//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Queen's Avatar // by CaioCoia //------------------------------// Next morning came faster than he wanted it to. A minute seemed to have passed since he’d fallen asleep, but it was enough for the whole day. He went straight to the bathroom and took the quickest shower possible and changed his clothes, but not before looking at himself in the mirror. After seeing his green hair and eyes without dust or black eyes, he could tell he was ready. And it was the moment of truth. “Watch out world, it’s Spike’s time.”  After leaving his room, he found his sister awake and eating breakfast as fast as she could.  Spike knew soon it would be time, so he rushed himself as well and dug into his food. While they kept eating like a pack of hungry animals, Twilight made eye contact as they seemed to talk telepathically. “How much did you sleep yesterday?” She asked him, while he rolled his eyes in response. “Enough for me to play all day long and get a great nap tomorrow. And what about you? Did you check all your equipment and items before we go?”  “Check and check.” She nodded her head with a smile, but then her eyes revealed a bit of disappointment. “It’s sad Shadowblaze won’t be on our team. She’s a great player; she’d definitely help to lead our team to victory in no time.” “Tell me about it. At least we will meet her face to face today.” Spike finished his meal, while Twilight drank some milk from her glass. “I can’t want to meet her.” Twilight smiled after she opened the door of their house.   “Me too, but we should get there soon. The earlier we get there, the better. Did you message everyone to meet us in the place we agreed?” Spike asked while he put on his jacket. On the back was their team logo, a four-headed dragon: a hydra, soaring in the sky. After locking the door, Twilight followed Spike to their main objective: the stadium where the TotheGlory championship was being held.    It didn’t take long to get to the venue via the bus. The sunrise blanketed the entire place with beautiful streaks of orange and yellow around them.    “It looks like this is the place. We’re finally here.” Twilight cleaned her glasses while Spike opened his backpack to check his supplies. “I hope that this will be enough for all day long. I can’t believe we’re here, Twi.” Spike couldn’t hide his excitement. “Me neither.” She smiled, excited as well. “Who would have thought our childhood dream would come true?” Spike couldn’t help but smile from memories of Twilight and him as children playing on the first server of the game. It was fantastic in the early years, but they became sad and frustrated after learning a new update would change all the equipment statuses they had worked so hard to create, and all their characters would receive a drastic change because of the addition of new classes. They were good memories to Spike, but he remembered they were now at the championship. “Let’s go.” They walked to the entrance of the stadium, where they showed their participant badges, avoiding the terribly long line to enter. The stadium wasn’t any smaller than a conventional one. The biggest difference was that the stage in the middle of the stadium had several large screens. Those watching on TV and the Internet could only watch as the stream chose the scenes for them; however, at the actual location, everyone had their own display screen, where they could choose who to spectate freely. There were also slow-motion shots for them to look at. In this type of eSports arena, besides the atmosphere, they could watch from all around, which was something that those who were watching the broadcast, didn’t have access to. In the team competition, the ten players were all fighting at different spots on the map. How the broadcast chose the viewpoint really made the internet spectators curious. Only those at the scene could fully appreciate the competition’s brilliance. “Woah.” Spike never thought how spectacular the view he was looking at would be, and the cheering of the crowd who was excited to watch the game made his excitement and his anxiety ten times stronger. “Wow.” Twilight’s reaction wasn’t even better. They used to dream of watching as spectators and now they were players in the championship as well. “We did it, Spike. We’re finally here.” “Yeah, but we still need to win the championship,” Spike said nervously, but smiling as well.  “Do you think you can get in contact with the girls?” Twilight asked while she checked her cellphone to see if there was a message from their friends. “Well, I can try,” Spike said while he used his cellphone to call them. After waiting a few seconds, there was a voice. “Hello.” It was a softened voice coming from the other side of the phone call. Spike smiled, knowing his friend’s cell phone got her to talk. “Hey, Fluttershy, it’s Spike. We’re here, where are you and Sunset?” Spike asked his friend and teammate where they were so they could stick together when he heard another voice coming from the far left. “TWILIGHT! SPIKE! HEY, OVER HERE!” It was his other teammate, Sunset Shimmer, who was making a fuss on where she was and making the poor girl named Fluttershy blush from the little people who are near them.  Spike and Twilight smiled with the sudden reaction of their friend. Once they got near to where she was, they found out, not just their teammates, but other friends as well, were at the seats near the platform. Rainbow Dash was sleeping on a seat above Pinkie Pie, who sat beneath the seat and was snoring and drooling all over herself, Applejack was eating something, and Rarity had a mess of hair from tiredness.  “Hey, girls. What’s up?” Twilight asked after doing the usual group hug, hugging the sleeping duo in an awkward way. “Well, partner, we were waiting for you. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie really wanted to be the first people at the championship seats, so they slept at the front door for two days straight. I just came here 10 minutes ago, while Sunset and Fluttershy just got here,” Applejack said after drinking a mug of coffee. Meanwhile, Rarity was doing makeup and Sunset Shimmer went to Spike. “Okay, captain, what’s the main strategy?” Sunset Shimmer was a gunner. She always liked the best location for her to aim at her enemies. “Calm down, Sunset, we still need to confirm our registration. Twilight’s doing the paperwork, we just need to give them our ID access to the receptionist and we can go on,” Spike said, looking in the direction of the sign up section as Twilight took the registration paper. “Let’s go.” Sunset, Fluttershy and Twilight followed Spike while the others stayed in place until it was time for them to get their seats. They walked to the line of the registration section. There were 4 lines of at least 60 people on each, so it would take awhile for them to finish their registration.  “I have to say, this year will be a difficult championship. Look who’s here.” Spike pointed out two familiar guild logos from Totheglory. A giant red spider, and black crystal in the shape of a heart. “The Scarlet Fire Spiders and the Crystallized Evil Heart team are over here.” “Oh crap, they’re here? I remember they fought until 10 people in their guild lost their levels down to level 1. Thankfully, we aren’t involved in their fighting on the server.” Sunset Shimmer sweated after remembering the news going around the server and how messy the war became when a hundred innocent players got involved and had to quit the game because of their personal revenge. “Yeah, they look really vengeful in some aspects. Why did they start a war again?” Twilight Sparkle asked while they tried to avoid eye contact with them. Gossiping about the other teams would be asking them to fight your team, and they wanted to avoid that.  “Someone infiltrated from the other team to steal their loot while they were fighting a boss. After that, it became a personal war,” Fluttershy said, using her low voice as they approached to line 4 while watching the heated argument between the two sworn enemies of the game. “Yeah, if it weren’t for the game masters asking the most powerful players to sign a contract making them play by the rules, they would create huge chaos over here,” Spike said in relief while he was checked his cellphone. He was surprised his girlfriend didn’t send a message. “Maybe she’ll be late.”  They waited in line for 20 minutes while Spike and the girls were texting each other about their strategy. They couldn’t let the other teams hear such important information.   A commotion started from behind them. It was the winning team from last year, a team with a white tiger on a black flag, while their uniforms were black and white. Their leader had purple straps around her arms. They walked with power, making the other teams move away from them.  The leader of their team was Aria Blaze, who raised her eyebrow while looking to the left and right.  “I’m looking for Shadowblaze’s boyfriend. His nickname is Dragon’sSpikes,” she said. The other teams looked at themselves with confusion. Spike’s team gasped in surprise and Spike yelped in fear. Aria looked at the team surprised by her demands, causing all the other teams to look to Spike with concern and wonder What the hell did she do? WHAT THE HELL DID SHADOWBLAZE SAY TO HER?! Spike’s mind screamed in panic, as he tried to find a way to get out. Fluttershy held his shoulder, doing her best to calm him down.  While Aria and her team began walking in their direction, Spike had just a few seconds to think about what had happened. Maybe some trash talking between ShadowBlaze and Aria Blaze happened and she challenged Aria, saying they would defeat Aria. That possibility made Spike relax and gain courage to answer Aria. “Yeah, I’m Dragon’sSpikes, team captain of Emperor Dragons, but you can call me Spike. I’m ShadowBlaze’s boyfriend. I don’t know what ShadowBlaze said to you, but it’s all true about me winning against you.” Spike’s announcement made all the other teams look at themselves in surprise. A black haired man with gray straps looked at his teammate. “That boy has courage, I have to say. He isn’t an idiot to say something while knowing he’s becoming her prey at the moment. She said something about some account. Maybe it’s a good player, a rival of hers. Chryssy, take a look at that boy and his team. He may be our challenge in the future.” The man said while the dark green and gray hair girl nodded while took some notes on her tablet. “Yes, Captain Sombra,” she said, looking at the captain of the winning team. They feared to say their name because by contract, they couldn’t say it until they signed the contract and got inside the game. Aria Blaze came near Spike while looking at the boy standing behind Spike’s team. Her eyes looked down on that boy, making him so scared, he didn’t know what to do. “You don’t mind staying behind me and my team, right?” Aria Blaze asked in a demanding voice. The boy and his team shook their heads rapidly in fear and gave them their place. “Thank you for your kindness.” She looked back at Spike with a ferocious eye, like a rival of a predator ready to start a huge fight.   “You have guts, Spike. I bet it was your girlfriend who taught you that,” she said with a grin. His team looked like they wanted to fight her at that moment.  How did she know about that? Spike’s mind went crazy, but after thinking about it for a few seconds, it was too obvious. He was a courageous guy inside of the game, but outside of the game, he was a pacifist. “Yeah, and what’s the…” He suddenly felt a pair of lips touching his mouth. His mind went blank and then the panic set in. The others became speechless as they watched the scene unfold.  “I told you it was a good luck kiss and a promise I would defeat you in the first round. The first round is finished and I won.” She smiled deviously. Aria looked to Spike’s team, which was trying to process what had just happened.“Hey, girls, it’s been a while. I hope you’re ready to fight my team. Sorry for being late.” “SHADOWBLAZE?!” Spike and his team screamed in surprise while the others said another word which make that memory unforgettable.  “WHHHHHHHHAAAAAAT?”