ELO: Knight's Hall

by MoonGuard97

Lunar Knights

22 January 2020

Mrs. Hammonds was getting impatient. Her son and his friends had been playing their game since noon, and it was already six-thirty. She needed him to get her those eggs, or else she wouldn’t have a dish to bring to tomorrow’s church brunch. If he didn’t log out soon, she would simply have to take that stupid helmet off his head.

After waiting another ten minutes, she decided to do just that.

“I swear,” she muttered as she got up from her chair, “I’m going to rip the wiring out of that stupid thing.”

She opened the door to the garage and flicked on the lights. Whenever Bryce played with the NerveGear, he typically left just a small book light on so that he wouldn’t waste more electricity than necessary. She stepped around his two friends and grabbed hold of his helmet, unbuckling the chin strap and getting ready to pull the rig off his head.

“Mom wait!”

She turned around. Her daughter Sarah stood in the doorway. Mrs. Hammonds was annoyed at first; she didn’t take kindly to her kids back talking or questioning her decisions. Then she saw the tears in the girl’s eyes, and her anger dimmed.

“What’s the matter, sis?”

Apparently, something in that question was the last straw. Sarah jumped at her, latching onto her neck and breaking into heart wrenching sobs. Mrs. Hammonds was completely baffled, but did her best to comfort her daughter anyway. She looked back into the house, trying to figure out what could have possibly caused Sarah to break down like this, and saw that the TV in the living room was turned to the news channel, which was strange, since nobody in their family watched the news. Something must have caught her attention.

Without warning, the display suddenly cut to black and was replaced by a flashing red warning plaque as a series of electronic sounds played through the audio. Three short chirps, followed by a long, steady tone.

<This is the emergency broadcast system. We interrupt your programming for an important message. Please stand by. This is not a test.>

An emergency broadcast? What for?

The display changed once again, now showing an older man at a desk in a pressed suit staring into the camera with a grim look on his face. The FBI coat of arms was displayed on the wall behind him. “Citizens of the United States, we interrupt your programming this evening to deliver a message of national security. In a case of national cyber terrorism, Equestria Legends Online, a virtual reality game which launched earlier this afternoon, was tampered with by an unknown aggressor, resulting in the safety features of the players’ NerveGear helmets to be compromised.”

Equestria Legends Online? But that was the game Bryce and his friends were playing right now!

“With seemingly no pattern, NerveGear headsets across the country are disabling their safety protocols and releasing microwave signals into the brains of their wearers, killing them instantly.”

That settled it, she had to get that helmet off of him now! She moved to do just that.

“Furthermore, any attempt to remove the NerveGear helmet from a player already in the game has resulted in the same microwave signal being discharged with 100% consistency. Be advised, do not attempt to remove the NerveGear helmets from an active player.” She tightened the strap under his chin. That helmet wasn’t going anywhere.

She looked back to Sarah, who was still wailing in the doorway, as sobs shook her own body. This…this couldn’t be happening!

---

CRACK!

A shot of pain seared through the back of my head as I was violently slammed into a wall, prompting both a slight drain on my HP, which was still low from monster hunting, and a small window on the wall above my head reading “Immortal Object.”

“What the hell did you do?” Noah screamed, ignoring the profanity warning that once again showed up in front of him.

We were in an empty side street, where we had retreated after the incident in the plaza, with only a couple of NPC merchants near us. Noah was standing on his hind legs, pinning me to the wall by the throat with one hoof while the other was pulled back as if to strike. Mary was curled up and crying on the ground against the opposite wall; Silver Mist laid an arm around her, trying to comfort her while suppressing tears of her own. Shadowkat was standing at the entrance to the street, wings drooping as she stared at the sunset with a far-off look in her eyes. Goober and Grammar Quill were trying to pull Noah off of me as I struggled to breathe, but Noah had put all his levelling points into his strength, so they weren’t having much luck.

“This is all your fault!” He roared. “It’s your fault were stuck here! We’re all going to die in here because of you!”

“Noah get off of him!” Grammar begged.

Goober grunted, pulling against Noah’s leg. “If you keep suffocating him, he’ll start losing health! What are you going to do if he dies because of you?”

That seemed to snap Noah out of his rage. His gaze softened and tears began welling up in his eyes. He dropped back to all four hooves, dropping me unceremoniously to the ground while I gasped for air. Stupid suffocation algorithm. Grammar rushed to my side, helping me up and offering me a small health potion, which I downed in one gulp. That had been way too close. He had me in the red zone. I was going to have to be more careful in the future.

With my health now safely in the green again, I turned back to Noah, who was now shaking uncontrollably and crying softly into his hooves.

“Look, you think I knew this was going to happen? You think I knew beforehand that we were all going to get stuck in here, playing some twisted game to stay alive?” I hung my head, my mane hiding my eyes. “I thought this was just going to be an easy-going game where we could just enjoy exploring a fun world as ponies, maybe kill some monsters or do some quests on the way. I didn’t think we’d get stuck here with the threat of death hanging over our heads.” I sighed and sat down with my back against his as a tear found its way to my own eye. “I’m sorry for bringing you guys in here, but this isn’t my fault.”

“No,” a voice sounded from the street, “It’s ours.”

Everyone looked up to see a group of earth ponies crowding the entrance to our little alleyway. In the lead was Big Red, his white mane and tail drooping and his eyes filled with such sorrow as to make him look a hundred years old. He, too, was crying, the tears leaving streaks in the dust on his face before falling to the stones below. The other ponies with him I recognized as the admins from earlier.

Big Red walked into the alley, straight past us, and stopped in front of Noah.

“Your friend is correct, young man. You shouldn’t blame him for getting you mixed up in all of this. Perhaps…” he let out a heavy sigh, “Perhaps if we had been more diligent, and paid more attention to Discord’s programming, all of this could have been prevented.”

“If you need to blame someone,” another of the admins approached, “Blame us, but please don’t blame each other.”

Gradually, Noah’s sniffling ceased and his tears dried. He got to his hooves, standing not quite as tall as Big Red, but looking him in the eyes none the less, anger apparent on his features and defiance in his stance.

“You know,” he seethed. “I think I’ll take you up on that suggestion.”

Without another word, he pushed past the larger pony, past the other admins, and back into the main streets of Ponyville. I don’t think he even knew where he was going, but he left anyway, leaving the rest of us standing there, his friends staring after him in shock and the admins gazing at their hooves, too ashamed to look anyone in the eye.

“Please don’t take his actions personally.” I told them. “He’s just angry right now. The only reason he’s even here is because of a bet, and now he’s stuck here in a body he hates. He’ll hold on to that anger for a while, if only to keep himself going, but he’ll come around eventually. I hope.”

Big Red just shook his head sadly, before resuming his dignified posture and setting his jaw.

“As true as your words may be, my young friend, I’m afraid that he has every right to be angry at us. However, we didn’t seek you out just to play the blame game, as it were. We’re here for a different reason.”

“Wait,” Grammar put a hoof in the air, “You were looking for us?”

Big Red nodded and turned to Silver Mist and Shadowkat. “Please, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jupiter; I am, or rather, I was the head administrator of Equestria Legends Online. This here,” he gestured to a stallion to his right with a blue coat and blonde mane “Is my friend Rex. He and I wanted to thank these two young mares for flying to our aid when Discord removed our wings. Believe it or not, you saved our lives today.”

Silver Mist looked up, and for the first time, Shadowkat’s eyes seemed to be actually focused on what was in front of her. I guess having someone thanking her for saving their life had somewhat snapped her back to reality.

“Really?” she asked.

Rex nodded. “When Discord turned us into earth ponies, he reset our skills and stats as well. We’re all level one players now, which means that falling that far would have caused a lethal amount of damage. So, thank you.”

Mist smiled sweetly and nodded, though didn’t say anything as she continued to comfort the trembling Mary. Shadow, however, blushed and stared at her hooves at the praise.

Big Red—er, Jupiter—smiled warmly and turned to leave.

“Wait, Big Red—I mean Jupiter, sir!” The stallion stopped and turned back to me. “What happens now?” I asked.

The question seemed to catch most of the administrators off guard, but Jupiter took it all in stride.

“Once the present situation calms down enough, we administrators will spread out over Equestria, taking groups of those who wish to travel with us and settling in key points and major towns across the game. We will create a network that will help us to search the entire game for the Elements of Harmony. I myself will be traveling to Canterlot, so that I may oversee the search.”

I looked at my team as he finished speaking, meeting each of their gazes. I saw many things as I looked into their eyes—fear, anger, despair—but they all seemed to be overshadowed by one thing: determination. Reflected in each of their eyes, from the wild Goober to the timid Mary, was the passion and the desire to rise above this challenge. I saw not just the will to survive, but the drive to ensure that others would make it out, too. Looking to my right, there by my side stood Grammar Quill. He met my eyes, nodding once. The message was clear.

We trust you.

Looking again, I saw it in each of their faces: the willingness to follow my lead. These friends of mine were putting their fates in my hands. Hooves, whatever. As of that moment, it was up to me to ensure their success in this world. I took a deep breath to steady myself, then stood tall and approached Jupiter.

“Jupiter, sir. We would like to accompany you to Canterlot and do what we can to help.”

Jupiter smiled, seemingly pleased with this turn of events, though there was also a hint of sadness in his face. “I would be honored if you and your team would join me.” He smirked, a playful glint coming to his eyes. “Now then, what shall I call you and your group?”

If this were a movie, an epic background track would have been playing at this point; you know, one of those “hero claims his role” moments. It this point, you would have heard the record scratch to a halt. A team name? Sure, we had all partied and formed our team already, but none of us had even thought to come up with a name.

Jupiter saw my puzzled face and burst out laughing. “Forgive me,” he chuckled, “But it seems I have caught you off-guard.” He regained his composure, though a goofy grin was still plastered on his face. “If you haven’t chosen a name yet, might I make a suggestion?” When everyone nodded he continued.

“How about,” he nodded to my cutie mark, “The Lunar Knights?”