"[Tell me about this place]"

A sigh entered the mix of sounds gathering. The wind as it silently blew, the trees as they ached, and the wind currents audible from the caves nearby. And if you listened carefully you could hear a train whistle somewhere out north but that didn't matter at the moment. A sigh was all it took to hear the history a person had behind this place. Unluckily for this person in particular, this place no... This island, had held him prisoner for quite a while, with many stories to tell. But this was no mere story to him or no legend to be had. This was his legacy he stood on, were he became the man he is today. And so he spoke.

"You will never find this place in this world, you will never experience what this island has to offer, you will never live to tell the tale, but I have, so I will tell you about this island and its history. Many years ago I had crash landed on this island with my teacher and her husband, we met its inhabitants and some people who aimed to protect them, and why they needed protection was because a bunch of pirates had been moving in on the island to find this so called 'lost city' and find it's treasure, the natives living there had no idea where it was but the pirates had other ideas, so they tried to capture some of the locals but ended up sparking a war which I had no other choice but to take part in. And by the end of war everyone was dead, except me."

By this time the man had gained an audience of sorts, he stretched his arms out before letting them fall to his side as he took a few steps forward towards getting a good view from the cliff he was on. He looked outwards as he saw the giant eerie looking mountain which could plainly be seen from anywhere on the island. He shifted his neck sideways cracking it before straightening it and taking a knee.

"Luna I need to talk to my team now okay, anyone watching won't blurt out anything to the other teams right?" The man said as he raised a hand opening up a virtual menu in front of him.

"[No not at all, the company takes these games very seriously and remember, anyone who gets eliminated can watch from the spectator room or their desk, no communication can be transmitted or revived while in the simulator, so there are no odds of anyone cheating by leaking information, if anything you might have to be careful of teams communicating with other teams, this is free for all with teams but people still work together- wait, why are there more numbers then what theirs supposed to be]" Luna sounded confused as the man brought up his sense and quickly switched to his teams coms.

"Everyone be careful, were not alone with our company anymore" The man said as he saw six screens open up in front of him.

"[What do you mean 'were not alone']" Twilight asked as her screen displayed her hiding in a tree with lots of leafs around her covering her.

"[Yeah, last time I checked it was just our company that could fit into the simulator, did that recent upgrade add in monsters?]" Rainbow Dash spoke as she seemed to be standing on a part of the island that was raining.

"[I certainly hope not, then this camo I picked up is currently not the right style to be fighting monster's in]" Rarity huffed as she was seen trying to blend in with the flowers but was fidgeting around a lot trying to look elegant.

"[Well I welcome the challenge]" "[Me toozies]" Applejack and Pinkie said as both held a smile and fist slightly in the air on their screens.

"[At least they were pretty close together, right Ed?]" Fluttershy said as she pulled open her map on her screen.

"[Oh wait... you're pretty far]" She added as she took the map and plopped it on the screen for everyone to see somehow.

Ed looked as he saw the map and whistled. "Well you six have you're work cut out for you, meet up uh... here" Ed said as he poked the map hoping it would mark the spot he chose as it did so with a little green triangle.

"I'll rush over there right now, just be careful, if it's-" Ed stopped talking immediately as he spun around and looked behind him seeing a group of men with guns coming out a cave far away from him but with clear line of sight for both parties. He quickly side stepped to a nearby wall in hopes they didn't see him.

"Pirates" He said with gritted teeth as he pressed himself firmly against the greenery growing on the rocky wall.

"[Pirates?]" Rainbow asked confused as Ed waved away the screens.

"Okay, this is important so everyone remember, everyone who entered the simulator was a female employee, so there real life people, shoot them on sight, all the pirates on the island are men okay, so if you see a man it's going to be a pirate so be just try and avoid them because they all share a radio and if you alert one you alert them all sort of" Ed said as he edged his way out away from where he saw the pirates exit the cave and towards a climbable path upwards on the side of the mountain.

"[Wait so you're saying that there's actual AI that are going to shoot us asides from our own company member's?" He heard Twilight ask.

"I just saw some right now and there fully armed with rifles, there modern pirates so think automatics and stuff we have maybe." Ed said as he began to climb towards another cliff.

"[So meet up with each other put also avoid pirates and our co-workers, got it]" Pinkie said as Ed was almost to the top.

"Exactly, everyone be careful I don't know how smart this AI is, for all we know there pretty stupid and-" Ed cutoff as he neared the top and spotted someone suddenly peaking over the ledge. It was a pirate.

Before he could say anything the pirate aimed his gun at him and readied the trigger. "Who are you!?" The pirate yelled.

Ed blinked before sighing and thumping his head against the rocky terrain. He was gonna get captured again by pirates... wonderful.

He lifted his head suddenly and looked scared as he spoke still hanging to the side off the cliff. "Wait! Please don't shoot, I know what you're looking for!"

"[What? Edward what are you saying- oh... Girls look at Ed's screen.]" He heard Applejack say as he suddenly felt embarrassed for being so easily caught.

The Pirate was silent for a couple seconds before turning his head and speaking. "Boys I think I found one of the locals!" He shouted as Ed let out another sigh.

"I know sure as hell my luck wasn't this bad on the island" Ed thought to himself as he saw two other men come to the ledge he was at.

"Pull him up and let's take him to the captain, he'll be glad we found someone alive for a change" The pirate said as his two friends reached down and grabbed him.

Ed struggled not at all as he was pulled up but didn't think about what would happen next as he felt a syringe go into his neck. He looked at it on the side of his neck as the pirate that had found him pulled it out. Ed's feet hit the ground but he felt it give way as he fell to the earth. He was falling into slumber fast so he spoke fast.

"Don't get me, I repeat... Don't... Get... me"

When kids grow up, we become men, or women, we grow into this thing were we need to change ourselves so we can live better or appeal to someone in command like a boss our parents, we change but a lot of the times, not for our own selves, though sometimes, we change on our own for what’s required and then go from there. I just wish we could change easily.

This Morning

The silence in the living room had been broken as the sound of the phone ringing interrupted Ed's 5th book he was on. He snapped his fingers as he slipped a bookmark into the book and closed it. The phone flew from the phone and towards Ed as it barely missed his face and landed into his open hand.

"Hello this is Edward Elric how can I help you?" Ed said in a kind of 'what do you need tone'.

"[Yes this is Celestia and I need you two to come into work today and participate in a battle royale]"

"Oh I've read about that, I'm guessing team harmony was chosen for the event?" Ed said as he chucked his book into the air and snapped his finger and pointed making it shoot towards the shelf and slide perfectly into its spot.

"[Oh you know about it, that makes it easier, make sure to wake up Twilight and be here around 10, you'll want to head to Luna's Simulator room, make sure to eat because the games take up to 1 to 5 hours usually.]"

Ed looked to the digital clock on the wall and saw it was 7. "Alright we'll be there, is that all?" Ed asked as he wondered why his team was so luckily chosen for the event.

"[Well, I'm not the kind of person to say sort of, but I'll let you know why you were picked, everyone in the office has been talking about you, people are sharing stories about the man with lightning speed, or the bullet cutting samurai.]"

"Huh, and I'm guessing some people are being skeptical and asking questions or something?" Ed pondered as he got up from the couch and saw Chrysalis also waking from her sleep.

"[Right, the employees I've been working with longest have been telling me that some of the people working for Canterlot Corporation are blowing things out of proportions, making up false stories and asking questions no one has answers too so people tell them the next best thing, lies. I'm not one for gossip but you're causing a little storm that's upsetting a few members of the board, and I don't like dealing with the board. So I got you into the battle royale in hopes of that you will make yourself look good enough to impress the board and hopefully get them to calm down. Me and my Sister may run the company, but we don't have absolute say in what we do, so go break a leg when you get here okay]"

Ed was at the window while Celestia talked to him over the phone, he got the jist of it as he yawned and smacked his lips.

"Yeah I can do that, do you want me to show off or just do a good job?" Ed said as he felt something behind him. It was Chrysalis hugging him from behind. Her head was by his side as he put his other free hand on top her of her head and rubbed it.

"[To be blunt, impress me]" She said as he heard the line drop.

He brought the phone away from his ear as he looked at it. "Impress me huh, I'll show you impressed"

He went through the contact of the phone making a little beeping noise until he found the contact he wanted and hit dial. The phone rang two times until the person picked up.

"[Yes how can I be of assistance?]" Spike said on the other line.

"Did Celestia talk to you about this Event thing she's having us do?" Ed asked wondering if he was coming to pick them up or already downstairs waiting.

"[Yeah I'm already downstairs waiting nearby Big Bro if that's you]" Spike said sounding happy.

"Yeah it's me, listen, I need you to pick up the rest of the team, I'm pretty sure they live close right?" Ed asked as he felt Chrysalis climbing his back.

"[Uh sure I can do that, do you want me to do it now or wait for you?]" Spike asked waiting for a response.

Chrysalis was sitting on Ed's shoulders now as she rested her head on top of his probably still half asleep. "Yeah do it now, I'll send them a text and let them know you're going to pick them up"

"[Alright, be back when I have all 5]" Spike said as he hung up leaving Ed to a sleeping Chrysalis on his head and shoulders.

Ed reached for his phone in his pocket as he threw the home phone behind him and back into the holder. He clicked open his phone as he walked slowly around with Chrysalis on his shoulders careful not to wake her. He open a group chat and tagged all six of the team as he started the chat with [Get ready for work, we gotta win the Battle Royale].

2 Hours Later

"So how are we going to win the Battle Royale this month, it's literally impossible with all the other experienced hunters entering this time, Look! Even Vinyl Scratch's team is entering in as well" Rainbow Dash said as the whole team sat in the limo together evenly spaced out. Except for Pinkie and Fluttershy and Twilight, they were a little too close for comfort.

"Well first of all we'll find the objective and secure it, we'll eliminate anyone in the way, and hope that we win" Ed said as he shrugged giving a half-ass answer.

Everyone just kind of stared at him like he was crazy before he chuckled. "No No I don't even know how this game works, I know it's in the simulator but I have no idea how this things actually pan out, can someone fill me in as to how it usually goes?" Ed asked as everyone kind of relaxed.

Rarity started. "Well usually we all drop in at random points, we have a map and we can see our own team-"

Applejack continued. "We meet up with our own teammates n' we also have the ability to talk on this kind of invisible radio while were in the simulator so we can plan stuff out-"

Fluttershy picked it up. "After meeting up the goal is to wipe out the other teams and advance towards the goal, sometimes there is no goal mattering on the map-"

Pinkie went. "Yeah, even with all that computer stuff Miss Luna has, the maps aren't usually big for everyone that participate, something with processing power and ram I guess-"

Rainbow's turn. "The bigger the map, less stuff, the smaller the map, more stuff, I guess it's hard to have 100 people enter in a simulator or something"

Ed expected Twilight to say something as well but only asked, "This will be my first time entering so I have to ask, does anyone use knifes for swords?"

Rarity hummed for a second. "No I don't think so, It's just straight fire arms, I guess you can bring you're sword in but you'd be at an disadvantage with everyone else being ranged"

"As much as I hate to say Rarity's right" AJ started getting an 'hmph' from rarity. "I think you two will have a disadvantage in this Battle Royale if you only use your Sword do-hickys"

Twilight kind of looked down about that as she looked at her katana. Ed saw that and sighed. "Well shooting anyone can be easy, cutting through someone whose shooting at you can be hard though if you don't have any experience with that sort of stuff.

"Any what kind of experience would that be" Fluttershy asked making Ed freeze about the sentence he just said.

"Yeah it sounds like you've had some kind of training or something" Rainbow quipped.

Ed didn't know what to say as he knew the Canterlot building was probably another minute away. So he just flat out said it.

"You're my team so let me tell you that I've had to deal with bad people in the past, It wasn't pretty but sometimes I had to put them down when non-lethal wasn't much of an option." Ed said with a serious face.

Everyone kind of froze about that, the only one who wasn't affected was Pinkie Ed thought, then again she was random, as her next question was.

"So you've killed people" She didn't make it sound like a question as it was more of a statement.

Ed looked at everyone around him and saw different expressions, he didn't want to look at them as he sighed and said. "It's not like I had a choice" And with that the limo stopped and Ed immediately got out with Twilight following suit. Not wanting to fall behind everyone else besides Spike followed Ed out the car. Spike was getting barely exiting the driver seat as he opened the door and turned as he stepped foot outside the limo and saw that they were already walking to the front door of Canterlot Corporation. Spike didn't even get to say good bye but saw Ed wave his hand up and gave a thumps up making Spike smile.

Meanwhile as they entered inside everyone was thinking about what he said, he didn't deny the fact that he's killed people before, but they couldn't help but feel he wasn't a bad person. They started going up the escalator to the main lobby as they were the only ones on it. As the silence rained in with the sound of the metal moving. Twilight asked a question.

"You've never killed a good person right, you know, like... an innocent person?" Twilight asked with question in her tone.

Ed turned to Twilight and saw everyone else staring at Ed, waiting for the answer. Ed just smiled. "I've only killed bad people, people who kill other people, not someone who is innocent, or hasn't shot at me, I'm a pacifist at heart, but there is evil that even I can't pacify... Don't worry, I'm no killer, but I wish that I had lived a normal life were I didn't have someone else’s blood on me."

With that he turned around and stepped off the escalator and into the lobby. Everyone followed him as he walked towards the simulator room. Everyone still had questions but that could wait till later, they were entering a battlefield, but if only they knew.

Luna's Nerd Room

"Ed come here for a sec" Luna asked as everyone was getting seated into the comfy ass chairs for the simulator.

"Sure thing" Ed said as he left his team and stayed in the control room.

When everyone was out of it except for the people who were stationed there she began to talk. "So I found out why the Giant Spider talked to you" She began as Ed blinked.

"Cool" Ed said as he folded his arms ready for more information that could help him figure out this weird request from the spider.

"When we, 'capture', the monster's we take out the brain and plug in into a machine were we can read and study it's thoughts, for some reason the one brain that belonged to a Father Spider, was dormant until you entered the simulator, then it awoke and sought you, even bypassing my programs to get to you, I don't want to remove it because I can't study it if it goes dormant again, so when you're in the simulator try talking to it so I can copy it's language and study it." Luna said as she waited patiently for Ed to respond.

Ed blinked as he started. "So you want me to talk to a spider, 'again', while I'm in a simulator, with other people trying to kill me, is that right?"

Luna paused for a second before nodding her head. "Pretty much yeah"

Ed just darted his eyes to a random screen and then back to her wondering what was wrong with her. "Gotcha"

He was about to turn around before he remembered the processing power problem she was having with the simulator.

"Hey that's right, what's wrong with the-" Ed didn't mean too, but when he began talking about the computer he had leaned to his side ultimately putting his hand on one of the monitor's. Something inside him resonated and his Eyes turned blue for a second. All of a sudden the computer started to beep as Luna blinked at the sight of his eyes turning blue for a second.

"Ma’am?" A random lady spoke up.

"Uhh, yes, what’s the matter?" She said as she turned towards the woman.

"I think the computer had a miracle or something because the simulator is running at a 100 percent with only 0.2 percent power being used now" The lady said as she moved her chair outwards letting Luna come and see.

Luna bent over and stared at the screen before saying. "But that's impossible, unless..." She turned to Ed and he awkwardly smiled, not knowing how to feel about magically boosting the technology.

"Give me a moment" Luna said to the lady as she walked towards Ed.

"Ed I don't know what you did but this computer just went lord knows how far into the future with what speed and power it's running at, I honestly don't know how to thank you."

Ed just rubbed his head sheepishly before an idea struck him. "Well for one I want submit a map, it'll be your biggest ever, and also two, I know you have it off but give the options to turn on real feeling, I know it's turned off for processing power stuff, but keep give us the option to select off and on okay, I need to impress the board."

Luna nodded. "Alright, I'll also add the filter in for those spectating the battle royale, I'm sure we can put in real feeling now with everyone playing now but as for pain, I'll give the three options, full pain, moderate, and safe, okay? But are you sure you want to feel real pain? People are going to be shooting you?"

"Don't worry about me Luna, I want to be able to feel like I'm getting punched in real life." Ed smiled as he said that.

Present

"Yep, Reaaaal Painnn kuh-" Ed's sentence was cut short as a pirate punched his face. It had been the third time but oh man did he feel it.

"Don't want to tell us what we want to know huh? Well I guess we got to get serious then huh?" The pirate watching him said as he was cracking his knuckles.

Ed chuckled. "Heh, you know, for a simulator with actual real pain, you hit like a girl" He said cracking a shit eating smile.

The pirate just scoffed as he raised his fist again. Just then radio came alive as a voice spoke from it. "[Oi, there's something going on in the west side of the island, sounds like more locals, we need you in here to get on the main radio with the boss]"

The pirate’s fist didn't collide as it stopped and reached for the radio. He clicked a button and spoke. "I'll be right there."

Ed just smiled still. "Long day?"

The pirate just smirked as he put the radio back. Ed didn't see it coming but as he put the radio back the man grabbed his knife from his belt and whipped it out, bringing it down into Ed upper leg. Ed's eyes widened as he suppressed the urge to scream. He didn't like screaming he thought that you only scream when you're afraid or trying to scare someone. But he was being tortured so how could he not let a cry. He did his best with a muffled grunt as he had a tear gather up into his eye. He looked up not knowing he threw his head down. He saw the pirate smiling as they held up his watch.

"I'm pretty sure this isn't some key to what we’re looking for, but it's pretty nice so I'm going to keep it okay" The pirate said with half a smirk as he chuckled a little.

He turned to leave as he opened the door but Ed stopped him. 'Wait..." He said.

The pirate stopped and half turned with his body facing sideways to Ed. "What’s you're name" Ed asked as the pirate laughed at that.

"My name is Thomas" The pirate said as he asked "Why?"

Ed just chuckled. "Because I'm going to kill you with your own knife as soon as I get out"

Thomas looked at Ed and shook his head. "No little buddy I don't think so, but don't worry though, I'll leave that knife in your knee for the next guy who comes in here and plays with you, see ya later kid" And with that he closed the door leaving Ed smiling.

"That's exactly what I'm counting on asshole."

Author's Note

oh shit and were back again :3333333