Equestria Legends Online: Brothers

by 4428Gamer

"Back Where You Began..."

Joey's POV

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I pushed the bottom half of the door open and flinched when it let out a dry squeak. Bu after a few seconds of no answer, I poked my head inside the building.

"Hello?" I called out, glancing around the dark room. The curtains were all closed so none of the sunset's light helped to brighten the space. "Is anyone already here?"

I took a couple of steps into the entrance and waited. Still no answer.

A smile came to my face. "I'm really the first one? I thought other people would already get here. Awesome!"

I closed the door behind me and proceeded to push a nearby chair up against the door and leaned it so the back of it was wedged underneath the doorknob. Like in some of the older cartoons I saw.

"I can't believe I'm actually the first one to get here," I cheered. "I'm gonna help win the MMO game!"

I saved any actual celebrating for later. As I looked around the room, I saw shelves and shelves of plain looking books. None of which looked like the one I was looking for.

Although I guess that did make sense. After all, this was Golden Oaks Library. The place that Twilight and Spike lived in the first part of the show.

I didn't really read anything online or watch any videos about the game like Alex did. But one of the things I did know was that the game makers were building Equestria to look like what it did at the start of the show. So the tree castle wasn't here and the library still was.

I was kind of disappointed in that. I wanted to see what Ponyville looked like from the top of that weird looking tree. But now that this whole Discord thing was happening, I get why they did it now. We had to get the Elements just like the characters did in the older episodes.

It even worked right down to what Discord's rhyme was in the episode. Find the Elements back where you began. The library!

Well, back in the town Discord said he hid them all over Equestria but, I mean, this was where he hid them in the show. So there had to be at least one of them here.

I just had to find the right book...

I walked up to the center table and spotted my first victim; a book laying open towards the door. I used my magic to drag it off the table and watched both it and a few supplies crash to the floor in front of me.

"Okay, not the right book," I announced to no one. The first hint was that the book didn't have a secret hole inside of it to hide the necklaces. The book was all in one piece and had what looked like a list instead of a story. I could probably read it too if it wasn't for lack of light in here.

Actually. I blinked. I might want some light if I'm gonna find that book in here.

I opened up one or two of the windows and let the sunlight in. It wouldn't stay there for long though. It was already getting darker.

So I spent the next minute or so looking around for a light switch or something. And while I did find some candles, there wasn't anything to light them with. And those tutorial books I had didn't say anything about how to make fire.

"Wait, the books," I called out, opening my menu and pulling out the three books I still had. The fourth one was gone when I smashed it over the Timberwolf's head.

I chuckled at the memory of that before I opened the book beside the window. It didn't have any fire magic but it had a few things. Levitating and moving stuff, which is what I was doing with the book, bringing out stuff from the menu without using it, which I didn't read yet, and then there was one more useful thing.

Light.

It wasn't a long read, just like the levitating. Mostly it told you to imagine making a ball of something and then think imagine there being a light bulb inside of it.

It was a pretty easy thing to do, actually. And since I was thinking of a light bulb, I thought about flipping a light switch and—

To my side, a glowing ball of light flickered to life, lighting up the entire room in a bright light. I had to shield my eyes from it though since the light showed up right next to my face.

"Too bright. Too bright." I levitated the orb upwards into the ceiling so it lit up the whole room. As far as the book said, as long as I put more magic in the orb every minute it would stay like that.

With the light, I closed the big book I pulled down and glanced at the front.

"Library Book Records," I read aloud. And under that was a note that read 'If you remove a book, do not put it book. All books will be returned by the librarian.'

I glanced around with a neutral look. "What librarian?"

"You called?"

"Wagh!" I jumped a good three feet in the air and scuttled away from the sudden pony that was standing right beside me. "Who are you?!"

"Why. I'm the librarian," he said chuckling. "How can I help?"

I looked him over for a second. He was a unicorn with a gray coat and black mane that looked kind of spiky but otherwise a regular horse's mane. He had these red pants on too so I couldn't see a Cutie Mark.

"W-Well," I started. "I'm looking for a book."

"Well good news, we have plenty of them," he told me as he moved his hoof in a sweeping motion towards all the shelves.

"Well, I need a specific book," I went on. "It's kinda big and the middle of it's probably cut out, I think."

"My that sounds like a terrible book. Probably a quick read though." He chuckled at himself again. "Would you like to be more blunt?"

"What was that?"

"I said more specific," he told me with a grin. "I mean, a lot of our books are very big."

"Well..." I glanced back at the front door and windows. No one here yet. But this librarian might let them in if they try opening the door.

"I-I don't know." I shrugged. "Um, the one from the show? At the beginning?"

He hummed with weakened smile. "You're not one for playing along much, are you?"

"Well, I gotta get an Element before everyone else gets them first," I admitted. "I mean, Discord made more of them but there's still only ten."

"Oh right. I heard about that," he mused before turning around to walk towards the shelves. "Big news at the square, new rules, yada yada yada. Something like that, right?"

"Yeah, I think so." I nodded. "It's kind of weird for a game about MLP though. I mean, the zipper thing was pretty cool thinking back on it and the lightning looked awesome when it went all slow but it got scary when everyone started screaming at Discord like that."

"Thank you," he told me as he reached the first shelves, pulling a few books down with his levitation. "A lot of them were taking it too far, weren't they?"

"Yeah!" I agreed. "It's just a game anyways."

"Exactly," he went on. "That's what Discord said at least."

I smiled. "Yeah, he did. He said it was going to be a big scavenger hunt." The librarian lowered the books in front of me. None of them were like the one from the show.

What did the one from the show look like again?

Either way, I took them in my own magic and tapped them to send them to my menu. I didn't know if saying no would be rude or not.

...Wait.

"Were you there when Discord showed up?"

"Of course I was," he said with a grin. "You didn't see me?"

I frowned. "I don't think so. It was dark for a while and there were a lot of ponies there."

He shrugged. "Fair enough." He went back to the shelves and started taking more books off the shelves and passing them to me. I didn't really know why though.

"Hmm. Interesting."

"What?" I watched him.

"I already knew that I wasn't going to get the chance to talk to any of you but I didn't expect it to be so...pleasant." He said that last word like he didn't like the way it sounded. It was the first time he frowned since he showed up too.

I didn't really get what he meant. "Talk to who?"

"Oh, forget I said anything."

After what was probably 20 or so books now in my menu, he stopped walking and pulled out one more book. "Ah, here's what you wanted. The Reference Guide to the Elements of Harmony. Right?"

Holding it up, I instantly recognized it. A huge brown book with a gold horse head on it. It was...a lot more plain than I remember it being.

"Yeah, that's it," I beamed. "That's mister library pony guy."

"Oh no. Thank you." He kept chuckling as he tossed the book to me. Right at the same time the orb of light I made went out.

"Hu—" the book crashed into my face and was left clutching my long nose as I cried out in pain. "Why did you throw that?"

Through the pain, I used my magic to make the orb all over again and let it float a few inches above me. Meanwhile, that librarian was again nowhere to be found.

"He-Hello?" I called out but there wasn't an answer.

"That hurt, ya know!" I shouted anyways. Creepy librarian.

Either way, I had the book. And after I picked it up in my magic I used my hooves to throw open the cover and first half of the pages to the open compartment.

Revealing a tiny Discord sitting in an armchair and his face in a newspaper.

"Wha...What?" I blinked.

"Hm?" Discord lowered the paper, showing he had no face since it was still in the newspaper. "Oh. Why Light Chill. I haven't seen you for...how long has it been, ten seconds?"

I backed away from the book. By now I stopped using magic to levitate it but that didn't matter. The book was floating on its own now.

And it was growing in size.

It grew in size until the book was as big as the wall and Discord was regular sized. Then he simply stepped out, tossing the paper past his head in a way where it looked like his face reappeared. Even if it had a few ink stains.

Heh.

"I expected one of you to try the whole 'it was in the show' idea but I didn't expect it so soon." He vanished in a snap just as the floorboards beneath me tore free from the ground, lifting me in the air like a platform.

"They, they weren't here?" Normally Discord looked really cool from the show but now that he was walking around with me it felt wrong.

"I did say that each Element would be guarded. But then again, you did leave before I could finish telling everyone, didn't you?"

I felt my ears flatten against my head. "You saw that?"

His chuckle sounded just like the librarian. "I should. After all."

My light orb went out again. But only for a moment as ahead of me the wall was illuminated by two yellow, oval-shaped lights that were Discord's eyes. But rather than see his pupils, it was dozens of screens all acting like cameras that were watching the players of the game.

"I see everything."

"Oh," was all I could say. His voice didn't sound like Discord. Not really. In the show it always sounded like he was playing a joke. But now the fun part sounded fake. Like this wasn't just all some kind of joke.

"So. Um..." I glanced at the edge of the floating platform. "...I was kind of hoping the Element would be here so that my brother and I could go home."

The projector eyes blinked and all the screens were replaced by yellow discs with red misshaped dots. "Just like that?"

That time the fun part of his voice was back like back in town but now I noticed it wasn't right either. Like it was a different kind of 'fun'.

"Y-yeah. I mean, the game makers can't really keep everyone here. We're gonna go home once this part of the game's done right?" One of the projector eyes curved inward. Like Discord was trying to figure out what I meant. "Those are called cut scenes. That's what the town meeting was, right?"

"You really don't understand what's going on, do you?"

I feel like my answer should be a no. But I said nothing.

"...Well in that case, I guess my little show wasn't as good as you were telling me it was."

Suddenly the lights in the library all turned on at once and the floorboards lowered me back to the ground before they and several others started floating over to the windows and door. Blocking them.

"Or, on the other hoof." I turned to my left to see Discord set up in one of those gamer chairs with a huge screen in front of him. He had on a soda hat and was typing out something with newfound energy.

"Perhaps an encore is in order?" He looked to me with a mean smirk before he went on typing.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I slowly walked towards him.

"You mentioned you had a brother, right? Let's just say, I'd hate for him to miss what's about to happen next." After a few more buttons pressed, he took the monitor and crumpled it up like a towel, wringing it as a bunch of blue code spilled out onto the floor.

Then with a flick, Discord unfurled the monitor letting it fan out into the size of a blanket and left it suspending in mid-air where an image formed on it like a flat screen.

My curiosity got the better of me. "What's about to happen?"

"Simple." He snapped his fingers and suddenly I was sitting in a plush recliner with a bucket of popcorn and a big drink on either side of me, facing the blanket TV.

Then Discord, who was seated in a second recliner beside me, snapped his finger again. And in a bright flash, every piece of furniture and book in the library was now replaced with an equal amount of red sticks of dynamite.

Enough TNT to make this library and every building near us reach space.

Discord got comfy, putting on a pair of 3D glasses. "Your death."

Author's Note:

We have about 2 more chapters following the first day. Let's hope they're not all that explosive, shall we?

I don't really have too much to say here. I didn't expect to write this chapter so soon after the last one. All I can really add is that I hope everyone is finding the story interesting.

So, until next time,

Cheers,
-Zeke

Comments

[Mix-up]

Hum, I wonder if they will visit places that the main story didn't cover like Our Town, Rainbow Fall, Siers Hollow, Hope Hollow would love to see what they could find there?