Ponosuba!

by 2SuriYourself

Chapter 6- Skill or be Skilled

It was the afternoon after yesterday’s toad escapades, and after a VERY long night's sleep, I woke up to find it already the early afternoon, and Celestia still asleep in spite of that fact.

Arriving at the guild hall late, we found Trixie was already sat at a table. She had stayed true to her claims the other day, and only asked for a few dozen bits from the stash, and was already chowing down on her salad.

As Celestia and I waited for our food, I pulled out my adventurer card. It seems like I had leveled up, given the glowing text indicating I had hit level 3. However, despite the glowing text of the "learnable skills" box…

"How am I supposed to learn skills? The list is blank!"

"If the list is blank, you must have not leveled up," Trixie said through a mouthful of food.

"It says right here, level 3 Adventurer, 3 skill points available, but not a single skill is listed under that. Look.”

I slid the card in front of Trixie. After a few seconds of looking confused, she slid it back.

“I don’t know what skills adventurers have, but I guess you just can’t learn any,” she said dismissively.

“Celestia, the mare at the counter said something about the adventurer class being able to learn any skill, so why can’t I even learn one?”

Celestia tapped her chin for a moment, before explaining, “Most classes can learn an advanced technique early by being taught how to do it before they may be able to learn it, assuming they can acquire the skill through training rather than a class level. However, I am fairly certain that the adventurer class must acquire all skills this way. Of course, this allows you to pick from any class’s skills, but you have to find somepony willing to teach you, and then also still have the skill points required to learn it. The cost is usually steeper than a specialist’s, but far cheaper than the cost of a specialist attempting to learn an incompatible skill.”

“So if I wanted to learn, say, Explosion from Trixie, she could teach it to me?”

Trixie choked on her salad. “The mighty power of Explosion is no small feat! It took even somepony as Great and Powerful as I years just to acquire the skills to cast such a spell! Even though Adventurer may be the only class able to ever hope to learn Explosion outside of other advanced magicians, the path of Explosions is far too dire for any ORDINARY pony to embark upon!” she declared, head held high and once again flicking her cape.

“Okay, what about your other spells?”

“Off limits. Trade secret.”

“Trade secret? You don’t think I’d try to take up stage magic, do you?”

“Even if YOU didn’t, somepony might be able to pick up my techniques from you. It’s best to leave things as-is.”

“Uh…huh. Sure. How about you Celestia?”

Celestia was looking over her own card, which thanks to shared exp, had also leveled her up.

Taking a peek at her skill list, it was fairly extensive, with healing spells, spells effective against undead, and other support spells. She had a few on her spell list that she could learn, but it was hard to tell at a glance what they did. Celestia took a contemplative look at it.

"I have quite a few spells at my disposal, but most of these are fairly advanced. I'm not sure how many points it would take an adventurer just to even take an advanced healing spell, so… maybe it would be best if I just took a cheap skill now to help you learn it!"

Before I could protest, Celestia had tapped the card and finalized getting a new skill.

"Celestia! What about saving your skill points for later? You already have a TON of skills, and you could have got a better spell later!"

Celestia's enthusiasm fell. "I was only trying to help…"

I sighed, before smiling a bit. "It's fine. I'm sure you know what you're doing, I just don't want you to put your points to waste."

"Well there's no need to worry about that, Twilight! I've picked a perfect spell! It cost a bit extra, since it was outside my spell list, but I unlocked Basic Elemental Magic!"

To call Trixie's reaction to this a laughing fit would be an understatement. By the time she quieted down half a minute later, a decent amount of the guild was staring.

"Ha! Hoo… Celestia, not even the foals back home bother learning that spell! I mean, learning most Basic Magic is already seen as a waste, but Basic ELEMENTAL magic? Do you even know what that skill does?"

"I… don’t recall."

"It's four spells in one skill- making a tiny bit of fire, water, earth, or wind. I'm pretty sure the only time I've ever seen anypony take it was if they REALLY wanted a drink anywhere."

Celestia looked sad for a moment, before her mood perked back up.

"Well at least it sounds like it will be an easy skill to teach Twilight!"

"Ah, so this is the party you mentioned, Darkness? If you're looking to learn some skills, I may be able to assist."

I turned to see who had spoken, and saw the gray, blonde-maned mare from yesterday next to a faded-blue pegasus with a light blue mane. The newcomer wore a pair of boots on her hind legs, with a coat covering much of the rest of her body.

"Who are you?"

The blonde mare spoke. "Darkness, a crusader!” she said proudly, before sheepishly waving a hoof and saying, “We talked yesterday, you might not remember me."

"No, I remember you, I just don't know who she is," I said, pointing a hoof at the blue mare.

"Oh. Allow me to Introduce myself. I am… Selena, and I am a thief."

"...You're a criminal? Shouldn’t you be more, I don’t know, discreet about that?"

"What? No, I’m saying the class. Thief. I would not prance around declaring intention of theft.”

“Ah, right, haha, of course,” I say, nervously putting a hoof behind my head.

“I believe you would be Twilight Sparkle? If your class is adventurer, quite a few thief skills are considered entry-level and should only cost a point or two. Not to mention, not too many ponies actually TAKE the thief class, so the skills are actually a bit harder to come by!”

“Really? What sort of skills could I get?”

“Well, there’s Lurk, Enemy Detection, and of course Steal just to name a few. I can teach you all three in exchange for, say… a grilled cheese?”

Wow! Three skills that cheap? “I think we’ve got a deal, Selena!”

---

One meal later, Selena, Darkness and I were out in a courtyard behind the building, leaving the other two to 'discuss' Celestia's skills. The yard was nice and open, but nopony besides us were there, making it perfect for practice.

“Steal is rather fun, so I shall start with Lurk and Enemy Detection and save it for last. Lurk is most effective in dark places, as it allows one to use shadows to hide far more effectively.” Selena gazed up at the sky. “Since it’s about noon, it likely will be less effective, but it should be fine for demonstration purposes. Darkness, if you would please turn around?”

Darkness gave a quick salute with a smile and turned around.

Selena stood in the shadow of the building behind a barrel, and said, “Lurk!”. In a moment, she had largely vanished, her outline against the wall being much harder to make out. Then grabbed a rock off the ground and tossed it at Darkness, hitting her armor with an audible plink. For her part, Darkness looked down at the rock, before scanning the courtyard with a confused frown. After a moment, she shrugged, and began to trot vaguely in Selena’s direction with a smile on her face, apparently unfazed.

As Darkness neared the barrel, Selena stepped out from behind it, the lurk skill deactivating and spooking Darkness. “I hadn’t detected an enemy, despite how close you had gotten. I had been hoping tossing the rock would cause some slight retaliation. Twilight, can you turn around now?”

I turned around and a moment later got a rather painful hit to the head with a rock.

“Ow! Seriously, the head?”

As I turned around, sure enough, the courtyard only seemed to have Darkness standing nearby. I got the sense she was probably staring directly at Selena, but with the sunglasses on, I really couldn’t tell where that would be.

Okay, so if the rock bounced off my head and landed there, then that means it had to be thrown from… The shadow of the tree. Which conveniently had another barrel under it with the lid off. Payback time! I checked around the barrel before pushing it over. Sure enough, Selena tumbled out.

“A bit rough, but I suppose warranted. I think that should be sufficient to have gained the skill, since I was outside the barrel for quite a while as you approached.” Dusting herself off, she smiled. “Now it is time for the true thief’s skill! THE STEAL SPELL!” Her voice echoed in the rather narrow courtyard. “It is a rather useful spell, allowing you to claim one item from another creature’s possession. It is based on luck, so if your Luck isn't very good, you more than likely will take something of low value.”

My luck seemed to be slightly above average from what I’d heard, so I should be fine. I hope.

“Alright, the time for demonstration has arrived! STEAL!”

After a wave of her hoof, a small bag of coins appeared in it. Actually, a rather familiar bag!

“As you can see, I have taken your coinpurse. I have not any idea how much else you even have on you, but I am guessing my chances at that were rather high. I will, of course, return it…” - a smile crept onto the mare’s face- “unless, perhaps, you wish to try a wager? If you learn the steal skill right now, and try it on me, you could get your coinpurse, or you could get-” she lifted her wing, revealing a dagger sheath, “-my dagger, which I recently spent over 4000 bits on. Or my own coinpurse, which probably has more bits than yours.”

Get back my original money, or get some extra back? It seemed like a deal to me! Besides, getting a chance to really put my skills to the test is probably a good idea anyways! If I screw something up, it’s better to do it while I can have a proper expert around!

“Alright, you’re on! STEAL!”

With a glow of my horn… Nothing happened.

“You do realize you need to learn the skill first, right?”

“Oh, right. Of course.”

Pulling out the card, the learnable Skills section now had all three thief spells displayed, and I spent one of my few points on Steal. I could feel a small surge of energy as I did, indication that the spell had been successfully learned.

“Alright, Selena! Prepare to… uh, what are you doing?”

Selena was picking up rocks and putting them into her coat’s pockets. With a smile, she said “Well, it would hardly be a challenge if one could only stand to win, could it? Consider it a way to learn a valuable lesson in the limits a spell has.”

No wonder her deal seemed so good! It was a scam all along! Who’d have thought that a bunch of pebbles would ever be an effective anti-theft deterrent?

…Probably Maud, actually.

“Seriously? I really don’t think my chances are all that good, but at least I still have a decent chance, right? Alright, STEAL!”

With a glow of my horn, I was hit a moment later by a rock to the forehead.

“Ow! Seriously? Again?”

“That one was NOT my doing. You need to cast it with your hoof, otherwise whatever you steal will just land on your head. I shall let you have another try.”

With a hoof outstretched, I once again cried out, “Steal!”

Within my hoof was… yet another pebble, which was quickly thrown to the ground in anger.

“Augh! What kind of challenge is this?! Steal!”

This time, a small brown bag in my hoof indicated, luckily, the return of my hard earned quest reward. Selena, surprisingly, smiled lightly.

“It is just as well. I was going to give it back if you did fail three times. After all,” she said with a wink, “I’m not a criminal!”

---

After reuniting with our bits, I returned to the table, where two short colts were gathered around Trixie.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie does not do tricks for such a paltry audience! Even if you offer me pay, to do a single trick outside of the spectacle of a full show is just wasted mana! Unfortunately for you two, you need to wait until my next show this afternoon! Ah, Twilight, you’re back!”

“Yep! You’re not the only pony who knows some magic now, Trixie! Want to see it in action?”

Trixie scoffed. “I suppose you may show me your new spell, if you are so enthused to do so. After all, when it comes to duels of magic, the Great and Pow-”

“Steal!”

As I said it, I instinctively used my horn again, but luckily the only thing I felt suddenly on my head was soft.

“Wow, Twilight, what a great trick. You moved a hat a few feet. What a magical accomplishment for the ages. Perhaps we should call you the great and powerful Twilight, and let you keep it,” Trixie deadpanned, before floating the hat back over to her own head with magic and nestling it over her horn. “Now, is that all you wanted to show?”

“Actually, I guess it was kind of a waste to try that on you. I’m pretty sure you only have on the hat and cape, so unless you’ve got something in a cape pocket, I’m not sure what I’d even be able to steal! Let’s see…”

Scanning the group, I knew what Selena had on her, and Celestia was still not wearing anything, since I had the saddlebag and the bits on me. So that just leaves…

“Darkness, would you help me with something?”

She smiled. “Okay!”

Making sure to reach out a hoof this time, “Steal!”

Thankfully, my hoof was not immediately weighed down by a piece of armor. Actually, whatever I’d taken was pretty light! A glance down at my hoof revealed it to be her pair of sunglasses.

“Huh. Headwear again. Isn’t what this takes supposed to be random? Here you go, Dar-”

I stop my sentence dead in its tracks. As I looked up at Darkness, I realized the spell must have had a disastrous side effect!

By stealing something so close to her eyes, it had made them go cross!

Author's Note:

Hey, look! It hasn't been 4 months this time! It's always a weird balancing act, keeping the plot mostly on track with the differences in characters from the main Konosuba cast, but I like to think I make it work!

Comments

[BlazingSaddles69]

Aww, the author removed the panty stealing joke from the anime. Admittedly ponies don't have those. Also, spotted.

[Ozymandias]

"...You're a criminal? Shouldn’t you be more, I don’t know, discrete about that?"

Discrete E T E is when things are distinct and separate. Example: The pizza was cut into six discrete slices.

Discreet E E T is when you are being stealthy or surreptitious, attempting to avoid notice. Example: Cadance is in the castle, so get that pizza to Shining Armor discreetly or it won't make it at all.

Selena needs to be discreet about being a thief, not discrete.

[2SuriYourself]

11544300
Good to know, fixed!