It was rather uneventful as my three new friends -and I say that with as much suspension of disbelief as I can manage. They may be nice, but I know next to nothing about these girls other than the fact that they like exploring dangerous places and seem to think I was a charity case,- led the way to Fluttershy's.

Fluttershy's cottage, whatever the hell that meant. I had to assume she just had a smaller house than most of the ones I'd seen in town.

Which made literally NO sense, if what these three were telling me was true. Apparently she not only took care of any animals in town that were brought over by their owners -like some sort of veterinary service slash kennel- but she took on a myriad of animals from the forest as well. SHE HAD BEARS she took care of, if these three could be believed.

Not that that would be the most unbelievable thing I would have come across today.

So if she had to take care of all these different sorts of creatures, surely she had a larger house or dwelling as well? Or maybe the word 'cottage' just referred to the type of house she had. Maybe it was all sticks and straw and that sort.

"-and she even has a quaking cockatoo!" Scootaloo exclaimed, momentarily drawing my attention away from my internal musings.

'Quaking' cockatoo. What next, leaping llama's, reaching rats, bouncing baboons and patchwork parrots?

Actually, I probably shouldn't tempt fate and just wait to see what she has for myself. Wouldn't do to undersell her and find out she keeps... dragons or something.

...

God I hope she had dragons. If I could get something like 'Dragon Master' to go along with my pack leader skill, that would be soooo fucking awesome.

"This may be a stupid question," I started, rubbing the back of my head with my left hand -would have used my right, but Hax was sitting on that shoulder, didn't want to accidentally knock him off,- "But would it be in the realm of likelihood for Fluttershy to have... dragons, maybe? I will admit, if they are real here I'd be very interested in at least seeing one..." I stopped, the sound of muffled laughter hitting my ears as all three of them cupped their hands over their mouths. Hax cocked his head to the side, letting out a slight whine of confusion.

"Am... I missing something here?" I asked, cocking my head to the opposite side as Hax's, so I wouldn't hit his head with my own.

They all kept trying to muffle their merriment, until Applebloom responded between breaths.

"Mistah Colton... ya do realize Dragons aint like animals, right? They're like us, like ponies," she stated pointedly, a bark of laughter escaping from Scootaloo as she interjected.

"You know, aside from all the scales, fangs, breathing fire and stuff, leathery wings, tail-"

"Yah know what ah meant, Scoots!" Applebloom exclaimed in a huff.

"Thestrals have leathery wings and fangs and they're ponies..." Sweetiebelle supplied.

"Kinda like ponies, but also kinda not," Scootaloo argued, flaring her wings before tucking them tight to her back.

Okay then. Social blunder aside, this was good information. Apparently dragons were actual people. Whatever the hell thestrals were here -I remember that they were the invisible skeletal horse things in the Harry Potter series, but I figure they would be about as similar to that version as real ponies were to these three girls,- they at the very least had fangs and leathery wings I could hopefully identify them by.

"So... not only are dragons real, but if I had asked my previous question within earshot they probably would have taken offense?"

All laughter was gone and they each fixed me with a serious gaze. "Oh, they'd beat the hay outta yah for sayin' somethin' like that, mistah Colton, probably," Applebloom said in a sage tone of voice.

"Most," Sweetiebelle added, "not all though, remember that drake that came through town about a year back?"

"The jerk that ignored you if you tried to talk to him?" Scootaloo snapped angrily, resting her hands behind her head. "That guy was so rude! I wanted to belt him for it so bad!" she shook her head slightly, "But that wouldn't be very polite, and would probably have just made him mad. My dad already has me walking on eggshells from the broken nose I gave Diamond Tiara, if he learned I got into a fight not only with a dragon," she gave a little shudder, momentarily halting, "but a visitor to town? He'd box my ears for even thinking about it. Probably say it was hypo something or other."

"Hypocritical," Sweetiebelle supplied.

"Gesundheit," Scootaloo responded.

"That's not... ah, look! There it is!" Applebloom called out, pointing ahead of us.

Over the lip of the hill a house came into view. And my previous assessment went out the window. This house... it was definitely a skewed assumption of what someone would refer to as a cottage. Whereas my library was definitely a tree, this more looked like... a large mound of the earth itself had risen up, taking on a house like shape. There was grassy covering everywhere, wood only visible on the scant few walls I could see, and the large red door at the front. There was a myriad of windows dotting the dwelling, as well as an almost obscene amount of birdhouses scattered around.

Looked like a hobbit hole, right out of lord of the rings.

"Race ya!" Scootaloo crowed, taking off, "Last one there's a cockatrice egg!"

"No fair!" Sweetiebelle whined, hiking up her dress and following after. Applebloom hadn't even said anything, simply accepting Scootaloos challenge and following her step for step.

I had a split second of complacency, before a wild spike of competitiveness flared to the forefront of my mind.

I wanted to win. I was already a couple seconds behind, but if I started right now... I was a little bit taller than them, they were only children after all... my stride would be longer, which would mean I would have a better chance of catching up and overtaking-

I had started running before I even finished that thought, a hand pulling Hax from his perch and settling him into a football carry. Nestled into the crook of my arm as I tried to get into a proper running rhythm, he let out a small huff before relaxing against me.

I had to be careful with how I stepped, -my eyes racing across the ground, searching for any potential gopher holes for example- this wasn't a flat field like I remembered in school.

Right arm up, almost touch forehead while left leg rises. Lower both, extend with right leg, forego left arm because carrying Hax... Really running is quite simple. You just have to think of your arms and legs like pulleys. Your left arm is connected to your right leg, and vice versa. if you follow your rhythm -and if you're actually in good shape, which admittedly I was not the best- with proper breathing, that's running.

I flat out sprinted after the girls, the wind whipping past my face. Hax poked his head past my elbow, tongue waggling as well. I quickly overtook Sweetiebelle, and I could hear her let out a low cry of frustration as I passed her.

"Sorry!" I called out over my shoulder, setting my sights on the two before me.

Applebloom took a quick peek over her shoulder at me, her face breaking into an even bigger grin as she tried to overtake Scootaloo. For Scootaloo, she didn't even look back.

And I was still too slow.

I was maybe doing the same speed as they were, tops. Ever since Applebloom saw I was there, she and Scootaloo actually seemed to get faster. Made me think they were probably keeping their speed relatively low, so they didn't exempt their friend from the fun.

With each step they were getting that much farther away, I needed to do SOMETHING or else I wouldn't even be close to them when they finished. I frantically put every bit of strength I could into every step, willing myself to go faster. It still wasn't enough. I angled my body lower to maximize the push off, I carefully marshaled my breathing, I...

Through a willful act of desperation, an ability to run faster, (Sprint) has been learned.

Sprint(active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% COST 50MP
Channel the users mana to their legs, to allow them to run faster than they would be able to normally.
+100% maximum running speed for (3) seconds.
+10% stamina regen after (Sprint) has been activated for the next (1) minute(s). Only one stamina regen buff can be active currently from trick (Sprint).
+5 DEX for (3) seconds.
While (Sprint) is active, the user has an increased +5% chance to avoid falling or succumbing to treacherous footing.

I CAN'T FUCKING SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

The fucking text boxes covered my field of view, which considering I was in a breakneck dash over unfamiliar ground was quite unfortunate. I didn't even get a chance to slow down, such was my gait that carried me past both Scootaloo and Applebloom -both of them letting out a squawk of surprise as I passed them, if only I could have seen the looks on their faces...- before I was even aware of doing so. A whole two seconds passed as I tried to slow down, before my foot decided it wanted me dead.

The traitorous appendage stuck itself right down deep into a hole of some sort -gophers. Its always fucking gophers...- and I went flying. Not a graceful flight like one might expect of a swan, no no no.

This was more akin to if someone had duct taped a jetpack to a mole, and let it go. I skidded across the ground, my momentum carrying me onward like some sort of demented ground borne skipping stone. My cries of protest were mostly cut off as I spun in a beautiful pirouette, slowly spinning about whilst my face dug a groove into the landscape for a few yards. My continued movement suddenly halted, the bottom half of my body suspended above me over the lip of a bank as I lounged in a shallow creek-bed.

An object impacted with my chest, making me release my captured breath -and several clods of dirt- in a pained gasp.

"Roff!" Hax barked, perched ontop of me. Damn, the little pup must have gone flying when I went for my communal with the dirt. I hadn't even noticed that I lost him, thank god it didn't look like he was hurt...

"Are you dead?" Scootaloo called out, standing somewhere up above me on solid ground. As solid as it could be riddled with all of those freaking gopher holes. Effing gophers.

"Scootaloo!" I heard from both Sweetiebelle and Applebloom as they chastised her.

"What? You saw him, he was sandbagging and then he blew past us, and then he was in the air and it was funny as hay," she exclaimed, audibly holding back a gale of laughter. So fucking glad my pain caused someone some joy.

Physical Endurance has gone up one level!

Fuck off. Well, I mean I guess that is good. Eventually all this tortuous pain will be little more than pinpricks. Isn't that a cheery thought.

"Uhm fiiiiiine," I drawled, trying to get to my feet. Unsucsessfully. My legs were stuck up above me, it was harder than you'd think to right myself.

"Are you sure?" Scootaloo joked. "From this angle it could go either way. What was with the magic running anyway?" she asked, "I mean it was pretty cool and all, but it was also pretty obvious you had next to no idea what you were doing."

"As 'evidanced' by the fact that at the first little 'ole bump he went flyin' 'cross the ground like last time Pinkie Pie tried coffee?" Applebloom posited with a chuckle. She reached down and grabbed one of my flailing arms, Scootaloo grabbing the other as they heaved Hax and me up onto dry ground.

"I think her question still was kinda good though," Sweetiebelle said as she brushed off a coat of dirt from my shoulders. Guess her sisters' mannerisms brushed off on her. "You alright? I mean, obviously you aren't dead, but that looked like a pretty bad fall..."

"I'm fine," I replied, "I heal fast, remember? But yes, that hurt, a lot. That was not fun. As for 'what was with that', I dunno. Sorta. I wasn't trying to do that, anyway. It just sorta... happened. Suddenly I was going really fast, and then all of a sudden I wasn't again. And then I was doing my best impression of a tumbleweed."

"Well at least you put on a good show," Scootaloo joked, making a sweeping gesture with her arm. I followed her movements, seeing that an audience had grown during my inattention. A fully non human audience. Well, ponies and shit, I guess they aren't human either. A completely non humanoid audience, then. God. Give me a fucking break.

Who the hell am I talking to, myself? Shit, guess I am. I should stop doing that. Doesn't give me a good leg to stand on when asserting the fact that I am, in fact, perfectly sound of mind. Of course, given my current surroundings, I think my mind went on vacation quite some time ago.

Animals. You never really give them any thought, do you? They're just these things you sometimes have to share your world with, most notably whenever you go to a zoo or when you're trying to get home and Bambi and his entire twenty deer family decided to walk ON the road, down it. So either they are out of sight, out of mind, or directly in sight, and a tremendous pain due to the fact that they don't understand your human shit and don't much care to conform to it.

It was going to be hard to ignore these animals. They were EVERYWHERE. Birds, otters, raccoons, beavers, squirrels, chipmunks, bunnies -a SHITTON of bunnies,- a couple seals and even a few cats and goats wandering around. There was certainly a great deal of variety, I'll give Fluttershy that. Why she didn't have any problems with the cats eating any of the smaller critters? And I didn't see a bear. They said she had a bear. The fact that I didn't see a bear made me worry a little bit. Knowing there's a bear in the area but being unable to see it... not exactly the best feeling.

"Uhh... I didn't trip on any of them, did I?" I joked. I expected to get a reaction out of my three new friends. What I did not expect, was to get one from every single animal there. Heads turned to and fro, squirrels chattered quickly to otters, and then they all turned back towards us. And then they gave me a negative shake of their heads. From pretty much every single animal.

"Guess that's a no," Scootaloo stated dryly. As if this wasn't a marvel onto itself. As if this was simply a day to day occurrence. Spoiled little kids.

Each of the animals had a name hovering above their heads, but I found myself unable to use observe on them. The only thing that did was show me a descriptor screen similar to when I was checking out the trees and stuff before I found Hax.

"Any of you know if Fluttershy is in?" Sweetiebelle asked.

A flurry of movement. A low buzz of back and forth chattering. And then a single white bunny broke from the pack, and hopped its way off towards the cabin. For shits and giggles, I decided to 'observe' it too. Maybe it would have a funny description denoting it as the 'find Fluttershy' rabbit or something.

Angel Bunny LV18
<Evil Incarnate>

HP: 540
MP: 170
-LV18
STR: 21
VIT: 33
DEX: 28
INT: 17
WIS: 45
LUK: 11

Status: Beast/Rabbit; +1 to STR, VIT and DEX. +1 to VIT per LV.
-'Evil'; -50% resistance to Holy/Solar aligned attacks.
-Dumb Animal?; +10 to WIS.
-Unseen, Ignored; +10 to WIS
-Just a Little Cottontail; +10 to WIS.
-Carrot Eater; +20% to all sneaking skills, tricks, spells and otherwise.
-Vitamin A; +20% to all perception based skills, tricks, spells and otherwise.
-She’s MINE; +20 Damage when protecting (Fluttershy).
-Small; -5 to STR.

What the fuck. What the actual FUCK. Even a fucking rabbit was a higher level than me? And what the hell was with all those passive stats? All those little boosts to WIS, dear god. Even with his strength getting curbed by his size, he was still stronger than me. And his DEX and VIT were frankly scary for a creature his size. Thankfully he didn't seem too threatening -title of 'evil incarnate' non withstanding,- and it didn't seem like he payed me much mind.

"That rabbit... I don't know why, but he sets my hair on end," I muttered, trying to deflect three inquisitive glances pointed my way. Guess I had been paying too much attention to the freak of a lupine, went silent for too long.

"He's just a little bunny," Applebloom argued. "What could he possibly do?"

"Right, it just creeps me out. So, enough about bunnies and how threatening they might or might not appear to certain individuals. Training! Yes. That. Or literally anything else that doesn't paint me as a worrywart over nothing. What exactly was the plan? Did we have a plan? If we don't, can we make one?" I queried. Hopefully I could get them talking and ignore my verbal stumble regarding the 'bunny'.

"We already got the clothes and the weights thing sorted out," Sweetiebelle mused, prodding at her lower lip with a dainty finger.

"Yeah, so we can just skip straight to testing him!" Scootaloo exclaimed.

"Ah thought that was step five," Applebloom interjected.

"So what? Three and four are totally boring, better to just skip right to the exciting stuff." Scootaloo argued with a derisive snort.

"You just want to fight him," Sweetiebelle posited, her eyelids drooping in a knowing look. "Getting tired of losing to Applebloom?"

"As if!" Scootaloo cried out defensively, placing her hands on her hips in a 'peter-panish' manner as she glowered at her friend. "I'm telling you, those were just flukes, I totally wouldn't have lost if I wasn't so worn out from all the training I've been doing..."

"Uhm... if you're so worn out from your training, maybe you should consider cutting it back a little bit..." I barely heard her speak, and I didn't even so much as notice her walk up. But low and behold, -regardless of my attentiveness- a certain yellow winged Pegasus stood off to the side, a white rabbit perched on her shoulder as she looked on at the three of us.

"Fluttershy!" Applebloom and Sweetiebelle called out enthusiastically, Scootaloo also joining in but with far less volume and excitement lacing her voice. What followed was a mish-mash of vocal stimuli, all three of them speaking at the same time in overlapping tones.

"Girls, girls," Fluttershy 'called out' in a voice as loud as she could muster. "Please, one at a time, I can't understand when you all talk at once..."

"Mister Colton here-" Applebloom started, before being cut off by Scootaloo.

"Colt already has one but he wants-" Scootaloo got out before Sweetiebelles' voice drowned her out.

"Colton wants another dog!" Sweetiebelle managed to get out, ignoring the pseudo glares her friends were giving her. "What? If you wanted to say it then you should have just said it..."

Her friends cutely pouted at her, but didn't say anything. It was then I noticed something. My hair standing on end. Turning to see just what the hell was setting me off, I saw it.

Fluttershy.

Smiling.

REEEEEEAAAAALLY FUCKING CREEPILY.

"You want another pet?" she crowed, crowding my personal space and wearing a radiant smile. "Oh that is so wonderful! I have so many wonderful choices for you to choose from!"

Aaaaaaaaaand I think she just went and immediately blanked out the 'dog' portion of Sweetiebelles comment. In fact, this suspicion was almost immediately confirmed, seeing as she leaned down and snagged something off the ground before thrusting it into my face.

"Awww, look, I think this little puddy likes you~" she said sweetly, as the cat outstretched in her hands took a few tentative sniffs of my nose.

Crap, I didn't want a fucking cat. They didn't do what you wanted to, and this little furball would be absolutely rubbish in a fight. Maybe I could get a skill that would allow me to train cats? Pffffhah, fuck no, no one can train a cat. They just do what they want, and occasionally what you want them to do is what they were already going to do.

Thankfully, Hax got me out of that particular situation by letting loose a terse growl.

Fluttershy hurriedly pulled the cat back, sheepishly smiling as she placed it back down on the ground. "I... guess not..."

"Sorry about that," I stated, tapping Hax on the forehead to get him to stop growling. "I think it might be best if I were to acquire another canine. My main reason," I paused, trying to formulate my reason. I hadn't thought about it beyond 'I want another attack dog I can use to fight stuff with'. I had a feeling she'd take offense to that. Might not let me have another dog from her 'collection', and might even pressure other pet dealers in the area -if there WERE any- into rejecting my business. "Well, I'm just worried about Hax here," I gave him a reassuring pat on the head. "My work tends to cause me to block out the world around me, and I don't fancy the thought of this little guy being ignored whilst my heads stuck in my job. So the best thing I thought, would be if I could get another dog to keep him company while I work."

Fluttershy 'hmmed', a thoughtful look on her face.

"I... well... I only currently have one dog staying with me at the moment..." she looked off past her cottage, along a dirt path that traced its way around her hobbit hole. "He's a bit of a shy one, he tends to stay near his pond..."

With that, she gave us a beckoning wave, trotting off past her house to follow the treeline. A couple minutes of walking later, and we had arrived at the 'pond'. It was almost entirely encircled by growth, leaving a small entrance where I could probably squeeze through. If I had an insane desire to swim in an almost pitch black body of water, where literally any number of disgusting organisms could be swimming about.

So... he guarded the water hole? Or something? Good feral instincts, I guess. Control the water source, and your pack will live. Personal water source, anyway.

Fluttershy strode over to the pony, before turning to me. "Just... give me a second. Scruffaluss is kinda skittish around anypony new," she explained, kneeling down by the waters edge. "Scruffaluss, here boy, somepony here wants to see you~" she trilled softly, dragging her fingers back and forth through the water.

The fuck was she doing? Maybe it was the only way to get the dogs attention, messing with it's water. Great, that probably meant he'd be super attached to it, and come out here whenever the fuck he wanted. Would make leveling him up harder, if he just up and left without warning.

His name would certainly explain why he was so against meeting new people, if someone introduced me with that name I know I sure as fuck wouldn't want to show my face.

The surface of the water suddenly broke, two diminutive hands covered in smooth, reptilian skin slowly grasping at the edge of the bank. They pulled out their owned just as methodically, slowly shedding the water to peer out at me in an owlish manner. It was some sort of... reptile... dog. It looked almost like a whippet breed, all sleek and smooth elongated features.

But... you know.

Lizard skin. Like a snake. Perfect for if its occupant was a water dwelling animal, like this one so god damn obviously was. Seeing a dog with hands was still creepy though.

It was... it's hard to describe the gradiating color scheme for its main body. It was a dark blue, almost navy as it shifted to a lighter color the farther back from its head.

Bands of red and yellow circled both of its eyes, curling upwards to end at the tips of his ears. Looking back further, I could see his tail. And the third hand sprouting from the tip of it. All three of the hands had only four fingers, and if the tail hand was any indicator they were double jointed. It kept on grasping slowly, first one side, then the other. Kinda hypnotic.

Last but not least, it didn't have a name floating over its head, much less that of 'scrufaluss'. Only a single string of '???'.

"There you are mister Scruffaluss," Fluttershy cooed, patting it on the head. "I want you to meet somepony special. This is Mister Colt...on." she added on, shooting me a worried glance.

'Scruffy' took one look at me, then spat out a stream of water from its mouth. You wanna guess where that was directed? Ding ding ding, right at my face. Drenched in a single second.

"Scruffaluss!" Fluttershy belted out in a chastising tone. "That was very rude of you! Apologize!"

'Scruffy' gave me a snort of disdain, his ears flattering against his head as he gave me a short nod.

"I'm so sorry Colton, Mister Scruffaluss just doesn't like you being so close to his water..."

I kneeled down, wiping water out of my eyes. "Hey there," I started, trying to show a non toothy grin. Dogs think teeth mean you're trying to intimidate them, so I had better keep it as tame as I could. "My name is Colton. I'd like you to come home with me-" another gout of water cut off my further words, forcing me to wipe my face clear again. "Now, I'm not asking you to give up your little pond here," I paused, waiting to see if he'd try to blast me in the face again.

"If you really wanted to, you could come back and check up on it any time you wanted. I just really need your help," I said, patting Hax on the head. This in turn drew 'Scruffys' attention, who peered up at Hax with wide eyes. With a single gurgled bark, he drew himself fully out of the pool.

"Oh, how nice! I think Mister Scruffaluss wants to go with you!" Fluttershy cooed, along with the three girls. I swear, I was beginning to have friggin girl overload. There's only so much I can freaking take.

I lay there for a second, cradling my aching ribs. Plus, not moving didn't hurt. The bark against my back was kinda rough, but at least I had the forethought to take my shirt off. Wouldn't want to have to get it fixed TWICE in a single day...

"Scootaloo!" Sweetiebelle belted out, just out of eyeshot.

"It's not my fault! I didn't even hit him that hard!" Scootaloo protested.

"Ya kicked him straight in the gut!" Applebloom stated forcefully.

"I didn't get him that hard!" Scootaloo replied again, "I even pulled the kick, it shouldn't have sent him flying so far!"

"Shouldn't but did, Scoots."

"Should we check on him?"

"He's... just freakishly light..."

After leaving Fluttershys, we eventually came to an abandoned area. A fair bit away from the edge of the forest, the ground was covered in lush grass. Seeing we had arrived, Scootaloo immediately challenged me to a fight, to 'see what I was made of'. I didn't really want to, but anything she could have done would be easily slept off. Hopefully. Even though they were higher level than me, they shouldn't be able to do thatmuch damage to me.

I threw my first punch right at her head, accompanied with maybe the shortsided comment of 'No one expects the FACE PUNCH!'. Yeah, calling out your attack is stupid. But I hadn't figured out how to silently activate them yet. So, 'FACE PUNCH!' would have to do.

Needless to say, it didn't hit her. My fist was thrust to the side with an open palm, then she roundhouse kicked me right in the chest. I could never have foreseen that such a little girl would be able to have such a powerful kick. Or that said kick would have sent me flying nearly a hundred feet across the field, straight into a tree.

A hundred and twenty six damage, all from a single kick. Friggin BS. I was left with only twenty four health, leaving me in a very dangerous position.

"I... you know what?" I asked, lurching to my feet with my hand on my midsection. "I think I'm gonna call it a day. Obviously I'm nowhere near being able to fight toe to toe with you girls, and I really just wanna go take a nap. Sleep this off." I needed time to heal the HP she had gotten rid of, and I doubt they would be willing to sit back while I tried to massage myself. I had yet to find a healing spell, so 'massage' was the only thing I currently could think of that would help with my HP regen.

I received a round of 'awwwwwwwwws' for my deceit, followed up with each of them flashing me puppy dog eyes. Funny, seeing as both '???/Scruffaluss" and Hax were barely paying us any mind, lounging in the shade of a tree. Hax was sitting on the larger dogs head, tongue lolling.

"Aw, c'mon mistah Colton," Applebloom pleaded, her eyes somehow getting larger by the second, "Ya can't leave yet, we haven't even teached you anythin'."

"Yeah!" Sweetiebelle affirmed"

"What can we teach him?" Scootaloo groused. "He's gonna need to get at least a little bit more fit before we can fight him..."

"Fightin' aint the only thing we do, Scoots," Applebloom stated, admonishing the pegasi with a hard look. "Ah'd like to ask a question though. Colton, sir? Why didn't ya use your grounding?"

I stared at her for a couple seconds, trying to figure out what the hell she was asking. "I... don't exactly know what you mean by that," I admitted finally, choking back my pride. What little there was left after being knocked tea over kettle by a little girl I should easily be able to bench.

"How kin ya not know what grounding is?" she said in confusion, "Ah've never met an earth pony that didn't know what grounding was..."

Not a pony. Couldn't very well say that to them, however.

"Lets just chalk it up to cultural differences," I said, trying to get her mind off the topic. "So what is grounding? Is it something difficult to learn?"

"No, no," Applebloom laughed, "An earth pony what can't ground ain't an earth pony," she stated with a chuckle.

Shit. Fuck. Balls. Bast- Okay. I could bluff my way through this. If it was a species trait I'd be shit out of luck, but if it counted as a skill... I might just be able to pick up whatever the hell 'grounding' was. Probably just made you harder to move, but if you had an impenetrable shield that would be damned useful.

Not that I had any such shield, but I digress.

"It's easy," she stated, but my attention was elsewhere for the moment. A blue box had popped up in front of me, prompting action.

The CMC would like to become your teachers!
Teacher; Applebloom
Teacher; Sweetiebelle
Teacher; Scootaloo
New abilities, skills, tricks and otherwise will become available to learn from (Teacher; CMC)
+5% EXP gain to all abilities, skill, tricks and otherwise learned from (Teacher; CMC) for the duration that (CMC) is assigned as your teacher.
+5% chance to be covered in tree sap per day.
-50% Reputation with Diamond Tiara.
1/2 Reputation gain for Diamond Tiara.
-30% Reputation with Silver Spoon.
1/2 Reputation gain for Silver Spoon.
Do you accept?

YES|NO

Huh. No clue who these 'Diamond Tiara' and 'Silver Spoon' people were, but their names marked them as pretentious. I didn't think losing 'reputation' or whatever would faze me all that badly. Fuck em.

I hurriedly tapped the 'yes' box, free exp gain didn't sound like that bad of an idea. That 'tree sap' blurb worried me a bit, but it was probably just a joke.

"Colton?" Applebloom asked, and I realized I hadn't listened to her at all. Fuuuuuuuuuuuck.

"What? Yes. Sorry. I... didn't hear any of that. Would it be too much to ask you to repeat it?" I asked, trying to keep my tone kinda tired sounding. I already got kicked into a tree, I had plenty of reason to be spacey. Now if I could just sell it...

"Oh, yeah, k. Just listen up, alright? Don't wanna have to say this again," she huffed.

"The earth... speaks to us. Its everywhere anypony goes, and its very rare for ya to get someplace without it. It reaches out to us, imbues us with its strength, if we but give it a chance to."

I stared at her uncomprehendingly, as she continued.

"Just... close yer eyes, k?" she said, gesturing at me to follow her direction. I closed my eyes with nary a huff, eager to get this over with. The less time I stand around looking like an idiot, the better. "Now, ya can do magic, right?" I nodded, flinching as I felt her cup a hand against the back of my neck. Her other hand grabbed mine, and gently lowered it down towards the ground. "Do the same thing ya do to get yer magic workin', but reach out to the earth underneath us instead."

I tried to follow her commands, blindly gripping the loose dirt underneath me. I stayed that way for maybe a minute, wondering what the hell I was doing wrong. Then... I felt something... different. It was similarto the magic energy I managed to corral within myself, but this felt... large. I felt it seeping into me as I knelt, slowly filling me to the brim. I opened my eyes, noting another box had appeared before me.

More important than that however was the face breaking grin Applebloom was giving me.

"Ya see? Easy as pie!" she claimed, helping me back to my feet.

Through careful application of an understanding teaching hand, an ability has been learned!

Grounding(Active) LV 1 EXP: 0.00%

Grip the earth and draw power from it.

+2 to STR and DEX for every second of inaction.

Movement beyond 1 foot of starting position negates (Grounding)

(Grounding) can currently only stack up to (5) times.

"Ch-...yeah," I muttered, slowly flexing my hands. "I can't really explain this feeling... but feels... filling?" I guessed, to which Applebloom gave me a short nod. I took a single step see if my feet had actually become part of the ground like they had partially felt, only to note that the ability abruptly vanished.

At my confused expression, Applebloom let a brief laugh escape her.

"Ya can't move around while grounding, Mistah Colton," she explained. "You have to keep full connection with the earth. Ya can't prance about like a flighty pegasus-"

"Hey!" Scootaloo pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I... Thank you," I said, bowing my head slightly. "But I still feel a mite tired. I hope you won't assume I'm trying to avoid you if I still say I wish to return to my place and take a nap?"

A sigh came out of all of them simultaniously.

"Fiiiiiiine..."

After I ditched the trio, I headed back to the treehouse. Library house tree thing. That. Once I was safely secluded away inside, I drew all three of us into an empty ID.

"Okay newbie, listen up. I'm gonna try to treat you like you aren't a dumb mutt, so I'll try to be frank with you here," I stated, causing the water dogs' head to cock to the side. "My name is Colton. I don't give a shit if you don't respect me. I really don't care. What I do care about, is getting stronger. One way I've figured out how to do that is by getting dogs," I waved to both him and Hax, who gave a happy wuff from my shoulder. "And then adding my strength to theirs. And theirs to mine. So you can stay, you can leave, go back to your little pond or whatever. But if you stay with me..." I paused for effect, "I promise you'll get stronger. Strong enough to protect your pond from anything, Strong enough to protect anything. This I swear to you. So do you understand anything I've said, or are you just a dumb mutt like everyone probably thinks you are?"

He gave me a long hard stare, eyes unblinking. FInally, he gave a short nod of his head as Hax let out a happy sounding bark.

"Cool. So first things first, I would like to give you a new name," I said, noting with satisfaction as his ears perked up. "I couldn't help but notice you don't seem all that attached to 'scruff'-" I couldn't even finish the name, water blasting me in the face. "...Pfffeeeeh. Okay. I see you really don't like it. Mind If I suggest something?"

He cocked his head to the side, giving me a long look.

"Argos. In an ancient language it literally translates out to 'swift'. It was also the name of a mythological boat, which sailed all over the world and battled monsters and stuff," I continued, watching as both his ears slowly crept up to stand at attention."So c'mon buddy, yes? No? GImmie some input here..."

A few more seconds passed before he let out a jovial, burbling sound woof. THe question marks slowly faded from view from above his head, replacing themselves with a title and a name.

<Argos>
<Ahuizotl Whelp>

"Cool, guess you actually do like it. Welcome to the team, Argos..."

After that I got to 'training'. Running around in a circle around my new tree house, occasionally stopping to take a break. I almost immediately got the massage skill-

Massage (active) LV 1 EXP: 0.00%
An ancient skill that allows you to take the fatigue away from the flesh of a human. And so it is possible for you to cure body or joint related negative effects.
Your targets fatigue recovery increases significantly
Gets rid of 0.05% fatigue per second.

-which was going to help out a LOT in the long term. With this I could effectively say 'FUCK YOU' to sleep. All those hours wasted, lying around and not doing anything. I kept having to reactivate (Spirit Technique Of the Lunar Sister) and (Starswirls Shortcoming) because I kept losing focus on them. So that was annoying. Both Hax and Argos kept at my heels for the most part, until he got bored and took a nap by the side of the tree. I decided to try and get Hax to level up some of his abilities as well as running alongside me, and before we knew it he had his overgrowth skill at level two, along with his (Magic Siphon) all the way up to level four! Having your magic drained feels hella weird.

It was like getting a shot, but painless. You know there's a needle in your arm even if it doesn't hurt you can just feel it.

I figured something else out. I have a clock. IN MY MENU. It's the stupidest thing ever, but surprisingly useful. I kept at it long after Hax gave up to go lay on top of Argos, slowly raising up my VIT. by the time I was finished, it had raised seven whole points! Just from running around! I had also slightly raised my (Mana Bolt) skill as well, blasting it off over the empty houses each time my MP filled back up enough to use. Level seven, hell yeah.

LORE TIME WITH SHY
There are some very noticeable differences between the three pony tribes.
A pegasus is the most easily identified pony tribe, with their large wings that jut out even when folded against their backs. Counter to their earth pony siblings, a pegasi's internal organs are actually lighter, and more flexible. This flexibility supplements their ability to bounce back from what to the other tribes might very well cause a broken limb, which is very useful when taking all those tiny wing bones into consideration. As such, even when compared to an earth pony or a unicorn of equal size, one will always find the pegasus to weigh less.

Finally I was done. It was indicating 5:37 on my menus clock, so I decided to call it a day. Or night. Or whatever. I carefully picked up Argos -Hax lazily lying on top of him, his little twig body actually snoring every few seconds- and entered my house, careful not to wake either of them. I shunted us back out to the real world, taking a couple minutes to draw a bath and lower Argos into it. Not deep enough to submerge him, but he had gills so I don't think that would matter. I was more worried about Hax than I was him, so I picked him up and gave him his own towel bed. Thankfully he didn't wake up.

Making my way downstairs however, revealed something very odd. My living space was overtaken by unconscious people. Ponies. Whatever. They were sprawled everywhere, and it almost looked like a party had gone off in here while I was gone. Trash was strewn about, along with plates of half eaten food.

I wasn't going to fucking clean this mess up.

I stood there for a minute, trying to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do. I had to wake them up, obviously. But how? Shouting and making a fuss was out, as much as I wanted to start walking around kicking heads and demanding that they get the fuck out of my tree, I knew that wouldn't be a viable long term solution. I had to get them up carefully, but how...

An idea lodged itself in the forefront of my brain, and I smiled a devilish grin. I could come out of this looking like a good guy. I'd have them eating out of my palm. Eating being the important word, here.

I carefully took a step around piles of ponies, trying not to wake anyone up. My progress was momentarily halted however, as a hand had latched onto my ankle while I wasn't paying attention. The hand belonged to a girl, curled up and laying over another lady wearing a long trenchcoat who smelled strongly of booze. Which was weird, seeing as I could quite plainly see there weren't any alcohol containers lying anywhere. Where ever she had gotten drunk, she hadn't gotten that way here.

The girl was small, petite. She had an acrobats physique, long legs with a strong looking back. She was wearing the most ridiculous outfit ever, like something a jester would wear at a ren fair. Bright and colorful.

I tried to lightly shake my leg loose, to which the sleeping girl only tightened her grip.

"Mmmmm," she mumbled, a line of drool escaping the side of her mouth. Trenchcoat lady was going to be mad when she woke up. "Dibs..."

I stood there for a couple more seconds, before I carefully pried her hand off. "No, mine," I whispered, half to myself. "I got permadibs. For infinity."

I finally made my way to the kitchen, opening a cabinet to reveal what I remembered seeing the day previous.

Pancake mix. YUSH. There were ten individually marked boxes of the stuff, whomever had lived here previously obviously had a fondness for pancakes. I got the magic grill thing heated up -don't ask. And no, I didn't burn myself, thank you for asking.- and the batter mixed, before I started getting a fresh pot of coffee started up. 'Zebrican' blend, whatever the fuck that meant.

Another box popped up as soon as the first pancake was ready, and I suppressed a grin as I slid it off onto a plate.

Through a diligent act, a skill has been learned

Cooking LV 1 EXP: 0.00%
Food for the body, food for the soul. Everybody needs to eat.
+1% chance for cooked item to contain temporary additional properties beyond what normal cooking would allow.

I fought back down my maniacal grin, before I started cackling to myself.

What better way to say 'get the fuck up', than with a plate full of steaming hotcakes, and the scent of coffee wafting through the air?

Name: Colton Niscon
Class: Displaced Gamer
Level: LV 06

---

HP: 220
MP: 200

---

STR:10
VIT:15
DEX:7
INT:20
WIS:7
LUK:12
Point: 4
Money: 58 Cents, 15 Bits
Status; Human. -25% Stamina drain. +25% Stamina Regen. +10% Total HP Regen. +10% Total MP Regen. +1% EXP gain.

Title
1-Unassigned
2-Unassigned
3-Unassigned
4-Unassigned
5-Unassigned

-Teacher
1-The CMC
2-Unassigned
3-Unassigned

Displaced; Dimensional magnetism draws other Displaced Tokens to the users dimensional plane.
Homeowner; +5% EXP gain while within the confines of the 'Golden Oaks' library.

---

Cloth Shirt; Repaired by local seamstress Rarity, there's not much else to note about this article of clothing besides its bland coloring. +1 DEF

Denim Jeans; Bought from a soulless corporate store. They provide more defense than a standard pair of cloth pants, but can't offer anything else.

Rainbow Dash's Sandals; A pair of petite sandals. They don't provide much defense, but they were never really designed with that purpose in mind. +5 SPD

Sprint(active) LV1 EXP: 17.09% COST 50MP
Channel the users mana to their legs, to allow them to run faster than they would be able to normally.
+100% maximum running speed for (3) seconds.
+10% stamina regen after (Sprint) has been activated for the next (1) minute(s). Only one stamina regen buff can be active currently from trick (Sprint).
+5 DEX for (3) seconds.
While (Sprint) is active, the user has an increased +5% chance to avoid falling or succumbing to treacherous footing.

Observe LV 1 EXP 24.10%
Allows the Gamer to more intimately observe world around them.
Allows the Gamer to see Total HP and MP.
Allows the Gamer to see additional information written up by management.

Physical Endurance(passive) LV 4 EXP: 42.08%
The Bodies Physical Endurance Increases, And You Take Less Damage.
7% decrease in damage from physical attacks

Face Punch(active) LV1 EXP: 5.9% MP COST; 15
Against all odds, an unarmed, untrained strike directly in the face.
5% chance to ignore all armor and defense buffs.
3% Attack Damage increase when attacking a targets face directly, without a weapon.
3% Speed increase when directing an attack towards a targets face.
5% Critical hit Chance increase when attacking a targets face directly, without a weapon.

Listening(passive) LV4 EXP: 94.20%
All conversation lower than an audible level is amplified by 6%

Pack Leader(passive) LV3 EXP: 21.29%
+4% Damage for all Canid type creatures in the pack
+4% Damage reduction for all Canid type creatures in the pack
+4% HP Regen for all Canid type creatures in the pack
+4% MP Regen for all Canid type creatures in the pack
+30 HP for all Canid type creatures in the pack
+10 MP for all Canid type creatures in the pack
+1 to Pack Size

Mana Bolt (Active) LV3 EXP:9.13%
A skill that attacks by emitting mana.
Attack power increases by INT
Range 25 m.

Spirit Technique Of the Lunar Sister(active&passive) LV 1 EXP: 82.37%
A basic inner Mana technique developed by the Sister of the Moon. It purifies Mana and allows the user to store it within their Mana center, enabling the user to freely manipulate the power.
After the development of the inner Mana techniques, Ponies have become able to overcome the limits of the Equine species.
The increase amount depends on the amount of inner Mana. Inner Mana level (MP) permanently increases from inner Mana training.

Passively increases STR by 10%.

Passively increases DEX by 10%.

Passively increases VIT by 10%.

Passively increases INT by 10%.

Passively increases WIS by 10%.

Additional 30% increase in STR when active.

Additional 30% increase in DEX when active.

Able to use Mana Strike when active

Starswirls Shortcoming(passive) LV 1 EXP: 82.37%

Basic mana technique developed by Starswirl himself. Starswirls Shortcoming is based off observing the Earth Pony form in comparison to his own Unicorn physiology. Makes the body strong and increases the body's defense power.

Increases STR by 10%.
Increases DEX by 10%.
Increases VIT by 10%.
Increases VIT recovery rate by 10%.
Increases stamina recovery rate by 10%.

Author's Notes:

Cats can be trained. My friend found this girl on Tinder who's a professional trainer, she actually spent a summer and trained a feral chipmunk. It's freaking amazing to watch her stuff...

No, Grounding does NOT use up MP. Currently. All of its energy comes from an outside source, so its more of a charge up type of skill for the time being.

Argos is incorrect. Argos is actually the name of the city, while the boat was called Argo. Colton just didn't remember that.

Does anyone want me to start putting updated status screen for Colton at the end of chapters? Like, if he goes up a level or gets a few stat points, or levels up a skill, would you like me to put the updated version at the end of the chapter? EDIT; I went ahead and did that. NEW question, should I just put that stuff in the authors notes so it doesn't inflate the word count?

And holy crap guys, this chapter is 8k. When the heck did THAT happen?!!? I also managed to churn out a 9k and a 6k chapter over on my story Little Nemo in the past week or so, so I must have gotten a fire lit under my bum and no one told me...

Also, I'm tired. I'm going to bed. I'll make an edit tomorrow where I get Colton to answer all the backlog questions in here, so check back if you're interested in that stuff.

So yeah, leave a question for Colton or Hax.