//------------------------------// // Regrets, Sadness, and Death // Story: Fancy Meeting YOU here... // by Unbound Bass //------------------------------// Octavia sat at her desk for a good 5 minutes crying over the sheer coincidence that was being displayed on the screen in front of her. That's when Octavia realized that Vinyl really had been her Angel. "I'm such an imbecile..." Octavia thought as she wiped tears away. "There's no reason for tears!" The screaming in her mind caught her off-guard even though it was HER mind. She scrolled through the Customization Options she noticed there were buttons for: Species, Gender, Class, and many other submenus that she would probably get to later. She was told to make her character somewhat like herself in appearance. Remembering this she chose Earth Pony as the species and all of the class choices change. Instead of Angel Priestess and Light Mage they were replaced by classes that sounded as though they were for close quarters combat. Octavia thought hard and decided... "Knight seems the most royal of all of them, and Vinyl referred to me as "snooty" sometimes," Octavia smiled as she thought aloud remembering some of the good times with Vinyl. Even if she was annoyed about them at first. Octavia clicked Knight and the character flashed from being the pale white priestess mare to an earth pony mare wearing a set of simple leather armor. Octavia saw a primary weapon choice flicker at the near top of her screen. Her choices were: Longsword, Greatsword, or Rapier. Her thoughts mulled around in her head as she decided. "Greatswords are way too big..." Octavia thought. "and rapiers are a little too small and have to be deadly accurate being a thrusting weapon opposed to being a slashing weapon," Her thoughts went to her last choice. "Longswords it is then..." She said aloud. The weapon on her character's back went from a ridiculously large sword that could've rivaled even some swords in Vinyl's cartoons or "animes" to one of a much more manageable regular size. The sword itself wasn't anything special. It had no flourishes of any kind. It was a simple piece of metal that was connected to a hilt wrapped in leather. "You got to start somewhere right?" She thought. She went through the rest of the customization options quickly and did her best to make her character look as much like her as possible. After a grueling twenty minutes of trying to get it right she was finally satisfied with her work. Her character was a grey mare with black hair. It was pretty simple. The only difference was she didn't have a choice of cutie mark. "I guess that's the best it's going to get," Octavia said, talking to nopony in particular. She hit the "Enter World" Button and was met with another pop-up requesting for a character name. Octavia found this confusing since she had already entered her username in to the registry screen. After a bit of thought she decided simple was better and simply put in her name. After she hit enter it went to a loading screen and immediately after she was met with a cinematic. It showed a small town with ponies everywhere. A scrolling text read... This is the town of Hoofbarton it is the starting town for the Royal Army recruits. You will use this town as your humble beginning into Knighthood and train here until you are strong enough to venture forth into the wilderness and confront stronger enemies as you go. Be warned Knight! A darkness is rising to overthrow Princess Celestia's rule. You MUST be prepared to fight back the Rebellious Hearts during any part of your journey! Now begin your journey and prepare to defend Princess Celestia against the dark rebellion plaguing Equestria! The text ended and left Octavia in a first-person view through the eyes of her character. Octavia was trying to process the information that had been given to her only seconds before. She vaguely remembered the Rebellious Hearts being the other team choice. She dismissed thinking about it any longer. She had to meet up with her friends and she was going to be late. Her Need to Be Punctual kicked in and after learning the movement keys she took off to find her friends. She searched for a while looking for "Sunbaked Café. She found the name quite funny as she had burst out laughing when Brass Bomb had told her earlier that day that they'd be waiting there. She found the Café and noticed to ponies who looked way too much like her friends to not be them. "Hello," She simply said as she casually strolled up to them. "You finally made it Octavia!" The up-beat yellow Pegasus shouted loud enough for anypony within a ten mile radius to hear. "I thought you were all about punctuality, but here you are arriving late to the party," Tuning Fork said with a grin on his face as he put down some red drink in a glass bottle. "I'm sorry...It took me a while to learn a lot of the controls," Octavia said. Although it was true it was also the only excuse she could muster. "It's ok and here take this..." Tuning Fork said holding out a much more glamorous sword. "Its required level is 3 so you'll have to level up a bit," "Thank you Tuning Fork, I'm assuming you two are already level 3?" Octavia asked with a smirk. "Yep!" shouted the golden Pegasus with a mouthful of bread causing his character to choke. The other two watched holding back laughter as his health bar depleted. It hit zero and his character toppled over. "Maybe we should've helped him. You think?" Tuning Fork asked Octavia. "I guess... where is he now?" Octavia asked slightly worried. "He'll be revived at the nearest alter for a good three hundred bits, it's fine he may be agitated about the price though," Tuning Fork replied quickly. Octavia sat in silence and eventually then heard Brass shouting through the streets angrily at the both of them. When he finally got there he was panting. "Why...*pant*....didn't...*pant*...you help me!?!?" Brass asked angrily. "I'm new I had no idea what to do," Octavia said with a hilarious grin obviously holding back laughter. "I think it wouldn't have been as funny if you lived." Tuning Fork said with a large smile. "Fine....*pant*....let's go fight some wolves then," Brass said plainly. Most of his previous enthusiasm non-existent now. The group began to walk to the fields. Octavia simply stayed silent the whole walk. The others chatted about strategies or something like that. She wasn't truly listening. All she could focus on was that coincidence with the random character being almost exactly like Vinyl.