Prologue: The Launch of Sword Art Online
It was the releasing day for Sword Art online and everypony was ready to log on. Casey was one of them. She was a young white unicorn with a sword cutiemark that she got after winning a fight she was challenged to she also had a dark purple and light blue mane that at a glance looks like she doesn’t fix. She decided to log on. She put her helmet on and said "Link start!" She instantly logged on and went into the world. There where many ponies. "I'm finally back..." she thought.
Equinox was another one ready to play the game. He is a gray colored Unicorn with a Black mane and crimson red eyes. His cutiemark is a broken moon symbolizing his (honestly i can’t think of anything yet.) "Finally after waiting a while for it to be released I got time to log in" Equinox said as he placed the helmet on. "Link start" He said as he got in the game and smiled. "Im back...after so long" Equinox said as he saw various ponies walking around some leaving to start on quest.
"Well then lets get going and see who needs help" Equinox said as checked his inventory saw the gold he has. "First I need to get a weapon and some armor" Equinox said as he went to the market place and brought some equipment. He was equipped with normal starter gear for armor and his weapon was a black katana
Meanwhile Casey got some armor and a sword. She walked into the town of beginnings. "I wonder if i'll get farther then level 2." Casey thought. She bumped into a gray-colored pony with a katana. "Sorry!" Casey said.
Equinox caught himself as he looked at the mare. "It's okay I was just heading out. My name is Equinox what is yours?" Equinox asked he knew how to play the game. "Hopefully I can get past floor 45 this time" Equinox said then thought of something. "Hey you wanna make a party together" Equinox asked Casey.
"I'm Casey Blacksword. Nice to meet you Equinox and yes please." Casey responded. She was happy to meet someone in-game. "Want to go practice fighting in the west field?" Casey asked.
Equinox looked at her and said "Sure its been a while but I know my way around the game already. Here let me send you a party invite" Equinox said as he sent the invite. "Anyways I was a beta tester for this game and got pretty far so I can help you out if you need it" Equinox said not knowing Casey was a Beta tester also
"I was also a beta tester." Casey said. She accepted the invite. "I wonder if I can use magic in the game." Casey thought silently. She tried to lift her sword with her unicorn magic. Surprisingly, it worked. "What level did you get to?" Casey asked. She got to level 10.
"I was at level 49 trying to get pass the boss in that area but I couldn't" Equinox said as he used his magic to cause his katana to float by using his magic. "Well this will be easier than using hooves...shall we get going then Casey" Equinox said as he remembered three of the beginner skills with the class he chose. "I was a solo player like most during the beta...would have been great if I got help" Equinox said
"Sure." Casey said. She was also a solo player during the beta as well. "Should we go to the west fields?" Casey asked Equinox. She was eager to fight some monsters.
Malik spun the sword in his claw as he walked through the town of beginnings. He had just spent his starting money on a nice sword for his level and some good low level armor. "Well, I guess I should get started." He sheathed the sword on his back and began looking for one of the level one quest givers. He looked around the mobs of beginning players. He sighed. "Maybe I should have convinced Mercer and Riza to join, this will be rather boring on my own."
“Sure the west fields sound good" Equinox said as he was excited to finally get back into fighting in this game. "Lets go" Equinox said as he headed to the fields and waited for Casey before he saw a boar in the distance. "Okay first skill I might use could be fun"
Casey followed Equinox. She pulled out her sword with her unicorn magic and stabbed the boar. "It's been so long!" Casey said. She finally killed the boar.
"It has been a while" Equinox said as he slashed at a boar then sidestepped on of its attacks. "Vertical arc" Equinox yelled as his blade glowed blue and slashed the boar twice in a v shape causing the boar to die. "Easy enou-" Equinox got hit from behind by a boar. "Of course I get hit in the back before I even say that" Equinox said as he got up and blocked another boars attack. "Great there’s three of them"
Casey hit some more boars. She saw Equinox with three boars. Casey sent her sword flying at one boar beside Equinox. The boar got hit.
"Well you like throwing your weapons" Equinox said as he side stepped the boar that was alive. "Slant" Equinox said as he katan glowed blue again and he slashed at a 45 degree angle attacking the boar killing it then got a level up message. "Ha I leveled up...awesome" Equinox said as he went in and put some point into his intel, (2)str and(3)dex. "I plan on dual wielding since be a beast tamer or warrior isnt my thing" Equinox said as he saw he want to reach level 5 or 8 before he fight the boss of this area. "What do you plan to be"
Malik jumped to the side to avoid the charging boar. He stumbled, but used his wings to stabilize himself. "I don't know how some ponies live without these." He mumbled to himself. He gripped his sword tighter and held it up. It began to glow blue, then he brought it down upon the boar. The boar took a large hit and shattered. Malik sheathed his sword and opened his quest log. "Looks like that's the last one for that quest. Better go turn in." He closed his quest log then looked around. There were a few other players in the area. Some of them were struggling to figure out the combat system. Malik smiled as he saw a player land hard on their back after getting hit by one of the boars. "This game is gonna be fun, I can tell." On his way back to turn in his quest, Malik spotted a player combatting a boar near the edge of town. A young unicorn with a shield and dagger. She appeared to be pacing around the boar. Malik sat down a little bit away to watch her fight, he was always interested in watching other players to examine their strategies and combat skills. It was something he did early on whenever he started playing a new online game.
Circling the boar was Truffletop a mare whose cutie mark looked like a set of four arrows, much like those you can find on a map with a compass, with the top arrow pointing North. waited for it to strike. After a few seconds, the boar charged again. Truffletop levitated her shield in front of her, waiting for the impact. The boar tried to dodge around it to her side, but she quickly bashed it with her shield and pulled back her dagger. Once it started glowing, she dashed at the fallen boar and slashed over its side as she leaped over it. The attack took the boar down in one shot. Putting the dagger back in place, she grinned with confidence as her reward counter ticked. "I guess I showed that Pig who the real Bacon is around here."
Malik grinned. "Who else would be bacon? I doubt pony bacon would taste any good." Malik said to her joking. "That was a nice show, were you in the SAO beta? Or new player?" Malik asked as he walked over to her. "Name's Malik, it’s nice to meet you." He said with a smile.
Truffletop raised her eye a bit at the first comment. "Well, I guess Pony bacon wouldn't be that great." Seeing the Gryphon take interest in her, she decided to listen in a bit. "I'm actually new to this game... though it doesn't seem too hard, honestly." Malik then introduced himself to her. She grinned and stood up a bit. "Nice to meet you Malik. I'm Truffletop, renown adventure pony... Or at least, a few people know me. So you seem to have taken some interest in me. Did you want to go as a hunting party or something?"
"That's what I was hoping for." Malik said. "I spent the entire beta playing solo, I'd like to spend some time with players, since I don't spend time with people in the real world." Malik said with a little smile.
"But anyway, an adventurer? That seems like an interesting thing to do."
Truffletop nodded in response. "Yeah, I've been on all kinds of adventures since I was little. Exploring jungles, forests, caves, ruins. I've done a lot of different jobs for people. I figured that I might have some fun with this game, considering that it's got it's own little world I can explore and all." Truffletop paused for a moment, realizing something. "Uh... this game had some sort of party feature right? I have no idea how to use it."
"Neat." Malik said. "Here it works like this. Flick your... hoof in the air, like this." Malik flicked one of his claws in the air in front of him and a menu popped up. "Then you scroll down to nearby players, select someone, and hit invite to party. When you receive an invite, just tap the blue circle to accept, or the red x to decline." Malik hit invite to party on Truffletop's name on the nearby players list.
Truffletop followed his instructions and got a pop-up in her menu. "Yup, there it is." She tapped the tip of her hoof against the circle and she noticed a green diamond hovering over Malik's head. Taking a look around, she also noticed that there was an extra health bar added to the top left of her visual HUD. "Wow, this is pretty cool. A lot of useful information floating around now... So, what would you like to do first?"
"Well I was about to head into town to turn in a quest. When you are in a party you get shared experience and rewards from completing a quest, even if only one member has done it." Malik explained. "You wanna come with? Its got a nice reward for the first floor." Malik pulled up the quest screen. "A set of six health potions too. Nice reward and would be pretty useful in the coming jobs."
"Wait a minute..." Truffletop said, pondering on what Malik had just told her. "This whole time this game had quests? No one told me that earlier! Dang, I probably missed something else in town. Well, I guess if I'll still get the rewards that'll help. Are there any other quests in town?"
"The town of begginings has about six single quests and one short questline. Alternatively, you could go dungeon crawling, fighting through dungeons gives more experience and better loot than quests, but they are also a lot more difficult." Malik explained. "Dungeon crawling is usually better done at a higher level. Easiest dungeon is probably best done at level eight. Then there are the major dungeons." Malik looked at the tower far off in the distance. "Once even a single player completes the major dungeon, all players are able to advance to the next floor freely. But the major dungeons are incredibly difficult, and each one boasts a powerful boss, each with unique abilities."
Malik shrugged. "The game just came out, I assume it might be a week or two before someone beats the first major dungeon."
Truffletop pondered the thought of a dungeon for a moment. "Hm... Well, I want to get to that dungeon as soon as possible then. After all, more risk and more reward. Those are odds that I like." She started walking towards the down. "Come on, we gotta get to town right? Don't be a slowpoke, pokey!" She giggled awkwardly a bit to herself as she walked.
Malik smiled. "Well then I guess we had better get to power leveling then. If you go into a dungeon at too low of a level, shop gets wrecked." Malik explained as he walked with Truffletop towards the town. "Now then, if we want to get to the first dungeon quickly, we should start with that brief questline. Its low level, but we can get up a level or two doing it and that will let us start fighting higher level enemies so we can gain more experience thus getting us to even higher levels."
Truffletop grinned, happy at the thought of it. "Sounds awesome!" She paused for a moment to think while talking. "Say, you seem to know a lot about this game. You mentioned a beta test earlier. Were you part of that by chance?" She looked eagerly at Malik, curiously.
"I was one of the beta testers, yeah." Malik replied. "My personal level I got to forty-four, and the beta testers as a group got to level sixteen. Out of the ten thousand people who managed to get into the the game so far, about a thousand of us were beta testers, we know more about the game so far than anyone else." Malik said, with only a hint of boasting in his voice. "But to be honest, they have probably changed a lot about the game since the beta test. Wouldn't want us to have too much of an advantage. We did get the game for free on release day though, so there is a plus." Malik overheard someone complaining about not being able to log off. He quickly checked his menu and scrolled to the options, to find that his log off option was missing as well. "Well, that’s not good. Check your menu, it looks like the log off option is missing from the list." He said to Truffletop.
Lighting Fury finished setting up the new system he bought to play sword art online he felt ready to slay some virtual monsters he put on his helmet and said "link start" and was put in the town of beginnings "all right got a standard starting sword. let's see how I do?" He said as he flew to the plains nearby.
He traveled to the west fields and he saw several boars and players there as he entered the fields and saw a boar charge him he quickly grabbed his sword in his hoof flew up and dived down on the boar stabbing it he jumped off and then cut the boar in half destroying it with a critical hit. "That was fun so worth the bits I payed for this."
He saw that a gray unicorn was being attacked by 3 boars "game just started and already has A.I. ganging up on players I expected that later." He said as he saw his party member slay one of them. "Might as well help out others." He flew and stabbed the only boar near the gray unicorn and slashed it away.
"I guess i'll be a warrior." Casey said as she picked up her weapon. She noticed a blue pegasus near them. She leveled up and put some points in dexterity(3) and charisma(2).
"Come on 6 more and I have this quest finished" Equinox said as he saw 3 boars in a group. "Well...HEY PEGASUS DUDE WNNA JOIN A PARTY" Equinox yelled at the pegasus wondering what his answer will be. "Well if he does that mean one boar for each of us...making it easier not to get pincer attacked by two of them
Lighting looked at the two he stood near "Hey saw the boars ganging up on you and decide to help name's Lighting" he said as he put out a hoof for a hoof bump "first time on here you seem a bit confident before the boars attacked were you beta testers?"
Yep I was a beta tester got to level 49 before the boss there kept defeating me I was a beast tamer in the beta but now I’m going to be a dual blade anyways my question again you want to join our party" Equinox asked as he sent an invite and looked at the three boars and saw 2 more with in a group. "5 boars not going to be easy with just me and Casey here"
Casey hoof bumped Lighting. "Hello! I'm Casey Blacksword. I'm a Beta tester. I'm planning on being a warrior" she said. She was prepared to attack two of the boars.
"Casey don’t there’s more than those two around there we don’t want to get ambushed and we barely get out alive" Equinox said as he remembered the third skill but knows he can’t use it till lvl 5. "So what do you say Lighting you want to help us out" Equinox asked again
"Sure no problem seems like fun" Lighting said as he accepted the invite. Then dash one of the boars away from the group. It tumbled on the ground and Lighting kicked it away as it turned back into polygons before he dashed toward the next boar "coming for ya." He said getting exited
"Hey don’t star without us" Equinox said as he charged at one of the boars and jumped up and plunged his blade into the boar then side stepped another one and used slant on the other one. "Skills are so overpowered its funny really but as so as we fight the boss of this area it’s gonna be hard to fight" Equinox said as he remember when he fought the boss on the 16th floor and had troubles.
"Sorry if I am too fast." Lighting said not realizing he was rude "I thought if get separated their group it would be easier." He said as he destroyed the other boar "look I saved the others for you unless you want some help with that." He said with a smile on his face.
Equinox threw his katan at a boar that was about to hit him and retrieved his blade. "Yeah well cockiness will get you killed" Equinox said as he saw his quest was completed. "Sweet I’m done here I can finish this quest and get that short sword so I can start dual wielding sooner" Equinox said
"These are the weakest enemies in the game right I think it's ok to be a bit cocky around here besides I just having fun around here I mean its a game that's what you’re supposed to do right. Also is there an item that can make a player immune to unicorn magic I don't to get in a fight with another player but don't want them to magic me down and stab me to death either no offense." He asked equinox.
Casey killed another boar. "Cool." Casey replied as she finished the boar off. She was ready to be a warrior. She understood what Lighting was saying.
"First off I believe our magic is nerfed so we can only use it to hold weapons" Equinox said as he went back to the gate and opened the quest info. "Short sword and six healing stones...awesome" Equinox said as he knew once he turned two quest in on for killing the boars and one for collecting the stuff they drop he would gain enough exp to be lvl 4 if he fight a bit more after turning in the collecting quest.
Casey listened to Equinox and Lighting talk. She had finished her quest as well. Casey got a long sword and 5 healing stones. "interesting..." she thought.
"Hey you guys you want to go to the dungeon and try to com...on second thought never mind I need to go...see you guys later" Equinox said as he brought up his menu and sees no logout button. "Hey uh...I can’t log out..." Equinox said looking at Casey and Lighting. "Can you guys log out?" Equinox asked
Casey checked her log out button. There wasn't a log out button. "What the heck?!" Casey said. She was freaked out.
"Let me check" Lighting said as he brought up his menu "My is gone too. This is not good I got a cheese pizza coming to my house in about 10 minutes" he started breathing irregularly fast and panic "what is going on are all MMO's like this during launch first one I’ve played."
Lets head to town square I just got a message that there’s is an announcement maybe this will be explained" Equinox said as he looked at Casey and Lighting. "Let’s go" Equinox said as he headed back to town. "Better be a reason for this"
Casey thought of something. "Why don't we contact the gm?" Casey asked. She contacted the GM and nothing happened. She followed Equinox.
Everypony got teleported to the town. A pony in a cloak popped up. "Greetings. I am Kayaba Akihiko. I am the GM of SAO. I purposely put no log out button. I wanted to control a world I made. If someone takes of your nerve gear helmet it destroys your brain. There is no way to get out of SAO except for one way. You must clear the 100th floor to get out. There is no way to revive a player either. Once your dead in here the nerve gear helmet destroys your brain. Good luck to all the players of SAO" he said. With that, he disappeared.
Casey was scared. "Will I ever see my family again?" she thought.
Lighting looked around and saw everypony was talking to each other in a great panic wondering what was going on with the game. "What do you two think is going on I'm ready to listen to conspiracy theories at this point
"I honestly don't know what's going on..." Casey said sadly. She was scared of never seeing her family again. "This isn't just a game..." Casey said. She was mad at the GM, but thought he was very clever. "I wanna gonna go rest." Casey said. She decided she would find the boss in the morning.
"WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU THINK THIS WOULD BE OKAY" Equinox yelled a bit pissed. "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO KEEP US HERE DAMN IT" Equinox continued till he started having thought. "My family saw the news so they know not to try and take off the helmet and now it will be a while...but first im gonna rest before I head straight for the boss then I’m gonna make sure I’m equipped" Equinox thought
"This is bad I got so much to worry about first i need to find a place to sleep for the night and buy some food to keep my energy up and I'm gonna need a guild to make sure I have a group with me to stay safe and make sure I can trust them I could always just be a blacksmith and support the armies that are sure to form from this."
"How about you, me, and Casey form a guild together and get other people to join and we can help each other what do you think" Equinox asked both Lighting and Casey. "If we can get to floor 100 and beat the boss then everyone will be free what do you say want to be in a guild with each other"
"Sounds like a good place to start, But what should we call our Guild?" Lighting asked Equinox and Casey "I am not really cleaver with names to be honest the only name I can think off is 'The Mare-Do-Wells' and I don't think that's a good name at all what do you think."
"Hm...How about Light guards" Equinox suggested. "Im not good at making up original names most are from other type of games and I try to avoid doing that in different games" Equinox said as he kept thinking of different guild names to call the guild that they were making
"OK maybe we can think of a name later and let's find a place to stay the night rest up a starting training tomorrow morning. If that's ok with you that is I mean if we are gonna be a guild one of us needs to be the leader i think we should vote on it." Lighting said to his new guild-mates. As they went to search for a cheap inn to stay the night
"How about the Lightning Hoofs?" Casey suggested. She thought making a guild was a good idea. "I mean if you don't like the idea, we can go with your ideas." She said. She thought going to a inn was a good idea.
"That sounds great theres our guild name now we need a captain I vote Casey be our captain but before we even think about whose our captain lets go rest at a inn and think about it there alright" Equinox said as he headed to the inn that was close and near by.
"Sounds good and I like the name Lighting hoofs actually sounds good.” Lighting said as he got a room at the inn using the money he earned from killing boars "As for the leader I don't we know each other well enough to really choose that we someone thoughtful, organized, and can think quick under pressure. That sounds like an ideal leader to me besides where do we make the guild at?"
Well the guild hall is in the town on the second floor so once we set out tomorrow and we head to kill the boss in this dungeon then we head to the town on the third floor" Equinox said as he paid for three rooms at the hotel. "Well im off to bed good night Casey and Lighting" Equinox said as he headed to his room
"Goodnight to you two too." Lighting Said followed by a yawn. He went and laid down on the bed "Well this is the start of a new version of life I wonder when the ponies in the real world will find out about this and on top of that what happens if we stay too long I mean we can't eat real food here it only fills stamina here. I guess this is just the first day of the rest of my life."
Truffletop was surprised with everything that was happening. She wasn't expecting to be teleported to town so suddenly. She didn't expect to hear the announcement. She was in shock. She wouldn't be able to leave this world. After a moment of silence, she looked to Malik, the one person she thought to trust in this world. "We need to beat this game... I don't want to be here for the rest of my life, and I'm not sure you do either... Do you want to help me?"
Malik looked frustrated, he had a really angry look on his face. "Dammit, I'm supposed to be the best man at my brother's wedding next week." That's when Truffletop suggested the team up. Malik sighed and smiled. "Sounds like a plan. "Malik said. "Guess we are gonna have to finish this one way or another. We may as well do this properly. Though the way the game is built, its not made to be finished fast. Its made to take years to complete. So I expect that we will be stuck in this game for quite a while."
Truffletop paused at that last piece of information. "Years?..." While she wasn't particularly close to them, in that moment she thought about her family in the outside world. She thought about her friends who she had helped over the years. Many memories came flooding to her. She couldn't help but feel the weight of the circumstances in that moment. After a brief moment of thinking things over, she spoke up. "Well, I guess that means we have years of adventures ahead of us, eh?" Her smile in that moment eminated sincerity, though she hid her concern from him. She couldn't help but think if she'd ever make it out of this game... to be able to see the outside world again.
"A real life adventurer and a virtual one. We'll make quite the team, won't we." Malik chuckled. He looked up at the darkening sky. The sun was going down. "We should find an inn, hostile monsters get stronger during the night, and our current level isn't high enough for that yet."
Malik opened his menu's map. "I wonder if they left the hidden free inn in the game. It isn't the nicest of places, but the beds are warm and the food is tasty, that's all ya really need at first, am I right?" He tapped a spot on the map on the edge of town. "There it is, The Half-Glass. Ready to go?"
Looking over her shoulder at her armaments, the basic shield and her cheap dagger which were the only two instruments she needed in order to take on the world, she nodded to Malik. "Yeah, I'm ready." She smiled and stuck out her hoof triumphantly. "Lets head out and take on this game!"
