Author's Note

Hello everybody! I have some news to tell.

If you've checked the comments section from the last chapter (you can still do it if you want), you know that I've begun to become... a bit tired when it comes to posting chapters for this story. Not that I hate this story, but I feel that I need a small break. Not to mention that I have to constantly deal with trying to make this story as good/perfect as it can be while also trying to make it fun for me to do.

So, as of right now, I'm going to be taking a break for a bit. However, just because I'm not going to be posting chapters here doesn't mean I won't be busy. Because I think it's time I finally get an editor. Of course, this isn't the first time somebody asked me to be my editor and visa versa, but at the time I believed that I could do this alone since it was just for fun. But right now after seeing some things, I think it's time to finally get one.

I want you guys to do your best to point out any errors you think there might be within this story, as well as what route should this story take place. Even if I don't end up getting an editor, I still want to hear your true opinion about this story and such.

If you do want to become my editor, then the only real requirement is that you're a good critic and would be able to edit the chapters well. Everything else would be like additional points to your resume, like knowledge on the Dream SMP etc. And also that you're willing to edit the eleven chapters that exist. Who knows, maybe we might end up having to compress multiple chapters together, or just make some minor changes.

As of right now, I'm going to move to another project to cool off a bit, which would probably be the first story I created on the site, which you can check out, and I'll try to finish it so that I can begin chopping things off the 'to do' list.

Anyways, this is Midnight Blitzer, taking a break from this story for a bit. And when I come back, expect things to go pretty fast for this story.

ᒷᔑᓭℸ ̣

Chapter 10: East
“Hello.”

The princesses stood still as they heard the new foreign voice travel through the air. As usual, they began to search around, trying to find the person who spoke, but much like how Tommy was able to speak to Dream after the duel despite him being in a completely random location, the same occurred here. They could only hear the voice, but not see the person.

“So I heard you want to join us,” Tommy said out loud, as he entered the small base to look through his items.

“Well I heard there was a possibility of like, thwarting democratically elected governments and I was like ‘Oh man! I’m up for that!’” The voice by the name of Techno said. Tommy nodded before sighing.

“Wilbur is a bit sensitive right now. All the Americans have turned on him. And I hate to break it, but you are american, Technoblade.” The young boy said. The princesses could all sense as if the voice shrugged.

“So… what do they mean by American and Europeans? I think they’ve mentioned those things quite a lot, so it must be important right?” Twilight Sparkle asked as she took a moment to step out from the scene and ask Luna the question. “Also, would I be right to assume that this ‘Techno’ is an… anarchist based on what he currently has said?” The young alicorn added. Luna and Celestia pondered on this question, bogged down by their own questions.

“Perhaps the name ‘American’ and ‘European’ is just like we categorize ‘Unicorn’ and ‘Pegasi’. It seems the people of this world are united, but at the same time divided by culture and territory.” Luna stated. “As for Techno being an anarchist, it’s a strong possibility.” The Lunar Princess added on, before frowning. “Though like I said before, this dream is starting to elongate a bit too much for comfort. I expected Dream’s dream to quickly jump from important event to important event, or at least jump to moments related to him, but no, we’re stuck at this rather slow pace.” Luna said, to which Celestia nodded in agreement.

“Yes. This is starting to get a bit slow, but perhaps this information is necessary to understand future things. I do agree that it would be preferable that the dream begins to pick up steam. We only have a few more hours in this dream realm after all.” Celestia replied. Thankfully, as if on cue, the dream picked up the pace, showing Tommy and Wilbur talking to each other about ‘making a barracks’ and Tommy confirming that they’d want Techno on their side. By the time the dream had slowed down to a reasonable pace, Tommy was once again outside their small base, shuffling his iron armor and taking a deep breath.

“Technoblade, I’m going to come and get you and you’re going to stick by my side.” The young boy said, before spinning around as he heard Wilbur call for him. The princesses turned around and were certainly surprised when they saw the former leader of L’Manberg decked out in diamond armor. Considering that he just died, it was understandable that he was wearing protection out of fear of losing his last canon life. To their surprise, the man began taking off his armor and giving it to Tommy.

“Tommy… be careful. The wound is fresh, the area is hot, they’re looking for you…” Wilbur said as Tommy gave a silent ‘thanks’ to Wilbur, before becoming a bit shocked as the man gave him a small hug. “I believe in you man. You’ve been the best right-hand man I could ask for.” The brown hair man said, before Tommy jumped onto the horse and began to ride back towards L’Manberg. As the scene quickly changed, the three princesses saw Tommy continuing to ride his horse, but now in L’Manberg territory, the young boy having just given some commands to Techno on their plan to escort him back to the base.

“So, follow you and go east?” The voice asked as the red and white-shirted teenager simply blinked.

“Uhh… Whichever way I’m going… I’m not quite sure which way is which.” Tommy admitted as he let off a soft laugh while trying to maintain his seriousness.

“So you’ll be to the east when I come?” Technoblade asked. Yet again the three princesses could see Tommy blinking as he struggled to know which way was which.

“Is east to the left?”

“I- You’re the one who brought us ‘east’” Technoblade said, while Wilbur began to groan through ‘the call’.

“East is to the right, Tommy,” Wilbur said with a groan. Twilight simply did a face hoof.

“Alright, I swear if Tommy says-”

“A-Alright I’ll be on hard west- no, I mean north Techno,” Tommy said, causing Techno and Wilbur to begin laughing hard while the three princesses did a collective face hoof.

“That’s not left or right!” Twilight and Wilbur yelled, nearly at the same time. This caused Luna and Celestia to begin snickering as well as they saw the situation unfold.

“Confidence is not being inspired within me right now.” Technoblade simply stated. “I CAN’T GO UP! I HAVE NO WINGS!” The male voice yelled while also laughing out loud. Tommy soon dropped from his horse as he began to enter a ruined building.

“Techno I’m here! Log in Techno, log in!” Tommy yelled, before becoming confused as he looked around and saw no signs of the person he was supposed to escort. The male voice simply began to laugh.

“I’M NOT WHITELISTED XD.” The voice said, causing the young boy to go into a fit of panic.

“OH, YOU SON OF A B*TCH YOU SCREWED ME OVER!” Tommy yelled, causing the three princesses to flinch at his language again.

“Wait no I’m probably on my alt.”

“AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!”

Twilight, Celestia, and Luna could only blink as they watched the chaotic scene unfold, and despite the curses being thrown around, they all couldn’t help but facepalm and laugh at the same time, not really noticing some glaring details about this world and just focusing on the funny parts.

“Lemme just change accounts.” The male voice said, and soon the chaos resumed once again as Tommy rushed to try and find the man once again.

“Techno, I’m behind you!” Tommy yelled just as he went into a clearing, letting the princesses see who was ‘Technoblade’. At first, all they saw was the back of the figure. The first thing that they noticed was his red cape that had the letters ‘OF’ inscribed in gold. The next thing they noticed was the golden crown placed on top of his head. And as he began to turn around, the princesses could see that his face was that… of a pig?

“Wait… what?” Twilight asked out loud as Technoblade immediately began to follow Tommy. As Tommy began to encounter and run away from various people, the three princesses continued to ponder on who this ‘Technoblade’ figure was.

“So… he’s a royal swine?” Luna said out loud. “Like I know we have Fundy who’s a fox and Jschlatt who’s a ram, but Technoblade being a hog does put the cherry on top of the cake of strangeness in this dream right?” The Lunar Princess quickly added, before blinking.

“I guess so. Where he got that crown and what it represents is a mystery. This world is very strange indeed.” Celestia stated, before letting out a soft laugh. “And yes, I do understand what point you’ve stumbled upon Luna. Let’s refrain from calling Technoblade by any pig-related words alright?” Celestia offered before they continued to spectate Tommy and Techno running away from L’Manberg. Soon they heard Wilbur’s voice through the call, and he didn’t seem as happy as he was before, if he was even happy to begin with given that he was expelled from L’Manberg not too long ago.

“Techno, I swear to god if you’ve been in kahoots with jschlatt this whole time,” Wilbur stated, causing Twilight to immediately widen her eyes.

“Don’t tell me that Techno is going to end up being another person who’ll betray them just like the rest did!” Twilight said with a frightened voice. Technoblade simply laughed out loud.

“Would I ever do that to you?” Techno asked.

“Potentially, you’re quite a big fan of winning,” Wilbur stated, his suspicion about Techno’s loyalty always increasing. Technoblade simply laughed it off before saying something that both calmed Twilight down while increasing her nerves a bit.

“I’m a big fan of anarchy, is what I am a fan of, ok?” Techno replied as he continued to follow Tommy.

“Well, at least that answered that question, though now that we know that Techno is an anarchist, it raises a new question on what if Tommy and Wilbur manage to get back their country. Would he still ally himself with them or would he betray them?” Celestia asked out loud, which caused Twilight to sigh.

“I just don’t want Tommy to suffer more. I just wish that we could’ve been there to help him ya know?” The purple alicorn stated, while Wilbur continued to interrogate Technoblade and his loyalties, when Tommy spotted something in the distance that caused him to halt.

“Uh oh,” Tommy whispered as he spotted a heavily armored person in the distance, who stared right at the child. He wore a black sweater, white pants, and a red, yellow, and black mask. He also wore the elusive black armor, which shimmered with a faint purple aura. It didn’t take long for the Princesses to remember who he is.

“Wait… He was in L’Manberg during the execution right!?” Twilight yelled as she realized that this was the very same person who immediately sprung up the moment Jshlatt gave the order to hunt Tommy and Wilbur down. The masked figure raised a crossbow before firing at the two, and it looked like a repeat of Tommy’s duel death was about to occur as time slowed to a crawl, only for the arrow to bounce harmlessly off of his diamond chest plate.

“Ponk knows! Run Technoblade! I think I’ll need to kill him.” Tommy said as he rushed towards Ponk with his horse, diamond sword in hand as the two began to duke it out. Luna simply smiled at the sight of Tommy able to overpower not just any figure, but an ally of Dream.

“Good thing that Wilbur gave him that diamond gear right?” Luna stated before quickly noticing some glaring things. “I don’t think Ponk even has a weapon of his own other than his crossbow, and given that he’s only wearing a chest plate, I think Tommy can win,” Luna said, before noticing Celestia’s frown. “What’s the matter, sister?” Luna asked as the Solar Princess simply sighed.

“Tommy said that he’ll need to kill Ponk… and even though they all have multiple lives… it just sounds wrong to hear a child saying that he’ll need to kill somebody,” Celestia stated as Tommy began to dominate Ponk, forcing him to flee into the water, but still trying to engage the youngster with his crossbow. Both Luna and Twilight gave no response to Celestia, but they all agreed with her point. This world that the dream is about is just too violent.

“Technoblade where are you!” Tommy yelled as he disengaged and jumped onto his horse to find the crown-wearing-anthropomorphic-pig.

“I’m to your east!” Technoblade yelled, only for Tommy to go into another state of anxiety.

“That doesn't mean anything to me!” The youngster yelled before jerking his head to dodge an incoming arrow from Ponk, who still tried to attack Tommy. The princesses could tell that Technoblade was starting to get tired and a bit annoyed at Tommy’s lack of orientation and direction.

“LOOK AT THE SUN! You see the direction where the sun is? It’s the other way!” Technoblade yelled as Tommy tried to go into that direction, only for an arrow to lodge into his side.

“Ok, Ponk has got to go. I told him to go, and he ain’t going.” Tommy stated as he began to rush Ponk as they heard Wilbur’s voice echo.

“Kill him, Tommy, kill him,” Wilbur commanded as Tommy backed Ponk into a small pool of water, charging him with his sword. The masked figure tried one last attempt of defiance by shooting at the horse, causing it to shake in pain, but it remained standing and soon a swift sweep from Tommy’s sword ended the fight as Ponk’s stuff scattered around his dead body before it dissolved into nothing but dust.

As Tommy began to scavenge and take Ponk’s items on Wilbur’s orders, while arguing with Techoblade on which direction was east, left, the sun, and the moon, and the lack of understanding of math, the three princesses could only look solemnly at Tommy. They weren’t mad at the kid for killing Ponk, rather, they were saddened. Saddened that this world was so violent that it forced younglings to kill to save their own lives, to make decisions that would be heavy for a man, much more for a child. And as the moon began to rise and Techno continued to argue with Tommy, they could only think of one thing. If Tommy could not only manage to beat Jshlatt, but also Dream, whether peacefully, through war, or by any other means, they could have a chance of making sure that violence never touched their world ever again, or at least in the magnitude it has now. But right now, they were…

Not Free Yet.