Equestria Legends Online

by Shadowflame


The End

Last Time on Equestria Legends Online

Sharky shook his head, "I'm sorry, but I cannot show my identity. Too much is at stake for me to reveal myself..." I suddenly noticed that Sharky's horn was glowing, "... But one thing you can be sure of is that our paths will cross again in the future. But until then, Shadow, keep searching for the elements."

Jupiter nodded again, "Sharky was one of the system admins for ELO. He was in charge for monster development in the creation of this game. He did all of the monster development on his own, and he really was a wiz at that kind of thing... But the morning before ELO's servers came online, I heard a news report that Sharky's house blew up while he was still inside it.

“Hm…” Violet tapped a hoof to his chin, “But why are you out here? Inside a glacier isn’t exactly the comfiest of places to hide.”

“It isn’t supposed to be, Violet Runner.” Sharky replied, “In order to keep Discord away from me, I had to hide somewhere he’d least expect it. What better place than under the ice in the middle of an eternal blizzard?

Sharky gave everyone a smug grin, his horn aglow with the same frost coating Neon, not an ounce of amicability in his gaze, “I must thank you for taking care of Discord for me. Now with that traitorous pawn out of the way, this world is finally mine!”

Lexus held the ice sculpture his girlfriend had become with sheer horror written across his face, stunned. His gaze turned, and upon seeing Sharky smirking at us from where he stood at the stairs, his fear over Neon’s frozen body instantly transformed into rage towards the one who had hurt his love, “Sharky!”

In a flurry of hooves and feathers, Lexus shot himself towards the blue unicorn with his spear’s head outstretched to strike. But Sharky merely smirked as his horn burst in a flare of icy aura. Instantly, Lexus’ body fell to the ground, his frozen form sliding across the platform and coming to a stop harmlessly at Sharky’s hooves.

Sharky gave an unimpressed humph, giving the ice statue of Lexus a light kick with a foreleg, “Hmph, pity.” He cast his eyes back up at us, a smug, challenging smirk on his lips, “The next person who tries anything will end up just like your ‘fastest’ flier here.”

Nobody made a move against him, but all of us visibly tensed. I knew I didn’t want to run the risk of being frozen solid, and the others looked like they were thinking the same thing.

Soul growled in hostility, “What the hell, Sharky?”

Likewise, Sky glared at the blue unicorn, “Why are you doing this?”

Sharky chuckled, “Isn’t it obvious? I’m taking over this world, like I should have the day ELO’s servers went online.” His smile drained into a miniscule snarl, “But that fool of an AI went ahead and did the unpredictable and shut me up with all the other fools I was supposed to rule with an iron fist! Guess that’s what I get for taking so much pride in my creations; I give them too much detail!”

“What?” Dylan exclaimed, “You… but I thought Discord-“

“Discord was made to be nothing but a tool.” Sharky snapped. His smug grin returned afterwards, “Come on, Dylan. I thought you were supposed to be good with computers. Discord may have been an AI, but he was only a program all the same. He needed a purpose before he could function, and I gave him one: Trap all of the players inside this world and shut off their connection to the real world.”

I could feel my teeth grinding as a new anger had begun welling up inside me. “But Discord ended up betraying you too,” I commented. “Discord was only a puppet, and from the very beginning it was you who trapped us in this hell.”

Sharky laughed as he turned his glowing horn in my direction, as if taunting me to act on impulse and attack him, “Yes. Truth be told, I’m surprised you never put all the pieces together. They were all there; The Haters blamed the admins for trapping them in here, and in a way, they were right. Who else would be the biggest suspect than the seemingly presumed dead admin who programmed every monster in the game, including Discord himself?

Violet narrowed his eyes as he started to see the truth, “But you weren’t dead. You faked your death by making your home explode. If everyone believed you were dead, it’d throw them off your trail.”

Sharky tsked at him, shaking his head, “No, you’re forgetting something. Before Discord went rogue on me, I had planned to seize control of Equestria. There was no need to conceal myself then, but I admit the cover was useful when Discord back-stabbed me.”

He then smirked, “And you’re wrong about another thing. I never faked my death; I truly died in that explosion.”

A quiet, collective gasp broke from the group. Eclipse asked, stunned, “But… how are you here then?”

The lean, blue unicorn chuckled like a cocky kid would when he knew something the rest of is class didn’t, “Do you know how much information the Personality Files store for on a single person alone?”

“Their emotions and their traits.” I answered.

Sharky barked out a laugh, “More than that! The program stores everything from walking patterns, eating motions, personality quirks, all the way to even mundane habits like playing with a lock of hair when the target player is bored. Everything a player does, no matter how small, the Personality Files will record it down to the slightest action.”

There was an unnerving glint in his eye, “With that amount of data stored, how hard do you think it would be to re-create somebody in this game?” He smirked, “As you can see, it has worked flawlessly with me. It’s as if I never died in the first place.”

His eyes narrowed though, becoming more hostile, as if he were a dog defending his territory, “This world truly is my home; another reason why I can’t let any of you leave. As soon as every player logs out, the authorities would no doubt shut down ELO’s servers, with me inside.”

“Then why bother doing this?” Cross demanded, “Risking your life for a digital one that could be ended just by pulling the plug seems pretty stupid for someone who’s fooled us this far.”

Sharky chuckled, “How is it any different than the real world? Pulling the plug on this world is just as simple and easy as putting a gun to someone’s head and pulling the trigger. Compared to how easily humans can die, the death of the servers is the one and only way I can truly perish.”

“But why!?” Soul screamed, “If all you were after was immortality, why drag everyone in here and kill us off? Were we just your hostages that would keep anyone from pulling the plug on the servers? Huh!? Tell me why!”

Sharky paused, a crazed grin stretching across his face, “To rule.”

“Huh?”

“What do you mean? You wanted to rule? Like a king?!”

Sharky sighed, shaking his head, “Power is a hard thing to come by back in the real world. Almost all habitable land has been grabbed over the ages, the bloodlines of royal lineages already established, and there was no way I would ever be considered for a position of power. I would be one of the last people ever considered for anything like that, yet I didn’t let that trump my desires.

“For a person like me, who wouldn’t jump at this perfect opportunity ELO provided for me? A new land that had been untouched, hundreds of players I could easily make my subjects, and a throne just waiting for someone to take it; These were all I could possibly want, so how could I have resisted the chance to make my dreams a reality?”

“Good luck with that, dumbass.” Sky growled, “Almost everyone is dead, and everyone else would never let you keep them in here as their king.”

Sharky gave a sickening laugh, “Even those that have no body to return to in the real world? Did you forget that I myself am dead, yet I live on in here?” With a surge of magic peaking at his horn, a bright flash blinded everyone standing on the platform.

I shielded my eyes, but as the light faded, I glanced back only to feel my breath halt and my heart skip a beat in shock. I stared with wide eyes, jaw dropped as I beheld three figures standing before us.

What?... No, they- they’re-

Cross’ jaw hung open as he stammered, “C-cloud?”

The short orange dragon, our old teammate who had died months ago in the changeling hive, glanced about in utmost confusion, “Guys? Wha- Where are we? I thought I was dea- whoa!” Cloud yelped as Cross grabbed him in his magic, pulling him forcefully into a bone-crushing hug.

There were tears at the corners of Cross’ eyes, “Dude, you were dead!”

Eclipse, Siren, and Sky looked in horror at the second figure, “Cordon?!”

The grayish-blue earth pony blinked in surprise, “I-I was… dead, wasn’t I? I thought Ezekiel killed me.”

Siren gasped, putting her hooves over her mouth, “No… you died fighting him?”

But the last figure was one I couldn’t tear my eyes away form. My stomach had jumped to my throat when I saw them, and it stayed there as I felt my heart tearing in two, feeling absolute joy and relief at the sight of this person, but something still held me back, like a nagging feeling that something wasn’t right. I was at war with myself, but for better or worse, she wasn’t.

Frostlight glanced about, as confused as Cordon and Cloud, the question on her lips being where she was, and how she got there. But more importantly, was she dead? But as her head turned, her eyes fell on me and instantly relief flooded over her features.

“Shadow!” She cried, practically running to me and grabbing me into a tight hug, “What happened, where are we? The last thing I remember was falling off the balcony with the… wither effect…”

“… and you died.” I finished. I desperately wanted to just hug her close, keep her right beside me so she would never leave again… so I would never lose her again. But the other half warring within me wouldn’t let me, “But… how?”

Sharky chuckled deviously from where he stood, “Need I say it again? The Personality Files have the capacity to completely recreate a player, even when they have died in the real world.” He gave a wondering gaze, “It really makes one wonder how Rex managed to create something like it. Even though I was once his best friend, I could only begin to understand it all.”

Frostlight was here… but why didn’t it seem right? I clenched my teeth together, “No… this shouldn’t be possible.” I glanced down at Frostlight, my mind reeling in confusion, “She… you can’t be real… you died. You’re only a recreation… right?” She could only be a computer program, not the real one.

Sharky laughed once again, “No need to be so harsh, Shadow. She is just as real as I am. The things I have done are all very real, absolute proof of my existence, and Frostlight here has the same capacity. Our bodies may have been destroyed, but we now we live in this world.”

Frostlight gasped, and I could literally feel her body growing cold with horror. She glanced up at me with pleading eyes, pupils barely pinpricks, as if she were begging it not to be true, “My… my body in the real world… is dead?”

The kind of expression she held, one of genuine fear and worry, was one I had never seen a program make… one that I didn’t think a computer could make. It was… human? Was this really Frostlight? I remained silent, but she easily drew the answer to her question from my sad silence.

Frostlight gasped, “It… is…”

She just stared in shock, tears forming at the edges of her eyes as the reality of her situation set in, before she buried her face into the fur of my neck, above my armor, and began to cry. She sobbed with grief, hiccupping out loud as tears rolled down her face and into my fur, “No… That means… I-I’ll never go home! I’m s-stuck here! I can’t leave!”

Seeing her this way made my own breath waver, but it was suddenly made clear to me. The feeling of her against me, her sorrow, her crying… No computer program could have replicated this...

This truly was Frostlight.

With a grimace of pain from grief, I wrapped my hooves around her, holding her tightly as I whispered with shaking breath, “I-I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.”

It was all I could do to hold her as she whispered between sobs, “I know… I-it’s a-alright.”

Sharky’s cruel laugh made my eyes glance back up at the blue unicorn, glaring with all of the fury I could hold in them.

Yet the former admin didn’t seem to care at all as he nonchalantly spoke, “Discord wasn’t lying that first day. It was true anybody who dies in this game dies in the real world, but that doesn’t say anything about what would happen to you in this world.” His gaze shifted between Cloud, Cordon, and Frostlight in turn, “You three, among hundreds more players, no longer exist in the real world. Your true home is here, with me, my subjects.”

It took every bit of restraint in me to keep me from throwing my sword right at Sharky’s face. I wanted to cut that twisted grin right off his face for everything he had caused: Everybody’s imprisonment, causing the death of hundreds, and hurting the people who I cared for.

At that moment, I hated Sharky more than I hated Discord.

“That’s a load of shit!” Soul shouted, his swords rising towards Sharky in rage, “There’s no way in hell we’ll let you get away with this!”

With a brutal battle cry, Soul charged the unicorn. Behind him, Siren screamed, “Soul, no!” I felt myself cringe, expecting Soul to end up like Neon and Lexus, as an ice statue.

But as Soul reached Sharky, swords swinging down to strike, he wasn’t frozen. Instead, a battle axe blocked his weapons with the ringing of steel. Soul glanced towards the wielder of the ax with shock, only to find a minotaur had suddenly appeared out of nowhere to protect Sharky.

Sharky chuckled behind the cover of the minotaur’s ax, “Like every good tyrant, I came prepared with an army of my own. After all, I was the admin that created the monsters, and now with Discord out of the way and my admin powers reclaimed, I summon as many as I want all across Equestria; every single kind of monster in this game at my beckoned call.”

Suddenly, Sharky flared his horn, and Soul fell toppled over to the ground, completely frozen.

“NO!” Violet shouted, glaring back at Sharky as the unicorn dismissed the minotaur with a burst of magic.

While Violet hefted his hammer, as if preparing to strike back at Sharky to avenge Soul, the blue unicorn’s horn began glowing as bright as the elements had when we used them on Discord. I had to shield my eyes from the bright light, but I could still make out Sharky’s form, as well as what was happening to him.

His body began to grow, his frail, skinny limbs ripping outwards as new mass filled them. His whole shape grew contorted, becoming less horse-like and more like a beast’s. His hooves split into three toed claws, as black as sharpened obsidian. His horse tail completely vanished, before his spine extended into a flesh tail, like a lizard’s. His mane stood strait up, becoming frozen spikes that extended down his back, all the way down to the tip of his tail.

But all the while, his body grew and grew, until his height peaked over fifty feet tall, his body barely fitting on the platform as his frozen, icy tail wrapped about the edges around us like a serpent coiling itself around its prey.

We drew our weapons, ready to defend ourselves from the massive, scaled beast Sharky had become. With a long neck bending down over us, the former unicorn grinned at us with a dragon’s head, light blue, complete with a horrible row of fangs to twist his grin even further.

Sharky’s voice caused the ground to shake as he rumbled, “When everyone was first trapped, they were all supposed to die, save for a few I would have personally imprisoned to keep those fools in the outside world from pulling the plug on this place. Unfortunately, Discord doesn’t like mass genocide as much as he does order; it’s too short for him.” With a might claw, he slammed the platform, causing it quake, as if it were threatening to collapse, “But now it’s time that I tie up those loose ends.”

The frozen beast gave a hideous smirk, “That reminds me, thank you so much for leading every last player here to Canterlot. This makes killing every one of them so much easier. For your reward,” Suddenly, the ice beast’s body began to glow like Sharky’s horn around his chest, “You’ll become my frozen hostages!”

My eyes widened, screaming as I felt the spell take hold, “NOOO-!”

Before I felt the cold take over, I barely had enough time to push Frostlight away. Then everything went white.

___________________________________

Frostlight gasped as she hit the ground, quickly looking back up to find Shadow holding his hoof out to push her away, but his body was coated in frost, his whole body frozen in time.

“NO!” Frostlight quickly pushed herself up to her hooves, a difficult task as the ground beneath her had frozen as well, but she was able to stumble over to Shadow’s frozen form, putting her forelegs against him, “Shadow! No, no, no!”

Never before had she felt so helpless. The feeling that had come when she learned she was stuck in the virtual world as nothing but a program left a hollow feeling in her gut, but now here she was, unable to save Shadow from his icy prison.

Tears fell from her eyes as Frostlight let her head fall down on the icy statue and rest there in defeat, “*sob* No…”

“Guys!” Cordon looked between his teammates in a panic, but there was nothing he could do about their frozen state. Cloud found himself in a similar situation as he tried to shake Cross’ frozen form with his claws, as if it would wake his friend from the cold induced coma.

It was only the three of them, standing among a statue garden of their petrified friends. It was as if they had stumbled into what was left of a battle against Medusa the Gorgon. And there wasn’t a weapon among the three of them to fight with.

Sharky the Ice Beast bellowed towards the sky with satisfied laughter, “Don’t even try to thaw them. In this state, they are the ice that’s frozen them. Any melting or breaking it will kill them.” He swung his massive head towards Canterlot below, having been restored due to the power of the elements… but not for long, “Now if you’ll excuse me. I have the hopes of two hundred peasants to crush. There will be no escaping my reign!”

“Who said anything about escaping?” A cold voice retorted from behind. Suddenly, a brown blur streaked through the air, crashing into the back of Sharky’s head, causing the beast to jerk forward from the force behind it.

Cloud blinked in surprise, “Wait, isn’t that-?”

“Cinn!” Cordon shouted.

The brown unicorn stood on top of the beast’s head, katana piercing its scaly hide, after having cleaved through a few icy spines to get there. Cinn’s face was contorted in anger, but his voice was barely a low growl as he hissed under his breath, “It was you from the beginning, wasn’t it, you bastard.”

Sharky reared his head back, not out of pain, but merely out of annoyance. Cinn’s balance wavered, and the unicorn pulled back his katana and leaped back down to the stable ground of the platform below.

Cinn glared up at the giant beast towering over him, his katana held ready to strike again, “I knew we shouldn’t have trusted you back when we found you in the blizzard.”

Sharky simply narrowed his eyes in annoyance, “Ah, Cinn. I should have known you’d come running after Discord’s hold on those Haters vanished. It’s a shame you didn’t die fighting them.” The beast merely gave somewhat of a shrug, “Oh well, the more the merrier. I do need a decent number of hostages to keep this world alive!”

Sharky’s chest glowed with the bright light like before when he froze the elements of harmony, and the three standing behind cried out in alarm.

“Cinn, look out!”

Sharky smirked, “Too late.” Instantly, he let loose the spell, and Cinn was left standing stock still, now a pale blue color of the frost covering his body.

Cloud grimaced as a feeling of helplessness sunk even deeper in his gut, “Damn it!” There isn’t anyone who can stand up agai-

Suddenly, the frozen statue of Cinn moved.

Still covered with a tint of frost, the frozen solid unicorn ran on his hind legs at full speed, holding his katana low to strike upwards, “Surprise, motherfucker!” With a bounding leap, Cinn flew right towards Sharky’s dragon head, swinging his blade with a swift, powerful strike.

But Sharky raised his front claw up to defend himself, catching the blow halfway as Cinn’s katana embedded itself into the beast’s palm. Yet still, Sharky seemed barely fazed by the strike, looking down at Cinn with a furious look, “How are you still moving?”

Cinn glared with hate through the layer of frost coating his face, small icicles hanging off his muzzle, “I can absorb ice magic and make it my own.” With quick kick, Cinn pulled his sword from Sharky’s claw and dropped back down to the ground, “And after trying to freeze me, you just gave me the biggest power boost possible.”

___________________________________________

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Sharky’s fangs bared as he let out a snarl, “As if that will help you. No ordinary weapons can pierce my scales, I am resistant to magic, and no other attacks will deplete my health.”

Cinn merely shook his head, “That’s only because,” In an instant, Cinn was gone, only a small wave of sleet behind him like a smoke trail off a cartoon roadrunner. Before anyone could catch a glimpse of him, the unicorn had already leapt into the air, coming down right towards one of Sharky’s forelegs with katana poised to strike.

In the flash of a samurai’s speed, Cinn flew past the giant limp, his blade seeming to have barely moved at all, before landing with his back towards his target, katana outstretched to the side, “Your ‘body’ is ice as well.”

True to Cinn’s words, Sharky’s foreleg suddenly exploded into chunks of solid ice, as they could no longer move or remain together as the limb after a katana had sliced through it with Cinn’s buffed speed and power. Sharky staggered back as much as he could on the confining space of the platform, out of shock from losing a limp so quickly.

The giant beast leered down at the unicorn as Cinn turned to face him, the brown unicorn speaking just loud enough for Sharky to hear, “Even with your power as an admin back, you still can only make ice.” He glared with rage, “Which means you’re hiding inside that puppet, and I swear I will tear you out of there and fucking end you!”

Sharky growled through the dragon’s throat, said beast’s chest glowing slightly as a new icy limb reformed where Cinn had destroyed the foreleg, “You’ll never reach me inside this body. I can regenerate quicker than your petty sword can slice through my ice.”

Cinn’s teeth ground together in seething hatred, stepping back to poise his katana to strike, “Don’t take me so lightly. I will kill you, for Raybony, for Sweetcross,” His eyes seemed to glow like burning ice as he screamed, “For taking my life away from me!”

That was when Sharky’s dragon head suddenly exploded.

However, Cinn hadn’t even moved. The frost coated unicorn looked in shock as a firey explosion completely decimated the ice sculpture of the dragon’s head into tiny pieces. And just above it, unnoticed until now, swooping out of the air, was Cloud.

The little orange dragon hovered in midair above the platform, holding two more bombs in his claws. Noticing the surprised looks from his three allies below him, he gave a small smirk, shrugging, “Well, I have no idea how long I’ve been dead for, but I apparently still have my inventory.” He chuckled in Cinn’s direction, “I thought you’d need a bit of help cracking open this frozen nut.”

As Sharky regenerated his destroyed head, he noticed Frostlight and Cordon pulling open their player menus. Almost instantly, Cordon was wearing his armor again, his battle axe secured to his back, and Frostlight donned her white tunic armor, gripping her bow in her magic.

Frostlight glanced towards Cinn with a scowl, pulling an arrow from her quiver a notching it in her bow, “Save some of Sharky for me. He has an arrow with his name on it for freezing my boyfriend.”

Cinn curtly nodded, his focus remaining on Sharky, while his three allies took positions on either side of him, and above in Cloud’s case.

Sharky let loose a guttural roar, “You will never defeat me! I will crush you, and once you’re dead again, I will personally leaf through your files and wipe your memories clean! No one will dare try to rebel against me in my kingdom!”

With a growl, Sharky swung his tail, sweeping it with the power of a truck across the platform’s ground. But it never got far, as Cinn suddenly conjured pillars of ice to stop it, as well as Cordon, who charged the oncoming obstacle with his ax, stopping it with his earth pony strength. With a few quick slashes, Cinn tore the tail into nothing but icicles, before turning his attention back towards Sharky.

Meanwhile, Cloud took to the air, letting loose bombs from the sky that impacted all along Sharky’s spines. But from the ground, Frostlight notched a couple arrows, topped with black orbs rather than arrow heads. The mare let loose the arrows at Sharky’s reformed head and chest, and the projectiles exploded upon impact.

Within moments, Sharky’s beast body was tailless and riddled with craters from explosions. But even then, all the ice was already growing back so quickly, it didn’t seem like they were making any progress.

“Look out!” Cordon shouted, just Sharky swiped a massive claw down towards them, crashing into the ground beneath them as Cinn, Cordon, and Frostlight leapt out of the way.

Sharky hissed in annoyance, “You’ll never reach me inside this body. Just accept your fates and die!”

Cinn noticed in only mere seconds, all of their progress was almost completely reversed, save for Sharky’s tail that was slowly reforming. Things weren’t looking good for only the four of them against Sharky, and if what he had said was true, there was no way to thaw the others and get their help without killing them. With a furrowed scowl, Cinn gripped the hilt of his katana, ready to strike again. He wasn’t going to let a never ending body of ice stand between him and the murderer hiding inside it.

“Aim your attacks straight for his chest.” Cinn muttered to his allies, who nodded in response. They were in quick agreement that that needed to focus their attacks if they were to beat the regenerating ice.

Cloud chucked two frag grenades at Sharky’s draconic chest, which exploded upon impact. And just behind the explosives, Frostlight let loose arrow after arrow of explosive nature, drilling the crater formed even further in.

Sharky quickly caught on, attacking with the swipe of a claw to disrupt their attacks, “Nice try, but as if I’d give you the chance to reach me.”

But as quick as the wind, Cordon met the claw head on like he did with the tail before, stopping in its tracks. The earth pony allowed himself to smirk up at the icy beast, “What was that you were saying?”

Only seconds in, the combination of Frostlight’s and Cloud’s explosive projectiles, they had driven a decently sized through Sharky’s chest. Cinn wasted no time as he dove through the opening, galloping as far as he could through it before he was met the regenerating wall of ice before him.

With a battle cry, Cinn let loose with his katana, attacking the oncoming ice with the flurry of a wild blizzard. Combo after combo, Cinn was only just able to keep the ice from reforming around him. But he could hear the explosions and the shudders of impact through the icy walls around him.

But as his friends outside attacked Sharky as well, Cinn started to notice the ice was starting to grow slower, as if Sharky could only divert so much of his power to his whole ice body. Cinn decided to take advantage of this.

With a roar of vigor, Cinn screamed with every devastating blow he drove through the wall before him, “Sharky! I. Will. Kick. Your. Fucking. ASS!” Faster and faster, the unicorn’s katana swung, shattering through ice quicker than it could repair itself. But that only encouraged Cinn to attack faster.

But suddenly, Cinn felt his sword break through an opening, and with one final blow, the wall collapsed in front of him. On the other side, he was met by the sight of Sharky encased by the legs and head by icicles that extended through beast like veins of blood, with the former admin acting as its heart.

Sharky’s eyes widened in shock as Cinn wasted no time in lunging at him, the brown unicorn grabbing him with his free hoof and ripping him from the ice connecting him from the beast he controlled.

Cinn felt the whole beast shudder as it lost its ability to move, but he paid it no mind as he spun and hurled Sharky right back out towards the opening he came in through. But Sharky merely hit a thin wall of ice that had regenerated itself behind Cinn as he tore his way in.

Sharky barely had enough time to bring his hooves up and another wall of ice before him as Cinn barreled towards him with a guttural roar of a battle cry. But it made little difference as the brown unicorn hit Sharky’s barrier with the force of a magic-fueled, frozen, semi-truck. The wall in front of the blue unicorn shattered instantly, and Sharky gasped in pain as the force behind Cinn’s charge plowed both of them through the icy wall behind him, and out of the frozen beast’s dead husk.

Sharky came rolling and stumbling back to his hooves, his health slightly depleted from the blow, but Cinn landing on his hind legs, eyes ablaze with furious hatred directed towards his very soul.

Sharky let out a snarl as Cinn’s allies grouped up around the unicorn, said samurai finally expelling the last of his absorbed ice magic as his coat turned back to its natural shade of brown. Sharky screamed with a glare, “You think you can defeat me?! I have total control of this world!”

He suddenly flicked his hoof downwards, bringing up his player menu, one that only an admin would have, “Why bother with this when I can just kill you all with the tap of a hoo- GAH!” Sharky screamed as an arrow pierced through the side of his hoof he’d been using in his menu.

Sharky turned with a look of outrage to see Frostlight standing beside Cinn, holding her bow in her magic. Frostlight simply gave the blue unicorn a glare of her own, “No one freezes my friends gets away with it.” She notched another arrow, “The next one goes through your head!”

But suddenly, Cloud threw down a smoke grenade, and the area between Sharky and the heroes fighting to liberate ELO was engulfed by the murky gas. The blue admin lost all sight of his opponents, but he gasped in shock as they began their onslaught.

Cordon came bursting out from the smoke cover running with the wind on his hooves. The earth pony brought down his ax on top of Sharky, but the strike was blocked as Sharky conjured a wall of ice, which he then kicked forwards, using it to shove Cordon aside as it slid on the ground.

Sharky’s hearing suddenly heard the whistle of an arrow fly, and he backstepped in time for Frostlight’s arrow to graze the tip of his snout. But the admin could only leap and roll out of the way as Cloud let loose more bombs from the sky.

Narrowly missing the explosions coming down above him, Sharky flared his magic to create a pair of ice gauntlets around his hooves, just in time for Cordon to come racing back towards him. This time, however, the unicorn was ready, and he sidestepped the earth pony, before striking him with the back of his gauntlet.

Cordon was sent careening away from the heavy blow, but Sharky had to quickly shift his focus as he spotted Cinn come vaulting out of the smokescreen, katana spinning as it came downwards upon the blue unicorn.

Sharky crossed his gauntlets above his head in time to catch the blade, his eyes locking with Cinn’s with glares of hatred of their own as their weapons locked in the same way. Sharky screamed at the samurai, ”Just Die!”

Suddenly, one of Sharky’s gauntlets formed a spear head at the end of his hoof, and the blue admin lunged the razor sharp ice weapon towards Cinn’s throat at point blank range.

But little did he notice the blue glow of a weapon materializing out of Cinn’s inventory, the hilt of which appearing gripped in his mouth.

Just as Sharky’s javelin gauntlet was above to pierce through Cinn’s neck, the brown unicorn parried it aside with the second sword he held in his mouth. The retaliation caused Sharky to falter, but that’s when Cinn saw his opportunity, flicking his head back to position the strike, and send the point of his second blade straight towards the murderer of hundreds.

It was as if time stopped. Sharky could only let out a gasp of indescribable pain as he felt the jagged edge of a hacked sword stab through his heart.

Cinn didn’t move an inch, just watching with his mouth holding the hacked sword in Sharky’s chest as the blue unicorn’s health bar turned black with the wither effect.

Sharky could only breath out in disbelief, “… how? How did you…?”

Letting the sword go from his teeth, Cinn watched Sharky’s form collapse on the ground, the hacked weapon jutting out of him like a skewer. The brown unicorn bluntly replied, “I figured it was time you got a taste of your own medicine, courtesy of Discord and Ezekiel’s corpse.”

Sharky couldn’t even begin to reply. His loss beyond words was great, it was as if he didn’t even notice the players he had been fighting before. Silence reigned over the platform, as Sharky’s health slowly but unceasingly depleted, he croaked out his last words, “No… My kingdom… gone.”

With a flash of blue, his body burst into code, leaving the accursed sword sticking out of the bricks of the platform, the ‘t’ shape of the sword and hilt resembling that of a jagged, cross tombstone.

It was a good while before anyone spoke up as Frostlight, Cordon, Cloud, and Cinn gathered around the spot where Sharky had disappeared. But finally Cloud was the one to break the silence, “So, did it work?”

A chorus of groans behind them answered that question.

They glanced back, but were met with surprise. Frostlight gasped as she ran towards their now thawed friends, “Guys! Shadow!”

________________________________

For a while, all I saw was white… although, I’m not sure how long that while was. It could have been just a few seconds, but it felt more like… I don’t know, hours? It was sort of the feeling you get when your game freezes.

… Oh, ha, I get it. Sharky must have frozen my game, literally.

Oh yeah, did I mention it was really frickin’ cold when I came around again? Although, that was to be expected anyways. Getting frozen solid is not fun.

Anyways, when the white faded from my vision, I was immediately made aware of two things; first, I was lying on the ground, and when I opened my eyes, I had a perfect view of the morning sunrise coming over the horizon. It looked actually quite pretty.

The other thing I noticed was I was being shaken awake harder than Vinyl Scratch’s bass cannon on its max setting by my supposedly undead girlfriend.

Woo-hoo for ordinary life…

Frostlight shook my shoulders with her front hooves, practically screaming in my ear, “Shadow! Are you okay?”

I groaned in reply to the small pain in my ears, “Ugh, tone it down, Frost.”

I glanced up in time to see her blush a bit, so cute, “Oh, sorry.”

Craning my neck up, I took a moment to glance about at the others. Sure enough, all of them were perfectly fine… though a bit disoriented by the look of it. But then I remembered just what happened.

I scrambled to my hooves, reaching for my weapons, causing Frostlight to yelp a bit from the sudden motion. I glanced about hurriedly, “What happened? Where’s Sharky?”

Frostlight paused for a moment, before giggling slightly. Her horn shimmered slightly, and her own aura gently pushed against mine to lower my weapons, and she grabbed me in a hug, “It’s alright. The game’s over.”

I stared at her for a moment, the reality of the phrase she just nonchalantly used sinking in. But once it hit me, I ‘m pretty sure my jaw hit dirt, “Wait, what?!”

Frostlight giggled, pulling out of our hug and grabbing my foreleg, “C’mon, we’re only going to explain it all once to the others.”

I absently nodded as she dragged me towards the majority of our group. But out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Cinn standing before… was that Ezekiel’s sword? Where did he get that?

But little did I know, Cinn, sheathing his katana as he glanced upwards at the sky painted by the sunrise, a look of both pain and relief filling his face. Quietly, but not to himself, he whispered, “Ray… I finally did it…” A tear trailed out of the corner of his eye, “We’re free, finally.”

_____________________________________

Soul put his hooves up to halt the explanation, “Okay, wait just a minute.” He gave Cloud a skeptical look, “You’re saying that after Sharky went full dragon mode, he froze all of us?”

Cloud smirked, “Yup.”

Violet added, “Then Cinn showed up and went all badass on Sharky, who was actually just hiding inside that dragon, which was made of frozen ice?” The yellow unicorn spared a glance towards the samurai pony’s direction.

Cinn nodded, “Basically.”

Eclipse finished the rest of the summarization, “Then after fighting the one pony in this game who has access to admin codes, the four of you single-handedly took down the guy who started this whole fiasco?”

Cordon gave a grin, “Yeah, that’s all that went down.”

Sky raised an eyebrow, “Yeesh, if that’s all that happened, either Sharky is way weaker than I thought he was, or he just plain sucked at combat against players.”

Frostlight just gave a wry smile, “Well, Sharky did say he created the monsters, so it’d make sense that he knew how to fight them, but still be clueless against players.”

I laughed a bit as I sat beside her, the comfortable feeling of her warmth giving me a better mood after all that had happened in the past few hours. I gave her a small nuzzle, “I’m sure that was what it was.”

ON the other side of the small circle our whole group made, Neon the alicorn held Lexus close with one of her new wings, her boyfriend doing the same. Neon smiled warmly as she looked about at the four who had fought Sharky, “I’m just surprised you four were able to defeat him yourselves.” She gave a more sheepish grin, “I’m not saying you’re not strong, though. I just can’t imagine it was easy.”

Cinn gave a small laugh, “No, you’re right. It was not easy.”

Cross gave an even louder one from where he sat on the side, his wingman Cloud sitting beside him, “No, but I bet the look on Sharky’s face was priceless when you crashed into that dragon like the hulk!”

Cloud snickered, “Given how scary Cinn looked in the fight, I bet Sharky wet his frozen testicles when that happened.”

Cross sang at the top of his lungs, “Let it blow! Let it blow!” To which both pranksters began rolling on the floor laughing… much to the chagrin of half of the group who were currently face-hooving themselves.

“Anyways,” Cordon coughed to bring back the attention. He gave a small grin, “It wasn’t any problem though. It was the least I could do,” He glanced apologetically towards Sky, “You know, since my behavior before in the guild was less than good, even after I was kicked out. I am sorry about all those time I was acting like a total jerk.”

Sky just rolled his eyes a bit, before waving a hoof dismissively, “Dude, it’s alright. You already did good back when you took on Ezekiel for us…” He winced slightly, “You kind of did… you know…”

“Die?” Cordon nickered slightly, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine. If only a virtual world life is the price for acting that way, I’m willing to take it.”

The phrase itself made my gut churn slightly, glancing back towards Frostlight. A virtual life? How was that any different than when we were first trapped in this game? Wouldn’t it be worse? There wouldn’t be the hope to escape this world at the end anymore. Frostlight, Cordon, Cloud, and everyone else who would be brought back through the Personality Files, they wouldn’t have that hope anymore.

But there was one thing I had yet to see. Flicking a hoof downwards, I opened up my player menu and scrolled down to the very bottom of the options.

There I saw it, the one thing we had been striving towards since day one: The logout button.

But for some reason, I only wanted to pull Frostlight closer. I ended up doing so, and Frost, seeing the very thing I was, knew what was going through my mind.

She looked up at me, giving me a comforting smile, “It’s alright. I’ll be fine here. You survived, after all. You deserve to go back home.”

I grit my teeth together, “But… if everyone leaves, they’ll for sure pull the plug on this place. You, Cloud, Cordon, all of you guys would be gone. I can’t let that happen to you.”

Frostlight simply gave a sad smile, leaning in to nuzzle me, which I solemnly returned. She only whispered, “It’s okay. I’m… not even human anymore. I’m just an AI in a computer now.”

I shook my head, “No, you’re still human.” I smiled back, “Even if you don’t have the body to prove it, you’re still the same girl that came into this game. You still act in the same way, you still care, and you still love and feel emotion like any human does.”

Frost seemed unsure of it, giving me an uneasy look. Sighing, I leaned in and gave her a kiss, and when we parted, I smiled, “You’re still the same girl I fell in love with.”

That got her to smile, a cute blush appearing at her cheeks.

Pulling back, I slowly nodded, “Alright, I’ll go back to the real world. But I promise you, I won’t let anything happen to you. If the freaking government wants to pull the plug on this place, it’ll be over my dead body.”

Frostlight could only smile warmly, tears welling at the corners of her eyes, “Okay.”

It was only then that I noticed the distinct silence in the air, and turning to look at the rest of the group, I realized everyone was quietly watching mine and Frost’s exchange.

Needless to say, I felt kind of awkward. It’s ironic how awkwardness can easily happen right after the most epic of moments.

But then, Lexus stood up, giving me a small grin, “Well, I doubt just one person is going to be able to keep this place from being shut down. I’ll do exactly that too. I don’t want to see this game go, despite what we’ve gone through.”

Cross was the next to stand, “Me too. I don’t know about you guys, but Cloud is kind of stuck here too, and I don’t want him to go so soon.” The unicorn chuckled, “Seriously, he just got here less than an hour ago!”

One after another, the rest of the group began agreeing. Some were more iffy about the idea of keeping this server alive… that is, until they remembered that other people who had died had the possibility to live again in here. Soon we were all in agreement; we’d do all we could to keep this server alive and running.

“You all better do it!” Cloud hollered, his arms folded in a humph, “I don’t want to wake up the next morning to find myself gone again. Once is enough for me, thanks.”

Dylan chuckled, “Don’t sweat it. Even if we can’t get them to keep this server running, we could always transfer this world to a different computer and run it there.”

Cinn raised an eyebrow, skeptically, “Uh-huh, right.” He glanced towards Sky, a tiny smirk on his face, “It’s too bad we’re leaving the game though. I never got the chance to duel you and see who’s stronger.”

Sky just chuckled, “Well, I don’t think you want to now. Even after beating Nightmare Moon and grabbing experience, I’m still three months ahead of you in strength.”

Cinn’s left eyebrow twitched, “Is that a challenge I hear? Are you calling me weak?”

Sky shook his head, amused, “No, but let’s just say if Sharky hadn’t frozen me solid, I would have kicked his trash quicker than you did.”

The two of them then butted heads, literally, as Cinn narrowed his eyes, “Well, if you’re ever ready to get your ass handed to you, just call me up.”

Sky smirked, narrowing his own in return, “I’ll be looking forward to it.”

Off to the side, Siren gave herself a facehoof, “Boys will be guys, I guess.”

A jubilant mood hung in the air, as if all any tension and doubts suddenly vanished. It felt like just after Discord was defeated, but this time it was for real. There was no other threat, because we had finished off the very core of the problem that had sent us all down this death row.

And yet, all of us were here… and some of us were here for good.

Another thought came to mind, one I wanted to be absolutely sure of before I hit that logout button. I glanced towards Frostlight, a frown stretched across my face, “Wait, what about the others who died? Have they already been recreated from the Personality Files, or do we have to do that ourselves?”

Frost blinked in surprise, her mouth opened to respond with confusion that she didn’t know either.

But another voice responded instead, from the stairs leading up to the platform, “I know how.”

I turned my eyes. They were wide with the fact that I had not heard this voice in a long, long time. There, standing at the top of the stairs, was a single, blue earth pony with a blonde mane and tail.

I blinked in surprise, “Rex?!”

Rex chuckled at my expression, “Salutations, Shadowflame. It has been a while, hasn’t it?” He raised an eyebrow, “I definitely notice you’ve amassed your strength in abundance after coming this far.” His gaze swept across the whole group, who had grown silent at his arrival, “All of you have.”

But wait… wasn’t Rex… oh.

“You came back through the Personality Files too?” I guessed.

Rex nodded, looking satisfied, “Yes, I did. And don’t worry about the others who have yet to be revived. Now that Discord has been defeated, I now have full access over the system, as well as the other admins who have perished.” A grim look momentarily flashed over his features, “I just wish none of them had to. In the end, Sharky caused more grief than pleasure for himself.”

Neon approached the admin, “I remember hearing Jupiter say you and Sharky were best friends, right?”

Rex nodded, “Yes, and as you can imagine, I learned a lot of facts that Sharky was planning this… I just realized it all too late. In the end, I had to hastily pull together a last ditch effort to fix the mess this situation would inevitably cause.”

“The Personality Files.” I muttered.

“Correct.” Rex laughed a small bit, “I’m just glad my pride and joy was able to help in a crisis like this.” He wore a smug grin, “I didn’t really imagine there’d be a use for a very detailed, very intricate tracker of human traits like this,” His smile grew a bit more hollow, as if mourning, “I guess I have Sharky to thank for opening my eyes and seeing that even when mortal life is taken, it can still be preserved in this place.”

“It really is amazing.” Violet commented, “The very thing you made could actually preserve human lives. Could you imagine, if someone was suffering terminal illness, they could just plop themselves in here before they died and live on. They could live forever if they wanted to.”

Rex only chuckled, raising an eyebrow, “Well, technically yes. But technical problems like software and hardware becoming outdated would arise, but I suppose if I’m here to help, it shouldn’t be too hard to remedy.” His smile then disappeared, as quickly as it had come. Slowly, he glanced upwards, towards the sky, “But you also have to ask yourself… would anyone really want to live here forever?

“Forever is an astonishingly long time… a time that is beyond humans’ capacity for life. Even in a world like Equestria, where almost anything is possible, I imagine life would only become boring.” He allowed himself a chuckle, “I guess in that way, I’m very similar to Discord.”

A small frown crossed his face, “But if humans were to live forever, wouldn’t that make us inhuman? Death is a natural part of human life, so if we were to avoid that essential part of life, would we be something different, something greater?” Rex shook his head, “Personally, I think that’d make us something less. Everyone has their own time that comes, and anyone that tries to cheat natural death can only be a pitiful excuse of a person.”

Cinn wore a frown as he stepped forward, “But isn’t it natural for humans to fear death? Doesn’t that make us human? My brother died in this game, and if I wanted to bring him back, would that make me spineless?”

Rex paused for a moment, a blue hoof to his chin, before shaking his head, “No, I suppose not. There is a difference between nature running its course, and another taking a life because of the actions of someone else. One is fair, already guaranteed, while the other is unjust; full of unfulfilled regrets for those who pass.” A smile crossed his face, “But that’s what I hope this place will become: a place where people can live to rid themselves of their regrets. In time, after one of these people I intend to help has lived a full life, I hope they come to give theirs up and pass away peacefully.” He gave knowing look upwards towards the rising sun in the distance, “I know I will.”

“Well, how will you do that?” Sky asked, “It doesn’t sound easy, and I’m sure a lot of people will want it.”

Rex waved a hoof dismissively, “We’ll figure that out later. I know we’ll all work together later,” He gave a small grin, “So long as you do your part on the outside and preserve this world. For now, why don’t you logout? I know you’ve been missing the outside world, and everyone out there has been missing you,” Rex offered, grinning.

I blinked for a moment, a bit startled at how suddenly the end had come. What if something else happened, like it usually did? What if Rex was in league with Sharky this whole time-

… No. That wouldn’t happen. After all, I remembered the phrase that had driven me through most of this game, “Make the choices you need to, so that the ones you fight alongside survive.”

Anybody left in this world… I knew they’d be safe in Rex’s care. I just needed to do my part for them on the outside now.

“Wait.” Cinn approached Rex, “Before I leave, can you bring two players here?”

“Sure,” Rex nodded happily, pulling up his player menu, “What are their Player ID’s?”

“Raybony and Sw33tcross,” Cinn replied, “The ‘e’s in Sweetcross are threes.”

Rex tapped a few keys in his player menu, speaking out loud to the game system, “Reactivate admin powers.” In a quick flash of light, Rex suddenly became an alicorn once more, the full status of admin returning to him.

His blue horn shimmered with magic, and he hollered, “Alright, incoming!”

A bright flash of light blinded everyone on the platform for a moment as Rex’s spell took effect. But once the light faded, two ponies stood before Cinn. The first was a little blue colt, whose player ID read, Raybony. The other was a blue unicorn mare, whose mane and tail were colored black with a red streak down each. Her player ID read, Sw33tcross.

Seeing the mare, Cloud let out a whistle, “Dang, Cross. I didn’t know you had a smoking hot twin sister.”

Cross just rolled his eyes, unamused, “You have no idea.”

Back at the front, Cinn looked between Raybony and Sweetcross, his expression elated at the sight of them. “Ray… Cross…”

Raybony’s face shifted from one of confusion from the fact the last thing he remembered was dying to being in an unfamiliar place, to one of surprised relief at seeing his older brother, “Cinn!” The colt instantly ran up and glomped Cinn in a hug wrapped around the unicorn’s neck.

Meanwhile, Sweetcross still stood with a look of profound confusion on her face. Gingerly, she approached Cinn, “Um… what happened? I thought I was- oomph!”

Sweetcross found herself cut off as Cinn quickly slipped out of Ray’s hug and grabbed the mare in his forelegs. The instant time froze for the two of them was when Cinn held Sweetcross with her hanging above the ground in his forelegs, planting a sudden, powerful kiss on her lips.

In the background, wolfcalls and whistles came from the group, mostly Cloud and Raybony, but Sweetcross could only focus on Cinn. Resigning herself with a non-existent shrug, the mare wrapped her forelegs around Cinn and pulled herself deeper into the kiss.

When the two of them broke their lips apart and Cinn set Sweetcross down, the brown stallion had tears in his eyes and a wide grin across his face.

This was the happiest I had ever seen him before. After the pain he had felt after months of losing both of them, Cinn was finally reunited with them. Even though they couldn’t exist in the real world… no, this was just as real as the outside world, both Cinn’s brother and his lover were still alive.

But… it made me wonder what was waiting in the outside world. Were the other players in the game logging out too? They most likely have already.

I took a look out over the platform, out at the city of Canterlot. In the streets, I could see a few blue lights in the streets from players disappearing from the game, returning to the outside world. They had the right idea. It was time to go.

I glanced towards Frostlight, who simply smiled back at me. She whispered, “Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere.”

I grinned at that, giving her one last kiss, before glancing back at the others. I pulled up my player menu, scrolling down to the logout button at the bottom. With one last nod to Sky, Cross, Lexus, Violet, Soul, Neon, Dylan, Eclipse, Siren, and Cinn, I gave a little wave, “Well, I guess I’ll be the first of us out of here. See you guys on the other side.”

With that, I finally hit the logout button.

Instantly, the world evaporated around me and my vision turned to black as I left Equestria Legends Online.