Chapter 24: Confirmation
It turns out that while right there and right then had not been the place and time, leaving that entire situation to fester was equally unreasonable. So mere minutes later the two of them were sitting across from each other in the Arcade’s little food court. They had settled down for lunch and a long overdue talk about their, uh, ‘situation’. Spike’s plate had chili served over pasta with sharp onions, sharper cheese, and even-sharper ruby fragments (those supplied from his Inventory) while Rarity’s had a daisy sandwich with hay fries, no frills. Two glasses of lemonade were sitting on the table, silently sweating... just like the pony and dragon that were sipping at them.
It was Spike who broke the silence, clearing his throat and refusing to make eye contact.
"So. We-"
Rarity cut him off almost immediately, but even after that she took a moment to compose her words.
"Spike, I... we are friends. Close and inseparable friends. And it is... not impossible that we could be something more than that, someday. Romantically. Let's make that clear now."
He leaned back, trying not to let his shock or pleasure show on his face. That restraint became easier when he noticed how unenthusiastic she seemed at the prospect... There was more. Of course there was.
She looked off into the distance, avoiding his gaze across the table.
"The thing is, I would be lying if I said it would be soon, even theoretically. Not even remotely. I know about your... affections. I always have, but I never once considered reciprocating them. You're a sibling-of-sorts to one of my closest friends, and you're so... well, I still think of you as young, like Sweetie if not younger."
"But I'm not just a kid to you? In other ways?"
"Of course not: You’re a dear friend, even if I spent some time showing it poorly. But thinking of you as a romantic prospect or even something close to that... Well, that is an idea I would need to warm up to. I'd never really given the idea serious consideration, you understand! Because everything else I said doesn't even touch into the... issue of...um, well-"
She trailed off and looked back at him: He knew why pretty quickly, and also knew how to emphasize it: He flexed a claw, cracking another ruby onto his food. It was fascinating how she followed the motions as he cut and crushed the stone bare-handed, her eyes wide and fur bristled. It only got worse when he took a bite, a bite taken with teeth sharp enough to cut meat and hard enough to break rocks.
"Species?"
She visibly deflated and turned to look at him... She couldn’t keep the fear completely out of her eyes, now that he knew to look for it.
"Yes, frankly."
"Well... Yeah. I don't think that's a problem. I can see how it would be weird, and I never... I never expected anything, if that makes sense? It was always more dreamlike than real. Twilight would probably say my attraction was 'Fantastical, not actionable', or something like that."
Rarity nodded and took a bite of her food: It felt like it gave her some energy as she continued.
"Right. And given that... This is not ‘no’, and it's not ‘never’. However, it's honestly not ‘wait’ either. Spike... I think of you very fondly, and I want you to be happy. And if that happiness ends up being with me at some point down the line? So much the better!”
There was a pause as she looked away yet again... But he saw her expression curve, just faintly, into a hint of a smile.
“I can see it just a little, imagine it in my mind’s eye. It's a future I can picture, and a happy one in theory. That is more than I can say of most. But I can't guarantee it. I'm barely certain of now in my life much less then. And even in the best case I have a lot of things to work through, between now and then. So what I'm trying to say is... If you find love? Follow it. Please don't wait on me."
His smile felt more real this time, more genuine, as he briefly laid a claw across her hoof.
"Of course. I mean... Well, it sounds weird to say 'I definitely wouldn't', right? Putting it that way feels dismissive. But I mean it! I mean it in a good way: I won't wait, but you will never not be in my heart."
That drew a sniffle out from her and a sigh from them both. They both relaxed, really relaxed, and Spike felt a sense of peace wash over him. This had been weighing on him for a long time. Ever since he’d first come to Ponyville all those years ago, his attraction to Rarity had been something any pony in town could have told you about him. Most of them had never even talked to him before they knew, since he was... unsubtle, immature in his attraction. Of course, that was further cemented during that first incident with his accidental growth, but even before then he’d been...
He’d been selfish, in a weird way. The attraction had never been about Rarity, it had just been another latch-on crush like when he’d been a hatchling. Imprinting like a feral animal would, something he should have realized sooner... Something both he and Rarity had come to regret, clearly. Hearing that there was potential for it in the future kept the spark alive, but it was only that: A spark. At this point he was older and wiser than when he’d first seen her pale fur and purple mane, poise and grace...
But she was her own pony, and he was his own dragon. Spike was a carefree kind of guy, he felt that to be true... But this had always been there in the background, lurking behind his happy moments. And now they’d finally taken one of his only cares, one of the few things that really weighed on him, and broken it down into pieces. Airing it all out like this, to have an answer... It made him feel whole.
A skill has been created through a special action! By living a life dedicated to Harmony and the happiness of others, you have shown that you possess a [Balanced Soul].
He stared. He blinked. He couldn't help himself: He laughed loud and hard, the chuckles barely restraining a scream.
"Aaaaahahahahahaseriously! NOW?"
Rarity was clearly concerned with his sudden outburst, quickly lowering her sandwich.
"What... what? Is everything-"
He clicked the box away, pulling up the Skills menu afterwards.
"Believe it or not, that got me a skill. Cathartic dialogue about our lack-of-a-relationship got me a freakin' skill. I just... I've got no words."
Rarity seemed to recognize what his claws moving through thin air meant even before he said it, but once it was confirmed she clearly had to restrain a frustrated laugh of her own.
"Oh! Well, that.... That is rather gauche, no? Then again, benefits are benefits I suppose... Do you think it's a social feature? You did make a rather touching denouement, and I’ve read enough romances to know from touching."
"I'm not sure. The name is pretty generic, so it could be nearly anything..."
Scroll, scroll... There. Click
[Balanced Soul] (Passive) Lv 1, EXP: 0.00%
An ability found in those who truly understand that while Harmony and balance are difficult to maintain, they are worth maintaining. This skill creates internal harmony so that improving one aspect of the user improves them all, granting enormous growth via balanced distribution.
You gain one extra attribute point per level, in the future and retroactively.
Your base attributes are improved by 1%. This factor will improve with increased level.
You gain experience 10% faster and gain 10% more from quests and other bulk sources.
All of your base attributes must be exactly equal to one another in order to reap these benefits.
If one attribute rises higher than the others, this skill’s benefits will diminish in equal severity.
This requirement will become less strict with increased levels in this skill.
"...Or everything. It could also be everything."
Stats
Page generated in 0.026 seconds
Total duration
670 users online
805,426 hits today, 2,156,967 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
First
Great chapter
9965923
so I ask this as a curiosity: does saying that feel good? "First"... it means a lot, yes, but do you feel anything besides a small rush of accomplishment?
Wow, that's one hell of a skill. I wonder how many passive bonus percentage boosts he has now, he'll be leveling up pretty fast with all these distribution skills.
I hope spike learns some magic soon, give twilight a real surprise shen she gets back. "Here, let me get your bags" as he telekinetically removes her saddle blankets and sorts the new books.
So cool.
Well, the Yacht Sparity might have docked in the resort harbour, but just accross the pier is the Cruise Liner Freindship Harmony.
Im a bit confused though. I thought Balance Spread implied that say Spike went on a severe Parkour corse to get his Agility up by a lot of points, Balance Scale would spread those points to all the other stats, and none would increment until All could increment by that point?
Im reading it like he Can get lots of points in Agility, but the Imbalance would then Reduce percentage gain in All stats, making Everything harder to gain in and so rebalance, positive feedback in debuffing?
Or more likely, Im making a fundamental, confusing mistake in my understanding of whats been described?
Something I was considering today. Gamer Skills only deal with what you gain After the Aquisition method is itself Aquired. What if Spike or anyone else at such a point, as early as possible if not right at the start, sits down, and Remembers back over their life, to load in everything they have learnt and experienced to date into Skills and XP etc?
Spike has all the situation experience from Mane 6 as well as Canterlot prior to Nightmare Moon, and all his Comix etc?
9965947
TL;DR - It only impacts the skill itself.
If Spike lets his base stats get out of whack (whether it's through spending points, training, or whatever) then all the benefits of Balanced Soul will get reduced in return, in a proportional amount to how far out of balance he is. If it's just one stat being one point higher, it won't be a backbreaking difference. If all his stats are different values and one is significantly higher than the rest? The skill might stop working entirely.
9965947
How often is Spike meaningfully involved in the plot? Seriously, you're basically talking about combat EXP from Sombra... and upon further research, that didn't even happen yet in this timeline. (Relatedly, there's that Storm Creature that Capper barbecued by using him as a flamethrower)
Trying to sell us this Pinkie ship hard now that you shut down RarityxSpike.
Wait, apparently Spike is the terrifying one.
i.redd.it/fygz8c4becq21.png
Yet another really OP sounding skill, though at least this one comes with that balanced stats requirement. Once again I have to wonder about the balance of this gamer build, though there are a fair number of possibilities. 1) it's not intended to be balanced at all since it's just life and not a game, 2) everyone 'playing' has similarly OP skills, or maybe even 3) the eventual opponents in this game are Dark Souls bosses.
9966304
A bit of all 3 with a dash of a 4th, and since you're the first person to stumble onto it... I'll throw you a hint somewhere it won't induce too many spoilers for others. :P
Closer! Deep chapter. Very well done.
9966960
Even with a spoiler tag, this is more spoilers about the inspirational source than I'd like to have kicking around. It doesn't help that it's also not accurate to this fic, so it's not terribly relevant. Please amend your comment to remove the entire spoiler block of text or I'll be deleting it by the end of the day. Thank you.
9967329
I have deleted the comment myself. Seeing as the offensive message has almost nothing but spoilered text, I had no idea what to write in place other than [insert babbling of someone who tried too much to base his hypothesis on the source material here], and well, i don't want to put filling just for the sake of filling, so yeah. I deleted the previous message.
...And now i'm just aware i could have placed an approximation of this message in place of the spoiler without deleting the previous message. Oh well. Hindsight is 20/20 i guess...
Anyway, i'm sorry for my previous comment. I love the source inspiration, i love this fic, and in this kind of crossovers i have a tendency to ramble on and on on points of commonalities and/or divergences, and my brain latched on the end of djthomp's comment, and i think i lost myself a bit there. ^^'
I excuse myself, i'll try to be more reasonable in my commenting next time. Sorry.
I know it is meant to be a mature conversation about their situation, but all I see is yet more of the same maybe-wishywashy-waffling that was going on between them from before, just in fancier words. Yes or No. This dragged out drama does no-one any good, especially them.
Rereading the chapter, something jumped to my face :
Translation ? The first levels of skill will be the hardest, because since it's real life, even if he got stats RPG style, Spike will have difficulties maintaining balanced stats. But this one phrase make the skill really interesting in a new way. I think it'll probably Level up in function of the time he passes in a "balanced" state (pure conjecture by this time i admit), and that once he reached a certain skill level, the "buff effect downscaling" from "imbalanced stats" will reduce, leaving him not with a need to be strictly with pure equal stats, allowing him to have some wiggle room due to real life circumstances, and stay in a "Balanced" state.
At least, that's my understanding by rereading the chapter and rereading the author's answer to Booster Spice's comment.
9965975
I've seen a very plasible argument (blog by Naughty Ranko from way back) that Spike is actually the keystone to mane6 and plausibly the most important character in the show, keeping Twilight alive and sane, keeping the team together, being at the right place-right time to stop/stall Sunset, then manage Starlight Glimmer and Thorax... Barring the occasional hiccup. He would actually have a very varied and balanced skillset as a result.
But we aren't that deep into it yet.
Not the best conversation but at least they talked it out.
That puts this fic ahead of both MLP and Naruto ( Red Herring bullshit is a god damn lie. )
As for Balanced Soul? Now thats my kind of skill. Ive always hated min maxing. So its nice to see a skill that encourages well rounded attrtibutes.
10103892
It certainly sounds like a nice skill to stay ahead of the game. I also liked being a well-rounded character but I almost always end up "specializing" in one form of stats or another when I hit a method that works best for me. I am almost certain that some games make you to chose particular stats over others because of its system.
Impressive character development plus skill to boot
First crush just crushed him kind of
Poor Spike
The skill might be called balanced but the effects most certainly are not
In singelplayer rpg balance is a nice thing. In multiplayer? Questionable...
11071131
Every balance has a goal, with the most common example being to keep something in the air. Such a thing would seem unnatural to an extent, so in a real sense you could say this also fits.