Chapter 7: Making Conversation
"As valiant heroes travel the land
They encounter others who share their zeal
Rivalries form between these mighty bands
"Who is the strongest?" They wish to reveal"
The sun was rising high over Aeroslida as Paperback sat for an early lunch with Sound Wave, Night Stalker, Dilluted Livo, Nitro Rush, and Chalice Longshot. Their band was missing one Rusty Nail, but the earth pony had insisted on skipping lunch and was now off somewhere in the Gloomeadow fighting Plant Horrors. That left the six of them to munch happily on their meals and take a break from quests.
After celebrations in Saddleworth began to disperse as players headed back out into the now much safer world, the group agreed to a short break. Paperback took off the IPV ever so briefly in order to relieve himself and grab a quick snack before he settled back onto his bed to 'sleep' for the night. It still struck him as impossible that he would be able to roam the world of Equestrian Earth while his body received a full night's sleep. Even as his mind reconnected to the system, he could feel his body relax and shut down.
The five minute break he had taken in real time had been a half-hour in the game, and it was while everyone was off preparing themselves for bed that Rusty had run off to quest and fight.
The six of them had gotten a table situated on a balcony which overlooked the lower quarter of the city. To their left they could see the Cloud Library, it's three towers rising above the smaller buildings situated all around it. Across the city sat Chariot Park, the tree that stood in the center just visible over the roofs that stood between them and it.
With lunch completed, the group began to debate about what to do next. Night Stalker was in favor of going right back out to start questing again while Chalice said that she wanted to take some time to explore the profession system that the game had set up. A clear course of action could not be reached by consensus, so the group split up to do the one thing that they could agree on- shopping. “After all,” they said, “We can meet back here in an hour or two and figure out what to do then.”
Paperback needed the small break from the others anyways. The little social pony inside of his head kicked over the energy bucket with his hooves crossed obstinately, demanding time for himself. He did feel socially drained. It was like being tired, except he was already asleep so that didn't make much sense.
He excused himself as the group went their separate ways, and drifted off in no particular direction. He had a fair bit of gold in his bags; easily enough to buy almost whatever he wanted within the city. Except for a store, he thought silently, those are expensive. When he had been granted citizenship within Aeroslida, he had seen quite a few papers explaining various noteworthy things about the city. One of those were current property rates. To purchase property cost an exorbitant fee, not to mention owning a merchant license and the cost of any wares one might sell. All of that together for the first month would easily total above a hundred thousand gold... for a tiny shack. He didn't even want to think of what the cost of a larger building was. Thus, since it was so early into the game the only players who had shops were those who had received vouchers from the developers. The rest were run by the NPC's, who would probably retire ridiculously wealthy if a player bought their shop.
Paperback only had a measly thousand bits, and that was after selling all of the loot he had earned in the Bandit Caverns. Since he had the gold, he might as well go and get enchanted pieces of equipment to replace some of the standard items he still had on. Plus the accursed helmet he had won. Not that he didn't love the extra defense, but he really needed something that either allowed him to wear his glasses or at the very least didn't cut off his field of view. The helmet sat in his saddlebags; there was no way that he was going to wear it when he didn't need to.
He also needed some spells. Not just combat-related spells, but simple things like Light. Utility spells. That would be his first stop. The Mages tower was right near the Cloud Library; he had memorized the layout of the city streets after doing the tutorial quest line. Costing a good quarter of his gold, he upgraded his four basic elemental spells and got many other spells, such as Light. Another was Arcane Mark, which allowed him to leave magical runes on just about any surface. In an impulsive mood, he took a spell which otherwise contradicted his normally quiet and shy personality; Clarion Call, which raised the volume of the speaker by several magnitudes. While he never expected to use it on himself, maybe Rusty would want to shout something at some point...
Spell training completed, he moved onto gear. Much of it was still acceptable, but he felt the need for more powerful shoes, along with something that he could use instead of the helmet when he needed to see. Or he could pay to have his current armor improved, they did have blacksmiths for that sort of thing. A wander down the market streets took him to an armorer, who gladly sold him Brightforged Steel Shoes to replace his. They were incredibly light, if not as protective as some of the other options he had for upgrades.
He went a different route when it came to headwear. Eschewing the idea of a helmet altogether, he traveled to the Enchanter's shop, where he purchased an Owl's Circlet. While it offered little in the way of armor, it was heavily effective at boosting his intellect and granting him a bonus to his mana. He needed it; with all of his toggle abilities he could run out of mana in a fight rather quickly.
After that he went to the cloth armor store. No capes that were there were a suitable replacement for the Runed Cape; so Paperback shelled out the bits to have it improved. The clothier told him it would take about a half hour, which led to him stepping out to find a way to pass the time. A half hour had already passed since the group had split up, so once he retrieved his cape Paperback would still have about an hour until they reconvened.
He still had four hundred bits left, and not a clue of what to spend them on. He could go and start a profession, but which one? There were too many options to choose from. Even thinking about them hurt his brain. Miner, smith, tailor, tinker, tanner, enchanter, crafter, and a dozen other things. There were other non-skill based professions like painter or sculptor; things that didn't take up your profession slot but you used your own real-world experience to be good at.
He paused and sat down on the side of the road for a minute, and spared at glance at his rear armor which covered his cutie mark. An open book. What was he good at? He had always just assumed that his cutie mark meant that he was good at reading. Yes, he was, but was his special talent really that mind-bogglingly simple and straightforward? He felt like he was being deprived of something extraordinary simply by being ordinary.
Paperback from a few years ago might have begun to sulk at this point, and slumped into another fit of self-loathing and pity that radiated out from him in spirals. Not today though. He had worked long and hard to train himself to not think that. He was a stone to the idea of what-if's and could-have-been's. No longer would he dream of what never was, lost in a sea of despair and sadness from time wasted and chances lost.
It was too high of a price to pay.
Paperback felt his resolve strengthen, bolstered by his own poetry. He knew his mind reflected and reinforced whatever he put in there, so it was simple to trick himself with positive thinking. He felt his neutral mental state return, this time with a rather high sense of self-esteem of who he was. He looked down at his flank again. It was a tragedy that the very thing that made him unique should have to be covered up.
In front of him was an artist's studio. A sign depicting a pallet hung above the door and several paintings were displayed in the window. He knew just what he wanted to do with his remaining gold now.
Twenty-five minutes later, he exited the shop with carefully applied paint to his flank armor. Where polished steel had covered up his cutie marks there were now masterfully applied symbols of an open book. He felt complete again.
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He still had some time before everyone was going to meet up again, so he admired the architecture as he strolled up and down the streets. The game's systems had reached critical mass in players it seemed, because Chariot Park overflowed into the rest of the city, with players conversing in every square or corner that he could see. At least they didn't block the road as they did in the park, otherwise he would never be able to move around.
Curiosity of what a high vantage point would be like brought Paperback into one of the shops built into a city tower. He traversed the spiral staircase that brought him to the third floor, a study of some sort with wooden floorboards and a glass door to the balcony outside. As he moved towards the door, a steady knock, knock, knock accompanied him for part of the way. Eye raised inquisitively, he turned and looked at the wood. Wood doesn't knock like that, he thought. He moved across the wood again, this time the knocking replaced by the expected thump-creak thump-creak thump-creak of the floor resisting his weight and then sighing as he moved off of it.
He shrugged and moved to the door, exiting onto the balcony. It wasn't spacious, by any means. Perhaps five could stand comfortably on the extrusion, with no covering should there be foul weather. Before him though lay a marvelous sight. The infinite majesty of the virtual world lay before him, an endless expanse of beauty and design! Far off in the distance he could see the Gladden Fields, and even farther than that lay the Razortip Mountains where the Bandit Caverns lay. If he peered to his right he could see the last golden spires of Canterlot pass out of his view as the city of Aeroslida continued it's elliptical path across the sky. To the left, he could see one of the great dragons that pulled the city through the air, wings that beat a steady, slow rhythm.
There was that knocking sound again. It sounded clearer, if a little distorted by the slight wind in the air. Where in the blazes was it coming from? He peered in all directions for the source, which ended with him gazing above him.
Near the roof of the tower was a pegasus mare, who finished pounding her hoof on the wall near the domed roof and started to mark notes down on a clipboard held in her hooves. The pencil was of course gripped in her mouth, as she expertly manipulated it with her teeth and tongue. He used to have to do that, before he had learned telekinesis. Celestia bless whomever had made edible erasers; the taste was unbearable otherwise.
The mare looked down and noticed him. A bright, apologetic smile crossed her face as she came down closer and spoke. “Sorry about that! I wasn't bugging you or anything with my work, was I?”
“Not at all.” Paperback replied, as he noted some of the mare's more interesting physical characteristics. One of her eyes was lazy, and rolled about in it's socket, and gave her the impression of looking everywhere at once. Poor mare must get teased about that. He thought, as a bitter taste reminded him of his own childhood. He had been born with a crossed eye himself, which forever looked towards the bridge of his nose until his parents had paid to have it fixed.
He pushed down the memory and made a mental point to not say anything about her eyes. No need to come off as rude. He didn't break his gaze away though; other ponies might have but the eye itself wasn't really that distracting. ”I merely wanted to look outside with a view. What are you doing up here though?”
The mare replied, “Oh! I was just checking out the design and style of the buildings.” She said, as she glided down to the platform to land before her wings folded in. Her voice was bubbly, like the cutie mark on her flank. A straw-colored mane bounced around her face as she skidded into a landing, hooves bouncing off the stone surface of the balcony twice before she managed to slide to a stop. Not terribly graceful. “I was surveying the buildings in the game to see where the developers got their inspiration from, as well as if the buildings obeyed real physics.”
Paperback followed what she was saying, although he failed to grasp why somepony would go out of their way to study them. “So where do the building's pull their inspiration from? I was wondering about that myself, because of the huge differences between the buildings near the top of the city here and the ones further down.” Keep your focus together! His consciousness demanded. Here was a complete stranger talking to him, a girl no less, and his mind was threatening to shut down on him again. Blasted antisocial tendencies.
The yellow-maned pegasus blew a tuft of hair out of in front of her good eye in mild annoyance as she explained, “I can't really pride the developers in their historical accuracy. These tall buildings at the front end of the city-” She paused to wave at a few of them, such as the Cloud Library, the Capitol, and other towers similar to the one that they were on, “are clearly derived from seventh or early eighth century Stalliongrad design. The way that the domes peak are a perfect giveaway.”
She then faced the lower end of the flying island, where several smaller buildings that occasionally matched the size of the tower they were in now dotted the city. “In the merchant district, all of the taller building's are based off of early Canterlot models. They're usually magically enchanted to not fall over- unstable as they are, so that's why you can still see such designs all over Canterlot today.”
Not that he had ever been to Canterlot, although he wasn't about to interrupt her. She seemed to be on a roll as she pointed her hoof downwards at the smaller buildings that lay in between the others. “The rest of the town seems to be made of an assortment of buildings using architecture that spans country villages over a five-hundred year period. It's like mix-n-matching legos from a bunch of different sets. Most people might not notice the difference, but I certainly do.” She gave a harrumph with an abrupt, heavy nod of her head. Then smiled sheepishly and turned to him. “I'm an architectural design major at college. I can't help but notice the inconsistencies.”
Paperback nodded. This mare obviously knew her stuff. Now he just had to not look like a fool in front of her. She's actually kind of cute, wouldn't mind getting to know her better. Thoughts like this surprised him; he didn't exactly have any desire for a relationship, lone wolf that he was. “My name's Paperback. Pleasure to meet you.” He said, holding out a hoof.
“Ditzy Doo! Pleased to meet you too!” The bubbly gray mare said as he took his offered hoof with two of her own and shook it vigorously; her wonky eye spun around in it's socket.
Paperback resumed the previous conversation. “So you can tell the style of the buildings, but what was the knocking for? Material?”
“Oh! That! Well, actually I was checking on the stability of this particular tower. Unlike all of the other buildings which are firmly in place, this one is slanted just a bit.” Slanted? It didn't seem like the developers would put in something that was imperfect. The tower didn't feel slanted from the inside, anyways. Ditzy Doo took into the air again, wings held her unsteadily aloft. Not the most coordinated pegasus he ever saw; although he refrained from saying such rude things both out of politeness and the fact that he wasn't terribly coordinated either.
“Generally a slant on a building indicates a faulty foundation. Coupled with the constant motion of the city, and there's a real recipe for disaster.” She continued. Disaster? What was he doing up here then?
“Is it, um, safe to be up here then?” Paperback asked, a touch of nervousness in his voice.
Ditzy laughed as she flew backwards around the roof of the tower in a sort of lopsided angle; having only one eye probably threw off her sense of direction. “Of course it's safe. The developers probably just put the tilt in as some sort of quirk.” She said. Her irregular flight path made her bump into the side of the tower, her flank made a solid whump as it connected.
Crack!
“Oh. That doesn't sound good.” She said. Paperback looked at where she had made contact with the building, and didn't see any cracks. Which meant that the crack was somewhere else... Like the bottom of the tower.
The tower below them had had enough of whatever abuse it had been put through in it's life, and one of the lower supports gave way. Slowly, imperceptibly at first, the tower began to sway.
Crunch!
“Yeah. That doesn't sound good at all.” Paperback agreed. He attempted to turn around and go for the stairs, but the building was already collapsing; the floor in the previous room was gone. Frantic, he turned around and watched the ground slowly come up to meet him. Ponies in the streets looked up with mixed faces of disbelief, terror, and alarm.
“Oops! My bad!” Ditzy yelled to the ponies below as she moved out of the way of the giant crushing instrument of doom.
With a groan lost amongst the sound of the collapsing building, the tower gave one final sway and turned, the balcony he was on shifted a few degrees to the left, which left him at an angle where he wouldn't be crushed quite immediately. Paperback seized his chance and jumped up on the rails, hooves scrambling to find purchase on the stony side of the column as it began its inevitable descent to the city below.
As the tower turned a bit more and descended a few degrees down, not quite yet at full speed, Paperback's hooves pulled him onto the steep wall that was declining more and more by the second. Not declining enough, however. Before he could reaffirm his grip, his hooves slipped and he began sliding down the wall of the tower.
Oh dear. The thought ran briefly in his head as his hooves made contact with a jutting stone on the tower, which caused him to pull off a rather comical front flip that continued all the way down the tower.
Of course, the structure wasn't done turning yet. Almost to the ground, the tower tilted around just a little bit more, which unceremoniously flipped him off. He didn't care though, because the one thought that moved through his head was that he was going to live!
At least, he would have, if it wasn't for the fact that the building was right on the edge of the city, and he had fallen outside of the safety rails. Even as the tower crushed an entire street, Paperback's continued motion launched him off of the side of Aeroslida.
The ground did look so very far away. Propelled into free fall, Paperback could only think bitterly that he really should have made a pegasus character instead.
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The ground hurt. A lot.
Paperback woke up in the spawn room, thoroughly perturbed by his brief moment as a gravity-made pony pancake. The house was ready to burst with all of the ponies crammed from wall to wall, most of them looking confused as to why they just had a building dropped on them. He joined the throng that was slowly moving towards the exit, and wondered at how much destruction was caused.
The damage was extensive; but overall not as bad as it could have been. The tower had spun and fallen in such a way that it crushed an entire street, but only caused minor damage to the buildings on the side. With how populated the streets were, about seventy people must have been crushed; all players. The NPC's had the reaction times and wit to flee into nearby buildings and were already out again; faces aghast at their destroyed carts and supplies. Poor Ditzy made one heck of a mess.
The tower itself was half in rubble, but the other half lay cracked and collapsed, covering the street like a tunnel. Some sort of maintenance crew was already deployed, which kept ponies like him behind barricades while they began repairing the damage. Quick and efficient- and probably using more than a bit of magic- the crew had cleared the street and had already begun restructuring the tower. Paperback noted that there was gryphons on the crew as well as ponies; the first other species he had seen in the game.
With nothing more to see or do here- and quite eager to leave to avoid being questioned and put on the spot- Paperback meandered off to enjoy the last bit of time he had before everyone was supposed to meet up again.
He ended up spending his time near where they were going to meet up. He had a good view of one of the many squares where players grouped together, and watched the many ponies roam about. Some browsed the various stalls set up. Others ran straight towards Chariot Park; those who recently respawned and couldn't wait to get back into the fray. He must have spaced out like he was prone to, because in no time at all Night Stalker, Dilluted Livo, and Nitro Rush were surrounding him.
“Hey! Paperback! Equestria to Paperback!” Nitro Rush yelled in his ear, abruptly ending his momentary daze. “WAKE UP! We're deciding what to do.” If Paperback wasn't paying attention before, he certainly was now. With a whinny he jumped up to a sitting position, only to fall backwards off the cushion he was resting on. He rolled over into a less exposed position and stood up, looking at the three around him.
“Yes. I am awake. That was unnecessary, and ow.” Paperback said, as he rubbed the base of his ear with a hoof while it tried to fix itself from the noisy assault. Note to self: The games idea of limiting pain does not include blowing out my eardrums.
Nitro just gave him that idiotic grin that was always superglued to his face. Paperback sort of wanted to buck it right at that moment, but refrained from doing so. “Oh good! Anyways, there's something that I really, really want to do because I heard that some famous ponies are playing the game right now but I'm just a bit nervous so I was wondering if I could get you and some of the others to come with me to get their autograph or something because-” By Celestia, didn't this pony need to breathe? “-I would feel really stupid doing this by myself and having some other ponies come with me would make it a lot less awkward.” Nitro finally finished. Paperback nearly blanched partway through; that run-on sentence felt like it gave him cancer.
“Hold on. Let me see if I can piece together what you just vomited out.” Paperback groaned, and ran what Nitro just around in his head a few times for a second before continuing. “There's a group of famous ponies playing Equestrian Earth right now, and you want to meet them, but you don't want to do it alone so that you don't feel awkward.”
Nitro nodded vigorously. “Uh-huh! I'm a humongous fan of theirs.”
“And just who is it you want to meet?” Paperback continued in a slow, overly-patient voice that sarcastically emphasized his annoyance. Night Stalker and Dilluted Livo looked on bemusedly.
“The Elements of Harmony!” The blue pegasus said, and jumped into an exuberant backflip using his wings. “Only the six coolest mares in all of existence! Not only did they redeem Nightmare Moon and turn her back into Princess Luna, but they also beat Discord and turned him back into stone!”
Ah yes, the Elements of Harmony. Even Paperback- shut in that he was- knew of them. When Nightmare Moon returned and brought an extra six hours of night to Equestria, he maintained a relatively calm demeanor, donned a scarf, and took a walk to the sound of the city in a state of hushed panic. When Discord returned and brought his own little reign of chaos to the world for a day- and a night, and another day, that five-minute cycle was confusing- Las Pegasus was far enough outside of the MadGod's sphere of influence that it stayed relatively sane. Relatively. Paperback had spent that national emergency curled up in a blanket on the floor, controller in front of him as he drowned out the noise of flying tomatoes pelting his window.
“The Elements of Harmony? I didn't know you were a fan.” Paperback commented. Sure, the six mares were technically famous, since they were heroes of Equestria and all, but not much was known about their private lives. Or their public ones, really. Being the favorites of Celestia might have something to do with their small village not getting flooded with paparazzi. “How were you planning on introducing yourself to them? Walk up and just ask for an autograph?”
Nitro's grin turned from ecstatic to sheepish. Okay, so he definitely hasn't thought this one through, Paperback thought. “Well, we'll need to think of something if you want to impress them by being more than just a fanboy. We'll get back to that in a minute.” Paperback turned towards Night and Dilluted. “So did you two have anything that you wanted to do? And where's Chalice and Sound?”
Night Stalker spoke up. “Chalice is off looking at the enchanting profession, and Sound joined a group of Bards who are performing down in Canterlot.” Well, chalk those two off for this mission then.
“Actually, Night and I wanted to try the Pony vs Pony arena. We were hoping we could get some of the group to join us in making a team.” Dilluted stated, her quiet voice barely audible over the Areoslida din. So the game had PvP matches, huh? That gave him an idea...
After a moment of thoughtful consideration, he addressed the three others. “Alright. I think I know how we can meet the Elements of Harmony, and make a PvP team... First, we need to find them. I want to know just who it is I'm dealing with before I make a fool of myself...”
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The next half hour led them clue chasing over most of Aeroslida. It turns out four of the six Elements had stores in the city already from vouchers, but none of them were in at the moment. Rumor and happenstance reported six mares heading onto a chariot to one of the starter towns, which was the best lead that they had gotten so far.
Paperback spoke to his three pegasi companions, “Alright. The three of you, fly down there and see if you can spot them. If they're new, then they're probably at the... The Sherpwood.” He said, having to pause to check the name on his map. “Don't talk to them or announce yourselves in any way yet. I need to view their group dynamic myself before I figure out how to converse with them.”
“And where will you be, oh socially awkward one?” Nitro said, and ribbed him.
“I have to somehow get through chariot park and wait for the right chariot to arrive. I'll be about a half hour behind you all.” The proper term for this moment would be 'Wingless Pony Problems'
Night Stalker leaped into the air, followed by Dilluted Livo, “We've got a better idea. Sit right there.” Night Stalker said, and the two of them flew off over the edge of the city. Minutes later they were back, and towing the same chariot they had found outside the Bandit Caverns.
“Where did you store this thing?” Paperback asked, amazed that it hadn't been commandeered for some other group's use by this point.
“In the underbelly of the city, in one of the old tunnels that leads out into the sky. A lot of them haven't been fully explored yet, so we felt it was safe to stash it there for now.” Night Stalker replied.
“Smart thinking, although we'll probably have to find somewhere else for it soon, or else just give it up.” Paperback said, as he hopped into the back. Night Stalker and Dilluted Livo took a moment to harness themselves, and then they soared down to Sherpwood Forest a half hour ahead of the previous schedule.
The forest was much larger than the small patches and groves of trees that were scattered about the Firmidda Fields. Located near the southern border of Equestria, the Sherpwoods had a more lush, tropical feel to them, and were thick enough that players could run about and get lost without ever meeting anyone else. A deep gorge ran through the back end of the forest like a scar, that had very few bridges that crossed it. There was a relatively small starter town nearby, but the standard chariot landed closer to the forest than the village; and as a result many new players would skip the town entirely. Paperback instructed his pilots to head further on towards the back of the woods. “We need somewhere to hide the cart anyways,” went his reasoning.
Near the middle of the forest rose a series of small hills which Night and Dilluted pulled the chariot behind. Once Paperback was off they carried it up into a tree, where it wouldn't be so easily seen and taken.
“Well? Where do we start looking? Nitro said, as he peered around from the tree branch he was balancing on.
Paperback pointed as he spoke, and directed the three others. “Nitro, search near the entrance of The Sherpwood and back in the town. In case one of them is new, they might be farming up there. Night Stalker, Dilluted, take the west and the east; they might be fighting around the hills. In case they are a higher level, I'll be searching the backwoods here. Whoever finds them, send out a ping.”
The four of them split off to search. Paperback had given himself the backwoods for a reason, of course. He needed to make up the level gap that had grown between him and the rest of the party, and farming on the monsters while he searched would be a perfect way to make up that ten percent penalty.
Now... where to start... Ooh. There's something ahead. He thought, and slowed down his movement in order to make less noise. In a clearing in front of him sat a jumble of wood, faintly lit by the glowing flowers that crawled up the trees in vines, and ran along the ground as undergrowth. It looked like a bunch of sticks and logs, but as Paperback concentrated on it, a health bar appeared. The name above it said 'Timber Wolf', and it was a high enough level that it would actually prove to be challenging for him. He firmly gripped his hammer in his magical field, and gave a leap forward.
The pile of lumber stirred to life as he charged at it, glowing green eyes appeared and glared at him. A mouth full of sharpened teeth opened and growled at him before powerful legs sprung at him in return. A flaming strike made contact with the side of the beast, as it's mouth hooked onto his back in a bite. The beast certainly dealt sizable damage; a fair piece of his health disappeared as he shook off the wolf and brought his hammer down for another blow.
The beast attacked him with its claws this time, as he swung his hefty weapon downwards onto its back. The timber wolf's claws slashed against his chainmail, dealing far less damage than the teeth. The next few blows traded were like that; Paperback blocked and defended himself whenever the wolf tried to get a bite in, and lashed out when he could get away with a scratch of claws. The fight endured for another minute, until Paperback valiantly smashed the timber wolf in the face, whereupon it gave one last low howl before it crumbled back into an inanimate pile of wooden logs and branches.
Paperback leaned on the shaft of his hammer, observing his fallen foe. What had they taught him about timber wolves in the scouts? Besides their taste for pony, they were fiercely territorial and known to hunt in packs; and they also had the nasty habit of playing dead to catch a foe unawares. They rarely wandered
Wait... pack creatures. Paperback rolled this thought over in his head for a moment, before a loud, aggressive howl sounded out behind him. Eyes opened wide, he turned his head around. Beneath the shadow of the trees, three pairs of familiar glowing eyes stared back at him. He backed up and carefully maneuvered around the remains of the dead timber wolf.
Only, it wasn't acting so dead. Faint little globules of light from the glowing flowers in the clearing slowly spun in the air, moving towards the body of the beast and into it. Even as he moved around it, the beast began to pull itself together, and it's eyes opened too.
Four. Four angry timber wolves, one of which he had already killed once. Quite a recipe for disaster. Hammer secure in his magical grip, he charged...
… In the other direction. Cowardice? He preferred the term 'disorderly retreat.' In a moment of mad chaos, he jumped over logs and through vines, the timber wolves hot on his hooves. Giddy from the chase, he shouted out behind him,
“Those who live to run away,
Can fight again another day!”
Were timber wolves intelligent enough to realize that they were being taunted? Paperback certainly wasn't slowing down to find out. He was headed back towards the hills in the middle of the forest now, and felt a little winded. Weaker monsters were about, and gave him a wide berth- or rather, the timber wolves hunting him.
There was the hill. Could he climb it? No, too tired, and the wolves would get him. He turned to run around the base of it, just managing to keep ahead over the rocks and roots that sprawled over the forest floor. Was that a group of players ahead of him? Three of them, the highest at ninth level. They couldn't help him, they would get slaughtered. It was too late for him to turn around though, so before he charged past them he yelled, “Move outta the way! Taking the doggies for a walk!”
They gave him a blank look as he reached them, which quickly turned to fear when they saw what was chasing him. Quick as a flash they dove into thicker parts of the forest, and saved themselves while Paperback galloped through as if he had the hounds of hell after him.
More forest. It was getting thicker now, he was having trouble maneuvering and the wolves were catching up. There! A break in the trees! He tensed his legs, and gave one last mighty jump. A timber wolf leaped after him, and tackled him through the branches. Paperback turned, ready to beat at it with his hammer, so he didn't immediately register the cliff.
He noticed after a moment that he was falling. After the timber wolf yelped and let go he looked below him. This was a mistake, since he now hit the rock face first. I would have the luck to fall into the only gorge in the forest. He thought bitterly. Of course, it wasn't luck so much as he had stopped paying attention to where he was running.
Ponies, of course, are remarkably ductile. Many can be bent, knocked about, pulled, or otherwise manipulated and still bounce back up like a spring. Some remarkable few can even bend or contort their forms in ways which defy their anatomy. In this case, it meant that Paperback would not land here, but would instead bounce off the rock he just faceplanted onto, and down to the next one.
With the momentum that he had going, it didn't look like the next landing was going to stop him either.
Or the third one.
The fourth bounce was merciful in that he ran out of cliff to fall down and instead belly flopped into the water. He lay there for a moment, the gentle current moving him nowhere particularly slowly. As he pulled his face out of the water to breathe, he saw the twigs and wood of the timber wolf that fell after him on the shore of the river. It didn't look like it would get back up anytime soon. It was with a silent satisfaction that he rolled over onto his back as the game informed him that he leveled up.
Level Up!
Paperback has reached level 16!
He has gained the following Skills!
~Thunderous Blow: Whenever the Spell Warrior is using a bludgeoning weapon, he can choose to deal Sonic damage with the Elemental Weapon ability.
~Concussive Strike: Wielding a bludgeoning weapon when using the Strike ability gives the Spell Warrior a 10% chance of dazing a target for 2 seconds. (A dazed opponent has their movement and attack speed reduced by 50%)
“It's time to bring down the hammer!”
------------
Some time had gone by and Paperback had half-pulled himself out of the water. His head lay on a rock on the side of the gorge, while his back end was still being gently tugged by the current. It had gotten a little stronger as he was pulled downstream, which prompted him to pull himself to shore before he went over a waterfall or whatever lay ahead. He had had enough falling today, thank you very much.
It was a light buzz that came from his pack that brought him out of his stupor. Reaching inside he pulled out his friends list and saw that Nitro Rush was messaging him. 'Hey! I found them! Come quick becauseI'mreallysuperexcitedandohmyGOSH I can't wait to meet them!'
There was no doubt who 'them' could be. The Elements of Harmony. Paperback almost wanted to refer to them as 'quarry' or 'prey' but it wasn't exactly the nicest way to refer to somepony. Not that he was much of a hunter anyways. They had a class for that sort of thing. He mumbled aloud, so the paper in front of him could catch his words and write them out to be sent. “That's great. I'm at the bottom of a gorge and still not back to full health. Can somepony pick me up?”
Nitro's reply took a minute. 'Uh, sure. Night Stalker is on his way now.' It would probably be a few minutes before Night Stalker found him, even with the menu that pointed out the locations of all the other members of a party. Before too long though, the near-silent sounds of the charcoal pegasus landed near him, and Paperback struggled to his hooves.
“How did you get into this mess?” Nitro said, as he took in the sight of a beaten and thoroughly wet Paperback. Paperback took a moment to shake himself, and rid his coat of much of the water that still clung to him.
“Pack of timber wolves. Chased me through the whole damned forest.” Paperback said dryly. Night Stalker wrapped his forehooves around Paperback's midriff, and hauled him up to the top of the gorge. They set off towards the other two located in the shallow edge of the forest, Paperback moving at a brisk gallop to make up for lost time.
They arrived to a part of the forest near the entrance where there was a lot of hollows and divots where fog would gather. A narrow array of monsters were here, mostly consisting of bizarre animated mushrooms that served the party no real threat. Nitro Rush and Dilluted Livo were waiting there for them, the former bouncing up and down on his hooves in anticipation.
“They're right over there!” Nitro practically squealed.
“I'm going to stop you right there.” Paperback said, and held a hoof up. “I know you are really excited but please try not to get your hopes up. We only got here because we followed the rumor mill, which, might I remind you, is hardly a reliable source of information. There are many, many ponies with many, many coat colors and we don't even know exactly what the Element Bearers look like. Princess’s protege privilege generally means that there aren't a whole lot of pictures of them to go around, and we could easily be mistaken and I would really, really not like to have to apologize to a group of mares because we made a mistake in identifying them.” He took a deep breath and finished with, “Especially because what we are doing currently amounts to stalking.”
“Yeah, I was going to mention something about that.” Dilluted Livo said. “Isn't this rather creepy? I mean, isn't there a better way to find out about them without following them around all stalkerish like?”
Paperback replied. “Not if I want to find out their group dynamic. I just need to see who's in charge, and get a feel for each of their personalities. That way when I approach them- which will probably be sometime in the next fifteen minutes or so, this observation shouldn't take long- I can prepare satisfactory replies to anything they might say, while still sounding realistic, achieving our ultimate goal of challenging them to a bout at the arena, and not making myself look like an idiot..”
Night Stalker nodded slowly, piecing together what Paperback just said. “So... what you're saying is you want to hear them so that you can make a conversation tree in your head, kind of like an RPG.”
“Exactly. That's the gist of it.” Paperback said, and nodded his head in affirmation.
Nitro questioned him. “So, you can figure out what they're going to say in reply to anything you say, and prepare entire conversations ahead of time? Is that what you're special talent is?”
“Well, it's more like I have a general list of things that they might say in reply to anything I say, and it just branches outward continually from there.” Paperback said.
“That's actually kind of creepy.” Nitro said. “And you're supposed to be the socially awkward one who doesn't do well in conversation.”
“Well, I need time to prepare! I can't do things like this on the fly, hence the social awkwardness.” Paperback said defensively. Yes, it was probably related to his special talent of reading in some way. After all, book characters are modeled after real ponies, usually. Spend enough time reading and role-playing and you can usually figure out what any sane pony will say in response to something. Usually. It was worth a try sometimes.
Paperback peeped through a bush, giving him a slightly obscured view of the clearing beyond. They were just far enough away that he would have to strain his ears in a minute to hear what they were saying over the racket of the battle they were in. There were six ponies in the clearing below of various coats and colors. Pink, sky blue, white, orange, violet, and yellow. From what very few pictures he had seen (mostly consisting of a blurb from the Coltbert Report on the royal wedding with the six in the background) this seemed to be the right group.
They were currently in battle with what appeared to be a large number of the animated mushroom creatures. As they defeated some, more appeared from beneath bushes and burrows and joined the fray. It seemed that the group of mares had stumbled into a nest and were clearing it out. Since he couldn't take note of their voices yet, he watched their fighting style. Two of the Elements of Harmony appeared to be melee fighters, while three were most definitely casters.
The last member was a pink pony that didn't walk, but bounced around the field. Paperback was baffled how she did that, and he shuffled his own hooves wondering how it worked. She was throwing exploding cupcakes, which Paperback didn't recognize what class that was. None came to his mind that he knew threw combustible confections. A wild card, then.
He recognized the purple unicorn as Celestia's student, if Coltbert was right about anything; what was her name again? It looked like she was shouting directions to the others, but if she was he couldn't hear anything. Of course, she must be using the party chat. Shame he didn't know how to read lips. This would throw a bit of a chink in his plans. How could he learn how they would react if he didn't know how they spoke?
He would worry about that later; in the meantime it looked like this fight would last a bit longer, so he was content to settle in and watch the show. Around him, he could feel his companions do the same, silently observing from their own obscured outposts.
Thump. Paperback felt something bump into him. His eyes narrowed, he did not want to be annoyed right now.
Thump. Whatever it was hit him again. It was dealing damage to him now, albeit a pathetically small amount. Careful not to rustle the bush too much, he turned his head around to see one of the orange mushrooms ramming him with it's head. “Mushie” the monster plate read. A first-level monster, and a weak one at that. To attack it, we would have to pull out his hammer. It would make enough noise to most definitely draw attention to him. Sighing internally, he turned back to watch the fight and let the little mushroom continue in it's quest to destroy him.
After a few more minutes, it looked like the fight was nearing a close. Less mushrooms were appearing, and eventually they stopped coming altogether. The Elements were left to mop up what remained of the mushroom army, which took only minutes more. As the last one was smashed into a pulpy oblivion, all of them visibly relaxed.
Thump. Behind Paperback, Mushie still persisted in the assault, quickly tipping the scales on how badly Paperback wanted to smash it compared to how much he didn't want to be spotted.
As the leader of the Elements sat on the ground to regain her mana, Paperback saw one last mushroom pop out of the bush and make a fast waddle at her from behind. It took paperback a moment to notice what was wrong with it; it had a stick of dynamite for a head. Part of him wanted to shout out a warning. Another part demanded to stay hidden. A third part watched what was happening like an oncoming train wreck; one knew exactly what was going to happen, yet couldn't look away.
She looked like she shouted one last thing, although he couldn't tell what it was she said since the mares were using party chat. Then she was gone, the exploding mushroom having killed her instantly, leaving behind only rapidly disappearing virtual bits. The other five of the party were thrown backwards by varying degrees depending on their proximity, but otherwise lived.
Thump went Mushie, unable to be deterred from it's task.
Well, one of their party had just died. Although the purple unicorn- seriously, I can't remember her name. Coltbert said it at least twice- would undoubtedly be respawning soon, some of her party members were distressed over her demise. The yellow pegasus looked like she was ready to burst out into tears, with the other white-maned unicorn consoling her. With their party leader gone, it looked like the orange pony was taking over- so she's their secondary leader, looks no-nonsense enough- since she waved the others to gather around. She gave a rather short set of what Paperback could only assume to be directions, and headed off back towards the entrance of the forest. Four of the others followed. Paperback had no intention of approaching them when they were like this; he would give them time to reunite and then take his move.
The pink pony stayed behind, looting some of the mushroom remains that lay around the clearing. Paperback studied her intently. He was too far away to make out her name plate, but he really wanted to know what class was in the game that threw exploding cupcakes.
Suddenly, the pink pony looked down at her front-right hoof. She picked it up, gazing at it intently before blowing on it deeply. What in Equestria is she doing? She put it back down again, scarping it against the ground while continuing to blow on it intently. Is her hoof on fire or something?
She then turned, and stared directly at him. How could she know he was there? He hadn't made a sound this entire time! He was more than fifty feet away, completely hidden in a bush and making no noise. Was she a psychic? Did those even exist? The pink one's eyes narrowed with a frown slowly creasing her face. Oh most probably a psychic. He could practically feel his three companions start sweating from their position in the tree next to him. If they were discovered like this is would be worse than over for Nitro's dream of meeting the Elements of Harmony. Could charges be pressed for stalking ponies through a game?
Thump. Mushie was still there, going for the most annoying monster award.
Suddenly, Paperback was struck with an idea. A particularly stupid idea that might not work, but he was willing to grasp at anything to save their hides at this point. Using his telekinesis, he grabbed the offending mushroom from it's position attacking his rear, and pulled it forward. With a shove, he pushed it out of the bush in front of him. Faced with a new enemy in sight, it promptly ran towards the pink psychic.
The pink pony's eyes brightened up and she giggled at the mushroom as it charged towards her. As if she was oblivious to it's harmful intent, she picked it up with her front hooves and spun around with it. She was saying something, but whatever it was got lost in party chat. She put the mushroom down, where it was so dizzy that it fell over, making the pink pony laugh even more. She then hopped off in the same direction that her friends had gone, leaving behind three sweating pegasi, a panicked unicorn, and one disoriented mushroom.
A minute went by before Paperback moved, pushing himself through the undergrowth into the clearing. Mushie saw him, and immediately went back to pummeling his side. Paperback blatantly ignored the monster and waved for the other three to join him.
“So... did you learn what you needed to?” Night Stalker asked, “and are you going to do anything about him?” The second question was directed at the orange mushroom that was continually bumping itself against Paperback.
“Yes, I think I learned enough- although not as much as I wanted to.” Paperback replied. The group seemed to run pretty democratically- albeit with the princess's student as a tie-breaking vote. Even so, other members of the group seemed ready to take charge if things seemed ready to splinter, like the orange paladin pony who led the group out of the forest, or the white unicorn who comforted the distressed yellow pegasus.
“And as for this guy...” Paperback continued, as he spared a glance back at the Mushie. The blasted little monster had rammed his armor so many times that some of the paint on his cutie mark had rubbed off, copying Paperback's open book motif onto the Mushie's flat-topped head. “You get to live, for saving us. Try not to get attacked by any players, alright?” After he prodded the Mushie with his hoof a few times it got the message and ran off towards it's burrow, diving deep into the undergrowth and finally leaving him alone.
Nitro just stared off in the direction where the presumed Elements of Harmony went off in. His eyes were wide open and they shone with sparkles. He turned towards Paperback, his face full of anticipation. “Can we go talk them now?” He said, the undiminished grin returned to his face in full force.
“Down, boy.” Paperback said sternly. Nitro responded by replacing the smile with a mock pouting face, ears lowered in sadness. “They just lost a party member, who presumably was also their leader. Challenging them before they have a chance to recover would just be... inconsiderate.” The yellow pegasus was crying, for Celestia's sake!
“They probably went back to the city to find her when she respawns. Let's go back to the cart and get to Aeroslida. We'll challenge them there. It's near the arena anyways, and we can sign up right afterwards.” Paperback trotted off towards the backside of the hill, where their cart was hopefully still tucked away in the trees.
“By the way, what are we going to name our team, anyways?” Dilluted Livo chimed in. Then the arguing started.
------------
“I'm just saying, 'The Reapers' is a name that will strike terror into any enemy!” Night Stalker exclaimed from his position in the front of the cart. He'd been pushing the name for the past ten minutes
“Yes, and I'm just saying that Hoofington already named their ball team that. They have us beat by a good thirty years on the copyright.” Paperback retorted.
“Can you copyright a name like that? I don't think that's how it works.” Dilluted Livo said. She was flying alongside the cart this time, with Nitro taking her place in the harness.
“I don't know either, but it just seems bad form to copy them like that. We should come up with something that's original.” Paperback replied. He sat in the back of the carriage and felt quite a bit useless getting carried around like this.
“Ooh! I have an idea!” Nitro shouted from the harness. This would not be his first idea. Or his tenth. Paperback was still shaking his head from the name 'The Kool Katz,' (“with K's instead of C's! And a Z!” Nitro had insisted.) “And this time it's a good one!” Well, he had only said that three times before. “We should be Team Packers! 'We'll send em Packing!'” Nitro said exuberantly, with extra emphasis on the tagline.
It was corny. Really, really corny. And about a thousand times better than the 'Fighting Forks' and the other inanity that all four of them had been spewing. Livo shared Paperback's sentiment, as she added, “I kind of like it. It's better than 'Team Limitless.'”
“Yes, you've already expressed your thoughts on my taste in team names.” Paperback muttered.
“Well, we don't have to decide on the name just yet. We'll give it some thought before we sign up.” Night Stalker said. “Now brace your nose, it smells a little in here.”
They had arrived at the floating city of Aeroslida, and Night was maneuvering the chariot towards one of the openings that dotted the lower half of the city. They led into the sewers, which is where Night had decided would be a good place to store the cart to keep ponies from taking it. As Paperback quickly found out when they were making their way back up to the city above, the underbelly was a twisted maze of caverns and sewer pipes. Night Stalker wasn't lying either, they really did stink. Getting lost twice only made Paperback irritable until they found the exit.
The crew had a fairly good idea where they would be able to find the Elements of Harmony, if indeed the rumors were true; Paperback retained his doubts. During their search earlier it was revealed that the orange mare who- according to his observations anyways- was the Elements emergency leader owned a tavern called the Sweet Fruits in the market district. Her name was Applejack, according to Nitro, who gave him the names of all six of the mares.
“Why would somebody rent a bed anyways?” Nitro asked as they walked through the streets. “We're already asleep. It's not like you need more sleep inside the game.”
“A couple of reasons. One makes sense, the other is preference.” Paperback replied, as his mind pulled out his extensive knowledge gained from Query the tutorial master. “As a preference, some players don't like to run around the world in the dark, so they rent a room to sleep in until the daytime. As for the other reason, sleeping or logging off in a bed makes you 'Well Rested' for a time, which means you gain bonus experience from killing monsters.”
“Ooh... That makes sense. Okay.” Nitro replied. Across from the plaza they had reached sat a squat and homely wooden two-story building. A decorated sign hanging from a pole above the door declared it as “Sweet Fruits,” their ultimate destination, and where they would hopefully meet the Elements of Harmony. Without stalking them. Any more than they already had.
Paperback took a deep breathe outside the building, trying to formulate his thoughts into a coherent map of the coming conversation. “Okay... I think I'm ready. Try not to derail the conversation overmuch, I don't want to get distracted.” The others seemed to be paying half attention, they looked a bit nervous as well. “Remember, in conversation we need to be stealthy as to what our true intentions are. You're rogues, you can be stealthy, can't you? Approach the subject in a roundabout way, as it were. I'm going to try and steer the discussion in the way we need it to go, so again, please don't derail it.”
“Alright. Here goes everything...” Paperback muttered, and walked through the door. His three companions followed close behind.
Inside the Sweet Fruits tavern everything was a blaze of color and warmth. Enchanted candles floated above the tables, providing illumination along with the large open fireplace that sat in the middle of the room. The fireplace's chimney doubled as a pillar of support, and funneled up through the ceiling and the floor above. Tapestries and paintings dotted the walls, providing bright and contrasting colors depicting scenery of all sorts. Almost all of the tables had a player or two sitting at them, so he didn't immediately register where his target was.
Sitting behind the bar though there was the orange mare that he had seen in the forest. Now that the light was better and he wasn't looking through a bush, he could tell that her coat was a more vivid shade of his own rusty brown color. Next to her sat the pink psychic and the yellow pegasus. All three of them were dressed down in different armor than before; theirs looked brand new and custom made, judging by the detail that went into all the accessories. All three of them looked absolutely stunning, even the one wearing enough plate armor to ram through a wall with. A true craftspony spent a lot of time on them.
It was time for him to approach. He took a few steps forward, while he used some of his mental processes to ensure he gave off an aura of confidence. Like before, he managed to trick his mind into thinking what he put into there, and already he felt more at ease as he made the final few steps to get within allowable talking distance.
Keep it casual, Paperback. He thought. “Hey, could we have a drink here?” After he said it, but a moment too late, he briefly had an internal panic attack. Should I have said please!?! He let his face show none of his uneasiness. A perfect mask. Who said that theater classes were a waste of time in high school?
The orange mare decked out in plate armor turned towards them. “Sure. Mind giving me some names?” Paperback sighed with relief inside. So far so good; so his brain immediately took a moment to analyze her voice. Definitely a country mare, but lacking the drawl that was stereotyped so often in media. Reasonably intelligent, but her knowledge lied less with book smarts and more with practical things.
“I'm Paperback,” he said, gesturing to himself. He then waved a hoof towards each of his companions in turn. “This is Night Stalker, Dilluted Livo, and finally, Nitro Rush.” His companions each acknowledged the orange mare in turn, Nitro looked like he was about to explode.
“Hey! Are you guys the Elements of Harmony?!” Nitro blurted out.
Celestia. Damn. It. All. To. Tartarus. The blue fiend was going to ruin them before they got more than a minute into the conversation. Paperback's first instinct was to spin around and plant his back hooves into Nitro's face, but he suppressed that feeling deep down inside him, and placed heavy boxes on top of it. He instead swung out his hoof and smacked Nitro on the shoulder. “You idiot! Do you want to give away our intentions?”
The three basically confirmed Elements of Harmony looked at them skeptically. “What intentions?” Applejack questioned.
An awkward silence ensued for two seconds before Dilluted Livo thankfully broke it. “Eh heh, we weren’t that stealthy were we?” She chuckled.
“Nope. What do you want?”
Well, since it was all basically out in the open now Paperback struggled to form a coherent sentence and regain control of the conversation. “Well, I'll be honest, we want to ask you a little something something.”
“Shoot.”
“Well, my friend here” Paperback waves his hoof at Nitro again, “is actually a really big fan of you mares, and he wanted to meet you.” Nitro was bouncing up and down so fast he looked like he was vibrating.
“Pleased ta meetcha. Ahm Applejack, and this 'ere's Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.” Applejack said, gesturing to the pink pony who had almost discovered them earlier, and the yellow pegasus. Pinkie Pie looked just as excitable as Nitro; she wasn't bouncing like him, but her smile looked wide enough to split her face in two. She spoke then, a torrential flood of words that spewed forth from her mouth at speeds that nearly made Paperback's brain shut down.
“Ooh! I didn't know we had fans! Is there a fan club where you you all get together and talk about how awesome we all are and wear wigs that look like our manes so that you can feel more physically connected to your idols? I know Rainbow Dash has a fan club like that, they meet in a treehouse every month-” Sweet Luna, she talked even more than Nitro did once you got him going. Paperback edged himself away a few inches as she continued rambling on. Nitro and Pinkie Pie kept talking animatedly next to him as he turned back towards Applejack to ask his question.
“Anyways, on to my question. We, meaning my group and I, are wondering whether we may challenge the Elements of Harmony to a pony versus pony match?” Paperback said.
Applejack frowned and replied, “Right now?”
“No, of course not! Not with so little notice or preparation time.” Paperback said. “I was thinking tomorrow night at the Skydome. They're opening it up then for early exhibition matches for players to get a feel for the pvp combat system, since they're starting up a tournament bracket in a month or so.”
Applejack appeared intrigued, so when she asked how this would go about happening, he gladly explained. “We would go sign up now with our basic team roster, and then we have until tomorrow night to train independently. Then, a couple of hours beforehoof we would show up and finalize our team roster and the rules for the match. It's all very informal right now, so nothing is set in stone until right before.”
The shy yellow pegasus who had been sipping at her drink the whole time looked at Applejack from behind her pink hair. “I don't know. It sounds really scary, and dangerous...” Fluttershy whispered. Paperback had to strain his ears to hear her over the sounds of Pinkie Pie and Nitro still jabbering away next to him.
Applejack looked thoughtful. “Ah don't suppose we could have some time to think it over? The rest of mah friends might want to have a say in this.”
“Of course! You are of course under no obligation to accept.” Paperback replied. Would the rest of the Elements agree to a battle? Some of them certainly didn't seem the battling type, most certainly not the pegasus who was currently hiding behind her own hair.
Pinkie Pie jumped back in again, “Ooh! A battle? I'd LOVE to have a battle! It'll be superfuneriffic and I'll bake some extra special cupcakes just for the occasion!”
“Pinkie Pie, we can't just rush into things like this. The rest of the gals will want to vote on it.” Applejack said, and gave the pink pony a stern gaze.
“Oh come on Applejack! It's just a weensy little battle, and the worst that can possibly happen is that we'll have a lot of fun doing it!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. Then she added in a low conspiratorial voice, “There's no need to be a scaredy-cat, Applejack.”
That most certainly did it. Applejack's brow furrowed and she stared Pinkie Pie straight in the eyes for a solid five seconds, with Pinkie Pie still giving her a sly look from the side of her face. “The Apple family ain't scared of nothing no-way no-how.” Applejack declared, then pointed her hoof towards Paperback. “You're on. The Skydome, tomorrow night. Pinkie Pie, go sign us up.”
Pinkie Pie and Nitro both beamed, and Paperback even allowed himself a small smile. He had been afraid to push this mare's buttons, but Pinkie Pie had done that for him. Night Stalker and Diluted Livo looked more happy that they were finally going to get to fight somepony.
Nitro left with Pinkie Pie to go sign up the two teams at the skydome, which let Paperback actually order a drink and relax for a bit. He wasn't really one for alcohol, so he sipped on his while Night and Livo conversed with Applejack, and to a much lesser extent, with Fluttershy.
The two talkative ponies returned a few minutes later, whereupon Pinkie Pie exuberantly proclaimed that “The fight between Team Awesome and Team Packers is a go!”
Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Team Awesome?”
“Yeah! See, when we went to go sign up the games manager said that we needed to have a team name- at least one that he could file us under for now so when the time for the match comes we can change it if we want- and so I was standing there thinking of a name and it suddenly came to me, What Would Rainbow Dash Do? And so that's why we're Team Awesome!”
Applejack shrugged. “Makes sense to me, I guess.” She said, then turned to Paperback and his crew. “So we'll see you tomorrow night. Prepare to get your flanks kicked, Apple-Family style.”
It was just a minor ribbing, but Paperback could tell by the glint in her eye that she was very prepared to back up that statement. He replied in kind, “I'll make sure to wave at you from the winner's circle.” The two of them shared a friendly yet competitive grin before Team Packers excused themselves, saying their goodbyes to the three members of Team Awesome and the Elements of Harmony.
“Well, I should probably let Sound Wave and Chalice know that we're doing pvp tomorrow night.” Paperback said after they exited the tavern; he pulled out his friends list and composed a private message that he sent to both of them, and suggesting that they get on early tomorrow night to prepare for the battle.
“Alright, well, Dilluted Livo and I have to get up and get ready for work. We have the morning shift in the royal guard.” Night Stalker said, his eyes obviously searching out a clock in the corner of his vision. After a final goodbye, the two of them logged off.
“Royal Guards, huh? You meet all kinds...” Paperback said to nobody in particular, before he himself devirtualized and exited the game.
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Oh my sweet baby Princess Raptor Jesus Norris, Alicorn of the Internet, IT'S ALIVE!!! *commence read*
2391054 I didn't realize I was away so long. *sees last chapter update was mid-january* Okay, I guess it has been a while.
Yay! Battle Time! *Cough* Lunar Guard *Cough*
2392340 Lunar Guard. Solar Guard. Both part of the Royal Guard.
2392352
Really? I thought Royal were the gold ones and Lunar were the purple ones. I need to check my facts
2392361 Eh, it's all Fanon so there's not really any facts to check.
OMG FINALLY IT updated!! UPDATE FASTER!! D:
...I call bull. maybe. My main character dies from heights and runs off a cliff and your guy does the same thing...
I had mine up before you. about six days before
. (I would have brought this up sooner but I never got a notice saying this story updated.) Of course the only thing dangerously close to being the same is the chase to the cliff. I still like it though.
2708299 Yes, I based the Spell Warrior off of the Magus class. I played one for a campaign a year or so ago, and Shocking Grasp is basically the quintessential Magus spell. If you pay close attention later on you'll see me pull a number of things from the class; different magus arcana and the like.
2909051 Well thank you very much. Next chapter should be out eventually (soon-ish). My writing is getting bogged down by a load of other things.
2909848
That's good to hear (the chapter coming soonish not the bogged down bit). Can't wait to see what comes next.
Chalice places 4 obsidian 2 diamond and a book in the crafting table.
Chalice : how do I shoot enchantment?
Chalice: and now your stuff shall feel ZE MAGICS
good chapter update moar! :3
also yay the kinda sorta crossover chapter with the main story. I really wanna know how i got the "untested" enchantment rune that basically turned (your I think) weapon into the ban hamma..
no spelling mistakes that I can see story flows nicely i'm still in character :3 and took me long enough to read this chapter sorry! :D
Moar please!
3121618 Ack! I know, I know, I'm very far behind! I'm trying to work on Chapter eight whenever I can, but my parents are moving right now (and I have to go with them) and it's just putting on a lot of undue stress that's been keeping me from focusing. Honestly, there's no promises on this one. Before October, maybe.
3122470 it ok, just take your tike. Love the story