Equestria Legends Online: Brothers

by 4428Gamer

Off With A Bang

Alex's POV

---

Come on, where are you...

I stood on the top of the tallest building on the street. Aside from a red warning popping up in my face for 'trespassing' I didn't see anything new.

It had been more than 10 minutes since Discord left and players were slowly petering out of the plaza off in the distance. It mostly meant that other Pegasi players were flying off towards other parts of town for their own reasons but other players were bound to flood the streets too.

It didn't help that NPCs were slowly reappearing out of their houses too. I guess when the admins called that meeting, they reset the AI too. That only complicated things.

"Alex?" From street level, Rachelle called out to me. "Tu vois ton frère?"

"Non," I returned. "Don't see him..."

I leapt off the house and flew back down onto the street, ignoring the AI shouting at me from her window. "Where would he go? The forest is in the other direction. And he wouldn't run off without having a reason."

"Joey se cache-t-il?" Rachelle asked.

"Huh?" I gave her a sad frown. "Répéter?" I said that whenever I didn't understand what she meant. Thankfully, she caught onto that.

So to help, she repeated 'Cacher' as she covered her eyes. Eventually, I got the word.

"Cacher. Hiding," I said aloud, to which she nodded. "Non. Joey ne cache pas. Joey...stay close," I explained, mimicking Joey standing beside me. If ever something happened, Joey would stick near me or our parents. Running and hiding wasn't his MO.

Just then, an envelope symbol with an orange '!' popped up in my vision. It was in the opposite corner of my HP bar.

Confused, I opened up my menu and saw that I apparently had a message. From Joey.

I started tapping buttons like a madman until the message opened.

From Light_ChiII:

Hey Blitz! I got to the library before anyone else did! Hurry before someone gets here! We're getting the Elements first!

"Library?" My brow furrowed. "What library?"

As if to answer my question, another pop up came to my menu. This time it was a gift from Joey instead of a message.

Light_ChiII sends a gift!

Updated Map

Do you accept?

-Yes
-No

"You can send gifts from a distance?" I hit yes and watched my map open for me. Joey's map fading in and filled in more blank space within Ponyville.

So he never left town. I gave a small sigh of relief. He was safe. Still lost, but safe.

Thanks to Joey's map, I saw the route he took getting from the plaza to the library he mentioned. And at the end of the path the map went the extra mile to show the library on the map itself, shown as a giant circle with the name of said library written beside it.

Actually.

Seeing where we were on the map, I flew back up onto the house's rooftop.

WARNING: You are trespassing.

It popped up the same time that stupid NPC yelled from her window again. I didn't care.

Looking in the direction from the map, I could see the library towering above the other nearby buildings; a giant lived-in tree like something out of a fairy tale. There was a large space between the library and any other buildings as well.

It was maybe a twenty-second flight from here.

"Rachelle!" I looked down to her. "I fou—!"

From behind me, a flash of light illuminated the town. Then, a heavy rumble echoed outwards in every direction almost shaking me off of the rooftop.

Rachelle jumped onto the floor, holding her head in what she assumed were bombs. She wasn't wrong.

Before my mind told me what was going on, my body spun around to look back at the library. Instead what my body and I saw was a massive cloud of smoke and timber as the library had blown to smithereens. From my vantage point, I could already see the massive black scar of soot and ash spreading out from where the library was just standing.

The burst of hot air brushing past me is what made me finally react.

"JOEY!" I shrieked, still staring as the dust continued to clear.

I cleared the map and the warning out of my display and made quick work of the menu, resummoning my tonfa and taking into the sky while my voice was getting raw from screaming.

"Alex!" Rachelle yelled. "Je ne peux pas voler!" Her voice got dimmer the further I flew after the library's cloud.

The twenty seconds I thought it would take me became twelve as I perched on the building whose side was charred black from the explosion.

By now, most of the debris had fallen away and dust was the only thing in the air. It made everything difficult to see from above.

Realizing this, I glided down and broke out into a run as smoothly as I could towards the library. As I got closer it only now started to dawn on me that I was running towards an explosion rather than away from it. That made me slow down and watch my step.

"Joey? Are you there?" I asked. I hesitated to say anything by this point. As if talking would make another explosion.

For the next minute I kept looking around, walking up to piles of rubble or random odds and ends that somehow survived being inside the library when it exploded. Mostly books.

Although every book was now a varying level of destroyed and the game was calling each one 'Ruined Book'. I guess the game had a separate design for ruined books so those that were too damaged got changed.

Then, as the dust settled enough to let sun rays through, I noticed a reflection. Towards the center of the wreckage there was a large green glass box where dust was resting on the top of it.

But inside was the kind of reclining chair you'd find at a movie theatre but with a crazy design printed on it. And resting inside was a cowering little unicorn.

"Joey!"

I ran over, nearly tripping over pieces of broken wood and books in the process and planted my front hooves on the glass. "Joey, are you okay?!"

"Al...Alex?" Joey stopped hiding his face in his hooves and looked up. "Is that you? Where are you?"

"I'm right here! Can you see me?!" I started knocking on the glass which only made Joey flinch further into the chair.

"I...I'm." He shivered. "I'm sorry..."

"No, it's okay Joey. It's fine. You're okay. I'm okay. We're all okay, alright?"

"Well, I wouldn't quite say that."

Joey's shaking went still as a new, familiar voice claimed from behind me.

I turned around and suddenly there was a doorknob suspended in air up against the dust cloud. It turned and suddenly a part of the dust cloud opened like a door with Discord walking out of it with a potted fern in one arm and a smug grin on his face.

With his free hand, Discord turned to the smoke and took a big whiff, vacuuming up most of the dust in the process before letting out a satisfied breath.

"Ah, you can just smell the chaos in the air! Do you like what I've done with the place?" Discord asked me.

He tossed the fern towards me and let it smash halfway, revealing that the fern was actually a spider with leaves for legs. It landed, looked at me with its red beady eyes and hissed before crawling away.

"Although," Discord lamented, tapping a talon to his chin. "We might need more than a rug to tie the room back together."

"W-What are you doing here?" I slowly reached a hoof towards the tonfa on my back.

"Why, I was invited," he told me. "After all, this was supposed to be my real introduction."

I furrowed my brow and said nothing.

"You mean, you didn't know?" He mocked surprise as he opened part of his body like a coat, reaching inside and pulling out an old leathery book. "The 'game makers' as your brother likes calling them put this book in the library as a reference to that little show of yours. Whoever opened it would be able to meet yours truly.

"But since this game all of these quests that lead you to this library to find this book, I had to do something," he said with a dramatic tone. "After all, now that I'm in charge of, well, everything."

As he said that, every object in a hundred foot radius suddenly grew a mouth to say that one word in sync.

"I, unfortunately, will have to cancel this little meet and greet." He blew at the book as though it were a candle and it as well as whatever dust was still remaining vanished. "There. Now, every quest that leads to this library is cancelled. Your brother was lucky enough to be my first and last customer."

"Discord," Joey breathed.

"Oh, and there's the lucky lad himself. Now what are you doing in that box?" With an amused tone, Discord floated over and smashed his lion's paw through the top of the case.

Joey, now able to see something, watched as Discord lion's paw started reaching and grabbing around for Joey as Discord looked away with his tongue stuck out. Like he was reaching into a raffle.

"Now come on," Discord come. "There's no need to be afraid of dear old m—GAAAH!" Discord flinched as Joey sank his teeth into the paw, forcing Discord to pull away.

Funnily enough, Discord's health bar showed up. Joey's bite probably did one point out of thousands but it was something.

Sadly, Discord was not so pleased. "Why you putrid little." His tone lost all joy as he let out an agitated growl. "Get out here!"

Discord's eagle talon started glowing with a dusty gold glow and with one sweeping motion, the glass case went flying and Joey, along with the chair, went airborne until the case proceeded to shatter against a large section of wall.

Joey was freed from the box as he fell to the ground with a groan. Before I could try to running at him, Discord teleported in front of Joey and levitated him upwards so he was at eye level with him squirming to get free.

"L-Lemme go!" It sounded somewhere between a plea and demand but he wasn't stopping.

Discord gave a dark chuckle. "If you say so." Discord bent down and traced a finger in a circle underneath Joey. Then, with a knock, the piece of floor fell revealing a deep pit that glowed with a sinister red color.

"AH! No, wait. I changed my mind. Don't drop me, don't drop me!" He was trying to grab at the golden aura to stay held up but all he caught was air.

Discord clicked his tongue like a disappointed mother. "There's just no pleasing you, is there?" He turned back to me.

"Is this how all of you players act? Because if so, I might be doing the admins a favor. Regardless." He turned back to Joey and lifted him just that much higher in the air. "Have a great fall, kid. It was nice kno—"

Joey fell out of his grip the same time that the pit vanished, meaning that he landed on dust and soot-covered floorboards. Meanwhile, his neck grew out a little, allowing him to turn and look to me while his body stayed unnaturally still.

As for me, I was mid-air at the moment with tonfa in both hooves. More specifically, one tonfa at my side and the other held forward where Discord's head was when I smacked it.

Discord took a moment to stare me down with an incredulous look on his face. One that made me slowly realize what I just did; attack the final boss of an MMO at level 2.

Slowly, Discord's body turned so it was realigned with his body. It was like watching a snake. Then he started to snicker. "I'm morbidly curious. What exactly was your plan here?"

"U-Um...Uh, I, erm," I stammered for a second. "I wanted to—" My voice was cut off by a lion paw crushing my throat. Rather than use magic to hold me, Discord settled for choking me.

"Alex!" Joey stood up himself and instantly backed down when Discord looked back at him.

"Ah, so this is the infamous 'Alex' you've told me so much about."

"Liar," both of us said in unison. Joey didn't talk about anyone behind their back. He preferred poking fun at people to their face.

Discord snorted. "I should have expected. I suppose brotherly bonds can never be broken." He wiped away a tear in the shape of a crocodile with his other hand.

Then an arrow struck Discord in the torso.

Discord glanced down at it like it was a minor inconvenience. "What an interesting way to say hello."

With another snap of his fingers, my body went stiff as a board as a lightning bolt symbol appeared under my HP bar. Paralysis.

Then, Discord picked me up by the leg and was suddenly wearing a baseball player's uniform. Then he held me behind him like a bat.

“Hey batter! Hey batter-batter, hey batter, hey batter, hey batter—SUH-WING-A~!” I was swung with the velocity of a jet as my head smacked into two more arrows, knocking them away like balls. As they flew back to the archer, they transformed into nets.

My HP didn't go down but I still felt the impact of those arrows as Discord tossed me aside, letting the paralysis fade from me. At the same time, the nets were already returning with Rachelle and her bow captured.

"Well, looks like the gangs all here." Discord said, teleporting a few feet away, sans uniform. "I must say, for two level twos and a level three player, this was more fun than I thought."

Rachelle kept fighting against the net as I slowly started to sit up from being tossed away. At the same time, Joey was trying to decide whether running or staying put was a good option.

"I'll tell you what." The three of us looked back to him. "As payment for keeping me entertained, I'm going to give you three rewards."

"Oh, like what?" his stare shut me up real quick.

"First," he began, holding up a finger. "I won't kill you. Tonight at least. That should be more than enough, but I’m feeling generous today.”

“You don’t look like Rarity to me,” Joey spat in revolt, trying to mimic me. And despite my place, I found myself chuckling right in this god's face.

Discord, however, accepted the challenge. He waved a hand past his face and suddenly his head had morphed into a white unicorn with swirly deep purple hair. But under the heavy mascara, he batted his still yellow and red eyes.

“How about now?” His voice was no different either.

“Eww…” Joey summed it all up right there. Sadly, Discord kept Rarity’s face just to spite us.

“Wish two,” He snapped his fingers and a notification popped up. It was about the quest I accepted earlier.

Mission Update!

Shop Up Some Wood

Conditions: Bring in supplies before *12 PM (MST), Jan. 23rd, 2020*

That notification only showed up for me but it mattered so little right now that I didn't even try to focus on it.

"...And." I took a moment to stand up. "What's the third thing?"

"Actually, this is more a reward for your brother. He is the one who got to the book first. And he so excited about that, too."

Joey went white as a sheet when he heard that. Although Discord didn't react as he teleported right up in my face. The only good side was that the Rarity face was now gone.

"That said, I would hate for you and the miss over there to feel left out. So for her." He scooped up a nearby book and brushed it a little, transforming it into a different book before tossing it to her. "A script of everything I said at the plaza. I'd hate for her not to enjoy the game from a language barrier.

"And as for you." His mouth curled up into an evil grin. "Have a nice flight."

"A nice fli—" The only thing I heard was one last snap from his fingers and suddenly I was standing on a tiny cloud. About a mile in the air. And I was paralyzed again.

I couldn't even talk. All I could do was watch as the cloud proceeded to get smaller and smaller, revealing more of Ponyville below me. And while I was paralyzed, I noticed that I couldn't even close my eyes let alone open my wings.

So, when the cloud finally got too small, I fell.

Author's Note:

Admittedly, this chapter and the two before it are total rewrites from the original. But what took a 9k+ chapter and a 3k+ chapter are 3 shorter chapters that get to the point.

I had a problem where I took way too many words to say one thing. Probably still a problem but less so I hope.

Also, Discord's not going to be a main character. Instead, he's the mastermind in the background. The reason he showed up at the library, as mentioned in the story, was that there was an event where you'd be introduced to Discord as the antagonist.

He even played along with that event before his big reveal. You can imagine the players that saw the event before and are now rightly terrified.

Thank you for reading the story so far. This will the last chapter for the first day in the game. The next chapter will take place days later in the story.

Cheers,
-Zeke

Comments

[Mix-up]

Fun chapter keep it up.