Tales of Arcania

Chapter 4: Hopeless Abandon

New Game
Continue
Load Game
Options
Credits
Extras

Cut scene 4: Real breakfast

Dirge is hiding in a bush when a small boar walks by. He lunges out at it to kill it. He lands a perfect shot into the creatures neck with his horn, causing it to flinch, squeal a little, and die. After cleaning and piercing it on a stick, he starts to build a small fire to cook it with.

Play

I woke up to Dirge cooking some kind of pig. I haven't the slightest idea if i'm even allowed to eat that, but I am definitely going to try, it smells heavenly.

"Good morning Dirge. Hope you slept well buddy." I say as I stretch with my flank in the air, and my hooves ahead of me, like a cat.

He gives me a smile and tells me that he didn't sleep, he's is a bat after all. Well that's odd, when does he sleep then?

"Dirge?" I ask "If its not too personal, why do you have a horn?"

He looks at me and starts telling me like its not personal at all. "Well I've never had any friends except for a dead mouse up until now. So naturally I got pretty lonely. When I got tired of being alone, I started to get depressed."

I cut in momentarily "Thas okay buddy. Ya got Retro now, he'll be the best of friends ever!"

He gives me his signature Dirge smile and continues his story "So one day, while cleaning, I found a book with very dark magic under a bed. After taking, and studying it for some time, I used it, because well, I was lonely, like I said. The book gave me all kinds of magic, but to use it, I had to make a deal a very dark creature. I agreed to its contract and boom, I got this magic horn!"

Interesting. "Wait Dirge, I have two questions." I say

"Go ahead" he says.

"Alright. First one, what did the dead mouse have to do with anything?"

He thinks a moment before answering. "The book taught me how to raise the dead, so then the mouse was alive again, being my friend."

Holy hell, that IS dark stuff. "Okaay... um, question two, what was the contract?"

He seemed to have to think about, but after a few moments he answered me. "The thing gave me the ability to use magic for the price of constantly feeling pride, it didn't seem so bad since pride isnt such a bad feeling."

After the questions, I think to myself, time to change the subject. "So can we eat that thing now Dirge?" I say, pointing at the fire.

With a bit of worry in his voice he tells me he forgot and quickly went to attend to it. That's when I notice the smell of something burning, and the sight of the pig on fire. Once he puts the fire out, he looks at his half burnt pig with disappointment in his eyes.

I comment "Oh come on Dirge, its only half bad, we can pick the blacker bits off. I'm sure it will taste just as good."

He cheers up a little after my comment and asks if I want some of the "good parts".

I say "Hell yeah" as he hands me some tasty charred mammal flesh. I say "This is so good Dirge, dont lose your cooking skill, ever." after taking a small bite of it.

He gets a panicked look on his face and starts to gallop away as he yells for me to follow. I look down at my pig, kiss it goodbye, and tell it how sorry I am that I didn't get to love it more.

I drop the pig and gallop after him and see that we're approaching a barricade against a large rock face. More bat ponies, the kind without horns I might add, and they're guarding the front of that barricade.

The one on the left looks to us and demands a reason as to why he should let us in.

Dirge says quickly while looking at the ground "I'm a servant in the red sector and this is my escort."

The other body guard looks him and I over suspiciously before he looks to me for confirmation on what Dirge had said. I nod my head slowly and they let us pass into the barricaded area.

The interior of the barricade is decorated with a few market shops, and one of them is selling fruit. I wander over happily to the bat mare sitting at the fruit stand, grab a mango, and drop the bits in front of her. She looks at me like I'm stupid, and then tells me to pay in bolts. I look down at my bits, give her a questioning look, and she tells me to take my joke money and leave. So I put the mango back sadly and Dirge continues to lead me towards the rock face, which seems to have a large opening in it.

Dirge goes in first and I hesitate to follow. But trusting my new friend, I steel myself to go forward.

Its a narrow and slippery path that's dimly lit. Every so often, droplets of water drip from the cave's ceiling above, onto my head.

We walk for a bit, and Just before I ask Dirge how much longer there is to go, I notice a faint red glow ahead. The narrow path we're in opens into a massive air pocket underground. When we had arrived in the area, I noticed that it was bathed in a red light. A half-mile or so further ahead the lights fade to orange, and it does the same for the colors yellow, green, blue, and ending in purple. Like a rainbow, a very large, underground, rainbow.

"Dirge, where are we?" I ask him.

He answers, telling me the name of the place "We are in the Buried Spectrum, largest bat pony city you'll ever find."

He leads me up to a door that goes into the cave wall, when he stops and turns to me and says "Retro... I know its a lot to ask but... Will you... Please... buy me?"

I give him a questioning look and I ask him to elaborate.

"I am a slave... Its the business that keeps a large amount of the money flowing down here, and I happen to be part of it."

When he said that, I realized that the darker patches under his coat weren't just cute spots..

"Dirge, those dark spots under your coat. Are they bruises?"

He didn't answer me, he only looked away in shame. With that, my opinion of this place went from a stunning, beautiful city, to a pile of garbage with flashy lights in seconds.

He says "I've saved them up my entire life." as he hands me a sack of two hundred smokey gray colored bits and tells me that those are what I need to buy him with. Then, he doesn't say anything else, he just walks into the door and I follow after him.

Its another tunnel, though shorter and better lit this time, and not quite as damp as the last one. It opens to a somewhat large room. The room is decorated with sharp sophisticated designs on the structures. There's a big table with four seats on the left and right sides, and two seats at either end of the table. The half of the room the the table isn't in, has the decor of a kitchen.

To my right, I hear the voice of a young mare ask me what I'm doing here. I turn to face her. There are two mares; The one closer to me is an older mare, a bat pony that looks good for her age, or the age I assume she is. The mare further from me is a normal unicorn mare with a bubble gum pink coat, and a blue mane and eyes.

The older one talks in a language I dont understand, and the younger translates for her. "Answer or be escorted out by the guards."

I hear Dirge's voice from the kitchen "I'm sorry mistress. Griders attacked me and my escort after I delivered the days package. My escort was killed so I ran. The griders almost caught me when this stallion showed up and saved me. He agreed to escort me back safely."

She speaks to Dirge in that language again, I dont understand it, but I think she is yelling at him. She points to me and Dirge trots out of the room.

She turns her attention towards me and starts talking again, calmer this time. The unicorn translates "He is one of my prized slaves. He does far more than the rest, and he does it well."

Dirge walks back into the room with a maid outfit and starts making a meal. I do everything in my power to refrain from laughing at him and his ridiculous outfit.

The unicorn continues talking "I ask you to stay with us for dinner tonight; As thanks for saving Dirge."

I look to Dirge to see what he thinks, but he is too busy or too afraid to look back at me.

So I turn back to the mistress and I say yes with a smile.

She seems to understand me since the unicorn didn't translate for her. She gestures for me to sit and then leaves the room with her translator.

I sit where she told me to and talk to Dirge. "Hey Dirge, why is there a unicorn down here?"

Dirge looks around cautiously, then answers hesitantly. "Well every so often, slavers get desperate when they run out of stock, so they go to the surface and kid nap a few of you normal ponies to sell, because your more exotic."

I feel a fire lighting up in my chest as he gives me this information. How could somepony own another pony? That's just... wrong. Its not fair.

I hear voices coming from outside the room as I think to myself. I cant make out what they're saying, though even if I could they're probably speaking that bat language.

Six bat ponies, and the unicorn translator come into the room and sit at the table. At the left end of the table, sits the mistress and who I assume is her husband; he looks far older than her though. To the right of the mistress and next to myself is the translator. To the right of me, sits an older looking bat pony, maybe he's a guest as well. To the left of the master, a young rich looking bat pony, a bat pony much larger than myself sits across from me, and a beautiful young mare to the left of him.

Their conversation jumps from bat to common Arcanian. From what I can pick up, the young bat is the son of the guest im sitting next to. The pretty bat is his older sister. And the big one sitting across from me is the mistress's and the master's son. I guess they're arranging a wedding between the big guy and the pretty one.

Oh wait, they're looking at me, what did I miss?

"uh, y-yes?" I stumble with my words.

The pink mare asks "What is your name escort?"

"Who me? Im the escort?" I stumble again.

The pink unicorn face-hoofs to my question.

"Well of course I am. My name is Retro, son of existence." Trying to impress them, I added my little 'existence' title.

The large one introduces himself "Good to meet you Retro, my name is Hopeless Abandon, king of the slavers, owner of the Buried Spectrum."

Okay, I might be some kind of demi-god or something, but come on, how am I supposed to compare to someone that owns an entire civilization?

I respond with "Well that's one hell of a feat." as Dirge brings a classy looking meal to the table.

The meal is a pig all classed up with a single apple in its mouth, and lettuce sitting around, and under it on its plate. On both sides of the pig there are various fruits and vegetables. Dirge serves us, pours our drinks, and sits by the table awaiting orders. They start to serve themselves, so I guess its alright to just take some. I put an odd looking fruit and some strips of the pigs meat on my plate when I remember what Dirge asked me.

"Excuse me Mistress" I politely interrupt her conversation with the pretty bat. "I was looking to purchase one of your stock." I felt dirty after calling Dirge stock, evil even.

"Oh? Well its fifty bolts per slave." She tells me happily.

"Actually ma'am, I was looking to buy Dirge." It got quiet for a few moments after that.

The mistress looks over to Dirge as if calculating his price, and then looks back to me and says "One hundred fifty bolts, no less."

I say "Ill accept that offer" as I lay the sack of bolts on the table. Hopeless Abandon finishes eating, wipes his mouth with a napkin, and starts to count my bolts. When he finishes, he hands me my bolt bag with fifty left over bolts, along with some papers.

"These papers are the rights to Dirge, he is your slave now. Thank you for your business escort." He says in his intimidating, deep voice. I look over to Dirge to tell him hes mine now, but when I do, I notice he had left the room and was coming back in with a book. He sets it down on the ground and starts... Is he singing? I didn't know he could sing, its actually quite nice, even if not in my language.

Every pony claps and congratulates Dirge on his new master. He looks confused by this, and I tell him that I officially bought him when he left the room.

"When do we leave?" He asks me.

"Now if you like Dirge, dinner is done so I dont think it would be rude to go. Pack your things, then Ill be ready." I tell him.

Abandon gives me a confused look and asks me "Which of the two of you is really a slave?"

I ask him to explain what he means.

"Well you just took an order from your slave, its a disgrace!" He says

"Whoa, whats with the sudden hostility Abandon?" I ask cautiously.

"I'm just trying to help you stay in command as a stallion." Is what he responds with.

I state firmly that I am in charge as a stallion, and he tells me to prove it....

About twenty minutes later i'm in an arena facing off with Hopeless Abandon.

"The rules are simple, escort. The first one to get the other in my branding machine, and brands them, wins." He says out loud, as if talking to the crowd, even though there wasn't one there.

I look around and think to myself. Well that's a way to lose a fight, get branded, why the hell not?

I notice that there are columns, a few of them look damaged. As well as a lot of seats surrounding the arena. The arena has a large steel machine in the center, that must be the branding machine, it looks like it has nearly twenty openings.

Then a bit quieter, he tells me that he built it himself, and he built it so that the slaves had to press a button to brand themselves, in order to exit the machine. That made that fire in my chest come back...

It made me angry that he would do something like that. That he not only owns other ponies, but that he forces him to agree to it.

Giving into my anger, I charged him, and it was a very short fight. There were three hits, he punched me, back hooved me, and then I hit the ground really hard...

I woke up to a burning pain on both sides of my flank, as the searing hot metal retracts. He branded me while I was unconscious, what a cheap ass.

I really thought that I could win that...

He says "You would make a lot of bolts for me as a slave. With an exotic body structure such as yours, I might even sell you as a whore. And if I take you as one, I'll even get Dirge back as a bonus."

Oh fuck no. I may not have fought back if my life was the only one on the line here. But Dirge just tasted freedom, he is NOT going to become a slave again!

I look around frantically, hoping to find something to grasp with my magic. To my luck, I notice that the column closest to us has a fairly weak looking point in it. I waste no time concentrating on loosening the support of the column. Abandon hadn't expected this, and looked confused that I had been trying to use magic.

"What are you doing?!" He demanded to know.

I had taken hold of a particularly weak part of the column. But even though It was weak, it was still stronger than I could handle so I put more concentration into it and focused more and more, until a second layer of magic overlapped the first layer on my horn, making it a deeper blue aura. And thanks to that, the part of the column I had hold of loosened greatly.

"I demand to know what your doing, or I WILL have you executed!" He shouts at me just before the column gives in and starts to fall towards him and I. I smile, and the look on my face urges him to look. He almost doesn't dodge the falling debris.

I on the other hand was stuck in braces, and was left to the mercy of Arcania.

When the column crashed down, it forced the sand around us into a dense cloud.

"Did you think that could save you?! Did you think that would hurt me?" He shouts out as he tries to find me in the now dying cloud.

The debris was able to knock me free but forced a piece of metal through my left side, and my dazzler told me that one of my ribs were broken.

But the moment I saw Abandon he asked me if that was all I had; It wasn't. I quickly brought up a piece of the debris that was beside him and threw it against the side of his face. He stumbled as I continued to barrage his face with it until he could barely stand.

I took a moment to compose myself before picking him up with my magic and strapping him in one of the still operating branders. It was a tight fit, but I got it to work none the less. I waited for his consciousness to catch up to him before taking action. I see him open his eyes completely and look around.

"Good morning Hopeless Abandon" is the only thing I say to him before I slam his face against the button that turns the brander on.

The amount of sound he makes is far less than I expected from that much pain. All he did was cringe and look into my eyes with hate, and I looked right back into his. After the machine had finished the parts that had branded him retracted, and the burnt X that it had left behind was satisfying to me. Thank Purity that the part that held him in place seemed to be malfunctioning, and didn't let him go.

Without me noticing, Dirge had made his way to us and nudged my shoulder. I looked at him and realized that I felt light headed from the gash, it was much larger than I previously thought, and it hurt far more as well.

"I've got your back buddy" is the last thing I say before collapsing and everything fades to black again...

Level up!
Level: 2
Exploit Gained: Magical Overdrive - You can now extend the power of your spells by putting more concentration in them each turn. Your spells can be up to 2x more effective, but you lose that much more in magical stamina.
15 skill points added

Pause

Save? ---Yes--- No
Load
Missions
Inventory
Logbook
Options