Pony Art Online

Chapters

Arrival
Wanted Criminals
Starting a Dungeon
Rescue from Sunny Town
The truth about Legends of Equestria
Strange Conspiracy
Starting all over again
Nightmares and the Nightmare Night
The issue of the Elements of Harmony
Nightmare's move
The Elements of Darkness
The ultimate sacrifice
Blue Blood's betrayal
Elements vs. Elements, the final battle
Three years later

Arrival

Twilight couldn’t believe it, not even two months has passed since she was crowned Princess and Canterlot was already in pure chaos. The reason? Discord thought nothing was better to celebrate April’s fools day than free an Ursa Mayor in the middle of the city. He wasn’t evil anymore but he was still annoying.

“Damn it; and precisely Princess Celestia left me in charge while she was into some diplomatic mission. Discord I swear next time I see you you’re gonna pay for this!!” grumped Twilight for herself flying around the beast. She hoped the beast concentrated in her only and she could guide her outside of the city.

“Twilight!!” somepony called.

“Girls!!” she screamed when she spotted her friends running to help her.

Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie ran to the Ursa Mayor who was still destroying everything she could. Applejack tried to use her rope to catch it but it was a futile attempt. When the beast felt the rope around her paw, she raised it raising the poor Applejack too; making her scream in fear. Rainbow Dash flew to save her friend, who fell on her back safely. The two of them flew away from the beast.

Pinkie Pie decided to use a track of food so she could guide the beast outside Canterlot, a very reasonable idea coming from Pinkie. It worked by the first two minutes but the Ursa Mayor saw the sack where Pinkie was keeping the food and took it with her gigantic tongue.

Twilight grumped. “It’s time for a new strategy, girls!! I’ll try to immobilize it with my magic. Rarity, I’ll need your help too for something this big. Fluttershy, in the meantime I need you to use the Stare; that’s our only hope!!”

The two mares nodded and started with the plan. Rarity and Twilight did their best to keep the beast static while Fluttershy flew to her and used her famous Stare.

“You!!” Fluttershy yelled. “How dare you? How dare you to destroy our homes just like that? Look at you, so big and so naughty. Someone with your size should be doing something useful like take care of your baby!!

The ashamed Ursa Mayor lowered her head and blushed. But something happened, the monster started to move her nose ready to sneeze but nopony notice the danger until it was too late. The powerful sneeze made Fluttershy flew outside the city of Canterlot and Rarity and Twilight lost control of the animal.

Free and more furious than ever, the Ursa Mayor reassumed her destruction more violent than ever. Twilight was desperate; she needed a miracle to calm the animal without hurt it. But such thing didn’t happen. Instead of the miracle Twilight was waiting for, they came.

A dark blue pegasus stallion with a short black mane and beautiful gray eyes; and a white unicorn mare with light brown mane and copper eyes. The both of them looked at the monster with a grin.

“So we just started this game and already have a Dungeon Boss to defeat. Thanks Kami-Sama we still have all our attributes from SAO” said the pegasus evaluating the Ursa Mayor.

The unicorn nodded. “Let’s finish this, Kirito”

The both of them made a strange move with their hooves making appear a white screen with the legend: PLAYER OPTIONS – INVENTORY. They selected the Inventory options and started to look for what they need. Finally they selected their swords; two for the pegasus, one for the unicorn. Then, they ran to the Ursa Mayor with a warrior scream.

Rainbow Dash was flying around trying to think what to do next when the screams broke her concentration. The next thing the Mane 6 knew was than two strangers were attacking merciless the Ursa Mayor with their swords. The both of them were very skilled fighters who easily dodged all the Ursa attempts to get rid of them. But the ponies didn’t understand what was going on.

They warriors were attacking the beast, but none of them could see any blood. The only thing that they saw was an strange green bar than appeared above the monster. A green bar that was diminishing it size every time the warriors hurt the Ursa. Fluttershy screamed in agony.

“NOO!!! TWILIGHT, GIRLS DON’T YOU SEE IT? I don’t understand how but that bar is measuring the Ursa’s life and it’s almost empty. TWILIGHT, THEY’RE KILLING HER!!”

None of the Mane 6 wanted to believe Fluttershy but it was true. The “life bar” turned yellow and when it was almost empty, it turned red. The girls ran to save the beast but it was too late. Finally the pegasus did the last attack making the Ursa disappear into a million sparks of blue light. And the mysterious message of CONGRATULATIONS appeared where the Ursa was.

“Did you got an special item?” asked the unicorn.

The pegasus made the white screen appear again and started to look into it. Finally he grinned selecting the new object. A black coat appeared from nowhere and covered the warrior.

“Midnight coat!” he happily announced. The unicorn giggled.

“So once again you’re gonna be known as Kirito the Black Swordsman.

“And you as Flash Asuna” congratulated Kirito.

She giggled a little bit more and the two of them walked together to nowhere in particular, when the Mane 6 blocked them. Fluttershy was furious; for her nothing was more evil than kill an innocent creature just like they did, merciless and coldly.

“HOW DARE YOU? HOW COULD YOU KILL THAT POOR LITTLE URSA MAYOR? “ the yellow pegasus yelled with tears running throw her face. “She wasn’t dangerous, it was Discord’s fault so how dare you to do so atrocious thing? YOU TWO…”

Losing control, she attacked the surprised new ponies, but Applejack used her rope to restrain her friend. She was furious with them too but she was also being careful because of their sword skill.

“Why did you do that?” asked Twilight strictly, like the Princess she was. “Why did you do such thing?”

The two strangers looked each other confused. Finally the blue pegasus answered.

“Obviously for the special item, the money and the experience points” he said.

Rainbow Dash glared at him. “So you want us to pay you for this atrociousness? You’re mad!!”

The unicorn summoned again the white screen and showed it to the ponies. “This things called bits are the money you have here, right? We automatically get 450 bits each one after defeating the monster”

Nopony understood a thing. The only thing they had clear was the two of them were very dangerous people and they had to lock them right now. Several guards approached silently waiting for an order that Twilight finally gave.

“Arrest them under the charge of killing a protected animal and public disorder. Now”

They obeyed. The white unicorn raised an eyebrow.

“What’s with this NPCs? Kirito, let’s log out and play something else”

The pegasus agreed and before the guards or the Mane 6 could understand what they were going to do, they summoned the white screen and selected the LOG-OUT option fainting instantly.

The guard trying everything to bring them back but it was pointless. It seemed like their minds were in other site.

More confused than ever, Twilight ordered to take them to the dungeons until they woke up; then she could interrogate them better.

In a Tokyo suburb, two teenagers disconnected their Virtual Reality equipment; the NerveGear.

“That was odd” said the girl. She was tall and shared the features of her pony character in her hair and eyes.

“Very” agreed the boy; who also shared the same features than his girlfriend with his pony character.

“So what? We play something else?”

The boy nodded and walked to his computer looking for a new MMO-RPG to play; but after several minutes, he frowned.

“What, Kazuto?” asked the girl whose name was Asuna, just like her character.

“I can’t connect to any other game. Maybe it’s a “bug” or something but I can’t disconnect the hardware to the Legends of Equestria software. Something very strange is happening.

The girl didn’t seemed worried.

“Just rest the internet”

Kazuto did as his girlfriend said but nothing happened.

“Same Asuna. Our NerveGear can’t connect to something else than Legends of Equestria. It seems like if we want to play online we have to play that”

Asuna raised an eyebrow confused but didn’t worry for real. She just nodded and both of them agreed to fix their problem some other day. So Asuna went back to her house and that was it.

Besides that was only a game just like any others they’d played along their life of gamers.

Author's Note

Like I said in my bio, I love anime Crossovers since I'm an Ota-Cool and just as my other story, Equestria Budokai Tenkaichi this one is already finished in the spanish version.

I hope I can find other who loves SAO as much as I do. And without nothing else to say:

Ready ya later!!

Wanted Criminals

Asuna and Kirito opened their eyes only to realize they were in a kind of prison. Confused, they started to look around hoping to find an exit. Then Asuna found someone brought a cup of water and a piece of bread for the two of them.

Kirito only chuckled, took his bread and summoned his inventory screen looking for the item he needed.

“How can you do magic if you’re locked in here?” asked a strict voice behind him. “This prison supposed to neutralize magic! But more important, you’re a pegasus and pegasus can’t do magic; only unicorns and alicorns can!”

Kirito and Asuna turned. The six NPCs who arrested them were watching them through the prison bars. Kirito scratched his head a little confused.

“I think I don’t understand the question” said the warrior finding the item he was looking for: a recipient of whipped cream.

He started to spread his bread with the cream and then passed the recipient to Asuna, who did the same. Then, they started to eat calmly to the annoyance of the ponies.

“Don’t play dumb with us” grumped Twilight. “You make appear that weird screen where you summon those swords of yours and now that whipped cream. If that’s not magic I don’t know what it is”

“Not only you’re messing with us but also don’t share your delicious whipped cream!” Yelled Pinkie Pie.

Still confused, Kirito passed the whipped cream through the bars to Pinkie, who happily accepted it and started to it. Twilight rolled her eyes and was about to say something but Fluttershy was faster and intimidated the warriors using the Stare. Kirito and Asuna moved back; for some reason that Stare was the most disturbing thing they’d ever saw playing an RPG.

Fluttershy advanced to them threateningly. “I want to know why. Why you killed that poor animal? What kind of monsters are you? Don’t you get it? She was scared. Just imagine you’re in your home and suddenly you appear in a strange place where a lot of strangers attack you for no reason. Why didn’t you thought about it when you attacked her?”

Asuna took a deep breath and patiently, she tried to explain one more time. “We already told you: because of the money, the experience points and the special item. Is no big deal…”

“NO BIG DEAL?” shouted Fluttershy angrily. “THERE’S NOTHING WORST THAN KILL AN INOCENT CREATURE FOR MONEY!”

Both prisoners saw each other equally confused. What was going on with those NPCs?

“Ne, Kirito, what if we just destroy these bars and fight them?”

Kirito took the empty cup of water and threw it to Twilight. The alicorn gasped in surprise; so as her friends for the indignity. But, to the surprise of everypony, a purple energy shield that wasn’t created by Twilight protected her with the follow message:

IMMORTAL OBJECT

“Just what I thought: we can’t win this battle” mumbled Kirito, thinking in another solution.

Asuna frowned. But then she smiled happily and summoned her inventory and selected a weird looking blue crystal. Kirito smiled too; and smiling they shouted:

“Downtown!”

Before the ponies could react, they disappeared in the middle of some blue sparks. The Mane 6 were sitting in the prison, looking at the now empty cell completely astonished.

“What happened Twilight?” asked Rainbow Dash. “I thought the cell was built to neutralize all kinds of magic!”

Twilight thought for about five minutes. “Well, the cell supposed to neutralize magic on living things; not objects so that explains why they could use that crystal. And usually the guards take everything from the prisoners in case they try to use a magic object to escape but this time they couldn’t. Somehow they keep all their things in that weird screen and they’re the only ones who can access to it”

Twilight started to walk all over the place in a panic attack; but she could recover quickly. “Well, I don’t understand what’s going on but I will when we capture those two. That’s our priority now: we have to capture and interrogate them no matter what”

“When do we start?” asked Applejack.

Twilight ran upstairs and her friends followed her. Everyone except for Pinkie Pie who was devouring Kirito’s whipped cream. “I don’t know why they’re so concern about this. Someone who gives you something so delicious can’t be that bad”

…

Kirito and Asuna appeared in the middle of Canterlot, just where they killed the Ursa Major. They didn’t know how much time they had before the ponies react but they had to hide quickly.

“Great, now we are wanted criminal. I don’t know you but I’m starting to like this game” said Kirito with a grin.

“I do like it too; but now we have to think where are we going to find refugee. Apparently the NPCs can move our avatars when we are Log-Out so we have to think it well”

Kirito bite his tongue when suddenly, a sing appeared in all streets of Canterlot. It was a sign with a picture of them killing the Ursa Major with the legend:

WANTED; 500 BITS OF REWARD FOR TAKING THEM ALIVE
PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE

The warriors smiled excited; the game was getting better and better.

“Psst…” someone called them.

They turned to see a NPC unicorn with blue coat and light blue mane; a magician hat and a cape. Asuna took her sword from her inventory and threatened the unicorn.

“What do you want? “

The blue unicorn smiled friendly. “Don’t worry, those who annoy Sparkle are all my mates. My name is the Great and Powerful Trixie and I’m here to offer you my help”

“What do you mean?” asked Kirito.

“You see, I was just passing through when I saw you and I decided to congratulate you for your wonderful job defeating the Ursa. I think you could use a less violent method but who cares. The thing is I heard about your problem and I think I have the solution for it”

Asuna lowered her sword, but just a little. Trixie smiled more and continued.

“I live in a lodging owned by an old enemy of Celestia, a Changelling. He doesn’t care who you are or how what you do. If he has his rent on time, he is completely reliable. Is a little expensive, but is perfect for the law breakers like you and me”

“How can we know we can trust you?” asked Kirito.

“Because you don’t have a choice. I’m a law breaker just like you guys and we criminals must help each other. What do you think? Do you want to trust the Great and Powerful Trixie?”

The warrior didn’t know if they can trust Trixie or not; but like she said, they didn’t really had a choice. Besides, it was only a video game.

…

The girl was whistling happily while she connected her NerveGeare equipment to try the new game she just downloaded. When she turned it on, she felt who her mind was transported to the virtual world in the middle of a colored twister. Finally she was at the user’s interphase.

Welcome to Legends of Equestria
Please write a name for your avatar to start:

SILICA — She wrote.

Select what kind of pony do you want to be

Silica chose earth pony.

Do you want to transfer any data from a current game?

Silica selected “Yes”

Before her appeared a list with all the attributes and items compatible between Legends of Equestria and Sword Art/Alfheim Online. She was really happy than her virtual pet, a dragon, was between the compatible data. Finally the interphase ended and the last message appeared:

You will be transported to a random destiny to start

After that, everything turned into an entrance to a beautiful village.

“So I’m in Ponyville; well first things first. Pina!”

The poni summoned her inventory and selected the egg of her dragon. Once she had it, the egg cracked surrounded by a blue light and after a few seconds, a beautiful baby dragon was staring at her; she had light blue scales and blue eyes. Luckily, nopony noticed what just happened.

“Pina!!” greeted Silica. “You’re a little different from the version in SAO”

“You’re different too!!” giggled Pina happily. “Just look at you!”

Silica examined her new pony body. She still had her hair and eyes, but now she was a red earth pony with a mark on her flank that looked like Pina’s head.

“Wow, I like this game. And you can talk too, Pina, this is amazing. I wonder how this game will be!”

Then, the two of them entered to Ponyville where a lot of ponies greeted her kindly. Definitely, she liked that “safe area”. Then, somepony called her attention with a confetti canon.

“Hi, hi, hi, hi, HI! I’m Pinkie Pie and welcome to Ponyville” said excited a pink pony with blue eyes and a magenta mane. “What’s your name? Where are you from? Do you plan to stay in Ponyville or just passing through?”

Silica chuckled and shook the pink ponie’s hoof.

“Hi there, my name is Silica and yes, I plan to stay in Ponyville and you know, start my adventure.

“Whoa, an adventure?” asked Pinkie Pie amaze. “Can I come too? Please can I?

Silica smiled, she liked that NPC. “But of course you can!”
Pinkie Pie noticed Pina and smiled to her too. “Hi there! And what’s your name, little thing?”

Pina shook Pinkie’s hoof. “Hi, my name is Pina and I’m Silica’s assistant. Nice to meet you miss Pinkie Pie”

Pinkie clapped happily.

“Great! You know? I have a friend who also has a baby dragon assistant!! I’m just going to meet her, so why don’ you two join me? I think Spike will be happy to meet other of his kind!”

Pina blushed a little but she looked to Silica hopefully. Silica smiled to her and nodded; that was a good start for this new game.

“Of course Pinkie Pie, let’s meet her!”

Starting a Dungeon

That was the most stressful week Twilight ever had. And all because of the warriors who escaped from jail. Because of their great escape, those two were celebrities now; and there was no place in Equestria where Twilight didn’t hear about their adventures killing the most dangerous animals in the world. No matter what kind of monster they fight, they always returned victorious and intact.

That was frustrating, especially for Flutthersy who couldn’t understand why those merciless killers of animals were considered as heroes for the people; specially the youth. And to make it even better, because of their condition as wanted criminals, the young ones started to emulate them as icons of rebellion: young colts started to wear large black coats as the now known Black Swordsman; and mares were using their mane just as Asuna the Flash.

And that’s why their friends decided to make a picnic; to make them forget about all what happened and relax. Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were already there; only waiting for Twilight, Spike and Pinkie Pie to start their small reunion.

Twilight arrived first, with Spike on her back. “Hi girls, sorry for make you wait. Where is Pinkie?”

“Don’t know. But she’ll probably be here soon. You know Pinkie; can’t miss a party” said Rarity.

“You’re right” said Twilight sitting with the rest of them. “So, what’s new girls?”

They started to chat happily, without mentioning the warriors; when suddenly Spike get up really excited.

“What, Spike?” asked Twilight.

“She!” answered the dragon pointing to some place. “Is so beautiful!”

They all turned where Spike was pointing.(Rarity grumped a little annoyed, Spike’s praises were only for her until that moment). Pinkie Pie was walking to them with a new pony and a baby dragon girl. The pony was red with a short brown mane and amber eyes; the dragon had metallic light blue scales, dark blue spikes and beautiful blue eyes.

Spike ran to the dragon and bowed to her like a true gentleman. “Hi sweet heart, my name is Spike. What’s your name?

The new dragon blushed a little and chuckled happily. “Hi Spike, my name is Pina. I just came here with my tamer Silica”

Silica greeted Spike. “Hi! So, you’re the baby dragon Pinkie Pie told us about. Hello, I’m Silica the Beas Tamer. I just arrived to this town with Pina”

Pinkie invited her friends to meet the strangers. “Ey girls, you see? New friends!! I came the fast as I can to introduce them to you guys. I imagined you’ll like to meet her because she is the second pony who I met who carries a dragon. Do you like her? Do you like her?"

The rest of the Mane 6 giggled and one by one they introduced to the strangers; but Rarity was still annoyed for Pina’s presence. At the end, they invited Silica and Pina to join their picnic.

“And tell me sugar cube, what you do for living?” asked Applejack.

Silica smiled to her and showed her Cutie Mark. “I’m a beast tamer. It doesn’t matter how big or dangerous the monster is, I’ll make it docile with my great skill and good manners”

“Oh, just like Fluttershy!” said Rarity amused. “And what was your greatest success as a beast tamer?”

Silica thought for a few seconds and then she embraced Pina. “Pina of course! Is really difficult to train a wild dragon. You require a lot of skill; isn’t that right, Pina?

The dragon chuckled and snuggled to her owner.

“And you’re a tamer to?” asked Silica to Twilight.

Twilight shook her head happily. “No, I’m Princess of Equestria. You see: I wanted to enter to an elite magic school but I had to pass an exam first; and the exam was to awake a dragon egg. And Spike has being with me since that day. He’s like my little brother; isn’t that right, Spike?”

But Spike didn’t answered, he was too busy flirting Pina, who was happy for it.

Silica was happy, this game was really welcoming and friendly. That was the first time in her gamer experience she shared time with NPCs. They were so well programed than sometimes the dragon tamer forget they weren’t real; only part of the game.

“Ey Silica, do you know where are you staying?” asked Rainbow Dash.

Silica thought for a moment; that was a really good question. “Well, I’m not sure. I still have some money I gathered in Aincrad; so I can pay an inn for a while but then I don’t know. I need to get started before thinking about rent an apartment”

“You can stay with me” said Fluttershy. “I have an extra room I was about to rent so you can have it if you need it. Besides, I’ll charge you less than the local inn”

Silica smiled thankfully. “Thank you very much. I’ll take it!”

Pinkie jumped in excitement. “Tonight welcome party at Fluttershy’s”

…

Kirito and Asuna woke up in their new apartment. As their new NPC friend Trixie told them, the Changelling didn’t care who they were; he only wanted his money on time. So the warriors paid the rent of six weeks at once just to keep him happy. And just as them and Trixie, all the guests had their own law problems. Some of them were behind something really dangerous as mafia or just running an illegitimate business like Trixie. All criminals but still nice and helpful; apparently criminals on this game had a great spirit of cooperation between them.

Trixie quickly became their new friend and showed them how to move between Canterlot darkest places; including the infamous Red Zone. Everything to help them move freely in Canterlot avoiding guards and other obstacles. Killing a protected animal was one thing, but escape from jail was just too much. Still the gamers liked this new concept of a game and enjoyed this extra difficulty besides fighting ferocious beasts.

And after a week, Asuna and Kirito decided they were ready to start a Dungeon. Asuna heard about an open Dungeon called Everfree forest where they could fight the most dangerous things in Equestria, so they started packing everything they could: medicines, transportation crystals, food and others. Trixie knocked the door.

“It’s me, Trixie”

“Come on in” Asuna called.

The blue unicorn entered and watched all the materials they had for their inventory.

“Going somewhere?” she asked confused.

“To the Everfree Forest” Kirito informed. “After a week of gathering things I think we’re ready for a Dungeon. So we are leaving for at least two days”

“Dungeons are the best part in games” confirmed Asuna starting to store the items in her inventory screen. As a married-in-game couple, they shared the inventory so everything she stored, was now in Kirito’s inventory as well.

“Are you ponies crazy?” asked Trixie concern. “I know you are strong, I’ve seeing you destroying a gigantic hydra, but come on guys!! The Everfree Forest is too much for anypony; including you!”

Kirito smiled to her calmly. “Don’t worry, we still have enough transportation crystals in case we can’t handle whatever is waiting for us in that Dungeon”

Knowing she wasn’t going to convince them, Trixie only wished them the best of lucks. Thanking her, the two warriors took their way to the Everfree Forest. The problem was the transportation, as wanted criminals; they couldn’t use trains or a taxi or whatever the ponies had; so they had to walk around the less traveled routes.

Passing through Canterlot Red Zone, they found several young ponies who quickly recognized them and asked for autographs or something; one of them even asked for a picture with them. The new rebellion icons giggled but they declined to spend some time with their fans because it was well known open Dungeons were most dangerous at night and they still had a long way to go.

So after a long walk, they finally arrived Ponyville. Now they had to go around the village to not be found. They only found one cabin outside Ponyville but it seemed to be a party inside, so they could easily enter to the forest without disturbing the residents.

…

“What’s going on, Rarity?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Aren’t you having fun?”

The white unicorn moaned and saw to the corner where Spike and Pina were chatting, both of them blushed.

Rainbow Dash laughed. “Give me a break!! You’re jealous of a dragon! Come on Rarity, we all know Spike is a dragon and have to date other dragons!”

Rarity sighed and nodded. “I know, is just I kind of used to his attentions. Well, I better have some fun or this party was going to be really depressing for me”

In the meantime, Fluttershy was chatting with Silica about the creatures both of them tamed in the past.

“Wow” said Fluttershy. “I never thought there was a place so dangerous as that Aincrad you came from. I’m glad you two are in Ponyville now where everything is peace”

Silica giggled too.

“I know, after all what I passed in Aincrad, being here is kind of refreshing. I like it”

And they continued chatting. But in the fortes, Asuna and Kirito where looking for a shelter to protect their avatars from the beasts. They finally found a cave they occupied after destroying the Manticores that lived in there.

“You know, Kirito? This Legends of Equestria is the weirdest game I ever played. Besides you and me I haven’t seen another human player. Only those NPC so well programed”

The Black Swordsman nodded and started to think. This game didn’t feel like a game; just as SAO. Something very odd was going on.

Rescue from Sunny Town

Asuna and Kazuto connected their NerveGear ready to reassume their game. Both ponies, Asuna and Kirito woke up in the shelter they made in the middle of the Everfree Forest. After check nothing happened to their avatars, they walked deep inside the forest.

“Something wrong, Asuna?” Kirito asked to his girlfriend.

The Flash Asuna nodded. “I was thinking…what if this forest isn’t really a Dungeon? Is an unsafe zone but that’s it. Probably the real Dungeon is inside the forest, but not the forest itself”

Kirito smiled to her. “Well, there’s only one way to figure it out”

Asuna smiled too. “I know: playing. Very well, let’s play”

They walked for a while, making sure to mark the way back to their shelter. It was a big forest and there were a lot of dangerous creatures there; so all kind of cautions were necessary. After a while they saw what looked like a town in the middle of the forest, so they decided to came in.

“Hi and welcome to Sunny Town” greeted a gray pony with black mane. “My name is Gray Hoof, what can I do for you?”

“Nice to meet you. My name is Kirito and this is my wife Asuna. We’re only looking for some information”

“Okay” said kindly Gray Hoof. But then, his face changed when he noticed something under Kirito’s coat. “What’s under that coat?” he asked angrily.

Without understanding anything, Kirito removed his coat to show the gray pony his Cutie Mark of two crossed swords. Something he used to when he started the game; noticing all grown ponies had one. But then he noticed Gray Hoof has his flank in blank.

Suddenly his eyes turned to red while he was staring at Asuna’s Cutie Mark: a sword cutting wind. “YOU HAVE IT!! THE MARK!! YOU WILL DIE IN HERE!”

…

Twilight returned to Canterlot early in the morning. Pinkie’s party ended late and she had to spend the night at the library for convenience and ease. Spike asked to stay because he wanted to spend more time with Pina, so Twilight was alone. The first thing she noticed was than Princesses Celestia and Luna were back after their diplomatic trip. Twilight bowed to them respectfully.

“Princesses! I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow!” she said.

“Hello Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student” said Celestia. “We had to return when we find our old pal Discord…

Luna frowned. “He told us what he did to Canterlot so we came as fast as we could. But it seems to be everything all right; the destruction is minimum and no pony was hurt. Congratulations Twilight, you handled it very well”

Twilight lowered her head.

“What’s wrong, Twilight?” asked Celestia concerned.

“Princesses… you see… well, it’s hard to explain so; can you look into my memories please? Seriously this was the worst week I ever had…

Luna and Celestia obeyed. In Twilight’s memories they saw everything. How she bravely tried to calm the Ursa and guided it out of Canterlot; and how two mysterious warriors destroyed the beast violently. But, what was the meaning of that green bar above the Ursa? And why she turned into fragments when the warriors killed her? Then they saw what happened after the arrest of the mysterious warriors; how they fainted unconscious, and after recovering they escaped using those crystals.

“So that’s why young colts were using black coats” said Luna.

Twilight moaned. “This is all my fault. Because of me, those two are famous now”

Luna calmed her gently. “You don’t have to blame yourself, Twilight Sparkle. This is Discord’s fault; not yours”

“Luna is right, my faithful student” said Celestia. “And don’t worry; I’ll make our priority to capture and interrogate the warriors. Maybe they’re not our enemies but is urgent to interrogate them. I have a feeling this is only starting”

…

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were having another afternoon looking for their Cutie Marks. The day’s activity: to help Zecora gather the herbs that she needed to make her potions. Most of the adults forbid them to enter to the Everfree Forest; but not Zecora. That forest was her home and she knew all what she need to know about that place; so she let them walk freely. Besides, she always thought the best way to learn was through experience; so she only showed the fillies the illustration of the plant she needed and let them gather it for themselves.

“Ey, don’t you think we’re getting too deep into the forest?” asked Sweetie Belle after a while.

“Don’t worry Sweetie Belle” said Scootaloo showing her the half full saddlebag. “We’re almost done so it won’t take long”

“You’re right” agreed Sweetie Belle more confident.

They walked a little bit more. But then, Apple Bloom started to feel nervous and she didn’t know why. But something inside her was warning her that they were in a horribly familiar place. Scootaloo’s voice make her back to reality.

“Look, a town! What’s a town doing in here?”

And then Apple Bloom remembered. “Girls… let’s get out of here, please. You don’t know what are we facing in here so let’s get out of here and nothing happened”

But her friends already walked to the town. Apple Bloom ran after them crying. “Girls, I’m serious! There’s something I haven’t tell you yet but I’ll if we return now. PLEASE”

The other two Crusaders looked each other concern. They never seen their friend so scared from something. They were about to obey her when a gray pony interrupted them.

“Ey! Isn’t our old friend Apple Bloom? We thought you’ll never return to visit us again. What a nice surprise, please come in…”

More and more ponies appeared surrounding the girls. Apple Bloom was the living portrait of terror. Gray Hoof, their leader, smiled to the Crusaders staring at their flanks.

“We’re still on time, my dears. I thought next time we see little Apple Bloom she already had the Mark; but luckily she doesn’t have it yet. And she even brought her friends… still on time to save them. Please come this way and we’ll take care of you”

The ponies eyes turned to red. Apple Bloom was desperately looking for an exit, but this time Gray Hoof made sure to cut all the ways out. He even made sure than Mitta, the one who helped Apple Bloom to escape the last time, didn’t come. This time they were going to be saved.

The one who was named Tree Leaf was about to catch them but suddenly, she disappear into several sparks of blue light. “WHAT?” asked Gray Hoof.

A dark blue pegasus with a long black coat and two swords destroyed another two ghost ponies walking to Gray Hoof. “Let them go or I’m going to end this now”

More ghost ponies emerged from the ground and tried to catch Kirito, but Asuna quickly get rid of them with her powerful sword.

“Come on little ones. Kirito and I will clear you the way out, but we need to move fast; Dungeons are too dangerous for little fillies like you”

Gray Hoof’s voice resounded all over Sunny Town. “What do you think you’re doing? THEY BELONG HERE!! We will protect them… FROM THE MARK!!

More ghost ponies emerged from the deep and walked slowly to the heroes. Kirito prepared his swords: Elucidator and Dark Repulser. This was going to be fun.

…

It was late and the girls haven’t showed up yet. And Rarity left to the zebra’s house about an hour ago while her friend waited expectantly. Finally Rarity came back along with Zecora, but not with the girls. Zecora was worried, very.

“I’m terribly sorry. I supposed to watch them but when the night came and they don’t, I assumed they were already here. My bad”

“Don’t worry Zecora about it; they done it before so it was natural you thought that” said Rarity. “But now we have to find them and find them now”

Spike acted fast and sent a letter to Twilight.

…

Twilight was organizing documents along with Celestia and Luna, when the letter materialized in front of her. She quickly read it and paled. “It can’t be...”

“What’s wrong, my faithful student?” asked Celestia.

“The girls… Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo disappeared in the Everfree Forest. The rest are about to enter to the forest to look for them. Princess Celestia, can I go please?

Celestia nodded. “Of course you can go. In fact, I’m going with you. I have a bad feeling about this. Luna, we count on you”

She nodded and Celestia transported them to Ponyville.

…

Back in Ponyville, the search time was ready: Zecora, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Spike, Pina, Silica, Fluttershy and Applejack. Then the Princesses appeared in front of them and without losing any time, they walked to the forest. Zecora guided them where she saw the girls for the last time.

Celestia shacked. “No… Come on, we have to move fast. Not too far from here there’s a place under a powerful curse. Not even Luna and I were able to break it yet. There’s no time to lose, come on!”

They ran for a while when finally entered to the coursed zone. Ghostly laments could be heard all over the place. Fluttershy screamed in fear when she saw the ghost ponies emerging.

“The Mark. THEY HAVE IT! THEY MUST DIE!”

Celestia used her magic to repel the ghosts and continued looking for the poor fillies. Twilight imitated her so as Rarity and started to clear the place; but the ghost still appearing.

“What happened here?” asked Pinkie Pie.

Celestia lowered her head. “They’re under a curse that doesn’t allow them to rest in peace. So much powerful than they’re beyond my help or Luna’s. I just don’t know what to do to help my little poor ponies”

“I see them!!” announced Rainbow Dash.

The girls were running as fast as they could, trying to escape from the rage of the ghosts. Sweetie Bell was the first in notice the adults; so she called her friends and accelerated. But more ghost ponies appeared.

“They have the Mark, they’re cursed. Stay with us, we will keep you safe”

“NOOO!!” screamed Applejack.

Princess Celestia was about to react when the ghost ponies were destroyed into a million of sparks of blue light. Kirito and Asuna quickly got rid of the ghosts and at their sign, the girls ran to the adults.

“You’re safe now” announced Asuna. “Now get out while you still can!”

There was no need to repeat. All ponies ran out of the ghostly place while the warriors destroyed the monsters to clear the way. But suddenly, the ghost ponies started to move to other side when they saw a gray pony with orange mane and yellow eyes.

“You demonstrated great skill; unknown warriors. But this is the end of your luck. My name is Ruby and this is my territory and only I decide who stay and who leaves. The fillies are free to go, only the fillies”

“Ruby!!” screamed Apple Bloom. “I thought we were friends! Why are you doing this?”

“We are friends Apple Bloom” said Ruby. “But I’m the curse and the curse is me. The night we met I tried to curse the unicorn who was with you; but you came instead and I had to save you because not even I would do something as horrible as curse a filly”

“And all because you never get your Cutie Mark” reprehended Celestia.

“I never cared about such thing… until the other villagers murdered me thinking I was cursed. You reap what you sow and they sowed my curse” said Ruby with hate on her voice. “That’s why I took their Cutie Marks; that’s why I cursed them. Have you ever asked why are they so afraid of the Marks? Because the Marks are the reason why they are cursed. I’m sorry but that’s how it have to be”

“This is not the solution Ruby” said Celestia. “They did something horrible, but you already had your revenge. Is time to let them free and forgive what they’d done to you. Please?

After a uncomfortable silent Ruby smiled.

“NO!! I’LL NEVER FORGET WHAT THEY’D DONE!

Four HP bars appeared above her, making react Kirito and Asuna.

“So she is the Final Boss of this Dungeon” said Asuna.

“Come on, Asuna. We have a game to win”

And the warriors attacked Ruby.

The truth about Legends of Equestria

“This is not the solution Ruby” said Celestia. “They did something horrible, but you already had your revenge. Is time to let them free and forgive what they’d done to you. Please?”

After an uncomfortable silent, Ruby smiled.

“NO!! I’LL NEVER FORGET WHAT THEY’D DONE!

Four HP bars appeared above her, making react Kirito and Asuna.

“So she is the Final Boss of this Dungeon” said Asuna.

“Come on, Asuna. We have a game to win”

And the warriors attacked Ruby. Before she could react, Ruby received two blows from Kirito and one from Asuna. Yelling in anger she moved back a few steps and saw the bars above her realizing the first one was starting to diminish. Using her ghost abilities, Ruby flew a few meters preventing more attacks and started to use some kind of ghost lightings. Asuna used her unicorn magic to protect herself while Kirito flew to the ghost.

“Pegasus?” she asked surprised. Truth was the black coat was a little confusing.

Kirito managed to send her down with two blows from his swords and once on the ground, Asuna attacked too. The first HP bar turned to yellow, infuriating Ruby who sent the most powerful of her lightings. Both Asuna and Kirito were launched to the ponies they were protecting and their own HP diminished a lot. Silica along with Pina ran to them.

“Pina, heal them”

The dragon nodded and used her healing breath into the warriors, some kind of blue sparks that quickly made them recover part of their HP.

“Silica? Is that you?” asked Kirito smiling.

The beast tamer nodded. “You are the first human players I found into this game. But we will discuss that later, now we have a Dungeon Boss to defeat”

Kirito nodded and Asuna made appear a white screen in front of Silica.

—DO YOU WANT TO FORM A GROUP WITH ASUNA AND KIRITO? YES NO—

Silica selected yes and summoned her inventory to grab the dagger that she used in Sword Art Online. The three warriors pointed their swords to the confused Ruby. But she roared making more ghost ponies appear; surrounding the living. Silica gasped when she saw the ghosts attacking her new friends and she ran to defend them. One of the ghosts pulled Rainbow Dash to the ground but he was exterminated by Silica before he could do any harm. Other ghosts saw Fluttershy was too scared to move and attacked her but they were also destroyed by Silica.

Pinkie screamed in fear and without think about it too much, Silica selected all the weapons she collected during her life of gamer and passed it to Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

“I don’t know if an NPC can use it but try! It’s your only chance!”

“Are you one of them?” asked Rainbow Dash in horror.

“There’s no time to argue; now is time to fight” complained Silica.

The ponies nodded and took the swords to maintain the ghost ponies away from them. By other way; Rarity, Twilight and Celestia were using their magic but none of them knew how much they could resist. Rainbow flew in circles destroying every ghost she could; making a perimeter to keep her friends safe. Applejack did everything she could to keep the ghosts away from the girls and Fluttershy, who was terrified but still she positioned in front of the girls to protect them.

But they all knew their only hope were the warriors. Ruby knew it too and was trying everything she could to get rid of Asuna and Kirito; who quickly learnt her attack patterns making easier for them to defeat her. They already finished with her first HP bar and were making the second one lower to yellow. Ruby changed her strategy and made all the ghosts who were attacking the ponies to vanish and reappear as a protective circle around her. Kirito tried to fly over them and continue attacking Ruby, but that’s what Ruby was expecting and she easily repulsed him with her ghost lightings.

“Kirito” screamed Asuna dividing her attention between her boyfriend and the ghosts who were approaching.

Celestia walked to Kirito and after watch his HP was on yellow, she used her magic to heal him. Kirito looked at her confused.

“I don’t know why I’m doing this but you better make sure is worth it” said the Princess serious.

Kirito nodded and prepared his swords. “I need you to clean the way to the Boss. Can you help us with that?” he asked without understand why he was asking an NPC for help.

Celestia nodded and with Rarity and Twilight send a powerful fire ball that destroyed a lot of ghosts, making a perfectly clear path to Ruby. Ruby roared in anger and send more ghosts to block the way; but Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie used the swords Silica gave them to maintain them away from the warriors. Silica the Beast Tamer, Kirito the Black Swordsman and the Flash Asuna attacked Ruby at the same time to end the battle once for all.

Ruby’s second HP bar diminished completely and the third one was starting to decrease. She scream in fury and tried to use more ghost lightings but they already memorized her patterns and it was pointless. Ruby saw her ghosts but they were too busy fighting 5 of the Mane 6. Celestia took the responsibility to protect the Crusaders and Fluttershy.

Ruby was doomed, the three warriors attacked cutting every way out. The end was close when the fourth HP bar lowered to red. Silica made the final attack, making Ruby disappear into those strange fragments of blue light. The message appeared:

—CONGRATULATIONS—

Sunny Town started to change. One by one the perfectly conserved town started to deteriorate turning into nothing but ruins. That was something very scary. Fluttershy screamed in horror, but Celestia tranquilized her.

“Don’t be scared, Fluttersy. This means the curse is finally over; Ruby’s prisoners finally repose in peace”

Asuna approached to the Crusaders. “Are you alright?”

“Thanks to you” said Sweetie Belle thankful.

The warriors nodded were about to leave the town when Twilight stopped them. Kirito and Asuna prepared themselves, knowing she was the one who arrested them and an Immortal Object.

“Wait” said Twilight. “Please don’t go. I know we have our differences but after all this I don’t really know what to think about you. Please, I just want you to explain us some things. That’s it.

“And you have a lot to explain to, Silica the Beast Tamer” said Rainbow staring at Silica. “You already knew those two, didn’t you? “

Pina hugged her tamer in protective attitude.

“Please don’t do anything to Silica” she asked softly. “She’s not a first line player, she specialized in minor tasks; she’s not as advanced as Kirito and Asuna”

Celestia asked for silence with a gentle gesture. “There are a lot of things you have to explain us. Please, we don’t understand what’s going on. Players? NPCs? What’s the meaning of all this? And what about the green bars that only appear when you attack? Just help us to understand; you already showed us you’re not a threat so you don’t have anything to worry about”

Kirito and Asuna were about to say something, but a roar from nowhere made Fluttershy react.

“Please… can we finish the questions back in Ponyville? Please…

Celestia nodded and with Twilight’s help, they teleported all to the library. Then Celestia saw the warriors and smiled.

“Well, we’re listening”

The Crusaders jumped to protect them when they saw the ground ups staring at the warriors severely.

“Is not fair you treat them this way. They saved our lives” said Sweetie Belle.

“Please, this is my fault and Sweetie Belle’s. We didn’t listened to Apple Bloom when she tried to warn us about Sunny Town”

The ground ups saw Apple Bloom like asking, “You were there before?” and she nodded.

The warriors didn’t know what to do; that was the first time they were questioned about gamers stuff into a game. But finally Silica sighed and started to explain:

“I know this sound weird and you won’t like what we’re going to tell you but you’re not real. You’re only computer programs, artificial intelligences created to make this game more interactive”

Pinkie Pie bounced annoyed. “What are you saying? We exist! Of course we exist; you probably have being in the sun a little bit too much pal. Or probably you’re trying to distract us to avoid the interrogation”

“Silica is right” said Kirito. “Listen, you’re too well programed and all; but we don’t want to spend the game explaining the NPCs, Non-Player-Characters, how games work. I’ll only say this: in the real world you put a special helmet and poof! You transport to a fake world where you have powers and abilities you didn’t have in reality”

“We have lives, names and families that doesn’t have anything to do with Equestria” added Asuna.

Applejack raised an eyebrow.

“Okay. So the only thing I understand is we’re not real for you. If is that true, why did you saved my sister, her friends and us if we’re not real?”

Asuna smiled. “Because Kirito and I have a virtual daughter about their age. When we saw them in danger, we saw our little Yui; so we had to save them”

Suddenly, Kirito got up.

“That’s it! Yui! She can help all of us to understand what’s going on in here!

And before anypony could ask, Kirito summoned his inventory until find what he was looking for. An small crystal tear called “Yui No Kokoro; the Soul of Yui”. Kirito selected the tear make it to materialize.

Surprisingly, the tear turned into an small filly. She was a pure white unicorn whit long beautiful black mane and gray eyes. She had a white flower in her mane and she doesn’t have a Cutie Mark. After a while, she smiled happily to Kirito and Asuna.

“Mama, Papa!!”

With tears in their eyes, the warriors hugged the little Yui. Yui was a computer program that Kirito saved in the internal memory of his NerveGear; she adopted both warriors as their parents in the game Sword Art Online after they saved her for being erased. Now she was back in Legends of Equestria where she happily reunited with her parents.

“Mama, Papa, what kind of game is this? We’re talking ponies!”

Kirito kissed his daughter forehead.

“That’s what we want to ask you, Yui. Please what kind of configuration have this game; because none of us understand a thing”

Yui nodded gently and closed her eyes. The ponies didn’t understand but Asuna smiled calmly.

“Don’t worry. Everything is going to be cleared when Yui told us what we need to know”

Yui opened her eyes completely confused.

“What is it, Yui?”

“I don’t understand” said Yui scared. “I could say I’m configured as a filly; but I’m not as configured at all. I feel this is a real world; and somehow I became real!”

Kirito, Asuna and Silica paled.

“What are you saying, Yui?”

“The NerveGear transported you to a real world; another reality. Not a virtual reality; a true reality”

The warriors looked each other in fear. What was going on?

Strange Conspiracy

The gamers looked each other more confused than ever. What was going on there? They saw Yui, who seemed as confused as them.

“How is that possible?” asked Asuna. “I mean… if it’s true the NerveGear transported us to a true reality, why we still have our options menu, inventory and our attributes of SAO?

Yui shook her head. “Mama, Papa, Silica… that’s the weirdest thing of all. Like I said, this is a real world where I’m a real filly, Silica’s dragon is real too and the NPCs are real people; but you aren’t real. You’re still configured as virtual entities; players”

The five people from SAO stayed in silence because their shock; but Twilight called their attention. “Guys, is not than your chat isn’t interesting but you promised answers so give it to us. What’s the meaning of all this? Your daughter brought more questions than answers”

After a while, Silica took a deep breath to continue her explanation. If she considered the Mane 6 great friends when she thought they were only NPCs, now than she knew they were real she didn’t want to lose them.

“First of all, you must understand technology is much more advanced from we’re from” she started. “In our lands we have some kind of machine called computer that is a writing machine, a calculator, a tool to draw beautiful pictures in no time and all kind of stuff”

The ponies nodded, they understood that part.

“And there are also games you can only play if you have a computer; all kind of games” continued Kirito. “My favorites are the MMO-RPGs; where you create a character to use in a world of fantasy; a world that was created to people can create their character and play in there. That fantasy worlds are designed according to the creator; and also, according to what kind of fantasy world you’re playing, you create an specific kind of character”

“In our case, when we started Legends of Equestria, the system asked us what kind of pony we wanted to be explaining a little the abilities of each kind” added Asuna.

Celestia seemed to be thoughtful. “So, you entered to my Kingdom using that computer of yours, thinking it was one of that fake worlds created for the entertaining of your kind”

The warriors nodded and Celestia smiled warmly. “I see. Please continue explaining about that MMO-RPGs”

The gamers had to wait a long time thinking how give all the explanation about the internet and stuff like that. At the end was Kirito who explained the most, because he was the most experienced gamer.

“Let’s see… okay, in those worlds you can find people from all over the world. You can be in two different countries in real life; but in the game you could walk together, talk, everything you can imagine. No matter who far are you in real life, you can instantly have contact with everyone. That’s how internet works”

This was a little more confusing than the explanation about the computers but still the ponies could understand a little. Then Kirito continued.

“And in the MMO-RPGs you can find two kinds of characters: the players, those who came from the real world and are playing just like you… and the NPCs or Non-Player-Characters. The NPCs have limited answers when you talk to them; so as limited actions. They only exist to make the game more interactive”

“And the NPCs can be citizens of that world or well, the enemies you destroy to obtain stuff; like money or items” said Asuna.

“You mean what you did to the Ursa?” asked Flutterhsy angrily.

Celestia and Twilight stopped the pegasus before she did something she was going to regret.

“Fluttershy, please. They thought the animal wasn’t real, only another NPC. I don’t like what they did but I can’t blame them for doing it neither” said Twilight. “They are here under unusual circumstances, so please calm down”

Fluttershy obeyed, but still was staring furiously to Asuna and Kirito. Silica, well, she considered Silica a friend and she didn’t killed an animal yet so she forgive the beast tamer.

Kirito continued the explanation. “You obtain different kind of stuff according to the enemy you defeat. For example, my black sword; the Elucidator was obtained that way. But also, when you defeat an enemy, you improve your abilities. If you are fast, you become faster; if you are strong, you can be even stronger. That’s how our games works”

The ponies didn’t know what to say. They understood a little, but only a little. Finally Celestia softly sighed and looked at the warriors.

“Very well; I understand what I need to understand. Now please leave my Kingdom and go to another game. If it’s true you didn’t mean to destroy a real animal and I’m thankful for saving Sunny Town; I need you to abandon Equestria forever”

Kirito nodded. “We tried, your majesty. After the first day we tried to disconnect and look for a new game, but it wasn’t possible. Something is retaining our avatars in here”

“And what about get a life and stop playing computer games?” ironized Rainbow Dash.

Yui shook her head angrily. “That’s not an option. If Mama and Papa do that, I’ll never see them again. Somehow I became real and I’m stuck in this world; so the only way I can be with my parents is to figure out what’s happening and the three of us can go anywhere else where we can be a family again”

And Pina hugged Silica. “And I’ll never see Silica again. She’s my tamer, we supposed to be together”

Silica kissed Pina’s forehead. “Don’t worry Pina. You can live here freely; along with Spike. I’ve seen you two are a lovely couple, so you can be happy without me”

Pina was about to say something but she couldn’t and started crying. Asuna sighed.

“The thing is I’m not going anywhere without Yui. First we have to find a solution and then we can leave you alone but in the meantime, I’m staying with my daughter”

And, like emphasizing Asuna’s point of view, Kirito and her hugged Yui and Pina did the same with Silica. Celestia frowned.

“Alright, family is first; I get it. I don’t like this but you’re right; we have to find a solution for the situation here; and in order to do that, we have to work together”

They all nodded.

“I have a suspicion, but I need you to disconnect first. We’re meeting at your side” continued the Princess.

The warriors obeyed. Kazuto Kirigaya and Asuna Yuuki took of the NerveGears back in Kazuto’s room.

“What do you think about all this?” asked Asuna.

The boy scratched his head. “I don’t know. I’m not even sure if all that was for real or some kind of bug that affected Yui. Besides, supposing that was all real and they’re coming here, how are gonna make it?”

“With magic” sounded Celestia’s voice behind them.

Kazuto and Asuna turned shaking in fear. There they were, Celestia and the Mane 6 along with Yui in her pony form. None of them said anything for a while, when someone knocked at the door.

“Brother, Asuna, are you done with the game? I’m coming in…”

“Sugu!!” tried to warn Kazuto running to the door, but it was too late. His sister, Suguha, entered to the room and saw the ponies. She almost fainted of the impression.

…

They were all at Kirigaya’s house living room, discussing about the situation. After explaining Suguha what happened, it was necessary to give her some time and something to drink to make her recover from the shock. If it wasn’t for the presence of the ponies, she probably would think than her brother and his girlfriend became insane. And, to make thing better, Ayano Keiko called themi screaming that Pina and Spike were in her house.

“For now, I would like to examine closely that computer and the NerveGears” asked Celestia.

Kazuto and Asuna guided Celestia, Twilight and Yui back to Kazuto’s room. Once in there, Kazuto turned on the computer and showed the Princesses how he couldn’t disconnect from the server.

Celestia closed her eyes and concentrated her magic around the computer. After two minutes, she freed the equipment and frowned.

“Just what I thought: the thing is retaining your avatars inside Equestria is some kind of magic; and is coming from our side. If it wasn’t for your daughter, the obvious solution will be not play computer games anymore”

“And she can’t stay here with her parents?” asked Twilight.

Celestia shook her head. “No; because she will be in the form she is now and that could be a problem in this world. I can cast a transformation spell on her but it won’t last more than twelve hours”

“And what can we do?” asked Twilight.

“Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student, I know what they done; but I can assure you they’re not bad. In fact, they’re only children”

Twilight blinked surprised. “So you’re gonna let them stay in Equestria?”

“Yes, but only while we solve this problem” said Celestia firmly. “That’s why they’re going to be under your protection; but also under your censure and your friends’, do you understand? “

Kazuto, Asuna, Twilight and Yui nodded.

“What do you think about this?” asked Asuna, noticing her boyfriend was thoughtful.

“Whoever locked us inside Legends of Equestria planed all this” declared the boy making the others gasps. “Just think about it: I talked to a few classmates about this game in the school; but they didn’t found it or heard about it. And remember when you asked Rika about it too? She didn’t found the server”

Asuna paled. “We’re the only ones who found the correct server because… because we have Yui! Our enemy knows we won’t separate from her no matter what!”

Kazuto nodded. “Same for Silica, who is very close to her dragon. I don’t know who did this but he or she needs us in Equestria. The question is why”

Twilight and Celestia looked each other realizing they were right. There was something sinister and very well planned behind all this. But who they were fighting and what was the plan?

“So I was right” said Celestia darkly. “That problem with the Ursa was only the beginning”

Starting all over again

Kirito and Asuna opened their eyes back in Equestria. They were in Ponyville’s library surrounded by 5 of the Mane 6 (Fluttershy was in her home taking care of Silica along with Pina and Spike) and their daughter Yui. When she realized they were awake, she happily jumped to hug them.

“Mama, Papa, welcome back” she greeted.

They kissed her daughter.

“Is nice to see you too, Yui. Have you being a good girl with the ponies?” asked Asuna gently.

Yui giggled. “I’ve being nice, Mama”

Kirito smiled. “Is good to hear that; we already have enough problems here” he said joking.

Moved for the family moment they were seeing, the ponies didn’t interrupted; but at the end Twilight had to call their attention. She offered her hoof gently.

“Well, we started with the wrong hoof; so my friends and I were thinking than we better start over again. Nice to meet you, Kazuto Kirigaya and Asuna Yuuki; I hope we became good friends”

Kirito and Asuna shook Twilight’s hoof.

“Is nice to meet you too, your highness” said Kirito. “But in this world my name is Kirito”

Asuna chuckled. “Well, my name is the same here than in our home so it’s okay”

At the end, the Mane 6 introduced one by one, reducing the tension. But the door opened letting pass Silica, Fluttershy, Pina and Spike (who were sharing an ice cream with their mouths too close from each other, irritating Rarity). It was after Celestia’s magic brought them back to their homes the ponies decided to let the bodies of Asuna and Kirito in the library while Fluttershy took care of Silica; after all the warrior rented her a room)

And Fluttershy was at very good mood, but she suddenly changed when she saw Kirito and Asuna. The pegasus grumped and sat between her friends ignoring the warriors. Twilight rolled her eyes better going to the main subject.

“Back to our business here, we were thinking and we know someone who knows a lot of dark magic; so he could tell us what’s going on with you. His name is Discord and he’s already waiting for us in Canterlot; so we have to move fast”

They were about to go but Kirito stopped them. “Wait, we’re still waiting for someone!”

“Who?” asked Rarity, but almost instantly she smiled. “Ah! You mean Princess Celestia! Don’t worry about her, darling; she has her own problems to deal with. But don’t worry, you can trust us”

“No, I mean, Asuna and I are still waiting for someone” said Kirito smiling too.

And before the ponies could ask who, some kind of blue light appeared in the library and gradually took the form of small squares, that Kirito, Asuna and Silica recognized as pixels. At the end, the pixels formed a green pegasus with blue eyes and a blond beautiful mane.

“You didn’t have problems finding the server, Leafa?” asked Asuna.

The blond pegasus winked an eye to them. “As my brother said, I could find it through his computer” then, Leafa turned to the surprised ponies. “By the way, we met before at our house; I’m Suguha, Kazuto’s younger sister. But here in the virtual world my name is Leafa”

Twilight nodded. “Good. Now that we’re all here, we can go to meet Discord”

In the train, Fluttershy was very rude to Kirito and Asuna, doing her best to ignore their presence; but she quickly became friends with Leafa and Silica. The rest of them could see it, but they better let them solve the problem by themselves. When they get off the train, Fluttershy was very direct:

“Just to let you know I’m watching you. Princess Celestia authorized us to report your behavior so you better don’t hurt an innocent creature again”

“Fluttershy stop, please” asked Rainbow Dash. “After all, it wasn’t their fault; was Discord’s”

Fluttershy mumbled something, but she accepted and walked with her friends. They found Discord drinking a cappuccino in a café, bringing inanimate objects to live for the irritation of the owner. Twilight coughed calling the monster’s attention, who only sighed annoyed and stopped tormenting the costumers.

“How are you, new Princess or Equestria?” he greeted. “What the old Discord can do for you? Or you just called me because you wanted to thank me for the pet I gave you to celebrate your ascension as Princess? It was very difficult to figure out what I could give you, but I heard about an incident with a friend of yours called Trixie and the rest is history. Did you liked my present or not?”

Twilight glared at him. “Very funny, isn’t it? Did you know how bad your prank ended, right? An innocent creature is now dead because of you!”

Discord laughed, making everypony get angry, especially Fluttershy.

“But of course I know, Twilight Sparkle! I was in first line enjoying the show. You and your friends were excellent dealing with such creatures. But is a shame than those Black Swordsman and the Flash were faster than you”

Fluttershy flew to Discord, using a furious Stare. And this time it worked because now the monster appreciated Fluttershy’s friendship. He quickly tried to apologize.

“Oh, please Fluttershy!! If it’s true I did wrong enjoying the show, what can you tell me about those two, eh? All I wanted was to see you dealing with the Ursa; not what happened”

Fluttershy mumbled something and he was about to answer when he realized the warriors were there as well.

“Oh my! What a nice surprise; I never expected to meeting you guys! Is a truly honor to meet you Mr. Black Swordsman, Miss. Flash. What are you doing hanging out with Princess Twilight and her friends? Last time I checked they didn’t like you at all!

“I still don’t like them” said Fluttershy angrily; making Discord laugh a little.

“This is serious, Discord” said Twilight. “Precisely, they’re in a situation and we need your help, so…”

Discord laughed even more.

“So do you want my help, your highness? Of course! But first, you must do something for me”

“What?” asked Applejack.

“Entertain me!” announced the monster while clacking his fingers.

One of Canterlot’s main attractions were the beautiful statues all over the city. Every creature, celebrity or historic figure like Starswirl the bearded were represented by a real size statue in the city. And every single statue came to life at the instant Discord decided to have fun. They raised from their bases and started to terrified all citizens. Kirito looked at Twilight, who only nodded.

“It’s all right; they’re just rocks”

No need to say more; the warriors took their swords from their inventories (a dagger for Silica) and attacked while Discord clapped really excited.

In one of the cafes, Celestia and Luna were having a coffee break.

“So you had a very interesting day” said Luna eating her last cupcake. “Anyway; I would like to meet the mysterious warriors; looking they’re not evil after all”

“As I said to Twilight, my dear sister, they’re just children who thought they were playing. But you know? If one day our technology advance to that level I’ll forbid games that simulate violence”

Luna nodded and kept drinking her coffee.

But their relaxing time were interrupted by the screams from all over the city. The Princesses raised an eyebrow and checked what was going on. They could so a Nightmare Moon statue that pushed a green pegasus with blond mane directly to them. The impact bring down the three mares along with their table. A green bar appeared above the pegasus and lowered a little. Surrounding the Princesses, appeared a purple energy shield with the message IMMORTAL OBJECT.

Leafa grumped and taking her sword, she destroyed that Nightmare Moon monument and continued attacking the flying ones. A Celestia statue were about to attack Leafa; but this one was quickly destroyed by Celestia herself.

The warriors divided in two teams: Leafa and Kirito will destroy the flying statues and Silica, Pina and Asuna the rest. Discord was still laughing with the Mane 6 staring at him angrily; when Celestia and Luna landed between them.

“Princesses!” greeted Discord happily. “Please take a seat and watch the show with us”

Celestia was about to tell him to stop, when Kirito appeared and attacked the monster. The message IMMORTAL OBJECT appeared again.

“Damn it!” mumbled the Black Swordsman and vented his anger with a statue of Discord.

The monster laughed louder just before putting a victim face. “Oh my gosh! He tried to kill me! You all saw him, he was trying to do something terrible to me!”

The ponies stared at Discord angrily, but he only laughed a little bit more. But after five minutes, the show was over; Kirito, Silica, Asuna and Leafa terminated all the statues and Pina healed their wounds. The monster clapped.

“Thank you for the show my new friends. You obtained my attention; what the old Discord can do for you?”

…

It wasn’t common seeing Discord so interested into something (usually he would be annoying everypony around) but this time he stayed quiet until the end. The truth was he was thinking in create chaos in the human world; but he still needed time to plan it well. In the meantime, he was going to help the warriors, but only because he needed the Princesses lower their guard.

“Let me see if I get it: you want me to evaluate what kind of spell is bonding you to this world, right?” he asked; surrounding the warriors with his dark magic aura.

After fifteen minutes, he let them go.

“So?” wanted to know Twilight.

Discord shook his head. “I can’t help them, your highness. I do feel the dark magic, but is mixed with something else; something I can assure you is not coming from our side”

“What you mean?” asked Asuna.

“Whatever maintain their avatars in Equestria is using both our magic and their technology of computer programing. I don’t know who is after this but if you find him, please congratulate him for me”

They all were more confused, but at the end they thanked Discord and left. But the monster appeared before them.

“Now what?” asked Rarity.

Discord offered the best of his smiles.

“One more thing, something really important for our friends from the other world: I took the liberty to watch into your memories during my evaluation and what I saw was very interesting. You totally should sell your story to a novelist, guys. Whatever, I just wanted to warn you: perhaps you can move freely between Equestria and your world; but remember: here you are under the same danger you were in Sword Art Online”

“You mean…”

“If you die in Equestria, you’ll die in your world too. Moving to a real world is not like moving into one of your games. When you log in into one of your games, you’re projecting your mind; but this time you’re transferring your souls. Something to have in mind before risking in another battle. Have a nice day!”

Once he said it, he vanished. The gamers looked each other so as the ponies. Who was doing this and why?

…

“It’s done” announced the computer programmer Akihiko Kayaba; who was working in some kind of console that was showing him the codes and stats of the four players. “Now you have a body for your own “

In this world, the computer genius was a beige earth pony with light gray mane and brown eyes. He was wearing a black tie and his Cutie Mark was binary code.

“You did an excellent work. I’m satisfied with the result, Akihiko Kayaba” said Nightmare Moon coming out of the shadows.

The programmer kept working. “I told you: all what I want is to know the real reach of my invention; the NerveGear. Now can you finally tell me what are you planning to do with Kirito and his partners?”

“Not of your business” said Nightmare Moon. Or are you thinking in betray the TRUE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT?

Akihiko rolled his eyes and kept working.

“I made myself clear the first time we met: I’m not at anyone’s side. I’m only interested in my research”

Nightmare Moon nodded and left Kayaba. After all she had a very occupied schedule now than she was finally free from Luna.

Author's Note

Hi there! This is my new chapter of PAO. I know I usually don't comment at the end of the chapters but this time I think is necessary.

You see, when I was watching SAO; is never clear if Kayaba is good, evil or what; he seems to be more neutral than anything else so that's how I presented him at the story.

What I have to say now is: Read ya later!!

Nightmares and the Nightmare Night

The announcer cleared his throat. “Fillies and colts; mares and stallions! Welcome and thanks a lot for coming. Now, I have the honor to introduce you… the best of the bests, Equestria’s greatest magician… THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!!

The colored smoke that was on the stage started to vanish slowly, but suddenly it took form of a mare and becoming solid. Trixie finally appeared and all the Canterlot stadium started to cheer her loudly. Honored, Trixie bowed to her audience and everypony started to throw roses to her; roses than she turned into red beautiful butterflies that flew all over the stadium. More cheers.

“Thank you my dear public. Now, for my first trick; I need some help from my assistant Twilight Sparkle. Please Twi, honor the audience with your presence…”

The unicorn Twilight Sparkle came, dressed with a frilly pink dress with purple feathers as an accessory. Very honored for stand next to her, Twilight smiled to Trixie; who turned to her public… but it wasn’t there anymore. Confused, she started to look all over the place but nopony was there. She turned to Twiligth to ask her if she knew what was going on but he assistant wasn’t there anymore. In her place, there was a black alicorn, as big as Celestia, dressed with a blue armor.

“Who are you” asked Trixie shacking in fear.

“You probably are only a ridiculous fraud but you can’t be that stupid. You read a lot to reach your rival Twilight Sparkle so you should know who I am” answered the alicorn with a sadistic smile.

“Nightmare Moon” mumbled Trixie shacking in fear. “Princess Luna evil alter ego”

Nightmare Moon stepped so violently, tan Trixie walked back a couple of steps.

“Don’t dare you to call me Luna. I’m Nightmare Moon, now a full being; not a part of another. Not anymore”

“What do you want” asked the scared and terrified Trixie.

“The question here, my dear, is what do you want; this is your dream after all” said Nightmare with a sinister tone. “Do you want to be a famous magician again reducing Twilight only as your ridiculous assistant… or what?”

Trixie didn’t answer; making Nightmare laugh evilly.

“So you don’t even know what you really want? It doesn’t matter; we have plenty of time while my sister and my other self are busy dealing with those three. Think about it, Trixie. What do you want?”

…

Trixie woke up screaming. She looked around her and sighed in relieve realizing she was in her apartment. Soon she noticed she was sweating, so she walked out of her bed and took a glass of water. What was the meaning of that dream? Trixie shook her head and walked to the hallway hoping some fresh air help her to clear her thoughts.

Some steps on her direction called Trixie’s attention. Trixie turned.

“Asuna! Kirito!” smiled the magician. “You came back alive, I’m so happy”

They smiled to Trixie gently”

“Hi Trixie” greeted Asuna. “What are you doing awake so late?”

Trixie groaned remembering the nightmare. “Nothing important; I had a bad dream, nothing than the Great and Powerful Trixie can’t handle. So… who’s the filly on your back, Kirito?”

Kirito moved a little showing Yui to the blue unicorn. Yu was sleeping peacefully on her papa’s back.

“She is Yui. Our daughter”

Trixie blinked because of the surprise.

“No offense but you two look too young to have a daughter on her age…”

“Adopted” explained Asuna. “We had to separate for a while but after all what happened, we’re a family again. Now she have to rest so we’re taking her to bed. Good night Trixie”

Trixie said good bye when they closed their apartment’s door and after five minutes she went back to bed; but still thinking about the weird dream about Nightmare Moon. At the end Trixie had her usual dream and nothing else bothered for that night.

…

At the next day Kazuto and Asuna woke up early to connect to Legends of Equestria; they had to do something quickly before go to school; so once they were on Canterlot, they woke up their daughter and took her for the train station.

Applejack and the Crusaders were waiting for them already.

“Morning” greeted Kirito. “Thanks a lot for this; we didn’t mean to bother you”

Applejack smiled genty. “Don’t worry pal! I have no problem doin this for the two of ya; besides, Princess is right. Yui is a filly and she have to go to school just as you do in your world. When you connect again, ya can come for her to Sweet Apple Acres; she will be safe and happy there”

“Once again, thanks a lot Applejack” said Asuna. “Yui, I hope you have a good first day of school. We’ll see you as soon as we can. Be a good girl, okay?”

Yui nodded. “Good bye, mama, papa. Have a good school day too”

The train came and Yui entered along with Applejack and the Crusaders, who were happy to have a new friend; especially when that friend was daughter of those who saved them from the creepy Sunny Town.

After say good bye, they walked back to their apartment to disconnect. After all what happened between the Princesses and them, now they were free citizens again; so they could walk freely on Canterlot. Still they took a shortcut because they were going to be late for school if they didn’t hurry.

But they were intercepted by a large blue alicorn in the middle of the central plaza.

“Kirito the Black Swordsman! Asuna the Flash! I was waiting for you” the alicorn shouted using her Canterlot Voice. “I’m Princess Luna, Equestria’s co-ruler and Princess of the Night”

They both bowed to her.

“What can we do for you, Princess Luna?” asked Asuna.

Luna smiled and lowered her tone for one more friendly. “Sorry for distracting you for your morning duties, but I have something very important to discuss with you. Tonight the ponies celebrate a holiday in my honor: the Nightmare Night. A night where my subjects want to be scared by their Princess of the Night and I was wondering if you want to give me a hoof with that”

Then, a white screen appeared before the warriors:

DO YOU WANT TO YOUR GROUP TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS EVENT? ACCEPT DECLINE

“What the hay?” asked Luna shocked.

“Gamer’s stuff, don’t worry about it” explained quickly the Black Swordsman. “But I think I accept. What do you think, Asuna?”

She giggled. “I accept too. The others are not connected yet but I’m pretty sure they want to participate as well. And if they don’t you can count with Kirito and me. Now we better hurry or we’re gonna be late for school. Take care, Princess Luna!”

Luna wished them well and flew back to her home to prepare the next phase for that Nightmare Night.

…

That was a very fun day for Yui, it was the first time she shared with other children and having fun with them. Soon she surprised all with her great ability in math, science and the others subjects (of course she was born as a computer program, so she had much more capability than her classmates) besides she had great facility to make new friends. The only bad thing was to bear Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon because she was a “blank flank” but that was it; compared with her parent’s problem that was nothing.

By other way, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had to Pinkie Promise they will not reveal the truth about Yui’s parents. They were really excited to be the new best friends of the daughter of their saviors but still a promise was a promise. And at the end of the day they decided to spent time in the Cutie Mark Crusaders club house where they started to discuss what they could to earn their Cutie Marks.

But then, Rarity came with a great box.

“Sorry for the intromission girls, but I came to bring you your costumes for the Nightmare Night” she said very excited. “I’ve being very busy with all the orders I had but still I always have the time to confection something special for my little sister and her friends”

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo didn’t think twice and launched to the box really excited. Scootaloo will be a zombie; Apple Bloom some kind of scary scare crow and Sweetie Belle an Egyptian mummy (with her respective “ancient” jewelry provided for her sister). And they realized there was a fourth costume.

“Sis, what about this one?”

Rarity giggled. “It’s for Yui, of course. No kid have to be without a costume during the Nightmare Night; besides is the last I can do for Kirito and Asuna after saving us from that creepy place”

Yui ran happily to the box and tried her new costume, which looked like the ghost-ponies from Sunny Town. The other crusaders forced a smile but thanked to Rarity and the rest of the day they were making plans for the night. And then, it came: the Nightmare Night.

The children were running happily all over the place wearing their costumes; and the girls quickly joined them after ask permission to Big Mac, who was taking care of them. And after a while, the girls reunited with their other friends: Feather Weight, disguised as a superhero; snips as a manticore; Pipsqueak disguised as Kirito (that one made Yui laugh); and Pinkie Pie who was wearing something that looked as a giant cake.

Suddenly, the sky covered with black clouds with lightings and thunders; making everypony to run and scream in fear. And in the middle of the storm, there was a black alicorn with blue armor who stared at her public with a diabolic smile.

“Citizens of Ponyville… FEAR THE ALL MIGHTY NIGHTMARE MOON!!”

Said that, Nightmare Moon enchanted some toy spiders she found in a street game. The spiders came to life and grew to the size of a small house increasing the panic. But a young colt walked bravely to the dark alicorn, raising two cardboard swords he made in the morning.

“Who are you, my young adversary?” laughed Nightmare Moon.

The colt grinned. “Who I am? I’m Pipsqueak; first the pirate but now I’m the Black Swordsman!”

Nightmare Moon laughed. “You have guts, I give you that, Pipsqueak the Black Swordsman. But why do you think you’re powerful enough to beat Nightmare Moon?”

“Because he’s not alone” said a voice in the night.

Everypony gasped. From the shadows landed a blue pegasus with a black coat and two swords.

“My name is Kirito; and I’m also the Black Swordsman”

Then, a unicorn teleported in front of Nightmare Moon. “My name is Asuna; Asuna the Flash”

An earth pony along with a blue baby dragon walked to Nightmare as well. “I’m Silica the Beast Tamer; and this is Pina my domesticated dragon”

And finally, another pegasus crossed the sky and landed before Nightmare too. “And there’s me: Leafa from the clan of Sylf.

Nightmare raised an eyebrow like asking “seriously?” but instead of that, she made a gesture that indicated her spiders to attack. Pipsqueak shacked a little but Kirito gave him a confident smile.

“Don’t worry. We’re doing this together”

Pipsqueak nodded excited and prepared his swords; just as the other warriors. Kirito brandished his swords bravely fighting side by side with Kirito. Asuna, Leafa, Silica attacked one spider each one; making Nightmare Moon to grin. And it was important to notice the spider was attacking Kirito only; never Pipsqueak.

Leafa was fighting in the air, frustrating the spider who was trying to reach her. Her ability to fly was amazing; only Rainbow Dash could be as good as her. Her Cutie Mark was a sword with wings for something; she specialized in air combat.

Silica was dodging the spider’s attacks with great ability; attacking it gradually. Sometimes the spider hit her, but Pina quickly healed her and she continued fighting. Besides, Pina was a fighting too; but she had her problems. After all she was originally a winged dragon, so the earth combat was a little difficult for her.

In the meantime, everypony around was starting to calm down and to enjoy the fight. Fluttershy flew to her friends, who were enjoying the show in a small café.

“Twilight” she called her Princess friend. “ Twilight, please do something, I thought you were in charge of those two. Look at this! They’re attacking innocent creatures; and not only those odious Asuna and Kirito. Now Leafa, Pina and Silica too! Those three are innocent souls! Probably Asuna and Kirito convinced them to…

Rainbow put a cupcake in her mouth to make her shut up. “Fluttershy, come on! I know you don’t like them, but give us a break! See! There’s no green bar above the spiders, this is just a show for the Nightmare Night”

Pinkie Pie bounced to her happily. “Calm down, Fluttershy, this is Nightmare Moon’s fault. She realized we’re too much to be eaten just by her so she called her pets and Asuna and Kirito are here to save us”

Fluttershy mumbled something and sat with the others. In the meantime, the fight was becoming more intense. The spiders felt their end was near; so they tried to do their best and destroy the warriors with them using their final move. The giant stuffed animals jumped back and started to inflate themselves monstrously for the surprise of everypony. And they exploded, covering the entire town with all kinds of candy.

The explosion was about hurt the warriors, but Asuna bravely used a magic force field to keep her friends save. At the end the five of them walked to the dark alicorn, who was surprised they survived.

“This is the end, Nightmare Moon” said Pipsqueak the Black Swordsman.

“Think so, Black Swordsman?” laughed Nightmare Moon. “You probably destroyed my beloved pets, but I’m still here. Do you think you five have what is needed to destroy the true Princess of the Night?”

Kirito brandished his swords. “When I’m losing, always increase the bet”

And the five warriors attacked Nightmare at once. A powerful light came from their enemy making her vanish. She was ended, the town was now safe.

The rest of the children came to the warriors happily.

“That was amazing” cheered Rainbow Dash. “Did you planed all this or was Princess Luna’s idea?”

The rest of the Mane 6 (with the obvious exception of Fluttershy) congratulated the five warriors. The children were fighting to ask for an autograph first, but at the end they all agreed to make a line. Then little Yui walked to Kirito and Asuna making Diamond Tiara to glare at her.

“To the line with the rest of us, Blank flank”

Yui ignored the irritant pony and smiled to the warriors.

“That was amazing, mama, papa” said Yui.

Asuna kissed her daughter’s chick.

“I’m glad you liked it, Yui. Princess Luna asked to do a show for tonight and I think we did a pretty good job”

“I hope you didn’t ate too much candy, Yui; or you will be too full to enjoy the food your mother cooked for us”

The rest of the children just dropped their jaws astonished.

“You’re their daughter?” asked Diamond Tiara.

Yui nodded.

The comments started, everypony were very surprised their new classmate was the daughter of the greatest warriors of Equestria. But at the end Luna walked to the group of children smiling; and Pipsqueak ran to her very happy.

“Princess Luna! That was amazing! I enjoyed your act of the Nightmare Night; you’re still my favorite Princess!

Luna kissed his forehead. “I’m glad you liked it, Pipsqueak. You know? I was very surprised you faced me disguised as the Black Swordsman. Your bravery has no limits”

“Ey!” asked Snips. “ Mr. Black Swordsman, Miss Flash, Miss Beast Tamer, Miss Leafa; tell us a story pleas. Tell us how you defeated the Ursa Major back in Canterlot. How it felt?”

The children silenced instantly and stared to the warriors waiting for the story. But suddenly, they all heard a curse word from Fluttershy; who angrily flew back to her home. Luna broke the uncomfortable silence after the curse word.

“Thank you for the help you provided” said Luna. “What can I give you in exchange of this service?”

Kirito summoned his inventory and showed Luna the new object; some kind of suit called NIGHTMARE COSTUME.

“You already gave it to us, Princess” said happily the Black Swordsman. “This object just appeared in the inventory”

“What?” asked Luna astonished.

“Gamer stuff” explained calmly Asuna. “In games, when you finish a holiday quest; the system provide you with a special item”

“And what is this thing?” asked Silica examining the suit in the white screen.

Leafa selected it and equipped it. Soon her forest green coat turned to dark green; her beautiful eyes turned darker too; her tail and mane grew and it was covered with some kind of drops that seemed to be blood so as her hooves and wings. She smiled showing the fangs.

Silica selected a magnifying glass from her inventory. “It’s an illusion” she announced.

“How do you know?” asked Luna.

“I get this object after give Ruby the final attack; is for see through the illusions”

The warriors happily selected their NIGHTMARE COSTUMES and the rest of the night, enjoyed the holiday. After having some fun and it was time to get back to their homes in Legends of Equestria. Leafa also was living on the lodging where Kirito and Asuna were living.

The children said good bye to their new idols and also walked back to their homes. The night ended well for all. Or not?

…

Trixie was again in Ponyville, presenting her new show to the town. Twilight was on the first line more excited than the rest of the ponies. Then, Trixie’s public froze.

Nightmare Moon walked to Trixie.

“I don’t get it, dear. Do you want to humiliate Sparkle or be admired by her?”

“Please leave me alone” asked Trixie crying.

Nightmare Moon laughed cruelly.

“Come on my dear, you can’t ask me that. Princess Luna is devouring candy in Ponyvlle; so the Dreams are under my command. Besides I’m here only here to ask you this once again: what do you want, Trixie?”

Once again, Trixie woke up shacking in fear. This was the second time she dreamed with Nightmare Moon. What was going on?

…

Akihiko Kayaba was still working when Nightmare Moon came back.

“Aren’t you doing the things too fast?” asked Kayaba. “First I have to finish those things”

Nightmare shook her head. “The power of the Elements of Harmony depend of the carriers. If they it were carried from somepony who wasn’t Sparkle and her friends, the Elements wouldn’t have the strength it have”

Kayaba nodded uninterested.

“Anyway. Remember what I told you this morning?”

“I’m on it. Keep working and leave it to me, Kayaba”

And Nightmare Moon vanished again.

The issue of the Elements of Harmony

It was midnight, still Nightmare Night. Princess Luna was having fun in Ponyville with all the colts and fillies; who were taking advantage next day were Saturday, and Celestia was in some private party somewhere in Canterlot.
The moment was perfect, Nightmare Moon entered as mist to the chamber where her sister and her other self were keeping the Elements of Harmony. But the sound of some steps called her attention.

“Is anypony there?” asked one of the guards.

Nightmare Moon, who already took her physical form, just stared at him. The guard knew the ruler of the Night, Luna, was an expert in transformation magic and see her as Nightmare Moon in the Nightmare Night wasn’t something very surprising. But this time something didn’t feel good. Luna told the guards she was going to spend the night in Ponyville; why she was in there right in the chamber that protected the most powerful protection of Equestria? Nightmare Moon sighed, she doesn’t had time to waste so she knocked the guard with her alicorn power and flew away with the Elements.

…

The next day started very well, Rarity was caring a great basket full of gems.

!Spikey Wikey!” she called after found the one she was looking for.

“Good morning Rarity” greeted happily the dragon. “What are you doing with that? Are you going to design a new dress full of glitter? Good look”

Rarity gave him the basket with her magic.

“Oh, Spike, remember I’m the Element of Generosity. I was passing by the Diamond Dogs’ territory and when they saw me, they quickly gave me lots of gems; but it’s too much for me so I decided to give you half”

Spike froze for a little and he quickly took a giant ruby to start his fest, but he froze again for another pair of seconds and ran to Rarity. The white unicorn opened her front hooves to hug the dragon, but he passed her away. Confused, she turned where Spike went and grumped when she saw the blue dragon walking around.

“Pina, Pina!!” called Spike.

“Hello Spike” said Pina blushing a little. “Why are you so excited?”

Spike gave her the ruby to her.

“Rarity just gave me a basket full of gems for my lunch, but are too much to eat it all by myself; so I was wondering if you wanted to come with me to the park and have a picnic, just you and me”

Pina blushed even more and stared curious to the gem for a little; but at the end, she bit it. It was amazing, that was the first time she tried something so delicious.

“Wow! Back in Aincrad, I remember to heard stories about dragons who eat crystals and gems but I never tried before. It’s amazing, the most delicious thing I ever tasted”

Spike smiled to Rarity.

“Thanks a lot, Rarity. I hope you don’t mind I share your present with Pina”

“Of course not Spikey Wikey” lied Rarity. “Have fun in your picnic”

Pina blushed again and took Spike’s claw with a shy smiled. He blushed too and after took the basket, he walked to the park with Pina. Rarity stayed where she was for a long time when she noticed somepony was looking at her from the sky trying to not laugh. She grumped.

“What’s so funny, Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow grinned. “Let me see… you being jealous from a dragon perhaps. Anyway, Twilight sent an urgent message and she needs us in Canterlot right know. Oh! And she also asked to bring Silica’s body with us”

Rarity grumped.

“I truly don’t understand humans. Just think about how much trouble we could avoid if they did something else than use that NerveGear to have fun”

Rainbow nodded and flew to Fluttershy’s cottage to took Silica. And they arrived to Canterlot after forty minutes, fifteen of those with Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity were dragging the Beats Tamer’s body to the transport Celestia prepared for them.

“Damn it, why she didn’t chose to be a pegasus? We’re much more lighter!

It was true, pegasus had lighter bones to made them easier to fly. But finally they arrived to the Palace where Twilight and Celestia were already waiting for them.

“What’s going on?” asked Fluttershy. “Something bad?”

Twilight and Celestia nodded.

“The Elements of Harmony have being stolen… again” mumbled Twilight. “And this time I don’t understand anything. After what happened with Discord and Sunset Shimmer, Princess Celestia re enchanted the chamber to only you, the Princesses and I could access”

Celestia sighed looking at Silica’s body.

“Took her to the dungeons, along with my sister” Celestia ordered to the guards.

“WHAT?” asked all at once.

Celestia let escape a tear.

“I don´t like to proceed like this, but in normal circumstances our visitors would be the prime suspects; because their unique abilities in this world. But the guard who was protecting that area, assured than Nightmare Moon was the one who took the Elements. Send my sister to the dungeons was a suggestion of Luna herself, so don’t worry about it”

“It doesn’t have sense” said Applejack looking at the guards grabbing Silica to the dungeon. “Why would Princess Luna suggested such thing if we all trust her?”

Twilight saw at her mentor expectantly, and she nodded.

“It started a few weeks ago, before Kirito and Asuna even entered to this world: Princess Luna made a special ritual.” started to explain Twilight “She still felt the dark presence of Nightmare Moon inside her, so she used an old ritual of self-exorcism to get rid of her. But we don’t know if it worked; because that ritual existed long before the Princesses even born. And Luna said that she felt like she did a mistake during the ritual and after that she have being afraid than her dark self took control when she’s unconscious”

They all seemed worried, but now they understood Princess Luna. After a while Celestia spoke:

“Right now I have guards looking for the Dark Swordsman, the Flash and Leafa from the clan of Sylf. We don’t know where are they hiding but we better act fast”

Fluttershy mumbled another bad comment against Kirito and Asuna, but her friends ignored her. The issue was very serious; and if it was true than the warriors themselves weren’t a menace, it was obvios than something or somepony was using them for something dark.

…

Ayano Keiko put her NerveGear ready for another day of help her new friend Fluttershy with her animals. “Link Start!”

When she opened her eyes as Silica the Beast Tamer, she immediately noticed than something was wrong. She was in a cell, with the Princess of the Night.

“Princess! What’s going on? Why are we in a cell?”

Luna only sighed. “It’s complicated, young Silica. Let’s say Equestrias’s greatest treasure and defense has being stolen and you, your friends and I are the prime suspects; but take it easy. Everything is going to be okay when my sister clear the issue”

“I have to alert my friends” said Silica panicking.

“I don’t think you can, young one. Nopony have being able to locate them yet and, even if you know where are they hiding; you’re not able to communicate with them locked in here”

Silica winked and eye and selected the private messages from her player options. And before Luna could react, she already sent the message for all the members of her group.

“It’s done, remember I’m a gamer, Princess. I asked them to investigate what’s going on; I’m sure Kirito, Asuna and Leafa will solve this in no time.

Luna couldn’t do anything but laugh.

“I hope you’re right, young Silica. I trust in the four of you; besides, your unconventional methods are very effective in this world like when you freed Sunny Town from Ruby”

…

Back in each one’s home, Asuna Yuuki and Kazuto and Suguha Kirigaya connected to their virtual reality equipment. Asuna and Kazuto used the NerveGear; Suguha a more recent model called the AtmuSphere. After shout “Link Start” they were transported to Equestria, where they found a message from their fourth group member. Leafa ran downstairs where her friends were living and the both of them seemed to be really worried, just as her.

“You’re the strategist Kirito, what should we do?” asked Leafa.

Kirito sighed after read the message one more time.

“Just as Silica says, investigate from our own, trying to not to call the guard’s attention. All of this seems like dark magic, so we have to move in the lowest levels of pony society. Luckily, we have a friend who can help us with that; just I hope she’s home”

Asuna and Leafa nodded. Yui hugged her parents and the five of them knocked Trixie’s door. The unicorn received them, looking as he haven’t sleep in days.

“Are you okay?” asked worried Asuna.

Trixie grumped a little and indicate them to follow her. They haven’t being in Trixie’s home until that day, even if she constantly visited them. Everything was spotless and very clean, with the exception of the bed that seemed to be used recently.

“Take a seat and sorry about Trixie’s appearance” apologized Trixie. “Trixie have being having very little rest for four days and I was trying to make the most of my weekend to sleep; but it doesn’t work”

Kirito and Asuna looked each other worried.

“Sorry for waking you, Trixie, we didn’t know” said Kirito ready to go out, but Trixie shook her head.

“You awoke Trixie from a horrible nightmare, so it’s nothing, okay? In fact, Trixie is grateful with you”

Yui seemed to be the most worried of all. She was born as a psychological support program and she was extremely sensitive for people’s problems, like Trixie’s; and the unicorn seemed to be very bad. She looked the unicorn to the eyes.

“Please, I know is weird but can I ask you to go to sleep?” asked Yui. “Please…”

Trixie looked confused at the filly; what she was thinking? But Yui insisted for a while and at the end, Trixie agreed. Why did she obeyed a filly? Probably she was too tired, probably to desperate; or probably both. It doesn’t matters why, but she went to bed just as Yui asked her; and she was to exhausted than she immediately fall asleep.

“Yui, what are you thinking?” asked Leafa.

The little girl just looked at Trixie.

“I’ll try to sleep as well, but you three please enter to sleep-mode”

“You mean log-out?” asked Asuna.

Yui shook her head.

“No; I need you still here, just enter to the sleep-mode without log-out, like when you were in Aincrad. I have a spell that allows us to enter to Trixie’s dream and see what’s disturbing her. Trust me: if we help her to rest well, she’ll be able to help us”

Without understand, they obeyed. And once the warriors entered to sleep-mode, Yui used the spell she learnt. As a computer program, she could process information twice as fast than an average pony; and she used her capability to learn all the magic she could. So the four of them were guided by a tunnel of light to the realm of Trixie’s dream.

They appeared in the middle of a lot of ponies who were walking to a huge stadium. They realized too than they have tickets to see the Great and Powerful Trixie. Asuna was about to ask something to Yui, but the little one was exhausted. They all panicked but she just smiled.

“I’m fine, mama, papa, auntie Leafa… is just my body couldn’t resist such effort. My mind is a computer program, but I have real body now and it almost don’t resist the effort of such spell. Mama, can I rest in your back, please?”

Asuna levitated Yui with her magic and gently placed her daughter in her back before get into the stadium. Like the other times, the whole public was expecting for Trixie, but this time the blue unicorn seemed to be really scared; looking for an unknown danger. Leafa was the first one who noticed the audience was frozen.

“What the heck is going on in here?” asked Leafa.

Kirito and Asuna started to look the danger than altered their friend. And one by one the ponies around them started to froze… when a dark shadow crossed the sky and stand before Luna.

The three warriors gasped recognizing the disguise Luna used to the Holiday Event; but this time she felt different from Luna, surrounded by a dark aura.

“Please… LEAVE ME ALONE!!” cried Trixie. “Let me rest at least one night. Please… I haven’t do anything against you, our beloved Princess of the night. Please… let me rest… Trixie is asking you humbly…

Nightmare Moon laughed cruelly.

“Don’t you see it, my dear? Rest is not an option for you now than you’re almost on my side. Besides, all I ask is what do you want. TELL ME, TELL ME NOW!

“I just don’t know” screamed Trixie. “Please STOP, my most beautiful dream is now my worst memory, isn’t that enough?

Obviously not, because Nightmare Moon only laughed louder-

“You are very important to me, darling, but first I have to finish all resistance coming from you; and once I get what I want, you could rest as long as you want”

“LEAVE HER ALONE” shouted somepony.

Nightmare Moon turned.

Kirito flew to her with his two swords, along with Leafa. Asuna was busy caring Yui, but still had her sword ready in case things go wrong.

“Kirito the Black Swordsman; I had no idea Trixe had dreams about you” smiled Nightmare Moon.

“Somepony noticed Trixie’s nightmares weren’t natural, so she helped us to enter to her dream” said Leafa. “Now leave her alone, you don’t know what we’re capable”

Nightmare Moon rolled her eyes.

“I don’t know, you say? Whatever, that small program of psychological support is more amazing than I thought. But now I have to ask you, how important is Trixie for you? After all, she’s not real. Just an NPC”

“So you’re not the real Luna” continued Leafa. “She know we know this is a real world. Probably we entered her thinking it was only a game, but now we know all we need about Equestria. And Trixie is not an NPC, she is a true friend”

“So congratulations, you saw through what I wanted you to see. But it doesn’t matter, my plan is on the move and at this point I don’t care if you know this is reality too”

Enough, both pegasus attacked Nightmare Moon, who only raised an eyebrow.

“Seriously?”

Yes, seriously. The both of them reached with their swords; but Yui reacted.

“NO!! LEAFA, PAPA, SHE’S A GM!!

“A GM?” asked Asuna in fear.

A green bar appeared above Nightmare, three times bigger than the other players, but the real problem was Kirito and Leafa only could do 800 points of damage every ten seconds; and her automatic recovery was of 2000 every ten seconds. Smiling, Nightmare paralyzed them with her magic and laughed loudly.

“So sad, Black Swordsman. After so many times you were about to die in a game, you are still so stupid. I’d see trough Kayaba’s memories and you’re amazing, amazing but stupid”

“So Kayaba is the one who locked us in here” said Asuna.

Nightmare Moon shook her head slowly. “No child, I was the one who locked you in here. I have my reasons to keep you in Equestria; and Kayaba doesn’t care so he helped me in exchange I help him to explore the reach of his invention. Anyway, I need you alive, so I’ll let you go with a warning. System ID; Nightmare Moon!

The warriors gasped, that wasn’t going to end well.

“System command; lower the HP of players 001 and 004 to 10%”

Kirito’s and Leafa’s HP descend to red.

“System command, delete all healing items from the inventory of all players”

Before all warriors, the white screen appeared without any healing crystal or medicine. Nightmare Moon laughed, when a red lightning attacked her. She turned to see what was going on. Trixie flew to her with her eyes surrounded by a red light and a dark aura. She had a black necklace that represented a black alicorn with red eyes.

“How did you get that?” asked Nightmare Moon staring to the Alicorn Amulet.

“This is the Great and Powerful Trixie’s dream. Do you understand? Trixie’s dream!! And I’ll not stay here just looking you’re attacking Trixie’s friends, do you understand? I can’t take it anymore. THIS IS TRIXIE’S DREAM, AND THE ONLY WHO RULE HERE IS TRIXIE!!”

A new lightning, ten times stronger than the first one, tackled Nightmar Moon. She screamed in anger and tried to use her powers against Trixie; but the blue unicorn recovered control of her own dream and her GM powers didn’t work in real ponies.

“GET OUT AND PRAY I NOT SEE YOU HERE AGAIN!!” Shouted Trixie making a black hole sucked Nightmare Moon out of her dream.

At the end, Kirito walked to Trixie.

“Are you all right, Trixie?” he asked.

“That’s what I’m asking you, pal” said the unicorn. “Thank you for saving me, if it wasn’t for see you in danger, I’ll never found the strength I needed to banish that monster out of my subconscious. Thank you, Kirito, Asuna, Leafa; and specially you, Yui”

Yui smiled warmly, still on her mother’s back. Then a light started to transform the stadium into a cottage in a hill. Even Trixie was transformed into a filly. She giggled peacefully.

“Once again thank you, but can you explain the little and happy Trixie what was all that? Please”

The warriors sighed and started to tell her everything. Trixie was their closest friend and she deserved to know the truth; so they started explaining all about the virtual reality, RPGs, and the years they spent in Sword Art Online. Everything.

The blue unicorn listened the whole story and at the end, she just nodded.

“Everything is fine, but I’m still worried about Kayaba and Nightmare Moon. Obviously something big is about to happen. I don’t like Sparkle and her friends but even Trixie have to admit we need their help to end this once for all”

…

Twilight and Celestia opened the door of the dungeon.

“Sister, is all cleared now? Did you spoke with the Flash and the Black Swordsman?”

Celestia shook her head.

“I’m even more confused than before, my sister. Witnesses tell me thant they saw Nightmare Moon again, but this time she just returned the Elements of Harmony. We already checked them and are completely intact. We don’t know what’s going on”

They all remained in silence. Like Trixie, they knew something big was about to happened and they had to act fast; but they needed the help of Kirito, Asuna and Leafa too.

Nightmare's move

Trixie, Asuna and Yui arrived to the Castle; but they were stopped by a bunch of guards who politely asked them to leave.

“We’re truly sorry Canterlot citizens, but right now our Majesties are discussing a very important matter and they don’t have time to attend anypony”

“Wait” asked Kirito. “At least can you told them Kirito and Asuna’s group is here?”

The guard raised an eyebrow but obeyed after said he doesn’t promise anything. Several minutes after, he asked the guests to follow him. The group arrived to the Palace, where they found the Princess and the Carriers of the Elements of Harmony in the middle of a discussion.

“Ahem…” called Asuna.

Their all muttered immediately; except for Fluttershy who mumbled a cursed word against the warriors.

“All of you, thank you for coming” said Twilight ignoring Fluttershy’s behavior. “We have a few questions for you, so can you…”

“Wait, Twilight Sparkle” said a very agitated Trixie. “We also have an urgent matter to discuss with you, and believe me: we can’t wait”

“What’s she doing here?” asked Rainbow Dash annoyed.

“I’m their closest friend” said Trixie pointing Asuna and Kirito. “Do you have a problem with that Rainbow Crash?”

“I knew it, disgusting people hang out with even more disgusting people” said Fluttershy.

A new discussion started between Trixie and the Mane 6; while Celestia and Luna were discussing among themselves about Nightmare Moon. But then, Silica realized Leafa’s and Kirito’s HP were in red.

“Oh no, what thing diminished your HP that much, Leafa, Kirito?” asked the Beast Tamer.

“A GM called Nightmare Moon” said Kirito. “I don’t know much about her but it seems she possess the ability to enter to other’s dreams”

Once again everypony remained in silence. Taking the chance, Trixie walked to Celestia and bowed to her.

“That’s why we’re asking for help, Princess Celestia. During the last week, she has being tormenting me inside my dreams; when I questioned her why she was doing that to me, she said she needed to break my mind. If it wasn’t for little Yui’s intervention I would probably lose my mind”

All the ponies gasped in horror. Definitely it had Nightmare Moon’s signature. Trixie let scape a tear.

“Yui used a spell to teleport her family to my dream, where they fought that damn alicorn. She was too powerful and almost kill them, but in the moment I saw my best friends in danger, I found the strength I needed to vanish Nightmare Moon from my dreams once for all”

Luna lowered her head in sadness.

“I’m truly sorry for what I’d done to you, young Trixie. It all started with that failed ritual of self-exorcism to get rid of my dark self but it seems she not only don’t left; but also she took control and made me do that horrible things. That’s why you have to vanish me to the moon again, sister. Is the only way to keep our little ponies safe from me. Sister please!!”

Celestia shook her head in horror.

“You know I can’t lose you again, Luna. We can find a solution together”

“You have to!!” shouted Luna in her Canterlot Voice making Celestia move back a few steps.

“Enough!” screamed Kirito to the both of them for the scandal of everypony. “How long have you being arguing?”

“Like about two hours” said Twilight.

“Then it wasn’t Princess Luna” said Asuna. “We fought with her no more than half an hour ago. If you have being discussing that much, it means you weren’t the one tormenting our friend”

“Besides Princess I feel Princess Luna like a real person. The one Papa and Auntie fought were a virtual entity, just like them”

“What do you mean with virtual entity?” asked Celestia. “You mean another player?”

“Worst” said Leafa. “A Game Moderator; a GM. As a GM she has the ability to manipulate several aspects of the game or player status. She only needed to shout a command to lower our HP to 10% without fight. She’s too much for any of us, if she wanted to kill us, she could do it without any effort. She have a lot of power now, but we don’t know how much in equestrian terms”

“But that’s impossible” said Luna. “Let’s suppose my ritual worked and I expelled Nightmare Moon from me; but there’s no magic that could give her a body for her own”

“She mentioned Akihiko Kayaba” said Kirito. “The legendary video game programmer and the inventor of the NerveGear. We’re virtual entities in a real world, just like Nightmare Moon now. Probably your magic can’t give her a body for her own; but apparently our technology of computer programming can”

“This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening” mumbled Celestia. “This just can’t be happening… what is she after? And why did she locked you in here?”

Again, silence. First the visit of the mysterious warriors, then the Elements of Harmony and now this. Something big was happening but now they had to sit and wait; a position Celestia didn’t like at all.

Silica sent Pina to heal Kirito while Spike did the same to Leafa.

“How did you learn to do that, Spike?” asked Twilight.

The dragon hugged Pina.

“Me new girlfriend taught me how” he said made them both blushing.

At the end, Celestia asked for silence again.

“Okay: now concentrate in the important, Nightmare’s return. Somehow she contacted with Akihiko Kayaba, who gave her a new body and locked those children in here. Now the Elements and Trixie; what’s their role in all this?

They all restarted the discussion exposing their theories, but nothing had sense. They had to wait for the enemy’s next move; and somehow they felt they wouldn’t have to wait too much.

…

Prince Blue Blood was sitting in a Jacuzzi where several young mares sensually lather up his whole body. The prince felt proud of himself and decided it was time to finish his bath and go directly to action. Suddenly, all his mares vanished. He was alone in the bathroom.

“You disgust me, Blue Blood” said cold voice behind him.

He turned to see the dark alicorn in front of him. She looked at him with disgust and interest at the time.

“Who are you?” asked the prince.

“Your ignorance is stunning, idiot. You know, in normal circumstances I would ask you what do you want but your dream speaks for itself. Money, power and a large harem; that’s pathetic if you ask me. And the worst of all is than you already have the money and the power; but you don’t dare to have your harem because my sister would punish you if you dare”

Blue Blood lowered his head and Nightmare Moon sighed.

“I feel sorry for you, so I’ll give you a gift” said Nightmare Moon making appear a dark gold necklace with a gem that looked just like Blue Blood’s Cutie Mark.

“What’s this?” asked the prince taking the necklace.

“You’re an ignorant and an idiot, but even somepony as you has heard about the Elements of Harmony: Laughter, Generosity, Kindness, Loyalty, Honesty and Magic. Well, this is one of my most recent creations: the Element of Selfishness, one of the six Elements of Darkness”

“I…”

“Shut up” said Nightmare Moon coldly. “I have being observing you and I’m sure you represent Selfishness better than any other pony. And as a selfish idiot, you don’t care what happen around you if you’re well positioned. Well, this is my deal: I give you this and you only have to wait. Soon there will be a fight between Celestia and me. If I won, you’ll swear loyalty to me and serve; in exchange I’ll allow you to have your harem”

“And if you lose” asked Blue Blood.

“If I lose; nothing happen. You stay as you are now; that’s it. You have a lot to win, and nothing to lose”

And she vanished leaving alone the prince in his dream. When he woke up, he noticed he had the necklace of his dream around his neck. He smiled, why the heck not? Like she said, he had nothing to lose and a lot to win.

The first of the Carriers of the Elements of Darkness was ready to serve Nightmare Moon… now it was only matter of time.

The Elements of Darkness

“Is something on your mind, Nightmare?” asked Kayaba looking at Nightmare Moon, who seemed to be in an internal debate.

“Is about the pony I chose to be the Carrier or the Element of Dark Magic. At first I chose Trixie Lulamon because she was easy to manipulate; but now, thanks to the Black Swordsman, I have to use King Sombra, who is a complete different matter. He’ll betray me at the first chance”

“I warned you about Kirito and his friends. Before I met them, I used to underestimate the human will”

Nightmare grumped, but she knew he was right. She was starting to think to lock those four warriors in Equestria was a big mistake but it was too late to regret. After all she still had her recently acquired GM abilities; so, if the warriors usually become a true threat against her, she just had to destroy them with it.

“Kayaba” said Nightmare after a while, “I need you to send a distraction to the Crystal Empire, one of your most powerful creatures. Okay?”

He nodded.

“Send me a private message when you finish. In the meantime, I’ll be into Flim and Flam brothers’ dream”

“As you wish” said the indifferent Kayaba.

…

In Canterlot Castle, the silence remained after the warriors’ revelations. The situation was horrible; for the first time in the whole history, the Princesses had to wait for the enemy’s next move. The warriors already used to that, but they understood how the ponies felt. Then, a letter materialized just in front of Celestia.

“NO!” she screamed.

“What happened?” asked the rest of them.

“She made her move. A very powerful monster just arrived to the Crystal Empire and Candace and Shining Armor need our help. They don’t know how long can they retain the beast, so we need to hurry”

“Alright” said Twilight. “Girls, I’m going to teleport all of us to the Crystal Empire; so get closer”

Kirito stopped her.

“You’ll waste too much energy, let it to us. We’ll take us there with the Transportation Crystals”

Fluttershy flew to her alicorn friend. “Twilight, you won’t let them come, don’t you?”

Twilight exchanged a look with her mentor and nodded.

“I’ll Fluttershy, because they’re nice persons and, after all, just children. If we really want to stop Nightmare Moon, we’ll need their help”

“But darling, you just said it, they’re just children” said Rarity. “We can’t let them risk their lives just like that, besides we already defeated Nightmare Moon; and remember what Discord said. If they die in here, they’ll die in their world too”

Trixie shook her head annoyed “You defeated Nightmare Moon once, I give you that; but they fought Kayaba and defeated him in his own death trap called Sword Art Online. Isn’t that right, Kirito?”

He nodded.

“Yeah, we already did. But we cannot waste time talking about past victories; we have to move. We’re wasting precious time!

He was right; so they all gathered in the center of the hall and the four gamers took some kind of crystal from their inventory. “JUMP, CRYSTAL EMPIRE”

A magical aura appeared and made them disappear.

…

The monster was nothing like anypony has seeing before. It seemed like a Minotaur, but this one was at least six times bigger with kid horns instead of bull. Armed with a gigantic sword, a long and powerful reptilian tail and devastating fire breath the monster was finishing Crystal Empire’s Royal Guard without any effort. It was a desperate situation, if Candace and Shining Armor didn’t act soon, their beloved kingdom would be destroyed by the monster.

“Listen!” announced Shinig Armor to his army. “I need you to evacuate all the civilians; Candace and I will buy you all the time we can, but you need to hurry!”

“But sir…”

“Do as we say Flash Sentry. The first duty of all governors is to protect their people” said Candace.

The young guard sighed and ran to follow his orders. But when he finish, he was going to help his governors; that was his duty. In the meantime, Shining Armor tried to delay the monster using a force field to maintain in one place while the civilians were evacuated. Helped by Candace, the both of them contained the creature but it won’t last.

“Candace! Shining!” called a voice.

Candace and Shining Armor turned. Twilight was flying to them along with her friends, a little filly, two dragons and five strange ponies.

“Thank you for coming” said Shining still maintaining the force field. “Please help us, this thing came from nowhere and we don’t know what to do to calm it. The best we can do is delay it, but…”

The monster started to use the fire breath to break the force field. In a matter of seconds, he was going to be free.

“Twily, go back and call reinforcements. He destroyed a fourth part of our guard in the first ten minutes. Please Twily…” said Shining sweating by the effort.

Twilight was going to say something, but Kirito interrupted her.

“Damn it, not that thing!”

“You know it?” asked Applejack.

Asuna and Kirito nodded. “Is one of the Dungeon Final Bosses we fought in Sword Art Online… and we almost died that day. What we should do?”

Yui saw at her parents. “It’s okay, mama, papa, miss Fluttershy… that thing is not real. Is just an NPC”

The warriors nodded and then, Kirito summoned his inventory looking for his swords. Asuna, Leafa and Silica did the same thing ready to follow the Black Swordsman against the Glim Eyes.

“Very well, last time I defeated that thing combining my dual sword ability with Elucidator and Dark Repulser” said the Black Swordsman. “But I’ll need help. Now we can fly, so that’s something on our favor. Leafa, you and I are going to attack the monster from the air. Silica, Asuna please protect us. Maintain the tail away from us, okay?”

The girls nodded. Then, Kirito turned to Trixie. “Do you know any healing spells?”

The blue unicorn nodded. “That’s the most basic magic; nothing than the Great and Powerful Trixie can’t handle”

There was nothing else to say, the four of them ran to the monster who received them with a powerful roar. At his sister sign, Shining Armor freed the monster letting the four warriors attack it. The Gleam eyes attacked Kirito with his gigantic sword, but the warrior easily evaded it with his wings. The monster roared and was about to use his fire breath, when Leafa attacked it from behind making appear the five bars of HP.

The Gleam Eyes changed his objective attacking Leafa with his tail; but Asuna immobilized it with her unicorn magic and started to attack too. The monster then turned to Asuna, when Silica attacked the legs. There was too many objectives attacking at the time; but if it wasn’t for the fact Leafa and Kirito had wings, probably they would die.

Then, the Gleam Eyes reached Kirito making his HP bar lower to yellow at once. Pina and Spike ran to assist him recovering his lost HP and he flew again to the monster, who received him with fire breath that Kirito couldn’t completely evade; making the HP descend again.

“STOP BEING SO RECKLESS!!” yelled a very worried Twilight. “This isn’t Sword Art Online. Remember what Discord said: you can truly die in here”

“Sparkle” said Trixie. “They haven’t told you, but this is not the first time they face death into a computer game. When all this end, ask them what truly happened in SAO”

Twilight looked at Trixie without understand, but she nodded and continued watching the battle. Candace and Shining Armor didn’t understand what’s going on but they trusted the famous Black Swordsman and the Flash can handle the creature.
There was only one HP bar left, and as always, the monster became much more aggressive and improved his attack abilities. But he still was being attacked from all angles and in open field; after all he was a Dungeon Monster. At the end Leafa did the final blow making the monster disappear in that strange fragments of blue light with the message of:

CONGRATULATIONS

The four of them sat relieved. Thanks for their team work; destroying that monster wasn’t that difficult.

“Interesting and all, but can you explain what just happened?” asked Shining Armor.

“We will told you all we know, brother, but right now let them rest” said Twilight. “ Luckily this ended well..” but suddenly she turned to the castle and screamed in fear. “What the heck? No way, I thought we already defeated him”

The Mane 6 along with Candace and Shining Armor shacked. They all could felt it, King Sombra’s presence.

“No way… we were busy fighting that thing that we didn’t noticed…”

“Whoever called the monster fooled us but we still have to go!” said Rainbow Dash flying to the castle.

The rest of them followed her. Sombra; why Nightmare Moon wanted him? And yes, it was obvious she was the one behind that circus. But what did she want? At the end, they arrived to the Castle.

“Show yourselves!” ordered Twilight. “We know you’re in here even if you hide from us”

“Hiding from you, you said?” asked a cruel and cold voice behind all of them. “Don’t be ridiculous, Sparkle. We’re not hiding from you, we’re just got bored waiting for you to show”

There they were the former tyrant of Crystal Empire and the other self of Princess Luna. Nightmare Moon was exactly as they remembered her: wearing that weird blue armor looking at them with disgusting; so as Sombra, with his old king cape and all; but this time there was something different about him. He was wearing a strange crown with a strange aura. Sombra grinned to them.

Candace shacked. “What’s with that crown? I can feel a huge power inside it… just like Twilight’s”

Nightmare Moon laughed with madness. “This, my dear, is an Element of Darkness: the Dark Magic. The one Trixie Lulamon should be wearing but thanks the Black Swordsman and friends; that’s not possible anymore. Anyway, a miscalculation but nothing that couldn’t be fix”

“Element of Darkness?” asked Applejack.

Nightmare Moon’s eyes glowed with triumph. “Yes, my dear, an Element of Darknes. Since my sister found the Elements of Harmony, she has always being in an advantaged position in all battles; but that’s over. Thanks to Mr. Kayaba’s science, I could study the Elements of Harmony and create my own”

“Copies” mumbled Fluttershy scared.

“Worst: counterparts” said afraid Twilight.

They all gasped in fear; so that’s why she took the Elements and returned later, that’s why the warriors were trapped in Equestria. They were too busy looking for the warriors and helping them to find their way home; than they didn’t pay attention to the signature of Dark Magic and its movements. Sombra was in silence waiting for Nightmare to stop talking.

The dark Alicorn stared to the warriors. “Now, my greatest mistake was to underestimate your actions. Who’ll say you’ll become Lulamon’s best friends and save her from me? Or than you’ll save that fillies from that cursed place becoming Sparkle’s allies? Well, I still need you in this world so I’ll let you go with a warning: I don’t care if you don’t join me, but don’t ever try to stop me. I’ll keep you all in here until I won, but to make sure you don’t try to fight me… I’ll use my GM powers”

The warrior gasped when the alicorn extended her wings and staring at them she shouted: “SYSTEM COMMAND, DELETE THE LOG-OUT OPTION FOR PLAYERS 001, 002, 003 AND 004”

Before the four of them, the player option menu appeared showing they were trapped in that strange world from now on. Kirito grumped, but he was already waiting for something like this happened; still, he needed a plan. Then, Leafa fainted in front of them but Nightmare Moon didn’t care.

“And just like that time you played Sword Art Online, if someone try to disconnect the NerveGear, you’ll die instantly, also it’ll happen if you get killed in this world. Remember I’m a GM and I’ll kill you without effort if I have to.

Said that, the Dark Alicorn disappeared along with her new ally.

The ponies looked at the warriors.

“Is there anything we can do for you?” asked Twilight.

Kirito shook his head. “I don’t think so. Right now, we have to tell Celestia what happened in here and about the Elements of Darkness”

“Kirito is right, perhaps we can’t fight her directly, but still we can help you with little things like that” added Asuna.

“But what about her?” asked Rarity pointing the fainted Leafa.

Kirito sighed. “Sugu uses a different virtual reality equipment: the AtmuSphere. The AtmuSphere is equipped with a security system that prevents her to be trapped in a game; created since the incident with SAO. It’s a good thing because now Sugu can be our contact between the two worlds”

The ponies nodded, but they were still worried about the young warriors. Trixie didn’t say anything, but she was the most worried of all knowing what happened to them into the infamous SAO. But there was not time to think about what happened in the past, right now they had a new and powerful enemy to defeat.

Author's Note

Here it is, another chapter of PAO.

And, answering some comments: sorry about all the mistakes, but I'm a latin american trying to improve my english; so please try to undersantd. Practice make the master they say...

Anyway, thank you for all your support and comments (goods and bads) Like I said, I'm trying to improve and you all make me recognize my mistakes and I promise I'll do my best to correct them all.

Now, I just have to say: Read ya later!!!

The ultimate sacrifice

Suguha Kirigaya woke up startled.

“No… NO!!” she screamed taking off the AtmuSphere and running to her brother’s room.

There he was, completely inert with the NerveGear. She started to cry on his chest.

“Onii-chan… why? This have to be a bad joke… Kami-Sama, please make them wake up. This can’t be happening!!!”

“Sugu?” she heard her mother’s voice. “Sugu, is almost dinner time, do you know how long your brother will be playing that game?”

“I don’t know… probably forever…”

“Sugu, what’s wrong? Something happened?” asked the woman starting to worry.

Suguha hugged her mother and started to cry again. Without understand what was going on, her mother decided to make some tea to calm her daughter. After Suguha recovered a little, she finally spoke.

“Something happened again into the damn game; just like that time, Kazuto and Asuna are trapped. Only I could save because of the security system of the AtmuSpfhere but Asuna and Kazuto… Asuna and Kazuto…

She started to cry again. Miss Kirigaya didn’t know how to react, but she hugged her daughter again waiting for she finish her crying and have a better explanation. Perhaps she could ask Kazuto when he log-off. But then something strange happened: a strange light came from nowhere taking the form of strange figures. Suguha cleaned her tears when she recognized the figures.

“What are we doing here?” asked Kirito recognizing his living room.

Princess Celestia sighed with sadness. “I’m terribly sorry young ones, but because of my sister’s dark side you are trapped into our world; and because I’m not able to undo the spell, this is the least I can do. Give you some time with your families” then, she turned to Miss Kirigaya. “Is a pleasure to meet you, I’m Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria. I would prefer we met in better circumstances but still, I’ll do everything in my power to bring your son back from my world”

Miss Kirigaya didn’t know what to do or say, but Suguha calmed her.

“It’s okay mom, they’re friends. Friends we met in the world of Equestria”

“I don’t understand… I thought you were just playing another of your MMO RPGs. What happening¡”

“Is a long story” said Twilight sighing. “But we’ll tell you, is the least we can do in our current situation. Besides, Trixie mentioned this is not the first time you’re trapped into a game of death; so why don’t you start, Kirito?”

Kirito was doing his best to avoid eye contact with his mother, who was staring this strange pony version of him; but at the end he had to. After exchange a sad look with his mom, he started to tell:

“It started three years ago, when the most expected game for the NerveGear finally came; the infamous Sword Art Online. Ten thousand gamers bought it thinking in have the experience of our lives… and unfortunately we had it. Akihiko Kayaba, the programmer, wanted to create a true reality; not a virtual one, so he disabled the log-out option. Besides, he programmed the equipment so well than; if you die inside the game; you will die for real”

“Those were the scariest days of my life” added Silica sadly. “The only way to get out of the game was completing it; but most of the players surrender since the first days; they were like me, waiting for some hero who complete the game for all of us. In that time, our last hope were the guild known as The Knights of Blood and a Solo Player called Kirito the Black Swordsman”

“Kayaba created me as a psychological support program” said Yui, “but he disabled me at the last moment. I was created to prevent than the players kill themselves because of the desperation; but since I was disabled, a lot of them committed suicide. I had to see how those lives ended knowing I could prevent it to happen. It was horrible. But then, I saw two players who were happy with their new lives, trying to save all the others from that death trap so I appeared to them”

“And she became our daughter from that day” said Asuna. “But because she disobeyed a direct command from the operative system, it tried to delete her; so Kirito hacked the main computer and saved Yui into his NerveGear internal memory”

Trixie smiled and hugged her new friends. “Even more important: they saved them all. The one who defeated Kayaba completing the game was Kirito. So you see it? If you want to defeat Nightmare Moon and Kayaba, is necessary to work with them. Is the Great and Powerful Trixie right?”

Silence.

“Just what Trixie thought”

“Just one question” said Celestia. “What happened with Kayaba in the real world?

“His body died but he transferred his conscience to the internet” said Kirito. “I guess that he was wandering on the web when Nightmare found him and offered to explore how far he can go combining reality with his programing”

Twilight stepped hard in frustration. “What was he thinking teaming with Nightmare Moon?”

Luna seemed to be calmed. “Well, I guess this Kayaba is only interest in his invention; that’s why he agreed to work with my dark self. Now the question is why did she need you into our world”

Trixie rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to be a genius to figure it out: they have being making huge scandals since they arrived to Equestria, so you were concentrated in the warriors and didn’t notice the dark was moving. And that day she stole the Elements, the first suspects were the visitors. And now we’re here trying to compensate what happened bringing them to their families. In one word: distraction”

“Distraction” repeated Celestia. “How could I be so blind? You’re right Trixie Lulamon”

Trixie nodded proud of herself; but then, Celestia spoke again. “Very well, now is our turn to make our move. Kirito the Black Swordsman, Asuna the Flash… no, I mean, Asuna Yuuki and Kazuto Kirigaya; I have to ask for your help. I know you’re in a very dangerous position fighting against my sister; but still we’ll need your assistance if we want to defeat Akihiko Kayaba. Tomorrow morning my sister will came for you and bring you back to Equestria; but in the meantime spend all the time you can with your families. Once again I truly sorry”

Kazuto’s mother let scape a small tear. Celestia sighed and made all the ponies disappear; leaving Asuna, Kirito and Yui.

“Asuna, you shouldn’t be with your family right now?” asked Suguga.

The girl shook her head. “No, my parents are overseas; but before arriving here we made a small stop to let them the message. Besides this is the perfect chance for Yui to meet her grandmother”

The small filly walked to her grandmother and made a bow. Miss Kirigaya hugged Yui and started to cry. Everything was happening too fast, but she had to keep strong. After a few but long minutes, they started their dinner.

Kirito grumped.

“Brother?” asked Suguha.

“I got enough” said the Black Swordsman. “I just can’t stay here and let Nightmare Moon and Kayaba do as they want; but I can’t do anything because of the GM powers. I’ve being thinking and there’s only one way to get rid of that”

“What are you thinking?” asked Suguha starting to worry.

Kirito took a deep breath; he knew his family won’t like what he was about to say. “Nightmare Moon brought Yui to life; real life, so I guess she can turn everything virtual into something real without much effort. And if it’s true she’s a part of Princess Luna…”

His mother and Suguha’s expression was pure horror. “Don’t tell me you’re thinking in…”

Asuna walked to him angrily. “What is wrong with you? Not only that’s really stupid but also you know Princess Celestia won’t let you do such thing”

“I know, that’s why I’m asking Luna. And I now is dangerous, that’s why I’m doing this alone”

Asuna kissed him to shut his mouth.

“You’re an idiot and I know you are not listening to reason” she said. “That’s why I’ll do it with you. We’re going to completely pass to the other world and defeat Nightmare Moon. Together”

“Please stop!” cried Suguha. “Think in everything you two are gonna leave behind!”

“I know” said Kirito. “But you can visit us with the AtmuSphere and we can ask the Princess to bring us here from time to time. Please understand, this is the only solution”

Miss Kirigaya just give his son a sad smile. “Is already decided, isn’t it, Kazuto? Very well, I know you and I know you are not going to change your mind and I accept it. So let’s open a bottle I have for special occasion and let’s make a good bye party”

Kirito smiled too and nodded. That night was the last he and Asuna will spend in that world so they better enjoy it.

…

At the next morning, the family woke up really late. Kirito sighed seeing his body still connected to the NerveGear; but he already made his decision and there wasn’t time to regret. By her way, Suguha disconnected the AtmuSphere so when the internal battery was empty, she could return to her home safely.

A purple light invaded the room; Princess Luna just arrived.

“Princess!” greeted Kirito. “I’m glad you’re here. I have something important to ask you…”

Luna nodded and listened. When the Black Swordsman finished to tell her, she was completely horrified.

“Are you mad?” she asked shacking. “Do you know how horrible is that you’re asking me? Please Black Swordsman, change your mind. There’s no way I help you with such project”

“You have to” said Kirito. “Please Princess, if we don’t do something, your dark side will kill us. I know is stupid and all but I see no other way!”

Luna was still shocked but at the end she nodded. “Are you sure is that what the two of you really want?”

Asuna and Kirito nodded.

“I decided at the moment Yui told us she became real; that’s the only way I can be with my daughter”

Luna was still horrified but still she surrounded Yui with her magic looking for the trail of the spell than made her real. When she found it, she surrounded Kirito and Asuna.

“Are you sure? There’s no way back after this”

Again, they nodded.

“Very well, took every item you have and place it on the floor. Once I made you real, you wouldn’t be capable to open your virtual inventory”

They obeyed and then, Luna did the spell. The both of them felt how all the sensations became much more realistic. Kazuto’s body shook violently and a red light appeared on the NerveGear.

Kirito let scape a tear when he understood what happened. Kazuto Kirigaya and Asuna Yuuki were dead; from that moment, they were Kirito the Black Swordsman and Asuna the Flash for the rest of their lives.

“Equestria will never forget your sacrifice” said Luna sadly.

“Like you said, there’s no way back” said Kirito.

“But now we have the capability to defeat the Nightmare”

…

Kayaba raised an eyebrow.

“What?” wanted to know Nightmare Moon.

“I don’t know, the console sent information I don’t fully understand. All I can tell you is than Kirito and Asuna made their move”

“I understand. Well, just concentrate and we’ll get our victory, Kayaba”

Blue Blood's betrayal

Luna, Kirito, Asuna and Yui materialized in the Main Plaza of Canterlot.

“Here we are” announced Luna. “Your friend Trixie is taking care of Leafa’s avatar. Go to your place, grab your stuff and meet you in the Castle in two hours. Understood?

Both warriors nodded and ran to Carterlot’s red area. Luna smiled a little and flew to the Castle. She was worried about what happened in the human world: the warriors said good bye to their families but didn’t stayed long trying to avoid the feeling of sadness and lost. But Luna knew the feeling was still there and they had to deal with it sooner or later. Anyway, none of them had time to worry about that thing; they still had a very urgent situation between hooves.

…

The family ran to the lodging and after greet the changeling owner, they entered to their room where Trixie and Leafa were waiting already. When she saw them, Trixie grumped and hit them with their own saddlebags using her magic.

“EY!! What was that for?” Complained Kirito.

“Leafa told me everything” answered the blue unicorn looking at them with anger. “What were you thinking just dropping out your old lives just like that?”

“We made a choice” said Asuna rubbing her head; that was the first time she felt real pain inside Equestria. “You have to understand, Trixie, that was the only way we could defeat that crazy mare. Besides is almost the same situation we lived in SAO, staying forever into a game. The only difference is that we don’t have to worry about our real bodies anymore”

Trixie was about to say something but she realized how down her friends were. The small Yui kissed her parent’s cheeks trying to comfort them. Thanking the gesture, they hugged her with love.

“Another advantage: we can stay forever with our daughter from now on” said Asuna with a small trembling in her voice.

Trixie joined to the hug crying.

“It’s just Trixie is worried about you guys. Is pathetic than a pony of my age have a couple of teenagers as best friends; but after all you’ve done for me, that’s how I see you now”

They made a small nod of understanding but Leafa interrupted the moment after check a private message she just got. Asuna and Kirito were about to ask why they didn’t get it but remembered they were real ponies now.

“It’s from Silica. She said they already found an Element of Darkness and they need our help”

The warriors, along with Yui and Trixie, ran ready to their duty.

…

After last night’s events, the Princess decided than the Mane 6 should stay in the castle and they could decide what to do at the next morning, once the warriors arrive. But Rarity had to ask permission to do a little walk around Canterlot, in part because she wanted to see the new outfits for the season; but mostly because she felt annoyed by the constant flirting between Spike and Pina.
The Princess gave her the permission, but she had to carry her Element just in case. With the imminent menace of Nightmare Moon, they had to be as ready as possible.

Luckily for the fashion designer, she packed the most marvelous dress; perfect to combine with her necklace. So, Rarity was ready for a relaxing walk in the beautiful city wandering in the stores. Nothing happened; until she entered to a small café to have breakfast. There in the café, having a lot of fun with two young mares, was that “Royal Pain” called Blue Blood. Once Rarity spotted him, she quickly walked out of the place; she was not in the mood to deal with him.

But suddenly, her Element started to react abnormally. It started to glow, but a complete different glow than when she used it against Nightmare Moon or Discord. This glow was less bright and intermittent; but also the gem was vibrating. What was going on?
Then Blue Blood saw her and after say something to the mares he was with, he walked to Rarity who was about to leave the café.

“Wait beautiful, wait please” called the annoying guy pulling Rarity’s tail with his magic. “I just wanted to ask you something about your necklace. I don’t know why but mine is reacting to yours somehow…”

Rarity saw the prince’s necklace. A silver chain with a strange gem on it; just like Blue Blood’s Cutie Mark. No, it couldn’t be…

“Such manners young lady, why you’re not answering?” he said frowning. “Haven’t you heard about me and my charming personality? I’m prince Blue Blood. Princess Celestia’s nephew.

“I know who you are” said Rarity with a defying look in her eyes. “I had the disgrace to meet you in the Great Galloping Gala last year”

He released Rarity gasping. “So it is you…”

“Yes it’s me. And I can’t thing in somepony better than you to have the Element of Selfishness. Because that’s your Element of Darkness, isn’t it?

Blue Blood’s expression changed suddenly.

“What do you know about the Elements of Darkness?”

“I know your Element is reacting to mine; because we’re opposites. I’m the Element of Generosity. Now…”

“Now I go the hell out of here!” shouted Blue Blood escaping from Rarity.

“Get back here you coward” screamed Rarity running after Blue Blood; but he was too fast for her.

“Rarity” a voice called her.

Rarity turned. It was Silica.

“Silica, what are you doing here?” asked Rarity still running after the prince. “Well, it doesn’t matter. We have to get Blue Blood before it’s too late. He’s the bearer of one Element of Darkness!!”

The young dragon tamer nodded and sent a private message to her group while running. She was too agitated than she didn’t noticed the only member left was Leafa. Then both of them started to reach Blue Blood, who grumped in frustration and decided to enter to an alley to lose them. His plan was go deep into the red zone; a very dangerous place for little ladies like them, but not for him who was a frequent costumer of some bars, casinos and other places.

He looked behind. Perfect, the two ladies were still following him. He dashed just in front of the infamous marginalized lodging, property of a changeling. He was about to lose them in his favorite bar when the door of the lodging opened and hit him hard.

He glared at the blue pegasus in a black coat who opened the door. “What do you think you’re doing hitting me just like that, young man? Don’t you recognize Celestia’s nephew, prince Blue Blood?”

“You are Blue Blood?” the pegasus asked walking to the confused prince, along with two adult unicorns and another pegasus.

“That’s what I said. Luckily for you I don’t have time for this. I have to run and…”

Kirito pointed his black sword to the terrified prince; who was about to run to the other way but Silica and Rarity reached him already. This seemed bad; even worse when he was surrounded by Asuna, Leafa and Trixie.

“I have to admit it, Blue Blood, trying to lose us in the red zone was very bright” mocked Rarity. “Thanks Celestia for the miracle of the instant messages”

The prince was mumbling something to himself but quickly he turned to the warriors. “Listen to me and listen carefully: I’m prince Blue Blood, Celestia’s nephew and for everything you do to my royal me; you’ll answer to my aunts. Understood?

Asuna made a small cut in the prince’s face; whose expression changed from indignation to fear. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? YOU RUINED MY BEAUTIFUL FACE”

Sighing, Leafa decided to knock him out with a single punch. They still had to take him to Celestia and is she had to listen another complain, she would probably kill that idiot.

…

“Where is Rarity?” asked Applejack. “I thought she just needed time to think in our situation…”

“You mean time to forget about the lovebirds?” said Rainbow Dash with a silly smile pointing to Pina and Spike. “Poor Rarity, she still can’t believe Spike found his special somepony in his own species”

“Come on girls, leave Rarity alone” asked Fluttershy. “Besides all of us are bored waiting for Kirito and Asuna, who surely are killing innocent creatures without regret”

The girls rolled their eyes. Fluttershy was the kindest pony they met but she was acting like that for a while. Luckily, a scandal called everypony’s attention.

“This is outrageous! My aunts are going to know about this, are you listening?” shouted Blue Blood furiously. Rarity grumped and hit his head to make him shut up for once.

The rest of the Mane 6 along with the Princesses came to see what was going on.

“Auntie, I’m so glad you’re here! Arrest them, they chased me like an animal, deformed my beautiful face and…”

“Please shut up, carrier of an Element of Darkness. You’re making Trixie sick”

“Order!” said Luna with her Canterlot Voice. “What on Equestria is going on? Why did you bring Blue Blood here? I know he’s an idiot but I see no reason to treat him like this”

Rarity pulled Blue Blood from his necklace and showed it to the Princesses.

“My Element of Harmony is reacting to his. I think is because we’re opposites: Selfishness and Generosity. And when I mentioned the Elements of Darkness, he panicked and tried to lose us in the red zone”

The prince was about to say something when he noticed his aunts severe look. He gulped and tried to escape but Kirito stopped him just showing him the sword Elucidator. Again he gulped and desperately tried to explain himself:

“I’m innocent, I swear! She told me to have this and…”

“You mean Nightmare Moon?” asked Celestia sternly.

He nodded.

“She came to me in one of my dreams. She told me I disgusted her but I was perfect to have this Element; all I had to do was wait to see who wins. That’s it; I never thought about it too much. For me is a precious jewel to show all over Canterlot”

Celestia sighed in exasperation.

“The worst part is that I believe you. You’re stupid enough to do something like this. Anyway, give me that thing and get out of my sight”

He lowered his head. “I truly sorry auntie, but I can’t. She came to another dream and to make sure I was going to help her, she casted a permanent presence spell on my necklace. It won’t come out no matter what...”

Luna used her magic on the necklace and nodded. “I’m afraid he’s right. Is a very simple spell but very well executed”

Blue Blood smiled awkwardly.

“Get out of here and be sure to keep your distance from now on. Your face is disgusting me more than anything” grumped Celestia.

Blue Blood nodded and ran away very fast; but suddenly he turned and decided to think. At this point he already chose his side and he better help that side to win. All he had to do was to give them what they needed.

In the meantime, Twilight and Celestia informed the warriors about the situation.

“For the moment we have being watching every suspicious movements in all over Equestria, but nothing. We also mobilized troops trying to find Nightmare’s operations base but nothing either”

“Our old castle was our strongest clue; but our guards found nothing. But don’t worry, Asuna Yuuki, Kazuto Kirigaya, Ayano Keiko. I’ll take you home every night until the day we defeat the dark side of my sister, I swear”

The warriors looked each other nervously; but suddenly Blue Blood walked to the room calling everypony’s attention.

“I thought Princess Celestia was clear enough” said Twilight. “You’re lucky there’s no punishment for being an idiot but you better go before we invent it”

“Princess Twilight Sparkle, I don’t see any reason for you to speak for my aunties”

“When Twilight say something I don’t agree, I’ll let you know, Blue Blood” said Celestia angrily.

The prince took a deep breath and just said what he wanted to say. “Listen, I know I do wrong accepting the Element of Darkness but I thought I can be useful for you. I was listening and I can see you’re still looking for Nightmare Moon’s operation base. Isn’t it?”

Silence.

Blue Blood sighed and continued. “Nightmare Moon have the same powers than Auntie Luna and according to her, she has being mobilizing into dreams. Don’t you see it? She’s in the World of Dreams”

Everypony looked each other in horror.

“Damn it, how could I be so blind?” grumped Luna. “Of course; back in the days I became her and I was conspiring against you sister, I built a castle for my own in the World of Dreams. The only place I’m stronger than you and I can control everything”

“And that’s how virtual reality works too” mumbled Suguha. “Practically materialize dreams”

“Perfect!” ironized Rainbow Dash. “Not only in the World of Dreams Celestia is weaker; but also Kayaba can receive us with something worse than that Gleam Eyes thing”

“But it’s going to be like play a videogame” cheered Pinkie Pie. “I wanted to play one of those since I know about them and now I’m going to play for real”

Blue Blood gave them a self-satisfaction smile.

“So, we’re okay?”

“Go away” grumped Luna.

He obeyed and left before things gone worse. He had a lot to think about, but for the meantime; he better don’t sleep after betraying Nightmare moon.

And in the meantime, Luna concentrated all her power to create some kind of door with a silver moon shaped jewel on the center.

“This is the gate I usually use to enter to the World of Dreams in my physical form. And is what are we going to use today. I imagine the six of you are ready to use your Elements, right?”

The Mane 6 nodded. Then Luna turned to the warriors.

“Kirito, Asuna, Leafa and Silica: are you ready to face the death one more time defying Akihiko Kayaba?”

The warriors prepared their swords. Finally Luna turned to Celestia.

“What about you? Ready for have our first battle in equal conditions?”

“Yes, I think”

They all took a deep breath, and then crossed the door.

Elements vs. Elements, the final battle

The World of Dreams manifested as an infinite space full with hundreds of doors appearing and disappearing randomly all over the place. Nopony, with the exception of Luna, had seen it before; so she leaded the group to guide them.

“Each door represent a little pony’s dream” explained Luna. “When the little pony wakes up, the door is gone; as simple as that”

They keep advancing silently. It was when Trixie noticed than some doors irradiated some kind of sinister red light. She was about to say something, but Luna smiled at her calmly.

“Allow me to explain” said Luna guessing the magician’s question. “The red glow indicates a nightmare; the most terrifying the dream is the most the door glows. When the glow is too much, is time for me to interfere; but recently, I’ve only interfering in the children’s dreams. If only I’d interfered in the adult’s dreams too, we probably could stop Nightmare before she selected the bearers of her Elements of Darkness.

“We already stopped one of them” tranquilized her Celestia. “But, where are you taking us sister?”

Luna sighed.

“You have your Palace, I have mine. Deep into this world, I built it centuries ago. I haven’t used it since I turned into Nightmare Moon. The perfect hiding place for her”

“And there’s something we need to know?” asked Leafa. “Any hidden dangers?”

“Probably, but not from me. If is true she turned that place into her operation base, probably we had more than one surprise waiting for us”

“Specially is she’s working side by side with Kayaba” grumped Kirito.

They kept advancing, but only for a while. There they were, Luna’s old Palace. And just as they feared, Nightmare did several modifications all over the place; surrounding the Palace with some kind of winter landscape with gigantic mountains made of some sort of crystal. Kirito prepared his black sword.

“This is Kayaba’s work. In this mountains lives a giant white dragon who feeds from crystals and breaths some kind of cold fire; that can freeze you in a matter of seconds” warned the warrior.

“What did you get for killing that innocent creature?” asked Fluttershy bitterly.

“I didn’t kill it, I just borrowed his excrement” smiled him. “Because he feeds of crystals, he produces an special metal called Crystaline; the most durable metal in all Aincrad. Thanks to that metal, my friend Lizbeth forged me the Dark Repulser”

They stared for a while to the blue sword and kept walking. In the middle of the way, Spike had the brilliant idea to take a piece of crystal and taste it. After licking his lips on delight, he offered another to Pina; who tasted it too with a warm smile. At the end, the two lovebirds walked eating their delicious treat. Suddenly the group stopped when they heard the breathing of a large beast.

“Damn it” mumbled Asuna.

The dragon felt their presence and roared while breathing the cold fire all over them. Alicorns and unicorns joined forces to create a wall of fire to protect the group and themselves from the imminent freezing. The flames froze immediately, but successfully protected the entire group.

Kirito flew to the beast with his two swords prepared already. The dragon only thought in get rid of that annoyance breathing the cold flames; but Kirito dodged it with grace in the air. Rainbow Dash joined him in the air as a distraction forcing the dragon to divide its attention to two different targets; three when Leafa joined. Fluttershy stayed on the ground, knowing her famous Stare wouldn’t work in a virtual monster.

After flying in circle for a while, Kirito started to change his target and dashed to reach the dragon’s head.

“Keep his attention away from me! I only have one chance!!” commanded the Black Swordsman.

The other two pegasus nodded and speeded up their maneuvers around the dragon infuriating the beast more and more. Finally Kirito reached the head and stuck his two swords on it. The beast roared in anger and started to fly in circles hoping to make fall the annoyance and eat it; but the Black Swordsman had other plans. He pushed his swords to the right forcing the dragon to move in that direction; then he tried left with the same result. The dragon kept fighting, but Kirito already had the situation under control and started to make bigger circles approaching more to his friends every time.

“Everypony listen to me: when I came back to this side, I want you to jump on the dragon!!” shouted Kirito suddenly.

There was no need to repeat it; when the beast came closer, all the ponies jumped on it. Twilight helped Rarity and Pinkie Pie with her magic; Luna helped Applejack and Trixie and finally Celestia helped Silica, Pina and Spike. Fluttersy grabbed to one wing the best she could while Asuna grabbed to her hoof.

“Isn’t this the same thing you did with Liz when you fought this dragon in Aincrad?” yelled Asuna.

Kirito grinned and made the beast to advance closer to Nightmare’s castle.

“Get off the dragon at the count of three. One, two, THREE!!

Once again, they did as he said. And once the dragon felt free from Kirito’s swords, he flew back where he came from. At the end, Kirito was again in front of the group ready to stop the Nightmare. Fluttershy stayed a while looking at the poor dragon, but quickly joined to her friends. After all, that monster wasn’t real.
But suddenly, a black fog surrounded the beast and started to hurt it with red lightings that lowered the HP bar more and more. The ponies screamed in horror when a last and devastating attack finished the whole HP and made the dragon disappear in blue fragments of light.

“Useless beast” said a cold and evil voice. “You supposed to keep them away, not bringing them here”

“King Sombra!” yelled Twilight when her Element started to react at Sombra’s.

A dark magic beam reached her, throwing her to a wall while the black fog crowed around to finally form a gray unicorn with dark mane and red and green eyes.

“You know?” said the dark unicorn. “She thought you wouldn’t find us so easily; but I’m glad she was wrong. Wait as an idiot is not my style. I wanted for you to come and have the stupid idea to confront us. Thank you for give me what I wanted so badly”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash attacked at once to Sombra, but another powerful attack threw them away. Applejack raised her head to see who attacked them. She couldn’t believe it.

“Flim and Flam… I thought I got rid of you forever”

“Well surprise, surprise; you didn’t” said one of the twins. “Here we are now, as Bearers of the Elements of Fraud…”

“…And Betrayal”

“And we see an opportunity; an opportunity to have our revenge from that one who humiliated us in that community”

“Come on Applejack” groaned Rainbow Dash offering her friend a hoof. “Let’s show that pair who we really are”

Applejack accepted her friend’s hoof and both of them attacked their opponents. Rainbow made several acrobatics in the air periodically charging against Betrayal; while Applejack was using her rope to immobilize Fraud. Fraud was dodging the cowgirl’s attacks throwing rocks against her using his magic; but Applejack was a complete expert and using her powerful forelegs she launched herself just a couple of meters in front of Fraud and caught his horn. The movement was so unexpected than the other brother fell from a tackle from the cyan pegasus.
Betrayal wasn’t going to let the things like that, he concentrated his magic on his horn but Rainbow Dash started to punching merciless in the abdomen. Applejack was less violent and just tied the unicorn and knocked him out with a single tackle.

Applejack grinned. “A fun fact about unicorns is than they depend too much of their magic. If you are able to prevent them to use magic, they’re yours”

In the meantime, Sombra was evaluating his opponents in the air. He was fighting against Twilight, Rarity, Trixie and Asuna; who prepared horns and sword ready to take whatever Sombra had for them. Sombra laughed hysterically and created a wall of innumerable crystals around the unicorns; special crystals that only grow bigger when they were hit directly with a magical attack.

“COME ON, CHILDS!! At the ends, the only thing that matters in duels is the experience. Do you think you can handle THE HIGHEST LEVEL UNICORN?”

Trixie smirked. “That’s something you should ask to yourself because, TRIXIE IS THE HIGHEST LEVEL UNICORN!!” Then she turned to Pina and Spike. “Ey dragon kids, are you hungry?”

They shook their heads; in fact, they ate too much crystal but that problem was nothing that Trixie couldn’t handle. She casted an spell in the dragons (avoiding contact with the crystals) making them really hungry; more hungry than ever. Controlled by that strange hunger, they started to eat the crystal cage freeing the unicorns in just five seconds. At the end, the dragons burped a little while Sombra raised an eyebrow.

“Wow, I never saw that one coming. Still…”

Sombra created sharp crystals and started to launch them against the girls. Asuna jumped in front of them and started destroying the crystals with her sword showing why she was called ‘The Flash’. Celestia and Luna arrived and started to shoot magic beams against the dark unicorn forcing him to stay on defensive. Asuna saw her chance and teleported behind Sombra; then she started to attack him with her sword. Sombra, didn’t know what to do; they were too many objectives and he was only one. Grinding his teeth, he attacked Asuna with a sharp crystal. The crystal forced Asuna to move back while the rest of the team were taking care of Sombra. At the end she finished the crystal with a quick move.
Everypony noticed than instead of her HP bar, she showed several cuttings. The girl moaned; this really hurts.

Trixie healed her. “Try to be more careful, this is your real body now”

When the Flash fully recovered, she noticed Sombra was on the same position where she left him. With a warrior’s scream, she attacked Sombra again who didn’t had the chance to react. He was concentrating his attention on Asuna when Silica appeared and started cutting him with her dagger. An HP bar appeared above Sombra and started to diminish.
The dark monarch roared in anger; but there was nothing he could do. When his HP bar reached the yellow, Fluttershy came and took away his Element of Darkness. The dark unicorn fainted, he was finally defeated.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack approached with the other two Elements of Darkness ready to receive more instructions. Kirito stayed calm with his two swords ready; just as Luna and Celestia who prepared their horns.

“It’s over Nightmare” shouted Luna. “Your bearers are down; and one of them even betrayed you. What else you can do now?”

A dark aura surrounded the Elements of Darkness and those floated to Nightmare Moon, who was approaching slowly but threaten.

“Very impressive, I give you that. But there’s nothing you can do against me. Use your little Elements? Sorry but I can easily protect myself with the counterparts. Besides, here I’m like a Goddess. Don’t you see it? I shall win!!”

“Keep dreaming, the World of Dreams is UNDER MY COMMAND” shouted Luna.

Nightmare Moon laughed evilly and floated above them.

“THIS ISN’T THE WORLD OF DREAMS, YOU FOOL!! THIS IS THE VIRTUAL WORLD; AN SMALL PORTION OF YOUR BELOVED DREAM TURNED INTO MY PERSONAL PLAYGROUND. AND NOW IS TIME FOR YOU TO TASTE MY REAL POWER. SYSTEM COMMAND: ACTIVATE ALL THE SECRET DOORS”

As she said, all doors opened clearing the way for all kind of monsters; from Equestria and Aincrad. All the minor enemies once they fought but in incredible numbers. This was just as the final boss in Alfheim Online; an unbeatable swarm.
Kirito and Asuna looked each other and nodded.

“Leafa” said the Black Swordsman, “we’ll do the same strategy we used in ALO. I need all of you to clear the way and Asuna and I will take her down. This ends here and now”

“But Kazuto Kirigaya…” tried to say Celestia, but Luna gently put her hoof in her mouth.

“We’ll do as you say, Kirito the Black Swordsman, Asuna the Flash. You better hurry”

The two warriors charged against Nightmare Moon while the rest of them made a circle to keep the monsters busy. Spike and Pina stayed on the center of that circle, ready to heal anypony who needs it. The real battle was going to begin.
Nightmare Moon just laughed ironically.

“You’re kidding, righ?”

No, they weren’t. The two of them started to attack her without mercy. She created a force field to keep them away but Asuna used her magic to make a breach and then Kirito could attack freely. When Nightmare felt the two blows over her body she screamed in anger and started to send magical attacks to the warriors who quickly split up to dodge them better.
Nightmare sighed and conjured a floating platform over the chaos.

“Fine, if you want to fight me, so be it. Say your prayers because this is the end”

Asuna and Kirito ran to Nightmare Moon with their swords on hoof. She rolled her eyes and said bored:

“System Command; diminish the HP of players #001 and #002 to zero”

Nothing happened except than the two warriors plunged their swords on her. She screamed in surprise and raised in the air to avoid more attacks; but Kirito threw her the Dark Repulser that stuck deeply on her. She froze by the surprise; giving Kirito the chance to fly to her and recover his fight to keep attacking. Asuna launched several magic beams against her that impact fully on the dark alicorn.

Nightmare Moon groaned.

“This is not possible! How are you still alive if I already commanded you to die?”

“That doesn’t work on real ponies” explained Kirito. “And that’s just what we are. Using the same spell you used to turn our daughter to real we became real in this world too”

Nightmare Moon and everypony on the first floor gasped in horror. “That means…”

“Kazuto Kirigaya and Asuna Yuuki are dead now” said Asuna “Now we are just Kirito the Black Swordsman and Asuna the Flash”

Nightmare Moon’s expression turned from surprise to laughter.

“Oh give me a break” she said laughing loud. “This is just too rich; I don’t know is the bravest or the dumbest thing I ever heard, hahahahahaha!! Very well, if that’s what you want, here I am. Nopony has ever defeated me before without the help of the Elements of Harmony. What can you do, little children?”

They reassumed their battle; but Nightmare Moon was too powerful for them. Her automatic regeneration was too high and nothing than the warriors did caused a real damage to her. It was a matter of time than the warriors get tired and she could easily get rid of them.

In the lower level, the battle ended a moments ago and all they could do was watch what was happened up there. Celestia couldn’t restrain her tears; the kids sacrificed too much for the safety for a world that wasn’t their own. Even Fluttershy started to think they weren’t bad at all; no, they were great warriors who gave all just to save Equestria. She felt so ashamed to be so mean to them.
At the end the yellow pegasus concentrated all her energy on the Element.

“Fluttershy, what are you doing?” asked Twilight.

“Nightmare Moon is right, the only way to defeat her is with the Elements of Harmony” declared Fluttershy firmly. “We have to help them no matter what. Twilight, there’s a way we could concentrate the power of the Elements on them?”

The purple alicorn nodded. “Yes there is. Girls, Fluttershy is right. We have to help them or this isn’t going to end well. LET’S DO THIS!”

The Mane 6 formed their circle of friendship and floated to the battle; where they concentrated the rainbow shot to the fighting warriors.
Asuna and Kirito felt how the power was now into them; making them much more stronger than ever.

“NO… NOOOO!!” screamed Nightmare Moon when she noticed her HP lowering more and more. “THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING, NO!!”

“I’m really sorry about this” said Kirito. “We know we promised not to hurt any other living being in Equestria, but some ponies never learn”

They kept fighting against a now powerless Nightmare Moon. Protected by the Elements of Harmony, none of the attacks could do nothing to the warriors.
They were destroying her, the HP bar already was in red. Asuna smirked.

“Kirito finished the Ursa Major; Silica finished Ruby and Leafa destroyed Gleam Eyes. This final boss is MINE!!” screamed Asuna making the final blow.

Nightmare Moon vanished into sparks of blue light screaming in agony. It was the end; she was finally defeated. And this time once for all.

They sighed really tired; they really completed this game. When the platform vanished just as her creator, the rest of the ponies approached to the winners slowly.

Kirito saw his wounds.

“Well, I guess I have to get use to it; this body can be hurt too”

Asuna hugged him. “Perhaps but at least we won”

Princess Celestia approached them with a serious face. “Do you know what you done? You quit everything you had; and just to save a world that wasn’t yours. Now I want to know why. Why did you do such thing?”

Kirito sighed smiling.

“The decision was taken in the moment I realized everything was real and Yui had to stay forever in this world. The only thing I knew was I wanted to stay with my daughter, and that was the only way”

Asuna kissed him.

“And I had the same idea. If we wanted to stay as a family, we had to do this. But if we were going to stay forever in Equestria; the least we could do was save it from danger”

The Princess started crying and hugged them.

“You’ve done a great service to Equestria and I’m really thankful for that. I can’t give you back the life you left behind but at least I can make your life in here whatever you wish for. Is the least I can do”

“No sister, I’ll do it” said Luna approaching. “Nightmare Moon was part of me and I was the one who freed her allowing her to do all this. The service they just did was for me and I should be the one who thank them for that”

Celestia nodded and allowed her sister to continue. Luna cleared her throat and smiled to the warriors.

“From now on, I, ruler of the night, decree than the warriors known as Kirito the Black Swordsman and Asuna the Flash will have an honor position in my personal guard. They’re still too young but still the position will be waiting for them, but that’s if they want it”

Asuna and Kirito bowed to Luna and hugged her playfully; who hugged them back.

“Thank you… thank you for accepting” said Luna. “And I’m sorry for all the trouble I caused you”

They were too tired to speak but warmly smiled to Luna; there was no hard feelings.

“Bravo” said the calmed voice of Akihiko Kayaba, who was walking to them. “A very interesting demonstration of skill and human will; or should I say pony will? Well, it doesn’t’ matter. The important thing here is than you two get over this difficult test as a family and I’m proud of you”

Twilight frowned. “You must be Kayaba”

The programmer nodded. “I’ve being watching all this time and as I said, I’m really surprised”

“Can you help them to have their lives back?” asked Luna.

He shook his head. “They were beyond my help in the same moment they became real. I’m sorry”

“You’re a despicable being” grumped Yui.

“I don’t deny it, YUI-MHCP001, but I don’t care neither. I already have the data I needed to continue my investigation of the reach of the NerveGear. But still, I think you deserve a prize for defeating me one more time. System Command, make a restitution of the Log-Out option for players 003 and 004”

The white screen appeared to Silica and Leafa with the deleted option back in the right place.

“What about the Elements of Darkness?” asked Celestia angrily. “I can’t tolerate the existence of such things, so please can you take it away from my kingdom?”

“Sorry but I can’t” said Kayaba. “The Elements of Darkness are her to stay; Nightmare Moon made sure of it. But at least I can give it to you so you can decide what to do with them. Object ID; Elements of Darkness!”

A box that contained the Six Elements of Darkness appeared in front of Celestia.

“All yours” said Kayaba, before starting disappearing.

“What are you going to do now, Kayaba?” asked Kirito.

“My conscience is still floating on the internet; so I guess whatever I want. We’ll met again, Kirito. Probably.

And the man disappeared. Definitely it was the end.

Three years later

“Okay everypony, let’s finish for now” called the Wonderbolts leader, Sprit Fire. “I think we’re ready”

“We were ready ages ago” ironized their newest member, Rainbow Dash. “Come on, Sprit Fire, don’t you think your exaggerating things?”

Sprit Fire glared to Rainbow. “Shall I remember you than our reputation as the best flyers in Equestria is in danger? “

Soarin shook his head. “Rainbow Dash is right, captain. There’s no way the Shadow Bolts can beat us, compared with us they’re just amateurs. Relax and let the best performance win; and I mean ours.

Sprit Fire rolled her eyes but she had to smile, they were right, there was no way they could be defeated by a group of exhibitioners who thought they were special because they had Princess Luna’s support. At the end they moved to Cloudsdale great stadium just in time for the opening act of the annual Cloudsdale Festival.

The acts started; starting by a speech by Princess Celestia, a school play about the foundation of Cluosdale; and the best flyers competition. Rainbow took her chance and went to talk with her friends who came to cheer her.

“Ey girls, what’s up?” greeted the pegasus.

“Oh, hello darling, are you ready to your great competition” asked Rarity politely.

“Guess what?” said Pinkie Pie happily “I just made the most perfect, exciting and catchy ovation ever; if you feel nervous during your performance, my ovation will make you forget all about it”

Rainbow Dash laughed.

“Thank you for the effort Pinkie Pie, but I don’t need any help. Those Shadow Bolts doesn’t have a single chance against us. I don’t know why Princess Celestia agreed to this foolish competition if she knows there’s nopony who can beat the Wonderbolts!!”

“I don’t know Rainbow” said Twilight smiling. “I’ve seeing what this Shadow Bolts before and I can tell you their style is amazing and unique. You better duplicate your efforts because this competition isn’t going to be easy for any of you”

Rainbow Dash petted Twilight’s head. “Yeah, yeah, whatever you say Twi. Like I said, there isn’t a chance for the Shadow Bolts”

“EY RAINBOW!!” Soarin called. “It’s time!!”

“Coming!” said Rainbow. “Well girls, see you later; and try to cheer the Shadow Bolts a little; for defying us the less they deserve is a prize, even if is consolation prize”

Fluttershy saw her friend flying away. “Girls, shall we warn her?”

“No, Twilight already tried” mumbled Applejack. “A’ just gonna sit here and enjoy the Wonderbolt’s failure against him and his group”

…

In the center of the Stadium, Princess Luna was ready to announce the main event:

“MARES AND GENTLECOLTS” shouted Luna with her Canterlot voice. “WELCOME TO THE MAIN EVENT OF THIS CLOUSDALE FESTIVAL!! THE PERFORMANCE OF THE BEST FLYERS IN EQUESTRIA, THE WONDERBOLTS”

The ponies started to cheer up and scream in excitement. When the crowd finally calmed a little, Luna continued.

“BUT THIS YEAR IS GOING TO BE A LITTLE DIFFERENT THAN THE REST. TODAY WE ALL ARE GOING TO WITNESS A UNIQUE KIND OF COMPETITION BETWEEN THE WONDERBOLTS AND MY OWN GROUP OF PRAISED FLYERS, THE SHADOW BOLTS”

The crowd started to mumble in confusion. In her personal box seat, Celestia smiled to herself; this was going to be fun.

“THE TWO GROUPS WILL MAKE THEIR PERFORMANCE; AND ONCE THEY FINISH, YOU WILL CHOOSE THE BEST GROUP OF FLYERS IN ALL EQUESTRIA!!” Continued Luna. “AND THE WINNER SHALL MAKE THEIR BEST PERFORMANCE IN THE NEXT GREAT GALLOPING GALA”

Sprit Fire groaned. “Okay, you heard the Princess, if we lose, we won’t make the performance in Equestria’s greatest event. I need you to focus and do your best. Understood?”

The Wonderbolts nodded.

“ENOUGH BLA, BLA, BLA, MY LITTLE PONIES. NOW I’LL LEAVE YOU WITH THE GREATES GROUP OF FLYERS IN ALL EQUESTRIA!! THEY HAVE WHAT THEY NEED TO DEFEND THEIR TITLE? LET’S FIND IT OUT! GO WONDERBOLTS!!”

“Okay, let’s go!” said their leader flying to the scenario at the Princess’ sign.

They started, the Wonderbolts started to fly all over the place using their special smoke-backpacks forming all kinds of figures in the air; representing every single important moment in equestrian history. Their historic representation ended with the story of how the Elements of Harmony defeated the evil Discord closing with a powerful sonic-rainboom from Rainbow Dash who winked an eye to Sprit Fire and greeted the crowd with a great smile.
Sprit Fire nodded satisfied; there was no way the Shadow Bolts could do anything better.

The crowd started to yell in excitement, throwing roses to the Wonderbolts and cheering them. The team bowed to the crowd and even Rainbow Dash caught some roses and winked an eye to the stallions who threw it. And once again, at Luna’s sign, they moved out of the scenario. If the Shadow Bolts didn’t have anything better than that, there was no chance they could defeat them.

“IMPRESSIVE I MUST SAY” Luna shouted. “BUT IS IMPRESSIVE ENOUGH TO WIN THIS COMPETITION? LET’S FIND IT OUT, MARES AND GENTLECOLTS, NOW I INTRODUCE YOU TO… THE SHADOW BOLTS!”

Three pegasi in black suits flew to the scenario and started to gather clouds at great speed; forming some kind of dragon entirely made of clouds. Then, the pegasi disappeared inside their creation and suddenly, it started to move like a real one. The dragon looked all over the scenario roaring (special effect made by a Shadow member who kicked the cloud from the inside). It even breathed fire; or that’s what it looked like when another member made the clouds that formed the mouth to produce lightings.

“So they’re puppeteers; well, it’s kind of original” mumbled Rainbow Dash.

Sprit Fire nodded. She admitted their rivals had great skills but still they needed a lot of more if they really wanted to defeat them.

And then it happened. A blue pegasus in a black coat jumped from the tribunes with two swords in his front hooves. The dragon-cloud spotted him and tried to get rid of that annoyance with his lighting-breath; but the pegasus had great flying skills and easily dodged every single attack. The dragon roared in frustration and tried to catch the impertinent pegasus with his claw.
The pegasus smiled and attacked the monster with his sword skills sending powerful bows to the claw. The dragon roared in pain and changed its strategy trying to reach him with his tail. Again, that was useless. Not only the pegasus dodged the attack, but he placed himself over the tail and stuck his two swords on it. The dragon shook his tail trying to get rid of that horrible attack. The blue pegasus resisted the movement for a few minutes but he knew he couldn’t resist much more; so he grabbed his swords and flew away from the dragon who was still roaring in pain.
For a few instants, the two opponents stared each other, but they quickly reassumed their fight. It was amazing, the dragon was big and powerful; but there was nothing he could do against the pegasus’ great sword skill. The fight continued by a few minutes but at the end the pegasus threw his swords to the dragon’s neck; making it to roar in agony and finally vanish into mist.

The crowd was astonished; but after a minute of silence, they started to scream in excitement. That wasn’t a real battle, but still felt like it; and was the greatest air performance ever. Then, the group Shadow Bolts bowed to the crowd. They felt so honored to be there and compete than they were happy already; they didn’t care if they failed against the Wonderbolts.

The cheers continued for a very long time, but at the end Princess Luna flew to the center of the stadium.

“Everypony please SILENCE!”

The crowd obeyed.

“Thank you good people of Equestria. Now it’s time to judge which group was the best; so I need the both captains here, please”

Sprit Fire flew to Luna along with the pegasus in the black coat, the ex-criminal and famous warrior known as Kirito the Black Swordsman. They both bowed to Luna and waited for she continues.

“Thank you, now stretch hooves my dear little ponies; both of you did a great job, but the audience here is the one who’ll judge who did better” Luna turned to the audience. “So, who deserves to make a performance at the Great Galloping Gala this year? THE WONDERBOLTS?”

Cheers.

“OR THE SHADOW BOLTS?”

Not only cheers, but also screams of excitement that last ten minutes at least. Sprit Fire mumbled something to herself but lowered her head to Kirito.

“You did a great job, congratulations; now you better do a great show at the gala, Black Swordsman”

Kirito smiled warmly at the mare and offered her his hoof as a good gentlecolt. “I will, don’t worry about it. And, better luck next year, okay? I’ll love to try this again”

Sprit Fire had to smile. “We won’t let you win so easily next year, Black Swordsman, now than we know what we’re really with”

Kirito nodded and Luna raised his hoof.

“So it’s decided my little ponies! The winner of this year is the team of the Shadow Bolts, my praised group of flyers! And for the Wonderbolts captain, Sprit Fire, I must congratulate her for being such a good loser; and hopefully she’ll improve for the competitions to come giving us the best of shows!”

Again the captains bowed to the cheering crowd and flew back with their respective teams in the dressing rooms.
After a quick shower and carefully pack his famous “midnight coat” Kirito went to the encounter with his family and friends.

“Impressive as always” smiled his wife when she saw Kirito approaching. “So sad I didn’t chose to be a pegasus too when we selected what kind of character we will play”

“Don’t feel bad, mama” said a pre-teenage Yui winking an eye to Asuna. “You are a great unicorn”

“Yui is right, besides, you don’t know how much time this Shadow Bolts thing is taking me. I can barely handle it along with my duties as a lunar guard”

“It seems too much to handle, even for Trixie” said the blue unicorn mare with a grin. After all that time she still was their closest friend in Equestria.

Asuna had to nod. In the past years, Princess Luna made sure Kirito and her have a comfortable life in Equestria. She re-named her personal unicorn guard as the Knights of Blood and named Asuna their captain once she was legally an adult.
And for Kirito, Princess Luna gave him the title of commander of her personal air force because of his great abilities in air combat. But also she proposed the idea to form a new group of flyers that could defy the Wonderbolts for the title of Equestrias’s best flyers.
Kirito agreed happily and after a year of preparation, there they were, in Cloudsdale festival as winners of that challenge.

“Okay, I’m a little hungry” announced Kirito. “Let’s go eat something and…”

He saw the group of six mares approaching; including the one he wished not to see that day. Rainbow Dash quickly flew to confront him face to face.

“Ey, Rainbow. No hard feelings, right?”

“You are going to pay for this humilliation? You and your bunch of exhibitioners. Oh yes, you haven’t heard the last word of the Wonderbolts”

“Let it go darling, they won fairly” said Rarity with a condescending tone. “Their presentation was just marvelous; oh, I almost fait looking at that dragon, it seemed so realistic!

“Yeah, is not a big deal Dashy” said Pinkie bouncing happily. “They were a little more creative than you, thats it”

“But it’s not fair” complained Rainbow. “Kirito didn’t acquire his flying abilities naturally, he just copied his stats from a game to our world!”

“Well, we don’t upgrade automatically anymore, so to preserve my abilities I have to practice constantly, and as a member of the Royal Air Force of the Night, I do practice a lot”

Rainbow Dash glared at him but at the end she just crossed her hooves and said “humpf!” before flying away. Twilight chuckled a little.

“Don’t blame her, she’s just being her”

“Well, changing the subject” said Asuna “Where’s Spike? I thought he would like to see the competition”

“Oh!” said Twilight. “Everypony, I have great news: Spike sent me a letter today. He and Pina had an egg. In a few weeks, I’ll be a grandmother”

The ponies gasped and congratulated Twilight, who blushed lightly.

“Well, I guess Silica would love to hear it when she connects in a few hours” said Yui with a smile.

“Yeah, she’ll be really happy for Pina” chuckled Asuna.

At the end, the groups separated and everypony went back to their homes.
Later that night, in their new home at Canterlot Headquarters, Kirito was looking at the stars in silence. Asuna approached to him.

“Is something on your mind, Kirito?”

He turned to his wife.

“Oh, Asuna. Sorry if I worried you. I was just thinking… well, it doesn’t matter, I’ll go back to bed”

“Come on, you know you can tell me, right?”

Kirito sighed.

“I was just thinking, was it really okay what we did three years ago, giving up to our past lives and start all over again in this world? Leaving behind our friends, families, school, everything”

Asuna kissed him softly. “You don’t have to think too much about it. We never left them completely. Remember they visit us every time they can with the AtmusPhere; and after what happened two years ago in that parallel world Canterlot Hight, the connection between the world only got stronger thanks to Kayaba’s help”

Kirito nodded.

“Besides, you were the one who taught me that we didn’t lose anything in our world; we won a lot in this world” concluded Asuna.

Kirito nodded and hugged his wife. She was right, after they defeated the dark alicorn, everything was going fine and they should be thankful for that. And, in a few weeks, they’ll presence one of the most beautiful miracles of the life: the miracle of birth, a baby dragon birth. So he kissed Asuna and went back to sleep.