Ponystuck

by confoundtheseponies

Chapter 19

[CURRENT homelessChicken began responding to memo TEAM NUBLET]

CHC: Hello, to every and anypony who reads this!

CHC: Except for Mild and Silver, they're not allowed to read it because it's top secret.

CHC: Even though they have full access to this memo because for some reason banning ponies doesn't work.

CHC: I'm just going to hope that the backstabbing traitors have enough honour to avoid reading all of our plans.

[CURRENT desertedDestiny began responding to memo TEAM NUBLET]

CDD: There are no words to describe how much I want to hurt you.

CHC: <:D

CDD: I assume you have some kind of plan, then?

CHC: Well, not exactly. What I do have is a situation that could become a plan.

CHC: Me, Diamond, Rainbow, and Fluttershy are all camped out SOMEWHERE on EITHER Derse or Derse's moon.

CHC: We're in the perfect place for a surprise attack!

CDD: Please don't do anything stupid.

CHC: Well obviously I won't. Diamond won't let me.

CDD: Good.

CDD: Also, can you give Rainbow back already? Me and Rarity need to move out soon.

CHC: But we need her for our surprise attack...

CDD: Which hasn't been planned, and that you'll probably need more people for anyway. So hand her over.

[CURRENT prismaticAscension began responding to memo TEAM NUBLET]

CPA: Do I get a say in this?

CDD: Yes. You can either stay talking to Acapella for a few hours, or you can come back to LOSAF and get some payback.

CHC: <:\

CPA: Well, we'll see.

CPA: I don't feel all that tired, though.

CDD: :/

CDD: Whatever, it's not like we'll be going anywhere in the meantime.

CDD: I'll see you all later.

CHC: OK.

[CURRENT desertedDestiny stopped responding to memo TEAM NUBLET]

***

After several hours of adventuring, Applejack had taken some time to appraise her traveling companion. She had long abandoned any attempt to understand what Summer was trying to achieve - all she knew was that a lot of underlings were going to be killed because of it. Apparently growing bored of the quests on the Land of Secrets and Lies, Summer was becoming notably more efficient and aggressive with her game. The last three groups of underlings had barely taken a full clip of her rifle. Not that her rifle was in any danger of running out of bullets, as it appeared to use some kind of esoteric gaming abstraction as ammunition, which was awarded to the pegasus based on her victories in combat. Of which there were many.

Putting her progressively more ruthless gameplay to one side, however, it was worrying to see a friend descend from relatively calm and amicable to completely focused and more than a little frustrated.

"So you're definitely OK?" Applejack asked, once again trying to break the silent walking which filled the gaps between fights.

"Yes," Summer replied, once again trying to resume the silent walking which filled the gaps between fights.

"Well, that's what ya say, that doesn't mean Ah have to believe it." Whether or not Summer wanted to talk, Applejack reasoned, there was no sense in making an issue out of it. "So anyway. Where are we going now?"

"To your denizen, I suppose. Unless you wanted to carry on with these repetitive side quests so that we can help a few more consorts with their problems." The effects of the whole paranoia thing which the planet had clearly been intended to cultivate were lost when the fighting was so ridiculously high risk. Having rushed through the last few quests on nothing but adrenaline and a vague sense of achievement, the fairly linear layout of the objectives was made all the clearer. Personally, Summer was getting bored of it. "Also, please don't say you want to carry on with these repetitive side quests."

"Well alright then, when ya put it like that Ah suppose we can deal with my denizen. Which way?" Contemplating the question, Summer quickly leapt up into the air, surveying the land around them. They were near the latest quest hub, a large manor surrounded on all sides by dense forest. Besides that, and a few large mountain ranges to the south, the surrounding area was entirely devoid of any major landmarks.

"No idea," she said as she returned to Applejack. "Our best move would be to head back to the barn, but I don't have any idea where to find a return node. So I say we head back to that manor and try to get some answers from there." Applejack considered the idea, then nodded.

"OK then, let's do that."

***

"Ugh, ow. Argh." Uttering vague noises which almost resembled cries of pain, Rainbow shook her head as she slowly rose to her feet. "Stuff. Blarg. Mornings are bad, I'm allergic to mornings. Urgh." Even as she said it, she corrected herself - it wasn't morning. She hadn't fallen asleep, she had been knocked out. "I mean, pain. Ow. I'm allergic to pain, it gives me bruises. Agh."

"Rainbow?" Rarity's head appeared from the entrance of whatever room Rainbow was in, a concerned expression on the unicorns face. "Are you awake now?"

"No, please try again later," Rainbow said, as she walked out into the main room of Carousel Boutique, attempting to wake herself up. "Anyway. When are we going?"

"Right now, if you're ready," Rarity said. She was relieved that Rainbow was finally awake. There had been far too much sitting around, and there was an awful lot of adventuring still to be done. "I'm not sure where Destiny has gotten to..." Rarity glanced around the room, as if Destiny might be standing right next to her without her noticing. "Oh, that's right, she was heading out to make sure we had a path away from the boutique when you decided to wake up, so we should get going."

"You just let her go out by herself? What if she's in trouble!?"

"Oh come now, Rainbow. If she was in trouble, then it's not likely we'd be able to do much about it at this stage. And besides..." Opening the front door of the shop and stepping out, Rarity couldn't help but smile as Rainbow's jaw fell open. Before them, Destiny was calmly slipping in between ogres as they attempted to crush her beneath them, ducking underneath basilisks, and stabbing any imps which got too close. Exercising the other side of her powers, Destiny was taking on huge numbers of underlings - by making them angry and uncoordinated, allowing her to weave in between their attacks. "... I don't think that we need to worry about Destiny getting into trouble any time soon."

"Yeah, whatever. Less talk, more getting things done." Equipping her lance from her strife deck, Rainbow threw herself into the air, before quickly spinning and dashing straight towards the nearest ogre. Dodging the colossal arm it sent flailing towards her, she drove into its shoulder, her lance somehow managing to puncture the thick carapace that one of its many prototypings had provided. Screaming in pain, the ogre swung its other arm, which Rainbow narrowly avoided as she barely managed to retrieve her lance from the ogre's shoulder.

Rolling her eyes a little, Rarity decided to join the fight, sending a few dozen needles speeding straight through the ogre's neck. Experience had taught her and Destiny that the neck was relatively unprotected, and on an ogre it was quite a large target. Delivering a few more blows in rapid succession, the ogre eventually attempted to turn and flee from the battle. Apparently one of the benefits that its prototyping gave it was a basic ability to recognise a losing battle. Unfortunately for the underling, by this point Destiny had noticed what the others were doing. Flinging herself into the air, towards the underling, she arced sharply through the air as an ogre head was thrown over the rest of the fighting underlings before exploding into a mound of grist.

The three ponies paused briefly to regroup, taking in the assembled hordes of enemies. Mostly imps, with an abundance of basilisks and ogres. A few liches could also be seen towering above the rest.

"Hey Rainbow. Good to see you're awake now," Destiny said, as the two factions stood opposite each other in a brief moment of calm.

"Thanks," Rainbow replied. "Let's see if I can make it past the first three basilisks this time, shall we?"

***

"Back already, hero? Have you found the information yet?" If the crocodile quest giver had a name, Summer had either forgotten it or neglected to give enough of a shit to ask in the first place.

"No, we haven't. You can consider this a resignation," Summer said bluntly, before stepping around her to continue further into the manor in search of someone who could tell them where to go, leaving Applejack to deal with a rather shocked looking crocodile.

"What? But..." Looking pleadingly at Applejack, the crocodile once again tried to make its case. "Please, you have to help me! You're the hero right, that's what you do? Help people?" Applejack paused awkwardly. She knew that once they found out how to find her denizen, any other missions that they had been tasked with would be pushed to one side - or, more likely, they would simply be forgotten about altogether. She didn't want to give this consort false hope. At the same time, she didn't want to turn her back on it either.

"Well, uh..." One side effect of spending the past few hours with Summer, Applejack noted, was that she found herself adopting a much more jaded view of her planet as a game construct. She was thinking of her tasks as ways of gaining boondollars and rungs, rather than as favours for the population. But when it came to telling the population that, somehow it felt wrong. "Ah..."

"Hey AJ, I know where there's a gate back to your barn. Let's go," Summer called, returning from a very speedy discussion with a terrified crocodile. Applejack suspected that the discussion had probably been more about rifles than about directions. As Summer passed Applejack, though, she paused as she noticed Applejack's hesitation. "What's wrong?"

"Uh, well, Ah was just explaining to, uh." Summer glanced at Applejack quizzically, then at the crocodile who was watching them with a cynical expression, then back to Applejack. "Ah just don't want to let these people down," Applejack explained.

"Applejack. That's very nice of you and everything," Summer began, as she rested a hoof on Applejack's shoulder and began leading her out of the manor and away from the protesting crocodile. "But there comes a time when you have to stop and realise that you just can't help everyone." She paused. "And also that they're crocodiles, for crying out loud."

***

"That could have gone better, all things considered," Silver said, as she and Mild returned to the throne room on Derse. "Still, this is the only place left on Derse or its moon that is of any interest to them. They'll come here, soon enough."

"Perhaps." Despite all of Mild's attempts to cast doubt over Silver's plans using the smallest excuses, there was a flaw that seemed obvious to him. "Or they could just start flying while we're not looking, and get back to the rest of their group without either of us noticing."

"Yeah, they could. But they won't. You saw the memo, they're waiting around in case we let our guard down." While Silver knew that she was, all things considered, in a better standing than Mild's repeated failures, she wasn't about to get ahead of herself. That was the difference between Mild and her, after all. She waited for her moment. She didn't make mistakes. "I say we just hold the fort here until everything is in place."

"Am I the only one who isn't entirely comfortable with the fact that neither of us are having any impact over the important parts of our plan?" Mild asked, betraying the uncertainty he felt over this particular topic. "Before, it was different. We were needed then. Now, we just sit back and watch as everything falls into place. We've become obsolete."

"Speak for yourself," Silver said, awarding her a scowl from Mild and a faint noise resembling amusement from the watching queen. "If you're trying to get me to join you in mutiny or something, then forget it. I intend to keep this group together, but if you start thinking like that then maybe it would be better for everypony if you weren't in the group. Three's a crowd, you know."

"Was that a threat?" Silver rolled her eyes at the question. She really didn't know if he was being dense or cliché, and frankly her reaction was the same for both possibilities.

"Yes, it was a threat. The purpose of threats is to stop ponies from doing really stupid things that they'll regret. If you don't like it, then why don't you try thinking things through for once in your life, instead of saying the first thing which comes into your head?" Reacting ridiculously quickly, Silver was barely able to equip her axe in time to defend herself against the knife which came slashing down towards her. "What the fuck!?"

Blocking a few more knife swings, Silver changed her tactics, quickly using her magic to seize a shield from the hands of a watching guard, and flinging it towards Mild. As he focused his own magic on stopping it, she attacked with her axe, knocking the knife across the room and out of his influence. For a few moments, the two supposed allies stood staring at each other, both of them wearing expressions of anger and mistrust.

"Sort your shit out, Mild," Silver eventually said, turning her back on the furious God and walking smugly out of the throne room. "Before somepony has to sort it for you."

***

"I don't believe it," Summer said. "Why is it still here if I don't believe in it. It should stop existing. Why is it still here?" The subject of her frustration didn't reply, mainly because it was a locked door. It was, to be precise, the fourth locked door which had been presented to the two ponies since they had begun exploring the denizen’s palace. The previous three had eventually been overcome through a combination of mazes, puzzle solving, brute force, and blind guesswork. It had gotten very old very quickly, and Summer did not relish the chance to do it all over again. "I wouldn't mind this so much if there was some indication that we were making any kind of progress."

"Well, the underlings have been attacking thicker and faster," Applejack pointed out. "Besides, this isn't so bad. Ah'd say we've only got a little further before we're done." This complete guess seemed to give Summer a little hope.

"Really?" Inspecting the door thoughtfully, Summer smiled to herself. "Well then, we'd better get right onto the next hour of boring, repetitive puzzles..." An instant later, somehow, she had equipped her rifle.

A few minutes and one ingeniously named fraymotif later, the door had graciously agreed to stop existing. At least, Summer assumed that it was OK with not existing any more, and it would be hard to prove otherwise. Surprisingly, what greeted them on the other side was not another locked door. Instead, they were greeted by a vast open chamber, swarming with underlings.

"I liked that door," Summer commented. "It was a good door."

"Ya can mourn it later." Readying their weapons, the two ponies leapt forwards into the horde of oncoming underlings. Applejack rushed ahead, carving imps out of the way in huge sweeping arcs, while Summer held back and killed off the more resilient enemies that weren't killed by the scythe. Continuing in this way, the two heroes quickly made short work of the room, until only they were left amidst a sea of bodies.

"Huh. That was oddly easy." Summer stepped cautiously over one of the imps, glancing around to see what she had missed. "Seriously, there are hundreds of these things, and we just wiped the floor with them. Is that really the best this planet has to offer?"

"Wait," Applejack said, as she suddenly realised what was wrong. "Look at all the bodies, Summer."

"Yeah, what?" Summer glanced briefly down at some of the nearby bodies, checking to see if she had missed something. Nothing seemed out of place.

"Why haven't they turned into grist?" At those words, the imps immediately surrounding them leapt up to their feet. "Oh."

"For fuck's sake, LOSAL," Summer complained, suddenly finding herself fending off a few dozen of the angry underlings she had already killed once before. "It was a rhetorical question, not a challenge."

***

Picking himself up out of a small pile of cushions that somepony had apparently attempted to craft a bed out of, and making a futile attempt to clear his head of the loud ringing sound, Spike wearily got to his feet and inspected his surroundings. What had happened here? The entire front side of Sugarcube Corner was in pieces, most of which were scattered around him. He vaguely remembered something about an underling, and some kind of explosion, and a large book.

Whatever that had been about, all Spike knew at that moment was that he was apparently on his own. There was no sign of Twilight, or any underlings, or anything. That was odd. Presumably Twilight was alright - he doubted that the underling would have killed her and then made sure he was sleeping comfortably. Even so, it did seem odd that she would just leave him here.

But then again, who was he trying to convince? Spike had realised quite early on into this whole adventure that he wasn't cut out for Sburb. The extended periods of walking and/or fire-breathing were taking their toll, and even after several hours of relatively comfortable sleep he felt exhausted. And the back of his throat was still sore from the constant bursts of fire he had been providing for Twilight. Maybe Twilight had found some other method of carrying things around, and had decided to give him a rest that she knew he needed.

That didn't make him feel much better, of course. Twilight shouldn't have to go out of her way to suit his inability to cope with the job at hand. It made him frustrated with himself that he was unable to help her as much as he should have been able to, but at the same time there wasn't a lot he could do about it. He was a baby dragon, after all.

***

[mushroomAddict began pestering reticentButterfly]

MA: hEY

RB: Oh, hey Ember.

RB: What is it?

MA: aRE YOU COMING BACK ANY TIME SOON

MA: bECAUSE YOURE JUST SLEEPING IN THE MIDDLE OF A PRETTY EXPOSED CLIFF FACE

MA: aND THERES A LOT OF ANGRY STUFF LIVING HERE

MA: wELL

MA: tHERES A LOT OF ANGRY STUFF THAT LIVED HERE

MA: wERE CURRENTLY EXPLORING NEW RELOCATION OPTIONS

MA: mOST OF WHICH INVOLVE ME TURNING THEM INTO GRIST TO PREVENT OVERCROWDING

RB: I... see.

RB: Maybe I should get back soon, if only to stop you from killing everything.

MA: wELL i CAN AGREE WITH YOU THERE

MA: tHIS IS GETTING TIRING

RB: Well, I'll try and hurry, but we're all very busy over here!

RB: Escaping exploding buildings, hiding from soldiers...

RB: It might not be safe to leave my dream self out here.

MA: wELL THE OTHERS WILL LOOK AFTER IT WONT THEY

RB: I suppose.

RB: Listen, Ember...

RB: I've been thinking.

RB: Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the help you're giving me, like keeping all the underlings away while I'm on Derse, and helping me round up all the frogs.

RB: But, um...

MA: wAIT IS THIS ABOUT WHAT i THINK ITS ABOUT

RB: Uh... maybe? What do you think it's about?

MA: uH

MA: hOLD ON i NEED TO TAKE CARE OF A FEW THINGS

RB: Oh, OK.

RB: I'll, uh, talk to you later then?

MA: k

[mushroomAddict ceased pestering reticentButterfly]

***

Eventually, the seemingly ceaseless waves of underlings had slowed, until finally Destiny and Rarity were allowed a moments rest while Rainbow flew ahead to plan their next move.

"So, how are we for time?" Rarity asked, only vaguely aware of the way a standard Sburb session was supposed to be set out. Beyond the fact that they had to deal with a denizen somewhere on the planet, and that there was going to be a Reckoning at some point, nopony had bothered to explain much about the game to her. Not that she need them to, of course.

"Depends on how long it takes Derse to defeat the White King. After that, the Black King can start the Reckoning. In theory, it could happen in a few seconds. I'd probably give it a good while yet, though. It could be anywhere between a full day and, I don't know, six hours?" Destiny, on the other hand, had been paying quite a bit of attention to how things had worked in her session. There hadn't been a lot else to do, when she was as good at the game as she was - and her enemies had been at a reasonable level of difficulty.

"I take it there's a reason why the Black King has to wait until the White King is dead before starting the Reckoning?" Destiny nodded.

"Both the kings have sceptres, which are powerful artifacts that give the kings the powers of the prototypings Sburb gives them. Each sceptre can control the Reckoning. The Black King could start the Reckoning at any time, of course, but the White King could just stop it again immediately afterwards. And besides, there are procedures involved with that kind of thing. It's all very honourable and by the book." She shrugged. "I guess the Prospitans agree to it all because they're very honourable anyway. And I suppose that the Dersites are fine with it because they know that they're going to win one way or the other."

"I wonder about that. Why would they fight so hard, for so long, and lose so many lives, when they know they're going to lose anyway? How can they do that?"

"Because it's not their job to save Skaia, Rarity. It's your job. Well, all of our jobs. They fight so that we have time to prepare, to buy us time. They're fighting because they know that we can win." A brief silence passed as Rarity contemplated her speech.

"If you don't mind me asking, how much of that did you not steal word for word from one of those stone tablets that the consorts leave lying around?"

"Absolutely none of it."

***

[suspiciousSerpent (SS) began pestering shiningSeraphim (ss)]

SS: hey.

ss: Uh

ss: No offense diamond but im pretty sure that the jigs up as far as pretending to be on your side goes

ss: You do realise that right

SS: yeah, and I kind of hate you for that.

SS: but whatever. I wanted to talk.

ss: Why

ss: Is this some crazy attempt to guilt trip me or something

SS: no. this is some crazy attempt to not go insane and kill acapella.

ss: Heheheh

ss: Dont you have fluttershy and rainbow to talk to

SS: well, Rainbow's gone back to sleep. from my perspective.

SS: Fluttershy's cool though, so I guess it isn't all bad.

SS: but I suppose I did want to guilt trip you a little bit.

SS: I just want to know why you're stabbing us in the back like this.

ss: Do you think that knowing why will change anything

SS: maybe. maybe I just want to know that there is a good reason for all of this.

SS: or maybe I just want to know that whatever it is, it's not my fault.

ss: I dont know why you would think that it has anything to do with you

SS: I guess you're right. it's not like there's any history between the two of us.

SS: I'm implying that there is history between us, just so that we understand each other here.

ss: Well think about it

ss: We dont have any history

ss: Weve never actually met

SS: true, I guess. but still.

ss: What

ss: You destroyed a couple of cameras left lying around by a mystery mare who appeared to shadow your entire life and whose very existence was based purely off of your own assumptions and the accusations of a few online friends who never really understood what was going on

ss: And lets be honest both of us just thought that the other was just a figment of our imagination

ss: Like we had mpd or something

ss: Thats definitely a solid basis for claiming to have history with somepony

ss: If you hadnt died on losas then my existence would still be a matter for discussion as far as youre concerned

ss: And vice versa

SS: I know! I just... it feels like we should be on the same side. we were the same pony until recently.

ss: No

ss: We just had the same body

ss: We are completely different ponies diamond

ss: Our interests are almost inverted

ss: And our special talents

ss: Although suspiciously they are both represented by the same pictographic symbol

ss: Are completely different

SS: you're right, of course.

SS: I guess I'm just being stupid.

ss: Theres nothing stupid about attempting to find similarities

ss: You just need to accept that there arent any

SS: and that's it?

ss: Thats all it needs to be

ss: Ill talk to you later i guess

SS: ... yeah, OK.

SS: bye.

[suspiciousSerpent (SS) ceased pestering shiningSeraphim (ss)]

"Are you OK?" Acapella asked brightly, as she noticed Diamond captchaloguing her laptop with a pained expression. "Who was that?"

"Nopony important," Diamond replied. "Do we have a plan of attack yet?"

"Not really." Acapella shrugged apologetically. "We can't do anything while Rainbow's asleep, and even if she was here we can't do much when it's just the four of us." She looked apprehensively at Fluttershy. "Well, if I'm being brutally honest, just the three of us. Fluttershy has made it quite clear that she doesn't want to be fighting."

"Oh, well, I mean, only if that's OK..." Fluttershy began, but Diamond waved a hoof to cut her off.

"Don't worry; we won't be doing anything anyway. Not until we can get some reinforcements. Emmy has the MAP - we'll need him to sendificate himself over here once he's finished with whatever he's doing. Maybe we'll even get him to bring one of LOSAF's group over, to be on the safe side. Then we can probably do quite a bit of damage if we're careful." The problem, of course, was in knowing when and how to strike. They had no idea what was in the palace. Even if they waited for Mild and Silver to leave, there was no guarantee that there would be nothing more than a fairly potent Black Queen. There could be an entire army inside. "For now I don't think there's much we can do besides sitting around and waiting."

"Well now," an unfamiliar voice said. Turning on the spot, Diamond could only gasp in shock as she saw who was addressing her. "That's not exactly the inspiring battle plan I was hoping for, but maybe we can work something out." Despite the situation, Luna smiled brightly at the assembled ponies. "Who is your leader?" She paused, while the three ponies in front of her simply stared back with a mixture of shock, fear, and surprise. "And... why are you all staring at me like that?"

***KIND OF IN THE PAST I GUESS BUT ITS ALL OPEN TO INTERPRETATION, I SUPPOSE TECHNICALLY THE EVENTS OF THE PAST TWO CHAPTERS WERE ALL SORT OF HAPPENING CONCURRENTLY. THERE AREN'T REALLY ANY WRONG INTERPRETATIONS, EXCEPT ONES THAT ARE CLEARLY FALSE, LIKE SAYING THAT THIS HAPPENED BEFORE TWILIGHT ENTERED OR SOMETHING STUPID LIKE THAT***

In Twilight's session, the Reckoning had yet to begin. The White King was still fighting, and there was still at least a day left before the Reckoning would begin to be a problem. Or at least, that was what should have happened.

Unfortunately for the White King - and, by extension, the players themselves - a certain creature had other ideas. A certain creature that had been lurking around the incipisphere for quite some time, gathering knowledge and watching the movements of the players. A creature with a past more convoluted, and a future more ominous, than basically all of the other characters in the story combined. A creature that had already brought about the death of one incipisphere, and that was more than ready to strike another two off of its list.

"Hm. Interesting," Comet noted, as he and Twilight appeared on the Battlefield. "By the time I reached my Battlefield, the White King was already dead. But right now the war's still going on in full force." He pointed out a few areas of the planet, emphasising where the White King was fighting off hordes of Dersite soldiers. "Obviously your King is pretty potent, given your prototyping, but even so we should try and help him last as long as possible. Which means kill any and all Dersites you happen to see."

"Uh, Comet?" While Comet had been planning out their next move, Twilight had caught sight of a tiny blob in the distance behind them. As they watched, the blob drew nearer, its features becoming easier to make out. This was a shame, all things considered. "Oh... oh no."

"What? What's going on?" If Comet was supposed to suddenly understand something, as Twilight's reaction suggested, he had no idea what it was. "Twilight?" Twilight didn't respond, simply staring in shock. He turned back to the approaching creature. It wasn't like anything he had ever seen before. And he had seen salamanders fighting to the death in some kind of steampunk coliseum thing. "And who the fuck are you supposed to be? Why is nopony telling me what's going on? When did everything stop making sense!?" His increasingly exasperated questions were cut short, as the creature in front of him gave a quiet, yet undeniably evil laugh.

"Making sense? Oh, my poor ignorant friend..." Discord grinned wickedly. "What fun is there in making sense?"

***END OF ACT 2***

Comments

[Alphaetus_Prime]

Here comes the third session's players!
On a completely unrelated point, I hate it when two fics update at exactly the same time and I have to pick which one to read first.

[Isshiki Kotonashi]

"Oh boy"

Is what I usually end up saying after one of your chapters

[Fallen Prime]

I had so many theories about what the mysterious creature's deal was. This is so much worse (better?) than all of them. And it makes an odd kind of sense (oh the irony).

Oh yeah, right, Rainbow's got lancekind. Remembering that reinforces my original convictions in terms of class. Seriously, a Rogue with a lance is kinda silly.

Oh god, session three involved the princesses and Discord, didn't it. I'd demand an explanation from either the next act or the coming intermission, but what fun is there in being straightforward when it comes to Homestuck?

[confoundtheseponies]

588138 Prepare for the most roundabout explanation ever! Kind of. I guess. Anyway, that's not the main reason I'm commenting.
The main reason is that I finally remembered to do this:
http://confoundtheseponies.deviantart.com/art/Team-Fuckass-302323920

I'm not going to pretend that it isn't rushed, nor will I pretend that it would look better if I spent more time on it, but whatever. It was only meant to be a sketch to show what they should look like, and that is what it is.

So yeah. Now that that's done, I can get back to Mass Effect 2!
... I mean, writing Chapter 20.

[eeveeextreme]

W00T!! Discord. This story just got 20% cooler in 10 seconds flat