Re-Equestria Online

by MrShmoodlePuffs

No Going Back

Silently, we leave for the hotel. The stallion behind the desk nods to us with a grim expression on his face as we go up the stairs.

I open the door to my room, and we walk over and sit on my bed. I close the door again with my telekinesis.

“What just happened?” I ask Pinkie, stunned by the latest event.

“Nightmare Moon came back and trapped us in this game. She is now forcing us to defeat all the enemies we had defeated before with the Elements of Harmony, but now we can’t use them in this game. If we die here, we die in real life. Celestia can’t go defeat Nightmare Moon because she’s on the moon. None of the ponies outside the game know we’re stuck in here. Stores have changed their merchandise. Nightmare Moon is enjoying this game very much. This isn’t fun.” She says glumly.

“Okay, so so far it’s just me and you. We know Rainbow Dash is playing this game, and I’m pretty sure Fluttershy is too. I don’t know about Rarity, and I’m quite certain that Applejack isn’t playing. I could go face Nightmare Moon, but I don’t know where she is and I’m powerless against her while she’s in control of this game.” I say aloud. I hear Pinkie Pie gasp and turn to face her.

“What’s wrong, Pinkie?” I ask, a bit nervous.

“When I tried to look at your status by looking at you like I usually would, instead of just the “Friend” sign and the small menu of options, I see this green bar beside you, along with a green gem on top of your head. It’s really weird, Twilight.” My eyes suddenly widen as I look at her too.

“Pinkie, I think you have it too. Oh no, what are these? This is all so horrible! I just visited Luna yesterday, and she was just fine! I don’t know how this could have happened! I don’t know why she would even do such a thing, even after all the trouble with the Tantabus! You remember what she told us, she was guilty and ashamed of what she did as Nightmare Moon! I just don’t know what went wrong.” I say, practically pulling my mane out.

I walk over to the window, checking what time it was. The sun was between noon and evening, around afternoon. “I wonder what Spike is doing right about now. Probably back at the castle, munching on his gems, wondering where the Princess of Friendship is, but he probably can’t remember who exactly it is. Since Nightmare Moon is in this game, does that mean ponies forgot about her existence, along with Luna’s, too?” I ask nopony in particular.

“Should we check out what Nightmare Moon meant by ‘store renovations’?” I demand, trying to get a plan in order. I have to do something.

“Sure, I guess. Maybe it has something to do with this ‘game’ of hers.” Pinkie replies, trying to bring back her positive attitude.

Her hair lost its buzz for a few seconds, adapting a flat style like her sisters’.

“Pinkie Pie, it’s going to be okay. We defeated them once, we can do it again. We can get out of this cursed game and defeat Nightmare Moon, and everything will be okay.” I tell her, trying to cheer myself up just as much as her. She nodded to me, and takes a deep breath. Her hair poofs back up to her usual mane style and she even smiles at me, but well, it all looks a little forced.

Together we head out of the hotel and onto the streets of Ponyville. It was practically deserted, most of the ponies inside. We reached one of the shops, entering to find a bunch of ponies already there. They’re murmuring amongst each other, looking at the display case. We make it through the crowd and my mind struggles with trying to identify what I see.

It’s a strange item, it looks a lot like one of those spears the castle guards use, but there is more metal on this one, and instead of a long wooden pole it’s two short sticks making a cross. The blade is attached to one of the tips. I focus on it, and a small box appears on top of it. The name of the item is called “Sword”, and its category is… weapon? It says that it does this weird thing, “deals +20% damage”. I don’t understand all this nonsense. The price is written below; Thirty-five bits. Wow.

I hear the sound of when somepony spawns in an item, and I turn around. In the corner of the store, a pony stands with the strange item at his hooves. An earth pony mare walks into the room just as the pony picks up the sword by the cross part, and the metal point comes in contact with the mare’s coat.

“Ow! hey, who did that!” She says, looking around and then notices the pony holding the “Sword”.

“I-I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there. I was just picking up this strange item I just bought. I didn’t mean for it to hurt you.” He stutters, blush in his cheeks.

“Hmm, I guess that’s fine, but it sure hurt! Say, that strange little green bar at my side just went down a pinch. It’s filling up again though, so I wouldn’t worry. Just be careful with that thing, all right?” She says, a hint of confusion in her voice.

The sword bursts into red sparkles, and I assume the pony took it back into his inventory. I walk back to the display case and look at the wall behind it. It was covered in similar items, all with the grim sheen of menace. All the pointy edges and the slick surfaces. There we even a few that looked like they were meant to be worn on the hooves. Next to the sword in the display case stood another item. It was in a strange U shape if you looked at it from the side, and on its tag it says that it’s a “Weapon Grip”. In the description it says that it is used with many weapons, such as swords and “maces” to be held by the mouth when charging. It shows a diagram where the “Weapon Grip” is attached to the bottom edge of the sword, otherwise known as “the hilt”, and the sword is held sideways by the mouth of a pony, as if the pony was to slash through its opponent. Okay, that sounds gruesome. It can also be adjusted so that it is in the “point forward” position.

I turn to Pinkie Pie. “Are we supposed to use these things to fight something? Does she expect us to use these things to fight our enemies?” I ask her, disgusted.

“Sadly, it seems so. On the side of the display case it listed the ‘uses’ for these weapons, specifically: Engaging in battle with the Enemy, Buffs, whatever that means, and trading. It mentions that these weapons can also be modified. I had no idea Nightmare Moon expected us to use this sinister collection of weapons. She must really believe there is no other way we could defeat the enemies in this game.” Pinkie says bleakly.

“Oh, Pinkie, what are we going to do? Are we really going to have to use these horrid things? Is this really happening?” I ask her, panic starting to build up inside me.

“I’m sorry Twilight, I wish this didn’t happen to us. We’re going to beat this game, get back to our friends and live happily ever after. I’ll make sure of it. Now, you probably don’t want to do this, but I need you to buy one of these. Any, more than one if that is better. We need to be ready, and safe for that matter. I want you to have it in the case of an emergency. Now, Nightmare Moon probably thought up a bunch of cruel unicorn battle spells too, but you need to have one of these, just in case.” She says to me, acceptance tainting her words, a small smile on her face.

I nod, for I understand what she’s doing. She accepts that we’re stuck in this game, but she does not accept that this is the end. I admire her for her perseverance, her ability to go on, even in the darkness of times. I guess that the element of laughter isn’t always just about being happy all the time, it’s about the capability to go on, to not give up, to put a smile on your face, not just for yourself, but for the ponies around you and your friends.

I look around, glancing back at the sword in the display case. Calling up its tag again, I chose to see its “history”. Something like this:

In the far lands out of Equestria, the place known as Zebrica was flung into a brutal war. They created weapons so as to be stronger than their Enemy. One weapon they had was the sword. It was then made of stone, for the zebricans had no wish to look for jewels below the earth. As the zebricans travelled, they had come across Yakyakistan, high up in Frozen North of Equestria. There, the yakyaksitans modified it to their own needs, stronger and sharper. They created the iron swords, and other swords of different metals and gems. These weapons were discovered by equestrians, and so was forbidden. The swords are gone, or so we think. Many more weapons were created, different shapes for different purposes.

So, that’s where these things came from. At least I know now that Nightmare Moon didn’t just create them. She recreated them, or at least she did in this game.

I purchase the sword, along with the weapon grip. I wanted to have it, just in case I wanted to multitask. I look around at the walls, wondering if any other weapon would be useful in the case of an emergency. I buy another weapon, it looks like a smaller model of the sword, except the blade is shaped in a different way, it’s called a “Dagger”. I also purchase the strange weapon that is merged with a shoe for the hoof. It can retract and protract small metal claw-like blades on the edge of it, and there is a small pocket in it for a dagger, so I can use it as if I am wielding the dagger with my hoof or I can shoot it in a short distance. Nothing else seems to fit in the criteria of being needed in an emergency, so we leave.

We start walking back to the hotel when we notice a group of ponies huddling together, as if they were having a meeting. We walk over, interested in what they might be discussing.

They barely pay us a glance when we walk up to them. “Hey, what are you ponies talking about?” Pinkie Pie asks them.

“Oh, we’re discussing. You know, what we’re going to do. We met together in this game, and we have a lot that we care about in our lives. So far, we’re discussing our plan of action.” The earth pony stallion informs us.

“Hey, why are you still in your game customization? Don’t you guys want to be in your own bodies since this isn’t that much of a game anymore?” A pegasus mare speaks up, a questioning look in her eyes.

Pinkie Pie lets out a slight giggle, and her and I quickly huddle up to decide what we’re going to tell them.

“So, should we tell them, Twilight?”

“No, I think it would change the way they see us if we do. Let’s tell them we don’t want to do that yet, or something. Maybe that we’re big fans of the Elements of Harmony, or something.”

“If you say so. I’m not the element of honesty, but I still feel a bit bad about lying.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry. I just want to see what’s going on so far, and I want to hear it as if I’m not Twilight Sparkle. We’ll tell them when it’s needed, maybe if they really are trying to do something.”

We turn back to the ponies. “Yes, well we haven’t really thought about it yet, you know? We were always big fans of the Elements of Harmony. This isn’t the time for us to let go.” I tell them with a big smile. Technically not lying, just leaving out some of the truth.

“Well, okay, your choice. You can join us, if you like. We’re still discussing, thinking this through. This isn’t a joke, you know.” The pegasus mare says to us. “Oh, and by the way, I’m Cotton Cloud and the stallion who just talked to you is Grey Quintus.” She introduces us.

We go over and sit with the other ponies.

“Okay, what do we know so far about Nightmare Moon and the battle?” Grey asks.

“She is an alicorn!” “She has strong magic.” “She’s tall.” “She’s the monster of the night.”

“Okay, so I’m guessing we don’t know much. All we know is that she was defeated by the Elements of Harmony. We know that to get to her you need to get through the Everfree Forest, and that the bearers of the Elements of Harmony had to face five challenges to get through. We all know what those challenges were, so let’s not go through that. We also know that she is the first Enemy, so she should be the easiest, and so when we defeat her we should have a hint at how hard the next Enemy will be.” Grey goes over the points one by one.

“Some of us had already observed the battle between Nightmare Moon and the Elements of Harmony, so we have seen a very small bit of what her powers may be, but let’s expect all the tricks that an alicorn would know, and the most basic unicorn spells. I’m afraid that will have to be it for this meeting. Next meeting, I would like it if we had a few more participants and for all of us to have at least basic gear, which includes main weapon and armor. We will discuss further of our plan of action next meeting. I thank you all for attending.” He finishes, and a few ponies nod at him in appreciation. This is not an appropriate event for applause. Lives are at stake.

Pinkie Pie and I walk up to Grey. “I would like you to know that my friend and I are with you. It is very noble of you to do this, and sets a great example for other players. If we work together, we can do this.” I tell him, Pinkie nodding wisely at my words.

“Thank you, I appreciate it. It is misfortunate that we are stuck in this game, but we still have a chance at beating it.” He responds, a twinkle in his eyes.

We leave for the hotel. We nod solemnly to the stallion behind the desk as we climb the stairs. “I think we should go to sleep. I’m not sure if we have to in these circumstances, but it feels natural, and well, normal. This world makes me sad, and a small reminder of our real lives would make it better. Good night, Twilight.” Pinkie Pie says as she recedes into her room.

“Good night, Pinkie Pie.” I say as she closes the door, entering my room and closing the door behind me.

I snuggle into my bed and close my eyes.. What a horrible mess I’ve gotten myself into.

Author's Note:

I liked this chapter, not much action yet, but I'm not in a big rush. I want to kind of "introduce" this world, slowly let it leak in.

I fought against lazyness and decided to make this one a bit longer then I was going to.

Next chapter will probably keep with this pace, either it will be finished on Wednesday or Thursday.

I took your advice on using GoogleDocs first so I can check all my typos, it worked great

Also, I want to thank you all for your support, your favourites, your likes, your comments, you reading this, everything! It really toucehs my heart.

Comments

[Ink_25]

Interesting chapter, maybe a tad flat, but way better than my stuff.

[MrShmoodlePuffs]

6694311

I'm glad you find it interesting. I understand how it may be flat, but I didn't have much inspiration for action at the time, and I wanted the story to be fluid. I want to have a balance between what the characters would do and what I want them to do. I ended up with tihs chapter, which is kind of a characters' "reaction" to the Nightmare Moon event thing. I'm sorry if it didn't seem very exciting