A Roegadyn in Equestria

A Roegadyn in Equestria.

Chapter 18: From Country to City Roegadyn, Part 1.

*Point of view: Brex Mith*
*Location: East end of Equestria. City of Baltimare*
*Time: One week after saving the Apple Family*

It had taken Brex a full week to travel to the city called Baltimare on the far east side of Equestria. After helping out the apple family. Brex soon departed but not before leaving a shadow double of himself behind at ponyville so he could keep tabs on anything new. Already deciding on what his next move would be. The Roegadyn followed the train tracks from the Ponyville station and headed towards the east. As it turned out, the train tracks leading to his next destination had to first pass through the city of Canterlot before moving on. Fortunately, it would seem that luck was on his side. The locals were easily dodged and he was able to avoid any form of detection by sticking to the shadow realm.

Brex followed the tracks further on as they exited the city and found himself heading towards a set of mountains off in the far distance. Once a sufficient distance had been achieved from Canterlot, he felt that no one would be able to notice him if he were to exit the shadows at this point. The Roegadyn decided that now was a good time to get out a ride, seeing as the trip was going to be a rather long one.

Bringing up his set of menus, Brex scrolled down to the point that it displayed an option labeled, Mounts. Within the world of Final Fantasy 14, any player would have access to a mount once they hit level 30. At which point, they needed to fulfill the requirements for completing one particular quest. Normally a player would ride a large yellow bird called a Chocobo. The creature was capable of having others riding it thanks to its large size. This creature could be summoned at any time whenever the player was out of combat. They would then be mounted by said player to get to their destination much faster than they would on foot.

The player even had the option of summoning it to aid them in combat if they fed it its favorite food. This would last from 30 minutes if they were given the food once, but if fed two times, then the Chocobo would stay around for a full hour. However, at this time he didn’t quite understand yet, how summoning a living creature like that would turn out. The very idea that he might not be able to provide for the creature if he couldn’t send it away, or even protected from being taken by another from this world that would see it as a rare creature that has never been seen before, did crossed his mind.

So, after giving it some thought, Brex decided to go with something mechanical in nature. He did this for two reasons, one was because of what he thought before and the other was due to the fact that while he was in the otherworld, he did practice summoning the one in mind. Then when he was done and had no more need for it, it would just simply vanish into thin air.

With that decided. He flicked his mental finger on the button icon of a motorbike. There was a small flash before the screen disappeared. Within the time it took for a person to blink, a large motorbike with one large wheel in the back and two joined wheels that were side by side in the front had appeared.

( Here is the picture of the Bike mount. )

What Brex chose was the motorbike that he had purchased on the in-game store that was selling items modeled from Final Fantasy 7. Looking it over, Brex gave out a long whistle before quickly jumping on it. The engine quickly started up without any trouble at all. After giving the handle a few turns to rev up the engine, Brex was off and leaving a dust cloud in his wake.

It had taken him nearly a week to travel all the way to the coastline where he hit the city called Baltimare. Of course, he wasn’t stupid enough to simply go straight in there while riding a motorbike, considering these people don’t have anything like it yet. So, when the city came into view and he was still near the tree line of a forest not too far from the city, Brex dismounted and dismissed his bike which disappeared on the spot. That was when he thought to himself, “Well that sure beats finding a parking garage or a meter to put coins in.”

But at this time, the sun was going down and night was fast approaching. Brex was more than four miles away from Baltimare at this point. Deciding that going to the city right now may not be such a good idea, he decided to camp out for tonight and planned to continue going into the city when day broke.

Even though he said he was going to camp out, Brex couldn’t bring himself to sit down for a good while as he rubbed his butt cheeks while complaining inside of his head about how long the ride was and how his ass felt like it was nearly going to fall off. This only caused Rory to laugh and giggle at his antics while he refused to sit down for a good solid three hours to enjoy the sensation after sitting on that motorbike for such a long time.

During that night, Brex and Rory decided to catch up on things a little more in detail. He had explained to her everything that he knew about why they appeared at the Tree of harmony. He had reminded her that they had just said goodbye to those two girls at the bridge as they left to go back to Canterlot.

This of course, led to him explaining the surprise meeting between himself and the three people on the other side after his death. This however, caused Rory too basically go into a full-blown meltdown as she blurted out many obscenities and promises of retribution towards the sun goddess. This had taken Brex a good hour to calm the girl down enough to continue with his story. Brex didn’t wanna say it, but he was both happy and at the same time terrified at just what Rory had promised to do to the Princess for what she did to him. Some of which had very detailed, visual images being described that had the use of the Princess’s removed horn playing a big part in them.

It had taken nearly the entire night for him to regale her of his encounter and training sessions with the people on the other side. Even though Brex couldn’t see her, he was positive that he could sense some jealousy radiating from Rory while she was within his head whenever he mentioned either of the two girls and how much time he had spent with them. But when it came to the one called Daddy, Rory seemed to have taken a liking to the story when it would mention anything about him. Apparently, Brex’s thoughts on those two getting along was right on the Gil.

When it had gotten to the point where he explained the trainers that were summoned with the help of Little Moon, Rory was fascinated by the cornucopia of fighters that were giving him personal tips and training. She had taken a personal interest in the one called Erza, from Fairy Tail. However, there were a few that she was not so keen on, but those of course were the female trainers. Now when it got to the non-combat guests, Brex was positive that Rory had fallen over laughing with in his head when he had gotten to the part about chef Ramsay and his evil training season.

After the girl recovered from her near mental death of laughing, she asked her Master why he would even focus so much on cooking when he didn’t even really need to eat or sleep in the first place. That was when he would tell her that it was a small part of his long-term plan. Also, it’s not like he was never gonna eat again. Just because he doesn’t need to do so, it didn’t mean that he was not going to enjoy himself now and then.

Now by the time he had gotten to the point that he discussed what his long-term plan was going to be, that was when the sun finally broke the horizon. Seeing as their discussion was going to be placed on hold, Brex told Rory that he can tell it to her later on. It didn’t take them any time at all to pack up their camp, considering all they did was sit in the dark while near the edge of the forest. Brex didn’t need a campfire seeing as how he had the blessing from both Little Light and Little Moon, which meant he didn’t get bothered by the weather being too hot or too cold. Then there was also the situational awareness that Brex constantly had up.

Now before entering the city, Brex considered how he should appear while in the city. First, for his plan to go forward. He was going to need to not stay in the shadow realm for the rest of his life. Opening up his inventory, Brex started searching until he found a set of items that he thought would be very useful in this situation. He had pulled out a set of pyramid shaped gems that were called glamour’s, along with a set of gear meant for casters to equip.

The equipment was basically a set of robes and other types of clothing that would cover up every part of his body from site. The robe that would be covering most of his body, had a hood and a mask that had round eyeholes and was painted black and white and what could loosely resemble the face of an owl. There was a small purple gem affixed to the forehead that was just barely visible from under the hood. This gear was part of a set called, Qarn Cowl.

In the game a player can use a glamour only on an item they are wearing that is the same level or higher than the item that they wish it to look like. This meant you couldn’t make a level 15 item look like something from level 55. But in Brex’s case, he was going to use the option of lowering his level which meant this was also gonna level down his items so that they are of the same strength as the number chosen. In other words, even if he was wearing a level 50 gear if he were to use the level sync, like one would do when they entered a dungeon or some random event happening out in the field, not only would his total level lower but his items would adjust to that level as well.

So now the question that ran through his mine was, just what class was he going to be while being at this city. Again, Brex didn’t want anyone to know that he could do magic in case his identity got out. So, he was reluctant to use any of his caster types. This of course meant that he would also need to pick something that this world could recognize. Thinking on it, this would most likely cross off the use of the Machinist class seeing as it uses a gun. He doubted that they even have guns in this world from what he’s seen so far. Sure, they must have cannons, but that was the extent that he believed these ponies to have progressed in warfare.

He had given some thought towards playing as his samurai class but decided against it, seeing as this would be a trial run and he didn’t want to stand out too much right now. After some personal deliberation, the Roegadyn decided to go with the classic Archer. Well, that’s how this worlds residents would see him as. In reality he would be equipping his Bard soul stone which happens to be the advanced class of the Archer.

Now having donned his level 50 Archer gear, Brex continues with using the glamour prisms on said gear to turn them into the Qarn set. Now with his body covered with a dark yellow robe and gear while his shoulders and head are covered with a dark brown fabric compared to the rest and the owl face mask concealing his identity, Brex equips the Bard’s bow onto his back. Again, he didn’t want to draw too much attention so he glamoured his weapon to look like a regular one.

The reason he did this was because of the fact that the Bards weapon, was capable of folding itself up into the shape of a harp when not being used while on his back. Figuring that having such an item opening and closing in front of others would draw a little too much attention and he didn’t want to talk to ponies too much if they started to ask questions about it.

It was getting close to 7:30 in the morning by the time Brex had approached the city. It pretty much looked like any other that anyone can picture. There were actually quite a few tall buildings mostly ranging from two to four stories tall, however he did notice that near the center of this large city was a couple of very tall towers that went a good 10 to 12 floors up.

But what did catch his attention was that there was a perimeter wall outside. They had it extended a good quarter mile beyond the city limits. Brex would have to say it was a good two stories tall and from his vantage point there was maybe two or three entrances spread out on the side that he was on.

Each of the gates were big enough to allow three or four carriages to pass through at a time and the gate was built to be raised and lowered with cross sectional bars that he could see protruding from the top of the gate that indicated it was ready to slam down at a moment’s notice. That was when he started to think to himself, “I guess what they said on the other side about there being a monster problem was true. At least these guys were smart enough to build a defensive perimeter around the place. What I don’t get is, why hasn’t Ponyville done this? it is sitting shoulder to shoulder with the Ever Free that is almost overflowing with those dang wolves.”

Luckily for him this wasn’t one of those situations where he had to wait in a long line, to eventually come across some kind of incident that would cause him to be in a fight. Instead, he came up to the gate and was only needing to stay behind three ponies that were at that moment checking in.

Brex didn’t quite see their faces but he didn’t really pay too much attention. However, the process was taking a little time so he had the opportunity to glance and noticed their cutie marks and hair color. The two adults seemed to be in regular clothing while wearing sleeveless shirts. The first of the three was a male unicorn with grey hair and a dark brown mane that had a cutie mark on his exposed shoulder that appeared to be a set of three footballs. The next was a pink unicorn mare with a purple mane, she had on her exposed shoulder, three cookies that seem to be starting to crumble. The last was a small girl with, white hair and a purple mane. But he wasn’t able to see what her cutie mark thanks to the girl standing just in front of the other two.

During the wait, he had caught a few words from the group in front of him that mostly consisted of visiting someone and a hospital. Before he could think on what he had heard the three ponies moved ahead and it was now his turn.

Stepping up the Roegadyn comes up to a booth with a pony sitting beyond it. It was a gray mare with red hair staring up with wide eyes. Without even looking away she reaches under the desk and pulls out a piece of paper and fumbles with a pen in the other hand. That’s when she asks, “Are you here on personal or business matters?”

Brex replied with his normal, almost emotionless tone, “Business.” That was when the mare started to write something on her paper before she asked the next question, which was, “Do you mind telling me what this business of yours is? This is so we can document it.” Brex simply said, “Applying, Adventurers Guild.” Brecks could see the girl jotting down is answers before a split second later she looks up with such speed that he could have sworn that she snapped her neck. Inside, Brex mentally winced at the sight.

At first, he wondered what this reaction was about, then quickly realized what was about to happen and was fully prepared for his reply. The mare then asked in an unsure tone, “E-Excuse me… but, if I’m correct… you’re a male, don’t you think that’s too dangerous for you to look into?” Knowing full well that in this society from what he had been reading back at the tree library in Ponyville, males typically didn’t do any dangerous jobs. So, the very notion that a male would even go out into the adventurers Guild would have been considered a suicidal act.

Carefully, Brex leans in a little bit as to make sure that the mare was giving him, her undivided attention. He then said in a monotoned voice that was lightly laced with anger, “That… a problem?” this only caused the poor mare to start shaking while she begins to stumble around with her words, clearly trying to come up with a reply.

He had felt a little bad that he had to use this card. But from what he had been reading, it seemed that the gender roles had basically been switched in this world, and he wanted to play this card and see how it would work. From what he had remembered in all those anime’s and movies, it was never a good idea to tell a girl that she can’t do something. So, in this situation, the males were now the females in a sense. Brex had hoped that this would work in his favor while in this world.

After a while of moving her mouth without uttering a word and looking back and forth to her sides, the mare finally looks back up to Brex and answers with a shaky tone, “T-There isn’t any problem with that… I-I was just making sure… that’s all.” Brex could clearly see this girl shaking and sweating up a storm as she said those words. That was when Rory spoke up in his head, “Master, I get the feeling that she’s been yelled at by another male before. By the way she’s panicking, she might have a heart attack by the looks of it.”

Now feeling like a complete jerk, Brex scrunches up his face before letting out a loud sigh and then talks to the girl using a comforting tone, “I’m, not mad.” Honestly speaking, he really wasn’t. But he had the feeling that in the future, there were going to be those who would be more deserving of him playing this tactic on them.

After hearing him say that, Brex noticed the girl calming down before she asked his name and for a form of identification. Thankfully he knew something like this was going to happen thanks to his research, so he knew that having a story on hand would come in handy. He replied with, “Never had one.” This drew a confused look from the mare before she asked, “I don’t quite understand. What do you mean by, never had one, just what town did you come here from?”

That was when he casually replied with, “I’m a nomad.” This only caused the mare to tilt her head and confusion even more as she replied, “Wait, hold up… Are you saying you’ve never lived in a town? And when you say you’re a nomad, you’re saying that you just wander around? How long have you been doing this for? You can’t have gotten into any towns without some kind of identification.”

This was the moment that Brex had to choose his next words carefully as to convey the urgency and necessity for never coming into a town until now. Thanks to him being able to think faster than a normal being. He was able to run a number of scenarios through his head within a moment after the girl had said those words. He then replied while using a grim tone and speaking under his breath just enough to make sure that only she would hear, “Protection from… herds.”

It had taken a few moments for the girl to finally understand the meaning behind those words. That’s when her eyes went wide again while her mouth hung open and she started to speak up in a low whisper while giving him an apologetic smile, “Oh, oh, I’m… I’m sorry you had to go through that…” after another moment, she began speaking again. But this time in her professional tone from back when they started, although still looking a little frazzled, “If you’re going to the adventurers Guild, you can have them make a new identification card for yourself to use later on.” Brex gave her a small nod then started moving on after she indicated that he can pass. But just as he was turning, the mare called out for his attention and handed him a folded piece of paper. She then said, “Show this to the Guild member at the desk.” With that done, Brex left the gate.

As Brex was entering the town, Rory spoke up and asked him, “Mind explaining to me what that was all about. Also, what’s this stuff about protection from herds?” Mentally speaking to Rory while letting his eyes drift from place to place, he replied with, “Well it’s like this. The male to female population ratio in this world is way out of whack. Apparently, the male population makes up only 10 or 11 percent. It would also seem that this also applies to the other races as well, but not nearly as bad. This of course led to the whole herding thing. From what I had been able to dig up on those books back in ponyville, nearly 50 years ago there was a radical movement where the females actively hunted down males to add to their groups. This of course was completely illegal as they basically took the male’s rights away from them.”

Taking a cursory glance around before continuing, “It had gotten so bad to the point that any males born into a family had to be put into hiding. There would be whole groups of families that would just up and disappear just to get away from being hunted down by these herding fanatics. Of course, this only lasted maybe five or seven years before the Princess managed to put a stop to it. But there’s still talk about it happening here and there illegally. So, by me telling that to the girl at the guard post at the entrance, I basically gave her a very good reason as to why I have no identification. So now she thinks I’m one of these in hiding stallions that has just now come out into the open.”

He then added, “I’m also taking into account how big I am compared to the regular pony here. After seeing both Big Mac and Bright Mac, I could safely say I could be considered the largest male here in Equestria aside from minotaur’s. This would help cement the idea that I was in hiding seeing as how I can be considered, a prime catch with how the rest of the males in this society seem to be smaller than I am.” Rory then replied with, “Oh, I see now, that makes perfect sense. So, if anybody asks a question as to where you are from, you have the perfect answer to give.” Making sure that nobody saw this, the Roegadyn does a short nod of confirmation.

With that discussion being concluded, he now started to make his way towards the center of the city. Knowing basically where key buildings were placed within the city due to the maps he saw while at the Golden Oak’s library. Brex knew just where to look to find the adventurers Guild.

It had taken him a good 23 minutes to find the building in question. It would have taken him less than 15 if it wasn’t for being constantly hounded by a random mare for what seemed to be every ten paces. He had managed to either sidestep them or flat out reject their advances. At one point, about halfway to his destination, there was a group of four that actually barred his path and they had attempted to direct him into an alleyway.

Brex would have found this amusing with what happened next. It was essentially them hanging off of his body while trying to pull him away from the busy street, but to only to end up dragging their hoofs on the ground while he remained motionless in place without even batting an eye thanks to their weak attempts to move him. But instead, he only found this more infuriating that this was being done while there were onlookers. After shaking the group of four off of himself, the Roegadyn continued on his way. After the incident, his thoughts were, “Did that honestly just happen while others watched? Not one being in that crowd lifted a finger or spoke up a single word in protest. Either this was a common occurrence or something was up with that group of four mare’s.

Now standing in front of a set of double doors leading to a four-story building that was about 24 to maybe 30 meters across from his point of view. The Roegadyn looked to the sign above the door and saw that it was reading as, Baltimare Adventurers Guild. What caught his attention was at the beginning and at the very end of the words on the sign. Were a pair of ponies holding a weapon in each hand but that wasn’t what caught his attention, in fact it was the details of the ponies themselves. They were both female. He started to think to himself, while having a devilish smirk under his mask. “Oh, I see how it is now. This is going to be interesting.”

*Point of view: Third person*

The inside of the adventurers Guild was large enough to be considered a pub. Most in fact did consider the place to mainly be dealing in it with how there, at the very back where there would be a reception desk was off to a side, an actual bar with a few patrons sitting at it. Pretty much the whole building was made of wood with only a few modern conveniences spread around. In place of light bulbs, there appear to be glowing bright crystals that hung from either one large chandelier in the center of the room or what could have been originally torch stands along all the walls that have been replaced with these crystals.

The place had a mixture of relaxed, yet at the same time a professional vibe. On the far side of the wall directly across from where the drinks were being served was a large bored with many papers tacked onto it that had a few with some crudely made drawings of things that pertained to the request on them. Right next to it was a door leading to another room that would have a place for a group to enter and discuss certain things regarding quests and rewards. Now behind the reception desk is another door that leads to a private area that only those who work inside the building itself may enter, with the word’s, personnel only, printed on it.

Scattered about the large room on the bottom floor was eight round tables big enough to sit six people. At the moment there was a good nine ponies sitting inside as well as three others from different species. One being of the diamond dogs and the other two were Griffins.

The diamond dog was what one would consider to be a crossbreed anthro version of a Husky and a retriever mix. This one was obviously male with most of his body hair being black with the ends of his arms and legs being white along with his face. He was currently wearing a mix of leather and a few placements of metal on his shoulders, his arms and legs. On his back he had set a wooden shield that had a metal bolted frame around the edges and painted in white at the center was a wolf’s head howling at a moon that was shaped as a Crescent right above it.

As for the two Griffins, they were painfully obvious to be twins. The only way that someone could have told them apart was the fact that one had blue eyes and the other one had green. Their bodies and wings were mostly brownish gold. While their talons and faces or Snow White with purple highlights under the eyes. Both were currently equipped with the bare minimum of leather gear obviously meant for allowing them to move quickly without anything hampering their movements. The one with green eyes had at her waist, a bag with a Red Cross on it while the one with blue eyes was brandishing a pair of short daggers strapped to either side of her waist.

As for the rest of the members inside of the building, it was mostly comprised of a few unicorns. But most were earth ponies and Pegasus. Aside from the one diamond dog everyone else inside of there were all females. They all had their own set of gear and weapons ranging from being a tank or some type of damage dealer. Some being healers that either used magic or were forced to only using the items available in their bags.

Back at the reception desk, was a Pegasus mare with the hair of yellow and a very light green main that was all swirled up on top of her head. She was apparently looking through a set of documents and separating them into different piles of various types of colored papers. That was when the doors to the adventurers Guild were opened and set of steps or made approaching the counter. Without even looking up from her paperwork to see who it was, she asked while not sounding disrespectful due to her being very busy with the paperwork in front of her, “What can I do for you today, come here for work or do you got a request to put in?”

That was when she heard the voice of a stallion speaking, “Here to register.” This caused the mare to look up at the one speaking with an incredulous stare before replying, “Uhm… I’m sorry dear, but could you run that past me again, I-I don’t think I quite caught that.” She can now see that it was a tall individual wearing a set of robes and a mask that hid pretty much every part of his body. This being was extremely imposing with the size of his form.

The mare, then heard him speaking once again, in a matter-of-fact tone, “Joining the Guild.” The mare was visibly confused before she started speaking again, “Twirly Whirly’s the name. I currently run this branch of the Adventurers Guild. We’re always in need of some good members, but I’m not quite sure you understand what that means Hun. You do know that it’s a dangerous job right, are you sure you can handle it?” Twirly Whirly was greatly concerned about a male wanting to join, but she was among one of the few that actually believed that males could do the same things that females could. But she didn’t want to get one hurt when they weren’t ready to do such jobs.

That was when the person in front of her placed a piece of paper on the table and carefully slid it in her direction before letting go. Twirly Whirly picked it up and examined its contents. It didn’t take long for her eyes to go comically wide as they quickly darted up towards the being in front of her and back down to the paper repeatedly.

After what seemed like almost 20 seconds had gone by before she placed the paper face down on the desk and closed her eyes as she let out a heavy sigh. She then mumbled under her breath, “Those Bucking mare’s. To think that there’s still some out there in hiding because of them…” Now taking the paper and placing it into her back pocket, she looked up to the male before saying, “Don’t worry about a thing Hun. I’ll get everything set up for yeah, just hold on a moment. All I’ll be needing is your name and age, we won’t be putting anything else on there.”

This got a subtle nod from the robed individual before Twirly Whirly walked into the backroom, only to return five minutes later with a set of papers and a small box no bigger than the size of one’s palm. Placing the stack of two or three papers on the table she takes the top one and grabs a quill that was sitting off to the side and dips it into the inkwell before asking, “OK Hun let me have it, what’s your name and age?”

He replied with, “Gambit, Age 23.” Twirly Whirly started to dot this down into some sections of the paperwork. Looking back up she asks, “Gambit huh. That’s all? No last name?” this only got him to shake his head with a negative. Giving him a warm smile, she replies with, “That’s quite alright dear, I think that should do it.”

When she finished with the paperwork, she brought up from underneath the table a large item which was about maybe 22 inches square in diameter and flat. It was then placed onto the table. Afterward she turned her attention to the small box and opened it. Within was something that resembled a metal version of a driver’s license card that appeared to be made from iron. The mare then placed it into the center of the device and looked up to the one in front of her, now known as Gambit and said, “OK. one last thing. Just need to check how strong you are. All you need to do is place your hands on either side of this tablet and focus on it. This will then show your stats on this card and we can use it to determine what your available quests will be, along with your starting rank.

Gambit was about to place both hands onto the magic item before he paused. Twirly Whirly saw that he was turning his attention towards the other members of the Guild. She thought he was just being shy about his stats being known for all to see, so she spoke up while leaning in and began to whisper, “If you’re worried about them knowing what you can do, then you can relax. We have a ranking system from A’s being the strongest and all the way down to F’s. No one will know exactly what your abilities are, all they will see is your name and rank. It will only be us here that work for the Guild office that can see the rest of your stats aside from yourself. Any others that look at this card, will only see those two things I mentioned.”

After a few more seconds, Gambit then placed his hands onto the item and there was a fairly dim light that was growing underneath the card that was laying in the center. The process had taken less than ten seconds before the light died down and a set of words and a picture was displayed on the card that depicted a large F in the center that acted like a background design. Twirly Whirly, picked it up in order to examine it and saw the following.

Name: Gambit.

Age: 23.

Level: 10.

Adventuring Guild rank: Rank F.

Race: Classified.

Gender: Classified.

Class: Classified.

Weapon specialty: Classified.

Twirly Whirly tilted her head to the side as she saw this, and with raising her right eyebrow, asked under her breath, “Just what in the name of… T-This… this has never happened before. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anything saying classified.” She didn’t look back up towards Gambit and asked under her breath so that no one other than him can hear, “Just who are you?” Gambit then replied with the same level of volume, “I’m nobody.” This only caused Twirly Whirly to scrunch up her face and confusion as she thought to herself, “Doesn’t he mean to say, no pony?”

She was about to ask him to repeat the process once more, but then gave it a second thought and said to herself that this wouldn’t change anything. So, she just handed him the card and said, “Welcome to the Guild, Mister Gambit.”

After that point, the mare quickly and efficiently began explaining the rules and etiquette behind the members of the Adventurers Guild. Which was basically, standard practice’s. There was a long stretch of rules but it had seemed that Gambit was able to understand them easily. In fact, he had hardly even said anything at all aside from a simple yes or no here and there during the explanation.

It all basically boiled down to saying that the members should be assisting each other. Don’t break major laws and please, finish the quest you started without piling them up, only for other adventurers to never be able to do them. Otherwise, they would remain incomplete. There have been instances where a group of adventurers would grab all the quests available and never get them all done. This had the negative impact of making it impossible for others to get any work.

When the explanation was finished, she pointed towards the board and said, “Over there you will find the quests available. Everything on the top are the higher ranked quests, while the ones on the bottom row are ranked F. Now, pretty much everything on the bottom can be done by yourself. But above that, you will require one or more members in your party to even take on those quests. It doesn’t matter how good you are, it’s all a matter of safety.”

She looked over to see that gambit was looking towards the board and was nodding his head. Twirly Whirly, normally would have thought that this was one of those adventuring types that didn’t really care what she said. But for some strange reason she felt that this guy’s attention was sharper than her own kitchen knife. She then continued with, “I know you look like you can handle yourself, but I suggest you be careful about who you party up with.”

Twirly Whirly’s shifted her gaze across the room before returning it back to Gambit and then adding, “There aren’t many males in adventuring groups so I wouldn’t put it past some of these ladies to try something if given the chance. Make sure you come straight to me if something does happen. Between you and me I’m happy that you’re willing to try and do this type of work. I remember stories about my mother being told by her grandmother, that in the past, males were a lot more outgoing and honestly I’d like to see that myself.”

When she had finished saying that she snapped her fingers and had a look of realization before she spoke up again, “Oh, one more thing. I almost forgot; I don’t want this slipping my mind. These cards are able to record your deeds. But they only keep the information on what you’ve done in that branch. So, if you ever go to another town and head into their adventuring Guild, make sure you tell them you need to have the information requested to be sent over, otherwise you’ll be starting from zero again. If you don’t do that, then you won’t be able to go up in ranks.”

After mentioning that little tidbit the door behind the counter swung open and a small Pegasus mare came rushing out and ran right up to Twirly Whirly. The girl seemed to be no older than six years old. Her hair was of a light greenish Gray while the mane was mix of very pale apple green, a light cyan grey and light emerald greenish Gray. Her eyes were a pale grayish turquoise. Twirly Whirly exclaimed out of surprise, “Vapor Trail, what are you doing here, I thought you were doing homework in your room?” The young Vapor Trail then said, “But Mama, you said you were going to help me with it today.”

That got the older mare to chuckle before she patted her little girl on the head and said, Oh, I’m sorry dear. I got caught up with helping this one here with registering for the Guild. I’ll be right up in a minute; we were just finishing up the last of it.” This got a nod from the little girl as she ran back to the back door. Letting out a small chuckle she looks towards gambit and asks, “Little ones are always a big handful. I don’t suppose you have one of your own running around here and there also?” She only got a slow shake of the head as he replied, “I doubt it…” Twirly Whirly was feeling like she should ask after hearing that, but decided not to push the subject.

After the two exchanged another minute of going over the guidelines, they parted ways. Gambit approached the board and quickly scanned each and every one of the quests that were currently posted. After a few minutes he reached over and grabbed one of the F ranked quests and carefully removed it from the large board. He checked in with Twirly Whirly and got more details from her about it before exiting the building.

During the entire time starting from when Gambit had entered the building, until the moment, he left the entire room was silent. All the guild members were watching the two talking at the reception desk, but due to the tables being too far away they couldn’t hear much of anything. However, the one diamond dog sitting at the far side of the room at the table who is currently sitting alongside the two Griffins looked at one another and slowly got up and went to the counter.

*Point of view: Brex Mith*

After leaving the adventurers Guild, Brex holds up the piece of paper to his face and brings up his map of the city. Thanks to having access to what could be considered heaven’s database through the phones power. His map displayed everything about the city including the address to where he needed to go for this quest and the most direct route to get there.

He was currently traveling along the roadsides while looking at the buildings and stalls when Rory asked, “OK. I’m a little confused, mind telling me why you’re calling yourself Gambit?”

This got an internal chuckle from Brex as he answered, “I already told those two mare’s in the past my name, who’s to say they haven’t told anyone else. Moreover, what do you think the odds are, that it never made its way to Celestia? This way I have an adventurer’s name to go by and I can keep my true name a secret and only give them out to those I trust. Tell me, what do you think would have happened if I told them my true name and that got circulated around? Then miraculously Celestia, got word and remembered it from 900 years ago. If she and I really did get into a fight, who’s to say she wouldn’t just show up the moment she remembers my name just to finish the job.”

This got Rory to reply with, “Ahh, OK I get it now. Yeah, you got a good point there. We’re talking about a goddess here. I wouldn’t put it past her myself if she got really pissed off, that she lost the fight to anyone else that wasn’t her sister. Honestly, if I was considered a God and I got beat up by a mortal, I would really be angry about it too. So, mind telling me why you’re calling yourself Gambit? From what I saw in your head before, isn’t that the name of a character from a cartoon or something called X-men?”

This only got Brex to laugh a little bit inside before he answered, “I can see where you get that from, but no, I got it from something else that’s related to Final Fantasy. You see in one of the earlier versions there was a gaming mechanic called the gambit system. In that game, you can basically make your character be anything you want. Whether it be a tank, a healer or whatever. Also, it kind of plays off that my entire plan is basically a gamble on its own. So, taking into account that I can literally be anything I want to be in terms of class and I’m basically gambling with my life, the name Gambit sticks.”

Brex could hear Rory giving herself some time to digest what was being said before she gave out a few hums of agreement. After that the Roegadyn in disguise proceeded to the address on the paperwork. During the way, Brex got more looks and another attempt was made by a new group of mare’s that were being a little too forceful. Thankfully, he was able to get away from them without causing any kind of harm. But yet again, seeing a male getting pulled away by a group of females while at the same time, not getting anyone’s help really started to get under his skin. He started to wonder where the heck were all the guards. Images of a Donut Joes being here in this city flashed in his head and he began to imagine all the cops in town stuck in there, unable to leave because of all the good donuts.

He soon found himself in front of a four-story apartment building that was situated between the center of the city and the shoreline to the east side. The place looked reasonably good, aside from some faded paint in some corners the place appeared pretty nice to stay in.

Taking another glance at the request he saw that the person in question that posted this, was on the second floor in room 202. It was stated that this was an information gathering request. But it seemed as if the one who issued it did not want to give out too much details for everyone to know. So, it was stated that whoever accepted it would be told only in person.

Upon entering the building, the Roegadyn noticed that it was in much better shape compared to the outside. If he had to rate this place compared to a one star and up to five stars rating, he would have to say this would be either a three or perhaps a four, tops. There was a reception desk close to the door and beyond that were a set of stairs going up to the next floor.

Behind the desk was an elderly earth stallion that was completely Gray with green eyes. He called out in one of those shaky tones that make you think that this guy needs one of those microphones to be able to be heard by others. “What can I be doing for yeah kid. Looking for a place to lay low? Haha haha.” He then lets out a few small coughs while still giggling to himself while he points up at Brex’s hood.

Seeing as to what the old man is getting at, Brex replies with, “Here for this.” That’s when he places the paper from the Guild onto the desk for the old stallion to see. Brex could see the old guy leaning in to try and get a good look at it, then after doing so he gives out a small nod and says, “Poor thing. Yeah, you’ll be finding her up in her room. She hasn’t left in like two days now. Hay, mind giving her a message from me? Tell her she needs to come down to at least say hi to me. I’m worried about the young thing.”

With that exchange he heads up to the second floor and walks down the hall. Down a few doors he finds the room marked 202. Giving it a few weak taps with the back of his knuckles. Brex steps back a foot to give the door some space as to, not freak out the one behind it. There was soon, a weak feminine voice coming from the other side that said, “Who… who, is it?” he was able to tell by the tone of the voice that whoever was answering the door had just been crying.

Brex spoke in a calm voice, “Here from Guild.” A moment later the door is slowly opened but just enough to let someone look through. From beyond the door, one could see a set of baby blue eyes as well as a green face. Everything else was obscured by the door. He then slowly held out the piece of paper with the request written on it for the girl to see. There was a glimmer of hope just barely noticeable on the mare’s face when she saw it.

After that, she let him into her apartment and they both sat down on a couch that could have sat four but due to his size, it seemed only big enough for two of him to be on. However, the mare was on the other end and there was still some space between them both. His current client was an earth mare in her late 20s by the looks of it. Her clothes and mane were disheveled and he can clearly smell that she had not been taking care of herself due to how messy the place was. Like before, she had baby blue eyes and her hair was all green, as for her mane, that one was an even lighter shade of green but at the moment it was in a mess.

Brex had sat on the far end of the couch in order to give her some space. He can tell that the girl was having some trouble speaking and gave her all the time she needed. It had taken her a good five minutes before the mare spoke out and filled him in on the following.

Apparently, she was a single mother and her name was Green Sweet. Her daughter’s name is Cherry Sweet and was only 7 years old. Just like how her mother’s name mirrored her coloring, Cherry Sweet was basically all red from the description. She was foal napped three days ago.

They were both over at the east end of town, near the coast when it had happened. While in the middle of shopping for dinner, Green Sweet had only turned her back on her daughter for not even two seconds to look at what a stall was selling. During that time, she had disappeared right off the street.

Green Sweet had gone to the guards to report what had happened and told them everything. However, it has been two days already and she had gotten no word from them regarding her daughter’s case. It was only earlier today that she went to the adventurers Guild and pleaded to post this request on the board. Of course, being one with little money, she couldn’t offer enough for the reward fees to get a higher-ranking member, but all she could afford was to make it an F rank.

She had nearly given up when she had heard him knocking at the door. She then proceeded to tell him everything she could from the start of the day and leading up to the disappearance. Apparently, there have been others talking around the neighborhood about other kids disappearing from all over the city, but no one has figured out how it happens, or just who the next target could be. He questioned her for how long this had been going on and she replied by saying that it was going on for the past two weeks now.

On the outside, Brex was listening carefully, but on the inside, that was a completely different matter. No… within his mind, he was a boiling volcano ready to blow his top. The very idea that someone would go around kidnapping children made him want to strangle these individuals with their own… Brex, had to stop himself from continuing down that line of thought. Knowing full well that if it went on any further, it was going to get extremely dark, very fast. At the same time that he had stopped himself from going down that line of thinking, he could have sworn that he felt Rory inside giving off a wave of fear before he felt the sensation of the girl diving deeper into his mind.

His thoughts were broken when he heard the mare beside him on the couch speak out in a confused tone, “I’m sure I didn’t turn on the heat. Why is it getting so warm in here?” inside, Brex was mentally panicking when he realized that this was probably due to the blessing from Little Light. She did tell him that his affinity for fire would go up. Maybe his anger was actually causing the room to warm up. Mentally berating himself, Brex decided that it would be a good idea to keep his emotions in check.

Going back to what the mare had told him. It seemed that there was one small common occurrence that lined up with all these disappearances. However, he found it very odd that no one ever looked into it. Green Sweet had mentioned that two weeks ago a traveling carnival had arrived in the city. They had apparently set shop just north of the boardwalk over on the coastline.

Brex used the mental connection and communicated to Rory. “Say, don’t you find it odd that no one’s looked into this traveling carnival? I know this is Equestria and all. The ponies are normally not so…” That was when Rory finished it by saying, “Competent. Or perhaps a lack of common sense?” Brex had to mentally flinch when hearing that and had to resist the urge to acknowledge this, but felt it would not be fair to judge these ponies by what he saw on the show so readily.

He then asked, “Well I doubt these ponies are as incompetent as in the show, but this is going well beyond that. It’s too much of a coincidence that these kids are being taken during the time a carnival comes into the mix. If the guards haven’t done anything, then the odds are of them being part of this whole thing might be plausible. Remember when I was on the other side and I told you about what I saw about Shadow Lily? She was apparently investigating the guards for being in the pockets of the nobles. Maybe some of the guards in the city are under the thumb of the kidnappers as well.”

After talking with Green Sweet for a few more minutes he decided it was time to head out and start his investigation. Just as he was leaving through the open door, he felt his robe being tugged at the end of his right arm. Looking over he can see the mare crying as she looks at him with pleading eyes. He can hear her saying something under her breath repeatedly before she had finally let go. Rex couldn’t help himself but to pat her on the head lightly as he said, “Make her dinner.”

After saying that. He quickly left the apartment and was now going down the steps and out of the front door of the building. Wanting to give it a shot. The Roegadyn tried to use the connection to heavens computer to see if he could get any information on this Cherry Sweet. But it seemed to be a fruitless attempt. Brex had figured as much by now that he couldn’t look anything up on a person, er… pony unless he had already met them beforehand. There was hope for it telling him just where to find her, but that plan had run into a wall.

Afterwards, Brex made a beeline straight to the boardwalk. All the while dodging more looks from all the mare’s around him. But yet again, there was another group of them in his path after only six minutes after leaving Green Sweet’s place. This time, it was a gang of eight in total and it was comprised of all the mare’s from the previously failed two attempts. Right as they were going to come close and try their way again. Brex, who was not in the mood, spoke in an extremely threatening tone that was on the edge of being perceived as demonic. “NOT…NOW!!!” This caused the group of eight to cower back and to separate themselves down the middle into two rows of mare’s as they stood in attention while quivering in place, desperately trying not to make eye contact.

After leaving the group, the Roegadyn finally made it to the coastline. The place had look like pictures that he remembered in his head from a video game where he would play a character called Spider-man. In it, he would swing out to some boardwalk over the water with a bunch of rides and a Ferris wheel on it. However, he did not have the mental capacity at the moment to gawk at wonder at such a spectacle.

His full attention was on looking for anything that resembled a carnival. At first, he thought what was on the boardwalk could have been it. But he was quickly able to discern that it had been here for more than two weeks. This was thanks to some of the traveling brochures that were inside the Golden Oak’s library. At that moment he wondered if it was possible that Celestia already put most of the knowledge of Equestria into that place before Twilight even moved in.

Without even a second thought. He thought to himself, “Yep, she would do that all right, she is a manipulator. What else would one call it when the time of Nightmare Moons return would occur, that all of the ponies needed to use the elements of harmony would end up in the same place, at the same time. Not to mention that their leader would also happen to be her student. The one being that she had practically raised to see her like some all-knowing, perfect, second mother. Now if that isn’t being a manipulator, then I don’t know what is.”

Moving his gaze up and down the shoreline, he saw off in the distance towards the North End just before the shoreline curved out into the ocean, a set of lights that were quite colorful. He then said to Rory using the mental connection, “Well if that isn’t a carnival, I don’t know what is.”

At this point it was getting close to noon. But as Brex got closer to the carnival set up, he quickly saw that it was no longer in business, but in the act of packing up. He knew that none of them had seen him coming yet, due to him being nearly a mile away and currently traveling on the sand instead of going up and running through the groups of ponies closer towards the city.

Cursing himself for not thinking this through more, he quickly looked around for anything that gave off any kind of a shadow large enough for him to duck into. After a second or two, he noticed one of those weird jumping Jack cement shaped monuments they set up to act as a barrier against the water near the edge of the shoreline and made his way over. Making sure that is situational awareness and along with his mini map showed that no one was around to see him. The Roegadyn gets behind it and ducks into its shadow using Shadow movement. This way if anyone was watching from a fair distance away, they would simply think he jumped into the water.

*Point of view: Third Person*

Closer towards the city not far from where Brex had ducked, was a figure standing in the shadow of a large tree carefully concealing himself from anyone noticing his presence. There was the sound of two sets of flapping wings that could be heard before a pair of Griffins landed behind the figure. Now with all three keeping their identities hidden in the dark, one might have noticed the two Griffins landing to be shaking their heads in a negative fashion with how their eyes moved left and right as the distant light from the shoreline glistened off of them.

There was a grunt of frustration before something was heard hitting the side of the tree with a heavy thud. This was then followed by a set of loud crunching and scratching sounds as the figure began tearing away at the bark.

In a low gravelly voice, the first figure says, “Our prey will not escape us…” This was paired with a set of feminine voices that both replied as they spoke in unison, “Yes.” Before a small group of random ponies walked by. When the ponies passed, the three were nowhere to be seen.