ELO
Tales of a Midnight Dream
January 22
The Game of Death

I lay my head upon the pillow. The Nervegear wasn't altogether that heavy. In fact it was much lighter than it should have been. That doesn't matter though. Today was the day! ELO was to launch. ELO had been announced early the year before and I had looked forward to it for ages. My eyes focused on the inner clock of the screen. 11:59. I counted down.

Language: English
User Name: MidnightDream
Password: *******

Welcome to Equestria Legends Online

Now you must choose your avatar. Select which pony race you would like:
-Earth Pony
-Pegasus
-Unicorn

What would you like your avatar to be?
-Ponified self
-OC

A bright light scanned my body and a pony shape appeared slowly becoming more crisp and clear. Before me stood a pony that looked kinda like, well, me.(Link here to see the image) I groaned. It gave me a mare. I went to change to my OC but something popped up.

I gaped at the message. I hate computers some times. I was stuck with this pony. I clicked ok and another window popped up.

A bright light filled my eyes. "Now that you have chosen your pony you may enter Equestria."

I opened my eyes to see Ponyville square. The developers did a really good job. It looked just like how I pictured it. I opened my inventory. I had two things in it. Curious, I clicked them.

I looked at the second book. It had no information or anything. Meanwhile in the corner of my eye I saw two players, Shadowflame and Darkened5ky greet each other. Putting the book away I turned towards a vender.

"Of course m'am," I groaned, "That'll be ol' Steel Heart, down the street and to the left," he said.

"Excuse me," I sad to the dark grey pony who was hammering away at a sword, "Are you Steel Heart?"

In a rough voice the stallion said "Aye. I'm Steel Heart. Looking to buy somethin' miss?"

A window of weapons and armor opened. Scanning through a sword caught my eye. I clicked on it.

"Dawn- This is a one handed trident with a heavy weight and strong durability. Cost for it and Noon Together- 150bits."
"Noon- A one handed sword fit for its sister weapon Dawn."

Knowing the names they wouldn't fit me well but I choose them and some other armor. As I clicked okay a box popped up.

Yes. I clicked the okay. Going to my inventory I equipped my weapons and another box popped up.

Dusk- Allows player to bypass armor when used with Weapons attributed with it. Min armor resistance: 1
Lower level Attributes for this ability- Light, Healing, etc
Middle- Darkness
Max- Time

Time? My weapons were attributed with Time? I should have seen that. Dawn and Noon. I equipped my armor and made for the Everfree. Time to pwn me some monsters.

In hindsight attacking a dragon by myself was a really bad idea. My health was already at 1/8 and one more hit would likely kill me. I had barely dented the dang thing. Then I remembered my ability. Activating it I dove at the dragon again. This time I slashed as many times as I could and suddenly a dialogue box popped up.

I grinned. No. Freaking. Way. I gained 5 levels from killing a Everfree mini-sub-boss. That was when I noticed something on the ground.

Grinning from head to hoof I headed for Ponyville. It was time for me to commission in some new armor. I arrived at Steel Heart's forge.

I tossed the bag of scales onto his counter. After watching him open it I grinned. The stallion looked to be in shock.

"Well I attacked a dragon and it turned out to be some sub-boss called Dragonlord Zeta."

"Zeta? Are you sure it was Zeta?" I nodded. "Oh thank Celestia! That tyrant is gone. He's been plaguing us for far too long!"

More stuff? The commissionable armor thing was cool. I exited the boxes and turned to Steel Heart.

"Alright m'am. Your armor will be done in 4 hours, 35 minutes," came Steel Heart's voice.

"Tha-" I was cut off by a blue light surrounding my body. When it cleared I was back in the Ponyville Plaza.

"What the hay?" I looked around. Blue lights flashed as more players were teleported to the plaza.

The entire crowd quieted down as they turned to see four alicorns flying in the air above the square. They each had varying colors and manes. They each were about the height of what Luna would be. Gah! Admins!

The lead alicorn cleared his throat, "Everyone, we are the administrators of Equestria Legends Online. We are in charge of analyzing the system and keeping it running in top condition. However, right now we are experiencing several technical difficulties in the system. One of which, as some of you might have noticed, was the absence of the log out button in your player menus. This is a major problem, since there is no other way for anyone to leave the game. We do not know the cause for this malfunction, but please bear with us as we try to fix this problem. While we try to find what's causing this, for your own safety, please remain in the Ponyville square for the time being."

The lead alicorn shook his head, "This problem isn't from a lack in the system, so we don't know where the problem might have originated."

The entire square went dark. But during the darkness, another voice chuckled evilly, "Oh, I think that I might know what the problem is."

The lead alicorn glared at Discord, "How can you be the cause of the problem? You are a program in the system that we designed ourselves. You may have partial control of Equestria, but you don't have the power to change the layout of the system completely."
Discord snapped his fingers, making himself vanish. But then he reappeared behind the lead alicorn, "Oh, but you already know the answer to that. You designed me to be exactly like the 'me' in your television show, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic." He suddenly appeared next to Shadowflame who jumped,"That really is a terrible name for a show, don't you think?"

"You see, you gave me control over reality in Equestria. But with this power, I hacked into the rest of the system, giving me power over the entire program. Oh, and to make sure that I stay in power, " He snapped his fingers and in a flash, the admin alicorns' horns and wings disappeared, making them plummet into the crowd below, while Discord still floated in the air.

Discord laughed evilly, "Now the admins are just plain earth ponies, and I've also taken power over their admin codes. They won't be able to do a thing to change my world. As for all of you, I will let you keep your wings and horns while you play in a game of mine."

The crowd yelled, but Discord simply snapped his fingers, silencing everyone "My, I haven't even told you what the game is, and you're already anxious to get started. The game that I have in mind is a bit of a scavenger hunt. I have taken the Elements of Harmony and placed them all in secret hiding places, inside and outside of Equestria. Your job is to find the Elements and use them to reach me. There, we will have a fight to the death. If you manage to retrieve the elements and defeat me, then I will allow everyone to log out."

He lowered his head just over the crowd, "But it won't be as easy as you think, you see I've added a few features to the game. In the original system, if you died in the game, you would instantly re-spawn in the last town you were in. But that's too boring for me, so I re-wrote the system so when anyone died, their avatar would be lost, and their Nervegear Helmet in the real world will fry their brains. In shorter words, if you die in the game, you will die in the real world."

Discord laughed as he drew a line across his neck, making his head slide off of his neck and into his hand. The dismembered head laughed as it looked down at the terrified crowd, "No need to lose your head over it." He began to laugh even more, "And also, if there is any tampering with the helmet in the outside world, the helmet will kill the player instantly. Actually, quite a few of players have already died this way. Now, in this game, there are a few rules. First, you cannot receive help from the outside world, that is, if you can even manage that. If I catch anypony communicating to the outside world, all of you will die. Second, any tampering with the system from inside the game, the rule-breaker will die instantly."

Discord laughed, "And just so you know, I have a couple of monster friends who want to go out of their designated areas, so I'm letting them roam a bit. Maybe you'll meet them when you go out of town, but they won't follow you into a city or town. They hate crowded places."
The draconequus cackled, "But a few of you might have thought, 'There's only six elements, so this will be easy.' Well, I'm sorry to burst your bubble," Discord suddenly, belched out a bubble that was bigger that the length of his body, "But I thought that only six elements would be boring. So I added four new elements." He poked the oversized bubble with a claw, causing it to burst and reform into ten smaller bubbles. "They will be hidden all over Equestria, but they will be guarded by my favorite kinds of monsters, just like a boss of each element." Discord juggled the bubbles.

"If you find the element, and defeat its guardian in a boss battle, then you may walk away with it in hoof. But I must warn you, my guardians are no push-overs."

Lighting struck again behind Discord, "Well, there you have it. So just remember, your lives are on the line, not mine." He laughed loudly, making lighting strike behind him again, "So, my little bronies, let the games begin!" The sky suddenly turned into a chaotic storm and Discord vanished.

Equestria Legends Online: Tales of a Midnight Dream

by Kaffeina

January 22- The Game of Death