**Chapter 02: Taking The First Steps [Revised]

A Chaotic Production presents...

The Beginning Arc(a pre-arc)

Chapter 2

~ Edit by ultra1437 and Genghis~ Pre-read by RemareShadows and Apuppy120

Theme Song: "Crossing Field" Sword Art Online (AmaLee)

Ever since the creation of video games, the fantasy of stepping foot into the virtual realm of video games was set inside the dreams of all gamers. The idea of stepping into a video game and interacting with everything inside it was an incredibly sweet, desirable cake that everypony wanted a slice of, but seemed to be just out of reach. Virtual reality became an integral part of science fiction through the course of its time. About a year ago, a team of ponies lead by Princess Luna, had combined their knowledge of computer programming, neural science, and magic to bake the fictional delectable treat into reality.

The I.P.V. was born, otherwise known as the Interactive Player Visor. Although most like to call it the Pony Visor just because it was made in Equestria. Either way, it wasan incredible marvel of science and magic combined. It had the power to immerse the wearer’s mind into the many worlds so different from Equestria, giving them the chance to explore games on a level of immersion unlike any other. News spread fast, and everypony bought tickets to get on board of the hype train. Anypony who had bought it was immediately blown away by the I.P.V.’s results.

When inside the game, everything felt extremely real. Holding an object felt real, throwing felt real, moving felt real, hearing felt real, breathing in the game felt real. That was the raw definition of the I.P.V.’s capabilities. And games with top definition HD graphics looked so very real with the Visor. Some even claimed it was even harder for them tell what was real after exiting the game. Twilight knew they were just exaggerating from excitement. It was easy to tell which is fake and which is real, but she must admit that as somepony with a soft spot for fictional worlds, she fell in love with video gaming right away and virtual reality later on.

Of course, there were limitations to the VR tech, but that’s because it was mostly the games. Very few of them actually had the graphics quality to meet the full potential of the I.P.V. because they were made before VR programming existed, and thus were limited. Some games added extra features to include stuff like more flexibility in player movement, but most were simply just ported in order to allow I.P.V. capabilities, and Twilight felt like the developers could have done more. She understood that they were on a budget, and programming a true VR game was very expensive. Despite her complete satisfaction with her purchase and use of the Visor, she always felt something was missing.

Equestrian Earth filled that hole.

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Twilight couldn’t help but hang her jaw in amazement. The city she spawned in was, in laymare’s terms, beautiful. Actually, it was less than a city and more like a megalopolis. Led up to a tower’s crown by her friends, Twilight soon figured out why a cloud had randomly smacked into her face on the way there. They were on a gigantic floating sky city.

Rainbow Dash was comfortable with fluttering in the air, but the others were just leaning over the rails, hogging all the tourist binoculars. Towering citadels dotted the cityscape with gleaming buildings and roads that seemingly glowed underneath the bright sun. The island was so huge, it even had a couple mountains nearby! Looking out towards a coliseum, her heart almost leapt out of her chest when she saw the flying twin dragons.

There were serpentine in appearance, with emerald scales gleaming like the gems, and graceful long manes graced the back of their long neck. Harnesses were around their heads and seemed to be attached to the island, most likely pulling it. Twilight had lived in Canterlot for almost her entire life, and grew to know quality architecture, but she felt that this would give Equestria’s own capital a run for its money. After all, a flying metropolis pulled by dragons is very cool.

Applejack had a tickled smile as Twilight’s jaw hung open. “You alright there, sugarcube? Your mouth is as open wide like the sky.”

“Y– yeah.” Twilight stammered, still staring through the binoculars. “I’m just a little surprised. I mean, I’ve been to Cloudsdale, but a floating land of this size is just mind blowing to me! And then there are those dragons that looks like they can swallow Tom.

“I thought we weren’t going to speak of him again.”

“Sorry!” Twilight guiltily smiled. “So, where are we anyway?”

“This ‘ere place is called Aeroslida,” Applejack said, “it’s one of the fanciest, shmaniest places in all of Old Equestria. That’s what the makers of the game called this world.”

“It’s simply fascinating dear!” Rarity let out a deep sigh and closed her eyes as she leaned on Pinkie who didn’t mind holding her. “You’ve should have seen the capitol building. It is purely divine and majestic. And the prince who lives there, oh he is so handsome and such a hunk of a stallion!” Rarity opened her eyes and saw her friends regarding her with raised eyebrows, most likely for her last statement. She lightly coughed into the back of her hoof. “For an NPC anyway.”

Twilight giggled. “Obviously the city has you romanced.”

“Quite.”

Twilight looked towards Applejack. “Hold on for a minute though. If this is Old Equestria – like you said – how come I never heard of Aeroslida? I’m pretty sure I would have come across it in my history books.”

Rainbow shrugged. “It’s a video game, Twilight. Places like this one are all just stuff the game makers have made up. It may not be real, but I think it’s totally awesome. And that’s good enough for me.”

Twilight rubbed her muzzle in thought a little. “I see… well I guess that’s alright, but I can’t exactly call this game one hundred percent accurate in Equestrian history. Let’s get started right anyway, shall we? I assume this game has some sort of leveling system, correct?”

“Of course there is,” Applejack said. “But there’s more to the Level Up system that sorta sets it apart from other MMOs.

Pinkie Pie bounced up and down with readiness in her wide smile. “Oh! Oh! Oh! Can I answer that, AJ?”

Applejack tipped her hat to Pinkie. “Sure. Take it away, Pinkie!”

With a grin, Pinkie Pie dug her hooves into a pink satchel she had been carrying on her back and pulled out a graduation cap and a stick pointer. She then leaned across the rails and stuck her hooves into a random passing cloud, dragging out a large blackboard easel from its fluffy depths. To any passing players below that happened to be looking up at the tower, it was a completely unorthodox moment. To the girls, it was Pinkie Pie being herself.

Using chalk, Pinkie Pie drew a couple of crude drawings of creatures with horns on the board, as well as ponies. They resembled the doodles of foals. “Okie doki loki! So, there are two Level Up systems that both contribute to your overall Main Level. There is the standard leveling system call the Main EXP System. You simply gather experience by completing any quests the NPCs give you as well as defeating monsters, and the EXP goes straight into your EXP bar.” Pinkie then drew a hammer, anvil, and a sewing needle and spool. “And then there is the second system called the Life Skills System. This is different from the Main EXP system as you work on your Profession Skills, which affect how well you perform your virtual career in this game. But since it’s really easy to put a lot of effort into the profession, it improves your Main Level only by little, but it improves your Life Skill levels normally.

“Each Life Skill level is individual. For example, the Level of your Cooking Skill can only be improved by performing deeds related to food like ingredients gathering or cooking. There also Life Subskills, like the ingredients gathering thing I’ve mentioned earlier. That’s called Harvesting. There are Life Subskills for almost every Life Skill. An example of this would be Mining, which can be raised by gathering earthly materials used for making weapons and armor, and developing that Subskill also increases Blacksmithing, albeit slowly.” She softly kicked a leg of the chalkboard and it folded into a square box. She stuffed the cap and everything else into her bag and turned back to her friends with a smile. “Any questions?”

Save for Rarity and Applejack, all of their jaws hung open wide, completely shocked at the party mare’s surprisingly elaborate, educational lecture. Somewhere in the city, the physics engine was put to work as one of the buildings crumbled to the ground due to the fault of a certain blond pegasus. Which was absurd, considering it was a Guard Station, and Twilight had read that they were literally programmed to be indestructible.

A derpy voice echoed throughout the city, “Oops! My bad!”

“Wow Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow Dash chuckled, breaking the group silence. She elbow nudged Pinkie. “I didn’t know you were such an egghead about this.”

Pinkie Pie shrugged a little, grinning. “Actually I got all that from the game’s manual, but I did a little research around the internet before the game was released.”

Rainbow laughed, clenching her stomach in mid-flutter. “The manual? Nopony ever reads the manuals of any video game, ever!”

“Hey, Ah read the manual too, Dash,” Applejack cut in. “What’s wrong with that?”

“Manuals are a waste of paper. Everything can be figured out by just playing the game.”

“But the manuals can provide useful tips.”

“Tips? More like spoilers to me.”

While the two had a friendly debate about the efficiency of manuals, Twilight had her eyes on the city’s rooftops. She didn’t know why, but she had the urge to do so. Was somepony watching them? Before she could mull it over, she was poked from behind. Applejack gestured towards the city gates while the others were going down the stairs.

“We’re ‘bout to head out on a grinding session, and Rainbow Dash said she has a pretty good place in mind. Wanna come with?”

Twilight looked back at the rooftops. “Sure, why not?” She trotted with Applejack, catching up with the others.

“By the way, what’s ‘grinding’ again? I haven’t exactly played an MMORPG before.”

“Oh yeah. Right. I forgot to tell you guys about that,” Rainbow added.

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Sherpwood, a dense forest area, was one flight down from Aeroslida in Pegasi-powered chariots. All around, there were signs of entry, except for the arc formed by the trees. The large trunks formed an impenetrable barrier to the world outside of it. When Twilight stepped in, she had expected the thick coat of leaves would block out the sun and there would barely be any room to move. Surprisingly there were a few open pockets in the canopy for sunlight to pour through, and the trees inside weren’t so tightly clustered with each other. The sunlight didn’t matter anyway, because all around in Sherpwood, there were yellow sunflowers that glowed brightly like the star they were named after, except they weren’t so blinding. Other than that, it looked like a pretty normal forest. That is, until Rainbow led them deeper into the forest.

With every step further into the forest, Twilight noticed the sunflowers becoming more and more sparse, taking their light with them. Only the colors of the twilight hours remained residing in the thickness. Shadows slept nearby near plant life and among the trees, moving only when their hosts rustled at the cold wind, which was strange as Twilight didn’t expect there to be wind in such a tightly secured place. Yet their chilling whistles were present.

Finally, they had arrived at the destination Rainbow had suggested, and Applejack didn’t look all too pleased.

“Rainbow Dash… ”

“Yeah, AJ?”

“When you said ya had a great place to grind, Ah wasn’t expecting this.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“Well first off, those things are huge.”

“Nothing wrong with big things. The bigger, the better right?” Rainbow grinned slyly, wiggling her eyebrows up and down.

Applejack snorted her disapproval at Rainbow’s innuendo. “Then mind telling me how the hay, are we supposed to take them down?”

The monsters that Applejack was referring to were two giant walking stumps, topping at nine feet tall,with twigs sticking out from their gnarled body, their bark as dark as evergreens. Beneath them, they had twisted roots wrapped around each other, roughly resembling two legs. Their moss-coated wooden bodies creaked each time they moved forward, and caused the ground to shiver under their steps. Twilight remembered reading about such creatures long before playing the game, but Treants weren’t supposed to have half their bodies missing. Looking above them, however, she could see floating name tags that read Trunts. Probably a pun, seeing how it sounded similar to stump and half of their body was missing.

“Well, they’re chopped in half already. We can just finished the job.” Rainbow shrugged, not taking the situation lightly. “And they can’t see very well either. Won’t be a problem.”

“Rainbow, all of us are Level 1 right now, and they’re Level 25. They’ll stomp us to death! Literally! Just look at their size!”

Rainbow sneered. “What are you, AJ? Chicken?”

A silence fell upon the group, with only the sound of low growls between the two rivals. Their eyes fought a battle with sharp stares and bladed lips. Applejack was like a sea of fire, burning with determination and strength while Rainbow Dash was bold and confident like a bird of prey. Their rivalry never went unnoticed by Twilight. Ever since the Iron Horse competition, they had been fueling that fire with more dares and contests, and their tussles didn’t diminish at all. Especially in video games.

Rarity coughed. “Well I believe now is the best time to pack our suitcases and leave while we can. I suggest you two should just save your fighting for elsewhere.” Rarity turned away from them and looked at the others. “What do you girls say? Pinkie, you agree with me, right?”

“Sure! Why not? Doesn’t matter to me!” Pinkie grinned.

“Um, girls?”

“How about it, Twilight. Shall we go, darling?”

“Girls? Rainbow and Applejack are– ”

Twilight nodded, “Yeah. I saw a couple mushrooms that were at our Level on the way here. They could be safe to fight.”

“Girls? This is really, really important– ”

“Splendid! Then let’s make haste straight away!”

“Girls!”

Twilight, Pinkie, and Rarity all looked at Fluttershy with a collective, “What is it?”

Fluttershy twiddled with her forehooves. “Um, Rainbow Dash and Applejack just charged towards the Trunts.”

Twilight’s ears drooped as she looked at the clearing. Rainbow and Applejack did indeed charge in without them noticing, and their Health Bars were already knocked at. “Oh no.” A large shadow covered over the bush they were all hiding in. Twilight looked up to see three Trunts staring at them with their nonexistent eyes. “H– how did they even– ”

Rarity looked around in panic and found the source of their predicament. A sharp gasp was caught in her throat. “Twilight, your hoof.”

Twilight looked down and lifted her right forehoof to see a crushed, tiny sprout underneath. Small, pink petals were lying about, crumpled from under Twilight’s hoof. “What is this?”

“Th– that’s a Treant Sproutling, and it was a white Madonna lily. A Queen variant.” Rarity looked back up at the Trunts and squeaked, “And you squished it.”

“… Oh buck me.”

Twilight immediately thought that they needed to get out there right away. She tapped into her mind’s eye and focused on her and the mares around her. Her horn lit ablaze with purple energy, and soon their bodies were covered in the same glow. Twilight pulled them away from the bush and into the clearing just before the Trunts angrily stomped on it with their huge root feet, their earthly grumbles filling the air. The landing was rough as Twilight had no time to be precise with her levitation, earning her a few scrapes. Quickly, she got onto her hooves and helped up the others.

“Is everypony okay?”

“Yes we are. Fluttershy, do you have your Support Spells ready?” Rarity asked, making a stance filled with determination.

“Y– yes I do, but there has to be another way, r– right?” she stammered, terrified of the giant trees. “M– maybe we can reason with them?”

“After Twilight killed their unborn queen? Doubtful.” A drip of sweat dripped down from Rarity’s forehead to her nose. “Oh dear, this sudden turn of events is not good for my skin.” She took out a cloth and dabbed her forehead.

Twilight winced through her teeth. “Oh I’m sorry that this happened. I didn’t know I had stepped on something so important to them.”

“Relax, my dear. None of us noticed earlier. It could easily have happened to any one of us.”

They all backed off slowly as the Trunts advanced, mindful of the pair of enemies behind them. It seemed that while Applejack and Rainbow Dash were keeping them quite busy, they were also unaware of what was happening to the others. Twilight thought about calling out to them for help, but they were already engaged with the Trunts, so not the best idea. Looking for more options, Twilight went to search her Inventory for anything possibly useful. Only, there was one problem. She didn’t have a bag, and another thing…

“I don’t know how to open my Inventory!” Twilight yelped.

“Just sweep your hoof in the air and think of opening the Menu! The game can respond to your thoughts!” Rarity shouted.

Twilight did what Rarity said and to her delight, a holographic Menu opened up. “Thanks!”

“Why are we shouting?” Pinkie asked at the top of her lungs, joining the small chorus duo. She wasn’t taking the tough situation seriously.

Twilight ignored Pinkie’s question and searched through her Inventory furiously. There must be something she had to start off with. Almost every game with an Inventory system did! To her despair, the bag was barely empty and she found no weapons, but there were five Slow Health Regen Potions and five Slow Mana Regen Potions. Something to help sustain her, but she still felt nervous about the lack of a weapon.

“Rarity, I don’t have anything to use against the Trunts! What should I do?”

“What Class did you begin as?”

“Mage Apprentice!”

“You’re a Unicorn, Twilight, and Unicorns don’t start with Wooden Staves as Tier 4 Mages!”

“Really?”

“Yes! You use your horn, and think of one of the Spells you have!” Rarity’s horn lit up like a bulb as she swept it towards the Trunts’ direction. “Like so! Gem Flock!,”

Various spots on the ground in front of Rarity glowed brightly. Pointed gemstones of varying small sizes blossomed out before her, shot up, and flew around circular formations. She narrowed her eyes and focused on all the gems to start making them spin like power drills. The Trunts thundered forward like boulders down a mountain, crushing everything unlucky enough to be in their path, with the three players in their sights. Twilight and Fluttershy shied away, but Rarity stood boldly and unleashed her spectrum of projectiles at the Trunts. The gems pieced their thick armor like they were butter, coming out through the other side of their bodies, although some stuck in the more resistant plates. They were knocked black slightly by Rarity’s Gem Flock, and soon their bodies were decorated like Christmas trees, and their Health Bars surprisingly chipped away.

Twilight’s eyes had widened in slight amazement. She had seen impressive combat in video games before, but the way the gems had sliced through the wood, the different stumbles each of the Trunts had in reaction to the impacts. It was all fluid and looked very natural, as if they weren’t programmed to do that. Twilight didn’t have a word to describe it, but she really liked the game so far.

“Darling? Do you want a turn?”

“H– huh? Oh, um, yeah sure! Should I shout out the name?”

“You don’t have to, but” – Rarity clenched her hoof in front of her chest – “it just feels exhilarating to shout out Attack Names!”

Twilight gave her a small nod and smile before turning back to the Trunts. They were still recovering their footing from Rarity’s attack, so she needed to act fast. She racked her brain as she tried to remember what skills an Apprentice Mage could do. She read it online before playing. What was it? Oh, right!

“Magic Missile!”

Twilight focused on her magic again, feeling energy coursing into her horn. She thought of firing pure energy at the Trunts, and her magic obeyed. A blue bolt of pure energy shot forth from the tip of her horn, breaking loose towards the Trunt in the middle. The spell packed quite a punch, knocking it onto its back. Twilight didn’t stop there and continued the barrage until she heard the sound of two more timbers falling down.

Rarity clapped. “Excellent job, darling. It’s a good thing they don’t have arms, or dealing with them would be quite more troublesome.”

“They’re not defeated though. Good thing they don’t seem to be able to get up very well.”

Rarity turned towards where Rainbow Dash and Applejack were. “Now if only they hadn’t charged rashly in the first place.”

Twilight gently smiled. “Well we all make mistakes, Rarity, but that’s why we’re a group. To cover each other’s mistakes.”

Rarity gently sighed. “That’s true. Although I still wish they would set aside their rivalry once in a while.”

“That wouldn’t be like them,” Twilight chuckled.

Rarity gently laughed along. “Of course, darling.”

“U– um, girls?” Fluttershy softly spoke, “Pinkie Pie jumped in as well, a– and it seems we have exploding mushrooms coming in.”

Twilight looked up ahead and indeed saw Pinkie swinging around on a system of grappling ropes that weren’t hooked onto the trees earlier, but somehow they were just there. Also, there were green-spotted, walking mushrooms about the battlefield. A few craters were made in their dying spots as Applejack, Rainbow, and Pinkie all knocked them all away. The good thing was that the sentient mushrooms were somehow damaging the Trunts by a lot with their explosions! One died from the exploding fungi. A brilliant light shined from beneath Twilight, and Twilight saw her Level in the Heads Up Display soar from Level 1 to Level 8.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Oh boy.”

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Mage Adept (TS) has Leveled Up to Lv 8!

Tier 4 Class: Mage Apprentice

~ HP Increased: 350 ⇒ 630 (+10 from END)

~ Mana Increased: 500 ⇒ 850 (+ 65 from SPR)

70 Attribute Points are gained; 7 Skill Points are gained <<

Attribute Points Allocation:

Manual Distribution Selected <<

~ INT Increased: 30 ⇒ 65

~ SPR Increased: 30 ⇒ 65

Skill Point Allocation:

[Magic Missile] Lv 1 ⇒ 5 Maxed!

Type ~ Active

Description ~ Singular target. Your magic conduit glows brightly before shooting forth a bolt of pure energy at your enemy, blasting the target backwards. The main bread and butter of all Mage Apprentices.

Magic Damage – Level 5:

30/50/70/90/110 (+ 75% INT)

[Magic Influx] Lv 0 ⇒ 3

Type ~ Active

Description ~ Self target. Look deep within yourself and tap into a pool of your untapped power to give yourself an extra boost in magic damage. Increases the damage of all your Attack Spells by a certain percentage (after calculations of the INT multiplier). Buff lasts for 3 minutes.

Magic Buff – Level 3:

1/2/3/4/5%