Spike of All Trades

by Ariamaki


Zero Hour: Part 12

Before Spike had launched into the montage proper, a quest window had popped. In the blur that followed he hadn't bothered to read that message, since his focus was better-spent elsewhere. Even if focus was a shaky term in this context: By definition, a montage constructed a whole by selecting individual pieces from a greater structure. In practice? A montage really worked its magic when the subjects were taking enough diverse yet repetitive actions that skipping the nitty-gritty made sense.

To make a long story short, in order to get the montage rolling he had been forced to start splitting his attention across as many individual goals as possible. That definitely contributed to the nasty backlash he was now facing in the aftermath: While he'd suffered it before with Pinkie and Twilight, now he was going through it alone. The Dogs involved had only seen... Well, Spike wasn't actually sure what they had seen. Did he begin moving with unusual speed? Were his actions just oddly effective and quick to complete?

Whatever they saw at the time, what they saw currently was Spike sitting in a corner of the throne room feeling badly blown out. As bad and as blown out as he was capable of being since becoming The Gamer. Thanks to the Mind and Body he wasn't that dazed or particularly sick... But that was by the mercy of his power. If anypony else had solo’d a forcibly-initiated twelve hour montage? They would have come out the other side far worse for wear.

Of course the Gamer's Body had more perks than just concrete 'mechanical' ones: It had cosmetic benefits as well. Despite hauling his tiny tuchus from one end of the temporary warrens to the other over and over again, he hadn't broken a sweat or even lost pace with his breathing. Even now was just Spike putting on a show of exhaustion, since he spent most of the montage running Exposure to keep himself topped off. Rather than running dry on resources, it was mostly an issue of pain and sickness.

It had been one heck of a trip: Whistling while he worked (quite literally) Spike had accomplished enough to outweigh any of the Dogs working beside him. Eventually they had given up on doing their own work alone and focused on assisting him. That made him even faster, and while they hadn't Accompanied him in the musical sense? Something about the nature of the Montage Song (now sitting proudly at a freshly-updated Version Four) still brought the helpers along for part of the ride.

Somewhere in the middle the Diamond Dog council members had all left to go about their own business, one or two checking in periodically. Rudy had also made a few brief appearances, while Piercing Ammunition had stayed for most of the day before flying back out to Ponyville to give a report to Luna directly.

At some point in the future they would reconvene and meet back up, exchange notes again and get back to doing things formally. In the interim, Spike finally got to investigate that long-abandoned quest window... and the plethora of other popups from his montage.


SIDE QUEST: Returning Rudy's Rightful Realm!

Having discovered the reason for the Diamond Dog's encroachment from their original Warrens, you chose to help them push back to their home. While a noble goal, this does bring you more risk... Which of course means more reward.

Ongoing Objective: Return periodically to provide aid in clearing the strange infestations of hostile insectile creatures.

Optional Objective: Provide other relevant assistance to the Diamond Dogs.

Completion Objective: Conclusively stop each infestation at its source/s as applicable.

Failure Condition: Allow any pony or Diamond Dog to be significantly injured under your watch, fail to return, allow the invasive species to encroach into Ponyville proper.

Ongoing Reward: Increased reputation with King Rudy's splinter clan, Increased reputation with the Ammo family. All progress towards Masteries, Quests and Subquests earned in the contested territory will be multiplied.

Optional Reward: A variable amount of experience, Skill progression, Attribute experience, and material goods in return for each major service rendered.

Completion Reward: ???, ???, Expansions to certain systems or techniques as appropriate.


This new quest replaced the previous one: Spike got partial rewards for the original sidequest not long after he started the montage. He might have ignored that just as easily as the new quest window... If he hadn't gained a full level of experience in the process. Twenty thousand XP and two hundred Bits, plus reputation bonuses. He still didn't know how to get to the Reputation menu, if he even had one, so he just had to take the system's word on that part.

As for progress on this quest? His montage-driven efforts had produced quite a lot of 'relevant assistance' to the Diamond Dogs. A rebuilt and restructured core for their tunnel system, fire-hardened fortifications on the outer edges, significantly sharpened and (mock) battle-tested weapons. Not to mention stocks of food that would keep well for weeks, much heartier but more perishable meals which he had served on the spot, and a variety of miscellaneous other perks.

The capstone of his work had been a solid two hours using Dragon's Eye and Observe together, along with Indra's Net and Behind the Curtain. That yielded a comprehensive overview of all the Dogs he had met, each piece of equipment, and every nook and cranny of their territory. Six clean scrolls of paper were then turned into a Twilight-level List (capital L for emphasis) of strengths and weaknesses, vulnerabilities and the area’s unexploited potential.

Spike managed all of that without giving away the source or the nature of his powers: He cooked in private using materials found in the caverns more often than not. When the time came to produce things like the scroll paper, he had an excuse prepared: Using Piercing's saddle-bags as a pretense (back when he was still present), Spike 'retrieved' the pouches from the other day and wore them at his hip. Each one had been stuffed with items from his Inventory while still inside his Inventory.

As far as any of the Dogs could tell? Nothing strange with him retrieving his items from the bags.

Maybe he was being a little paranoid, but at the end of the day? Better safe than sorry in this kind of tense situation. In the end he accomplished all of his goals in terms of helping the Dogs with their living situation and defenses, and King Rudy was reading over the lists with visibly rapt interest.

"You seem to have a very good eye for quality, young one."

"I do my best! It helps that I was raised by a real stickler for detail."

The king rolled up the last of the lists and tucked it into a simple stone tube (which Spike had also provided) for safe-keeping. He seemed pleased with the results, and nodded to his new hire.

"I can see as much. In light of your contributions already, and considering the value of this report... My council and I find your terms acceptable. We will withhold payment and direct compensation in lieu of giving you possession of anything you find during the extermination efforts. Likewise, when we evacuate these tunnels to return to our original home? I will personally vouch for the value added by your hands if you choose to seek the deed for this quarry from its proper owner."

That would be much easier said than done, given that Spike was pretty sure this land belonged to Filthy Rich... Then again maybe the Crusaders could help give him an angle? Their former bully and nemesis had become a fast friend (slash object of affection), and Diamond Tiara had her dad willing to do just about anything these days, from what he’d heard... Worth thinking about, at least.

The plan for his payments had come up somewhere during the fourth hour of the montage, as he served the council a personally-made meal. There were a few dishes of buff food mixed in with recipes recommended by the King's chef, of course. He hadn't made any new Dragon's Kitchen food, instead sticking to items that he knew worked and gave subtle benefits. Even without buffs the quality and flavor had been enough to get everydoggy talking merrily, which led to negotiations.

Spike wanted to put all this effort into helping the Dogs now, especially if it could get them back to their rightful homes. He'd help them renovate once they got back if need be (especially if the insects had left behind any carnage and chaos of their own), but as for these originally-temporary tunnels? Well, he had his own plan for all of that. He couldn't keep operating out of the Library indefinitely, and not everydragon was so lucky as to live in the shadow of an unoccupied mountain.

He figured this was the best way to make his quests work out: Help others as much as possible, and find a way to get his own benefits without taking much away. Transactions didn't have to be zero-sum, value would be created on both sides if managed correctly. And since his engine and system were willing to provide direct stat boosts for hard work? Spike got to skim more benefits without anybody else losing out.

Speaking of those, Spike pulled up his character sheet and took a look at the fruits of his labor.


Name: Spike
Class: The Gamer
Title: Number One Assistant

Level: Lv 15
HP: 2,315 / 2,315
MP: 3,721 / 3,739

STR: 32 (89) (-) (+)
DEX: 33 (91) (-) (+)
VIT: 33 (88) (-) (+)
INT: 31 (86) (-) (+)
WIS: 31 (86) (-) (+)
LUK: 30 (85) (-) (+)

POINTS: 84 (Confirm?)


Still lopsided, but vastly improved: The Arcade's excess of Luck sources with lacking Strength and Vitality avenues made for a perfect pair with the hard job of renovating these tunnels: Very little in the way of luck and chance, but a lot of physical work and laborious effort. His stats were still a bit catty-cornered and off center, but that's what spending points was for! Would be for, once he ran out the remaining 28-ish hours of his buff doubling.

In the interim he would ideally head out and start dealing with all the nearest insect infestations around the temporary warren. Before he could get up and get out of the throne room to start doing the real work, one of the council members raised a paw.

"Excuse, mercenary. I don't doubt your skill in building and cooking. But a fight is different!"

He held back on snark, reminding himself these Dogs weren't Twilight. His reply was still sharp:
"I held up fine against two of your people and a guard at the same time. Not enough?"

"No! Far from enough! We have to test first, or you might bring wrathful monsters back to us!"

Hrm. Looking at it from that perspective it made sense. This first sortie might actually be the most dangerous for the Diamond Dogs' stability. If it went smoothly then the colonies and hives further afield wouldn't have much knowledge of what happened out here. If it went poorly... Well, it could draw retaliation down in such severe numbers that the Dogs would have to run again. And given they were almost out of land between here and Ponyville, the consequences of that would be rough.

"...OK. What'll it take to convince you?"

The councilor looked over to his King silently, and only turned back when his liege nodded.
"Back in the warrens, I trained fighters. Before we were separated, some came with us."

Separated. That confirmed some information Spike had guessed during his Observe binge: These weren't all of the Diamond Dogs in this group. Some had fled in other directions, maybe hoping to ensure their clan's survival in case they couldn't all escape. It made sense when matched with the sidequest calling this a 'splinter' clan, although that appellation might have deeper roots...

"Fight three of my boys, instead of just three random Dogs! That will prove it to me."

Spike looked at him and thought for a moment. Piercing was probably still too far away to try and get him into communication range, and even if he was it would require full-volume voice chat. No point sending a letter to Luna for something so minor either... He decided to make a gamble.

"How about if I fight you instead? One on one."

Pale gray ears shot up at that before folding back down. The councilor seemed to look at Spike with a different set of eyes entirely, until his muzzle settled into a wide (and extremely toothy) grin.
"Daring dragon. Yess, please do. Have had few chances to stretch my paws."

He stepped forward, stretching and rolling his shoulders. Spike looked over his head again.

[Dog Fight Trainer]
Bruxis
LV 33