Chapter 2

Mark woke from a better sleep that he could remember. Giving himself a good stretch as he climbed out of bed, he grabbed his robes and made his way to the bathroom. In the game, this had been nothing but cosmetic, but he held hope that it would function. Walking over to the sink, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the water was running and even better it was capable of both hot and cold. Taking the time to shower off the grime of the day before, he relished the fact that this was his body now.

He had never been what you would call fat, but nor was he particularly fit either. He had become used to the pudge that he had carried for years. His complexion had always been blemished as well. Ever since the misery that was puberty. But now he was in a body that was quite fit if he said so himself. Not quite to the level of a warrior build, but for a mage, he didn’t look half bad. The traces of baby fat were gone, replaced with taut muscle. Nothing bulged with muscle, but no one would be able to say that he was weak. Wiry would be a good description of his build now. He was also covered in Tattoos as well. Most of them were runic that had magic woven into them. Simple charms that added buffs. Things like iron skin, fire protection, and feather fall. Spells that he had designed to assist him in-game without having to cast the spell in question. Admittedly he had stolen a most of his ideas from DnD and various games that had been released in the last two centuries. But when you have that kind of pool to draw from, why not.

It was still better to cast the spell himself, but this worked quite well in the case of a surprise attack. His back, however, held a distinctive tattoo, the only one of its kind within the realms of Quest. An intricate compass rose, gilded and embellished, it would have looked right at home in an illuminated book from the 15th century, the Q and O that wrapped intricately together gave it a majesty of its own. The game logo, this tattoo had a rather interesting origin as well. Years ago, back when Quest Online was a new MMO and people were still figuring it out, in a time before the knowledge of high-level magic, the devs had hidden a contest. Out in the world, it was possible for find scraps of lore, history of the world and how it worked. For many, that was all these little scraps of paper were. They gave a bit of story and not much else. Back in those days, most players would skim through them without giving them much thought.

Mark found one of those scraps of paper off of a monster drop. The story that it contained spoke of a high-level spell, a Creator class spell, something of a legend. He became obsessed with the concept of the spell. The next three years were filled with him researching and experimenting with spellcraft to make his own. Three years of research and the consumption of over three thousand levels worth of XP resulted in his first Creator class spell, and upon completion, he was contacted by the Devs with congratulations as well as a custom cosmetic. His tattoo. He was the only one with it. Mark understood that he was likely not the first one to find the information on Creator class spells, he doubted that he was the first one to begin crafting one, but he had been the first to get one to work. The proof of which was not permanently etched into this body, now his body. And the best part of it was that It gave him a customer cast animation, given it was kind of a dual-edged blade due to it making him stand out even more, but hey, custom effects were the glory of MMOs.

Finishing his daily routine, he stepped out of the magic house back into the desert. Looking toward the horizon, he cast the {point} spell once more and began his trek, this time using {lesser teleportation} as a mid-range teleport to increase his speed. He knew not where he was going, just that he might find his first evidence of intelligent life.

His speed had done much better now that he was using the spell, and he facepalmed for likely the fiftieth time that day as he once again moved at a significantly higher speed than the day before. After spending the entire morning teleporting a thousand meters at a time, midday hit and ne noticed a dark line that spread across the entire horizon. This piqued his interest, so he decided to try going a bit further. After all, at this point, he had realized that the desert, or at least the part he was on, was raised up a bit. And he could see quite a bit farther.

Sitting down for a bit he refreshed himself with some water and pulled an apple out of his inventory. After taking a bite he tried to speak “Da-fhfdsjhfds” almost immediacy starting to choke, he realized that he hadn’t spoken to anyone in a long time. Clearing his throat, he tried again “Damn, can’t believe that I forgot how to talk there for a second. Not that it matters seeing as I’m talking to myself. But guess It’s better I got this out of the way now rather than after I found somewhere with people.” Chuckling to himself he finished off the apple and watched as it dissolved into nothingness and left behind a few seeds. “Neat, stuff still behaves like that.”

Smirking he deposited them into a cloth pouch on his hip. Looking out to the distant dark like that had made itself known as a vast forest, He charged up a larger spell {Greater Teleportation}

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The small town on the outskirts of the Great Forest was a place for Adventurers to gather. Everypony from warriors to mages would come here looking for work. The locals enjoyed the attention because it insured an excellent trade route, in addition to being protected in the situation that something tried to attack the town. In this town, it was a common sight to see an adventure approach from down the road. But even if it was a place for adventurers, nopony dared enter the dark forest. It was well known to be the darkest and most terrifying forest in the entire world. Expeditions in the past had been lead deep into that cursed forest in an attempt trying to map it out and conquer it, but none had returned successfully in their endeavors. It was a death trap that only got more dangerous the deeper in you got. Most Adventures didn’t even risk it regardless if there were great treasures hidden within. It was just too dangerous.

It was from this dark canopy that a sound was heard.‘tonk, tonk, tonk, tonk.’ It was a steady rhythm, something that indicated that it was done with little to no struggle, just the smooth sound of staff hitting the moist earth. It carried across the air in an almost unnatural way given how clearly it sounded through the bustling town. The eyes of every pony in town turned to look at the forest, and when they did, their eyes were greeted by a tall bipedal being Its wide-brimmed hat and long staff distracted onlookers from seeing his face, but no one seemed to want to make a move toward the figure. Casting his gaze over the small city, Mark took a deep breath. “Well, at least I know that there are people now, sort of I guess. Must be a high fantasy type world with beast races.” Continuing forward, he ignored the suspicious looked on the faces of the ponies, his eyes drawn to the walls and the buildings around him.

Not even the main road through the town was paved, given the middle ages looking construction with the thatched roofs on most of the homes, it still had a slightly more modern look as well. First, you could see storefronts that could have been around in the early 2000s albeit a little more colorful, but right next door you would have a house that had what appeared to be made of clay brick and a thatched roof. All of this cumulated to the look of a quaint little town that was overall quite pleasant. Deciding that he would like to remember this location he opened his inventory and pulled out his map to make sure to mark down this location, another handy little item from the old game world that for some reason worked here. The more he had explored, the more of the map he had uncovered. The brief glow of his hand from pulling the map out would normally have gone unnoticed by most around him, but there was at least one Unicorn that had been watching him intently as soon as he entered the town.

The violet-eyed Unicorn had been watching him as soon as he entered the town, and he had noticed. He recognized her gaze in a moment, it was a gaze that spoke of hunger. He had seen similar gazes on other players that he had come across in the past. The look that said, ‘I see all your cool stuff, I want it.’ Figuring that he didn’t want to risk getting into a fight, he made sure to mark her location and make sure that he didn’t leave himself in a situation where she would be able to get him alone. Continuing down the street, he realized that he didn’t understand what the local people were saying, but they had begun to point to him. It also appeared that a pair of armed Stallions were walking up to him.

Making a snap decision, Mark gently set his staff on the ground at his feet and placed his hands in the air with his fingers splayed to show that he had nothing in them. As he rose his hands to the air around his head, he quickly activated an ability {Gift of tongues}, it was a utility ability from the game was made to add subtitles to whatever was spoken to the player, the devs had gone hardcore and written at least five spoken languages for Quest Online that could legitimately be learned and used. The {Gift of Tongues} ability was meant to be a shortcut for players that didn’t have the attention span to learn five new languages to play a game.

He had hoped that it would help here as well but was genuinely shocked when he began to hear English coming from the mouths of the apparent guards. Approaching they addressed him “you can lower your hands and pick up your staff, we are just checking out the new arrival, I would guess you haven't stopped by the guard house to check in.”

Mark shrugged “Didn’t know I needed to. If you are willing to guide me, I would be more than happy to make my way there now.” He smiled to punctuate his statement, though it may have come off a bit creepy, due to the brim of his hat hanging low enough to cover all but the lower half of his face.

The guard returned his smile, though with a bit of apprehension at Mark’s unusual appearance. “Glad to hear, follow me.”

Picking his staff back up, Mark walked over to the guards and allowed them to escort him to the guard house to do his check-in. After walking for a few minutes, the shorter of the two asked “So, What brings you to Ponyvillie? Seeing that you didn’t know about the check-in, you have never been here before. Never seen anything like you neither.”

Mark’s eyebrow curled up at the name of the town, thinking in his head with sarcasm ‘Ponyvillie? What kind of stupid nonsense name is that, next thing you are going to tell me there is a pun name for every major US city and the castle of Camelot.’ Hiding his grimace at the odd name he nodded “That is true, I have never been here before. I just finished crossing the Forest and the badlands beyond that. This was the first settlement I have found.”

He had said it as a matter of fact that he had just casually crossed that vast desert, with no real understanding of how unbelievable that was. The taller guard looked at him incredibly “I can understand not wanting to say where you came from, but making up something like that is rather far fetched, No one has ever crossed that place and lived to tell about it. And what do you mean by badlands beyond the Everfree? That place continues on beyond the end of the world for all we know.”

Mark internally started to freak out ‘Shit!! Why did you have to say that! If I take it back, everyone will just think I’m just some lier that is looking to cause trouble. What should I do?!’ Giving himself a few moments to straighten out his thoughts, he decided to go for the persona of being a wise wizard, taking a leaf from a certain white wizard, he fixed his face and gave the guard a cold look “Are you accusing me of being a lier?” His tone could chill the bones, and his gaze ripped into the guard, “I do not appreciate liers, and I will not be called one. Take this into consideration, just because it hasn’t happened before, does not mean that it can’t happen. I crossed that plane of nothingness and traversed the depths of that forest, that is not a boast, but a fact.” It took all he had in him to hold back how nervous he was as he spoke the same line repeating in his head ‘don’t call me out, don’t call me out, don’t call me out.’

The guard gulped and looked away as he continued to lead the group towards the guard post, not bothering to dig further into the strange stallion's business. The remainder of the trip was spent in silence, for the guards, this was awkward, for Mark, this was normal. From his years of self-isolation, he was used to going days without speaking and in some cases weeks or even a few months, when you can type everything that you ever wanted to say, why bother. All of the jobs that he took for level grinding or finding rare equipment was conducted via text chat only. He had always had issues with saying things before thinking them through and because of this, he had made a genuine effort to only speak via text as to make sure that he could edit what he was saying.

The meeting at the guard post was fast, he just had to sign some papers that said that he had arrived and what his expected time in the city would be. The governing ruler of the area had placed these practices in place to help reduce crime from the outside. Staring down at the parchment, he realized two things. First, this paper was written in English, second, should he still go by his old name. In his mind began a new fight ‘I have no idea if going back will be possible, or even if I want to. All that waits for me there is an empty house. I’m just a nobody, but here I am a master wizard.’ At that moment he made his decision, Mark Libenson was dead, and the Great Wizard Makarov took his first real breath. Makarov signed his name and said that he would likely stay for a week or so, but maybe back to update the amount of time he was staying depending on what he could find in the town. The guards didn’t ask any more questions, but as he left he missed the light flash of green flame that lit up behind him as a message flew off to the north.

After finishing up the tedious paperwork, Makarov began to stroll around the marketplace, keeping his head down and his ears open. As he made his way around, he took in how the locals were bartering with the shopkeepers, and watched as they traded coins around. It looked like the same currency that you would see in most games. Copper, Silver and the rare Gold. As he walked around, he learned that there was 100 Copper to a Silver and 10 Silver to a Gold. From the look of it, Coppers were the most common currency, and few things were of a higher cost than 50 or 60. Smaller items could cost anywhere from 1 to 2 a piece. Given that it was for things like apples and cherries. After getting a grasp on the local currency, he walked by a rather unique store.

From the look of it, they sold Stationary and… Sofas? Why in the nine hells would a store sell stationary and sofas? That has to be the stupidest idea he had ever heard of. But at least the stationary would be useful. Walking in he looked over the stallion’s stock. Thirty minutes later he walked out of the store with his purchases made, though not visible as he had placed them in his inventory. He knew that at least one goal of his would be to make sure that he was still able to craft magic in this world, and that would take mountains of paper. So buying it whenever he could be important.

Makarov continued to explore the town to imprint the area in his mind. He found some useful locations, Weaponsmith, armorsmith, guild hall, general goods store, and apothecary. There was also a small number of stores that sold various items. But for this moment in time, the library was the biggest fascination that held his attention. Here it stood in the middle of the city, its greatest bastion of knowledge, and it was built into a living tree. Looking with a dumbfounded gaze in his eyes, he pressed forward to enter. After passing through the threshold, the overpowering odor of old books hit his nose. Taking a deep breath, he sighed.

This was a sent that Mark was happy to call familiar. His grandfather had been quite the bibliophile, something his father had not inherited but had been something that Makarov and his Grandfather shared. In the current world, books were no longer printed on paper, only on the web. The feel of a book in your hands was something that many had no experience with, but it was one of the last treasures that he had of his family. After his parents and siblings had been killed in that accident, his grandparents had looked after him until he hit 18, at which point he inherited everything from his parents as the sole survivor of the family. His grandparents had only died a few years later in their sleep holding each other.

He was thankful that they had gone peacefully rather than the violent death that his parents and siblings had dealt with. After their deaths, he had locked himself away from the world. All connections that he had with any friends were severed and he began his life as an introvert. As he looked around the library, a shuffling noise made him look over to his left, where he saw what seemed to be a young dragon, albeit more anthropomorphic than he had expected, but still a dragon. One thing that had always been a constant in any game that he had played was that you don’t piss off dragons “Good day to you good drake, I hope that I have not intruded upon your hoard. I had no idea that this was the lair of a dragon.” Sweat began to bead on Makarov’s forehead ‘Don’t be a jerk please’ flashed through his mind.

For a moment, that bead of sweat dripped down his neck before the dragons head pulled back and he started laughing “Ohh boy, where are you from dude? I’m just Spike, you don’t need to be super formal with me. I’m not even 60 years old yet.”

It was at this moment that Makarov noticed he had been followed into the library as a woman spoke. “60? Spike, you’re only 17.” Makarov turned around, and his vision was filled with purple. “Now you are somepony that I have been interested in meeting.” Looking down at her he took in her appearance. She stood at around five feet six inches, six feet tall if you counted the horn. Her dark purple mane was broken by a stripe of slightly lighter purple and a second of dark pink. She wore a button up shirt with a purple argyle sweater vest and a modest skirt. Her legs ended in hooves as did ass of the other Pony people he had encountered so far.

That bead of sweat began to roll down his neck again, this was the...mare?... yes this was the mare that had the eyes of hunger. Though he now realized that they hungered for knowledge, and that could be worse than the desire for items. Taking a deep breath, Makarov steadied himself “Well I can’t imagine why? After all, I’m just a traveling wizard. I’m sure you get my type a lot around here.” He began an internal chant ‘please let her buy it, please let her buy it, please let her buy it.’

She narrowed her eyes “That is true, but we don’t normally get any that claim to have traversed the Everfree, or go by the name Makarov. I have to say, that is a rather bold claim. There can be only one Makarov, and Princess Celestia is the current holder of that title, and has been for the last two thousand years.” She stated matter of factly. A smirk on her face “I won’t call you a liar, but that makes me think you have some impressive magic.”

He was taken aback at that news. ‘WTF, Makarov is a title here?’ Shaking his head, he replied “Maybe I do, and maybe I don’t, I fail to see why that should matter to you. My knowledge is my own as are my spells. And I have no idea who this ‘Princess Celestia’ is but I am Makarov, always have been, always will be.” As the words left his mouth, he realized his mistake. He had said ‘my spells.’

The purple Mare’s eyes widened “Your spells! There hasn’t been a spell crafter for over 500 years!”

The look in her eyes had turned predatory, sighing, Makarov stepped around her and made to leave the library before he was stopped by her shutting the door before he could, turning to look at her, he spoke with annoyance in his voice “So what are you going to do? Hold me against my will and force me to give you what I know?” She at least had the decency to look ashamed “So tell me… you haven't even given me your name, nor asked me for mine, why should I give you my knowledge? Something that I have worked for all my life? What right do you have to it?!”

She looked taken aback at his outburst, and the purple glow left her horn and the door. Turning to leave, he was stopped again by a timid voice “T-Twilight Sparkle… My name is Twilight Sparkle, I apologize for acting like that, my friends have told me that I can be a bit… well a bit obsessive when it comes to magic. You see, I was the personal student of Princess Celestia in magic. It’s my special talent, so I have always tried to learn all I could about the subject.”

Looking back at her was a mistake, she looked like a kicked puppy. Grumbling he responded “Fine, I guess I can forgive you. But try to remember that you are not owed anything in this world. Things can be given or paid for. But nothing is owed.” He had come to that thought over a lifetime of experience. If things could be owed, then he was owed a better life, after all, that had been taken from him. If the universe could owe you things, then it owed him a lot. “So, Twilight Sparkle, that is a …unique name.”

She seemed to perk up “Thank you, I’m named after my mother. It’s an old Unicorn tradition.” She smiled at me with a strange innocence. As if she had never had to deal with anything truly terrible before. It reminded him of characters that he had seen in various games and shows. The chipper character that enjoyed an ideal childhood. Filled with happiness and support. The kind of person that Makarov didn’t really care for in general. Most of the time, if you backed them into a corner, they would shatter under pressure. But for some reason, when he looked at her, she seemed… stronger than that. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but there was something about her.

Deciding to take a shot in the dark he asked. “So what did you mean by ‘there can only be one Makarov?”

She smiled and launched into her explanation. “Just as I said, the title of Makarov is given to only one being on the planet. The one that holds the title of strongest magic user. The title is a holdover from ancient times. It was said to be the name of the greatest Magic user to exist in the time of the Precursors. The grand civilization of beings that existed before the cataclysm that put the world into its current state. It is also a title that is given by the church of the Precursors.” She smiled as she spoke, clearly loving that she knew this information offhand. The Information broker in Makarov cringed at how easily she was giving this information, but the opportunist in him jumped for joy.

Lifting his eyebrow, he asked “So what? She is like the pope or something of the church?”

Twilight looked at him with confusion but answered “I’m not sure what you mean by ‘Pope,’ but she is a very important pony in the faith, beyond being the ruler of the entire country. Well her and her little sister Princess Luna. Where have you been that you didn’t know all this? It’s relatively common knowledge.”

Makarov began to sweat again, when one of his auto wards went off. Casting his eyes around the room to figure out what was happening, he noticed a light shimmer in the space just above Twilights right shoulder. Thinking fast, he made up his mind, ‘might as well play it up and enjoy myself while I can. Worst case, I run away.’ Clearing his throat, he responded “As I said, I was crossing the badlands that lie beyond the Everfree. Before that… well, I have been working for a very long time.”

Her eyes lit up with wonder, and he continued “I have decided, I think I will show you something of my magic. If you would follow me outside for a moment, this is no place to sling magic around.” Walking out of the front door, he stopped in front of the library tree, Twilight close behind him. Looking back over at her he muttered {Mystic Trace} at the shimmer over her shoulder. In his mind’s eye, he zipped over the land, across a vast plane of space, broken only with more dirt roads and interestingly enough a train track. After a few miles, it began to ascend up the side of a mountain to an impossible city sitting on the side of the peak. Drifting over the city, the image pulled him to the grand palace, glistening in its majestic white. All ending up in a throne room where a large mare sat in a gilded throne. Her white coat shining with brilliance, hiding his light pink tones. Her regalia sat on her with an elegance that to see her without it would seem wrong. She watched what appeared to be a mirror with a scene of Makarov and Twilight leaving the Library. Her eyes looked on with great interest.

Next to her sat a smaller mare, her coat black as night, the sky painted across her mane. Her eyes also looked upon the scene with interest. But what also seemed to be a faint bit of recognition. Cutting the magic from himself, Makarov looked at a small clearing behind the Library. “Perfect.” He muttered to himself before turning around and looking at the Purple mare “This should do well for the first demonstration. But first.” His eyes locked on the shimmer that sat just above her shoulder “I believe it would be better if all of you watching right now came to introduce yourselves.” Raising his arm, the gem at the top of his staff began to glow as he commanded {Mythic Gate}. The ground started to rumble, and over the next ten seconds, it seemed to flow together to form an Archway in the clearing.

After around ten seconds the empty space that once occupied the middle of the arch was filled with the view of the inside of the throne room. Two shocked princesses starred out, the mirror having been forgotten. Keeping up the act of the wise wizard Makarov spoke once more “Eavesdropping is so unbecoming of royalty don’t you think? It’s easier to just come and say hello.”