Rumors, bits, and pieces

by Nameless Narrator

Starting off

You finally did it, you managed to qualify for a loan from the bank of Vanhoover! With the money, you were just a short step away from making your carefully planned future come true. Granted, moving directly across Equestria to the city of Pine Hills wouldn’t be called a short step by some, but that didn’t stop you. You bought a bar, or an empty building that would eventually become one.

What made you start here, and not back home where you had some contacts, friends, and parents?

The vision of money, and adventure. Well, money for you, and adventure for the hundreds of adventurers and explorers passing through the town on their way to the Badlands. After all, you were no warrior, but you sure knew your beer. In your fathers bar, you used to be… everything, really. Your huge physique managed to mask the fact that you were far more likely to hurt somepony by tripping and falling over at them rather than punching, you knew some basic cocktails, wines, and beers from all over the world, and you had experience keeping books for your dad’s estabilishment. You weren’t really great at anything, but you took some books which your father knew by heart already with you, and you believed you were as ready to leave the nest as you’d ever be.

You know there will be obstacles between you and your success - competition, the possibility of Pine Hills being overrun by the horrors beyond its walls, and the off chance of this derelict ruin falling on your head. The real estate agency lied a lot about the state of this place, but by now you know you did rush into things. However, you still have a three story building, and a plan. While most bars in Pine Hills are functional or themed to suit the endless flow of danger-seekers, your idea is not to set new trends, but to return to an old one. Your tavern will be the old kind, one from before the era of corruption - sawdust on the floors, heavy wooden tables, mugs reinforced by iron, and torches.

You look at the peeling paint marking the walls everywhere around. Your ground room bar is going to take some serious work.

Maybe fake torches. This place thankfully does have electricity and running water.

So, what have you got at your disposal? The ground floor is one big, open room, a hallway leading to the bathrooms, a utility closet, and the two upper floors are full of rooms where future customers will have their future beds and future affairs in.

Oh, and you already had the various barrels of beer and several bottles of wine you brought with you on the train delivered into the cellar. At least that place was in a perfect shape.

You are Frosty Mug, an aspiring earthpony bartender. You’re here to pour adventurers their drinks, listen to their stories, and clean their vomit off of your tables.

Table.

A broken one.

You couldn’t be happier.

But you still need to do some renovations. Immediately sounds like a good idea. Granted, you could have a rest after a painfully long train ride and start tomorrow, but you decide against it. If you clean up and get this place in semi-working order today, you can spend tomorrow by using your money wisely to buy some furniture, and if you get lucky you might even get your first customer. Some ponies and griffons did give you curious looks when you started prying the boards off of the main door.

Oh, and you mustn’t forget to replace the corner window. Thankfully, from outside it looked like the only casualty of some vandal stealing your not-yet-earned money.

Suddenly, you hear a creak from the staircase, but that’s the extent of it, no hoofsteps on anything else. It could just be the house making scary noises, but you haven’t checked upstairs yet, only knowing the layout from the floor plan and the description in the deed.

Come to think of it, this place does look perfect for some hobo to hide in.

Hoping your scary size is enough to ward off any possible criminal caught in the act, and ready to run outside as fast as you can and scream for the police if it isn't, you call out:

“Hey, show yourself!”

You have no idea if there is anypony there, but it never hurts to look smarter than you really are. There is no answer, but the floorboards creak softly. Again and again, creak after creak getting closer to the doorless entrance to the future bar.

“If you leave now, I won’t call the police!” you give it one more shot, trying to sound far more sure of yourself than you are.

“Grrwrrrr...” you hear a quiet growl before a black equine creature your size enters, carefully sniffing around before locking eyes with yours. It’s completely black, looks sinewy but fit, and has a mouth full of sharp teeth. Hmmm, perhaps you should have started with that one. Oh yeah, and talons on its forelegs instead of hooves… great.

A Corrupted? Inside the walled-off city? More importantly, inside your damn house? On your first day?! How unlucky could a single pony get?

You know about the Corrupted, creatures currently inhabiting most of Equestria’s surface and good chunks of Griffon Empire as well, but you have literally no hooves-on experience. Thankfully. Vanhoover was also a city with heavily guarded borders which didn’t allow any Corrupted in, but you do know that for example Manehattan is a metropolis where Corrupted and other races live in some strange kind of harmony, you also know that in Ponyville which is not too far west from here Corrupted are friendly and act as guards from their wild kin.

All that flies out of the window, and your legs turn to jelly when finally faced with one of these beings. They are supposed to be vastly faster than ponies, although their agility, especially in small spaces is debatable. They are insurmountably stronger and more durable, but they have their weak spots like eyes. Unfortunately, they also have many more senses, some contained within six leg-long tentacles growing from the creature’s back and swaying threateningly.

You don’t have much at your disposal - a saddlebag with deeds to the building, a full keyring, some spending money and sweet snacks, plastic water bottle, your personal documents, and a flashlight. Your big bag is lying behind the counter, but there isn’t much more in there other than spare clothes, the recipe books, a bottle of some allegedly amazing whiskey, and long-lasting crackers you’d rather use as building materials than food.

So, what now? Run in hope you can get outside? It’s not far, but you’re not fast and you don’t know about the Corrupted. Fight? Your punch does have weight behind it since you’re a big pony, and it might stun or at least confuse the creature to buy you some time. Or maybe something completely different?

Use your brain wisely, Frosty.

Author's Note:

So, what'll it be? Will Frosty manage to get to pouring his first beer, or will the perspective earthpony fail in ever getting to hear about any mysteries?

Comments

[Jaro45]

Get over the bar as fast as you can. Reach for the bottle of whisky in your bag. Say a prayer, and throw the bottle at the Corrupted. Hit or miss, doesn't matter. The second the bottle leaves your hooves, run. Get outside of the bar and start looking for either torches or guards. (continue fervent mumbled prayer if so desired.)

[Nameless Narrator]

8253486
Thanks for commenting.

Update will be either tomorrow or on Monday, and will depend on either general consensus or the action most likely for Frosty to take in his state.

[LegacyMine]

It's an interesting concept for the story, though these types of CYOA fanfics rarely work out in execution. I also worry that its dependence on past stories and OC's will depress readership.

As for what to do, if the building is insured than throw the whiskey at the corrupted and try to set it alight, otherwise punch it, then run away and look for help.

[Nameless Narrator]

8254887
We'll see, we'll see (probably yes, though). This isn't supposed to be a main story or anything anyway, so if it crashes and burns I'll look for something else to do at work when I have nothing to do. I'll try to keep it as a "story with suggestions" rather than a full blown CYOA with prompts at each Frosty's step. As for the dependence on the knowledge of the world I've built until now, I do have a habit of tying everything together, but in this case the limited information might maybe eventually prompt some questions from Frosty to his guests.

Anyway, thanks for showing interest, and as I said before - next update will probably come out on Monday.

[Two_Madmans]

Your tavern will be the old kind, one from before the era of corruption - sawdust on the floors, heavy wooden tables, mugs reinforced by iron, and torches.

I was curious - before of after