Wanderer's Journey: Brony War!

Near the gate to Ponyville (made as one of the safety measures)

Wanderer walks up to the gate nonchalantly and calls out, "Hey! Is anypony up there? I need somewhere to sleep!" He gets no answer until he persists with this line multiple times, "Excuuuuuse me princess, but I need a place to sleep and you're blocking my path!"

The pony that answers him is below the open area of the window used to see who comes and goes, "Please don't come in if you are not on the posters!" Her voice is barely audible and soft. The posters she is talking about are on the side of the gate.

It was a waste of time trying to see what one had his face on it so Wanderer simply asked, "Can I please come in? I'm not on the posters, but-"

The mare answers very quickly, but in the same voice, "Then you can't come in! Go away!" Her pink mane is visible through the window and resting on top of it is a bunny who's shaking his head.

Wanderer persisted in this manner, "Please! I'm not like them, just let me in!" The mare ducked lower at him increasing his volume, "I'm sorry, but I need to go in there! Please don't run away from the window!"

She raised her head to peer out of the window and saw Wanderer waiting for a reply, "I'm sorry, but I can't let you in so easily. The rules prohibit humans who aren't confirmed as friendly."

Wanderer questions the rules point, "If I could prove I'm friendly, then could I come in?" He listens to the mare speak, but doesn't quite hear her. "Excuse me, can you say that a bit louder?"

She picks up the microphone and her voice sounds like it suddenly went back to normal volume, "Yes, but I don't think you can prove that so easily..." She doesn't look confident in Wanderer's ability at all.

Wanderer suddenly attacks this point, "Hey don't be so mean! I haven't even tried yet!" Wanderer crosses his arms and continues, "That wasn't very kind of you."

The mare suddenly squeaks in fear, "I-I'm sorry about that!" She looks away from the window in shame, "I'm being less friendly than you right now, so let me do this..." Suddenly the area started to disappear strangely (as in the area started becoming an empty white instead of colors all around you).

Wanderer jumps back at the sight of this, "AAH! What's happening to reality!?" He looks around the empty white area he is in. "Hello? Where are you? Don't leave me..." He starts to collapse to his knees, "What happened? Where did everything go?"

The mare walks toward Wanderer and replies, "You're in a test dream... it's sort of like an exam for your mind. And currently I can tell you have no friends... I think this would be a good time to introduce the A.I."

The mare suddenly disappears and is replaced by a purple alicorn, "I'm an A.I. version of Twilight Sparkle! I will be your guide for today's test. Today's topic..." she lowers her head as if thinking about something, "Friendliness! Let's start with this challenge, see if you can find me before that clock behind you hits midnight, then you'll have passed the first test. Loading up simulation... please be patient while this loads." She disappears and a town appears out of nowhere in front of Wanderer.

Wanderer looks around the town and can see that ponies are all over the place, and staring in a random direction. "This is so freaky! If only I didn't know this was a game, then I would have until midnight to explore!" Wanderer thinks to himself That A.I. didn't have any emoticons I could read, so it's likely that I either have to find her, or this entire test is fake. Either way, I have to deal with this crud!

A young colt runs up to Wanderer and calls for his attention, "Hey mister! Can you please help my mother? She is having trouble with deliveries especially with me around." Well at least he's honest with himself. He pulls a package out of... thin... air... "Can you take this to Ditzy Doo? Mom would be mad if I didn't do it!"

Wanderer looks at the clock and decides that he has enough time, "Yeah, I think I can do that! Give it here!"

The colt backs up a bit, "Good, but first you have to catch me!" He sticks his tongue out and runs to a certain point.

Time to chase the colt!

Those words appeared in front of Wanderer when he started to go towards the colt, but then the words changed.
3! 2! 1! Go!

The colt started running away at a surprisingly high speed, "Hey, don't you run away!" Wanderer yelled as he started chasing the colt, but the colt knew the area better than Wanderer, so he was pretty far away from Wanderer until he started going towards the shopping district, "You're not getting away with this! Sorry to run through! Watch out where you walk!" Wanderer starts doing some acrobatic routine to get past the ponies in his way. The colt was starting slow down from exhaustion, "You're so mine now!" Wanderer jumps at the colt, but gets stopped by two stallions carrying a trampoline, "Screw game design!" By hitting the trampoline, Wanderer flies off towards the mayor's office, and lands in front of the mayor, "Ouch............ your honor."

The mayor helps Wanderer up and points toward the alley, and the colt that was walking in the alley, "Oh no!" said the colt as he ran away. Wanderer chased after him after thanking the mayor.

The colt and Wanderer were running towards the main living area of the town and waking up all the N.P.C.'s. They happily threw their boots and other hard apparel at the pair and even threw poison mushrooms at our hero, "Hey! Stop that! That's very rude of you! Be quiet now!" All the N.P.C.'s yelled as they threw the things at the pair of runners.

Wanderer ducked and ran behind some newspaper stalls, but some of the items still hit him. "Cut that out! All I'm trying to do is catch the..." He looked up from the stall he was behind and saw that the colt was gone. Suddenly a compass appeared in front of him pointing toward the left corner on the sidewalk, "Alright punk! It's time for you to-" He saw that the street had randomly assorted fruit and vegetable throwers scattered across the street, "Oh come on! Is this seriously going to be impossible!?" He used his acrobatic skills to on top of a building and survey the area for the colt. The colt was watching the road ready for Wanderer to run across the fruit and vegetables not knowing where he was actually.

Wanderer sneaks to the edge of the building and jumps off towards the colt, "AAH! That's not possible!" Yelled the colt in panic. He started running towards the shopping district again, but Wanderer is there before the colt and tags the colt, "H-How did you? I-I mean..." Wanderer pats him on the head and takes the package, but leaves the colt confused about how Wanderer got ahead of him, "H-how did he...? I think I'm just getting out of form today!"

For completing this challenge, Wanderer feels new strength developing; he gains 100 exp.
At Ditzy's house (means of getting there............. video game logic!)

Wanderer knocks on the door and out comes the blonde he met in the intro, but she has eyes that are aligned perfectly. It must be a glitch... Wanderer thinks to himself. He holds out the package and energetically says, "This is for you ma'am! I hope you enjoy whatever is inside!"

Ditzy seems to ignore his last statement and looks into the package, "Yay! It came!" She pulls out a muffin out of the package, but in the package are an unknown number of muffins more.

Is she a muffin addict!? I'm not sure I could ever figure out how that works!

She looks at a watch on her fore hoof and says, "Thanks for sending the package, but I have to go to my job. Could you babysit my daughter? I think you'll really like her!"

Wanderer looks at her watch and reluctantly says with a closed-eye smile, "Very well! I shall take care of her for you!" Ditzy had started flying away with her outfit on, and when Wanderer opened his eyes he saw that she had already left.

That-you know what? This is sort of a game, so I should have some save point somewhere. This will be a piece of cake!

He enters the house and sees Ditzy's daughter playing a first-person shooter called Bioshock Infinite. She looked very good at playing the game. When Wanderer said hello she turned frightened by his voice, "W-Who are you?"

Wanderer looks at her with a devilish smile, "I'm Booker Dewitt and I'm here to take you away from your tower!" She giggled at this line, "You know I haven't played this for a long time! However I do remember most of it. You look like you're having trouble..."

She looks at the screen and looks a little mad, "Yeah... I'm at the last level on hard difficulty, but I can't seem to keep the guys away from the generator," she looks with pleading eyes, "My name is Dinky, and could you give me some tips?"

Wanderer looks at how the battlefield looks right now and sees that she has a minigun, an RPG, and two of all the vigors. He quickly gives a tip, "Select devil's kiss and murder of crow's! Then set up traps along the walkway. If anyone is on the catwalks, then you have to shoot them with your minigun, but if the motorized patriots come closer to the generator then you absolutely have to get behind them and shoot their gears. If you shoot off a murder of crows before a devil's kiss, you can get a fiery murder of crows which does more damage and gives a burning effect!"

She tries all the tips and succeeds in beating the game (I can't say more, because spoilers!), and when the credits started rolling she says to Wanderer, "Thanks for helping me out! I don't think I could have gotten through if you didn't give me help."

The pair hang out, playing random games and other assorted things, but a little after then both of them were feeling hungry, "You're feeling hungry too? Let's go get something to eat." They head out towards the shopping district.

In some random restaurant (I don't know any names that aren't terrible puns...)

Wanderer conveniently has enough to get a salad and whatever the filly wants, but... "What do you mean all the restaurants aren't open today!? There were some open when I went running through!" The pony who told him this ran away in fear of Wanderer's anger, "I-I'm sorry for yelling! (Especially now!)" he sighs from the exertion he let out at the pony, "Looks like we can't have a celebratory dinner, but I think I know how to make something special."

Dinky was excited (obviously...) for something special and asked, "Yay! Can we have omelets?" When Wanderer looked at her with confusion she continued, "I really like omelets! They're my second favorite food!"

Wanderer and Dinky gather some supplies for a Asian American omelet (soy flavored) at the grocery store and head back home. Wanderer started work on the omelet, and it came out perfectly. Dinky sets up table for the meal Wanderer created, "This is going to be awesome I promise you!" Wanderer looks very confident about his omelet.

Dinky tries a bite, "Hmm... it is awesome!" She shovels some onto her plate and enjoys it all very thoroughly. Wanderer just looks surprised by her reaction to the first bite, but starts shoveling the rest onto his plate as he tastes the first bite.

One lunch later...

Ditzy returns home and gives Wanderer some bits for a job well done, "Thanks for taking the job last minute! I think if you come back sometime she'll want to hang out some more!" Before Wanderer leaves he asks about a purple alicorn, "She lives at the library in the middle of town! Go there if you want to talk to her."

Wanderer has completed a quest! He gains 300 exp. and 400 bits! He feels new strength manifesting... Strength increased by 10, Agility increased by 15, and Persuasion increases by 20.

In the middle of town

Wanderer looks around for the library and eventually finds it, but what he finds is not an alicorn but a murder scene! On the ground lies a corpse of a dragon and a knife next to him. It was pulled out of the scaly body of the dragon and has been discarded onto the floor, Or at least that's what I can see here, Wanderer thinks to himself. The knife has no finger/hoof prints on it, but the blood of the dragon is on it. There's a note under the corpse of the dragon, it says "Thank you, but your princess is in another castle!"

Whoever did this is a sick freak who likes making references to other video games. That, or the author is breaking another wall!

Somepony broke down the front door and yells, "Freeze! Don't make any sudden moves!" The male pegasus is equipped with a battle saddle (It's a saddle with a crossbow extending out the top). Wanderer had no choice but to surrender to the pegasus. "I would like you to say your name. Then tell me what has happened here!"

Persuasion was high enough to keep the stallion from arresting Wanderer! Wanderer explains that he wasn't involved in the murder and that he has no info to give the stallion. "Humph, I guess you know nothing after all. I'm Sherriff Black Arrow, and I ain't sure I know as much as you do, so how about you help me investigate?"

Wanderer replies reluctantly, "Yeah, I think I can help..." Wanderer crosses his arms,"However I don't think I can go further in my investigation, so what should we do about that?"

Arrow looks all around the room and replies, "I don't know about that! I think you missed one thing!" He points his hoof at Wanderer, "One thing that could prove who the killer is!"

Usually I would hear some music to back up an objection, but I guess it might be too soon for that.

Wanderer looks at the dragon's body and looks closely, "Hmm... I think I got it... AHA!" He punches his fist into the air, "EUREKA! The wound is from arrow, and if we have a knife! There's a contradiction!"

Arrow looks disappointed by Wanderer's first contradiction, "That's nice and all, but there's something that actually tells us who the killer might be." Black Arrow goes toward the dead body and examines it, "The arrow was removed quite expertly, so we can't tell who the killer might be by that."

Wanderer approaches the body and looks really close, "You know... the wound looks deep enough to have hit a vital organ. The arrow had to have been sharpened and had to get an extra long pull on the string of a crossbow. Whoever did this was an expert in crossbows and arrows, but I haven't gotten around to know everpony here... however I think I have a good idea who here had the ability to do it!"

Arrow looks confused, "You do? Wow, that was fast." He shook his head, "Do you honestly think you have a suspect right now? Who is it?"

Wanderer walked to one side of the room and explains his thoughts, "The only one who could've done it... that's an easy question if you put the pieces together." He snaps his fingers in thoughtfulness, "The one who did it had to be able to escape quickly before anyone came in the house, but they also had to make it look like the killer used a knife to get the police off his back for being an expert in archery." Turns towards the sheriff, "However he made a mistake... he didn't try to reshape the wound so that the wound was of someone that used a knife."

The sheriff rubbed the back of his neck, "That doesn't answer our question though." He glared at Wanderer, "You have to know something more! This-"

Wanderer held up his hand for silence, "He didn't reshape the wound because of me... When he heard that I was coming, he thought that if I saw him, then I would know what he did and be able to call the police. In this event he had to rush out quickly, but most of the routes he could go were going to get him spotted."

The sheriff looks at the routes the killer took, "One lead directly to you... another lead upstairs, but he couldn't go up there, because that upstairs area is open to your eyes below. There aren't any other routes! He turned into thin air!"

Wanderer smartly replied, "Not quite... there's a balcony on this level." He points to the balcony, "No unicorn can teleport because none of them were strong enough to cast that powerful spell, correct?" When the sheriff nods Wanderer makes his way to the balcony, "If this is true, then our killer is a pegasus pony! I think I know who it is exactly now!"

Arrow seemed unimpressed, "You don't know anypony from this town though... so technically you are very suspicious! I'll take you down to the precinct now!"

Wanderer didn't seem scared by this however, "That's awfully suspicious... why don't you want me to say my conclusion? Are you afraid I'm not playing into your hoof? Because it seems you're the most suspicious here!" He points his finger, "You came in after me, you claimed not to know anything about what happened in here, and you're placing me under arrest because I am getting to the end of my string of logic! Did you kill him?" He glared at the stallion until an answer could be spoken.

The sheriff laughed maniacally and his eyes turned yellow. His voice changed to a joker-like cackle, "Yes I did it! I killed poor Spikey wikey!" He changed into a giant serpent like dragon with strange features on his body, "I'm Discord by the way, are you enjoying... the game?" He burst into more laughter and looked as if he would never stop laughing at Wanderer.

Wanderer looked very puzzled, "Um... why are you speaking like that? N.P.C's usually don't break the fourth wall..." He then thought of something that could explain Discord being here, "This is a hacked ROM isn't it?"

Discord bursts into another fit of laughter, he takes a deep breath and replies, "Sure, if you want to think of it that way. I like you! You're so fun to have around and smart too!" He coils around Wanderer and whispers, "I can take you out of this game and back into reality if you want... or you can find the Twilight of this world. I don't honestly care which path you take, except I'm not going to help you in finding that royal bum!"

Wanderer jokes at the dragon, "You sound just like the tutorial levels of....... well any game. Help me through the first part, but leave some hints in the next. Heavens forbid that you act like most of Nintendo's games!"

The dragon roared in laughter, "Y-You're a good laugh, but I can tell most of the bronies reading this are confused, so let me give you a hint. In the gilded palace or whatsoever, you'll find a mare of wing and horn."

Wanderer seemed confused, "What does that mean?" He was referring to Discord's fourth wall breaker.

Discord just grinned and replied, "I don't think I need to explain it to you, adieu!" The dragon disappears and Spike's dead body just disappeared.

Spike reappears in the room near the bookshelf unharmed. He is writing notes onto a scroll. He notices Wanderer come closer and asks, "What do you want? A mystery novel, an adventure of mighty warriors, or something to laugh at?"

Wanderer simply replied, "None of the above please... I just want to know where I might find one Twilight Sparkle." Spike nearly destroys the pen he's using, "Is that okay...?"

Spike looks at Wanderer with confusion and smiles, and using the library he avoided the question, "Oh look... it's closing time!" He shoves Wanderer towards the door and says, "You better get on home, dude! Goodbye!" As soon as Wanderer walked out the door Spike slams the door and locks it.

At the park South of the library.

Wanderer is taking a walk through the park to figure out what Discord meant by 'In a gilded palace or whatsoever, you'll find a mare of wing and horn.'

As if on cue, a pony interrupts his thinking time, "Y-You're a human..." said a mint green colored mare. She was staring in fascination, but most noticeably at Wanderer's hands, "H-Hands..."

Wanderer felt very uncomfortable near this unicorn and tried to walk away to somewhere more peaceful, "Look... I'd like to stay and chat-"

The mare immediately interrupted him with a simple sentence, "Then come on over to this park bench and we can talk... especially about your hands..." She grabbed Wanderer by the arm.

Wanderer tried to pry himself out of her grip, but she had a surprisingly strong grip on Wanderer with hooves. Wanderer sat on the bench as anyone who was forced into a social interaction would, "So... why are you interested in my hands?"

The mare smiled and pulled out a harp, "Because of this! With only my hooves and magic there's only so much I can do, but you on the other hand can play this as easily as one of the pegasi!" She sits-no more like lays down strangely on the bench and sighs, "I wish I had hands so that I could play my harp better."

Wanderer plays the harp, but doesn't seem to get the hang of it until he tries to play a specific song, the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: ballad of the goddess harp instrumental. He closes his eyes and listens to the harmonic tone of his harp playing. He seemed to get every note after a few mess-ups, and the mare exclaimed her excitement, "See? You can play so beautifully when you get the hang of it!"

Wanderer grinned, but was abruptly interrupted, how? A smack to the face sent him barreling away from the bench, by another mare who was furious at the mint colored mare, "LYRA! You said we were going to hang out here today! You dropped me for a human!" She looked as if this was a big deal.

Lyra tried to calm the mare down, "Now, Bon Bon, I just figured since he wanted harp lessons I should give him some, right dude?" Wanderer was near a tree dazed from Bon Bon's attack, and he held the harp in his hands, "See? I was just teaching him how to play harp!"

Bon Bon still looked furious, "You still abandoned me just to teach someone how to play a harp! A human at that!" The two mares looked ready to fight each other. Thankfully Wanderer got back up to distract the confrontation, "Hey, you!" Wanderer looked scared, confused, and hurt at the same time, but didn't try to run away, "What do you think of how she abandoned our date just to teach you!"

Lyra took offense to that, "Tell her that I was just going to give you an hour of teaching!" The two were yelling at the top of their lungs and attracting attention.

If I don't get them to agree, then we might have a friendship that is broken forever!

Wanderer thought to himself, he had one option, one route of logic, one way to stop the fight quickly, "ENOUGH!" The mares jumped at Wanderer's sudden increase of volume to get their attention, "Bon Bon, you need to stop freaking out about her doing things that were not on schedule. Lyra's right about you wanting only your date right now." Lyra grinned victoriously, "And you..." Lyra's smile dissipated as soon as Wanderer addressed her, "You need to keep on schedule a little bit better or things like this will happen again. You both should be ashamed for overreacting to a simple change in plans!"

They both frowned and looked at each other, but Wanderer had walked off before they could say anything. He was getting nearer and nearer to midnight and if he didn't find Twilight soon, then he'd fail!

On top of the hill overlooking the town. Time: 11:00 p.m.

Wanderer looked all over the town and examined faraway places from a distance, but could not find the palace Discord was speaking of. Wanderer was on top of the hill to think to himself, "Where is that alicorn? I've looked everywhere I was permitted to go, but I can't seem to find her." He drops to his knees and punches the ground, "Dang it! I've looked everywhere for you, Twilight!"

A voice yelled from above Wanderer, "Look out below!" The voice came from a changeling dive bombing Wanderer. He successfully hits Wanderer's back with one kick!

Wanderer rolls away from the changeling and assumes a defensive stance, "What was that for!?" His question was answered by the changeling charging into Wanderer less-defended areas, but missing when Wanderer dodges, "Oh, I see... you want to fight me! Well bring it on shrimp!"

"With pleasure!" the changeling said as it tried to hit one of Wanderer's weak spots. Wanderer grabbed the changeling and threw it against the ground, then drew his bow. The changeling kicks Wanderer so that he couldn't fire the bow, and successfully gets out of the sticky situation!

Wanderer gets out his dagger and assaults the changeling, and stuns him by hitting his head with a fist, "Go down!" Wanderer throws the changeling high into the air and drop kicks it forty meters away!

The changeling gets back up, but limps away after shooting a flare into the air through its horn. Many more changelings came at Wanderer, and almost defeat him!!

"Whoops, I almost forgot I had one of these!" He pulls out a smoke bomb he bought at the store when he was with Dinky. He runs through the town and acrobatically moves through the shopping district. He runs to a weapons shop and talks to the owner, "Do you have anything that takes a flock of changelings out in one strike?"

He nods and gives dynamite to Wanderer, "Tie these to your arrows!"

Wanderer does as said and takes aim at where he thinks the changelings would come from, "Come here you buggers!" The changelings come around the corner and Wanderer lights the dynamite and starts shooting. The changelings either die or retreat from the barrage of bomb-arrows coming their way. The street is filled with surprised ponies and the blood or guts of dead changelings.

Wanderer lets out a breath that he didn't know he was holding and fainted... the last thing he sees is a purple mare running to him.

Back to reality in an ICU-like area.

"Ugh..." Wanderer sat up and looked around, no one was in the room. "Hello? Is somepony there? At least someone I can talk to?" the reply he got was silence. He sighed and got up to look around, "Man... I wish that someone could answer the questions I had... hello? This is usually the cue for someone important to come out and speak to me..." No one answered him, and in response to the responsive silence he went towards the door and tried opening it, "Grr... ah, it's no use! I might be trapped!"

"Isn't that great for me then?"

Wanderer turned around to see a pink pony holding onto the other bed in the room. She looks depressed, but looks as if she has been in here for a long time. Her mane is straight, but it... seemed off about who Wanderer was looking at. "You must be... the somepony important I was asking for?"

She laughed and smiled devilishly at Wanderer, "No... I'm just another pony like the rest of them..." she tried to get closer to Wanderer, but failed to move away from the bed, "Come closer... I have a secret to tell you..."

Wanderer reluctantly walked towards the pink pony while considering the offense he'll get for breaking doors or walls, "What is it?"

She looked around the room as if someone could hear them and whispers to Wanderer, "They're never letting you or me out of here! Isn't that fun?" She turned toward the mirror before continuing her secret, "They are always watching us to make sure we aren't up to something funny. I hope you know what that means..."

Wanderer understood what it meant perfectly, but didn't want to believe it... They never trusted the humans in the first place when he tried to go in. He tried to ask the pink pony questions, but she held her hoof out and said, "We can't discuss that until next chapter! Silly human, you'll have to wait before getting your answers! I'll tell you in the morning! Goodnight."
The end of chapter 1...

Would you like to save your progress?
------>Yes

OR
------>Yes
You have no choice in this matter... too bad for you!