quite hostile.
-- b) Remember that time Pinkie went full Manic Depressive because she thought she had no friends? What if she snapped further?
-- c) Pinkie isn't mentaly stable and could in certain circumstances choose to do great harm (she would feel HORRIBLE afterwards for certain. But she still could do it.)
-- d) Pinkie often does things with no ill intent that cause major disasters. See the Mirror Pool. These events would cause massive disruption to human life, possibly resulting in significant loss of life int he panic created by them. (A mirror pool incident in a small city IRL which resulted in the same army of Pinkies might get the city airstriked, for example.)
3) There is no conceivable way you could keep Pinkie prisoner without
bullshit writingnarrative magic to negate all her powers and very essence of self (Since if Pinkie asked nicely to be let go, and looked afraid, you'd let her go unless you had no soul.).4) Pinkie would most likely be classed as keter since she is a reality warper who can not possibly be contained and carries a great risk of causing disaster due to being emotionally unstable.
Neeeeeeeeeerrrrrd!!!!!
8535617 Beta's Law of Anomalous Generation. Living proof that if everything is weird, then nothing is...
(Basically Beta generates so many anomalies and weirdness, that nothing is anomalous or weird (for them))
Meep, you've gotta remember, containment class is a function of potential, containment risk, baseline threat, and resource allocation trade off.
Pinkie is Euclid class, not because she's incapable of violating containment or unable to initiate an XK scenario, but because she actually responds better when not subjected to the level of scrutiny and active dampening that Keter containment represents.
There are plenty of XK capable Euclids. Keter is more of an arbitrary line differentiating those anomalies which we consider explicitly unacceptable.
Also, this chapter was great.
Post Script: Historically, any Type Green like Pinkie is regarded as having an elevated threat level, but when termination is obviously not possible, it has often been the case that agents responsible for a successfully implemented partial containment will request, and typically receive, sufficient resources and support to maintain a more secure containment protocol with this tailored approach than would be feasible with the same degree of resource commitment at a higher nominal classification level.
8535897
I second Chemical Fire exaggerating here. He's right to be scared.
Holy shit balls, its the Reapers! I totally didn't catch that baloney when I read this on work break earlier, but those squid-like things she described are bloody Reapers! Complete with that deafening tone they just love to blare! Though I wouldn't exactly call that musical; maybe Twilight is tone deaf?
I also really like Chem finding enjoyment in battling a Wizard powered by Friendship. That was pretty great.
Hehehe that short sceen with Luna and Chem. Priceless.
Thanks needed the joy. Comp still being repaired.
8536282 Yeah, poor Chem spent a thousand years working on a proper Mass Effect 3 and wants someone to play Sheppard.
8537045 Well that's what I aim to do :3 Glad you had a blast! What's wrong with your PC? YOu can PM me for tech help ya know.
8537580
BLue screen of death. Got it at a repair shop to see if they’ve can recover the info. If not I need a new hard drive and have to reinstall everything.
I do like the idea of Twilight getting a sapient techno-magic robotic companion/magical set of armor.
Well, this is going off the rails, but on the other hand things are looking up for Gadget becoming a real girl.
Sweet.
Well, she's always been pretty damn creepy.
I'm not sure I'd define even Twilight as not a monster. Alicorns are scary you know.
Potential progress on in the curse front!
8537598 Just once? Or do you mean it blue screened and would not boot again? Usualy if you get a Blue Screen you can just reboot and be fine because blue is for a software error. IF the screen is Red, then hardware is dammaged. (and if it just goes black something critical broke).
8537743
By human standards, she'd likly be seen as a deity (In most religions, all ponies would be a god of some kind. Especially the Chinese Folk Religion. Earth ponies are 100% the same as a village's patron god in that faith). But yeah, I can see her as a monster.
Ponies though? They wouldn't see Twilight as a monster because Monster is a scientific term for them. Twilight would need to be a species of creature that ate ponies in whole or in part to survive in order to be a monster.
8544141
Heh don't I know how that is! Never thought my own LLtQ would be this long and crazy as it has gotten...
But hey the work you are putting into this is really making it shine, I LOVE Chem, he is just so adorable and fun to read about. The feelings are real, and ooooooh all the excitement about what is coming next.
*wiggles in her chair excitedly.*
Ah looks like I forgot to comment, let us fix that.
Because they broke the 4th wall, how do you even...
Ah... well that's a thing, GG Chem.
And Gadget just became my new favorite! We need more Gadget.
Need any be said?
Twilight how the buck did you not notice that EIGHTY DAYS went by!? Is this what happens when you read?
This is Ponyville, get used to this
Twilight is the embodiment of magic, and Sherbert is a mutated alicorn voidbourn shinobi, you may want to reconsider that statement.
No it's not, set up some bleachers and advertise: "Fight ancient evils, all skill levels welcome."
ANd your standing in a room with a former villain, vampires, windigos, changelings and an arcane reactor that is prone to meltdowns, and yet ponies are not running frightened, think about that.
Have you considered a job in the space program?
First: LUNA IS A VOIDBOURN NOW! All the YES!
Second: did Chem just tell Lyra he would tell her how to 'slay' her nightmare the same way, making her voidbourn as well? it seems like we might be getting a few of these guys.
8552595
I was wondering where you've been, Nova. Good to see you ^.^
Can't blame the oldone for doing that sort of thing :P
You'll get it.
Yeah!
Transformers!!!! / Something evil's watching over you, / coming from the sky above / and there's nothing you can do. / Prepare to strike, there'll be no place to run! / When you're caught within the grip, / of the evil Unicron!
Yes it is. It's a real problem for her. It's why she rules A TOWN, not A NATION.
"I am! It's wonderful. How's your universe, worth looking into?"
Well, it's not literally true, but it is true in terms of how others see them.
Chem "Why did people show up?!"
Vi "Forget it, Chem. It's Ponyville."
Ponies, not Jaded, confident. "But bad things will happen!" "Meh, the'll sort it out in about 20 minutes."
This may or may not be true.
Simplified, it means
REALY FUCKING TERRIFYING!
DO NOT PISS OFF!
COULD END REALITY AS A WHOLE!
Heh.
Heh.
Now let's go get a bite to eat from the Keter Class SCP Pony,
Love your stories world building despite all the retcon. Though a little depress that you multiverse has expanded to the Rick and Morty level.
What has been read can not be unread!
8670634 I wouldn't say it's expanded to the Rick and Morty Level. I think I'm just under that, and well... I'm just trying to stick to the IRL Many World sinturpritation of Quantum Mechanics as I understand it. Which probably isn't exactly correct XD
I get a strong feeling this knowledge will be needed for world-saving purposes instead of just fixing a curse.
This story keeps making me giggle :p loving it
In other words half a Ruth Bader Ginsburg
8670641
8670634
More like Bioshock, where the variances actually mean fuck all, like one where I actually give a shit about it and choose red towels over blue or one where Meep likes coffee instead of tea, that sort of multiverse.