//------------------------------// // Chapter 68: Gaming Gamified // Story: Spike of All Trades // by Ariamaki //------------------------------// Pinkie Pie arrived at the Arcade sooner than he had expected, bouncing on all four hooves as she crested her way over a nearby hill. He let himself rise up from the Omphaloskepsis and waved to her, and she waved back... still using all four hooves. It was a little surprising how well she could time the flailing between each bounce: Maybe it had something to do with her musical skills? The entire display was offset by the perfectly immobile package dangling by a string from her muzzle. "Hmm thr Spk!" "...You know you could just use Party chat." Ooooh yeah! Welp. Turns out my last delivery goes here, so I'm here! "Huh. For the Ammos? Or somepony with a gaming binge ahead of them put in an advance order." She nodded and then shook her head a second later. Spike took that to mean "Yes the first part, no the second." "Well I know where they might be working, and failing that I know what they look like: Follow me!" In retrospect he could see why Rarity wanted to bring him to the Arcade in the way she did. The place was awe-inspiring in its scale and style, and she was the type of pony who took pride in the works of her friends and family. Despite their slightly antagonistic ribbing, he was sure that her Aunt counted as both. Pinkie was suitably impressed as they made their way past the table games and the first few banks of cabinets, around the corner beyond the shop and into the food court. There was a pale orange pegasus mare he didn't recognize behind the service counter, but off to her side Spike could just barely see the familiar leathery wings of a Night Guard. Figuring that any random ponies of that persuasion would be working the night shift instead, Spike made a logical guess. "That you Pierce?" Rarity's uncle turned around and swiveled his eyes down, a single fluid motion that betrayed his military training. "Aaay, Spike! Glad to see you again so soon: And that must be Ponyville's Pinkie Pie herself, right?" The aforementioned mare leaned forward and let the package swing towards the counter before letting go, sending it arcing to land perfectly in front of Piercing Ammunition. "The one and only! At the moment. Hah... Inside jokes. And heeeeey!" Piercing raised an eyebrow at that, and Spike's quick use of Observe wasn't the only way in which he could see the stallion's Emotional Status go from 'Jovial' to 'Nervous'. "Yeeeeess?" "You lied to me! I asked if you and your pretty wife with the thorny horn were gonna be staying in town back when you first showed up and you said you were just here for work! I would have held a party months ago if I knew you'd be staying in town!" "...Right. But I never said we weren't. I just said we were here for work. Those can both be true things: I'm sure Spike could tell you all about that, right kid?" Pinkie turned to look at him, but he just shrugged: The guy had a point. "I only found out they were here two days ago, and I only found out they were here on duty last night. I guess you've heard from Luna since then, Mr. Ammo?" "Sure have, Spike: She got a hold of me and Arc about a little informal visit in the near future, among other things. Speaking of AA, I assume you wanted to talk to her about your training schedule?" He nodded vigorously, and got a hoof in the right direction: Apparently Arcane was currently working on some paperwork in the main office, and would be for some time. That would give him and Pinkie plenty of time to eat, check out the games, and cover the findings of their Party testing... and make some plans for her party-based revenge. He knew all too well how intense a Pinkie Pie party could be when she was scorned or put off. It was way better to be on the correct side of the Party Cannon in those occasions, for sure. There was a little haggling over their meals, and eventually Pinkie settled on cattail cores with a spicy mustard while Spike tried to shatter some diamonds onto his hay fries. It worked in that the sharp crystalline flavor was like super-strong sea salt, but it didn't benefit his Kitchen. "Hrmph. Thinks he can avoid a Pinkie party just 'cause he's Rarity's family. He'll see how well I treat family, oh yes he will." "...Pinkie, he probably just had to put a lot of focus into getting this place up and running over the winter season, right?" "Hm? Oh, sure! I just think it's way more fun to plan my parties when I've got a really good motivation going. No party is ever humdrum if you do it right (unless that's the point) but the best parties come from the heart!" Depressingly, he couldn't actually find anything wrong with that logic... And thinking back over his own gaming career, there was more than one boss or stage he'd beaten through sheer determined frustration. Yes that means you, friggin' The Study from Aureola CE. Must have thrown two dozen bits into that machine over the course of a month... "-Spike?" "Oh! Sorry, I was just... Lost in thought." "No worries: You've got a mapping system now, right?" "Hah! Trust me, if it worked for the inside of my own head..." He froze up and Pinkie just grinned at him from across their meals, popping another deep-fried stem into her mouth. "Lemme guess, you're about to have a little epiphany about how it totally might?" "Yeah, testing this stuff out with you was a hundred percent the right decision." Her expression warmed at that, or maybe it was just the spice... Either way, they went back to eating their food, trying to clear the table before they got too deep into discussing the experiment. - - - - The next few hours promised a cascade of lights and sounds, but before that it would be far more subdued. Hopefully more subdued. No promises, Ponyville and all that. It started with Spike directing Pinkie to the target range while he ducked into Arcane's office: The last thing he saw before the door closed was the earth pony scooping up a full-length steel dart in the curl of her mane, and a second one in her tail. ...Eh. The attendant would probably stop her if it was a problem! Probably. Arcane Ammunition looked at him from across her desk, setting down a pen that had been dangling in her magic before he entered. Her expression was not exactly stern or soft, just placidly neutral. He recognized it from a lot of the palace guards back in Canterlot as 'work face', and knew that she was happy underneath. It just didn't pay to show that, and old habits died hard. "Good to see you again, Mr. The Dragon." "Are we gonna keep that joke running perpetually? It has to get tired eventually." "You would think so, but the drill instructors back in Canterlot have their own ideas and some foul tasting sports potions to prove them." He tried not to shudder in horror at the idea and failed, settling on just plopping down across from her desk in the small wireframe chair. Decor was sparse, multiple unpacked boxes jockeyed for space in between filing cabinets and lamps: The lighting was half-dim, bright enough to read by but only just barely. Probably a Lunar Guard thing? Maybe just a personal preference. "Eugch, count me out... But count me in for your training! Which is why I wanted to drop in: I looked at the schedule you gave me and talked it over with Twilight, and I should be good for the last day this week. We're hosting a party on the weekend, so that's my last free day if we account for the inevitable cleanup." "Sounds like a plan, Spike. Anything you want to know before we start? Or anything I should know, rather?" It was a pretty leading question, but he'd wanted to explain things to her anyways. "Like I said the other day, I'm a pretty quick learner for this kind of thing... Maybe not very naturally though? I pick up new skills and learn spells very quickly, but I don't actually know if the way I learn them is the way a unicorn would. So I might... you know, need some patience with the quirks, as we get started?" Arcane nodded a few times as he spoke, lighting a faint orange spark on her horn. "Back before the Return and my induction to the Night Guard, I knew this unicorn. Traveller, vagabond, real piece of work. Could tell every single difference between two pieces of magic as soon as they were cast... but couldn't tell you what either one did. Amazing eye for balance and structure, no head for the actual function." "Ah. I guess that's to say you're used to it?" "Extremely. I don't even know if any two unicorns learn their spells the same way, once you get into specialties. Levitation and such are one thing, but the unique stuff? We're all different, kiddo." He raised a claw and exhaled some fire out onto the tips, letting it dance there as he tried to stabilize it without Stagnet. The display chugged MP like crazy, but it got the point across if Ammo's expression was anything to go by. "Wouldn't have it any other way: So we're good for Friday?" She nodded and pointed to the door with one hoof, never taking her eyes off the fire. "As long as you don't breathe a bullet that sends half my targets to Celestia's desk, yes." While he did go to leave, he decided to send a final jab on the way out. "I promise that if I do that, she'll send them back promptly." "Not reassuring!" Her complaint was cut off by the sound of the door clicking shut, and he couldn't keep himself from laughing... Doubling over when he heard her own chuckling behind the office door. As Spike recovered he saw that Pinkie Pie had just finished throwing a dart in a long arc towards the ceiling. It gracefully sloped down, eventually finding its way to the center spot... on the next board over from her. "Aww, I'd been going for the pentuple double!" Looking across the range, Spike realized that Pinkie had several clear spaces to either side of her: And every board but the one in the center had exactly two darts, one somewhat centered and the other on the outside rings. Now the center board only had its outer dart, and the board to the side had two bullseyes. "I was in there for five minutes. Tops." "Yeeeah, I totally would have went for the septuple if you were gonna be gone longer than that!" He shook his head and waved her off with a claw, scoping out the arcade machines in the distance while she plonked a few bits on the counter for the attendant. "Any particular order we should tackle this in?" "We shouldn't tackle the nice machines, Spike! It's bad for their insides." "...Left to right it is." - - - - Spike got plenty of data from their gaming expedition: Unobtrusively, thanks to the Notes system. Whenever he and Pinkie Pie were playing head-to-head (smaller cabinets without a lot of room, designed for two players to be able to jockey for position and bump shoulders) he'd focus on the game almost entirely, but when they were playing solo he'd grind skills in the background. Pinkie squarely ruined his times in ULTRACOOL over and over again, but he had her pinned into a corner every time they ran a new generation through Enormous Goblet. Both of them did well guiding the silent colt through the floating ruins of civilization in Sanctuary, although the narration seemed to have a bigger impact on Pinkie than Spike. That same pattern played out across every cabinet whether they were pushing for scores, speed, or direct competition: Spike had a strong tactical mind and an eye for the future consequences of his actions, while Pinkie had positively unreal twitch reflexes and some sort of unholy pact with the random number generator. She trounced him at shooters, he beat her in strategy games... And then they tried their first fighting game. Most ponies would think that Pinkie was impossible to predict, but Spike knew better. In a system with limited options, there were only so many 'unexpected' actions, and you could reverse your way of thinking and just expect those instead. The problem came in the arcane and complex controls: Pinkie could make her inputs quickly and Spike could make his with precision, but neither of them could get off more than a basic combo. If that. It seemed like it had the potential to be a perfect meeting of their specialties, somewhere they could be equal. And it was! It was somewhere they could be equally sucky. They stopped trying after the third cabinet and vowed to leave fighting games alone for the foreseeable future. Pinkie Pie was fairly new to video games but it was clear he'd gotten another friend in deep with the hobby: By the end of their free time in the arcade they had to swing back to the food counter just to make up for how badly they'd worn themselves out. The first few minutes were nearly silent as Pinkie slurped down her lemonade and Spike slowly nibbled a super-thick caramel. Eventually she rested her head in her hooves on the table and looked up at him, smiling. "I really had a ton of fun this afternoon, Spike!" "Me too Pinkie: I'm glad we got all of this done. Shame the other part of it didn't work out so well." That was the other reason for their subdued mood: The Party experiment had been a near-total failure: Pinkie couldn't acquire skills the way he did. While her efforts to train Attributes had more fruit, that wasn't anything they didn't already know. She could initiate voice chat if he left the system turned on, and she could still view her own character sheet... and that was about it. With some reluctance, they broke the Party as they finished eating. "I've got to get back to the Cakes, and then I'm gonna be pretty deep in the party-planning paint until this weekend. Edible paint, of course!" "Naturally: Want me to walk you back to work?" She stood up fast enough to rattle her chair, sweeping all their assorted trash into her hooves cleanly before it all seemed to consolidate itself onto one tray. "Sure!" They were interrupted by a gruff voice from behind, and the flap of loose leather: Piercing was standing over their shoulders, looking every bit the jovial arcade operator... As opposed to his usual resting guard face. "Before you go, mind chatting with me briefly Ms. Pie? It's about the order from earlier." "Okie doki loki!" Pinkie spun on her rear hooves and poked Spike with one of her free legs. "I'm gonna take a rain check on that walk, Spikey! Feels like we're talking business stuff and I don't want to keep you too long." He patted her hoof with a claw and nodded to her and Mr. Ammo. "I'll take your word on that: Good luck with whatever it is, and I'll see you both again soon!" The trip home alone was unexpected but not unwelcome: Maybe he'd detour through the market and pick up some extra materials for experimenting, then spend time training at the Library? Wouldn't hurt to check on Twilight either, make sure she hadn't gotten up to any shenanigans. Not that she was particularly shenanigan-prone lately, but it was Ponyville. One market detour later... Spike got back to the Library without issue, and found Twilight checking out an older couple with a small satchel of books. He didn't recognize them, but he realized that was going to be a temporary thing: Between his Eidetic Memory and his ability to see names and titles? It would probably take more effort for him to forget somepony now than it would to remember them. "Welcome back Spike! All the packages from your trip arrived safely, including the surprise: Thank you for that, by the way." He ran up and slung an arm around her neck for a brief hug, stepping back to let her finish filling out the checkout card. "No problem Twilight! I've got some exercise to take care of before dinner, clean up and all that. See you later?" "I'll be here. We're closing an hour later than usual today, so you might want to get the food started without me." That was fair, and actually pretty convenient. He would be able to use the extra time to work on testing out new recipes for the weekend and still get their usual meal in order. In the meantime he could grind out skills while preparing ingredients, and catch a shower. That last part was probably just an afterthought: In the same way that his body didn't 'actually' get injured when he took a hit from the Crusaders the other day, he was pretty sure he no longer got dirty in any real sense. Of course a shower was still comforting, relaxing, and nothing would stop him from meditating during the process! Or he could even just relax without doing anything Gamer related. He had a serious mentality of 'making up for lost time', but it was important not to let that control him either. And he was in no rush to use all these ingredients from the market, since his Inventory would keep them from spoiling or taking up space better than any fridge in Equestria. So he had options! But the first step either way? Exercise. - - - - The rest of Spike's night and time spent 'sleeping' all went by in a blur. He didn't pick up any new skills from practicing his claw strikes on a wooden fence-post (courtesy of Barnyard Bargains), but he could tell it was close. Maybe he just needed a live sparring partner to make the leap? It wouldn't be easy to find, but it wasn't impossible either. His cooking experiments all ended in failures of a sort. 'Of a sort' because he did manage one nice sign of forward progress. By seeking the recipes of a [Creative Kitchen] without the skill, your Mastery increases by 30% That single window confirmed a lot of things for him: One, the recipes he was dreaming of would definitely work. Two, the way forward was probably a Dragon's Kitchen subskill. And three, he was gaining Mastery fast enough to be ready in time for the weekend. With his mind settled on that it was a lot easier to go ahead with their normal dinner before he helped Twilight around the Library. Spike spent the time after that working on Crafting and other quiet skills, drawing up plans and doing tests for the gifts he'd picked up for the Crusaders. Once all of that was complete he settled in to meditate and try out the Lucid Dreamspace Control spell. He only allotted half as much time to meditation compared to yesterday, pushing further on his discoveries about not needing sleep. With that (and a projected version of himself) very literally in mind, he ended another day.