//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 - Another day at the office [Edited] 
// Story: A New Adventure 
// by Late2TheGame 
//------------------------------//

“Make today better than yesterday.”

These words were etched into the brain of Blazing Comet, a private procurer of magical artefacts for private collectors; basically, a thief for hire. He was a tall Unicorn stallion with a burgundy coat, a strong build dotted with scars that stand as evidence of his adventures, a wind-swept silver mane that comes down to his withers and tired eyes with golden irises.

“Right, so I took a left at the Bottomless Pit of Doom, walked down the Hall of Eternal Despair, and went up the stairs the Dungeon of Eternal Punishment, ugh why did they name two rooms “the eternal”? That’s just lazy. So that means the main chamber should be… here.”

Blazing Comet looked up excitedly from his map, only to find a brick wall.

“…”

“I’m going to kill Charter for this bullshite map.”

After an embarrassingly long time, Blazing Comet finally arrives at the main chamber. He gazed at the awe-inspiring murals that adorned the walls, the golden detailing etched into the floors and pillars, the near tear bringing-

“Yawn.” He let out a disinterested sigh, this kind of thing was exciting the first dozen times, after a while it gets kind of ‘samey’. He scans the room for the usual traps; pressure plates, wires, over-hanging weaponry. ”Safe.” he thought to himself as he made his way to the pedestal on the centre of the room; atop of which was a stone carving of a earth pony with jade markings, eyes and hooves. After a quick inspection and finding no traps he grabbed ahold of the statue with his golden magic, chuckling to himself “Come to papa.”

And with that, the jade on the statue lit up and sounded some kind of alarm “Shite! Rookie move, Blaze ya eejit.” Blazing Comet scolded himself as he watched the statue fire jade-green lightning from its eyes, he conjured a force-field to protect himself but found that no lightning hit him. He watched as the bolts struck the ground, either side of the statue and summoned two pony sized versions of itself. Blazing Comet dropped his shield and cracked his neck in excitement, it had been too long since he last had some exercise. “Now this is more like it!”

The stone and jade earth ponies attempted to pounce on him and pound him to jam, only for Blaze to narrowly dodge both assailants. “Phew, that was close. You can do it! Don’t give up!” he mocked in false encouragement. The stone ponies resumed their assault on their unwanted house guest. Glancing at the statue that is still glowing, Blaze pulled out his notebook from his bag with his magic and began taking notes. “Doesn’t create more golems, 2 max?” He dodges a jade hoof to the temple, he fires a beam at his attacker, who explodes is a shower of rubble “That’s it?” He was surprised that the golem fell so easily; however his disappointment fell away as the statue glowed once more, summoning a new golem to replace the old one “Okay, that’s much better.” he said while noting this new development in this notebook. Though his thought process was interrupted be a swift jade hoof to the cheek by the second golem that he totally forgot about; the blow knocking him off his hooves and onto his back.

Before his attacker could finish the job he conjured a force field once more. “Okay, I’ll let you have that one. Brought that one on maself” he says stumbling as he stands up. Shaking the potential concussion off, he leans against the side of this force-field and resumes his note taking. “Fragile on durability but replenished by artefact, limits unknown; further testing required. Superior strength and aggressive in nature.” His thought process interrupted my both golems wailing against his magic barrier with their combined might in an unending barrage of attacks. “Highly aggressive in nature.” he corrected in his notes. “Hold on boys, I’ll be with ya in a second. Right, this should suffice for now.” Blaze thought aloud before teleporting from inside his force-field to the pedestal; picking up the statue with his hoof before the golems could react. The statue sparked with magic in his hoof before settling and returning to its lifeless state, the golems crumbling to rubble before him. “Now.” he started, looking down at the statue in his hoof “Lets get ya ta yer new home.”



After a few days of travel and experimentation with the statue, he found himself walking the streets of some rundown town in the middle of nowhere; making his way into the cartographer supply store, he finds the bastard that sold him the map of his last score, Charter Scribe.

Charter was a heavyset pegasus stallion with a brown coat and a short black mane; currently sat behind the counter, reading a book. He looks up, hearing the bell at the front door, and sees Blazing Comet as he enters, he adjusts his glasses and smiles at the familiar face “Ah Mr Comet, back from your grand adventure I see. I trust everything well?”

Blaze looked unimpressed as he spoke “Ya could say that, though I probably would’ve had an easier time with it had the map I bought from you made any sense.” He tried not to sound too mad, Charted wasn’t an explorer and had no idea on how to map tombs, but he spent 4 hours trying to find one room because of that map.

Charter sunk into his chair at the comment, he sighed nervously and prepared himself to give a refund like anyone would request had they got a bad map “I-I understand, please allow me to-“ he found himself cut off with a piece of paper falling onto his desk, it was a rough draft of a new map. 

“Just update yer maps of the area with these notes and corrections and we’re square.” Before Charter could respond, Blazing Comet turned and left the store.

Soon, Blazing Comet stood before a large mansion just outside of town; he found himself unimpressed with the building having seen so many fancy burial grounds and tombs. Cracking his neck he walks up the steps and knocks on the door. After a few moments he is greeted by a nasty looking griffin, he was covered in battle scars and wearing a black suit; private security for his host, he looks Blaze up and down without saying a word. “So, are we gonna kiss? Or ya gonna let me in?” Blaze asked impatiently, earning a scowl from the griffin who tried to slam the door in his face. Using his hoof, he forced the door open and spoke again “Mr Lavish is expecting me. Ask him, the name’s Blazing Comet. If ya don’t believe me go check for yerself.” the griffin guard reluctantly left him in and lead him to what looked like an office room, two other guards fallowed them in before the griffin left to get his employer. Looking at his two new best friends, Blaze saw that one of the guards left in the room was another griffin and the other an earth pony, both just as chatty as the doorman. And looking around the room itself, he saw it was furnished with a mahogany desk, leather chairs and purple wallpaper with textured flower patterns.

After a while, a large earth pony stallion with purple coat and blonde mane and beard entered the room, dabbing his mouth with a handkerchief, most likely coming straight from dinner. He locked eyes with him and moved to shake hooves with Blaze. “Why Mr Comet, ain’t this a nice surprise.” he spoke with a thick southern accent “I wasn’t expecting you for at least another week! I guess it’s true that they say of your talents.” he grinned as bits of his dinner were still present in his beard and in between his teeth. Blaze shook his hoof, suppressing a grimace and and both stallions sat at the desk.

“So, tell me about this item you procured for me.” He sounded like a spoiled child on heartswarming Blaze though to himself, 
removing the stone and Jade statue from his saddle bags, he placed it on the table.

“This Item creates two stone golems the will defend anypony or anything that it’s owner requires them to. It can only create two at a time but can indefinitely create more to replace ones that have been destroyed.” God he hated how well he’s gotten his salesman voice down “On this document is the instructions for activation, changing ownership and all other miscellaneous properties I never mentioned.” He handed the scroll to Lavish who took it greedily in his hooves and began reading.

After a moment, he started chucking giddily while gesturing to his guards “Well don’t just stand here, pay the man!” One of the guards nods and leaves the room. While he does so, Lavish got up to shake hooves with Blaze.

“Pleasure doing business with you Lavish, I’ll take my payment and let you get to trying out your new toy.” 

Lavish separated their hooves, giving him a bemused look “Oh my dear boy, surely you can have a drink before you go.” He said, moving a cabinet on the other side of the room, unlocking it and pulling out a very old bottle of whiskey. “This is a very old and rare bottle that I’ve been saving; 12,000 bits for the 20 ounce bottle, that’s over 900 bits a drink.” He boasted as he removed the lid and poured two healthy glasses, passing one to Blaze who takes it in a magical grip. “And I’m surely a Trotsman like yourself would appreciate the Malt.”

“Well then, I can’t possibly let a grand go to waste now can I?” Blaze joked, downing the drink while Lavish let out a loud belly laugh. He hated ponies like this but he knew how to speak their language.

Leaving the mansion with a large sack of bits, he made his way to his humble cart, big enough for sleep and necessities. He walks it to a nice quiet spot off the main road and goes inside for the evening. He opens a small strongbox that sits on a desk built onto the side and drops the large sack on top of it. Once he did so, the sack seemed to squeeze itself to fit into the box, falling out of site with the box closing itself. 

After doing his nightly routine he climbs into the small bed built into the back of the cart. He looks up to a shelf fixed to the wall just above the foot of the bed, a picture frame the only ornament atop it. On the photo in question was himself as a young colt next to a slightly older filly as they smiled at the camera together. “Don’t look at me like that, Star. No one else was using it, and I need the money.” The picture surprisingly, gave no response. lifting up his hoof, he massaged a particularly large and deep scar on the back of his neck before letting out a long sigh and turning over to face the wall.

“I’m sorry today wasn’t any better then yesterday. Night, Star”