Reign of Chaos Online

by Kickass222urmom

Rating: teen
Tags: Octavia, Adventure, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, DJ P0N-3, Drama
Length: 14636

When the game Reign of Chaos Online traps all of its players inside it, including Octavia Melody, a mute Vinyl Scratch must venture into the chaos to save her friend. But can she survive in a game where game over means everything?

Reign of Chaos Online is the only game of its kind in Equestria, the only game that allows ponies to play together in an ever changing world, and thanks to the new machine that it is played on, everyone can experience the game themselves by actually putting themselves in the games world.

But when everyone playing the game is suddenly unable to leave it, it sends everyone in the real world into a panic. This is where Vinyl Scratch, famous mute DJ, comes into the equation. While not a gamer herself, her roommate, Octavia Melody, has gotten herself stuck in the game along with everyone else who was logged in. Fearing for her friends safety, Vinyl must go into the game itself and put herself at risk, and come face to face with the true meaning of Chaos.

Published 2016-11-17 19:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-11-17 19:10:01 UTC

The adventure begins

Chapter 1: The Adventure begins

Vinyl let out a grunt as she slowly pulled the heavy cart filled with her DJ equipment down the busy road. Sweat covered her body, and her sunglasses rested atop her head, as they kept fogging up when she tried to wear them. The ponies around her didn't seem to notice her struggles as they went about their day, however a few did say hello as they passed. This annoyed the DJ, but she continued along at a slow pace.

Normally, she wouldn't be the one who had to care around all of her equipment, but her latest gig ended abruptly on a sour note. It was a wedding, and for some reason the bride wasn't very happy with how it was going. She kicked everyone out, including Vinyl, without warning. So her helper, Bulk Biceps, wasn't able to come to her aid in time, since she was suppose to be there well into the night.

Finally, she found herself walking up the side of her house, obviously exhausted. With a hiss of pain, she brought the cart to a stop next to the house and unstrapped her self. She looked at the equipment on the cart and sighed, she'd have to wait for help to move it all inside.

As she walked around the house and through the front door, she found the house exactly how she'd left it. Half messy, half clean. She scanned the room, but her roommate wasn't in sight. This caused her to frown, hoping she was just out at the moment and not doing what she thought see was doing.

She slowly made her way over to her roommates room, and without knocking, pushed open the door. What she saw caused her to frown. There, in the middle of the room, sat a semi-large device with a pony floating above it. The pony was covered in a white aura, which made it appear to be made of marble stone.

Vinyl let out a growl as she stomped across the room and slammed her hoof into a button on the machine. The machine let out a groan and hiss as the aura around the pony began to flicker. After a few seconds, the aura disappeared and the pony fell to the floor.

Her roommate, Octavia, slowly stood up, a look of confusion on her face. She looked around the room, and when her eyes rested on Vinyl, she glared. "Vinyl, you didn't just do that. You don't know how unpleasant it is to be pulled out like that."

Vinyl didn't seem to care as she stood there shaking in anger. She pointed a shaking hoof at the machine, a look of pure anger on her face. She then brought her hoof back and began to slam it against the floor, causing her sunglasses to fall off her head. With another growl of anger, she raised it again, but this time pointing at the cello that rested against the wall. Steam seemed to be coming out of her nostrils aswell.

Octavia, still looking displeased, sighed, "I'm still practicing every chance I get, Vinyl. I just need some time to myself from time to time, you know that." She then looked longingly at the machine, "In there, I don't have to worry about anything. Not practice, not anything."

The anger on Vinyl's slowly faded away, and she looked at her friend. Finally, she let out a deep sigh and nodded, a small smile on her face.

"I knew you'd understand, Vinyl!" Octavia said as she hugged her friend. As she released her, Octavia turned back to the machine and smiled, "I just need a few more minutes to complete a few quest, and I'll be off for the night."

Vinyl raised an eyebrow and tilted her head, showing her how much she believed that statement.

Octavia looked back at her and laughed, "No really, you pulled me out while we were heading into a dungeon. It won't take long, I promise."

With a roll of her eyes, Vinyl lifted her glasses off the ground with her magic and nodded at her friend. She then began to leave the room, and as she closed the door, she could hear the machine starting back up again. She shook her head and walked across the house to her room.

Upon stepping into her incredibly messy room she laid her glasses on her desk and jumped onto her bed. She rolled around, using her magic to rearrange the many blankets and pillows so that she was under most of them. As she settled in, she levitated a small box over to herself.

Inside the box was her small music player, along with a few other personal items that she held dear. She pulled it out and sat the box back down, while also bringing over a pair of headphones. She plugged the headphones into the small device and hit play.

As she laid there, music blaring in her ears, she let out a loud sigh. She hated it when her friend let her self get sucked into that game, since she barely ever saw her anymore. It was so unlike her, since she'd never come off as the gamer type before. Vinyl herself didn't even game, and she was more likely to do so than Octavia.

It all started four months ago when Octavia was having a particularly bad day. Her groups show had been canceled that morning, and to make things worst, she was stuck in Canterlot till later that night due to a mishap with the train schedule. With nothing else to do, she had left the train station and headed for the cities library. While there, she met a old friend of hers who she hadn't seen since her school days. Her friend caught onto how stressed she was and said they knew of a way for her to relax. Her friend was the one who introduced her to that game, and Vinyl hated them for it. Yes, Octavia was happier nowadays, but at the cost of her slacking on her responsibilities.

The game in question was relatively new, as was the machine that was used to play it. She hated to admit it, but the machine itself was remarkable. It was able to take your mind and transfer it to, somewhere, Vinyl didn't actually know where. But the part that she found the most impressive was that it preserved the users body in some form of magic. It appeared to turn them to stone, even felt like it if you touched them, but it didn't have any kind of after effects on the user. At least, from what she could tell. She also had no idea who created it, as she's tried to find out in the past with no luck, apparently it was made by someone who didn't want their name on it.

As for the game itself, it was, as Octavia explained it, a massively multiplayer online game. Which meant that everyone who played the game could play with each other, which was impressive considering it was the only game of its kind. Most of the other games that Vinyl knew of were just for one person to play, or up to four on the same screen if the game allowed it. But the way this one was set up was amazing, letting everyone connect and play together, face to face no less.

She frowned as she starred up at the ceiling, hating that she was praising the very thing she despised the most. She scratched the base of her horn as she began to try to recall the name of the game. It had a weird, and also stupid, title... that's right, Reign of Chaos Online. She shook her head at this, not knowing what Octavia could find appealing about a game with that kind of title. Come to think of it, she had no idea what the game was even about, or what you did in it. Octavia always talks about it, but Vinyl always stealthfully turned up the volume on her headphones to drown out the nonsense.

No matter, Octavia would eventually lose interest in the game, she hoped. And when she did, she'd be there to help her get back on track. This caused the DJ to smile as she laid in her comfortable bed, covered in soft blankest and pillows.

She relaxed a bit more and closed her eyes, she'd just rest up a bit before dinner. Octavia would wake her once she was out and had dinner ready. With that in mind, Vinyl allowed herself to drift off to sleep.

ooo000<^>000ooo
The next day, Noon

Vinyl slowly awoke, feeling terrible, as if she'd sleep wrong all night, or too long. She rolled over to fall back asleep and saw her clock. 12:23 PM.

Her eyes shot open at seeing this and she jumped out of bed, sending blankets and pillows everywhere. How did she sleep that long?! Octavia always wakes her up at the same time she does, which is six. Then it dawned on her, Octavia hadn't even woken her up yesterday for dinner. This caused Vinyl to let out an annoyed growl.

She threw open her door and stomped over to Octavia's room, already knowing what she'd find. She kicked the door open and was unsurprised to find her roommate floating above the device, covered in the white aura. She walked up to the machine and hit the off button, and waited for her friend to come out of it so she could show her how angry she was. But, nothing happened. Thinking she hit the wrong button, she hit it again. But as the seconds ticked by, her friend was still floating there.

Now, with panic slowly replacing her anger, she quickly walked around the machine and pulled the plug. But even this did nothing. A strained whine came up from her throat as she began to hit the machine, hitting every button frantically. But, no matter what she hit or how hard she hit it, nothing changed. Octavia floated peacefully above the machine, the aura never faltering.

Vinyl didn't know what to do, as this had never happened before. She circled the machine in a panic, but couldn't find anything wrong with it. She began to chew frantically on her lower lip, causing it to bleed a little, as she paced around the room aimlessly. Finally, she decided she was going to have to go out and get help.

Without a moments hesitation, she left the room and walked out the front door. However, upon stepping outside, she was met with an unexpected sight. The ponies of Ponyville were running around, some yelling for someone to help them.

Vinyl looked around, not knowing what was going on, but concluded it may of had to do with what had happened to her friend. She quickly ran over to a pony who was just standing in the middle of the road in a daze. When she reached him, she got his attention and waved a hoof over the chaos around them.

The stallion just stared blankly at her for a few seconds, then he registered what she was trying to ask. "What's going on?"

She nodded quickly, her eyes still wide.

He looked around, still in a daze. "It's horrible," he mumbled as he looked back to her. "My boy, he's stuck in that stupid game machine."

Vinyl began to point at her self frantically, nodding her head back to her house.

He stared at her for a few moments, seeming to try and figure out what she was saying. "Same for you, I take it?" When she nodded, his lip quivered, the tears finally falling down his face. "It seems everyone who was in that damned game is stuck there. I knew I should have taken it away from him." With that, he began to openly cry as he turned from her and began to stumble away.

The screams for help rang out around Vinyl as she stood there, still very confused on what exactly was happening. She began to scan the chaos around her, and wanted to yell in joy when she saw a Royal Guard far down the street yelling at the ponies around him.

Vinyl quickly galloped over to him, seeming to startle him a bit as she bounded towards him. Upon reaching him, she began to make motions towards her house, and holding her hooves up in a begging motion.

The guard looked at her, and without acknowledging her begging, pointed towards the center of town. "Get to the center of town, everything will be okay!"

She frowned, not wanting to waste time, but upon him insisting again that she head to the center of town, she did. As she followed the panicking crowd, she began to feel scared for some reason. She really hoped that Octavia would be okay, and that this was just something that could be fixed easily and quickly.

Once she was in the middle of town, she found her self face to face with most of the population of Ponyville. They were all whispering to each other, while others were screaming nonsense. This worried Vinyl even more, but she rolled with it and walked into the mass of the crowd.

Some time passed, and Vinyl was worried that the crowd would lose patients and cause even more problems. Just as every pony in the area began to freak out, a bright flash came from the stage, and Princess Celestia suddenly appeared before them. This seemed to calm everyone in the area, for now.

Princess Celestia looked grim, sick even, as she looked out over her subjects. She remained silent longer than she should have, and a pony began to cry. This seemed to snap her out of her trance.

"Everything is alright, my little ponies," she cooed in a soft tone. "Everything is under control, we-"

"My daughter is stuck in that damn machine, everything is not alright!" a stallion next to the stage yelled, causing the crowd to begin to yell at Celestia to help them. Vinyl looked around in worry, hoping no one would do anything stupid.

Celestia let them yell at her for a few moments before holding up her hoof, causing them all to fall silent. "I know, it appears that anyone who has logged into this 'game' since late last night is now stuck in it. Nor myself or any of my subjects have been able to figure out how to undo this. We also don't know why or how this has happened."

The ponies in the crowd began to yell more questions at her, trying to find out how to save their loved ones. Celestia's calm demeanor faded for a moment as she listened to her citizens, but she quickly composed herself.

"Please, everypony, you must believe in your Princesses. We will fix this and bring back your loved ones." She smiled as sincerely as she could, "The good news is that they're all still alive and well, they're all just stuck in the game."

Everyone was silent, except for one mare in the front. "What has the ponies who made the machine said?"

Celestia looked at her sadly, "That, I'm afraid, is the bad news." She looked out over the crowd with a mix of sorrow and anger, "The creators of the machine and game have only said one thing." She clenched her teeth, trying to remain composed. "They sent a letter to us early this morning, saying that what has happened was intentional, and that we have no control over any of this. I'm sorry to say, but there is a chance a few of the ponies trapped in the machines will not make it out."

This was the wrong thing to say, because the moment she finished, all of the ponies began to scream their displeasure at the princess, most of them calling for blood. This was a reaction that Vinyl wouldn't have expected, but she found her self on their side, wanting who ever has done this to pay.

Celestia was taken back by the uproar of the crowd, and with a forceful slam of her hoof onto the stage, the crowd's screams suddenly cut off. "I know you're angry," she said as calmly as she could. "I know your scared for your loved ones, I am too. It pains me to say this, but I am with you all. My sister went into the machine early this morning to try and fix everything, but it appears that she too is stuck within the game."

No one said a word this time around, as no one seemed to know what to say or do at this point.

"All I ask," Celestia began, "Is that all of you stay away from the machines, don't try and go in to save your loved ones."

"Is there any hope then?" a stallion yelled from somewhere in the crowd.

This seemed to re-energize Celestia as she regained all of her composure and confidence. "There is indeed!" She held her head high, a warm smile on her face. "There is always hope, my little ponies. We will continue to work on a way to bring out our loved ones, but there is a chance that they will fix it themselves."

Ponies began to yell out questions, asking her to tell them what she meant. She held up her hoof, still smiling. "While the letter was mostly mocking us, it did have some good news in it. Everypony in the game can free themselves, if they can complete it."

"You can't beat that game, it has no objective other than to level and grind," a young colt near the stage yelled.

Celestia looked at him and smiled, "Can you come up here and tell us more about this game. Our information is lacking as of this moment."

A small colt was helped up onto stage by a stallion who was probably his father and nervously made his way over to Celestia. When he reached her, she leaned down and whispered in his ear. This seemed to relax him as he lost his nervousness and smiled.

"Well," he began. "The game is mostly just quest, and when you get to the max level, all you can do is do dungeons and raid with everyone. I mean you can craft and stuff like that, but there's not a ending to the game. It's not suppose to have an ending, it's suppose to go on forever."

This didn't sit well with Celestia or the crowd, but Celestia held her smile, "I'm sure they'll find a way to beat the game, or we'll figure something out before that. Thank you, Button."

The colt smiled and made his way off stage. Once he was off, Celestia looked back to the crowd. "I ask that you all take my advice and let us handle this, don't worry about your loved ones. I'm sure most of what the letter said was false, and they'll all come out of this okay."

Everyone seemed to relax after hearing this, but Vinyl didn't relax one bit. She wanted to ask the Princess more questions, but didn't have the means to do so. Celestia bowed to the crowd pleasantly and suddenly flashed out of existence, probably heading back to Canterlot.

The crowd began to mumble and disperse. Vinyl, however, didn't know what to do. She could head back home and prepare for her day, but how could she? Her best friend was stuck in game that could, if she completely understood what Celestia had said, kill her. How was she suppose to go about her day as if that wasn't happening?

Eventually, once the crowd was mostly gone, Vinyl slowly made her way back to her house. Once she was there, she sluggishly made her way through the house and into Octavia's room. She just stared at her floating friend, not knowing what to do at that point.

Reluctantly, she left the room and walked for her room. As she entered the room, she fell back on her haunches, her head suddenly spinning. It was almost to much for her to comprehend. The thought of her friend being stuck in a possible death game was a horrible thought, especially since she couldn't do anything about it.

But, she knew she was going to have to deal with it, since her only hope was the remaining Princesses.

With a regretful sigh, she stood back up and slowly began to get ready for a bath.

ooo000<^>000ooo
Three days later

Vinyl was a wreck. She'd barely slept in the past few days, she was too worried about Octavia. When ever she left the house, she walked as if in a dream. She hadn't even taken the time in the past few days to style her hair, as it just laid down naturally, hanging straight down. This, along with her bloodshot eyes, made her look completely depressing. Pitiful even.

Her producer and friend, Neon Lights, kept trying to get cheer her up. But not even he could help her, as she just stared blankly at him every time he spoke. The same could be said for everyone who spoke to her. A smile had not graced her face since the day of the incident. She was like a whole other pony.

She was currently laying on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. Her room was even worst than usual, as just the other day she had had a break down and completely destroyed her room in her rage. She hated not being able to do anything to help her, it was the worst feeling she'd ever felt.

Vinyl raised up out of bed and groaned in protest as she rolled off and onto her hooves. She made her way out of the room and into the kitchen, where there was barely any food left. She'd neglected going to the store, which she knows was a bad move. Instead of making food, she just sat down on the cold floor, staring out the kitchen window.

'I should have made her stay off of that game for the rest of the night,' Vinyl thought to her self the for hundredth time. She tried to not blame herself, but it was hard. Three days of living with guilt she knew she shouldn't feel was weight on her.

She slowly stood back up and walked to Octavia's room, again. She stepped inside and sat back down on her haunches, staring up at her friend. She knew she'd be okay, but she still worried about her.

What was she doing at that moment? Was she hiding scared like the Octavia she knew? Or was she different in that game; braver, stronger, more confident? She liked to think she was the latter.

A thought crept into her mind, the same thought she has every time she thinks about how to help her. Maybe she should go into the game? She shook her head sadly at this, knowing this was a bad idea.

'I can't go in there, I'd have no idea what to do once there anyways,' she thought, getting angry with herself. 'But if I do go, I can make sure Octavia stays safe. Not going would be selfish... or would going be selfish?'

She pounded her head with both of her front hooves in frustration, having already had this conversation with herself many times before. She sighed loudly and stared at the machine, trying to convince herself to use it, while at the same time trying to convince herself not to use it.

Suddenly, she stood up and walked over to the machine, and began to hit the buttons.

'Screw it, screw it, SCREW IT!' she said to herself as she quickly tried to work the machine. 'This is a bad idea, Vinyl... No screw you, screw that, and screw everything.'

Upon hitting the last button, she found herself being lifted off the ground, and before she could register anything else, her mind was plunged into a cold darkness.

Seconds passed, and nothing happened. She began to fear that something had gone wrong, but that fear was replaced with genuine terror as a voice suddenly rang out.

"Ho ho ho, what do we have here? A little pony voluntarily joining my game?" the disembodied voice echoed cheerfully through the dark void. "I'll say, I'd thought we'd have no more players after I enacted my plans. But, you are a pleasant surprise!"

Vinyl, while scared, did her best not to show it. She just frowned as she looked around the empty void.

"Cat got your tongue?" the voice asked. Suddenly, Vinyl found herself staring into the face of a cat, who had what appeared to be a disembodied tongue in its mouth. Her eyes widened in fear as she grabbed her mouth, finding her tongue was missing.

"Kinda scary when its literal, am I right?" the voice said cheerfully.

The cat disappeared, and to Vinyl's relief, she found that her tongue had returned to its rightful place.

"Hm," the voice sounded like it was trying to think of something to say. "Or are you just a mute?"

This caused Vinyl to glare at the void around her.

The voice just laughed, "Well, that's a new one." It laughed again as she felt something that felt like a talon and a paw grab her head and chin and start moving them, "I'm a pony, blah blah, look at me!"

When the unseen hands were removed from her head, she didn't seem to amused by this.

"Hey, lighten up, why don't ya?" the voice said as a bright light sown in her eyes. "You should feel honored, I usually don't mess with you ponies. But you are the first new player to come to this game since it really started three days ago."

The bright light disappeared and a door appeared. "Well, why don't you head on through that door and get started with the actual game, before I bring the cat back." This caused Vinyl to quickly run for the door, causing the voice too boom with laughter.

She crashed into the door, throwing it open in the process. As she tumbled into the room, she heard the door slam behind her. Vinyl sat up and looked around in confusion. She found herself in a rather small room, mostly bare save for a few pictures of scenery on the walls. The only piece of furniture in the room was a table with a book on it.

Not knowing what to do, she slowly walked up to the table. The book was already open, revealing a page that read, 'Name: Vinyl Scratch, Correct?'

Vinyl looked around, not seeing a quill anywhere. So she just nodded instead. Conveniently, this seemed to work as the page flipped on its own to reveal more words. 'Please choose a class.' Below this was a rather long list of class's.

She frowned, she didn't know anything about role play games like this. Most of the class's seemed familiar, like Warrior and Mage. But there were others like Aviator and Gunslinger that she had no idea what they meant. She began to wonder how she'd chose one, but a quill suddenly appeared next to the book.

She lifted it with her magic and looked over the long list of class's, not knowing if it mattered which one she chose. A few caught her eye, but one stood to her. A class called 'Techno-Unicorn'.

Upon touching the name with the quill, the page turned to reveal information about the class. It read; This class is only available to Unicorns. The Techno-Unicorn is a unique class, as it is the only class with the ability to craft and use all technology. The Techno is a DPS focused class, and specializes in burst damage and inflicting electric type damage. It can go head to head with almost anyone, and is perfect for both solo and group play. However, while it is the one of the most powerful class's, it has very little defense. The Techno can wear both light and medium armor, and it can use almost every weapon that is not under the 'extra heavy' weapon type. At level 5, the class unlocks the ability to craft the 'Tech body' armor type, and also the 'Tech armaments' weapon type.

Vinyl shrugged, deciding this class was probably the right one for her. She touched continue on the paper and the page turned again. This time it showed a few different names of what appeared to be cities and towns. 'Please choose a hometown' read the paper. She didn't recognize any of the names, so she chose at random.

'River Town'

The book flipped shut, and she heard the sound of a door creaking open behind her. She spun around to see the door to the room barely open. Cautiously, she walked over to the door and pulled it open to reveal a courtyard of some kind.

Vinyl carefully stepped through the door, looking around the empty courtyard. As soon as she was outside, the door slammed shut behind her. But when she looked behind her, the door was gone. Instead, behind her was nothing but open air, and a huge building not to far away.

This didn't sit well with her as she looked around, taking note of the walls around the courtyard. Then she noticed some saddlebags on a bench not to far away from her, with the words 'Retrieve bags' floating above them. She stepped over to the saddlebags and raised an eyebrow. Her name was etched into the sides of the bags, with her cutie mark just under it.

She picked them up and the words disappeared, but as she put them on she felt a strange sensation. Suddenly, her vision was filled with boxes and words. She jumped back and began to rub her eyes furiously. She slowly opened her eyes, but they were still there. Their sudden appearance had startled her, yet as she started to observe them, she noticed they weren't in her eyes, instead they were floating just in front of her. Upon looking them over, she realized they were little menus, some displaying boxes that said 'Inventory', 'Quest Log', 'Friends List', and many others.

All of this was very confusing for Vinyl, since she's never played anything like this before. She looked over all of the boxes, not seeing how she was going to be able to play the game with all of them blocking her view. But, just as she started to get annoyed, a box of text appeared before her, 'Use your thoughts to put away menus and bring them up.'. Upon seeing this, she frowned, not exactly sure what it meant.

'Go away menus?' she thought, but they didn't go away. 'All menus close," yet they still didn't close. She tried a few more phrases, but began to lose her patients. 'Clear Sight!' she yelled in her head, while at the same time letting out a growling sound. The menus instantly disappeared, leaving only a small box that showed what she thought was her health and a blue bar under it. Finally, with the menus finally out of her sight, she let out a relieved sigh.

'Inventory menu?' she thought, wanting to know how to bring them back up. The inventory box reappeared in front of her. She didn't have much, just a book titled 'Techno-Unicorn's guide' and some bread and water. She smiled as she raised her hoof to touch the book icon, but her hoof just passed through it. With a raised eyebrow, she tried a few more times but failed to select it each time. Finally, she tried to will it into existence. She thought about selecting it, and the book immediately appeared in front of her. This system will take some getting use too.

She frowned as she grabbed the book with her magic and opened it, curious as to what it would have in it.

"Abilities: The Techno-Unicorn starts would with only a few abilities. And will only gain a few more as they level up. You can also gain more abilities by crafting certain technology. Your current abilities are: Agile Body, Tech Crafter, Tech Hound, Data Leech, Gunmare, and Swordmare.

Current Abilities

Agile Body: You're incredibly agile! You can bend and twist in ways that you never knew you could. You reaction type is also increased! Nothing can touch you, just be prepared to feel the pain if something does actually hit you!

Tech Crafter: You have access to all recipes under the Technology crafting branch. But you can not use any of the other crafting professions.

Tech Hound: You're ability to use Technology is almost legendary! As a Techno-Unicorn, you are the only class able to use all of the technologies out there, bet everyone else is pretty jealous, uh? You can use technology to increase both your fighting ability and daily living!

Data Leech: Nothing gets past your calculating eyes! You are able to gather and process data on anything you fight. The longer the fight, the more you'll know of your opponent! It can also help you in your daily life aswell!

Gunmare: You can use all flintlock weapons, and even the more advanced firearms if you have the right permissions.

Swordmare: You can use all melee weapons that are classed as light to heavy.

General information

Combat: Combat in Reign of Chaos Online is very different from any of the primitive games you've played in the past. You do not select your abilities to use them, instead, they use you. During combat you are free to move and do as you please, and when you make an attack you don't have to think about the ability. For example; you have the ability to cripple an opponent, well instead of selecting said ability and letting the system do it for you, you instead just have to hit the opponent in the leg. The system will calculate if it is a success or not. It's that simple!

To put it simply, the abilities just aid you in being able to be fight. They are passive, and once you unlock all of them for your class, and with a little practice, you could become the best of your class.

Leveling: The max level is only 20. Leveling in Reign of Chaos Online is very different compared to other games that use leveling systems. To gain a level, it takes both EXP earned from killing monsters and questing, and it also is based on your current skill as a player. You can not simply just earn EXP to level up, you have to also improve as a player as well.

Crafting: In order to create anything, you need to have all of the necessary items. You can either collect these items out in the world, or trade for them. You can craft anywhere for most items, but some items require you to be at a specific workbench. These workbenches are located in most major cities.

Armor and Weapons: The gear in Reign of Chaos Online is not level locked. No matter what level you are, you can use any piece of armor or weapon that is available to your class. For example, a level 1 character can equip an item that was dropped by a end game raid boss. Just as long as their class allows use of that certain item. There are a few tiers for items: Common, uncommon, rare, mystic, legendary, and awaken.

Awaken items: Awaken items are incredible rare and powerful. Armor and weapons that are Awaken are in a sense alive. They can adapt and grow with the user, and can because of this, a level 1 with full awaken gear will never have to change their gear out, ever. Only dropped by world boss's at a 1% drop rate, the lowest in the game.

Loot and PVE (Player VS Environment): There are many ways to get items. Most are dropped from random monsters and quest, while some are specific to a certain monster and quest. Rare and legendary, even mystic, items are only dropped by either raid bosses or world bosses.

PVP (Player VS Player): There are two types of PVP, arena PVP and world PVP. Arena PVP is set in instances and usually have large prizes for the winner. These can either be to the death, first land a hit, or first to drop to 1 HP. World PVP is different, as the only prize you get is what the player was actively carrying at the time of their death. World PVP can happen anywhere, even in cities. The only place it is prohibited is INN's and Private Business's.

Death: When you die, you are resurrected at the last bed you slept in. DON'T DIE."

Vinyl frowned as she read the last part, as it had been amended. Probably after the game trapped everyone in it. She held the book up and thought about it going into her bags, and as it disappeared, the icon in her inventory reappeared. This caused her to smile.

Now that she had a handle on how to work the menus, she decided it was time to venture forth. She didn't see anywhere else to go, so she began to walk for the large building on the other side of the courtyard. As she walked along the path, little notes began to appear on the sides of the path.

'Don't forget to pick up and equip your gear, Adventure!'

'Tip: The most common way to get Gold is to farm monsters!'

'Stay out of dungeons unless in a group!'

Most of the notes were common sense warnings, while others were just tips. Vinyl read each one as she passed them, taking note of how to work everything. When she reached the end of the path, she found herself at a stall with a old pony behind it.

" 'ello Missy!" he said in a happy voice, "Here ta pick up yer packages?"

Vinyl didn't know what to do, so she just nodded, which caused the old stallion to smile brightly.

He reached behind the stall and lifted up a wrapped package and pushed it across the table towards her. "Dat one is on da house, little Missy!" he said in a almost rehearsed fashion.

Vinyl grabbed the package, unnerved by the way the pony was talking and acting. She just nodded her thanks and quickly walked around the stall, heading for the large doors on the building behind it.

"Good luck, Adventure!" the pony called after her, waving in a robotic fashion.

With a shiver, Vinyl pushed open the large wooden doors and stepped inside. She looked around, confused. The building was mostly empty, as in the entire building was void of most of the interior structure you'd expect to see in a large building like this. From the outside, it looked like this place had had at least five floors, but on the inside you could see all the way to the roof. It was like someone only made the building for exterior appearance only.

The only thing in the building was a single table with a mirror on it, which she walked over to. She lifted the bag up and sat it on the table. She tried to open it a few times with her hooves, but couldn't seem to tear it open. Finally, she noticed a faint white aura would appear around it every time she looked at it directly. When she focused on it, a small box appeared above it. 'Open?' She furrowed her eyebrow at this, thinking this world was indeed strange. She mentally selected the option.

As soon as she did this, another box opened above it, showing the packages contents. She mentally selected each one to see what they were.

Techno's Jacket, Rusted Flintlock Pistol, Rusty Longsword, Rusty Shortsword, 5 Gold, and a item called 'Harvesting Tool'.

Only two options were available on the box. 'Equip all to available slots, and Take All'. She chose Equip all.

Suddenly, a fuzzy filling rushed through her body as she felt the items appear on her body. She shook her body, feeling the items shift with her body naturally. With a small smile, she turned to the mirror. The first thing she noticed, finally, was that her hair was still hanging down, she'd have to style it at some point if she could. The jacket was just a plain brown jacket that looked something like a mechanic would wear. The two swords were sheathed along her left side, while the pistol was holstered on her right side.

Vinyl honestly didn't know how she felt fighting with weapons like those, especially this pistol thing, but she knew she probably wouldn't have a choice. Besides, it could be fun, right?

With nothing else in the building, she left the table and walked for the opposite side to another door. But as she neared it, some text appeared in front of the door. 'Defeat the Enemies to leave'.

She instantly seized up at this, not expecting to be thrown into a fight this soon. Off to either side of her, she heard what sounded like groans. Upon looking to her left, she saw a Diamond Dog type creature clawing its way up through the ground, a sword in its paws. Another one was also coming up on her right side.

The two Diamond Dog's didn't look right, they were all gray and had bright yellow eyes. They let out howls of rage and rushed towards her.

Vinyl, eyes wide, looked between the two dogs as they rushed her from either side. '... Ah screw it!' using her magic, she pulled out the longsword, not knowing how to fight with two weapons at once. The one on her left reached her first and took a swing at her, aiming to cleave her head off in one sweep. But, to Vinyl's amazement, she weaved her body away from the blade and struck out with her own sword, knocking off half of its health. With her eyes wide in amazement, she somehow dodged the second dogs attack aswell, countering its attack with one of her own.

She kicked back away from them, and acting on instinct, shot forward. She performed two quick slices with the sword, depleting the health of both dogs instantly. As they fell and disappeared in burst of glittering shards, she stood there baffled.

She had no idea how she had been able to do that, but to her time had almost seemed to slow down as they attacked. She had just done what she knew she had to do, even though she'd never held a weapon of any kind before in her life. This caused her smile brightly, she was indeed going to enjoy this a little more than she probably should.

With a bit of swag in her step, she walked for the door and kicked it open. She walked through the doors and into a mostly empty street, with buildings lining the streets. Before she could pick a direction to start walking, a pony suddenly ran into her.

She let out a yelp as a stallion with wide eyes grabbed her by the shoulders and began to shake her violently. "You're a new player?! Did the Princesses send you?! Have you figured out a way to get out of this hell hole?!"

Vinyl could only shake her head, as she was very surprised by the way this pony was acting.

He slowly stopped shaking her, a look of despair washing over his face. "Well... shit." He stepped back, looking deflated, and forced a smile. "Sorry about that, just thought you were here to help is all."

Now that he wasn't shaking her, Vinyl could look him over. He was wearing what looked to be plate armor, with a sword strapped to his side. He appeared to be a blue Earth pony, but she had no idea what class he was suppose to be.

He saw her looking him over and raised an eyebrow. "Say, what drove you to come into this game? Surely you know what has happened here, right?"

To this, Vinyl nodded, causing the stallion to frown.

"Then why?"

Vinyl thought of how to respond, but ended up shrugging.

He tilted his head, "What? Cat got your tongue or something?"

Vinyl instantly grabbed her mouth with her hoof and looked around, fearing she'd see a cat lurking around. Luckily, there were no hell cats around, this time.

Her reaction seemed to confuse the stallion even more. "Can't talk or something?" Vinyl nodded. "Well, you're screwed here then."

She frowned at this and waved him off with a hoof.

He didn't budge, "What class are you? Please don't tell me warrior or mage, we have to many of them as is."

Vinyl thought for a moment before bringing out the book in her inventory and showing it to him. His eyes widened in surprise at reading the title.

"Techno-Unicorn?!" he yelled in surprise, getting the attention of the few ponies that were within earshot. "You're the first one I've come across here! Oh my Celestia, this is amazing!"

Vinyl gave him a questioning look, to which he laughed.

"You have to team up with me, you just have to Miss..." he looked around her at her saddlebags, "Vinyl Scratch." he looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "As in DJ PON-3 Vinyl Scratch?"

This caused Vinyl to smile as she nodded.

The stallion wavered a bit before holding out a hoof, "I... wow... I'm Cobalt..."

She gave him a single hoofed salute and shook his hoof. Cobalt almost squealed, but contained himself.

"I always go to your raves and events when you come to Fillydelphia!" then a look of shock covered his face. "I'm not stalking you!"

Vinyl let out a laughing sound, and slapped him on the shoulder, giving him a confident smile. This seemed to calm him down a bit.

Cobalt smiled back at her, having regained his confidence and composure. "I didn't know you were mute, and that doesn't make you..." he started to continue, but Vinyl held up a hoof, not wanting him to embarrass himself any further.

Vinyl looked around, noticing that a few ponies had taken interest in their conversation, and looked back to Cobalt, who also seemed to have noticed.

"Eh, well I think I should walk you to a INN where its safe to talk, would that be alright?"

She nodded in response. He turned and began to walk down the street, and she followed.

As they walked, he looked over at her, examining her. "I almost didn't recognize you without your glasses and hair down. But you're still the awesome looking."

Vinyl rolled her eyes and nodded. She glanced back and to her displeasure saw that three ponies had followed them.

"Don't worry," Cobalt said with a wink. "I'm a level 3, they won't bother us."

This calmed her nerves a bit, but she couldn't help but look back again. This time, one of the ponies blew a kiss after her. This caused her to want to stop and face them now. But, she had to be careful, this wasn't the real world. And if level really played that big of a role in fighting, then they might be able to beat her based solely on their levels alone. So, she elected to ignore them.

"So, what brings you to Reign of Chaos anyways?" he asked, but when he saw her amused look, slapped himself. "Right, can't talk. Hm well, are you here for fun?" She shook her head. "To save us?" She hesitated, but shook her head again. "Eh, to save a loved one?" A small smile graced her lips as she nodded.

"Ah, coltfriend?" he asked, sounding disappointed. Vinyl let out a low chuckle and shook her head no. He brightened for only a second as he asked. "Um, marefriend?" To this, Vinyl made a fake gagging action, tongue out and everything. He just laughed at this, "Gotcha. Sibling then?" She thought about it for a second, then nodded but held up a hoof and shook it a bit. "Ah, so someone who is like family. Okay, I got it. You came here to save someone dear to you and are willing to risk your life to do so. Am I right?"

Vinyl held up a hoof and gave a firm nod.

"Then I shall help you!" Cobalt declared very loudly. "I, Knight Cobalt, level 3 will fight for you, DJ PON-3!" But at the shake of her head, he said in a sheepish voice. "Errr... Vinyl Scratch!" She nodded in approval at this.

"I don't know if that's the real PON-3, but close enough," came a hushed voice from the three ponies following them. But, they ignored them.

"The INN is just around the corner, Vinyl," Cobalt said, sounding happy to be able to use her real name and not her stage name.

As they reached the INN, Vinyl cast one last glance back at the three ponies, but they didn't show any sign of following them into the INN. Relieved, she stepped in after Cobalt.

The INN was absolutely packed with ponies, most of them wearing assorted pieces of armor and clothing. Most of them didn't even take note of them as they entered, as most of them were laughing and talking in groups.

"Pretty lively for a place in a game that wants to kill us, huh?" Cobalt asked as he walked over to the bar and began to speak with the pony that looked to be the bartender.

Vinyl, however, stayed by the door, scanning the faces of all the ponies. Looking for the one that mattered. But even she knew the odds of her friend being here were slim. When she was confident Octavia wasn't among the crowd, she let out a sad whimper. To be honest, she had hopped against hope that'd she'd get lucky and just find her as soon as she entered the game.

"Are you okay?" Cobalt asked as he walked up to her, taking note of her sad appearance.

The only response Vinyl gave him was a nod as she scanned the room again just to be sure.

"Well, I got us a room," At this, she looked at him and gave him a firm look, almost a glare. He instantly held up his hooves. "Wait, not a one bed room! A two bed! I would never try anything like that! I swear it!"

She held the stare, but gave a single nod. She then waved a hoof for him to lead the way.

Cobalt nervously nodded and began to lead her through the ponies, heading towards the stairs in the back of the room. Once they were on the second floor, he walked down a row of doors and used a key to open one of them. He stepped in and motioned for her to follow.

Once in the room, he shut the door and motioned to the beds, which true to his word there were indeed two of them. "Take a pick, I guess."

Vinyl walked over to the closest one and shrugged as she sat down. She looked around and saw a quill and paper. With a smile she used her magic to bring them over to her, she then wrote a question on it and held it up for him to see.

He leaned in and read it aloud, "Why are we in a room? I just got here, I'm not sleeping yet." he chuckled. "We're not sleeping, we needed privacy to speak, and ponies can't enter a room that is owned by someone else." He walked over to the other bed and jumped up on it, "So, first question. Who exactly are you looking for?"

'My friend Octavia Melody, but I don't know what class she plays or where she is exactly,' she wrote, a worried look on her face.

Cobalt rubbed his chin, thinking. "Well, to be honest, I have no idea how you'd find her. When this was just a game, you could search for players by using their names. But that feature doesn't work anymore for some reason, along with a few others."

Vinyl tapped the quill on the paper before writing, 'I don't know. But if you are willing to help, you could be my voice. You'll need to ask the questions I can't."

A tiny smile fought to be on display on his face as he read this, but he tried to keep a straight face. "Yeah, I can do that. No problem." He then looked her over again. "But, if you're going to be doing anything, you're going to need to raise your level, a lot."

Nodding, she wrote, 'How do I do that?'

"Lots of ways," he said while pulling out a map of some kind. "Questing and killing things is the best way to gain EXP, but both of those are to dangerous nowadays. Plus you need to actually learn how to fight aswell. But I think if we go to..." he paused as he looked over the map. "... The Scrap Yard, I can help you stay alive as you kill things. It's a level 3 area, but if I hurt things enough for you to land the killing blow, you'll level up ridiculously fast!"

Vinyl smiled at this, 'Thank you, Cobalt. I'm happy we met, when can we go?"

Cobalt seemed to glow with emotions as he smiled like a doofus, "Well, now if you want."

With a extended hoof, Vinyl smirked as she held up the paper in the other hoof. 'Aw yeah!'

Cobalt slammed his hoof into hers, mimicking her smirk. "This is going to be awesome!"

ooo000<^>000ooo

This was not awesome! Vinyl was barely able to avoid getting hit by the stingers on the scorpions that surrounded her and Cobalt. Even Cobalt, a level 3, was struggling. They'd only been in the Scrap Yard for an hour, and she'd only advanced to level 2 in that whole time.

She let out a squeak of surprise as a rather large scorpion almost pinched her head off with its pincers. She ducked under it at the last second and laid into it with a flurry of slices with her sword. As it burst into particles, she felt the sting of one of their stingers slam into her side. She flicked her sword back and sliced off the stinger, but the damage had been done. A green bar appeared in her vision, slowly draining, but as it drained, so did her health. Which she didn't have a lot of!

Vinyl wobbled around, barely able to deflect the attacks of the other scorpions as her vision shimmered.

"Vinyl!" Cobalt yelled as he suddenly appeared in front of her. He held up his hoof and waved it in front of himself. A wave of relief washed over Vinyl as the poison seemed to disappear and her health began to slowly tick back up. "Knights can remove conditions and do minor healing," Cobalt said with a wink as he spun around to block the attack of a large scorpion.

Now that she wasn't hindered by the poison, Vinyl went back on the offensive, now a little more careful of the stingers.

It wasn't long till it was just the two of them standing in the empty yard surrounded by scrap.

Breathing heavily, Cobalt let out a laugh. "Damn, there were more of them today than usual."

Vinyl gave a shrug, a smile firmly planted on her face as she opened her 'character screen' and looked at herself. Level 2, not too bad for a little over an hour of fighting. Thanks to fighting the scorpions in groups, she's been able to learn how to both dodge and counterattack.

"Here," Cobalt said as he walked up and dropped a few items in front of her. "Those dropped, and I can't use any of them."

Vinyl looked through the pile, and was please to be able to replace her longsword with a better quality one. She even was able to replace the jacket with a blue one with a few better stats, and finally she had boots, which increased her speed a bit.

"Ready to head to a different area?" Cobalt asked, adjusting his armor a bit.

As she nodded, she noticed something hiding behind a pile of scrap. Upon looking directly at it, she realized it was a pony, but before she could do anything they ducked away. This caused her to feel a little uneasy.

Cobalt noticed her looking past him and looked back aswell, but didn't see anything. "Something over there?"

Vinyl made a grunting sound as confirmation.

"I got it, stay here," he said as he drew his sword in his mouth and took off in the direction of the figure.

As she stood there alone, she began to hear something trying to sneak around behind the piles of scrap. Just as she was about to follow after Cobalt, she heard a voice speak in a low yet commanding tone behind her.

"Don't you move, bitch."

She spun around, sword already drawn, not caring to listen to the voices command. Behind her stood one of the ponies that had followed her, clad in thick cloth armor and a sword at his side. He appeared to be a Pegasus.

He glared at her, clenching his teeth, "I said don't move, you idiot!" he took a step towards her, but when she took a step towards him in return, he stopped. "What, you think gaining a few levels makes you tough shit? Well let me tell you this, I'm an Assassin class and a Pegasus. Plus I'm a level 3. There's no way you, no matter what stupid class you are, can stand up against me."

'This guy likes to monologue...' Vinyl thought to herself, her eye twitching a bit.

Her silence seemed to please the pony as he began to walk towards her. "Nothing to say? No comeback? Yeah, you're defiantly not DJ PON-3, she'd be the kind of mare to throw all kinds of insults at her soon to be capture." He finished his sentence with a wink.

Vinyl just gave him a 'are you serious?' face and darted straight at him. Her speed caught him off guard, but he drew his sword at the last second, in his mouth, and blocked her attack. But he wasn't fast enough to catch her second one as it came in from the other side. The attack caused him to panic and jump back, taking to the sky as soon as he was away from her. A small, yet noticeable, portion of his health gone.

"Bitch packs a punch," he mumbled as he flew down at her. She easily sidestepped his attack, and did the same for each of his passes. This seemed to anger the stallion. "Either fight me or give up! You're making me angry!"

Vinyl stuck out her tongue at the stallion.

"I'm going to cut that damn tongue off, you whore!" he roared as he flew back down at her, but as he passed, Vinyl sidestepped and reached out. She latched onto his cloth armor and held on firmly. He obviously wasn't stronger than her as he was suddenly pulled from the sky and into the ground. Before he could recover, Vinyl began to wail on him with a fury of strikes from her sword, causing his health to slowly deplete.

"Stop!" he screamed, but she didn't as his health reached a quarter of the way empty. Just as it was about to reach zero, he cried out, "You're killing me!"

This caused Vinyl to hesitate. Bad move. The stallion smirked and suddenly slammed a knife into her throat, causing her to stumble back, eyes wide as her health began to be drained away by the knife and a new bar with the word 'Bleeding' above it.

"You stupid little bitch," the stallion said as he pulled himself to his feet. "Too afraid to kill the bad stallion, you'll wish you had here soon."

Vinyl coughed violently as she desperately pulled at the knife, finally ripping it from her neck, slowing the drain on her health. But the bleeding effect was still there, and wasn't draining fast enough.

"Assassin's can coat their blades in poison," he monologues as he grabbed her by the hair and looked into her eyes as she panicked. "We specialize in poisoning and bleeding our enemies, and I think you're finding that out right now." A crazy smile crossed his face. "I'm going to watch you die, right in front of me."

Thinking fast, Vinyl used her magic to reach for her fallen sword, but as her horn began to glow the stallion hit it with his hoof. Her magic instantly cut out and a searing pain shot through her head as her blue bar began to flash yellow, along with her flashing health bar.

"What are you going to do, bitch?" the stallion asked in a seductive voice. "Say you're going to die and you're sorry, and I'll stop the bleeding."

Vinyl stopped struggling and looked at the stallion, who began to smile victoriously. She then shot he head forward and latched onto his throat with her teeth. As he let out a yelp of shock, she bite down and pulled as hard as she could. A spray of pixels hit her in the face as he let out a final scream before bursting into a cloud of shiny shards.

She collapsed, coughing as her health neared the end. Just as she was about to give up hope, she saw a red vile in the pile of gear that the stallion had dropped when he died. Her magic was still showing a yellow flashing bar, so she weakly crawled over to the pile and pulled the vile to herself. She pulled the cork and instantly drained the red bitter liquid. Her health stopped going down, but it didn't start going up either. The potion seems to have been just enough to halt the bleeding, but the bar was still there. She just hoped the potion would last long enough for the bleeding to stop.

"Vinyl?" came Cobalt's worried voice from off to the side. She weakly raised a hoof, the low health and bleeding making it hard to move. "Oh shit, Vinyl! What the hell happened?!"

She only gave him a halfhearted wave of her hoof as she laid there. Slowly, she began to motion to herself.

He seemed to get the hint as he waved his hoof at her, causing the cooling sensation to wash over her. With a sigh of relief, with the bleeding gone and her health slowly raising, she stood up.

Cobalt took notice of the pile of items next to her, and frowned. "There was one over here too, huh?" when she nodded, he sighed. "Damn it, I should have known. There were two of them over there too, apparently they were hoping you'd run over there alone. Bad day for them." He then looked back to the pile, "Was he difficult?"

Vinyl looked at the pile and shrugged, a smug smile on her face.

"You're one tough cookie, Vinyl," Cobalt praised with a smile.

Vinyl rolled her eyes as she began to pick through the gear on the ground. She took all of his Gold and small items, and replaced her sword with his. She left the clothes there, not wanting to wear them for obvious reasons.

"Still up to some adventuring into other areas?" Cobalt asked, already walking off.

'Hell yeah,' Vinyl thought with a smirk as she followed after, not even fazed by what had just happened.

ooo000<^>000ooo
Six days later

"Are you sure you haven't come across an Earth pony named Octavia Melody?" Cobalt asked the stallion clad in plate armor, who seemed to be annoyed.

"No, now get out of my face!" he yelled as he pushed past Cobalt and continued down the road.

Cobalt looked defeated as he turned to Vinyl, who was standing not to far away. She gave him a sad smile.

This seemed to give Cobalt more energy as he stood up straight and turned back to the ponies who were walking past them. He reached out and stopped a mare and asked, "Have you seen a Earth pony by the name of Octavia Melody recently?"

The mare raised an eyebrow and shook her head as she walked away.

As Cobalt began to say something, a small voice came from the crowd. "Is she all gray?" A small mare walked up to him, dressed in robes.

Vinyl instantly shot forward, shaking her head yes over and over again.

Cobalt grinned, "Apparently so, you've seen her?"

The mare nodded, looking at Vinyl, "Four days ago in Last Bastion, she was with a few other ponies. I'm pretty sure her name was Octavia, since I remember her yelling it a few times as she and a few others spoke to a crowd."

Vinyl brought out her quill and paper and began to write. 'Where's that? Is she okay?'

The mare read this, then looked at Vinyl with a worried look, "Oh my, did something happen to your voice?" Vinyl furiously shook her head and pointed at the paper, urging her to answer. The mare smiled a bit, "Well, it's two days from here. And she looked like she was alright, she was laughing if I remember correctly. I think she was apart of a guild that was getting ready to venture into the dungeon? I can't remember, all I know is that they were openly recruiting."

This put Vinyl at ease, as she now knew her friend was alive and well. She began to write on the paper again, 'Thank you so much! Cobalt, do you know where Last Bastion is?'

"North?" he asked, looking to the mare.

"East," she corrected, then she looked back to Vinyl. "Why can't you speak?"

Vinyl frowned, but replied anyway, 'Born this way.'

"Oh my," the mare said as a sad look crossed onto her face. "I'm so sorry you poor thing..." she began to move in for a hug. But Vinyl's hoof shot up and held her at bay, her hoof on her face. She shook her head at the mare, as if giving a warning.

The mare pulled back and collected herself. "I'm sorry about that. My name is Star, I'm a level 5 Cleric."

"Just Star?" Cobalt asked, when she nodded, he shrugged. "Well, I'm Cobalt, level 5 Knight and loyal protector of DJ PON-3!" He pounded his chest as he said the last part.

Star raised an eyebrow at his statement, but didn't reply as she turned to Vinyl, who had just finished writing on her paper and had turned it to face her.

'Vinyl Scratch, level 6 Techno-Unicorn. Don't mind Cobalt, he's a fancolt.'

After reading this, Star's eyes widened. "You're a Techno-Unicorn?! Wait... You're the real DJ PON-3?!" At Vinyl's nod, she let out a excited giggle, followed by her collapsing onto the ground. Her back leg twitching a bit.

"Did she just die?" Cobalt asked as he inched over to her and gave her a slight kick.

'She hasn't become pixels yet, so...' Vinyl wrote with a small smile.

Star didn't stay down long though, as she slowly came too and stood back up. "Sorry about that, just got a little too excited there..." She looked back at Vinyl, unable to control herself. "You know, every party needs a healer."

"I think we're good," Cobalt said, but Vinyl held up a hoof as she wrote on her paper.

'Can you get us to Last Bastion?'

"I can!" Star almost screamed, dancing in place. "I just came from there, but for you, I'd go anywhere! Thank you thank you thank you!"

Cobalt seemed to whine at this, giving Vinyl a pleading look. But she just shrugged in response, not caring about his displeasure at them having a new travel companion.

'Then lead the way.' Vinyl wrote, giving a wave with her hoof.

As they began to walk, with Star gushing over Vinyl, Cobalt hung back a bit, grumbling to himself.

"I could have gotten us there..."

ooo000<^>000ooo

"If you've only been here a week, how have you already reached level 6? Most ponies have been here for months and haven't even passed level 10 yet," Star asked as the three of them walked down a path that cut through a dense forest.

"She's a fast learner," Cobalt praised as he held his head high. "She's already passed me in both level and skill. I blame it on her being awesome."

Vinyl smile sheepishly and waved off his complement as she used her magic to write a reply. 'I don't know, I've just been doing what Cobalt has been telling me to do.'

Star chuckled as she seemed to pull up her status menu. "Well, I've been here a month, and I've been stuck on level 5 for a while now. I just can't seem to figure out how to improve myself any further."

"Do you just heal?" Cobalt inquired, to which she nodded. "Then that's your problem, you're just focusing on one thing. You should try and mix it up a bit, throw in some fighting with the healing. And before you know it, you'll be moving up in levels."

"I'm not much of a fighter," she said with a nervous smile. "I've never been able to get into it, and now that this game is real and we can really die, I think my skills would be more useful in keeping everyone alive rather than helping kill things."

"Nonsense," Cobalt said with a stomp, almost tripping over himself in the process. "Just healing will keep everyone alive, yes, but if that's all you do then ponies could die because they're taking to much damage and you can't out heal it. Healing is great and all, but healing by itself is almost useless in this game. You have to be able to fight if you want to live."

Star pulled her hood down further over her head, "I know..."

Vinyl punched Cobalt in the shoulder, giving him a glare. Her notebook floated next to her, 'Don't be an ass.'

Cobalt frowned, but eventually sighed in defeat. "Look, Star, if you want to just be a healer, than I guess there's no harm in it as long as you're in a group." This seemed to cheer her up a bit, but Cobalt didn't seem very pleased with himself after saying that.

They walked in silence for a bit afterward, seeming to have nothing else to talk about. The forest around them began to slowly thin out as they seemed to be coming to the end of it, and more and more sand began to appear around them. Which indicated they would be coming up on a desert area soon.

As they walked, Vinyl began to write again. When she finished she held it up for Star to read. 'So tell me about dungeons. You said Octavia was with a group or guild and was about to head into one, but why would she? What are the benefits of going into dungeons? Because from what I've heard, they're almost certain death since you can easily get lost.'

Star furrowed her brow as she read the note, and when she spoke, she seemed to be confused on how to answer, "Well, it's complicated... at a certain point, I think level 9, it becomes incredibly difficult to gain levels, since at that point you might be at your limit of how much more you can personally improve. So everyone is trying to find out ways to gain extra levels and reach the level cap. Since I think the highest level player around is like level 14 or so, even before the game changed. I mean, that's why I think they were heading into the dungeon. Plus, dungeons have the most valuable loot drops. Only dungeon bosses drop mystic items, I believe." She paused for a moment, tapping her chin. "There's also things called Raids, which are harder than dungeons, but there's only two and neither of them have been opened yet. But no one knows how to open them yet."

"I wonder if those Raids are the key to leaving this place," mused Cobalt.

"Who knows," Star said with a shrug. "All I know is that a lot of ponies have died going into those dungeons, and is the main reason I left Last Bastion."

'What do you mean?' wrote Vinyl, a worried look on her face.

Star pulled her hood back, a small frown on her face. "All of the large guilds in that town was forcing all of the smaller guilds to go into the dungeon and bring them any loot they found. When all of the smaller guilds either ran away or died, they began to force everyone else who wasn't in a guild to go in. I didn't want to be one of those people, so I just left. And now I'm going back, I must be stupid..." then she looked at Vinyl with a smile, "Or I'm just starstruck."

'Don't get yourself hurt on my account,' Vinyl wrote with a caring expression.

This caused Star to become visibly overjoyed as she suddenly latched onto Vinyl, giving her a tight hug. "You care about me!"

Vinyl struggled against the hug, and when she finally was able to break it, she held up the notebook between them. 'I care about my friends, but don't do that again.'

"We're friends?!" Star cried out in joy as she tried to move in for another hug, but Vinyl swiftly jumped over her and landed behind her.

"Come on you two, the more we play around, the longer this journey is going to be," Cobalt yelled back at them from up ahead, clearly not enjoying the third well in their party.

Star didn't reply, but she pulled her hood back up and began to excitedly mumble to herself as she began to follow after him. Vinyl, while use to dealing with fans, seemed a bit worried about having their new healer being a fanfilly. She just hoped she didn't have a freakout during a encounter and put herself at risk, or the rest of the party.

Despite her concerns, Vinyl didn't voice them, instead, she just caught up with her friends. Hopefully, they wouldn't run into any trouble along the way.

"Aw shit," came Cobalt's worried voice from up ahead as he reached the edge of the forest, with a desert immediately starting where the forest ended.

"What? It's just a desert, I had no problems crossing it," Star said as she caught up to him and stood along side him.

"Not the desert, but that," he said as he pointed to the distance.

When Star looked to where he was pointing, she took a step back. "Oh... that...."

Vinyl quickly caught up and tried to spot what they were looking at. But all she saw was a statue off in the distance. It appeared to be in the shape of a thin, large Diamond Dog. She gave them both a questioning look, to which Cobalt smiled nervously.

"Yeah, you probably don't know what that is," he then looked back towards the statue. "That, is a Guardian. They're stone warriors, always above level 10, and are a very rare spawn. Usually, they spawn outside of dungeons, but the nearest dungeon is all the way in Last Bastion. And to my knowledge, they don't even spawn near that one."

'So why is it here?'

"No idea..." mumbled Cobalt. "Unless the game has had a recent change, then it shouldn't be here. It's basically a mini world boss. Which is why they spawn near dungeons."

'Can we just go around it?'

"Impossible," answered Star, seeming like she wanted to cry. "Once you see a Guardian, you're locked into combat with it. If you try to leave, it'll just chase you down. That's why you don't go to dungeons without a group, because on the off chance one spawns, you'll be ready. But we're not a dungeon group."

Vinyl drew her sword and smiled confidently, 'Then we just have to kill it.'

Cobalt shook, "New players are always too damn eager." But he smiled as he drew his sword, holding it in his mouth.

"Awww..." Star whined, but she drew his chimes from her side and cast a spell on them. "Well, we're probably going to die... but I've buffed you guys with a speed enhancement."

Vinyl turned to them and gave a salute, and in a flash, she spun around and took off towards the Guardian. She may indeed of been a bit to eager. The other two quickly began to run after her, with Cobalt cursing the entire run.

As she neared the Guardian, she noticed that it was rather large, almost the size of a three story house! But, size didn't matter, because the bigger they are, the slower they are! She smirked as she saw it raise its large arm and draw a huge silver sword. She came to a stop in front of the Guardian, waiting for it to make an attack so she could gauge its attack speed.

To her surprise, its arm shot out and the sword came zooming straight at her at an incredible speed. Her eyes widened, and she barely jumped back in time to get out of the way of the blade. But just as she landed on her hooves, the Guardian had already began advancing on her. She tried to dash forward to slice at its leg as she ducked an attack, but before she could reach it, the Guardian suddenly dashed to the side. Apparently, it could dodge too.

"Don't fight it alone, dammit!" Cobalt yelled as he finally reached them and moved in on the Guardian. The Guardian swung its sword straight at him, but thanks to his high strength, he was able to block the entire attack with just his sword. However, the force of the attack was enough to send him skidding backwards on the ground.

Vinyl took this moment to move in and slice away at its leg, making a few successful strikes before it jumped away from her. But to her horror, its health bar had barely gone down, almost unnoticeable.

"Slice and Thrust type attacks don't work against stone!" Star yelled as she cast a spell on Cobalt, giving him a defense buff.

'Then what do I do?!' Vinyl thought to herself as the Guardian advanced on her. She desperately dodged its attacks, only getting hit once. However, that one hit knocked off more than half of her health. This wasn't good.

"Careful!" screamed Star as she cast a healing spell, causing Vinyl's health to refill very quickly.

Cobalt, finally having caught up to the Guardian, began to trade blows with the stone giant. His health was being knocked away very quickly, but the healing coming from Star was just enough to keep him from going down below half health. The Guardian's health, however, was barely going down at all.

"Use your flintlock!" Star commanded, sweat pouring down her face as she strained herself to keep putting out healing spells on Cobalt.

Vinyl, even after all this time, had not once used her flintlock. Sure, she'd replaced it with a better one, but she didn't even know how to use it. She had the basics down, as far as point and shoot goes. But reloading? Never learned.

With a hiss of annoyance at herself, she pulled out the pistol and fired, not worried about missing since the giant was currently preoccupied at duel exchanging with Cobalt. The flintlock roared as the bullet flew out and hit the Guardian in the back, knocking down a small bit of health. While not much, it was better than the damage she had done with her sword. Now, she just had to figure out how reloading worked...

"Just let it recharge!" Star called out, her stance starting to waver as she strained herself. "Firearms have a cool down between each use! No reloading required! Just wait for it to cool down... Gah!" She suddenly fell to the ground, having run herself dry of magic.

"Crap!" Cobalt yelped as he went on the defensive, his health slowly dropping with each hit he blocked.

Not knowing what else to do, Vinyl charged back into the fray and began to dance around the giant, slicing away with her sword and firing the pistol whenever it would let her do so. With Cobalt holding its attention, she was able to dodge most of its attacks that it threw her way. That didn't last, as it suddenly shot away from them, its health now at 50%.

"Phase 2 incoming," Cobalt said as he panted, sweat pouring off of him.

Vinyl didn't have time to ask what phase 2 meant, because the Guardian threw its sword to the side and suddenly went down on all fours. It let out a howl of rage and its eyes suddenly became a blaze with fire. It began to bound towards them, growling the whole way.

As it reached them, Vinyl sidestepped out of the way and jumped onto its back. Cobalt, however, wasn't as fast, as he held up his sword and was thrown to the side as the giant slammed into him.

With her own fury, Vinyl began to slice and shoot everything she could on its back. The Guardian began to jump around, trying to get her off, but her agility was just high enough for her to be able to keep her balance and stay up. When it suddenly threw itself backwards, aiming to slam its back and her into the ground, she agilely maneuvered her way around to its front. As it slammed into the ground, she jumped towards its face and began to assault it with a flurry of strikes and blast. The giant howled in pain as it suddenly grabbed her in its stony paw and began to squeeze.

As Vinyl's health bar began to rapidly drop, she quickly, almost on instinct, brought up her inventory and selected an item. A small apple sized ball appeared in front of herself and she immediately grabbed it with her magic and threw it at the face of the Guardian. The moment it made contact, it exploded, causing it to release her and grab its face as it howled in agony.

The moment she was released, she landed on its stomach and jumped off, aiming to regroup with Cobalt and finish the giant. But the moment she hit the ground, the giant suddenly kicked out with its back leg and sent her flying across the ground. She skidded and bounced across the loose sand a couple of times before coming to a stop. She slowly climbed to her hooves, and almost had an heart attack when she saw her health bar. 4% health remaining.

She quickly pulled out two health potions and downed them, but her health only began to fill up at a moderate pace. Not fast enough to get her back into the fight immediately.

"Stay back for now, Vinyl," Cobalt called out to her, his health now back to full. "I'll finish this damn thing off."

The Guardian slowly got back on all fours, and to everyone's amusement, its face was now deformed thanks to the explosive that she'd thrown at it. It began to charge straight for Vinyl, ignoring Cobalt entirely in its rage.

"Oh hell no!" Cobalt roared as he intercepted the giant and brought his sword down in a downward strike. The giant's face made contact with the blade, and to Vinyl's amazement, its body came to a complete halt as its head was slammed into the ground by the blade.

As her health slowly regenerated, she stood there, mouth agape. She had no idea Cobalt had had that kind of strength this whole time. But then she noticed that he was giving off a blue aura, as if his body was smoking. A ability maybe?

Cobalt let out a roar as he began to slam his sword into the head of the giant over and over again, knocking down a bit of its health with each strike. But before he could land the killing blow, it suddenly pulled its head back, causing him to miss. It then rammed its head into him, sending him flying straight towards Vinyl.

She stepped to the side as Cobalt went flying past her and charged the almost dead giant. It tried to strike out at her with its paw, but she flipped over it and slammed her sword straight down into its head. The sword shattered on impact, but it had inflicted just enough damage to finish off the creature. It looked up at her and seemed to glare as it burst into a large amount of pixels. Just as it burst into pixels, Vinyl could have sworn she heard the distant laughter of a crazy pony. It sounded almost familiar, but it was so faint she could have imagined it.

With the Guardian vanquished, Vinyl fell back on her back, looking up at the sky, exhausted. A new box appeared in front of her, one she'd never seen before. 'Congratulations! Feat of Strength accomplished!' and under it was a icon of a package. She didn't know what do do, so she chose the accept option, causing the box to close and the package to appear in her inventory, along with 30 Gold.

'Shit man..." she thought to herself as she smiled up at the sky. She lay there for a few more moments before forcing herself to get up and check on her companions. Cobalt seemed to be fine, as he was sluggishly walking her way. But Star was still laid out on the ground where she'd fallen earlier.

As she neared her, she took note that Star was obviously unconscious. She quickly pulled out a health potion, but Cobalt's yell stopped her.

"Don't give her a health potion, give her a mana potion," he advised as he reached her. "She drained her mana during the fight, so she passed out." He struggled to look through his menu and pull out a blue potion and hand it to Vinyl.

Vinyl nodded and turned to Star, and carefully poured the vile into her mouth. As she did this, she heard the sound of something heavy falling behind her. When she looked back, she saw that Cobalt too had passed out, seeming to have pushed himself to far in the fight.

She let out a sigh and stood up. 'Great...' She lifted Star up onto her back and produced a coil of rope from her inventory. She tied one end around herself, and the other around Cobalt's midsection. With a grunt, she began to drag his unconscious body across the sand, while also carrying Star.

Nothing was going to slow her down from getting to Octavia. Not even two unconscious party members.

Author's Note

I've had this sitting unfinished in my files for a long time. So, I finally decided to finish it and add onto it. Plus, its with Vinyl, so I obviously had to finish it.