Let the Game Begin

I was still trying to process what I had just read when there was a knock on my door before my mom walked in. She still looked pissed but nowhere near as volcanic as she had been downstairs. She motioned with her hoof for me to scootch over so she could hop up on the bed with me.

I don’t know why I didn’t realize this but I’m not much taller than mom, who stands at just over four and a half feet tall. Must be me being a kid. She hops up onto the bed with me and we sit there in a one-sided awkward silence for a short. I squirmed like a worm on a hook as she calmly watched me. She heaved a soft sigh and spoke.

“What am I going to do with you?” She asked I knew better than to be a smartass at the moment so I kept my trap shut. She dragged a hoof down her face and took a deep breath before she continued.

“Your friend, Melody, told us what happened and I can say for certain we, me especially, have quite a few questions for you.” She looked at me her and I could see all her emotions in her eyes like they were words in a book. Confusion, pride, anger, happiness, fear, they all were there and they were making me very nervous. What could I tell her? What should I tell her is more accurate.

He called upon Gamer Mind and he got his thoughts in order as best he could.

“I need to tell her something. I don’t want to lie to her, she’s my mom but how the hell do you say ‘Hey mom, I’m really a reincarnated being from another universe with weird game powers and abilities. It’s really cool I level up and everything!’ Yeah, that’d go over real well. Not!” I wasn’t paying attention and my long pause had pushed mom into action. I felt her hoof on my shoulder and it snapped me out of my desperate musings.

She looked me right in the eyes and I could see the warm acceptance in her kind, green orbs.

“You don’t have to be scared of being punished for what happened. Your father and I are more upset that you rushed into such a dangerous situation without much thought. Why didn’t you tell your father about this? He could’ve helped.” Mom was doing what any good and worried parent would do, comfort their child and try to understand what happened while getting them to talk. I sighed, I couldn’t lie to her, I just didn’t have it in me.

PING

You have been successfully persuaded

I almost laughed. Guess the game thought so too. I took a deep breath and made sure Gamer Mind was active and started talking.

“First off, sorry for worrying you both so much.” I apologized and I meant it. Mom smiled at me which was a good sign she accepted.

“And I didn’t tell dad because I didn’t think he’d believe me.” While not the case it was true.

PING

Lie successful

“IT WASN’T A LIE!” I screamed at the screen in my head. I mentally willed the screen away and to my surprise, it disappeared, need to confirm that later. I saw my mom was giving me an awkward smile.

“Why would you think that?” She asked, but there was no real oomph behind the question, she already knew the answer. I gave a small huff and crossed my arms.

“Like you or dad would believe me if I’d have said we had to save someone from an assassination without proof. You’d write it off as me having an overactive imagination.” Mom had the grace to look sheepish. She knew I was right.

“Sadly true, I keep forgetting how much of a big, smart colt you are.” She said patting my head and I playfully swatted the offending appendage away and stuck out my tongue at her making her giggle. The tension that had been in the air, in the beginning, had lessened quite a bit. It was still there but no longer all-encompassing. Mom’s smile gave way to a look of confused curiosity.

“I’m a bit curious as to how you were able to save Melody from her attacker. From what she told us you used a spell to get some sensitive information about him and used that as leverage to trick him.” She gave me a pointed look and gulped sightly under her intense gaze. Mom’s an Enchantress, best I can figure it’s kind of like a scientist/engineer here. She can get a bit mad scientist like about something she finds interesting and new.

One time, she locked herself away in her workroom for a week when she got a shipment of a new kind gemstone. All I and dad heard from that room was either loud bangs and curses or manic laughter and yells of victory. Needless to say, we were both very nervous around her when she was like this.

She looked me over for a few seconds before her horn ignited in magic and I felt a tingle across my skin. It happened multiple times and her aura around her horn increased in the intensity with each time. Maybe she was using more powerful spells? She must have not found what she was looking for as her horn dimmed and she rubbed her chin with a hoof as she thought out loud.

“Hmmm, you haven’t unlocked your magic fully yet, though it is there, so It wouldn’t be a normal spell if it’s one at all. More than likely it’ll be something biological but that doesn't make any sense, nothing like that has ever been recorded in history or even legend. I know some foals show signs of what their cutie mark could be but to this extent? It would be an insanely powerful showing.”

She paused for a second before a look of deep concern and fear appeared on her face and her brow furrowed deeply as she frowned.

“Could it be that? No that’s impossible, he’s never shown any signs of 'it'.” I had no idea what she was talking about but my interest was peaked. What was 'it' and how did it involve me?

Her voice got to low for me to hear and I strained my ears to pick up her mumblings without success. I took the pause her thoughts gave to go over what I had heard and could come up with only one conclusion. Mom was smart, like scary smart. She’d almost instantly deduced it wasn’t unicorn magic based and then started putting together theories as to what it could be. I now realize if I do decide to keep most of my Gamer ability secret… It’s going to be hell trying to keep my detective mom off the case.

“Use it on me.” I was yanked back to reality by mom’s request. I stared at her in shock at the oddity of this situation. It’d be like a fish asking a person to take them out of the water, it was just odd. I studied my mom's face but she was almost as stone-faced as dad's. But not completely enough to hide the small flash of fear behind her eyes.

And it wasn’t like the fear she had before when she was worried about me, no, this was the kind of fear one has when something deadly has its attention on them. That confused me to all hell. Why is mom afraid of me? I pondered this and I realized it wasn’t me she was scared of.

“She’s scared of my observe ability, probably what it would reveal.” I realize. What would she be hiding that she doesn’t want to be revealed? I see her horn flash a few times and she’s enveloped in a form-fitting cocoon of her magic. I cock my head in confusion. Mom gives me a small smile and explains.

“What most don’t realize about being an enchantress is that while it’s about making and setting enchantments it also involves studying, removing them and breaking them. I used three different spells for detecting different forms and levels of magic. If what you do involves magic, I’ll know.” She said confidently. I slowly nodded in understanding. Lowering my head and looking at her hooves so I could cover up my mumbled “Observe” and got something a little different than when I was at breakfast.

Level: 48
Name: Midnight Blaze
Occupation: Enchantress
Race: Unicorn
HP: 4600
MP: 40,000

If I hadn’t had Gamer Mind active my eyes would have bugged out of my skull. My mind was going a mile a minute.

“40,000 MP!! Who in the holy hell! How is she that powerful!” I looked up at mom and see her with her eyes closed in concentration.

“Again.” She says. She’s not looking so I do it again. Same info as before. Her horn flashes again and another shell overlaps the other spells. I find it amazing that her MP isn’t going down in the slightest. Either these spells aren’t that powerful, which I doubt very much, or mom’s MP regeneration is that high. I’m leaning more toward the later.

“One more time.” She asks and I comply, I want to see where this goes. No change in info again and mom blinks as her spells dissipate. She looks at me in silent confusion, she’s obviously thinking things through.

“You are using magic but it’s not the same as Unicorn magic.” She states obviously. Both my eyebrow shoot up in surprise.

“What? How can I use magic if I don’t even know how to use it in the first place?” I ask her. Mom just shakes her head.

“I don’t know, but I do know that what you’re doing is very similar to one of the highest tier scrying spells known, 'Absolute Reveal'. Nothing is hidden from it as the name implies, but only Alicorns and a group of five powerful unicorns working together can cast it, but you’re doing a spell that could be its twin with almost none. It just doesn’t make any sense.” She rubbed her temples with her hoof.

“You get information about the target right?” She asked a tinge of nervousness tinted her voice. I nodded.

“It varies between living things versus inanimate objects. I can use it on a piece of art and tell if it’s fake or not, how old it is who made it as so on. But if I met the artist themselves it’d be a bit of a toss-up and sometimes I don’t get everything.” I explained a bit. Mom was listening closely to every word. She hummed in thought before she asked the obvious question.

“What did you learn about me?” She asked. I kept my lips from twitching at the childlike look of curiosity that mom excluded. I decided to play a small prank. My face turned grave I gulped hard,

“Well… I learned… that…” Mom started leaning closer and closer, she was actually holding her breath. It was to easy.

“I learned how foals are made,” I said with complete childlike innocence and excitement. Mom face planted into my sheets hard before shooting up ramrod straight with a bright red, shocked face. Her pupils had shrunk to pinpricks and her mouth opened and closed like a fish. I went further, this was too good to a moment to pass up.

“Mommy, what does it mean when you said “Oh Sweet Celestia! You're so big!” to daddy?” cocking my head to the side in fake curiosity. I was so lucky I had Gamer Mind active or else I’d be nothing but a wheezing, crying, gut aching pile of laughter on the floor right now. The look of awe/horror/confusion plastered on mom's face was priceless. I decided to let her know I wasn’t serious and let up on Gamer Mind and completely lost it.

I could barely breathe I was laughing so hard, making weird squeaking noises one would expect out of a mouse or rat rather than a child. Through the tears, I saw the look of shock, confusion than comprehension flash over her face. Her face was cherry red as she glared at me.

“You know I’m telling your father about this.” She said and my laughter stopped cold, just like someone had just dumped a bucket of ice water on a fire. I was going to be in deep trouble for that prank. Totally worth it though. I gave her my best apologetic smile and rubbed the back of my head in nervousness.

“You left yourself wide open for that, you can’t expect to toss me a freebie like that and not strike while the iron is hot.” I retorted getting an annoyed huff and a pout in return.

“Oh, woe is me! My own son strikes at my heart. Where did I go wrong in raising you?” mom said pulling a drama faint, hoof to the forehead and all. I just snort in amusement.

“Blame yourself, mom, you’re the one who taught me all the in and outs of a good prank, can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen.” I made a subtle jab at her lack of cooking skills. Mom’s sweet smile she sent my way made me very, VERY, nervous.

“Heat huh? I’ll show you heat.” Her horn ignited and I instantly felt as if there were dozens of feathers rubbing and tickling every ticklish spot I had at once. Low blow mom!

“Okay! Okay! HAHAHA! I give I giiiiiiiiIIIIIVE! HAHAHA!” After what felt like an eternity, mom finally stopped the torture. After I got my breathing and giggles under control mom’s smug smile lessens slightly.

“So, what did you really see?” I sighed, guess she hadn’t forgotten, damn it.

“Not as much as I can see from others. When I observe others I learn things about them. It changes from one pony to the next and the information varies.” I said getting mom to nod.

“From you… All I can get is that you’re powerful mom, way more than a regular Unicorn normally is, like crazy powerful. You did all those spells earlier and it was barely a drop in the ocean.” I spread my arms wide as an example to show her the massive amount of magic she had. The look on mom's face was a mix of pride, happiness and, much to my surprise and interest, guilt. Why the hell was she guilty about having so much magic? It didn’t make sense to me. I need to cheer her up, she’s my mom after all.

“It’s so AWESOME! I have the best mom and dad in the world! You guys are like super parents, dad is super strong and mom had super magic!” I was being completely honest. Mom’s mana pool was huge as was her control. I could only hope I’d be as powerful as her someday.

PING

Quest!

“Learn from and surpass the Master”

Objectives:

Learn the art of Enchantments from your mom

Make at least three grade A enchantments

?

?

Rewards:

2500 XP

Enchantment skill

Access to high grade gems

Accept?

Y/N

I clicked yes and thought about how I’d ask my mom to teach me. My thoughts were interrupted by a loud bang and a yell from downstairs.

“WHERE IS SHE!? WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER!?”