//------------------------------// // 5 - A Glimmering Encounter // Story: The Royal Gamer // by SleepyBear //------------------------------// Blueblood P.O.V I woke up inside the castle's medical ward, the last thing I remembered was that the shop vendor almost killed me, but in the end, I managed to get what I was looking for at least, an amulet that would give me the power to survive. Rolling out of bed and leaving the room, I headed to my Auntie Luna’s room; I had a lot of questions, who was that guy? Was he still alive? And most important of all, why did he want to kill me? Questions that only Luna would be able to answer. As I approached my aunt's room, I began to think that the way I've been acting has to change, I've been operating under the assumption that this world is safe, when since day one I've been in danger of death almost constantly, hell someone poisoned the original Blueblood. After passing several of the night guards, I reached Luna’s room. I knocked on the door, I hear someone rushing to the door knocking things over, the door opens showing my auntie, and she jumps straight at me. “Dear nephew, thou art finally awake,” Luna says with a warm smile, hugging me. “And I’m glad to be up and about auntie finally to finally be up and about auntie, but I do have a question about what happened yesterday,” I ask being straight to the point, “What happened yesterday was a mistake, one that will not happen again,” Luna said with a cold and sharp tone looking off to the side, “we won't let anyone hurt thee again,” “But I'd love to know~ “I tried to ask, but Luna interrupts me, “That is all thou needs to know,” Luna says with a sweet tone, with an undertone of an ultimatum, “if you'll excuse us, we have our royal duties to attend to,” and with that Luna walked back into her room leaving me in the hallway. 'Well so much for answers,' I thought, while touching the amulet under my shirt, 'At least I got one of the things I wanted to begin with,' The next day, I decided to go to the library to learn a few new spells, and try to get answers about what happened yesterday, maybe the restricted area of the library would have the answers I was looking for, though before leaving the castle, I decided to take a quick peek at my stats again, 'The amulet sure is powerful' , I thought, leaving the castle, going to the library to get more spells, in case some crazy event pulled me inside a dungeon. I made the day at the library as productive as possible, I acquire a lot of defensive and offensive spells, and everything was fine until I tried to go to the library's restricted area; apparently, someone (Luna) had the restricted magic section sealed off, and only a few had the key’s, and even less knew any spell’s strong enough to break-in. “Come on, let me in,” I said giving the librarian the best puppy dog eyes I could possibly make, “Princess Luna quarantined the area; no one has access, only the princesses,” replied the librarian for the 5th time. “Well it was worth trying, thank you anyway though.” I smiled and left the library with more questions than I had when I arrived, what was Luna hiding, and why Celestia supported her. 'Now what am I supposed to do? ' I wondered while sitting on the stairs leading to the library, 'Luna won't tell me anything, and Celestia loves to put unnecessary challenges in place for an obvious, predictable and straightforward development, ' "Hey Blueblood, good to see you," When I heard my name I turn around to see who calls me, it's Shining Armor, in casual dress. He looks weird without his uniform, “I didn't know you liked to read, every day you surprise me more and more, although now it's for the better.” Shining Armor said in laughter. “You're not even trying to hide that you didn't like me before, huh?” I said looking at him with a false expression of sadness, “We both know it wasn’t a secret,” he said, coming up to me, giving a playful blow to the shoulder, “but I'm glad you pulled your head out of your ass,” he said laughing. “Very funny, I wonder what Cadence would say if she knew Twilight doesn't know about you two,” I said with a sinister smile, Shining stopped laughing and looked at me with wide eyes, “Please don't tell Twily... wait a minute, how did you find out?, no one knows other than Princess Celestia,” Shining said, looking at me suspiciously. “You always take the turn to 'Guard her door', you have to have a negative IQ not to realize you're not guarding the door at all, especially when you're inside all night, doing 'exercise' I'm surprised no one else has found out,” I said as I looked at Shining, After absorbing my explanation, Shining responds, “In my defence, I make sure no one enters Cadence's room.” “It's not really my problem, enjoy the love she gives you, many would kill for that gift,” I said patting his shoulder. +1750 REP WITH SHINING “I love the new you,” he said with a smirk on his face, “Anyway I have to go, I have some things to buy, and uhhh well thanks, you know, for keeping my secret.” “Don't worry,” I waved goodbye at him, 'That's a lot of reputation for a single interaction,' The southern city gate leads out to Ponyville, the town It's protected by mountains and high hills, but there must be something else there, Celestia wants Twilight to ascend, and if this world is as dangerous as I think it is. Then Twilight must have someone or something else protecting her, but who or what?— She might be a prodigy in magic, and smart, but she's hardly a fighter, 'Ponyville sounds like an excellent place to find some answers,' I thought, 'But that's for tomorrow, I'm going to enjoy myself a bit today," The Canterlot Tavern, home away from home for the guards, the place is small but quite cosy and has a wide selection of liquors, an Ex-Guard by the name of Burnt Oak is the one that owns the place, and is a pretty friendly guy, that everyone seems to respect. I take a seat at the bar across from the old man, giving him a slight nod, he sets aside the mug he was polishing off and flicking his towel over his shoulder, giving me a warm smile. "Blueblood," he says, voice deep and powerful, "What can I get for ya t’day?" "Surprise me, old man," I say, to which he answered with a short rough laugh, I see the off duty guards sitting all around the bar, drinking, some dancing, others playing pool. Among the customers, I can't help but notice a particularly strange-looking girl — her hair was purple and blue, she sat alone at table in the corner of the room and I couldn’t help but feel I had seen her before, a second look gives me the confirmation I need, she was Starlight Glimmer. 'This is not good for the timeline I know,' I thought, trying to figure the best way to resolve this, should I ignore her, should introduce myself?. 'Fuck it, maybe if I befriend her, she won't turn evil,' Approaching from her front, I wave; Starlight purple eyes sparkle with an emotion I can't read, she stands up a bit straighter and puts a fake facade of happiness. "A pleasure to meet you, Prince Blueblood," Starlight says extending her hand. 'So she's already bad, that empty smile and her demeanour are...scary,' I thought, "The pleasure is mine, miss?" "Starlight Glimmer, your majesty." Starlight says bowing a bit, "Beautiful name, Miss Glimmer," I said, giving her a warm smile, "How about you tell me a bit about yourself?" "You wanna hear about me, huh?" Starlight smiles, showing no emotion behind said smile. "Oh boy, where do I start?" "How about you start from the beginning?" I said sitting down at the table she was currently in, "Well first off, I'm from a very small town in the mountains. Secondly, I'm researching cutie marks, and everything about them" Starlight says taking out a book of her bag, "For what reason are you researching cutie marks of all things?" I ask, trying to see what lie she would come up with, Starlight uncomfortably shifts against the chair, averting my gaze in thought, it's almost certain she'll go into a long-winded speech about equality and how cutie marks make us suffer. "I... er, I just want to find a way to make everyone happy, " Starlight answers with a faint smile and pauses to think for a bit. "I just want to make people feel happy and safe." And for the first time since I saw her in the bar, I see real emotions, even if it was just for a bit — "That's a respectable goal," I said, "But sometimes our goals blind us, and we end up doing the complete opposite of what we wanted to do in the first place," "Aw shucks, thank you, I'll keep that in mind." Starlight said, again returning to her fake persona. "It's a pleasure," I said, pulling a card of my wallet, "If you ever want to talk, I'll be happy to listen, sometimes it helps." I stood at the table, while Starlight looked at my card with my address, the card would give her permission to visit me. Starlight said nothing, too lost in her own thoughts. 'I've never seen someone so broken inside, this can’t be the result of one friend abandoning her,' I thought as I left the bar, ' She endured something else, something that can break the strongest spirits,' After a long day, mostly full of failures, I returned to my room in the castle, with no answers and no idea how to move forward, I entered my room and threw myself into bed exhausted, the amulet was powerful sure, but during the day I realized something I knew from the moment I got the amulet, the amulet hasn't changed anything, I'm still weak, yes I have more mana, but what's the point. 'Well what did you expect man, no pain no gain, that's true in every reality' I thought laughing to myself. Forced Event Nightmare Moon Dungeon - Event! Entering Dungeon! Before I could react, I found myself in the dungeon where I almost died, just as scary and dreary as before; I laughed to myself about the fact that this time the pop up said forced event as if last time gave me a choice. 'This is just cute,' I thought, dripping with sarcasm, 'At least I have offensive spells this time, I guess...' I started to make my way into the dungeon, the more I walked and explored, the more it confirms that I wasn't summoned to the same place as last time, even though it looked identical, the corridors and rooms were different, perhaps this was another level of the same Dungeon. After walking through that dreadful place for a few minutes, I found a corridor that had a door leading to a mysterious place; the door was covered with flowers and vines. I opened the door slowly and carefully, after all, I didn't know if it was a trap or if a monster was waiting for me on the other side, taking a peek through the door, what I saw on the other side, would bring me nightmares for the rest of my bloody life. Information: Not much is known about them, but it’s commonly known they are immune to almost every type of magic, Weakness: Light magic has some effect on them, but the best way to deal with these creatures is with holy magic which has been lost for 5000 years. As soon as I opened the door, I closed it, that was the most horrible thing I've ever seen in my life, “OHHH Hell no!” I said, pushing against the door, just in case, 'I can't un-see that...' I took a couple of minutes to calm down while wondering why the gamer mind wasn't working; maybe I didn't get exactly what I asked for, Gods are famous for fucking up your requests. 'Ok Blue, you can do it! Just go out there and kill that mistake,'I thought trying to give me courage, “I'm doing a lot of people a favour, I feel sorry for those who dream of those things.” Opening the door again the monsters were still there, moving slowly in a big vast forest. 'Well here goes nothing' I thought while slowly approaching them. As soon as I set foot in the grass the monsters turned around to see me or to be precise to hear me since as soon as they turned in my direction I could see that they had no eyes, just moving their necks in my general direction as if they had no bones in their necks, I could feel the little courage I had formed, quickly fading away. 'Yep... I will have vivid nightmares with this scene for the rest of my life,' I thought, approaching them, not backing down. ’Well here goes nothing’ The monsters seemed to react to the sound of my movements, that or they were using some kind of echolocation system to detect me, the closer I started to hear strange and chilling sounds. 'So if magic is useless against them, then ill have to get creative.' I thought, The creatures began to move in my direction salivating, as if I was the most delicious delicacy in the entire universe, I could count a total of ten nightmares approaching me, fear started to build up inside of me, but I couldn't back down, I need to get stronger, I can't always relly on Luna or Celestia to bail me out. When one of the creatures was just a few meters away from me, the monster took a leap towards me, with its mouth open in a way I didn't think it was possible, everything around me was put in slow motion, death was certain if I didn't dodge that attack, with just a glance I could notice that the creature was trying to swallow me whole with a single bite, I activated one of my spells Light Impact, which gave me the speed I needed to dodge the attack. STR HAS BEEN TEMPORARILY INCREASED FROM 20 TO 400 DEX HAS BEEN TEMPORARILY INCREASED FROM 20 TO 400 I could only maintain this spell active for two minutes, so I had to act fast, I tried to get close to the monster to attack him, but my new found speed was a problem, I moved so fast that I ended up crashing into a tree, one of the monsters took the opportunity and went for the kill, I jumped slightly into the air to dodge it, once I was on the ground, I took another chance on attacking this time controlling my speed a little bit better, with a fast and swift move, I got closer to the monster that just recently tried to attack me, and I hit the creature in the abdomen, the impact It sounded like a thunder. HP: 45/4000 ▼(-3955) 'I almost kill it with a single hit,' I thought surprised, the damage I inflicted on the creature impressed me, I did not expect to deal such damage, but soon I learned that I should not lose my attention in a fight, the monster that I had attacked, retaliated with a punch, throwing me deeper into the forest. HP:1600/2400 ▼(-800) MP:28000/32000▼(-4000) Getting up from the floor and cleaning the debris of my clothes, I decided not to make the same mistake again I had to keep my head in the fight, if the recent damage I dealt was anything to go by I could kill them with one or two blows, the time I had was more than enough to deal with them, if I played my cards well, I would have some mana left to rest, I got into position to attack the creatures again, with no hesitation, but something unexpected happened, my head started to hurt a lot, and I felt different. The Amulet has started corruption Gamer Mind has nullified the effect The Amulet has started corruption Gamer Mind has nullified the effect The Amulet has started corruption Gamer Mind has nullified the effect The Amulet has started corruption Gamer Mind has nullified the effect The Amulet has started corruption Gamer Mind has failed to nullified the effect. The Amulet has started corruption succesfully 'What it's going on' I thought in pain, as everything started to turn red.