Broken Bindings

by anonpencil

Afterword, Credits, Hints, And Extras

Image Credits:

Walking Pony: https://community.tulpa.info/thread-pony-legs

Dancing Ponies: https://wingedwolf94.deviantart.com/art/Pony-Dance-Sketch-512478640

Distorted pony drawing: https://www.derpibooru.org/1286096?q=semi-grimdark

Running Deer: https://berk-shire.deviantart.com/art/Deer-Run-Cycle-375571054

Flying dove: http://anitagaughan.tumblr.com/

Growing Plants: https://medium.com/personal-growth/stop-taking-pictures-and-start-drawing-b1642aded2b6

10 Second Breathing image: https://www.doyouyoga.com/10-awesome-gifs-for-calm-breathing-59450/

"Special" drawing: anonpencil

Cracking screen 1: https://ohioconcreterestoration.com/img/cracking-concrete-joints.png

Cracking screen 2: https://journeyofgalaxy.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/brush_crack_png_by_fabianaavenger-d60xuii.png

Burned Page: https://officialpsds.com/imageview/rj/zl/rjzl04_large.png?1521316556

Special Thanks:

To Flutterpriest, for editing the hell out of this thing. He made sure that some spelling errors were there on purpose, while finding the ones that weren't. He did playthrough after playthrough of this story, and helped me adjust the tone and language to better fit this purpose. He also helped with suggestions for the various formatting changes, and even helped do the night text itself. This would not exist and would not work without him. I love you.

To my husband, who put up with me staying up late to finish this in time, and for letting me rant about it while I was creating it. He probably won't actually read through this thing himself, but I'm pretty sure he knows every detail of it anyway, from my own mouth. Love you, assface. <3

To the Barcast, who promoted this story, spread it around, gave it all the love in the world as I pushed it to go live. You're all terrible people and I love your stupid beautiful faces. I wish you nothing but delicious suffering and booze.

To 8th, who let me put off all manner of things in order to get this done with. It's done now, thank goodness, and I will have more time again to do fun little projects, as promised. Sincerely thank you for being patient with my little obsession here, and I hope you enjoyed it once it went live. Love you.

To you, the reader. This wouldn't be fun unless you read it and played with it, and it wouldn't be worth a damn without you giving it a shot. Thank you for making it this far, whether you loved it or hated it. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

"Game" hints:

-Some text might not be easily seen while it's day out, and are better viewed at night.
-She tries to show you what she looks like twice, and succeeds the second time, even if she hides it.
-Her thoughts can't all be contained here. Some of them spill out onto extra pages, and you just have to find a link between the two.
-Not all spelling and grammar errors are really errors.
-Think of this like a treasure hunt. It's about finding things that are hidden, no matter how or where they're hidden.
-Some things she hides span multiple pages, not just one.
-Just because you've found the location of one secret, doesn't mean there's nothing to find in that secret too.

Total "secrets" that can be discovered: 29

Most difficult secret to find: "****'s Lullaby"

Reading Questions:

Things for you to ponder about the story if you're bored, nothing more. Ignore them if you like, this isn't school, after all, and I'm not so self centered to ask you to answer these. They're just here if you want something more to interact with, just in your own head, not in writing, not in the comments, etc. Just thinking points.

1. Day and night play as major themes throughout the story. What does this say about our main character, and how she views the world? Why was this done?

2. When did our main character live? What was the world like when she was in Equestria? How long is that before Twilight Sparkle and her friends began their adventures?

3. All the different "stories" our main character tells seem to relate to her real life somehow. What do those stories tell us about things she has experienced?

4. What was our main character's name?

5. When she learned magic words, there was no power behind them at the time. What was the power she needed, in order to make it work? What did she initially think the power was?

6. What two ponies "helped" her try to get enough power to prevent a great calamity from every happening again? How did they help?

7. How did she feel about you, the reader, by the end of the story? Why do you suppose she began to feel that way about you?

8. Was she really evil, or was just misguided? Or not misguided at all? Were her motives justified? Was her punishment justified? What would you have done, given her situation?

Analysis of Word Choice in Page 17:

You chose a word in that little story, or you just clicked next, right? Well, I figure it might be fun to do a little personality analysis based on what you chose! No real psychological profile here, just for laughs. Enjoy, and don't take everything too seriously. ;)

Night:
You have an ability to appreciate beauty in the world around you. Whether it's people, places, animals, nature, you have a taste for things you find deeply visually pleasing. You probably enjoy art that fits your particular aesthetic, and you might even have tried your hand at being an artist yourself! You tend to like things that entertain you personally, whether or not they have some sort of deeper, more intimate meaning. As long as it's fun and pleasing to your senses, you're all for it and you'll go for it! That isn't to say you don't feel down sometimes. You've felt depressed before, and you are prone to feelings of loneliness or melancholy, especially when things don't go exactly your way. Your greatest strength is that, when you find something you enjoy, you know how to completely throw yourself into it and enjoy it to its fullest. However, you may also find it difficult to relate that enjoyment to others, and find yourself isolated by your hobbies more than you'd really like.

Afraid:
You are not someone to be trifled with. You've been known to have an angry streak and a temper, even though you're not proud of that, and at times you may be known for getting a little defensive. Of course, that doesn't keep you from being very articulate. You have a gift for words, putting together ideas, arguments, and feelings... at least in your own head. Sometimes execution doesn't go so well. Even then, your emotions run deep, and they show easily. You are not hesitant to feel anger, sadness, happiness, depression, joy, and pain. Pain is something you've felt a lot, but you don't let it win, and don't let it get you down. You're a fighter. You can do this. You probably tell yourself that pretty often. However, you can sometimes get caught up in your own emotions, to the point where you don't see those in others, or don't realize how you're coming across. You care, you care deeply for others, but it's easy for you to get wrapped up in your own head and heart. Your strength is just that, you are a strong person, even if you sometimes tell yourself you are weak. The issue is that sometimes this strength exhausts you, to the point where you have nothing left to give when others want to lean on you. Doesn't stop you from trying, though.

Stained:
You don't always like talking about what's on your mind. You're very good at getting lost in thought and being imaginative, going over what if scenarios several times throughout the day. This can make you very creative, but at the same time, it can make you seem like the quiet type, and can cause you to push others away. There's something in your upbringing or past that still haunts you, even now, and while you try not to let it bother you, it still bleeds through into your words and actions. You try not to let it keep you from being social, but it happens anyway, and you dislike that about yourself. That being said, you are a deeply caring person. You are viciously loyal when it comes to those you care about, and you are not afraid to stand between danger and people you love. You are also meticulous, and love a personal challenge. Hell, you've probably already found most of the "secrets" in here at this point! Your strength is that you are a compassionate, creative, and thoughtful individual. Now, if only you could find a way for everyone else around you to see that.

No Word Chosen:
You are a no-nonsense kind of person who doesn't like to put up with things that do not interest them. You know your goals in life, or at least your immediate goals, and like to pursue them directly rather than waiting around for them to just happen to you. You have the ability to get pretty lazy or bogged down sometimes, and you find yourself distracted by new projects that come your way, but you dislike feeling useless. You want to feel like what you do matters. You want to have purpose in your life, and you want to surround yourself with people that appreciate you for all your efforts. Your biggest strength is that you tell it like it is, and don't beat around the bush with things, but at the same time you can also sometimes come across as callous or unfeeling. Remember to slow down sometimes, take things slow, don't rush. But keep driving for whatever it is you're passionate about, even if you take a day or two off to rest and goof off at times. Everyone needs a little down time.

~*~

Author's Note:

A Word From Anonpencil:

Well, you made it! Thank you for sticking it out all the way to the end. I wanted to take a little time here to talk about what I was doing with this story, or at least trying to do, and why.
The fact of the matter is that I've always been fascinated with books, games, and art that plays with our perception of reality, that blends that line between simple fiction and real interaction with things that are not real. I've always wanted to do so myself and, while very difficult, I'm hardly afraid of a challenge.

Now, I know what some of you might be thinking. I did this because of Doki Doki Literature Club, right? Well... not exactly. It is one of the things that inspired me, but not even the main one. Instead, my inspirations for this include: House of Leaves, The King In Yellow, Gravity Falls, Notpron, Ready Player One, a random post I saw on Facebook about a book that falls in love with you, FSWIYP, and Doki Doki too. If you liked this, I really REALLY recommend you look into these too.

There may be other pieces of fiction, here and there, and some passages are taken from my own experience as well. But just wanted to be clear, I did take some inspiration from DDLC, but this was never meant to copy it at all, and that was only a portion of it.

Anyway, I'm not entirely sure I succeeded in what I set out to do. I found there were... limitations given to me by fimfic as a platform, that maybe someone more game oriented might have gotten around. Maybe this would have been better off as its own website, I'm not sure. But either way, I wanted to play with certain mechanics of this website, and how stories are done here. I wanted to have fun. And in the end, I can confidently say I did have fun.

I grew very attached to our main character here. She's actually based on a G2 pony, of which I had several growing up, but personalitywise? She was kind of concocted out of the ether. Little bits and particles from everywhere. I find I enjoyed getting inside her head to write this, even if it was difficult. She kinda had a mind of her own at times, as to what she wanted to say and do. So if nothing else, I tried to make sure I did her justice throughout this. I do feel I did that well enough.

As for what I wanted from you guys? Honestly, I just wanted to entertain you, to give you something interactive to try to pick apart. Some riddles I wanted to be absurdly easy, just things you could pick out with a simple sweep. Others, I wanted you to really have to look, to really have to try. I wanted you to think outside the box. But I also wanted this to be a complete story, without all the picking and prodding and prying. Even if you didn't try to find out every little weird thing I did, I still wanted you to get to know this character, understand her and what happened to her, and understand what she wanted to do once free.

Whether or not you sympathized with her and connected with her or found her just obsessive and creepy? Well, that's up to you.

I love horror, and while this isn't directly horror in the way of ghosts and zombies, I did want this to be creepy. I wanted to give you the sense, from beginning to end, that something is wrong here. Something is off. And I wanted you to not trust what you were being told or what you were seeing. I dunno if that makes this lite horror, psychological horror, or what. But I do hope you found parts of it, at the very least, uneasy.

In the end, I can only thank you for giving this a shot. You read it all the way through, even read this silly, rambling, self-indulgent note. I know this isn't what you're used to from me, so maybe I surprised you in that. And you, know, maybe this wasn't your cup of tea, or you didn't like it, or thought it was dumb. But overall I hope you had fun. Even if this wasn't life changing or provoking etc, I do hope you at least had fun with the ride, reading, and playing along.

I know she had fun. And I know I had fun too.

Take care.

Love,
anonpencil

Comments

[SuddenlyFerrets]

A very fun format, and a moving story to make it worth it. The fact that I've finished the story (and skimmed it a couple times more) and still have a text file of notes about unsolved things is in equal parts frustrating and wonderful. I know there's more content to see, but I'm gonna have to work for it. It reminds me of those webpage embedded puzzles that used to be a thing years ago.

Oh and I loved the sky/you riddle bait and switch. It caught me out exactly as intended. Really sold the 'interactive' element.

[anonpencil]

9011548
That's just what I was trying to do! YAY that's a relief, thanks for telling me how it hit you.

[Dustchu]

Whew... damn... I did say this was gonna be a ride and this was most certainly a ride.

I discovered a couple of things while reading it, but given the number up above I barely scratched the surface of what's hidden throughout this little story, also spoilery stuff below, read at your own risk.

Page 8: I found a lot of typos in Upper Case, ERNAMESMUE is what all I found there, at first I figured it was spelling 'her name is' and shit, but I might be wrong about that? Iunno what code is being used here... hmm.
Page 40: Well... even if it's spoiler, I won't say, I'll just say I felt rather touched by what she said to me <3
Can't remember which page but I found a link leading to a pastebin? That was interesting.

As for a theory I had;
By chapter... I think it was after the Princesses were hinted, that I had begun to think that whoever was reading this book was actually Celestia reading it, the book couldn't have known so... it was a decent theory, I was wrong however.

Also, damn it Pencil! You got me wanting to write a really weird book x pony romance fanfic now curses!

But yeah, I can safely say I enjoyed this quite a bit! It was a nice little adventure... and probably one of the first stories to make me hesitate at points and actually play along, it was strange but... really fun, actually, hehe. The ending of this was... well, I basically released someone super dangerous into the world so now I gotta live with that, lol. Maybe she won't actually do anything super evil/bad? Who knows.

So thanks for the ride, Pencil, I loved this! Keep it up, I love your works and I love seeing the shit you put out.

[anonpencil]

9011575
Thank you for reading! Yeah, there's a lot to discover, but I'm glad you were able to really enjoy what you did find. As much as I'm making you jump through hoops, those hoops are mostly extras, things to add to the fun, not things you NEED to find. I just hope that you want to. ;)

[anonpencil]

9011621
I sincerely hope you do!

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Pretty damned fine read. Not gonna lie, by the end, I had this song going through my head a bit:

;)

Anyway, yeah. Really unique, well-put together and thought-out. Four hooves up!

...

No, wait. I'm upside down, now. Ah... two thumbs up!

[anonpencil]

9011641

Thanks for reading through it all! Not the music I listened to while writing, but a good selection, none the less!

[anonpencil]

9011788
You're correct about a WHOLE lot of that. And I do like making you laugh too, hope to do more of that in the future.

[anonpencil]

9011813
If only there was a picture of her somewhere...

Also, depending on what you find, it can definitely be horror... ;)

[anonpencil]

9011823
There is a way to find the picture in the story. It's difficult though. It's the most spread out of anything I have hidden. I honestly don't expect many to find it. I'll only say, some of the typos throughout the story are not actually typos. ;)

[anonpencil]

9011828
Only if you want to. I wanted to be sure there was a complete story here without someone having to find all the extras. The rest is just gravy.

[Jarvy Jared]

I'm not much of a horror reader. Nor, really, a horror kind of guy. The genre simultaneously disinterests me as well as drives me away; how this happens, I don't really know.

But I do have a soft spot for the psychological. And the eldritch, though I have yet to read any of Lovecraft's famous work. But nonetheless there is something strangely compelling about breaking the boundaries between the reader and the story, and with this little tale, you have clearly accomplished that.

I found a few hints and secrets here and there just from a vanilla read, but I guess for a more in-depth analysis I would have to search each chapter voraciously. A challenge for another day, perhaps? Well, take heart in this, at least: I very much enjoyed this story. It's very different and very compelling, too.

Now the question becomes is it weird that I kinda smiled a little when Muse said I Love You ?

[Nihilus]

Just finished reading and I'm a big fan of this slow creeping horror. I felt legit uncomfortable clicking next (given I was expecting a Jumpscare gif down the line, so extrapoints for not doing that)

But one thing keeps bugging because I'm a completionist but I'm lost so here goes nothing:
What does the numbers mean? I have an inkling that it's got to do something with the picture of Muse I'm seraching for but I can't make heads nor tails of it. I got 737830 and then some random numbers and letters in the Hints&Stuff section so far, a little hint would be greatly appreciated. You don't have to tell me the answer, just show me the way

[brony01]

it was only after i finished reading this did i realized i missed chapters somehow

edit: nvm i didnt miss any chapters fim fic just didnt register that i finished them. also im pretty sure it wont happen, but dang do i want a sequal

[Diamond *swag* Tiara]

Haven't read this yet but this is the first thing that came to my mind when I read the description

[Stellar_]

Okay, I know for a FACT that the randomly uppercased letters and included numbers are some sort of URL based on the notes, but I'm too lazy to assemble it.

This story reminds me of the Easter Eggs DICE likes to put into the Battlefield games, but it mostly reminded me of Cicada 3301.

Anyway, it was a very entertaining read. Nice job.
o7

[Jagafeh]

I found the picture of Muse by typing 1763783 (the numbers hidden the text) into google images. Purple eyes and a harp cutie mark.
It has your name Anonpencil on the drawing so I’m pretty sure I’ve got the right image.

[SuddenlyFerrets]

9012164
YES. Thank you! That was the only hidden number I was missing.

So I decided to come back to this with a clear head. Figured I'd post some of my findings regarding the more obscure puzzles.

There are 4 embedded pastebin links. They're worth finding, because they give some nice backstory. I'm fairly certain there are no more, given that I searched the page source for them to be sure. Since they're a pain to find, I'll stick the page numbers they're on in spoiler 1 below.
There's a 5th pastebin link acquired via a different puzzle. I'll point you in its direction with spoiler 2. Again, it's worth finding, albeit maybe less-so than the others. And of course one youtube link. Be sure not to miss that one.
There are 7 numbers scattered throughout the story. I'm sure you can figure out what to do with them. I'll put the page numbers they're in in spoiler 3 for those who don't want to trawl everything .

1 - 12, 19, 35, 41
1b - I'm fairly certain the one on p41 is talking about Twilight. The wording doesn't seem to fit Celestia. I suppose it could be Cadence, but given that we know Twilight tried to talk to Muse...
2 - 8 characters from the afterword
3 - 2, 7, 12, 18, 28, 41, 58

I don't think I've found '****'s Lullaby', simply on the assumption that I'd know if I had. Alas, I have zero leads at this point beyond that it presumably has something todo with page 14.

Edit: Ho-boy, I just found a sixth pastbin link and it's quite a doozy! If you're struggling: It's within another secret.

[SuddenlyFerrets]

9012300
That's what I thought to. Given what we know of her family and the way she describes her 'ingredients' throughout - To be honoured. Disappointed in her. Those who would not leave mourners behind.

[Apocryphal Frost]

I really enjoyed this puzzle and/or story.

Putting the numbers scattered throughout the pages together led me to the image of Muse. I was making that way more complicated for myself than I needed to. I thought I needed to mess around with the URLs for the failed image but there's no way, as far as I can tell anyway, to use those URLs with the numbers. It requires way too specific of a URL that I can't imagine we can even begin to guess at. Unless I'm misunderstanding how the links from derpicdn work and you can somehow find an image with just the number and the date, the date itself wouldn't be too hard to guess.

As proof Muse has a harp or lyre cutie mark, and dark-ish purple eyes. Her mane is long with her bangs parted to the right, and her left front-hoof is being held up.

It was tricky but it wasn't that hard to find that. If this is supposed to be the trickiest puzzle I'm a bit lost as to how there could be like twenty-five or so other things I haven't even found hints to yet. Name, numbers, the two upper-case puzzles, and one or two other things I've found but not actually fully explored like the pastebin links and such.

[Alex_]

Okay, I'm gonna unload all my spoilers below.

1) Her picture - I thought maybe the random numbers throughout were spelling out a sentence, but that proved impossible. But then the fact you said Muse's picture was the most 'spread out' puzzle that made me think maybe it was that, and yes, it's a Derpibooru link. Someone else in the comments here found her as well.

2) Backstory - I found four Pastebin links going through, but SuddenlyFerrets says there's still a fifth and sixth one I need to find.

3) The character - She clearly has a very black-and-white view of the world. She lost her brother and sought to avenge him - by any means necessary. She, presumably, killed her parents to achieve this. I also realise that we're only really given a few fragments of her life, even with the Pastebin bits. I wonder to what extent she could be considered reliable and we can really trust what she says about her past. A lot of questions are definitely left unanswered by the end, but at the same time I didn't feel disappointed or let down by that.

And finally, one thing I can say without spoiler tags. I really, really enjoyed this! Thank you for writing it It's clear a lot of time and effort went into it. The earliest Pastebin is from the 8th of March, and I think I remember Priest letting slip the name of this back when he was playing Pokemon Red, which I think was even earlier.

So thank you for spending the last, like, almost four months of your life working on this for us. It definitely wasn't a disappointment. I love puzzles and ARG-esque things like this; it feels like it adds a whole extra layer of interactivity to a story. I don't expect that this is something you'd necessarily be able to work on regularly, but I will definitely say that if you do write something like this again, I will not be disappointed. It's also a marked difference from exploding testicles and vomit :^)

Overall, I would just like to say thank you, and that I really had fun reading through this :)

Now I just have to go back and find all the secrets I missed...

[Alex_]

9012245
Stop being so good at this!

[SuddenlyFerrets]

9012381
You found more than I did on my first pass, friend. I've done other things in the ...8 hours since my first comment, but I'd rather not think too hard about how long I did spend trawling back and forth through this story.
Your offhand comment about the first number felt like I'd been gifted a bonus birthday.

[Alex_]

9012408
Haha. There's a lot to find in here, for sure. I admire your dedication.

[anonpencil]

9012214
You are the first one to find it. I genuinely congratulate you.

[Jagafeh]

9012508
Wierldly enough Twilight Sparkle’s picture comes up before Muse’s when googling the number.

[anonpencil]

There are... SO many comment. I have a fever and I will respond to as many as I can when I can. I'm just so proud of you for how hard you've worked to find everything. Not everything has even been found yet. I'm not sure anyone has found the "hardest secret" yet... which I may do a better version for when my voice is not garbage.
But thank you for reading. And playing. Thank you.

[Apocryphal Frost]

9012214
Damn, I thought I was first. Congrats.

[SuddenlyFerrets]

I've really gotta go get on with that 'real life' thing so I'm going to dump my speculations regarding page 14 here in the hope that someone smarter than I spots something I haven't.

I really hope I'm not barking up the wrong tree.

The most difficult riddle is '****'s Lullaby' (Presumably "Muse's", but no guarantee). Mention of anonpencil's voice in context backs up the assumption of another youtube recording.

Page 14 contains a lullaby with a fairly strict format and 24 lines. Interestingly, page 15 describes it following a rhythmic motion.

A youtube video id contains 11 alphanumeric characters (and sometimes hyphens). One less than one per half-verse.

My current going theory is that the pattern on page 15 describes a method for mapping every two lines to a character of the url. But I've not found a promising method of doing so, so I'm probably overthinking page 15.

That said, the lullaby is long enough that a plaintext message could be extracted by sampling it. Which is probably what I'll try next when I have time to come back to this.

[anonpencil]

9012621
WAY overthinking it. :)

[Pyro Kittens In Suits]

Kind of a silly thing, but seeing everyone thinking out all the riddles reminds me of joining a group project and having no idea how to contribute. I'm just the one adding in a couple comments and hoping I'm helping. (Having fun thinking,
though. )

[The Real Anonymous Pony]

Everyone seems to have missed the link to the youtube vid on page (infinity?) 57?
It's on the period.

The underlined letters in the credits spell out the word of power "0mmupuaG"

[Yasahiro]

9012214
I typed it into google images and all I find are pictures of houses and stuff

Edit: but I found it using regular google. Comments lie!

[Alex_]

9012696
You're right! I totally missed that. I don't know if 9012245 already found it, though, and the "sixth pastebin link" that's "within another secret" is the link in the description of that channel.

[Nihilus]

For everybody who got as far as the youtube page: try clicking through the Account of the Uploader ;P

[Yasahiro]

9012631
The YouTube link on page 57 is problematic for those hard of hearing or who understand written English but have trouble with listening to it for one reason or another. Any chance to add subtitles on YouTube? The vid is 5 minutes long

Edit: on top of that while I liked the story, all the hidden stuff and everything I feel a bit... dissapointed. Because after technically all we did to free her and how Broken Muse could see us and all, it remains with pre-written ending of our interaction. The end implies she could see us just before breaking free and more once freed, so I feel like the better way would be to make it unclear what she will do as if to make it so what happens after story is dependent on what the reader would say after they can finally interact with Muse properly. Having the video end with her leaving after saying her part means she did not let us say anything back and with her disappearing, chance to do so is gone story wise, and I wish it ended with her saying something along lines of letting us talk, respond, as video ends, implying she's letting us finally speak to her and end of video is her listening

[Nihilus]

I freaking finally found the picture and the Lullaby(btw beautifully sung ) And I didn't even know you could the hyperlink stuff, where I found the link to the last pastebin.
Now with every secret found (I hope) I can lay my head to rest.

Thank you again for this awesome experience and story :) If you do anything like this again in the future expect me :)

And for anybody having trouble with the underlined stuff in the Extras a little hint: we used 3 websites so far to get extra content Derpibooru, Youtube and .... ;P

[Alex_]

Argh! Finally found the Lullaby, but 9012846 beat me to it Good job, dude.

And with that, I may have found everything. But maybe not, so now I'm going to have to go back through to make sure I'm not missing anything.

[Dashguy]

What a fascinating read. I'm embarrassed to say I missed so many things.

Starting with the Night Mode trick.

[Dashguy]

I feel like writing some of my thoughts about this character, if only to sort them out. Sorry if this all comes off as repeating what everybody here already knows.

It's clear from the beginning we're not dealing with a normal filly here. The way she acts when her friend hurt herself tells us so much. She's fascinated with the wound, and the inner workings of the body, in a way that reminds me of a child tearing apart a bug to "study" it.

She arrives to the conclusion the final ingredient for the ritual she's trying to perform is "blood", when I'm sure most people would quickly notice it's actually "love". The saddest part is, I don't think there was anything suggesting said ritual was a dark one.

The way she explains herself to Princess Celestia is so "matter-of-fact" it's disturbing. She understands and experiences emotions, sure, but it seems there's a certain lack of empathy there. Narcissism? Sociopathy? A bad upbringing? I dunno, I'm not an expert.

Either way, I cannot fully love her. But I cannot fully hate her either. It's...complicated. Which I'm sure it's what you were aiming for.

[Zaten the Changeling]

A book...
I like books!
Especially reading them.
What could be wrong with a book that compels you to keep reading it, I wonder?
No ancient Sith trickery of any kind, I suspect!

[anonpencil]

9013211
Not even a little close.

[Cynewulf]

Holy damn this is good. Just. Shit.

[Wintermist]

Deeply impressive, and layered. She oscillated between creepy and tragic; as a reader, I'd have turned to Celestia by about half-way through. Freeing her is obviously wrong, but leaving her where she is doesn't seem great either.

[anonpencil]

9013506
To be honest, because I wanted to make sure that some text would be invisible in night mode, and that some text would be invisible in regular/day mode. This was fine for making text white because it blended in perfectly with the background in regular/day mode. BUT in night mode, putting the text as the same color as the background ACTUALLY still had a faint outline! No matter what I did, I could not make it go away, it's just the way night mode is set up. The idea was to be able to hide text from people, depending on what mode they were using, and I couldn't do that unless I made individual images for the dark text.

[lunarstallion]

9013556
Alright, I understand. At least there's a reason, and as far as I know, I at least still read all of the text that was invisible in Night mode.

Also, just for the record in case anyone else hasn't already, all of the out of place numbers were 176373. Not to say I didn't miss any, but those are what I found. I'm gonna start combing this thing for secrets now.

[anonpencil]

9013568
Could you spoiler that first paragraph pretty please?

[lunarstallion]

9013570
Done, my bad

[anonpencil]

9013578
All good! Thanks for playing along.

[SQA]

Having finished this last night and come back today for the secrets, I can honestly say: what a ride this was. A thoroughly enjoyable story and puzzle with a very interesting and well executed premise. I give it a very bueno/10. #MuseDidNothingWrong #OkMaybeSheDidAlotWrong