//------------------------------//
// Aquesting We Will Go... 
// Story: Twilight: The Gamer 
// by ilbgar 
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	She'd finished the books she'd bought, and now she was back on quests. Perhaps she ought to just do as many quests as possible at this point in the timeline, then buy books.
At any rate, several new quests had shown up after that last quest she completed. Mainly just yard chores.
First was a mare who needed some rocks in her yard removed. Second was a stallion who needed repairs to his rock wall, which she used the rocks she'd obtained from the previous quest for. The next needed the dead branches removed from her trees. The one after that needed a drainage ditch dug. The next needed under their porch cleared out. 
The next was rocks again, but these were stuck deeper in the ground, although relatively fewer than the other quest for moving rocks. The seventh was cleaning out a garage. The eighth was cleaning out a shed. The ninth was bathroom cleaning. The tenth was organizing an attic. The eleventh was lawn-cutting, and the last was hedge-trimming. 
Each quest awarded 25 exp, 25 bits, and 2 skill points. This caused her to reach level 4. 
She'd had trouble with some of the heavy lifting (stupid rocks, she didn't even remember some of these houses being here before!) involved in these quests, so she put three Stat points into Str, and one each into Agi, Con, and Regen. Str 26, Int 37, Agi 35, Con 35, Will 28, Regen 35, Wis 27, Chr 29, Lck 27. HP 600, Shd 50, MP 701.
She used 8 of her 30 Skill points to get Combat, Resilience, and Positive Magic 20/1000. The descriptions changed again. For Combat, 

'At 20/1000 or more, you have a decent skill level, not great, but okay.' 

For Resilience,

'Now you really can take a hit pretty well, it's not like your body's made of lead, but you certainly take less damage than a normal person.' 

And for Positive Magic, 'At 20/1000 or more you understand positive magic to about the level expected of unicorns in a regular school.' 
This unlocked three new skills. 

'Blade-wielding. 0/1000. Enhances skill with bladed weapons. At 0/1000 you don't have any more skill than someone who's never so much as held a butter knife before. Body Armour. 0/5. Blocks incoming damage, essentially the same as Resilience, but twice as effective. Magic Copying. 0/5. Allows you to copy a spell performed in your view. Higher levels allow you to replicate a spell that you didn't see the entirety of.' 


She raised Body Armour and Magic Copying to 5/5 and Blade-wielding to 12/1000. 

'At 10/1000 or more, you can't defend yourself against someone with training, but you can give most amateurs a challenge, not that you're guaranteed to win.' 

It appeared she had had her physical set of combat skills decided for her. Ah well, she'd be getting a sword of some kind to supplement her magic. It only made sense, what with how many Avatars had been focused on using swords. She wouldn't want to be unable to use those Avatars because she didn't have any skill with a sword.
She also discovered that there was no upper limit on how many quests she could take at once by accepting multiple yardwork quests at once, and doing them by multitasking. 

She was exploring the outskirts of town, when she came across a decidedly seedy-looking neighborhood. She got a quest pop-up, apparently from the environment itself. 

'Cleanup the Crime. Take out 5 Thugs and one Thug Lieutenant and turn them in to the authorities.
Thugs. Bandits who are all part of a gang that currently still operates, but is slowly being worn down by the authorities.
Thug Lieutenants. One step up from the Thugs, they have command over them and are a tougher fight.'

She accepted, and the targets appeared on the mini-map. The Thugs weren't really a challenge, but the Thug Lieutenant had twice as much HP and actually had some technique behind his movements, so she had to put some effort into it. She got his sword as a drop. 
Well, that took care of that problem, but she'd need to hide it somewhere later, she couldn't take it home with her. What would her parents think of a four year old with a sword?! ...She didn't want to think about it. Heck, she was a bit surprised that nopony seemed to notice.
The Thugs had rewarded 10 exp and 10 bits, while the Thug Lieutenant had awarded 15 of each. She conjured up a cloak to cover her face before giving the criminals to a patrol of Royal Guards, tied together with a card left behind saying, 'From a friend.' They'd apparently been wanted for some time, so the guards had taken them in.
She got a reward of 50 exp/bits and 2 skill points. She raised her Blade-wielding to 14/1000 with the points. Then she got another quest from the environment.

'Clean Up the Streets. Take out 20 Thugs and turn them in.'

She accepted, and found it easy to wipe out the 20 Thugs with her new weapon working in tandem with her spells, the only time they'd posed a challenge was when 5 of them had ganged up on her. She took a few hits before she brought them down. 
She'd even found a star in a gutter, and reached level 5. She also got 100 Exp/Bits and 3 Skill points from the quest reward. She dumped the Stat points into Str to increase the damage of her sword strikes as they were physical attacks. Str 32, Int 38, Agi 36, Con 36, Will 29, Regen 36, Wis 28, Chr 30, Lck 28. HP 620, Shd 50, MP 721. 
She used the Skill points to raise Combat, Resilience, and Blade-wielding to 23/1000. 

'At 20/1000 or more, you can hold your own against someone with training with blades, and fend off most rookies.' 

Huh, it seemed that Blade-wielding wasn't going to divulge any new skills. Come to think of it, the few swordponies she'd seen in the Royal Guard (on the rare occasion she attended her brother's training exercises in either timeline) used technique, speed, and strength, not tricks, to fight. Though that might just have been because they were in the Royal Guard, and were therefore expected to be honorable.
Speaking of Royal Guards, a new quest appeared in the area. It's giver was a member of the Royal Guard, looking worried. That was a very bad sign, the Royal Guard was famous for being nigh emotionless in most situations.
"What's the problem?" she asked, keeping her hood up. She didn't want any awkward questions being asked about how she'd managed to take down adults, and she certainly didn't want her parents to hear about her activities. She loved them, but they were a tad overprotective. 
Granted she was physically a filly at the moment, so any normal pony would be concerned, but considering she'd already died once, she didn't really see the problem. She wasn't suicidal, she just realized that she wasn't going to be dead for long if she was killed. Therefore, avoiding potentially lethal situations was pointless.
Besides, her tolerance for pain was way up there by now, and she hadn't exactly had a low threshold before, so she didn't see any point in being wrapped up in a blanket and locked in her room so her parents could keep her from getting hurt. That was why she was wearing this hooded cloak.
"Royal Guard business," the guard said stiffly.
"You look worried, perhaps I can help," Twilight tried again, hoping her Chr would convince him.
"Alright, if you must know, thanks to an unknown vigilante, we captured a member of a local gang of thieves who knew the location of their base. We sent a full patrol in, but they were supposed to report in 20 minutes ago," he said, glancing worriedly in what was presumably the direction the others had gone in.

'Save the Guards. Help the Royal Guards take out the base of the Thugs, defeating the 15 Thugs, 5 Thug Lieutenants, Thug Captain, and the Thug Boss.
Thug Captain. This Thug is far more skilled than the Lieutenants, and is a Boss, though he is actually one of the weakest of the Boss class.
Thug Boss. This Boss makes his Captain look tame, having approximately 50% more skill.'

She accepted, and the locale appeared on the mini-map. 
"I'll go lend a hoof," she said, before running off in the direction at a speed that left the guard gaping.
"I don't know if I should try and go stop her," the guard said. Something had just told him to trust her, while logic argued against letting what was clearly a filly, based on her height and apparent body mass, go into a literal thieves' den. After a few seconds deliberation, he compromised and decided to call for backup.
Twilight found all the Thugs mentioned in the quest guarding the fallen Royal Guards. She swatted them aside long enough to get the guards out of harm's way, then fought them in earnest. She had skill and stamina, while they had numbers. In addition, if the fight took too long, the other members of the gang would come see what all the commotion was, and she'd be swarmed under by the much more skilled reinforcements.
She quickly took out the Thugs, as she was reviving the fallen guards with a healing spell she'd learned over the past week, and their aid turned it into a one-sided battle in her side's favor. 
"Care to tell us who you are?" a guard asked her once they'd taken care of the Thugs.
"Not particularly, you should already realize I'm on your side against these guys. Before we go further, you should know that the Lieutenants are about three times as skilled, and there are five of them. I can only imagine what their Captain will be like, and let's not forget the Boss," she warned.
"Well, then you'll need our help. You might have saved us, but that doesn't mean you can take all the other ones down yourself." By some strange twist of fate, the apparent leader of this patrol was her brother. He'd already reached that rank in her original timeline, if her memory served her correctly. He would have achieved captaincy much sooner if not for a raid that was a half-failure... which was probably this one. This game/ the universe certainly had a twisted sense of humor.
She made absolutely sure not to be familiar with him, in address or tone. A random citizen informing her parents wasn't going to happen unless she did something completely insane. A member of the guard was fairly likely to inform her parents if she did anything even remotely dangerous. Her brother, pfft, she'd like to see him not tell them.
"Fine, but try not to get overwhelmed again," she said calmly. She was going out of her way to sound cold so he couldn't possibly connect her with his sister. She felt kind of bad about it, but she needed to get to the point where she could actually stand up against Chrysalis in a fight. She didn't want to sink to the level of a sneak attack, but she knew from experience that Chrysalis has no such compunctions, so getting good enough to protect herself and her friends was the only way to get this done.
From what she'd read, changeling society was virtually the polar opposite of Equestrian. The strong came out on top, and the weak, well, if they were lucky, they served under the winner, or were banished. The unlucky generally were left in a deadly location to die horribly, though nowadays this was only done to those who really made someone who reached the top mad; banishment was much more common.
He nodded, and they made their way down to the second level. She was able to keep three of their foes occupied, so the Royal Guards could gang up on the remaining two Lieutenants. Together they wiped the Thug Lieutenants out, though not without injuries, which she healed up before they went on.
The guards were probably impressed by her performance thus far, and so, didn't try to send her back before they entered the third level, which had the Thug Captain.
He turned out to be a changeling that threw conjured knives with skillful use of levitation. She was forced to cover the guards as much as possible while they all wore away at the changeling's HP of 200. 
He was equivalent to a Blade-wielding skill level of 40, by her estimation of his close-quarter abilities, making her only slightly better than him due to her Combat skill and relatively high Str and Agi. She couldn't use Fireball against him or her (she really couldn't tell) because the guards were jumping around too much for it. She might accidentally hit one of them, otherwise she'd have ended this fight in the first minute. However, they eventually beat him, getting 25 exp/bits for it, and 3 Skill points she used to raise Combat, Resilience, and Blade-wielding to 24/1000.
"Well, what say we rest for a minute while I heal you all?" Twilight asked.
They agreed, she healed them up, and while they caught their breath, her MP and Shd recharged.
"Were you the one who gift-wrapped those members of this gang?" one asked, having some kind of epiphany.
She simply nodded, not seeing a problem with revealing it.
This caused some murmuring, but they quieted down pretty quickly. She had been instrumental in defeating the Thug Captain, so it wasn't unbelievable.
"I think it's about time we moved on," Shining Armor said.
"I concur," Twilight said. Right, all her bars had reached capacity.
They moved on to the final basement floor.
The room that served as the Thug Boss' living quarters was rather lavishly decorated, and a gryphon sat on a throne-like chair.
"I take it you've defeated the others," the Thug Boss said, rather unconcerned.
"Yes, and we'll be taking you in as well," Shining Armor said.
"Don't count your chicks before they hatch, even my Captain never stood a chance against me in a fight. And from the volume and length of the scuffle, he gave you quite a bit of trouble, so I think this will rather bore me," Thug Boss said, lazily unsheathing two blades from his back.
He moved so fast that Twilight barely blocked in time, so she almost wasn't able to keep the gryphon from skewering her brother.
"Well, aren't you a surprise," the gryphon said.
"..." Twilight said nothing, giving no warning before using a trio of Fireballs against him at point-blank range.
She noticed that Thug Boss took significantly less damage than he should have. 500 HP should have dropped to 425, significantly less damage than a grunt but he was the leader. He was still at 480 though. 
"My armor is fire-resistant," the gryphon explained, slowly forcing their deadlock to break. The guards were trying to hit him with their spears, but he was deflecting them with the other blade.
Twilight spammed regular Beam attacks, and cut his HP in half before he suddenly began taking far less damage, and dodging more frequently.

'Target is now Taking Opponent Seriously, small reduction to attack power, but a large increase to speed and defense.'

Were all her Bosses at the end of quests going to have weird status changes? She found him rather easier to hit, since her fighting style was focused more on maneuverability than brute force, but did only half her normal damage.
She spammed Beam where she could, and slashed at him when she saw an opening, but she'd have had much more trouble if the guards weren't drawing his attention and some of his attacks. However, once she fell behind on healing them, she was too busy dealing with the badly weakened gryphon to revive them.
Thug Boss had only 100 HP left, but he seemed to be enjoying himself.
"You know, I was under the impression that you ponies were weaklings, but you've been able to stand against me very well, and taken minimal wounds in the process. Not only that, but the wounds I've dealt don't even look as bad anymore, you have a healing factor don't you?" the gryphon asked.
Ah, yes, gryphons were renowned for loving a good fight, and she was certainly putting one up.
"I heal slightly more than three times faster than a normal pony if that's what you mean," she answered.
It took another 5 minutes, but she defeated him, just as reinforcements for the royal guards arrived. She'd been awarded 100 exp/bits and 15 Skill points for beating him. She raised Combat, Resilience, and Blade-wielding to 29/1000.
She explained the situation to the guards, healed the patrol she'd accompanied, and left before somepony decided to give her a more thorough interrogation. She was a terrible liar, Applejack was the only pony who trumped her in that respect.
She got 150 exp/bits and 6 Skill points for completing the quest, raising her level to 6. She dumped the points into Str and her somewhat neglected Positive Magic, respectively. Str 39, Int 39, Agi 37, Con 37, Will 30, Regen 37, Wis 29, Chr 31, Lck 29. HP 640, MP 744. Positive Magic. 32/1000. 'At 30/1000 or more you're about at the level of understanding expected of an adult unicorn.'
She'd gotten more than enough money and drops to get her new books.


*** Canterlot Palace: Throne Room ***

Celestia had asked Shining Armor to meet her so she could ask him some questions about what was in his report.
"I understand you had help with that raid on the thieves' base," Celestia said.
"Yes, your Highness. A cloaked filly with impressive combat skill helped us. To be honest, she was the only reason we were able to bring the leader in. Apparently she was the one to gift-wrap that first batch as well. Though something about her rubbed me the wrong way, and not just how young she must have been," Shining Armor said.
"Ah, that explains the good mood the gryphon was in, they only get like that after a good fight. While it is a bit worrying that a filly would get herself involved, she handled herself admirably according to your report. Therefore, while it is a good idea to keep an eye out for her, we can leave her be for now," Celestia said, before dismissing Shining Armor.
"Hm, I have to wonder, how did a filly get that proficient in combat?" Celestia mused aloud. She shook her head, so long as they didn't infringe upon each other's rights, and were happy, her subjects could do what they chose with their lives. She was not a god, no matter what the common pony might think. She couldn't just manipulate ponies lives like a puppeteer, and even if she was a god, it would still be wrong to decide their lives for them.


'Chapter Progress: 15 Quests completed. 500 exp to next level. 1 star found.'

"What on Equis? Who said that?" Celestia asked, having been certain she was alone a minute ago.