When life gives you EXP

by FanOfSun

Chapter 10, part 1: Upgrading even further? And a De-Buff?

Ferum walked through the Castle towards Rarity's classroom. Good thing that the map was usable now, he would definitely get lost in those corridors. It was a Festival day, and it meant that he was finally about to use his costume.

It was quite a day yesterday. The whole 'Danya being a pony' stuff sure was crazy. However, the main issue for Vlad was that Dan turned out to be a female. Not like he had anything against being friends with one, but it made him rethink a lot of moments from the past. The more he thought about it, the more embarrassed he felt. By the time he was in front of Rarity's door, Ferum's cheeks were pinkish.

He knocked on the door "Uh, excuse me, Miss Rarity? I came for my suit"

A voice from inside answered "Oh, come in come in!"

Ferum opened the door. The room was filled with different costumes, clothes and...Gems? Ferum decided to ignore this and tried to find Rarity in all this mess.

The said unicorn spoke up "Oh, I apologize for all that mess. I was trying to find some sort of replacement for other students. You know, it's a big event after all!" there were some of the those costumes, floating in the air.

Ferum grabbed a straw hat with red line on it "It is?" played with it for a few moments and placed it on another pile of clothes "I mean, there were a lot of preparations, sure. But it's just about books, isn't it?"

Rarity showed up, looking at the dresses in the air "Well, it's the chance for a lot of ponies to get recognition from their favourite authors"

Ferum stared at her glowing horn "Yeah.." he then looked at the levitating dresses.

Rarity looked at the dragon "Is there something you wanted to ask?"

Ferum nodded "Well, yes, I was looking for my costume. I wanna be ready beforehead"

Rarity smiled and put the costumes onto the pile "Right away, stay here" she trotted elsewhere.

Ferum crossed arms on his chest "But are the costumes necessary?"

Rarity chuckled "Oh no, not at all. Like I said, those are more to stand out" she then sighed "But I assume that nowadays most of the costumes are pre-ordered"

Ferum snorted "Guess that's why we were making those ourselves?"

There was a noice of something opening "Indeed. Say, this is your first festival, am I right?"

Ferum nodded "Yeah, I guess so. Not sure what I will do there though"

Rarity sighed "Ah, I still remember how I visited it with parents in the Cantherlot when I was young! Don't you worry about it, this event is simply marvelous" she showed up with the folded costume in her aura "Here is your creation"

Ferum looked at it "Great, I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't look so neat if I took it with me, thank you!"

Rarity placed the clothes into Ferum's arms "Speaking of your design.." she looked a little bit uneasy.

Ferum looked at her confused "Is there sometthing wrong with it?"

Rarity shook her head "No not at all dear, it's uhm.." she was trying to pick the right words "How did you come up with the...Proportions for your costume?"

Ferum sweated a little "Oh uh, I think I just kinda...Imagined it?"

Rarity clipped her eyes "Imagined?" she then waved her hoof "Maybe there was a chance of you meeting some creature with the same clothing once?"

Ferum narrowed his eyes "I dont think so...Why?"

Rarity chuckled "Oh it's nothing" she then seemed to look away "Oh would you look at that! I have to sort those costumes as fast as I can!" she quickly pushed the dragon out of her office.

Ferum stopped "W-wait! Can I take this?" he raised a straw hat.

Rarity didnt even look at it "Of course dear, have fun out there!" she quickly slammed the door behind Ferum.

This left him stunedd for a moment "..wha?"

'Did you take it?'

Ferum clipped his eyes 'Oh, you mean the hat?' he raised it 'Well yes, why do you need it though?'

'None of your buisness'

Ferum's eye twitched '..Man SHUT YO-'

---

Spike was helping Dandelion with her last preparations. Sure, she could do it all by herself, but dragon insisted on it. Every pony around was getting ready too. Everywhere were a lot of ponies walking around and looking at the tents. Each of those, but Dandelion's, had the name of an author on it.

Spike finished with lights and jumped down "Well, that's quite it"

Dandelion huffed "Good to know it's all ready to go! I thought that I wouldn't have enough time!"

Spike was about to leave "Well, guess I'm off to the castle. Got some chores and preparations to take care of. See you on the Festival!" he turned around.

Dandelion raised her hoof "Wait!"

Spike turned at her, confused with Dandelion's intonation "Uh, yes?"

Dandelion facehoofed "Ah damn, sorry for that" she shook her head "Uh, say, Vl- I mean, Ferum will be wearing a costume too, right?"

Spike thought for a second "Oh, yeah! In fact, he was the only one whocmanaged to sew one"

Dandelion hummed "He did huh.." she then tapped her hoof on the table "Say, what did the costume look like?"

Spike rubbed back of his head "Let me think...I guess it was a grey jacket with the red shirt, pants with the same color and uh...White shoes, yeah!"

Dandelion snorted "Pft, Vlad being Vlad...No, wait, I mean-" she then processed the information and her face changed into the surprised one "Wait, for real?"

Spike shrugged "Yeah, I think that it had something to do with his Panel. I mean, as far as I know he didn't sew before" he then sat on the chair "Does it mean something?"

Dandelion just stated at Spike for a few seconds. Then, she snickered. After another few seconds, Dandelion was on the floor, laughing her lungs off "OH FOR CELESTIA'S SAKE! DID HE ACTUALLY DO THIS?! WHAT KIND OF COINCIDENCE IS THIS?!:

Spike sweated a little "I uh...Think that I better go.." he then carefully jumped down and slowly made his way out of the tent.

Breathing heavily, Dandelion raised her hoof "S-Sorry fella. I just...Wait gimme a second" she snorted "Phew...Just tell Vl- I mean, Ferum, that I'm putting on an eyepatch" she had a weird grin on her face.

Spike nodded "I will make sure to...Do so" but Dandelion wasn't listening already. She was mumbling something to herself while walking past Spike towards her wagon. Dragon just shrugged it off and walked elsewhere 'Welp, guess now I understand how does Vlad has those steel nerves'

---

Ferum was at the place that Lyra showed him. She, Vlad and Spike would come here quite often for the past few weeks. After all, nopony ever was going here. They usually would either practice magic, or enter Vlad's mind to do their stuff. This time however, Ferum was alone, not counting Sombra.

Dragon was looking through the Panel. He yawned and closed his eyes "Sombra, any idea where you spent those other points?"

A smirk echoed in his head "You are still on that? I think that you should spend those points that you got already"

Ferum shrugged "Well, I'd rather know what kind of things I can do now. I mean, the huge upgrade for the Panel was definitely worth it. But you did something with my disquise" he then pointed his finger out "And since I'm using it a lot, I'd rather know what I can and can't do"

Sombra huffed "Well, EXCUSE me! After all, I did the unforgivable. I tried to help you, and-"

Ferum facepalmed "Dude, I never said that I'm not grateful. Who knows, maybe it's this kind of the upgrade that you awaken in a particular-"

Rustling grass made Ferum quiet. He swiftly moved behind a rock and focused on the surroundings. His Instincts have been working worse after Sombra appeared in his head-

"HEY!"

-and the range of it's activation lowered significantly. Still, it was working fine whenever someone was either watching or approaching him.

Two voices could be heard from the trees "This place sucks.."

Another voice that sounded more serious answered "You must understand that-"

"I know it already! We gotta make sure that Sombra isn't back or something..We all know that he is gone for good now!"

"It was the request from Princess Luna herself. We can not ignore her concerns"

Sombra snorted "Well well well, it seems that Moonie is THAT worried"

Ferum frowned 'Shut up man!'

They were getting closer "It's weird though. She said that she senced his aura here, in Ponyville" the voice chuckled "Shouldn't it be the worst place for Sombra to resurrect?"

Two figures arrived at the area where Ferum was hiding. He held his breath, but his heart was beating like crazy. Those two were from Luna herself. She was already getting close to him even in his dreams, and now that? How much worse could it get?

One of the figures seemed to sit on the rock "Hey, this place is so chill! Wonder why nopony comes here"

Ferum nearly snorted 'Seriously?!'

His companion was getting stressed "First of all, for the sake of Celestia's name, take this seriously!" he calmed down "And second of all, if you were more attentive, you would have noticed the hoofprints over here. Besides, it's one of the places where Princess was sensing his magic"

Ferum sweated even more 'Wait, she can already track me down?!'

Sombra was concerned too "It took her quite a while to do it. She is able to enter dreams after all. Of course she can sense the location of the dreams she is watching or interracting with"

Ferum was about to lose it 'Couldn't you tell me it earlier?!'

Sombra seemed to shrug "I thought it was obvious"

The pony who was sitting groaned "Gaaaah! We are finally sent outside! Why won't you just try to enjoy it eh?" it seemed that he wasn't even listening.

His companion sighed "Exactly, this is a chance to prove ourselves as Royal Guards. Or, if we act as incompetent as you do, prove ourselves as those who are not worthy of such rank"

Pony on the rock layed on it. Ferum noticed a horn peeking out of it "Come on Right Wing, I know that you are here because of the Festival!"

"I-I'm not! And besides, it could be another reason for Sombra to be here!"

The unicorn raised his hooves "Oh come on! I per-" he didn't manage to balance and fell from the rock, right in front of Ferum.

At this moment, something inside of the dragon snapped. Ferum froze in his place. He didn't know what to do. Vlad managed to stay sane before, when appearing in this world, fighting ome of the wooden wolf and even facing Chrysalis herself, not even mentioning making Sombra (kinda) friendly. But that exact thing made him completely unable to function. He closed his eyes tight, preparing for something bad to happen...

The unicorn groaned and shook his head "Geez, I swear to Celestia, if it keeps happening I-" he suddenly stopped talking.

Ferum's ears dropped 'Here it comes...'

He heard hoofsteps coming towards him. It was like in those movies, when character was about to be caught, but unlocked some kind of an ability that would save him. Too bad that it's just a cliche.

The unicorn seemed to stop nearby and picked something up with magic "Hey, what is that candy doing here?"

Ferum opened one of his eyes 'The hell is he doing..?'

This is when he noticed a lot of weird details. First of all, everething seemed to be way darker, but bearable to be seen. Second of all, the unicorn wasn't looking at him at all, even thought Ferum was literally under him. And that's the third detail. For some reason, Ferum was beneath the pony, looking straight at stallions face. Ferum was extremely tence. He didnt know what was going on and, for some reason, he actually was stressed and nervous this time.

'It's like something stopped assisting me...'

It was the only thought the dragon managed to generate in his head before going back to watching the pony. However, he wasn't that stressed right now. After all, it seemed like this guard wasn't able to see him... Yet.

The unicorn was about to eat the candy, when another voice called for him "Left Eye, I swear to Celestia. If you won't come here right now, I will make sure to give you a 3 hour lecture about discipline!"

The 'Left Eye' groaned "Geez fine man!" he simply kept the candy and walked towards his comrade.

They seemed to walk away. Ferum however, was still on guard. After waiting in this weird state for a minute, he relaxed a little. This is when something seemed to 'push' him up. Ferum yelped and fell on his back. When he opened his eyes, dragon noticed that his vision and position came back to being normal.

Ferum quickly sat up and opened his Panel "What the hell was that?!" he noticed that his 'MANA' meter was lower than before "But I'm not able to use magic while in a dragon form.." he then memorized the weird feeling of losing something before "..damn, I knew something was wrong. I wouldn't be able to stay calm in the start of all that without any help..." he then looked through the Tree of Skills "Or without a temporary skill I guess.." he managed to finally settle down. Vlad closed the Panel and sighed.

He then noticed that it was quiet "..Sombra?" no answer "Sombra, are you there?"

After a few seconds, the said unicorn finally answered "..This Shadow Dive move.."

Ferum'a ears perked up "Wha?"

Sombra hesitated before continuing "I assume that we have found what did I spend the point for"

Ferum processed what Sombra said "..Uh, could you clarify?"

The voice inside his head groaned "PIT DAMN IT ARE YOU THAT DUMB?!" before Vlad could protest, he continued "You just used a dark magic you idiot!"

Ferum raised his claw "Well I'm not-" he stopped and re thought what Sombra had said. Dragon slowly put his hand down "..I did WHAT?!"

Author's Note:

Small chapter, duh.

Took way too long. Imma take a break from writing this story for some time, not long though. I wanna write some stories with ideas I got recently.

Anyway, thank you all for reading, and see you soon!

P.S.

YOMI Hustle is a great game! Go play it!

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Is this a crossover?

[FanOfSun]

11543387
Uh, no? Why did you think that?

[Knaklz]

The author, frankly Sombra, is a true friend and partner. It's cool that you revealed this character from such a side

[FanOfSun]

11551607
I think that I could have done it way better...Thank you for those words anyway!