Chapters 1- New Creatures Are... Cuddly Looking
Author's Note: Okay, so to start off.effective strategy.
To add to that, they never really explain how one comes to develop the ability to somehow shoot metal balls out of ones eyesockets. So lets just curb that bit of logic and say 'they can' and move on. They're powered by 'cothica code' and act like reality altering magic. Lets just leave it at that, and have it just be one of those things no one really questions. Sun shines, birds fly, grass grows, Scout hurts people, and Chaotic moves are powered by cothica code.
There were seven Battledromes, each with their own Codemaster. That's how it always was. At least until recently. An eighth had appeared literally overnight, floating over the city of Chaotic and whipping the player base into a frenzy. Where did it come from? How did they get up to it? What kind of location scans would a player get from fighting a Codemaster of this new Battledrome?
It was slightly odd, seeing as the previous seven Codemasters had built up a system of sorts. Seven Codemasters, the first letter of each name that would then spell out 'Chaotic'. Or alternatively, 'Cothica'.
Both fairly weighty words in the worlds of Chaotic and Perim. Symbolic, in a way.
How would the new Codemaster, Discord fit in?
"What the heck is that?" Tom remarked, peering at the image on the screen. Peyton had been so insistent on having a battle with him, saying that he had 'hit the motherlode of weird new creature scans'. He wouldn't even tell Tom what new creatures he had somehow scanned.
"Oh, that?" Peyton scoffed, waving his hands in such a way so as to indicate that it wasn't 'that big of a whoop'. "Thats just one of my new scans."
"It's... colorful?"
"Heh, you betcha tommy boy! Now, we gonna battle, or just stand around gawking?"
At this, the mechanical voice of the Crellen Battledrome sounded out around them.
"Peytonic Master, seeing as you have challenged the player Major Tom, you have the first attack. Please choose your location. "
"Don't mind if I do," the stocky teen blustered, reaching out a finger to swipe at the location wheel he had already loaded with brand new location scans. Tom was gonna be so jealous when he saw all the new locations Peyton had scanned, he would be chomping at the bit to get a scan off of him. And since he had already stored up duplicates of each location, it wouldn't be that bad to give them away for a few substandard scans from the bottom of Toms deck...
"Your first location is... Golden Oaks Library." The outside of a thick girthed tree showed up on the screen before Tom, and he quickly suppressed a scoff. This was... undoubtedly new. It looked like a normal tree at first glance, but second glances revealed that windows were inset in the walls. And it looked like a large door was offset to the side of the picture, barely visible.
"Awesome! Knew putting two of her house would stack the deck. Woulda sucked if double P's place showed up for the first battle. She's all the way at the back of the pack! Not to say that she's weak or nothin'. She's got a buttload of kick ass randomness backing her up, whatcha!!!" Peyton struck a kungfu fighting pose out of nowhere, screeching like an eighties movie star.
"They all look... kinda similar?" Tom noticed, looking over Peytons lineup. They were all four legged, looking like miniature versions of his worlds mundane horses. Whereas they all had suspiciously similar body types -the creatures of Chaotic were always a mixed bag, you might scan an amazonian cat lady one day only to get a scan of a bog wraith with only tendrils of his lower torso left the next- they each had a different body and hair color. The two at the front had distinctly similar body types, seeing as they both had horns jutting out of their brows. Where one was purple, the other had a coat of seafoam green. The third creature that Peyton had set in his lineup made up the back of the triangle, a tangle of pink fuzz and a brilliant wide smile peering out of the scans stylized art.
"They may look like each other, but each one of them has a whole new slew of abilities that is unique to them. But don't let my words be your judge. Stick your face in, and experience it fully for yourself!" With this Peyton quit stalling and reached out to tap the purple furred chest of one of his favorite new creatures. She was no mepedian, but she kicked all kinds of tail with her freaky weird powers! "I attack Tangath Toborn... With Twilight Sparkle!"
It certainly... was a library.
"Books!" came from the slight form of the purple unicorn. She then threw one at the hulking half lion half man beast that was Tangath Toborn.
"Really?" Tom asked, mildly amused. "Is that all she can do? Throw books? Geez, might give Bodel a run for his money if she keeps up the stunning repertoire of attacks..." he joked, crossing Tangaths arms across his chest.
"Just wait, Tom my man," Peyton quipped, a purple haze forming around his creatures horn and subsequently, a myriad of books surrounding them. "You'd be amazed what these ponies can do."
"No way," Tom gasped, "how'd you do that? Without saying anything?" While strictly martial moves were almost ingrained in the creatures muscle memory, special moves that used cothica code to alter the world around them required the creature to call out the name of the attack.
"Ponies, specifically unicorns ," Peyton explained inbetween the nonstop pelting of various books as he jabbed a hoof laden limb toward the horn on his forehead, "Can use a blanket energy field called magic . They don't know anything about mugic -not even sure if they can use it-, but magic more than makes up for it! You'd be astonished how versatile this stuff is!"
"Useful..." Tom mused, hunkering down behind his raised arms. "For flinging books , apparently. A shame about that 'not being able to use mugic' thing. Fortissimo !" he called out, a wave of energy spreading around him to ward off the swarm of flying books. It swiftly retreated back into the hulking bipedal lions form, his billowing mane swaying in the turgid wind.
Fortissimo. A specialized temporary use mugic. When used, it caused the castor to grow rapidly in size and strength proportionately. It didn't last long, barely half a minute. But you'd be surprised at how much damage you could inflict in that small amount of time. As Tom was rapidly proving, his outstretched arms tearing holes in the comparatively weak structure of the library.
"Your library card has been revoked!" Tom jibed, throwing his hands above his head before thrusting them outwards, "Torrent of Flames!"
As the effects of Fortissimo slowly wound down, Tom hastily vacated the burning remains of the library to watch it slowly crumble down in the middle of the street.
"Strange," he growled to himself. If Peyton had been in there, the match would have ended by now. They'd be showing up back in the Crellin Drome, and Tom would be boasting over Peytons new scan being so weak...
"Duuuuude," came the unamused drawl from behind him. Tom quickly turned, the last effects of Fortissimo leaving him. Seeing what stood behind him, he stopped.
It looked to be about the same size, but the colors were different. Where the coat color used to be purple, was now replaced by a flame white glisten. The hair on Peytons head blazed with actual fire, the flames twisting in an angry pattern above him. "Shouldn'ta done that, bro. When Twilights stuff gets messed with, she goes through a rage shift! Major power boost. Good for me," the unicorns mouth upturned into a vicious smile. "Bad for you."
"I still can't believe you set yourself on fire."
"I didn't set nothin'. It's a rage shift, tommy boy. When Twilight gets super duper mad, she gets totally stronger! Don't mess with her books," Peyton snapped, the last trail of Twilights form dissipating around him. Peyton had won the first fight, retaliating from the loss of the library with frightening ferocity. The trail of magic he had used left Tom for a loop. Generic energy blasts, to one point where Peyton had forced a mustache to grow on Tangath. The fact that Peyton had then immediately used magic to tie the long trailing mustache to the side of a house -letting him get a slew of free hits in- had only served to humiliate him further.
Twilights diverse magic was truly confusing. It had taken him by surprise, but he wouldn't be taken in next time.
"No use dwelling on it," Tom admitted, his hand already snaking forward to touch his next creature. "Gotta go full bore. Can't keep second guessing myself. Maxxor attacks Twilight Sparkle!"
Tom shivered, revulsion echoing deep in his mind. Knowing what he had in the first match, Maxxor had made quick work of Twilight, simply collapsing the library in on itself from the outside. After that, she had gotten a power boost from the resulting 'rage shift', but Tom had kept the pressure on with an onslaught of Iron Balls. He hadn't let up, and eventually she had fallen. What came with the next battle though...
"Haaaaaaands?" Peyton drawled out, slowly clenching and unclenching his hands in front of him as Maxxors form dissolved from around Tom.
"Stop that ," Tom ground out with a full body shiver. "What the hells wrong with that girl? Don't you feel... wrong, doing all that?"
Tom may have won the match, but she had won the psychological war.
"All's fair in love and war," Peyton laughed, holding his belly in his mirth. "If you can't handle the Lyra-stor, then don't have haaaaaaaaaaands ," he joked once more. "Lyras a bit of an oddball, but she's a swell gal once she settles down. Welp, only got one left. You ready for a world of hurt, Tommy?"
"I'm gonna pound you into the ground, Peyton. I still have Maxxor, not to mention Intress to back him up."
"Ho ho ho," Peyton laughed, his exclamation obviously fake but laced with an underlying true mirth. "Trust me on this Tom, once you get a facefull of Double Ps' mojo, you're gonna be running for the hills!"
"Won't know till we fight, will we?" Tom shot back, hand reaching up to touch the picture of Maxxor as Peyton reached up for his last creature. "Maxxor attacks Pinkie Pie!"
"How," Tom ground out, the battle short and sour. "I didn't even see you! I was just walking around, looking for you and then I fell in a hole and died! What the heck?!"
"Wooooooooooo~" Peyton let out, slowly slumping down into a tangle of limbs on the floor as Pinkie Pies form slowly left him. "What... a... rush! You would not believe what the inside of her head is like! It's like a never ending storm of energy, coursin' through your gnoggin!"
"That doesn't explain anything," Tom groused, his hand already reaching out for his last creature. "How'd you even set up a pitfall in that short of time? Kiru City is nothing but stone, there's no way she could have dug it all out..."
"Never try to apply logic to Pinkie," Peyton retorted, his eyes still slightly unfocused as he reached out for Pinkie Pie once more. "Ol' P-dubs will take your logic, and make a cake with it."
"That doesn't make any sense ," Tom intoned, shaking his head in amusement. There was no point in getting hot under the collar, it was just a friendly game between friends after all.
"Exactamundo, my dear friend," Peyton exclaimed, hand flush with Pinkies image. "Now lets get this done with. Pinkie Pie attacks Intress!"
"Where the heck do you keep getting those pies?" Tom exclaimed, frantically lashing out with Intresses claws in an attempt to stem the flow of the troublesome foodstuff.
"You never know when somepony might have a pie emergency!" came the call of the elusive brightly coloured pony.
"When would anyone have a... wait, did you just say 'somepony'?" Tom questioned, a lull in the hail of fruit filled pastries filling him with worse fear than the unending pies did. What the heck would Peyton do next? He was already unpredictable as all get-out, add to the fact that this 'Pinkie Pie' seemed to be a bit of a prankster much in the same vein as Yokkis and it was a truly frightening combination.
"Well, when in Rome..." came from directly behind him. Tom whipped around, freezing in place when he saw what was waiting in store. The pink tinged pony was right behind him, allright. What she was doing however, was what was confusing. She was sitting back on her hindquarters, a brilliant smile plastered across her mug as she held out a colourful wrapped box. "Here, have a present!"
"Uhhh," Tom mumbled, unsure of how to respond. This proved to be a poor decision, as the lid of the wrapped present burst open with frightening speed and smashed a bright red boxing glove that felt like it was filled with iron into Intresses face. Tom did an impressive flip backward with the force of this strike, however he landed poorly.
"Ooooh, faceplant. Bummer," Peyton laughed.
Tom let out a manic growl, enhanced by Intresses innate predatory nature. "Yeah Tom, just stand there like a statue and wait while she slams you in the face with another prank. Good idea," Tom grumbled to himself. He quickly bared Intresses claws, swiping at Pinkie Pies form before she scampered away with a trail of giggles. "Maybe this'll slow you down. Frostblight!" he called out, gaping his mouth wide to allow a cone of frost to erupt from Intresses maw.
The ray of icy flames licked at the surrounding area, turning the floor into a slippery hazard.
"Ooh ice skating, good idea!" proclaimed the pink pony. Turning his head, Tom was struck dumb once more. Peyton had reached under a rock, and dragged out a quartet of hoof sized ice skates. Which he was now putting on with a flurry of whipping limbs. "Done!" Peyton crowed, the pink pony pushing off at an alarming speed. "C'mon Tom, you gotta try this!"
"What the..." Tom sputtered as he watched the pink blur race away, giggling like a loon. "We're in the middle of a fight!" he called after Peyton. "Whatever. Vine snare!" he called out, green vines erupting from Intresses claws to snag into the surrounding ground. He then carefully stepped back, foot by foot. Eventually the vines were as taught as they were going to get, and Tom let go of the ground with Intresses feet. He rocketed forward, daintily setting one of Intresses paws forward to steer as he swept onward towards the rapidly departing pink blur.
Once he got close enough, he thrust Intresses claws outwards and slammed them down upon the icy coated ground.
"Rock wave!" A torrent of white energy burst from Intresses paws, sinking into the ground before a giant rock burst from just in front of Peyton.
"Didja forget I can steeeeeeeer?" Peyton giggled, making a hairpin turn and sliding away from the upturned rock.
"No, but I think you may have forgotten to keep your skates in tip top condition. Rust Toxic!" a turgid brown cloud burst from Intresses mouth, and collided with the diminutive skates. A horrid sound like scraping two rocks together rang out, sending the pink tinged pony careening away until she slipped... and slammed face first into a rock. "Rock wave!" he called out, directing the attack on target while Peyton was immobilized.
"Awww, no more fun time?" Peyton let out woozily, rocking back and forth on his feet as Intresses form unraveled from around Toms body.
"Major Tom is the winner, " The Battledrome intoned, silently adding the win to toms online stats.
"Are you... ok?" Tom asked as Peyton rocked a little bit too far, and fell on his back.
"Super... duper!" Peyton called back, thrusting a thumbs up into the air from his prone position. "Just... need to wait for the room to stop spinning..."
"Man, you really threw me for a loop with that booby trapped present," Tom stated, carefully helping Peyton up as he regained his balance. "But why'd you just skip out in the middle of the fight? Was the chance for some ice skating really that exciting?" he joked, slugging his friend in the arm.
"Sorry, got caught up in the moment," Peyton said woozily, "It was like... well, I guess Pinkie was more interested in playing around than fighting. Got carried away by her mindset. Her minds like trying to conquer a bucking bronco, I swear! One long sugar rush topped off with a whole bucket of ice cream..."
"So, you gonna tell me where you got those new scans from, Peyton?" Tom asked once Peyton looked more stable.
"Heh," Peyton chuckled, shooting Tom a wry look. "Yer never gonna believe this. You know know the new drome drome what's just hanging out above the city?"
"No... you didn't-" Tom cut off, staring at Peytons beaming smile.
"Totally did, got yanked right out of a match in the betadrome and had a little impromptu battle with the Codemaster. Freaky looking guy by the name of 'Discord'. Has like, fifteen different limbs all, awoooohoooooaaaaa ," Peyton waved his hands out in front of himself, making what he probably thought was a 'spooky' sound. "Like a demented Frankenstein creation. Anyway! We only did a single battle, and I got totally thrashed. He used this weird three headed dog, and then we faced off in a cavern of some sort."
"Cavern?" Tom prompted.
"Yeah. Weird place. The longer the battle goes on, the more energy your creatures lose. Tartarus, keep that location in yer memory banks. If its the only location in the randomizer, apparently you can make certain creatures lose energy before the battle even starts! So anyway, I went up with one of my mipedian mainstays, all invisible and sneaky like... and the triple threat sniffed me out in a heartbeat! Battle was over before I even really got going."
"Wait... so you lost? How'd you get the new scans then?" Tom asked, confused. Usually, the Codemasters only conceded a new scan if the players showed their mettle and proved victorious.
"Discords totally chill, said I was interesting. Decided to just give me a location scan. Ponyville," Peyton intoned, flicking through his on scanner deck to show off the cards code.
"Sooo..."
"Yep, already went over and got a bunch of dupes. Here you go," he mumbled, pressing buttons until a copy of the location code traveled over to Toms scanner. "I figure you can break in either Sarah or Kaz once you go over and get a few scans. Give 'em a tease before the buffet, ya know?"
"I call dibs on Sarah, she's sure to have a conniption when she sees some of these scans..."
Twilight Sparkle was having... an interesting day.
She'd been having an interesting week, to be honest. A full week had passed since Discord had broken free of the Princesses binds. A full week since bursting out of stone! And they weren't a single hoof step closer to apprehending him than they had been the first day. Not entirely surprising, since he didn't even appear to be on the planet anymore.
Yesterday had been the first anypony had gotten any new news regarding the subject. And it was from an entirely unexpected source. A bipedal, almost hairless hominid by the name of 'Peyton'. He had held an odd device that seemingly took pictures -how , Twilight hadn't the foggiest- he called scans, and had vanished almost the first second she had turned her back on him.
According to other residents of Ponyville, he had first been abducted by Lyra -and a pox on her for having her 'human' mania proven right, she kept coming back and asking if her little 'Pey Pey' had come back yet.-, then rescued by Pinkie Pie, then there were reports of the new human being seen paraded around by the CMC. It was frankly embarrassing, to have so little information when it seemed the entire town had a unique story to tell about the new arrival.
And to cap it all off, it seemed the human had just... vanished. He tapped a button on the small rectangular device he had -according to Applebloom, who claimed he then went poof in a cloud of sparkles- and disappeared.
The worst part was, he had mentioned Discord . The name was familiar to him, but the way he referred to Discord was... worrying. He had called him 'Codemaster' Discord. For anypony to consider Discord their master was worrying enough, but the way he had said it... it was like he wasn't actually his master, but rather like it had been a title for Discord.
What the hay was he up to, and how were they supposed to stuff him back into his cozy stone prison? It was all rather galling.
"Haaaaay, Sparkles! You in here?" called out a familiar voice from the front door. Twilights' head whipped around like a piston, locking on the sight of a familiar biped standing in the doorway. And... another one .
"There's... two of you?"
Author's Note
Decided to write up a little palette cleanser in between finishing off the rest of the new chapters for my other stories. Still five more chapters to go before I can let loose the deluge as of this time, but whatever. This new story should help with the clog on my inspiration.
So anyway, once you get to the end, leave a comment, tell me what you did or didn't like!~
Oh yeah, be sure to leave a question for whatever character you'd like to respond, I'll be sure to make them give you a response!
Interlude 2 - Chaotic Lore Reworked
Author's Note
Mechanics chapter, no actual story.
Interlude 2 - Chaotic Lore Reworked
Okay, this is just to get some information out of the way. In the Tv show Chaotic, the way that players are introduced to the 'online' world of Chaotic is if they play the traditional card game with their scanners (somehow they connect online, they don't explain it so I'll just say it's really good wireless tech.) and after they do that enough they get sent a 'chaotic code' that if they access will send their memories to the actual world of Chaotic.
Now, again they gloss over this bit in the show. Can't waste the entire half hour debating quantum mechanics with a bunch of kids, even if you cover it up with colorful cartoons. So for the context of this story, here's how I'm explaining it. Notice that this information is if not known, available for every single chaotic player to find if they look for it on their scanners database.
Chaotic, and by proxy Perim are another dimension loosely attached to the Earth of the show. Players of Earth access the world Chaotic, and through that can access Perim. When a player sends their memories to Chaotic,-
Oh yeah, almost forgot that some people might not know exactly 'what' Chaotic is. It's basically little more than a city sized area that has seven different auditoriums in it. Theres shittons of foodcourts and screens everywhere so everyone can see active battles going on. Now, theres no way that a player base of 24 million (Magic the gathering says it has 12 million, and then you have to consider that this is like a Yugioh type world where the card game isn't just a phase, and has stuck around for a long time and the good cards are somehow actually rare, not sold on booster packs and the like. So increase the the player base by double just to be sure) divided down to the semi odd thousand that are allowed into Chaotic are all just going to sit and wait to be able to play in the dromes. Even if a substantial number of them are off exploring Perim, you still have roughly hundreds of players wandering around the foodcourts waiting impatiently for their chance to fight in one of the only seven available spaces. Oh yeah, Betadrome is a thing... it doesn't really give you rank, though.
So, to clean that up, any number of players can play in any of the dromes at any given time. The doors open, a certain number of people go in, the doors close. They are now in their own personal drome match, and the next time the doors open it will open to an empty room. This allows any number of players to simultaneously use any of the dromes.
Backtracking to previous concerns (I will be rambling back and forth, sorry if it's a bit hard to follow, but I rarely have complete control of where my thoughts go) Let me explain how (in this story, may not be considered canon but might as well be seeing as they never explain it) the players actually get to Chaotic.
A human on earth pushes a button on their scanner (which due to being kinda stupid, they could accidentally brush it and get sent off when they didn't want to, so now they have to go through the menu command, THEN press the button) and then their memories get sent to Chaotic. Their pure human self on earth stays where they are, going throughout their day as normal. They have to wait for their Chaotic self to send back their memories, and then the two memories intermesh to create a single person again on Earth. Then the Earth human sends off their memories again when they feel like it, to perpetuate the cycle.
I think the only reason players don't normally stay in Chaotic is because while they do have food and beverages, they don't provide bedding or the like. If you want to sleep, you either have to curl up in a corner (pretty sure they never dim the lights), go to Perim and bum it out in the wilds or someones house, or just port your memory back to Earth so you can take a snooze.
Okay, so when players port to Chaotic, they appear just as they did in real life. As in, if you had a bum leg out in the real world, when you ported to Chaotic you would still limp around.
In this lore, their bodies when in Chaotic... aren't truly physical. They are composed of cothica code, which basically makes up the base matter and energy of the players, Chaotic, and the 'special moves' of Perim creatures. This allows the players to substitute their bodies with creature bodies during drome matches, and allows them to transport between Chaotic and Perim. Suffice to say, the creatures of Perim don't know anything about this.
Okay, moving on. Player mentality.
Players in Chaotic can acquire new creature, battlegear, location and mugic cards by scanning their 'real life' comparisons in Perim. Now, the problem with this is that Perim is in the middle of a continent wide war . Four different tribes all vying for dominance, all trying to kill each other.
That would be the equivilant of walking around in germany during world war 1 and just wandering around, blatantly advertising that you weren't supposed to be there while asking for inane things like people signatures because 'it would get you points for this game you were playing'.
You would get your ass killed, and very frequently players get attacked in the show. Nothing ever comes of this because again, Tvshow for kids. Now, I know that adolescents tend to have the whole 'I'm immortal' thing going for them, but even THEN when faced with monstrous beings that CONTINUOUSLY try to kill you every time you go over to ask for a picture... Even the stupidest child would eventually give up and stay away. Much easier to just buy card packs in the real world.
So heres where I split off from the TV shows logic, and input some of my own to make it so that players would actually WANT to risk their lives for a couple scans.
One scan of each type (creature, battlegear, location, mugic) can be held in the scanner as a scan (as in, they go to Perim and scan something) until the player is forced to log it in a Chaotic terminal. That stays normal. To extend this further however, to incentivize players trying to get harder scans, players can copy a logged scan over to another players scanner. This only functions for the scan as long as the player remains in Perim (further incentivizing players against panic porting back to Chaotic), and does not reinitilize if they go back to Perim before coding in their new scans in a Chaotic terminal.
Players frequently drop their scanners in the show or get them stolen, feasibly to add tension to their given episode. THIS IS A PROBLEM. NO ONE WOULD GO TO PERIM IF THEY FIGURED OUT THEY COULD GET STUCK THERE.
So, time outs. If a player is seperated from their scanner for over 24 hours, they are automatically logged out and their memories returned to their earth world counterparts. This prevents assholes like Klaybourne from just stealing a players scanner and hidng it on Perim while they're stuck on Chaotic.
That being said, the creatures of Perim eventually learned that taking the humans scanners resulted in them disappearing anyway after a set amount of time. So they got the bright idea of pressing their scanner to the captive humans body every so often. Code was reworked past that point so that if you stayed in Perim for 71 hours and 59 minutes, you and your scanner would be ported back to Chaotic at the end of 72 hours.
Players can still 'die' in Perim and Chaotic. If you get your neck snapped, starve, or somehow find yourself leaping headfirst into a pool of lava, that version of you will be erased. A message will be sent to your earth bound self, allowing you to send another memory burst to Chaotic. This has led to the creatures of Perim mostly ignoring the humans for the most part. They just keep coming back anyway, so why bother with a method that wastes ammo? Just stab them, or throw them in a jail cell. Not much beyond that that you CAN do.
After recieving the message that you died in Perim, you are given a buffer period where you cannot log back in to Chaotic for a day. In the span of a month, the first time you die takes a day, the second time gives you a buffer time of three days, the third time a buffer period of a week, and the fourth block lasts you either till the end of the month, or the end of the next one (depending on how many days there are until the end of the month.) This is to prevent players from willy nilly abusing the system.
Equipment that players bring with them from Earth (basically just a copy) will disappear from Chaotic or Perim upon the player logging out. This somehow doesn't count for food or liquid that has already been consumed, but does count towards solids and liquids that have not yet been injested. That way, players can't just stuff a ton of food in a haversack and try to sell it to creatures from Perim.
Creatures, Battlegear, Mugic and locations scanned in Perim result in altered abilities of the cards. Where they would be a set rate here on Earth, over in Chaotic you could feasibly get a Maxxor card that higher stats than the real world equivilent. Whether due to them simply having been eating well, or if they had just finished a training regimen that increased their powers. This can also backfire, because if a player scans a creature after they just finished a fight they could be tired, or in extreme situations you could end up getting a creature scan that keeps its 'sick' status, making it a card that never gets any better and leaves a player at a disadvantage. Same goes for Battle gear and locations, if you scan a gun with no ammo then you'll have a gun with no ammo. As for locations, if you scan a place during an earthquake, that earthquake will still be happening at the start of your drome match. They never really showed mugic malfunctioning in the show, don't know if it can.
So uh... That's basically it for now. Basic mechanics to make the tv show world work in ours in such a way that people wouldn't be going 'Why the hell would I go over there? I could just spend 200$ on cards and be better off!" or something similar. Let me know what you think of what I have so far, give me suggestions and the like, and... ugh. Even though I told myself I would go back to my other stories and let this one fester for a time... I haven't touched any of my other stories, and instead spent a half hour writing on this story last night. You should be getting another (short) chapter sometime in the next few days.
2- First... And Second Impressions?
Where the human known to Twilight as 'Peyton' was a large specimen -Standing a full head over a pony as large as Big Macintosh, who for stars sakes had the moniker big right in his name- both in height and gut, the new one was somehow even taller . He (Twilight assumed it was a stallion, the humans seemed mammalian in appearance, and didn't seem to have pronounced mammaries.) was a good half hoof taller than Peyton, although his torso was decidedly slimmer than his... friends'? Brothers'?
For all Twilight knew, Peyton could be the new ones father. Both of their manes were roughly the same length, Peytons being a dusky brown while the newcomers was a jet black. That wasn't saying much though. Everypony knew coat and mane color wasn't genetic. Their ages was hard to judge, especially seeing as they were a different species . Peytons voice sounded like a grown stallions (that being, it didn't contain the vocal strains notable in a younger colt) but humans could very well sound like drowning fish once they got older.
Peytons attitude and behavior struck Twilight as... slightly odd. It was almost like dealing with a colt at times, his motives and actions energy fueled and erratic. Actually, it was rather like dealing with another Pinkie Pie. A rather subdued Pinkie Pie (wasn't that a scary thought), but one in the same vein nonetheless.
Twilight hadn't even so much as heard the new human speak yet, so she couldn't very well judge him against the other one. He was a lot thinner, so maybe his voice would reflect that? Twilight suppressed a giggle thinking about the new human suddenly starting to talk in a falsetto. He would say something like 'I'm a human! I'm taller than Peyton and that makes me younger... somehow .'
"Yo? Sparks?"
Twilights head shot back upwards at the sudden voice, teapot jerking in her magical grip. More than a couple splashes escaped the teapots spout, but were quickly cleaned up with another spell.
After she had noticed the presence of the two humans standing in her libraries entrance, she had of course invited them in to talk. When one wanted to ply another ponies mind for information, Twilight found that offering something to drink and a paltry snack went leagues towards that end goal. Hectare Home style tea (Twilight found that while most ponies would rather have coffee, tea tended to render a pony into a more agreeable state.) and Baltimare style biscuits. She had already baked them, might as well use them. Otherwise she'd have just ended up using some cookies from the jar. If Spike hadn't eaten them all already. He should know better, but he'd been caught a couple times already.
"Sorry, just... a lot on my mind," Twilight bashfully stated, filling the other humans cup after she cleaned up the minor spill. "It isn't every day a brand new species just... shows up..."
"That's-" the new human started, and Twilight excitably catalogued the fact that his voice for the most part sounded normal. Maybe he was roughly the same age as Peyton?
"No problemo, Sparksie," Peyton crowed, waving a hand dismissively. Twilight didn't see why Lyra had such fascination with the appendages, sure they looked dexterous, but they looked so... fragile. "We won't hold it against you."
"Seeing as I'm pretty sure Peytons introduced himself," the new one stated pointedly, gaining a sheepish grin from Peyton. "I might as well do the same. You did welcome us into your... house? Library house? Anyway, my name is Tom. Tom Majors. Pleasure to meet you," he ended, holding out his hand.
Why was he holding out his hand? Did he expect her to touch it? Would touching it be considered an insult? Was it like a hoofshake? But they weren't hooves, what if initiating a hoofshake resulted in those delicate digits getting damaged? Oh goodness, what if she accidentally harmed one of them? Then they'd leave and she'd never be able to learn anything more about them!
Twilight gave the human a wide grin, extending her hoof... to gingerly tap the top of his hand. Better safe than sorry. The human gave her a bemused grin, shifting his arm to reach up and grasp her hoof. He then gave it a short, single shake.
His hand was... surprisingly strong. It definitely had more grasping power than she would have thought looking at the spindly fingers.
"A pleasure to meet you, Tomtom Majors," Twilight stated, the hand grasp going on for slightly longer than felt comfortable.
"Just Tom," he said with a laugh, "I guess I said that twice..."
Suddenly Peyton shivered, his eyes darting from side to side.
"What is it Peyton?" Tomto-... Tom asked, his reaction quickly mirroring his partners. It was stunning to Twilight how quickly their demeaner had shifted from a warm, genial attitude to this suddenly tight, wary countenance. One moment they were simply these gawky, tall apes, then what she was faced with were undoubtably the faces of two battle hardened warriors. She had seen this shift once before, years ago when her brother wasn't yet a full fledged guard.
Her brother had been sitting in their dining room, numbly shoveling cereal into his tired gob. Weakly laughing at a joke Twilight had told him whilst trying to cheer him up, going through the motions. Then suddenly, at barely a single sound out of the ordinary his whole body had stiffened. With a blur of motion he had placed himself between Twilight and the open window. A bare moment and he had quickly erected a shield of glowing magic, which further protected himself and Twilight against the hidden attack.
A water balloon. Shining Armors drill sergeant had been making his rounds, putting the fear of death into all the recruits by springing surprise attacks during their supposedly down time. It was a harmless attack, but an attack nonetheless. And Twilight had seen her brother turn into a warrior from one second to the next.
"Preemptive cake!" Peyton finally called out, swiftly reaching over to poke a hand under a book Twilight had rested on her coffee table some time ago. What he did next... he pulled out a cake. And threw it out the nearby window.
"Counter pie!" Pinkies voice called out from someplace outside the open window, slightly muffled by distance. Moments later, Pinkies threat was carried out as a raspberry pie sailed in through the window Twilight should have simply closed the second she heard Pinkie called out. It was going to splatter everywhere, and then she'd have to clean it all up she just knew it!
Goodness this was embarrassing. First (second, but what was that to stop Twilight?) contact and Pinkie was showing her very worst side as a prankster. What if they took offense? What if they decided that Pinkie was actually trying to attack them and decided to declare war on behalf of wherever they were from? Gosh darn it Pinkie you could have a just waited until they knew us better...
"Counter counter pie!" Peyton called back out, whirling on one foot in a feat Twilight would have sworn was impossible without the counter balance of a tail. His hand reached out as he spun like a top, snatching the pie out of midair and flinging it right back out the window. A viscous splat sounded from outside, followed by a long period of silence.
Twilight once more took stock of her guests, carefully inspecting their forms. She was almost on a hair trigger herself, ready to at a moments notice grab both of them with her magic. If they were about to spring into a fury then she would do her best to placate them until they came back to their senses. Surprisingly, neither one of them held the posture of an angry individual.
Tomtom Maj- TOM had slumped into a relaxed pose, leaning back slightly to rest comfortably in his chair. He didn't look worried at the current events, and instead held a bemused grin at Peytons actions. Peyton himself had a satisfied grin stretched across his face, his body tense in anticipation.
"You sunk my battle ship!" Pinkie called in from outside, prompting a stifled laugh from Twilight.
"Aha! The enemy is routed!" Peyton crowed, whirling to grab yet another two cakes from under two other misplaced books. Twilight wasn't sure how she should feel about that, she could have sworn that she had just set down those books earlier that very day, how had the confections gotten there in the firs- Pinkie Pie. Of course, why was she even surprised? But... how did Peyton know they had been there? "We must be away, and press our advantage!"
With that he sprinted out of the room, a moment later the thud of the front door signifying his departure. Tom still remained seated, a hand massaging his brow.
"Sorry about that," he sighed, demurely taking a sip of tea. "He should wind down in a little bit. Peytons a bit... high energy, but he can act mature when he needs to."
Twilight giggled, "Don't worry about it. I'm just glad Pinkie didn't mess up the kitchen, Spike just cleaned up in here!"
Tom nodded along, "Is she always like that? I wouldn't want to assume, but from what I've seen so far..." He stopped, looking around, "By the way, who's Spike?"
A brief moment of clarity rushed across her mind, signaled by the flash of sheepishness that made its way across her face. "Spike? He's... well if you see the little dragon wandering around, that's him. You can't miss him! Unfortunately he's not here right now, he's over at Rarity's at the moment. I'll introduce you to him later if you want..." Twilight trailed off, unsure of the wisdom of imposing on the human. What if he had other plans and didn't feel like sticking around to get drilled with questions?
"A dragon? Awesome." Tom noted, skipping over Twilights worry.
Twilight got to her hooves, carefully checking out the disturbed books left in the humans wake. "Darn it Pinkie," mumbled, careful to keep her voice low. The humans ears didn't look particularly strong, so at this volume she should be able to rant without disturbing him. "What did I tell you about leaving perishable food lying around the library? Wait," she stopped, a thought occurring to her. "How did Peyton know it was there?"
"Probably because Pinkie knew it was there," Tom replied, making Twilight momentarily splay her ears in embarrassment. He had heard her, so she obviously had been speaking way too loud. Thank goodness she hadn't been saying anything really embarrassing, as is it was slightly mortifying.
Then something in what Tom said wormed its way into Twilights thoughts. Pinkie? Knew?
"But... how did Peyton know?" Twilight reiterated, her attention fully on Tom now.
He didn't look too concerned, slightly confused but overall nonplussed.
"Because Pinkie... wait, did Peyton not tell you about Chaotic?" Tom asked, a slight smile crossing his face.
Author's Note
Peyton will sink all the ships...
As promised, a short chapter. Posted super late, but I had to get it out of my head. Sorry about it ending on a bit of a cliffhanger, but I honestly didn't want to outline every last bit of exposition Tom was giving Twilight, and then having her mentally mull it over. That just felt like it would be repeating words and needlessly padding the chapter out.
Chaotic .
One little word, and it rang all kinds of warning bells in Twilights head. Discords modus operandi , and it turned out that the humans had based a huge part of their way of life around it.
All right, so that knee-jerk reaction wasn't wholly warranted. As Tomt- Tom explained, humans went about a majority of their lives in a generally... normal method. It was only through what Tom described as a game that their mundane lives were filled with wonder. Again, the trigger word, Chaotic . Most humans apparently couldn't even use magic.
Not that he described the world of 'Perrim' or 'Chaotic' as magical. Somehow Discord had deluded them into believing that there was a perfectly barebones nonmagical explanation for everything they had seen in Chaotic.
Making the chaotic appear as nothing more than balanced harmony, stars above he was infuriating!
Tom was adamant in his belief that Discord was a new element, however. He had never been heard of on his world (Twilight had to stifle an unbecoming squee of glee, the sight of her excitably bouncing about her library might have been visibly entertaining but it was so darned embarrassing when she didn't catch herself in time) and instead had apparently just 'popped out of nowhere'. It was certainly possible, after all. She couldn't just outright dismiss the possibility.
The far more likely scenario however was that wherever their world was in relation to Equestria, Discord had arrived there years, if not centuries ago. The disconnect with Equestria caused a time dilation effect, giving the twisted multibreed all the time to plot and plan in the world. This allowed him to set up the boar as he had seen fit, garnering this disjointed, disarrayed grouping of individuals that had no idea that they were dancing to his whims.
Twilight had researched the 'Prince of Chaos' (Other less reputable sources also marked him as 'Crown Clown of Chaos', which just seemed like an unneeded extension as far as Twilight was concerned.) to the greatest thing extent she could with the limited amount of text she could get her hooves on. To be honest there wasn't a lot of information in circulation, she had gotten most of what she had from the lips of the princesses.
Seems like most ponies didn't want to remember the oppressive days gone by where harmony was upset and pointless inanity reigned supreme.
Twilight didn't blame them.
Beyond that, Tom talked of how the 'game' they played allowed him and other humans that participated in it to temporarily take on the appearance and abilities. Regardless of how similar this sounded to the oft despised changelings, Tom assured her that the ability to mimic another creature was restricted to the game itself.
The fact that the 'game' itself was little more than a glorified gladiatorial style arena conflict chafed Twilight, but she couldn't really voice her protests once learning that damage never really persisted past the end of a 'match'. It was violence for violences' sake, but at least such violent tendencies were being expressed in such a way that wouldn't end in lasting or permanent bodily injury.
Twilight wasn't against sports persay, but the high contact sports that were touted and praised in her youth were nothing she was ever truly interested in. Interested in watching once she had achieved her first estrus cycle... But never participating in. Such things always struck her as slightly barbaric and backwards in the way they were carried out.
From what Tom described, taking on the role of whatever creature a player chose would give them a slight understanding of certain things that the original 'creature' knew of or had experienced. This explained how the human Peyton had known where Pinkie had hidden a cake within the library. It also came with a highly alarming note as Twilight reviewed that bit of information.
They could not only see the memories of those they turned into, but they could copy the muscle memory of their hosts.
Peyton had been 'scanning' ponies left and right. They didn't even realize, they had no idea! And it wasn't like Twilight could make a big deal about this like she wanted to, she knew pony mentality. The instant they saw her freaking out about this they would all swarm, screaming and stampeding in their panic. They already panicked over the silliest things, there was no reason to incite them over something they wouldn't truly understand.
That being said, she couldn't really accuse Tom or Peyton of doing something underhanded. They viewed their actions as just that of a foal collecting hoofball cards. It was a game to them, they saw nothing wrong with it.
Twilight sighed over this new influx of information, filing the relevant topics away for later conversation.
Author's Note
You know what? Screw it, I'll just release what I have so far. It might not even be a full 1k, but I honestly can't think of anything to add to Twilights internal monologue at the moment.
So... Uh... Hi. Been a while, huh?
Interlude/ CYOA Questionaire 1
Okay, now that there's at least 20 likes, there should be enough people to weigh in on their opinions on future content.
First and foremost, I do not see this story as becoming my primary focus in the immediate future. I have several other stories that each need their own love, especially with me neglecting them time and again.
So here's how I'm going to be tackling this story. Every so often between chapters, I'll be posting these interlude chapters to ask you all to vote or comment on certain things.
I'm not going to be making chapters above 5k, unless I feel that chapter NEEDS to be 5k or longer. Usually I'll be keeping the chapter length around 1k, so I can get out more chapters with more frequency. Please note that in addition to all my other stories, this will probably still limit chapters to about once a month.
I apologize for my shortcomings, but I still seek to better my writing and focus.
So the question for today is thus. Who is the next person to feature with Equestria scans, and where from?
Klaybourne/Krystella with changelings scans after having gotten Badlands Hive scans from fighting Discord in a drome match.
Some unknown Reader Made(As in, you guys tell me their name, ethnicity, so on so forth) character with Canterlot guard pony scans (No ones getting princess scans for a while) after getting a Canterlot Parade Grounds from Discord.
Sarah with Gryphon scans after having gotten Gryphonestone Entry District scans from fighting Discord.
Herculeon with Earth Pony scans after having gotten Appleloosa scans from fighting Discord.
Sam Shady, having gotten dropped in the middle of the Everfree forest then dying because I hated his character in the show- I MEAN, uh.... to show that unlike the animated series -where the chaotic players ARE continuously putting themselves at risk with seemingly no care for their own safety-, there isn't always going to be the mystical mcguffin '100% effort' leap that saves you in the nick of time... showing that certain bad ends... can happen...
So tell me what you think, ultimately I'm going to be paying a LOT of attention to the reader feedback and may end up directions that you all strongly suggest.
Author's Note
Again, just a interlude chapter. Not actually story content.
