Roomies

Star blinked at the rather impressive stock of games. “I don’t know where to start… Ummmm…. Dark Souls 3 I’ve heard is, well not easier, but… mmmph. Heard good things. Though It’d also probably make me rage. And rage is better than emptiness. Mmmm… New Pegasus…” Her horn started to levitate a game or two down. She looked at Weave. “You sure I can just pick whatever, I don’t want you to spend all your money? Though do you do get a boost from hosting Chrys and I- Not the point. You sure?”

“I get plenty for submitting new spell ideas to the Canterlot R&D department,” the stallion waved her off. “With Scoots helping me, we’ve perfected the unicorn containment cage. So that’ll keep bits flowing in.”

“And, how was the meeting with the Princesses when you two went to show it off?” Star asked, turning back to the shelves. “Persona 3… Dawn: Zero Mourning.... The Hunter 3: Wild Hunt… Oooo Space Hulk: Wings of Death… I swore I saw a video about this. No don’t whip the flamer like a pool noodle.” She snorted a laugh.

“You pay more attention to the game market than I do, then,” the stallion quipped. “And Twilight was amused. Took her a full two and a half hours to work out how to get out of it. The answer was ‘Ask Scoots to take it off.’”

“UCC can be made and sold to jails and prisons for particularly bad unicorns.” Star blinked. “And that sounds like a young adult novel.”

“Most likely could be one,” the stallion nodded. “Okay, you got everything you want?”

“I think this’ll be… Something caught her eye. She tugged a game down from the shelf. It showed a cute anime stallion. “Lover’s Leap…” She read. “Oh, it’s a visual novel. Multiple endings… per character pursued. It’s a romance game for mares… I’m trying it, maybe it’ll help me to get out of the house and try dating.” She chuckled and rolled her eyes. “Like that’ll ever happen.”

“Well, as long as you enjoy playing it,” Weave chuckled. “Okay, so, let’s pay for your gaming binge here and you can try to trigger something back at your room.”

“Nah. Living room. If you don’t mind. Room feels a little claustrophobic, even with the door open.” Star shook her head.

“Fair enough,” the stallion shrugged. “Good thing we’ve got that cable splicer to handle the inputs.”

“Might actually bring the TV and gamestation out to the living room and take up that corner that we haven’t been using. Might make for some interesting co-op stuff.” Star smiled softly. “Oh, thought. See if we can find a couple of old Y-Box’s and a couple copies of Halo: CE. Prisoner. Rockets only.” She shook her head. “After we build up the drained bank account from this purchase.” She gave a soft chuckle. “But yeah… I think I’ll be good for a little bit.”

“Well, I’d certainly hope so,” the stallion chuckled.

Weave pushed the door open as Star trotted in with her bags.

“Hey Chrys.” Star said weakly with a bit of a shiver in her voice. She disappeared from the entryway into the Living room.

“Hi Star.” Chrys replied, her voice a little shaky as well.

“Weave. Need your help with a thing.” Scoots called out. “Tech goes only so far with something like this.”

“What is it?” the stallion asked, heading into the kitchen by the table where Scoots was working.

“So I’ve got the container for Chrys’s Queendom Magic, whatever it is.” She held up a cylindrical container, with a clear line on the side to show the inside of the container. “It’s basically a magic bottle. Got a thing here to open the top.” She pushed a button near the clear line and the top split and opened like a flower. “Same button closes it.” She hit it again and it closed. “If you weave some spells into it, Chrys should be able to pull it out as needed, maybe something to keep it in, even if it’s left open for whatever reason.”

There was a bit of a thudding noise as Star slowly backed into the living room, levitating her small entertainment center slowly.

“You good?” Vinyl called out from her place on the couch, snuggling next to the Queen who was intently focused on the TV, a controller was hovering in her magical grip.

“I got it…” Star said with a bit of a grunt as she slowly set the boxy furniture down in the corner across from the kitchen.

“Hmm,” Weave looked at the mechanical device. “Intricate. Complex. Very advanced, nice work Scoots. I think I can come up with something...like a magical pressure valve that only Chrys should be able to turn, that’ll work in both directions once the interior is full, so she can pull it out or put it back in as she likes. Let me…” His horn lit up green as he started to hum. “Doable,” he eventually said. “But I’ll need an hour to enchant this.”

“You’ve got time.” Scoots nodded as Star slowly backed into the living room levitating a TV.

“It’s not an emergency.” Chrys called out. “I can’t really believe you’re doing this for me at all.”

“They’re- umph- nice like that.” Star grunted as she set the TV down on the entertainment center. She stuck her tongue out, shifted the TV to the left, then nodded. She then trotted back to the hallway.

“Sure you don’t need help?” Vinyl called again.

“I got it.” Star repeated, levitating a surge protector, her gamestation, an HDMI cable, a controller, and a bag full of games.

She sat down in front of the entertainment center and started to hum as she started plugging things in.

“How’s it going Chrys?” Scoots asked as Weave stuck his tongue out in concentration.

“Well, I’m setting up a little hideaway base in the Nether.” Chrys said with a hum.

“Chrys, if you want to play any of the games that we got. You can.” Star called out, somewhat nervously.

“O-okay. Thanks.” Chrys said, not looking away from the TV.

“Just be careful not to use a bed in the nether,” the stallion called from the kitchen. “Not only will it not work, but it’ll explode, likely killing you.”

“No. Of course not. It’s just chests and some workstations.” Chrys replied.

“Success!” Star cheered as the TV lit up.

“Remember water doesn’t work there either,” Weave outlined again. “But if you’re making a highway between spots using the nether, ice doesn’t melt. You can’t brew easily, but you can slip and slide.”

“Oooo cool.” Chrys nodded.

“Heh. Puns.” Vinyl snickered.

“What to play first….” Star muttered to herself, then blinked. “Weave would the love seat in my room fit here?” She gestured at the space in front of the entertainment center. “If it does we could put a rectangular table behind it and make a mini walkway to the hallway.”

Weave poked his head out of the kitchen. “No, but I’m nothing if not prepared and creative. Two seconds, y’all might wanna hold onto something,” the stallion drawled, before his horn lanced a bolt of green fire into the center of the floor.

The room shuddered. Suddenly there seemed to be...more space. Twice as much space in every direction. And yet, all the doors and windows were exactly where they had been before. “Spatial expansion spell,” Weave said once they’d gotten their hooves under themselves again. “How else do you think Twilight’s castle has all that shelf space in the library and still room for the rest of the castle?”

“Huh, that’s not gonna fuck with my brain at all.” Star blinked. “Okay, Vinyl? Now I need your help, I’m a bit too rusty to attempt to lift a love seat on my own.” She chuckled, “With all this space I may get some bookshelves and start my own mini-library.”

“But my cuddle buddy.” Chrys whined finally looking at Star.

“Y-you’ll get her back.” Star visibly winced. “A-actually, it’s fine. I think I can get it.”

“No you don’t. Three works better than two.” Vinyl got up and pulled Chrys up with her.

Chrys whined a little, but all three disappeared down the hallway.

“...They’re getting along better than I’d hoped after that little episode,” the stallion commented, his attention now returned to the containment device.

“Still some nervousness between the two, but I think it’ll fade with time.” Scoots nodded. “They’re both still kinda beating themselves up from what I’m gathering. Can’t force them to not do it, it’s part of the coming to terms process.”

“Fair enough,” the stallion shrugged, his eyes already alight with his emerald green magic as he looked at the device’s inner workings. “Hmm...If I put this line here…” he muttered to himself.

“I got it… The hallway’s just being a bitch.” Vinyl grunted as a loveseat slowly emerged from the hallway, surrounded in a mix of red, green, and teal magic.

“We’re okay. We’re just fine.” Star called out from behind the loveseat. “It’s just awkward.”

“Like things between us?” Chrys asked.

“Exactly like that.” Star replied.

The loveseat popped free of the hallway. And was shifted around to be set in front of the entertainment center. There was space enough for a long and not too wide table, if they got one.

“Kay. Back to the couch.” Chrys nodded and returned to the couch as Vinyl returned to her cuddling.

“Thanks.” Star nodded at the pair and moved around to sit in her own comfy spot as she grabbed her controller and levitated the games to pick what to play.

“Hmm...this is tricky,” the stallion muttered. “I think I can see how the rest of it should go…”

“Having trouble?” Scoots asked.

“And should I look at it?” Chrys asked. “You have analyzed my magical signature, right?”

“After living with you for a year, I should hope so,” the stallion called back. “I think I can do this. I’m just trying to work out how to do it so it doesn’t make a feedback loop.”

“Mmmm maybe like a… mmmm no…” Scoots hummed. “Trying to equate magical concepts to physical mechanics is harder than I’d like it to be.”

“You two are the best duo who can do it.” Star called from her seat as she finally decided to pop in Dawn: Zero Mourning.

“Trust me, I can do it,” the stallion’s horn kept up its steady emerald glow. “Just got to...make sure the containment is secure…”

“Just don’t rush yourself.” Scoots and Star said in unison.

“I think that...Got it!” the stallion smirked. “The rest of it is just the mechanics of the valve, which is small potatoes compared to holding the power.”

“And gimme.” Scoots chuckled holding a hoof out.

“I haven’t quite finished yet, but...you can take a look while I work on the spellwork,” the stallion compromised by putting the device on the table.

“Mmmmm.” Scoots leaned in and narrowed her eyes at the device. “Huh. It’s kinda like an urn. And it’ll hold more metaphorical ashes instead of real ones.”

“That it will,” Weave chuckled. “Valve should only take me a few minutes. Then it’ll be prepped.”

“Just so you know, and so you’ll all be prepared.” Chrys spoke up. “I’ll have to cover myself in a cocoon before I start the transfer. Then I’ll spend a day-ish in the cocoon and I’ll come out a different bug.”

“Shedding the old you and becoming something new, I like how the metaphorical turns literal,” the stallion quipped.

“True. And I’ll be smaller.” Chrys nodded with a giggle.

“Easier to cuddle, but I’ll be sad that I didn’t get to use the equipment.” Vinyl chuckled and waggled her brows at the bugmare.

“Oh, I won’t miss it.” Chrys shook her head.

“Neither will I.” Star called out. “I caused a lot of trouble because you had a dick. Not that it’s your fault!” She yelped quickly.

“I see what you’re trying to say Star.” Chrys nodded, and glanced over the back of the couch, but the mare was hidden by her own loveseat. As just a quick flash, Chrys saw that the game Star was playing, was gorgeous. “We’re both trying to change. Mine will just be more literal.”

“You’re both going to be better ponies after your therapy,” the stallion commented, pushing the latch to close the device. “Also, it’s ready for tonight.”

“So… I’ll go to sleep tonight and wake up tomorrow night.” Chrys nodded. “Oh, when I wake up and come out of the cocoon, I am going to be weak, and really out of it.”

“Cuddle party.” Vinyl commented. “I’ll make sure Octy can be there.”

“Cuddle the bug party, save the date,” Weave quipped.

“Make it a movie night, not that Chrys will notice that much.” Scoots commented.

“That’d work for me.” Chrys nodded.

“Huzzah, I think we have plenty of bad and good movies lying around,” Weave pointed out.

“And I could always bring some movies over.” Scoots added.

“And Octy and I could bring munchies and stuff.” Vinyl said.

“And I will bring my glimmering personality as I eat all your food.” Star called out dryly.

“So business as usual then,” Weave smirked as he joined the cuddle pile on the couch.

“Weave, watch your hooves now or Octy will beat your ass.” Vinyl smirked and winked at him.

Scoots trotted around, climbed over the arm of the couch and laid herself over Weave’s and Chrys’s laps.

“For your information, once Chrys started to loosen up and show progress, us at least hugging was not an uncommon occurrence,” the stallion replied, sticking his tongue out maturely at Vinyl.

“And It can be again.” Chrys nodded with a chuckle. “I just won’t be towering over you for once.”

“Huzzah, welcome to the short club, we have snacks,” the stallion quipped.

“All of you are my snack.” Chrys chuckled then paused.”...Take that however you want.”

“Well Octy’s not here to stop me from saying anything.” Vinyl smirked.

“Vinyl, behave,” the stallion chided her. “This is a friendly cuddling session.”

“Oh fine.” Vinyl sighed dramatically.

“I won’t hesitate to clock you now.” Chrys mentioned. “Oh, what do you think of the little safety zone?”

“Pretty nice,” the stallion commented. “Okay. We’ve got the gear, we’ve got blazes on lockdown, we have an end portal with eyes in. We could go into the End right now and do the whole shebang, but I have a different plan.”

“Well grab some things.” Chrys gestured at the controllers. “What’s the plan?”

“Wellll...the ultimate plan to going to the End is to get the Elytra, so your character can fly. Or at least glide,” Weave explained, nabbing a controller and logging in. “In order to fly, you need firework rockets. Which are made with gunpowder and paper. So I’ll set up a creeper-spawning box so that we have an infinite supply of the stuff.”

“Is there anything that doesn’t explode when a creeper explodes?” Vinyl asked.

“Obsidian,” Weave supplied instantly. “Good luck getting a lot of it though, it’s only mineable with diamond pickaxes.”

“And perfectly located water and lava.” Chrys added.

“Well, you can bring the water to the lava,” the stallion pointed out. “Still, even with a max efficiency diamond pick, it takes a while to mine. Unless we...nah, plans for later.”

“Weave, you plan more than a supervillain.” Star called out.

“Well we could try mining obby with a diamond pick with max efficiency, and have it take a while,” the stallion pointed out. “Orrr, we could try mining it with a beacon giving us haste 2. Which would speed the process up a lot. Problem with that is, it takes for-ever to be able to fight the wither boss. And the best way to do it requires us to be in the End already!”

“Wither. Boss?” Chrys, Scoots, and Vinyl all blinked.

“Yeah,” Weave nodded. “Put that looting sword to work on the wither skeletons of the nether fortress, and you can get a skull. If you get three...well, we can unleash a terribly evil boss. It’s even hinted at one of the pictures you can get if you put it on the walls in-game.”

“And how bad is it?” Chrys raised a brow.

“Put it this way,” the stallion hummed. “The portal out of the End is made of bedrock. You can dig under it. That is why I’m holding off on summoning the Wither. Because you can trap him in the portal so he can’t shoot at you. Or move. Or do anything.”

“Ooooooo!” There was a chorus of ooos.

“Yup, easy nether stars for beacons,” the stallion nodded. “And you can abuse a wither very easily in the End for other purposes.”

“Wait… Waitwaitwait. Can you get the Ender Dragon and the Wither to fight?” Vinyl asked.

“Hah! No,” the stallion shook his head. “By the time you made the Wither, the dragon would knock it into the abyss. Or destroy the blocks as you placed them. Buuuut…” the stallion smirked. “If you kill the dragon a few times. You’ll notice he starts spawning little gateways around the island. If you toss a pearl in, you’ll be whisked to the outer islands. And if you happen across another gateway out there, that isn’t connected...that is also made of bedrock…”

“What? What happens next?” Vinyl stared at the stallion.

“Well, you can trap a Wither in the mini portal, because they can’t go through the portals,” Weave explained. “Then you can turn the Wither into a Wither Rose maker. Because it will aggro the enderpones, who can’t get at it. And when they die, they’ll spawn wither roses...which you can use to, say, make an Iron Golem farm.”

“Eh?” Vinyl blinked.

“And why would you need an Iron Golem farm?” Chrys raised a brow.

“Infinite iron,” the stallion answered easily. “Stick some villagers in the sky with enough beds and far enough apart that they’re considered two seperate villages. Give them spawnable blocks around them that has water pushing the iron golems into the roses. Put a zombie on tracks between the villagers, and he’ll scare them into spawning an iron golem. With a clever gathering system, you can pump all the iron you need into a chest and have infinite iron ingots for anything you could ever need.”

“Metal houses.” Chrys grinned. “A world of metal.”

“Slow down, Ultron.” Vinyl nudged her with a smirk.

“Or,” Weave pointed out. “Pistons require redstone, cobble, iron, and wood. All of that is farmable. Yes, even redstone,” he said to their expressions. “Cleric villagers can have it as a trade if you’re lucky. With a swamp for slimes, you can make all the sticky pistons, and all the movable things you want.”

“Conveyor belts. Things to make workstations function easier.” Vinyl commented. “Mechanize your base a little bit.”

“Hopper chains,” the stallion agreed. “Item elevators. Moving things via water and ice. All sorts of ways to keep things sorted. All possible with infinite farmable things.”

“Like farms.” Chyrs commented. “Never was a farmer myself.”

“I could take a crack at it.” Vinyl looked up at the bugmare.

Chrys shrugged and levitated a controller to her.

“Okay, so,” the stallion hummed. “That’s just about the creeper making box sorted. And the redstone to flush it all down the drain to the killing zone...And yep, it’s working. Creepers in the box. Now we need a much larger sugar cane farm…”

“How do you do sugar cane?” Chrys asked. “Pausing a moment to let Vinyl do a thing.”

“D. J. Pone. Three.” Vinyl commented. “And good.”

“Alrighty.” Chrys nodded. “We’re good.”

“Okay, so the best way to do it is in the ocean,” the stallion answered. “Make strips of dirt on the surface of the water, with a one-block gap of water between them. Put some slabs over the water so that you can walk on it, and connect the strips at the ends. Voila, as long as the block they’re planted on touches water, the sugarcane will grow. But to get enough, we’re going to need a lot of space to grow it.”

“Can do/got it.” Chrys and Vinyl mentioned.

“Gunpowder, check, paper, being worked on. Okay then! Once that’s all set up, it’ll be just about time to go after a dragon,” Weave commented. “We want the infrastructure in place to get all the rockets before we go for the wings.”

“Sounds good.” Chrys nodded. “Anything else?”

“Hmm,” the stallion hummed as he thought. “No, I think we’ve got just about everything,” he admitted. “Oh, those bows have Infinity, right? Not Mending. Because you don’t want to carry all the arrows in the world, even though it’d be nice to have a bow that healed off of XP. The two don’t stack.”

“Ah. Good to know.” Vinyl commented. “I’m kicking dirt currently.”

“...Chrys, didn’t you give her co-ords to the base?” the stallion chided the bugmare. “Come on over and get some gear.”

“Shit, my bad.” Chrys winced.

“All good.” Vinyl shrugged.

“Hey. Do we have enough extra resources so I can set up a four-tier beacon in the village?” Chrys asked.

“That’s the eventual plan,” Weave said. “Iron farm for iron blocks for the beacon. But that’s a few steps down the line, because we don’t even have the End beaten, or three Wither skulls yet.”

“The pyramid under the beacon, does the type of resources matter?” Chrys asked.

“Only if you want to show off,” the stallion chuckled. “You can use iron, gold, diamond, or emeralds. Iron’s the easiest to get, though there is a way to make an infinite gold farm. It’s a bit tricky though. Involves breaking out of the bedrock ceiling of the Nether.” He hummed for a moment. “Might do that later.”

“Excuse you?! You can do that?!” Chrys stared at the stallion.

“If anyone was wondering how I was doing, I’m currently hiding in a bush from these one-eyed machines. Also this game is really pretty.” Star called out.

“I’m just happy that you’re somewhat being part of the group. In your own way.” Scoots called out.

“There’s no wrong way to play, just enjoy yourself,” the stallion agreed. “Also, yes. It’s totally doable. I’ll need an ender pearl and some fiddly bits to destroy one block of bedrock, and I have to make sure it’s one that’s got nothing under it. And some ladders to get back down.” He chuckled a little. “Getting out is easy. One pearl. Getting out of the nether after that is trickier. You either need to break the roof, or build a new portal.”

“What’s above the Nether? Scratch that.” Vinyl shook her head. “What’s below The End?”

“Above the Nether is a nice, empty blank canvas for you to build on, as long as you don’t mind potentially spawning Ghasts or Pigpones if you’re not careful,” the stallion answered easily. “Below the End is the infinite void which will kill you for falling in it. I’m interested in building a nice, big, pigpone-spawning chamber above the Nether...and forcing them to die via fall damage or nearly so. Then we can kill them safely, get all that XP and the golden nuggets they drop on death. Bam, instant gold farm.”

“Oh awesome. Is gold gear and armor any good? Or is it just to look pretty?” Vinyl asked.

“It’s mostly vanity.” Weave was sorry to break the news to his fellow unicorn. “But, golden nuggets around a carrot makes golden carrots, which are the best food item in the game. Very saturating, very filling.”

“Unlike actual gold carrots.” Star commented dryly.

“Eh, give it time, I’m sure the farmers will catch up,” the stallion chuckled. “Hey, at least she didn’t ask about the apples.”

“... Did you say apples?” Star asked.

“Yeah, you can get apples from tree leaves sometimes,” Weave explained. “And you can make them into golden apples too, which are just as good as golden carrots. Problem is, there’s no sure-fire way to get an apple from a tree, which makes golden apples less usable than the carrots. And the best version of a golden apple, you can’t craft. You have to find it.”

“...Kay. I’m going back to shooting things with my bow.” Star said bluntly.

“Fair enough,” the stallion turned back to his game. “Okay. Ladies, got that cane farm up?”

“Yup.” The mare and changeling said in unison.

“Perfect. Okay then. With that, I think we’re ready. Let’s go kill a dragon.”

“Wait, we’re ready for that?” Chrys blinked.

“Hol’ up. Gearing.” Vinyl commented.

“One sec, I’m coming too.” Scoots said, gesturing for Chrys to give her a controller. Which she did.

“Well, if we have four sets of diamond armor, infinity bows, an arrow for each of them, a nice sword, and some potions of slow falling, which everyone should definitely have a set of three of those just in case, then yeah, we’re ready,” Weave explained. “Heck, we don’t even need to bring a lot of blocks with us. Couple of pearls each and some pickaxes in case we’re off the island or buried in it.”

“I guess we are.” Chrys blinked.

“And I’m stacked.” Vinyl added.

“Same.” Scoots nodded.

“You got this guys. Woo.” Came the half-hearted cheer from the other end of the room.

“Okay, I’ll go first,” Weave said, throwing a nod at Star to show his appreciation for the support. “I’ll tell you all if we need to dig up or pearl on. Heck, we could get incredibly lucky and have the platform spawn just on the island.”

“Good luck. Try not to explode.” Chrys encouraged.

“And...well this isn’t optimal, but it’s better than showing up floating in the void,” the stallion commented. “Okay, it’s safeish, let’s dig up and see how things look!”

“Let’s do this.” Scoots grinned.

“Yay small spaces.” Vinyl groaned.

“I have the strongest urge to reinforce the arrival point.” Chrys blinked.

“No, we should be running,” Weave pointed out. “The moment I arrived, the dragon was angry. Got the tunnel out and...Okay. I’ll do the tricky shots on the ones with cages. The rest of you need to get the other crystals, fast.”

“Shit. Shit!” Vinyl yelped.

“Why are there enderpones EVERYWHERE?!” Scoots snapped.

“Cryyyystaaallllsssss.” Chrys said through grit teeth. “Fuk. Turned into Sombra for a sec.”

“Just don’t look directly at the enderpones and they won’t attack!” Weave pointed out. “Got one of the caged ones! Okay, moving to the second one. Also, drink a slow fall potion if you haven’t already, the dragon can knock you around like nobody’s business! If he knocks you up, you’re probably dying of fall damage if you don’t land slowly!”

“Shit! Thanks. Perfect timing.” Vinyl leaned closer to the TV.

“Celest- Out- Fuck. Off!” Scoots actually growled.

“Got another one.” Chrys called out.

“There’s so much yelling, panting, and heavy breathing, I’m honestly wondering if I should leave you four alone or not.” Star commented.

“Very- FUNNY! Ah HA! Damn! I went to space!” Vinyl said going from frustrated to laughing in half a second.

“You’ll be fine, try to snipe one of the higher crystals while you’re up the- Ha! Got the other caged one! How many are left?” Weave was actually smirking now. The hard part was over.

“One! Aaaaaaaand… YES! Got it on the way down!” Vinyl hoofpumped.

“Shoot the dragon! Shoot it! Shoot it now!” Scoots snapped.

“Dew it! Kill it!” Chrys’s horn lit up with green flames. “Slay the Dragon!”

“Oh, if you’ve got an empty bottle, which you should, get some of the dragon’s breath too,” the stallion commented. “It’s useful for making area of effect arrows. I’m terrible at aiming at a moving target, so I’ll sit by the portal and wait for him to do- that! Haha, have some sword in your face!”

“Oh look at me, I’m Weave, I can’t aim worth shit.” Scoots teased.

“Unlike m- And I’m in space again.” Vinyl giggled. “Rolling around at the speed of sound… Why aren’t their lyrics for the Moon theme from GooseTales? That’d fit perfectly.”

“He’s almost dead,” the stallion noted. “Okay, come on, just one more shot or cycle on top of the portal…”

“Incoming! Holy- I just fucking landed on- FUCK YEAH!” Vinyl shot to her hooves accidentally tossing Scoots to the floor.

“Yes!” Scoots cheered from the floor.

“Finally.” Chrys groaned as she shook the flames from her horn.

“Okay, clever trick time,” Weave smiled. “With this one torch, and this pickaxe, I will steal the dragon’s egg on top of the portal. Touch it once, find it after it teleports, aaaand dig under it a little bit, put the torch down, then dig the block it’s sitting on. The egg falls on the torch, and drops like a block. And we now have a trophy.”

“Ooooooooo!” Scoots ooo’d as she got up and plopped herself between on top of Weave and Chrys.

“And now for the boring part,” the stallion sighed. “Okay...ah, found the mini gateway. So we go there, throw a pearl in, and we get taken to the outer islands. Out here, on the bigger islands, we can find chorus, which is a cool plant and makes cool purple building blocks. And we can also find End Cities. If we find one with a ship, we’ve found the Elytra. The wings.”

“Wings!” Chrys grinned.

“You already have wings.” Scoots rolled her eyes.

“You already have wings.” Vinyl rolled her eyes.

“And I’m trying to teach myself how to fly via magic.” Star called out.

“Ex-fucking-scuse you?” Vinyl turned around and stared towards the other TV in the room.

“Um. Girls?” Weave pointed a hoof at his section of the screen. “That’s a tower. With a ship.”

“Bwah? Ship?” Vinyl whipped back around.

“Ship?” Scoots blinked.

“What do we do with it?” Chrys asked. “Does it fly?”

“I wish,” the stallion chuckled. “No, we build up and raid the ship of its wings. Then, with the creeper and paper farm, we make stacks and stacks of rockets. We put Unbreaking and Mending on the wings, and use them to fly across the End looking for more wings.”

“Ooooooo!” Scoots ooo’d.

“Well we have more plans.” Vinyl nodded.

“Of course we do.” Chrys rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, but looking for more wings is going to be annoying and tedious,” the stallion noted out loud. “Buuuut, if you want to, you can start abusing the portal out of the End now. Y’know, easy Nether stars, suffocating a Wither.”

“Welp there’s my plans.” Vinyl nodded.

“Same.” Scoots grinned.

“Imma go make explosives.” Chrys replied.

“Good luck getting the Wither skulls,” Weave noted. “Even with a looting 3 sword, it can take ages.”

“We have time.” Scoots replied.

“You do.” Chrys rolled her eyes. “I have a cocoon to wrap myself in and some power to dump.”

“Oh, you’re doing that now?” Vinyl asked, looking at the bugmare.

“I’d prefer to have some day left after I come out dripping and out of it.” Chrys chuckled as she scooted off the couch, plopping Scoots in her spot.

“Imma go watch.” Vinyl got up and followed the bugmare as she retrieved the container.

Chrys paused. “Mmmmmm Weave, where should I wrap myself up?”

“Is it likely to be messy and involved?” the stallion questioned, turning his head to look at the bugmare.

“Yes actually. Excess fluid will come out of the cocoon, basically the liquid remains of my previous exoskeleton.” Chrys explained.

“That’s not gross at all.” Star commented.

“Sorry, I wish there was a less gooey way.” Chrys replied looking towards the loveseat. “Ooooo, you’re right, that is pretty”

“Huh. Weave, could she like wrap herself up on the ceiling above the bathtub?” Vinyl supplied.

“...That could actually work, as long as somepony was there to catch her,” Weave agreed. “It’d be an easy way to solve the drainage problem.”

“Trust me. You’ll hear it.” Chrys replied. “It starts out wet and hardens over the course of the day.”

“Good to know.” Scoots added, half-listening.

“Also, the chrysalis, yes I know the pun, will softly glow.” Chrys said. “Soooo, nightlight.”

“When the cocoon glows, get ready to cuddle the bug,” Weave commented. “I’ll get a cheesy romance flick on and be sure to invite your marefriends over.”

“Perfect.” Chrys nodded with a smile. “To the bathroom! Ehm… in the most wholesome, nonsexual way. Fuck it. I’m cocooning myself now.”

The unicorn mare and the bugmare trotted down the hallway.

“I should be concerned about that, but eh, she’s growing as a pony,” Weave shrugged. “I’m just glad she didn’t pick a day when she had any meetings planned to do this on.”

“Why be concerned?” Scoots asked, resting her head on his shoulder.

“Potential mess, it still is my apartment, nopony’s going to be able to use the bath tomorrow, it’s going to need to be cleaned to Tartarus and back, you know, little things,” Weave pointed them all out. “But again, small sacrifices to help the mare grow.”

“Wait, you sure the bath can’t be… Eh true either way.” Scoots shrugged.

“Why can’t I go through a physical transformation to help sort out my issues?” Came a half-sigh, half-whine from the other end of the room.

“Because you’re not a changeling queen?” the stallion answered easily.

“Weave, horrifying thought…” Star added. “Nopony else can get the magic out of the container, right?”

“Nope, it’ll only respond to Chrys,” Weave answered easily.

“Oh good.” Star heaved a sigh of relief. “Oh and lemme know if you wanna play any of the games we got.”

“Yeah, we’ve got a library now,” the stallion chuckled. “But I think that’s enough Minecraft for me for one day. We need mending and unbreaking on the wings, all the rockets, and like...two hours to search for more ships.”

“Sounds good. What’s the plan now?” Scoots asked, nuzzling his cheek.

“Well...eventually, we need to respawn the dragon a fair few times-”

“Excuse you?” Scoots pulled away and looked at him. “You can do that?”

“Yeah?” Weave blinked. “Four end crystals on the portal. Eye of ender, ghast tear, glass. Highly unstable, so don’t punch them or they explode just like the normal ones.”

“And… Why would you fight it again?” Scoots raised a brow.

“Why wouldn’t you want to slay a dragon?” Star called out.

“More portals to the outer End islands,” the stallion pointed out. “Easier exploration.”

“Oooh… Right.” Scoots nodded. “Now that makes sense.”

“WHAT THE SHIT?!” Star yelped. “WHAT IS THAT THING?! Sorry! Don’t mind me! Just- Giant- Robot- Cat- Thing!” There was a few noises from Star’s end of the room. “Never mind, it’s weak to fire. We’re good.”

“Most things are weak to fire,” Weave commented. “Also, we’re going to need stacks and stacks of iron. Later. For now I’m going to bed.”

“Welp,” Scoots got up. “I should head out then.”

“Chrys is now a glowing pod. There’s this stream of green light moving from her to the box thing.” Vinyl announced, coming into the living room. “I shut the door just in case. But the toilet should be usable, the box is on the edge of the tub.” She looked at the two. “Scoots staying over?”

“She’s welcome to,” Weave pointed out.

“.... Mmmmmm, cuddles or a lonely bed by myself…” Scoots hummed.

“And I’m out.” Vinyl commented, later all. Later Star.”

“Later.” Star half-heartedly called out.

“Well you know where the bedroom is,” the stallion noted. “So really it’s up to you if you want to join me for bed or not-”

Scoots immediately raced towards the door to his room, she almost took it off its hinges.

“You two going to actually sleep?” Star asked, pausing her game and looking at the stallion with a deadpan blink.

“I guess I’ll find out when I get there,” Weave chuckled, proceeding at a much more sedate pace to his own bedroom.

“Night. I’ll sleep… eventually….” Star waved a hoof and turned back to the TV.

“Gotta see where this story is going. I like Rust. He’s a good father figure…”