Chapter 1: Birth of a New King
When Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes that day, Friday, just before school and a few weeks before her 17th birthday, she was befuddled. She took a moment and tried to analyze the situation, blinking several times to clear away what was obviously the remnants of a dream or a visual illusion, but to no avail. There was simply no way to comprehend the large blue transparent box sitting right in front of her face.
“CONGRATULATIONS! YOU’VE BEEN CHOSEN TO BE [THE GAMER]!”
[ACCEPT]
So, instead of bothering with it, she just waved it away and ignored it. She was a regular purple unicorn, nothing particularly special about her. There was likely a reasonable explanation for such an unnerving hallucination to interrupt her mundane daily routine. Perhaps she was experiencing the initial stages of schizophrenia, though wasn’t schizophrenia primarily auditory in most cases? Odd, though not impossible. Perhaps she should mention it to her parents before it became an issue; there was certainly medication for illnesses like that.
Twilight briefly wondered why she wasn’t reacting more than she was, but brushed it off as grogginess (even though she oddly didn’t feel tired at all since waking up).
“Twily! Breakfast is ready! You’ll be late for school if you don’t hurry!”
“I’ll be down in a minute, mom!” Twilight responded.
There was a terse silence before: “Don’t tell me you were playing your video games this early in the morning!”
“W-what? No! Of course not, I wouldn’t do that!”
Even though that was something she would definitely do.
“If you say so,” her mother said from downstairs.
Twilight rolled her eyes and trotted downstairs. The blue box had all but faded, hanging just out of visibility, and seeming to change opacity based on how interested she was in seeing it. As it was, a faint square outline, almost indiscernible, brushed her periphery every few moments as she sat down to eat her meal. It was vaguely irritating, but nothing she couldn’t ignore.
“What’s happening in school today?” Twilight Velvet asked.
Twilight Sparkle barely glanced up from her meal to respond. “We’re just practicing some basic math formulas again, probably. Oh, I have a reading test in languages, too, but that shouldn’t be difficult.”
“And what about your lessons with the Princess?”
Twilight Sparkle looked up at her mother, more fully this time. “Oh! They’re going…”
There was another hallucination. A number, reminiscent of a modern roleplaying game, floated above her mother’s head as if suspended by invisible wires. It depicted a gaudy “LV 12” right underneath a visual representation of her name “[Twilight Velvet].” It was written in some kind of calligraphy, Times New Roman her mind supplied (Though she had no clue what that was). Each letter and number were exact and measured, drawn out as if copied by a factory or a magic program.
“Twilight, dear, are you okay? Have you been having trouble with your lessons from the Princess? If you want I can try to help in any way I can.”
“I woke up…” Twilight began to say, but stopped herself. The early morning wasn’t an ideal time to bring up an issue which wasn’t chronic or overtly detrimental. The evening would be a more ideal time to discuss the possibility of schizophrenia or whatever similar disorder her hallucinations were originating from. “...And I really, really want to go back to bed.”
“Oh, Twilie, you know you have to go to school. You certainly love the subjects, so don’t worry, you’ll wake up!”
“Can I at least have a little bit of coffee?” Twilight asked.
“Not until you’re older. You’ll go crazy if you have some now, we don’t need a Twilight on caffeine!”
“Ugh, fine.”
“Maybe on your next birthday. I have to warn you, though, it’s quite bitter!” her mother warned with a smile. “Until then, study hard and do well in school! The princess, your father and I have high hopes for you!”
“I know, I know…” Twilight mumbled, shoveling some food into her mouth. “I’m the top of my class, after all! I’ll accept any help, though; the workload is difficult even if the subjects aren’t.”
“I never doubted you, I’m always here to help if you need it. Now you better hurry.”
“Yep! I’ll see you tonight!” Twilight said, finishing the rest of her breakfast. She jumped up, grabbed her bag, and bolted out the door. She barely even registered that the screen in front of her face had faded.
*******
Twilight hadn’t expected her hallucinations to end there, but no matter how much she tried to focus on making the blue panel reappear, it stayed gone. It was as if they were a figment of her imagination (though obviously they were, but the idiom stands metaphorically). There was some kind of surreal quality to thinking about it: how could she be so calm and collected when contemplating a severe psychological issue? In fact, why wasn’t she even considering it to be a problem?
It was as if she had subconsciously accepted that it was a part of her life, and now that she couldn’t interact with it, she was having doubts about her own sanity. Objectively looking at it, the entire situation was awry, though she almost refused to see the situation as any less than normal. It wasn’t normal.
For the first half of the day, all Twilight could really focus on was how she couldn’t see the screen anymore. As much as she tried to focus on the lectures (though they couldn’t be called lectures so much as they were menial depictions of various cultures around the world and gryphonian grammar), she found it to only serve as white noise to fuel her obsession with strange schizophrenic blue boxes.
What was [The Gamer]? Why was she chosen? Why was she even entertaining the notion of being special? She was certainly more learned than other ponies her age, but she didn’t consider herself any more talented or intelligent than them. She found an incredible interest in academic material unlike others, and therefore allocated a significantly larger amount of focus towards higher level material than other ponies in school.
It was during the second half of her day when something surprising happened. It surpassed any concept of causality, as if the cause and effect of choice had been tampered with. Twilight had just sat down in her linear algebra course offered at the local university for lower school students when another blue box had opened in front of her face.
“Quest alert: Pop Quiz [Linear Transformations]
Objective: Pass the test with a 70% or above
Completion Bonus: 20 experience
Failure Bonus: 0 experience”
Twilight felt the barest hints of surprise before they were crushed with doubt. There was no evidence of the professor having planned a quiz, especially considering the professor had not once given a quiz previously and it was beyond halfway into the year. The chances of a quiz were astronomically low. There was no need to worry about preparation, though she would likely be able to pass regardless.
She noticed, finally, looking around, that when she focused on others, their names and levels did appear over their heads. Unless she looked specifically for them, they never showed up, but the moment she was focusing entirely on the blue box, she saw that the other aspects of the illusion manifested around her.
Then, professor Rational Root, contrary to all possibility, walked in with a large stack of papers titled “Quiz 1,” barely distinguishable from her distance. The class stood respectfully as Professor Root took his place at his desk and set the papers down in the corner of the table. Twilight felt a shiver run down her spine, and some pinpricks in her legs. This was wrong, it was so wrong. It had to be a joke--a well-devised prank that somepony had managed to pull.
Denial. She knew she was in denial. She had to observe the facts. Facts were key to a truthful and observant deduction.
She had woken up to a blue screen floating over her which others couldn’t perceive. Perhaps it was illusion magic rather than a mental disorder or… something she didn’t want to contemplate.
Illusion magic was difficult to perform, and even more difficult to dispel, though the signs of illusion magic were more straightforward: The caster or the object the spell is originating from must maintain contact with the recipient of the spell, the length is exponentially proportional with the amount of magic supplied, and area-of-effect illusion magic required significant preparation which couldn’t be done in a single evening.
Twilight shoved her bag away from her and quickly checked herself for any miscellaneous items touching her body.
Nothing.
“Miss Sparkle, is there something the matter?” Professor Root asked. The class was looking at her.
Twilight blushed and gave a nervous giggle. “Everything’s fine, sorry. I thought I misplaced something.”
“Of course,” Professor Root said. “I’m certain you’ll find it. If it’s a writing utensil, I can lend you one of mine, or you can ask a classmate, because today we’re having a pop-quiz!”
The students began vaguely complaining and all Twilight could do was watch helplessly as the quizzes were passed out. It wasn’t illusion magic, or at least any illusion magic that she knew of. How would someone construct a method to show information to another and allow only that one individual to see it?
There was no way…
Twilight looked down at her copy of the quiz. “[The Gamer], huh…”
An ability which manifested in her: something to set her apart from others and allow her to exceed their capabilities in her own unique way. It was an ability which had somehow, impossibly, predicted that a quiz was going to occur. Or, perhaps, even more horrifying: It was an ability which could create an instance where the professor would give a quiz, when the professor had originally never intended to do so.
There was no way to know which it was or how the ability worked without studying it. Even then, it could be an elaborate farce, but without any way to disprove its existence, there was no reason to continue ignoring it.
Twilight quickly finished the quiz and turned it in, watching as a new popup appeared.
“Quest completed: +20 experience!”
“So I passed, after all,” Twilight muttered before sitting back down. “I need to understand how this works. What happened, and what will happen…? Is this… just like my games?”
Everything pointed to her life being modified to fit into a vague concept of a video game. As utterly impossible as it was, there was no denying her perception of the world had drastically changed overnight.
After school, she decided, she would head home and then attempt to interact with the ‘game’ more thoroughly. If this was real and not just a dream, then there was no reason she shouldn’t work to understand it.
After all, knowledge is power.
*******
“[Stats]!” Twilight called, perhaps a bit too loudly. Luckily neither of her parents happened to be home, though her brother could arrive home at any moment. He was at his flugelhorn practice, though that ended early frequently.
A blue box popped up, on cue, right in front of her.
“[Name]: Twilight Sparkle
[Level]: 4 (2%/100)
[Special Talent]: Magic (+100% mana, +50% intelligence)
[Title]: Student of Celestia (+2 wisdom per level while title active)
[Primary Class]: Level 1 Scholar [0%/100](+20% intelligence, +20% scholar skill effectiveness, Scholar perks level 1 available)
[Secondary Class]: Level 1 Student [15%/100](+2% intelligence, +10% experience growth for abilities in a classroom setting)
[Health]: 20/20
[Mana]: 202/202 (base 101)
[Strength]: 7
[Dexterity]: 10
[Constitution]: 5
[Intelligence]: 27 (base 16)
[Wisdom]: 9
[Luck]: 3
Skill points: 0
Available perks: 1
Perks: Scholar;
- [Studied]: Adds a small experience burst when learning from skill books
Perks: Misc;
- [Gamer’s Mind]: Allows [The Gamer] to view life as if it were a game and makes [The Gamer] immune to all mental status effects
- [Gamer’s Body]: Allows [The Gamer]’s body to function as if it were a game character, and allows [The Gamer] to interact with the world on a similar level
- [Blessed by Magic]: Doubles effectiveness of all spells, doubles casting speed, doubles magic resistance, and halves chance of spell failure
Perks: Ailments;
(N/A)
Skills:
(N/A)”
“That’s… a lot of intelligence… and what’s [Blessed by Magic] mean? It looks really powerful, but each stat besides the [Gamer’s Body] and [Gamer’s Mind] seem to be based off of my actual capabilities. Is there any way to see what each stat affects?” Twilight asked. She almost expected an answer from the screen, but nothing changed. “Maybe if I touch it?”
Twilight reached out and poked [Intelligence]. Curiously, it actually felt like she had touched something, though it didn’t hold much substance. It was as if the screen was a viscous fluid and the letters were oil, floating on top.
Another screen expanded before her, startling her, with the title [Intelligence].
“[Intelligence]: The measure of one’s retention of information and the ability to understand and process that information. It affects total maximum mana pool as well as the effectiveness of spells. [Global base intelligence average: 22]”
“Well, that was insightful. This may help significantly with my studies! If I can get my intelligence up, I’ll be able to read and understand even more books!”
Twilight quickly, with newfound energy, pressed the rest of the options.
“[Name]: The identity of the individual. It changes based on how the individual views him or herself.”
“Huh… so [Name] can change based on self-perception? How does that work…?”
Twilight read over it again, trying to imagine a concrete example of the concept. Perhaps if someone disguised themselves and went by an alias, then the name would consequently shift to reflect the change in identification? That would make sense. It would require further exploration.
“[Level]: The approximate measure of achievement of an individual. As one increases his or her attributes and accomplishments, one’s level increases. Conversely, as [The Gamer] increases her level, her attributes will increase at her own discretion.”
The concept of one’s skills determining one’s level was a realistic outlook on how reality would work if translated to a game, though it seemed as if her own abilities worked more like the conventional RPG, in which one would level up in order to increase one’s power. It was interesting to observe how her power distinguished herself from other ponies.
“[Special Talent]: The primary directive of an individual. It provides an exponential increase in personal capability when doing activities related to that talent.
Available talents:
- Magic (+100% mana, +50% intelligence)”
“[Title]: The active title displays the accomplishments of its wearer. It provides extra bonuses based on the title’s origin.
Available titles:
- Student of Celestia (+2 wisdom per level while title active)
- Blessed of Magic (Allows the use of all kinds of magic, even if the species requirement is not met. Stat-based requirements still apply)”
Odd… there was [Blessed of Magic] as a title, as well… though, it was different. It looked incredibly overpowered when seen from the perspective of reality, though it would make sense for the protagonist of a game to be able to branch off into whichever playstyle she wanted.
It would make the best method of confirming the capabilities of [The Gamer] ability.
“I wonder… what if I learned some Earth Pony tricks and tried them? That would certainly be a fun experiment which wouldn’t cause any huge issues to the world. I’ll have to set up an experiment in a location where I can’t be monitored, just in case…” Twilight muttered to herself. “But first, I should continue trying to understand the rest of this.”
“[Primary Class]: The occupation the individual currently holds. It allows for specialized abilities and stat bonuses. This can be changed freely and each occupation has different requirements for leveling up.
Discovered classes:
- Scholar (Level 1 [0%/100])(+20% intelligence, +20% scholar skill effectiveness, Scholar perks level 1 available [Scholar gains experience with every new skill learned, every successful experiment, and every book read])
- Student (Level 1 [15%/100](+5% intelligence, +20% experience growth for abilities in a classroom setting [Student gains experience with every test or quiz completed, and for every class passed])”
“[Secondary Class]: The secondary occupation the individual currently holds. It allows for specialized abilities one level below that of the primary class, and half effectiveness of stat bonuses. This can be changed freely and each occupation has different requirements for leveling up.
Discovered classes:
- Scholar (Level 1 [0%/100])(+10% intelligence, +10% scholar skill effectiveness, Scholar perks level 0 available [Scholar gains experience with every new skill learned, every successful experiment, and every book read])
- Student (Level 1 [15%/100](+2% intelligence, +10% experience growth for abilities in a classroom setting [Student gains experience with every test or quiz completed, and for every class passed])”
“[Health]: The total amount of health the individual has as well as the amount of health the individual has left. If health reaches 0, the individual is left in a dying state, and if health reaches half of his or her max health below 0, the individual dies. Because of how [Gamer’s Body] interacts with the world, conventional physics do not apply”
“Interesting…” Twilight said. “It seems, contrary to most game mechanics, if health reaches 0 you don’t die. I… don’t think I’ll test that.”
Twilight shuddered, thinking about testing that on someone. That wasn’t an experience she wanted to have any time soon.
“I… would I even feel regret? [Gamer’s Mind] suggests that I would just see it as I would a death in a video game. That’s… really terrifying.”
For a moment, Twilight simply considered leaving it there and just ignoring the ability. She didn’t want anything to do with death outside of a video game, and the screen was suggesting that fighting would become an integral part of her life. It scared her. It scared her more thinking of the idea that she might not even feel the impact of her possible decision to kill.
“No,” Twilight said. “I shouldn’t think about that right now. I need to understand this power or it could cause some serious problems later. If I understand it, I can both use it to my advantage as well as minimize any issues which stem from it.”
Resolving herself to learning more, she continued reading.
“[Mana]: The total amount of mana available to the individual as well as the amount of mana the individual has left. If mana reaches 0, the individual is left in an exhausted state. For every 10% below 0, the individual receives temporary physical debilitations. Once mana reaches half of his or her max mana below 0, the debilitations become permanent.”
Luckily she had a large reserve of mana, it seemed. It would come in handy.
“[Strength]: The measure of physical prowess. Allows the individual to perform physical feats scaling with the numerical value of this statistic. [Strength] determines physical damage, damage reduction, and effectiveness of heavy weapons. [Global base strength average: 23]”
“[Dexterity]: The measure of limberness. It allows the individual to perform physical feats scaling with the numerical value of this statistic. [Dexterity] determines fluidity of motion, precision of all abilities, and deftness of performing skills. [Global base dexterity average: 17]”
“[Constitution]: The measure of hardiness. It allows the individual to take more hits and perform physical feats scaling with the numerical value of this statistic. [Constitution] determines damage reduction, maximum health, and movement speed. [Global base constitution average: 21]”
“[Intelligence]: The measure of one’s retention of information and the ability to understand and process that information. It affects total maximum mana pool as well as the effectiveness of spells. [Global base intelligence average: 22]”
“[Wisdom]: The measure of one’s ability to perceive the world around them, make educated decisions, and adapt to new situations. It affects health regeneration, mana regeneration, and the strength of almighty, holy, and demonic magics. [Global base wisdom average: 17]”
“[Luck]: The measure of fortune. It allows [The Gamer] to tip the scales of fate in her favor. This statistic is unique to [The Gamer] and has no comparative stat for others. [Luck] affects the chances for rarer item drops, more money drops, enemy misfortune, ally fortune, and various other real-world applications.”
Luck…
“Celestia…” Twilight gasped.
It seemed like a stat which actively altered the space around her. What kind of power was it that she had acquired, to be able to change even the outcome of events so they would fall within her favor?
No, she should think of it as a boon rather as an impossibility. She could test the values in the future to prove authenticity.
The rest of the stats were admirable and necessary, but [Luck] changed everything. What practical uses did it have? No, what practical uses didn’t it have? Luck, Twilight decided, was necessary.
“[Perks]: Special abilities granted based on class or special circumstances. They are passive abilities used to bolster individual capabilities and are always active. Status ailments are listed under Perks: Ailments;”
“[Skills]: Active skills which allow the user to perform great feats. These are learned through performing a special action successively and are leveled up by performing that action continually.”
Twilight finished reading the descriptions on the stats page.
“[Close]” Twilight said on an experimental whim. The page closed, and Twilight looked around her room. Everything suddenly seemed so much bigger and expansive than before, and Twilight felt like she suddenly had the capacity to see it all.
The sound of the front door opening didn’t startle her, but Twilight certainly found herself knocked out of her stupor.
“Hey, you here, Twilight?” her brother, Shining Armor, called.
“Yeah!” Twilight responded. “I’m in my room!”
There were some loud footsteps and then knocks on her door. “You aren’t playing games again, are you? I know you’re smart and all, but that doesn’t excuse you from studying. Well, unless it’s that really cool new shooter that came out yesterday, I might let it slide if you let me play~”
“Oh be quiet, Shining, you know I’ll let you play once I’m done. You’ll just spoil it if I let you play first,” Twilight reprimanded.
“That was once!” Shining groused. “You can’t keep holding that over my head.”
“Yeah, once you spoiled five of the games I was playing. I love you big bro, but I’ll never forgive you for that.”
“Ugh... fine, fine, I’ll just leave you alone. You have fun playing your game, I’ll be busy sitting around all alone over in my room.”
There were footsteps and suddenly Twilight was totally alone again with only her brother several rooms down. It was a comforting silence.
Twilight thought back to her scholar perk. It mentioned skill books. Logically, Twilight supposed, a skill book was similar to skill books in games: books which allowed the user to learn new skills or upgrade skills and attributes by reading them. She wondered how those translated to the real world.
Taking a gamble, Twilight reached for the nearest book. It was hardly difficult to grab--her entire room was littered with various textbooks and reference materials. It was a large book on the theory of transmogrification, intermediate level describing inanimate object modification into entirely different objects.
As soon as she touched it, a message popped up:
“Learn skill [Intermediate Transmogrification]?
[Accept] [Decline]
Twilight hesitated, then hit [Accept]. For a moment nothing happened, then another box appeared.
“Error: Prerequisite [Beginner Transmogrification (LvlMax)] not found”
“W-what? But I already know all the theory and most of the practical applications of beginner transmogrification! I was already halfway through this one!” Twilight screeched. “Nonononono, do I have to learn it all again!?”
“Twilie?” her brother called from down the hall. “Is everything okay?”
“Y-yeah!” Twilight responded. “Everything’s fine!”
“Okay, just checking! I can’t imagine you losing a game, but don’t overreact if you do! It’s not healthy.”
“Yeah, yeah, like I’d ever lose,” Twilight breathed out. “I got it!” she continued, calling out so her brother heard her.
“I’ll never understand how she manages to play so many games and still ace all her tests…” Twilight heard her brother say before he went back to doing whatever he was doing.
“A [Skill] has been created through a special act. Through frequent listening, the [Listen] skill has been created.
[Listen]: The ability to hear further distances.
Lvl 1(0%/100), +10% hearing range”
“Ummm… that’s… useful, I think?”
Twilight realized she could faintly hear her brother playing ‘Sister Dating Simulator 3’ when she couldn’t before. She found it quite funny that he had that game, though she, herself, had played and beaten it while dating all girls simultaneously including unlocking the ‘Secret Sister’ ending. The challenge was enjoyable, if odd.
“No, I gotta see if I can still use my magic. If I can’t, I’m screwed in my magic-based classes!” Twilight said. “Gotta focus, gotta focus… okay, okay, maybe if I try to do something…”
Slowly, Twilight gathered magic into her horn, focusing very hard because it seemed more difficult than usual, as if she’d forgotten how it was supposed to feel like. The energy sparked occasionally, uncontrolled, flowing through the magic veins rampantly but not painfully. It was like a torrent, she hadn’t even realized she had that much magic.
Eventually, she focused the magic into a specific pattern in her horn and after some struggling, she released it onto an empty soda can. Her magic impacted the can, denting it and then changing the texture of half of it into what looked like tin foil.
“No… no, this can’t be…” Twilight lamented. “It’s as if I’ve never done magic before. This is horrible!”
Even as she was saying that, three blue messages had already appeared.
“A [Feat] has been created through a special act. Through harnessing the energy of a unicorn, the [Unicorn Magic] perk has been created.
[Unicorn Magic]: The ability to perform magic feats as a unicorn would
A [Skill] has been created through a special act. Through manipulating the energy of the body, the [Internal Mana Manipulation] skill has been created.
[Internal Mana Manipulation]: Through concentration, one can harness the power of the body and shape it to their whims.
Lvl 1(2%/100), +1% max mana, +1% success rate with magic skills
A [Skill] has been created through a special act. Through changing the form of another object, the [Basic Transmogrification] skill has been created.
Lvl 1(2%/100), +1% success rate with transmogrification skills, +1% duration of changed items”
“It’s true… all my hard work is gone…”
It was as if her body wasn’t her own anymore, and she had to relearn it entirely from scratch. Her body felt borrowed, and when she thought about it, it made sense. Her body, her entire perception of reality, was changed to accept [The Gamer] ability. It was an ability she’d never even asked for, and yet it forced itself on her.
Was this power really a blessing, or was it just a curse? No, she shouldn’t think like that, it wasn’t beneficial. The ability seemed to streamline learning new things and increase her long-term performance. She just needed to grind her skills back up to where they were, and if she managed that, then she could easily accelerate her abilities well beyond what they initially were.
All she knew was that she had to level up her skills and learn as many of her old skills as possible before the next practical examination or everypony would know something was wrong. She couldn’t let that happen. She would be the best. She would impress her wonderful teacher Princess Celestia, her parents, and everyone else. There was no way she couldn’t, not with the power she had.
Twilight went back and began writing down all the theory she remembered from her old books, but suddenly she realized that she remembered all of it. No, that wasn’t quite true, she suddenly found herself able to recall all of the information from her basic transmogrification books perfectly, and beyond that there was even information on the theory of transmogrification that she didn’t remember ever having learned.
It was as if learning the skill shoved the information into her head, she could remember having done spells she knew she’d never used before, she remembered learning theory she’d never heard before. It was wrong, like something fundamental had changed within her mind, and she just knew like an act from some celestial being.
Maybe she could actually do this. It didn’t matter if it felt wrong, it didn’t matter if it screwed with her mind, knowledge was knowledge and that’s all that mattered.
...Why did that sound so ominous?
*******
Somewhere in-between, there was a room. In that room there was a single object, mechanical in origin, which was watched over by a single pony. “Report to us immediately if there are any changes,” were his orders. He was finally able to complete those orders, for after 12 years the object finally opened up.
Inside there was nothing more than an egg, but that didn’t matter. The pony had his orders, and his duty was to fulfil them. Soon, he would finally be able to sleep once more, and this time never wake up. This eternal nightmare would end, and he would be freed of his chains.
That was all that mattered.
For the first time in 12 years, he cracked a bloody smile, and as soon as he sent his message, he finally found rest.
In the shadows, a bipedal creature emerged. It wore a black suit with a black hat. The Man in Black gave an eerie, sharp-toothed grin, as if it had no lips, and uttered three words:
“Babylon will fall.”
********