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So What Happened After Truffle’s “Nap”?

Or rather, how I’m gonna blitz through the events of Chapter 1 over the next few posts!

So, we left off with Truffle ending up passing out next to Kid’s device, with the troubling portent that it’s been turned into a bomb. While in his dream vision, Luna appears once more (remember when that happened in the prologue? Me neither), and beckons Truffle to awaken. To the surprise of all three, the mare that Truffle was experiencing the vision as, Wispy, also sees Luna, and Luna states that she will be meeting both of them again.

Truffle awakes during Kid’s presentation as he’s about to activate the device. Truffle immediately rushes to the stage and warns everyone to run, but it’s too late- the machine activates, and explodes, killing everypony.

The explosion activates “Contingency Five”, an autonomous spell-casting matrix possessed by Empress Twilight. Time stops around her, as she sighs in dissapointment from the catastrophic showing of Kid’s device. She casually rescues the nearby bystanders, teleporting them away and then erecting a shield over the audience before time resumes.

Kid is utterly devastated and speechless, unable to comprehend how his machine failed so catastrophically. He is lectured by the Empress about properly testing his machines and that hopefully he’ll show more promise in the future.

After a minute or two of stunned silence, he turns around to the colt that came rushing out for everypony to run- Truffle Mint. He immediately accuses him of sabotaging the device, knowing full well that it should have worked fine, as Truffle stammers out his ‘evidence’ that he dreamed. Without physical proof, Kid would not be convinced.

Truff started to anger over the accusations, but his friends intervene, warning both Kid and Truffle not to push or be pushed too far. Truffle calms a bit, but Kid scoffs at them, before realizing something.

He recognized Truffle from a news spot he saw a couple of years back, the mentioning of which cause Truffle and Krabby to freeze up.

Kid remembers that the story was about a young filly who had taken a stand at school. The filly was a big fan of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, well known for her idolization of the group, and constantly making an effort to be as much like the heroic Crusaders she could before finally joining the group at the earliest opportunity.

“W-what does that have to do with anything?” Truffle protested, but Kid continued.

That filly made a stand against a bully that terrorized one of the more notable public schools in the city, a bully that until then had managed to evade the notice of every teacher and yet had half the kids in school under their hoof. The filly had had enough of it, and had apparently, with no exaggeration, headbutted the kid through a brick wall.

Truffle fidgeted nervously. “You’re still not making your point-” He declared that that filly’s name was Mint Truffle, and Truffle flinched.

To be continueeeed =D

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Bolt - “I thought you guys said you were going to stop going easy on me...?”

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Bolt and Krabby redesigns for the New Thing

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The End of CMCn (Of Sorts)

I am sorry about this in advance, but it was a long time coming even before Tumblr started hiding posts on my totally sfw blog.

So the bad news is, I’m not really feeling the motivation to continue with this project in its current form anymore. Between the tumblr pony fandom being on the decline and tumblr itself being just... the worst, it’s been dampening my motivation to continue working on it until recently the desire almost completely stopped.

The whole purpose of switching to a different story telling format was because I wanted to get it all done quicker so I didn’t get hung up on how slowly releasing comics a page at a time progresses the story, but I guess even that wasn’t really the root of the problem at all.

So, unfortunately, this means CMCn will not be continuing... however, I will be open to answering some of the questions about where I was going with it. Why not all? Because a lot of the story is being adapted into a new one, on a new(ish) original world.

So what is this blog now? I’ll just be answering questions and posting art for the new thing. For those of you who don’t have interest continuing past this point, I appreciate you sticking around for this long! For the rest of you, thanks a bunch for keeping on with my dumb flailing about that I call ‘art’, we can keep on following Truffle into some new unnamed story that I have no idea what to call yet!

I’m really bad at posts like this so if it looks like rambling that’s because it is

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Mod: I'm following you from Tumblr to Twitter. Are you there?

Kinda, I’ve got a “main” twitter at https://twitter.com/ZaneZandell but it’s a tad neglected

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Seconded

This is a ridiculous decision on Tumblr’s part, but I suppose it’s too be expected in light of the piss poor management that caused the series of events leading to this decision. It was a pretty bad f@$k up, and now everyone pays for it, the staff and Tumblr’s users both.

I’ll keep updating here for a time, but... man I was already having a hard time motivating myself to get back into the swing of things. Thanks, Tumblr.

So I guess tumblr is actually dieing this time?

—–I’d like to state that I will continue to update here (for now)——

While this is a sfw blog and this change does not effect me directly, tumblr’s new policy will see a radical downturn in user traffic as a result.  NSFW content isn’t ALL tumblr is for but the vast majority of it’s users (adults with internet access) use it for it’s blogging versatility and variety of content.  With this change artists and artistic communities will begin to migrate to other platforms that offer a more full (and less buggy) meal.

I’ll be keeping my ear to the dirt on what platform picks up the most groundswell next.

But honestly!  Tumblr is a website known for fandom discourse, armchair activism, art, and pron.  Those last two are a package deal at the end of the day, so what will there be left on Tumblr?

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don’t forget!

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    “Empress Tw-” Krabby had approached the Empress, but only managed to say a few syllables before pink magical aura yanked him back violently into the mat below, where he learned that it was very thin, and the wood below was hard and painful. He traced the aura back to Kid’s horn, both impressed and frustrated that someone that meek could conjure such a force.

    “W-w-well, Miss Empress Twilight-” Kid stammered out, and she shook her head.     “I am not your only audience, contestant. All of Equestria must hear your voice.” She gestured to the crowd, and Kid squeaked audibly at the realization that there were cameras focusing on him too.

    He pushed the nervousness as deep down as he could, and he focused on a spell, a little magical boost to his voice to slice through the din of the crowd. All the while, he never loosened the surprisingly strong telekinetic grip on the colt behind him. Krabby’s attempts to protest were muted as if his muzzle were glued shut.

    “F… fillies and gentlecolts!” Kid’s voice boomed, and the crowd silenced. “I am proud to announce… the reveal of my creation, and my entry into the Science Faire! The Kinetimagical Inversive Reactor! Using a new method of collecting and arranging aurium particles, I can greatly amplify the amount of power generated through absorbing ambient magic in the atmosphere--”

    Krabby continued to struggle against Kid’s telekinesis, not really listening to him. What he had to say wasn’t important, but Truffle was. He managed to make a slow crawl to the Empress, who he realized was looking at him. Her expression was inscrutable as always, as he tried to say something, anything about his fallen friend. He looked back at where Truffle was, a confused Sugar Bolt and Sunburst continued to do whatever they could- which he noticed appeared to be flailing about rather ineffectually.

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Just because i can’t leave you guys without content while i work on the next comic, i’ll leave you guys with a little something in the main time.

Let me know if you guys like it. 

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Closing Patreon Account (Sorta)

So just as a foreword CMCn isn’t going anywhere I’m still gonna be updating it

However, I am closing the Patreon in its current form, it turns out that I wasn’t really able to provide the rewards and what not that I had promised, and I’m going to be restructuring it to include things that are not CMCn related, including my NSFW art, and in the meantime, I won’t be taking payments for September to give advance warning to any of my current patrons that might be put off by that.

Sorry if you pledged to my Patreon wondering where the eff your rewards were, I am open to processing refunds if necessary.

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    “Ponies of Equestria! Your empress has arrived!” The Empress turned to address the audience, and they immediately burst into cheers. With a wave of the hoof, the crowd quieted. “It is my pleasure to introduce the 7th Annual New Ponyville Science Fair! As you all may know, I am here to personally judge the contestants work, starting with today's presentations by the Youth Division of the competition! One young lucky filly or colt will recieve my recognition and support to be refined into one of Equestria’s greatest minds.”

    The crowd lit up again, and Kid stiffened up a bit. As the Empress continued her speech, the little pink unicorn looked like he was doing everything he could to keep it together. “I’m the first up… that means she thinks I’m the one with the most promise.”

    “What? Why are you boasting? I just asked if you could help us with our friend!” Krabby said, and Kid nearly jumped out of his skin. He glanced back at Krabby with a rough glare.     “Don’t sneak up on me!” He squeaked. “I’m not boasting, either, it’s the truth! I wouldn’t suggest that the Empress is impatient or anything, but the pattern is always the same. The presentation she visits first is almost always the winner, it’s happened five times out of the last six science fairs. I’m kinda really feeling the pressure.”

    “Yeah, great, but- you’re not listening to me at all. Guh, forget it, I’ll find someone else- you know what, I’ll ask the Empress.” Krabby started walking toward her, before being lifted up with a surprisingly strong telekinetic grip. A panicked Kid dropped him right next to him, and looked him straight in the eyes.

    “Are you crazy?! You don’t just… walk up to her casually like that! Are you an idiot?”  He vented, and Krabby didn’t even flinch.

    “I’ll walk up to whomever I please if it means it could save my friend. So if you don’t mind-” A shadow loomed over the two colts, and the both looked up to the imposing figure above them.

    “Contestant Kid Prodigy… I’m expecting a lot from you, today. Don’t disappoint me.”

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Good luck, Twilight. I’ll be watching.

Let’s just get the sun back on and… okay. We’re good to go.

You’re already too late. Not much of the Twibrary remains. This drawblog isn’t worth saving anymore. Do you still want to try? Then remember this. The blog knows you exist. The consequences are real. Saving Twilight may be impossible. And most importantly…

You only have one shot, followers.

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I cannot be killed. That is as much fact as it is law.

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She’s heeeere...

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    “So that’s the Zenith stone… neat!” Vanilla didn’t waste a second, she was already starting to trot off the stage.

    “Where are you going? No, it doesn’t matter, she should be here any moment…” Kid looked visibly nervous. “Take your dumb friends with you and get out!” Vanilla simply winked and stuck her tongue out at him.

“He’s still not waking up…” The magic on Krabby’s horn dispersed as Vanilla made her way past them. Sunburst was freaking out, trying his own spells to wake the colt, though Vanilla knew him long enough to know that wasn’t really going to work out. His knowledge of magic was supposedly top notch, but he never seemed to actually be that competent working the spells. That pegasus colt, Bolt or whatever, was also trying to wake Truffle up, but was just sort of nudging him, trying to gently rouse him. So much for being the smart one.

    “Eh, I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Vanilla thought aloud, earning a brief threatening glance from Krabby. She shrugged and continued to walk off the stage. She had plans, and she wasn’t going to be slowed down right now. Her ears perked, however, as the crowd started to go wild.

    “She’s here! She’s here!” She heard somepony exclaim. She picked up the pace.

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    “Simple! They’ll be standing right here when that bomb goes off!” The mare declared, and Cheerilee immediately took a step back in shock.

    “Wait! Wait! Hold on! That’s not what kind of bomb that is! It’s just to cause the machine to break down irreparably-” Cheerilee was cut off by a cold, disheartening laughter.

    “To look like a mistake on the kid’s part, right? Well, I mean, yeah, it was. But I… ‘convinced’ command to let us take something with a little more punch. Or a lot more. Enough to kill an Empress.” Truffle could feel ‘himself’ smirk, and Cheerilee looked horrified, which was good, because he couldn’t.

    “Wispy! You dumb- there will be a lot of ponies there, not just the Empress! There will be foals! I’m going to disarm this, working with you was a mistake-” Wispy’s hoof immediately grabbed Cheerilee and forced her to stare her in the eyes. Truffle mulled over the name he just heard for a moment. It sounded pretty familiar.

    “You will not disarm that bomb.” With that forceful proclamation, a jolt of bizzare energy buzzed through Wispy’s body, and Cheerilee looked as if she had been physically struck. When her eyes fluttered back open, they glowed with odd colors. “I said no names! Gah, whatever. Look, I know how you feel, honestly, I don’t like the idea of the kids getting involved in this, but I’m here to kill two birds with one stone. I’m not going to overlook an opportunity.”

    “Opportunity does not give us the right to become cold blooded murderers, you hateful cow!” Cheerilee teared up, her expression equal parts anger, fear, and sadness.

    “Oh, don’t be such a sourpuss. This probably won’t even work, and the Empress will get away without a scratch!” Wispy joked, and Cheerilee just looked angrier.

    “Tha… that’s… I don’t care about the damn Empress, Wispy!” She screamed.

    “I know it, baby! That’s what I love about you!” Truffle felt himself pucker up, and his face light up with pain as Cheerilee hoofed Wispy square in the face, knocking her flat. In spite of essentially being the pony that was punched, Truffle couldn’t help but silently cheer Cheerilee on. The mare on the ground, however, just continued to laugh.

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“Wis-” The mare’s white hoof shot out and plugged Cheerilee’s mouth.

    “Shooosh! Being watched, remember? No names.” As the mare shifted her balance while cutting Cheerilee off, Truffle was made aware that his back left leg was missing! No, wait, don’t panic, that’s her leg, or lack thereof.

    Convincing himself not to panic was going to be an increasingly uphill battle. It doesn’t help that he was starting to hear other disembodied voices again. They followed him even here?

    He hurriedly tried to convince the mare that he had no idea what’s going on and he would love to leave, but if she heard him, she ignored him.

    “They’re standing right about… here…” The mare shuffled around to stand where Truffle was that afternoon when he presumably passed out. “... at about noon, tomorrow.”

    … tomorrow? Wait, was she talking about him?

    “Good! This problem solves itself! We won’t be caught after all, Cheers!” The mare excitedly exclaimed.

    “What? What do you mean? How does this problem ‘fix itself’?” Cheerilee countered.