> Kirsarnia
>  by Urimas Ebonheart
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Arc 1 - Chapter 1: Fighting the Boss Discord
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 1: Fighting the Boss Discord


"Hey guys!" Frank exclaims once all four of his friends join the skype call. Frank’s computer screen is currently sitting idle on the select character menu of his currently favourited MMO game, Kirsarnia.

"Hey, Frank. How you doing man!" Jack replies as both men select their characters and nearly spawn into the map at the same time while the rest of the group logs in. 

"Hello, Frank. How are you?" Samantha responds in turn, also appearing in a digital flash of light. 

"Decent, decent. How about you Satoshi?" Frank inquires of everyone’s Japanese friend as his character appears in a similar fashion to everyone else. 

"I'm doing well thank you, so you guys ready for the new dungeon? I've heard it's supposed to be really hard, we should be able to get there before anyone else does," Satoshi remarks and reminds everyone else in the party.

"I've also heard there's supposed to be two new winged horse mount drops in there: Celeste the Sun Goddess and Selene the Moon Goddess," Laura sighs with wishful thinking.

"Cool, I've seen the leaked images of them; I want the Moon one," Jack decides, looking at images of the mounts on a separate monitor, he then sends the link to the leaks to everyone else in the call.

"I'd like the Celestial one, she looks pretty," Samantha agrees once she opens the link and looks at the pair of creatures. Celeste looks like an horse made of fire with large wings while Selene looks like a night sky with stars and constellations in its body.

"We can discuss this in greater depth once we clear the dungeon, so let's get a move on and wait for the dungeon to open," Frank tells them.

The five friends party up once they've all acquired the necessary gear they’ll need and ride towards the forgotten ruins of the Jaggamond Swamp.

"Alright guys! Let's do this!" Frank announces enthusiastically as the digital barrier closing off the entrance to the dungeon disappears with a pop and a system announcement about the opening. The five players all cheer and enter the ruined-looking dungeon.

Frank, the level 97 Human Guardian using a sword and shield with heavy plate armour.

Jack, the level 96 Jorgan Warrior wielding a two-handed warhammer with chainmail armour.

Laura, the level 97 Human Mage equipped with a staff and top-tiered cloth armour to cast elemental magic.

Samantha, the level 95 Leoness Cleric who uses a spell book foci combined with a talisman and cloth armour to cast holy magic.

Finally, Satoshi the level 96 Elven Archer who uses a longbow with leather armour.

"There's already some of those new mobs ahead, the ones that look like upright dogs made of diamonds..." Jack says, peering closer at his monitor at the enemies before him.

Ahead of the party are seven of the new Gem Hounds, bipedal dog-like creatures made of diamonds and other rare looking gemstones.

"Alright, from the looks of it they’ll most likely have high physical defence so it'll be Laura's and Satoshi's job to deal the most magical damage," Frank commands. "I'll try to keep them on me so I'll need a physical defence buff, Sam, as well as a HP buff," Frank adds, his tactical thinking mind already taking over the party’s future actions.

"Not a problem," Samantha replies firmly and casts the required buffs on Frank.

"Great." Frank smirks as the light surrounding his character dies down to a thin ring of blue and white lights swirling around his feet as he addresses the Warrior of the group. "Keep Sam and Laura safe just in case I lose the aggro, I'll do what I can to keep them on me."

"You got it man, I'll keep the little ladies safe," Jack replies with a smirk as the women in question both sigh at his light poke of humour.

Laura just rolls her eyes and scoffs. "I deal more damage than you, muscle for brains," she argues which just makes Jack stick a lip out to add to his frown.

"Well excuse me, Princess, I still haven't found a decent legendary hammer yet!" Jack retorts crossly.


<)===(> Battle Theme <)===(>


"Okay, okay. Maybe we'll find one here, who knows, but let's get started," Frank orders and immediately takes off at the enemies with his shield charge skill leading to ram into the first three for about 1,400 damage and their aggro before he activates his taunt skill to gain the attention of all seven of the remaining nearby mobs.

Laura begins to spam her fire, lightning, and ice spells at the hounds once they’ve been properly aimed at to deal anywhere between 2,500 to 4,000 magical damage while Samantha gets busy casting regeneration and healing spells on Frank’s positively glowing character, healing him 5,000 to 6,000 HP over the course of ten seconds. In the meantime, Satoshi concentrates on firing various elementally charged arrows at the hounds to deal 3,300 magical damage per shot.

Soon two of the hounds have been slain but one of them breaks away from the Guardian and randomly targets Samantha who yelps and cowers behind Jack’s imposing frame.

"I’ve got it!" Jack grins behind his screen and starts his character’s basic attacks with the warhammer, aiming for the hound and takes the aggro for it. He continues to swing his hammer with a couple flourishes dealing 1,180 basic attack damage before hitting the activation key for his uppercut-swing skill to launch the hound away back towards Frank while dealing 2,490 damage.

Frank, still glowing from the multiple refreshing buffs, reuses his taunt to aggravate the enemy back onto himself before turning back to the others and shield bashes the closest hound to deal 1,490 damage to them. He then plants a banner giving everyone a +25% protection buff within twenty feet of the banner for one minute as insurance.

Satoshi fires an Area of Effect scatter shot to deal 989 damage and cripple the mobs which slows them down by 40% for fifteen seconds. Notching his next arrow, the Archer selects his explosive arrow skill which charges the ammunition in his bow with a light red colour on the tip before releasing the skilled arrow which detonates on impact dealing 2,130 damage to four of the grouped up hounds.

With a smirk, Laura activates her Meteor Storm spell which spawns in a barrage of fireballs dealing 3,780 damage per fireball to the remaining hounds and kills three of them.

Finally, Jack leaps into the air with his cape simulating billowing out behind him and slams his hammer on the ground to issue 1,330 damage included with a knockback effect to blow down the remaining two creatures. Jack quickly crosses the artificial space and begins wailing on one of them while Frank and Laura deal with the other.


<>---<> End Battle Theme <>---<>


Once the system deems the fight over and the area cleared, the party receives their EXP, gold, and a few worthless items via notification screens that appear on their monitors.

"Nice one guys! Let's keep going!" Frank orders enthusiastically and they all continue onward.





Forty-Three Minutes Later





The group arrive at the boss room and just stare at the mismatched creature floating in the air on its back, it looks like it's drinking a cup of chocolate milk and paying the newcomers absolutely no attention.

"The fuck is that thing? Looks like some kind of... animal Frankenstein..." Jack wonders, his head pulling away from the screen to get a better look at the boss.

"Well, whatever it is, that’s the dungeon boss. So how are we doing this?" Satoshi shrugs in his seat as he addresses the party leader.

"I'll take the aggro while Jack attacks from behind. I've heard he summons minions so I want you and Jack to take them out to protect Sam if they do show up. Laura and Satoshi will attack from a distance while Sam focuses on Jack and I." Frank explains after a single moment of thought. There was a reason he’d become the unwritten leader of the party and it was primarily in part for his tactical thinking.

"Cool, let's rock!" Jack remarks and heads in with Frank leading the charge.


<)===(> Boss Battle Theme <)===(>


Frank’s character stops to charge its shield charge skill before sliding across the playing field to surprise the boss and issue 2,340 physical damage. The boss only now notices the five players and snarls at the sudden attack. The human Guardian then taunts the boss making it focus on him with the glass of chocolate milk fizzling away into cyberspace oblivion.

Jack’s character crouches down as one of his few long ranged attacks charges before bursting into the air and slams the ground with his hammer for a total of 2,766 kinetic damage to the boss and generates 10 fury before he uses his warcry which adds another 20 fury and a party buff of +10% damage for thirty seconds. Jack follows up with multiple basic attacks against the boss at 1,587 points of damage and gains 5 points of fury with each successful contact. Once he has enough fury, he cleaves the boss dealing damage and ails the boss with a -15% physical defence debuff before turning to his skull crusher ability which, after a second to charge, sweeps the business end of the hammer up into the air before giving it a powerful yank back down with the head of the massive hammer glowing green, down in a vertical arc on the tail dealing 3,896 damage to the boss.

Laura casts the blue coloured spell which arcs a strike of electricity to the mismatched creature for a initial damage count of 844 and an additional 844 points of damage every second for ten seconds after that, denoted by the tiny electrical shock symbol floating above the boss’s head with the other debuffs provided by everyone else. Laura’s character’s blue glow switches to a white one as she switches to an ice spell and fires three long spears at the creature to encase its legs in ice to slow it down further for -30% over the course of thirty seconds, though no damage is dealt. 

Satoshi toggles his magic arrow skill which lets him pull back the bow string and form arrows out of his MP, allowing him to shoot faster than he would drawing a new one from his quiver; it also changes his damage from physical to magical. Each arrow shot now deals 2,360 damage to the boss. Taking quick aim, Satoshi’s character lines up a shotgun arrow skill and let’s fly almost point blank before backing away again having dealt 1,032 damage each arrow, six magic arrows in total. He let's his skills cool off as he relies on basic attacks for the time being.

Samantha is busy casting renewals on Frank and Jack, healing them for 1,100 HP and then 543 HP every second after, she then casts Heaven's Blessing which increases physical and magic defence by +50% for ten seconds on Frank.

Suddenly the unthinkable happens and Frank loses his aggro on the boss who turns around and attacks Jack, snarling viciously.

"Come on, Frank! Keep the aggro on you, man!" Jack demands of his compatriot after taking a beating of 4,322 damage from the new dungeon's boss ‘Discord, the Draconequus of Chaos.’

"I'm trying! Sam, I need healing dammit!" Frank orders Samantha with adrenaline in his voice as Jack gets slammed by the boss's tail taking 2,100 damage and thrown from the fight.

"I am, I am!" she shouts back frantically, her microphone working overtime to reduce the volume of her heightened voice, and casts a Renewal and Greater Healing spell on Frank restoring 6,344 HP. She then heals Jack the same way for 5,236 HP.

"Thanks! Everyone just hold it together, we’ve almost got this beat!" Frank yells back as he shield bashes the boss in the stomach for 1,300 damage and increases his aggro levels followed by a taunt which makes the boss growl at Frank with a glare.

"This new boss is bloody creepy with how it's reacting! It's almost like it's alive!" Satoshi comments surprisingly calmly while back flipping away from the boss' AOE attack.

"Look out! The boss's minions are coming!" Laura warns her fellow party members as little deformed insect-looking horses with fangs, soulless blue eyes, holes in their legs, and dragonfly wings charge at them.

"Oh, they're so gross!" Samantha says, shivering in her desk chair and hides behind Jack while resuming her casting.

"Jack! Protect Sam and Laura!" Satoshi requests of the Warrior and fires an electrified arrow at the boss dealing 3,210 damage.

"Don’t have to remind me!" Jack replies and attacks the minions that are going for Samantha. Utilizing his Whirlwind Strike skill, Jack’s Warrior spins rapidly with his hammer hitting all the minions five times dealing 1,890 damage per hit and gaining their aggro.

Satoshi toggles his Precision skill which slows down his rate of fire but offers a 20% critical chance to a weak point as he takes aim at the boss's head dealing 2,489 damage per shot trying unsuccessfully to find it's weak spot.

Laura casts a powerful Inferno Fireball spell over the course of five seconds and hits the boss in the back dealing 5,873 damage to it, adding a burning debuff for 600 points lasting ten seconds.

The battle continues on as the minions are gradually slain and the boss's HP drops down to nearly half.

The boss then knocks everyone back and grins menacingly. "Erm... guys? Why is he looking at us like that?" Frank asks the others, looking suspiciously worried about what was to follow next.

"I dunno, but I got a bad feeling man," Jack replies, also becoming nervous as indicated by his voice.

Without warning, the boss spews out a torrent of sickly yellow flames from its mouth and engulfs the entire party dealing instantly fatal levels of damage to all present.


<>---<> End Boss Battle Theme <>---<>


"What the hell!" Jack yells and gives a random item on his desk a toss across the room as everyone in the party is slain. "I call bullshit! Fifty-thousand points of damage?" Jack exclaims furiously, throwing the next object readily accessible.

Frank sighs as he removes his headphones and scratches the back of his neck before putting them back on. "Don't worry about it guys, we can just try again," he tells his friends.

"That would be our next logical course of action, but I can't respawn..." Satoshi remarks as he repeatedly clicks the greyed out “respawn” button on the death menu.

"I can't either!" Samantha replies as she too mashes the mouse button, switching to the ‘exit game’ option which is also greyed out “I can’t even get out of the game!”

"Me too," Laura adds semi-calmly as she resists the temptation to button mash or hard-crash her computer.

"Is it just me or is the boss looking at me?" Jack asks, slowly inching back from his computer monitor as the creature’s head begins to get slowly closer and closer.

"No, he's looking at me as well... What the hell is going on?" Frank asks with confusion. "I'm going to try and kill my computer, be right back," Frank tells his friends and tries to manually exit to his desktop, but nothing happens. "Not even Alt+F4 is working..." he notes as his finger hovers above the power button of his computer tower to crash it.

"Same for me and this is really starting to freak me out! Erm, the boss guy is reaching out to-. AAAAHHH!" Samantha screams in terror as a lion-like arm reaches out of her monitor and pulls her in by the collar of her pyjama shirt.

"Sam!? Sam are you alright!?" Jack demands, his fists hitting the desktop in confusion and rage. 

The sound of someone dropping out of the skype call lets the others know that their friend has become otherwise unavailable.

"What the hell happened to Sam? OH MY FUCKING GO-" Jack demands before he too let's out a shriek as the arm takes hold of his buttoned shirt and drags him against his will into the rippling monitor. Again, the unmistakable sound of someone dropping out of the call lets the others know he's gone.

"Jack!" Laura yells. "Frank? Satoshi! What's happening?" the only remaining woman demands as her voice rises and quivers in fear. 

"I don't know... oh no, he's reaching out to me now," Satoshi replies hurriedly and starts cursing in Japanese before he drops out of the skype call.

"Satoshi? Frank, I'm scared!" Laura tells Frank, already on the verge of tears.

"I..." Frank starts to say but goes silent as he doesn't know what to do nor what to say to comfort the girl. It would have been pointless anyways as Laura screams as she's pulled through next.

Frank just stares at the monitor as the skype call hangs up, his body frozen with confusion while his mind wracks itself looking for answers; none of which seem possible. 

He then sees the previously mentioned lion paw reach out to him, but he reaches out with a frown once the paw is through and grips the paw's wrist and tries to pull it out instead, mostly surprised that he’s able to even touch a digital item. The boss gives a light chuckle in reply as the paw wraps around Frank's wrist and yanks him through with a surprisingly tremendous amount of strength.

"God-fucking-dammit!" Is the last thing Frank’s roommates heard before the tactician’s vision is filled with static.
> Arc 1 - Chapter 2: Character Reset
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 2: Character Reset


Frank's eyes slowly crack open, the static hissing in his ears and mind gradually fading away in the process. Taking a minute to collect himself, Frank examines his surroundings. 

"Where the hell am I?" he wonders to himself in a whisper.

Frank is in a ruined looking Castle with torn and mouldy banners and tapestries hanging on the crumbling walls.

"Oi! Keep the noise down..." Jack groans as he slowly rolls over and sits up, holding his head as his own mind clears away the fogginess.

"Jack!" Frank exclaims cheerfully and runs over to the voice’s owner only to freeze with wide eyes. "Jack? Is that you?" Frank asks of the dark skinned man on the stone floor.

"Well it isn't the tooth fairy, who do you think-" Jack begins to make his sarcastic remark, but his voice catches in his throat upon seeing Frank. "The fuck happened to you!? You look just like your Kirsarnia character!" Jack tells Frank, giving the tactician a full body visual inspection. 

"So do you..." Frank replies calmly, equally judging his friend's appearance. 

Jack looks at his hands and notices that they're now a deep brown colour instead of his previous tan skin. "Wha-?" he mumbles.

"Frank? Jack? Where are you?" Samantha calls out after hearing her friends voices echoing down the corridors.

"Over here!" Frank calls back as he helps the new Jack to his feet.

Samantha follows his echoing voice and soon finds them. "Guys... Something is very wrong here..." she tells them with worry in her voice.

Frank and Jack stare slack jawed at their shy friend who has become a leoness; the humanoid lion race of Kirsarnia. "Sam?" Frank asks with shock, looking her over as respectably as he could. Jack, on the other hand, wasn't so respectable. She’s wearing a loose shirt and a pair of baggy trousers with a couple of bottles on her left hip.

"Yeah it's me... What's going on? Where are we?" Samantha replies.

"I don't know but if you're both here, then we need to find Laura and Satoshi!" Frank decides.

"Wait, if we're our game characters... then where is our gear?" Jack asks and looks himself over, noticing a distinct lack of chainmail.

Frank looks himself over as well and notices he's only wearing a pair of green linen trousers, black shoes and a brown tunic; a typical… oh. 

"I don't know-" Frank replies but stops when something catches his eyes and stares above Jack's head. "Jack, I can see your name above your head... and you're only level one," he notifies his newbie friend.

Jack goes wide eyed and looks above Frank's and Samantha's heads as well. "So are you two," he replies with hints of disappointment in his voice. All that time grinding experience points… gone. 

"Hello!? Hello!? Hello!?" the voice of Laura echoes throughout the ruin.

"That was Laura, we're over here!" Jack yells back, clearing his senses of his emotions. 

After a few minutes of playing Marco Polo, Laura, along with Satoshi meet up with the others at the entrance of the ruin.

"So... we've apparently become our game characters but at level one... no equipment or supplies and no idea where we are... I don't recognise this place from the game," Frank explains to the others while looking around again, already evaluating his options and weighing them against what he already knows.

"Yeah, what the hell was that boss? How could a game's monster pull us through our monitors?" Laura asks in confusion.

"I dunno, but if I get my hands on that bastard I'll wring his bloody long neck!" Jack yells in anger while pantomiming strangling someone with his hands.

A chuckle echoes throughout the ruin. "Now now, no need to get hostile," the deep voice of the boss says.

"Erm... wasn't that the boss' voice?" Satoshi asks, searching his environment for the source.

"Right you are, little elf. I've brought you here to help with a little problem that's destroying my world," the voice explains and the draconequus appears in front of the group in a mock seated position, though he is slightly transparent.

"You!" Jack exclaims and tries to tackle the creature but only succeeds in phasing through him.

The creature laughs at the Warrior as he tumbles into a pile, recovering quickly for a second attempt and wipes a tear away from his face. "Nice try, but you cannot even touch me. My name is Discord, spirit of chaos and disharmony," Discord introduces himself with a grandiose bow to the group.

"Why did you bring us here?" Frank requests directly, relatively eager to fill in a few blank spaces in his knowledge.

"Straight to the point I see, very well.” Discord offers a courteous nod of the head and doesn't even take a moment before giving his most direct answer. “I brought you here so you could find and stop the source of these new... dungeons... that have been popping up over the years. They're creating new monsters that swarm out and attack anything not their own; now, I love a bit of chaos as much as the next guy, but this is causing a major imbalance and so far out of the known fifty that have surfaced not a single one has been destroyed. The monsters themselves also have the rather irritable trait of being completely impervious to any forms of damage dealt by our current warriors or magic," the draconequus explains, conjuring up a cup of tea to take a quick sip.

"And what do we have to do with this?" Jack asks as he dusts himself off while preparing for another go at Discord.

"Oh, great question! You’ll love this bit, I know you will. See, I’ve had the misfortune of being petrified in stone some twenty years back and I’ve grown quite bored all on my own. Recently I’ve been occupying my time by telepathically exploring new universes and I happened across yours by sheer luck. I watched you while you were playing your little games and I quite quickly decided that you all have the traits necessary to save my world in my absence. Therefore, I've brought you here as your characters to go into these dungeons with hopes that you can put a permanent end to them," Discord explains, his ghostly image rocking back and forth on his spine, as though he was sat in a rocking chair.

Frank’s sudden outburst slightly startles everyone, “And how exactly did you plan on us doing that? You dropped us on our asses with the absolute minimum gear, absolutely no levels or skills and with absolutely no idea of what we’re supposed to be doing in the first place! What about our personal lives? Our families, our school, and our other friends? Had you even considered what would happen with our disappearances? What gave you the right to interfere with our lives?”

"What lives? From what I saw you were a bunch of nerds with a love for video games, you rarely left your homes and spent most of your time on those computers of yours," Discord remarks as casually as ever, not even really paying attention to the protests of everyone around him as he merely looked at his talon holding his cup of tea. .

Laura frowns at the mismatched creature. "We still have families and friends back home! You had no right to take us!" she declares, stamping her foot on the cracked stone tiles beneath everyone’s feet.

Samantha’s eyes begin to water and a tear leaks down and hits her chest. "I'm not going to see my parents or my little sister again, am I?" she asks, looking up through misty eyes at the ex-boss.

Frank reacts quickly and wraps the leoness in his arms, offering kind words and comfort. “It’s alright Sam, we’ll find a way home, I guarantee it.”

"Ooh, yeah…” Discord’s interruption certainly wasn’t helping to calm the leoness cleric. “I don’t mean to be the constant bearer of terrible news, but I don't have the magic left to do that, nor does any other creature in this realm know how to traverse the known multiverse. You're stuck here now, so I suggest you make the most of it," Discord explains with a slight grimace. It seems like even he’s slightly remorseful for putting the group of combatants into this particular predicament.

As a second thought and as a relatively simple peace offering, Discord snaps his talons together to seemingly no immediate effect. "Here, I've added some basic equipment and supplies to your inventories,” Discord explains. Everyone checks their physical forms for any sign of a new inventory but found nothing at first glance. “This is the most I can give you with my current level of power so you’re on your own for now until I rest,” Discord explains as the tail of his body begins to slowly fade away. “Oh, before I go I should tell you that this is a level two dungeon, the five of you working together should be able to clear it with minimal casualties."

"Wait!" Frank calls out to Discord before his head and cheshire grin fades away completely. "Where are we?" the guardian demands.

"You're in Equestria, the Whitetail Woods to be exact. Oh! Also take this, it'll help you learn how to use your skills, spells, and other abilities," Discord replies and tosses a book at Frank who catches it. "Good luck and ta ta!" the chaos spirit wishes them all as even his voice wisps away into the fade.

Samantha resumes her water works into Satoshi’s shoulder while Jack is grinding his teeth together. Satoshi sighs and shakes his head with a sad expression while Laura is staring off into the distance looking dazed and confused while Frank is frowning at the leather-bound book in his hand.

"We need to get moving. If this is just like Kirsarnia, we have quite a lot to do: we'll need to level up, get better gear and get some gold or whatever counts as currency here for food, lodging, and more supplies." Frank sighs and opens the book to the first chapter; of which there were ten. "To open the menu screen, lift up your left hand with your middle and index fingers extended and then swipe down in the air," he mumbles to himself and does as the book instructed.

A menu of system options floats in front of him and he stares at it wide eyed and notes that there’s no exit button whatsoever.

"The hell's that?" Jack asks as he appears over Frank’s shoulder to get a look at what was going on.

Frank remains mute and instead presses a finger to the tab for the character sheet. A screen scrolls out to the right from the menu with a picture of Frank with his arms spread out to his side showing his equipped gear and stats below that.

"Woah," Jack gasps and copies Frank exactly and swipes his left hand down, a menu appears for him as well. The others also witness this and follow along as well.

"This is so strange..." Satoshi notes as he explores the menu options.

Frank then opens up his inventory and sees a few items inside: a copper longsword, a pair of copper boots and gauntlets, a copper breastplate, and a wooden buckler reinforced with copper. Near to the bottom of the list are a small handful of health potions and weapon/armour repair kits denoted by a small hammer and screwdriver icon over a small brown box.

Everyone else does the same and checks their own inventories, taking stock of what was bestowed upon them by the self-proclaimed creature of Chaos.

Satoshi has a plain wooden longbow with an arrow quiver, a basic looking brown sleeveless leather vest and a pair of brown leather boots and gloves. There's also three hundred arrows, HP and MP potions, and a few lockpicks in his miscellaneous tab.

Laura has a basic looking staff which was mostly just a rather large branch cut from a tree, a set of light blue mage's robes, a pair of fingerless cotton gloves and a pair of light blue shoes. She also has some MP potions and a couple of crystals at her disposal.

Jack has a copper plated warhammer, a copper chainmail-like vest with copper pauldrons on the shoulders and a pair of leather boots and similar gloves. With a quick check, Jack finds a small handful of health potions as well.

Samantha, once she collected herself, has a spellbook that looks half burnt and a dull copper talisman, a dull white robe with faint trims of cobalt blue and a pair of white cotton gloves and plain white paw wraps. She’s been given a few MP potions as well.

Each and every one of them also has a Recall Crystal which will teleport them back to the last anchor crystal in a town they've bonded it to, a few bottles of water and some preserved food. Personal sleeping tents have also been provided for and everyone noted something quite distressing, not a single one of them has so much as a gold or copper piece for currency.

"So... how do we put these on?" Jack wonders aloud as he stares at the inventory list before him.

Samantha curiously taps her spell book and a submenu opens up with: equip, drop, destroy, and stats, which causes her to yelp in surprise. She then presses equip and the book appears in the air in front of her. Once she takes a hold of the book, her entire body surges with a feeling of absolute magical power which makes her pupils dilate in reply.

Everyone else watching in amazement all proceed to copy Sam’s movements and soon all have their weapons in their hands.

"Whoa... I may not be happy about all this, but that's cool." Jack grins and swings his copper warhammer a few times to get used to the immense weight of the weapon. That was the biggest difference over the game itself, the fact that everyone now had to actually swing their weapons or cast their spells was something to behold. It was better than virtual reality gaming!

Frank equips his armour as well and looks himself over: the armour isn't that heavy right now but that'll probably change once he finds new and better sets in full-plate instead of this pitiful half-plate armour.

Out of curiosity, he then opens his skill tree menu and sees many skill trees.

Only two really take his interest, the Guardian and the Paladin which both use one handed weapons and shields: the Guardian is a physical tank class that uses taunts and physical skills to aggro the enemy while the Paladin uses holy magic to aggro the enemy and to heal himself slightly during combat; although nowhere near as effective as proper healer classes.

Going with what he knows best Frank puts his five points all in the Guardian tree and a popup alerts him that he's learnt a few new skills, even if the information about how to activate the skills hadn’t just appeared in his mind.

Shield Bash which hits all enemies in front of the Guardian in a ninety degree cone and generates high aggravation points. It has a five second cooldown and deals 125% physical damage.

Shield Charge which makes the Guardian rush forward with his shield raised and slams into a single enemy. It has a ten second cooldown and deals 150% physical damage.

Taunt which allows the Guardian to aggravate all enemies within ten feet of him with an eight second cooldown.

The last two points went into a +5% HP increase and a +1% defence increase as per the Guardian requirements.

He also takes two profession skills, Mining and Blacksmithing.

"Guys, you might want to look at your skill trees and professions," Frank tells the others as he reads through the skill descriptions and finds them exactly the same as in the game.

The other four all look through their skill menus in silence and spec themselves out the best ways they know how, with what they already know.

Laura has learnt to cast the firebolt, icebolt and lightning bolt spells as well as applied +5% to her MP and a +1% to intelligence for taking skills in the Mage tree while the other tree is that of the Wizard class that focuses on arcane magic.

The firebolt deals 150% basic weapon damage and sets the target on fire dealing 10% basic weapon damage every second for five seconds. It has no cooldown, a cast time of two seconds and costs 20 MP.

The ice bolt deals 140% weapon damage and slows the target by 25% for ten seconds. It has a cooldown of five seconds, a one second cast time and costs 30 MP.

The lightning bolt deals 150% weapon damage and chains to three other enemies for 75% weapon damage and has a chance of 10% to stun the targets for two seconds. It has a cooldown of seven seconds, a cast time of two seconds and costs 50 MP.

She also takes the Tailoring and Runecrafting professions.

After looking through his options of Warrior and Champion, Jack almost immediately defaults to the Warrior class as it relies on area of effect attacks in comparison to the champion class which focuses solely on single contact combat. 

The first notification revealed the gained skill Cleave, an area of effect attack that has Jack swing his weapon in a 180 degree arc which hits all targets in front of him for 75% weapon damage and adds a bleed effect which deals 5% weapon damage every second for ten seconds with a greatsword or battleaxe; although the bleed effect doesn't affect anything without blood in them like undead. With a warhammer it causes a -15% physical defence debuff for three seconds and it has a cooldown of five seconds and costs 25 fury.

The second skill is Leap, where Jack will crouch down for a second to activate the skill and select the area of damage before being carried into the air and come back down on the targeted area with his weapon to issue 50% physical damage to all enemies in the area of impact with the added bonus of knocking back all enemies five feet. It has a cooldown of ten seconds and generates 10 fury per enemy hit.

The third skill is Warcry: the user and their party gain a +10% damage buff for thirty seconds, It has a cooldown of sixty seconds and generates 20 fury.

He also spent the last two points in +5% weapon damage and +1% Strength.

Jack takes the First Aid profession and the Skinning profession so he can collect the hides of beasts for Satoshi.

Satoshi spent his points on three skills and two stat boosters in the Archer skill tree which uses mostly bow and magic arrow attacks whereas the other tree is that of the Hunter, which focuses on pets and traps.

Arcane Arrow which fires an arrow infused with arcane energy to deal 130% weapon damage as magical damage. It has a cooldown of five seconds and costs 25 MP with each level decreasing the cool down slightly and increasing the damage output even slighter.

Spread Shot which fires a volley of six arrows, each one going for a single target dealing 80% weapon damage as physical damage. It has a cooldown of ten seconds and costs six arrows.

Power Shot which the archer pulls the string back harder for a few seconds and then releases it dealing 175% weapon damage and lowering the enemy's defence by 15% for five seconds. It has a cooldown of thirty seconds, a charge time of three seconds and costs one arrow.

He also spent his two remaining points for +5% Attack Speed and +1% Agility.

The elven archer takes the Leatherworking and Fletcher professions for ease of working his own equipment.

Samantha chose the Cleric skill tree over the Priest tree as the cleric focuses more on healing while the priest focuses on buffs and debuffs. 

She has learnt Lesser Heal which heals an ally or party member by 75% of her weapon damage. It has a cooldown of one second, a cast time of one second and a cost of 20 MP. 

Renewal which heals the target initially by 20% weapon damage and then heals 10% every second for twenty seconds. It has no cooldown, a one second cast time and a cost of 30 MP.

Serenity which buffs the party's max HP by 10% for an hour. The cooldown lasts for half an hour, with a cast time of five seconds and costs 50 MP.

She also increased her healing by +5% and her Wisdom by +1%.

Samantha picked the Herbalism and Alchemy professions to help make potions for the party.

Frank then drags his skills down to what looks like a hotbar and a flash of light appears on the underside of his left forearm with the skills icons on it.

He opens the book again and finds the page about the hotbar before reading aloud. "To use a skill or item on your hotbar you just have to take the position to use it while thinking about performing the skill, or in the case of magic, announce the use of the spell. The icon on your arm will then turn grey if it has a cooldown and will regain its colour from left to right showing how long before it may be used again. If it is an item, the item will be taken from your inventory and will appear in front of you and hover for only three seconds before dropping, so don't forget to quickly take it," Frank reads out to the others, raising his eyebrows as everyone dragged their skills to their hotbars, fitting them as they liked.

"Well ain't that just handy," Laura says with a smirk as she also adds her MP potions to the last slot on her arm.

"So what do we do now? Do as that freak requested and go into that dungeon or try to find some kind of town?" Jack asks, shouldering his weapon for the time being. Satoshi and Sam are both in the process of familiarising themselves with their skills’ activation methods, taking shots at a nearby pillar in practice. 

Frank looks towards the back of the ruin and notices an angry swirling red portal with a set of stairs leading down behind it.

"I think we should read the rest of this book first to see what we are capable of," Frank replies and so the party gathers around and continues to learn from the book.
> Arc 1 - Chapter 3: Daring Do
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 3: Daring Do


The group has learnt a lot from the guidebook over the last two hours about what they can and can't do; for example, they can store furniture and items in their inventory -like their tents- and place them down like one would a block in Minecraft, Terraria, or other various sandbox games. Kirsarnia even had this feature when it came to decorating a player-owned house.

Their inventories also preserve materials, food, and drinks in a stasis-like state; they'll be fresh as long as they stay in their inventory and not out in the open, this also works with their personal vaults and a guild vault.

The maximum size of a party in Equestria is six compared to the game Kirsarnia which is five, but the group knew they could handle a level two Dungeon with just the five of them.

They also learnt they cannot sustain any visual wounds or be dismembered, but once their HP drops to zero, they'll be slain... Slain is the key word here: they won't die, but will respawn at either the Dungeon's entrance or at the anchor crystal they're bound to. They will lose a level with two stat points from that level and their gear will be damaged or even destroyed if it is already damaged. They'll also lose half of any of the bits they are carrying, which they found out is this world's currency.

Samantha looks up through the damaged ceiling of the ruins and notices it’s now late evening, an observation made in co-operation with her growling stomach.

"Erm, maybe we should find something to eat and wait until tomorrow before we try dealing with the dungeon," Samantha suggests to her friends, tentatively pointing at the sky above to indicate the time of night.

Everyone peels their eyes away from the book or their menus to glance up at Samantha curiously, before following the direction of her finger to check the time of day for themselves. "Well hot damn, didn't realise it was night already..." Jack remarks as he starts settling down on the floor once his weapon was stowed away in his inventory. Stretching out in the cardinal directions, Jack lets out a long yawn before folding his hands across his stomach. .

"Agreed. Let’s set up camp for the night, get rested and we’ll see what we can do with the dungeon in the morning,” Frank agrees while checking his inventory for stored rations. “We’ve got enough for about a week, provided Jack doesn’t eat everything himself again,” he then adds out of jest, giving the aforementioned player a glance while searching for a suitable place to set up.

He spots a clearing and walks over to it. Following the directions in the guidebook to the letter, everyone sets their various camping gear into their hotbars, before selecting the slot to summon a faint, ghostlike outline of their buildings in their vision. A snap of the fingers and the camp was set.  

Having made a quick run out into the nearby wood with Satoshi as support, everyone settles down at Laura’s magically lit campfire. “It’s so strange being able to cast real magic. Don’t get me wrong, it’s exciting and all but it would be even better if we weren't kidnapped to become the pawn of some estranged creature.” Laura sighs while she navigates her inventory to spawn up a provision into her hand. Friends around her all agreed as they too dug through their inventories for sustenance. 

"Well that freak could have at least let us keep our character’s levels and gear... How are we supposed to stop these dungeons from appearing if it took us seven months to get where we were? We're back to being nothing but newbies now," Jack demands with a slight scowl adorning his face as he poked at the fire with a random stick.

Frank takes a bite out of his salted beef and shrugs. "Like we've always done, work together and go forward. At least we know what we're doing now; I still remember our first ever Dungeon together..." he says and sighs. "Wiped out ten minutes in and not even halfway to the boss."

"Oh yeah, I even remember the guild we were with laughed at us, called us weak and went so far as to boot us out..." Satoshi remarks, joining in on the reminiscing going on as he too chews on his own meal for the night.

Jack sits up straight and gets a large grin on his face. "Why don't we make our own guild? The book said we could right?"

"I'd like that," Samantha says quietly and is quite quickly agreed with by the others. 

"Sweet, I vote myself as guild master!" Jack announces proudly, a fist on his chest while the others all burst into a fit of mild laughter. 

"Sorry macho man, but I vote Frank as the leader. He's always been the one to guide us through the Dungeons and told us what to do in them," Laura tells Jack once she’s calmed down enough to do so.

"I agree, Frank is much better suited to the task," Satoshi agrees as he lays back down again to get comfortable.

"I agree with everyone else... Sorry, Jack," Samantha chirps in, cowering into herself from Jack for fear of any kind of repercussions for speaking her mind.

With a mock hurt expression, Jack lifts his arm over his head dramatically. "Oh woe is me, my own friends have turned on me! What cruel fate is this that has befallen me!" he demands dramatically and falls onto his back with a heavy thud. The group takes the thud as a reminder that they we're all still armed and armoured and begins to remove their armour for the night and are soon back in their basic clothing.

"So what shall we call ourselves?" Frank inquires of everyone while opening a guild creation menu; his fingers hovering over a floating holographic screen that only he can see.

"The Five Friends?" Samantha suggests with a hopeful smile.

Laura giggles lightly to herself. "Cute, but I don't think it sounds right."

Satoshi just raises an eyebrow. "What about ‘The Dungeoneers’?" he suggests with a shrug as he crawls into his tent to prepare for sleep. Sam and Laura all do the same in their own respective tents and soon only their heads are poking out of the flaps as Sam’s tail lazily swings in the air behind her. 

Jack suddenly sits up with a grin. "I like it," he announces with both of his hands posting behind him on the ground, holding him up.

Samantha and Laura agree as well.

"The Dungeoneers it is then." Frank finalizes and types the name in. The guild is created and he then sends invites to the others and makes them all officers as well. Now under their names and levels above their heads is the name of their newly formed guild.

"Awesome!" Jack announces and yawns, stretching out as much as he can with the result of popping a few limbs quite comfortably. "Well then, I'm gonna hit the sack guys. See ya in the morning," he wishes everyone and crawls into his tent.

The others say their goodnights and go to sleep as well.





Morning arrives and everyone gradually wakes up, Jack having to be prodded with the business end of Frank’s sword to get his hulking mass out of the tent, and eats a quick breakfast.

"I need to use the bathroom, I'll be over there and if you peek I will fry you till you’re golden!" Laura threatens the guys, pointing a magically charged finger at the three.

“Very well, guys’ area is on the other side of the ruin then." Frank remarks, tossing a thumb backwards over his shoulder as he equips his gear.

After an hour of packing up and preparation the party is ready to take on their first Dungeon.

"Who the hay are you guys!?" a tomboyish female voice demands of the group from behind them, startling everyone. Samantha shrieks and scampers behind Jack who readies his weapon for a fight. The group turns to face the newcomer with weapons at the ready, but go wide eyed at who and what they see.

She's a tan, furred woman with a startling horse-like appearance originating in a pair of wings on her back as well as a pair of hooves for feet, her rose coloured eyes are large, her hair has three tones of black and grey as included in her tail. She's also wearing a green shirt with short sleeves and pockets on the front and dark brown khakis to save modesty.

"You must be the monsters of this Dungeon then, you don't look very tough." The newcomer sighs to herself and takes a whip off her hip with her right hand in disappointment.

"Monsters? Say that again, I dare ya!" Jack demands in anger while tossing the head of his hammer up and down on his right palm.

The woman goes wide eyed and drops her jaw. "Wha-? I've never heard of monsters talking before..." she mumbles astoundedly.

"That does it!" Jack says and raises his hammer, ready to charge at her with a skill already in the process of casting.

"Wait!" Frank orders him and holds his sword out in front of Jack’s chest to block his path and interrupt the cast. He then looks back at the tan woman, "We're not monsters, and I'll ask you to refrain from calling us that again," Frank warns her.

"Ooookay, so what are you then?" she asks Frank but keeps her whip out, eyeing Jack warily.

"I'm a human, same for Laura," Frank replies for himself and the mage in particular.

"I'm an elf," Satoshi tells her, giving a simple, single-handed wave with a free hand.

"I-I'm a Leoness..." Samantha says in nearly a whisper, still scared from earlier as she found herself left without a meat shield when Jack took off.

"And I'm a Jorgan," Jack spits and glares at her. "What are you?" he asks her back.

"I'm a pony, a pegasus to be precise," she replies, looking quite confused at all the information she’d just been given; she had never even heard of these… humans, elves, Leonesses or Jorgans.

"Alright, now who are you," Frank asks her as he visually inspected her for any potentially throwable weapons.

The woman poses heroically. "I am Daring Do, world famous treasure hunter and novel writer," she replies with a proud grin. "What about you guys? Who are you?" Daring Do then returns their question upon themselves.

"I'm Frank, the Guardian of our party," Frank replies, giving his sword a light flourish before letting the point rest on the ground. The display would've been much more impressive if he’d still had his old gear, but the motion was still a valiant effort.

"I'm Laura the Mage." Laura gives a slight bow of the head in welcoming, keeping her weapons at hand but no longer at guard.

"I am Satoshi the Archer." The Japanese elf gives a more noticeable bow, as dictated by his culture’s requirements.

"I-I'm Samantha t-t-the Cleric," Sam manages to squeak out, cowering in herself looking about ready to soil herself in the process. Only through some semblance of self control did she refrain from doing so.

"And I'm Jack the Warrior!" Jack finishes the introductions and drops his hammer's head on the stone floor while resting his right hand on the pommel.

Daring Do just stares at them for a few seconds in silent incredulity. "And why are you here?" she asks the group in general disbelief. They honestly looked and sounded like something from a novel she might have written some time ago.

"We're going to clear this Dungeon and destroy it," Frank states matter-of-factly, now fully sheathing his weapon on his hip.

"Destroy it!?" Daring Do bursts into a fit of laughter. "Nopony has ever destroyed a Dungeon before! This may be one of the weaker ones but no pony has even managed to defeat the monster at the end of it! Not even the Princesses!" she tells us through dying chuckles, wiping a tear from her eyes.

"Yeah, well we're different; we know how to kill it," Jack taunts and turns to Frank. "Let's just forget her and get going, she's wasting our time!"

"Wait!" Daring Do shouts out, holding a hand out to reach towards the motley crew. "You're really going in there?" she asks with a mote of genuine concern in her voice.

"Duh." Jack rolls his eyes and shoulders his hammer, already aiming towards the dungeon entrance.

"Then I'm coming to, I came here to find out where these monsters are coming from and if I can find a way to stop them," she tells the group, quite sternly as denoted by crossing her arms over her chest.

"No thanks, you'll just get in our way!" Jack shouts back as he’s already crossed half the distance to the instance before him.

"What can you do? Do you have any skills or spells? Your clothes don't look very protective and your weapon doesn't look like it'll do more than irritate the monsters," Frank requests, having already evaluated her chances of survival as… less than minimal.

Daring Do puffs her cheeks out in insulted anger. "I've gone into three Dungeons before this one and lived to tell the tale, I'm no amateur!" she huffs, her hands on her tilted hips.

"And how many monsters have you killed?" Satoshi calmly inquires as he visually inspects his bow for damages.

The anger on her face is gone and only a frown remains. "None... No pony can kill them, they don't take any wounds and weapons just seem to phase through them or bounce right off," Daring Do replies both verbally and with her hands flying about.

"As it turns out, our weapons will hurt them; these monsters don't act like you or wild animals. You have to be like us or them to even inflict damage," Frank explains as his methodical mind races back to a couple pages in the instruction manual now resting in his inventory as a locked item -an item that doesn’t get removed or destroyed upon death.

The book mentioned that the monsters are just like in the game Kirsarnia and the inhabitants of this world's weapons and magic just can't affect them.

"Like you?" she asks suspiciously, raising an eyebrow.

"Argh... can we just go? She's wasting our time!" Jack demands in irritation already standing by at the portal entrance.

Frank looks at Daring Do for a few seconds. "Fine, you can come with us, but any loot we find is ours. You're just here to find out how to stop the monsters right?" he offers with a hand out as a friendly gesture. 

Daring Do frowns at Frank but sighs after a minute of consideration. "Fine," she agrees and stows her whip on her belt within reach.

"Alright then, we still have an empty spot in the party so let's get going," Frank nods to her, still waiting with an open hand. "Welcome to the party," he says with a warm and friendly smile.

Daring Do shakes his hand but immediately collapses in pain while clutching her head. Samantha tries to cast a healing spell on her but it doesn't seem to affect Daring Do.

After about a minute of pain, she recovers and sits up. "Ow, what the buck was that?" she asks.

The group just stare above her head.




Daring Do: Level 1
Class: Adventurer




Daring Do now has a name, level, and class tag as well as an HP bar above her head.

"Errr... What just happened?" Jack asks in confusion as he re-joins the party.

"It would seem inviting others not like us into the party makes them like us," Satoshi speculates in thought.

Daring Do just looks confused until she then looks up and notices the tags and HP bars above the others as well.

"That's new..." she remarks incredulously.

"I think we should explain what's going on before we go in," Frank announces and offers a hand to Daring to help her up, getting a groan of annoyance from Jack.





One Hour and Twelve Minutes Later





Frank explains the menu system and skill tree system to Daring Do; she inadvertently took the rogue tree which specialises in hit and run tactics with daggers, lockpicking, trap detection, and poisons. She didn't like the idea of being an assassin using the shadows to ambush and backstab people but wanted a class that was quick and agile.

"This is amazing! This system...thing will make my adventuring so much easier! And I don't even need bags anymore!" Daring Do announces giddily as she inspects her inventory system.

"So, are we good to go now?" Jack demands through boredom, seated at a small fire that Laura had revived from the embers of the blaze from last night. 

"Yes," Frank announces and looks to Daring Do. "Stay behind us and just watch how we work, once you feel like you understand then you can join in. If you do decide to join in then you follow my orders and do as I say, am I clear?" Frank orders, already delving into his party-tactician mind.

With a grimace but recognizing that she was overwhelmingly under-equipped to lead, she stood to join the group. 

"Alright, let's go before someone else decides to show up and joins in on the fun," Frank announces, getting a cheer from Jack.

They all walk over to the dungeon portal and step through.
> Arc 1 - Chapter 4: The First Dungeon Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 4: The First Dungeon Part 1


The party steps through the portal with Frank up front ready to tank any monsters. The group is in a large lobby like room with five blue jelly like blobs sliding across the floor.

"Looks like your typical generic slimes," Satoshi says as the party watches them.

"Okay, here's the plan, they seem like physical attacks won't work much on them so I want you," Frank says pointing to Laura. "blasting them with magic and you," he says and then points to Satoshi. "To use your arcane arrow on them when you can. Jack and I will keep their attention." He then looks at Samantha. "I want you to cast renewal on both Jack and myself and keep them going, only heal us if we go below fifty percent HP," Frank tells her.

"Okay," she replies and the others nodded.

"Let's do this then, first cast your serenity spell Sam," Frank says and Samantha casts it, boosting their HP by +10%.

"Whoa, that feels... I feel great!" Daring Do says as the buff boosts her HP.

"Alright, Daring, stay next to Sam and protect her in case anything shows up to attack her," Frank orders her. She growls at being ordered but nodded.


<)===(> Battle Theme <)===(>


Frank then uses his shield charge at the slime in the middle of the group of mobs dealing 20 damage and then taunts them all, gaining all their aggro.

Jack then leaps into the group of slimes with a roar and slams down on three of them dealing 15 damage and knocking them back a few feet and then starts swinging his hammer into them dealing 12 basic attack damage.

What surprises the group is not only can they see the HP bars of the monsters but also the damage they're doing as red numbers flying off the monsters that disappear in the air.

This gets Daring Do to stare slack jawed.

Laura fires a lightning bolt which hits her target and then chains to three other slimes dealing 50 damage to the first and 25 to the other three.

Satoshi shoots his arcane arrow at one dealing 65 damage and then waits for the cooldown to end.

Frank grunts as a slime thrusts a piece of itself like a spear at him dealing 10 damage, though there was pain it was very dull, like getting a small bruise.

Samantha casts renewal on both Frank and Jack as they continue to bash and slash at the five slimes.

Jack uses his fury points to use his cleave skill and hits all five slimes in front of him dealing 8 damage to each and a -15% physical debuff for three seconds.

Frank uses his shield bash to hit four of the slimes dealing 12 damage and increase their aggro on him.

Samantha then casts her lesser heal spell on Frank as he's nearly down to 55% HP

Laura is casting her firebolt spells in rapid succession dealing 55 damage each and burning for an additional 6 damage a second for five seconds until her MP runs out and she begins to fire basic attack mana bolts that deal 35 magic damage from her staff which costs no MP and only deal 100% weapon damage with no added effects.

Daring Do is just watching the group in awe, this is the kind of coordination the royal guard use, but they’ve never managed to get the monsters to focus on one pony before.

Jack brings down his hammer on a slime dealing 13 damage and its HP bar hits zero, causing it to go splat and die. It fades away leaving a loot bag on the ground.

"That's one! Keep going!" Frank yells out with vigour in his tone receiving cheers from the others in response.

Laura's MP has recovered and she back to casting spells again.

Satoshi fires another arcane arrow at a slime and kills it leaving another loot bag.

Frank refreshes his taunt and shield bashes the last three slimes dealing 12 damage. One of the slimes spits out a bubbling blue liquid which hits Frank in the chest dealing 5 damage a second and the poison lasts for thirty seconds. There's also a little green poison drop icon under his HP bar as well.

Samantha recasts renewal on Frank and Jack and then heals Frank again for 120 HP.

Daring is just stunned, what the guard couldn't do these beings are doing with ease, these very slimes reduced the royal guards to melted flesh and bones... Yet Frank took the acid to his chest and he's fine, the only visual effect it has is the dark purple number five flying off him every second and a faint wince of pain from him.

Frank then stabs a slime dealing 8 damage and kills it.

After a few more seconds, the last two slimes are killed and five loot bags sit on the floor.


<>---<> End Battle Theme <>---<>


Frank picks up all the loot bags and a screen appears in front of him with a list of the loot.

fifteen bits, a pair of copper daggers, and five slime jellies. Frank distributes three Bits and a slime jelly each to everyone except Daring Do.

Frank turns to Daring and gives the daggers to her. "You're a rogue now and they prefer daggers, besides you'll need them if you want to use your skills," he tells her.

Daring takes the daggers and they vanish into her inventory, she opens the screen like she was shown and equips them. Her whip vanishes and the daggers are now on her hips.

"That's so cool," she says and draws them.

"Good fight guys, but let's keep going!" Frank says and they all cheer, even Daring is getting into it now.

The party walks down a tunnel where they find an unlocked chest and open it. It contains: sixty bits, four chunks of copper ore, and a uncommon copper buckler shield which Frank equips boosting his defence by ten.

"So what kind of magic is this that lets you fight these monsters," Daring asks the five friends.

"We're not sure, we were just gamers before we were dragged here by a freak of a thing named Discord and he told us to destroy the dungeons and find the source that's making them," Jack replies while keeping an eye out for mobs.

"DISCORD!?" Daring shouts and stares at the group. "Discord brought you here!? But he's trapped in stone and no one's been able to hear from him, not even the Princesses," she asks and says with wide eyes.

"Not willingly no. We were playing our favourite MMO Kirsarnia when a new dungeon was released and Discord was the boss in it. We reached him and fought him but I think he cheated and just breathed this yellow flame on us all instantly killing us... We couldn't respawn or even exit the game and then the next thing we see is his paw hand reach out and drag us into our monitors," Satoshi informs her.

"We arrived here just yesterday actually," Frank adds at the end of Satoshi's reply.

"So... you were all taken from your homes?" Daring asks with her ears splayed back.

"Yeah, and Discord won't send us back and he said no one else could. So we're stuck here and going to make the most of our situation," Frank replies. Samantha and Laura look upset that they'll never see their families and other friends again.

The group comes across another room with broken furniture and glass on the floor with three blue slimes and three red slimes in the middle of the room.


<)===(> Battle Theme<)===(>


"Alright same plan as before, Daring, keep Sam safe again," Frank says and then charges into the slimes dealing 20 damage and then taunts them all.

Jack roars out casting his Warcry giving everyone a 10% damage buff and generates 10 fury, he then leaps into the pile dealing 6 damage followed by a 9 damage cleave.

Laura casts her Lightning Bolt spell dealing 50 damage and chaining to three more for 25 damage, then she continues to cast Fire Bolts dealing 55 damage into them until her Lightning Bolt cools down again or she's out of MP.

Satoshi shoots Arcane Arrows at the red slimes dealing between 50 to 60 damage, while Samantha heals Jack and Frank from 80 to 130 HP.

Two more blue slimes appear and attack Samantha, she yelps in surprise but Daring gets in front of the Cleric and thrusts her daggers into the two slimes dealing 8 damage each.

One of them spits acid at Daring and she screams remembering the stories of the melted guards, she crosses her arms in front of her and the acid hits her.

'This is it, this is how it ends...' she thinks to herself but there's no blinding pain or melting of flesh, she looks up and sees her arms covered but not melting. Daring feels a tiny amount of pain but otherwise physically fine.

"Hold on Daring, I'll heal you!" Samantha says and casts renewal on her healing her for 20 HP and 10 HP more every second after.

A warmth spreads throughout Daring and the pain lessens even more. With a grin she rapidly stabs the slime six times that spat at her dealing 6 damage per stab. She then uses her Poisonous Stab skill in revenge for poisoning her, the attack did 10 damage but the slime is immune to the poison.

Jack runs over to help and uses cleave on both slimes dealing 8 damage and weakening their defence by -15% where Daring and Jack wail on them both until Frank uses taunt again getting all the monsters aggro.

Samantha focuses back on Frank and heals him for 120 HP along with a refresh of his renewal healing as well.

The fight is going well and four slimes are now dead, Satoshi kills a slime while Laura kills another.


<>---<> End Battle Theme <>---<>


The battle is over and the loot is distributed, even Daring got a share due to her involvement in that fight.

Thirty-two bits are shared while Daring Do and Jack both get a HP potion each, Satoshi gets an uncommon leather cap and Samantha gets a new uncommon spell book foci.

The party continues through the Dungeon killing mobs and getting pieces of new equipment and crafting materials. Daring is surprised that she's having fun, the fact she's not taking any visible wounds and with a skilled group is making this much more exciting than it would be on her own.

"Wait!" Daring says to the others in a narrow hallway. "I see a trap ahead, looks like a trap door with spikes below," she tells them.

Daring used one of her skill points for a passive skill called Detect Traps. It allows her to see traps up to ten feet away which look like they're highlighted red to her.

"Can you disarm it?" Frank asks her.

"How?" she asks back.

"Get close to it and a window or option will popup asking if you wish to attempt to disable it with the odds of success as well... at least that's how it worked in the game," Jack replies.

Daring slowly approaches and a menu window pops up.




Do you wish to disable this trap?
80% Chance of success.
(Yes)          (No)




Laura leans over her shoulder and smiles. "Those are good odds, go for it," she tells Daring.

Daring taps the yes button and she gains some EXP as the trap is disabled and the red highlight fades away. "It worked..." she says dumbstruck. She usually would have to run through or fly over traps but here she is, disabling them with a new power.

"Good job, now keep an eye out for anymore," Frank tells Daring and they continue on.

The group arrives at a room that looks like it was once a ball room of some sort. Ruined tables and chairs are spread out and look to be in splintered pieces, paintings hang loosely on the walls with faded or torn images of ponies and scenery.

In the middle of the room is a golden chest with two crystal statues that look like lions with bat wings and a scorpion tail.

"Whoa! Look at that chest man! I call dibs!" Jack says and runs over to it.

"WAIT!" Daring yells when she got close enough to see the chest was a trap.

Jack opens the chest and then looks back to her. "What?" he asks but is then swatted away by one of the statues tail taking 44 damage.

He rolls along the ground and stops thirteen feet away, but to Daring's surprise he just gets back up and dusts himself off like he only tripped and not rag dolled along the ground.

"Alright, from now on Daring checks the chests..." Jack mumbles and picks up his hammer.

The two crystal statues now have names above them. 




<Thira>  < Judas>




"These guys look like they're more magic resistant, I want Laura protecting Sam and I want Daring and Jack attacking them from behind while I keep them on me. Satoshi, I want you to use your power shot as much as possible." Frank tells them and everyone agrees.


<)===(> Battle Theme <)===(>


Frank charges in dealing 50 damage to Thria and then taunts them both followed by a shield bash for 38 damage and increasing their aggro on himself.

Jack uses his warcry again generating 20 fury and +10% damage for everyone. He then leaps into them dealing 32 damage to both and generating 20 fury again. He then cleaves both statutes dealing 54 damage and lowering their defence by -15%

Daring quickly runs behind Judas and rapidly stabs the crystal monster six times dealing 25 damage per hit. The higher damage numbers compared to the slimes makes Daring grin to herself.

Satoshi charges up his power shot over two seconds and fires it at Thira dealing 80 damage, but now he has to wait thirty seconds before using it again so he fires basic attacks at Thria dealing 45 damage a hit.

Laura just attacks them with basic attacks dealing 22 damage while she keeps an eye on the surroundings for anymore monsters.

Frank takes a hit from Judas' crystal claw taking 45 damage bringing his HP down to 255.

Samantha casts renewal on Frank and jack healing 20 HP and 10 HP more every second but also keeps an eye open for Daring in case she gets hit.

Frank takes a few more hits for 120 damage and Samantha heals him for 100 HP with her lesser heal spell.

Jack uses his cleave again dealing 56 damage to them and reapplies the -15% physical defence debuff.

Daring uses her rapid stabs skill again dealing 24 damage a hit to Judas.

Suddenly, Thria and Judas turn their tails around and stab both Daring and Jack dealing 54 damage to Jack and 65 damage to Daring. They're both also poisoned for 8 damage every second for ten seconds.

Samantha casts renewal on both of them then she heals Frank and then heals both Daring and Jack for 110 HP. Her MP is now low so she drinks one of her three MP potions.

Satoshi's power shot is ready again which he fires it at Thria dealing 82 damage and killing the monster.

The group's morale rises and they all swarm Judas.

The crystal monster is having trouble and is taking heavy damage but he now seems to be dealing more damage as well. Frank notices it now has an enraged buff increasing damage by +50%, it must have happened when the other one was defeated.

Frank is then tackled by Judas for 152 damage sending him ten feet back and loses all the aggro he had. Judas then turns to Jack and claws him across the chest dealing 85 damage.

"Sam! Heal jack!" Frank yells and uses one of his HP Potions healing 150 HP.

"Okay!" she replies and casts lesser heal on jack healing him by 95 HP.

Frank uses his shield charge skill and slams into Judas dealing 50 Damage and then taunts him. Judas turns back to Frank and stabs him with his stinger for 48 damage and 6 damage a second for ten seconds.

Samantha then recasts renewal on Frank, Jack, and Daring.

Satoshi and Laura are still shooting basic attacks at Judas while Jack cleaves it again and Daring is stabbing it as much as she can.

After a few more minutes, Judas crumbles into pieces and the group cheer for their victory.


<>---<> End Battle Theme <>---<>


Frank picks up the loot and shares out the forty bits and gives Laura the crystal shards. Daring also got an uncommon pair of leather gloves as well.

Jack then returns to the golden chest and opens it to find one-hundred and twenty-three bits and a copper warhammer +1. "Sweet! An upgraded hammer!" he says and equips it. Then he shares the bits with everyone else.

"Alright then guys, let's take a break here for ten minutes and rest up," Frank tells the others, they gather up some still intact chairs and gather around one of the few still standing tables and begin to eat and drink.
> Arc 1 - Chapter 5: The First Dungeon Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 5: The First Dungeon Part 2


"So how long have you guys been doing this?" Daring Do asks the others.

"About seven months. We're all friends from college and we play together in the evenings on our computers. We started playing Kirsarnia together and from there worked together to be one of the best parties in the game," Laura replies and then bites into her apple. "But if you mean doing this in the flesh? Just today," she says with a mouthful.

Jack then looks over to the Cleric. "By the way, Sam, what's it like having a tail?" he asks her with a grin.

"Huh?" she replies and looks up from the chicken leg she was eating. "Not that bad actually, I can move it around however I want," she tells him and wraps her tail around a broken chair leg and lifts it up.

"That's pretty neat actually, it's like having a fifth limb," Jack says while watching.

"What is weirder is my legs," she then says and lifts up her robe to show she now has two joints in her legs like Daring Do has but with paw like feet instead of hooves.

"How can you even walk like that?" Satoshi asks her.

"I dunno, I just knew how to walk when I woke up... I think it might have been Discord's doing, but I don't know," she replies and drops her robe back down.

Jack then gets a wicked grin and walks over to Samantha. "What are you doing?" she asks him nervously.

He doesn't reply but instead starts scratching behind her ears. She tenses up for a few seconds before melting into her chair with a happy smile on her face as she leans into his hand and begins to purr.

After a few seconds she blushes and quickly swats his hand away. "Wow you are just like a cat..." Jack says chuckling.

Samantha glares at him but the blush is still on her face. "How did that feel by the way?" Laura asks Samantha with a shit eating grin.

The cleric frowns and looks down at the chicken leg in her hands. "It felt nice..." she mumbles.

"Say again? I couldn't hear you," Laura says.

"I SAID IT FELT NICE!" Samantha shouts back and pouts.

"Don't tease her, Laura. You know how sensitive she can be," Frank scolds the mage.

"Sorry, but that must have felt good if it made you purr," Laura says with a giggle.

Samantha's blush flares up twice as strong now. "Laura..." Frank warns her.

"Alright alright I'm sorry, but it was cute," she replies and drinks some water.

"I wonder how much more there is to this dungeon? In the game, low level dungeons were short and easy for beginners and low level players. Does the same hold true for here?" Satoshi asks to change the subject.

"If those last two monsters were any indication, we must be getting close, I'd say maybe one or two more rooms before the boss's room," Frank replies.

"I've been wondering," Daring says getting the group's attention. "If I leave your party, do I still get to keep these new abilities?" she asks them.

The group look at each other before Frank shrugs. "I don't know, it could be possible that you'll go back to normal or that whatever is allowing us to do this has changed you permanently... I can't say for sure," he replies and finishes his food.

"Oh..." Daring says and frowns in thought. She'd really like to keep these abilities as they would come in handy when exploring old ruins and dungeons later.

"I think we've rested enough, let's keep going," Frank says and stands up.

The others also finish off their food and follow Frank to the next hallway.

They ran into two more rooms filled with more slimes and quickly cleared them earning some more bits and equipment.

They then reach a large old wooden door that's reinforced with iron. "This must be the boss room," Frank says and pushes the door open.

In the middle of the room sits a large black slime twice the size of anyone in the group, behind it lies three chests and a pile of bits.

"Okay so do we treat this boss like the other slimes?" Jack asks.

"For now yes, we'll need to watch carefully for any special attacks it might have as well as for minions it might summon," Frank replies. "That means you're on minion duty if they show up Jack," he tells the Warrior.

"You got it buddy," he replies.

"Satoshi and Laura, I want you to focus only on the boss," Frank tells them both.

"What about me?" Daring asks.

Frank then turns to her. "I want you to help Jack with the minions if they come, they'll most likely be slimes and he'll need help dealing damage to them, but until then attack the boss from behind," he replies

"Okay," she replies. It's strange, Daring doesn't feel angry or upset about being ordered around anymore, it just feels right now.


<)===(> Boss Battle Theme <)===(>


Frank shield charge's the boss dealing 13 damage, it's got high physical defence just like the smaller slimes had. He then taunts it and begins using basic attacks dealing 8 damage a hit.

Jack uses his warcry again getting 20 fury as well as +10% damage and then leaps at the boss dealing 7 damage and gaining 10 fury. He then uses his cleave to deal 9 damage and debuff the boss's physical defence by -15% for three seconds.

Laura saves her lightning bolt spell for the minions if they arrive and focuses on using firebolts only, dealing 53 damage and 5 damage a second for five seconds.

Satoshi shoots an arcane arrow into the boss dealing 60 damage and then shoots two basic attacks dealing 13 damage until arcane arrow is ready again.

Daring is behind the boss just stabbing it for 6 damage a hit until the minions arrive.

Frank recasts his taunt and shield bashes the boss for 11 damage adding more aggro to it.

Jack is just swinging his hammer left and right generating fury and dealing 10 basic attack damage until his cleave is ready every five seconds.

The boss creates a large mace like tendril before raising it into the air, then slams it down into Frank knocking him back and dealing 103 damage to him.

Frank quickly gets back up as Samantha heals him for 118 HP and refreshes his renewal. He then shield charges and hits the boss for 12 damage before refreshing his taunt.

Satoshi looks up and sees a chandelier above the boss. "I got an idea! Stand back!" the elven archer tells the others and aims at the chain holding the chandelier up. The others see what he's doing and step back as Satoshi shoots the chain and the old rusted chandelier slams into the boss dealing 450 points of damage to it. It also gets stuck in the boss giving it a physical defence and movement speed debuff of -50%

"Good job, Satoshi!" Frank tells him and slashes at the boss dealing 20 damage.

"Sweet now we can finally hurt the bastard!" Jack says and hits it for 29 damage.

The boss responds by releasing a toxic mist of acid poisoning the whole party. "Oh god it's burning my nostrils!" Jack says coughing while they all take 10 damage a second for two minutes.

Samantha quickly casts a renewal spell to counter the poison on everyone and heals Frank for 104 HP.

"We need to kill this thing quickly!" Frank shouts out and shield bashes it for 29 damage.

Jack then cleaves the boss for 22 damage and debuffs it's physical defence by -15%

Laura still keeping her distance fires off more fire bolts dealing around 55 damage each time while Satoshi shoots another arcane arrow for 63 damage.

The boss now has 33% HP left as it then leaps into the air surprising the party and comes back down onto Frank who gets sucked into it. Frank then starts taking an additional 5 damage a second while in it.

"Frank!" Samantha shouts out with worry.

Frank uses the Chandelier stuck in it to pull his head out and he gasps for breath.

Samantha starts to cast lesser healing spells over and over again on Frank healing his rapidly decreasing HP.

Jack drops his hammer and grabs Frank by his head and with his jorgan strength pulls him out of the boss.

"Dude that is fucking nasty," Jack says as Frank is covered in goo.

"Tasted nasty as well," Frank replies spitting out some goo and pats Jack on the back. "Thanks for that by the way."

"No Probl-" Jack says but is cut off by a tendril slamming him away into the nearby wall.

Samantha recast renewal on Frank and jack and then drinks her last MP potion.

Jack gets back up and picks his hammer up off the floor with a snarl. "Oh I'm bloody pissed off now!" he says before leaping into the air and slams down next to the boss dealing 12 damage and generating 10 fury. He then cleaves it for 19 damage and reducing its defence again before wailing into it for 29 damage a hit.

Daring Do is still behind the boss stabbing away at it dealing 18 damage a hit before she gets swatted away.

Frank uses his taunt and shield bash to damage the boss by 25 damage and regain its aggro.

Laura runs out of MP and drinks one of her potions before casting more fire bolts into the boss.

Satoshi continues to shoot more arrows into the boss, he raises his right hand to grab another from his quiver but only grabs air. "Guys! I'm out of arrows!" he tells the others.

"Damn, Discord didn't give you a lot did he..." Frank replies and slashes again for 23 damage.

"Don't worry! It's down to five percent HP, let's finish this!" Jack yells and roars wildly as he swings his hammer like a man possessed.

After a few more attacks the boss starts to writhe and squirm before exploding in a shower of slime and goo coating the party.

"EEEEEEWWW!" Samantha screams as she gets drenched in it.


<>---<> End Battle Theme <>---<>


The boss' remains soon fade away leaving the team dry and un-slimed.

"Good job guys," Frank says just as a portal opens up in the back of the room. "I guess that's our way out," he comments and walks over to the three chests.

He opens the first one which has three-hundred and twenty bits, four HP potions and MP potions, two rubies and one emerald.

The second chest has four-hundred and sixty-two bits, a copper longsword +2 for Frank, a cotton robe +1 with higher Wisdom on it for Samantha and lastly two lockpicks for Daring Do.

The third chest contains one-hundred and seventy-one bits, ten copper ingots, seven bolts of cotton cloth, eight vivian herbs and eight leather hides.

Frank splits the bits between everyone and gives Samantha the herbs, Satoshi the leather, Laura the cotton cloth, Jack the two rubies and Daring Do the emerald while he keeps the copper ingots.

"What about the boss' loot?" Jack asks looking at the bag on the floor.

Frank picks it up and goes wide eyed. Inside is one-thousand five-hundred and two bits along with a rare talisman which he gives to Samantha.

"Daaaayym. You got the first rare item..." Jack says in disappointment.

"I guess that's karma for teasing her earlier," Frank replies with a smirk.

"Yeah yeah, let's get outta here and find a town or something," Jack says and walks over to the portal.

Everyone lightly laughs at him and follows him through.
> Arc 1 - Chapter 6: The Guildhall and Discoveries
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Karsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 6: The Guildhall and Discoveries


The group steps out of the portal and a status window pops up showing them the EXP they earned in the dungeon. All of them grew to level four and gained six stat points which they spend increasing their stats.

"Which stat do I need to raise?" Daring Do asks them with a frown looking at her screen.

"Mostly on Agility, it'll make you move and attack faster and give you a higher critical hit chance. You'll also want some in Vitality to boost your HP a bit," Frank tells her as he spends two on vitality, two on Endurance and two on Strength.

"Oh," she replies and spends them on four Agility and two Vitality.

The ground then starts to shake under them as the ruins are enveloped in a white glow. The flash blinds the group and the once ruined building is now a pristine Castle.

"Whoa... what just happened?" Laura asks looking around.

The walls and ceiling are intact and the furniture looks brand new, the banners and tapestries are repaired and the windows whole again.

"I don't know... but I like it! If it doesn't belong to anyone we can take it as our base or guide hall!" Jack says with a grin before running off to explore.

Daring Do just looks gobsmacked. "Bu-but this Castle was destroyed and nearly everypony inside was killed by the monsters when they first arrived twenty years ago!" she says looking around as well.

Frank looks back and the portal is still there but is now a light blue colour and swirling more calmly. "It would appear we cleansed it or something," he replies before looking around as well.

"GUYS!" Jack’s voice echoes throughout the hall before he runs back to the others. "There's like a hundred single person bedrooms upstairs!" he tells the others.

"Who would have a Castle with that many bedrooms?" Samantha asks.

"I dunno, but if we expand the guild with new members they can choose to live here. We could even start our own community or something!" Jack replies excited like a child.

"Do we want to expand though? What about trying to find a way home?" Satoshi asks.

"We have no leads or knowledge about how to get home, and we don't know if whatever power or magic that is allowing us to fight like this will last on other people, there's only one way to find out though," Frank replies and turns to Daring Do.

He opens the party menu screen and kicks Daring out of the party.

After a few seconds nothing happens and she still has her name, level, class tag, and HP bar above her head. "Well... that answers that," Jack says.

"So what are you guys going to do now?" the tan pegasus asks them.

"Probably look around here and see what we got, we have a week's supply of food and water before we need to get more. Then we'll look for the nearest town and resupply," Frank replies.

"I see," Daring says and smiles. "Do you mind if I hang around until then? I want to see if this dungeon is still dangerous or not," she asks them.

The group look at each other and smile. "Sure, pick any bedroom you'd like, just don't take anything," Frank replies and smirks.

Daring frowns at him with crossed arms until she smirks. "Don't worry, this is all yours, you earned it, I just tagged along. Besides, I got what I came for and a pretty nice haul from the loot as well, so I'm set for a good few months," she replies before wondering off into the Castle.

"Well then guys, let's see what we have here shall we?" Frank says to the others before they split up and explore the Castle.





Three Days Later





The group of friends searched the entire Castle and found three Vaults in the basement, four large bathing rooms, a grand dining hall that could seat a hundred people with a big kitchen next to it, a war room which has a map of Equestria on it with the Castle's location that has their guild name above it, a large library with books on history and other subjects like Equestrian magic and such, and an armoury with a forge, alchemy table, tailoring tools, and a workbench.

The group is currently gathered together in one of the lounges near the bedrooms.

"This place is amazing! I can't believe this is all ours!" Jack says taking a drink of water while sitting on a comfy couch.

"I know right? And those beds are so soft and comfortable!" Laura replies.

A chuckle echoes throughout the room and Discord pops up in front of everyone making Jack spit out his drink in shock. "Hello my little dungeon running friends! How are you today?" he asks the surprised group while floating on his stomach.

"Discord!" Jack yells and tries to tackle him again, only for the same result to happen.

"He's not very bright is he, you would think he learned the first time," Discord says with a chuckle.

"What are you doing here?" Frank asks not angrily but with confusion.

"I came to congratulate you on a job well done. I have gathered some rather interesting facts about these dungeons now that you cleared one," he replies.

"And that would be?" Satoshi asks while Jack grumbles and walks back to his seat.

"That the 'bosses' inside the dungeons are the cause of these monsters spawning everywhere, while you did cleanse this one, it would seem that only twenty percent of the monsters only spawn nearby the dungeon now. The portal is now also acting like a filter suppressing most of the magic that spawns these monsters keeping most of them inside but it'll still allow you to re-enter and clear it again for loot and or experience, just like that MMO game you used to play," he tells them. "What is stumping me still is how these dungeons popped up in the first place and how they fundamentally work," Discord says with a shrug.

"I see... So what would happen if the boss respawns?" Frank asks him.

"Haven't the foggiest, it might return this nice place into a ruin again, it might be stuck down there waiting to be slain again, or it could gather up the magic inside and revert the portal... there are plenty of theories really," the chaos spirit replies. "Oh! How do you like the place so far? I had to spend quite a bit of magic just to bind this place to your little guild, The Dungeoneers, cute name by the way," he tells them.

"You did that?" Laura asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Well duh, it's not like clearing the dungeon lets you claim it. I had to drain half my magic for that little trick, I hope you appreciate it," he says with a huff.

"You dragged us here against our wills, you've got some nerve asking us that," Jack tells him.

"Oh really? If you had the power to bring those that could save your world from extinction, wouldn't you do it as well to protect those you care for and love?" he replies and asks.

"Alright then, why us?" Frank asks.

"I've looked through a lot of your worlds MMO games over the years I was there, your little group were the most skilled I saw so I just picked you. I would have brought your levels and equipment along as well but my magic got scrambled pulling you through, whatever is making these dungeons didn't like me bringing help it seems," Discord tells them.

"I thought you said we were on our own when you left," Samantha says to him.

"Only until I gathered some of my magic back, pulling you from another world wasn't easy especially with some unknown power interfering. I had to sleep for the last three days just to recover from that and binding this place to you after you cleansed it," he replies with a huff.

"Erm. I guess fuck you for dragging us here and thank you for giving us a great place to stay," Jack says.

"Buck you too and you're welcome," Discord replies with a grin.

"Just asking, can you even send us back? Even if we remove this unknown power?" Frank asks Discord.

"Maybe, but I can't guarantee you'd be placed in the same places I took you from or even if you'll return to normal, and who's to say there'll be anything for you to go back to? I don't know how long it'll take for you to destroy this being or whatever is doing this," Discord replies with the first sad expression they've seen on him yet.

Samantha starts to tear up and hugs Frank with her head buried in his shoulder sobbing quietly.

"I am sorry I dragged you here, but I don't want to see my world and the one I love in it reduced to dust. I did what I had to do to bring balance back to the world," Discord says and surprises everyone by bowing to them. "Please will you forgive and help me save this world?" he asks them sincerely.

Thinking it over, Frank can't help but feel sorry for him. He'd probably do the same to save his world and family.

"Alright, we'll help," Frank says getting shocked looks from the others.

"Why?" Jack asks Frank.

"If we don't then who will? I doubt Discord has the magic left to bring anyone else here and we're already here and know how to fight back... Besides, I would have done the same if I had the choice," he replies lightly stroking Samantha's hair.

Jack narrows his eyes slightly before sighing. "Yeah alright, I see your point. While I'm still pissed off at him for dragging us here away from our friends and family… but I wouldn't want to see them get killed either," he says and then looks at Discord. "What are you going to do now?" Jack asks him.

"I'm going to rest some more and figure out how to break out of this damn stone prison this unknown being trapped me in when it arrived," he replies.

"Where is your body anyway?" Satoshi asks him.

"Over in Ponyville where it's safe in the Library’s basement. Princess Celestia is watching over it for me while I figure out what is going on," Discord replies and yawns. "Now I must be going, I need a long nap to recover still so I'll see you lot in about a month. Good luck and have fun, I know you were while in that dungeon. Oh and can you give a message to Princess Celestia for me? Can you tell her I'll be home soon," he says and vanishes in a puff of smoke.

Everyone is silent for a few minutes before the door opens and Daring walks in. "Erm, why does it feel like somepony just died?" she asks them.

"Oh don't worry, just some life changing news and discoveries," Jack replies and finishes his drink.

"Oooookay, well I'm off back to Ponyville, do you want to come along? I need to send my report about you and the dungeon to the Princesses," she tells them.

"Sure, we also have some new information about the dungeon from Discord as well," Frank tells her and stands up after making sure Samantha is alright.
> Arc 1 - Chapter 7: To Ponyville
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 7: To Ponyville


"New information huh? Like what?" Daring asks Frank.

Frank then explains everything that Discord discovered to Daring.

Daring looks at him in disbelief. "Wow, so those bosses are the cause of the monsters appearing? Damn, and this one isn't destroyed but just suppressed?" she says and shakes her head. "You'll have to wait for a bit while I revise my report..." she tells the group and goes off to rewrite her report.





Thirty-Five Minutes Later





Daring returns to the group with her revised report in hand. "Okay, that'll do it. You ready to go?" she asks.

"Yeah, I have four-hundred bits for supplies," Frank replies.

"So who's coming then?" Daring asks.

"Me, Sam, and Laura," Frank replies. "Jack and Satoshi are going to look after the guild hall until we return," he then tells her.

"Alright, Ponyville is about a two hour walk from here," Daring tells them.

"Oh, before we go," Frank says and resends a party invite to Daring.

The party of four walk along a path leading to the town of Ponyville through the Whitetail Woods.

"Hmm, I wonder," Frank says and opens his menu up and selects the map tab.

A screen rolls out showing his location in the woods with the positions of his party and guild members.

"Whoa, that's convenient," Daring says looking at his map. "Let's see, can you move the map or is it just this?" she asks him.

Frank presses a finger against the map and drags it down, the map scrolls down revealing the path ahead.

"Cool," Daring says and tries to move it herself but her hand goes through it. "Oh, so only you can affect your own menus. Well scroll down and follow the path up," she says.

Frank does so and soon a small town with a large apple orchard shows up. "So that's Ponyville?" he asks her.

"Yeah, ever since these dungeons appeared, these large blue floating crystals with a metal frame made from a metal never seen before just showed up in the middle of the cities and towns, but they only seem to have a limited range of a two mile radius as most cities like Manehattan have lost a lot of buildings to monsters," she tells them.

"So is that what the blue ring around the town means?" Samantha asks.

Daring looks at it for a few seconds and nodded. "Yeah, looks like the right size," she replies.

"So monsters can't enter that area? Any idea why?" Laura asks.

"Only that the magic in them hurts the monsters. The Princesses have tried to harness the magic within them as a means to fight back... but that failed when the crystal in Canterlot shattered from the attempt and the city fell, the Princesses have taken refuge in Ponyville until a means to take it back is found," she replies.

Daring then looks at the three friends. "I think it's you guys, you gave me a power that hurts the monsters and makes me even stronger the more I fight. I believe you're the ones to help us," she says with a smile.

They smile back but growling to the right of the path gets their attention, six wooden wolves with the name tags Timberwolf stalk out and surround the party. They're all also level two.

"Looks like we're in for a fight, get ready. Laura, use your fire bolt since they're made of wood. Daring keep Sam covered while I'll get their attention," Frank says.


<)===(> Battle Theme <)===(>


"Got it," Laura replies and casts a fire bolt at one of the wolves in front of the group.

The timberwolf takes 103 damage and suffers 10 damage a second for five seconds, it also yelps and rolls around trying to put the fire out.

Frank uses his taunt to aggro the wolves and shield bashes the four of them in front of him for 46 damage each. The new sword boosting his damage quite a bit.

Frank then takes 23 damage a hit from the wolves so Samantha casts a renewal spell and a lesser healing spell Healing him for 238 HP, the new talisman helping in increasing her healing spells.

Daring stabs at one that gets too close to Samantha and deals 27 damage a hit, she then uses her poisonous stab skill and deals 39 damage and 3 damage every second for thirty seconds after.

Laura is still casting firebolts while Frank is taking the aggro and blows. He swings his sword and deals 34 damage slaying one of the wolves.

Laura blasts another wolf with a firebolt for 105 damage and kills it as it shatters into burnt splinters and fades away.

Daring jumps onto the back of the timberwolf she's fighting and holds her daggers in a reverse grip and plunges them into its neck dealing 31 damage with each dagger and killing it.

Frank uses his taunt again before getting piled on by the three remaining timberwolves. He then shield bashes two of them for 44 damage sending them back a few feet, he then grabs the last one on his back and tosses it over his shoulder in front of him. Laura then casts another fire bolt killing one of the wolves with 108 damage.

Samantha heals Frank for 210 HP and casts renewal on him again. She then looks to the others making sure their HP is good.

Daring flies up and lands on one of their backs and uses her poisonous stab skill again dealing 40 damage and poisoning it.

Frank raises his shield and shield charges the last one and deals 68 damage killing it.

Daring is riding the last wolf while stabbing it in the back over and over again dealing 28 damage until it dies.


<>---<> End Battle Theme <>---<>


Daring falls on her ass as the timberwolf she's sitting on fades away leaving six loot bags. Frank picks them all up getting thirteen bits and three timberwolf fangs, he then gives everyone three bits each.

"Well, that wasn't as hard as the dungeon monsters were, I guess these are just weak overworld monsters. Dungeon mobs are always a lot tougher," Frank says.

"I still find it weird that these timberwolves would have torn me to shreds if they got me before, but now I can kill them with ease and they drop bits? How does that even work?" Daring asks with a grin. "I so can't wait to write my next novel, Daring Do and the Dungeon of Slimes!.. No wait, that sounds terrible..." she says with a grimace.

Samantha giggles while Laura laughs.

The group then continues on their way to the town.





One Hour and Twenty-Two Minutes Later





After a few more battles with more timberwolves and green slimes, the town comes into view which has a really large transparent light blue dome around it.

"That's Ponyville huh?" Laura asks.

"Yeah, it's the main headquarters for the Princesses and the royal guards for now. Come on, I want to introduce you to the Princesses," Daring says and the party step through the dome.

"Oh that tingles a bit," Samantha says and giggles.

"Yeah, you'll get used to it," Daring replies and they walk through the town.

Frank and the others are surprised to see ponies with horns and some without. "Huh, so you have unicorns as well? What are the hornless and wingless ones called?" Frank asks Daring as the ponies of the town stare wide eyed at the newcomers.

"They're earth ponies, sorry about the staring but we've never seen anything like you before," Daring replies with a sheepish smile.

"Don't worry about it, it won't bother us," Frank says as they reach a tall cylindrical building with a pointed roof and flags on the top.

"That's the town hall where the Princesses are staying at the moment, come on!" Daring says and they walk up to the doors where two guards in golden armour block the way.

"No unauthorised visitors are allowed in," the right one says.

"Argh, I'm back with my report about the Dungeon in the Whitetail Woods, and I have information on how to kill the monsters!" Daring yells at him with crossed arms.

The guard's eyes go wide. "Wait here please," the left one says and enters the building.

After a few minutes he returns. "Please follow me, the Princesses would like to meet you," he says and lets Daring in but stops the others. "Sorry but only Miss Do is allowed in," he tells them.

"Oi! They're the reason why we can kill the monsters! They're with me!" Daring scolds the guard who goes wide eyed again at that.

"My apologies, you may enter but please leave your weapons at the door," he tells them.

Frank smirks and opens his menu and unequipped his sword and shield back into his inventory. Laura and Samantha do so as well.

"Huh?" the right guard says with a stunned look.

"Where'd they go?" the left guard asks.

"We unequipped them, so now were unarmed," Laura replies.

"A pocket dimension?" the right guard mumbles to the left.

"I dunno, but do we still let them in? I don't know if they could have other weapons..." he replies.

"Oh for the love of Celestia just let them in, I can vouch for them," Daring says and pats the guard's shoulder.

The guard sighs and looks at Frank. "Alright, just behave and be respectful to the Princesses," he says and lets them in.

"Do not worry, we will be," Frank replies and nodded.

Daring guides them through the building to a nice room where two tall women with both a horn and wings sit behind a desk.

"Wow they're pretty," Samantha says after a few seconds.

The white woman with a constantly flowing mane and tail of pale pink, green, blue and purple lightly laughs. "Thank you for the compliment, but I must say I've never seen your races before. Where do you come from may I ask?" she asks.

"From a world called Earth, we were pulled here against our will by Discord," Frank replies.

"Discord?" the white woman asks with hope in her eyes.

"Yeah, he found our group during our game and dragged us here, which we're not happy about just so you know," Laura says with harsh tone.

"I am sorry you were brought into our problems, but we so desperately need the help. My name is Princess Celestia," the white woman replies and introduces herself.

"And I am Princess Luna," the dark blue woman with a mane and tail that looks like it is part of the night sky says.

"So where's the King or Queen then?" Laura asks.

"There is no King or Queen, my sister and I rule Equestria together. Now who are you and what are you?" Celestia replies and asks politely.

"Alright, well I'm a human and my name is Frank Johnson. I am a Guardian and the Guild Master of The Dungeoneers," Frank introduces himself with a bow.

"I'm Laura Venice, I'm a Mage and a human as well," Laura says with a bow as well.

"My name is Samantha Witherton and I'm a leoness... Oh I'm a Cleric as well," Samantha replies and bows.

"What are you if I may ask? I've seen ponies with horns, wings, or neither so far but not with both," Frank asks.

"We're alicorns, we have the attributes of all three types," Celestia replies.

"I see," Frank says and Daring hands her report to Celestia.

"Here's what I learnt at the Dungeon Princess," she says.

Celestia reads the report and goes wide eyed. "You have a power that can kill the monsters?" she asks Frank.

"It would seem so, we only arrived four days ago. We can apparently also give others this power by inviting them to our party, but they start at level one and would need to kill monsters or complete Dungeons to level up and get stronger," he replies.

"Fascinating, and you can give this power to anypony?" Luna asks.

"No, I won't just give it to anyone," Frank replies getting a frown from Luna.

"And why not? If you can give us the power to take back our homes then why would you withhold it?" she asks with a irritated tone.

"Calm down, Luna. I'm sure he has his reasons," Celestia says to her sister.

"I do, would you like someone you don't trust to have the power to turn invisible to the naked eye and instantly teleport behind your back and stab you?" Frank asks. "Or how about someone who is power hungry and attacks a town? A level eighty Mage can cast the meteor spell, calling down a meteor to destroy a large area," he tells her.

Both Princesses eyes go wide at that. "And what are you capable of?" Celestia asks.

"Not a lot at the moment, we're only level four so far after cleansing the Whitetail Woods Dungeon," Frank replies.

"I see... what would we have to do to allow you to give others this power?" Luna asks.

Frank just stares at Celestia for a few seconds. "They'd have to join our guild for one, the Castle Discord bound to us can hold up to a hundred people. Secondly, they'll have to follow our guild's rules and any breaking of the rules will result in imprisonment, we found a nice little prison cell area under our Castle, and considering we can't die, killing them is not possible," he replies.

"You can't die?" Luna asks shocked.

"You didn't tell me that! Does that mean I can't die?" Daring asks with shock.

"You can be killed, but you'll just respawn at the anchor crystal you bound yourself to with half your bits gone, one level taken from you with two stat points lost as well and some of your gear possibly damaged or destroyed," Frank tells her.

"Immortals, you're immortals," Celestia says quietly and looks to Daring. "You have this power already?" she asks her.

"Erm yeah... It's near the end of my report," the pegasus replies.

"While we can't die, I don't know if we still age or not," Frank says. "Discord gave us our power when he brought us over, but our character levels and gear were lost on the way. I was originally a level ninety-seven Guardian," he tells her.

"You were that powerful?" Luna asks with wide eyes.

"Not just me but my friends as well, we're one of the best dungeon runner parties in Kirsarnia," he replies.

"I see, would you be willing to give my sister and I this power so we may protect our ponies?" Celestia asks.

Frank turns to his two friends as they huddle together. "What do you think?" he asks them.

"She seems nice and honest, I don't think she'd abuse it..." Samantha replies.

"Celestia appears alright, but her sister looks too hotheaded and quick to anger," Laura says.

"Agreed, we'll have to see who would like to join us and what their personalities are like, maybe some background checks, I'm sure they have records or something," Frank tells them.

Turning back to the Princesses they notice Luna with a scowl on her face. "And just who are you calling hotheaded," she says to them.

"You've just proven our point if you let words anger you like this," Frank replies. "Since she heard that I can guess you heard the rest as well?" he then asks Celestia.

She nodded. "We have exceptional hearing, so you would allow those we provide a background check on to join your guild?" Celestia asks.

"Yes, and if we don't accept them there's no second chances," he replies.

"Very well, I take it you would like one on me and my sister as well?" Celestia asks.

"That would be appreciated," Frank says. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to check that crystal in the town. I believe it's an anchor crystal used to teleport from town to town or cities."

"It can do that?" Celestia asks with surprise.

"I believe so, that's why I wish to see it to confirm it," Frank says and heads to the door but turns back to Celestia. "Oh, and Discord says he'll be home soon," he tells her before walking out the door.
> Arc 1 - Chapter 8: Getting Supplies and Getting Ready
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 8: Getting Supplies and Getting Ready


Celestia goes wide eyed at Frank's words. "He'll be home soon?" she asks him.

"That's what he told me to tell you. He also said he's sleeping for about a month to recover his magic," Frank replies.

"I see, thank you for telling me," the white alicorn says with a slight smile.

Frank smiles back and leaves the room with Samantha and Laura. The two alicorns and pegasus following behind them.

The walk to the anchor crystal was not very long as it was just outside in the centre of the town square. Frank guessed he missed it due to his attempt at avoiding all the stares directed at him and his group on the way in.

The ponies bow to the Princesses as Frank stands in front of the crystal, it's about eight feet tall and four feet wide, the lower half is covered by a metal called mithril just like in the game. The crystal is giving off a faint humming sound which sounds relaxing, like it's saying that you're safe here.

Frank pulls out his recall crystal and taps it onto the anchor crystal. They both shine for a couple of seconds before returning to normal.

"What did you just do!?" Luna asks threateningly.

"Nothing harmful I assure you, I just bound my recall crystal to this location so when I use it I can return here," Frank replies. "and again you just proved Laura's hotheaded comment correct," he then says to her making her cross her arms in annoyance.

Frank walks away a good fifty feet and uses the recall crystal, he's blinded by a flash of light and is now standing in front of the anchor crystal facing away from it.

"Well it works," he says where Samantha and Laura also bind theirs to it.

"Do I have one of those?" Daring asks.

"Check your inventory, if not then try touching the anchor crystal," Frank replies and notices his crystal has a one hour cooldown now on it.

Daring touches the anchor and a recall crystal forms in front of her, she grins and takes it once it's formed.

"What was that!?" a new female voice asks.

The group turns around to see six women looking at them with mixed expressions. The first one is a lavender unicorn with a deep bluish purple mane and tail with two streaks of hot pink and deep purple. She's wearing a knee long navy blue skirt, a white undershirt and a deep purple sleeveless vest over it.

The next is a cyan pegasus with a rainbow coloured mane and tail, she's wearing mid thigh long black shorts and a white tank top shirt with a deep blue jacket over it.

Next to her is a pink earth pony with a darker pink poofy mane and tail wearing a pair of blue denim like overalls with a white and yellow striped shirt under it.

To the other side of the lavender unicorn is a butter yellow pegasus with a long light pink mane and tail, she's wearing a light blue shin long skirt and a light green sweater.

There's also a white unicorn with a very stylishly curled indigo mane and tail wearing a casual yellow outdoor dress.

Lastly is an orange earth pony with a blonde mane and tail with hair bands on the end wearing blue denim shorts, a red chequered shirt that's been tucked in the middle like a farm girl’s and a light brown stetson hat on her head.

Frank turns to face the lavender unicorn who asked the question. "I just bonded my crystal to the anchor so I may return here no matter where in the world I may be," he replies.

"What!? No such magic or spell can do that!" she says and runs over to frank and tries to take the crystal from him.

He just raises an eyebrow before sending the crystal back into his inventory.

The unicorn blinks and then looks at Frank. "Where did it go?" she asks confused.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you it's not nice to take other people's things without asking first?" he asks her with a hint of amusement.

The unicorn blushes and smiles sheepishly. "Sorry, I sometimes forget my manners when I see something that interests me..." she replies and holds her hand out for a handshake. "My name is Twilight Sparkle and I've been studying this crystal for four years now, so when you did something I've never seen with it before I got excited," she tells him.

Frank reaches out and shakes her hand. "Hello, Twilight. I'm Frank Johnson, and don't worry about it," he replies and lets go.

Celestia giggled lightly at her students behaviour.

"And these are my friends, Rainbow Dash," Twilight says pointing to the cyan pegasus.

"Pinkie Pie." She then points to the pink earth pony.

"Fluttershy." To the yellow pegasus.

"Rarity." The white unicorn.

"And Applejack." She then points to the orange earth pony.

They all gave an hello, hi, or howdy.

"It's nice to meet you all, as I said, I'm Frank Johnson the Guardian and these are my friends Samantha Witherton the Cleric," Frank replies and then points to the leoness.

"Hello," Samantha greets them quietly.

Fluttershy gasps and walks up to Samantha. "Oh my, you look like a kitty cat," she says and circles her like a shark.

"She kinda looks like an upright manticore without the wings and tail..." Rainbow Dash comments.

Frank chuckles as Fluttershy examines Samantha's tail. "And this is Laura Venice the Mage," he then points to the human woman.

"Mage? What magic can you do?" Twilight asks Laura with intrigue.

"Not much as of yet, I still need to level up to unlock new spells, but right now I can cast a firebolt, icebolt and a lightning bolt," she replies.

"Can you show me?" Twilight asks with a grin.

"Sure," Laura replies and aims her hand to the clear sky, she tries to cast a firebolt but nothing happens.

"Oh right, we're in a safe zone, so just like in the game our skills and spells wouldn't work here," Frank says.

"Huh?" Twilight asks confused.

"Our abilities are used to fight and kill monsters, but since monsters can't get in here our powers have no reason to work, it also stops people from killing other people in safe zones. I guess it's a security function of the anchor crystal," Frank tells her.

Twilight's horn glows and a notebook and quill appears in her hands and she starts writing.

"Hi, Daring! Been on any cool adventures lately?" Rainbow Dash asks the tan pegasus.

"Hello, Dash. And yes I have. I helped them cleanse the first Dungeon ever," she tells Rainbow Dash while pointing to Frank and his two friends.

"Really!? What was it like?" the rainbow haired girl asks in excitement.

"To be honest... fun actually," Daring replies.

"Fun? You could have died darling!" Rarity says to her.

"That's the thing, I can't die anymore apparently," Daring tells them.

"Huh? How?" Rainbow asks with wide eyes.

Frank ignores them and turns to Celestia. "We've also came here to purchase food and supplies for the Guild Hall. I have four-hundred bits with me, how much can that buy us?" he asks.

"Four-hundred? How did you get that much so quickly? I thought you said you were only here for four days so far?" Luna asks, she's calmed down and no longer looking angry.

"It was our reward for completing the Whitetail Woods Dungeon along with more as well, I think over a thousand in total," Frank replies.

"Whoa, that's a lot of bits..." Pinkie Pie says right next to Frank.

Frank yelps at the pink girl's sudden appearance. "Bloody hell! How'd she do that?" he asks and steps away from the grinning earth pony.

"I just walked next to you silly," Pinkie replies.

Before he could retort, a message screen appears in front of him.



From: Jack Linstock
About: Anchor crystal

Hey Frank, one of those anchor crystals from Kirsarnia just appeared in the Castle Courtyard!
Now there's this pale blue see-through dome around the place... It also vaporised any monster caught in it.

I think you should get back here as soon as possible.



Frank read the message and sighs as he begins to write a reply.



To: Jack Linstock
About: Anchor crystal

Alright, we're just about to buy supplies and then we'll head on back, keep an eye out for anything else.



"What were you doing? It looked like you were poking the air," Twilight asks.

"I got a message from Jack, It would seem an anchor crystal appeared at our Guild Hall. I need to purchase some supplies for our vaults and start heading back," he replies to Twilight and then tells the Princesses.

"Well, ah can sell ya'll some apples from mah orchard if ya'll want," Applejack offers.

"That would be nice thank you," Frank replies with a nod.

The large group go through the town buying supplies and telling the three dungeoneers about the town and such. The three friends also tell them of their world and about the game Kirsarnia.

"So you now have the powers of this MMO game and can kill the monsters?" Twilight asks.

"Correct," Frank replies and checks his inventory. "I believe we have enough supplies, we shall be heading back to the Guild Hall then. You know where it is correct?" he asks the ponies.

Princess Celestia replies. "Yes we do, it's one... well was one of the closest dungeons in the area. It used to be the Blueblood Noble family's Castle, but was twenty years ago and only one pony survived. Though you restored the Castle to its former glory it seems, he has no right to claim it as it was abandoned when the dungeon appeared in it, and you were the ones to restore it."

"Well the Dungeon is still there but it is now under our control, we can use it to farm small amounts of bits, low level materials, low level equipment, and experience points to level up," Laura tells her.

"I see, so you'll be using it as a training ground for new members?" Luna asks.

"Yes, now if we're done we need to go back. We shall return in seven days time for those records on any who wish to join us," Frank replies.

"Very well, it was a pleasure meeting you three, I do hope you'll help us reclaim our lands from these Dungeons," Celestia says to them with a slight bow.

The three friends and Daring Do leave Ponyville and head back to the Guild Hall.





After a few more battles along the way and gaining another level, the party of four have returned.

"Hey, Frank. How'd it go?" Jack asks standing next to the anchor crystal with Satoshi.

"Pretty good, we we're attacked along the way there and back by green slimes and timberwolves, but gained some more bits and crafting materials as well as another level from it," Frank replies.

"Cool, did you get the supplies?" he asks.

"Yeah, we got lots of fruit, vegetables, spices and herbs, even some doughnuts, cakes, and pies, as well as some fish from a gryphon vendor in the town. They have a lake just within range of their anchor crystal so fishing is safe. This should last us at least a month for the six of us," he replies.

"Six? Wait is Daring staying here with us?" Satoshi asks.

"Yes, would you like to join the guild, Daring?" Frank asks her.

"You mean I can stay here with you guys and have my own room here!?" she asks excitedly.

"Yes," Frank replies.

"Sign me up! If it means more adventures in Dungeons with you guys count me in!" she says with a grin.

Frank sends her a guild invite which she accepts and is now a member.

"Alright then, let's go and store these supplies in the vaults, but first let's bind our recall crystals here and I want to see if the fast travel system between anchors works," Frank says.

They all bind their crystals and then Frank touches the anchor making a menu pop up with a list of towns with other anchors in them, only the The Dungeoneers Castle and Ponyville are highlighted. He taps the Ponyville one and after a bright flash, he's standing in front of the Ponyville anchor crystal.

"Frank? Why are you back so soon?" Twilight asks him while she was examining the anchor.

"Just testing to see if the fast travel anchor system works," he replies and touches the anchor again.

"What?" Twilight asks but before she could say more he travels back to the Guild Hall anchor.

"Well it works," he says to the others.

Jack tries it but the Ponyville anchor is de-highlighted to him. "I can't," he says with a frown.

"You'll have to be near the anchor in Ponyville to activate it for yourself, just like in Kirsarnia," Frank replies.

"Well damn, oh well, I can get some bits and experience on the way there then," Jack says with a shrug.

The group head down to the three vaults in the basement.

"So how do these work?" Jack asks and tries to open the middle one. A large screen pops up in front of him with one-hundred item slots as well as ten different tabs each with their own one-hundred slots.

"So this vault has a thousand slots?" Laura asks and looks up at the name of the panel. "Guild Vault," she reads aloud.

"So this one is for all guild members to access?" Satoshi wonders to the others.

"Looks like it, let me try something Jack," Frank says to his warrior friend.

"Sure," he replies and stands aside which makes the screen close.

Frank touches the vault door and the screen reappears, he then opens his inventory screen and with the tip of his finger, drags a stack of apples over into the vault screen. The apples are now in the first slot of the first tab.

"Cool, just like how the game works," Jack says and goes to the left vault.

The screen pops up but it only has one-hundred slots and no extra tabs. "Personal Vault," he reads aloud the screen name.

Laura touches the right vault and a panel with ten tabs and a hundred item slots pops up. "Officer's Vault," she says.

"So the left one is each member's personal bank while the right is for those of officer rank and higher only..." Frank says after placing all the food inside the first tab which he renamed as food and rations. "Alright let's put all our bits into the officers vault, we'll use it as funding for the Guild Hall and more supplies if they're needed."

The others agree and place all the bits they looted so far in the vault for a total of 1,644 bits.

"Right then, Laura can you place the food and drinks you have into the officers vault, that'll be our personal stock. Sam, place yours into the guild vault please," Frank tells them.

"Okay," Samantha replies.

Once done the group gather in the main hall.

"So what do we do now?" Satoshi asks.

"The Princesses will be arriving in seven days with possible new members for the guild, along with records about them so we know who to pick and not to pick. Until then I say we run the Dungeon a few more times and farm bits, equipment, materials, and levels," Frank says.

The group agrees and delves into the dungeon once more.





Seven Days Later





The party of six have been running the Dungeon for five days straight, they’re all now level eight but still have only level two common, uncommon or rare equipment.

Frank has a full set of copper plate armour: helmet, gauntlets, boots +1, greaves and breastplate +1. He also has a copper heavy kite shield and still has his copper longsword +2

Jack has his copper warhammer +1, a copper chainmail set: vest +1, gloves, boots, leggings and a chain coif.

Samantha has her talisman and spell book foci. She also has a full cotton amour set of: robe, gloves +1, boots (which look more like wrappings around her paws), hood and pants +1.

Satoshi has full leather armour: a cap, boots, gloves, leggings and a vest. He also has a wooden longbow and a leather quiver.

Laura has a full set of cloth armour like Samantha with: a hood +1, gloves, shoes, pants, and a robe +1. Her staff is a wooden staff +1.

Daring Do has a full set of leather as well: a cap, gloves, leggings, boots and vest. She also has copper daggers +2

They also farmed over three thousand bits but the chests remained looted from their first run, the boss respawned on the third day meaning it respawns every week, they managed to get another thousand bits from it and a rare slime mount which was given to Samantha. It's a yellow colour with a saddle and reins and is surprisingly fast. Its details says it increases movement speed by 50%

They've also gathered a lot of basic materials and over the last two days have been perfecting their profession skills.

Frank has made a bunch of level one weapons and armour for the new members when they arrive.

Jack has been levelling his first aid skill to make low level bandages and poison antidotes, they'll be good for the new members when they start training on the overworld monsters before trying the Dungeon first.

Satoshi has made sets of leather armour as well as staffs for Laura to use her runecrafting on and bows, quivers, and lots of arrows.

Samantha has made plenty of lesser HP and MP potions from the herbs they found in the Dungeon and from the surrounding area of the Castle.

Laura has made robes and runecrafted the staffs Satoshi made for her.

Daring teleported back to Ponyville to help prepare them for the trip here and will teleport back when they’re ready to go.

During the week Jack and Satoshi travelled to Ponyville to activate the anchor for themselves and then teleported back.





Daring teleports back to the Guild Hall and goes to find Frank. She finds him in the forge where he's finishing a longsword.

The crafting process is just like Kirsarnia, you select a recipe from a list and then place the materials on the anvil. You then hammer it until you think it's perfect, once you stop the item is forged and its stats are revealed, so far most of the gear made is common rarity with no upgraded stats, but it will do for the new members to start with.

"Frank! The Princesses and the first bunch of ponies who want to join are ready to go!" Daring tells him.

Frank looks up from the anvil and turns to face her. "They're ready?" he asks just to make sure he heard that right.

"Yup, they just need us to escort them here," she tells him.

"Alright then." Frank says and sends a message to the others to gather by the anchor crystal.
> Arc 1 - Chapter 9: The First Members Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 9: The First Members Part 1


Frank and Daring arrive at the anchor where the others are waiting for them.

"So we're going to bring the first candidates here now?" Jack asks leaning on his hammer.

"Yes, Daring says they're ready to go and we'll need to protect them on the way here, it'll also show them what they're getting into," Frank replies.

"Yeah, it's just ten ponies and the two Princesses for now," Daring says.

"Good, I don't want to escort a large group before we get more members first," Frank says and walks up to the anchor crystal. "Let's get going then, I've been looking forward to this all week."

The party of six teleport back to Ponyville where the Princesses, Twilight and her friends with three other ponies and a young dragon are waiting for them.

Frank blinks his eyes from the bright light and looks around, he spots the Princesses and walks over to them.

"Greetings, Princesses. I've been told you're all ready to go?" he greets them and asks.

"Yes, these ten were the first to volunteer," Celestia replies and gestures to the gathered ponies and dragon. "We've also sent out pegasi with notices for the other towns and cities all over the world asking if they'd like the chance to join, though they will go through a background check first like you requested," she tells him.

"I see, well then," Frank says and turns to the gathered volunteers. "Some of you know us already, but for those who don't, I am Frank Johnson, the Guild Master of The Dungeoneers. We will be going back to our Guild Hall through the Whitetail Woods, we'll protect you from any monsters along the way so watch us as we fight so you can see just what you're signing up for," he tells them.

"This is gonna be so awesome!" Rainbow Dash says with an excited grin. She's been pumped for this all week ever since Daring told her about her experience over the last week.

"Alright, stay close together and if monsters show up don't panic, we'll take care of them," Frank says and looks behind them. There are two carriages with large bird like creatures that remind the five friends of a chocobo from Final Fantasy.

"I take it you're taking those carriages then?" Laura asks them.

"That we are, it's the safest way to travel outside of the crystal’s influence," Luna replies.

"Then let's get going, the sooner we get there the sooner we can get started," Jack says.

The ponies and dragon get into the two carriages and the guards on top with the birds reins gets them going.

The party follow along with three people on each side of the carriages. The trip is uneventful for the first twenty minutes but the first monster group shows up, two slimes and a single timberwolf.

The ponies watch as the party groups up and begins attacking them.


<)===(> Battle Theme <)===(>


Frank shield charges at the timberwolf, his shield slamming into its face hard dealing 235 damage followed by a taunt getting all of their aggro.

Laura raises her staff, points it at the left slime and casts her lightning bolt spell dealing 340 magic damage to it which chains for 167 damage to the other slime and 145 damage to the timberwolf.

Satoshi toggles his newly learnt magic arrow skill, pulls back the string where an arrow made of blue magic forms and begins firing arrows made from his MP at the slimes dealing 220 damage killing one of them.

Jack pulls his hammer back to the right behind him and throws his hammer horizontally at the Timberwolf hitting it for 180 damage and generating 10 fury before the hammer returns like a boomerang dealing an additional 176 damage killing it as well.

Samantha just stands there doing nothing as these low level monsters aren't enough to seriously harm the group anymore.

Daring pulls out one of the many throwing knifes Frank made for her and tosses it into the last slime dealing 125 damage killing it as well.


<>---<> End Battle Theme <>---<>


The ponies and dragon watch with awe as the monsters they've feared over the last twenty years were easily killed, but what confuses them is that the bodies just fade away leaving three bags behind, which Frank just casually picks up and they disappear.

They continue along the path to the Guild Hall and encounter a few more monsters which were quickly dealt with.

The group arrive at the Castle and the Princesses look on in awe as the once ruined structure is back in all its previous glory.

They stop the carriages in front of the anchor crystal where the ponies and dragon all get out.

"Welcome to The Dungeoneers Guild Hall!" Frank says with his arms spread wide.

The newcomers look around at the tall white Castle, it was almost big enough to rival Canterlot's Castle.

"Now then, introductions," Frank says as the party then tells the newcomers their names and classes.

Twilight and her friends reintroduce themselves before the dragon steps up. "I'm Spike and Twilight's research assistant," he tells the group. He has purple scales with a light green underbelly going from his chin down to the tip of his tail.

He's also wearing a pair of black tracksuit pants with purple stripes down the sides but no shoes showing his clawed feet, he also has a green hoodie with a white t-shirt underneath.

Next is a white unicorn with an electric two toned blue mane and tail wearing grey cargo pants with a light blue tank top, she also's wearing purple tinted shades. "Sup! My names Vinyl Scratch also known as DJ Pon-3," she introduces herself.

The next two is a mint green unicorn with a light greyish and white cyan mane and tail, she's wearing a pair of blue jeans and a pink shirt.

"Hi! I'm Lyra Heartstrings, and this is my marefriend Bon Bon," she says and then hugs the pony next to her, she's a light apple greenish grey earth pony with a two toned mane and tail of cobalt blue and light fuchsia. She's wearing a white dress with light blue and yellow stripes on the bottom and at the edges of her shoulder length sleeves.

"Hello," Bon Bon says.

"And hello to you as well. Now that we've introduced ourselves, you will now tell us why you want to join us," Frank says to them.

Twilight wants to learn more about the anchor crystals and a new form of magic.

Rainbow wants to be a dungeon delver like Daring Do.

Rarity wants to join so she can gather materials for her business and to protect her little sister.

Fluttershy wants to help her friends and be a healer like Samantha.

Applejack wants to be stronger to protect her friends, home, and family.

Pinkie wants to just have fun with her friends, and that by stopping these Dungeons she can get ponies to smile again.

Spike just want's to help Twilight.

Lyra and Bon Bon want to help stop these Dungeons so life can go back to the way it once was.

And Vinyl wants to do something worthwhile, since the Dungeons showed up her touring and gigs were cancelled as it was too dangerous to constantly travel.

The party were confused about that, that would mean Vinyl was older than she looked. Celestia then informs them that a pony's life span could be anywhere from two-hundred to two-hundred and fifty years.

The group of dungeoneers were stunned at this and told them that humans only lived from sixty to one-hundred years at best. Though with their new abilities and powers that's still up for debate, only time will tell.

Vinyl said she was eighty-two years old and the others were around the same age, except for the Princesses who are over a thousand years old.

"Now we'll have a look at the records the Princesses brought on each of you, so please wait in one of the Castle's lounge rooms while we look through them," Frank tells them and then looks at Daring. "can you please escort them there," he asks her.

"Sure, follow me everypony," she replies and tells the group of ponies and dragon.

They follow her into the Castle and the five friends go into the library to look through the records.





One Hour and Twenty-Seven Minutes Later





The party read through the records and found them satisfactory, no criminal records at all, though Samantha says that there's something different about Bon Bon compared to the others but just can't put her finger on it and Luna has a history of getting into arguments and some fights when she’s agitated.

Frank sends a message to Daring and tells her to bring the others back down to the main hall.

Everyone is now gathered together waiting for the news.

"We've read the records and found them satisfactory," Frank says and notices Samantha sniffing Bon Bon and then a few of the others before sniffing her again, making the ponies stare at her oddly.

"That's what it was, she doesn't smell like a pony," Samantha says and both Bon Bon's and Lyra's eyes go wide.

"What do you mean?" Twilight asks.

"I mean she doesn't smell like the rest of you... I can't explain it other than she isn't a pony..." Samantha replies.

Bon Bon looks terrified now and Lyra looks like she about to panic.

"Is there something you're not telling us?" Jack asks her curiously.

"Don't be afraid, while you are here you won't be harmed," Frank tells her.

Bon Bon looks at Lyra and nodded to her which gets a sad expression from the unicorn.

A green flame consumes Bon Bon and in her place stands a black insectoid pony with a small horn, a webbed fin where her mane used to be, a short greenish blue tail, dragonfly like wings and light blue eyes with small white dots for pupils.

The other ponies gasp and back away but Lyra hugs the insect pony tightly.

"Didn't see that one coming," Jack says wide eyed.

"Please don't hurt her," Lyra begs.

"Why would we hurt her? She's done nothing wrong," Laura replies.

"B-But she's a changeling! They feed off of a ponies love until there's nothing left!" Twilight says hiding behind Celestia.

"No they don't! I've been letting her feed off my love for thirty-four years and I've still felt the same as when we first started!" Lyra yells at Twilight angrily while placing herself in between them.

The others look surprised at Lyra's aggressiveness.

"Has she ever harmed anyone?" Frank asks Lyra.

Lyra glares at him. "Never," she replies firmly.

Frank then smiles at her. "Then she is welcome here, race means nothing to us. Samantha here is a leoness who is strictly a carnivore, yet we don't fear her or push her away, she's our friend," he tells her.

Samantha then looks sheepishly at the ground while Lyra's grip on Bon Bon loosens.

"But... then what about the rumours and stories about changelings abducting ponies and sucking them dry for their love?" Rainbow asks with a confused expression.

"Actually... when a changeling gathers enough love they return to the hive to share it with the others, but sometimes the pony they gathered it from finds out they're changelings but still loves them anyway and sometimes goes back with them to the hive to stay by them... We don't foalnap ponies," Bon Bon replies with a slight dual tone in her voice.

"Oh..." Rainbow says and purses her lips in thought.

"So what we've known about changelings has been wrong all these years? Why didn't you tell us?" Twilight asks Bon Bon.

"Our Queen tried once years ago, but the ponies were afraid of our appearance and chased us off... We've been too scared to try again since the rumours started spreading," Bon Bon tells her.

Celestia frowns at that. "I guess we are to blame for letting them get out of hand and believing them ourselves," she says sadly.

"Are you still in touch with your Queen?" Luna asks her.

Bon Bon shakes her head. "No, I was was exiled because I wouldn't go back to the Hive... I wanted to stay with Lyra," she replies which gets Lyra to hug her again with a smile.

"Good for you!" Jack says with a grin.

"Okay, then let's get you all in the guild and then sort out your classes and equipment," Frank tells them all.
> Arc 1 - Chapter 10: The First Members Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 10: The First Members Part 2


"Alright, before we invite you to the guild I'd like to explain the rules of the guild," Frank says to the gathered ponies and dragon. "Rule one, don't steal from the guild or your fellow guild members, doing so will have you expelled from the guild and placed into the prison below to prevent you from misusing your new abilities. Same goes for killing anyone other than monsters."

"Rule two, only take what you need and can use from the guild vault, so no taking equipment you can't put on or stuffing your inventory with potions and such, everyone will get an even share."

"Rule three, when in a party, distribute the loot you find to those that need it first. Like if you have two assassins and one has better daggers than the other, but you find stronger ones in a chest or on a monster, the member with the weakest daggers and can actually equip them gets it. Bit's will be divided equally to every party member while resources will go to the guild vault."

"Rule four, help your fellow guild mates if you can when they ask for help, if you find strong equipment but no party member can use it or if it's weaker than their already equipped item, place it in the guild vault as someone else could use it."

"Follow those rules and we'll get along swimmingly," Frank tells them, getting a nod and an affirmative from everyone. 

Frank then walks over to Celestia and holds his hand out to her. "Welcome to the guild," he tells her and Celestia shakes his hand.

She hisses in pain and winces as her name, class, guild tag, and HP bar appears above her head.

After the pain fades Celestia shakes her head slightly and looks at Frank, only to slowly look above him with a raised eyebrow as she sees his tags and HP bar.

"This is certainly strange," she comments and looks at the others tags.

"Are you alright sister?" Luna asks with curiosity.

"I'm fine, Luna. Just wasn't expecting what I'm seeing is all," she replies with a smile.

"Well then, you're now a member of The Dungeoneers," Frank tells her and looks at the others. "Who's next?" he asks them.

Luna steps forward and holds her hand out. "I shall," she replies.

Frank then turns to his friends. "You guys invite the others as well, it'll go by quicker," he tells them.

"Alright," Jack replies and the party starts inviting the others into the guild.

Frank looks back to Luna and grips her hand. "Welcome to the guild," he tells her and she also hisses in pain when she grasps his hand as her tags and bar appears.

After a few minutes everyone present is now a member of the guild. It takes a few minutes for them to get over the fact they can now see each other's name tags.

"Now that you're all members, it's time to sort out what class you wish to be and then get you your starter equipment," Frank tells them.

"Those who wish to be physical melee damage dealers come to me," Jack tells them.

Rainbow Dash, Spike, and Bon Bon walk over to him.

"Those who want to be magical damage dealers come to me," Laura then says.

Twilight, Celestia, and Lyra walk over to her.

"Those who would like to learn ranged damage dealing come to me please," Satoshi speaks up.

Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Vinyl walk over to him.

"Those who wish to be tanks or the shield of the party please come to me," Frank then says.

Applejack and Luna walk over to him.

"I guess that means you wish to be a healer right, Fluttershy?" Samantha asks the yellow pegasus.

Fluttershy nodded and walks over to her.

"Alright then, now we'll discuss what style of class you want," Frank says and looks to Luna and Applejack. "There's four trees for defensive tank classes; the Guardian, which I am, the Paladin, the Juggernaut, and the Vanguard," he explains to them.

"Ah take it each class has their own abilities and equipment needed?" Applejack asks him.

"Correct, tanks force the monsters to focus on them, taking the hits while the others deal the damage, a Guardian uses swords and shields while a Paladin uses a mace or hammer with a shield. The Juggernaut uses two war shields, large heavy tower shields with blades or spikes on the front to deal damage, while the Vanguard uses a two handed weapon and auras to boost their defence," he explains to her.

"I see, I wish to be the Vanguard then," Luna says.

"Ah'd like ta be the Juggernaut," Applejack then tells him.

"Alright then, now do as I do," Frank tells then them and shows them how to open their character screens where they'll pick their classes.

Once they've selected their classes Frank guides them to the vaults below to get their equipment.

Fluttershy is standing shyly in front of Samantha. "So you want to be a healer?" the Cleric asks her kindly.

The timid pegasus nodded and looks up at the leoness. "Yes, I want to make sure my friends stay safe," she replies.

"That's good, I originally became my party's healer because I wanted to help them, and in return they protected and helped me level up," Samantha tells her. "So, you have five healer classes to choose from."

"The Cleric like me, who specialises in healing. The Priest who uses buffs, debuffs, and shield spells with some basic healing spells. The Druid who uses nature to heal and buff their allies while also dealing some damage to enemies. The bard who uses music to heal and boost the party's stats, and the Shaman who uses the power of the spirit world to heal and attack," the leoness explains to her.

"I'd like the, erm... druid one please," Fluttershy replies.

"Alright, here's how you pick your class," Samantha says and shows her how.

Once done they head down to the vault.

Jack looks at Rainbow Dash, Spike, and Bon Bon with a stern stare. "So you think you got what it takes to get right up to your opponent's face and bitch slap them silly?" he asks them getting a challenging glare from Rainbow Dash. Spike just chuckles while Bon Bon just looks impassive.

"Damn right I do!" Rainbow tells him.

"Good, you'll need that attitude when you go face to face with a monster ten times your size and you swing your weapons at them like a possessed madman," Jack replies with a grin.

"Now then, there are a lot of melee classes to choose from, I myself am a Warrior, an area of effect based two handed weapon user. The others are the Champion who uses two handed weapons and focuses on single target damage. The Blade Dancer who uses two one handed weapons to attack with a mix of single and area skills. The Assassin uses daggers and stealth to sneak up on their enemies and deal quick high bursts of damage before backing off to repeat the process. The Rogue which is what Daring is, use daggers for fast and precise single target damage along with traps and poisons. The Brawler who uses fist weapons like claws, knuckle dusters, or plated gloves to attack lightning fast and has a high critical chance due to the low damage weapons they use, their skills go for stunning and combo attacks, and the Barbarian who wields a pair of two handed weapons is the slowest but the most brutal melee DPS there is, they can get stronger the more damage they take and have a mix of area and single target attacks," Jack tells them.

They look at each other and Spike speaks up. "I wanna be the Barbarian! Grrrrrrr!" he says and flexes his arms in front of himself with a growl.

"I want to be a Brawler! I'm already pretty good with karate!" Rainbow dash says and throws a few punches.

"And you?" Jack asks Bon Bon.

"I'll take the Blade Dancer please," she calmly replies.

"Alrighty then, here's how you pick them," Jack says and shows them, once done they head for the vault.

Satoshi looks at Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Vinyl. "So you want to be ranged classes. There are a few different types, I'm an Archer who can use both physical and magical attacks, but there are others like the Ranger who uses a shortbow and a shortsword. The Marksman who uses rifles to pick off targets at the longest range possible. The Hunter who uses throwing spears, axes, or javelins as well as a combat pet. The Blitzer who uses a large two handed cannon to bombard an area, and finally the Heart Seeker who uses throwing knives, stars, or shurikens with a high critical hit chance," he tells them.

"What's a rifle?" Vinyl asks.

"It's a long metal barrel with a wooden stock that shoots out small pieces of lead faster than an arrow and has a slower rate of fire, but it also does more damage," Satoshi replies.

"Oh! It's like a boomstick, gotcha," she says with a nod.

"Boomstick huh? Well, these are much more accurate and have an effective range of fifty feet before the bullet deals reduced damage," he tells her.

"I see, and this Blitzer can really carry around a cannon?" she asks next with uncertainty.

"Yes, the cannon folds up to a more compact size so it can be holstered on the Blitzer's back. Again their rate of fire is slow but deals a lot of damage and they can blast an entire area while the rifles are single target weapons," he replies.

"Hmmm. I'll have the hunter class then, I've always wanted a pet," Vinyl says with a grin.

"Alright, what about you, Miss Rarity?" the elf then asks the white unicorn.

"Hmmm, I like the sound of the Heart Seeker, I work with needles and I'm very, erm... good at throwing things when I'm angry, or so I'm told," she replies with a mild blush.

"Alright, Pinkie?" Satoshi asks the pink mare.

"Blitzer please! I'm already quite good with a cannon," she replies and pulls out a small blue cannon on pink wheels out from behind her back and pulls the cord spraying confetti all over Satoshi. "Oops," Pinkie says with a sheepish grin.

He spits out a yellow piece of confetti and stares at her unamused. "Alright, so just copy me and we'll get you all set up," Satoshi tells the the mares, completely ignoring the fact she pulled a tiny cannon out of nowhere.

Once selected, they also head down to the vaults.

"So you want to be magic users then?" Laura asks Twilight, Lyra, and Celestia.

Twilight nodded rapidly, eager to learn new forms of magic. Celestia and Lyra just nodded calmly.

"Alright then, there's a few classes to pick from. I'm a Mage, I use elemental based magic. Fireballs, lightning bolts, ice bolts, and that sort of thing. Then there's the Wizard who uses arcane magic like mana bolt, arcana pulse, intelligence buffs and the like. There's the Gravimancer who can manipulate gravity to damage or to slow down the enemy. The Necromancer can summon undead minions to fight for them and can cast necrotic spells like soul shard, drain life, and miasma," she tells them and they look horrified at that.

"You can be a Necromancer!?" Twilight says in disgust.

"Yes, and before you say anything the undead minions they summon are magical constructs and not actual bodies," Laura tells her.

"Oh... well, be that as it may, it still sounds revolting. I think I'll take the Wizard class please," Twilight replies with a scrunched up muzzle.

"Alright, but there's also the Light Bringer who uses holy magic to inflict damage, this type of magic does a small amount of bonus damage to undead and demon type monsters, and then there's the Dark Mage who uses demonic energies to temporarily become demonic like in appearance to deal heavy damage to the enemy," she finishes.

"I see... Then I shall have the Light Bringer class please," Celestia says.

"And I'll have the Dark Mage," Lyra says and the other two give her surprised looks. "What? It sounds cool," she tells them.

"Okay, do as I do," Laura tells them and they pick their classes before heading down to the vaults.

Everyone is in the vault with Frank in front of the middle vault door. "Welcome to the guild vault, here items will be stored for the members of the guild. To your left is the personal vault where you can store your own personal items for safekeeping, you and only you can access your own vault. Behind me is the guild vault where you'll be able to fill the guild's stock of resources, food, water, equipment, and bits that others can withdraw as needed. There will be limits to what you can and can't withdraw daily. To your right is the officer vault where my friends and I will be storing the important items and such," he tells them.

"Why do you get your own vault?" Rainbow Dash asks them.

"We're the officers of the guild, anything we think is of importance will be placed in there for safekeeping, like dangerous artefacts and the like, this also means once they're in there they can never come out unless one of us gets it out... think of it as the ultimate seal," Jack replies with a shit eating grin.

"Oh..." Rainbow says dumbly.

"Now then, in the middle vault is a bunch of level one equipment we crafted for new members. I want you to step up one by one, place your hand on the door and a screen will appear,” Frank says and explains how the inventory system works. "Then I want you to withdraw a full set of equipment and two HP and MP potions if you have mana for yourselves," Frank tells them.

Twilight steps up and touches the door, the vault screen pops up and she stares at it. After a few seconds she drags over a robe, a staff, boots, gloves, a hood, and two of each potion.

"Now equip them through your inventory and drag the potions to your hotbar," Frank tells Twilight.

She opens her inventory and taps on the robe and then selects equip, she yelps as the white cotton robe replaces her vest but leaves her undershirt in place.

The others gasp and 'oooh' in awe as Twilight puts the rest on. "Next please," Frank says to the others.

One by one they pick up a set of equipment each and equip them. "This isn't real leather is it?" Rarity asks examining the armour she's wearing.

"Sort of, it's generated loot from monsters we've slain or from chests in the dungeon," Satoshi replies.

"I... see," she says with a bit of a wince.

Applejack lifts up her two copper war shields and mumbles to herself. "Things feel lighter than they look."

Rainbow has a pair of copper knuckle dusters on and throws a few punches. "This is sooo cool! When do we get to fight monsters!?" she asks in excitement.

"After we've had lunch, pick out whatever you want to eat from the food tab in the vault, food and water doesn't go off while inside the vault or your inventories, so you could bake a pie and leave it in your inventory for months and when you get it back out it'll be as fresh as the day you baked it," Frank replies and tells them.

"Amazing! Imagine the possibilities if we can spread this power? Food shortages will become less common and food won't be wasted anymore!" Twilight says with a sparkle in her eyes.

"Ahem," Frank says getting her attention. "Didn't I explain already why we ain't just giving anyone this power?" he tells her.

"Oh, right... misuse..." Twilight replies.

Frank nodded at her and looks at the others. "Okay, get something to eat and then form two parties of six members each. We're going to go out and find some monsters for you to practise on after we explain how battles work and what your roles entail," Frank tells them.
> Arc 1 - Chapter 11: First Battles
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 11: First Battles


After everyone had something to eat from the vault, the party and new members then head back up to the courtyard.

"Right then, so have you picked your party members?" Frank asks the ponies and dragon.

"Uh-huh," Twilight replies standing next to Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie.

"We have," Celestia replies standing in front of Bon Bon with Luna beside her, Lyra, Vinyl, and Spike.

"Good, now for the importance of your roles. Tanks are the battle initiators, they charge in first and get the monsters attention. Never attack before the tank, as it'll just make it harder for them to get the aggro on themselves," Frank tells them.

Twilight then raises her hand. "What does aggro mean?" she asks.

"Aggro means you're aggravating the monsters to attack you, the more aggro you place on a monster the better to keep its attention," Jack explains.

"Oh," the new Wizard says.

"As I was saying, your role is to keep the aggro on yourself while your party members deal the heavy damage. You don't have to worry about getting hit by your own team's attacks as you can't get hurt from friendly fire," Frank then says.

"Next is the DPS, or damage per second classes whose roles are dealing as much damage as quickly as possible. You'll either be behind the monsters or to their sides so you aren't hit by any frontal AOE attacks, which means area of effect attacks."

"The healer stays to the side and focuses on the tank and then checks to see if the others need healing and usually is defended by a melee DPS to keep them safe just in case their healing pulls too much aggro onto themselves."

"So Luna and Applejack, you need to make the monsters focus on you. Fluttershy you need to focus on healing them since you're the only one who wanted to be a healer, but Celestia is like a hybrid class, she has two minor healing spells as well, your Holy Judgement spell deals damage to a target and for three seconds after that, allies who attack the target will be healed for fifty percent of the damage they deal. Not as effective as a proper healer, but it's better than nothing. The second is your Holy Light spell, it can either damage an enemy with a three second cooldown or heal an ally with a six second cooldown," Frank finishes telling them.

"I see, so I'm our party's healer then?" Celestia asks him.

"Yes and no, your role is primarily damage, but your spells have healing side effects and as I said, they aren't as good as a proper healer. Although Luna also has a self heal ability and healing potions, so combine that with your minor healing and she should be fine, just make sure you keep your judgement spell up every five seconds," Frank replies.

"Thank you," Celestia says and nodded to him.

"Now then, I'll explain on how to use your skills, spells, and items," Frank says and then spends the next hour explaining skills, spells, targeting, and how to use the hotbar.





The groups are now standing in a clearing of the Whitetail Woods outside of the anchor crystal's influence. "Now we just need to find you some monsters to fight, should be level ones and twos in this area," Laura says looking around.

A growl to the right gets everyone's attention as four timberwolves come out from the trees.

"Okay, Applejack, I want you to place both of your shields in front of you and think about your Bastion Rush skill," Frank tells her.

"Alright, partner," she replies and holds both of her shields in front of her side by side, each shield has fifteen spikes on the front for damaging monsters with.


<)===(> Battle Theme <)===(>


After a few seconds of hesitation, Applejack runs forward with her Bastion Rush skill and ploughs through the four timberwolves dealing 20 to 26 damage and getting the aggro from them, she then taunts by slamming her shields together twice adding to the aggro.

Rainbow Dash flies over and lands behind one of the wolves and starts punching in rapid succession dealing 8 damage a punch, she then follows it up with an Uppercut skill dealing 28 damage and sending the wolf back a metre while stunning it for two seconds.

Rarity is throwing shurikens at a wolf dealing 15 damage each, she then uses her Throwing Volley skill tossing six shurikens at once dealing 20 damage to each wolf with a ten second cooldown.

Pinkie stands still in place to use her copper cannon which has a trajectory line showing her where the shell will impact and fires a shell right next to Applejack and Rainbow dash, but the blast doesn't hurt them and deals 30 to 38 damage to the timberwolves in the blast zone, she reloads her cannon which takes two seconds and fires another shell.

Applejack is taking 10 damage a hit from the timberwolves who claw and bite at her shields and legs, which she retaliates with a bash to their muzzles as the spikes pierce the timberwolves.

Fluttershy casts her Nature's Spring spell to conjure up vines that burst out of the ground next to Applejack and form into a bowl with crystal clear water in it that releases a light blue mist healing everyone within ten feet by 15 HP every second for thirty seconds, but the spell's cooldown is twenty seconds.

She then casts a Bloom spell attaching a small pink flower onto Applejack's back that heals her for 27 HP a second for ten seconds with a three second cooldown.

Twilight is casting Mana Bolts at a single wolf dealing 26 damage each and then casts Arcane Blast on one of the two middle timberwolves causing a magical explosion dealing 20 damage to it and two others.

Applejack slams both her shields onto the ground causing a mild quake dealing 15 damage and making the timberwolves trip over stunned for one second while also adding more aggro.

The wolves quickly recover and two of the timberwolves then jump onto Applejack from the sides. "Land sakes! Get off'a me ya varmints!" she yells and tries to shrug them off.

"I got ya, AJ!" Rainbow says and grabs the right timberwolf around its midsection and uses her Suplex skill crashing it head first into the ground dealing 28 damage and killing it.

Fluttershy then casts her Snaring Vines spell which latches onto the left timberwolf and rips it off Applejack and deals 15 damage while rooting it in place for five seconds.

Pinkie blasts the two other timberwolves by firing her Mortar Shot skill into the air which comes back down hitting the ground with a large explosion dealing 50 damage to each timberwolf and killing one of them.

Rarity quickly throws a shuriken at the other wolf Pinkie blasted dealing 21 damage and kills it.

Twilight then casts a Mana Bolt and blasts the timberwolf held in the vines killing it as well.


<>---<> End Battle Theme <>---<>


The last timberwolf fades away leaving four loot bags on the ground. "Woohoo! That was awesome!" Rainbow cheers and does a backflip in the air.

"Well done, very good for your first battle. Now the other party will try a battle, but Vinyl will attempt to capture a timberwolf as her combat pet. To do this you'll have to weaken the timberwolf to below fifty percent HP and then use your Tame skill. You can also see if a monster is tameable with the Beast Lore skill," Frank praises the party and tells the ex-DJ.

"It won't turn on me will it?" Vinyl asks with a frown.

"It shouldn't do, in Kirsarnia, once a monster is tamed it's loyal until you release it," Frank replies.

"Oh, cool," she says and grins.

"Right then, Luna, you're up front," Frank tells the dark blue alicorn.

"Very well," she replies and stands in front of her party.

"Celestia, you'll stand about ten feet behind Luna and use your Holy Light on her when you need to, but concentrate on the monsters first," he then tells the alicorn Light Bringer.

"Alright," she replies and stands behind Luna.

"Bon Bon and Lyra, go to the left of Luna," Frank tells them and then looks to the others." Vinyl and Spike, stand to Luna's right."

A chorus of agreements sound out as they take their positions.

"Alright people! Let's get this show on the road!" Jack yells and the guild march onward to find another group of monsters.





After five minutes a group of two slimes and three timberwolves attack Celestia's party.


<)===(> Battle Theme <)===(>


Luna uses her Cleaving Rush skill to dash over to the monsters in less than a second and then swings her sword in an 180 degree arc in front of herself dealing 20 damage to the wolves and 10 damage to the slimes, she then raises her right hoof and slams it onto the ground sending out a shockwave dealing 10 damage to the wolves and 4 damage to the slimes but adds a lot of aggro.

Celestia holds out her staff and casts her Holy Judgement spell on a timberwolf dealing 30 damage which Luna then focuses her attacks on, healing her for 9 to 12 HP a hit.

Bon Bon is swinging both of her longswords at a timberwolf dealing 17 damage a hit, she then pulls her right sword to her left hip facing behind her and her left sword to her right hip. She swings both swords forward and deals 14 damage to each wolf and 7 to the slimes while also adding a short bleed effect dealing 3 damage a second for eight seconds.

Spike is swinging both his copper greatsword and copper battle axe in slow but powerful strikes, dealing 13 damage to the slime he's targeting.

One of the slimes spits acid at Luna who hisses in slight pain as she takes 30 damage and 5 damage a second for ten seconds.

The timberwolves are slashing and biting at Luna for 10 to 15 damage a hit while the slimes are hitting for 6 to 12 damage.

Vinyl throws a copper javelin at a timberwolf and deals 13 damage, a new javelin spawns on her back which she pulls off and throws dealing 14 damage. The javelins then disappear off the timberwolf after a second.

The timberwolf's HP drops to 35% so she then uses her Tame skill to capture it. The timberwolf howls as it is lifted off the ground in a light blue sphere as it then starts to shrink into a tiny purple crystal with an intricate silver frame around it.

The crystal then flies over to her and fades into her inventory.

Lyra is throwing dark balls of magic at the slimes dealing 17 damage a hit, she's using a pair of talismans wrapped around each of her wrists to power up her attacks.

After a few more attacks, she's gathered enough demonic energy to cast her Demonic Form spell. Two leathery bat like wings sprout out of her back, her teeth extend into fangs, her eyes become a slitted blood red and the hoof hard fingertips extended into razor sharp claws. Her fur turns into a dark purple almost black colour as her fetlocks grow longer. Her mane and tail also grow longer and look unkempt, their colour changing to a deep blue as well. Her horn then curves back giving it a sinister appearance.

Jack smirks as the other ponies and dragon gasp at her new look, though a timberwolf biting Luna in the ass for 12 damage gets her attention back on the fight with a yelp.

Lyra grins sadistically showing off her new fangs and leaps into the air with the aid of her new wings before landing onto one of the two remaining timberwolves and starts slashing with her new claws dealing 20 damage a hit.

Bon Bon continues to stare at her marefriend as Lyra gleefully tears into the timberwolf which she ends up killing, a small green wisp of energy flows into Lyra from the slain monster as it fades away healing her for 20 HP.

Luna reuses her Shockwave skill and deals 5 damage to the slimes and 12 to the last timberwolf while keeping the aggro up.

Celestia recasts her Holy Judgement spell on the remaining timber wolf dealing 28 damage and reapplying the health on hit effect for three seconds. She then casts Holy Light on Luna healing her for 30 HP making the spell's cooldown increased from three seconds to six.

Luna uses her Strike of Conviction performing a heavy overhead downward slash dealing 33 damage to the last timberwolf killing it and healing herself for 50 HP, leaving her skill with a cooldown of ten seconds, she's also healed by 16 HP from Celestia's Holy Judgement effect.

Vinyl is throwing her javelins at the slimes for 11 damage as her skills require a pet to use and you can't change or summon a pet during combat.

Lyra's Demonic Form finally times out after thirty seconds and she returns to normal so she backs off and continues to fire basic attacks at the slimes.

Spike raises both his weapons above his head and slams them down onto the right slime for 19 damage making it explode into a puddle of goo.

The last slime spits a glob of acid at Luna as she's once again poisoned for 29 damage and 5 more a second for ten seconds.

In a fit of frustration, Luna punts the slime with her right hoof kicking the monster a good twenty feet away while Lyra, Celestia, and Vinyl attack from a distance.

After a few more bolts and javelins the slime is slain.


<>---<> End Battle Theme <>---<>


Celestia picks up a loot bag out of curiosity and it fades away, a screen pops up with a list of the loot obtained.

"Two bits and a timberwolf fang?" she says to herself looking at the screen.

"Yeah, these low level monsters aren't worth much, and we discovered the fangs are used for attack boosting potions," Laura tells the white alicorn.

"I see, so it is a resource for the guild vault then?" Celestia asks.

"Yeah, unless you want to take up alchemy it's worthless to ya, Samantha can use it to make more potions later," Satoshi tells her.

Frank walks over to both groups and smiles. "Well for your first battles that was good. Though we'll need to get more members willing to be healers, while Celestia did well keeping Luna's HP up, it won't work in a dungeon, a dedicated healer will be required," he praises and then tells Celestia and Luna.

The two alicorns look at each other and then smile. "We know just the mare for the job," Celestia replies looking back at Frank.

"Alright, contact her and bring her over with her records as well when you can," Frank says and then looks to the others. "Again well done, you may now stay out here and keep practising or head back to the Guild Hall and pick a room for yourselves. You don't have to live here but having your own room would be beneficial if you stay here too late," he tells them.

"Sweet! Last one there is a rotten cockatrice egg!" Rainbow Dash yells and flies off back to the Guildhall.

"Wait for me, Dashie!" Pinkie yells at the pegasus and runs off faster than she should be carrying a large cannon on her back.

The others all return to the Guildhall but Celestia and Luna ask the group of friends to wait.

"We have something we wish to ask of you," Celestia says to them.

"Why so serious all of a sudden?" Jack asks with a raised brow.

Luna and Celestia share a glance before looking back at them. "With the fall of Canterlot, Equestria has lost its capital and most of the other towns and cities have been cut off from each other... we would like to ask if we could build a new capital around your Guildhall and would like to use it as a temporary castle until we can take back Canterlot," Celestia asks them.

The five friends then huddle up together.

"So what do you guys think? Should we let them?" Frank asks for his friends opinions.

"I like the Idea, being the centre of a new city sounds fun," Jack replies.

"This could also give hope to others seeing a new capital rise and would bring more people who might want to join the guild," Laura says.

"I, erm, like the idea as well," Samantha says.

"I don't see why not, we still own the castle and they'll just be living in it, at the end of the day we get to say what's built or not," Satoshi replies.

"So we're all in agreement then?" Frank asks, the others nodded at him.

They break away and turn back to the Princesses who are smiling. "Ah, good hearing right?" Frank asks them.

Celestia giggles and nodded. "Yes, and we agree to build the city how you wish. We'll provide the resources if you can help provide the bits to pay for the labour," she tells them while Luna is looking at her copper greatsword.

"Wouldn't be too hard if we can find another dungeon more to our level," Jack replies. "Where is the next nearest dungeon from here?" Jack then asks them.

"In the Everfree Forest, our old castle from a millennia ago which was overrun by the forest is now a ruin which is crawling with monsters," Luna replies.

"We'll have a look tomorrow, right now let's find you both a decent room and then discuss what'll happen with you all next," Frank says as they all head back to the Guildhall.
> Arc 1 - Chapter 12: Scouting the Everfree Forest
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 12: Scouting the Everfree Forest


It's been a couple of hours since the new guild members first battles and they've all picked their own rooms.

After that Twilight's party decided it would be a good idea to go out and continue to get more practice in while Celestia's went back to Ponyville to check up on how it's doing and to prepare the town's construction crew to come to the Guild Hall and begin building a new city.

Frank and his friends are getting ready to scout out the new dungeon in the Everfree Forest, so they're in the vault stocking up on food, potions, and ammunition.

"So what do you think this Dungeon will be like?" Jack asks the others.

"I don't know, the Princesses didn't give any details but I'm guessing it'll be a level ten to twenty area," Frank replies and closes his inventory screen.

"I hope we find better loot there, using under levelled gear is a drag," Jack complains as he taps the head of his warhammer.

"I'm sure we'll find better gear, maybe some tin deposits so we can start making bronze gear as well as better woods, cloth, leather, and gems," Satoshi says stocking up with six-hundred arrows.

"Well let's get going! We haven't done a Dungeon in days and I want to explore the Princesses old Castle!" Daring Do tells them while jumping on the spot in excitement.

Frank chuckles at her eagerness with a shake of his head and looks to the others. "So are we all good to go?" he asks them.

They all confirm they've got what they need, so the party heads up and out the Guild Hall, they then use the anchor crystal to teleport to Ponyville and from there into the Everfree Forest.

"Hey, Sam! Why don't you try that slime mount you got?" Jack asks the cleric.

"Oh, okay," she replies and summons her mount with a yelp as she's lifted into the air and the yellow slime mount appears under her where she's placed onto the saddle with the reins in front of her. She grasps the reins and looks down at her friends as she's now a metre higher than them.

"Man, I hope we can find some mounts of our own soon, maybe we can buy a few of those plane runners back in Ponyville?" Jack wonders.

"Maybe, but right now we'll just have to go on foot." Frank replies and opens his map. "The Dungeon is supposed to be south west of Ponyville so let's get going," he tells his friends.

The party cheer together and begin their trek through the Forest.





It isn't long before the group run into their first monster, a large lion like beast with a red mane, small bat like wings, a scorpion's tail, and sharp claws.

"A manticore? Oh look it's level ten!" Jack says pointing to the tag above the beast as it snarls at them aggressively.

"So at least we know this is the next area to level in," Satoshi says and draws an arrow from his quiver.

"Alright, standard formation guys, let's bring it down," Frank tells his party before using his Shield Charge skill to slam into the manticore.


<)===(> Battle Theme <)===(>


The Manticore recoils from the impact taking 240 damage and stumbling back a few steps. Frank then follows up by taunting the manticore to get its attention.

Jack bends his knees getting ready to jump and leaps into the air. "YOLO!" he yells and brings his hammer down onto the manticore with a satisfying thud dealing 110 damage and generating 10 rage.

Satoshi shoots an arrow into the beast's left side making it grunt in pain for 213 damage points and quickly notches a new arrow onto his bow.

The manticore then pounces on Frank and pins him to the ground, dealing 147 damage to the guardian. "Frank!" Jack shouts out and slams his hammer into the manticore's head while inflicting 230 damage to it and knocking the beast away from the pinned Guardian as well.

"Thanks, Jack!" Frank says to the warrior and quickly gets back on his feet while Laura casts her Fireball spell dealing a good amount of damage and setting the beast alight.

The manticore roars in anger and goes for Laura as Samantha heals the damage Frank took.

Frank growls and Shield Charges the beast followed by a Taunt reclaiming the aggro. He then swings his sword and cuts the manticore across its face dealing 142 damage.

Daring Do sneaks up, uses her poison blade skill, and then stabs the manticore in the left flank dealing 103 damage and inflicting a poison effect for a while.

The beast swats her away with its tail for 80 damage and returns its attention to Frank where it slashes him across the chest for 118. It then raises its tail and lunges it at Frank poisoning him for a minute.

The Cleric casts a renewal spell to counteract the poison which is followed by a lesser heal spell.

Satoshi continues to fire arrows into the beast and after a few more seconds of attacks from the party, the manticore falls to the ground defeated.


<>---<> End Battle Theme <>---<>


"Phew, we've been fighting low levels so long I almost forgot how much a monster your level can hit for," Frank mumbles to himself and picks up the loot bag containing manticore venom and ten bits. Jack then goes and skins the Manticore for a tier two leather pelt which then the body fades away.

"Well let's keep moving, I don't want to be out here at night... this place gives me the creeps," Laura says looking around.

"Good idea, let's keep moving people!" Frank says while opening his map and getting cheers from the others.

The party continue through the forest and battled a few more manticores as well as bigger, higher level timberwolves. They've also fought a cockatrice which turned Jack into stone for a minute.

"You have no idea how freaky that was! I think I know how Discord feels now..." Jack says shivering as he remembers how he couldn't move and the cold feeling from the experience.

"Just be grateful it wasn't permanent, Sam hasn't made any ether potions yet so we'll need to be more careful," Frank replies.

The group comes across a rocky outcropping with tin veins along it where Frank gets to work gathering it up with his pickaxe. In all he got thirty-three pieces, just enough for some weapons.

After a few more minutes of walking the party of six arrive at the ruins of an old castle.

"This must be it," Satoshi states as the group look over the derelict moss and vine covered ruin.

"Okay guys, here's the plan. We'll go in and find the entrance to the dungeon and look for anything that could be useful to us," the Guardian briefs his friends.

They agree and set out to search the ruin.

The first area they searched was the main lobby which only had a few rotten benches and torn tapestries barely hanging on the walls.

The next rooms were the servant quarters, which contained a few coins and a couple of monsters in them. After that was the Kitchen where rotten food was laid about and rusted utensils rested atop the counters, but nothing in there was of use. There were even a few skeletal remains of ponies on the floor.

The party went up a set of crumbling stairs to the next floor and found the Princesses old rooms, along with a few manticores which they killed.

Frank finds a large greatsword within a display case in Luna's old room, it even still looks in good condition. It has a deep blue almost black blade with a silver crescent moon hand guard and a full moon pommel, the grip looks like it's made from a black kind of leather.

"Guys, look at this," the Guardian beckons his friends over.

They all gather around as he pulls the sword out of the case which disappears into his inventory. Frank opens his inventory and checks the stats of the sword.



Moonlight's Edge
Two-Handed Sword
Level Required = 100
Damage = 3800
Attack Speed = 1.20
Strength + 200
Endurance + 200
Effect: On hit, 50% chance to deal 1000 holy damage to target and heal the wielder by 500 HP.

Crafted by: Luna Nocturne



"Whoa, dude. Is that a legendary weapon!" Jack shouts out in disbelief as he looks over Frank's shoulder.

"It would appear so, and a level one-hundred one to boot," Satoshi says with raised eyebrows.

"Well, I think it would be best to return this to Luna," Frank says and closes his inventory screen.

"What!? Why? I could use it when I hit one-hundred! You found it and she left it here so finders keepers," Jack tells his friend desperately wanting the sword.

"But she may not have been able to recover it when they left, she made it after all and I'm sure it has some sentimental value to her," Frank replies and heads for the door.

"But!.. Fine, I still think we should keep it," the warrior grumbles and follows Frank out.

In Celestia's room there was an old dusty book but still in decent condition, it has no title and not one of the group could open it.

"Might be their magic, a security measure only letting certain people open it," Satoshi theorises.

"Guess we'll take this back as well," Frank says and stores the book.





Four hours Later





With the whole ruins searched the group meet up in front of the entrance of the Dungeon which is ironically in the Castle's Dungeon.

"So I think we got a nice haul, we found some more tin, wool, wood, leather, and plants as well as that badass sword," Jack says looking through his inventory.

"Yeah, but doesn't it seem like the monsters here are getting more aggressive the longer we stay? We've been attacked every five to ten minutes for the last hour," Laura replies looking around the area.

"True, I think we should head back to the Guild Hall and then return tomorrow to grind some more levels before we enter here," Satoshi says looking at the swirling portal to the Dungeon.

"Sweet! I can't wait to do another Dungeon!" Daring Do says with excitement getting the others to laugh lightly.

"Alright, let's use our crystals and head home," Frank says pressing the recall crystal on his hotbar.

After ten seconds of charging up the party teleport back to the Guild Hall's anchor crystal.

"Well then, you guys put what we found in the vaults, I'm going to Ponyville to give the Princesses back their possessions," the Guardian informs his party.

"Okay, see you in a bit!" Jack replies and heads into the Guild Hall with the others.

Frank then uses the anchor crystal to teleport to Ponyville, the ponies all smile and wave at him which he returns on his way to the town hall.

Once he arrives the guards at the door let him in without trouble. Frank walks to the front desk and smiles at the mare behind the counter. "Hello, are the Princesses here? I have something that belongs to them," he asks her.

"Oh yes, they're in their office," she replies looking up from her paperwork.

"Thank you," Frank says and heads down the hallway to their office.

Once he arrives he knocks on the door three times. "Come in!" Celestia shouts out from inside.

Taking the invitation, Frank opens the door and steps inside. "Frank? What brings you here so soon?" Luna asks him.

"We scouted the Everfree Forest and it is indeed the next area to train in. My party and I will be heading back there tomorrow to level up some more before we take on the Dungeon," the Guardian replies and opens his inventory. "I also found these in your old Castle," he tells them and places the sword and book on the desk.

Luna gasps and picks up her old sword with a look of disbelief.

"You found my old sword!" she exclaims with a happy smile while holding her sword in her hands.

"It was just sitting in a display case in your old room," Frank tells her.

Celestia meanwhile is staring at the book in front of her, she then hesitantly opens it to the first page and runs a hand down the old paper. "I thought I'd never see this again..." she says with a faint smile.

"Erm, not to be nosey or anything, but what is it?" Frank asks her.

Celestia looks up from the book to the guardian. "This is Starswirl's spell book, I feared I would never see it again," she replies while placing her hand on the dusty pages.

"I see, but what stopped you from getting them yourselves? You said the forest overran your Castle a thousand years ago, but the monsters appeared only twenty years ago... What stopped you from going back there before the monsters?" Frank asks them.

"Tirek was the one who grew the forest in the first place, he has the ability to absorb magic around him to empower himself. He attacked us in order to steal our magic and after a long battle we stripped him of his power and banished him to Tartarus, but his forest grew rapidly and overran the area before we managed to stop it. As for why we didn't go back in, pony magic is negated in there so we couldn't cast spells, use our great physical strength, or even fly," the new Light Bringer replies and skims through the book.

"I see. Well Laura's and Sam's magic worked just fine in there so your new magic will as well," he explains to her.

"Really? We'll have to go over there ourselves once we've, erm... levelled up some more," Celestia says, still getting used to the idea she's now considered weak or low level.

"It's alright, we've even found better materials in there so now I'm going to head back and get the equipment we'll need to level up faster," Frank tells them and turns to the door.

"Thank you for bringing these back to us. It means a lot to us," Luna thanks the Guardian with a warm smile.

"You're welcome. If there's anything else you left in there we'd be happy to get it for you," he replies and walks out the door.

Luna looks at her old sword and notices the stats on it. "WHAT! Level one-hundred required!?" she yells and puffs out her cheeks in frustration while Celestia just giggles at her, and she was looking forward to wielding her lost blade again too.
> Arc 1 - Chapter 13: The Everfree Dungeon Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 13: The Everfree Dungeon Part 1


Frank uses the anchor crystal to teleport back to the Guild Hall and then sends a message to his fellow party members.



Meet at the forge so we can begin making our new gear for tomorrow.



Once sent, the Guardian heads down to the forge and waits for his friends.





A Few Minutes Later





"Alright! So it's time to upgrade!" Jack says with a grin, despite the fact he can't craft any equipment.

"Yes, so let's put all our materials into a pile on the table so we can all take what we need," Frank replies and puts his copper and tin ore on the table while the others place their materials down as well.

"Alright then. I shall make myself a new bow along with two staffs for Laura and Sam, as well as some new pieces of armour for me and Daring," Satoshi says picking up a few pieces of wood.

"I'll start making more potions and antidotes for us as well," Samantha says picking up some herbs and roots before heading to her alchemy station.

"And I'll make some new robes for Sam and me until Satoshi is done with the staffs," Laura says heading off to the tailoring area with some wool.

"I'll get started on new weapons for me, Jack, and Daring and some armour for Jack and I as well. Not to mention some arrowheads for Satoshi," Frank tells them and puts some tin, copper, and some leather into his inventory.

"I'll just sit in the corner and wait for you guys to finish," Jack says and sits down on a chair while watching his friends work.





One Hour Later





Frank puts the last bronze ingot onto the anvil and starts to hammer it as sparks fly off the metal with every hit.

After a few seconds he stops and the materials merge together forming a rare bronze warhammer.

"Hey, Jack! Looks like it's your lucky day!" Frank says to the warrior and tosses the hammer to him.

Jack yelps as the warhammer flies right at his head, but he manages to catch it and barely stopping it from hitting his head.

"Watch it man! You could have given me a concussion!" Jack yells at the Guardian with a frown.

"Sorry, but I thought you'd like to know it turned out better than I thought," Frank replies and puts his tools away.

Jack grumbles and looks at his new hammer. "Whoa, you managed to craft a rare at your level? Niiiice!" Jack says and equips his new warhammer. "All is forgiven," he then says swinging his hammer a few times.

The others have also finished crafting all their new gear and stocked up on potions and ammunition.

"I'm all done," Samantha says handing Jack and Frank newly made power boosting potions.

"Sweet, I hope these taste better than they look," Jack says looking at the bottle of green liquid in his hand.

"I don't know but they'll give you a twenty percent damage buff for thirty seconds," the Cleric replies.

"Cool," Jack says and puts the potion on his hotbar.

"So what do we do now? Train or relax until tomorrow?" Satoshi asks the group.

"Relax for now, it would also be a good idea to see how the others are getting along," Frank replies.

"Alright then, I'm heading off to get something to drink and then take a nap," Laura says and walks off.

The group then leave the forge and go their separate ways. Frank heads out to the courtyard where the anchor crystal is and takes a deep breath of fresh air.

A bright flash then blinds the Guardian followed by the sound of a girl groaning in pain. "Ouch... what happened?"

Frank opens his eyes to see Rainbow Dash sitting next to the crystal rubbing her head.

"Rainbow Dash? What happened?" Frank asks her while walking over to the sitting pegasus.

"Huh?" she replies and looks behind her. "How the hay did I get here?" she asks confused.

"You either used your recall crystal or you just died," Frank replies and holds his hand out to her.

She frowns and then suddenly goes pale with wide eyes. "I died!?" she yells as her right eye twitches.

"It's the only explanation to why you're here. So what happened?" the Guardian asks her.

Rainbow sighs and looks away. "I tried to fight a monster by myself to see if I could beat it... but I got attacked by four more," she replies with a pout and grabs his hand.

"Ah, the rookie mistake of thinking you could go solo. In Kirsarnia, monsters always roamed in groups so attacking alone unless you have good gear and a high level is a poor choice," he tells her while pulling her onto her feet.

She continues to pout and then glares at him. "You saying I'm too weak!?" she asks with clenched teeth.

"Right now? Yes," Frank replies honestly and crosses his arms. "I recommend you stick with your friends for now until you're stronger and have better gear," he tells her.

Rainbow Dash growls in anger and then storms off into the Guild Hall.

"Just remember! This is a team effort and you're just hurting yourself by trying to do things on your own!" Frank then yells as she walks up the short steps to the Guild Hall doors.

Frank then sighs as Rainbow Dash tries but fails to slam the doors closed. He scratches the back of his neck as he looks towards the woods outside the anchor crystal's barrier. 'She better get it through her head that this is a team job,' the Guardian thinks to himself before heading back inside himself to prepare for tomorrow's Dungeon run.





The Next Morning





The party of six have had breakfast and are now waiting at the anchor crystal. Twilight and her friends are currently out in the woods again to practice some more, though Rainbow Dash seemed much less grumpy now after breakfast.

"So we got everything we need?" Frank asks his fellow party members.

"Yep! I got my potions and gear ready as well as three days of food just in case we get stuck there longer than we thought," Jack replies while checking his inventory screen.

"I have two-thousand arrows and my supplies as well," Satoshi comments while looking at his hotbar.

The others all voice their readiness and are eager to go.

"Alright then, let's head to Ponyville and then to the Dungeon. We can then maybe buy some mounts on the way home with the bits we find at the end of the Dungeon," Frank says to the others and then touches the crystal.

The others do the same and they all teleport to Ponyville.

When their vision returns, they spot Celestia and Luna walking over to the anchor crystal.

"Oh, Frank. Just who we wanted to see actually," Celestia says walking over to the Guardian.

"Good morning, Princesses. What do you need?" Frank greets and asks them.

"We have the first batch of supplies ready to begin building homes around the Cas... Guild Hall," Celestia replies and shows him a map of where the houses will be built compared to the Guild Hall.

"I see. This looks fine, we can have the left side to the Guild Hall as a residential area while the right can be commercial," Frank says looking over the map. "And I guess we can have embassies built behind the Guild Hall for other countries and a large plaza or city centre just out front of the main gates for people to gather," he then adds.

"That sounds reasonable. We shall escort the first convoy after Twilight and her friends return," Luna says and looks at the gathered party. "I take it you are going to attempt to clear the Everfree Dungeon?" she then asks them.

Jack grins and hoists his hammer onto his shoulder. "Yup, we got better gear now so it should be easier to deal more damage to the monsters. Also I'm hoping you left some more powerful gear there... I really wanted that legendary sword..." he says with a pout.

Luna glares at him and huffs. "I made that sword over the course of a hundred years. It has seen many a battle by my side, I would never part with it and I would be using it now if it wasn't for the level restriction that seems to be on it," Luna retorts.

"Okay okay, I get it. It means a lot to you, doesn't mean I still wouldn't want to have it though," Jack replies and sighs.

Frank shakes his head slightly and looks back to Celestia. "Once and if we clear the Dungeon, we'll be back later to tell you how it went," he tells the Princesses who nodded to him.

"Very well, and good luck." Celestia replies before opening her message screen and begins writing to Twilight.

She has to admit that this function is much more reliable than using Spike's dragon fire to send letters, much faster too.

The party begins their trek toward the Everfree Forest and after a few minutes of walking, or riding on a slime mount in Samantha's case which got her a lot of odd looks from the towns folk, they make it to the forest border and enter into the tree line.

Along the way the group have been attacked a few times by some of the monsters, but with their new gear they manage to defeat them much quicker this time. Frank and the others were also surprised to find that the tin ore veins they mined yesterday have returned. Did ore regrow like a plant here? Frank decided to ask Discord later when he sees him again.

After an hour of trekking through the forest, they reach the Dungeon and walk through the gate.

"Finally! Let's go kick some ass! I wonder what boss or bosses this one will have, most Dungeons have multiple bosses but the one at the Guild Hall only had that giant slime... Unless those two crystal manticores Thira and Judas counted as a boss..." Jack says and wonders.

"I don't think so, a mini-boss or Guardians maybe," Satoshi replies.

"Well, whatever we find in here, we'll face it together and win," Frank encourages his party and they all cheer as they all walk through the swirling red portal.

The party step through to a ruined hallway with moss, torn tapestries, and rotting furniture lining the walls.

"Well, not what I was expecting first... I thought there would be a large lobby or something," Laura comments looking around.

"Let's get moving, the quicker we get this done the quicker we can get back and help with the construction of the new city," Frank says to the others.

"You mean our new city," Jack says with a shit eating grin.

"Yeah yeah, get going macho man," Laura says and jabs the warrior in the butt with her staff.

"Hey!" he yelps and jumps forward away from her.

Daring Do chuckles at their antics. "Finally we're doing a Dungeon again! I was getting so bored of the one at the Guild Hall," she says and draws her two new bronze daggers.

The others chuckle or giggle at her eagerness and start walking down the hallway with Frank up front.





The group come up to a door and Frank slowly opens it before peeking inside. He sees a few monsters that look like pale green goblins, only three foot tall wearing shoddy looking leather armour and rusty weapons. They also have pointy ears and long noses as well as beady black eyes.

Inside the large room is more rotting furniture and three hallways at the other side of the room, there's also a single chest to the left but the goblins are protecting it.

The Guardian pulls back his head and looks to his friends. "I see seven monsters that look like three foot tall goblins with crap looking equipment. I'll go in an grab their attention," he says and looks to Jack. "I want you to hit as many as you can at once at all times with your AOE attacks while I try to keep them bunched together," he tells him and receives a nod in return. "Satoshi, I want you to focus on the two on the far left. Laura, you focus on the next two, I'll attack the fifth while Daring you take the two far right. Got it?" he explains and asks.

The party nodded in reply.

"Alright then let's go!" Frank says and kicks open the door and uses his Shield Charge skill at the middle goblin.
> Arc 1 - Chapter 14: The Everfree Dungeon Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 14: The Everfree Dungeon Part 2



<)===(> Battle Theme <)===(>


As Frank charges in shield up and ready, Samantha casts her Serenity, boosting the party's max HP as the Guardian slams into the closest goblin dealing a hard 420 damage, the new gear proving their worth with the significantly higher damage output. He follows up the hit with a taunt smacking his sword on his shield aggroing the seven goblins to him, he waits until they're all within range and pulls his shield back to the right and then swings it forward slamming all the goblins for 389 damage and adding more aggro.

Once he has taken the aggro, the rest of the party moves in and targets their assigned monsters where Satoshi begins to fire arrows at the two leftmost goblins dealing 500 to 530 damage a shot. Jack bends down and with a yell, leaps into the air and over the Guardian before landing heavily behind the goblins dealing 331 damage to five of them while generating 50 fury while knocking them off their feet, he then grins as he cleaves them all for 574 damage each and debuffing their defences.

Laura casts her Lightning Bolt spell damaging the first goblin for 685 damage and three others for 342, one of the goblins gets stunned from the spell for two seconds where Jack slams his hammer down on top of its head dealing slightly more damage due to the stun.

Daring is behind her two targets and stabbing away at them with a smile on her face. If she was to be honest with herself, she was terrified of going into dungeons when the Princesses asked her to find anything she could about them. Now though, she's loving the adventure and the loot she and her new friends and party members find in them.

Samantha is concentrating on Frank’s HP and occasionally refreshes a renewal healing 130 HP a second on those who take some AOE damage from the goblins as they seem to be tossing crude sticks of dynamite at the party. Frank grunts as he's constantly hit by the shoddy goblin weapons but holds his own and slams them with his shield and reapplies his taunt to keep up the aggro.

Satoshi fires his Spread Shot skill hitting six of the seven goblins before aiming a Power Shot killing his first target.

Daring Do then yelps as one of her targets turns to face her to which she replies by drop kicking it in the face dazing the monster before using her wings to get back upright and stab the goblin repeatedly in the face killing the monster.

Laura uses her newly learnt spell called Firestorm creating a small tornado of flames dealing 232 damage a second for ten seconds on four of the goblins bunched together while the party remains immune to the raging flames heat.

Two of the goblins die in the inferno while Samantha casts a Lesser Healing spell on Frank for 428 HP

It's only a matter of minutes as the last goblin is slain where Frank loots the bags for 53 Bits, two sticks of crude dynamite and three pieces of tin ore.


<>---<> End Battle Theme <>---<>


"Yeah! Now that was a fight! So much better than slimes and beasts!" Jack says rolling his shoulders with a large grin plastered on his face.

"Stay focused on what we need to do, looks like we have to go down the left and right hallways first to unlock the door to the middle one," Frank says looking at the large reinforced door blocking the middle hallway.

"So you think there's multiple bosses in this dungeon?" Laura asks looking down the right hallway.

"I would think so," Satoshi replies looking at his map. "There is a single room down the end of each side hallway, my guess a guardian or boss is protecting levers or keys for the door," he then says looking up from his screen.

"So the question is... left or right first?" Samantha asks looking between the two hallways.

"I say we go right!" Jack says and starts walking towards the right hallway.

"Then we go left first," Frank then says making the warrior almost trip.

"Wah!?" Jack yells in mock hurt. "Do you not trust my judgement?" he asks Frank with a hand over his chest.

Laura scoffs before shaking her head. "Remember the first and last time you tried to lead the party? You lead us into a trap that insta-killed us all... and then after that into a swarm of elite monsters that shredded us apart for being in the wrong area at the time... so no, we ain't gonna trust your judgement in dungeons," she tells him and follows Frank to the left hall.

Jack grumbles as the party head left into the hallway. Samantha grimaces at the pony skeletons chained up on the walls, some missing their head or limbs.

"That's nasty..." Laura comments as they reach the end of the hallway which has blood coating the floor and walls with chunks of rotting flesh strewn about. The doors then automatically open for them when they approach, what lies within almost makes the Cleric throw up as a large pile of rotting corpses is in the centre of the torture chamber esque room. Surrounding the pile are several zombie ponies shambling about.

"Oh gods. We've seen undead in the game but this is a whole new level..." Satoshi remarks as he watches one of the zombie's eyes pop out and fall to the ground with an audible splat.

That was enough for Samantha to lose it and toss her breakfast onto the cold stone floor. Laura rubs her back while glaring at the undead in the room.

Daring for her part remains silent as this isn't the first time she's seen undead ponies.

"So what's the plan?" Jack asks with his hammer ready.

Looking around, the guardian takes in his surroundings. "I'm guessing the boss is underneath that pile of corpses, it'll either trigger by proximity or by us clearing out the zombies first," Frank replies frowning.

"I'm going with clearing the undead first, but then again this isn't exactly like Kirsarnia," Satoshi says offering his opinion.

"I say we clear the trash first and then focus on the boss," Jack agrees with his Japanese friend.

"You three agree as well?" Frank asks Laura, Daring, and Samantha.

They nodded and the Guardian rolls his neck and shoulders.

"Then I'll gather their attention and each of you pick a target to focus on," Frank says and gets ready for battle.


<)===(> Battle Theme <)===(>


Frank charges in slamming into the closest zombie, causing the door to close on them all and lock them in.

"That isn't good..." Jack says and turns back to the undead swarming towards Frank.

Once the five zombies reach the Guardian he taunts them all into attacking him followed by a Shield Bash. Jack then leaps into action and lands with a heavy thud knocking back three zombies, he then cleaves them once they're grouped up again while Laura casts her Lightning Bolt followed by a Firestorm spell.

Satoshi uses his Spread Shot hitting all the zombies before firing a Power Shot into the left most undead.

Samantha casts her renewal on Frank and then a lesser healing spell to top up his HP from the multiple scratches and bites he's receiving.

The zombies then surround the guardian making him unable to move at all where Samantha is struggling to keep up healing him as they release a noxious gas from their decaying bodies poisoning any party member near them.

"These fuckers are smarter than they look!" Jack says using his newly acquired skill called Arcing Strike where he raises his hammer behind his back and with great strength, swings it forward in a diagonal uppercut hitting two of the zombies sending them away from the struggling tank who then uses the break to stab the one on his back in the face making it let go.

Laura casts another Firestorm right on top of Frank creating a swirling shield of flames damaging the two zombies still clinging to him. The other undead rush back in but take damage from the spell still in effect while Daring is behind one of the zombies stabbing it repeatedly in the spine.

Satoshi is aiming for their heads dealing slightly increased damage with every hit landed. Samantha then casts a new spell she's learnt called Healing Nova sending out a pulse of healing magic from Frank healing him for 305 HP and anyone else ten feet from him for the same as well.

The party continue to battle the undead and eventually defeat them all.


<>---<> End Battle Theme <>---<>


"Damn, the monsters here are smarter than the NPCs from the game... They actually held you down and not just pummel you," Jack says shaking his head.

The pile of corpses behind him then starts moving as bodies slide down with disgustingly wet slapping sounds as rotten flesh hits rotting flesh.

Samantha closes her eyes to prevent herself seeing the horrid sight while the others just stare at the abomination named Lugoth the Devourer that crawls out of the pile. It's easily three times their size and has four different grotesque arms with bone like claws stitched to a large torso made of different coloured patches of bloodied fur and skin. The head looks like a mix of a minotaur, pony and buffalo, the legs are that of a dragon along with a tail of a hydra.

"I take back what I said earlier... that's nasty," Laura says looking up at the puss riddled drooling monstrosity. "I'm so glad I'm a Mage and don't have to go near that thing..." she then comments while backing away slowly as it disgustingly picks up a pony corpse and stuffs it into its mouth while crunching on the bones as they watch the body slide down its throat, bulging out on the way down.

Samantha couldn't help but dry heave from the sight when she looked at it again. "Alright guys, as disgusting as this thing is, we need to kill it," Frank says readying his sword and prepares to charge at it. "CHARGE!" he yells with courage and adrenaline coursing through him as he begins his assault.


<)===(> Boss Battle Theme <)===(>


The battle begins with the tank aggroing the boss, before he could even attack he's on the defensive raising his shield to block as the four arms start punching at him dealing 150 damage a hit with the attack speed of four hits a second and making the Guardian stagger back with every hit taken.

Samantha gets to work healing the damage he's taking while Jack and Daring attack its ankles dealing a decent amount of damage while Satoshi and Laura are shooting and blasting it in the head and chest from a distance.

The boss keeps its two upper arms focused on Frank while its two lower arms reach out and grasp both Daring and Jack.

"Oh god this thing smells like a sewer!" Jack yells in disgust as the puss covered hand grips him tightly dealing 380 damage before tossing him and Daring across the room dealing another 267 damage on top.

Jack and Daring groan on the ground as Samantha uses her AOE heal to get them back on their feet.

Laura yelps as a couple of corpses rise up and begin shambling towards Samantha and herself with bloodlust in their hungry soulless eyes.

"JACK! Protect Sam and Laura!" Frank shouts out before taking a hard blow to his shield knocking him off his feet.

"Argh... you got it..." Jack says as he sits up and shakes his head. He quickly drinks a potion restoring 500 HP and quickly gets up before leaping onto the two zombies taking the aggro onto himself. Daring is also back on her hooves after drinking a potion and rushes over to aid the Warrior in dispatching the two walking corpses.

Frank grunts in slight pain as the monstrosity of a boss begins stomping on him hard dealing 217 damage a hit.

Laura quickly casts an Icebolt into the boss' eyes temporarily blinding it allowing the Guardian time to get back up and Samantha to max out his HP again.

Jack is swinging away at both of the zombies while starting to take a fair amount of damage. Satoshi aids the Warrior by shooting a Power Shot into the head of one of the zombies killing it, lessening the burden on Jack who focuses along with Daring on the last zombie.

The boss is now down to half health and in an act of pure nightmare fuel, rips its own gut open as four thick tendrils burst out at least four metres long each.

Laura goes wide eyed as rather unpleasant thoughts race through her head. "Nope!" she yells and backs off quickly and makes sure Frank is in front of her, she's heard enough about tentacles and such on the internet to stay away from them.

"Oh that's just great!" Jack sarcastically says and kills the second zombie before charging back in to damage the boss again.

Daring cringes as a memory of tangle vines ensnaring her before the dungeon crisis appeared during one of her relic hunts flashes through her mind but shakes it off and joins in on attacking the boss.

Frank taunts the boss again to refresh his aggro and stabs at its tendrils, he then notices they each have their own HP bars and gets an idea.

"Laura! Satoshi! Aim for the tendrils! Jack and Daring, continue to attack the boss!" he orders them and they comply as Laura casts Lightning Bolts and Firebolts at the tendrils while Satoshi shoots them and uses his Spread Shot whenever he can.

The tendrils then lash out and wrap around Frank leaving a vile sticky substance on him before pulling him into the abomination's gut.

"Oh god! FRANK!" Samantha screams out fearfully as she can't heal him anymore without line of sight.

Jack growls and uses his leap skill to jump onto the monster's right shoulder where he then slams his hammer on top of its head hard. Daring flies up onto the boss’ back and starts stabbing at its spine to try and help as well.

The undead boss roars in anger as Frank is expelled from the giant's gut in a disgusting pile of rotten blood and what appears to be chunks of the corpse it ate earlier.

Samantha ignores the scene in favour of healing Frank quickly with worry in her eyes as the Guardian coughs and chokes as he spits out some of the viscous fluid from his mouth.

"Oh fuck I'm never going to be able to taste anything sweet again now..." the still alive tank says with a heavy grimace as the rotten flavour of the fluid clings to his tastebuds. He quickly gets back onto his feet as the two ranged classes destroy the four tendrils and the boss is now down to a quarter of its health.

"We almost got it! Keep pouring on the damage!" Frank shouts out despite the smell and taste lingering on him. He's hoping it'll fade off him just like the slime boss did.

The party continue to wail on the weakening boss as it's movements get more and more sluggish as an arm rips off followed by another until all the stitches of the boss tear apart and the monstrous undead falls in pieces with spurts of blood and gore pooling beneath it.

After a few seconds the corpse fades away leaving Frank to sigh in relief as the nasty taste and smell leaves him.


<>---<> End Battle Theme <>---<>


Jack walks over to Frank and places a hand on his shoulder. "You alright man? That looked traumatising," the Warrior asks his friend with a wince.

Frank takes a deep breath and nodded to Jack. "Yeah, I'll be fine, though I doubt I'll sleep well tonight..." he replies with a shudder. He couldn't see or breath inside the boss' gut and the taste, feeling, and smell still haunts his mind.

Jack smiles faintly before trying to lift the Guardian's spirit back up. "Well, at least it was you and not Samantha... no telling how she would have reacted," he replies.

The leoness runs over and hugs Frank from behind. "I'm glad you're alright..." she tell him as Frank pats her hand.

"I'm fine..." he replies and then addresses the others. "We're resting here for a few minutes to recover before moving onto the next room," he informs them getting agreements in return.

"So let's see what loot we got!" Daring says with a grin now that everything is calm and fine. She then begins heading over to the two chests in the room to see if they're trapped.
> Arc 1 - Chapter 15: The Everfree Dungeon Part 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 15: The Everfree Dungeon Part 3


Daring Do examines the chests and finds them safe to open. She opens one to find; 837 bits, a ruby, 2 amethysts, and a rare Bronze Rifle + 1 inside.

Jack opens the other chest and finds 752 bits along with a single scroll. After collecting the loot, Jack opens the scroll and written on it is a spell to teleport the user to a town called Appleloosa.

"Huh, looks like one of us can at least get the quick travel unlocked for this Appleloosa place," Jack comments and tosses the scroll over to Frank.

The Guardian catches the scroll and gives it a quick glance before storing it in his inventory.

"Sure, but let's concentrate on the next room, hopefully it isn't like this one was," Frank says and makes his way over to the now unlocked door.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Samantha asks him while checking him over for any visible injuries.

Frank smiles and pats the leoness' shoulder. "I'm fine, we can't be physically hurt remember? It was more traumatic than anything else," he replies and readies his sword and shield just in case monsters respawned in the hallway.

Samantha still looks worried but takes his word for it and gladly follows the Guardian out of the morbid room. The others make their way out as well, returning to the main lobby and seeing the middle door with one of the cross bars on it missing.

"Seems like we got the first lock," Satoshi comments before looking down the right hallway, silently hoping that no more undead await them.

"Let's just keep moving, the quicker we get this done the sooner we can get back to the Guild Hall... I could use a bath after all this," Laura comments but waits for Frank to go first.

Jack rolls his eyes at his friend's comment but follows beside Frank down the next hallway.

The party encounters another group of goblins and quickly makes short work of them. Satoshi looks around the hallway and notices a different theme, the last one was undead based with gore and blood coating the hallway, this one appears tribal in design. Tattered animal skin banners hang on the wall, pony skulls on pikes are next to the walls along with some other creatures skulls as well.

Then suddenly the walls rumble and break away as a group of ten goblins attack the party


<)===(> Battle Theme <)===(>


Frank instantly reacts and uses his Taunt skill to force the goblins onto himself. Samantha quickly casts Renewal to counter the heavy damage he's taking from so many mobs focusing on him while spamming her healing spells.

Satoshi uses his Spread Shot to hit six of the goblins dealing moderate damage while Laura casts her Lightning Bolt spell to chain damage to multiple monsters.

Jack is swinging his hammer hitting the goblins hard while using his Cleave skill whenever possible to hit as many of them as he can while debuffing their physical defence.

The battle continues for a good five minutes before the monsters are destroyed.


<>---<> End Battle Theme <>---<>


"Phew! We kicked their asses!" Jack says to his fellow guild mates while Frank loots the bags on the stone floor.

"So from what we've seen in this hallway so far, I would guess the boss will be a goblin of sorts?" Satoshi theorised while looking at the decor again.

"Seems like it. Let's just continue on and get this over with," the Guardian says to his group and jogs down the hallway.

Daring winces at the pony skulls on the pikes and the occasional skeletal remains as they jog past them. The group make it to the end after killing two more goblin ambushes and looting a few uncommon pieces of equipment that none of them can use.

"So, what do you think this boss will be like?" Laura asks Frank who hums in thought.

"Probably bigger than the ones we've seen so far, I'm thinking it has a large two-handed weapon and medium style armour," he replies and pushes against the doors to the boss' room.

Once the doors open, the party grimace at what greets them. Instead of the vision Frank portrayed, what they see is a fat bloated female Goblin that's barely covered with animal skins reclined on a pony bone throne. The only thing he got right was the size as she's three times bigger than them.

"Fuck that's nasty!" Jack comments getting the fat goblin's attention.

She screeches loudly and the doors close shut, making Samantha yelp in surprise. Ten goblins come through side doors at the female's call: some have crude spears, swords and shields, daggers, clubs, or bows.

"Game plan?" Jack asks as he raises his hammer at the ready.

"Jack, you and Laura handle the melee mobs. Satoshi and daring, you kill the archers while I focus on the boss. Sam, focus on me but keep an eye on the others in case they need a heal. Once you've done that, attack the boss," he instructs his friends and charges into the boss.


<)===(> Boss Battle Theme <)===(>


Frank hits the grotesque boss' gut with his shield making it jiggle and dealing little damage as it seems to have a high defence stat.

Jack leaps onto two goblins getting their aggro while Laura blasts them with her spells.

Satoshi takes shots at the archers while Daring flies through the air and lands behind one of them before stabbing it repeatedly in the back.

'I think I might have a problem as I'm starting to love this!' she thinks to herself while getting shot in the head by an arrow, which only makes her grunt in mild pain as the arrow fades away taking 89 of her HP. 'Stuff like this would've terrified me and now I'm being shot and not caring much!' She replies to the shot with a double stab to the goblin's head and a large grin on her muzzle.

Frank leans out of the way from the weapon the boss has brought out. She swings her thorned whip at the Guardian who blocks it with his shield taking minor damage which is healed by Sam's Renewal spell.

It takes the DPS classes a minute to kill the mobs and each to use a HP potion to spare Sam's mana, but once done they focus their attention onto the boss and help Frank deal more damage to it. Frank then uses his taunt to ensure the aggro is kept on him while the others hit the bloated goblin with all they've got.

The boss shrieks loudly making the room shake. Jack yelps as a spear falls on him impaling him through the shoulder and out of his thigh taking off half his HP while also suffering a bleeding debuff dealing 10 damage a second for as long at the spear remains in him. 

"MOTHER FUCKER!" he yells as he's pinned to the floor and trying to pull the spear out of himself, with little success.

"JACK!" Sam yells and casts her Renewal and healing spells to keep his HP up.

"Get this thing outta me!" Jack yells making Daring fly over to him and grip the spear. She then flaps her wings pulling the spear up and out of Jack while the others continue to attack the boss.

Frank refreshes his taunt and Shield Bashes the boss adding more aggro onto himself.

Satoshi is keeping his distance while firing arrows at the boss' head to deal as much damage as possible. Laura is cycling through her spells while they're on cooldown and Daring finally pulls the spear out of Jack's body which removes the debuffs, allowing him to attack again.

"Thanks, Daring! I owe ya one!" Jack tells the pegasus and then roars out in anger. He uses his Leap skill to jump up onto the goblin's shoulder and brings his hammer back as far as he can go. "MY TURN!" he then yells and swings his hammer right into the goblin's nose dealing a critical hit.

Jack jumps off as the boss screeches in pain bringing its hands up to grip its face.

"NOW! ATTACK!" Frank shouts out taking advantage of the boss' state. Jack lets out a Warcry buffing his party's damage before cleaving the boss to reduce its defence.

Satoshi lets loose a Spread Shot hitting six times with two of them being critical hits taking 5% of the boss's HP, then follows it up with a Power Shot. Laura casts her new Firestorm spell creating a small tornado of flames at the boss' location dealing 253 damage every 0.5 seconds for 5 seconds.

Frank uses his Shield Slam hitting the boss hard but the stun effect is ineffective.

Samantha does what she can with basic attacks from her talisman while Daring is standing on the boss' head stabbing it repeatedly.

The boss recovers and is down to 27% HP and glares at the party. The goblin stands up on its stubby legs and surprises the group as she starts to change shape. A dark purple light surrounds her and after a few seconds it fades away leaving behind a toned and muscular looking female goblin wearing plate armour and duel wielding a pair of jagged longswords. And she looks angry.

"What the fuck?" Jack mutters as the boss moves faster than the party thought she could and slams her swords into Frank dealing half of his HP in damage while sending him into the wall.

"Frank!" Sam yells and starts healing him. She gets off one heal before the boss is right in front of her making her yelp with wide eyes.

The boss snarls and swings at her but Jack Leaps in the way and takes the hit for her.

"FUCK!" he yells as he's sent into the opposite wall with only 129 HP left.

"Jack!" Sam then yells and frantically tries to heal him but she's beginning to panic.

"Sam! Calm down and heal Jack!" Frank tells her and then drinks one of his HP potions to get back to 74% HP. He then growls and Shield Charges the boss getting the aggro back and taunts her to add more aggro.

Sam tries to focus but is still a bit stressed as Jack is healed back to 68% HP. Jack drinks a potion to restore the rest of his health as Sam focuses back onto Frank who's taking heavy hits. He's blocking as best he can but the boss is in a frenzy and is hitting him repeatedly with her swords.

Daring flies up and plunges both her daggers into the boss' back with her Poisonous Stab skill leaving a poison damage over time affect before kicking off to avoid the headbutt the boss tried to hit her with. The boss then focuses back on Frank and swings both weapons down at him.

Thinking quickly, Frank uses his Shield Charge skill to avoid the strike and then uses Taunt to keep the aggro high on him followed by a Shield Bash to add more.

Laura casts a Fire Bolt dealing 379 damage and a burn damage over time affect before switching to an Ice Bolt.

Satoshi uses a Power Shot and hits the boss in her right eye dazing her for a second and landing a critical hit.

The boss is now down to 7% HP as the party continue to attack it. Frank suddenly loses the aggro on him as the boss targets Daring who looks terrified as the boss brings down her swords at the stunned pegasus.

"DARING!" Jack shouts out and pushes Daring out of the way and takes the hit again, but this time his HP hits 0 and his body turns grey as he collapses onto the ground.

"Jack!" the party cries out as they watch their friend fall.

"SAM! RESS HIM NOW!" Frank orders her.

Tears fall from the Cleric's eyes from the blank lifeless expression on the Warrior's face staring back at her as she gathers her mana for a Revive Spell. Frank manages to get the aggro back onto him and takes a beating while blocking to reduce the damage and chugging another potion to heal some HP.

Samantha lets loose her spell which surrounds the fallen Warrior in a golden light which his body absorbs, restoring colour to Jack and making him gasp as he's back to 50% HP. Sam's revive spell while can be used repeatedly out of combat is now on a thirty minute cooldown and will remain so even if the battle ends. Fortunately, since Jack was revived he didn’t suffer the death penalty, unlike Rainbow who respawned back to the Guild Hall.

Daring sighs in relief as the Warrior gets up and drinks a potion before using another Warcry. He then leaps into the air and slams his hammer with his Cleave skill into the boss' head. "FUCKING BITCH! THAT HURT!" Jack yells at her and jumps away.

The boss is now down to 3% and the party unleashes everything they have at her. The boss struggles to deal damage to Frank who is tanking the blows which Samamtha heals until her MP is nearly dry.

Jack is consumed in rage that he let the boss kill him like that as he swings his hammer like a man possessed. Daring, feeling guilty for allowing Jack to take the hit for her, is stabbing the boss repeatedly trying to deal as much damage as she can to make up for it.

After a couple more minutes, the boss shrieks as her HP hits 0 and she collapses onto her bone throne which falls apart upon her landing.

The party cheer in success as three chests appear before the fallen boss as well as a loot bag.


<>---<> End Boss Battle Theme <>---<>


Frank walks up and opens the bag to find a summonable combat pet.

"What did you find?" Satoshi asks the Guardian.

"A combat pet, along with one-thousand eight-hundred and fifteen bits, and a rare maple longbow plus three," he replies and opens a trade window to Satoshi to send him the bow.

"Nice find," the elf says and accepts the trade, he then equips his new bow and smiles at the boosted 70 damage compared to his old one.

"What's the pet?" Laura asks.

"A goblin warrior, says you can set it to automatically attack an enemy or respond if you're attacked," Frank replies and opens a trade window with Samantha. "I think our healer should have it so she has her own form of defence," the Guardian says and the Cleric accepts the trade.

She equips the pet into her pet slot and a small female goblin half her size appears wearing chainmail armour and a pair of swords similar to what the boss had.

"Aw man. Sam seems to be getting all the good loot!" Jack comments playfully getting a giggle from the party's healer.

Daring walks up to Jack with a frown on her face. "Thanks for... you know... taking the hit for me..." she says rubbing her left arm in embarrassment.

"Pfft. Don't worry about it, I had a better chance of surviving the hit than you do. I just didn't think the bitch would hit that hard," he replies and pats her on the back between her wings, getting the pegasus to blush hard but not say anything as Jack walks over to Samantha's pet to examine it.

"Do you think she can talk?" Jack asks the group and pokes the pet on the forehead.

"Watch it bub! Or me stab ya!" the little goblin warns the Warrior while thrusting her right sword threateningly at him.

Jack backs up and holds his arms up. "Whoa there little missy! I'm sorry a'right?" he replies clearly surprised at the reply.

The goblin huffs and just stands besides Samantha who looks like she's trying to contain herself. But unfortunately fails.

"Oh my gosh! She's so CUTE!" the leoness yells and picks up the goblin in a hug. The goblin frowns and just lets the Cleric hug her for a few seconds before she's put back down. "What's your name?" Samantha asks her despite it being above the goblin.

"Thena," she replies and starts sharpening her swords against each other.

"Well. That was something," Laura comments and walks over to a chest.

She opens it to find; 1,900 bits, 25 rolls of silk cloth, and an assortment of gems.

The other chests are opened to find; a Bronze Claymore + 1 that Jack reluctantly equips as he prefers a hammer, a Bronze Chestplate + 2 which frank equips, and a few more pieces of raw material for crafting.

"Nice haul. So now all that's left is the last boss," Jack says and begins walking over to the now open doors.

"That's if it is the last boss, for all we know there could be more," Satoshi argues Jack's opinion but follows after him regardless.

"Well considering our first dungeon had one boss and a mini-boss, I think we only have one more to go," Laura throws in her opinion.

"We'll find out once we arrive," Frank says and leads the party back to the main room.

The second lock is now released and the large doors are open. what greets the party is a long corridor with reanimated skeletons of different races to shamble around a large torture chamber.

"Great... at least they ain't zombies," Jack comments and hefts his claymore up.

Frank studies the room and then turns to his party. "Alright, here's what we'll do."
> Arc 1 - Chapter 16: The Everfree Dungeon Part 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 16: The Everfree Dungeon Part 4
 
 
While Frank's party is in the Everfree Dungeon, Twilight's party is in the Whitetail Woods practising their formations and getting used to their abilities.
 
"Oh buck!" Rainbow yelps and flaps her wings to avoid a timberwolf leaping at her.
 
"Ah'ma comin', RD!" Applejack yells out and uses her Bastion Rush skill to ram into the timberwolf along with two others in her way. She then uses her taunt skill to add more aggro to them.
 
Rarity is throwing her shurikens while Twilight is blasting away with arcane spells. Rainbow jumps onto the timberwolf that tried to jump her and wraps her arms around its barrel before hefting it up and leaning back into a suplex, slamming the timberwolf into the dirt head first.
 
Pinkie spots another timberwolf sneaking up behind Fluttershy who's attention is focused on Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Pinkie aims her cannon at the wooden wolf as the projectile guideline points at its head. She pulls the trigger letting off a loud bang as the cannonball slams into the monster, sending it skidding away a couple of metres.
 
Fluttershy yelps from the loud noise behind her and looks to see Pinkie grinning at her.
 
It doesn’t take them long to defeat the monsters and collect the small amount of loot.
 
“Why couldn't we have done this sooner? Getting bits like this is way easier than being on the weather patrol!” Rainbow Dash says and accepts her share of the few bits they got.
 
“True, but who’ll manage the weather and farms if everypony did this?” Twilight replies and checks her stats. “Now that we’re all level five, I think we can try to go through the dungeon in the Guild Hall. This will be good experience for future dungeons we might have to face,” she says to her friends.
 
“Shouldn't we wait fer Frank and his friends before going in there?” Applejack asks while putting down her shields and stretching her back.
 
“I think we should wait... I don’t want to get in trouble,” Fluttershy says quietly.
 
“I agree with Applejack and Fluttershy. We should wait for the others first,” Rarity adds in.
 
“I don’t see why! If they did it at level two, we can wipe the floor with them as we are,” Rainbow says and crosses her arms.
 
“We’ll wait for the others first. They gave us these powers to defend ourselves with, we don’t want to offend them,” Twilight tells her and starts walking in another direction. “Come on, let’s keep practising and when Frank and the others return, we can ask them if we can try the dungeon,” Twilight tells her party.
 
“Argh, fine,” Rainbow groans out and follows behind her.
 



 
Frank and his group finish planning and attack the skeletons shambling about the large chamber. The battle doesn't last long and the skeletons are defeated. Samantha's little goblin warrior defended her when a skeleton attacked her, turns out the pet also needs to be healed just like any party member, and Samantha didn't want to find out what would happen should Thena have died.
 
"That was easier than I thought," Jack comments as the last skeleton fades away.
 
"Trash mobs, I surmise that the boss is just a little further down. And by the looks of these mobs, it's either an undead one like a lich or a necromancer," Satoshi says looking around the chamber.
 
"I agree, I personally think it's a necromancer," Laura says.
 
Thena grumbles as Samantha hugs the irritated looking goblin.
 
"Right then, let's continue onward!" Frank says and walks through the chamber avoiding a heavily rotted corpse of a pony on the floor wearing similar armour they saw the guards in Ponyville wear.
 



 
Meanwhile in Ponyville.
 
A carriage pulled by four pegasi lands next to the Town Hall where a light pink alicorn mare and a white unicorn stallion step out and walk up to the doors.
 
"Princess!" the guards both say and salute to the mare.
 
"Hello. I trust my aunts are in?" the pink mare asks them.
 
"Yes, ma'am. They're both in their office now," the right guard replies.
 
"Then I shall go see them then," the mare says and the guards open the doors for her.
 
She thanks them as she walks by and the guards give a respectful nod to the white furred, blue maned stallion with her who returns the nod.
 
The mare at the front desk greets the pink alicorn happily and lets her know that Celestia and Luna are now ready to see her.
 
“Thank you,” the alicorn says and walks past.
 
Once she reaches the door, she knocks on it lightly. “Auntie Tia? Auntie Luna?” she asks.
 
“Cadence? Come in,” Celestia replies with surprise.
 
Cadence opens the door to see her aunts looking through many application forms.
 
“Greetings, niece. Please sit, we have much to discuss,” Luna tells the pink mare. “Ah, I see you've brought your husband along as well,” she then says as the stallion comes in after Cadence.
 
“Well, Shining and I are both wondering what you meant by ‘the means to take back what is ours’ in the emergency letter you sent me,” Cadence replies as she and Shining sit on the couch to the side "You both know we don't like to travel outside the shield unless we have to. We were attacked by several monsters on the way here, but fortunately our guards were able to outrun them."
 
“Well... as we mentioned in our letter. We've come across some visitors who have the ability to fight and slay the monsters that our guards couldn't even scratch,” Celestia tells her making Shining frown.
 
“These ponies can slay the monsters?” he asks unconvinced. “Nothing has been able to hurt them for years, what do these ponies have that we didn't?”
 
“Well, firstly, they’re not ponies. They’re multiple races from another world brought here by Discord to aid us in fighting back,” Luna tells him.
 
“Aliens?” he asks neutrally with a raised brow.
 
“My sister speaks the truth. These five individuals are from another world and have brought the means of which to slay the monsters and cleanse the dungeons spawning them. They've already cleansed the Whitetail Dungeon and even now they are in the dungeon of our old castle in the Everfree Forest," Celestia says.
 
"They're in the Everfree?" Cadence asks stunned as walking into that forest is a death sentence.
 
"Correct," Luna replies and picks up her old sword she put on display on the wall. "They even retrieved my old sword from our old castle and Starswirl's old spell book," she tells them while holding up her sword. She's still upset at the level one-hundred requirement to wield it.
 
"Impressive. So how do they slay these monsters?" Shining asks the princesses.
 
"They have the abilities from a game they played back on their world, and by inviting others into their party or guild, they too shall receive their own power to slay monsters. Both Luna and I along with your sister, her friends, Spike, a few of the town's folk, and even a changeling have this power," Celestia replies and makes her hand glow with a golden light that isn't alicorn or even pony magic.
 
"Twilight has this power!?" Shining asks stunned, but then frowns. "Wait... did you say changeling?" he asks angrily.
 
"She does, and the changeling's are not as we thought them to be. Our resident changeling has been living here for decades and has harmed no one. So we shall allow her to remain here," Luna replies and then looks at Cadence. "The reason we have called for you, niece, is because we require a healer for our party. I am the tank, the one who'll keep the monsters attention on myself. While Tia is a ranged magic user," Luna says and looks to Shining. "If Shining would like to join, I'm sure there's a class suitable for him."
 
"You want me to be a healer?" the pink mare asks.
 
"Yes. While I can heal others a small amount, I'm not a true healer class," Celestia replies. "We would like you to be our healer to help us fight back against the monsters," she then asks Cadence.
 
"I don't know... I've never been in a fight before, let alone a battle," Cadence says nervously.
 
"You won't have to fight, your role will be to help keep us alive. Even the timid Fluttershy is fighting alongside her friends as their healer," Celestia tells her.
 
"Are you telling me that my little sister and her friends are out there fighting the monsters right now?" Shining asks with horror filled eyes.
 
"Yes, but you don't have to worry. Should they be slain in battle, they'll respawn to the nearest anchor crystal alive and well. Rainbow Dash has already proven this when she was killed in battle yesterday," Luna tells him.
 
Both Shining and Cadence's jaws drop at that.
 
"Now if you'll excuse us, we need to escort a group of builders to the Guild Hall in the Whitetail Woods to begin building a new city there," Celestia tells the couple. "You're welcome to come with us and wait for Frank and his friends to return from the Everfree Forest. Do you have the paperwork I asked you to bring?" 
 
Cadence snaps out of her stupor and pulls out a few sheets of paper with information about herself written on it.
 
"I did, but why do you need it?" she asks.
 
"Frank will only allow those that provide a background check to join the Guild, and we have to agree with him as the higher level abilities these powers can do can be devastating," Luna replies and gets up while Celestia sends a message to Twilight to come back and help escort the builders. "Come, we have a new capital to build!" Luna then says and heads for the door.
 




Back at the Everfree Dungeon




 
The six dungeoneers carve their way down the long stone hallway, slaying skeletons in robes, armour, and wielding different weapons along the way. They loot a decent amount of bits and some raw materials before arriving at a pair of large wooden doors.
 
"Think this is the boss room?" Jack asks the others.
 
Laura gives him a deadpan look. "Gee, let me think. Skulls covering the door frame, evil looking mist coming from under the door, the faint sound of laboured breathing on the other side... need I go on?" she replies sarcastically.
 
"Alright! No need to snap at me, jeez!" the warrior replies with a frown.
 
"Settle down. I think we're all just getting tired, so let's just beat the boss and head back to the Guild Hall for some food and rest," Frank says to his two bickering friends.
 
They both grumble and nodded. Frank then walks over to the door and spots a small lever on the left side. He walks over, avoiding a skull on the floor and pulls the lever.
 
The doors slowly creak open as the eye sockets of the skulls lining the frame light up with a cold ice blue light as they then seem to look at the group.
 
"That's creepy," Samantha says as all eyes then look at her.
 
"Help us..." a faint voice says to the group.
 
"Free us..." another says desperately.
 
"Make it end!"
 
"Okay. I'm officially spooked," Jack says pokes one of the skulls.
 
"Who's there?" Samantha asks.
 
"We've been trapped here for centuries since the fall of the castle. The necromancer that moved in has stolen our souls to power his abominations... " a voice replies.
 
"Damn..." Jack says with wide eyes.
 
"So you've all been here since before the dungeons appeared?" Frank then asks them.
 
"Yes. Please kill the necromancer... free us!" a different voice replies.
 
"Well, we came here to complete the dungeon anyway, might as well do this too," Satoshi says getting his bow ready.
 
"Thank you... but be warned. He will use us against you," a deep male voice warns the group.
 
Frank looks through the now open doors to see a black cloaked figure standing over a table with a corpse of different body parts resting on it. The figure turns to the party and all that is visible under his hood is a dark grey muzzle sticking out and glowing red eyes.
 
"Well well well, what do we have here?" the necromancer asks in a raspy tone.
 
"Oh you know, local dungeoneering group just here to cleanse the dungeons around the place," Jack sarcastically replies.
 
The necromancer chuckles before holding out his right hand where dark purple magic gathers in his palm and lengthens into a staff with a pony skull on the end.
 
"I see, though I don't know how you managed to get by my creations and the goblins I employed without so much as a scratch, but no matter. I will enjoy ripping out your souls and turning your corpses into loyal soldiers," the cloaked pony says as he raises his staff which then starts to glow.
 
The skull's eyes light up as five skeletons and five zombies enter the chamber from the doors at the sides.
 
"So lame... no evil monologue? No maniacal laughter? No droning threats? Fine... let's just kill him and go home already..." Jack says with a frown and disappointment in his tone as he readies his sword.
 
"What?" the necromancer asks confused as the undead shamble to a stop due to their master's lost focus.
 
"Oh don't worry. Jack just likes overly dramatic villains, the fact you just went straight for the 'you die now' thing just upset him," Laura tells the necromancer.
 
The necromancer frowns under his hood and snarls. "I care not for what he wants! I'm not here to entertain you! Servants! KILL THEM ALL!" the enraged pony yells and the undead all screech and attack the party.
> Arc 1 - Chapter 17: The Everfree Dungeon Part 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 17: The Everfree Dungeon Part 5



<)===(> Boss Battle Theme <)===(>


Frank initiates the battle by charging into the Necromancer and taunts him.

"Jack, Laura, and Daring! Kill the trash mobs! Satoshi! Focus on the boss!" the Guardian tells the others.

"You got it!" Jack replies and leaps onto three of the undead mobs.

Daring stabs two other mobs getting them to focus on her while Laura starts blasting the other five.

Samantha is keeping an eye on everyone as Frank blocks a blast of necrotic magic from the boss.

"You'll all make wonderful undead slaves once I'm through with you!" the boss tells them and charges up a powerful blast at Frank.

The Guardian braces himself as Samantha refreshes her renewal spell on him. The Necromancer unleashes his spell and the dark purple beam of magic hits Frank's shield dealing a small amount of damage but it starts to increase the longer the beam is hitting him.

While Samantha is focusing on Frank, the others are dealing with the mobs and Jack kills his three before moving in to help Laura who has killed two of her five. Daring just finishes killing one of hers before chugging a HP potion and moving onto her second mob.

Satoshi charges up a Power Shot and hits the boss in the left eye, making him cancel his beam and stumble a bit before growling.

Frank charges back in and reapplies his taunt before shield slamming the boss in the stomach.

"You will suffer for that!" the boss yells at Satoshi and raises his staff where the eyes on the skull glow.

Satoshi yelps as something small and fleshy attaches to his back and tendrils spread around him. His eyes turn red and he aims his bow at Jack and fires, dealing some damage to the Warrior.

"HEY!" Jack yells confused as there should be no friendly fire.

"What the hell is that!?" Laura yells spotting the pulsing lump of flesh on the elf's back.

"Daring! Get that off his back! Jack! Keep his attention on you!" Frank orders and Jack leaps at Satoshi knocking him over.

"Sorry, buddy," Jack says and then uses his Arc Swing to launch Satoshi further away.

Daring then takes the opportunity to land on Satoshi's back while he's down and stab the flesh lump repeatedly until it detaches.

"That was unpleasant..." Satoshi says as Daring helps him back onto his feet.

"Keep an eye out for anymore of them!" Frank then calls out and stabs the boss in the gut.

Satoshi drinks a HP potion and then frowns as he takes shots at the boss.

Laura, Daring, and Jack quickly finish off the mobs and then join in on attacking the boss who looks furious now.

"Pests! Let's see how you handle my latest creation!" he yells enraged and raises his staff.

The mismatched corpse on the table gasps and twitches before rolling off the table and stands up. It's a mix of a pony leg, gryphon arm, diamond dog head and torso, minotaur leg and horns, and a dragon's arm. It howls horrendously before bull rushing straight at Samantha.

She screams but Frank charges at the corpse and taunts it to attack him. The corpse whose name tag reads Stitches turns to Frank and with the two minotaur horns attached to its head, sends Frank flying a good five metres away.

Jack catches Frank and stumbles back a few feet before letting the Guardian go.

"Good catch," Frank says and then runs back to the monstrosity.

The boss charges up another necrotic blast and Satoshi, still angry at being controlled, notices and fires an arrow into the boss' head again, interrupting the cast.

The boss glares at the elven archer and launches a bolt of necrotic energy at him. Satoshi backflips over it and fires another arrow upside down at the boss' head again getting another angry grunt from him.

Jack, Laura, Daring, and Frank focus on Stitches while Satoshi continues to pester the boss. Samantha is watching Frank but glances to Satoshi now and then to see if he needs a heal or not.

Frank tackles the undead with his shield staggering the monster and follows up with a stab to its chest. The mismatched beast retaliates with a heavy swipe of its dragon claw taking 15% of Franks HP.

Jack cleaves the monster from behind applying a bleed effect and then uses his Arcing Strike to uppercut the undead, though it deals more damage than a basic attack, Stitches is immune to the knock up effect.

Laura sets the monster on fire with her Firebolt while Daring is stabbing it in the back repeatedly.

Stitches HP drops to 36%, it then releases a noxious cloud of poison around itself poisoning Jack, Daring, and Frank.

Jack heaves and throws up from the revolting putrid stench while Daring is wobbling on her hooves trying to stay standing. Frank grimaces at the smell, but after having been inside Lugoth the Devourer's gut, he's somewhat desensitised to the smell.

Frank raises his shield in time to deflect Stitches talon arm from clawing him. He then refreshes his taunt and quickly checks on Satoshi.

The elf has taken a few blasts from the Boss and is down to half HP. Though Satoshi has shaved off twenty percent of the Boss' Hp as well. Samantha heals Satoshi quickly before focusing back onto Frank with another heal.

"You stupid creature! Focus on their healer!" the Boss shouts at stitches who suddenly swaps targets, ignoring any aggro from Frank and stampedes straight for Samantha.

"AAH!" she yelps and starts running away to the other side of the room. Her goblin combat pet Thena readies her blades as she runs behind the Cleric.

Frank Shield Charges into Stitches from behind and uses his Taunt, but no aggro is being applied. "EVERYONE! FOCUS ON STITCHES! I'LL FOCUS ON THE BOSS! SAM, KEEP MOVING!" Frank orders the others.

"I don't wanna play anymore!" Sam yells as Stitches gurgles and growls after her, but due to her being a leoness, she's able to outrun Stitches for now until she gets tired.

Frank runs over to the chuckling Necromancer and without warning rams his sword under the Boss' chin and out the top of his head landing a critical hit. The Guardian's eyes are burning with anger for putting Sam in harm's way and being unable to stop her getting chased.

The Necromancer growls at Frank and fires a blast from his staff into the Guardian's gut, blowing him back a metre or two.

Slamming his sword on his shield, Frank taunts the Boss to focus on him while Sam is only able to cast her Renewal spell as she can't stop running to cast her stronger healing spells.

Jack, Laura, Daring, and Satoshi keep damaging Stitches as much as they can while running alongside it. It takes a minute but they finally bring the abomination down making Samantha sigh and focus on Frank again.

"Impossible!" the boss yells in shocked rage as he fires another blast at Frank who is now down to 22% HP.

Frank says nothing as he Shield Bash's the Boss making him grunt in pain.

Samantha now able to catch her breath quickly starts spamming her healing spells on Frank making the Boss snarl. He tries to turn and blast her with a necrotic bolt, but ends up looking at Frank and blasts him instead. "What magic is this!?" the Necromancer demands angrily.

"None of your god damn business," Jack replies and cleaves the Boss from his right side.

Daring is directly behind the Necromancer, stabbing away while applying her Poison Stab skill when off its cooldown.

Laura and Satoshi keep their distance while shooting or blasting the Boss with arrows or spells whittling away at the little HP the boss has left.

"THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! THE MASTER SAID I WOULD BE INVINCIBLE!" the Necromancer yells in both rage and frustration.

With a final strike, the Necromancer's HP hits 0 and he screams as his body shrivels up before he breaks up into a pile of dust on the stone floor.

"Woo! Suck it ya prick!" Jack says and rests his greatsword on his shoulder.

Frank just glares at the pile of dust and tattered robes on the floor as a loot bag from the boss and Stitches appears in front of him.


<>---<> End Boss Battle Theme <>---<>


The Guardian picks up both bags and receives; 1,893 bits, some Tier-2 resources, and a level 10 Necrotic Staff + 3. Which Laura refuses to use the staff as the glowing eye sockets on the skull creep her out.

Daring, Jack, and Satoshi check the three chests at the back of the room and find a total of; 4,126 bits, more resources, some uncommon and rare equipment that's distributed among the party, and two teleport scrolls to a place called Marelantis.

"Marelantis? Sounds kinda like Atlantis," Laura comments getting agreements from the others.

A blue portal is now swirling at the back wall.

"Yeah! Another dungeon down!" Daring says cheerfully with a fist pump.

Pale blue lights start appearing around the party startling them before forming into ponies.

"Thank you for freeing us," a mare says before fading away.

"Finally, freedom," then says a stallion.

More and more thank the party before fading away leaving just one mare wearing old royal guard armour behind.

"Thank you for ending our suffering... Take this, should you ever need aid, do not hesitate to call us. Be warned, it can only be used once every week," she says and a bull's horn with a strap attached to it appears in front of frank.

The Guardian takes the horn where it transfers to his inventory.



Horn of the Royal Guard.

Usable horn that summons three Royal Guard Ghosts to fight by the user's side for five minutes.

Cooldown: 1 week.



"Thank you, I hope you finally find the rest you've been waiting for," Frank tells the ghost who smiles before fading away leaving the party alone in the large chamber.

"Well then. Let's use our crystals and head back to the Guildhall. I remember Celestia mentioned she was going to be bringing the builders and supplies today to start building the city, so we should be there to greet them," Frank tells the others.

They all take out their crystals and use them to teleport back to the Guildhall anchor crystal.





Meanwhile in Ponyville





Twilight and her friends have arrived twelve minutes ago and she's gone through the list of the supplies and checked that they had everything.

Celestia has gathered; Bon Bon, Lyra, Spike, and Vinyl. Although Vinyl's friend Octavia is upset at her for apparently signing up with the Guild without telling her, and demanded she get a chance to join as well. So Celestia has Octavia's file with her to give to Frank later, along with Cadence's and Shining's as well.

Twilight's friends are all equipped in their weapons and armour, ready to head out while their families are wishing them good luck and to stay safe.

Luna is standing beside Celestia with her Copper Greatsword embedded into the ground slightly with her hands on the handguard.

"Are you sure about this, Auntie?" Cadence asks Celestia again for the fifth time.

"I'm sure, my dear. We've already fought some monsters and have come out victorious. Escorting the supplies and workers should pose no problem at all. If one group of six could escort ponies safely to the Guildhall, then twelve ponies should have no trouble at all," she replies and smiles at her worry for them.

"I still have my doubts that some aliens are here with the power to fight these monsters..." Shining Armour comments while looking at Twilight's and Spike's new attire.

"Then you'll see first hand what this power can do on the way there," Luna tells him with a smirk on her face. "I'm looking forward to doing battle again after so long cowering behind these crystal shields."

Shining Armour looks a little surprised at the genuine and excited tone Princess Luna used, as well as her eager expression.

Celestia jumps slightly as a notification pops up letting her know she has received mail.



To: Celestia
From: Frank Johnson

Hello, Celestia.

Just letting you know the Everfree Dungeon has been cleared and the bosses inside are defeated for now, we'll return there next week to see what's going on in there. But for now the area should be less dangerous.

The last boss was a Pony Necromancer who had the castle's staff and guards souls trapped there. We've freed them but I think the Necromancer will return like the Guildhall Dungeon's boss does. He also mentioned a Master that promised him power.

We're now back at the Guildhall and just waiting for your arrival with the building supplies and workers.

Let us know if you want us to help you get them here, if not, then good luck.



"Well, it seems the Everfree won't be much of a problem for now. Frank and his friends have just cleared it and are waiting for us at the Guildhall now," the white alicorn tells the others and writes a letter to Frank saying they'll come on their own.

She receives a reply letting her know they'll be waiting.

"Alright everypony!" Celestia says loudly, getting everyone's attention. "We'll now be heading to the Whitetail Woods to the restored castle to build a new city around it!" she tells them getting excited and worried murmurs from the ponies gathered around.

"But what about the monsters!?" one of the construction workers asks her.

"My sister and I, along with ten others will deal with the monsters should any arrive. We now have the means to fight back and with the construction of the new city, our fight to take back our homes and land shall begin!" Celestia replies and the crowd start to cheer.

Luna pulls her sword out of the ground and rests it on her right shoulder. "Come, sister! Let's head to the Guildhall and being construction! I'm also looking forward to living within a castle once again!" she says and starts walking over to the carriages and wagons loaded with supplies.

Both Luna and Celestia's inventories are also loaded with food and water which are preserved perfectly for the crews and workers during the building of the city.

Cadence and Shining look at each other with worry before getting into a carriage.

Once everything and everyone is ready, the alicorn sisters lead the way into the Whitetail Woods.
> Arc 1 - Chapter 18: Building a City Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 18: Building a City Part 1


The large convoy begins its trek to the Guildhall, with Twilight's party protecting the left side while Celestia's protects the right.

Cadence and Shining are feeling nervous as they look outside through their carriage's windows.

"I still think this is a bad idea..." Shining Armour mutters to himself as he watches his sister talk to Fluttershy and Rarity.

"Oh stop being such a worry wart. I trust my aunts, they know what they're doing," Cadence tells him as she watches Spike lug around two massive weapons just as big as himself.

"I don't doubt that. But I don't like Twily nor Spike out there where there's nothing I can do to help them," he replies with a frown. He then glares at the timberwolf following Vinyl loyally, confused as to why a monster is obeying her.

"They're safer than us if what aunty Tia said was true about Rainbow Dash. Even if she's killed, she'll reappear at the nearest crystal unharmed," she says to try and calm him down.

He sighs as turns to look at her. "Still doesn't mean I can't worry for her," he tells her and leans back in his chair.

Meanwhile, Luna is keeping a diligent eye out for any monsters in the area, eager to charge straight back into battle and make these beasts pay for what they've put her people through over the years.

Applejack is also keeping an eye open for any movement while Rainbow is flying above as a lookout.

After about seven minutes of silence, Lyra then yells out. "MONSTERS BEHIND US!" she warns Luna who turns around with a fire in her eyes.

"THEN TO BATTLE!" Luna cries out with the royal canterlot voice and rushes at the two slimes and four timberwolves with her Cleaving Rush skill, hitting three of them, followed by a stomp of her hoof, causing a shockwave and getting the aggro from them all.

The convoy stops as Cadence and Shining Armour watch in awe as Luna is swinging her sword at the monsters with glee. Although they see no visible wounds on the monsters from her attacks, they also see Luna not receiving any from their attacks as well. Luna, though not taking any physical wounds, ignores the slight stinging pain she receives every time the monsters hit her back.

Spike and Bon Bon run around them so they're behind the monsters and start their own attacks. Spike with his slow and powerful swings, while Bon bon uses quick and nimble strikes. Vinyl and Lyra move to the sides and attack from a safe range.

Celestia stands behind Luna and to the side as she attacks the monsters with basic magical holy bolt attacks and her Holy Judgement spell at a timberwolf which heals Luna when she hits it.

Octavia is just gawking at Vinyl as she throws her javelins at the monsters and her pet is also attacking one of the timberwolves.

As the battle goes on, Rainbow spots another group of five timberwolves heading their way. "Guys! I see more coming!" she yells down to her friends and flies back down.

Applejack readies her shields and the moment the monsters get within range, she charges them with her Bastion Rush skill.

Fluttershy casts her Nature's Spring AoE healing spell next to Applejack and then places a Bloom spell on her back which gives the Juggernaut HP regen.

Rainbow flies behind the timberwolves and begins punching rapidly with a wide smile on her face.

Twilight starts casting her arcane spells from a safe distance along with Rarity who is throwing her shurikens at the monsters.

Pinkie is giggling as she fires shell after shell from her cannon at the timberwolves.

The battles don't take more than five minutes as the monsters are defeated and the small amount of loot distributed.

Shining and Cadence glance at each other in stunned silence at what they just witnessed.

"The monsters can be defeated!" a construction worker says in disbelief.

"The princesses were telling the truth... we can fight back!" another says with hope in his tone.

The two parties cheer and get back into position as the convoy resumes their trek.

It takes over a good three hours, with Celestia informing Frank of their progress and location from time to time, but they all arrive safe and sound. The parties even levelled up from all the battles.

Frank and the others are now in the courtyard near the Anchor Crystal waiting for the ponies. Celestia walks up to Frank with a smile on her face.

"Hello, Frank. As you can see, we've arrived unharmed," she tells him, making the Guardian smile in return.

"I can see that. So, I take it the workers will be living here during their work?" Frank asks, eyeing the pink alicorn that steps out of a carriage.

"Yes. We've brought enough supplies for now to build four family houses, and a fair amount of road. We wish to start building the residential area for the workers to live in and then expand to allow more people to move in. Then we can focus on the industrial and commercial areas," Celestia replies.

"I see. Well, we've decided to have the layout the same as Concord, the capital city of Kirsarnia," Frank says and pulls out a sheet of paper showing the layout of Concord from the game.

It shows Celestia the general layout of the city, and her eyes widen at the sheer size of it.

"You wish to build a city this big?" she asks in surprise. The diagram on the paper makes the city look five times bigger than Canterlot.

"Yes, we don't know if your old city can be freed or not from being a dungeon, as this one and the Everfree one are just suppressed and not removed. So, wouldn't it be better just to make a new capital city here? This way, if new people wish to join the guild, the low level area is perfect for them to start training and learning how to fight," Frank replies, returning his attention to the new guild members talking to Cadence and Shining Armour.

Celestia sighs while Luna frowns. "You wish for us to just give up on our home?" Luna asks accusingly.

"Let's say we do clear the Canterlot Dungeon someday, but what if it can never be returned to normal?" the Guardian asks her.

Luna's frown deepens as she sighs. "Very well... I can understand that. But it will take us decades to build a city of this size without more workers," she then says looking back up to Frank.

"Then send word out that a new capital is being built and that any and all workers are needed for its construction. How much is the wage for the workers?" Frank asks them.

"Twenty bits an hour," Celestia replies.

"Then we can get hundreds of them here to build. If my party, as well as Twilight's and yours chip in bits we find to the Guild Vault, then we can easily pay them. We can earn a lot of bits running our dungeon as well as the Everfree one repeatedly. And we'll also move out to higher level areas as well that will reward us with even higher amounts of bits and resources later. Paying for the construction and or materials will not be a problem. Back in Kirsarnia, our group alone had a total of fifty-five million gold between us. We pooled our gold together and bought a small island for ourselves as a home," he tells them.

Both Celestia and Luna's eyes widen at that.

"You were that wealthy?" Luna asks stunned.

"Not just us, a lot of players had just as much. The top guild that had the most members of nine-hundred or so had a total of four-hundred million gold last I recall," Jack replies, cutting off Frank before he could speak. Both sisters blanch at the number they heard.

Before they could reply, Cadence and Shining, along with the others, walk over to the group.

"So... these are the ones who gave you your new magic?" Shining Armour asks Twilight as he looks over the five friends.

"Yes. They're the ones who can let us fight the monsters," Twilight replies.

Shining Armour walks up to Frank who raises an eyebrow at white unicorn. Shining then narrows his eyes and leans right up to Frank's face.

"The fuck's his problem?" Jack asks glaring at the unicorn. They continue to stare at each other making Jack twitchy. "Alright you weird motherfucker, back off before I make you," Jack threatens punching his right fist into his left hand’s palm. The muscles in his arms bulging as he glares at Shining Armour.

The white unicorn stallion looks from Frank to Jack with a glare of his own. "You dare threaten the Prince of the Crystal Empire!?" he says to Jack who huffs in anger.

"Damn right I am. I don't care even if you're a god, you threaten my friends and I'll jam my fist so far up your ass that you'll look like a Muppet," Jack replies and gets right up into Shining's face, causing him to stumble back as Jack is a good foot taller.

After a few seconds of glaring at each other, Shining grins and laughs, causing Jack to now look confused.

"Good, you're willing to stand up for those you care for. A good quality," Shining says ending with a chuckle.

"Don't worry about him," Cadence says getting their attention. "He did that to all the new recruits back when he was Captain of the Guard," she tells them with a giggle.

"Okay, so why are you two here?" Frank asks, turning his attention to both Shining Armour and Cadence.

"Our aunts informed us of important news but didn't say what exactly. But after we arrived, she told us about you and your power to give others the ability to slay monsters. She offered me the opportunity to be their healer while letting Shiny choose his own... class I think she called them," Cadence replies with a smile.

"So you both want to fight the monsters as well?" Jack asks, now standing more relaxed.

"Well, I'm not much of a fighter. But after watching even Fluttershy helping her friends, I think I can handle being a healer at least," the pink alicorn replies.

"What about you?" Frank asks Shining.

"If you can give us the power to fight back, then I wouldn't say no. I'd like to help take back our homes and lands from whatever is causing these monsters and dungeons to appear," he replies with a determined frown on his face.

"After we've read your files, we'll let you know if you can join or not. But for now, you can look around while the construction begins," Frank says to Shining and turns to Celestia. "You can begin building whenever you're ready, Celestia," he tells her.

"Very well, We'll start with planning out the roads first," she replies and looks to the workers. "Please set up a tent and get the supplies ready," she then orders the workers.

"At once, your Majesty," they reply and get to work setting up the Tent of operations before getting out the supplies from the carriages.

Celestia then turns to frank and holds out a pile of folders. "Here are the new request forms and files of those who wish to join," she tells Frank who takes the folders from her.

"Alright, once construction begins, we'll head inside and read them," he replies and passes the folders to Jack.

Twilight and her party walk up to Frank with a question to ask him. "Frank?" Twilight says getting the Guardian's attention.

"Yes, Twilight?" he says in reply.

"Would it be okay if we tried to do the dungeon here?" she asks him.

Rainbow Dash looks excited while Fluttershy looks nervous. Pinkie just looks happy and is blowing up a long balloon. Rarity is looking at a hand mirror while Applejack is just standing there waiting for the answer.

"Sure, though I don't think the boss has respawned yet, but you can go in and fight the monsters within," he replies, getting a cheer from Rainbow Dash.

"Absolutely not!" Shining Armour yells making most of the mares jump in surprise. "Fighting a few stray monsters is one thing! But to go into a dungeon where the monsters come from!? Absolutely not!" he tells us with a frown.

"What's your problem? We're immortal now, dude. We'll be fine," Rainbow Dash tells him with a huff and crosses her arms.

"She's right, Shiny. Even if we're defeated, we'll just end up back here," Twilight says gesturing to the anchor crystal.

Shining Armour frowns harder and glares at the crystal before looking to the lightly swirling portal of the dungeon visible through the open castle doors.

"Then I'm coming with you!" he demands firmly.

"I'm not letting anyone not a member of the Guild to go in there," Frank tells him sternly.

"Then make me a member then!" he then tells Frank.

"Not until we've read your file. Now calm down or I'll deem you too unstable and volatile to join the Guild," Frank replies with narrow eyes.

Shining glares at Frank for a few seconds before snorting and walking off back to the carriages.

"I'm sorry about him, he's just protective of his sister," Cadence says with a sigh. "He'll calm down in a few minutes, just give him some space for now."

"Very well, we'll be inside reading these files. Daring, stay with the Princesses and if they need anything from us, you know where to find us," Frank tells the pegasus.

"Okay, Frank," she replies and flutters over to the princesses who are now looking at the tent being set up in the courtyard.

"Twilight?" Frank says getting said mare to yelp and look at him.

"Yes?" she asks in reply.

"You can go into the dungeon, but take it slowly, there are traps in there and we don't know if they can kill you instantly or just damage you. So be careful and pay attention to your surroundings," he warns her.

"Okay, thank you for the warning," she replies and looks to her friends. "Come on everypony!" she says getting a whoop from Rainbow Dash.

"Awww yeah! Dungeon time!" she says and flies off ahead of the others.

"Wait up, Dashie!" Pinkie says and skips into the castle.

The others follow them in while Frank and the others head inside to the Dining Hall to look over the files.
> Arc 1 - Chapter 19: Building a City Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kirsarnia
Arc 1 - Chapter 19: Building a City Part 2


Frank and his friends are all sitting around the table in the lounge near their rooms looking over the new files.

"Is it me? Or does this guy look high to you?" Jack says looking at a file for an earth pony stallion with grey fur and dark brown hair.

Jack passes the file to Frank who raises an eyebrow at the laid back smile and unfocused, half-lidded eyes of the photo.

"Golden Herb. Male. Age, sixty-eight. Occupation, Alchemist. Says he's been on record for dealing with some harmless though illegal powders..." Frank says reading aloud.

"Why would the Princesses even include his file then?" Laura asks confused.

"Maybe it's not that big of an offence?" Satoshi comments looking at another file.

"We'll ask Celestia later for more info, so let's put him in the maybe pile," Frank says and puts the file down and picks up another.

He picks up Cadence's file where the picture is just her smiling.

'Alicorn. Female. Age... seven-hundred and six...Occupation, Princess of the Crystal Empire.' Frank reads in his head, followed by most of what Cadence has done and so far which shows her as a kind and loving woman who likes to help others.

"Safe to say Cadence is okay to join," he says and places the file in the accepted pile.

"I don't think this one is okay..." Samantha says looking at a pegasus mare that looks angry. "Says she's been in a lot of fights over petty things like just being looked at funny."

The others look at the file and agree she looks like more trouble than she's worth after being arrested over twenty times in the last two years alone for starting fights.

Laura finds Shining Armour's file and reads it over. 'Guy, ninety-two years old, once was Captain of the guard now Prince of the Crystal Empire... No criminal records but can have a bit of a temper...' "Hey, Jack! That Shining guy is a bit like you, you're both easy to piss off!" she says with a laugh and adds Shining's file to the accepted pile.

Jack grumbles and returns to the file he's holding.

After a good hour going through all seventy-four files, most being that of the guards in Ponyville, nine have been rejected due to criminal records of varying types.

"Well, time to tell the Princesses who we've chosen," Jack says and stands up, stretching his arms and legs.

The others stretch and make their way back to the courtyard. Once they arrive they see that roadworks have begun and the ponies are fast at digging up the dirt just outside the courtyard walls, looks like they've got a large area for a plaza dug up already with concrete, tarmac, or some other kind of mixture being made already in mixers.

"Princesses!" Frank calls out looking for them.

A mare guard walks over and nodded to them. "The Princesses are in the command tent right now," she tells them.

"I see, thank you for telling us," Frank replies and the party head to the large tent.

"Princesses?" Frank asks from the front flap.

After a few seconds, both Princesses exit the tent and Celestia smiles in greeting.

"Hello, Frank. I take it you've finished reading the files?" she asks him.

"We have," he replies as Jack holds out the accepted pile while Samantha holds out the nine rejected files. "We rejected nine of them due to criminal records, but there is one we're not sure of named Golden Herb dealing in potions and powders. While harmless it said they're illegal. Do you think he'd be more trouble than he's worth?" Frank asks her and hands her the file.

Celestia and Luna look at the file and Luna rolls her eyes. "Ah yes, him. He sells various brews and powders that induce mild hallucinations or as he calls it, 'Mellows out' a pony to help them relax. While harmless, mind or personality altering substances are illegal," she says.

"He himself is not dangerous, he's rather polite and friendly actually, but no matter how many times we tell him to stop selling or even making them he continues anyway saying he's just helping others who want it to relieve stress and relax," Celestia says with a light shake of her head.

"Well, I'll like to meet him face to face before deciding if he can join. Sounds like he'd make a good full time alchemist for the guild," Frank replies. "Have Twilight and her friends returned yet?" the Guardian then asks them.

"Not yet, but none of them have reappeared at the crystal yet, so I believe they are just fine," Celestia replies.


Meanwhile...


Applejack slams her shields into the timberwolves attacking her and ends up slaying one of them. Rainbow Dash then wraps her arms around the belly of another and uses her suplex skill to lean back and slam the timberwolf into the stone floor head first killing it.

Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie are to the sides using ranged attacks while Fluttershy remains focused on Applejack and Rainbow Dash to heal any damage they take.

Once the fight is over, Twilight distributes the loot evenly.

"This is so Awesome! Let's keep going!" Rainbow yells and runs off ahead as there's not much room for her to fly in the hallway.

"RAINBOW WAIT!" Twilight calls out but it's too late.

Rainbow Dash triggers a pitfall trap and yelps as she falls down flapping her wings. Her wings hit the sides of the pit preventing her from flying and she screams as the skeleton covered spikes below get closer and closer until she hits them.

Her body goes limp and her colours fade to grey. 'Buck! Not again...' she thinks to herself with a mental wince at the slight pain she’s feeling as a text box floats in front of her vision.


Respawn?
[Yes]


She just grumbles in her head as she waits for Fluttershy to cast her newly learned rebirth spell.

"Hold on, Rainbow!" Twilight yells from the pit's edge as Fluttershy casts her spell.

Rainbow's body glows and levitates out of the pit and back onto the stone floor as her colour returns and half her HP as well as a one hour debuff that makes her take ten percent more damage from attacks.

"That wasn't fun..." the Brawler says to herself and limbers up her limbs.

"Frank did tells us to be careful," Twilight says making Rainbow frown.

"Yeah yeah... I'll be careful from now on," Rainbow Dash replies and crosses her arms.

The party make their way around the pit and continue onward.


Back at the Castle


Frank and his party along with Daring Do after talking with the Princesses head down to the crafting room and begin using their newly acquired materials to make new equipment for themselves and spares for the Guild Vault.

Twilight and her friends have returned with more bits and tier one materials which they deposit some into the Guild Vault and then try some crafting themselves.

Frank and Celestia have agreed that the accepted people that didn't arrive today will arrive tomorrow for their interviews along with those that did.

So for the rest of the day, Frank and the others watch as the workers dig up the area in front of the Castle’s courtyard while working out details with the Princesses.





The next day





Frank and the others are in the Dining Hall with a line of excited ponies leading up to the doors of the hall. It took a good seven hours for all three parties to escort all of them safely to the Guildhall. So far out of the twenty-five they've already interviewed, three have been turned down due to poor reasons for joining. The worst one was she just wanted power, and the other two just wanted to get rich quickly and didn't really care about clearing the dungeons or stopping the monsters.

Next in line is Shining and Cadence who have been eager to start as they both sit in chairs across from the group.

"So, Shining. Why do you want to join the Guild?" Frank asks him.

"I would like to help take back our homes and land from the monsters and make travelling safer for everyone. The monsters around the Empire have been stopping us from mining our crystal caves and farming outside our shield for years," he replies with determination.

"And you, Cadence?" Frank then asks the pink alicorn.

"I too want to make the world safer, I've seen foals look so happy playing in our small park and playground, but we just don't have the space for larger areas for them to play in as we need it more for crops and housing. I'd like to see if we can take back our lands and make not just our people happy and safe again, but everyone else as well," she replies.

"Alright, those are good reasons. Now that we know why you want to join, we must warn you, Shining that you may end up no longer ageing and you cannot be killed in battle. Though we do not know for certain if natural diseases can still kill you for good," Frank warns the stallion.

"The Princesses have informed us about not being able to die in battle already. But the no longer ageing is new..." he replies mildly shocked.

"As I said, we don't know for sure, only time will tell," Frank says.

The Guardian then explains the rules and laws of the Guild and once both Cadence and Shining accept them, they're welcomed into the Guild.

Shining hisses from the mild pain throbbing in his head and then looks to Cadence and sees her name, class, and HP bar above her head, as well as the others. "That's... interesting," he comments as Cadence shakes her head from the fading pain.

"Now that you're members of the Guild, you now have to each choose your class. Cadence, there are a few healer classes to pick from," Frank says and let's Samantha explain the five healer classes to Cadence.

"Shining, what kind of class do you want? Tank, Melee DPS, Magical DPS, or Ranged DPS?" Frank asks him.

"Hmmm. What kind of melee classes are there?" Shining replies with his own question.

Jack explains the melee classes to him and what each one specialises in.

"I would like the Champion class then," Shining tells them.

"And I'll have the Priest class please," Cadence says after listening to Samantha's details.

"Alright then, here's how you select your classes," Frank says and shows them how to do so.

After getting used to the menu system and they've selected their classes, Shining and Cadence are told to wait in the Castle's Ballroom until they've finished interviewing the others.

Next up is the earth pony stallion they asked Celestia about named Golden Herb. He walks in with a smile and calmly sits down on a chair.

"Hey dudes. Thanks for seeing me," he greets the group cheerfully.

"So, you're Golden Herb correct?" Frank asks him.

"Uh-huh, that's me!" the stallion replies.

"Okay, so why do you want to join the guild?" Jack then asks him.

"I've heard you guys are tryin' to get rid of the monsters and dungeons! I feel I'm not being much use in town as all I can do is make potions and medicine that aren't in high demand these days... But I've heard you can make potions that help you in ya fights with the monsters... I don't really want to fight, I'm a lover not a fighter you know what I'm sayin'? I'm more interested in if you need a full time alchemist," he replies with a chuckle.

The group look between each other. "Having someone making sure our potion supply is fully stocked would be handy," Laura comments. "I doubt Samantha would want to spend hours a day keeping the Guild stocked for everyone, and having dedicated specialist craftsmen would be just as beneficial as fighters."

"Good point," Frank says and looks back to Golden Herb. "Now about these records you have for supplying illegal potions and powders to people?" Frank asks him.

"Oh, that. The potions and powders I make are relaxants and stress relievers, not once have my mixtures caused harm, side effects, or even addiction! All my recipes are one-hundred percent natural and I pride myself on being an expert of plants and other ingredients and their effects," he replies proudly.

"If that's true, why are they illegal?" Satoshi asks him.

"There are a few mixtures that can cause memory loss or even alter a pony's personality, so such possible mixtures and the ingredients used for them are illegal. I've spent the last thirty-two years of my life studying plants and other ingredients for my potions and powders, The only other individual I know who knows more than me is Zecora," he replies calmly and still with his smile.

The group discuss what to do and after a good five minutes, decide to give him a chance.

"Alright, but we ask you don't make any of your relaxants and stress reliever potions and powders until Samantha here can determine herself if they're dangerous or not, okay?" Frank tells him.

Golden Herb sighs but nodded. "Fair enough, dude. So what do I do now?" he asks.

The group explain the classes and Golden Herb picks the Druid class due to its use of plants and healing effects. Which the group admitted fit him well.

The rest of the interviews come and go where six more are rejected due to poor reasons for joining. Though only one pony picked the Bard healer class named Octavia who the group discovered is Vinyl's marefriend.

And surprisingly, only one unicorn stallion guard named Bones picked the Necromancer class. When asked why, he told the group that he performs autopsies to discover the cause of death to a body with his magic and that this class fit him in a way.

After all the interviews are done, the party meet up with the new members in the Ballroom and escort them down to the vault, where the new fifty-six accepted members all collect their starter equipment, nearly emptying vault of what it had.

Once armed and geared up, Frank and the others teach them over the next few hours on how to access their skills, items, their roles, how the Anchor Crystals worked, and the penalty for dying in battle. Then they formed parties and are let loose into the Whitetail Woods to have their first experiences in battle.

Some remained behind and inquired about crafting professions, just like Golden Herb did. So the group escorted the seven ponies, including Golden Herb, down to the crafting room and showed them how to select the profession they wanted and how to craft equipment.

By the end of the day, a total of ten ponies were killed in battle and respawned at the Anchor Crystal feeling disappointed in themselves. After some encouragement, they went back out using their map functions to locate their parties to try again.

Now that they've returned, some excited and some tired, Frank offered them rooms in the Guildhall to rest in or simply allow them to head back to Ponyville themselves and unlock the Anchor Crystal so they can teleport between the two locations with ease.

The guards chose to stay while those from Ponyville formed new groups and headed back home until tomorrow.

Construction on the plaza is progressing fast as the workers have already started laying the concrete mix down. With the sun setting and everyone getting hungry, the guild members and workers that remained gather in the Dining Hall where food is spread out among them from the vaults.

Frank stands up by his seat with his friends and the Princesses sitting with them at the main table.

"Ahem. We'd like to thank you all for coming and offering your help to fight back against the dungeons and monsters that are terrorising the world. I and my friends would like to formally welcome you to the guild and hope you'll work together to make the world a safer place and help us in finding ways to get rid of the monsters and dungeons," the Guardian says making most of the new members cheer.

"For the next few weeks while construction of the City continues, you will all continue to practice battling out in the woods or gathering resources. For those few who picked crafting professions, you'll start making new gear for new members in the future. Once you've reached level five and have formed a solid party with others, you can attempt the dungeon here in the Castle," Frank the tells them.

"Finally, we ask that you donate at least a third of the bits you find to the Guild Vault to help pay for the construction of the new City being built here. Remember, as long as you're a member of the guild, you have access to a bed here and three meals a day for free. The more bits we can get, the more workers we can hire to speed up the process!"

Another round of cheers sounds out as Frank sits down as Celestia and Luna stand up.

"My sister and I are proud of you all for volunteering to help end the threat of the monsters and help protect not only ourselves and our loved ones, but the other races who will no doubt be joining us as well," Celestia says getting applause from the ponies.

"Now then, let us eat and then rest as we shall have a long road ahead of us!" Luna then says and everyone starts eating and talking amongst themselves.





One month later





Over the last month, the new members have been out battling and levelling up while donating what they could to the vault. The dungeons of both the Castle and the Everfree have been constantly delved and looted by rotating teams, while also keeping them both suppressed.

The Necromancer boss of the Everfree and the goblins seem to be bound now to the dungeon as they can't leave no matter what spell or attempt the Necromancer tries and has been slain four more times since his first defeat.

Frank and his group are now level eighteen while the other guild members are ten to thirteen. Shining, Cadence, and their guards left to return to the Crystal Empire to register themselves with their Anchor Crystal so they could teleport back and forth instantly whenever they need to. They returned to the Guildhall after a couple of days to continue their training while rotating a new guard out every few days to send messages back and forth in case they were needed at the Empire.

They also took notes of the monsters levels along the way and discovered the Empire's monsters are around level fifty-six to sixty, so the royal couple and their guards had to avoid battle like they've always done before.

News of the construction of the new City has spread throughout Equestria and more workers have flocked to aid in its construction under the protection of the new members, as well as more requests of other ponies to join the Guild.

Celestia and Luna have also sent out letters to the leaders of the other races informing them of the Guild and what they need to do if they wish to have any of their people join them.

Life around the Castle is picking up as new members are joining and the vaults are packed with food, drink, equipment and gear that would last the guild months, along with a couple of artefacts the Princesses have asked Frank to store in the officer vault for safe keeping. Everyone is in high spirits as different parties come and go with new loot and resources to add to the vaults.

The guild members have even taken a shine to duelling each other in friendly tournaments every week for both fun and practice.

Discord's statue has also been moved to the Castle and placed in a secure room that only Celestia and Luna can enter with their magic. Cracks have been slowly forming over his statue which Celestia said meant he'll soon be free.

Frank and his party stand in the newly made plaza as they watch the two-hundred construction workers building the first ten houses of the still to be named City.

"Things are turning out good," Satoshi comments.

"Yeah, maybe by the end of next month, we'll have a small village built already! These ponies sure do know how to build quickly," Jack says in reply.

"Which is good, but now we have to focus on finding the next area to level up in. The Everfree isn't giving us the EXP we need to level efficiently anymore," Frank says with a frown.

"Maybe we should finally use one of those teleport scrolls and check the areas around them and then use the crystal to come back?" Laura suggests as she watches a unicorn lift a wooden support beam into place for the earth pony and pegasi workers to nail them securely.

"I'll take the Appleloosa one," Jack says.

"Guess I'll take one of those Marelantis ones," Frank then says after Jack.

"We'll remain here and look over the maps the Princesses brought with them, might find the next area nearby," Daring says followed by a yawn.

The party head back inside to get ready while Twilight's group get ready to head out to the Everfree dungeon again.

"Yeah! Time to put that creep in his place again!" Rainbow Dash says with a grin as she punches her right hand into her left palm.

"I kind of feel bad for him, trapped in there alone forever..." Fluttershy says sadly.

"Don't be, Shy. Dang Varmint kept ponies souls and trapped them in bodies against their will. Ah say he gets what he deserves," Applejack replies looking over her bronze war shields and full-plate armour.

They all make sure they're armed and geared up before using the Anchor Crystal to teleport to Ponyville.
> Arc 2 - Chapter 1: The city of Marelantis Part 1.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kirsarnia
Arc 2 - Chapter 1: The city of Marelantis Part 1.


Frank opens his inventory and pulls out both of the Marelantis scrolls and the single Appleloosa scroll.

"Here you go, Jack," Frank tells the Warrior while holding the Appleloosa scroll to him.

"Thanks, well let's go see if it actually is a western themed place by the sound of the name," he says as he unrolls the scroll and looks at it. "Errrr... how do I use this?" he asks confused as he tries to read it.

The others look over his shoulder to see strange runes, magical looking circles, and writing on the old paper. 

"I have no idea what that says," Laura says with a frown.

"Maybe the princesses would know?" Satoshi suggests and looks around for the Princesses.

Fortunately, the Princesses are near the back of the plaza overseeing the construction of the next section of housing, as well as the first three buildings that will be shops and stores.

"There they are," Satoshi says pointing towards them.

"Then let's get some answers," Jack says and rushes off towards them.

The group stop behind the Princesses who turn to greet them.

"Hello everyone. What can we help you with?" Celestia asks while Luna yawns and looks through her inventory.

"Do you know what this says?" Jack asks and holds the scroll out to Celestia.

Luna turns to look and goes wide eyed at the scroll. "Is that ancient Valian!?" she says in shock.

"Valian?" Frank asks Luna with a curious expression.

She looks from the scroll to Frank with a serious expression. "It is said the Valians were the first and only intelligent race that predates all other races at the time about sixty-thousand years ago, we don't even know what they looked like. Very few of their ruins survived the passage of time, even fewer are the stone tablets and murals that remained intact. We've managed to translate most of their language, but some were incomprehensible, or no word that matched ours existed," she replies and looks back to the scroll.

"Ver-ruth... tel-ris... ha-ru-nil-ka..." Luna mutters and the scroll shines brightly, blinding all present. When the light dies down, Celestia is nowhere to be seen, as well as the scroll. "Whoops..." Luna says with a sheepish grin.

Jack looks sadly at where Celestia was once standing. "My scroll..." he says dejected that his adventure was taken from him.

Frank sighs as he gets the second Marelantis scroll out and holds it out to Jack. "Then you're coming with me to Marelantis," he says making Jack happy again.

"SWEET!" he yells and opens it up. "Wait, could we teleport a whole group if the others are touching the one holding the scroll?" Jack asks in a child like curiosity.

"Perhaps?" Frank says unsure and looks to Luna. "Care to read it again?" he asks her while putting his scroll away and Jack holds out the scroll in his hands to her. The others place their hands on Jack's back.

"You just need to repeat the same phrase I spoke earlier," she says and reads the scroll. "Ver-ruth tel-ris ha-ru-nil-ka."

The party's vision goes white and after a few seconds, they all appear around a new anchor crystal and the group takes in their surroundings. They appear to be in a large underwater air bubble the size of the anchor crystal's barrier, a large temple like structure just to the north and big shell shaped buildings around the crystal. The colours of the place are vibrant with glowing coral and small fluorescent shells.

Street lamps are lined up along the light blue bricked roads, softly illuminating the place with a pale bluish white light.

"INVADERS AT THE CRYSTAL!" The party hears someone yell in alarm. The sounds of footfalls and screaming echoes throughout the area and before they knew it, they're surrounded by ponies wielding tridents, shields, and wearing scalemail. 

The ponies also have no fur or manes and tails but fish scales on their forearms, shins, and around their faces. The rest of their bodies are covered in smooth oily like skin, fins are also on their head and back, a set of gills on the sides of their necks, and a fish like tail, some have shark like features while others have a dolphin or an orca like appearance.

Most of them have some form of skin tight scalemail armour equipped as well.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Jack says and tries to draw his Bronze Warhammer, but the anchor crystal's anti-hostility effect prevents him from drawing it.

"Stand down, Jack," Frank tells the warrior while slowly raising his hands up to show no aggression. The others follow suit while Jack groans and stops trying to draw his hammer, then raising his hands as well.

"Who and what are you!" a silver coloured shark pony demands while holding his trident right at Frank's throat, sharp rows of teeth bared in aggression.

"Frank Johnson, Human," the guardian calmly replies.

"How did you get in here!?" the shark pony then demands.

"We used a scroll that teleported us here, I have another scroll with me if you wish to see it," Frank replies and waits for an answer.

"A scroll brought you here? Show me!" he then orders Frank who slowly opens his inventory which confuses the marelantians, but they gasp as a scroll appears in front of Frank who carefully grabs it and holds it out to the shark pony.

"Here you go," Frank says and opens his hand, leaving the scroll to rest on his palm. The shark pony takes it with his left hand and lets it roll open.

After looking at it for a few seconds, he growls and holds it in front of Frank's face. "I can see this is a spell, but this isn't any magic or language I've seen before! Are you the Jadara's monsters!?" he says angrily while the other marelantians get ready for a fight.

"The who?" Jack asks with a frown.

Silence hangs in the air before an elderly looking female orca pony coming from the Temple wearing an ornate scaled robe with shells, fish bones, and coral decoration walks over to the group. She has a long pink coral staff in her right hand with a light green crystal on the end.

"What is going on here?" she asks in a curious tone, no fear or worry at all in her question.

"Priestess!? Stay back, we'll deal with these monsters!" the shark pony warns her and without warning, thrusts his trident through Frank's neck.

"FRANK!" the guardian's party all yell. But everyone gasps as Frank just frowns at the shark pony, no wound or blood visible as he swats the trident away with his left hand, the trident phasing out of his neck as if he was a ghost.

"That was uncalled for," Frank tells the pony sternly.

"What?... I knew it! They're monsters!" he says with fear in his tone.

"We're not monsters!" Jack tells him as he walks over and pokes him in the chest twice. "We fight and kill them! And besides, we have a pony with us as well!" he then says gesturing to Daring who now looks relaxed as she realised they can't harm her.

"Who are you?" the elderly priestess asks the group while the shark pony just stares at the tip of his clean trident.

"I am Frank Johnson, leader of this party, and Guild Master of The Dungeoneers," he replies with a small bow of his head. The others also introduce themselves to her.

"And why have you come here?" she then asks them.

"We're on a mission to cleanse the dungeons that have shown up and find the one responsible for making them," he tells her as she walks up to him, the other marelantian ponies getting tense as she does.

She looks at the members of the group and then back to Frank with slightly narrowed eyes. "And how do you accomplish this? Our warriors and tide mages have not been able to harm the monsters since they arrived two decades ago," she asks them while leaning on her staff.

"We have the power to kill the monsters and grow stronger as we do so. With this we can cleanse the dungeons and reduce the monsters they produce to a more manageable rate. We have already cleansed two dungeons in Equestria," Frank replies in explanation.

"Equestria? We have not heard of any news from the surface for decades," she says and sighs. "Tell me, do the alicorn princesses still live?" she asks Frank with hope in her eyes.

"They do. Now that we've arrived here, we can go to Equestria and back again whenever we wish. If you have a message for the princesses, I'd be happy to deliver it for you," he replies and retrieves a quill, inkwell, and paper from his inventory.

He holds them out to the Priestess who just stares dumbfounded that they came out of thin air.

After a few seconds of just staring at them she slowly speaks up. "Follow me to the Temple please. We shall discuss what to do next," the Priestess says and shakes her head. "Where are my manners, I am Priestess Sea Song, and my role is to keep the waters around us calm and safe. But my job has been impossible to perform since I can no longer reach the Great Current Shrines safely to reapply the seals. I fear the ocean will soon become too unstable to leave the great barrier at all," she informs Frank with a sigh.

"Hmmm," Frank hums as he looks to his friends. "We may be able to escort you to them once we figure out the level of the monsters here. If they're lower or equal to ours, we can deal with them ourselves, but I'm not sure how we'll be able to breath underwater," he says and turns back to her.

"As priestess and a tide sage of the ocean, I have a few spells that allow surface dwellers to breath underwater for up to five hours," Sea Song replies and holds her staff out to Frank whose eyebrows rise as a thin transparent bubble forms around his head. "This spell draws oxygen from the sea and filters out the old," she tells him as jack pokes the bubble which just jiggles.

"Alright, looks like it'll work fine. So then, shall we head inside and discuss what we shall do?" Frank suggests and Sea Song nods in agreement.

The party follows her inside the temple, while the marelantian guards follow behind them. Along the way, Frank sends a message to Luna informing her that they’re fine and have reached Marelantis. Luna replies letting them know that Celestia is also fine and that the Appleloosa area is level fifteen with a dungeon nearby, She’ll stay there for a while to help the ponies there before returning to the Guildhall.

The interior of the temple is decorated in mosaics and tapestries made from strange cloth of past events down the hallways to the left and right. The group enter the doorway ahead of them and see furniture mostly consisting of benches and tables made from coral and that strange cloth dot the main chamber which is at least twenty feet high.

The priestess heads to a single door at the back of the large chamber where fifteen marelantians are sitting on the benches while staring at the party and whisper to each other as the group of friends pass by.

Sea Song and the party pass through the door into a clean and tidy study or office, a coral table and chair sit at the middle back of the room. A coral bookcase with strange books not made from paper sit upon it to the left of the desk. To the right is a cabinet with many different objects, a necklace, an orb with swirling water within it, a book with paper pages and an old cracked brown leather cover, and a three inch wide stone coin like object with a stylised water current engraved on it.

The room is illuminated by a cleanly cut crystal in a candle holder on the desk, giving the room an effect of rippling light reflecting off a surface underwater.

Sea Song sits at her desk and sighs in relief as she puts her staff on a rack next to her chair.

"I'm getting too old for this..." she says and looks to Frank as he and the others stand near her desk. "I believe we have at least five more years before we'll be unable to leave the great barrier ever again. If that happens, we'll be trapped in here with no way out. The currents will be too strong to swim though and we barely have enough room for fish farms and housing. If you can escort me to the three shrines, I can reapply the seal and calm the ocean currents, allowing our warriors to hunt and gather again," she explains to the guardian.

"Alright, we'll need to have a look around first to see if the monsters aren't too high a level, otherwise we'll have trouble with them. If that's the case, we'll have to level up some more and then return," he replies and turns back towards the door. "We'll return to the anchor crystal once we've finished our scouting," he tells her and stops in front of the glaring shark pony that ran his neck through with his trident before.

Sea Song also stands and picks up her staff. She casts the bubble spell on all six of the party members where Sam yelps quietly as it startles her. "Razor, please escort our guests to the great barrier that's closest to the nearest shrine," she asks the shark pony who growls quietly.

"Yes, Priestess," he replies unhappy with the order and walks away.

Frank ignores his hostile attitude as the party file out of the temple and follow Razor through the still functional areas of the city.

Whispers and gasps can be heard as the group pass by the marelantians on the street, some carrying baskets of fish or seaweed, while others carry coral and materials to their destinations.

After a silent ten minute walk, the party reaches the edge of the barrier where the ocean waters are pushing against it, but the barrier doesn't even strain under the pressure.

"Follow this path to a small temple at the end, there you will find the shrine. I will wait here for your return... that's if you return," Razor says and frowns at the group.

"The fuck's your problem? We're trying to help your ungrateful ass and you're just being a colossal dick!" Jack asks Razor with a frown of his own.

"You are outsiders that somehow got into our city undetected! Until you prove your intentions, I will not trust any of you. Now get going," he replies with a snarl, making Jack growl and turn back to Frank.

"Let's get going before he has an aneurysm!" Jack says and walks through the barrier in a huff.

"Alright, let's move out," Frank says and everyone steps through and begin to swim through the water.

The city outside the barrier is in ruins, buildings collapsed or covered in barnacles, seaweed, and coral. Everyone keeps an eye out for monsters that might ambush them. The current of the sea is making it difficult to swim through but they are making progress.

After a seven minute swim, a large deformed green fish with small eyes, gnarled teeth, and bone protrusions from its jaw attacks the party.

"Green Snappa, level twenty-one, this is acceptable," Satoshi comments as he draws his bow and notches an arrow.


<)===(> Battle Theme <)===(>


Frank uses his shield charge skill and gets the aggro, followed up with a shield bash to add more.

Jack then jumps in with his leap skill, but yelps as instead of landing like he would, he just tumbles through the water past the monster.

"Be careful! Our skills may not function well in the water!" Frank warns the others as the fish bites into him, dealing a good 254 damage to the guardian. He swings his sword in retaliation, but its slow as the water drags against his arm and blade.

Samantha begins healing him while Daring swims up and latches onto the fish by grabbing its dorsal fin and continuously stabs its side for 40 damage a hit.

Laura is forced to fire mana bolts and ice bolts only as fire won't work and chain lightning backfired dealing 345 damage to herself.

Satoshi is forced to use mana arrows as his normal arrows didn't go far or fast enough to do any damage.

Jack recovers from his tumble and swims over to the fish and uses his warcry followed by a cleave.

Frank is taking a bit of damage but Samantha is keeping up with it. It takes a while but the monster eventually is slain and the party cheer.


<>---<> End Battle Theme <>---<>


Frank loots the bag getting three gnarled fangs, a snappa fin, and 16 bits.

"That was a struggle," Jack says as he just floats upside down for a bit until the current starts to drag him slightly away.

"Let's keep going, we know we can fight them, but that was just one alone, a group will prove a challenge," Frank says as they continue swimming.

"I feel so gross," Samantha comments as the fur on her hands and paws is soaked and gathering grime.

"Just bare with it for now, Sam," Laura replies feeling sorry for the Leoness.

The party comes across a couple more Green Snappa and manage to take them down for a few more fangs, fins, and bits.

The party pass by broken homes and what appears to be a children's playground, broken and overgrown. Sam sheds a few tears seeing the skeletal remains of some children among the debris as they all glance at them.

After a few more fights with more Green Snappa and a school of bone fish, which were just twenty level 10 skeletal fish, simple enough to fight but they nearly killed Frank with how often they kept hitting him.

After an hour of swimming and fighting, the group arrive at a ruined looking temple, similar to the one they saw in Marelantis, just half of the size.

"This looks like the place," Daring comments, as she examines the ruin.

"Let's have a peek inside and then head back to Marelantis," Laura says and swims over to the doorway, but yelps as an octopus tentacle shoots out and grabs her. "AAHHHHH!" she screams as she's pulled in.

"LAURA!" everyone yells and swims into the temple to save her.