Chapter 5: Heroes Not Included
“Though fate is grim neither fear nor mope
Great heroes step forward to the light
Across the land they rise and spread hope
Pillars of Evil shake with their might”
Paperback pulled the helmet off of his head. His eyes flared with the afterimage of the Equestrian Earth world, the last thing he saw as he logged out staring at the spots where Rusty Nail and Sound Wave had been just a few moments ago. He blinked, clearing his head of the glow and trying to adjust to the dim light of the room. How long had he been playing?
Rubbing his eyes, he turned towards his computer, now on the desktop. He peered at the tiny numbers in the corner, making out the time of 1:20. That early? He had woken up around nine-ish, if the rising of the sun was still reliable. How had so much time within the game passed so slowly in real life? He was fairly certain that even magic couldn't answer the question; unless time compression spells had been discovered sometime when he wasn't paying attention to the real world. Brow furrowed, he racked the deep annals of his memory to try and bring forth any information he might have stored away that could shed light on the subject.
Paperback was one of those people that collected a repertoire of random facts and useless information that could be pulled out ever so often to answer questions like these. How he remembered all of it was unknown to him, since he often couldn't remember his own homework more than half of the time. He made grandiose leaps in logic that would make little apparent sense to anypony other than himself, and arrived at a corner of his mind where he blew the dust off of almost-forgotten tomes of vague knowledge.
He remembered that the speed of thought was several times faster than what ones body could react at. Since the computer was processing everything at faster than the speed of thought, technically the players in the game weren't speaking their ideas at all, but it was equivalent to a form of telepathy through machines. The average pony will go through five or six cycles of dream sleep every night for fifteen minutes at a time, but the actual content of a dream for the dreamer will have seemed to have lasted several hours. Thus, what had been a full day in the game had actually been condensed down to one sixth of the time, and if the neural interface could trigger the rest portions of the brain, he could indeed play while he was asleep.
Sometimes he managed to impress himself with his ability to reach a logical conclusion. He allowed himself a smug smile as he stretched his legs. And then he ran to the bathroom, for nature had been calling him for the past hour and he didn't even realize it.
A few minutes later Paperback exited his adjoining bathroom with a most contented sigh and headed for the fridge. Vaguely he remembered that he hadn't eaten that morning, and his brain was tricking him into thinking he was hungrier than he should be because it felt like he had gone a full day without food inside the game. He pulled out a cup and filled it with sink water, sticking it into the microwave to heat it up. He placed a Noodle Cup nearby, where he would out the water momentarily.
A disgusting stench reached his nostrils and he flared them in disgust. He looked down, and saw the full trash can still sitting there. Oh. I should have emptied that this morning... He thought, as his mind trailed off into a half-formed list of other things that needed to be done. He pulled up the trash bag with magic, keeping it a good ten feet away from him as he exited his apartment and walked to the dumpster. It was about the limit of what he could do with his magic; he never bothered to learn many other tricks or exercise the ones he did know.
He unceremoniously flung the offending garbage into the dumpster, dropping the lid down onto it a bit harder than he needed to. Instead of going straight back to his apartment, he lay down on the grass for a minute, resting in the warmth of the sun. It wasn't as if he actually had anything to do back at the apartment. At least, anything he wanted to do. While he sat, he thought about nothing, and time flowed smoothly without interruption or distinction. He enjoyed the little moments like these. Peaceful, serene, and free of worry. After what he would guess was about fifteen minutes, he forced himself to get up.
Paperback trotted back inside of his apartment, kicking the door closed behind him. Checking the microwave, he found that the water was now lukewarm and growing colder by the second. He grunted in disgust, and started the microwave for another minute. That done, he pulled off the seal of the Noodle Cup with his magic and wrapped his hoof around the warm cup of water. He poured the latter into the former, creating lunch. Like science, only disgusting. He hated Noodle Cups. Freeze-dried vegetables and noodles that quite frankly tasted like crap. If only he found a job, he could afford decent food.
He looked at the clock on his computer again; only 1:43. Still an hour and a half to kill. Sighing discontentedly he laid down in front of the TV and wolfed down his lunch.
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Finally, it was time to return to the game. The last hour had been spent watching a rerun of the Coltbert Report and the Daily Show with Jon Stalwart, his prime source for news of the outside world. Paperback didn't keep up with politics or most current events, but accepted the information that the two comedian reporters laid out with a grain of salt, half-formulating his own opinions about events but still remaining in a state of impassiveness.
He checked the clock one more time, ensuring that the time was three thirty. Well, he would be a few minutes late. Hopefully they wouldn't go off without him. He placed the helmet over his eyes, and entered the world of Equestrian Earth.
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The light of the virtual sun flooded his eyes as he felt himself materialize into the world. The bright sheet of white quickly separated into a spectrum of colors, as the sky filled with blue, the trees became green, and the dirt he stood on shone as a light earthy brown. He blinked a few times as his eyes adjusted, then looked around for his friends.
Spinning on the spot, he did a quick three-sixty of the area. Not there, not there, not there... Aha! There. He thought, spotting a familiar cyan coat next to an olive green one. He walked over to them slowly, observing the two. They were blatantly avoiding eye contact, with Rusty Nail studying the tree off to his right and Sound Wave staring up at the sky disinterestedly. Paperback sighed inwardly. It seems that it's going to take some time for these two to get used to each other, or at least for Rusty to get used to Sound Wave. And I thought I was the antisocial one. He quickened his pace, and his hoofbeats made the two turn and see his approach.
“Hello again gentlecolts. Are we prepared for questing and other such tomfoolery?” He said, in a slightly amused voice. It was also as chipper as he could make it, which was a bit of a stretch. He didn't do happy, really. The half smile on his face passed for real enough though.
Sound Wave returned the smile, and waved a hoof in the air at his approach. “Thought you bailed on us, Paperback. Rusty here looked ready to head out without you.” Sound bobbed his head at Rusty, who rolled his eyes in an obvious 'whatever' motion.
“Can we get on with it? We need to go to the Sundance Farm or whatever and kill everything.” Rusty said, filling his tone with as much plaintive boredom as a child would at his mother in a beauty salon.
“Oh you are just oozing patience right now.” Sound Wave said, his voice full of sarcasm. Immediately after he said it, he leaned his head closer. His eyes lowered seductively and he dropped his voice to a mock whisper, “Although, you are kind of cute when you pout like that.”
Rusty leered at Sound with a scowl, and a low growl rose just audible in his throat. His neck lowered into a charging position and a hoof rested on the pommel of his sword. Sound Wave stared at him for a half second before plastering a cheesy grin over his face. Rusty evidently took it as a mocking insult, and the growl rose in volume.
“Easy there Rusty. He's just getting you riled up.” Paperback said, giving a light chuckle at Rusty Nail's expense. The joke in and of itself wasn't that great, but the reaction was still funny. Rusty didn't seem to be taking these jokes so well, though, so Paperback would have to talk to Sound about cutting back on them later. “Now, if the directions we got from that NPC were correct, Sundance farm should be to the southeast. The road heads east-northeast so we might as well just trail blaze our way there.” The farm was actually south of the mine they were at before, and a bit closer to the town to boot. They could probably make it there, finish the quest and come back within a couple of hours. In-game hours, that is. Which would translate to... what, twenty minutes in the real world?
Paperback was interrupted from his train of thought by a hoof poking him. He looked up, and saw Sound Wave in front of him, Rusty staring over his shoulder. “You were saying we were going to trail blaze and then it looked like you went to sleep. You alright?” Sound Wave said quizzically.
Paperback blinked. “Yeah, I was just calculating how long it would take us to get there in the game and how it translated to real-world time. Thinking must just take me longer since our brains are already running at obscenely fast speeds.” He said in a matter-of-fact tone. His two compatriots both gave him blank questioning looks, but dropped the matter, allowing them to move on.
To travel over open terrain was far different from traveling on an established path in the world. The landscape was an ever flowing ocean of rolling green hills with boulders jutting up from the ground, obstinately marking their spot on the world. Creatures wandered about the open land; the likes of coyotes and boars traveled in packs for protection while here and there larger creatures could be spotted off on their own as they stalked prey. As they passed particularly close to a cluster of trees, the trio luckily spotted a pair of eyes glaring at them from the bush. They reacted swiftly enough to avoid the pounce of the mountain lion as it went straight for Sound Wave.
The fight was hard for them, the mountain lion was level nine compared to their level six, and Paperback didn't feel comfortable moving on until he had received a Soothing Chord from Sound Wave, to heal the massive damage the mountain lion had caused when it's claws raked his sides.
They were almost to the farm now, if the invisible map marker in his head was reliable at all. There was a stretch of trees that looked like it covered the view of the side of Sundance Farm that they were on. “I say we just go through. I'm bored of walking.” Rusty Nail said, as they drew closer to the cluster of forest.
Sound Wave shook his head, “No, we should definitely go around. There might be another mountain lion sneaking around in there. Or two. I doubt we could fight two at one time.” Between the three of them, they actually probably could if Sound Wave focused on healing the two melee units, but his argument was still solid.
Paperback thought it over for a moment, as the three of them moved ever closer to the woods. “Well, I think we should-” He cut himself off, staring into the brush. It was moving. “I think we should run.” He stated plainly, but his feet wouldn't, couldn't. They remained rooted to the spot as if a druid has ensnared him. His gaze remained fixed on the massive shape that was turning in the brush.
Sound Wave and Rusty Nail stared at him for a moment, then turned to look at the glen as well. They too stood transfixed as the shape of a massive boar, easily twice the size of a pony, turned to face them. Sound Wave whispered in a half-strangled voice, “Oh my...” and then left his jaw open.
The behemoth made eye contact with the three little ponies that must have looked appetizing to it, as they stood there like a free meal. A guttural snort came out of it's mouth, and then it roared, as it charged forward at them with it's tusks lowered for a gouge.
Rusty Nail broke the spell first. “It's Briarbuck! Scram mates!” He quickly turned and galloped off as fast as he could. Paperback and Sound Wave turned and followed not a moment later, but Briarbuck the elite monster had already halved the distance between it and the group.
Paperback was right behind Sound Wave as they reached their top speed, but it still would not be enough. “Sound Wave! You're a pegasus! Fly, dammit!” Paperback shouted. Sound Wave apparently heard him, for his wings opened wide and he began gaining altitude. Rusty Nail had a good lead on them of at least fifteen feet. How far away was Briarbuck now? Paperback spared a glance behind him, and didn't even have time to scream as a tusk rammed into him. Everything after that was darkness.
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He was in the white space again. That eternal plane of nothingness from which reality spewed forth. Where he first met the goddess. Paperback was not given time to dwell on this fact, however, for he already felt himself being pulled and tugged. It appeared his visit would be for the briefest of moments, for he soon found the nothingness slipping away and reality took form around him.
Immediately, he felt the aftereffects of the attack which he had received. He was felled in a single blow to the side from one of the monster's tusks, which had pierced his armor and went straight through his lungs. It was not particularly pleasant to think about, but the pain was already fading. The memory of the wound he would carry with him, the first time he had experienced death within the game. What inwardly surprised him though is that he didn't really feel anything about it. He died, time to start over. He supposed he was just a little bit sad, but more because he would have to walk all the way there again.
He looked around and found himself in a large room. It was rectangular and plain, with windows higher up to let in light. The walls were the familiar stonework of Aeroslida city, and the floor was solid planks. Beds which players were supposedly 'resting' on lined the walls and had a row in the center of the room. Beds that had no one near them would occasionally have a player materialize next to them; other unfortunate souls that had fallen victim to spells, swords, or monster teeth.. There were plenty of beds in the room for the amount of players that probably died hourly within the game, assuming that people didn't take their sweet time and moved along outside.
Across the room on the far wall, underneath the windows, a familiar blue-coated pegasus materialized, eyes clenched shut and wings still splayed out in a flying position. Paperback walked over to Sound Wave, who flinched at the hoof placed around his shoulder. After a moment, Sound Wave looked up at Paperback, eyes wide still in shock from dying.
“Are you going to be all right?” Paperback asked him as he withdrew his hoof from Sound Wave as the pegasus straightened himself out. Although death was but a temporary thing in this world, it seemed so real. Paperback frowned on the inside as he mused about the possible psychological implications of that, but kept as warm of a face as he could muster on the outside.
Sound Wave shook himself once as he finally tucked his wings to his sides. “Yes, I'll be alright now, it was just so sudden that I got scared and... “ Sound Wave trailed off, clenching his eyes shut at the memory of it. He opened them but a second later and turned to Paperback. “I was already fifteen feet in the air when I died. He jumped and got me.”
Paperback's eyes opened wide at the news, but didn't have time to respond because in the space one bed over a green earth pony materialized. Rusty Nail had a different reaction to death than the other two; instead of silent contemplation or terrified shock, his countenance resonated with an inner rage as he joined the other two. “I managed to last a good half minute longer than the two of you, only because I got so much farther ahead. Bastard can run. And he doesn't seem to have a limit on how far he'll chase you, either.”
“He jumped and got me. Boars aren't supposed to jump. That isn't something they do, is it?” Sound Wave added again, perplexed.
“No. they aren't. I'll admit though, it was pretty spectacular to see him knock you down onto the ground like-” Rusty Nail started, but cut himself off when he saw that Sound Wave had his eyes closed tight, ears flattened against the side of his head. “Oh come on. You can't tell me you actually got scared from dying. It's just a video game. Not like real life.”
“You don't get it! It's virtual reality, but with the emphasis on reality! That was too real! You have no idea what it's like to be grabbed by the wings like that. Pegasi are supposed to be free in the air. To lose your flight like that is just absolutely terrifying.” Sound Wave retorted. The two of them slowly leaned towards each other, prepared to escalate. Paperback stepped in before it could happen.
“Knock it off you two.” Paperback said sternly. Both sets of eyes turned towards him, and he continued, “Yes, we died, and both of you experienced it in different ways. How each of you handle it is your own business, and fighting like this solves nothing. Now, let's take a short break and buy and sell or whatever we need to do, then we'll head back out there and be more careful.”
Both of the others agreed, and they left the respawn house, headed off to different directions in the market. The first place that Paperback headed to was the Spell Tutor. He needed a few different spells to alternate between besides Ice and Lightning.
A few minutes later, he exited the Spell Shop with rank two of Shocking Grasp, and a new spell called Burning Hoof, which would deal a percentage of the initial damage dealt over time. There were some other neat ones he would definitely buy in the future, but for the moment he was low in funds to have all the spells he would want. Not to mention that plenty of them he needed a higher level for anyways.
Once the trio had arrived at their predetermined meeting place- right outside Chariot Park- they prepared to maneuver their way through the ever-churning mass of ponies who seemed to be always present within the plaza. The break had been what they needed; Sound Wave and Rusty Nail still weren't making eye contact, but at least now they weren't about to try and kill each other. Sound Wave gave a smug grin to Rusty Nail and Paperback, then used his wings to take to the sky and soar right over the crowd, and presumably landed right by where their chariot would arrive. As Paperback looked for an opening to cut through the throng, he stared wistfully at the sky and wished that he had rolled a pegasus.
Rusty nudged him, and Paperback broke out of his daydream and looked where Rusty was pointing. “An opening. There. Let's go, mate.” The two quickly dived into the open spot and managed to slowly push their bodies through the mob. After three minutes- two longer than his previous trip through Chariot Park- Paperback and Rusty managed to make the line for the Saddleworth Chariot just as it was arriving. They managed to both fit comfortably enough inside of it, while Sound Wave flapped lazily outside to keep the chariot from getting cramped.
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Finally, they were at the Sundance Farm. Rows upon rows of neglected corn stalks slowly withered under the glare of the sun in the fields. Beyond them lay a farmhouse and a barn that appeared to be long abandoned. Someponies had quite recently moved into the area, however, because bandit ponies could be seen wandering the fields and around the house. A few pegasi patrolled the skies, which Paperback kept a careful eye on. He was rather tired of getting smacked around by diving rogues.
“Alright. So. Go about this the same way we did at the mine then?” Rusty Nail said, his hooves propping him up on a broken length of fence as he stared uninterestedly at the patrolling bandits. Paperback was busy behind him, levitating a stick to draw a top-view map of the farm so they could plan a route of how to get to the farmhouse with fighting as few mobs as possible.
“Yeah, probably. It seemed to work pretty well last time.” Paperback said, looking up from the map to note how the guards were moving. A lot of it was sporadic and irregular, the bandits seemed to have no set path they patrolled on, but they usually never went out of a particular area. Each of the pegasi above were doing a oblong figure eight, which he would have to time in order to avoid drawing them in during a big fight. Unicorns were in some of the groups, mostly the ones closer to the house. Satisfied with his map, he dropped the stick and turned to his two teammates. “Alright, I think I have it figured out. Sound Wave, pull that group there...”
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A good half-hour of fighting later, the three of them finally made it to the house. It was an expansive two story building that must have, a long time ago, held an entire extended family. Time had worked its toll however; the windows were all boarded up, and the wood was so weathered that half of it looked like it would collapse at any minute.
Sound Wave turned towards Paperback, “So, what are we looking for again? The quest wasn't exactly clear.” He said inquisitively.
Paperback shrugged, not taking his eyes off the entrance to the house. “We're supposed to figure out where the ore goes after it gets taken here. There will probably be, like, a ledger or something. A quest marker will probably appear once we walk inside.”
Rusty Nail shook his shoulders and cantered into the house, “Let's get on with it then, mates!” He said over his shoulder. He crossed the doorframe, and entered the living room. Paperback and Sound Wave followed close behind. As the three reached the center of the room, a gentle plucking and a thwiff sound could be heard.
Rusty looked at his shoulder, which now sported a black-feathered arrow penetrating his leather armor. “Ow.” was all that came out of his mouth. Everyone paused and looked at the arrow, but the moment soon passed as Rusty ripped it out with his teeth and grabbed his sword, charging at the archer reloading in another room.
Paperback gripped his morningstar in his telekinesis, prepared to help Rusty beat the archer into oblivion. He was distracted by a thumping sound coming from the stairs, and swung around to see another three ponies and one unicorn, who promptly charged him and Sound Wave.
Twirling the morningstar like he would a blade, Paperback leaped at the nearest enemy and struck him in the side with Frigid Touch. He quickly spun around and smashed another pony with Burning Hoof applied to the mace, in a deadly dance of weapon and spell. He noticed a lack of support from Sound Wave, and turned around to see him frantically going hoof-to-blade with the third warrior.
The glance cost him though, for a fireball impacted on his chest and made him flinch, all the while his two melee opponents recovered and hacked at him with an axe and a sword. He swung his morningstar again, and Shocking Grasp struck his burning opponent in the side of the head and dropped him. That left the axe-wielder and the unicorn in the back. With all of his spells on cooldown, Paperback relied on the trustworthy spiked iron ball that he was hefting around. He swung it in rapid succession, ignoring the attacks of the enemy to finish the fight. One jab to the chest. Spin around, strike on the side. Back the other way, swing up and... Paperback heard a crunch that was far too satisfying as his mace delivered a brutal uppercut to the axe-wielding pony, and he slumped over like a stone.
Another fireball impacted with him. That damn unicorn had only hit him twice and was still doing most of the damage. He realized that his health was down to a third of its maximum, and ran to disrupt the wizard's next spell. As he entered into melee range, a few wide swings from his mace got the spellcaster off balance, and the third spell went wild. Now sure that his attack would connect Paperback readied Strike and Burning Hoof, smashing the unicorn between the eyes. Stunned but not yet down, another stroke finished him off.
Now Paperback just had to deal with the earth pony attacking Sound Wave. He turned around, and- Oh. Nope. Rusty already took care of him. Wonderful. He sheathed his weapon and lay down on the floor, letting the game's natural regeneration do it's work on his battered health bar. “Well. That was exciting. Let's find some information, shall we?”
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The ledger they had found didn't lead them any further down the command chain, but it did mention other collection sites for ore. Lieutenant Crossroads realized that they were by far some of the most capable ponies under her command. (“But we aren't even part of the guard!” Rusty complained.) Thus, she had sent them to a forward command posting led by Crossroad's superior, one Major Dowsing. Major Dowsing had quickly accepted Crossroad's recommendation, and immediately gave them multiple quests to send them out to the other collection sites and shut them down, so that the bandit organization could be crippled.
Which is how they found themselves outside of an old stone building that was abandoned years ago. The abandoned building theme might be just a tad overplayed, but it did fit thematically. According to Major Dowsing, the entire area around here used to be populated by ponies, but had been abandoned over half a century ago due to Parasprite infestations. Now, the only ponies that lived here were the bandits who had recently come and set up shop.
“Alright, so we have to kill fifteen thugs and fifteen brutes. Then we have to kill the overseer and search the place for any clues as to where the main base might be located.” Sound Wave said, reading off the quest information. He looked up, puzzled. “What's the difference between a thug and a brute?”
Rusty spoke up, “Y'mean besides the name plate? Nothing really, except thugs use Bleed and brutes use Cripple. And I suppose brutes have a bit more health.”
Paperback was trying to draw out another map in the dirt of where all the mob groups patrolled. He kept peering into the rapidly fading light of the sun as the game went into another night cycle. After another minute, he threw his hooves up in frustration and wiped the map clean in his anger. “It's too damn dark for me to keep track where they all are. We're just gonna have to wing it.”
It was rather lucky for us though- Paperback later realized- They seem to be as blind as we are. They had enough trouble anyways, dealing with the thugs and brutes, and all of the other mobs that were not thugs and brutes but they still had to kill to get through. They actually ended up clearing the entire field around the house without having met the quota of enemies they needed to kill, so they hung around outside for a while until enemies started to respawn.
Inside the house they fought in close quarters with this site's overseer, a wicked looking unicorn who seemed to have very little trouble casting in combat. Her guards weren't helping matters either, they kept trying to break through Paperback and Rusty in order to try and attack Sound Wave. After the battle was over, searching through the house yielded no fantastic results. Some papers on how much raw materials were being moved they brought with them, but nothing revealed the location of where all the materials were being sent.
“Well, four more places to go.” Sound Wave said, as he looked at the map for where the next closest site was.
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The most obnoxious thing about this portion of the quest chain, Paperback decided, is that all of these collection sites are too damn far apart. Luna's virtual moon shone overhead, halfway to full. The game's night sky was a reflection of the real world, and Paperback could look up and spot some of the constellations that he could remember offhand. To him it was strange to see the sky so full of stars; in the city where he lived there was almost always enough light pollution that the sky remained a dusty black expanse, save for the moon.
If a day in the game is every four hours, then a full moon can be seen inside the game just shy of every five real-time days. Paperback thought idly. The trio plodded along slowly, cautiously peering into every grove of trees and around every rock. The encounter with Briarbuck was still fresh on their minds, and they quite keen on not dying again. Eventually, the outline of a cluster of building's came into view, softly lit with a solitary lantern in the middle of them.
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“God, It's so dark and we keep getting ambushed. Can we please move on now? We can come back to this one in the morning.” Rusty Nail said as he slammed his head into the wall of the second house they searched in frustration. No sign of any overseer yet, or location of any base.
“No Rusty. We're going to do it now. Because we're here. And walking takes forever.” Paperback said sternly. In truth, he was quite annoyed with the ambushes too. One of the bandit types they had to kill were Ambushers, which lived up to their name and constantly harassed the party from the shadows with arrows. “Alright, there's nothing here. Let's move on to the next house.”
No sooner had Paperback stepped outside than three arrows streaked out of the shadows from the opposite building and stuck into his side as if he were a pincushion. He drew out his morningstar and muttered under his breath. “Goddammit.”
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“How the hell did the overseer get on the roof?” Rusty Nail said, staring up into the night sky, where a unicorn was lit on top of a building by the dim glow of his horn. They had moved on to the third collection site by this point, and it was nearing one in the morning.
“Some way that's ridiculously complicated, I'm sure. How are we going to kill him?” Sound Wave questioned in turn, as he continuously casted healing spells to keep the two melee fighters healthy as they dealt with the Cutthroats pouring from the building.
“We can't do a thing, so that's why you're going to do it.” Paperback said, spinning in a circle as his morningstar caved in another skull. Sound Wave just stared at him blankly for a moment, pupils shrunk in disbelief.
“And just how the hell am I supposed to do that!?!” Sound Wave shouted, interrupting the spell he was casting to leap to the side in order to avoid a shadow bolt that came streaming down from the unicorn in the lofty perch.
Paperback slammed a hoof to his forehead in annoyance, which caused a lapse of attention that allowed his opponent a free hit on him. “Sound Wave. You. Are. A. Pegasus. Fly up there and hit him.” Sound Wave frantically interjected that he didn't even have a weapon, so Paperback leaned down and looted his now dead foe, and retrieved a dagger which he tossed over to the bard. “There. Now you do. Go.”
“Yeah, stop being such a spoony bard and go kill a warlock.” Rusty Nail said, interjecting into the conversation as he nimbly stabbed and jumped around two bandits who were unsuccessfully trying to flank him.
“Stop calling me that!” Sound Wave cried in irritation, then gave up and leaped into the air towards the overseer, while he shouted a mix between a war cry and a squeak of fear.
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“Eurgh. Why does this- ow- damn roof have to be- stop it- so freaking small!” Rusty roared in frustration as he leaped from floor to table to ledge in an elaborate dance to avoid the raging earth pony warrior who was swinging an ax at him. The two dueled on the open top floor of a stone tower that stuck out of a hill like a thumb. Sound Wave flapped just in range for him to cast healing spells at the party rogue; while Paperback was holding his own on the stairs, using the narrow surface to keep his foes fighting him one or two at a time, and was able to swing his mace to knock them off to the ground floor.
“Just finish him off! I still have another five or six guys left to go down here!” Paperback called up. Granted, the common enemies were of a weaker variety than the overseer by a good three levels, but the endless fight was beginning to wreak havoc on his mana.
“Easy for you to say! This freak could kill me with a few direct hits!” Rusty shouted down, leaping to the left in a roll as the ax came crashing down into the table where he had been just a moment before.
“Just jump on top of him and stab that sword into his throat!” Paperback roared, swinging his morningstar at his current enemy's front legs, sweeping them and causing the bandit to lose his balance and tumble to the first floor.
A brief lull in the fighting for Paperback occurred as his next opponent made his way to fight him. Paperback strained his ears, but he no longer heard any sound coming from upstairs. “What happened up there?” He yelled
A reply was a moment in coming, but after a few seconds a shocked Sound Wave replied, “Um. Rusty just tackled the Overseer off the roof.”
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“Well, it worked out in the end, didn't it?” Rusty said, as he peered at their next target. It was now late into the night and the full expanse of the cosmos was arranged above them, stars and moon giving off a silver light over the grass and the tollhouse next to the bridge.
“Yes, but you had to walk here on your own, and hold us up by twenty minutes.” Paperback said. Rusty's stunt had killed the overseer, but he had landed a moment later and died himself. For a pony who had technically just committed suicide, Rusty was surprisingly chipper about the whole thing.
“Well, I got the experience for killing him, and you got that shiny ax to sell. So, can we go and murder some dudes now?” Rusty didn't wait for a reply, but instead slunk off into the tall grass, and leaped onto a lone guard, bringing him down before he could raise an alarm.
Paperback sighed and Sound Wave shrugged his shoulders before the two followed the rogue towards the bridge. Another collection site, another overseer to kill.
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“Finally, last collection site down. And no information found, so that means that Major Downer will have found out something for us and send us off to go kill more things, making our work here basically useless.” Rusty Nail said, kicking over the pegasus overseer before her body digitized away. She was a rogue, and kept trying to dive onto them from the air during their combat, quickly flying back up when she missed. Paperback loathed her with a passion.
“Major Dowsing.” Paperback automatically corrected, “And technically our prime directive is to cripple the bandit organization because they obviously want all these supplies for something. Besides, we got a whole bunch of loot and experience.” Indeed, the only reason that they hadn't had to go back yet was because they had found enough new packs that all of them had enough inventory space for all of the worthwhile items they found.
They reached the outpost just as the sun was peeking over the horizon, causing the stars to fade out of sight and into nothingness until the darkness came again. Between the three of them they all took a good twenty minutes to sell their accumulated loot to the camp quartermaster, and left with their coin purses far heavier than they had been before.
After that, they found their way over to the command tent, where Major Dowsing patiently waited for them. Dowsing was a thickly muscled earth pony with the cutie mark of a dowsing rod. His coat color was of a light purplish-blue combination not unlike a plum, with a starkly contrasting yellow mane and an impressive handlebar mustache. “Hm-hmm! So, you have managed to take down all four collection sites, have you? And no luck on where a main base of operations is? Well, it seems that not all of us can have good fortune. I on the other hand may have found just the information we need!”
For the love of Celestia, the game wasn't even being subtle about it. Dowsing continued to talk, evidently being one of those ponies that just plain enjoyed the sound of their own voice. “While you were out killing the overseers, I and the guards did a little bit of scouting. Who should we spot but a pegasus pony that was clearly a messenger! My scouts and I all report seeing him at different times of the day, which would put him on a schedule of visiting all five collection sites. If you can find the messenger, you might just very well be able to sneak and follow him all the way back to their hideout. After he leads you somewhere, kill him and take whatever letters he has on him.”
------------
The nature of this quest was quite understandable, but how to accomplish it was completely ambiguous. “So we have to wait around one of the collection sites for the pegasus to show up, then follow him around until he leads us somewhere where we hadn't been before?” Sound Wave asked, clarifying on the simple plan put forward by Paperback, who nodded in reply.
“This is going to be absolutely boring. Who brought the cards and cider?” Rusty said, as they approached the site they were going to stake out. They were headed to the bridge, which was further southwest and the last collection site they had attacked the last night.
“Stop complaining.” Paperback said halfheartedly, not putting the effort into making it sound like an order. “At least we can farm the bandits here until we see the messenger. Now, who wants dibs on the annoying overseer?”
Three hours later and in the beginning of the afternoon, Paperback and company had annihilated every bandit around the bridge and the overseer in the tollhouse at least four times. At the moment they were sitting on top of a hill across from the house; far enough away that they wouldn't be spotted by the bandits as they respawned. They ate a virtual lunch, because their brains, thinking that all of this was happening in real time, were tricking them into thinking that they hadn't eaten in almost a day. Thankfully the virtual food had taste, somehow, and worked as a placebo to quiet the brain's hunger.
Paperback kept his gaze pointed skywards as he munched lazily on a sandwich, watchful for the pegasus messenger that he was told would come. A glint caught his eye far in the distance, and he quickly notified the the two other ponies laying near him.
“Think that's the messenger, mate?” Rusty questioned. Rusty was the most vocal complainer of having to sit around and wait, and had started to tire of slinking off and killing any lone guards that had respawned.
“Yeah, probably. It's not like we've seen any other players out here recently.” Paperback replied. And it was true, while they quested during the morning and afternoon of real time they had encountered only a few other groups of players- and the occasional lone wolf- outside of Saddleworth. According to Rusty, Corporal Breezy who had given Paperback the quest to come down here switched between three different quests to give out to players, sending them to one of three 'Starting Towns' located around Equestria. Combine the separation of new players with the fact that at any time half of the online population seemed to be in the main cities of Canterlot and Aeroslida, plus the fact that it was a Friday and plenty of ponies were working or at school, and it seemed fairly reasonable that they had run into as few players as they did.
Another few minutes of waiting granted results as the pegasus came into better view. A golden yellow coat with a mane striped in blue and green, the messenger was lightly armored and quite obviously an NPC with how he/she landed right in the midst of the guards and walked into the tollhouse without any challenge from the bandits. “Get ready, we're gonna have to run after him.” Paperback said.
“It could be a her.” Sound Wave interjected.
“Yes, but for the purpose of avoiding having to say him/her and not calling him an 'It' I'm going to refer to him as a male.” Paperback replied.
The messenger exited the house and took off to the west, following the river upstream. “After him!” Paperback cried, and the three went galloping around the camp in order to keep up. The messenger didn't seem to be in any hurry, however, because he flew at a pace that was quite easy to keep up with from the ground. Of course the programmers would make him fly slower. Otherwise the earth ponies and unicorns would never be able to complete this damn quest.
The chase continued for what might have been a half hour, or perhaps a bit longer. The trio was careful not to be seen by the pegasus, who would stop and look at the ground every so often. Whenever this happened Paperback usually had to retreat to a tree or some other method of total cover, because his coat stuck out like a sore thumb in the green landscape. The gentle rolling landscape eventually gave way into steeper hills and eventually into the beginnings of a mountain range. This led into a wide valley with steep inclines on either side. It was well forested, and several times they almost lost track of the messenger when the leafy canopy covered the sky.
There were more bandits here as well, slinking here and there between the trees. Rusty it turned out had a keen eye when he applied himself, and could veer off and take down individuals before they sounded an alarm. Ahead of them, they saw a clearing in the trees, and the messenger slowly descended.
“Alright. He's on the ground. Can we kill him now?” Rusty Nail said, clearly fed up with the long trek.
“Wait a minute longer. There's nothing here yet.” Paperback replied, slightly annoyed with his partner's foalish behavior. The messenger walked on the ground now, and passed through a tightly packed group of trees on the far side of the clearing. “Alright. Let's move up.”
The three of them ran through the clearing so fast it was as if they were flying. They soared over the low undergrowth that was scattered between the trees, and what they saw before them made even Rust Nail's jaw drop in amazement.
Underneath a mountainous overhang, a small city was carved into the rock. Covered in the shadow of stone numerous buildings jutted out of the mountain like jagged teeth. A clear path led through the middle of the town, which ran up to a hole in the cliff that stood open like a great gaping maw into the earth. Due to the overhang, the town itself was virtually undetectable by air.
“Alright. If this isn't their main base, then I give up. Rusty, you can kill him now. Before he gets any closer to town, preferably.” Paperback said, letting a note of urgency edge into his voice as the messenger drew closer to the stone city where distant ponies could be seen walking the rooftops.
“On it mate.” Rusty said, and charged forward, using his stealth and speed to get almost all the way to the messenger before he heard him and turned around; only to receive a face full of sword. A Piercing Note followed right afterward, and between the spell and Rusty's attacks the messenger fell swiftly despite his level. No alarm was raised, and no guards came rushing at them as they quickly looted the body and retreated back into the trees, the only sound being a whispered "I told you the messenger was a she."
Level Up!
Sound Wave has reached level 10!
He has gained the following skills!
~Soothing Chord, Rank 4: The amount healed by this ability increases
~Speed Riff, Rank 2: The duration of the speed boost increases by five seconds.
~Battle Harmony: The bard receives a passive 1% bonus to damage and healing caused by the bard for each nearby party member. This bonus doubles for any nearby party member that is also a bard.
“If we work together then we can accomplish anything!”
Level Up!
Paperback has reached level 9!
He has gained the following skills!
~Corrosion: This spell deals acid damage, and lowers the targets armor value for a short time.
~Arcane Vendetta: You passively gain a better chance to hit against spellcasters of any kind.
Hit the annoying spellcasters to death.
Level Up!
Rust Nail has reached level 10!
He has gained the following skills!
~Hamstring, Rank 2: You aim for the legs, slowing the enemy by 30% for a short time.
~Camouflage: You can blend in to your surroundings, making you harder to spot while you're not moving.
~Acrobatics: Gain a bonus to your jump height.
~Poison: You may apply poisons to your weapon.
A good assassin only needs to hit once. The poison does the rest of the work.
Paperback turned to his two comrades, “So, shall we head back and turn in the quest or move forward?” He personally did not care either way. The game would still remain fun for him.
Rusty Nail immediately voted for moving forward, and Sound Wave agreed to Paperback's amazement. His argument being “We should at least go a little ways into the cave to see what we're dealing with, since we'll have to come back and kill everything later anyways.”
It seemed like sound logic, so the three of them made their way up the path to the black hole in the rock. Bandits of course tried to attack them, and these were a higher level than the collection site ones, so fights proved to be more of a challenge again. The entrance into the mountain was enormous by pony standards, stretching twenty feet high and wide, gently sloping downward into the earth. Thirty feet in, a faint opaque screen could be seen as it shimmered softly in various hues of blue.
“This must be a dungeon. I briefly heard about them.” Paperback said. One of the NPC's in the hugely underrated tutorial questline had explained them to him. “Once we cross over through that screen, we enter a dungeon which is saved to our party. No one other than party members will be able to enter our dungeon; anyone else who walks through enters their own copy of the dungeon.” He paused to take a breath.
“Most dungeons are built so that five players of the appropriate level are reasonably challenged. Less players can enter, but the difficulty rating stays at five. The difficulty will increase somewhat for additional party members that enter, so a party of nine will still be as challenged as a smaller party would.” The maximum amount of ponies allowed to be in a party at once was ten, so you couldn't just have fifty ponies go in and destroy everything.
“I say we take a quick peek inside. Like Sound Wave said earlier, let's see what we're up against and we'll come back later.” Rusty Nail was agreeing with Sound Wave now. When did this happen? Paperback thought.
The thought passed as quickly as it came, and Paperback took point in their triangle formation. “Alright then, let's step inside. It shouldn't be too difficult if we've swept through all the bandits this easy so far.”
------------
Paperback opened up his eyes in the respawn room.
“Goddammit.”
------------
“Alright. So. We need more people.” Paperback said, as he sat down next to Rusty Nail and Sound Wave at a restaurant, to eat a virtual dinner to for the placebo affect of being full.
“And how do we find more people? It's not like we know anyone else in the game that's already level ten.” Sound said. He flinched ever so slightly when a passing pony accidentally brushed against his left wing. Rusty Nail had been overwhelmed by arrows and fell first, which left a hole in the defensive line for a Brute to rush through and finish Sound off with a warhammer. At least it was quick, Paperback took another full fifteen seconds to die, as weaker minions delivered several cuts onto him before Warhammer came around and crushed his skull in. It was a messy, violent death which he quickly pushed out of his mind before it could haunt him.
“We cah juh pik uh soem rahlbghoms ah do ih.” Rusty garbled out, his mouth full of sandwich. He paused for a moment and took a big swallow while the other two just stared at him, and he repeated himself. “We can just pick up some randoms and do it. Other people are surely on that quest, we just need to find 'em.”
“What, just, stand on two hooves and bellow into a crowd for people to step forward?” Sound Wave said dubiously.
And that was how ten minutes later Paperback found himself inside the swirling mass of ponies in Chariot Park, Sound Wave and Rusty Nail flanking him. “Looking for more for Bandit Caverns!”
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Finally. This one took forever. Sorry about that, but it's up now. Read and enjoy!
hmmmm, i wonder if battle experience in real life would give you an edge in game
1667296 It probably would. Experienced fighters would have the moves and the know-how to block and counter attacks, or perhaps be more precise in areas like archery. For a game as advanced in Equestrian Earth though, perhaps players with less skills have them subconsciously planted into them by the game for a more even footing? Like, you're being flanked by two warriors who swing at you, and the game reflexively lets you know how you could move to get out of the way, and your body would just do it. Maybe you make it in time or maybe not, but the point is that you still knew how.
This technology is scary because it would create some wicked awesome soldiers just by planting a lifetime knowledge of hand-to-hand combat in their brain, which they might be able to take out of the game with them.
1667478 it most likely would just give you basic combat knowledge, so you still have fun and improve in more ways then just level
That ending lol XD
Was SOOOO Excited to finally see this updated! Woo!! Hmm, Think it's high time for Sound Wave to employ the other half of his skills being a bard? :P Mainly Charming NPCs and Players as well as using Sneak attacks and throwing weapons?
I wonder what's going to happen next. March in with an army? Gather the few chosen OC's from the original story? Oh the posibilities!
Lol, dat ending. Classic MMORPG.
Ah, those days spent in RS calling out for dungeon parties... Sigh, well, glad this updated.
Wonder if Sound Wave knows the origins of spoony bard :/
Nothing wrong with this chapter that I can spot Party obviously needs a real spell caster light spell or night vision enchantments.
Can't wait to see the next chapter!
1687047 yes chalice I do know the origins of spooky bard xD
1754043 SPOONY BARD* silleh pony.
1755642. LOL I did not notice that typo until now!!!
oh I is silly pony x3
I need to write my own spin off at some point just so others can look good by comparison. :/
1808883 And if you use Chalice as your main character then you probably will conform to current canon, and possible include other story canon characters, who will then write their own spin-offs conforming to canon... It's a tangled web that has no end! Its glorious!
When is the next chapter?
1830220 Well, I just got done with finals, so now I have to deal with family ad Christmas, but hopefully I can get something up within the next week. I can't really promise anything at this point.
Finally got around to finish reading this chapter.
I have to say one thing: Your writing is obviously more impressive then mine.
I seriously wonder why people are not flocking to your story.
Maybe I'll have to do a blog to support underated fan fics, including yours.
It seriously disturbs me that you're not getting enough recognition.
As well as the other spin-offs.
You'd say you'd updaaaate D: I waited and waited and still nooothiiiing D:
1968335 I KNooooooow! Writing is Hard
It doesn't help that this chapter is flipping humongous. I'm ever so slowly getting to the end though! It is in sight!
1964583 Silly Chaotic, the reason that people are flocking to your story more than mine is because A: Mine is just a spin-off of yours, and B: Yours actually includes the mane 6 rather than focusing around the exploits of Oc's that have nothing to do whatsoever with the mane 6. My next story though... Front-Page worthy. I'll make sure of it.
1968414 Hang in there Nxegex!!! You can do it!!!
1968996 Damn straight I can! I'm going to finish today! And y'wanna know why? Because I'm not sleeping until I do!
It's 4:00 AM and I am tired. I really do hoe I finish soon...
You can do it!!!