Equestria Legends Online

by Shadowflame

July 8th (Home is Where the Crystal Heart Was...)

It may have taken us another full day of side-questing, but we had finally done it. We had collected the full, five-million bits we needed to buy the Crystal Palace.

It was late at night when we finally regrouped, after the second day of going on side-quests. All the while, Sky and I had decided we’d done a pretty good job for now with activating the other Elements of Harmony. Alongside activating Violet’s Element of Spirit back under the ice, over the past two days, we had also activated Soul’s Element of Loyalty, Siren’s Element of Kindness, Cross’ Element of Laughter, as well as possibly put into motion the activation of Eclipse’s Element of Generosity.

That only left my Element of Courage, and Lexus’ Element of Honesty.

But as to how we were going to activate Lexus’ element, we had no idea. Sky and I spent the whole of yesterday mulling out what the heck was wrong and why Lexus’ element wasn’t activated yet, not to mention we were anxious to finally get into an actual home, so we did some actual side-questing to try and get the rest of the money quickly. I already had extra money set aside in my inventory in the form of gold, but that wasn’t quite enough to pay for the rest of the palace.

We decided the Element of Honesty would have to wait until we got our heads back under a roof again.

Anyways, after totaling up the bits we’d accumulated over the past two days from rigorous side-questing, I called everyone back to the center of the city, beneath the Crystal Palace’s overhanging base.

Once everyone gathered, I announced, “Well, good work everyone! It looks like we finally have enough bits to buy the only home in the empire!”

“Finally.” Cinn rolled his eyes, “Sleeping on the ground is becoming a bit uncomfortable after two nights in a row.” The unicorn glanced up at the massive structure standing above us, “So we’re literally buying a castle to live in.”

Swift answered, shrugging, “Pretty much.”

Sharky just laughed a bit, “Well, the palace wasn’t supposed to be an actual home, but more of a rest house for VIP players and admins. But hey, it’s really awesome on the inside, too.”

Cinn raised an eyebrow, “How soft are the beds?”

“Softer than clouds.” Sharky replied.

Comet blinked in surprise, her jaw dropping, “Is that even possible?”

Dylan’s hoof instantly shot up into the air, “I call dibs on the best room!”

Sky smirked as he lightly swatted his little brother, “Nope. If either of the two of us gets to call dibs, it’s me.”

Cross laughed to reply, “Not if I get it first, Sky!”

Sky gave a devilish grin, “Is that a challenge?”

Sharky merely chuckled at their antics, “I don’t see what you’re arguing about. All the rooms are almost exactly the same, though you can customize them as your own, just like any other room in a regular home.”

I coughed to rein in everyone’s attention again, “Alright, unless you all would like to spend all night out here, I’d suggest sending all of your bits to me so we can buy the palace.”

Eventually, everyone complied, and I found my Player Menu holding a hefty five-million bits in it, as well as a tiny bit of pocket change for the side.

I tapped into the real estate section of my menu, until the home purchase screen popped up, with its only available lot for sale: The Crystal Palace.

I tapped the name of the lot, and another window popped up:

Would you like to purchase The Crystal Palace as your new home for 5,000,000 bits?
-Yes
-No

Nodding in satisfaction, I clicked the “Yes” option, and right as I did, the window disappeared as five million bits were taken out of my inventory and a crystal key suddenly appeared in my hoof out of in a small burst of code. It was the key to the Crystal Palace, our new home.

I held up the key, “Alright, who’s ready to move in?”

“Come on! Get on with it and unlock the doors already!” Soul shouted.

Violet chuckled alongside him, “C’mon, Shadow. Don’t leave us in suspense.”

Rolling my eyes, I walked over to the nearest door leading into the palace, finding a locked, blue door. I stuck the key into its key hole, turned, and opened the door. Instantly, the clicking of locks were heard from the other doors leading into the palace as they all unlocked.

“Alright! First!” Neon shouted as she instantly bolted through another door, disappearing as she raced up into the palace’s interior.

Everyone shared a laugh as hey followed Neon’s example and ran up into the palace through different doors.

Although, when you have wings, why bother taking stairs? Unlocking the doors also meant the windows were probably unlocked too, and if not, there were crystal balconies I could enter from. I took off to the air, looped out around to the nearest window, and with a push a hoof, it slid open, and I let myself in.

The room I entered first just happened to be the dining room of the castle. It was a long room, made of crystal walls just like the rest of palace. In the center of the room was a long, wooden table, with fancy chairs set around it. The whole floor was a crimson rug, and a crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling to light the room at this time of night.

But as I was admiring the room, a pair of doors opened, through which Neon ran into the dining room.

But once she saw me, realizing she’d been beat to seeing the palace first, her expression drooped from a gleeful smile into a tiny pout, “Humph, cheater.”

I smiled sheepishly, “Heh heh, sorry.”

After a moment, a few other group members filed into the dining room, as it seemed to be one of the main rooms that branched off from the staircases leading up from outside. But while everyone checked out a few more rooms, I headed upstairs, where everyone else was seeing the palace for themselves.

The first floor, where the dining room was located, was by far the largest, since the whole palace was practically one giant pillar. Along with the dining room, there was a massive kitchen, as well as hallways that branched off to some bedrooms.

The next floor up led to a large set of double doors, which ran adjacent to some more hallways through the palace. Through the double doors was the throne room, which looked almost exactly like it did in the show, with the crystal throne in all its splendor and giant windows that looked out across the seemingly glowing empire below in the night.

On the same floor, there were a few more bedrooms, as well as some sitting rooms and a library. I silently noted that I’d have to go back and check it again, just to see if there was any special, rare bits of fan fiction the admins put in there from FIMFiction. I knew of a few good ones from the library back in Canterlot, but there was sure to be more here.

Despite the palace’s tall size, it seemed to only have two floors. Although, I did remind myself that there was supposedly a ridiculously long flight of stairs inside the top most part of the palace’s spire, all thanks to a certain dark unicorn tyrant. In fact, now that I think about it, I’m going to have to see if Sky can open some secret passageways with his dark magic, just like how Twilight did in the show.

I was a tiny bit disappointed by the size, since I thought it was going to be bigger, but it was just about the same size as Canterlot Castle. Well, in order to put my disappointment behind me, I decided to sneak a peek at a few books in the library.

After about a half-hour of sightseeing, basically everyone had claimed a room of their own and had retreated back downstairs to the kitchen/dining room area, both rooms actually being connected directly by a pair of doors.

Having been caught up in browsing the library, I was the last to make it down to the dining room, where I found everyone hanging out. They were all hanging out at the table, armor un-equipped, just like they usually would at our old homes in Canterlot and on Westfalia. Soul had whipped out his playing cards for the first time in three days, and was currently playing a game of Scum with Dylan, Violet, and Eclipse. Sharky was sitting with Cinn and Cross, and from a few bits of conversation, it sounded like they were talking about Sharky’s ice magic and things of the sort.

But not everyone was here, I noticed. I asked Cross where the rest of the group was.

“Oh, they’re in the kitchen.” He replied, drawing away from his conversation momentarily, “Neon and Siren said they wanted to make dinner for everyone, and Comet wanted to help.” He chuckled, “Although, Sky, Lexus, and Swift followed them after a while. You can probably guess why Sky and Lexus went with the girls,” He shrugged, “But I guess Swift just followed because he was bored.”

A vision of Comet and Swift making out on a bench out on the street came to mind, making me cringe. I chuckled, “Heh heh, yeah, bored. Right…”

Cross blinked for a moment at my reaction, before shrugging and turning back to his conversation.

Trying to get that one image out of my mind, I sat down at the table, deciding now would be a good time to finally relax. I de-equipped my armor and my weapons, letting my wings flop out as I kicked back and let loose a bit.

We had finally gotten a home here in the Crystal Empire, which was all fine and dandy. But in all reality, we had only gotten it so we could rest up fully at any time before we went to fight King Sombra in the dungeon. This had just been a minor stepping stone in the way… er, would five million bits be considered as minor?

Either way, the next task ahead of us was to venture out to the empire’s main dungeon and find King Sombra somewhere inside. And then, we would fight to the death. Heh, cheery thought, considering the peaceful atmosphere we were in right now.

Shrugging, I pulled open my Player’s Menu and pulled up a map of the Crystal Empire and the surrounding area. On the map, the outline of the city’s streets formed a snowflake pattern, easily identifying it as it was. But up north above it, a red dot sat in the more mountainous region of the area, though thankfully not covered in snow. Some text over the dot revealed what the location was: The Ruby Falls

The Ruby Falls, the dungeon of the Crystal Empire. From what Jupiter had told me back in Canterlot, Ruby Falls was actually a literal name. It was a waterfall that supposedly flowed with both water and gemstones. The waterfall (or was it ‘gemfall’?) was meant to serve for two purposes; first, it was meant to be a popular scenic spot to see, especially when the sun reflected off the wall of water and the gems inside it, and also as a door of sorts that barred the way into the dungeon.

And now, we were going to have to find a way to get past it and into the dungeon where Sombra was waiting.

“Hey, everybody!” Siren called me out of my stupor of thought.

She and Neon walked through the kitchen doors, each holding a covered, silver tray or two, “Soups on!”

As the two girls, along with Comet, Sky, Lexus, and Swift, all filed into the dining room, carrying several large, covered platters of food, before setting them down in the middle of the long table and taking their own seats, though I noticed they were sitting together as couples. It was a cute sight to see, but it also reminded me of another reason to hurry and defeat Sombra as soon as possible.

The sooner we got back to Canterlot, the sooner I could be with Frostlight again. And considering the fact that none of know where Nightmare Moon would be waiting with the final element, I was hoping for an extended stay in Canterlot with my marefriend.

Everyone turned their focuses towards the covered platters before them, and once everyone was seated, Neon addressed the whole group, “Dinner is served!” Her magic instantly pulled off every lid on every plate, and everyone gaped at what we saw.

Every platter was filled with so many delicious things, each ranging from the shiniest of apples, to the most ketchup-soaked of hay-fry burgers, to even just plain, various flower sandwiches, all of which made my mouth water just by looking at it all. It was a feast fit for a dozen kings, all prepared within the matter of ten minutes. Sometimes I just loved ELO’s cooking mechanic.

Siren triumphantly declared, “Dig in!” And much to her pleasure, everyone did.

_____________________________

Ugh… I felt like I was going to burst, extra emphasis on felt though. I knew the game mechanics would never let a player actually explode from consuming too much food, but it sure felt like I would. Heh, figures, since Neon and Siren pretty much used up almost all of their food supplies on that meal. They’d have to buy more soon, or I’d give ‘em mine if they could cook it for me.

Either way, after dinner, everyone bid their goodnights… well, most everyone who wasn’t an insomniac. We all parted ways from the dining room, and I headed off to claim a bedroom for myself. After finding a room on the second floor of the palace, one that hadn’t been locked or claimed by someone else, I let myself in, not even bothering to turn on a light, and flopped onto the bed inside. The whole day beforehand had finally caught up to me.

Sighing, I buried my face into the pillow, though still getting used to the fact that we were inside the Crystal Palace.

Heh, now that I think about it, I’d always wanted to see something like this palace in real life, but this was just about as close as I could possible get. The throne room was almost perfectly identical as to how it was depicted in the show, the entire building was like an exact copy, and almost nothing was out of place in the Crystal Empire.

Well, except for the freak blizzard separating the empire from Equestria as a whole. Heck, in the show, there was only a blizzard around the empire when Sombra tried to take it over again. But if memory served me right, the blizzard disappeared when the Crystal Heart was activated, but…

Wait a minute…

Was there a Crystal Heart in here? If so, where would it be? I certainly didn’t see it in its usual place beneath the palace, directly at the center of the city.

I started to wonder if it was even in the game at all, but also if it could be used if it was. What if we found the crystal heart, and then activated it to dispel the blizzard out there? It certainly would help us on the return trip home, which I’d be grateful for, since I don’t want to be falling down under some glacier again anytime soon.

Yawning, I figured I’d have to message Jupiter about it later, since I didn’t think I could stay awake any longer. I closed my eyes and let sleep overtake me.

Author's Note:

Yes, short chapter, I know.
But hey, I'm posting a whole other chapter today too, so that basically makes up for it.

The following joke chapter follows right after the events of this one.
Enjoy!

And as always, Thanks for reading,
-Shadowflame

Comments

[MTDragonslayer7]

We had collected the full, one-million bits we needed to buy the Crystal Palace.

It says five million when purchased.

[Seeking Dusk]

5105455 They already had 4 million. They were questing to earn the missing 1 million.

[Akira Dragonborne]

Ugh… I felt like I was going to burst, extra emphasis on felt though. I knew the game mechanics would never let a player actually explode from consuming too much food, but it sure felt like I would. Heh, figures, since Neon and Siren pretty much used up almost all of their food supplies on that meal. They’d have to buy more soon, or I’d give ‘em mine if they could cook it for me.