//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Explosions // Story: The Gamer: Equestria // by TerribleTy27 //------------------------------// Plop. Plop. Plop. "Agh, that smells awful!" As Spike trudged through the muddy, sickening swamp, his mind wandered back to all the life choices that led him to this point. Simply put, he needed to prove himself. As the numbers grew higher, a small bit of him realized that he didn't really earn these skills. He wasn't even using them. How could he hope to protect his friends if he couldn't even be bothered to fight? Go to the Everfree forest and defeat a monster! Succeed: +5 LV, ?, ?. The free levels were a bonus, of course. Hearing a quiet scuttle, he brandished his butcher knife in the noises direction. Soundlessly, he hopped out of the mud and onto the ground. Before he could react, a silver sheen slashed at him. By some miracle it missed by a millimeter. The millimeter was all he needed. Mustering every bit of speed he could find, he jumped in the attackers direction. Eyes closed, he managed to make out the sensation of his blade striking flesh. "Awooo!" What the heck? Spike opened his eyes to see a brown bipedal wolf. Or more accurately, a werewolf. A very angry werewolf. A bleeding, wounded werewolf. "Perceive," he whispered. Werewolf LV ? Werewolves are arcane creatures created when one werewolf bites a normal being. This one has gravitational distortion abilities. Grimacing, he pulled out his blade into a defensive position. Carefully, he imitated the stance he'd seen in Rupony Kenshin. 'There's no way my manga could be wrong!' he thought. Once more, the werewolf jumped at him. In comparison to the initial strike, it was about as slow as a snail. Easily, Spike jumped to the side. Faster than he thought was possible, he moved his blade. The impossible speeds easily intercepting the creature in midair- That was the plan, at least. Right as the werewolf was about to come into contact with the blade, the thing moved. For a moment, inertia didn't matter in the least. Hopping off an invisible wall, those very sharp claws were suddenly aiming for Spike. On that day, the god of d20s was feeling awful kind. Elsewhere, about five hundred ponies were lucky enough to win twenty million bits. A small universe exploded. Spike moved his knife upwards in a vain attempt to parry. At the same time, he ducked as quickly and as deeply as possible. Spike let out a painful yell. He wasn't dead, but he wanted to be. Why? He needed to know. His claws slowly crawled their way to the top of his right cheek. There was nothing. All he could feel was blood and flesh. His hard scales were completely gone. He didn't even see the attack. All he could feel was the pain. ~|~|~|~ What the hell? Spike looked around his afterlife, and all he could see was the big white Game Over. Below the message, three lowercase options shone. New Game|Load Save|Quit Spike slapped the 'Load Save'. A small message popped up, telling him he never saved. Of course. He wasn't very interested in clicking 'Quit'. Only one option then. 'New Game'. ~|~|~|~ Spike breathed in the smell of Canterlot aristocracy. He was back where his journey started. Pulling up his status screen, his mouth gaped open at the sight. Spike Health-900/900 Mana-400 Class: The Gamer Title-None Level-11 Exp-30/400 Race-Dragon STR-13 VIT-10 DEX-11 INT-14 WIS-22 LUC-13 POINTS-80 MONEY- 0B Spike is a dragon, the son of ? and ?. He is still a baby dragon, and has a fairly short attention span. He has ?, but hasn't figured it out yet. Spike is unaware of who his parents are, and wishes to find meaning in his life. Spike loves Twilight Sparkle, and all his friends. Status-None Skills: Skill Points: 80 Reading: LV 67 You can comfortably read college level books. You have an average reading speed of around 1200 WPM. Writing: LV 53 You can write faster than most people can read. Academia: LV 59 You're at the level of most college students. Deception: LV 1 The level of this ability determines your ability to lie. Currently, you'd be lucky to fool a baby. Your chances of deception are calculated like so:
(LVofDeception + LCK) - (Subjects Perception + Subjects LCK) Dragon Fire: LV 15 Dragon Fire is a highly versatile skill given to (you guessed it) dragons. White fire can supposedly burn through the fundamentals of the universe itself, while green can teleport objects. The MP cost is extremely high, with the exception of green fire. You currently receive a 19% efficiency bonus. Green Fire: LV 1 MP cost: 2 MP You can teleport envelope sized objects with ease. ? LV ? Due to traveling through time, you ?????hl?amd?emqhr? Persuasion LV 13 You might be able to convince a toddler to give up a lollipop. Perception LV 50 You've looked into the heart of the abyss, and can understand the tiniest bit. Combat LV. 54 You can hold a light bulb to the searing lights of true masters. Gamers Mind: LV MAX You are virtually impossible to attack mentally. Gamers Body: LV MAX You have near perfect control of your body. Titles: Assistant: All utility skills receive x2 multiplier bonus. It was the same. His abilities carried over between saves! Speaking of saves... "Save Game," he whispered. A screen popped-up, alerting him that the game was saving. When Twilight walked in, she was a little bit surprised to see Spike cackling at a wall. ~|~|~|~ Spike abused this feature to the best of his ability. Not only was his stats steadily rising, he learned how to utilize mana to a small extent. After manipulating his fire through some kind of low level telekinesis, a skill thingie popped up. By forcing his inner energy out his fingertip, a small mana bullet would blast out. If he kept it up, it turned into more of a laser. In comparison to the last time, the fight was easy. All Spike had to do was stand back and watch as his mana bullets slashed through the things fur. The creature lay dead. A shimmer of green flashed through the red. Spike ripped off the skin, bit by bit. A hint of a body shape began to appear. He could almost make out their facial expression. Blood. Blood everywhere. Spike wanted to throw up. Inside the body of the werewolf, an earth pony laid. Still and grey, it's face was contorted into an expression of fear. But the sad thing was that he didn't want to throw up because of the dead pony in front of him. No. He was throwing up because he didn't care. In the back of his mind, he had known. It's a werewolf! How could he have not known!? And then he stopped caring. His previously tear stained face returned to its apathetic state. Rather than fear, hate, or disgust, all he could feel was curiosity. How did that thing move like that? The pony was an earth pony. There was no way it could've used its magic. Or could it? Carefully, Spike placed the body into his inventory. With any luck, he'd be able to figure out how that creature did what it did. ~|~|~|~ "ID create!" Spike grinned. With the ability to consistently fight monsters, he would be able to level up faster than ever. So what would this 'ID' look like? As the white faded from his vision, he made out the limbering form of a- "-Zombie!" The zombified pony took a swipe at Spike. As the creature closed in for another attack, Spike readied his finger. Before the zombie even knew what was happening, fifty mana bullets had slashed through his body in ten seconds flat. Pshew! The only thing remaining of the zombie was a bit of the arm, and it was rapidly disappearing into ash. Spike moved forward to take a better look at the corpse. To his surprise, roughly fifty bits were sitting in the corpses remains. He slipped the bits into his inventory. "ID escape!" He slipped back into reality. As his vision cleared, he could've sworn he'd seen a bit of pink escape the edge of his room. But he definitely didn't miss the pink blurs title. Pinkie Pie LV 1 Seer of Truth Eldritch Being Spike dashed downstairs as quickly as possible. He had to perceive her if it was the last thing he did. You have entered an I.D! Flicking aside the message, he opened the library door. What greeted him was one of the strangest things he had ever seen. Pinkie Pie standing on top of a building chanting some strange language he had never heard before, as an army of party cannons floating in midair built up behind her. And Starlight Glimmer in midair, building up a very, very powerful beam attack. Starlight Glimmer LV 231 The Great Equalizer Spike had many questions. "Do you truly believe your pesky gypsy magic will be enough to defeat me?" said Starlight. She pointed to her glowing horn with a look of condescension on her face. "Silly billy!" said Pinkie, smirking. "I don't have to beat you!" Starlight raised her eyebrow. "I've already won!" she said, pointing a finger at Spike. Pointing a finger at Spike. "What's happening?" He said hesitantly. "This gypsy-" Starlight pointed at Pinkie, "-is a dirty liar who'll break your heart!" "Excuse me!?" Pinkie was practically fuming, fire coming off of her mane. "Which one of us walks out on him because, and I quote, 'I want to do it with you all the time, and it's not healthy,'?" A small apartment fire exploded across Starlight's face. "You dirty horse!" she screamed. It was epic. Spike had never seen such an awesome fight in ever. There were explosions, mana arrows. He could've sworn he saw the hand of God descend and slap the two of them. Teleportation, element summons, and literally any other attack you can think of. There were even some times when they used not two, not three, not even four, but eight spells at once. As they both were nearing their limit and panting, Pinkie screamed, "That's it! I'm taking us back to the future!" A white flash blinded him before he could say a word. As it faded, Spike made out the message telling him he had escaped the instant dungeon. Wut. "Hello?" Spike turned around to see Starlight Glimmer. His eyes widened as they wandered to her level. Thirty one. "Spike? Do you remember me?" she said. He nodded slowly, still somewhat in shock. "Do you know what's happened?" asked Spike. "We've died and been sent back in time," she said. "Tea?" "Oh I would love some, thank you," ~|~|~|~ "Why are you doing this?" she said. Spike had just finished telling her what had happened, when she posed this question. "Doing what?" he asked slowly. "Leveling up, gaining skills," she said. "Well-" She stopped him, looking him in the eyes as she spoke. "Spike, you've already done something that most ponies would rather die than do. You've killed another being," He began to speak, but shut his mouth. Repeatedly he attempted to form an answer. Starlight watched him patiently. "This sounds dumb saying it aloud, but I-" he stopped. Looking her in the eyes, he spoke. "I've always looked up to you and the girls, cause you're so brave and strong," he said. He spoke slowly, choosing his next words carefully. "I want to be like you," he said. Starlight nodded, a serene smile covering her face. ~|~|~|~ "Spike, I'm home! You wouldn't believe what happened, there was a dragon-" Twilight burst into the library, fully expecting her assistant to be napping or something. She was not expecting him to be laughing over tea with some random pink unicorn. "Hey Twi!" he said cheerfully. Twilight felt a wave of jealousy come over her. Her assistant was happy. Very happy. "Hi Spike! Who's your new friend?" she said in a clipped voice. "This is Starlight Glimmer!" he said. Twilight caught the faintest blush. 'That little she-devil,' she thought. Twilight had seen her type before. This 'Starlight was out to break her assistants heart. She wouldn't have any of that! No sir- "A pleasure to meet you!" said Starlight in a sultry voice. It was totally sultry. She was a seductress, no buts about it! "Nice to meet you too!" Twilight replied with absolutely no hostility whatsoever. Spike got off his seat and opened the door, stepping through. "I'm gonna go do volunteer work, Twi!" he said. As soon as he walked out the door, Twilight was onto Starlight. "So Starlight," Twilight began, circling Starlight like a shark. "Yes?" she responded. "How long will you be staying here?" "Oh, I'm moving! Speaking of which, do you have a guest room?"