A Roegadyn in Equestria

A Roegadyn in Equestria.

Chapter 20: Anger in the kitchen.

*Point of view: Brex Mith*
*Location: Baltimare*
*Time: One month after stopping the kidnappers*

Brex opened his eyes after another good night’s sleep. Soon he found himself laying on his back while on a mattress inside of a small room that was part of an apartment that he had been living in for the past month. Blinking his eyes awake, he took in the sight of the room, only to find it bear of any type of decorations or nick knacks of any kind. In a sense, it was the picture of a spartan lifestyle.

After giving out a long yawn as he stretched his arms, he spoke to Rory without the mental connection and said, “Morning, well I guess it doesn’t really count considering we literally just saw each other a moment ago.” This only got a small giggle from the girl from within his head as she replied with, “Oh, I still think it counts after all. Even with their only being a short time between you leaving the dream scape and you coming back in the real world, it still feels like it’s too long in between.” This only got the Roegadyn to shake his head lightly as he gave out an amused chuckle of his own and rub the back of his head to relieve a small itch.

He then asked, “So, what did you think of our anime marathon this time?” Feeling that Rory was thinking it over carefully in her head, she waited a few seconds before replying with, they really need to put more scenes of Rory fighting in that Gate anime. I know that I’m based off of her, but wow. I got really turned on whenever she got into any battles. Oh, uh I, I mean she really knows how to swing that weapon of hers around and she’s very reliable as a character, hehe- he…”

Brex wasn’t quite that stupid, he knew very well that Rory in her head suffered from the same problem as the one did in the very show that they were just watching. In just a single day after the incident with the kidnappers, Brex had found an apartment to rent out from the old man in the building that Green Sweet lived in. That very night that he moved into it, Rory and him had a small discussion that had been waiting for the last 800 years or so.

The girl had confessed that she had been suffering from the aphrodisiac like side effects from whenever they got into a heavy fight which involved taking out multiple enemies. At the time, Brex was blushing up a storm knowing that he was responsible for getting a cute, lolita girl who was stuck in his head to be extremely aroused whenever he got into a fight. But ironically it actually got him a little aroused as well. Thankfully, Brex was able to keep that part from being sensed by Rory. He knew that she had a young form but in reality, she was actually a fully matured woman.

For the last month or so, the Roegadyn was fairly busy with a number of small projects that ranged from collecting more information about this world and the current timeline. This was also along with doing odd jobs in the Adventurers Guild to earn some extra bits.

He had even on some occasions, joined another group to complete some rank E missions that required an additional member. Thankfully those ones that were right above his rank weren’t really that difficult or all that dangerous. In a sense, they only required more man power. He had no idea that his previously completed rank F quest which was originally classified as an information gathering type, had actually turned out to be more dangerous than the E rank’s he had been doing once in a while. With it being a kidnapping ring, they had a handful of ponies in it, along with an Imp that was capable of control the minds of others and shooting deadly ice spells. One would think that would have been marked down as a difficult D rank or even up there with the C rank requests.

He had still been getting hounded by random mare’s on the streets, but it hasn’t been as bad as the first day. Honestly, without him being in such a rush to save a little girl like back on that day, he was actually feeling quite flattered that he was getting so much attention. Then he realized that it was mostly due to the fact that there were hardly any males that roamed the streets.

Brex had been keeping to himself and had made the attempt at not letting anyone no where he lived. In fact, whenever he came home or left, he would always do so by using the skill, Shadow Movement to avoid any detection. Really the only one who even knew he lived in that apartment was the old man at the front desk. Right now, the Roegadyn was wearing a plain white T-shirt in a set of blue jeans and comfortable shoes as he walked around his small apartment. The long hair that he had been living with was now currently tide up into a messy ponytail and his face was still showing signs of only moments ago, waking up as he made his way to the bathroom.

Arriving in front of the sink, the Roegadyn had to lean down far enough to be able to be in the view of the low mirror that was obviously meant for those who were not over 7 feet tall. Splashing some water onto his face with both hands, Brex rubbed away the dirt that had been accumulating during his time being asleep. Speaking of his sleep, that night was one of many where both, he and Rory were inside his dreamscape and had been watching some episodes from the anime called Gate. Which happen to be the one that Rory’s body structure was modeled after. The characters name was Rory Mercury. Almost immediately after getting the apartment and going to sleep, Brex had made good on his word and created a movie theater in one of the bedrooms in his house within his mind. The two of them would sit in a comfortable couch and watch some random show or movie that he remembered.

The only reason why Rory wanted to see the anime Gate, was due to her not having a full memory regarding the girl considering that Brex had forbid her from going through his mind all willy nilly in the past. As it turns out she was quite impatient in the time it took for her character to actually show up, but whenever Rory Mercury was on the screen, he can tell that she was completely enamored with how this girl portrayed herself.

Brex had actually caught her peeking at his lap during the first episode that her character had showed up on. She was biting her lip while her eyes traveled back and forth between Brex’s is lap and her character in the show that was sitting on the lap of a soldier, who happened to be the main character, that the story was centered around.

Going back to the bathroom. Brex was just finishing up with his daily routine of washing his face before jumping into the shower, which he then continued to give himself a good washing down. The first time he had done this was quite a shock to him when he could sense how Rory within his mind was reacting to the sight of him getting butt naked and jumping into the shower. Realizing only seconds after jumping in and beginning to give himself a good washing, did Brex realize this and quickly used all his willpower to erect a mental wall to shut off all of Rory senses to the outside world. This only got him a slightly annoyed harrumph from her when he did this and she called him a spoilsport before going quiet until he was all finished.

As mentioned before, Brex did do odd jobs which were considered rank F from the Guild. These mainly consisted of him delivering small packages or documents from place to place that required personal handling or couldn’t be delivered through normal means. There were even occasions where he had to help out with some public cleaning such as clearing out the park or helping with some minor repair work that needed the extra hand or two. Now that last bit, was easily done thanks to him maxing out all of the crafting jobs. The one that got the most use during those times, was the Carpenter class. It mostly consisted of fixing some leaky roofs or mending a few fences. He did get around to fixing this one rocking chair that was apparently going to be shipped off to somebody outside of the city.

So really, everything was pretty much mundane but he did have a few side projects he was doing now and then. Then there were all the times that he would go to the beach and stare out into the water for a good half hour before returning to the city and continuing on with his day. Brex played with his short beard while thinking out loud, “Little Light was right, that thing that was in that small canister, was really going to end up being overkill when it was finished. I’m both glad and a bit sad that it’s gonna take such a long time before I can even whip out that ace in the hole. I’m gonna have to come up with a scenario where it’ll be usable.”

Before Rex could muse on that random thought Rory spoke out to remind him, “Master, we may want to hurry up. Don’t you remember what today is?” This caused the Roegadyn to snap his eyes wide open and exclaim while quickly darting out of the bathroom, “Oh yeah, that’s right. I gotta let the old man know that I’m leaving, if I don’t then he’s going to be really mad when he finds out that room is no longer in use and not earning him any bits.”

After using his equipment menu and selecting the appropriate gear which turned out to be his yellow and brown robes, Brex changed his clothing within a second and stood there now fully dressed. Currently looking down at himself, Brex whispered, “I’ve been wearing this thing for so long, it’s going to feel weird if I have to change it again. Oh well, I wonder what class I should be when I go to the next town over.”

As it turns out this day in question was something that he had been on the watch for ever since he signed up at the Guild building. Wanting to keep a low profile as much as possible considering he had a lot of time left before Nightmare Moon returned, Brex decided that he would stay in one place and only leave when the mandatory review for leveling somebody’s rank was going to come up.

This meant that today was the day. Normally this would be kept a secret and would only be told when the one involved came into the Guild building. But the Roegadyn had made a body double of himself and had it hiding within the Guild Hall so that it would hear things coming up as they came in real time, so it was a small shock to him when he found out just last night through the body double, that when he would normally come in this day, he was going to be called in for the review.

He had made some acquaintances in the city. A few of those he gained some trust that went both ways, so he ended up telling the ones he trusted the most so far. That being, he was going to leave before he was forced to go up in rank. This was then followed by his intentions to go to another town, of course the ones he told to were very confused by this and wanted to ask why he didn’t want to go up in rank. But he wouldn’t tell them any further, after a while they just accepted it and went ahead and gave their regards ahead of time. This was just in case he would have to disappear overnight.

Even though he had an incredible amount of Gil saved up in his item storage. Brex didn’t want to use that money or it would cause a stir as to where it came from. Considering it was not of their world. A while back he had examined the two sets of currencies and found that the Gil was quite a bit larger than the bits used by the ponies. If he went by the amount of mass, then it would be assumed that one Gil had the gold content of three bits. So not only would it catch the attention of anyone who saw the coin, it would also draw even more attention if there was a sudden influx of unknown gold in the market. If he ever intended to use the Gil, there was going to need to be some creative thinking.

So, he had been forced to reduce his spending and only used what he needed of the bits he earned from doing low ranked jobs. Thankfully he didn’t really need to eat anything, so the food expense was pretty much all cut out, aside from him trying a dish or two out of curiosity. As for the apartment, he had gotten a good deal thanks to the old man at the counter. In a way, he got to keep nearly all the money he had made and had hardly any expenses at all.

So, over the course of a month, Brex had amassed a good, 960 bits. At first, he didn’t know if that was a good amount or not. But as time went on, he realized that it was quite a lot considering that he didn’t really need to eat or sleep. He had at one point over heard someone talking about their apartment rent while on the street and they said that a regular room went for 200 a month. This made it possible for him to do what seemed to be, constant work without pauses, except for the few times he actually went to sleep so he could hang out with Rory.

With a destination already in mind, the Roegadyn looks across his apartment to make sure that there was no stray item that he left behind. Even though he never really did anything with it aside from coming back to rest, it felt like it was second nature to double check. He had considered that this reflex of action was probably due to his past life, but he was still unable to pull up very much about himself. While in the city he could have sworn that he was on the edge of grasping onto some sort of ghost of a memory that had nothing to do with his time within Final Fantasy 14, but as soon as he realized that, the feeling would just vanish into thin air. It was no different than watching a person trying to trap between their fingers a cloud of smoke.

Brex had just stepped into the shadow realm by using his Shadow Movement and was making his way down the hall after exiting his door. He was living in the apartment labeled number 207, which was at the end of the hallway, which meant he had to pass room 202 to which green sweet and cherry sweet both resided within. On occasion, Brex would see the two whenever they would pass by him in the hallway or just outside of the building as they went on with their day, however they never once saw him. There were times he had the urge to want to say hi, or even to allow them to even notice his very existence. This would pop up in his head a number of times, but quickly that was pushed away. He knew that forming connections with others was not a very good idea.

This was due to a number of reasons, but the main ones that he can come up with on the top of his head at any given moment were, the fact that he was not even a member of any race on this world. Then there was the whole blessing he had gotten from the one called Daddy, which in a sense, made him immortal when it came to him aging. He already had a grasp on what the rulers of this world went through, along with the random bits of wisdom from all the TV shows, anime’s and whatnot. He had remembered they had to do with a person not being able to grow old and would be forced to watch as others died around them. This meant that he came to the conclusion that it would be much easier for him if he was to simply keep others at arm’s length and to avoid having meaningful relationships because in the long run, it would only cause him to suffer more.

Brex had arrived to the front area of the check-in counter and saw that there was no one around but the old man. Careful as to not give him a heart attack, the Roegadyn steps off to the side, near the steps and exits the shadows. Making sure to make his footsteps loud enough to hear, he approaches the counter and waves to the old coot. Ironically enough the ponies name was actually, Old Coot. Even after living on this world for over a month, Brex still couldn’t figure out the whole naming convention that these ponies lived with. He found it odd that they would somehow have a relation with their name given at birth, which would coincide with their activities later on in life. But he decided it would not be a good idea to dive into that considering it was brought up in so many other stories about the displaced. In all of them, it was not very well explained so he relented as to avoid a migraine from trying to figure it out.

Old Coot had noticed Brex coming up to the counter and gave him a wave before saying, “Well, well. What do we have here? If it isn’t my resident ghost, nice to finally see you around. For a big guy you sure are good at keeping yourself hidden. I think this makes what, the tenth time I’ve seen you? So, what’s the big occasion this time?”

Just as the stallion said, Brex didn’t really show himself that much, but when he did, it was to either ask a small question or to simply come by and say hello. Old Coot was the only one manning the front counter and Brex felt a little bad that he was mostly alone a lot. So, he wanted to give him some company once in a while, even if he didn’t say much to him. Either way, he can tell that the Old Coot, pun intended, was actually happy to have someone around. Unfortunately, this only made what Brex was going to tell him, to be much more difficult.

The Roegadyn stood in front of the counter and reached into his robes to show that he was pulling out an object. But what he was really doing was taking out the key to his room from the item box. Placing the key onto the counter and slowly sliding it over, Brex looks up to the old man and says, “My time’s up.” This got the old man to open his mouth and raise his eyebrows for but a second before he clicked this tongue. Old Coot then replied with a knowing smirk, “Well you did say you were only gonna be here for a little while. I appreciate that you’re at least letting me know now, before you up and disappear. Honestly speaking, you are a model tenant. I wish some of the others in this building followed your example, especially the ones that are really, really loud.”

This got a small laugh from the Roegadyn, before starting for the door while waving goodbye to the old timer. Brex exited the building and took in the sight before he then turned to the direction of the shore and headed that way. Along his route he looked to his left and right as he passed a number of buildings and thought of the places he had been inside during his time here. Passing by a small restaurant, Brex recalled how he went in and ordered a few dishes over the days to get a feel for the tastes of this world’s citizens. There were quite a few dishes that actually tasted good, while others only brought back memories of chef Ramsay and the Roegadyn started to imagine what it would be like if that guy showed up as a pony. He quickly shook his head of those thoughts because he would know that that guy would shut down so many restaurants for not meeting up with his high standards.

Then there was the bookstore with a kind old lady that ran it. Brex would never forget the look on that mare’s face when he asked to get a copy of every book in the store ready for him to buy. It had actually only taken him up till last week to get through every single piece of paper and that very store. At the moment he had a sizable amount of books within his item box. He had considered the thought that if he continued along this path, he might end up having more books than what was inside of the golden oak’s library.

The next place that came into view along his walk was the City Park. He had one request from the Guild that had him cleaning up this area about a week and a half ago. He was told that it would take at least three or four days to do. But without any need to eat or sleep, Brex was able to do it in under a single day. He had to hold in his laughter when he realized the next morning that there was a group of ponies coming to pick up whatever he had already gathered and placed in the garbage bags. They had no idea that he had already done all of it at once, so they were giving him some angry looks. That was because they had to do so much work in one go. Apparently, they had expected to be there for no more than an hour or two, not the next six while loading up their wagons and making multiple trips to the dump. He didn’t find out until later that the group that had arrived was told that a male had accepted the job. He had guessed that they assumed very little was going to get done.

It was nearly eight in the morning by the time Brex had made it to the boardwalk. From there, he looked towards the north where the carnival had been set up to see it was now completely empty. That was when Brex asked Rory through the mental connection, “I do hope that she didn’t get scarred by this incident in some way.” Rory then asked, “Are you talking about that one called Rarity? From what you’ve told me about her and that show of yours, she can be fairly tough. I doubt very much that that incident affected her too much.”

Brex only gave a subtle nod of agreement before coming closer to the shoreline. He stood there for a good 10 minutes as he was gazing out into the sea. That was until he heard a familiar voice coming from behind. Turning around, he found a small mare that had all sorts of aqua colors going on with her hair and mane. As it turns out, Brex has seen this one on a number of occasions when going into the Adventurers Guild.

With a small wave, he said, “Hello… Vapor Trail.” This got a toothy smile from the girl as she walks closer and stood next to him on the right side and looked out to the ocean just as he was doing only a moment ago. She then looked up to him and asked, “Mister Gambit, I always see you out here almost every day while I’m coming and going from school. Do you mind if I ask why you’re always doing that?” When she had gotten near to the end of her question, Vapor Trail was tilting her head as if a puppy would, when not understanding something.

Giving a small smile from under his mask, the Roegadyn replied while turning back to the ocean, “Thinking about future…” This got Vapor Trail to turn back up to him after looking towards the ocean to see what exactly he was talking about before she asked, “I don’t quite understand, what about the ocean has anything to do with the future?” That was when Brex reached down and began to ruffle her head with his hand, very gently before saying, “That’s a secret.” This earned the Roegadyn a set of puffed-up cheeks from the small mare as she playfully bats his hand away. But Brex could fully see a blush forming on her cheeks just as easily as one can spot the broadside of a barn.

Immediately after doing that, Brex blinked and realized that he was starting to form a connection with this small child and was on the edge of mentally berating himself for this fumble. He wasn’t quite sure just how much this girl was used to him being around after only a month, but Brex feared that this might have a negative impact on her in some small way. At the moment there was less than a handful of individuals that knew he was about to leave, but Vapor Trail was not one of them and he started to consider telling her right now.

Turning to Rory for advice, Brex remained quiet on the outside, but then at the same time, he asked Rory with the mental connection, “Hey Rory, do you think I should tell her or should I just up and disappear?” There was a short pause before Rory spoke in a tender tone, “It might be best to at least tell her that you’re leaving. As for her mom and the other adults, they could get over it and understand eventually, but she might not take it so well. If you’re really gonna take my advice, then I think you really should tell her before it’s too late.”

Taking a few seconds to mull over his options, Brex decided to say something to the little one that was standing beside him. Now sitting down completely with his legs crossed in front of him, the Roegadyn was only slightly taller than Vapor Trail as he spoke while not looking in her direction. “I’m leaving today.” This got an immediate reply as Vapor Trail turned towards him with wide eyes and she quickly asked, “What do you mean you’re leaving today? Aren’t you at least gonna go by the Guild? Did something happen?”

This only got a subtle head shake from him as he continued to explain, “Others need me.” There was a long stretch of silence from both of them before Vapor Trail spoke up again. He had expected her to be crying or angry about him suddenly leaving, but what happened next surprised him. She only gave him a smile after walking in front, before giving him a big hug around the neck as she spoke quietly, “I guess there’s other philly’s out there that need your help, just like before huh? But will you at least be visiting now and then?” He wasn’t sure just what to think. Soon the words she said caused him to wonder within his mind, “Did Twirly Whirly or someone else tell her about the abductions? Isn’t she too young to be told about such stuff?”

Not sure as to how to return this form of goodbye, Brex uses his left hand and gently pats her on the back as he replies with, “I sure will…” Vaper Trail then let’s go and gives him a gentle smile as she held out a hand and extended her pinky finger. Immediately recognizing the gesture, Brex then extends his own hand and locks both of their pinky fingers together and gives it a light shake as they both said in unison, “It’s a promise.”

After that, they departed ways as he saw Vapor Trail taking to the skies with a strong flap of her wings and heading in the direction, he knew to be the Guild Hall. He hadn’t really expected to run into the little girl out here that day, but with it being the weekend and all, it wasn’t too surprising. Turning his attention back towards the sea, he muttered under his breath while having a smirk under his mask, “Well, I’m waiting.” After saying those words, Brex turned and started heading north towards one of the city's exits. After a month of staying in Baltimare, The Roegadyn leaves through the gate after showing his identifications and makes for his next destination.

When he had gotten a good distance from the city, he summoned back his motorbike from before and climbed on board. Thinking on the map he had seen of Equestria, he figured that he would make his way towards Mane Hattan. but along the way he would have to pass through Filly Delphia. So, with the destination in mind, Brex turned his bike northwards and followed the coastline for a few days until he had come across the next city.

When Brex had reached Filly Delphia. He could see that it was pretty much the same setup as Baltimare with how the city was surrounded by a two-story high wall that went all the way around. Yet again after seeing this he contemplated just what was the reason for Ponyville to not have such a wall surrounding itself. Seeing as he was nearing one of the gates, Brex pushed those annoying thoughts aside and got in line, this was of course after he had long ditched his ride before even coming close to the city.

He had already switched his class over from the Bard and was currently equipping the Monk Soul Stone. This one relied on the player to use both punches and kicks to fight and only used weapons like knuckles and clawed weapons. In Brex’s case however, he used a glamour prism on his current weapon and made it disappear. So, it would seem as if he was fighting with his bare fists while others watching when he needed to get serious.

( This is the Monk Soul Stone. )

There were at least a dozen ponies in front of him in the line for entering Filly Delphia. While still outside of the defensive perimeter, he was capable of seeing many tall buildings that jetted up into the air from his outsider’s point of view. From what he had been able to read, Filly Delphia was one of the largest cities and was apparently a mixing pot of different cultures from both this continent and the other that was across the ocean.

That fact was evident with him seeing not just ponies, but there was a Griffin or two in the line. There was also his first sighting of a minotaur. What surprised Brex the most, was the fact that this one was not even taller than he was. He had figured that they were at least a few heads taller than him by some of the descriptions, but just like he had figured before, what was written on other races was apparently in short supply and their credibility was sketchy at best. The ponies of this world don’t really put too much effort into learning about other races.

Now back to the one in front of him, Brex could see that this one was maybe a foot or so shorter than he was, but he did have some pretty large horns. The guy’s hair which covered most of his body was a very dark shade of blue. The hair on top of his head, was somewhat slicked back into a short ponytail. After taking this all in, he could have sworn that this guy might have been related to that one minotaur that visited Ponyville later on in the show that tried to give Fluttershy that motivational program to get the mare to be more assertive, but ended up making the girl out to be some jerk. But for the life of him, the name of that minotaur just kept escaping his grasp. So instead of racking his brain even further, the Roegadyn simply looked at the guy’s status bar and saw the name Steel Will. Immediately, Brex snapped his mental fingers and internally exclaimed, “Hey, hold on. Is it possible that this is Iron Will’s dad or something?”

Without standing out too much, he cautiously watched the on goers in front, until he was finally the next to last through the gate. Now the one that was directly in front of him was in fact the minotaur and he was giving a very opinionated response to some random question that was asked by the guard mare that was behind the desk. He didn’t wanna get involved but he sensed a lot of anger coming off of this individual, that was at the moment threatening her with his fists that were currently slamming themselves onto the counter with such force that it made it all creek from the impact.

Not wanting things to escalate any further than they had already had gone. Brex stepped forward and asked in his normal tone, “What’s going on?” However, this appeared to be the wrong thing to do considering the minotaur quickly spun around on the spot and swung the back side of his left arm towards Brex while yelling out in a loud, annoyed tone, “It’s none of your business, go back home and drink your mom’s milk!”

As the minotaur finished speaking those words, his annoyed expression turned to shock when he realized that his arm did not strike its intended target, but was instead caught with one hand with little effort. From under his mask, the Roegadyn gave the minotaur a very unamused look. You know the one with the half-closed eyes that just spoke volumes with just how much one cared at this moment and what they were looking at.

It seemed that the minotaur had somehow sensed this and grew even more angrier as it wrenched its arm free. Well… at least it attempted to do so. The veins were bulging on its arm as it tried to pull away but found that it was locked in place by the strong dexterous appendages attached to the one holding him. Brex could sense that he was about to use his other arm to make an attack but decided to forego that whole song and dance and skipped right ahead to the end result.

The minotaur found his arm being twisted behind his back as he was pulled forward and was forced to get on his knees, while Brex held onto him with just one arm and pulled the wrist up towards the back of his head. This elicited a pained grunt as the minotaur screamed out in pain. After which, the Roegadyn loosened his grip just enough that it was merely holding him in place.

After waiting a few seconds, he asked the minotaur the same question as before, “What’s going on?” This got another annoyed grunt from the one on the ground before he can feel the minotaur beginning to relax and lower its head. With a reluctant sigh, Steel Will finally started to speak in a normal tone of voice without the same high level of volume from before. “It’s nothing, she was just taking too long for my taste. Do you mind letting me go now, I’m sorry about that. I tend to lose my temper pretty easily.”

Hearing this, he quickly releases his grip and watches as the minotaur gets back to his feet and turns back towards the mare who was still behind the counter and lightly lowers his head as he begins to apologize for his behavior. Soon after, the business between the two of them was concluded. Brex watched as the minotaur continued into the city while he walked up to the counter and began the process of entering the city himself.

Before the procedures began, the mare gratefully thanked Brex for what he had done. He gave his name and showed his Guild identification card and this made the process much quicker than it was back at Baltimare and he was inside in a matter of minutes.

He had taken at least a dozen steps inside and coming to a stop before looking around. He could see that this city was far more advanced in its structure and diversity compared to the last. Where there were buildings that range between two and four stories tall and very few that range up to 12 back in the last place. Filly Delphia had much more buildings in the double digits in both terms of height and size.

Not being in too much of a hurry, he decided to go sightseeing for today and went deeper into the city to see what was in this place. Knowing full well that eventually, the Adventurers Guild would come up during his exploration, Brex took his time as he familiarized himself with most of the stores and stalls.

Trying to recall anything about the city from within the TV show. The Roegadyn only came up empty. He could have sworn that he had heard the name at some point when he watched the show, but after giving it some thought, he realized that it was never shown. Well… not that he could remember. Just as he was about to give up, something managed to pop into his mind. It was during the episode with the Parasprites showing up in ponyville. At the end, Princess Celestia had to call off the visit because a swarm of Parasprites had made their way over to Filly Delphia and was causing a lot of trouble for her ponies.

Just thinking of that one episode reminded him of how Twilight would go completely bonkers about everything when it came to making sure that the visit would be perfect for her teacher, slash second mother figure. That episode would eventually evolve to the point that she would lose her common sense and wouldn’t listen to anyone that would try to give her any advice. Even though Pinkie Pie knew exactly what to do, nobody paid her any attention until the end.

Brex wondered if Pinkie Pie was actually a secret genius and everyone was unable to even perceive her advanced way of thinking and only saw it as being completely random and nonsensical. After a short pause in his mind, the Roegadyn had made another crucial decision which was, keep a close eye on Pinkie Pie…

Nearly several hours had passed by now and Brex was able to pretty much, map out every single street in the city. He was extremely grateful that he didn’t have to take a rest because if he had, this entire process would have taken any other person, maybe a week considering how much up and down running there would have been involved if he had to stop all the time.

He had been walking his way from the outskirts and going around. He was making his way towards the center, in a closing spiral of the city. At this point he had finally come across the Adventurers Guild.

From the outside Brex could see that this one was far bigger with it being five stories tall. The front, he noticed that it was maybe large enough to have six rooms on the bottom level alone to which he was in front of. So, he had no idea how far back it went, for all he knew this place was maybe the headquarters of all the other guilds. The front had the exact same hanging sign as the last. The front entrance was made of a set of windowed double doors with tinted glass to ensure that the sunlight was filtered before it came in. While still standing outside, he can vaguely see shapes and lights from beyond the glass itself, from this he knew that it was quite busy inside, that along with the amount of noise emanating from the building.

Right as he was about to open the doors, his instincts kicked in thanks to the situational awareness and Brex skillfully dodged to the right side of the entrance, just as the door swung open as something big, hairy and blue was thrown out and onto the street with a heavy thud. Blinking from under his mask, Brex looked over and saw that it was Steel Will, the same minotaur from before. Laying on his back and giving out a few meager hiccups. He held up a finger and pointed vaguely towards the entrance and started to yell in a very slurred tone of voice, “You’re just… *HICUP*… just mad that I, beat you at arm wrestling.” Immediately after, a small wooden keg that Brex assumed was used to hold some type of liquid was thrown out and made a loud crashing sound as it hit the minotaur’s horns, which then dumped a good amount of water over his face.

Brex thought this was immediately going to escalate, but what the minotaur said next threw him for a loop. He started speaking in a smashed, happy tone, Steel Will called out, “Thanks for that lass… *HICUP* I’ll see you all tomorrow!” now visibly tilting his head, Brex wondered if this was normal, but immediately went with, trying to make sense of this was on the same level of attempting to figure out Pinkie Pie herself. This of course sent shivers up his spine at the very notion of trying to unravel the mystery that is, that pony.

Steel Will, slowly got up and dusted himself off and then began to hobble down the street while singing some type of Irish drunken song from what Brex could tell. With the way he seemed so drunk, the words were completely unrecognizable. Even after the minotaur had long since disappeared from sight. Brex couldn’t bring himself to look away from where he had last seen the guy stumbling along. This had lasted a good solid minute before he realized that he was just standing there like some kind of idiot.

When this thought came to light, he finally turned around and began to enter the building by opening the set of double doors with great care. Even though a large man who probably weighed close to 400 pounds, had just been thrown through them, Brex didn’t quite want to take the chance of them spontaneously shattering at the next slightest touch. Knowing his luck, that may very well happen.

Approaching the counter, Brex asks the mare behind it, who was lightly brown colored, along with a blonde mane, looked up at him and asked, “So what’s the request? We are pretty much all backed up right now. So, if you need someone to help pick up groceries, you’re gonna have to wait.”

Hearing this, Brex was visibly miffed that instead of asking whether or not he was there to work, this one had assumed that he was just going in to get some help. Unlike Twirly Whirly, this mare just assumed that he was some random, weak male. But what really got under his skin, was what she had said about him needing help with something as mundane and trivial as carrying groceries. Immediately the Roegadyn decided that he didn’t like this mare very much.

Not wanting to say too much to this receptionist, if any at all. The Roegadyn placed his card on the counter so it was in plain view and simply said, “Here to work.” Just as he expected, the mare looked up at him with an incredulous and skeptical look, but unlike Twirly Whirly, this one was just oozing the urge to want to have a snappy comeback about why he’s a male and how he shouldn’t be doing this type of job. After a second, the mare stopped herself just as she had opened her mouth and looked down at the identification card and gave Brex a not so convincing smile, which registered a, one out of ten, on the seeming believable scale.

Rory spoke up from inside of Brex’s is mind and stated, “I don’t quite care for this little miss…thing. Honestly, I have an urge to be the one, who gets to cut her up into pieces with my weapon. So, it’s a good thing that I’m inside your head.” This got Brex to reply with, “I’m sure you don’t mean that. Besides seeing what happened before with that Steel Will guy, I’m guessing that she had a bad day or something along those lines.”

Immediately Rory replied with, “Master please… you don’t understand. She is clearly making fun of you and I can’t stand for that. I’m telling you, if I had a real body out there, I would be Bitch Slapping this mare until she landed all the way in the White Tailed Woods.” This surprised Brex for two reasons, one of which was the severity of how Rory would react if she really did have a real body when these mare’s would try to do something to him. Then there was the fact that she already had a grasp on this continent’s layout but quickly remembered that one of Rory Mercury’s abilities had something to do with having a very high intelligence.

During this little discussion, the one at the counter who was the mare in question that Rory had made promises to do bodily harm too if she was in the real world, was currently pulling out a set of papers and jotting down Brex’s name onto the duty roster. But after a few seconds, he noticed that she was holding onto his identification card while giving it a very confused look. He was a little confused himself as well. Then he immediately remembered the extra information on there that was only available for those who worked in the office. Of course, the ones behind the counter would notice it was saying a bunch of stuff to be classified and judging by Twirly Whirly’s reaction at the other branch, this was something very unusual.

The mare was about to say something when another came out from the backroom from a door marked personnel only. This one also had light brown hair, but her mane had this amber red color to it. This one asked what was going on and the first receptionist began whispering into her ear. This lasted a good minute before the new one looked up to Brex and gave him a cheerful smile that was clearly not an act, that registered an 11 out of 10 and said, “Well welcome to the Guild, mind telling us where you came from last, seeing as how you got a Guild card and all.” Not seeing a problem with it, Brex replied with, “Baltimare.”

Now that was when the second one had a look of realization and then clap her hands together in excitement and set out loud for nearly everyone to hear, “Oh, then you must know Twirly Whirly. How is she doing, I haven’t seen her in like, two months?!” One could feel the excitement coming off of this one and Brex didn’t quite know how to reply, considering he didn’t try to get to know the mare in question all that well. Giving it a second thought he simply replied with, “She’s doing well.” This earned him another cheery smile from the girl. Quickly stealing a glance between the two in front of him, Brex couldn’t help but to see these two as two sides of a coin with their attitudes.

That was when she then said, “Oh where are my manners, I forgot to tell you my name. I go by High Road. This one over here with the great customer service is my younger sister, Low Road.” After hearing this the Roegadyn couldn’t help but see, the effects of being named from birth, has on these ponies. High Road was apparently a very happy go lucky and energetic mare, while her sister Low Road was the complete opposite.

High Road then grabbed Brex’s attention by taking the identification card from her sister and began looking it over and then quickly asked him in a very, hush hush tone, “Pissstt! Hey I don’t think you know it, but I think there’s something wrong with your card. There’s a whole bunch of stuff here I’ve never seen before. *GASP!* Oh, Oh wait are you a spy? What do you do? Do you look up secrets or do you blow stuff up? No wait, I bet you go around and say something like. “Shaken, not stirred!”

On the outside he was calm and collected, but at the same time within his mind, Brex was having another internal panic attack as he said to himself in a frightened tone, “Oh, by the 12 it’s another Pinky!” It was a good thing that he was wearing a mask in the first place, because then the two of them would have seen his completely blanched expression and eyes filled with horror.

Out of reflex that not even Brex could explain to himself at a later date. He asked the following question, “Relation… Pie family?” This elicited an overly dramatic intake of air through the mare’s mouth as she gasps and then went in to grab the sides of his head while getting dangerously close to his face as she then says the following, in a clearly sugar rush induced speed of talking, “Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, do you know my cousins?” after hearing those words the Roegadyn’s mine came to a screeching halt, it took him a good solid five seconds to reboot. But during those five seconds, Brex was now seeing an overlaid image of Pinkie Pie over this mare. This only caused his eyes to go comically wide from underneath his mask and a beat of sweat was running down the side of his head.

When his mind had finally fully rebooted, he couldn’t help but scream in his head, “I’M NOT READY FOR THISSSS!!!!!!!” but during this internal crisis the two in front of him were completely unaware as they patiently waited for a reply from the Roegadyn. Quickly calming himself down so that he can speak properly. Brex answers with, “Heard of them.” High Road then quickly returned to her spot as if nothing happened and she started speaking again, “Ooh, I can’t wait to see them. We’re supposed to have a family reunion next month. Ah that’s right, Low Road, do you want to go or do you still want to stay here?” This got a small grunt of annoyance from the younger sister as she replied with, “We both can’t go at the same time remember? There needs to be one of us here to at least run this place, otherwise that Steel Will fella’s gonna end up busting up the tables again. You know how it is, whenever he gets at the drink.”

This brought back the memories of seeing the minotaur getting thrown out of the building. Brex wondered just who was it that was capable of doing such a feat. That’s when he turned back to Low Road and pondered the idea that this earth mare, who was apparently related to the Pie family, was fully capable of doing such a feat. From what the show showed, Pinkie Pie had enough strength to rival that of applejack at times, considering she spent most of her life moving rocks.

High Road then turned back towards Brex and asked, “So, I take it you only just got in town since I haven’t seen you around these parts before. I hope you already got a place to stay, otherwise you’re going to have a hard time getting one right now. I heard from a bunch of guild members that there isn’t a lot of places to stay right now sense the festival will be starting within a few weeks.”

Giving a small tilt of the head, Brex reply by saying, “Just got here.” After a moment he then added, “What festival?” This time it was Low Road that answered while leaning her head on her arm as she leans onto the counter with an uninterested in tone, “Oh it’s just something where a bunch of bakers get together. I don’t know, honestly, I’m not all that interested in it, but it seems everyone else is. Around this time of year, the place gets packed and almost every hotel that has rooms for rent, or by any of the other people in the city are booked solid.”

High Road then jumped in and asked, “So you didn’t answer the question, do you got a place to stay? If not, then we got a couple of spare rooms for anyone who doesn’t have any where to stay. We keep them on hand for whenever any members come in, unexpectedly.”

It had taken Brex some considerable brainpower to process the lightning fast talking of what could have been the earlier version of Pinkie Pie. It had taken him a moment to catch up to the conversation and he said, “One room please.” This got a quick nod from the cheerful sister and she ducked underneath the counter. When she had disappeared, Brex, from behind his mask, was currently having his eyes dart around in hopes of catching the mare before she snuck up on him. Thinking she was gonna do the same thing Pinkie Pie always did. But instead, the mare just popped back up where she once was and handed him a key. Sighing mentally, Brex retrieves the key and is led to a room on the third floor.

When arriving at the door, High Road informs him that he’s going to need to go and find himself food because they’re not really a hotel, so there’s no complimentary breakfast. From what Brex understood, he could have sworn that he had not come across any literature regarding that practice and just accepted it, knowing who she’s related to.

After saying goodbye to the mare. He enters the room and locks the door behind him and begins checking his temporary living quarters. After going through it with a fine comb, Brex concluded that there was no type of surveillance equipment or any other means of spying on him. That’s when he dropped his disguise by switching over to his relaxing set of clothing by using the equipment menu function. The room was comprised of one main area with a medium sized bed and a door on the far side that led to a small bathroom with a stand-up shower inside, there was also the standard toilet and sink. However, it was quite the snug fit and he cursed himself for picking such a large race during these times.

Brex then decided to head straight to the bed and head off to the dreamscape to meet Rory. Right as he had laid down and closed his eyes, the Roegadyn was already in the middle of his dream house and Rory was currently sitting on the couch in the waiting area of the main room. Upon seeing her Master, the young woman quickly rushed up and gave him a gentle hug and dug her face into his stomach and began humming and content.

During the past month staying in Baltimare, the two had gotten quite a bit closer. In the beginning, Brex could say that she was rather reserved, but now she was more open with him and quite a bit more affectionate at times. During his busy schedule back in the previous city, Brex had rarely gone to bed, instead he focused nearly 24 hours of the day and nearly seven days a week on some project or another. Whether it be for personal reasons or Guild related assignments, the Roegadyn was constantly busy. There were even a few whispers he had picked up here and there from those around him. It seemed that some ponies were now wondering if he had ever slept or was on some type of drug that would be the cause for his constant work ethic.

Well apparently, not one person in this world realizing it, but the Roegadyn didn’t require sleep to recover, unlike any other living life form. Neither was the need for food, for which he found out quickly after arriving in Equestria. But during the rare occasion that he would end up going to sleep, Brex would spend pretty much every moment of it by doing something with Rory. After rescuing the children, Brex quickly went on to creating a theater system in one of the rooms so that the two of them can be comfortable while watching some movies and anime’s that he could remember from his old world.

Brex was sure that they were about to do the same thing tonight, but thought otherwise when he looked down and saw a worried expression on Rory’s face. She took a small step back while still clinging onto his clothing with her slender arms. While slightly looking down, she said, “Master… I think there’s something you need to see…”

Feeling a little more than confused, the Roegadyn quietly nodded and was pulled gently along towards one of the unused rooms of the mentally fabricated house. Brex took a quick look at everything he could from his vantage point upon arriving in the middle of the room, but found nothing amiss. The room itself was essentially empty except for a few tapestries hung on the walls that had something to do with a red banner and a silhouette of a ship. But he quickly noticed that Rory was standing next to one of them and was gingerly holding onto the edge of the fabric.

The woman then let out a small sigh as she pulled it. This revealed along the wall, a hairline crack that was chipping away some paint that was about half her height that had started from the floor and was now going up the wall. While glancing at it, Rory then said, “This is what I need to talk to you about. I only just noticed it today after doing a quick overview and check up on your mental state. From what I can tell, this is a type of strain on your psyche. In other words, Master… I think you need to rest tonight. And what I mean is actually rest, as in, fully sleep.”

She then let’s go of the tapestry and slowly walks up to Brex and bows her head while holding her hands together and twiddling her thumbs. She then says in a little, sorrowful tone, “I’m happy in all that you're willing to spend your free time with me every night when you can, but I’m afraid that if you don’t take an actual night of sleep now and then and continue doing something in your dreamscape, there is a chance that this might become a problem. Your mind is always working when you’re with me. Whenever we’re using the entertainment area of your mind to pass the time until you wake up, that too also puts a drain. Please don’t get me wrong master, I’m grateful you’re willing to go through all of this for me, but I don’t want you hurting yourself for my sake. I’m perfectly happy knowing that you’re fine. So please take tonight off and go to sleep in your own dream and recover.”

Brex was honestly surprised at this notion that Rory believed that she was the problem and felt a little bad about it. He drops to one knee and gives Rory a hug while whispering into her ear, “Don’t ever think that you are a problem or that me spending time with you is something bad. You’re the only one in this world that I’m able to actually talk with and entrust everything about me. All the stuff we did so far, it’s something that I wanted to do. To be honest, I had no idea this was even happening to me. It makes me happy that you’re willing to look out for my health to this degree. I’ll take your advice and go into a deep sleep tonight.”

( Play this for Rory's emotional state. )

He hadn’t noticed it, but when he had given Rory a hug and whispered into her ear, the entire time he was talking the Lolita woman was blushing up a storm. Her eyes were becoming hazy as she stared straight ahead without blinking as if she was in a trance. When Brex had finally let go of her and stood up and started making his way towards the door, the woman was still staring straight ahead stiff as a statue as her face turned a dark red and small wisps of steam were coming from her head. When her Master had left the room and was clearly out of sight and heading up to his own room, Rory collapsed onto her knees and began to hyperventilate as she was holding her chest while muttering under her breath, “Oh Master… you have no idea just how turned on that made me feel. why did you have to whisper into my ear like that… just how am I going to get to sleep tonight?...”

Back with the Roegadyn, he had finally made it to his bedroom and had climbed into his massive ten-person bed that Rory insisted that they must have. He had actually taken a liking to it considering his massive size compared to a normal pony in that world. He was always in quite a tight fit in most situations when it came to entering structures. It didn’t take much time at all to slip into a deeper sleep after he had closed his eyes.

Without him even knowing, Rory had come into the room several minutes later. She went behind a dividing wall and came out and was now wearing a night time kimono and climbed into the bed and was straddling his side in an attempt to use him like an oversized stuffed bear. After a few moments of this, the girl turned her eyes in a random direction and muttered under her breath, “Go away, nothing to see here…” Before closing her eyes for the night.

( Can stop the music here. )

When Brex had awoken the next day, he was still in his dreamscape and next to him on the large bed was Rory cuddling up against his form. He had found her in such a situation a few times before, so he wasn’t all that surprised and began running his hand over her head and this elicited a set of content sighs from the girl.

He began thinking to himself while making sure that she couldn’t hear these thoughts. “If you only knew how much I had to hold myself back to… I wonder what it would be like if you were actually out in the real world with me? I think you’re pretty much the only reason I’m able to prevent myself from going insane. Keeping myself at a distance from all the rest of the people of this world and not talking all that much would put a strain on anyone. with you here, at least I know I’m not alone.” While still patting her head the Roegadyn carefully uses one of his fingers to brush a strand of hair away from her face and continues with, “Someday, I’ll find a way to bring you out.” He then stays there relishing in this comfortable feeling next to Rory for a few more minutes before fully awakening by exiting the front door of his dream house.

Back in the real world the Roegadyn sits up from his bed and gives his body a good stretch. After taking a few minutes to continue stretching all the muscles in his body, he begins going through his mental checklist for what is plans today are going to be. The first thing that came up was finding out what this festival was about, then moving on to checking out this city to see what he could get from it before moving on.

Making his way down stairs he could hear a small ruckus from where he believed to be the bottom floor where the reception desk was and found a familiar minotaur sitting on a large bar stool that was apparently pulled away from one of the other tables and was now right in front of the reception desk. In his hand, was an empty glass mug and on his face was a slightly slurred and irritated scowl as he looked straight at the pony that Brex had met just yesterday. This pony was the one named, Low Road. She however was giving him the same type of look that Brex himself had received the day prior.

Low Road then said to Steel Will, “I told you already, you’re cut off until I say so. You haven’t had a legitimate job in almost a month and all you do is come in here and drink yourself into the floor or until I toss you out.” Hearing this, Brex understood that his assumption on this earth mare was correct, so even with him being really strong and able to take a good hit, he wasn’t interested in being on the receiving end of her when she’s in a bad mood. So, he made an inward promise to avoid such an act.

Brex stood there off to the side and waited until the two were done with their little conversation to get to the bottom of what exactly was going on, seeing as he had nothing really to do at the moment.

Steel Will appeared to be having a hard time speaking clearly at the moment, but Brex was able to piece things together after the conversation was drawn out for nearly 20 minutes. It seemed like Steel Will was a part of the Adventurers Guild, but was meant to be only part time to get some extra cash, but was mainly into doing odd jobs. Unfortunately, due to his temper problem he was fired from many of them and now he has a reputation for not being given a chance anymore after losing 50 jobs. Now for the past month, he's just been drowning himself in booze and complaining all the time while trying to earn some bits by winning arm-wrestling contests. Regrettably, there aren’t many that are strong as himself, so he barely ever gets them at all.

Brex had wondered why this guy only works part time for the Guild and isn’t going out there and slaying monsters. But there was a part of the conversation that he picked up that had something like, the minotaur doesn’t want to go out and kill things or hurt others. But he can’t help it when he loses his temper and he ends up regretting it every single time.

At some point Steel Will ends up passing out on the counter and he got to witness Low Road picking him up by the scruff of his hair and drags him over to the corner and lays him down. She then leaves, only to return with a large blanket and puts it on top of the sleeping bull.

Brex then, thought it within his mind, “Well will you look at that, so she does have a heart.” Rory quickly replies in a regular cheery tone after giving a few yawns, “Morning Master. Oh yes, this is what you might call tough love or what do you call it in your other world language? I beleave you call it a, Tsundere.”

Understanding quickly what she meant by that, he then begins to think to himself while making sure that Rory couldn’t hear him, “Ah that’s right, at least it’s that type and not that other one. You know the one where the person is in love with you, but they’re all crazy and will kill others that get in their way or… insult the one that they are in… love… with…” Just as those words were escaping his mind, the Roegadyn’s eyes went wide behind his mask as he realized that was in a way, referring to Rory herself to the letter. He had thought about it as a joke to say to her, but was grateful that he tried thinking through it first.

Now going back to reality Brex wanted to check something out and use his examination skills on Steel Will. Immediately, he saw that Steel Will’s information was not exactly what he had expected. With a raised eyebrow, Brex mulled over the minotaur’s information with Rory who was also a little confuse over what was being seen as well.

Name: Steel Will.

Level: 20.

Race: Minotaur.

Class: Chef.

Weapon specialty: Frying pan, Fists.

Now after seeing this guy who mostly only showed signs of aggression and can obviously take a punch or two from a freight train and get up standing to walk away home was not something either Brex or Rory could have seen as a chef at any time at all. From what he could understand, the minotaur’s were widely known across all of the multiverse to be into building structures or working with metal. He had only heard of one story where a minotaur was a Baker, but then he started to rethink that stereotype considering that they had a whole civilization. Which meant they had to have other minotaur’s doing other types of jobs in the first place, so after considering this thought, the idea of a Baker minotaur wasn’t so far-fetched.

The Roegadyn just stood there for a little while. He was looking over to the corner and began to wonder to himself, “Say Rory. I think I found my next project.” This earned him a clearly confused, “Huh?” from Rory. He then continued, “This guy is a baker and right now, he’s currently having a hard time. I got nothing else left to do right now anyhow and now my curiosity is piqued when it comes to this baking contest coming up. I’m also curious as to what type of foods a minotaur can cook up.

He could feel Rory giving a sigh of resignation as she says, “Oh Master. I take it this has something to do with this long-term plan of yours?” This got him to reply with, “Hey, if you really think about it, everything anyone does is part of a master plan in their life. I just happen to know things about the future and I’m getting ready for that. Besides, once that one project is finished, I could use all the extra hands I can get.”

It had taken some time but Steel Will had finally came back to the waking world, but at that moment the minotaur found Brex sitting right next to him while leaning back against the wall. He then said to the still groggy minotaur, “Want to learn?” At that moment the Roegadyn reached inside of his robes and pulled out from his item box a frying pan that had an image of a creature in printed onto its surface that resembled something that came from the game which was made up of flames, known as a Bomb. This elicited and overly exaggerated raised eyebrow and a slacked jaw from a still recovering Steel Will, but soon it turns into a challenging one as he replied with, “Let’s see what you got. I doubt a milk drinker like you can put up a good fight.” After saying those words, he gets to his feet and calls out to High Road, who is currently manning the counter. “Hey! The two of us are gonna be needing to steal your kitchen for a wee bit!”

( This is the Fryingpan. )

Shortly after those words were yelled out by the minotaur, the two of them found themselves inside of a large kitchen that could have easily been able to serve up to 100 customers. Brex couldn’t stop himself from comparing this scene to something that he had seen in another anime that involved a pirate crew with a chef.

The kitchen itself was fairly well stocked and had clearly seen some use. This was obvious thanks to the kitchen pantry door being wide open and all the ingredients were on display. Then there were all the kitchen utensils that were currently set up on either racks or hanging by hooks. If one was to look closely at the counter top, they could see a number of nicks, cuts and gouges from blades cutting up the wooden boards and such from years of use.

Steel Will was currently standing behind the counter and facing Brex while giving him a dirty sneer. He then called out to the Roegadyn and then, in an obnoxious, over the top tone that just oozed his contempt at being challenged to some cook off by some upstart. “Me specialty is baked goods. You think he could top me? I ain’t letting some milk drinker show me up. Don’t go looking down on me just because you saw me in that sorry state earlier! Let’s do one dish apiece. We’ll let the one at the counter decide who’s better. Nothing will be at stake aside from our pride, that’s all that really matters.”

Knowing full well that the minotaur race was all about honor, Brex nodded to the challenge and gestured towards the counter itself, then towards Steel Will to indicate that he should start first. Steel Will then let out a grunt of annoyance while furrowing his brows and exclaimed, “Don’t go thinking I’d be going easy on ya!”

That was when the cook off started. Brex just stood by the side to see what the old bull would do. During the baking process, he could see that Steel Will was having an awkward time as he tried to carefully measure out his ingredients and working with his tools. One can feel the anger in the air becoming more palatable with each passing second. It would appear that he was attempting to bake a small cake, but was getting more and more frustrated whenever he would either spill some of the batter or when he would try to pour it into the mixing bowl. Then there was the moment when he tries to handle the hand mixer only to have bits of cake splatter onto both the counter and himself.

After what should have taken a good 10 or 15 minutes to prepare the batter and pour it into its proper receptacle to put into the oven, had actually taken a good 45 minutes with the problem being, that there was no more batter left to use after a couple of failed attempts of being gentle, then there was Steel Will becoming frustrated and inadvertently, breaking the mixing bowl and spilling the contents all over the counter. All the while spouting nonsensical words and what he assumed was originally the minotaur’s native tongue.

Unfortunately for Brex, he found himself flinching whenever his chat box on the bottom left side of his vision would automatically translate the words into English. He had found out that while in Boltimare, there was a mixture of different languages being spoken out loud.

He had checked his options for the chat functions and located the translation matrix. In the game it was originally put in place for players to do some small communication through the chat box with others from someplace like Japan. There would only be a few key phrases put together that could be sent back and forth. One could tell that these were used in the translation system when one found a red or green arrow at the beginning and end of the sentence, but for Brex it would appear it was fully capable of translating everything. He had even found out that it would translate for him through actual voice to others to hear when he had tried it out with other races that use a different language. There was even a new function where he can hear them speaking the new language in English, but with a small underlying layer of the original language being spoken as background noise.

Just as Steel Will was getting through with his newest set of bovine related curse words, he had just placed his finished pie mix into the oven and was now slamming the door shut to wait for it to be finished. Brex, on the other hand from behind his mask had his mouth hanging wide open thinking to himself, “I wonder if he ever kissed his mother with that mouth. What he just said I bet could have turned a few eyes from a sailors ship with how crude his language was.” After a moment Rory replied to this by saying, “I had no idea one could be so colorful with using cow and bull related terms in such a way.” Brex then finish this by saying, “I may never look at a steak the same way again.”

Steel Will then turned to him and gesture to the counter before saying, “Well you’re up now. Don’t go and disappoint me!” without saying or giving any kind of indication the Roegadyn approach to counter, but along the way he had snagged a few pots and pans as well as a handful of small kitchen utensils on his way over and deposited them neatly onto the counter.

Before, the kitchen was racked with all sorts of noises that consisted of both cooking and verbal abuse from the minotaur, but now one only heard the gentle clicks and clanks of kitchen utensils and some ingredients being set up. Seeing that his opponent was making a cake Brex wanted to try something a little different and see what he can get as a reaction.

Using the appropriate ingredients, Brex was able to measure everything down to the gram without so much as a second glance with how his hands moved in a fluid motion. Back in final fantasy 14, one was restricted to only having one class at a time. That meant the rules made it so a player could not be a monk and a cook at the same time. However, back when he was using his Carpenter job a few weeks back, he had discovered that he could still keep his main job as a fighter. But at the same time, he can equip his non-combat classes. Grinning from under his mask, Brex couldn’t help but compare himself to that one character from the anime, One Piece. The one in question was referred to as Blackfoot or in other words, Sanji. The chef from the pirate crew straw hat.

( Play this music during Brex's Cooking. May need to repeat music if needed. )

During his movements, the Roegadyn couldn’t help but play a certain song in his head as he continued. His almost possessed hands, skillfully started mixing the ingredients together to create what appeared to be a strong paste like substance with the dough.

When he was finished, Brex started to pull the dough out of the mixing bowl and was now slamming it directly onto the counter after he had originally covered it with a thin layer of flour to prevent sticking. He noticed that this caught the attention of Steel Will as he saw the rough handling of the ingredients with a raised eyebrow.

After making sure that his hands are clean, He then continued with his preparation by punching the dough with his fists which was about twice the size of his own head. First it was slow, then it quickly accelerated until he was pretty much pummeling the thing into submission.

The sounds created by the kitchen from earlier when Steel Will was cooking had pulled in a small crowd from the front to look through the doorway to see what the commotion was all about. But now, with the intentional thud sounds created by Brex, a few more had added to the doorway and were now piling up above each other to see what was going on.

The crowd was a mixture of different races comprised of Ponies, Griffins and a diamond dog or two. There was another minotaur who appeared to be of the female variety. The crowd had looks of confusion and doubt on their faces along with some interest with how this originally perceived cooking contest was seeming to be more like some kind of fight in the literal sense with food.

After Brex had pumbled the dough until all the ingredients were properly mixed and had now become more malleable, he grabbed, twisted and then pulled on it multiple times and slammed it back down onto the counter before repeating the process over and over again. This had taken at least three or four attempts before he had finally stretched it out one more time before bringing the two ends together. That was when he swung most of it into the air, he twisted his hand so he was currently holding on to one end. The dough that he was needing was now quickly twisting into a Corkscrew before he slammed it straight down onto the counter, thus causing it to keep its form.

Brex glanced over to the side and saw that the cake that his opponent was cooking was nearly done by the looks of the egg timer nearly running out. He then left the dough alone and moved on to his next part of his preparation. He reached over to a pan which happened to be the one he had shown to Steel Will before. It had the image of a bomb monster engraved into its metal lining and it was placed it over the stove. Brex then grabbed on to some more ingredients and began mixing them into another dish.

After a few minutes he had finished making a brown substance made of different types of seasonings, but was mostly comprised of what appeared to be dark chocolate. He then poured the ingredients onto the pan along with a little bit of milk and butter and started stirring it, it all was melted down until it had a syrup like consistency. It was then poured directly onto the length of the dough that he had just twisted. After making sure that was completely covered, the Roegadyn picked it up and placed it on a long cooking tray and inserted it into a separate oven and began the baking process.

Brex then went over and began cleaning up his mess. He didn’t have to wash his hands considering he had placed some cooking gloves made of rubber on beforehand, but still did so out of being hygienic. They were in a kitchen after all. When he had finished his cleanup work the Roegadyn went over to the sidewall and leaned up against it and waited for his dish to finish baking.

The whole time the crowd, along with both Steel Will and High Road, were sniffing the air after detecting the sweet scent of chocolate and sugar. He could see that the crowd was staring with eyes completely fixed on his oven. After seeing that, he glanced over to the minotaur and saw that he was starting to sweat a little bit while glancing between both oven doors.

A few minutes later, Steel Will’s cake came out oven and he began frosting it. This time however, he was a little gentler with the process and Brex could have sworn he was attempting to copy the hand gestures and movements of himself from before.

Soon the cake was completed. Steel Will displayed it as a vanilla cake with strawberry frosting on the outside. Brex was actually very surprised with the way he was able to decorate it considering the baking process itself was so anger fueled in the start.

The crowd looked at the cake with watering mouths and he could have sworn that he had seen High Road, who was off to the side, pulling out a pair of forks from underneath her shirt in preparation. A stray thought made its way into Brex’s is mind, “Well at least she doesn’t keep those in her hair. Ouch, I’d hate to fall on my head while I have something like that pressed up against my skull. I guess she really is related to Pinkie Pie in some way.”

After waiting a good 10 to 15 minutes after the cake was finished, the one that Brex was making had finally come out of the oven. This one was baked to a very, very light golden brown and had seemed to have inflated just a little bit from the time it went in. It resembled a cinnamon twist, but on the top layer there was a mix of chocolate with some small lines going through it from the process of pouring it across the entire thing. The chocolate had managed to completely soak into the dough, leaving it to appear that it was originally a part of the dough mixing process itself.

After placing it onto the counter, Brex took out a long knife and a large serving tray and began to cut it in half and placed one onto the serving tray before carefully dicing that up into hand sized portions. The room filled up with even more sweet smells, but it was not at the point where it would cause someone who was sensitive to the taste of sugar to be repelled. But just enough to still be appetizing to those types of people to try such a dish.

Brex thought he would have to stand guard when he noticed that High Road was literally vibrating in place out of excitement. Before anything else happened, Steel Will stood behind his creation and motioned for Brex to do the same with his and ushered over High Road to stand on the other side of the counters that the dishes were on.

When the crowd had noticed that she was going to be the one to taste these creations there was a murmur among them that quickly erupted into a chorus of complaints that they should be allowed to try it as well. Brex turned towards Steel Will and gestured with his thumb towards the group. Seeing this Steel Will accepted it and said, “This is a battle between Guild mates! It only makes it right that the Guild itself, be part of the judging! Get on over here you milk drinkers! Don’t you know it’s a fire hazard to block the doors!”

At the beginning of the Bake-Off, Steel Will had been giving off this aura of contempt and anger towards Brex, but right now, that seemed to have vanished and the Roegadyn felt that this seemed more along the lines of a friendly rivalry all of a sudden.

There was then a flood of Guild members pouring into the large kitchen. This surprised him, considering that he thought that there was only a small group. If he had not neglected to look at his mini map, then he would have noticed that there was a good 50 people in the back, beyond the door.

Soon the kitchen was completely packed with only enough room around the table to give the bakers and the judging some space. First up was Steel Will, as his cake was carefully cut and served into small pieces so that everyone can get a bite.

There was a murmur from the crowd as different variations of joy spread across their faces as they tasted the sweet pastry. There were those who expressed this openly while others kept it to themselves as best, they could. In the end, the group got together and started to vote. Taking in a number of factors that ranged from, baking process, the way it looks and tastes. When all was said and done High Road held up a piece of paper that had the results for Steel Will’s cake and placed it on the table folded up to be looked at later.

Now, it came to the pastry that Brex had created. Quickly, each piece was snatched up and he had to cut up some more to make sure that there was enough for everyone, seeing as how his pieces were just a little bit larger than the ones that Steel Will had handed out.

The crowd began eating it and immediately there was an uproar of sounds that started off as pleasing, but quickly they evolved into something that made him feel a little uncomfortable. The oohs and Aahs and yumz, soon turned into those that would have made someone who had just walked in without knowing the situation, to think that the entire crowd was having some kind of orgasmic experience through their mouths with the way this was tasting so good to them. Internally, Brex was wincing as he thought to himself, “Uhm… maybe I should have gone with something a little plainer?”

( You can stop the music here. )

Some of the crowd members had eaten their piece so quickly one would’ve second guessed whether or not they even had one to begin with, while others were savoring them as if it was the last food on earth and they wanted to make it last until the end of their life. But they all shared the same expression of delight upon placing the food in their mouths.

Brex then heard a voice from directly beside him as he felt a hand resting on his left shoulder. Turning to look, he saw that it was Steel Will giving him an all-knowing smirk before turning his attention back towards to taste testers. The minotaur then said out loud for all to hear, “Yes, yes, I think we all know who won!” He then grabbed the hand of the very shoulder he was holding onto and raised it high and called out to the crowd. “Who thinks this fella here has a chance of winning this year’s cook off?!”

There was then a huge uproar of cheers and closed mouth murmurs from the ones who couldn’t speak due to their mouth’s still being full of food. Brex saw this and turn towards Steel Will and shook his head in the negative, while using his free hand and pointing towards the minotaur. He then said loud enough for the guy and others to hear, “Not me. You…”

These words cause the entire kitchen to go silent and a fair number of those within tilted their heads before they all exclaimed in unison, “WHAAAAAT?!”