//------------------------------//
// Chapter One: The Formation of the Guild. 
// Story: CMO: Cutie Mark Online! 
// by Paradox Theory 
//------------------------------//

The city was bustling. Ponies walked back and forth, buying weapons and armour. Scootaloo tried to keep her eyes peeled. She was a little worried, as she had no idea what her friends would look like here.

“What do ya mean ah have to be a ‘higher level’?!” A familiar southern accent rang, “All ah want is to smith!”

“Listen little lady,” Said a gruff voice, “The thing you want to build is out of your skill level, so stick to normal swords.” It was followed by a slam, Scootaloo rounded the corner in time to see the doors slam in the face of a yellow earth pony with red hair.

“Applebloom?” Scootaloo asked in surprise.

The pony turned to Scootaloo, “Scoots?”

Scootaloo nodded, “I’m so glad I found you.”

“Ah’m surprised that we even managed to run into each other when ah’ve heard that there’s at least 10,000 people here!” Applebloom exclaimed.

Scootaloo looked at Applebloom again, “So why an earth pony?”

Applebloom gave a sheepish smile, “So ah could see what it felt like to be stronger than mah sis. Why are you a pegasus?”

Scootaloo fanned out her small wings, “Because I’ve always wanted to fly.”

After a short hug, Applebloom and Scootaloo looked around. The street they were on was growing quiet. Everypony was heading in the same direction.

“Should we follow them?” Applebloom asked.

“Yeah, lets hurry.”





There was a large crowd standing outside of a magic shop, inside was two ponies arguing over an ebony wand.

“Girls, girls!” Said the shopkeep, an older unicorn with a swirly beard. “This wand isn’t for sale!”

“What?!” Both Unicorns screeched.

“It’s going to be a reward in a magical tournament. But that is weeks away.” The Shopkeeper explained.

With a sigh the two unicorns stepped out of the shop, into the view of the crowd. The first one was a bit taller, purple with a purple streaked mane. She was easily in her early 20’s. The second was a bit smaller, in her teens. Her coat was white while her mane was a two tone of light purple and pink.

Shortly after, the crowd dispersed, leaving Scootaloo and Applebloom looking at the unicorn.

“Excuse me, but what is your name?” Scootaloo asked.

“Sweetie Belle, and you?” Sweetie answered, suddenly squished by her friends as they hugged her.

“Sweetie it’s us!” Applebloom said.

“Wait, how is it possible that we found each other?” Sweetie asked.

“Luck?” Scootaloo guessed.

Sweetie smiled, “I hope we find the boys soon, we need go get dinner.”

“Then what are we waiting fer? Let’s go an find them!” Applebloom exclaimed.

So the three took off to the next location.





Unlike the crowd at the magic store, the crowd at the bar was smaller and louder. In the middle were two ponies arm wrestling, one was smaller with a brown coat and orange-ish hair. The other was black with a two-tone grey mane.

"Honestly, Lane." The brown Earth Pony taunted."I'm literally not even trying." 

"Yeah right!" The black Pegasus replied, clearly using all of his strength, yet still unable to budge his opponent's arm.

With a yawn, the Brown Stallion slammed his hoof down, instantly winning the competition.

"Button, dude," The Black Stallion started, "How did you beat me? I'm like, three times as strong as you IRL!"

"Oh Thunderlane." Button smiled. "Ever heard of the CMO Beta testers? You're looking at one."

Thunderlane's jaw dropped. "No way! That's awesome, dude!"

Button just nodded with a grin. “Another thing, Earth Ponies have all the strength!”

Thunderlane chuckled as his wings twitched. “Still, I can make you run for your money. Take care dude.”

Button waved as Thunderlane left the bar. Then he turned to see three fillies walking toward him.

“Button?!” Sweetie asked in surprise, eyeing his muscles.

“Yep, you guys seen Featherweight or Rumble yet?” Button asked, picking up a bag of golden coins from the table.

“Nah, not yet.” Applebloom replied.

“What’s that?” Scootaloo asked, pointing at the bag before it disappeared into Button’s inventory.

“Those were bits, the currency of this game.” Button explained.

“Button! There you are!” Shouted a grey pegasus with a black mane. He was followed by a white pegasus with a brown mane.

“Ah, now we got our guild!” Button answered.The other five just stared at Button with blank looks.

“Ah, right.” Button chuckled while rubbing the back of his head with a hoof, “A guild is a group of players that work together to beat challenges and quests given to them. The guild can be as small as six players, or as large as they want.”

“So what would our guild name be?” Sweetie asked.

“Hmm. . . “ Button hummed in thought.

"Something totally badass, that's what... How about... Crusaders of Light?"

"Yeah!" Sweetie agreed. "I like it!"
"Same here!"
"Nice ring tah it..."
"Awesome name dude!"
"Nice!"

"Then it's settled!" Button spoke as he pulled up the Guild Menu. "We are... The Crusaders of Light!"

A collective 'ding' went off as everyone there got their invites. Soon, the six were united in the guild.

“Now what?” asked Scootaloo.

“Now we log out and have dinner. We’ll check our money later.” Button replied as he opened his menu.  A few seconds passed before Button spoke, “Uh oh.”

“What?” Sweetie asked.

“We uh. . . we seem to have a problem. . .”

“What is it?” Rumble asked.

“We. . .we can’t leave the game.”

The six crusaders looked at each other in worry before opening their own menus to check for themselves.

Sure enough, the log-out option was missing.

“W-what do we do?!” Exclaimed Sweetie, “I don’t want to stay here forever!”

But Sweetie wasn’t the only one. Everypony in the bar had opened their menus after hearing the exchange, and they too were stuck.

“What do we do?!” Sweetie exclaimed again. 

Suddenly, a brown hoof rested on her shoulder, “We stay calm.” Button told her.
Sweetie then tried her hardest not to blush. But a faint snickering came from Scootaloo and Applebloom.

“So now what Button?” Rumble asked, looking at the panic that was starting.

Button gripped his chin in thought. “Ah-ha!” He shouted, causing the group to jump.

“What?” Featherweight asked.

“There should be an access terminal in the middle of the city that players can use to report bugs to the game mods.” He looked at the confused faces of his group. With a sigh, he simplified, “A computer that you can put your complaint into.”

With an unanimous “OH!” The group set off for the middle of town.





By the time they reached the middle of town, the Crusaders realised that it was hopeless.

Thousands of ponies were trying to get to the terminals. But sadly, no answer came from them.

“Why aren’t they responding?!” A nearby pegasus exclaimed, rage evident in her face.

The crowd broke into a loud conversation as theories of why they were trapped began to circle.

Some of the younger ponies began to cry while others were starting to draw their weapons on each other.

“BWOOOOOOOOP!”

Everypony was startled into silence by the alarm. It continued to ring as a red force field fell over the city.

Then, a being appeared in the air above the city. The only thing the ponies saw was a giant cloak, which concealed the being's face, and body for that matter.

“Attention players.” It spoke, “ I am Satsukan Marakanoke, you should all know me as the man responsible for the making of this game.” He gave pause as some ponies began to chatter again.

“By now most of you will notice you can’t leave.” Satsukan continued. “Do not worry, this is intentional.” At this, ponies burst into an outrage.

“You are now trapped here, and only by clearing all 100 chambers of the maze may you leave. If you are killed here, your Navgear will kill your body with electromagnetic pulses.”

Ponies began to cry. “Many of you wonder what is the purpose for my doing this. The purpose is simple. I wish to see what the power of a god truly is.”

As the red dome began to disappear, Satsukan said one last thing.

“Good luck.”