//------------------------------// // When Myst learns some things (written by Greycait) // Story: Tale of the Misfits: Deleted Scenes // by bluemoon1996 //------------------------------// Sound came back first; the ambience of chirping birds, the wind blowing by, even the low chatter of voices from the distance. Scent and touch were right behind it; the warmth of the sun, the ruffles of moving air over my coat, the smell of flowers and the town in general. One eye opened, and the other quickly followed suit. Thatch roof buildings, cobblestone and dirt streets and a population of colourful equines, some armoured and bearing weapons, others naked as the day they spawned all greeted me. Most all of them had little lines of text hovering over their heads. I figured those were the character, no, player tags. It was Equestria and it beautiful. I almost shed a tear. A blue grey protrusion framed the lower edges of my vision. My expression was probably pretty silly; cross eyed with a goofy grin as I tried to look at my muzzle. “Holy Hannah I have a mu-ACK!” The instinctive response of bringing both hands up to touch the muzzle was a major miscalculation on my part, one I paid for. I had forgotten, well, not yet realized actually, that I was currently a quadruped. My actions resulted in the loss of all support for the leading half of my body. The world blurred into motion for a moment as I fell, and my cry of alarm was aborted when my chin hit the dirt. Well, if it were just dirt, it would have been so bad but not so bad. Unfortunately, it was the hard packed dirt and stone of the town square. Ow… Also; taste worked fine. Equestrian dirt tasted like dirt. “Oh dear, are you okay?” a female voice asked. Blinking away the stars, I groaned and looked up. A pink mare, bright green eyes glittering, looked back at me, her expression a blend of concern and poorly contained mirth. Her short mane, the same colour as her eyes, tied to the left side of her head. I blurted out the first thing that came to my mind. “I bith ma thunge…” Her already strained will simply shattered at that and she burst out laughing. I wasn’t sure what hurt more; my chin, my tongue or ego. She tried, bless her soul, she really did, but the hoof she tried to cover her face with did little to hide the tears leaking from her eyes and her puffed out cheeks. Ego. Definitely my ego. I rolled my eyes and tried to get my feet, well, hooves under me, but I lacked experience on how to work the new limbs. “Wow… got legs…” “Oh, let me give you a hand,” she said, still chuckling. Before I could protest, she pushed her muzzle under my forearms and gave me the lift I need. Most definitely my ego. Would a health potion heal damaged egos? My wings flared as I she helped me attain something close to a secure setting, and I craned my head around to stare at them. Four legs still corresponded to two legs and two arms, but wings were a completely new pair of sensory inputs. I tried to flap them, a bit bemused as how stiff the alien limbs were. “Uh… got wings…” “I noticed that,” the mare smirked, eyes twinkling as she looked at my wings as well. Um, what? I looked back at the wings. Oh? Oh! “Uh, right! Um… thanks,” I said, blushing slightly. Her cutie mark was three bubbles of differing size around purple stars. “I’m Myst Ryder. You can call my Myst. Or Mist. Not that you can tell the difference when you say it out loud. The ‘Y’s were mostly there because it looks cooler, and I was indecisive about going unicorn or pegasus when I choose the username. And… I didn’t need to tell you that.” I ducked my head and I felt my ears flick back. “You probably didn’t. I’m BubblePop, but just Bubbles is fine,” The mare giggled again. She extended a friendly hoof. “Nice to meet you Mist.” I bumped it awkwardly. And promptly lost balance; toppling over once more, eating dirt for the second time. In less than two minutes. I groaned as Bubbles benefitted from another round of laughter at my expense. “You have no idea what you are doing, do you?” Bubbles asked with a knowing smile as I squirmed and wiggled myself in an attempt to coordinate six limbs towards the greater goal of standing. “Not a clue. That obvious?” I questioned with a shameful smile. I waving her hoof away, struggling to get up. “Nah, I’ve got to learn this thing eventually. Ha!” I finally managed to get back up to my wobbling feet. “See? Progress!” “Just a little,” Bubble smiled. She turned and motioned for me to follow her as she aimed more or less towards one of the smaller streets. “Some players, especially though who’ve never full dived before, find the transition a bit tricky. It will sort out in a little bit.” “Sure it will…” I grumbled. At least the others in the area were too busy with their own business to spare much attention to the pegasus with the locomotion challenges. Come on hooves… one foot in front of the other. It’s not rocket science! “Don’t worry; I’ve helped newb players before. I can give you a quick run through if you like. And it would be best if you didn’t just hang out in the square.” “Oh thank goodness… The instruction booklet wasn’t very helpful at all!” I exclaimed while trying not to trip over my own feet. It took a bit of work, and a lot of watching how other players were doing it, but I got the gait down without any further samples of the local turf. All in the technique. “No worries, Mist,” Bubbles insisted. “I’m free for an hour while my friends take care of a few things offline. Unless you’re waiting for people yourself...” “No, I have a friend who got the game too, but I’m planning on surprising him later,” I declared proudly, wings flaring for dramatic effect. I shot a quick look back at them. “I swear I didn’t tell those to do that… Anyway; I don’t think he’s off work for a while, so I figured I’d get a few levels in or something to look more impressive when he shows up. Only, I kinda don’t know how to play… please stop laughing at me…” “Sorry,” Bubbles said, proving once again she had not skill at restraining mirth. “It’s just that you make it so easy. Come on, let me show you how stuff works.” Bubble’s crash course was actually pretty helpful, and I really had to wonder why they didn’t put that stuff in a little booklet or something with the game. The last time I played a game it came with a handy game guide. Games these days. Yeesh; I sounded like an old geezer… Was it really that long since I played video games? Still, I had to admit that the level of detail in the game was impressive. Every turn held some new marvel for me. I’d even tried a snack of tulip bulbs purchased from an NPC. They tasted pretty good. The last stop on the tour/tutoring session was the weapons shop. Bubbles had been quick to point out that I couldn’t level up without some form of equipment, so we had browsed the stock and found what was in my price range. The NPC shop keeper was patiently waiting on us to make our purchases, a process that I was admittedly holding up. But it was for a good reason. “Seriously? What do you have against hoofblades?” I whined at Bubbles. My left wing pointed at the pair of weapons hanging from a hook on the wall, a cross between a bracer and armguard and a shoe, tipped with two solid blades. Pointed without my conscious violation, I might add. “Hoofblades are cool!” “As cool as using ‘y’ instead of ‘i’, Mist?” Bubbles asked with faux innocence. “Humph.” I stuck my muzzle in the air. “I stand by my life decisions and find no shame in them.” “Silly boy,” Bubbles laughed again. I’d grown to like her laugh. “Still, you’re too low leveled and inexperienced for then. Swords are mid to long range melee, hoofblades are short ranged melee. It’ s trickier to fight with something like that without getting hurt. Start with the basic sword first. And maybe a ranged weapon to back you up.” I pouted at her, my lower lip quivering. She rolled her eyes. “After you get a bit of experience and loot, you can get your fancy hoofblades if you really want them. After.” “Fine,” I grumbled. “Only because you asked nicely. And that’s Silly Man to you.” “Oh, so sorry. I’m sure anyone would have made that mistake, so hard to tell.” She stuck her tongue out at me. “Who’s the childish one now?” I smirked. “Still you,” she said happily. A sudden alert from her menu made her stop. “Ah, darn. That’s my party. They’re back online. Sorry Mist; got to run.” “Nah, it’s good. Thanks for all your help, Bubbles. Not every player would have taken time to help out someone like me,” I said gratefully. “Yeah, this is ELO, based on My Little Pony. Friendship and magic,” Bubble said. “Yup, Friendship is Magic,” I grinned back. “So…. Can I message you sometime?” “I didn’t have you add me to your friend list just show you how it worked,” she admitted with a slight wink. Wait… what? Okay, I was definitely reading too much into that. So I narrowed me eyes at her and dramatically lifted a hoof to my chest with a theatrical gasp. “You lie! I should have known you’d have ulterior motives, Miss Bubbles.” She laughed again as I stood there awkwardly. “Um… is there a player etiquette for how we separate or something?” Bubble chuckled and bopped me on the nose. “Buy your weapons Misty. Maybe we can talk again some other time!” “Sure. By then I’d actually know what I’m doing mostly,” I called after her as she left. “I doubt that!” she returned as she trotted out. I was still grinning when her tail disappeared out the door. Here for less than an hour and already a new friend. And they say online gaming is bad for your social life... “So would you like to purchase something?” the storekeeper asked. “What? Oh, right… sorry!” I grinned bashfully at him and looked back at the options. “Right, um… let me see now…”