A hulking armored mare charged through a hail of laser and machinegun fire, ignoring or unaware of the glancing blows that peeled away chunks of self-regenerating power-armor. To her right, a grenade exploded, blowing a large chunk out of her hip armor. She raised her plasma-caster and fired in the direction of the heretic that had foolishly thrown the grenade, not sparing a second glance to the smaller stallion as he crumpled to the ground with a smoking hole in his chest. Her only thought was reaching the daemonic figure commanding the cultist horde.

Behind her, a squad of marksmares provided covering fire to the three heavily armed ponies that followed in the wake of the lone wolf. The heretics charged and fell before their superior weapons and armor, and before long, a path had been cleared through the horde. Nopony would stop the ponies of the Blood Pegasi from confronting the daemonhost head-on; not the heretics, not the xenos, and certainly not these puny traitors who had abandoned this world in favor of Chaos.

With a battle cry that sent the smaller cultists fleeing, the lone power-armored pony battered her way through a group of smaller daemons, urged on by an unseen commander. By all rights, even with her superior armor and weapons, she was vastly outnumbered. Self-repairing or not, repeated lasfire would eventually open her armor like a tin-can—anypony could recognize that—but still she charged on. She could not fail; she would not.

An ear splitting roar filled the air, and a large pod smashed into the bulk of the horde like a cannonball. Those not outright killed by the fiery impact were quickly dispatched as the sides of the orbital drop pod burst free, disgorging the singular, gigantic passenger. A deafening voice erupted from the vox-caster mounted on the massive, mechanical chassis, warning all, “I have come to destroy you!” Even as the mech spoke, gouts of blue flames erupted from ports on its claws, burning away those foolish enough to rush the mechanized reinforcement.

From her perch at a free computer in the guidance office, Dee stared down at the battlefield with glee as her dreadnought linked up with her force commander, while her tactical and scout marine squads joined forces with some friendly AI units. The skirmish was far from over, but things were definitely going in her favor. Leaning back, she decided that the game was a nice change of pace, and silently thanked whoever had installed it on the system.

“Button Ma—er, Dee Pad,” the secretary called out from behind her own computer monitor, producing an audible click of her teeth as she corrected herself. “Miss Role is ready to see you now.”

“Alright, thank you,” she replied, closing out the game. With a glance at the clock in the corner of the screen, Dee saw that she’d been playing the game for the better part of thirty minutes, and had been there an additional twenty that she’d spent doing some quick research. With a few keystrokes, she closed out the web browser window in the background and logged out of the school network.

Gathering up a few papers she’d printed out from the communal printer, she rose from her seat and, with but a cursory smoothing of her skirt, made for the office door marked Leading Role—below read Guidance Counselor & Assistant Director for Drama Programme. Dee knocked twice.

“Enter.”

The pegasus mare did not look up from the spread of papers on her desk when Dee entered, nor did she stop flicking through the large binder on her side desk with a primary feather. “Good morning, Ms. Role,” Dee said. Though the chair opposite Leading was unoccupied, Dee didn’t immediately seat herself. If not for the downward cast of her face amplifying the furrow of her brow, Dee might have thought Leading Role was scowling.

So she just stood there, watching as the guidance counselor filled out paperwork. Leading didn’t look like she would outright berate Dee for speaking out of turn, but she had seen this sort of tactic from her mother enough to know that the mare just wanted to make her sweat. It was the sort of silence that told her, “You’re a real pain, so you have to sit in silence as penance.”

After a few minutes, Leading Role put down her stylus and heaved a heavy sigh as she dragged the binder in front of her. The book was open to a print-out of the former Button’s student record. Looking up from her desk, the middle-aged mare steepled her hands in front of her and fixed Dee with a critical stare. “You may be seated.” Once the young transmare had taken a seat across from her, she frowned. “You know that I’m here for more than just guidance in choosing your educational path, right?”

Though the mare’s tone lacked any anger, Dee still shrank in her seat tilted her head forward in a nod, putting her bangs between her and the older mare. “Yes, Miss Role.”

After a moment’s contemplation, Leading Role continued. “It really hurts to hear that one of the students decided to undergo such a life-altering decision without discussing it with a therapist or any of the institute’s staff. To just have this sprung on us all reflects rather poorly on the staff, if you think about it. If the students won’t talk to us, doesn’t it seem like they don’t trust us?”

Shifting in her seat in a vain attempt to stave off the discomfort of this self-imposed situation, Dee forced herself to meet the counselor’s gaze. “I know, I know.” clutching her sheaf of papers against her lap, she looked away. “This whole thing has just been so... messed up. I barely even knew what I was doing myself, and I only just reached the conclusion myself yesterday. I just... I know I should have talked to someone sooner.”

How could I have, she asked herself. I only just decided yesterday, and that’s only because my hand had been forced when we crossed the line with the hormones. How could I have spoken to anybody about this without getting Diamond and Silver expelled? They sexually abused me, but I liked what we were doing... and now they’ve abandoned me. That’s not the sort of thing you can just talk to a school counselor about, is it?

“Yes, I understand you’ve been through a lot over the last few days,” Leading replied in a softer tone. “Morning Oak tells me you came out in a most spectacular fashion, and after what you went through at the arcade, I imagine that you feel on edge. With that in mind, I want to ask how you are doing. Any problems since you moved into the other dorm?”

Dee shook her head. Beyond the somewhat unsettling dream, she hadn’t had any problem at all. None of the other young women in the dormitory had given her any problems yet, and if the announcement on the corkboard in the dorm’s lobby was any indicator, Evening Primrose was already making it clear that Dee—although not outright naming her—was to be treated just like the other mares there. So far, only a few had flagged her, and fewer yet had given her dirty looks in the commissary. She relayed all of this.

“That’s good to hear,” she said, fixing Dee with a smile. “I hope you’ll keep either myself or Primrose appraised of any situations that may arise. Remember that we are here to help you.”

A weak imitation of Leading Role’s smile creased Dee’s face. “Thank you,” she said, her cheeks flushing red. “I’ll try, but...”

“Yes?”

“I actually wanted to meet with you about the courses and the career direction I’m presently taking,” Dee continued, placing her papers on the table. “When I started here, I wanted to get into the video game industry. I still do, but I know now that being a Quality Assurance tester isn’t going to get me in the right places.”

Pushing forward the top sheet, Dee lit out a sigh of frustration. “QA testing sounded like a dream for any gamer. Get paid to play games while they get made. These figures show attrition rates to be fairly high, with only a select few hanging on for extended periods of time. Job conditions are generally poor, and with little to no benefits or reward,” she explained. “Many ex-QA testers even start to hate video games altogether.”

With a sigh of exasperation, she hugged her arms close to herself and watched as the counselor looked over the paper. “Games have been a passion of mine since I was a child. I still want to be involved with video games, but I don’t wanna be one of those ponies whose passion has become a loathing.”

Leading Role pursed her lips. “Do you have some sort of other plan?”

Before she spoke up again, Dee fished out a clipping from the newspaper—the advertisement for yesterday’s event—that she had in her purse, placing it on top of the three remaining sheets of paper and pushing the collection across the desk. “Ideally, I’d like to become involved in the sort of events such as the one outlined in the advertisement there,” she said, folding her hands before her on the edge of the desk. “Even if not as a regular participant in the professional circuit, just working on these sorts of promotional events would be more than enough for me. At least, that’s what my cutie mark is telling me.”

“Your cutie mark,” the counselor muttered, flicking her eyes to the corner of the page, where gray crossmark bore inset triangles seemingly pointing the four cardinal directions of a compass. “A cross?”

Dee couldn’t help but smile at the mare’s lack of knowledge regarding the simplest parts of gaming. With a gentle shake of her head, she explained, “A D-pad—a directional pad, otherwise known as a control pad; it’s a thumb-operated input found on most handheld gaming devices, or on controllers for the console based ones. It is used for controlling character movements, or selecting options from a menu or dialogue box.

“When I was a kid, I thought I got my cutie mark simply because I liked to play video games,” she continued, her smile abating somewhat. “But that wasn’t true. Truth is that I never actually noticed I’d gotten my cutie mark until I was getting changed for bed. It was the same day I helped Sweetie Belle. I never put two and two together then, but I know better in retrospect.”

“Hindsight is twenty-twenty, or so they say,” Leading Role interjected.

“Yeah,” agreed Dee. “My special talent isn’t video games, though it can shine through in how well I play. It’s playing a role—something I’d been doing inadvertently all my life. I played the supportive role and helped Sweetie get her mark, and at the tournament yesterday, I was someone in it to win it. When I play games, I just get into it, like I’m right there alongside the characters.”

At this, the counselor frowned. “The way you describe it, it sounds like you’d be better off in the drama programme.” She picked up a pen and jotted a few notes on the print-out of Dee’s old student record. “Does that sound like something that might interest you or benefit your prospects?”

This question caused Dee reason for pause. Acting, or even just learning to perform in front of crowds would be useful. In a way, she’d already been doing that on a relatively small scale, such as the encounter at the cafe the other day, and being on display at the tournament was pretty enjoyable, though in both instances, they were on the fly. Being able to do so in a more deliberate manner would be good if she ever ended up in a position like Gravenicker.

“Sure,” Dee said, grinning. “I’m still not perfect at presenting, so the way I see it, drama would be beneficial anyhow.”

Pausing for a moment, she tapped the pen against her lip before nodding. “Alright, let’s discuss your course options. It sounds like computer sciences will be coming off...”

Author's Notes:

Sorry a chapter this short took so long. Blah blah vidya, blah blah butt stuff, blah blah order striped panties from China.

Long story short, I knew this chapter was going to be one of those ones that was going to be hard to work around, and likewise wasn't going to seem very interesting. Being a slice of life story, it felt important to show Dee starting to make changes rather than just tell that she made them in a fast-forward montage for a time skip or something like that. Plus, this felt like a natural way to lead into the actual fast-forward exposition planned for the start of the next chapter, where we actually skip ahead.

In the next chapter, we're finally starting to lead up to something many of you have all been waiting for. That's right! "Oh crap! I'm supposed to meet my mom this weekend!"

I admit, I didn't do too much research while writing this chapter, only the bit about QA testers getting the shit end of the shitstick, so I don't really know what sort of education is required for the sort of job the Trotnami representative Gravenicker requires. Ergo, I'm winging it by having the guidance counselor [maybe one of Dee's new teachers] work with Dee to help determine the sort of courses she might benefit from. My excuse is that maybe Equestria works this way because cutie marks.

Neither I or Patch found any grammar issues this time around, but don't be afraid to point any out.

Also, I'm cutting out on the weird naming scheme for chapters while I'm ahead. Trying to think up words that relate to contents of chapters can be a real pain in the ass.

The first letter of each chapter would eventually spell out "Die for love" at some point, which is silly, because no dying is intended for this story.