Everypony has that feeling; that inexplicable, indescribable, unimaginable terror that one gets when confronted with everything you ever wished wouldn't exist at once. Some call them phobias, and dismiss them as just irrational and aberrant fear - but few forget that fear of something can help a species survive.
Two ponies could be at the edge of a very tall cliff, for example. One doesn't like heights, and is trying to steer clear of the dizzying ledge. The other is standing at the very edge, enjoying the sights. The one standing near the edge can fall down and potentially die, if not become horribly injured; while the one with acrophobia is safe from the dangers of falling.
He also doesn't get to see the beautiful and dazzling view of the world. To truly be in tune with your emotions, especially fear, and be able to control them will turn fear into caution; and the pony comes from the shadows of hiding and terror to enjoy Celestia's resplendent sunlight racing across the world, or Luna's stunning starry sky engulf the night. Most ponies learn this quickly, and learn how to control their fear with ease and grace. This is called 'courage.'
However...sometimes they're faced with something that swallows their control, and turns their fear into a wildfire, spreading across their mind and burns any rational thought. It roots them to the spot, keeps them in place out of sheer terror. The slightest quirk can set the pony running, screaming and gibbering in a pure and abhorrent fear.
But the worst kind of fear is when your afraid of something, but you don't know what or why. In fact, as I stood there feeling my hooves turn into lead weights, I noticed that nothing has changed except the distinct odor of cotton candy and a heavy tension in the stone room. I turned away from Tiamut and Dash, back to the symbol on the wall, and it started to glow. Not a 'gets brighter every passing second' glow either. It was a rhythmic, pulsing glow that could essentially be called a steady heartbeat. Of course, my heart was racing at supersonic speeds, so I was unable to compare it to a resting heart rate.
The pulsing grew, and the whole room shook with the vibration coming from the symbol. Eventually, the ceiling started to drop a couple of small rocks from the sheer force of the room being shaken. This lasted a good minute - or maybe an hour, I couldn't tell with the growing abject terror exactly how much time had passed. In hindsight I could have checked my main menu screen, but that would require the ability to do something besides quivering in fear.
Eventually the pulsing stopped, and the tension that had overpowered the three of us was lifted. Well, it wasn't lifted, but it was more along the lines of 'concentrated the terror in the atmosphere to the pony that stood where the symbol once was.' Oh yeah, JAK was back.
Well, not-JAK. But he was still JAK's avatar. I think.
The World was really confusing.
I was still shaking in my boots, but I was able to run around again. I turned to examine Tiamut and Dash. The giant dark-brown Beast was shaking his head, I'm assuming to clear his thoughts and get ready for the inevitable fight. He lifted his spiked fists of fury and stood in a fighting stance. It reminded me of a couple of movies I saw. It wasn't kung-fu, I think they called it Muay Thai.
The azure pony pulled out her Pole Arm, and it floated next to her as she wielded it with nothing but a thought. She lowered herself, ready to charge at any moment. I looked back towards not-JAK.
He was just as dark as I remembered, except in my haste to run as far away from my imminent doom I failed to notice that he was a straight shade of black. The yellow beret adorned on his head was a bit off center, but he paid it no mind as he drew out his chainsaw/broadsword hybrid of scariness. With a loud whirring, the chain began to move at a deadly speed, making the sharp spikes even more vicious.
I would like to say I readied myself in a position to attack the hostile pony, that I charged a spell at the front of our party and started the fight. But alas, I did no such thing. In fact, I found that hiding behind the two biggest fighters so I don't get hit by a spinning blade of death while charging Vak Don with my horn behind a giant Beast's back was the most rational idea I ever thought of in my life. I just hoped that not-JAK wouldn't notice that I had a glowing horn and a fireball behind Tiamut.
After I prepared my spell, we waited. To see who would make the first move. Us, or him... it? Before I could decide on which pronoun I could use to describe our opponent, not-JAK made the first move. He started to run head-first at Tiamut; who braced himself and raised his fists into a defensive position. Instead of hitting him, not-JAK weaved around him and nimby slashed at his side.
"AAAAUUGH!" it sounded like it must have done quite a bit of damage, "Dude, that REALLY HURT!"
Dash and I turned to face the dark entity, making sure he doesn't get another chance to get at Tiamut. Dash grinned at the challenge, fending off not-Jak. "Aah, don't be such -mmpf- a crybaby, you're supposed to be a -umpf- mighty Beast!" Despite her berating, she had a burning light in her firey eyes.
"Just keep him at bay, will ya?" I said as I stopped attacking and prepared Repth. He moved one hand down to cover the wound. Wait, a wound? Usually when you get hit it doesn't make a physical change to your avatar. If he has a wound, th-LUNA ABOVE THAT'S A SWORD. Not-JAK dodged around Dash as she squealed in surprise and slashed towards my forelegs, trying to cripple me; but I raised them with a whinny, and lashed them out in front of me hoping to catch him. No such luck, he was too quick. He ran off to one side of me and made another swing with his sword, cutting deeply into my flank.
Now, I've been hit by the sharp side of a sword before. Yeah, the game makes every blow feel close to the real deal, but there's always the sense that you never actually moved. You can still feel your body, but The World is so investing and immersive that you don't focus so heavily on your real self. But that feeling of safety still lingers no matter what you do in this game.
This attack kinda ignored that safety barrier and gave me the most excruciating, agonizing pain I've ever felt in this game. I felt the cold steel slice cleanly through my skin, and I felt warm blood escape as the sword left a clean slash across my left flank. This is what I get for not paying attention; I was too focused between maintaining the fire spell and the wound that Tiamut received I didn't notice that not-JAK took the opening I made. The brown Beast had bowed his head and examined his hand, which was covered in a wet crimson with shock written all over his face. I bet my face held just as much astonishment if not more.
Time slowed down. Warmth was trickling down my leg, and I watched in horror as Dash turned to face no-OK I should find a better name for him than not-JAK. I can't really think of anything at the moment, so I'll just call him Shadow. Kinda fits if you think about it, which I don't have enough time to do in the middle of battle. Where was I, oh yes; Dash turned to face Shadow when he pulled his weapon from my side, and charged him head on, "Nopony hurts my friends and gets away with it!" She used her long reach to her advantage, and kept Shadow away from us while we recovered from our momentary shock. Tiamut stood up and protected Dash's sides if Shadow tried to circle around her. The wound was gone, so I guessed that the spell was a success. I pointedly ignored the bleeding and pain in my own flank in order to cast this ruddy spell.
As I felt time reassert itself, and I had a new fire spell that just itches to be cast. I unleashed the torrent of magic toward our midnight-colored adversary, but he saw it coming and dodged, causing the fireball to do nothing but zoom on past and sizzle out. OK, being a bit fast is fine with me, but when you dodge EVERY attack thrown at you; that's just cheating.
Now we were at a stalemate, kinda: Dash protecting our front, Tiamut covering our sides, and me popping off spells like a maniac while Shadow keeps dodging the hail of fireballs and flying rocks as well as Tiamut's fists and Dash's polearm if he gets too close. After maybe the third try, he changed his battle plan. He sheathed his sword and pulled out a Wavemaster's staff. The staff was almost as pitch-black as he was, with sigils that glowed with dark magic. Well, it was a dark color that was very similar to black. I wondered just how many shades of black there was as Shadow charged a magic spell of his own. "OH COME ON!" I yelled, "That's just cheating!"
He has range now, but he also had himself wide open to an attack from a melee fighter. I waited patiently with another rock spell as Tiamut and Dash saw the opening and charged ahead. Dash got the first hit in with a whoop of delight, slicing the knee of his right leg. The sudden attack made Shadow collapse on the weight of his injured limb. Tiamut saw this coming, so as Shadow started to sag he hit him in left ribcage with an uppercut. I swear I heard his bones break as the spiked gauntlets collided with him over the sound of my frantic heartbeat. When Tiamut pulled his fist back, I saw four holes where the spikes stabbed his side.
Looked painful, but Shadow shrugged off whatever pain he felt and continued casting the spell. A dark form appeared in front of him and started to grow in size. Whatever it was, it didn't look good. But it also took a lot longer to cast whatever powerful spell he was using than it took for me to cast Gan Zot.
The earth under Shadow shook, and he noticed. He stopped casting the spell and started to jump to his right, when a giant pillar rose from the ground and caught him midair. Even better, it hit him in that sweet spot where Tiamut broke his ribs. If he isn't down for the count, then he should be injured enough to be immobile. He landed hard on his uninjured side, and even did a quick bounce. He stopped moving and closed his eyes. We waited for him to get back up, but he didn't. It seemed like he really was out cold.
"BOOYAH! That'll teach ya to mess with the DASH!" Dash zoomed around in excitement, forgetting that me and Tiamut helped her in this fight.
"I think your celebration course has come with a side dish of 'preemptive,' little buddy. Check out his injuries!" Tiamut pointed to the wounds we inflicted were closing. But of COURSE, he just had to have regenerative powers. Fast, strong, and he regenerates. Cheater. I groaned in defeat, "Alright guys, looks like we're gonna have to take this to a whole new level."
We wearily prepared to fight the Shadow again, and I prepared another powerful fire spell, BiVak Rom. Dash pawed the ground and snorted, polearm ready at her side. Tiamut raised his fists, but in a more relaxed position. Shadow stood, fully recovered now, and turned to face each of us. His eyes were a deep red, no iris or cornea either, just a burning sensation that Shadow was staring into my true being. Which was probably just me. I hope.
He stared at all of us, Tiamut and Dash each giving their own small shudders and I felt the chill run up my spine. Then, Shadow trotted calmly back towards the wall from whence he came. As he drew near, the "A" symbol appeared again, and the sweet smell of cotton candy filled the air again. A flash of light, and both the pitch black pony and symbol are gone. The smell of cotton candy, however, still lingered in the air. Dash and Tiamut gave each other a look, and put on worried faces. I think a conversation passed between them that I missed.
Well," I said, wrapping my forehooves around the other two and bringing them into a huddle, "We took care of that guy, so let's head back and get some rest, yeah? I know I'm ready to sleep for a lifetime!" I started to walk away when two sharp pains entered my nervous system. One was from the wound I neglected to heal, and the other was the insanely sharp, impossibly intense pain that was in my head before.
I must've fallen down at some point, because my head was resting on the cool cobblestone floor, and I could hear Tiamut and Dash yell things at me. I hear them as if I were underwater, muffled sounds and unable to understand what they're saying.
Searching for you was certainly a chore, I'm glad I don't have to search anymore.
What, what? Was that a voice? In my head? I watched Dash's lips move as she frantically spoke with Tiamut, then said something to me I couldn't hear. AAH, JEEZ, that pain just doesn't know how to let up, does it?
Fear not, young mage. We will heal your wounds, but first we must disengage.
"Disengage? What'chu goin' on about, voice-in-my-head?" I noticed that both of my new friends are looking at with with more than a little worry. I guess talking to yourself isn't considered normal for them. The pain returned with an vengeance, causing me to shout a lot. The content of what I was yelling about seemed to put worry from Tiamut's mind and replaced with wonder. I guess he wasn't exposed to shouting obscenities much.
I closed my eyes to focus on keeping the pain down to a minimum. All my thrashing has set off more pain in my flank, which just added to my current misery. It was when I closed my eyes and focused on myself that I heard the note. A singular note, high-pitched like a whistle being blown too hard. I decided to focus on that note, trying to shut off the stabbing pain of my head and the burning in my flank.
Hold still, and keep up your will.
Keep up my will? Well, it's not like I have any other choice. I concentrated on that note, making it ring inside my head, everything I was hearing faded away as I focused on that one, high note. I felt it pull towards me, and I graciously went towards it. Before I knew it, blackness swallowed me whole.
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Lemme tell you, teleportation was something I only dreamt about. Yeah, I heard of ponies who could do it on command. Even seen it a couple of times. But I never thought I'd ever get to teleport. Much less in The World. In fact, I'm pretty sure teleportation doesn't exist in this game. So imagine my surprise when I regain consciousness, instead of being on the cold cobbled floor, I was lying with my back on a warm surface. I moved my legs and found that they dug right into the ground.
I say, boy, I say, I do believe this is sand. I turned over and got both of my forelegs under me. I pulled myself into a standing position, and noticed that my left flank didn't hurt anymore. Or my head, for that matter. I looked around my surroundings. Yup, I'm in a desert. Looks like another dungeon, too, judging from the monsters I saw in the distance. In front of my was a large stone wall. I'd say about twenty meters across and ten meters high. It was what was inscribed on it that made me do a double-take.
The symbol was there, the red pulsing "A" symbol. And there, staring at the symbol, were two ponies. Well, I'm pretty sure they were ponies. One was striped with yellow and red, while the other was an ocean green. I looked around myself for anything else, then returned my attention to the... oh. They changed their colors, now they were a dark blue and striped green and pink. It wasn't the most pretty of combinations, but I didn't care much for that.
The two ponies watched the symbol intently, not noticing that I had woken up. I crept up next to them and joined them in watching the glowy lighty thing. It was pretty cool to watch, so why not? It was at that time the now tan colored pony noticed me standing just behind them. Welcome back, Faylin.
Oh fun, telepathy. I wonder if they can read my thoughts as well. Don't worry about that. Oh, ok then. Maybe just because they answered the thoughts I had with telepathy didn't mean they could read my mind.
"Heh, thanks for patching me up. But, uh, can you guys tell me what the hell is going on here?" I asked nonchalantly.
The striped one, zebra, I think, turned towards me. We will brief you once Alpha has awoken. Only then will he explain everything. She turned back towards the symbol.
I leaned in closer to the yellow pony. "So what exactly is that?"
The mare smiled. It's called the Tri-Edge. It's a mark Alpha leaves when he visits and leaves the mortal world.
"Wait, so you're saying this Alpha guy is an immortal?" Great, just what I needed. But it sounds like Alpha can help defeating the other immortal creature we just narrowly escaped from. Speaking of which...
"So, why am I here and where are my partners?"
You call all of your friends partners? I swear I saw the pastel-swapping pony give me a disapproving look.
"They aren't really my friends, I only knew them for less than a day." It's normal to wait to call someone your friend, right? Well, they have been rather friendly to me...
When you meet somepony who trusts you enough to go wandering through a dungeon at your request, I think they deserve to be called your friend. Isn't that right? She turned to face me with eyes that were filled of every type of color imaginable, all swirling and mixing with each other to make new colors. Some colors vanished and others sprung up, creating a dance that would dazzle anypony.
It took a while for me to realize I should probably speak up. "Uh, yeah, you're right. They ARE my friends, and I wouldn't want them to think otherwise." I felt a little pride in being able to call Tiamut and Dash, and perhaps the rest of the Elements of Harmony, my friends. They are good ponies, after all.
The symbols began pulsing a little faster, and I could soon hear it beat, feel it's vibrations in the earth. It kept that up for a few seconds before dying down to a smoldering red glow. Now we just need to wait, for Alpha can usually be quite late. The zebra trotted towards the symbol, and sat down with her head bowed.
Maybe it's the blood loss that was never supposed to happen, or being teleported by two random color-changing ponies - one of whom is actually a zebra that is currently praying- to the middle of nowhere to meet this Alpha character, but I realized that I'm not acting surprised at my predicament. Maybe I just grew used to it by being with Crimson Axe for so long.
"So who are you guys, exactly?" Might as well solve a couple of mysteries while I'm waiting.
To put simply, we are the gods of this mortal realm.
There goes simple explanations. "Can you be just a teensy-tiny bit more specific?"
We were great mortals, once. My name was once Laelyn, and I had control of many soldiers. We were to wage war upon the griffons. They were using us as food, and hunted us for sport. We had to fight back, and we could have. We had partnered with the zebras and were going to launch the first attack, when Alpha appeared and showed us the way. We forgave our mortality to serve under Alpha, and began to restore many worlds to peace.
Huh, a bit more factual than I would have liked. Maybe throw in a few dramatic scenes, a couple of tense moments and you could have a really good tale. You wanted the specifics, not the details. Point taken.
THE MORTAL MUST LEAVE. GODS OF EVERYTHING SHINY, MY HEAD. Who knew telepathy can literally block everything you're thinking of and replace it with words? Painful words, mind you. Very, VERY painful. The zebra got up and turned to face us. Her expression is one of anger and hate, probably directed towards me. And what was with it calling me a mortal all the time? I knew I was mortal, but that isn't my name!
But she can help us! You must see the power that she has! Huh, not using my avatar's gender? She's talking about my real self, then? I saw her true potential when I was but a filly! She can make you whole! We can bring peace to the world again! ENOUGH! I WILL NOT HEAR OF THIS! TAKE HER AWAY AND DON'T BRING HER BACK EVER AGAIN! Having two voices trying to dominate each other in your head is a lot more pain than just one. I promptly blacked out before my mind overloaded and exploded. Again.
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Tiamut tried to shake Faylin awake, grabbing him by the shoulders and "Come on! Wake up! Dash, can you do something about her wound?"
"I'm trying, Spike! The blood just keeps flowing! The blood doesn't even clot, he'll bleed out at this rate!" she put her hooves where Fay got stabbed by the strange pony, but the blood flowed past her regardless of her attempts. "If we don't get him some potions or a healer, he'll die!"
Tiamut tried to think of a way to help their new friend. "Alright, if a player dies, they respawn at the Chaos Gate right? Do they lose anything if they die?
Dash, between looking at her blood stained hooves and trying to hold blood in the unconscious Wavemaster, looked up at Tiamut, "Well, they lose their gold and items, and whatever experience they got in the dungeon. This was a rather low-leveled dungeon, so I don't think Fay got much of that. And we can collect the money and stuff when his body disappears." His eyes widened as he got what Tiamut was suggesting. "Wait, are you saying we should just LET him die?!"
Tiamut shifted uncomfortably, "Well, he'll be fine, right? We can meet him at the Chaos Gate and give him all his stuff. Better to wait a bit then try to waste resources on getting him up, yeah?"
Dash had to admit, the plan sounds a lot simpler than trying to drag a bleeding body back to the entrance and trying to get potions or another Wavemaster to heal him. Looking at the party menu, his health is already near it's final moments, so trying to drag him back is a futile effort.
But there was still the fact that she is watching one of her friends die when she could be doing something! It really tore her up, thinking about standing to the side as Fay's life drained slowly to his death. It was inevitable, but still painful. She stood up and wiped her bloody hooves on her coat. She backed up until she stood next to Tiamut; as they both watched the blood escape Faylin's body.
Dash kept flicking her eyes between the body and Fay's health bar. Soon Fay's health dropped to zero, and the body started to disintegrate as he went to the respawn. Fay's sleeping-like form was engulfed in a white light, and soon his whole body was gone in a flash, leaving only his items and a neat and tidy pile of gold.
As Dash picked up the Wavemaster's staff, she still felt her hands covered in blood. "Fluttershy isn't going to like it, letting him die in front of us." Tiamut gave a grim smile and he picked up all the gold.
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I woke with a start, expecting to find myself in my bed ready for some food and sleep. I got up off of the hard, cold floor, which should have been my first clue. I wearily walked towards where I remembered where the bathroom resides to freshen up. It took only a moment to realize this was not my room after I slammed my head into a stone pillar.
I blearily examined my surroundings. I was still in The World. I sighed, I really was tired and hungry. I went to the Logout menu and hit the warmly and inviting button, waiting to return to reality and rest my weary body. Today was a busy day, after all. I waited patiently for my avatar to be engulfed in a white light, when I noticed Dash and Tiamut teleport from the dungeon back here. "Hey guys, what's up? I guess I must've blacked out or something, sorry about that."
Tiamut gave a small smile and waved, while Dash looked concerned and guilty as she looked everywhere but at me. "Heya, Fay. Glad to see my plan worked!"
I looked to Tiamut. "Plan? What plan?" Tiamut put on a wide grin and Dash gave me all my clothes and items, even my Wavemaster staff with the fire runes etched into it. "Yeah, sorry Fay. You were bleeding out from that wound that guy gave ya. I never even knew you could get wounded! Anyways, we didn't have any potions or healing spells, so we waited for you to respawn and collected all your stuff before leaving." Dash nodded her head grimly in agreement.
"So I died? Weird, I was out for the whole thing, so I'm not sure how dying felt. I thought I just woke up in my room. Speaking of which, I'm really exhausted from today and I'm gonna go sleep." I turned to face Dash. Poor kid, she watched someone die in front of her. It really must've scared her, maybe she even thought it could be her someday.
"Hey, Dash? I know it must have been hard to watch me die, but you just gotta remember this is a game! Ponies die all the time here, so it's no biggie!" Yeah, that sounded a lot better in my head. In fact, I think I made Dash feel worse than before, actually. I suck at cheering people up, don't I?
We said our farewells, with Tiamut promising to do something about Dash. I never could stand sad ponies. Always made me sad, too. Maybe I'm just a sympathetic kind of pony? I went back to the Logout menu and was about to push the button when I remembered that I already pushed it. Then I thought about how I didn't log out for the past couple of minutes.
Dreading something was wrong, I pushed the Logout button again. Then again. Again and again and again. Nothing. I wasn't logging out, and I was still in The World. I went and asked a couple of ponies if something was wrong with the Logout button; they all agreed that it was weird that I wouldn't log out, but they logged out just fine.
I was trapped in The World.
And I was really freakin' hungry.