//------------------------------// // Quest - [Fissure In Nature] // Story: MLP: Actualization Online // by Slendy //------------------------------// You ever had those moments when you ultimately regret talking to someone, to think they could offer you something of equal value to your time, enjoyment, even friendship? Yeah, I'm having that right now, to describe my day in two words. Info Brokers, and there were alot of them after only two weeks of MLP: Actualization Online being available. This one charming girl happens to be a crafty one. Her yellow coat, and browny-orange mane gave the impression she was some form of sweet, happy girl, no, not even close. Her eyes gave her away under her rugged, maroon hood, they were the most fiercest purple ive ever seen, and to 'not' be fooled was a challenge. She was an info broker I knew from previous games, and despite her....more than greedy charm, she doesn't sell you short of anything but the truth. "You know, you really give info brokers a bad name." I offered her bluntly, as she shrugged, sipping on her lemonade with a pleasurable smile at the taste, probably because I paid for it "Hey, the game's just off its feet, I ain't got a clue if this boss is all game or an old fairy tale? Not unless you wanna grab that juicy info for little ol' me?" Seraph teased with a sly look on her face, as I continued to look at the small forest just east of town. "If ya do I'll give my next intel drop half off?" "I'm surprised you even dropped it that low, you sure you didn't hit your head, Seraph?" I smirked, making her chuckle with a glare, before she 'booped' my muzzle "See? Why can't any guy be like you? Idiots the lot, that's why its fun to rip them off!" She cheekily chuckled, rubbing her hooves together, before ultimately clearing her throat. "So, who's the new girl you added to your team? Since you typically work solo?" "Oh, you mean Rain, yeah, first day here, she crashed into me, turns out her spawn was in the air too, I'm still trying to figure that part out though." I explained to her, since others have reported of the same issue, not that they died, it was just completely random. "Still, she's new to the whole RPG thing, so I helped her out, and now here we are, beat our first boss, taken on quests, and now reaching level 10." Now, if I knew one thing about Seraph, it was that she liked to tease everyone, she's almost like a flirt, that being said, I probably should have stopped at my first comment about Rain. Seraph was now grinning, her eyes narrowed with a chuckle. "Already got yourself a girl, i'm impressed, not surprising, but still...." She was really digging into my head now, but I held back my embarrassment, my poker face still stern "She's a friend, like you, and much like her, I will hit you if you say one more thing to [BEEP] me off." I snorted, making her back up defensively, but she knew she had me the moment I mentioned her. Deciding to move past 'that' insinuation, I pointed to myself. "Anywho, I don't see how I can be impressive, i'm a nerd with glasses, and I have a bad habit of-" "Being a complete idiot around girls, yeah, I know, if you haven't noticed, I am a girl." Seraph pointed to herself with a smile, before patting my shoulder, moving to leave me to my own devices. "Hey, one day you'll catch a girl, just give it time, even I don't have the info to tell you when. Now, off with ya intel hunting!" "Aye, sir." I saluted, watching as the hooded mare wandered off into town, decided to wait by a little longer, I opened my stats menu to take a look a what my agility, and strength was, since these smaller numbers will begin to add up Pegasus Pony Level - 09 Health: 445 Magic: 150 Stamina: 172 Strength - 17 Endurance - 5 Intelligence - 14 Perception - 20 Charisma - 6 Agility - 15 Magic - 7 Luck - 4 "Luck sucks, no surprise. Charisma is the same. But Perception is the greatest stat, then again, these attributes evolve with traits, so probably doing that event a few days ago with Skittles must have boosted that." I was beginning to mutter incoherent nonsense to myself, unaware of who was watching on beside me "Uhh....you ok?" GAH! I nearly fell back on my chair at Rain's sudden appearance, as she giggled at my misfortune. "Sorry, trying out that new stealth magic I have, decided to see how well your skills were." "Well, my Perception is high enough to tell who was standing near me, just not who it was among all the others, so thanks for the awakening, just chop off another year on my life." I sighed, before I grabbed Parting Glass, which I checked to make sure its stats were good enough for the battle ahead Parting Glass (Broadsword) "Thus kindly I scatter" DPS - 36 - 40 Elemental Enhance - 15% Attack Speed - Normal Critical Chance - 20% "You're lucky to even get a rare weapon like that this early, even so....you sure its a good idea to get so attached to one weapon?" Rain commented, whist I closed the tab, and turned to face her with a prideful smile "My dear Rain, if there's one thing I like more than exploration in games, its rare loot, and by god, I had my info broker give me some intel on this beut of a blade, turns out it has a 15% chance to drop, meaning I'm one of a veeeeery short list who have one!" I was grinning like a child at that, the fact I had such a blade with a low Luck was like finding gold "What, how is that even possible!?" Rain gaped, as I raised my hoof under her jaw to close it, before I made my way for the east hills of Ponyville. "Hey, answer me~!?" "Tough luck, literally!" I called back, laughing at her expense since she only got a jacket from the fight, though, to be fair, she now had white cloth wrapped around her front hooves, since she decided to go for kinetic skills, so she bought boxing tape, which was a 'glove' weapon type "Besides your stupid luck, what are we doing?" Rain now moved past the pain of loosing out on a rare item, and brought up the important question "Well, as it turns out, a pony needed help collecting flowers the other day, but when I returned, she also gave me a follow-up quest, where I needed to take a few of them to this spot called....'Nature's Rest', whist the quest is called [Fissure of Nature]." I explained, before I opened up my quests, before turning it on a literal switch for Rain to view my quest log. "Take a look." [Active Quest] -Fissure of Nature- Rose is grateful for your aid, but she needs you to place a few of the rare flowers in a special location as a way of respect for the forest. [ ] Find the Nature's Rest [ ] Place the flowers "Well, that's simple enough, but why do I get the feeling you're going to say, 'but'?" Rain smirked, as I closed the tab, before I pointed back to where we came for a second "The info broker had someone else do that quest too, turns out that same person was back at the Town Square in only ten minutes, think it was 'simple enough'?" I mused, earning a smack across the head. "Right, so she wants me to get her the info to sell, in exchange, I get 50% off her next intel drop." "What if someone gets the info before her?" Rain questioned, but I tapped my head, making her eyes widen, before she smiled. "The quest only started up twenty minutes ago, didn't it?" "See, now you're beginning to understand how I'm one step ahead of any other player, that, and I want that deal, she's mean when it comes to prices." I winced at the last time I fell into the temptation, I never saw those credits again, god have mercy on their glimmering souls [Forest of Remembrance] "This game's amazing, you know, when we find the next part of the story, I hope it takes us the Empire, I'd love to see how shiny everything is!?" Rain happily flew around the trees, noting how flowers sprouted more recently in bunches of all colours, and types of flora, trees even consisted of a handful of Blossom Trees too, it was quite mystical "Its what I love about adventuring, going to places, new and old, seeing how breathtaking or mysterious such a place is, even the lore behind it all, what was like before? What mysteries it held, that's why I'm here." I added to her statement, seeing her fly down to walk beside me "Then we'll be treasure hunters!" Her suggestion did spike an interesting memory for me, whist the prospect did seem fun to try, having a group of us hunting down rare items, and discovering new areas "I think you have a good idea....maybe there's a guild system in this game too?" I thought aloud, before I gasped at the memory. "That's is, my old friends from Relic Hunters!" "Relic Hunters?" Rain echoed, just as we were beginning to enter an open space among the trees "Yeah, on a game called Warframe, a friend of mine made a small clan for us called 'Relic Hunters', since we went after new stuff constantly, whist using the games 'Relics' to do so, good times..." Sighing at the happy thoughts, I soon turned my head to the sky, seeing the new location appear before us both [Nature's Rest] A open area was surrounded by trees, with some enemies in the distant tree line, but before us was a grassy oval base, with small stones embedded in the earth, with flowers growing in the corners of the stones, whist they seemed to circle a small platform in the center, where a few vases rested on the idol, alongside a small stream of water cutting from one side of the trees to the next. It was like a natural garden, with some ruins left behind. [Achievement Unlocked] Lost But Not Forgotten - You discovered ancient ruins "Amazing....!" We both breathed effortlessly, before I noticed Rain's bat-ear twitch to her right, before moving to her left, right as she pressed her lips in a thin line "Danger?" I answered, just as she flew into the air, right as I grabbed Parting Glass from its scabbard. That's when the stones began to glow a pale blue, runes inscribed upon each surface, just as the blue began to infect the platform in the center of the oval clearing. Now, I'm a betting man, so to say that we walked into a trap would be a clear win, if not for the 'trap' part *Fwoosh-BOOM* Both me, and Rain were sent flying back from the massive eruption of magic, as the arcane runes continued to glow at the appearance of the caster. To my surprise, it was....I....I don't know 'WHAT' it is? The....creature looked to be a mangled form of energy, as it warped, and twisted its form to appear as something tangible. But all it was to us was a black, and purple entity with glowing, blue eyes, jagged like scars on the body. Then the larger health bar appeared above its name, along with the strange instrument in the background beginning to play. [Astral Fissure - lvl 12] "Hey Rain, any weaknesses!?" I called up to her, as I leapt to my left, avoiding a magical beam of pure magic, as it scorched the earth where I once stood. Being a Therstral, she could use a skill called 'Erebus' Eye' allowing her to reveal all traits about her opponent, which helped greatly in finding weaknesses, and strengths of things like this "Its pure magic, and is immune to all physical attacks, but that's the problem!" I couldn't hear the last part, since she yelped at the blast of magic her way, before it formed another claw from its form, before a black, and purple beam hit my back, taking a piece of my health with it, dropping from 445 to 415, whist inflicting 'Lock-down' for a few seconds, stopping me from using spells "Its immune until we bind it to this world!" What the [BEEP] did that mean? Well, we were surrounded by slabs with runes on them, maybe.... "Hey, draw agro for a moment, I'm going to check the runes for a clue!" I called back to her, ducking under another blast of magic, before I watched Rain swoop low, before she pulled an uppercut on Astral's head, or where it would be, knocking it back, just as its eyes followed her flight Now in the clear, I quickly ducked behind the slab, as I checked each stone for some form of clue to its defeat, each was a strange, arcane writing, so I just skimmed past them with a groan of irritation, finding my heart beginning to beat a few ticks faster as Rain struggled to keep the Boss' attention on her. "There!" I exclaimed happily at the perfect English engraved upon the stone, as it read clearly "There are four siblings in this world, all born together. The first runs and never wearies. The second eats and is never full. The third drinks and is always thirsty. The fourth sings a song forever." "What in the who, and the why?" Forget it, I opted to just hitting the Boss harder, but that wouldn't work, so I sighed, as I stood up on the slab, planting my hooves into the smooth surface, whist I breathed heavily [Sky Seal - Airlock] Channeling the rush of air into my right hoof, I smiled as I thrusted my body forward with my wings, flying like an arrow towards the distracted Astral Fissure, then I pulled my hoof back, before I brought it across its back in a strong, right-hook, as my hoof erupted in a burst of compressed air, throwing the Astral Fissure onto the platform like a mass of goo, as it slowly reformed to face me, its piercing blue eyes narrowed in my direction with a faint glow. It then swung a claw down on me, just as I flew back, before another swung to my left, and another to my right, so I spun in the air, before I placed my hooves atop its right claw, before propelling my body off the vibrating mass of magic energy. But I was soon tackled by Rain, as we both narrowly avoiding a massive blast of magic, as we landed in a tree top, whist I wiped the sweat from my forehead. "That was close...." I breathlessly chuckled, before I saw Rain's tired state, and yellow health bar, feeling a pang of guilt hit me, I handed her one of my health potions, before I pointed to the slab below us, which was opposite the one I found the riddle on. "Sorry for taking so long, but I need you to read that slab, and try and decipher the riddle on it." "You think that's what's stopping us from hurting it?" Rain asked me, whist I noticed its body turn towards us, just as my eyes widened at its glare. It seams Rain noticed too. "Right, good luck then." "Right-o!" I cheered, before I flew off the tree, before I rolled in the air, dodging another blast of magic, followed by another to my left, so I stopped mid-flight, before I fell backwards, free-falling for a moment, before thrusting my wings up again, flying in an infinity pattern to confuse Astral Fissure. "Think, Cayde, what does it mean....?" "There are four siblings in this world, all born together. The first runs and never wearies. The second eats and is never full. The third drinks and is always thirsty. The fourth sings a song forever." I replayed the notion in my mind, just barely grazing another void blast, chipping my health again as I continued to fly around its frame, stay a distance away to avoid its claws "What begins, but has no end, yet ends all that begins!?" I heard Rain scream to me, as I nodded, before I fell to the ground, opting to run around the oval, whist Rain hid behind an old log next to what looked like an old fire pit....fire pit? "LOOK OUT!" *Zap-Thud* My health spiraled into the yellow now, as I felt my body jolt that the sudden surge of magic, as I tumbled into the grass, just as I saw Rain strike the body of Astral Fissure again, kicking it in the back of the head, before flying from its grasp, only for the hand to knocking her flying into a tumble. That strike hurt, I could still feel the remnants of magic stinging my fur, which was perplexing, how can it hurt so much? Was it due to different inhibitors affecting certain attacks? Probably, but that's not important right now, Cayde! "That's it!" I think I knew the answer to the riddle, setting aside my previous thought, albeit, I don't know if there's any repercussions if I'm wrong, but Rain was seriously low on HP, and so was I, and it wasn't giving us an opening to heal, so it was better late than never. "The answer is.....Water. Earth. Fire. Wind!" Suddenly, the music changed at the burst of light emanating from the slab my riddle was on, and in a flash, an electrical coil of lighting snagged the side of Astral Fissure, causing it to hiss at the sudden infliction of the chain, binding it to the rock. Then I saw it, the health bar above its head flickered a pale blue, before the chain seemed to cause a few hit points of damage. "Rain, attack it now with everything you got, its not immune!" I hurriedly snapped out of my trance, my analyzed done, seeing that it was no longer moving, as if the chain had ceased its connection to our world. Taking this time to strike, I channeled the magic into my front hooves, whist Rain flew above me, pulling her front hooves back like she was drawing a bow [Umbra Seal - Shadow Shot] Her attack materialized a black, and white bow in her hooves, as she released the string, propelling a purple arrow towards Astral Fissure, before the bolt struck its chest, releasing tiny purple embers, procking it with weakness, and stun within the time of impact. Whist I flew towards its chest turning my body to the side, spinning my hooves like a blade. [Sky Seal - Airlock] My two hooves soon elbowed Astral Fissure atop the mass that would be its head, causing a burst of light to expel from its body, before flashes of yellow light struck its body in a multi-combo strike, decimating half its health in one fell-swoop, however, the force of its body threw me back a few inches, just as I saw two of its arms holding a purple sphere between their claws. Oh [BEEP]! We both had no time to react, as the claws clapped against the sphere of magic, before shards of astral energy shot forth from Astral Fissure's hands, shattering my health into the red, whist I watched from my party as Rain's dipped into the yellow behind me, both of us now fallen from the skies. Then I heard it over my slowly fading pain, as I pulled myself to my hooves to see its arms circling around one-another, generating another AOE strike within the time between the first attack, and this. We didn't have time to act or even run. We needed to think of a way to solve the last riddle before we were sent to our graves! "Wait....graves...." I breathed, turning my head back over the now howling wind that was created by the activation of the astral blast, when I did, I saw that Rain was sitting behind the same slab she read a few minutes ago, and soon my eyes widened. "This isn't just a bunch of old ruins.....its a memorial sight!" There's a stream of Water. With the embers left behind by a Fire. Earth all around us, flourishing among the dead. As the Wind sings for the souls. Whist they await....Death. I didn't have alot of time, as I threw myself back, moving to crawl beside Rain, and over the wind, I yelled to her the answer to save us both. "The answer....is Death!" I screamed, as her eyes quickly widened upon the connection, before she did the same, yelling the answer to the slab, and to our relief, the slab glowed brighter. Before long, another golden chain of yellow shot forth from the slab, snapping around Astral Fissure's arms, and finally cutting off the wind, and the void blast from charging again. "You did it!" "No, 'We' did it." Rain corrected me, before I saw the Boss struggle against the restrains of the riddle, throwing its mass back to try and break free. "I'll hit it again, then you strike it down." "Aye, sir." I nodded, flying above her, as Rain pulled her arms back again [Umbra Seal - Shadow Shot] Within seconds, the purple bolt tagged Astral Fissure, stunning, and weakening its defenses once more, whist I pulled my fore-hooves back, allowing a small gusts of wind to build around the length of my arms, before I grabbed Parting Glass from its scabbard, transferring the magical skill from my hooves to the blade's edge, before it glowed a bright blue. The power drawn to the blade was heavy, almost as if the magic pulled against my own weight, but I only needed a few seconds. Flying down, I held the blade in both hooves, as I shot towards the stunned Astral Fissure, before I spun anti-clockwise in the air, as I brought the blade down to my side, swinging it in a diagonal pattern to my right, before I called out the spell at the last few seconds. [Sky Seal - Sky Rasher] In a blink, I parted the chain binding Astral Fissure, whist splitting the gap between its eyes in two, as its body slid under the thin, sky-blue line through his body, as I slowly placed Parting Glass back in its scabbard with a clank, before the health bar above Astral Fissure vanished, its body erupting into a burst of purple, black, and blue streams of colour. Then I smiled. "Checkmate." Simple, but well deserved, as I heard Rain cheer from behind me, as I smiled, walking over to the pedestal where the vases still waited for flowers. "Hey, I think I get this quest now. Its to remember the souls who were buried here long ago, and so that creature must be what spawned out of the emotions of the lost souls still waiting." "Hmm....yeah, I think....I think that right." Rain softly agreed, as three flowers, with blue cups, and white lines, and a small leaf attached to each of their steams. I then carefully knelt down, placing one in each of the three vases, then I looked over to see the slabs hum once more from the last being placed. Then I was nudged by Rain, who looked at me happily. "I think they like it." "Aye....less we forget, but after today, I don't think that's an option." I mused, sitting atop the platform, as Rain sat on the warm grass beside me, then, I saw the banner above us appear, not even giving us a moment to rest it seams, but atleast we know that there won't be any surprising for the duration of our small break [CONGRATULATIONS] [Ruin Mini-Boss Liberated!] [Rewards] Stream Rose x1 Soul Token x1 (Currency) 375 bits 400 EXP "A rare item?" Rain pondered, before she jumped at her body glowing gold again, along with my own body, then I grinned as I finally broke the single digit of my level Quest Complete! -Fissure of Nature- Rose is grateful for your aid, but she needs you to place a few of the rare flowers in a special location as a way of respect for the forest. [ ] Find the Nature's Rest [ ] Defeat Astral Fissure [ ] Place the flowers [Level Up!] [9 - 10] [Achievement Unlocked] Double Digits - Reach level 10 [Stats Increased] Agility +1 Magic +3 Endurance +2 "Well, I finally broke into the double digits, I think today has been successful." I nodded at my own satisfaction, whist I saw that Rain was now level 9, but she was also staring at her menu for a moment, clearly in deep thought over something she had found. "You get something rare?" "No-no, its an uncommon, but its...really good, stat wise, I mean, good strength, good critical, but its a Bo staff, kind-of useless to me." Rain shrugged, but I just rubbed her mane, tilting her head from left to right. Foolish noob, how blind you are to the commoners of the game "It may be different, but you never know when you could use the range, keep it for now, just as a backup if punches are out of the question. That, and even though the armour and gear doesn't match, you still have the better stats." Advice from past failures, never forget a backup weapon, or in my case, bring one of everything, that works too. Before I could begin to say anything, I saw a message appear in my 'notifications'. "Hey, got a message." "Same...here." She then looked up at me, as I looked with the same suspicion, so we quickly opened our tabs, as I nudged her to read hers out loud, this could be the sign of an event, or even an update, either one is a promising fortune "Greetings, fellow players We, the Key Bearers have located the beginning of this area's Raid Lair, this is the prime challenge of each area as of this current version of the game, we do not know who else has found a key, but if you have, come to the location detailed in this message, and bring your team too, as this will be an effort from all aiding party's to both figure out, and beat. Sincerely, The Key Bearers' Master" "There's already a guild in the game?" To call me skeptical would be justified, since no such system has been implemented, so unless they were preparing for that update or what was up for debate. But, a raid lair? Now that spoke volumes, especially since I have a key too "We got a key from the quest we did with Pinkie, right?" I nodded, before Rain got up to face me with concern. "Think its worth going?" "I think we don't really have a choice, if these keys are the way to forward the game, we are obligated to do so, but at the same time, we get to be the first players in a new raid, which is a boat load of fun!" It was simple thinking, but having access to new, rare, exclusive loot first was always a treat, so I was all for it. I might even get Seraph on board with this little pointer of info.... Then I stopped daydreaming to see Rain smiling at me curiously, before she rolled her eyes at me. What? Was there something on my face? "You really turn into a whole 'nother person when loot it brought up, especially in new areas." Rain observation was true, I really love raids, but....I can't tell if that was an insult or a compliment? "Is that bad?" I questioned with a mocked faced "Nope, just fun to watch you act like a kid!" She was mocking me, laughing too, and what did I have to do, I pouted against my better judgement, I hate you brain, you do dumb things, you make my thoughts hurt "Other than that...." I grumbled, shaking my head, just as I closed my menu. "The sooner we know what to do with this key, the better." "Right!" To Be Continued.... Update Party: Purplrain - lvl 9 [Stealth class] (You) White Hat - lvl 10 [Offensive class] Current Level: 10 Magic: Sky/Air Magic Items: Stream Rose x1 Soul Token x1 (Currency) 375 bits 400 EXP New Skills [Sky Seal - Airlock] - Compressed air around an object, and upon striking, it explodes [Sky Seal - Sky Rasher] - Your wings/weapons become thin blades of air, slicing through armour [Umbra Seal - Erebus' Eye] - See into your enemies, know their strengths and weaknesses [Umbra Seal - Shadow Shot] - Fire an arrow of shadow, debuffing your enemies