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Chapter 35

A/N: So I suddenly realised that I can't count, or remember the names of planets. Earlier chapters may contain errors, and I'm going to have to go back and change them. This is why planning is so important.

[CURRENT fractalAbomination began responding to memo FUUUUUUUU]

CFA: ok everypony, action stations

CFA: for about the fiftieth time

CFA: from now on, let's just stay at our action stations permanently

CFA: it'll save time when we inevitably need to use them again

[CURRENT midnightEclipse began responding to memo FUUUUUUUU]

CME: First point of business:

CME: Are there any suggestions for what to do about my sister?

[CURRENT crespucularMagicant began responding to memo FUUUUUUUU]

CCM: There's nothing we can do in this session, I'm afraid. The quest beds are one-use only.

CME: Then what do we do?

CFA: ember's got a quest bed in our session that he won't be using

CFA: we can take your sister there

CFA: but there's a bit of unfinished business here, first

CFA: any luck yet, twilight?

CCM: No sign of him...

CFA: well, keep at it

CFA: fluttershy's made her frog now, so that's brilliant

CFA: but a frog without a pond is like ember without a brain

CFA: i mean, a frog without a pond is like ember

[CURRENT reticentButterly began responding to memo FUUUUUUUU]

CRB: So, uh, what should we do?

CRB: He's growing pretty quickly.

CFA: right, yeah, first of all we need to sort out the reckoning

CFA: that's really our main priority here

CCM: Haven't you already failed that twice before?

CFA: first of all, i did it the first time

CCM: Then where's your frog?

CFA: fine, whatever

CFA: second of all, maybe i've gotten better with practice

CCM: This Reckoning is against a King far more powerful than the ones you've fought before.

CFA: ... third time lucky?

CCM: Yeah, maybe Mild will finally kill you this time.

CFA: can you tone down the optimism?

CFA: seriously, you're too cheery, it's making my head hurt

CCM: ...

CFA: thank you

CFA: ok then, twilight, you carry on looking for spike or whatever it is you're doing

CFA: fluttershy can go with you

CFA: i appreciate that she's recently started fighting, but she'll do more good with you against minor enemies than against a king

CRB: OK.

CFA: the rest of us are going to skaia, so give ember a shout when you're ready and he'll teleport you over

CCM: He can do that?

CFA: short range within his current incipisphere, yeah. it's sort of a hero of space staple, just like how all the heroes of time can travel at least a day in either direction

CCM: Well, alright then.

CFA: ttyl

[CURRENT fractalAbomination stopped responding to memo FUUUUUUUU]

***

"Spike? SPIKE!?" For the past hour, the empty hills of LONAG had echoed with Twilight's desperate cries. The iguanas kept to their cities, while the Mage scoured every inch of the planet. If Spike had left LOPAL, then he had probably returned to Twilight's planet. And of course he had left LOPAL. He had to have left LOPAL. Twilight wasn't sure why it was getting harder to believe that.

"Twilight," Fluttershy said softly, chasing after her friend with a worried expression. "I'm sorry, but... I don't think Spike's here."

"But... he has to be here," Twilight said blankly. "He can't be dead, Fluttershy. He can't be."

"I know," Fluttershy agreed, "But that doesn't mean he's here. He could be anywhere in the incipisphere." It was, of course, perfectly possible that Spike had been killed in the explosion, but Fluttershy decided against mentioning that particular scenario.

"Yeah... yeah, you're right..." Twilight shook her head and sat down on the hill beneath them. "I just... it's my fault he's here. It's my fault all of you were here. And now... you and Spike are the only ones I have left. And at the end of the day, that's no one's fault but mine." Quite unexpectedly, Twilight suddenly found herself being hugged.

"Shut up," Fluttershy said. "None of this is your fault. You... you did everything you could to get us through this game. We all joined because we wanted to. We wanted to make a difference, we wanted to save Equestria..."

"And did we?" Twilight asked bitterly. "What were we even saving Equestria from? We're the reason for the meteors. They're falling, right now, onto our home, and we can't do anything about it."

"But... Comet comes from our Equestria in the future, right?" Fluttershy asked hopefully. "Doesn't that mean we saved it?"

"All it means is that Equestria took a long time to be destroyed," Twilight said. "If ponies in the future play the game then there'll just be even more meteors. We haven't stopped anything." The two ponies sat in silence for a few minutes, while Fluttershy retrieved the Genesis Tadpole. Legs were beginning to form, and soon she wouldn't be able to fit it inside her sylladex.

"I think you're wrong, Twilight," Fluttershy said quietly as she studied the celestial amphibian. "I don't think that all of this has been for nothing." Twilight stared at the tadpole, which lazily glanced in her direction with a large unblinking eye.

"Frogs..." Twilight mumbled, before bursting into cheers of excitement. "Haha! Frogs!" Grabbing a terrified Fluttershy by the hoof, Twilight activated the Paradox Gate, laughing as the two ponies transportalised away.

***

"I'd hate to say 'I told you so'..." Comet said, as the group looked up in shock at the Black King in front of them. "Because that would be a lie, because I did not see this coming."

"Wait, what's going on?" Ember asked, as he had absolutely no idea what was going on.

"Ember," Comet said slowly, while the others cautiously spread out around the King. "Have you been keeping track of all the prototypings that have been flying around? There should be 23. This should be a King with prototypings 23-fold. Does this look like it has 23 prototypings?"

"How should I know?" Ember asked. "I guess it doesn't, though, since you're all so surprised."

"Correct," Luna said. "This isn't the King it should be. More to the point... this is the King from my session. Look, he's even got a damaged leg from where the Queen hit him with a meteor."

"So the question is, what does that mean?" Comet wondered. "I mean, I don't know how many prototypings this guy has, but it's got to be a lot less than 23, so... why leave us against a less powerful enemy?"

"Perhaps they need the King we should be fighting for something else," Star Swirl suggested. "In which case, this would be..."

"A distraction," Diamond finished. "... fuck, we walked right into that one, didn't we?"

"But what's the point?" Luna asked. "Distract us from... what? All this does it make it easier for us to win the game." Comet was silent.

"Maybe they don't care about us winning the game," Diamond suggested. "Maybe their plan is unrelated to the game. They let us win the game, and we don't interfere with their plan because we think we've won."

"Then why does it matter what their plan is?" Acapella asked. "Let's just win the game and leave them to it."

"Yeah, please say I'm not the only one who has a problem with that," Comet said. "I don't feel comfortable leaving them behind with the frog. That would just be an embarrassing way for us to die. Besides, I don't think the game is entirely irrelevant to their plan. Granted, it probably doesn't make a difference to them whether we grow the frog or not, but..."

"What would you have us do, then?" Luna asked. "Should we just throw the frog away and chase after them instead? So far, your best plan has been to just play along with the game for a bit."

"Guys?" Diamond interrupted rather hurriedly, "I hate to put an end to this wonderful discussion, thrilling though it is, but we are kind of in the middle of something here." A large foot almost crushed the group, who barely managed to leap out of the way in time. "Just because he's not as tough as we were expecting doesn't mean he's going down easily, OK?"

"Yes, thank you Diamond, I think we get that," Acapella said, readying her cane. "So, you guys have fought this one before, any weak spots I should know about?"

"The carapace around the neck is particularly thin," Star Swirl explained. "And after most of his attacks he needs a few seconds to recharge, so when he pauses we need to focus our attacks on his weak point."

"Thank you, Mr. GameFAQs," Comet said, as the King began charging towards the hill that they were gathered around. "While you're at it, why don't you tell us the drop rate for the Hallowed Dersite Bracers? I need some new Page gear, I don't have enough Stamina at the moment."

"Are you sure you don't mean Intellect?" Star Swirl retorted. "Fine then, do you have a better plan?"

"I sure do," Comet said triumphantly. "Ember, use Spacial Rend."

***

On LOPAL, Fluttershy sighed. It had taken what felt like hours for Twilight to calm down, but now Spike was finally able to breathe. Slowly worming his way out of her hooves, he eventually managed to speak.

"So, uh, what did I miss?" Spike asked, a little unnerved by how happy Twilight was to see that he wasn't dead.

"Oh, it's been awful," Fluttershy said. "Ember died, and this planet exploded, and we thought that you might have been killed!" Spike glanced between Fluttershy and the ground beneath them, and blinked.

"Uh... this planet? You mean, the one we're standing on?" Fluttershy nodded. "It doesn't look very exploded to me. It looks pretty intact, actually." He paused. "Unless this planet can explode twice, somehow."

"Oh, no, it hasn't happened yet," Twilight said happily. "It's going to happen soon, and you'll disappear. But now we know why! It's just like the frogs on LOTAF. We came back in time to before the planet blew up, and now we'll take you back to the future with us."

"I... see... I think," Spike said slowly, rubbing his head in the way he did when things didn't quite add up. "So, maybe we should get going?"

"What? But you just got here!" Discord said, causing the others to jump up in surprise. "Honestly, you should have told me you were visiting. I'd have baked a cake..." He glanced down at the soft, spongy ground below him. "Then again, that would be a bit redundant, don't you think?" He laughed dramatically, before stopping and instantly adopting a serious expression. "But enough talk." Waving a claw and immediately dispelling Twilight's counterattack, he stepped forwards and repeatedly stabbed the unicorn with his umbrella, before taking a few steps backwards to dodge the lance which came flying towards him. Leaping over the attacking pegasus, he grabbed the lance off of her and stabbed her with it. Taking a few moments to look over the two dead ponies, he glanced behind him at a terrified Spike. Then he shrugged, and picked up the Paradox Gate from Twilight's body. "Not worth it," he said dismissively, and transportalised away.

Spike looked around him. Two of his best friends were dead, and he was otherwise alone on a planet made of cake that would soon be destroyed by an idiot. An idiot trying to protect one of the two ponies that were currently lying dead in front of him. This wasn't good.

***

FRAYMOTIF
[SPACE]
NUCLEAR FUSION

The entire Battlefield was illuminated in the glorious nuclear fireball, as - in a sudden burst of inspiration - Ember re-enacted perhaps the most cataclysmically badass attack known to humanity, literally becoming a star. Manipulating space around himself to form an incredibly dense ball of matter, finally it was clear to everyone that Ember was the densest object in paradox space.

The King was somewhat unhappy about this, as his cumbersome form meant that he was helpless against the onslaught of searing plasma that was ejected from the star in all directions. Worse, as the influence of Ember's gravity field strengthened, so did the severity of its effects, and the King found himself drawn through the air towards the miracle of modern science/Spacey thing.

Eventually, however, the attack reached the limit of Ember's power, and the star went supernova, exploding outwards in a chaotic blast of pure annihilation. Fortunately for Comet and the others, they had taken refuge on the other side of the Battlefield, and so were mostly unharmed. The King, however, was crippled, barely holding onto his last few breaths as Ember landed and the others transportalised beside him.

"Ember," Comet said slowly. "What cheat code are you using and where can I get one? There is no way that attack is balanced." Ember shrugged, as a message popped up beside him.

You have descended five (5) God Tiers! You are demoted to the title of "I'm offensive and I find this Reiuji" and lose 125000000 boondollars!

Gel Viscosity: -134000000!

Cache Limit: -2230102!

Mangrit: -331230000!

"Oh, now it makes sense," Comet said. "That's... that's actually a pretty severe consequence." Ember shrugged again.

"It's not like it took a long time to get those 5 Tiers," he said. "But losing the cache limit is kind of annoying."

"It is?" Comet laughed. "When do we even use grist anymore? When was the last time any of us alchemised something?"

"Guys, he's not dead yet," Diamond pointed out. The King coughed dramatically, before collapsing onto his knees. "... but he may as well be. Carry on, I'll go take care of it." Equipping her axe, she approached the dying monarch, who glared at her in confusion and anger.

"... you're not Edge." Diamond froze, surprised to hear him talk. She hadn't realised that the Kings could talk.

"No, I'm not," she said. "I'm the one who's going to kill you." The King laughed, although in his current state it sounded more like he was choking.

"Yes, by all means, go ahead. I don't care, I had a good run." For a few seconds he was quiet. "Do you think this proves anything?" He asked. Diamond paused.

"What do you mean?"

"A God Tier Prince took me down with a single attack. That's pretty powerful, even for a Prince. You'd do well to keep an eye on that one. He's a good ally for now, but imagine trying to stop him."

"Ember doesn't have a cunning bone in his body," Diamond said. The King shrugged.

"Well, suit yourself. But listen. One attack from a God Tier, that crippled me, after I've already been battered by you lot back in the other session." He shook his head. "And in this game, I'm small fry. What do you think you're going to do against the big one? The guy that should have been here instead of me? An attack like that one, even if the Prince could do it again - which he can't - would probably stagger him, maybe even take out a limb. If you want to even pose a threat, you're going to need everyone at the top of their game."

"Why are you giving me advice?" Diamond asked. The King chuckled worryingly.

"Why shouldn't I? I stopped working for those idiots the moment I realised they were going to leave me for dead." Despite everything, Diamond almost felt sorry for the King, even if he had killed Celestia. "And besides, this isn't advice. This is a warning. If you go after that guy, you're going to die. That tough one, the Heir, what's his name..."

"... Golden?" Diamond offered.

"Yeah, him. He's scary. He's powerful and he's tricky. But let me tell you this," the King's voice sounded a little too gleeful for Diamond's liking. "Even Golden watches his tone around the big guy."

"But why?" Diamond asked. "Why would they make something that even they can't control?" The King gave her an odd look.

"To get control over something that they should never have control of." He paused, then corrected himself. "Something that no one should have control of."

"And what's that?" Diamond asked.

"Everything." The King replied simply. "Now hurry up and kill me." And, after a moment's consideration, Diamond obliged.

***

"They stopped the Reckoning," Silver said, boarding the warship with a worried expression. "That didn't take long at all. I was kind of hoping we'd at least have time to leave before they finished." Mild shrugged off her concerns.

"Who cares? We'll be long gone before they can do anything. Right, Golden?" He gave Discord a hopeful glance, only to be waved away.

"Not quite," Discord said. "They'll spend a bit longer on the Battlefield messing around, sorting out the frog or something, whatever. I need to go take care of something first." Waving the Paradox Gate in his paw, he hit the centre and transportalised himself onto Mild's planet. Mild sighed.

"Ah, yeah, I forgot he needed to do that." He noticed Silver's slightly bemused expression. "What's wrong?"

"Where did he get that Gate?" Silver asked, mentally checking that the Gate was still in her sylladex, which it was. Mild shrugged.

"I think he stole it from Twilight a while ago. Of course, once he's done over there, he'll give it to you and then come back here."

"... I swear that doesn't add up, somehow," Silver said uncertainly. "We gave those MAPs to Echidna, didn't we?" Mild nodded.

"Yeah, but there are two MAPs for this session, that's the important part. We gave Comet the code for one, remember?" In truth, it had taken Mild a bit of time to figure out what the deal with all the MAPs was, but finally it seemed to have fallen into place. "That's how everything until now has worked out."

"Well, OK," Silver said. "But even so... doesn't part of you want to deliberately not do something just to see what happens?"

"You mean, do I want to make a paradox?" Mild asked. "Not really, no. We've been fantastically lucky so far, and I don't want to tempt fate. Maybe we can make a few paradoxes after we're in control of everything."

"Fine," Silver said. "So, uh... how long until he gets back?" Mild gave her a pained look.

"... fuck."

***

"Alright then, we've killed the King," Comet said. "But that's no reason to go relaxing any time soon. Barely any of the denizens have been dealt with, so there's no grist hoard for us until that's taken care of."

"Are we seriously going to play the game, then?" Luna asked. "We're just going to ignore that Mild and Silver and Discord are taking over paradox space or whatever?" Comet shrugged.

"What else can we do?" He asked simply.

"What else? What else?" Luna asked. "Oh, I don't know, maybe we could save my sister! And then chase after Discord and stop him!"

"We don't know where he's going," Comet pointed out. "And we don't know how he's getting there. Plus our only mode of transport is with Twilight, and she and Fluttershy have just dropped off the fucking grid."

"Yeah, about that..." a voice behind Comet said. He turned to see where it had come from and, upon finding where it had come from, was tempted to keep on turning. "I've got some good news and some bad news." Twilight said, unable to keep the grin off of her face. Beside her stood Spike, looking rather pleased with himself, as he looked up at the winged unicorn beside him.

"Twilight." Comet stated. "You're... uh... you're God Tier now... uh... when... when did this happen, exactly?" The Mage shook her head.

"Ages ago, before we even left for Luna's session," she replied. "After coming back from their session, that is."

"And how did it happen?" Comet asked, before stopping himself. "Discord, obviously... next question, where's Fluttershy?" Twilight paused, confused.

"We revived her... hasn't she come down from Derse yet?" The blank looks she was receiving told her the answer. "Oh. That's odd, it's been quite a while since then."

"We can worry about that later," Comet said. "What's the bad news?"

"I lost the Gate," Twilight said. "Well, I say that I lost it. I was dead at the time, so you can't really blame me for it."

"I can and will," Comet informed her. "OK, so, we have three God Tiers now, that's pretty good. Back to the topic at hand, though, we have no way of chasing after Discord even if we knew where he was going. Any ideas?"

"We could just ask," Star Swirl said, pointing a hoof at where a surprised Discord was standing.

"Hello!" Discord said, waving happily. "This is the part where I kill you!"

***

PD: Have you got it yet.

FA: maybe i have, maybe i haven't

FA: only the moon knows

PD: Gog damn it Comet, I dont have time for this.

FA: ok, ok. seriously, what's up with you

FA: where are you?

PD: Derse, if you must know.

FA: why?

PD: Because.

FA: ...

FA: fine, whatever, this isn't at all suspicious

FA: 77D3ewF0

PD: Youre sure?

FA: i'm 50% sure

FA: that's either the code for the map, or for a badass fire skag

FA: good luck

PD: ...

FA: what?

FA: yes it's the fucking code, get off my back already

PD: Fine.

PD: Thanks.

FA: can you make gratitude sound any more forced?

FA: i don't think you can

PD: Im going now.

FA: good

[psychoticDeceiver ceased pestering fractalAbomination]

***

Instantly, the battle froze. Discord stopped mid-stab, and looked around at the frozen ponies. Not one to waste an opportunity, he attempted to move his umbrella, but found that it too was frozen along with everything else. This was interesting.

"Hello?" Discord called. The air shifted slightly, and he turned around to see the Mage of Time approaching. "Oh, Twilight. I should have figured it was you. Very well done, by the way... what do you want?"

"I want to know where you're going and how you're getting there," Twilight said simply. "And you're going to tell me."

"Am I now?" Discord asked, a smile dancing around his face. "What makes you so sure of that?" A sudden intense pain shot through his arm, causing him to cry out in surprise. He fell to the ground, as more bursts of pain caused him to writhe around the surface of the Battlefield. After a few minutes, the pain stopped, and Twilight allowed him to rise to his feet. "What... what was that?" Discord gasped, as Twilight casually brushed imaginary dust of the frozen ponies around her.

"That was a warning," Twilight stated. "This has gone on for long enough, Discord. I'm putting an end to it. You will tell me what I want to know."

"Yeah." Discord shook himself. "Yeah, OK."

"Good." Twilight smiled a little too sweetly. "So, first of all, where are you going?"

"The middle," Discord said. "The middle of the Paradox Loop." Twilight raised a quizzical eyebrow, and Discord sighed dramatically. "Our sessions are arranged in a sort of loop, right? It's called a Paradox Loop, and in the centre... is something of interest."

"So how do you plan on getting there?" Twilight asked.

"Paradox Gate," Discord said. "We hook it up to our ship, and we use the power of our King to steer through the Veil, into the places where no one should be able to go. Nothing gets to the middle, under normal circumstances. Nothing."

"And what are you going to do when you get there?" Discord grinned.

"Heh, I don't even care about telling you, because you're never going to be able to do anything." He was going to enjoy this, despite his current situation. "We're going to take control of our own destinies. Getting to God Tier doesn't make you immortal, you know. It makes you hard to kill, but nothing lasts forever. Nothing." He winked. "Sound familiar?"

"... wait..."

"Yeah, it's what you think," Discord said. "I get into the middle, and the fabric of paradox space will bend to my will. I'm not just going to be unkillable. I'm going to be immortal. But you, Twilight, and all of your little friends... you're going to have never existed."

"Hm, sounds like you've got it all figured out," Twilight said. "Oh, except I've got you trapped here. What if I never let you go?" Discord shrugged.

"You're going to, whether you like it or not. You might be a God but you can't keep this kind of pressure up for long. Especially not if you're moving around and talking at the same time." He smiled as Twilight shifted uncomfortably. She knew that he was right. "I reckon you've got, what, another thirty seconds?" He laughed lightly. "Better make them count, Twilight."

"OK, last question," Twilight said. "How do you know about all of this?"

"That's sort of a grey area," Discord said. "The plan was originally suggested by Mild to me, and me to Mild. But I have something of a guarantee that the premise is true. And on the same token, I know that it's literally impossible for you to kill me. At least, for now."

And with that, Twilight released the spell, collapsing to the ground while the others burst into life, and immediately began attacking a startled Discord, who simply transportalised away with his Paradox Gate. Figures, Twilight thought to herself. Of course he'd have planned that.

***

"Let's just clarify something here," Star Swirl said, after everyone on the Battlefield had calmed down. "They're going to the middle? The middle of our sessions?"

"Yes," Twilight repeated. "To, I don't know, control everything, whatever that actually means."

"And they need all the power of a 23-fold King to get there?"

"Yes," Twilight said simply. "Well, I don't know about the actual numbers, but they're using the King. Maybe the middle has some kind of defense that they need to get around?"

"Possibly," Star Swirl mused. "In which case we wouldn't need as much power, would we? If they break the defense on the way in then we should be able to just slip by."

"Yes," Luna said. "But we can't get there. We don't have a Gate any more, remember?" Luna was rather annoyed about this whole affair. The promise she had made to Echidna was fresh in her mind, and everything about this recent turn of events was beginning to feel like the trap was closing around her. "Unless anyone has any bright ideas?"

"I have several," Star Swirl said happily.

"Comet?" Twilight asked, turning away from the discussion towards the unicorn, who appeared to be sulking. "What is it?"

"Nothing," Comet said dismissively. "I just wonder if there's something we're forgetting."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's nothing, but..." he shrugged. "There's a lot about this that I don't like, starting with the amount of death that's been happening lately." He blinked. "... death. That's it. That's what I forgot." He gave Twilight a curious look. "Fluttershy's missing. She died, and you revived her, so her dreamself should be here, but she's not. When did we stop worrying about that?"

"I don't know," Twilight said. "I guess Discord arrived and then we had more important things to worry about, like how we're going to chase after them."

"That's not more important," Comet said. "That's not more important than making sure everyone's alive and well."

"I... I know that," Twilight said. "But I'm sure she's fine." Comet was silent for a few moments.

"... yeah, probably."

***

"Mild, don't do this, it's stupid," Silver protested, as Mild alchemised the MAP that Comet had given him the code for. "We should just wait for Golden to get back."

"You're right," Mild said. "But we don't have time."

"How will this save time?" Silver asked. "We'll end up missing him, and then we'll both waste time trying to get back in touch."

"This would be so much easier if he hadn't stopped carrying his laptop around with him," Mild complained. "But whatever. Fine. Let's just wait here."

"That's the first sensible thing you've said in a while," Silver said with a sigh of relief. "Don't worry, he'll be here soon."

"Your faith in him is a little worrying," Mild said. "I don't know how you can trust him like that. He doesn't really care about either of us, I hope you realise that."

"Of course," Silver said. "That doesn't mean he's not a good business partner."

"This isn't a business, it's a retirement plan," Mild pointed out. "And I don't intend to lose it just because you've misjudged Golden."

"Likewise," Silver said. "Look, if you're so worried about it, then why don't you go?"

"What? What good will it do if I go on my own?" Mild asked. Silver shrugged.

"Actually, it works better than if I went with you. I'll stay here, you go back to our session, and whoever finds Golden first transportalises to where the other one is," Silver said. "Either you find him in our session and come back to me and the King, or I find him here and we'll all go to where you are."

"Wait, hold on," Mild said. "If I find him, we can't not go back for you. How do I know that you'll come and get me?"

"... you are really paranoid, you know that?" Silver asked.

"I have two allies, both of whom are mentally disturbed murderers. It's a wonder I haven't been killed yet," Mild pointed out. He paused. "Actually, I have been killed once, and that was Golden's fault. So actually, I think my paranoia is pretty justified."

"Look, think about it this way," Silver said. "You have your Mindy thing. Yes, it's nullified by Luna's Voidy thing, but so what? Given the obstacles we're going to face... well, one obstacle in particular, don't you think you're powers will be pretty much essential?" Mild paused and thought about that.

"I guess. But it's not about that, it's about whether Golden sees it that way."

"Look, you don't have to go!" Silver shouted. "Stay here if you want. I'm just saying that you could go, and it'll be possible to regroup no matter who finds him." They were silent for a few seconds.

"Yeah, OK," Mild sighed. "I'll go. If you find him, then... can you promise me that you'll pick me up?" Silver laughed.

"You almost sounded vulnerable for a minute there," she taunted. "But... yeah, sure." Mild nodded, and activated the MAP, transportalising back into his old session. Almost immediately, Discord bounded into the throne room, Paradox Gate in hand.

"Whew, took you long enough to get rid of him," Discord complained. "Now, let's get this show on the road!"

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