Their adventure through the various chunks of Bermite territory started small but quickly got weird.
- - - -
After The Second Chunk...
Pinkie Pie had switched from humming along to her old song and went straight into belting it out: The bermites didn't seem terribly sensitive to noise one way or the other, and after she was through with them it really didn't matter. Spike had thought he was an efficient fighter himself, but watching Pinkie do the work of exterminating bugs was like a revelation. While she was always pronking and leaping about like usual, none of it was wasted motion: Never a sweep when a jab would suffice, not a single aimless hoofsie kick that didn't block a thrashing mandible.
It helped them both that the current swarm of creatures was actually pretty anemic. Not in terms of their lymphocytes or anything literal, they were just weirdly weak. Stronger than the ones in the previous chamber but still. He'd fought tougher specimens of the species back on his very first visit! And that judgement was factoring in the stat differences and his weeks of training with Lyra. Maybe it was just the benefit of a co-op partner? His life may be 'like' a game, but it wasn't as if the enemy here could scale up because he had a teammate for a change.
- - - -
After The Fifth Chunk...
Pinkie took a break in her singing and leisurely backhoofed a Bermite guard that was trying to take a bite out of her. The bug went spinning away through the air before taking a bad landing onto the nearest wall... close to the ceiling. She turned towards him and tapped his shoulder: The fights had been getting harder, but not hard enough for either of them to be taking it remotely seriously.
"Hey Spike?"
He couldn't help but smile at her nonchalance, especially because she didn't so much as flinch when he quickly turned his head to spit a gout of flame at an encroaching insect.
"Yeah Pinkie?"
"I just wanted to say that fighting with you is super-duper fun!"
Both of them paused and took a moment to parse the phrasing.
"Wait no that sounds wrong. Alongside you? With you against them. Whatever!"
"I got ya Pinkie: Same thing back at you. This is really... refreshing."
He only caught a glimpse of her ear-to-ear smile before she suddenly shivered and then whipped her head to the side, perfectly parrying a set of grasping jaws with her mane.
"Sorry, just wanted to say that. Back to work!"
- - - -
After The Fifteenth Chunk...
Spike gasped for air and took a moment to drop a snide comment before continuing the Heartsong.
"Fighting with you, still fun. Fighting these things... increasingly less."
Things had been getting harder as they pushed through the chambers, which was honestly both a bit positive (the experience payouts were definitely better, and he'd even started getting small stray bits of loot here and there) and a bit strange. Normally you'd expect something like an egg chamber to be well guarded on the outermost layer, to avoid even slight losses. Then there would be patrols on the inside to push back; just in case the outer guards were slipped-past or defeated.
In contrast to that common wisdom, this had been an almost linear rise in difficulty from one room to the next, alternating across both sides of the complex to sweep it clean. And rather than the egg-laying chambers they had expected to find, this was nothing but guards and workers, not a single matron or grub or egg in sight.
It had gotten to the point where even Pinkie's dual fuel of 'hatred for these creatures' and 'being Pinkie Pie' was starting to run a little thin.
"Wanna take a breather after this one and then sweep the rest in one big push?"
"Might not be a bad idea: I'll see about dropping some persistent fire on the entrance to give us peace and quiet."
"What a gentledrake!"
"...I don't think this is the weirdest first date Ponyville has ever seen, to be honest."
They shared a laugh and got back into the thick of it, uplifted by both commentary and company.
- - - -
After The Twentieth Chunk...
Pinkie Pie had taken to bringing out some of her more unique tactics over the last few rooms: While her normal Party Cannon was far too important to disgrace with this kind of work? It turned out she had lots of smaller prototypes that were apparently A-OK for bug busting. Hoof-held party poppers loaded up with stones launched bursts of shrapnel mixed with confetti and stray propellant, while the half-size model she pulled out of her mane 'only' unleashed a blast of pure air pressure... Which is not to say it didn't kill the Bermite! It was just a lot stranger to see a mangled bug floating back on the breeze than it was to see the other parts of its hive getting shotgunned.
They were fighting their way into the eleventh chamber on Pinkie's 'half' of the tunnel, the twenty-first in total, when she started putting the smaller 'hoof cannons' to more frequent use. They both got a fun surprise when some of the rocks she loaded up included a patch of flint, leading to dozens of little sparks that sent the nearby Bermites scattering.
While the insects got stuck on gluey traps and tripped up in weirdly-sturdy confetti, Pinkie and Spike both paused to appreciate the bursts of light in the otherwise-dim chamber.
"Oh! Oh my gosh, that totally reminds me. Wanna hear a fun and relevant story?"
"We've got nothing but time: Hit me, Pinks."
She bopped him on the shoulder out of reflex before telling her tale.
"So like, I said my sisters were really scary when we got together to deal with this kinda thing right? But my Dad was always super serious about it! He'd stomp his way into a nest or whatever and pull out this big ol' book and read a passage to the bugs before we got started. They couldn't understand him of course, but I guess he just felt like the ceremony helped make it better? I can get behind that cuz I kinda do the same thing for a lot of my parties but hoo boy he got dramatic! He'd put on this booming deep voice and say something like, gosh lemme think of a good one..."
Pinkie Pie trotted in a circle a few times while mulling it over, until eventually she sprung back up with an idea in mind. Spike watched with bemusement as she quickly molded her mane into a set of sideburns and a hat then switched her cheerful tone to a gravelly deep-toned voice. She kept one hoof curled to her chest as if holding an imaginary book as she made a dire proclamation in (what he assumed) was a pretty good imitation of her father, repeatedly stomping her hoof for emphasis.
"Tis' better if you would set yourselves on fire, for there is cleansing in the flame!"
...and then the entire room caught on fire.
Pinkie's stomping had come together with the loose bits of flint to raise a few more sparks as she finished speaking. That then combined with the assorted streamers, confetti, and spray string littered around the cavern. Throw in the foggy vapors of party cannon propellant... The result was an enormous wave of fire that left even the dragon in the room impressed, as well as a total wipeout of the remaining Bermites.
The explosion caught them both completely off-guard. Spike turned to Pinkie Pie, and Pinkie Pie turned to Spike. They quickly reached out to wipe some soot off of each others' cheeks, before falling back and rolling on the floor laughing. The endless field of enemies had been frustrating both of them, so the perfect mix of comedic timing and a little help clearing the space? That was very much appreciated... Doubly so when Spike finally got back up.
A skill has been created through a special action! By witnessing and comprehending how even jokes have power when made by a master, the skill [X-Factor] has been created!
Your newly-created skill is held in abeyance due to lacking an appropriate [Combat Discipline]
The skill may be used at reduced effectiveness, increased cost, and increased risk of counters.
You glimpsed something...
Cantus has gained a level!
Cantus has gained a level!
Cantus has gained a level!