//------------------------------// // Chapter Four (Edited) // Story: Admin Abuse // by blackhotmetal //------------------------------// Dante chuckled at his own joke and tore his gaze away from the surface of the pond. I really wonder what I can do with all these console commands. I could become a GOD, he thought as a devilish smile crept onto his face. He brought his hands up, thinking about a keyboard being underneath them. The world froze again and the box appeared. Oh, so that's what a bird looks like mid-flight, he thought as he looked up to his left at the frozen bird. Yep, still looks like a bird. What should I try first? he pondered. Well, /gamemode seems about as good as any. He keyed in /gamemode survival and hit enter. The world came back to life. Dante didn't notice any real changes at first; after a moment, however, he started to notice a familiar feeling. Hunger. "I guess that leads to the next test then," Dante thought out loud. He reopened the console and typed /give NotDustYet cooked_beef and hit enter again. He felt a hot and wet sensation in his right hand, which startled him into dropping whatever had touched him. He turned to look at the offending object and saw a very juicy, perfectly grilled T-bone steak now lying in the grass. "Aww," he whined in disappointment at the loss of a perfectly good cut of meat. "Dante, you moron, you asked for a steak, and then you freak out and drop it when it's given to you," he scolded himself. Behind him, he heard a rustling in the bushes. Nope, he thought while putting his hands up and changing his game mode to Creative once again. A small wolf that looked like it was made from tree bark and sticks popped out of the bushes and darted towards Dante. He flinched out of reflex but quickly relaxed remembering his current invulnerable state of being. Instead of trying to bite or maul him like he had expected, the small pup snatched the steak up off the ground, glanced at Dante, and ran back into the bushes. Well, that was anticlimactic, he thought. Yeah, but I think I could go without getting attacked again today, invincible or not. He went back to evaluating the abilities of his commands. This time he tried giving himself a stick with the command /give NotDustYet stick. When the world resumed, he was holding a stick as if he had been before he went into the console. He inspected the stick in his hand; rather than being some random branch, it was a two or three foot long, perfectly round dowel a couple of inches in diameter. Hey, this is pretty nice, he thought, while a mischievous smile spread across his face. Dante reopened the command line and did /enchant NotDustYet knockback 2 and hit enter. Instead of the world resuming a red message popped up above the box stating, Stick cannot support that enchantment "Oh yeah, I can’t enchant non-equipment with that command," Dante remembered. He put the stick under his armpit and held it there while he tried /clear NotDustYet stick. The stick disappeared without a trace, as if it were never there to begin with. Dante nodded with satisfaction. I may not be able to enchant items, but I can GIVE enchanted items. He chuckled as he brought his arms up. With a preliminary wave of his fingers he set to typing the long command. He entered /give NotDustYet stick{Enchantments:[{id:knockback,lvl:1000}]} 1 into the console. He looked into his hand to see what looked like the same stick, but this one was glowing and occasionally had minuscule lightning discharges into the surrounding air. Dante stared at the stick, mesmerized by its smoothly flowing yet angry looking arcane aura. I wonder what it tastes like, he wondered. I shall wait no more! I will taste magic! He touched his tongue to the stick, only to find that it tasted like a stick. Mm, wood with a hint of ozone. My favorite, he thought, underwhelmed. "Without further ado, time to see if this thing works," he said excitedly while picking up a small rock. He tossed the marble sized pebble into the air and swung the stick like a baseball bat while calling, "Batter SWING." There was a small sound of the rock hitting the stick then the sound of a bullet ricochet. Dante looked at his target tree to see a gouge cut out of the left side of the trunk. "Yeah, maybe tone it down a notch," he said, nervously eyeing the stick and the gash in the tree. He cleared the stick. Yeah, I'm not leaving that lying around for murder ponies to find, he thought. He gave himself another stick, this time with Knockback ten instead of one thousand. The aura on this stick was much more subdued and calm, like a rippling brook. There was also no lightning arcing from of this one. As Dante stared at the beautiful patterns flowing across the stick, his vision started to darken near the bottom. He blinked and looked down to see what it was, only for it to disappear. He looked at the stick again and it came back. He continued to concentrate on the stick and what looked like the Minecraft item tooltip display came into focus. It showed him that what he was looking at was a stick and that it was enchanted with Knockback ten. He blinked and looked away from the stick and it was gone. Neat, now I know it's a stick. Very helpful, Dante thought. He picked up another pebble. Aiming at the same tree, he tossed the rock up and lightly tapped it with the stick. The pebble arced forward a few feet and landed on the ground right in front of the tree. That seems way safer, he thought. Dante tried shoving the stick into his jeans pocket to find the whole thing quickly slid in up to his arm. Startled, he pulled his hand out to see that it was fine. He also had no stick. "Oh yeah, inventory!" he said. He stuck his hand back in his pocket to find nothing. "Crap. How do I use it?" He thought of the stack of books he had in his inventory that Sarah had given him. He felt a smooth, leathery surface brush his fingers. He reached a little and grasped it, pulling it out. He now was holding a book with the words ‘Natura Rules’ on the cover. Below the title was ‘by Silverxs153’. Well, there's that, he thought. Guess I don't really need this anymore. He tossed the book over his shoulder. Hearing a huge commotion of pages and books falling behind him, he turned around to see what looked like a small library strewn across the grass, though all of the books were exactly the same. I just dropped the whole stack, didn't I? He sighed, "Ugh, now I gotta clean this mess up." In Town Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack were back at the Friendship Castle sitting at their thrones in the map room. Fluttershy had taken Rainbow Dash home to treat her injuries. Twilight had her head resting on the table. She felt bad for destroying the town hall, especially after Applejack and Rarity told her the creature was actually not a monster. She also had a massive headache from magical exhaustion. "I've never seen Mayor Mare so mad before," she moped. "Cheer up Twi'," Applejack started, "you were just lookin' out for RD. You couldn't have known." "No Applejack, I shouldn't have lost control of my emotions and magic like that," Twilight sulked. "Darling, don't be to hard on yourself," Rarity tried comforting Twilight. "Why don't we have a nice relaxing trip to the spa to de-stress you and take your mind off of things? It didn't go all that badly after all—I mean nopony was seriously hurt," Rarity reminded Twilight. Twilight pointedly ignored this and instead turned her attention to the book that Mayor Mare had thrown at her on her way out. She was screaming something about the creature when she threw it. "I mean we got this book," Rarity said, trying to be optimistic. "Book?" Twilight lifted her head off of the table. "What book?" Twilight's ears perked up as she looked towards Rarity. Her headache was pushed to the back of her mind by curiosity. "This book," Rarity said, waving it around with her magic. "It’s very well made! I can’t quite place what the cover is made from, though. I think Mayor Mare said something about it belonging to 'Admin' when she, uh," she winced as she touched the bump on the back of her head, "'gave' it to me," Rarity said, smiling that she got Twilight's attention. "What is it about?" Twilight asked. "Well, I'm not completely sure. According to the cover it looks to be titled 'Natura Rules'. I have yet to read it though," Rarity said absentmindedly, marveling at the stitch work and gold trimming on the cover. "Can I see it?" Twilight asked. "Sure, darling." Rarity levitated the book near Twilight and her blue aura was taken over by a lavender one. "Thanks," Twilight said. She flipped the book over in her magic and saw the title and author. "Could Silverxs153 be the creature's name?" Twilight asked, looking at Rarity. "No, I do not believe so, darling. Mayor Mare said 'Admin,' I am quite sure," Rarity replied. Twilight opened the book and read the contents aloud, "Do not grief/hack/exploit the server. All large builds must be zoned and approved by the Owner BEFORE BUILDING. Do not just dig random holes in the ground, it is ugly and ruins the landscape. Building a large build without proper zoning or approval may lead to it being removed. Do not disrespect staff. Admin abuse can be reported to the Owner on the server’s Discord. Have fun! Link to Discord - https://discord.gg/9eGFy6" Twilight set the book down so the others could see. "Is that it?" Applejack asked. Twilight nodded. "Really?" "Yes, Applejack, really," Twilight confirmed. "It wasn't even a whole page out of this book." What does Discord have to do with this? Why are there so many empty pages in this book? Zoning? Owner? Twilight had so many questions. "Twilight dear, what is an h-t-t-p-s?" Rarity asked, walking around to Twilight and putting her hoof on the last line of text. "I don't know, but it says it's linked to Discord somehow," Twilight said, putting a hoof to her chin. "Ah think we should go find this 'ADMIN' fella and apologize," Applejack suggested. "It ran off in a hurry towards the Everfree. It's dangerous in there and it might get itself hurt." "That sounds like an excellent idea, Applejack; however, we don't know where it is," Rarity said. "Twilight, any ideas?" Spike burst into the room holding a scroll above his head. Panting, he said, "Twilight, you have *pant* a letter from *pant* Princess Celestia!" Spike took a deep breath, bringing his heart rate down. "It said 'urgent' on the seal, so I came as quickly as I could," he said, holding the letter up for Twilight. "Thank you, Spike," she said as she took the letter in her magic, broke the seal, and read it to herself. "Well, what does it say, darling?" Rarity asked, and Applejack nodded in agreement. A few hairs started to pop out of place on Twilight's mane. Spike took notice of this and slowly backed out of the room. "Oh no! Princess Luna is going to find out I carelessly fired that destructive spell! She'll see that I caused the magical disruption and take my wings away and send me back to magic kindergarten!" Twilight started hyperventilating and promptly fainted. The letter fluttered to the table for Applejack and Rarity to see. Dear Twilight Sparkle, Both Luna and I noticed a massive magical discharge, and we are worried for your safety. Luna has decided to investigate the phenomenon. I would like to ask you and your friends to assist her in discovering the cause of this outburst of magic. Luna should arrive within the hour. Sincerely, Princess Celestia "Oh," they looked to each other and said in unison.