Game of life

First it was the body: width, height, male, female, age, race. Then came physical appearance: coat color, eyes, mane, tail, facial hair, accessories, colors for everything else. Then what is known as your "Class," not social class, but what you are skilled at. There are thousands upon thousands of them, each breaking off into individual sets and "Skill trees," so no one is exactly the same. These determine your cutiemark, which changes as you select your skills and advance in the "Game of life,". Nopony is aware of it that it happens, only that they wake up a moment later in their bed...

* * * * *

"Hey... wake up..."

"Come on already... wake up...

"Hey! Wake up!" The voice.. it sounded familiar.. was someone talking to me? Something hard came down on the side of my head as I started to open my eyes, and made my head start to swim more than it already was. Then I saw the larger stallion looming over me. "Good! Your awake!" He shouted as he grabbed me and pulled me out of bed and onto my hooves. "Come on! The barracks are on fire, your the last one left!" I reached my hoof up to my throbbing head and felt a bump. "Oh yeah, sorry about that, but you wouldn't wake up. Now come on!" The stallion said and jumped over a burning log as it hit the ground and gestured towards the door, "We don't have all night! It's only a matter of time until this place collapses!"

Like something had unlocked in me, I suddenly found the will to move as if I hadn't had control of my body before now. I started a slow walk around a burning log and followed the guide as he moved about the room, dodging various falling obstacles. Switching over to a trot to keep up with him, we made our way down the long room and to the door. "Ugh..."

What was he doing? "Its jammed, I can't get it open!" He pushed on the door as hard as he could, then turned around and tried kicking it down, but that didn't work either. "We're dead if you don't help me here! Quick, freeze the door so that we can break it off its hinges easier!"

I remembered something. In the back of my mind it ignited and came rushing out and clearly visible to me. A symbol appeared in my head and I focused on it. There was a strange sensation as if a wave was running through my bones. Then became aware of the horn sticking out of my forehead and felt an external force telling me to aim it at the door, and I did. The wave rushed up through my horn and stayed there. My horn started to glow and it felt like the... magic, was trying to push its way out through it. Giving it a little extra push, it felt as if a portion of life was drained from my body which grew ice cold for a second, then back to normal as a brilliant blue beam of light shot out from my horn at the door. The spell lasted a good three seconds and ice spread out from the impact zone to fully cover the door and the sound of ice crackling as the door gave in to the force and the cold. Feeling tired, I almost passed out there but remained standing when another flaming log landed right behind me and singed the end of my tail. I whipped back around and looked over at the guide. He looked at the door, turned around and gave it one last big kick which made it gave way.

Turning to me he said "Nice job, now lets get out of here before we're crushed." and with that we both ran out of the door, and into the darkness.