While sitting on your ass for about twelve hours may appear to be boring and really unproductive, 'The Gamer' makes it all work out as I didn't even feel numb after this long being in one position and simply reading book after book. After about an hour or so I dismissed my turtleneck, shoes, and pants as it was a rather warm night and just sat there in a shirt and panties while trying to understand the rumbling of an old Earth Pony that apparently had a boner for Cartography. After finishing the book about the beasts of the Everfree I took the next one that was written about the geography of Equestria and how it was bordering with several other countries, which wasn't mentioned in the show and therefore I only had this book and somewhat fractured memories of Moon Dancer to go with.

'Having a Special Talent in Cartography is one thing, but this guy apparently had a love to read whatever he wrote so he decided to wank his own genius for thirteen fucking pages!' Honestly, Red Liner spent over a dozen pages simply patting himself on the back and telling everyone how fucking awesome he was because he managed to travel around more than an average Pony ever would! Talk about an Ego with a Capital 'E' being fully deserved and earned through hard work. The book was actually called 'The Lands of the World' and had a rather dry and scientific summary on the first page, but apparently it was written after the damn bastard submitted his work to the publisher and then someone slapped this little thing on the title-page for some reason. I took one of the notebooks that Moony had and made a list of places that I would need to visit, it wasn't an urgent matter and I simply wanted to check them out if something worth taking was there as I had no actual desire to risk my neck for nothing. Getting through the rumblings and wild descriptions was a chore, but I managed to create a somewhat chronological list of places in Equestria that I would need to visit at one point or another.

I had no plans on living the country yet, this was like a 'Beginner's Territory' in Gamer's terms and therefore had a very large population of things that could let me kick-start my own growth. For example, if Parasprites could produce even a little Experience then I could just feed them and kill them at a rather fast pace as they procreated at the speed that would make nanomachines turn green with envy. The easy, safe and absolutely harmless way of pumping myself up with free Experience as long as I don't run out of the bugs to kill and food to feed them so they would multiply. Why bother with dangerous critters when there was a very safe and very easily acquired source of basically limitless grinding via pseudo-pest-control?

During the night I tried to actually use [Telekinesis] to lift myself from the ground and ran into a little bit of a snag. While I could do it and there really wasn't any problem with it, the drain on my Mana went up by an order of magnitude and I again marveled just how fucking much Mana does Twilight have to be able to levitate Spike all around like in the Series. Apparently, living beings were somewhat resistant to Magic on some fundamental level, and you either required a specific Spell that would let bypass it or much more juice put into your Spell to brute-force your way through. 'Magical Theory of Spell Application' was a goldmine when it came to explaining things like that to me, Moon Dancer probably knew them too but the memories on that were hazy and lacked some facts leaving holes that could cause some serious problems in the future. Now I was filling these with fresh knowledge from books and repairing some of the damage done by my arrival, and I even managed to get a couple of Points in INT for the troubles.

Also, one of the things I did during the night on one of my breaks was to make some Skills that would guarantee my own safety in any area upon use, the second most useful Skill ever created and probably one of the only reasons I knew that I will be able to sneak into some of the more protected parts of Equestria without notice.

[ID Create(Active) LV1 EXP: 17.33%]
Used to create Instant Dungeons.
Stronger Instant Dungeons may be created at higher Levels.
Currently available ID list:
1. Empty ID - Monsters: None

This was the most underused Skill ever created! I could potentially just create an Illusion Barrier, walk into the guarded vault and exit it there. After basically cleaning it out I would create another Illusion Barrier and see myself out without anyone noticing a damn thing! Same can be said about traveling through the dangerous territories and the only living beings that will enter the Illusion Barrier with me will be the ones I wanted to come with we when I created it and that was pretty much it. There literally wasn't a defense capable of stopping me, or a prison able to hold me as I would simply slip away and escape no matter what was said and done about containing me. While I won't try and get myself into troubles now, I still did a little mental happy dance at the new achievement and a very good new way of getting things.

My little escapade into Twilight's former house could've turned out really badly if I were to be caught, but a little bit of luck with general population being too concerned about their ongoing celebration rather than about a single girl behaving slightly suspiciously saved my ass there. I rushed into things, I didn't properly think things through and just did something while operating on a half-baked plan that held little to nothing when it came to backups in case of my arrest. I really wanted to tear my hair out, but what was done was done and I came out without a scratch so there wasn't a reason to beat myself about it now. I won't make the same mistake again, this was for sure as I mentally made a note to always operate under the assumption that the World had it out for me and everything that could go wrong will.

On a more relaxed note, I managed to make another Skill, this time I decided to stick to the more general Spells that were mostly accepted in Equestria and won't make people raise any eyebrows if I were to use it in the open. In basic terms it was that beam attack that Unicorns liked to use so much before Sombra I actually thought that it was the only Combat Orientated Magic that actually existed period but apparently I was proven wrong. It took me some time to figure out how to manipulate Mana in a right way, but after an hour of trying not to make a bolt out of it but a stable beam I managed to actually do it. While I was inside a freshly created Illusion Barrier I managed to put a hole in my window, shattering glass like nothing and sending a rather thin and underpowered-looking beam of Magic from the tip of my horn.

And I couldn't help but be a little bit of a nerd about it too.

[Cero(Active) LV1 EXP: 4.99%]
The Basic Magical Beam-Attack that can be produced by the User and solely depends on how much Mana you put into it.
Deals 150% Magical Attack Damage
Passively Decrease Mana Cost by 1%

Yes, it was pencil-thin and wouldn't scratch even the flimsiest of defenses, but it was still awesome to launch freaking lasers at things with my own Power. I tried launching it from the tip of my index finger and it was as easy as from the horn, I just had to apply a little bit of concentration to mentally relocate the initial launching point of the Spell we had a very watered down version of Hollow's main attack. Yes, I blatantly decided to reap off the name from the Anime Bleach, but I couldn't care less if someone will call me unoriginal because it was my Power I could do whatever I wanted with it. Yes, it was a childish reason and all that, but an Anime-Fan in me would've cried bloody tears of I were to miss such a golden opportunity.

I wasn't in any hurry to get my [ID Create] to start spewing Monsters at me, I had time and, even at the first Level, it was incredibly potent and useful. I now had all the basic bases covered with [Teleportation] and [Cero] making me able to basically deal damage while keeping myself safe and away from my Target. I could probably make myself fly with [Telekinesis], but it wasn't up to snuff just yet for that and my Mana Pool would be drained pretty damn fast if I were to attempt such a thing. Hit-And-Run Tactic was the key for me so far, at least until I would be able to find myself something to deal with the enemies that would be able to get close and personal with me.

'Hey, hey, my, my... Kung Fu can never die.' I had no even the faintest clue about where I would be able to actually acquire the Skills needed for Close Combat. In Magical Combat, I could just use some tricks and a little bit of simple ingenuity to come up with Technique, one after another, but there was no actual way I would be able to win a sword-fight through sheer persistence and durability. Theoretically, I could just venture onto the training grounds of the Royal Guards, but there was no fucking way somebody would be dumb enough to leave anything that could count as a Skill Book lying around where I would be able to snatch it. Hand-to-Hand was also a questionable choice as there was no fucking way I would be able to pull a Saitama and simply have so much raw Power that any Skill would become literally useless.

Do you remember a time when Video Games weren't all about bold new shotgun-based interior design techniques, those intellectual days of the point-and-click adventure when games were comfortable about testing the players' Skills beyond the ability to line up a set of crosshairs with the softest and gushiest regions of a shouting murderer? Don't you long for the days when you'd methodically track your mouse pointer across every pixel on the screen to find more inventory items to run around rubbing on every interactive object in the game in the hope of finding a way onto the one solitary thread of logic that was about as straightforward as a cow's digestive system?

No? Good. 'Cause neither does Equestria.

My deep thinking was interrupted by the loud knock on the front door, it was morning now and I was pretty sure it was either one of Moon Dancer's friends that wanted to cheer her up or the Royal Guards to arrest me for theft. Either was I would need to be on my best behavior, while Moon Dancer wasn't all that sociable and started to open up not long ago she still had certain patterns to her behavior and therefore there was a chance that someone educated enough could point at me and say: 'Changeling! J'accuse!'. Ponies were kind of naive and somewhat blind to the facts that were smacking them into the face, but they were also rather weird when it came to facing possible threats as it was proven with 'Green Wedding Incident'.

I stood up and switched my clothes to Moon Dancer's daily attire, making sure not to miss anything. The only things that I left behind were the glasses that were now useless to me and the adjustment to my hairstyle as no fucking way I was going to wear something like that. Instead, I decided to put my hair into a mid-ponytail and just leave it there as it didn't actually bother me after fully grasping Moony's memories. I walked down the stairs and towards the door, mentally going over the list of things that I could use as an excuse to ward off any questions that may lead to my exposure as an imposter. Taking a deep breath, even if I didn't need to calm down due to [Gamer's Mind] making it impossible for me to panic, I reached out and grasp the door handle.

'Time to face the music.' And with that thought, I opened the door.

I severely underestimated just how much of a 'Good Samaritans' the Ponies were before engaging my guests in a conversation, the three girls that showed up on my doorsteps were Moony's old classmates and actually someone who she could tentatively call friends: Minuette, Twinkleshine, and Lemon Hearts. While I knew them from the Series and the slightly faded and damaged memories of the owner of the body I was now in there were certain things that were slightly off about what I actually expected of them. In Canon, they dropped Moony and left her stew in her own misery until Twilight came to shove her whole muzzle where it didn't belong and again prove to us that she considered anyone who didn't think like her automatically wrong.

Moony was hurt by the fact that the purple Unicorn didn't attend her party, she was just coming out of her shell and gathering the courage to properly engage herself into society and was met with what basically was a bitch-slap. The memory of her, of her feelings at that day, were so vivid due to them the most recent that I honestly had to suppress the desire to get to the Elements of Harmony before her and steal them so Nightmare Moon would kick her ass while I would pull other girls out of there in time.

Apparently in this version of Equestria there was just a tad bit more connection between those three and Moon Dancer, Minuette actually was the most vocal about how I should get out and do something about my 'broody' behavior. They were supportive, Lemon even got herself a free day from work that she liked so much just so she could come and help and that was something that I had not foreseen. Lemon Hearts was actually something akin to a 'Event Manager' but on a grander scale and was in the group of people that planned the big shows around the Canterlot and performed all the 'drawing-board'-types of the development. While the Summer Sun Celebration was kind of a yearly thing, it still required a damn good team to pull through all the things that needed to be done, while the whole system was a lot less restricted than in the Real World there still were some unpredictable curveballs.

"Moony, just try and you'll see that it's fun." Her encouragements were calm and spoken in a such tone that you couldn't help but listen to her. "I know that you don't like all these physical activities, but you need something that will let you unwind and this is a perfect opportunity to do so."

<Heartfelt Planner>
LV4 Lemon Hearts

She was taller and curvier than me, I actually wondered if Moony was a midget or something like that, with long wavy moderate cerulean hair that curled on the ends with a light cerulean tail streak. She was wearing green jeans, yellow shirt and rented white and red special shoes, her moderate raspberry eyes held warmth as them as she looked at me with a smile as her light brilliant yellow hold glowed with moderate fuchsia Magical Aura. Between us was hovering a bowling ball that she was persuading me to try and throw, it was an utter surprise that the group would drag me here of all places as Moon Dancer wasn't a very physically fit person around to begin with. I was moderately good at the game, but the Discount Twilight never even saw the thing in her whole life and I was pretty sure that I wasn't good enough of an actor to pull a fake miss convincingly.

I was actually quite glad that I managed to develop [Observe] because otherwise, I would've been screw quite literally because of Lemon, the girl had a honest to God empathy. Due to her 'Special Talent' she could literally feel the emotions of others around her, and while I was pretty sure that Cadenza was far better at it I still felt really creeped out about a person who could read others like an open book. [Gamer's Mind] let me hide my emotions from her and I did it with some of them, but I couldn't do it with every one of them because having no emotions would ring so many alarm bells in Lemon's head that I honestly didn't even dare to count. It wasn't all that hard to let only the appropriate ones to leak through, but there was always a risk of me slipping and screwing up and that made me sweat buckets.

"Do it!" Minuette was standing not far behind us, with a bottle of water in hand as she just sent her own ball rolling and knocked down seven pins. "Or we won't let you go otherwise!"

<Girl on the Clock>
LV5 Minuette

She was wearing identical to Lemon's rented shoes, blue and white horizontally striped pantyhose, thighs-length gray shirt and short light cornflower blue as her horn jacket with long sleeves. She was also taller and curvier than me which kind of irked, her wide enthusiastic smile that held no strain or fake~ishness of the one from Canon actually helped along with a sincere desire to help that she showed. Her moderate sapphire blue eyes were all but sparkling with energy as she stood there and edged me on to participate in the game.

Using [Observe] on her honestly made me want to reconsider the fact that Time Turner wasn't actually a Time Lord, Minuette held a whole fucking torch for that position with her 'Special Talent' actually being 'Temporal Manipulations' and an innate understanding of Time-Stream which made her basically a walking talking timer as she never lost the sense of time. As Luna would've said right now: 'Bullshit Has Been Doubled'! I stood near a person who can actually manipulate fucking Time and there weren't any men in black suits loading her into the van to study this phenomenon in Equestrian's version of Area Fifty-One. How the fuck was this even fair?! She had the Power to literally alter the Fourth Dimension on a whim and nobody took any notice about her apparent valuable status?! I knew that there were several Spells that could manipulate Time to an extent, Starlight Glimmer's little time-travel trick and that one-time Twilight went back into the past to create a stable time-loop with herself as the main initiator of the whole thing. Minuette apparently, not even having a half of the Mana these two possessed during those incidents, could pull the same stunts if she was to put her mind into it and just work in the right direction with a little bit of help.

'And Celestia just left these girls to go into the World without batting an eyelash, truly her eyes are the sharpest among the blind.' The sarcasm never left the safe confines of my mind, any need to attract the unneeded attention to myself by speaking against the local New Jesus.

<Twinkling Star>
LV3 Twinkleshine

The last of the group just smile warmly at me, Twinkleshine was a lot like a more confident and outgoing Fluttershy when it came to kindness to others. Her hair and tail were pale cerise and twisted into spirals at the ends, moderate arctic blue eyes and light goldish gray horn. Her figure also left me feeling kind of jealous as her curves were seen even through the thigh-long very pale-brown sundress that she wore, I was really considering the fact that I was the runt of the group here. She was sitting on the chair near our rented line and drank from a cup of mint tea, she was actually the one that persuaded me to come with her rather short but very touching speech about how I shouldn't let one bad experience ruin my perception in life.

Oh, and [Observe] revealed that her 'Special Talent' granted her the Ability to cast fucking Stellar Magic, which put her on the same starting line as Luna due to similarities in their Specializations and a ridiculous bullshit it could do. While I honestly had little knowledge about the Magic itself, Moony was good with theory but came out short in practice and never bothered to get herself into shape. I had no freaking clue why the fuck there simply wasn't some kind of a course that would let people bring out their own Specializations to bare, if my guess was correct then there was a huge possibility that Twinkleshine could potentially throw around balls of pure plasma on a whim if she was taught how to. I knew the reason, but it wasn't a very good one and I honestly only had the Series itself to base it upon: 'Necessity is the Mother of Invention' and there simply was no actual need for someone like that with Celestia being the Turtle and Jesus in a one package. There were no Wars, the conflict was actually solved by freaking pies as it was shown with Buffalo, even whining could work like it happened with Diamond Dogs and Rarity, why would anyone need to know how to fight when there was no need for it? Twilight could fire beams that could punch through stone, but it was all she had going for her in contrast to hundred cantrips that she could perform at a drop of a hat.

But it was beside the point, the main problem right now I had was the Window floating in front of me.

Quest Alert
Let's Get that Ball Rolling: Participate in the Game of Bowling with your Friends!
Participate in the Game of Bowling with your Friends and do not take the Last Spot.
Completion Award: 500 EXP; +250 Reputation with Minuette; +250 Reputation with Twinkleshine; +250 Reputation with Lemon Hearts
Additional Completion Award: [?]
Completion Failure: -150 Reputation with Minuette; -150 Reputation with Twinkleshine; -150 Reputation with Lemon Hearts

Well, apparently my Power also agreed with them.

"Alright, I'll play." I said in the best imitation of depressed Moony I could do and took the ball from Lemon's Telekinetic grip. "But I never played before so there is no chance of me actually hitting the pins."

"Fantastic." Lemon nodded as I adjusted a proper grip on the ball and put my fingers into right holes. "And don't worry, the point here is for you to unwind and for us to show you that you shouldn't try to lock yourself out like you did yesterday. This is us having fun, not competing or anything like that."

I kind off could understand her, she was an Empath could feel the problems with others around her. I couldn't get much information about her as my [Observe] wasn't good enough to dig out anything worth mentioning other than the fact that she was concerned and worried about me. Moony probably was a total wreck when she left the party and had a very bad emotional output that made Lemon put such an effort into this whole thing, my theory that Moony actually took the shortcut to the 'Next Great Adventure' was gaining more and more ground here. Damn, that was kind of Dark for the World where pastel-colored Ponies ran supreme and the sun was being actually moved instead of the planet moving around it like in a proper World it should actually be.

"If you insist." I sighed and walked to the beginning of the line and took the position. "But I can't guarantee any actual success."

One thing about 'The Gamer' that I was thankful for was that I could use my old reflexes and coordination as good as I did in my old body, I just needed to adjust to a shorter reach and the difference in the body-type to properly use what I knew. Bowling wasn't that hard of a game, you just needed practice and a good aim for it to become a question of how much you practiced and developed your motor skills with the ball. Girls' question about my glasses was answered that I decided to go with the lenses that Moony actually owned but never used since 'The School for Horny Population', who knew?

I let my hand swing back and then forward, letting the heavy ball shoot forward in a perfect line without even a slight drop and directly towards the leading pin. With the loud impact and the sound of the pins flying away, I was treated to the sight of a clear line and the sudden silence from Minuette. I just managed to pull a Strike on my first shot, there just wasn't any way that this was an anything but pure dumb...

Through the Demonstration of the absurd amount of Fortuna's Favor your LUK has Increased by 1.

'Agreed...' I honestly wasn't even trying here, and my Power agreed with me.

"Damn! That's what others call Beginner's Luck, eh?" Minuette whistled with a cheerful smile coming back onto her face she almost choked on her water from seeing my feat. "Well, Moony, this is going to be fun!"

"I agree." Lemon nodded with her own smile. "Are you sure you never played before? This was one good shot there."

I could hear from the tone she was using that she was only teasing, and I had the decency to blush as I stared as machine put all the pins back into their proper places. This was something I honestly wasn't expecting coming here, but at least this made me actually have some fun and I wasn't going to let it go. I was paranoid, but it didn't mean that I was going to simply live the life of a loner that wore tin-hat and lived on can-food while collecting cutouts from the newspapers. I had friends in my previous life and I had a great time with them, this new life came with already attached friends that weren't mine but if my suspicions were right and Moony was actually dead then... I wasn't a bad person, I never really wanted to be a Hero or something like that but being cruel to someone just for the sake of something that at the moment didn't matter wasn't something I would ever do.

'Why does thing have to be so fucking complicated?' It was a good thing that I couldn't actually get a headache thanks to [Gamer's Mind] or this would've been one hell of a migraine. I was delivered an opportunity to have friends on a silver platter with no actual strings attached, but from the ethical point of view, it will be actually wrong to perceive them as such due to the fact that they didn't see me as Jessica Soer but as Moon Dancer. Would've they been as supportive of me as they were now if they knew the truth? No fucking way, I would've been probably confined to the dungeons as some kind of a 'body snatcher' and then blasted with the Racist Rainbow-Canon for several times until they will learn that there wasn't any way for me be affected by them. Well, I wasn't certain what will come next, but I was pretty sure that it won't be pretty. 'Well, at least that would happen if I was anywhere else, but I can't say for certain with Equestria.'

I retreated towards the table where Twinkie sat, my mind as calm as ever as I sat on the free chair and took a sip from my glass with orange juice. I really wanted it to suddenly turn into beer, but there just wasn't any fucking way I could get some without raising any suspicious from the girls that were currently with me. And the small nice buzz from the alcohol coursing through my bloodstream would've been such a nice distraction from the heavy and really depressing thoughts. I absently noted how Minuette just knocked down six pins and landed herself with a two-on-two Split, quite a predicament, and one that can't be solved by someone without any seriously good aim. Pure luck would work too, but we can't expect blessings with each penny on the plate, it didn't work that way.

"See, it's not that bad, isn't it?" I looked up and saw Twinkie smiling at me. "Lemon told us." I actually had to blink, I have no idea what she was leading me up to and Moony had no memories that provided any insight. "About how you're suppressing how you feel, she rather good at telling how people feel. Yesterday you were feeling hurt and we really wanted to come but it didn't feel right, today she could tell that you just locked yourself up and left it all boil inside."

'Oh, fuck no!' This wasn't a conversation I was prepared to have at any given moment, there simply wasn't enough whiskey in the whole fucking blue world to wash away all the guilt that I could feel coming down on me like a tidal wave. Twinkleshine, along with Lemon Hearts and Minuette originally came there to comfort Moony and only after Lemon told them about how she felt my emotions flat-lining due to [Gamer's Mind] they decided to drag me outside! Shit, this wasn't a something akin of a 'Cheer-Up!'-outing but rather an intervention that was being performed due to them being worried that I would do something stupid to myself. I'm pretty sure that they weren't even considering something as radical as a suicide, these girls were just too soft and too innocent for something like that and it was displayed by their awkward and rather an inept attempt to distract me and demonstrate that I wasn't alone.

'Bunnies die from loneliness.' Equestria was a rather soft and innocent land that was built on certain values that would clash with Reality so hard that the Void will probably leak through the cracks. The whole Nation like one big cage of bunnies, who valued 'Friendship' as an actual Concept that tied things together and could overcome the greatest of calamities. These girls would never think that there is a chance I would slit my wrists in the bath-tub full of ice, they were afraid that I would go into depression and decided to interfere in their own way that they felt was the right one. This wasn't even Disney, death was accepted there and therefore they held such a high standards for their production and tried to establish themselves as a well-rounded company at the current date. This was something akin of an old and a rather idealistic setting where all was good and as long as you were positive anything could happen, this was the World where 'Happily Ever After' was a Concept of Reality and the Law of Nature at the same time.

"Listen..." I began, but she just kept talking as if she didn't hear me.

"We're friends and we want to help you." Her voice was calm and warm, but I could detect the slight note pleading in her tone. "What Twilight did was wrong and we all agree, but we don't want you to just retreat back from what you already achieved. You never talked with others in school until we pulled you in, I still remember how you helped us out with our projects when Sparkle went into one of her obsessive-compulsive little fits."

One of the most troublesome things that I read in Fics about people falling into Fictional Worlds was the fact that they assumed that all they saw in the Series they entered was Canon. I was dosed with a very big hose of sulfur-scented liquid Reality when I tried to see just how close this Universe was to the Canonical land of Pastel Colored Ponies. This was probably something akin of a 'For What of a Nail'-things that would lead to some very serious changes later on, I honestly had no real point of reference and only knew some facts that may or may not happen depending on how the whole Humanization-thing will affect the outcomes. This whole situation made my head almost hurt, Twinkleshine was Moony's first friend and they actually got along in school while Lemon and Minuette came in later with each carrying their own weight and significance. There was no fucking way I could simply pretend to be Moony with Twinkie basically hovering over me, I was a horrible actor and had no actual clue how I managed to wing it this far.

The Window that showed my Reputation with others told me that much.

Personal:
Lemon Hearts: Honored(5,100/12,000)
Minuette: Honored(7,770/12,000)
Twilight Sparkle: Neutral(1,120/3,000)
Twinkleshine: Honored(9,750/12,000)

From I deducted I would need to actually meet someone to have their Reputation displayed and perform at least some basic form of interaction so they will be forming an opinion about me. These girls already have their opinions about me, with it coming from their interactions with the original Moon Dancer and therefore they will be far easier to interact with. I would need to figure out how to work around Lemon's Empathy, it will be a pain in the ass if she was to start digging deeper into my life and notice something that she really shouldn't. There is no freaking way I would be able to figure out how to actually erase memories of someone, and I'm honestly not going to even try as any brainwashing of allies is one of the things that I won't do no matter what.

From the corner of my eye, I saw how Lemon managed to put down five pins after Minuette failed to knock down her Split, I really wasn't sure what they actually thought when they dragged me here and how they were going to cheer Moony up with bowling of all things. She wasn't athletic, there simply wasn't any way for her to enjoy this and even remotely speaking I honestly had no freaking clue how to react to this whole thing. The memories I had game me nothing, at least nothing useful as I could recall Twinkie talking about Moony needing some time outside and actually enjoying the life outside of her own shell more.

'Were they this helpful in Canon?' I was pretty sure that they weren't as Moony turned out to be just one step short of a hermit there. There was no fucking way they would've been just able to fail to bring her out with how good their relationships were right now, even if their friendship would've turned into a one-way street in Canon they wouldn't have abandoned her. This smelled badly of me being too far removed from Canonical Universe for some important events to play out right, Twilight becoming an Alicorn would happen because Celestia would probably drag the poor girl towards Ascension kicking and screaming if needed. Nightmare Moon debacle was already taken care of, today was a holiday just for that reason and only social places were open for business while others closed for the whole day.

If my memory serves me right the next thing will be 'The Ticket Master', which will leave the Main Six distracted for some time before the next Episode will roll in. Should I interfere with any of those? Planning wasn't my good point as I never had to perform any scheming of my own, but I was pretty sure that 'Griffon the Brush-Off' and 'Boast Busters' had some potential for me to gain new information and probably some help in my own goals. While befriending someone for the sole reason of gaining something was a very poor and low move, I wasn't going to throw them away and will try to get them settled to the best of my abilities and help as much as I would be able to.

'Dragonshy' went without question, a whole fucking horde of treasures was just laying there because of reasons unknown. No fucking way I was going to simply let it be left there, 'Need before Greed' and I fucking needed funds to sponsor my own life here and some serious purchases I was going to make at a later date. Maybe I will be able to buy the Alicorn Amulet? I had no clue how it will work out, but there simply wasn't any way I would let it be used by anyone so destroying it and nipping that little problem in the bud was the only real choice I had. I had no clue what I would be doing with Plunder Seeds, Discord left them there to grow and I honestly had no actual way to kill them all off in any conventional way other than blasting the whole thing with hoping the Tree of Harmony was tough enough to withstand the resulting explosion.

And I really needed to write it all down... I watched as Twinkie stood up, it was her turn to roll the ball, she actually managed to knock down nine pins and then finish off the last one, putting her on the second place right after me.

"Wow, didn't know she could do that." Lemon plopped onto the chair near me, I caught her glancing at me with a little worry but it was over fast. "So, let's see if you luck will hold, eh?"

I gave her a small smile, making sure to push some actual calm enjoyment over the [Gamer's Mind] so she won't worry so much. I noticed her becoming a little less stiff as I started leaking small amounts of positive emotions out, letting her feel them and making sure that none of my current frustration managed to get out. A little social engineer sitting near me wasn't going to leave anytime soon, and I would need to work out a way to interact with her without actually raising any alarms with how much of my emotions were hidden behind the impenetrable barrier of my Skill. There also was the matter of me actually having to struggle through the social life of Moon Dancer, I couldn't just invite the girls to a bar to get a couple of beers and bond with them over the night of drunken debauchery like I did once. These three simply weren't made from the same stuff as normal humans and I honestly couldn't think of a way for them to become drunk enough to build an improvised catapult from garbage and then shoot dead rats at the windows of a museum...

'Ah, good times.' I thought as I stood up and walked towards the line, picking up the ball on my way.

"... Wow." Lemon stared at the final scores of our game, I actually stared with her as we both gaped.

"Well, Moony, I think we found what you're good at something besides worming your way through the libraries." Minuette chuckled as she scratched the back of her head.

"Congratulations!" Shine just smiled at me.

I won, and damn I even left them all in the dust by a large margin while doing that.

Quest Alert
Let's Get that Ball Rolling: Participate in the Game of Bowling with your Friends! - Complete!
Participate in the Game of Bowling with your Friends and do not take the Last Spot.
Completion Award: 500 EXP; +250 Reputation with Minuette; +250 Reputation with Twinkleshine; +250 Reputation with Lemon Hearts
Additional Completion Award(Win the Game.): 1500 EXP

Well, this was kind of awesome...

Your Level has Increased by 1.

Your Level has Increased by 1.

I discreetly put all the Points I gained into INT, as right now I needed it the most. The feeling of my Mana Reserves growing still gave me shivers, it wasn't unpleasant by any means, but for a Unicorn something like that was just so alien that the inborn sense of self that I gained from Moon Dancer was kind of screwed over for a moment there. Mana Reserves didn't work like that in the My Little Pony universe, there was a lot of things that could be done but outright growth that doesn't come from an artificial expansion was not one of them. Luna became stronger as Nightmare Moon because she actually got herself an expansion to her fuel tank via that shadowy thing that got her the size increase as well, her own Reserves were the same size but she gets an additional Pool plugged into her drain so to speak.

I didn't have time to ponder on what I was going to do about my situation as I couldn't just train my Reserves into growing with 'The Gamer' keeping them constantly at the same size but Minuette.

"And now, for the victory feast!" I didn't even have to pretend to be Moony to pinch the bridge of my nose and sigh at her proclamation. "To the Burning Stable!"

"And how are we going to afford it?" I asked, that particular restaurant wasn't cheap by any means.

"Oh, don't worry! Lemon will be buying us a meal!" The toothpaste-haired girl smirked. "She received very substantial bonus at work for her effort in organizing the Summer Sun Celebration."

"Hey!" Came the protest from our forcefully volunteered sponsor. "Why am I paying?"

"Because you're the only one with a job?" Asked Minuette.

"Because you're kind, generous and understanding?" Came the voice of young Celestia's stunt-double.

"Because it will make you appear not so sour about it?" I blurted out before I could stop myself.

The trio stared at me as I felt the cold sweat run down my back, and then the blue and white haired girl snorted and started to chuckle. Lemon blink and actually pouted at my jab while Shine patted her on the back with an amused smile that she failed to suppress.

"And that's Moony's first attempt at a joke, we need to write it down and celebrate down the line sometime!" Minuette put her hand around my shoulders and pulled me closer to her. "Don't worry, everyone gets a dud on their first try."

Through the Positive Interaction your Reputation with Lemon Hearts Increased by 50.

Through the Positive Interaction your Reputation with Minuette Increased by 50.

Through the Positive Interaction your Reputation with Twinkleshine Increased by 50.

'... De fuck?!' So I don't even need to actually do any Quests to get an Increase in Reputations? Just being a good person with them would do the job? How does it even work? Well, this is a logical thing to happen, good interactions with someone can get you on their good side even without a Power like mine so there shouldn't be any difference. One thing that irked me was the fact that there really wasn't any instruction for this kind of thing, Han Jee-Han's version of 'The Gamer' was different and had a noticeably more intuitive interface than mine had. It doesn't mean that I had any actual troubles with it, there was one good thing about being rather educated when it came to Computer Games.

"I'll try better next time." I answered with a deadpanned expression, no way I would let her leave me being the butt of the joke. "But right now it's much more important for us to get something to ear, right? Because I don't know about you, but I can feel my stomach asking for a snack."

"Agreed, but maybe you should take a rain-check?" Minuette pinched by stomach with two fingers, making me almost squeak and try to squirm away from her grip. "You're getting kind of pudgy with all that sitting and eating you're doing now, what did you actually had for dinner?"

"Eh... Hay Burger with some roasted potatoes?" I blinked, Moony was somewhat pudgy and kind of lanky at the same time.

"... We really need to get you to eat healthier food." Lemon deadpanned.

"Or get you into the Fitness-Center." Added Shine.

"But I have work to be done..." I protested.

Well, I actually didn't, but it could potentially limit my personal time when I would be able to work on what I would really need. I still had to get to the Everfree Forest and to that castle where I would be able to acquire some very serious reading material, and I hoped some more Skill Books to learn and to improve my own performance. I couldn't spend my whole time in this world sitting inside the Illusion Barrier and hoping for the best, no matter how appealing this option was making out itself to be.

"You don't even have a job." Lemon looked at me with a frown. "You're studying for the sake of studying and that's not normal, I know that you want to be at your best when it comes to knowledge but you really need to find yourself something to do. What about your sister? Maybe she will need some help at her shop?"

I blinked, this honestly came out of nowhere. Morning Roast had a coffee-shop in Manehatten, it wasn't such a big concern for me to actually even consider it and I had my own pride to not be a beggar and a freeloader like Fluttershy's pathetic excuse of a younger brother. I kind of knew about her, but never even considered her anything but a fact because she wasn't in Canterlot and therefore wasn't a factor in my planning of how I would want to handle my new occupation as a member of a Fiction World.

"No." I answered with steel-bound certainty. "I'm not going to become a leech, I can stand on my own two feet and I'm not going to freeload. If I would need some more money I can easily find myself a source of income without the need to burden anyone with my problems."

This was actually quite close to what an actual Moon Dancer would've said, she had her independence going strongly.

"I'm not talking about freeloading." Lemon raised her hands in surrender. "But you can't go on like that, your sponsorship by the Crown will end soon and I'm pretty sure you have no other avenues to go."

She was kind of right, but only had to wait until the whole mess with the Dragon to look his cave and get myself enough money for me to last long enough until the next time. There were at least three instances where I knew I could gain money, one of them being 'Dragonshy' and the other being 'Owl's Well That Ends Well', both having me stealing from Dragons that would be either indisposed or distracted enough to not notice my entrance.

"I already have a good idea how to acquire enough money to pay for everything I would need, don't worry." I answered evenly. "I'm not sure what brought it up again, but I'm not helpless and I know what I'm doing."

This was the third time this month that Lemon tried to get to work. I knew that Moony's position looked kind of bad, from her memories at least, but at the same time, I also knew that she was planning to apply to work in the library next week and didn't tell anyone just yet which was fine by me. Work would only leave me with even less time to do anything worth mentioning, so I would need to persuade them that I was good on my word. And again I actually wondered how thing managed to get so bad in Canon if this was how girls actually acted when it came to Moony and how supportive they were. It was really hard to imagine someone become such an introvert with friends like these three.

"... You aren't going to apply to work in the library, aren't you?" Minuette was the one who asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, I have a better idea." I actually had to use [Gamer's Mind] to hold back a snort at how good they knew Moony.

"... Bookstore?" Lemon asked.

"No, and I'm not that predictable!" I didn't even have to pretend to feel irritated by their blatant simplification of Moony's character.

"Moony, we know you for years, trust me when I say you can't do anything to surprise us anymore." Lemon shook her head. "And you really don't need to, we love you the way you are and that's how you should behave, like you. We already had this chat before, and nothing changed from before as far as I can tell."

"Nope, absolutely nothing." Minuette agreed.

I pouted at them, something I never did in my life and for some reason felt really appropriate right now.

[ID Create] made it borderline impossible for me to get caught while sneaking anywhere, I literally could enter any property undetected and leave without a fuss anytime I wanted to. There was no limit of how useful this Skill was and how easy it was to abuse it to steal something, which I did but not in the sense like many would think about it. My target wasn't some place well-guarded and there wasn't any lock that I couldn't break with pure brute force, I just didn't want to leave any traces behind or let anyone know that I actually visited it. I couldn't let the girls know as they would get suspicious, it would take me some time to bring up the subject and slowly slip it into the conversation like I did today. After eating at the 'Silver Platette', which was akin of a British high-class cafe, we parted ways after saying our goodbyes and Lemon with Shine hugging me. Minuette attempted to hug me too, but her version reminded me more of something from a Mixed Martial Arts where you try to crush your opponent around the middle.

'These strange minty pasties were good thought.' I felt as sweat rolled down my face as I bench-pressed the rather heavy barbell. Maybe sneaking into the gym after it closed to not pay the fee wasn't such a big thing to use my Power for, but I honestly needed some serious work-out to get this body into fighting shape. I refused to be a person who depended solely on Magic as it was one of the things that led to defeat, I also wasn't going to neglect it as I was using [Telekinesis] to levitate every other weight around the large hall. 'Horsepower' was one of the more prestigious Gyms that orientated more on heavy workouts rather than a variety of different exercises like 'Healthy Horse' did, I had nothing to gain from yoga or gymnastics so it wasn't my cup of tea.

Through the heavy Work-Out your STR has Increased by 1.

I grunted and kept pushing myself even harder, as soon as I was reaching my limit I rested for half an hour while using [Meditation] to restore my Mana and then started to push myself again. There was literally no threat of torn muscles or anything like that as [Gamer's Body] prevented it from happening so I could push myself to my limit and then some if I were to put my mind into it. As soon as the barbell would start to grow lighter I would increase the weight and go on, there literally wasn't any reason for me to stop and I honestly wasn't going to as I already decided that I will get as much as I could from it and not stop until I won't be able to gain more. While I had no clue how I would work on my DEX, I was pretty sure that I had my STR and VIT covered by the simple fact that I was working out like crazy and constantly pushing myself towards the next Point.

A bit like in 'World of Warcraft' where you Raided for items with better 'Numbers' on them so you will have an easier time Raiding for better idems with better 'Numbers' attached to them so they will be able to help you reduce Bosses' 'Numbers' faster.

I wasn't very enthusiastic about my progress, but at least the monotonous repeating of the same action let me do some thinking about my position and how to gain whatever I needed now. I was pretty sure that 'The Ticket Master' was going to happen soon enough, but it wasn't much of a concern to me as I didn't care about that particular clusterfuck. The whole thing with the Gala wasn't my problem as I honestly had no desire to go there and the only reason I may visit the Castle was to pick some books from the Royal Archive via [ID Create] and then get away with it. I suspected that even in such idealistic World there was no fucking way that anything worth reading would be stashed in any place that was known to more than a handful of people, something akin of a secret archive where Celestia would probably keep her most concerning books and scrolls. Dark Magic was a thing, and I was pretty sure that there must be at least something written about it somewhere that wasn't currently buried under several tons of ice and snow, it will be a pain to wait for the Chrystal Empire to re-emerge and for me to actually get there before Twilight.

First order of business would be getting to the Castle and getting all the books I would be able to find there, Inventory will come in handy during this little trip. I would simply take everything that I will find there, probably including Inspiration Manifestation to make sure that Spike won't find it and get Rarity go Twilight-Grade insane. I honestly had no use for it, but at the same time, there was a very good possibility that it will become useful somewhere down the road. The problem that I had with Equestria's Magic is that the books written about it contained more theory than an actual Spells and therefore there was very little chance to find a Skill Book anywhere but in the most secured libraries around the place. The Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters was a godsend right up until Celestia will send Twilight to clean it and read her diary, which is still the weirdest part about the whole thing as later on she gained her Castle of Friendship and the old thing was left there forgotten and mostly untouched. I knew there will be a fuck-ton of traps but at least most of them won't be lethal and none of them would stop someone who could at least somewhat fly, I had it in the bad as long I there won't be any unforeseen problems down the line.

'... Did I just jinxed myself?' I groaned inside my own head.

Tomorrow, or technically today as it was already past midnight, I will be taking a ride towards Ponyville and then using Illusion Barriers to safely get through the Everfree Forest and into the Castle, easiest journey ever if not for the huge amount of walking I would require to do. Well, I would be able to grind my [Teleportation] somewhat as [ID Create] doesn't take any Mana at all and therefore can't be disabled via exhaustion. I needed to get there and back as fast as possible, I told girls that I will spend the whole day just relaxing and the next day we will be meeting again and there won't be any way for me to avoid them without making them think I ran off somewhere. How the fuck did Moony manage to break their friendship in Canon? Maybe she was purposely behaving like an introvert jerk?

I toyed with a thought of trying to steal the Elements of Harmony when Discord will manage to break out and then give them to Twilight and the others so they will be able to put him down faster, but getting the crazy bastard to notice me was one of the things that had no desire to do. I knew just how powerful and destructive the self-proclaimed Spirit of Chaos can be and I had no desire to find out of [Gamer's Body] and [Gamer's Mind] would be able to protect me from being affected by the reality-warping childish asshole with the list of issues a mile long. Also, it will be interesting to see if I could store some of the food he created in my Inventory and test if it will disappear after he will be trapped again. Having a raincloud made out of cotton candy that rains chocolate milk can come in handy as a literally limitless source of food later one, I would be able to replenish my Health and Mana anywhere without limit.

Through the Heavy Work-Out your STR has Increased by 1.

Through the Great Strain of your Stamina your VIT has Increased by 1.

'Thank you!' I smiled as I kept going, the growth of my VIT also gave me much-needed juice to work with and I could actually do this self-mutilating training noticeably longer than when I started. I grunted as I could feel the end of my Stamina approaching, I would need to rest soon but it didn't mean that I would stop grinding as my [Telekinesis] went up a Level several times already and had no indication of actually stopping anytime soon.

'It requires an appropriate Background Music!' I held my barbell with [Telekinesis] and opened the Menu, apparently, I literally had the whole list of music and Songs from the mobile phone and my account in social network downloaded here and I couldn't be happier to be able to hear some familiar tunes. Pressing several buttons I found the song and activated it, the music only I could hear started playing and I again took hold of the barbell. I would need to watch out for someone coming in, but the first rays of the sun that will go through the window will alert me that it would be time to leave. Yes, it was silly to switch-on the music like that, but I always worked better with it blasting into my ears as I did something that required concentration or imagination.

"Frustrated, degraded, down before you're done~"

Another thought struck me, nobody ever found out what actually happened with the remains of armor that Nightmare Moon wore. Maybe I would be able to find it and salvage at least something or even fix it at least partially? it will be awesome to have an armor like that, I didn't know how it looked like in this Universe but in Canon, it looked kind of badass with Sombra's outfit coming a close second. At least I hoped it wouldn't be like on one of those pictures I saw on the Internet, she looked like a severely steroid-addicted amazon wearing enough armor to cover maybe one-quarter of a person.

On the other hand, I hoped that there will be none of that crap that the armor was made of Magic and I won't be able to recreate it. It actually depended on how Nightmare Moon wanted it, she was obviously strong enough to actually pull this off and then make it work for herself like Arturia did in 'Fate'-Series.

"Rejection, depression, can't get what you want~"

Tomorrow will be a very long day.

Author's Notes:

Well, here is the next Chapter and I hope everyone like the developments I made on the Plot and how Jessica is trying to get into the role of Moon Dancer and kind of failing badly. There is a limit on how much I can ignore Logic and Consistency that Canon demonstrated when it comes to Relationships between Characters so I decided to alter things a little and show how friends suppose to act. In Canon those girls dropped Moon Dancer like a hot potato and never looked back, if this was a real world then there was a hight chance of depression and the poor girl shiving herself in the bathtub rather than going on. Apparently Twilight was the only shitty friend back then.
As always I welcome you opinions, criticism and suggestions with open arms!

Also, please check out the Updated Parameters!