Chapter 12: Masterwork
"Hey Pinkie?"
Her voice seemed a little sleepy, or at least muzzy, as she replied.
"Mmmh."
"Can I run something by you?"
"Mmmhhmm."
Spike rattled off the description of the item, trying to soak it in a little better himself as he did. It let him... make something, that much was clear. But what exactly did "beyond their current potential" mean, in the terms of the game? Would it let him ignore a recipe, skill requirements... Would it let him ignore materials? Even at the worst case, this still let him make a skill outright, maybe even of his own design. And given that it was labelled 'Mythic', the odds were it was going to be a lot more than just that. This wasn't something he could afford to waste.
It sounded like that woke Pinkie up a bit, and she wriggled under him.
"That's a doozie alright. And you're looking for advice on how to un-doozie it?"
"That's one way to put it. I'm kinda wondering if I should use it at all, honestly."
"Aw Spike, don't be that guy who just sits on all of his items until the endgame and leaves the final boss arena with like, two hundred potions."
"No, no! I mean I'm wondering if you should use it."
Pinkie sat bolt-upright at that, causing him to fall even further backwards, sprawling across her barrel. He quickly stood himself, getting off to avoid causing any embarrassment: Resting against her side like that was probably not as OK as he had thought, given how she was blushing.
"W-what?"
"Well, you're the reason I earned it... I think, anyways. It was a bit unclear. But you're an awesome crafter, right? Like, in game terms you'd be some kind of Artisan or Master, and I'm not just talking about cooking. Whereas I'm... just me, even if I am coming into my own with this whole thing."
"But Spike, it's your-"
"Our. Even if it is mine, that just means it's mine to decide. So... Our."
She grimaced at that, but he wasn't budging. After realizing as much, she continued with a sigh.
"Our ticket. But your power made it, and we don't even know if anypony else could use it."
"It's worth a shot! I mean, if it fails it probably won't get used up, and if only I can use it, we can just come up with an idea together."
"I don't want to waste something special like that! I mean, I know better than most ponies how rarely a cool weird thing like this comes around."
"Pinkie, it wouldn't be a waste. Plus, weren't you the one who just tried to argue I shouldn't hold onto my items forever?"
Her cheeks puffed slightly as she held back her response, letting off a tiny bit of steam from the tufts of her ears when she finally let go.
"MmmmfffFINE! Fine. Just... Hold onto it for now, alright? We can figure it out another time, maybe after you get a few levels under your scales. But if you figure out something you want to use it on before then, go ahead and use it, alright?"
"Yeah, I can work with that. It's exciting, but it's not urgently exciting."
Pinkie looked him over with a curious expression, as if she had just seen him for the first time.
"Speaking of which, you look... a little different."
"Oh! Yeah, that makes sense. I got those skills... Hey, I've already told you all the skills I got earlier, and if you're going to keep giving me advice like this, I should probably keep you up to date on it, huh?"
"You're darn straight, mister! Now gimme that delicious data."
"Hahaha, fine, fine. So, I got two more of those 'Dragon' skills, one for my Vitality and one for my Intelligence. The Vitality one talked about how dragons are mostly made of magic, so it makes my MP and HP sort of work together. The Intelligence one is about my... brain, and my maturity, I guess? It lets me remember everything photographically, sort of. I think it might need some levelling before it's quite that good. It says it'll also let me learn magic, like, Unicorn or Pegasus or Earth Pony stuff. Maybe even Zebrican magic or weirder things. And both of those boost the third skill I got: The game-engine-or-whatever recognized the meditation Twilight taught me for magic lab safety as its own skill. It's... real strong."
"Like, Martial Mares strong, or like Wizards of Winsome Falls strong?"
"Like, blows them both out of the water strong."
She whistled, trying to imagine what could put it up and above a game where meditation had literally been the core mechanic for one character.
"You are totally going to have to thank Twilight for that, when she gets back."
"Yeah, if she ever believes me."
"Hey, she came around about Pinkie Sense eventually! I'm sure she won't be too hard-nosed about this."
"I think it's less like she came around about your whole... deal... and more like she had to bend before she broke."
Pinkie just smiled at that.
"Tomato, potato!"
Blink. Blink again.
"Isn't that supposed to be to-may-to, to-mah-to?"
Her grin only got bigger.
"Kumquat, rimshot!"
"...You're doing it on purpose."
"Naturally!"
"Pfftheh. So, you still think I should hold onto it?"
Pinkie shook herself free of a bit of dust and walked over to him again.
"Yuppers! It's a great thing from the sound of it, and it would be totally sad to waste it. If you find something or somepony you want to use it on, that's another story. But just letting me take it because I helped you earn it... How did I even do that, anyways?"
"Well, I had this quest to talk to you about the whole Gamer thing, and when it completed, it... basically gave me the ticket as a reward."
"Ooooh. So your quests give rewards?"
He scratched at his chin, pulling up his Quest log to look over the previous results. Breakfast, that one had seemed more like a joke but maybe it unlocked the recipe? Putting a bunch of work into Observe, that was worth a free level. And then... the ticket.
"Um... Not usually. I think a lot of them so far have been too small, but that one apparently had this huge reward for some reason. I guess it was more... meaningful, on some level?"
"I can buy that."
Her reply seemed backed with a certainty that Spike himself sure didn't feel: If anything, he felt like he was out of the loop here. But there wasn't a lot of point in showing that confusion. He could just carry on and let things work themselves out. Plus... He trusted Pinkie Pie. She'd do what was right by him, and if she wasn't explaining right now, he'd hear about it when it mattered.
"Alright. I'll shelf it, and we can talk about it again another time. For now... I've got to handle all my other things around town, and it's going to be a long day. Can I grab a snack on my way out though?"
She passed a muffin to him without so much as batting an eyelid... Or having any way to procure said muffin.
"On the house!"
"...In case of muffin emergencies?"
"You know me so well."
He looked the muffin over in his claws, throwing a cursory Observe at it out of reflex.
"And you seem to know me pretty well! Garnet and walnuts are super delicious together."
[Emergency Muffin]
Rank: Masterwork Consumable
Procured from unknown space by the pony Pinkie Pie, this muffin was studded with walnuts, garnets, and Roquefort cheese before being glazed with honey. Why are you so curious about it?
"Made it just for you: Think of it as payment for being so helpful with the tamale! Plus, when you swing by later, you and Twilight's servings will be free too. Least I could do."
"You're the best, Pinkie."
That seemed to catch her off guard, but she recovered quickly, smiling brightly and waving as he left the shed and made his way back out and around Sugar Cube Corner.
"T-think nothing of it, Spike. Have a super-duper day!"
Stats
Page generated in 0.042 seconds
Total duration
992 users online
2,258,123 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
How meaningful?
First base meaningful?
:V
Is this an pinkiespike shipfic or something thing?
Pinkie is crushing HARD.
There is a skill that may be possible with the Mythic Ticket but its so mind bogglingly totally OP broken, based on the FimFic story its based on, I highly suspect it might get momentarily considered before being rejected.
The simpler the skill name the more widely it can be applied, the greater the number of possible variations.
The Mythic Skill?
Take Anything, or Take Everything.
Its not just a Thief cash and Items skill. Theres nothing in the description preventing the taking of negations and intangibles. Such as limitations and restrictions.
This generally pretty much gurentees total insanity at too low a level. Or a coma if used recursively without setting up enough of a base first.
The limits can be extremely hard to define, in order to be able to bypass them.
Still, thy demense awaits, ser Spike.
Kinda wonder if Spike ends up doing something nice for Mane6 after all, if not specifically Pinkie. Immortality/alicornication? Provided the Elements haven't taken care of that already, of course.
Sooo... Is this gonna be a "Spike gets all the mares" fic, a Spike/Pinkie fic, or something else altogether? Because honestly, I'm okay with anything so long as it's well written and not too overblown.
9906037
Seconding this part specifically, to the point of watching Headless Rainbow. (That's probably a broader definition of "anything" than most people are willing to use, which is the point of bringing it up)
Huh, I was expecting him to ask for advice on the ticket, not to offer it to her outright. Heh, he's really gotten a hold on his dragon greed, hasn't he? It looks like we'll never have to worry about Spike going all "Smaug" again. And if what he said is true about his new skill affecting his maturity... Woo! Pinkie, FIGHTO!
I'll be looking forward to seeing how Spike will go about his other tasks, and how he'll explain what's going on to his other friends.
My reaction to that item would probably be to hoard it for a while to try and find a good opportunity to use it. In particular, I'd want to try and find out if the reward scales to the users current level. There may be benefit to waiting so it can be more powerful, or you might get something of a fixed power level regardless and it doesn't matter.
I feel like I should remember what homestuck is past a sense of annoyance and boredom.
9906606
"Spike gets ALL the mares" is a meme, and you can google it if you don't believe me. When I mentioned it earlier I was basically just asking if this would be a harem fic. Not to say that there isn't a prevalent fanbase for incestual relationships in fiction (Game of Thrones, "Imouto" anime, etc), but hey, personal preferences FTW!
9906037
Eh, might be nothing more than a puppy-pile fic. Or just "everyone crushes on Spike".
9906037
9906606
9906777
There will be a publicly-posted FAQ after Chapter 20, and I guarantee that answering this debate (or at least narrowing down the possibilities) will be on there for posterity. For expediency however, I'll cut the horse off at the pass:
This is neither going to be a harem piece nor a 'Spike gets all the mares' / 'everypony crushes on the protag' fic. There's a few concrete ships for certain characters in mind, all of which are relevant to the broader plot or only come up as asides.
Although just because this isn't going to be a harem fic, that doesn't mean Negima is going to have NO influence around here... <.<
Is "Make more tickets" an option?
9906854
i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/284/922/0e3.png
My shipping sense is tingling
9907069
I'm pretty sure that's in the same category as the good old, "I wish I had more wishes", in terms of arbitrary rules made by nigh omnipotent cosmic beings.
9932962
*Gendo pose*
Good. Good.
9950410
Unbeknownst to spike, he was in a harem dating sim and not an rpg.
9951011
no, it's an rpg with a harem sim element to the social structure.
Right about here is where Spike should have hugged Pinkie, hard enough to crush rock. To let her know she's an awesome friend. Maybe more? (hug the pink thing Spike!)
Pike? (Pinkie Spike)
9972219
I mean, at their current maturity levels (and personalities), Spike and Pinkie are a good a pair as any. I've seen good Spike and Rarity fics, but at their current relationship, it's not exactly a good one.
Honestly I'd be fine with Spike being with any of the Mane 6 (even more than one of the Mane 6 but only the Mane 6), just so long as there's none of that dumb herd fanon shoved in.
A Dating Game is a game too.
AFFECTION METER LEVEL UP!
See the problem is Pinkie has read enough manga to suspect she's going to end up in a harem, so she's trying to become best girl by acting bashful
Damn... This unique skill will be one hell of a trump card... Perhaps revive from death 1 times a day
Flustered Pinkie is best Pinkie
I SHIP IT! Batter then rarity
Hmmmm I sense a ship setting sail, and I love it!!! Honestly I can definitely see Spike/Pie being a thing.
10568618
I wonder did you do this on punpose?
Ar-are we gonna be with pinkie?
YESSSSS
Spike has two arms. There for it makes perfect sence he has 3 Waifus at the very least