//------------------------------//
// Trolls 
// Story: 2040: Learning To Fly 
// by KrisSnow 
//------------------------------//

Even without his full range of powers, Diver had begun to set himself up in Hoofland. With his share of the coins (and some of Scale's, at her invitation) he prepared for adventure. He bought a bottled healing potion from a friendly deer alchemist and a journal from a purple unicorn who seemed giddy about explaining it. By talking into it he could create entries in the book and flip between sections by magic. Of course it was just a sort of specialized computer tablet, existing purely as software and dressed up as a fantasy tome, but why not make it look and act cool? The only downside to the light cloth-bound book was that advertisements kept appearing in the margins. One time there was even a poorly placed ad targeted at Earthside players. He was pretty sure he had no use for designer gloves.

He rented a room at the Nimbus Inn for the next few days, then hung out at a coffee shop run by an earthbound pony with a goatee. "What are you, if I may ask?" he said to the shopkeeper.

"Oh, I'm in California. I make money selling play food, then swapping the coins for actual cash. The stat boost that people get to help them kill imaginary monsters, will help me buy a permit for a car."

Diver checked his stats:

Sky Diver
PRIVATE INFO
Account type: Uploader
Mind: Tier-III
Body: Pegasus
Main Skills: Flight, Brawling, Dodge
Save Point: Nimbus Inn and Battle Dome
Status Effects: Coffee Buzz (+10% Energy)
PUBLIC INFO
Note: "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of unicorns? The Shadow knows!"
Class: None

He looked dubiously at the coffee, which was at best like an attempt at tea. In hindsight he did feel a little more alert from drinking it, and had assumed there was some simulation of caffeine's effect on his brain. The fact that it gave him an actual stat bonus helped explain the price. "In that case I should take advantage of this to go adventuring."

He trotted out of town, to the Violet Forest. Under its surreal leaves the ground undulated, forming countless valleys. Diver consulted the compass he'd bought from one of Noctis' more sedentary shopkeeper bodies; it was weird talking with someone who pretended to know him as a friend of a friend.

Diver spent several happy hours exploring the woods, admiring the tall trunks, fighting one of the flowers to the death, and searching over hill and stream in search of secrets. He found a cave that opened onto a three-room catacomb where he smashed skeletal rats and recovered a few more coins. To take full advantage of the energy boost and practice his skills, he went back outside and flew through the forest, weaving between trees and seeing how far he could get with a single bound.

He made it back to the hotel, humming and slightly richer. "With all these combat skills I feel like a meathead," he told Nimbus at the counter. "How do I get non-combat ones?"

"Try new things, of course."

"Do you have an innkeeping skill?"

"Actually, yes," she said, and made her stats appear in the air beside her. Her own list had Innkeeping and Business along with the more immediately useful Spear and Dodge, plus Cloudsmithing. Her public note said, "Live battles nightly at Nimbus Inn and Battle Dome!"

It struck Diver that being able to fight with a spear seemed more useful than knowing how to run a profitable business, around here. He chuckled. "Do you get actual stat bonuses for the mental skills? It doesn't seem like something you can quantify, like the chance of wounding monsters."

She shrugged with her wings. "NPCs. I get random customers and my success with them depends partly on my skill. Mostly though it's the other way around: the list of skills depends on how good I am, like a merit badge. Same for classes. Keep learning how to beat people up and you might get offered a title of 'fighter', but that doesn't automatically make you better at fighting."

Diver shut his eyes and thought about the possibilities of what else he could be. "Think you could teach me to make clouds like this?" He waved toward the stormy walls of the inn, then for practice, tried pointing to them with one wing. It was hard to move just one at a time in a specific way, since it felt like he was using some odd combination of back muscles.

"Sure, but that's advanced peggy stuff."

"Mount Improbable first, then. I'm not sure Major Key is the right unicorn to take along, though. Know any that aren't part of Noctis?"

Nimbus hopped over the counter and greeted a newcomer who was still generic grey, renting him a room on credit. Once he was gone she said, "That guy's going pegasus, so that's no good. How about inviting one of the earthbound from tonight's fight schedule, and taking along one of Noctis' unicorns? Switch things up."

"I was kind of hoping..." Diver stopped and rubbed one of his ears with a hoof, embarrassed now.

She laughed. "I get it. You wanted Golden Scale along specifically."

"This doesn't bother you?"

"Nah. You're not my first stallion, you know, and you won't be the last. If you're interested in Scale then be happy with her too."

Diver's wings twitched. He had to admit he'd gotten to like the tough earthbound mare. Not that he'd necessarily shifted his attraction completely from humans to Hoofland's kind, but his experience with Nimbus had made him start to see the appeal of a cute little muzzle and long ears to play with. Among other things. "I'm worried I'll end up with a harem, and not treat anyone as more than someone to sleep with."

Nimbus hugged Diver with her neck over his. "Then don't. We don't have to live in herds just because we're part horse. Your relationships can be like your species or your skills. You can't do everything and know what every experience is like, and you wouldn't want to, so do whatever you're most interested in. There's no chance of getting us knocked up or anything, so the only real mistake you could make is hurting our feelings. I doubt you'll do that; you're a big softie."

Diver fluttered his wings and neck-hugged back. "Soft? Will you still think that if I win another match tonight?"

"Depends on how you perform after that, in private."

Nimbus was a chance encounter, someone he'd met because Key had logged out. Had he done anything to deserve the innkeeper as a friend? Diver didn't think so. Then I should earn friends like her however I can.

#

He sat mesmerized by colors. A unicorn called Beam Spam was firing a dazzling array of energy blasts around the arena that splashed off the fighting-cage's walls. A nimble earthbound called Bullet Hell danced through the patterns, trying to get a hit in edgewise with any weapons he could throw.

Nimbus was flying around the outside of the cage, commenting. "That's five solid minutes without a hit! Time for some chaos. Who wants to spin the wheel? Yes, you, the filly with the axe." A wheel of surprises appeared, and when it stopped after the girl's spin, the note "2D (Horiz.)" appeared on the walls. The arena floor rose and its ceiling dropped, compressing the fight into a plane. Even with less room to dodge, Bullet Hell fought on, making it to within melee range of Beam Spam before the unicorn nailed him with a three-hit spell combo. It was over quickly after that. The crowd cheered.

"What a match!" said a pegasus banker in silver, seated beside Diver. He tossed a small bag of coins over to Diver's hooves, where it clinked pleasantly. "I should get going."

"I'm looking for a unicorn to help me on Mount Improbable. I'm guessing Scale will come but I need someone pointy, too."

"Who?"

Diver grinned. "You're the town."

"Is it really that obvious?" the banker asked, giving a distraught flap.

"You brought yourself some popcorn using another body." For Noctis that probably felt like reaching back over one shoulder without taking their eyes off the game.

"Ah, we were worried we'd done something foolish. As for your quest, Scale would love to come, but shouldn't you have Key there as your donut-holder?"

"I don't think he'd appreciate it like a native or uploader can."

Nearby, a deer with a sharp eight-pointed rack prepared to square off against a griffin from the eastern lands. They were both experienced fighters like the last pair, and Nimbus was rattling off stats and reputations for them. Diver tuned that talk out.

The banker shifted uncomfortably on his cushion. "You shouldn't spend all your time with us. Go make more friends if you haven't got a unicorn you're willing to adventure with. Is Key really that bad, though? Reaching a hoof out to shadows is a way to make sure the humans like us and want to protect our world."

Noctis' reason for living was to be one of Hoofland's marketing features. A town of background characters brighter than the generic ones, able to be friends with a variety of players Earthside and fill in different roles for parties of adventurers. This world was built around companionship and adventure, so a town-mind like Noctis was like part of its operating system.

"You'd rather I include him? All right. Let me send him a note." He stood and stretched. Unicorns could learn a spell that amounted to e-mail, but Diver would have to buy a scroll at the front desk and use that with his journal's speech recognition to write a letter.

Diver had just turned to walk there when the battle dome's wall tore open. Lightning arced across the gap and a wind stirred the arena, interrupting the fight the moment it began. A quartet of adventurers in white and purple leaped into the dome, shouting, "For the new queen!" One carried a purple-sun flag on his back, and another threw a bomb into the stands. The arena's battle music switched abruptly to some kind of electric guitar anthem.

Diver leaped into the air, torn between fight and flight, but the bomb exploded before he could do either. A shockwave slammed him into the arena cage and knocked the breath from his lungs. (Major wound!)

"Let us out!" said the buck on the other side of the arena bars.

Diver gasped for breath and staggered over to the nearest door, where he pushed the release with both forehooves and the gate swung open.

The invaders had begun fighting in earnest: one with a lance strapped to his back, one pegasus flinging blasts of lightning, one unicorn hurling more but smaller bombs, and a blood-colored earthbound with blades strapped to every hoof and one to his tail like a scorpion. Ponies fled in panic or tried to regroup and start fighting back. "For the new queen! For Sunward Ho!" the attackers shouted.

The deer nudged Diver up. "Come on."

"Right. Kill the pegasus first?" He had the best range and plenty of stormy cloudstuff to use for ammo.

"Fine."

Diver flew up over the enemies, who were busy fighting people in the stands. There was plenty of resistance after that first moment of shock, and some of the slain were already running back into the room from the checkpoint crystal in the lobby, but most of the guests hadn't brought their weapons. Diver felt himself run out of flight power. He slammed straight down, forehooves out, to bash the pegasus mage in the head. The enemy looked up just in time to take it in the face. Diver and he crashed onto the cushioned seats and rolled, brawling.

The deer called out, "Get loose!" from somewhere nearby. Diver kicked himself free. A storm of wooden darts stabbed into the evil pegasus, making him cry out. Diver pounced and beat him so hard, the enemy flickered and died. The griffin gladiator started to come into play too, against the unicorn.

Then the scorpion-pony's blades sliced into Diver from behind, seeming to sever his hindlegs.

Diver yelped in pain and landed, intact, in the hotel lobby. Where had the enemy peggy gone? Did he save nearby? No sign of him. Diver ran back into the dome. "What the hell are you doing?" he shouted.

What the enemies were doing was systematically overpowering a bunch of equines who'd just realized there was a barrier keeping them from leaving. The lance-bearer with the flag impaled the filly who'd spun the wheel of battle traps, killing her in one hit. Then the mage-unicorn cast some sort of spell just as she died, pulling the saddlebags and axe she'd dropped into a portable hole. He did the same to the other weapons and valuables the victims had lost, in between more killing.

Several of Noctis' bodies rose as one and beat the lance-pony into submission, only to have him break free and get into a four-on-one duel. Diver broke in, but the blademaster guy sliced him to death, again.

This time it hurt more. Diver collapsed onto his belly and took a few seconds to stand. He'd lost his own saddlebags even though his deaths in the Labyrinth had only spilled their contents. That didn't matter so much as stopping this stupidity, though! He tensed to charge back into the dome, then noticed the dozen frightened ponies who filled the lobby around him. They'd respawned here after being killed. "What are you doing? Get out of here."

"We can't!" said one mare, who demonstrated by trying and failing to push open the door. A pegasus showed that the cloud-walls were impenetrable now, too.

"What, they plan to just keep killing us?"

In answer, the damn scorpion guy leaped into the lobby.

Diver rocketed at his face. Foreleg blades slashed Diver across the cheek and forced him back with a minor wound. He shook off the pain and tensed to try again.

The griffin brawler appeared, squawking, and crashed onto his back by the crystal. The deer followed one second later. Everyone looked in their direction. Diver recovered first. He charged, but the villain was a storm of jagged knives and he even had gotten his tail to be prehensile. Diver flanked him while three other innocents jumped him, only to have all four of them take major slash wounds.

Status effect: Bleeding! read text in Diver's vision. If untreated, you'll take a major wound soon.

Diver thought, Blood, in Hoofland? He looked at his right side, which dripped red. Two other horses had taken the same effect and the onlookers were shocked.

The griffin menaced the red guy, buying Diver a moment to think. "You with the antlers," said Diver. "Can you parry him?"

"I'll try, on three."

Diver and the buck rushed into the fight. The griffin was holding his own and had scored a few minor hits. The deer went headfirst and used his antlers to grapple the scorpion's forelegs and hurl him sideways to the floor. Diver kicked and stomped, and then his vision swam and he died.

It felt like time had passed. Diver woke up screaming, seemingly on fire. The worst of it passed in moments but he struggled to stand. The scorpion guy was gone, finally dead, but there were still sounds of battle in the dome beyond.

The deer helped him up again. "Sorry I didn't help you in time. Here." He touched Diver with his antlers and made them glow. The pain ebbed again. His voice was quiet over the overdriven electric guitar that still wailed through the inn.

"Thank you. What's going on?" Three of the scorpion's blades lay where their owner had fallen.

The griffin said, "They said 'a new queen'. Coup against Queen Harvest Moon?"

"All hail Harvest Moon!" said some of the bystanders.

Diver said, "Wherever these guys are respawning, it's not here. Let's finish killing them and maybe that'll break the seal on this building."

Together he and four others re-entered the dome. Or what was left of it. The ceiling had shredded and opened to the moonlight in several places, not that it seemed to let anyone escape, and the central cage had been slagged. The last enemy standing was the armored lancer, whose solar flag was torn but still standing high above his back. He bore obvious wounds that looked like cauterized gashes visible through his white coat and damaged plate armor. Nimbus was trying to kill him but not accomplishing much more than screaming obscenities from the air.

"Need someone else to fight?" Diver called out, and flew. The griffin joined him in the air with much greater speed and power, and the deer summoned another storm of arrows. Their enemy ran under the three of them, barely dodged Diver's attempt to drop on him, swung a sword in his mouth, and struck the deer along both left legs. The buck toppled to the stands and crashed into the ruined cage.

Diver and the griffin double-teamed the warrior, coming at him from every direction. It was the griffin who got in the important hit. The enemy flashed, and Diver feared there'd be some kind of wicked last-second counter, but all the guy accomplished was to teleport a few feet away. A pendant around his neck sparked and broke. The escape didn't save him; the griffin was on him again and grappling him by the neck. "Any last dramatic words?"

"Considerate of you," the stallion choked out. "Sure. In the name of Queen Sunward Ho of the East, check out your palace."

The griffin swiped him across the muzzle and he died, vanishing. The sun banner toppled to the floor along with a pile of items. A spell visibly popped around the ruined battle dome.

Diver checked on the deer, then flew warily out through the broken cloud-ceiling. "Guys, the palace is burning!" He tore down a section of the wall to make an exit there and give everyone a clear view. Noctis Castle's roofs were on fire, burning a bright purple even as pegasi pushed clouds into place and kicked rain out of them.

A furious Nimbus flapped over to Diver. "The bastards broke my arena! Magic-proof solid nopium I had to mine in a lava cave and now it's ruined!" She laid eyes on the castle, and screeched loud enough to hurt Diver's ears. "Duty calls. Coming?"

"Sure, but there's the inn to tend to."

"Didn't you see my faction flag? Come on!" She called out to the deer and griffin. "We could use you too."

When Nimbus had shown Diver her stats (apparently a bigger commitment for her than sex), Diver hadn't paid much attention to the line that said, "Faction Flag: Night Guard".

Diver followed as quickly as his hooves and wings allowed. Flames lit the town eerily from below. He and the gladiators passed a market where pegasi brought rainclouds, unicorns put up barriers and flung jets of water, and earthbound charged in wearing heavy coats. The only purple flames were on the castle, where the moat reflected their dance along the roofs and parapets. Even the stone was burning.

Nimbus had already gotten close. She turned back to look down at the others. "Witch-fire. If the queen's not putting it out, she's busy. Diver, give us a waterspout; that'll help anyway."

"How?"

Nimbus cursed. "Right. No full powers yet. How about you hurry to the throne room and help fend off whatever disaster's going on in there?"

One wall of the castle shattered and collapsed, and a beam of moonlight shot out, hurling a lion the size of a monster truck. It skidded fifty feet along the road but started to get up.

"Again?" said Nimbus.

Diver snapped out of his shock. He charged ahead and beat his hooves on the lion's flank while the deer and griffin sprang to attack it too. They were only doing minor damage, as far as Diver could tell, when it roared and body-slammed Diver face-first into the ground with two major wounds plus stunning.

It was the closest he'd come to actually dying, since he couldn't even think for a while. He lay there uselessly on the grass, feeling broken all over. Queen Harvest Moon, the pumpkin-orange mare with the tiara, now hovered on her feather-shedding phantom wings and shot a massive beam from a ghostly horn, up into the sky.

The lion looked up with a puzzled expression.

Harvest Moon said, "Apollo mirrors." Then the beam bounced down from the moon and shattered the lion into coils of purple smoke.

Diver stammered but couldn't get up. The deer told him, "Sorry. I'm out of power."

The queen glanced his way and flew down to touch him with her horn. It felt like an icicle brushing against his forehead. Cold washed through him and a notice said one of his wounds had cleared. Then Harvest Moon said, "We have to null out the castle. Carry these and build a tetrahedron." She began casting four spells at once, juggling them as each cluster of hovering sparks slowly became a silver orb. She wore elaborate dark armor that bore dents and was set with flickering gems.

Nimbus said, "A null zone? But that'll wreck your artifacts."

"Good point. Get the box behind my throne; that's all we have time for. Password 'eclipse eclair'." She returned her focus to the spells. The castle burned behind her despite the efforts of the castle guards and other townsfolk.

Nimbus saluted and flew off. When the first orb solidified like a tiny moon, the queen passed it to Diver. "Put this by the statue." She pointed to a magnificent stone zebra on the far side of the castle's gate.

Diver took it and hurried. The orb weighed like a bowling ball between his awkwardly cupped forehooves. He hopped along with his wings only useful for speed, not height.

In the distance, the queen dispatched the griffin and deer to other areas, then carried the fourth ball into the air above her keep. "Clear the area!" She blasted it with magical force and the other orbs reacted, forming a glowing three-sided pyramid that instantly shut all the flames down.

Diver had stopped noticing the fast-paced music, but now it ended with a trumpet blast like a long sigh. He rejoined Nimbus and the others by the scorched grass marking the lion's death.

The queen started to speak, coughed into one hoof, then composed herself and began again. "What, pray tell, just happened?"

Nimbus said, "Your majesty, assassins claiming to represent some 'new queen of the east' called Sunward Ho just attacked my inn. They killed people repeatedly, robbed us, wrecked the arena, and trapped me until we slew them all. I came as soon as I could. Others are handling the other fires in town."

The queen cast a spell that made runes dance around her. She expertly flipped and touched several while chanting syllables, then turned the rune-field into a diagram. "Sir griffin, if I could trouble you to check on that forest fire to the north? But first, do you know this 'Sunward Ho'? I assume she's too young to understand her unfortunate use of old slang."

"No. I serve True Sky, the real queen of the eastern Hooflands. If a usurper is causing trouble here, she might be trying to seize control of your nodes."

Nimbus spoke sidelong to Diver. "The Nobles control big mana spots to get their powers."

"Judging from my map," the queen said, "all my bases are not under attack, yet. I need to check in with my guards and ambassadors."

Nimbus said, "Of course, your highness."

"I'll be going," the griffin said, and flew off to the remaining fire.

The queen spread her wings, then paused. "Agent-Captain Nimbus, you may deputize them if you think it appropriate. You all may borrow anything in the box. We'll work out the details later." She flew off.

Nimbus's wings stood straight out. "What? I... Thanks, your majesty!"

"Promotion?" the stag asked.

She nodded. "So... Night Guard. We protect the queen and the country. It's fun. Sometimes we fight giant lions. Wanna join?"

The deer took two skittish steps back. "I'm a little busy with a quest of my own. Sorry. I live in the Hart Forest anyway."

Diver said, "I want to know more before I sign up formally, but if you need temporary help, you can deputize me all night long."

Nimbus grinned fangily and planted a kiss on Diver's nose. "I'll take you up on that. For now, we need to quit flapping around and get you your real powers. You might need them if those jerks come back."

"You might make a good buck," the deer said. "That requires a trip to my home though. I'd lead you there but it'd take too long, and I have work tomorrow afternoon."

"What are Hoofland deer like?" asked Diver.

"What are humans like, in one sentence?"

Nimbus whispered to Diver, "Deer equals coat-rack elf!"

"I heard that."

Diver smiled. "Thanks, but it sounds like I don't have time to switch paths right now if I'm going to be useful. Maybe next century."

The deer winced. "Immortals. Right. I... hope I can join you in Talespace someday."

Diver asked Nimbus, "How do I do that friend-request spell as a pegasus?"

Nimbus walked him through a few menus, so that he generated a few business cards that let him mark the deer (Kingsfoil) for future reference.

"All right," said Diver, looking at the ornate silver-and-stone chest that Nimbus had rescued from the throne room. "I take it that this box is full of magic items that would've lost their powers from that anti-magic thing the queen did? Yes? Good. My other question is, how do deer and bat-pegasi --"

"Noctrals," said Nimbus.

"Danglers, figure into this 'one of each race' rule for Mount Improbable?"

Kingsfoil the deer said, "We're roughly equivalent to your earthbound equines."

"I would've guessed unicorn, what with the forehead and the telekinesis."

"It's specialized. Perytons match up with pegasi, and our unicorn equivalents are like caribou."

Nimbus said, "We count as pegasi."

Diver thought the situation over. "If you're up for it, Kingsfoil, I'd like to do another quest right now. I'll try to grab Major Key for a unicorn, otherwise the nearest pokey bit of Noctis that I can find."

The deer said, "All right, if it doesn't take too long."

Nimbus said, "What, you want to go right now?"

Diver stamped the ground with one hoof, and grinned. "In an hour or so. We are going to heal up, drink too much coffee, figure out how to abuse that box of trinkets, and then speed-run Mount Improbable."

Kingsfoil blinked. "A racial powers quest? Those are supposed to be journeys of discovery for you uploaders, aren't they? I've read about you people getting mad when a human treats them like a video game level."

True. The Labyrinth of Night had seemed designed to teach Key what a unicorn could do, and a certain way of looking at the world. There was probably a similar lesson built into the pegasus quest. The most obvious teaching was the powers: cloud-walking, cloud-sculpting, weather control, flight. The standard arcane magic like fireballs and teleporting was mostly beyond his kind, and earthbound seemed to do most of the healing and geomancy stuff, but pegasi had magical talents too. So there'd be puzzles and fighting that encouraged him to fly up to the heavens, call down lightning, and wield mist and wind.

Around Diver, the damaged town of Noctis had gone quiet. The residents were busy cleaning up and patrolling for more danger. The castle swarmed with near-identical guards reacting to the damage. This patch of scorched lawn was just a momentary node within the story of the Hooflands, a place where he was free to fly anywhere, do anything. Being a pegasus so far had meant being swept along by events, but not helplessly. There'd been a strong wind but he'd chosen to ride it, while seeing other directions he could go. He'd been looking around at his wingmates, judging how to treat them right. His tendency was to charge headlong into battle but that was only one wind, and he was free to peel off from it and discover different ways to fly. There was adventure anywhere he cared to seek it. If that way of thinking colored his thoughts and wasn't the only reasonable way to think, so be it. He was bound only by the rules of the world and his own choices. This is what it means to have wings.

Sky Diver realized he'd shut his eyes. He opened them and smiled. "Spiritual revelation: check. Let's go abuse the dungeon and set a record for it."