Chapter 1

Its been 7 years since I died and was reborn in this new world and there are a few things I've learned and picked up. I spent the first few years gaining an understanding of my new body basically having to relearn every single basic skill again from how to walk as a quadruped to learning basic reading and writing. While learning how to function comfortably in this new body I spent time on the side gathering information and I've learned so far a few things. One; getting the obvious out of they way I'm currently a pony (or gender specifically a colt) living on the planet Terran in the country Equestria currently living in Las Pegasus, I used to love puns but after living in a place called Las Pegasus has soured that enjoyment from my previous life. Two; I've taken note that their are four types of ponies being Unicorn, Pegasus, Earth Pony and Alicorn although it seems alicorns only pertain to royalty, speaking of the government system of this entire country is a Monarchy ran by a princess who is kind of treated like a god which makes sense since apparently she controls the rising and setting of the sun and moon. Three; My Parents are nice I guess its hard to look as them as parents with knowledge of my previous life, my mother's name is Sugar Moonlight a unicorn who runs a bakery in the city and my father Shadow Bronco an earth pony who's a captain of the royal guard in las pegasus and it seems I'm an earth pony like him. Four; and for the strangest and most important part my eyes aren't like anyone else, I have a literal HUD with a health bar, mana stats and everything, it seems I'm for sure the only one like this since no one seems to understand what I'm talking about when I mention it.

"Onyx sweetheart can you do mommy a favor and go fetch your father from the station and let daddy know dinners ready?" My mom called out from the kitchen, I turned to look at her to see the usual floating text above her head; Name: Sugar Moonlight, Class: Mom/Baker, Level:10. After my mother asked me to run the errand on que a small bleep caught my attention.

You got a new quest do you accept? I tapped the accept button and swiped away the extra details from the quest before heading off in my room grabbing my satchel and my mareball cap and turned to head outside. These quest have been showing up for a week now but it doesn't seem to be giving me any special rewards aside from money, another thing I've noticed is that several parts of my "Character Sheet" are locked away, the only thing I can access is my stats and quest page if I try swapping to my skills page I get an error and a message that I can't understand.

"I'll be back in a few mama with papa don't worry." I give her a sweet smile to which she looked up giving me a warm smile in return, I trotted out the door heading down the street scrolling through my information on my character sheet even though I've finished a quest everyday this week but yet for some reason I'm still level 1. 'Maybe I'm still a level 1 because the quests aren't giving me enough EXP I'm pretty sure that I could-'

"Well Well if it isn't shrimp legs how's it hanging buddy?" my thoughts were cut off by my current bullies Big B and his lackeys Gladmane and Rocky Road, 'some things never change I guess even in a new body in a completely different dimension I can never escape being bullied huh.' I feel a sharp pain in my head as Big B took it upon himself to hit me in the head to get my attention.

"Its rude to ignore yah friends shrimp legs come on man were just asking where yah headed buddy." I shrug off my pain and bite my tongue already knowing that any answer I give including none will just continue the bullying. My ears perked up as I hear my quest tracker notification go off I sneakily open the quest information to see two different quests available.

Please choose one, Quest 1: Show your courage and fight the bullies. Rewards: 1 level up & 1 Random Combat Skill. Quest 2: Live to fight another day (Successfully run away from your bullies). Rewards: 1 level up & 1 Random Movement Skill

I took a moment to ponder which one to choose before I made a decision, I accepted the second quest backing away slowly and made a mental note of where to go before refocusing my attention on the bullies. "I'm not your friend I'm your meal ticket since you guys are to poor to afford food without having to beat up weak kids like me." With that statement their smug faces morphed into heavy scowls they were all easily set off when you mention their financial situation its kind of sad. Big B started menacingly walking towards me most clearly going in to hit me but I didn't give him a chance as I kicked some dirt at gravel at his face momentarily blinding him.

"Gah what the-" Big B immediately brought a hoof to his eye trying to wipe the dirt and I took that opportunity to shove Big B into his lackeys having them topple over like a stack of dominoes. I galloped past them only faintly hearing Big B shouting to get me, I never gave them the chance as I zoomed down the road running into the Las Pegasus Casino zipping between all the pony's looking for another exit.

"Get back here shrimp legs your totally getting a pounding for this!" I look back to see only Big B chasing me and further behind him is his lackeys being grabbed by the security guards. 'wait did he just say he was gonna pound me? Repressed homosexuality or a bad choice of words...questions for later.' I made a beeline past the slot machines and took a quick dive into a photo booth as I watch Big B stampede by looking for me.

"Ha suck on that Big D stupid bucking prick!" I took a deep sigh of relief as I backed away from the door bumping into something fuzzy.

"Well well hello there you lost sweetheart? I quickly turned around to see a gryphon looking down at me with a pair of shades and an amused smile. 'Ok best course of action it to play the lost kid role and try to leave.'

"Oh I'm sorry miss nice lady I was wandering around and I didn't see you there I'll just get out of your feathers." I turn around to make my escape and felt a yank on my tail, I look back to see this gryphon holding my tail with a claw.

"Now now you don't have to leave just yet I wanted to ask you a quick question." I take a careful pause and watch her movements for any sign of her going for an attack but her posture seemed relaxed and her tone sounded coy. "I'll assume I can ask so here it is what are you exactly? You may look like a colt but you don't smell like a child you smell like a grown stallion." She didn't wait for an answer as she kept talking aloud watching me. "Now age wise I can definitely tell on the inside your a stallion but on the outside I can tell this isn't a spell and that your physically a colt so what's the right answer?" Her voice sounded so soft and melodic but her tone felt cold and calculating, my body kicked into hard drive as I felt a knot twist in my stomach telling me I'm in danger if I don't play this right.

"I'm sorry miss I don't under-." before I could finish my sentence I felt a strong force grab and squeeze my throat cutting off my oxygen, I could do nothing but gasp for air trying to get free from the green aura holding me up.

"Now careful sweetheart cause lying to me would be your biggest mistake." As she spoke I watched as she pulled off her glasses and her blue eyes flashed green for a split second as she glared at me with a hungry stare. I began to lose focus as the world started slowly turning back and I watched as my health bar started going down by 5HP every second, before fully passing out she let me go and I dropped to the floor gasping for air. "Lets try that again don't you think?" I quickly nodded wheezing trying to quickly regain my breath.

"I died and was reincarnated but I kept my previous life memories." As soon as I finished my sentence she paused looking at me critically staring deep into my eyes my whole body shuddered in fear as her look reminded me of a predator looking at a free meal.

"Hmm... I see i can tell your telling the truth and i want to ask more but oh well I suppose this mystery will be solved another day if you survive of course, now if you excuse me i need to feed one last time in las pegasus." And with that she stepped out of the photo booth smoothly before i could say anything, a flash of green flames swirled blocking my view before dying down I peeked my head to see the direction to where the psycho gryphon only to see only other ponies leaving their own photo booths.

"What the fuck just happened." I fell back on my back taking a deep haggard breath as I took deep breaths trying to calm my heart down, I finally pricked my ears to hear a pinging sound and noticed my quest tracker and achievements icons had a exclamation point on it. I quickly opened my character sheet and swiped over to my quest tracker seeing a notification pop up.

You've completed your "Live to fight another day" quest. Rewards: +1 Level, Skill Phase Run Unlocked. 'Finally some actual progress on this shit thank god...right its thank Celestia I really have to get used to saying that sooner rather then later.'

Congratulations you've leveled up! Rewards: Full Character Sheet Unlocked, Skill List Unlocked, Mana Unlocked.

"I have never been so happy to level up in my entire life lets start with this full character sheet and see what the rest looks." I swipe back to my character sheet completely overhauled and take a moment to read everything.

document/d/1_0btJDBOPBFuZfQnPF7RRx6Wqr0xdMk9u6pbSqDuf10/edit?usp=sharing

"Holy shit there's so much to take in right now, despite my circumstances this is kind of cool wait there's an achievement section." I quickly swap over it and see 1 achievement gained. Achievement Unlocked: "Just as courage is the danger of life, so is fear its safeguard." Survive a chance encounter with a hungry changeling. Rewards: Charisma +1

"Oh neat I mean I nearly died but hey a reward is a reward I guess." I swiped away before my brain paused and swiped back rereading the achievement. 'Wait a minute a changeling that doesn't sound right I could've sworn that was a gryphon, furthermore what even is a changeling?' I shook my head saving this train of thought for another time sneaking out of the photo booth heading for the back exit, as I peak my head out I see Big B posted by the exit.

"Dammit where is that asshole when I find him I'm gonna kill him." Big B spat at the ground as he looked around for me, I quickly slip my head back inside as an idea popped in my head. 'Let's see how these skills work.' I took a deep breath and focused on what the skill described and felt my body start to get warm all over to nearly a boiling point, I Dashed forward running right for the door closing my eyes but when I didn't immediately crash into the wall I opened my eyes to see that i was fully outside running down the street. 'Holy shit it worked thank god I mean Celestia!' looking at my HUD I saw that I lost 10 mana and that the skills duration timer lasts 30 seconds, taking advantage of that I zoomed past several stores before finally making it to my fathers barracks. The warm feeling left my body as I checked my skills again seeing a 4 minute cooldown on phase run, I took a deep breath as my heavily winded body has never exerted this much power at a time. 'Jesus I definitely need to build my body up I'm way to weak in my current state.'

"Onyx is that you? I looked up to see a familiar white furred unicorn mare in a guards uniform looking down at me the guard pulled off her helmet revealing herself to be Lucky Rose my fathers right hand woman and second in command, I opened my mouth to respond but simply wheeze as I try to regain my breath. "Lemme guess, running from some bullies again." I shrug vaguely hoping she doesn't push the subject knowing she would report it to my dad when I wasn't around. She simply sighed before lifting me up with a gentle white aura and placing me on her back. "Just get your breath back kid neither of us want to deal with the captain freaking out about what happened."

"...Thank you." I quietly responded keeping my head down hoping she would pity me enough to not snitch, she grunted sounding somewhat annoyed as we started walking up to my fathers tent. Before we walked in i saw a flash report show up on my HUD.

Warning Warning

Notice: You are in the vicinity of a Level 10 Catastrophe please evacuate immediately!

"Wait somethings wrong." I call out to Lucky Rose who in turned stopped to look back at me confused, I jumped off Lucky Rose's back and started looking around frantically for any sign of a catastrophe but nothing gave me any sign there was any danger to begin with.

"What's wron-" Before Lucky Rose could finish her sentence a loud almost deafening roar could be heard forcing me to cover my ears as a large shadow dragon flew over Las Pegasus. "What the hell dammit." I heard Lucky Rose run off but I couldn't move as I watch in horror as the large shadow dragon hovered right over the las pegasus casino before opening its maw as a bright blue light shined out of its mouth before a giant fireball slammed into the casino causing a large explosion, a large shockwave hit the entire city and I felt myself get pushed off feet as the wave hit me too. The last thing I could see before the world went black was the shadow dragon opening its maw getting ready for another attack.