Twilight Sparkle was wired on the three cups of coffee she drank that morning, and she had barely avoided a case of the shakes from it. Normally, she would have had only one cup, black no sugar, but today was no normal day. Today was the release of the new full-dive virtual reality game Blade Shield Online.
Twilight was standing in line with all of her friends; Pinkie could not stop bouncing, Rarity was levitating a mirror to make sure she looked like her usual self. Fluttershy was trying not to freak out about the sheer number of ponies in line behind her, and Rainbow Dash was flying loops over their heads. Applejack left to go to the bathroom a half hour prior and has yet to come back.
The line was at least a kilometer long, with over 10,000 ponies in line to get the game. Twilight and her friends were in the first half of the line, which was fortunate as the first 5,000 ponies got a special in-game bonus. Just as the doors were about to open, Twilight saw Applejack in the distance.
“Applejack!” yelled Twilight, hoping to get her attention before they started moving towards the doors.
“Ah’m comin’, Ah’m comin’. Just give me a sec’,” Applejack yelled back, while muttering ‘excuse me’ and ‘pardon me’ under her breath as she tried to make her way back to the group. Just as the doors opened, a helicopter flew over, trying to document the huge mass of ponies lined up for the game while it was at its greatest for the papers the next day. Just then, the doors opened; and the giant mass of ponies charged, nearly trampling each other in the rush to be the first to buy the game.
While some would get confused as to why some ponies would get excited over something as basic as a game, those who asked would reply with a curt ‘it’s not just a game,’ along with an explanation as to why it wasn’t just a game. They would say that ‘it’s like you’re actually there, running from the monsters, fighting the bosses, and interacting with the other players,’ all while in a game.
What made this new game so innovating was the new technology developed just for this. The creator, Assateague, was pioneering a new age of technology for ponykind. He had multiple reasons, all of which he kept to himself. It was rumored that he had personally given a copy to Princess Luna early for her to beta test. What Twilight’s friends did not know was that Twilight was a beta tester as well. Princess Luna was actually given two copies of the game and two Nerve Gear headsets. While he assumed that she wanted the other for Celestia, she had actually given it to Twilight. All Twilight was really standing in line for was the extra surprise that the first 5,000 players got. She had a hunch that it was some sort of exclusive high-tier weapon, but could not be sure.
-----------------------------------------6 months prior------------------------------------------
When she first got the Nerve Gear from Luna, Twilight tested it to figure out how it worked. From her tests, it seemed to work off of a modified fMRI algorithm that was calibrated to the owner’s own brain patterns when a certain action was performed. One such example she noted: when she was calibrating it, it recorded the specific patterns of her brain in the posterior parietal lobe of the cerebral cortex when it asked her to run in place. So whenever she wants to run, that specific part of the brain lights up in a unique pattern and the Nerve Gear associates that with running. When she finished with the calibration, she joined the server for central and northern Equestria, and her and Luna met up in the Town of Beginnings, which is the starting point for all players.
The starting plaza in the Town of Beginnings is uniquely designed; it is a circular plaza with a bell tower in the center, and teleport stations on all sides for easy travel between floors. There were paths under the second stories of the buildings on the edges of the square, held up by columns designed with a similar architecture to that of 1,000 years ago, from the golden age of the Royal Pony Sisters. The Grand Mausoleum was directly in front of them, with a large, 500 meter wide dome in the center, and four towers at the corners, each topped with a smaller dome. When in the beta, Luna and Twilight made it higher then any of the other beta testers. The two just cleared the eighth floor and were working on the ninth when the beta closed until launch.
-------------------------------------------------------Present Day--------------------------------------------
As the doors opened, the store was mobbed as the crowd nearly ripped the doors off of their hinges. The police ponies were busy patrolling the crowd, trying to ensure that nopony was injured in that large mass. They hoped to get some off time before the day was over, though that was doubtful. As Twilight made her way through the doors, she saw a group of promoters from Argus, the company that made the game, handing out slips of paper to everypony who walked through the door. When Twilight finally got there, she grabbed a copy in her magic and prepared to leave, telling her friends that she’d wait for them at the castle and explain everything when they got there. Twilight realized, just before she left the line, that Applejack was too far back, and would be unable to get one of the codes. So, being the good friend she was, Twilight went back to the promoters, grabbed another code, then went in and bought a Nerve Gear rig and a copy of BSO for Applejack. She finally started to make her way to the castle.
As Twilight ran through the streets of Canterlot, she could not wait to get back to Ponyville to hook up her Nerve Gear and start playing. En route to the castle, she thought about asking Luna if she knew how to enter the code without having to be in game, as she did not know whether she would have to wait until the game officially launched for it to be valid or if she could do it now. As she approached the castle gates, the two guards stationed there almost clotheslined her. They recognized Twilight at the last second, and hastily unbarred her path up the steps. Why didn’t I just fly? She wondered to herself. She probably could have gotten the six codes for her and her friends for free, but Twilight was not one to abuse her position of Princess of Equestria for a little code. Her thoughts came to an abrupt end as she ran head first into Princess Luna, and proceeded to fall right on her flank.
“Princess Luna! I’m so so so sorry about that! I didn’t see you there, and I was too busy thinking about how I could’ve flown here instead of running the entire way from the game store that was selling Blade Shield Online, and-” She was quickly silenced with a hoof to her mouth.
“It is fine. Thou shouldn’t worry thyself with problems that don’t exist. Now, may we ask what you were coming here for?”
---------------------------------------------------Meanwhile; back at the game store--------------------------
“Why do ya reckon Twi ran off like that?” inquired Applejack, confused as to why her lavender friend would just bolt after getting both Twilight’s own code, and one for herself with a copy of the game and a headset.
“It’s beyond me, dear,” Rarity replied, while holding back her excitement that reviled the way she felt when they first found out about the Crystal Ponies. “Though I will agree it was strange of her. Do you think that there’s something that she’s not telling us?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care either. I just can’t wait until we get back to Ponyville so that I can try this! Ooh! Maybe we could have an ‘Amazingly Awesome New Game’ party!”
“Pinkie, calm down. You need to just be patient and we’ll be able to play it soon enough,” said Rarity, who was about to start talking again when Rainbow interrupted her.
“Rarity, chill out. Nopony’s gonna be on this game faster than me, I’m gonna head home and log on as soon as I can.”
First, they had to find Twilight, who just so happened to land next to Rainbow Dash as she finished speaking. “Hey girls. Did I miss anything?”
“Not really, sugarcube, but Ah gotta ask: where’d you go runnin’ off to? You just grabbed your code and ran. Ya even gave me yer headset after I was too far back to get my own.”
“Yeah, about that. I had to ask Princess Luna something. And I don’t mind that I didn’t get a headset, because, well…,” she started to trail off, “I was a beta tester too. Princess Luna got two copies from Argus and gave one to me. The only thing that I didn’t have was the item code.”
Her friends all stared in shock; they did not expect an answer like that. Rainbow’s jawbone literally hit the pavement, and looked like it would have to be reattached surgically. Applejack’s hat fell off her head. Rarity teleported her fainting couch from Ponyville and put it to good use, the purpose it was named for. Pinkie Pie nearly shot herself to the moon with her party cannon, which seemed to appear out of nowhere. Fluttershy didn’t know what to do, so she decided to extricate herself from the group for a bit. Thus, she shot off at speeds that were close to those of a sonic rainboom in her rush to escape. Gulping, Twilight decided to try and get a different reaction than the one she was currently getting, saying “Um, Girls?”
“Whadd’ya mean you were a beta tester!?” shouted Rainbow Dash, after picking her jaw up. “Why didn’t you tell us? That is, like, The. Coolest. Thing. EVER!” Rainbow shouted.
“Yes, darling, do tell. I’m quite curious myself as to why you didn’t tell us that Princess Luna got you into the beta test.” Rarity said, hoping that Twilight wouldn’t bolt in a panic.
“Well, Luna wanted me to try to play games other than puzzle games, so she hooked me up with a Nerve Gear rig and the beta of BSO,” Twilight started,” When I turned it on and got in-game, it was amazing. I had never felt more alive than when I was in BSO, playing against the bosses,” she continued, her face lighting up. “In fact, if you girls really want to know, I made it past Floor 8, hoping to get at least to Floor 10 by the time the beta was over with. But now I’ve got you girls, and we can all go beat the game together.”
“Well that’s just dandy, sugarcube. Weren’t ya playin’ with Princess Luna, too?” Applejack questioned, hoping her hunch was correct.
“Yeah, we did. We made one heck of a party, if I do say so myself.” Pinkie was about to yell something about parties, but was stopped by Rainbow’s hoof in her mouth, and a small mutter that only Pinkie could hear about it ‘not being that kind of party.’ With that small comment, Pinkie’s ears drooped, but only momentarily.
“Hey! Maybe I should open a cake shop when we get in-game! Then I would be able to get some experience for if I decide to open my own!” yelled Pinkie excitedly, nearly bouncing off the walls like a school filly on Hearths Warming Eve. “I could even try new recipes that I would have a really hard time with here in the real world. Ooh! I could try making a 15 layer cake, with different kinds of cake; the bottom layer could be vanilla, and the next one could be chocolate, then maybe red velvet, the-” Pinkie was again cut off by yet another hoof in her mouth.
“We get it, Pinks. Calm yer horses, and let’s go get on the train so we can go play this game.”
---------------------------------------Ponyville train station; 2 hours later----------------------------------------
“Well, girls, Ah’m gonna head on home and hook this up. So where are we all gonna meet up?” asked applejack, hoping to figure out some sort of game plan before they actually got in-game.
“Well, I would say that we should meet up in the main plaza in the Town of Beginnings. It’s a central location that shouldn’t be too hard to find. We can all meet up there,” said Twilight, taking the lead. “We should probably head out to a village farther away to avoid the rush, and also have the chance to earn more money on quests that other ponies haven’t gotten to yet.”
With a game plan decided upon, their impromptu meeting adjourned. The friends all headed out to their respective homes in an anxious anticipation for when they finally got to start the game. On her way home, Twilight decided to stop and buy some apples from Big Mac, as would want a snack after she got off for the night. As she walked into her library, she set the apples in the kitchen, and then went to get Spike.
Twilight wanted to let him know that she was back from Canterlot, and would be staying in her room for the remainder of the night and probably into the morning. She eventually found the Dragon in the kitchen; he managed to sneak past her and decided to start stuffing his face with ice cream.
“Spike! You know that you’ll have a horrid tummy ache later!” Twilight shouted from the doorway the moment that she saw him.
“But Twilight, it’s so good,” Spike replied, hoping against hope that she would let him slide this one time. “Besides, it’ll be Future Spike’s problem,” he told her, using that now old joke between himself, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie.
“No, Spike. I can’t let you have any more. I don’t like watching you suffer for short-sighted actions; there’s no point.” Twilight told him, hoping that he’d see reason. “If you put it away right now, I’ll give you one of the gems that I’m saving for your birthday,” Twilight said in a sing-song voice, hoping the thought of gems would get his mind off the ice cream.
“Alright, Twilight,” Spike said dejectedly, only to continue with “But I want that gem right before bed, and I don’t have to brush my teeth either.”
“Oh alright,” Twilight replied exasperatedly, “But you have to brush your teeth for twice as long in the morning, and no gems the rest of the day.” While confident in her negotiating skills, she did not think that Spike would take it.
“That sounds like a deal,” Spike replied joyfully, much to Twilight’s surprise. Hopping off his chair to head into the main reading room to grab one of his comics, he yelled over his shoulder, “But for that I’d need one and a half gems!”
“Ugh, fine.” Twilight groaned, the purple Dragon’s comment did not shock her one bit. While Spike could get a little cheeky at times, he was still her number one assistant, and she would be damned if she did anything to get him really mad at her. While Twilight cleaned up the kitchen from her mini-dinner, she caught herself humming a little tune from years ago, back before she moved into the castle with the princess. Twilight quickly stopped, as she did not want to have to tell Spike where that particular tune came from, and how, even though they sounded innocent enough, it was very dark.
The tune described a time when a horrible plague razed the land. Twilight did not think Spike was old or mature enough to learn about those dark days in Equestria’s history. As soon as she stopped humming, Spike walked back into the kitchen, comic book in hand.
“Hey, Twilight, where’d ya put the issue before this one? I checked where I’d stuck it yesterday, but I couldn’t find it. I even checked under your bed, but all I found was this weird magazine.” As soon as Spike mentioned the magazine that was under her bed, Twilight blushed furiously, her whole face looking like a tomato.
“SPIKE! What did I tell you about going through things that weren’t yours?!” Twilight screamed, and almost woke half of Ponyville in the process. “I thought I raised you better. Now, you only get half of those gems we were talking about earlier,” Twilight finished her decree, only to be met with one of the saddest faces she had ever seen. “No! C’mon Spike, you know what I taught you before we moved here. And what did I teach you exactly?”
“Never look through another pony’s things without permission,” Spike recited, with a ridiculously, borderline overboard, sad voice, and the edges of his lips were almost on the floor of the kitchen.
“Exactly. Now, what did we learn?” asked Twilight, hoping she could get him to see the error of his ways.
“Just ask for help if you can’t find something, instead of snooping through things you shouldn’t be snooping through.”
“Alright. I’ll give you one gem tomorrow, but you still only get half of one tonight,” Twilight told him, hoping to pick his mood up somewhat.
He perked up nearly immediately. “You really mean it?”
Chuckling, she said, “Yes, Spike, I mean it, but~ you have to do all your chores tomorrow. Deal?” she finished, wishing that he’d say yes.
“Twi, you know I’d do them anyways. The gem is just a bonus,” Spike said, giving a conspiratorial wink.
Twilight groaned internally, wishing for a moment that she had not taught him so well. However, with her dinner eaten, Twilight headed upstairs to her bedroom. When she got in, the first thing she did was memorize the code, so that she could enter it in-game without having to worry about it. Then, she plugged the headset into the computer, lay down on her bed, and shouted, “Link...Start!”
Author's Note
I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! 
Now, I might not be able to work on it for a little bit, so chapter 2 (whatever I decide to name it, if I even do) might be released anywhere between next week, to 3 or 4 weeks. All depends on how much stuff I have to deal with, what with finals coming up and other stuff IRL. Again, big thanks to Twidashforever for editing and prereading. He was a ridiculously huge help in making this a publishable work.
As soon as the last syllable was out of her mouth, Twilight was amazed to see a ridiculous amount of colored rods headed her way, even after seeing it every time that she had logged on previously. After this, the system started checking to see if all the inputs and outputs were good:
● Sight: OK
● Touch: OK
● Hearing: OK
● Taste: OK
The system then proceeded to give Twilight the logon interface, which is a blue GUI on a white background, which allows for her to simply think her username and password to log in. Finally, it gave Twilight the option to use her beta test data or create a new character from scratch; rather than create a new character she kept her beta test one. After that option, a grey background with the words ‘Welcome to Blade Shield Online!’ in white popped up. The game then threw her head first into the main plaza in the Town of Beginnings. When her eyes finally adjusted she looked around fondly, remembering all the experiences she and Luna had during the beta; some fond, others carried more of a sour note.
Twilight heard somepony yelling her name from the far side of the plaza. Glancing in the direction the voice came from, she saw Princess Luna’s avatar, the same one she used during the beta. As Twilight was lacking front hooves, it took her a moment to once again get used to standing on just her hind legs. Princess Luna seemed to be drawing a lot of attention, but that was because of her flowing head of hair; Luna’s avatar only had a set of wings, and she had made sure that nopony would recognize her as a Princess; however she forgot to correct her mane. The only others from Twilight’s group of friends that had logged on were Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie had straight, pink hair, but she was her usual bubbly self; her username was a strange one: Cupcakes. Rainbow Dash made sure to keep her signature rainbow mane, but instead opted to have a darker blue coat and a darker shade of red for her eyes, with a name of Dash Attack. Twilight’s avatar from the beta changed very little about her outward appearance, choosing to ditch her wings and change her eyes to a deep sea blue.
Twilight made her way over to her friends so they could wait together for the rest of the group to arrive. Just as she joined her friends, Twilight saw Applejack and Rarity warp in within thirty seconds of each other; as soon as they noticed each other, they both screamed at each other’s new appearance. Rarity kept her white coat and purple mane, but opted to play as an earth pony, seeing as she had hands. Rarity’s avatar went by the name Rare Gem. Applejack completely overhauled her appearance, though; she had a light grey coat, bright gold eyes, and a blackish brown mane, all on a pegasus’s lithe but sturdy frame; she had named herself Ajax. Giggling, Twilight called over to them, “Applejack! Rarity!” she waved her hands at them to try and get their attention. As soon as they saw Twilight, they attempted to make their way over to the group; which was a lot harder to do on two legs for ponies who were accustomed to walking on all fours. Using each other for support the two placed their new hands on the other’s shoulders, an action that caused them both to stumble and fall into the dirt. When they fell, Applejack’s hand landed someplace it really should not be.
“APPLEJACK!!!” came Rarity’s inevitable shout, which caused several heads to turn in their direction. Twilight was snickering to herself, and Luna turned to ask if the group should go help them, but was cut off by Rainbow Dash.
“It’s just getting good. Does anypony know if there’s a popcorn stand anywhere near here?” and then she was off. Rainbow started running along the path to the main market, only to remember that she had wings. Wanting to get a feel for flying in this game, she took off and made it 30 hooves into the air, only to land flat on her face. In addition to not being able to fly, what really came as a shock was the deluge of blood coming from her nose. “What the BUCK!?”
Noticing Rainbow’s predicament, Luna went to help her stand back up. “Rainbow, you appear to have broken thine nose. Dost thou want us to take thee to a hospital?” Rainbow simply nodded to the princess, doing her best to hold back the flow of blood. “Twilight!” shouted Luna, hoping to steal her attention from her friends in the middle of the plaza, who seemed to be drawing quite the crowd. “Canst thou break those two up and wait for Fluttershy to arrive? Rainbow and I shan't be long,” Luna shouted to Twilight as she started to lead Rainbow away from the plaza. Since becoming a Princess of Equestria, Luna had become more and more informal with Twilight and her friends, much to the lavender mare’s confusion.
Twilight proceeded to push her way into the middle of the throng of ponies that formed around the fighting between Applejack and Rarity. After making the last push to the ring, her eyes nearly popped out of her skull. Rarity seemed to be attempting to eat Applejack’s face. Is everypony waiting for this to turn into a porno or something? Twilight wondered. Coming back to her senses, she destroyed that thought in her mind with a Sonic Rainbomb. Stepping forward, Twilight pried the two apart, with a minute whisper of “Get a room, you two.” When she stood back up, she noticed that colts and mares alike were staring daggers and disbelief at them respectively.
“Nothing to see here! Can everypony please go back to what they were doing?” Twilight shouted, hoping to disperse the crowd. Eventually, the three mares were the only ponies left standing where the ‘argument’ had taken place as the rest of the crowd dispersed due to the lack of the entertainment. “Come on, girls, what caused it to turn from bickering into making out?”
“Well, um… ya see…” Applejack trailed off, her face turning beet red. Rarity did not say anything, but her blush was closer to that of a cherry red carriage that caught on fire.
“We’ll tell you later, dear,” Rarity finished for her.
“Well, glad to see you two have made up. Now, where’s Fluttershy?” questioned Twilight, who had seen neither head nor tail of the buttercream mare. “Luna said that she was going to be here a little while ago.”
“Where’d Rainbow go? Wasn’t she with you earlier?” asked Applejack, both ignoring Twilight’s question and noticing that Rainbow was absent from their micro sized meeting.
“About that. Rainbow is not used to flying in-game, so she kind of face planted from around 30 hooves up. She ended up with a broken nose. Luna took her to the hospital to get it looked at,” stated Twilight, hoping that her friends would not panic. Just as Twilight opened her mouth to add onto that last statement, she saw Fluttershy warp in for the first time. Her avatar had the same pink hair and yellow coat, but she had green eyes instead of blue; she had chosen the simple username of Flutters. When Fluttershy noticed that she now had hands in place of her front hoofs, she let out an ear-piercing scream that shattered some of the windows in the plaza and down the side streets as well.
Fluttershy noticed that she still had her wings and rear hooves, which allowed her to calm down somewhat. Which was good, as she was just about to succumb to the semi-imminent panic attack, Fluttershy saw Twilight yelling and waving her hands above her head. She decided to simply fly over there, as she was unsure how to walk on two legs. Twilight was about to shout for her not to try it when Fluttershy leapt into the air, to which they all closed their eyes, looked away, and waited for the sharp scream of pain. To their infinite surprise, that scream never came; instead, Fluttershy was slowly making her way over to them, and appeared to be mostly stable in the air.
Fluttershy landed next to Applejack with a slight wobble in her step. “Hi girls. Did I keep you waiting too long?”
“Oh not at ALL darling. I do hope that Rainbow is ok though,” said Rarity, which perplexed Fluttershy to no end.
“Oh, my. What happened to Rainbow?” asked a slightly intrigued, but mostly worried, Fluttershy.
“She fell on her face and got a broken nose from trying to fly. That’s why we all cringed when you attempted the same thing,” explained Twilight, hoping that it was a sufficient enough explanation. “We should head over to the hospital so we can add them to our friends list. In fact, we should all add each other to our respective friends list. It would make keeping in touch that much easier if we were to get separated.” With Twilight’s suggestion taking their attention, only Applejack noticed Pinkie Pie hanging by her tail over Twilight’s head. Stifling a snicker, she waited for Pinkie to pull the inevitable prank.
“Okie dokie lokie!” yelled Pinkie Pie, expertly dodging Twilight’s horn as she shot into the air at the speed of a rocket.
“Pinkie Pie! Where did you come from?! Where did you even go?!” screamed Twilight, who was just a tiny bit flustered from Pinkies small prank.
“Silly filly, I just went inside the Grand Mausoleum over there to get some chocolate and red velvet cake flavored ice cream. It was almost like a dream; it was so cold, but so warm at the same time. And the flavor, sweet Celestia it was, like, the most delicious thing ever! I’d never tasted anything like it before or since!”
“Oh,” Twilight said, with the expression she gave when something really obvious was pointed out to her. “But how did none of us notice you were gone? You were standing right next to me…” Twilight trailed off, noticing for the first time that there appeared to be two Pinkie Pies.
“That? Oh, it was nothing special, just an inflatable me that I use when I want to take a snack break at Sugarcube Corner, but it’s not my lunch hour yet. So I set it up and leave it while I go in back and eat a dozen cupcakes!”
“But…” Twilight started, only to get a look from Applejack and Rarity at the same time.
“Just drop it, sugarcube. It’s jus’ Pinkie bein’ Pinkie. There’s no way to explain it without giving yerself a headache,” Applejack said, knowing that Twilight would work herself into the ground to find an answer.
“Let’s get going, then. We need to head to the hospital to hook up with Luna and Rainbow Dash.” Twilight started to walk towards the hospital, but noticed that only Fluttershy and Pinkie were following. “C’mon, girls, we need to meet with Luna and Rainbow so we can create a party. We’re going to want to take all of you out to get you used to the game mechanics, and I can’t do that without everypony there.”
“Twilight, darling, don’t you think that we should wait for them to come to us? Unless, of course, you told them that we were all going to meet them at the hospital,” Rarity stated.
“Well… that was the plan. But I suppose we can leave you here to look around, and we can just meet back up after. Then we can head out,” suggested Twilight.
“That sounds wonderful darling,” Rarity just noticed the clothes she was wearing, and let out a ear splitting scream that shattered all of the windows that weren’t already shattered by Fluttershy. “Before we go into the field, me and Applejack here are going to go and get some more fashionable clothes. One must always look her best, even in a video game,” stated Rarity with a semi-haughty expression.
“Alrighty then. Let’s head to the hospital,” Twilight said as she started to lead the way, only to look back at Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, are you coming?”
“Um...No. That’s if it’s ok with you,” Fluttershy said in a small volume voice. “I’d rather just tag along with Rarity and Applejack.”
“Ok, then. Just meet up here in an hour or two. I’ll PM you if there is anything you need to know” A thought decided to manifest itself in Twilight’s mind just before they parted ways. “Hey girls, wait a sec!” Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy all turned around and looked at her, confusion evident on their faces. “We should add each other to our friends list before we separate. Then we can stay in touch,” suggested Twilight, who opened her user interface with a swipe of her right hand. After navigating to the friends tab, she entered all of their usernames into the list. When that was done, they all parted ways, with Pinkie tagging along with Twilight. Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy headed off to the Central Market to get some more equipment.
------------------------------At the hospital---------------------------------------------
The hospital on Floor 1 was an awe-inspiring structure with its large, white archway, and intricate brickwork that went all the way up the sides. There are also many different potted plants around the wall, as it was designed so the flowers made the image of a caduceus over the entranceway. When Twilight and Pinkie walked inside, Pinkie stopped bouncing for longer than thirty seconds, which was a feat in and of itself. An achievement made possible by the artwork that appeared to be from the great artists of Celestia’s Golden Age, like Caballero and Marehall.
There are also columns spaced around the circumference of the room that, to the trained eye, made up hidden staircases for the nurses and doctors who worked there. Two sets of stairs that were visible behind the reception desk, each contained gold-lined railings and obsidian steps with white marble accents to make it look like flowing water. The reception desk itself was mostly unremarkable, being made out of a single large block of Spruce wood. However, it did have silver and copper accents that allowed the viewer to imagine being in a forest surrounded by trees. As they approached the receptionist, who was an unremarkable white stallion NPC, he glanced up and peered over his glasses.
“What may I help you two ladies with today? Are one of you here to be admitted, or are you here to visit somepony?” He asked before they even got a chance to introduce themselves, running through his standard programming.
“We’re here to visit. There was a pegasus admitted earlier with a broken nose. Would you happen to know where she is?” asked Twilight, who did not want to see how Pinkie would react to the receptionist NPC.
“Ah yes. A Miss Rainbow Dash, correct?” he asked with an all business attitude.
“Yes. What room is she in?” asked Twilight, who was surprised by Pinkie’s silence. Nonetheless, she turned her attention back to the receptionist.
“She’s in…” a pause, “Room 425, on the fourth floor. It’ll be down the hallway to the right of the stairs, on the left side of the hallway,” he finished with a near biting tone, but not quite. It was quite apparent that he did not take any joy in his job, if that were possible for a computer program.
Twilight and Pinkie headed towards the stairs, Twilight glanced over her shoulder at the receptionist. He wasn’t the nicest pony she thought, and Twilight decided to mention it to Luna or one of the others later; maybe something was wrong with the programming and they should issue a bug report. When they reached the fourth floor, Twilight immediately noticed the smell of disinfectant. This is one of the reasons I hate hospitals Twilight thought, shuddering as she remembered the time that she broke her left hind leg as a filly. As she turned right, Twilight noticed that the decor was almost excessively spartan; there was a lack of decoration that most hospitals had to put visitors and patients alike at ease. The only thing that existed anywhere near the realm of decor was a potted plant every 50 hooves or so.
“Oh my gosh! Dashie, are you OK?!” Twilight heard the scream from Pinkie Pie as she opened the door to the room.
“Yes, Pinkie, I’m fine. Just a broken nose, nothing to be worried about. I AM Rainbow Dash after all,” came Rainbow’s snarky reply. “Hey Twi? Why’m I even able to get hurt or feel pain at all? Isn’t this supposed to be a game?” Luna noticed Twilight standing off to the side of the room, trying to think of a simple way that wasn’t too over the top to explain why Rainbow had felt pain without being interrupted.
“Twilight, tis not healthy to brood about what could have happened,” Luna said, assuming that Twilight was thinking it was her fault that Dash got hurt. “It wasn’t thine fault. None of us could have known that Rainbow dash of all ponies would have a hard time getting used to the hang of flying during her first time in-game. It’s not particularly hard, and Rainbow Dash, thou was able to get hurt in-game due to the headset stimulating the pain receptors in thy brain when thou landed on thy nose. This allowed the game to better simulate what would have happened in the real world.”
Twilight commented before Rainbow could respond to Luna. “It’s not that Luna, I’m just trying to pre-plan for the boss fight. Just trying to figure out some possible strategies, that’s all,” stated Twilight, wishing that Luna would not offer to help. Alas, offer she did.
“Twilight, let’s wait until all of us are gathered for strategizing. Then we shan’t miss anything. Even the smallest detail could be helpful,” Luna said with a hint of doubt. Twilight is planning something; that much we know. But what those plans are is up to chance. Luna thought.
“Alright, but on one condition. You and me have final say; we WERE beta testers after all. And now that Rainbow has that piece of plastic for her nose, we can meet up with Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy back at the plaza.” Though Luna seemed apprehensive as they left the hospital; however, she went with Rainbow, Pinkie, and Twilight anyways.
---------------------------------------------Back at the plaza------------------------------------------------
When Twilight, Luna, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie arrived back at the plaza, they were almost completely alone. There were a few scattered groups of ponies here and there, deep in conversation. They could hear a large commotion coming from the street that housed the Grand Market, which was off to their left. Twilight could only think of one feasible explanation for all this. As they headed in that direction, somepony new spawned in for the first time. She was a mint green unicorn mare, with a matching mane, though the mane had a white stripe down the center. When she finally noticed that the buildings had rendered, she looked down and started laughing like a madmare. As the group dutifully ignored the newbie, they suddenly heard an ear-splitting scream of “HANDS!” from the minty mare. That happened to draw a few strange looks from passersby, but those who actually knew Lyra Heartstrings were not fazed in the slightest.
“What hast caused that mare to scream like she did?” asked Luna, not having met or even heard of Lyra beforehoof.
“Hands. Nopony thought they actually existed outside of fiction if you weren’t in the magical sciences community,” Twilight said matter-of-factly. “She’s always been going on about it since before I originally went to Ponyville. Everypony just thought that she was crazy. But anyways, we need to find Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy.”
That gave everypony pause; they glanced around, and saw neither head nor tail of them. “They must still be in the market; come on everypony!” shouted Twilight, leading the way. As they headed towards the market, they saw several groups of all the different races getting used to the different aspects of the game: There was a group of darker colored pegasi that were trying to figure out how to fly; there was a group of unicorns off towards the Grand Mausoleum that were trying to figure out how to use their magic, with little success. Finally, there was a group of earth ponies off to one side that were talking about going hunting with nothing but their bare hands to see if the natural earth pony strength carried over. As they exited the plaza, Pinkie Pie shot off, leaving the rest of the group wondering what caused the random burst of speed from the pink mare.
“Well whaddya think caused Pinkie to just go and shoot off like that?” asked Rainbow with a bit of apprehension.
Just at that moment, Luna saw a flash of purple and blond next to each other through the crowd. “They are over there. Follow us!” Luna said as she took the lead, elbowing her way past other ponies that were in the way. Twilight and Rainbow struggled to keep up, as the crowd kept filling in the spaces that Luna made to get through. Rainbow decided to take it upon herself to catch up, and grabbed Twilight under her arms.
“Up we go, Egghead!” shouted Rainbow gleefully. Twilight nearly passed out as Rainbow took to the air, and had to bite her tongue to keep herself from screaming. Mentally, Twilight made a note to give Dash a good verbal reaming for doing that without her consent, especially after Dash’s last epic face plant. Though, there was one advantage to the height. Twilight was easily able to track Luna’s progress, and saw that the rest of the girls were up a bit farther. They were talking to a clothes vendor; from the look on Rarity’s face, either the prices weren’t very good, or the quality of the clothes weren’t very good. While Twilight tried to read Rarity’s lips, she realized that she was about to fall from a good 40 hooves up.
“Um, Rainbow Dash?” With nothing but a grunt in response, Twilight continued, “I’m kind of slipping, so if you could set me down on a rooftop or something that would be great.”
No response. “Rainbow Dash...set me down,” she tried again with a hint of annoyance in her voice. Third time’s the charm, I guess Twilight thought, as she prepared for what appeared to be her last try. “RAINBOW DASH!!”
This got Rainbow’s attention. “Yeah, Twi?”
“Can you please set me down on a rooftop for a bit, your grip is slipping,” asked Twilight, relief seeping into her voice at the prospect of reaching the ground without broken legs.
“It is? Huh. I never noticed. Sorry, Twi.”
At least she apologized. That’s more than she would’ve done when we first met. Twilight nearly fell off the slanted rooftop that Rainbow placed her on; she was that deep in thought. Looking down on the market was astounding to say the least. When Twilight was not focusing on just her friends, she noticed how busy the market was. There were other ponies bartering for different items: One stand was selling swords, daggers, and other melee weapons. Another off towards the plaza was selling robes for wear when in the field. The stand that Rarity was at sold a multitude of jewelry that gave different abilities to their wearers. She always did like a functional accessory. The rooftops were scattered with a small amount of pegasi that had managed to figure out how to fly. There was a large cathedral that stood off near one of the smaller plazas that lined the roads.
“C’mon Egghead, we’ve got some friends to meet up with down there, and it looks like they’re waiting for us.”
With Rainbow snapping her out of her awestruck train of thought, Twilight simply teleported to the group down on the street; Rainbow followed her by flight, her skill at it in game increasing with every passing moment.
“I’m glad you decided to join us Dashie!” Pinkie nearly blew out Rainbow’s eardrum with the shout. “We were waiting for you before we went back to the plaza and made our own guild!”
“Sweet Celestia Pinks. Calm down. Luna, you want to race back? I hear you’ve got a wicked reputation,” Rainbow turned towards the plaza, knowing that Luna would not want to pass this up.
“Thou art on!” Luna yelled with a grin consuming her face. They both lined up, and Pinkie even donned a referee’s jersey to start the race.
“On your mark...get set...GO!!” Pinkie’s over-excited yell attracted the attention of half the market, which stared in awe as the two pegasi flew off at breakneck speeds. Suddenly, a large boom shattered all the windows running down the street. Damn it Rainbow, why’d you have to cause a sonic rainboom in the middle of the Town of Beginnings? Wondered Twilight, with no small amount of annoyance. Everypony in the market decided to head towards the plaza, and Twilight wanted to avoid the throng of ponies at all costs. Instead of forcing her way through, she got all her friend’s attentions and yelled “I’m going to teleport all of us to the plaza. If you haven’t teleported at all before today, just keep your eyes shut and you should be fine. Now everypony grab on!”
After she made sure that all her remaining friends had a good grip, Twilight charged her horn. With a flash of lavender, they were gone off to the plaza. When they reappeared, Luna and Rainbow were off to the side, laughing their heads off.
“Hey girls!” yelled Pinkie, jumping up behind Luna and nearly causing her to eat Luna’s hoof.
“Can I request that thou dost not do that again? It’s a most unpleasant feeling to not know when one is being watched.”
“But it’s so much fun,” whined Pinkie. “Especially when they know you don’t mean anything by it!” she finished as her usual outgoing attitude returning with a vengeance.
“But maybe someponies don’t-”
“Luna, calm down. You too Pinkie. Now, are we going to form a guild or not?” Twilight prompted.
“I’m up for it if you are darling,” said Rarity, who had decidedly stolen the stetson that Applejack bought from the market. Applejack mumbled something under her breath as the rest of the group noticed, and waited for the inevitable ribbing from Rainbow. When it did not come, she looked up to notice that everypony had their user interface up, and were already in the process of creating the guild.
“Whaddya think we should name it?” Rainbow asked, clueless.
“Ooh! Ooh! I know! We could name it the Friendship Federation!” suggested Pinkie Pie.
“Naw, it needs to be cooler. Any other suggestions?”
“How about the Rare Gems?” from Rarity’s point of view, that was one of the best ideas in the world; the others did not seem to agree.
“I still think it needs to be about 10% cooler. We need it to sound awesome!” insisted Rainbow.
“I have a suggestion. How about we call ourselves the Moonlit Knights? The night itself is very good for concealment, and knights are the best soldiers on the battlefield,” suggested Luna, glad that she had thought to provide some extra info to make it sound ‘cooler’ in Rainbow’s book.
“That. Is. AWESOME!” Shouted Rainbow, with an overly gleeful expression. “So, the Moonlit Knights then?” she asked to the rest of the group. After they all nodded their assent, Twilight entered it into the system, and their guild was made. When the GUI disappeared following the founding of the guild, the bell in the distance tolled the hour.
“Dost thou think that it is time for a break? We do have to leave the game to raise the moon, after all.” At Luna’s mention of the real world, they all agreed that it would be a good idea to take a break, grab something to eat, and clean up before getting back on. As Luna pulled up the interface to log out, she saw that the log out option was not there. “Twilight, dost thou know why we art unable to log out?”
“I don’t know. Let me check.” After pulling up her own GUI, and navigating to the area where the logout option would be, she too noticed that the logout button was missing. “Huh. It’s not there for me either. Are any of you girls able to log out?” After they all checked and shook their heads, Twilight started to worry. Just then, pony-height beams of light started coming from the ground all over the place.
“Eep!” whimpered Fluttershy, getting more and more scared as the lights kept appearing.
“What in tarnation?” came Applejack’s southern drawl, as the lights started to disappear, they revealed other ponies in similar circumstances. When the light finally faded, all the ponies that owned a copy of the game were congregated in the plaza. The concerned chatter of the mass of ponies filled Twilight’s ears, she was about to ask Luna what was going on, when something liquid started to seep from the sky. Twilight cast a long distance vision spell, and nearly vomited when she saw it was blood. When it finished draining from the sky, it coalesced into a giant ball the size of the dome on the Grand Mausoleum. Then, it formed into the shape of a pony’s avatar in the game. They were unable to see who it was, as a cloak that shrouded its face formed over its body. To everypony’s horror, It then began to speak.
“Welcome to Blade Shield Online. My name is Assateague, and I am the creator of this world. You may have noticed an item missing from your menu, the logout button. I assure you, this is not a bug. I intended it to be this way. Now you may be wondering, why would I trap you in a game that I helped create? It is simple; I wished to create a world of my own design. Also, if somepony in the real world tries to remove the headset, it will send an electromagnetic pulse into your brain, frying it. However, should you be able to conquer all the floors through Floor 100, you will all be able to log out, and the game will be over. So I bid you all good luck, and one last thing. There will be a new item in your inventory, a mirror. Pull it out and take a look.”
After his speech, he turned back into blood and flowed back into the sky. After he was gone, the same light that appeared when they were teleported to the plaza reappeared after everypony pulled out the mirror. When it faded, everypony looked around at each other. When Twilight finished looking around, she noticed that all of the avatars had changed. In the background, she heard somepony shout ‘You’re not a girl!’ followed by ‘You’re not 16!’ Twilight then caught sight of Luna; she had both her horn and wings. Following a short moment of confusion, she decided to pull out the mirror that Assateague mentioned was in her inventory. When she pulled it out, she noticed that her avatar was gone, and she had her wings back, as well as her lavender eyes. Realizing what had happened, she let out a large gasp. While this drew the attention of her friends, something else caught her attention. Crying, and lots of it. Ponies were breaking down in the street out of sheer panic and fear. Soon after Twilight succumbed to it as well, fortunately Luna pulled her out of it.
“Twilight...Twilight...Twilight, look at me.” Luna got her attention with the last repetition of her name. “We must get to the nearest town so we can have better access to money and equipment. We must hurry as well, for the rest of the players will go after the quests here first, then start spreading out as the quests run out.”
“...Right. We should get going.” Standing up, Twilight took the lead. “Let’s head to the nearest town; it’ll be the easiest to get to, and we should be able to get there by nightfall,” she finished as she started to head to the gate. But what am I going to do about Spike? she wondered as she walked. No, I can’t worry about that now. Right now, we have to worry about beating this game.
While her friends were just as stunned by this turn of events as everypony else, Twilight took it the hardest. She froze up worse than when Princess Celestia showed up after the Smartypants incident. “Come on girls. Let’s go,” she said as she led them out of the plaza towards the exit of the Town of Beginnings.
Author's Note
Chapter 2 is finally out! Sorry for the long wait. But anyways, feel free to comment, point out errors, etc if you notice them!
