Ace would not consider herself a hopeful mare.

  Having been in this pce for the better part of… what? Six years?

  Really makes you think if there was ever a way out of here.

  Ain't that a bitch? Her old world gets flooded, and her reward? This fuckin pce.

  At least she can make use of her ‘big brain’ and recreate some of the tech she used to make.

  But creative freedom came at a cost.

  There's monsters around every corner.

  The sun doesn't feel real.

  She never would have thought she would miss something as simple as a cool breeze brushing against her face.

  But there she was.

  Alone.

  Even her best friend was taken from her a few years back. An experiment on dragons breath gone wrong, looks like the filters on her suit weren't strong enough.

  Getting chased, getting hunted, being threatening is suddenly… a lot less scary once you experience it enough times.

  A part of her was thinking about ending it all.

  It wasn't until she had a dream one day, of a strange alpaca, that she actually started writing stuff down. Putting them in different spots around the world, for… someone, she didn't know.

  It had to mean something, right?

  She took it in stride though, often just using it as a reason to shitpost and ramble.

  Strangely, the alpaca seemed to like Ace's paragraph spanning ramblings of the different ways she wished to be dicked down.

  Weird.

  She found the portal, eventually.

  Also weird.

  Then, there was that fucking dragon.

  Easy and simple, right? Just need a big gun that (luckily) is easy enough to put into separate pieces for the ‘inventory’ so he can bst that fucker out of the sky… RIGHT?

  Wrong.

  It got infected, and now the BFG can only tickle it unless the thing is juiced up to “fuck-you” levels.

  So she waited. Kept her head down.

  Carving out a bunker into the isnd where it can't see. Slowly building resources for reys to build up the magnetic charge.

  And after a few months, eating through what little food she had left, someone else came. She saw it through the reconnaissance drones.

  A strange… monkey? Whatever, with an admittedly massive mare alongside him.

  There was a zebra too, that was easy to recognize.

  Then… there was… Short Cake. Cakey, Shorty, Pinks.

  She didn't have time to stare, the monkey was fighting the dragon, doing quite poorly in her opinion. But this was their chance! To kill the dragon!

  He seemed desperate, panicked, completely out of his element. And she doesn't bme him. It doesn't look like he was fully expecting the scope of fuckshittery going on.

  But most importantly, he could FLY.

  She had him set up the reys. Two strange creatures had to take the pce of the destroyed reys, but hey, it worked.

  Ace could admit, there was no greater feeling than pushing that big red button and bsting that fucking thing into the ground.

  Then it cried.

  And it all… went… dark.

  …

  The next time she awoke, it was not hunched over her control panel, it was… outside.

  Sitting on a hill, with a picnic set up under a rge apple tree.

  A beautiful ndscape spread out around her.

  “She's proud of you, you know?”

  A voice draws her attention.

  It's the alpaca again, sitting like she's just enjoying the picnic. Leaning against her is a figure of pink and yellow that she instantly recognizes.

  “Cake?” She croaks out.

  “She was watching. Well, a part of her was”

  The alpaca watches Ace, and after a moment of silence, she continues.

  “That talisman you made… took a piece of her, and bound it to that suit. She could not remember a thing, but the need to find you”

  Ace doesn't know when she started crying.

  Startled, by the sudden drop of a tear hitting her hoof, she looks down, not bothering to wipe it away.

  She walks forwards, towards the mare she hadn't seen in years.

  “You have done me a great service, even if you are not one of my own”

  Ace brushes her hoof against the mane of her old friend, crying openly now.

  “Your friend was… gone. Far gone. Her mind fractured. But… she will be in a better pce, watching over you, like always”

  “Can… can I speak to her?”

  The alpaca just gives her a regretful look.

  Ace deftes.

  “Just… please? Just for a minute?”

  “She's already gone. Young one”

  “Oh…”

  Ace digs at the ground with her hooves.

  “The holes between worlds are being closed up as we speak. And the fabric of reality will be stitched back together. So, I will give you an offer”

  “An… offer?”

  The alpaca nods.

  “That human. Joshua Abrams. He is an exceptional individual, one that has put countless souls to rest with his actions… he deserves a life full of love, companionship, and satisfaction…”

  She looks off into the ndscape for a moment before turning back.

  “But you have also pyed an unmistakable part of his journey… and you are not one of my own. So… I will give you an offer”

  Ace, tears still running down her face, snorts and cracks up a little.

  “What? Am I supposed to be his fuckbuddy or something?”

  The alpaca shakes her head.

  “No. I am saving that spot”

  “What?” Ace sputters.

  “What?”

  “...”

  “...”

  Ace speaks.

  “So… the offer?”

  “The offer is this…”

  The alpaca speaks, expining the deal.

  Ace… upon hearing probably the alpaca’s words, her face changes.

  From confusion.

  To worry.

  To understanding.

  And then…

  She smiles.

  “I'll do it”