Chapter 3: Seltas Pt. 1
"What do we need then Doc?" Bass asked with newfound enthusiasm.
The Doctor looked at all the ponies present. He thought for a few moments before speaking.
“Okay...Bass, Dash, and I will need…potions, whetstones, and steaks of some sort.” The Doctor stopped and looked back up at his companions. He noticed they had all shivered at the end. Their diets, including his own, had never really consisted of much meat.
“That’s great and all, but why wasn’t I included in that?” Starlight asked feeling a bit left out.
The Doctor looked at her. He stared at her for a few seconds.
“Well?” Starlight asked with an increasing annoyed tone.
“You need all the same things except for the whetstones.” The Doctor stopped once more. “What was it that kind fellow said you needed...hrmmmm… Oh yes! You also need coatings.” Whooves had regained his triumphant expression.
“What do i need coatings for?” Starlight asked. The Doctor looked back at her.
“You coat your arrows with them. They allow you to cause different status effects like poison or sleep.” He turned to leave once more, but this time he gestured for his companions to follow.
Everypony got up and followed him back out into the Val Haybar square. It was still quite desolate. The group continued to follow him until they reached the same merchant mare that he had previously done business with.
“Okay we all need to buy our own supplies then we can venture forth.” He was already in the interface and occupied with searching for the items he had listed for them.
The rest of the group approached the merchant mare and found out they could shop simultaneously. They all began searching for the items that the Doc had listed. The group found most of them, but ran into issues when it came to finding the steaks.
“Hey Doc...where are those steaks you mentioned?” Rainbow asked as she scrolled through the interface for the thousandth time.
“We have to cook those in the field, but we should have been to get the rest correct?” Whooves asked with a excited grin, but at the same time the atmosphere around the group was filled with nervous tension.
“Well let’s get going...i guess.” Rainbow said slowly. She had turned around and seen a group of four ponies. Two were walking, but the other two weren’t was was on the back of one of the able-bodied hunters. The other, or more like the half-pony, was being dragged by the other walking hunter.
“H-how are his e-entrails not falling out?” Starlight asked doing her best not to expel all of the food she had just consumed not long before.
The group got their answer soon. The pony no longer had any entrails. His carcass was cleaned out almost entirely. They all had troubles holding down their meals. The group was 75% successful. Bass emptied her meal out behind the equipment box.
"Haha wimp!!!" Rainbow teased, but consequently she had looked over and seen Bass' expelled contents. This caused Rainbow to fly to the other her side and expel her own fluids.
The stallion and the unicorn looked at each other.
"Pegasi...am I right?" Starlight took a turn at the teasing, but the stallion was somehow still studying the gored pony as it was dragged down the street.
"Oh...um...yes..." Whooves absentmindedly answered as he shuffled through his bag for a notepad. He began jotting down theories on the first page.
"What are you doing?" Starlight asked looking over his shoulder as he wrote.
"I'm taking notes on the state that pony was left in. If we're going into the field we may meet whatever caused that massive wound." He explained as he put his notepad away.
"I really hope we don't." Bass interjected.
"You said it." Rainbow said as she wiped her mouth with a forehoof and hovered over to the rest of the group.
"I'm having second-thoughts about going into the field now. If we are in a video-game...and IF we can die here...wouldn't it be safer to just stay in this town?" Starlight asked, her expression was one of intense fear as she looked to each of the three other ponies, but what happened next was completely unexpected. Rainbow had put a hoof on her shoulder.
"As long as we're here...together...nopony is dying. I know it may be a scary prospect. I mean the thought of death, but sometimes you have to stare danger and fear in the face. Trust me. No. Trust all of us." She gestured to the stallion and the other pegasus. "The only way to learn about this place is to go out as see it for what it is."
Starlight looked up to find Rainbow had a ridiculous grin on her face, but it seemed like a genuine gesture.
"I'm with you." Starlight said as she raised her head high. "As long as you're with me...I'm with you." She finished by returning a smile, but something felt...different...this one felt genuine as well.
"May we be on our way now?" Whooves asked when he heard the pep talk had stopped.
"I'm ready if you are." Rainbow answered. "Starlight?"
"Let's go." Starlight put on the best determined expression she could muster, but she still felt the fear eating at her insides.
The group reentered the gathering hall and found that there was slightly more ponies there, but the sight wasn't pretty. There were multiple groups of hunters that were sitting together. One or in some cases even all of the ponies in some groups had serious injuries. Some ranging from missing limbs to missing random chunks of flesh.
"Wait for a moment will you please?" Whooves requested as he trotted over to one of the groups as he pulled out his notepad. Rainbow facehoofed as she realized that he was going to question ponies after a most likely extremely traumatizing experience.
"Oh for Celestia's sake!" Starlight trotted over to him. When she reached him she bit down on his tail and proceeded to drag him back to the group. She used her magic to keep him quiet and as extra precaution if he tried to escape. When she returned to the group she let loose her magical hold on his muzzle and her vice-like bite.
"Why would you do that!?!?" The stallion shouted in an obvious angry tone.
"I don't think asking somepony who most likely developed post-traumatic stress disorder about what caused them to develop it." She replied with a glare straight at the "Doctor".
"Can...can we just go? We're getting a lot of weird looks from some of the other hunters." Bass said as she took a look around the gathering hall.
"I wonder what they think of us now." Rainbow added in.
At the exact moment Pinkie hopped across the gathering hall.
"They're probably thinking that Starlight is like Doc's mom or something. Maybe they think the author is trying to ship them!!! I don't know why she'd do that though. She would probably get a lot of hate for it!" Pinkie finished her random statement and ate a Strawberry Cinnamon Cilantro Cupcake. She jumped up and disappeared.
"What?" Bass asked dumbfounded.
"Don't question it. Just don't do it." Rainbow said with a frown. "Trust me...I've tried."
"Who's the "author" anyways?" She had decided if she couldn't ask about Pinkie she'd ask about something she said. All she got in return were three simple shrugs.
"Fine then. We might as well go already." Bass finished. She was obviously unsatisfied with the "answers" she was given.
"Hmmm...maybe I should become an author whenever or if ever get back to Equestria." She thought happily.
"HEY!!! Stop daydreaming we're leaving!" Rainbow shouted impatiently.
"Oh my bad. Coming!!!" She replied as she snapped out of her thoughts.
They all walked out the doors on the opposite side of the gathering hall, but everypony's vision turned black as soon as they tried to leave.
LOADING...
"Woah!!! What the buck just happened!?!?"
"I don't know, but anypony else wondering what these are for?" Rainbow made a few gestures in the air in front of her face.
"We can't see what you're gesturing to Dash, but if it's an interface that shows a green bar above a yellow one then yes we have them too."
"I can see your green bars over here though." Rainbow made more hoof gestures. She hadn't realized that the Doctor had been next to her the entire time. He was busy inspecting his weapon.
"Hmm...what does this do?" He pressed a little button he had on the side of the staff. The staff shot out a powerful puff of compressed air, but Doc had forgotten that he had a mare standing next to him. Rainbow was thrown across the encampment they had been dropped into. She smashed into a wagon that was parked on the opposite side of the camp.
"Ouch..." Rainbow noticed her green bar had a miniscule portion turn red. "Did that hurt me?"
"Oh my...that was...unexpected..."
"Hahaha!!!" Bass was rolling in the dirt laughing her flank off at the scene she had just watched unfold before her. Rainbow was not so amused.
"Hey...I wonder what mine does..." Rainbow said as she pulled out the oversized sword. "You do experiments right?" Rainbow looked at the poor stallion with an evil grin.
"Oh...well I'm terribly sorry about that..." He stumbled over his words, but as he did he also realized what she meant. "No...oh no thank you... I think I know what happens..." He backed away slowly.
"Okay fine...I won't totally annihilate with my awesome sword and equally awesome skills." Rainbow chuckled near the end.
"Speaking of swords..." Bass piped up. "What's with the little sword thing in the top left of my HUD thing?" She finished her question with a hoof gesture in front of her face.
"Who knows...and remember we can't see what exactly you're gesturing to." Rainbow added on the end. She in truth just wanted to get someone for what she had been doing earlier.
"I wouldn't know what you meant in the slightest anyways due to my lack of having a sword in my field of vision."
"WELL DUH!!! You don't have a sword. You decided to go with the bow and be all fancy."
"I wouldn't exactly call what the Doctor has a sword either...it's more like a stick with an air cannon in it."
*Hmph*
"Hey Doc...do ya think you can make it shoot confetti? You'd have a pretty cool improvised party cannon if you did that."
Starlight and Rainbow smiled at each other. Starlight felt...different again.
"Maybe we can be friends...
No one had noticed that there was an absence of a certain stallion of the group.
”Are you all done poking fun at me yet? I would really like some assistance in finding our target.”
”Doc...where are you?”
”In Area 4 on the map. I can still hear you talking even though I'm quite a distance away...no doubt we aren't in Equestria anymore now.”
After coming to terms with the whole "Can hear each other over long distances." thing the rest of the group made their way to Area 4 where the Doc was waiting for them, but as soon as they got there a small tune played and a large shadow was eclipsing a small raised stone in the area. When it came into view there was no mistaking what it was.
”What...”
”The...”
”Buck...”
*squee*