B-listers

by Kingunderdog

Adventure is what you make of it

What does one strive for in life?

To live simply or live the moment?.

Do we choose to strive for mediocrity or do we aim for the very best? and if so can we achieve it within our lifetime?.

Even if one does achieve greatness how long does it last?.
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Abraham didn't know how he let his partner talk him into going drinking with her tonight, while yes ordinarily he'd gladly spend the night getting drunk off his ass and maybe get into a friendly bar fight or two with his equally drunk friends over some dumb crap they only started up if their blood contents were mostly alcohol.

Happened a lot more often than not really, the guild hall even had an insurance policy put in place just for the drunken brawls he and many more adventurers we're bound to start and half the time ending up destroying the furniture.

He'd actually quite enjoyed those, especially when he hadn't been on a quest in a while, it let him let loose for a while and stop thinking about the stuff that bothers him outside of his life as an adventurer.

Well part-time, he worked a few odd jobs every now and then whenever he and his partner were in a new town and strapped for bits.

Quests were good and all, many had rewards that could add up to small fortunes,but at their level of skill (barely any on his part) it was hard to make a solid living solely on the money they gained from doing low level quests like item retrieval ,minor monster area control and herb collecting which were usually the most common for him to end up doing a dry spell of manageable quests.

Seriously, at this point, he probably knew more about rare herbs and spices than the average zebra can.

It wasn't like he hadn't tried going on bigger missions, in fact, he'd constantly tried to hop on the most dangerous ones he could find with the largest rewards in his early days but that would only lead to him getting hospitalized and failing the quest.

So he mainly just did C-class missions with the occasional B-class when he actually felt a little lucky and more confident in himself (or was trying to pay back his bar tab once the bill came).

He'd try an A-class just twice a year, but only to keep his perks as a member of the adventurers guild he got quests from.

Free place to stay and the food was cheap.

Needless to say, he depended heavily on Charlotte just to survive those high-level quests.

He didn't even want LOOK at S-class quests.

Those were just suicide jobs in his opinion.
Seriously!, he once saw and entire team with some of the best in the guild come back from an S-class in stitches or missing limbs.

And those were the lucky ones!

Most of his money actually came from the manual labor work he could find in each town or whatever bits he could bump off from his partner who actually had the skills to accomplish higher paying quests all on her own without his "help".

His debt to her over the years was probably in the hundreds of bits by now.

He couldn't even remember the last time he did a quest specifically entailing hunting and slaying a monster. Not that he had the skill to do much of that really.

He was a B-list adventurer at best in his peak and now a decade later it became painfully obvious he wasn't improving much in his career.

Hell, he was sure at this point his partner only tagged along because he'd be long dead by now without her constantly bailing his sorry ass out of danger at the very last minute then drag his moopy self to the nearest bar to drink the night away and help him forget whenever new blunder he's made in his life.

In a way it made him feel bad to always be doing that, Charlotte unlike him actually had a real talent for not just adventuring but nearly anything she set her mind to, she was tough headed at times, brutally honest,a little slobbish especially when drunk ,but lord knows she was kind, her putting up with him for this long was proof of that, especially during this time of year when he was at his most depressed.

The anniversary was coming up again.
2 weeks from now would mark the 13th year he's been in Equestria.

A mug slammed on the wooden table as his partner sat down with a loud laugh as she pulled him over with a wing into a one-side hug nuzzling her chin on the top on his frazzled brown haired head.

"sup -hic- love, W-hic!-uts with the long muzzle eh?" his partner slurred drunk hiccups with the strong sent of cider on her breath, letting go of him for moment only to take a large swing of her mug she sighed in content and leaned in closer to him, "it's a celebration of Celestia's -hic!-sake, why you -hic!-gotta be such'a lame duck now, the world was just saved -hic!-taday!" she cheered nuzzling the top of his head again and throwing her now empty mug at a waiter demanding more.

Said waiter easily caught the flying cider mug with practiced ease and without Skipping a beat went to refill its contents for the over excited mare who was now on top of the table singing along with half the tavern to some jingle Abraham didn't know too well.

He just signed at her antics and sipped his own mug as everyone in the guild hall celebrated.

The world had apparently just been saved after all.

he didn't know the fine details himself but from what the talk around town was saying it sounds like some crazy princess from the moon of all things came down and nearly took over the place if it wasn't for six random mare's who used some sort of laser blast to zap the crazy out of her .

Basically a magic Labotamy.

Or at least that's what he gathered from some of the drunks who were sprouting on that story all night.

He was half enclined to celebrate with the rest of the crowd, as much as he felt like a sake of crap he still appreciates life just enough to be glad he wasn't under some crazy moon horse's tyranny.

But all the news really did was make his bad mood a little more sour as the night went on.

Back when he first came to this world he thought it was his big chance to finally play the hero and be the guy the people looked up to and praised for his heroic actions, a part of himself wondered why it couldn't have been him the world needed to save the day.

Lord knows he fits the bill, a dimension traveling alien being shrouded in mystery and huge potential to do good, destined to one day be this new world's savior.

Or at least that's how he use to see himself when he suddenly popped into this magical world, everything just seemed so possible then.

Now he'd just be happy if his "legend" ended with a slain dragon or two under his belt.

hah! who was he kidding, only way that was ever gonna happen is if the dragon was asleep and Charlotte was the one swinging the sword.

'Oh well' he thought to take another sip as Charlotte got into another round of singing and clapping with the other drunks, 'can't always live the dream I guess '.

Just as he thought that the bartender tapped his hoof on the counter getting his attention, look up Abraham just shrugged his shoulders with a glance at his partner still dancing on the table, apparently, the musicians were playing 'her jam'.

"don't know what to say to you Lou,you know how she gets when she's excited and on your stuff,gonna be at least another set before she gets it out of her system " Abraham joked lightly under the grey earth pony stallions unamused look as Charlotte started doing body rolls right above their heads.

The stallion look didn't fade, even as the mare on the table started doing pelvic thrusts near his face getting a round of wolf whistles from the crowd.

"sigh, it's not that abe, trust me I've seen these idiots do much worse with less cider in their bodies, I'm actually here for you, somepony is calling to meet you outside, " the bartender said whipping a few mugs with a cloth.

At this Abraham looked a little nervous, he reached down to his waist and was glad that he remembered to carry his hunting knife with him." it's not somepony I owe bits too right? cause those loan sharks nearly cut off my frigging fingers last time" he asked looking in over his shoulder.

At this the grey stallion just rolled his brown eyes, "I hardly think this pony wants your monkey claws Abe, besides I've already promised to keep his identity a secret as he said he wanted to make it a surprise, apparently you two are close or so he says " Lou river didn't even skip a beat in between words as he took a freshly cleaned mug and used it to knock the dancing drunk mare off the table.

If Abraham had a score card he'd give him a 9/10 for his accurate aim.

the usual bar slapstick aside Abraham couldn't help something wrong was about to happen, most of his genuine friends were the very same ponies at the table he was sitting at.

So who was this mystery guy?.

Sure he'd make a lot of acquaintance over the years but he couldn't think of one who would visit him out here, they were all the way out at the borders of the badlands.

While Yes they were technically they were in the much much safer outer parts of the badlands valley in the forest at the bordering cliffs near the heyseed swamps but it's still far too close for comfort to that hell hole of a wasteland to expect any visitors outside of the adventurers of the guild.

The guild's remote location was actually the biggest reason he signed up to join years ago, it made it easy to disappear whenever he's pissed somepony off and needed a place to lay low.

Getting out of his chair Abraham walking over the guilds exit with his knife held in one hand under his green cloak just case as he opened the door.

Only to squint his eyes in confusion as instead of a diamond dog loan shark as he was expecting all he saw was some colt with a green backpack looks up at him with wide orange eyes.

"Hey ah kid, you know this isn't a place for foals to be playing around in right? you here with your parents or something?" Abraham asked looking the colt over, he was an earth pony with a dark brown coat an brown hair.

The colt just stared at him for a moment almost as if in awe causing Abraham to raise a brow.

sure as a human, the only human, it was understandable that he would get weird looks from ponies every now and then but this colt was looking at him the same way Charlotte would look at a treasure map to an island of free cider.

Did. Did he have something on his face?

The colt's eyes were watering up now a chocked sob could be here from him as his lip wobble in an obvious indication of a goal about to cry.

"ah kid you okay? " Abraham asked genuinely feeling a tiny bit concerned, after all, a crying child in the presence of a half-drunken man was never a good image, the last thing he wanted was the royal guard to come after him.

He already had enough problems as it was without the possibility of being tried In court as a foal fiddler.

What he didn't expect was for the colt to bolt at him wrapping his hooves around him into a sobbing hug mumbling the words 'I found you, I found you' over and over again clutching his legs closer.

All the while this was happening Abraham was prying to whatever God that was listening that no guard would suddenly walk by and see him with crying colt strapped to his waist.

Forget a trail, he'd be lucky if he didn't just get thrown in the electric chair!.

Just then the door opened letting another guild member out.

"oy-hic!-is a foal bawling out-hic!- here? wut's with all that racket it kills'in the mood inside" said his partner who walked out being somewhat sobering up after taking a wooden mug to the back on the head.

She saw Abraham walk out the door and only now calm out to follow him after she started hearing crying, she half expected it to be Abraham just stubbing his toes again.

Silly monkey man, she told him all the time that walking around bear foot all the time with his soft feet was just gonna end up with him bawling about stepping on sharp rocks and then he'd always whine that his 'shoe' things were too expensive to always be fixing, saying that it was better to only use them when he really needed them.

And ponies say dragons were stingy.

But walking in on him with a crying colt wasn't what she was expecting.

"I found you!, I finally found you!... dad"

And she definitely didn't expect to see her partner fall over on the ground unconscious.

The colt was looking at Abraham's unconscious form of worry and then to her with the obvious question of what to do.

In Charlotte's opinion, she did the best action he current loose state of mind could allow.

And took another large gulp of her cider.

Comments

[DTGM]

Seems interesting! Keep the updates rollin ^^

[Viper Pit]

I like it

[Trent Roogna]

clever concept, but I couldn't get through it.

It needs to be attacked with a spelling and grammar checker. I suspect the errors turned away more than just me.

[swaglord]

lmao "found you dad"
...drinking intensifies

[J-TBone]

Now i just want to see where this is going to go. And how the hell did the kid get there?

[Privetkillzs]

im interested in where this might go

[N4rwh41]

I am intrigued. Please continue.

[Emil]

8590690
Yeah, I had the same reaction. There's potential, but without some basic proofreading, it's just too painful to read.

[Kingunderdog]

So should I continue?.

I know it's really rough but I'll get better at writing.

I have a good idea of how this should all go with plenty of character development, action is not really my specialty so I'll be focusing alot on the characters growth and maturity.

basically think of every character as broken and each chapter is me slowly cleaning up the mess

[Viper Pit]

8598169
yes yes you should continue writing cause I need more of this

[Viper Pit]

i really hope this story isnt dead after 1 chapter

[ponyheart07]

I WANT MORE, REEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

[Neece]

8598169
Do continue, the only way for you to get better is to write more.

Interesting concept, I'm rather curious about what will happen next.

[Magnus Orion]

Grammarly. You need it.

[Seeking Dusk]

8598169
Yeah, I'd be interested in you continuing it. The character development promise is high in this one. Finding out you have a pony kid of all things? So much potential with this.

[AnormalUnicornPony]

How? How did I forget to fav this? Missed the update...