>Push Bootstrap in front of us.
BGM: Also Splat Zarathustra>You twirl around, holding Bootstrap in front of you to soften the impact. You expect her to object, but in becoming your living shield she actually seems pretty satisfied.
"YES! This is it! This is my moment!" She pulls her arms outwards, soaring majestically across the void. "I've been shot by lasers and bullets and blown up who knows how many times, but today I go one step beyond! Today I become the greatest soldier the Fairy Kingdom has ever seen! Today, I headbutt an aste-"
The last syllable of her declaration is cut off by her face smashing straight into the rock. The surface of the asteroid cracks considerably from the impact, and the collision is strong enough to shift the course of the projectile. You zoom past the Sunshine, the ship escaping unharmed from catastrophe.
Bootstrap doesn't get out of the crater she made, but you hear her giggle to herself as her legs flop around. You suspect she'd be at her happiest caught in eternal sacrifice, so you decide to leave her there.
Meanwhile...are you seeing things, or is there something shiny in that crack...?
> Eat the giant rock meatball!
BGM:
Burn My Bread -Last Supper-Your curiosity is piqued. You grind your teeth together in preparation. This one's going to be tough.
The hardest part is the first bite. It takes a few seconds of work to dislodge the rock, and it crawls down your throat almost in slow motion. It tastes like you're watching everyone you hate eating delicious cake and you can't have any.
For a brief moment, your heart falters. Maybe you can't do this. Maybe you're not strong enough to beat this challenge.
-Wait, YOU'RE the one that beat the cupcake master?!-You flinch as a memory strikes you. Ember's face, caught in surprise, jumps before your eyes.
-Remind me to never annoy you.-You were only a recruit for a day, but you made such a massive impact on the Sunshine. You apprehended the monster who lured in recruits with glue-filled cupcakes. You plundered the secret stash of the wicker Officer Bootstrap. And most importantly, you out-cuted another fairy in the darkest of circumstances.
-Penny, my greatest student...- Another face - your old master, Flora Five-Stomachs!
-Remember, to eat is to live. A warrior who does not eat her peas at dinner has surrendered their right to life.-The memory fills you with a newfound determination. You can still see a hint of shininess through the crack. It pulls you in, taunting you from afar. With a deep breath, you restart your assault on the task ahead.
Every bite is worse than the one before it. Your stomach feels like it's full of lead, but you can't give up now. To surrender would be to lose your very reason to fight. You have never been defeated by a dish before - not even
broccoli, for goodness' sake - and you refuse to start now.
The light gets brighter. It's beautiful, but it takes you an ordeal to get to it. All your training, all your suffering, all of it was to prepare for this moment. Your teeth feel ready to fall out, but you continue to munch through grit alone.
When you finally pierce the final layer, you feel your stomach rock about. That's mainly because you just ate away your last thing to stand on. Luckily the asteroid's gravitational pull is weak enough that you lazily sink down into the center of the rock.
And surrounding you, from every angle, are a million shimmering crystals.
BGM: Beyond The PieIt's the most beautiful thing any fairy has ever witnessed. The crystal caverns go on for miles, every surface so reflective you can see your face in it. You touch one, hearing the calming hum as it lets off a faint light.
You have an entire asteroid's worth of shinies, all to yourself. Well, there's Bootstrap too, but you suspect she'll be happier where she is right now. Besides, pulling her out means you'd have to share all of these shinies, and that would suck.
Well, first things first. Time to find a place to sleep. You manage to find a relatively smooth spot among the gems and lower yourself into it. Pulling out a pen, you scribble a note on the surface above you:
FKS Starlight
Acting Captain: Expendable Collateral
Flagpole: Officer BootstrapThat should keep any intruders informed on who they're dealing with.
You stare up through the whole you dug, into the vastness of space. There are other shinies out there. Maybe you'll crash into something sometime, and then you might find even more pretty gems to call your own.
That will have to wait, though. You've had a long day, and your whole body is tired - but especially your tummy. It's still growling at you as you close your eyes, falling into a deep sleep.
>So ends the story of Expendable Collateral, simultaneously the most and least successful private the Fairy Kingdom has ever seen. Where will her adventures take her next? Time only knows...
~GOOD END #36 - Cave Of Wonders~-----
Aaaaaaand done.
Apologies if this ending was a little sudden. I kind of lost interest with the setting some time around you guys breaking into Bootstrap's arsenal, but I wanted to give you a proper finale. Hence Penny fulfilling her lifelong(?) dream of being shot out of a cannon.
Hope everyone had fun at least. Think I might have to accept I can't Quest quite as fluently as the pros around here, but if I did my job okay everyone had a good time.
Thanks for taking part, and I'll see you all whenever.
