Meta Gamer in Equestria: Odyssey

by reflective vagrant

Chapter 10, Epic Deplomacy Fail. (The Warm Welcome, Part 1)

"You look rather well, Moss," Luna pronounced as she made her landing on my little island. "I was afraid we would loose much progress last night with my absence and we would have to work even harder to return to where we were. Yet it seems a single night alone has indeed proven useful."

We quickly approached each other and sat down in our usual spots.

"I'm kinda surprised you kept your word. My sleep was a bit more uneasy last night than normal for me, all things considered."

She sighed. "I won't deny I was tempted by the amount of negative emotion I felt from your island. Had it grown much further, I would have needed to intervene."

"...Well, thanks," was all I could say. I had kinda suspected she'd still be keeping an eye on me from a distance.

"But you managed to fight back the darkness on your own. I felt the negative energy dampen considerably towards the end of the night. You're race's mental fortitude is so similar to a pony's yet it amazes me how you can find inner strength when caught in your own mind's traps."

It was my turn to sigh. "Yea... I kinda had to tell my paranoid side to shut up when it kept saying things my logical side just saw as babbling nonsense. It's not a trick every human has a chance to develop. Not that I have a perfect grip on it or don't ever have any relapse."

"But when your paranoid and logical sides are in agreement, it isn't so easy?" Luna inquired.

I could only shake my head in frustration. "Yep, that's the side effect. They don't even have to agree at times." My hand started shaking. "Sometimes, they just need to be neutral, to not oppose each other and the trick is rendered pretty useless."

"And that is why the good support of a friend ca-"

"Yes! Yes! I know!" I blurted out, "A good friend can help you get your thoughts together and keep you from spiraling from your own fears and self doubts. Anybody supportive really will do in a pinch if given the chance. Why do you think I'm... I'm..."

I had lowered my head and did what I could to kill my momentum. The funny thing is... a part of me didn't want to look up once I slowed down. Not because of the glare I perceived, but because I was afraid of it not being there were I to look into her eyes. A part of me wanted others to be angry with me, to hate me.

They all saw me as some great person. Someone that helped them in a time of need and they wanted to help me through my pain. I was the only one that saw myself as a monster for what I did and that was a part of why it is so hard to bear, princess. It would be so much easier to relate my pain to them if they would just see the same monster I see."

"Then show me what made you this monster that you see."

I shot my head up at her and stared. I realized at some point I had started to say my thoughts out loud.

"Let me understand. Explain to me what you did that made you a monster and why. If that is what you need. If that is what you have been trying to figure out then I will listen and wait for you, however long it takes."

She came over into the standard hug offering distance and opened her wing in a welcoming manner. "That's a promise-" She finished with a warm, yet pained smile. "-monster to monster."

For the ump-teenth time in a row since I first started getting her visits, I once again turned to refuse the embrace and muttered a grunt of discomfort, but followed with a "Thank you."

A silence fell over the little island in the dreamscape. In a few moments I had realized it was the first time I thanked her for visiting. Two days prior I would have considered that a blunder as it would have encouraged her to visit more. But that day I realized I didn't mind quite so much as when it had started.

Princess Luna started up conversation again a few moments later. "Although they realize you need alone time and likely won't come, your old teammates still wanted me to invite you to join them in the upcoming festivities. They are getting together to be guests of honor in the summer sun celebration in Ponyville."

I looked at her in horror. "With Dalock on the loose? Are they crazy? That's exactly the kind of stuff he'd do a hit and run on to try to-!"

Luna raised her hoof to quell me in my panic. "Much has happened since you went into isolation nearly a moon ago." She gave pause to let me calm down. "That murdering hollow shell of a fiend has been apprehended and is being held quite firmly in his special made prison until we can deal with him permanently."

"Oh..." I thought for a moment. "Even so, I'm not ready to come out yet." An awkward silence fell over the little dreamscape island again.

A small laugh finally came over me as I thought about something. "You know, come to think of it we also left the story off on the day I first met Sparkles. She was probably the best member of the team."

"She also would want me to remind you she hates that nick name."

"And I love her for it." I threw all of my dry humor into that last bit of snark and returned my mind to story mode. "Be sure to tell the team I said 'Hi.'"

I gathered my thoughts again and continued where I left off. "At that point I found myself unsure of what to do..."

---

At that point I found myself unsure of what to do now that I was actually in town. Back when I first made the goal of getting back to town, I'd presumed I'd be able to talk to the locals, or at the very least see another humanoid that could help me. Actually, I still expected to be on earth back then too. I'd been watching the moon cycles long enough to tell it hasn't been changing phases as it should. I wasn't on earth anymore and that giant glowing ball in the sky likely wasn't earth's sun either.

All these changes had crept up on me bit by bit. Now that I was looking back on them all, getting back to town probably shouldn't have been as large a priority as I had made it to be. That was practical back on earth, but here I needed to adapt to the local systems more than just get back to civilization.

So what business should I do first? Learning communication beyond pictures probably would have helped. Not much I can do now though. A good proper bath would be nice, but for some reason my pack had no coins and something told me I wasn't going to be able to rent a room with tiny gems. I had already seen half a dozen or so of the small horses sporting gems far larger than my own as casual jewelry. The gems probably didn't have much value here and I'd have no real way to tell if I was getting cheated even if they were worth something.

No matter what way I looked at it, that letter was probably the only lead I had on what to do.

"It's starting to get hard being angry at the shaman with how big of a screw up coming to town is turning out to be..." I grumbled. "I think I owe her a good heart to heart if and when I get past the language barrier..."

I spent the next hour approaching any of the little horses that were brave enough to let me ask a question, pointing to the symbol on the letter and acting like I was looking around like a lost idiot. The biggest hurtle I had wasn't so much that the little horses didn't understand what I was saying, but rather it took a while to find ones willing to let me approach them. It took me about half of that hour to manage to approach the first willing horse.

Sadly, he just ran off after I pointed at the symbol on the letter, and three others ran off after I started my gesture for looking for them. It wasn't until I ran into an all pink mare that I got any directions. I had been hesitant to approach her due to how she hopped around and did crazy acrobatics like a hyperactive kid as she moved through the town.

But she looked back and forth at the letter and me before grinning like a lunatic and pointing to the giant crystal structure on the far end of town. To be honest, I was more scared of what my neck tingle magic might tell me if I used it to tell if she was being honest or not than I was scared of going to the crystal structure turning out to be a bad idea. There was something in my gut telling me questioning what was going on in the head that mare wouldn't end well for what was left of my sanity.

The trip up through the town left me with a lot of uncertainty. The townsfolk were keeping a little bit of a wider birth than was welcoming, and I wasn't entirely sure if they were talking down on me or just gossiping when I saw them whispering to each other every now and then.

I saw the crystalline structure coming into better view between the buildings as I got part way through the town. A crystalline tree like building at least the size of a small fortress.

I approached with caution, keeping an eye on the mood of the ponies, seeing if they didn't approve of my approach. All I could see was continued whispers and hushes as I made my way into the open fields between the crystal fortress and the town.

While there wasn't another traveler on it at that moment, the path through the open fields seemed as well traveled as any side street in the town. At least one if not a handful of the small horses traveled to and from the fortress on a daily or so basis.

I made my final approach to the door at the base of the structure slowly, listening for anyone's disapproval or any sign that I shouldn't be there. But everything seemed to indicate that it was a welcoming place despite being awe inspiring.

I just barely managed to knock on the door when I felt a strong chill wash over me in a form like a gust, but at the same time the wind had stopped. Something about it told me it wasn't natural. I could see a dark steam coming off my shoulder and the rest of my body as I turned around and went to the top edge of the stairs to look for the source.

The next thing I knew I felt a paralyzing shock of electricity strike me. Crumpling like a rag doll, I rolled down to the dirt of the path leading to the stairs. All the while, I could only think 'Shit... that hurt,' with my now barely functional mental state.

Upon reaching the base of the stairs, I happened to land looking up. Before my vision faded out, I saw two armored ponies with a crystalline like sheen and another armored pony with a horn lit up with electrical energy holding the letter I had.

"Qsuditt jon epf neli tasi ji't ecmi vu veml xjip ji xelit. Xi'mm piif etl jon ecuav jot esny."

Author's Note:

I'm back. I had some real life stuff that completely took all the energy I was previously putting into the story. It's being handled now that I have a better grip on the tasks, but I still won't be able to churn out the chapters nearly as fast as I had done so before. But no, I am not burnt out and I do intend to finish the story if at all possible (all those partially finished stories from years back that don't bother to change their status to canceled or hiatus instead of incomplete and leave you hanging on forever are the worst, am I wrong?)
That said, Normal Author's Notes:

For anyone wondering, a "moon" in this sense is the passage of a lunar month for my interpretations in this story. Which, ripped right from a google search is about what I intended it to be

1. a month measured between successive new moons (roughly 29 1/2 days).
2. (in general use) a period of four weeks.

The exact amount of time that means is same as it is in the show though: Purposely vague.

translation time:
"Qsuditt jon epf neli tasi ji't ecmi vu veml xjip ji xelit. Xi'mm piif etl jon ecuav jot esny."
"Process him and make sure he's able to talk when he wakes. We'll need ask him about his army."