Chapter 1: Well, Here We Go
"Thanks for allowing me to have lunch with your family, Mrs Love Tap." I said to the pale-yellow earth pony beside me. "It was wonderful."
"My pleasure, Tinkles," Love Tap chuckled. "It's the least I could do since you agreed to help me foalsit Button today for a few hours today while I had an appointment at the Ponyville Spa with a few friends. Are you sure you don't need any help in this, Tinkles?"
"I'm sure, Mrs Love Tap. I can handle this. Besides, now I know how Spike feels 'bout watching the library when Twilight and her friends went on one of their picnics." I replied, looking at the brown colt with the ever-spinning propeller hat across the table.
"Thank you. Besides, just call me Love Tap." She chuckled. "There are plenty of food in the fridge if you or Button are hungry, that is if you could make sandwiches, right?" I nodded in reply. "Great, and could you make sure Button does his homework before playing his games? He always left it until the last minute."
"Mmmmooooommmmmm!!!" The colt wailed.
"Oh don't worry...erm, Love Tap. I will make sure he does them." I replied, adding one more chore into my mental list. She smiled before shouldering her saddlebags and left the house.
Closing the door, I picked up the plates with my magic and placed them in the sink. "Come on, Button. Why don't you go up to your room and do your homework? I will be coming right up with some snacks after I finish doing the dishes."
"Never!!" The filly cried out, landing on the floor and growled. "You will never take me alive! I won't let you serve me to the brain-eating zombie king of the Apachulytis!!"
I sighed. Love Tap wasn't kidding when she said he was a game addict. "Come on, Button..." I tried to get closer to him step by step, but he move back for every step I took.
"Stay back! Stay back, I tell you!" Then he started to chant some words in a weird language while waving his hoofs at me.
"Ugh," I groaned, doing a facehoof. "Tell you what, why don't you bring your homework down here so I could help you with them while doing the dishes." I offered. "This way, you could finish your assignments quickly and play your games earlier. I could also play some of them with you if you want."
That seemed to work as his ears perked up at my offer and gave me a big smile and wide, shining eyes. "Really?"
I smiled, finally catching his attention. "Cross my heart and hope to fly," I intoned, my hoof performing the Pinkie Promise ritual. "Stick a cupcake in my eye." The deal was sealed; for whomever broke their Pinkie Promise would have to face the wrath of Pinkie Pie.
"Yay!!!" He screamed before dashing up to his room to get his homework. I chuckled as I squirted soap into a sponge before washing the dishes.
It only took an half an hour to finish all of Button's homework before he was allowed to play his games. As we went up to his room, he admitted that it was the first time he finished them so quickly. It usually took him about two to three hours to finish them, especially when it comes down to math.
"So, what games are you going to play today, Button?" I asked, hoping to cross out 'Playing a Digital Game with No Opposable Thumbs' off my 'Impossible Things that can be Done' List.
"You'll see! And you are going to love it." Button's smile instantly got bigger. "Come on, I'll show you." Immediately, he took my hoof and ran to his room with amazing speed, dragging me along as well. Once inside his room, I whistled at the sight of it. To one side, there was a 45" TV on a table with a device of some sort plugged in. On the other side was a bookshelf with various consoles, game cartridges and other gamer stuffs. "Err, Button, what exactly is this game?"
"It's Equestrian Earth, the one they released just this morning! I played this thing before lunch and it was so cool!" Button squealed excitedly. "It's a MMORPG game that utilizes both science and magic to allow a player to experience playing it like it was in real life! It's like a dream come true! You can log in with your friends and fight monsters and go on quests and..."
I quickly stopped his endless babble with a hoof. "Alright, I get it." I sighed. But still, it did sounds cool. "So, how do you play this game?"
"With this!" From the desk, he took a brown visor with the cross button you could see on his Joyboy. "All you need to do is to create an account, then pop on this thing and boom, you're in the game!"
"Alright then, you got me interested." I decided. "Help me create an account and let's see if this game is as good as what you said it is."
"Finally!" I said as Button and I entered the house after a quick trip to the store an hour later. Now since I had became slightly interested in the VR game, I asked Button to help me create an account of my own on the website. It was a ten minutes job: all we had to do was to enter my name and particulars. Immediately, the website responded with a message to pick up the game at the nearest store. After that, it was a matter of buying from the Ponyville Toy Store for 30 bits (with an additional 20 bits per month for subscription).
Opening the first of the two boxes I bought, it contained the game itself. It was some sort of device that had to be plugged into a monitor so that you could play it. But for now, I would just use Button's instead, there's already a TV waiting to be plugged in at home. As for the next box, it was a completely different matter, for it contained my very own I.P.V, a device that allowed the player to be integrated into the game itself.
Taking out the visor by magic, I noticed mine was a darker shade of orange as compared to my fur with three stars at each end. We settled on Button's bed, ready to start playing the game. After putting on the IPV, Button gave me a nod, signalling that he was ready as well. I pressed the start button on the device and activated my I.P.V. Immediately, my vision began to pixelate and it felt like I was being pulled though a tunnel filled with lights so bright I had to close my eyes so as not to hurt them too much.
"Welcome." A soft voice spoke up. I opened my eyes to see myself floating with a mysterious figure in front of me. From her voice, I could tell it was female. If it weren't for the surrounding lights, I would be able to look at her properly. Note to self, lower game brightness
"Who are you?" I asked warily, not knowing if the being was friendly or foe.
"I am the central A.I of this game here, so you may call me Goddess. Welcome again to Equestrian Earth." The figure chuckled. "And you don't have to be afraid of me. I won't bite."
Being new here, I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. "Hello to you as well. My name is Tinkles." I said. "And erm...what should I do next?"
"Simple, my little pony," She chuckled. Now I realized how melodious she sounded. "Now, you have to choose the class you want to be in."
"Ok, so how do I..." The Goddess swiped her hoof and immediately, a bunch of files popped into existence. "Never mind," I muttered. I had already chosen a class when I created my game character, so I loaded the save file I created earlier to save time.
"An apprentice healer, a wise yet risky choice." The Goddess commented. "Very few had chosen this class because it is the easiest to fall to the dark side. Be warned, young one, for if you truly wish to choose this class, then you must be careful. Though many considered Healers to be one of the weakest classes, little realized that they are one of the most important of classes and the Darkness knows that as well.
"Remember, it is never a weakness to rely on your friends. Have trust and faith in them will then you be able to fight those who meant you harm. If you don't, then the Darkness will claim you as his own. You were warned." It was then I knew that this was more than just a normal game. It almost sounded as if there was a personal battle within the game as well.
"Now Tinkles, you are about to venture into a world full of magic and friendship, where you will meet friends both old and new." She continued. “Yet, this world also holds many dark secrets and monsters of legend, forces to be wary of. Never walk the world alone, for strength is in numbers and the bonds you forge. Good luck.” Just as the Goddess finished her introductions, the lights around us intensified, forcing me to close my eyes again. What is it with all these lights anyway?! I sighed.
"So are you coming or what?" I opened my eyes to see a brown colt in chain mail with a sword standing over me, a smile played on his lips as he offered me a hoof. "We've got lots of training to do if you want to be above level 10 by the time Mom gets home."
Author's Note
My first story and my first chapter posted on FIMfiction, I hope you like it. Constructive feedbacks and positive comments are always welcome.
I must apologize beforehand if I am not able to upload future chapters as quickly as I could. Sorry
Choatic Note, if you are reading this, thank you for letting me join the wonderful world of Equestrian Earth.
Chapter 2: First Few Hours
Chapter 2: First Few Hours
"Button, that's a good look for you." I commented. His chain mail was worn underneath his green jerkin with a matching cloak on his back. His small sword and a small shield was also strapped to his back, giving him that suave look. Above was his player's name ButtonSMASH!.(1)
"Cool, huh." He said, helping me to get up. "I have always wanted to have my own sword and all. Imagine me slashing all those monsters with it!" His grin became wider while painting those images in his mind.
"So, Button," I walked beside Button down a road. "How are you going to train me? And where are we going?"
"First of, that would have to stay secret for now. Don't want you chickening out in the end." He grinned, barely hiding the signs of a devious joke behind it. "Second, we are going into the town of Aeroslida, the first town any first-time player would go to." He gestured at the city. I whistled at the sights as I looked around. The walls and the road seemed to be made of pure marble, and it was so white that the sunlight seemed to bounce right off of it. The buildings were so big that I thought that it might actually touch the blue sky beyond, even though it was mostly because of the fact that we were on a floating island. But the biggest surprise was that the island was freakin' gigantic! My mouth dropped to the ground when I truly saw how big it was. It was ginormous enough to house two mountains and a forest. Not only that, this whole place was being pulled two serpents so big that I thought it could give the biggest of dragons a run for their bits.
"Not bad, eh," the brown filly smirked. "Anyway, usually here's where we got started on the game, but since you have me around, I will bring you up to speed about that." He then gave a very brief run through on the basic things a player should know, like the NPCs, the quests and his most favourite, the monsters. Then he showed me how to access the few things a player had, like the item catalog.(2) Opening my item catalog, I flipped through the many tabs to the 'Equipments' part. Selecting the only item, a glow suddenly appeared around my body. The glow then quickly faded away to reveal a white robe, complete with a hood and a belt.
"Looks good on you," Button grinned.
"I know," I said. "But how come I don't have a weapon in my inventory while you have a sword and a shield?"
"Well, first of, Healers are one of the classes doesn't do close combat, since all they do is support. So they would only be allowed weapons in the second tier.(3) Furthermore," He pointed at my horn. "You are a unicorn, so you pretty much already have a 'weapon' on your forehead." I sighed in defeat, knowing he was right. Still it would be cool to have my own weapon though.
"Now that all the questions are done, let's get some pots for you and then we could go to Sherpwood to grind till Mom gets home."(4)
"Button," I sighed. "I am not a gamer like you, so could you please keep your gaming slang down to, hopefully, zero?"
"That's okay," His cheerful disposition was not diminished the slightest bit. "You'll find out sooner or later anyway."
We had left our pegasi chariot back at the port a few minutes ago and now were trekking the forest of Sherpwood. "Not exactly a vacation spot," I commented. It was a dense forest, like one of those found in the tropical region. The trees grew so close that it was barely enough for sunlight to touch the forest floor. The little patches that did was filled up with bushes and grass. At the back of my mind, it felt like I was walking through Whitetail Forest. But as Button led the way deeper into the woods, it started to become darker that it felt a bit like the Everfree Forest. Around us, the animalistic growls and groans were getting louder as well.
"Button, are you sure you know what you are doing?" I asked tentatively. After all, this was my first time fighting without the usual kind of unicorn magic.
"Of course, trust me, Mr Tinkles. This is the best way to help you level up, don't worry," Button said. We came towards a clearing where awe found a wolf made of wood prowling around, and it was huge. Atop of it was its name and its level...
" A TIMBERWOLF!!!" I half screamed into the colt's ear. " You brought me here to fight with a...a TIMBERWOLF!!!"
"Ahuh," he confirmed. "This is the fastest way of leveling up."
"But he's level 16! And we are level 1! That thing will tear us to pieces!"
"Technically, I'm level 10," He smiled. "Besides, I'll be the one he's going to attack, so all you need to do is to stay here and cover me." Even with his childish confidence, I still wasn't so sure about this. "Alright then, CHARRRRGE!" Button screamed, dashing towards the big wolf. The timberwolf, surprised at the sudden scream and the equally sudden appearance of a sword-wielding colt charging at it, rushed forward as well, ready to take the warrior down.
Just as they were about to clash, the wolf jumped, closing the distance in a matter of seconds, intending to use its height advantage to end the battle now. Quickly opening my 'Skills' window, I immediately prepared the only spell I had. "[b[Magic Missle!" An orange bolt of light struck the wolf right between his eyes, making him flinch instinctively. Button jumped away just in time as the wolf slammed painfully onto the ground, it's health bar decreasing by the slightest amount. Button then spun on his hooves and slashed at the downed wolf, cutting away a huge chuck of its health away. "See," he said. "Easy, no? All we have to do is..."
Just then the injured timberwolf stood up and howled into the sky, and immediately in the distance howls and thumping paws filled the air. In just over a minute, surrounding us were twenty five snarling timberwolves with pointy teeth bared and looked ready to kill. "Oh, yeah," he added. "Did I forget to mention that every monster in the game, except the Elites and Bosses, comes in groups? The creators made it this way so that it would be easier to level up and stuff."
"Button!!" I screamed into his ear as the timberwolves pounced. The warrior colt grinned and dashed forward to fight them head on. For me, since there was no escape, I ran after him and covered his six (5). Button dodged one of them and gave a side slash."Dash it!" He shouted and immediately was zipping the wolves at incredible speed, reducing six of the wolves' health to about one-seventh of it left and even slaying the first wolf he fought. Immediately after that I heard a soft ding somewhere right behind me. Looking up I saw my level immediately jumped from 1 to 3.
"Come on!" Button's voice broke me out of my amazement. "This way!" Slashing left and right, he managed to wound three more wolves without dropping his pace as I shot anything that came within six feet of us and finally broke out of the circle. "Stay here," he ordered once we were in the safety of the trees. "I'll take care of them. Just stay here until I'm done." And with that, he charged back into the fray. He won't last for long out there! I thought. Yet there was nothing I could do, for I was too weak to help.
Ding! Ding! Ding! That sound came again and again. Peeking from my hiding spot, I saw Button dropping another two wolves and then performing another warrior skill, Rising Slash. His health had already been reduced to 75% and he already looked tired. A few potion bottles had littered the forest floor, along with ten of the timberwolves slain. Worse, a few timberwolves had respawned in the area, making it more difficult for Button to rest.
Knowing that he would need my help soon, I set my points as quickly as I could.
TinkleBell125 (Tinkles) has Leveled Up to Lv 8!
Tier 4 Class: Apprentice Healer
~ HP Increased: 350 ⇒ 630 (+10 from END)
~ Mana Increased: 500 ⇒ 822(+ 58 from SPR)
70 Attribute Points are gained; 7 Skill Points are gained <<
Attribute Points Allocation:
Manual Distribution Selected <<
~ INT Increased: 30 ⇒ 72
~ SPR Increased: 30 ⇒ 58
Skill Point Allocation:
[Magic Missile] Lv 1 ⇒ 5
Type ~ Active
Description ~ Singular target. Your magic conduit glows brightly before shooting forth a bolt of pure energy at your enemy, blasting the target backwards. The main bread and butter of all Apprentices.
Magic Damage – Level 5:
30/50/70/90/110 (+ 75% INT)
[Slow Heal] Lv 0 ⇒ 3
Type ~ Active
Description ~ Restores yours' and party members' Max HP every 3 sec for 5 minutes
Cool Down Time ~ 3 minutes
HP Heal – Level 3
1%/2%/3%/4%/5%
Better now than never, I thought as I burst out of the treeline. "Button, behind you!" I shouted and shot a Magic Missile at the timberwolf who was sneaking up towards the unsuspecting Button. It did not deal a lot of damage, but it got the desired effect. The timberwolf was stunned by the attack for just a second, allowing the colt to spin around and finish it off with a critical attack. He then quickly rushed towards me before any of the monsters decided to attack the weaker prey.
"Mr Tinkles, I thought I told you to stay back! Your level is still way too low to handle these guys." He growled, facing them, daring them to come closer.
"I know, but so are you." I retorted, retreating slowly. "Besides, you are running out of health pots, and there is still too much for you to handle alone." He growled, confirming my suspicion. "You can't just win these guys just by attacking head on now, but I do know how you could do just that with minimal damage." Button's ears perked up, listening intently. "Use a cut-and-retreat tactic. Attack fast and then retreat before they react. Let them regroup before attacking again. Got it?"
"This is so like World of Ponycraft, so coooooolllll!" He grinned and was going to perform his skill when I pulled him back. "One more thing," I said as my horn shone in an orange glow. "" I muttered. "Now you are ready." He grinned once more before dashing into danger once more. Just as I instructed, he attacked them a Dash it! and took down two wolves and injuring five more. Immediately, he retreated, allowing the wolves to regroup. And like I predicted, there were a few wolves that were brave enough to attack while he was retreating, but we had met them with his Rising Slash and my Magic Missile. And anytime the Slow Heal ran out I cast another upon him the moment he came back. Then the pattern repeated itself.
"Finally!" I muttered as Button finished the rest of the wolves with a Rising Slash. "I thought this was never going to end." Tired, Button dropped to his haunches to catch his breath while I started on getting whatever that was dropped from the wolves. "See?" He grinned. "Easy, no? And we still probably have about two hours left 'till Mum gets home. Maybe we could find a few more wolv..." The rest of his words dissolved into meaningless mumbles as I shoved my hoof onto his mouth.
"Uh, uh. First of, I am NOT going to do anymore stuff that involves blasting things with my horn until I get my heart pumping once more. Second, why in the world didn't you tell me about this in the first place?!" His ears were like leaves fluttering in the wind, eyes already shrunken to pinpricks and he was trying to make himself smaller to hide himself from my wrath. "What were you thinking, Button? That was reckless a...a..and the craziest thing ever! I could have died!"
"Technically, this is just a game, so you won't really die. You would just respawn back in Aeropolis." Button replied. "Besides, I did promise that I would help you reach level 10 by the time Mum came back and this is the fastest way to do that. And so I did."
"But...but..." I facehoofed. "Uuugh, fine, whatever! So where are we going now? I am definitely not going to fight any monsters until tomorrow."
"I know! Why don't we go back to Aeropolis? Maybe there is a side job we could do or you could pick up a Profession Skill." 'Profession Skills', I'd remembered parts about it from Button when he was babbling though the introductions. It was supposed to act as a second job or another set of skill, which gives us some sort of social skills like in the Real World, or to a lesser extent, Runescape. With nothing else better to do, I agreed with Button's decision.
"Alright then, let's go!" Button jumped up instantly. "Come on, already! We still have so many things to do before Mom gets home!" He then immediately sped back into the forest, in the direction of the pegasi port.
"That colt," I chuckled before joining him. "Just couldn't stop and enjoy the scenery."
TinkleBell125 (Tinkles) has Leveled Up to Lv 12!
Tier 4 Class: Apprentice Healer
~ HP Increased: 630 ⇒ 790 (+10 from END)
~ Mana Increased: 822 ⇒ 1094(+ 74 from SPR)
40 Attribute Points are gained; 4 Skill Points are gained <<
Attribute Points Allocation:
Manual Distribution Selected <<
~ INT Increased: 72 ⇒ 96
~ SPR Increased: 58 ⇒ 74
Skill Point Allocation:
[Slow Heal] Lv 3 ⇒ 5
Type ~ Active
Description ~ Restores yours' and party members' Max HP every 3 sec for 30 minutes
Cool Down Time ~ 15 minutes
HP Heal – Level 3
1%/2%/3%/4%/5%
[Attack Boost] Lv 0 ⇒ 2
Type ~ Active
Description ~ Increase attack and magic damage for 30 minutes
Cool Down Time ~ 15 minutes
120%/140%/160%/180%/200%
ButtonSMASH! (Button Mash) has Leveled Up to Lv 15!
Tier 4 Class: Apprentice Knight
~ HP Increased: 845 ⇒ 1295 (+100 from END)
~ Mana Increased: 800 ⇒ 950 (+10 from SPR)
50 Attribute Points are gained; 5 Skill Points are gained <<
Attribute Points Allocation:
Manual Distribution Selected <<
~ STR Increased: 75 ⇒ 100
~ END Increased: 75 ⇒ 100
Skill Point Allocation:
[Double Slash] Lv 0 ⇒ 5
Type ~ Active
Description ~ Singular target. Your sword will charge up and slashes your enemy twice at super fast speed.
Weapon Damage – Level 5:
+50/+70/+90/+110/+130 (+ 75% STR)
Author's Note
(1) I know the name is a bit lame but I couldn't think of any good ones...
(2) To perform such actions, or more like looking through quests or the menu, just picture what you wanted and swipe the air.
(3) Tiers are the different classes of a player. For a more informative answer, click here
(4) Pots is short for potions (at least that was what my brother explained it to me) Grind is to 'repeatedly kill AI-controlled monsters' such as monsters and stuff.
(5) Fighting back to back, in case you don't know.
Blue is Magic Skills
Yellow is Close Combat Skills
Green is Buff Skills
Red is Ranged Skills
Game Stats (picked up from Equestrian Earth chapter 11 part 5):
STR (Strength): Increases all physical damage, melee and ranged
DEX (Dexterity): Increases evasion, speed, and aim
END (Endurance): Increases HP and Armor
INT (Intelligence): Increases magical damage
SPR (Spirit): Increases Magic Resist, bonus mana equal to the amount of SPR. Also increases the power of Support-Type Spells.
LUK (Luck): Increases chance to critical hits (melee, ranged and magical)
Sorry for the long wait. Got school, exams, other stories to write and family stuff. Not to mention procrastination (f**k it).
