//------------------------------// // Arc 1-4: Out of Bounds // Story: Error Code: FIO // by Ashfur //------------------------------// Location: Ponyville city limits, railroad tracks The locomotive engine rattled along the tracks at a decent pace. Far too slow for any train schedule, but enough that a certain irate pony from catching up to it. Try as he might, 'Alex' simply could not push his virtual body to go any faster, and would need to concede defeat soon if the train didn't stop. Alas, things were not looking good in that department, as the train continued its course down the track and out towards the large billboard reminding its readers that they were leaving ponyville, and to have a nice day. 'Alex' was only able to keep up the pace for so long. Eventually, he tripped, and as he fell flat in exhaustion he could only watch as the train moved further and further away... ...and promptly clipped through the ground, falling out of sight. "What? No, seriously. The hay was that?" Mentally cursing his inability to curse again, the stallion trotted over to where the train fell away, taking each step cautiously and deliberately as to not fall himself. Reaching an invisible edge (and nearly falling anyway), 'Alex' experimented with the odd border for a while. Poking his head beyond it didnt seem to do anything, but he was able to stick his hoof through the ground. "Well, I suppose it cant be too bad for me if I leap here. I bet the world is only loaded a certain distance from the player, but the game thinks I'm still the generic pony in the character creation area. Celestia must still be working on loading a whole planet at one in each ponypad, heh. Good thing this wont hurt me in the real world... Alright game, let's see what secrets you have one we go off the beaten path!" And with that, he bravely stepped off the edge and fell into the abyss hidden beyond the veil of ponyville. Location: Off the map Darkness, and thousands of tiny lights flickered across his vision as 'Alex' floated away from where he began his journey. Looking about, he noticed that the ponyville he had left behind was gone, a large, glimmering crystal in its place, easily as large as a four-story building. A quick glance revealed that all the points of light in the distance were similar crystals, seemingly miles apart. With seemingly no gravity and nowhere else to go, 'Alex' struggled with the controls for a while before realizing that his wings failed to listen as he had yet to figure out how to use them. Angry at himself for his lack of preparation and at the game for glitching to such an extreme, Alex shook the controller in frustration before setting it down on the table and getting up to get a snack and clear his thoughts. A short snack and a quick search of a few let's plays featuring pegasi later, and Alex returned ready to fly, hopefully. Pressing the correct buttons in order as he saw in the videos, his pony character slowly but surely made a few flaps, then started moving forward. It seemed there were hundreds of crystals to choose from, but he decided to set out for the nearest one and start exploring this odd realm beyond his game. That was the plan, of course, until a scream erupted from the right of 'Alex' for a split second, followed by a sickening CRACK that shook him even in the real world, and a force resembling a wave knocked 'Alex' off balance. Quickly turning around to see what caused the first real action in his game, 'Alex' stared in shock at the shattered remains of the crystal shard that once held another save game of some other player. Now, only clear splinters remained, each one showing pictures of locations across what he could assume was Manehattan due to the rather prominent pony Statue of Liberty. "What exactly happened that caused this? Was that the world being deleted or something? Or... was that my fault? I dont know. I have to figure this out, it's bound to make tonight interesting, at least." And with that, 'Alex' clumsily flew into the largest splinter of crystal he could find, hoping for answers. Location: Manehattan (fractured), 'Alex' promptly fell on his face as he flew into the fragment of the world, due to suddenly having gravity to deal with. Getting up and brushing himself off, the blue stallion glanced around and took stock of the immediate area. Most of it was gone, leaving only a small location around him floating in the void, but he seemed to be on a street, and a single storefront remained intact. The two on each side, and he assumed the backs of the stores, were mostly gone and replaced with a view of the areas between worlds. Deciding to go with the obvious location, he trotted into the store. The store was, as expected, missing a large portion of its back sections with the nothingness beyond the worlds the only replacement. Form what was on sale, the store itself appeared to be some kind of magic shop, with scrolls and potions lining the shelves. Grabbing a few scrolls as he checked the aisles, the pony stopped as he heard crying coming from behind the counter. Cautiously but swiftly, 'Alex' peered around the side of the front desk to see a lime green unicorn mare with a golden mane and a potion for a cutie mark sobbing behind the counter. 'Alex' moved forward and gently placed his hoof on the mare's shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. She gasped, and looked up at him in shock. "Wh-who are you?" She asked through her sniffling. Glancing at his horn and wings, she added, "Are you an alicorn?" "I'm..." Alex froze. He remembered that his previous attempt to call himself by name failed, and it was clear this character needed comfort as opposed to a silly quest for a name. Ruminating on his options for a moment, Preparing himself for what would likely be his biggest deviation from all other playthroughs of Equestria Online yet, he opened his mouth and responded, his pony avatar repeating his words one for one: "I suppose you can call me an Errorcorn until I come up with a better race name. As for who I am... ...You can call me System Glitch."