Sword Art Online

Rez wasn't left charging boldly forward for long before finding an abundance of boars in a field. "Ah, this is perfect," he said aloud before turning a bit and charging at the closest one. With his halberd still affixed to his side like a lance, Rez ran straight at the creature which didn't even respond until the blade from his weapon stuck it's side, leaving that tell tale red gash. As Rez went to continue charging onward though, the boar raised it's tusks and tripped Rez up, sending him tumbling into a heap a short ways away from the boar. With a groan, Rez rolled himself over only to see the boar stamping the ground as it prepared to charge. Rez scrambled to find his naginata and as he did, the boar started it's charge. Just as it was about to reach him, Rez spun about and brandished the weapon with the point aimed to intercept the boar, which charged head first into the blade. It let out another pained squeal before exploding into the billions of little polygons.

"That....was awesome!" Rez cheered at his first victory before picking himself back up and proceeding on to the next boar to fight it too.

"Good to meet you, Star. My name is Zen, at least in the game; I've no problem telling you that outside the game, my name is Verde. Call me whichever you like, both of you." She winks to Star and then to Midnight before following the mare towards the exit, idly moving her shield and warhammer around experimentally to see how they'd work in this simulation. It appeared that they were going to work via some kind of telekinesis or some other handwave; that was fine, as far as Verde was concerned, so long as it worked out.

"Yeah, fun." Star smiled at Midnight for a moment before looking over at Zen. "Verde huh? Nice name. My real name is what it is in game. I couldn't be asked to be creative at the time so eh." He gave s shrug and continued to walked with both mares. He raised an eyebrow as he watched Zen use telekinesis to move her warhammer and shield. He hummed for a moment then tried to do the same thing with his sword. He found it a bit odd to use and found it even more odd when he tried an experimental swing in the air. He just shrugged and put his sword away.

Gringolet, after staring aimlessly at the Black Palace’s admittedly beautiful doors, was approached by a rather bored looking, boring looking mare. Her coat was a dull grey color, her eyes a ‘dusty green-blue’, and her mane a drab purple. Looking above her head would reveal her username to be ‘Boulder’.  “Hello.” she deadpanned.

Mechana’s quest for quests led her to follow the steady stream of players heading southward. Unfortunately, there were no NPCs to be found in the immediate area around the spawn zone.

For Star, Zen, and Midnight the situation was much as it had been. Dozens upon dozens of players streaming down the sides of the green plaza they found themselves inside of. Some players were traveling towards the large building that sat on one of the islands, disappearing beyond its doors.  Every so often, another player would explode into billions of polygons for seemingly no reason. Frosty would find herself in this general area too.

As for Rez, his battle with the first bore had cost him five hitpoints, his HP bar now reading 95/100. Killing the boar rewarded him with some experience, and an item labeled as ‘Boar hide’. After his first battle, dispatching others would prove relatively simple as they all seemed to follow the same attack patterns--- a charge into a bite.  Of course, Rez was not the only adventurer bent on the destruction of boars near the beginner city. He’d find his little field of boars contested by several others, and very quickly the tusked creatures were being dispatched. One particularly unlucky, or perhaps, stupid adventurer managed to aggro four separate boars. Unable to dodge all four charges, the player was quickly pinned down and after some struggle, their HP was reduced to nearly a quarter of maximum.

Rez's grin hadn't disappeared during any of the fights, and as he dispatched the latest boar, he found his attention drawn to the pinned pony. Rez's eyes shot open when he saw the pony's health disappearing and with nary a thought past that, he began to charge towards the group of boars bearing down on the player. About a quarter of the way to them, Rez rose up on his hind legs, gave the front end of his naginata just a bit of a upwards push with one hoof while pushing the pommel with his other hoof to throw the pole weapon at the first boar.

As it sailed through the air, Rez followed after and once he reached it, Rez would jump up while grabbing it and then bounding off the prone pony to get just a bit of extra height in his jump. Spinning the weapon around while in the air, Rez brought the weapon about in an massive overhead slash as he descended at the second boar. Then with an almost full spin to the left to build up extra momentum, Rez aimed to stab at the third boar. To finish off this little combination of strikes, Rez would shove the weapon straight back after that stab, trying to bash the pommel of the weapon into the last boar before bringing the weapon back around in a horizontal slash that would be tried to be forced into a full 360 degrees and ending with Rez standing almost over the prone pony with the naginata held in front of him defensively, leaving one boar directly in front of him, one to each side, and a final one right behind him. Finally, Rez would hold there for a minute, partially to catch his breath and partially to see if which boars, if any, were still alive.

Mechana, getting promptly bored with the hunt for NPCs, decides to test out the mechanics of this game. Namely, if open-world PvP is a thing. So, she sneaks up on an unwitting player, who will henceforth be known as Test Subject #1, and gives said test subject a strong hit with her hammer. She fully expected her hammer to sail through harmlessly. After all, this is a starting area, right?

"Link Start!"

Arianwyn grinned as she was finally taken into the virtual world, leaving the real one behind. She was welcomed by the character creation screen and when she was, she tempted fiddling around with possible options a bit. When she noticed what kind of details can be made, she was amazed, but then swiftly attempted recreating herself. She was slightly disappointed at the fact that she couldn't have wings ingame, but decided to brush it off. What was a virtual reality without a whole new life, anyway?

Next, there was the armor and weapons to be chosen from. She wanted to be pretty agile, so she only picked a dark green hooded cloak and a stylish bright green scarf. She was tempted to take some leather armor too, but decided to only have leather shoulderpads for now. Arianwyn then turned towards the weapons rack and started thinking. There were only melee weapons and shields. She was very used to having two short swords as a backup to her bow back in real life, so she decided to go for something new, and picked a halberd which had a nice pike at the end too, happy that she could use it both to slice and stab.

She confirmed the selection and got slightly confused at the darkness before appearing at the middle of town square, looking at all the virtual ponies in amazement. She changed the grip on her halberd, trying to find the most comfortable way to hold it while still being able to swing it around with ease. She then looked around, wondering where to go first, rather confused by all the ponies that were out there. After a short moment of thinking, she decided to explore the town a bit, first heading towards the gates, eager to find something to fight and test her halberd on.

"So what's life like for you outside of this game, if you don't mind a bit of pointless small talk?" Verde asks Star as they walk. "I'm an engineering student, actually, which makes this entire world and all the stuff we're carrying around infinitely interesting. I wish it was possible to custom-craft weapon and armor in this game, using the same engineering principles as work in the real world... I'd be far deadlier with them than anything ordinarily found in a fantasy world created by programmers who can't reasonably be expected to be familiar with engineering principles."

Star listened to Verde talk for a moment, thinking about her question. "Yeah I guess it would be a bit interesting. As for life outside of this game, I'm a royal guard. Lunar to be more precisce if you couldn't tell by what I said earlier about being up for the night and sleeping during the day. It sets us lunar guards a bit off from the rest of everyone with our odd sleep schedule, but we finds way around it. Like right now. I should probably be asleep and sleeping for tonight but eh, I'm here checking out this fancy everything. It's all fine and dandy really." He shrugged a little and smiled.

The boars proved no real challenge for Rez’s experienced combination of attacks, exploding into the characteristic death polygonal shower. All four kills rewarded some experience, but, only one of them had given him their ‘Boar Hide’. A quick glance into the menu would inform him he was about one fourth of the way to level two.  “Woah, man, that was totally radical!” exclaimed the pony beneath him. The pony, now identifiable as a she, both rolled to the side and out from under Rez, and got up in one fluid motion. Now that she wasn’t in the middle of a boar gangbang, Rez could see her features much clearly. She wore a simple iron chain vest, a dagger tied to her side for ease of access. Her mane, a long, straight piece of crimson red, had a single hot-pink stripe running down the left side which served to compliment her coat, which sported a lighter shade of pink. “Thanks for the assist, buddy.” she said, offering Rez a hoof-bump with a smile. A glance up would reveal her username to be ‘Unity’.

Arianwyn would soon find herself in the same field as Rez, where several players had taken to hunting boars for fun and profit.  Very quickly, however, the boar population of this particular section of area outside the starter town was becoming extinct, with only a few dozen remaining.

Test Subject #1, in game user name ‘Rekkkled’, was a white stallion with a blond mane and blue eyes. He wore what seemed to be a metallic breastplate, and had a warhammer twice the size of Mechana’s. Her swing connected with the unsuspecting Rekkkle, he reacted much in the way anyone would when hit by a hammer. By staggering to the side opposite the swing. A glance towards his HP bar would indicate he did not take any damage from the blow. “What in the blazes are you doing, madwoman?” exclaimed Rekkkled in a glorious British accent.

In the green plaza, not much had changed. Aside from one pony yelling at another in a particularly beautifully accented voice.

Back at the black palace, Boulder continued to stare at both Gringolet and the palace’s ornate stone doors with the same deadpan expression.

Arianwyn grinned as she finally arrived to the field filled with boars, glad that she finally found something to practice her halberd on. The field was filled with players and she was lightly saddened that the amount of live boars was very low while surprised that they're still even alive thanks to all the players, but she brushed the thought off. They're just virtual things, anyway. she thought before charging at one of the unsuspecting live boars, the pike on her halberd aimed at it and she was ready to swing again with the blade if the first attack wouldn't do the job.

Mechana looks almost dissapointed at the unchanging of the health bar, but supposed she didn't want to get murderized by other players, so it was an okay thing. But, at least it did stagger him. She opens her mouth to dignify Test Subject #1 with a response. After all, he deserved some reward for his participation in the testing. She says, in her best Russian accent, which is actually not fake at all because she has a natural one, "It is blow for science. I hit you, and no damage is taken. Thank you for playing, yes."

Rez started to just nod silently, but then paused after half of the movement as his eyes lit up with the realization that he could actually speak now. "Oh uh, ummm... hehe, yeah no problem," Rez replied as he shifted the naginata back to his side while descending back down to all fours again. He then raised his own hoof up and hoof-bumped Unity's raised hoof. Then Rez paused for a minute as he considered introductions were in order, even though he could already see her name. "My name's Resonance by the way," the somewhat famous DJ replied, momentarily forgetting that the name displayed above him said 'Rez'.

Then however he looked about the field and took stock of the abundance of players already fighting and rapidly reducing the boar population of the clearing, followed by a look back toward's Unity to notice that her health was diminished so severely. "Hmm, seems this field's getting pretty populated and cleared out, and it looks like you could use a heal of some sort. Want to head back to town for the moment?" Rez asked with the same grin he'd had this whole time. "Maybe we can even find a quest or something that'll give us some more EXP and better reward than these," he added flicking into his inventory and revealing one of the several boar hides he'd looted before returning it to the inventory section and looking back towards the town. It was then that he noticed the other mare running straight at a nearby boar with the obvious intent to attack it with a spear like halberd. For the moment, Rez would stand there watching the attack and waiting for Unity's reply, though he was sure to step just to the side enough to make sure he wasn't in the direct path of Arianwyn's charge just in case she missed the boar for some reason. He didn't want to end up stabbed after all.

"Link, start!"

Wild Card said out loud after having put on the NerveGear with a smile on his face. He waited patiently for the set-up to be complete and the log-in information to be put in by the device itself, and then finally he was nearly blinded by the flash of light. "Bloody... ugh... A little warning before that maybe?" "Ooh, looky look-see. Time to make ourselves a character." He said to himself, looking into the mirror and seeing a bog-standard Earth Pony. "Oh... shame, though I guess if given the option of flight everyone would choose that instead." The stallion commented, shrugging afterwards and then beginning to make this pony look as close to the real Wild Card as possible, which surprisingly was rather easy to do with the options given.

"No Cheshire. We're not playing as a mare. I don't care what you say about that Moral Code thing and testing out the other side." Wild said to himself after "accidentally" choosing the mare option, promptly changing it back to a stallion with a defeated whine. "Aw..." "Anyway... on to armour." The stallion looked over the choices for such a thing and flicked through the options multiple times, not liking the heavier armour, so finally he chose a simple leather cuirass with a shoulder piece on the right side along with a very basic grey cloak. Then he noticed an item that made him smile, so he took the masquerade eye mask and put it on. "You're going for the "dashing stallion" look, aren't you?" "Might as well, Cupid, Ace and I liked it so we're having it."

Finally the stallion came to what some of him were waiting for, and immediately he started calling out to himself choices. "Warhammer." "Scythe." "Battle-axe." "Claws." "Chakram!" "Shield!" "Sword-whip." "Halberd." "There are no bows..." "Pineapple! I mean, uh... dagger!" After the surge of suggestions Wild shouted out, he shook his head to all of them. "Look, a full frontal approach is not what we're capable of, so any of those weapons that require us to be in full plate mail to be able to swing it before getting cut down are not options. And besides, Cheshire said I could choose what we had if I agreed to let him have this game." He explained to himselves, looking through the weapons until finally he saw one he liked. Picking up the Estoc, he examined the edge of it and was pleased to see it sharp. "Here. This will do." Wild said cheerfully, finalising his selections and then materialising in the town square.

Awe, amazement, and cheerfulness were the things Wild Card felt as he looked at the area around him, staring at the new players in the square and the things they had. "Wow... This NerveGear thing certainly does do a very good job and... ugh... yes, yes, we'll select that in the options menu." He said, mainly to himself, before placing the Estoc on his side and jumping... promptly falling on his face afterwards. "Oh right... forgot. No wings." "Hm... I wonder where the jobs are. It mentioned learning to play music and to cook, and money is always a good thing to have in MMOs." Wild said upon picking himself up, knowing that he probably looked like a goof for trying to fly but to him it was his very nature to fly. Either way, the stallion looked around and began trotting happily in search for something that would show him the way to such jobs and sometimes asking random players if they knew where they were too.

Midnight simply opted to listen to her companions speak. So Vert was an engerining student? Interesting, he was seeking to learn from the game? Interesting... And with that, she actually fell behind the others. She'd caught her eye on something else, once again, a small field down a road. She paused to look at it, it looked so, real. By the time she'd turned to see the others, they'd vanished in the huge crowd. Midnight pouted, well crap! No way she'd be able to find them in that massive mess of players, not without wings anyway, which she prompted remembered she didn't have!

Turning her attention back to then town square, well, circle actually, the first thing she spotted was a pony jumping up..then falling flat on his face! She held back a smirk, he was trying to fly wasn't he? She figured, since she'd lost her original 'friends', time to make new ones? or, well one, but the point stands! She weaved her way through the crowd, finally reaching him. The stallion in question, dark bleu coat, red and black mane.

"Hi...umm, nice jump? Forgot the lack of, umm, wings huh?" she said, wanting to mentally punch herself for how stupid it sounded out loud

Gringolet had let his brain trail off for a bit as he stared at the giant door, and it took a moment before he registered that someone was actually talking to him. It had, perhaps, something to do with the very monotonous tone the speaker took, or perhaps that she'd only said 'hello' and nothing more.
"Uhm...hello?" he said, looking over her person. "I'm a bit lost here. This whole thing's a little strange, really."

"A lunar guard." Verde looks Star up and down. "I suppose that in-game appearance would have nothing to do with real-life, but I maintain that you can learn something about a pony by how they play the game. You seem... I don't know, a little youthful and scrawny to be a guard of any kind. Perhaps you're simply a prodigy?" She smiles at him. "Not that I'll ever give you grief over the matter, I'm just making an observation. Anyhow, I wonder about our other companion." She turns and blinks, realizing that Midnight is no longer there. "Well, shoot... I was hoping to learn a bit more about her before she vanished. Oh well, moving along..."

Star sighed a little, his ears folding back as he listened to Verde. It was this again. Maybe he should have said he worked for a baker or something. That was fun. His face screwed up a little when Verde called him scrawny. "Scrawny?! I'm hardly scrawny! I'm perfectly fit and have muscles and fit!" He stomped his hoof a little and huffed. Oh he'd teach this mare who was scrawny. He was not scrawny! Maybe a little shorter then average but hardly scrawny! He blinked and looked around. "Oh...So she is gone...Damn. I wanted to hear what she was." Off in the corner of his eye he saw a pony falling flat on his face and had to suppress a laugh.

Arianwyn began her charge against the boars. About partway down her lane, she unwittingly activated one of the game’s dozens of sword skills, increasing her attack speed and force proportional to her level’s statistics. Although still level one, the sudden jolt of power was enough to throw the unsuspecting mare off-balance, and the move ended with her in about the same place Rez had occupied before his preemptive dodge. Unity looked like she was about to respond to Rez's suggestion to return to town for health and experience, but was interrupted by Arianwyn's sudden appearance. " 'Sup, spearmare?" she asked.

Wild Card’s search for jobs would initially lead him in the same direction as the majority of players had taken to go in, until a particularly helpful player by the name of ‘MrSkeltal’ pointed him towards the city’s market district. The market district was a long street with vendors, nearly all NPC at this point, peddling their wares across dozens of stands.  There were shops selling fruit, weapons, armor, and even musical instruments.  Several other players had also made their way here, and were actively perusing the NPCs stands.

Back at the plaza, Rekkkled simply sighed at Mechana’s reasoning. “Alrighty then… Where was I? Ah, yes, logging out… You blokes notice it too, yeah? There’s no log-out option in the menu.” he told his friends, going into the menu to illustrate his point. “What do you suppose that’s all about?”  His comrades shrugged, the general consensus seemed to be it was just a silly glitch that would be fixed relatively quickly, seeing as there were no other methods to log out.

Even further back, at the Black Palace’s stone doors. “Strange. Yeah.” Boulder further deadpanned, leaning in towards the door and giving it a lick. “Tastes like rock… Very real. I’m impressed.” she said in what was perhaps the most unimpressed voice imaginable.

Rez grimaced as the mare took a tumble before him and Unity, though he was silently grateful that he had moved out of the way lest he end up potentially impaled by the mare's spear. Rez lowered out a hoof then, silently at first, but then the fact that he could talk now resurfaced in his mind. "Are you alright?" He asked while his hoof was held there waiting to be taken and help Arianwyn up.

Arianwyn lied there for a moment with eyes wide open before she took Rez's hoof to get up. "Thanks.. Yeah I'm good, I think." she thanked him before looking at Unity and then back at the boar she just barely grazed. "What... was that?" she partially asked herself and partially the two ponies that she just landed at. "The name's Arianwyn." she said with a smile while keeping an eye on the boar, ready to strike again and finish it off. "Sorry about that rude disruption of your conversation, by the way." she said before she swiped at the boar with the blade of her halberd. "Say, I doubt we'll get far in this game alone.. perhaps we could team up." she said after she finished her attack.

Wild Card looked back at Midnight when she addressed him and let out a lighthearted chuckle. "Yes, exactly. Flight is second nature to me in the real world and well, not having wings anymore is an odd feeling. How do Earth Ponies and Unicorns deal with only four limbs? Anyway, I'm currently searching for a place to learn trades and somewhere to acquire an instrument, you're free to follow if you want, though don't expect to be fighting much if you do." He responded happily, continuing his search until the helpful 'MrSkeltal' directed him to the Market District. He had to thank 'MrSkeltal', idly wondering to himself why the idea of the player playing a trumpet came to mind with that username, before making his way to the district.

Shaking off this absurd thought, Wild looked around the market district with wide eyes, adoring the sight of it all but feeling a little bit disappointed with the lack of background music. Sure, the natural noise of a market was atmosphere enough, but in a game part of him had an expectation for there to be something in the background that wasn't chatter. It took a little bit of time but the stallion finally found the musical instrument stand, wandering over to it with a smile on his face. "Good day, I was wondering about a few things to do with music. Um, how much would a violin cost and is there anywhere or anyone that is able to train ponies in the art of music?" He asked kindly.

Mechana seems at least mildly perturbed by what was clearly a capitalist ploy to keep them locked in the game forever. Considering she doesn't have any control of her motor functions out of the game, simply taking off the headset was not an option. She ponders voicing her concerns that the corporate overlords had trapped them permanently in a virtual world, but realized that these Brits would just laugh at her and her Russian accent. Such is the life of a true communist. Having decided this, she decides to dismiss her clearly correct theory of the sinister nature of the game for now, and ask Test Subject #1 about another topic. "There does not seem to be any quest givers. New players are lost like bear cub without mother in cold Russian winter. Have thoughts on matter?"

Star looked around, smiling. He then paused for a moment and thought about something before he turned to Verde. "This is fun...Really fun. Iiii think that if I find any quest while looking around here and exploring, I'll sure as heck do them when I have some free time. But right now I think I should leave and get some more sleep before the night happens. It was nice meeting you Ze-er...Verde. thank you for letting me accompany you for a short time."

He reared up on his hindlegs and...fell backwards on his back. He blinked for a moment then grumbled. " No wings...remember that." He grumbled to himself as he rolled back on his hooves and stood up. He raised a hoof and swiped down to open up the menu. He then started looking for the log off button, his head slightly tilted to the side a little.

Midnight smiled back at the pony, she knew his pain and questions far too well. How could they stand being stuck on the ground, seriously? Did they not want to discover the pleasure of flying? Or were they content of being stuck on the ground like she was now? The lack of wings in the game was annoying, she just hoped it didn't send her stir mad! Still, his offer wasn't a bad one. Sure, there was glory in fighting, but fighting and drills were part of her normal job! She wanted to try something different, so following the other pony seemed like a good idea. She was about to ask for his name, when he started moving and she quickly followed. She watched and followed, before he started going towards the musical stand. Sure, music was fine and all, but if they were gunna stay as a pair, she could learn something else?

She looked at different stalls, two of them stood out. Blacksmithing and Beast-Taming. Blacksmithing could yeld money, making the earlier levels of the game easier, she could pick that up at any point. Beast-taming however, sounded much more fun. Plus if she was right in theory about what it was, she might be able to get a pet!

She quickly made her way to the stall, but confused how to start. Was there quests she needed to start? Items she needed to get? Was there something she was missing? Perhaps it was in the quest menu, right? Opening the menu, she quickly looked at it, finding the layout confusing for her. She shrugged, going over all the options, failing to find what she was looking for, before closing it. How in the name of the Princesses was she meant to start becoming a Beast-Tamer?