Equestrian Earth: The tale of Talon

You want to know something? I have learned that being crushed by anything is painful to some degree, and it would seem that the creators of this game had learned the same thing because the initial impact of the building was excruciatingly painful. The building initially crashing into my face pulverizing my snout and then flattening my neck like an accordion only it was not going to be filling with air again.

    The pain that it was causing me may have been so soul crushingly horrible, but thankfully it would appear that the creators of the game had thought of this inevitability and built a fail safe into the programming so that when you feel enough pain it would instantly shut down your pain receptors. Well that or the pain was too much and my entire body had gone numb, but either way I am grateful.

    While the remaining bones in my body were crushed to a fine dust I couldn’t help but notice the fact that I appeared to be glowing. However before I could actually start on the thoughts that were bubbling up within my mind on what that could mean I felt myself being.....what's the right word for it? Transported...no....I think the only thing that could really describe it in some form is being unmade. Taken apart at the molecular level and transported to another location and thankfully this process didn’t come with any added pains. Just an annoying message saying that I have died and that I will be respawning soon and complete darkness.

    After what felt like hours, but in reality was only a few seconds the world once again greeted my eyes, although in a more blurry and blobby form. Shaking my head to clear my vision  I notice that the respawn is not actually back at the main spawn area but would appear to be inside some sort of house. Now with my eyes fully functioning again I can see that Strong is already waiting for me at the door to the respawn while all of the other ponies unfortunate enough to be crushed along with us filed out.

Cantering my way over I can see Strong is shifting from hoof to hoof nervously and shifting his eyes from me back to the floor, “Hey Strong, are you ok?” Looking back up at me he just stares at me for a few seconds before looking back at the floor, “Strong if you're worried that I will blame you for a building falling on me you really don't need to. I do not blame you, I mean it might have not been expected or really welcome after only playing for about twenty minutes and then having a building falling on me.” Finally closing the distance between us I put a forehoof over his shoulder. “But hey, now I have an interesting story to tell anyone that asks how my first time in the game went. I mean how many people can say they just started a game to have a building crush them into a fine powder?”

Glancing back over at Strong I can see that he was no longer shifting back and forth anymore and was now looking at me with a smile instead of looking away. Shaking my head I lift my hoof off of him and canter my way through the door to see just where I was now. Not expecting the sudden change in lighting to actually blind me I had to wait a couple seconds before I could take in my surroundings, and boy was it something.

Lets just say I was not expecting this respawn to be so close to the reason that I died. The entire street was littered with the remains of the once grand structure and the broken and battered remains of stalls once filled with items of wonder.  Now all along the street were ponies and griffins wearing hard hats and reflective jackets, all of them shifting through the rubble looking for anything that was salvageable or that looking interesting. Along with what I assume construction workers were the stall owners gathering what they could, and in the case of one stall owner I saw crying over what looked like....Cabbages?

Still taking in the sheer amount of damage that was caused I was unable to notice a hard hatted griffin making its way over to me until she was right next to me, “Well hello there. I know this might be an inconvenience to you and anyone else but we have to clear out all of this rubble and help repair the shops and residents that are currently damaged. So please be patient.....and would you please close your mouth you might start catching flies.”

With a blush now spreading across my face I slowly close my mouth taking great care not to bite my tongue and turn to face her with a slight chuckle, “Oh its alright. I was just here for the view. But it would seem that it came here for me.” Still surveying the damage I start off down the street with the griffin walking beside me and Strong lagging behind.

“Wait, you were here when it came down?” The griffin asked questioningly

“hehe I guess you could say that, but its more along the line of the building came down and crushed me and every single other player on the street.” I respond rubbing the back of my neck. Looking at my surroundings I can't help but notice that the griffin along side me is a light shade of grey, almost dare I say a silver. Well except for the tips of her wings, those were a blood red. You know what? For a griffin she didn’t look half bad.

Nodding to myself I am pulled out of my musing by a drawn out whistle from the griffin, “So what you're saying is that you were one of the ones actually crushed by the building? Dang, I'm sorry about that that must have been extremely painful....wait a minute..,” with a sigh she slaps herself in the face with her left claw, “Sorry I completely forgot to introduce myself. My name is Featherona and I am part of E.E’s damage control, and you are?”

“It is nice to meet you Featherona, and my name is Talon the luckiest stallion that you will ever know.” With a twirling of my right foreleg I give her a sweeping bow and after I heard her chuckle I stand back up. “I mean how many others then the ones that were here when the tower fell can say that a building has fallen down on them?” A tapping on my rump draws my attention behind me to see Strong giving me a look, “Oh, and this here” I turn around and gesture at Strong, “Is my friend Strong Arm.”

With himself introduced Strong sheepishly waves at Featherona earning him a strange look. Walking over she grabs his hoof and shakes it, “What’s with the waving? Friends shake each others claws, or in this case hooves. They don't give each other wimpy waves.” With a determined look in his eye Strong grips her claw and gives her a vigorous hoof/claw shake. “Now that's more like it! I can tell we are going to be good friends.” Turning back to me she gives me an inquisitive look, “I got to ask but why is your name Talon? That doesn’t sound like a pony name to me, if anything it sounds more like a griffin name.”

“Well where I am from we don’t see many griffins but we do get some that visit, and griffins have always fascinated me. So while on one of my trips into town I ran into a griffin named Talon that was making a stop in town for the night and after some chatting and.....some less than legal activities,” At this admission I give them both pleading look to not try and dig about that and continued, “We became good friends. Sadly as I mentioned he was only staying for the night and needed to be on his way the next day. So I guess I wanted to use this name because it had a meaning to me.”

Looking over to see what she thinks about my tale I can tell that she was still thinking about what I could have possibly done that night to have become friends that fast. Letting my gaze drift over to Strong I can see that he is thinking the same thing as Featherona, but behind him I could see that one of the ponies with a hard hat and reflective vests was impatiently tapping his hoof and glaring, unbeknown to Featherona, right at her. So being the kind soul I am and not wanting her to get in any more trouble than she was already in I tap her on her shoulder and point out what I saw.

After giving a guilty grin to the hard hatted pony she turns back to the two of us. “Sorry guys but I got to head back and help with the clean up. But first,” Pulling out what I assumed to be her friends list she scribbles on it for a second before putting it away, “There now I will know where to find you, so see ya guys later.” With that she gives us a quick wave and walks over to the hard hatted pony.

After Strong and I had added Featherona to our own friends lists we began walking down the street with no clear destination in mind. We may of had to pick our way through the remaining rubble but there was little of it remaining, the damage control crew worked fast. When we had finally cleared the remaining and walked past the various other players that had lingered around we found ourselves standing near the edge of the city.

Glancing over the edge I could see nothing but mountain peaks peeking above the sea of clouds below. But this struck me as odd. If we are in a city within the sky how are players that are unable to fly going to get to and from the city? “Hey Strong seeing as we are in a city flying high above the clouds how do the ones that are unable to fly get down below? Do they have some sort of chariot system to transport them or some sort of spell?” Glancing over at Strong I am met with a somewhat disturbingly mischievous grin. “Strong?”

Still with that strange grin on his face he slowly canters his way over to me. “Well my friend there are many different ways to get down from this city there is the way of the pegasi were they just leap from the city and fly down and back, then we have the ways of the grounders. They can take chariots like you said drawn by their pegasi friends that want to make some money or they can ask a unicorn for a teleport down. But me, I like to take the more exciting way down.”

Now with Strong almost right in my face I am starting to feel extremely nervous about asking what he meant but I just couldn't let it rest. “O-Oh and what do you mean by that?” which he replies to with his grin increasing in size before he closes the distance between our muzzles until he is centimeters away.

Excitedly bouncing from hoof to hoof he responds,“Oh my way is the best and now that you are here I can actually do it.” With that said Strong quickly brings his forehooves up and shoves me backwards over the edge of the city.

    As I tipped over the edge and the city quickly began to decrease in size I could see Strong still grinning back away from the edge. Why would he push me off the edge if I can just quickly right myself and fly around? Hitting the clouds I begin to pass through, but before the clouds reform to fill in the hole I had made within them I could see a figure leap from the edge of the city. However this figure did not have any wings and it seemed to be familiar....very familiar. As in it was Strong hurtling towards me screaming excitedly at the top of his lungs.