How long has it been, I wonder. How many moons had passed since that frightful night? Tens? Hundreds? Maybe even thousands? I can't quite recall.

Sitting on my throne, I gazed forward into the abyss that is known as Planeptune. The console wars were tough, yet somehow I emerged victorious from the bloodshed. Where many had fallen, I had risen above the rest.

I sighed. Why? Well, because I did. Basically, because anything and everything around me had grown boring and tedious. My work, my world, my life. Not even a cup of pudding could sate my need for excitement.

I got up from my throne. I walked down the corridor. 'Nothing matters' I thought. 'everything I do, anything I try, it just never feels right. And... And...

"And... hmm."

Neptune scratched her chin as she gazed at her computer screen.

It had been a while since Neptune had some time for herself. With the amount of work there was to be done, she thought she had earned herself a break from her daily duties.

Recently, Blanc had asked Neptune (of all people) to proofread her latest novel. Of course, she was happy to help even if she wasn't really into the stuff Blanc that she normally wrote. She had never expected to be completely blown away by the writing, though. Considering how good it was, the CPU of Planeptune was inspired to give also give writing a shot. How hard could it be?

She felt like she had a strong start, but as she went on, the words had stopped appearing on the screen, and she had found herself stuck.

She leaned back in her chair and pushed herself off of her desk to the side, causing the room around her to spin. "Man, writing sure is a lot harder than I first thought," Neptune mumbled out loud. "If only someone would knock on my door and help me out..."

As if on cue, a soft knock caught her ear. Placing one hand on her desk, she stopped the chair from spinning. "What a handy coincidence... Come on in," she called.

Nepgear poked her head into the room. "Uhm... Neptune? Histoire asked me to come to get you and—"

"Nep Junior! Just in time!" Neptune interrupted happily, jumping out of her chair whilst pointing at her computer screen. "Quick. Race over next to me like it's the Big Blue. I need your help with something."

"Eh? You need my help? What do you need?" With a look of excitement, Nepgear pushed the door further open and took a step inside.

Neptune pointed at the computer screen like a kid at a toy in a toy store. "I'm totally stuck on this one part and I don't know how to finish it."

"Oh... Well, I'm not really that good at the kind of games you play, so I can't really-"

"No, you silly sally. I'm writing a story and I totally got a writer's block blocking my mojo."

Nepgear raised her eyebrows. "I didn't know you write literature. Did that one fanfiction you found so funny about Blanc inspire you?"

Neptune frantically waved her hands before her. "Ah! Bla! Yadda Yadda! Don't say that! This one-shot is a hundred and one percent unrelated to the other one-shot this author has written."

"Oh... Sorry. I didn't know... So, what do you have so far?"

Proudly, Neptune rolled her chair to the side and presented her story. "Only the greatest start to a story yet."

With a smile, Nepgear leaned forward and began reading the words on screen. Her expression then turned to a neutral one. Followed by a frown. Followed by a pity smile. "I-... I don't know what to say."

Putting her hands on her hips and pushing her chest up, Neptune looked proud of her work. "Just tell me it's awesome."

"Well... What's this story supposed to be?"

The question baffled Neptune. "What? Isn't it obvious? It's about what would've happened if I won the console wars and the true meaning of friendship."

"I see..." Nepgear glanced over the screen again and read every line carefully. She wasn't sure where the friendship part came into play.

"So... wadda ya think?" Neptune asked impatiently, tugging her sister's sleeve.

With an awkward chuckle, Nepgear took the mouse and highlighted the first few lines. "Well, I don't dislike it. But I feel like this part kind of makes no sense. I mean, why are we starting in the middle of the story? Wouldn't it make more sense to start at the beginning?"

"Eh… Hmm. I guess you're right. I mean, who would want to read a story that starts at a random point, past events that seem way more interesting? You know what would've made it even worse? If it was some fanfiction and you added several OCs to make your story seem more in-depth."

Nepgear giggled. "That does sound rather ridiculous. Wouldn't it be even sillier if the OC's name was something as casual as Bob or Tony?"

"Oh my gosh, that does sound terrible!"

The both of them laughed and went back to reading Neptune's self-written paragraph.

...

...

...

Meanwhile in another universe

IF and her companion were walking back to Planeptune, when suddenly her companion stopped. He reached for his heart and started hyperventilating.

Worriedly, IF approached him. "Are you alright, Toby?"

"Y-yeah... I just... I just felt like someone threw a lot of shade at me."

IF shrugged. "Shade? Eh. It's probably nothing. Don't worry about it too much."

Back with the Nep sisters

Nepgear highlighted another set of lines. "Alright, so who is this 'I' you keep referring to?"

Neptune was once again dumbfounded by her sister's question. "Oh, come on. Did you even read it? It's obviously me. Here, look. Console wars. Planeptune. There's only one CPU in all of Gamindustri that has fought in the Console wars and that originates from Planeptune."

Nepgear looked her sister quizzically. "We have a throne in our Basilicom?"

"Yeah. Well... No. Maybe?"

With an awkward giggle, Nepgear looked her sister straight into the eyes. "Oh goodness. Neptune... Do you even know what you want to write about?"

"Huh? Kinda. I mean, that stuff comes naturally as I go, right?"

Nepgear resisted the urge to facepalm. No wonder she found herself stuck after only ten sentences. And even then, those few lines she did get on paper were far from passable. But Nepgear wouldn't dare to tell her sister this. It's just something about those cute round eyes that made her feel bad about it. Or those adorable puffy cheeks. Or that super cute nose. Or that slim, but strong figure. Or that cheerfully bright smile. Or…

Nepgear shook her head and stopped fanboying about her sister. "If you're really determined to keep going, maybe you should take a break and take your mind off it. Whenever I get stuck on something, I go for a walk around Planeptune. It really helps me clear my mind."

Neptune thoughtfully put a finger on her chin. "A break? But I've only written like... two lines. Plus, I don't have anything else to do anyway."

"Neptune!"

Catching both sisters their attention, they looked back at the door, only to see a tome which look of anger could only be matched by Blanc's. "Nepgear. I ask you to go and fetch your sister for me, and here you both are playing video games. I'll be sure to have a word with you later, young lady."

Neptune jumped up from her chair and skipped towards Histoire. "C'mon Histy. Lay off the cute baby sister, will you?"

Completely ignoring Neptune, Histoire continued her rant. "And then there's you Neptune. You've been holed up in your room all day while there are piles of papers in need of your attention. Papers don't sign themselves you know?"

"I'd probably work harder if it wasn't such a bore chore," Neptune pouted.

"Well, perhaps you should reconsider your life choices and retire to become a pudding connoisseur."

Neptune's eyes sparkled with hope. "Can I?"

Outraged, Histoire took a deep breath. "No you can not!" she yelled from the top of her lungs.

With her tiny fingers, Histoire pinched Neptune by the ear and dragged her along. "Ow! Owowow! Stop pulling so hard! You're gonna tear it off, you're gonna tear it off! Nep Junior! Saaaave me!"

After Neptune's cries for help had faded away, Nepgear found herself alone in her sister's room. "Well... Just an ordinary day in the Basilicom of Planeptune."

Looking back at the screen, Neptune's attempt at a story was still there, waiting to be finished.

She looked over her shoulder at the open door, then back at the screen. "I guess I can try and salvage this."

Carefully putting her fingers on the keyboard, she looked at the screen and tried to envision how this story would continue. When suddenly…

"We're here!" Vert announced, stepping into the room.

Nepgear yelped and instinctively raised her hands off the keyboard. She turned around and was faced with the three main CPUs of the neighbouring nations: Vert, Noire, and Blanc.

"Goodness, Vert. You scared me for a second. Why are you three even here?"

"Don't you know?" Noire asked. "Neptune had a surprise for us and said we should swing by at seven in the evening.

"But it's only six," Nepgear noted.

"We're just a little early," Blanc replied. "Vert wanted us to jump in an hour early, so we could maybe catch her preparing the surprise."

Vert chuckled as she looked the other way. "Me? I would never. You make the best jokes, Blanc."

When Noire noticed the computer, she took a closer look. "What were you doing here anyway?... Hm? Did you write this?"

"W-what? No, of course not, I..."

"You mean you were just snooping around." Blanc accused, also taking interest in the computer.

"Goodness, of course not! I was just… Just helping my sister, but she left and then you guys came in."

"So we just missed her," Noire said, still reading Neptune's story. "I wonder what she… was… going to…"

Slowly trailing off, Noire suppressed her laughter. "Wait, did Neptune write this? This so bad.."

"It's trash," Blanc judged after a few seconds. "I mean, it's all over the place. So many rookie mistakes. I usually try to be nice to new writers… but this is horrible."

"What do you mean? I don't see any." Noire obliviously responded.

Blanc took over the mouse and keyboard and began fixing the mistakes. "You see, she writes mostly in past tense and sometimes in the present tense. She should keep on writing in one or the other. Not both. And that's not all. Like here, this one sentence of 'Why, just because' is just lazy and unnecessary. Remove it. Also…"

Blanc continued to point out mistakes. From simple little things like the city of Planeptune not actually being an abyss and how awkward it is on its own, to more complex things like the usage of em dashes — Nepgear didn't quite understand it, but didn't dare question it either — to even something as small as the use of a comma to combine several sentences into one short sentence.

"... And that's about everything," Blanc concluded. True enough, the story already felt a lot more tidied up. At first, you couldn't even make out what was happening or who this mysterious 'I' was. But now, thanks to the creative input of Blanc, everyone could easily read through it without stopping themselves and wonder what was actually happening.

"Hm. Not bad," Noire admitted as she carefully read the story from start to finish. "But I feel like it still lacks something. Like… I dunno. A motivation to why Neptune would be depressed like this in the first place?"

Blanc glanced over the story again. "I see what you mean. Maybe we could just add a bit of dialogue here… How's this? What do you think, Vert?"

When she didn't get a response, Blanc called her name out again. "Vert?... Hey, Vert!"

Turning her head, she saw Vert just texting away on her phone like there was no tomorrow, having clearly no interest in improving Neptune's story.

"Tsk. I bet she would be interested if it were some crappy manga," Blanc hissed, returning her attention to the story.

As if her insult snapped something inside of Vert, she immediately put her phone away and clenched her fists. "Manga is literature too!" she bellowed, giving Blanc a nasty glare.

Blanc smirked convincingly. "I'm sure it is. Why don't you come over here and show us what you've learnt from reading BL-doujinshis every day."

With her chin raised, Vert got up and marched towards the computer. "Very well. Allow me to show you what I can do."

Nepgear nervously smiled. "Uhm… This isn't a competition or anything, you know?"

Ignoring her words, Vert pushed Blanc aside and read the improved story. After a minute, she began typing away rapidly. "Clearly, the story lacks depth and meaning. We should add more drama to the mix. A little more tension. Perhaps something a little dark…"

Both Blanc and Noire looked upon Vert's work in anticipation. Whatever she was adding, it certainly gave the story more character.

"Not bad," Blanc complimented. "Not bad at all. But I don't think we should neglect Neptune's character too much either. Here. Let me have the mouse for a second."

"Wait, don't change that bit!" Noire exclaimed. "If we keep that in, we could make a clever retort to it later."

"Then perhaps we should alter the next line to be a little more passive," Vert added, dragging her finger across the screen. "I think it would be for the best to be assertive in the beginning and be more constructive later on."

Soon enough, the three of them were writing away at Neptune's story continuously. Meanwhile, Nepgear stood there nervously, wondering if she had any input on the matter. "I-... I don't think it's a good idea to completely change Neptune's work without her permission."

Suddenly, someone burst through the door, heralding their entrance by shouting "Did someone say 'Nep-Nep'?"

Nepgear jumped in place, barely able to keep her balance. "Yikes! Oww… Neptune, please don't scare me like that."

"Heh… Sorry," Neptune apologized with a bright smile. "Anyway, what's up, doc? Whatcha mumbling about?"

Nepgear pointed towards the others. "Oh. Well, Noire and the others got here early and started changing your story."

"U-whu? Wha? Nepu!"

Neptune rushed towards her computer, pushing her friends aside, and covered the screen. "Who gave you permission to browse my history? Don't you gals have standards? A girl's browser history is holy! No touchy!"

"No one cares about your dirty fricking history," Blanc explained with a raised nose. "We were just turning your crappy self-insert into a piece of art. Check it out."

Neptune slowly took her hands off the monitor. "Eh? Wait, I don't recall writing a crappy self-insert story. I only wrote a masterpiece. Nothing less."

"You called that a masterpiece?" Noire rhetorically questioned.

Neptune was silent, her eyes going from left to right as she read the story. From the look on her face, she didn't really understand what was going on. "So wait. This is supposed to be the thing I wrote?"

"Indeed," Vert confirmed, mousing over the story. "We expanded on it a little, improved the already established plot points and create a stronger flow."

Neptune looked at the screen quizzically. "O-kay… So… I have several questions. First, why the Nep am I so cruel to Nep Junior? I mean, you guys made me kick her in the shins! Why did it have to be so specific?"

Vert raised her hand. "Oh. That was my input. I thought if we made you look cruel and unfeeling, we could create prior events to appear more in-depth."

"And what's with my getup? The way you guys described me it's… Well, let's say that stuff is more Plutie's kink."

Noire smirked, whipping her hair cockily. "It adds character, don't you think? We all know you would never wear such an outfit, which is why we thought it was a good idea."

"And finally, why… Just… Why do I commit seppuku at the end!? That stuff is just way too dark for an innocent franchise!"

Blanc coldly stared at the girl. "We wanted to elaborate on the heavy depression you gave yourself in the story. Action results reaction. It's a general rule in writing. Plus, something like this will really shock the reader, resulting in their interest of wanting to know what events lead to this point."

Neptune threw her hands up in the air and shouted. "Nooooo! My story is ruined!"

"What are you talking about? We just made it so much better," Noire retorted. "I mean, I certainly had no idea what you were even going for to begin with."

Vert looked up from the screen. "That reminds me. Neptune, if I do recall, you told us you had a surprise."

Blanc also looked up. "Oh yeah. Hey, was the story the surprise? I mean, I've seen better surprises, that's for sure."

With her hands buried in her hair, Neptune continued to shout. "Of course not! You three are completely missing the point! I mean, yeah, I called you guys here because of that story thing I was writing, but I wanted for us to write it together."

Noire, Blanc and Vert exchanged looks. "Isn't that what we just did?" Noire hesitantly asked. "We finished your first chapter in no time. And it looks pretty good too."

"But you guys took the completely wrong turn! Can't you see? I wanted this story to reflect back upon the Console Wars. It was going to be about me winning, followed by me getting lonely and all sad and whatever."

The three of them went quiet. Looking back at their work, they did sort of go in that direction.

Neptune dropped to her knees, a saddened expression clouding her face. "The point of the story is to show that it's lonely at the top. Here, I'm all alone without any of you guys. Lonely, depressed, and unhappy. While here, in reality, you guys are my friends."

"So… How exactly was this going to be a publishable story?" Blanc questioned, pointing at the monitor.

"Who said anything about publishing? It was my special gift for our anniversary."

Vert's eyebrows rose. "Anniversary? Just a minute. Do you mean that today-"

"-Is the day we put a stop to the Console Wars?" Noire finished, her mouth slightly agape.

Neptune slowly nodded. "Eyup. And I thought I came up with a great surprise too. But alas, it was not to be," she sighed, letting her shoulders drop.

The three of them exchanged glances once more before Noire spoke up, giving Neptune a lovely smile. "Actually, why don't we start over?"

"Yeah," Blanc agreed, patting Neptune on her shoulder. "why don't we start from scratch again together?"

Highlighting the entire page, Vert promptly pressed the delete key. "And perhaps this time we'll do it right."

Neptune's face instantly lit up again. "Huh? Really? D'aww, you guys are the best. Alright. So, I was thinking..."

And thus, the four of them continued to write a story solely about themselves and their friendship. With Blanc behind the keyboard, Neptune spoke her ideas out loud. Noire would occasionally speak up about how to improve upon her points, while Vert would bring in ideas on what points should be elaborated upon in the grand scheme.

For hours on end, the four girls wrote to their heart's content.

But in the end, Neptune couldn't help but feel she was forgetting someone.

Nepgear awkwardly sat on the bed looking at her sister and her friends having tons of fun. "... So does anyone still want my input or…?"

Hey everyone. Thanks for reading. If you've read my previous one-shot, I stated I would continue to write one-shots on random occasions... Well, this was supposed to be released about half a year ago, but I kinda gave up at some point. I found it somewhere in the back of a closet again, so I picked it back up. (Speaking of one-shots, where did all of them go? Am I just missing out on all the good stuff without knowing it? ._.)

Anyway, hoped you enjoyed it. See you next year when I decide to probably (not) write another one.