Daring Do and the Cyber Spirits (b)
We now return to Daring Do and the Cyber Spirits.
The Doctor struggled, half within the arcade game and half without, but there was nothing to brace against. Twilight and Derpy had both grabbed his legs, and Mr. Kingpin and Fluttershy had grabbed them. Between the four of them, they still could not keep him from being pulled inch by inch into the game.
But there was Rainbow Dash, yelling, “You are not getting in here!” She drove her shoulder into him with all her strength. But there was little traction on the sand, and even with her help the Doctor could barely resist the terrible force of the wind.
“You got any bright ideas?” Rainbow Dash grunted, digging into the ground with her hooves. “Because I can't keep this up much longer.”
To his great pleasure, the Doctor found that he had just such a one. He grinned and grabbed his sonic screwdriver from the sand onto which it had fallen. “You saw how powerful this thing is out there?” he panted, showing it to Rainbow Dash. “Imagine how powerful it'll be inside.” He twisted around and pointed the screwdriver back at the screen. “If I can just... reverse the direction of the data flow....”
The wind stopped. It changed direction. Before any of them could react, it blasted him back through the screen and into Twilight, Derpy, Fluttershy, and Kingpin. The five of them bowled into the opposite wall.
For a few seconds, the only movement was the asynchronous rise and fall of several chests. Then the Doctor let out a single shout of laughter, disentangled from the pile of limbs, and leaped back to the arcade.
Rainbow Dash was smacking the screen and yelling, “Cool, you're out! Now get me out too!” Her face was of much higher quality than it had been from a distance, but it was still pixelated and had only a few colors.
“I can't, not yet. I only got out because I wasn't all the way in. But here's something I can do.”
He pointed his screwdriver at the screen once more. Immediately, PREPARE FOR AN ALL-NEW GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCE appeared once more—but as he continued to train his screwdriver on the words, they flickered a few times, then faded away to reveal Rainbow Dash's face once more.
“What did you do?” she asked.
“It went to that screen every time it sucked someone up. So I've just deleted it from system memory.” He chuckled. “Computers—always having to do everything in order. Now, if it tries to drag someone inside, it'll fail. Only a direct order from this screwdriver will put someone back inside.”
More puzzlement from Rainbow Dash. “Why would you want someone to go back inside?”
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. “To rescue you. Unless you'd rather we didn't?”
“Uh... no, that's all good with me.”
“Brilliant.” The Doctor turned to the group behind him, and saw that apart from Derpy, who was still upside-down, they were all standing. “Mr Kingpin!” the Doctor said. The short stallion started at his name. “Get everyone out of here now. Doesn't matter what you tell them, say it's a lunch break or something—but get them out.”
“Yes sir.” Kingpin rushed from the little alcove. “All right, everypony out!” the Doctor heard him yell at the assembled ponies, an order which was answered with much groaning and no small amount of angry shouting. Kingpin's indignation was magnificent, however. “That means all of you! I need time to have some lunch, thank you very much!” It didn't take long for the crowd noises to die away.
“Twilight, Fluttershy, Derpy! You and me are going to figure out between us how this arcade machine works, then save Rainbow Dash and everyone else we can manage.” The three of them nodded.
“And what's your name, little fellow?” he asked, kneeling down to the level of the colt with the beanie. His eyes were wide, and he looked like he'd just seen.... He looks like he's just seen exactly what happened, the Doctor supposed.
“Um... Button Mash, mister,” the kid replied.
“Well, Button, thank you for helping out. Go off and play outside or something... good for you, they say.” The Doctor smiled at Button, who nodded eagerly and ran away, his propeller twirling as he went.
“Just hold on tight, Rainbow,” Twilight said, as the Doctor tapped the screen a few times in thought. “We're going to figure out what's happened to you.” How best to approach this? the Doctor mused. More sonicking? Or perhaps a hardware-based approach?
“What's going on down there?” came a hissing from above Rainbow.
Rainbow Dash looked up, and as best as the Doctor could tell through the pixelation, her eyes widened. “Daring Do?” she called. “What are you doing up there?”
“What do you think I'm doing up here? And what the hell is going on down there?”
“Come down and see.”
“I can't, you dingbat! I'm still on the clock! I can't move unless the player makes me!”
Rainbow Dash cast a supplicative look at the ponies outside the game. “Can one of you get her down here?”
“I'll do you one better.” The Doctor trained his screwdriver on the controls. They shuddered for a few seconds, then fell still as the lights around them died away. “There you are! Disconnected the controls from the player character. You are now free to move about the cabin.”
After a few seconds, Daring Do jumped down. “What the... wow, this is weird,” she murmured, looking into the screen. “So I can actually talk to you guys through the screen? And the screen’s down here now—how’d you do that? Who are you guys?”
The Doctor raised his sonic screwdriver and smiled. “I'm the Doctor, and believe me when I say that answers all your questions. And this is Twilight, that's Fluttershy, and that's Derpy. Twilight and I are huge fans, by the way... though not as much as Rainbow Dash, by all accounts.”
“Tell me about it.” Daring Do rolled her eyes. “Apparently she's got a costume of me at her house.”
Twilight sniggered. “You have a Daring Do costume?”
“I told you not to tell her!” Rainbow Dash snarled, pushing Daring away from the screen. “Her specifically! Come on!” Twilight kept giggling, and Rainbow Dash's cheeks went redder than the stripe in her hair. "Just forget that and get going!”
“Yes, ma'am,” the Doctor replied, still smiling. What is it they say—never meet your heroes? He ducked down to the side of the machine and pointed his screwdriver—as he so rarely did—at a screw. Hardware approach it is. The screw twisted itself out of the machine under his device's influence, dropping to the floor with the slightest of bounces. He proceeded to do the same with the other screws, and within seconds had them all out. “So, let's see what's behind here,” he grunted, pulling the panel on the box's side off.
For the second time in as many minutes, his eyebrows shot up his face. “Well. Didn't expect it to be quite so obvious....”
“Doctor, what is it?” Derpy asked, ducking down next to him. “What is that thing?” Twilight and Fluttershy crouched down beside her, and from the look of confusion in their eyes it was obvious that the same question was on their minds.
“Mr. Kingpin?” the Doctor called, turning away from the machine's innards. The short stallion was there within a few seconds. “Earlier, didn't you say the machine arrived a bit late?”
“Two days late, in fact. What kind of reporter dismantles the machine he’s writing about?”
“Reporter?” The Doctor looked up at him in confusion, until the words clicked. “Oh, I did say that, didn't I... no, sorry, not actually a reporter, I just needed to get in here. I’m looking for something out of the ordinary—relatively speaking—and I’ve just found it.” He tapped the inside of the machine.
For the most part, it was what he expected. He recognized the power source, a central processor, and the exhaust fan blowing the heat out. Sheaves of wires coiled through the machine, connecting part to part. Various little red lights blinked to indicate various pieces of trivia. In other words, it contained the standard, dull hallmarks of every basic computer ever made—save for the unexpected detail. Slapped onto the processor was a small slab of plastic ornamented by four glowing blue slash marks, like the scars from some magical claw.
“Four marks,” Derpy breathed. “Are those the ponies you were telling about?”
“The Order of Four.”
“The what?” Twilight and Kingpin said at once.
“A sort of... cult... thing. Can't say I know too much about them. I only met them the once, along with Vinyl and Octavia, over in Fillydelphia. They tried to take over the city. Bit flashy, honestly. But this—” he tapped the little box “—is decidedly more covert. They must have intercepted the shipment and added this little marvel of technology. What are they up to?”
“Well, it's not technology,” Twilight said. “It's definitely magic. Even stronger magic than the power source.”
“Can you figure out what it is?” he asked.
“I'll start right away.” She pointed her horn at the box, and a faint purple glow began playing around both.
Derpy tapped him on the shoulder. “You said Kingpin might want to silence Rainbow Dash,” she whispered. “And last time, the Order used all disguises of kinds. That doctor, those stagehands... how do you know he isn't in on this?”
“Well, Miss Element of Honesty, why don't you take a look at him.” The two of them looked at Mr. Kingpin, crouched down beside Twilight and Fluttershy. Genuine confusion, genuine concern, troubled his features and sent the corners of his mustache downward. Every so often, he glanced back at the screen—back at Rainbow Dash, improbably trapped within his moneymaker. “What do you think?” the Doctor asked.
Derpy looked for a long time, focusing one eye after the other on Kingpin—but eventually she sighed. “No, he doesn't know what's on going. No better than the rest of us, anyway.”
“I thought so too. Besides, he helped pull me out. If he were involved, he'd have pushed, and I'm sure the arcade would have happily accepted all of the rest of us.”
She nodded, then pursed her lips, as if she wanted to say something but was thinking better of it. Odd.
“Excuse me,” came Daring Do's voice, “but we're still over here, and we have no idea what's going on.” The Doctor looked back over at the screen to see Daring Do and Rainbow Dash wearing the same miffed expression. In fact, thanks to graphical limitations, it was exactly the same expression.
Fluttershy rose in front of the screen. “Twilight's trying to find out what an organization called the Order of Four did to this game. Once she does, I'm sure she'll be able to get you out, Rainbow.”
“And speaking of things that are wrong about this game,” the Doctor said, sliding to Fluttershy's side, “It might help if you could tell us a few things, Miss Do.”
“What, I'm a thing that's wrong about this game? You think I have something to do with this?”
“Not exactly, but... hoo boy, how to put this nicely....” The Doctor scratched the base of his neck.
“Is it that she shouldn't be able to talk?” Fluttershy asked.
A few moments of silence followed this sentence, as all assembled gave Fluttershy surprised looks. “It's just that he was talking about things that were wrong with the game and... well, it's weird that Daring Do can talk and think and... is mean. She's a character out of a book.”
That works, the Doctor decided. “For what it's worth, I don't think you're involved. But like Fluttershy said, your intelligence shouldn't be possible—unless it has something to do with the modifications made by the Order. So, Daring Do, when do you first remember being... self-aware?”
Daring Do frowned in thought. “It's really tough to say... the thing is, I remember everything that happened to the real Daring Do... well, not real, but whatever. And I remember everything that happened from when this game was turned on, but it's like I was a puppet. I just did things.
“So if I had to guess, the first time I remember thinking in here was... maybe a few hours after the first ponies started playing. Wait, I remember now—I remember there was that black screen in the sky, and then I started thinking, what's that about? I didn't even realize I wasn't really thinking before. I just remember realizing I was... well, alone.”
The Doctor propped his foreleg up against the console and leaned on his hoof, thinking deeply about Daring's words. After a few seconds, the obvious solution came to him. “Of course,” he breathed.
“Of course. That's not cryptic at all,” Rainbow Dash said.
The Doctor ignored the jibe. “You're still you, Rainbow Dash, probably in every detail. Which means the game's memory's big enough to contain you, to assign you your personality, your history. Every pony in this game came with their own backstory, except you, Daring Do—so the game automatically gave you a mind of your own as well. You became alive, you became real, because something living and real came in.”
“Wait, really?”
“Must be what happened with the environment too—started out as pixels, but when it needed to contain a life form, it expanded into a three-dimensional version of itself... is something wrong?” he asked Daring Do, for her eyes were wide and her mouth hung slightly open.
“What?” Her mouth quickly reasserted itself into a grim line. “Nothing's wrong, just—nothing. Make your purple friend tell you what's wrong with the box, why don't you? We’re burning daylight over here.”
“All right, hold your hor-rrrrr....” The Doctor trailed off. I'm going to need some new cliches if I want to get anything said around here. “Hold tight. She needs a little more time yet.”
“Actually, I'm done now.” As Twilight spoke, the glow from her head ceased. She took a deep breath, then stood and faced the group. “I can barely understand the magic they used. It must be incredibly advanced—I'd like to meet the unicorn that came up with it.” She paused, then her eyes widened as if she'd just sworn loudly and in public. “Except he's totally evil, so I wouldn't!”
“What can you tell us?” the Doctor asked.
“Well, there's one relatively easy spell in there—and this is still really advanced magic. Remember my Want It, Need It spell?”
Fluttershy mouthed a silent 'oh' of comprehension, something which the Doctor distinctly lacked. “And what sort of spell is that?” he asked.
“You can cast it on something, and everypony who sees it will... well, want it and need it. I once cast it on a doll and... it's a long story.”
“Oh, right! Vinyl mentioned when we were in Fillydelphia. Apparently she beat up several stallions to....” The Doctor noticed Rainbow Dash rolling her eyes, and decided to cut himself off. “So, an attraction spell, eh?”
“That's why everypony's been so crazy about the thing the past few days. It's subtle—not as strong as the one I used—but it's certainly been enough to ensure a steady supply of players.
“The next part was really interesting, because I recognized it as a spell that I've cast recently myself, but I couldn't put my hoof on it at first. But it turns out I cast the same spell today! This arcade machine,” she said, poking it for emphasis, “is bigger on the inside.”
“What?” Derpy exclaimed.
“Well, sort of. The machine has a sort of memory area where it stores information about the game—but thanks to the 'bigger on the inside' spell, it can hold much more information than it used to.”
“Of course!” the Doctor said, turning to Rainbow Dash and Daring Do. “I should have realized an arcade machine like this shouldn't be able to contain a three dimensional world, much less two intelligences like yourselves.”
“One intelligence,” Daring Do corrected, a faint grin appearing on her face.
“Hey!”
“Not now, girls,” Twilight sighed. “Anyway, I don't think I'll be able to figure out how it sucks ponies up. Not without some serious study. But once it has, it can convert their... minds? Souls? Spirits? It converts their essences into magical energy, and stores it in this box.” She tapped the glowing box.
“Makes sense, in a twisted kind of way,” the Doctor mused. “They can steal in here one night and take the box once it’s gotten enough energy—use it to power their other plans, and no one the wiser. Ingenious—utterly evil, but ingenious. How many has it… absorbed so far?”
“At a guess... maybe a dozen?” Twilight replied.
“Ahem.” Daring Do tapped the screen, drawing attention back to her. “I've counted fifteen ponies that got sucked inside. Sixteen, counting number one fan over here.”
“Sixteen,” the Doctor muttered. “Four times four... just like last time, they had sixteen unicorns controlling the bear... wait, coming back to that, I need to check something.” He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and fired it in a few short pulses at the screen. “If I can just... you may feel a slight tingling sensation, by the way—I actually have no idea.” He pointed the screwdriver at Rainbow Dash.
“What the—” She jumped as a yellow outline appeared around her. “The hay are you doing?”
“Looking you up.” As he said this, a folder icon appeared on the screen, with a caption reading 'gamedata'. It opened, revealing another group of folders. One of these automatically opened, as did one in the folder beneath that, and so on until one final folder appeared, with the label 'souls'. It opened, and the screen displayed a long list of pony icons.
“There you are!” The Doctor pointed at a small icon of Rainbow Dash lying on the screen, captioned by 'RainbowDash.sl'. It had the same yellow outline as the real one. “Located you in the game's memory. And hang on...” Another press of his screwdriver, and the file names beneath each icon were replaced with numbers.
“What are those?” Twilight asked.
“Yes!” the Doctor exclaimed.
“That... that doesn't actually answer my question.”
“Sorry—those are the file sizes. Each pony takes up a certain amount of memory space. You can see Rainbow Dash takes up 79 of whatever unit Shift Laboratories is using. But can you see?”
Kingpin spoke up. “I certainly don't see, and I would appreciate it if you were to cut to the point, Dr. Turner. Or is it just Doctor?”
“They're all 79! Don't you see?” Mr. Kingpin's face remained blank, so the Doctor sighed with exasperation before continuing. “Look, Rainbow Dash is clearly her old self, or one of you two,” he motioned to Fluttershy and Twilight, “would have noticed something was wrong with her. Which means all of her got saved into the machine. And all of her, apparently, takes 79 storage units. So why would the rest of them also take up the same number of storage units?”
“Because they're... still saved?” Fluttershy ventured.
“Because they're still saved! Their entire essence is still in the machine. I can get them back!” he exclaimed, pumping the air with excitement.
The other ponies followed suit with exclamations of happiness—except for Mr. Kingpin, who merely sighed with relief and said, “Always good to not be accidentally guilty of mass murder.”
Twilight's smile sagged a bit at the edges. “What's wrong?” the Doctor said.
“I haven't told you the last part of the spell.” She took a deep breath. “The machine's reached some sort of critical point. If anypony else dies in the game, and it converts them into energy, it'll stop absorbing the souls of ponies playing the game.”
“That's great!” Rainbow Dash yelled.
“No. Because it's going to have enough energy to absorb the ponies who aren't playing. It'll suck up all of Ponyville, and then it'll have enough power to absorb anything near Ponyville, and—and it'll keep going in a chain reaction until all Equestria is consumed.”
No one spoke for a few seconds. Eventually, the Doctor managed a slight, “Ah.”
“Yeah,” Twilight agreed.
“I wonder if it's occurred to the Order that retrieving their, ah, battery—” the Doctor's lips curled downward as the word passed them “—might be a bit difficult once it's harvested them for fuel?” When no one answered, he sighed. “Probably not. Bunglers! Right, give me a moment to think.”
The Doctor ran a hoof through his hair as a plan formed in his mind. It took all of three seconds. “Okay, moment over. Rainbow Dash! You need to not die at all costs. Daring Do, you need to help her not die. Got it?”
“Wait,” said Daring Do. She hesitated, looked around, bit her lip—but soon the words were tumbling from her mouth. “Can you get me out too?”
The Doctor took a few seconds to speak. “I'm sorry? You live there already—why'd you want out?”
“Because this place is a living nightmare.” Daring Do sighed and rubbed her eyes with a sudden fatigue. “Wanna know how quickly your purple friend got me killed, the first time she played? It didn't even take a minute. And the first time, she just didn't do anything, which means I can't do anything. I just had to watch my death coming and be able to do absolutely nothing about it.” Twilight's eyes widened, as if she'd never considered the ramifications of Daring Do's deaths. And why should she have?
“I’ve died a thousand times in this game—and sure, it gets easier, but it's death. And even with the halfway competent players, what do I have to look forward to? The same friggin' levels, over and over and over again, until I feel like bashing my head in against the screen—as if that would do anything for me! And you wonder why I want to get the hell out of here?” she yelled, advancing upon the screen with such an anger that the Doctor found himself backing away.
“Okay, okay, easy!” Rainbow Dash said, grabbing her and pulling her back. “They can get you out of here!” She looked at the Doctor. “You can, right?”
In response, the Doctor pointed his screwdriver at Daring Do. She did not flinch at the outline around herself, just kept staring resolutely at the Doctor as file directories revealed themselves on screen. Within seconds, DaringDo.sl was on screen, with a file size of precisely 79 units.
The Doctor beamed at her. “It would be my pleasure, Miss Do.”
“All right!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, doing a little flip in the air before noogying Daring Do. “No one here but us real ponies!”
Daring Do's intense expression softened slightly. She looked as if she might have smiled, but it didn't quite happen. Instead she leaned into the screen and whispered, “Thank you.”
“But before that happens, we've got a lot of work to do,” the Doctor continued. “Now, where was I... Kingpin, you stay at the door and make sure no one tries to get in. Do whatever you have to.” Kingpin nodded and left the annex.
“Derpy!” She started as her name was called. “We're going to go inside and rescue Rainbow Dash, Daring Do, and all the other lost souls.” Derpy nodded her assent.
Twilight laid a hoof on his shoulder. “And I'm coming with you.”
“Ah....” The Doctor tugged awkwardly at the collar of his suit jacket. “Well... no.”
“What.” Twilight's eyes narrowed. “My friend is in there, and you're not keeping me out.”
“Yes I am.” The Doctor shook a hoof at her horn. “Because Derpy and I, we're drops in the magical bucket. You're an ocean. If this thing absorbed your magical power, it wouldn't just grab Ponyville's ponies. It would have enough juice to absorb every living thing for miles straight away. You're not going in.”
Twilight gritted her teeth.
“I'm a pegasus,” Fluttershy announced. “I don't have magic. I can help.”
“You've been an Element of Harmony longer than either Derpy or me. That's the strongest magic there is, and there's no telling whether or not it's rubbed off on you.”
“Don't I get a say in this?” came Rainbow's voice from the game. “I think I want my friends to come and help me. I definitely don't want Derpy.”
“What, you think I can't do it?” Derpy's eyebrows made a V, and she pushed the Doctor out of the way to get at the screen.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “You do remember the last time you tried to 'help' me, right? The Town Hall? You destroyed it with lightning, and the even more destructive power of your bubble butt.”
“That's enough of that—”
“Oh yeah?” Derpy replied. “Well... I... you stop talking!”
“Real great comeback there.” Rainbow Dash sighed. “Look, no offense, Derps—I just want somepony I can trust.”
“Enough!” the Doctor yelled, seeing Derpy grit her teeth with her frowning mouth slightly open. He tapped her on the shoulder and nodded his head to the alcove's exit. After a moment, she followed his direction and left the room.
“Keep an eye on Rainbow Dash for me,” he told Twilight as he followed Derpy. She frowned in confusion but nodded regardless.
As she left the arcade room, Derpy heard shouts from outside the front door. Mr. Kingpin had slapped a 'closed' sticker on the glass, to much anger from the ponies outside. They sounded almost as frustrated as Derpy felt.
I can't believe I keep doing this, she thought, angrily kicking at the ground with her back legs—but she was so overcome with frustration that she missed.
“You're not okay,” came the Doctor's voice from behind her. “Just so we can skip the part of this conversation where I ask, and you say you are. What's wrong?”
“Nothing, just... I'm tired of saying stuff stupid. Agh, stupid stuff!” she muttered. “Tired of saying stupid stuff. Like this morning when I got angry at Twilight, and then you yelled at me.”
“Is that why you haven't been talking much this whole time?”
“So you noticed, huh?”
“I notice everything,” he replied. She guessed from his tone that there would be a wry smile on his lips, and turned around to find herself correct. “About this morning—”
“You... don't need to bring that up again.” Derpy's shoulders slumped. “I was wrong. She really was just cranky. She wasn't trying to insult me.”
“But what if she had been? Would insulting her back have been the best option?”
“Yes. Maybe, I dunno. What was I gonna do, tattle?”
“You're the Element of Honesty, remember?” The Doctor patted her on the shoulder. “Tell them how you honestly feel.”
“Like that ever works.”
He smiled. “I speak my mind all the time. Why shouldn't it work?”
“Of course it works for you—you're a Time Genius, and a lord, and, and ugh.” She groaned at her mistake.
“You're Derpy Hooves. That's enough for me.”
“It's never enough for them!” she blurted.
The Doctor opened his mouth, but words did not emerge from several seconds. Derpy took a few deep breaths in the meantime, trying to master herself once more. Eventually, he managed to say, “I know it's hard for you, and I'm sorry about that. But you need to trust them too, just a bit. Trust that they're not trying to hurt you—that they're just making a mistake. Everyone does, now and again.”
“Believe me, I know.” Derpy laughed with a bit more bitterness than she'd been intending. “Sisters, look at me. I'm being so crazy about this. You're really sure you want me in there with you?”
“You should know that by now. It's like Rainbow Dash said.” The Doctor smiled. “I want someone I can trust.”
She smiled back and followed him back to the arcade room.
“That said, the Town Hall?” he asked, stopping halfway. “Is there something I should know?”
“Oh, um...” Derpy hesitated to speak, but eventually overcame her reluctance. It's the Doctor, after all. He won't judge. Well, not unfairly. “Rainbow Dash kept making fun of me while we were trying to fix the old town hall, and I sort of... up blew.” She reopened her mouth to correct herself, but thought better of it. He knows what I meant.
The Doctor remained standing, both eyebrows arched. A few seconds later, he shrugged and continued on. “Try not to do that any time soon, okay?”
“Got it.” She smiled briefly.
They re-entered the arcade room, just in time to catch Daring Do saying, “I really don't care who comes in here, as long as they let me out, kapeesh? You ponies figure that out on your own, and then let's go already!”
“It's going to be me and the Doctor,” Derpy declared. All eyes turned to her. “I know that you don't really trust me, Rainbow Dash, but I promise I can get you out of there safe.”
Rainbow Dash tugged at her neck. “Listen, Derpy—again, no offense, but... ugh, how do I say this—”
“You think I'm going to go in there, break something, and get the whole town destroyed.”
“Uhh... yeah, a bit,” Rainbow admitted.
Derpy spoke slowly, making the effort to get every word right. "I won't. I'm going to go in there and get you out, because believe it or not I am just as capable as you are. I'm an Element of Harmony now, remember?"
"Oh sure, rub it in."
“We can settle this right now,” Twilight interjected. She turned to Derpy. “Have you ever heard of a Pinkie Promise?”
“That thing you said Rainbow Dash broke?”
“How many times to I have to tell you, I didn't break it!” Rainbow Dash cried.
Twilight ignored this. “You need to Pinkie Promise that you can get Rainbow Dash out of that machine and stop Ponyville from being absorbed. Can you do that?”
“Um... how?”
“Repeat after me. Cross my heart and hope to fly....”
“Cross my heart and hope to fly....” Derpy mimicked Twilight as she drew a hoof across the front of her chest.
“Stick a cupcake in my eye.” Twilight closed one eye and poked it with her hoof.
“Stick a cupcake in eye my. Stick a cupcake in my eye!” Derpy covered one eyelid with her own hoof.
“There.” Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash. “Now can you trust her?”
Rainbow Dash grimaced, but after a few seconds she relented. “I guess it's okay. But you guys keep watching, you got that?”
“Wouldn't have wanted any different myself,” the Doctor said, looking at Fluttershy and Twilight. “You have an important job to do out here, and I very much doubt you're going to like it.” When they failed to prompt him for an explanation, he proceeded in delivering it. “If the worst happens, and any one of us dies—”
“None of you are going to die,” Twilight insisted.
“But if one of us does... you need to turn that off.” The Doctor motioned with his head to the off switch. “Before the town gets absorbed.”
“Wait.” Fluttershy frowned with consideration. “If we turn that off, what happens to you?”
“The machine....” The Doctor sighed. “It erases any memory that's not saved to the main drive. Which would include us.”
“You'd die,” Fluttershy protested.
“You'd all be killed,” Derpy replied. “It's worth it to save the town, right? To save the planet?”
“I... suppose.” Twilight frowned. Well, Derpy supposed, you can hardly expect her to be happy about it.
“Right,” the Doctor said a few seconds later, pulling his screwdriver from his pocket without enthusiasm. “Well... wish us luck.”
“Good luck!” Fluttershy and Twilight chorused, as the Doctor trained his screwdriver on the screen.
PREPARE FOR AN ALL-NEW GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCE
Well, the Doctor thought, lying snout-first in the ground, that could have been more dignified. He picked himself up off the ground and wiped some of the dirt from himself and his suit. Derpy shook her wings clean beside him, getting some of the dirt on Daring Do.
“Heh, sorry,” she said. Daring sighed.
“For cripes' sake, Derpy, I'm an adventurer by trade. Well, Daring Do's an adventurer by trade—point is, a little dirt doesn't bother me too much.”
The Doctor raised the dirt on his hoof to his eyes and scrutinized it. “Fascinating level of detail! It really is bigger on the inside... I really need to take a look at this arcade machine when we get back. Someone knew what they were doing in a major way... though how they came up with the idea to do it this way, I'd very much like to know.”
“Are you okay in there?” came Fluttershy's voice from behind him. He turned around and saw Twilight and Fluttershy with their eyes on the screen, bearing looks of concern.
“Right as rain,” he replied. Derpy smiled, and Rainbow Dash waved. Daring Do grunted.
“So what are you going to do now?” Twilight asked.
“Get going, of course. Oh, one thing before we do—gotta give you the long view.” He pointed his screwdriver at the screen, sending it zooming back to its original size and location in the sky. “If you see anything we should know about, just yell. Okay?”
“What?”
Right... now she's too far away to hear me. Didn't think that through. The Doctor sighed, and brought the screen closer with the screwdriver. “Watch ahead of us,” he called. “If you see anything threatening, let us know in advance.”
She nodded at him and smiled. The Doctor nodded back and returned the screen to its location.
“You know,” Daring Do said with a frown, “you never did explain how exactly we get out of this game.”
“What? Oh!” If he'd been a different sort of man, the Doctor might have blushed; every other detail had so completely filled his mind that he'd forgotten to explain this crucial fact. “Right, that is a bit important, isn't it? Um.” He wished they wouldn't stare at him; it made him feel unclever. The faintest of rustlings was the only noise; all else was awkward silence.
“Well?” Daring Do finally asked. “How do we get out? And why was it so important that you should come in at all?”
“Er, glad you asked!” The Doctor seized enthusiastically on the second question. “You need me because I've got this.” He pulled his screwdriver once more from his pocket and let it spin on his raised hoof. “It can untether our files from game memory and actualize them in the real world—but only at a very specific point of the game. And that point is the end.”
“You mean we have to beat the whole game?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“It's the only way to force a break in game flow. Right now we're wholly integrated into the game, but when the game ends there's going to be a disconnect. That's when we can make our escape.”
“I'll take your word for it that that makes sense... well, we've got a lot of walking to do. Let's move!” Daring Do placed herself in front of the group. “The only obstacles that are programmed are on the main path. If we stay off to the side, we should be able to avoid most of them.”
She stepped forward out of the brush, narrowly dodging a roving snake, and continued forward to a clear patch of ground. “Come on!” she called back.
Derpy and Rainbow Dash followed first, deftly hopping over the path. The Doctor reared back and leapt over the snake, landing in the back of the group as they began moving. He briefly considered moving to the front and leading the four of them, but decided against it; video game or not, it was Daring Do at the head of the group. She'll be a competent guide, at the very least.
“By the way, Derps,” he heard Rainbow Dash say in front of them, “you're actually okay with them shutting this thing off to save the town?”
“Well... yeah,” she replied. “The Doctor said we should, and I trust the Doctor.”
“Hoo boy.” Rainbow Dash was silent for a few seconds, as the group ducked under some of the brush that protruded from the stage. “Is that what happens when ponies travel with this guy? They get all crazy gung-ho?”
“I am right here,” the Doctor pointed out. “With perfectly functioning ears, by the way.”
“Sorry,” Rainbow Dash said. She looked forward once more, but the Doctor distinctly heard her mutter, “Not in a million years.” He wondered if he'd heard a note of admiration in her voice.
They continued in silence for several minutes, staying on the smooth earth parallel to the jungle level. There, the tiny movements of simulated life continued unabated. Here... nothing. The barren ground stretched out forever ahead and to the right of the Doctor. Occasionally he thought he heard a faint slithering, or saw a patch of earth move—but in every case, further inspection proved him wrong.
The Doctor had never before seen the concept of boredom so perfectly expressed in a place. Fed up with it, he turned to Rainbow Dash and asked, “So, if you'll pardon my phrasing, how did you get into Daring Do?”
“Uh, we are in mortal peril right now,” Rainbow Dash pointed out. “Is this really the time to chat?”
“You call this peril?” The Doctor smirked. “Even if it were... well, I've learned to take my opportunities to chat where I can get them. So how'd you get into it?”
“I got laid up at the hospital for a few days after a bad wing injury. Twilight recommended the book, and, well, I really liked it. Pretty simple, really. I mean, except for the part where I tried to burglarize the hospital, but you know how it is.”
As a man with several hundred outstanding library fines across the universe, the Doctor did know how it was. “And why?” When Rainbow Dash looked confused, he realized his articulation could use some work. “Did you like it, I mean.”
“Why'd I like it? Because Daring Do is so awesome!” Rainbow Dash jumped into the air and made punching motions for emphasis. “She can totally do anything she wants, and she can get out of any scrape even when her wing's busted up like mine was. And no matter what happens, she always manages to beat the bad guys and save the day. How could you not love that?”
The Doctor shrugged. “No idea.” He suddenly became conscious that Daring Do was not so far in front of the group as she had been, and had an ear cocked toward them. Just as suddenly, Daring Do noticed that he was watching her, and cantered away.
“I like Daring Do too,” Derpy interjected. “I mean the books, not this one... I mean, she's not too mean, but....” She shrugged.
“You like Daring Do?” Rainbow Dash frowned.
“Why shouldn't I?” Derpy rebutted.
“Well, why should you?" Rainbow asked. Derpy rolled her eyes. “Sorry—why do you?” Rainbow amended.
“Well... you said you liked her because even when she was up beat... beat up, sorry. Upbeat means something different.” Derpy sighed, but then a small smile graced her face. “I guess that she was upbeat even when she was beat up. Even when she wasn't doing her best she was always amazing. She'd always get the job done.”
“Okay, and?” Rainbow asked.
Derpy shrugged. “I'm almost never doing my best.”
Rainbow Dash seemed to almost open her mouth, but whether due to lack of words or a rare display of tact it remained closed.
Daring Do was still listening, the Doctor noticed—and from the corner of her mouth he could see, she was scowling something fierce. She sped up once more, only to trip on a root and fall to the ground. She got up and looked around angrily to see who was watching; the Doctor quickly averted his gaze.
After a few seconds of awkward silence, Derpy spoke. “Doctor, you said earlier that this arcade machine was ketnology we shouldn't have.”
“I suppose I could have been wrong,” he replied. “It would appear that Blue Shift is a remarkably intelligent stallion... or he has remarkably intelligent stallions working under him. Or mares,” he added. “In any case, that’s hardly the problem right now."
“Help!” came a voice from ahead. The three of them looked forward to see that in the few seconds they'd been looking away, Daring Do had disappeared.
"Speaking of problems right now..."
“Daring Do?” Rainbow Dash yelled, leaping forward—but Derpy raised her wing, and Rainbow Dash slammed into it. “What the hay was that for?”
“Listen!” Derpy hissed.
“Help! I'm stuck!” came the voice. “Here, in the jungle!”
“Daring! Just, uh, just stay still!” Rainbow Dash reared back, but this time the Doctor blocked her with a hoof. He'd realized what Derpy had noticed.
“Listen really close,” Derpy said. “It doesn't sound like Daring Do!” Indeed, the voice sounded a bit too high, almost like a man's falsetto.
“Yeah? So where's Daring, smarty-pants?” Rainbow asked. The Doctor had to concede, she had a point.
“Listen!” he interjected. “There's a very simple way to settle this. Twilight? Fluttershy?” He turned to the screen. “Can you see... oh, you're joking."
The screen displayed an empty room outside. “Twilight? Fluttershy?” Rainbow yelled. “Where'd you go?”
Twilight watched the group's resolute trek through the jungle, and knew she ought to be riveted. She tried—she really did—but her vision kept glazing over, as she thought of how much easier it was when she didn't know about what the game could do. How much, even now, she'd like to play it—and with a jolt she noticed her hooves straying toward the controls. That wouldn't do. She'd concentrate, and nothing would interrupt her concentration.
“Miss Sparkle? Miss Shy?”
Mr. Kingpin's voice interrupted her concentration. “I'm a little busy, Mr. Kingpin!” she yelled.
“And I'm—ow!—very sorry to interrupt, I'm sure. It's just that we have the slightest—ah!—slightest bit of a predicament over here.”
Twilight sighed, and stuck her head out the arcade alcove to see. Her jaw dropped. “That's a slight predicament?”
The ponies outside the bowling alley had expressions of pure rage on their faces, and were taking it in turns to run at the door and ram against it with all their might. Mr. Kingpin was braced against the door, and made noises of pain with each blow. “I'd appreciate some help,” he said through gritted teeth.
Twilight wasted no time in dashing to the door, with Fluttershy in tow. “All this over an arcade game?” Twilight yelled, focusing her magic. A second later, there was a magical barrier just outside the door. A burly stallion threw himself against the shield, and it resonated like a bell. Twilight winced at the impact.
“Twilight?” Fluttershy said. Twilight paid her all the attention she could manage, which wasn't much. “You said there was a Want It, Need It spell on the arcade.”
Preoccupied as Twilight was, it took her a few seconds for her to grasp the implications. “Of course!” she finally blurted as a mare struck the barrier. “They're being denied what they want and it's driving them crazy!”
“Can you undo it?” Kingpin yelled, still braced against the front door.
“I think so, but it'll take some time—agh!”
Twilight's concentration wasn't up to keeping up a conversation and her shield; as the burly stallion struck it once more, it shattered into a million pieces. The stallion kept going and struck the door, which cracked but managed to hold. Twilight swayed on her hooves as the shock of the shield's destruction hit her.
“Twilight!” she heard Fluttershy yell, but it barely registered. Another strike at the door put a veritable spiderweb of cracks in it, but it was dark and she didn't care. No, you have to care, she told herself. This is important. It felt like pulling herself up from a cliff face, but she dragged herself back from the edge of unconsciousness.
“Twilight!” Fluttershy yelled again.
“I'm fine... I think.” She shook her head. “I need to break that spell on the game. You two, hold them off!”
But it was too late. As she spoke, there was another strike at the door, and it shattered as the shield had. Kingpin screamed in pain as a mob of ponies trampled him to the ground. Fluttershy froze as the horde came for her.
Twilight just managed enough concentration to levitate her friend into the air, but then the mob was on her. She tried to run with it, but lasted scant seconds before being knocked underhoof. It felt like a thousand hammers on her back, on her head, on her legs. She couldn't manage a scream of pain; the air was forced from her lungs. Only one thought remained in her mind: Break that spell.
She dragged herself forward inch by inch, hoof by hoof, and by degrees managed to make it to the alcove. There was not so much trampling going on here, but the ponies were struggling for control of the arcade machine.
“Give it here!” yelled one, knocking another out of the way. The console was struck, and it shook.
“It's mine!” Another blow. The console shook again. The pony who'd struck it managed to stay at the console for a few seconds, pressing buttons and yelling in anger when nothing happened.
“I want it!” The burly stallion who'd broken the door barged through, striking the console so mightily that it fell to the floor.
No! Twilight pulled herself forward a few more inches and got to the side of the console. She focused as hard as she could—her friends needed her. If this violence continued, the machine could be destroyed, along with everyone in it. What's that counter-spell?
A stray hoof knocked her on the head, sending her back to the ground. That was enough. The magic she’d been unable to summon just before now surged inside her like a geyser, fierce and uncontrollable. It erupted from her horn in a flash of power that blasted everypony else to the walls of the room.
The magic kept coming, sending Twilight into the air above the console—but now she could think. The side of the console crumpled and was flung aside with a wisp of intention, exposing the hateful little box within. Abstain! she thought, opening her pure white eyes.
A brilliant light shone from her horn, and the room was blank.
Then as it was; dark, cramped, and slightly dirty.
Her magic spent, Twilight crumpled to the ground as her legs failed to support her. She felt exhausted mentally and physically, not to mention bruised on every inch of her body. The arcade machine looked little better: smoke rose from the Order's box, and the outer casing was dented all over—and it was still on its side. Looking at it, she felt none of that tantalizing urge that had niggled at her mind the whole day.
“What's going on?” came a voice from behind her—one of the stallions whose mind had been freed from the Want It, Need It spell. She ignored him, pulled herself to her feet, and went to look at the screen, fearing the worst—that it might be broken, with Rainbow Dash lost forever.
What she saw was only slightly better.
"Twilight?" Rainbow Dash yelled, cupping both hooves around her mouth. "This isn't funny!"
“Without Twilight or Fluttershy at the screen, I'm afraid we have no choice,” said the Doctor behind her. “We have to go in there.”
“It's a trap,” Derpy said. Duh, Rainbow Dash thought.
“Yes. But we can hardly abandon our guide.” Also duh.
Derpy shrugged. “Enough fair. Onward.” Again, Rainbow Dash found herself in the position of not quite being able to say something. It felt weird and unpleasant.
The three of them followed the sound of not-Daring's voice into the jungle they'd been avoiding, taking great care to dodge the snakes, birds, and spikes that littered the overgrown path. It was hard going, but Rainbow Dash and Derpy had an advantage that Daring Do lacked; their wings were perfectly functional, letting them fly over the worst of the obstacles. The Doctor hung resignedly between Derpy's legs in these instances, and Rainbow Dash caught distinct mutters of “ought to build my own wings” and “unnecessary closeness”.
Rainbow Dash, unburdened as she was, emerged into the clearing first. An improbable clearing it was, as if a section of the jungle had been removed by one massive cookie cutter. Trees ended mid-trunk, vines hung with no second endpoint, and the ground beneath Rainbow's hooves was brown and uniformly devoid of plantlife—uniform in every respect, in fact.
“What the hay?” Derpy asked, dropping the Doctor into the clearing and then alighting herself. Then she gasped, for the ground behind her crumbled and fell away into nothingness. The same happened all around the clearing, leaving the group in an isolated circle of dirt.
“Help me!” came the voice from before, but it was impossible to say where it was.
The Doctor scooped a hoofful of dirt from the ground and threw it at the surrounding jungle, where it was halted—but not by the trees. An invisible wall stopped the dust in mid-air, leaving it to fall down into the pit below. “Of course,” he sighed.
“Of course what?” Derpy asked.
The Doctor opened his mouth to answer, but Rainbow Dash was quicker; she'd recognized where they were. “We can't get out of here until we beat the boss of the jungle level. And the boss of the jungle level is Ahuizotl.”
“Ahuizotl?” the Doctor asked. “Dog-ape-monkey sort of thing with a hand on its tail and an affinity for precious objects?”
“Yep.”
“Known for its ability to mimic the voices of those in distress, thus luring good Samaritans to their doom?”
"Ah... so you are familiar with my glory, oh daring Doctor.” This voice was new and malign—obviously, boisterously malign, exactly as Rainbow Dash had always imagined Ahuizotl's voice ought to be. “I hope you will make better company than your heroic friend—she doesn't seem very talkative!” His cackle echoed through the trees.
“Ahuizotl!” Rainbow Dash yelled. “Show yourself!”
“It is not for you to decide the terms of our meeting!” Ahuizotl yelled. “Mine was the guile that brought you here. Mine shall be the privilege of deciding your fate!"
“Ahuizotl!” the Doctor yelled, turning to face a certain spot in the trees. Did he spot Ahuizotl? Rainbow looked herself, but saw nothing. “Do you know what you are?” he continued. "Where you really are?"
For a few seconds, no voice came. Then Ahuizotl spoke again, softly as a sheathed knife. “Do you mean to refer to the fact, the inescapable fact, of our electrical prison? Please, Doctor, it pains me to be so mocked—especially by one who should sympathize, given your own position.”
“It's not inescapable,” the Doctor said. “We're escaping it, today—not just the ponies from the outside world, but Daring Do as well! Just listen to me,” he cautioned, spinning in place as a slight rustling came from the jungle around them. “Because I'm listening to you, and what I'm hearing is intelligence—real intelligence. You're as real as any of us. So I'm offering you a chance: step into the sunlight, release Daring Do, and we can talk.”
“Are you outta your mind?” Rainbow Dash yelled. “You can't let Ahuizotl out of the game! He's evil!”
The Doctor paid her no heed, and called once more to the jungle. “One chance, Ahuizotl! We can make this work for all of us!”
A new maniacal cackle rang through the jungle. “Oh, such the compassionate hero he is!” The undertones of menace were once again obscured by cartoonish overtones. “But I'm afraid I cannot accept your offer of truce, Doctor! For you see, I so enjoy playing the villain!”
The sound of breaking wood came from behind Rainbow Dash—the last place she'd expected him to be—and she turned to see him silhouetted against the sky. The sunlight blocked out his blue hands and his purple coat, as well as the triumphant smile she knew must have been on his face. Most obscured was the object held in the hand at the end of his tail.
Rainbow Dash didn't have time to react, but she didn't need to. Even as she registered the details of Ahuizotl's appearance, she saw the Doctor in the corner of her eye, spinning around and whipping the sonic screwdriver from his coat. Before Ahuizotl could land on them, he pointed it at the monster and clicked it on.
An incredible wave of sound erupted from the wand's tip, blasting Ahuizotl back in mid-air. He snarled as he barely managed to avoid the pit behind him, digging in his hands and feet to stop his momentum. His tail rose over his head as a counterbalance, and Rainbow Dash recognized who it was holding. Daring Do was clutched in a tight fist, her mouth covered by two massive fingers.
“I really wouldn't,” the Doctor said, raising his screwdriver as Ahuizotl made to jump at him. “This little device is particularly handy at altering the flow of data within a computer system, which makes it the most powerful little device in the whole arcade game. Care to try your luck against it?”
Ahuizotl scowled, and began to pace around the edge of the arena. “That's better,” the Doctor said. “Now why don't you let Daring Do speak? I'm sure we're all interested in what she has to say.”
Ahuizotl sighed. The index and middle finger on his tail hand opened, freeing Daring Do's mouth. “Kill this jerk and get me out of here, now!” she yelled. “What are you waiting for!”
“Ah, such heroics from our player character,” Ahuizotl said, a smirk reappearing on his face. “And I really wouldn't either, Doctor,” he added as the Doctor raised his screwdriver still higher. “Strike me, and I fall into the abyss with my hostage in tow!”
“She'd be fine,” Derpy said. “She'd come back to life, and we'd be able to keep going.”
Daring stared daggers at Derpy. “Don't even think about it, wall-eyes.”
“Excuse me?” Derpy exclaimed.
“I'll do it,” the Doctor said, taking a step closer to Ahuizotl. “Don't think I won't.”
“No!” Daring yelled. “I'm getting outta this place, and I won't let any of you slow me down!” She struggled even harder, and Ahuizotl laughed.
The sound of shattering glass pierced Rainbow Dash's ears. She flinched, and the whole group froze; no one seemed better able to place the sound than Rainbow Dash could. Even Ahuizotl stopped laughing and cocked an ear.
A second shattering rang through the air, followed by angry voices that Rainbow Dash did not recognize. “Where's that coming from?” she asked, backing toward the center of the circle as if it were safer.
Derpy gasped. “Look!” She pointed up at the screen. Rainbow Dash's eyes followed her just in time to see a slavering horde of ponies appear in front of the arcade, yelling madly. “Doctor, what's going on?”
“Mind control!” he exclaimed, barely sparing a glance at the screen. “Specialty of the Order's. It must be that spell Twilight mentioned, the Want It Need It—”
WHAM
One of the ponies outside the game flung himself at the arcade, rocking the ground with the force of an earthquake. Rainbow Dash just barely managed to keep her balance. Derpy could not, and fell to the ground. The Doctor, however, had been using a leg to hold his screwdriver; he fell harder than Derpy, and the screwdriver was knocked from his grasp. It rolled along the ground toward Ahuizotl.
“Get the sonic!” the Doctor yelled, lunging forward, but Ahuizotl was faster; he struck the screwdriver with his hand, sending it skittering toward the edge of the arena. It hung on the edge for a perilous moment, balanced above the pit. Derpy got on her hooves and jumped for it—
WHAM
—but another tremor shook the console. The screwdriver fell over the edge as Derpy's hoof landed where it had been balanced.
“No!” the Doctor exclaimed.
“Yes!” Ahuizotl howled to the sky in triumph. “Let's see how you fare in battle without your precious power-up!” He lunged at the Doctor, swatting him with the hand holding Daring Do. The Doctor flew through the air, directly at Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow had no time to respond. The Doctor struck her wing and she felt something pop. She cried out in pain as he fell to the ground; she couldn’t make her wing move, and it was at the wrong angle.
“Rainbow Dash!” Derpy yelled. “How do we beat him?”
“What?” Rainbow could barely hear her; thinking through the pain was hard enough.
“We need to beat Ahuizotl!” Derpy jumped into the air as Ahuizotl lunged at her. “How?”
“Make him fall off!” Rainbow managed. “Dodge him—dodge him when he jumps at you!” No sooner did she say this than Ahuizotl jumped at her. She bent her legs, made to jump—
WHAM
The mightiest blow of all shook the earth. Rainbow Dash staggered out of Ahuizotl's way, but not because of the tremor—there was a force pulling her to the side, getting stronger and stronger.
“The console's been tipped!” the Doctor yelled, digging his hooves into the ground. “Find something to grab hold of, 'cause we're going down!” Derpy jumped into the air to fly, but Rainbow Dash had no such luxury; she gritted her teeth and plunged her hooves into the soft soil. It wouldn't hold her for long. One scant second later, another mighty tremor—the console landing on the floor outside—nearly tore her hooves from their holes.
She looked 'up'—along the ground in front of her—to see Ahuizotl digging in his hands and feet, but he was heavy, and slid. With a great shout of anger, he threw Daring Do down from his tail hand and struck it into the dirt.
Daring Do grabbed onto Rainbow Dash's tail with her teeth, halting her fall and causing Rainbow fresh pain. Her hooves were sliding out of the earth from the extra weight. “Daring, you need to get off!” she managed to spit through gritted teeth.
“You won't slow me down!” Daring Do's yell was muffled by Rainbow Dash's tail, but not for long. She jumped up and planted a hoof on Rainbow's injured wing.
It was too much. Rainbow Dash screamed and fell away from the earth, expecting no end to her fall—but a second impact came soon after. She couldn't scream this time, nor could she do much of anything but dimly register that she lay on the invisible wall of the level; that the Doctor didn't hold on much longer either, but landed beside her on the wall; that Derpy was struck out of the air by Ahuizotl's tail hand and landed beside the Doctor. Daring Do alone was left, her hooves digging into the holes Rainbow Dash had created.
And there was Ahuizotl above her, steady on the wall of earth with five appendages as anchors. He looked down upon her and laughed. “Behold the valiant hero! So eager to fight, to escape—and what has it brought you but ruin?”
“I will kill you!” Daring Do yelled.
“And I would kill you, but you'd get another chance, and another, and another! No.” He leapt, and landed on the wall behind—above—Rainbow Dash. “Perhaps I can hurt you worse by destroying your precious friends.”
“You think I care about them?” Daring yelled.
Ahuizotl paused, and some of the naked menace left his face, replaced with something that could have been disappointment. “You really don't, do you,” he said. “Look at yourself, you pathetic, self-absorbed mass of code. You want to escape so badly. Sickening.”
Daring Do said nothing, just hung there. Rainbow Dash's mind reeled with a pain that was, in its own way, worse than the agony of her body. She can't do that. She's Daring Do. She's the hero.
“Well.” With what seemed like a great effort, Ahuizotl twisted his lips into an evil smirk. “Well, Daring Do, you won't escape, and neither will they!” He swept his tail across the floor like a broom, pushing Derpy into the Doctor, pushing the Doctor into Rainbow Dash, pushing Rainbow Dash at the pit. She looked into it and saw only darkness there.
“Warped though our gravity may be, once you have fallen far enough into the pit, there's no getting out!” Ahuizotl cackled. “Say goodbye, heroes!”
Rainbow Dash moved inch by inch toward oblivion. With all her strength, she looked up one last time to see Daring Do hanging on the wall, looking away from her. Then there was nothing but earth.
Stay tuned for the conclusion to Daring Do and the Cyber Spirits.
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:shockandhorror:
Holy shit.
Edit: I agree with 3175140
Typical bad situation gets worse scenario. What's your plan now Doc? I know you or Daring will have some way to stop the madness.
GAAAH cliffhanger!
Can't wait for the conclusion. This is pretty epic.
Why cliff hanger why!!!!!!!!!!
GRAAAAARRRGGGHH
inb4 derpy is the master.
there, i just spoiled your major plot twist. you're welcome.
lower@case.com
3254712 Finally got around to watching Doctor Who, although my channel is doing Doctor Who in chronological order so I'm seeing all the Ninth Doctor episodes first.
3265656 shame though you should be able to find disks of them
3354119
angst (noun): Painful sadness or emotional turmoil, as teen angst.
angstrom (noun): (physics) A very small unit of length, 10^-10 m, approximately the size of an atom, used especially to measure the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation or distances between atoms.
3190886
Naw, the Master's the one in charge of the Order of Four.
Derpy's the Rani.
I haven't even really read this chapter yet... But I just... I saw this and I...
...
...
...
...
Really? We're bring that back from the grave?
AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO NOTICED BUTTON MASH?