The Fallen Kingdom
"Come on, Missy! You can do it!"
"Of COURSE I can do it, I just don't know if I should! Flying isn't allowed!"
Sunset and Penn both craned their necks upwards, trying to keep their eyes locked on Missy at the top of her small tower of blocks.
"It's NOT flying! It's falling with style!" Penn declared. "You should be FINE! Sunset and I are right here to catch you if you pass out again!"
Sunset nodded, holding out her arms to signal her readiness. Missy shuffled uncomfortably in place for another second before finally shaking her head, screwing her eyes shut, and leaping from the top, wings spread stiff and wide. For a moment, Sunset thought she was free falling, but as her speed built up, she began to move forward, leveling out her flight.
"YOU'RE DOING IT!" Sunset cheered. "It's working!"
"Try the fireworks!" Penn added.
Missy's reply came in the form of a loud whistle and a burst of speed that propelled her forward and into the sky, trailing sparks in her wake. Sunset was smiling so hard it hurt watching Missy once again sailing through the air, it felt like something had been made right in the world again.
She circled around back towards the plateau, beginning her descent. After a few seconds, her target became clear. Sunset glanced at Penn, but he seemed to focused on their victory to notice as she took a wide step away from him. Missy crashed headfirst into Penn, knocking him back several blocks and leaving the two of them in a giggling heap.
"I CAN FLY AGAIN!" she cheered as she jumped back up, posing triumphantly with one foot on top of his chest.
"Well, glide..." Penn corrected from the ground. "You've basically got a living elytra strapped to your back!"
Sunset smiled and gave Missy's hair a tousle. It was a complete 180 compared to the day before. Whatever healing potion Penn had given her, it was worked miracles. There wasn't a single sign of her brush with death, even her dress seemed to have been fixed on her "skin" and the burn from the iron was completely gone.
"So, now that we know Missy CAN fly as long as it's not under her own power, what's next?" Sunset asked.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunset flexed her leg back and forth, marveling at her new armor and how it moved with her.
It really IS diamond... she thought to herself as she examined the blue material closely. It shimmered with magical light from the protective enchantments Penn had placed on it, but she could still make out crystalline structures just beneath the surface. Even in Equestria, gemstones were never THIS flexible or malleable! I REALLY want to take some of these diamonds back with us to study, if I can! It would certainly help fill some of those long hours on the road...
For now, though, she and Missy were both enjoying their fresh armor, and Penn was muttering to himself as he hunched over an iron anvil, just as he had been for some time, now.
"So... what do you think Penn's first day was like?" Missy whispered. "I mean, we could barely get a log cabin put together, and he made..." she gestured to the base around them, "this."
Sunset raised an eyebrow. "You mean before or after he probably fainted?"
"I HEARD that..." Penn interrupted his muttering for a moment to shoot Sunset a smirk. "And I did NOT faint! I stayed calm, kept a level head, and started progressing up the material ladder as fast as possible."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One Month Earlier
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Riiight..." Missy folded her arms over her chest. "And you totally didn't reenact a certain Door Monster video?"
"Oh shush..." Penn muttered, turning back to his work on the anvil transferring enchantments between books and onto the item he was trying to improve. Finally, he stepped back, gripping the new bow with a smile on his face before passing it to Missy. He wiped a heavy sheen of sweat from his forehead before putting his hands on his hips in a satisfied stance. "And THAT should be the last of it... One Infinity bow for Missy!" He tossed an arrow to himself before passing it to her. "That's all it'll take for you to be able to shoot as many as you want!"
Missy's eyes widened as she eagerly notched the arrow and pulled back on the bow. She took aim at the ground and let go, letting it embed itself in the floor. Before their eyes, another arrow appeared in the bow, already notched and ready to be drawn.
"Whoa.... SO COOL!"
"And for Sunset..." he grinned and reached behind his back, producing another bow and handing it to her. "The same, along with..." He reached over his shoulder and revealed a diamond sword, which he gave a couple showy swipes with before turning around and handing it to her handle-first. "A little something for when we need to get up close and personal with our manxome foe."
Sunset took the sword in one hand, reaching over her shoulder with the other to fetch her old one. The iron was cracked and worn, ready to break, and she knew it didn't have much left in it. She pressed the cool flat of the blade against her forehead. "Thank you..." she whispered before exchanging it for the new one, passing her old iron to Penn. He seemed surprised at her reaction, looking down at the iron with wide eyes that eventually melted into a satisfied smile.
"Tell ya what, Sunny... I'll give this one a spot in the library, I'll even frame it. Sound good?"
Sunset nodded. "Thanks. I know it's kinda silly, but that sword got us all the way here. Feels kind of wrong to just throw it away the minute I get something better, you know?"
"Makes sense to me!" Missy added. "Why don't I get a diamond sword?"
"Because the plan is for YOU never to get close enough to use one!" Penn declared, stepping past them and towards the door. "If you'd be so kind as to follow me, I cleared out a little space to go over our strategy!"
Sunset slipped the sword into its proper place before following close behind him. A short glance back showed Missy idly following along, more focused on her new magical bow than where she was going.
Penn led the three of them down and through the bunker until they arrived at one of the many side rooms he claimed was for storage. He had clearly expanded and redecorated it recently, with a fresh layer of carpet and what looked at first like haphazard and hurried torch placement. After a moment, however, Sunset realized that there was a definite pattern.
The outside edge of the carpet was pitch black at where it met the walls, but the inside was an island of white. Dotted in a circle around the center were blocks of obsidian, each topped with a single torch. In the center there was a hole, a gap two blocks wide and two blocks deep.
"Let's begin..." Penn strode to the center of the room before taking a confident stance. "Our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to defeat the Ender Dragon and summon what could be a portal back to where we came from. To do that, we're going to have to seek out a portal to one more dimension, known as the End. Capital E." He gestured down to the room-sized map, then out to the edges. "The End consists of floating islands above a destructive void. If you fall off, you're not going to have more than a few seconds before you're completely consumed. The only one who would have any chance of survival is Missy, since she can use her wings and rockets to propel herself back up onto the island. Endermen will also be spawning everywhere... As far as we're concerned, they're functionally the only mobs who CAN appear on the island, given we don't bring any in with us." He looked up to Sunset and Missy. "Have you two ever fought an enderman?"
Sunset and Missy looked at one another, then both shook their heads.
"Alright... A quick run-down, then. Endermen are tall, bipedal humanoids with black skin and glowing purple eyes. They're strong, and fast to the point where most people mistake it for teleportation. Even with your new gear, you shouldn't take them lightly. Thankfully, they're generally peaceful, as long as you don't provoke them. However..." he leaned forward, giving each of them an intent stare "the one thing you must NEVER do is look an enderman in the eyes! No matter how far away they are, no matter how brief, they will come for you and attack you if you look them in the eyes! Got it?"
Sunset and Missy nodded. It's kind of nice to hear Penn talking like this again. He gets that confident aura around him when he knows what he's talking about.
"There IS a way to stop them from getting mad at you if you look at them, which we're going to be giving to Missy..."
"OOH! OOH! What is it?" Missy hopped up and down in her seat with excitement as Penn walked up to her, hands behind his back. After a moment of mischievous grinning, he removed her helmet with one hand... and used his other to slam a pumpkin down on top of her, completely covering her head.
"That."
"HEY!" Missy flailed to remove the carved gourd from her head, but Penn still had one hand planted firmly on top as he snickered away. "DO I LOOK LIKE GHOSTRICK LANTERN TO YOU?"
"A carved pumpkin worn on your head will stop you from aggravating any endermen you look at..." He rapped his knuckles against the surface, producing a hollow thunk. "But it's not exactly sturdy armor, so Sunset and I are going to stick with our helmets and common sense."
"What's THAT supposed to mean?" Missy harrumphed, giving up on removing the pumpkin in favor of crossing her arms over her chest in a pout.
"It means YOU'RE going to be on a special mission!" Penn gave the pumpkin one more knock before returning to the center of the room. "The most important part aside from actually fighting the dragon, itself, is going to be dealing with the magical crystals scattered around the End!" He began to pace along the rough circle formed by the obsidian blocks. "There are somewhere between eight to ten obsidian towers on the island of varying heights, and each one has a crystal at the top that will heal the dragon if it gets any kind of injury. Before we can even THINK about beating the dragon, we're going to have to take all of them out. Usually, the worst danger of this fight comes from having to find a way to climb to the top of those towers or from giving too much of your attention to shooting the crystals from the ground and letting the dragon sneak up on you... but we've got a secret weapon!" He pointed to Missy, who was still pouting inside the pumpkin. "Missy can use rockets to fly around the end and take out the crystals with her infinity bow! Meanwhile, Sunset and I will be on the ground, keeping the dragon's attention on us and dealing as much damage as possible!"
"The dragon packs a real wallop, but that's why I spent an entire day working on getting the enchantments on your armor maxed out. The problem is that there are two more weapons I can't prepare us for nearly as well..." He began plucking the torches off of the obsidian. "Once she realizes what we're doing, she's not going to hold anything back. When the crystals are all gone, I suspect the real battle is going to begin... Her two greatest weapons are her fireballs, which explode into a huge puddle of poison on impact that your armor isn't going to do squat to protect you from, and the fact that she's huge and she knows it. If she hits you, you're going to go flying, so we're going to need to stick as close to the center of the island as possible, or we'll be flung into the void faster than you can say 'Dragonheart didn't need sequels-'"
"She?" Sunset interrupted.
Penn paused mid-step, as though Sunset's inquiry had caught him by surprise. After a second, he turned and sat down on a piece of obsidian.
"Sorry, yeah. It's more of a fun fact the creator brought up once that got accepted as canon, but the dragon IS female. In the original game, once you beat it, you find her egg, but there's no way to get it to hatch. That's... the part I'm trying not to think about. Guess it slipped out... Sunset, in the spirit of honesty, we don't know if this thing might be the last of its kind. There are ways to resurrect it once it's dead, but that would also destroy the portal we're working so hard to get, so we'd be back at square one." He reached over his back and grabbed at his netherite sword, looking at it sadly. "We don't even know for certain that portal will take us back home... and we'll not only be killing a majestic creature, but we might just be killing the LAST one."
Sunset felt a heavy weight come down on her shoulders.
"You mean- She's a mother? Just protecting her child?"
"When you kill the ender dragon, the achievement is called 'Free the End.' Most people think she isn't exactly a kind ruler to the endermen, or maybe even their natural predator." Penn shrugged slightly. "But yeah, she's a mother, and we'll be leaving behind an orphaned egg that'll never hatch without her. That's the truth of it."
The three of them sat in silence for a moment. Even Missy went quiet, the carved-in face of the pumpkin having changed from a smile to a frown.
"I... I don't think I can do that..." Sunset whispered.
"Isn't there... some other way?" Missy asked. "Maybe we can find another portal somewhere out there in the world! Like the one that brought us here!"
Penn's silence was all the answer that they needed.
"I... need some air." Sunset muttered, pushing herself up onto her feet and slipping out the door.
She didn't need help finding the way out, and she made sure to flick Penn's security system off before beginning the long ascent to the surface. It was nighttime outside the bunker, but Penn had made sure that the entire plateau was lit well enough to discourage any monsters from entering the area. She took a long, deep breath of the night air and looked up at the square-shaped full moon making its way up into the sky. After about a minute, Missy appeared beside her, now pumpkin-less.
"Whatcha thinkin', Sunny?"
"I'm thinking about if I can get used to seeing a cube moon."
"So... that's it. Either we stay stuck here, or we do something awful to get out?" Missy asked, her wings drooping slightly. "That's... it's not fair!" She folded her arms over her chest. "I thought games were supposed to be FAIR!"
Sunset felt inclined to agree, but she knew it wasn't true. Plenty of games weren't fair to their players. Plenty of things in life weren't fair, either. Why should this place be any different? It had laid out its rules and they had to follow them. Penn had thrived under those rules, exploiting them to his benefit until he had everything he needed to live comfortably forever. Sunset and Missy had barely scraped out their own survival under the same rules.
And the rule was that they had to kill the Ender Dragon to leave.
"But aren't rules made to be broken?" Missy's voice asked in her head, interrupting her thoughts.
If there was a way, don't you think Penn would have said so?
"So what? Penn doesn't know everything! Maybe if we put our heads together we can figure out a way!"
Sunset was about to turn to address Missy directly when a flicker of motion put her on-guard. She looked out towards the edge of the lighted area, only able to see dark shapes moving around past where she could see.
"Missy... I think we should head inside..." she whispered.
The two of them turned around, and Missy let out a fearful screech and latched on to Sunset's leg.
A wall of tall, dark figures had separated them from the door back into Penn's base. Sunset grabbed frantically for her new sword, Penn's warning already running back through her mind.
"Don't look at their eyes, don't look at their eyes, don't look at their eyes..." she repeated to herself as she focused her eyes down, staring at their long, thin legs and where their feet met the ground. Both of her hands were on her sword, but the creatures weren't outright attacking for the moment, so she kept on the defensive. She reached down with one hand and gently pushed down on Missy's head, just to be safe.
"Missy, put the pumpkin on... We're going to walk in the other direction, okay?"
Missy nodded, whimpering softly as she gripped tighter on Sunset's leg. Sunset started to turn around, but the bottom dropped out of her stomach as she realized that while they hadn't been looking, even more of them had closed in and surrounded them completely.
"O-okay... Okay, this is bad..." Sunset whispered. "I'm open to any ideas, Missy..."
"Run for the door and scream bloody murder? Penn will come back us up?"
"They're too fast... This many could beat us to a pulp before we made it down the stairs. We have to avoid a fight."
"I think it might be a little late for that!" Missy hissed.
Sunset slowly turned, finding herself staring at a full ring of dark legs. She had no way out.
She felt an unfamiliar touch on her shoulder.
"l̴̈́͌̀͛̽͝r̴̿͗̾̿̓̍p̶̧̰̐̌̏͌̊͝ ̵̡̢̩̭̘̯̰͕̈́͆̾̀̏̚͠ǘ̷̢̳̱̠̭̯̪̭̮̯̆̌̐̈́͛͘r̸̯̺̙̥̞̈́͐͘̕"
It was a mumble, incomprehensible to her as it garbled its way out of the entity behind her. Another one spoke, this time to her left.
"Ḧ̴̛̻͔͖͎̫͙̺̦͎̽͝g̷̿́́͑̔̍̾r̵̮͓̖̻̩̪͙̄̉̐̌̀̈́̏p̵̢̬̲̺̱̓̉̐̀̌̏͝ͅ ̶̔̍͋̈́ỹ̵̄̃̿͂̂̔r̷̔̎͐̀̐̂"
"Ĥ̴̻̰͇̩̮̤̥͕̯̯̮̓͒͛́͂̊̀̀̕v̵̘̮͎̇̽̏̚p̸͍͖̘͉̫̒̓͝ ̸̪̫̲̋̿́́̒͒̇̈̍́̍̚͘͠v̵͎̯̼̗͈̼̝͇̼͕̼́͋s̸̜̿̈́̋̀̎͐̐̃̿̍͘."
"R̴̺̼̘͐̀͆͜r̵͖̃̓̂̍̾͂͊́̅̉̀̈́̂p̸̮͎̦̋̓̇̈́͝ ̵̛̫̙̦̅̐̀̈́̀̇̂̀͊̑̕̚͠g̵̡͚̪͙̳̍́̉̎̇͒͋ș̷̨̞̯̀͑͒͛͑̈́̀̍̈́͒̊̃͌̓.̴̧̡̘̞͊̔͒̂̇͜͠ͅ"
They started speaking in turns, each repeating the mumbling of the former.
"I... I think they're trying to say something." Sunset whispered.
"What?"
"h̸̨̫̗͖̣̽͌̅̿̈́͗͜e̶̔̂͊̃͊̀̅̾f̵̛͑́́͒͆́̅͠͝͠ h̶͂̍̂̀̽̊͠s̵̛̛̼̳̩̞͈̿̍̀́̋̈́͘."
Sunset carefully loosened her grip on one hand, switching to a single-handed grip on her sword. Her other hand moved up, trembling as she inched her way up and across her chest.
This was NOT a good idea. In fact, this was a BAD idea. A very, VERY bad idea.
"H̷̛̭͔̟͛̂͑͘ȑ̴̲̊͆̈̕͝͠p̶̬̤͚̱͚̟̩̎̋̊̋͘͜͝ ̵̛͗͛̑̾́̕͜͠ş̴̨̨̫͕̙͎̼̅͆͛s̸͆̈́̏̍̚."
But these... things were trying to make some kind of point, some kind of message, and it was clear that they weren't going to let her leave until they'd delivered it.
She reached up and brushed her fingers against the enderman's leathery skin. It didn't flinch, nor did it seemed to be provoked by her actions. She took a deep breath, trying to force down her fear... and reached out with her magic.
She could see it. The End. It was huge, so much more than they had ever imagined. It stretched on for miles and miles. There was more than just the island. She could see entire cities of pale stone and purple bricks, places full of life, both plants and animals. Even if they were alien to her, she recognized life and happiness when she saw it. A true and honest civilization.
An ear-splitting roar ripped through the skies, and Sunset was forced to watch as a monstrous beast descended from the skies. She could only stare in horror as it devastated the populace. The beating of its wings was enough to send the people of the cities flying into the abyss below by the dozens. Its maw spit corrosive poison down on the scrambling endermen, and they fell en masse. One by one, the cities fell, the dragon corralling them closer and closer to the center of their world. Only the subservient and the fearful were left by the time they had been forced back into the center island. What had once been a proud people had become a race of refugees and slaves. Some had relented, building black towers as monuments to their new ruler. Some used their limited power to flee to other worlds, unfamiliar worlds in search of ones with the power to free them.
"H̴̨̤̰̠͉̼̯̙͍̬̩̋͛͆̉̂͐̃͘e̸̛̙̬̬̜̝͙̠͓͌̊̂͛͂̃͛̓͠͠l̴̻̖̩̎̏̋̏̂̀̒p̶͓̥̹̬̺̣̻̮̽͋̊̑̈́͝ ̴̨̢̘̠̻̥̈́̂̋̇̏̽̀̎̏̈́͜͝u̷̢͚͈̖̮͇̳̖̹͌̈́̀̂͆͐̐s̴̠͙̮͇͓̜͎̺͙͕̲͚̾̿̓̕͠."
"H̵̩̪̳̪̎̑͌̐͠è̵̞̬̟͎ĺ̷̡̊͊̓͋̚p̷̨̗̐̽͐͜ ̷͉͙̹̍̐̿̆̈́͜u̴̫̾̑̈́͘͜s̷͔̤͌̃̒͝͠"
"Help us..."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sunset? Sunset! Sunset, wake up!"
Sunset gasped as she returned to the present. Penn and Missy were both hunched over her, watching with concern. Penn had a half-empty potion bottle in his hand, and Sunset could taste the remains of a sweet liquid on her tongue.
"Sunset! Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah, I think so..." Sunset pushed herself up into a sitting position.
"Those blasted endermen..." Penn growled, looking around suspiciously. "I'll get them for this..."
"Penn... Penn, cool it..." Sunset reached up, grabbing at his shoulder and pulling his attention back to her. "This is my fault. I tried reading one of their memories to understand what they were trying to tell us."
"You WHAT? Sunset, are you crazy?" Penn's eyes widened.
"Penn... They weren't trying to hurt us." Sunset pushed herself back onto her feet, ignoring the pounding in her head. She dusted off her diamond armor and picked her sword up from where it laid on the ground. "They were trying to ask for our help. I know we just said we don't want to kill that dragon, but it's been terrorizing them, even killing them en masse! It drove them from their homes, it's been doing it for years. We... We might be the only ones who even stand a chance of stopping it!"
Penn and Missy both looked at one another uncertainly.
"Sunset... that doesn't change what we said before about the dragon. It's still alone. Still a mother." Penn muttered.
"Maybe it is, but..." Sunset took a deep breath, trying to reconcile the two opposing motivations. "It's also killing and hurting innocent people. Somebody has to do SOMETHING."
For a moment, Penn's face became inscrutable, lost in thought before finally seeming to settle on a grim resolution.
"Alright. Let's get some rest for tonight. Tomorrow, we're going to free the End."
Sunset nodded, looping one arm around Penn's shoulders as they walked back down into his base. As she slept that night, she dreamed of those lost cities, of their empty halls and ruined towers. She felt the restless spirits there, heard their whispered wishes for freedom. She felt their hopes coming to rest on her shoulders, their wishes and dreams filling her soul.
The Ender Dragon had to go. Not just because it stood between her and returning home, but for the sake of all those who had waited so long to be free.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Penn sat quietly in the library. He had placed Isis's drone on the enchanting table so that he could look it in the eyes. Even if he wasn't talking to Isis, it helped to have a face to look at.
"So... she's going to do it. She's going to go slay the last dragon in this world... The last of its kind." He shook his head. "Evil or not, genocide is an awful thing to do... and I think she might be a bit misled."
"Those endermen probably conveniently forgot to show her the many dragon heads mounted on their ships. Figures." Reason muttered.
"If anything, I'd say the dragon's right to be upset, but... maybe it has gone too far..."
"Ha. We're ones to talk about going too far for revenge."
Penn nodded to himself and chuckled. "Fair point. Seems to me like both parties are in the wrong by this point. There's no good choices, but we're going to have to take the endermen's side if we ever want to get out of this place... The question is, can we let Sunset commit genocide like this? Right or wrong, something like that will leave an impact on her soul..."
"And what's the alternative?"
He reached over his shoulder, once again pondering his black netherite blade. He shivered violently as the memory of Salem's voice came to him.
Would you attempt to stop me? No matter the cost? Would you BURN this world down to its very foundations to protect her?
He tightened his grip on his sword and rose to his feet. He'd already found one of this world's strongholds. He'd hidden the tunnel leading there, he had been waiting for Sunset and Missy to be ready before he showed them what could be their only way home, just in case they refused to wait.
"People beat the Ender Dragon in single-player all the time. The alternative is to save her from having to make that choice. We'll do it ourselves."
Stats
Page generated in 0.055 seconds
Total duration
1,125 users online
2,139,135 hits today, 2,814,898 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.®
He needs to get over this righteous do-everything-myself conceit before he gets himself chained to a wall and tortured. Again.
10250493
He got the Harry Dresden syndrome.
There are two sides to every story and sunset saw only one
10250586
Except Harry can generally manage to get himself out of the trouble he gets himself into. Penn isn't nearly as explodey.
10250586
Who?
10250616
Very true. It's an unfortunate habit of his that his brain kinda tends to go
Multiverse: Is cruel/bitter/dark
Penn: Gasps and claps his hands over Sunset's ears as he drags her out of the room
Sunset: "The universe is cruel..."
Penn: :0 Gasps
Penn: :0 Starts punching the multiverse.
i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/427/396/5ae.png
His overprotectiveness doesn't just extend to throwing himself in front of a turret, over time we're going to see he has this idealized view of Sunset and he doesn't want to have to expose her to dark things and "pollute" her. It's going to be a source of strife between them for a while, and this won't be the last time Penn tries to do something dark so she doesn't have to.
...Why does that make me think of Archie Andrews?
10250493
10250664
Honestly I have read a lot of fanfiction and I have found this to be a trait that is obnoxiously common among OC's. Like I swear 8 out of 10 OC's have this attitude where they feel they have to protect those around them and do everything themselves. But to be fair most OC's get this attitude beaten out of them really damn fast either by an enemy or ally (sometimes both). Penn, unfortunately, comes across as very slow to learn... anything at all.
10250759
It's especially damning in regards to Sunset, who is a remarkably hardy individual by anyone's standards. She's brilliant, independent, sharp-witted, and a truly gifted mage. She doesn't need coddling, and if he took a moment to contemplate her history he'd realize that she in fact despises it. Sunset Shimmer thrives on adversity, the more pressure she's under the more she excels.
I can't wait to see them run across a setting with real magic available, so that Sunset can really bring her full expertise to bear.
10251060
Mostly by the logic of "beat the bad guy and their victims are freed."
But also since he talked Josh into a "double or nothing" wager, when he won he got back everything Josh had "won" from Sunset.
10251164
A minor detail: both Penn and Sunset define killing the Ender Dragon as "genocide". Don't know much about dragon reproduction, but I think you need more than a fertile female and her egg in order to repopulate.
10253182
Actually, there are at least 50 species among lizards alone that reproduce aesexually via parthenogenesis! No males necessary! It's entirely possible that the Ender Dragon reproduces in the same way.
They're mostly using the word "genocide" to refer to the actual act of wiping out all of (in this case, only 2) the remaining members of a species.
Quoting Toy Story now.
So the diamond sword is a vorpal sword.
10250648
The Dresden Files book series
I feel so bad for every Stone sword I ever threw away
Even worse for the iron ones though I seem to recall leaving those as backups until they broke
10250586
Even Harry gets help in… every book I can think of. The people he excludes from fights are those he doesn't estimate can contribute positively. He does take a while to fix his estimates of the contribution of women. The author is clearly not in agreement with the character, at least.