Hoofstuck

[Armok]

> lift: actually have no power source or mechanism, and have just sidled down from gravity, because you're not actually a lift.

[Aranfan]

>Past Fluttershy: Be Present Fluttershy

[Violet CLM]

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Okay, you know what? Tired of this frog temple. Rarity gets to be my author avatar or something for the purposes of this update and this update only. One last chance to do stuff up top if you want it, otherwise we barrel on ahead to the next plot point.

===>

Before you get very far, the stone platform surges up from beneath you. Rarity, her horn still illuminating the shaft around you, looks rightfully smug.

"Well done!" you say. "How did you get it to go up?"

She tosses her mane gracefully. "I followed your example and walked into the center of the platform, of course. I had thought about sending the rabbit in first, but then you would have had to drop him -- is it a him, by the way? -- and that didn't seem at all wise."

You smile. "Yes, I think he's a him! I think I'm going to name him Angel Bunny, because he's so white and soft and innocent! Oh, um, and he's a bunny too."

===>

In what feels like no time, the two of you are at the top floor of the frog temple. Outside you can smell the distinctive odor of Froggy Bottom Bog welcoming you back to the surface. Rarity is obviously ready to get going.

[gingerale]

> Story: Fade-out, perform a time and perspective change

[Aranfan]

I'm kinda sad that the Reckoning has to happen, since if it doesn't then the Mane 6 and the Frog Temple never arrive on the planet in question.

Also: Rarity's Exile: Be the Black King

[wackoVampire]

Random Pony: Bust in at the last minute.

[flyingBrick]

>Rarity: Get going.

Also, I think there's a catch with the reckoning. I'm not sure what it's gonna be, but Celestia is probably going to pull something.

[Naglfar]

yes

> Celestia: Banish the Reckoning to the moon.

[AProcrastinatingWriter]

>Moon: Fall on Equestria.
>Luna: Oh if only this situation had waited until a few days before Nightmare Night so your powers had fully returned!

[Beelzebibble]

FS: Uh oh. Rarity must be getting bored with your company. Apologize profusely.
FS: Ask her if there's something you can help her with in return.

[forkinyoureye]

>Moon: Fall on Equestria.
>Luna: Oh if only this situation had waited until a few days before Nightmare Night so your powers had fully returned!

Seconded. Majora's Mask shout out is best idea.

[Violet CLM]

>Random Pony: Bust in at the last minute.

Now why would you do a silly thing like that? It's best that they don't even know you're here.

Sure, you were disappointed to find that you had come too late to see the second time capsule blossom. All this time you waited, only for two random ponies to show up at the last minute and reap your glory. But that's okay. You still have the object from the first, plus everything you've been able to figure out of the coded carvings. Your studies are coming along nicely, especially with the help of your assistant. You'll never understand the temple's riddles enough to create the game yourself, but you're sure somepony else will in time. They must, after all, or the temple wouldn't be here in the first place, now would it? A seed must be planted before it can grow.

You do wonder who these ponies are, or at least why they're here. You recognize one of them; Rarity, runner of the Carousel Boutique. She's brilliant! You'd take her fashion advice any day. The other... Posie or something? Was she the one with the animals that got into your field that one time? You're not sure. Certainly you've never noticed anypony else visiting this temple before, so this is really weird. Maybe... maybe they are two of the six Heroes? And oh gosh, if they are, could either of them be one of your... well, okay, no sense in wondering about that just yet. But you should probably keep an eye on these two, see who else they know, that kind of thing.

Sure, you could just go and introduce yourself right now. But that would be more Love Lock's style than yours. You're all about hidden greatness, after all... or should you say great hiddenness? Heh heh heh.

This is fine. This is nothing to worry about. This could even be the next big step to your finally joining the Crusaders.

>R: Get going.

By the time you leave the bog, you are both feeling rather hungry, and have your planned dinner right away. Fluttershy seems to have picked up on your impatient attitude in the temple, and asks worriedly if she was grating on you and if there's anything she can do to make it up to you, but you smile and assure her that you'll be fine. "Just never enlist me in helping you with frogs again," you say, "and we'll be right as rain."

"Oh, I promise," she says.

After that, the dinner goes very pleasantly, and you talk about nothing of any great import. Neither of you have any real ideas what that mystic ruin was about, but for the time being, at least, you are happy to talk about other things and further cement your friendship. Certainly you got rather more adventure than you bargained for today -- it's a dangerous business, really, walking out your front door -- but you believe you have found a true friend, and surely that makes it all worthwhile. You and Fluttershy exchange contented smiles across the table before you get ready to leave. You have outfits to adjust, and she has a new rabbit friend to install and a fetch modus to deliver to her old friend Rainbow Dash.

===>

In the evening, as you prepare yourself for bed, you notice your old phonograph sitting by the door. You use it sometimes to provide musical accompaniment while you sing the Sleep Song, but tonight it reminds you instead of your mother, and of the unlabeled record that she told you to play at the "right moment."

You remember what Fluttershy told you earlier today. "And you haven't played it?" she asked. "I think that if there were any way of finding anything out about my parents, I would jump on it like a rabbit."

Is this the right moment? Is it? You're still not sure.

[gingerale]

> R: Oh just play the record, silly ^^

[forkinyoureye]

> R: Oh just play the record, silly ^^

No! Obviously this must wait until the game.

>R: Decide it's not time yet.

[AProcrastinatingWriter]

>Rarity: Flip a coin.

[gingerale]

> R: Oh just play the record, silly ^^

No! Obviously this must wait until the game.

>R: Decide it's not time yet.

Nonsense!

> R: Do it! Just be extra careful not to Scratch the record

[OnBackorder]

Five bucks says the scene ends just as she puts the needle to the vinyl.

Rarity: Put on your sleeping visor. You can always say playing the record was an accident.

[NeonProdigy]

>Rarity: Flip a coin.

> Do this, but keep in mind what a wise (and blind) troll once said: LUCK DO3SN'T M4TT3R!

[Aranfan]

>Rarity: Don't play it, it isn't the right time yet.

[Triangle Man]

> Great Rewards Come To Those Who Wait.

> So No, Not Just Yet.

[OnBackorder]

Forget what I just said. The record is Sweetie Bell. She is some sort of Disk summoned creature, Monster Rancher style.

> Rarity: Say hello to your sister.

[Bohandas]

>Rarity: Get going.

Also, I think there's a catch with the reckoning. I'm not sure what it's gonna be...

Derse never loses, but sometimes chess is played between white and red, rather than whit and black, is it not?...

[Aranfan]

Derse never loses, but sometimes chess is played between white and red, rather than whit and black, is it not?...

Not sure what that has to do with anything, but yes. White isn't a constant either, sometimes golden yellow is used instead.

[Bohandas]

Derse never loses, but sometimes chess is played between white and red, rather than whit and black, is it not?...

Not sure what that has to do with anything, but yes. White isn't a constant either, sometimes golden yellow is used instead.

The battlefield, and the armies of Prospit and Derse, have obvious and blatant parallels with a chess game. If weextend those paralells we see that Derse does not necessarily have to be a constant, and without Derse playing the reckoning can maybe be stopped or cut short perhaps.

[Aranfan]

If it's red instead of black, that's just a color shift, I'm pretty sure if the hypothetical Red King were to get the White King's staff, there would still be the Reckoning.