Chapter 2: Quest Prep
Rainbow put on a cocky smile. The others looked at her with dumbfounded faces.
"Rainbow Dash do you even know what a "Seltas" is?" Starlight asked incredulously.
"Not a clue!!!" Rainbow said enthusiastically. She was hovering with a ridiculous smile on her face. The Doctor decided to find out what it was as the mares were squabbling over how to beat it. The Doctor found this ridiculous since they didn't know what "it" was. He trotted up to a pony selling basic goods. The unicorn merchant mare looked up at him and gave a greeting.
"You wouldn't happen to have any information about the monster that is on that bounty there?" The Doctor asked politely. He watched as the mare turned around and used her magic to move some of the bags and boxes around. She did that for a few seconds and she turned back around with a book in her magical grasp. The cover read...
Neopterons Volume 1.
"Excuse me...that says Neopteron. That means insect. Surely no insect can be so dangerous." Confusion washed over the Doctor as he remembered the poster. It had said this one was as big as they come.
"Do not underestimate a monster. You may be in for a nasty surprise." The mare's voice was low and had a sense of warning to it.
"Okay ma'am...I'll take the book. How much do I owe you?" The Doctor was ready to share this newfound information with his companions.
"100z." Her answer was short. Something happened that confused the Doctor even further. An interface had popped up directly in front of his face. It had a lot of items listed on it all with different prices. He moved it with a hoof.
"Interesting..." The Doctor said slowly to himself as Bass strode up beside him.
"You see this thing too?" She gestured to the interface in front of him. "It almost seems like it was meant for a virtual world."
"It is fascinating that this happens even though we don't belong here." The Doctor's reply was monotone and short. He was enthralled with seeing all that he could do with the interface. He eventually found the same book that the mare had showed him and gave its name a tap with a hoof. The number at the top right of the interface went down by one hundred.
"It is interesting, but you should hurry. I don't want Starlight and Rainbow to start testing those weapons on each other." Bass said worriedly.
"Okay, I got the book let's see what we can learn." The Doctor said as he turned and strode back over to the two mares that were currently arguing who the leader of the group was.
"I should be leader of the group!!! I'm obviously the most awesome!" Rainbow shouted at the face of the unicorn.
"Why don't we just make him the leader?" Starlight said slowly gesturing to the returning Dr. Whooves.
"Fine whatever. I'm done talking to you anyways." Rainbow huffed as she turned to the Doctor to see what he had learned.
"Wow Rainbow Dash. That may have just been the quietest and least self-indulgent thing you've said all day." Starlight said with a smirk.
"Whatever. What did ya' learn Doc?" Rainbow asked with an excited grin.
The Doctor flipped open the book as Bass walked over to stand by the other two mares. The Doctor flipped through pages of general information for a bit.
"Seltas...Seltas...Seltas...Oh I've found it." The Doctor skimmed it silently for a moment. "It says that a Seltas is a neopteron that uses swift aerial and ground attacks to attack territory invaders."
"That's cool and all...,but what's a neo...pteron?" Rainbow asked slowly.
"It's an insect dim wit." Starlight said with a straight face.
"What!!! I thought we got to hunt monsters not squash tiny bugs!!!" Rainbow yelled up at the sky as she fell to the ground. She had assumed a sitting position.
"Miss Rainbow I don't think you'll be disappointed." The Doctor said as he turned the book around to show all three of them a large and detailed drawing of a Seltas.
Three jaws dropped in unison. The picture showed the Seltas as a large insect creature with long claw-like arms and a large horn protruding from head/back. Rainbow jumped upward.
"Yes!!! We do get to fight monsters here." Rainbow screeched as her previous enthusiasm returned. Starlight chuckled.
"I think that drawing may be actual size." Starlight said back to being skeptical.
"It says they can be anywhere from...542 cm to 770 cm." The Doctor had his jaw drop as he finished reading the size estimates. "That would mean the one described on the poster there is somewhere near 770 cm." Starlight was leaning against the board that had the bounty on it.
"That breaks all the Equestrian laws of Biology. There is no plausible way for an insect to grow to sizes such as the ones you have described." Starlight said with a bored expression.
"That's the thing I have been pondering since we arrived. What if we aren't in Equestria anymore? What if we aren't even in the same universe as Equus? This world seems too virtual to be real, yet all the inhabitants of it don't seem to notice. It's almost as if their entire lives are based in this world. Real or Not, these ponies have lives here and we may have to make ones for ourselves here as well." The Doctor took a breather. That had been a rather long-winded explanation of his thoughts. Starlight looked at him with one eyebrow raised.
"Okay Mr. Doctor. Lead us to our new lives then." Starlight walked towards the Gathering Hall doors.
"Where are you off to so fast Miss SmartyPants?" Rainbow asked childishly.
"I don't know about you, but I haven't eaten since we arrived and I'm famished." Starlight said looking back at the rainbow mare.
"I could go for some food too." Bass said as she trotted up beside Starlight. Rainbow's stomach let out a growl.
"Heheh...I guess you're right." Rainbow said with a blush.
"I suppose we should go get some food then?" The Doctor asked the group all at once. The three nodding heads signaled him that they should.
They entered the Gathering Hall to find that even this place was seemingly deserted. Everypony must've been trying to beat that Seltas. The group approached a large round red table with four seats around it. The moment they sat down an interface appeared.
"Whoa!!!" Rainbow yelped as the list of food items popped up in front of her face. She looked around, but found that it stayed in the center of her field of vision.
"Interesting..." Starlight said slowly. She was examining how the interface worked. "I see what you mean now Doctor. No real world can create such an entity."
The Doctor and Bass simply flipped through and found two ingredients that they wanted to put together for their dish and picked how they wanted it cooked. The pair finished eating, and as the two stood up they were engulfed in flashes of light.
"Health and Defense Up?" Bass asked out loud.
"How intriguing...it seems our choice of ingredients gives us a different outcome for some kind of passive effects. The only conclusion I can come to is that this will help us in combat." The Doctor said with a shrug. The Doctor finished his sentence as soon as his other two companions flashed with light.
"Yeah!!! That felt awesome!" Rainbow shouted a little loud for Starlight's liking.
"Please...just don't do that." Starlight asked with frown. "If we ever get home...I want to get there with at least one eardrum semi-functional."
"OKAY!!!" Rainbow shouted as she hovered directly next to her.
"Are we going to go?" Bass asked trying hard not to giggle at Starlight's ridiculous expression of anger.
"I think we should be on our way now." Doc said with a smile.
"Wait." Starlight said quickly. "If we're in a video-game...then what happens if we were to...die?"
Starlight finished her question and the faces of everypony present went pale.
"What's keeping us alive in combat anyways?" Bass asked trembling slightly at the thought of death. "I've played enough video-games back home to know that most games have a healing system."
"I got it!" Doc yelled excitedly, and consequently the stallion earned a glare from Starlight. "The pony that sold me this book had some items that were named "Potion"."
"So what?" Rainbow asked as she went to lie down on one of the benches.
"Those are most likely healing items." Doc said as he trotted to the door. "Wait here."
Bass and Starlight both sat down on the benches to the sides of Rainbow.
"Hey Starlight?" Rainbow said slowly.
"What? Going to yell in my ear again?" Starlight asked leaning her head on a hoof.
"No I-I..." Rainbow stopped.
"Well?" Starlight asked toying with an arrow she was holding in her magic.
"I wanted to...say sorry about earlier." Rainbow said sitting up and looking straight at Starlight.
"Well that's a surprise." Starlight looked at the rainbow Pegasus.
"Apology accepted?" Rainbow asked with a nervous smile.
"I suppose so..." Starlight pointed the arrow at Dash. "but I have a question for you. Why do you trust me? Have you forgiven me for what I tried to do to you and your friends in the past?"
"No, but I am the element of Loyalty and I believe that the situation we are in right now is urgent enough to set aside what has happened between us and try to work together...because if we don't...we may all die here. Nopony will know what happened to us." Rainbow said with a serious expression.
"Um....I don't know what happened between you before now, but...I'd like to say that I think it would be best if we put whatever our pasts with each other are behind us for now." Bass said as she looked between the other two mares at the table.
"Yeah...Starlight?" Rainbow had a genuine smile on her face as she turned to look at the unicorn.
"Okay Rainbow, but this doesn't mean we're friends...just allies." Starlight said as she hovered the arrow back to its quiver. At that same moment the Doctor returned.
"I know the items we'll need now." The Doc said with a triumphant smile.