Champions of Mareth

I pace frantically around my living room, my hands clutching at my head. What the hay was going on?! It's like I've really turned into my character from that game!

I stop. Could it be that I'm still inside the NGear? Could it simulate me waking up and walking around my house? No no no no, I don't want to think about that, that opens up a whole can of existential worms. Besides, how would it know what my house looks like?

No, it had to be something else. The headset had somehow transformed my real-life body into this weak, red-headed, non-flying body. It was some kinda freaky magic!

Of course, Twilight! If it's a magical problem, she's the one I should go and see. If anyone knows how to get my body back to normal, it'll be her.

Still in my exercise clothes, I run to the front door, sprint to the edge of the cloud, and then stagger back as I look down, remembering my situation just in time to avoid trying to take off.

Suddenly, living in a cloud several yards off the ground doesn't seem quite so smart.

Okay then, if I can't go to her, then I'll have to get her to come to me! I jog back up to my bedroom, sit myself in my computer chair, and am greeted with an empty desk. Of course, I sold my PC to pay for the NeuronGear!

Well, if email's out, then I'll just have to call her! After spending several minutes hunting around for my mobile, I flip up the lid, and... the screen remains black. Dammit, the battery's dead! I don't think I've ever actually owned the charger for this... I'd normally just let the battery sit inside a thundercloud for a few minutes, but obviously going to get one isn't really an option right now.

I start pacing again. Surely there's got to be some way of getting in touch with her? If I could just get down to the ground... the ground... Of course!

I run back outside, lean over the side of the cloud, and shout down at the top of my voice, "TAAAAAAANNNNK!"

I wait. And wait. And wait some more. Eventually I decide that I should go take a shower, so I do that, changing into my normal day clothes as I come back. I sit back on the cloud, and wait. And wait.

Finally, I hear the whirring of propellers, and the tortoise comes into view.

"Tank, c'mon, get up here!" I call, though I can't really tell if he increases his speed at all. After another few minutes, he finally draws level with the house, and he gives me a smile. Which quickly changes into a confused stare. That's about the fastest I've ever seen him react to anything!

"Tank, it's me, Rainbow! I know I look weird right now, that's because something really weird happened to me. Anyway, long story short, I lost my wings, so I need you to carry me over to Twilight's place, kay?" As I say this, I reach up and grab his shell, pulling him above my head. "Try taking off here, so we can see if you can lift me," I tell him.

He's still giving me a confused glare. But after a few minutes, my words seem to finally catch up in his brain, and his usual smile returns. He nods, and without any apparent effort, starts to ascend. I feel my feet lifting off of the cloud, and I make sure to cling on tight to his shell.

"Woo, all right Tank! C'mon then, let's go!"

Albeit with his usual slowness, Tank begins to move forwards. I look down as the cloud drifts away from beneath me, and watch as we float over the houses of Ponyville.

It suddenly dawns on me that if I were to lose my grip on Tank, I would fall, and possibly die! I feel helpless, and for the first time in my life, the height scares me.

This must be what it's like to be Fluttershy.

I quickly turn my head back upwards, and try to distract myself by making small talk with Tank. "So, uh, I guess this'll be the second time you've carried me in my time of need, huh? Guess that means I owe you two now!" He gives me one of his big, slow grins, his cheeks lighting up, and I feel mine do the same as I think about how lucky it was that I chose him as my pet. I doubt a falcon would be able to comfortably carry me anywhere.

Although it could probably take a letter. In fact, so could Tank. Y'know, maybe I should've though of that first.

Well, it was too late to turn back now. The house is already above us, indicating that we were losing altitude fast. It wasn't much of a surprise: Tank might be strong, but it was the propellers that were keeping him in the air, and they weren't designed for a full-grown human, even if I do have a pegasi's lighter bone structure.

In fact, at this rate, I'm not sure we'll get to Twilight's before we reach the ground. I don't want to end up drawing attention to myself in this shape by landing in the middle of town, so I tell Tank to just slowly lower me to the ground instead, and I'll take it from there.

We reach the ground a few minutes later. Tank does down a lot faster than he does up. I let go of his shell, my arms burning: I doubt they could have held my weight all the way to Twilight's like this, so it's doubly a good thing I changed my plan.

I thank Tank, giving him a quick Eskimo kiss once I'm sure no-one's looking, and then run off in the direction of the library.

It takes a while to get there, as I skirt round the edges of the town, ducking behind shrubberies whenever I see someone who might know me, which incidentally is everyone. But finally, I make it to the street across from the Golden Oaks Library.

Standing in an alleyway, I press my back to the wall. It feels weird to not have my wings between me and something behind me, but I bear with it. If I get seen now, I'll lose all my reputation.

Making sure the coast is clear, I sprint across the road, and dive into the bush beside the library. Am I good? I think I'm good. I look both ways again, just to be sure.

"Um, can I help you?"

I jump as the voice comes from behind me, and spin round. Twilight has pushed open the ground-floor window just above the hedge, and is staring at me in confusion.

"Wait, Rainbow, is that you?"

"Shhh!" I hiss, diving through the window. Frankly, I don't think either of us were quite expecting me to do that, so Twilight and I kind of land together on the library floor in a crumpled mess. In a perfect world, my head would have had a soft landing upon her boobs, but alas, I instead end up braining myself on the hardwood floor.

"Gahh!" I yell, clutching my forehead as I sit up quickly. I hear Twilight cry in similar pain, and I extend my palms towards her, in the universal gesture of apology. In a perfect world, my hands would have ended up grabbing onto her boobs, but instead I just end up with one hand ramming into her face, my thumb going up her nostril, and the other getting caught in her hair.

Realising that I'm still sat astride her lap, I quickly get to my feet, and offer her a hand up. "Sorry, sorry!" I repeat over and over, as Twilight slowly gets to her feet, clutching the back of her head.

I hear a clatter, and spot Spike, Twilight's baby dragon, doubled over on the floor, clutching his stomach as his body shakes with laughter.

"Rainbow, what exactly is going on?" Twilight asks. Her hand has moved from clutching her head to rubbing it, and she seems to have mostly recovered from the ordeal that just happened. "You've changed your hair, and... oh Celestia, what happened to your wings?!"

"Yeah, that's uh, kinda what I came over to talk about," I tell her, closing the window that I entered through. "It's a long story..."

Twilight listens, enraptured, as I tell her about the game, and my experiences with it in the NGear. I leave out most of the sexual stuff, since even though Twilight's one of my best friends, there's only certain kinds of best friends who won't actually mind hearing about their friends' masturbation habits.

"So basically," Twilight says once I finish, taking a sip of her coffee, "you created a character in this game, and now your real body has been transformed into this character?"

"Exactly!" I nod enthusiastically. "This's gotta be some kind of magic! Please Twilight, you've gotta help me!"

She folds her arms, leaning back in her chair, and seems to go into deep thought for a while.

Just as I'm about to check that she's still awake, her eyes suddenly spring back open, and she stands up. "...All right, I think I have an idea. Follow me."

She heads up the stairs, leading me to her private living area of the library. In the corner of her bedroom, I spot a familiar-looking box.

"Whoa, I didn't know you had an NGear too!" I run over to it, and take a closer look. This is no ordinary NeuronGear, this is one of the Gold limited edition ones. The box looks to be unopened.

"Princess Celestia sent me that," Twilight informed me, "saying it could be useful for research purposes. At first I thought she was just testing to see how I focused I could stay on my studies with distractions like that around, but now I guess it will have some practical use."

The box lifts itself up suddenly, caught in Twilight's trademarked purple aura. She quickly undoes all of the packaging, far faster than anyone could do it by hand, and pulls the helmet out of the box. Along with it comes the instruction manual, which she quickly flicks through.

"Ah, you want me to help you set that up?" I ask.

"No need," Twilight tells me, closing the booklet. "Apparently Gold editions come pre-set-up. See?" She taps a button on the side, and the lights flare into life. "Now come on, slip your head in here."

"All right, if you think it'll help..." I'm not sure where Twilight's going with this, but follow along anyway, laying down on her bed and slipping the helmet over my face. I reach up to fasten the strap, but she stops my hand with hers.

"We don't need you to Deep-Dive for this, just keep the helmet on your head," she says. I peek through the visor, and see her horn start to glow brightly, indicating that she's building up some serious magic.

"Okay, now since the NGear apparently has the ability to transform your body, I'm going to try and use this feature to return you to your original form. Just hold still."

I'm about to nod, then realise, and keep my head still on the pillow. Nothing seems to happen for a few minutes, and then before I even notice it, I'm being shaken awake, hearing Twilight's voice in my ear.

"Rainbow Dash... Rainbow Dash!"

"Huh, wzzt?" I grunt, my eyelids flickering open. I see Twilight leaning over me, a concerned expression on her face.

Once she sees that I'm awake, her face quickly softens, as she breathes a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank goodness, I thought something might have gone wrong!"

"Whhen did I fall asleep?" I mutter, rubbing my eyes.

She simply smiles. "It was all part of the process. Now come on, there's someone you should meet." Taking my hand in hers, she pulls me up from the bed, and drags me over to her dresser. Planting me in front of her mirror, she spreads her arms and cheers "Ta-da!"

In front of me... is me! Good old me, with my rainbow hair, my toned muscles, my regrettably flat chest, and my awesome wings! Oh Celestia, I have never been happier to see these babies than I am right now.

I pounce on Twilight, wrapping my arms around her in an overly-excited hug. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you! Twilight, you're a life saver!"

"Easy, Rainbow, you're welcome!" Twilight laughs, hugging me back.

After a minute, I let go of her, and run over to the nearest window. "Got to go, I've got a lot of flying to catch up on!" With that, I throw the window open, and take off, reveling in the feeling of the wind rushing past my face.

"Hahahaha, I'm awesome again!" I cheer, to the world at large.

After about half an hour of getting awesomeness out of my system, I land back at my house, and consider my options.

On the one hand, that game is bad news, since it messes with my body. On the other, it's actually pretty fun, and since this might become a common feature in other NGear games at some point anyway, I probably shouldn't worry too much about it.

Now that I know Twilight can fix it, there's not too much to worry about. The trouble is getting to Twilight when I need her...

Light bulb.

Of course, it was so simple! This was one of the reasons I decided to live on a cloud in the first place, after all.

Flying round to the back of the house, I find the seam where the two clouds that make up my home meet, and slide my hands into the gap. With a little pushing, the two split apart, and start to float away from each other.

One of the clouds holds my rainbow fountain, and I quickly reach out to grab this one. I don't want it moving about dripping spicy-hot rainbows all around Ponyville, after all.

After I'm sure that it's fixed in place, I fly over to my house, and with a little exertion, start to push it over in the direction of the library.

It might be big, but it's still just a cloud, after all.

"Uh, Rainbow, what're you doing?" Spike asks, a serious look of confusion on his face, as he watches me adjust the placement of my house above the library.

"Oh, don't mind me Spike," I call down to him. "Just moving house is all."

Once I'm satisfied that it's where I want it, I reach down to my belt, and grab the coil of rope that I borrowed from AJ on the way here. Tying one end to one of the pillars by my front door, I let the other end trail over the edge of the cloud, dangling down until it's just a little way off from the library's top-story balcony.

"Awesome, now that I've got my safety line, I can dive back in!"

I head back up to my bedroom, pull off my t-shirt and socks, flop back onto the bed, and grasp my helmet.

I hesitate for a moment: Do I really want to risk going back to being unawesome? But Twilight fixed me, and she made it seem like it was simple, so she can do it again, right?

I'm wary, but the call of all of the unexplored possibilities that the game offers, both in terms of the world and new sexual experiences, are too tempting to chicken out on. I steel my resolve, put the helmet on my head, and fasten the strap.