Ciderfest 2023 Mane Story Saturday Night - "Fulcrum"by NyronusChaptersIf Fizzy is Saved, and Heroes Are In The LeadIf Fizzy Is Saved, and Chaos Is In The Lead [CANON]If Fizzy is Saved, and Villains Are In The LeadIf Fizzy Isn't SavedIf Fizzy is Saved, and Heroes Are In The LeadWith a shout, Barley leapt through the portal, flapping his wings to break his fall… only for Caramel to crash on top of him. Spinning end over end the two found themselves tangled in… wires? Twilight sailed in after them, the portal closing behind her. She touched down and looked around. “What… is this place?” she said. “It, uh…” Barley looked around, trying to get a snarl of fiber-optic wires out of his vest. “It’s, a, uh…” “A server room?” Caramel said, in confused awe. Towering over the three ponies were line after line of humming black monoliths, pulsating with purple, pink, and teal lights beneath their metal casings. “Is this… normal in your world?” Twilight asked, concerned. “Uh, kind of, yeah.” Barley said, looking around, “...I think, anyway.” “You don’t know?!” Twilight gaped. “I’m a bartender!” Barley replied, waving his hoof, embarrassed. “Technical stuff like this was really more the speed of–” “Fizzy!” Caramel shouted. Twilight and Barley looked. She was pointing with one hoof towards a room hanging over the endless servers, a flickering blue light shining from within. “You think that’s her?” Twilight asked, frowning. “It looks like her nirik fire,” Barley said, hopeful. “And it is her speed,” Caramel added, with a tired smile. “Best lead we got,” Barley said, with a shrug. “Then let’s check it out,” Twilight nodded, giving a nervous glare to the silent spires around her. Without another word, the three set out towards the beacon. “Look at that!” Fizzy shouted, laughing. “That’s great!” On one of the many floating screens around her, Pinkie Pie had just fired another con-goer from her party cannon. Fizzy spun in her chair, grinning like a madkirin, looking at all the sights. On one screen Princess Cadance skated across a roller derby rink while guests watched. On another, Trixie and Starlight were putting the final touches on a rocket while guests helped, and on a third, Iron Will hyped the crowd up as an airship hovering over the roof of the hotel had been converted into a wrestling arena. It was all, unbelievably, amazingly cool. And then a pounding on the door to her office interrupted her reverie. “Fizzy!” Caramel’s muffled shout came through the door. “You in there, Fizz? We gotta talk.” FIzzy groaned and rolled her eyes. With a sigh she pulled off her headset,and then stopped, frowning. After a moment, she put it down, and then patted her cheeks, before spinning the chair to face the door. With a burst of magic, the door flung itself open and Barley, rearing up to knock, fell into the room. “Wondering when you’d get here.” Fizzy grinned. “What is this place?” Caramel said, leaning down to offer Barley a hoof. “My battle station!” Fizzy said, throwing her hooves into the air and giving a toothy smirk. “Battle… you’re fighting someone?” Twilight said, concerned. “No it’s– ugh.” Fizzy rolled her eyes. “It’s a gamer thing.” “Like… Buckball?” “No that’s– nevermind.” Fizzy shook her head, blue pixels of fire showering off of her. “This is where I can watch the whole con. Check it out!” She spun her chair around and pointed at one of the screens. On it some guests were standing, looking lost, on a rock. “Now watch this.” There was a flare of blue fire next to Fizzy as a pen and pages levitated up next to her. With a click, the pen sped away. The guests on the screen stumbled all at once, the stone heaving beneath them. Within seconds the ridge they were standing on revealed itself to be a massive dragon, which took off into the air, the guests giving out silent cries as they clung on. “See!” Fizzy spun her chair back around. “Isn’t that cool?” “Fizz, they could get hurt!” Caramel said, alarm clear on her face. “Uggggh!” Fizzy rolled her eyes and took the page and pen back in her grip. “‘Thankfully, despite the thrill of danger, none of the guests fell off or got hurt.’” She paused, looking at the page, and started scribbling again. “‘In fact, none of the guests at the con would get hurt and in fact never got hurt, miraculously healing any prior injury because the Great Sage Fizzyban cast a spell that protected them from all possible trouble. Even the Con Crud.’ There!” She looked up, glaring, unaware that on the monitor behind her a version of herself sporting a robe and a fine beard had appeared, waving at the guests as the dragon carried them away. “FIzzy, that’s not–” Barley began. “Oh shut up!” Fizzy said, her mane flaring. “I have it handled! I have a giant stack of pages right here, and I can do whatever I want!” “Fizz, listen–” “No!” Fizzy leapt from her chair, mane a pillar of sparkling blue fire. “You listen, or better yet.” She whirled around and waved a hoof at the screens, “Watch. Look at those guests! Look how excited they are! I made Equestria real, guys! Don’t you get it?” “That might be part of the problem–” Twilight began, only for a muzzle to snap around her snout after a quick pen scratch. “Don’t you guys trust me?” Fizzy asked, suddenly, looking vulnerable. “We trust you, Fizz, but–” “Oh, ‘but,’ right.” Fizzy rolled her eyes and began stalking around. “I’m sure you trust me with the AV equipment, right? You trust me to make sure the GoHs have coffee. But you don’t trust me with anything serious, right? ‘Oh, here’s Fizzy, she bailed us out during lockdown but now that we have the con we really wanted back we can just have her do errands!’ Just a goofy little kirin doing her stupid little streams and at the end of the day nothing–” she stomped a hoof, wheeling to face them. “–she–” the hoof came down again, cracking the floor. “–does–” her mane flared as a third stomp sent chunks flying. “–matters.” The crack flared across the floor and her mane blazed almost to the ceiling. When she looked up at Caramel and Barley, she couldn’t hide the tears turning to steam as they rolled down her face. “Fizz… it’s not like that.” Barley said, quietly. “Well, you’ve got a funny way of showing it.” Fizzy spat, before turning back to her chair. A few pen strokes later, and a swarm of small droids appeared, fixing the floor as they went. Their chirps and clicks did not fill the silence. Neither did Twilight’s grunts as she desperately fought with her muzzle. Caramel looked at Barley, pain clear in her eyes. Barley met hers with shame. “I did all this, you know.” Fizzy said, not turning the chair to face them as she spoke. “I did it all to make Ciderfest the best it could be.” Caramel looked at Barley a second longer, and took a step forward. “You know what, Fizz? You’re right!” Caramel said, giving her best, brave smile. Twilight, still struggling with the muzzle, grunted in confusion. Fizzy didn’t respond, only shifting in her chair. “This con is actually amazing!” Twilight redoubled her efforts to get free, mumbling something into her locked lips that sounded an awful lot like “But what about Grogar?” “I have to admit,” Barley said, stepping forward and nodding to the monitor. The guests had stopped screaming in terror atop the dragon, instead screaming with excitement, “this con has been a wild ride.” Fizzy snorted and grumbled. “Puns, really?” Caramel grinned. “At a time like this?” Barley shrugged and smiled. He took another step forward. “Fizzy, listen… you were right. We didn’t pay enough attention to you.” “Yeah,” Caramel said, her face getting more somber. “Not only did we not really help you or pay attention to your ideas… but this isn’t just about the con is it?” Barley went on. Fizzy was silent as stone behind her chair. Caramel frowned, and took another step forward. “Past few years have been hard on you, haven't they?” No reply came. “I get it, that times are tough, and we were bad friends. You… you put everything into trying to make Ciderfest the best con it could be, to making everyone you could happy, and, well, look what happened! We ignored you and… then you turned around and threw together the best Ciderfest either of us have ever seen!” Caramel’s eyes glistened as she spoke, grinning wide. Barley stepped in. “Truth is, Fizzy… we need you.We clearly need you more than you need us. Remember what happened the first time I tried to use Zoom?” He turned to Caramel, giving an awkward grin. “Oh, that was a disaster. Those poor kids.” “Poor kids? I’m the one who crashed a Zoom class in a bathrobe!” Caramel just laughed. “See? We’d be lost without you!” Barley laughed along with Caramel “I know that times are rough, girl,” Caramel started, “and that we haven’t been the best of friends.” “But, if you’ll have us,” Barley continued. “Just for one weekend, Fizzy, in one spot,” Caramel’s smile wavered with hope and fear, “we can make the world a better place.” “And the day after that, and the day after that.” Barley went on. “All in this, together,” Caramel finished. There was a long silence. “Please, Fizzy,” Barley whispered, “we need you.” The silence was finally broken. By sniffling. The chair wheeled around, revealing a very white, blue, pink and very kirin, Fizzy. “Guys,” she said, sobbing into a page. “Oh, girl, come here!” Caramel rushed up and pulled her into a hug. “Probably best not to use a cosmic artifact as a handkerchief,” Barley said, stepping in to pull the page from Fizzy’s hoof, causing her to laugh. “It’s okay, Fizz, let it out. Mama Caramel has got you.” “Guys,” Fizzy said, as the tears subsided. “I… you mean it?” “Sure as sugar.” Caramel grinned. “Indeed.” Barley matched the grin. “I just felt so useless, with the con, and with everything going on-” “We know honey, we know.” Caramel tightened the hug. “We’ll get through it,” Barley said with a nod “Together.” “Together.” Caramel echoed. “Together.” Fizzy smiled. She then looked up at the screens overhead. “This is pretty neat, though, huh?” “Aside from the whole ‘evil necromancer trying to take over all of time,’ thing, maybe,” Caramel interjected. “What?” Fizzy snapped to look at Caramel. “Yeah, Twilight can–” Barley looked over to where Twilight was. Or rather was. Only a muzzle was left. And in the beat of silence that followed, a burst of green fire exploded sending the three of them sprawling. Chrysalis snatched up Fizzy’s entire stock of pages, cackling. “Sentimental fools!” she shouted as another blast of green fire shattered the window overlooking the server room, sailing through it as another portal opened up. Chrysalis dived for it as Fizzy, Caramel and Barley rushed to the broken window in horror. Chrysalis gave one last mocking laugh- -as a blast of lavender light lanced from the portal, slamming into her, sending her flying and scattering the pages everywhere. “Alright, everypony!” A familiar voice shouted from the portal. “Remember, every page collected is a point! And this is a cooperative game, so no shoving or fighting.” And triumphantly, through the portal, surrounded by a wave of excited con guests, came the real Twilight Sparkle. “Urgh.” Chrysalis growled, crawling to all fours on top of one of the servers. “Using these guests to do your bidding? I thought you were above such crass manipulation, Princess.” “It’s called ‘teamwork!’” Twilight grinned. “After all, friendship is magic!” “Spare me,” Chrysalis groaned, and then gave a wicked sneer. “Not that these little meat shields will save you.” Her horn began to emit an ominous green glow. “We both know that I would hurt a child.” “We do.” Twilight squared off defensively. “But he won’t let you.” “He-?” And then a comically giant flyswatter flattened Chrysalis. Fizzy, Barley, and Caramel were slack-jawed. “Really, Twilight? A Discord ex Machina?” Discord lifted the flyswatter and grimaced as he saw the bottom side. “A bit cliche, isn’t it?” “You said you were there to bail us out if we needed it, plus,” She said, smiling, “I-” “‘-wrote that it would happen on a page.’ Yes, yes, very clever.” Discord rolled his eyes. “This isn’t over, you know.” “I know.” Twilight said, frowning. “She, naturally, wasn’t working alone,” Discord went on, scrapping the flattened Chrysalis off on the corner of a server. “Plus…” He grinned, looking at Twilight, “I still have my own hand to play.” “I know.” Twilight said, again. “But, Discord?” “Yesssss?” “I’m going to trust you. That we can work out what’s happening, together.” Discord frowned, and then rolled his eyes, a hair too fast. “Ugh! I can’t believe I’m agreeing with Chrysalis on anything, but I have no interest in friendship speeches today!” He looked around. “This really isn’t my speed. I’m going back to the tabletop room. A wonderful guest was showing me a lovely game called Warhorseshoe 40K!” And with a snap of his fingers, he was gone. Twilight let out a sigh of tension she’d been holding in. Caramel turned to Fizzy. “So, about Grogar.” Some time had passed, and while Twilight’s con volunteers gathered up all the scattered pages, Caramel and Barley had gotten Fizzy up to speed on the three factions running amok at the con. “I really messed this one up.” Fizzy shook her head. “Hey, it’s alright, Fizz.” Barley said, smiling. “We’re back together now. We got this.” “Teamwork makes the dream work!” Caramel said, pumping a hoof. “Plus, it looks like Twilight has it handled.” Barley grinned. “Finally, things are starting to go right.” “But what about the pretty lights?” A soft, high-pitched voice asked. The three of them turned to see a small child standing a few feet away from them. She turned and pointed to the portal, which had been left open all this time. “Lookit!” Fizzy, Barley, and Caramel all looked up at the portal. So did, eventually, everyone else. Beyond the opening of the portal, the horizon was filled with light. Not just light. Shapes, sounds, color. All fantastical and contradictory, and it was growing. “What is that?” Caramel asked, quietly. “I think… I think people are starting to use all their pages all at once!” Barley said. If Fizzy Is Saved, and Chaos Is In The Lead [CANON]With a shout, Barley leapt through the portal, flapping his wings to break his fall… only for Caramel to crash on top of him. Spinning end over end the two found themselves tangled in… wires? Twilight sailed in after them, the portal closing behind her. She touched down and looked around. “What… is this place?” she said. “It, uh…” Barley looked around, trying to get a snarl of fiber-optic wires out of his vest. “It’s, a, uh…” “A server room?” Caramel said, in confused awe. Towering over the three ponies were line after line of humming black monoliths, pulsating with purple, pink, and teal lights beneath their metal casings. “Is this… normal in your world?” Twilight asked, concerned. “Uh, kind of, yeah.” Barley said, looking around, “...I think, anyway.” “You don’t know?!” Twilight gaped. “I’m a bartender!” Barley replied, waving his hoof, embarrassed. “Technical stuff like this was really more the speed of–” “Fizzy!” Caramel shouted. Twilight and Barley looked. She was pointing with one hoof towards a room hanging over the endless servers, a flickering blue light shining from within. “You think that’s her?” Twilight asked, frowning. “It looks like her nirik fire,” Barley said, hopeful. “And it is her speed,” Caramel added, with a tired smile. “Best lead we got,” Barley said, with a shrug. “Then let’s check it out,” Twilight nodded, giving a nervous glare to the silent spires around her. Without another word, the three set out towards the beacon. “Look at that!” Fizzy shouted, laughing. “That’s great!” On one of the many floating screens around her, Pinkie Pie had just fired another con-goer from her party cannon. Fizzy spun in her chair, grinning like a madkirin, looking at all the sights. On one screen Princess Cadance skated across a roller derby rink while guests watched. On another, Trixie and Starlight were putting the final touches on a rocket while guests helped, and on a third, Iron Will hyped the crowd up as an airship hovering over the roof of the hotel had been converted into a wrestling arena. It was all, unbelievably, amazingly cool. And then a pounding on the door to her office interrupted her reverie. “Fizzy!” Caramel’s muffled shout came through the door. “You in there, Fizz? We gotta talk.” FIzzy groaned and rolled her eyes. With a sigh she pulled off her headset,and then stopped, frowning. After a moment, she put it down, and then patted her cheeks, before spinning the chair to face the door. With a burst of magic, the door flung itself open and Barley, rearing up to knock, fell into the room. “Wondering when you’d get here.” Fizzy grinned. “What is this place?” Caramel said, leaning down to offer Barley a hoof. “My battle station!” Fizzy said, throwing her hooves into the air and giving a toothy smirk. “Battle… you’re fighting someone?” Twilight said, concerned. “No it’s– ugh.” Fizzy rolled her eyes. “It’s a gamer thing.” “Like… Buckball?” “No that’s– nevermind.” Fizzy shook her head, blue pixels of fire showering off of her. “This is where I can watch the whole con. Check it out!” She spun her chair around and pointed at one of the screens. On it some guests were standing, looking lost, on a rock. “Now watch this.” There was a flare of blue fire next to Fizzy as a pen and pages levitated up next to her. With a click, the pen sped away. The guests on the screen stumbled all at once, the stone heaving beneath them. Within seconds the ridge they were standing on revealed itself to be a massive dragon, which took off into the air, the guests giving out silent cries as they clung on. “See!” Fizzy spun her chair back around. “Isn’t that cool?” “Fizz, they could get hurt!” Caramel said, alarm clear on her face. “Uggggh!” Fizzy rolled her eyes and took the page and pen back in her grip. “‘Thankfully, despite the thrill of danger, none of the guests fell off or got hurt.’” She paused, looking at the page, and started scribbling again. “‘In fact, none of the guests at the con would get hurt and in fact never got hurt, miraculously healing any prior injury because the Great Sage Fizzyban cast a spell that protected them from all possible trouble. Even the Con Crud.’ There!” She looked up, glaring, unaware that on the monitor behind her a version of herself sporting a robe and a fine beard had appeared, waving at the guests as the dragon carried them away. “FIzzy, that’s not–” Barley began. “Oh shut up!” Fizzy said, her mane flaring. “I have it handled! I have a giant stack of pages right here, and I can do whatever I want!” “Fizz, listen–” “No!” Fizzy leapt from her chair, mane a pillar of sparkling blue fire. “You listen, or better yet.” She whirled around and waved a hoof at the screens, “Watch. Look at those guests! Look how excited they are! I made Equestria real, guys! Don’t you get it?” “That might be part of the problem–” Twilight began, only for a muzzle to snap around her snout after a quick pen scratch. “Don’t you guys trust me?” Fizzy asked, suddenly, looking vulnerable. “We trust you, Fizz, but–” “Oh, ‘but,’ right.” Fizzy rolled her eyes and began stalking around. “I’m sure you trust me with the AV equipment, right? You trust me to make sure the GoHs have coffee. But you don’t trust me with anything serious, right? ‘Oh, here’s Fizzy, she bailed us out during lockdown but now that we have the con we really wanted back we can just have her do errands!’ Just a goofy little kirin doing her stupid little streams and at the end of the day nothing–” she stomped a hoof, wheeling to face them. “–she–” the hoof came down again, cracking the floor. “–does–” her mane flared as a third stomp sent chunks flying. “–matters.” The crack flared across the floor and her mane blazed almost to the ceiling. When she looked up at Caramel and Barley, she couldn’t hide the tears turning to steam as they rolled down her face. “Fizz… it’s not like that.” Barley said, quietly. “Well, you’ve got a funny way of showing it.” Fizzy spat, before turning back to her chair. A few pen strokes later, and a swarm of small droids appeared, fixing the floor as they went. Their chirps and clicks did not fill the silence. Neither did Twilight’s grunts as she desperately fought with her muzzle. Caramel looked at Barley, pain clear in her eyes. Barley met hers with shame. “I did all this, you know.” Fizzy said, not turning the chair to face them as she spoke. “I did it all to make Ciderfest the best it could be.” Caramel looked at Barley a second longer, and took a step forward. “You know what, Fizz? You’re right!” Caramel said, giving her best, brave smile. Twilight, still struggling with the muzzle, grunted in confusion. Fizzy didn’t respond, only shifting in her chair. “This con is actually amazing!” Twilight redoubled her efforts to get free, mumbling something into her locked lips that sounded an awful lot like “But what about Grogar?” “I have to admit,” Barley said, stepping forward and nodding to the monitor. The guests had stopped screaming in terror atop the dragon, instead screaming with excitement, “this con has been a wild ride.” Fizzy snorted and grumbled. “Puns, really?” Caramel grinned. “At a time like this?” Barley shrugged and smiled. He took another step forward. “Fizzy, listen… you were right. We didn’t pay enough attention to you.” “Yeah,” Caramel said, her face getting more somber. “Not only did we not really help you or pay attention to your ideas… but this isn’t just about the con is it?” Barley went on. Fizzy was silent as stone behind her chair. Caramel frowned, and took another step forward. “Past few years have been hard on you, haven't they?” No reply came. “I get it, that times are tough, and we were bad friends. You… you put everything into trying to make Ciderfest the best con it could be, to making everyone you could happy, and, well, look what happened! We ignored you and… then you turned around and threw together the best Ciderfest either of us have ever seen!” Caramel’s eyes glistened as she spoke, grinning wide. Barley stepped in. “Truth is, Fizzy… we need you.We clearly need you more than you need us. Remember what happened the first time I tried to use Zoom?” He turned to Caramel, giving an awkward grin. “Oh, that was a disaster. Those poor kids.” “Poor kids? I’m the one who crashed a Zoom class in a bathrobe!” Caramel just laughed. “See? We’d be lost without you!” Barley laughed along with Caramel “I know that times are rough, girl,” Caramel started, “and that we haven’t been the best of friends.” “But, if you’ll have us,” Barley continued. “Just for one weekend, Fizzy, in one spot,” Caramel’s smile wavered with hope and fear, “we can make the world a better place.” “And the day after that, and the day after that.” Barley went on. “All in this, together,” Caramel finished. There was a long silence. “Please, Fizzy,” Barley whispered, “we need you.” The silence was finally broken. By sniffling. The chair wheeled around, revealing a very white, blue, pink and very kirin, Fizzy. “Guys,” she said, sobbing into a page. “Oh, girl, come here!” Caramel rushed up and pulled her into a hug. “Probably best not to use a cosmic artifact as a handkerchief,” Barley said, stepping in to pull the page from Fizzy’s hoof, causing her to laugh. “It’s okay, Fizz, let it out. Mama Caramel has got you.” “Guys,” Fizzy said, as the tears subsided. “I… you mean it?” “Sure as sugar.” Caramel grinned. “Indeed.” Barley matched the grin. “I just felt so useless, with the con, and with everything going on-” “We know honey, we know.” Caramel tightened the hug. “We’ll get through it,” Barley said with a nod “Together.” “Together.” Caramel echoed. “Together.” Fizzy smiled. She then looked up at the screens overhead. “This is pretty neat, though, huh?” “Aside from the whole ‘evil necromancer trying to take over all of time,’ thing, maybe,” Caramel interjected. “What?” Fizzy snapped to look at Caramel. “Yeah, Twilight can–” Barley looked over to where Twilight was. Or rather was. Only a muzzle was left. And in the beat of silence that followed, a burst of green fire exploded sending the three of them sprawling. Chrysalis snatched up Fizzy’s entire stock of pages, cackling. “Sentimental fools!” she shouted as another blast of green fire shattered the window overlooking the server room, sailing through it as another portal opened up. Fizzy, Barley, and Caramel watched helplessly as Chrysalis got smaller and smaller as she sailed across the darkness of the server room. …except she wasn’t sailing away. She was just getting smaller. And with a chuckle, an eagle’s talon snatched the tiny Chrysalis from the air, as the rest of Discord slithered his way into the control room. “And yes!” Discord shouted with a particularly dramatic tone, “This is a Jojo’s reference!” He then struck a pose that looked frankly quite painful. So was the silence that followed. “Well, excuse me for trying to cater to the crowd!” He grumbled, uncoiling. “Now, let’s see–” He raised an irate, squeaking, mini-Chrysalis over his paw, and began shaking her, the pages falling from her tiny grip, and returning to full size as they fell into his palm. “Mr. Discord?” Caramel piped up. “Oh please, my father was Mr. Discord, call me Dissy!” “Dissy-” A single raised toe-paw went to Caramel’s lip. “That was a joke. Don’t call me Dissy.” “Right.” Caramel said as Discord leaned back. “Wait, how did he do that? He was already using both his arms-” “Shhhh.” Discord said, pressing a talon to Barley’s lips. “No pointing out minor editing mistakes. We aren’t FimficmaSins, here.” From the open portal at the far side of the room, a huffing and very frantic Twilight Sparkle soared through the opening. “Barley! Caramel! Heard you! Were with! Me! an Imposter!” “Oh, don’t worry Twilight,” Discord cooed, shuffling pages across the countless arms he had hidden between narrative spaces. “I have it all under control.” “Discord!” “That I am!” Discord grinned and reached a paw out to Fizzy. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Glitch! I am having a wonderful time. Splendid show you’ve put on.” “Right,” Fizzy reached out a hoof for the shake, awkward, perhaps a tad frightened grin on her face. “Oh, and will you sign this please?” Discord passed Fizzy a pin and a terrarium. A very small, murderously angry Chrysalis faintly howled with high pitched rage inside. “Uh-” “Discord!” Twilight gasped, finally perching on the broken window. “Wait!” “Oh now, Twilight, why would I do that?” He turned around, swaying nonchalantly as he spoke. “I have so much writing to do!” Twilight drew in a couple more ragged breaths as Discord waited for a response. “I know things are confusing right now,” she said between pants, “more for you than anyone else, I think, but you don’t need to do this.” She drew in a gulp of air. “You made a mistake with Chrysalis and the others, but we forgave you. Fluttershy-” At the mention of Fluttershy’s name Discord’s grin became a look of rage. “Whatever you think is going on, Princess, it’s not! Now, if you will excuse me-” And with a snap, he was gone. Barley, Fizzy, Caramel, and Twilight all looked at each other. “Does anyone have some water?” Twilight grinned sheepishly. Some time had passed. Twilight had gotten her water and Fizzy had gotten up to speed on the three factions that were running amok collecting pages. “... I really screwed this up.” She shook her head. “It’s alright, girl. We got this.” Caramel rubbed Fizzy’s back, smiling. “Yes, if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years it’s that nothing, and I mean nothing can beat friendship!” Twilight smiled. “Yeah!” Caramel pumped a hoof. “Right Barley?” She looked over to where Barley was standing with his back turned to the rest of them. He was staring out the shattered window. “...Barley?” “You guys… you guys should come look at this!” His voice was wavering. The other three trotted up to the window and stopped short. The portal Twilight had come from had remained open, and beyond it the horizon was filled with light. Not just light. Shapes, sounds, color. All fantastical and contradictory, and it was growing. “What is that?” Caramel asked, quietly. “I think… I think people are starting to use all their pages all at once!” Barley said. If Fizzy is Saved, and Villains Are In The LeadWith a shout, Barley leapt through the portal, flapping his wings to break his fall… only for Caramel to crash on top of him. Spinning end over end the two found themselves tangled in… wires? Twilight sailed in after them, the portal closing behind her. She touched down and looked around. “What… is this place?” she said. “It, uh…” Barley looked around, trying to get a snarl of fiber-optic wires out of his vest. “It’s, a, uh…” “A server room?” Caramel said, in confused awe. Towering over the three ponies were line after line of humming black monoliths, pulsating with purple, pink, and teal lights beneath their metal casings. “Is this… normal in your world?” Twilight asked, concerned. “Uh, kind of, yeah.” Barley said, looking around, “...I think, anyway.” “You don’t know?!” Twilight gaped. “I’m a bartender!” Barley replied, waving his hoof, embarrassed. “Technical stuff like this was really more the speed of–” “Fizzy!” Caramel shouted. Twilight and Barley looked. She was pointing with one hoof towards a room hanging over the endless servers, a flickering blue light shining from within. “You think that’s her?” Twilight asked, frowning. “It looks like her nirik fire,” Barley said, hopeful. “And it is her speed,” Caramel added, with a tired smile. “Best lead we got,” Barley said, with a shrug. “Then let’s check it out,” Twilight nodded, giving a nervous glare to the silent spires around her. Without another word, the three set out towards the beacon. “Look at that!” Fizzy shouted, laughing. “That’s great!” On one of the many floating screens around her, Pinkie Pie had just fired another con-goer from her party cannon. Fizzy spun in her chair, grinning like a madkirin, looking at all the sights. On one screen Princess Cadance skated across a roller derby rink while guests watched. On another, Trixie and Starlight were putting the final touches on a rocket while guests helped, and on a third, Iron Will hyped the crowd up as an airship hovering over the roof of the hotel had been converted into a wrestling arena. It was all, unbelievably, amazingly cool. And then a pounding on the door to her office interrupted her reverie. “Fizzy!” Caramel’s muffled shout came through the door. “You in there, Fizz? We gotta talk.” FIzzy groaned and rolled her eyes. With a sigh she pulled off her headset,and then stopped, frowning. After a moment, she put it down, and then patted her cheeks, before spinning the chair to face the door. With a burst of magic, the door flung itself open and Barley, rearing up to knock, fell into the room. “Wondering when you’d get here.” Fizzy grinned. “What is this place?” Caramel said, leaning down to offer Barley a hoof. “My battle station!” Fizzy said, throwing her hooves into the air and giving a toothy smirk. “Battle… you’re fighting someone?” Twilight said, concerned. “No it’s– ugh.” Fizzy rolled her eyes. “It’s a gamer thing.” “Like… Buckball?” “No that’s– nevermind.” Fizzy shook her head, blue pixels of fire showering off of her. “This is where I can watch the whole con. Check it out!” She spun her chair around and pointed at one of the screens. On it some guests were standing, looking lost, on a rock. “Now watch this.” There was a flare of blue fire next to Fizzy as a pen and pages levitated up next to her. With a click, the pen sped away. The guests on the screen stumbled all at once, the stone heaving beneath them. Within seconds the ridge they were standing on revealed itself to be a massive dragon, which took off into the air, the guests giving out silent cries as they clung on. “See!” Fizzy spun her chair back around. “Isn’t that cool?” “Fizz, they could get hurt!” Caramel said, alarm clear on her face. “Uggggh!” Fizzy rolled her eyes and took the page and pen back in her grip. “‘Thankfully, despite the thrill of danger, none of the guests fell off or got hurt.’” She paused, looking at the page, and started scribbling again. “‘In fact, none of the guests at the con would get hurt and in fact never got hurt, miraculously healing any prior injury because the Great Sage Fizzyban cast a spell that protected them from all possible trouble. Even the Con Crud.’ There!” She looked up, glaring, unaware that on the monitor behind her a version of herself sporting a robe and a fine beard had appeared, waving at the guests as the dragon carried them away. “FIzzy, that’s not–” Barley began. “Oh shut up!” Fizzy said, her mane flaring. “I have it handled! I have a giant stack of pages right here, and I can do whatever I want!” “Fizz, listen–” “No!” Fizzy leapt from her chair, mane a pillar of sparkling blue fire. “You listen, or better yet.” She whirled around and waved a hoof at the screens, “Watch. Look at those guests! Look how excited they are! I made Equestria real, guys! Don’t you get it?” “That might be part of the problem–” Twilight began, only for a muzzle to snap around her snout after a quick pen scratch. “Don’t you guys trust me?” Fizzy asked, suddenly, looking vulnerable. “We trust you, Fizz, but–” “Oh, ‘but,’ right.” Fizzy rolled her eyes and began stalking around. “I’m sure you trust me with the AV equipment, right? You trust me to make sure the GoHs have coffee. But you don’t trust me with anything serious, right? ‘Oh, here’s Fizzy, she bailed us out during lockdown but now that we have the con we really wanted back we can just have her do errands!’ Just a goofy little kirin doing her stupid little streams and at the end of the day nothing–” she stomped a hoof, wheeling to face them. “–she–” the hoof came down again, cracking the floor. “–does–” her mane flared as a third stomp sent chunks flying. “–matters.” The crack flared across the floor and her mane blazed almost to the ceiling. When she looked up at Caramel and Barley, she couldn’t hide the tears turning to steam as they rolled down her face. “Fizz… it’s not like that.” Barley said, quietly. “Well, you’ve got a funny way of showing it.” Fizzy spat, before turning back to her chair. A few pen strokes later, and a swarm of small droids appeared, fixing the floor as they went. Their chirps and clicks did not fill the silence. Neither did Twilight’s grunts as she desperately fought with her muzzle. Caramel looked at Barley, pain clear in her eyes. Barley met hers with shame. “I did all this, you know.” Fizzy said, not turning the chair to face them as she spoke. “I did it all to make Ciderfest the best it could be.” Caramel looked at Barley a second longer, and took a step forward. “You know what, Fizz? You’re right!” Caramel said, giving her best, brave smile. Twilight, still struggling with the muzzle, grunted in confusion. Fizzy didn’t respond, only shifting in her chair. “This con is actually amazing!” Twilight redoubled her efforts to get free, mumbling something into her locked lips that sounded an awful lot like “But what about Grogar?” “I have to admit,” Barley said, stepping forward and nodding to the monitor. The guests had stopped screaming in terror atop the dragon, instead screaming with excitement, “this con has been a wild ride.” Fizzy snorted and grumbled. “Puns, really?” Caramel grinned. “At a time like this?” Barley shrugged and smiled. He took another step forward. “Fizzy, listen… you were right. We didn’t pay enough attention to you.” “Yeah,” Caramel said, her face getting more somber. “Not only did we not really help you or pay attention to your ideas… but this isn’t just about the con is it?” Barley went on. Fizzy was silent as stone behind her chair. Caramel frowned, and took another step forward. “Past few years have been hard on you, haven't they?” No reply came. “I get it, that times are tough, and we were bad friends. You… you put everything into trying to make Ciderfest the best con it could be, to making everyone you could happy, and, well, look what happened! We ignored you and… then you turned around and threw together the best Ciderfest either of us have ever seen!” Caramel’s eyes glistened as she spoke, grinning wide. Barley stepped in. “Truth is, Fizzy… we need you.We clearly need you more than you need us. Remember what happened the first time I tried to use Zoom?” He turned to Caramel, giving an awkward grin. “Oh, that was a disaster. Those poor kids.” “Poor kids? I’m the one who crashed a Zoom class in a bathrobe!” Caramel just laughed. “See? We’d be lost without you!” Barley laughed along with Caramel “I know that times are rough, girl,” Caramel started, “and that we haven’t been the best of friends.” “But, if you’ll have us,” Barley continued. “Just for one weekend, Fizzy, in one spot,” Caramel’s smile wavered with hope and fear, “we can make the world a better place.” “And the day after that, and the day after that.” Barley went on. “All in this, together,” Caramel finished. There was a long silence. “Please, Fizzy,” Barley whispered, “we need you.” The silence was finally broken. By sniffling. The chair wheeled around, revealing a very white, blue, pink and very kirin, Fizzy. “Guys,” she said, sobbing into a page. “Oh, girl, come here!” Caramel rushed up and pulled her into a hug. “Probably best not to use a cosmic artifact as a handkerchief,” Barley said, stepping in to pull the page from Fizzy’s hoof, causing her to laugh. “It’s okay, Fizz, let it out. Mama Caramel has got you.” “Guys,” Fizzy said, as the tears subsided. “I… you mean it?” “Sure as sugar.” Caramel grinned. “Indeed.” Barley matched the grin. “I just felt so useless, with the con, and with everything going on-” “We know honey, we know.” Caramel tightened the hug. “We’ll get through it,” Barley said with a nod “Together.” “Together.” Caramel echoed. “Together.” Fizzy smiled. She then looked up at the screens overhead. “This is pretty neat, though, huh?” “Aside from the whole ‘evil necromancer trying to take over all of time,’ thing, maybe,” Caramel interjected. “What?” Fizzy snapped to look at Caramel. “Yeah, Twilight can–” Barley looked over to where Twilight was. Or rather was. Only a muzzle was left. And in the beat of silence that followed, a burst of green fire exploded sending the three of them sprawling. Chrysalis snatched up Fizzy’s entire stock of pages, cackling. “Sentimental fools!” she shouted as another blast of green fire shattered the window overlooking the server room, sailing through it as another portal opened up. Fizzy, Barley, and Caramel rushed to the shattered window, watching as Chrysalis banked towards the portal. …only for one of the server racks to open its glowing red and yellow eyes and cackle as a grasping wires rose up to block her path– –and get cut short as a blast of dark magic slammed into it from behind. Discord, knocked out of the shape he had taken, rolled across the floor, black crystals sprouting from his hands. Chrysalis landed next to Sombra, who stood, a look of contempt stretched across his face. Tirek stepped up beside them. He hefted a small mass through the portal. Twilight Sparkle hit the floor next to Discord, barely conscious, dark magic crystals covering her horn. “So,” Chrysalis said, a sheaf of pages in her telekinetic grip, “who wants to do the honors?” “So generous.” Tirek chuckled, grinning. “Of course.” Chrysalis grinned back. “I’m saving all my fun for that cow, Starlight Glimmer.” “Let me have a go!” Cozy Glow said, alighting onto Tirek’s shoulder. “Oh, of course,” Chrysalis said, passing the pastel pink psychopath a page and a pen. “As long as they don’t escape,” Sombra growled. “Of course!” Cozy said, sweetly, snatching up the pages, and began furiously writing, speaking along as she went. “‘Sombra’s dark magic seeped into the room.’” A purple miasma began coiling across the ground as Twilight and Discord slowly stood. “‘Mixing with the technology around it, it fed on that energy, and infested it.’” The servers began to groan and shift. “‘Thrumming with well-deserved hate, the magic and technology came alive, forming a vicious beast!’” The groaning shifted into a dull roar. Discord snatched up Twilight and began furiously waddling towards where Fizzy, Barley, and Caramel watched on. “‘It knew no thoughts, only hunger! And it would pursue them to the ends of the earth until it had ground them both to paste in. it’s. many. sharp. Teeth!’” Cozy punctuated each word with a pen stroke. She then looked up and down at the fleeing Discord and Twilight. “Have fuuuun you two~!” And with that, the four villains burst into laughter, the portal closing as something terrible and hungry took shape. “Lift me!” Discord shouted as he threw Twilight into the air, before grabbing onto her hooves. She beat her wings quite literally as if her life depended on it. The two of them cleared the window and collapsed into a heap. “Way out!” Twilight yelled. “Uh. Uh!” Fizzy looked around frantically, and then her face lit up. A lone page sat in the corner. Fizzy leapt for it, her pen flying to her as she began to write. A portal opened up and she pointed to it. “There!” All five of them scrambled through the portal, which snapped shut behind them. Seconds later, a talon of steel and malice smashed into the room, obliterating it utterly. Something terrible howled, alone and hungry in the empty darkness they left in their wake. “Aaaand… there.” Fizzy said, prying the last black crystal from Twilight’s horn with her pen. “Thanks.” She said, with a sign of relief. She looked up. “Where’s Discord?” “I… don’t know.” Caramel said, looking around. “Probably off to find more pages.” Barley said, forlorn. “Yeah.” Fizzy gave an exhausted sigh. “We’re probably gonna need them. But we can do it with friendship! Right, guys? Right… Twilight?” Twilight wasn’t paying attention to any of them. She was staring off into the horizon, eyebrows furrowed and mouth open. The other three turned to look. The horizon was filled with light. Not just light. Shapes, sounds, color. All fantastical and contradictory, and it was growing. “What is that?” Caramel asked, quietly. “I think… I think people are starting to use all their pages all at once!” Barley said. If Fizzy Isn't SavedWith a shout, Barley leapt through the portal, flapping his wings to break his fall… only for Caramel to crash on top of him. Spinning end over end the two found themselves tangled in… wires? Twilight sailed in after them, the portal closing behind her. She touched down and looked around. “What… is this place?” she said. “It, uh…” Barley looked around, trying to get a snarl of fiber-optic wires out of his vest. “It’s, a, uh…” “A server room?” Caramel said, in confused awe. Towering over the three ponies were line after line of humming black monoliths, pulsating with purple, pink, and teal lights beneath their metal casings. “Is this… normal in your world?” Twilight asked, concerned. “Uh, kind of, yeah.” Barley said, looking around, “...I think, anyway.” “You don’t know?!” Twilight gaped. “I’m a bartender!” Barley replied, waving his hoof, embarrassed. “Technical stuff like this was really more the speed of–” “Fizzy!” Caramel shouted. Twilight and Barley looked. She was pointing with one hoof towards a room hanging over the endless servers, a flickering blue light shining from within. “You think that’s her?” Twilight asked, frowning. “It looks like her nirik fire,” Barley said, hopeful. “And it is her speed,” Caramel added, with a tired smile. “Best lead we got,” Barley said, with a shrug. “Then let’s check it out,” Twilight nodded, giving a nervous glare to the silent spires around her. Without another word, the three set out towards the beacon. “Look at that!” Fizzy shouted, laughing. “That’s great!” On one of the many floating screens around her, Pinkie Pie had just fired another con-goer from her party cannon. Fizzy spun in her chair, grinning like a madkirin, looking at all the sights. On one screen Princess Cadance skated across a roller derby rink while guests watched. On another, Trixie and Starlight were putting the final touches on a rocket while guests helped, and on a third, Iron Will hyped the crowd up as an airship hovering over the roof of the hotel had been converted into a wrestling arena. It was all, unbelievably, amazingly cool. And then a pounding on the door to her office interrupted her reverie. “Fizzy!” Caramel’s muffled shout came through the door. “You in there, Fizz? We gotta talk.” FIzzy groaned and rolled her eyes. With a sigh she pulled off her headset,and then stopped, frowning. After a moment, she put it down, and then patted her cheeks, before spinning the chair to face the door. With a burst of magic, the door flung itself open and Barley, rearing up to knock, fell into the room. “Wondering when you’d get here.” Fizzy grinned. “What is this place?” Caramel said, leaning down to offer Barley a hoof. “My battle station!” Fizzy said, throwing her hooves into the air and giving a toothy smirk. “Battle… you’re fighting someone?” Twilight said, concerned. “No it’s– ugh.” Fizzy rolled her eyes. “It’s a gamer thing.” “Like… Buckball?” “No that’s– nevermind.” Fizzy shook her head, blue pixels of fire showering off of her. “This is where I can watch the whole con. Check it out!” She spun her chair around and pointed at one of the screens. On it some guests were standing, looking lost, on a rock. “Now watch this.” There was a flare of blue fire next to Fizzy as a pen and pages levitated up next to her. With a click, the pen sped away. The guests on the screen stumbled all at once, the stone heaving beneath them. Within seconds the ridge they were standing on revealed itself to be a massive dragon, which took off into the air, the guests giving out silent cries as they clung on. “See!” Fizzy spun her chair back around. “Isn’t that cool?” “Fizz, they could get hurt!” Caramel said, alarm clear on her face. “Uggggh!” Fizzy rolled her eyes and took the page and pen back in her grip. “‘Thankfully, despite the thrill of danger, none of the guests fell off or got hurt.’” She paused, looking at the page, and started scribbling again. “‘In fact, none of the guests at the con would get hurt and in fact never got hurt, miraculously healing any prior injury because the Great Sage Fizzyban cast a spell that protected them from all possible trouble. Even the Con Crud.’ There!” She looked up, glaring, unaware that on the monitor behind her a version of herself sporting a robe and a fine beard had appeared, waving at the guests as the dragon carried them away. “FIzzy, that’s not–” Barley began. “Oh shut up!” Fizzy said, her mane flaring. “I have it handled! I have a giant stack of pages right here, and I can do whatever I want!” “Fizz, listen–” “No!” Fizzy leapt from her chair, mane a pillar of sparkling blue fire. “You listen, or better yet.” She whirled around and waved a hoof at the screens, “Watch. Look at those guests! Look how excited they are! I made Equestria real, guys! Don’t you get it?” “That might be part of the problem–” Twilight began, only for a muzzle to snap around her snout after a quick pen scratch. “Don’t you guys trust me?” Fizzy asked, suddenly, looking vulnerable. “We trust you, Fizz, but–” “Oh, ‘but,’ right.” Fizzy rolled her eyes and began stalking around. “I’m sure you trust me with the AV equipment, right? You trust me to make sure the GoHs have coffee. But you don’t trust me with anything serious, right? ‘Oh, here’s Fizzy, she bailed us out during lockdown but now that we have the con we really wanted back we can just have her do errands!’ Just a goofy little kirin doing her stupid little streams and at the end of the day nothing–” she stomped a hoof, wheeling to face them. “–she–” the hoof came down again, cracking the floor. “–does–” her mane flared as a third stomp sent chunks flying. “–matters.” The crack flared across the floor and her mane blazed almost to the ceiling. When she looked up at Caramel and Barley, she couldn’t hide the tears turning to steam as they rolled down her face. “Fizz… it’s not like that.” Barley said, quietly. “Well, you’ve got a funny way of showing it.” Fizzy spat, before turning back to her chair. A few pen strokes later, and a swarm of small droids appeared, fixing the floor as they went. Their chirps and clicks did not fill the silence. Neither did Twilight’s grunts as she desperately fought with her muzzle. Caramel looked at Barley, pain clear in her eyes. Barley met hers with shame. “I did all this, you know.” Fizzy said, not turning the chair to face them as she spoke. “I did it all to make Ciderfest the best it could be.” Caramel looked at Barley a second longer, and took a step forward. “Fizz, I know we maybe didn’t treat you right, but you have to stop this. Equestria–” Fizzy groaned and snatched up another page. “Fizz–-” “No,” Fizzy said. “‘No?’” Caramel echoed. “No, I don’t care. Get out.” She was furiously scratching away with her pen. “Look,” Barley stepped up, “we can talk.” “Talk all you want,” Fizzy said, fake smile audible in her tone. “I’m not listening any longer.” “Honey,” Caramel pleaded, softly. “I did everything for you two.” Fizzy said, quietly, pen scratching away. “And you threw me aside.” “I’m sorry, Fizz, I really should have read that proposal–” Barley began. “Oh yeah, you’re sorry, sure.” She spat. “I don’t care. Get out.” “Please, Fizzy, Grogar–” The pen came to a sudden, scratching halt. “‘Unfortunately for them, it was on that word that the automated security grabbed ahold of both Caramel and Barley.’” With no other warning, metallic claws snatched up both ponies and dragged them into the air. “‘Fizzy, having nothing useful to gain from talking to ‘old friends,’ pressed the button to activate her chair’s ascension mode.’” Barley and Caramel watched as, on cue, Fizzy’s hoof reached down and pressed a button neither had seen before, and the chair began hiss with steam. “‘Fizzy turned to look back at her friends, one, last, time.’” She turned about, then, fixing them with a sneer. ‘“She wouldn’t hurt them, though. Oh no. Unlike some ponies she knew when to be gracious. Plus…’” The ceiling above Fizzy opened wide, revealing a towering dark hollow, “‘she had a con to run.’” She gave her two friends one last look, and then, with dripping fake acidic cheer, said: “Enjoy the show, guys!” And with that her chair began lifting into the space above, and Fizzy watched with contempt as Barley and Caramel shouted after her. She managed to keep herself from crying until the gate sealed shut beneath her, blocking them from her sight.
If Fizzy is Saved, and Heroes Are In The LeadWith a shout, Barley leapt through the portal, flapping his wings to break his fall… only for Caramel to crash on top of him. Spinning end over end the two found themselves tangled in… wires? Twilight sailed in after them, the portal closing behind her. She touched down and looked around. “What… is this place?” she said. “It, uh…” Barley looked around, trying to get a snarl of fiber-optic wires out of his vest. “It’s, a, uh…” “A server room?” Caramel said, in confused awe. Towering over the three ponies were line after line of humming black monoliths, pulsating with purple, pink, and teal lights beneath their metal casings. “Is this… normal in your world?” Twilight asked, concerned. “Uh, kind of, yeah.” Barley said, looking around, “...I think, anyway.” “You don’t know?!” Twilight gaped. “I’m a bartender!” Barley replied, waving his hoof, embarrassed. “Technical stuff like this was really more the speed of–” “Fizzy!” Caramel shouted. Twilight and Barley looked. She was pointing with one hoof towards a room hanging over the endless servers, a flickering blue light shining from within. “You think that’s her?” Twilight asked, frowning. “It looks like her nirik fire,” Barley said, hopeful. “And it is her speed,” Caramel added, with a tired smile. “Best lead we got,” Barley said, with a shrug. “Then let’s check it out,” Twilight nodded, giving a nervous glare to the silent spires around her. Without another word, the three set out towards the beacon. “Look at that!” Fizzy shouted, laughing. “That’s great!” On one of the many floating screens around her, Pinkie Pie had just fired another con-goer from her party cannon. Fizzy spun in her chair, grinning like a madkirin, looking at all the sights. On one screen Princess Cadance skated across a roller derby rink while guests watched. On another, Trixie and Starlight were putting the final touches on a rocket while guests helped, and on a third, Iron Will hyped the crowd up as an airship hovering over the roof of the hotel had been converted into a wrestling arena. It was all, unbelievably, amazingly cool. And then a pounding on the door to her office interrupted her reverie. “Fizzy!” Caramel’s muffled shout came through the door. “You in there, Fizz? We gotta talk.” FIzzy groaned and rolled her eyes. With a sigh she pulled off her headset,and then stopped, frowning. After a moment, she put it down, and then patted her cheeks, before spinning the chair to face the door. With a burst of magic, the door flung itself open and Barley, rearing up to knock, fell into the room. “Wondering when you’d get here.” Fizzy grinned. “What is this place?” Caramel said, leaning down to offer Barley a hoof. “My battle station!” Fizzy said, throwing her hooves into the air and giving a toothy smirk. “Battle… you’re fighting someone?” Twilight said, concerned. “No it’s– ugh.” Fizzy rolled her eyes. “It’s a gamer thing.” “Like… Buckball?” “No that’s– nevermind.” Fizzy shook her head, blue pixels of fire showering off of her. “This is where I can watch the whole con. Check it out!” She spun her chair around and pointed at one of the screens. On it some guests were standing, looking lost, on a rock. “Now watch this.” There was a flare of blue fire next to Fizzy as a pen and pages levitated up next to her. With a click, the pen sped away. The guests on the screen stumbled all at once, the stone heaving beneath them. Within seconds the ridge they were standing on revealed itself to be a massive dragon, which took off into the air, the guests giving out silent cries as they clung on. “See!” Fizzy spun her chair back around. “Isn’t that cool?” “Fizz, they could get hurt!” Caramel said, alarm clear on her face. “Uggggh!” Fizzy rolled her eyes and took the page and pen back in her grip. “‘Thankfully, despite the thrill of danger, none of the guests fell off or got hurt.’” She paused, looking at the page, and started scribbling again. “‘In fact, none of the guests at the con would get hurt and in fact never got hurt, miraculously healing any prior injury because the Great Sage Fizzyban cast a spell that protected them from all possible trouble. Even the Con Crud.’ There!” She looked up, glaring, unaware that on the monitor behind her a version of herself sporting a robe and a fine beard had appeared, waving at the guests as the dragon carried them away. “FIzzy, that’s not–” Barley began. “Oh shut up!” Fizzy said, her mane flaring. “I have it handled! I have a giant stack of pages right here, and I can do whatever I want!” “Fizz, listen–” “No!” Fizzy leapt from her chair, mane a pillar of sparkling blue fire. “You listen, or better yet.” She whirled around and waved a hoof at the screens, “Watch. Look at those guests! Look how excited they are! I made Equestria real, guys! Don’t you get it?” “That might be part of the problem–” Twilight began, only for a muzzle to snap around her snout after a quick pen scratch. “Don’t you guys trust me?” Fizzy asked, suddenly, looking vulnerable. “We trust you, Fizz, but–” “Oh, ‘but,’ right.” Fizzy rolled her eyes and began stalking around. “I’m sure you trust me with the AV equipment, right? You trust me to make sure the GoHs have coffee. But you don’t trust me with anything serious, right? ‘Oh, here’s Fizzy, she bailed us out during lockdown but now that we have the con we really wanted back we can just have her do errands!’ Just a goofy little kirin doing her stupid little streams and at the end of the day nothing–” she stomped a hoof, wheeling to face them. “–she–” the hoof came down again, cracking the floor. “–does–” her mane flared as a third stomp sent chunks flying. “–matters.” The crack flared across the floor and her mane blazed almost to the ceiling. When she looked up at Caramel and Barley, she couldn’t hide the tears turning to steam as they rolled down her face. “Fizz… it’s not like that.” Barley said, quietly. “Well, you’ve got a funny way of showing it.” Fizzy spat, before turning back to her chair. A few pen strokes later, and a swarm of small droids appeared, fixing the floor as they went. Their chirps and clicks did not fill the silence. Neither did Twilight’s grunts as she desperately fought with her muzzle. Caramel looked at Barley, pain clear in her eyes. Barley met hers with shame. “I did all this, you know.” Fizzy said, not turning the chair to face them as she spoke. “I did it all to make Ciderfest the best it could be.” Caramel looked at Barley a second longer, and took a step forward. “You know what, Fizz? You’re right!” Caramel said, giving her best, brave smile. Twilight, still struggling with the muzzle, grunted in confusion. Fizzy didn’t respond, only shifting in her chair. “This con is actually amazing!” Twilight redoubled her efforts to get free, mumbling something into her locked lips that sounded an awful lot like “But what about Grogar?” “I have to admit,” Barley said, stepping forward and nodding to the monitor. The guests had stopped screaming in terror atop the dragon, instead screaming with excitement, “this con has been a wild ride.” Fizzy snorted and grumbled. “Puns, really?” Caramel grinned. “At a time like this?” Barley shrugged and smiled. He took another step forward. “Fizzy, listen… you were right. We didn’t pay enough attention to you.” “Yeah,” Caramel said, her face getting more somber. “Not only did we not really help you or pay attention to your ideas… but this isn’t just about the con is it?” Barley went on. Fizzy was silent as stone behind her chair. Caramel frowned, and took another step forward. “Past few years have been hard on you, haven't they?” No reply came. “I get it, that times are tough, and we were bad friends. You… you put everything into trying to make Ciderfest the best con it could be, to making everyone you could happy, and, well, look what happened! We ignored you and… then you turned around and threw together the best Ciderfest either of us have ever seen!” Caramel’s eyes glistened as she spoke, grinning wide. Barley stepped in. “Truth is, Fizzy… we need you.We clearly need you more than you need us. Remember what happened the first time I tried to use Zoom?” He turned to Caramel, giving an awkward grin. “Oh, that was a disaster. Those poor kids.” “Poor kids? I’m the one who crashed a Zoom class in a bathrobe!” Caramel just laughed. “See? We’d be lost without you!” Barley laughed along with Caramel “I know that times are rough, girl,” Caramel started, “and that we haven’t been the best of friends.” “But, if you’ll have us,” Barley continued. “Just for one weekend, Fizzy, in one spot,” Caramel’s smile wavered with hope and fear, “we can make the world a better place.” “And the day after that, and the day after that.” Barley went on. “All in this, together,” Caramel finished. There was a long silence. “Please, Fizzy,” Barley whispered, “we need you.” The silence was finally broken. By sniffling. The chair wheeled around, revealing a very white, blue, pink and very kirin, Fizzy. “Guys,” she said, sobbing into a page. “Oh, girl, come here!” Caramel rushed up and pulled her into a hug. “Probably best not to use a cosmic artifact as a handkerchief,” Barley said, stepping in to pull the page from Fizzy’s hoof, causing her to laugh. “It’s okay, Fizz, let it out. Mama Caramel has got you.” “Guys,” Fizzy said, as the tears subsided. “I… you mean it?” “Sure as sugar.” Caramel grinned. “Indeed.” Barley matched the grin. “I just felt so useless, with the con, and with everything going on-” “We know honey, we know.” Caramel tightened the hug. “We’ll get through it,” Barley said with a nod “Together.” “Together.” Caramel echoed. “Together.” Fizzy smiled. She then looked up at the screens overhead. “This is pretty neat, though, huh?” “Aside from the whole ‘evil necromancer trying to take over all of time,’ thing, maybe,” Caramel interjected. “What?” Fizzy snapped to look at Caramel. “Yeah, Twilight can–” Barley looked over to where Twilight was. Or rather was. Only a muzzle was left. And in the beat of silence that followed, a burst of green fire exploded sending the three of them sprawling. Chrysalis snatched up Fizzy’s entire stock of pages, cackling. “Sentimental fools!” she shouted as another blast of green fire shattered the window overlooking the server room, sailing through it as another portal opened up. Chrysalis dived for it as Fizzy, Caramel and Barley rushed to the broken window in horror. Chrysalis gave one last mocking laugh- -as a blast of lavender light lanced from the portal, slamming into her, sending her flying and scattering the pages everywhere. “Alright, everypony!” A familiar voice shouted from the portal. “Remember, every page collected is a point! And this is a cooperative game, so no shoving or fighting.” And triumphantly, through the portal, surrounded by a wave of excited con guests, came the real Twilight Sparkle. “Urgh.” Chrysalis growled, crawling to all fours on top of one of the servers. “Using these guests to do your bidding? I thought you were above such crass manipulation, Princess.” “It’s called ‘teamwork!’” Twilight grinned. “After all, friendship is magic!” “Spare me,” Chrysalis groaned, and then gave a wicked sneer. “Not that these little meat shields will save you.” Her horn began to emit an ominous green glow. “We both know that I would hurt a child.” “We do.” Twilight squared off defensively. “But he won’t let you.” “He-?” And then a comically giant flyswatter flattened Chrysalis. Fizzy, Barley, and Caramel were slack-jawed. “Really, Twilight? A Discord ex Machina?” Discord lifted the flyswatter and grimaced as he saw the bottom side. “A bit cliche, isn’t it?” “You said you were there to bail us out if we needed it, plus,” She said, smiling, “I-” “‘-wrote that it would happen on a page.’ Yes, yes, very clever.” Discord rolled his eyes. “This isn’t over, you know.” “I know.” Twilight said, frowning. “She, naturally, wasn’t working alone,” Discord went on, scrapping the flattened Chrysalis off on the corner of a server. “Plus…” He grinned, looking at Twilight, “I still have my own hand to play.” “I know.” Twilight said, again. “But, Discord?” “Yesssss?” “I’m going to trust you. That we can work out what’s happening, together.” Discord frowned, and then rolled his eyes, a hair too fast. “Ugh! I can’t believe I’m agreeing with Chrysalis on anything, but I have no interest in friendship speeches today!” He looked around. “This really isn’t my speed. I’m going back to the tabletop room. A wonderful guest was showing me a lovely game called Warhorseshoe 40K!” And with a snap of his fingers, he was gone. Twilight let out a sigh of tension she’d been holding in. Caramel turned to Fizzy. “So, about Grogar.” Some time had passed, and while Twilight’s con volunteers gathered up all the scattered pages, Caramel and Barley had gotten Fizzy up to speed on the three factions running amok at the con. “I really messed this one up.” Fizzy shook her head. “Hey, it’s alright, Fizz.” Barley said, smiling. “We’re back together now. We got this.” “Teamwork makes the dream work!” Caramel said, pumping a hoof. “Plus, it looks like Twilight has it handled.” Barley grinned. “Finally, things are starting to go right.” “But what about the pretty lights?” A soft, high-pitched voice asked. The three of them turned to see a small child standing a few feet away from them. She turned and pointed to the portal, which had been left open all this time. “Lookit!” Fizzy, Barley, and Caramel all looked up at the portal. So did, eventually, everyone else. Beyond the opening of the portal, the horizon was filled with light. Not just light. Shapes, sounds, color. All fantastical and contradictory, and it was growing. “What is that?” Caramel asked, quietly. “I think… I think people are starting to use all their pages all at once!” Barley said.
If Fizzy Is Saved, and Chaos Is In The Lead [CANON]With a shout, Barley leapt through the portal, flapping his wings to break his fall… only for Caramel to crash on top of him. Spinning end over end the two found themselves tangled in… wires? Twilight sailed in after them, the portal closing behind her. She touched down and looked around. “What… is this place?” she said. “It, uh…” Barley looked around, trying to get a snarl of fiber-optic wires out of his vest. “It’s, a, uh…” “A server room?” Caramel said, in confused awe. Towering over the three ponies were line after line of humming black monoliths, pulsating with purple, pink, and teal lights beneath their metal casings. “Is this… normal in your world?” Twilight asked, concerned. “Uh, kind of, yeah.” Barley said, looking around, “...I think, anyway.” “You don’t know?!” Twilight gaped. “I’m a bartender!” Barley replied, waving his hoof, embarrassed. “Technical stuff like this was really more the speed of–” “Fizzy!” Caramel shouted. Twilight and Barley looked. She was pointing with one hoof towards a room hanging over the endless servers, a flickering blue light shining from within. “You think that’s her?” Twilight asked, frowning. “It looks like her nirik fire,” Barley said, hopeful. “And it is her speed,” Caramel added, with a tired smile. “Best lead we got,” Barley said, with a shrug. “Then let’s check it out,” Twilight nodded, giving a nervous glare to the silent spires around her. Without another word, the three set out towards the beacon. “Look at that!” Fizzy shouted, laughing. “That’s great!” On one of the many floating screens around her, Pinkie Pie had just fired another con-goer from her party cannon. Fizzy spun in her chair, grinning like a madkirin, looking at all the sights. On one screen Princess Cadance skated across a roller derby rink while guests watched. On another, Trixie and Starlight were putting the final touches on a rocket while guests helped, and on a third, Iron Will hyped the crowd up as an airship hovering over the roof of the hotel had been converted into a wrestling arena. It was all, unbelievably, amazingly cool. And then a pounding on the door to her office interrupted her reverie. “Fizzy!” Caramel’s muffled shout came through the door. “You in there, Fizz? We gotta talk.” FIzzy groaned and rolled her eyes. With a sigh she pulled off her headset,and then stopped, frowning. After a moment, she put it down, and then patted her cheeks, before spinning the chair to face the door. With a burst of magic, the door flung itself open and Barley, rearing up to knock, fell into the room. “Wondering when you’d get here.” Fizzy grinned. “What is this place?” Caramel said, leaning down to offer Barley a hoof. “My battle station!” Fizzy said, throwing her hooves into the air and giving a toothy smirk. “Battle… you’re fighting someone?” Twilight said, concerned. “No it’s– ugh.” Fizzy rolled her eyes. “It’s a gamer thing.” “Like… Buckball?” “No that’s– nevermind.” Fizzy shook her head, blue pixels of fire showering off of her. “This is where I can watch the whole con. Check it out!” She spun her chair around and pointed at one of the screens. On it some guests were standing, looking lost, on a rock. “Now watch this.” There was a flare of blue fire next to Fizzy as a pen and pages levitated up next to her. With a click, the pen sped away. The guests on the screen stumbled all at once, the stone heaving beneath them. Within seconds the ridge they were standing on revealed itself to be a massive dragon, which took off into the air, the guests giving out silent cries as they clung on. “See!” Fizzy spun her chair back around. “Isn’t that cool?” “Fizz, they could get hurt!” Caramel said, alarm clear on her face. “Uggggh!” Fizzy rolled her eyes and took the page and pen back in her grip. “‘Thankfully, despite the thrill of danger, none of the guests fell off or got hurt.’” She paused, looking at the page, and started scribbling again. “‘In fact, none of the guests at the con would get hurt and in fact never got hurt, miraculously healing any prior injury because the Great Sage Fizzyban cast a spell that protected them from all possible trouble. Even the Con Crud.’ There!” She looked up, glaring, unaware that on the monitor behind her a version of herself sporting a robe and a fine beard had appeared, waving at the guests as the dragon carried them away. “FIzzy, that’s not–” Barley began. “Oh shut up!” Fizzy said, her mane flaring. “I have it handled! I have a giant stack of pages right here, and I can do whatever I want!” “Fizz, listen–” “No!” Fizzy leapt from her chair, mane a pillar of sparkling blue fire. “You listen, or better yet.” She whirled around and waved a hoof at the screens, “Watch. Look at those guests! Look how excited they are! I made Equestria real, guys! Don’t you get it?” “That might be part of the problem–” Twilight began, only for a muzzle to snap around her snout after a quick pen scratch. “Don’t you guys trust me?” Fizzy asked, suddenly, looking vulnerable. “We trust you, Fizz, but–” “Oh, ‘but,’ right.” Fizzy rolled her eyes and began stalking around. “I’m sure you trust me with the AV equipment, right? You trust me to make sure the GoHs have coffee. But you don’t trust me with anything serious, right? ‘Oh, here’s Fizzy, she bailed us out during lockdown but now that we have the con we really wanted back we can just have her do errands!’ Just a goofy little kirin doing her stupid little streams and at the end of the day nothing–” she stomped a hoof, wheeling to face them. “–she–” the hoof came down again, cracking the floor. “–does–” her mane flared as a third stomp sent chunks flying. “–matters.” The crack flared across the floor and her mane blazed almost to the ceiling. When she looked up at Caramel and Barley, she couldn’t hide the tears turning to steam as they rolled down her face. “Fizz… it’s not like that.” Barley said, quietly. “Well, you’ve got a funny way of showing it.” Fizzy spat, before turning back to her chair. A few pen strokes later, and a swarm of small droids appeared, fixing the floor as they went. Their chirps and clicks did not fill the silence. Neither did Twilight’s grunts as she desperately fought with her muzzle. Caramel looked at Barley, pain clear in her eyes. Barley met hers with shame. “I did all this, you know.” Fizzy said, not turning the chair to face them as she spoke. “I did it all to make Ciderfest the best it could be.” Caramel looked at Barley a second longer, and took a step forward. “You know what, Fizz? You’re right!” Caramel said, giving her best, brave smile. Twilight, still struggling with the muzzle, grunted in confusion. Fizzy didn’t respond, only shifting in her chair. “This con is actually amazing!” Twilight redoubled her efforts to get free, mumbling something into her locked lips that sounded an awful lot like “But what about Grogar?” “I have to admit,” Barley said, stepping forward and nodding to the monitor. The guests had stopped screaming in terror atop the dragon, instead screaming with excitement, “this con has been a wild ride.” Fizzy snorted and grumbled. “Puns, really?” Caramel grinned. “At a time like this?” Barley shrugged and smiled. He took another step forward. “Fizzy, listen… you were right. We didn’t pay enough attention to you.” “Yeah,” Caramel said, her face getting more somber. “Not only did we not really help you or pay attention to your ideas… but this isn’t just about the con is it?” Barley went on. Fizzy was silent as stone behind her chair. Caramel frowned, and took another step forward. “Past few years have been hard on you, haven't they?” No reply came. “I get it, that times are tough, and we were bad friends. You… you put everything into trying to make Ciderfest the best con it could be, to making everyone you could happy, and, well, look what happened! We ignored you and… then you turned around and threw together the best Ciderfest either of us have ever seen!” Caramel’s eyes glistened as she spoke, grinning wide. Barley stepped in. “Truth is, Fizzy… we need you.We clearly need you more than you need us. Remember what happened the first time I tried to use Zoom?” He turned to Caramel, giving an awkward grin. “Oh, that was a disaster. Those poor kids.” “Poor kids? I’m the one who crashed a Zoom class in a bathrobe!” Caramel just laughed. “See? We’d be lost without you!” Barley laughed along with Caramel “I know that times are rough, girl,” Caramel started, “and that we haven’t been the best of friends.” “But, if you’ll have us,” Barley continued. “Just for one weekend, Fizzy, in one spot,” Caramel’s smile wavered with hope and fear, “we can make the world a better place.” “And the day after that, and the day after that.” Barley went on. “All in this, together,” Caramel finished. There was a long silence. “Please, Fizzy,” Barley whispered, “we need you.” The silence was finally broken. By sniffling. The chair wheeled around, revealing a very white, blue, pink and very kirin, Fizzy. “Guys,” she said, sobbing into a page. “Oh, girl, come here!” Caramel rushed up and pulled her into a hug. “Probably best not to use a cosmic artifact as a handkerchief,” Barley said, stepping in to pull the page from Fizzy’s hoof, causing her to laugh. “It’s okay, Fizz, let it out. Mama Caramel has got you.” “Guys,” Fizzy said, as the tears subsided. “I… you mean it?” “Sure as sugar.” Caramel grinned. “Indeed.” Barley matched the grin. “I just felt so useless, with the con, and with everything going on-” “We know honey, we know.” Caramel tightened the hug. “We’ll get through it,” Barley said with a nod “Together.” “Together.” Caramel echoed. “Together.” Fizzy smiled. She then looked up at the screens overhead. “This is pretty neat, though, huh?” “Aside from the whole ‘evil necromancer trying to take over all of time,’ thing, maybe,” Caramel interjected. “What?” Fizzy snapped to look at Caramel. “Yeah, Twilight can–” Barley looked over to where Twilight was. Or rather was. Only a muzzle was left. And in the beat of silence that followed, a burst of green fire exploded sending the three of them sprawling. Chrysalis snatched up Fizzy’s entire stock of pages, cackling. “Sentimental fools!” she shouted as another blast of green fire shattered the window overlooking the server room, sailing through it as another portal opened up. Fizzy, Barley, and Caramel watched helplessly as Chrysalis got smaller and smaller as she sailed across the darkness of the server room. …except she wasn’t sailing away. She was just getting smaller. And with a chuckle, an eagle’s talon snatched the tiny Chrysalis from the air, as the rest of Discord slithered his way into the control room. “And yes!” Discord shouted with a particularly dramatic tone, “This is a Jojo’s reference!” He then struck a pose that looked frankly quite painful. So was the silence that followed. “Well, excuse me for trying to cater to the crowd!” He grumbled, uncoiling. “Now, let’s see–” He raised an irate, squeaking, mini-Chrysalis over his paw, and began shaking her, the pages falling from her tiny grip, and returning to full size as they fell into his palm. “Mr. Discord?” Caramel piped up. “Oh please, my father was Mr. Discord, call me Dissy!” “Dissy-” A single raised toe-paw went to Caramel’s lip. “That was a joke. Don’t call me Dissy.” “Right.” Caramel said as Discord leaned back. “Wait, how did he do that? He was already using both his arms-” “Shhhh.” Discord said, pressing a talon to Barley’s lips. “No pointing out minor editing mistakes. We aren’t FimficmaSins, here.” From the open portal at the far side of the room, a huffing and very frantic Twilight Sparkle soared through the opening. “Barley! Caramel! Heard you! Were with! Me! an Imposter!” “Oh, don’t worry Twilight,” Discord cooed, shuffling pages across the countless arms he had hidden between narrative spaces. “I have it all under control.” “Discord!” “That I am!” Discord grinned and reached a paw out to Fizzy. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Glitch! I am having a wonderful time. Splendid show you’ve put on.” “Right,” Fizzy reached out a hoof for the shake, awkward, perhaps a tad frightened grin on her face. “Oh, and will you sign this please?” Discord passed Fizzy a pin and a terrarium. A very small, murderously angry Chrysalis faintly howled with high pitched rage inside. “Uh-” “Discord!” Twilight gasped, finally perching on the broken window. “Wait!” “Oh now, Twilight, why would I do that?” He turned around, swaying nonchalantly as he spoke. “I have so much writing to do!” Twilight drew in a couple more ragged breaths as Discord waited for a response. “I know things are confusing right now,” she said between pants, “more for you than anyone else, I think, but you don’t need to do this.” She drew in a gulp of air. “You made a mistake with Chrysalis and the others, but we forgave you. Fluttershy-” At the mention of Fluttershy’s name Discord’s grin became a look of rage. “Whatever you think is going on, Princess, it’s not! Now, if you will excuse me-” And with a snap, he was gone. Barley, Fizzy, Caramel, and Twilight all looked at each other. “Does anyone have some water?” Twilight grinned sheepishly. Some time had passed. Twilight had gotten her water and Fizzy had gotten up to speed on the three factions that were running amok collecting pages. “... I really screwed this up.” She shook her head. “It’s alright, girl. We got this.” Caramel rubbed Fizzy’s back, smiling. “Yes, if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years it’s that nothing, and I mean nothing can beat friendship!” Twilight smiled. “Yeah!” Caramel pumped a hoof. “Right Barley?” She looked over to where Barley was standing with his back turned to the rest of them. He was staring out the shattered window. “...Barley?” “You guys… you guys should come look at this!” His voice was wavering. The other three trotted up to the window and stopped short. The portal Twilight had come from had remained open, and beyond it the horizon was filled with light. Not just light. Shapes, sounds, color. All fantastical and contradictory, and it was growing. “What is that?” Caramel asked, quietly. “I think… I think people are starting to use all their pages all at once!” Barley said.
If Fizzy is Saved, and Villains Are In The LeadWith a shout, Barley leapt through the portal, flapping his wings to break his fall… only for Caramel to crash on top of him. Spinning end over end the two found themselves tangled in… wires? Twilight sailed in after them, the portal closing behind her. She touched down and looked around. “What… is this place?” she said. “It, uh…” Barley looked around, trying to get a snarl of fiber-optic wires out of his vest. “It’s, a, uh…” “A server room?” Caramel said, in confused awe. Towering over the three ponies were line after line of humming black monoliths, pulsating with purple, pink, and teal lights beneath their metal casings. “Is this… normal in your world?” Twilight asked, concerned. “Uh, kind of, yeah.” Barley said, looking around, “...I think, anyway.” “You don’t know?!” Twilight gaped. “I’m a bartender!” Barley replied, waving his hoof, embarrassed. “Technical stuff like this was really more the speed of–” “Fizzy!” Caramel shouted. Twilight and Barley looked. She was pointing with one hoof towards a room hanging over the endless servers, a flickering blue light shining from within. “You think that’s her?” Twilight asked, frowning. “It looks like her nirik fire,” Barley said, hopeful. “And it is her speed,” Caramel added, with a tired smile. “Best lead we got,” Barley said, with a shrug. “Then let’s check it out,” Twilight nodded, giving a nervous glare to the silent spires around her. Without another word, the three set out towards the beacon. “Look at that!” Fizzy shouted, laughing. “That’s great!” On one of the many floating screens around her, Pinkie Pie had just fired another con-goer from her party cannon. Fizzy spun in her chair, grinning like a madkirin, looking at all the sights. On one screen Princess Cadance skated across a roller derby rink while guests watched. On another, Trixie and Starlight were putting the final touches on a rocket while guests helped, and on a third, Iron Will hyped the crowd up as an airship hovering over the roof of the hotel had been converted into a wrestling arena. It was all, unbelievably, amazingly cool. And then a pounding on the door to her office interrupted her reverie. “Fizzy!” Caramel’s muffled shout came through the door. “You in there, Fizz? We gotta talk.” FIzzy groaned and rolled her eyes. With a sigh she pulled off her headset,and then stopped, frowning. After a moment, she put it down, and then patted her cheeks, before spinning the chair to face the door. With a burst of magic, the door flung itself open and Barley, rearing up to knock, fell into the room. “Wondering when you’d get here.” Fizzy grinned. “What is this place?” Caramel said, leaning down to offer Barley a hoof. “My battle station!” Fizzy said, throwing her hooves into the air and giving a toothy smirk. “Battle… you’re fighting someone?” Twilight said, concerned. “No it’s– ugh.” Fizzy rolled her eyes. “It’s a gamer thing.” “Like… Buckball?” “No that’s– nevermind.” Fizzy shook her head, blue pixels of fire showering off of her. “This is where I can watch the whole con. Check it out!” She spun her chair around and pointed at one of the screens. On it some guests were standing, looking lost, on a rock. “Now watch this.” There was a flare of blue fire next to Fizzy as a pen and pages levitated up next to her. With a click, the pen sped away. The guests on the screen stumbled all at once, the stone heaving beneath them. Within seconds the ridge they were standing on revealed itself to be a massive dragon, which took off into the air, the guests giving out silent cries as they clung on. “See!” Fizzy spun her chair back around. “Isn’t that cool?” “Fizz, they could get hurt!” Caramel said, alarm clear on her face. “Uggggh!” Fizzy rolled her eyes and took the page and pen back in her grip. “‘Thankfully, despite the thrill of danger, none of the guests fell off or got hurt.’” She paused, looking at the page, and started scribbling again. “‘In fact, none of the guests at the con would get hurt and in fact never got hurt, miraculously healing any prior injury because the Great Sage Fizzyban cast a spell that protected them from all possible trouble. Even the Con Crud.’ There!” She looked up, glaring, unaware that on the monitor behind her a version of herself sporting a robe and a fine beard had appeared, waving at the guests as the dragon carried them away. “FIzzy, that’s not–” Barley began. “Oh shut up!” Fizzy said, her mane flaring. “I have it handled! I have a giant stack of pages right here, and I can do whatever I want!” “Fizz, listen–” “No!” Fizzy leapt from her chair, mane a pillar of sparkling blue fire. “You listen, or better yet.” She whirled around and waved a hoof at the screens, “Watch. Look at those guests! Look how excited they are! I made Equestria real, guys! Don’t you get it?” “That might be part of the problem–” Twilight began, only for a muzzle to snap around her snout after a quick pen scratch. “Don’t you guys trust me?” Fizzy asked, suddenly, looking vulnerable. “We trust you, Fizz, but–” “Oh, ‘but,’ right.” Fizzy rolled her eyes and began stalking around. “I’m sure you trust me with the AV equipment, right? You trust me to make sure the GoHs have coffee. But you don’t trust me with anything serious, right? ‘Oh, here’s Fizzy, she bailed us out during lockdown but now that we have the con we really wanted back we can just have her do errands!’ Just a goofy little kirin doing her stupid little streams and at the end of the day nothing–” she stomped a hoof, wheeling to face them. “–she–” the hoof came down again, cracking the floor. “–does–” her mane flared as a third stomp sent chunks flying. “–matters.” The crack flared across the floor and her mane blazed almost to the ceiling. When she looked up at Caramel and Barley, she couldn’t hide the tears turning to steam as they rolled down her face. “Fizz… it’s not like that.” Barley said, quietly. “Well, you’ve got a funny way of showing it.” Fizzy spat, before turning back to her chair. A few pen strokes later, and a swarm of small droids appeared, fixing the floor as they went. Their chirps and clicks did not fill the silence. Neither did Twilight’s grunts as she desperately fought with her muzzle. Caramel looked at Barley, pain clear in her eyes. Barley met hers with shame. “I did all this, you know.” Fizzy said, not turning the chair to face them as she spoke. “I did it all to make Ciderfest the best it could be.” Caramel looked at Barley a second longer, and took a step forward. “You know what, Fizz? You’re right!” Caramel said, giving her best, brave smile. Twilight, still struggling with the muzzle, grunted in confusion. Fizzy didn’t respond, only shifting in her chair. “This con is actually amazing!” Twilight redoubled her efforts to get free, mumbling something into her locked lips that sounded an awful lot like “But what about Grogar?” “I have to admit,” Barley said, stepping forward and nodding to the monitor. The guests had stopped screaming in terror atop the dragon, instead screaming with excitement, “this con has been a wild ride.” Fizzy snorted and grumbled. “Puns, really?” Caramel grinned. “At a time like this?” Barley shrugged and smiled. He took another step forward. “Fizzy, listen… you were right. We didn’t pay enough attention to you.” “Yeah,” Caramel said, her face getting more somber. “Not only did we not really help you or pay attention to your ideas… but this isn’t just about the con is it?” Barley went on. Fizzy was silent as stone behind her chair. Caramel frowned, and took another step forward. “Past few years have been hard on you, haven't they?” No reply came. “I get it, that times are tough, and we were bad friends. You… you put everything into trying to make Ciderfest the best con it could be, to making everyone you could happy, and, well, look what happened! We ignored you and… then you turned around and threw together the best Ciderfest either of us have ever seen!” Caramel’s eyes glistened as she spoke, grinning wide. Barley stepped in. “Truth is, Fizzy… we need you.We clearly need you more than you need us. Remember what happened the first time I tried to use Zoom?” He turned to Caramel, giving an awkward grin. “Oh, that was a disaster. Those poor kids.” “Poor kids? I’m the one who crashed a Zoom class in a bathrobe!” Caramel just laughed. “See? We’d be lost without you!” Barley laughed along with Caramel “I know that times are rough, girl,” Caramel started, “and that we haven’t been the best of friends.” “But, if you’ll have us,” Barley continued. “Just for one weekend, Fizzy, in one spot,” Caramel’s smile wavered with hope and fear, “we can make the world a better place.” “And the day after that, and the day after that.” Barley went on. “All in this, together,” Caramel finished. There was a long silence. “Please, Fizzy,” Barley whispered, “we need you.” The silence was finally broken. By sniffling. The chair wheeled around, revealing a very white, blue, pink and very kirin, Fizzy. “Guys,” she said, sobbing into a page. “Oh, girl, come here!” Caramel rushed up and pulled her into a hug. “Probably best not to use a cosmic artifact as a handkerchief,” Barley said, stepping in to pull the page from Fizzy’s hoof, causing her to laugh. “It’s okay, Fizz, let it out. Mama Caramel has got you.” “Guys,” Fizzy said, as the tears subsided. “I… you mean it?” “Sure as sugar.” Caramel grinned. “Indeed.” Barley matched the grin. “I just felt so useless, with the con, and with everything going on-” “We know honey, we know.” Caramel tightened the hug. “We’ll get through it,” Barley said with a nod “Together.” “Together.” Caramel echoed. “Together.” Fizzy smiled. She then looked up at the screens overhead. “This is pretty neat, though, huh?” “Aside from the whole ‘evil necromancer trying to take over all of time,’ thing, maybe,” Caramel interjected. “What?” Fizzy snapped to look at Caramel. “Yeah, Twilight can–” Barley looked over to where Twilight was. Or rather was. Only a muzzle was left. And in the beat of silence that followed, a burst of green fire exploded sending the three of them sprawling. Chrysalis snatched up Fizzy’s entire stock of pages, cackling. “Sentimental fools!” she shouted as another blast of green fire shattered the window overlooking the server room, sailing through it as another portal opened up. Fizzy, Barley, and Caramel rushed to the shattered window, watching as Chrysalis banked towards the portal. …only for one of the server racks to open its glowing red and yellow eyes and cackle as a grasping wires rose up to block her path– –and get cut short as a blast of dark magic slammed into it from behind. Discord, knocked out of the shape he had taken, rolled across the floor, black crystals sprouting from his hands. Chrysalis landed next to Sombra, who stood, a look of contempt stretched across his face. Tirek stepped up beside them. He hefted a small mass through the portal. Twilight Sparkle hit the floor next to Discord, barely conscious, dark magic crystals covering her horn. “So,” Chrysalis said, a sheaf of pages in her telekinetic grip, “who wants to do the honors?” “So generous.” Tirek chuckled, grinning. “Of course.” Chrysalis grinned back. “I’m saving all my fun for that cow, Starlight Glimmer.” “Let me have a go!” Cozy Glow said, alighting onto Tirek’s shoulder. “Oh, of course,” Chrysalis said, passing the pastel pink psychopath a page and a pen. “As long as they don’t escape,” Sombra growled. “Of course!” Cozy said, sweetly, snatching up the pages, and began furiously writing, speaking along as she went. “‘Sombra’s dark magic seeped into the room.’” A purple miasma began coiling across the ground as Twilight and Discord slowly stood. “‘Mixing with the technology around it, it fed on that energy, and infested it.’” The servers began to groan and shift. “‘Thrumming with well-deserved hate, the magic and technology came alive, forming a vicious beast!’” The groaning shifted into a dull roar. Discord snatched up Twilight and began furiously waddling towards where Fizzy, Barley, and Caramel watched on. “‘It knew no thoughts, only hunger! And it would pursue them to the ends of the earth until it had ground them both to paste in. it’s. many. sharp. Teeth!’” Cozy punctuated each word with a pen stroke. She then looked up and down at the fleeing Discord and Twilight. “Have fuuuun you two~!” And with that, the four villains burst into laughter, the portal closing as something terrible and hungry took shape. “Lift me!” Discord shouted as he threw Twilight into the air, before grabbing onto her hooves. She beat her wings quite literally as if her life depended on it. The two of them cleared the window and collapsed into a heap. “Way out!” Twilight yelled. “Uh. Uh!” Fizzy looked around frantically, and then her face lit up. A lone page sat in the corner. Fizzy leapt for it, her pen flying to her as she began to write. A portal opened up and she pointed to it. “There!” All five of them scrambled through the portal, which snapped shut behind them. Seconds later, a talon of steel and malice smashed into the room, obliterating it utterly. Something terrible howled, alone and hungry in the empty darkness they left in their wake. “Aaaand… there.” Fizzy said, prying the last black crystal from Twilight’s horn with her pen. “Thanks.” She said, with a sign of relief. She looked up. “Where’s Discord?” “I… don’t know.” Caramel said, looking around. “Probably off to find more pages.” Barley said, forlorn. “Yeah.” Fizzy gave an exhausted sigh. “We’re probably gonna need them. But we can do it with friendship! Right, guys? Right… Twilight?” Twilight wasn’t paying attention to any of them. She was staring off into the horizon, eyebrows furrowed and mouth open. The other three turned to look. The horizon was filled with light. Not just light. Shapes, sounds, color. All fantastical and contradictory, and it was growing. “What is that?” Caramel asked, quietly. “I think… I think people are starting to use all their pages all at once!” Barley said.
If Fizzy Isn't SavedWith a shout, Barley leapt through the portal, flapping his wings to break his fall… only for Caramel to crash on top of him. Spinning end over end the two found themselves tangled in… wires? Twilight sailed in after them, the portal closing behind her. She touched down and looked around. “What… is this place?” she said. “It, uh…” Barley looked around, trying to get a snarl of fiber-optic wires out of his vest. “It’s, a, uh…” “A server room?” Caramel said, in confused awe. Towering over the three ponies were line after line of humming black monoliths, pulsating with purple, pink, and teal lights beneath their metal casings. “Is this… normal in your world?” Twilight asked, concerned. “Uh, kind of, yeah.” Barley said, looking around, “...I think, anyway.” “You don’t know?!” Twilight gaped. “I’m a bartender!” Barley replied, waving his hoof, embarrassed. “Technical stuff like this was really more the speed of–” “Fizzy!” Caramel shouted. Twilight and Barley looked. She was pointing with one hoof towards a room hanging over the endless servers, a flickering blue light shining from within. “You think that’s her?” Twilight asked, frowning. “It looks like her nirik fire,” Barley said, hopeful. “And it is her speed,” Caramel added, with a tired smile. “Best lead we got,” Barley said, with a shrug. “Then let’s check it out,” Twilight nodded, giving a nervous glare to the silent spires around her. Without another word, the three set out towards the beacon. “Look at that!” Fizzy shouted, laughing. “That’s great!” On one of the many floating screens around her, Pinkie Pie had just fired another con-goer from her party cannon. Fizzy spun in her chair, grinning like a madkirin, looking at all the sights. On one screen Princess Cadance skated across a roller derby rink while guests watched. On another, Trixie and Starlight were putting the final touches on a rocket while guests helped, and on a third, Iron Will hyped the crowd up as an airship hovering over the roof of the hotel had been converted into a wrestling arena. It was all, unbelievably, amazingly cool. And then a pounding on the door to her office interrupted her reverie. “Fizzy!” Caramel’s muffled shout came through the door. “You in there, Fizz? We gotta talk.” FIzzy groaned and rolled her eyes. With a sigh she pulled off her headset,and then stopped, frowning. After a moment, she put it down, and then patted her cheeks, before spinning the chair to face the door. With a burst of magic, the door flung itself open and Barley, rearing up to knock, fell into the room. “Wondering when you’d get here.” Fizzy grinned. “What is this place?” Caramel said, leaning down to offer Barley a hoof. “My battle station!” Fizzy said, throwing her hooves into the air and giving a toothy smirk. “Battle… you’re fighting someone?” Twilight said, concerned. “No it’s– ugh.” Fizzy rolled her eyes. “It’s a gamer thing.” “Like… Buckball?” “No that’s– nevermind.” Fizzy shook her head, blue pixels of fire showering off of her. “This is where I can watch the whole con. Check it out!” She spun her chair around and pointed at one of the screens. On it some guests were standing, looking lost, on a rock. “Now watch this.” There was a flare of blue fire next to Fizzy as a pen and pages levitated up next to her. With a click, the pen sped away. The guests on the screen stumbled all at once, the stone heaving beneath them. Within seconds the ridge they were standing on revealed itself to be a massive dragon, which took off into the air, the guests giving out silent cries as they clung on. “See!” Fizzy spun her chair back around. “Isn’t that cool?” “Fizz, they could get hurt!” Caramel said, alarm clear on her face. “Uggggh!” Fizzy rolled her eyes and took the page and pen back in her grip. “‘Thankfully, despite the thrill of danger, none of the guests fell off or got hurt.’” She paused, looking at the page, and started scribbling again. “‘In fact, none of the guests at the con would get hurt and in fact never got hurt, miraculously healing any prior injury because the Great Sage Fizzyban cast a spell that protected them from all possible trouble. Even the Con Crud.’ There!” She looked up, glaring, unaware that on the monitor behind her a version of herself sporting a robe and a fine beard had appeared, waving at the guests as the dragon carried them away. “FIzzy, that’s not–” Barley began. “Oh shut up!” Fizzy said, her mane flaring. “I have it handled! I have a giant stack of pages right here, and I can do whatever I want!” “Fizz, listen–” “No!” Fizzy leapt from her chair, mane a pillar of sparkling blue fire. “You listen, or better yet.” She whirled around and waved a hoof at the screens, “Watch. Look at those guests! Look how excited they are! I made Equestria real, guys! Don’t you get it?” “That might be part of the problem–” Twilight began, only for a muzzle to snap around her snout after a quick pen scratch. “Don’t you guys trust me?” Fizzy asked, suddenly, looking vulnerable. “We trust you, Fizz, but–” “Oh, ‘but,’ right.” Fizzy rolled her eyes and began stalking around. “I’m sure you trust me with the AV equipment, right? You trust me to make sure the GoHs have coffee. But you don’t trust me with anything serious, right? ‘Oh, here’s Fizzy, she bailed us out during lockdown but now that we have the con we really wanted back we can just have her do errands!’ Just a goofy little kirin doing her stupid little streams and at the end of the day nothing–” she stomped a hoof, wheeling to face them. “–she–” the hoof came down again, cracking the floor. “–does–” her mane flared as a third stomp sent chunks flying. “–matters.” The crack flared across the floor and her mane blazed almost to the ceiling. When she looked up at Caramel and Barley, she couldn’t hide the tears turning to steam as they rolled down her face. “Fizz… it’s not like that.” Barley said, quietly. “Well, you’ve got a funny way of showing it.” Fizzy spat, before turning back to her chair. A few pen strokes later, and a swarm of small droids appeared, fixing the floor as they went. Their chirps and clicks did not fill the silence. Neither did Twilight’s grunts as she desperately fought with her muzzle. Caramel looked at Barley, pain clear in her eyes. Barley met hers with shame. “I did all this, you know.” Fizzy said, not turning the chair to face them as she spoke. “I did it all to make Ciderfest the best it could be.” Caramel looked at Barley a second longer, and took a step forward. “Fizz, I know we maybe didn’t treat you right, but you have to stop this. Equestria–” Fizzy groaned and snatched up another page. “Fizz–-” “No,” Fizzy said. “‘No?’” Caramel echoed. “No, I don’t care. Get out.” She was furiously scratching away with her pen. “Look,” Barley stepped up, “we can talk.” “Talk all you want,” Fizzy said, fake smile audible in her tone. “I’m not listening any longer.” “Honey,” Caramel pleaded, softly. “I did everything for you two.” Fizzy said, quietly, pen scratching away. “And you threw me aside.” “I’m sorry, Fizz, I really should have read that proposal–” Barley began. “Oh yeah, you’re sorry, sure.” She spat. “I don’t care. Get out.” “Please, Fizzy, Grogar–” The pen came to a sudden, scratching halt. “‘Unfortunately for them, it was on that word that the automated security grabbed ahold of both Caramel and Barley.’” With no other warning, metallic claws snatched up both ponies and dragged them into the air. “‘Fizzy, having nothing useful to gain from talking to ‘old friends,’ pressed the button to activate her chair’s ascension mode.’” Barley and Caramel watched as, on cue, Fizzy’s hoof reached down and pressed a button neither had seen before, and the chair began hiss with steam. “‘Fizzy turned to look back at her friends, one, last, time.’” She turned about, then, fixing them with a sneer. ‘“She wouldn’t hurt them, though. Oh no. Unlike some ponies she knew when to be gracious. Plus…’” The ceiling above Fizzy opened wide, revealing a towering dark hollow, “‘she had a con to run.’” She gave her two friends one last look, and then, with dripping fake acidic cheer, said: “Enjoy the show, guys!” And with that her chair began lifting into the space above, and Fizzy watched with contempt as Barley and Caramel shouted after her. She managed to keep herself from crying until the gate sealed shut beneath her, blocking them from her sight.
