Chapter 9: Charged Plunders, Checked Portals, Chucked Parts
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Spike had finished the broccoli. "Are each one of you guys not going to take my hint to SLOW DOWN?!"
"Aw, don't worry Spike! We're only going to go over this last one!" The ever optimistic Pinkie Pie was unable to be scared, even when riding on the back of a very erratic alpaca.
"TO WHERE?!"
"I have no idea, but it sure will be fun! Right, Paprika?"
"❄︎♒︎♓︎⬧︎ ♍︎♒︎♋︎◻︎⧫︎♏︎❒︎ ◆︎⬧︎♏︎♎︎ ⧫︎□︎ ♌︎♏︎ ♌︎♋︎⬧︎♏︎♎︎ □︎♐︎♐︎ □︎♐︎ 👌︎☞︎👎︎✋︎"
Pinkie Pie pat the still running Paprika on her head. "See? She knows what she’s doing!"
At the top of the mountain, there were at least bridges to run across as they careened to the whims of this strange creature.
"Pft, yeah! Running over mountains like nothing, to who knows where?! I couldn’t think of a place I’d rather be right now!" Spike sarcastically responded.
"Oh! You mean like those ruins over there?" Pinkie Pie pointed to some ruins in the mountain, a fair distance away.
"What? No!" Spike crossed his arms and shook his head. "I'm not letting you guys go there! Especially with me! Wait..." Suddenly, he realized that all three of them were standing right next to the ruins in question.
"Wow! That was fast!" Pinkie Pie hopped off of Paprika's back. "How'd you do that?!"
"☹︎♋︎⧫︎♏︎♉︎☠︎♓︎♑︎♒︎⧫︎ ⬧︎♋︎♓︎♎︎ ⧫︎♒︎♋︎⧫︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ♍︎♒︎♋︎◻︎⧫︎♏︎❒︎ ⬥︎♋︎⬧︎ ♋︎ ⬥︎♋︎⬧︎⧫︎♏︎ □︎♐︎ ⧫︎♓︎❍︎♏︎📪︎ ♑︎□︎⧫︎ ⬧︎♋︎♎︎"
"Ooh! Interesting!" Somehow, Pinkie Pie had learned Paprika's strange language in the four hours it took to get to wherever they were now. Paprika was surprisingly talkative on the way there.
Spike started to back away. "No, no. Definitely not. Nope. Not on my list. Nope." He reached the bridge that had led them to this location. "I'm going to go back to Yakyakistan. See you if you get ou-woah!"
Paprika grabbed him by his neck with her mouth, pulling into another bone-crushing hug. After releasing him, she placed him next to the entrance again.
"Guess I’m not getting out of this one, am I?" Spike concluded, facepalming.
"N-ope!" "🕈︎♒︎♋︎⧫︎♏︎❖︎♏︎❒︎📪︎ ❍︎♋︎♎︎♏︎ ♋︎ ■︎♏︎⬥︎ □︎■︎♏︎"
"I guess I don’t have a choice..." Spike shrugged and sat on Pinkie's back, for a change.
"Hey! I think Adobo mentioned this one!"
"Really?" Finally some good news! "What is it called? What's in it?"
"I think it's called The Temple of Gloom! He said there are a lot of traps in this one!"
Spike stared at her, quite shocked.
She pat his little dragon head. "It’ll be fine, just don’t worry too much! Right, Paprika?" "*phhhhhpt*"
Enter into the temple and advance the story?
Onward, to glory!
Halt, I must inspect the area further.
[Do I have a choice? No. I guess I’ll just go, then.]
"Let's go!" Pinkie Pie and Paprika shared a warm chuckle, while Spike had a nice shiver, as they walked into the temple laid before them.
As soon as they passed the entrance, all fears on Spike's end quickly melted away. "Woah... this place is WAY bigger on the inside..." He marveled at the dilapidated structures and the large stairway. It seemed remarkably similar to something he saw before, but he couldn't put his finger-
"Pretty cool, right, Paprika?"
"💧︎♒︎□︎◆︎●︎♎︎■︎❼︎⧫︎ ♒︎♋︎❖︎♏︎ ⧫︎♋︎🙵♏︎■︎ ♓︎⧫︎ ◻︎♏︎❒︎⬧︎□︎■︎♋︎●︎●︎⍓︎📬︎ ✋︎❼︎❍︎ ⬧︎□︎❒︎❒︎⍓︎ ♐︎□︎❒︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ◻︎□︎□︎❒︎ ❑︎◆︎♋︎●︎♓︎⧫︎⍓︎ ♐︎□︎❒︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ □︎●︎♎︎ ♍︎♒︎♋︎◻︎⧫︎♏︎❒︎📬︎"
Suddenly, from behind them, the entrance was surrounded in a purple flame! The entire entrance was completely devoured by the blaze. Spike ran towards it, but swiftly jumped back to avoid getting burned.
"Well, looks like we're stuck in here with her!" Paprika and Pinkie Pie were in a hug. Again. Well... at least Paprika had infinite food, so they wouldn't starve to death.
Spike attempted to get between them, but Pinkie's springy tail prevented him from doing so. "Uh, guys? The exit's blocked, and we don't know where we are!" He turned to face the foyer in front of them again. "The only thing here that looks remotely similar to that outside is that... big... stand..."
Right in the center of the room, was the pedestal where his friends had found the Elements of Harmony. What in the name of Daring Do was that doing here? He ran towards it to try to get more information, but Paprika was quicker. She was so quick, that she was basically a blur to anyone passing by. She ran up the side of the carved stone, before coyly leaping down.
Pinkie Pie bounced over to Spike. "What did you find?" She eyed the structure in front of her. "Ohhhhh. I see. Wow! I wasn't expecting to see this here!"
“Yeah, I know.” Spike ran a finger over a few cracks. “Why is it-“
Several hissing noises were heard from the other side of the pedestal. Spike, fearing for the worst, ran to check on Paprika.
Paprika was hugging a snake, crushing it in her embrace. "✋︎⧫︎ ❒︎♏︎♋︎●︎●︎⍓︎ ⬥︎♋︎⬧︎ ♌︎♋︎♎︎📬︎"
“An actual snake...”
“Yeah! Pretty cool!” Pinkie appeared from behind him, nearly knocking him over in fright.
“No, that is the opposite of cool! We’re gonna die here!”
As he was speaking, the snake disappeared while still in Paprika’s grip, leading her to hold on to nothing.
“What happened there, Paprika?”
"💣︎♋︎♎︎♏︎ ♋︎ ■︎♏︎⬥︎ ♍︎♒︎♋︎◻︎⧫︎♏︎❒︎📪︎ ♒︎□︎◻︎♏︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ●︎♓︎🙵♏︎ ♓︎⧫︎✏︎ 🖳︎✆︎"
“Uh...” He looked at the pony for help. “Pinkie Pie?”
“Oh! I know this one! She saw the snake and wanted to give it a hug!”
Why was that the explanation that made the most sense?
“Whatever, let’s keep... wait.”
Spike pointed behind himself at two small depressions in the ground. “Did anybody notice that?”
Pinkie Pie skipped over and sat on them. “Wow! Bouncy! Almost like a scale! Whee!” She started to use the area as a makeshift trampoline, bouncing herself high, hanging several seconds in the air. Paprika joined in as well, scoring an even more impressive airtime.
Spike was really dissatisfied with the antics of his partners. “Well, I see a way in, so let’s get going. This place isn’t going to get any more cramped.”
He walked alone to not the next room, which seemed akin to some sort of.. apse, perhaps? There was a broken bridge in the middle, leading to the next room. Darn, the next room looked really important too!
He could still technically fly over, but leaving Pinkie Pie and Paprika alone would be a pretty bad idea.
On the other side, he also saw a few Predators. Specifically, two snakes and two wolves. Glad they were on the other side; best to leave quietly...
Suddenly, Pinkie Pie burst into the large room. "Hey, Spike! Ooh, are those Predators? Hi! Hello! Yoo-hoo! Over here!” She waved both hooves over her head in greeting.
Spike attempted to quiet the Pinkie, but again, to no avail. They were heard.
"✋︎ ●︎♓︎🙵♏︎ ⧫︎♒︎♓︎⬧︎ ♌︎♏︎⧫︎⧫︎♏︎❒︎ ♋︎⬧︎ ⬥︎♏︎●︎●︎📬︎" Paprika came in and taunted them as well. No point in trying to shut her up.
The predators easily cleared the gap between them by teleportation, surrounding them. Paprika and Pinkie exchanged a short but noticeable glance between themselves, then moved to attacking stances. Spike simply flew up to provide background coverage where necessary.
Well, no getting out of this one...
Fight!
Fortunately, none of them seemed exceptionally hard to deal with. Pinkie Pie and Paprika both zoomed off to opposite corners of the room, before somehow reappearing the other side. Quite shocked, the wolves couldn't do much as they were slapped around comically, by candy and fur respectively.
The snakes were equally as surprised, but recovered from their shock quicker. They bunched up their coils, and both leapt onto Pinkie Pie's hair, trying to get a hold on her.
They failed miserably though, as they were soon sucked right into her hair, and shot out of a MK.II Party Cannon: Blow Them Away With Your Dazzling Streamers!™ patented by Pinkie Pie herself. They fell right into the pit, where the bridge once crossed.
Neither of the wolves were really happy about their position. One was getting blasted to no end by candy, streamers, and cake, while the other one was getting crushed to death by an oversized sweater. They were at their breaking point, and it seemed neither curly haired ungulates would take any breaks of their own. The victors paid no attention to them, and simply went about accidentally trouncing them some more, while Spike flew and gave...moral support. Yeah. That was what he was doing.
This entire process happened in less than thirty seconds. The wolves disappeared, leaving a sweater and a pile of icing where they lay before.
It's over!
"Woo! Great job, Paprika!" Paprika ran over to Pinkie Pie and gave her a loving lick. Spike descended and explained what he knew to the loving animals.
With nothing else for them to do in this room, and no way all of them to get over the bridge, they walked through a side door.
There, they found some black orbs, but more importantly, a treasure chest. Spike greedily opened it up, expecting some kind of treasure.
"Come on, come on, come on! Something good!" It was a bunch of ancient wrappings, mummy style, clearly made for some kind of ungulate. "Oh, come on!"
GAINED AINCIENT WRAPPINGS!+10 TP +10 Scarcity You have something stuck to your hoof... Let me take it off.
"Hmmm..." Having lost interest in the wrappings, Spike started to look at the black orbs on the other side of the room.
"What is it, Spike?"
"Those orbs. What are they?"
"Hmmm...." Pinkie Pie scrunched herself up. Then she giddily jumped up. "Oh! I've got it!"
Spike cheered up quickly. "Really? What did you get?"
"Absolutely nothing!" Pinkie Pie bounced away, picking the orbs up as she did, leaving a very dumbfounded dragon in her wake.
The only exit to the room, save the other treasure chest across a chasm he didn't feel like crossing, veered off to the right. Heading through the door, he found Pinkie Pie awkwardly tiptoeing across a rickety bridge.
"Pinkie Pie? What-"
Pinkie suddenly zipped back, completely quiet. She pointed down, then mouthed, "Bunch of big wolves down there. Try to stay quiet! This is fun!"
True to her word, there were three wolves asleep in the middle of the room on some sort of stone tiling. Paprika was nowhere to be seen, but since there were no wolves or yellow hair on the same level, it could be assumed that she was fine. For now.
Another worry was the ever creaking bridge. Pinkie was making as little noise as possible, but Spike's feet made worrying noises come out of the bridge. Gulp.
On one instance, one of the wolves at the bottom shifted around at a creak louder than the others. Spike caught his breath, freezing on the spot, but the wolf didn't wake up, thank goodness.
It took him the greater part of a minute to regain his courage to cross it. The bridge led to a ledge, which held nothing except a stairway. No other place to go; the stairway was the answer, this time. "Hold on. Now that we're out, Spike... Couldn't you just fly over the bridge?"
"Uh..."
Before he could answer the embarrassing question, they reached the top of the stairwell, where they saw Paprika hugging another wolf to death.
"👍︎♒︎♏︎♏︎❒︎⬧︎📪︎ ☹︎♋︎⧫︎♏︎♉︎☠︎♓︎♑︎♒︎⧫︎✏︎" The wolf, which didn't appear to be her first one, popped out of her grip, before landing on the ground in an undignified heap that soon vaporized.
For once, Spike laughed at the fate these predators of late have been suffering. "Death by Icing," the newest headline! Ha! Paprika giddily walked back towards th-
"-Eeeelp!"
"Huh?" Spike and Pinkie Pie listened again. "-Eeellp! Somepony!"
Spike recognized the voice. "That voice..."
Pinkie seemed to as well. "It sounded like..."
"Snakes! Oh, why did it have to be snakes?!"
"DARING DO!"
Pinkie refocused. "It sounds like it's coming from over that way!" She pointed to a pathway towards the left. "Let's go!"
She ran right into the hallway, then right into a HUGE snake. Even larger than the one Paprika cosplayed as...
"✌︎■︎♎︎ ⧫︎♒︎♋︎■︎🙵 ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ♐︎□︎❒︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎❒︎ ♍︎❒︎♓︎⧫︎♓︎♍︎♓︎⬧︎❍︎📬︎"
Spike looked at Paprika strangely. "Well, sorry, but this snake totally one-upped you, Paprika. You need a better costume."
A large hiss interrupted his thought, as the snake coiled its tail around Pinkie Pie, deftly trapping her.
"Pinkie!" She waved at Spike, before getting sinking down further than Spike would have wanted. It was up to him and Paprika...
Fight!
Special Battle!
Conditions:
Rescue Pinkie Pie
Pinkie Pie unavailable until rescued
Paprika ran rapidly behind the snake, attempting to catch it off guard, but this one wasn't as easily fooled. It whipped its tail out at Paprika, tripping and knocking her away. She lay on the floor, face down, then jumped back up and ran back to the snake.
She attempted again to attack his unprotected backside, but the snake allowed a Pinkie's head to stick out in the spot she aimed for. She scored a direct hit on the pony, who was sucked back into the coils before she could say a word. The snake lashed it's jaw at Paprika, who dodged with no problem.
"Paprika!" The alpaca turned towards Spike, who had remained out of range. "Attack him head on! You won't be able to hit his back!"
Armed with Spike's advice, Paprika got her head back in the fight. She, quite literally, extended her neck to "attack him head on," knocking him several times in the thick skin under his neck. The snake snapped back at her, but all he was able to grab was a flames to the face, as Spike flew overhead.
This attacking was enough to set Pinkie Pie free again. Without warning, she laughed manically as she started to stuff him tail first into a party cannon.
Now he was in real trouble. He couldn't hit either Paprika or Spike as he was dragged backwards, inevitably towards the cannon mouth. He hissed a final time as his head came into contact with the painted metal of the cannon.
"Spike! Need some firepower over here!"
She's got it! Spike flew over towards the end of the cannon and blew a single whiff of flame, setting the cannon off. It fired the snake straight into the wall at high velocity, creating a sound akin to throwing a tomato at a cake.
It's over
As the snake disappeared, the three took some time for a short break as they recovered from the battle. Paprika passed a few drinks around, as Pinkie Pie regained her breath from the intense squeezing. While smiling, of course.
Afterwards, they walked out the door to the outside, Paprika in particular commenting,
"🕈︎♓︎⧫︎♒︎□︎◆︎⧫︎ ♓︎⧫︎📪︎ ⧫︎♒︎♓︎⬧︎ ■︎♏︎⬥︎ ♍︎♒︎♋︎◻︎⧫︎♏︎❒︎ ⬥︎□︎◆︎●︎♎︎■︎❼︎⧫︎ ♒︎♋︎❖︎♏︎ ♏︎⌧︎♓︎⬧︎⧫︎♏︎♎︎📬︎"
Outside, there appeared to be a courtyard. Several statues of ponies, some with inscriptions on them Also present were some tablets with etchings of predators on them. But right in the middle of it all, sat a chest outside, glowing a creepy purple color that was clearly not metal.
"So? What are you waiting for? Open it!"
Spike obliged. The chest revealed a...paint bucket with a black label.
GAINED PAIN(T) BUCKET! +17 Controversy +5 Splash Buckets without paint are like tuna-fish sandwiches without ketchup!
Pinkie Pie didn't seem disappointed. "Well, if life gives you lemons, make lemon meringue!"
The bucket was shoved onto Pinkie Pie's head. "And if life gives you a bucket, wear it as a hat!"
"Oh come on?! First reduced to a collectible item, and now a hat? I DEMAND to speak to the creator of this production, and furthermore-"
"Huh?" Spike looked around for the speaker. Nothing; the voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. Just like the voice of-
"Daring Do! We still need to find her!"
"Right!" Pinkie Pie bobbed her head, knocking the paint bucket all around. Paprika started to mimic Pinkie Pie's action, leading them to start having a headbang battle.
Spike slapped his head with his hand again. "Daring Do isn't out here! We should REALLY find her soon!" Another yell, then muffled noises came from inside the ruins.
The paint can from on top of Pinkie Pie's head flew off his impromptu resting place. "Agreed!" it said, label turning yellow. "You go do that!" With that he flew up into the air, muttering something about prisms and islands.
About fifteen seconds later, he flew back and landed back on Pinkie Pie's head, label now purple. "AAAAAHHHHH! There are lots of angry birds out there! They didn't buy my crow impression! Why not? I was perfect! Am NOT going out there again, so I guess I'll stay with you. Don't worry, I'll be quiet! You won't even know I'm here!" He then decided to basically shut up for the rest of the chapter.
"Okay?" The can didn't seem to be... unbearable, so they all headed back inside the ruins, and into the hallway they passed in their rush to find the voice earlier.
In it, there was a large fall and a large stone block.
Spike looked around the room, and at the block. "What do we do?"
"✋︎⧫︎🕯︎⬧︎ ♋︎❖︎♋︎♓︎●︎♋︎♌︎●︎♏︎ ♓︎■︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ♎︎♏︎⬧︎♍︎❒︎♓︎◻︎⧫︎♓︎□︎■︎📬︎" Paprika started to push the stone with amazing strength, right into the hole. The block fell, but only after it was completely off of its original resting place. It hit the unseen ground below with a bump.
"I guess that did something." Spike dusted himself off, and started walking towards the next door. "Well, on to the next- whooaaaaaAAAHHH!" A strange sound rang through the hallway, as the way behind them had shut again with the same flames.
Sticking and recoiling her hoof in the blaze, Pinkie Pie turned to address the elephant in the room. "Well, looks like we can't go back! Gotta keep going forwards!" She straightened her bucket, then threw a salute. "FOR DARING DO!"
Pinkie ran into the next room, while Spike and Paprika followed close behind. Right in front of them, was another wolf.
It noticed them quite easily, being right in front of them. It ran straight towards them, before slipping on a random banana peel and plummeting to his doom in the nearby hole that seemed to be everywhere in these ruins.
"Uh huh." Well, at least they didn't have to risk getting hurt from-
"Help me! Please!" Oh! Right! Daring Do! She sounded close by!
Pinkie Pie scoured the room, while Paprika just looked happy. "Oh! Ooh! I think I hear her over there!" The pink pony pointed at a door that was over the chasm.
"Alright!" Spike took to the skies and easily flew over the gap. Then he remembered about Pinkie Pie, so he turned to speak to them. They weren't there. "Um... Pinkie? Paprika?"
"HI!" "YAAAAAAAHHHHH!" How'd they get behind him?!
Pinkie seemed to read his thoughts, while Paprika blew a raspberry. "Oh, silly! There was another door that led outside!" She pointed to a doorway that, true to her words, seemed to lead outside. The same way as before, the three started to head towards the slightly muffled voice they heard.
"Heeelp!"
"She's really close by! I think she's through this door!" Spike pointed at a door on his left. As he entered the following room, a blueish glow filled it.
It was the library from the Castle of Two Sisters, but it was... different. The stone bricks were made of the same ones as the rest of the ruins, but the bookshelves, rugs, and beanbag chairs all looked out of place. Almost displaced...
Spike picked up a book flopped over on the ground, flipped through its pages. "This is the library from the Castle!"
"Yep!" Pinkie bounded over to a bookshelf, pulling a book off the shelf. "Ooh! 101 Knock-knock jokes! Seems like fun!" She sat down on the rug and began reading.
"👌︎♋︎♍︎🙵 ⧫︎□︎ ❍︎♏︎❍︎♏︎⬧︎✏︎" Paprika picked up a pink book, this one titled HOW TO BE SO VERY DUMB in big black print, and started to read it upside down.
"Help!" Spike jumped up from where he was reading, and quickly ran the room for the source of the voice. He managed to find the source of the voice by running up up a flight of stairs and slamming straight into a...door? COVERED IN PREDARTORS?!
Spike awkwardly slid down the part of the door he hit, while his partners ran up to see what he found. "What is that?"
Pinkie didn't seem to know, but walked up close anyways. "I don't know! But I'm sure it isn't bad!" She started to lean on a noticeable crack in the structure. Suddenly, the door gave way, as the crack opened up, revealing a portal. The eyes on the door lit up red, as did the paint can's label. Spike and the two goofballs stepped away from the door as the portal crackled and popped.
A gust of wind blew out first, knocking them even further away, and causing papers to fly around the room erratically.
After that, out of the door flew a very beaten up Daring Do, several scars running down her body and a battered pith helmet clattering onto the floor next to the portal. She fell onto the floor, falling down all of the stairs as she did. If she wasn't unconscious when coming out of the portal, she certainly was now.
Surprisingly, it was Paprika who attempted to rectify the situation. She put the downed pony on her back, and started licking and force feeding her apples, because they keep the doctor away, and they weren't available then and there.
And guess what else came out of the portal? Yep. Predators. Guess this is a normal thing now.
A large bear lumbered out of the portal first, then several wolves and falcons, surrounding Pinkie and Spike.
Spike put up his dukes, spread out his wings, and took to the air, as Pinkie Pie brought out a separate party cannon. Paprika, because she was taking care of Daring Do, ran out of the library into another nearby room to protect her. Two wolves followed her into the next room, leaving Pinkie and Spike with two wolves, four falcons, and one bear to deal with.
Fight!
Special Battle!
Conditions:
Paprika unable to attack
You lose if Daring Do gets K.O.'d (30%)
Spike flew up, all four falcons chasing him to the ceiling. He feinted away, leading a couple to slam into the top, the rest having the time to brake and continue their attack. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie started to attack the bear from behind, somehow reaching that point in her own quirky way. The bear fell down the stairs, landing with a loud bump on the stony floor, before standing up clumsily. He grunted, and swung his muzzle, calling the other wolves towards him.
Paprika, with Daring Do on her back, could do little more than run and block for fear of hurting her passenger. Fortunately for her, the two options were holding out... for now. In the cramped room, the wolves were relentless. The only real advantage she had was her greater mobility, but even that could be debated. She doubled down on her blocking, shielding Daring Do from all attacks.
Surprisingly, Spike was doing the best, even with his lack of combat abilities. Being far more capable of maneuvering with his smaller body, the falcons were bumping with the walls and themselves more than him. In fact, one of them was hit so much by the wall, it fell to the floor and disappeared. Finding a moment of respite, Spike blew another blast of flame, aiming it at Pinkie Pie.
Almost as if it were planned, Pinkie pulled out her party cannon at the right time, flame striking a direct hit on the fuse. This time, it blew out a jet of fondant, striking a wolf head on. It quickly hardened around him, as he hit the wall incapable of moving, leaving one bear and one wolf left in the large room.
Paprika was having trouble. She was almost kicked out of the room she was in, but she was holding her ground. But the wolves were relentless; she wasn't going to last much longer. She called out for help, and she needed it fast!
"🕈︎♒︎♋︎⧫︎ ♋︎❒︎♏︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎❒︎ ❖︎♓︎♏︎⬥︎⬧︎ □︎■︎ ♑︎◆︎■︎ ❒︎♓︎♑︎♒︎⧫︎⬧︎✍︎"
Pinkie Pie heard the call for help. She shifted her attention to getting to her, ASAP! “Hey, Spike! Over here!”
The dragon came over, causing two more falcons to crash into the wall behind him. They slid down while disappearing. One of each was left. Unfortunately? The battles were at least two on one.
Landing on the ground, Spike faced the remaining predators and sized them up. The bear was a walking target... but that wolf was getting awfully close- wait... woah!
Spike dodged just in time to feel the rush of wind as the outstretched claws reached for him. Okay, wolf, then falcon, then bear. Got it.
“Okay, Paprika! I’m here!” Pinkie Pie was in the room with the battered alpaca. They smiled at each other as Pinkie peppered the predators with some close range cupcakes.
With the Paprika situation being quickly taken care of, that just left Spike and his three. Even though the wolf was fast, Spike was small, and weaved in between nearly all of the blows. Having a slightly spiky tail and the ability to breathe fire certainly helped in his favor.
The wolf was getting roasted well. A rare sight, all things considered. The falcon was also on the verge of bailing as its pinfeathers started to get slowly taken off by the swinging fists of the slightly-more-confident-than-usual dragon. Soon the wolf was downed by the sheer heat, and the falcon was by getting smashed into the wall.
Now that Pinkie was back in the room, and that Paprika no longer had to worry about keeping Do safe, the battle immediately turned back into their favor. Although the bear was tough, because of... well... mostly Pinkie Pie and Paprika’s attacks, he was more than manageable. As he was starting to get worn down on by cacti and cupcakes, Spike flew over to room with Daring Do to see how he could help.
She was still unconscious, but she was definitely alive! For now. Falling down a flight of stairs doesn’t usually bode well.
There was also a chest in the room, this one being golden. Opening it revealed a strange golden mask that reminded him of Somnomula. Better to stash it.
It’s over!
There was the bell! It seemed that his friends were victorious! Again!
He was about to fly out and congratulate them, but Paprika was faster. She pulled both of them into a more loving hug that DIDN’T crush all their bones.
"💣︎♋︎❒︎♓︎□︎ ⬧︎♋︎⍓︎⬧︎🖳︎ ☝︎◆︎■︎ ❒︎♓︎♑︎♒︎⧫︎⬧︎ ♋︎❒︎♏︎ ♓︎❍︎◻︎□︎❒︎⧫︎♋︎■︎⧫︎ ⧫︎□︎ ◻︎❒︎□︎⧫︎♏︎♍︎⧫︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ⬧︎♋︎♐︎♏︎⧫︎⍓︎ □︎♐︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ◻︎♏︎□︎◻︎●︎♏︎📪︎ ♒︎□︎⬥︎♏︎❖︎♏︎❒︎📪︎ ⧫︎□︎□︎ ❍︎◆︎♍︎♒︎ □︎♐︎ ♓︎⧫︎ ♍︎♋︎■︎ ●︎♏︎♋︎♎︎ ⧫︎□︎ ◆︎■︎❒︎♏︎⬧︎⧫︎ ♓︎■︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ◻︎□︎◻︎◆︎●︎♋︎⧫︎♓︎□︎■︎📬︎ ❄︎♒︎♏︎❒︎♏︎♐︎□︎❒︎♏︎📪︎ ♓︎⧫︎ ♓︎⬧︎ ♓︎❍︎◻︎□︎❒︎⧫︎♋︎■︎⧫︎ ⧫︎□︎ ⬧︎⧫︎❒︎♓︎🙵♏︎ ♋︎ ♌︎♋︎●︎♋︎■︎♍︎♏︎📬︎"
“No, it was mostly Spike!” Letting them fall to the ground again, Paprika pulled out some of the orbs from earlier and started to juggle them, for no real reason.
Spike reached out a hand. “Woah! Be careful! We don’t know what’ll happen if they-“
Crash!
“-break.”
Paprika stared at the broken orb on the ground. It split into more green and blue orbs that sat there temptingly. Smiling, she picked the orbs up and gave them a loving hug.
Spike held up a claw. "Uh... I don't think you should caress the broken pieces of orbs... What if they-"
As he spoke, the orbs flew out in all directions, then into Paprika's body. Instantly, all bruises from before vanished, and she looked immediately more refreshed. Still with her arms in a hugging position, Paprika extended her neck to look herself all over.
"Wow!" Pinkie Pie bounced around giddily, as usual. "Looks like those orbs are friendly!"
"Wait... Does that mean that-" Spike pulled out another one of the orbs, then threw it on the unconscious Daring Do. The orb shattered, then flew into her, causing all wounds to disappear.
She slowly stood up from where she lay, hoof on the back of her head. Shaking her blurry eyesight out, she stood face to face with her rescuers.
Well, would be face to face, if Paprika wasn't there blocking her entire view.
"Gettoff!" The derring-do doer extricated herself before she got hurt from Paprika's arms. She shook herself some more, then addressed the others in the room. "I don't know what you did, but you did it well. Thanks, Spike, Pinkie!"
Spike and Pinkie smiled at their friend, who quickly picked up and scanned a scroll in the room. "You see, I saw these ruins after... whatever took me here happened. I was just about to check this scroll out, but then I remembered that door over there. It looked kind of suspicious, so I checked it out. But then, those... predators came out and ambushed me. Whew! They weren't pushovers, like that Ahuizotl or that do-some-good Dr. Caballeron... To make a long story short, they kidnapped me and threw me in there."
She squinted her eyes. "Dang it! I can't read anything in here! Too old, maybe?" She shook her head. "Nothing. These ruins are still suspicious though..."
Running towards her, Pinkie did a diving tackle into a hug. "Well, we're just glad you're okay!" she picked Daring Do back on her feet, then ran out of the room. "Come on, pegasisters, we've got a temple to explore!"
"Yeah!"
"*phhhhhhht!*"
"Hey, I didn't agree to this!"
As they ran out of the library, none of them paid attention to the door. The portal inside it fizzled out and vanished as the door closed, covering the room with the frozen wolf in darkness again.
After getting Daring Do back on their side, traversing some parts of the ruin/castle hybrid was an easy task. With Paprika’s strength and Daring Do’s ingenuity, they quickly fought their way back to the entrance.
“Great!” Daring Do started to push one of the blocks towards one of the bouncy pads in the middle of the room.
Confused, Spike asked, "So, what are you doing?"
With a grunt, Daring Do clarified, "These bouncy pads? They're switches. If we push these stones on them, I think it'll open up more rooms to find! Paprika, can you get the other one?”
Paprika obliged. She quite literally got the other one, picking it up and carrying it over to the other area. With both stones set in place, they disappeared while lights rained down on the four, revealing exits to both their left and right.
"Ooh! Light! Pretty!" Pinkie bounded over to the door on their left. "Well, let's go!" Paprika repeated the motion in her own Paprika way, adding in some cartwheels and air kisses for show.
"And I thought Pinkie Pie was weird..." Daring do whispered to Spike. "These two seem freakishly similar. Why do you-"
Spike shook his head. He truly didn't know. Know that there were TWO of them.
There wasn’t anything else to do in the room, so they headed towards the left. They were then face to face with what appeared to be a large maze, blocks, scales, and bridges lined two different floors made of rubble.
“Wow.”
“Cool!”
"☹︎◆︎♓︎♑︎♓︎ ⬧︎♋︎⍓︎⬧︎🖳︎ ☝︎◆︎■︎■︎♏︎❍︎🕯︎📪︎ ♋︎■︎♎︎ ☼︎◆︎■︎■︎♏︎❍︎🕯︎"
Daring do flew around, checking many facets of the room. One of the things that came to her attention first was that the exit door was blocked by purple flames. The second thing she noticed was that there were several blocks near or on the springy platforms from earlier. A few sleeping wolves were also around, but none of them seemed to be bothered by their intrusion. Yet. Also, those floor tilings looked eerily similar to a certain castle she found earlier... but that's beside the point.
She landed and stated her findings concisely to the others.
Spike started to walk forwards. "Well, no use in just standing here! If we wanna get out of here, we'd better start lookiiIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNGG-!!"
Spike fell into a trapdoor! With no thought of herself, Daring Do flew after him to try to catch him. The door closed behind them, preventing any other pony from going down to save him. Pinkie and Paprika stared at the hole in shock. Actually, it's debatable whether Paprika was actually in shock or just faking it, but either way, they soon heard a familiar voice from above them.
"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!" Spike and Daring do fell from the ceiling! They clattered onto the floor next to the trapdoor as it closed with a creak.
Spike jumped up and rubbed himself all over. Nothing broken... Head's still there, so he's fine! Ha! Nothing wr-
"Spike!"
"Yeah?"
"Your wings!"
Spike ran a hand over his wings... They were stuck flat down to his body! Try as he might, he couldn't get whatever was keeping his wings melded to his body off. Daring Do found herself in a similar situation, but on her dull orange coat it was easier to see that some purple goop that looked and smelled akin to rotten grapes was keeping their wings down flat.
Oh well, not like he ACTUALLY needed his wings to get things done. He didn't have them for about... he couldn't remember how long exactly, but it was a pretty long time, since he was born to a couple of years back. Daring Do seemed slightly more at a loss, but this probably wasn't her first time either. "Well... Guess we have to hoof it..."
Near the trapdoor that had snuffed out their flight, a block was sitting in front of a hallway running towards a staircase leading up onto some rubble. Paprika, taking an unseen hint, methodically alternated between pushing the block and lying on the ground exhausted until the block was moved out of the way of the stairs.
Apparently, the blocks also came off of another one of the oversized scales from earlier. This time, some bridges overhead disappeared into nothingness. The four looked at each other to try to come up with any ideas, but none other than "go up the stairs" were available with the options they had.
Go up the anticlimactic staircase?
[Yeah!]
Nah...
Why are you here?
One the rubble was a lone wolf, like in other corners of the room. What was also obvious was that the exit to the room was blocked.
"⬧︎♋︎⍓︎ ⬧︎♓︎🙵♏︎ ❒︎♓︎♑︎♒︎⧫︎ ■︎□︎⬥︎" Paprika was running towards the wolf, mouth puckered up in a kiss, and arms outstretched in a hug. For some reason, the wolf looked... Scared?
Pinkie Pie ran forwards as well. Before she launched herself into the fray, she shouted, "Guys! Get the bridges back! I think I know how to get us out of here!"
Daring Do seemed to know as well. "Come on Spike, we need to push that block back!"
They tiptoed around the ball of fighting that the pony and alpaca had created, finding more of the trapdoors from earlier. There seemed to be another way that went up and around all trapdoors, but that involved sneaking past the other wolves right in their path, without wings.
Pinkie Pie and Paprika weren't having trouble, so they could clear out any wolves from behind... but without flying? They'd need some ingenuity.
They started to comb the walls, easier said than done for a quadruped like Daring Do. Spike had no problem, and soon he was silently crossing the bridge to the other side and sneaking past the next one. After passing the first one, there was no way Daring Do could jump down without alarming any of the others thanks to her horseshoes, nor could she risk sneaking on the bridge. It was mostly up to Spike at this point.
Three wolves passed, and in the home stretch! Spike saw that Pinkie Pie had finished with her wolf, and had grabbed the one Daring Do was standing next to. Spike stopped under a bridge, arms outstretched, staring up at a confused Daring Do. Then, she seemed to realize what he meant, and jumped down onto his arms. Somehow, he didn't fall over, the force knocked him backwards into the moveable rock.
Wolf three was being pummeled by Pinkie and Paprika, and the fourth was quickly realizing what was happening. He launched himself into the fray as well. At least, launched. He was quickly ejected and sternly told to "wait his turn."
"Hrrrrrrrnnn...... There!" With an audible *click* the bridges reappeared, leading to a final ledge with two rocks, two scales, and a wolf. Daring Do, with Spike clinging to her hat, quickly ran past the fighting herds to the ending.
The wolf had awoken in the commotion. He knew that they would come to him eventually. He snarled in Daring Do's face, while Spike stood back a little bit.
Fight!
Surprising the parties present, Spike made the first move. He used his smaller size to get right under, then behind the wolf. Quickly righting himself, he used his legs to jump off the side of one of the stones, cannonballing straight into the wolf's gut, and sending him down to where Paprika was waiting.
There, she...
*The following scene has been removed from the platform due to:
Excessive violence
Major profanity
Usage of Firearms
Blood and Gore
Whacking Someone to Death with a Paint Can
"Oh, come on, it wasn't THAT bad..."
Yes, it was.
"She only killed them a LITTLE bit."
The alpaca literally took out a chainsaw and stuck it right in the-
"Oh, tut tut, you don't have to worry. The author would NEVER do something like that in an E for everyone rated story."
It's over!
Pinkie Pie and Paprika ran across the bridges to get back to the adventurers, who were sliding the blocks into the correct places. With all stones back in place, and predators defeated, the exit was open, wings were freed, stones despawned, and a chest spawned in the center of the room.
"👌︎🕆︎☜︎☠︎⚐︎💧︎ 👎︎✋︎✌︎💧︎📪︎ 💣︎✌︎☹︎☞︎✌︎👍︎❄︎⚐︎☼︎💧︎" Quickly running and opening up the chest, Paprika pulled out a strange belt with a deformed cross symbol on it.
GAINED: CROSS-FIT! +2 Crossover +4 Smashing capability Colors weave into a spire of fightin'! Cross-promotion, baby!
"Whew!" Daring Do took off her pith helmet and wiped a hoof on her brow. "At first I thought we wouldn't make it!" She stretched out her wings with a grunt, doing a couple of test flaps with them. "Wow! It was probably only a few minutes without my wings, but I'm glad to have them again!"
The dragon nudged her in the neck with an elbow. "Ah, you're too spoiled. Look at me! I only got these, like, last year! Ha!"
Everyone shared a short laugh while moving onto the next room in the temple. This one... might actually pose a bit of a problem. This room had two exits, one leading further in, and one leading outside.
Uncertain, Spike looked from exit to exit. Panicked, he asked, "Uh... WHICH WAY DO WE CHOOSE?!"
Paprika stuck a hoof out, deftly tripping him. She pointed and laughed at his misfortune, while Pinkie Pie answered. "Well, there are four of us! How about me and Paprika go outside, while you two go check out the inside?"
That sounded like a good plan. Spike and Daring do flew up to the secondary exit, while the two P's began to walk outside into the next area.
The outside area consisted of several bridges between cliffs that soared high above the fog. Four falcons soared overhead, possibly patrolling the area.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
Looking up at the paint can that had screamed, Pinkie Pie asked, "What's wrong...uh..."
"Huey."
"...Huey?"
"Yeah... those are the falcons that nearly snatched me earlier. What did they think I was, a can of tuna or something? Anyways..." His label turned purple again, and he quickly flew up and back into the temple. "OH, SCRAP!" Then he screamed, and ducked behind the wall.
Pinkie Pie didn't seem to notice the can's fear. "Wow! He's fast! And he can fly! That's really cool! Though, what was he screaming about?"
All four falcons landed, encircling Paprika and Pinkie.
"OOOOOOOOOOOhhhhhhhh...."
Fight!
With one side without the ability of flight, the battle was decidedly more one sided towards the predators than ever before. It was clear (to Pinkie Pie at least; for Paprika it was debatable) that playing defensively would be key.
Lucky for them, only two falcons attacked at once. They didn't seem that unpredictable either; all of their attacks were easily evaded by nature of cartoon logic and wrap-around physics. Each time they did it, the falcons only got more enraged and confused.
One, swooping down fast, came at Paprika with claws outstretched. His claws met wool hard as rock, as Paprika guarded with ease. Wait, that wasn't wool, that was LITERALLY a rock, a large, flat boulder! Paprika responded to his confusion by slamming the rock onto his unprotected body on one of the wooden bridges while Pinkie watched with some popcorn, a fitting finish for a flattened flappy.
The other one seeing what had happened with to his comrade, flew at a distance, seemingly in thought. Then he swooped down unpredictably into Pinkie's back. Or would, if his claws didn't hit Huey first. Huey opened his lid and stuck his top towards the bird as he blocked, managing to suck up some of the bird's... color? Spirit? It was hard to tell, but the bird's lower half was nonexistant anymore, landing it.
"💧︎□︎❍︎♏︎✏︎" Paprika was caught in a two on one, but was managing well. Her precious cacti were getting stuck in the bird's feathers quite easily, and to add injury to insult, also hurt like blazes. The other two birds were now grounded, and Paprika started to knit them some sweaters, one by one.
Go, Pinkie!
Place Card Here
Card Ready
Touch to Paint
Done Painting
Flick to Play Cards!
"That took WAAAAAAAYYY too long. Don't you have anything faster, Huey?"
The can looked either panicked or aghast; it was hard to tell. "Hey! That's the only way I know how to fight!"
"Well, I'm not going to use THAT card thing again!" A red, squeaky toy hammer magically appeared in Pinkie Pie's hoof, and she started to whack the final falcon multiple times, causing more and more of the spirit to fade away into nothingness.
"That phrase just makes me feel numb. That's what the reviewers said." Huey's label turned blue as he returned to Pinkie's head. "Sorry, won't talk anymore. But hey! You did it!" Then Huey fell asleep, probably dreaming about burgers or Paint Stars or something.
It's over!
Perfect Bonus! +20 Salt!
Paprika looked around excitedly, looking for someone to give another one of her free sweaters to, while Pinkie cheered. "Yay! Looks like no more predators here! And we're across the bridges, so we can go inside again! Yippee!"
Back inside, where it wasn't as cold nor damp, there was a long hallway that curved twice around another room, it appeared. Another black thing was sitting in the center of it, which Paprika giddily picked up.
"👌︎⚐︎👎︎✡︎ ⚐︎☠︎👍︎☜︎ ❄︎⚐︎☹︎👎︎ 💣︎☜︎" Pinkie put her ear to a wall, hearing something strange from the other side. Sounded like a scuffle, but it was on the other side. Nothing she could do about it.
Paprika, on the other hand, certainly thought she could do something about this. She attempted to get into the room with the fighting noises, ramming her head into the wall like a hammer. Due to completely unforeseen circumstances, it had absolutely no effect on the stone wall.
After the hammerhead incident, they moved on to the next room. Judging by the posts and the hanging slats of wood, this appeared to be the other side of the bridge. Now that they were over there, there was clearly a large stone and two more scales... but where was the other rock?
"OOOHH!!! I LOVE hide and seek!" Paprika seemed to love it as well. Their next stop was to the east, which led to a hallway next to yet another hole.
Pinkie Pie inhaled and exhaled loudly. "MMMMMMMM!!!! Fresh air again! I can smell it!" She sniffed the air again. "Over that way!" She pointed to a hallway leading to more sunlight.
The hallway was very strangely shaped. Instead of being a ------, it was shaped more like I‾‾Z. After the first two angles, there was a random wall; perhaps part of the hallway fell in and this was just a big room. Yes, that had to be it.
From behind this wall, two cougars appeared while Pinkie was in the lead. She ran around them with a start, then started a fight. Just before she lost herself to a brawl, she said, "Paprika! See if you can get anything outside! I'll be waiting here with cupcakes when you finish!"
With a "✋︎♐︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ❒︎♏︎♋︎♎︎ ⧫︎♒︎♓︎⬧︎ ♋︎■︎♎︎ ⬥︎♋︎■︎⧫︎ ❍︎♏︎ ⧫︎□︎ ❒︎♏︎❍︎□︎❖︎♏︎ 👌︎☜︎🏱︎ ⬧︎❑︎◆︎♋︎♎︎📪︎ 🙰◆︎⬧︎⧫︎ ●︎♏︎⧫︎ ❍︎♏︎ 🙵■︎□︎⬥︎ ♓︎■︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ◻︎□︎●︎●︎ ♓︎■︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ♎︎♏︎⬧︎♍︎❒︎♓︎◻︎⧫︎♓︎□︎■︎📬︎," Paprika sped out of the ruins for the second time this chapter.
But even through the little time she was in the ruins, she was glad to see Mister Sun again! The outside was so fun! The grass, the rocks, the depressing ruins, JUST SO WONDERFUL! Ooh, and that mini-room over there could be used for a picnic! PERFECT!
The ledge, however pretty, was quite small. There was only one other entrance or exit to the ledge to her right, leading back inside. Quite predictably, this door led right back to the chest that Spike didn't feel like getting at that point.
A wolf and two mini wolves appeared right in front of the shiny, SHINY, chest. They weren't going to let her in without a fight, but why fight?! THEY NEEDED HUGS! ALL OF THEM!
Fight!
The wolves looked more uncertain this time. They sort of stood back at a distance, but Paprika quickly closed the gap, grabbing one of the smaller wolves and giving her hugs and kisses, like any good dog-lover would.
The other wolves didn't seem to even want to be associated with the hug-monster. They attempted to make a getaway through the open door.
Except they got tripped up by a lone cinnamon roll that lobbed out of Paprika's tail. This cinnamon roll wasn't just spun in a swirl, it was BACKSPUN. So much, in fact, that the wolves were brought into Paprika's loving embrace.
"☹︎♏︎⧫︎🕯︎⬧︎ ⧫︎♋︎🙵♏︎ □︎◆︎❒︎ ◻︎❒︎□︎♌︎●︎♏︎❍︎⬧︎📪︎ ♋︎■︎♎︎ 🏱︎🕆︎💧︎☟︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎💣︎ ♋︎⬥︎♋︎⍓︎✏︎"
Pap started rolling over, all three in hoof. They first wriggled free, quite shocking the alpaca, then fell down the chasm howling in pain, quite saddening the alpaca.
It's over!
Well, at least she still had that chest! What's inside?! OOOOOOOOOOH!!!!
Head bandages. Boring. Paprika still wore them.
Nothing left there. Paprika giddily skipped back to where Pinkie Pie left her moments ago. Once back in the strangely shaped hallway, no pony or wolves were to be found. All she found was a note on a plate of cupcakes. The note read,
Hi, Paprika! I'm on a super-DUPER important break right now! I'm in the door that's over there. ⬆ See you soon!
-Pinkie Pie! (Your friend!)
The door in question led upstairs to a room separated into two parts with a bridge. A second side of the room that was basically a mirror image of the side she was on was unreachable, but there was probably a hallway somewhere in here to bring her there sooner or later. But probably sooner!
Another one of the black things was on the other side, quickly being shoved with the cutlery in Paprika's picnic basket.
Onto the next room. This was fun!
"Onto the next room. This is boring!"
No, it is not. It's a major part of the plot.
"Oh come on, that's just a poor excuse for padding! I don't see any reason why I should keep watching this!"
No. The next chapter is really important.
"How so?"
A certain yellow pegasus.
"What certain yellow- ggggaAAAAAAASSSSSSPPPPPPPP!"
Discord, just saying "gasp" isn't a gasp.
"Who is she with?"
Sheep.
"Um-"
Female.
"Is-"
Not affiliated with Grogar. Saw that coming a mile away.
"Oh. Well then is-"
No, she isn't related to any of the Legion of Doom, either.
"Hmmm... well, is she-"
Jesus Christ, Discord. Why would you think it's a Pokémon?!
"Because... Hm... you've got me! Ha hahahahaha!
Where fight noises were coming from. Fighting noises? Pinkie Pie! That's where she was! She leapt into the next room, which contained two out of place walls with a small squarish area in the center. There she was! Upon seeing Paprika, Pinkie waved a hoof in greeting.
"Hi, Pappy! Just taking care of these guys! Ooh! You could use some icing!" She deliberately smeared a wolf's head with some red icing, then smashed his head into a canister of white. Then she rolled him over her hoof, and slammed him into a wall, sticking him right to it. Paprika ran over and gave him a nice lick on the head, causing him to recoil, then disappear.
It's over!
"Whew! Those guys were really party crashers! Oh well!" She started to skip away. "Their loss! Come on, we gotta see where this place leads!"
True to her assumption, the next door led straight back to the room with the mirror-bridges, just on the other side. There was another black thing, that Pinkie broke. The orbs flew up and into her, sparkling her green and blue. "Wowie!" Pinkie pie jumped for joy. "I feel great! I wonder how those things work!"
It was clear that she wasn't going to get an answer here. They just picked themselves up and want to the next room.
This one was different. In stark contrast to the mossy tile of the Castle and the bricks of the Ruins, the floor of this room was completely formed out of earth. A chasm lined half of it; a quick look down revealed it led down to one of the lower levels. But right in the center of the room, was a large, cubical, STONE!
"Yay!" Pinkie ran over and gave the rock a hug. "We found you! We found you! Now it's our turn to hide! Ready- Wha!"
She got stopped by Paprika, who turned her to face the stone again.
"Ohhhhhh..."
Pinkie Pie walked over to the side of the rock opposite the chasm, and threw her weight on it. Those years on the rock farm certainly helped her pushing strategies out. Not one to be outdone, Paprika stood behind it and started pushing as well.
Eventually, though it took a while, the rock was almost over the chasm. Pinkie stepped back to admire the hard work she did, simple as it was, while Paprika kept pushing. The rock moved no further with only Paprika exerting a normal force.
Pinkie Pie was about to go back and help her, but Paprika hugged her, kissed her, then set her down back where she was before, a clear warning to not disturb her. Then Paprika started to tilt her head at crazy, jarring angles courtesy her large neck, getting views from all angles of the rock. Then she reared back, and charged head first at the rock, finally knocking the rock- and very nearly herself- out.
While Paprika sat down near the edge nursing a sizeable lump on her forehead, Pinkie Pie came back up and splatted a cold ice cream cake into the bruised area.
"What? They say ice is good for bruises!" The curly-haired partygoers shared a long laugh as they shared a few bananas with each other. But their happiness was over far too soon; they needed to get back to Spike and Daring Do!
"So, I guess we'll walk!" Pinkie went back over to the only door of in the room. "I love walking! Let's go!"
But Paprika didn't go. She stood right where she was the whole time, staring down into the chasm with a smirk on her face. Pinkie walked over to her, but was only acknowledged by gaze, and a few eye cues pointing down the crack. After standing in silence for a few seconds, Pinkie smiled hugely back.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?!"
"✋︎ 🙵■︎□︎⬥︎ □︎■︎♏︎ □︎♐︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ♓︎♎︎♓︎□︎⧫︎⬧︎ ♓︎⬧︎ ♑︎□︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ⧫︎□︎ ◻︎◆︎⧫︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ⧫︎❒︎♋︎■︎⬧︎●︎♋︎⧫︎♏︎♎︎ ❖︎♏︎❒︎⬧︎♓︎□︎■︎ ♓︎■︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ♍︎□︎❍︎❍︎♏︎■︎⧫︎⬧︎📬︎"
Jump down after the block?
[Geronimo!]
What? Are you crazy? Of course!
Can I go home now?
[No!]
"Come on! I heard something from over this way!"
"Do I even have a choice?!"
Daring Do, with Spike on her back, was now on the run towards a loud boom she heard. Might not be the greatest idea, but her next book in a set of three needed a climax. They were on the path that Pinkie and Paprika originally took, finding nothing of note on the other path. Then they were gone a while, they saw a bunch of tiny paint droplets leading further into the ruins.
They ran down the hallway Pinkie's bucket pointed, which led to a room with the same rock-switch puzzle as before. "Another one? Well, guess we should get pus-"
From above, a rock came crashing down right in front of them! They were just enough out of the way to not get blasted by bits of tile that flew up from the floor, but both still noticeably recoiled. After that, two bodies fell down, one pink, the other yellow, screaming in excitement. They landed with a bump, not seemingly hurt in any way.
“Woooo! Yahahaha! Let’s do that again!” Pinkie leapt up laughing while Daring and Spike let out breaths they didn't even realize they were holding.
Paprika leapt up laughing as well, doing the strange floating thing again, then ran back to Spike and gave him a huge hug and several kisses! Unbeknownst to her, Spike was actively trying to escape her embrace as it threatened to break his spine. Daring Do and Pinkie shared a more...normal greeting.
With one last squeeze and an audible *crack!* Paprika set the hurting Spike back on the ground and walked over to the others, who were actively pushing the rocks onto their respective locations on the switches.
Nonchalantly, Pinkie asked, "So, what did you guys find over there?"
"Oh, not much." From where he lay, Spike pulled out a purple cape from under himself that looked a direct copy of the cape that that "Mare-Do-Well" once donned.
THE VEIL-DO-WELL! +1 Royal +3 Sneak Doesn't turn you into an alicorn, unfortunately.
"NOT worth going for." He didn't seem to mind as he started to wear it, but never mind that.
Daring Do held a hoof to her mouth. She whispered, "Put a can in it, Spike! We don't want to alert anyone in the next room over."
"Sorry."
"It's fine. Just try to keep your voice down... Got it." The rock clicked into place on the switches, then disappeared.
The doors to the next room creaked open slowly as a chest appeared next to the spot Spike was standing. The party stared slack-jawed at the sight of the deformed front part of the throne room of the Castle of the Three Sisters. With the exception, of course, the entire party. Daring Do and Pinkie Pie walked in confidently, while Spike and Paprika were too engrossed in the chest's contents; a HUGE crown, embedded with three large jewels!
GAINED: C-R-O-W-N-E-D +2 Giant Swords $39.99 for 2000 Gem Apples Bravo for completing the temple! Almost! High-five, Low-five, all that. Hee-hee-hee!
This room was clearly a combination of sorts. The floor was made of the mossy-grey tile of the Castle and the brick of the ruins in nearly equal amounts. Although the ledge they were standing on clearly wasn't there in the original castle, the battered banners lining the wall and the unmistakable sun icon in the center of the room clearly showed this was the room right outside the throne room.
Below the ledge, several predators lounged around, all eyeing the surrounding areas, but fortunately not the ledge. Some flames lit around all exits of the room, signaling that these predators would need to be defeated to proceed.
Daring Do crouched down, to be less noticeable as she took bearings of the predators at the bottom. Two wolves, snake, two lionesses. Clearly not as bad as the last group she faced, and ESPECIALLY good that there weren't any bears. The battle would be a five-on-four... A bit unfortunate, but outnumbering didn't seem to be a big problem here.
She silently leapt down, using her wings to guide herself into an appropriate attacking position while Pinkie Pie and Paprika looked on with a smile. Then, she struck!
Fight!
She started by using a chokehold on the first lioness. It was clear that the lioness was at a disadvantage, being in the front and unable to attack with her claws. She yowled in pain, well, almost. After the first half second, Daring Do increased the pressure, completely choking the lioness of any breath.
Meanwhile, the other predators in the room had heard the first sounds of a scuffle and were slowly waking up. Just before they could, Pinkie Pie jumped down with a frying pan, hitting one of the wolves straight over the head, stunning it completely with a loud bang.
This big bang quickly brought the rest of the predators to their feet (or, lack of feet, in the case of the snake) and ready to attack. The first lioness had already gone down, and Do took to the air, out of range of any of their claw attacks. The snake, having the range advantage, started to shift its focus to the flyer, while the others went after Pinkie.
Spike jumped onto Paprika's back. He slapped her back a couple of times, attempting to rise her from where she sat, watching. Dumbly, she just continued to stare and laugh at the predators fighting. "Come on! Don't you want to give some predators some hugs?" Still she sat, not moving. Like, at all.
Spike tried a different tactic. "Uh... they have pie?"
Nothing.
"Hmmm...... Oh! Look! Balloons!"
Still nothing. She still sat with that stupid grin on her face.
Fed up with Paprika, Spike grabbed some of her wool by her neck. Pulling back sharply, he commandeered the still laughing Paprika into a standing position. Then he pushed her head forwards like a throttle, leading Paprika to run off the ledge they were standing on and into the fray.
A direct hit! The snake had finally scored a hit on the flyer, bringing her down to earth to dry her eyes from the poison. That was then he struck! He launched himself towards her, biting down on one of the pony's hooves, causing her to scream in pain. Then the pressure was removed. Daring Do checked for the snake, but all she found was a fat alpaca, sitting where the snake once was.
On the other hand. Pinkie wasn't struggling much with her adversaries. Although the lion and wolf were fast, Pinkie was faster! A few whacks here, a couple of whacks here, a dodge or block or two, a giant salt and pepper shaker and PARTY CANNON! And then, silence.
It's over!
All four of them lay in the pit, Daring Do and Pinkie to recover from the battle, and Spike and Paprika simply waiting for them to feel recovered. After a little bit, and a couple of broken black orbs later, Pinkie asked, "What next? Let's keep going!"
A set of stairs led up to the next area, which split into two doors. The larger exit was ordained with gold and silver linings, obviously leading to the throne room of the castle. The other door was wooden and dilapidated, and from cracks in both of them a small glow shone, possibly from outside.
"Hmmm..." Daring Do stood up, gingerly testing out her bitten leg. Finding nothing wrong with it, she continued: "Well... It doesn't seem like anything else is in this room. The big one is probably where the end is... But that glow might mean extra things in the smaller one..."
"Okay! We go into the small one first!" Pinkie ran into the door that led to the left. No one followed her, but she didn't care. Treasure hunting was fun!
The room was illuminated only from the center, from a few cracks in the ceiling. Otherwise, it was pitch black. At the very center of it all, and getting the most light shone on it, was a rock with an electrical carving on it... something seemed off though. Like something was missing. No matter. Pinkie picked up the treasure, or more accurately, "treasure," and shoved it into her mane. Then she skipped out of the room, joining back up with the others.
The others were staring at a normal looking wall to the right of the throne room’s door. Daring remarked, “There’s something about this wall...” She turned back to Paprika. “A little help here?”
She obliged. She charged headfirst for the second time at the wall in question, successfully breaking through! She hit a second, harder wall while still running forwards, and slid down with a squeak and a bump.
“You okay?” Unharmed, Paprika hipped back onto her feet with a laugh. Than she looked around the room a bit.
She put her head to the ground, then comically sniffed it like a dog. Shrugging, Pinkie playfully followed. After a few seconds of sniffing, Pinkie stumbled upon some sort of underground river. “Hey guys!”
“No, no. No!” Spike held up his hands, then slowly backed away. “Not me! I’ll just wait over here in the- huh!” He was stopped by one of Daring Do’s hind hooves.
“Aw, Spike! Don’t tell me you’re gonna chicken out when we can get this treasure in this part of the cave!” She gestured towards the source of the glow. “It’s right there! And I don’t think there are any booby traps on this one.” She pat Spike on the head. “Don’t worry, we’re here for-“
She was abruptly cut off by the sound of Pinkie and Paprika stacking on top of each other. Pinkie, who was on top of Paprika’s head, reached up to the corner of the wall and ceiling. “Hello, Mister Spider! How are you doing today? Or maybe tonight? Hahahahaha! What’s that?” She held her ear up close to the corner while Paprika blew a raspberry. “Oooooh! You have 2763 brothers and sisters here in this cave? That’s amazing! You must love them all very much!”
“OOOOOOOOOOOOON SECOND THOUGHT...” Daring Do stood back at the entrance with Spike. “We’ll just wait for you here. See what’s over there once you’re done with that- ugh-“ a shudder rippled through her body “-thing, over there.”
Arachnid conversation over, Pinkie jumped off the blepping alpaca. “Okey-dokey-lokey! Come on Pappy!”
She jumped into the water, Paprika closely following behind. They came upon a stone stand. On it, there was a green orb with golden rings surrounding it. Etched on the side was a double row, held together by two columns.
“Ooh! Green shiny thing! Let’s take it!” Pinkie shoved it into her tail as well, then hopped on Paprika’s back as she waded back to the false wall.
“Find anything?”
“Yep!” Huey ducked into Pinkie’s tail, then flew back out with the gem, displaying it for the rest to see.
"Hey! I thought you said you wouldn't talk!"
"Ha ha, lines go BRRRRRRR"
They admired the jewel for a few minutes, then picked themselves up to go to the next room. The throne room.
They opened the door slowly and dramatically. It revealed the now-dark room, much more gloomy than before. The two thrones were still there, but the stairs leading up to them were destroyed by an unknown cause. The windows were somehow even more destroyed than before, the floor tiles had some masonry strewn across it, and a seemingly out of place organ sagged in the corner.
But the biggest difference to the room wasn’t how the room degraded. It was what was added. Right in the center of the room, a monolith with strange unreadable carvings sat temptingly.
D. Do swiftly glided to the floor in front of the stone carving. She looked around, tapping random floor tiles, even poking at a few of the markings carved. Satisfied, she called to the others. “Okay, I don’t think this is booby trapped either!”
The others tripped towards the pegasus, who now pulled out a notepad to copy down the markings.
“Woah.” Spike rested a hand on a spiral shape. “What does it all mean?”
“No idea!” *Boom!* “What the-“ The same purple of goop from earlier latched onto Daring Do and Spike's wings again!
“Aah! Booby trap!” Daring Do jumped quickly away, the rest simply backing away. A purple swirl of... spirit? Flew right in front of the monolith.
It slowly morphed into a predator- wait no, a four legged creature with hooves. As more of the body formed, it became apparent that it was a unicorn. A dark one, with a very long horn and hair that looked like smoke. A half-transparent book of the same material also appeared, levitating in front of the new ungulate.
Pinkie Pie yelled, “Ooh! Is she friendly? Hiiiiii!” Pinkie Pie waved at the slowly advancing figure.
Do stood her ground. "I don't know who you are... but BACK OFF!" She stood menacingly (or at least in her eyes, menacingly) in front of Spike and Paprika, as the unicorn continued her walking.
Spoiler alert: She wasn’t friendly.
Fight!
Special Battle!
Conditions:
Defeat ??? to win
Don't die
That's it
No seriously, that's it
The unicorn began her attack, not by aiming at them, but at the door. A blast of light later, and the door's archway collapsed on itself, trapping everyone in the room, for now. Assessing the situation and the size of the rocks, Spike came to the conclusion that it would be impossible to clear a way out. That wasn't the current issue though. The elephant, er, ungulate in the room was clearly this new entity.
She, most likely, due to her nose shape and manestyle, started her attack by ripping several pages out of the book she was holding and throwing them on the ground. They were quickly set ablaze, an eye forming on each of them as they became traps. Most of the adventurers were running or flying safely away from danger. Paprika even managed to dodge in and land a low blow, tripping her.
She suddenly seemed to realize she was outnumbered. Her horn flared up in the strange color from the flames on the book traps, then four clones materialized out of thin air. Horn lighting up stronger, she started to levitate, holding the book out in front of her, pages flapping wildly from the magic wind. Incantations she uttered from her mouth, nearly unable to be heard.
Each of them were caught in a separate one-on-one with their own unicorn, locked off from helping each other by the page traps. Daring Do's seemed to be aggressive, pulling all sorts of magical stunts from her horn and flaming book to keep most of Daring's more neutralizing-based moves at bay.
Pinkie and Paprika, though, were having a somewhat easier time. Having ranged moves of their own in their arsenal, it was much more an even fight on their end. No later than twenty seconds after the battle started, Paprika's seemed battered more than she was.
Spike's in particular seemed to be somewhat hesitant to fight. Compared to the other brawls happening around him, his clone seemed to be more sluggish, perhaps even lenient on him. Almost reminded him of... OOF!
It slapped him across the gut with a fiery skull! He was knocked head over heels from the impact, then slammed his back on a wall. Wait... that wasn't-
The unicorn approached closer. Looking past the equine's advancing approach, he saw Pinkie and Paprika were starting to wrap their battles up smoothly, while both combatants in Daring Do's corner seemed to be in it. The only one left was him...He closed his eyes as he waited for his doom.
The unicorn raised her horn, flaring it up in purple, blue, and pink hues, preparing an awesome attack... then blew out a smaller blast that merely caused flinching. The unicorn stopped in her tracks and stared at him, almost gasping in delight, for some reason, staring him up and down either gladly or greedily. This hesitation was all Spike needed.
He launched himself back into action, driving her back into one of her own flames. Even though it didn't seem to have an effect on her, she was still quite surprised. She leapt up into action again, only to be forced down again as Spike retaliated with fire blast after fire blast. Not even a few seconds later, the clone disappeared into smoke and some strange symbols.
A few seconds later, the entire library of flames shrank down into nothingness again, leaving only pages scattered in the wind.
Paprika ran over to Spike first, checking him over. Finding nothing more than a cut or two, she gave him a LIGHT squeeze, and a kiss on the head. The rest of the entourage came next, Daring Do in particular looking a little worse for wear, but still kicking. Pinkie Pie jumped up and down. "Well, this is fun so far! Just one more left!" She turned back towards the final dark unicorn, who seemed more than ready to finish the battle off.
First, she created two portals coming out either side of the room they were standing in. Two demonic looking hands shot out of them! Everyone was able to dodge, but these hands took up a major part of the battlefield. The floating unicorn commandeered herself over the arms, shooting out magical projectiles that rained down on the group, narrowly missing sizzling Pinkie and Paprika's tails.
The arms retracted as the false unicorn charged up her next barrage. She repeated her motions a second time, charging and storing more energy in herself as she did. One of the fireballs struck Spike, right in the back. "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" He leapt down on the floor, rolling on his wings to extinguish the burning feeling on his back, then bumped into the solid arms, just before they retracted.
Then, an idea struck Spike! "Guys! Climb on top of the arms! We can reach her from there!" The party looked at him strangely, but seemed to comply with his idea, standing, well, running at the ready. The next time the unicorn spawned the arms, all four of them climbed up, dodging the fireballs as they went. Easier said than done, especially since they were going UP and the balls were raining DOWN, but it was quite manageable. Paprika reached her first!
With a strange glow in her eyes, Paprika charged forwards at the aggressor. Then she hugged her from all angles! Running from left to right, she rapidly showed her affection in the strongest way possible! With one final leap onto the unicorn, Paprika extricated herself and allowed Daring Do to take over.
And "take over" she did. When in her element, Daring Do had the skills to easily match even the toughest magic user. She threw the spirit up in the air, jumping high even without her wings to follow up on her attacks. Punches, kicks, and checks all calculated with surprising efficiency were pulled off.
Without any other option, the unicorn did the only thing she could. Finding a small opening, she jabbed her horn forwards, nearly catching Daring Do's eye out. Then, she neatly teleported back to where she was before, shooting more fireballs down on them. This time, there were no arms to jump off of, and even with Daring Do's best jumping efforts, Oleander was too high up. The sparks were easy enough to avoid sure, but that meant nothing when the unicorn started to charge her ultimate attack further.
"Dang it!" Daring Do flopped down near where Spike was standing. "She's too high up! If only we had a way to shoot ourselves up there..." But Spike wasn't listening. He was running over to Pinkie Pie, faster than he ever ran before.
"Pinkie! Pinkie!"
She turned to look at him as she finished her newly created "Dodge Dance." "What's up?"
Spike panted as the unicorn started to create an aura around herself. "P-party- *gasp* Need-"
Paprika ran over carrying the cannon in question. She laughed and set it down on the ground. "Perfect! Now, I need to-woah!"
She shoved him in the cannon without him even asking! She quickly aimed it at the glowing sorceress, then-
*BOOOOM!*
Almost there. Just needed a bit more time. Then these fools would truly learn the Power! The power of the PRE-
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!" SMASH!
Pinkie watched, shake and popcorn in her hooves. "YAY! A direct hit! You go Paprika!" Daring walked over to complement Paprika on her quick thinking as well.
She didn't seem to care. She simply held a hoof over her mouth and gave a coy chuckle.
It's over!
With goop dispelled, Spike quickly righted himself, albeit dizzily, in the air. He came back down to earth as he saw the final bits of the unicorn fade away into nothingness. "OOOHH! Spikey-wikey! You were amazing!" Pinkie and Paprika gave him a crushing hug for the second or third time. "Oog! Please! Hooves... off! Please!" From the corner of his eye, he could see that Daring Do was just finishing up her detailed drawings of the monolith.
With what little elbow room he had, Spike waved for her attention. "Daring Do! A little- help here?!"
She coolly walked over to Spike, opened her mouth to speak... then added her pressure onto the pile as well.
"Are you kidding me?!"
"Nope!" "Nah." "*phhhhhhhft*"
After their hugging was over, they sat down to cool off from the heated battle. After a nice picnic, courtesy Paprika, Daring Do brought up the good question, "How do we get out now?"
Pinkie Pie, as always, had an answer. "Ooh! How about that door over there labeled 'Convenient Not-Plot-Related Exit Door?'" Pinkie Pie pointed at a door that had suddenly appeared that I totally didn't put there for the sake of plot. I would never do that.
"❄︎♒︎♏︎ ■︎♏︎⌧︎⧫︎ □︎■︎♏︎ ♓︎⬧︎ ♋︎ ❒︎♓︎♍︎🙵 ❒︎□︎●︎●︎ 👎︎□︎■︎🕯︎⧫︎ ⧫︎❒︎♋︎■︎⬧︎●︎♋︎⧫︎♏︎ ♓︎⧫︎"
Spike mopped his brow with his backhand. "You know what? I'm just going to stop questioning this. What do you think, Paprika?"
"👎︎︎□︎︎■︎︎🕯︎︎⧫︎︎ ♍︎︎●︎︎♓︎︎♍︎︎🙵 ⧫︎︎♒︎︎♓︎︎⬧︎︎ ●︎︎♓︎︎■︎︎🙵🖳︎︎ ♒︎⧫︎⧫︎◻︎⬧︎🖳︎📭︎📭︎⬥︎⬥︎⬥︎📬︎⍓︎□︎◆︎⧫︎◆︎♌︎♏︎📬︎♍︎□︎❍︎📭︎⬥︎♋︎⧫︎♍︎♒︎✍︎❖︎🖬︎⌛︎■︎🗏︎◻︎☞︎☞︎🏱︎💧︎●︎🕈︎🗐︎"
"I still have no idea what that means." Daring Do shook her head while signaling them to leave. "Let's get out of here."
"She means, Let's get out of here and see Mister Sun again!"
No one seemed to argue with Paprika's infallible logic. They all walked out the convenient door to the outside, where they happily greeted Mister Sun again.
Pen: Alright! Back on track! So where are we going again?
Eraser: Uh, try to get back to where we were. The abandoned shack.
Pen: Sure. As soon as I figure out what continent we're on.
Blocky: Hey, you never answered the question about who let you drive. Why do you get to drive?
Pen: Because, I GOT the van. Seems pretty obvious to me. Smooth road. Not a lot for me to crash into, anyways.
Blocky: Sure. Just one more question. Why are we driving through the desert?
Pen: Because that's where the Distance Tracker 2000 is taking us.
Pen: Whoa!
Eraser: What's the hold up?
Pen: *pointing at canyon* We can't pass that in a van.
Eraser: Hey! Look over there! A cow!
Blocky: HEY! You good?!
Cow: Yes! Thank'ee fer' askin! Can't git o'er there; the bridge's out! Kinda wanna trade 'fore its too late!
Pen: WHAT'S YOUR CART MADE OF?!
Cow: Why do ya need ta' know?!
Pen: BECAUSE!
Cow: Er... Mostly wood, tarp, 'n' steel!
Pen: OKAY! We can get you over here! Just stay in your cart, and we'll get you over here!
Blocky: YOU IN?!
Cow: YEP!
Pen: OKAY! HANG TIGHT!
[Pen activated "Steal."]
[Steal successful! Acquired: Cart x1 Cow x1 Supplies x5]
*Clang of wood on ground*
Eraser: You okay?
Cow: I... think so? Oh! Well, bust my bonnet! Madison 'ere 'as made it to the other side! Don't know 'ow, but anyways, now that Ah can get a good look at ya... I'd like to thank ya'll face-to-face!
Eraser: Sure, you're welcome. Do you have a piece of metal we can borrow?
Madison: Uh... I think so. Lemme check.
*Eraser used Vital Throw on A literal van!*
*It's super effective!*
Madison: Will this do?
*Acquired: Baking dish x1*
Eraser: Sure! Thanks.
Eraser: HEY! GET ME BACK OVER THERE!
Pen: OKAY!
[Pen activated "Steal."]
[Steal successful! Acquired: Eraser x1]
Pen: THANK YOU!
*Vroom Vroom*
Madison: NO, THANK YEW!
Madison: Strange creatures... but Ah'm sure they'll be nuthin' but good.
Madison: ...
Madison: Land sakes, hope I didn't jinx it.
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What's BFDI?
10493505
Basically Total Drama Island, but with anthropomorphic objects like pens, erasers, and building blocks, and people can commit murder without consequence because of Recovery Centers. Also, viewers get to vote. Check it out on YouTube; it’s in its fourth season! I only use them as an end gag for now, so the story’s mostly Them’s Fightin’ Herds.
Excellent job on the exchanges, characterizations, humor, action and future chapter set-up in all the right places. Positively adored the teamwork of Pinkie, Paprika and Spike (and later Daring Do) against all those predators (especially with Spike initially trying to play Only Sane Man) as well as the interruptions by Discord and the Squad, the comments on the collectibles' stats and the fight with the Oleander clones (and, as for the reason Spike's Oleander clone held back ,well, I would like to think it's a combination of BOTH of the reasons you gave in the author's notes [that way, I'm certain to be at least HALF right]). And, yeah, as you pointed out in the author's notes, this is an alternate universe anyway.
Definitely looking forward to more of this.
Spike sounds about as useful as Porky in the beginning of Earthbound.
Rank achieved : Chaotic Fan: include EVERY franchise you like in a story.
Where does she keep getting all of this stuff?
Translation: Аи Nɔu Uɑɴ ɑꞵ иu ипиəлz иz vɔuиɴ лu ɑuл л1и лгнɴz1ʟɛилип ꞵɛгcəɴ
This took a lot longer that it should have.
Damn, why did this chapter feel like a massive slog? I don't know, but the pacing here felt really slow! Plus, I don't know if I can handle this much Pinkie and Paprika!
11349511
Because I
1. put way too much detail in it
2. got way into Paprika's character
3. was/am not the best pacer and added too many battles from in-game
When I get back into writing again, I will be trying to keep chapters below the 5k word count at max.