Good Afternoon Miss-?
“Midnight Evans,” a young black-haired girl answered from the table.
Your legal name is Midnight?
“Yes, I changed it after I was put in this body,” she said, looking at the man across the table with little interest.
What do you mean about being put into your body?
“Exactly what I said,” she said, raising an eyebrow.
Could you elaborate?
“I’ll tell the story from where it started,” she said, looking over at the wall. “Let’s see… Shadowflame and the Elements had run off and their friends arrived rather quickly as Celestia and I began to direct the players.”
Celestia?
“Yes. Like me, Flare’s avatar become one of the diarchs. Anyways, Shadowflame’s friends were thrust into battle almost immediately…”
Swift and Comet launched themselves into the fray with ease, taking down the few mobs in with the players.
“PLAYERS!” A blue alicorn was flying in the air above them, battling a small dragon. She slayed the creature with a swipe of her trident and looked down. She activated the Royal Canterlot voice, “WE ARE MIDNIGHT! WE MAY NOT BE LUNA BUT WE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE PATH THAT BRINGS YOU ALL HOME! FIGHT! DO NOT LOSE, FOR NOW IS THE TIME FOR US TO TAKE BACK OUR LIVES! FIGHT AND WIN!” Midnight rocketed down and began slaying the mobs there. Upon landing, she called out to Flare, “WORK ON HEALING. WE WILL TAKE THE FIGHT TO THEM!”
The players watched as she began her battle, and, inspired by the sight of Luna fighting alongside them, began to fight themselves. Mob after mob fell, eventually clearing the square once again.
Midnight’s ears perked up as she heard a roar and saw a sight horrifying beyond belief. Despite the impossibility of it all, nine of the ten bosses fought in ELO stood before her, their HP doubled and looking more vicious than before.
One of the players nearby growled, “I knew Discord wouldn’t play fair, but that’s ridiculous!”
Midnight nodded, “ALL PLAYERS KEEP BACK! WE SHALL TAKE THEM!” Midnight blasted into the air and dove at the bosses, swinging her trident all around, turning herself into a kind of berserker. Her attacking, partnered with Flare’s healing and the unicorns' attacks, turned the tables on the sudden appearance of the bosses. Close to an hour of careful attacking this way allowed them to defeat the bosses, The Alpha Timber, The Thunderbird Osiris, The Equine Reaper, all of them...
But yet, Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra still stood strong.
Midnight walked forward, glaring at the two. As she did, she heard a scream and looked back to see Flare had fallen, which further enraged her.
“Discord will win, Nightmare,” Chrysalis said, her face filled with a dark grin.
“And we will be eternal,” Sombra laughed.
Midnight’s expression hardened at the sight of them. Nightmare knew that she likely couldn’t take them alone.
“Then why don’t you help me?” Midnight asked.
“I’m not sure I can,” Nightmare said.
“Find a way!” Midnight answered, her thoughts raging.
“I suppose I could try and take control of a few of the mobs to help,” Nightmare told her, slightly hesitantly.
“DO IT!” Midnight answered as she dashed forward, Allusion before her as if a lance. Chrysalis and Sombra dodged, charging down at her only to be attacked by mobs from above.
What happened afterwards?
“Well, the mobs, mages, and I took down Sombra and severely weakened Chrysalis, and in fact, would have killed her, but…” Midnight’s eyes darkened, "...she cheated.”
How?
“Well, as soon as we were distracted by Discord’s defeat, she ambushed me with Changelings,” Midnight said.
And you died from that?
“Who wouldn’t? There were hundreds of them going after me. I only just managed to throw Allusion at her and win,” Midnight sighed.
Did this ‘Flare’ live?
“No, but I got a message when I went into EO a few weeks later. Apparently, only six players died in that battle, and Flare and Aurora were in EO,” Midnight smiled, “I never thought I’d heard such good news.”
But six people died.
“No. Five people died, and today, they are in new bodies, besides, I thought of it as more people lived,” Midnight got up.
One last question.
“Yes?”
Why do you still join EO?
“Why wouldn’t I?” She called behind her as the guards opened the door.
I was escorted into the room, a small, blank space occupied only by recording equipment, a table in the center, and two chairs on either side of it; One already had a man in casual dress sitting on it. Upon seeing me, he gestured to the seat before him, which I took.
From a bulk of recording equipment, a red light turned on to signal the start of recording.
Good evening. May I ask for your name?
I shrugged, “My name’s Randall Meaux, but I’m guessing you’re going to be asking about ELO. Back there, everypo- er, everyone knew me as Shadowflame.”
Ah, Shadowflame, was it? I heard from the others that you were one of the ‘Elements of Harmony’ that helped beat the game, thus freeing yourself and the other survivors.
His voice didn’t show it, but his face did. Apparently, my appearance didn’t look quite as impressive as my reputation made me out to be. I didn’t blame him though. I was just an average teen with shaggy brown hair that I never bothered to do anything with, and I certainly didn’t look like the type that could help heroically save hundreds of other people from a death trap.
Oh well, to each their own, I suppose.
I frowned, “Well, if you’ve interviewed others like me, then you’d know we barely lost any survivors from ELO, thanks to Equestria Online. The people who died lost their bodies, but their minds are still intact living in the virtual world. Now it’s only a matter of finding bodies for them to transfer to so they can continue life in this world.”
Yes, we have heard of that, but it seems a bit too good to be true-
“Believe me, it sounded that way to me. But I’m not one to go looking a gift horse in the mouth.”
Aptly put. But as we were saying, there are families across the country, across the globe even, that first thought their family and friends and ELO to be dead. But now they generally couldn’t be happier to know there’s still a chance for them to live again. How do you feel about that?
A small smile crossed my face, “Well, that’s exactly what we’re working towards in EO. We have a lot of customers, but it’s been decided the victims of ELO, whose lives were brutally taken from them, would be the only ones to receive new bodies. The others are allowed to live on in EO for as long as they so choose, but when they feel satisfied with how they’ve lived their life, we hope that they will move on from the point of living and finally rest in peace.”
That’s quite a profound undertaking. However, I can imagine not all of EO’s customers will be satisfied with this decision. Are you sure no one else can receive a new body, even for the right price?
“If that were true, then only the vastly wealthy could live on again and again, and believe me, that’s the last thing anybody needs. EO has decided that our server isn’t going to be a way to cheat death, but merely a way to postpone it long enough for people to finish what they wanted to in life.”
Yes, that has been EO’s mission statement ever since their founding a few weeks ago, but I must ask, do you agree with it?
“I have no doubts about it. People should have to try to cheat death and live again.” I could feel my expression harden in thought, “From my experience in ELO, death is a reason why life is so precious. If we were able to bring people back willy-nilly, all value we’d have of life would diminish to almost nothing. In all reality, if you can’t finish your dreams and goals in EO like we are offering, there shouldn’t be any reason for you to live again in this human world.”
I got up from my seat, “Of course, that’s not up to us to decide. In EO, we merely help people back up on their feet when death is at their doorstep. Even at my age, I’ve seen too many die with regrets, so I couldn’t be more glad to help them complete their life if they wish it.”
I turned and began walking towards the door, but the interviewer called out,
Wait, before you go, would you mind answering one last question?
I stopped, glancing over my shoulder, “Okay, shoot.”
Right now, there are a few dozen people who’ve been admitted into EO as residents, besides the survivors of the ELO Incident. As of now, the total number of residents exceeds eight hundred, and all of them live in a computer generated world. Many are worried about the safety of these residents. Just how safe are they in EO?
I paused only long enough to smirk, “You’re talking about a place built by fighters, who were willing to give their lives to ensure others would escape a deathtrap. Believe me, as long as we’re around to look things over, no one has anything to worry about.”
With that, I walked out of the interview. As I did, a small sigh escaped me. Despite the good EO was providing so far, we were still questioned at every turn. Questions didn’t normally bother me, but most of the time when it involved EO, it was like people either believed what we were doing made us like devil’s defying nature’s course of death, or they simply believed we were using EO the wrong way.
It was the same so far. People either called us “Impersonators of God” or “Idiots”. The former, mostly from religious people who thought we were cheating death, the latter, from others who wanted us to cheat death.
Only a small number of people worldwide understood EO’s purpose. I was just waiting for the day when more people understood us, too.
Feburary 27th (Into The Unknown)
(February 27th)
Shadowflame
The first thing out of my mouth when I walked through the door was a sigh of annoyed relief. One hand clutched my backpack strap over my shoulder as I walked back into my house from school. Just like always, my bag was heavy with school work and other junk. Of course, while that might be the source of any regular teenager’s troubles, mine was a little bit different.
Geez, I sighed, The moment anyone so much as mentions ponies, there’salways someone who points outthe ‘oh-so-famous’ kid who happened to help save a magical pony land. You’d think after months from the end of ELO, everyone would just forget about it…
I grumbled to myself, But of course, there’s always the punks that forget our lives were on the line in that place.
“Hi, honey!” A voice called from the office just beside our front door: My mom.
“Hey, Mom!”
“How was school?”
I sighed, replying passively, “Fine. I’m gonna head to work in a bit. I’ll try to be back in time for dinner this time.”
“Okay. Have fun!”
After a small detour through the kitchen, grabbing a handful of crackers and a cheese-stick, I headed upstairs to my room. I set aside my backpack by my desk while I munched on my snack, before setting up my Amusphere.
Amusphere was basically a smaller, lighter model of my old Nervegear console, though it wasn’t a helmet, rather just a visor. You know, it kind of helps safety factors when you don’t have a microwave wrapping around your entire noggin’.
I kicked off my shoes under my bed before lying down on it, sliding the Amusphere over my eyes. With a click of a button, the visor came to life, ready to go. Like always, it still read the destination I went to on a regular basis.
E. O.
Equestria Online
“Link Start!”
In a blur of flashing lights racing across my vision, the view of my ceiling dissolved into a white abyss, and my mind was sent into the virtual realm.
______________
In less than a moment, I found myself standing on four hooves in the middle of a light flurry of snow. A thin layer of snow covered the street of Canterlot’s Southern Square, a cool chill blew through my grey fur, and other ponies milled about, wrapped in coats and scarves as they breathed icy mist into the cool air.
A smile came to my mouth as I adjusted the hood of my cloak over my crimson mane with the magic from my horn. It felt good to be here again. Sure, home was nice (school even less so), but after having spent months in this world, this was like a second home.
I started to make my way through the city, which still bustled about like always. Just a normal day as always for EO’s residents. Players and residents went about doing work, or just about anything they would have in the human world… save maybe except for flying and magic thrown in the mix.
Some colts and fillies blew past bystanders on the street, heading for the city gate. I recognized them as a few residents, who no doubt just got out of school for the day and were going out of the city to play.
As I glanced at the small children rushing past, I reminded myself that most of them hadn’t even been part of the ELO incident. A few of them had contracted terminal illnesses before coming to EO, and would have ceased to exist had they not agreed to enter this world.
Some of them had been bedridden. Now, they all lived like normal kids.
I flashed another smile as I turned and continued down the street. Before long, I reached the house I was looking for. It was a small home, decorated similarly like the rest of the street, but a few differences stood out, like different colored curtains in the windows, and the address number by the door: 15
With a flick of my wrist downwards in mid-air, I pulled out my Player Menu… although, now that I thought about it, “Player Menu” didn’t quite fit anymore, since Residents had access to theirs as well.
Oh well, not important. I had a job to do after all, and the server admins didn’t pay me to stand around.
Looking in my menu through my message inbox, I double checked the address. 15 Canterbury Ln
Yup, this was the right one. Time to talk to the resident inside.
In EO, my job, and I mean an actual job I got paid for, was to speak with a few residents every day as directed by the admins. Not really a leisurely chat, though some ended up that way, but my job was just checking on them. That included seeing how they were adjusting to life in this world, things they wanted to do, any complaints, and just generally seeing how we could help them be happy here. They ended up in this world; it was the very least they deserved.
I knocked on the door, waiting for a while before the door was opened by a younger earth pony filly, not quite a child, but not a full teenager either. She had cherry red fur and an amber mane that curled down past her shoulders. Her eyes were trained on me, a curious expression written over them.
I gave a friendly wave, “Hey, are you Katelyn Myers?”
She nodded, smiling shyly, “Um, yeah… Though call me Kite Flyer, or just Kite.”
I nodded. It wasn’t exactly common, but when residents came into EO, a world inspired after My Little Pony, they sometimes liked to take on new names, mostly ones that sounded more pony-ish.
“Sure, Kite. I’m Shadowflame. I was hoping to check on how you’re adapting to Equestria Online.” I gave a smile, “Mind if I come in to talk?”
Kite Flyer shook her head, as she stepped aside from the door, “No, it’s cool.”
As I entered, closing the door behind me, the filly galloped back into the house, calling out, “Mom! One of the server runners is here!”
I followed Kite Flyer into the living room. She hopped onto one of the couches, on which also sat a sky blue, winged dragon about twice the size of Kite. The dragon was feminine, with shimmering scales, and more curvey body than others.
The dragon spotted me, her face turning to a warm smile, “Hello there. You must be one of the admins.”
“Eh, close.” I shrugged sheepishly, “Not really an admin, just a helper. I take it you’re Kite Flyer’s mother?”
The dragon nodded as her pony daughter sat leaning against her side. She extended a friendly claw, introducing herself, “Mrs. Myers. Pleased to meet you.”
I smiled as I shook her claw with a hoof, “Call me Shadow.”
From the records Rex sent me, Mrs. Myers wasn’t actually a resident of EO; She was a player, someone using an Amusphere to visit her daughter. It wasn’t uncommon for parents and whole families to hop onto the server at any time to visit their loved ones who were residents.
As you can imagine, EO had a lot of traffic in an online sense, hence the reason for helpers like me. While the admins focused on running the more technical side of the server, expanding the technology, improving the software, and all that jazz, us helpers checked up on the residents, helping wherever we can so they can live the lives they want to.
“So,” I sat myself down on another couch in the living room, “Kite, how are you liking Equestria Online?”
_____________________________
MidnightDreams
As soon as I reached my new home, my new parents house that is, I made my way to the room or rather, my room. It had been hard adjusting the what had happened to my parents while I was in ELO. They had died in a car crash a few weeks in, which left me with my aunt. Of course, I still visited her, but once I had wound up in this body, there had been a bit of a custody battle, which of course, had led to a moral debate as to whether Nightmare pushing us into this body was wrong or right. It had taken a while but, thankfully, my new parents had said that their daughter had been gone before and would be happy to take me in. My aunt agreed and I ended with two families.
I walked across the room to the laptop and Amusphere at the desk. About a week after I had been introduced to my new home, I had been told where Shadowflame was and went to visit, which had led to an interesting discovery and my return to EO as… well, as a princess. They would have given me a job as a helper but after multiple tries my avatar still wouldn’t change.
I laid down in my bed and slipped the Amusphere over my head, letting the familiar words appear in front of my eyes.
E. O.
Equestria Online
“Link Start!” I called out and everything went dark for a moment before my mind was sent back to the place I had once been stuck in.
___________
My body materialized in the castle, right on the throne that I had logged out from last time. As soon as I got up I was tackled by Flare and Aurora.
“Where were you? You said you’d be back tomorrow. It’s a week after that,” Aurora demanded. Her avatar had been changed, as I expected, to Cadence. They had been planning it for weeks but had yet to get around to it.
“Sorry. The DVRDI decided to question some of us to improve their understanding of EO,” I said.
Aurora huffed, “Still could’ve been back sooner.”
I sighed before answering her, “I suppose that’s true.”
“We’re not paying you to laze around you know,” Jupiter said, walking in from the other room. His avatar was an Earth pony currently, but he liked to change things up a bit.
“I know, I know. What is it this time?” I asked him, just being able to tell from his face that something was up.
“Normally, I’d send Shadow for this type of thing, but he’s out working with the new residents,” Jupiter said. Apparently he and the other admins had decided that I would double as a, well, kind of as a relations officer. “Anyways, the Griffin players have decided to split off and make their own kingdom in EO. Calling it ‘Griffinheim Online’ and I’ve already tried convincing them that they can just make it a city.”
I groaned. Before he had been defeated, apparently, using online information, Discord had expanded EO’s lands to include the Griffin kingdom minus a capital. “How long will it take me to get there?”
Jupiter shook his head, “No need. He’s waiting outside, I figured you could show him why leaving EOs jurisdiction would be a bad idea.”
Judging from Jupiter’s character, I figured that meant showing the paperwork involved as well as a few other issues. “Alright fine. Am I doing this alone?” I asked this slightly too late, as Jupiter was already leading the other two away.
“I hate when he does that,” I said, grabbing the door with my magic and letting the griffin in.
“Took ya long enough,” he answered gruffly, while in the meantime, he had a look of ‘What the hell is this?'
Putting on my best smile, I grabbed a nearby box with my magic, “So… here’s all that paperwork you need~,” I lifted up three more, larger, boxes.
___________
About an hour later, I sent the griffin packing with his sworn promise that they would merely ask for a city, instead of being a whole country. I compromised by saying we’d figure out their ambassador and send an administrator their way to help with the building as well as allow them to be a territory of EO.
Of course, Jupiter was less than enthused, “That’s not exactly a good compromise for us.”
“It was either that or dealing with a new country on the server,” I told him, slightly red faced.
Jupiter groaned, “You’re almost as much trouble as you’re worth.”
“Hey! I resent that comment.”
Jupiter muttered something about players and bullshit, “Just, go hang out in town or something.”
I gave him a hoof salute and galloped out the doors as fast as possible, while laughing of course.
_____________________________________
Shadowflame
“Thanks for taking your time to let me speak with you, Kite Flyer. I’m glad you’re making yourself at home here. I’ll be seeing you later!”
“Bye Shadow!”
“Don’t be a stranger!”
I waved goodbye as I walked out of the house, the door closing behind me. With that job done, I turned and headed down the street.
As I walked, I opened up my player menu. But to my surprise, I found a new message notification blinking back at me. With a tap of a hoof, I opened it up and grinned when I saw it was from a certain candlemaking unicorn; It was Frostlight, my girlfriend.
I opened up the new message:
Hey, I saw you got on the server today. Stop by the shop soon! I wanna take a break when you get here.
I smiled, “Well, I guess I can take a small break from checking up on residents.” I closed out of my menu and took off down the street in a gallop, deeper into the city towards Frostlight’s shop.
______
I watched through the shop window as a teal unicorn mare with short, white-yellow hair noticed me from where she sat, dipping wicks into hot wax. With a grin, she put aside her work and hopped off her seat.
In moments, the lights in the shop dimmed down to barely luminescent, and Frostlight stepped out of the shop, wearing a light jacket and a beanie over her ears. With a glow of her horn, she flipped a sign in the shop window that read, “Shopkeeper on break. Please check back later!”
“Hey!” Frostlight smiled warmly as she brushed up beside me.
“Hay’s for horse- oh wait, we are horses.” I joked.
She giggled, “Ponies, you dork.”
“You know that’s what you like about me,” I replied giving her a peck on the cheek.
“True.” She glanced down the street, where snow had stopped falling and a soft layer of it banked the cobble road, “Let’s go for a walk, maybe get some dinner. I’m starving.”
As we walked, our sides against each other, I replied, “I bet. You’re juggling a job as a helper for the admins, as well as running your candle shop. Add that with your normal school work. You’re so busy nowadays; When do you even find time to eat?”
Frostlight smiled sheepishly, “Well… I like saving those times for when you’re here with me.”
I rolled my eyes in amusement, “Well, I’m willing to have dinner with you, but you know I’ll always have to eat another meal when I get back to the human world.” I chuckled, “Eating that much in such short time almost makes me feel fat.”
She only sighed, leaning her head into the crook of my neck, “I know. I just like spending time with you.”
I looked down at her, “You still don’t want another human body yet, do you?”
She shook her head, “No… not yet. Not until everyone else gets out of here.”
I sighed, “I understand. I just wish we could help the other ELO veterans get new bodies quicker.”
Frostlight only smiled back at me, “I know. Everyone’s doing all they can, including you.” She leaned forward and kissed me once, before adding, “That’s something else I love about you.”
I chuckled, “Touche.”
We looked ahead at the street we trotted down, only to find it emptied out onto Canterlot’s Southern Square. There, other ponies, dragons, and other residents and players alike were enjoying that last few moments of daylight as the sun began slowly descending towards the horizon; It would be dark in almost an hour.
The square, like the rest of the city, was covered in light snow, except for the fountain in its center. Benches and shrubs surrounded the fountain on all sides, a few residents occupying some benches while others played around the rest of the square.
Frostlight smiled at the sight, “Looks peaceful.”
I nodded, “Yeah.”
She then giggled, “Almost makes me wish there were some monsters outside the gates these days. I kind of miss going hunting outside with my bow, like the old days.”
I only chuckled, but I sympathized with her. It had been months since I wielded a sword; monsters weren’t common around Canterlot, but they still existed in EO… barely. Even then, there wasn’t any point in hunting them, besides for sport. Even then, the only people who went to hunt them were either griffins or pegasi, since monsters dwelled so far away.
At least it’s better than what happened in the game, I thought to myself. This place is supposed to be safe for the residents, not overrun by monsters.
... But even then, people in the human world still question if EO is truly safe for residents. Of course, they’re mostly talking about server security, but still-
“Hey, isn’t that Sky?” Frostlight’s pointing hoof snapped me out of my thoughts. I followed where she was pointing.
By the fountain, a familiar unicorn with faded blue fur and a long, black, DJ mane. He wore a black overcoat as he glanced about the fountain area with narrowed eyes; It looked like he was searching for something.
“Yeah, that’s Sky.” I raised an eyebrow, “Wonder what he’s doing?” I made my way towards him, with Frostlight trailing slightly behind me.
“Hey!” I called out to Sky, and he turned as he noticed me and Frostlight.
He waved in greeting, “Ossu. What’s up?”
I shrugged, “Nothing much, just taking a break from talking to residents, hanging out with Frostlight.” I glanced towards the fountain, “You lose something?”
Sky shook his head, looking back at the fountain, “No, I just thought I… saw something.” A puzzled look grew on his face.
Frostlight squinted her eyes as she looked at the fountain as well, “What’d you see?”
“I don’t know,” Sky replied. “I was just walking by a couple seconds ago, and then I swore I saw something on the fountain. It was like… a ripple, but it wasn’t even on the water.”
“Sounds spooky,” A voice from above commented out of nowhere. All eyes looked up to see the familiar face like Princess Luna glancing down at us from where she hovered over the fountain. Though, she definitely looked younger than the princess from the TV series. In a word, her appearance looked like ‘Woona’.
Heh, she was a ‘princess’ of EO, but given her appearance, I couldn’t understand how some people could take her seriously. Sometimes she looked too adorable for her own good.
“Oh hey, Midnight!” I called out, “What’s up?”
“Well, technically I am.” Midnight grinned as she lighted down onto the ground, “But if you really want to know, Jupiter couldn’t handle me at the castle anymore and told me to hang out around town.”
She glanced towards Sky, standing a little below his shoulder height, “So, what’re you looking for?”
Again, the blue unicorn shrugged, “No idea. But I could have sworn I saw something in there, and it’s bothering me.”
“How come?” I asked
He turned towards me, “Well, you know how paranoid Jupiter can be about this world’s gaming. I’m just afraid of any bugs in the map.”
I gave him a wry look, “Yeah, if that happened, Jupiter would definitely flip his lid. Right, Midnight?” I glanced towards her, only to deadpan as I found Frostlight hugging the little alicorn with a grin wider than a cheshire cat’s.
Frostlight squealed as she squeezed little Midnight Woona, “Oh my gosh! I just can’t help it. No matter how many times I see you, you’re too adorable!”
Midnight struggled to reach air beneath the smothering hold, “Neu! Neu! I am the Princess of the Night, not a stuffed animal!”
I rolled my eyes and helped Frostlight let go of Midnight, “Release, she needs to breathe.”
Reluctantly, Frostlight let go with a humph, “Fine. But don’t stop me next time. She’s too darn cute!”
Midnight’s wings fluttered as she hovered in midair, putting Sky between Frostlight and herself, “Ugh, I’ll try remember to give her a wide berth.”
“Hm, no kidding.” Sky muttered back. “Just…” His words trailed off as his eyes drew towards the fountain.
Suddenly, he gasped as his eyes went wide, “That’s it! That’s what I saw!”
All eyes glanced towards the fountain. There at the center column, below where water flowed back down into the pool, we all saw it. Just like Sky had said, it was like a ripple; not in the water, but in the stone itself.
My eyes widened, “What the…”
“It’s growing!” Frostlight exclaimed.
The stone was warping, but the distortion was growing bigger. No, it wasn’t just the stone, the air, the water from the fountain, all of it blurred in shape. In less than a few seconds, the distortion covered the entire fountain, and the whole structure began to twist and spasm, bits of code flashing in and out of existence in the space around it.
“Oh no.” Midnight gasped, “This definitely isn’t go-OOOOOOD! AGH!”
Suddenly, the entire square was consumed by a bright pillar of light that soared up through the evening sky. Screams or shouts of surprise of rang through the streets as everyone there was engulfed by the light. There had been dozens of people in the square, and all of them were panicking, not to mention everyone in the outlying streets who saw the square become like a scene from Independence Day.
Before I could react, the entire square vanished, I along with it.
______
Just as quickly as it came, the light vanished in an instant. After the light receded from my vision, I became aware of two things.
The first was that I wasn’t in the square even more. I wasn’t even in Canterlot. The landscape looked twisted and turned, as if the entire terrain were a giant corkscrew. But despite its rugged slopes, sharp cliffs, and massive structures of earth, it was overgrown with vegetation. Trees grew in clusters like thick woods, grass covered any upturned soil, and moss covered just about everything else.
The air was coated in thick, azure mist, like morning dew that always floated above ground even with the sun directly overhead in the sky. But as I looked up, I found an even stranger oddity. Massive islands floated in the air, each probably just as big as Canterlot, if not larger.
No, this definitely wasn’t anywhere in Equestria; Not even anywhere in EO… anywhere that I knew of, that is.
But the second thing I realized was…
“Frostlight?” I called, glancing about, “Sky? Midnight?”
No answers came as I looked about the twisted hill I stood on. There was no one in sight.
… I was alone.
I frowned, “What happened? Where is everyone?” My gaze rose up towards the floating islands above me. I could have sworn I saw snow on top of one of them. “Better question, where the heck am I?”
Naturally, I opened up my player menu. Maybe I could get into contact with at least somebody. This was definitely strange; First we were in the square, then that… thing happened at the fountain (What even was that?), and then I suddenly find myself in the middle of nowhere I recognized.
I opened up my contacts list in my menu, but as I scrolled down through the list with a hoof, I found all of them blackened out. Even when I tapped on Jupiter’s blackened contact, nothing happened. Could I not reach him from here?
I tapped back to my main menu, and to my immense relief, the logout button was still there.
I sighed, “Well, I can always call the admins from my cell and get a message to Jupiter through them.” With a tap of a hoof, I hit ‘logout’ and the entire landscape disappeared into darkness.
Seconds later, I opened my eyes again to see the ceiling of my room through the visor of my Amusphere. Quickly, I took it off and reached for my cell phone, only for it to ring before I even touched it.
Picking it up, I looked to see who was calling. To my surprise, it was from the same people I was trying to call.
I accepted the call, “Hello.”
One of the lead admins, I recognized his voice as Markus’, answered back, “Well, Shadow. Glad we could finally reach you. Jupiter’s almost gone berserk trying to get ahold of you.” From the sound of it Markus didn’t sound happy either.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” I frowned, Could it have to do with that weird place I ended up in?
“Someone’s kidnapped some residents.”
I felt my breath catch in my throat as my eyes went wide, “What? What happened? Where are they?”
“From what we could read from the system, about thirty of them are gone,” Markus grumbled. “Before they up and vanished, they were all Canterlot’s Southern Square.”
The South Square? But that’s where I was before, I silently thought. But so was… I gasped, “Frostlight!”
“Yes, Shadow,” Markus grimly replied, “She was one of the residents they took.”
I glared, my teeth gritting, “Who’s ‘they’?”
____________________________
MidnightDreams
I looked around at my new surroundings. A fair bit of forest, a decent sized pond, and a small waterfall. “Well, that’s odd,” I leaned forward and looked around to see if anyone was with me. “Hullo? Anyone there?” Where the heck am I? Wasn’t I just in EO?”
Suddenly, I heard a splash and stepped back, only to lose my footing and start falling. But before I fell too far, I caught myself with my wings and took a deep breath.
“Well, THAT was close,” I breathed with relief. I looked down, only to find a fair amount of cloud layer, “Um…” I flew back up to the island as fast as I could and peered over the edge watching as some of the clouds cleared revealing a very far away mainland.
It took a moment but I calmed enough to look around, “Okay, okay. So, I’m not in EO and I’m on a floating island. That’s cool, that’s cool,” I took a couple of deep breaths. “Again, why a floating island? Is someone just trying to make it look cool?”
I realized at that moment it’d be best to climb to higher ground to see more of my surroundings. Flapping my wings, I flew to the tallest tree on the island, landing on its tallest branch, before taking in my surroundings.
As I peered out over the horizon, I saw nothing else except other islands floating above the clouds, not all of them forested though.
But then, I saw something in the sky: a large black spot next to an island. The spot was getting bigger. As I watched, the spot became clearer as it flew closer. It was a large manta-ray like creature, which stopped at the pond on my island and began to drink. It took a moment after some slight hyperventilating (man I was jumpy after ELO) before I flew down to the island’s floor and crept closer for a better look.
As I got closer to the mantaray, a small notification button appeared, along with the creature’s massive face, which caused me to jump a fair height.
[quote] **Tame this Beast?**
*Yes*
*No*
I cautiously tapped the ‘yes’ button and a saddle type thing appeared on its back. I made towards the saddle, only for it to lick me like a large puppy. I tried getting it off with my hooves but with no avail. Curse my tiny limbs! “Come on!” I attempted again and gave it a bit of a glare.
The creature lowered its head, which only served to make me feel guilty. I sighed, “It’s fine, just, don’t do it again.” To which the creature responded with another attempt at licking me. “It’s going to be a long day…”
____________________________
I had been flying for awhile now and yet I hadn’t seen anyone one else. An NPC village, yes, but it had been deserted. It was that village that I decided to log out, or, at least see if I could. I tapped the screen and was happy to find the button there. I was about to click it when I realized that the ray might fly off. Looking for an option that would summon it or make it stay I found a whistle with this flavour text.
Storm’s Eye- This whistle will summon your manta over any distance.
I gave a relieved sigh, the manta traveled faster than me and was probably going to be a welcome rest if I had to come back here. I tapped the logout button and gave the manta a quick salute before disappearing from the game and opening my eyes to find my bedroom.
