Tales of Arcania

Chapter 9: Thoughts...

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Cutscene 9: Donk

The moonlight shines through the window, onto Retro and Dirge, both asleep in bed.

Harmonic Melody opens the door, letting the light from the other room pour in. The light coats Retro's face, causing him to shift in bed in order to get the light off of him.

Harmonic Melody smiles, and gently shakes Retro to wake him.

"Whaaat?" Retro asks angrily.

"Get up grumpy, we have to make sure your okay." Melody says as she shakes him a little harder.

Dirge wakes up from the slight commotion, yawns, and says "We found you on the street coming from Hero's guild, then you said that you felt like you donked your head, then you collapsed so I treated your wounds and brought you to Melody's house."

Melody cuts in. "Oh, actually, this is Strobe Light's house, not mine."

Play

"Dirge?" I ask.

"Yes Retro?" He asks in return.

"Are you sick? Your voice sounds kind of... off" I ask

"You dont remember? Maybe you did hit your head pretty hard... I am a mare." Dirge said...

"What?" I ask, concerned and very confused.

"Varo changed my gender, I'm a mare now." He... err... I mean She said."

I say "Ho... Hold on... Let me figure this out." as I lie my head back on my pillow.

"Hey! None of that Retro, get up. We have to make sure your alright. Get up now!" Melody says with a scolding tone.

I get up out of fear of the classy mare.

Well, more or less fear.

If you count rolling onto the floor and then having the mare and the pseudo-mare put me back on my hooves as getting up.

Dirge rubs her cheek against mine, and I notice how much softer it is now. I move away to avoid the feeling.

It feels good, but its just too... strange right now...

She raises an eyebrow when she looks to me, but I cleverly start whistling like nothing is wrong.

Damn I'm smart!

We walk out of Melodies room, into the living room with the radio. Strobe Light is lying on the couch, waiting for us I assume. "Feeling alright baby brother? The heroes hurt you?" He asks me.

"Brother? Heroes?" I ask in return.

"Don't you remember? You were coming from the heroes guild And Your my baby brother now." He answers with a smile.

Whoa...

What did I do? I ask myself

"You really did a number on those good for nothing heroes. You are one bad ass to have taken on fifteen all alone, and to have killed them too. Awesome!" He said with pride for me in his voice.

"What the fuck did I do?!" I say aloud as I drop to the ground as I try to process this information. "Stop it! Stop telling me things! I dont want to know anymore until you tell me how the fuck I got here!" I shout out demandingly.

"Oh my love, its alright." She says as she crawls next to me, and hugs me with her wing.

Dirge's warmth, and wing hug is comforting, but its still a little unnerving that he's a she now.

She explains the situation. "After you left, and I woke up, and Blaze told me that Varo wanted to see me. So I went. On the way there though, I ran into a sky blue alicorn mare. When I walked past her, she stopped in place, turned towards me, and said 'You smell like him.' then her eyes widened, then she gasped said 'With a bat? awww~ My son is gender confused~' happily."

"That was probably my mother. Shes weird... And I'm not gender confused... Finish your story Dirge." I say with a bit of embarrassment.

"Of course. I got to Varo's and he told me that a pony murdered and raped another pony, and that I looked a lot like the pony on the wanted poster. He told me that he could turn me into a mare, to avoid a mix up, with the murderer and I. I didn't see a problem with it since, I thought you wouldn't mind, and its reversible. That's all for how I'm a mare, how you got into Heroe's guild... I cant say for certain."

I hear the living room door swing open and slam against the wall. We all turn our heads to face what had done it. And what greets us is the silhouette figure of and earth pony.

"As cliche as my character intro is, I think I can shed some light on that subject for you Retro." Says the silhouette figure in a calm stallion's voice...

Flash Back: Two weeks ago

I almost got home when I ran Into a rather large group of griders. I've been pinned for a good ten minutes, and I'm out of magical stamina. To make it worse, I was shot in my front left knee joint, so I cant run, or do anything besides gnaw on them...

Once they figure that out, they'll probably come over here and kill me...

I was so close to home too...

I knew Varo should have left me and Blaze together on a team...

They're shouting about something. They've finally found out that I'm defenseless... Fuck... I hear them getting closer...

"Dazzler, open journal. I need to record one." I say to my dazzler, and it opens the journal section of data. "Voice record... I dont feel like typing right now."

I close my eyes and start talking. "This is Retro, son of Purity, son of existence. I'm probably dead. So if you find this dazzler, bring it to a stallion named Varo in Continume. These are my-"

An explosion goes off beside my cover, flinging dirt into the air, and knocking me off of my feet. My covers been destroyed, there they are...

Just as one gallops up to me with a knife in her mouth, ready to stab me, I hear a gunshot behind me. The grider drops to the ground in front of me. I turn to face the gunshot, and not far from my left is an alicorn.

He has a scoped revolver, and a sword grasped in his magic. He also has what looks like an extremely advanced version of a telekinetic shield spell around him. He seems to have taken all of the griders attention, and they are now charging him instead of myself.

It's a blue alicorn stallion with various grey stripes around his body, but instead of them ending as points, they end as boxes. He has a grey mane and tale and green eyes. His cutie mark is that of a grey cross with a sun and moon inside of it.

The griders pointlessly fire at his shield which seems to give him invulnerability, and on top of that, the shield lashes out at anypony foolish enough to get near him. It just dices them mercilessly, and that's only the shield. He isn't any more merciful with his sword or revolver.

He makes extremely short work of the remaining seventeen griders, and he doesn't even bother looting them, he just walks past their guns, knives, and grenades, towards me.

"H-Hi. My name is Retro... W-Who are you?" I say with a shaky voice full of fear, and hold out my hoof to shake his.

Instead of shaking my hoof though, he hits me with the hilt of his sword...

Really hard...

Hard enough to send me back into the darkness...

Present

"So I almost died again?" I ask the white coated stallion, with hot pink eyes, and pearlescent mane and tail. He also has a synthetic front left leg.

"Of course. But thanks to my co-friend, you are alive." He responds happily.

Strobe Light cuts into our conversation. "Thanks for shedding a little bit of light on why his head hurts, but if your going to be in my house, your going to have to tell me who you are."

"Oh! You think the hilt of the sword is why his head hurts. No silly. Go back up the page a little, you'll see that it says 'Flash Back: Two weeks ago'. His head wouldn't hurt after two weeks." He responds happily to Strobe Light.

Strobe Light's face goes from confused look to, Super extremely 'What the fuck?' look.

"Ehhh up the page?" Strobe light asks

"Yes. Like the page of a book. Just scroll up, it should be in bold letters." The strange stallion says.

"Wha... Who the hell are you?" Strobe light asks, a bit more angry than before.

"I cant tell you until my character intro in the flash backs. That would be bad story telling; No spoilers." The strange stallion says in a slightly scolding voice. "So lets continue." He says, perking up again.

Flash Back: One week, Six days ago

"I'm still alive? Wait... where am I?" I ask myself aloud, waking up from the darkness.

I look around to find myself in a sterile white room. I'm lying on a bed with chains attaching it to the wall, like a prison bed. There's a small sink with a square mirror above it, and a door to the left of the sink says 'bathroom' above it. And lastly, there is a small table next to the bed.

A twinge of pain goes through my head, and I place my hoof against it.

Ow...

I remember how I blacked out now. That alicorn... Wait a second, where is the alicorn? I think to myself as i get out of the bed.

I get dizzy when I stand, and I start to stumble, and eventually collapse. Or almost collapse that is.

Someone caught me before I hit the ground. At first, I thought that it was Blaze, but then I dashed that thought.

"Oh dear, are you alright Retro? What did you do to him Law?" I hear a stallion, next to me ask. Probably the one holding me right now, but I cant tell with how blurry everything is.

"I merely incapacitated him with my sword's hilt." A deeper voice responds.

"Oh Divine! You know you cant just hit someone's head hard enough to knock them out as a plot device to transition scenes! It could cause some serious damage. This poor guy probably has a concussion now." The stallion close to me said to 'Divine Law'.

"Is that a problem? We have medical advancements that rival that of Oni co. A simple concussion is nothing." Law says to the stallion next to me.

"That's not the point. You gave our new friend a concussion, that's a bad first impression towards someone so important. Go to your room, your grounded for the day." The stallion next to me says as my vision starts to come back to me.

I see the blue alicorn leaving the room through a hole in the wall, and then the wall closes behind him. Then I turn to face the stallion next to me.

What I see is a very clean white coated stallion, with hot pink eyes, a pearlescent mane and tail, and a robotic left foreleg, and... No cutie mark?

Present

"This is me!" The strange stallion says excitedly.

Flash Back: One week, Six days ago

"Where am I?" I ask the white stallion as I try and get up.

"Don't move so fast. Here, sit on the bed for a bit. You might have some head, and/or brain trauma. We're gonna get you to our medical center alright?" He asks me softly, as if I had a head ache or something like that.

"Why am I in a prison cell?" I ask him

He gives me a confused look, and tilts his head a little

"Prison cell...? This room? It's not a cell, it just that no one has decorated it at all. And dont worry, I think that it looks horrifying too. We'll get it nice and organized when we come back from the medical center." He responds. "Shall we go?" He asks shortly after.

"I... Sure... I'm in the mood for getting rid of the pain, so yea. Lets go." I tell him as I carefully get off the bed. "How do we get out?" I ask.

He tells me "Just gently press on the wall. It should open... Unless it doesn't, then we're probably f***ed."

The last word in his sentence got bleeped out...

That's...

Really weird... I think I might have some serious head injuries.

I press on the wall, and to my surprise, it starts dissipating.

"Well there. We're okay after all." The white stallion behind me says.

The hole in the wall opens to a large circular marble floored room, with a platform in the center which acts as an elevator to a room further up, and a sand pit across from me. And Various doors around the room.

"This place is pretty cool." I say aloud

"Oh I'm so happy you think that, I made it for you!" The odd pony says to me.

I stop in place, somewhat creeped out, and maybe a little honored that someone would build a place like this for me. "For me?" I ask

He stops as well and says "Weeelll not exactly you. But ponies like you, and you yourself was a good part of this place's founding!" as he turns to face me.

This is just weird...

My head starts to hurt as I hear a ringing in my ears... I really need to see a doctor. "Can we..." The ringing slowly dissipates. "Can we just teleport to a doctor or something?" I ask him, hoping to get rid of the pain as soon as possible.

"Huh? Oh sure. Ill put you back to sleep, and you'll wake up there." He tells me. And before I have time to react, he decks me with his metal hoof and I fall onto the floor, unconscious again.

Present

"You did what to Retro?" Strobe Light asks.

"I punched him in the face... I thought I was pretty clear on that." The stranger says.

"You know what? I'm gonna go make some tea, and relax. When he actually starts explaining some stuff, someone come get me." Strobe light says as he calmly gets up from his cushion on the floor, and walks off, into the kitchen.

"You know, you are going a bit slow with your story, I'm getting kind of bored here. I tell him, in the hopes to move things along quicker.

He lets out a sign of distaste and says "Fine. I carry you to the med center, the doctor patches you up, I give you a good meal or two over a few days, and some nice sleeps, we walk away to the shooting range in the backyard of the mansion, I teach you how to not suck with a gun, and I tell you 'welcome to the guild!' you ask me in your little mares voice 'what guild?' and then I-"

"Whoa, slow down." I say.

"Ya, thats the filly voice we all love." he says

"Wha? I do not have a fillies voice. I may look like a filly, but I know I dont sound like one." I say to him.

"Maybe I'm just hearing you wrong. Would you kindly talk for me again?" He asks with a smile.

"You know what? Just continue your story so we can move along." I tell him.

"Oh now thats a good stallion!" he says to me...

Flashback: One week, One day ago

"What guild?" I ask, confused about what he had just said.

"WHY, HERO'S GUILD OF COURSE!" He says in his outside voice. "And I, Hero, personally welcome you to it!" He finishes

"He-hero's guild?" Can I refuse?

"If you do I'll kill you." He says with a wide smile

I hope strobe light will still like me when he finds out... "But I suck at well... almost everything else, why am I a hero?" I ask

"Whoa, hey. Stop right there, you are not a hero. I am Hero. you can be a... Hmm. You wanna be a Platinum Knight, a Sentinel, or a Legend?" He asks me.

"Um... whats the difference between each?" I ask

"Oh right. Well there are One hundred and twenty five of us in all. There are one hundred Platinum Knights, and they're the lowest of us, but most of them are still worth about three royal guards each. Then there are twenty sentinels. They're kind of special, they're worth about five Platinum Knights each. Then there are four Legends, you have to be a super bad*** to be a Legend. Theres a reason theres only four. To be a legend, you have to kill a legend, it shows dedication, and bad***ery. They are worth about five sentinels each, and they are amazing! And finally, theres me, Hero himself, I can personally take on all four legends, and win. So whatcha wanna be?" He asks after explaining his guild to me.

"A sentinel, I guess. They sound pretty cool." I say

"I NEED A SENTINEL DOWN HERE NOW!" He shouts out, and shortly after, a pony rushes to his side.

"Yes sir?!" The large pony asks in a deep voice.

Hero responds by pulling his gun around, and mercilessly firing into the sentinels face, killing him. "There you are, a position just opened up, luck you" he says to me.

As he turns to face me, I hold the small gun he had given me, up to his face.

"Whats this?" He asks me.

"Y-you just shot somepony! He didn't even do anything to you! You just shot him!" I say in a shaky voice.

"Well the only way out of Hero's Guild is death, And there were no positions for you, so I had to make room for my new friend." He says as he takes a few steps towards me.

I panic, and pull the trigger, and I what happens is... Strange... The bullet goes into his eye, but it doesn't kill him, it just makes a ripple for a moment, then its gone. "What the hell?" I ask, scared.

"Your right! You should play in the dungeon before getting to be a sentinel, I almost forgot! Here have an extra life, you'll need it." He says to me as his voice goes from jolly to sinister.

A small pixelated version of my head pops up in front of me, and is shortly after, replaced by a 'plus one' symbol. After that disappears, I look back at Hero. His pupils start to expand and take over the entirety of both his eyes, as i feel tired, and fatigued. I collapse, weakened under his gaze...

Pause

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