• Published 2nd Jan 2013
  • 489 Views, 6 Comments

Astra (Story 1/9) - Spikey_Wikey



An origin story about Equestria, as well as the major characters that live there.

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Chapter 8: Separated

Chapter 8: Separated

Equina sighed as she sat down and took a sip of her tea. The sound of rustling leaves met her ears as a small breeze blew through her mane. She grimaced; the tea was bitter, but that couldn’t be helped. She had no sugar to use. Even her seat was nothing more than a small tree stump. Carefully, Equina tried to grab the teacup with her hoof, but it was still too hot.

She set the cup down next to her and stretched, looking over to her right at the same time to admire her work. Four stone walls formed a square room sat in a treeless area of the forest very close to her. It was about the size of one of the bedrooms in the Crystal Castle.

The castle…she shuddered and tried to force herself not to think about it, but she couldn’t. Three weeks; it had been three weeks by her estimate since…her thoughts came to a halt as she struggled against the sudden build-up of tears in her eyes.

Stop this,’ she thought to herself; she hated thinking about it, and, hastily wiping her eyes, shifted her thoughts to something else.

She needed an easier way to get stone blocks. A reshaping spell she had found in one of the books she had with her had helped her with the room she had built, but the process was slow and didn’t result in many useable stones; she was going to need a lot if she wanted a castle.

She smiled to herself at the thought of this. It was going to be great living in a castle that she built all by herself. After all, she was a princess.

***

Polaris struggled to keep running as his stomach began cramping up. It was right behind him, and he knew that if he stopped for just a moment, he was dead. Leaves kicked up behind and to the side of him as he ran through the forest, frantically dodging trees and rocks in a seemingly vain effort to run from the beast that was chasing him. He glanced behind himself briefly to get an idea of how close it was and almost immediately wished he hadn’t.

It was racing after him as fast as it could, its four large claws sending up small explosions of leaves, dirt and rock as they smashed into the ground. Any branches that were in its way were either torn off or burnt to a crisp as it chased him. Its mouth opened wide and let out a bone-chilling roar. Polaris looked back in front of him, but it was too late. He tripped over a fallen tree and fell over himself, tumbling a few feet forward before landing painfully on his back.

The beast had caught up to him now, and he sat up to face it as it walked slowly closer to him, baring its many sharp teeth. It spread its wings and crouched down low, almost crawling to him, licking its lips with its forked tongue. Polaris watched as the leaves behind it were launched into the air as its tail dragged on the ground.

Dragged on…

Drag on…

Dragon.

It was inches from him now as it opened its mouth.

It’s called a dragon.

He could see the fire building in its throat. It was going to cook him. His heart felt as though it would burst out of his chest. He raised his hooves up to shield himself as the dragon exhaled its flames. He screamed in agony as it consumed him, searing his fur and skin and boiling his blood. He rolled over and landed on the floor.

Polaris opened his eyes. He was staring at the ceiling, his breaths heavy and loud. Slowly, he sat up and looked around. His bed and door were on either side of him, and he leaned back against his bed, breathing a sigh of relief. After a few minutes, he stood up, his shaking legs barely supporting him. He was sweating and his mane was a complete mess. Carefully, he made his way out of his room as he began to remember his nightmare.

Dragon.

As he thought about the creature’s mannerisms and appearance, he realized how appropriate a word this sounded, yet he couldn’t figure out why. It just seemed to fit.

“Dragon.”

It sounded so…dangerous; a majestic, yet fearsome creature, capable of shooting white-hot fire right out of its very mouth. As he made his way into the kitchen, he noticed, through a hole in the wall he hoped would someday have a window, that it was still dark out. He sighed; it hadn’t been the first night he had lost sleep, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. He rubbed his eyes tiredly as he lit the candle sitting on the kitchen table. He knew it wasn’t right to use magic in such a lazy way, but a straight month of insomnia had taken its toll on him.

He pulled out the only chair he had and sat down in it, resting his head in his hooves and rubbing his temples in a half-hearted attempt to wake himself up more quickly. He remembered reading about an awakening spell in one of the books he had with him, but even if he could remember it, he probably still wouldn’t use it. It was a crude use of magic and was really only meant for the most desperate of situations. On top of that, he had had to cut down a regrettable number of trees using magic in order to build the small house he was now living in, and that was abuse enough.

His head slowly began to clear, and he started to think about what he was going to do that day; after finishing his house a few days ago, he had rested as much as possible and been generally unproductive, but now boredom was beginning to set in. He slowly stood up, his legs still a little shaky and looked into the living room at the books that his mother had given him.

His mother…

Suddenly, he felt very sick; like a switch inside him had been turned on. In perfect synchronization, his breathing and heartbeat steadily quickened. His pupils dilated, and he began sweating again.

No!’ he scolded himself, struggling through a frenzy of racing flashbacks. ‘You’re not doing this now! It’s been almost a week since the last time!’ He focused on his breathing and did his best to get it under control. He kneeled down, supporting himself on his front hooves, and, after a few strained moments, he slowed his breathing down. The most help, however, came from a source that, on the very first night of his second isolation, had given him a small ray of hope.

Through the hole in the wall, Polaris could see that the sunrise had started, and there was only one pony he knew of that was capable of doing that.

***

I like this forest,’ Equina thought to herself as she sat in the kitchen of the nearly finished castle. ‘I like it a lot.’ It was quite beautiful, especially now that it was autumn. Brightly colored leaves covered the trees and ground, giving the forest an almost magical glow.

Three months on her own…three months of pure isolation with nothing but the sounds of nature and her occasional spoken word to meet her ears. She had a lot of time to think now, and lately her thoughts had been focusing on her father. ‘It’s been a really long time…I wish I could visit you…

She had also thought about Sombra a few times, though that never lasted long. It wasn’t enough to say that she’d never stop hating him. As far as she was concerned, ponies like him didn’t deserve to live. During her first few days alone, when she had been particularly distressed, she had made a ‘list of traits’ she felt Sombra had as an attempt to try and vent her emotions: cruelty, deceptiveness, treachery, selfishness, anger…the list went on and on. She had even put something on there about how easy it was for him to take the Crystal Heart.

I guess that’s what happens when you place all your hope for defense in a spell artifact.’ The moment she thought that, however, she began scolding herself.

Shut up! The founders did the best they could…mom did the best she could…

She shook her head to prevent her thoughts from trailing too much. ‘Still, there has to be a better way. Hmm…

She thought about the list she had made; specifically, the first five items. ‘What if these specific words don’t just define Sombra? What if they define evil in general?

It seemed reasonable enough. ‘So if that’s the case…maybe there’s a way to protect against it using their opposites.

“The opposite of cruelty…” she said aloud as she looked out the window. Today she would finish the castle, and then tomorrow she would figure out a way to protect it.

***

Polaris squinted as the sunlight hit his face. For the first time in what he could only guess was a few months, he had actually slept through a whole night. His insomnia seemed to be slowly dissipating, and his panic attacks were occurring less and less often; it seemed the trauma he had experienced was finally starting to go away. Maybe he could find something to do with his time, like find his sister or-

He sat up and looked at his thigh, only now remembering that he had never figured out what his special talent was supposed to be. For weeks had had walked around his house aimlessly, sometimes passing out right where he stood or falling over and waking up from a nightmare a few hours later. He hadn’t had the time or energy to think about his cutie mark (his face momentarily fell as he remembered his mother’s endearing term for it, but he quickly fixed himself) and had all but completely forgotten it was even there. He eyed it inquisitively now, trying to figure out what it was for.

Random template-looking body parts and a question mark…it appears after I create a brand new creature out of random objects…

No…no, it couldn’t be…not that…it was just too…

And yet, Polaris saw no other alternative. It had been a long time since he had felt excitement like this. ‘I can…create…creatures? Living, breathing, creatures? And all I need is just…stuff? That’s my special talent?

A knocking sound brought him out of his thoughts. He slowly looked up at his bedroom door, unsure whether or not he was hearing things. He got out of his bed and walked into the hallway.

Again he heard a knock. It was coming from the front of the house. ‘That’s…that’s the front door…how could somepony be knocking on the front door?

Carefully, he walked up to it, taking no notice of the sudden darkening of the room or the chill that was now in the air surrounding him. The door seemed foreboding for some reason, as though it would be better off left alone. The knock came again, louder and more forceful this time. Polaris really didn’t want to open it, but he noticed, with increasing concern and heart rate, that he was no longer in control of his own body. His hoof reached for the knob and turned it, and the door swung open. The sight that met his eyes left him completely speechless. He stumbled back in horror, nearly falling to the floor in the process.

Standing outside was his mother. There were deep cuts and bruises all over her dirt-covered body and empty, black sockets where her eyes used to be. Her bottom jaw had been knocked out of place, blood dripping from her mouth, and what was left of her mane was a filthy, torn up, disheveled mess. Her front left leg was broken; Polaris could see the bone poking through her skin, and her cutie marks were missing completely. Only bloody muscle tissue was showing, as though they had been ripped off of her.
There was a sick crunching sound as she took a limping step towards him. He opened his mouth to scream but found his throat was too dry to do so. He tried to back up and actually did fall down this time. She was towering over him now, and the smell of rotting flesh hit his nostrils.

'Polaris…' she whispered, the sound of bone grinding against bone disturbing his ears and making him shiver.

‘Polaris…’

“Polaris…Polaris!”

“Gahhh!”

He felt his eyes open and looked around frantically, squinting as the bright morning light beamed through the window. As his vision cleared, he saw that he was in his kitchen, lying on the table.

“Wha…what…” Polaris slowly turned his head to the left and saw that Starswirl the draconequus was in his kitchen.

***

Kindness, honesty, loyalty, generosity, laughter; these were the terms Equina had come up with.

That last one may be a little weak, but...

“Hmm…” She rested a leg on the table and put a hoof to her chin as she thought about it. After a few moments, she shrugged; it would have to do.

Now how do I put these traits into something physical?’ She knew she wanted it to be similar to the Crystal Heart, but it had to represent what she had come up with instead. Her mind cast itself back to the last time she had been with her father.

He took care of me for six months…he made sure I got better…I have to dedicate this to him somehow.

“What did he like?” she muttered to herself as she hunched over the table more.

Well, mom, definitely, and Polaris and I, but…’ She stopped her train of thought as she realized that she hadn’t seen her brother in months; she didn’t even know if he was alive or not.

He liked plants,’ she continued, forcing herself past this revelation. ‘He had a garden of flowers and he always talked about…

She abruptly sat up as she finished her thought out loud. “Planting a tree!”

Yes, that was a great idea. She would plant a tree, and the tree would physically embody the…traits.

There must be a better word for them. Components, characteristics…elements.

“Oh, that’s good,” she decided. “Elements…of…hmmm…”

She shook her head. ‘Naming them probably isn’t as important right now. I need to plant the tree and figure out how exactly this is going to work.

There was a small gorge just a bit south of the castle that would probably be a good place to plant it. It was the same gorge she had gotten most of the stone from, and so now there was a moderately-sized quarry there.

Equina stood up and walked into the main hall, her hoofsteps echoing just slightly. She opened the front doors and made her way outside, breathing in the fresh air. She missed her home, but…everything here was so calm and tranquil, even when it was windy or rainy. She felt a sense of security in this forest, like the whole world was at peace. This was what she wanted to protect: the balance, the harmony.

“Harmony…” she said to herself as she smiled. She knew what name to give them, and what a fitting name it was.

“The Elements of Harmony.”

***

Polaris just stared at him. He was sitting on the counter, slowly kicking his legs, his mismatched lion and eagle claw folded together in his lap.

“Are you alright now?” he asked him, barely raising an eyebrow. “That must have been some dream.”

“Nightmare,” Polaris said, standing up. “I get them a lot. How-”

“Don’t bother asking; I’ll just tell you,” Starswirl said quickly. “I’d show you instead, but the last time I tried that you passed out on the floor…I’ve brought you your mother’s body.”

Polaris stared at him for a few seconds. “You…brought me…”

“Alright…looks like I’ll have to explain this too,” Starswirl said as he hopped onto the floor. “Weren’t you ever curious as to how you wound up in the middle of a bare field after seconds ago you were clinging to your dying mother?”

His words hit Polaris hard. This wasn’t the Starswirl he knew; the one he knew spoke cryptically, carefully, like he wasn’t sure the pony he was speaking to would like what he had to say or that it would be understood. This one was cold and abrupt. There was no thought given to what he was saying.

Could this be part of the change he was talking about?

“I…that…that was you?” he asked, looking up at him. “You did that?”

“I had no choice.”

“I hardly even said goodbye to her,” Polaris responded, his voice already becoming desperate and forced. “Me and Equina…and you just…”

He turned away from him as his anger built even more, his vision blurring his furious tears.

“That was my nightmare, wasn’t it,” he said as he tried to control his aggrieved breathing. “You showed up at my door with my mother’s corpse, and…just thought everything would be okay?” He turned around and faced Starswirl. “Do you have any idea what this has been like for me?”

“Look, I don’t have much time. I know what you’re going through, but-”

“No, you don’t know anything!” Polaris suddenly yelled. “You don’t know what I’m going through! I barely eat, I haven’t slept properly in months, I don’t know where my sister is, and I’m all by myself in the middle of some forest! It’s almost exactly like how it used to be before you showed up in my house, only now I don’t even know where I am!”

He paused briefly as he paced around, trying to work more of his anger off. “I’m losing my mind! You have no idea what you’ve done to me! These nightmares aren’t normal. Every single one either ends with me dying or is so disgusting or horrifying I wake myself up screaming! I’m stuck in my own head every second of every day, and it’s torturing me, so don’t you dare try and tell me that you know what I’m going through because you don’t!”

Starswirl stared at him for a few moments, watching his breathing become calmer before answering. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I had to do that, but I couldn’t leave the two of you there.”

“You moved Equina, too?” Polaris asked as he sat on the floor, looking down. “Why?”

“The Crystal Empire is gone,” he replied. “That’s what I warned your mother about. After I moved the two of you and saved her, Sombra got furious and placed a curse on the empire. It vanished.”

“It…it’s gone?” Polaris looked up in disbelief before shaking his head and addressing a more important issue. “What do you mean you saved her? You just told me that you brought me her body.”

“I-ahhh!” Starswirl cried out suddenly as he fell to the ground, supporting himself with all four mismatched limbs.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Polaris asked, standing up. “Are you alright?”

“N…no…” Starswirl barely managed. “The change…is…f-finishing. I…I have to go.”

His personality was changing, then.’ “Wait…what do I do now? I have no one out here…wherever here is.”

Starswirl looked up at him and smiled through his tremor-inducing pain. “Don’t worry. We’ll see each other again.”

“But it won’t be…you. You’ll have your original body, but you won’t know what happened to my home, right?” Polaris finished. “When can I expect you?”

“N-not…s-s-sure.”

Polaris could plainly see that Starswirl was in agony, and, acknowledging this, nodded curtly. “See you soon, then.”

“L-likewise, Polaris. It’s…been a-an honor. O-one day, I h-hope th-that-”

“Just go!”

“R…right,” he replied, and in the blink of an eye he vanished.

***

“Okay. Here we go,” Equina said out loud as the shade of the small gorge surrounded her. She had spent about an hour digging up a patch of dirt to place the seed in, but she hadn’t yet figured out how to give the tree the qualities she wanted. The Crystal Heart had sort of just happened by accident to her understanding.

“Equina?”

“Yes, mommy?”

“Would you like to hear a story?”

Equina walked halfway down the stairs to the living room where her mother was sitting. “What kind of story?” she asked.

“How about where the Crystal Heart came from?”

“Oooooh, yes, please!” Equina said as she bounded down the remainder of the staircase and climbed headfirst over the back of the couch.

Her mother giggled. “Well, do you remember what I told you about the Windigoes and the five other ponies I was with?”

Equina nodded excitedly.

“Alright, then I’ll continue from there. We were in the cave, surrounded by the cold, evil Windigoes. There were circling high above us in the air. Me, Smart Cookie, and Private Pansy were huddled together in the middle of the cave.”

“Were you scared, mommy?”

“A little, but the three of us had each other, and we all wanted to be friends.”

“Wait, what happened to the other ones?”

Clover giggled again. “They were frozen in ice.”

“Oh.”

“So, none of us knew what to do.”

“You didn’t?”

“Nope.”

“But…but you’re so good at magic! Wasn’t there a spell or something?”

Clover nodded. “Turns out, there was. We were so happy to be friends with each other that it didn’t matter to us if we were going to be frozen in ice, but luckily something happened. I didn’t understand how, but I had started casting a spell, and after a few seconds it shot into the sky and made all the Windigoes disappear, and in the sky was a giant, pink heart!”

“Wow! Is that where the Crystal Heart came from?”

“Sure is. A little later, the pink heart turned into solid crystal, and the next morning, the three tribe leaders decided they wanted to be friends, too, and that’s how Equestria was made.”

“What was the spell, mommy? What was the spell?”

“I…I don’t know. I’ve been trying to figure that out for a while.”

“You don’t know?”

“Nope. It just sort of happened.”

Equina frowned. “Well, maybe one day you’ll figure it out…or somepony, right?”

“Yeah…one day…”

Equina looked at the seed sitting in the soil and picked it up. This wasn’t going to work. She turned around and looked up at the sky. As far as she could tell, there were only two ways to make this happen. She either had to figure out what the spell was or hope some friends came along so that they all could be placed in mortal peril. She sighed as she began walking towards the dirt staircase she had built for herself.

Time to hit the books, I guess.

***

“Here we go…” Polaris muttered to himself as he charged up the spell. He focused on the rock in front of him as hard as he could, his horn sparking madly. He thought about the rock; he thought about the rock breathing, about it moving around by itself. Without warning, his horn fired a massive bolt of magic at it, and the ground beneath it exploded, sending dirt and grass flying in every direction. Polaris stumbled backward and shielded his eyes, lowering his hoof when the dust began to settle. The rock was gone.

Great. Give me a scale and a feather, and I’ll create a flying, fire-breathing monster, but anything simpler than that is out of the question.’ He paused for a moment as his mind focused on the feather and scale. Where exactly had they come from? Who had given them to Starswirl? The feather especially…he couldn’t place it, but it really seemed-

“Ouch!” he yelled out as he was hit in the head by a hard…rock. It fell to the ground with a soft thud right in front of him, and he looked up at the sky. How high had it gone? He winced. It was good thing it was small, or it really could have done some damage. Slightly annoyed, he began walking towards the front door, briefly glancing at the mound of dirt in the front of his house before stepping inside.

August 11, 2013

“Psst…Webster. Are you awake?”

The pony groaned lightly as he opened his eyes, which were immediately met with large, purple ones.

“Ah!” he cried out as he moved away. “Surprise, don’t…you can’t wake some…pony up like that!”

Sompony…he was trying to get used to the different words of this place, but sometimes it was still weird.

Surprise backed away and frowned. “Sorry, it’s just…I had to do it quickly. Lauren really wants to talk to you about something.”

Webster barely nodded as he rubbed his eyes. “Wow…how long was I asleep?”

“About two months.”

Webster chuckled at that. “No, really, how long was I asleep?”

“You went to sleep on…June 15th. You woke up now. It’s August 11th.”

“Surprise, I don’t have time for – why did you wake me up anyway?”

“Wow, you're really slow when you first get up, aren't you. Lauren wants to talk to you, remember?”

“What…what is it?”

Surprise shrugged. “She just asked me to wake you up…said it couldn’t wait any longer.”

Webster moved the sheets off of himself and sighed. “Alright…time to go. Thanks for waking me up, I guess.”

“No problem! Lauren says I’m really good at it!”

Webster had reached the door now and started to open it. “Yeah, no kidding.”

Quickly, he made his way through the hall and down the staircase at the end of it, opening the door to the giant room. As had been the case the last time he had been down here, it was full of ponies all bustling around with papers and clipboards.

“Ah, there you are!”

Webster turned to his right to see Lauren walking towards him and nodded at her. “What’s going on?”

“Walk with me,” she answered as she walked past him towards the other side of the room.

“Is…everything okay?”

“No.” Her tone was harsh. “You almost compromised this safehouse.”

“What? How? I was asleep for two months…a-apparently.”

“Yes, you were asleep, but your human counterpart wasn’t.”

“I don’t understand what’s wrong.”

Lauren abruptly stopped walking. “Your human decided to put what happened to you in the story! Waking up, meeting Surprise, talking to me; you must have an excellent memory, Webster, because he was very specific!”

Webster’s eyes widened at her sudden outburst. “What…what are you talking about?”

Lauren stopped one of the ponies walking by them. “Do you have chapters 4 and 5 on you?”

“I…believe so…” said the pony as he shuffled through the papers he was carrying. “Just let me…ah! Here we go.” He pulled out two groups of paper with staples in them and handed them to her. “But I need those back.”

Lauren nodded. “Thank you. I’ll have them returned to you later.”

The pony nodded and walked away. “Everypony is required to have a copy of all chapters on them at all times,” Lauren said as she faced Webster again. “Look at these.”

She conjured a chair for him to sit in as he flipped through Chapter 4. “It’s towards the end,” she said. “It’s separated from the rest of it by question marks.”

Webster found it and began muttering to himself as he skimmed through it, his eyes widening. “I…I don’t…this isn’t my fault, though! I didn’t-”

To silence him, Lauren replaced the papers he was holding with Chapter 5. “Keep going; it gets better.”

“The Company…” Webster repeated as he read. “Ponysona…projecting…my name.” He looked up at her with his mouth open. “He got the whole thing…everything.”

Lauren nodded, a grim expression on her face. “Maybe I wasn’t clear enough, maybe it’s not common sense not to leak information like this, I don’t know. All I know is that we were almost discovered, and it’s your fault.”

Webster was confused. “How is it my fault? I told you I-”

“I know what you told me, but he got this information from your memories. When you went to sleep, you connected with him, gave him the idea to write about this and told him everything he needed to know, whether you intended to or not.”

Webster sat back in the chair and folded his front legs. “But how could The Company find this place? It’s not like he’s a world-famous author or anything.”

“He doesn’t need to be. The Company knows about us; they just don’t know where we are or who’s involved. Some of our own people are working undercover there, but any more information, like, say, where we’re located, could be enough for them, and it’s a risk we can’t take.”

Webster sighed. “So what do we do?”

“When you go to sleep again, he’ll no doubt see this conversation in your memories and want to use it, but you can't let him.”

“You do realize that there is literally nothing I can do to stop him from writing it into the story, right?”

“You two share the same mind…in a way of sorts. He obviously appreciates the work we’re doing here or at the very least has an understanding of it, and…”

“And?”

“And I don’t think making it public will necessarily put us in jeopardy, but it needs to be…regulated. There have to be standards. He can’t just go publishing every conversation we have.”

“But what if people expect him to? When he writes Chapter 6, he’ll need a reason not to write about this place.”

Lauren thought about that for a moment. “I’m sure he’ll be able to come up with something, or maybe you can suggest to him what to do.”

“Like what?”

“I have no idea.”

“Great,” said Webster as he stood up. “Guess I’ll get to work then.”

He started walking back toward the stairs, wondering how he was going to communicate.

“Hey! How did it go? Are you going to sleep again?!” Surprise had caught up with him, derailing his train of thought.

“Yeah…that’s all I seem to do around here.”

“You make that sound like a bad thing! I wish I could sleep whenever I wanted.”

Webster blinked. “No, Surprise. I…don’t think you do.”

“Well…maybe not, but it must be nice.”

“Actually, I’m not even tired. How am I supposed to go to sleep if I’m not even tired? I just woke up!”

“Oh, that’s not a problem! There a spell on all the bedrooms that make you feel tired. Usually ponies only sleep if they need to talk to their humans.”

“So…that’s why I slept for two months?”

Surprise nodded. “Yupp!”

“You realize you could have told me that before, right?”

They had reached the bottom of the stairs now, and Surprise tilted her head to one side. “You would have forgotten anyway,” she answered before quickly bouncing away.

“What? Hey, wait! What does that mean!?” Groaning, Webster shook his head and made his way up the staircase. He walked down the hallway at the top and opened the door to his room. As he walked inside, he felt the effects of the spell for the first time, an overwhelming drowsiness hitting him. He laid down on the bed and closed his eyes.

“Hey, um…author…human,” he whispered. “I know you probably want to write about this, but could you wait a bit? Maybe you could tell the people reading that your next chapter is really important, and you want them to focus on that instead of this or…something. I don’t know, but…yeah. Oh, and…maybe don’t use names since that might…well, it might be bad for that pony. I guess you can use Surprise’s name, since she’s not part of the show, and you…kind of did already. Just…be…c…care…”

Webster’s speech broke as sleep took him. He wasn’t sure when he’d wake up again, but he hoped next time he’d be more helpful.

Author's Note:

I really wish I hadn't been right in saying that this would take a while. School seriously got in the way of me writing this, and by the time I was done with it all I wanted to do was watch House on Netflix, so I did that. Here it is, though. I'd really like Chapter 9 to take less time than this one did, and I'm gonna try my best to make that happen.

Fun Fact: Last year there was a gap similar to this one between Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, although this one was definitely longer.