//------------------------------//
// February 18th (Journey to Canterlot) 
// Story: Equestria Legends Online 
// by Shadowflame 
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	Day came and the sun shone through the window of my room. However, the light shined down directly on my face, which woke me up earlier than I would have liked. As hard as it is to believe, even after three days I was still sore from the boss battle with the Alpha Timber.

It's me, Shadowflame. It's been exactly three days since we fought the Alpha Timber and retrieved my element of harmony: The Element of Courage. Although, I have to say, it is weird to think of myself as an element bearer. It almost makes me feel important inside the game.

But ever since I retrieved my element, true to Discord's word, every monster out in the game has gotten even stronger, thus making the game even more difficult. Even after three days, there has been 11 deaths across Equestria. The ones who died hadn't leveled up enough before the monsters got stronger. So the next time they went training, it was too difficult for them and they couldn't survive. That's one of the risks of defeating each of the bosses as quickly as possible.

Groggily, I got out of my bed. Still half asleep, I glanced around at the inside of my room. Right now, I was at the Team Equitum base, our home for my team. It was a small building, but large enough to accommodate for a small team of five players. But either way, it was still home for me, Darkened5ky, and Lexus.

Ever since the boss battle, Lexus had taken a liking of fighting in a team with me and Sky. So, he decided to join up with us for a longer time than he had previously stated, before the boss battle.

Once out of bed, I went through my usual morning routine of gathering all of my gear. I opened up my inventory and equipped my cloak, the same one I had gotten from the boss battle. Afterwards, I went to equip my sword and shield. But before I did, an item beneath my weapons in my inventory caught my eye. It was Rex's sword, which he had named, Almighty.

After Rex had been killed in the boss battle, I took his sword with me. I don't know why I did, but I guess it's what had happened during the boss battle. I remembered what Rex had said before we fought the boss,



"Make the choices that you need to, so that the ones you fight alongside survive. Don't ever forget that."



I guess keeping Rex's sword was my way of remembering to do as he said. I wasn't going to let anyone else get killed the way he had.

Even now, as I stood looking at the icon for Rex's sword, I could still hear Discord's maniacal laughter after he had murdered Rex,



	I glared at Discord in rage, "You Killed Him!"

Discord grinned at my anger, "And the blood is on your hooves, Shadow."



I sighed as the memory came back to me. For the past days, I've tried to convince myself that Rex's death wasn't my fault. But even still, I still believed that Rex died because I hadn't acted fast enough. Maybe if Rex hadn't been hurt so badly, then Discord would have spared him. Sighing to myself, I equipped my own weapons and closed my player's menu and walked out of my room.

The Team Equitum base was a small, two story house with five bedrooms upstairs, along with a living area and kitchen downstairs. Right then, I headed downstairs and into the kitchen for breakfast.

When I got downstairs, and sure enough, I saw that Lexus was already up and eating breakfast at the kitchen table. Even before joining our team, it had been part of his daily schedule to get up early for his own training. I myself didn't mind getting up early, but Sky on the other hand (or rather, on the other hoof) didn't like getting up early when he didn't have to. Most of the time, he usually slept until lunch, which cut down a bit on our training time.

Lexus noticed me as I walked into the kitchen and waved, "Hey, morning, Shadow."

I nodded to him as I sat down at the table, "Hey, Lexus. You got anything for me to eat?"

Lexus nodded as he slid a bowl towards me with a hoof, "Yeah, oats and hay with milk."

I smiled as grabbed a jug of milk with my magic, "Thanks." I poured the milk into my bowl and began to eat.

Meanwhile, Lexus pulled out a newspaper and began to read it as he ate. The newspaper, the Equestria Daily, was just a daily news source that kept all of us players up to date on what was happening across the game. Speaking of which, I had gotten into the Equestria Daily the day after the boss battle.

But then, I grimaced to myself, I made the front page, but Rex made it to the Obituary. I sighed as I continued to eat.

Lexus raised an eyebrow as he read the paper, "Huh, what do you know about that."

I looked at him questioningly, "What is it?"

Lexus turned the paper towards me, "It looks like a few players in Manehatten have a lead on where the next boss is hidden. They're expecting to find it within the week, or maybe week after that."

I nodded, "Right." In truth, I was relieved that the next boss was near Manehatten. Manehatten was on the other side of Equestria from Ponyville, and since there weren't any trains in the game, it'd be too much trouble to travel there just to fight the boss. That meant, we wouldn't need to help fight this boss, which was good, since I didn't want to fight another boss for a while.

But then, I heard hoof steps coming down the stairs behind me. I turned to see Sky walking into the kitchen, still half asleep.

I grinned at Sky as he let out a huge yawn, "Isn't it a bit early for you to be up?"

Sky mumbled as he sat down as well, "Meh, I couldn't sleep."

I raised an eyebrow at him. Now that I thought about it, Sky had been having trouble sleeping almost every night. I didn't know what it was, but I knew that it was best that I should mind my own business. Sky's been my best friend for years, so I knew if he wanted me to know what was happening, then he would have already told me. But I just hoped that his lack of sleep didn't affect his ability to fight, and it rarely did, so I don't have to worry about it very much.

Just as we were all eating, there came a knock from the door. I glanced at the front door, "I wonder who that could be."

I got up and trotted over to the door. I pulled the door open to see a teal, earth pony stallion at the door. He had a long black mane and he had a halberd strapped to his back.

I looked quizzically at the stranger, "Hi, can I help you?"

The stranger nodded, "I'm looking for the Team Equitum base. I heard that this was the right place."

I nodded, "Yeah, you're in the right place."

The stallion smiled, "Great, so you must be Shadowflame, the new element bearer. My name is Isaiah. I'm one of the system admins from Canterlot. I was sent here to take Rex's place after he... you know." An uncomfortable silence passed between us.

I filled the silence, "Yeah, I know." I turned to a different subject, "So, why are you here at our base?"

Isaiah nodded, "Oh, right. I have a message from the head admins in Canterlot for you. I was hoping that I could relay it to your whole team at once."

I nodded, "Right, come on in." I stepped back and let Isaiah in, closing the door behind him as he entered. I showed him into the living area and called out to Sky and Lexus, "Hey guys, get in here."

I turned back to see that Isaiah had already sat himself down on a cushion, so I did likewise. In a moment, Sky and Lexus joined us in the living area.

I glanced at both of them, "Guys, this is Isaiah. He's the new admin in charge of Ponyville. He has a message for us from the head admins in Canterlot."

Lexus and Sky looked surprised, "Really?" They turned to Isaiah, "Why would you give us the message in person? Can't you instant message us?"

Instant messaging was a feature of the game that worked similarly like Email. It was handy for sending messages across Equestria without a whole ton of hassle.

Isaiah cleared his throat, "Well, our head admin, Jupiter, would have sent you an instant message from Canterlot, but surely you must know that you can only send messages to players who are on your friend list."

I rolled my eyes. The friend lists were the part of the game that let you keep track of your companions and allies in the game. You could only add a player to your friend list if they were standing next to you and if they accepted your invitation for your friend list. I've never met any of the admins, besides Rex, so none of them were on my friend list.

Isaiah continued, "And since none of you are on our friend lists, then we couldn't send the message. And since Rex died, we couldn't send a message to him for him to relay to you. So since I was already coming here to take Rex's place as admin, it was logical that I take the message to you as well."

Isaiah cleared his throat again, "Jupiter, our head admin, sends his congratulations for defeating the Alpha Timber. But since you are now an element bearer, he wants your team to travel to Canterlot as soon as possible."

I raised an eyebrow, "Wait, why?"

Isaiah sighed, "Over the past weeks, we admins all across Equestria have been receiving threats. They've all been saying the same thing, 'We will kill every brony who trapped us in this game. We're going to kill the admins first, and then we'll  continue by killing the element bearers.' All of these threats have led us to believe that there is a secret, underground guild of players, all intent on killing us for revenge."

Sky gave Isaiah a questioning look, "Revenge for what? What have we done to them?"

"As unlikely as it seems, the players in this secret guild believe that they were trapped in the game because of us admins. They think that Discord trapped them here because we programmed him to do so."

Lexus raised an eyebrow, "Well, did you?"

Isaiah shook his head, "With how Discord came to be, we might as well have programmed him to do this. We were trying to make his artificial intelligence so identical to that of the Discord from the show, but we failed to anticipate how this Discord would act. So, in a way, they are right when they say we're the cause of all of this."

Isaiah cleared his throat, "But now, we're taking responsibility and leading everybody out of this game. With the growing threat of this secret guild, it's becoming more dangerous for you three to remain here for too long. You need to deliver your element to the Canterlot castle for safe keeping, so if you are attacked by them, we will still have the one element."

I sighed. It sounded like a good plan, but that would mean that my team would have to walk all the way to Canterlot. We all knew the path could become filled with monsters at any time, so it'd be better to travel as fast as possible if we didn't want.

I looked to Isaiah, "When would you like us to leave?"

Isaiah thought for a moment, "The trip between here and Canterlot is relatively short, so if you leave now, you should arrive in Canterlot before sunset. But the monsters out there are pretty low level right now, so it shouldn't be any problem for you guys. After all, you're the ones who took down the Alpha Timber."

I shook my head, "That was only because my ability involves fire, and because timber wolves are flammable. Any other monsters are a different story."

Isaiah nodded, "Right, so either way, you guys need to be careful while traveling."

Sky raised an eyebrow, "But what about our base?"

Isaiah put up a hoof, "It's alright. The admins in Canterlot have already prepared another base for you guys. When you arrive there, they'll show you to your new base." He turned to me, "So, how soon can you leave?"

I paused for a moment before answering, "We can leave immediately."

Isaiah nodded as he stood up to leave, "Good. I'll send a message to Jupiter that you're on your way." He started towards the door and I led him out.

He walked through the door, but then he suddenly stopped and turned to me, "Hey, Shadow?"

I raised an eyebrow, "Yes?"

Isaiah sighed, "I knew Rex back in the real world. He was one of my friends, but I know that if he was going to die, he would've wanted to die fighting. His death isn't your fault, so don't blame yourself for it."

I paused before letting out a sigh, "Okay, thanks." With that, Isaiah trotted down the street and I closed the door.


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Within an hour, our team was all packed up and on our way out of Ponyville. Although, as we walked out, all of us glanced back at the town as we got farther away. None of us had ever left Ponyville before, and now we were finally leaving for an unfamiliar place. In the back of my mind, I found it kind of unsettling. We had gotten so used to everything back in Ponyville that I was worried about what would lie in store for us ahead.

Lexus sighed, "Man, now I have to completely reconstruct my training schedule. Not to mention that I'll have to find another place to train in Canterlot."

I rolled my eyes, "Well, we were going to have to leave Ponyville anyways. I am the bearer of the Element of Courage, and wherever they need me, I'm bringing my team along to help."

Lexus chuckled, "Yeah, I suppose so."

Sky glanced at me, "Hey, you've got the element with you, right?"

I nodded, "Yeah, it's in my inventory. I haven't taken it out ever since we got back to Ponyville after fighting the Alpha Timber."

Sky nodded, "Right. I was just making sure we didn't forget it."

I grinned, "Yeah, that would be embarrassing."

A long silence passed between the three of us as we continued to travel over the open fields between Canterlot and Ponyville. I glanced behind me to see that Ponyville was completely out of sight now. Shrugging, I looked back to the way in front of me, I hope I'll be able to return later. I liked that town.

Sky turned his head towards me as he walked, "Hey, so what are we going to do when we reach Canterlot?"

I paused for a moment before replying, "Well, I guess after we see the new base, we'll need to find another place to train, and we'll need to find a few shops in the city for supplies. And then, after that," I shrugged, "I guess we'll keep doing what we've always done: Leveling up and searching for the other elements."

Sky and Lexus nodded, "Right."

We continued walking for a while, but then, Lexus started glancing around the field uneasily. I raised an eyebrow at him, "What is it?"

Lexus continued to scan the landscape, "Don't you think it's odd that we haven't run into a single monster yet? You'd think by now we would have at least seen a few of them."

I glanced around the field to find that Lexus was right. Now that I think about it, we haven't seen anything since we left. All monsters regenerate in the game after a certain time, so if there aren't any monsters then that must mean... My eyes widened, We're not the only ones here.

I quickly drew my sword and shield, "Sky, Lexus, draw your weapons and follow me." With that, I broke into a fast gallop with Sky and Lexus behind me.

Sky called up to me, "What's wrong? Why are we running?"

I kept my eyes focused on the way in front of me, "If there aren't any monsters, then that means somebody has been here recently and defeated them. If they were any old team of players, we would have seen them by now. But if we haven't seen them, then that means they're either gone or hiding. And if they're hiding, then that means they're waiting for-"

Suddenly, my eye caught a flicker of light as an arrow sped an inch past my face, embedding itself in the ground by my hoof. I looked up to see multiple players suddenly run out at us from all sides, weapons outstretched in an attack.

My eyes narrowed as the fight came towards us, "... An ambush."

Before the attack fully reached us, our team took a defensive position facing out ward, our backs turned to each other in a circle. But just before the attack reached us, they all suddenly stopped.

Sure they stopped, but they still had us surrounded. We wouldn't be able to go anywhere until we got past them. I kept my sword leveled towards the players in front of me, just to keep them at a distance. From what I could see, there were only five of them, but if they were even a few levels below any of us, we would still be overwhelmed by their attack.

But then, I heard a chuckling come from the player directly in front of me. I looked to see that it was an orange pegasus stallion, and on his back he had a long, curved sword (I later found out that it was called a Grosse Messer) and a steel edged buckler strapped to his back. His own weapons reminded me of my own, but there was still a slight difference. But then, I noticed that the player didn't have a cutie mark. I looked up at his Player ID; It read Ezekiel.





Ezekiel chuckled softly, "Took you long enough to get here, didn't it, Shadow?"

I narrowed my eyes at him, "Who are you and what do you want?"

Ezekiel smirked, "I assume that you already know my name, since it is on my Player ID. And everyone knows who you are, Shadow. Everyone's heard how you 'courageously' took down the first boss and took the first Element of Harmony. But, as to what I want, that is a different story."

Ezekiel started to pace around my team, "Now, I'm sure that your friends, the system admins, have told you about the many threats being made against them and the other element bearers, if there were any."

Sky nodded, "Why do you care about that... unless..."

Lexus finished for him, "You're part of the underground Guild the admins told us about, aren't you? You're the ones who want to kill us all."

Ezekiel smirked at him, "You're quick to catch on, aren't you?" The orange pegasus nodded, "Yes, we're from that guild. But our true name, just so you know, is the Haters' Guild." He chuckled, "It's really quite fitting, isn't it? Even in this game, the bronies still feel the wrath of haters."

Ezekiel turned towards me, "But I believe that is enough talk. Now that you know who we are, I'm sure that you've figured out what we want." Suddenly, he leaped into the air, wings outstretched. With his front hooves free, he quickly drew his sword and buckler, pointing the tip of his sword at me, "We're here to kill you."

All at once, the players of the Haters' Guild leaped at us with weapons outstretched.

Sky brought up his swords and met two of the attackers head on. With unmatched speed, Sky held off both of his attackers. With two swords, he could block both of his opponents weapons when he needed to, but when he found an opening, his sword would quickly counter at the opened attacker.

Lexus fought with his spear against two other players, one armed with a close range weapon, but the other was armed with a bow, whose prime target was Lexus. Whenever the bowpony shot an arrow, Lexus would quickly fly out of the way, while still fighting in close quarters with his other opponent. With his coordination and accuracy, Lexus was able to match his opponent's strength, while still avoiding all f the arrows being shot at him.

But, that left me to fight the only player left: Ezekiel.

Ezekiel rushed at me with blinding speed. To block the incoming strike, I held up my shield. But, I wasn't expecting Ezekiel to strike me with his shield. The force of his shield connecting with mine sent me sliding back, but then Ezekiel slashed upwards with his sword. The strike caught the edge of my shield upwards, making me lose my balance. Ezekiel saw the opening and lunged again with his sword.

I quickly brought my sword down and parried his to the side. But he'd been too fast, and the point of his sword barely cut my right foreleg. I cringed at the pain as I glanced down at the red streak of code where the scratch was, Dang it, this guy's good. I better go on the offensive, or else he'll end this very quickly.

I regained my balance and swung my sword low, aiming for Ezekiel's hooves. But he quickly flew into the air, easily avoiding my attack. But then, without warning, he threw his sword at me, just like a spear. I just barely had enough time to bring my shield. In that exact moment, a sharp dent protruded in the center of my shield, right where the sword struck.

With him having no weapon, it was the perfect time to strike. I looked to see Ezekiel flying down at me, ready to hit me again with his buckler. In that split moment, I fired a tongue of fire from my horn. With the sudden stream of fire, Ezekiel averted his course to avoid the flames. But just as quickly, he quickly rebounded and caught me from the side, sending me sprawling sideways for a couple of feet.

I quickly looked up to see that Ezekiel had retrieved his sword, and now he was coming for me again. I cringed, Crap, I don't have enough time to get up.

But then, out of nowhere, a huge explosion erupted between me and Ezekiel, stopping my attacker in his tracks. With the moment of opportunity, I quickly got up to my hooves, What the heck was that?

Suddenly, two more explosions, similar in size, appeared on the battle field, sending everybody into confusion. But then, something caught my eye. In the sky above us, a small, black sphere dropped down towards the ground. I looked up to see where it came from, and I gasped. Above us, flying in the sky on tiny wings, a baby dragon circled the area of the battle field, dropping bombs as it went.

I stopped myself short, What the... Is this another one of Discord's monsters?

But then, one of his bombs landed on the ground, and instead of an explosion, the bomb let out a massive burst of smoke, covering everything in its thick cloud. I couldn't see anything, but I could still hear the sounds of panic coming from the players.

But then, something suddenly grabbed me. With a yelp, I tried to hit it with my sword for fear that it was Ezekiel. But before I could attack, a voice whispered, "Shush, I'm here to help you. Go that direction." With a hoof, the stranger nudged me in one direction, "I'll grab the rest of your team. Head for the cover of the trees. Just get out of here before they see you."

With a way out, I didn't argue. I began to gallop in the same direction the stranger had shown me. Within a few seconds, I broke through the edge of the smoke cloud. In front of me, I saw a thick patch of trees. Following what the stranger had instructed, I quickly ducked down behind the line of trees, keeping out of sight.

Breathing hard, I put away my weapons and peered around the corner of one of the trees. But then, I watched as Lexus came flying out of the smoke. A waved a hoof out to him, urging him over to my direction. He noticed me and quickly swooped down to join me. Once he had landed behind the trees as well, Sky galloped out of the smoke cloud, followed by a strange pony that I assumed must have been the stranger who helped us. All I knew that he wasn't one of Ezekiel's players, and that was good enough for me.

They both quickly ran between the trees and ducked down beside me and Lexus. With us all gathered, the stranger then looked up to the sky and waved a hoof. I followed where he was looking to see the flying baby dragon from before.

My eyes widened as everything made sense, This was all a just a plan to help us escape the Haters' Guild.

Soon, the dragon lighted down next to our group. I didn't pay much attention to him because at that same moment, the cloud of smoke began to disperse, revealing a bunch of angry haters. Ezekiel, from what I could see, was in rage. He was barking at his group, and even from our shelter I could hear him.

"Find them! Search everywhere. If anything, they're probably running towards Canterlot. Cut them off before they reach the city." Immediately, the group of haters galloped off, heading in the direction of Canterlot, leaving our group hiding behind the trees.

I sighed with relief as they disappeared from view, "Man, that was close." I turned to our rescuers, "Thanks for the help."

The stranger smiled, "No problem."

Now with everything calmed down, I took a closer look at the two strangers. The pony was a blue unicorn stallion with a black mane and tail with a streak of red running through the middle of it. He wore a black outfit and he had a small viking shield strapped to his back. With his magic, he held a large hammer, reminding me of Thor's hammer.

The dragon was covered in light brown scales, with orange spines lining his back and head. But surprisingly, the dragon had a small pair of wings, colored tan like his underbelly. In his claw, he held a single, black bomb.

But what was surprising between the two was that they were both wearing sunglasses. I didn't know why, but I didn't think to question it. Above their heads, their Player ID's showed. Above the unicorn, it read Crossheart, and above the dragon, it read, Cloud Burst.





I looked questioningly at them, "Who are you guys anyways?"

Crossheart laughed, "Oh, right. I'm Cross and this is my teammate, Cloud. We're players from Canterlot. We were out here because our head admin, Jupiter, sent us to track down the team of haters that you guys were just fighting. Good thing we found you guys, or else those haters would have done away with you like you were nothing."

Cloud raised an eyebrow, "Wait, aren't you Shadowflame? The guy who got the element of courage?"

I nodded, making Cross chuckle, "Oh, that's right. I thought you guys looked familiar. That just makes it even better that we got here in time to help you guys."

I glanced at Sky and Lexus, who were just staring at Cloud. I gave them a funny look, ''What's wrong?"

Sky shrugged, "Well, it's just,... There was no option for a player to become a dragon at the beginning of the game. How is Cloud a dragon?"

Cloud let out a humph, but Cross simply replied, "Well, I'll explain on the way to Canterlot. Right now, we just need to get to the city before any more trouble comes up."

Lexus raised an eyebrow, "But won't the Haters be expecting us though? They just said that they'd cut us off from entering the city."

Cross smiled, "Don't worry. Cloud and I know a secret way into the city. Follow me." With that, Cross and Cloud began to walk between the trees, leading my team along.


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From where Cross and Cloud were leading us, I could see the sun beginning to sink down in the distance. It'd be sunset soon, and at night, Discord's monsters were at an abundance.

As we walked, Lexus looked to Cross, "Hey, so are you going to tell us how shorty here became a dragon?"

Cross smirked, while Cloud gave Lexus an angry glare, keeping completely silent.

Cross replied, "Yeah, it happened a while ago, but I remember it well.

"You see, Cloud and I were teammates right at the beginning of the game. Back then, Cloud was actually a pegasus pony. But after Discord trapped us in this game, we were one of the first to leave Ponyville to search for the other elements. Our search led us to the city of Fillydelphia. But it was there that we discovered some kind of hidden dungeon."

"Well, naturally, Cloud and I thought that it might lead us to one of the elements, but then, we were ambushed by one of Discord's monsters. The monster was some kind of pony witch, and in the middle of the fight against her, she cast a spell on Cloud. The spell turned him into a dragon, but then after that, the witch just vanished. But when she disappeared, Discord re-appeared in her place."


_____________________________________________________________________________________


Keeping to himself, Cloud listened to the story. He could remember every detail of the story Cross was telling. Suddenly, the memory of Discord's appearance rose into his mind.



	Cloud looked down at his changed body, confusion and bafflement written across his face. His weapon was gone, and his health bar had shrunk drastically. Above him, Discord floated in the dark corridor of the dungeon, laughing at the, now, tiny dragon.

Cloud glared at the draconequus, "Why did you do this?"

Discord smirked at him, "Well, when I first set this whole dungeon up, I thought that this would be an interesting experiment. You see, when I took over the game, I came across a couple of files that the old admins had been working on. One of them was a project for where a player could be a dragon instead of a pony. So I thought, 'why let this program go to waste? The admins will never finish it, so why not use it now?'"

Discord chuckled, "Of course, the program is still incomplete, so you might experience a few bugs."

Cloud raised an eyebrow, "Bugs?"

Discord grinned evilly, "Yes, there are a couple of glitches. A few of them are that you can't equip any weapon to yourself, so you won't be able to fight. Secondly, your speed and strength are greatly decreased as of now, so I would be careful if I were you. And thirdly, this is a feature that I added in personally, even if you defeat one of the bosses by yourself, you can never become one of the element bearers."

Discord snapped his fingers and disappeared from the corridor, but his voice remained, "Well, good luck, you tiny little lizard."



Cloud shook his head as his thoughts returned to the present. It looked as if Cross was just about finished with telling the story. But Cloud sighed to himself, I swear, I'll get Discord for this.


_____________________________________________________________________________________


Soon, Cross finished his story, leaving me and my team in awe.

Lexus let out a small whistle, "Wow, that's rough."

Crossheart shrugged, "Yeah, it was a bit rough, but Cloud's adapted well."

But then, I raised an eyebrow, "But if Discord said he couldn't equip weapons, then how can cloud use bombs?"

Cross smiled, "Well, that's a loophole that we found in the rules. Bombs are regular items that any player can use, but you don't have to equip them. So therefore, Cloud can still use them. Although, I have to admit, Cloud's become a bombing expert."

Cloud let out a small smile, "Yeah, I can craft any kind of bomb out of a just a few materials. It also helps in using bombs when you can breath fire. Seriously, I've become a real demolition expert."

Suddenly, Cross lifted up a hoof, "Hey, we're here."

I looked forward to see a wide gate just ahead. The gate was guarded by two guards in armor, but just in front of the gate was a single earth pony. My eyes widened as I recognized him as Jupiter, the head admin.

Jupiter grinned as he saw us approach the gate, "Hey, I'm glad you guys could make it. It looks like Cross and Cloud actually did their jobs for once."

Cross simply laughed as we reached Jupiter, "Yeah, good thing, too. Shadowflame's team would have been killed by the underground guild if we hadn't shown up in time."

Jupiter's expression suddenly became more serious, "What? Are you sure it was them and not some other group of thieving players?"

I answered for Cross, "Yes, they were part of what they call the Haters' Guild, the underground guild that keeps threatening everybody. They revealed themselves to us, and they would have killed us if it hadn't been for Cross and Cloud."

Jupiter paused for a moment, "Very well. You'll need to tell me more about your encounter with this Haters' Guild, but for now, I need for Shadow to follow me to the castle. The rest of you should come into the city until we come back." He turned to me, "Shadow, if you will." With that, he began to trot into Canterlot.

I nodded and followed after him, but then I stopped, "Oh, wait." Jupiter stopped and looked back at me. With Jupiter stopped, I turned back to Cross and Cloud, "Hey, how about you guys join our team? We could always use a couple of strong players to help us."

Cross and Cloud both wore curious glances as they glanced at each other. But after a moment, they both nodded in agreement. Cross turned to me, "Sure, we'd love to. We've been doing the same thing everyday for the past week. We could always make do with a change for once."

I beamed, "Great. Welcome to the team."

Jupiter cleared his throat, "Okay, with that out of the way, let us continue."

I nodded and continued with Jupiter as we traveled to the royal castle of Canterlot.


_____________________________________________________________________________________


I have to admit, I was impressed by the size of the castle. The building was so huge that I found it hard to believe that the admins only used it as their base of operations. Once Jupiter and I had reached the castle, he led me through the corridors, and then down to a staircase.

The staircase was extremely long, winding down to several feet below the castle. But once we reached the bottom of the stairs, it led us to a large, circular room. All around the room, there stood stone pedestals. I counted out ten of them, which sort of made me confused. These pedestals were the only objects in the room.

I looked questioningly at Jupiter, "What is this place?"

Jupiter glanced around the room, "This is the vault of the elements. This is where we will store each of the elements that we find. Every time that we acquire a new element, we will keep it here. And once we have all of the elements, you and the other elements will have to join forces to defeat Discord."

Jupiter cleared his throat, "But for now, I need you to place your element on one of the pedestals."

I nodded and retrieved my element of courage from my inventory. Instantly, the golden necklace appeared in front of me, its colorless gem shining faintly in the light. Carefully, I levitated the element onto one of the pedestals. Immediately after I let go of the element, a glass dome appeared, encasing the necklace beneath it.

Jupiter nodded, "Good. It should be safe in here for now. But I have something to ask of you, Shadow."

I turned to him, "Yes?"

"For the time that your team stays in Canterlot, I would like you to search the area around the city for any signs of an element. I have a hunch that there will most likely be an element hidden near Canterlot, and it would be better if we found it soon."

I nodded, "Right. Should I get my team to start right away?"

Jupiter shook his head, "No. For now, you all need to rest. You came within an inch of your lives today. You should get some time to recover from today's events. Until then, you should familiarize yourselves with the city, and then start looking for the next element."

I nodded in agreement and we both walked out of the vault of the elements, leaving the element of courage alone on its pedestal.