Who Are You Anyways?
Light Chill’s POV
The Next Morning, Jan 30th
In Ponyville
After we forced ourselves awake from the boss room, we packed all the treasure it was guarding before jogging for the exit. Not including the shield Blitz picked up, there were so many Bits and cool stuff piled there that I’m pretty sure Gray was drooling from the value of it all.
The walk home was quiet since we were at full health and we had two high level players, Sarge and Siren, with us. We marched through the zombies, Gray led us around the traps, and we were back at Ponyville faster than it took to get to the Graves.
Once we started passing buildings, everyone split up to sleep for the rest of the night. We promised that we’d meet up in the restaurant underneath the hotel we stayed at. From there, we’d figure out how to relax for a while.
Except, I decided to get a head start on that. Sitting down at one of the bigger tables, to guard it from the other players, I was enjoying my third milkshake. I mean, we are swimming in Bits now.
So over the next minute, I sipped up every last drop of strawberry shake from the bottom of my glass. I didn’t even care if the sipping sound was getting on other player’s nerves. I only stopped when I was sure I got everything out of the glass before letting it clank on the table.
“I needed that,” I admitted to no one with a sigh.
“Hello. I noticed your glass is empty,” a male voice told me. “Would you like a refill?”
I glanced over my shoulder and spotted one of the waiter ponies walking over to me. He came over every time I emptied my glass. Like a hero.
“Yes please.” I beamed. When I saw him about to open his mouth I already knew what he would say. The same thing he said the last two times. “Any flavor’s fine, thank you.”
The pony blinked before closing his mouth and nodding. “Very well. I’ll add it to your bill.” With that, he walked off to bring me round four.
Another man’s voice, one deeper than the waiter, chuckled. “I see you’re enjoying yourself.”
I looked up and my smile widened. “Sarge, Siren! Hey!”
The two of them stayed at a different hotel so they were coming in through the entrance before taking a seat at my table. Good thing too. One or two players were eyeballing this table for a while.
“Gotta admit, I didn’t expect you to be the first one awake,” Siren said. She didn’t wear her usual scowl. “Then again, you did sleep the entire way here.”
“You kidding?” I raised an eyebrow. “You try sleeping on someone’s back through a forest. I had to make sure I didn’t fall off the entire time.”
“You were snoring,” Sarge told me.
“Well, duh. If Alex thought I was awake he would have made me walk.“
“...You little brat,” Siren said bore a smirk for a moment.
I stuck my tongue out and shrugged as the AI waiter dropped off my fourth milkshake and took their orders while I started slurping the shake down.
As the waiter left, the others noticed this confused look on my face. “What’s wrong kid?” Siren asked.
“It’s just. It’s tastes...different,” I told them, tapping the glass to pull up the display. Since it was just a milkshake, all that showed up was the name. “Coffee milkshake? Alex said coffee always tastes terrible.”
“That’s because it does.”
From the stairs, Alex and Gray stood at the base of the stairs with death in their eyes. Meanwhile, Fleur walked past both of them and sat at the table, as ready for the day as I was.
I frowned. “I don’t know.” I paused to sip it again and take a moment to think. “I mean, strawberry’s still better but...It’s kinda good?”
Gray skulked over to the bar to get her own coffee while Alex rubbed his eyes. “That’s because morning people like you are aliens. I will believe nothing el....” Alex tried forcing himself not to yawn, and failed, before shambling over to sit next to me.
After a few minutes, everyone got something to drink, with me getting a second coffee shake, and finally began looking more alive.
“Oh yeah.” Alex’s eyes snapped awake as if he suddenly regained consciousness. “Sarge. Was there any news on King?”
“Oh yeah. Guess we should get that outta the way,” he murmured. “Unfortunately, no. With the inn we stayed at, Siren and King each wanted their own room while Kal and I shared a third. The inns have a system where you can ask whether someone's in their assigned room or staying at that specific inn. Apparently, King checked out early.”
My eyes widened a little. “Does that mean he could be anywhere?”
“Doubt it,” Gray muttered, sipping her coffee before wiping an eye. “Oct gave me an update. Every Info Dealer and admin know about him now. Admins are holding back on telling people what really happened. So far, they’re only talking about King trying to trap us in an overleveled area. But we miraculously escaped,” she concluded with a mocking tone.
“Doesn’t that mean people are gonna find out about the Graves sooner?” Alex asked. “Isn’t that gonna hurt your bottom line?” He used air quotes around his last two words.
“On the contrary.” Gray gave a sinister smirk. “Every Dealer wants to buy what I know on that Guardian. I’ll give it to Oct for what he did to help us but it’s my info to sell now.”
“Wow. That’s...scummy,” Siren insulted.
“Eh.” Gray shrugged, dropping the smirk. “If people don’t know what to expect they’ll either go in overprepared or not at all. No maps of the place have been sold yet so the underprepared won’t know where it is.”
Sarge gave her a long look before shaking his head. “Back on topic; King’s gone. On the way back last night, he sent me another message. Sparing you his exact words, he was paranoid. He accused us of selling him out or asked how we even did that. He probably saw people looking for him.
“Which reminds me.” Sarge pulled up his menu and after a few buttons, we saw him open up a private message with a picture taken of Ponyville at night. He took it on the way back from the Graves.
To: KingDingBing
We got out.
[Picture Attached]
That was the message Sarge sent to King. After he hit ‘Send’, he took a sip of his own coffee. “If he’s already going into hiding, we may as well give him a real reason.”
“Now who’s being scummy,” Gray fired back.
Sarge said nothing. Instead, his eyes focused back on his menu before he let out some cross between a chuckle and a huff. “Well look at that. He unfriended me.”
“Maybe if we run outside we’ll see his dust cloud leaving town,” Siren proposed but she dismissed the thought in exchange for more coffee. “Then again, chasing after him won’t solve anything.”
My brow furrowed. Wait. Why not?
“You’re probably right,” Alex admitted with a frown. “He might have more than those two guys. Not to mention there’s not much you could do even if you caught him.”
“We’ll have to come up with an answer first,” Sarge admitted. “Until then, we’re going to stay inside this town for a few days. We’ve had enough excitement for a while.”
“Yeah. I wanna break too,” I admitted. “I was almost eaten and stomped to death yesterday. I want a day where I don’t have to fight things.”
Saying that made my throat feel tight. Especially when Alex and the others stared at me without saying anything. So instead of staring back, I closed my eyes and drank my milkshake.
I probably shouldn’t have said that out loud, I thought.
“Uh. Y-Yeah. He’s right.” Alex sounded unsure. “I know we’re lower leveled than we should be but we need some time to cool our nerves before we go to Ruined Castle.”
“Wait. You still want to go there?” Gray looked at him. “Alex, if this is about what I wanted, forget it. Even after we split the loot, I’ll have more than enough to set up in Canterlot. Plus there’s all the side-quests no one’s discovered yet.”
“Joey woke up when I brought him to our room,” Alex informed her. Not my name. “We talked for a bit and...We think we’re going to go anyway. Even if you don’t want us to.”
Gray gave him a look. “Why?”
“Well, we’re both still kinda weak,” I answered for him. “Alex said everyone’s already above level seven now.”
“The leveling system,” Alex clarified. “Reaching level seven’s easy. The game asks for a low amount of XP. It’s why I leveled up twice.” As he said that, he gestured up towards the level sitting beside his name. It was level six now.
Everyone, except Sarge, had leveled up after the Guardian. Gray and I were level seven, Fleur level eight, Alex was six, Sarge nine and Siren ten. Not only that, Alex finally got his ability.
“Let me guess; that’s when the abilities show up?” Siren sat back. Alex gave her a simple nod and drank his orange juice.
“Right, there was some sort of range,” Sarge remembered. “Abilities are from level four to seven. King kept bringing it up since his ability came at seven. Said that meant it was powerful.”
“That’s what some believe,” Gray jumped in. “But there’s no proof. Some think the game gives it to you when it thinks you’ve earned it. I think it’s just random.”
“What was King’s ability?” Alex asked.
“It's called King’s Men,” Sarge stated formally. “It allows him to summon basic guards to do what he wants. Most of the time he had them take a strong hit for him. But he’d give commands every now and then too.”
“That is pretty strong,” Alex admitted. “But you’re telling me he wasted it on soaking damage?”
“Looking back on it, it seems cruel.” Sarge’s brow furrowed further. “He sacrifices them like they’re nothing, even if they look like ponies like us. It makes me wonder if it’s desensitizing him to it all.”
I saw Gray and Alex blanch from how Sarge explained it but that only made me more confused. What’s de-sin-sitting mean?
When she noticed the awkward silence threatening us, Siren tapped her hoof on the center of the table and started scowling again. It made us feel more uneasy.
“Okay. Look. Can we...not talk about that guy anymore?” She asked. “I wanted to. I wanted. To talk about...something else...um...” Her stern expression started shrinking just as she was doing in her chair.
“Oh yeah.” Gray blinked. “You were the one who wanted us to talk in the morning. So, what is it?”
“Erm. Right, well.” Siren started to stammer as her ears fell flat against her head. And on her magenta face, her cheeks started turning light pink.
Suddenly, Alex tried to keep himself from laughing. “Oh, that’s unfortunate. The game has a blushing system in it.”
“It what.” Siren went wide eyed, tapping her cheeks for a second.
“Woah. Never seen that before.” Sarge blinked. “Didn’t expect it from Siren either.”
“You. Sh-shut up.” Siren started grinding her teeth and scowled at nothing in particular. As if she were trying to scare the game into taking the blushing away. Too bad it was making it more obvious.
She let us all laugh off her misfortune before letting us go with a sigh. “Alright. Sure. It’s funny. We’re done laughing now.”
“Sorry, sorry,” Alex excused. The smile didn’t fall off any of our faces though. “Won’t happen again.”
Siren watched him for a moment, trying to figure out whether or not he was telling the truth before she took a deep breath. “Good. In that case..."
She straightened up in her seat and looked over each of us for a second. “Hello. My real name is Kaylee Depalma. I live in Texas, I’m in the Air Force, and..." She visibly swallowed her pride as her blush came back. “...I got engaged...A few weeks ago...”
“Engagée?” Fleur’s expression slowly widened to match the rest of us. “Vous êtes une fiancée?”
Siren’s blush remained as she shuffled in her chair. “Yeah. Err...Oui. I have a fiancé.”
“You never talked about that,” Sarge spoke slowly. “You never said any of that before.”
“Right, well. I am now,” she gave out shortly. “I don’t like talking about myself. I don’t hang around people either, but. Well, after yesterday...you know.”
“...What’s his name?” Gray gave her a small smile.
“Derrick.” Siren’s scowl broke into a smile. “I went to the movie’s by myself all the time. One day I went to this really bad movie and wanted to skip it but Derrick’s one of those guys who isn’t shy to rip on movies mid-showing. By the end, he was funnier than the dumpster fire I paid to sit through. And a week later when we ended up both paying for the same movie, we made it a date.”
Then she frowned. "He was a fan of cartoons and games. I thought it was weird for someone in his mid-twenties like me but, whatever.” She shrugged. “It wasn’t a bad hobby and it didn’t control his life. But then he told me about this VR game where ‘you’re the adventurer.’ After he convinced me to ignore the weird cartoon horse thing, we made matching accounts. Siren and Dragon Tale. But only one of the VR systems got delivered on time.”
When she paused, Gray frowned. “You went in first. Didn’t you?”
She looked like she was about to scowl again but it weakened into another sad smile. “He baited me into it. Asked if I would just give the game an honest to God shot. Then he said I was too uptight. He’s right, obviously, but, still, fuck that, right?” She noticed me for a second and put a hoof to her mouth. “Err, I mean, eff that.”
I gave her the neutral face of displeasure but said nothing.
“So I went in. Thought I’d play two hours and prove him wrong. But...I got hooked,” I she admitted. “Ran into Sarge not long after and found out not everyone here were huge diehards of this cartoon. We started wrecking house...Then the God monster showed up.”
We all let her have a moment of silence as she scowled at the ground. “Still...Better me than him, right?” She picked herself up and tried to wear a fake smile. “Derrick’s kind of a pansy when he’s under pressure. My one friend and his dozen say we’re a good balance.”
“You never told us that,” Sarge repeated. It was all he could say.
“Yeah? I just did,” she told him. “And...I feel...Really weird that I just said all of that to people I met yesterday. So...yep.”
At this point, the AI waiter walked up to our table. “Hello everypony,” he began as if he couldn’t feel all the tension at the table. Oh wait. “I noticed your glasses are em—”
“Yes,” I cut him off. Siren looked really uncomfortable. “We’d all like refills. All the same thing we had before. Thanks. Bye.”
The pony stared at me, opening and closing its mouth as it blinked a few times. Finally, when it was done pretending to be a fish, he nodded. “I’ll add it to your bill,” was all he said before leaving us alone.
“Thanks.” Siren gave me a small smile. I smiled in return.
Before she had to face the others, Gray put her hoof out in the middle of the table like Siren did. “Hello. My real name is Gwen Peters. Louisiana. I am...Well, was a waitress. Probably got fired since I’m stuck in here,” she joked. A few of us smirked.
“I tried streaming video games,” she went on. “I wasn’t making that much in my job and I didn’t go to college for...reasons.” She looked like she was going to stop talking but kept on. “I only had, like, two dozen subscribers. Not much. But when I found out about this new VR console, I figured I’d try being one of the first to stream it.
“I buried myself in learning as much as I could so I could hit the ground running. There wouldn’t be public recording or streaming options until a month after release so I had time to get some experience. Literally and figuratively. However.” She did a sweep motion with her hooves. “You can imagine how that panned out.”
“I heard about that.” Alex leaned back. “There’s supposed to be reviewers and a small group of players with access to stream and record their game while they play. I wonder if they’re able to send videos.”
“No,” Gray lamented. “I heard about one of those guys. It was someone who wrote reviews for a big name...GIN, I think?” GIN? Is that how that name’s spelled? “They admitted they could still record but the footage couldn’t be sent anywhere. Something about no connection.”
Sarge groaned. “That AI thought of everything, huh?”
“Kind of answered your own question,” Alex told him. “It’s an AI.” Then he moved to put his hoof in the middle of the table. “I’ll go next I guess. My name’s Alex Vaughn. I’ve finished a little over half of high school.”
Alex took a minute telling his own story like Gray and Siren did. He talked about how our Dad was a huge MMO fan with a blog. Then how Dad let both of us go first since we really wanted to play. Then he brought up our Mom being a news reporter too.
“Is she on national news?” Sarge asked.
“No. Nothing big,” Alex backed down. “But. Back on the first day, when Discord had all those TV reports floating around him? Our Mom was in one of them. She was reporting it.”
Siren went still for a moment. “You don’t think that freak actually knew that, do you?”
“I hope not.” Alex slumped. “I mean, he had dozens of broadcasts floating around him. I‘m hoping it was a really bad coincidence.”
When he felt the questions were over, Sarge brought his green hoof out. “My turn. Hello everyone. My name’s George Mendoza. Kentucky. I’m in the Army. A sergeant, specifically.”
“A sergeant?!” Alex went wide-eyed. “Why did I take charge of the boss fight then?”
A lightbulb went off in my head. “Is that why you go by Sarge?”
“Sort of.” He smirked. “When Kal asked what I did, I told him. So he started calling me Sarge. I wanted him to stop but it didn’t sit right to say my real name at the time. And Sardinexx is a mouthful so...Sarge it is.”
“What got you stuck in here?” Siren asked. “My fiancé, Gray’s money problems, Alex’s family. What’s your thing?”
He chuckled. “I know one of the programmers. She invited me to buy the game when she found out I was looking for a new hobby. I’m a little old for games like this but I used to play MMOs years ago. And she made a good argument at the time. Knowing Lindsay, she’s probably sitting out there blaming herself for all of this.”
“I can get that.” Alex frowned. “Anyone on this game’s gotta be either terrified they’ll get in trouble or blaming themselves.”
Sarge shook his head. “She had nothing to do with it. She’s a graphic’s designer. She designed plants. Aside from maybe designing those Timberwolves, she never put the players in danger.”
The group started looking towards me and Fleur to see who would go next. But Fleur quickly took her chance and threw her hoof forward. Fine by me. My fifth milkshake had just arrived.
“...Hi,” she started, instantly looking anxious. “Je...My name. Is...Rachelle Simon.” She paused as she tried thinking of what else to say. “My. Family. Louis-i-ana. Erm, Gwen home.”
“My home?” Gray blinked. “Oh. You mean like me. You live in Louisiana, like me,” she tried to connect the dots.
“Erm. Non. No. My. Home is France. Amboise.” When she saw how none of us seemed to recognize the town name, she sighed with a strained smile.
“Paris,” she said, holding her hoof up in the air. “Now. Amboise.” Next, she held her second hoof below the first and a little to the left.
“South of Paris,” Sarge deciphered. When we each realized that, Fleur giggled at our reactions.
“Why’d you say Louisiana?” Gray raised an eyebrow as the waiter came back with more drinks.
Fleur thought about it for a moment. “Cousine Frankie. El...She. Video game player. I go to America. My family...My unicorn.” She paused to gesture to herself. “Is...She?”
The group took a little longer trying to figure that one out before Alex tried. “Your cousin plays video games. You went to America because of your family. So it was your cousin that got the game. Which means..." It dawned on him. “You’re on her account.”
“Is that possible?” Gray thought about it for a second. “The headset is voice activated.”
“It wouldn’t matter,” Alex told her. “You sign in with your computer. After that, the headset checks to see if someone’s wearing it and then waits for the voice activation. It doesn’t mean you have to be wearing the headset. Just be close enough for it to hear you.”
“Then Rachelle’s cousin signed her in for her.” Siren looked over at her. “Rachelle didn’t even know what she was getting put into.”
Sarge folded his hooves together. “I’m pretty sure none of you would much care for politics, but a French kid trapped in an American game? That’s probably not going so well in reality right now.”
“Oh. Right,” Alex stressed. “The game’s servers are only in America. If Rachelle's still here, she’s still in America.”
Fleur kept glancing back and forth at every word she seemed to recognize. After Alex said her name, she started growling. “Stop,” she said.
Alex flinched. “S-Sorry. If she can’t understand us, it probably feels like we’re talking behind her back.”
Fleur turned to him and glared for a moment before taking one of his hooves in both of hers. The funny blushing thing showed up on Alex now. “Wo-Woah. Rachelle?”
“Please,” she said. “I...I...I English. I...ugh.” She growled again, trying to find something to say.
“You...Want to talk English?” Alex tested.
“Oui. Yes. Talk. I talk English. Please,” she begged. “Alex. Aider my talk English. Please.”
“Aid. You. Me teach English?” Alex looked more worried. “How would I teach English?”
“Très. Petite. Very. Little,” she spoke, somehow catching Alex’s attention. “Tu ‘très petite’ Français. Oui?”
“But...I can’t be the only one that knows some French. Right guys?” Alex tried looking around at us for help.
Siren shrugged. “I took Spanish in high school.”
“I forgot all my Spanish in high school,” Sarge admitted.
Gray frowned when he looked at her. “I admitted I didn’t go to college. What do you want from me?”
When Alex turned to me, his own eight-year old brother, I laughed in his face.
“I’m. I’m the only one.” Alex turned back to see Fleur looking at him with determination. So he sighed. “Okay. Fine. Yes. I’ll try.”
“Yes? Yes? Yes!” Fleur pulled him in for a hug before teetering in her chair, brimming in glee as Alex struggled to find the right way to say anything.
“Heh. Well, while he's putting his curriculum together.” Siren looked at me. “What about you, kid? Who are you anyways?”
Alex’s stammering went flat as he looked between me and Siren. When I locked eyes with him, he got uncomfortable.
Sorry Alex, I thought. I...I’m not.
I looked back at Siren and gave her a sad smile. “Sorry, but, I’m Light Chill right now.”
Both her and Sarge gave me these odd looks. Yeah, I thought they wouldn’t go along with that. “It’s kind of hard to explain. I don’t get it either,” I admitted. “But. When I say I’m Light Chill, everything’s just easier. Like I’m not...Well...It just helps.
“So hi,” I introduced myself, smiling a little bigger. “I’m Light Chill."
I wish I could explain that better. But I can’t. I'm sorry.
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I'm really excited to read Rachelle's trials of learning English and I hope the Rachelle/Fleur can push though them.
10636851
As someone who had to go to school with someone who's English wasn't very strong, had to sit next to and explain/translate on what the teacher said and what was on the book, make sure you have a lot of patience, smart on putting aside extra time, know your stuff, and be creative on how you present a word they have no context to. It was hard, but rewarding in knowing I helped someone.