//------------------------------//
// Installation 
// Story: Harmonic Hero: The Twilight Knight 
// by Warpony 
//------------------------------//

As the school bus sped down the highway, Axle leaned against the window with his phone in his hand. "Two thirty, I still have plenty of time." The student whispered to himself with a tired voice. He turned the power off on his mobile and placed in his the top pocket of his blue vest. He tighten his grey beanie on his brow hair. The rays from the sun shined down onto him, heating both his head and the worn leather seats. As he looked out to watch the trees pass by, he listened into the conversation behind him. 

A blonde girl in a red tee-shirt was nearly yelling at a boy with a white polo-shirt. They both wore jeans and sneakers that matched their own shirts. "Oh my god! Did you see what happened yesterday? Keven was so looking at me ass, can you believe that?" The girl said in almost disgust. "I knew he was a pervert. You know he was always too nice to girls."

The young man next to her sighed a heavy breath that carried to Axle. He turned to his friend and gave her a bemused expression. "Keven is nice to everyone, first of all. The guy took a hit for even me, someone who barely knows him. That is how cool he is. Second, the only reason he was even looking at your ass is because you had some dirt on it from when you sat in that seat."

The blonde girl held a confused expression and muttered. "What now?" She pulled out her phone and started to text a message. "Whatever."

Axle turned his ears to the conversation next to him. The two who sat there had some sort of digital devices in both their hands. As one started reading off names, the other took out a pen  and started typing them. "Jude, Vencer, Hydroblaze and Quick Slick." The young man, wearing a white button up shirt, pointed to the screen next. "That is us on our first big raid." From his angle, Axle saw nothing but the look on their faces. 

Then, the one who gave the information held a smirk while the other gave an impressed look. "Nice bro. Here is when I finally got the Rarity challenge line done. I got clothes for ever kind of event, hanging-out, arena, the battlegrounds and questing." The second boy, wearing a green plaid shirt, showed the first his device. Axle was still unable to see, but his curiosity grew now. 

Axle leaned over and tapped the shoulder of the one closest. "Hey Pete." Axle said, knowing the boys name. His classmate turned and said hello. Axle then pointed to the devices. "What this be bro?" Axle said in improper grammar as a joke.

"Ah, you probably won't know about this, huh?" Pete said as he waved his device. "This is for a game me and John here play." Pete returned to the home screen on his device. "This is called a Stable Station, or S.S. for short. It is like another P.D.A except it is only for the game it is tied to." Axle nodded his head. "Here let me show you." Pete hopped into Axle's seat and displayed his S.S. 

On the screen was the image of a oddly colored pony with clothing and an axe on his back. It had a horn showing it to be a unicorn but also had a marking on it's flank. "This is my character, he is an original char-"  Pete was silenced when the bus stopped abruptly and all the students were forced forward. Axle jerked his head and say that his stop had already arrived. Pete got up out of the way and let him out with his final words. "Look up Harmonic Heroes. I mean come on, you work at the best place on earth."

Axle sighed and walked off the bus. "Right, best place on earth." Axle stepped off the bus, hearing the doors close behind him. The young man walked three blocks to the town plaza. Jumped over a fence to the department parking lot and began to take off his vest to reveal a black tee-shirt with a large red power button printed on it. Axle knocked on the back door and waited four seconds till he heard the cogs turning. A moment later a slightly overweight man with short brown opened the door. "Sup Jake."

"Ah Axle." Jake said. "You really need to learn how a front door works." The man moved out the way and let Axle inside. "But it's cool for now. No one has come in all day so whatever." Axle's co-worker closed the door behind him and walked through the back of the store. Boxes full of new video-games, consoles and accessories were stacked on shelves. "So whats good bro?"

Axle shrugged and tossed his bag on the floor in the back. "Nothing much, senior year can be near dreadful." The two employees  made their way to the front of the store. Shelves of owned and new game disks littered the shelves. Two registers rested by the entrance with computers. A television hung from the ceiling and played the same video over and over. 

An hour pasted and Axle yawned from boredom. He jerked his head back as he remembered what Pete said on the bus. He started looking in the titles for the game and found it. "Oi, Jake."

Jake looked up from his magazine. "Yeah bro?" 

"Have you ever heard of Harmonic Heroes?"  Axle turned the screen for Jake to see. His friends face glowed as he looked at the screen. "I'll take that as a yes. What is it anyway?" Axle turned the monitor the right way as he read the information off the screen.

Jake took out a key and unlocked a drawer under the counter. He took out an S.S. and handed it to Axle alone with a user manual. He then spoke with hype. "It is only the greatest massive multiplayer game ever made by man kind! You are one of the biggest bronies I know right?"

"I remembered to live today, correct?" Axle said sarcastically.

"Shut the hell up." Jake responded with a quickly corrected bitter tone. "Anyway, it is basically a game based off that world. Except it is also different in many aspects, like the high amounts of violence, danger and well the human aspect."

"Ah man, it's really humanized?" Axle said in disappointment.

"No its not, actually." Jake classified. "It just has so many things that...You need to play it to understand. Though you only get one character slot. Yet you will never want another one though, so much to do with just one." 

Axle looked at the S.S. he placed on the counter. "How are you suppose to do anything on this tiny ass thing?" He shook it like a near empty can. Jake reached over and grabbed it, making Axle whine. "Hey, give it back man!"

"Not until you can have nice things." Jake placed the S.S. down. "Now the Stable Station is only a hand held device that collects your data and stores it. Along with other information like photos you take in-game, inventory, states and so on." The older employee took his key back out and turned to the cabinet behind him. He opened it and took out a green box about the size of an office dictionary. In the front it held bold, glossed purple text. The words came off the surface a few centimeters and were in a strange type of old font. 

Jake placed the box on the counter, it read "Harmonic Heroes" with artwork of the six Elements of Harmony. "This game is why I am happy I have the hours I have."

"You sure your not lazy?" Axle picked as he picked up the box.

"Well that too, but none-the-less it is great." Jake stated with pride. "You didn't sell or get rid of that Vac-Tact gear you got from that old tourney did you?" Axle shook his head. "Great, get that shit dusted off, set up and ready to go because I know for a fact you have this week off from school right?" Axle smiled and nodded in agreement. "Cool, we can start making you a character tonight! I can walk you through the whole thing."

Axle took the box in his hand and examined it closely. "Yeah, I'm free for tonight. So what's it like making the character? Pick color, race, class, generic stuff?" Axle rose a brow to Jake. The slightly overweight man laughed heavily, making Axle smile and twitch his eye brow nervously. The bell rang at the door and a few customers strolled in. "Look alive joker." The student placed the box aside with the S.S. till later.

Jake nodded at Axle. "So you want to come over and watch some old episodes?"

Axle watched the customers look around the store. He glanced at Jake with his brow raised. "Old episodes of what? My little pony?" Jake nodded. "Sure, haven't seen a good one in alittle while. What season?" Axle asked in deep interest.

"We are going back to the beginning!" Jake said in a near shout, causing Axle to smile from ear to ear.

The younger employee threw his hands in the air. "Yeah! Nightmare Moon is a foxy momma! She got that nice dark...plot." Axle turned his head and looked at the customers. They were looking at him like he was a maniac or something similar. 

Jake just shook his head. "Too much bro. Way too much."

"Shut it Jake." Axle said as he gave him one of his middle fingers. "Go buck yourself. You just mad because you are in love with the bug queen."

Jake gasped at what he found to be very harsh words. He leaned in close to Axle and whispered to him. "You shut your whore mouth."

Axle smirked and leaned in a bit closer. He then whispered lower than Jake did. "That is what I said when I saw your fan art of her." This caused Jake to go wide eye. 

He glared Axle, knowing he only had one come back left. The biggest trump card he had on him. Jake smiled with curled lips, knowing he was about to grasp victory over Axle. "At lest I am not single...And sleep with a body pillow of Luna."

Axle stumbled back, shocked at Jake's knowledge. "How do you know of Lunny?" He asked in bewilderment.

"You told me when you were drunk and showed my a picture." Jake explained in a nonchalant manner. Axle opened to get a word in but Jake stopped him. "You told me at my Christmas party. Such an embarrassing photo is was and still it."

Axle glared at Jake and turned to face the register. "You win this round, Tubby."

Hours after Axles shift ended, he and Jake went to Jake's apartment to watch a few episodes of Friendship is Magic. After watching about six or so episodes, Jake started to explain to Axle how to use the Vac-Tact gear. It was a simple setup process and most of the needed hardware was already in Axle's gear. "Thanks again for helping me out man." 

Jake gave him a dismissive wave of the hand. "It is my pleasure brother. And no hard feelings about earlier?" Jake smiled and stuck out his hand.

"Sure." Axle smiled and shook his hand. HE then frowned and pulled Jake in close. "Though mention Lunny once more and I might not forgive you next time." Axle laughed a bit. "Just messing with ya, yeah we're cool." Axle walked down the sidewalk, waving at Jake. "Peace."

Jake close the door to the apartment building as Axle left. The slightly overweight man walked up the stairs back to his apartment. Once he reached the door, he opened it and walked inside. Jake skipped over to his bedroom. "It's game time!"

After catching the bus and getting home safely, Axle was in his room setting up his Vac-Tact equipment. It included a special computer, one headset to cover the face, ears and cranium along with one data port for any external data jacks. Axle was just about finished, all that was left was install the disk onto the computer.

Axle opened the box the pull up a two smaller cases. The first contained the game disk itself. Axle opened the tray on the computer and placed the disk on it. The player closed the disk tray and let the game download onto the Vac-Tact computer and gear. As the computer read the information off the disk, Axle opened the second case. Inside he found a small flash-drive, not a disk. It was what white as snow with a gold star. Axle thought nothing of it till a red message on the screen appeared. 

"The hell is this now?" He read the message aloud to himself. "Warning, download error has occurred. Please insert secondary data drive to correct this error." Axle looked to the drive. "Secondary data. This thing?" Axle gave the drive one more look over. He decided it would be best to do as the scree said, so he placed the drive in the USB port and allowed the data to sync with the computer and Vac-Tact gear. 

In a matter of seconds, the green load bar ran across the screen. The process was complete and the computer was clear of anymore windows. Axle double checked ever piece of equipment he had. He warmed up the headset and calculated his body information. "Five feet and eleven inches. Or am I six feet? Screw it, five eleven. One hundred and ninety pounds." Axle finished the adjustments and went to his bed. He took off his shoes and socks. He grabbed the headset, which was more like a helmet with a visor over his face.

Axle laid down on his bed, ready to start the game. Before that, he turned to his wall and saw a poster of Luna. "I think I need to get a new one. Maybe Luna kicking Queen Chrysalis's ass." Axle laughed at his comment and started the syncing process. "Alright, now or never!"