Kirsarnia

by Urimas Ebonheart

Arc 1 - Chapter 7: To Ponyville

"New information huh? Like what?" Daring asks Frank.

Frank then explains everything that Discord discovered to Daring.

Daring looks at him in disbelief. "Wow, so those bosses are the cause of the monsters appearing? Damn, and this one isn't destroyed but just suppressed?" she says and shakes her head. "You'll have to wait for a bit while I revise my report..." she tells the group and goes off to rewrite her report.

Daring returns to the group with her revised report in hand. "Okay, that'll do it. You ready to go?" she asks.

"Yeah, I have four-hundred bits for supplies," Frank replies.

"So who's coming then?" Daring asks.

"Me, Sam, and Laura," Frank replies. "Jack and Satoshi are going to look after the guild hall until we return," he then tells her.

"Alright, Ponyville is about a two hour walk from here," Daring tells them.

"Oh, before we go," Frank says and resends a party invite to Daring.

The party of four walk along a path leading to the town of Ponyville through the Whitetail Woods.

"Hmm, I wonder," Frank says and opens his menu up and selects the map tab.

A screen rolls out showing his location in the woods with the positions of his party and guild members.

"Whoa, that's convenient," Daring says looking at his map. "Let's see, can you move the map or is it just this?" she asks him.

Frank presses a finger against the map and drags it down, the map scrolls down revealing the path ahead.

"Cool," Daring says and tries to move it herself but her hand goes through it. "Oh, so only you can affect your own menus. Well scroll down and follow the path up," she says.

Frank does so and soon a small town with a large apple orchard shows up. "So that's Ponyville?" he asks her.

"Yeah, ever since these dungeons appeared, these large blue floating crystals with a metal frame made from a metal never seen before just showed up in the middle of the cities and towns, but they only seem to have a limited range of a two mile radius as most cities like Manehattan have lost a lot of buildings to monsters," she tells them.

"So is that what the blue ring around the town means?" Samantha asks.

Daring looks at it for a few seconds and nodded. "Yeah, looks like the right size," she replies.

"So monsters can't enter that area? Any idea why?" Laura asks.

"Only that the magic in them hurts the monsters. The Princesses have tried to harness the magic within them as a means to fight back... but that failed when the crystal in Canterlot shattered from the attempt and the city fell, the Princesses have taken refuge in Ponyville until a means to take it back is found," she replies.

Daring then looks at the three friends. "I think it's you guys, you gave me a power that hurts the monsters and makes me even stronger the more I fight. I believe you're the ones to help us," she says with a smile.

They smile back but growling to the right of the path gets their attention, six wooden wolves with the name tags Timberwolf stalk out and surround the party. They're all also level two.

"Looks like we're in for a fight, get ready. Laura, use your fire bolt since they're made of wood. Daring keep Sam covered while I'll get their attention," Frank says.

"Got it," Laura replies and casts a fire bolt at one of the wolves in front of the group.

The timberwolf takes 103 damage and suffers 10 damage a second for five seconds, it also yelps and rolls around trying to put the fire out.

Frank uses his taunt to aggro the wolves and shield bashes the four of them in front of him for 46 damage each. The new sword boosting his damage quite a bit.

Frank then takes 23 damage a hit from the wolves so Samantha casts a renewal spell and a lesser healing spell Healing him for 238 HP, the new talisman helping in increasing her healing spells.

Daring stabs at one that gets too close to Samantha and deals 27 damage a hit, she then uses her poisonous stab skill and deals 39 damage and 3 damage every second for thirty seconds after.

Laura is still casting firebolts while Frank is taking the aggro and blows. He swings his sword and deals 34 damage slaying one of the wolves.

Laura blasts another wolf with a firebolt for 105 damage and kills it as it shatters into burnt splinters and fades away.

Daring jumps onto the back of the timberwolf she's fighting and holds her daggers in a reverse grip and plunges them into its neck dealing 31 damage with each dagger and killing it.

Frank uses his taunt again before getting piled on by the three remaining timberwolves. He then shield bashes two of them for 44 damage sending them back a few feet, he then grabs the last one on his back and tosses it over his shoulder in front of him. Laura then casts another fire bolt killing one of the wolves with 108 damage.

Samantha heals Frank for 210 HP and casts renewal on him again. She then looks to the others making sure their HP is good.

Daring flies up and lands on one of their backs and uses her poisonous stab skill again dealing 40 damage and poisoning it.

Frank raises his shield and shield charges the last one and deals 68 damage killing it.

Daring is riding the last wolf while stabbing it in the back over and over again dealing 28 damage until it dies.

Daring falls on her ass as the timberwolf she's sitting on fades away leaving six loot bags. Frank picks them all up getting thirteen bits and three timberwolf fangs, he then gives everyone three bits each.

"Well, that wasn't as hard as the dungeon monsters were, I guess these are just weak overworld monsters. Dungeon mobs are always a lot tougher," Frank says.

"I still find it weird that these timberwolves would have torn me to shreds if they got me before, but now I can kill them with ease and they drop bits? How does that even work?" Daring asks with a grin. "I so can't wait to write my next novel, Daring Do and the Dungeon of Slimes!.. No wait, that sounds terrible..." she says with a grimace.

Samantha giggles while Laura laughs.

The group then continues on their way to the town.

After a few more battles with more timberwolves and green slimes, the town comes into view which has a really large transparent light blue dome around it.

"That's Ponyville huh?" Laura asks.

"Yeah, it's the main headquarters for the Princesses and the royal guards for now. Come on, I want to introduce you to the Princesses," Daring says and the party step through the dome.

"Oh that tingles a bit," Samantha says and giggles.

"Yeah, you'll get used to it," Daring replies and they walk through the town.

Frank and the others are surprised to see ponies with horns and some without. "Huh, so you have unicorns as well? What are the hornless and wingless ones called?" Frank asks Daring as the ponies of the town stare wide eyed at the newcomers.

"They're earth ponies, sorry about the staring but we've never seen anything like you before," Daring replies with a sheepish smile.

"Don't worry about it, it won't bother us," Frank says as they reach a tall cylindrical building with a pointed roof and flags on the top.

"That's the town hall where the Princesses are staying at the moment, come on!" Daring says and they walk up to the doors where two guards in golden armour block the way.

"No unauthorised visitors are allowed in," the right one says.

"Argh, I'm back with my report about the Dungeon in the Whitetail Woods, and I have information on how to kill the monsters!" Daring yells at him with crossed arms.

The guard's eyes go wide. "Wait here please," the left one says and enters the building.

After a few minutes he returns. "Please follow me, the Princesses would like to meet you," he says and lets Daring in but stops the others. "Sorry but only Miss Do is allowed in," he tells them.

"Oi! They're the reason why we can kill the monsters! They're with me!" Daring scolds the guard who goes wide eyed again at that.

"My apologies, you may enter but please leave your weapons at the door," he tells them.

Frank smirks and opens his menu and unequipped his sword and shield back into his inventory. Laura and Samantha do so as well.

"Huh?" the right guard says with a stunned look.

"Where'd they go?" the left guard asks.

"We unequipped them, so now were unarmed," Laura replies.

"A pocket dimension?" the right guard mumbles to the left.

"I dunno, but do we still let them in? I don't know if they could have other weapons..." he replies.

"Oh for the love of Celestia just let them in, I can vouch for them," Daring says and pats the guard's shoulder.

The guard sighs and looks at Frank. "Alright, just behave and be respectful to the Princesses," he says and lets them in.

"Do not worry, we will be," Frank replies and nodded.

Daring guides them through the building to a nice room where two tall women with both a horn and wings sit behind a desk.

"Wow they're pretty," Samantha says after a few seconds.

The white woman with a constantly flowing mane and tail of pale pink, green, blue and purple lightly laughs. "Thank you for the compliment, but I must say I've never seen your races before. Where do you come from may I ask?" she asks.

"From a world called Earth, we were pulled here against our will by Discord," Frank replies.

"Discord?" the white woman asks with hope in her eyes.

"Yeah, he found our group during our game and dragged us here, which we're not happy about just so you know," Laura says with harsh tone.

"I am sorry you were brought into our problems, but we so desperately need the help. My name is Princess Celestia," the white woman replies and introduces herself.

"And I am Princess Luna," the dark blue woman with a mane and tail that looks like it is part of the night sky says.

"So where's the King or Queen then?" Laura asks.

"There is no King or Queen, my sister and I rule Equestria together. Now who are you and what are you?" Celestia replies and asks politely.

"Alright, well I'm a human and my name is Frank Johnson. I am a Guardian and the Guild Master of The Dungeoneers," Frank introduces himself with a bow.

"I'm Laura Venice, I'm a Mage and a human as well," Laura says with a bow as well.

"My name is Samantha Witherton and I'm a leoness... Oh I'm a Cleric as well," Samantha replies and bows.

"What are you if I may ask? I've seen ponies with horns, wings, or neither so far but not with both," Frank asks.

"We're alicorns, we have the attributes of all three types," Celestia replies.

"I see," Frank says and Daring hands her report to Celestia.

"Here's what I learnt at the Dungeon Princess," she says.

Celestia reads the report and goes wide eyed. "You have a power that can kill the monsters?" she asks Frank.

"It would seem so, we only arrived four days ago. We can apparently also give others this power by inviting them to our party, but they start at level one and would need to kill monsters or complete Dungeons to level up and get stronger," he replies.

"Fascinating, and you can give this power to anypony?" Luna asks.

"No, I won't just give it to anyone," Frank replies getting a frown from Luna.

"And why not? If you can give us the power to take back our homes then why would you withhold it?" she asks with a irritated tone.

"Calm down, Luna. I'm sure he has his reasons," Celestia says to her sister.

"I do, would you like someone you don't trust to have the power to turn invisible to the naked eye and instantly teleport behind your back and stab you?" Frank asks. "Or how about someone who is power hungry and attacks a town? A level eighty Mage can cast the meteor spell, calling down a meteor to destroy a large area," he tells her.

Both Princesses eyes go wide at that. "And what are you capable of?" Celestia asks.

"Not a lot at the moment, we're only level four so far after cleansing the Whitetail Woods Dungeon," Frank replies.

"I see... what would we have to do to allow you to give others this power?" Luna asks.

Frank just stares at Celestia for a few seconds. "They'd have to join our guild for one, the Castle Discord bound to us can hold up to a hundred people. Secondly, they'll have to follow our guild's rules and any breaking of the rules will result in imprisonment, we found a nice little prison cell area under our Castle, and considering we can't die, killing them is not possible," he replies.

"You can't die?" Luna asks shocked.

"You didn't tell me that! Does that mean I can't die?" Daring asks with shock.

"You can be killed, but you'll just respawn at the anchor crystal you bound yourself to with half your bits gone, one level taken from you with two stat points lost as well and some of your gear possibly damaged or destroyed," Frank tells her.

"Immortals, you're immortals," Celestia says quietly and looks to Daring. "You have this power already?" she asks her.

"Erm yeah... It's near the end of my report," the pegasus replies.

"While we can't die, I don't know if we still age or not," Frank says. "Discord gave us our power when he brought us over, but our character levels and gear were lost on the way. I was originally a level ninety-seven Guardian," he tells her.

"You were that powerful?" Luna asks with wide eyes.

"Not just me but my friends as well, we're one of the best dungeon runner parties in Kirsarnia," he replies.

"I see, would you be willing to give my sister and I this power so we may protect our ponies?" Celestia asks.

Frank turns to his two friends as they huddle together. "What do you think?" he asks them.

"She seems nice and honest, I don't think she'd abuse it..." Samantha replies.

"Celestia appears alright, but her sister looks too hotheaded and quick to anger," Laura says.

"Agreed, we'll have to see who would like to join us and what their personalities are like, maybe some background checks, I'm sure they have records or something," Frank tells them.

Turning back to the Princesses they notice Luna with a scowl on her face. "And just who are you calling hotheaded," she says to them.

"You've just proven our point if you let words anger you like this," Frank replies. "Since she heard that I can guess you heard the rest as well?" he then asks Celestia.

She nodded. "We have exceptional hearing, so you would allow those we provide a background check on to join your guild?" Celestia asks.

"Yes, and if we don't accept them there's no second chances," he replies.

"Very well, I take it you would like one on me and my sister as well?" Celestia asks.

"That would be appreciated," Frank says. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to check that crystal in the town. I believe it's an anchor crystal used to teleport from town to town or cities."

"It can do that?" Celestia asks with surprise.

"I believe so, that's why I wish to see it to confirm it," Frank says and heads to the door but turns back to Celestia. "Oh, and Discord says he'll be home soon," he tells her before walking out the door.