A Chaotic Production presents...
The Beginning Arc(a pre-arc)
Chapter 2
~ Edit by ugugg93
Theme Song: "Crossing Field" Sword Art Online (AmaLee)
Rainbow Dash was comfortable with fluttering in the air, but the others were just leaning over the terrace’s rails the five hogging all the tourist binoculars. As she looked into her set of binoculars, Twilight’s jaw dropped as she looked at the sight before her. The city she spawned in was, in laymare’s terms, beautiful. Structures of brilliant, polished marble with golden rooftops lined the cobblestone roads that paved the city’s grid. She noted that some of the stones that made up the road were made of silver or some other silver-like material. Twilight had spawned in an area near the edge of the city, but as she was led up to a tower’s observation deck by her friends, Twilight noticed the buildings got taller as they went towards the city’s center and that some of the roads were getting steeper. She’d imagine that if she were looking at the city from a top-down view, the place might look like some sort of golden hill. Also, as they were walking, she figured out why clouds were randomly smacking into the side of Rainbow’s head on the way there: they were on some sort of a gigantic floating sky city. Beyond the edge, towards the horizon, was nothing but the blue expansive seas of heaven and the white puffballs of clouds. Even further down, Twilight could barely make out the green landscape rolling below the skycity, meaning this island wasn’t in some sort of void, nor was it stationary. The island was low and slow enough that Twilight could vaguely tell what kind of trees the sky city were passing over.
As Twilight looked out, she recognized a very familiar tall mountain and the city hanging off its side. “Hey look, girls. It’s Canterlot!” Twilight said.
The others looked at where Twilight was pointing at and watched the sight nearing closer. As they passed it, within about two-thirds of a mile away, Applejack let out a short whistle. “Wowiee! Canterlot looks pretty small compared to this city!”
It took Twilight several seconds to process the information. Canterlot wasn’t the largest city in Equestria, but it was still pretty big to her. Yet by comparison, Canterlot appeared to may be about one-fourth of the sky city’s size! Slightly overwhelmed by the new information, Twilight looked for a distraction and saw what appears to be a coliseum or theatre of some kind towards her left. Her heart nearly leapt out of her chest when she saw a pair of twin dragons flying near the city.
The dragons were, as far as she could tell at this distance, identical in appearance. Their bodies were much slimmer and more serpentine than most dragons in Equestria, with their wings much larger than most she’s read about as well. With emerald scales gleaming like the gems and graceful long manes lining the back of their long neck, the two flew beyond the ground of the floating city. Harnesses around their necks were attached to chains which tethered them to the actual island itself. Twilight couldn’t be entirely sure at this distance, but it appeared that the dragons were most likely what was pulling the entire island. Living in Canterlot her entire life, Twilight picked up a thing or two about quality architecture and what was supposed to be “aesthetically pleasing,” but she would be a fool if she thought this wouldn’t give Equestria’s own capital a run for its money.
“You alright there, sugarcube?” Applejack’s voice broke Twilight out of her reverie. “Your mouth’s as wide as the sky itself.”
“Y-yeah.” Twilight stammered, still staring through the binoculars. “I’m just a little surprised. I mean, I’ve been to Cloudsdale, but a floating land of this size is just mind blowing to me! And then there are those dragons that looks like they can swallow Tom.”
“I thought we weren’t going to speak of him again.”
“Sorry!” Twilight guiltily smiled towards Rarity. She turned back to Applejack. “So, where are we anyway?”
“This here city is called Aeroslida,” Applejack said, “It’s one of the fanciest, shmaniest places in all of Equestrian Earth.”
Twilight took her eyes away from the binoculars. “Equestrian Earth?”
Applejack nodded. “That’s what the makers of the game called this world. I hear it’s based on the days of Equestria dating back around five hundred years, give or take.”
“It’s simply fascinating dear!” Rarity let out a deep sigh and closed her eyes as she leaned on Pinkie, who didn’t seem to mind holding her. “You’ve should have seen Heaven’s Citadel. It is purely divine and majestic! And the prince who lives there, oh, he is so handsome and such a hunk of a stallion!” Rarity opened her eyes and saw her friends regarding her with raised eyebrows. She lightly coughed into the back of her hoof. “For an NPC anyway.”
Twilight giggled. “Obviously the city has you romanced.”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Ya think?”
Twilight looked towards Applejack. “Hold on for a minute though. If this is supposed to be modeled after an older time of Equestria – like you said – how come I never heard of Aeroslida? I’m pretty sure I would have come across it in my history books.”
“It’s a video game, Twilight,” Rainbow replied. “Places like this one are all just stuff the game makers have made up. It may not be real, but I think it’s totally awesome, and that’s all that matters to me.”
Twilight rubbed her chin in thought. “I see… well I guess that’s alright, but I can’t exactly call this game one hundred percent accurate Equestrian history, but I’ll trust Rainbow’s assessment. Let’s get started right anyway, shall we? I assume this game has some sort of leveling system?”
“Of course there is,” Applejack said.
Pinkie Pie bounced up and down with readiness in her wide smile. “Oh! Oh! Oh! Can I answer that, AJ?”
Applejack tipped her hat to Pinkie. “If you think you’re up to it, then sure. Take it away, Pinkie Pie!”
With a grin, Pinkie Pie dug her hooves into a pink satchel she had been carrying on her back and pulled out a graduation cap and a stick pointer. She then leaned across the rails and stuck her hooves into a random passing cloud, dragging out a large blackboard easel from its fluffy depths.
Using the chalk she got from inside her tail, Pinkie Pie drew a couple of crude drawings of creatures with horns as well as ponies on the board. They resembled the doodles that foals would draw—if that skilled. “Okie doki! So, there are two Level Up systems that both contribute to your overall Main Level. There is the standard leveling system call the Main EXP System. You simply gather experience by completing any quests the NPCs give you as well as defeating monsters and the EXP goes straight into your EXP bar.” Pinkie then drew a hammer, anvil, a sewing needle and spool. “And then there is the second system called the Life Skills System. This is different from the Main EXP system as you work on your Profession Skills, which affect how well you perform your virtual career in this game. But since it’s really easy to put a lot of effort into the profession, it improves your Main Level only by little, but it improves your Life Skill levels normally.
“Each Life Skill level is individual. For example, the Level of your Cooking Skill can only be improved by performing deeds related to food like ingredients gathering or cooking. There also Life Subskills, like the ingredients gathering thing I’ve mentioned earlier. That’s called Harvesting. There are Life Subskills for almost every Life Skill. An example of this would be Mining, which can be raised by gathering earthly materials used for making weapons and armor, and developing that Subskill also increases Blacksmithing, albeit slowly.” She softly kicked a leg of the chalkboard and it folded into a square box. She stuffed the cap and pointer into her bag, placed the chalk back into her tail, and threw the chalkboard off the side of the railing. “Any questions?”
Save for Rarity and Applejack, all of their jaws hung open wide, completely shocked at the party mare’s short but surprisingly elaborate, educational lecture.
“Wow Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow Dash chuckled, breaking the group silence. She elbow-nudged Pinkie. “I didn’t know you were such an egghead about this.”
Pinkie Pie shrugged a little, grinning. “Actually I got all that from the game’s manual, but I did a little research around the internet before the game was released.”
Rainbow laughed, clenching her stomach in mid-flutter. “The manual? Nopony ever reads the manuals of any video game, ever!”
“Hey, Ah read the manual too, Dash,” Applejack cut in. “What’s wrong with that?”
“Manuals are a waste of paper. Everything can be figured out by just playing the game.”
“But the manuals can provide useful tips.”
“Tips? More like spoilers to me.”
While the two had a friendly debate about the efficiency of manuals, Twilight once more had her eyes on the city’s rooftops through the binoculars. As she surveyed the area, she noticed a player dressed in a yellow cloak standing on top of one of the rooftops, looking towards their tower. Or rather, looking directly at her. Then the player started waving at her. With no other clear options, Twilight started waving back. Before she could mull it over, she was poked from behind. Twilight turned around to see Applejack gesturing towards the city gates while the others were going down the stairs.
“We’re ‘bout to head out on a grinding session. Rainbow Dash said she has a pretty good place in mind. Wanna come with?”
Twilight looked back at the rooftops and saw the player was gone. Scratching her head, she said, “Sure, why not?” She trotted with Applejack, catching up with the others. “So where are we going?”
“Oh yeah. Right. I forgot to tell you guys about that,” Rainbow said.
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Sherpwood was a densely forested region one pegasi-powered chariot flight down from Aeroslida. All around the rim, there were no signs of any entryways into the forest for players, except for the thirty meter tall arch formed by the trees. The large trunks of thickly packed trees formed an impenetrable barrier to the world outside of it. When Twilight stepped in, she expected the thick canopy above would block out the sun and the undergrowth would leave barely any room to move. Instead, there were plenty open pockets in the canopy for sunlight to pour through and the trees inside weren’t so tightly clustered with each other. The sunlight didn’t matter anyway, because all around in Sherpwood there were yellow sunflowers that glowed bright enough to light up the area as though there were no trees overhead at all. Other than that, it looked like a pretty normal forest.
That is, until Rainbow led them deeper inside.
With every step further into the forest, Twilight noticed the sunflowers becoming more and more sparse, taking their light with them. The bright colors of a cheerful forest were replaced with gloomy hues of blue and black and purple. Shadows crept beside every fern and tree, moving only when their hosts rustled at the cold wind. The wind itself was surprisingly harsh and frequent to Twilight, considering how thick the forest itself was. In the real world, the wind would’ve been blocked by the giant mass of trunks and branches. Yet here, their chilling whistles were present.
Finally, they arrived at the destination Rainbow had suggested. Applejack didn’t look all too pleased.
“Rainbow Dash.”
“Yeah, AJ?”
“When you said ya had a great place to grind, Ah wasn’t expecting this.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“Well first off, those things are huge.”
“You know what they say. The bigger, the better, right?” Rainbow grinned slyly, wiggling her eyebrows up and down.
Applejack kept on glaring. “Then mind telling me how the hay, are we supposed to take them down?”
The monsters that Applejack was referring to were two giant walking stumps, topping at three meters tall with twigs sticking out from their gnarled bodies. Beneath them, they had twisted roots wrapped around each other, roughly resembling two legs. Their bark was as dark as soot and covered their bodies from root-legs to the very top of their trunks. Their moss-coated wooden bodies creaked each time they moved forward and caused the ground to shiver under their steps. Twilight remembered reading about such creatures long before playing the game, but treants weren’t supposed to have half their bodies missing. Looking above them, however, she could see floating name tags that read Trunts. Twilight narrowed her eyes. ‘Is… is that supposed to be a pun on how they are smaller than usual treants? Oh dear.’
“Well, they’re chopped in half already. We can just finished the job.” Rainbow shrugged. “And they can’t see very well either. Won’t be a problem.”
“Rainbow, all of us are Level 1 right now. They’re Level 25! They’ll stomp us to death! Literally! Just look at their size!”
Rainbow sneered. “What are you, AJ? Chicken?”
“Is that a challenge, Rainbow Dash?” Applejack growled.
A silence fell upon the group with only the sound of low growls between the two rivals breaking the void. Their eyes fought a battle, their sharp stares seeking domination over the other. Applejack’s was a sea of fire, burning with determination and strength, while Rainbow Dash’s was bold and confident like a bird of prey. Their rivalry never went unnoticed by Twilight—ever since the Iron Horse competition they had been fueling that fire with more dares and contests with nothing being “off limits” to them. Especially not video games.
Rarity coughed. “Well I believe now is the best time to pack our suitcases and leave while we still have all of our limbs. I suggest you two should just save your fighting for elsewhere.” Rarity turned away from them and looked at the others. “What do you girls say? Pinkie, you agree with me, right?”
“Sure! Why not? I don’t wanna play a two-D character!” Pinkie grinned.
“Um, girls?”
“How about it, Twilight. Shall we go, darling?”
“Girls? Rainbow and Applejack are— ”
Twilight nodded, “Yeah. I saw a couple mushrooms that were at our level on the way here. They could be safe to fight.”
“Girls? This is really, really important— ”
“Splendid! Then let’s make haste straight away!”
“Girls!”
Twilight, Pinkie, and Rarity all looked at Fluttershy. “What is it?” they said in unison.
Fluttershy twiddled with her forehooves. “Um, Rainbow Dash and Applejack just charged towards the trunts.”
Twilight’s ears drooped as she looked at the clearing. Rainbow and Applejack did indeed charge in without them noticing, and their Health Bars were already knocked at. “Oh no.” A large shadow covered over the bush they were all hiding in. Twilight looked up to see three trunts staring at them with their nonexistent eyes. “H-how did they even— ”
Rarity looked around in panic and a sharp gasp caught in her throat. “Twilight, your hoof.”
Twilight looked down and lifted her right forehoof to see a tiny crushed sprout underneath. Small, pale-pink petals were lying about, crumpled under Twilight’s hoof. “What is this?”
“Th-that’s a treant sproutling, and it was a Madonna lily. A Queen variant.” Rarity looked back up at the trunts and squeaked, “And you squished it.”
Twilight gained a hoofful of experience points, filling ten percent of her bar. “…Oh you gotta be kidding me.”
Twilight’s first thought was that they needed to run away really really fast. She tapped into her mind’s eye and focused on her and the mares around her. Her horn lit ablaze with purple energy and soon their bodies were covered in the same glow. Twilight pulled them away from the bush and into the clearing just before the trunts angrily stomped on it with their huge root feet, their earthly grumbles filling the air. The landing was rough as Twilight had no time to be precise or gentle with her telekinesis, earning her a few scrapes. Quickly, she got onto her hooves and helped up the others.
“Is everypony okay?”
“Yes we are. Fluttershy, do you have your Support Spells ready?” Rarity asked as she spread her stance slightly.
“Y-yes I do, but there has to be another way, r-right?” she stammered as she looked up at the giant trees. “M-maybe we can reason with them?”
“After Twilight killed their unborn queen? Doubtful.” A bead of sweat dripped down from Rarity’s forehead. “Oh dear, this sudden turn of events is not good for my coat.” She took out a cloth and dabbed her forehead.
Twilight winced. “Oh I’m sorry that this happened. I didn’t know I had stepped on something so important to them.”
“Relax, my dear. None of us noticed earlier. It could easily have happened to any one of us.”
They backed off slowly as the trunt trio advanced, giving no mind to the two pests behind the mares. It seemed that while Applejack and Rainbow Dash were keeping a few of the trunts’ attention, they were also unaware of what was happening to the others. Twilight thought about calling out to them for help, but they were already engaged with the trunts, so not the best idea. As she looked around, she could see more of those giant stumps entering the vicinity, counting around a total of twelve trunts. Looking for more options, Twilight went to search her Inventory for anything possibly useful. Only, there was one problem. She didn’t have a bag, and another thing…
“I don’t know how to open my Inventory!” Twilight yelped.
“Just sweep your hoof in the air and think of opening the Menu! The game will respond to your thoughts!” Rarity shouted.
Twilight did what Rarity said and to her delight, a holographic Menu opened up. “Thanks!”
“Why are we shouting?!” Pinkie asked at the top of her lungs, joining the duo. A couple of the group of trunts fighting Rainbow Dash and Applejack turned towards Pinkie. “Oops! Didn’t mean to do that!” Pinkie then scurried away as the trunts started chasing her.
‘She isn’t taking this situation seriously, is she?’ Twilight thought to herself. Twilight ignored Pinkie’s question and searched through her Inventory furiously. There must be something she had to start off with. Almost every game with an Inventory system did! To her despair, the bag was nearly empty, with not a weapons nor piece of armor to be found. However, there were five Slow Health Regen Potions and five Slow Mana Regen Potions. Something to help sustain her, but she still felt nervous about the lack of a weapon.
“Rarity, I don’t have anything to use against the trunts! What should I do?”
“What Class did you begin as?”
“Mage Apprentice!”
“You’re a unicorn, Twilight, and unicorns don’t start with Wooden Staves as Tier 4 Mages!”
“Really?”
“Yes! You use your horn and think of one of the Spells you have!” Rarity’s horn lit up like a bulb as she swept it towards the trunts’ direction. “Like so! Gem Flock!,”
Various spots on the ground in front of Rarity glowed brightly. Pointed gemstones of varying small sizes blossomed out before her, shot up, and flew around circular formations. She narrowed her eyes and focused on all the gems to start making them spin like power drills. The trunts thundered forward like boulders down a mountain, crushing everything unlucky enough to be in their path, with the three players in their sights. Twilight and Fluttershy shied away, but Rarity stood boldly and unleashed her spectrum of projectiles at the trunts. The gems pierced their thick armor like a hot knife to butter, ripping through the other side of their bodies, although some stuck in the more resistant plates. They were knocked black slightly by Rarity’s Gem Flock, and soon their bodies were decorated like Hearth’s Warming Trees and, surprisingly, their Health Bars chipped away. Although is small amounts.
Twilight’s eyes had widened in slight amazement. She had seen impressive combat in video games before, but the way the gems had sliced through the wood, the different stumbles each of the trunts had in reaction to the impacts was all fluid and looked very natural. It was as if they weren’t programmed to do that at all, but they were… well… real. Twilight didn’t have a word to describe it, but she really liked the feeling of the game so far.
“Darling? Do you want a turn?”
“H– huh? Oh, um, yeah sure! Should I shout out the name?”
“You don’t have to, but,” Rarity pressed her hoof against her chest, “it just feels exhilarating to shout out attack names!”
Twilight gave her a small nod and smile before turning back to the trunts. They were still recovering their footing from Rarity’s attack, so she needed to act fast. She racked her brain as she tried to remember what skills an Apprentice Mage could do. She read it online before playing. What was it? Oh, right!
“Magic Missile!”
Twilight focused on her magic again, feeling energy coursing into her horn. She thought of firing pure energy at the trunts, and her magic obeyed. A blue bolt of pure energy shot forth from the tip of her horn, breaking loose towards the trunt in the middle. The spell packed quite a punch, knocking it onto its back. Twilight didn’t stop there and continued the barrage until she heard the sound of two more timbers falling down.
Rarity clapped. “Excellent job, darling. It’s a good thing they don’t have arms, or dealing with them would be quite more troublesome.”
“They’re not defeated though. Good thing they don’t seem to be able to get up very well.”
Rarity turned towards where Rainbow Dash and Applejack were. “Now if only they hadn’t charged rashly in the first place.”
Twilight gently smiled. “Well we all make mistakes, Rarity, but that’s why we’re a group. To cover each other’s mistakes.”
Rarity gently sighed. “That’s true. Although I still wish they would set aside their rivalry once in a while.”
“That wouldn’t be like them,” Twilight chuckled.
Rarity gently laughed along. “Of course, darling. Even so, I have some words needing to be spoken to them.”
“Um, girls?” Fluttershy softly spoke, “Pinkie Pie jumped in as well, and it seems we have exploding mushrooms coming in.”
Twilight looked up ahead and indeed saw Pinkie swinging around on a system of grappling ropes that weren’t hooked onto the trees earlier, dropping several baked pastries that exploded. Also, there were green-spotted, walking mushrooms about the battlefield. A few craters were made in their dying spots as Applejack, Rainbow, and Pinkie all knocked them all away. The good thing was that the sentient mushrooms were somehow damaging the trunts by a lot with their explosions! A few died from the exploding fungi and a brilliant light shined from beneath Twilight. Her jaw dropped as she saw her Level in the Heads Up Display soar from Level 1 to Level 8.
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Oh boy.”
Just as she turned her attention back towards the fight, another trunt was blasted off its feet and started to fall towards Twilight. She tried to back away, but immediately bumped into something with a rough exterior. Another falling trunt.
“Well fu—”
Immediate pain was felt throughout her body before her vision blackened. Suddenly large red words appeared right before her eyes.
[You got Crushed by a Trunt]
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Mage Adept (TS) has Leveled Up to Lv 8!
Tier 4 Class: Mage Apprentice
~ HP Increased: 350 ⇒ 630 (+10 from END)
~ Mana Increased: 500 ⇒ 850 (+ 65 from SPR)
>> 70 Attribute Points are gained; 7 Skill Points are gained <<
Attribute Points Allocation:
>> Manual Distribution Selected <<
~ INT Increased: 30 ⇒ 65
~ SPR Increased: 30 ⇒ 65
Skill Point Allocation:[Magic Missile] Lv 1 ⇒ 5 Maxed!
Type ~ Active
Description ~ Singular target. Your magic conduit glows brightly before shooting forth a bolt of pure energy at your enemy, blasting the target backwards. The main bread and butter of all Mage Apprentices.
Magic Damage – Level 5:
30/50/70/90/110 (+ 75% INT)[Magic Influx] Lv 0 ⇒ 3
Type ~ Active
Description ~ Self target. Look deep within yourself and tap into a pool of your untapped power to give yourself an extra boost in magic damage. Increases the damage of all your Attack Spells by a certain percentage (after calculations of the INT multiplier). Buff lasts for 3 minutes.
Magic Buff – Level 3:
1/2/3/4/5%