//------------------------------// // Every Choice Made... // Story: Equestria Legends Online // by Shadowflame //------------------------------// January 22nd The sound of the front door opening was heard as a woman in her late 40’s walked through, followed by a boy on his young teens, jumping on the spot like a child on a candy store on a sales day. “I can’t believe I finally have it, since the very day they announce it I’ve been waiting for it!” The kid said as he held onto a small bag which contained the disc for the latest game to hit the market for the NerveGear. “‘Equestria Legends Online’, here I come!” Before the kid could have time to sprint away, the woman took hold of the casing and held it away from the teen. “Hang on, remember what we agreed on if you wanted to play this game.” The woman said with a strict voice as she looked at the young boy. The young teen gave out a sigh as he answered. “Yes mom, only play the game if Cillian comes too.” Grr, and that would be me, I really wish that this day never came. So like you heard, name’s Cillian, the the kid’s name is Ray and the lady is our mother. Now, why am I wishing a game to never have been released? Because I despise bronies, lets leave it there ok? I buried myself more into my manga book, trying to ignore the presence of my brother as I knew I would be having to join him soon enough, with a bunch of gay weirdos no least. Damn my mom and her insecurity on MMO’s. But my peace was short lived as I felt my brother pulling at my arm with excitement. “Come on Cillian, the servers are gonna go online in 20 minutes, and I want to go in as soon as it does.” He said with a small glow in his eyes, clearly showing his excitement. “Urrgh, can’t you play it another time? its not like they are gona get full in just an hour, it is an MMO after all, baka.” I said, saying idiot in japanese as I tend to do for fun. “Cillian, I told you to speak english in the house, and go with your brother now. He has been waiting for this game for some time.” My mother said as she took my manga away, bringing my full attention to her. I grunted a bit, but she was right about that. It would be like me having waited for the next edition for my magazines to be released and not be allowed to read them immediately. Sounds childish, but my brother is still a child after all. “Fine, but we are staying just for a few hours, I need to get back to my studies if I want to pass my computer engineering course.” And I wasn’t kidding, barely managed to pass the first semester, and it was just gonna get harder. “I’m cool with that, now come on, we got less that 15 minutes.” Ray said as he ran up the stairs, getting a scowl from my mom from doing it in the process. I went up the stairs with the biggest frown in my life, I would have been cool if my brother had taken the brony thing more personal, and not shove it out in the public like it was some kind of prize, my friends still make joke of it, although they don’t mean it. I opened the door for my brothers room, seeing him installing the second NerveGear into the console for both of us to use it. “So I’m guessing you are going by the same username?” I asked as I already knew the answer. “Raybony, what else?” Typical, use a name that sounds even more childish than the game you are playing...maybe not. “What are you calling yourself?” He asked me as he turned the console on, letting it boot up. I was about to say the usual username that I used for most games, but I hesitated at the possibility of someone from my college being inside the game and recognising the name. USA was the main breeding ground for the bronies after all. “...I’ll make one inside, still can’t decide. You just wait for me wherever you spawn.” I told my brother as I lay down on a matt on the floor, seeing as there was only one bed and this wasn’t even my room. “Okie Dokie Lokie!” “Never say that again!” I said as I remember exactly where it came from, God, the pink one was always the worst. “Fine fine, but you will hear it a lot from other people.” My brother said as he checked the watch on the room. “3 minutes, better get ready, because we are about to get 20% co-” “Finish that sentence, and I’ll sell your collection of horse dolls in ebay.” I said with a straight face as I put on the helmet, resting myself down on the mattres. “...ok then.” He said as he followed suit. I observed the inside display of the helmet as the digital clock changed to 11:59 am. One minute of freedom, then straight into a mad house. I thought to myself as the seconds went by. From the corner of my eye I could see my brother grinning like a mad man as the hour came. I took a deep breath, telling myself that it was just for a few hours, hopefully the MMO aspect of the game would distract me enough from the horse one. Or the people at least. I got ready as I waited for the clock to mark the opening hour for the server. 12:00 pm “Link start!” we both said at the same time as my mind was soon transported into the stream of data, colours passing about like I was in a vortex. Text screens appearing as they checked the different senses of my body. Sight: OK Hearing: OK Smell: OK Taste: OK Touch: OK But it soon stopped, as a logging screen appeared in front as I saw my body virtualize for a brief moment, a holographic keyboard appearing before me. Good thing I thought of creating a new user, otherwise it would have gone and logged me in with my regular account. I thought for a bit, thinking what would be best if I would be here in a regular basis because of my brother. He did tell me a lot of times how the characters of the show had names of objects or actions, weird. So I decided with the first thing that came to my mind which I liked. Cinnamon, as I liked the sweet spice on most desserts. I quickly typed into the keyboard as I created a password and pressed OK. Language: English Username: Cinnamon Password:******** After I had finished with my new account, I materialize into a small hub of sorts and a text appeared before me. Welcome to Equestria Legends Online. Now you must choose your avatar. Select which pony race you would like: I didn’t pay much attention and selected the first thing that came as an option, which was unicorn. Damn it, had to pick the girls stereotype one. The screen soon changed as I was presented with two new options. What would you like your avatar to be? -Ponified Self -OC “How about human?” I said in annoyance, couldn’t they had that at least? Either way, I selected Ponified as I wasn’t gonna waste time on creating a horse from scratch. Please hold still. A beam of light flashed to life as it started scanning my body, I wasn’t surprised as I had gone through the same thing before when I first tried the Battlefield 6: Warfare Reborn. Either way, the light soon drifted away from me as wisps of smoke drifted around before forming the shape of an equine. The light soon diminished as I stared at ‘myself’, my pony self was of a light brown coat with a lighter tone by the muzzle, and I had a pair of bright crimson eyes. I also had a horn, but surprisingly it wasn’t a long sharp one like I was expecting it to be. “And here I thought they even kept stereotype unicorns in this girlish show”. I looked to see that I had a large black mane in the shape of spikes or something, a porcupine? I don’t know. But I gotta say, I would love to have hair like that if I could, well, not as big but you know. I then noticed something peculiar about it, it seemed like the outline of the mane was red at all times, no matter where I looked from. “Must be cartoon logic” I concluded before I finally noticed the new screen that had appeared in front of me. Please make your cutie mark. “Oh god no.” I grumbled as I knew what it was talking about. A freaking tattoo on the butt, I mean, why? Were the creators of the show fans of the thing or something? It’s just wrong ok? But I knew I had to create it unless I wanted to stand out like a sore thorn. I looked at the pre-made designs that the screen had before finding a few ones resembling swords. I dragged them out and arranged them to my liking before having to paint them. Good thing I draw once in a while. I finished with the butt tattoo and pressed OK, not wanting to waste much time as I knew my brother was already in the game for sure. Is this design acceptable? “No, but do I have a choice?” I said to no one as I pressed OK, prepared for what I was sure would be the worst hours of my life. Suddenly a voice sounded out of nowhere with a monotone tone. “Now that you have chosen your pony, you may now enter Equestria” “Whoopie.” I said with as much sarcasm as I could as a bright light blinded me for a moment. Just as I was entering the game, I Heard the voice speak again. “Good luck” I don’t know, but I swear I heard a small sense of amusement in that last statement. When the light finally subsided, I looked around for a bit, seeing the intense colors hitting my eyes, but strangely, it didn’t hurt to look. Not sure if that was good or not. I then looked down and noticed that I now had hooves for arms and legs. Just don’t think about it, and you will be fine...oh who am I kidding, this is worst than actually losing your legs! Chikusho! (Damn it!). I screamed mentally as I tried to walk, only to end up meeting the floor with my face. I raised my head as I had a big frown. “I hate this game already.” I mumbled as I stood up again, before trying to rise to my feet. Only to remember I now had hindlegs and ended up falling back again on my back. “Mother f***er!” I growled as I tried to stand up again, but a screen appeared in front of me drawing my attention. Inappropriate conduct warning! Restrain from using mature language when in public areas as to avoid any inconvenience regarding young players. “The what?” Why would it even give me a message like this? This is an MMO with monsters and it’s telling me to watch my mouth? “Bastards.” As soon as I said that, the same window appeared in front of me again, making me groan in frustration. I took a deep breath to try and relax, before standing on four legs. One thing I have to tell you, it is so degrading having to be force to behave like an animal. the least they could do was to make some kind of system to make the thought of walking automatic. Still, I started to slowly walk about, trying to get use to the feeling of walking on four legs. I looked around, seeing lots of players, no doubt bronies, walking about as well as some spawning in. I was so distracted that I bumped into another player as he was running about. “Sorry man.” I heard him say before continuing sprinting, or galloping in this case, towards some other direction. I only had time to notice part of his player ID ...ed5ky. “Kuso (F***ing) brony” I stopped as I noticed yet again the behavior warning appearing in front of me. “Oh come on, you understand japanese as well!?” I really wanted to punch the screen and shatter it, but knew it wouldn’t do anything. “Well nice to see you are enjoying yourself.” I heard a voice say behind me. I turned around about to give a piece of my mind to the guy when I noticed his player ID Raybony. He was a cyan pony, with no wings or horn, his deep blue mane was a bit messy, but seemed to be kept to some degree, like a natural hair sort of look. As his citrine yellow eyes clashed against his body colour. I looked behind him and noticed that he had a crystal with what I guessed was a laser hitting it as his butt tattoo. Yeah, don’t get it either. “So what do you think of the game so far?” Ray asked as he wore a toothy grin. The cartoon lay out helping making it look even more annoying. “I feel like I want to stick my head in a hornets nest and let them sting me for an hour straight.” I said with a groan as I walked away from the plaza, wanting to be away from the rest of the weirdos that weren’t my brother. “Oh come on, I’m sure you will enjoy something from this. You got magic after all.” Ray said as he followed me. “Oh really? let me guess, I shoot rainbows out of my...rear?” I looked front to notice no message, good. “No, you can use that horn of yours to do some spells. Let me see the manual again.” Ray said as he swiped the air downwards with a hoof, making a player menu to appear. How he managed to walk on three legs is beyond me. He tapped a few buttons before a small book materialize out of blue codes and dropped into his hoof. “How the hell are you holding that?” I asked as I could not comprehend how it was possible to hold an object with no thumbs, or any fingers for the matter. “I’m not, I‘m just balancing it at the moment” he said before flipping his hoof, making the manual defy gravity as it remained in his hoof. “Now I am, you jelly?” He said as he wobbled his arm about like it was made of the mentioned substance. “But how, you know what? I’m just gonna go with cartoon and game logic.” I said as I seated down, awkwardly as it was a bit uncomfortable in my new state. “Oh it’s still like if you have a hand, only its not there, a bit complicated to explain but I can teach you.” He said before opening the manual and reading the entries. “Well, I don’t seem to have any spells that you can learn here. Maybe only unicorns get them.” I gave a deadpan at him, well thank you captain obvious. I flicked my hoof in the air as I opened my player menu, noticing the stats I was giving. Definitely raising my agility to get away from trouble, or weirdos. I opened my inventory menu and found only two books in it, one a basic manual while the other was a spell book. I clicked on it and soon blue particles formed in front of me before the spell book fell to the ground. A new problem presenting itself. “Now...how do I pick up this?” I asked as I looked at my brother, hoping he would have an answer to my predicament. “Just try to pick it up with your hoof, just imagine like its a hand but at the same time it isn’t.” He said while I gave him the most confuse face that anyone could ever make. “Ok, just open it on the ground and find a levitation spell, will help you carry things around.” “That would be nice.” I said as I fidgeted with the book on the ground, managing to flip it open before looking through its contents. “So, should we get you some gear? Seeing as we only had the book on our inventory.” I asked as I managed to find the spell and started trying to use it. “Yeah, we have 200 bits each to spend at the start of the game, so I think we can get at least a weapon, and some armour if we’re lucky.” Ray said as he noticed me levitating the book, surrounded in a red glow. “Well you got the hang of it pretty quickly.” “Oh shut up, its a game so its suppose to be easy to learn. So stop acting like you know so much.” I said as I made the manual go back into my inventory. “and did you really say bits? Kami no tame ni!(For God sake!) can’t they give a name to something that isn’t a horse pun?” “You do realize that we are in a game of ponies, right?” “Oh shut up. Let’s just get our equipment and go.” I said frustrated as a started walking away, wanting to search the nearest weapon shop so I could kill something, I need it bad at the moment. “Brother.” Ray said with an un-amused tone. “What?” I said back as I turned to him. “We were standing right next to one.” He said as he pointed to the weapon stand next to him. How the-? I’m not even going to question how I had manage to miss that. I walked back as I address the shopkeeper. “So, what do you have for sale?” “Take a look.” The shopkeeper said as a new window appeared before me, showing me a list of weapons and other stuff to buy. My brother following suit as he started to look for something he liked. I went through the weapons that were available for sale, all the weapons didn’t catch my eye, as they looked too simple or just weren’t worth the money. But my attention was soon taken as I looked at a steel sword, a Katana to be precise. If you didn’t know by now, I’m a huge fan of japanese culture and the lot. And to make it better, it costed only 100 bucks, yeah, not using the actual name, ever!. I looked at the armour section, seeing mostly shields for sale. Like I’m going to be a coward and hide. I kept looking until I noticed a white RPG style headband, only 60 bucks. Making my mind I selected the items and address the shopkeeper. “I’ll take these, thank you.” The shopkeeper nodded as he brought the equipment out from somewhere. game physics, like always. “That would be 160 bits.” At that, a screen appeared before me with text. Will you purchase these items for 160 bits? -Yes -No Oh heck yeah! I tapped the ok button and the money appeared right on the counter. Golden coins!? Oh how much I wish I had those in real life. The shopkeeper took the money and passed the items to me. Which I immediately equip as I went to my player menu and equip them. “Ok, all set. So what did you...Oh for christ sake.” I said as I facepalmed, which hurt a bit as I now had a hoof...would that be a facehoof then? “What? I look awesome!” Ray said as he now wielded a large scythe and even a black hood. “I bring death to you all!” He said before chuckling a bit at his joke. “Not funny, now lets get out of here and kill something. Before I lose my cool.” I said as I headed to where the outskirt of the town was. “Alright, watchout monsters, Raybony the reaper is coming for your souls!” “Make another joke, and I’ll be the reaper of your horse stuff.” I said with a growl, my brother starting to get on my nerves. “huaaaaaa! You wouldn’t!” Ray said as he followed me, a bit of worry on his voice. “Wanna try me?” I challenge as a small grin formed in my face. “...No.” “Then lets go.” I said as we approached the town’s exit, wanting nothing more than to let my anger out at the moment. “Why the hell are this things so though!” I shouted as I tried to keep a wooden wolf from biting my head off. Barely holding it at bay with my katana using my magic. Ray confronting two others with better luck than me. “Well, they are consider low level monsters in this game.” He said as he stopped the attack of one of the wolfs before pushing the other back. “But this is not telling the same story.” He said before he was attacked from behind by one of the wolves, making his health bar finally drop to the yellow zone. “Ray!” I yelled as I pushed the annoying wolf back before slashing one of its legs, making a red code scar to appear. I used the moment and plunged the blade through the wolves skull, before it bursted into blue particles of code. I went to assist my brother, only to see him impale one of the wolves with his scythe and using his body as a hammer to pound the other one down. Making both of the enemies to burst into the same cloud of blue codes. Raybony - Level 3 > 4 Cinamon - Level 2 > 3 “Haha! Another level for the blue death!” Ray celebrated as he started to do a silly dance on all four. I rolled my eyes at the silly display but didn’t say anything as I would let him get this victory. “Nice one bro, but that doesn’t mean that you are better at this game, Daijobu? (ok?)” I said before noticing our health bars, while my brother’s was 3/8 full, mine was in the red, only about 1/5 full. Yikes, better watch out my health bar in the future. My brother chuckled as he finished his victory dance. “Well, maybe. But you are no better, specially if you keep trying to fight on two legs. we are ponies here bro, not humans.” I groaned at that, having to be reminded. “I told you, I’m not gonna let this game dictate all the rules. If they think that I’m gonna accept being a horse nearly all the time, then they are wrong. Plus, I think fighting on two legs like this will make me look skilled.” I said with a proud smile, and also because if I learned how to fight on two legs here, then it would be hell of a lot easier in the real world. “Show off. Well, we still have like half an hour of playing. Can we go explore for a bit? I always wanted to visit Equestria.” Ray said with pleading eyes. Curse this cartoon world, making the faces even more effective. “Oh fine, but I don’t know what you would like to see in the little time we have left, so where would you like to-” I didn’t get the chance to finish, as I was soon enveloped in a bright blue light, unable to see anything at all. I panicked a bit at the sudden light but it soon died down as I found myself and Ray in the middle of the town we had started on. Other players stood around us as they seemed confused, as more blue lights could be seen going on around the whole town square. “Cillian, what’s happening?” Ray asked me as we looked around confused, the lights finally stopping as all the players muttered to each other, confused as to what was happening, but were soon silenced as a loud voice sounded all around us. "Gamers and Players, May we have your attention please!" I looked up as the whole crowd quite down, looking at four bronies with wings and horns flying above the town square, each one being a different colour. The red one, which seemed to be the leader, spoke again as he relate the news that he had. "Everyone, we are the administrators of Equestria Legends Online. We are in charge of analyzing the system and keeping it running in top condition.” Well, that explains the extra set of...wings? or did they have wings before and then added a horn? Wait, why am I even wondering this? “However, right now we are experiencing several technical difficulties in the system. One of which, as some of you might have noticed, was the absence of the logout button in your player menus.” “What!?” I exclaimed as I quickly opened the menu and tried to find the Logout button, only to find it missing. “T-this is a joke right?” I stammered a bit as I hoped this was some kind of sick joke. “This is a major problem, since there is no other way for anyone to leave the game. We do not know the cause for this malfunction, but please bear with us as we try to fix this problem. While we try to find what's causing this, for your own safety, please remain in the Ponyville square for the time being." The lead administrator finished as it made everyone burst into outbursts at the news. Out of the crowd, a winged player came out of the crowd and shouted what was in everyones minds. “What do you mean you don’t know what the problem is!?” The lead administrator shook his head, "This problem isn't from a lack in the system, so we don't know where the problem might have originated." Suddenly, the entire square was plunged into darkness. Everyone broke out into chaos as they had lost their ability to see anything. But during the chaos of the darkness, another voice chuckled evilly, making me feel uneasy, "Oh, I think that I might know what the problem is." I heard Ray gasped next to me as he tried to speak. “T-that voice. But, it can’t be.” “What, what is it? Who is it?” I asked desperately as I wasn’t liking how things were going. But I was interrupted as lightning struck through the darkness, partially lighting it. The voice sweeping through the crowd again, "That would be me." Another crack of lightning sounded, lighting the square completely for everyone to see the source of the voice. Flying high above the crowd was what looked like the result of a kid putting a bunch of animal toys in a blender and then putting the parts together to form whatever it was in the sky. “Who, is that?” I asked my brother as he was trembling a bit, clearly scared from the being. “D-d-discord.” Was all that he managed to say before ‘Discord’ started to speak again. Discord laughed evilly at the crowd below him, "Hello, my little bronies." I growled to myself, as he turned his head towards the admin alicorns who were flying in the air on the other side of the square, "And hello to you, my good administrators." The lead alicorn glared at Discord, "How can you be the cause of the problem? You are a program in the system that we designed ourselves. You may have partial control of Equestria, but you don't have the power to change the layout of the system completely." Discord snapped his fingers, making himself vanish. But then he reappeared behind the lead admin, "Oh, but you already know the answer to that. You designed me to be exactly like the me in your television show, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic." He vanished again and reappeared somewhere within the crowd where I could not see, but still managed to hear him. "That really is a terrible name for a show, don't you think?" You have no idea how much we agree you serpent psycho. I thought to myself just as Discord reappeared riding on one of the admin's backs, "You see, you gave me control over reality in Equestria, but with this power, I hacked into the rest of the system, giving me power over the entire program. Oh, and to make sure that I stay in power, " He snapped his fingers and in a flash, the admin alicorns' horns and wings disappeared, making them plummet into the crowd below, while Discord still floated in the air. And I was lucky enough to catch one of them. And by catch I mean letting their full body slam into me as it sent my head spinning for a brief moment. Discord laughed evilly, "Now the admins are just plain earth ponies, and I've also taken power over their admin codes. They won't be able to do a thing to change my world. As for the rest of you, I will let you keep your wings and horns while you play in a little game of mine." The crowd, and myself included, burst in outrage towards Discord, but the missmash of animals simply snapped his fingers, literally zipping all of our mouths shut. "My, I haven't even told you what the game is, and you're already anxious to get started.” F**k you! I yelled mentally as I tried to get the zipper in my mouth open.  “The game that I have in mind is a bit of a scavenger hunt. I have taken the Elements of Harmony and placed them all in secret hiding places, inside and outside of Equestria. Your job is to find the Elements and use them to reach me. There, we will have a fight to the death. If you manage to retrieve the elements and defeat me, then I will allow everyone to log out." I didn’t trust that. It was way too easy to be just that. What was the catch? He lowered his head just over the crowd, "But it won't be as easy as you think, you see I've added a few features to the game. In the original system, if you died in the game, you would instantly re-spawn in the last town you were in. But that's too boring for me, so I re-wrote the system so when anyone died, their avatar would be lost, and their Nervegear Helmet in the real world will fry their brains. In shorter words, if you die in the game, you will die in the real world." I recoiled in shock. I was expecting something else, but, death? I felt as my brother came next to me, his body trembling at the prospect of death. Specially after I was so near to it just a while ago. Discord laughed as he drew a line across his neck, making his head slide off of his neck and into his hand. The dismembered head laughed as it looked down at the terrified crowd, "No need to lose your head over it." He began to laugh even more, "And also, if there is any tampering with the helmet in the outside world, the helmet will kill the player instantly. Actually, quite a few of players have died already this way." You sick Rokudenashi! (Bastard!) I cursed mentally as I glared at Discord. Everyone else gasping at the news. Discord continued, "Now, in this game, there are a few rules. First, you cannot receive help from the outside world, that is, if you can even manage that. If I catch anypony communicating to the outside world, all of you will die. Second, any tampering with the system from inside the game, the rule-breaker will die instantly." Discord chuckled, "And just so you know, I have a couple of monster friends who want to go out of their designated areas, so I'm letting them roam a bit. Maybe you'll meet them when you go out of town, but they won't follow you into a city or town. They hate crowded places." The animal missmash laughed evilly, "But a few of you might have thought, 'There's only six elements, so this will be easy.' But I'm sorry to burst your bubble," Discord suddenly, belched out a bubble that was bigger than the length of his body. Ok, eeeeeww! "But I thought that only six elements would be boring. So I added four new elements." He poked the bubble with a claw, making the bubble burst and reform into ten smaller bubbles. "They will be hidden all over Equestria, but they will be guarded by my favorite kinds of monsters, just like a boss of each element. "If you find the element, and defeat its guardian in a boss battle, then you may walk away with the element. But I must warn you, my guardians are no push-overs." Lightning struck again behind Discord, "Well, there you have it. So just remember, your lives are on the line, not mine." He laughed loudly, making lighting strike behind him again, "So, my little bronies, let the games begin!" The sky suddenly was filled with thunder and lightning, blinding everyone as Discord laughed maniacally. When the lightning subsided, Discord was gone, only his laughter echoed through the streets of the town. I glared at the spot where the serpent like creature once was, swearing if I ever saw it again I would take pleasure on killing him. I turned to look at Ray, as I saw that he was now crying in fear. I hugged him as I tried to make him feel better. “W-why? Why must this happen?” He said between sobs as he cried in my shoulder, not getting how this was possible. I held him there as I thought about what was going on, but couldn’t think of anything at the moment. “I don’t know, but we’ll get out of this...alive.” February 8th “Run you baka! (idiot!)” I yelled as me and Ray dashed through the foliage of the everfree forest, panting as we knew danger was close behind. “But Cinn, we can’t outrun it, we don’t have a high enough agility stat.” Ray answered as he continued running, trying his best to not fall behind as he knew he would get caught quicker if he did. “I told you not to go into that cave, you know that’s where stronger monsters appear!” I yelled back as it was because of my brother that we were now being chased by a very angry- “Look out!” Ray said as he shoved me to the side, as a large glowing bear paw smashed into the ground where I once stood. I brought myself up to my hooves to look at the being that had just attempted to end my life. A giant glowing bear that had stars scatter all around his body, with a large one draw on its forehead. “An Ursa Minor, you had to go and aggro an Ursa Minor.” I grumbled as I watched the growling mass of celestial power. “Hey, be glad it wasn’t an Ursa Major. I guarantee you that you will shake in fear from it.” My brother said as he brought out his scythe, having upgrade it some time ago for dealing with the monsters easily. “And I guarantee you I would have never had the need to meet the minor either.” I said as I stood up on my hindlegs and took my katana out, having getting use to the change of balance from the time we’ve been trapped in here. “Do you even think we can beat it?” Ray asked as he held his weapon tighter, anticipating a tough fight. “If we were prepared, yes. But at our current state?” I looked at the health bar for me and my brother, both of us having just a little over 1/2 full. While the health bar of the Ursa Minor had just a small nudge of health missing, and that was after four attacks from us. Plus we had already used our health potions trying to survive the Ursa in the first place. “I think the only chance we have is if we slow it down enough.” Ray looked at me with a bit of a frown, knowing what I was referring to. “You sure? your skill level on that attack its pretty low still, and not to mention that you can only use it once at the moment.” The Ursa Minor roared at us as he charged, intending on killing us in one blow. “It’s that, or death!” I shouted as I focused my magic into my blade, the metal gaining a small layer of ice. “Distract him for long enough for me to charge the attack!” I commanded and soon saw Ray dash at the angry bear, quickly slipping under a sweeping arm as he used the moment to cut into the monster with his scythe. I watched the health of the Ursa barely move, like it was just  tickling him. Ray tried to dash out of the way of one of the Ursa’s arms, but was caught in it and sent to smash against a tree, his health dropping to the red zone after that. “Anytime bro!” Ray called as he rolled forward, towards the beast as it tried to punch him against the tree bark. I saw my blade as it now looked like it was made of ice, before a small gust of cold air surrounded the blade, signaling me that the spell attack was ready. “Move away!” I said as I swung the sword with both of my hooves, soon creating a cold air slash that went directly towards the Ursa. Ray managed to dodge at the last second as my attack hit its mark and caused the Ursa to stagger back. I waited a bit, not seeing anything else happen until I saw its fur get cover with a coat of frost, making him look a bit paler. “He’s slowed down, let’s get out of here!” I shouted as I put my katana back in its sheath before dropping back to my hooves, not wasting time as I started running away, Ray soon following me behind. “How long did you say the effect lasts?” Ray asked as he caught up with me, not daring to look back in fear of seeing the angry celestial beast. “Normally 15 seconds, but that may be different if he has some resistance to ice or frost attacks, so we better make haste.” I said, not taking my eyes off the front, where I could see the faint light of the sunlight, the exit. “This wouldn’t have happen if-” Ray started but I stopped him as I gave him a hard glare, not in the mood to discuss the issue. “We’ll talk later, now it’s not the time.” I said looking back forward, just on the border of the forest as I could see the town. Ray looked down a bit, thoughtful at what I had said. “Right.” He said a bit dejected at my response. Later that day, we were in front of a cafe, never really cared to learn the name, but it was a cafe none the less. I took a bite of a rose petal and lettuce sandwich. Don’t know if they programed it into the game, but the roses nearly tasted like beef, nearly. I was thinking about what we should do next time we went to train in the forest. Even if the monster’s rewards were now mostly breadcrumbs to us, I rather didn’t risk going away from the town, I felt, uneasy about it. I was brought out of my thoughts as my brother gave out a loud sigh, showing that something was on his mind. “Cillian, we need to talk.” “I told you, don’t call me by my real name in here anymore.” I told my brother with a small frown, I decided to hide our real names, I just didn’t think it was necessary and it would be awkward whenever we were around others, I don’t know, maybe its the insecurity that my mother always felt regarding online games. “Look, we have been here for maybe three weeks, maybe more, maybe less. But you know what I want to talk about.” He said with as much seriousness as he could, even if he didn’t like to argue with me most of the time. “I know, and the answer is still no.” I said straight, not wasting any time on explanations. Standing up to leave the cafe, having already payed for the food items. “Come on, we both know that we nearly died today because we didn’t have someone else with us. Even I think we should join a guild  if we want to survive long enough to-” “I said no!” I yelled as I looked back to him. “I’m not taking orders from any of this horse lovers. The only exception is you because you’re my brother, but that is as far as I go.” I said in a lower tone as I didn’t want to draw too much attention to us. “Will you stop with this nonsense? we are all trapped in here and want to get out just as badly as the next guy. So will you just try and socialise with others?” My brother tried to reason with me, and even if he was right, I wasn’t doing it. “I told you, I’m not gonna get along with this weirdos. And nothing that you say will change my mind, now lets go, we need to resupply if we want to go training tomorrow.” I said as I walked away, ending the argument for me. “No” I stopped, not quite believing what I was hearing. “Excuse me?” I said as I turned to glare at Ray, who was giving me a glare of his own. “I’m not going anywhere until you change your mind, I don’t care if you hate bronies, we need more players if we want to survive.” He explained as he yet again, stated the truth. I gritted my teeth in frustration at his stubbornness, but soon calm down as he gave me no choice. “Fine, if you want to join other players you can. Only, if you beat me in a duel.” I saw my brother flinch a bit, not expecting the challenge. “What? Why would you want that?” “Because it’s the only other way to settle things here. Now, if I win we remain like we are, until we can get out of this prison, and you never bring joining with others ever again. “But if you win, you can join a group of other players, and I won’t impose. Deal?” I said as I quickly brought my player menu and selecting the duel feature, sending a duel invite to Ray. Ray looked at the new screen with the invite with uncertainty, not really liking the idea of fighting his brother over such thing. “Come on Cinn, can’t we solve this by talking like we always do?” I looked at him with a straight face, not showing any uncertainty. “Not anymore, so make your choice now or forget making teams with others at all.” I said to him, which in turn made Ray press the accept button, seeing as a counter soon appeared above us, counting down the seconds before the fight. “I really don’t want to do this, but I see its the only way for you to listen to reason.” Ray said as he brought his scythe out, just as I stood up and brought my katana out. You don’t know how wrong you are. I thought to myself as I waited for the counter to reach zero, noticing the small crowd that was gathering around us as they weren’t use to duels outside of the arena on the town. 9... 8… 7… I saw as Ray tighten his grip on his scythe, making me think that he could break it with his hooves. 6… 5… 4… I focused my magic into my weapon, not about to let this duel be an easy one for my brother. He needed this. 3… 2… 1… I felt as a bead of sweat ran down my forehead, feeling like an eternity as I waited for the start of the duel. START! The sound of a bell chiming sounded as the duel officially started. I wasted no time and dashed forwards, clearing most of the distance between me and Ray in a second. I swung my blade at him just for him to deflect it with the handle of his weapon before he back stepped. I didn’t give him time to recover as I attacked again, thrusting my weapon towards him. Ray parried the attack and stepped to the side, trying to keep a distance from me. “Running away? Do you think that will save you forever in here?” I said as I slashed at him, Ray managing to block the attacks but still receiving a damage as the frost from my weapon went through his defence. I watch as my attacks continued to hit him, he never once tried to counter me, and I knew why. “Hiding won’t do you any good either, so if you want to survive in this world, you have to be determine to do anything.” I yelled as I turn on the spot and delivering a kick to his chest, Ray never seeing it coming. I went to land a hard blow on him but he stopped me as he brought his weapon into a clash with mine. “I won’t hurt my brother like that!” He said as he tried to push me off, but I held my ground using my stance. “Then you will never be any good on another team.” I said to him as I pushed him away and went to stab him. But didn’t see the sharp end of his scythe coming from underneath and going through my arm. “Ghrr!” I grunted at the small pain as he retrieved his weapon back, holding it forward in the offensive. “One hit won’t make a difference.” I said as I went to attack again, only for my vision to start going blurry. S**t, I forgot. I cursed to myself as I looked to my health bar, seeing a small purple skull resting on top of it, signifying the poisoned status. I didn’t get time to react to the sudden stat counter, as I felt a sharp pain come from my side. Grunting, I look down through my blurry vision to see a large red gash of red code on the side of my body. I turned my head back to see my brother breathing a bit heavily, at the same time I noticed my health bar dropping quickly down, until it reached the yellow zone. Nice one bro. I thought to myself as I watched a large window of text appearing in the air above Ray. Congratulations! You’ve Won the Duel! I dropped to my haunches, letting my defeat set in, and its meaning. “Cillian, are you OK?” I heard my brother said as I knew he stood behind me. As well as seeing the other players starting to leave, seeing as the duel was already over. “Yeah, I am.” I said with an emotionless tone as I flicked the air, going towards the team managing menu, as I was the leader of mine and my brother. “Hey, what are you doing?” Ray asked as he was confused by my actions, not certain by what I was trying to do. “Disbanding the team, so we can go our separate ways.” I said as I pressed the confirmation button for the disbanding of my team, making the ID of my brother and health bar dissapear from my vision. “What!? I thought we would join another guild if I won, not leave each other.” My brother said surprise as he went to look at my face, which made me see his shock and worried face. “I said, that if you won you could join any group of other players and I wouldn’t complain, I never said that I would join you as well.” I said as I stood up, starting to walk away only for me to be held by the shoulder. “That’s not fair, you promise me that you would protect me, and leaving me is your way of protecting me?” He asked a bit angry from my answer. “...Yes” “Are you mad!? Why would you think that you are protecting me that way?” “Because I’m protecting you from myself!” I said to him through gritted teeth, making Ray let go of me. “What?” “At first, I thought I could keep you safe in here, that together we could survive this. But as time went, I noticed that the two of us wouldn’t be enough. We aren’t good enough to survive by ourselves.” I said dejectedly as a hanged my head down, ashamed at my own failure. “Then if you knew, why didn’t we just join a guild for help.” Ray said before frowning at me. “And don’t tell me it’s because they’re bronies.” “It is.” I answered plainly, no point in trying to go around this. My brother groaned in frustration as he held his head. “Will you cut that out? We are trapped in here and you still can’t get around the fact that this place is full of bronies?” I remained silent for a bit before I started talking again. “What does a team need?” Ray looked at me confused, not expecting the question at all, so I continued. “It’s not just about having good fighter or supporters. But also trusting your team and respecting them, being able to cooperate in a dire situation.” “And I fail at that, because I despise the show and the people that watch it, the chances that I can at least tolerate them before I cause one of them getting killed or myself are really low. I think you can see where I’m going with these.” I said as I look at my brother with a sad look. “Then, then I’m staying with you, I’m not gonna leave you alone for you to die.” Ray said as he tried his best to stay with me, but I wouldn’t let it happen. “No, you have better chances at surviving if you go with a larger group, maybe even a guild. If you stay with me, we could both die.” “But what if you die!?” Ray exclaimed suddenly, kind of surprising me. “And what would be worse? Making everyone that knows us in the real world mour one death or two?” I really didn’t want to let that bomb drop, but I felt like it would be the only way to convince him. Ray stood there in silence for a moment, not sure how to response. “But, but it’s not fair. Can’t you stay at least? You don’t need to be part of the guild, you could still be with me.” “It’s still the same, plus we will have to move from this town soon, the monsters are too weak for us to train. And I don’t like the idea of both of us traveling together out there, I just have a bad feeling about it. But you have a better chance of making it across if you go with a larger group.” I said with a small smile, trying to not sound too grim about it. My brother looked down, not liking what he was hearing, but understanding a bit of my logic at least. “So, is this goodbye?” He asked, giving me a sad look. I shook my head, giving him a small smile. “Nah, you never say goodbye, but rather until next time.” I said before I wrapped my arm around him, holding him in a small lock as I rubbed his head with a hoof. “Now don’t you go thinking I’m going forever, we will meet again.” I let go of my brother as he gave a small chuckle, giving a faint smile. “Ok, so until next time I guess?” He said, still smiling faintly, but no longer scare for himself or me. I grinned before I nodded to him. ”Jikai madedesu.(Until next time.)” I answer him, before I turned away, going towards another part of the town, determine to get ready for a long journey ahead. February 12th I set out from the big city from the cliff, Camelot I think, whatever, I decided to stop by the city as I heard that monsters were good for training for players of my level. I don’t think I ever mentioned my level apart from the day I got here. Well, back at the other town I was level 17, but after about a day of solo training I had manage to raise it to level 21, which I think was a good pace for my plan to get to one of the hardest places of the game, the badlands. It was bad enough that I had to retrace my steps to get there, curse myself for not buying a map at the first town. Ok, I do know their names but I will not say the name, I mean come on, the horse puns, give it a break! My plan was simple common logic, the harder the area, the more rewarding the results. And if I wanted to survive for long enough in this game as a solo player I needed to level up quickly so I could survive the longests. So here I am, walking through the fields next to the everfree. I don’t know why people called this place dangerous, in my opinion it was quite relaxing, reminded me of the real world a bit. But still, today it felt more sinister. I ignored it as I kept walking, but I was always prepare in case a monster decided to jump at me from somewhere, and good thing I was. I heard the whistling sound of an object breaking the air as it traveled fast. I moved away from the sound as I barely dodged a crossbow bolt. Thank God I had invested points in my agility and equipment boosting. “Drats, the guy is fast.” I heard someone say from within the canopy of the forest, I squinted my eyes as I manage to see the silhouettes of players hiding, just as they started to come out with a large range of weapons. “This is what the scouts call a four man team? I think we let a noob take our hunt for today.” One of the players from the group said as he had a short sword and a round shield, an earth pony. “Still, a kill is a kill. I call dibs on the sword.” Another one spoke as he held two swords in a yellow aura, unicorn. “Who are you, and what do you want?” I asked as I tensed myself, expecting a fight if the theme of their conversation was anything to go by. “That doesn’t matter, all that you need to worry about is giving us a nice fight. Wouldn’t want to make this boring now do we?” One of the group stepped forward, holding a large war axe as he rest it against his shoulder. I tensed as my assumptions were confirmed, having heard rumors of threats in Camelot, or whatever the name, can’t remember. I looked to the last member of the group to see a girl holding a crossbow and aiming it right at me…..Oh shit! I dashed to the side as I felt the bolt grace my back, making a thin scar of red code appear. I used the moment to take out my katana and stand in my hindlegs, getting ready to fight. “You just made a big mistake f***er.” A screen appeared right in front of me at that moment, and surprise surprise, the behaviour warning strikes again. “Oh for the love of, why do you even still work!?” I asked frustrated as the system for public behaviour still worked, even when we were in a death game. The assaulting group looked at me a bit surprised, but otherwise unfazed. “Someone who fights on two legs? Ha! This is going to be easier than I thought.” The one with the axe, who I assumed was the leader, said with confidence as he looked at me in the eye. I gave him a toothy grin as I made my blade get encase in ice. “Wanna bet?” I taunted before I dashed forward, the group tensed at my movement and made to strike me. I avoided the blows from the two close-quarters combatants as I went for the leader. I saw him swinging for me in a large arch, I reacted quickly and deflected the blow to pass over me. I took the opening and went to cut the leader across the body as I passed him. I slashed the blade across his body from front to back, leaving a large gash of red code, before a skidded to a stop about five metres from my opponents.. “Arrgh! Mother bucker!” The leader cursed as he turned around to face me, as well as the rest of the group, as they were about to attack me again. Wait a second. “Wait, how did you not get a behaviour warning?” I asked as I wondered how he went around it. “Don’t know what you are talking about, but you are gonna pay.” I saw him as he waved with his hoof towards me as the other close-quarter combatants rushed towards me, the lady sniping from her position. I deflected the bolt that was sent towards me as I then parried the attack of the one with the shield before I back stepped to avoid the blades of the other. I tried to close the distance again as I went to stab them, but had to roll to the side quickly as I nearly got smacked by the shield of the earth pony, before having to jump back to avoid the blades from the unicorn. “Stop moving so much you vermit.” One of them said as they tried to slash at me, only for me to deflect the blow and leap over them as I landed behind them. “You know, I think you need to cool down, so Samu-sa.(chill.)” I said as I thrusted the blade in the air in front of me, making small icicles fly towards the two attackers, making one of them freeze solid on ice, while the other gained a layer of frost around him. “God d-d-d-damn it, that’s c-c-c-cold!” The one with the frost layer shook from the feeling of being so cold. While the one in ice could only move his eye as he looked around in the ice. The scene was funny none the least. I decided to knock out the one that was free so I wouldn’t have to worry about him, I dashed at him as I avoided another bolt  from the sniper. I slashed at the remaining attacker, making him parry my attack as I expected, before I grabbed him with my magic and made his head come towards my hoof, knocking him out in the process. I then turned towards the leader as he glared at me, his scar now gone. Probably took a healing potion while I was distracted with the other two. Behind him I could see the girl now looking a bit worried, as she would be defenceless if I took down the last guy. “So am I gonna have to humiliate you or are you going to run away like a sissy?” I taunted as I waved him to come to me, feeling a small satisfaction of hurting some bronies. Hey, I said hurt, not kill them, I’m not a sadistic murderer. “I’m gonna kill you, you hear me!?” He shouted as he quickly charged forward, resting the two-handed weapon on his shoulder before trying to hit me hard with it. I backstepped as I knew that attack could probably cripple me or kill me if it hit me. The ground shook a bit at the hit, but it didn’t end there as I saw a small crack form from the spot where the axe hit, coming towards me before it erupted into a pillar of rock, hitting me in the chest and sending me back, falling to my back with the air knocked out of me. I saw my health bar drop over a third of the way down, scaring me at how strong this guy was. I looked back towards the fight, as I saw the blade of the axe coming towards me. I rolled quickly to the side as I avoided my certain death, before I rose back up, readying my stance for the fight. The leader chuckled as he rested his weapon on his shoulder again. “I think I’m gonna win this bet, my friend. But this is what happens to all bronies that find us, so get ready to die!” He shouted the last part as he charged again, swinging the axe in a down sideways motion. My eye twitched a bit as I heard him call me that, and then, I went Zoro mode. I dashed forwards towards him as he was bringing his axe down, I brought my sword up and managed to stop the attack in place, making the leader look in shock at me. “Don’t you dare call me one of those horse lovers.” I said with a growl as I pushed back, making him leave himself open. I wasted no time as I slashed him across the front of his body, before I moved to the side as he went to hit me again, using it to counter it and stab him by the side. He elbowed me as I still had my sword impaled in him, making me let go of my weapon in the process. The leader took the hilt of the impaled weapon with his mouth, pulling it out and dropping it to the side. I looked at his health bar and noticed it had only dropped a quarter of the way. “No more games you annoying child.” He said before charging once again, swinging his axe horizontally this time. Biggest mistake in his life. I ducked under him as I reached with my magic to grab my sword, making it go towards my hoof as I looked towards my opponent who had a look of dreading realization. As soon as I felt the hilt of the weapon reach my hoof, I thrust it against his chest, immediately activating my frost ability and hoping that the freeze effect would occur, which it did. I heard and saw the effect take action as he was encased in a thick layer of ice, before I pulled out my weapon from the block, looking at the leader with irritation. “Baka.(Idiot.)” I said to him in an insult, before my attention was broken by the feeling of a bolt hitting me on the back. I grunted as I saw my health drop to the yellow zone, before turning around and watching as the girl sniper was reloading her weapon desperately. I walked towards her as I really wasn’t feeling like fighting such a weak player. She aimed and fired at me again, but I simply side stepped as I used my high agility stat.“Now I’ll be nice once and ask you.” I said as the girl tried to reload her weapon again, only to stop her as I grabbed her by the neck, raising her to eye level. “Who are you people, and what do you want?” The girl trembled a bit as she looked at me with fear. “Please don’t hurt me! I didn’t want to join them in the first place!” The girl said as she struggled harder against my hold, which seemed weird seeing as I was holding her with a hoof. Again, calling cartoon logic. I brought her closer to my face as I wasn’t in the mood for games. “Join who? Tell me!” I yelled at her so I could make her spill out the beans faster. She trembled for a bit longer before she stopped, a small grin creeping through her face. “The Hater’s Guild.” Was all she said before I felt a sharp object pierce me on the chest, making me drop the girl in the process. I went to examine what happened when I lost the feel on most of my body, as I dropped to the ground. I noticed a small flash coming from my health bar as I noticed a small yellow lightning bolt was on top of it. Paralysis. “Damn it, curse you, you stupid brony, all of you!” I said through gritted teeth as I glared as best I could at the girl, who had a small dagger with a liquid on it on her hoof. She looked at me a bit thoughtful, before she smiled evilly. “Oh I think you will fit just fine with us.” That was all that she said before she went to punch me in the head, knocking me out cold. If there is something that I learned that day, it was to never let your guard down around girls, or they will bite you in the a-(Buy some apples! -Shadowflame censoring).