Time to Experiment
Twilight was wondering why she hadn't been getting any new Skills, and so, she read through some of her Hints. It turned out that Skills had level requirements as well, so she was unlikely to learn any new ones until Lv. 10 at least. Gee, that might have been nice to find out as part of the tutorial. Sometimes her patience with this game started to wear thin, and the reminder that it had given her a second chance wore increasingly thin as well as a deterrent to her snapping and blowing up a city block before reloading her last save.
She'd found one last quest. Once she did this one, she'd have to wait until later on in the timeline for more, assuming completing it didn't make any more show up. It turned out it was another extermination, Rats and a King Rat this time.
'Rats. Carnivorous rodents that also carry diseases that they themselves are unaffected by. Numerous attempts have been made to wipe them out due to their harmful nature, but they multiply like cockroaches.
King Rat. The leader of the Rat nest, and the biggest and strongest of them. Essentially the Rat version of a wolf pack's Alpha male.'
The warehouse that she was walking through to do the quest seemed fairly quiet, she wasn't even hearing any squeaking. It was strange. The Rats should have at least shown up on the mini-map by now. She stopped a moment, there was a gap between the crates just big enough for her to squeeze through, perhaps that was where they were hiding.
She'd been very accepting of what had happened so far, but she was more than a little annoyed now. These crates shouldn't have blocked the mini-map from showing the Rats. Was the game trying to annoy her?
Once she got past the first few crates, the gap widened enough to walk normally, and then, Rats showed up, both on the mini-map, and off. An eye twitched, the game had violated it's own rules. It was on now. She was going to beat this thing if it killed her repeatedly!
If it was going to break it's own rules, then she didn't see the point in following the game's instructions. Therefore, she was going to exploit every loophole she found, and knock whoever made her life into a game down a few pegs!
She'd tolerated this nonsense before, but maybe she shouldn't have.
She wiped out the Rats with ease, venting the frustration that had slowly been building up with every little thing the game pulled, all 40 of them awarding 8 exp/bits. The King Rat was four times the normal size and had 1200 HP, but he went down fairly easily compared to the Thug Boss, awarding 80 exp/bits and 12 Skill points. She found a star in between two of the crates, awarding her another 6 Skill points. She got 100 exp for completing the quest, raising her level to 7.
She used the Stat points to raise Agi, Con, Regen. Str 40, Int 40, Agi 40, Con 40, Will 31, Regen 40, Wis 30, Chr 32, Lck 30. HP 650, Shd 50, MP 777. She used her Skill points to raise Positive Magic to 41/1000, and Combat, Resilience, and Blade-wielding to 34/1000. The descriptions changed again. For Positive Magic,
'At 40/1000 or more you're about at the level of understanding expected of a teacher at a regular school for magic.'
For Combat,
'At 30/1000 or more you're not half bad, you can take care of the small fry well enough if you're not swarmed under.'
For Resilience,
'At 30/1000 or more, you can take hits better than a large number of people, really weak attacks don't even hurt you anymore.' And for Blade-wielding 'At 30/1000 or higher, you could train some of the unskilled, not many, but some. You can at least hold out against a master for a minute or so.'
Now, she was going to look for stars with extreme prejudice. There had to be more than three in the city. Though now that she'd finished all the quests in the area, she'd have a lot more free time.
She'd read nearly every book that was at her house or in any library besides the one in the palace, which she couldn't just waltz into right now. She could only find a few books that she hadn't already read at least once at the market, though there were significantly more that she hadn't read twice.
She searched high, she searched low, she searched the best neighborhoods, and she searched the worst. Every basement, every attic, every alley, and every nook and cranny. She got 2 more stars for her trouble, rather small for her investment of time and effort, but maybe the game was designed to keep her from advancing any further until later on. Well it could go to Tartarus! She was advancing whether it liked it or not!
Str 42, Int 42, Agi 42, Con 42, Will 33, Regen 42, Wis 32, Chr 34, Lck 32. HP 670, Shd 50, MP 803. She raised Positive Magic to 47/1000, and Combat, Resilience, and Blade-wielding to 36/1000 with the Skill points. Perhaps she ought to raise the other Stats at the end with Lck when she got the chance, they were getting comparatively low.
She was reduced to re-reading her old books again, and experimentation to improve her knowledge. Before she knew it, she was just a month prior to the age of 5. Now, she was studying when Cadance first visited, just like the first time.
"Ah, you're here," Midnight Velvet, Twilight's mother, said as Cadance arrived.
Her parents had been juggling the days they could take off with each other and the breaks Shining Armor had in guard training to keep an eye on her, but as far as they knew, she was capable of going off by herself for an hour or so at a time. So, they could go to work, and leave watching her to a babysitter, who was especially trustworthy since she was a princess.
Celestia had wanted to keep the newest addition from getting snobby, so she was allowed minimal access to royal funds, and had to work for a living like normal ponies. Twilight had always thought this an over-reaction considering Cadance's personality, but then again, she didn't have to deal with Blueblood very often and Celestia had far more experience and wisdom.
Huh, now she found herself wondering what Celestia's level and Wis Stat would be in the game.
"She's usually very quiet, but some of her experiments with magic get a bit out of hoof. Also, she's got a habit of heading out for a walk every now and then. Be sure to keep an eye on her if she wants to go out for one," Twilight's father, Night Light, said.
They hurried off for work, they'd hit their limit of vacation days. Twilight looked up from her book as Cadance approached.
"Hi there, I'm Cadance, your new babysitter," Cadance said.
"Yes, and you're also my first babysitter," Twilight said, some enthusiasm entering her voice. She was slowly getting her old friends and acquaintances back. She'd missed everyone, especially Spike. She was never taking his existence for granted again.
"So, do you want to study, or play a game?" Cadance asked, encouraged by her charge's excitement.
"What kind of game?" Twilight asked, setting the book down after marking her place with a book mark.
"Hide-and-seek tag. It's like hide-and-seek, but you have to tag whoever's hiding," Cadance said.
Now, Twilight was mentally in her twenties, but she hadn't seen Cadance in so long, what was the harm in humoring her? Besides, just because she hadn't played in a long time, and the game was meant for kids, didn't mean it wouldn't be fun. She nodded an affirmative.
"Great! You hide first, I'll count to 20, and then come find you," Cadance said. Cadance turned around and covered her eyes, then started counting. Twilight hurried up the stairs. She knew a great hiding spot.
*** 10 minutes later ***
"Aw, you found me." Twilight said mournfully. Cadance was better at finding her than she remembered.
"Well, now it's your turn," Cadance said cheerily.
"Alright, I'll count to 20 too," Twilight said.
After she counted to 20, it only took her 2 minutes to find Cadance. Granted Cadance's greater size and being less familiar with the house put her at a distinct disadvantage.
They played some board games after that which Twilight usually won.
It was a lot of fun, so Twilight was surprised when her parents got back. She was sorry to see Cadance leave, but she'd be back tomorrow.
"So, how was your day?" Midnight Velvet asked.
"We played some games, it was fun," Twilight responded.
A week after her birthday, they were all at the park for the day, which hadn't happened in her baseline. It was a lot of fun. They had a picnic and played a whole bunch of games. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had this much fun.
The months flew by, and before she knew it, it was only a week before her parents had shown her the accepted application to Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Which would be the day after her sixth birthday.
Her parents set a test on magical theory down in front of her. "Dear, could you take this test?" Midnight Velvet asked.
She set her book down, this one full of notes on her experiments, and completed the test in less than five minutes. She'd already gotten way past this stuff, it would be an insult to the princess if she hadn't gotten to the point where this stuff didn't challenge her anymore.
"Done," she said, handing it back.
Her parents looked it over, and their eyes widened.
"Is something wrong?" she asked. Perhaps she'd grown complacent and answered one of them wrong.
"No, nothing's wrong, you did great," Night Light reassured.
*** Later that evening ***
"I can't believe she answered all of those, and that fast. They're supposed to be difficult for foals that age, and she wasn't even fazed," Night Light said, amazed.
"Well, she's definitely going to be accepted now, they only expect a foal to be able to answer two or three questions, not all ten," said Midnight Velvet.
"She's going to freak out over the entrance exam," Night Light warned.
"One thing at a time," Midnight Velvet answered.
*** A week later ***
Twilight was waiting for the news, and was wondering how to go about this. She had no idea how much magic would be required to hatch Spike, but she'd rather not go into a Surge again. She really didn't want to turn her parents into plants again. Ironic that she'd done so, while she'd only made the examiners levitate. Turning Spike into a full-grown dragon made little sense, but Surges rarely did.
A Surge was what happened to somepony who lost control over their magic, usually from overextending themselves. It went wild and did things completely randomly.
Still, she couldn't actually do anything about it right now. Somehow, that didn't make her feel better.
Her parents walked into the room and proudly displayed the acceptance letter.
Despite her worries over what she should do in the exam, she acted ecstatic for her parents' sake. She knew they'd wanted this to be a birthday gift. She was actually happy about it as well, she could talk to Celestia about all this if nothing else, and she did miss her mentor.
Of course, she'd have to make the game mechanics visible to her somehow. Wait a minute, she'd gotten several stars, perhaps she'd unlocked a Cheat that did exactly that.
When she went to bed, the save menu opened automatically. It had four options. Save, Load, Main Menu, and Exit. As usual, she selected Save, as she did every day when she went to bed. Unlike normal, she didn't select Exit after that. Instead, she selected Main Menu.
Instantly, her surroundings were replaced by an empty black void. The same four lines of text appeared a moment later, and a new one, Cheats.
'Unlocked Helpful Twilight. This version of Twilight likes to help others, and she'll do anything to help her friends. Unlocked by completing at least 10 Side quests.'
She selected Cheats, and a list opened. Most of the cheats were still '???' but a few here and there were available.
One in particular caught her eye. Visibility, which would allow her to make the game mechanics visible to others by raising said visibility. This was exactly what she'd been looking for.
She turned it on, but kept the visibility at 0% for now, rendering them only visible to her.
She didn't think the average pony would believe her, they'd think she was crazy.
She exited Cheats, and Loaded her last save, before going to sleep.
*** The next day ***
Shining Armor walked past his sister's room. She was reading a large book that he didn't even understand half of, and had a look of intense concentration on her face.
She was writing furiously on her paper, barely even looking at the notebook as she took notes.
He headed downstairs and asked his parents, "Why is Twilight studying like a madmare? She studies hard normally, but that seemed kind of extreme."
"She got her acceptance letter yesterday. She was thrilled at first, but she got like that after we told her about the entrance exam. After her initial freak out anyway," Night Light said.
"Oh, yeah, that would do it. Still, should she be studying things at that level? I don't understand half of some of those books," Shining Armor asked.
"She's just reached that level where we can't correct her homework anymore," Midnight Velvet said, half-joking.
*** 1 week later ***
She spent the next week studying like crazy. She wanted to be ready for them to teach her the best spells. Finally, it was the day of the entrance exam.
'Chapter Progress: 1 quest complete. 700 exp to next level. 3 stars found.'
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Meh you could refer to her as Velvet. But in any case good thing you did.
4546734 I think most people call her Velvet. I know I do.
4537999 Dude i think you're over-reacting... i wouldn't like it if it became overly analytic about the game world. In any case i think we're too early in Twilight's new life for the fic to delve on WHY her life is a video game. I believe we are gonna get some asnwers next chapter.
at level 7 a parent can't correct their child's homework anymore?
4551488 Most foals dont go around defeating bosses and leveling up early either, and she does have memories from her past life, and some bonus stats that helped her complete some missions, if she failed the spider mission without the bonus stats she might have given up on side quests perhaps, then be at a more normal level with less reading material.
Okay, it's true that I find the idea of this "visibility cheat" to be massively overly convenient... and not very "cheat like" come to think of it (you'd think a cheat would be something more along the lines of the ability to turn invisible or walk through walls or have infinite ammo or something equivalent to that... or something along those lines).
That said, it feels like this chapter is a step in the right direction. After starting out with more stat grinding and excessive water cooler talk (as I'm taking to calling it since it's similar to how people talk about games they've played on their break around the water cooler), it at least feels like it might end up going somewhere sometime soon in regards to character and logical progression. It feels like we might actually get something a little more like a narrative once we actually get Twilight into contact with Celestia. That said, her character has taken a turn for the weird at best.
At worst, she's an entirely bland character at the moment. At best... she's sociopathic. Now that she knows that "it's all a game" she seems to be merely acting a part, given the way you described her acceptance to the Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns Exam as merely 'acting excited for her parents' sake.' This is why I wish you'd show her reacting to her general situation as a whole more... and by more I mean at all.
I'm merely mentioning that at the moment. I don't know where you intend to go with Twilight's character, if anywhere at all.
Alright, now for my thoughts on this chapter.
I'm not sure I understand this. Why is she suddenly no longer able to learn skills until level 10? That doesn't make any sense with the way it's worked up to this point. It honestly feels like another attempt at preventing her from actually getting stronger.
Again, this doesn't make sense given the way the story has worked so far. It seems like literally anything can be a quest, from doing some chores to giving directions. Now it's saying she can't do anything else until "later on in the timeline" (whatever that means)? There's literally nothing she can do, anywhere, that would count as a quest? Again, it feels like another artificial restraint.
You know, I think I'm just going to entertain myself and say that the plot this story is no longer Twilight's life being a game, but Twilight's life directed by the Narrator from the Stanley Parable.
Finally:
Again, there is basically no consistency at all, and it's become more and more irritating to read. If she can tank attacks better than most others (again, really vague) at 30, then is she basically able to retroactively stop attacks from happening at, what, 90? 456? 928?
Stop throwing all of these meaningless numbers and stats at us. They don't have any really impact on Twilight (although, with how bland Twilight's characterization is, I'm not sure if that surprises me), and it reads like a list more than a story. This entire story reads more like a game guide than a story. Ironically enough, the only decent characterization I've seen so far in this story has been from Celestia instead of Twilight, and she's only had like a single scene so far. I just can't find myself able to care for any of these characters because they all act like cardboard cutouts instead of the ponies we love from the show. I know it's been said, but Twilight is especially off here and acts nothing like the actual Twilight.
Great. Now I can't help but hear the narrator's voice when I'm reading this.
"Babysitter" should probably be "foalsitter".
Mayhew's Log: Time to Experiment... Yeah remember my last comment about rats... you just shut your mouth... well... onward and upward, allons y!
4547206 But... Twilight's an existing character. Who had a life, friends, a family, a purpose. She dies trying to save her mentor and realizes that her life was a game, everything she did could be measured on a point system, reality was controlled by some forces greater than Celestia or Discord themselves, other worlds exist, and she can select the own circumstances for her life. Which she can live again and again and again. And go back to previous save points. And live as multiple selves simultaneously.
How does she react to these worldview-shattering realizations?
"Oh, okay, let's pick this one."
That. That, right there, is where my SoD went right through the window, and Twilight hasn't shown any more character since. She's acting like she was always a PC now, going quest-hunting and exp grinding with only afterthoughts to the world around her when it doesn't lead directly to her own statistical improvement. Twilight is an emotional, intellectual, and loving individual, and she did not react to finding that her life was essentially a replayable lie at all. It just gets worse - she starts doing everything for experience instead of the sake of doing them, throwing her old attitudes about friendship and family out the window. She starts killing things on a regular basis and the only thing that seems to bother her about it is that burnt spiders smell bad. She stops caring about life as life, and starts caring about it as a game. And this would be okay - if we had seen Twilight break down as a character because of the awful revelation she just had, and re-emerge with a new, hardened, embittered perspective. This does not happen.
4576756
Now, I can accept her having run out of quests in the current stage of the game. A lot of games work like that. Open-ended RPGs like TES or Fallout rarely do, with most quests not operating on time/causal restrictions. But in a game like Fable or Dishonored, you'll be moving along missions or eras with their own quests, characters, and opportunities - separate slices of the game in a chronological chain. There is a finite amount of stuff you can do in each segment before you just need to move on with the main quest, and if you don't do all the sidequests/collect all the items in that mission/area/time before you progress with the main quest, they're often Lost Forever. Completion may or may not affect opportunities and characters in future segments. I'm operating off the assumption that Twilight has exhausted the game's quests for the Young Filly Twilight section, and that the only thing left for her to do is advance past the magic exam, which is the next stage in the main quest. This will open up new opportunities and quests for her.
This would be a point in this story's favor if the game didn't throw 'take out griffon bandits' at the four-year-old Twilight segment. Housework and chores and helping tourists? Fitting. Clearing out monsters and ridding crime? Uh, what.
I agree with everything else you said entirely, but that one doesn't totally bother me because I can actually make sense out of it. The rest of it, either Twilight isn't reacting properly to things, or the game has double standards on how to treat her.
Visibility Cheat... how is this a cheat? It's a mode, kind of like the 'Realism Mode' I've been harping about. But that's not a cheat. A cheat is like invincibility or phasing through walls or instant killing. This is an entirely new game mechanic. Cheats are manipulation of existing game mechanics in ways they aren't meant to be used by the player.
We all hated when this happened.
It... seems like she's taken more of a Warrior/Battlemage build this time around instead of just pure Mage. Is there a point to this, story-wise?
I agree with some of the others here. In the story sections, it needs more story and fewer stats. You could always save the stats for the end of the chapter, like the Perk Unlocks in Fallout: Equestria...
Onward!
4623166
4568939
To both of your concerns about the 'Visibility cheat' not being a cheat...
How many time have you been collecting some sort of super hard-to-find item in a game, where collecting enough means unlocking cheats, only for these 'cheats' to just be stuff like 'Big Head Mode' or 'Zombie Apocalypse(all enemies look like zombies)'? I think it's operating under the same principle: something that doesn't necessarily drastically change the game.
"I was going to abuse every loophole"
Good for you twi. Good for you.
Did I not see the Comedy Tag?
Ah Twi I understand! Sometimes you just want to stick it to the game and it's makers lol!
2x its
I know this is an old story, but having read through Chapter 4 it's starting to look like Twilight might be powering-up too much to stay close to her base timeline... If Celestia discovers her new-found skills, Twilight might end up as the Captain of the Royal Guard instead of her brother, for instance.
You know, i think the surge is what brought Twi to Celestia’s attention, right? So... if she doesn’t surge, then what would happen?
Ahem. It should be noted that the fleas some of the rats carry happen to carry the diseases. #notallrats.
This reminds me...
(Award yourself +10 Internets for catching the reference.)
Why the fuck not? ;] It tends to turn that frown upside-down!
And now we know how Pinkie Pie stays sane:
Quicksaving...Thank you!
de seguro seria el Maximo disponible en casi todo solo con algo bastante bajo como 5k porque no le intereso mucho o no podia subirlo... y si tal vez 0 en magia negativa, pero con Celestia en el Pony verso nunca se sabe