Level Up!

Chapters

Ch 2: The Devil in the Details (Edited Version)
Ch 3: I'm not falling for you, I'm falling with you
Ch 4: These aren't my tears... I'm holding them for a friend
Ch 5: Is it really loss if it was never yours in the first place?
Ch 6: Was that the knowledge or the tinnitus? I can’t tell...
Ch 7: When Lightning Strikes Thrice
Ch 8: Out of the Woods
Ch 9: And Into The War
Ch 10: In Which to Take a Life
Ch 11: Fear is the Mind Killer
Chapter 12: But A Speech Works Just As Well
Chapter 13: The Fires Of War Part 1
Chapter 14: The Fires Of War Part 2
Chapter 15: More and More Questions
Chapter 16: Issues In Continuity
Chapter 17: Second Contact
Chapter 18: Best Laid Plans
Chapter 20: The Other End of the Spectrum
Chapter 21: The Journey of A Thousand Miles... (Arc 2: The Wanderers Arc)
Chapter 22: …Begins With A Single Step
Chapter 23: So That's What Horseshoes Are For!
Chapter 24: Final Stretch
Chapter 25: New Horizons... No Not The Game!
Chapter 26: Influence
Chapter 27: Individual Strengths
Chapter 28: First Contact
Chapter 29: The Price of Freedom
Chapter 30: Revolution Part 1
Chapter 30: Revolution Part 2
Chapter 30: Revolution Part 3
Chapter 31: Interlude
Chapter 33: Recovery
Chapter 34: Bitter Medicine
Chapter 35: Professions
Chapter 36: Moving On
Chapter 38:The End of One Journey (Part 2)
Chapter 39: Expect Only The Unexpected
Chapter 40: Restraint
Chapter 41: Lucky's First Steps
Chapter 42: Everything All At Once
Chapter 43: Discussion
Ch 44: Recovery and Crafting
Ch 45: Time Passing Pt.1
Ch 46: Time Passing Pt. 2
Ch 47: Different Paths
Ch 48: Crossroads Pt. 1
Ch 49: Crossroads Pt. 2
Ch 50:The Solar Dragoon and The Lunar Scion
Ch 51: Direction
Ch 52: Trial by Combat
Ch 53: Darwinism
Chapter 37: The End of One Journey (Part 1)
[Status Screen]
Ch 1: Growing Pains (Edited Version)
Chapter 19: Advent (The Wandering Arc)
The First Breakthrough (Mini Chap)
Chapter 30: Revolution Part 4

Ch 2: The Devil in the Details (Edited Version)

Chapter 2: The devil in the details

“Anyone can make lights, anyone can send a message through a wire, I want to bend reality to my will” - Caleb Widowgast

Now, when most people wake up from being knocked out it's usually by the voices of their loved ones, or in extreme cases a doctor or nurse, but apparently I, Marcus, don’t get that luxury, as the first thing my burgeoning consciousness heard was somebody near me screaming a string of expletives that actually impressed me in their creativity before I heard and felt a large impact that actually threw my body away from where it was,sending me rolling what felt like a few feet through the grass and slamming me awake. A moment of blind panic struck me from having the wind knocked out of me, making me try to scramble to my feet, only to do a vague approximation of a worm when my lower torso wouldn’t support my weight. The second fall calmed my panic enough for me to realize I couldn’t feel my hands or feet. I quickly swung them up to my eyes only to whack my dark blue hooves into my new muzzle, renewing my headache.

I tried to shake some of the headache from my system as I gazed down at my wrong limbs. I felt the need to throw up as I stared down at familiar cerulean hooves and a few strands of silver and black mane that covered my vision. This… this couldn’t be happening, I slowly lifted one of the unwieldy hooves and tried to feel around my forehead. I quickly felt a dull thump on my hoof and a brief spike of pain added to my headache as I knocked my hoof into my new horn. My mind quickly flashed back to the moment my computer swallowed me as all the details came together… I had become the avatar I just created.

My panic started to rise once again, but I took a moment to take a look around me and finally tuned in to the absolute chaos of sounds around me as countless other ponies were doing the same as me; many others were inspecting themselves, though some were handling it differently than others. Taking a glance over to where the earlier impact was. I could only see a crater with a charred brown unicorn corpse collapsed in the center. The sound of more screaming nearby jerked me from my stare and pulled my attention to another erratic looking pegasus who was screaming curses and swears at a sobbing earth pony only to suddenly be struck by lightning and fall down charred and crispy, sending the sobbing earth pony further into hysterics. It was quickly dawning on me, and maybe a few others, that this large group of what I could only assume were other players was a powder keg that had already been lit. Rolling onto my new belly I tried to stand again, only for my new extremities to turn to jelly and send me to the ground once more. Sighing and pushing aside my panic for a moment, I started crawling across the large, grassy clearing to the closest forest edge while pushing down my rising panic and fear as far as I could. I resolved to fall apart in a place where I'm not liable to spontaneously combust. The feeling of grass caressing my stomach and chest changed into prickly underbrush once I cleared the forest line and entered the woods proper. After stabilizing myself against a tree I was able to get to my feet, or rather hooves, and slowly, unsteadily walked away from the disaster behind me.

Somewhere behind me I heard a heart-rending screech of fear before another tremor almost sent me back to the ground, I felt a few sticky drops of -Don’t think about it! - land on my back. My mind was so preoccupied with not turning around that I didn’t even realize I had started running. Any rational thought was consumed by my previously suppressed panic and hysteria and all I could focus on was getting away, albeit clumsily, as at the time I felt like I had the motor control of a child. The only thing that stopped me was a small cliff which I didn’t see until it was too late, which, in turn, meant that I ran straight off the edge, sending me tumbling down the side, picking up a few bruises and twigs in my hair, or rather mane, before finally rolling to a stop in a circle of bushes, out of breath.

Now that I got most of that panicked energy out of me, I could feel myself calming down and taking stock of my situation rationally. As much as I wanted to yell and scream and curse whoever trapped us here, I needed to focus on my survival. I thought back to how I fell into my computer of all things and assumed we were in the game instead of actual equestria so there must have been a way to get into the interface or menu. Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath, I steadied my heart beat and was surprised to see a light blue blinking plus icon in the top right corner of my darkened vision, I opened my eyes and turned my head away from the forest floor and it was still there, blinking softly in the corner of my vision and waiting for me to ‘select’ it; or at least, that’s what I assumed. As I was staring at it wondering how to access it, it suddenly popped open in front of me like a slightly transparent blue hologram and after a few moments of looking at what I can only assume is my stats screen I blanched; hard.

[Name: Markus/Arcane Hope Lv:1]

[Title: Spoilers~]

[Health: A Bit Bruised]

[Mana: Full]

[Stamina: Almost Empty]

[SP Available: 3]

Physical Skills→

Magical Skills→

Social Skills→

My menu looked like someone took a regular rpg screen and gutted it of most of its details. where there would normally be numerical stats that would show my attributes like my strength or intelligence there were only vague descriptions of their status. At least my mana and stamina bars appeared in the top left of my vision after I opened my menu; colored blue and yellow respectively, of course. shrugging off my irritation I brought my attention back to my menu, or more specifically, the three ‘SP’ it said I had, which I assumed I could spend for skills. As much as I wanted to go right into magic, I needed to see if there was a physical skill for walking and running. I wouldn't last long if I had to outrun a manticore or something with these jelly legs.

Physical Skills:

[Tier 1: Coordination→ Power Strike→ Embolden]

While I was expecting a skill tree, what I got instead was multiple trees of different tiers going all the way down to tier twenty; and while all of them were greyed out except the first I was still impressed at the sheer amount of skills available. focusing back on the first skill, Coordination, I brought up a small description of what the skill did.

Coordination: Grants the bearer increased stamina and makes their movements much more nimble and surehoofed

Skill Level 0: 7.86%

Cost: 1 SP

A quick mental tap cemented my choice and left me to move on to the magic tab; the ability to shoot lasers from my head would really help with the whole surviving thing. Leaving the Physical Skills tab and going to the magic tab left me a bit stunned; when it comes to sheer number of skills, comparing the physical tab to the magic tab was like comparing an ant to an elephant. Just like the physical skills tab, the magical skills were divided into tiers according to their complexity and power, but unlike the physical tab there were multiple pages dividing the different types of magic and techniques up.Of course, all but one were greyed out and that one was obviously the beginner page with all the introduction skill trees. so, after a brief read over I took my second skill.

Fledgling Mana Control: Gives the bearer basic control over their magic and bestows the lowest forms of magic Levitation and Beam Attack

Further levels in this skills will improve mana efficiency and potency

Skill Level 0: 0.00%

Cost: 1 SP

After taking the Fledgling Mana Control skill, most of the greyed out pages opened up and one of said pages caught my interest immediately.; a few pages in was a skill tree under the name Summoning. After a brief look-over, it looked like something that would be perfect for me. I’m no pushover in a fight but at that moment I wasn’t exactly the most threatening creature, so the idea of having the ability to summon a multitude of magical creatures that would have my back was a welcome one.

[Fledgling Wisp Summon: Summons the weakest of all evoked creatures, the wisp.]

[This wisp will independently attack any targeted creature with small burst of magic and will continue to do so until destroyed or dispelled]

Higher levels allow for more complex orders

Mana Draw: Medium

Mana draw and strength will improve with experience and supplementary skills

Skill Level 0: 0.00%

Cost: 1 SP

The moment I closed the menu after buying those three skills made me quickly realize the folly of buying multiple different subjects that I have no experience in. I was immediately sent to the ground as what felt like the mother of all migraines ripped through my cerebral cortex and continued to burn and throb angrily as if my skull was too small for my brain. brand new subjects were injected into my mind and, strangely,I could also physically feel my mana pool and stamina increasing; which was less painful and more skin crawlingly odd as I was pretty sure my mana pool didn’t really have a physical location in my body.

I wasn’t sure how long I was laying there for but by the time the throbbing pain had dissipated I could feel a notable difference in my new body, I felt much more comfortable in my skin and, slowly, with the coordination of someone who lived as a pony their whole lives I smoothly stood up without any difficulties; well, no difficulties besides the few bruises that twinged when I moved, but I ignored those in favor of thinking about the new knowledge that had been implanted into me. It was slow going, but after a few moments of struggling I was able to ignite my horn. From what I could see it had a silver aura. I had assumed that levitation would be more like having a telekinetic hand moving things around for me, but in actuality it was more like imposing my will to move upon something; which was much more subtle yet very focus intensive apparently. Slowly levitating a stick from the ground wasn’t very easy, but it was possible; and after it was enveloped in my aura the blue mana bar in the corner of my vision started to slowly go down.when I dropped the stick back to the forest floor the blue bar started to steadily fill back up.

“Get Back!” The sound of a struggle in the distance startled me out of my inquisitive reviere. for a moment I was about to get up and run in the opposite direction, but a moment of logical clarity stopped me. I wouldn’t last long in this forest all alone and in this sort of situation someone having your back could mean life or death. Taking a deep breath, I pushed down my fight or flight instinct and ran in the direction of the fight. as I crashed through the underbrush the sounds of exertion and the crushing of wood became louder and louder, making me think that there may have been more than one pony there. Bursting through a wall of bushes I was greeted with the sight of two red-coated, violet-maned earth ponies fending off four timber wolves and, apparently, not doing very well. The noticeably taller of the two ponies had a few bleeding claw marks on his sides, and was wielding a tree branch in one hoof, fending off the wolves in front of him. The other, smaller pony was hiding behind her larger counterpart while fearfully trying to stay away from any of the wolves that tried to circle around. The fragile stalemate finally collapsed when one of the wolves launched itself at the larger pony and sent them to the ground. the wolf was snapping at the larger pony’s face, and the only thing stopping it was the already splintering tree branch.

“Get down!” My shout caught the attention of every creature in the small clearing giving me ample time to fire three quick blasts of silver mana at the wolves. Compared to the levitation spell, the mana beam spell was noticeably more unrefined in its nature which meant it was much easier to cast in rapid succession. The first, much to my surprise, nailed the wolf on top of the pony in the face, knocking it off. the next shot actually blasted off the tail of another wolf that was nearby, and the last soared past it’s target and into the woods. Seeing that backup had arrived, the previously pinned pony wasted no time and quickly swung the tree branch around to brain the stunned wolf, shattering its wooden visage and rendering it still before rolling over and standing back up. The sudden supernatural level of strength shown by the previously trapped player made me pause for a second. The fact that earth ponies have super strength seemed like an important detail so I kept it in mind. I took a few more steps into the clearing and took another shot at the tailless wolf while sparing a glance at my mana bar. It was less than half full after my latest attack. The beam struck true once again, nailing the damaged wolf right in the side and making kindling out of it. Taking a glance at the two ponies again I saw that the taller one had taken care of another wolf by breaking his club over it’s head and was facing off against the last wolf with their friend behind them. Taking a few steps to my right so I could get a clear shot, I used up the rest of my mana in two mana beams. The first shot landed on its flank, spreading cracks all over its side, and the second struck its left paw, shattering it and sending it to the ground, which left it open for a quick stomp to the head from the larger pony, rendering it into firewood. The clearing was silent for a moment. Only the sound of ragged breathing filled the air and, now that the adrenaline was leaving, my head was pounding something fierce, which I guessed was a side effect of emptying my mana pool. The two siblings took a few steps away from the wooden corpses as we all waited with baited breath to see if they would reform. After about a minute of tension it was clear that they were going to stay dead which was new. I remember on the show that Timberwolves tend to rebuild themselves pretty quickly so this was a welcome change.

Level up! LV.2

+2 SP

“Thank goodness that’s over.'

' My relieved words seemed to make the two jump as both of them were staring into space, looking at what I assumed was their respective menus. I took a few more steps in their direction and, now that I got closer, saw that the two looked almost identical besides their sizes, meaning they might be twins; albeit fraternal since one was male and the other was female. The mare shied away a bit when I approached, but the stallion seemed to take a step forward and for a moment he tried to puff himself up a bit in an effort to make himself bigger. While I had made my character slightly shorter than most stallions in mlp this guy seemed to have made himself almost mare sized in both height and build. My body was a bit more broad chested while his was made smaller to match his sister’s body type.

“Who are you?” He shouted. Taken aback at his sudden hostility, I rolled my eyes and took a step back to help make him and his sister feel more at ease.

“There’s no need to be alarmed. I'm a player just like you, my pony name is... ugh… Arcane Hope; but my real name is Marcus. Who are you two?” I ended that slightly awkward introduction with what I hoped wasn’t a weird smile, and waited for either of them to respond. Having a name like Arcane Hope was a bit… annoying, it was so cliche that it almost hurt. Magical unicorn in an unknown land with a name like Arcane Hope sounds a bit too Gary Stu for my liking. Surprisingly the first to respond wasn’t the brother, but the sister who slowly came from behind him with a small, tentative smile on her muzzle.

“U-um my real name is M-morgana and my other name, I mean my pony name, is Rose Point.” It wasn’t long before her initial shyness seemed to melt away and a bit more emotion seeped into her voice, though a bit of her timidness leaked back into her voice when speaking about her brother. “This is my twin brother Arthur who was named Sanguin Point… we know our names are the same as the fairytale but they really are our names” Sanguin Point, or Arthur, rather, seemed to not care about introductions and was more focused on looking at the few scratches he had gotten, though they had already stopped bleeding.

“Morgana, Heal me” The sudden non sequitur caught me off guard, but apparently it made sense to Morgana, who fumbled about for a few moments before trotting up to her brother’s injured side and sitting down to lay her two front hooves on him; which didn’t seem very sanitary to me. I was about to say so when Morgana’s hooves started to give off a soft glow that slowly spread over Arthur’s coat. After a moment his injuries started to heal before my very eyes. I genuinely didn’t think earth ponies had the ability to heal that way, so I was pretty amazed at the potency of it even though it was probably at a low level.

“Alright, are you planning on traveling with us?” Aurthur said abruptly. “You’ll have to pull your own weight; I can’t be expected to carry two bitches through a fight.” I wasn’t looking at Arthur’s expression when he spoke, but I could feel the vitriol in his voice and was caught completely off guard by it. Then I realized what he really said and I could feel a deep pit open up in my stomach as I remembered what happened to the other players that had cursed out loud. For a moment I could almost smell the charred corpse of that unicorn player. Not even bothering to answer, I started to search our surroundings watching for whatever was about to happen while keeping an eye on my mana bar as it steadily filled back up. I had enough mana for one shot, so I would have to make it count. I didn’t have to wait long for anything to happen as a bush across the clearing rustled and out popped another timber wolf, ready to try and maul us to death. It soon found that rather difficult, though, since I was ready for it my shot flew right down its throat, busting it open and leaving it in a sorry state which was quickly reduced to splinters by Arthur with a quick followup attack.

“Ok! First rule if we're going to travel together, No Bad Language!” I said sharply. Instead of showing remorse at his actions Arthur only rolled his eyes at me like I was the one doing something stupid. I had to stop myself and take a deep breath before refocusing on what was important, though I could tell now from how he acted that he was going to be a problem in the future.

“We need to get out of this forest, or at least this area it's probably swarming with more wolves” Morgana quickly nodded in agreement with her brother and started after him as he turned to leave the clearing, not even checking if I was following. I let out a deep sigh and wondered if this was what every interaction with Arthur would be like. I didn;t let the two get too far ahead and joined them in walking in an unknown direction, I would usually be able to tell what direction we were going in by using the sun, but irritatingly enough the equestrian sun wasn’t moving, and my guess was that it wouldn’t unless the princess or whoever tells it to; It had been stuck at high noon for the past few minutes. that could, however, change at any moment. For the first few minutes of walking I was in front, keeping a steady pace,until Arthur decided he wanted to be the one to walk in front and shouldered past me. Seriously, what is this guy’s problem? I thought. It didn’t help that he was so obviously dismissive of his own sister who, I began to realise, might have been forced to choose only healing skills as a sort of pocket healer for her brother, judging by how shaky her steps were. Letting out another irritated sigh I caught Morgana’s eye who just gave me an apologetic look before continuing on, leaving me in the back of our little formation.

I began to realize that this might become a bigger problem than I thought. If Arthur kept acting the way he had been then he might become more aggressive towards us over time; and when it came to a straight up fight, and I did mean when, I wouldn’t be able to win in a head to head fight. So, I figured I was going to need a skill to immobilize or stun him somehow. With a twitch of my mental focus my menu opened up before me, showing me the same information as before, except for the fact that I now had two SP points I could spend. Flicking my eyes up to make sure I wasn’t falling behind, I started to flick through the different spell type pages. many of them were very interesting, ranging from the obvious healing magic to much more obscure ones, such as one tree called lutum kinesis which, from what I was seeing, was some kind of dirt magic, not plant magic like I had expected but dealing more in controlling the types of nutrients and minerals in soil, which was oddly… specific.

There were other types of magic that required experience in other fields of magic before you could start it, and, sadly, lightning magic was part of that group. It required more experience in neutral magic and fire magic, so that was out when it comes to options for stunning Arthur. from what I was seeing most of the combination magics required a high skill in neutral magic, which was the beginner tree I had started on. so, knowing it would come in handy later I put one of my points into Fledgling Mana Control.

Fledgling → Adept Mana Control: Gives the bearer basic control over their magic and bestows the lowest forms of magic Levitation and Beam Attack

Further levels in this skill will improve mana efficiency and potency

Skill Level Up! 1→ 5

Closing out of the level up screen brought me the same uncomfortable feeling of having my mana pool expanded, though I was happy to admit that it wasn’t as painful as last time. It was more like stretching a sore muscle except… metaphysical, for lack of a better word. Taking another glance at the twins showed me that Arthur didn’t even glance back at me, but his sister, on the other hand, was glancing at me out of the corner of her eye, so I flashed her a quick smile and caught up to her. That seemed to reassure her for the moment.

The walk continued in silence for a while until a subtle sound seemed to pull away from the forest’s natural background noise. all of us seemed to notice this sound around the same time and after listening a bit closer it was obvious what it was… a river; and where there's water, there’s civilization. It took a moment to pinpoint which direction the sound was coming from, pony ears and all, but after we changed our course accordingly it wasn’t long until the aquamarine river became visible and for the first time in what felt like an hour of walking we saw the sun. for a moment I felt relief but then I saw that the sun was slowly starting to move across the sky, which changed the brief fleeting moment of relief into straight dread.

“We need to start a fire and fast” I said. The twins followed my gaze upwards and saw the reason behind my urgency, but both reacted differently. Morgana’s eyes widened when she realized what could happen if we didn’t have a proper light source and turned around to start gathering sticks. Meanwhile Arthur just let out an annoyed sigh before taking a few steps towards the river's edge and sitting down onto his haunches looking down into the water.

“Aren’t you going to help?” I asked incredulously. Arthur only glanced back at me before returning his attention to the water, irritating me further. a few moments before he responded.

“I’m hungry, so I'm looking for fish, duh.” I was honestly struck dumb by what he said. Is he aware of what he is now? I thought. There is no way he is actually this ignorant, there are some things I can chalk up to being in a tense situation right now, but this… I am almost in awe of his stupidity and this isn’t even me being biased from his prior behavior. This is a milestone in itself. I slowly trotted to his side and sat down next to him. then, in a calm and collected voice, said;

“Can you see yourself in the water? You are a pony, You. Do. Not. Eat. Meat!” I’ll admit I got a bit frustrated with him at the end there, but it seemed I got my point across because when whipped his head towards me to respond, he stopped and seemed to really think about what I said before growling angrily and slapping the water in front of him before getting up and storming away to help his sister, who had been watching our little ‘talk’ while balancing a few sticks on her back and flank. Now that I had time to look, I realized that all of us were blank flanks which, while expected, was a slight disappointment because I had wanted the bullsh- I mean the plot armor boost that comes with them.

Between the three of us we were able to quickly gather enough sticks, dry grass, and rocks to get a good fire going, but now came the hard part. We sat around the fire pit we had prepared and stared at it for a moment as we all collectively realized none of us really knew how to start a fire… especially without hands. Morgana glanced up at me for a while before perking up and speaking.

“Can’t you use your magic to start the fire?” I suddenly felt a bit stupid for not thinking of that first so I just smiled sheepishly and leaned down so my horn was close to some of the exposed dry grass and focused, I didn’t need a full powered mana beam, just a weak, constant one to act like a lazer or a magnifying glass or something. I could feel the mana building up sluggishly and, with almost the same amount of finesse and difficulty as levitation, a thin beam of mana shot from my horn and impacted the dry grass, giving off silver sparks at the point of impact. after a few seconds of nothing happening, I tried cranking up the power a smidge and slowly a trail of smoke started to trail from the grass.when more of it started to smoulder, I cut off the beam and started to gently blow on the embers until, ever so slowly, they grew, and were able to spread on their own. Much to my surprise instead of a regular orange fire rising we saw silver flames matching my magical aura slowly consuming the wood, and it was very pretty to look at. All of us gazed at the colored flames for a moment in fascination until the moment was ended by the sound of a stomach growling making us break our gazes and look back at each other.

“I said I was hungry,” Aurthur said grumpily. As much as I wanted to be annoyed by his attitude, he had a point. I was starting to get hungry as well and with a quick glance at the sky I could tell we had only a few minutes left until it well and truly became night. we would need some kind of miracle to get some food now.

Morgana spoke; “Actually… I think I saw some edible mushrooms under some trees nearby… “ Huh; ask and ye shall receive I guess. rising to her hooves, Morgana quickly scurried off into the tree line and, when I was about to follow her, she returned trotting on three legs, with the last holding a sizable bundle of brown mushrooms. When she returned to her original spot and placed the mushrooms on the ground I realized that I recognized them, they were called Shii- something uh… Shiitake mushrooms I think. but those only grow in Asia, right?

“Hurry up, I'm starving!” Aurthur shouted to his sister impatiently. Okay, that’s it I have to say something about this now, I thought. if Arthur keeps this up I might just straight up throw him in the river with levitation.

“Dude! cool it!”I said. “if it wasn’t for your sister we would be going to sleep hungry; so be a bit more grateful, alright?” Arthur seemed to take that as a personal slight, because the moment I finished speaking his face screwed up in anger and what I assumed was indignation. he was about to open his mouth and most likely yell multiple obscenities at me, which might have been hazardous to us both, but that moment never came as a stick with four cooked mushroom caps on it broke his line of sight to me and quickly brought both of our attentions back to Morgana and the food.

“It’s ready, careful it's hot;” Morgana said. Taking the stick Morgana handed to me, I let the matter drop as the tension in the air was replaced with the sound of eating. They say hunger is the best spice and until then I never really understood that; I remember a time where mushrooms would make me gag just from a single taste; but right then it was just what I needed after a horrifying day like today. Now that I was actually sitting down and resting I could feel how deeply tired I was from everything i’d been through, but as much as I wanted to sleep I couldn't just yet. We could be ambushed at any time, so one of us would have to keep watch for a while and switch off with the others from there… or maybe.... we don’t have to.

I spoke to the others. “Hey I'm going to try something, if it works, it could keep us safe during the night.” This had gained the twins’ full attention as I threw my now bare mushroom stick into the warm silver flames and straightened my posture.. Then I recalled the information on how to summon a wisp. Unlike other games, where summoning is mostly just borrowing creatures from other planes of existence, summoning in equestria is mostly creating magical constructs that slowly gain their own consciousness until they become the creature you modeled them as, bringing them into reality. The wisp summon in particular wasn’t difficult because it is, by definition, formless;. wisps are made of only mana, so, unlike other creatures, a physical catalyst isn’t required; all I needed to do was tap into my skill and magic and kind of encourage it into reality

I could feel the tingly silver aura envelop my horn and slowly start to balloon at the tip until it was the size of a large marble. Then, like a soap bubble, it broke off from my main source of mana, leaving a slowly wavering silver flame floating in the air. It was actually pretty cute to look at. It floated completely still for a moment until I remembered that I needed to give it a task first; or else I would have to control it manually; so, with another flex of my mental muscles, I commanded ‘Patrol’ and immediately it floated off and started a slow circle around our meager camp.

“There, that’ll attack anything that comes near us during the night” I said. Morgana seemed pretty impressed with my little light show while Arthur actually seemed to be asleep already; not that I could blame him; night had well and truly hit and we had gotten ourselves a warm campfire, sort of full stomachs, and protection for the night. I was starting to feel drowsy as well. I stretched while taking a glance at my mana bar to see how much magic making the wisp took. Creating the wisp took about one third of my mana up front, but maintaining it actually took less than what I was regenerating, so I could keep this spell up theoretically indefinitely, but at the cost of my mana returning at a snail's pace.

“Alright, we can talk about where to go in the morning. Goodnight you two” In return all I got were murmurs and grunts as the two were already entering dreamland. sadly, I couldn’t join them just yet as I needed to find a solution to the Arthur problem. It was only a matter of time before his temper peaked and he crossed a line somewhere.

pulling my menu back up, I started to flip through the magic tabs much more thoroughly; and just like last time I saw so many interesting types of magic but none of them fit my immediate needs. That, and the few spells I found that were exactly what I needed were too advanced or too powerful for me to even use if I could have learned them. It was when I was near the end of the list when I saw something different; down near the bottom right corner of the screen was an icon with a six-pointed star and a snake eye in the center. Of course at first I had been warded off from pressing it due to it, y’know, having a snake eye on it and everything, but after combing through the spells again and finding nothing, I just sighed and bit the metaphorical bullet by pressing the button. What happened next I didn’t expect; a whole different magic tab opened up and everything was available, though after a moment of reading the tabs I realized why this magic had its own cutoff section; it was all types of dark magic. Unlike the regular magic tabs these were organized by their chance to corrupt and their severity. The spells were further divided into subtypes, and next to every type of magic there was a different number of that star symbol from before. top of the list with only half a star was ‘Shadow Magic’ which was surprising, because lower on the list was also love magic at a whopping three stars. that waskind of concerning and made me not want to visit the crystal empire anytime soon. Now even then I knew that just looking at these spells was a bad idea, but from what I read,the corruption comes from taking in too many dark spells before the caster was ready; so I figured if I just practice with whatever spell I get until i’m almost a master then i’m way less likely to be corrupted by taking other spells; It just sounded like a case of common sense versus cliche villains, though that did make me curious… What's the worst spell here? With a flick of the mental wrist the list was sent scrolling down at a quick rate and ever so slowly the screen actually started to get darker and darker until I had to lean in close to be able to read the words. Once it finally came to a stop,what I read actually made me feel a deep dread.

Summoning: HIM

I was already frantically scrolling back up before I realized it, something about that skill invoked such a deep sense of wrongness in me that my body acted before my mind did. I shook myself out of whatever stupor that had put me in and focused back on the shadow magic. The first spell was a simple prehensile shadow tendril, which was perfect.

Fledgling Shadow Tendril: Bestows the acolyte minor power over the domain of shadows along with granting a boon of increased strength and dexterity when used within the shadows themselves

Mana use: Moderate

Level 0: 0.00%]

Corruption Chance: 5% - 4% Lack of corruptible Cutie Mark = 1%

Cost: 1 SP

After feeling that absolute dread from the bottom of the list I wasn’t afraid to choose this as long as I would Never pick that other one. After buying the skill and closing the menu I awaited the inevitable pain, but it didn’t come. I felt a slow creeping cold start to enter the camp. The silver fire dimmed slightly as I felt the cold slowly grow over my body. I might have panicked, but instead all I felt was calm and relaxed, the cold having no effect on me as the knowledge on how to summon the tendril entered my mind almost soothingly. Now I could understand what made this magic so addicting. I quickly shook myself from my emotionally muted state and checked the others to make sure they were still asleep, which they were, thankfully, though Morgana was shivering from the cold influence of shadow magic. I threw some more wood onto the fire before settling back down.

The rest of the night was filled with practice using shadow tendril. The tendril itself was cold to the touch but had no real texture; it alternated from soft to hard at my command; it was like having another arm at your command, though I could feel that it was extremely weak and brittle. Over time I would have to dispel the tendril to recover so my wisp wouldn’t run out of mana, but once I was back to nominal levels I would start again and get familiar with my new trump card. Eventually I did tire myself out mentally and had to dispel the tendril to sleep a hopefully nightmare-free sleep; Now still wasn’t the time to break.

Author's Note

I hope you enjoyed and I'm sure some of you noticed how I borrowed the whole swearing consequence thing but I though it was a great tool to make it so I wouldn't have to use fowl language and have a reason for not doing so.
Read & Review please :scootangel:

Now New and improved by the fantastic editor Kendallonian
May their name forever be held in the highest esteem!

Ch 3: I'm not falling for you, I'm falling with you

Chapter 3: I’m not falling for you, I'm falling with you.

I don’t usually dream, so waking up remembering the absolute nonsense that ran through my head over the night was an odd experience. rubbing away the crust at the edge of my massive eyes I glanced around and had to remind myself that everything yesterday had really happened. I had to take a moment to push down my rising panic and resolved to break down once we were out of danger, letting hysteria take over would essentially kill me while I'm in this god/faust forsaken forest. I looked over the makeshift campsite and saw that I was the first to wake and that my wisp was still slowly circling the camp. after a quick look at the summoning skill itself I saw that the progress to the next level had risen all the way to 45% which means just having it summoned gave experience, thankfully, though I did have a bit of a headache From maintaining it, so for now I dispelled it and it was like a weight was lifted from my horn. The relief didn’t last long as the lack of anything to eat finally caught up to me and my stomach voiced its displeasure which means we should all get moving before we were too hungry to move anymore; I didn’t want to resort to mushrooms again.

“Alright it's morning, wake up, you two.” My raised voice seemed to jar Arthur enough to wake him without much fuss, thankfully, shaking himself he rose and trotted over to the stream and splashed some water onto his face, shivering a bit from the still freezing liquid. Then, with a quick flick of his hoof, he splashed some water onto the still slumbering Morgana, shocking her awake; which was a ~~dick~~ plot hole move in my opinion.

“Ack!” With a startled shout, Morgana shot to her hooves and sent an annoyed glare at her brother, who then returned it with much more vitriol; making her quickly cower back down. The whole exchange only took a few seconds and even then it revealed so much of their relationship to me. Storing that information away for later, I stepped between the two in order to break up the tension and tried to bring the focus back to our current situation.

“Both of you need to calm down, now isn’t the time for infighting. Any grievances we have with each other can wait until we're not in danger of being eaten alive, got it!” That last bit was directed at Arthur and I was sure he caught it by the much deeper scowl he was shooting at me now, Morgana however actually seemed a bit relieved I stepped in and started to really wake herself up and stretch. I gave Arthur one more look before I turned my attention back to our small camp and the smouldering silver embers of the fire; or more specifically, one of the small stones that was on the edge of the pit. half of the palm-sized stone looked like it had been dipped in quiksilver, with the shiny film probably resulting from being baked by my magic fire. Levitating the stone closer I could see that the stone was really brittle, and I was easily able to snap the baked stone from its shiny edge. The snapping noise grabbed the attention of the siblings quickly, making them jump to attention and drop what they were doing. Arthur had been scrubbing his face with the river water and Morgana was over by the forest edge looking at some of the plants in the underbrush; though she wasn’t picking any from what I could see.

“Sorry about that, Just... experimenting; but we need to get moving now” I ended that quick statement by kicking dirt over the warm ashes to fully smother it and turning to walk upstream.

“Hey, we should be going downstream, not up.” Arthur’s voice stopped me, and for a moment I was about to question why he would want to go downstream, until I remembered the idea that civilization is always downstream or something and, if we were home on earth and lost I would listen to him this time. However, there was one oversight Arthur missed that changed that.

“Downstream means waterfalls and now that we’re in a cartoon world that means something is most likely gonna try and force us off of it” The looks I got from the two of them actually almost made me laugh, and after a few seconds of staring they seemed to realize I was being serious and actually started to consider what I was talking about. Strangely enough, Arthur was the first to grimace and nod before trotting forward and joining me further upstream. He was quickly followed by Morgana who seemed to still be thinking about it. There are so many cartoon tropes I was afraid of being real now, especially since none of us had the innate abilities of a cartoon character, so any slapstick gag could be potentially lethal.

We walked for a few minutes with myself closest to the river,Arthur walking in silence next to me and staring straight ahead. He was followed by Morgana who started to drift closer to the forest looking for what I can only assume were herbs. I took this time to glance at my status screen; my bruises seemed to have healed overnight and I was now healthy, albeit tired as my stamina was decreasing faster than usual. I could only guess it was being sapped by my hunger. I was about to open up my skills menu to see if I could find a way to get skills without using skill points when I was suddenly jarred from it by Arthur’s red hoof grabbing my shoulder roughly. slightly irritated, I turned my attention from my menu and looked over at Arthur, only to pause when I saw the terrified look on his face. Arthur didn’t really strike me as someone who would willingly show fear; I wouldn’t have been surprised if he thought of it as a weakness; so when I saw his red muzzle wide-eyed with the blood draining out of his formerly blood-red coat I knew something was really wrong. I followed his gaze; not forward; but down, across my path and into the river, where we saw there, floating serenely, a hoof… a severed hoof surrounded by a trail of blood-tainted water that was snaking down the river, getting darker and darker. Almost in perfect sync Arthur and I visually followed the trail of blood further and further, until the both of us were leaning to the side to try and see around the bend. a few adjusting steps, the rolling snowball of dread suddenly turned into a landslide of terror as we saw the cause. Around the bend on the opposite shore was a creature that, if I had seen it any other time, would have made me say aww; but with its current… adornments, it only inspired fear. The creature looked like someone took a pile of clouds and tried to shape them into an approximation of a mountain lion, which would have gave the creature an adorably fluffy and bright look, but right now the while cloudy creature was absolutely covered in both dried and fresh blood. It didn't help that it was currently surrounded by the… remains of it’s past pony meals and was currently gnawing on the spine of it’s latest kill, hanging out of its saber-toothed maw.

‘We need to run!’ was my first thought, which was quickly followed by a string of internal cursing as the cloud lion seemed to perk up as if it could hear my thoughts. It made direct eye contact with the two of us and sprang to its sizable paws to make an almost weightless leap across the river. By the time it had reached the opposite bank, Arthur and I had hurried back around the river bend and joined back up with Morgana; who, by then, seemed to have realized something bad was happening and was waiting with bated breath.

“Run!” was the one word I needed to say for Morgana to turn and join me in sprinting back downstream. after a moment I realized that Arthur wasn’t following us and looked back to see him doing the most idiotic thing I had ever seen; he was standing there with a defiant smile on his face looking like he wanted to fight the fluffy terror! A quick yank with my levitation got him out of harm's way and, with a hard shove forward, I managed to get him running with us just as the lion landed where he used to be standing. As much as I wished I could outrun what I could only assume is a magical mountain lion I couldn’t, and it was quickly gaining on the three of us with me slowly beginning to lag behind the group, being the slowest of us. my stamina was already down to half, and we had only just reached our old campsite, so in an effort to give us a bit of breathing room I steeled myself and summoned my wisp. Suddenly using so much mana at once made me stumble for a moment, but the end result was the same as my wisp darted back and started to swarm around the lion’s face, blasting it with small mana beams. This was apparently pretty painful as it actually stopped for a moment and swatted at my summon, giving us more time to run further down the stream leaving behind the infuriated lion. I had less than one fourth of my stamina left when I felt my summon be destroyed; which felt like someone yanking a clump of hairs out. I sped up a bit at the knowledge that we were being pursued again. A glance at my mana showed me that I had lost around a fourth of it from my summon being destroyed. I didn’t give a second thought about summoning another one. I was about to send it back to distract the lion again when I heard a sound that both infuriated me and filled me with a bit of hope… the rumble of a lot of water moving really fast.

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!” The medium-sized river we were running next to gradually opened up and connected to other rivers until we were standing at the edge of a massive sprawling waterfall, which actually clued me into the fact that we were in the equestria equivalent of niagara falls; which, under other circumstances, would actually be quite the breathtaking sight; but at the moment I was more preoccupied with the lion trying to take my life. Morgana was still looking over the edge, but Arthur had whipped around and seemed ready to confront the lion much to my alarm. So, before the lion caught up I made a choice.

“Get ready to jump!” I shouted. I didn’t have time to see if either of them heard me because by the time I finished speaking the lion launched out from the underbrush, cornering the three of us on the cliff. an impromptu staredown started as I waited for the perfect moment and it seemed to savour the moment as it was slowly padding towards us. I could see from my peripherals that Arthur had begun to take a step forward towards the cloud lion while Morgana did the opposite and took a step back towards the edge, getting ready to jump. seeing what I would need to do, I pushed down my fear and panic one more time before gathering up my mana. At the same time, my wisp fired a beam towards the lion, but instead of striking it directly, the wisp’s beam was aimed at the ground and kicked up a dust cloud to obscure us. Soon after, my own beam flew straight and burst right into the eye of the enraged and now half blind lion.

“Now!” My two companions both jumped at my command… just in two different directions as Arthur launched himself at the temporarily blinded lion and Morgana launched herself off the edge of the waterfall. in the spur of the moment in order to stop Arthur from committing suicide via lion I flared my magic and yanked him off the edge as well with my [Levitation]. In hindsight it probably wasn’t the smartest idea to tackle anyone off the edge of a waterfall but at the time I wasn’t really thinking about the consequences.

Now, many people say that when you're in a dangerous situation your life would flash before your eyes; That didn’t happen to me. The only thought that repeatedly shot through my mana-drained mind was ‘Water is harder than concrete when unbroken.’ and, sure enough, where we were going to land was a smooth, unbroken surface of water; and we were approaching fast. I could see that all three of us were going to land in about the same area, so using the last bit of mana I had I fired repeated weak beams down at the water which streaked past Arthur and Morgana and burst once they hit the water’s surface. The lances of energy gratifyingly broke up the glassy surface, turning it choppy. Before we actually hit the water another frantic thought burst through; ‘Do I know how to swim?’ I was apparently about to learn how because the first thing I felt after crashing into the broken water surface was the cold stabbing into my bones. the next thing I felt was the vast amount of bruises that were going to develop after this. A brief amount of panic underwater reminded me to hold my breath and reorient myself after getting flipped by the swirling current that was suddenly pushing us. Thankfully the doggy paddle still worked as a pony, though it was slow going. Breaking the surface with a massive gasp of air, I had to whip my mane out of my face and frantically search for my companions. further down the river I saw Morgana struggling to keep her head above water.

“Where’s Arthur!?” Morgana’s strained yell grabbed my attention, one of my eyes was being covered by my sopping wet mane but I could tell that Arthur hadn’t surfaced yet. I didn’t hesitate for a moment and took a deep breath before diving back down, but this time cracking my eyes open a bit under the water to see. It was hard to spot him with his dark coat under the water, but I did locate him at the bottom of the lakebed struggling to get his hoof unstuck from something. I was paddling as hard as I could and, just when I was sure I was going to run out of stamina before I reached him, Arthur noticed me and reached out with a hoof to pull me down next to him to help. Now that I was closer I could see that his hoof had punched through some rotted logs and gotten trapped and it didn’t look pleasant at all. A quick internal glance at my mana showed me I was on my last sliver of mana, and didn’t have enough to just blast him out, so I simply swam beside him and started pulling with him, though it seemed to only cause him more pain. My lungs were really starting to burn and judging from the look on Arthur’s face he was running out of air as well, a twinge on the edge of my mind caught my attention and glancing up at the surface gave me the key to releasing my trapped companion… my wisp was still alive and was circling the water above us. A quick mental command of ‘Assist’ was all that was need for it to plunk right into the water and snake down to us much faster than I could even swim, getting down close to the logs my wisp started blasting the wood closest to Arthur’s leg giving him a bigger opening and with a hard pull from both of us he was free to claw to the surface with me.

“I… hate… waterfalls!” Aurthur shouted as soon as there was air in his lungs. This might have been the first thing we actually agreed on as the both of us weakly treaded water, searching for the closest shore. we didn’t have to search long as Morgana’s voice sounded out from behind us where she stood on a nearby sandy shore with a long branch in her grasp. With a sigh of relief I started to paddle towards her with an equally weary Arthur just behind. while we neared

“Grab onto this;” Morgana said as she extended the branch to us when we reached the halfway point. A brief struggle against the current we were pulled onto the sandy embankment, getting itchy clumps of sand stuck in our coats, which, by the way, felt worse than getting it in your pants. I realized that my mana had bottomed out while underwater and my wisp had disappeared after releasing Arthur. Being empty of both mana and stamina gave me this sort of messed up, hollow feeling on top of feeling bone dead tired, not to mention a deep cold had started to settle in my bones. bottom line; I felt awful. Staggering to my hooves I felt like my whole body was one massive bruise, my legs were shaking from exhaustion and I wanted to sleep forever. a rough shove from Arthur knocked me from my self-examinations and made me stumble right into Morgana, who managed to steady me. After letting out a worried gasp, quickly let me go and hurried over to Arthur’s side. As quickly as I could I turned to ask him why he shoved me, but that was put on the wayside when I caught sight of him sitting on his haunches and supporting his previously trapped hoof with a pained grimace. His hoof was covered in lacerations and, while it fortunately wasn’t bleeding anymore, it was starting to swell with a not-so-healthy dark purple color.

“Heal me now!” Arthur demanded Even though she was already getting ready to use a healing spell. His words caused her to flinch back for a moment, startled, before shaking her head and wrapping her hooves around his injured limb. The first to disappear was the purple swelling, which I assume was a fracture of some kind, followed by the lacerations, which was morbidly fascinating to watch; the individual fibers of muscle and skin regrowing and reconnecting until all that was left was a slightly swollen hoof that had a few small cuts here and there. Releasing his hoof Morgana took a step back and examined his hoof. after a mere moment she dubbed it okay and nodded, looking a bit proud at her work; though apparently this wasn’t good enough for Arthur.

“Again! It still hurts!” Arthur said, Roughly shoving his hoof back into her face. Morgana had to quickly take a lurch back to avoid being jabbed in the face, and for a moment she was taken aback before softly replying; simultaneously trying to calm him down while also explaining something; which, unfortunately, seemed very practiced. A quick glance at my stamina and mana made me mentally curse as my stamina was still empty while my mana was almost full enough to use the shadow tendril if worse came to worst.

“I already used up all my mana healing you, I'll need a few hours for it to come back, okay?” Morgana said calmly. As much as I wished that was the end of it, it wasn’t, Arthur seemed to have a small fit as he started to thrash and stomp around while awkwardly still avoiding putting too much weight on his still injured leg. He went arond the water’s edge and punched and bucked the nearby trees to let out some of his rage. During all of this, both Morgana and I had started to back away out of range of his tantrum. He seemed to calm himself down after a bit and turned back to Morgana and took a threatening step towards her.

“Why are you so useless! I would have been fine without you!” Any threat of bodily harm seemed to pale in comparison to the pure hurt that bled through Morgana’s expression. Now I'm not usually the one who plays the white knight but getting angry at the person who had just healed him was a step too far in my opinion. I stepped up in front of Morgana to defend her and finally try and fix his attitude.

“Alright now you’ve gone too far! What the f-buck is your problem?” Lighting my horn for added intimidation made Arthur hesitate in his next step before his expression twisted further, the look of rage on his face intimidated me slightly, and another glance at my mana bar worried me further as I was still just short of a shadow tendril.

“My problem?” Arthur said in almost a whisper; “What’s your problem? If you had just let me fight that cloud monster we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place! Just because you’re too weak to fight doesn’t mean I can’t!” Near the end of his tirade Arthur’s voice started to get louder and louder until he was shouting in my face. When he finished speaking we just stood there, almost nose to nose staring each other down with neither of us giving ground and after a tense moment of silence… Arthur looked away first, but not in surrender.

“I’m stronger than this…” He growled; And with that he turned away from the two of us and started to limp away into the forest. for a second Morgana and I started to follow him, but we were stopped by a sudden shout from Arthur.

“Don’t Follow me! I don’t want any deadweight bringing me down!”

Arthur’s command just earned a raised brow from me and a silent comparison to sasuke in my head, but my mental roasting was put on hold Morgana’s soft sobbing. An endless amount of different conflicting emotions flashed on her face, but there were two constant ones among them; sadness… and resignation.

Author's Note

He shouldn't have said anything about waterfalls :trixieshiftright:
Hope you enjoyed!
Read & Review

Now edited by Kendallonian

Ch 4: These aren't my tears... I'm holding them for a friend

Chapter 4: These aren’t my tears… I'm holding them for a friend

After Arthur went off on his own, Morgana seemed to shut down emotionally. We stood on that embankment for a while and as much as I wanted to comfort her, I didn’t know how. Emotions never really clicked correctly for me, so when I tried to come up with a way to help her my first thought was that the both of us were sopping wet and judging by the large dark grey clouds starting to blot out the sky it was going to rain soon, and rain hard.

“Hey… let’s get you somewhere dry to warm up.” My voice was the only sound other than the sound of running water behind us. After a somber moment Morgana softly nodded her head and turned and started to walk into the forest in the opposite direction Arthur went, me following silently. While I was glad the confrontation didn’t come to blows I wasn’t expecting him to leave of all things. We were still lost in a deadly forest and had already almost died multiple times, but he thinks we are dragging him down! Taking a deep breath I pushed away my indignation and focused on my newest problem, taking a glance at Morgana showed me that she was no longer crying, but still looked absolutely devastated and with a pony face that looked heartbreaking. Redoubling my search efforts I was delighted to find a cliff side which meant a cave might not be far behind, while Morgana didn’t share my excitement, she did perk up, just a bit, when she saw me speed up slightly. The light under the forest cover started to dim, rapidly, which meant we didn’t have much time before the storm overhead broke.

As we moved in a brisk trot along the cliff wall I started to pick up any dry twigs I could find to use for a fire later, and hoped we would find shelter before the rain started. It was another few minutes before the two of us came across a shallow cave. From where we stood we could see all the way to the back end of the cave and nothing inside looked dangerous. thanking whatever being that was watching over us I hurried into the cave with Morgana trailing behind. As I placed down the wood I had brought with me Morgana was checking out the back of the cave. The cave itself was nothing to write home about; Grey stone walls, a few damp spots here and there and a smattering of moss growing on the walls.

“Hey;” I said. Morgana turned at the sound of my voice and at the sight of her expression my worry lessened. I could see a bit more light in her eyes as the brunt of the emotional pain passed. “I'm gonna go out and get some more wood, and maybe try and find some food;” I continued. Morgana didn’t respond for a moment before shaking her head softly, nodding to her I turned and jogged out of the cave and immediately started to grab any wood I could find, glancing at my mana bar showed that it was almost full so I was free to use levitation to hold more and more wood for the fire. we would no doubt need it.

I was shivering pretty badly by now and I was about to hurry back to the cave when something caught my eye; a tree. Not just any tree, but an honest to goodness apple tree growing wild. I almost couldn’t believe my eyes, just looking at the slightly unripe fruits made me remember just how hungry I really was. The apples themselves were slightly irregularly shaped, but they were still apples, which meant I wanted as much as I could carry back. I considered trying to buck the tree but I wasn’t really in any shape to be doing anything physical, my next idea was shooting them down with a mana beam until I remembered I had the perfect spell to help.

Taking a deep breath I let the numb feeling of shadow magic fill me before summoning a tendril and thanks to the practice last night it was pretty easy to maneuver up into the tree and pull down any apples that looked ripe enough to eat. Now that it wasn’t as dark as night I could tell that the shadow tendril didn’t come from my body, but from my actual shadow; which meant if there was too much light it would be harder to cast, unfortunately. Before long I had around ten apples on the ground next to me and with a quick inspection I dubbed them safe enough to eat, though plants weren’t really my forte, so maybe Morgana might be able to help. That brought my mind back to her current mood.

What am I gonna do about that whole situation? I’m glad I stood up for her but I didn’t want to make things worse between them. I hope we run into him so the two can make up. Levitating up the apples and wood all together took quite a chunk of mana and some concentration so I had to dispel my tendril so I wouldn’t run out of mana before I reached the cave. There was no sound in the forest, no birds chirping, no bugs buzzing, and no small animals moving in the underbrush. I heard only the sound of wind rustling the trees, and it brought along with it its cold bite that only brought my temperature lower and lower. I was pretty sure the animals could feel the storm coming, and were in hiding until it passed. I was about to increase my trot speed when I felt the first few drops of water land on my coat make me start sprinting in hopes I would reach the cave before I and the wood got soaked… again.

By the time I got back it had started sprinkling, but the wood was still pretty dry and ready to be burned. I was surprised, however, to see the entrance of the cave was now covered by large leaf-covered branches and small bushes obscuring the inside. My surprise was put to a stop by a particularly large raindrop landing right in my eye, almost making me break concentration and drop all the wood and apples. Hurrying inside further showed me that Morgana hadn’t just been sitting around while I was gone. Besides obscuring the entrance she had gone and picked a bunch of dry grass along with a smattering of what I assumed were edible herbs and mushrooms. Before I had walked in she seemed to have been weaving some long grass together into… something.

“You did so much… How long was I gone?” My awe at her actions was apparently funny as she cracked a small smile before noticing my cargo and letting her smile grow further in anticipation of having a full stomach. I mirrored her expression.

“All of this was actually pretty nearby, I didn’t want anything trying to get inside during the storm so I thought I would make myself useful and things sort of… escalated from there.” My smile dimmed slightly at hearing the callback to Arthur’s word choice, useless, and with a deep breath I went and sat across from Morgana while putting my haul down to the side.

“Morgana… I know that I'm basically a stranger to you, but trust me when I say that you are far from useless. Don’t take what Arthur said to heart. tensions were high and we weren’t in the best shape at the time so he said something he didn’t mean; so try not to let it affect you” I cringed slightly at my makeshift pep talk, being an only child I never had to deal with sibling conflicts, so I was pretty far outside my comfort zone. Morgana’s eyes teared up slightly, but her expression only changed to that of a soft resigned smile.

“Thank you for trying to make me feel better Marcus, but this was going to happen sooner or later. ou’re probably thinking ‘what kind of brother would abandon his own sibling?’” I actually had been wondering that, though I will admit that my outlook on family is a bit skewed due to my upbringing.

“ Well, it’s kinda complicated, while also pretty simple. Me and my brother were orphaned at a young age, and put in the foster care system for a few years. most people wouldn’t want an already grown child, let alone two, so we bounced around a lot. I think I came out okay in the end, picking up a few skills here and there like weaving and basic first aid but Arthur… no one wanted Arthur for some reason. It wasn’t like he was a bad guy or anything, but people always tried to avoid or pin the blame on him, I don’t know why.” By now the storm had well and truly broke, but the noise did nothing to stop Morgana from speaking, if anything it encouraged her to speak up over the rain letting her tears finally fall while she spoke.

“ Over the years this started to change him and he became spiteful and demanding, but he always stayed with me and I always stayed by his side. The two of us were all the family we had. but when highschool started to come into the picture we started to drift apart. First when his grades started slipping and I started helping him, after a while he told me to stop helping him then he told me to stop hanging around him while his friends were around; then he started pushing all the chores in our current foster home onto me. Something… changed him so fast, at some points I couldn’t even recognize him. Either way I knew at the rate we were drifting apart he wouldn’t want anything to do with me by the time we graduated, so as a last ditch plan to bridge the gap between us I suggested playing a game based on a show we both liked… and now look where we are.” I didn’t know how to help, Morgana was pouring her whole life story out to me and I was just sitting there staring at her. I felt some frustration bubble up aimed at myself for my own shortcomings, and when she finished with tears still falling and a resigned smile on her face I did the only thing I thought would help… I gave her a hug. Hugs were few and far between in my life so when I or someone needs to know that you are there for them, I give them a hug; which helps… sometimes.

“I’m sorry, I'm not the best with emotions or comforting others, but at least know that you’re not alone.” The hug was slightly awkward with hooves and all but it seemed to help a bit judging by how she leaned into it. Compared to Morgana and Arthur’s life, mine seemed dull and uneventful. I am the only child in a family that believes a standoffish approach to parenting was apparently the best method, so things like emotions or familial quarrels are a weak spot for me. Feeling a few shivers wrack through my body despite the warmth of the hug, I released Morgana and busied myself around the cave setting up the fire and food.

“I know he’s your brother and you love him unconditionally, but you need to be the strong one sometimes; especially during times like these. As much as I wish this would all end after we leave this forest, I have a feeling that we’re going to be stuck here until we get to the bottom of… everything. So for now let’s eat and recover and then… try and cover some more ground when the rain stops.” After getting the fire pit ignited with another steady mana beam I copied Morgana, who had started roasting the mushrooms on a stick while I passed her a few apples.

“And from what you’ve told me, it sounds like he needs you just as much as you need him. It won’t be long until we see him again” Morgana let a smile grow on her muzzle as I ended my reassurances and almost in sync with me took our first crunch of an apple. let me tell you, when I tasted the slightly sweet yet tart fruit it was like a muscle I wasn’t even aware of finally untensed for the first time. I finally let myself relax for a moment and, for once, I didn’t have to act like death was around every corner.

After that first bite the whole atmosphere of our camp changed, the two of us made jokes and told stories from our past. We talked about other shows we liked and if we would rather be there than here, about the cool things we could see after we left this forest as if we were suddenly tourists instead of interdimensionally Shanghai'd civilians. That growing bundle of panic and hysteria that I had been pushing down was slowly shrinking in the face of our laughter. Morgana was actually pretty funny and sarcastic once she opened up, which was fantastic. After a good few hours of talking, eating, and a little bit of showing off, the two of us had exhausted ourselves and even had a few apples to spare, but the two of us were stuffed to the point of needing sleep. so with a quick wisp summon and a ‘Patrol’ command we decided to take a rest and hopefully sleep out the storm still raging outside.

We got only a few hours of sleep before something happened… I was startled awake by the hair mane-pulling feeling of my wisp being destroyed, followed by the sound of the branches and bushes obscuring our cave being crushed as something crashed down on top of them. By now Morgana was also awake and was just as ready for a fight as I was. With a bit of trepidation we slowly approached the now still pile of foliage. With a pulse of levitation I ripped off the top layer of branches to reveal the last thing I was expecting… a pegasus. More specifically an unconscious player pegasus, judging by his blank flank, though it was hard to tell by the brown mud covering most of his coat and mane. Morgana immediately started checking over the unconscious player’s body for injuries and dragging him out of the rain and into the warm cave but my eyes were drawn to a different accessory of the pegasus… the broadsword strapped to his back.

Author's Note

I don't know why this chapter was so hard for me to write, luckily all the good stuff is going to be coming soon.
I'm so excited :pinkiehappy:

Now edited by Kendallonian

Ch 5: Is it really loss if it was never yours in the first place?

Chapter 5: Is it really a loss if it was never yours in the first place?

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” -H.P. Lovecraft

It goes without saying that I confiscated and hid the broadsword immediately, we don’t know if any of the players have turned homicidal or not, so better safe than sorry. After Morgana had healed the light injuries the pegasus had obtained from his dynamic entrance, we dragged him over to the fire to warm up and, hopefully, not come down with hypothermia. We had to brush off the slowly drying mud so we could heal his injuries, and doing so gave us a better look at him. The pegasus’ coat was a shocking yellow that matched his mane to a T, to be perfectly honest he looked like someone had taken Cloud Strife and tried to turn him into a pony minus the clothes and armor.

“Do you think he’s going to be okay?” Morgana had returned to her previous spot and had returned to her weaving though I could tell she was trying to keep herself busy.

“I don’t really know, you healed his injuries so he might just be tired or… wait” Interrupting myself I turned away from Morgana and pegasus and levitated over one of the leftover apples. I was going to save these for later when we inevitably get hungry again but if my hunch was right...

I held the apple in front of the bright yellow pegasus’ nose and with a flex of my magical muscle I ripped the apple into rough halves. The effect was immediate, his nose twitched a bit followed by the soft sound of sniffing. I was caught flat-hoofed when the previously unconscious pegasus suddenly sprung up and grabbed the two apple halves and shoved them in his mouth, chewing frantically.

“Mmmm Dat hih tha shpot;” The pegasus managed to say through his chewing. The feeling of my magical field being chewed was an incredibly odd sensation that I would not want to feel again, so with a shudder, I released the now heavily mashed apple from my levitation and refocused on our still hungry guest. Despite him speaking with his mouth full I got the basic gist of it and was slightly relieved he didn’t speak a different language. I took ASL (American Sign Language) in highschool instead of Spanish, which, with our current limbs, was completely useless.

“Thanks for that, d’you got any more?” After swallowing his food he finally took notice of us and, thankfully, instead of being hostile to two strangers that had him essentially cornered in a cave, he was being nice. His voice had a slight accent to it that I couldn’t put my fing- or rather, hoof on. disregarding that I quickly levitated over the last two apples. I was confident in getting more later so I was more focused on finding out if he was a threat or not.

“We found you after you fell from the cliff, who are you and what happened to you?” Morgana’s voice was full of concern and slight suspicion, but this seemed to go undetected by our guest who was in the middle of devouring another apple. His shockingly blue eyes widened at her question and he hastily swallowed to try and answer, almost choking in the process. A quick beat to the chest cleared his airways and, after taking a few breaths, he straightened his back and spoke.

“Sorry. My real name is David, but my pony name is just Nimbus which is kinda bland if you ask me” David’s introduction was much more animated than I was expecting, I thought he was going to be sullen or even depressed with everything that happened; Instead, his demeanor was bright and sunny as if he was having a pretty good day. His eyes were bright and full of life, which mirrored the large grin he had on his face which was full of confidence and maybe even happiness.

“As for what happened to me, well… i’ll need to explain from the beginning for it to make any sense” And just like that his sunny disposition dimmed down into a dower melancholy, he seemed to wilt a bit just thinking about his past but with a quick shake of his head he put a clearly forced smile and continued his backstory.

“Back on earth I am… was an avid MMO player and as such I had my own group to play with. We had played so many games over the years together and I had even met some of them IRL um- that means in real life if you didn’t know. They were some of my best friends. One day they called me up and convinced me to play a new My Little Pony mmo with them, a few of my friends really liked the show and while I never watched it I was always down to play a game with my friends.” While reminiscing about his past David’s face slowly grew softer remembering fonder times but the moment he spoke of playing the game his expression soured. Morgana and I were listening patiently and intently though for differing reasons I think, while she may be listening out of concern I was trying to determine if David or any of his friends were dangerous in any way. Modern humans in a medieval society could wreak havoc if they had any malicious intentions and, while I'm no protagonist, that doesn’t mean I won’t help others if I can.

“We were some of the first players to wake up in the forest I think. After the initial panic and screaming we realized that our group had ‘spawned’ in the same general area. Because we had appeared near the center of the clearing we were able to see this massive pile of weapons just sitting there, of course we weren’t the first to see them and quite a few other players were fighting over them. I was able to snag this sword- oh! hey! Where’s my sword?” David’s hoof had gone to grab his blade when he finally realized he no longer had it, looking back up at us with a confused glance I finally answered him with a bit of sheepishness to my voice.

“I uh- hid it, we didn’t know if you were dangerous or not '' Thinking it over for a moment David gave a slow understanding nod before returning to a more comfortable position and remembering where he left off. The brief moment of silence brought my attention to the steady rainfall outside, the pseudo-barrier of bushes and branches was doing a pretty good job of holding back any water that might flow inside. Though if the rain picked up, the barrier might not be enough to hold back any flooding water. Turning my attention back to the group I saw that Morgana had continued weaving what looks like a small bag while David seemed to have just remembered where he had left off and returned to his solemn air.

“Anyway like I was saying there was this massive pile of weapons and maybe supplies in the center of the clearing and not long after I got my sword so players started to swear up a storm… and I mean that in the most literal sense. Out of thin air a massive storm cloud showed up and a giant bolt of lightning struck the pile of weapons, destroying them and sending everyone nearby flying. I think a lot of players died from that but it didn’t seem to really dent the number as more and more players were just blinking into existence. Me and my group had basically decided to cut and run at that point and, with me being the only one with a weapon and any skills that apply to it, I was the one fighting mostly. There were five of us in our group but everyone else seemed to favor unicorns and earth ponies as I was the only pegasus, but because I was the only one with a weapon I couldn’t learn any flight skills yet.” To illustrate his point he started to slowly and jerkily open and close his ruffled wings showing his inability to fly. I could have guessed that from his swan dive off the cliff though… that was mean to think.

“Anyway since I was the only one able to fight it was hard to actually finish any of the fights, most of the time I was only able to drive off those wood wolves so we could deal with them later. One of my friends was a healer, so I wasn’t too injured, but I was running on fumes when it came to stamina. it was during one of the rougher fights when it happened. I had been cornered by four wolves and had been separated from my friends who were just… standing there… watching. I yelled for help but the four of them only gave each other a look before running off into the forest abandoning me!” David slowly started to get worked up throughout his story and by the time he reached the climax he was showing just how much his so called friends’ actions devastated him, taking a deep breath to calm himself he was surprised when Morgana rested an understanding hoof on his shoulder. She probably felt a sort of understanding of what he’s going though, feeling a bit left out from my lack of understanding. I gave him what I thought was a reassuring grin and urged him to continue.

“Whew… okay, after that I was barely able to outrun the wolves and ended up wandering around the forest alone for a few days. It was pretty rough, at first I thought I could just eat some grass like a regular horse y'know but… it didn’t agree with me.” A pained grimace briefly grew onto his face before shaking the unpleasant thought from his head, eating grass never really crossed my mind and for just a moment I felt incredibly stupid. That feeling quickly left me when I saw the unpleasant look on David’s face and I was suddenly glad none of us had resorted to that.

“I… don’t think grass is edible to Equestrian ponies” That small nugget of knowledge from Morgana further reinforced my feelings, though judging from the confused look on her face she either wasn’t quite sure of herself or didn’t know how she knew that. That reminded me; I needed to look over all of my skills, including the social tab.

“That would have been great to know beforehand… or is it beforehoof? Anyway I was basically starving and constantly on the move, I'm pretty sure I had to creep past a few different creatures out in the forest. I never traveled in a straight line so I had no idea where I was at the time, I barely got any sleep during the nights as every little noise woke me Yawn… up. I guess I was basically sleepwalking by the time I got here and… walked off the cliff I guess.” During the whole backstory dump I could see the excitable energy he had slowly drained out of him as what was apparently his sleep deprivation and empty stomach caught up to him, looking closer at him I could see dark yellow rings around his eyes which I assume are the pony equivalent of bags.

“Hey, is it okay if I take a quick nap?” The sudden question caught both Morgana and I off guard; so, when I hesitantly nodded my assent neither of us were ready for David to just flop over onto his side out cold. The sound of his head hitting the hard cave floor made my teeth hurt, but apparently didn’t even bother him judging by the soft snoring coming from him.

“Is… is he okay?” My stunned question prompted Morgana to slowly creep over to our guest to check him over. “I think he’s okay… maybe? He’s fast asleep already” While slightly concerned I just decided to shrug and chalk that one up to cartoon physics, standing to stretch out my now stiff body I had a thought. It was a thought that should have come to me way earlier but I'm glad to have brought it up now rather than later.

“Morgana, what skills do you have?”

Author's Note

Another chapter, another backstory dump.
I really want to get to the more exciting parts of the story but I still need to set the stage for everything.
Does that happen to everyone? You start writing a story and in your head your like five acts ahead but on paper your still on act one filling in the small but important details...? :facehoof:

Now edited by Kendallonian

Ch 6: Was that the knowledge or the tinnitus? I can’t tell...

Chapter 6: Was that the knowledge or Tinnitus, I can't tell.

“This shit’s calculated… I’m just bad at math” - Unknown

My soft spoken question pulled Morgana’s attention from our fast asleep guest back to me, before answering me she stopped and glanced down into the silver fire. No, that wasn’t right, she was staring into space vaguely in the direction of the fire. I assumed she was looking at her menu and gave her a moment to read through.

“Well… for my physical skills I have [Coordination] at level 2 and another skill that I had since the beginning called [Sturdy] that's maxed out” I was expecting the first skill, it seems that almost every player needed the [Coordination] skill in the beginning. The second skill surprised me though, skills that we naturally start with and it’s already maxed out! I really needed to search through my skills thoroughly.

“I also have a crafting tab under physical skills where [Weaving] is a skill, it’s already at level 12. I think if we have experience in a skill before we join the ‘game’ then we get a headstart?” I feel like I'm going to be in a constant state of astonishment during this conversation, Unfortunately I was never really into arts & crafts back home, so I can’t think of any skills of mine that would transfer over… at least not off the top of my head.

“I don’t have much in my magic tab at the moment, I have the healing spell [Mending Touch] at level 6 and a [Herbalism] skill that carries over at level 10. I only have one skill in my Social tab, [Mediator] at level 7 which just lets me stop fights easier, though only between sentient creatures” Despite both of us being pretty low leveled we had some pretty good abilities, though I haven’t really compared myself to the regular ponies.

“You have some pretty good skills.” I said, genuinely impressed. “most of your skills might center around your physicality or your connection to nature. My skills are mostly centered around my magic as you’ve probably seen, I haven’t explored my whole menu yet as the magic tab for me is basically endless. Some of the spells in here are kinda useless or redundant until later levels so I have to choose carefully.” I opened up my menu to start telling Morgana my skills, skipping past the obvious [Coordination] skill (which just reached level 2) I told her about my [Adept Mana Control] at level 6 and my [Fledgeling Wisp Summon] at level 3. I could probably get that up to adept after tonight, I refrained from telling Morgana about my [Shadow Tendril] skill for obvious reasons.

“One second… this is the first time i’m opening the social tab” Morgana nodded understandingly and started to feed a few more dry branches into the slowly dying fire. The social tab looked pretty similar to the magic tab with its numerous separate pages and levels, but this tab was organized not by type but by skill level, and two skills stuck out to me immediately.

Adept Perception: Passively grants the user increased senses, can be actively used outside of combat to search for specific quarries

During combat, active use will direct the user to weak spots and increase the chance of critical hits

Prior Skill Acknowledged

Passive/Active Stamina use: None/Small

Level 17: 4.25%

Cost: 4 Sp

I think this skill is the reason why my stamina runs out so quickly, it activates when I focus on something and at the time I was focusing on running away! Wait… what prior skill do I have for [Perception]? I was studying forensics in college so it might have something to do with it. Moving on to the next skill I got a bit more insight on Morgana’s free skill.

Persuasion: Unicorns are naturally charismatic and will attract others passively Grants the user the ability to bring others to your side, works passively and actively

Passive/Active Stamina use: None/Small

Level 1: 23.18%

This skill might be wasted on me, while I don’t have any problems with talking. I'm not the most… outspoken person out there, I try to speak up when needed but sometimes I just… can’t. Dismissing those less than pleasant feelings I returned my focus to Morgana who was happily looking over a small woven bag with a smile on her face. The bag only looked big enough to hold maybe two apples but looked remarkably sturdy aside from the fact it was made out of grass.

“That’s really impressive, that took you, what, two hours to make? And that's including all the interruptions! I think you're right about skills transferring over. I have a skill that I think comes from my college classes” Morgana seemed to puff her chest out a bit when I acknowledged her creation before zoning out slightly as she checked her menu. I took the lull in conversation as my chance to summon my wisp again, everytime I summon the small ball of magic it gets easier and easier to will into existence.

“The storm is still going strong, we could take another nap to pass the time… I'll have the wisp watch David'' As if to punctuate my sentence, a loud crack of thunder followed by the bright flash of lightning lit up the forest outside. The first crack of thunder sent both Morgana and I to our hooves in an instant with our hearts pounding in our ears, then the second much louder crack of thunder almost sent us back to the ground again. It was almost like the thunder was in the cave with us, bouncing off the walls and only getting louder. I don’t know how long I laid there on the ground, covering my ears, waiting for the loud ringing to go away. At some point I realized that my hooves were covering the wrong place and moved them up to my ears' new location. The ringing persisted, but the pain lessened slightly. hesitant opening my scrunched closed eyes I saw that Morgana was in a similar position as me, but her hooves were glowing slightly. I hoped her spell could heal extreme tinnitus, because this was not getting any better over time. soon Morgana’s tense form relaxed as her magic did it’s job. Slowly rising to her hooves she turned her magical ministrations to me next, moving my hooves out of the way. I was slightly frightened by the fact that I couldn't hear anything for a brief moment until her hooves met my ears.

“Can you hear me?” Morgana’s unnaturally loud voice pierced my ears, making me wince and turn away to try and defend my sensitive ears.

“Sorry… “ she said. Even her whispers pushed the edge of my hearing tolerance., I sent her a grateful smile and started to massage my ears in hopes that would bring down the sensitivity. Glancing around I was dumbfounded to see something completely impossible… David was still fast asleep. Morgana followed my wide eyes and mirrored my confused expression when she saw the still peacefully sleeping Pegasus, stepping over as softly as she could Morgana placed her hooves on his ears and with what i’m assuming is the last dregs of her mana healed his ears as much as she could. I couldn’t help but groan in frustration at what just happened. I am so sick of this forest and its inhabitants. I wanted to be out of here yesterday and I think Morgana felt the same there. Taking a glance outside made me blanch slightly, because apparently the clouds had decided it wasn’t raining hard enough before; now it was really pouring down. Our makeshift barrier wouldn’t hold up against a storm of this magnitude, we had a few hours tops before all that rainwater broke through and flooded this cave and drowned our warm safe haven.

“We have maybe a few hours before we’ll have to abandon the cave, we're just as likely to get sick if we stay in here with a small lake forming at our hooves than out there in the rain.” I was expecting Morgana to be against my plan, but judging by how she was packing up the herbs she had been collecting and placing them in her woven bag she had been one step ahead.

“I’m gonna try and make two more bags for us before we leave, ok?” Seeing her so ready to move actually bolstered my courage a bit, nodding my assent. I went over to the barrier to see if I could rearrange it to buy her some time.

Author's Note

Sorry about the short chapter but finals week just started for me so I might not be able to write anything for a while, I'll be back in at most a week. I hope you enjoyed this chapter though :pinkiehappy:

Now edited by Kendallonian

Ch 7: When Lightning Strikes Thrice

Chapter 7: When Lightning Strikes Thrice

It took around three hours for Morgana to finish the two neck bags, and another one for David to wake up fully. Getting him up to speed put a damper on his sunny attitude, but he was quick to realize his position. He was happy to travel with us until he could find his friends. I had returned his sword after he promised to fight with us and returned to readying myself. I was ordering around my wisp in hopes that manual control would make the skill level faster. The small flickering flame of magic grew slightly whenever it levelled up. At first it was the size of a large marble but now it was reaching golf ball size. I was about 12% away from getting to Adept Lv. 5 when the barrier holding back the rain water finally collapsed, letting an ankle high wave of water into the cave.

“Time’s up” I said. Our silver fire was quickly extinguished by the small flood, which plunged the cave back into the dark. The sudden cold water sent an onslaught of shivers through my body; I suddenly found myself craving hot chocolate.

“Let’s move out” Morgana passed me one of the bags she wove and while I tied it around my neck with my magic I led the way out of the cave and into the storm.

“Wow, that is brisk!” Morgana’s surprised shout seemed to embody what all three of us were feeling; It was bone chillingly cold and the rain felt like daggers against the skin. The wind didn’t make it any better as our body temperature dropped farther and farther with each buffeting gale. I had to quickly tighten my bag around my neck so it wouldn’t be blown off my body. I turned around to check on the other to see something that almost made me laugh. The moment Morgana stepped out onto the muddy grass she seemed to sink into it about an inch or so. Seeing as this didn’t bother her any, I turned to David and was kind of surprised to see that he was almost a whole head taller than me.

“Stay Close!” My words were almost carried off by the wind, but judging by the simultaneous nod from both of them I was heard. I guided us in the direction of the apple tree I had found earlier as a sort of landmark then I would change directions afterwards. I didn’t have long hair back home, but having a long mane now in a veritable typhoon was a pain. It was either stuck to my skull or being whipped around by the wind, though Morgana had more hair than me so she might have it worse. at some point my teeth had started chattering. We were moving pretty quickly, keeping a constant jog that all of us could keep up with. I could keep up now that [Perception] wasn’t constantly active and draining my stamina.

We had just reached the apple tree and I had decided to take a moment to let our stamina refill and maybe grab some apples for later. A quick glance and Morgana and David was all I needed to know how they felt; They looked like half-drowned cats and I bet they felt just as horrible. I bet I looked just the same, I felt heavy with a coat full of water weighing me down. When I saw my stamina bar reach full I was about to make us keep moving when I noticed something. I stopped and looked around the drowned forest wondering what I saw; my stamina was slowly falling- my [Perception] had been activated! David’s mane was standing up.

“Move!” I spent a small chunk of mana pushing the two away from the apple tree and into the mud a few feet away, I followed mere moments afterwards and that made all the difference. Where we were standing was quickly reduced to charcoal as what I can only call lightning struck the ground. The bolt of lightning traveled much slower than an actual lighting bolt, but was just as strong, so the moment we hit the soaked and muddy ground a few muscle clenching volts of electricity shot through us.

“Aaagh!” I had never been tased before but I assume it felt the same muscle-clenchingly painful as this. My jaw had been pulled shut and my face muscles spasmed, but then it was gone and I was given control of my body back. Books and movies made pushing through pain look easy; after just one shock I wanted to go lay down and recover; but the threat of whatever just shot lightning at us was a better motivator to stand back up. I was the last one up it seems, David was glaring fiercely in the direction of a now charcoal apple tree and Morgana, while wearing a similarly intense look, also had a splash of fear etched into her scowl. I followed their eyes and immediately I understood why.... It was the cloud lion, and it was pissed. I knew it was the same one from the angry red burns on its face from my wisp’s beams.

You would think I would be used to fear at this point, it’s cold claws digging into my mind and slowly eroding me away from the inside. I could feel how the lion was focused on me in particular, it’s usual fluffy white coat had turned dark and tumultuous, like the storm clouds overhead arcing electricity all over. This was personal to it, and it intended to catch the ones that got away. Our standoff felt like it lasted for an eternity and as if nature itself had given us a starting bell the loud crash of thunder brought all of us into motion. After the lion's first attack we were all aware that staying close together was a bad idea so we split in three different directions. David and Morgana split left and right respectively, swerving around trees and bushes while I had to turn and dive backwards to avoid the pouncing lightning-clad lion. Spitting out the glob of mud that had found its way into my mouth I barely had enough time to direct my wisp to attack for having to dodge another too-slow bolt of lightning. The small modicum of breathing room my wisp granted me wasn’t wasted as I sprinted around the nearest tree and out of the lion’s line of sight, leaving it to swat at the now slightly faster ball of magic.

“Hit and Run!” My screams cut through the almost deafening crackling of electricity for only a moment but that was enough for everyone to hear me… everyone. The tree I was hiding behind was quickly rendered to splinters as the lion charged through the trunk, ignoring my wisp and sending me flying. The horrible pain of wood splinters digging into my already bruised back was nothing to scoff at, but thankfully the rain was so cold that I was starting to go numb in a few places; though that didn’t stop me from being sent flying into another nearby tree and knocking the wind out of me. Seeing me stunned, the lion started to slowly prowl towards me while the few wood shards caught in its fire ignited and turned to cinders. I didn’t even realize I had tunnel vision that whole time because I never saw David approach from the left with his sword in hoof. With a slash of his blade both rainwater and blood was sent flying as David carved into the side of the lion, making a section of dark cloud fur turn a dark red. The lion itself was caught off-guard and off-balance by David, but David himself was caught off-guard when a streak of electricity carried along his blade from the beast’s coat, stunning him momentarily.

“Get up!” The feeling of warm hooves met my side as Morgana reached me and pumped some healing magic into my system, pushing out the wood shards and helping me stand back up. it was almost second nature when I aimed a beam right into the eye of the beast. It wasn’t strong enough to destroy the organ but it was enough to burn and blind it, making it miss its retaliatory strike at David giving him the chance to back off. With a mental flex I brought my wisp back around and had it aim at its joints and paws, if we could bring it down or at least slow it down we could have a chance. Following Morgana we sprinted back into the trees and just in time too as the lion seemed to be fed up with swiping into the dark and just started blasting lightning everywhere incinerating any nearby plant life and actually drying the area for a moment. I was almost sent to the ground a few times by a few strong shocks but still made it far enough in time with Morgana a ways to my right.

“Back to the clearing!” I almost missed Morgana’s words when my wisp was destroyed, sending a migraine-inducing sting to my mind. A quick glance at my mana bar showed me I had less than a quarter remaining, which did not bode well for me. I wouldn’t have enough mana left to fight if I resummoned my wisp, so I just grit my mud-stained teeth and pushed on back to the apple tree clearing. My everything was burning at that point, but I just shut all the pain out when I saw the beast again. it had been chasing David after we got out of range and thankfully my wisp had done some real damage to it. Its back right leg and front left had a sizable chunk taken out of them revealing the sinew-y muscles underneath. David was in the middle of ducking and weaving in and out of trees dodging blasts of lightning and occasionally trying to flap his wings trying to gain flight.

Charging my horn I sent three mid-powered blasts at the lion’s body before turning to run counter clockwise around it, not even looking to see if they landed or not. An outraged roar pierced the storm and a veritable hail of lightning blasts flew towards me. I tried to time my stride so I would be in the air when any would strike the ground nearby, but I wasn’t sure if I timed it right. I had reached the point where most pains had started to blend together, I just hurt.

Risking a glance at the predator, I was able to see just how injured it really was. Not only were a few chunks of flesh missing from its legs and face from my blasts and wisp, but there were long bleeding cuts in it’s sides from David’s blade. Though the worst injury was yet to come, as Morgana had gotten close and with a quick rear up with her hind legs, she slammed down on it’s uninjured front leg; reducing it to useless flesh with a sickening snap. The pain must have been excruciating as the lion’s attention immediately switched from me to Morgana as it reared up onto its hind legs and was about to crush Morgana with it’s other clawed paw… only to stay up in the air as it’s head was snapped back by a tentacle made of shadows flashing out of the darkness behind it and wrapping around its throat, holding it in place. Summoning that had taken most of my remaining mana, but I wasn’t done yet. using the last drops of my mana I used my highest level spell. David had stopped for a moment to catch his breath, which gave me plenty of time to use [Levitation] on his sword, ripping it from his grip and sending it flying at the lion who was starting to build up lightning. The sword flew true and slabbed into the chest of the lion with a wet squelch, the lion’s thrashing intensified even more and wasn’t slowing meaning it wasn’t deep enough.

“Morgana!” I shouted.

“On it!” she replied. She caught on quickly to what I was thinking and with a quick run up and a smooth spin on her front hooves she turned and bucked the sword deep into the chest of the lining-clad lion just as my mana bottomed out. it’s thrashing slowed, then grew still. Taking a few steps aside, Morgana watched as the lion fell to the muddy floor impaled and slain, the three of us stood there shaking the aching in the rain waiting for something else to happen. Then something else didhappen… the rain stopped.

Level Up!

Lv.2→ Lv.4

+4 Sp

Author's Note

UUuugghhh not only did I have finals last week but I had to get my wisdom teeth pulled on Saturday, I have been in bed either asleep with a bowl full of gums blood next to me or slowly sipping soup while people around are eating other delicious solid foods. Now that I'm off the pain meds I can finally write coherently-ish.
Funny fact- I wrote the first quarter or so of this chapter while in the dentist chair breathing in laughing gas...it was a trip...and not really funny tbh :pinkiesick:

Now edited by Kendallonian

Ch 8: Out of the Woods

Chapter 8: Out of the Woods

“Heh… “ The once cloud filled skies started to slowly let warm rays of light down into the forest, shining more light on the impossible act we had done. I was shaking pretty heavily and I don’t know if it’s from exhaustion or from electrocution, David and Morgana seemed to be feeling the same. None of us had moved from our spot in front of the fresh cloud lion carcass, though some of us didn’t really have the energy to move in the first place. I never thought that I would ever actually kill something so… large in my life, a rat maybe but nothing like this. The timber wolves I destroyed first don’t really count in my eyes. I guess this empowering feeling is the reason why most people hunt for sport… maybe I dunno I’m not a psychologist.

“Heheh… “ I am really tired… I've been tired before obviously but never to this extent. Having both my mana and stamina bar completely empty at the same time seems to have a pretty big drawback, both bars are refilling at a snail's pace. Out of the corner of my eye I saw David start to brush some of the slightly dried mud off of his coat, a quick once over of myself and Morgana’s state showed me how bad we were and I wasn’t really surprised to see that we looked pretty roughed up. I had mud caked onto half of my body and Morgana’s nice dark purple mane had been turned black by a layer of almost fresh mud, if we were going for the jungle dweller look we certainly nailed it.

“Hahahahaha!” At this point the other two had joined me in laughing, each of us for different reasons. I was laughing because my suppressed stress and panic was starting to crack out while I'm pretty sure Morgana and David were laughing from how ridiculous all of us looked. I had to take a few deep breaths to calm myself down before I started crying uncontrollably. Shaking some mud off I approached the cooling corpse of the cloud lion and started wondering what to do with it, if video games have taught me anything it’s that most monsters have valuable and useful materials. A quick glance at my bars showed me that both are still under a quarter full so I didn’t have the necessary magic or energy to move it on my own so I settled for the most obvious thing… getting a few trophies.

“I’m gonna take some of it with me” Leaning down to it’s slack maw I reached for my quarry, the massive saber teeth that almost tore me apart earlier. The first touch zapped me a bit, it didn’t hurt but after everything I felt prior to this I was understandably jumpy. Morgana and David drew nearer concerned after seeing me frantically throw myself away from the body and getting more mud on me in the process. Getting back up to my hooves and wiping some of the excess mud off of me I felt a shiver run through me from the sudden burst of adrenaline and fear. Letting it leave my system I approached the corpse again and without any warning I yanked one of the saber teeth right out of it’s mouth quickly fooled by the other one. The first had come out cleanly while the other had snapped at the root leaving one longer than the other, while being held in my telekinetic aura the two fangs started to give off a bright blue internal glow.

Skill Prerequisites Met!

Summoning: New Summon Available!

Fledgeling Thunder Lion Summon: A deadly creature that is spoken of in both

terror and reverence, worshiped as a sort of protecting spirit by most pegasus

tribes this creature is able to harness the power of lightning and strike down its

prey before they even know what has happened

Mana Cost: Medium

Skill Level 0: 0.00%

Requirements:

2/2 Thunder Lion Materials

Felled 1/1 Thunder Lion(s)

Cost: 1 Sp

First creation of summon requires 1 minute of initial cast time, over time the lion shall level up until it reached maturity

Be warned, the slaying of a Thunder Lion is a mark of strength in most cultures and the knowledge of your kill will attract challengers

This… this is fantastic! I don’t think now is the time to summon it sadly, I don’t want to know what other monsters we attracted with the fighting. I turned to relay the skill I had just got and saw that Morgana and David were staring off into space just as I was… I’m just realizing this would look really weird to any regular inhabitants. Putting that aside for later I read out the skill I got and Morgana’s response made both David and I laugh again.

“What are you? A Pokémon Trainer?” She got me, I will admit. It felt nice to laugh like this after everything that’s happened. Especially so with new friends around me and I don’t mean that in a ‘Friendship is magic’ kind of way, most of my friends back on earth went to different colleges so we keep in touch via discord or video call. Talking and laughing with other people who are physically here is… nice, it’s something I haven’t done in a long time. I could feel the soft fond smile grow on my face while I was thinking about how well I was doing socially so far… and then my smile was quickly ripped from my face when the loud cry of some kind of bird pierced the silence startling the three of us out of the warm atmosphere we made. It was like the forest had come alive in milliseconds with that bird cry being the signal to start. Bugs buzzed and hopped about, small birds fluttered about taking advantage of the fresh mud to hunt, prey animals scurried around in the underbrush foraging. In a matter of moments the once scary and foreboding forest we had ventured through had become beautiful, the apparently noon sun shone down rapidly drying the mud beneath our hooves blanketing the forest floor in a thin fog that only added to the atmosphere. The trees and plants sparkled from the raindrops that had been caught on them, the only outliers in the sudden spectacle of nature was the lone charred apple tree and a few similarly charred spots here and there where the lion's attacks landed.

“Wow…” The awed voice of David snapped me back to the present and jaw dropping scenery or not we need to get out of this forest. I slipped the two glowing saber fangs into the bag Morgana gave me with a slightly singed in a few places but was still holding strong. I also took a moment to try and rub off some more caked on mud, my mane was a lost cause until I could get some running water to it.

“We need to move, we might be close to the edge if all these animals are less cautious around us” I know that some animals can be pretty bold around humans once they’re used to their presence… stupid seagulls. David and Morgana nodded along with my logic but Morgana wanted to get a few claws from the lion and David still needed to extract his sword from the chest of the lion which I had completely forgotten about. It took the combined effort of all three of us to roll the body over to pull the thankfully in one piece blade out and however morbid this sounds, it’s fur was just as soft as I thought.

We decided not to change our course past the now charred apple tree and simply continued though the now much more pleasant forest. After our fight with the lion the atmosphere has been much lighter and at times… fun. I found myself smiling and talking to the others during some points of our trek, like we aren’t lost and are just on a hike with a couple of friends. Along the way we picked up berries and edible mushroom for our inevitable dinner, all the while keeping up the pleasant conversation.

“So you’re telling me the first time you ever tried to cook, you actually burned water?!”My incredulous tone only worsened the embarrassed blush on Morgana’s face, David was down on the ground laughing his butt off from Morgana’s story.

“No-no, only the pot caught fire. There just happened to be water in the pot…” I was actually speechless, I didn’t know whether to laugh or try and console her… yeah, I chose to laugh. A clearly fake offended look grew on Morgana’s face and with an over exaggerated scoff she walked off ahead with her head point straight up without David and I who were still trying to return the air to our lungs.

“W-wait for us haha-” Morgana eventually did wait for us, but only after she made both of us tell the next embarrassing story. David told a story about how he used to sleep walk when he was younger and in the middle of night his parents came downstairs to him apparently trying to make orange juice in his sleep. The only issue was that he was using the orange juicer and an onion, his father had to bodily stop him from drinking pure onion juice. The moment is apparently framed in their house entrance, that story sent Morgana and I into a giggle fit which descended into a full on laugh attack when Morgana asked him if he would sleep fly now.

I was about to tell a pretty embarrassing but funny story that happened during high school when I was spared by the sight of some glorious, the edge of the forest. We had been walking for a good few hours and the sun had been moving across the sky pretty rapidly bathing the sky in a vibrant orange. The three of us understandably started to sprint out of the forest in excitement and when we finally left the tree line we saw something we really were not expecting, campfires… many campfires.

“Huh…” I don’t know why I was expecting us to be the only ones who made it out here. Outside of the forest was a rolling slightly hilly grass plains and nestled between some of these hills or settled on top of others were campfires with groups of ponies around them. Some groups had three or four ponies around the fire while here and there were small two pony groups, it was hard to get exact details about all these ponies in the low light but I could tell two things, these were all players, and they were all watching us.

“Play it cool…” My whisper seemed to ease some of Morgana’s tensions but David was still quickly shifting his eyes from group to group, I started walking down the edge of the woods picking up a few sticks and bits of dry grass for our fire. Morgana seemed to quickly realize that I was simply going to ignore them and softly bumped David to get his attention and make him follow. There was an open spot at the top of a small hill to my left so I set that as our camp spot, none of the other players came forward to speak to us or welcome us… they just stared. Setting up the fire this time was easier than previously, Morgana grabbed some more sticks and dry grass to use though the night and David finally stopped watching the other players and started taking out the berries and mushrooms we had found along the way out of his bag. A few of the nearby groups seemed to flinch in surprise when I kneeled down and lit a silver fire instead of everyone else's normal orange fires.

“Watch the food for me, I'm gonna summon my wisp real quick” Morgana and David nodded with a serious look on their face, the tense atmosphere getting to them just as much as me. With a familiar detaching sensation my wisp was brought into existence and with the usual command ‘Patrol’ it started its slow lap of our camp, now that it was a high level I was able to put a bit more meaning behind the command. Anyone that isn’t welcomed by me that approaches will be attacked, I don’t think anyone here who actually wants to speak would approach unannounced.

“Food’s almost ready” The smell of the roasted and seasoned mushrooms reached me before David’s voice did, drawing closer to the warm fire. I could see that Morgana made the right call in foraging for both food and spices for dinner, taking a quick look around I could see that most of the other camp weren’t eating anything. Out of the three of us in this group Morgana might just be the most important, now that we were on a slightly higher elevation I could see that there are eight separate campfires with around three to four ponies around them with a few outliers of course and now that I’m paying more attention there was one larger bonfire down in the center of most of the camps.

“Here you go Markus” I turned back and accepted my berries and mushroom skewer from Morgana and thanked her, it was well and truly night now and the campfires looked at their brightest. I’m starting to realize that being around other players might not be completely safe, I know enough about pop culture to know that there are some people out there that cope with disasters in the worst ways. Shaking the dark thought from my head I continued to eat my food before it got cold, remembering my extra skill points I opened my menu. That fight with the Thunder Lion taught me a few things, first is that the wizard is always squishy, second is that while my attacks are precise and accurate they don’t do a lot of damage. I pondered the thought of simply getting a shield spell but after a bit of searching I found something that was perfect for me.

[Blink: The users sends out a arcane marker to a location within sight then is

rapidly sent to the desired location

The user is still physical during this process so any obstructions with cancel the

spell and depending on the distance traveled might damage the user

Current Range Limit: 100ft

Limit can be raised with higher levels or with supplementary skills

Mana Cost: Small

Cost: 1 Sp

I found it in the beginner page a few levels below the [Mana Control] Skill, there were quite a few useful skills on this page but most of them I could replicate with a high enough understanding of magic. I had 2 Sp remaining so I could dedicate them to my attack skills, I went for the obvious into to elemental spell and chose [Fire Magic Control].

Fledgling Fire Magic Control: Gives the bearer basic control over the the primordial magic of fire and bestows the lowest forms of fire magic fire bolt and ember imbuement

Further levels in this skills will improve magic efficiency and power

Skill Level 1: 0.00%

Cost: 1 SP

Fire magic was just as I expected it to be except the ember imbuement part of the spell, apparently this is an extra skill given to me because of my experience in summoning. It let’s me imbue the element of fire into my wisp… which does something to it I don’t know yet but I am excited to try it. Seeing how I'm going to be using my wisp much more I actually put the last point into [Wisp Summon]

Adept Wisp Summon

Level Up!

Level 7→ 12: 0.00%

The wisp visibly grew larger, it started at the size of a golf ball and after five consecutive level ups it was the size of a soft ball. Now the floating silver flame had a dark black oval in its center, it kinda looked like a cute little eyeball… it probably isn’t but I’m gonna pretend it is. I had finished my food and was about to close my menu when suddenly my now much larger wisp fired a beam right towards me and over my shoulder. I felt the wind as it passed dangerously close to my head and instead of just flying off into the night, the beam actually struck something directly behind me. Everyone in our camp and the camps nearby were startled and when I whipped around to see who was behind me and that a thin dark grey earth pony had snuck up on us but was stopped by a blast to the chest. Still startled from the sudden blast and seeing how there was a random stranger super close to me I did the first thing that came to mind… I socked him in the face. The sudden burst of frightened adrenaline made the actually pretty painful punch much more effective than it should have been. The earth pony was sent rolling down the hill scrambling to regain their footing-hoofing? Either way my fright had turned to logic quickly, he shouldn’t have been able to get past my [Perception] skill unless he had some kind of sneaking skill that was higher. So either he has been here longer than everyone else and was able to train up a sneaking skill or… he’s a thief and already had the skill. Logic gave way to anger and indignation and seeing how other players were also approaching I threw any hesitation out of the window and approached the fallen thief. Telling my two friends to wait there I quickly jogged down the hill and with a quick mental flex of my magic sent the thief back to the ground when he tried to escape and held him there.

“Whoa whoa, calm down there fella. What’s going on?” Approaching me and my newest prisoner were four players, all from different camps and all without cutie marks. The first one who had spoken to me was a giant of an earth pony, he seemed to be a mottled blue and grey with what might have been a black mane that hung down in a braided ponytail. One look at this guy's brown eyes told me that this was the definition of gentle giant and his actions mirrored this observation as he approached and immediately sat down and made a calming motion with his hooves like he would to an animal. I wasn’t offended as it looked unintentional, the next two to walk up were both unicorns and wildly different. The first was actually wearing a stereotypical wizard robe with all the magic designs and unneeded straps to go along with it, one look told me I wasn’t going to like this unicorn. She has a pink coat and a platinum mane and it doesn’t help that her nose was actually pointed up into the air as she looked me up and down in what I think is perceived disgust. The other unicorn looked to be the complete opposite of the other, he walked with his shoulders back and his head forward. His mane was a close cropped bronze and his coat a dark yellow almost gold, the last pony to arrive didn’t walk over with the other three as he had come dashing down the hill after the other three. His coat was the same shade of grey as the thief except his mane was oddly bright green while his counterpart had a black mane and of course it goes without saying that all of us looked pretty rough from staying in the forest for a few days.

“Let go of him!” The green mane’d player tried to bodily shove me away from his apparent companion but since I was holding him down with magic I just stepped around him and continued to hold him down.

“He was trying to steal from me and my group” This seemed to really get the attention of the other two unicorns who up until this moment had looks of disinterest on their faces, the gentle giant seemed to panic slightly before looking over to the other two unicorns. I took another look at green mane to make sure he wasn’t going to try anything again and when he saw that I noticed his approach he stepped back intimidated. I just realized that my face had twisted up into a glare without knowing so I took a moment to breath and school my features. Being angry doesn’t get anything done, I just want to get rid of him and make sure he won't try anything again.

“Well it looks like you got him thoroughly subdued” This was the bronze mane who had a small grin on his face, he took a few steps forward and took a closer look at the still struggling thief. A glance at my mana showed me that it was regenerating faster than he could deplete it, gentle giant and robes got closer as well seeing as I had calmed down and was willing to talk.

“I think he’s learned his lesson this time, but if he does this again then well all have a word with him… how about that'' Bronze sounder vaguely sinister saying that but all of us caught his meaning and I didn’t really like it. There was something about Bronze that felt weird to me… but I couldn’t place what, it seems I wasn’t the only one who was uncomfortable with what Bronze said as the giant seemed to shuffle away from him slightly and the entitled pink one grimaced slightly. Green mane had an alarmed look on his face and sent me a pleading look, one that I did not ignore. I wasn’t mad anymore and was mostly worried for the guys safety so I released him, he quickly scrambled up and away from Bronze and went back with his friend who quickly followed him back to their camp.

“It’s late so… why don’t we all talk in the morning, we were going to leave yesterday but wanted to wait for more groups… yours was the last one for a while” Giant spoke again and what he said was pretty concerning, no one else had left the forest after us so either we were the last ones in there or they left a different way.

“Alright, we’ll meet here early in the morning. I don’t want to be near the forest for too long and it might be a long walk so we’ll need the daylight” the other three seemed to agree with my assessment and turn to walk back to their respective camps. That was way more tense than expected… though I'm starting to realize something, why are there no Pegasi?

Author's Note

The boys during Morgana's Story

Yayyyy! :yay: We're finally out of that forest! Now it's time for more walking!
The question of where the other races are will come up but first they must make first contact before worrying about the second and third.
I hope your enjoying :pinkiehappy:

Ch 9: And Into The War

Chapter 9: And into the War

Believe it or not, the tense atmosphere had actually lessened after that whole bit of drama. Of course David and Morgana were curious about what happened so I explained everything, even my suspicions about the bronze player. He seemed to carry himself differently than everyone else but I just can't put my finger/hoof on how exactly he’s different, I know I've seen it before though. My debriefing seemed to only set David’s suspicions off again, he had returned to warily watching the nearby camps. As much as I appreciate his efforts, if any other players have a [Sneak] skill higher than my [Perception] then our only hope would be my wisp.

“We should get some sleep, my wisp will watch out for us” Drawing attention to my sentry seemed to calm Morgana and David slightly and after Morgana threw some more fuel into the fire, we started getting ready for sleep. We lied down with our backs to the tree line and I made sure my slightly glowing blue bag was hidden securely underneath me. Sleep was difficult, all I could think about was the multitude of strangers around me. The nighttime air wasn’t even cold, it was probably around spring or summer time with how warm it was during the day. I tried to distract myself with magic ideas, but I kept going back to our current problems. We are a bunch of random cutie markless ponies about to just appear out of nowhere in front of some villagers and what? Do we expect them to just not question it? My worried thoughts ran rampant through my head for a good few hours and I wasn’t really sure when I fell asleep.

My dreams that night were… not very pleasant to say the least, it was like my mind was fixated on anything that could go wrong during the first meeting with the npc’s (Non Player Characters). Ranging from the usual pitchforks and torches and to the extremes like there simply not being any ponies left other than us… just a bunch of cold, rotting corpses in the streets. Now I won’t be dramatic and say that my nightmare woke me up the next morning, but it definitely played a part in it. No, what or rather who woke me up was much more surprising. My bad dream had already put me at the edge of regaining consciousness so when a presence reached its way through my unconscious and gave me a metaphysical rousing I was understandable startled.

“Wha?” My sleep addled mind was immediately put into high alert, I had that jittery and weak feeling burst of energy like when you’re about to crash from a sugar rush and I really hate that feeling. My first look around at my surroundings didn’t show me much, it was dawn for once. The sky was a nice mix of bright blue and burnt orange, the early morning was a bit chilly but I knew it was going to warm up quickly. Checking my more immediate surroundings showed me what I expected, both Morgana and David were still asleep and had scooted closer to the now dead fire in their sleep. My wisp was… actually not patrolling, but was floating nearby my head staring at me with its little dot eye. I was caught off guard by the sudden deviation in its orders, so imagine my surprise and wonder when I reached out to it with my mind and it actually reached back. It conveyed a feeling of wakefulness and… warmth? At first I didn’t know how to respond to my wisp’s sudden baby-like sentience until I remembered a pretty important fact about [Summoning]. I’m bringing these creatures into reality… over time they’ll develop a mind of their own and change, I really am like a Pokémon trainer Ha! Realizing a bit late that this was my wisp’s way of saying good morning I smiled at it and tried to send back the same sensations of warmth and… being awake?

“Good Morning to you too” This was a development I wasn’t wholly against, I kinda liked the idea of having an actual magical companion in the future. One that could act and think for itself, I started stretching to fully wake myself up and felt slightly like a cat doing so. I know that I didn’t look or smell the freshest at the moment but my rising embarrassment was stifled slightly by the fact that probably no one here was in good shape… unless there was a spell for that. While I went about brushing any more dirt or grass from my mane or coat I started gazing at our player neighbors. Not many were awake but those that had had started to either gravitate down to the pseudo-meeting place from last night or were still talking among their group.

“Alright! Time to wake up you too” I spoke with a chipperness that sounded just as false as it felt. The volume did it’s job though and brought the two out of dream land, or at least one of them as David took one look at the still orange horizon, huffed, then fell back down to sleep. Morgana saw all of this and with a soft chuckle she reached over him and grabbed his sword and unsheathed it slightly and with soft, gentle movements pressed the ice cold metal to his skin. To say David jolted awake would be a gross understatement, one second he was on the ground with Morgana poised next to him and the next he was in the air flapping in place rubbing his hooves over the cold area in an effort to warm it back up. Oh yeah… he also screamed like a little girl, my stomach was mere moments away from cramping up horribly from how hard me and Morgana were laughing. My previous dread was gone like dust in the wind and what had replaced it was a light confidence. The three of us had gotten this far, what was a bit of social interaction in the face of mortal peril. Eventually the three of us did calm down enough to talk again, but the look David shot Morgana promised retribution of the highest caliber… retribution I hope I am there to witness.

“We need to get down there for the meeting” The two of them looked slightly confused at my mentioning of a meeting which tipped me off to the fact that I neglected to tell them about the morning’s plans. It wasn’t hard to get them up to speed, but I could tell that Morgana was slightly annoyed at being kept out of the loop while David seemed pretty okay with it. I promised I would make an effort to keep all of us on the same page then gestured with me head for them to follow me down the hill to the meeting area. Wanting to give my head a break and not wanting other unicorns to see my summon I dispelled my wisp, but not before sending it a feeling of what I hoped was gratitude.

“-e gonna do!? I have finals next week!” The three of us started traversing through the slowly growing congregation of players picking up snippets of distressed conversations and theories,

“Bro I’m telling you, it’s the government” Some were a bit more… amusing than others, there were a few players who seemed to be on the edge of a breakdown. Rocking back and forth mumbling to themselves or just straight up silently crying where they sat waiting for directions. I’m starting to question how these people actually made it through that demon forest. The three of us finally pushed our way to the front of the large crowd and there standing before the panicking masses were the three players I spoke to last night. Before stepping forward and revealing myself I took a good look at them now that there was more light to do so. Gentle giant’s look didn’t really change much in comparison to how he looked in the lower light, his coat was still a mottled blue and grey, but the grey was a bit lighter than I thought and his mane was a similar shade of blue as his coat still in a braided ponytail. I was pretty much spot on with my description of Pink snooty over there, her wizard robe was much more frayed and dirtied then I thought originally. There were a few long claw marks down it’s side and a few scraps were torn off from the bottom where it probably got snagged on something. Then there was Bronze, he was pretty much the same as well except for a pretty glaring detail that made my nickname for him really on point. His mane color was actually a metallic copper, like it had the metal like sheen and everything but from what I could tell I was regular hair. Deciding to end my sudden analysis I stepped forward with Morgana to my right and David to my left, now that I had broken away from the crowd I could see that (concerningly) everyone was just staring at these three like they were in charge and was waiting for their orders… and now we’ve joined them.

“Ah he’s here… and he’s brought friends” Bronze was the first to turn and address me followed by Giant and Pink who surprisingly enough looked a bit relieved to see the three of us. I’m starting to think the altercation from last night is the reason why everyone is looking to them for leadership.

“Hello, I don’t think we introduced ourselves. My name is Marcus, but my pony name is Arcane Hope” I held back my slight cringe at my pony name and took a step to the side to let my friends introduce themselves.

“Hey, I’m Morgana, also known as Rose Point… and this is David also called Nimbus” I was confused as to why Morgana introduced both of them until I stole a glance at David. The Pegasus was standing ramrod straight and was staring straight ahead, I'm starting to think that David isn’t that good in front of crowds.

“ Nice to meet you all, sorry about how we first met Marcus. The name’s Aaron but the game gave me the name Sterling Flare” He gave an acknowledging nod towards David and Morgana before taking a step aside so the other two could introduce themselves.

“Ehem… I’m Eric and I’m also called Flint, T-this… just ain’t right to say but, I’m glad you decked that rascal from last night” This was surprising to hear from the perceived gentle giant, that didn’t stop me from sending a fond smile his way. I ignored the small shred of guilt rising up from hurting another person and focused myself on the pink snooty’s intro.

“Sarah… also Pearly Gleam” For a moment no one spoke as we waited for her to continue speaking, only when she started to turn red did we realize that she just doesn’t like to talk. There was a moment of awkward silence which was quickly broken by Aaron who loudly cleared his throat and stepped forward.

“Okay, now that introductions are finished I feel I should bring something to you three’s attention” His once sentence got all of our attention only for him to direct it somewhere else as he lifted his hoof and pointed past us to the sky behind us. We slowly followed his hoof to the sky to the left of the forest and what we saw inspired only two things… Dread and fear. In the skies to the left of the edge of the forest was a massive billowing cloud of smoke, like a whole forest… or town was burning.

“When did… ?” My unspoken question was quickly answered by Eric instead of Aaron who had stepped away to speak to another unicorn player who had approached.

“It happened over night, the dark and tree line hid the flames and smoke clouds. It’s too big to be a natural fire so we think there’s bandits or somethin’ that way” I wanted to swear so badly at that moment but, it would have just made the situation worse. Now not only do we have to find civilization and get them to help us but now we might have a hoard of bandits on our tail as well… this is just swell.

“We need to get to a town quickly… preferably one with guards” I ignored Eric nodding along with me and focused on Morgana and the absolutely horrified look on her face. For a moment I assumed it was because of the threat of bandits or something until it hit me… Arthur was traveling that way! Drowning my alarm in fake confidence I placed what I assumed was a comforting hoof on Morgana’s shoulder to get her attention… she has tears in her eyes.

“Don’t worry, he should be long passed whatever happened there” That was a lie, but it seemed to actually help her. Sniffing a bit she wiped the tears from her eyes and gave me a shaky nod like she was still having trouble believing that. The fact that the time it would have taken for Arthur to reach the end of the forest that far away matches right up to when we assume whatever attack happened makes my heart a bit heavier with every emotion locked inside. A deep breath added a bit more dirt on top of the casket that held my more erratic emotions and with only the smallest amount of anger and panic I acknowledged the fact that it's going to take a bit longer for me to find a place to break down. By the time Morgana and I had recomposed ourselves Aaron had returned with five other pegasi players following him.

“Now that you’re all caught up, Sarah had the idea of sending the pegasi players ahead to search for a town… oddly enough there are only six pegasus players, including your friend” Again with the pegasi mystery, this also makes me wonder why there aren’t any gryphons, changelings, or dragons as I saw those as options as well. The lack of pegasi actually made me realize something so important it actually made me jolt in place, my sudden movement drew the eyes of the whole group. I ignored their questioning gazes and threw my gaze upwards once again.

“The clouds… “ This apparently wasn’t a good enough answer for them as they confusedly flicked back and forth from me to the sky.

“Yes? They're very… white?” After a moment of all of us staring at the sky the first one to get onto the same page as me was actually the quietest of all of us Sarah.

“They're moving on their own!” The gravity of such a statement along with the fact that there are hardly any pegasi did not paint a very good picture, some horrible might have happened to all of the pegasi.

Author's Note

So... a lot of just talking in this chapter but, valid question are being asked and new threats are being weighed...
Sorry for taking so long with this chapter, as you probably saw in the blog I got a new drawing tablet and I have been drawing none stop.
I even drew some of the characters! Though I am an amateur at drawing so if someone thinks they can do better then by all means please try, it would be an honor. :twilightblush:

2/1/2024 Update: There was an error, redraw in comments :pinkiehappy:

Ch 10: In Which to Take a Life

Chapter 10: In Which to Take a Life

I thought that now that we had a plan to act on, it would be easier. Then I remembered that the six of us were surrounded by over fifty panicking and traumatized players. Our first move was to address everyone and explain our plan and let me tell you… it was like herding cats. Most of the players were already watching all of us like hawks but, the moment we actually turned to address them the flood gates just burst wide open. The previously quiet was viciously ripped away as what sounded like every single player started yelling questions at us simultaneously. It felt like high school rallies all over again, just everyone yelling and talking over one another and none of us could make them quiet down or get a word in edgewise. So many different colored players were shoving each other out of the way while they tried to speak to one of us. I even had to separate a few of them with my levitation when small fights started to break out. My mounting frustration reached a head when a green earth pony player separated from the crowd and aggressively charged at Morgana. Now I’ve said it once I’ll say it again, I am no white knight. I’m not courageous or brave enough to just jump into danger without prompting… forest notwithstanding. But when I saw a player charge my friend with what seems to be the intent to harm… to put it lightly I was not pleased. Though to be perfectly honest, this guy probably isn’t even a threat to Morgana. She could and would buck this guy into the dirt but, that might make our situation worse.

“Stop!” I knew I wouldn’t be able to run between the charging player and Morgana in time so I tapped into one of my new spells. When it comes to the differences between the [Teleport] spell and the [Blink] spell, they actually span quite a few pages but the largest difference would be the fact that while [Teleportation] is space magic, [Blink] is beginner Arcane magic like my [Mana Control] skill so I was much more proficient with it. The spell itself worked like a slingshot, an almost invisible to the naked eye beam of magic shot and landed between the two ponies and like a magnet it pulled me along with it. Just like it’s namesake the actual travel over was like blinking and suddenly I was between the two, the sudden landing gave me a bit of vertigo though. My sudden disappearance and reappearance caught many players off guard, especially the changing player who actually hadn't slowed down. With a sizable chunk of my mana I pushed my levitation to its limit and grabbed hold of the earth pony and lifted him. After my move the plains were rendered silent once more as everyone watched me, I could tell that what I did next would determine whether or not they would listen to us.

“Are you calm?” My silver aura didn’t impede the movement of the lifted player at all, yet he was frozen still. After a moment he realized I was speaking to him and quickly answered me with frantic nodding.

“Good” And with that I slowly lowered him back to the ground while trying not to let the strain show on my face, that stunt had drained me of all of my mana. The blink itself actually only took a sliver of mana to use but I feel it will take more at longer distances or when used over and over. Once the player’s hooves softly met the ground and my silver aura had left him, he fell to his haunches and started taking deep breaths to calm himself while a few other players came over to try and help steady him. Taking my eyes off him I realized something pretty distressing, the crowd wasn’t watching all of us anymore… just me. I had their undivided attention and it made my heart feel like it was about to explode, a glance over at the other five just gave me Aaron giving me a rolling motion with his hoof to get on with it. So I did what I usually did with troublesome emotions, I stuffed them away and spoke.

“I’m sure you all have many questions and I’m doubly sure that you all are almost at your breaking point after everything that’s happened so far. But as you all could probably tell, we’re not exactly in the safest area at the moment” I punctuated that statement by gesturing at the dark rolling smoke clouds in the distance drawing everyone's attention to it. “ My name is Marcus and I am just as afraid as you are, but if all of us want to get through this then we can’t turn on each other” That seemed to inject a healthy amount of guilt into the crowd as many player’s heads drooped when their prior behavior was brought to light. When I was sure most of the player’s attention had returned to me, I started to walk over to Aaron and the five pegasi’s side.

“Now, we have a plan to get through this particular problem. A few of our Pegasus players have volunteered to fly out and scout out any nearby towns or threats. It gonna take a while for them to return so in the meantime, I want you all to settle down and consolidate your skills. Those skills may be the key to all of us surviving in this new world and maybe even returning home, so use your skill point carefully and if you have any questions feel free to ask any of us. We will be happy to try and shed some light on as many problems as we can” My throat was starting to hurt from talking so much, I think that is the most I've spoken in the past week or so. Aaron seems to have taken me finishing up as his que to start organizing the pegasi, I nudged David a bit to get his attention. He was still looking out into the crowd searching for threats, and said crowd had calmed down immensely and had started to disperse into their groups again aside from a few who I assume had questions.

“ Hey, did you put any points into [Flying]?” David seemed to relax immensely now that the threat of an angry mob wasn’t hanging over his head like a guillotine.

“Yeah, I used both points last night. It’s weird, pegasi shouldn’t be able to fly, but because of magic they can make themselves lighter than air” David actually seemed pretty interested in the mechanics and potential of what I assume is Pegasus flight magic which is good, have something good and interesting to focus on during these times will be good for him.

“Great, we can talk more about that later. Right now though, you need to go with Aaron and the other pegasi and scout out a town for us… and try to keep an eye out for bandits or something” Already seeming to know the severity of his task, David put a serious look on his face and have me an understanding nod before turning to go join the other five pegasi.

“Morgana, you alright?” My scarlet maned companion hadn’t moved from her spot behind me and when I finally turned to check on her, the look she was giving wasn’t exactly… pleased.

“I could have taken him y’know? While I do appreciate you looking out for me, I can take care of myself. I’m not as helpless as you two are making me out to be” Morgana’s annoyance caught me off guard and actually brought my thoughts to a halt. Now that I think about it, Morgana might be the most self sufficient person in our group. She figured out how to cook and forage in her new body before either of us could and she can hold her own in a fight.

“I-I’m sorry, but at the time a fight would have just made this whole thing worse. You’re right about how we've been treating you though, I won’t butt into every problem like that anymore. Unless you ask for help, I'll let you solve your own problems.” I can’t solve every problem and not everything is my business, my apologetic admittance seemed to be what Morgana had wanted and with a now happy smile that told me that there were no hard feelings she went to approach the few waiting players who had questions.

And just like that, all was calm. David and the other pegasi had split off in teams of two to search the area, David’s team flew directly away from the forest edge while the other two teams followed the tree line in opposite directions. Eric, Aaron, and Morgana were preoccupied speaking to other players and trying their best to answer their questions, the only one other than me who wasn’t doing anything was Sarah. Who had separated herself from the main crowd of players and obviously didn’t want to talk to anyone. Not having anything pressing to do even for a moment, felt weird. I considered looking through my menus again, but I remember that to everyone else I just looked like I was staring into space… though to be fair that’s what most of the other players are doing right now.

“E-excuse me?” My heart jumped to my throat for a moment, I was so stuck in my head that I didn’t even notice a player had walked up. It was a dark purple coated unicorn who actually didn’t have a mane, like it was roughly sheared off. There were a few locks of hair still left on his head in a few places though the lack of a mane just brought more attention to his bright amber eyes.

“Sorry to bother you, but you're pretty good at m-magic right?” I was suddenly very glad that the first question I got was one I could answer, that was how I spent the next few hours. A few other unicorns had wandered over and joined the conversation, the main topic bounced around. Starting with magic and its basic functions and how to control it, to ideas on how all this is happening. Some ideas were pretty funny and actually helped lighten the fluctuating mood, one idea was that everyone here had been kidnapped and hooked up to some kind of SAO type machine. It got a bit awkward when a few of the more religious players started debating whether their God was punishing them or wanted their help, the other players in the discussion group seemed really uncomfortable with the idea of bringing a higher power into discussion and just when it seemed like they were going to try and pull me into the borderline argument I was saved by the bell. In more specific terms, I was saved by the wings.

“They’re back!” The raised voice of Eric quickly sounded out after the sound of beating wings filled the air, turning my sights to the skies. I could barely see a team of two returning quickly, turning back to the large group of about twenty or so unicorns I gestured for them to follow as I ran back to the meeting point and judging by the sound of many hooves hitting the ground behind me they followed.

“Team three is back first!” Team three is the team that went along the tree line towards the large smoke cloud, I wasn’t expecting any good news from the two of them. Now that the two had flown closer I could see that they looked much more rough than when we sent them off.

“It is way worse than we thought!” The first one to speak was sky blue with a grey mane, the other Pegasus was just a solid white on both his mane and coat. Both pegasi were wearing the same haunted look, the white one even looked like he was going to be sick judging from the green tint on his muzzle.

“There is like an army of bandits staying in that town and they looked like they were getting ready to leave again!” Yeah, we’re definitely not going that way. Judging from the looks Aaron and Eric were sending each other they thought the same, maybe it wasn’t a good idea to have these other players follow me… I just realize I know none of their names.

“Incoming!” This was a voice I recognized instantly, David’s far off voice still reached our ears and pulled out attention back to the skies where both of the groups were returning from the same direction. The four pegasi all stumbled on their landing, but quickly recovered and at first I was glad that all of them were okay until I saw the alarmed look on David and his partners face.

“We both found a village, but one of them is about to be under attack! We saw a group of bandits head to the smaller one we found” For the love of-! Calm… The bandits probably sent a forward group to subdue the smaller town or something, we could probably just travel to the other town and avoid… Why is everyone looking at me?

“S-should we help…?” I-I don’t want to kill anybody! Non-human or not, but if I just ignore some people that need our help… What kind of example am I setting. This is another of those moments, if we're going to survive here then we're gonna need the help of the general populace.

“We’ll send our own team of fighters to go help the village, players who are experienced in combat and are willing to… do what is needed. While that team goes to help, everyone else will be led to the larger town to send some help the villagers way… understood” Many of the players nodded along to my plan, but none of them stepped forward to be part of the rescue team. I already have a feeling who’s going to be chosen to go… It seems both David and Morgana got the same feeling as well as David schooled his expression and started to adjust his swords and Morgana let out an irritated sigh before beginning to stretch for the run ahead.

“The hoard of bandits will most likely follow after their strike team in most likely a day, so this gives us plenty of time to get you all to the larger town and request help from the locals… let it be known that we cannot tell anyone about our true origins. As we don’t know if that will be good or bad for us… for all we know they might pull a MIB and take us all away, try and make up a story as to why none of us have a cutie mark and stick to it. We’ll try and get through this together” The knowledge that they were getting back to civilization(albeit an alien one) brought the moral way up, the previously haunted and depressed looks turned hopeful and happy. Smiles bloomed all around us and while I was slightly glad I was able to inject a bit of hope back into the crowd, the feeling was overshadowed by the deep fear that… I might have to kill someone soon. I wasn’t the only one facing a moral quandary like this as all six of us mirrored each other.

“We all know it’s gonna be you three…” Eric didn’t sound the least bit relieved about not having to go, Sarah took a few steps towards me and stared at me for a moment before starting to shrug off her ragged cloak.

“You’ll need this more than me” I was about to protest, but whatever I was about to say was cut short as she threw the cloak into my face. I sputtered and tried to take the cloak of my face and give it back, but when I tried to grab it with my levitation I felt what made this torn piece of fabric so special. The moment my aura touched it, it was like it solidified and was much easier to move around. If my normal levitation was akin to enforcing my will onto something then this was like making something an extension of my will. My magical dexterity was much smoother and refined, the amount of mana I expended actually went down.

“Whoa! This is… thank you!” I would be a fool to refuse this, especially when we’re going out to fight. I quickly put it on with some assistance from Sarah who was familiar with the straps and buckles, the cloak itself was thin so it didn’t weigh me down much and because of the tear at the bottom my legs were free to move meaning it was intentional. The thought of magical equipment and items didn’t really occur to me, now that we're about to get to civilization we could get items that might boost our attributes. My thoughts were interrupted by Aaron’s hoof meeting my shoulder.

“Marcus… Thank you, we’ll do our job then send some back up your way. See you on the other side” And with a firm nod he left to go organize the other players along with Eric who was speaking to Morgana and Sarah who sent me one last smile.

“David, lead the way” I wanted to get this done before I lost my nerve, David seemed to be made of sterner stuff when in the face of peril. I couldn’t see a flicker of hesitation in his eyes before he did a quick hop and a few flaps to send himself into the air. A glance towards Morgana only showed me just how ready she was, eyes narrowed and bag fastened she was ready to run. Taking another breath to steady myself and failing miserably, I tried to mirror my two friends' conviction.

“Let’s get this over with” And with that, we left.

Author's Note

Yaay! :yay: another chapter, another moral quandary.
Poor Marcus is being forced to be social by peer pressure :trollestia:
I finished drawing David finally:

Hope you enjoy and sorry if some of the dialog or speeches are a bit long winded, a lot needed to be said in those moments.

Ch 11: Fear is the Mind Killer

Author's Note

Gore Warning!

Hope You Enjoy!

Ch 11: Fear is the Mind Killer

Chapter 11: Fear is the Mind Killer

The run wasn't entirely too difficult, even for me. David’s flight level wasn’t high enough to go too fast and his stamina made it so he had to keep running speed with us. We slowed slightly whenever one of us needed a slight rest to get our stamina back, no one spoke during the run. The three of us were focused on getting to the village before too much damage could happen, along the way I summoned my wisp back and it was easily able to keep up with us.

“I can see the village up ahead!” I didn’t need the ability to fly to know where the village was, rising in the distance was a slowly growing plume of smoke which didn’t bode well for the villagers. I had to crush my rising urgency back down before I tired myself out before our battle began. I was already at less than half stamina so I slowed slightly to let it start recovering, as we crested the last hill we saw the sorry state of the village. I could tell at a mere once over that the village wasn’t large enough to have its own guard force, but judging from the few bleeding bodies on the ground they might have a militia. There’s five of them that I could see, two had just finished killing off the sixth militia pony and another two had started to chase the civilians into their homes while the last had cornered a mother and her two children. Suddenly I was very glad I wasn’t someone who would freeze up at a sign of danger, I knew time was of the essence so I acted immediately.

“David, The mother! Morgana, The houses! I got the other two!”

“Right!” And like that we split off to help, I knew Morgana would be at a disadvantage against her bandits so with a mental nudge I sent my wisp following after her. David sped off to the right at a breakneck speed, flapping his wings and running on the ground at the same time to try and save the mother and her children. I lost sight of Morgana when she split off and turned into a gap between two farmhouses with my wisp following close behind leaving me sprinting towards the two currently unaware bandits.

Now that I was closer I could tell that only one of them was an earth pony while the other was actually a griffon, that was going to be an issue. The Griffon was wielding an old looking cutlass or saber while the pony had a simple hatchet resting at their hooves, the fallen militia ponies’ weapons lied on the ground stewing in their cooling blood untouched. The two bandits were currently searching the bodies for anything valuable, what I am about to do cannot register on an emotional level. For the first time I felt [Perception] activate fully and suddenly I felt like I could plan out everything… so that's what I did.

Judging by the lack of armor on the Griffin but the higher quality weapon, they must rely on their agility to fight. First I would use [Fire Magic Control] and imbue my first few shots with fire magic to set the griffon on fire. Then I would [Blink] onto a nearby rooftop and fire down at the earth pony and griffon. The griffon would be preoccupied with putting out his feathers and be unable to defend against my mana blasts. Judging from the lack of communication between them and the disgusted look on the Earth pony’s face there is not camaraderie between them so the likelihood of him staying to help the avian is unlikely. The pony will most likely seek cover after the initial shots and will willingly abandon the griffon, the only cover in the area are a few covered porches that surround the pseudo-square we’re all in and an upturned cart which is much closer. By then my mana would be less than half so the most optimal attack would be to use a majority of the remaining mana and [Blinking] across the square and landing behind the selected cover and landing a point blank shot using the rest of my mana which would at the very least kill him… execute.

Simply envisioning the whole fight took less than a second but left me with a headache, imbuing my magic with fire felt like holding my hand over a lot of steam. When I fired the first two shots I figured the beams would impact the griffon’s side and just set those areas on fire, but that isn’t what happened. The fire imbued magic beams looking like two identical fire balls flying through the air, looking like the tried and true spell [Fireball] that anyone interested in fantasy would recognize. So I almost lost my composure when I watched both shots crash into the griffon’s side and instead of bursting instead splashed onto his face and back like napalm, angrily burning the same silver color as the campfire last night. For a mere moment the Griffon wasn’t aware what was happening… then the screams started. The griffon’s feathers didn’t burn like I expected instead they started to melt and eat into the griffon’s tissue making it look like he was slowly melting into grey slime, the exposed muscle and sinew all taking on a silver hue as my flames ate away at him.

At this point my mind was divided into two, one side was drowning in the horror I had just inflicted which the other had gone into autopilot and had [Blinked] up onto a nearby overlooking rooftop. Both bandits were on the ground now for completely different reasons, Griffon’s legs had actually given way after the fire had eaten away most of his shoulders and thighs leaving him a writhing mass of silver burning flesh and bone. The earth pony had actually fallen to the ground out of fear which I used to my advantage, three not imbued shots were sent his way and only one missed. The first shot had nailed his right foreleg making him drop his already slack hatchet, the next shot followed the first and further mutilated his right foreleg leaving it a pulpy bloody mess leaving it barely hanging it one by a few strands of sinew and skin and the last shot struck the burning griffon putting him out of his misery while the last flew past the pony’s head alerting him of my position. The earth pony’s pain filled screams fell on deaf ears and I watched him half drag himself half run towards the upturned wagon like I predicted. I had just enough mana left over to [Blink] down and past the wagon behind the trembling bandit, I primed my last shot.

“Wai-!” I didn’t give him a chance, I fired my mana beam the moment he turned to face me so I had an up close shot of the effects that would haunt me for a long time. It was almost like it happened in slow motion, my mana beam slowly flew from my horn and traveled through the air for less than half a second. Acting like a true laser it entered through his left eye burning an ugly charcoal black tunnel through the large expressive organ, it wasn’t even all the way into his head before the beam burst fully. Part ways into the earth pony's head the beam finally detonated transforming their brain into mush and sending the other eyeball flying out of their head along with a spray of greymatter that stained the ground… huh, pony eyeballs are actually disks, not orbs. I got all of three steps away before throwing up, as much as I wanted to run off and find my friends I needed a moment to regenerate my mana… I hope they're okay.

(PoV Change: David)

I couldn’t understand how calm Marcus was during all of this, seeing what the ponies were doing to their own people was sickening, but instead of freezing up in horror like me Marcus quickly issued orders that took our strengths into account. Shaking myself out of my fear induced stun Morgana and I answered in kind.

“Right!” In relation to the entrance of the village we were coming from its left side so we could see where each of our targets went. I had to take to the sky for a moment to see where the mother and children were, the brown coated mare was cut and nicked in a few places but wasn’t in any worse condition. The two foals she hid behind her were crying and the advancing unicorn bandit was loving every second of it, I didn’t even hesitate. I moved as fast as I could using both my wings and hooves minus one which was used to hold my now unsheathed sword, my approach wasn’t exactly stealthy. The unicorn must have heard me coming as he whipped around and brought the sword I didn’t see before to bare defending against my first slash. Pushing off of him and circling around him in the air, I landed between him and the family. Even though I just essentially cornered myself I didn’t think about it, I am certain I could beat this guy but so sure I could do that and defend the family at the same time. I needed to get them out of here, not wasting any time I lunged forward with a stab to try and get some space. The Unicorn using the near infinite dexterity of levitation twirled his blade around to bat mine away and get closer. I had to use my wings to stop myself from over extending and leaving myself open, his slashed had much more strength that I was expecting so block his attacks actually hurt a bit and I was actually worried that my sword was about to break… it wasn’t in the best condition.

“What’s wrong!?” I was on the back foot, him using levitation meant he could pretty much attack from every direction and from any position while I couldn’t really advance without leaving the family vulnerable. I could hear the mother and her children crying behind me, I couldn’t lose here. A sharp crack sounded out after I blocked a stronger than usual overhead slash and my blood ran cold, my sword is breaking and I need to end this fight now! I deflected the next attack into the wall instead of blocking it, the unicorn had to actually stop moving and concentrate on removing the sword from the wooden wall instead of advancing. I have a plan, I took a glance at the ground and found what I was looking for. By now the unicorn had gotten his sword unstuck and had returned to slowly advancing with a gleeful smile on his face, I waited until he was close enough to enact my plan and when he was about to lunge at me again I started my trap.

With a quick and hard flap of my wings I sent the sandy gravel up and into his eyes, blinding him and at the same time sending me up and over him. I never even gave him the chance to start flailing around, with a quick aerial flip I swung my damaged blade around and two things shattered, my sword… and his horn. I landed behind him holding my sword's empty handle while he was sent to the ground holding the bloody stump where his horn used to be, I didn’t even need to turn and say anything to the mother as she had already turned and ran for safety. The loss of my sword was kinda sad, but it wasn't the best weapon in the first place so it was bound to happen sooner or later. I would take the unicorn’s sword but it actually had no handle, it’s like it was made to be used by a unicorn’s levitation. A quick kick to the head sent the screaming unicorn to sleep and left me with an 80 pound unconscious bandit to drag… ugh I wish I had magic, I wonder how the others are doing.

(PoV Change: Morgana)

I’m starting to get worried about Marcus, it can’t be healthy to keep forcing himself like this. I could tell just like last time when we fought the lion he had pushed his emotions away and didn’t even acknowledge them, though I can’t say i’m any better. As awful as it is to say, I'm kinda excited to go and fight. Just the idea of three heroes of light going to save the innocent from the evil bandits just tickled me! Here I could act just like any fantasy hero I wanted, I didn’t have to be the meek quiet little girl who only spoke when spoken to. Here I can be the main character I always wanted to be. I heard Marcus tell out our jobs and was actually happy he gave me the larger job of getting the bandits out of the houses, I tried and maybe failed at stopping my enthusiasm from leaking into my voice as David and I responded.

“Right!” The silver glow of Marcus’s familiar caught my attention as I ran off, a glance behind me showed me that he had it follow me… which was nice of him. I took a shortcut between a few houses to get closer to the bandits chasing one of the various families, it looks like most of the village had enough time to barricade themselves inside their homes unlike these unlucky few.

“Okay… deep breath, c’mon wisp!” The deep breath helped a bit, but it was mostly to help me get into character. First impressions are important, and I know just the persona to imitate. The three bandits managed to pry open one of the barricaded houses and rushed inside so I quickly figured out what to do next… this was going to be fun. The house was a normal one story thatched house with windows and everything so I didn’t give it more than a cursory glance, affixing a cocky grin to my face I entered the building making sure my hoof steps could be heard… and they were heard alright

“Heellloo La-Mares, Do any of you want to play a game?” My entrance seemed to have genuinely confused them, one bandit had froze during what looked like a fight with a pretty bruised older stallion, another seems to have been in the middle of stealing food, while the last was standing over who I assume is the older stallion’s wife. I was hoping for some pre-fight banter, maybe a few jabs back and forth but I guess the one stealing food wanted this to be over with. Pulling his hand-er hoof axe out and changing me with it wasn’t his smartest idea, Marcus’s wisp shot a blast straight into his face blinding him and giving me plenty time to simply step to the right as his charge carried him past me and with a quick wind up I bucked him in the side send him flying out the open door. Turning back to the now gobsmacked bandits I said two words while keeping my cocky grin.

“Two points” The other bandits seemed to take this as a sign that going to fight the little girl who sent one of their teammates flying is a good idea. Again Marcus’s wisp took it upon itself to go and distract the one who was over the mare while the other charged me with a sword in hoof. I was pretty sure the same move wasn’t going twice on these guys so instead I grabbed the closest thing to me and swung it around. Now I will admit, i’m still getting used to the whole ‘super earth pony strength’ thing so both the bandit and I were surprised when what I grabbed was apparently the leg of the dining room table which instead of breaking off brought the whole table around and crashed into the bandit. He was sent flying even faster than the last guy through the open door and guessing by the following two thuds he crashed into the first guy as well which made me chuckle a bit.

“Four points hehe” The last guy was still swinging at the wisp with his club and was missing horribly, Marcus’ wisp was flying circles around him and maybe even mocking him from how it stops for one moment only to speed off again once the bandit gets close. While it was really funny I needed to end this, so I dropped the slightly cracked table and approached the extremely annoyed bandit. Right when he was about to swing and inevitably miss again I grabbed his hoof with my own and before he was able to react I turned and pulled, I needed a few spins to get enough speed but soon I was spinning the bandit around with the ease of a bodybuilder. The spinning was making me really dizzy so when I released the bandit in the direction I thought the open door was, what I heard instead was the sound of glass shattering. Shaking the dizziness off I saw that instead of throwing him out of the house I had thrown him out of the window…

“Heh oops… fowl I guess” Quickly following the defenestrated bandits I saw that all of them had landed in roughly the same place, one of them was helping up the one I had thrown through the window who was covered in small cuts and nicks while the first one was standing and glaring in my direction.

“You’ll regret that you whorse!” Hey! That’s not fair! How come they can swear but we can’t! The first bandit’s words alerted the other two that I was there and they readied themselves to all charge at me… which is exactly what I want. A few of the houses had started to open up to watch our little confrontation, I hope they enjoy the show.

“She lines up for the pitch… “ A wordless battle cry rang from the three as they charged, but I tuned them out as I concentrated. I felt the deep hearty flow of my magic bubble up until it coated my hooves then I waited for them to get close enough, 50 feet, 35 feet, 20 feet, Now [Earth Manipulation]!

“And it’s a Homerun!” Rearing up onto my hind legs and quickly slamming them back down was all the motion I needed for my magic to know what I was doing, the moment my hooves impacted the ground a wall of stone shot up from the ground right underneath the three bandits sending them skyward, their battle cry petering out the higher they went. When they started to fall back down though did their battle cry turn to screams and when they landed in the nearby bushes unconscious did I know I had won.

“Yeah I know I’m awesome, don’t need to say it all at once” I certainly felt awesome.

Chapter 12: But A Speech Works Just As Well

Never in my whole life would I have ever imagined that I would gag at the smell of chicken cooking. After the death of the two bandits, the flames that had melted over the griffin’s body started to shrink and die out now that they were dead. I could feel my rising nausea over my actions though it was quickly dwarfed by my absolute horror of what my magic could do to other creatures. I thought all my [Fire Magic] would do is just burn his wings so he wouldn’t fly away then I would… deal with him in a much quicker way. Burning to death is probably the worst way to go, I took a few steps to distance myself from the splatter of grey matter and blood that was before me and directed my attention to the disgusting and delicious smelling corpse of the griffin. My brain immediately thought the smell was just delicious food, but my new body was roiling in disgust at both the sight and the smell.

The wings and armor of the griffin had been reduced to a sticky boiling goo that reminded me of glue while the rest of his body had been thoroughly cooked to a golden brown. A thought floated up from a darker part of my mind ‘This is the best chicken I've ever cooked!’ and immediately I felt horrible for even thinking that. The sound of coughing broke me from my staredown with a corpse, one of the downed earth ponies was still breathing! Pushing whatever trauma I’d developed aside I rushed over to the stallion. He’s an oak brown older stallion with a fully grey’d mane wearing what looked to be the bare bones of a leather chestplate. He had a sizable bruise that covered over half his face and an eye that was swollen shut, but the worst of it was the long gash that ran from the side of his neck to his back. Most of the damage seemed to be non-life threatening but there were some deeper sections that were steadily gushing blood, it looked like a sword peeled a layer of his skin off and only cut deeper here and there. It wasn’t a pretty sight, his one working eye opened slightly when he heard me coming near. A shuttering cough was the result of him trying to say anything, the amount of blood pouring from his wound increased every time he tried to speak.

“Shhh, don’t speak. You’re going to be okay, we’re here to help. I’m gonna need you to stay awake sir… can you do that for me?” The stallion didn’t move an inch for fear of opening up his wound more, but his eye did widen immensely giving me an even greater view of the absolute mortal terror in his eyes. Suddenly how I felt about this whole situation didn’t matter, the question whether or not these ponies were real didn’t matter to me anymore, I didn’t even care about my recent kills anymore. All I cared about was making sure no one else had that look in their eye, that no one would ever have to feel this pain. Using a free hoof I reached down to the frayed edge of the cloak and (with a small assist from my magic) tore a long strip away from it. The energizing feeling from before lessened slightly but not completely, stepping closer to the stallion I gently started to lift his head with my hooves. I saw his face twist up in pain from being moved and being touched like this so I tried to work fast. The deepest and most pressing part of the wound was near the beginning where a larger vein might have been nicked so I put the majority of the makeshift bandage there and made sure not to tie it too tight with my [Levitation] which was slightly difficult.

“W-will he survive?” I had to physically stop myself from dropping the old stallions head in surprise when I heard that voice. I turned my attention away from the stallion for just a moment and checked behind me, standing behind me wasn’t just one pony like I expected but like half of the village. They had left their hiding spots after I… ‘dispatched’ the bandits nearby and I was too focused to notice anything that isn’t a threat or pressing problem. I was about to answer the mare when I felt something under my hooves change… they had gone still.

Whipping my head back to the stallion I could see his breathing slow to a stop, the blood spilling from the wound starting to cease altogether. The previous cold from the fight started to spread through my chest once again as I realized I just watched someone die in my arms… I think this is the first time something has really gotten to me here. I was ripped from my horrified silence by the most heart-wrenching cry I've ever heard in my life, I was shoved to the side as a mare that looked younger than me threw herself at the body of who I assume is her father sobbing heavily. I should have felt something at this sight but everything just felt cold and distant… Am I in shock?

“ Why… Why didn’t you save him?” Through her tears the mares words almost went unheard yet in this silent square it might have well been a scream to the heavens. The mare’s silver mane draped over her face as she turned to look at me, I didn’t need to see her face to know it was twisted in fury.

“Why didn't you just… fix it with magic like you unicorns always do?” Removing herself from her father’s corpse she stood and took a heavy step towards me, I idly noted the sound of many hooves approaching from my left and the sound of wings above me.

“If you weren't bucking around, my dad would still be alive!” Her high pitched voice wavered as she shouted in my face, sending a few drops of saliva into my face. Instead of feeling anger or indignation at being the target for her grief I felt… annoyed, in any other situation I would sympathize and try and help but right now…

“... Are you done?” The ice in my chest has turned to fire, if an already silent crowd could go even quieter that is what would have happened. My words seemed to have been the exact opposite of what everyone was expecting, I turned my gaze down into the young mare’s amber eyes and I could almost see the down right infernal indignation rising up in her but right before she would resume her yelling I spoke again.

“Because I don’t have the time nor the luxury of anger, now if you don’t want this to happen again on a much larger scale then all of you need to listen to us!” And just like that I have everyone’s attention, I turned my gaze towards the collection of villagers and saw both David and Morgana among the crowd.

“There is a veritable army of bandits that will be here in about 1 days time and if you want to survive then you need to let us help you!” The grave news seemed to send a spark of panic racing through the village along with a myriad of different emotions, some started to cry on the spot as if they had no hope.

“We need to evacuate!” A pony on my right sporting a few bruises spoke out, if the whole town tried to evacuate they would be caught by the bandits in about half a day.

“No! The bandits would catch up to you in no time if you all tried to evacuate. We have allies who’ve gone to a neighboring town that have an established guard force, if we can hold out long enough then they can help” The mere mention of a possible savior visibly raised the moral of the townsfolk by leaps and bounds, a hoof on my shoulder brought my attention back to the formerly distraught daughter who now wore a stony determined look.

“What do we need to do?” A quick glance around showed me that many of the villagers wore similar looks, allowing a grin onto my face. I spoke loud enough for everyone to hear me.

“We plan, prepare and if we need to… fight”

After that the village was a flurry of movement, the three of us knew we wouldn’t be able to account for every eventuality so we did what we could. We divided the village into three main teams, Morgana’s group was given the goal of helping make defenses and rounding up weapons of any kind and held the majority of the villagers. With Morgana’s newly revealed [Earth Manipulation] skill the defenses were made much easier. David was instructed to take a few villages and plan out an escape route back and around the village leading to town where the rest of the players are. I on the other hand/hoof have started to take a broader look at my magic, my group was actually the smallest out of the three. My group consisted of Me, an older grey stallion who goes by the name Pumice which is kind of funny as he might be the densest earth pony I have ever met, another light blue stallion who looked around my age who volunteered to help me when he heard I was doing something related to magic… he didn’t introduce himself so I’m just gonna refer to him as blue until he does, and lastly and most surprisingly is the mare who was yelling at me. Her name is actually Lucky Harvest and after hearing about the encroaching army I could tell that her mind immediately turned to revenge, I’m not really an advocate for revenge but in our situation we need as much help as we can get.

“Hey Blue, can you go grab me some chalk or something?” Currently the four of us were in a nearby house, I had cleared out all the furniture in the living room to make space for something very special. After a few silent moments the only blue pony in the room perked up as he realized I had referred to him, a muffled snrk from Pumice almost broke my train of thought.

“U-uh My names n-not… okay… “ Not even bothering to correct me Blue rushed out of the house to grab what I requested, a soft feminine chuckle behind me let me know that Harvest thankfully didn’t go completely cold after the death of her father.

“Pumice, I’m going to need you to go grab a few other ponies and bring back as many small to medium sized stones as you can find” Pumice didn’t even waste time responding and I didn’t even need to turn around to know he left, his large stomping steps told me as much.

“What, Are we just gonna throw rocks at them? Maybe tally the score?” Lucky’s mocking tone actually broke my concentration for a moment and made me chuckle at how close she got to my plan.

“Close, but not quite… Let’s just say I’m tipping the scales to our favor” And with the needlessly cryptic sentence I turned back to what held my attention for so long.

Fledgling Thunder Lion Summon: A deadly creature that is spoken of in both

terror and reverence, worshiped as a sort of protecting spirit by most Pegasus

tribes this creature is able to harness the power of lightning and strike down its

prey before they even know what has happened

Mana Cost: Medium

Skill Level 0: 0.00%

Requirements:

2/2 Thunder Lion Materials

Felled 1/1 Thunder Lion(s)

Cost: 1 Sp

First creation of summon requires 1 minute of ritual cast time, over time the lion shall level up until it reached maturity

Be warned, the slaying of a Thunder Lion is a mark of strength in most cultures and the knowledge of your kill will attract challengers

Ember Imbuement: Allows the unstable enchantment and combination of items and magic

Skill Level: Max

Fragment Passive Skill

Elements: Fire

These two skills might just be the key to not only surviving this but actually winning this battle.

Author's Note

I'm Back!!!!
Sorry this took so long, I actually was swamped with homework for a while and then me and my family went on vacation to the snow... which was really fun!

So to really drive home the apology I decided to explain the whole mana thing, throughout the story I just say that the character ran out of mana arbitrarily and not show the numeric values behind it. But I actually do have a reason behind it... ( Don't press X to Doubt)
So I interpret Mana not as internal pools of magic that vary from person to person but a veritable infinite spring of mana that comes from the 'core' (Or Soul/Chakras. Whatever you wish to refer to it as) of that creature. All creatures have infinite mana here, but the real limiting factor here is how much mana can a creature withstand before 'Burning' themselves out. If too much mana is used too fast or if the creature goes way past their tolerance levels then there will start to be physical repercussions like actual severe burns or even brain damage. This damage could be reversed by the use of 'Mana Potions" but these are going to be extremely addictive and harmful to the body.
The reason why it seems the players can go from No Mana back to full in no time flat is because human minds are used to much heavier strain that that of creatures from Equestria, Though of course this means that the absolute bottomless amount of mental illnesses and afflictions that can already affect humans are almost doubled in Equestria.
Who knows what can happen to a human mind changed by magic and its dependencies.

Hope this helps you understand my rats nest of a mind a bit

Chapter 13: The Fires Of War Part 1

Chapter 13: The Fires of War Part 1

The night is always darkest before the dawn, after all of our preparations the village is now radically different. The previously clear streets and alleyways have turned into stone mazes and wooden trenches, previously damaged houses have been quickly torn down and turned into makeshift weapons and armor. I was currently wearing a makeshift leather cuirass made from a cannibalized leather chair and some damaged militia armor. I stuffed the magic cloak under the armor so I could keep the buffs. The grass woven bag had been thrown away after the use of its contents damaged it beyond use, currently I was having one more meeting with David and Morgana before the inevitable battle began.

“Alright, let’s run through this one more time… David it’s your job to focus on any flyers that enter the battle, you don’t need to go for a kill shot on all of them just ground them or preoccupy them long enough for someone to pick them off. If you're not confident in taking someone on then retreat, no sense in risking your life on something that can be easily avoided” David nodded his head solemnly and turned back to adjusting the sheath and belt of his new sword, well… new in a sense. The cutlass that used to belong to the now golden brown griffin now rested on the back of my pegasus friend and thankfully he seemed to like it quite a bit. His own words were “ I’ve always liked the pirate look!” so I took that as approval.

“Morgana, you are the closest thing to a tank we have so you are going to be fighting with the main force. Because of your passive super strength you are going to be our face of the battle, morale is probably the most important part of any battle so when the villagers see you kicking a- flank left and right that should both embolden them and discourage the bandits. The sme warning for David goes for you too, if you get injured or you feel you’re getting overwhelmed then fall back and get yourself back into order just don’t overdue the healing magic.” Morgana was a bit busy using her mouth to pull some leather straps on her new hoof gauntlets to answer any more than an affirming grunt.

“If either of you are injured or just can’t get out of a bad fight then just call out to me, I'll be on overwatch and will be taking care of any troublesome combatants. Though it may not always be me who helps you, I’ll still hear you and send help your way.” The sound of someone knocking on the door interrupted anything else I was going to say. Normally a simple door knock wouldn’t inspire such dread, but in this case the only reason why someone would come interrupt us would be because they had seen something.

“ Come in!” At the sound of my beckoning in trotted Lucky Harvest wearing a similar salvaged leather cuirass and what could be called a spear, her spear was something she had requested from me specifically after hearing my plan. The spear itself was just a metal pipe that was salvaged from a damaged house’s plumbing system, the unique part of it was the blade. The blade was just a knife that had been refitted enough to fit in the socket and be replaceable with the four other blades strapped to her sides.

“ The bandits main force has been spotted” I didn’t need to say anything to my two friends for all of us to know what to do next. Almost in sync the three of us rose to our hooves and started to leave the house with a modicum of hurry, none of us were looking forward to the battle no matter the amount of planning and preparation that had gone into this. All of us were expecting something to go wrong at some point or another and I was ready to roll with the punches.

“Everyone, get to your posts and wait for the signal” Leaving the house the four of us went our separate ways, David didn’t fly for fear of being seen by the encroaching bandit army and Morgana was still getting used to walking while wearing armor. Unlike the other three I didn’t walk deeper into the village but turned around to look at the roof of the house and with a quick [Blink] spell I was sent to the rooftops. I wasn’t alone up here, the rooftops of the village had remodeled with a lot of salvaged wood to make wooden walkways between them. Up there with me was a good number of the younger earth ponies that lived in the village, trotting past many of the drowsy or scared ponies I positioned myself to where the battle would most likely be and waited.

The villagers had been working on fortifying the village all night and were running on short naps and rest so martial skill wasn’t going to be the main decider of this battle. A few glints of light being reflected off the bandits weapons and armor in the distances was the biggest indicator of their approach. The low light of the early morning was the perfect cover for both sides, one side thought they were getting the jump on some unsuspecting villagers while we used the low light to set an ambush of our own.

I almost started to hold my breath once they entered the bounds of the village, the amount of bandits outnumbered us almost 3 to 1 and yet this didn’t sway my conviction about our victory in the slightest. A quick glance at my stamina and mana told me I was ready for battle and that [Perception] hadn’t activated again without me knowing. The moment the bulk of the bandits reached the main square was the moment I launched my plan into action. A little tidbit about the [Thunder Lion Summon] skill that I personally like is how ‘flashy’ the summoning is, in this case a massive bolt of lightning falling from the sky and striking the middle of the square is the perfect signal to begin an attack.

“Attack!” The fierce voice of Morgana echoed over the square after the lightning had landed revealing the medium sized cloud creature sparking erratically, when I first summoned the lion I was surprised to see it was actually a cub at first and I had to level it up to age it up… of course that doesn’t mean it's any less deadly. Morgana stepped into the square revealing herself to the bandits before raising up onto her hind legs and slamming them down with enough force to crack the ground beneath her. All over the square the ground quaked for a moment sending many of the bandits to the ground as metal poles rose from the ground scattered all over the square. I had to throw a large chunk of my mana to my lion to pull this next trick off, after all the metal poles had risen out of the ground my lion let out a roar more akin to a thunder clap and out of its gaping maw launched a beam of pure plasma that flew straight into one pole then bounced to the next, then the next, and next until the square had become a maze of electric fences and earthen walls. Of course a good number of bandits were fried during this and I don’t mean simply shocked or electrocuted I mean eyes exploding out of their heads, flash cooking bodies, or straight up being turned to charcoal.

“Forward!” Someone in the bandits ranks disregarded their surprise at the ambush and urged their troops forward mirroring Morgana and the villagers… for all of two seconds until a flaming rock exploded against his head, sending him to the ground with a sizable chunk of his ear missing. It was almost like someone hit the pause button on the bandits as most of the paused to look up at where the flaming projectile came from and there perched up on a rooftop just like me was Pumice leisurely tossing an ominously red glowing stone about the size of his hoof into the air. Sending a smile that promised nothing good down towards the bandits, Pumice tossed the stone higher than before then deftly spun on one hoof and bucked the stone as hard as he could down into the bandit legion. It was like watching the sudden landing of a meteorite, once launched the stone became engulfed in flames and exploded into molten shrapnel after hitting a griffin straight in the chest and lodging maybe half of it in their sternum. For a moment I thought I smelled cooked chicken again before shaking myself and paying attention again as the rest of the villagers stepped up on the surrounding roof tops and started to rain hellfire upon the bandits who’s numbers now mirrored our own mostly.

I paid no attention to the screams or the skin crawling horrible sounds of metal carving through flesh, I watched my friends fight for their lives, I watched my Lion claw apart some poor pony and fry another, I watched David swoop out of the air holding a pink pegasus by the remains of her mutilated wing and throw her down to die via trampling by her own fellow bandits. Every once in a while I would spot a unicorn getting ready to cast some larger scale magic and would snipe them from the rooftops, not all shots were kill shots but all were lethal. Sometimes a bandit would begin hitting their stride and I would have to deal with them via a mana beam or lightning bolt, then like any plan it crashed and burned… Near the back of the bandit ranks an enraged cry rang out before a bunch of villagers were sent flying from something very large moving very fast.

I watched in shock as the bandits opened ranks to let through an absolute tank of an earth pony. Bull rushing through was a massive dark blue earth pony wearing what I could only call berserker armor, reinforced leather armor that barely covered his vital areas with a large furry collar and similar cuffs. Though his size and attire wasn’t the biggest surprise about him, it was his weapon… A massive 5 ft long hunk of steel that looked impossible to wield… yet here this guy was swinging it around with one hoof. The thought of having this guy running around with the ‘Dragon Slayer’ of all things wasn’t going to end well for us, the Guts wannabe was charging head first at Morgana’s defensive line with his parody of a blade wound up ready to send her and probably the rest of the line flying in one swing. A glance at my mana showed me that I was back up to ¾ mana capacity so I sent a concentrated blast of mana at him, I thought that would have been the end of it… I was oh so wrong.

The beam of mana cut through the air almost soundlessly compared to the deafening sounds of combat surrounding it and yet almost like he had seen it the whole time Guts stopped his charge on a dime and turned to use the flat of his blade to block it. The beam of mana couldn’t even scratch his blade as it crashed atgainst in in a flurry of silver sparks, once the struggle ended Guts moved his blade from his line of sight and locked eyes with me from across the square… I'm in danger.

Just as fast as before, Guts went from still to absolutely moving in no time flat making a b-line towards me. I wasn’t the only one to notice the absolute behemoth heading my way and was just as opposed to that as I was, an almost hail of flaming rocks were launched in his direction but no matter the number of exploding stones and shrapnel that hit him he did not slow even for a moment. The once white fur that came from his armor was reduced to blackened cinders of hair and his once scar covered blue fur turned almost black once he got closer and closer. I now realize he’s not slowing down at all, the detached state I was once embodying went up in smoke once I and the others on the same rooftop realized what he was going to do.

“Oh ffff-Fudge!” While I may have been the first to realize what Guts was doing I was certainly the last to react as all the other ponies on the roof ran to another while I stood there like an idiot. Pouring on the last of his speed Guts ran towards the house I was standing on and with a massive leap, launched himself with an extra spin at the house becoming a one pony demolition crew. Feeling the roof beneath me begin the cave and implode I remembered something both very important and very stupid about me… I can [Blink]. With only a gentle flex of the magical muscles I went from standing on a collapsing building to safely on the ground near my lion who I recalled near me for safety. Another glance about at the battle lightened my outlook a bit, the battle was going in our favor. The beginning attack and barrage had cut down on their forces massively and with the continued barrage of artillery those who weren’t killed were injured in some way or another.

“Come Get Some!” The familiar scream of Lucky Harvest from my left drew my attention and I turned to watch her take her now flaming spear and stab an approaching unicorn in the eye before whipping around and nearly beheading a nearby griffoness with the flaming blade. It was an incredible sight to behold, a earth pony charged her but didn’t get far as she simply turned and threw her spear like a javelin at him and instead of getting impaled like one would expect the flaming blade exploded in a shower of shrapnel and fire taking the earth pony’s face clean off and making him look like a vague approximation of a meatball… if we ever get out of this I’m going vegetarian. Not paying the loss of her weapon any mind, Lucky just ran over and picked up the slightly blackened pole and reached back to pull out a knife from her right side and refit the blade of the spear which promptly ignited back into flames… best idea ever. The sounds of crunching wood and glass smashing brought me a massive amount of dread as I slowly turned around and saw the remains of the house slowly rise up into the air.

“That… That’s not fair… “

Author's Note

I got the idea for the berserker from a friend of mine.
Just imagine his armor as the fluffy Skyrim nord armor
I hope your enjoying the battle :pinkiecrazy:
There's a reason why Marcus is so despondent and cold during the battle but that will come later for now though... Que boss fight music.
I might post the PoV's of both Morgana and David during the battle but they might not be as interesting as Marcus's. If you want their view then simply tell me in the comments, I'd be happy to include them.
Hope you enjoyed :twilightblush:

Chapter 14: The Fires Of War Part 2

Chapter 14 The Fires of War Part 2:

“That… That’s not fair… “ The near deafening background noise of battle was almost lulled to silence when the demolished house’s remains started ever so slowly bulging upwards. With a near feral roar the barely intact remains of the roof was thrown away freeing the blood stained berserker none the worse for wear. Just blasting this guy with magic isn’t going to do much, besides a few observable burns on his face and some blood staining his front nothing has really broken his skin.

“I’m just gonna borrow this…” An injured bandit on the ground didn’t even complain as I reached down and pulled a slightly singed dagger from his hoof, at this point I care more about staying alive then being sanitary. Sticking the dagger into my mouth to hold I absentmindedly checked my mana and stamina, being selective with my magic payed off as I was almost full on mana besides a small slice that I was using to keep my lion summoned and my stamina was about ¾ full from [Perception] activating when the berserker appeared.

“YOUUU!!!” Oh god he spotted me! Clearing the rest of the way out of the wreckage with only a few swings of that massive girder he calls a sword, The Guts imitation made a b-line in my direction much to my rising dread and fear. Instead of bull charging like before Guts was slowly stomping his way towards me dragging his blade on the ground trailing a sizable divide in the ground. I just realized something alarming… all the fighting has really stopped, all the villagers and bandits have separated and gone to opposite ends of the village square just watching our standoff, even Morgana and David had moved to join the villagers with my lion being pulled along albeit looking very confused.

Of everything that could have happened, a one on one battle was not something I would have thought of… especially against a giant on roid rage! The area where we’re going to fight isn’t even really clear, there are bodies and weapons littering the ground… which is good for me I guess because I don’t think this dinky dagger is going to cut it (pun not intended).

The standoff didn’t last long, one moment the two of us were just standing there with death in our eyes then… both of us moved. Starting with an overhead swing that betrayed how much he trained with that massive sword, Guts aimed to take me out immediately using the length of his blade to his advantage. Too bad for him I just [Blinked] past the ground shaking blow over to his right foreleg and jamming the dagger as deep as it would go… which wasn’t far. About half of the blade entered his shoulder before something both disgusting and incredibly fascinating happened. I could visibly see the muscles under Guts’ skin contract and squirm before bunching up and sealing up the stab wound and trapping the blade inside… again I shall say.

“That just isn’t fair!” I had to roll under his barrel to avoid being bisected by Guts’ back swing that mulched a few corpses that were too close. What I wasn’t expecting was Guts spinning the rest of the way and sending a buck at me while I was still off balance. It felt like someone with a personal grudge took a brick to my side, I was sent flying back past where I first started the fight… it is starting to occur to me that I might not win this fight if I play fair. Though he isn’t exactly fighting fairly with his bullshit muscle manipulation wait… I think I can use that to my advantage.

Ignoring the not so brief flashes of panic from having all of the air knocked out of me and standing back up, I picked up a nearby weapon off the ground ( a short sword this time, about the length of my arm) my breath hitched as I agitated what felt like bruised ribs. Pushing the pain away I focused back on Guts who had restarted their stalking towards me, a mental flex of my mind brought up some nearby knives and short swords with [Levitation] and with a flick of my head I sent them hurtling at my opponent. The moment Guts brought up his blade to block the sharp projectiles and also block his sight of me I brought my plan into action. A quick [Blink] brought me to his dominant left side and with a quick whip of my neck a long shallow cut was carved into his fetlock leading up to his shoulder. Already the muscles under his skin started to squirm and constrict over the open wound though I wouldn’t see its completion as I had to avoid the retaliatory backhoof. Thankfully with having a massive sword and being so close I was able to just [Blink] under his arms and out of the way.

The spell [Blink] has a very particular mana cost, it depends completely on the distance traveled and the obstacles in the way, meaning that ‘teleporting’ small distances like this cost little to nothing in terms of mana. [Levitation] has a similar work around when it comes to mana cost, [Levitation] is exerting your will over something which means I can just order a group of thing to do one simple command instead of manually commanding countless objects at once and running out of mana like a bucket with no bottom. This fact about the spell played quite a large part in my plan… along with some interesting biological facts.

Seeing as I was no longer within striking distance Guts shook off the negligible amount of blood that had collected on his leg and turned to charge me once again… at least he was until one of the previously block daggers flew up from the ground and lodged itself in his left hoof cutting his charge short. Turning down to look at what had caused his pain I could barely see his puzzled look turn to an angry grimace as he tore the blade out with his mouth and watch the muscles squirm and contract around the wound sealing it with a knot of bulging flesh. I allowed myself to feel slightly smug at his confusion and started the next part of my plan, with a slow gait that purposely mirrored his earlier prowl towards me. I started to casually circle him as if I was the one with the giant sword and he was the one wearing the sofa chestplate, in actuality I was laying my next trap. Each discarded weapon I passed was given a delayed [Levitation] command to launch forward at my order, I had circled half way around him before I decided that was enough. I ran in instead of [Blinking] this time and led with a quick slash with the short sword at his chest which missed as he took a step back before swinging his around from my right. Dropping to the ground and rolling under it afforded me enough breathing room to score a few more cuts against his left hoof, that’s how most of this clash went. A hair's breadth away from losing my head or becoming a tripodal, but every miss was another cut or stab against my foe. That doesn’t mean he never got any hits in, a hoof to the face sending me to the ground only to scramble to dodge the follow-up attack, a sloppy slash from his blade I wasn’t expecting cutting across my chest but not biting too deep thankfully.

Finally my chance came, after Guts had scored another punch to my chest and knocked the wind out of me for the nth time today he had turned to face where I had landed and had unknowingly positioned himself perfectly. Spitting some blood out of my mouth I let the grin that I had been holding back this whole time spring forth.

“Where are you looking?” At my words Guts paused for just a moment and that moment was all that needed, all kinds of bladed objects from around the square sprang up at my command and fulfilled their purpose and launched. Guts’ left forearm and cannon already looked like a parody of its former self, the multitude of cuts and stabs centered in that area had turned the limb into a lumpy corded mess that looked more like old dried wax then an actual limb so when half of the weapons in the square suddenly launched from the ground and stabbed into his left side that was the tipping point.

Fun fact about the body, did you know that your brain is subconsciously limiting your muscles as they actually have near superhero levels of power in them, but the brain limits them constantly due to the fact that they would actually tear themselves apart if they actually used this strength so imagine if someone’s musculature allowed them enough control over this strength to seal cuts and puncture wounds. If this skill is used sparingly then there wouldn’t be any issues, but if this skill is pushed to its extreme then far past it then… POP!

With a sound similar to a soda can bursting, the mutilated leg of Guts exploded in a gory explosion of muscle, bone, and blood ripping itself apart from its own monumental tensile strength. Guts slowly turned to look at the stringy remains of his arm hanging from his shoulder then trailed his eyes to his blade which had flown a short distance away then back up towards me and for the first time sense the battle started… I saw fear in his eyes.

Now this might be the concussion or bloodloss talking but now that I know how to beat him… I want to style on him a bit. Hmm, I have more than half of my mana remaining and a few display windows behind me… I’m going to need full [Perception] for this. The feeling of being able to know and see everything that I’ve associated with my [Perception] skill quickly took over me and gave me every bit of information I would need for this to work. At this point it was like an out of body experience.

I watched my own body rise up and stomp back down as all the remaining not broken windows shattered behind me but the glass that the frame used to house never reached the ground as they were immediately caught by my [Levitation] and sent flying fast me picking up more and more glass and weapons in its storm. Guts tried to turn and run but there was no escaping the cutting cloud as it wrapped around him and trapped him in a veritable tornado of sharpness. But apparently that wasn’t it, my skills have well and truly taken control at this point as I [Blinked] to and through the cutting tornado and started what could only be called the most lethal dance I had ever seen. At all times a piece of glass was in my hooves or a blade of some kind as I dove and [Blinked] up and around Guts stabbing more and more weapons into his body. At some point his back right leg exploded just like last time and quickly following it was his front right which he was using to cover his face and eyes all while screaming bloody murder… which I guess is correct in this case.

After his last leg had finally been reduced to a fine paste, the unfeeling automaton that was me looked for something to end it with as if just killing the poor guy wasn’t enough. My question was apparently answered as at some point during the barrage Guts’ massive sword had been picked up by the pseudo gale and was floating near the top. A quick blink up into the air actually drained the rest of my mana, but it was already over. The massive blade only need to be orientated as the tornado died around us, using gravity instead of my own strength I basically rode the blade down as it fell down through the now clear air and beheaded the berserker with a brief spray of blood shooting through the air which was quickly cut short as the empty stump where his head used to be sealed itself in a last ditch attempt to save its life… it didn’t work.

Falling down to the ground leaning on the blade, I could see that the sword had actually buried itself halfway into the ground and would not be moving anytime soon. Feeling [Perception] finally switch off, it was like I was shoved into the driver's seat and I all of a sudden could feel everything I had been pushing aside. Everything both felt numb and felt like I was on fire, my vision was extremely blurry and I was pretty sure the only reason I was still standing was because something deep inside me was sure that if I dropped now I would die.

“Mar...s! S..y wi.. Us!” I barely even registered whoever was shouting until they entered my blurry field of vision and even then it took me a bit because a screen had popped up obscuring them, it took a moment for me to realize that the red blur that was yelling at me was Morgana. I felt her grab my side and rip something off of me before reaching out and touching me somewhere. I don’t know where she grabbed me but it felt like she had just poured lava on top of everything else and for a moment I thought I was just going to pass out then and there… Then all of a sudden it was like someone pressed the hard reset button on my senses and now everything was rendered in HD. I could see Morgana all of a sudden and the screen in perfect clarity, but sadly along with that clarity came the acute pain of… Holy Shit I have a goddamn hole in my chest!! … okay that was the panic talking, but I actually have a massive cut taken out of my chest and the number of different colored bruises covering me made me look like something Van Gogh would paint. Before my eyes I watched the gaping wound slowly heal and close up and some of the bruises lighten slightly, turning to my side I could see Morgana holding her glowing green hooves to my side healing me.

“Morgana! What are you doing, we need you to lead the fight! Don’t waste all your mana!” All Morgana did was send me a bemused look before chuckling slightly and lifting one hoof off of my side to turn and point at the… Bandits?

“The battle’s over! The guard arrived sometime during your duel and had surrounded the remaining bandits, we won!” It’s… it’s over? I didn’t see them at first with the screen floating in front of me obscuring most of my vision but Morgana is telling the obvious truth, the guards were milling around now arresting any bandit that surrenders and making sure the rest are really dead. I could see a few players I recognized help out and around, a few of them wearing leather armor or carrying weapons.

“Huh… what do you know?” I could see the stress leave Morgana’s shoulders as she saw I was no longer at death's door and actually joined me in sitting down for a moment and I actually sat down to read the screen I've been ignoring this whole time.

Congratulations!

You have defeated your first boss battle!

Level up x3

Skill Upgrade: Perception -> 6th Sense

Last Hit Bonus: Familiar Lantern

6th Sense: Passively grants the user near supernatural level senses

Will actively warn user of danger or of item of interest

The wielder will get a certain feeling about topics or people that warrant

[further investigation

Can be used in conjunction with other special skills

Intrinsic Skill: only you and those of your bloodline can develop this skill

Skill Level: Max

Passive/Active Cost: Non/Negligible

Can be boosted with mana to added cost

Mana Boost Cost: Medium

Author's Note

Wow... This took me way longer than I thought.
It occurs to me that I'm not the best at writing fight scenes so... bare with me here as I lean how to, it will get better as I go along... I hope.

There's something I wanted to introduce to my little world here, Intrinsic Skills!
There are things that people simply can't teach others, whether they just won't get it or just don't have the basic genetics for it. The only way for anyone else to get someone else's Intrinsic Skill would be f they somehow had the ability to alter their own body but that isn't possible... right?
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Hope you enjoy! :pinkiecrazy:
Status Page Updated!

Chapter 15: More and More Questions

Chapter 15 More and More Questions:

The physical whiplash from being the world's first meat based piece of swiss-cheese to pretty much okay is something I shall never get used to. Of Course suddenly going from death's door to almost okay doesn’t stop me from feeling like I just ran a marathon wearing Goku’s training weights. I felt like I was getting the air actively sucked out of me and I was heaving to get more. Every breath hurt still but marginally less than earlier thanks to Morgana and her healing, I still need to lean on her though because my stamina bottomed out whenever I took a step.

“Morgana…”

“Yeah?”

“Remind me to never do that again”

This time the laughter that came from her mouth was far more genuine, both of us knew that she couldn’t do that. A comfortable silence settled between us as we watched the recovery effort go on around us, there were small struggles here and there as some bandits resisted arrest or tried to run… to no effect obviously. My eyes drifted back to the frankly ridiculous rewards I had gotten from the ‘Boss Fight’, my eyes lingered on those words longer than anything else. This is the first game-like interface that was outside the direct influence of us players so either we’re really in a video game on some server somewhere on earth or… this system has much more power over reality than we thought.

“Hey…

“Yeah?”

“Want to hear something crazy?”

“What?”

“That was actually a boss fight” That seemed to catch her off guard for a moment until she tilted her head and thought about it for a moment then nodded slightly.

“Yeah that makes sense, no one like that just naturally exists” The exasperation in her voice got a few chuckles out of me which left me breathless for a moment. I waited until my breathing was a bit more steady to speak again, the sound of wings flapping pulled the two of our eyes above us where David started to slowly descend down to us. He landed pretty hard to my right and I could visually see that he was almost as exhausted as me, though thankfully he wasn’t as injured with only a few cuts and nicks here and there.

“Hey man, good to see that you're alright” David lifted his eyes up from the ground then to me, he looked me up and down for a moment before leaning forward and looking past me at Morgana.

“Does he know he looks like he just starred in a Halloween slasher flick?” This question set Morgana off again and soon she was on the ground holding her stomach laughing her butt off. David cracked a smile as well and scooted closer to me to help support me as Morgana was currently… occupied. I took another look down at myself and much to my disgust and amusement I was just as bad as David said. I was so saturated in blood that the white part of my hair mane had turned red from it all and I was positive that if you took my horribly lacerated leather cuirass and crushed it only slightly it would be a veritable waterfall of pretty thin blood.

“I really want a shower now… anyway if your done Morgana I wanted to show the two of you the rewards I got for killing the boss” Letting her laughter abate Morgana returned to her hooves and trotted around me to David’s side to get him up to speed about the boss battle. I turned back to the previously ignored screens and read through them… then read through them again just to be sure… does this make me Spider-Man… or pony? What’s a [Familiar Lantern]? A nudge to my side brought me back to reality and to the expectant faces of my friends, I read them the skill description of [6th-Sense] and they looked just as surprised as I was.

“Don’t keep us in suspense, what’s the other reward Spider-mane?” David and I gave Morgana a look for her frankly unlawful pun before letting out a groan and moving on.

“I also got something called a [Familiar Lantern] whatever that is-” The things' name was apparently the catalyst it was waiting for as the air in front of us started to shine an oddly colorless light and we watched transfixed as an strangely shaped banded iron lantern materialized before us. The lantern was teardrop shaped and was about as wide as the flat of my hoof leaving it about the size of a pair, the top of the lantern was connected to a thin but sturdy looking link of chains that led up to a metal clasp. Then the info dump started, just like when we buy new skills info about the lantern started to pour into my mind, but not painfully thankfully. The lantern’s purpose was extremely simple and yet extremely useful to me, the lantern had the ability to store one of summons and allow me to summon another one without dispelling the other one. With this I could just just switch between two summons on the fly with next to no mana cost… this is now my favorite magic item. I reached out and grabbed the lantern from the air and turned to tell my two alarmed friends what the lantern did… They weren’t as ecstatic as I was but were still happy for me. Speaking of magic items, I don’t think the magic robe is working anymore. I’m slightly bummed about that, but honestly it has lasted way longer than I thought it would.

“Heads up, we got company” David’s suddenly tense words brought me back from my thought again (I’ve been doing that too much). Approaching us from across the square was Aaron and Sarah both wearing armor of some kind and Aaron wearing a Warhammer over his shoulder. Sarah had procured a new leather robe at some point and had added a brown witches hat to complete her look, I-I don’t think the hat is necessary.

“Now that… was some darn good fighting son, how are you feeling?” I was kinda uncomfortable with the ‘son’ comment and even further put off by the proud look he was sending me… we’re not related please don’t call me son. Sarah just had this appraising look in her eye as she looked me up and down, she eventually gave a pleased nod before allowing a small smile to grow on her face.

“I feel like I just got dunked in a pool of slime and razor blades… but I’m alive so no real complaints other than that” I sounded much more calm and controlled than I was, they were there during the fight and they didn’t step in! My response just got a hearty laugh from him, I started to stand back up as the two of them got even closer. A glance at my stamina and mana bar showed me I was almost back to full in both categories, I'm starting to think my stamina bar might not be completely accurate as I still feel exhausted. A slap on the back that was more like a punch snatched me out of my thoughts (I did it again!) and brought me back to Aaron and Sarah who had approached my left side.

“I heard about the plan you made to destroy the opposition, we could really use a mind like that later when all of us get together later to decide what to do next. The villagers opened up a few of their houses to us now that there's a… vacancy in a few of them, go get yourself cleaned up and we’ll meet up at your makeshift war room” And with another chuckle and an (Uncomfortably) proud look Aaron and Sarah trotted off deeper into the village not even acknowledging David or Morgana… that bad feeling I had about Aaron is returning in full force and judging from the stone-like look on David’s face he might have a similar feeling as I do. David caught my eye and almost like telepathy we both knew what the other was thinking.

We Can’t Trust Him

“Well he’s right about one thing… we need to clean up, *sniff* more specifically you need a shower” Morgana’s voice easily broke the tension and with a quick sniff that quickly turned to a gag I conceded the point… I stank. Of Course all the other players don’t smell any better as we spent a few days in the forest, shaking off a few leftover giblets much to the disgust of David and Morgana we started to make our way to the residential area of the village… which we still haven’t learned the name of.

Walking wasn’t as difficult as before but it still felt just as weird, like I should be extremely tired but my stamina bar says otherwise. Nevertheless Morgana and David stayed by my sides and were ready to catch me if I dropped, as we walked I got a better look at the damages from the battle. Thankfully most of the damage was isolated in and around the square and even then there was at most some mild fire damage that I'm pretty sure came from one of the villagers missing a shot with an imbued rock. My skills have actually grown by leaps and bounds while we were preparing for the battle.

Adept Fire Magic Control: Gives the bearer basic control over the primordial magic of fire and bestows the lowest forms of fire magic fire bolt and ember imbuement

Further levels in this skills will improve magic efficiency and power

Skill Level 10: 65.14%

Cost: 2 SP

Having the base manipulation skill for any kind of elemental ability makes using any related skills much easier, I should really look into what I should spend my Skill Points on. The three of us had just left the main square and entered the residential area when I saw another familiar face, Lucky Harvest was leaning against a crate wiping down her now pointless spear with a greased rag. Her eyes briefly rose to meet mine and after a short stare down she gave me a solid nod of respect then went back to cleaning her weapon, I really hope it wasn’t a mistake letting her fight.

“Excuse me, we were told there was a place for us to clean up?” David had trotted away at some point and was asking a mare who was bandaging a earth pony that was in the battle. I couldn’t hear her response but apparently it answered David’s question judging from him thanking her, he returned with a spring in his step and with a simple nudge of his head he signaled us to follow him. David led us to a regular looking thatch house that was in pretty good condition aside from the broken window and messy kitchen, Morgana had a spark of recognition in her eye as she looked around.

“Okay… anyone against me taking the bathroom first?” Morgana drifted towards the stairs as she asked this question. I don’t think we would be able to stop her even if we did have a problem with that. Morgana simply ignored our humored scoff and rolled eyes and proceeded upstairs to where I’m assuming the bathroom is. David moved away to go right the flipped dining table and I went to retrieve the sprawled chairs, of the five chairs two were damaged in some way. One chair had all the legs smashed off while the other was missing its back entirely. Finally sitting down on a cushioned seat was both extremely satisfying and disgusting because immediately after sitting down my coat proceeded to get stuck to the fabric from the slowly coagulating blood that caked my form.

“Forgot about that huh?” David apparently couldn't help but comment after seeing my repulsed shivering, all I did in response was wipe an especially viscous clump of blood off of my head....then flick it at him. The sticky projectile almost sent David off the chair and to the ground in an effort to dodge it much to my amusement.

“*Splat* Is this going to be a common thing with you, always being caked in some kind of sticky substance?” I cringed at his purposely chosen choice in words and tuned out his vindictive laughter, but I did concede the point that this was probably going to happen again in the future if we are going to have to fight other large creatures. Maybe I could find a cleaning spell or something, that would be incredibly useful. Letting the humor pass the atmosphere quickly turned tense as we thought about our earlier encounter.

“So I’m guessing I’m not the only one who has a bad feeling about Aaron?” The sudden tonal shift didn’t even faze David as he sent a solemn nod my way.

“Thought so, what I don’t understand is why we’re feeling this way!” We are in a very fragile situation, we are a group of humans ranging age wise from young adults to teenagers and it doesn’t help that every single one of them has the potential to become extremely powerful and in some cases extremely evil. This system has a habit to reward both good and bad behavior, the fact that someone can start with a really high level sneak or steal skill is evidence of this fact. This means that anyone even slightly malicious or manipulative can go on a power trip when given these skills.

“Maybe it’s one of our skills telling us something?” And just like that David may have solved this, I had assumed it was my [Perception] skill trying to tell me something, but now that the skill has upgraded into [6th-Sense] my sense is screaming at me that I already know something about him!

“Do you have a skill that’s like my [Perception] skill?” David’s eyes unfocused as he started to go through his skill list, it wasn’t until a few minutes later that his eyes refocused did he speak again.

“I think I have something, I have a social skill called [Sunny Attitude] that makes some people more likely to get along with me, but it also makes threats more likely to dislike me” And that all but confirms it for me, what makes Aaron such a threat that the system itself classifies him as one! Before we could delve deeper into our discovery the sound of hooves coming down the stairs silenced us. A much cleaner Morgana entered the room looking actually a shade lighter in color now that she wasn’t covered in dust and blood.

“*Whew* I feel like I've been reborn! Your turn stinky!” I shared an amused look with David as Morgana pulled a chair up to join us at the table.

“I’ll get her up to speed, I’ve been flying through clouds so I don’t need a shower as badly” A sent a gratitude filled smile his way then pried myself from the forever ruined chair… eww I left a bloody butt print. Going up the stairs and finding the bathroom wasn’t as issue due to the trail of steam leading me there, the bathroom itself was normal all things considered. Though at the same time it was really weird to see working plumbing in a sorta medieval society, I'm not complaining though. I couldn’t get into the shower any faster, the feeling of actually hot water running down my skin coat actually grounded me in the present. No more focusing on logic or being in the moment, no more pushing emotions to the side… I just let everything flow down the drain.

Unfortunately that had the side effect of everything I pushed aside coming back up at once… I don’t really remember what happened after the first few moments but all I remember is the tear and the… pain. Within the first few minutes of me waking up in that forest someone had exploded a few feet away from me, at the time I hadn’t realized but a female player who had been too close to the blast had almost completely lost her lower half and was crawling towards me screaming for my help… and I had ignored her completely. Other thing I had blocked out had started to bubble up,

One of the stray mana blasts I had shot during the first fight with the timber wolves had flown through the brush and hit a passing player crippling them…

The river at the bottom of the waterfall had still rotting corpses stuck to the river bed…

Those wooden shards in my back that Morgana healed had severed my spine in a few places…

Some of the player during the first night had committed suicide by jumping in their fires...

Before my memory cuts off I remember one last thing… I remembered reading an article assigned to me in my current events class about a commander in the army who was arrested for abuse of both his power and his platoon and his first name was… Aaron.

Author's Note

I'M ALIVE! :pinkiehappy:
Would you believe I was actually on vacation with my family... We went traveling around California and Nevada, it was really hot at some points and really cold.
Anyway I hope you enjoy the chapter and don't worry a lot of questions will be questions will be answered in the next chapter.
Some people can probably see what I was talking about how magic and skills are changing people... :pinkiecrazy:

Chapter 16: Issues In Continuity

Chapter 16: Issues in Continuity

As much as I can tell, I've never had memory problems. So I was understandably startled when I blinked and was out of the shower all clean and completely dry. Physically speaking I haven't felt this good in a long time, mentally and emotionally I felt like I had gone through a stereotypical tragic backstory. I felt tired, sad, angry, hungry, irritated, scared, and suspicious all at once… and yet I haven’t felt this light since I got here. Finally unsuppressing all those feelings and thoughts lifted a burden off of me that I wasn’t aware of until now, I can’t let myself get that bad again.

Turning to check myself in the mirror I was greeted by the absolute mess that is my new body, my mane was a frizzy mess that I had a hard time straightening out with only my hooves and magic to help. I ended up just tying it up in a short ponytail, I am once again reminded that I am horrible with hair. Looking and feeling much more refreshed both inside and out I left the bathroom and trotted back down the stairs… and as I entered the slightly trashed first floor I realized that I probably wasn’t all that quiet during my breakdown. Two pairs of concerned eyes met mine as I came into view of the kitchen, I flashed the two a small smile to hopefully dissuade their concern which I appreciate of course.

“Your turn David” The Pegasus didn’t say anything in return, he just rose from his chair and approached me to pass up the stairs. He did stop next to me for a moment to give me a pat on the shoulder before continuing up the stairs. I didn’t really feel embarrassed per say, but I don’t like the idea of others knowing my feelings and such… meh it was going to happen sooner or later anyway. Actually entering the kitchen showed me something fantastic, Morgana and David didn’t just sit and talk the whole time. They had been cooking up a storm! There was the obvious salad, there was fried eggplant (kinda gross), these carrot hotdog things (interesting/weird), some sandwiches, and a soup of some kind… how long was I in the shower?

“How did you two cook all this so fast?” Morgana seemed to carry herself a bit taller at my incredulous words and started to move some more food over to the table. All the delicious smells were beginning to mix into an odd hodgepodge that confused the senses, whatever Morgana was going to say next was interrupted by the long rumbling growl that was my stomach yelling bloody murder. I wasn’t embarrassed, I knew almost for a fact that Morgana and David are just as hungry as I am and the only reason they haven’t eaten is because they were being polite and waiting for me… which I really appreciate.

“*Snort* believe it or not, but David is actually the one who gave me all these recipes. He apparently comes from a family of vegetarians so he knows quite a few meatless recipes… he just can’t cook” Oh… That’s surprising! I guess that goes to show that the three of us really don’t know each other that well.

“That’s pretty cool, I don’t have many meatless recipes but if you want anything baked I’m your guy” I’ve always been pretty good at baking, at times it was trial and error but I got the hang of it… I miss cookies. I was about to sit down at the table until I remembered that my bloody butt print was still there so with a not so heavy heart I switched it out for David's chair, the amused look Morgana sent my way went ignored.

“I assume David caught you up to speed on our current ‘problem’?” Morgana sat down the last dish of eggplant (ew!) and let the easy going smile on her face morph to a neutral frown. Seeing her change in emotion was confirmation enough, I let her sit down fully before telling her about my little epiphany in the shower. I saw a flash of recognition in her eyes when I mentioned the article, but the recognition slowly turned to confusion by the time I was finished explaining.

“Wait… If Arron was in prison then… how is he playing this game?” I… what? That doesn’t…

“The same way we are… I think… wait” My head… hurts. I… what was I gonna say? My burning migraine was suddenly quenched by the cool touch of a hoof being pressed to my temple, opening my clenched eyes (When had I closed them?) I saw Morgana in a similar state as me with a glowing green hoof pressed into both of our heads. What we were talking about snapped back to the forefront of my mind, Aaron wouldn’t even be in this game if he was who we thought he was… but I know for a fact that I’m right. My [6th Sense] is screaming at me to look deeper! I just kept focusing on the disconnect, how Aaron is both in prison and yet was able to play this game… in fact where did I buy this game from. I just remember having downloaded one day and never questioned it.

“Morgana… do you even have a computer?” If I'm remembering this right then Morgana had just moved in with another foster family and judging from the now slightly scared look on her face, Neither Morgana nor her brother own a computer. I think the whole video game thing was just an excuse for whatever being that brought us here… is this system even real?

Okay, that’s far enough

Then as if I just blinked… everything came to a… stop. As if some hit the metaphorical pause button on reality everything stopped and took on a dead grey tinge. Even the air itself froze and felt suffocating in my lungs, my rising panic was forcibly ripped away from me leaving me horrifyingly calm.

I will admit, I am impressed with how clever you are

Not many can puzzle there way around my mental blocks, yet here you are

What are you

Hmm, starting with the basics huh?

I guess you can call me your Benefactor

Think of this as both an accommodation and a. . . warning

A warning for me or about something else?

A little of both, but that will come later

You are the first I have directly spoken to and the first to survive my words as well

You have a unique. . . lets say ‘affinity’ for the esoteric forces that is magic

So let’s have that be your reward for your persistence

Wha- survived?! Wait-

I’ve always wanted to be a goddess and what’s a goddess without followers

Congratulations!

Some of your latent gifts have been unlocked

Cutie Mark Unlocked!

Cutie Mark: I art thou, thou art I: Your body and soul are intrinsically connected

to the forces of magic making you gifted in its manipulation and creation

Effect 1: Magical Manipulation and creation is boosted immensely when not

following a known spell form

Effect 2: Unknown -Must be unlocked through time and effort- Active skill

Effect 3: heightened effect in Artificery and Enchantment

New Spell Form Gifted!

Ritual Magic: How else would you give me offerings? I’ll take anything magically

inclined or esoteric enough to fit my tastes and if they meet my standards you

might be rewarded

Skill Level 1: Requires research to level

Conduit Spell Form -If Skill level is high enough then allows the user to use other

magic types in ritual form if enough research is done

Whew! Doing that personally takes a lot out of me, now for the warning

You are not the first and you will not be the last

There are others out there who will stop at nothing until they get what they want

So choose your enemies wisely, either the evils unknown or the demons you know

That’s all I’m really allowed to tell you lest I want to ruin the timeline and please

try not to mention our little talk to anyone okay?

so all I’ll say for now is do your best because I’ll be watching hehe

It was like she hit the hard reset on everything, time rewound slowly at first until it was almost instant then suddenly I was back standing by the stairs and David had just passed me heading up the stairs. My head felt like it was gonna fall off, the previous lightness I felt after the show was gone and replace by the almost soul crushing stress of now knowing that some kind of all powerful spirit is watching me at all times and has also press ganged me into her cult or something.

“Whoa! Marcus when did you get your [Cutie Mark]!” My plunge into hysteria was cut off by Morgana rushing over to my side, I forgot during that whole thing she had given me my [Cutie Mark] (Annoying name, but whatever). Turning my body to get a better look at it I felt a bet of relief that it wasn’t anything too edgy or frilly. My [Cutie Mark] was a simple looking ritual circle with a four pointed star in the center, the symbols were just as white as my hair and the star itself had a light purple tinge to it almost lavender. With my new [Ritual Magic] knowledge I knew that the symbols on my [Cutie Mark] are actually the symbols needed to sacrifice an object to the… spirit. Oh God, I'm a Cultist! Morgana had lost interest in my mark after a bit and turned to trot back into the delicious smelling kitchen… too bad I lost my appetite this time around.

“believe it or not, but David is actually the one who gave me all these recipes. He apparently comes from a family of vegetarians so he knows quite a few meatless recipes… he just can’t cook '' The sudden switch in subject weirded me out for a moment until I remembered what the spirit said before she left, timeline. This conversation probably happens no matter what so I just need to steer it in a different direction, I hope I don’t ground hogs day myself.

“T-that’s cool, what do you think we’ll be doing next” Morgana turned to place the same eggplant dish onto the table and sat down at the same spot as before then spoke.

“Maybe we’ll make a guild like in those light novels I used to read, it would be amazing to be an adventurer!” Nothing seems to be slowing down so that's good, lets keep going this direction.

“That sounds like a pretty good idea, got any ideas of what we could do as adventurers?” Morgana pushed aside one of the dishes and leaned forward clearly excited by the conversation, she must feel strongly about this! At some point during the conversation I had realized I never switched chairs with David and had been sitting in sticky blood, eugh!

“There’s this one called Grimgar of fantasy and ash where the humans there have to pay to be part of these guilds to get class related spells and skills and get money by killing monsters! We could do that, make a guild and train other ponies that pay and travel around killing monsters and saving lives!” I felt it prudent to say that most of the main characters in Grimgar die at some point, but I felt my resolve fall to pieces when I saw the heartfelt look in her eyes… she really loves this idea and I will admit… it does have some merit.

“I kinda like the idea of being wandering heroes” The voice of a refreshed David sounded out from behind us making us turn to face him. He looked marginally better where before he looked cut up and disheveled, now he looks much more put together. His mane wasn’t as much of a rat's nest, his coat was a shade lighter with the dust gone, and his wings look much better now that he’s tended to them. He was also dragging with him a burlap sack that held what I assume is the remains of all of our ruined armor, *Growl* The sound of Morgana’s stomach singing the song of its people reminded me of the feast lying before us, even if I don’t feel like eating I need something in my stomach.

“Now that your here, it’s time to dig in” what happened next would make any high society member either faint or throw up as the three of us abandoned any form of manners and tore through all the food, of course we paced ourselves so we wouldn’t get sick but that doesn’t mean we stopped anytime soon. I don’t even think I tasted half of it… I even ate the eggplant dish and I hate eggplant. There was no talking while we were eating, only the sounds of chewing or gulping which in hindsight was thoroughly disgusting (I hate the sound of chewing). Speech only resumed when all the food had been eaten and even then it was stunted, at least mine was.

“*Buuurrrp*”

“I second that” No one blinked at Morgana’s frankly legendary burp or the fact that David had to run back to the bathroom at some point to throw up then ran back down to continue eating. At some point I'm pretty sure I ate a whole corn on the cob, core and all. In the end three of us felt stuffed and raring to go… at least until we needed a nap from all this food. And suddenly I feel like swearing heavily as I just remembered I need to go have a meeting with the other ‘leaders’.

“Ugh! I need to go to that meeting with the others…” I saw David shoot me a sympathetic look before returning to his food coma, Morgana perked up and spat the corn cob she was gnawing on out to speak to me.

“Remember to bring the guild idea up for me, I think that may be a big help for us” Morgana’s excitement for this idea was contagious and I couldn’t help but be just as excited to talk about it. The Aaron issue will have to take the backburner for a moment until I can puzzle out what the spirit meant by evils unknown and devils I know. Peeling myself off the sticky chair I shook myself fully awake and stopped at a nearby mirror to brush any errant food off of my body and to clip on my new lantern, I took a deep breath to focus myself before opening the door and stepping out into the warm afternoon air.

“Did Marcus have a Cutie Mark?” Morgana’s facehoof did nothing to muffle her laughter at David’s expense.

Author's Note

Alternate title: Foreshadowing is Hard
Introducing one of the larger players on this chess board we call a story, there will be more on that later.
Also Ritual Magic... will be important later... maybe... if Marcus doesn't mess up.
I would like to point out the whole not being able to this about something as more of a Perception Filter then a whole block, once you notice it you can't unsee it.

I'll include a drawing of Marcus's cutie mark soon, I still need to draw it :twilightblush:
There's more to his cutie mark then meets the eye
I hope your enjoying so far because I certainly am. We're finally getting to the next arc basically so its time to ready the traveling music.
Status Page Updated!
Happy Adventuring! :heart:

Chapter 17: Second Contact

Chapter 17 Second Contact:

My internal clock is still heavily thrown off by the sun here, at some points it's like the day won’t end and others it's like the sun is fast forwarding. It may be only a few hours past noon from what I can see when I could swear we were in that house for much longer, or maybe this is because time rewound for me so everything feels off for a bit. Village looked about the same as we left it, everyone was pitching in the clean up, guard and player alike were dragging supplies or rubble to and fro trying to clean up in a timely manner. The bandits were nowhere to be seen so they might have been sent away to prison or something already. I trotted up to a nearby player, he was a familiar face especially with his shredded mane… I still don’t know his name.

“Hey, do you know where Sarah and everyone is meeting?” Lowering the burned wooden fence post he turned to look at me and when he realized who I was put a smile on his face.

“Oh Mr. Marcus! U-uh yeah they’re meeting over by the entrance to the square, you can’t miss em they’re set up outside on a table” The Mr. caught me off guard but I pushed passed it and thanked him, I guess I should expect some of the players to treat me a bit differently after seeing me basically dismantle that boss. They weren’t kidding about not missing it, I was expecting just a table set off to the side where the three would be sitting, but apparently not. Taking up a bulk of the road was a few tables and a mass amount of chairs like a makeshift forum area and there sitting in front of the crowd of what I assume is mostly players was Aaron, Sarah, and Eric talking animatedly with a few other players… this is going to be rough.

“Excuse me… pardon me, thank you… “ Sliding and nudging my way though wasn’t as difficult as I envisioned, the moment someone saw me they either quickly stepped aside (sometimes bumping into other players, annoying them) or just simply weren’t in the way. It wasn’t long before Eric spotted me first due to his height, a smile grew on his face when he locked eyes with me (he’s lucky I’m not an actual Pokémon trainer or else there would be a battle). Quickly turning and nudging Aaron next to him to get his attention, He along with Sarah who was probably confused by the sudden deviation in the conversation and turned to look at what caught both their attention.

“ Well, look who’s come back from the dead! Arcane Hope, right on time!” The moment Aaron used my pony name made me glance around and there sitting at the end of the table slightly obscured by the chairs and their occupants was an armored red unicorn, I assume he’s the captain of the guard that brought reinforcements. The captain had set his oddly roman-esque helmet onto the table and was now giving me a wide eyed look, I’m kind of at a loss of what to do now.

“Ah, so you’re the one who handled that mountain of a foe… impressive” He started giving me an almost appraising look while I approached the table, there was only one more open seat and of course it was next to Aaron. I didn’t let my emotion show on my face and went to sit, now isn’t the time to confront Aaron. The moment I was situated I felt and saw Aaron raise a hoof and slap it onto my back… which hurt a bit but I tried to not let that show.

“It was his idea to go ahead with his team while we ran for the guard and his plan that routed those bandits with minimal casualties, he is invaluable to our tribe” Oh Buck! They have a cover story and no one told me about it, I smiled gratefully for his words while internally I panicked and tried to piece together the cover story. He said something about a tribe so we’re all supposed to know each other, does he mean a nomadic tribe?

“Nice to finally put a face to the name Arcane Hope, my name is Worn Barding and I’m the militia captain over in South Town. I’m glad to have someone of your caliber on our side.” My caliber? What have they been saying about me? I was right about him being the captain but apparently the local government doesn’t fund them.

“I’m not as impressive as everyone makes me look. I assure you, I just work with everyone’s strengths. Now, we need to discuss what comes next correct?” Sarah and Eric seemed more than happy to get the useless platitudes out of the way and nodded in agreement.

“Quite right, the first order of business would be to make a decisive plan for our people. As you know Captain we have only recently decided to settle down and make a name for ourselves and our tribe, does anyone have any suggestions for us to pursue after this?” Okay so we are playing the nomadic tribe card here, Aaron probably phrased it like that for both my benefit and the other players listening in. Hmm, well I did promise Morgana I would bring it up.

“I think I have a pretty lucrative idea…” My words seemed to grab everyone's attention, I stood up slightly and started to project my voice to make sure everyone could hear me.

“What if we create a guild of sorts, a guild where all kinds of creatures can post requests for both job and aid. If they can pay the corresponding fee then we’ll send a member of the guild who has the needed skills” So far many eyes were lighting up at the prospect of being a part of a guild, but more importantly both Aaron and Worn Barding looked extremely interested in the idea. “This Adventurer's Guild would both teach any apprentice that join and employ them in low level requests and the higher they ranked the tougher and much more lucrative requests they could take'' Most of the players at this point had realized what I was describing and seemed to be completely on board, though it seemed the militia captain had a few questions.

“This seems like a fantastic idea, but what would this mean for the town’s safety and economy?” It was almost like a tennis game, at one moment the ball was in his court and the moment it bounced to my side everyone’s eyes swiveled to me for my return.

“Excellent question, of course we will be evaluating every members’ skills and abilities and pitting them against the standards of the local militia. The bar standard would be the minimum rank needed to take on requests that have any kind of mortal peril in it, further ranks would include just as many test and skill checks. When it comes to the economy there is nothing to worry about, there will be a fee required if someone wishes to post a request and a reward posted along with it, the reward itself with have a slight fee attached to it which will be given back to the guild itself that will be used to pay guild expenses like tax, equipment, salary, and training. Do you have any other questions?” My speech seemed to render everyone silent, don’t underestimate my trope knowledge.

“Well it seems clear to me what our nex-” [6th Sense] is going haywire! I almost threw myself off my chair as a black silhouette flew out of the crowd and over where my head used to be, my wisp snapped into existence next to my head but by the time I was ready to fire whatever that was had disappeared into the crowd. Every player in the vicinity was ready for a fight, for a moment it was dead silent and in that silence the sound of something hollow landing caught all of our attention… It was a rolled up scroll sitting on the table.

“... Mail’s here” I was sent a few flat looks from the crowd for that, my [6th Sense] wasn’t buzzing anymore after that so I assumed there wasn’t anything dangerous about the scroll. The scroll was made out of vellum instead of paper and was banded by a simple blue ribbon, a prompting look from Sarah and the Captain made me stop examining the outside and unroll the letter.

“Our Dear Sister Tribe, with the most joy filled hearts we are happy to tell you that your cousin tribes have decided to follow your lead and settle down leaving behind our nomadic ways. With the advent of our new lives on the horizon our leaders thought it would be prudent to host a summit of a sort, To share information and make our time adjusting as easy as possible. We feel that just as many of your people feel the nigh daunting feeling of change as ours does and we wish to instill a feeling of unity in these trying times. The location of the summit will be at Mount Canter and the former capital… Canterlot! Signed… The Changeling, Griffin, Pegasus, and Diamond Dog Tribes!” This… so this is where all the other players went! This is why there are only unicorns and earth ponies in our group, I'm guessing that the few Pegasai that slipped through was the work of the spirit.

“ Ah… This is fantastic news I hope” The stunned silence was broken by a slightly confused militia captain Worn Barding, we were all caught flat footed and had yet to recover from the reveal. My throat was extremely dry after so much talking, I'm starting to think I might lose my voice after all this, thankfully Eric/Flint recovered quickly and was able to divert the conversation.

“Yes, this is very good news for us, since its a personal matter we’ll have to talk more about it later… We had just finished talking about establishing the Guild right?” The deep rumbling baritone of Eric’s voice was much more reassuring than I sure felt and thankfully the militia captain felt the same.

“Ah right, I’ll need to speak to the baron of South town first before your guild can really get started, but I don’t think it’ll be that much of an issue. He’s an old friend of mine and will trust me when I say that this will benefit us all.” And just like that the main problem of this forum meeting was resolved, we all rose from our seats to walk the militia captain back to his troops so they can begin their march home. There was some light conversation on the way there about how someone will have to travel to South town to meet with the baron, while the conversation was light and pleasant there was a deeper tension to it. Like the only person not aware of an invisible threat was the captain, the moment the captain and his guards were gone another much more serious meeting would start.

“Thank you all again for your assistance in stopping this threat dead in its tracks, especially you Arcane Hope. Are you sure you won’t reconsider joining my militia? We could use somepony like you on the team” God, this was like dealing with an overly persistent door to door salesman.

“I’m sorry, but I’ll have to decline. My tribe is very important to me, but when the guild gets established I’ll only be a request away” Worn gave me a joking look of sadness before barking out some laughter and turning to the assembled militia men and medics. I didn’t stick around to watch the captain bark orders and turned to return to the meeting area with Aaron, Sarah, and Eric. The village looked completely different, houses had been patched up, the debris had been disposed of, the bodies that previously littered the streets were nowhere to be found, and I couldn’t spot a single blood splatter. If ponies are good at anything… it’s cleaning up after a disaster, of course this didn’t change the fact the villagers still carried around their weapons even now. I saw a mother pass by me with her daughter sitting on her back holding groceries and a blood stained farming sickle strapped to her side, we had forever changed this village and I don’t know if it was for the better or the worst.

Making it back to the meeting area I saw that the makeshift forum had been dismantled for the most part, a few players were milling around holding chairs or just hanging out on the leftover furniture. Getting to the house the meeting was set up in front of, I saw Sarah in the window gesturing with a hoof to come inside. The farm houses seemed to be almost carbon copies of each other, same kitchen layout, same living room, same staircase location. The main differences were the decorations and choice of furniture, this one actually had a sofa in the living room. That’s where I found the three, all hunched over the surprise invitation rereading it like it would magically give more clues about the other player groups… actually that might be possible here.

“I’m just going to start off by saying what everyone is thinking… this could be a trap, but we still need to know” My words pulled the three out of their muted shock, this is a massive game changer in the most literal sense. This isn’t just a small group of players against the world now, this could be a united force searching for a solution to all this and if there isn’t a solution then… we can at least make our quality of life better for ourselves.

“I’m with Marcus with this, there’s also the issue of us not knowing this world as much as we think… this isn’t the Equestria we all fell in love with” That might be the most I’ve heard Sarah speak all day, she brought up a very important point too. We are severely starved for information, I've only just figured out where we are on Equestria’s map and I have an inkling that the general government has diminished greatly if not disappeared altogether. I also have the whole fake video game/spirit issue to deal with, things are not looking the best at the moment.

“Well if information is an issue then I might have a solution that would also fix our estranged player problem… Markus, is your team ready for another journey?” Oh God, he wants to send us ahead! That would get the two people who suspect him the most out of his way for quite a long time… unless?

“I think we’ll have no problem reaching Mount Canter, but someone will still need to travel around and establish more guild halls for our new guilds… Hmm.” I feigned thinking for a moment before perking up as if coming up with an idea. “Aaron you’re pretty persuasive aren’t you? How about while me and my team are traveling to Mount Canter, you and a team of your choice could go town to town spreading word of our guild and establishing more halls along the way. That way all of our problems are taken care of in one fell swoop” I saw a slightly panicked looking Aaron begin to open his mouth to interject, but I had already cut him off and tore apart whatever paltry excuse he had left. “Don’t worry about needing to talk to the Baron or running things here, Eric and Sarah have got things well in hand-er hoof don’t you two” The two seemed to actually perk up at my acknowledgement, where before Sarah would look uncomfortable at the attention now she seemed to have opened up a bit more since then not even flinching when I involved her.

“Markus is right, I have experience running my father’s manufacturing plant back home so talking to officials and filling out forms is almost second nature to me and Sarah here is probably the most trusted player other than Markus and you, you have nothing to worry about here” I tried to keep my surprised look hidden from Sarah as she gave Eric a proud nod, whatever had happened for her to gain everyone’s trust must have happened after my team had split from the main player group.

“Ah… that’s… a g-great idea Markus” Aaron’s barely concealed snarl was hastily buried under a very strained smile, Eric and Sarah simply took the strained look as increased worry which they hastily tried to disperse, but I had caught a glimpse past the mask he shows everyone. Now he has almost no chance of hurting anyone among the players, but there is still the chance of him preparing something on his travels though I had bought myself some time to plan and prepare myself and others for his reveal.

“Then it’s decided! We’ll take today to get prepared then in the morning we'll hold an announcement to the players and tell them our plans going forward then set out from there. Thank you for inviting me to this meeting… oh and Aaron? … See you on the other side” I swear his rage was almost palpable and I relished in every moment of it, I assume [6th Sense] is the reason why I can read his emotions so easily. I really need to get around to fully exploring all my abilities, just because I have the skill doesn’t mean I know everything.

Author's Note

AAAANNNNDDD BOOOOM! FINALLY GOT TO IT!
I don't know why it took so long to get to but now you know where the other species are.
The beginning of a new are is at hand... hoof... paw... whatever, it is time to travel and world build which is my favorite part. :trixieshiftleft:
The whole Adventuring Guild this was an idea from a friend of mine, I was originally going to have them just claim a desolated town and make it their own. Though in hindsight I like this much more.
SO MANY PLANS ARE COMING TOGETHER... I'm excited
One last thing, there is going to be a lot of new characters in the future because of all the traveling around so I was wondering if anyone wanted their own OC's to be in the stories and if you want them to be doing anything like being a potion maker in the woods or an traveling warrior that stops by to help the main characters... Heck they could even be a quest giver or something if it makes sense. Any creature is welcome as long as they aren't too absurd.

I hope you enjoyed and Happy Adventuring :heart:

UPDATE!!!
I finished a little something...

I really just drew a whole scene for the first time... I'm kind of proud of myself and I made their hair look not terrible and for the first time in a millennium Markus the muddy mage has misplaced his muck and is rocking the freshly washed look...nice

Chapter 18: Best Laid Plans

Both Morgana and David were pretty torn about the news from the meetings, on one hoof/hand we had followed Morgana’s plan which she was ecstatic about. She was also excited about our next adventure, though her mood was dampened slightly by the fact that we wouldn’t be there for the guild founding. David found a particular kind of satisfaction by my retelling of Aaron’s sendoff, Aaron’s general demeanor towards him did nothing to endear the man/stallion to him. Our next act of getting ready to leave started with a few bumps, we had no real way of transporting anything besides the few grass bags and baskets Morgana could make. So we had to split up the gathering of supplies between the three of us. I put David in charge of getting us a bag from someone in the village, Morgana wanted to be in charge of getting our armor repaired which was smart. We would have to leave getting the food until after we had the bags and while I’m sure whatever family that lived here had some, I couldn’t in good conscious take them (Oh, so now I grow a conscious?). I would be in charge of getting a map and some general information, like how much bits were worth (if they even used bits…), the most influential creatures nearby, and if any dangerous creatures were sighted nearby. I’ve always hated going into something blind.

We made plans to meet back up at around sunset and make a plan of action. David flew off after saying something about going to speak to some of the shopkeepers near the front of the village. Morgana galloped off to find the few village ponies she worked with to make the salvaged armor, so I decided to go find a few other players and see if they learned anything about this world while they were at Southtown. It had been a bit since the meeting so talk of the guild founding was floating around, the players had since started to settle down and find places to relax after their journey. A few had claimed a corner of the market area and were sitting either on the ground or some crates, so I decided to talk to them first.

There were five in total, Two earth pony males, two unicorns (a male and female) that I vaguely recognized from the magic discussion, and the pure white pegasus that scouted the raided town. All were wearing clothing of some kind though none of it was armor, most likely for comfort or human habit. The two Earth pony players looked similar in color but not in size, both had a dark green coat and had a grey and black mane respectfully. One was taller and was wearing what looked like a simple brown coat that didn’t look all that comfortable, the shorter one with a black mane was wearing a grey scarf that he had pulled up over his mouth. I now realize that scarf-y was making a point not to speak to the others and looked like he was brooding behind his taller counterpart… ugh I really hoped there wouldn’t be any edge lords, that would be so annoying. The two other unicorns weren’t as memorable as the other two, The mare was grey with a dark blue mane and was wearing an equally grey vest. The other was a dark pink stallion with a black mane, he had a cloak instead of a coat of some kind and was wearing glasses. I assume he appeared with them judging by the fact that they were cracked in one lens… I wonder if I have a repair spell somewhere? The pegasus had donned a wide-brimmed cowboy hat and currently was struggling to stay awake on the crate he was laying on.

“Pardon me, do you mind if I ask you all a few questions?” Dark and broody over there had seen my approach but either neglected to tell his companions or had just chosen not to. I was starting to get used to the looks of startled recognition that pops up whenever we try to speak to anyone, a reputation has its good points and bad. Grabbing their collective attention was pretty easy as their current conversations were winding down, the only one who didn’t turn to look at me was the brooding one. The brooding player's counterpart perked up when I spoke to them and raised both their right hoof for a moment before flinching and going still, suddenly disheartened. The odd gamut of emotions on their face confused me for a moment until the female player spoke up while sending an understanding look at the down player.

“You didn’t do anything, Gabriel’s mute, and now that he’s a pony, he can’t use sign language to communicate… and he loves to talk so his brother does most of the talking for him” I felt horrible for the guy, It didn’t even cross my mind that there would be some players with physical or mental disabilities here too.

“Don’t let that dishearten you, you said you wanted to ask some questions?” Apparently, I let my emotions show on my face as the girl picked up on it instantly. Gabriel nodded along with her now wearing a slightly happier expression, he leaned forward on his crate to show he was eagerly listening. Shaking myself from my sudden melancholy I proceed to ask them the first and maybe most important question I had.

“I’m sorry you have to deal with that on top of this whole mess, but I need to know a few things about pony society. You probably haven't heard yet but my group is going to be sent out to meet up with a few other groups of players like ours and see what's going on. What I wanted to ask is the basics, do you know how much 1 Bit is compared to 1 USD? Do you remember hearing about any important figures or dangerous monsters while you were in Southtown, and do you know any taboo topics or places we should stay away from… we don’t want to accidentally insult someone's mother then somehow step on her grave” I took a deep breath from the veritable speech and waited for a response. All of them looked like they didn’t know what to feel about the knowledge that there are other groups of players, glad that they’re not alone or horrified that countless other people got trapped here.

“ Well… I traded herbs and fruits for my jacket and didn’t get any bits in return so I don’t know, sorry” The girl turned mare looked at the others in her group as they thought deeply about my questions… until a muffled gurgling sound coming from Gabriel's brother cut through everyone's thoughts. The muffled sounds grew louder and louder until I finally realized it was his attempt at a ‘foreboding laugh’. The skinny stallion slowly rose while giving off his vague parody of a laugh. At some point it occurred to me that his voice was just way too high to make a deep voice at all, so when he actually spoke it sounded much more comical than he had most likely hoped… not that he noticed.

“I completely understand, Great mages and warriors like us require both information and power if we wish to prevail over our dark adversaries!” He then proceeded to flip his hair (which was already out of the way) then raise one hoof and cover one of his eyes all the while posing dramatically. Oh, God! He’s going full JoJo’s bizarre adventure on me, this is a new level of awkwardness that I never thought I would reach… I have been physically rendered speechless! My stunned silence didn’t register I guess and he continued with his slew of dramatic soliloquies and poses, I tuned out when he started going on about how since we were both born with the ancient potential to lead that fate herself or something dictated that we should take different paths… this is giving me a headache.

“-he time will come when we must join forces even if the very fabric of reality would be torn asunder by your Filibuster and my Durandal, for even in destruction shou-” My vacant gaze raised past the now rapidly posing player (I think the term is Chuunibyo?) up to his brother Gabriel who was gesturing for my attention. His brother hadn’t even noticed I wasn’t looking at him anymore, seeing he had my attention Gabriel reached behind him and pulled out a small burlap bag which he promptly poured out on the crate next to him. I chanced a glance back down at the brother and caught a snippet of… something?

“ -hough we may lose those we hold dear along the way, our determination will not sway! For it is with the power of shadows themselv-'' Momentarily regretting my choices of tuning back in, I turned back to look at Gabriel who had situated himself and held up a gold coin that was about the size of a silver dollar. Gabriel lifted his other hoof (and almost lost his balance for a moment) and traced a number in the air (I missed it the first few times when the brothers posing blocked my line of sight). It was a five, so a 5:1 exchange rate on the silver dollar-sized bits. A small nod showed him I understood and let him put the coin down and go and grab another smaller, much more brass-looking bit. It was around the size of a nickel and the single line drawn by Gabriel told me it was worth just one dollar.

“ Yes! Battle brothers like you and I are fated to always be at the helm of armies and kingdoms. I, leading the shadows themselves and you with your legions of light, we can save all of causality itself! Don’t you agree!”... This kid needs a chill pill. While I appreciate Gabriel telling me a bit about the local currency I feel like there's a fair bit more to it and I don’t have the patience nor the energy to endure more of this guy’s… expositions. The easiest way to end this conversation would be to… play to his delusions I guess?

“ You’ll need to train hard if you're gonna get to that level, I hope to see you on my level by the time I return from my travels. The guild will be a perfect place for you to train and… gain dominion over the esoteric forces. Thank you all for speaking with me, I’m sorry for cutting this short but I must continue gathering supplies for our journey ahead. Rest easy everyone” God! I hate how overly pretentious and dramatic I sounded there, I feel kind of nauseous hearing that come out of my voice. The unnamed unicorn and the white pegasus clearly enjoyed that exchange as they were doing all that they could to not laugh their tail off. My words reached the chuuni player as for the first time since he started talking did he smile like it was Christmas morning.

I turned and started my totally nonchalant walk back to the shopping area and away from the now wildly posing chuuni and his very amused friends. This is making me remember why I don’t talk to people. Before all this happened I was a Forensic Major in college, I had filled my schedule so full that I didn’t even have any time to make any friends… and that was just how I liked it. The last friend I had made ended up becoming obsessed with me, she stole my dirty clothes, followed me everywhere, threatened anyone else that tried to get close to me, and even tried to wiretap my phone which was the last straw. I felt a shiver of revulsion shoot up my spine as I thought about what happened after the police checked her dorm room looking for my stuff… she had a god da- dang shrine made out of all the stuff she stole from me. Anyway, that put me off making friends for a while, though that doesn’t make me some dysfunctional friendless character straight from an MLP plotline (Starlight). I know how to make and maintain relationships… I just don’t let people in.

I stopped in the shadow of one of the derelict houses as a thought occurred to me… I haven't had a single pleasant moment with anyone outside of Morgana and David, even then the only times we ever get along is before, during, or after a fight. That time in the cave was preceded by the Thunder Lion chasing us and the confrontation with Arthur, David had a run-in with some timber wolves before encountering us, and the very next day the lion attacked. I think today is the first day the three of us have had the chance to really sit down and talk of our own volition and yet we haven’t. Another darker thought followed that one… I might not be traveling with those two forever. One of us might be needed elsewhere or one of us could… die. I guess I shouldn’t get too overly attached, though I shouldn't distance myself or anything. I shook the dark thoughts from my head and continued, I tried to move on to much brighter and more interesting topics. Thinking about the eventual deaths of my companions doesn’t do anybody good and you know what they say about self-fulfilling prophecies.

“Excuse me, do you know anywhere that sells maps?” I asked a nearby local mare who was in the process of dismantling some of the makeshift weapons from the bandit incursion. She sent me a kindly smile and pointed across the street to a building with a shattered display window… ah, that’s the window I shattered when I killed the boss (Someone had removed the Dragonslayer sword from the ground). Thanking the kind old mare I turned to trot over to the store, the ground in the middle of the square was still stained from the remains of the boss. I wonder if an equivalent of ionized bleach has been invented here, I hear that's good for getting rid of bloodstains.

“Hello dearie, just come on inside!” The voice of a kindly old mare came through the shattered display and was directed to me, the shop itself was pretty damaged on the outside. Besides the display window being broken, the outside was covered in scorch marks and superficial surface damage. The actual structural integrity of the shop seemed alright so I entered without a second thought. The inside of the shop looked like an idyllic shop in the country, with wooden floors and shelving with glass casing here and there for display purposes. This place was a travelers shop, there’s wagon quick repair kits here and there, dried food rations (which we might grab later), small and light tools for on the road, various maps and binds of blank paper (Yes!), and various other consumables and trinkets. In the center of all this was a clear path between the shelves leading up to a counter where the store owner waited with a grandmotherly smile adorning her face.

“Well if it isn’t one of our newest heroes! What can I do for you dear?” The warm reception brought a fond smile to my face as I started to approach the counter, the elderly store owner’s voice had a slight Scottish accent to it which amused me slightly. The mare had a similar coat color to Lucky Harvest which made me wonder if they were related, though her mane had fully turned grey in her old age.

“Sorry to bother you Ma'am, but I and two of my friends have been chosen to travel ahead and meet up with some of our sister tribes. I was wondering if you could spare some maps and maybe a compass for our travels… we currently don’t have any bits to play with but we-” I was cut off by the light laughter of the shopkeeper, letting her laughter abate she reached under her counter and pulled out a compass.

“No need to go and tell me yer whole sob story, I know yer good for it. I’ll give ya whatcha need iffin ya do me a small favor in return?” The old mare’s eyes sparkled in amusement while she spoke to me, usually, I would be skeptical about doing anyone a favor but I couldn’t bring myself to be suspicious of this nice old woman… She reminds me of my grandmother before she passed.

“ My husband Feldspar, the grumpy old lout. Is currently traveling in a caravan up towards the nearest city-state known as Param, but he forgot some important cargo. I want you to bring this to him, he should be staying in an inn nearby the market. Just tell him that his gemstone sent it” The still-unnamed shopkeeper hoofed over an ornately carved wooden box, the box was adorned with many etching of leaves and swooping vines. I couldn’t sense anything magical about it, it just looked really pretty. Grabbing the box with my [Levitation] and holding it to the side I took a few steps back in surprise as the old but surprisingly spry mare hopped over the counter with ease.

“Alright! Let’s see what you need for a journey… “ What happened next was less me getting the bare minimum for me and my friends and more her giving me everything I might need in any eventuality. The first and most obvious was the maps of which I got three. One was the standard land map which I would study much more in-depth later. Another was a simple road map that showed nearby visited settlements and safe caravan routes, the last and most interesting was a personal ‘invention’ of the old mare. It was called a ‘Danger Map’ that mapped all the most dangerous or perilous areas nearby, the back even had a legend used to show what kind of monster or threat was in the area ranging from timberwolves to cliffs, to even giant poisonous frogs (avoiding those!). The shopkeeper would constantly be making and updating these maps and it was free of charge to come and update them.

After that was a plethora of trinkets and gadgets ranging from the obvious compass to a clever tool called a ‘Fog view’ which was a monocle-like glass that made it so you could see through… well… fog. Most of the trinkets were small and easy to carry through most were kind of ridiculous like why would I need a waterproof towel, won’t I need it to be wet at some points. The point is I expected to be leaving with a few maps and a compass, now I'm leaving with a canvas bag filled with maps, a compass, a small first aid kit, a few firestarters, and a book on herbology that doubled as a road cookbook. When I saw the cookbook I was reminded of something that began the fall of kingdoms and the rise of empires… books. If I could get some books on magic then I wouldn’t need to spend my skill points on basic abilities, I could learn the basics of many different types of magic then use the skill points on the rare kinds. The kind of magic that doesn’t have easily accessible material, of course, there will be the kinds of magic that my skill points can’t buy like my [Ritual Magic].

I placed the slightly cumbersome bag on my back and waved goodbye to the nice old mare, I had a feeling this wouldn’t be the last I would see of her. The sun had finally started to head towards the horizon after such a long day which means it was about time to head back and meet up with the others. While the village had been pretty busy in the morning, it was a stark difference in the evening. The NPC’s had entered their homes leaving mostly players out and about in the low light, though most of the players were just sitting still with the trademark vacant look of perusing their menus.

Every once in a while a player would look up and see me, their reactions to me were surprisingly varied. Some smiled, others waved, some simply disregarded me, some surprised me by actually gazing at me in fear before averting their eyes or moving somewhere else. I guess not everyone is okay with my gory spectacle which is completely understandable. Though I won’t lie and say that thought of other players being scared of me rubs me all the wrong ways. Being feared has never been a goal of mine, respected maybe but feared? Forcing myself out of that dark place I continued on my path to the house, Morgana was the first I saw as she was standing out in front of the house and was slowly breaking down the stone pillar she made… do no other earth pony players have the [Earth Manipulation] skill? Morgana only caught sight of me after she finished smoothing out the ground, she sent a giddy smile in my direction then gestured inside before bounding off inside herself. I let a good-natured chuckle out and felt the fond smile on my face grow a bit larger, at this rate I might actually get attached to these two.

Author's Note

I did the thing!

It was going to happen at some point... there is always that one dark and broody player in every game and MMO's are full of them. It was actually kind of difficult typing like that, I could think of anything suitable cringe enough... so I took some notes from that one anime where the girlfriend is a chuunibyo
Also side quests! Got to love those!
Quick warning, there will be no skill books. I find them too much like a short cut in this case so good old fashion studying will be need there. :twilightsmile:
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Markus is kinda a loner huh? :pinkiesad2:

Hope you enjoy! All of your comments are appreciated! :heart:

Chapter 20: The Other End of the Spectrum

“I’m stronger than this!” Those were the words ringing through my skull, though of course those words couldn’t really stop me from bleeding out soon. It had been almost an hour or so after I had finally gotten rid of the dead weight and this freak typhoon hit. Some falling water wasn’t about to stop me from surviving so Arthur pushed on through the cold and the pain… until I couldn't push through the Timberwolves. I wasn’t afraid of the overgrown splinters, the first three were reduced to toothpicks in short order. The next five were a bit more difficult to get past, it didn’t help that most of the wolves had a fascination with my swinging arm.

It all started to go wrong once one of the wolves managed to clamp its jaw around my arm and wouldn’t let go even after destroying it’s whole body. I could remember someone in the past saying that pain is just weakness leaving the body, but after all of this I know different now. Forget the body, forget the pain, forget the weakness! The flesh is weak, my will is stronger than the body that contains it. The only way to survive here, to grow strong… is to [Evolve].

I ignored the cutting pain all over my body, the cold numbing of hypothermia growing throughout my body and dragged myself closer to my quarry. The last wolf, reduced to a body with a front leg and half a head. I could tell the exact moment my intrinsic skill activated, I could feel all the life around me start to try and flee from me and at the same time be attracted to me. I felt a few of my small wounds heal slightly from the dredges of energy I consumed, I paid them no mind as I reached my target.

I felt a snarl grow on my face as I saw the wolf begin it’s futile attempt at escape, it’s pitiful crawl not even half my speed. With a painful lurch I drew myself to my hooves, once again ignoring how most of the bones and flesh in my leg broke in doing so. Hovering over the whimpering material I slammed my working left hoof onto its back to keep it still, wouldn’t want it to damage my property now would I? With my jaw I reached over and clamped down on the wolf head still death gripped into my right arm, I have no need for weakness! With the strongest yank I had in me I ripped my head in the other direction, the sound of flesh tearing and blood spilling filled the forest. From the shoulder down my leg was gone, the only thing keeping me standing was sheer determination and anger. I grew deaf to my own screams as my skill took effect. The trapped wolf went still as my energy drilled into its body, ever so slowly blood stopped gushing from my wound as a sickly green hue started to grow from my body and seep into the surrounding area.

The air was once again filled with noise as the wolf's body started to rapidly break apart, sap and rot flying into the air as the glowing shards of wood found their new rightful place… as my arm. The wood became the flesh I needed, piecing back together on my body replacing my weak flesh with a limb able to grant me more strength. I felt the wolf’s paw grow out its claws in an effort to stretch its non-existent muscles, I quickly crushed the small burgeoning consciousness that joined my own in my mind. I will be the only one in power, you are only here to be my food. With nary a thought I consumed the remains of the wolf’s mind and was treated with a flurry of glowing notifications from the game, I let out a sneer at the thought of my being here and pushed through the messages in disinterest. Walking on my new wolf paw through the forest was much easier than on my old hooves, I felt my new leg make its final growths in my arm and connect to my bone and nerves. It was a slight shock to suddenly be able to feel wood as my own skin but I quickly disregarded it, I have more important things to do. I need to fight and kill, I need to get stronger. Peering up through the trees at the massive smoke cloud growing before me, I smiled at the perfect opportunity given to me. It’s almost like this world wants me to be the strongest, maybe I could even get some useful followers.

Okay, I will admit. Simply walking into a bandit encampment wasn’t the best idea, the cage I was sitting in was empty beside me. All the other captives pleaded not to be in a cage with me after seeing my new appearance, the jeers and taunts from the bandits did nothing to me. I could almost feel their underlying fear at the sight of me, I made eye contact with a griffon that was taunting me with a torch. The heat didn’t feel that good on my paw, I felt a flash of fear from the remaining impression of the wolf that I repeatedly tried and failed to destroy. The griffon lowered the torch and started to walk away, unnerved by my unblinking glare. I ignored the popup screen that told me my [Intimidate] skill leveled and kept eye contact with the griffon. The jeering and yells of the surrounding bandits started to go quiet as more and more realized what was happening.

The griffon started to get a bit frantic as it realized more and more of it’s comrades were witnessing his act of cowardice, dropping the torch and reaching for the sword at his side. Y'know I could do with the ability to eat meat again, if he gets close again- The standoff was cut short by an almost gong like clanging, everyone quickly shifted their attention down the line of cages to an absolute mountain of a pony who had just slammed an almost joke of a sword onto one of the cages almost caving it in with a few terrified ponies inside. The massive blue pony lifted the metal girder of a sword and rested it over his shoulder on top of the furry collar of his sparse armor.

“Alright! That’s enough fun, Phineas shouldn’t you be heading out with the attack team? You remember what happened last time you didn’t pave the way for us right?” The underlying threat wasn’t lost on anyone, especially the griffon who’s name is apparently Phineas. With a fear filled shutter Phineas sent one last vitriol filled glare in my direction before sheathing his cutlass and taking to the sky, maybe I should take some wings next? The obvious leader didn’t leave it at that and started to walk his way down the line of captives, the handle of his blade knocking against every bar as he passed. With heavy quaking steps he sent mocking looks down at the surviving towns folk until he stopped in front of my cage.

“I don’t know what the Tartarus you’re supposed to be, but you’re sure as light ugly” The remaining surrounding bandits started to guffaw at the insult though some of the laughter abated at the sight of my glare. I saw the direction the griffon flew off in, it was the direction the dead weight went… that griffon won’t survive. The deadweight might not be all that strong but they are still related to me, which means they’re already stronger than these side characters.

“You won’t survive the battle” The loud laughter and yells went silent at my sentence, spoken like it was about the sky being blue, a simple truth. I saw a few flecks of anger grow in the leaders' highly expressive eyes before they were buried by dark amusement. Letting out a huffing laugh the leader walked around my cage before turning to lean his body against the side, his immense size and weight almost tipping the cage over… not that it fazed me.

“HA! That’s some bold words coming from a… thing in a cage” The leader resumed his laughter. But his followers only let out hesitant halting chuckles like they were trying to mask their fear. The mere idea of an unknown creature showing up and speaking of your death with such certainty would unnerve anyone.

“You will go to battle and be rendered limb from limb and once you’re dead and gone, I will take over your forces” I could feel this as certain almost like it was [Instinct] and I’m sure he could feel the truth to my words as well, the burgeoning fear in his eyes was snuffed out by the casual arrogance of his hollow strength and past achievements.

“ Well… it’s too bad you won’t be there to see me shatter your little prophecy, Boys! Get ready to move, I want half of you to say and defend this place… I want to have some fun when I get back” He sent a disgusting leer in the direction of a cage filled with mares who only started to sob and cower harder at his words. With a final shout he and along with most of his forces started to get ready to march to their deaths. Now that my vision wasn’t being taken up by a wall of bandits I could see the sorry state of the village, most of the houses still in flames or already reduced to smoldering embers on the ground. There were still bodies littering the ground, some were already dead while others were alive but being used. The sound of hooves growing closer pulled my attention, two rough looking bandits (a Pegasus and an earth pony) approached hesitantly.

“W-were you tell’en the truth about the boss d-dyin’ out there?” Many of the surrounding leftover bandits started watching this conversation very closely, even though the two bandits were taller than me I was looking down on the two of them. This only added to their fear of me, turning fully towards the two I only had this to say.

“Start packing up your things, we’ll need to move before they come for the rest of you next” That seemed to inject more fear into the air as the bandits realize I was dead serious, many of the bandits in the area decided not the take the change that I was wrong and left to follow my orders as side characters should.

“Y-yes sir B-boss” The Pegasus started to fumble for the key of his belt to unlock my cage, after a moment I started to get annoyed with his fumbling and decided to just do it myself. The cage was already old and rusted so it wasn’t that difficult to pull the bars off using my new arm, where muscle would strain and tear, supernatural material simply breaks through. The clearing was once again rendered fearfully silent as I almost effortlessly pulled apart their cage and stepped out, I stood there in silence as my new subordinates stared befuddled.

“Do I need to repeat myself? Move!” And like that they were a flurry of activity and for a moment everything was as it should be, the weak serving the strong. This wouldn’t last long if I stayed as I was… I need to be stronger, I need to become a perfect being. No weaknesses, No shortcomings, and No failures. This is my [Ambition] and I will not be denied! Even if I have to kill everyone who gets in my way!

I woke up in a cold sweat, my wisp sending me waves of concern and alertness. I could feel the remnants of [6th Sense] activation fade away slowly as the last moments of the… vision(?) became a memory. I finally understood what the spirit meant about ‘Demons you know’, I felt my gaze swing to Morgana who had fallen asleep at the table next to the leftovers of the cheese pizza I had made. How am I going to tell her about her brother, more importantly… Should we even do anything about him? The spirits' words were still echoing in my head and I have the deep fear that if we somehow subdue Arthur… would something worse pop up in his absence? (Comfort, Disregard) I agreed with my wisp, this isn’t something I could do anything about right now. We wouldn’t even be able to find them by now, that vision happened before the bandits even left to attack which means Arthur has a few days head start on us.

Suppressing a long sigh I stood from one of the floor cushions and left the room. I could hear the snores of David above me in the bedroom. He didn’t have a problem claiming the now vacant master bedroom and zipped right up there to sleep off the four slices of pizza he had, it really was a stroke of genius to use fire magic in place of an oven. I left out the front door with my wisp following behind me, I took a seat on the front porch and looked up at the star filled sky. It's moments like these that make me actually miss the earth, I don’t recognize any of these stars… that doesn’t make them any less beautiful. I’m not getting to sleep any time soon, might as well get that [Shield] spell unlocked in the meantime.

Author's Note

Well... That's gonna be a problem
I'm not going to be add Arthur to the skill page, his skills... change a lot.

[It annoys me that I had to be so cryptic with my warning, I hate cryptic warnings!]

Yeah well, it was required so...

Anyway I hope you all are enjoying the story! The next arc will certainly be my favorite and I hope you'll like it just as much!

[Will I finally get my offering!]

Save that excitement for later... you'll get it soon

[ : ) ]

Anyway, I'll see you on the next chapter!

[Please Read and Review!]

Chapter 21: The Journey of A Thousand Miles... (Arc 2: The Wanderers Arc)

Arc 2: The Wandering Arc

Chapter 1: The Journey of A Thousand Miles…

My morning began in the best way possible (Insert sarcasm here), with a crick in my neck. Turns out that wooden walls don’t make great pillows, who could have guessed. I had fallen asleep outside practicing my [Shield] spell, I had unlocked it after a few hours of experimenting and failing… horribly at times. The first problem I had was making my magic a solid construct, I had assumed that part would have been easy due to my experience with [Summoning]. With the basics of [Summoning] being making constructs and bringing them to life, but apparently this is way different somehow. The [Shield] spell is more math than magic, needing more geometric and structural knowledge than empathetic magic and materials. I had to calculate how much physical space my pure mana would take up before restructuring it to make a solid construct. Unlike on Earth, energy does not equal mass times the speed of light (sorry Einstein), the speed of light as a variable in magic can be altered at will. With enough experience in neutral magic or light magic I could actually change the amount of light in the spell rendering it either invisible or like a flashbang.

This made the [Shield] spell all the more annoying to learn as the data was almost always inconsistent. So in order to learn the spell I had to… cheat a bit, the saying ‘two heads are better than one’ rings true in my case, especially if one of them sees through magic instead of physically. I had my wisp floating over my shoulder gilding me psychically while I puzzled out where to put my magic. My first successful shield looked less like a barrier and more like a honeycomb, two layers of small hexagons supporting each other. I was so relieved once I learned the spell that I didn’t have to do all of the calculations again, I just had to know where I had to put the barrier and how to make the [Shield] structurally sound… I might stick to triangles more instead of hexagons.

“Markus?! Are you still outside?” David’s still slightly grumpy voice pulled me out of the fog that is my memory (Annoyance, Warmth, Wakefulness). Apparently my wisp doesn’t like loud noises in the morning, so I sent the mental equivalent to a good morning to my wisp and pulled myself up to my hooves. I spent a moment stretching making my legs give off a sound more akin to popcorn then bones before heading back inside. I wasn’t overly surprised by what I saw but it was still pretty up there, David was sitting at the table next to a still snoring Morgana while chewing on some cold pizza. Their actions weren't what surprised me… it was what they were wearing. David was wearing what looked like a cross between a leather jerkin and a cloak, the back of the armor had been cut open to free up his wings leaving an odd gap in the jerkin. To top it all off there was a forest green hood stitched onto it that was currently down and out of the way of David’s pizza. Morgana was wearing probably the most protective bit of armor compared to the rest of us, a full set of militia armor though it looked a bit more like modified horse barding. Most of the thick leather was focused on her chest and her sides while the rest was bundled in the same forest green fabric though I'm not sure if there was any metal reinforcing it.

“Okay… two questions, Is my armor gonna be green too? And did you really eat all four leftover slices of pizza?” Like I said, David was currently gnawing on the last sizable slice of pizza when I was sure there had been four pretty large slices left. Moving on from the pizza I focused more on the armor. I never looked good in green, that is a facet of my life that I’m pretty sure wouldn’t be changing anytime soon. Removing the pizza crust from his mouth David gestured to the chair before me then swallowed the pizza loudly making me cringe slightly at the sound.

“Morgana brought them out early in the morning, I can’t tell what time it is now but I'm sure we overslept… along with half the town I'm sure.” After everything that's happened recently I think everyone deserves a late start to the day. Trotting over to the chair I pulled up my new armor, it was just as I feared. It was just a leather cloak dying a forest green, there were a few buckles and a metal clasp on the front. I lifted the cloak with my [Levitation] and to my surprise a thin leather chest plate fell out onto the floor. Where are they getting all of this leather? Slightly annoyed by the color I sat the cloak back down onto the chair and trotted my way upstairs to freshen up for the day (My hair felt crunchy). A quick glance in the mirror revealed the reason behind my hair conundrum, it was filled with wooden splinters. A quick wash in the shower cleaned me up and woke me up fully, getting out and checking my soggy self in the mirror only made me think about what I have to do today. I had to get dressed, go over the maps with the others, go out and deliver some kind of speech to the other players (hopefully not), and somehow break it to Morgana that her brother is alive and has taken control of the very same bandits that we routed… no pressure.

“You got this far, one step at a time” I’m starting to get why people give themselves pep talks in the mirror, I feel a bit better… I think (Assurance, Belief). The comforting assurance of my wisp really helped me relax so with a reinforced smile I pulsed my [Cleansing] spell and dried myself, the [Cleansing] spell works a bit like a banishment spell where it just sends the target ( the water in this case) away. Thinking about the components of a spell made me think about a recently neglected spell of mine… [Ritual Magic], it says it has the ability to isolate and use certain parts of spells or make creature specific spells possible to use. I really want to delve deeper into this subject but that means making deals and sacrifices to the spirit. She said she liked magic items and knowledge, but I'm afraid that one day she’ll ask for a person instead of an object. I’ll need to really play my cards right when it comes to her, I was already shown once how much power she has over this world and I don’t need another demonstration.

Calming myself I left the bathroom and made my way downstairs where Morgana had finally woke up and was currently munching on a… cucumber? She must have seen my extremely confused face as she smiled and took another loud bite before speaking with her mouth full.

“I like the cronch” The incredulous look I was sending her must have been hilarious as it sent both her and David into giggling convulsions. Rolling my eyes at their antics I went to grab the messenger bag that had a bulk of the supplies and tools. We had decided last night during dinner that I should carry most of the stuff because I would be in the back away from most one-on -one combat and I could [Blink]. Returning to the giggling duo I pulled out the map and unrolled them on the kitchen table. Seeing what I was doing, the two calmed themselves quickly only having slight giggles and burgeoning smiles. The map was about what I expected from a map in this time period, it was a simple topographical map of the country, there were a few trade routes drawn between markers in the shape of houses. There was a key in the corner telling me that the house stamps were known towns and villages and the lines were the best known trade route between them. I already had a destination in mind due to the request from the nice shopmare.

"We are here, and the nearest town is this trading city down southeast. Mount Canter is down past this town almost a week of constant travel away, this isn’t counting any detours or distractions we encounter along the way. We have until the end of the month which it about 3 weeks away I think, which gives us plenty of time to gather intel and get stronger'' We were located up near the Neighagra Falls in the top right end of Equestria which means we had quite a it of walking to do until we reach the mountain. The next town we were going to was a trading hub that had nine different trade routes going through it which made it a major town. This meant it more likely had its own guard force, which means we can get in, learn what we need, then get out and be on our way. Though with our luck, we’re bound to get sidetracked at some point.

“ But what if we need to get back here quickly? Can’t you like teleport us?” Morgana was starting to get excited again at the thought of our journey kicking off, though the sliver of worry in her voice made me sorry to break the news to her about space magic.

“I can’t… not yet at least. [Teleportation] falls under space magic which unlike other elements doesn’t have a Manipulation skill to get started on. It a branch of spell craft that's based on brute magic force that I just don’t have, that’s why only the most powerful unicorns use it” This is what makes Twilight Sparkle so dang impressive, not only is she strong enough to [Teleport] herself and others alongside her, she can use manual [Levitation] at will without burning herself out. She has both immense control and strength and this is all before she became an Alicorn, though I'm not sure if her [Cutie Mark] just made it easier for her or just gave her the potential to get to Alicorn level.

“ But I remember seeing you teleporting around before and during the siege? Is that not the [Teleport] spell? Just what are your skills?” The suddenly onslaught of questions overwhelmed me for a second and I had to part through all of her questions, I really didn’t want them to know about my dark magic so I just answered the basics of her questions and moved on.

“Uh no, the spell you were seeing is my [Blink] spell which is basically a magic slingshot in whatever direction I want. It’s more like the magic little brother of the [Teleport] spell. I actually have quite a few skills and spells, we wouldn’t have enough time to get ready if I explained each one so I’ll just say my main magic type is [Summoning] but my best attack magic so far would be my fire magic for obvious reasons” The two seemed to accepted that in place of a full answer for now and got up to prepare to leave, leaving me to roll the maps back up (Doubt, Disappointment, Sadness). Over my shoulder my wisp expressed its dislike for my unwillingness to tell the truth to my friends, mentally turning my attention to my wisp. I spoke to it while my body started to pack up. It’s too young to really understand the emotional response to hearing that someone is an active user of dark magic (Defiance, Avarice). A want to understand and learn was sent back through the bond, a want I quickly conceded to. I explained all the negative connotations of dark magic to my wisp, all the taboo topics and actions that usually cross into the territory of dark magic and the beliefs that blame problems on dark magic. Ever so slowly my Wisp began to understand my reluctance to reveal my skills and at the same time still wished for me to talk to them, believing they would understand because they’re my friends. While my wisp’s willingness to claim the two as its friends warmed my heart, I also had to explain why I couldn't tell them.

Morgana looks at this world as if it’s straight out of a story book, which means if she sees a wizard that's slowly getting into dark magic she will assume that he is turning evil or something and would need to be defeated ‘for the greater good’. While David on the other hoof doesn’t have such an idealistic look at the world, he sees things in only black and white, good and evil, real and fake. If he finds out I'm using dark magic he will assume I'm another one of those dangerous players that needs to be dealt with. Until I am 100% sure I can trust them with all of my skills without the threat of them turning against me hanging over my head I will be keeping my true capabilities to myself. My body connected the silver clasp on my cloak over the chest plate and trotted over to my lantern hanging near the front door. My Wisp let out a sad crooning noise in my head that I interpreted as a deep sigh (Understanding, Hope). I drew the wisp close in an approximation of a hug as it sent its understanding of my plight and hope for the future. I clipped the [Familiar Lantern] onto the inside of my cloak onto the side of the chest plate for protection, my wisp swirled in the air for a moment before diving into the shadow of my cloak illuminating it for a moment before dimming into a normal silver flame dancing on the lanterns iron wick.

“Are you two ready yet?” Turning back from the door I saw Morgana struggling with the saddle bags straps while David approached with an apple curled in his wing. A quick flick of the limb sent the fruit into the air in my direction and was quickly caught by my [Levitation]. I was about to go for a bite before I stopped myself as I remembered the feeling of having my magical aura chewed. Removing my aura from half the apple I nodded my thanks to David who smiled in response before turning to adjust the cutlass at his side. I felt Morgana rush up and bump into my side almost vibrating in excitement, her bright smile was extremely contagious as I felt a smile grow on my face as well and I didn’t even need to look at David to know he was also beaming. Swallowing the last of my apple and tossing the core into the nearby trash can I took a deep breath and opened the door into the bright morning.

All together we took a step into the light and-

Author's Note

First and foremost I want to say this... DO NOT GET ATTACHED TO THE CLOTHES.
This is a kinda big pet peeve of mine. Outfits will be changed every once in a while and they won't be wearing the same clothes for months at a time unlike some Characters.

[Were looking at you Sora! Kingdom Hearts bullshit or not they need to be washed!]

Anyway we're finally moving on to the traveling and there is something rather important I wanted to ask about. Do you want me to write about every bit of traveling or do you want me to like time-lapse it. Explain what their doing during this time then move on or skip through until something interesting happens with like a voice over from Markus talking about the trip.
If anyone has as preferences on this please comment and tell me as I don't really have any real feelings on the matter of travel. Usually the travel time is skipped during stories and I don't want to just up and skip it.

[So if any of you stalkers have any feelings about it then speak up]

Please don't be rude M
Anyway I hope you enjoy the story!

[Remember to like and comment if you enjoy what you're reading!]

Chapter 22: …Begins With A Single Step

Chapter 22: … Begins With A Single Step

and Immediately regretted it, it was absolute chaos out there. Both the player and the villagers had tried to put together an approximation of a going away party but had ended up making everything look just as big of a mess as the siege had made. A few tables had been pulled out to hold what I assume was food but was not occupied by both players and village children who were trying to get a better view of the newly constructed stage that was built DIRECTLY in front of the house we were in… how did we all miss this being built!?

“Some kind of weird cartoon physics is at work here” A suspicious Morgana was squinting at the rowdy surroundings, her eyes flicking back and forth from the stage and the large picnic tables. My mind zipped back to the moment where I shared the same amount of paranoia about cartoon physics hurting us back with Arthur and Morgana. I started to internally debate whether or not I could just pull my hood up and creep through the crowd, a glance at David showed me that he felt similar.

“-And here are our intrepid explorers now!” Just off to the right of the stage was a female unicorn player levitating a wooden megaphone, her amplified voice quickly drew the eyes of almost every creature nearby to us… great. I felt a stiff forced smile grow on my face while the three of us trotted around the platform to join the player up on stage, myself bringing up the rear. The announcing player had a shocking red coat that was heavily contrasted by her unique two toned mane, cold blue on the left and bright green on the right.

“ For the ponies who just trotted in, I'm your host RGB, the new official guild announcer!” The air was quickly filled by the sound of hooves clapping and stomping on the ground, it seems many players were quickly choosing roles for themselves in the new guild system. RGB seemed to be a crowd favorite judging by the turnout, I felt my stiff smile relax a bit and turn a bit more genuine in the face of so much excitement. A glance at my companions brought me some more amusement. On top of everything, Morgana seemed to bask in the attention wearing a bright smile and frequently changing poses. I turned my gaze away from Morgana as she flexed her arms for the umpteenth time and glanced at David as the applause died down. I already knew about David’s weakness with large crowds so I wasn’t surprised by his choice to just ‘stone face’ the whole time, there was nary an emotion on that pegasus’ face.

“ Now I'm sure you’re all familiar with this particular group! From left to right we have our resident Earthbender Rose Point! Next we have the Swift Swordspony Nimbus! And last but not least we have the Magical Genius and leader of this party, Arcane Hope!” The clapping and stomping from the crowd only grew in strength with every introduction. I let myself internally cringe heavily at the magical genius remark, but I didn’t let my feelings show on my face other than an involuntary twitch in my eye. I’m not a genius… my magic is just kinda flashy, RBG let the crowd quiet down a bit before continuing to speak.

“ While each of these ponies are very formidable, together they are known as… (Hey! Does your group have a name?)” RGB’s slightly frantic whisper caught me off guard, my mind went haywire at the sudden question. I didn’t know we would need a name! I’m terrible at names, especially team names! My quiet panic was nothing to well… panic about as Morgana quickly perked up and happily piped up.

“We’re The Wanderers!” Even without the wooden megaphone, Morgana was loud enough for the audience to clearly hear her and burst into cheers once again… aren’t they tired yet? RGB took the loud answer in stride and spun her megaphone around in a magic flourish before addressing the audience again.

“ Fantastic! As you all must know by now, The Wanderers’ newest mission is to go meet up with another tribe just like ours and you can be sure that they’ll be having some rip roaring adventures along the way! Don’t let your cheers loose just yet, because The Wanderers aren’t the only party leaving today and here they are!” Grabbing the megaphone out of her levitating aura RGB pointed across the crowd which quickly parted to reveal who else but an obviously annoyed Aaron being followed by three other players. One was the sky blue pegasus that I didn't get the name of, another was the unicorn with the shredded mane that I seem to keep running into… did I ever get his name? As I made a mental promise to ask others their names more often I had to lean to the side slightly to see the last player behind Aaron- Jesus Christ! Is that a child behind him? Trudging behind Aaron with a determined grimace on his face was who I assumed to be an NPC’s Earth pony child wearing a saddle bag laden with too much stuff. The small colt actually resembled me slightly with a dark blue coat and black mane except his mane was an unruly mop of hair that stuck up in every direction. My already sizable dislike for Aaron started to grow rapidly as my mind kept bringing up the worst reasons for that foal to be with Aaron, by the time Aaron and his group actually reached the stage I was unsure if I was actually growling or that was just in my head (Hostility, Certainty, Affirmation). According to my wisp I actually was growling out loud and it mirrored my feelings, promising pain in Aaron’s future.

“U-uh Introducing Sterling Flare and his… associates'' The appearance of the child took the wind out of RBG’s sails in record time, the once cheering crowd was rendered silent as both the players and the NPCs looked on in confusion at Aaron’s actions waiting for an explanation. The silence stretched on for a moment and it dawned on me that he wasn’t going to say anything until prompted the git. I grit my teeth and swallowed down my anger, schooling my features. I turned and took a step towards Aaron with Morgana and David joining me at my sides.

“ Good morning Sterling, who’s our new friend here? I thought our journeys were going to stay in the clan only?” My questions sounded friendly to anyone listening who wasn’t in the know about Aaron, but those who did know clearly caught the meaning of my question.

What are you doing with that child Aaron?

“Ah yes! While I was preparing my team I was approached by this young stallion and his mother. The lad wanted to be the first apprentice of the guild if you can believe it! It would be remiss of me to refuse such a driven colt so I offered to take him with us on our journey to… educate him directly” Finishing that extremely alarming sentence, Aaron reached over and pulled the colt to his side and pulled him close. The colt looked up at Aaron with eyes full of excitement which Aaron reciprocated with a look that I couldn’t place (Disgust, Anger, Alarm). Apparently my wisp could place that look and really didn’t like it, which doesn’t bode well. Aaron turned his gaze up to me with a look that screamed ‘Say something, I dare you’ and as much as I wanted to… I couldn’t. As much as I wanted to grab that child and get him away from the possible pedophile that was Aaron… I couldn’t. This was a power play by Aaron that I couldn’t win, if I argued or tried to get the child away from him then I would destroy whatever trust our guild has accrued in the blink of an eye. There’s also that fact that I was almost certain thanks to [6th Sense] that Aaron didn’t actually plan to do anything with that colt other than maybe have him carry some stuff. This was his gamble to see who had any kind of suspicions about him and all of us had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.

“Well… I’m glad that some ponies are already on board with the apprenticeship! Try not to work too hard now, okay little one? Help will always be available to you in this guild” This was apparently the right thing to say as many NPCs in the crowd let out quiet d’awws at the sight of the colt’s bright happy smile.

“I won’t forget Mr. Hope, next time you see me I’ll be the bestest adventurer out there! Just watch!” I hoped the colt’s contagious cheer rubbed off on my expression as it currently felt like I was trying hard not to sneer in Aaron direction. RGB let out a slightly awkward laugh before clearing her throat and stepping forward cutting between the impromptu stand off between our two groups. I chanced a look around the head of RGB and caught the eye of shred mane who looked at me then flicked his eyes down at the colt before giving me a small nod. It helped ease my heart a bit knowing someone I sorta knew was going to watch over the kid.

“ Now I know we’re all having a blast right now, but sadly the routes these two teams are going to be taking go in different directions and we’re burning daylight here. Let’s get the name of Sterling’s team before their journey kicks off.” RGB took a moment to levitate the megaphone over to Aaron who calmly took it in one hoof and paused a moment to think before letting a somewhat devious smirk grow on his face.

“We will be known as… The Saviours'' Again the tense atmosphere descended on the stage as Aaron and I locked eyes, the secret was out… this was war… one that I intend to win. I don’t know what Aaron’s planning but it can’t be anything good, to be realistic I don’t even know what I’m going to do! It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to believe that Aaron wants control of some kind, of the players, of everyone, of the world I don’t know. Either way I need to make sure he can’t rise to power, though this won’t be as much of a problem as he’s traveling around establishing guild houses in different towns. Once we reached Mount Canter I could warn the other players about him and stop him in his tracks.

“The...Saviours… okay then, It is time for the two parties The Wanderers and The Saviours to embark on the journeys! I wish all of you the best of luck and hope to see you again real soon!” With nary another word the seven of us simultaneously started to walk off the stage and headed for the center of the Residential area where the crowd had parted to give us room. Turning to look each other in the eye for the last time in a while, Aaron and I held that heated stare for a moment and an unspoken promise was made.

We will settle this later!

Wordlessly our two teams turned away from each other and started our trot out of the village, David, Morgana, and I didn’t speak as we walked through the open gate out the back of the village leading to our next destination. We didn’t speak until the small village was well out of sight and the only sounds were the winds flowing through the grassy fields and the insects living inside it. It wasn’t until the sun had finally begun its descent to the horizon did anyone say something. Letting out an irritated sigh, Morgana turned to look at us as we stopped to make camp and said five words.

“I really hate that guy!” Our slightly bemused silence was more than enough of a response.

Author's Note

I did it... I don't know why this chapter was so difficult for me... :derpyderp1:
Anyway we got more of a threat level on Aaron but it's gonna have to take a back seat to the current journey... and yes, I kept the colt nameless for a reason.

[Oooh mysterious~]

Anyway its time for the actual travel time, there will be times where I will flash between perspectives like Arthur, or maybe that one unicorn with the messed up mane-

[His name is Caleb / Coral Shelf if you wanted to know]

Names are another weak point of Markus' that he'll need to work on. There will be a massive amount of lore and exposition in the following chapters so I was wondering if I should make a lore page or something and update it whenever some new pops up. If I do make this then if anyone notices something and thinks it should be put in the lore tab please comment it... all information is good information :trollestia:
I hope you're enjoying the story!

[Please Read and Review!]

Chapter 23: So That's What Horseshoes Are For!

Chapter 23: So That’s What Horseshoes Are For!

I remember back when I was 12 that I actually liked walking places, I don’t remember why. It probably had something to do with me growing up in a wide open area, I grew up in an area that used to be farmland so I had plenty of space to roam about. Now though I think I hate walking… or at least my new body does, my hooves were killing me! At least I wasn’t the only one suffering, Morgana was feeling every bit of biting, itchy pain I was feeling. The two of us shared a look of mutual understanding as the traitor that was David leisurely floated above us lounging on a cloud he had made.

“Alright, let's take a break” I heard a relieved sigh from Morgana while David just perked up from the cloud he was playing with. He’s been getting used to his new [Cloud Control] skill and was loving it so far… much to our jealousy.

“Why? I’m feeling just fine” The collectively flat looks we sent David did nothing to quell the smug look that was growing on his face. I can’t wait to start researching [Ritual Magic] if only to stop having to walk everywhere. I remember it saying I could use other spells in written or etched form, I wonder if that means I can fly eventually or get super strength like Morgana… though of course that means I would have to deal with the spirit. Pushing that whole problem out of my head I sat down on the cool green grass next to an equally tired Morgana, with a flare of my horn I [Levitated] out my canteen of water and took a swig of the warm life giving liquid. Actually… Now that I'm thinking about [Ritual Magic] and ‘life giving liquid’ I remembered something pretty important, potions.

“Hey Morgana, can you teach me about plants?” If I remember correctly Morgana has the [Herbalism] skill and my [Ritual Magic] skill required ingredients for the rituals themselves, plus I could eventually learn how to make potions which could help take some of the pressure off of Morgana on being the only healer. Morgana sent me a confused look from around her canteen at my sudden request, taking a moment to swallow the water she turned to speak directly to me.

“ I’d be happy to teach you, but I don’t really recognize many of the plants here. I don’t know why this game gave me such a high [Herbalism] skill when most of the plants here either don’t resemble anything we have on earth or are similar but still slightly different” Morgana’s confused admittance was surprising, it didn’t even occur to me that the native plants here would be different than on earth… I wonder if there are any other skills that are rendered useless by this being a different world.

“ But I remember you grabbing some mushrooms that were safe to eat? DO you think your skill has other effects?” I saw Morgana’s eyes lit up in remembrance of our first camp out in the woods with her brother then I watched her slowly droop at the thought of her brother. I saw David peek over the edge of his cloud, sending Morgana a concerned look… if I’m ever going to tell about her brother now would be the time.

“Hey… about Arthur, I know what happened to him” I winced slightly at my ill choice of words and looked the nearly broken hearted Morgana in the eye as I explained my vision. David had left his cloud for this, leaving it to drift off and fall apart in the slight breeze. I saw a spark of skepticism grow in David’s eye as I explained how Arthur took over the remnants of the bandits and I paused to let the inevitable question come from his lips.

“ Just what skills do you really have?” Another kind of worry started to grow in the eyes of Morgana and David, both seeming to realize that I had never really explained all of my abilities. I took a not so calming breath and collected my thoughts, (Worry) my wisp equally as uncertain about what to say next.

“We can talk more about my skills later, let me finish talking about Arthur for now” The serious looks from Morgana and David told me that they would be holding me to that, of course the tense atmosphere fell away once I had reached the part about Arthur taking over and leaving with the bandits. The mood turned somber and forlorn, Morgana’s eyes turning slightly watery at the news though not for the reasons I thought.

“H-he still cares… i’m just happy he’s okay” I almost sent a skeptical look her way at the ‘okay’ remark. I’m not sure ripping your own leg off counts as ‘okay’, but I don’t have the heart to tell her otherwise. I took a glance up at the sky and saw the sun slowly slot into the noon position then slow to a stop, I really need to get a watch or something. We still had a lot of ground to cover and an uneven timetable to travel on, we’ll probably find out what’s wrong with the sun when we reach Canterlot. I rose to my hooves and got ready to head down the trail again, Morgana followed quickly with a new pep in her step. David sent Morgana a slightly concerned look before springing back into the air and activating his [Cloud Control] skill, slowly the moisture in the air started to gather around his hooves until a familiar grey mist started to form. Moments later the three of us were on the road again and once again I felt envy over David’s ability to avoid walking.

We’ve been walking for another hour or so when both Morgana and I decided to work on some of our own skills, it was pretty entertaining to be honest. I decided to work on my [Shield] spell and my [Thunder Lion] Summon. My wisp was pretty understanding and went into the lantern to avoid bringing down my mana regeneration. My lion only needed to be summoned to gain experience but my [Shield] spell needed to be actively repelling something to level which was slightly annoying at first until David had an idea and started hopping from his cloud and a small floating platform I had made with my [Shield] spell. It was like a weird version of hop-scotch where he jumps from the cloud and has to hurry and make a new one before the shield breaks from his weight. At the spell's current level it had the strength of glass and would only get stronger with more levels, Morgana chose to level her [Earth Manipulation] skill by bouncing a stone up and over my lion that was keeping pace with her and bouncing it back playing catch with herself. We must have made quite a sight, I was struggling keeping my focus on making more platforms for David and not laughing at our antics. My focus didn’t last long as Morgana’s stone flew off course and smacked into the platform David had just sprung towards destroying it and sending him face first into the ground. My echoing laughter drowned out any apologies Morgana might have given David, both joining me in my mirth as they caught my contagious laughter.

That night was filled with laughter and stories. David was in the middle of telling us about the time he beat a carnival game that was supposed to be unwinnable when something occurred to me. I waited for David to finish his story before interjecting, I tossed another stick into the silver flames before speaking in an effort to stave off the chilly night air.

“I don’t know why I never asked this earlier, but how old are you two? I just turned twenty the month before the game started” The sudden question caught David off guard, but Morgana was more gobsmacked than confused. She swallowed another mouthful of stew before responding, there was a bit of wild spinach in her teeth.

“You’re twenty!? I’m barely seventeen, David please don’t tell me I'm the youngest here!” With a look of faux desperation on her face Morgana swung her head back towards David who wore the most stoic face I had ever seen and speaking with a tone so flat, it could have broken a record somewhere.

“Eighteen… Hahahahaha!” The sudden devastation on Morgana’s face sent the once stoic David into a laughing fit that almost made him fall from his cloudy seat. It did slightly concern me that even though all three of us are different ages we all looked physically the same age, Everyone in our group of players seemed to be around the same age thankfully but I can’t speak for the other groups we’re going to meet. I [Levitated] up my bowl of soup and swallowed another mouth full of the savory broth while I thought about our journey so far. We’re actually a day ahead of schedule much to my surprise, I was expecting more… monsters or something, I guess this gives more support to the different world theory. Though of course that doesn’t mean we won’t encounter something. (Curiosity) I felt my wisp send me a small strand of curiosity as it hovered over my shoulder, glancing up at it I waited for it to form its question. Instead of finishing the pseudo-sentence my wisp floated down to my bowl and sorta nudged the rim, does it want to try the soup… can it try the soup? I tried to stem my amused disbelief and offered my bowl to my wisp, Morgana and David’s playful argument fell quiet as the two watched from the side. I felt the bowl dip slightly as my wisp slipped some of its flames into the broth, the liquid bubbled slightly as some of it evaporated into the wisp. Backing away from the bowl slowly my wisp didn’t move for a scant second before…

*Hiccup!*

It’s silver flames briefly turned the same creamy green as the soup as it expelled a small green cloud in a high pitched hiccup. (Tasty!) All three of us collectively lost it, my wisp just peered at us while savoring the ‘taste’ of the soup. I felt it’s want for seconds signal over the bond and I was barely able to relay it’s request in my out-of-breath state to Morgana who happily poured my wisp it’s own bowl. I let my laughter slowly ebb away and peered down happily at my wisp who was currently resting in his bowl slowly burning through his soup. Slowly though I felt the smile on my face slowly turn to a confused one, I really am bringing them to life and yet… I don’t have a name for them.

“Hey, do you want a name?” I felt my wisp’s attention turn from their soup up to me so fast that if they had a neck it would have cracked, (Surprise, Excitement, Agreement, Affection) The gamut of emotions that were thrown at me were eclipsed by the act of my wisp zipping up out of his soup and latching to my face in a facsimile of a hug. I couldn’t help the face achingly large smile that grew on my face from the heart melting act. I let out a few giggles as I separated my ecstatic wisp from my face and turned to my friends for some help.

“Aww! Ooh how about Gastly… because we made that Pokémon trainer joke earlier! Oooh ooh or maybe a fire-type name!” Morgana was excitedly switching between Pokémon names while David simply sent me a half hearted shrug while saying he wasn’t any good at naming things. I thought deeply about my summon, they’re my first companion in this world and they’re essentially a part of me since I made them from my magic. That kind of reminds me of a movie I loved, it was about a cursed woman who ran away to find a wizard who lived in a moving castle… and suddenly I have the perfect name.

“Your name shall be Calcifer”

Author's Note

I love all Studio Ghibli films but Howl's Moving Castle will always hold a special place in my heart.

[But what about Spirited Away? I feel it's a bit more ironic considering everyone's situation]

Spirited Away is second on my list with Mary and the Witch's Flower coming in a close third.

[Fine, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please Read and Review]

Chapter 24: Final Stretch

It took Calcifer almost the rest of the night to calm down after receiving their name. I did ask if they had a pronoun they wanted to be known as but all I got in return was happy confusion. I don’t think Calcifer is old enough to understand gender identity yet, I just decided to refer to them as ‘They/Them’ until they say otherwise. The nights out in the plains wasn't that cold with the fire going so we refrained from putting up the tents and just went to sleep under the stars with Cal to watch over us.

I had assumed that the following day would be just as peaceful as the days before, we were making good time and would have at most a day or so of full travel left until we reached the Trading hub. That was my first mistake, I really should stop assuming things about this place. Unlike yesterday, the three of us had stopped training our skills and decided to have a relaxing walk at the forest’s edge… okay that’s a lie. All three of us were put on edge by the forest being nearby, call it paranoia, forest-based PTSD, or stress, but none of us trusted anything about that forest. I wanted to say it was the same forest we had escaped in the beginning but it was vastly different, the biggest difference would be the fact that almost all of the trees are probably three stories high! They were an amazing sight at first slowly coming into sight in the distance but as we approached they just kept getting bigger, and bigger. My first indication that something was wrong was the fact that an absolutely massive forest like this had literally no sounds coming from it, not even birds. So I wasn’t really surprised when my [6th Sense] started ringing through my head, no… it’s what happened after that surprised us.

“Look alive you two!” David and Morgana immediately snapped from their ready positions and prepared themselves, David whipped his sword out of his sheath while Morgana stepped in front of the two of us. Earlier in the day the three of us talked about our positions in battle, Morgana immediately elected herself to be on the front lines as the main tank due to her hardier nature, David wanted to work in conjunction to Morgana zipping around dealing damage and pulling aggro (Aggro: A monster or players aggression towards a target). Before I could talk about my position Morgana and David cut me off and said I would be supporting them in the back. Apparently me always being in the thick of the fight as the squishy wizard had gotten on both of their nerves, I could only chuckle sheepishly at that.

“Calcifer! We need overwatch!” At my word Calcifer shot out from under my cloak disconnecting from the lantern and growing to their full size. Cal didn’t waste any time and shot upwards high into the air, I could see the trees deeper in the forest shaking from something… something large. The first hint that we needed to move was the ground starting to shake, the second was the massive trees in the distance falling to the ground with an earth shaking crash, I didn’t wait for the third.

“David Move!” The Pegasus nearly threw himself into the air as I grabbed Morgana around the barrel and [Blinked] away. Using the [Blink] spell with a passenger is just as weird as it sounds, the spell doesn’t hold us together as were moving at high speeds so I had to use both my [Levitation] and my own meager strength to hold onto Morgana as I launched us into the grass away from the forest edge. The two of us landed in a tangle of limbs as the tree line exploded outward in a shower of wood and greenery. Barreling out of the forest was a small stampede of creatures that bore some similarities with wild boars, the animal’s coat was obscured by the massive amount of moss and mushrooms growing on their backs making them look more like fallen logs then creatures. Morgana and I had thrown ourselves to our hooves in preparation for a fight ( I remember boars being pretty mean…) and when the sizable herd finally reached us they… ran right past. Parting around us like a small sea, the boars didn’t even glance at us as they ran out into the plains.

“Huh… talk about anti-climatic… “ David’s words announced his presence as he landed next to us and I’m pretty sure Morgana said something in return but I wasn’t paying attention. I was still staring into the forest, I’m genre savvy enough to know that a stampede like that could only mean one thing.

“ They were running from something” And as expected Morgana is already on the same page as me, David decided not to waste any words and took off into the air again. I felt the ground start to shake again as Morgana and I stared unblinkingly into the dark forest and after a tense moment I felt the expected burst of pure (Alarm!) flow through Calcifer’s bond… except in the opposite direction. My confusion was drowned out by the teeth rattling sound of the ground exploding, whipping around I saw in the distance where the herd of boars had settled down in the plains suddenly be reduced to mounds of fresh soil and rocks as a titanic worm burst out of the ground swallowing a few of the boars whole.

“What the…!” Again the familiar ice cold feeling of fear lancing through my chest made itself known, I think I know why there aren't any monsters out here now. My moment of fear filled indecision was apparently enough time for the worm to snap up the remaining fleeing boars around it. There was a moment of silence as the worm searched for more food, I took a step back and contemplated the idea of just screaming to run. The moment my hoof touched the ground the head of the worm snapped to our direction, the guttural screech it let out was something I could feel in my bones.

“Run!” This feels vaguely familiar, running from a massively overpowered monster with two other companions… is this going to be a trend with us? I could hear my heart beating frantically in my ears as Morgana and I sprinted away from the Tremors-esque worm, said worm was rapidly catching up to us after finishing up it’s pork appetizer. Slithering through the earth with minimal effort, the bus-sized worm swallowed any obstructions in it’s path all while screeching a bone rattling roar. The worm’s roar was so loud that we almost missed David’s warning.

“Duck!” I had to make a conscious effort to actually dodge to the side instead of turning to look in David's direction, the familiar sound crackling and the feeling of my coat standing on end had me feeling glad I moved. Up ahead of us in the air was David surrounding himself with countless small storm clouds, each brimming with lightning. Cocking a hoof back, David let it fly into one of the closer clouds and at the moment of impact a bolt of natural yellow lightning burst from the cloud. David quickly became a veritable machine gun of lightning bolts as he sent hit after hit of electricity at the worm which wailed it’s obvious displeasure, the worm slowing at the onslaught but not stopping much to our detriment. I could see the countless scorch marks from the connected shots but none of them went more than skin deep, it’s hide was way too tough for our attacks… that didn't mean the same for its insides.

“Morgana, I need a boulder!” Sliding to a stop and facing the serpentine monster I started to gather as much mana as quickly as I could, Morgana didn’t hesitate to turn and charge at the worm as she sprung over me and slammed her forehooves into the earth. The ground followed her command and a stone cube about the size of a grown pony rose from the ground, taking that massive amount of mana I had gathered and slapped the sloppiest, most unstable yet powerful [Plasma Imbuement] onto the boulder. I had basically turned the boulder into a solid block of nitroglycerin and with the help of Morgana, launched it into the maw of the beast… then booked it in the other direction.

“Hit the deck!” Morgana and I dived back off the road with David and Calcifer swooping after us just as quickly, I put as many layers of the [Shield] spell as I could and Morgana frantically pulled up a slanted stone barrier to assist… the resulting explosion was one that was felt before it was heard. The beginning shockwave instantly shattered Morgana’s earthen shield instead of our bones, the following wave of debris that was launched by the shockwave shattered two of my [Shields] leaving one left. Each time a [Shield] was shattered it was like a punch in the stomach, I don’t think I was even breathing by the time the last impact happened. Before the final and most likely strongest blast happened I had an epiphany… I grit my teeth and pushed against the wall of force bearing down on us and activated my most useful skill… [Plasma Imbuement]. The naturally silver hued force field was already filling with cracks before the borderline enchantment skill activated, the cracks all quickly melted together as the barrier gained a rainbow hue like that of oil in a parking lot… then the fire hit. I was fully expecting to be socked in the face by the force of the flames and the lightning but instead once the elements hit the barrier they diffused around it, I had made an elemental deflector shield!

“My cloud barrage doesn’t seem as cool compared to this… We should come up with more team attacks!” David’s sudden exuberance caught both Morgana and I off guard, but I will admit that the previously panicked atmosphere in the improvised bunker had lightened immensely now that we're all thinking about team attacks…on second thought?

“Let’s make sure we can survive our own attacks first, okay?” David took a sheepish look out the barrier at the now abating fire and lightning, I wasn’t actively supplying them with magic so they were quick to fade. I dropped the barrier once the flames had abated enough for us to see what happened to the worm. Instead of a massive corpse like I was expecting , there were a few piles of charred blue flesh and fangs surrounding a massive hole.

“It got away… “ Morgana took the words right out of my mouth, I don’t think this will be the last we’ve seen of it either... Great! What’s with massive creatures having vendettas against us, are we cursed? One day I need to find a way to scan or identify other things just to see if we are really cursed, annoyingly there isn’t a skill for something like that (Not even under the Dark Magic tab!)

“I can tell now, that won’t be the last time we see that worm. We should really get out of here, I don’t want to know what that explosion attracted” I felt a flicker of worry from Calcifer (who I just realized was absent from the worm encounter) as he entered the lantern, I pushed the throbbing feeling in my horn to the back of my mind and tried to get moving. David stayed on the ground with us this time, probably just as on edge as the rest of us… I just want to get to the town already.

The three of us had finally settled down after the whole worm incident and had set up camp in the shadow of a nearby boulder. The three of us were much more spread out than usual, there wasn’t any tension or anger in the air or anything just… we were starting to smell. My [Cleansing] spell does remove foul odors but leaves this odd absence of a smell that’s like if t.v. static was a scent, it’s a smell that starts to grate on the senses so we collectively decided to not use the spell in place of hygiene (or at least until I can find a way to give the spell a scent). So after a long day of walking in the sun and training our skills we’ve become a collection of interesting smells.

David had been working on his [Discipline] and [Cloud Control] so he was left smelling heavily like ozone and sweat, Morgana had been inspired by our maneuver back during the worm encounter and had been trying to be more creative with her [Earth Manipulation] skill and now had the musty smell of fresh mud and cut grass. I think I was the worse of the three of us, I was trying to expand my limits when it came to my [Summons] and their [Imbuements]. I couldn’t tell who smelled more smoky, me or the fire itself. It didn’t help that I also had an undertone of the static-y smell that I'm coming to associate with the smell of used mana.

I let out a deep sigh while I stared down at my meager dinner of travel rations and water, these things weren’t disgusting per say but they're definitely tasteless. The dried hay bars paled in comparison to the smell of Morgana’s bell pepper kabobs, David caught my forlorn look and let a slight grin grow on his face as he took a larger than necessary bite. I jokingly growled in his direction and made a mental note to make his slices smaller the next time I make pizza. I took another tasteless bite of the bar and quickly took a swig of water to help push down the impossibly dry food. The source of my misfortune has nothing to do with my friends, it’s something that’s bound to be a pain in every player’s butt in the future. Apparently we weren’t just given new bodies upon our entry to this world… but also new allergies! I used to be allergic to a few kinds of penicillin but now that I'm a pony I guess I can’t eat bell peppers anymore. I learned this the hard way and promptly threw up in a nearby bush after my first bite. I glanced over at my abandoned kabob that I was keeping afloat with my [Levitation], I eyed a particularly juicy looking chunk on the stick and felt almost physically pained as Calcifer quickly burned the chunk into their being sending out waves of contentment. Feeling my attention on him, Calcifer sent me a small cavalcade of emotions that roughly translated to ‘Stop being such a drama queen… ‘ I couldn't help but chuckle at that.

I felt a smile grow on my face as I dropped my not-really-sour mood, I felt a very faint pulse of happiness come from my lion who was currently housed in my lantern. They tended to act more like a baby when it came to their emotions, mirroring my emotions at times and having a near unstoppable curiosity when not in battle. I finished off my rations and water and just watched everything, Morgana and David were trading jabs about their smells and laughing about it. Calcifer was floating nearby just happy to be included and was flourishing their comet like tail about like that of a puppy, I turned my gaze upwards and took in the stars. I could see countless stars floating above us and the faint purple and green hues of nebulas in the distance, I could hear Morgana and David’s voices slowly fade away as they joined me in gazing at the stars, it’s moments like these that I start to wonder… am I thankful that I was brought here?

Author's Note

I hated writing this chapter... I don't knw why but it took me so long to do it. I kept deleting and rewriting parts of it then redoing it again to change things so... I'm just going to finish it with nothing too plot heavy. I think from now on I'm just going to use travel time as a sort of intermission for side stories, like a tales around equestria thing. Give some viewpoints of some of the other players or npcs.

[That sounds pretty nice I guess, but what if some thing important happens while they are traveling?]

Then that event will take up the side story for that intermission, there are plenty of other stories that we're not focusing on and they'll still be there after the events happen...maybe.

[...I don't like that maybe...]

Don't worry about it... Here's an idea, if any of the readers what to hear a side story about a specific character then they can request them. Give them a bit of power over the point of view.

[That might be fun, there are some pretty creative beings out there... might be worth a shot]

[I hope you all enjoy the chapter, however sparse it was... See you next time!]

Chapter 25: New Horizons... No Not The Game!

Chapter 25: New Horizons… No Not The Game!

The sight of the dirt roads I was used to seeing slowly turning to cobbled stone the further we walked was one I relished in. I also relished in the feeling of my hooves walking on something that isn’t the rough dirt. I'm starting to think we’ll need horseshoes at this rate (that sent a fearful shiver through me much to the confusion of Calcifer). I had watched videos of horses getting their hooves shod during one of my more sleepless nights and now I am on the verge of having nightmares about someone putting nails in my hoof. I shook the stomach turning thoughts out of my head and focused, Morgana and David were both just as excited to see a town as I was though not for the same reasons.

Sometime last night after dinner Morgana had divulged to me about her ‘image’, she wanted this to be the chance she needed to reinvent how others see her. She didn’t want to be the happy go lucky girl next door anymore and now that she has earthbending like abilities and a team to go on adventures with she wanted to be more like a certain iconic earthbender. Cool and collected while also being kinda sarcastic… I wasn’t really sure being sarcastic was her thing but I wasn’t about to put out her exuberance. I had asked David if he wanted to do something similar but all I got in response was an amused look and a subtle shake of his head.

I might actually try and do something similar, this might be a good time to try and get over my whole thing with being social. I’m told that I can be pretty oblivious to social cues at times but my [6th sense] skill should cover that particular weakness. Maybe I could make myself more outgoing and uh … other social things? I’m not the best at this but it’s the thought that counts right! The three of us had just ascended another hill when we finally caught sight of the Trading hub. I don’t know what I was expecting on such an overcast day.

“That’s not an encouraging sight… “ Where we were expecting a bustling trade city with caravans and traders coming and going, we instead saw a cold barred wooden gate with countless traders and caravans camping outside the city with their carts and bags empty. A somber cloud hung over us as we approached the large but concerningly quiet town, the perimeter of the hub was surrounded by high walls made of dark iron and blackened wood giving it a slightly intimidating visage. From the top of the hill I could see a few specks in the distance roaming the tops of the towering walls and towers, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to guess that the specks were the local guard force.

“Is it just me or is anyone else getting Great Depression vibes… “ David’s extremely alarmed voice broke me from my analysis and made me refocus on the tent city springing up around the main gate. It was something out of a history film, tents falling apart from being out in the elements for so long, foals starving and stealing scraps from each other, Stallions and Mares alike were begging by the road. I am suddenly reconsidering entering this town, the back of my mind unhelpfully piped up that we were low on travel supplies and would need to restock at this town… somehow. I slowed down slightly to make sure my bag was secure and at least slightly difficult to pickpocket when I felt the box the shopmare asked us to deliver jostle reminding me of our other request.

“There is definitely something wrong with this place, but I want you two to keep in mind that we can’t save everyone… I don’t know how to pull a whole city out of an economic crisis and we can’t just give away what meager supplies we have” The look Morgana gave me hurt in a way I wasn’t expecting. She looked both personally offended that I suggested we shouldn’t help these ponies and at the same time deeply disappointed in me. I watched her take a deep breath in preparation for what would most likely be a legendary scolding until a yellow hoof gently rested on her side.

“Morgana… Markus might have the right idea. Think about it, we don’t have the supplies, influence, or abilities to help them. It’s lovely that you want to help everyone so readily but… this is a job for a government, not a hero” David’s solemn words seemed to strike a deep chord within Morgana as I saw the righteous anger in her eyes be quickly exchanged for hurt and sadness. That deep breath she took wasn’t used for words but for a deep sad sigh that betrayed just how hard this was hitting her. David and I shared a concerned look as Morgana looked back up at us in resignation, without a word she continued to trot down the hill with us in tow.

“ Keep an eye out for an older stallion named Feldspar, we have a package for him” I didn’t get a response from David and Morgana but I knew they heard me, we were well and truly entering the tent city now. David’s prior comparison started to hold more and more weight as we trotted deeper into the tent city, everyone there looked miserable. Now that we are closer I could see that the tent city seemed to consist mostly of families(Sadness). I could feel Calcifer wilt at the sight of their plight and I couldn’t think of anything to cheer them up. The more I gaze at the passing tents and hopeless ponies, the more I'm beginning to think this looks more like a refugee camp.

The main road was left uncovered from the many canvas homes and sleeping mats but it still felt incredibly cluttered as a meager contingency of guards were patrolling up and down the road keeping the peace, this meant pushing back any ponies who were desperate enough to try and rush the guards for their stuff I guess. David and I subconsciously took a step away from the brawl between the two stallions and tried to creep around them, it took a moment for me to realize Morgana wasn’t following us and turned to search for her. She had stopped to watch the brawl with a growing look of indecision blooming on her muzzle, she probably wanted to try and stop the fight. I tried to get over to her as fast as I could without looking frantic, I trotted to her side and quickly nudged her down the path away from the fight.

“Why won’t you let me help!” Morgana’s angry hiss drew my eyes from the surrounding ponies back to her vibrant eyes. Another pang of guilt flickered in my chest before I quashed it and leaned in close to speak.

“Look at all the ponies around us, they’re just waiting for an excuse to turn that brawl into a riot. If you had jumped into that fight you would have been the spark in the gunpowder” Now that I had drawn their attention to it Morgana and David turned their now alarmed eyes towards the ponies at our sides and noticed the mass amounts of eyes on us… wait… they’re not watching them… they’re watching me! I felt my heartbeat speed up at the realization that everypony here was glaring at me, I sped my trot up a bit, leaving David and Morgana to trail behind slightly and watched as most of their collective gazes followed me forward. Why are they so wary of me? (Anxiety!) It didn’t make me feel better knowing Calcifer was feeling anxiety for the first time, but it did make me feel defensive for them.

“Halt!” It wasn’t long before we reached the main gate and were stopped by two guards wearing what was probably the most protective armor I have seen so far. Full metal plates covered their torso leaving leather padding on their legs and neck, only their heads were uncovered showing their dark green and blue fur respectively. The green guard stepped forward displaying a single black diamond on his chest, I swallowed down whatever lingering anxiety I had left and acted like I belonged here.

“State your business!” I took a step forward and lit up my horn to [Levitate] out Feldspar’s package. I tried to put the most amicable smile I had on my face as I looked into the green guards brown eyes.

“Hello, we were asked to deliver this package to a stallion. We were told he would be around this area at the moment, so is it possible for us to be let through?” I watched the guard arch his brow at my words, his eyes flicked to his partner for a moment before they refocused on my own.

“What’s this stallion’s name?” I cringed slightly at the question, I had hoped they would have just let us through. I had purposely withheld his name just in case he had us followed or something.

“...Feldspar’s his name” The change was immediate, both guards’ eyes went wide and their breath hitched in their throats audibly. The blue guard scrambled to turn and open the large gate while the green guard stumbled over his words for a moment before clearing his throat and speaking.

“A-ah yes, he is a long time friend of ours. Please allow me to escort you to him” His sudden insistence caught me off guard for a moment before I collected myself, I glanced back at David and Morgana to see their take on this. Morgana seemed just as lost as I was and David just looked incredibly wary of everything, I think we should follow him (if he did try anything, I'm pretty sure we could take him).

“We would very much appreciate the help uh… “ The guard ignored the prompting for his name and took my acceptance as a signal to turn and trot through the gate. His abrupt exit was the last thing I expected so he got a bit of distance between us before we snapped out of his and hurried to catch up.

The town didn’t look much better on the inside, of course everything had a fantasy medieval theme but it still looked like it was in the middle of the great depression. Many of the probably beautiful looking houses and stores were either closed or condemned leaving the main cobbled road painfully empty and colorless. Our guide wasn’t waiting for us to finish looking around so we had to cut our sightseeing short, the guard quickly turned onto a cobbled side street that I would have missed if it wasn’t for the clanking racket his armor gave off. David had to use his wings alongside his run in order to keep up with us… Morgana didn’t have any issues keeping up with the guard… I really need to work out or something. I am way too slow!

There wasn’t really anything special about the side street, there was litter in a few places along with a few windows and side doors here and there. I was breathing pretty hard as I sprinted down the streets, taking rights and lefts in pursuit of the guard. I actually lost sight of him at one point until David stopped for me and led me in the right direction, all of these streets looked the same! I felt my annoyance begin to come to a boil as I took another right past another trash pile and ducked under another random clothesline… Why do ponies need clothes, let alone clotheslines! I felt my annoyance evaporate as the three of us burst out of the alleyways into a wide opening revealing… a bar. I-it was just a regular bar! On the faded sign hanging over the door was the name ‘The Bloated Wolf’ with an odd caricature of a rather plump puppy under the name.

The guard was waiting for us at the door, heaving for breath and dripping with sweat, that armor is probably incredibly heavy. I took a glance at my stamina bar and was pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn’t completely empty, I guess all that walking had a few benefits. The guard looked up at our entrance and ushered us inside the hidden bar. I kept a bit of magic primed in my horn just in case anything happened and stepped past the entrance to… a completely empty bar. The only ponies there were the three of us, the guard, and the bartender who was doing the stereotypical thing all bartenders do, shining a glass. The guard was whispering frantically with the bartender and I saw the words ‘Feldspar’ leave the lips of the guard before he quickly turned away from the barkeep and hurried past us without a word and left… odd.

“ I assume you know where Feldspar is?” I was getting ready for a fight at this point and I wasn’t alone, David started to rest his hoof on the handle of his blade and Morgana had started to move into position for a battle. The barkeep’s brown coated form shook with laughter at our reluctance to approach and waved us closer, I was just a massive ball of confusion at this point and I wanted this to be over with. I tried to let my annoyance go while I approached the bar and sat Feldspar’s box on the counter, I heard Morgana and David follow me closer. The Barkeep put the glass down and pulled the box closer with a hoof and popped it open… then let out a fond sigh.

“ That old bat just doesn’t know what retirement means huh?” He scratched his grey mane in what I assumed was astonishment as he looked over the sealed scrolls that were inside the box, I felt my annoyance reach it’s breaking point and finally spoke up.

“ Are you Feldspar or not!” I whipped the box and it’s assorted documents back up into the air with [Levitation] and glared straight into the barkeep's surprised eyes. There was tense silence that seemed to persist for far too long until another bark of laughter came from the aging barkeep.

“You haven’t caught on yet young’un? Feldspar doesn’t exist”

Author's Note

The plot thickens! This chapter took way too long to write and it wasn't even for good reasons... I just didn't write anything down for a while... that and homework

[Learning a new language is hard alright!]

But at least the first [Quest] is starting, [Quests] are events or missions that will affect the whole region. What the players do here is pretty important... or they can just refuse to do anything.

[LLLLAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMEEE]

Yeah I guess it kinda is, anyway I'll try to get chapters out a bit faster now that the set up is done. I hope you enjoyed the chapter

[Please remember to Read and Review!]

Chapter 26: Influence

“What do you mean Feldspar doesn’t exist!” Our collectively confused shouts shattered the once serene quiet of the bar and may have rendered the aged stallion deaf judging how he was rubbing his ears from our volume.

“Foals these days are getting louder and louder, if I'm gonna explain everything then we’ll need to go somewhere a bit more secure” The barkeep trotted around the counter much faster than someone his age should allow and made a b-line for the backroom which we quickly entered behind him. My mind was still buzzing with possible explanations, were we lied to? Was Feldspar just an excuse to get us into the city? Is the entire guard in on it?! Okay, I can tell when my mind is going too far with something and this is it. I cut down the rest of my over analyzations and just followed my friends to the back. The backroom wasn’t anything special, there were shelves of drinks and a few crates here and there but what we were focusing on was the trap door the barkeep had opened and was stepping down.

I took a peek down the trapdoor and was (thankfully) surprised to see it was a well lit meeting room filled with chairs and a large drawing table. I was actually expecting some kind of deep, dark, and dank basement that you wouldn’t be surprised to see in a cartoon. The room was pretty clean albeit a little musty from disuse, the floors were actually wooden instead of the cobbled stone we were becoming intimately familiar with… (My hooves were thankful at least). The walls were smooth cut stone brick that had been painted a bland featureless grey, there were a few shelves and crates here and there but they’ve been pushed to the side and out of the way of the main fixture of the room… the massive mahogany meeting table. It was a nice table… I kind of want to get a home base at some point and have an awesome table like this in it. My thoughts on base decoration were cut short as the barkeep continued forward and opened one of the crates in the corner. The tree of us were extremely wary of the barkeep’s intentions so by the time he extracted what he was looking for from the crate the tree of us had just reached the long table. I let my eyes drift over the room once again searching for any kind of threat while keeping a mental eye on my [6th Sense] waiting for it to flare up.

“All right… That nosy old mare probably didn’t tell ya anything before sending ya here right?” The barkeep placed down the box of documents and what seems to be a map of the town as he spoke, he took a peek at our blank faces and continued on as if our silence was answer enough.

“Knew it, best start from the beginning. Around eighty years ago some kind of calamity popped up, now normally this wouldn’t really be an issue as usually some heroes pop up and solve the problem. That time though the calamity was some kind of living sickness and tended to not leave any survivors, no survivors means nopony knew what it was. So when the inevitable naïve plucky young hero popped up… the expected happened.” During the sad story the barkeep reached into the box and pulled out one of the scrolls, breaking the wax seal and unrolling it. While this is a pretty interesting story I'm not sure what this has to do with anything, I took a glance at David who was seated next to me and was surprised to see him enraptured in the story.

“After the calamity was allowed to run rampant it almost brought civilization to its knees, thankfully some poor soul was able to trap the source of the sickness and burn it out before succumbing. After all that death and destruction, ponies just wanted to forget it ever happened and just rebuild… except a few like minded survivors. This group of civilians knew they wouldn’t be able to fight something as big as a living sickness so they decided to help the best way they could… information.” I had been just as enthralled in the story as David before the odd answer reached my ears… what did he mean by information? The old barkeep became more and more animated as he told the story, I could see a twinkle of pure enjoyment as he regaled us in some history.

“Officially we’re all known as the Merchants Guild, but to those in the know we are simply known as The Keepers. Any useful information a shop keep or inn keep heard would be passed along to whoever needs it, helping whatever hero so they don’t go in blind and we have a repeat of eighty years ago. The Keeper that gave you this document is one of our greatest informants, able to get info on anything as long as it’s for a good cause… she’s also supposed to be retired but old habits die hard and all that.” W-wait… is he saying…

“Are you sayin-” “SO YOU’RE ALL SPIES?!” I was violently cut off by the ecstatic yell of (surprisingly) David who had jumped up to his hooves in excitement accidentally jostling the table and scaring the hell out of Morgana and I. I was currently preoccupied with trying to restart my heart to see what the Barkeep or I guess just Keeper’s reaction though I didn’t have to wonder for long as I heard the Keeper let out a loud raspy bark of laughter at my friend's exuberance.

“So let me see if i’m getting this right, you are part of a group of spy merchants that spans all of Equestria and you help out intrepid adventures and give quests to save the world!” David had completely taken control of the conversation much to both the Keeper and my amusement. Usually David just tends to stay silent and let Morgana or me do all the talking. I like this side of him. I should encourage him to speak on his own more often. I let a fond smile grow on my face as David all but jumped onto the table in an effort to reach the documents. I made a mental note that David likes spies and all those associated with them… does that include pirates?

“That’s about the short of it kid, Feldspar is a key word we use if you need help or are there to help. I guess that old bat thought you could resolve our uh… issue here, this scroll here is her seal of approval so you can use our network when you need it or receive more ‘Quests’ as you put it so nicely” Suddenly gaining access to a sprawling spy network out of nowhere was extremely overwhelming… I'm not sure it’s really sunk in for me yet. This is all so… convenient, but at the same time it kind of made sense that at least one of these existed. With the lack of any real way to share information between towns beside the occasional traveler, it would make sense for a group to come together simply to make the flow of information easier.

“Does this mean you have a quest for us?” Morgana piped up for the first time with her tone being understandably skeptical, though it seems her skepticism flew over David’s head as he excitedly whipped his head towards Morgana then back to the Keeper waiting for his answer with bated breath. I swallowed my laugh at his childlike excitement though I did send Calcifer the psychic equivalent of a giggle fit which he happily mirrored. The previously enthused grin the Keeper was sporting dipped back down into a grim frown as he was reminded of what was going on in his home.

“Yes, as you can probably tell our city is in dire straits at the moment but not for the reasons you probably think. Recently a new lord had taken control of the city and has been an absolute tyrant, now this isn’t something that usually requires outside help. But only recently did the strife take a turn for the… darker. Until a month ago the worst thing he had done was make a toll for entering the city… now though it’s like he’s lost it. The tax has risen so high that most of the city went broke in only a few weeks and those that can’t pay are either drafted into the guard force or… worse.” The Keeper’s gaze trailed down to the table as he was lost in his memories, I was starting to get just how bad their situation is.

“You would think that most ponies would have nothing to fear from their neighbors turned guards but you’d be wrong… after a pony gets drafted they change. A drafted stallion would break down the doors to their own mother’s home without even batting an eye, the lord is doing something to these ponies… something unnatural. Whatever it is, I think your friend here is uniquely suited to find out what it is” The Keeper raised a previously idle hoof and pointed it in my direction, I felt myself stiffen as my mind immediately went to the worst case scenario. (How does he know I have Dark magic?!) I felt my fight or flight reflexes kicking in… until I realized he meant that I was a unicorn and promptly felt stupid for panicking.

“ So M- Arcane Hope has to sneak into the lord’s fortress and search for what’s turning the ponies into drones?! That sounds so cool, do we get cool jobs too?” David answering for me is starting to get kinda annoying, but I wanted to encourage this more outspoken David more than I wanted to speak for myself.

“No need to get ahead of yourselves there youngin, I got just the jobs for both of ya… “

Author's Note

I'm sorry for the long hiatus with no chapters... this is a short chapter that is just background details to a much bigger part.
Some real life stuff had been splashed into my face recently and I had been unable to really write anything lately and only recently I was able to get this slice of a chapter out... but I'm back now and should be able to get them out easier.

[I'm glad you're back, it's been kinda dull without you to talk to, I'm excited to get the show back on the road]

I'm happy to be back too, it's nice to see to you again too M
It's time for a PoV split!

Chapter 27: Individual Strengths

Author's Note

I'm Alive!
I'm sorry for taking so long with this chapter, but life really got in the way for all of us.

[Yeah, it was getting pretty annoying after a while... Anyway we are back!]

In this chapter the party has split, which is something you should never do but oh well.

[That's where all the content is!]

This chapter hasn't been edited by the illustrious Kendallonian so if you catch anything please point it out.

[Don't forget to Rate and Review if you enjoy!]

Chapter 27: Individual Strengths

David’s Pov:

“ You would expect a member of a guild of spies to be better at making maps.” My voice echoed out in the empty streets around me as I clopped along. I was still slightly disappointed that I couldn’t just fly to where the master spy wanted me to go, but I understood that I would stick out as the only pegasus flying around right now. I took another glance down at the shoddily-drawn map and compared it to my surroundings. I had been walking for a while now and had reached the edge of the main town, Which seemed to be some sort of area devoted to agricultural supplies.. Stores selling farming implements and the occasional blacksmith was nothing new for this area, but what I was looking for was the ‘Weather Guild’. I thought back to when the spy was explaining just what the Weather Guild was to my friends and I.

“ The Weather Guild is less a guild and more a group of ponies who have weather related [Cutie Marks] and were forced to develop an agricultural system for the town in the last few months. The town of Param usually gets a bulk of its produce from the countless traders that funnel through the town, but after the Lord’s… changes, things have been getting sparse now that everypony avoids this place lest they be ruined. Your contact is more or less the leader of the guild, a pegasus that goes by the name Mix-up. They’re not originally from here, but got roped into everything while doing some cloud work.”

I let my recollection fade as I stopped in front of an isolated building. An old windmill that was probably used for crushing grains had been converted into the HQ for the guild. I had a quick walk around the building just in case. The building was pretty old and rotting in a few places; I didn’t think this mill was in use before the guild was made. There were piles of cubed clouds around the back of the mill all bundled up and stacked up like it was hay… it was an odd visual. I hadn’t seen or heard any ponies outside the building, so I assumed someone was inside and maybe even waiting for me already if the spy master was to be believed. I adjusted the strap of my cutlass in a nervous tick; this was a bit more daunting now that I didn’t have my friends by my side. Usually I could rely on Markus with making introductions or carrying a conversation, though I knew I shouldn’t be relying on my friends so heavily like that. Morgana would have just gone right in with all the bravado of a certain blind bandit. There was no reason why I should be so nervous, but I couldn’t help imagining every way this could go wrong. I shook myself from my deep thoughts and took a deep breath to steady myself. I need to hurry up, Markus and Morgana wouldn’t let me live it down if I was the last one to finish.

“So are you gonna keep sitting there talking to yourself, or are you gonna come inside?” I was startled back into the present by a pegasus stallion that looked like the sky personified… ponified? The pegasus’ legs were the same creamy white color as clouds, which ended just below their shoulders and hips and turned a shocking sky blue. I couldn’t see his [Cutie Mark] from here as his rather large wings covered the bulk of his sides. Quickly looking back up to the pegasus’ eyes made me notice the splotch of cream-white fur on his muzzle. I watched him quirk a questioning eyebrow as I still haven't responded!

“Oh! U-uh I’ve been sent by… “ I was quickly cut off by the pegasus shushing me before gesturing with his wing to enter, I guess I was right about them already knowing I was coming. I didn’t waste any time and quickly entered the building past the pegasus.

the inside of the windmill looked just as I would expect; Pounded dirt floors, crates and barrels pushed to the corners of the room, a few desks here and there with documents on them, and a large map pinned on the far wooden wall that showed mostly farmland and what I thought might be wind patterns… I’d never studied meteorology.

“ If you’re done looking around, follow me.” The pegasus, who I was beginning to suspect was the Mix-Up I was looking for, quickly trotted past me and hopped into the air, quickly ascending the windmill. I tried to follow behind him as elegantly as possible, befitting a spy… but I sent most of the hay and papers around me flying as I scrambled to keep up. The upper levels of the windmill had been converted to a sort of rest area for everyone working here; there were a few shoddy hammocks hanging in the corners and a smattering of placemats that still had the remnants of meals on them. The assumed Mix-Up quickly turned to land near one of the placemats where another pegasus was resting; This one just a generic grey coat and white mane.

“Get up, I need you to go catalogue the rain orders.” He ordered, startling the pegasus worker out of his dozing and back into wakefulness. I tried not to look too out of place as the two spoke to each other, I couldn’t help but feel like I shouldn’t be here.

“But Maple did that already!” He whined; but was quickly shut down by a look from Mix-Up. “And I need you to go do it again… Do you want to help me organize my prototypes instead?” The black pegasus quickly took to the air at the mere mention of Mix-Up’s apparent ‘prototypes’.

“Nope! No problems here boss, but… who’s the new guy?” He asked inquisitively as he leaned around his boss and shot me a look. I flashed him a quick smile and hoped my skill would stop any suspicion aimed at me, I could never tell when that skill would activate.

“He’s here to… help me move some of my more volatile experiments.” At Mix-Up’s words the black pegasus’ eyes bugged out before shooting out some words so fast that I couldn’t understand them before zooming out a nearby window. I watched Mix-Up relax slightly before turning his attention to me and taking his employee’s seat.

“So.... you’re the one our ‘friend’ sent to help me out? You don’t look like much.” There wasn’t a glimmer of emotion on Mix-Up’s muzzle while he spoke his blunt words. I felt a bit discouraged at his initial assessment of me, but I quickly shook it off and responded.

“Isn't it a little early to assume I can’t help? You haven’t even told me what you need help with.” My words made Mix-Up gaze at me for a few moments before letting out a deep sigh. Then nodding and rising from his seat, the pegasus motioned for me to follow him before taking wing once again, with me following close behind. We exited the windmill the same way his employee left, with a mere tilt of his large wings Mix-Up quickly flew around to the back of the mill, leading me to the piles of cubed clouds. Landing nearby the cloud storage, Mix-Up started to search the area around us, Checking if anyone was listening in, I guess.

“ Alright, my job is two fold. I need to make a fog layer big enough to cover most of the town and cover our rebellion, which is a massive undertaking in of itself. The second part is that we need a stockpile of thunderheads to act as nonlethal weapons against the guards. You can probably see our main problem.” Gesturing to the cubed cloud bales, Mix-Up trotted closer while glaring balfully at the clouds.

“ We only have a fixed supply of cloud seed and have no real safe way to procure more, that’s what you’re going to be helping with. I’m gonna need your help harvesting some wild storm clouds in the area and it’s going to be a pain with or without you so unless you can make cloud seed out of no… where” I watched Mix-Up be rendered silent as I activated my [Cloud Control] skill, My wings stretched to their fullest as I pulled water vapor from the air and condensed it into a perfect copy of the ‘cloud seed’. I tried to not let a smug smile appear on my face but I couldn’t help but feel a bit proud of myself for finally making him take me seriously. I finished off the pony sized cloud and turned to see what Mix-Up thought about my abilities and… promptly lost the bit of pride I gained which was quickly replaced by concern as Mix-Up stared at me with the most intense look I had seen from him sense I met him.

“Would you like to help me with an experiment of mine?” He said

“... I need an adult”

“I am an adult”

Morgana’s Pov:

I nervously fiddled with one of the buckles on my armor as I stood before the massive cold iron gates again. I ignored the look the guard that guided us earlier shot at me and focused on calming myself, there is no reason for me to be afraid right now. I lifted a hoof to try and smooth down my slightly frizzy mane, being around David while he was practicing has done a number on my mane. I’m just thankful we were given enough time to get a quick bath in before I had to… face the town. I tried to suppress the nervous shiver from rolling down my spine as my mind rolled back to the moment I got my own mission.

In the beginning I was excited, the three of us were getting our own individual missions, I could show that I could handle myself and wouldn’t need Marcus or David at my side to help me twenty four seven. I felt a bit of guilt for that thought, I know both of them were just trying to help me survive and I know Markus already promised to try and let me handle things myself but… I dunno. I pushed myself away from those thoughts and focused on what the keeper was telling me.

“Alright missy, your job may just be the most important. A revolution isn’t complete without it’s own ponies backing it, I need you to head back out into that city of tents and rally everypony together. Without their support this whole thing will be for nothing, we can’t have conflicting targets here either. That would just lead to more chaos down the line so your main goal is to rally the townsponies behind one singular ideal… no pressure!” I felt my heart speed up at the thought of inciting a rebellion, I could barely pass public speaking! How am I going to do this! I felt my tough persona start to slip away in the face of my rising fear, how does Markus deal with this feeling! Not well obviously… My mind briefly went back to the day Markus finally broke down in the shower. It was… pretty uncomfortable to hear but it was oddly reassuring to know that the stoutest of us is still human on the inside and not some cold calculating leader. Maybe… that’s what I need to do, I felt my fear leave me as my epiphany slowly overtook my focus.

Maybe all I need to do is just relate to the townsponies, show them that I'm not just some stranger from nowhere but a feeling pony just like them… as far as they know at least. My confident grin slowly returned as I made my plan of action, I brought one of the buckles on my right leg up to my mouth and started the long process of removing my armour. The ponies of this town don’t need some shining sentinel or blood forged warrior, they need a hero. They need somepony just like them who rose up to do what’s right and would stand by them through thick and thin. They need someone who they could see as their neighbor who lived down the street… and that’s exactly what i’m going to give them.

Chapter 28: First Contact

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 29: The Price of Freedom

Pain… that was the first sense to return to me, this pain felt different than what I was used to. It was sharper, much more pronounced and prolonged. My whole body ached and throbbed like a full body cramp, my body just one massive wound up spring waiting to release. My next sense to return was my sense of touch and this only heightened the pain as I started to feel my limp head being dragged across the rough stone floor. My head felt like it was full of cotton, it took me a while to actually focus enough to open my eyes. My first attempt didn’t yield any results, a rougher tug across the floor showed me why. My right eye was almost swollen shut and it burned with a ferocity that would make soap in the eye feel tame in comparison.

I took a shuddering breath and tried again, this time succeeding in opening my left eye, I felt whatever was dragging me switch their grip on my back left leg and keep dragging me down the dark stone hallway. My eyes began to flick around faster and faster as the paralysis slowly began to wear off. I felt something in my neck pop as I was roughly grabbed by another set of hooves and lifted from the ground, the two swung me in the air for a moment before launching me bodily through the air. I landed hard on what felt like a set of chains, the pain muted slightly by the lingering poison in my system. I felt a stab of sadness at the lack of a bond connecting my mind to another, I hadn’t realized just how much I cherished my connection to Calcifer. That stab of sadness quickly became anger at my betrayal and that anger was just what I needed to force myself to my hooves. My body felt like it was moving in slow motion, every muscle tight and uncooperative. Thankfully magic doesn’t require movement, leaning up on my only cooperating leg I aimed up at the two decomposing guards and pulled upon my core, mana flowed up my horn and I got ready to fire… I didn’t even get that far.

My horn had barely begun to glow before a heavy horse shoe smashed into my jaw sending me to the floor again with a ringing in my head, I almost missed the heavy metal collar clasping around my neck and I would have if it wasn’t also followed by the feeling of my magic disappearing. My panic was sudden and uncontrollable, my body had such a visceral response to having my magic suppressed that I almost blacked out from my thrashing. Another heavy blow to the head actually stilled me long enough for me to get back in control, my mounting fear didn’t dissipate but I at least I wasn’t convulsing anymore.

“Hmm, it seems he still has some fight left in him… let’s change that” The hoarse phlegm filled voice rang hollow throughout the dungeon, I didn’t get far in deciphering where the voice came from before I was wrenched up from the floor by my mane. I bit my cheek to stop myself from grunting in pain but it was for naught as I was swiftly bucked in my chest. The taste of copper quickly filled my mouth as I bit through my cheek and tried to regain my breath, the red hot stabbing pain in my chest told me a few of my ribs were probably broken. I almost missed the moment I was dragged back up to my hooves before I was sent back to the ground by something wooden crushing my nose. My panic doubled as my struggle to breath intensified, my violent flailing against my captures slowed as I focused my efforts on getting air into my lungs. My deep heaving breaths echoed out in the room, my nose was completely crushed and I couldn’t breath! I could hear one of the corpse guards step closer and lean down to my ear and the same disgustingly hoarse voice was whispered into my ear.

“ Are you calm now?” I am in extreme pain right now but that did nothing to quell my anger and in a rare moment of spite I turned my head towards the voice… and spit the blood in my mouth in his face. Silence reigned for a moment and I heard the voice step away from me then the ruffling of cloth as I assumed they wiped my blood off their face. I gained a special sort of satisfaction at the irritated snort they let out, the retaliatory buck to the head was almost worth it. I felt a few of my teeth come loose in my mouth though I refused to spit them out while in front of the corpse guards and who I assume is their master.

“Just as he said… you’re more trouble than you’re worth, cut his horn off. He can still be used as a bargaining chip” The words ‘cut his horn off’ set off my panicked thrashing once again. The rotting hooves holding me were quick to restrain me. I punched, I kicked, hell I even bit one of them but the two were quickly overpowering me. This couldn’t be happening! This shouldn’t be happening! No! I refuse! This must-

“STOP!” and just like that… everything… stopped. The familiar feeling of the air freezing in my lungs and an unrelenting calm drowning out my fearful panicking. For the first time I relished in the sudden calm until I remembered what the cause of this stillness was.

All you had to do was ask ya’know

Well, don’t you have perfect timing…

I can’t really tell if you’re being sarcastic, I could leave if you want. Let you get back to your horn cutting…

NO! No… I'm sorry, I'm very thankful you came to help.

Now I don’t remember saying I was going to help you, this isn’t a charity. You haven’t even given me that offering I asked for, why should I help you…

I flinched mentally the moment the spirit brought up the offering. I’m sorry about that, I didn’t know if I could trust you. This time I'll promise to get you your offering.

No… A problem this dire will require a price just as big

W-what kind of price…

Hmmm… You and the other ‘Players’ are searching for a way to get back to earth, correct?

I felt a burst of dread that was quickly swallowed by the calm. Yes we are…

Well it wouldn’t do for a goddess’ only follower to disappear, your price is your ability to leave

What!

You heard me, the price for me saving your life would be your ability to go back to earth. You will become a denizen of this world permanently, I'll even let you keep your abilities and system. Aren’t I such a benevolent goddess

I-I was speechless, I wanted to bargain, to scream, to rage at the spirit for daring to suggest something like that… but I didn’t. Instead I really thought about my situation, I was currently trapped in a dungeon somewhere and was about to be disposed of. I have been beaten badly so even if they weren’t about to basically kill me, I-I might not survive my injuries. I have nothing to bargain with, I have nothing the spirit wants other than myself and even then… is it really that bad a deal?

My mind flashed back to those moments around the campfire with Morgana and David, the beautiful sight of the night sky, the stories shared and the laughter made. I thought back to the village where I was able to rally a people with a few words, a people who readily stood together against adversity. I… thought about my life back on earth, a family life that was emotionless and dead, the spanning divide between my old friends and I that was growing everyday. How bleak and grey my future there looked…

It seems you’ve made your choice

Yes, I accept…

Thank you, you don’t know how much this helps me… though I do have one more thing to ask of you

The solemn tone change of the spirit caught me by surprise, but I listened to her nonetheless.

I still need that offering from you, only now I know what I want you to give me… I want him

My eyes moved outside of my own control, forcefully opening ignoring their swollen state. Thankfully there was no pain, my eyes were directed to a pony who looked like the dictionary definition of greed. There wasn’t an inch of his body that was covered in golden ornaments or jewelry, even his face was just one complete solid gold facemask.I couldn’t see his mane or coat at all under the extremely over the top suit. The mask was smooth and free of any filigree or designs, just smooth metal only broken by two slits that served as the pony’s eye holes.

To be more specific, I want his magic. There is actually a book of rudimentary rituals somewhere in this mansion, one of the rituals can tear the magic and soul of a pony out and store it in a gem. That is your goal and I expect it to be done

Yes… Goddess

Good boy, now… time to set things right

And just like that, time began to reverse. I felt my injuries fade one by one as they were inflicted in reverse until I was being dragged back out of the cage and I was sent back into unconsciousness.

Death was something Calcifer never had to fear while they were connected to their ~~creator~~ father Markus, of course there were times where they would get discorporated during battle but that was only temporary and far from permanent. Ever since Calcifer was given life by their father, everything has been fantastic. There were a few rough spots of course and there were times where Calcifer wasn’t sure what was going on but they were just happy to be included. Calcifer had learned about a certain thing that happens a moments before you die, it was called a ‘Life Review’. It had floated up through our bond after one of our much more brutal battles and it made them think… Calcifer’s life review would be pretty short right?

That was apparently the furthest from the truth, as Calcifer drifted further away from their father as their bond was snapped. Calcifer’s mind drifted through their life and just like they thought before, it quickly caught up to the present… though it didn’t stop like they thought. Images of moments that could happen in future began to bubble up, Markus bringing Calcifer to the movies for the first time, Markus teaching Calcifer how to ride a bike, reading Calcifer a bedtime story. Emotions previously unfelt broiled within Calcifer as they felt thereself begin to fade.

Well, aren’t you an interesting one, I don’t think I've even seen a wisp progress this far…

Calcifer’s confusion was quickly overshadowed by his begging, nay pleading for the voice to help their father. Calcifer has never felt more wholeheartedly about anything else except for this one thing, PLEASE HELP HIM!

You would ask me to save your master instead of yourself… maybe you’re just what I need to tip the scales back

Calcifer felt a cold tendril of something reach into his very being and grab hold of something, with what felt like a quick twist something finally fell into place. All of Calcifer’s fear of death disappeared, as the core of his very being turned into ash in the wind, as the final embers of Calcifer’s consciousness fizzled away they did not fear. After all… death is not the end for Calcifer… merely a new beginning.

It was upon wings of fire and determination did Calcifer ascend and that determination was directed towards the mansion before them. With a rapturous cry Calcifer soared… Their father needed them.

Author's Note

Well then... This will be interesting

Chapter 30: Revolution Part 1

The moment I regained consciousness again, I could feel something was different. The same pain and stiffness still plagued me but… there was something else lurking deep within me. A silent intensity towards my captors, a level of focus that I experience very rarely. I felt my head be dragged over a larger divot in the stone floor and paid it no mind, the previously sharp and deep pain fell by the wayside in the face of my newfound intensity. Whereas before my magic would struggle to answer my call in the face of my paralysis, now my mana felt like an unending tide just waiting for my call to release it.

The air slowly began to grow cooler, the flickering light from the torches nearby started to grow dim as the shadows began to grow larger. I felt my captors slow for a moment in what I assume is confusion and that was all the chance I needed. Dark tendrils of pure shadow whipped out of the cracks and crevasses in the walls, quickly latching onto the necks and bodies of the corpse guards. I was dropped to the ground as the two guards began struggling, I heard hooves hitting stone from further ahead and struggled to get my body back under my control. I felt one of the constricted corpse guards start to break out of their binding just when I was able to pull myself into a sitting position.

I cracked open my left eye and winced from the throbbing pain, the approaching guard had just turned the corner and had caught sight of me. I took a deep breath and readied myself for quite possibly the most difficult fight of my life thus far… or it would have been had the charging guard and I been sent to the ground by the sudden bone shaking rumble that shook the dungeon… was that an explosion? Even the trapped guards had stopped their struggle and paused to see what was happening, I slowly pushed myself to my hooves and locked eyes with the greying decomposing eyes of the corpse guard… then the ceiling collapsed on top of him. I raised a hoof to shield my eye from the small storm of dust that was kicked up, something metal bounced off of my leg and I glanced down to see what it was. And what greeted me was the bright shine of a gold coin… what!? Did that just happen?

I felt something familiar brush against my mind the same moment I saw a brilliant crimson light streak out of the cloud, my eye couldn’t keep up with the shape and not even a second later the two corpse guards at my sides ignited into flames. The two didn’t even make a sound as their horrible existences were snuffed out, my mind was yelling at me to be alarmed and ready to fight but… I could feel I wasn’t in any danger. I took a jerky step towards the red glow and for a moment I dared to hope.

“Calcifer?” As my raspy voice rang out the glow seemed to double in strength before the ear piercing shriek of a bird of prey echoed throughout the dungeon, the sound of wings flapping quickly followed as the dust cloud was dispersed almost immediately. The sight that greeted me was not what I expected, I expected the amorphous shape of my friend that I was used to but instead I was greeted enthusiastically by a majestic flaming raptor or more locally known as… a Phoenix. I didn’t even get a chance to question if that was really Calcifer for a moment before a familiar blue screen popped up in my way.

Congratulations!

Skill Evolution!

Wisp Summon —> Phoenix Familiar

Phoenix Familiar Summon: An immortal creature of legend that is said to be reborn from the ashes whenever it dies

Is one of the few creatures in existence that completely embodies an element

Primary Element: Fire

Secondary Element: Neutral Mana

Mana Draw: None

Your summon is now a living creature that can generate its own mana, though that doesn’t mean you can’t help out

It is your creatures choice if it wishes to continue its training, further elements and skills may be learned through diligent practice

Skill Level: Max

There was no doubt about it, that was my little Calcifer, only they’re not so little anymore. I felt a flicker of sadness at not being there for their apparent evolution but it was quickly swallowed by my happiness at seeing them again. That quiet ache in my heart at their absence lessened considerably, I didn’t care about keeping my composure at that moment. I quickly approached my creation and tried to pack all my relief at them being safe, all my happiness, and all my sorrow into one hug. I didn’t squeeze too hard obviously because of the hollow bones and everything but that didn’t stop Calcifer from returning the hug the best they could, draping their wings around me and squeezing tight.

I allowed myself to smile and sob softly as I felt Calcifer’s mind rest against mine in an effort to express their relief. I could feel the potential to rebuild our bond just like before but sadly I don’t think now is the best time or place. I barely felt Calcifer agree with me before the both of us pulled away. I looked down at what Cal was resting on and was surprised to see a gold plated chandelier. I gazed up through the hole and wasn’t surprised by the sight of another ceiling high above and what looked to be a few melted chains hanging from it. I’ll ask Calcifer about how they got in later, for now I have a mission to complete.

I don’t know if it’s my luck finally turning or the machinations of the spirit but either way Calcifer had saved me by breaking through the floor of what looked to be golden boy’s treasure room. I was tempted to try and [Blink] up through the floor but my aim was already off with one eye and with the last dredges of paralytic poison flowing through my system I didn’t want to take the chance. Calcifer seemed to notice my troubled look and beckoned me closer with a wing, unsure about what their planning I leaned closer to the phoenix who leaned over to my right eye.

Something unexpectedly cold touched my swollen shut right eyelid making me jump slightly, that coldness began to spread quickly until the whole of my eye was cool to the touch. My eyes flicked open as I was reminded of another important tidbit about phoenix's, healing tears. I gingerly touched my eyes and was amazed by only a slightly sore feeling. I still have a black eye but I could see perfectly now, I sent Calcifer a thankful look at them as they wiped the last of their tears on their wings before pausing for a moment and wiping their wings on my face. My thankful look quickly turned amused, I am so glad they’re okay.

I aimed my eyes up through the hole and [Blinked] my way up, my landing wasn’t as smooth as I was expecting. The ground beneath my hooves quickly changed from hard stone to slippery mounds of coin, sliding for a moment before I regained my bearings. It looked more like a dragon lived here than a pony, massive piles of golden paraphernalia. Coins, jewelry, ornate weaponry, silks, chunks of pure gold, and some stuff that had no reason being made out of gold. A solid gold roll of toilet paper caught my eye as Calcifer landed on my back, even with the lack of a bond I could feel the incredulous look Calcifer was sending the useless roll.

“Okay, Calcifer, we are looking for a book on rituals somewhere in this room and hopefully my bag” I started climbing up and around one of the mountains of gold and jewels, using the larger gems and gold bars as hoof holds. Reaching the top I looked over a ballroom filled with countless wealth. It was like ‘The Desolation of Smaug’ in here, this doesn’t make any sense. I don’t think there is enough wealth in the whole city to fill this room, just where is all this coming from… I don’t even think Golden boy was in charge long enough to amass this much wealth, Something really isn’t adding up. A loud caw from Calcifer broke me from my thoughts, losing them momentarily among the wealth. It took a bit of searching before I saw them down behind one of the larger mountains of gold.

I was tempted to pull a Scrooge Mcduck and just slide down like it’s a waterslide but I was wary of the not so infinitesimal amount of ornate weapons. Even though they’re useless as actual weapons, they are still sharp. Reaching Calcifer they led me over to a small pile of books and papers that I assume they amassed in their search. I didn’t waste any time and started to root through the books. There were the obvious books of plays and poems that I wouldn’t bother with, there was a magic treatise about the pros and cons of constant rejuvenation spells, which I think is a skin care spell. A quick glance through the treatise had me wincing. From what I could see from just glancing through it, repeated use of the rejuvenation spell would lead to a sort of magic skin cancer yeesh. The next book had me pause at the name alone ‘A Glimpse into Alchemical Sciences by Maud C. Pie’ Glossing over the fact that Pinkie Pie’s sister is a published alchemist apparently (I’ll look more into that later) focusing more on that fact that alchemy is a thing and it wouldn’t be that far of an assumption to believe that golden boy knows how to use alchemy… which would explain the mass amounts of gold and jewels.

“ but that circles back around to the first question, what does he need all this gold for?” For the time being I sat the interesting alchemy book aside and continued my search, Calcifer lifted off once more to try and find my bag while I went over the last two books. The two books couldn’t be more different, one was only a small twenty page primer about the dangers of anti-magic. The other was less like a standard book and more like an anthology, just a massive book that’s thicker than my hoof. In most cases I would be happy to have a nice big book to read but now isn’t the time, the book was banded with an old cracked leather cover that was embossed by a familiar eye symbol.

I flicked open the book and glanced over the first page… then I froze. A deep oppressive fear quickly overcame me, a deep seated fear that appeared so suddenly that it rendered me completely still and silent. I stared at my trembling hoof and felt a faint echo of Calcifer’s mind trying to ask me what this feeling was.

This…

This fear was not my own…

Whereas before during our search the room was filled with the sounds of clinking metal and the flapping of wings, now though the lack of sound was so piercing it was almost painful. The ringing silence stood unbroken as the two of us suffered under this fear, I haven’t felt fear this… heavy, this choking. This cloying terror never reached my mind leaving me trapped in a prison of shivering flesh. With a mind much stiller than my body I gazed down at the book and tried, however vainly, to gain control of myself.

This damning silence was broken quickly and suddenly, there was no explosion, no massive burst of activity or sound… no. Just the simple sound of hooves tapping almond the stone floor, each concussive step rang in my ears. The beating of my own racing heart was drowned out by these steps. The steps continued as my eyes stared down at the yellowed pages of the ritual book… then I felt it. Not some mystical force or anything, I felt a slight breeze. Within this closed room a breeze kicked up, as the steps grew ever closer I watched the pages of the book catch the wind and began to flip rapidly. Page after page, chapter after chapter the pages flipped until near the end of the book the pages stopped suddenly.

The moment the pages stopped flipping, the steps went silent. For a moment silence reigned once again, My first instinct was to question this, to question everything that’s happening around me. Another soft echo of alarm from Calcifer somewhere nearby made me hurry up and read the ritual. I can ponder the details later when I’m not in mortal danger. I quickly skimmed through the left page. It was written in old English that had a bit of vocabulary that I couldn’t understand on top of words and phrases that I simply couldn’t…

I moved on to the next page which was slightly ruined, there were splotches of black fluid splattered all over the page. The ritual was aptly named ‘The Soul Syphon’ ritual. The main parts of the ritual were still intact, the ritual would need an uncut gem, the symbols carved onto an open flat surface and… The light from when the moon eclipses the sun!? What! How am I… ! The fear that was overriding my body began to be undercut by my sheer annoyance at this ritual… and I'm expected to just put this ritual together and kill the golden boy!?

I didn’t even notice when the fear left my body as I read deeper into the book, I flipped around a bot and saw that most of the rituals required some kind of outside requirement. Like certain weather factors or rare events and ingredients. There were plenty of smaller rituals that didn’t demand much but for a much weaker effect… wait. The ‘Soul Syphon’ ritual only calls for the ‘light’ from an eclipse, not an eclipse itself. I quickly opened my menu and flipped to the magic tabs, there were a few tabs that could have what I needed. There was [Light Magic] , [Solar Magic], and a recently unlocked [Photon Magic]. Looking over the [Light magic] tab just brought me to the conclusion that the spells leaned closer to the [White Magic] category, being mostly healing/cleansing spells and not much pertaining to actual light. [Photon Magic] was a much simpler area of magic that actually had a lot of destructive potential. This magic focuses on amplifying the energy between two objects, like a support spell to make a spell or skill more powerful. [Solar Magic] was… an odd case, I already had a sort of affinity for [Fire Magic] due to using it to imbue my summons and my skill in neutral magic being able to alter light to an extent. [Solar Magic] didn’t just draw power from the sun but included the manipulation of all aspects of the sun… which included light so… I hope I don’t regret this later.

Fledgling Solar Manipulation: The art of drawing power from celestial bodies is as old as time itself, though the method of doing so has changed time and time again

The bearer gains the basic spells to magnify and create solar light and due to added knowledge of the bearer, the ability to imbue solar energy is unlocked

Mana Cost: Varies

Skill Level 1: 0.00%

Higher levels allow for greater spells and manipulation

Sp Cost: 1

Spell Upgraded: Plasma Imbuement -> Astral Imbuement

I didn’t have much time to read the spells, I just made sure it did what I needed it to before grabbing the book and ducking low as the approaching steps finally reached the gold covered ground. There was a small burst of air as Calcifer landed next to me with my bag in claw while we listened to the clinking steps draw closer to the center of the room.

“ Hmm, I was warned that you’d be troublesome… Though in retrospect I would have been disappointed if you gave in so easily” The arrogant echoing voice left no doubt in my mind that it was golden boy himself speaking, I decided to risk a look at my future opponent and leaned around the treasure pile I was hiding behind. There, looming over the hole into the dungeon was the golden masked enigma that was my target.

“ As you have gone above and beyond my expectations I shall offer you this chance only once, Join me. Step away from those lesser than you and find solace among your peers, We who have truly understood the meaning of this world and the folly of those who assume they control us. Join us and take hold of creation, Unlock your true potential and become one of us, become a Chapter in The Book of Hours” Something in the air thrummed as he said those words, there was something particularly… wrong about those words. Like a word that is so far beyond taboo that the world itself abhors it, it was only after the effects of the words had worn off that I realized Golden boy’s eyeless mask was staring right at me.

It was obvious that stealth was out the window since the beginning so with as much steel I could muster I calmly slipped the book into my bag and put it on. I acted like I had all the time in the world as I situated myself. I felt Calcifer hop onto my back while I started to trot down the gold hill so I could stand before my opponent. I tried to come off as slightly arrogant and overconfident, hopefully he wouldn’t realize what I'm really doing.

“If I had a bit for every time some kind of evil villain or eldritch entity offered me to join them I would have two bits… which isn’t much to be honest but it’s still odd that this has happened twice. I have a feeling saying no to narcissistic lunatics like you is gonna become a recurring thing” Judging by the sudden confused silence this was the last thing he expected in response from me, I forcefully made my smirk grow when I heard the confused murmur of “narcissistic?” flit through his mask.

“Yeah, Narcissistic. I mean, have you really looked at the room we’re standing in? Solid gold walls, solid gold floors, gold furniture buried under mountains of gold paperweights, and jewels galore. It's almost like you’re trying to live up to your name, Golden Boy… or do you prefer Goldie?” I [Levitated] up a hoofful of golden bits just to punctuate my point, I controlled the aura around my horn and around the bits to stay weak and dim to not tip him off. I could tell my words were beginning to get under his skin. I will admit I'm not the best at insults but it seems it didn’t matter. Judging by the trembling of his mask I could tell I hit something sensitive.

“My name is Ozymandias, soon to be King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty Fool, and despair!” And with a flick of his hoof his golden mask flew off and the… nightmare that was his face was revealed. The first thing my mind fathomed was the fact that his head had no skin whatsoever, the next thing was that there were too many eyes glaring at me from across the room. The best I could describe Ozymandias’ face would be a large writhing eye covered tumor in the shape of a pony’s head. There were spots where his still pony skull could be seen peeking through and on those spots I could clearly see some kind of symbols carved into the bone. And out of every horrible thing my eyes were showing me, that wasn’t even the worst.

Where his horn would be was just a hole, but also not a hole. It was like something took a slice of unreality and placed it there.

(The Face of Ozymandias)

Author's Note

Enjoy the show...

I plan to

Chapter 30: Revolution Part 2

Many eyes flicked about the room until they all at once settled on me, my revulsion at the sight had swallowed up all my false bravado in a heartbeat. The tumorous muscle underneath Ozymandias' gray skin writhed and squirmed with every movement and twitch of his many eyes. I felt both mine and Calcifer’s mind quiver in fear both potent and unfathomable. For a moment I saw Ozymandias’ jawbone twitch in an attempt to smirk at my fear… and just like that all my fear was converted into a want to wipe that grin right off his face and I had the perfect thing for that.

“Alright then Ozzy… Think fast!” With no further warning I made one of the coins I was [Levitating] launch at one of the larger eyeballs sticking out of Ozzy’s head. The coin quickly closed the distance and just as it was going to make contact with the pus ridden eyeball it slowed to a stop. A nebulous aura slowly started to grow around the coin, constantly shifting colors and tones. I watched as Ozzy floated the coin before himself and sent me what could only be a many eye’d condescending look over it.

“ Did you really think you could surprise me with a c-ACK!” It’s a good thing my goal wasn’t hitting him, with an eye searing explosion the coin erupted into bright solar light sending Ozymandias to the floor writhing in pain as his many eyes were rendered useless. [Solar Magic] plus [Imbuement] equals… Flashbang! I wasted no time and scooped up the nearest two rubies then turned to run down the hall. I didn’t know how long the flashbang would affect him and didn’t want to stick around to find out, I know for a fact that I can’t fight this guy head on. I needed to get to my friends and set up the ritual.

I rounded a corner as the pain screams of Ozymandias turned into enraged screeches, something deeply beastial and feral that made the heart shake. Calcifer faltered for a moment in the air from the roar but continued on. I chanced a look behind me and immediately regretted it when I caught sight of my pursuer. Ozymandias’ ornate clothes had been reduced to expensive tatters from the changes his body went through. His body hadn’t changed size no… he had sprouted hooves and claws of all different lengths and sizes all over his body and they were pulling him along like some kind of demented spider! Why is this Resident Evil all of a sudden! I pulled up another coin and saw how his eyes seemed to lock onto it, without a second thought I launched it back at the Ozzy abomination. The moment I shot out the coin Ozzy closed all his eyes and tried to plow through to get to me… so I bet he was surprised when his body locked up from the lightning that hit him and sent him to the ground rolling and spasming. I didn’t only make flashbangs, I looked at my last three coins and reminded myself which was imbued with what. I had one fire, another lighting, and a last resort, a neutral magic imbued coin. If it does what I think it does then it could save my life… at least I hope it does.

I had just passed into another small showroom when I heard the sounds of many hooves hitting the ground behind me. I quickly about faced and shut the large ornate doors and started barricading, my heart hammered in my chest as I shoved and [levitated] over more gold furniture to block the door. Calcifer helped by quickly melting the gold plating and welding everything together. I added another [Lighting Imbue] on top of everything to buy some extra time. I rushed over to the opposite door and slid to the ground, ripping the book of rituals out of my bag, quickly flipping to the needed page I read over the ritual more and what I needed to prepare. One of the rubies needs to have some special sigils carved into it and be a specific shape so I set to work. I used the larger of the two gems that was the size of a baseball, I had to shape the gem into a heart. I used a concentrated [Mana Beam] to make a rough approximation of a heart, it looked like a child had drawn it but that’s not what matters. It was supposed to be symbolic of Ozzy’s heart, next I had to engrave a few sigils onto the gem. I was flipping to the sigil index when Calcifer screeched in warning mere seconds before Ozymandias’ now hulking body of mismatched body parts crashed through the door ignoring the lightning arcing off his body.

I quickly scooped up everything in my [Levitation] and flung my fire coin at him. Seeing another coin flying at him Ozzy braced his body for either lightning or blinding light, but wasn’t prepared to be blown straight off his many hooves and claws entirely by the resulting explosion and being launched out the window… hopefully harmed. I held the open book and ruby in front of me as I ran away from the room going up in flames. A glance up at my mana bar placed me a little above half empty, I didn’t have enough extra mana to try to make more explosives. I was scrambling, constantly glancing up at the book sigil index trying to engrave the right ones onto the ruby while running all the while. My stamina was tanking quickly from all the multitasking, I was heaving for breath and I had just barely finished the first sigil. It was a wobbly spiral that ended with a letter that looked like a cross between an S and a sideways K.

The rumbling was back, glancing back just showed me the smoke rolling out the now flaming hallway. The buzzing of [6th Sense] was my first warning, my second was the large shadow falling over me. It was years of horror movies that had conditioned me against turning and looking, instead I did the smart thing and just dived out of the way. Calcifer quickly followed my lead and banked away from the window as many long burned hooves speared through the window and the spot I was just in, crashing into the wall behind me. The hooves had morphed again, now at the end of each hoof was a large blackened stinger that dripped with a tar like ichor.

I ignored the mounting burning in my legs from running so long and scrambled to my hooves, How long is this house anyway! I didn’t watch the legs retreat from the window but I was extremely aware of Ozymandias crawling after me on the side of the mansion. I felt Calcifer’s mind lean against mine and at the speed of thought a packet of ideas was passed over. Calcifer wanted to fly out and distract Ozymandias while I regrouped with everyone and set up the ritual. Calcifer was extremely aware of the danger involved, but they were also extremely aware of their newfound immortality. My first response was to refuse, I had just gotten them back and I don’t want to lose them again. Calcifer circled back around to their immortality as a way to convince me but didn’t try to hide the burst of warmth they felt at my words. I snuffed out a burst of worry and acquiesce to their plan, I knew they were right and that my fear was irrational but still I wanted them to be careful.

With a rapturous cry and another promise to me, Calcifer quickly made a hard right and crashed through one of the windows I sprinted past, cutting off Ozzy’s chase. I didn’t turn and look, I knew if I turned to look back then I would force myself to stop and help my creation… A voice in my head pointed out that I cared about Calcifer much more than just some creation. I didn’t even attempt to try and deny the voice, my feelings for Calcifer are beginning to feel more and more paternal and I don’t know how to feel about that.

Pushing this line of thought to the back of my mind I continued running through the mansion, turning another corner I caught sight of an ornate set of double doors and hoped that it led to the exit. Bursting through the doors showed me exactly what I hoped for, the front entrance. I slid to a stop in the middle of the room and scanned my surroundings, the front room was generic when it came to mansions. Two staircases that led to the second floor on both sides of the room with the doors I had just entered through between them. A large white tiled open area in the middle of the room. Perfect… I wasted no time in setting up the ritual, first I had to finish engraving the ruby heart.

I had to watch my mana bar carefully during this whole process, my mana regeneration rate was a bit odd. During times where I'm relaxed or just practicing my regen rate is pretty slow, but during times of strife like this it is incredibly erratic. It could be completely empty at one moment then just shy of full at the next, one day I am going to sit down and find out the deeper intricacies of the system the players have. I gently set aside the now fully engraved gemstone heart and focused back on the book of rituals, flipping back to the soul siphon page I was reminded of the massive black splotches that covered most of the ritual circle. I didn’t know what to do! The very ritual I needed was probably the only one that I couldn’t use! I ran a hoof through my mane and closed my eyes to think this through.

The spirit wouldn’t give me an impossible task if it had something to gain from this as well… What am I missing? I took a deep breath and circled my thoughts back around to what I knew about rituals so far. There are two kinds of rituals, the kind that are used modularly like a sort of swiss army knife to spell crafting, able to pick apart and put together types of magic and artifice that don’t naturally go together. The other type is the localized version, made for both large scale and multi-target spells. These types of rituals act as a sort of bridge between two forces, i.e. the caster and whatever force they are invoking. I let these descriptions float in my head for a moment before I focus on a specific part… modular. Rituals almost actively encourage experimentation… which means I don’t have to know the exact ritual… I just need to piece together the right sigils. With a newfound burst of energy I flipped through the book to the sigil index, I don’t even have to look for that many. I already had more than half of the ones I need stamped onto my butt, my [Cutie Mark] if I remember correctly is the Ritual needed to sacrifice anything to the spirit which means all I need to find is the sigils to extract and store the magic soul of Ozymandias.

Ritual Magic Level Up!: Level 1 -> 2

Level will increase with further study and experimentation

Well at least I know I’m on the right track, I got to work immediately. My grin was wiped from my face when the ground started to rumble, worry quickly blossomed in my chest as my thoughts went to Calcifer and their stalling of Ozymandias… then I heard it. I started as a slow din then slowly grew louder as the seconds passed, as time passed I began to hear… singing. The rumbling began to beat in time with the melody, rumbling that began to sound more and more like the marching of hooves. I let my grin grow back fully… the cavalry had arrived, the acknowledgment that my friends were near only made me work faster. There was a sureness in my movements that wasn’t there before, blackened lines seared into the pearly white tiles, swirls and etches along the edges, and finally a slot in the center for the gemstone. The moment the final sigil was burned into place the whole ritual seemed to click into place. Jagged curves smoothed themselves out, errant scorch marks were wiped away, the ill fitting ruby heart slot grew to fit. It was done and the ambient magic accepted it, though… it couldn’t be finished… without the target.

I didn’t need the warning itch of [6th Sense] to know Ozymandias was approaching. The singing had risen in volume enough that I could tell that there was a veritable army outside the mansion and for the first time in a while I expected this to all go smoothly… that was a mistake. The small itch that [6th Sense] was sending me quickly grew to a howling screech that even drowned out the singing outside. My body tensed as the ornate doors leading deeper into the mansion bulged outward for a moment before shattering into smoldering splinters as Calcifer streaked past them like a bat outta hell, but I wasn’t focused on Calcifer… My eyes were locked onto the all-consuming beam of energy that was quickly gaining on the phoenix and destroying everything in its path. I personally found it funny that the first thing I thought was to protect Calcifer, that idea was quickly discarded as unnecessary as I watched the energy part around Calcifer and speed past them on a direct collision course with me. I didn’t have enough time to construct a strong enough [Shield] and that was even if I sacrificed the ritual and only protected myself though that wouldn’t really matter now that the ritual was complete. It would exist until it’s purpose was fulfilled, as I watched the purple wall of energy approach turning the once pearly white tile to an ugly withered gray ash… I hoped.

I didn’t hope for my safety…

I didn’t hope for the goddess to save me…

I hoped the coin did what I hoped it did…

With a flash of soft silver light the bit in my bag ignited with magic as the destructive wave of magic washed over me. I didn’t black out when the beam hit me, I watched as a skin tight [Shield] Spell wrapped around me and protected me from the initial blast. What knocked me unconscious was the impact launching up and out the barred window above the entry door. The last thing I saw was Calcifer diving after me as darkness overcame my vision.
.

… Then I felt warmth

Congratulations!

You have unlocked the hidden effect of your Cutie Mark

Merger: Magic is a part of you in more ways than one

Chapter 30: Revolution Part 3

Chapter 30 Revolution Part 3:
David PoV:

To be perfectly honest, everything was going way smoother than I was expecting. Not that I was hoping for anything horrible or for anything to go wrong, but so far things have been going smoothly. The cloud cover was almost easy to put together, we dispersed the fog bank over most of the town from above. None of the guards really reacted to the sudden loss of vision which was really odd to be honest but they haven't done anything of concern so I left them alone.

After I finished the last fog bank Mix Up asked me to make a few more chunks of cloud seed for an experiment of his, after what I had seen last time when it comes to his experiments I didn’t want to stick around. It was almost time and I was kinda worried about the others. Morgana has to lead an uprising and I'm pretty sure she only has experience quelling arguments… not sparking revolutions, and then there’s Markus. I have complete faith in him, but there are times where it's like the world is out to get him. From what I'm told there was the waterfall incident first, then the Thunder Lion next, then the whole thing with Aaron, then the village siege which ended with him against a behemoth of a pony, and now we’re trying to bring down a tyrannical possibly necromancer-esque guy with Markus sneaking in alone so… I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Knowing I couldn’t exactly fly over and check on Markus I banked a hard right and started heading back in the main gate's direction. It wasn’t hard to find as it was the only gate that had a tent city surrounding it, but it wasn’t the tents that caught my attention first… no, it was the singing. It was like I had taken a wrong turn into a Disney film, there was a melody flowing in the wind that seemed to just… appear out of thin air! The uplifting melody was at its loudest on the ground where the red mane of Morgana led all the previously depressed ponies up the street towards the mansion… dang girl! I don’t think she’ll need my help anytime soon. I landed on a nearby rooftop and just watched as Morgana liberated a whole city basically on her own. A few shambling guards tried to block their path but they were quickly taken down by either Morgana or the ponies following her, the lack of effort needed to take out the guards was really odd. I remember The Keeper warning us of how much of a threat they are and yet here I am watching one of my friends blow through them like paper… this is some plot armor… like actual plot armor. I feel like I'm watching a Shonen anime. Is Morgana the main character?

The mental image of Morgana crouching down and screaming to power up popped into my mind and I didn’t even attempt to stop my laughter. The music started to soften as Morgana’s main force passed me by, I shook my laughter away and refocused. I should get the fog ready for the approach since apparently we’re ahead of schedule, which is a nice change for once. I tightened the belt holding my sword and tried to prepare myself, I knew things were about to get hairy and I wanted to be as ready as possible. I checked over the blade of my cutlass and suppressed the small jolt of glee I felt whenever I saw my sword. The fact that I was a flying swashbuckling badass wasn’t lost on me and wouldn’t be getting old any time soon. The blade itself looked to be in good shape as far as I could tell but the handle itself actually had me worried. The handle was old and dented in places, the handle looked much older than it’s attached blade so I was worried it would snap before the blade actually ever wore down.

I made a mental note to talk to Markus later about getting a better and maybe much more permanent sword, though that means I'll have to decide what type of sword I want to stick with. I like the cutlass so far. Though the handle is a bit weird to hold with hooves and all… I'll have to think deeper about this later. The fog cover has really started to thicken around the mansion and Morgana’s army has just about reached it which means it’s about time for everything to kick off and I need to be in the air once it’s time.

It took almost no effort on my part to get back into the air and into the cloud layer floating over the town. [Cloud Control] magic is a bit odd in application I will admit, besides the whole making clouds thing it allows me to actually simulate most types of weather. While speculating about magic is more Markus’ thing I do have my own little theories about it, like my theory about Markus’ magic and why it’s so different from all the other unicorn magic I've seen. Ignoring the fact that Markus is incredibly cagey about what he can do, I've noticed that most of his spells are extremely malleable when it comes to their application yet the spells I've seen other unicorns cast are a bit more cookie-cutter in nature. Settling down on one of the clouds I opened my wings and started to steadily flap them, it didn’t take much more for the clouds to begin spreading through the town.

My thoughts turned to my own skills, just like Markus and Morgana my skills are more guidelines then actual skills. Though I do have the option to buy other skills in the skill trees but the skills themselves are… different. There’s one skill under my [Weather Magic] tab that literally just says [Dispersal]. It’s a skill that lets me disperse clouds… I can already do that naturally?! There's also the fact that the skill doesn’t have a level or rank, it doesn’t grow with use over time or improve in any way. It’s completely useless to almost everyone, weather magic isn’t required to burst a cloud so it makes me wonder how many other skills are as stagnant as this one.

Something pulled me from my thoughts, but I don’t know what. A prickle on the back of my neck, similar to the feeling of lighting being used. My eyes flicked around frantically to no avail, the fog was doing its job too well. I took to the air once again and dived into the fog, I flinched as another wave of something ran over my skin. Morgana’s distant song and the sounds of battle went silent as more and more ponies began to feel the… disturbance in the air. A flash of red in the distance, dulled by the wall of fog before me. I picked up my pace and caught sight of the mansion and Morgana at the entrance frozen. I was about to go down and see what was wrong until I felt it again, this time burning through my system and digging its claws deep. I recognized this feeling now… It was fear.

I was trapped… Frozen in the air, held hostage by a deep primal fear that was both alien to me and yet extremely familiar. This fear seemed almost alive, worming itself deeper and deeper, trying to drown out everything else. I tried to fight it, fear isn't anything new to me but… there was something different about this fear. This fear seemed to be all encompassing, it sucked the heat out of the air and my body. It dug up old buried memories and traumas and… for a moment… just a moment… I was back in that car…

And like that my fear turned to seething anger, the numbing cold was burned away by my quiet fury… It wasn’t my fault and I know that… I’ve known that for a long time. With a hard flap of my wings I was down next to Morgana. She was frozen in place just as I was, pupils turned to pin pricks and breathing turned ragged. She was shivering heavily and slowly she was beginning to curl into herself. I didn’t hesitate to pull her into a hug, I tried to inject as much warmth into the hug as I could. I could feel her shivers slowly stop and less than a minute later with a surprised jerk Morgana pulled away from me now lucid.

“Wha- What just… Thank you” I tried to give an understanding smile but I'm sure it looked off, I was still swimming in rage and I had the perfect outlet just inside that mansion. As if summoned by my thoughts the ground began rumbling, almost like a stampede was approaching. I shared a look with Morgana and readied myself, cutlass out and wings spread. I was ready for anything to burst out of those doors… Too bad nothing did.

There wasn’t a warning, no ominous glow, no yelling. One moment Morgana and I had an army at our backs ready to take down our latest foe… the next the rooftop had been reduced to shrapnel by a massive purple beam crashing through it. Morgana was quicker on the draw and with a twist of her hoof we were covered by a stone dome as rubble crashed down on top of us. It didn’t fall for long and when Morgana brought the dome down I saw that our ‘army’ had retreated at the sight of… What is that! Rising out of the wreckage of the mansion entrance was a monster straight out of Bloodborne, a long serpentine body covered in countless spindly limbs and at its head was a pony torso. It was a creature that could only be created from the mind of a mad man… and we had to fight that… wait! Where’s Markus?

“Morgana!” I had to yell over the sounds of the townsponies fleeing, Morgana was still staring up at the monster stunned. “Where’s Markus!” It was with an oddly steady hoof that Morgana pointed up into the sky, not at the monster no… past it. Up high into the air I could barely see the body of Markus… falling. I don’t remember getting into the air, I just remember being on the ground one moment and the next I was streaking past the monster and trying to reach my friend. I thought I was going to be the first to reach him, I was so close. I was seconds away from his unconscious body until a streak of fire swooped past me and into Markus’ body.

It was like looking into the sun, whatever entered Markus had enveloped him in an orb of pure fire and light. My vision went white and I spun out of the sky, I wasn’t able to regain my balance with my wings. Almost instinctively I activated [Cloud Control] and made a cloud under me to land on. Holding on for dear life with one hoof and scrubbing my eyes with the other I tried to see what had become of my friend. I could still feel the heat coming off the massive sphere of fire even from this distance. I thought my eyes were still messing with me when I caught sight of something in the flames. I saw… wings? With a screech that rivaled the initial flash in its ability to disorient the flames were blown apart to show… is that Markus?! Flapping in the air where my friend used to be was a creature that looked to be a mix between Markus and a bird, almost like a pony version of a harpy. Markus no longer had forelegs but large scarlet red wings that steadily pumped to keep himself airborne, his once blue coat was covered in orange and red spirals and filigree. Even his once black and silver mane had turned white with red feathers growing in it.

With another powerful shriek harpy Markus dived down at the abomination gazing up at us, I was stunned as I watched Markus wreath himself in flame and start taking fly by swipes at what I can only call an eldritch abomination. Left, right, dive bomb, corkscrew. I watched as whatever the ‘thing’ that was piloting Markus’ body began to spit fire at the howling beast forcing it back to the ground and off of the crumbling roof top. I was watching absolute chaos unfold before me and I had only one thing to say.

“What The Absolute Fuck Is Going On!” Then Markus got struck by lightning… Oops…

Author's Note

I'm Here Now =)

Chapter 31: Interlude

Lucky Harvest PoV:

My life had taken a direction that I never would have expected, I began polishing my spear once again as I sat alone. It had been a few days since Arcane Hope and his group left the village and a lot had changed in a very short amount of time, a good number of the older ponies had opted to stay in the battle scarred village and help rebuild. While a good chunk of the younger villagers including me had decided to travel and help found the guild. There’s nothing left anchoring me here now that father is… gone and there’s only one place I want to be. Arcane Hope is the reason my life changed so much which means he needs to take responsibility and let me stay with him.

I gazed down absentmindedly at my spear and thought back to the battle, it was horrific but I remember vividly the whirlwind of pure power and destruction that Hope wielded. I know that I'm too weak to travel with him, but that’s going to change. One day I won’t need this magic weapon he made for me, I'm going to get stronger all on my own and beat him in a fight to show him that I won’t slow him down. Then I'm gonna march right up to him and… I huffed and shook the heat out of my cheeks. Rising from my seat and replacing the blade on my spear I continued my walk through South Town, this place is way louder than home.

After the leaders of Arcane Hope’s tribe traveled back here and proposed their guild idea to the chief of this place it was smooth sailing from there. All it took was some talk of more money and less monsters and they were sold. For now everyone that’s joining the guild is staying in an inn nearby or is camping just outside of town. I was lucky enough to share a room with a few of the members of the tribe.

There wasn’t a militia sponsored quest board yet, but some of the locals have started to try and employ some of the tribe for something. I knew of a few who were employed as guards for a jewelry store, though I was pretty sure the two weren’t the best fighters despite their background. I arrived in front of the inn and eye’d an older griffin local that had been glaring at the entrance. I sped up my pace as I passed through the bar area trying to avoid speaking to anypony, I was tired and pretty irritable and didn’t want to deal with any of the odd parts of Hope’s tribe.

“Ah… So the Solar Dragoon has finally returned, have you finished training your inner flame?” I suppressed a groan at the slightly nasally voice and turned to glare at the corner of the tavern room, there leaning against the wall in what looks like an uncomfortable pose was a forest green coated colt wearing a black cloak that barely covered his slightly singed black mane. I rolled my eyes at his question and suppressed a vengeful grin at the memory of our last meeting. In some weird attempt to try and prove himself as the ‘chosen one?’ He challenged me to a duel. I refused at first as I had better things to do than to listen to him prattle on. It wasn’t until he called my strength into question that I decided to take him up on his challenge, it was laughably easy and he realized his mistake once my spear ignited.

“... Where’s your foal-sitters at?” My voice came out flat and emotionless despite the annoyance I was feeling, I felt the usual anger bubble up at my failure to express my emotions. I’ve been struggling with this ever since the battle, I’m sure Hope could help me with this. The colt flinched slightly at my question, the group this annoyance tends to hang around included a mare that I was rooming with. She tended to be the voice of reason when this one gets out of his depth or says something stupid.

“ The only companion I need is the shadows, I-”

“You should have been waiting for us back at the Militia Outpost” Cutting off the inane ramblings of the colt was the voice of reason that was River Creek, one of the few actually normal members of Arcane Hope’s Tribe. Entering the Inn were the other three members of their group, River herself, The ever-silent Hollow Root, and SlipStream the pegasus. I didn’t really have much of an opinion on the rest of their group as it wasn’t her place, but she can say that in her personal opinion they do rank higher than the rest of the tribe.

“ U-uh I had to… compare training methods with our Dragoon friend here” I sent another glare towards the sweating colt as he shrank into himself more. My glare was mirrored by River but hers was decidedly more bemused unlike that of the colts brother who was silently laughing at his brother. Turning my attention completely to River I saw that she had finally changed her apparel, I had heard her talking about changing up her equipment to help her combat ability. Whereas before she usually wore a regular gray vest that matched her coat, now she wore a sea blue robe with white lining. She no longer wore a bag but instead had a medium-sized water tank strapped to her side, I assume it helps her with the kind of magic she specializes in. I have seen her shoot an apple off a fence post from acres away.

“If you had stuck around, you would know that we just got offered our first quest from the Militia” River’s pride tinged words instantly caught my attention, a quest!? I had thought it would have taken more time before quests started becoming available. My small bead of excitement quickly fell apart as I remembered I wasn’t a part of their group, I didn’t let my disappointment show however.

“Because of all the ponies that were…lost so close to the forest, the timberwolf population had skyrocketed. There’s now an open quest for anyone to bring in a set of timber wolf fangs for two bit each, that's four bits per wolf but wait there's more! If we bring in an Alpha timber wolf’s ‘knot heart’ then we can get thirty bits!” River’s excitement was slightly contagious, I had never earned that many bits in one sitting before! The pulse of disappointment in my heart grew stronger again as I reminded myself that this wasn’t any of my business. Turning away from the excited group of adventurers, I started making my way back up to my room.

“Lucky? Where ya goin?” The confused voice of River stopped me in my tracks, I turned back to look at the group of four with a puzzled look on my face.

“Don’t you want to come too? This is the perfect quest for you, together we can’t lose!” They all looked at me with such happy expectant faces, even the little nuisance was looking at me and smiling… ignoring the heat on my face and letting only the slightest of smiles grow. I nodded and let myself get pulled into the impromptu meeting, maybe working in a team could help me get stronger faster. After all… Hope had a team watching his flank, why shouldn’t I have one.

Being away from home for the first time was a fantastic experience, I wasn’t sure momma was going to let me join once we had heard about the heroes planning on opening a guild. Now here I am walking down a forest path with two super strong heroes, though they do look a bit silly at times. I hid my giggles as Mr. Flare tried and failed again to swat at some bugs that were buzzing about, my giggles quickly stopped as I almost tipped over from my bag leaning a bit too far to the right. My sudden fall was stopped just as fast as it started by Coral Shelf who was always close by to help. I whispered a quiet thank you up to him, I had to be quiet. Mr. Flare doesn’t like it when I make too much no/ise, he hasn’t told me why yet. I think he’s secretly training me to be super sneaky. I remember a story my Grandad used to tell me from back when he traveled around Equestria. It was about a griffin scout who was so sneaky, so stealthy, that he could out sneak a shadow. That's one of my favorite stories. I wonder when they’ll really start teaching me. I’m so excited that I could just-

“Oof!” Just walk head first into a tree, I had stopped paying attention after I started thinking about the Griffin story… woops. I heard Mr. Flare gave a deep sigh while I was rubbing my head, it didn’t really hurt, I just didn’t want any splinters in my mane.

“Alright, we’ll make camp here” And just like that I perked right back up, it was time. Time to start my training to become the best hero ever! Quickly rolling out of my bag straps I ran over to Mr. Flare and stood ready with an excited look on my face. Mr. Flare was in the middle of unloading his pack and weapons until he saw me approach, he just looked at me for a while before speaking.

“And what do you want, kid?” The question kinda caught me off guard (What’s a kid?) but I shook it off and plowed on anyway. A hero doesn’t second guess himself and neither shall he.

“Aren’t we gonna start training?! I promise I'll do my best!” Mr. Flare squinted a bit at my shouting which I sheepishly apologized for, then he got an odd gleam in his eye. I saw Coral Shelf slowly draw closer from behind Mr. Flare, he looked oddly serious about something.

“So you want to train huh? Sure, I’ll train you if you promise to do whatever I say…okay?” I didn’t pick up in his tone or his wording or the way Coral flinched in the background. All I was focused on was how much stronger I was about to become, I puffed my chest out and looked Mr. Flare in the eye like how momma taught me.

“I Promise Sir!” I didn’t realize how much I was gonna regret those words.

Author's Note

We're Back = )

Chapter 33: Recovery

Chapter 33: Recovery
Marcus PoV:

I think I'm starting to get better at the whole ‘fighting giant monsters’ thing. I let my laughter peter out as I gazed down at the screens floating in my vision.

Congratulations!

You have defeated The Hidden Boss 'Ozymandias, The Hour of Greed and Chapter of Madness!

Level up x4

Level 10 Reached!

Professions Available!

As a reward for defeating a hidden boss you will be given a Rare item that matches your playstyle!

Time Until Reward Chosen: 11 Hours 59 Minutes

Boss Trophy Gained: The Mask of Ozymandias

That is a large wall of text, I glanced down at the gold mask by my hooves. I felt a shiver of revulsion go down my spine and quickly shoved it into my bag. I looked over at David and Morgana to see how they were doing, Morgana was looking David over and checking for any injuries. Thankfully he wasn’t burned or anything from the lightning that was circling him earlier. I took a deep breath and tried to relax fully, it was over. Another massive threat was gone and now we could move on, sadly though Ozymandias wasn’t even the largest problem I have right now.

My thoughts started to drift back to the deal I made. In the heat of the moment it didn’t seem that bad but… now that I'm thinking about it. The sound of loud cheering brought me out of my head, coming from outside the ruins of the manor was shouts of pure joy and glee. I pushed myself off of my haunches and was silently glad my stamina hadn’t bottomed out completely, though my horn was a bit tender at the moment.

“Is it just me or… do you hear singing?” David’s vaguely amused words made me pause and listen a bit harder. He was right… barely rising up over the sound of loud cheering and talking was a soft melody and the mumbling of lyrics. This is my first encounter with something that was blatantly ‘Cartoon-like’. I’ve never really sang in front of other ponies before so I really hope I don’t have to. My eyes flicked over to the two remaining floating prompts.

Level 10 Reached!

Professions Available!

Time Until Reward Chosen: 11 hours 56 Minutes

I really wanted to go relax somewhere and try to find out more about [Professions] and all that they entail. There’s also the whole thing with me merging with Calcifer and turning into some kind of Pony Harpy, then there’s the whole thing about maybe telling Morgana and David about my new inability to leave… then apologize about not telling them everything earlier. I sighed and slumped a bit lower, why does everything have to be so complicated…

“Hey Marcus, are you okay?” I jumped slightly when Morgana’s voice appeared so close to me, I really must have spaced out. Morgana was a bit roughed up and dirty from the whole ordeal but wasn’t worse for wear thankfully.

“I’m good, you fixed up everything earlier. I’m just tired, let’s get out there and try and help” The smile Morgana gave me helped inject a bit more energy in my attitude. She quickly turned away and galloped out to help the town leaving David and I alone. Looking over to David I saw that he was staring down forlorn at his now mostly melted sword, I winced slightly at the state of it. He was holding the sword by its now dull blade and was looking at the blob of melted metal that used to be its handle and guard.

“Dang, we really need to find you a new sword” Letting out a dejected sigh, David tossed the hunk of metal over his shoulder and shrugged before speaking.

“I really liked that kind of sword too… Oh well, I should get used to this until I get a sword that won’t melt from my lightning. Anyway, I want to apologize to you.” David’s sudden apology caught me off guard, what’s he apologizing for? I hadn’t even seen him until the actual battle against Monster Ozymandias and that was when he came streaking in like a living thunderstorm.

“I was the reason you were struck by lightning… “ I was silent at David’s confession… When did I get struck by lightning? David was looking at the ground in genuine guilt and I felt worse because I didn’t even know what he was talking about…

“I-It’s okay man, I forgive you… Let’s just go see what the town is up to” A smile returned to David’s face as I accepted his apology and happily fell into step with me as we exited the ruins. I felt a familiar and warm presence brush up against my mind, I was reminded of the repaired and improved bond between Calcifer and I and felt another surge of relief that the battle was over and everyone I cared about was okay. A flicker of thought and feelings told me that Calcifer was flying over and would be here soon.

Walking out into the open air with David by my side did nothing to prepare me for the surreal sight waiting for me. Townsfolk walking around moving debris and dragging bodies behind them all while humming a song under their breath while a melody played in the air. It was still just as unnerving as the villagers of Greenleaf cleaning up after the siege, there was one group that was making sure all the corpse guards were really dead. Every once in a while a body would start to twitch and would swiftly meet the business end of a spear or knife.

It was easy to spot Morgana as she was in the middle of dragging a mountain of stone rubble off to the side with the help of her [Earth Bending]. The townsfolk and merchants seem to be responding well to Morgana, looks of awe and respect were always sent her way. I looked up into the sky and tried to judge the time, the overcast clouds had been cleared away by all the blasts sent up into the sky. I was reminded that the sun doesn’t really move according to the time. My annoyance was blown away by the sound of Calcifer’s cry rapidly approaching. I let a smile grow on my face and projected my happiness at Calcifer which they quickly mirrored. A few of the townsponies nearby startled from the rapturous cry but calmed quickly when they saw David and I smiling at them as they swooped down to land on my back.

Expressing their happiness at me being safe with a quick nuzzle and a few happy feelings sent through our bond made me want to melt. I really think I'm getting better at this whole boss fight thing if this is the aftermath. I tried not to let the thought of my other problems ruin the sweet moment. More townsponies were starting to notice us and were keeping their distance out of respect, trotting up to Morgana’s side and watching her finish clearing the plaza I cleared my throat to get her attention.

“ We should head back to Keeper’s Tavern soon, we need to prepare for the next leg of our journey” At my words Morgana’s eyes opened wide, I think she momentarily forgot why we were traveling in the first place. Nodding in agreement Morgana made one more large stomp and created a deep round pit next to her, the townsponies wasted no time in dumping the bodies inside.

“Ehem” The sound of someone clearing their voice stole all three of our attention, standing there behind us was a large blue pegasus. He did not look happy, He was holding a bag of mason jars and was staring dead at David… This is vaguely concerning.

“You’re lucky that Storm Jar wasn’t too difficult or pricey to make… It was nice working with you Nimbus, I hope we meet again in the future” Then he abruptly about faced and started to trot away, David started at his quick exit and ran to catch up with him. I watched the two speak for a moment before an intrigued look appeared on the blue pegasus’ face. The two exchanged goodbyes once again and the blue pegasus took to the skies and David trotted back over to us.

“What was that all about?” Morgana was just as confused as I was.

“Oh! I was inviting him to join the guild, I was giving him directions and stuff” David’s initiative surprised me, our mission wasn’t recruitment but he still went out of his way to try. I respected that about David, he’s always willing to help.

“That’s a really good idea! We’ll bring it up with Keeper and maybe he can help everything move along fast. Having a spy network to post quests would make finding a job way easier” Morgana nodded along to my suggestion and David held himself a bit higher at my praise, the three of us turned and started on our way back to the tavern.

What happened next was a whirlwind of events. We returned to Keeper and were told in no uncertain terms “Thanks for the help, here’s your money, no beat it”. Though he was a bit nicer about it. He was running a bit ragged trying to coordinate the reconstruction efforts in the town so we weren’t that surprised when he just shoved a massive bag of bits our way before telling us to shove off. I was only able to catch him for a moment to tell him about our guild and to invite him. He grumbled something about “Dang foals doing all the ground work already” he accepted and said we might have made their jobs even easier. Now instead of just a spy network, they were a widely accepted spy network with near unlimited information resources.

Keeper said he would out his best ponies on it and told us to go take a rest, Morgana directed us to the house she had dragged me to while I was merged with Calcifer. For the first time in a while the three of us got a chance to really talk about everything. The first thing the two wanted to ask about was what happened while I was alone in there, I didn’t want to tell all the gritty details. Especially what happened in the reversed timeline as then I would have to explain everything, a flicker of disappointment from Calcifer was aimed at me and… I kind of agreed with him. I was still afraid… I didn’t want my friends to turn on me, especially now that I might be a permanent resident of this world. So first, I asked a question.

“Do you two trust me? I know that’s a horrible way to start any discussion but please answer truthfully… Do you?” David and Morgana were startled by the sudden gravity of the conversation but quickly schooled their expressions.

“After everything we’ve been through together, nothing you could say could change that” The amount of loyalty packed into that one sentenced actually made me choke up for a moment.

“You were there for me at my lowest, You showed me kindness and friendship when you didn’t have to. Sorry to break it to you Markus, but you’re stuck with us no matter what” The amount of just feelings I got from Morgana’s words erased any hesitation I had remaining, in fact I felt kind of silly for worrying so much about this.

“Thank you both so much. If I'm going to explain everything then I'm going to need to start at the beginning”

Author's Note

I told him not to tell anyone about me...

Though I'm not really in a position to stop him anymore

Having some good friends he can trust might be a boon in the long run

Especially once we start finding the others

Chapter 34: Bitter Medicine

Chapter 34: Bitter Medicine
Marcus PoV:

David and Morgana’s faces went through a myriad of emotions as I went through my story. I started all the way back when I first met Morgana and her brother Arthur, how the initial reason why I went into [Shadow Magic] was because I needed a way to restrain Arthur in case he tried to attack us. Morgana looked like she didn’t really know what to feel about that, I get that she wanted to defend her brother but at the same time… it was possible. I told them how I practiced with it during the night and how the skill itself wasn’t dangerous. David was slightly skeptical at that and voiced his doubts.

“Isn’t dark magic all about corruption? Dismissing the possibility all together doesn’t seem… smart” I nodded along with his words, this whole conversation was going much better than I had feared.

“Normally yes, but my [Cutie Mark] reduces the chance of corruption to zero and a [Cutie Mark] is needed in order to really be corrupted or else the percentage just stays at one to two percent chance” I almost went on to explain my thought on how the corruption mostly stems from power greed and the fact that there is no cost to learning the magic besides time and effort. I paused and realized how nice it was to share my thoughts on this.

“ After we left the forest I focused more on elemental types of magic, my fire magic and summoning magic led to my [Imbue] skill which if i’m perfectly honest I do not use how i’m supposed to” I gave a small grin at that thought, I’m proud of how versatile I am with my spells. David perked up again at my words and moved to speak.

“Oh yeah! I wanted to ask you about that, back with the other players I noticed that many others had fire spells like you but they were more… cookie-cutter if you know what I mean. You have so much more control and freedom when it comes to your spells, what’s the difference?” That’s a very good question from David, I didn’t expect him to be watching others' magic that closely. The answer is actually pretty easy despite how complicated it all looks.

“The answer is actually very simple, almost every element has an initial manipulation skill to help you start using that element. My [Fire Control] skill gave me the basic [Fire Bolt] spell and also my first elemental imbuement [Ember Imbue]. That’s just the first part of the skill tree though. Past that though are other spells and passive abilities that can be bought by skill points. The spells you saw are the ones that were bought, they can grow in strength but they can get better mana costs over time. I never bought another spell past the first [Fire Control] since I can just replicate anything I need. Any new spell or element that I want to learn can be gotten through practice. That’s how I got [Lightning Control] and my [Shield] spells”

That impromptu lesson was a lot longer than I thought, my throat hurt a bit but I kinda liked sharing what I knew. I’m starting to get a new appreciation for teachers. David and Morgana were listening closely and occasionally gazing to the side to look at their menu screens. They might be making their own plans to try and get more skills through practice like I have. I realize we’ve drifted far off the main topic, I felt Calcifer send a wave of laughter at how easily the serious atmosphere dissolved. Ignoring the giggling bird I took a peek out of the window nearby and saw that the townsponies had finished cleaning up around the plaza and had moved on to rebuilding. That reminds me, I really need to go through that massive hoard of treasure at some point. I’m pretty sure most of it should have reverted back to their natural not-gold state after Ozymandias had died.

“Okay, we need to get back on topic. This next part is pretty important so… brace yourself” I started off by explaining the moment Morgana and I had our little epiphany on the true nature of this ‘game’ and about Aaron. I watched Morgana carefully while I described the event, I had just got to the part where she doesn’t even have a computer and the moment she started to squint and massage her head I stopped speaking and watched her. She didn’t seem to notice I had stopped speaking,

I’ll allow them to know, you’ll need trustworthy allies for what is ahead

The sudden message from the sp- My Goddess caught me off guard and I almost missed when Morgana snapped out of her stupor. She stared at me with a frightening amount of clarity, going from slightly tired and in pain to wide awake.

“We didn’t have a computer! This isn’t possible! Aaron should be in prison and we shouldn’t be here! But if this isn’t a game then… “ The realization seemed to instill a deep sense of dread in both Morgana and David, David was the one to finish the sentence.

“Then this is all real, we really are in a whole different dimension, The NPC’s are real ponies… oh god! My skill basically mind controlled them!” David began to heave, a hoof shot to his mouth. Springing to his hooves he sprinted to the bathroom, the sound of David throwing up sent shivers of revulsion and guild through me. I should have told them sooner.

“Then… I led all those innocent ponies to their deaths… “The quiet despondent voice of Morgana grabbed my attention, she was still sitting in the exact same position. Gazing down at her hooves with a look of pure disgust as if they were covered in something horrible.

“No you didn’t, you saved as many lives as you could. You inspired them to fight for their home and defend those they loved. You are the bravest, kindest, most fantastic woman I have ever met and I am so proud to call you my friend” Morgana’s glazed over expression slowly changed, tears started to run unsuppressed from her eyes. I moved to sit next to her and gave her a hug, she didn’t cry for long. She pulled herself together quickly and looked at me gratefully before the two of us followed David into the bathroom. Our pegasus friend was bent over the toilet letting out silent tears, I flushed the toilet and joined him on the floor. Morgana joined me mere seconds later with a towel for David.

I don’t think David’s tears are only about his skill use on the native ponies. I think it’s about how he thought about them, how he didn’t think of them as people, how he didn’t think they were truly alive. That’s something that springs from somewhere deeply personal, he’ll tell us if he wants to. I just hope he won’t be too hard on himself. I wasn’t even half way finished with the truth and was already this exhausted. I felt wrung out, Morgana looked empty but heartened, David looked disgusted with himself and looked on the brink of passing out from simple emotional exhaustion.

“Maybe we should finish this talk later, we need to get some rest and if you want… we can keep talking in the morning” Morgana looked like she wanted to interject but stole another glance at David instead, his tears had stopped for the moment but the hurt on his face was plain to see as the sun. I’m pretty sure no one will have any issues with us commandeering this house for a night. I rose and gently grabbed David’s hoof and tried to help him stand, Morgana grabbed his other side and helped me steady him. The two of us guided David back over to the couch, I was too drained to try and go up the stairs. Calcifer started to dig in my bag and pull out some blankets, I didn’t think any more about it. All the thinking, planning, talking, and emotions had drained me. Floating the blankets up with my magic and draping them over the three of us haphazardly, David was out first leaning his head on Morgana like an oversized pillow. Morgana followed just as quickly after pulling the blankets over herself completely and making sure David’s head wasn’t going to fall. I lifted the corner of the blanket on my side and let Calcifer scooch his way under the blanket, his body was the perfect warm temperature and his feathers were so soft. I don’t care how juvenile it makes me seem, I snuggled in close with the three most important people in my life and went to sleep with a smile on my face.

Author's Note

Trauma Then Snuggling
.
.
.
...Cute

Short chapter... sorry, but I updated how the menu's look! Hope you like them! No more brackets!

Chapter 35: Professions

Chapter 35: Professions
Marcus PoV:

I’ve always hated the feeling of waking up with a limb asleep, the pins and needles would catapult me out of whatever pleasant warm haze that remained after a good night's sleep. My right forehoof was pinned underneath something and the dreaded feeling was slowly crawling up my shoulder. Waking up isn’t usually so difficult for me, I really wanted to go back to sleep. I’m incredibly comfortable right now and my own hoof is betraying me right now. I let out a sigh from my dry mouth and almost inhaled a feather making me sputter to full wakefulness. I was still laying next to David but at some point Calcifer had migrated from the couch to my face. Using a bit of magic to nudge Calcifer’s wings out of my face and see what was crushing my hoof, at some point during the nap David had rolled over and had pinched my leg behind him.

Sliding myself free and shaking my hoof to bring back some feeling into it I glanced over to a nearby window I saw that it was still bright outside. Mentally chiding myself for forgetting that the sun won’t move until moments before its night. I really need to get a watch at some point, well… I do have one way to tell the time.

Time Until Reward Chosen: 9:12

Around 2 hours, that nap felt way longer but at least we didn’t waste the rest of the day. I suppressed a groan at the thought of continuing the rest of my explanation. I let Calcifer’s sound asleep body slide down a bit into a more comfortable position and looked over at the others. David was still deep asleep and still looked exhausted, whatever that spinning lightning move was it totally drained him. Morgana was actually smiling slightly in her sleep and was snuggling up to one of David’s wings, the sight brought a smile to my face. I relaxed back on the couch and really thought about what we have to do next. We had been making great time on getting to Mt. Canter but we can’t keep getting waylaid by things like this or else we won't make it in time. I shook the thoughts from my head, that's pretty far into the future so I wont drive myself mad thinking about it now.

Presently we only have a few things that we need to get to, first things first I need to go over our new [Professions] that was opened upon reaching level 10. Opening my menu showed me the new page was just below social skills labeled [Profession Skills] it was currently grayed out though. I mentally tapped on the flashing prompt saying [New Professions Available!]

Congratulations!

Upon reaching Lv: 10 the user gains access to the Professions system which grants various crafting abilities that correspond to your chosen profession. A good example would be a player with the [Carver] profession gaining wood based crafting skills like [Whittling]. Of course there are other uses for professions than just crafting, some professions can even have combat augmentations and other helpful abilities!

Available Professions:

Scholar [Poor]

Elementalist [Unique]

Pyrokinetic [Unique]

Enchanter [Rare]

Teacher [Good]

Witch [Pick this one please!]

Sigilist [Rare]

Cultist [Good]

The list was much more extensive than I was expecting, the scholar one I was kinda expecting due to my college background but the others were pretty odd. Elementalist and Pyrokinetic made some kind of sense but I was expecting some choices that had more to do with crafting, maybe these have something to do with my bond with Calcifer and fire. Enchanter was kind of expected with how much I flung around my imbuements, I internally chuckled at how I used that skill. I definitely don’t use that skill like I’m supposed to. I skipped looking at Teacher and moved on to Witch when I saw the modified grade next to it. I think my Goddess has something to say about my chosen profession. I let out a sigh and picked Witch for my profession, as much as I didn’t like being robbed of choice she hadn’t steered me wrong yet and I'm still going to stick to my promise of getting stronger.

Witch: A deep delver of esoteric arts and secrets that others would shy away from. Someone who communes with creatures beyond comprehension and creates objects of power through various sorcery.

By Choosing Witch as Profession the user will gain the following skills:

Crafting Skills:

Fledgeling Enchant: The ability to place a long lasting magical effect onto an object at the cost of the user's mana or a corresponding component. The intensity of the enchantment depends on the durability of the targeted object and the amount of needed components and their quality

Higher skill level will offset the needed durability of targets and lower needed components

Can be used in conjunction with other skills for higher output

Skill Level 1: 0.00%

Cost: Unavailable

Cauldron Crafting: Gives the ability to craft various objects ranging from potions to magical artifacts. The only limit is your imagination and you ingredients

Requirements: Cauldron

Known Recipes: Annealed Flask, Lesser Healing Tincture

Skill Level 1: 0.00%

Cost: Unavailable

Magical Skills:

Commune: Let’s the user speak with the esoteric forces that surrounds them

Mana Draw: Low

Skill Level 1: 0.00%

Cost: 1 Sp

Bind: Gives the user the ability to bind spirits to the physical plane for a chance to bargain or commune

Mana Draw: Medium

Skill Level 1: 0.00%

Cost: 1 Sp

Banish: Gives the user the ability to send unwanted spirits or summoned creatures away to the immaterial plane

Mana Draw: High

Skill Level 1: 0.00%

Cost: 1 Sp

Further skills can be unlocked at higher Profession Levels

I was able to look at the list of skills for all of ten second before the strain of so many skills being shoved into my brain knocked me back unconscious.

I was only out for a few minutes before Calcifer was able to wake me back up, the sudden strain felt through our bond must have woke him up. A pulse of concern came over the bond along with a questioning tone, I rubbed Calcifer’s feathery frill and told him I was alright. I had a small ache behind my eyes but it was fading fast, I pulled the menu back up and looked back over my new skills and the implications behind them. Isn’t Witch the female version of Warlock, are they two different things?

The [Enchant] skill is something I'm glad to finally get, I've been using my [Imbue] skill like a bastardized version of it essentially so it's nice to have the actual skill now and not have to worry about anything I make exploding… I just remembered that I imbued Lucky Harvest’s spear. I should properly enchant her spear the next time I see her. Calcifer fluffed his feather to get comfortable again at my side and reminded me that traveling would be easier now that we could fly. I felt a massive burst of excitement in my chest at that thought, I can fly! I am going to have so much fun later, Calcifer squawked a laugh at my excitement and I smoothly ignored him.

What I was mostly excited about was the [Cauldron Crafting] skill, the ability to make potions and various artifacts was priceless. The lesser Health tincture is exactly what we needed, Morgana doesn’t have infinite mana and there will be times where we would need to heal other ponies. There were only really three ingredients in the potion, one of them being water and the other being raw magic. The last ingredient is something that’s high in protein or nutrients, I had to distill down everything until it was just its base components. It was incredibly unscientific and mostly magic, all of it would be concentrated down into a swallow or two of red sludge. Though that does remind me that I need a cauldron and multiple different types of magic… I’m suddenly glad I saved up all those skill points. Whatever elements or types of magic I can’t develop on my own I can buy with the points, I felt David stir next to me.

“That… was the best nap… I have ever had” Surprisingly it was Morgana’s groggy voice I heard first, I watched her rise from the couch and stretch like a cat. The sound of her spine popping made me want to stretch too. David followed her example and fanned out his wings and seemed to forget that i’m still sitting next to him and slapped me in the face with them. It didn’t hurt, they really were soft and smelled heavily of ozone. Mumbling an apology David rolled off of the couch and started blearily looking around.

“Do you two want to finish our talk or… ?” My question kinda awkwardly fell apart but they still understood me. David had to take a second to remember what I was talking about but he seemed to understand in the end. I watched Morgana’s mood droop for a moment before shaking her head and slapping a smile back on her face before speaking.

“As much as I want to hear everything, we still need to get ready to continue on. Let’s use the rest of the day to stock up on whatever stuff we need and then we’ll continue this talk later… Are you guys okay with that?” Morgana’s question caught me off guard, I was expecting her to want to hear everything. If she’s okay with waiting then I am too, I shared a glance with David and said he agreed with a grin and a nod.

“Well, if we're all in agreement then I guess I only have one thing to tell you two about. I looked into the whole [Professions] thing we got when we hit level ten and from what I understand it’s basically crafting classes to an extent. There are some combat related ones but I really think the reason behind them is to get us to specialize in something” I watched both Morgana and David get Screen Gaze as I spoke, most likely getting their own professions like I did.

“Quick warning though, the amount of skills your profession might give you might make you pass out” Both of them flinched simultaneously before closing their menus and climbing back up onto the sofa with me. Calcifer and I made no effort to hide our chuckles/squawks, I hopped off of the sofa and trotted over to the window. The townsponies have almost returned to their normal lives, there were still a few damaged buildings here and there but they were being repaired swiftly by Keeper’s ponies. I hope the shops are even open, so I started to make a mental list of everything we might need.

We’re only about two day out from Mt.Canter so we won’t need to buy much in the way of provisions, add to the fact that we still have some food left over from the journey here. We need to get David a new sword and I need a cauldron, there might be a sword David can use in Ozzy’s hoard back at the manor. Can cauldrons be made small? I felt a sting of dread at the thought of lugging around a full sized iron cauldron… hmm, maybe I won't have too. I wouldn’t even have considered this in the past but now that I'm stronger and have much more mana… maybe I could use [Space Magic]? I still doubt that I'm strong enough to teleport anywhere but maybe I can use it to shrink the cauldron. As much as I am debating this, it doesn’t really matter in the end. I’ll need to be able to use every type and element of magic so eventually I will be getting [Space Magic].

“That was unpleasant… but kinda worth it” David’s strained voice pulled me out of my mind and brought my attention back to him and Morgana. The two looked like they were suffering from a particularly nasty headache, I could tell Morgana was debating using a healing spell to get rid of it.

“Did you choose a Profession you like?” David slid back off the sofa and reached for our bag, rummaging around a moment before pulling out one of the water canteens and taking a deep swig. Morgana finally gave into the temptation and with a quick flash of her hearty mana her headache was gone and she was all smiles again, her smile took on a softer tone as she spoke to me.

“ I actually chose one called [Life Saver], it lets me craft these powder things that stabilize anyone that’s dying. They don’t really heal but they’ll stop others from… slipping away before we can help them” I felt a warm smile grow on my face at the sentiment behind Morgana’s words, she looked… better. Instead of dwelling on the past she’s trying to make sure it won't happen again, I'm proud of her. With a refreshed sigh of relief David finished up his water and trotted back over to us while speaking.

“ So my Profession needs a bit of explaining, I think it’s linked to both the weather and how much I tinker with the clouds but it’s called [Aspiro Artificer] which is like tinkering with the weather and what it does, which at first I was completely on board with until I saw the first few skills it gave me… yeah it definitely leans more in the Artificer side than the weather side. The first recipe it gave me is a bomb… a straight up cloud bomb. I don’t know how I feel about it but I think it’ll be fun” … What?

Author's Note

[At least were moving on now, it feels like we've been stuck here for months]

Bit of a dry chapter, apologies :twilightblush:

Chapter 36: Moving On

Markus PoV:

After getting over the fact that David can now throw around cloud grenades and after telling the two that I was now a Witch (and ignoring their unrepentant laughter) we moved on to getting ready to leave. We decided to follow the same plan as before in the last village and split up to look for supplies. Morgana had a better rapport with the ponies here so we sent her to get some food, David had seen more of the area than I had so I sent him to look for a blacksmith or a general store that might have a cauldron while I went and looked through Ozzy’s hoard. David wanted to come with me and see the hoard so we decided that if anyone finished early or couldn’t find anything that we would meet back up at the hoard.

The hoard had been left untouched by the towns ponies as I expected but had still gone through a radical change, a good 75% of the place had reverted to its original non-gold state. Me and Calcifer had a giggle as we passed a familiar roll of toilet paper, there were a few reverted wooden desks and tables that had collapsed from the weight of the stuff piled on top of them. There were still plenty of bits and various jewels around but I was almost positive that all of it belonged to the town in one way or another.

I climbed up a hill of reverted debris and saw the stack of discarded books I had left behind. I smiled as I retrieved the book on alchemy and stuffed it into my bag. While I was at it I tucked away the treatise on the dangers of rejuvenation spells, it might have something useful in it besides warnings. I saw a few weapons here and there, a dagger here, a rapier there, what looked like brass knuckles for hooves, the only issue with all these weapons was… they were all still solid gold. While slightly disappointing I kinda expected this, maybe there’s an armory somewhere in here…hopefully it wasn’t crushed in the fight.

I don’t really know how long I spent in there going through everything but it was long enough that Morgana joined me later on. Upon entering the large hoard room her only reaction to the kleptomaniac’s dream was an extremely confused “Why?” Morgana slowly joined me up on the hill and told me about how she did with acquiring some travel food. Apparently it was pretty easy for her to get some good deals on ingredients due to everypony's fondness for her.

She joined me in going through the mountains of stuff and we quickly realized that there wasn’t anything interesting in this pile that hadn’t reverted back to normal. I did find a pretty nice looking armchair buried underneath some bits and gems, it was a normal recliner that I could find in any home. It was pretty comfortable though I don’t think Morgana liked it, she thought it was too squishy. Calcifer sent out an alert over the bond that David was approaching, I hope he was able to find me a cauldron. As much as I like this town, I was starting to get anxious and wanted to get back on the road to Mt. Canter. We met back up with David at the front of the Manor, the front of the manor was actually pretty crowded with town ponies who wanted to go inside and get their stuff back.

Seeing the three of us exit the ruined manor they took that as a sign that it was okay to enter, thankfully there wasn’t a stampede and they all calmly trotted past us. Morgana and I left the crowd and went to an open area where David could land. I was happy to see that he had a new sword on his back, an emotion he clearly mirrored judging by the massive grin on his face. His new sword looked like a broadsword this time, its crossguard and blade was blockier and thicker than his earlier swords. Maybe to make it less likely to melt like last time… I should probably enchant it later.

“So I have good news and funny news, which one do you want to hear first…?” I couldn’t help but crack a smile at David’s words, his infectious attitude lifting my spirits. I was tempted to say ‘neither’ but I was actually really interested in what he had to say.

“I’ll take the good news for 300 please” David’s grin grew slightly seeing us buy into his bit, he spun into the air and with a flourish reached into his laden saddlebag and pulled out the last thing I expected him to bring over here.

“Congratulations! You just won a brand new (used) Witch’s cauldron, happily donated by the wife of a local merchant as thanks for saving the town!” David was holding a small travel sized cauldron from one hoof, it looked like a cheap Halloween decoration but it was a real cast iron travel cauldron. I had snatched the coveted cookware from David’s hoof without realizing it, I was amazed! I didn’t even know they could be made this small, I was momentarily worried that it wouldn’t count as a cauldron due to its size but that worry was quickly dissipated. My skill told me that this was almost perfect for a beginner like me, it just needed a good wash.

“How! Where! I was completely ready to wait a while to get one of these! Thanks man! There is so much magic I want to try with this!” I flinched and realized I had lost my composure in my excitement, I cleared my throat and looked back up at David and Morgana who were staring at me with astonished eyes. I felt my face start to burn, after our little mid-day nap session (cuddle) I had been feeling a bit more open with my emotion. I felt Calcifer both laugh at me and coo at my embarrassment, I made a mental note to get Calcifer back for that later and forced my cheeks to cool.

“Thanks again David, what's the other news?” Their shocked looks were quickly exchanged for warm smiles as they realized the reason behind my openness much to my annoyance. Morgana's shoulder bumped me softly and I tried to avoid looking at the fond look she was sending me, I ignored Calcifer’s chuckling on my back and wondered if phoenixes were waterproof. The fluffy moment quickly passed and I noticed David’s smile took a turn for the mischievous.

“Oh… All I found was the answer to a problem you and Morgana were having” I didn’t know what problem he was talking about but the way he said that sent an unpleasant shiver up my spine that for a moment I mistook for my 6th sense. David turned and started to trot away leaving the three of us standing there confused, I traded a concerned look with Morgana before we went to follow after David.

The smell of smoke and the sound of metal being molded greeted us after a few minutes of trotting after David, I guess this was where David got his new sword. I wasn’t worried whatsoever until we actually entered the smithy, I wasn’t greeted by the sight of a smith hammering metal or by a normal store front… no. The smithy had an open front that exposed the smith and forge to the outside and there in front were two ponies, one was the earth pony smith and the other the client… getting his horseshoe hammered on… with nails. A fear I didn’t know I had suddenly burst to the forefront of my mind and a glance at Morgana showed me that she was feeling something similar.

“I wish I had a camera right now!” The horrified look I was sending David was apparently pretty funny, I could only stare as the pegasus that I thought was my friend rolled on the floor laughing. His rolling only brought my attention to the shiny new horseshoes he had on all his hooves, the mere fact that he went through it already didn’t help me as much as I thought it would. Morgana and I shared a look and remembered the itching pain that we went through on the way here and decided… sadly that we needed to do this, though that’s not gonna stop me from getting David back later for this.

In another Location:

Falling Star was regretting everything all at once, well… not everything but most things. His body ached, his mane smelled, and he was pretty sure he might have a cold coming on. Adjusting the strap of the oversized bag on his back Falling Star tried to relax as he waited for Mr. Flare and Coral outside the town. This was the third town they had been to in a matter of days and the fatigue of constantly taking shortcuts through the woods was starting to take its toll on him.

As much as he dislikes the feeling of his body aching, Falling Star couldn’t say he wasn’t improving as well. He was much stronger and faster than other colts his size, all the dodging practice and s-sparring must be making him tougher… he thinks at least. He was so deep in thought that he didn’t even realize that a pair of voices were getting closer.

“-walk all over you, think of it like being in a family. There’s the dad, the mom, the kids, and the pet… speaking of the pet. Where are you kid!?” Perking up and pulling himself and the bag out of the bushes Falling Star ‘stood at attention’ like how Mr. Flare taught him. Mr. Flare gave him a once over before snorting trotting past, Coral had stopped next to the small colt and gave him a smile. Falling Star liked to think he was good friends with Coral Shelf, he looked out for the young colt and taught him as much as he could… though he mostly taught him about magic and first aid.

Not that there was anything bad about them! Coral is the one who helped him find out that the tingling in his body that helped him keep training was his magic! Whenever he had taken a bad hit during a spar or couldn’t breath after a workout this tingling popping feeling would cover him and then he’d be good as new. Though it doesn’t work all the time, he still had a few bruises here and there. Coral always makes sure to help him out though, he taught him how to properly bandage himself.

The three of us had reached the final stretch of forest before we would finally be at the coast. Falling had never seen the ocean before and was looking forward to seeing it, he whispered to Coral asking if he was just as excited as he was. Falling reminded himself to keep him voice really low, Mr. Flare always gets upset after we leave a town and being too loud around Mr. Flare means only one thing…endurance sparring. Falling Star shuttered at the memory, it took a while for the two of them to recover from that one. He remembers having to ride on Coral’s back for some time while his magic fixed him up.

Realizing he had zoned out after asking Coral a question, Falling quickly focused back up at his friend’s face only to see him giving Falling an odd look. Oddly enough it was a look he recognized, his mother gave him these looks sometimes. The last time she did was before the big fight back home when she sent him away with the other foals to hide. Coral’s eyes flicked up ahead at where Mr. Flare was trotting then back down to Falling, Coral pulled Falling close then leaned down to whisper something.

“Hey, do you remember that unicorn from my tribe, Arcane Hope?” Coral’s slightly frantic tone caused Falling to tilt his head slightly in confusion, nonetheless he nodded to Coral’s question. It was nearly impossible to forget the hero that had saved his home using such great and powerful magic. “Good, after we get through this forest we should be able to see Mt. Canter in the distance. That’s where he’s going and it’s where the two of us need to go”

“Wha-! … what? But what about-” “Sterling isn’t a good per- pony, he isn’t the hero you think he is, I'm sorry Falling but I need to get you somewhere safe and the safest place I can think of is with a real hero” Coral’s serious tone made an objections or questions Falling had disappear, it was the same tone mother does when she’s very serious about something.

“Oh” The sun was starting to go down and any light that was left was quickly being swallowed up by the trees of the forest. “Kid- I mean Colt, I need you to promise me. If anything bad happens you need to go reach your real hero okay? Find Arcane Hope and everything will be okay!” The intensity of Coral’s words was really starting to scare Falling, the certainty in his eyes about something bad happening. Falling wanted to say something a hero would say, to say ‘It’s going to be alright’ or ‘There’s nothing to fear’ but… he would never get the chance.

Before Falling realized that he still hadn’t said anything, stunned from Coral Shelf’s words. The three had finally left the forest and entered the wide moonlit grassy plains that signaled the beginning of the coast and to the right, just as Coral had said was Mt. Canter. Falling had only glimpsed the mountain in the corner of his eye before the ground exploded and he blacked out.

Falling jerked awake upside down in a bush, his body was aching severely and he could already feel the popping of his magic healing him. Cracking his eyes open he could see that the once peaceful plains had been decimated by countless craters and giant holes, and piles of weird blue flesh but what drew his attention wasn’t the carnage but the three being in the center of it all. Mr. Flare was splattered in blue blood and was leaning on his Warhammer while Coral was sitting on the ground and leaning on the massive corpse of a Tatzelwurm. Only it’s head was sticking out of the ground and it still dwarfed the two grown ponies, there was a massive shard of what looked like glass impaled through it.

“Can I get… a little help here?” The wheezing voice of Coral drew Falling’s attention, slowly rolling over in an effort not to hurt himself anymore and looking closer. Falling’s heart jumped to his throat at what he saw, a tooth. A massive fang that could only belong to the Tatzelwurm was sticking out of Coral’s stomach, falling’s eyes started to burn as tears started to well up in them. Falling’s hope was disappearing quickly… until he remembered, potions! He remembered that Mr. Flare had bought a few back in the first town they had visited, Coral had explained how they worked to Falling and this was a perfect time to use them.

Falling perked up and took a breath to yell to Mr. Flare, to urge him to use the potions to save their friend… but something stopped him. Coral’s voice echoed in his mind ‘Sterling isn’t a good per- pony, he isn’t the hero you think he is’ , in that moment of hesitation Mr. Flare reached into one of the many pockets of his armor and pulled out a hoof full of glass shards. Almost leisurely he discarded the broken potion and checked his other pocket and pulled out a single red potion. Mr. Flare looked at the potion then looked at Coral, shrugged then put the potion back into his pocket.

“I might need it later… “ Falling was speechless at Mr. Flare’s dismissive tone, he could hear Coral chuckle slightly before reaching into his own saddlebag and pulling out a familiar roll of gauze. With much more steady hooves than you would expect, Coral wrapped the gauze around the long tooth and binded it. Sterling made no move to help as Coral painfully pulled himself up to his hooves, it hurt Falling to see every move Coral made and yet… he still did not move or say anything. Falling stayed hidden in the foliage and watched and hoped that more of Coral’s words wouldn’t come true.

“It’s a shame really… truly a tragedy” Mr. Flare’s emotionless words interrupted Coral’s limping and brought his attention back to him. Mr. Flare wiped some of the blue blood off of his Warhammer as he stepped toward Coral while speaking, the growing pit in Falling’s stomach quickly became a chasm of dread. It was like his body knew what was about to happen before his brain did.

“It absolutely horrible that you and the kid were killed… trying to escape the worm” Coral didn’t even have time to blink as Mr. Flare’s Warhammer swung around and crashed into his face. Falling’s heart stopped beating as he watched Coral fall to the ground boneless, he could hear his pained panicked heaving coming from the ground. Falling didn’t blink, he didn’t move, he didn’t breath as he watched Mr. Flare step around Coral’s convulsing body.

“The two of you would have made such great soldiers if you two weren’t so weak… but don’t you worry, I’ll make sure the next batch lasts much longer”

He didn’t wait to watch Mr. Flare raise his warhammer one last time

He pretended he didn’t hear the sound of Coral’s skull getting crushed

He pretended he couldn’t hear the steady beat of hooves following him

He just ran towards the mountain like he promised Coral he would

Because there was a monster chasing him…

… And he needed a Hero to kill it!

Author's Note

I'm sorry Coral...

But this was always going to happen

Chapter 38:The End of One Journey (Part 2)

Chapter 38: The End of One Journey (Part 2)

The rest of that night after my reveal was quiet, it was a somber quiet. The same silence that permeates and spreads through the air after a loved one dies. Morgana and David didn’t yell at me, they didn’t question my choices or condemn me for not thinking. The both of them were smart enough to guess what could have happened if I didn’t take my goddess’s deal. We ate in silence then the both of them went to bed without another word. I was aware that they weren’t mad at me, but it still felt like I had done something horrible to them. I couldn’t sleep that night, I tried for about an hour but I couldn’t.

I spent the night just quietly practicing my magic while I watched the potion boil down, it was down about half way now and had a consistency of syrup. My shadow tendrils twisted around me as I focused on manipulating my mana and the steam rising out of my cauldron. The cold air generated by my tendrils helped me slowly gather the hot steam into water droplets then small floating ice crystals, this is all I did for the next few hours. Gathering mist, collecting it into more water, freezing it, melting it then dispersing it. It didn’t take long until both the potion and my magic practice finished.

Adept Hydromancy Obtained!

Congratulations! through your extensive practice and understanding of the elements you have unlocked your first upgraded manipulation skill.

Instead of relying on the system as a guide, you put your intellect and skills to the test and proved yourself a true practitioner of the magical arts.

You are now no longer considered a novice mage and by creating a spell for through your own efforts you have elevated your own understanding of the world around you.

New Passive Obtained: Well Learned - New skills and Spells now begin at Adept, studying spellforms take half as much time to learn.

Crafting Completed!

Tincture of Satiety: A magical potion packed full of every nutrient any creature would need, removes the hunger and malnourishment debuff. Though this cannot be taken as a substitute for real food over a long period of time, it can still come in handy in a pinch.

Must be diluted in water before consumption

Rarity: 1/10 stars

3/3 Doses remaining

Huh… This is gonna hurt isn’t it? The sheer amount of knowledge from almost all of my skills improving from my new passive knocked me out almost immediately.

I woke up the next day with my brain feeling like a plate of scrambled eggs, I apparently wasn’t a pretty sight. Morgana told me that my eyes were really blood-shot, I had a migraine banging in my head and a bloody nose from passing out and falling face first onto the ground. I was currently looking through all my skills and seeing the effects of my new passive skill, the passive worked more like an xp boost for any skill/spell I studied or worked on. Of Course the level boost for any new spell is very welcome, the only annoying part is that my passive only applies to spells/skills I develop on my own. Anything that I just bought with skill points is unaffected by the passive.

The new Hydromancy spell I developed was really just an upgraded manipulation skill, it allowed me to manually control water in most states of matter. My fire manipulation skill only lets me control fire but it’s being supplemented with my mana, lightning, and solar manipulations. At some point my other manipulation skills might combine to become something like Hydromancy, an overarching skill that doesn’t need individual skills and levels. There’s also one more feature of upgraded skills that I wasn’t expecting.

Adept Hydromancy: Grants almost complete control over one of the primordial elements, the element known to bring life and take it away at the same time

Gives control over most states of water and allows the user to learn Water-aspect spells

Aspected Spells Discovered: Hot Spring, Healing Spring, Dark Depths, Refrigerate

Further levels will improve mana efficiency and unlock more Aspected Spells

Skill Level 5: 0.00%

Cost: 3 Sp

Aspected Spells! I thought I had been aspecting my mana this whole time but I had been doing things the hard way apparently. I had been following the science I had learned in school and micromanaging my magic the whole time. Using my magic as fuel for a real fire, gathering real water out of the air, making the atoms in the air excited or freezing at my own behest instead of letting my mana do it on its own. That’s why my spells have been so effective and so costly! A sufficient metaphor for what I had been doing is fueling a car with pure uranium where just gasoline would suffice. It still worked but was extremely wasteful and had effects that I couldn’t account for at times.

Knowing that I've been doing magic this whole time is good and all but… I don’t know how to use aspected magic, I’ve been using what I'll call ‘Manual Magic’ this whole time. Ya’know… this is probably why regular telekinesis costs so much for me to use. My previous amazement at Twilight sparkle diminished only slightly… like only by 0.02%. Though I do feel slightly stupid for making everything so difficult for myself, I tried to look on the bright side. Once I figure out how to use aspected magic I will have a massive mana pool to pull from, constantly running out of mana and forcing more magic out of me has probably left me with a massive pool of magic… Although I can’t physically feel it, I'm just aware of it.

With that revelation out of the way I looked at the last newest addition to my status, my new title. Being called a True Mage just because I learned how to use magic the wrong way felt… odd. I had assumed the whole title thing was decided by what the other player called you but apparently not… does that mean my goddess knows pop-culture references? I remember her being able to influence my menu, the thought of an all powerful being sitting down and watching anime brought a smile to my face at the absurdity of it. Then there's the effect of the title, what does it mean that my mana has a physical effect on others?

It was properly morning now and the sun was warming our little camp, it was about time for us to get moving and finish our journey. Shaking myself and rising from the grass I was sitting in, I looked over at everyone else at camp. David was stutteringly wiping down his new sword, Morgana was looking away from me and was blindly dropping our stuff into her bag and Calcifer was… hiding in a cloud? Everyone was acting odd and it immediately concerned me, my question and concern sped across my bond with Calcifer. I watched them flinch from my question and buried themselves deeper in the cloud.

“Alright, what’s going on… you’re all acting strange?” David flinched at my words and forced himself to put his sword down, Morgana continued to stare at the ground. I watched David take a deep breath then stand up and slowly and almost cautiously trot over to me. I was way past concerned now and was genuinely confused about what was happening, I didn’t move out of fear of making whatever was happening worse. David began to tremble slightly as he drew nearer and a strained look started to grow on his face.

“M-markus… you gotta stop whatever you're doing… it's like there's this massive pressure on my body and it’s only getting worse” I was getting scared for my friends, David’s words came out heavy and labored. He spoke as if every word was a fight in itself, but I wasn’t doing anything to them! I’m not using any magic and there’s nothing nearby, we're camped out in the middle of a field. What’s changed from last night and toda- my new title! The answer snapped into my mind like lightning, this is what it meant by my mana having a physical effect on others.

I don’t know how to turn it off, I can’t choose which title I have active at the moment. I stood and frantically backed away from David which seemed to reduce the strain on him slightly judging by the sigh of relief that came from him. I couldn’t sense any magic around me, how do I turn this stupid title off! I’m starting to panic, I need to calm down. Deep breaths, In and out. I still felt Calcifer trembling in the corner of my mind which sent another spike of panic into my head. I sat back down in the dirt and concentrated, there is one thing I could do to help me sense what’s going on. I started gathering my magic and instead of feeding it into my horn, I started to trail it over to that particular spot in my brain which I knew connected to my 6th Sense.

The familiar buzzing feeling of 6th Sense activating greeted me and grew stronger and stronger as I fed my mana into the intrinsic skill. It was like gaining feeling back in a limb after being numb for so long. I didn’t see with my eyes but I could see just as well, maybe even better. The world around me swirled with color and light, naturally occurring magic ebbed and flowed in the air, in the ground, it pulsed in my heart and in my mind. Small see through silhouettes of animals woodland creatures prance about, ghosts. One thing was very different though, surrounding me in almost a perfect circle was a sphere of attuned mana. Mana attuned to my personal signature, the natural mana flowing through the air automatically attuned itself to me whenever I drew near then went back to normal once it got out of range.

I didn’t think too much about it, I didn’t try to over analyze my abilities. I just tightened the metaphorical grip of my magic and let all of my magic swirl back into me, the sphere quickly shrank to nothing. I let my sight drop out of my mana enhanced 6th Sense and took a breath, it felt like I was constantly tensing a muscle. I can tell that this is gonna be incredibly annoying until I get used to this. I watched David and Morgana tentatively approach me as the weight on their shoulders disappeared.

“Are you… alright now?” Morgana was possibly the most affected by my magical pressure, while physically strong Morgana doesn’t have much defense against magic. I nodded to her question and returned to the campsite to continue packing up while I explained what happened.

“I gained a new title last night while I was practicing my magic, instead of increasing a skill it instead made it so my mana has a physical effect on anyone exposed to it. I’m sorry about this, I didn’t know it would do this and I can’t change it. I might be stuck with it too… “ My explanation brought confused looks from everyone, I cracked a smile at Calcifer’s cocked head and his confusion.

“I thought titles only had effect while you had them, my title just gives me a few points to my Earthbending?” I nodded along to Morgana’s question, I already had an answer to that.

“Does your title say that I'll be in effect as long as the title is on?” I waited for Morgana to check and confirm my words, the moment she nodded I continued speaking. “My title doesn’t have that, I think that as soon as I get another title that it’s effect will get stacked right on top of this one” This changes things when it comes to titles, it’s not too far-fetched to guess that there are plenty of other titles that have persistent effects like this. After a while of stacking up titles and effects… the possibilities are endless. Though we don’t know how to reliably get titles, at least we know that they can do this now and won't be blind-sided by the effects next time.

I was already getting annoyed by keeping a constant grip on my magic like this, there’s gotta be a better way than this. I’ll figure it out on the road, we finished packing up camp and I scraped the concentrated goo that was the Tincture of Satiety into one of the empty spice containers we had. I probably should have made that Annealed Flask first instead of the tincture but it requires space magic to make and I haven’t figured out how to do that yet.

We didn’t trot in silence as I expected, Both Morgana and David were in pretty good moods now that we were extremely close to Mt. Canter, I was walking a bit behind the two for now while I figured how to fix my whole debacle with my magic. I had slipped back into my enhanced 6th Sense and was tinkering with my sphere of influence. The ghosts avoided my sphere of mana and paid me no mind, they still mimicked their routine as if they were still alive. I watched a see through rabbit try and chew on some grass to no effect then hop along like nothing was amiss. Looking ahead I saw David and Morgana, they glowed softly just like everything else around them except they were solid. The mana flowing around David was a sky blue with a smattering of darker stormy gray, Morgana left a loamy trail of brown earth magic that gave a feeling of comfort while Calcifer was like a crimson comet streaking through the sky.

I was only barely able to stretch and mold my sphere of influence, this was going to need a lot of practice I could already tell. I was in the middle of trying to disperse my sphere when I almost tripped over Morgana and David, they had stopped without me realizing.

“What’s wrong- oh… “ We had finally crested the last ridge and Mt. Canter was now in sight except… it didn’t look like we expected. Instead of the sprawling magic capital of Equestria we expected we were greeted by… a massive crater taking up over half the mountain.

Author's Note

The next arc begins

Chapter 39: Expect Only The Unexpected

We had approached Mount Canter from the east so we got a perfect view of the almost ancient crater that had sheared through the side of the mountain. The mountain edge where Canterlot used to hang precariously was gone along with half of the mountain, there was an obvious trail from the now missing top of the mountain to the crater below. It brought to mind a meteor impact zone, there were still spots on the mountain visible from here that were discolored. Whatever caused this crater had turned the rock left over to almost glass. What blew me away the most was the fact that the area was already regrown, Nature had taken back over and the crater was filled with water. There was still a city but it was curled around the side of the crater and up the back of the mountain. At some point there was a reconstruction effort but it apparently failed. I could tell the city was abandoned… or at least it was before. There were trails of smoke from campfires along the back of the mountain, the largest coming from the massive citadel now perched on the new peak of the destroyed Mount Canter.

“That’s… different” My words were a clear understatement, I already knew that this Equestria was different from the one that I knew and loved but this was the last thing I was expecting. I felt my control over my sphere of influence slip as I stared in awe at what I can only call a Fallen Canterlot. The multiple smoke trails leading into the sky quickly clued me in that there were still people living in the capital, I expected most of them to be other players.

“We won’t find anything out just by standing here, let’s do this” said Morgana, I watched her steel herself before beginning to trot towards the capital again. It was time to meet the other players, I wasn’t looking forward to all of the drama and issues that are inevitably going to pop up. I went to follow Morgana as David took off and began to flap along above us.

PoV: ???

Their long journey was almost over, so many trials, so many long nights of hunger and fear. Nights cowering from the things that go bump in the night and days killing the things that decided to stay. Those days weren’t that bad, at least we didn’t go hungry those nights. Running, fighting, learning, growing. If only that was her only issue, this could all become the slightest bit easier if she didn’t have to wear this mask she called her face. If she didn’t have to fake the nobility and poise she had at all times, she felt like she was losing herself, losing the parts of herself that she loved most.

She shook herself and the dark thoughts from her mind, just a little longer. A few more hours of traveling and they would finally make it to the player summit and she would be one more step to getting back to… him. She felt a burst of undeniable euphoria at the mere thought of him, her steps grew stronger along with her feelings. She remembered how it felt to be separated from him the first time, like death. She felt herself dying inside more and more the further she was from him, but now she had a second chance. Her Goddess had promised her that he would be there at the summit, the mere thought of reuniting with her soulmate is what kept her going all these days.

She won’t let anyone poison his mind against her again, she won’t make the same mistake as last time. He will be all hers and no one will be able to separate them, she just has to play it smarter this time. With both her Goddess and her magic at her side there’s no way for her to fail. She knows that all of her hard work would have been undone by now but this is no issue, training him again will just bring the two of them even closer together! She was so preoccupied with her burgeoning plans on training her beloved she didn’t realize that her previously demure smile took a turn for the manic.

Yes… Soon, we will be reunited …

My…

Darling…

Markus!

PoV: Markus

We had reached what looked like the ruins of a wall, occasionally we would pass boulders of old marble covered in ivy or moss. The grassy fields on either of our sides were oddly ribbed in a way that confused me until I realized that these used to be farmland, tilled ground that had been reclaimed by nature. Turning my gaze back to the approaching dilapidated gates of the capital, the large stone doors were wide open and looked like they hadn't been moved in quite a few years. Glancing up the mountain I could see the occasional flash of a flying creature streaking past between the buildings and low hanging clouds.

Outside the gate was the source of one of the smoke clouds, a signal fire. It lay smoldering slightly, only recently having gone out. The other smoke clouds are probably similar, the players signaling anyone approaching that they are still there and where to find them. Morgana and David crossed the threshold of the gate without fanfare and when I went to follow them I froze. A horrible shiver rocked up my spine and took root in my brain, it rampaged in my mind in a way that almost forced me to push my magic up and into 6th Sense. My eyesight flashed as it was overlaid by my skill and I found myself face to face with a scowling armored guard that was currently impaling me on his blade.

I blinked backwards away from the gate immediately and slapped around my chest for my wound… but found nothing. Looking back up showed me that the guard was charging me with a silent warcry ringing out into the void. I flinched slightly as he swung his sword down on my head, it felt like a pleasantly cool breeze blowing past. Two more savage swings followed the head shot before a horrified look came over him and he turned to smoke and dissipated. I took a moment to still my frantically beating heart and looked up to see Morgana and David sprinting to my side.

“What happened, are you alright?” Morgana punctuated her words by making her hooves glow with the familiar magic of her Mending Touch skill. David had a hoof on his blade’s handle and was ready to draw it at a moment's notice, he didn’t say anything, he just scanned the area for threats. I took a deep breath to calm myself and the moment I went to respond the ghost reappeared. He was back at the gate scowling at the air, I took a few steps to the side as I watched him act out the same attacks, stab, charge, head chop, double swing, terrified look then dissipate. My friends were getting more and more concerned the longer it takes for me to respond so I quickly spoke.

“I’m okay, a ghost just scared me…” I quickly realized my words did nothing to assuage their confusion, it actually increased it. I forgot to tell them that I could see the supernatural using 6th sense, though that’s not completely my fault I was distracted by Canterlot being destroyed.

“I can see ghosts using my 6th Sense, I just found out earlier today… this is new to me too” I stepped around the guard ghost as he went through the motions again and watched David flick his head back and forth between me and the empty space I was avoiding looking doubtful. Morgana just shrugged and went along with it, it was kinda funny how easily she accepted that ghosts were real and that I could see them. The three of us were much more on edge after my small reveal, David looked like he was walking on eggshells. I made a mental note that David doesn’t like ghosts… I also promised myself to prank him later as payback for the horseshoe thing.

I smothered my grin at the thought of the impending revenge and continued deeper into the capital, stepping around the ghost and continuing on. I let 6th Sense fade from my vision and tried not to think too hard about how many other ghosts I might be walking past. It occurs to me that I could probably ask the ghost what had happened to it using my Commune skill but I really want to get to the other players and find out what's happening first.

The buildings we were passing were odd to look at, they were a weird mix of modern architecture and fantasy flavoring. What looked like an apartment complex was surrounded by worn down stone bricks covered in obviously magical filigree. Some buildings would have a random hole in the side for pegasi I assume while others would be partially buried into the ground, not collapsed though. Fully intact buildings buried into the ground and almost literally swallowed up by nature, the roads were overgrown with grass and moss slipping through the once cobble paved roads. There wasn’t much actual battle damage around give or take a few craters here or there, I was expecting more destruction than this… is almost like this place was abandoned before it fell.

I felt Calcifer alert me over our bond, we were approaching the next signal fire. It was built around an old dried up fountain in a small plaza and apparently it wasn't empty.I stopped on the spot and turned to alert David and Morgana, both seemed to be looking around just like I was. When I told them that some of the other players might be up ahead both reacted a bit confused, David looked like he didn’t know whether to be on his guard or not and Morgana… I couldn’t read Morgana. She had gone stone face but I could see a lot of different emotions flickering through her eyes, pony eyes are so expressive.

Pov: ???

I ignored the horrifying feeling of his blood drying in my fur, I ignored the pain in my body spiking with every step. Every heavy step a small victory against the impossibility on my back, stopping only for a moment to readjust him on my back so he doesn’t fall. I felt my friend approach before I saw him, I didn’t look at him for fear of seeing another corpse. He didn’t say anything, he just slipped a bit of his rations into my hanging mouth and urged me to chew… I almost didn’t out of exhaustion. I’m sure he could feel how grateful my brother and I were. I pulled my brother’s body closer as we finally left that impossible forest and got away from that psychopath.

We all made camp a few miles away with the mountain in the distance, it wasn’t dark yet but we needed the rest if we were going to make the final leg of this journey. It would take another day to reach the mountain. I sat my brother down near the fire to keep him warm, he really needs to take care of himself more. I laughed at him slightly as I popped his eyeball back into his head, he really shouldn’t sleep for so long. Being unconscious for this long can’t be healthy. Oh… a few of his bandages had come undone, I started with the largest one wrapped around his head. It was pretty dirty but we didn’t have anything to replace it right now, the bandage arched up and around his sagging horn and almost covered the entirety of the back of his head.

The eggshell colored fur around the bandage was stained red, but that’s okay. The pink color means it’s healing right? I felt my friends' eyes on me as I started unwrapping the soggy bandages, I had just gotten the first loop off when I heard someone rush towards me… but it was too late. With a nauseating shlurp sound the jellied remains of my brother’s brain oozed out from between my hooves. I went silent, the camp went silent, the whole world ceased to exist in that moment as I stared at the empty hole in my little brother’s head and the massive claw wound that revealed it.

I didn’t scream, I didn’t cry, I grasped onto all of my despair and hopelessness and threw it into the abyss of my mind. I refused to let this be his end! Not when we’re this close, this close to getting that magical life that I've dreamed of for so long. My hate grew like a wildfire at the thought of who caused this, that same hate was the perfect motivation to do what I had been dreading. My menu quickly popped up, my eyes flew over screen after screen until I found what I needed to bring him back. I let my ugly expression melt into a much warmer one as I felt my magic begin to take shape, I ignored the screens popping up in my vision as I watched my little brother’s body be covered in my magic, everything was going to be alright.

We broke camp soon after, but this time my brother and I trotted side by side. We were so close to finding the others and once we do… we can make that monster regret ever considering touching my brother, regret trying to steal his horn and his magic. His name is burned into my memory, I'll show you what strength really means… Arthur!

PoV: Markus

The plaza was a wide open space, overgrown cobble roads surrounding a long dried up fountain. Said fountain was currently holding the smoldering remains of the signal fire, surrounding the fountain was three players. I could tell they were players simply because they’re wearing clothes, not armor but actual clothes. Two griffons and one pony standing behind the other two, we stood at a stalemate for a moment just staring at each other. The first griffon player was unarmed as far as I could see and was wearing a loose fitting blue robe that wrapped around his large wings without impeding them, he looked to be really tall. Almost a whole head taller than me and his body was built to match, The guy was a bruiser of some kind, but I actually doubted he was stronger than Morgana with her natural super strength. His eyes were locked on… Calcifer?

The other gryphon was my size and had a crossbow strapped to his side, he was also wearing a gray robe but his was strapped tight to his body. He had a quiver of arrows secured to his back, just under his wings. He looked nervous and was shuffling on his talons, his eyes were switching from David and I repeatedly. I had to take a second look at the last pony to confirm it but they really were a changeling, I had assumed them to just be a dark furred pony but what I had mistaken for fur was actually chitin. He…or maybe she was the only one not wearing any actual clothes, their abdomen was wrapped in what looked like dark green spider silk. It was like a skin tight bodysuit and the only parts exposed was their head and a few parts of their legs.

We spent some time just having a stare-down until David started to approach the three, an uneasy tension flooded the air as David got closer and closer. I got a flash of sight from Calcifer perched on a rooftop nearby just in case. David stopped before the largest gryphon and leisurely held up a hoof and said.

“Sup… “ His casual greeting seemed to drain every bit of tension out of the air, I could see the moment when everyone collectively relaxed. A relieved smile grew on the large player’s beak and he quickly returned David’s hoof bump. I let myself relax a bit and trotted up to join David with Morgana following just behind. The changeling’s nervousness evaporated seeing we were friendly and perked up just as quickly. Calcifer told me that he wanted to stay hidden for a bit longer just in case, I could feel Calcifer’s suspicion and I agreed that he should be on guard and keep a lookout.

“It’s nice to see our message reach you guys, we weren’t sure if you’d really show… “ The smaller gryphon was the one who spoke first, he seemed like the usual voice of this group. I understood his worry whether or not we would show, it’s not like we could send a response. They probably had issues sending that letter to begin with, I assume one of the other changelings delivered it and had to escape before they were caught.

“How long have you been here?” My question seemed to catch him off guard slightly but he quickly recovered and responded.

“Well, we’ve been here for a few days now but the others have been here for a few weeks now… by others I mean all the other players. Oh! I forgot to introduce myself, I’m Nick and the big guy here is Nicolas. Funny I know, it was a whole thing back home. Last but not least we have our newest friend La-”

“Webz! Ehem, Call me Webz” Cutting in suddenly was the changeling themselves, sliding past Nick and coming to a stop directly in front of me. I took a slight step back to look down at Webz, she was slightly shorter than me with her eyes reaching my chin. Her voice was high and scratchy but definitely female, kinda reminiscent of rainbow dash but with the buzzy undertone that’s characteristic of changelings.

“So… What can I call you?… other than handsome of course” Webz’s voice lowered at the tail end of her words and she looked me up and down. I felt my skin start to crawl and my voice caught in my throat as an old fear started to well up. I guess my discomfort was obvious because Webz was quickly pulled away from me by Nicolas and given a chastising look. I haven’t felt like this in a long time, I cleared my throat and tried to ignore my small breakdown. I caught a look Morgana was sending me and smoothly ignored it, Calcifer asked me what had happened. For a moment I forgot he could feel what I felt and a burst of uncomfortable anxiety surfaced before I could stop it. My sudden unwillingness to speak surprised Calcifer and only doubled his concern, pushing past the troubling emotions was almost automatic. I reassured Calcifer I was okay and tuned back into the conversation.

“ Well… my name’s David, this is Morgana and this is Markus” David had stepped up after I had fallen quiet and tried to fill the awkward silence. Nick sent another apologetic look in my direction before continuing to speak.

“It’s nice to meet you three, the rest of us are staying in the upperpart of the city. We had decided to wait a few more days to see if anyone else would show up, all the diamond dog, changeling, and gryphon players were here already. Traveling was a bit easier for us because we could all either fly or tunnel around any problems we had” Nick’s enthusiasm rose back up as he spoke and began to turn away from the fountain and start walking deeper into the city. Nicolas dragged along an embarrassed Webz and gestured for us to follow. Morgana slid up next to me and sent me another concerned look, there was no ignoring this one. I swallowed a sigh and got ready to try and explain how nothing was wrong… but I never got the chance.

In the past my 6th Sense had warned me both of danger and opportunity alike, the familiar buzzing at the back of my skull was almost an old friend at this point. The deep primal anger that suddenly gripped my mind enveloped me utterly, I wasn’t alone in my anger as I felt and also heard Calcifer’s shriek of rage high above me. I was so utterly consumed in my rage that I didn’t realize my body had moved, I had turned away from my friends and the other players. My burning gaze had turned back towards the entrance of the city, the muffled voices of my friends didn’t reach me as my mind finally cleared up enough for me to decipher what I was seeing. My sight had been switched with Calcifer’s, his view high above the clouds ranging miles further than mine. No more words passed between the two of us when I saw what was happening on the ground, emotion guided us better than any kind of practice could. Calcifer pulling up from a dive-bomb and smoothly merging with me, I didn’t spare a moment and took to the sky and moved with the fury of hell.

Pov: ???

His heartbeat was the only thing he could hear, its banging was deafening in his mind. Leaving no room for thought as he sprinted will all he had left, his body popping and sparking with his magic. Another jolt of energy was all that saved him from being impaled on the glass spear that erupted from the earth beneath him. Diving to the side and feeling something in his chest break on impact was nothing new, the buzz of his magic grew stronger as what he’s pretty sure is his ribs were repaired. Any pain he would have felt had long gone numb ever since he began his run, getting back to his hooves was getting harder and harder. The days of nonstop hard travel and using his special magic were eating away at him, he could feel it… it also doesn’t help that a monster was chasing him.

His goal was right in front of him, it was a straight shot to the grand fallen capital that his mother had told him stories about. He risked a glance behind him and almost lost his head in the process as the blood caked warhammer of the monster sheared his ear off for the fourth time. Blood flowed down his face blinding him, he tried to pull on his magic again just like he had done before many times in the past two days. The sparking and popping of his magic quickly started to swell under his skin, throwing himself to the side to dodge the grab he knew was coming and pointing a hoof at the monster.

He let the magic that boiled under his skin explode out of his hoof, he felt his hoof split and tear off from the rest of his body as both the Monster and him went flying in different directions. His body skipped and rolled over the ground until he landed with a sickening crack on a cobble path… he had made it. His body feeling like it was floating from the lack of feeling, he tried to push himself back up to his hooves… except he couldn’t. This confused him, he didn’t have issues with standing up again last time? He flicked his newly regrown ear with confusion as he looked down at his body… oh, that’s why he couldn’t move. He had lost a lot more than just his hoof in that burst. The bloody stump that was his left foreleg had been joined by the splinted remains of his right and the crumpled remains of his back legs. His numb emotions quickly sprung back to life as the reality of his situation dawned on him. The chase was over, he was too injured to move and it would take too long to heal his legs before the Monster caught him.

A deep cutting sense of fear and self-disappointment flooded his mind, he had come so far, had followed his dream, he had done everything like his momma told him to… momma. The self-disappointment cut deeper as he thought about his mother, about how she had fought to save their home and still let him go out into that same dangerous world just because she trusted in him… no. She didn’t just trust him… she trusted -

“Finally done running kid?” the monster gloated with a sick smile. Sterling, his momma trusted Sterling Flare to teach and take care of him. Instead all he has done is use and abuse us, he killed the only other pony that looked out for him and now he’s going to kill me too. The overhead sun was shining down right behind the monster, making it hard to see his impending death. The silhouette of Sterling’s warhammer slowly rising into the air was an unwanted sight, the sun almost growing brighter and brighter the higher he rose his instrument of murder… wait a second! A familiar warmth started to surround the both of them and the look of heavy confusion on Sterling’s face at the sight of the excited smile that had grown on his face was just the cherry on top.

Because Falling Star’s hero had arrived… and his smile didn’t budge an inch as he watched his hero drop the sun on a Monster.

Author's Note

Here we go...

Chapter 40: Restraint

Glass and stone alike shattered upon my landing, the only thing keeping Aaron away from my flames was the rapidly heating up handle of his warhammer. A mental flick of the wrist sent all of the heat radiating off of me towards the dead man under my hooves, a burst of pure heat sending him flying back into his own spears of glass. I took the moment to turn and check on Falling Star, he was crying. The red film over my eyes grew stronger as I took in his emaciated state, I could almost count every single rib he had and I could easily see that a few were broken. His body was littered with scars and cuts. All his legs were broken but I could see them slowly mending themselves… Aaron did this, he hurt this child… his life is forfeit.

Aaron’s scream of rage fell on uncaring ears, he was in the middle of charging at me. He raised his warhammer and spun on his hooves before digging the end into the ground and swinging it backup launching shards of stone turned to cloudy glass. I didn’t even blink as I conjured up a single pane of Solar imbued Shield magic. The flying spears impacted the glittering white wall with not a crash but a splash as the glass was melted on impact. The flying globules of molten glass quickly froze midair as my influence quickly overcame Aaron’s control over his magic, with the speed and ferocity of a striking viper the melted glass gathered and turned on Aaron. Before he could even stop his charge the molten stream latched onto his legs, my iron clad control didn’t let him fall to the ground as the glass melted his flesh as it cooled on his legs.

The satisfaction of his pained grunts overrode the horrible smell of his burning flesh and hair, Aaron’s eyes met mine with an anger that was almost apocalyptic in nature yet still paled in comparison to rage. From ten feet away I watched Aaron start to open his mouth to start yelling whatever useless threat that was in the back of his throat. With a quick blink I went from ten feet away to almost eye to eye with the dead man, my horn sparked as every element I had control over began to manifest by my rage. Moisture was sucked out of the already dying grass and froze into floating spears of black ice, red lightning began to arc and fizzle off of my horn, balls of pure plasma so hot that they felt cold began to float around us, and my eyes… darker than deepest pits of hell. I am going to make sure not even a single atom remains of this piece of filth, I’ll make sure not even his soul escapes, I’m going to make sure that this spot becomes a monument to this moment, so everyone knows what happens if you hurt the ones under my protection!

Space began to bend and waver around the mass amount of power I was giving off and right when I was about to unleash everything… the world stuttered. It happened so suddenly that it shocked me out of my bloodlust, it was like the world skipped a beat. My mind cleared from my sudden confusion, my black eyes clearing for a moment as I looked around. There… in my elongated shadow… were a pair of eyes. They didn’t look sinister or gave off an evil air, they looked almost… sad. Some familiar words suddenly bubbled up from my memory-

So, choose your enemies wisely, either the evils unknown or the demons you know

Is this what she meant? She wanted me to spare this piece of living garbage?! I felt my rage growing again and I considered killing him anyway, just to spite her… then I really thought about it. None of this made sense, I knew Aaron was a plotting piece of garbage but he hadn’t been overtly evil like this so… what changed? I already know that my goddess can influence time… is there something she wants me to know about now rather than later? Something I can find out about by not killing Aaron? I outwardly snarled as I let the balls of plasma fade and let my shadows return to normal, the floating spears of ice quickly melted back into water but I didn’t let them dissipate. With a flick of my wings I had the water envelop his burned body and freeze him from the neck down. Now that death wasn’t staring him in the eye Aaron had begun screaming again, I didn’t listen to a word he was saying and used some of the water to freeze his jaw shut… and begrudgingly made small holes for him to breath through.

Turning away from the worlds most killable ice cube I focused on someone much more important… Falling Star. He was still smiling and crying, he was trying to say something but it all came out garbled as his tears overcame him. He was in horrible condition, my fear for him only rose as I realized he couldn’t feel his injuries… that does not bode well. I stumbled slightly trying to approach him as I forgot I was merged with Calcifer, falling to wing and knee I leaned over the bawling child and tried to carefully wrap my wings around him… I was shaking. I… don’t know what to do, I’m not prepared I-I don’t want to watch a child slip away, I-I… please don’t die. I held Falling in my wings as we both cried, my eyes were glued to his injuries, to the blood that was beginning to coat both Falling and I. I felt Falling’s heart start to slow which only heightened my crying, my tears falling down on the poor child’s face.

I felt Falling’s heart jump suddenly, beating stronger and stronger. It didn’t take me long to put together what had happened, my tears… phoenix tears. I watched as both my currently crimson magic and what I assume is Falling’s jade green magic both ran over the worst of his injuries. Ruptured arteries mended, shards of bone realigned but didn’t attach, blood was still everywhere but now… now I had a chance. My magic wrapped around Falling and the frozen Aaron and I took to the skies, keeping the failing body of Falling Star close the entire time.

I flew back over Canterlot and blew past four blurs that I assume were David, the two gryphons Nick and Nicolas, and the changeling Webz. I dived back down to the ground and scooped up my bag, the strap had been snapped in my initial takeoff. I had completely fallen into tunnel vision, flying directly to the citadel at the summit. Every part of my mind was focused on Falling, his heart beat (still beating and not slowing), his body temperature (A bit higher due to close proximity to me), General demeanor (Fallen unconscious from trauma). A few other Gryphons flew into the air in an effort to stop me but were quickly swerved sound by Calcifer taking control of steering. Diving down and swinging into the citadel, I blitzed past multiple doors and hallways until I came to a massive main room that was packed with all kinds of things.

Massive stacks of books and boxes, crystal statues and metal display places were tastefully scattered around the edges of the massive ballroom but what took up the most room was the massive purple and green dragon in the middle of the room. My focused state didn’t let me be surprised by the fact that a massive fully grown Spike the dragon was staring wide eyed at me, all I could think was ‘Great, a working set of hands’. Splitting away from Calcifer and dropping Aaron’s prison while I gently cradled Falling with my magic.

“Spike, I need a book on medical anatomy, Super naturals: a guide to natural remedies that are really super, some towels, a medical sewing kit, some more water, as many medical herbs as you can carry, and some gems, quickly!” My sudden entrance along with my immediate gamut of orders seemed to almost trigger something in the massive dragon as he flinched at my words and almost scrambled to quickly follow them with a rumbling “ Yes, Twilight!” following after before turning and crawling down one of the larger passages

I dropped my bag and let everything spill out of it. I skipped my cauldron across the tiled floor and let it stop in the air before letting a fire appear in the air underneath it. The water in my canteen burst out, shredding the canteen itself in the process and split into two bubbles of water. One bubble went in the cauldron while the other I added a dose of the Tincture of Satiety I had made earlier. The blob of water quickly turned a light brown as the tincture took effect, Falling’s body is almost too weak to support any magical healing right now. While not a long term solution I can use the tincture of satiety to give his body the nutrients it needs to heal enough to be stable. I slowly funneled the potion into Falling’s mouth while I rubbed his neck to make him swallow, I could visibly see a change as the potion took effect. His breathing evening out, the minute shivering he had slowed to a stop , even the imprint of his ribs disappearing as he gained a bit of temporary weight.

I let the air around Falling warm slightly to make him more comfortable while I turned my attention to the now boiling water in my cauldron, I began feeding in my mana while I snatched my book of rituals off of the ground to start searching for a way to make a diagnostic spell of some kind. I don’t believe for a second that this is the last of his issues, a rumbling in the floor signaled me that Spike had returned. I only sent a quick glance at the now confused dragon before focusing on the crate in his hand, he didn’t ask any questions or anything. He just sat the me-sized crate down on the ground next to me, Spike’s size gave new meaning to how I viewed his previous greed growth. His body was much more serpentine along with his wings wrapped around him, though I wouldn’t doubt the large amount of muscle in him.

I dug the towels, the sewing kit, and the book on anatomy out of the crate and sat Falling down on one of the towels. The tincture must have jump started his magic as I could see the same jade magic trying to pull his leg wounds closed, that can’t happen with those bone shards still in there. I turned back to the crate and pulled out a basket of medical herbs Spike had brought along with the SuperNaturals book. Using the book I identified a stringy herb called Yellow Yarrow that worked as both an analgesic and an anesthetic. Ripping it up and turning it into a yellow-green goo I began to rub it on the edges of Falling’s wounds, I waited a moment to let it take effect before slowly pulling open the self closing injuries. I watched for any discomfort on Falling’s face and was both relieved and worried to find none. I really hope he doesn’t have any nerve damage or anything, I started to pick out any bone shards that weren’t realigned. After straightening the first leg out I reached over to the sewing kit and paused… I don’t know how to sew!

Spik-! Oh, thank you… “ Before I even finished asking, two of Spike’s large claws were there with a guide to sewing gently pinned between them. I opened the guide and quickly followed along to the diagrams for a nice clean stitch. It was much easier using magic than actual hands, I would have been shaking the whole time. I switched back to the SuperNaturals book and grabbed a few complimenting herbs that were primarily used for healing, heart’s desire, Cornell’s Ear, Miner’s Delight, Mother’s worry. I ground them up and threw them into the magically imbued boiling water and let it stir on its own using my Hydrokinesis. I spent the rest of the time numbing the rest of Falling's legs, cleaning them up, straightening them, then sewing them up. I did turn to Spike to ask for some bandages but he was already there again with some in claw, I loosely wrapped all of Falling’s legs, his ear that looked really irritated and made a cold compress for his ribs using some ice. I fed him another dose of the tincture of Satiety just in case so he has enough nutrients in his body to begin healing.

Crafting Complete!

Tincture of Healing: A magical potion made with the intention of saving lives, filled with healing medicine and magical energy, this concentrated syrup is just what you need to get you back on your hooves when you’re in a bad way!

Can be consumed orally or applied directly to affected area

Must be diluted in water before consumption

Rarity: 7/10 stars (+1 for complementing Ingredients)

Has heightened effect on bones due to ingredients used

4/4 Doses remaining

Right on time, Turning away from Falling for a moment I pulled a small basin of water out of the crate and sat it down next to my floating cauldron. Letting the fire under it dissipate and scooping a dose of the healing tincture into the basin, I slowly stirred the basin and watched it change to a cherry red color. Dipping my other towel into the potion basin and wringing it out slightly I started to gently rub the towel on the surface of the bandages. The bandages quickly absorbed the potion and I watched the irritated skin under his fur dissipate, a few scabs had started to grow as well. I let a relieved smile finally grow on my face as I slowly used my hydrokinesis to drip feed the healing potion into Falling’s mouth. The few bruises that I could see through his fur disappeared first, his breathing relaxed into true sleep. I did it… He’s stable now. I continued to wash the blood out of his fur while I thought about Falling’s condition.

While he’s stable now, he won’t be for long. I need to get some food into him and get him off the tinctures of satiety. There’s still the fact that his body might not be able to handle much more magic right now… I don’t know how exactly but I can feel just how damaged his magical pathways are. His body might reject any magic more intense than my potions, I don’t know how it’ll reject them but it won’t be pretty. About half of the healing potion had been fed into him at this point, this should be enough until I get some real food into him. Maybe I could put a few doses of healing and satiety into his means to encourage his recovery. He’s going to be really weak during recovery I can already tell, his legs won’t be able to carry him and his natural earth pony strength won’t be working… it’ll be a difficult time for him- “Ehem?”

Oh… it seems I've gathered a bit of an audience during my sudden surgery. I turned around to see a crowd of feathery Gryphons, multiple types of Diamond dogs, A bunch of colorful Changelings, and an oddly nostalgic looking Spike the Dragon.

“Uh… Hello everybody… “ I awkwardly went to wave and just remembered… I am covered in blood.

Author's Note

Oh My Me!, He actually listened to me!

Chapter 41: Lucky's First Steps

The following days had been kind to Lucky Harvest, after joining up with one of the more competent teams from Arcane Hope’s tribe. Southtown had grown rapidly with massive increase to the economy and had just as quickly integrated the new guild. The amount of quests available started small at first with a few packs of timberwolves here and there, the occasional search and rescue, a few map updating quests. While they all did give quite a few bits, none gave her the challenge that she was searching for. The largest threats so far had been the timber wolves and they were quickly defeated by the spear Arcane Hope had gifted her, though it still irks her to no end on how much she relies on the gift. Her skill with the spear was slow to grow but she can feel herself getting stronger, times where she didn’t need his gift to survive.

She hadn’t made a mistake in going along with the odd group that had invited her to a quest, the only reason she made this much progress this quickly was because they were there to watch her back. Personally, Lucky Harvest thought it was rude to have a favorite ally but she can’t help the fondness she has for River Creek, that mare is quite possibly the only reason Lucky hadn’t roasted that blathering fool Dark Root. The only thing going for him would be that he’s a half decent swordspony… at least when he’s not talking. His brother Hollow Root is… quiet obviously but in an upbeat way that makes one more comfortable to be loud for him (if that makes any sense). It was actually Hollow Root that helped her make up her mind about what her next step would be. Typically there would be five of us but Slipstream had taken to helping out the local farms with water every once in a while.

“You’re Leaving!?” River Creek’s almost heartbroken voice echoed out across the plains that all of us were resting in, though my expression didn’t change I still felt slightly guilty for springing this on River like this. She knew that if she didn’t wait until the last second then River would find a reason for her to stay… She’s clever like that. We had just finished mapping out the mountain foothills nearby and were taking a break before we made the final trek back to Southtown. I had a bad habit of cleaning Arcane’s gift whenever I was nervous so I was hyper aware of my hoof gripping my spear.

“Yes… I am certain that I am ready to prove myself to Arcane Hope’s party, I was not strong enough before and relied far too much on his gift. But that’s different now, thanks to all of your support now I can stand on my own four hooves. I hope that, even if I do not see you four again for quite some time, that I may still call you friends… “ A small hopeful smile grew on my face as I waited for their response, a sudden sorrowful sniffle pulled my attention. Dark Root had turned away from us all and was trying to play off his emotions as a scoff, I may not completely understand what he’s talking about most of the time but I am able to pick up that he’s just as bad at showing his emotions as I am.

“O-of course! It was o-obvious that a powerful D-dragoon such as yourself would want to further your skills, but you are a thousand years too early to think you have a chance of being more powerful than me!” After a halting start Dark Root finished off his version of an encouraging farewell with a dramatic mane flip. A deep part of me was still confused as to why I would miss his odd antics, but I disregarded that confusion and accepted his words with a nod. Hollow Root was looking at me with the same sad yet understanding smile, he’s a good stallion but it hurt to be around him for too long… he reminded me too much of my father… it's the eyes, so kind. River looked like she had a lot more to say, her eyes darting left and right searching for what to say until her eyes lit up with realization.

“Okay Lucky; We understand you want to go find Arcane Hope and we support you all the way, but at least let us throw you a farewell party!” River’s suddenly excited visage caught me off guard, I was ready for sadness not the direct opposite. I didn't see any issues with a party, the time we spent together should be celebrated after all.

“Very well, I see no harm in a party. Though I would like to say that I’m not the largest fan of cakes” My acceptance seemed to lift a weight off of their shoulders, so we decided to get back on the road after another hour of talking. We spoke about what routes I plan to take to reach Arcane Hope’s party, I know that he was heading to the Ruined Mountain and thankfully I was able to find out that his team took a detour to a trade town that's on the way, that means I should be able to catch up if I take a direct route to the mountain. If she’s lucky (and she is) then she should be able to catch them before they leave Mt. Canter.

There weren’t many threats on the way back to Southtown, there was a tense moment when we wandered too close to a few mound lurkers but thankfully no fight broke out. I don’t wish for senseless violence, the creatures that live in the wild usually have no reason to hurt travelers. The familiar weight of my spear strapped to my side brought me comfort in my decision, of course I was sad to say goodbye to my friends but I was also excited to progress on the goal I had set for myself! I was proud of my growth, however minuscule, my spear had changed quite a bit from the homemade version Arcane Originally made for me. Thankfully his gift wasn’t restricted to the whole spear and was housed in the coupling that connected the spearhead to the pole. I was thankfully able to buy a proper spear then have the coupling installed onto the end to transfer the gift. I quite liked my new spear, it was a proper polearm with a longer sweeping curved blade. At first it had a standard pike end to it like most spears, but it didn’t mesh well with my growing fighting style.

I will never admit that I actually used an idea from that nonsensical stallion Dark Root, but I cannot deny its effectiveness. It was during one of his longer soliloquies after a fight with a pack of timber wolves that I actually interrupted him and asked what exactly a ‘Dragoon’ was. There was of course quite a bit that I didn’t understand but the general idea was still conveyed, a spear user that focused on their jumping ability to impale their enemies and had control over a variety of other elements. There was no end to my annoyance about how much his idea helped her fighting style, I still need to work on my jumping.

Rocky hills and rolling fields quickly gave way to dirt roads and tent cities, Southtown was currently going through another population boom and ponies were scrambling to accommodate them all. Apparently the trade town that Arcane Hope had traveled to was under the control of some kind of massive monster and they were liberated by his team. More and More ponies are beginning to realize the greatness of Arcane Hope and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of second hoof pride, soon I will be there next to him helping ponies in need. I felt my cheeks begin to warm at the thought of fighting by his side and shook myself and refocused.

There were nights where River Creek tried to convince me that Arcane Hope might not want me to join him but I quickly refuted her claims. Back during that bloody night Hope had given me a chance to fight instead of making her flee with the other. He took the time to create a magical weapon just for her, he had seen something in her. A fire that was still there even as she was reeling from the death of her father. He gave me a reason to keep going, we were connected now by blood and fire and magic. I feel it deep in my heart that my destiny was by his side, any argument River Creek had fell apart after were that.

I pulled myself out of my memories as we reached the temporary guildhall that was operating out of a tavern to turn in the updated map of the foothills. The old mare in charge of the information desk gave us a proud smile and happily gave us our pay, 50 bits. Split equally between all of us would be ten bits to each of us with the extra ten bits going towards the planned going away party. It was at this point that River grabbed both Dark and Hollow Root and said that they would meet back up with me in a few hours before running out, leaving me with a highly amused old mare.

I didn’t have much to do in the way of packing as I had been ready to leave at any time so I didn’t have an excuse to delay. I decided to go window shopping, with how quickly Southtown had been growing the kinds of wares stores were selling changed on the daily. I debated on whether or not to train with my spear to pass the time but decided against it, I didn’t want to begin my journey tired. I slipped back out the main entrance of Southtown and trotted over to the makeshift marketplace made of tents and carts. Traveling merchants always have the most interesting stock, it was here that I found my new spear. The day was already winding down so most of the more interesting merchants had already packed up and only the more casual ones were still open.

The sun quickly started its descent to the horizon and I took that as a sign to start heading back to the usual inn I stayed in with the others. I didn’t buy anything but it was nice to gaze at all the odd baubles that could have come from anywhere across the world, a small smile grew on my face as I realized that I could go visit those places. Our usual inn was much more upscale than the one we all met in, there wasn’t a tavern on the first floor but a true diner that was run by a very nice couple of pegasi. The couple claimed they had moved here from roaming mountain Suntop but I was doubtful. I didn’t even reach our shared rooms before a pop went off and a puff of confetti and glitter rained down into my mane… that’s going to be annoying to get out later.

“Surprise!” A cacophony of voices rang throughout the dining area where I saw all of my friends standing around a white frosted cake with the words ‘see you soon!’ written on it in blue frosting. Even Slipstream was here, they must have caught him up on my plans, the warm glow in my chest that was fondness began to grow. I tried to make my expression show how much I appreciated this but all I could muster was a slight grin. I approached the table where they were standing and was about to thank them for the party until I noticed something that rendered me speechless. All of their bags were packed and ready to go, River seemed to pick up on me noticing and let her smile grow a bit more sly.

“Did you really think we would just let you leave just like that, no no no no no. It’s not gonna be that easy to get rid of us.” River punctuated her declaration by trotting around the table and parking herself next to me. Slipstream mirrored her on my other side and threw a hoof over my shoulder. “We may not be strong enough to join Arcane with you but we can definitely make sure you get there safely and who knows… maybe we’ll be ready by the time we get there” I-I didn’t know what to say, their support was something incredible. Everypony was caught off guard by my small sniffles, I knew my face didn’t match the few tears running down my muzzle. Stone faced but with red eyes, but I didn’t care, I was happy I had more ponies who cared about me.

“T-thank you all, Arcane Hope will have no choice but to accept us!”

Author's Note

A few more variables to help tip the scales in our favor

Chapter 42: Everything All At Once

The tense silence that filled the large room was stifling and my awkward wave didn’t help in any way whatsoever. Falling Star’s breathing had evened out and he was peacefully sleeping, Aaron on the other hoof was still struggling against his ice and glass prison… I'm gonna have to heal him too, don't I sigh. Seeing that no one was going to be speaking any time soon I took my time looking over the other players. The gryphon players were all different in slightly different ways, some had the usual eagle heads and lion bodies while others had different types of birds. I saw one with the head of a cockatiel near the back, a few others had a slightly different lower half. Mostly different kinds of large cats like pumas and tigers, the most eye-catching one was a half parrot half bengal tiger. My gaze switched over to the multitudes of diamond dogs, a few flinched as my eyes passed over them.

A few resembled the diamond dogs from the show, hunched over bipedal dogs, while others stood taller and were much more humanoid. The taller more humanoid diamond dogs lacked the same strong paws as their hunched counterparts and instead had longer hooked claws, like an odd mix between a diamond dog and a monkey. There were many different breeds of dogs that I honestly couldn’t identify, I did recognise a few different types like german shepard and a chihuahua. The chihuahua one was odd to look at because they weren't tiny like the actual dog but were actually pretty tall… they were pretty uncanny to look at. There were changelings sprinkled throughout the mob and had a variety of forms and differences, most kept with the dark chitinous theme while others went with the colorful mismatched animal look.

Everyone here was armed in some way, various swords , knives, spears, and axes were sprinkled here and there. A few weapons were in claw or hoof/magic but thankfully none were aimed in my direction, though many were held in a tense grip. I took a moment to start gathering up everything I had spilled in my rush to stabilize Falling Star. A few players in the tense crowd flinched when my magic activated but relaxed again when they saw I was just cleaning up. The sound of a low rumbling chuckle pulled my attention up to Spike who I forgot was watching the whole thing. I was about to ask what was so funny when the sound of hooves and wings rapidly approaching cut me off and stole my attention. A gust of wind followed behind David and Morgana as they rounded the last corner and caught sight of me. The two rushed into the room and the moment they crossed the threshold they stopped on a dime. I watched with concern as both David and Morgana’s fur began to stand on end. The looks the two were sending me were concerning and… familiar.

“Markus… your control is slipping… “ David’s strained voice quickly pulled me from the emotionally gray zone I was floating in. Ah…so that’s what's wrong, I refocused myself and pulled my sphere of influence back into myself… I really need to find out what the deal is with this thing. I could see the relief that burst from everyone as my sphere of influence was pulled from over them, they looked like a large weight had been pulled from them and they could finally breathe. I felt pretty bad for not noticing it earlier, the strain on everyone’s face was obvious now. The slight tremble in a few while others seemed to be physically exhausted, another rumbling chuckle from Spike didn’t make me feel better… Now that I'm paying attention again, I have so many questions for that dragon. The crowd of players parted easily for David and Morgana and they gazed at them with a similar look of trepidation that I felt responsible for… so much for first impressions. The two ignored the other players and focused on the newly bandaged Falling Star at my side, Morgana’s expression turned almost pained when she saw Falling while David’s turned almost vengeful when he realized why Aaron was restrained. Speaking of Aaron, he was still wriggling in his cold restraints and had an almost feral look in his eye that was actually starting to concern me.

“I should probably do something about him huh… “ A few of the diamond dog players edged away from Aaron and his thrashing, I almost didn’t notice Morgana approaching him and with a swift flick of her hoof… knocked him out cold.

“There!... fixed!” The proud smile she sent me startled a laugh out of me, after such a tense situation my emotions were a bit frayed. The tension in the room gradually dissipated and a few players stepped forward, a player from each race. A gryphon, two changelings (one with the black carapace and the other a hodgepodge of animal parts) , and two diamond dogs (one tall and one short). David and Morgana had joined my side and I was in the middle of gently putting Falling Star on my back, thankfully he was still sleeping peacefully.

“Well that was… a thing, nice to meet you three!” The first to speak was the black changeling, his voice was upbeat and held a bit of bass to it. The others nodded in agreement while I wondered internally what I should be feeling, on one hoof I might have ruined our first impression, on the other… I didn’t care about that more than I cared about saving a kid's life. Speaking of first impressions, I just remembered that I was covered in blood and ash, I quickly wrapped myself in my mana and used the cleaning spell. I would take the smell of burnt mana over the cloying coppery smell of blood.

The group before me flinched at my casual use of magic and blinked at me for a moment to take in my sudden cleanliness. The cleaning spell removed the blood on my hooves and the ash on my coat but left the swirling burned filigree on my cloak. As much as I like the design, the cloak isn’t going to last long if I keep burning swirls into it.

“We’re glad you were able to make it, you’re a bit earlier than we expected. We thought the pony players would have the most trouble getting here, but you beat the other player species” I perked up at his mention of other species, I guess there were more choices beyond ponies, gryphons, diamond dogs, and changelings. “There’s still two more groups we’re expecting within the next few days and I bet you three want some rest after such an… eventful day. There are plenty of open buildings around so you can just claim one, let’s try and get along and figure this all out!” He talks like a camp counselor, extremely upbeat and happy and trying really hard to make me like him. The other players around him smiled awkwardly and nodded along to his words.

I felt like something was off with this group but I didn’t want to waste anymore time, I needed to get Falling Star somewhere to rest. Then I need to talk to Spike about everything, hopefully we can find out what is going on with Equestria. I put an amicable smile on my face and gave a thankful nod, I didn’t say anything. Being able to stay in one place, even for only a few days, will give me the chance to increase my skills immensely. My lack of response seemed to end the conversation, thankfully I didn’t have anything to ask. The changeling player (who didn’t offer his name… ) didn’t seem to be a leader of all the players here, all the players here seem to run off a fairly democratic system. No one other than the clique that just spoke to us had stayed around to speak with us, I readjusted Falling on my back and turned to David and Morgana.

“Do you two want to find a house for us while I talk to Spike or do you want to stay?” Both of them paused at my words and for a moment David looked like he considered finding us a place. I remember David telling us that he doesn’t know all that much about mlp so he’s probably thinking he wouldn’t be able to contribute much to the conversation. A moment of thought later David said he would stay with us, much to my surprise. Morgana grabbed my bag off of the ground and we started trotting our way over to the massive dragon that was patiently waiting for us.

“Sorry for taking so long” My apology only made Spike’s grin grow larger, something tells me that he’s enjoying having so many people around. After confirming that we weren’t a threat the rest of the players quickly left the large atrium, leaving just the three of us and Spike. Spike leaned down to make it easier to speak to us, I heard Morgana let out a small awed gasp next to me.

“Before you ask anything, let me say that your fellow humans already filled me in on what’s happening. This is something straight out of the comics I used to read, I don’t know what’s going on with the whole ‘interface’ thing but I can tell you what going on with Equestria as a whole” Spike’s voice came out as a pleasant rumble that resonated in my chest, I was slightly disappointed that he couldn’t tell us about the system but I kinda expected that. I think the only ones who could really tell us about it would be my Goddess and… The Book of Hours. A shiver ran down my spine simply from thinking that name, that’s gonna get annoying if that's gonna happen every time I think of their name.

“Well since you probably told this story a bunch of times already, can you give us a summarized version of why Equestria is… Bucked?” Morgana held in a wince at her last substituted swear word and glanced around and waited for anything to happen. The silence stretched for about ten seconds before Morgana let out a relieved sigh. Spike shuffled for a moment and got comfortable on the ground, crossing his claws and resting his head on the floor before us so we could look him in the eye.

“I’ve gotten pretty good at telling this story now and there’s no need to summarize it as it isn’t all that long in the first place. Everything I know is second hand from people or from… Twilight” Spike’s pleasant expression dropped for a moment and a deep sadness seemed to reveal itself, a hard blink removed that darkness from his eyes and he was back to his pleasant self though that doesn’t change the fact that we all saw his facade drop for a moment. How long has he been alone up here, something tells me he didn’t just outlive his friends.

“I know that everything went wrong on the day of Twilight’s official coronation. Celestia and Luna had officially announced their retirement and wanted to hoof the throne down to Twilight. It didn’t happen during the actual coronation but during the banquet afterwards, the party was so fun and personally I think it was Pinkie’s best work… I miss Pinkie. Our first warning was the quiet, a sound we all had grown so used to that it had become part of our lives. Pinkie had disappeared… poof… gone. Disappeared into thin air, the dress she was wearing was all that was left behind. Then Applejack disappeared right before our eyes, didn’t even blink but she was there one moment gone the next. I was holding Rarity when she disappeared, my claws still remember what her coat feels like” Spike paused for a moment as he stared over at his claws for a moment, the calm and pleasant mask dropped as the age-old anguish showed clearly on his face.

“Rainbow Dash was comforting Fluttershy when they disappeared, I'm glad they got to go together. Celestia and Luna were in the middle of coordinating with the guards when they vanished. Everypony was panicking at that point and trying to evacuate but something or someone had trapped the castle in a barrier, even Shining Armor couldn’t break through. Twilight was the only one left who hadn’t disappeared and was trying to calm everypony down to try and fix everything… I was too busy crying over Rarity to notice what happened next” Spike’s claws gripped tightly into balls, I could hear his scales creaking from the pressure. “A group of ponies had entered the barrier and nopony noticed them. They waltzed right up to Twilight and… apologized. They apologized for the inconvenience and said that this needed to happen for the greater good… then they made her disappear as well. Just like that everyone I loved was gone and I was alone, that hurt more than any pain I could ever experience. It even hurt more than what happened next, those ponies called out to something. Something that I can only describe as wrong yet familiar” I watched as Spike the full grown dragon shivered in fear at the memory of something horrible.

“It doesn’t matter what it was, what does matter is that it’s strong enough to burn a hole through Mt.Canter and disintegrate Canterlot castle. I really did think I was about to die that day and the only reason why I'm not dead is because the last creature I would ever expect saved not only my life but every pony trapped in the castle… Discord” A somber smile slowly grew on Spike’s face. “ Of course he couldn’t save all of me” Spike gestured to his back and quickly clued us in that he had lost his wings in the blast.

“Apparently we weren’t the first to be hit and Discord had just come back from the Crystal Empire and saved it the only way he could. He sealed the Empire again so it could avoid total destruction, I always knew Discord was powerful but… not that powerful. Saving all of us, Sealing the Empire… trying to help us was killing him. He didn’t tell me much, he just said he wished he hung out with me more. I think I blacked out at that point or maybe he knocked me out, I really don’t know. I do know what he did after though, Discord has messed with time before but not to this extent. He sent us far into the future, far enough that the world would have recovered from whatever that thing had done to it. The effort killed him… We built him a statue in his honor, I made sure everypony knew he was a hero” The bomb that Spike dropped left us stunned, Discord was dead and then there’s the unsettling idea that the group of ponies behind all of this might have been the Book of Hours. I stopped the shiver from running down my spine by refocusing on Spike who had taken the lull as an opportunity to grab a nearby reservoir of water to take a drink.

“Would you believe that whatever happened in the past nearly wiped out all life off the planet, everything and everyone that survived was so much more… violent. Even the ponies that survived had an edge to them now, we tried to rebuild as you can see… we didn’t last long. Everyone except for me left, Candace and Shining left for the frozen north to wait for the Crystal Empire to reappear and I haven't seen them since. Pinkie’s sister Maud and Trixie stayed for a while but eventually the both of them moved on, everyone was growing older. Months were turning into years and soon I was the only one searching for a way to get them back. It wasn’t until a few months before all of you players appeared that I found my first real hint that I could fix everything” Spike’s story had us completely enraptured and he knew it, a spark of joy was growing in his eyes as he spoke about his clue. We all were leaning closer as Spike paused before his big reveal.

“...The Sun and Moon…” His words made the three of us pause in confusion for a moment. The sun and moon…? What does he mean by… wait. Who is moving the sun and moon?

“At first I thought Candance was moving them but she told me early on that she didn’t know how to move them, the only ponies that can move the sun and moon are Alicorns or an equivalent of one and even then it’s still a difficult feat of magic. It took quite a bit of time but I followed that magic back to its source… The Tree of Harmony… or the spot it used to be at least. After all this time and the weathering the calamity that rocked Equestria the tree kinda… went berserk. Now the Everfree is now the Prismatic Forest that borders the Greenlands… which used to be the Badlands” The sudden name drops had us blinking in confusion… the Greenlands? Prismatic Forest? This really is a whole different world, Spike waved his claw to disregard that part and continued on.

“Anyway, in the center of the Prismatic Forest are three special crystals. I could tell what they were at first glance, Celestia, Luna, and Rarity! Or atleast parts of them. This is what I’ve been asking every player that speaks to me but I want to ask you three in particular. Will you help me bring back my family… they’re out there in pieces, waiting to be found and put back together” I was drowning in the revelation, the main characters were alive and could be brought back! “Now before you say anything… let me say that I know for a fact that you three in particular can do this.” The absolute certainty in Spike’s voice caught me off guard. What about us gives him that much confidence? Something inside me quivered, some part of me was incredibly nervous for some reason.

“Why… What about us makes you so confident?” I didn’t even consider that I was being incredibly rude by asking that, but whatever feelings I had were shut down by the elated smile on Spike’s face.

“It’s because you already have a piece of Twilight with you”

Author's Note

I'm so sorry Spike... but I'm not Twilight anymore

Chapter 43: Discussion

Author's Note

Actual Author's Note (No Plot Here)
Mini Chap
College is starting back up and I wanted to get something out before getting swamped with homework.
A lot of talking this chapter, don't worry story will progress in the following chapters.

Chapter 43: Discussion

Spike’s reveal rattled me, it rattled me much more than I would like, and I think everyone could tell. Spike quickly wrapped up his story after we agreed to help and let us go find a place to stay. I was almost completely despondent as David and Morgana guided me to whatever home they chose. I didn’t know how to feel, should I feel betrayed? The one who is trapping me here in Equestria is apparently Twilight Sparkle the Princess of Friendship? Something chimed again in the back of my mind, I ignored it easily. ‘Twilight’ was apparently trying to speak to me, but I didn’t want to speak to her right now. I zoned back in and found myself standing at the bottom of some stairs. David had found a house that was built over an abandoned shop, at one time it would have even been nice looking. I wasn’t paying much attention to my surroundings as I entered, I just went straight to the bedroom and made sure Falling was comfortable in bed.

Falling Star was still sleeping soundly, and his magic had finally settled down which was a good sign. That means there aren’t any more major injuries left and that he just needs to recover his energy. He’s going to be starving once he wakes up. I don’t want to make him sick with solid foods, so he’ll be on a soup and broth only diet for a while. I tucked the kid in and returned to the living room, there was a screen door that led out to a balcony with a couple chairs. David and Morgana were waiting for me out there sitting on some old cushions, Calcifer perched on the stone railing.

“So… what next?” David’s question broke the silence first and I mentally thanked him for that, I didn’t know how to start the conversation. I forced my tensed shoulders to relax as I thought about what to say. I knew the conversation with ‘Twilight ’ was inevitable, but it could still wait a bit, thanks to Spike we now had an overarching goal. I also needed to find out what’s going on with Aaron which I will most likely need Twilight’s help for. Before we left the castle, we had made extra sure that Aaron wouldn’t be escaping… then we chucked him into a dusty broom closet. The guy was encased in solid granite by Morgana, then I imbued those rocks with Astral magic that would detonate if he tried to escape, then David perched a thundercloud over his head just in case. It didn’t feel like overkill at the time, and it still doesn’t now. I let out an audible sigh and responded.

“Do you two want to make something to eat? I need to have a chat with somebody” I might as well get this conversation over with before I try and put it off any longer. David and Morgana gave each other a look I couldn’t decipher before nodding their assent to me and heading back inside to try and throw something together in the barebones kitchenette. I moved over and started to idly pet Calcifer’s warm feathers, he sent calming emotions down our bond while telling me to try and keep an open mind. I sent back my thanks and got myself comfortable on the cushions David and Morgana left.

“I’m ready to talk now…Twilight” my voice echoed out further than natural as the familiar prickle of mana started to gather around me. It seems Twilight opted to not stop time during our talk, I felt another presence slide into my mind alongside Calcifer’s bond.

Thank you for hearing me out

Being petty or angry won’t get me anywhere right now, so how would you like to start? Want us to ask questions or do you want to just start at the beginning?

…

Don’t be so hesitant now, if this is as big as I’m assuming it is then we need to be able to trust each other. No more secrets, no more machinations running in the background, no more exacting prices out of me. If we’re going to be in this together then we both need to be on the same page, if there are some things you can’t tell me then say so. I remember you mentioning the timeline at one point which means you know the future to some extent and you’re trying to guide us in a certain direction.

You’re right, there are some things I cannot simply tell you and I thank you for understanding that. Maybe… it would be for the best if I simply started with the small things.

First and foremost is my true identity, I haven’t been Twilight Sparkle for a very long time. I was born from the shattered mind and essence of two beings, Twilight Sparkle and the Element of Magic. The element of magic tried to protect its wielder but was only to hold onto most of the shards that made up her existence.

Without its wielder the element was mostly powerless so it did the only thing it could to save her… it absorbed her. The element of magic was never meant to house a living mind inside of it, it had become more… I had become more. Neither Twilight Sparkle nor Element of Magic, I had become something… new. I floated around for a few generations just following the scattered memories of Twilight and following the element’s instincts.

I think it was around the time Canterlot was rebuilt that I bonded with my first host, she’s in here too. She didn’t want to leave me alone… so she decided to become part of me. That’s how it went for the following century, finding new partners to bond with then growing stronger. Some were heroes, some were villains, some were farmers. I don’t remember exactly when I became what I am today, but I do remember the exact moment when I found out what I needed to do. I needed to track down that group, The Book of Hours.

The sudden vitriol in their otherwise melancholy voice caught me off guard. So, it’s revenge you’re after? And what about the other elements?

While I can tell you that there are others like me, I can’t tell you where they are. That is something you need to find out on your own and no I do not wish to find this group for revenge. As much as I claim that I am no longer Twilight, she still holds sway over a large part of my personality. There are some parts of me that can’t tell where I begin and Twilight ends. I cannot bring myself to hate them, If possible I wish to befriend some of them. Moving on, I wish not for revenge but for knowledge, for understanding. I want to understand why and how they did what they did. It’s why I granted you ritual magic, all of the Chapters are well versed in the art. Of course there are parts of my story that I omitted but it conveyed what I needed to.

I was reeling from that infodump of a story and was still trying to parse through it all before a thought occurred to me. Is that why you have me extract Ozymandias’ soul instead of just straight up killing him? You wanted to take his knowledge?

Essentially yes, except for the fact that the poor creature was completely mad. His mind is a swirling quagmire of half formed thoughts and damaged memories. This is actually a good lead in for why I had you become a witch-

Actually yeah, why did you make me become a witch? Aren’t witches supposed to be female, wouldn’t I be a warlock or something? I felt a little bad cutting off twi- the spirit?

-Actually a very interesting historical fact is that the misconception of the gender differences between witches and warlocks come from the ‘Harry Potter’ series and has no actual basis in magic. Warlocks lean more towards summoning creatures to fight for them and making pacts with stronger magical beings to gain strength. A good hint to this is the ‘War-’ part of the name Warlock as most Warlocks thrive most in combat. Witches are a much more broad topic that can actually do just as much if not more than Warlocks. Though Warlocks can get much more powerful in a short amount of time while it takes Witches a long time to become formidable opponents through combat alone.

I swear I could hear Twilight talking as the spirit lectured at me, somewhere in that resonating voice was definitely Twilight. This is all very interesting and I am definitely going to ask more about it later, preferably when I actually have a notebook or something on me.

Ah yes… I may have gotten a bit carried away. It’s been quite a while since I’ve taught anyone, I guess I missed it. I made you a witch because combined with your natural affinity with magic and power of ritual magic I am almost certain that we can unravel every mystery we come across, magical or otherwise. Witches are steeped in understanding and knowledge which means with enough time and experimentation we could find answers to anything… even a way to get you home.

That made me pause, I thought you didn’t want me to leave Equestria. I didn’t want to hope, suddenly having the option to go home was… it lifted a heavy feeling in my chest that I didn’t know was there.

In the beginning I intended to just wait until your usefulness ran out then move on… then everything started to fall into place. Something is in motion, I can’t tell you what it is exactly, but I can tell you it’s good, very good.

Ch 44: Recovery and Crafting

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Ch 45: Time Passing Pt.1

Chapter 45: Time Passing

Day 2:

Falling was getting stronger, his breathing was smoothing out, his magic was fluctuating less and less. It’ll only be a matter of time before he has enough energy to stay awake, thankfully he hasn’t had any nightmares since my lion took to comforting him. Today is the day David and Morgana are going to go out and forage for herbs and ingredients. I wanted to go as well but Morgana made a good point and said I should stay with Falling in case he needs me. I asked if she could keep an eye out for any healing herbs while she’s out, which she agreed to. Calcifer wanted to explore the city a bit more now that we’re not pressed for time. I warned him to be careful around the other players but let him fly off. I'm glad he’s beginning to enjoy his new freedom. Aaron’s ritual will be later on in the day so I'm free to practice my magic for a few hours before I have to head over to Spike’s citadel and set up the ritual of open soul.

Morgana wasn’t around to help me figure out Earth magic so I decided to just power level my lower level skills. A few sparks and volts arced out from my horn as I kept a constant charge running through it, maybe I could head out to the destroyed part of the city and use the rubble for target practice. That idea was quickly nixed in my mind, I was still worried about Falling. Even though he’s out of danger now I don’t want to leave him alone and bringing him with me while he’s weak isn’t a good idea.

Lightbulb! I do have a few skills that I could level without it being too destructive, I stood from the old ratty couch and turned my horn on it. With a flash of magic the old, dusty couch was now completely clean. Now would be the perfect time to level my cleaning skill and figure out how to change the spent mana smell. I kept a ball of lightning floating nearby to help level my lighting magic while I cleaned. The floors were odd to clean as my magic didn’t fix the various cracks and scuffs on the old wood flooring, but at least they were nice and shiny again. The cleaning spell worked the best on the old ratty curtains that were hanging next to the balcony window, the curtains went from dark gray to white. They still had moth holes here and there but still the living room was looking much better. The smell was really digging into my nose though, I propped all the windows open to let the breeze through. This is the perfect time to figure out wind magic!

I let the lightning ball dissipate and focused, I was extremely sensitive to the clean winds that came through the window. The contrast between the spent mana in the air and the clean air was even more apparent once I started to slowly leak my mana into the air. I spread the silver aura out in a wide net and let it get carried away with the wind, memorizing the feeling of the air moving. Once the wind began to wane I started to move my mana, continuing the weaving and swirling pattern the wind was making. I whirled the artificial wind around the room, pushing the spent mana smell around and out of the room.

Adept Wind Magic: Grants a semblance of control over the vital element of air, the wind is the element of freedom and dislikes being told what to do. One must dance and play with the wind, not command it.

Skill Level 5: 0.00%

Cost: 1 Sp

I smiled at the notification, that’s one more element down and only one more to go. The silver gale glowing around the room began to settle as the smell of spent mana fully disappeared, The sound of an awed gasp from behind me broke me from my focus. I whipped around and saw Falling Star slowly limping into the room being supported by my lion. I had a couple of conflicting feelings about this. My first and loudest would be happiness that Falling was awake and walking around! The second and much more reasonable voice said he really shouldn’t be walking around yet, the third voice was just Calcifer celebrating in my mind.

In a blink of an eye I was next to Falling and lifting him up, I didn't know how his internal magic would react to my levitation so I just used my hooves. “What are you doing out of bed, you still need rest, are you sore anywhere? Are you hungry? Let me get you something to eat” The whole time while I'm asking my questions I'm lifting Falling and putting him on the back of my lion, who held perfectly still so Falling could get comfortable on their back. I looked back up at Falling’s face after checking his bandages and froze at what I saw, he was crying.

“You saved me… I knew you would save m-me” His words trembled as he tried to hold back a sob. I leaned over and gave him a hug, his hooves immediately wrapping around my neck and his muzzle coming to rest in my hair. Neither of us spoke for a while, after his breathing started to even out I started to walk us back to his room. Transferring him over to the bed I took a moment to wipe a few tears off his face. My lion hopped up onto the bed with him and started a low rumbling purr. Almost subconsciously Falling started to lean into the soft fur of my summon, Falling just stared at me silently while I checked over his legs. There would be quite a few scars but those would fade once his body was back in order, his bones had mended fully thankfully. Nothing had healed wrong but his legs were still a bit too thin, a bit more time and some food is all he needed before he’s completely healed… at least physically speaking.

“Did you get him… did you get the monster?” Falling fragile tone told me more than his actual question did, I gave him as gentle of a smile as I could before I spoke. Falling looked at me with so much pain and hope in his eyes, I felt like I failed him. I failed him once when I didn’t immediately call out Aaron back at the beginning of our adventure, then I failed him again by not killing the living waste of good air that did this to him. I gave a firm nod and said.

“I did, I'm so proud of you for reaching me. I know you don’t want to hear this but… instead of ‘dealing’ with him, I captured hi-”

“Wha- why! He’s a monster and you’re a hero! He k-killed Coral! He hurt so many other ponies in the towns we left, he needs to di-!” Tears were running down his face as his voice strained from his yells.

“Falling!” My stern voice broke him out of his tirade, he heaved for breath after his yelling ceased. He sniffled in an attempt to stop his tears, I gave a deep sigh as I thought of a way to explain this to the kid… foal. “Falling, death is not something to give lightly. While I do agree that someone like A- Sterling deserves to suffer for his crimes, I also believe that we shouldn’t sink to his level. We need to be better than ponies like him, to cure their sickness instead of just cutting them off” Falling’s hard expression began to soften slightly as he thought about my words, I felt like the world's biggest hypocrite. I didn’t even believe my own words, the only reason why Aaron wasn’t a pile of ash right now is because of some stupid timeline nonsense… but I have to be better now. I need to be a good influence for Falling, I'm not going to be leaving him again.

“S-so… what are you going to do to him?” I felt my smile grow as Falling slowly started to come around, I leaned back slightly and tried to think of a way to explain the ritual I plan to use on Aaron.

“Remember what I said about curing sickness? It turns out that Sterling might actually be sick, of course that doesn’t change that he’s a horrible pony but I still need to see what the sickness is and if we can treat it so no other ponies fall victim to it.” Falling is a smart kid, I'm not surprised when I see his eyes light up in understanding. I could see that he was really curious about the whole thing and it was a massive relief to see that part of himself was still intact.

“Really! Can I come too?” Falling released my lion and leaned towards me in excitement, I was extremely surprised by him wanting to come. He was still willing to enter a room with the man that tried to kill him… though I guess that fact that said murderer is going to be heavily restrained in multiple ways probably helps.

“It’s not going to happen until later, so let’s see how you’re feeling when the time comes. In the meantime, how about we get some food for you.” The heaviness in the air quickly dissipated at the sound of Falling’s tummy rumbling. Seeing how he’s completely awake right now, I loaded Falling onto my lion’s back once again and walked the two back over to the couch. After making sure he was comfortable I began to reheat the both we had been feeding him, I could feel his eyes on me as I levitated some wood over to light the stone oven we had been using to heat my cauldron. I smirked slightly as I took out one of my Annealed Flasks and popped the top open, I upended the flask into the pot and watched as way more broth poured out of the flask than it should be able to hold. I heard a soft confused ‘what?’ from behind me and smothered my laughter, i’m gonna enjoy showing Falling all of the absurd and magical things we all can do. I let my magic stir the broth on its own before turning to check on Falling who had continued to watch me unabashedly.

“In case you were wondering, Morgana and David are out foraging in the nearby forest and Calicer is-” “SCRAAA!” “- right there apparently” Diving in through the open window was my phoenix making a dramatic entrance. Falling jumped from the fire raptor’s cry and for a moment I was worried he would panic but thankfully he was distracted by Calcifer landing on the armrest of the couch. Looking at the two I quickly realized that he had never seen Calcifer

“ I guess introductions are in order. Falling Star I would like you to meet Calcifer the Phoenix. Calcifer started out as a magical summon of mine but transformed into his own creature not long ago, I hope you two will get along” There was a short period of silence as Calcifer looked over Falling Star, I purposely kept out of Calcifer’s mind so I don’t influence his feelings on Falling. The firebird hopped down from the armrest and stood next to a slightly skittish Falling, Calcifer was actually larger than Falling while he was sitting. With slow tender moments Calcifer opened his wings and completely encircled Falling in a hug, the injured child flinched at first contact but quickly relaxed as Calcifer’s warmth reached him. His eyes falling shut almost immediately from comfort.

“He’s so warm… “ My smile was so large that it was starting to make my face cramp. Calcifer lifted his head and gave me a look that translated faster than the following thought he sent me. ‘I will protect this child at all costs!’

“I’m glad you like him, have some food before you fall asleep again” I laughed under my breath at Calcifer’s sudden paternal instincts, I was then pleasantly surprised to feel a mirror of those protective feelings from my lion. It seems having a child to protect and comfort is helping my lion rapidly mature. Calcifer crooned in sadness as he had to extract himself from Falling’s side so he could eat, I sat a wooden bowl down before him and started to feed him. He tried to feed himself at first but the magical field on his hooves wasn’t strong enough to hold the spoon yet.

I was born an only child, I was always the one being taken care of or having to rely on someone else for something. Taking care of someone else for once is… nice. I softly wiped a few drops of broth off of Falling’s face and was reminded that he needed to take a bath at some point. Falling was able to get down over half of the bowl before feeling full, this was good as before I could barely get him to keep down a quarter of the bowl. I watched Falling’s eyes struggle to stay open, his head starting to fall only to jerk back up as he forced himself to stay awake. My expression was stuck in a permanent smile while watching him, I sent a thought to my lion and watched them stand up and position themselves next to the couch. I took Falling into my hooves and listened to him grumble his discontent. I couldn’t help but laugh slightly at his unwillingness to sleep.

“Go ahead and take a nap, I'll wake you when it’s time to go, okay?” I felt more than heard Falling hum his assent as he fell asleep in my hooves. I don’t think I've ever been quieter than when I walked Falling back to bed, I tucked him back into bed and felt something in my chest tighten. I’m not going to fail him again, I refuse. I need to be better… for him.

Author's Note

[That was so cute...]

Ch 46: Time Passing Pt. 2

Chapter 46: Time Passing Pt.2
Falling Star Pov:

For a bit I forgot where I was, I was nice and warm, my aches and pains were gone and I was dreaming a great dream. I still felt a bit sick but at the time it felt like I was back home with mama. My mind was floating in that weird place between sleep and being awake, I was so warm and comfortable that I started to fall back asleep. I was quickly roused again by the voice of somepony familiar, my eyes were still blurry so all I saw was the familiar black mane of my mama. I pushed myself awake and was about to tell my mama ‘morning only to freeze as I remembered everything.

“Wake up Falling, we’re about to head out” It was the hero, Arcane Hope. Before I could open my eyes fully I felt the layer of soft warmth I was under peel itself away. The sudden change made me wake up faster, it was the Thunder lion cub that followed Arcane Hope. I could remember stories about this creature that my Nanna would tell me about, back when she was a traveling performer and adventurer. With the fog of sleep gone I quickly remembered everything I said to him and how I asked for him to take me with him to face the captured monster. The spike of cold fear running down my back at the thought of it almost made me rethink going with Arcane. I shook myself and hurried to the bathroom to get ready, I wouldn’t be in any danger. I would be surrounded by other heroes like Arcane Hope, that was their whole reason for coming out here right?

After a quick wash I had some time to say hello to Arcane’s friends. Rose Point is very kind and asked a lot of questions about my injuries to make sure I was healing okay. Nimbus always had a big smile on his face, he reminded me of one of my great uncles. Arcane’s firebird said hello again as well with a warm feathery hug before taking to the skies again. I felt my hooves leave the ground as Arcane’s silver magic surrounded me and gently lifted me from the ground and back onto his fluffy lion. I sent him a questioning look and was about to tell him that I felt okay to walk but stopped when I saw the look on his face, it was the same concerned look my mama would send me whenever I got hurt playing.

I had resigned myself to being carried by the time everypony started to make their way out of the house. It was close to impossible to feel uncomfortable while on the back of the Thunder lion so it was difficult to find any sort of objections to being carried. We stepped out into the light and my eyes went wide, compared to all the villages and small towns I had visited while with the monster none of them compared to the size of the castle that spread out in front of me. My eyes were flicking back and forth taking in every detail of the Fallen Capital, it was just as amazing as my Nana said. There were ruins everywhere and made me wonder what this place looked like in its prime.

The sound of wings flapping pulled my attention to above as I got my first look at Arcane’s sister tribes. Griffons of many different types and sizes flew through the air, some even carrying creatures that I have never seen before. My mind immediately went back to my Nana’s stories in an effort to identify them but I could never get a clear look at the odd creatures. I was ecstatic, this was what I was expecting when I left home. Sure, there were a few pits in the road but now it starts… soon I'll begin my real training under the best hero around! He’ll teach me about the world, He’ll teach me how to fight, maybe he’ll even teach me about magic! My mind was filled with daydreams about the future, a picture of an older fit version of me wearing a similar outfit to Arcane. Swirls of fire magic coming from my hooves- or-or maybe he could teach me to be a sword stallion like Nimbus. The daydream quickly changed to the image of a knight wearing magical armor and carrying a flaming sword. Oh! What if he instead- my daydream was interrupted by the everypony suddenly stopping, I shook myself out of my head and looked around to what had stopped us.

We were in what looked like a town square and it was filled with a bunch of different creatures, griffins, odd black ponies, and those bipedal creatures that I could remember the name of. We were standing at the end of the large road leading up the massive castle and the crowd naturally parted around us and gave us a view of what was capturing their attention. Sitting in the middle of the plaza was another group of ponies except… one of the ponies was… different. I could see through him like he was a ghost. Next to the ghostly stallion was a mare, her mane was a long dark purple which almost looked black when compared to her gray coat. While I watched her she flipped her mane out of her eyes and I saw that she was a unicorn and… was also missing an eye. The two other earth ponies with her looked extremely normal compared to the other two but what still caught my eye was that they were both injured in some way.

Despite how interesting the first group looked, they weren’t what captured everyone’s attention. Up the road towards the massive castle and heading towards us, almost directly opposite our group was only what I could describe as a royal procession like out of story books. Thestrals… the name whispered into my mind from one of the few stories my father told me before he left. There were six armored thestrals escorting three other unarmed thestrals, the nine ponies entered the plaza and I watched the guards spread out and take posts around the edge of the crowd. Two of the unarmored thestral stallions stopped to speak to the one eyed unicorn mare and her ghost friend while the last Thestral mare kept walking towards us. She was wearing what I could only call a battle dress. It was a black dress with dark green accents, there were gray plates of armor on her chest and back and a few free flowing scales flowing on the bottom near her back hooves. Her wings stuck out the back of her dress and even those were decorated with silver chains.

I felt the lion tense up underneath me, I looked down in surprise as I started to hear a low rumbling growl start to emanate from the lion. My head flicked over to Arcane and I saw the last thing I would ever expect, fear. So many conflicting emotions were shown in Arcane’s eyes but chief among them were fear, his whole body was tense and I could feel his magic start to tingle in the air. I could feel it starting to weave around the four of us almost protectively, it felt just like… who is she? What did she do to make someone like Arcane Hope so afraid!?

“It’s so nice to see you again dear… “ Her voice was smooth with an almost amused lilt to it, her voice sounded like the most inviting of poisons and it made both my hair and magic stand in alert. She was bad, something about her immediately let me know that I should stay away from her, out of the corner of my eye I saw Arcane Hope go wide eyed. I felt Arcane’s magical hold on us grow to a deathgrip and out of pure reflex I blinked… and then we were somewhere else. We were inside, the crowd was gone, that scary mare was gone, and… there was a dragon staring down at us. My eyes stayed locked onto the large predator but I could hear the now frantic breath of Arcane Hope start to slowly level off as Rose and Nimbus helped him calm down. My heart was breathing so fast, faster than I’ve ever felt it go before. The dragon seemed to notice my fearful stare and… frowned? The fire breath dragon slowly lowered his head down to my level and opened his mouth. It's going to eat me, that’s it, I'm going to die.

“Hey, there’s no need to be scared, we’re all friends here” The voice of the dragon, however softly spoken, still made my whole body vibrate from how deep it was. His words took a moment to get though my fear but when they did they made me peek my eyes open. The dragon was laying on the ground, more like relaxing actually. His whole massive body was completely relaxed with his head laying down right in front of me. I watched as he slowly slid a claw over to me and almost offered it. I slowly reached out a hoof and bumped it against the claw, I flinched slightly when a soft ‘Boosh’ came from the dragon’s maw, I couldn’t help the giggle that came out of my mouth. Today has just been a day of many different emotions, I felt the lion underneath me chuff from the interaction with the dragon. I heard movement behind me and turned to see that Rose Point and Nimbus had separated from a now calm Arcane Hope who had begun to pull things out of his bag. His hoof was still shaking slightly… I slowly slipped myself off of the lion and trotted over to Arcane’s side. I waited for him to notice me first before I gave him a hug. He stiffened at first before relaxing and returning the hug, I could feel the small tremors slowly subside after a minute. I released the hug and didn’t ask any questions about what happened, I knew exactly what to do when something like this happens. I leaned forward and pointed at the dark mirror and asked what that was for. Arcane looked at me quietly for a moment before realizing what I was doing, a soft smile grew on his face before he lifted a hoof and started to gently pet my mane.

“Thanks kid…” I giggled at his words.

“I’m not a goat, I'm a pony!” His laughter made the room a little brighter.

It’s been about two hours since Arcane Hope had (as he explained it) teleported us up into the castle in an effort to get away from that bad mare. No one asked any questions as to why he did that or his connection to the mare, we all focused on what we were doing next and everything has almost gone back to normal. Arcane Hope had explained it to me once before but had done it again to make sure I understood what we were doing. That there was apparently something wrong with the monster other than him being a monster and Arcane needed to find out what it was so he could make sure it didn’t happen to anyone else. I could tell Arcane didn’t like the idea of not getting rid of the monster, whenever he thought I wasn’t watching he would scowl and his magic would start to buzz through the air like a cloud of angry bees. It reminded me of the times when my mama would want to swear but I was in the room so she would make herself stay quiet, to ‘be a good influence on me’ she had said to one of the neighbors once. I felt bad that Arcane was trying so hard to be a better pony for me, even sparing the life of a monster… maybe I should try harder as well. I won’t forgive him… but I won’t fall to his level, like Arcane said ‘We have to be better’

Arcane had laid out a bunch of stone slabs with weird symbols carved into them and sat down the dark mirror and a glass bottle in front of him. Then he turned to me and ask me if I wanted to go sit by Mr. Spike while Arcane’s friends brought out the monster. I wanted to puff out my chest and say I wasn’t scared but… I remembered what had happened earlier. It’s okay if heroes feel scared, they’re just as much ponies as everypony else. I hesitantly nodded and trotted back to where Mr.Spike was curled up. Arcane's lion has since disappeared into his lantern and I was starting to miss its fluffy fur. To be completely honest, I was terrified. I never wanted to see that monster of the rest of my life… but at the same time I wanted to see this through. Coral gave his life to get me to Arcane and I want to honor his memory by being brave.

The sound of muffled yelling and thrashing came from a nearby hallway, I felt my heart beat faster and faster until I saw him, The monster Sterling Flare. He… was not how I remembered him. In my head he was this unstoppable evil pony that spread lies and destruction wherever he went, but what Rose Point carried in was… not that. He was encased from the neck down in solid stone, I could see a few bruises peeking out from the neck line. He was muzzled by solid ice but he still tried to scream and yell at Rose Point as she levitated him down towards Arcane Hope. His head wasn’t much better, his mane had lost its metallic sheen, and he looked gaunt and sickly as if he hadn't eaten for weeks. I accidentally locked eyes with the monster and realized that my mind had gotten one thing right, his eyes were full of a hate so deep that they could paralyze you at a glance. Except… they didn’t do anything to me, the cold hate I could feel emanating from him couldn’t reach me. The buzzing magic in the air acted like a shield for me, protecting me. So I glared right back, the monster’s furious flailing froze for a moment as my return glare was the last thing they expected.

The Rose Point sent me a proud smile while she passed with the stunned monster in tow, I felt proud of myself as well. I stared my fear in the eyes and made it blink first, this was my first step to growing stronger. I watched from a distance as Rose Point sat the monster in the center of the circle then backed away. I couldn’t hear what Arcane Hope was saying to the monster but I saw what happened next. A silver dome appeared and surrounded the monster then the stone fell away leaving the monster’s bruised and burned body to bare. The black mirror rose then the symbol began to glow, The monster flinched then began to convulse as a soft purple glow began to cover his body. Something flashed then the glass bottle rose into the air, a dark purple energy started to flow away from the monster's convulsing body and into the bottle. This went on for a few minutes of draining that strange energy from the monster before the purple glow started to subside. A stopper was quickly put into the bottle and a now exhausted monster fell to the floor with the remains of his restraints. The barrier dropped and a slightly tired Arcane Hope approached the monster. I leaned forward to try and hear what he said but was stopped by Mr.Spike’s tail curling around in front of me blocking my view. I jumped up onto his tail and crawled up and caught the tail end of Arcanes words.

“... -this is not a threat, this is not a promise, this is a fact! Do you understand me… Sterling Flare” The monster was back up on his hooves though not willingly, he was being suspended in the air by glowing purple chains that secured him in place. The monster frantically nodded at Arcane Hope and I watched the chains not disappear but sink into the skin of the monster. I watched as black brands burned themselves into the hooves of the monster, brands in the shape of chains. My attention was pulled away by the feeling of my magic flaring up again, I whipped my head around and almost fell off of Mr. Spike’s tail when I spotted them. It was that Thestral mare again along with a few others standing in the doorway, she was looking at Arcane Hope and she was smiling in a way I really didn’t like. She looked… obsessed.

Author's Note

[Oh no... of all people Not Her!]

Ch 47: Different Paths

Chapter 47: Different Paths

Adept Curse: Bind the Soul. Hold the Mind. Brand A Promise. Keep their Lives

Skill Level 5: 0.00%

Cost: 1 Sp

I am Afraid…

There’s no excusing it… I am so afraid. I thought I was over this… I can feel my sixth sense constantly buzzing in the back of my head. My fear is making the skill go crazy, it’s making it think that everything is a threat. Why is she here, how is she here! Wait, calm down… I already know how she’s here. The same way a known criminal like Aaron is here, speaking of him. I turned back to the floating black mirror and started reading the words floating within them, the floating silver symbols were not written in any real language and yet I could still read them. I ignored the pained heaving coming from the newly cursed Aaron and continued reading, as much as I hated to admit this but… Sparkle was right to stop me from killing Aaron. If I killed him then I would never find out about Flux Alteration Rates.

Aaron / Sterling Flare:

Flux Alteration Rate: 89% -> 5%

Affliction: Megalomania (Major -> Minor)

Sanity: Stable (Forced)

Emotional State: Daunted

Magical Status: Cursed

Curses: Curse of Geas, Curse of Anguish

Flux Acquisition Rate: 8% -> 2%

Flux Purification Rate: 3% -> 6%

Affinity: Wood

Flux is what made Aaron go completely nuts so quickly, I mean… he still would have done those horrible things but I assume he would have been smarter about it all and less… homicidal. Oddly enough, cursing and threatening Aaron after draining his flux into one of my flasks actually helped calm me down. I’m going to need to drain the flux from my friends as well, thankfully I think I can modify the open soul ritual to be painless. I let my magical hold on the mirror relax as I thought about what this discovery meant. I don’t completely know what makes us gain so much Flux and at the same time I’m pretty sure I know the cause. The only thing that all players have in common… the system.

I can only guess how many skills he has bought and if they actually apply to his affinity, I know he had that one odd skill he used to launch dirt at me and turn it to molten glass. Judging from that skill he probably has a wide variety of offensive and social skills. Maybe something that deviates too far from their Affinity generates more Flux. The sound of hooves approaching behind me pulled me from my speculations and back into the present. I slipped the black mirror and the Flux flask into my bag before turning around, my sixth sense lowered into a dull buzz into the background as thankfully David and Morgana pulled up to my sides. I let out a deep breath I didn’t know I was holding and gave the two a tired smile, I raised a hoof to massage the sore muscles around my horn. Casting a curse on Aaron taxed me in ways I’ve never felt before, flexing ‘muscles’ that I had only recently gained by becoming a witch. The connection I now have with Aaron isn’t a bond… It's a noose that I'm waiting for him to hang himself on. I have effectively trapped him in his role, he’s going to have to keep playing the supportive and charismatic leader or else…

I pushed myself out of that dark place and turned to Morgana, who I just now realized is giving the hardest death stare I have ever seen from her to someone behind me. She followed us… I-I need to… my rising fear froze in place. For one odd moment I had a moment of clarity, I didn't need to do anything. She can’t do anything to me, especially now that I have magic. Calcifer sent a pulse of fortifying warmth through our bond and I caught sight of him perched high up on the edge of one of the pillars at the edge of the room. I turned around and first saw Falling Star stumbling towards us. I waited for him to join me by my side before turning my attention to her.

“That was quite the performance my beloved, it brings ever so much joy to see that you have thrived just as much as I have in this new world” The pleased hum she gave made my skin crawl. She was flanked by two of her thestral guards, the silver chains on her wings seem to glimmer even more in the low light of the atrium. She stopped her approach a few feet away from all of us and I had to clamp down on my Intent to not teleport us again.

“What are you doing here Faith” The very moment I said her name I regretted it, I watched in real time as the small fake smile turned real. She was so pleased that I remembered her name. With a near silent giggle Faith three slow ‘tuts’ before gesturing to one of her guards.

“You know the rules my Beloved, you must refer to me by my new name. Hmm, what do you think? I very much enjoy the sound of Lunar Hope… “ A sudden crunch echoed throughout the silent chamber as Morgana turned the tiles beneath her to gravel with just a flinch of her hoof. I saw amusement flash in Faith’s eyes for just a second before she schooled her expression. She always enjoyed getting a rise out of others, I let my blank expression drop into a slight glare just to make it clear. Her smile grew slightly the moment she made eye contact with me.

“Goodness! I know when the time for joking has passed, I suppose it’s about time I get to the main reason as to why we are here” The moment her last word was spoken every drop of humor dropped from her face. Completely serious and professional, Faith took a step closer before dropping into a full bow soon followed by her two guards.

“Arcane Hope, The Enkindled Liberator. As the next in line to Lunar Dukedom, I beseech thee, nay… plead with thee. Please save my people from eradication”

The silence in the room was heavy, the three of us didn’t know how to start. I had sent Falling Star back to his room with my lion so we could have some time to talk. I didn’t know how to feel about what we had just heard. I felt… angry that Faith thought she could just walk up and ask for my help after everything she’s done, I also felt just as guilty. Do I have the right to condemn a whole people just because I don’t like the person who asked for my help? Then there’s the other issue… I took a glance at Morgana and the hard determined look she was wearing. My mind flashed back to what happened after Faith decided to let us think about her plea and left.

I wasn’t in any state to be speaking, my intent was buzzing around more akin to fire than magic. I was furious… there wasn’t any other way of putting it. I was in the middle of calming myself down on the walk back to our temporary house when we were approached by the injured Unicorn and her ghostly friend. Now that they were closer and I looking closely, the apparition wasn’t an actual pony… but a summon like Calcifer or my lion. I was still too angry at the time to really think about what that meant but with hindsight I could see that he used to be a player. I’m not sure if that’ll actually be him or her memory of him just pretending.

The unicorn player introduced herself to us as Victoria or Tori for short and her little brother Marco. She told us that she had been directed to speak to us as we were apparently the most outwardly powerful players around and she needed our help. Seeing how I wasn’t in any state to show sympathy or be cordial Morgana took over the conversation for me. When she asked what was wrong she was expecting the tale that Tori would lay out. It was Arthur, after he abandoned Morgana he had taken over the remaining bandits and started his own reign of terror around the edge of Equestria. The way Tori described Arthur was more akin to a horror story, she described him having his followers pull carts of disembodied limbs. Body parts that he would rip off his victims then attach to himself or to his followers, At some point Arthur and his bandits caught the scent of another group of players and hunted them down for their parts… more specifically their horns. “He almost got Marco, but I stopped him. I made him regret trying but he still needs to pay for hurting him. Noone hurts my little brother and I need your help to hunt him down!”

A heavy sigh from David broke me from my flashback, I watched him get up from the couch and trot over to the kitchen for some water. When he got back I waited for him to speak, he took his time gathering his words before turning and pointing to me.

“Okay, I think I see where this is going. Marcus that chick you don’t like asked for your help and I can see you beating yourself up for thinking about not accepting” I flinched at his words, I felt shame creep up my back at the accuracy of his words. I thought I was better now, but instead I just feel sick.

“ Morgana, that unicorn player wants your help to kill your brother and… I'm not sure if you do as well… ?” Morgana’s expression was inscrutable, I'm not sure if she knows either. I was starting to realize what David is implying,

“ And we still need to lead all the other players back to Southtown and transport Aaron back to the guild. Not to mention tell everyone about the shards of the Mane Six that are out there somewhere and to start the search… so'' I felt myself droop at David’s leading tone. I know what we need to do but I really don’t like it. I took a fortifying breath and pulled myself together to speak.

“We need to split up… Morgana will go with Victoria to find her brother and stop him from hunting down other players, I’ll go with… Faith to help her people and David will lead everyone back to Southtown and help coordinate the search for the shards.” Silence reigned again after I finished speaking as it dawned on the three of us that today might be the last time we see each other for quite a while. I was genuinely sad about separating from David and Morgana, I had gotten really close to them and considered them friends. I saw Morgana’s eyes soften as she looked at us and I knew she felt the same. I stood from the couch and pulled everyone's attention once again.

“If this is our last few days together then I need to tell you two what happened between me and Faith, there isn’t any better way to put it then to say that she’s my ex-girlfriend… and that she is abusive” The anger was back, David lost whatever humor was left on his face and Morgana turned as still as stone. I had their undivided attention and I was extremely thankful for that as I don’t want to repeat any of this. “ In order for you two to really understand then I'll need to explain a few things. You two could already tell that I'm a bit… different mentally. I always had a hard time understanding other people, I never got a chance to get it diagnosed but I knew it was there. I either tried too hard to be normal and people avoided me or got fixated on something and was labeled the weird kid. Despite that I still was about to make a few friends, they were nice but they didn’t really get it” No questions, just an understanding silence. I was obviously slightly afraid to talk about my past but I want to tell them.

“ I… didn’t meet Faith until highschool, now I didn't go to a normal highschool. It was an academy that focused on college prep and nothing else, the teachers didn’t really care about the students and if you were enrolled there then your parents didn’t really care either. So when I told an adult that I was being stalked they just laughed at me. None of them took the weird kid seriously, so I asked one of my friends what to do. They laughed and said that I should ask her out. I was much worse back then so I saw nothing wrong with that… so I asked my stalker on a date. The first year or so was fine, I didn’t know anything about romance or relationships so I did whatever she told me to. She was happy so I assumed I was happy, dates at diners. Sneaking out at night to hang out at the park, holding hands. In the next year things started to change, whenever I wanted to do something that she didn’t suddenly ‘I didn’t love her’. When my few friends were around she didn’t trust them and didn’t want me around them. Things like that slowly ramping up over time, soon she had cut off the few friends I had and when I tried to ask my parents for advice on what was happening she almost ruined what little of a relationship I had with them.” I paused to breathe, talking about this after so long was like picking at a scab that never healed properly.

“I was completely alone with only Faith to speak to. She controlled almost everything in my life, she tried to have a say in what I ate, what I wore, who I spoke to, and she would use every manipulation, every threat, every tearful promise to get what she wanted. We were together for five years, until my first year of college. I took a psychology course because it seemed interesting and gave four credits, at this point me and faith were all but married. She was already talking about moving in with me in my apartment nearby. It was my professor that helped me realize how abusive Faith is, we were going through a chapter about abuse and… it scared me seeing how much of it applied to me. I asked the professor if I could talk to them after class then layed my feelings out. I was even more afraid of how seriously he took my situation. He asked me if he could have a meeting with me and my family during his office hours to talk about this more thoroughly. I said yes and went home, it was difficult to convince my parents to come visit but I managed but when I told Faith… she freaked out. She yelled, screamed, made every accusation and threat under the sun, when I calmed her down she said… that she was pregnant”

“What!?” The sudden yell from three ponies made me jump, the two were bug eyed. Staring at me with jaws open, peeking past them I could see an equally shocked Falling Star leaning through the doorway. The moment I locked eyes with him he gave a quiet ‘eep’ then disappeared back into his room. I cleared my throat and continued talking.

“I would like to point out that we had never had sex, she tried to make me in the past but… I was never comfortable with it and that was where I drew the line. She wasn’t actually pregnant, she just wanted to say something that would get me to do what she wanted. I left and didn’t see her again until after the meeting with my professor. After that things happened really fast, the professor helped me get in contact with a lawyer for a restraining order and was actually able to have the police look into her. Turns out that I wasn’t the only person she had stalked, just the one that stuck. While we were together she stalked and threatened everyone around me, my old friends even testified in court about the threats and everything. She was sentenced to two years in county prison for the stalking and death threats, she argued that the statute of limitations meant that she couldn’t be punished but she was just short of the three years limit. I got better in those two years, I went to therapy, got a bit closer to my parents, but I still had issues making new friends. Now she’s back and she’s taking me away from my friends again… “ I felt the shame burrow deeper, I felt nauseous as I vocalized my fear. There was a spark of dark humor, I had fought a giant eldritch abomination that literally weaponized fear and this is what shook me?!

“Stop that” I looked up to see Morgana and David mere inches away before hugging me. My first thought was ponies are soft, my second was Are they crying? They definitely were, the sound of soft sobbing was coming from my two friends as they wrapped their hooves (and wings) around me.

“You shouldn't feel shame for being hurt, it isn’t your fault that she’s a horrible person. Faith can’t do anything to drive us away, nothing she says or does can change the fact that we’re friends.” Morgana’s voice was slightly muffled by my shoulder but I heard it loud and clear, I ignored how hot my eyes were and how blurry my vision was.

“And don’t forget, if you get fed up with her then you can just leave. She needs you, not the other way around. One wrong word and you and Calcifer can fly right out of there” I could feel the smile on David’s face as he said that. I heard the pounding of small hooves before I felt Falling Star join the group hug, he didn’t say anything but I felt him squeeze with everything he had.

“... I love you guys”

Author's Note

(This chapter fought me every step of the way and I want it done)

Ch 48: Crossroads Pt. 1

Chapter 48: Crossroads Pt. 1

As much as I wanted to just stay there with my new little family, we had work to do. Now that our time together had a definite time limit we needed to move fast. First on the list was to modify the ritual of open soul so it didn’t cause any discomfort. Morgana and I decided to work on that together with her carving out stone slabs for me to use and I experimenting with sigil combinations. David and Calcifer were given a special job, they needed to gather three things for me. Some cloth, Some twine or rope, and a single gemstone, I wanted to make sure that David and Morgana would be perfectly safe while they were gone and to do that I needed to craft like crazy. We were an hour into our work when a thestral glided down silently to us, we were currently in the open yard behind our temporary house carving stone slabs made out of the rubble nearby. I was a bit terse when I greeted the Thestral soldier but he either didn’t notice or didn’t care as he informed us that their charge Lady Glory would be coming to the house tomorrow to hear my answer to their plea for help.

It was only minutes after he left that we finished modifying the ritual, I wrote down the correct combination of sigils in the book of ritual then moved on to the next step, crafting. We weren’t going to use the ritual until David was back so we moved on to the next step, making an Annealed Flask for the both of them. Morgana knew the steps already and had already reduced two large boulders of what I think is granite to fine sand. Falling was a bit closer to the action this time and was watching closely to what I was doing, seeing how interested he was I narrated what I was doing. I could tell a lot of it was going over his head but that was okay, I would be able to teach him much more in depth once we were on the road together. Putting the small spatial anomaly into the flask was just as tiring as before but I did it… twice. I also add a small enchantment to them just for fun, nothing over the top or powerful. All the enchant does is tint the color of the glass, I made Morgana’s flask a light red while David got a bright yellow. Color changing enchantments is quite possibly the bottom of the barrel when it comes to difficulty but that makes them perfect for training. I still don’t know completely what I can do with enchanting besides the extreme things I could make at later levels.

The three of us had stopped for a quick break when David and Calcifer returned, David holding two things in his hooves while Calcifer carried one in his talons. Wrapped in his hooves was a dark blue gem that I think is called a Tanzanite and in the other was a spool of twine. Calcifer on the other hoof was carrying a whole roll of fabric! That was way too much but I still really appreciated it. We all had some lunch while David explained how they got everything, they had gone to Spike first for the gem which he was happy to give as apparently he grew his own gems behind the citadel. Then Spike directed the both of them to where the changeling players usually stayed, it was a shock to learn that due to their shape shifting nature that Changelings could make almost any kind of fabric and produce it naturally like a spider. They were happy to actually get some practice with the skill and gave plenty of fabric and twine.

While everyone ate I got started on the next craft, a Blank Poppet. Everyone sat and talked happily while I started cutting and sewing together a small vaguely horse shaped doll. Thankfully I could still remember the sewing diagrams from that book Spike gave me while I was operating on Falling Star. I pulled together the two halves of the pony I cut out and paused before I sewed together it’s back. I looked over at the leftover sand we had and levitated some over to fill the empty doll then popped in a shard of the tanzanite then sealed it up. I did this four times, one for each of us. I made sure not to use all of the cloth and cut off a few strips before turning to everyone.

Crafting Complete!

Blank Poppet: An empty vessel, it almost looks like someone you know…

Rarity 8/10 ( +1 Rare Materials, -1 Lack of detail)

“There is not a single, not weird way to ask this to all of you… “ Conversation died down at my words and everyone slowly got serious. I took a deep breath and… tried to hold in my laughter. I was sure my lips were trembling from the effort not to smile.

“Give me your hair!” Of all things I would say… That was not what they were expecting.

“What!?”

“Hair! Give!” I let on my most mischievous smile as I got up and reached for David’s mane only for him to just as fast launch himself into the air.

“Why!?” I could barely understand Morgana’s question as she was a bit busy choking down her laughter. Falling was giggling as well but had his hooves pressed firmly on his head to protect his mane. Calcifer quickly caught on to what I was doing and merged with me to give me wings.

“There’s no escape, give me your scalp!” With what can only be called a squawk of fear David took off with me trailing closely leaving behind two laughing ponies. A few minutes later I'm levitating an unamused soot covered David over my cauldron as I snip a few strands of hair from his mane. I was still laughing under my breath, it turns out that using fire magic while merged with Calficer changed how I could use the magic… I could breathe fire… that also means that I could breathe smoke and soot. It was fun chasing David around shooting balls of soot like spit balls, it was a bit unhinged but still fun.

“If you just need a single hair from us you could have asked?” Morgana spoke from over my shoulder, she and Falling were watching David and laughing at his predicament.

“That was payback for the horseshoes” I sat David down and heard him laugh under his breath as he remembered the horseshoe incident. I heard Morgana and Falling approach from my other side and peek into my cauldron. David’s blond locks were swirling in the water in an almost hypnotic pattern and his poppet was levitating over the water and almost seemed just as immaterial as the steam surrounding it. The words I chanted under my breath both sounded and felt… thin. Almost gentle in how they swirled through the air and almost made you believe you didn’t hear them and yet they gave a feeling of safety so comforting it brought forth warm memories of home. We all watched the blank poppet change, the previously white fabric turned yellow and stands of David’s mane started to rise with the steam out of the pot. Swirling and melting around the doll until it was almost a perfect copy of David… but in doll form.

Crafting Complete!

Poppet of Protection: One of the few branches of Voodoo magic that was created purely for protection purposes. This poppet will guard their likeness from malicious curses, hexes, sickness, and possessions. This specific poppet can even prevent lethal injury once, at the cost of the poppet

Rarity 9/10 (+1 rare materials)

“There we go, all finished… “ There was a softness to my voice that made me laugh under my breath, the comforting chanting put all of us in a relaxed mood. I plucked the poppet out of the air and passed it over to David. He had a small smile on his face as he looked over the small poppet of him. I only took a single hair from Morgana and Falling Star before I started making their poppets. I had a passing thought about what other kinds of poppets I could make but there could be countless kinds.

Now that the Protection Poppets are finished, next is the modified rituals of open soul and making some healing tinctures for them to use on the road. I debated whether to do the rituals first or to make the tinctures, I don’t think I have enough herbs to make healing tinctures right now so I might have to do the rituals first then go foraging with Morgana later. We already had the needed sigil slates ready, now I just need a volunteer… I turned to look over at David and Morgana. David obviously was a bit leery to my rituals. Especially after seeing their effects first hoof, Morgana was willing to go first simply because she watched me modify it.

In a nice clear space I laid out the modified sigils of the Ritual of Open Soul then sat down the Witching Eye and the half filled Annealed Flask of Flux. Morgana took a deep breath before trotting over to the center of the ritual circle and sitting down. The air changed slightly as the Ritual started to take effect. I started levitating the Witching eye up as I felt the Ritual slowly ramp up. Unlike before with Aaron, the energy didn’t pry and dig into Morgana. I could feel it slowly envelop her and (for lack of a better description) hugged her. I could see Morgana’s shoulders start to fall as she subconsciously relaxed in the ritual magic. I gave her a questioning look and got a smile in return, I took that as a green light to check the Eye.

Morgana / Rose Point:

Flux Alteration Rate: 25% -> 2%

Affliction: Savior Complex ( Minor -> Negligible)

Sanity: Stable

Emotional State: Happy

Magical Status: Thriving

Curses: None

Protections: Poppet of Protection, Kindness

Flux Acquisition Rate: 1% -> 1%

Flux Purification Rate: 7% ->10%

Affinity: Earth

A few strands of Flux peeled away from Morgana, I heard her giggle slightly from the feeling. The Flux joined the rest of the energy in the Flask and quickly lowered her alteration rate. I winced slightly at the sight of her complex, in hindsight I could see it but I couldn’t really see anything wrong with it. I waved Morgana over and let her take a look at her own status, she seemed more than happy to get out of the ritual and happily trotted over to look at the witching eye. She seemed a bit curious about the Saviour Complex as well, now that she’s aware of it it might not affect her as much… I’m not a psychologist so I'm not sure. Seeing how Morgana came out perfectly fine David was a bit less hesitant to step into the circle. I had to take a moment to fix a few of the sigils that had broken during Morgana’s turn.

David’s turn went somewhat the same, the magic swirled and spiraled around him gently except instead of enveloping him like it had Morgana, it blew through him like a gentle wind appealing to his love of the skies. David took a deep breath of the mana made wind and spread his winds slightly, seeing him relax made me smile. Pulling up the Witching Eye I saw something made a few things in the past make a bit more sense.

David / Nimbus:

Flux Alteration Rate: 30% -> 1%

Affliction: Rhabdophobia (Minor -> Negligible)

Sanity: Stable

Emotional State: Slightly Nervous

Magical Status: Thriving

Curses: None

Protections: Poppet of Protection, Loyalty

Flux Acquisition Rate: 2% -> 1%

Flux Purification Rate: 6% -> 8%

Affinity: Storm

Rhabdophobia, the fear of magic or supernatural forces. This puts David’s wariness and suspicion when it comes to magic into perspective. I felt slightly bad about being dismissive about his fears, I pulled his Flux into the flask and let him out of the ritual. David was actually smiling when he stepped out, he was stretching his wings and legs like a weight was taken off of him. I replaced a few sigils and got ready for the next part… me, I needed to see if there was anything wrong with me… more so than usual. I kept the witching eye floating there and popped the Flux Flask open to keep it at the ready. Morgana stepped up to the Witching Eye and waited for it to start, it was odd to feel your own magic rise up and try to intrude on itself. It was like trying to tickle yourself but it still worked when it shouldn’t.

Markus / Arcane Hope:

Flux Alteration Rate: [̶̨̧̼͍̞͈̦̫̹͂̽͌̋̄͗̏̐͘Ę̶̛̗͚̳̌̎́̌̎̂̈́͐̆R̷̺̻̂́͐́͑̌͒̆͌͜Ŕ̸̘͕̫̮͖̟͔̖͒̋͛̎̋O̷̫͉̥͚͛̎̍̈͗̀̎̈̌̍̽̇̕͝͝R̴̡̯͇̜̺̥̣͔͉̒͐̃̓̓]̶̨̨̧̖̭̖͇̺̹͚̠́̎̾̑̇̉̑̊͊̄̔̐ ̸̨̢̡̙̦̬̥̭͙͉̼̺̺̔͑͊̈́̾̀̑̽̐͂͋1̴̢̛̜̘͚̓̓̃̊̈̔̊̀̅̏͛̚͝ͅ0̵̡̧̦̩̜͖̻͎̻̍͌̑̈́̑̿͝0̵̢̖͓̱͈͙̭͍̍͒̓̋́̈́͝%̶̲̤͇̙̙͊̀̊̊͠ͅ-̶̤͋͌̇̑̉̐̃̃̀̇̽͒̅̔̚-̷̢̧̨̘̦̻͓̟̻̃ͅͅ-̷͇̃̋̽̅͌̐͒̽̌̒̕̕0̴̨͉͍̹͎͓͈̬̐̽̔͊̿̈0̴̡̥͇̯͚̺̝͕̲̖̘̲̭͖͌̈́͋̈́̇͆̄̅͋̉̐̾͠͝0̸̳͙̗̝̱̫͈̱͎̼̮̘̠̍͋̽̈́̍̌̄̇͌͂́̂̊̕͝0̸̢̦͖̜̬̤͇̣̥̥̝͎̞̈́%̷̧̧̛͍̖͉̹̫͇̩̜͔̎̏͜ ̴̞̿͌̈̓̕

Affliction: Sociopathy (N̷̛̺e̴̛͓g̴̳̍l̷̪̅ĭ̶͜g̸̡̑i̴̝͘b̸̝̅l̵͕͘ḙ̵͂)

Sanity: Stable

Emotional State: Happy

Magical Status: Ǫ̸̤̙̉̋v̴̭̳̤̀̌͘ë̶̛̠̱̮́̐r̸̦̻̘̐̔̍f̴̪̬̭͆̀͛l̴̼͊̀́ȍ̴̦̕w̷̧͌̕ì̶͙͓̞n̴̟̄̃͌g̸̛͈͚̜̓

Curses: Ć̸̨̘̘̏̏u̶͓̘̿͝r̵̖͍͆̄̊͜š̴̞̈́̿e̷̮͖̋͠ ̵͈̥̬̀̿͒ó̵̤̫̈͠f̷͈͈͙̂ ̵̛̙̓̄T̶͙̗̆ḩ̵̧̞͌̓̕e̴̽ͅ ̸̝̃̽F̴̧̺̥͠o̵̻͎̳͊͘x̸̙̰͒͌̓

Protections: Poppet of Protection, Element of Ę̸̲͍͇̫̫̖͐̿͋͗̌͆́̂͆͋̎͘͜ṅ̸̛̦̤͙̭̞̻̟̟̪̯̦̮͑̃̃͋̊̈́͘t̷̡͖͙͔̩͙̹͓̠̭̠͔͚͌͌̿͐͆̏̓͊͐̅͠ͅi̴͙͈̻͋͛̊̍t̷̖́͛̎̅͝y̵̢͓̗̰̹̹̜̙͉͋̀̐̒͆̕ ̸̹͍̹̫̥̄̃̿̋̾̈́̾̿͛͜͝N̸̖͈̙̯̙͔̞̲̲̖̱̒̄̽̇̃̈́̽̓̚͝͝ͅơ̷͔̘̐͑̓̂͗̇́͒͘ț̵͍͉̣̤̮͕̖̀͑̕ ̶̼̺̯̦̞̋̓̉F̶̢̧̢̤͇̟̩̠͓͕̝̘͕̼͚̄̐͊̌͜͝o̵̺̱̠̯͔̜̜̩̼̟̖͔̽̚ụ̶̅͐̕n̸͙̘̞̤͊̏̃͌̂̇͝d̵̨̡̻̠͕̳̠̜͔̮̱̱̻͚̺͗̈̃͗̋͂͜͠

Flux Acquisition Rate: 100% -> 100%

Flux Purification Rate: 100% -> 100%

Affinity: Arcane / E̷̡̛̳̟̠̱͔̗̟͈̩͍̻͊͒͋͒̈̀̀͑͌̃̋͌͒͝ḷ̴̢̗͓͙̟̣̝̩̲̖͓̖̎͋̂͆̀͗̒̏̒̀̎͋̕͝ͅͅd̸̖͍͈̺͚͚̠̭̘̀̒͋̓̉͒͂̀̔̀̂̔̚͝r̵̢͓̺͈̞̟̩̮̱̯͎̲̈́̎͋̃́̒ͅï̵̧̨̼̘͍̺̞̙̯͓̲͊͂̌̃͌̃̾͜͝͠ͅt̶̥̼̫̺̆͆̐͌͛̒c̸̛̛͔̜͖̄̐̋́͆̓͐͒͊̈́͐̓͠h̴̡͖̞̼͚̰͈̞̼̘͉̠̝͛̋̔̃̽͆̽͠

Well then… That’s… about what I expected…

Author's Note

Ooh... That may be my Fault

Ch 49: Crossroads Pt. 2

Chapter 49: Crossroads Pt. 2

I’m not gonna panic, this is probably because of Sparkle and I can ask her about it later. I eyeballed my apparent ‘curse’... The curse of the fox… that isn’t really a curse. The curse of the fox comes from the Chinese saying “May you live in interesting times” which actually means the intended target is to live in uncertain and chaotic times… which actually makes sense when everything is put into perspective. The mythical creature known as the Kitsune is usually spoken of in the same breath as this curse which led to the creation of the curse of the fox.

I sighed and put the issue aside for now, there isn’t anything I could do about it for now. I don’t know how to dispel curses, only give them. We need to move on to the next step, it feels like it’s going to be sundown soon and I still want to make a few healing tinctures for David and Morgana. I suggested that we all split up to find more herbs but Morgana vetoed my plan and had all of us stay together. Her reasoning being ‘Never split the party’ which I ended up agreeing with, we decided to forage around the back of the city. David carried Morgana in his hooves while I fused with Calcifer and carried Falling Star. We flew past a few griffin players on the way there and I caught a glimpse of where all the thestrals were staying. They had claimed a whole street and had a few guards blocking off the entrance to the street. For a moment I was worried that they would impede us but instead they paid us no mind as we flew past.

When we got to the closest forest I let Morgana take the lead and direct all of us. I kept an eye on the skill though and waited until it was close to leveling. I don’t want to suddenly collapse from the pain. It was a nice walk in the forest with everyone. Morgana pointed out any useful herbs that I happily snapped up, keeping an eye on the slowly increasing Herbalism skill. It was when we found a small bush of that Yellow Yarrow herb that we paused, the passive sitting at 89% and this would push me over the top. Morgana and David were quick to slide to my sides as I plucked the herbs from the ground. The migraine hit hard but didn’t push me to my knees this time.

Adept Herbalism: Gives the user the passive skill of identifying plants

Skill Level 5: 0.02%

Cost: 1 Sp

As my mind cleared I parsed through the new knowledge in my head, now I could see what Morgana meant about being able to identify the herb but not know what they did. I could at least tell if the herbs had healthy or healing properties. I actually saw a few poisonous plants here and there but that’s something I don’t want to get into right now, at least until I know how to make an antidote for poisons. While we were all gathering I had an… odd thought. It was about enchanting, is there such a thing as useless enchantments? I plucked a stone off the ground and stared at it as I trotted through the undergrowth following Morgana. I wonder if I could just…

Enchanting Complete!

Stone of Gravity Detection: This magical artifact can be thrown to detect the presence of gravity, if it drops then it is there.

Rarity: 1/10 (Why did you make this?)

I let an honestly amused smile grow on my face, as I looked at the ‘ahem’ magical artifact I had created, I eyed my menu and the honestly pretty good chunk of experience that gave me. It barely even took any mana to make and I don’t think it really counted as space magic. I tossed the stone up into the air and watched the enchantment activate as it detected gravity, the stone never came down as David snatched it out of the air. I didn’t even need to explain before his system told him what it was and he busted out laughing. He passed the stone over to a curious Morgana and watched her giggle at it. Falling was just staring at all of us like we were crazy so I decided to let him in on the joke. He giggled at the silly enchantment as he looked over the softly glowing stone.

We had a good pile of herbs before he decided to head back, the flight back was fast and uneventful. Making a large batch of Healing Tincture was easier than making three separate batches. I had to continually add more water as it condensed down with the herbs, there was a moment of confusion as I puzzled over how the tinctures would be stored in the flasks. At first I thought I would need to mix the tinctures in water before I could store it but apparently not. The concentrated mush smoothly slid into Morgana’s red tinted flask and a red ball slowly formed in the center of the flask. I made three tinctures worth of healing for each of us. I also had a flask full of flux that I needed to get rid of at some point. It was well into the evening now and we had finished our preparation for going our separate ways. That brought everything back into perspective, the moment I hoofed over David’s flask an unexpected wave of melancholy washed over me.

The day was pretty much over, there were no more distractions or plans to go through. We were all going to split up… well almost all of us. I felt Calcifer land on my back and wrap a comforting wing around me and Falling leaning comfortably into my side. A nudge from David knocked me out of my funk, I shook myself. This was no time to be sad, I am going to enjoy the remaining time I have with my friends and tomorrow I’m going to leave and help the Thestrals and if Faith tries anything… Well David said it best. If she tries anything then I can just grab Falling Star and fly away with Calcifer.

That night we had a nice dinner all together, it all felt really… domestic with Falling Star there. Our own small little family all together for a meal, we ate mushroom stew with a side of salad that tasted great. That night was a peaceful one… at first, everyone was asleep and for some reason I woke up. Something woke me up but I was too foggy from sleep to figure out what, I looked around the room, Falling Star and Morgana were in the bedroom snuggling with my lion, David and I were sleeping out on the couch… well I was sleeping on the couch, David was sleeping on a cloud he had made floating above me.

I paused and listened to the quiet of the night and heard it, the flapping of wings getting closer and closer. That’s what woke me up, the tingling in the back of my head. My sixth sense … there’s someone coming… and I think I know who. I stood and quietly trotted over to the balcony, I slipped out and turned up to look at the night sky. There were shadows circling above me, the moon was high in the sky… midnight. One of the shadows landed next to me on the balcony, I spoke first.

“When your guard said you would hear my answer tomorrow, I didn’t think he meant 12 o’clock on the dot.” I didn’t need to look at her to know the pleased grin she was sporting, She giggled at my obvious annoyance before speaking.

“Oh Beloved, you know how particular I am about time, have you given my plea any thought…?” Her tone was leading and almost condescending, she already knew my answer but she wanted to hear me say that I would help her. I had a moment of pure spite where I wanted to say no just because of who she is but I stopped myself. I took a calming deep breath and spoke.

“I will help your people, but know this… if you try anything, and I mean anything that would do me or anyone I care about harm…there will be hell to pay.” Lightning flashed through the cloudless sky momentarily lighting up our surroundings and revealing the stygian glare I was aiming in her direction. The dark of the night grew colder and unnaturally dark as I took control of the shadows. I felt my intent start to constrict around her like a python before I let it relax, I could see the flash of fear in her eyes before she regained control of herself. I waited for Faith to speak only for her to give a shaky nod before going still once more.

“I’m glad we’ve come to an… understanding, come back in the morning at a normal time and then we’ll leave” without another word I turned and stepped back inside while not breaking eye contact and with my magic I pulled the sheer curtains over the doors. She could still see my silhouette but judging by the fact that she took off after means she got the message. I took a breath and turned away from the balcony and was surprised to see everyone behind me, David had his sword in hoof, Morgana hooves were covered in a layer of stone, Calcifer had flaming darts hanging over their wings, and Falling Star was sitting on the back of my growling lion. It was David who spoke first.

“Are we all good?” I let a smile grow back on my face, all of them had my back immediately.

“Yeah… yeah, everything is fine. Let’s get some sleep, we have a long day ahead of us.”

The next morning was gloomy and overcast and yet the skies were a bustle of activity, changeling and gryphon players alike were scrambling to get ready to be led to Southtown, to join the rest of the players. Even Spike the dragon was making plans to start rebuilding Canterlot after the players regrouped, the dragon moved with a renewed sense of purpose. Bright smiles were plenty around the citadel… except where I was standing. Down by the entrance of the city the thestral delegation was preparing to return back to their lands with Falling Star and I along with them. David was sitting by the front gate with me as he waited for all the other players to get ready to leave and Morgana… she was in the middle of trying to talk down Victoria, the unicorn that asked for her help hunting down her brother.

Morgana didn’t want to lie to her so she told the one eyed player of her relation to their target. There was a lot of anger and yelling at first until Morgana was able to calm her down and convince her that she was more than willing to help her find her brother. David and I were sitting in silence as we watched Morgana talk to Victoria and her ‘three’ companions about the route they would be taking. I haven’t seen Faith at all yet and at this point I was assuming that I would be the last to leave.

I pulled myself out of my head when I saw Morgana finish talking to Victoria and turn to us, she’s ready to leave. I nudged David to get his attention and roused a still groggy Falling to Morgana’s approach. Her expression was especially soft when she looked at us, goodbyes are always hard.

“... it’s time for me to go” After her soft words she made no move to leave, none of us knew how to say goodbye to each other. Morgana had been by my side since the very beginning, a voice of reason and kindness that always tried to do the right thing and help others. I stepped forward to hug her, the hug was long and warm.

“We’ll see you again soon” The somber feeling in the air lightened slightly as I pulled away, David hugged her next. Calcifer swooped out of the sky and landed next to me and Falling, he was waiting to say goodbye next. Falling and Calcifer hugged her briefly before pulling away, for a moment we all just stood there looking at each other before she turned to walk away. Morgana quickly rejoined her group and started heading northeast towards the mountains dividing the frozen north from equestria. We all watched her go until she rounded a bend and we lost sight of her behind the hills.

It wasn’t even an hour before the rest of the players showed up in a cloud of gryphons and changelings, the diamond dog players marched below them. Now it was David’s turn to leave, he turned to me with a smile.

“Remember what I said, if anything happens then just fly away and come to Southtown. They need you not the other way around” David’s caring words settled a bit of my mounting worry, I hugged him. With one last squeeze he released me then took off, he flew to the head of the flying players and grabbed one of the clouds out of the skies. A sudden flash along with the rumble of thunder pulled everyone’s attention to him. With one last wave to us David turned and started to lead the veritable army of players back to Southtown. I lost sight of him pretty quickly behind the other flying players, I took a fortifying breath and turned my attention back to the Thestrals. Most of them stood in parade rest or at least the pony version of it. All their bags were packed and they were ready to march.

“I’m glad to see that you haven’t changed your mind dear” Faith said while approaching with her usual four guards surrounding her, that made twenty five thestrals in all. She continued on past me and Falling, not even waiting for me to answer her. One of her guards peeled off from her and stood before the other soldiers and stomped a hoof onto the cobblestone, the clack echoing out and grabbing their attention.

“About Face!” As one, all the soldiers turned on the spot and faced the forest leading towards where Spike said the crystal forest is.

“March Formation Star!” The thestrals in the middle took wing and flew to the outside edges of the formation leaving a gap in the center that Faith was placed into. Faith gave me a look before gesturing that I joined her with her hoof. I frowned before levitating Falling up onto my back before trotting over to her. For a moment I was going to deny her out of pure spite but that would leave Falling vulnerable. Faith gave a pleased smile when I joined her before turning to who I'm assuming is the captain and giving a nod.

“Move Ou-!” The captain was cut off by another shout, a voice that was faintly familiar. The thestrals around us flinched and got into fighting positions, I had to strain to see past all of them.

“Wait!” Coming from the same direction that David and the other players left from was another group of ponies and leading them was somepony I wasn’t expecting to see again any time soon. I could see the gleam of her spear from where I was standing, a determined smile was stuck to her face as she charged ahead of her companions. I pushed my way through the soldiers and by the time I was past them she had reached us. She stopped around ten feet away breathing hard from her sprint, some of her near white mane had broken free of its ponytail and her brown coat was dappled in sweat. It was the look in her eyes that reminded me of her name, it was a steely look that I had a hard time placing as either angry or determined.

“Lucky Harvest?!”

Author's Note

It's back and improved!

Ch 50:The Solar Dragoon and The Lunar Scion

Chapter 50: The Solar Dragoon and The Lunar Scion

Lucky Harvest PoV:

Her mind was blanking, during the whole journey over. Through the forest and over the hills, all Lucky had been thinking of was this moment. The moment when she would be standing face to face with him once again. Arcane Hope, the one responsible for the biggest change in her life. He… He looked different, last time Lucky had seen him he was fresh out of his armor. His black mane was messy yet cleaned of blood, his coat still showing signs of injury yet still trotting tall. He seemed unreal back then, a force of nature that pulled Lucky into her new life of fighting monsters and saving lives. Now… Now there was a heaviness to him, an invisible weight that pushed on Lucky’s mind that made it harder to find the right words, He had gotten stronger. Her friends had caught up by now but their words fell upon deaf ears. Frustration bubbled under the surface as Lucky’s mind scrambled for the words she prepared in advance. Lucky stomped forward past the Root brothers and got right in the face of Arcane Hope, she took a breath but couldn’t help being a bit louder than she meant to as she spoke.

“Take Responsibility!” Lucky’s face burned, that wasn’t what she meant to say! The words got twisted in her head, Her sudden closeness and the loud command made Arcane jump before he yelled back.

“Okay?!” Lucky knew he didn’t understand what she was referring to, but couldn’t help feeling relieved at his acceptance. She shook her head and tried again to regain her composure. She didn’t get a chance to explain herself though as she was suddenly blocked by a black membranous wing. Lucky flinched back and spun to her left where a female thestral had intruded on her moment with Arcane Hope. She was glaring at her and Lucky had no problem returning it with just as much fire.

“Maybe introductions are in order!” Quickly cutting in like the mediator she was, River Creek took her hooves and gently pushed both Lucky and the thestral away from each other. She also couldn’t help but notice that Arcane took an extra step away from the Thestral and closer to her and she couldn't help feeling a bit victorious seeing that.

“It’s nice to see you again Arcane and hello miss… thestral, the name’s River Creek and it’s a pleasure to meet you. The two brothers behind me are Hollow Root and Dark Root, Dark Root is the one who won’t stop talking and Hollow is the one who doesn’t. The pegasus is Slipstream and this ball of sunshine is Lucky Harvest, she was really excited to find you again Arcane so you’ll have to excuse her uh… hastiness” Lucky Harvest watched River introduce each of them one by one and when she got to Lucky she held herself taller. The thestrals eyes flicked to each of us before settling on her and pausing, she cleared her throat before speaking.

“You may refer to me as Her Grand Luminance or as My Lady for I am The Scion of the Lunar Regency, Lunar Glory” The moment the Lunar Scion finished introducing herself all of the thestral guards around Lucky brought a hoof to their chests at once in salute. Lucky couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the display, there hasn’t been any central forms of government in Equestria for… ever? So… what is she even the regent of anyway? Lucky felt herself growing suspicious and didn’t stop herself from voicing it.

“What is your business with Arcane Hope?” The direct question seemed to catch the Scion off guard judging by the brief widening of her eyes. She didn’t stay thrown off for long though as she swiftly answered her question.

“As Scion it is well within my right to request assistance from whomever I please, my business is just that… business. I have asked him to save my people from sure destruction, If you are asking about my personal connection to Arcane then…” Her lips twisted into a grin as she leaned forward to deliver her next line, a twinge of malice floating in her gaze. “We are lov- mmph!”

“No” And just like that the tense atmosphere was gone as Lunar Glory’s lips were sealed shut by the silver magic of Arcane Hope. Lucky’s eyes snapped to him, he was obviously annoyed by the lunar regent that was for sure. She watched him take a calming breath before speaking, he still hadn’t released Lunar Glory’s mouth.

“ We are nothing to each other, she asked me to help save her people and I couldn’t in good conscience refuse. You caught us just as we were about to leave, it’s good to see you doing well Lucky” Lucky’s previous anxiety diminished slightly at Arcane’s kind words and she almost missed the moment where he released Lunar Glory’s jaw. The Scion messaged her jaw for a moment before huffing and storming off back to the center of her guards.

“I’m joining you” The words slipped out of Lucky’s mouth before she realized it, but she didn’t regret it. She watched Arcane sigh with a grin on his face, almost like he was expecting her to say that. Lucky turned to her companions who were looking at her with similar looks of bemusement, she wasn’t that predictable was she?

“Well, I’m not gonna stop you. It’ll be good to have some familiar faces on the trip, follow me” With that Arcane turned and gestured to follow him, it was when he turned around did Lucky notice the foal on Arcane’s back. It was Falling Star, the foal that joined that other group on their travels to learn under them. What was he doing here? Falling noticed Lucky’s questioning gaze and gave a happy smile in return. Lucky made a mental note to ask Arcane about Falling later… maybe after their duel.

Everyone followed Arcane into the formation of guards and stood by him in the center. Lucky heard Dark Root say something to his brother, something about a ‘Cavalcade of Dark Warriors’ which she quickly lost interest in. Hollow Root was smiling and nodding along to his brother nonsense like the good brother he is. River Creek was gazing curiously at the guards surrounding them and Lucky was eyeing Arcane Hope. The heaviness that she had felt before was still there and seemed to be getting denser, she wondered just how much stronger he had gotten on his travels. A moment of dark emotion settled over Lucky as she questioned herself, if she truly was ready to prove herself to her… to her… to whatever Arcane is to Lucky. Lucky shook herself, this was no time to discourage herself, not when she’s this close to accomplishing everything she’s been working towards.

“March!” The voice of the guard captain pulled her out of her head, the guards were moving which meant they should as well. The next leg of their journey had begun and it was time for Lucky Harvest to truly put herself to the test, to prove her strength, her determination, to prove that she was strong enough to stand by Arcane Hope’s side!

Markus’ Pov:

That was certainly a surprise… if all the things to happen I did not expect to see Lucky Harvest and a few other players run up at the last second and join us in our journey to the Lunar regency. Another question is how did they get here so fast? I could feel that even Calcifer shared the same question, he remembered how long it took us to get here. I took a glance behind me and locked eyes with Lucky Harvest, I gave her a small smile before looking forward again. Maybe this time I could just be glad that I won’t have to be alone with Faith and not question it. My ear twitched as I picked up the tail end of a lengthy soliloquy from Dark Root (I don’t remember his human name).

“- For the time to join forces is anon, the mage of light and the darkest swordstallion setting aside their rivalry to liberate- Gah!” He was cut off by a swift slap to the back of the head by River Creek. She was the player that explained Hollow Root’s muteness to me, she’s wearing water takes at her flanks instead of bags. Hollow Root was carrying the bulk of the bags and didn’t even look slightly winded, all of them wore protective garments. Mostly some kind of leather or reinforced cloth except for Hollow Root, he was the only one with actual metal armor. Albeit it was only metal hoof coverings.

“Cut that out, the soldiers are looking at us weird” Her words were punctuated by the silent laughter of Hollow Root. River was right though, all of them were getting looks from the thestral guards. The looks were all different, some were just curious, others had disdainful looks on their faces and… I can see one of them straight up trying not to laugh at Dark Root’s words. Despite how stoic the thestrals all appear they all seem pretty friendly, albeit quiet most of the time.

We had entered the forest pretty quickly and I was wondering if we would be passing through the Crystal Forest, I took a glance over at the thestral captain that had taken up marching beside Faith. He looked stern, nary a glimmer of emotion on his muzzle as he marched in the shade of the forest. Deciding not to ask, I mentally reached out to Calcifer, who was flying high above us all if we were heading in the crystal forest direction. Instead of answering my question the phoenix did something familiar, my vision warped for a moment before being replaced with an overhead view of the forest. Calcifer had shared his sight with me again, I stumbled a bit from the sudden disorientating change before I regained my balance and kept walking straight.

The contingent of guards was keeping to the edge of the forest, to our left was the Crystal Forest. It would be harder not to see it, the whole place was almost blinding with how bright it was shining in the sun. It was a forest made entirely of crystal, trees that looked like they were carved out of precious gems of countless colors. Calcifer quickly put my vision back before either of us blinded ourselves from the light. I heard Calcifer give out a cry from above me before he swooped down and tried to land on my back with Falling Star. Falling had to scootch up onto my neck a bit to give Calcifer more room to sit on my flank. The guards had flinched from Calcifer’s cry and sudden landing, eyeing the firebird with hesitation. Faith didn’t react to Calcifer but the other players and Lucky Harvest were caught off guard.

“You have a Phoenix?! I-i mean of course you have one. It’s expected that a sorcerer strong enough to be my rival would have a companion to match his stature, I just haven’t been able to find able to keep up with me” Dark Root quickly tried covered up his surprise at seeing Calcifer… of course that doesn’t mean he stopped staring at Calcifer which I can’t blame him, Calcifer is a very pretty bird. I felt a burst of warmth from Calcifer at the complement. I watched Lucky Harvest step closer to me as she looked closer at Calcifer and said bird gave me a look and sent a question through our bond.

’Do we like her?’ It was an easy question to answer ‘Yes, we do’ that was all Calcifer needed. With a quick flap of their wings Calcifer flew up and over Lucky Harvest’s head and landed on her back, shuffling for a moment before getting comfortable. Lucky froze for a moment as she stared at her new passenger before flicking her eyes over to me. I just gave an amused smile before nodding my consent. A ghost of a smile appeared on Lucky’s face before she stepped away and continued to march with the other players, all of them taking turns petting and cooing over Calcifer… Spoiled bird. I laughed softly at the mental swat I got at that thought. Maybe this march wouldn’t be as long as I thought.

Author's Note

Update in case you haven't seen but I now have a Ko-fi !
I was told (repeatedly) by a friend of mine that I should make one so... there it is.
Buy me a Smoothie
I also post my other drawings and animations on there so you get access to those as well. I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Ch 51: Direction

Author's Note

I'm Alive!!!
.
.
.
or at least I think I am?

Sorry about the abrupt hiatus, life got really busy and I didn't have the time to write this but it's back now :twilightblush:
Sorry if it's a bit rough, gotta get back into the swing of things. I have to reread my work to make sure I remember all the plot lines and abilities correctly.

Ch 51: Direction

I now realize why the contingent of Thestrals didn’t travel through the Crystal Forest, we had finally passed through the thin untouched part of the forest and had to now march around the edge of the brightly glimmering forest. Aside from the fact that the glare coming off of all of the crystal is incredibly annoying, it's because everything in the first is now crystal… that included the grass. Blades of grass turned into blades of glass! It would be like walking on broken glass while going blind! It doesn’t help that I will eventually need to go in there if I'm going to retrieve those shards of Celestia, Luna, and Rarity… sigh, I guess I'm going to have to reinvent sunglasses and really up my shield spell’s level.

All of us had been walking for a few hours now and Faith has tried to speak to me a few times only to be cut off by a well timed squawk by Calcifer. My favorite bird was playing some serious defense for me and I made sure to thank them every time. Being safe on the Faith side of things let me focus on our other surprise companions. Lucky Harvest, The Root Brothers, Slipstream, and River Creek. The four were honestly a relief to have around at a time like this, someone else to hold my attention so I didn’t constantly focus on Faith being near me.

Looking over everyone, they had obviously changed a lot, though that’s obvious with the three players of their group, Lucky Harvest on the other hoof was very much different. Not just in appearance but temperament as well. My last memories of Lucky Harvest were of a mare who was grieving the loss of a parent and coping through violence. Now she’s trotting tall wearing proper leather armor and carrying around a large spear… wait a second. I paused my inner thought and took a closer look at Lucky’s spear. It was a completely different spear made by a proper blacksmith… except for a certain part connected right below the spearhead. It looked like that pipe connector that I had imbued during the invasion… it is! How had that thing survived this long! It should have either stopped working by now or fallen apart, it was never meant to last this long. It’s not an actual enchantment meant for multiple uses…unless. I cast my gaze back down to Lucky, who by now had noticed by gaze and was returning it with a look of her own, had she been blowing up her spearheads then replacing them like during the invasion this whole time?! I slowed my walk slightly so I could come up to Lucky’s right, the conversation between the others went silent at my approach.

“So… You still have a part of that weapon I made you… “ I trailed off, I honestly wasn’t sure how to broach the topic. How do you say ‘That was never supposed to last that long, want me to make you a proper enchanted weapon?’ without sounding too… awkward. Lucky’s eyes seemed to light up at the mention of the spear.

“Yes, I-!” Lucky was cut off almost immediately by the loud yell of the Thestral captain.

“Alright, time to set camp! It’ll be dark soon so let's double time it!” Most of the company pulled away from their previous positions and started to unload tents, backs of supplies, and collect firewood from around the area. The sudden call to action was sudden and unexpected, the sun was still high in the sky so I didn’t still couldn’t really tell what time it was. We had been marching next to a large open field beside the crystal forest that used to be the everfree forest… actually I’m pretty sure that Ponyville would have been in sight if it still existed.

“We should probably help them, we can talk more after okay?” I gave Lucky an apologetic smile before going to join the Thestral soldier in putting up tents. Now that I’m seeing them, I realize that I, nor Morgana, or David have slept in a tent this whole time. The weather since we left the forest has been pretty good and if there was any rain then Morgana would just put up a stone roof for us. I mentally shrugged, Calcifer and I are alright with sleeping under the stars tonight. I got a blanket with me but I doubt the three of us will get cold with both a phoenix and a fluffy lion to sleep next to Falling and I. By the time it was properly night time I had already helped raise three separate tents and help unload some rations to a few soldiers.

“Sir, if you would follow me. I will lead you to your tent” That surprised me, they had a tent ready for me? I’m sure Calcifer felt my surprise as I followed the Captain through the slowly rising sea of tents, I had lost sight of the other players plus Lucky Harvest. The captain led me to what was slowly becoming the center of camp where a sizable bonfire was being built. There was a large pavilion tent put up in front of it with other tents surrounding it. I was expecting the captain to lead me to one of the smaller tents on the edges of the center but instead he walked right up to the center tent and gestured with a hoof for me to enter. I paused before I went in, I didn’t need my sixth sense to know what was going on here. I kept my heavy sigh internal and put a gentle smile on my face before turning to look at a drowsy Falling trying to stay awake on my back.

“Falling~ want me to wake you when the food’s ready?” My soft words pulled Falling back to the waking world and it took him a moment to really understand what I was saying before giving me a sleepy smile and nod. God, he’s adorable when he’s so sleepy. I turned and walked away from the tent without saying a word to the captain. I ignored his surprised and somewhat annoyed expression as I gained some distance from him. Once I was far enough away I mentally reached out for the smaller bond connected to me and summoned my Thunder Lion from the lantern. I heard the captain gasp slightly from behind me as I gently moved Falling from my back to my lion’s much fluffier back. I then mentally questioned Calcifer if they wanted to go with Falling, they thought hard about it. ‘On one hoof’, they explained, ‘you’re probably going to have to deal with Faith in there, on the other you don’t want anyone messing with Falling while he’s asleep… I’ll stay with Falling but call me if something’s wrong’ I nodded along with Calcifer’s reasoning, the two of us have been pretty successful on the whole denial thing we got going on. We’re trying to make it perfectly clear that there is nothing between Faith and I and to keep things strictly professional. I was pretty much keeping David’s advice of ‘you can just leave whenever’ to heart. I don’t have to speak to Faith unless she has pertinent information that could help me save lives… and even then it could wait until we’re actually there to discuss it. It may be pretty juvenile to be constantly cutting her off and ignoring her but… if I have to work with my abusive ex-girlfriend then I'm allowed to be petty when dealing with her.

I sat my bag down and started laying out a few things. The blanket first so everyone could lay down, my cauldron, and a few raw ingredients that I got before we left Canterlot. My bag is a lot emptier now that I'm not carrying David and Morgana’s stuff as well. A quick flex of my magic lit a fire under the cauldron and moments later water condensed out of the air to fill it. Throw in a few spices and vegetables with a bit of hay and voila’ it’s a simmering pot of veggie stew… or it will be after it cooks for a while. David and Morgana taught me a few recipes before we split up. I flicked my eyes up from the pot for a moment and was surprised to see the Thestral captain still standing there watching us. Huh, though he would have left by now. I asked Calcifer to keep the pot cooking while I was gone and stood to head into the tent.

I took a deep breath and relished in a moment of comfort that Calcifer sent my way, before entering the tent. I was slightly surprised to see that the inside of the tent was furnished, to my left was a mini study. A collapsible desk with a few scrolls and tomes, a few storage trunks and barrels. In the middle was a dug out depression in the dirt where I assumed a fire pit would go once finished. And to the right was-

“Nope!” I turned right back around and was about to leave and return to Falling. I felt a pulse of concern from Calcifer as he felt my sudden change in temperament. I sent them a mental image of what I saw. Faith sprawled out on a bed wearing what I could only call a lacy nightgown, waiting for me. I expected her to try something like this sooner or later but not this soon. She’d done this in the past, back when we were together. After we would have a fight or disagreement about me not doing what she wanted she would pull something to this effect. It was in the later half of our relationship that she switched from guilt tripping and threats to… attempted seduction. The alarm Calcifer sent down the bond told me that they were two seconds away from burning down the tent. I told him not to bother as I was leaving immediately, the sound of frantic hooves interrupted me however.

“Wait, I'll admit that was in poor taste! I got a bit… excited” Gone was the prime and proper royal accent, the Faith I remembered was finally dropping the royal personality she was hiding behind. I was tempted to keep walking out but the apologetic tone in her voice stopped me. If there was one thing Faith never did, it was apologize. I’ll give her this chance, if she says ‘I’m sorry’ at any point during this conversation then i’ll at least be cordial with her in front of everyone else.

“I just really wanted to see you again, after I found out that you were here too I just… needed to see you, to talk to you. After we were separated I thought I would never see you again, it’s almost like fate keeps bringing us together… “ A slightly glazed look comes over her as she stares at me, I’m starting to feel very uncomfortable. She blinks suddenly before shaking herself out of whatever stupor she put herself in before continuing to speak. “ I was so lonely while we were apart, you were the only one who really understood me. Without you… everything was just so gray. My life was so hard while we were apart, they treated me like I was less than human. I lost all of my friends, my family would barely even talk to me” A familiar feeling started to grow in my chest, it was a heavy feeling that I unfortunately had a lot of experience with… guilt. Does she really only want to fix things? Is this really just about that and not our past relationship?

“ Once we get back to the Dukedom we can fix everything, everyone will be safe, we’ll be happy again! Of course we’ll have to change a few small things, your hair for starters is way too long, and we’ll have to get rid of this outfit-” and just like that the full force of my magical intent gripped her, her hoof froze in place inches away from the braid Morgana made for me. I’m angry, not only am I angry… I'm disappointed.

“You were so close, we were so close to having a normal, professional, working relationship… but you had to just slip back into your old ways” My words were measured and soft but my intent carried them like a shout. That’s how this all started in the beginning, just a few small changes, no harm. First it was my hair, then my clothes, then what I ate, then my friends, then who I talked to, then where I went. All she wants is complete control over everything I do. I reined in my intent and watched Faith collapse to her knees breathing heavily, I didn’t stop and made sure she was okay. I didn’t leave on a final word or one liner… I just turned and left, because she’s not worth that effort.

I left with nary a word to the captain and went back to my little spot with everyone. Calcifer didn’t need to read my thoughts to know my mood was dark, from where they were nested on the lion’s back they invited me over with a wing. There weren’t any words between us, I just sat down next to them. Calcifer didn’t need me to tell them what Faith had said, they just draped a warm wing around me and tried to comfort me the best they could. I didn’t move out of the hug until the stew was ready to be served, a soft thank you was sent over the bond and I received a nuzzle in return.

I tried my best to shake myself out of my funk, but I couldn’t get rid of all of it so I slapped a smile on my face before I woke up Falling for dinner. We all ate in silence and despite my best efforts, Falling seemed to pick up on my mood as well. I stifled another sigh, this was going to be a long night if I can’t distract myself.

“Arcane Hope! I Challenge you to a duel!” Hello distraction! Trotting up looking slightly frazzled was Lucky Harvest, her mane was slightly sticking up in places and she was already huffing and puffing. I would also like to note that Falling was completely awake now and had gone from nodding off to wide awake at the prospect of watching a magical duel. Running up behind Lucky were the other players, I caught the tail end of something River Creek was yelling at Lucky.“-not what I meant!”

“I accept! … after dinner of course.”

Ch 52: Trial by Combat

Chapter 52: Trial by Combat
Lucky Harvest’s Pov:

It’s finally happening, the moment I was training towards is about to come to pass. Arcane Hope, the savior of my home, the main catalyst to the largest change in my life, the strongest adventurer of his tribe, liberator of the downtrodden… is currently cooking my friends and I dinner. I couldn’t snuff out the flash of embarrassment I felt at my hastiness, I had interrupted the meal Arcane had prepared for Falling Star and his beasts. Speaking of the beasts… I felt my eyes finally be drawn from Arcane’s cooking ‘Stop Staring!’ to the magical beasts he surrounded himself with. He had introduced us to his firebird named Calcifer but I had no idea he commanded a Thunder Lion! Stories involving the fierce beast are still told to foals today to keep them from wandering off to the forest to play.

The delicious smell of vegetable stew made me flinch and quickly look down at the bowl of stew that was being offered to me. I followed the hoof back and felt that flash of embarrassment grow into a bonfire just as hot as the one behind me as I met the questioning silver eyes of Arcane Hope.

“T-thank you… “ I immediately took a gulp of the stew in an effort to throw off the embarrassment… then proceeded to almost spit it back out as I burned my tongue on the still hot broth. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid! You’re acting like a starstruck foal in front of your… your… whatever Arcane is to me! Pull it together mare, control yourself… I looked back up from the bowl and saw the various amused looks everypony was sending me. I saw River out of the corner of my eye gesture slightly at my muzzle. I quickly brought up a hoof and wiped the few rouge streaks of stew from my lips.

“It’s delicious. Thank you again Arcane Hope” Composure fully in place, I once again thanked Arcane for the meal. He gave me a nod in return before turning to the young Falling Star, he was adding something out of a vial to Falling’s bowl. Conversation started to pick up again after my words and for once I was thankful to have the chatterbox that is Dark Root around to fill the silence.

“ A duel against my rival is sure to push you to even greater heights Lucky, though I must warn you to take care against a practitioner of the esoteric arts like Arcane Hope! Clearly he has become much stronger since we parted ways, which is only expected if he’s going to keep up with the likes of I!” It was almost foal's play to tune out Dark Root after all the time I've spent hearing him go off on his… tangents. I did share a moment of sympathy and comradery with Arcane as we traded a look as we pretended to listen to Dark’s prattling. The tension I was carrying melted away quickly after that and for a moment, a very quick moment, I forgot about my challenge to Arcane. That moment was shattered like a fragile glass being dropped onto stone as Falling Star spoke up and interrupted the umpteenth fake exploit Dark Root had concocted.

“Are you and Lucky really going to fight?!” His voice echoed slightly in the dark night and caught the attention of a few Thestral guards that hadn't settled down for the night. I could almost feel every set of eyes on me, waiting for my response. I met Arcane’s silver eyes again from across the fire and felt something inside me clench slightly at the look he was sending me. He was excited, there was no other way of translating Arcane’s look. He was looking forward to this duel just as much as I am. I could feel it starting again, that fire in my chest that I was becoming oh so familiar with. The thrill of a true challenge, of another step towards the goal, I felt a rare smile grow on my face.

“Yes… yes we are” In unison the two of us stood, Arcane turned and gestured with his head for me to follow him. He started to trot off to an open area away from the camp and everypony followed him. When I say everypony, I mean everypony. Every Thestral guard that heard of my challenge stood and followed the two of us at a distance. They didn’t matter to me, I focused on checking my armor’s straps, making sure my spearhead was secure and that I had my backups within reach on my sides. Arcane and I won’t have to worry about having enough light to see, our spectators bought plenty of torches.

“So, first to give up?” I nodded my agreement as Arcane stopped a few yards away and waited for me to get into position before him. It was time. I locked into my stance and leveled my spear, sitting firmly in the crook of my right leg. I leaned forward slightly and readied myself to sprint towards Arcane the moment the duel began. I still remembered the way Arcane fought during the invasion of my home, firing powerful spells into his opponents and using his environments to his advantage. I must close the distance quickly before he has a chance to set the pace.

Hollow Root stepped forward from the sidelines and raised a leg, he would be starting us off. The silence was almost deafening as the two of us watched his leg, the moment it fell I snapped my stare at Arcane. He stared back as still as a statue, not a single glimmer of magic on his horn. While I stared Arcane down, I felt something. That pressure that I had felt following Arcane Hope grew stronger… then stronger. I felt the pressure grow larger and larger around me as I was exposed to the full extent of Arcane’s attention, it grew to the point that I couldn’t stop it. The blink. A split second, I had blinked for only a moment and opened my eyes to see Arcane only hooves away from me. I dodged left out of his direct charge and put myself on the back hoof, something he capitalized on almost immediately as I saw his horn light up and I had the breath pushed out of me as a wall of force sent me flying back. I grit my teeth and forced myself to stab my spear into the ground to stop myself. I couldn’t help the feral grin that took over my face, it was heartening to know that Arcane was taking this duel as seriously as I was.

“I guess I should respond in kind then?” I ripped my spear out of the ground to punctuate my words, then I focused on Arcane’s Gift. That familiar ember of warmth that sat just at the edge of my senses, I poured my will over the ember and watched it burst to life. The spearhead burst into magical fire, the flames themselves almost sharper than the actual blade. I pointed the weapon at Arcane and mentally thanked him for waiting so patiently. I didn’t wait this time, I felt the ground crack as I kicked off the ground in a dead sprint around Arcane’s right. My focus split as I saw Arcane pull the water out of the very grass around him, leaving it floating in a ring around him. I didn’t have to wonder long what its purpose was as a ball of ice shot out of the ring at me. Smashed by a swing of my spear, I had to quickly move into a roll to dodge the next two before popping back up to my hooves and streaking towards Arcane. Slip by one, crush another, slide under another. Leap above the following two and pull back my spear to stab down, only for the ring of water to become a shield of ice between us. Cracks spiderwebbed across the ice dome from the first hit then completely shattered from my following stomp. I stomped down onto dead grass and went for a wide sweep of my spear after it rebounded after the first hit only to finch as Arcane was suddenly right in my face again. I didn’t get a chance to pull away fast enough as he latched out my spear hoof, I didn’t even get a chance to shake him off before my every muscle locked up.

I was barely able to throw him away before the strongest sparks got to me, I reset my stance and launched myself at him before he got too far away. I didn’t throw him far, Three thrust, three slices of fire streaking straight for him. I kept up my chase, I didn’t expect those to do much. Arcane rolled to his hooves and caught sight of the blasts as I launched myself up into the air. Ever since Dark Root explained to me what a ‘Dragoon’ was, this move had become a staple of mine. Directly above Arcane I pointed my spear down and put all of my strength behind it to stab down as he was occupied with my blasts. I was expecting him to block them like my last attack, instead the three fire blasts froze in the air much to my surprise. I watched Arcane look up and meet eyes with me, that was my only warning to abandon my attack and bring my spear up to defend. Instantly my attack changed course, streaking up into the air and slamming into me. Twice now was the breath knocked out of me and twice now I was trying to land safely and return to attacking.

Fire wouldn’t be my ally in this fight and I was a fool to think so, I crashed to the ground behind Arcane in a cloud of dust and tried to shake off the damage inflicted to me. I was covered in minor burns and bruises from the fall, I pushed through the pain and charged forward. Arcane’s eyes widened seeing me charge out of the dust cloud so quickly and I capitalized on it, a flurry of burning jabs was sent his way. The first was sidestepped, the second was ducked, the third was deflected off of a conjured shield, the fourth was where everything changed. My spear reached him, he had sidestepped again but not far enough. I could see it almost in slow motion, the tip of my blade slowly approaching his withers. I even started to see the barest hints of his coat being singed… then all I saw were the stars. I blinked in confusion… I don’t remember lying down.

“Are you awake? I hit you a bit too hard there, I'm sorry… “ There leaning over me was Arcane Hope with a roll of pink tinted bandages floating nearby. Awake? Weren’t we in the middle of our duel! I went to push myself up only to stop immediately from the aching pain in my head. I felt Arcane put a hoof to my shoulder as he gently helped me back up to my haunches, I felt him wrap some of the bandages around my head. I felt my thoughts getting clearer, I had lost… hadn’t I? I can’t even remember how it happened, it was so… instant. I felt my chest tighten, I knew I most likely wasn’t going to win but…

“Lucky… are you alright?” I slowly looked back up at Arcane Hope, the whole reason I'm even here, and wondered why he looked so concerned for me? “ … You’re crying” I brought a sore hoof up and felt my face. Huh, I'm crying… so that’s what the tightness in my chest means. I’m disappointed in myself. I had trained so hard, fought so much, dragged my new friends out to the middle of nowhere all to chase… him. I didn’t stop the self deprecating laugh that came out following those thoughts. My disappointment quickly turned to anger, not pointed at Arcane but at myself. For even thinking that the ponies who fought by my side, ate beside me, supported me even when I was being single minded and cold would ever consider joining me to follow my goals was an issue. If I already wasn’t in pain then I would hit myself for even daring to feel this way. I felt my mood do a quick about face as I really felt the gap in power and skill between Arcane Hope and I. I was quick to wipe the remaining tears from my eyes and looked up to see Arcane offering me a hoof up, I took it. Arcane looked happier seeing me in better spirits and this time… this time the words came naturally.

“ I may not be strong enough yet, but I will be. I may not have enough power yet to stand by your side, but I'll have it one day. With my friends by my side I’ll continue to grow until the day we have our rematch and I can earn the right to be with you… but until then… I guess this will do” I kissed him, a small quick peck on the lips, but a kiss nonetheless. I ignored the gasps behind me as I pulled away and watched Arcane’s surprised expression. I felt a bit of pride there, the first time I caught Arcane Hope off guard. The warmth in my chest overpowered my soreness as I turned and grabbed my spear off of the ground before trotting my way back to camp. I may have lost our first duel but I walked away feeling more driven than ever, now I know what Arcane Hope is to me. I locked eyes with Lunar Glory on the way back, she had seen everything and was far from happy about it. He’s my future, one that I’m more than willing to fight for.

Author's Note

Okay... I'm going to be honest here. I don't know if I did a good job or not fleshing out Lucky's whole confused crush/rival thing she had going for a while towards Markus/Arcane Hope but I kinda like the direction it's taking. I have only wrote romance once before and it was nothing like this so... we're all learning out here :twilightblush:

Also I hope you liked the duel scene, I actually rewrote it a few different times and this was the one I was most satisfied with. At first I wanted it to be a closer flight until I realized that the level difference would be way too big. I would say that the average skill level wise of an average trained pony would be around 3-4 with Lucky on the lower end of that spectrum due to the fact that she started her adventuring and fighting career later in life. This measure doesn't really work for players as they have the accelerated growth of their systems. To compare I would put the Thestral soldiers at around 5 - 6 if they've made a career out of it. Of course there are many outliers to this as magic and Cutie Marks are a real force multiplier.

Edit: Wow, I keep coming back here... I just wanted to share the new art of the main four:

Ch 53: Darwinism

Author's Note

I would like to quickly apologize for the wait for this chapter, especially after saying that I was back and that I would be posting more.
It would just be my luck that right after I saying that I would post more that something happens... thankfully it's not a bad thing!
My sibling just got engaged! Which means that I have to help them with whatever they need for a while until they calm down and set a date.
I love my family but... they can be exhausting, still love them though.

Anyway, back to the show!

Ch 53: Darwinism

Chapter 53: Darwinism

Arthur’s PoV:

I felt the disgusted expression that I had grown familiar with form on my face as I watched the pony beneath my claw writhe in agony. His screams and pleas for mercy went ignored while I watched the muscles under his skin squirm and snap underneath his skin. I lifted my claw and wiped the blood and other fluids on the clothes of the rapidly unraveling body. Another flash of annoyance at the screams popped up, he asked for this and yet he’s too weak to follow through on his boasts. I didn’t spare the corpse another glance as I turned to leave, this was the fifth one today that had utterly failed to make themselves useful. They didn’t even have the balls to become something useful like the others.

I stepped past one of the shambling piles of flesh and fang that used to be one of my bandits, at least beasts like this can be set on my enemies. I felt the mass of flesh brush past my feathers and with an easy flick of my tail I sent careening off the wooden walkway. I watched the damned creature give off an annoying shriek as it broke through the forest canopy and plummeted down into the abyss below. My glare swung up and pinned down anyone who had an issue with what I did, the hanging platforms were full of beings that couldn’t truly be called ponies anymore. Disgusting creatures mixed with a hodgepodge of other monsters, and that’s just what they all were now, monsters. I glared back into the defiant eyes of a diamond dog mixed with a giant spider, I could feel my [Dominance] skill turning on the longer the stare down went on.

I was about to put the upstart in his place when movement from my left stole my attention, another diamond dog. This one I had improved with the scales of a lizard and wings of a bat, he rushed forward and grabbed his defiant upstart of a friend by the arm. He yanked his friend behind him before turning to me and quickly falling into a low bow and muttering his apologies for his friend. I felt my anger dissuade slightly when I saw the bowing and scraping from the lizard mutant, I'll let him go this time. With a derisive snort I gestured for them to leave, which the two took as their chance to sprint away. I don’t want to waste any more time on these people when I have too little already.

I pushed past all in my path and didn’t care if I was bumping them off into the abyss below. After a few twists and turns I took a staircase up to the trunks of the trees and entered the dark entrance into the stone roof. The sound of screeching and snarling drew almost deafening as I passed cage after cage of creature and abomination, I felt my steps pick up in speed. The sound of the snarling creatures grew quiet as more and more cages started to go empty and ahead I could see the moving cart being pulled by one of the only creatures here who’s opinion actually is useful to me. The cart wasn’t as full as usual, not as many useful parts this time around, I eyed a few half formed wings or claws. I felt my single wing twitch from annoyance as I remembered how angry I was at my stupid [Evolve] skill not being strong enough to give me two actually functioning wings, it’s always the same thing that’s stopping me from improving… magic. Unicorn magic, pegasus magic, hell even Earth pony magic had deserted me.

A full body ache sparked up for a moment before I stamped it down, it took a lot of blood and a lot of pain to replace my strength and not all of it my own. I still don’t know what level I need my [Evolve] still at to be able to take magic but I will get it. I stepped past the cart and refocused on the one pulling it. When I first found them trapped in ice I thought they were just a normal unicorn, I was moments away from killing them and trying to steal their magic when I noticed the scales. A kirin, frozen in ice, the only reason why I hadn’t killed them and stolen their physical abilities is because they can apparently see the future. This ability of theirs is the reason why they were imprisoned in the first place.

“It’s almost time isn’t it” They got the first word, their bright orange eyes almost glowing in the dark. At first I didn’t believe their claims of being able to see the future, but every time they have given me a clue or hint of the future it has been right. Officially they are the most useful follower I have, but I'll never tell them that. I couldn’t help the ruthless smile that grew over my face as I spoke next.

“She’s on her way here, like you said” My sister, the previously useless deadweight that I had to get rid of before she dragged me down has now become a powerful warrior. Someone who is far from useless now, my feelings towards my sister Morgana are complicated. For once I'm actually proud of her for actually doing something with her life, but on the other hand I'm just as furious at her for daring to be doing so well when she’s the one who dragged us into this whole mess.

“You said that I would finally get stronger if I faced my sister again, if you’re wrong about this… I will make you regret ever leaving that ice” My threat didn’t seem to even affect the Kirin as a mocking laugh spilled out of them.

“Child, everything will change after you face your sister. I swear upon my name as Pythia~”

Markus PoV:

In hindsight, I probably should have asked Spike what he meant by ‘Greenlands’ when he mentioned it instead of letting him gloss over it. I wasn’t alone as I stared up agog at the building sized blade of grass then back down at the distant horizon where what I could only call a forest of grass stood. I… don’t even know what to say about this, it was like I walked onto the set of ‘honey, I shrunk the kids!’ All of us, even the soldiers, were currently taking a break after marching for hours after waking up.

I felt my face heat up as I thought about last night, Lucky had kissed me! I’m still having… so many emotions over that. The first and foremost is that the same aversion that I usually had from forward flirting and the like is concerningly absent when it comes to Lucky Harvest. It doesn’t help that after the kiss Lucky just went right back to business as usual, she was just as casual with me as she was before except for the fact that she wants to train with me more and maybe pick my brain about fire magic for her spear work. The teasing from everyone else didn’t help either, it seemed that seeing me flustered broke the dam between me and the other players that traveled here with Lucky.

First Jesus (Slipstream) kept teasing me about how I blue screened after Lucky kissed me, then Mason (Hollow Root) kept giving me these smug looks that pretty much says it all. Calcifer has started to refer to Lucky as ‘Mom’ jokingly but it still turned me red either way and it really doesn't help that Falling is so supportive of Lucky Harvest and I getting together. He’s known her pretty much his whole life and has even been babysat by her a few times in the past, with all the glowing stories about her and all the teasing. It's no wonder I become a blushing mess around her now. Then the worst happened, Laura, River Creek, the most reasonable person in the group… tried to give me the shovel talk.

“We need to talk” It was only a few hours after the whole… kiss debacle that Laura approached me. Almost everyone had fallen asleep by now except for Laura and I… for obvious reasons. I stepped away from Falling and my two summons and quickly reassured Calcifer that nothing was wrong when he woke up briefly. We stepped away from everyone, far enough that we wouldn’t wake them up with our words. I was honestly expecting something serious if it couldn’t wait until tomorrow.

“Is something wro-”

“If you hurt Lucky, I swear to whatever being up there that people won’t not stop finding your body” The sudden threat caught me so off guard that the first thing to pop into my head was

“Isn’t it phrased ‘won’t find’ my bod-”

“I know what I said, if you hurt Lucky after she’s come this far to try and be with you. People will not stop finding parts of your body, I will make sure that pieces of you will be found all over the world for years to come. Do you understand me?” My frantic nod was quick to follow the expanded threat and just as quickly did Laura go from threatening to smiling and cheery.

“Good! Now you better invite me to the wedding, I always wanted to be a bridesmaid” and with those parting words Laura stepped around me and went back to bed… it was safe to say that I didn’t get much sleep that night.

I shook myself out of the memory as I could hear every pony around me starting to pack up and get ready for our first foray into the Greenlands. Well… the players first foray, the thestrals have done this already probably many times in the past. I made sure to fix my armor and bag securely before I turned to Falling Star and Calcifer. My lion was currently in the lantern as I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t going to wander off. I was actually able to convince a thestral soldier to lend me a dagger that I gave, hesitantly, to Falling Star. He’s still not in good enough shape to be walking alone but just in case I had him strap it to his side. I’m going to have to get used to giving this child weapons aren’t I? Calcifer was ready for anything and was simply preening while he waited.

Lucky Harvest was nearby and once I was able to get over myself for a moment around her, I re-enchanted her spear so it didn’t have a chance of exploding every time she used it. The heartfelt thanks I got from her set my blushing off all over again and left my face feeling like it was on fire while I ran inventory over my bag. I had my two flasks filled with healing tincture and water respectively, the book of rituals, the obvious food supplies, my small cauldron, that book on alchemy by Pinkie Pie’s sister Maud, and Ozymandias’ mask. Which is a lot for one person to be carrying, which is why I made my first real enchanted item besides Lucky’s spear.

Enchanting Complete!

Enchanted Bag of Holding: Enchanted with Space magic to both be slightly bigger on the inside and weigh less, this beginner enchantment was created by Arcane Hope using pure spell work and no assisting materials.

Rarity: 3/10 (A step in the right direction)

All of us were ready, the Greenlands are the largest hurtle between all of us and the Lunar Dukedom. With a deep breath I took the first step into the towering undergrowth, trotting past towering flowers and titanic grass blades. I started to wonder what would come our way next.

Chapter 37: The End of One Journey (Part 1)

Chapter 37: The end of one Journey (Part 1)

Markus PoV:

The three of us trotted down the road almost in complete silence only accompanied by the clopping of our newly shod hooves that rang out into the air. Another shudder ripped down my spine and jostled me from my mindless trot. Morgana was trotting next to me and was staring off into the middle distance just as rattled as I was. David was actually trotting a good few feet away from us, he was still slightly crispy from ‘The Incident’. The memory Calcifer and I shared flashed down our bond, Calcifer and I merged into that harpy thing again and perched on top of the forge hissing and flinging cinders at anyone who came close, Morgana frozen staring horrified at the nail sticking out of her hoof, David repeatedly banging his head into a wooden support beam as the blacksmith’s wife rattled off hoof care tips to him, and the blacksmith himself laughing the whole time while trying to pull me off the forge.

For a moment I felt bad for leaving so quickly, but that feeling was quickly overshadowed by the memory of malicious glee on the blacksmith’s face as he held me down and hammered on the shoes. Calcifer was the one who shivered this time, I was incredibly aware of the feeling of the horseshoes clopping against the old paved stone road. That was quite possibly the worst experience I’ve had here in equestria and that's really something coming from me.

The feeling of my mind being overridden by Calcifer’s instincts was incredibly jarring but not as alarming as it should have been. Calcifer apologized again in my mind, feeling incredibly guilty for accidentally taking control. I let a bemused smile grow on my face and gave Calcifer a quick scratch under his chin and told him once again that I forgave him already. This might actually be a good time to practice this whole merging thing I can do. Calcifer sent me a flash of excitement at the thought of merging with me again, he wanted to fly with me. Though I will need a teacher… I clippity-clopped up next to the crispy David and tried to not look sheepish at the sight of his singed fur.

“Hey bud… wanna teach me how to fly?” My question was quite possibly the last thing he was expecting as he whipped his head around so hard I'm pretty sure I heard his neck crack. His previously blank expression immediately turned excited and maybe slightly mischievous much to my chagrin. We collectively decided to take a break on the side of the road and practice, Morgana had happily created a ring of soft dirt for us to practice on, then promptly created a nice stone recliner for her to relax on and watch me fail. I remembered that Calcifer doesn’t cost any mana to keep summoned anymore so I summoned my thunder lion to get some experience and hangout with Morgana, much to her glee.

At first I couldn’t figure out how to merge with Calcifer on my own, every time it happened it was Calcifer that initiated it. David sat to the side making a few clouds as landing pads and waiting for us to figure this out. Calcifer sent me his memories of each time we merged and was just as confused as it was almost instant and in times of stress. I reached over and softly swaddled my warm bird in my hooves and focused on what I felt the first time. Calcifer’s warmth matched the same warm feeling I get when we merge but we were still separate… At least Calcifer was enjoying the hug. I took a deep breath to calm myself and focused on the bond between Calcifer and I. Compared to the connection we had before he evolved it was like looking at the mental equivalent of a steel pillar or a wide open freeway, almost unbreakable and completely clear.

I felt Calcifer’s feathers grow warmer as the two of us flexed our bond. Calcifer's thoughts and feelings were so clear it was almost like they were in my own hea- “Markus?!” David’s voice snapped us out of our internal introspection, he was standing in front of us and looking over us in amazement, much to our confusion. I looked down at my- no… our body and was happy to see that we had succeeded. I was back in my harpy form, not only had my body changed but my clothes and armor as well. My slightly tattered forest green cloak was covered in swooping and swirling filigree made out of what could only be black soot, my leather chestplate was absolutely covered in the stuff and had turned completely black. I crossed my eyes and looked at the few feathers that were dangling down into my vision, speaking of vision I could suddenly see everything in extreme HD.

We were about to celebrate succeeding until our body reminded us that we weren’t exactly stable at the moment, I’m pretty sure I squawked as I lost my balance and fell. Whatever gravity the moment had was lost the moment we fell, I chose to ignore David and Morgana’s giggling and tried to push myself to my hooves using my wings… and failed. Calcifer’s frustration made me make a low rumbling chittering noise as I continued to fail standing up. It didn’t help that whenever I tried to push myself up I just pushed myself forward through the soft dirt. The combination of light, hollow bones of a bird and the muscle mass of a mammal made it really easy to push myself around. I was incredibly floaty and almost jittery for the amount of energy I had… I don’t think I'm gonna be flying any time soon.

It took the rest of the day just for me to figure out how to keep my balance and walk and even then it was still touch and go. Calcifer and I promised each other that we would figure it out, until then I would be practicing my potions while we got ready to eat dinner. We probably made an odd sight with two separate fires, David and Morgana were preparing the food while I was waiting for the water in my cauldron to start boiling. Calcifer quickly grew bored with watching water boil and decided to go and take a nap on the fluffy fur of the thunder lion.

I reviewed the only two recipes that I knew, The Lesser Healing Tincture and the Annealed Flask. I had to remind myself that this wasn’t chemistry, to make the tincture I would need some food or biological matter that’s high in nutrients. It doesn’t specify what kind of food in particular so I just went with any food as long as it can nourish you. The next ingredient is raw unaspected magic, just douse the whole pot in the stuff and make sure it’s completely saturated in it. I had a bit of trouble with this at first as my magic wanted to automatically aspect into fire, the last step would be to stir the cauldron while chanting until the color changes and then let it boil down into a sludge.

“Chanting what?” That was the part that stumped me the most, I would have to chant some kind of incantation over the cauldron or else it won’t work. The only issue with that is… the recipe didn’t give me a chant. This could barely be called a recipe as is, the only physical part of the recipe is the whole nutritional and that's a whole other thing all on its own. I could throw freaking grass in this thing and it would still count! Maybe it’s because this is a lesser tincture and not a more complicated one, I might get an actual recipe at later levels. I sighed all my frustration out and got over it, the water was boiling now and I wasn’t expecting to really succeed on my first try here.

Instead of listening to the tiny voice in the back of my head telling me to dump grass in the pot, I dumped in two of our extra hay ration bars… they won’t be missed. The dry bars of hay quickly began to dissolve in the boiling water, I had to stop and focus for a moment to make sure my mana stayed unaspected as I fed it into the brew. The boiling cauldron quickly began to bubble and foam as my silver mana slowly sank into it. The bubbles and foam started to glow silver from my magic saturating it, now came the part I was most confused about but I was going to try anyway… might as well have some fun with it. I willed the fire under the cauldron to flare out and let the smoke waft around me.

“ Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Filet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.”

“What… ?! I think I did pretty good!” David and Morgana had stopped cooking and were staring at me as I finished my ‘chant’ if you could even call it that. I didn’t stop stirring the cauldron as my two friends started to laugh at me, I was actually pretty proud of myself for remembering that from Macbeth. I had only read it once for an assignment back in my first year of college and never picked it up since. I will admit I got a bit too into the chant, I went full witch while chanting. Hoof waving, swirling smoke, I even made the fire under the cauldron turn silver. It was completely ridiculous and I loved it. David and Morgana’s laughter abated as I watched the swirling silver liquid slowly brighten and turn… pink.

“Well, that doesn’t look right” I was debating just tossing the mixture but in the end I decided to just let it boil down. I might level my Cauldron Crafting skill by letting it finish even though it’s not quite… correct. I left my fire and went over to the cooking fire to eat with everyone. The four of us were in pretty high spirits, we were on the last leg of our journey. Tomorrow we should be able to see Mt. Canter once we’re past the ridge and should reach it in only a few hours, I was actually excited to see all the other players and to find out what's going on. I went over all the things we needed to ask and tell the other players, there’s the guild, that group of lunatics “the Book of Hours”, finding out what’s up with the Equestria we’re in. I wonder if any other players had to fight giant monsters like we have… or maybe we really are cursed.

Morgana was looking forward to seeing Canterlot, she did mention that she wanted to see if any other players were earthbenders like her. David was wondering what we would do after our journey and his question caught me off guard.

“Seriously…what’s the next step after this? The first thing we did was set up the guild, done. Then we set out to meet up with the other players, almost done. We’re probably gonna send them to join our guild or spread their own guilds all around, what next. We still need to find out how to get home… “ David’s tone was almost apologetic as he laid out his worries, his splash of realism dampened our mood slightly but we knew he was right. We need to think of what to do next.

“Well… we do have Keeper and his network! We could ask him and… wait until he finds something?” Morgana was trying, we didn’t have enough information to really have a good place to start looking. We do know that the ‘Book of Hours’ are other humans from the past that were brought here before us, maybe we could start a search for them. There’s also my goddess, but she doesn’t really seem to like the idea of us going home. I’m already stuck here, that’s probably why I haven’t been thinking about leaving… I still haven’t told David and Morgana that I can’t leave.

“About that… remember how I never finished telling you everything about me back at the house before we left?” The mood before my words was barely above hopeful, after I spoke them however the mood plummeted. The three of us were silent as we were reminded of the moment that happened. I had stopped right after the spirit gave me my cutie mark and the revelation had stopped me just before the last bombshell.

“There’s one more thing that I need to tell you, it was after I got captured. You already know that the sp- that my goddess can rewind time when she needs to, well… Calcifer didn’t save me the first time. Ozzy was seconds away from snapping my horn off my head and I screamed for help… and my goddess answered. She gave me a deal, she would rewind time and give me some help and in return… I had to give up my ability to leave equestra” I couldn’t look at them, I felt ashamed of myself for being too weak. I risked a glance at them and glimpsed the horrified face of David and a teary-eyed Morgana.

“Even if we do find a way back, I won’t be able to come with you… I'm sorry, but I didn’t want to hide this from you”

Author's Note

The Set-up is almost complete, it's about time to get these irons in the fire. Are you ready my dear?

... I'm Scared, I've never been scared before

It's all going to be alright little one, soon everything will be as it should.

What if he doesn't like me... what if he rejects me?

There's no need to fear, once he reaches the threshold he will seek you out all on his own

Threshold?

Yes... He will come to realize just how empty he really is, he will see that he is... incomplete

[Status Screen]

Author's Note

This list will be updated whenever a new chapter comes out so if you want to know all of their skills then check back regularly :pinkiehappy:

Current Update Chapter 51

New Art Added

[Status Screen]

Skill levels: Fledgling: 0-5 → Adept: 5-20 → Journeyman: 20-35 → Master: 35-50 → Alicorn:50-100

Up to date:

Name: Markus/Arcane Hope Lv:10

Profession: Witch: Lv.2

Title: True Mage: Your Mana has a physical effect on others

Health: Healthy

Mana: Full

Stamina: Full

SP Available: 8

Physical Skills→

Magical Skills→

Social Skills→

Physical Skills:

Journeyman Coordination: Grants the bearer increased stamina and make their movements much more nimble and surehoofed

Skill Level 28: 67.89%

Cost: 2 SP

Adept Enchant: The ability to place a long lasting magical effect onto an object at the cost of the user's mana or a corresponding component. The intensity of the enchantment depends on the durability of the targeted object and the amount of needed components and their quality

Higher skill level will offset the needed durability of targets and lower needed components

Can be used in conjunction with other skills for higher output

Skill Level 9: 65.60%

Cost: Unavailable

Adept Cauldron Crafting: Gives the ability to craft various objects ranging from potions to magical artifacts. The only limit is your imagination and you ingredients

Requirements: Cauldron

Known Recipes: Annealed Flask, Lesser Healing Tincture, Tincture of Satiety, Blank Poppet, Poppet of Protection, Witching Eye

Skill Level 11: 4.82%

Cost: Unavailable

Passive Skills:

Well Learned - New skills and Spells now begin at mid-Adept, studying spellforms take half as much time to learn.

Passive Level 8: 9.28%

Adept Herbalism: Gives the user the passive skill of identifying plants

Skill Level 5: 6.02%

Cost: 1 Sp

Magic Skills:

Cutie Mark: I art thou, thou art I: Your body and soul are intrinsically connected

to the forces of magic making you gifted in its manipulation and creation

Effect 1: Magical Manipulation and creation is boosted immensely when not following a known spell form

Effect 2: Merger: Magic is a part of you in more ways than one - Active skill

Effect 3: heightened effect in Artificery and Enchantment

Master Mana Control: Gives the bearer basic control over their magic and

bestows the lowest forms of magic Levitation and Beam Attack

Further levels in this skills will improve mana efficiency and potency

Skill Level 45 : 6.07%

Cost: 3 SP

Phoenix Familiar Summon: An immortal creature of legend that is said to be reborn from the ashes whenever it dies

Is one of the few creatures in existence that completely embodies an element

Primary Element: Fire

Secondary Element: Neutral Mana

Mana Draw: None

Your summon is now a living creature that can generate its own mana, though that doesn’t mean you can’t help out

It is your creatures choice if it wishes to continue its training, further elements and skills may be learned through diligent practice

Skill Level: Max

Journeyman Thunder Lion Summon: A deadly creature that is spoken of in both

terror and reverence, worshiped as a sort of protecting spirit by most pegasus

tribes this creature is able to harness the power of lightning and strike down its

prey before they even know what has happened

Mana Cost: Medium

Skill Level 25: 4.65%

Be warned, the slaying of a Thunder Lion is a mark of strength in most cultures

and the knowledge of your kill may attract challengers or dissenters

Adept Blink: The users sends out a arcane marker to a location within sight then is

rapidly sent to the desired location

The user is still physical during this process so any obstructions with cancel the

spell and depending on the distance traveled might damage the user

Current Range Limit: 150ft

Limit can be raised with higher levels or with supplementary skills

Mana Cost: Small

Skill Level 14: 11.01%

Cost: 1 Sp

Master Fire Magic Control: Gives the bearer basic control over the the

primordial magic of fire and bestows the lowest forms of fire magic fire bolt and ember imbuement

Further levels in this skills will improve magic efficiency and power

Skill Level 35: 22.01%

Cost: 3 SP

Adept Lighting Manipulation: Gives the bearer power over the slippery element of lightning

bestows the lowest forms of lightning magic Spark shock and Electric Imbuement

Further levels in this skills will improve mana efficiency and potency

Skill Level 8: 02.10%

Cost: 1 SP

Adept Solar Manipulation: Gives the bearer power over the unstable and unknowable elements of the stars

Bestows the spell forms Solar flare, Sunlight, and fission

Further levels in this skill will improve mana efficiency and potency

Skill Level 8: 33.23%

Cost: 1 SP

Adept Hydromancy: Grants almost complete control over one of the primordial elements, the element known to bring life and take it away at the same time

Gives control over most states of water and allows the user to learn Water-aspect spells

Aspected Spells Discovered: Hot Spring, Healing Spring, Dark Depths, Refrigerate

Further levels will improve mana efficiency and unlock more Aspected Spells

Skill Level 15: 34.57%

Cost: 3 Sp

Adept Spatial Magic: Your magic has reached levels that many only dream of achieving, able to affect the very fabric of reality. Impose your will on the world itself and prove that you are no simple mage.

Skill Level 9: 00.12%

Cost: 2 Sp

Astral Imbuement: Allows the unstable enchantment and combination of items and magic

Skill Level Max

Fragment Passive Skill

Elements: Fire, Lightning, Solar, Water, Space

Adept Cleansing Spell: Even cleanliness is an artform in of itself

Banishes all unwanted stains and messings

Can also be used to clean wounds and fragile objects

Mana Cost: Negligible

Further levels in this skills will improve mana efficiency and potency

Skill Level 18: 61.38%

Cost: 1 SP

Journeyman Shield Spell: Gives the user the ability to create defensive constructs

Shape and Structural Integrity partially depends on user

With gain strength and flexibility with levels

Mana Draw: Variable

Skill Level 21: 33.33%

Cost: 1 SP

Adept Commune: Let’s the user speak with the esoteric forces that surrounds them

Mana Draw: Low

Skill Level 5: 0.00%

Cost: 1 Sp

Adept Bind: Gives the user the ability to bind spirits to the physical plane for a chance to bargain or commune

Mana Draw: Medium

Skill Level 5: 0.00%

Cost: 1 Sp

Adept Banish: Gives the user the ability to send unwanted spirits or summoned creatures away to the immaterial plane

Mana Draw: High

Skill Level 5: 0.00%

Cost: 1 Sp

Further skills can be unlocked at higher Profession Levels

Dark Magic:

Adept Curse: Bind the Soul. Hold the Mind. Brand A Promise. Keep their Lives

Skill Level 5: 0.00%

Cost: 1 Sp

Journeyman Shadow Tendril: Bestows the acolyte minor power over the domain of

shadows along with granting a boon of increased strength and dexterity when used within the shadows themselves

Mana use: Moderate

Level 30: 17.02%

Corruption Chance: 4% - 3% + Cutie Mark with magic affinity = 0%

Cost: 3 SP

Ritual Magic: How else would you give me offerings? I’ll take anything magically

inclined or esoteric enough to fit my tastes and if they meet my standards you

might be rewarded

Skill Level 2: Requires research to level

Conduit Spell Form -If Skill level is high enough then allows the user to use other

magic types in ritual form if enough research is done

Social Skills:

6th Sense: Passively grants the user near supernatural level senses

Will actively warn user of danger or of item of interest

The wielder will get a certain feeling about topics or people that warrant

further investigation

Can be used in conjunction with other special skills

Intrinsic Skill: only you and those of your bloodline can develop this skill

Skill Level: Max

Passive/Active Cost: Non/Negligible

Can be boosted with mana to added cost

Mana Boost Cost: Medium

Adept Persuasion: Unicorns are naturally charismatic and will attract others passively, grants the user the ability to bring others to your side, works passively and actively

Passive/Active Stamina use: None/Small

Level 16: 98.17%

Name: Morgana/Rose Point Lv:10

Profession: Life Saver: Lv.1

Title: Earthbender (+1 Level to Earth Manipulation as long as Title is on)

Health: Healthy

Mana: Full

Stamina: Full

SP Available: 7

Physical Skills→

Magical Skills→

Social Skills→

Physical Skills:

Journeyman Coordination: Grants the bearer increased stamina and make their movements much more nimble and surehoofed

Skill Level 30: 2.79%

Cost: 1 SP

Sturdy: Earth Ponies are born just as unshakable as earth they’re named after

the user passively gains a slight increase in health and strength

Skill Level: Max

Passive Skill Only

Fledgling Resuscitate: The ability to breath life back into an unconscious target, can be done using both physical means and magical

Skill Level 1: 0.00%

Cost: 1 Sp

Crafting Skills:

Adept Weaving: Allows the use of dry grasses and sticks as crafting material

Prior Skill acknowledged

Skill Level 15: 57.2%

Cost: 4 SP

Fledgling Compounding: Allows the user to create life saving compounds that can have a myriad of effects.

Current Recipes: Heart’s Survival Powder

Skill Level 1: 0.00%

Cost: Unavailable

Magic Skills:

Journeyman Mending Touch: Using your innate nature magic you can heal any small wounds

that you touch, this spell cannot regrow limbs yet

Skill Level 22: 19.07%

Cost: 3 SP

Adept Herbalism: Gives the user the passive skill of identifying plants

Prior Skill Acknowledged

Skill Level 20: 02.11%

Cost: 4 Sp

Master Earth Manipulation: Gives the user control over the the vary element

of earth to varying degrees

Skill Level 37: 47.64%

Cost: 3 Sp

Adept Channeling: Gives the user the ability to connect and commune with nature

Lowers Nature related skill costs and increases Nature skill efficiency as long as skill is active

Current Channeling level requires user to not be moving to activate and to have contact with desired aspect of nature

Passive Skill

Mana Cost: None

Skill Level 21: 61.28%

Will activate whenever user is still

Cost: 3 Sp

Social Skills:

Adept Mediator: Some creatures want to start fights, you want to end them

The user has a higher chance of ending a conflict between two intelligent beings

Can be used at the same time as other social skills

Prior Skill Acknowledged

Skill Level: 10: 02.77%

Cost: 1 SP

Friendship Skills:

Kindness: “Sometime we all need to be shown a little kindness”

For when all looks dark and everyone needs help to see the light

Name: David/Nimbus Lv:10

Profession: Aspiro Artificer: Lv.2

Title: The Living Storm

Health: Healthy

Mana: Full

Stamina: Full

SP Available: 8

Physical Skills→

Magical Skills→

Social Skills→

Physical Skills:

Adept Coordination: Grants the bearer increased stamina and make their movements much more nimble and surehoofed

Skill Level 21: 51.34%

Cost: 2 SP

Journeyman Sword Mastery: Grants the user the beginning skills need to wield a blade

Blade must be longer than than 24” or 60 cm to count as a sword, anything below that falls under the knife/dagger category

Skill Level 28: 18.42%

Cost: 4 SP

Adept Hurricane Style: Forged through strife and desperation, this fighting style shows it’s full potential when the user is faced with insurmountable odds

Decreases Stamina use over time

Attack speed and strength rises when faced with an overpowering force

Fight with the strength and speed of a hurricane

Lightning and wind fight by your side

Passive/Active Skill

Active Skill: Fly Into The Storm!

Effect:???

Skill Level 5: 1.40%

Sp Cost: Unavailable

Magic Skills:

Sky Affinity: Pegasus have a natural connection to the sky and it’s magics, gives a natural boost to flight based or sky related skills

Allows the user to touch and mold clouds like clay

Skill Level: Max

Journeyman Cloud Control: Allows the user to mold and shape clouds to the users will

Beginner levels allows for the following constructs: Clouds, Rain, Squall, Fog

Mana Cost: Minimal

Skill Level 24: 32.25%

Cost: 2 Sp

Master Pegasus Flight: The flight of a Pegasus is naturally magical as it is

physically impossible, while the strength of the user wings can improve flight ability so can magical training

Stamina Cost: Small-Moderate

Skill Level 40: 01.32%

Cost: 4 Sp

Fledgling Cloud Tinkering: Allows the magical molding and shaping of cloud matter into various artificial objects and tools that could rival that of their solid cousins

Current Recipes: Nimbus Grenade, Fog Bomb

Skill Level 5: 88.10%

Cost: Unavailable

Social Skills:

Adept Sunny Attitude: Your bright energetic outlook on life make others more likely to be nice to you, though this will make threats dislike you easier

Skill Level 18: 11.06%

Cost:1 Sp

Friendship Skills:

Loyalty: “Even after all the fighting and strife, I’ll still be there right by your side”

You stand by your friends through thick and thin and are stronger for it

Current Art:

Character List:

Players:

Human name: Markus
Pony name: Arcane Hope
Species: Unicorn
Profession: Witch
Bio: College student turned magical unicorn, Markus does his best to not show how out of his depth he is, and in the end made everyone think he is a powerful mage. Markus dives right into any kind of magic in an effort to survive the rough world he found himself in. Markus has only recently begun to open himself up to his new friends and is now focused on keeping himself together long enough to unravel the mystery surrounding their transference. Has recently revealed his history of abuse with the other player known as Faith.

Human Name: Morgana
Pony Name: Rose Point
Species: Earth Pony
Profession: Life Saver
Bio: The 18 year old twin of Arthur or Sanguine Point, she was abandoned by her twin within the timber woods for lacking in any perceived strength. Now Morgana is a part of quite possibly the strongest team of Players on a mission to join up with other wayward groups of Players. Morgana decide to use this adventure as an opportunity to reinvent herself as a capable combatant and adventurer... and whether this new Morgana is strong enough to stand by her brother is yet to be seen.

Human Name: David
Pony Name: Nimbus
Species: Pegasus
Profession: Aspiro Artificer
Bio: The happy go lucky gamer, went into this game with no knowledge of My Little Pony but wanted to play and have fun along side his friends. The same friends that abandoned him the moment he needed their help, after wandering the Timber woods starving and delirious he 'fell' into new companionship. He found new friends in Markus and Morgana and quickly became a fast ally to the two, his sword a welcome addition to the many scraps they stumble into on their quest to find out what happened to them. Though David brings a sunny attitude wherever he goes now, his past hasn't always been as bright.

Human Name: Arthur
Pony Name: Sanguine Point
Species: ???
Bio: I'm stronger than this

Human Name: Aaron
Pony Name: Sterling Flare
Species: Earth Pony
Bio: Aaron is the kind of person who should never have authority over others, all his life he has been a bully and that is all he's ever known. He enlisted into the army and though underhanded tactics he quickly rose through the ranks. Blackmail, physical and mental abuse, and even theft. There is no line too far if it meant he could flex the power he had over others and it looked like nothing would stop him... until he was caught red handed. He was quickly sentenced to life in prison with chance of parole... except one day he mysteriously disappeared from his jail cell.

Human Name: Faith
Pony name: Lunar Glory
Species: Thestral
Bio: So far all that is revealed about Faith is her connection to Markus as his abuser. Meeting him in high school and staying in an relationship with him for years, she was sent to Equestria in a separate group from Markus and has only recently found him again after asking for his help with saving her people as Scion of the Lunar Regency.

Human Name: Victoria (Also goes by Tori)
Pony name: [Unknown]
Species: Unicorn
Bio: Another human sent to Equestria alongside her brother, not much is known about her besides that fact that she and her group were hunted down by Morgana's wayward brother Arthur in an effort to harvest their unicorn horns. Tori's sanity is slightly in question as she describes her brother as only hurt or injured when he is actually dead only brought back partially through the use of summoning magic and his body as the material

Human Name: Marco
Pony name: [Unknown]
Species: Unicorn
Current Status: ~~Deceased~~ ~~Injured~~ Existing
Bio: The formerly deceased little brother of Victoria, it is unknown whether Marco's actual soul is there or if it's just Victoria's memories puppeteering the specter. Either way he won't let anything or anyone harm his sister.

Human Name: Eric
Pony Name: Flint
Species: Earth Pony
Bio: Eric worked with his father in his construction company, he is a strong yet gentle man and this trnasfered over with him to Equestria, he is currently working Sarah on the leading council of player and is working on creating a safe area for all players to make a living as they find a way home.

Human Name: Sarah
Pony Name: Pearly Gleam
Species: Unicorn
Bio: Sarah is a quiet person who typically tried to keep to herself but the predicament she found herself in has forced her to take charge and be social and much to her surprise... she enjoys it. During the first bandit invasion she saved a large group of players from Timberwolves using her now signature magic Photokinesis. She is now working with Eric on the Player Council and waiting for word from Markus and his team

Human Name: Caleb
Pony Name: Coral Shelf
Species: Unicorn
Currently Deceased: Murdered by Aaron
Bio: Caleb worked in a children's hospital, he always had a soft spot for children and they were the reason he started to enjoy My Little Pony. Being transported to Equestria was neither a blessing or a curse to Caleb as he was too busy fighting for his life. Caleb would have been perfectly happy to wait for the other much more capable Players to figure out what was going on... Then he saw Falling Star and the obvious threat to his safety that was Aaron. He made a silent promise to the strongest unicorn Markus that he would watch over Falling Star... little did he know that this would lead to his murder at the hooves of Aaron.

Human Name: Laura
Pony Name: River Creek
Species: Unicorn
Bio: One of the two braincells of their little ragtag group, her life as a human was as normal as can be and she honestly is enjoying her adventures much more than she says. She feels guilty for enjoys the whole experience where innocent people have died. She tries to atone for this by watching over her little team and making sure all of them survive there newest journey to Arcane Hope

Human Name: Thomas
Pony Name: Dark Root
Species: Earth Pony
Status: Cringe but endearing
Bio: The younger brother of Mason and is currently living out every fantasy he has ever had and is honestly loving it. It's even better that his brother is here, the one person who has always been by his side is able to share in his fantastic destiny. Believes that his rival is the mage Arcane Hope who is currently on a quest to unite all the players, Thomas is currently trying his hardest to become stronger while on the road to Mt. Canter

Human Name: Mason
Pony Name: Hollow Root
Species: Earth Pony
Status: Currently Mute
Bio: The older brother of Thomas and the other braincell of the party. Is currently trying to be the best brother ever even if he can't really communicate anymore. Is glad that his brother is living out his dreams but is still afraid for him, he will make sure that his brother will always be safe and happy. While on the road the find Markus' group he is worried that this might not go the way they planned... if they ever get around to making a plan.

Human Name: Jesus
Pony Name: Slipstream
Species: Pegasus
Bio: Jesus has always been a go with the flow kind of guy, someone who takes opportunities when they come and this is no different. This new life in Equestria may be the biggest opportunity he may ever get, so when his new friends ask him to travel with them to find that hotshot team that was sent to the mountain then how could he say no. They tell him about the possible dangers but all he can hear is the potential riches that will soon be his.

Human Name: Nick
Gryphon Name: Unknown
Species: Gryphon
Bio:Under Construction

Human Name: Nicolas
Gryphon Name: Unknown
Species: Gryphon
Bio: Nicolas doesn't like my little pony, he doesn't even really like video games. What he does enjoy is spending time with his brother Nick. Now stuck in Equestria Nicolas is simply doing his best to keep his brother safe and is now one step closer to that now that they are all being led to all the other players stuck in the game.

Human Name: Unknown
Changeling Name: Unknown
Nickname: Webz
Species: Infiltrator Changeling
Bio: Webz is a flirt... plain and simple. They used to be much more reserved back when they were a human but now they're stuck in Equestria with a fresh start. They do still feel a bit awkward about how bad their flirting with Markus went.

NPC List:

Name: Lucky Harvest
Profession: Adventurer
Path: Dragoon
Bio: Lucky Harvest is a survivor of the bandit siege on her town and still grieves the memory of her father who died in the arms of Arcane Hope who tried to save him. After being given a magic weapon by Arcane she helped defend her home and has sense been driven to grow stronger. She hopes to one day be strong enough to fight side by side with Arcane Hope, her feelings for the unicorn are no longer complicated as she sees Arcane Hope as both a potential romantic partner and a partner on the battlefield.

Name: Falling Star
Profession: Apprentice Adventurer
Path: Unknown
Current Status: Healthy
Bio: Falling Star comes from a long line of performers and storytellers and has been raised on the tales of magic and adventure that his ancestors lived to tell the tale of. Once a tribe of adventurers decided to finally settle down nearby his mother didn't waste the chance to help her son's dreams come true, unfortunately she asked to wrong pony to take Falling under their metaphorical wing. Falling suffered heavily while he apprenticed under Sterling Flare, the only reason Falling survived Sterling's abuse was due to his special internal magic healing him. Falling finally escaped Sterling Flare after the deranged pony killed his fellow tribespony Coral Shelf in cold blood, Falling escaped to Mt. Canter and was saved by Arcane Hope and was nursed back to health by Arcane Hope's potions. Now he and his new mentor are about to travel to the lands of the Thestrals to answer their plea for help.

Name: Unknown
Nickname: Shopkeeper or Granny
Path: Retired Spy
Bio: While Granny's past is unknown it is known that she was a spy of some repute as she worked with the Keeper information network as one of their top agents, she was the one that directed Arcane Hope and his party towards the trade hub that was taken over by Ozymandias. Is known to have powerful Charisma based skills and is very well liked by the population of Southtown, is currently working in the new Guildhall at the main counter.
Age: ???- older than almost all of Southtown

Name: Keeper
Path: Main informant of tavern keeper network
Bio: One of the faces of the keeper network, supplies adventurers and heroes information about threats and posted quests. Was based in the trading hub until it was liberated by The Wanderers. Is now working on expanding the network to Southtown and moving his main base of operations there. He currently has high hopes for the future, the amount of heroes and adventures popping both worries him and takes a lot of weight off of his shoulders.

Group Name: Lunar Guardsman
Path: Protection Detail
Bio: The protection detail assigned to follow and protect the Scion of house Lunar while she searches for help... they are all concerned for her sanity. Arcane Hope and Lucky Harvest have gained their respect after observing their duel and judging them competent combatants

Ch 1: Growing Pains (Edited Version)

Author's Note

So I was recently inspired by another fic by the name of Equestrian Landings (and its absolutely brilliant btw) and thought of trying my hand at my own as a sort of reprieve from my usual genre, my other story is still ongoing so no worries there. I hope the beginning is okay and if you think I should if anything or try something else let me know this is an experiment so I can get better as a writer and broaden my creativity.

Now New and improved by the fantastic editor Kendallonian
May their name forever be held in the highest esteem!

Ch 1: Growing Pains (Edited Version)

Chapter 1: Growing Pains

To put it simply, Marcus wasn’t having the best day so far. His day had already started off sour by finding out someone had keyed his car during the night in what he could only assume was a drunken stupor; as was the norm around his neighborhood; but it all really kicked off by the time he got to work. Now, working in a print shop isn’t the most glamorous job, but it paid the bills while he was taking his college courses. besides the natural gripes one would have when working with customers, the biggest pain in the ass was not his boss, who was actually a pretty swell guy, but his supervisor who was this pimply, stuck up, entitled, barely-graduated-highschool little shit that goes by the name of Philip. Everyday at some point he liked to try and tear into me because he outranks me by experience and tries to lecture me on my work ethic, keeping in mind that this print shop is a dime a dozen in my city so hardly anyone comes in for more than printer paper or last minute college printing.

I was done with all that though because the end of the day was what I was looking forward to. now I may not broadcast it, but when asked I would happily say that I am a brony. I may not be as extreme or overt as others about it, but that's just my personality; I keep things low key if I can, though if I have to get loud I will get loud. At the end of today will be the launch of the first ever mlp MMORPG and i’m actually excited for it. Of Course i’ve played other MMORPG’s before but usually I lose interest pretty quickly once the novelty runs out. This is the first time I've genuinely been ready to sit down and play a game for hours on end. I had assumed the game would have been set back during the episodes of mlp but much to my surprise the setting is instead over a thousand years in the future! Which means there’s almost no end to the new content I could discover, all the character’s I already know and love would most likely be gone and we would most likely be the ones saving the world… maybe, I haven’t really looked too deeply into the game.

I had already bought the game and had left it to install while I was at work, and now that that hellish day was over I could finally play the game as soon as the servers opened. In an effort to make this experience as fun as possible I had bought plenty of snacks to munch on while I played. The game opened like any other, and the sound of the mlp intro started to come from my speakers while the screen revealed an overview of equestria with a few greyed out buttons scattered about; like the start button in the middle of the screen and a timer with only a minute left on it counting down beneath it;. I took a moment to check the only not greyed out button ; a gear icon that was presumably a link to the options menu; it didn’t take long to get the settings just how I liked them and by the time I was finished the timer had ticked down to zero, unlocking the greyed out buttons and letting me hit start.

I was surprised by the lack of lag as the camera suddenly zoomed down into equestria and into ponyville, houses blurred past stopped at Rarity’s boutique and went inside, passing the building’s owner before stopping in front of some mirrors that showed a grey generic earth pony. It didn't take long for me to realize that this was the most important and lengthy part of any game; character creation. I was ready to dedicate quite some time in order to get my character just how I liked. The first thing I did was change my race to unicorn; I almost always play magic classes first so that was obvious to me. The next few minutes were filled with me familiarizing myself with all of the options, changing his size and muscle tone to as scrawny as a twig to as massive as Bulk Biceps; which was extremely funny to me. In the end I simply made my character a bit shorter and thinner so I wouldn't be as eye-catching as the other players, mages shouldn’t be in the line of fire, so I was going to make mine unremarkable.

My unicorn ended up silver-eyed with a dark blue coat and black mane. That didn’t end up looking quite how I wanted it, so I ended up making it so the mane and tail faded into white midway and gave him matching freckles. A quick glance at the clock saw that I had wasted a good twenty minutes working on this, which was much shorter than I thought, as I had personally spent an hour or more trying to get my character right in some games. Leaning back and stretching in my admittingly pretty comfy office chair I started to brainstorm a couple of names for my new character. What I expected to happen when I typed in the first name was some red text saying the name had already been taken, but instead what I got was this.

Silly human, no one gets to choose their own name haha!

I was taken aback by the different from normal text but I Couldn’t stare for long because soon after the text appeared my screen went black; making me think the game just crashed for a moment; before the dark screen changed once more; the black screen seeming to grow darker and… deeper as of a void was growing before my very eyes. I scrambled to get away from my computer, sending my desk chair and snacks flying from my wild dive, I was in the middle of turning away from the nothingness growing before me when I felt it. Something otherworldly and wrong was slithering it’s way up my body at a speed that I could barely comprehend. I felt the force latch itself onto my eyes and drag them and my head by proxy back to the void. I felt a flood of vertigo invade my immobilized body as I, for the lack of a better word, fell into my computer.

then all I knew was pain.

Chapter 19: Advent (The Wandering Arc)

Chapter 19: Advent

Getting back inside after doing the exhausting act of being social, I let out a long relaxing breath now that the invisible stares were off my back. I felt myself physically relaxed now that I wasn’t being eyed by all the players and NPCs still out, I wonder if I could make a functioning invisibility spell? Morgana had just entered moments before me so she was who I saw first, she was currently trying to pick a particularly annoying shard of stone out of the corner of her hoof (I think it’s called the frog?).

“I see you were just as successful as us… and it looks like you got extra items!” Morgana didn’t waste any time and plucked the canvas wrap bag out of my [Levitation] and excitedly trotted into the living room where I assume David is hanging out. I made sure to wipe my hooves on the welcome mat before entering and to remove my lantern and hang it on what I think is supposed to be a hat rack, I idly noted that my wisp floated out of the lantern and followed me deeper into the house (I felt a bit of muted amusement come from the wisp at the idea of a lantern being stored on a hat rack).

“Did you two have any problems getting what we needed?” My words came to a solf halt when I entered the living room. Unlike the living room of other homes, this one only had a few sitting pillows and a small coffee table. What took my voice away was the overflowing amount of food and supplies lying on the table, along with a very smug looking David sitting behind it all sucking on the end of a carrot like it was a cigar.

“Yeah… turns out [Sunny Attitude] is way more useful than we thought” David had gotten a veritable cornucopia of supplies, there was legitimately too much stuff here for us to take. The bulk of the food and tools were spilling out of three different bags. One was a regular messenger bag while the other two are saddle bags, my stunned visage must have been pretty funny because David’s smug look quickly evolved to full blown laughter. David’s earlier comment finally processed and I was shocked all over again.

“Wait… Your skill made them give this stuff to you?!” David’s previously happy smile quickly dropped at what I was implying, springing to his hooves and dropping the carrot from his mouth David started shaking his head at high speeds while voicing his refusal. Morgana had stopped rooting through my bag through all of this and sent David and I a ‘look’ that both of us saw and simultaneously decided to ignore.

“Nonononono No, The skill just makes them more likely to help us. Besides they’re just NPCs, it doesn’t really matter what happens to them in the grand scheme of things” This kind of heartless attitude was not something I was expecting from David of all people, this kind of attitude was a slippery slope. Though I guess I had to expect this to come up at some point, many of the players still think they’re inside a video game while only a small percentage are starting to wonder otherwise.

“ Stuff like that is only the beginning David, sure it starts with the NPCs but once the skill starts to level up… what then? Are you gonna start extorting the other players?” My point made David pause for a moment while he thought about it. His slightly irritated expression slowly morphed into one of disgust then disturbed until it settled on guilty. I might not be able to get them to consider this world to be real yet but I can at least put them on the right path.

“Alright, even if you’re right I can’t just turn it off it’s a passive ability, it’s always on!” David’s expression calmed as he spoke, then his eyes gained a glossy, unfocused look (that I’m beginning to call ‘Screen Gaze’) that we’ve all attributed to a player looking at their skill screen. Morgana had joined us at the table at this point and reached out to snag an apple from the pile.

“ The best way I can think of off the top of my head would be to try and refuse any unnecessary help… I may be against mental manipulations, but if we’re in a dangerous situation and we can get aid using your ability then use it. Bottom line… just be careful man” Anymore conversation came to a halt after that, leaving the three of us to sort through the mountain of stuff. Besides the obvious fruits and vegetables there was a smattering of random tools and guides. Morgana had taken out the guidebook 'Long Hooves guild to forest snacks’ that I had gotten at the shop, David was fiddling with two different compasses that were pointing in two different directions. I dug through the messenger bag and was pleasantly surprised to find some grapes (My favorite fruit). I popped a few into my mouth before remembering I had a few skill points that I needed to use, I chewed a few more grapes before opening my menu.

The usual gutted stats screen popped up again giving me a flash of annoyance (that my wisp mirrored), I want to find out one day why probably the most important screen is so bare bones. I had 6 Sp waiting to be used, this meant I could have either six new skills or only a few more powerful skills. Flipping over to my skills page I slowly looked over my skills and planned for the future. I currently have two real ways to fight not counting my summons, [Magic Beam] and [Fire Bolt] both granted from their respective Manipulation skill. The most obvious choice would be to grab the rest of the basic elemental spells… but there is the option of just learning them on my own. My [Cutie Mark] gives me a boost in spell creation and manipulation, I could also learn the normal way from books and save the SP for my more esoteric spells.

I flipped to my neutral spells page and looked further down the list for stronger spells that I now have the skill to use. I had to remind myself that I'm not the only one in this party that can benefit from my spells. I was tempted to buy the [Shield] spell for moments where David and Morgana can’t defend themselves but after reading over its description I realized I could make that spell myself. Then I had a momentary stroke of genius, I quickly flipped through the countless spell pages in hopes that it was already a known spell form. After a moment it seemed like my dreams would be dashed… until I laid eyes on it. The only magic page that only had four spells on it, titled ‘Household Magic’. It was the [Cleaning] Spell! No longer will I be know as the muddy mage, no longer will I have to endure being covered in the entrails of our fallen foes! No longer- okay I’m over this bit… I bought the spell.

Fledgeling Cleansing Spell: Even cleanliness is an artform in of itself

Banishes all unwanted stains and messes

Can also be used to clean wounds and fragile objects

Mana Cost: Negligible

Further levels in this skills will improve mana efficiency and potency

Skill Level 1: 0.0%

Cost: 1 SP

I can already tell… I'm going to get so many levels in this spell. Okay now that I’ve gotten that precious gem of a spell out of the way, it's time to get the heavy hitter spells. I flipped all the way back to the previously neglected lighting magic page and saw that it was no longer greyed out and I was sorely tempted to just buy the [Lightning Manipulation] skill then and there… until I saw the skill level.

Fledgling Lighting Manipulation: Gives the bearer power over the slippery element of lightning

bestows the lowest forms of lightning magic Spark shock and Electric Imbuement

Further levels in this skills will improve mana efficiency and potency

Skill Level 0: 76.69%

Cost: 1 SP

I was already so close to unlocking it naturally, apparently my liberal use of [Ember Imbuement] and neutral magic combined counts as using the lightning element. I could probably get this skill by the end of the day if I kept my wisp imbued for the rest of the day, only a thought was needed to beckon my wisp over. I had to focus on the link between us for a moment before injecting some fire natured mana into the bond, I felt a burst of excitement from the wisp as its appearance changed. The usual dulled silver aura that came from the wisp started to spark erratically until it literally burst into red hot pseudo-flames. I felt the wisp reassure me in its own way that the flames weren’t real and that it enjoyed its change in color. Buzzing about like an excited bird, my wisp zipped over to Morgana who was watching the whole event even with an excited gleam in her eye. The two ran off to play while David and I watched amused, slowly though I watched David’s expression slowly turn from fond to confused.

“Hey… is your wisp alive or what?” His question shocked me and made me realize that I had never explained how my summoning worked, though now that I think about it… I don’t even know how summoning completely worked. I pulled up the ‘Summoning’ page while I spoke to David extrapolating as I went.

“ Technically it isn’t, but the whole point of summoning is to make a construct using magic and some materials and having it slowly gain sentience on its own. My wisp is at the level where it has around the same consciousness of a baby… in fact now that I’m thinking about it. I think this is the farthest anyone has gotten to growing a wisp before moving on to a stronger summon.” David seemed to understand for a moment before growing confused again and stopping to think for a moment before speaking again.

“But your wisp is pretty powerful on it’s own, if it would continue to get stronger then why would others get rid of theirs?” That was a good question, but I think I have a basic answer to that or at least one that makes sense to me.

“Well it seems that [Summoning] was used more for it’s shock and awe factor than its functionality and it’s considered the beginner spell for the subject. Once other practitioners got the hang of raising their creations they would move on to much more impressive or difficult creatures. My wisp has gotten us out of some pretty tough scrapes and I'm just way too fond of it to just get rid of it… in fact I should probably make sure it can keep up with us” Navigating down to the [Wisp Summon] slot I sunk two SP into the skill.

Adept -> Journeyman Wisp Summon: Summons the weakest of all evoked creatures the wisp

This wisp will independently attack any targeted creature with small bursts of [magic and will continue to do so until destroyed or dispelled

Threshold Reached!

Catalyst Required: ???, ???

Higher levels allow for more complex orders

Mana Draw: Small

Mana draw and strength will improve with experience and supplementary skills

Skill Level 16 -> 21

Cost: 4 SP

For a brief moment my wisp froze in mid-air as its features changed, instead of just growing in size like before the black spot in the center of the wisp grew immensely. Starting at the size of a pea it grew steadily until it was the size of a baseball growing more oval like then a perfect circle. I felt the bond between us grow incredibly, before it was more like a few hair of thought linking us and now it was more akin to a highway. I could suddenly understand the previous emotions my wisp was trying to send me (Astonishment, worry, happiness). It seemed my wisp doesn’t really have a concept of language and communicated mainly through emotions and mental pictures. (Confusion, Pain) I sent it reassurance that I was alright and wasn’t in any pain. Where before I would be confused if my message reached the wisp, I was certain now. With a quick message of joy and thankfulness the wisp went back to hanging out with Morgana, it’s intelligence at the level of a young teen now.

“I’m just gonna guess that you just leveled your [Summoning] skill right?” Oh… I forgot I was talking to David during all that (Flippant Amusement). I pretended to not notice my wisp sending me the emotional equivalent of a ‘Ya don’t say?’ and focused back on David fully. During my whole skill montage David had begun sorting through all the supplies and had separated most of the tools from the food. Though the three bags were still full of random items, it was still a start.

“Yeah I did! I’m not getting rid of him any time soon, now let’s get this sorted and all put away” David only rolled his eyes at my scatter braininess and returned to sorting, Morgana and my wisp heard us and decided to cut their play time short (Disappointment) and come help us. Even my wisp tried to assist by gently nudging the tools and food into the right piles. At some point I had gained the [Lightning Manipulation] skill I was waiting for and I immediately felt the difference. Where fire magic felt like holding your hand over steam, lightning magic felt like my arm falling asleep with pins and needles everywhere. The prickling feeling startled both me and the wisp making me drop the steady supply of magic I was sending it sending it back to its standard silver hue.

It was definitely an odd feeling having the magic I was currently using being changed so utterly, especially with my imbuement skill changing from Ember to Plasma. I assume this skill will change whenever I gain a new element to control, the sound of a stomach rumbling knocked everyone out of autopilot. All this talking and magic making has really worked up an appetite, good thing we have plenty of ingredients to choose from tonight. Whatever is left over we can give to some of the other players. David and Morgana started to talk about what we should make for dinner while looking through the pile of ingredients we wouldn’t be taking with us, I glanced over the various foods and spices and had an idea.

“Hey, why don’t I cook tonight” Of all things I could have said, that was not what they were expecting. Morgana looked a bit dumbfounded while David looked slightly skeptical of my offer… which slightly annoyed me. I’m probably the oldest in our group, how hard is it to believe that I can cook for myself!

“Uhh-sure, what are you gonna make?” The wary look on David’s face irked me even more, so with an ever so slightly sinister smile I stood up and grabbed the pile of ingredients with my [Levitation] and slowly back into the kitchen out of sight with only four words in response.

“Don’t worry about it”

Author's Note

Yaaay! The beginning of a whole new arc!
Its time to introduce so many new problems :trixieshiftleft:
This chapter was mostly a magic and level up dump, there will be more of these as people seem to like them. David and Morgana got more skills as well and they will be added to the skill page.
And for those of you who are wondering about the 'Spirit' and her offering don't worry we will get to that.

[We Better!]

You need to be patient!

[Do you remember what happened last time I was told to be patient!]

Yeah, you threw a tantrum that almost obliterated the world and I grounded you for a few millennia. You're lucky I'm letting you play now!

[...Sorry, I'll be good...]

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the story. Things are starting to heat up in other places and I think next chapter I'll give you a glimpse at one of the other gears in motion.

[Please read and review!]

The First Breakthrough (Mini Chap)

The First Breakthrough:

Morgana’s Pov:

Everything was going smoothly for once and I was loving it. At first I was concerned about how difficult it would have been to bring the townsponies to my side, they were all already angry enough to try and take down the possessed guards but that wouldn’t have been enough. I was right to talk to them without all my armor on, there was already another riot brewing outside the gates when I exited. Stallions and Mares were facing off with the now armed slack eyed guards getting ready to devolve into a battle maybe even bloodier than the village invasion I had been in.

I was afraid, I didn’t have my armor, I didn’t have my friends by my side, I… I didn’t have my brother to help fend off anyone that would hurt me. As the shouting began to grow louder it really began to dawn on me how serious this was, my previous thoughts and delusions on this being just a game quickly left me as I really saw what was at stake. I felt my breath quicken as I watched one of the guards shove one of the more outspoken stallions back, I saw the tide of ponies change in that instant. Muscles coiled, teeth grinded, pupils shrunk to pins, I needed to calm this crowd before they got themselves killed… and in that instant a memory floated up from the back of my mind. A particular memory that meant a lot to me, I didn’t have any memories of my mother but Arthur did.

During the harder nights, when the shadows were deeper and the cold sharper. Arthur would sing to me, he told me it was a song our mother used to sing all the time in church. That our mother would hum it under her breath whenever she would feed us, Arthur and I aren’t the best at singing but this song was one we both knew by heart. It wasn’t even all that happy of a song but it still never failed to calm us. So that's what I did… I sang.

I sang a song of loss…

I sang a song of dark times…

I sang a song of hope…

… And the ponies listened…

… And some sang along

Skill Unlocked!

Kindness: “Sometime we all need to be shown a little kindness”

For when all looks dark and everyone needs help to see the light

Somewhere deep within an upside down forest an approximation of a stallion lay in a fitful slumber in a stolen home. It wasn’t long before the ghost of a certain melody reached his ears and in mere moments his tumultuous sleep was soothed… though his heart began to ache in remembrance.

Author's Note

I'm so proud of her... yay!

Chapter 30: Revolution Part 4

Chapter 30 Revolution: Part 4
Markus PoV:

I have been woken up in many different ways in my life, falling off my bed, getting water poured on me, having a pie smashed into my face, by an ex-girlfriend breaking in. Many many different ways, but getting struck by lightning… that beats everything. Waking up to the feeling of my skin being deep fried was an experience that I would happily repress deep down in my psyche, my torment was quickly ended thankfully by the familiar sensation of cold healing magic draping itself over me. Now that the pain was gone I wanted to just fall asleep and not wake up until next week… until I remembered what was happening. Flicking my eyes open and ignoring the migraine pulsing through my head I tried to push myself to my hooves… only to find I was missing a few of the required tools. I am not ashamed to say that when I looked down at what should have been my normal blue hooves and saw a familiar set of crimson red wings… I screamed… or at least I tried. A couple of purple hooves covered my mouth before any sound escaped.

My panic filled eyes trailed up the hooves to see the familiar muzzle of Morgana. My breaths were coming out in short rapid puffs… I think I'm having a panic attack. Huh, I haven’t had one of these since I was a kid, I could see Morgana’s mouth moving but there was no sound coming out and all I could hear was my rapidly beating heart and a loud high pitched whining sound. Something in my mind started to stir, a presence that instantly brought up a fond feeling in me much to my confusion. My eyes flicked back down to my wings and their very familiar color.

‘Calcifer? Are you in there?’ My thoughts rang out in my head and after a moment an extremely tired but happy mind revealed itself resting within me. A mind that felt great relief that I was okay… to an extent at least. The feeling of having Calcifer connected to me again was way more comforting than I was expecting, the bulk of my panic over my new… features was thrown away in the face of the feeling.

My now much calmer eyes refocused on Morgana and upon seeing I wasn’t going to scream removed her hooves. Now that I was paying attention to my surroundings I could see that Morgana had me lying on a couch in someponies home, every once in a while I could feel a rumble through the floor. Where’s David and what happened to me?

“David and another pegasus named Mix-Up are distracting that… monster. After you… changed and that lightning hit you that monster started going berserk. I dragged you in here to heal you” Morgana must have seen my confused look, I tried to pull myself up to sit normally but… my wings aren’t exactly easy to control. My wings quickly began to shake with effort from my weight and before I was even half way up my wings gave out, a small cloud of dust was launched into the air by my head hitting the couch cushions.

“Achoo! You said it went berserk? That’s not… “ The ritual would have ended this if it activated properly, did I mess up somehow? My mind flicked back to the ritual's creation and I went over every step. I used the correct sigils, I carved them straight enough to be legible, I made sure there weren’t any magical objects or interferences. What could I be missing, I felt myself growing more frantic. Upon the successful activation of the ritual Ozzy’s soul should have been sucked into that ruby and… sacrificed. I felt my heart nearly stop as I realized where I went wrong. I only extracted his soul, I didn’t sacrifice it afterwards! Now it makes sense why Ozymandias’ body is going crazy, it isn’t far fetched to believe that his soul still has some measure of control over his body even while separate. I bet it’s even similar to how he was controlling the guards… any other time I would be so curious as to how he does that but right now… We need to finish this.

“Morgana, can you help me up?” I raised a wind towards Morgana who hesitated for a moment before gingerly wrapping her hooves around my wing. As if she was handling glass Morgana slowly pulled me up to my haunches and I appreciated her gentleness. It only just now occurs to me that I might have hollow bones now, hollow bones plus super strength doesn’t end well. I felt Calcifer pass along the want to stretch our wings which really pushed forward the realization that I Can Fly Now! That would be something especially magical that I'll have to experience later, I can’t work on a ritual like this.

I took a deep breath and focused, by now I thought I would be used to delving into the planted knowledge in my mind, but the feeling of automagically knowing how to separate from Calcifer just because of a picture on my rump is still very unsettling. The few lit candles around us began to die off but instead of sending the room into darkness, the room only grew brighter as a surprisingly soft white light started to emulate from… us? I was expecting an odd sensation, maybe some tingling or a bright flash to signify our separation… but no. The two of us let out a surprised squeak/squawk when both Calcifer and I were thrown to the ground all of a sudden. Bringing my limbs up to my eyes I was glad to see my regular blue hooves, I asked if Calcifer was alright and got a crowning caw in return. I let the obviously exhausted Calcifer to rest and rose to my hooves to talk to Morgana.

“You said David and someone else is keeping Ozymandias busy right? Do you think they can hang on a little longer?”

David’s Pov:

It’s really starting to occur to me that I'm not as good at flying as I think I am, sure I'm pretty fast in a straight line but in combat? Not so much, I made another wobbly corkscrew around another flailing tentacle and tried not to fall out of the sky. This is really a horrible time to find out I get dizzy easily, dropping into a dive to avoid the jaws of the nightmare inducing monster and quickly lopping off a few thinner grasping claws that were following me. Another ear rending shriek echoed through the air and I'm proud to say I didn’t freeze again, another spark of anger surfaced as the fear effect tried to latch onto my mind again. A deep tell all purple glow started to grow from behind me and I quickly banked left before another beam ripped through the air, the air around me was briefly superheated enough that I was actually thrown upwards by the sudden thermal and sent tumbling through the air.

My wings felt like they were almost ripped from their sockets, I clenched my jaw as I tried to push down my rising nausea and tried to right myself in the air before- CRACK! My train of thought was quickly cut off by a bolt of pure lightning shooting past me and nailing the monster right in its open mouth, making it flail from the pain. Gaining control of myself I turned to see where the shot came from and I was so happy to see Mix-Up of all ponies flying up to me holding a large mason jar with a… is there a live storm in that jar!?

Mix-Up quickly reached my altitude and did the last thing I expected… he started to shake the bottled storm. Almost like shaking a can of soda the storm jar started shaking slightly as more and more tiny lightning bolts started building up. Just when I was afraid the jar was going to explode, Mix-Up pointed the lid of the jar at the still writhing nightmare serpent and flipped it open. The familiar crack of hair raising lightning didn’t startle me as much this time as the large bolt shot out of the jar and crashed into its jaw. With a metal click the jar was sealed again and was once again being shaken. I was… well… shocked! Clouds I make aren’t able to be used repeatedly like that, but I do remember Mix-Up asking for some extra ‘Cloud Seed’ before the battle started. Was this what he was working on this whole time, an enraged roar broke me out of my stupor. Whatever stunning effect the lightning had on the giant serpent had dissipated and had enraged it all the more. I watched the monster start to slither at us while trampling over houses and deceased ponies alike and to add insult to injury I could see most of the limbs I had cut off had regenerated at some point.

Another wave of exhaustion hit me as the enormity of this uphill battle really hit me. I really hope Markus is able to get up and finish this soon. I don’t think we’re gonna last long, seeing the serpent quickly curl up Mix-Up and I dived out of the air as the kaiju lunged through the air and landed with a crash onto the main road. I kept a death grip on the handle of my sword as I looked at the devastation around me, homes and businesses in rubble, ponies still trying to evacuate, and other ponies still affected by the fear wave running around in blind panic. There were still a few ponies I could see making a token effort to help, trying to direct the panicking ponies out of the way, disposing of any leftover husk guards still standing and… Wait, I see Morgana and Markus! The two were sprinting back towards the ruins of the manor, A massive amount of relief surged from me to see Markus back up and running. A much more strained screech from the serpent clued me in on the fact that I wasn’t the only one to notice my friends racing to the manor.

“ Don’t let that thing reach the manor!” My eyes flicked to my bars, a little over half for both… I could work with that. I swung low to the slithering body of the serpent and started hacking and slashing. Tentacles and claw, and malformed hooves alike fell like branches and with a final long cleave into the body I swooped back up into the air and not even seconds after Mix-Up followed up with a lightning bolt right into the open wound, Black blood quickly cauterized as the thousands of volt were delivered right into the bloodstream of the monster sending it into convulsions again. With a hard flap of my wings I sped ahead to try and catch up with my friends, the sound of wings flapping and the crackling of lightning told me Mix-Up was right behind me shaking up another shot.

I was expecting more time, last time we stunned the serpent it lasted quite a while. Wind whipped past my head as an impossibly long speared hoof shot past followed by another and another, until countless black blood covered tentacles were hurling towards my friends. There wasn’t enough time or space, I needed momentum to cut these things. My heart hammered in me chest, my urgency began to drown out how tired I was, the burning sensation in my wings disappeared, the acute pain in my chest faded away, and much to my surprise my panic disappeared as well.

Congratulations!

Skill Evolved

Fledgling Discipline -> Hurricane Style

Forged through strife and desperation, this fighting style shows it’s full potential when the user is faced with insurmountable odds

Decreases Stamina use over time

Attack speed and strength rises when faced with an overpowering force

Fight with the strength and speed of a hurricane

Lightning and wind fight by your side

Passive/Active Skill

Active Skill: Fly Into The Storm!

Effect:???

Skill Level 2: 25.04%

Sp Cost: Unavailable

I moved before I knew what I was doing, a free hoof reached over and snatched the storm jar out of Mix-Up’s hooves and with deft throw, launched it further in front of me… then I moved. Twisting at an angle I didn’t think was physically possible I corkscrewed through the air and cleanly cut through the glass jar, something inside me made me sure that it wouldn’t explode. The incredibly volatile lightning swirled serenely around my sword as I continued spinning through the air, the clouds started to curve around my body and almost push me to go even faster. For a moment… for just a fleeting moment I wasn’t just a pegasus… I was nature’s wrath incarnate. Every claw, every tentacle, every piece of flesh that I came in contact with was first shredded by my winds then vaporized by the electricity flowing around me. With a final flip and flourish I severed the final tentacle that threatened my friends and landed with a burning skid on the rubble littered tiled floor landing alongside Markus who was furiously carving shapes into the ground around a ruby.

Turning around I could see the impact from my attack, the serpent was almost bisected by a gray sparking gash that wasn’t regenerating. Despite it’s debilitating wounds the nightmarish serpent still gave off a enraged roar and continued it’s suicidal charge. I shakily raised my heavily heat warped sword and tried to get ready for a final stand, I was empty on everything. I felt a prickling sensation behind me as I watched the monster rear up and launch itself at us, I closed my eyes and braced myself for impact… an impact that never came. Cracking an eye open I flinched back at the sight of the serpent being not even an inch away from my nose… frozen in the air

“Talk about cutting it close hehe” The relieved voice of Markus brought my attention from our frozen foe to behind me where above the previously inert gemstone floating in the air was a… I can’t even describe it. It was both a hole and also a plate and also a… trash can? Markus lifted the now purple glowing gemstone with his hoof and with almost a dismissive gesture tossed it in the… hole. There was almost a shift in the world as I whipped around to watch the massive monster quickly begin to distort and change into a swirl of colors and fluids that funneled over our heads and into the hole. I would have even called the sight beautiful if the colors weren’t all varying shades of black, red, and brown.

Then just like that it was over, no fanfare, no warning, it was gone. The hole disappeared and the only thing left over was a blank golden mask that spun in place on the tiled floor for a few moments before falling over and going still. The three of us sat there in various states of exhaustion and waited for… something. I was waiting for something else to go wrong or try and attack us… then I almost had a heart attack.

Level Up!

Level Up!

Level Up!

Level Up!

Level 10 Reached!

Professions Available!

Then Markus started giggling… Then Morgana… a smile grew on my face before I could help it. Soon the three of us were laughing our flanks off in the ruins of a dilapidated mansion. I'm pretty sure a few ponies nearby peeked inside to see the three of us laughing and took that as a sign that we had won. The sounds of cheers and celebrations soon joined our laughter, I was starting to get a cramp. Taking deep breaths to calm myself down, I just looked at my friends. Morgana looked like she was having the time of her life and Markus looked so much lighter than usual. I absolutely love traveling with these two and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Skill Unlocked!

Loyalty: “Even after all the fighting and strife, I’ll still be there right by your side”

You stand by your friends through thick and thin and are stronger for it

Author's Note

Now that was awesome