When the blimp ruptured open and the skeletal beasts rushed in, Taubitha wasn't sure what she would do. She had just earned her new [skill], [Wicked Wings], which allowed her huge, beautiful wings with which to flap around, and her beloved two-spired fony Princess had just gotten her own [skill] called [Skull Blaster]. They were a bit of an overpowered duo. But, before Taubitha could even think about taking action, Princess had staken to the air with an angry neigh and started shooting lasers out of her eyes at the skeletal beasts.

[Flying reaper is taking damage]

[Pelican reaper is taking damage]

It was amazing to see each monstrous creature lighting up red with damage as Princess used her attack. Taubith had always wanted a fony, but she had no idea just how powerful they could be! She was thrilled that Princess had [paired] with her and granted her a similarly overpowered system.

And then, Princess pivoted and started trying out her new [skill]. With a whinny and a huff, Princess focused on a flying reaper, a dreadful looking skeletal cretin with long fangs and longer, bony wings, and focused on its huge jaws and coparatively small head. Soon enough, the reaper's skull shattered into a thousand pieces, and the foe collapsed into a pile of bones with a wretched shriek.

[Flying reaper is double dead]

Double dead? Taubitha did a double take. This meant that these enemies they were fighting were bona fide undead. Taubitha wondered where undead could be coming from while her fony continued to explode their skeletal noggins with her [skill].

[Pelican reaper is double dead]

[Flying reaper is double dead]

On and on the system messages went. Taubitha was starting to feel like picking out the [skill] [Skull Blaster] had been a bit of a mistake for her fony. She'd been hoping that she'd be able to somewhat reform her fony from her murderous tendencies by choosing a less than deadly [skill], however all of Princess' [skill] options had been pretty deadly, and if Taubitha remembered correctly [Skull Blaster] had seemed, by far, to be the lesser of three evils. Still, she wondered if it might've been a better idea to not having given Princess a new [skill] at all - after all, it was an optional choice to pick a [skill] when leveling - however, that had at the time felt unfair considering the fact that Taubtiha herself had gotten to level up and pick a [skill]. And the last thing she wanted was for her [paired] fony to think she didn't care about her. Regardless, Taubitha had to give it to Princess - it certainly made her own life much easier with Princess powerful enough to disptach all these wild, undead foes without much thought. Plus, sinsce they were both still in combat, Taubitha could feel the ever so faint rising of her [XP]. If Princess kept this up, they might both become ready to level up sooner rather than later.

And as the heads exploded, Taubitha took the time to think about next steps. Seeing as these were all undead beasts coming to attack, it seemed clear enough that something strange must've been brewing in the Gifflenbergian air. After all, generally the only undead thing that might pop up in Gifflenberg was the odd skeleton every once and while, and usually those cretins were stoned to double death on arrival.

So, as soon as Princess was finished up here, Taubitha wanted to leave the relative safety of the blimp - relative of course changing to nearly nonexistent, considering the fact that undead beasts were attacking them - and circle around and see where all these things were coming from. Not necessarily because Taubitha wanted to take action against them, other than of course the defensive action that Princess was currently taking to annhilate all the skeletal monster. In fact, if anything, Taubitha wanted to know what was happening so that she could avoid it. If Princess was to be a proper fony, she shouldn't be spending all her time killing things, whether they were hostile or not.

Finally, it seemed that Princess had taken care of all the would-be attackers, and there was a huge pile of bones laying at the floor of the dance hall, covering the corpses of everyone that Princess had slaughtered earlier in her murderous manic episode. Wind buffeted the blimp's interior, as the huge tear in its hull from the attackers grew larger and larger. This was no longer a safe place for Taubitha and Princess to spend any amount of time.

"Come on, Princess, let's get out of here!" cried Taubitha. She expanded her wings to their full span, which was almost comically wide. It felt as if she'd opened up an oversized umbrella inside. She gave them a few flaps, immediately noticing that she did not have the muscle memory to properly control them - that is to say, Taubitha had a lot to learn. She flapped up, but it seemed she'd go diagonal, or sideways, or regardless, she'd always end up going the wrong direction, a wildly different direction than the one she'd intended to.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Thankfully, Princess caught sight of this quickly, and flew over to greet her. With a joyous whinny, Princess expanded her glorious, glittery rainbow wings, and beckoned Taubitha to hop on. And hop on Taubitha did. She was at first concerned that her fony might struggle to fly with her, as Princess had in the past. However, it seemed that leveling up some of Princess' [attributes] had done the trick, and now that Princess had a higher [STR], she was easily able to carry Taubthia without a noticeable impact to her takeoff speed or form. This was a huge relief to Taubitha, because the entirety of the blimp had, unbeknownst to her until mere moments ago, caught aflame due to a broken part of the sound board that the late DJ had been using the play dance music.

"Thanks, Princess," said Taubitha with a smile, petting her fony on the head between her two, crooked spires. "Say, Princess, when do you think your spires will congeal into one?"

Princess snorted a response that sounded, above all else, doubtful to the core. Taubitha didn't know how to respond to this, so she petted the fony on the head yet again.

"Well, Princess, what say we get the fuck out of here?"

Princess whinnied affirmatively and sped out of the tear in the blimp's wall with a glittery dash, and soon enough they were soaring through the sky. It was dark outside - it was the middle of the night, and a few of the moons were out, glowing a brilliant light purple.

"I love the moons," said Taubitha. "Although, I never feel like I know how many moons I'll see when I look in the sky. Sometimes, I see three. Sometimes, I see five. Sometimes I see one, and sometimes I see none. What must it be like, to know how many moons to expect?"

Princess snorted, obviously not on Taubitha's immediate wavelength. Then again, seeing as Princess existed to destroy the world, it made enough sense that she might not find the concept of dreaming over the moons of said world she was tasked to destroy as something enjoyable and worthy of conversation. Still, Taubitha wasn't exactly sold on ending the world any time soon, or possibly ever. And Princess had [paired] with her. That had to count for something, didn't it?

Either way, Taubitha suddenly found herself wondering something as she soared through the night sky and looked down at the abnormally dense cloud cover. Hadn't Princess' prophecy detailed something about how, among other things, Princess had the ability to change form every time she leveled? Didn't Princess look, generally speaking, about the same? Maybe the prophecy hadn't been about Princess after all.

Then, Taubitha looked at Princess, really inspected her fony, and realized that she'd gotten larger. It occurred to Taubitha that Princess was about the size of a horse at this point, except in the fact that Princess didn't look like a horse, she still looked like a fony. It was a strange juxtaposition to witness and be aware of, and not one she was expecting. Then, Taubitha felt foolish for not noticing it sooner. Then again, regardless, Princess had hatched from an egg - maybe she was just growing naturally and it had nothing to do with a prophecy. Of course, the prophecy had mentioned the Harbinger of Doom coming from an egg... Then again, who was to say whether Princess' egg had been the egg in the prophecy? And, indeed, what if Princess had simply... eaten the prophecy somehow? There were all kinds of explanations for how and why Princess could have potentially not been the Harbinger of Doom. So, with that, Taubitha decided she would just assume that was the case, irregardless of whether or not it was objective fact, and simply not worry about it presently.

Plus, there were more pressing matters to attend to. As Taubitha soared across the night sky, she noticed a faint glimmer of light blue light in the shape of a beam heading up into higher and higher into the sky from, ostensibly, the ground. She wondered if this had had anything to do with the skeletal creatures - however, she noted that it seemed to at every passing moment be diffusing into the air fainter and fainter, so that sometimes when she looked at it she could but only tell that it was there out of the corner of her perception.

Then, of course, was the noise. She only heard it when she paid very close attention, but it seemed that someone, somewhere far, far down below, was yelling something at the top of their nasally lungs in a sustained fashion that, Taubitha figured, could not be healthy for their vocal chords.

And suddenly, Taubtiha had a thought.

"Princess, I don't know where to go!" she said. She felt tears welling up in her eyes. "You killed my mom, by the way."

Princess snorted.

Taubitha was about to lose it, to lose hold of her emotions and start bawling. But, she stopped herself. What if Princess was the Harbinger of Doom? Or, at least, a harbinger of something? And what if that meant that anyone who she held a grudge with, was de fact at risk? After all, harbinger or not, Princess could explode heads at will now thanks to her new [skill]. Taubitha also considered that they had indeed leveled up quite a bit recently.

"Princess, I just had an idea. You've got a powerful system. Do you think you can use it to find that awful tentacle monster Kahli calls Froufrou? As well as Kahli herself, of course. I think that we are due a rematch."