Adventures and Alicorns

Chapters

The First Game Night
A Town Named Advent
Twenty Days Too Late
Knowledge of the Game...
...Becomes Knowledge of Self
Enter the Blue Magic

The First Game Night

“So… this miniature here represents me?” Rainbow Dash asked, fiddling around with the plastic figurine in her right hand. She was rolling it between her fingers casually, observing the fine details which had been put into its construction.

“Yes, it is to represent your character when we do combat scenarios in the game,” Twilight responded, looking at Dash over the top of her gaming screen. Her eyes flicked to the miniature in Dash’s hand briefly before returning to Rainbow’s face. “Do you like it?”

Rainbow Dash blinked. “Uh, yeah, it’s cool I guess.” She placed the item back on Twilight's kitchen table.

Twilight’s face fell. “Cool, huh? You know, i-if you don’t want to play this, Rainbow, I don’t–”

“No no, I’m the one that offered, remember?” Rainbow said, cutting Twilight off before she could sink into a deeper pout. “Sure, this isn’t my normal idea of… entertainment. But you said you missed this, and I wanted to chill with you some more anyways. You get to play your old game again, and I get some more time to hang with the coolest alicorn in Ponyville.” Rainbow finished her explanation by flashing her signature grin.

Twilight seemed to brighten up a little bit and even looked away, lightly scratching at the side of her nose with her right hand; something that Rainbow knew she did when she was feeling embarrassed. “W-well, I don’t get why you wanted to spend more time with me specifically, but… I certainly don’t mind. You’re one of my best friends too.”

Rainbow’s smile, unbeknownst to Twilight, took on a bit of a forced nature before she quickly looked away, pointedly putting her attention on anything else. Her eyes eventually rested on her own paperwork which lay in front of her on the table. Her mind however was thinking about something else.

Rainbow found it very difficult to stay straight faced whenever Twilight said ‘best friend’. Her chest would tighten as the words stabbed their way into her heart. It wasn’t Twilight’s fault; she had never meant for the words to feel that way, after all. She just didn’t know the way in which Rainbow liked her.

It had been a little over a year since Rainbow had realized it herself actually, not that she was going to ever act on it. Twilight was one of her best friends and she had no intentions of ruining that by trying to look for something more. Still, that didn’t change how she felt. The heart is not so easily persuaded in the end.

Her eyes roved over the papers in front of her, reading through the many words and numbers which all amounted to ‘her character’. She wasn’t entirely sure how this game was supposed to work, but Twilight had promised her that it would be fun once she understood it. That would require some actual playing though.

Rainbow forced a smile back onto her face, one that didn’t quite reach her ears, and turned to look back at Twilight. “So, um… I guess my character sheet is finished. I did all the things your book said to do.”

Twilight looked up from behind her gaming screen again, her eyes wide and excited. “You did? Oh, what did you make!?”

Rainbow glanced back at her paperwork, dropping the forced smile as she started to double check her character. “Well, her name is Dark Sword, and-”

“Wait, Dark Sword? Really?” Twilight raised an eyebrow, an amused smile playing across her lips.

“Yeah, I named her Dark Sword,” Dash said, a bit on the defensive side. “It’s my character, and I think Dark Sword sounds cool.” Rainbow stuck her tongue out at Twilight. “Can I move on, or are you gonna judge her other features too?”

“Oh Rainbow, I was only teasing,” Twilight said, stifling a small giggle which made Rainbow’s heart skip a beat. “Go on, I want to know everything about” – Twilight made air quotes with her fingers – “Dark Sword.”

Rainbow stuck her tongue out one more time before continuing. “Well, she’s a pegasus obviously, though I was strongly considering gryphon. She’s a basic fighter type since I didn’t want to get too complicated. I don’t really get how the magic system works in this game.”

“Well that’s okay. The more complicated and obscure rules you’ll learn through practice, and if you’re playing a fighter then you won’t need to understand the magic rules as it is. Granted, knowing how it works might help you if you ever had to do combat with a caster class.”

“Yeah, I suppose.” Rainbow looked up at Twilight again. “So, I’ve been meaning to ask. What’s with the board you got set up in front of you?”

“Oh, it’s called a GM screen. It–”

“GM?”

“Oh, sorry. GM stands for ‘Game Master’. That’s the pony who is in charge of the monsters and the characters in the game that you don’t control. You, as a player, only control your own character. The GM controls every other being, including the villains.”

“Okay, so…” Rainbow scratched her cheek in thought, “I’m Daring Do, and you’re A.K. Yearling, controlling my villains.”

Twilight blinked for a moment, thinking through what Dash had said. “Uh, yes, actually. That fits perfectly.”

“Okay, I get it!” Rainbow laughed a bit, slightly pleased that her comparison had worked. “So then, thinking that way, your screen thingie is to prevent me from knowing what you’re doing, right?”

Twilight nodded in response.

A thought crossed Rainbow’s mind, causing her lips to pull into a frown. “So why don’t I get a player screen? You just get to know what I’m doing?”

Twilight laughed, her shoulders shaking slightly with her merriment. Shaking her head, she said, “You don’t need one, since you’re the player. I need to know what you’re doing so that I can create the game around you. How can I make a fun encounter for you if I have no idea what Dark Sword is attempting to do?”

Rainbow grunted her acknowledgement and turned to look at the rest of the table. Scattered across its surface was a large mat that was covered in lines to form a grid, and on the mat was a handful of miniatures, all similar to the one that Rainbow had been holding before. There were assorted miniatures representing ponies of all sizes and races, as well as miniatures of monsters. Each mini was in a different pose too.

The miniature which represented Dark Sword was standing on her hooves, both arms out in front of her with swords in her hands. The pony had wings since it was a pegasus, but they were both folded against her back. Black armor adorned the miniature, covering the torso, legs and arms, and holes had been made in the backside for the wings. There was no helmet on the pony, so her red mane was flowing down past her armor and in between her wings. Her fur, which could only be seen on her face, was a dull grey.

Next to the mat, which Rainbow had now determined to be for battling, was all of Twilight’s books that she owned which contained the rules of the game. Every time Rainbow saw them she couldn’t help but smirk.

Of course one of Twilight’s favorite games as a foal was one which involved books. Lots and lots of books.

“Okay,” Twilight said, interrupting Rainbow’s thought process. “I finished my preparations and you fully made Dark Sword, so I think it’s time for us to begin!” A big smile was covering Twilight’s face, giddiness just emanating from her. She quickly assorted all her papers and books which she had behind her screen and then looked at Dash with a happy grin.

Rainbow nearly snorted once she saw just how excited Twilight was. Any worries she had that this might have been a lame idea were cast aside once she saw just what this had done for Twilight. Sure, maybe she didn’t consider the idea of ‘roleplaying’ to be exciting, but this seemed to be just what the doctor ordered for Twilight. Rainbow didn’t think she’d ever seen her smile so wide.

Sitting there in that moment, she couldn’t help but think back to when Twilight had first mentioned that she used to play this game as a foal. She didn’t have any friends so she only ever played it with her brother, which was apparently fine with them. Rainbow however had laughed, thinking that only an egghead would enjoy a game that required lots of books. She had the tact to not say anything however, and had kept her thoughts to herself.

Months later, what with Twilight’s coronation and her entire life turning upside down, she had been slowly slipping. Rainbow Dash immediately recognized the symptoms; Twilight was feeling unimportant and depressed with herself. Naturally this only made Rainbow hurt as well and she decided that she’d do whatever it took to help Twilight cheer up. When Twilight offhandedly mentioned that she missed roleplaying with her brother, Rainbow immediately suggested that the two of them pick it up in an attempt to get her out of her funk.

And Rainbow couldn’t deny that her plan had apparently worked. Sitting here looking at Twilight as she feverishly prepared to play a game from her foalhood was all the proof she needed. So what if this might be considered ‘uncool’ by some social crowds? It made Twilight happy and, after all, that was what really mattered.

“So, you’ll need these to play the game,” Twilight said as she handed a small silk bag to Rainbow Dash. “That bag contains the multiple dice that I was telling you we’d need. I… bought those for you when you said you’d play with me.”

Rainbow stared at the bag in her hand, her mouth dropped slightly. The bag was gorgeous. The silk was soft and smooth, and it was multicolored in a fashion similar to her hair. Upon opening it and emptying its contents, she found that the bag contained the dice Twilight had mentioned. Seven different dice fell from the bag, each one with a different amount of sides ranging from four to twenty, and each die was a different color of the rainbow.

“Wow, Twilight… That’s awesome! Thank you!” Rainbow looked up at Twilight, flashing a toothy grin.

Twilight smiled in response. “I thought you’d like them.”

“Like them? I love them! And I’ll be using them to play this game?”

Twilight nodded once again. “To perform actions and the like.”

“Alright, well, let’s get started. You said you were gonna give me an easy beginning to help me get the feel for it, right?”

“Yes. Alright, Rainbow Dash. I hope you’re ready… because ‘Adventures and Alicorns’ is starting now!”

Dark Sword found herself approaching the entrance to the Orden Catacombs, the ancient tomb of an Elder King who lived over a thousand years ago. Clad in full plate armor and wielding a shield and longsword, she knew that nothing existed within that tomb which she could not defeat.

A soft breeze passed by, ruffling her flowing red mane. It served as a soft reminder of what she’d be giving up to enter the cold depths of the mysterious tomb. Her piercing blue eyes stared into the darkness of the crumbling entrance, seeing that it descended deep underground. Walking forwards slowly, she placed one hoof on the first step. The soft clack echoed down the steps into the tomb, announcing her presence to whatever vile creatures lurked within.

A lesser pony would try and sneak in, not wanting the evil to know of her presence, but Dark Sword was no coward. She boldly faced her challenges head on, not one for backing down or taking the easy route. Opening her mouth, she spat down the steps.

“Evil creatures of the tomb! Know that I, Dark Sword, will not tolerate your bullcrap! I will cut you with my weapon, and you will bleed!”

Twilight snorted in laughter, unable to contain her mirth. “Really? Really? That’s your challenge to the monsters of the tomb?”

Rainbow Dash scowled at Twilight over her GM screen. “I thought it sounded good.”

“Alright, alright! Well, just think of it this way. If I was actually threatening you with a knife and I said ‘I will cut you and you will bleed,’ would you take me seriously?”

Rainbow scrunched up her muzzle. She could see Twilight’s point, but she didn’t want to admit it. “Whatever, let’s just continue.”

Unable to see into the depth of the tomb, Dark Sword realized that she would need to acquire a torch. Luckily for her, she had bought the standard adventuring equipment which was listed on page 86 of the ‘Core Rulebook’ for ‘Adventures and Alicorns’. This meant she had three unlit torches at her disposal, as well as flint and steel to light them with. Sheathing her sword and strapping her shield between her backpack and her shoulder blades, she retrieved a single torch and lit it.

With a huff, she realized that she was going to have to hold this torch with one hand, so she could only have her sword or her shield in her other. Deciding that defense would be a better choice, she settled on having the torch in her right hand and the shield in her left.

“Hey, what if I-”

“No Rainbow, you can’t hold the torch with your teeth,” Twilight said, rubbing her face with her hand. “We’re ponies, we have hands to hold items with. You’re not a barn animal, you don’t use your teeth to hold things. Really, that’d be ridiculous.”

Rainbow merely grumbled in response.

After a few minutes of descending the dusty steps, the light from Dark Sword’s torch cast out into a massive room. The room was roughly two stories in height and was wider than most houses. On the other side of the room was a massive golden sarcophagus ornamented with jewels. Dark Sword almost didn’t notice, but behind the sarcophagus was three goblins that were hiding.

Probably planning to ambush me when I go to open the giant coffin. Well, I may be new to this game, but I have an idea…

Silently setting down her shield, she retrieved a vial of Alchemist’s Fire, a dangerous concoction which ignites into flames when exposed to air. The liquid is kept in a safe glass vial which can be thrown. Taking careful aim, Dark Sword intended to do just that.

The vial sailed through the air, tumbling end over end before colliding with the ground just behind the goblins. An explosive shattering could be heard, followed by a burst of green flames that licked at everything the liquid had landed on. Dark Sword grinned when she heard the cries of one of the goblins; the flaming liquid had landed on the vile monster.

As the burning goblin attempted to stop, drop, and roll, the other two vaulted over the sarcophagus, rusty weapons in hand. They charged straight at Dark Sword, ready to tear into her and create an early end for the fresh adventurer. Fortunately for her, the flames from the Alchemist’s Fire were more than enough to illuminate the dark tomb so she was able to drop her torch and pull out her longsword. Simultaneously grabbing her shield, she readied herself for their assault.

Two daggers dove at her, aiming for her legs. With nimble feet she was able to avoid one of them while her shield deflected the other. Taking it as an opportunity to strike back, Dark Sword leveled her longsword with one of the attacking goblins and went to cut into its flesh.

A tearing sound could be heard as her sword tore right through the flimsy armor that the goblin was wearing. With a streak of bluish blood, the weapon cut into the goblins chest. Wounded, it cried out in pain, leveling its weapon so as to attack again.

Dark Sword grinned, knowing full well that the puny goblin wasn’t going to be able to-

“Auuugh!” She cried out in pain as the other goblin had stuck its blade right between the plates of her armor. It’s point pierced the skin on the back of her leg and she could feel her warm blood soaking the inside of her calf.

Grunting in frustration, she parried the attack of the goblin and then struck at it again, this time her weapon piercing it through the chest.

“One goblin down…”

With a quick turnaround, she faced the sneaky one that had managed to harm her. A sinister grin spread across its features as it danced in front of her, taunting her with its every move.

“Now hold on! How come I didn’t get to know it was attacking me? You didn’t even give me a chance to block it when it struck my character,” Rainbow griped.

“Good, I’m glad you were thinking about that!” Twilight gave Rainbow a quick smile before continuing. “See, this is one of those rules you’ll need to remember. What the goblins did to you is called flanking. One got behind you so you couldn’t focus on both at the same time.”

“That’s totally not fair! I can’t flank them!”

“No, you’re right, you can’t. You’re just one pony, and flanking requires two or more individuals.”

Rainbow grumbled, briefly considering calling Applejack over to the library so that she could have an ally in the fight.

With a few quick strikes, Dark Sword had successfully dealt with the second goblin and begun to move onto the third. The last goblin was still attempting to put out the alchemical fire that it had been covered in; unsuccessfully, Dark Sword noted. With a merciful coup de gras, the goblin was put out of its burning misery and allowed to die in peace.

Smiling in triumph, Dark Sword turned around to face the sarcophagus.

“Well, I finished the monsters, and there is no where else to go in this tomb. I guess this means my treasure is inside the coffin?” Shrugging, she went up to it and began pushing against the lid.

Despite all of Dark Sword’s considerable strength – her strength score was a 16 – it still took her a whole minute and a whole lot of cursing to get the lid pushed all the way off. Grunting in success, she looked inside and grinned. Within the sarcophagus was an ancient mummy, mostly rotted and covered in frailed rags. However, under the mummy was a massive wealth of gold coins.

Dark Sword clapped her hands together. “Jackpot!”

“I don’t think so.”

Her smile fell. “Huh?”

Rainbow’s eyes were wide as she watched Twilight use her magic to bring a miniature of a mummy onto the table. She set it on top of the sarcophagus that had been placed on the battle mat. The miniature looked really well painted and even had bits of its cloth dangling from its outstretched arms.

“The mummy slams one of his arms into you, making an attack roll that gets past your defenses. You take –” Twilight quickly rolled a die behind her GM screen “– four points of damage and you’re thrown backwards five feet, where you’ll land prone.”

“No way! That means I’ll land in the Alchemist’s Fire!”

“Uh, yeah, I guess it does.” Twilight grinned, revealing to Rainbow that she had some kind of malicious enjoyment in hurting her character.

“You’re mean, Twilight!”

“Hey, it wouldn’t be fun for Dark Sword if this was easy.”

“Ow ow ow!” Dark Sword cried as she rolled out of the flames. She could feel the fire licking at her tail as she got herself back on her hooves and hopped out of the burning flame. Thankfully the liquid hadn’t gotten on her so the fire had not spread to her body; Alchemist’s Fire could only burn where the liquid that was in the vial had landed.

Taking stock of her situation, she noticed that her shield had fallen out of its clasp and skidded across the floor a good ten feet away. Drawing her longsword, she prepared to face the mummy.

“My treasure shan’t be yours, grave robber!” the mummy cried out, its voice sounding like gravel rolling down a hill.

“I’m still alive, so we’ll see about that!” Dark Sword said, readying her weapon and standing in a fighting stance. She narrowed her eyes and looked through the dying flames of the Alchemist Fire directly at the mummy. “The living shall always triumph over the dead!”

The mummy wasted no time in responding, moving in quickly for a body slam. It stepped through the Alchemist’s Fire to do so, taking a small amount of burn damage. Dark Sword was ready this time and quickly sidestepped the attack, bringing her own weapon up into the chest of the mummy. The momentum of its body slam worked against it as it could not avoid falling onto Dark Sword’s blade.

With a quick slash, Dark Sword spun around and forced the blade to cut its way out of the mummys chest, organs and skin falling to the ground and turning to dust.

“Wow, that’s impressive… You took out the mummy in one hit.”

Rainbow Dash had jumped out of her seat and was actually hovering in the air slightly above the table, a manic grin spread across her face. “That was awesome! The mummy was coming for the strike, and I just went bam and got a critical hit! Boom, dead!”

Twilight just smiled as she used her magic to remove the mummy’s miniature from the battle mat. “I think it was more of a ‘slice’ than a ‘bam’. Also, the mummy was already dead, but still. Well done.”

Rainbow floated back down and sat in her seat. “So, now what?”

“Well, now we’re gonna stop for the night.”

“Wait, really? Why, this was just getting to be fun!” Rainbow threw her hands up in the air out of frustration. “Come on, let’s keep going!”

“Dash, it’s eleven pm.”

Rainbow blinked. “Whoa, really?” She turned and looked at the clock on the kitchen wall. “Wow, you’re not kidding…”

“Yeah, we spent a good while getting ready today. I mean, you making your character took about three hours, and that was almost all of the time we had to play tonight,” Twilight began cleaning up the supplies, starting first with the books.

“Well, when can we play again?” Rainbow said, likewise cleaning up her own supplies. She put all her dice in her new rainbow colored silk bag and tucked the whole thing in one of her pant’s pockets.

“I have to go into Canterlot tomorrow, but I’ll be back the following morning. We could play then. I have the rest of that day unscheduled.” Twilight smiled over her shoulder at Rainbow. It was obvious that she was thrilled her friend liked ‘Adventures and Alicorns’ as much as she did.

“Cool, we’ll plan for that then! I can’t wait!”

Twilight giggled. “Alright, it’s a date.”

Rainbow’s heart nearly jumped out of her chest at hearing those words. She knew what Twilight had meant, but that didn’t mean hearing her say it like that was any easier.

“Yeah… It’s a date.” She smiled, doing her best to keep her bravado up, but she knew she wasn’t succeeding.

Every time she says something like that… Why can’t I just be normal around her?

Rainbow helped Twilight finish putting away their roleplaying supplies before saying her goodbye for the night. As she flew home, her heart and her mind were both yelling at her, but each one was saying something different.

A Town Named Advent

With work finished ahead of schedule and the rest of her day clear, Rainbow Dash was flying around Ponyville at a relaxing speed. The cool breeze flowed past her limbs and through her mane, helping to soothe her muscles and relax her body. Work had been pretty exhausting, and on top of that she had woken up early for once to get a jump start on things. The day was scheduled to be sunny and bright, a perfect day for a relaxing stroll through the park or an outdoors birthday party, so she wanted to make sure the day’s weather was ready by noon.

She worked fast and had finished practically half of the day’s agenda by the time her fellow weather-ponies crawled out of bed. They had all been shocked to see her up and active so early, but if anything it had then invigorated them to work even harder. After all, none of them wanted to be shown up by the weather-pony who was known for snoozing and being late to work.

Rainbow stretched out as she listlessly rolled through the air, causing her joints to pop. Once she felt fully and completely relaxed, she decided it was time to head on over to the Golden Oaks Library.

Twilight had said she would return that morning, and it was currently an hour away from noon. Seeing as Twilight’s schedules were pretty accurate, Rainbow thought it a safe bet to assume that she had already made it home. She tilted her wings and gently entered a slight dive, the library set as her destination.

Within a minute she landed before the door and prepared to open it. She didn’t feel like tempting fate and entering through a window; that usually made Twilight pretty upset. Seeing as she was coming over for them to have a fun afternoon together, she figured it’d be best to do the proper thing and enter the normal way.

Before she could even begin to open the door, however, a soft purple glow enveloped the handle and twisted it. The door opened with a soft creak, revealing two ponies on the inside of library who were heading out. The pony in the lead, a white coated unicorn stallion, stopped right in his tracks at the sight of Rainbow Dash, presumably surprised to find a pony on the other side of the door.

“Uh, my apologies,” he stammered. His eyes looked Dash up and down quickly as a few beads of sweat began rolling down his forehead. “If I may…”

Rainbow merely stared at him, equally surprised. With a start, she flapped her wings and pushed backwards and into the air. She looked down from her new hovering vantage point and watched as he exited the library, casting a few weary glances up towards Rainbow. The pony behind him then walked out as well, revealing herself to be Twilight.

“Rainbow! I’m so glad to see you,” she said exuberantly, a smile lighting up her face. “I’d like you to meet Card Trick, he’s–”

“Uh, no, Twilight, that’s quite alright,” the stallion said, cutting her off. “I really must be going, I’m almost going to miss the train.” He cast another wary glance up at Rainbow Dash before looking back at Twilight and letting out a shaky laugh.

To Rainbow’s eyes, Card Trick appeared to be quite unbalanced. His dark colored clothing were all fairly wrinkled as though he had thrown them on after they spent a week on the ground. His dark brown mane and tail only further added to his look of unease, as neither had appeared to be groomed or cleaned in quite some time. When he last looked at her, Rainbow had clearly seen the bags under his eyes, revealing that he was apparently having trouble sleeping.

Twilight on the other hand was an almost perfect opposite of Card Trick. Where he looked nervous, she was happy and smiling. Where he looked tired, she radiated energy and cheerfulness. Even her clothes, a simple purple blouse and jeans, were clean and free of wrinkles. Her mane and tail were more of the same, spotless and well groomed.

Card Trick flashed a nervous smile to which Rainbow raised an eyebrow. She didn’t want to judge this pony seeing as he was apparently a friend of Twilight’s, but something was obviously fishy about him. Twilight, however, was apparently oblivious to it.

“I’m sorry, of course. I’d hate for you to miss your train,” she said, her smile turning just a bit sad.

Rainbow shook her head and quickly landed next to her. “Card Trick, huh? So you’re a friend of Twilight’s?”

“Yes, he’s–” Twilight began before being cut off by Card Trick for a second time.

“Haha, yes! I am, but I am very late, so I must be off. It was such a pleasure getting to spend these few days with you again Twilight, we’ll have to do it more often, but really I must be off so I’ll see you next time!”

Rainbow merely blinked. Card Trick had spoken just about as fast she normally flew. In the span of a few seconds, he had finished speaking and already turned to hurry off.

“Uh, Twilight?” Rainbow said, her eyes following the strange stallion as he disappeared onto a side street.

“Yes?”

“Who the heck was that?”

Twilight just chuckled, a small smile once more on her lips. She turned and walked back into the library. Rainbow went to follow her before making one last glance over her shoulder in the direction that the stallion had gone.

“Well, as you know, his name is Card Trick,” Twilight said as she took a seat on one of her couches. “He’s a pony who I met years ago. I just happened to bump into him yesterday while in Canterlot. It was such a pleasant surprise, he ended up accompanying me for the rest of the day.”

They spent the whole trip together…? “I thought you didn’t make any friends in Canterlot…?”

Twilight looked thoughtful for a moment. “Well, if I’m being honest... when I was a foal, I didn’t consider him a friend. Our interactions were fairly limited.”

Rainbow’s brow knitted together as she contemplated what Twilight had said. There was a question she desperately wanted to know the answer to, but she knew she couldn’t ask it. Chewing on the inside of her cheek, she thought about how she could fish for the information without being too obvious.

Twilight didn’t seem to notice Rainbow’s discomfort and continued her explanation. “I think I mentioned it to you before, but I only played Adventures and Alicorns with my brother. Shining Armor and I never shared our game with any of his school friends, but there was one pony who he talked to about it.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t even have to think about it. “Card Trick?”

“Mhm. Card Trick worked at the comic book store that Shining went to when he would buy our roleplaying supplies. He got to know my brother and they became friends. Shining would tell him all about the games that he and I would play, and apparently Card Trick became enthralled with the stories.”

Rainbow blinked. “Enthralled…?”

“Oh, sorry. It means he really enjoyed them. Basically, he thought the story telling of the games that Shining played in were so good, he wanted to meet the pony who was the GM.”

“So I’m assuming Shining then took you with him one day?”

“Yes, I went with him to the store a few times and got to know Card Trick. Again, I didn’t really consider him a friend at the time, but it was nice to have somepony to talk to about my stories. He enjoyed listening to them and we’d get into discussions about roleplaying. It was pretty fun, actually.”

Rainbow crossed her arms across her chest, still not quite sure how best to ask her question. “So… you two spent the whole trip together, huh?”

Twilight smiled as she brushed some her hair behind her ear. “Yes, it was entirely by accident, but it was enjoyable. Kind of funny though that I’d meet him again just the day after I finally played Adventures and Alicorns again.”

A niggling thought wormed its way into Rainbow’s mind. “So you two talked about our game then.” She wasn’t sure why, but something about the thought that Card Trick knew about Rainbow and Twilight’s game bothered her. It somehow made it feel a little less special… As though it wasn’t just the two of them anymore.

“We did discuss it briefly. Mostly we just spent time talking about what we’ve been doing with our lives.”

At this Rainbow couldn’t help but snort. “I’m sure he already knew what you’ve been doing recently. The whole nation knows about you, Princess.”

Twilight pretended to be offended and stuck her tongue out at Dash. The effect was ruined though by her wide smile. “Anyways, I’m sure you didn’t come here to talk about Card Trick.”

Rainbow shook her head. “I didn’t even know he was here. Thinking about that though, why was he here? Why did he come back with you from Canterlot?”

Twilight stood up and began walking to the kitchen, motioning for Rainbow Dash to follow her. “He said that he was travelling to Manehatten and he had to transfer here in Ponyville. His train here just happened to be the same one I was returning on.”

Rainbow nearly laughed as she stood up and followed Twilight. Somehow, I bet that was no coincidence…

Upon entering the kitchen, Rainbow saw that Twilight was already using her magic to set up the table for their game. She watched, only moderately interested, as the GM screen, battle mat, box of miniatures, and roleplaying books all levitated to their proper places on the table. Her mind was stuck thinking about Card Trick, trying to sort through what she had learned. There was something about him that just set her on edge… What was it?

Amidst her thinking, Rainbow let her eyes rove about the rest of Twilight’s spotless kitchen. After looking past the cabinets and the sink, she spotted a lone parcel left on the counter in between Twilight’s toaster and microwave. It looked as though it was a book that had been wrapped up in brown shipping paper.

Curious, Rainbow made to walk over to the parcel. Upon picking it up, she judged that it weighed a good few pounds. Strange, there’s no writing on it… Where’d it come from?

“Okay, we’re all set up!” Twilight called over her shoulder as she took her seat at the table.

Rainbow glanced at Twilight before looking back at the package. She shrugged and put it back on the counter. If Twilight was going to tell her about it, she would have already mentioned it.

Taking her seat at the table, she retrieved her dice-bag from her pocket. Noticing that Twilight had already set out her character sheet, she emptied the dice on top of it. “Well, I guess I’m ready to get started!”

Twilight smiled at her over the top of the GM screen as she activated the magic in her horn. Rainbow watched as a couple bowls of chips and popcorn levitated over to the table, positioning themselves around their roleplaying supplies. “We’re probably going to be playing for a while, so I prepared some mid-game snacks.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea! Next time I’ll bring some too.” Rainbow flashed a quick grin before grabbing one of the pencils on the table. “So we left off I had just finished the monsters in that tomb thingie, right?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, you were inside of the Orden Catacombs. We won’t be starting there though.”

Confused, Rainbow glanced back at Twilight. “Why not? I thought we’d continue where we left off.”

“Well, the thing is, I designed that entire encounter to simply be a teaching scenario. I threw at you some combat situations which taught you the basic rules of fighting, as well as different things to watch out for.”

Rainbow’s shoulders slouched slightly. “So we’re just gonna pretend it never happened?”

“Well, no. That was an accomplishment for you and your character. I wouldn’t take that away from you.”

“So what are we doing then?”

Twilight chuckled a bit as she organized some of her objects that were hidden behind her screen. “I’m glad to see you’re enthusiastic to keep the story in line. To answer your question, we’re just going to be skipping forwards a little bit. Don’t worry, we won’t ever do it again, but we’re doing it now so that we can get the real game going. Consider your dungeon crawl two days ago to have been… a prologue to the story.”

Rainbow narrowed her eyes. “Do I still get to keep the gold I found in the giant coffin?”

Twilight laughed, a hearty sound that made Rainbow’s cheeks flush ever so slightly. “Of course, Rainbow.”

Rainbow crossed her arms over her chest and pointedly looked away from Twilight. “Good.”

Twilight managed to contain her laughter and wiped away a small tear from under her right eye. “Okay, well, we’re going to get started. Ready?”

Rainbow nodded her confirmation without looking at her, causing Twilight to snicker softly before continuing.

“Okay, so after leaving the Orden Catacombs, Dark Sword traveled back to the town that had told her about it’s existence in the first place. It took her two days to return so you’ll need to mark off the food and water from your inventory. When you finally arrive…”

Advent, a settler’s town, and also Dark Sword’s destination. It was from there that she had set out on her journey to find the Orden Catacombs, a mission that she had received from a friend in the town. Now that her quest was completed, she had returned to Advent, eager to once again see her friend and tell her of the good news.

Dark Sword was weary, however. The town of Advent was not a safe haven for any with wealth or power. In fact, had it not been for her friend who lived here, Dark Sword never would have come to this town. Every building seemed to loom over her, as if trying to gauge her worth. Everypony she met in the town carried an overall unfriendly attitude with them wherever they went. Careful not to reveal her newfound wealth to any of the potential pickpockets here in the town, Dark Sword continued along, eager to get to her friends welcoming abode.

After a while of walking and having to explain her presence to a corrupt guard or two, she at last found herself before her destination. The one alchemist in the town, her friend Goldshine’s home was also her shop. As such, the building had plants growing all over it, vines coming out of cracks in the brick and snaking along the paved walkway to the front door.

Dark Sword walked right up to the entrance and opened it without knocking; it was during business hours so there was no need. The interior of the home had been renovated so as to set up a shop in the front room. A few walls had been moved to make the space bigger, but only seemed to add to the ramshackle feel of the building. Tables and counters were spread everywhere, covering as much square footage of the area as possible while still leaving room to walk about. All kinds of plants and items covered every inch available on the tables, each one a different ingredient or item used for Goldshine’s alchemy.

Maneuvering around all of the tables and careful not to knock over any potted plants, Dark Sword made her way to the back of the room. Once there, she positioned herself next to a table which was covered in pre-made potions and waited; Goldshine would be along shortly, of that she knew.

As if to prove her point, Goldshine emerged through an open door just a few moments later. Dark Sword looked at her earth pony friend and smiled before seeing that she was quite flustered. Goldshine’s pinkish-red mane and tail which were normally well groomed was quite ruffled and had loose hairs sticking out at odd angles. Her eyes were puffy as though she had been crying and her clothes were stained and a tad disheveled.

Upon seeing Dark Sword, Goldshine immediately let loose a bright smile and rushed forward, pulling her into a tight hug.

“You’re back! I was so worried about you!” she cried out, her voice slightly muffled as her face was pressed against Dark Sword’s armor.

“Of course I’m back. You didn’t think that smelly old tomb was gonna stop the Das- I mean, the Dark Sword, did you?”

Twilight let out a short snort before covering her mouth with her hand. Despite her attempt, a few giggles still made it to Dash’s ears. “I’m sorry, Rainbow. That was just too funny. Thinking about your character calling herself ‘the Dash’ like you do in real life…”

Rainbow was unamused. “It isn’t easy thinking like my character sometimes. A lot of your descriptions sound like they’re happening to me so it’s kinda hard to separate my character from myself.”

Twilight nodded. “I understand, it happens. I’m sorry I laughed.”

“You know, you still haven’t told me why it is Goldshine sent me out to the Orden Catacombs. All you’ve said so far was that I got the quest from her, but not why.”

Twilight shuffled through her papers momentarily, her eyes looking down at her work. “Well, as it turns out, Goldshine is in a lot of trouble and needed somepony’s help. Being her friend, you traveled to the town of Advent so that you could assist her.”

Rainbow rested her chin on her hand, her elbow locked against the table. “I worked out that much. What is she in trouble with that required me to put myself in danger to help her?”

“Well, she owes a lot of money to some dangerous individuals,” Twilight said, her eyes shifting in a way that Rainbow didn’t like. It made her feel like Twilight was trying to set up something bad.

“So, being the good friend that I am, I went to the Orden Catacombs where there was supposed riches just laying in wait.”

“Exactly, so that you could help Goldshine pay her debts.”

Rainbow sighed. “Well, it looks like I won’t be able to keep the one thousand gold pieces after all.”

Twilight merely laughed.

“I returned victorious, Goldshine. All your money problems will be behind you,” Dark Sword stated, a triumphant grin on her face.

Goldshine pushed out of the hug, a look of shock on her face. “You… You actually found the tomb!?”

“You betcha! And I defeated the monsters within it.” At that, Dark Sword hefted her backpack off of her shoulders and lay it on the ground between them. As she set it on the ground, the sound of rattling coins could be heard from within.

“You really did… And you’re going to help me?” Goldshine’s eyes were wide as she looked back and forth between the bag of coins and Dark Sword’s face.

“There’s no way I’d let my best friend suffer if I could do something to help. You know that.”

Goldshine smiled, tears threatening to leak past her eyes. She opened her mouth to respond, but a sharp knocking on the front door suddenly cut her off. Before anypony could react, the door was smashed opened, nearly breaking on its hinges.

In walked two massive stallions, one a grey coated earth pony and the other a yellow coated unicorn. Both ponies wore leather armor which covered their torso and legs, yet left their arms exposed. A sinister smile was present on both of their lips as they took in the sight before them.

“Well lookie what we got here,” the unicorn said, turning his attention to his ally. “What do you reckon this is then, eh, Dirk?”

“Looks to me like we got ourselves somepony who want’s to get ‘er armor all bloodied,” the earth pony, Dirk, replied. He let out a malicious laugh before continuing. “Say, Firework, why don’t you oblige her?”

Dark Sword was surprised, but nonetheless pleased. She hadn’t liked these ponies from the moment they walked in. She drew out her longsword and shield and readied herself to fight them.

Goldshine looked frightened but jumped forwards, her arms waving frantically. “No, wait! Please, I have the gold you’re owed! Just take it and go!”

Firework, the unicorn, looked startled. Apparently he hadn’t expected to be interrupted. He had already drawn his greatsword and now had to sheathe it. He walked forwards, his eyes locked on Dark Sword, who hadn’t lowered her weapon. She wasn’t about to trust either of these goons.

Picking up the bag, Goldshine withdrew the pouch which contained all of Dark Sword’s gold. Pulling two hundred gold pieces from the pouch, she turned and handed them to Firework, her arm shaking as she reached it forwards. Firework smirked, taking all the money from within Goldshine’s hand.

“Hey, what do you know, it’s all here! I guess she wasn't kidding, Dirk.”

Dirk smiled, flashing his teeth momentarily. “Too bad it doesn't count towards her debt.”

Dark Sword’s grip on her longsword tightened, her stance still ready to defend herself. Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she glared at the two stallions. “What do you mean? It’s gold. Of course it counts.”

Dirk shifted his beady eyes to Dark Sword before grinning impishly. “We ain't idiots. We know this gold is yours, Feathers. We ain’t got a debt owed by some pegasus, we got a debt owed by a pony named Goldshine. Is your name Goldshine, Feathers?”

Dark Sword saw Goldshine shrink back against the wall, her hands clasped in front of her. A spark of anger flared up inside her. “I gave the coins to Goldshine, so it’s coming to you from her. The debt she owes is wiped clean.”

Firework threw his head back and laughed. “Nope! That’s not how it works with us, girlie! The gold you just gave us is considered a generous donation from you, not a payment from your friend. Her debt still stands, and we’ve come today to collect.”

Dark Sword turned her head and saw tears streaming out of Goldshine’s eyes, matting the fur on her cheeks. Short whimpers were coming from her mouth as it opened and closed, her failed attempts at asking for forgiveness. Dark Sword’s nostrils flared out as she let loose a held breath.

“I rush forwards and attack the one named Firework,” Dash said, her voice barely concealing her own frustration. “These jerks have messed with her long enough.”

Twilight looked out at the battle mat, calculating just how much Rainbow could do at that moment. “Since they haven’t made any aggressive actions yet, you get a surprise round against them. You have enough movement to make it just in front of Firework by the end of your turn, leaving you with the ability to make one simple strike.”

Rainbow smiled. “Perfect. You said their armor didn’t cover their arm’s right?”

Twilight nodded as she used her magic to position Dark Sword in her new spot on the mat.

“Then I’m going to do a called shot to his left arm since that’s the one he used to hold his weapon earlier.”

Surprised, Twilight leaned back and looked at Dash. “You really did do the proper studying of how to play your class. I didn’t think you’d know about called shots.”

Rainbow raised her hands in mock offense. “What? You think I, of all ponies, wouldn’t properly read all those massive, boring pages pertaining to my class? Jeez, how rude can a pony be…”

Shaking her head as she giggled, Twilight looked to her paperwork. “Okay then, so you know that called shots bring a penalty to your attack roll. A called shot to an arm is a negative five, so keep that in mind.”

Rainbow nodded, not really listening. She had the rules for called shots written down on her character sheet for quick reference, so Twilight’s explanation had been unnecessary. Grabbing her twenty sided die, she rolled it in her hand before releasing it to the table.

With a guttural cry, Dark Sword launched forwards directly at Firework. She lunged her longsword straight ahead for a piercing strike, it’s tip aimed directly for Firework’s left elbow. The stallion cried out as the blade pierced his skin and tore through his muscle, rendering his arm useless. With a laugh, Dark Sword ripped her sword out of Firework’s arm, blood coating most of it’s length.

Dirk, having expected the attack, had already drawn out the weapon after which he was named. The short dagger held in the grasp of his right hand, he jumped forwards and landed on top of the table next to Dark Sword. Potted plants and bowls of liquid were scattered about the floor, shattering upon impact.

He thrust his weapon forwards, making it past Dark Sword’s armor. The dirk dug itself in between the plates, it’s tip penetrating her flesh. She could feel her warm blood spilling from the wound and licking its way down her right arm from where the weapon had stabbed her.

Reacting quickly, Dark Sword thrust her shield forwards and across with her left arm, shield bashing Dirk directly in his chest. The unfortunate earth pony was sent reeling, his legs scrambling to keep himself standing on the wobbling table. Wasting no time, Dark Sword kicked her left leg forward and smashed against the table, forcing Dirk further off balance.

With a startled yelp, Dirk fell backwards where he crashed on top of a second table. Glass vials and clay pots shattered beneath his weight as the wooden frame of the table splintered, sending him into a messy, painful heap on the floor.

Dark Sword had just managed to rip the dirk out of her arm when she noticed the fist flying at her face. Firework’s right hook collided square with her jaw, blood and spittle flying out of her mouth. It hadn’t been for naught, though, as it seemed that the poor stallion was not trained in hand-to-hand combat. He had left his armpit exposed during his attack, a mistake which Dark Sword had been quick to capitalize on, particularly since she had a thrusting dagger in her hand at the time.

Crying out in pain for the second time in less than twenty seconds, Firework found himself outmatched. Dirk was having a hard time standing up from his crash landing, and he couldn’t even draw his own two handed weapon.

A smile leapt to Dark Sword’s lips as she watched the cowardly stallion before her. He was looking about, a desperate gleam in his eyes as he tried to think of something, anything he could do to prolong his life.

“Accept the gold and I’ll let you both live,” Dark Sword said, a predatory expression on her face. Oh, how she wanted these ponies to say no… As far as she was concerned, they might just threaten Goldshine again one day if they were allowed to leave. She was ready to just finish it here and now.

Rainbow Dash let out a whoop of joy. “Haha, yes! This is awesome. I totally stomped them down.”

Twilight rolled a few dice behind her screen. “Well, I wouldn’t say ‘stomped them’, but you did show them that you’re nopony to be messed with. Per what I just rolled, they’re both plenty intimidated by you, and you can easily tell by the way they’re looking at you.”

“Yeah, serves ‘em right. They waltz in there like they own the place, acting all tough and making threats… Now look who’s in charge! Man, I’m like a tank! An unstoppable ta–”

Twilight looked up, unsure of why Rainbow Dash had cut herself off. Rainbow was sitting there, a strange look of thought etched onto her face. Slowly her lips twisted into a grimace and her teeth clenched together. “Rainbow…?”

“Crap!” Rainbow’s exclamation had been loud and forceful, causing Twilight to flinch slightly.

“What’s wrong!?”

A look of horror was paramount on Rainbow’s face. “I forgot to feed Tank this morning! I was so busy when I woke up early, I wanted to get the days weather finished quick, I can’t believe I forgot!” She slammed her hands down on the table, knocking over some nearby miniatures in the process. “Twilight, I gotta go! I’ll be right back, okay!?”

Twilight blinked, slightly startled by the suddenness of Rainbow’s realization. “Uh, yeah, that’s fine. I have something I need to start working on anyways. I can get a head start on it while you’re gone.”

Rainbow cried out her thanks as she made to fly out a nearby window only to find it locked. With a cry of frustration, she turned and made to fly over to the window on the other side of the room. As she did, she idly noticed Twilight levitating over that brown package from the counter that she had seen earlier. Briefly, her curiosity got in a few words and wanted her to ask and find out what it was, but Tank had to come first.

With a sharp flap of her wings she was at the unlocked window. Opening it up and hurrying off, she began her flight back to her house to feed her pet tortoise.

She was flying as fast as she dared when in the lower air space of Ponyville. Nearing the edge of town, she began to fly a little faster. However, something on the ground caught her eye and, for a brief moment, completely distracted her. Right there, attempting to hide in an alleyway, was…

Card Trick…?

Twilight had mentioned that he was taking a train to Manehattan back before they’d started playing, and that was right around two hours ago. He himself had said he was late for that train, so why was he still in town?

Rainbow’s wing twitched momentarily, itching to fly down there and confront the sketchy stallion, but she knew Tank came first. The poor tortoise hadn’t eaten since his early dinner the night before. Deciding that she’d worry about Card Trick later, she took off once more, flying faster than she had been before.

She burst through the front door of her cloud home and immediately jumped to the kitchen. Within less than a minute, she had found Tank’s food and poured it onto a plate. Now she just needed to find him.

“Tank!” she called out, her hands cupped around her mouth. “Where are you, buddy!?” She stopped calling out and waited. A few seconds went by, the silence almost stifling. It was then that Rainbow noticed it.

Silence? That isn’t right, I can hear his flying gear no matter where I am in the house…

Rainbow raced out of the kitchen, her heart going nearly as fast as she was. If Tank had lost his flying contraption, then was it possible he could have fallen down to…? No. He’s okay. He’ll be okay.

Throwing her head into the entryway of every single room, she looked about her house as fast as she could: the living room, the balcony, the pantry, the bathroom… All were devoid of a friendly little tortoise. At last she reached her bedroom, but upon looking inside she found no signs of Tank. Her ears turned down slightly, she made to leave and continue looking elsewhere. Before she could, though, something caught her eye.

Confused, Rainbow walked into her bedroom slowly. Directly before her, sitting in the center of her bed, was a brown parcel. Rainbow stared at it for a few moments, not even daring to blink. It looked to be almost as big as the one that she had seen at Twilight’s. But why would one be here? And for that matter, what was it?

Rainbow cautiously reached out, intending to open it and sate her curiosity once and for all. Before she could grasp the brown paper the package had been wrapped in, the sound of Tank’s flying contraption reached her ears. Startled, Dash flipped around and attempted to find the source.

“Tank!” she cried out upon locating the tortoise. He was in his flying harness and hovering directly outside Rainbow’s open window. “What are you doing out there!?”

Tank didn’t enter the window. In fact, he turned around and did the exact opposite. His little propellers whizzing as fast as they could, Tank flew off towards the ground.

“Tank!” Rainbow flapped her wings and dashed out the window, keeping Tank in her line of sight. She caught up to him right as he landed on the ground next to a building. Rainbow alighted beside him and knelt to pick him up when she noticed the worried expression on his face.

She blinked, momentarily stunned. What is going on…? As soon as she had thought the word, she heard the sound of somepony talking relatively close by. Her ears tilted upwards so as to catch the words better, and she immediately recognized the shaky, nervous voice that was speaking. Rainbow’s eyes narrowed as she grit her teeth.

Card Trick!

“–I told you, I couldn’t ensure her passage! Please!” Card Trick cried out, his voice high pitched and shaking. “I did as you asked, but Loyalty showed up and I couldn’t stick around to watch!”

Rainbow’s eyes shifted about as she craned her neck to get closer to the wall. It sounded to her like Card Trick was just in the room on the other side, and as though he was talking to somepony else. However, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t hear anypony else in the room; just Card Trick.

“No, I swear! Please, she won’t interfere, I promise!” his voice was panicky. If Rainbow didn’t know any better, she’d say it almost sounded like he was…

Is he crying…?

“Yes, yes, of course I did! Once she got involved, I went to her house and left one for her as well!”

Rainbow blinked. She looked down at Tank again who was looking even more upset than before. Thinking hard, she ultimately came to one conclusion. Twilight’s in danger!

She blasted off, no longer concerned with speed limitations. Within moments she had landed in front of the library, not slowing down in the slightest. Carrying her momentum from flight over into her running, she burst through the door and dashed into the kitchen. Twilight was nowhere to be found.

“Twilight!?” she cried out, hoping that the alicorn would respond from somewhere else in the library. She grimaced as her only response was pure, unending silence.

Thinking back, she recalled seeing Twilight preparing to open that package. She looked about, seeing everything the way it was before she had left, minus Twilight of course. She looked all about the table and the chairs, not locating it anywhere. When she finally looked behind Twilight’s GM screen, something peculiar caught her eye.

Since when did Twilight have two rulebooks? Sure enough, there behind her screen was two separate ‘Adventures and Alicorns’ books. One was underneath Twilight’s paperwork, and the other was on top of some brown paper shreddings.

Tentatively, Rainbow reached out and grasped the second book. She lifted it up and held it in both hands. “What the hell is goin’ on…?”

Without warning, the book flipped open in her arms and a blinding light was emanating from it’s pages. Rainbow let go of the book and went to cover her eyes with her arm, only to discover that the book was now levitating at the height where she had let go of it. Before she could even attempt to jump away, a powerful grip latched itself onto her head and she could feel it pulling her towards the book. Desperately she struggled, trying to fight against the books grasp, but it was too strong.

“No, no! Stop it!” was all she could cry out before the book had forced her face onto the pages. She could feel the magic flowing around her and lifting up her body.

There was nothing she could do. The book had her in its grasp and she was powerless to stop it. Despair twisted her insides as she felt herself drop, the magic of the book blinding her and spinning her about. What had happened to her she didn’t know, but at the moment it didn’t matter. She could feel the magic forcing her into unconsciousness, and there was no point in resisting.

Slowly, as though she had been laying on her own cloud bed, Rainbow drifted off to sleep.

Twenty Days Too Late

Rainbow Dash bolted her eyes open. She wasn’t sure when she had woken up or if she had ever really been sleeping to begin with because she didn’t feel tired in the slightest. Regardless, she had been out of it in some fashion because she quite suddenly found herself in a place she had never been before.

She was standing in the middle of an intersection, the ungroomed dirt road beneath her hooves. The roads stretched out away from her in all four directions, each side lined with dilapidated buildings covered in cracks and broken shutters. Ponies mingled about in the street, most of them attempting to keep to themselves and wearing baggy clothing that hid their body from view. Some were even wearing cloaks, and nopony seemed to want to look anypony else in the eyes.

“What the…?” was all she could say. She spun around wildly, desperately trying to make sense of the situation. Wait a minute… Just before I fell unconscious, something happened… I was at-

Rainbow’s train of thought was cut off as somepony bumped into her from behind. She was knocked forwards and would have fallen on her face had she not instinctively thrown out her wings and flapped, forcing her body into the air. Having avoided the dirt sandwich, she turned around mid flap and looked at the pony who had bumped against her.

It was an old earth pony stallion who was wearing a very ragged and dirty tunic. The cloth was the color of mud and appeared to have been stained by it as well. The pony was rubbing his forehead and cracked open one eye to look at Rainbow. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bump into you!”

Rainbow merely regarded him with a blank expression, not really sure what to make of it. She glanced up and down his body, taking in his entire image. However, before she could finish, something at the fringe of her vision caught her attention. Strangely enough, it was at the bottom of her sight… Looking down to find out what it was, she noticed that it was her own body. Or to be more precise, what was on her body.

Her mouth dropped open as she raised her arms and inspected every inch of herself that she could see. From the base of her neck to the calves on her legs, her body was covered in a clean suit of black, metal armor. Her arms were similarly protected, black vambraces and gauntlets covering the plated pieces of her new outfit.

The armor was not the thing that threw her off guard the most, however. That award went to what she had found strapped to her hip; a longsword in a sheathe was strapped to her waist. She momentarily looked at it before she realized that there was something on her back as well. Glancing over her shoulder she found a backpack strapped shut by two leather buckles, and stuffed between the bag and her back was a decent sized black, metal shield.

With a start, she realized how silly she must seem, ignoring this poor stallion in front of her in favor of looking over her own body. Blushing out of embarrassment, she quickly looked back at him as she continued to hover a few feet off the ground. He was simply standing there, looking at her as though he didn’t quite know what to say.

Rainbow coughed into her fist before speaking. “Uhh, I-I’m sorry, I wasn’t really listening. But, uh, can you tell me… Can you tell me what’s going on?”

The pony’s eyebrows knitted together as his lip curled into a look of confusion; to Rainbow it looked as though he had seen some really disgusting bug. “I- What? What do you mean? I, uh, knocked into you-”

“No, no, not that,” Rainbow said, her voice quick and frustrated. She had bigger problems to worry about. “I mean, where are we for starters?”

“Where are- Miss, we’re in Advent…” The stallion took a wary step backwards, eager to distance himself from this strange pegasus before him.

Rainbow Dash lowered herself back to the ground, a strange look on her face. “Advent? No, that’s not possible. That’s the town in Twilight’s game, it’s... it’s not real. It’s from her book, that rulebook she–”

The stallion stared, his eyes shifting back and forth between Rainbow’s. She had suddenly cut herself off, and her eyes had widened in realization of some fact which was unknown to him. Deciding that whatever was happening here wasn’t worth the trouble, he turned around and ran away. Rainbow didn’t even notice.

Her mind was running at full tilt as it sped backwards, thinking over what she had just said and the last memory she could recall from the library. She remembered finding that Twilight was missing, and the brown package had been unwrapped… Inside of it had been another copy of ‘Adventures and Alicorns’, and when she picked it up, she–

“Hey, Feathers!” a voice rang out, bringing Rainbow Dash back to the present. She blinked and turned to see who had called out. Stalking closer to her with a dagger drawn was a pony she recognized. “I thought you learned your lesson, eh!? What makes you believe you can just waltz on in here!? You think we’re just gonna let you!?”

Rainbow didn’t respond. She was too busy connecting the dots. She had seen this pony before, but… he hadn’t been a pony then. This was quite clearly Dirk, the earth pony that her character Dark Sword had fended off in Twilight’s roleplaying game. She had seen him, yes, but only as a miniature on Twilight’s battlemap. Despite that, here he was as though he had always been real, and on top of that he was advancing forwards with intent to harm, his weapon at the ready.

“What, too scared to speak!? That’s fine, we told you what would happen if you came back! Gotta say, I’ve been lookin’ forward to this!” Dirk smiled, his teeth glinting maliciously as he raised his weapon and pointed it directly at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow looked at the weapon which was just a few feet in front of her, finding it hard to accept what she was seeing. She was in danger! This pony was suddenly real, and she was actually in the town of Advent! She was even wearing armor and had her own weapon! Being in danger wasn’t a new experience to her, she had faced many foes in Equestria after all, but still... This was new. Nopony had ever pointed a blade at her face before.

She sucked in a breath and attempted to calm herself. Things were confusing, this was obvious, and there was a lot of things going on that she didn’t understand. However, the first thing that needed to be addressed was this pony before her. She found herself able to suppress her thoughts and fears and just look at her situation objectively, which was incredibly strange for her. She had never been able to do that before… Yet now it felt almost as if it was second nature.

Casually, she opened her eyes and looked once more at the weapon before her. Her mind picked over it rapidly, taking note of things that she never would have even known to notice before. She briefly wondered how she was seeing these things, but it didn’t really matter. The fact was, she felt almost confident in her ability to handle this situation. It was as if she was a different pony, because Rainbow Dash back in Equestria wouldn’t even know how to react if a sword was shoved in her face. Here though…

Her eyes flicked about, taking note of specific points in the way Dirk was holding his blade. She spotted how the tip seemed to be quivering ever so slightly showing an imperfect grip; how his wrist was angled a little off center, making it very easy for her to knock the blade from his hand. She observed his stance too and again noticed things that revealed to her just how incompetent this earth pony really was. He was not a trained fighter, and the way he was holding his body showed that he relied more on brute strength than finesse.

Rainbow looked into Dirk’s eyes and took note of what she saw; an over eagerness, a boisterous drive to charge forwards and just use overwhelming muscle to pummel anyone who opposed him. It was almost… childish. A true warrior didn’t desire to fight and most certainly did not do so for pleasure.

A niggling thought wormed its way past her mind, forcing to fall back in her mind. What was it she had just realized? A what? A… true warrior?

Is that what I called it?

“Well!? You gonna draw your weapon or just let me gut you!?” Dirk cried out, a small amount of spittle flying from his lips.

Rainbow looked at her left hand for a moment, observing the gauntlet which protected it. A true warrior… Like I had made Dark Sword to be.

She sighed momentarily before grasping her longsword with her left hand. “I don’t really understand what’s going on right now, but if I must defend myself –” Rainbow quickly drew her weapon from its sheath “– then so be it.” She swung the sword around once, testing its weight and marveling at just how natural it felt within her hand.

She realized that she knew the proper stance to make when wielding a single blade. Taking up the proper footing and with the weapon positioned before her, she patiently waited for Dirk to make the first move. After all, she had seen how he held himself; she knew for a fact he would be overly eager in his first strike.

“Gaah, you lousy mule!” Dirk cried out as he rushed forwards, his dagger raised over his head.

In the span of a breath, Rainbow Dash launched herself forwards, her sword arm a flurry of movement. Somehow she knew exactly how to react to Dirk’s advance, thus further cementing the thought which had fallen foremost to her attention. As her blade parried Dirk’s dagger again and again, she couldn’t help but admit it to herself: Somehow, in this world, I am Dark Sword.

A roar burst from Dirk’s lips, assaulting Rainbow’s ears. Her eyes missed nothing however and watched as his grip tightened around his weapon, the knuckles on his fingers whitening. Like a horn on a rampaging bull, he thrust his dagger straight ahead, hoping to catch Rainbow unguarded in the middle of one of her swings. However, he was not so lucky.

Without even so much as flinching, Rainbow threw forwards her right hand, twisting it in such a way as to get a reverse grip on Dirk’s wrist. She yanked downwards with all her strength, Dirk’s feet slipping in the dirt as his footing twisted. His hand, with the dagger still in its grasp, angled towards Rainbow’s right kneecap as she pulled him to the ground.

At the last moment Rainbow twisted her leg and let go of his wrist, letting gravity finish the job. However, she wasn’t done yet. Continuing from the momentum of twisting her leg, she launched it upwards. A sickening crunch echoed forth as Dirk’s chest impaled itself against the blunt armor covering Rainbow’s kneecap.

With a grunt, Rainbow Dash shoved Dirk off of her leg and stepped backwards, watching as he desperately tried to work his lungs, writhing in the dirt. She noticed immediately that his dagger lay a few inches in front of him. Frowning, she went to kick it away.

“Hmmm…” Rainbow sighed, running her free hand through her hair while she sheathed her sword with the other. She found it odd; a fight had just occured, small though it may have been. Why had no guards intervened? Why had nopony cried out about it? Sure, most ponies seemed to be doing their best to ignore them, but was this really such a common occurrence that nopony would think to get a guard?

I guess Twilight wasn’t kidding… This town really is corrupt. Dammit, if I was gonna get sucked into this game, why did it have to be in a place like this?

Rainbow grimaced and looked back towards Dirk, a slight wave of guilt dripping down her spine as she watched him struggle to breathe. She knelt over and grabbed him by the shoulder.

“Hey, easy does it… Come on, stand up.”

Dirk looked at her as though she had two heads. “Wh-What –” he coughed, a bit of blood spraying out “– What are you doin’…?”

“Helping you up.”

“I got that…” he wheezed, supporting himself on one knee. “I mean, why? You won. Why didn’t you just kill me? I would have killed you…”

Rainbow stood back up and let him rest. She crossed her arms in front of her chest as she spoke. “Because I wasn’t going to kill you in the first place.”

Dirk didn’t respond immediately. He worked on getting his breath back under control before he stood up the rest of the way. He still had a fire in his eyes that Rainbow realized would probably never be snuffed out, but his jets seemed to have at least cooled a bit.

“I don’t get it,” he said, his mouth pulled in a snarl. “We’re enemies. Our boss ordered us to kill you if you ever got in the way again. I wasn’t gonna let you live… yet you didn’t kill me.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t it obvious? You’re a living pony. I have no right to take that away from you. I’ve never killed anypony before and I don’t intend to start now.”

Dirk let out a breath. “Never killed anypony? Really? With skills like yours, I find that hard to believe.”

“Well, believe it, because it’s true. Where I come from, people don’t often fight. In fact, the town I live in doesn’t even sell weapons. We don’t believe in violence.”

A snort was all she got in response. Dirk huffed and chewed on the inside of his lip. “Well… I can’t just let you go. I’d be in serious trouble if I did.”

Rainbow lowered her arms and relaxedly rested her hand on her weapon. “You can do what you want. I may not want to kill you, but I got no problem with beating you again and again till you stop threatening me.”

Dirk just huffed again, his teeth clenched in frustration. Rainbow frowned as a bit of spit splashed onto her armor. “Just leave then. I can’t beat you, and you won’t kill me, so just… just leave.”

Rainbow blinked, realizing that leaving might actually be a good idea. She didn’t really know what to do right now and had no inclination as to what her next move should be. She supposed she should try and find Twilight, because if Rainbow could get sucked in here then it’s entirely plausible that Twilight did too. But where to look…?

Actually, wait a minute…

“Hey, Dirk. Where’s Goldshine? You and that other goon were just harassing her, right?”

“Goldshine? What do you mean by askin’ where she is? You know damn well where she is, don’t play stupid. That’s why you came back, isn’t it?”

Rainbow scratched the back of her head, her mouth slightly ajar. “What do you mean, ‘came back’? I was already here. I just beat you and that unicorn and made you leave Goldshine alone. That was like, what? Half an hour ago?”

Dirk stared at her. It was the first time Rainbow had seen his face without some kind of anger present, and she had to say it made him look a lot friendlier. “Did you hit your head or somethin’? That wasn’t a few hours ago. Heck, that wasn’t even today.”

“What? No, of course it was! I was just doing that battle in the kitchen right before I was pulled here!” Rainbow said, her voice rising slightly as her heartbeat quickened. What the heck is he talking about…?

“Look, uh, I don’t know what you just said, but Goldshine’s been held by our guys for the last few weeks. After you beat us, you just left. You didn’t say nothin’ either, and that was somethin’ like twenty days ago.” He shrugged his shoulders before he glanced away.

“No… No, that’s not possible. Dark Sword wouldn’t- I mean, I wouldn’t have just left her to you two! She’s a friend of mine!” And if I’m Dark Sword, then that means Twilight could be…!

“Well, we didn’t actually take her that day. Granted, we did take her, but it was a few days later… Stoneherd wanted us to make sure you weren’t comin’ back or nothin’...”

Rainbow Dash was fuming, her confusion paramount on her face yet still overshadowed by her anger. Twenty days ago!? How is that possible!? God dammit, Twilight’s been in trouble and I’ve done nothing!

“You’re gonna tell me two things, right now! First, where is she being held!? Second, where is her store!?” she shouted, grabbing Dirk by the front of his armor. She stared into his face without flinching and was pleased to see him sweating. His eyes seemed to have shrunken a bit and he was trying to push her away, albeit to no effect.

“S-She’s being held in the town prison, the t-temporary holding on the first floor!” he said, flinching away a bit as Rainbow shook him slightly.

“And her home!?”

“That way, five blocks!” he said, pointing down one of the streets leading away from their intersection.

Rainbow snarled and let him go with a shove before taking off at top speed down the road. She briefly heard him call out after her, but she didn’t care. She needed to verify something, and she needed to do it now.

“Hey, wait a minute!” Dirk cried out, but it was for naught. Dark Sword was already running full bore down the road, ponies jumping out of her way so as not to get trampled.

He sighed and turned around, idly scratching the back of his head. The air was heavy with dust and clung to him like a mist, making him feel uncomfortable and awkward. Had he really just lost to her? Had he really just let her go? Where was the pony he had been working so hard to become, the unstoppable fighter who had made a name for himself on these filth ridden streets?

’Because I wasn’t going to kill you in the first place,’ she said. What bull shit…

Despite that, he could not deny that he had found no malice in her eyes. He had defeated many a foe and had relished in watching as their hatred leaked from them in their dying breaths just as their soul leaked from their broken bodies. However, with Dark Sword…

Dirk shivered. His eyes wandered and found the disturbed spot from where he had been fighting to breathe in the dirt. Pulling a frown, he thought over it again, how Dark Sword had put him there yet still assisted him in standing back up. It was a minor thing, but still… That wasn’t the kind of comfort you gave to an opponent.

“Aaargh!” he shouted out, rubbing his palms against his eyes. What the hell had just happened here? Dark Sword went against everything he had known to be true here in this town. Nopony looked out for others, especially not their enemies. And yet…

... She showed me compassion…

He knelt down and smoothed the dirt with one hand before turning and looking after her once more. She was far away now and the only thing he could see of her was her bright red mane, flowing behind her as she forced herself onward.

Just what the hell are you, Dark Sword…?

Knowledge of the Game...

“Alchemy… Alchemy… Aha!”

Rainbow Dash came to a skidding stop as she located the building she was looking for. The home of Dark Sword’s friend, Goldshine, which also served as the only Alchemy shop in the entire town. The shop was nestled between two other buildings, looking as though it had almost been added as an afterthought. The tight space left no room for an alley between the buildings, and revealed to Rainbow that there was really only one way in: the front door.

Rainbow Dash was wary however, as the front door seemed to be missing entirely. Her left hand hovering over her weapon, she cautiously stepped forwards and peeked through the only window on the front of the house. Upon seeing inside, her heart sank.

“No no no!” she cried out, horror plastered to her face as she ran to the empty doorway and hopped inside.

The room beyond was a total mess. Everywhere she looked she saw broken tables and smashed pots, piles of wrecked plants and ruined potion ingredients. The back of the room had a counter which extended from the wall, but it too had been totally smashed in. The cabinets beneath it had been ransacked, their contents spilled onto the floor and trampled.

“Argh! Dammit!” Rainbow pounded her right hand against the wall behind her before stomping her way deeper into the front room. “There goes this idea...”

Rainbow knew that it had been a long shot from the get-go, but it was the best plan she had. She had hoped that finding Goldshine’s home might reveal some clues to help her figure out any part of this. If Twilight had been forced into the game like she had been, then… What did that mean, exactly?

Standing in the center of the room, Rainbow huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, her gauntlets clinking against her armor. She mentally went over each piece of the puzzle that she had.

First off, it was quite apparent now that she really was Dark Sword. Somehow, when she entered the game, her mind had synced up with her character’s mind, granting her access to Dark Sword’s talent and abilities. It didn’t really make sense, but either way, she couldn’t deny that it had happened.

Next, she knew that Twilight had more likely than not been forced into the game as well. What that portended though, she hadn’t the foggiest. Twilight had been the game master, not a player, so there would be no character for her mind to sync with. What, then, would happen to her? Was it possible that she might have been synced with an NPC that was close to the storyline?

Lastly, there was the situation with Goldshine. Disregarding the fact that she may in fact be Twilight, she was Dark Sword’s only friend and ally in this horrible town, and she had been taken captive by some gang of underhanded bullies and thieves. Being held in the temporary holding cells of the town prison implied that this gang had power over the guards as well, and who knows how far that influence could reach…

Rainbow Dash put her hands on her face and sighed. She knew what the best course of action was. There was really only one option before her.

I have to rescue Goldshine… Twilight or not, I can’t let her stay there.

She had just turned to leave when a sound echoed out from deeper in the building. One of her ears twitched in its direction, trying to suss out what it was. The sound itself had the consistency of a hoofstep…

Rainbow held her breath and cautiously made her way over to the back wall, though in all honesty her metal armor clanking about didn’t make her very stealthy. Next to one end of the broken cabinet was a doorway which entered into Goldshine’s personal home in the back of the building. The door had been shattered, leaving only it’s top half dangling pathetically on a single bent hinge. The rest of the door was in multiple pieces and spread about the floor of the room beyond.

Her eyes scanned the mess; this room had also seemingly been ransacked. The debris littering the place was less like alchemy though, and was more akin to personal affects. A table with broken cutlery and plates had been smashed downwards, splitting in the center. A bookshelf had been thrown to the ground beside it, lopsided as it was resting on a pile of battered books. With most of their spines broken and their pages torn out, it almost looked like someone had been searching through them.

Rainbow turned and looked to the other side of the room and gasped. There on the other wall was a massive, circular scorch mark at about arm’s height. In the center was a blackened hole which penetrated straight through and entered the room beyond. Glancing through the hole itself revealed the next room over to be Goldshine’s bedroom. Rainbow rubbed a hand over the scorch mark but, despite that, none of the burn had smeared onto her gauntlet.

She stepped away, her hand lightly dragging along the wall. As she looked about the rest of the room, she came to a conclusion: the burn in the wall had happened some time ago, probably a few weeks by Rainbow’s estimate, yet the rest of the destruction was entirely recent. Also, she was once again astounded by just how much her own perceptics had altered by having taken Dark Sword’s mind in this world. After all, the old her would never have figured out all that about the destruction; that was clearly another bit of Dark Sword making its way into her thoughts.

She decided to put it to the test and walked into Goldshine’s bedroom, the condition of the room nearly matching that of the previous ones. Taking a moment, she made an active decision: I’m going to look around this room and see what I can find.

It was like magic. Whereas before her ability to observe the wrecked rooms was minimal yet noticeable, it was now ten times that. Her eyes zoomed about the room, taking in the conditions of items and the way in which things were broken. A mental checklist was being made of everything she was learning; broken lamp, smashed upon the wall before falling to the floor; broken bedpost, dented by a durable object on one side, snapped clean off at its base; history book, ripped in half by somepony grabbing both covers and tearing in opposite directions, sending pages flying.

Rainbow’s mind reeled as it went through the data. To some degree it was disorienting and made her feel slightly nauseous, but at the same time she couldn’t act on the feeling. Her body was too busy inspecting everything for her to stop and puke. Her hooves carried her from piece to piece, her hands maneuvered objects and her eyes scanned over them, learning everything they could.

At last, after a few minutes of looking, it was done. She mentally felt off center, but physically there was no such thing. She screwed up her eyes for a moment and mentally forced herself out of the feeling before taking a deep breath.

“Okay… What the hell was that?” Her question was mostly rhetorical. Rainbow Dash already had a pretty good idea what that was…

In roleplaying with Twilight, she had learned that you needed to declare your actions. If she wanted Dark Sword to get in position and prepare to fight back, she had to say this to Twilight. If she wanted Dark Sword to look around a room, Twilight needed to be told. At these times, Rainbow Dash would then roll a die and use her characters pre-existing skills to determine how well she did at that particular thing, thus presenting the possibility of either getting lucky and succeeding, or failing completely.

Rainbow Dash figured that what she had just done was declare her intention to do an action, in this case ‘Search Goldshine’s bedroom’, and then she must have somehow done so. Granted, she didn’t roll a die to see how well she did, so she wasn’t certain of that, but… How many other possibilities were there?

Oh god…, she thought, one hand on her hip and the other on her face. I’m still playing by the games rules…

She didn’t have long to think on that however. Suddenly the result of her search was at the forefront of her mind. Something was odd about it, as though there was something in her search that she had found but… didn’t quite connect the dots about in her head. Taking the time to think about it, she quickly realized what it was that she had missed.

Dashing over to the broken dresser against the wall opposite the doorway, she found her efforts instantly rewarded. There, sitting inside under some broken drawers, was a purple die. She dug down and shifted through the broken wooden frame and retrieved the object, holding it inbetween her thumb and forefinger. Rainbow’s face went blank as she looked at it, taking in all four of its numbered sides. She’d seen it before.

“This is Twilight’s…” she said, her voice breathless. A small smile formed on her lips, but it died quickly; this was also not good news. For one thing, she was certain this was Twilight’s die. She had seen all of her dice back in the library’s kitchen, and they were all themed; a dark purple color with white inlaid numbers on each facet. Trouble is, when she had been sucked into the game by the book, Twilight’s dice had not been present on the table.

They must have been sucked in with her! And one of them is here, in Goldshine’s house! Goldshine really must be Twilight!

Rainbow clenched the four sided die in her hand. Goldshine was Twilight, and Goldshine had been taken… Rainbow had work to do!

Pocketing the die in her backpack, she turned to leave the bedroom when one last thought poked its way forward. Rainbow had been wearing clothes in the real world when she got sucked into the game… yet she wasn’t wearing them here. She had been placed in Dark Sword’s armor, and was equipped with Dark Sword’s items. If Twilight had come in here and taken Goldshine’s place, then why did she still have her dice…? Would they not have disappeared like Rainbow’s clothes had, only for her to then take the place of Goldshine?

A worried frown crept onto her lips, her eyebrows knitting together wearily. That would imply Twilight wasn’t Goldshine, but if that was the case… and this building had been practically destroyed… then where was she?

Rainbow’s thought process was skewered to bits as she suddenly heard somepony talking in hushed tones back in the front room. That’s right! I only came back here because I heard somepony moving… How’d they sneak past me?

She decided that this time she’d have her weapon fully drawn and removed it as slowly as she could. With it at the ready she took a step, only to stop as the realization of just how loud she was came to mind.

“Hmm…” Thinking briefly, she decided to try something. I’m going to sneak as quietly as I can into the front room without disturbing whoever’s in there.

If it wasn’t for the fact that she was now being extremely quiet, she would have let out a startled ‘Whoa!’ as her body began moving forwards, much quieter than it had before. She was still wearing armor of course, so she wasn’t exactly stealthy, but it was deadened to a point where it wasn’t easy to hear. Without making much noise at all, she wound up at the broken door that led back out into the front room, where the shop had been.

Glancing around the doorframe, she spotted the source of the earlier voice. A blue pegasus stallion, wearing a badly sewn brown tunic, was rummaging through the broken tables and pocketing plants and bits of alchemical supplies and reagents. He kept whispering to himself, repeating a mantra of what it was he was looking for over and over again.

I’m gonna inspect him from afar.

He didn’t appear to have any weapons, and the only item of significance that he owned was a wellmade rucksack. In it he was storing all of the items that he was looting, and he was careful to keep it from snagging on broken, sharp panels and pieces of furniture. His eyes were bloodshot and his face had worry lines, giving him a stressed appearance. One of his wings had four ruffled feathers, and the other-

Okay, enough! Enough! That’s good… Jeez. I’m gonna have to be more specific in my decisions…

She thought about it a moment and decided to lower her weapon. She didn’t sheathe it though; this pegasus was looting her friends business afterall. Stepping out around the frame and purposefully crunching a pot into further broken shards, she made her presence known to the looter.

“Gah!” he shouted, spinning about and holding his shaky hands before him in an amateur boxing stance. Gradually he began stepping backwards, away from Rainbow Dash. “I-I’m sorry, just, p-please, this isn’t what it looks like! I swear, I just- Oof!”

Rainbow smirked as the poor pony tripped on a broken table leg that rolled out from under his hoof, causing him to fall onto his back. There was a loud crunch as his body further destroyed the already ruined detritus.

“Okay then, Klutz. Tell me what this ‘looks like’ and then I’ll be the judge.”

Grunting in pain, he slowly pushed himself off the broken table beneath him. “Ow… Eergh… I… I’m sorry, I swear to you, I’m not the one who destroyed this shop…”

Rainbow deadpanned. “No, it looks like you’re a looter taking advantage of somepony elses ruin.”

“O-oh… Well, uh…” His eyes glanced about, his mouth making a shaky grin. His hands wrung tight around the flap of the rucksack he was holding. “I guess, I mean, what I want to say is- Er, uh… Yeah, that’s technically true. But –” he cried out, dropping the rucksack and throwing his palms forward in a servile manner “– I’m only taking the ingredients to make a particular tonic!”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, though her sword lowered a tad more. “A tonic?”

The pony frantically nodded his head. “Yes, yes, that’s all! I swear! I had actually come here yesterday hoping to take one, but… But, I couldn’t. When I arrived, there was somepony else already here. They were angry, yelling and screaming… They destroyed the place! Tore apart shelves and smashed tables! I was so scared, I just… I ran away.”

“But you still needed the tonic.”

“Exactly,” he said, relaxing slightly. “I had to come back.”

Thinking about it, Rainbow sheathed her sword fully before taking up a less hostile stance, her arms casually crossed in front of her. “What do you need the tonic for, anyways?”

“Well, it’s my little filly… She’s sick.”

“What with?”

“Uh… Er… H-horsentery…” he mumbled, abashedly looking down.

Rainbow blinked in surprise. “Horsentery?”

“You mean, you don’t know…? Uh, well, you see… When she has to go to the bathroom, it, uh-”

“Agh! No, gross dude!” Rainbow cried out, her face in a grimace. “Look I know what it is, it just- Ew, no. I was just surprised to hear that horsentery exists here.”

It was the stallion's turn to be confused. “What- ‘Here’? What do you mean, ‘here’?”

“You know, this made up world. It’s not Equestria, so… I just thought... that… Uh…” She trailed off as she saw his expression. “Um… N-nevermind. Ignore that. Just... Just take the ingredients you need for your tonic and nothing else.”

“Uh… Of course, I mean, that’s all I was here for in the first place.” He quickly dropped back to his knees and continued searching for the supplies he needed for his tonic, occasionally stealing furtive glances over in Rainbow’s direction.

Rainbow stood still for a minute, thinking over what she had just learned. There was something that didn’t make sense… Something that didn’t quite add up with the rest of what she knew. Her eyes wandered the room a bit as she thought, revealing more and more to her about just how thorough the destruction had been.

“Hmm… You said you were here when all this” – she idly waved a hoof around the room – “was happening?”

The stallion stopped rummaging through a broken pot and looked up at her from the corner of his eye. “Uh, yeah…”

“Well?” she encouraged, her arms once again crossed over her chest. “Who was it?”

“Well I… I don’t actually know,” he admitted, a sheepish and apologetic smile stretching his lips.

“Hmm… Well, did you at least see what the pony looked like?”

“Well, that’s the thing… It wasn’t a pony…” He shrunk down a bit and gripped his rucksack a little tighter, a nervous tension causing his shoulders to shiver. His eyes got a faraway look as he seemingly recalled what he had seen the previous day.

Rainbow, however, wasn’t amused. “What do you mean, it ‘wasn’t a pony’? What was it then? A gryphon? I can’t see why you’d be so scared of a-”

“It was a monster!” he cried out, cutting Rainbow off. She instinctively twitched backwards a bit, surprised by his outburst. “It was black as night, without fur! It stood on two legs, like a pony, but it wasn’t one! It had no fur and yet there on its back were two massive, black wings like a pegasus! There on its head was a massive horn, like a unicorn, but it wasn’t one! It wasn’t a pony! When it cried out in anger, its voice was bestial and full of rage! It-! It-!"

“Enough!” Rainbow cried out, more to calm the frantic pony than anything else. He had started hugging himself tightly and digging his fingernails into his arms.

Jeez, reacting like this just by remembering it…? It’s no wonder he ran away. I’m surprised he came back here at all…

“Listen, you need to get your tonic and get out of here. I don’t know what that thing was, but it’s gone now. That doesn’t mean it won’t come back though, so for your sake you should get out of here quick.”

The pony simply nodded, the only response he could seemingly give.

“You know, one thing bothers me… You were in the back room when I first entered the shop, right?”

His head jerked sideways slightly to look in her direction. “Uh… N-no…”

“Uh, no, you were. I heard you back there. That’s why I went looking around back there in the first place, and then you somehow snuck past me.”

The pony’s eyebrows were creased as he looked at her fully, his hands loosening a bit from his biceps. “No… No I wasn’t… I came in here and then you came in from the back…”

Rainbow’s eyes widened. She suddenly felt like she was being watched. Spinning around and drawing her weapon as quick as she could, she faced the door leading to Goldshine’s living space. She stared into the back room, an uneasy chill crawling down her spine. I know I heard something back there before… If not him, then who…?

With a gasp, her mind decided to remind her of what she had just learned.

No. Not who... What.

A few tense moments went by before she realized that there was no sound at all. Even the stallion behind her had frozen in place, waiting for something to happen. He didn’t even dare breathe. Rainbow let out a breath, turning sideways slightly to talk to him again, yet keeping an eye on the back room.

“You should leave. Finish gathering your supplies and get out.” Her voice wasn’t angry.

The sound of him scrambling to finish reached her ears. She slightly lowered her weapon and put the tip back in it’s sheath. Giving one last solid glance to the back room, she slid it all the way until it clicked into place.

“I have to go. Don’t stay here long,” she said, not even looking at him. She had stepped across the room and was at the front door.

“... You knew her, didn’t you?”

Rainbow froze in place, one hand against the doorframe. “Yeah.”

“I’m really sorry… She was a great pony… One of the only kind folks in this entire blasted town…” A scraping sound reached Rainbow’s ears as he pushed himself off the floorboards. “She didn’t deserve what happened to her.”

Rainbow blinked. This sounded like something more than just imprisonment. She turned her head and threw her gaze over her shoulder. “What are you talking about? What happened?”

He looked at her as though she had two heads. “Wait, you mean… You don’t know?”

Rainbow’s teeth grit together. “Know what? What happened to her?”

“She, uh… Well, they say she went insane. When the guards were dragging her out of the place, she kept screaming something over and over, as though she was trying to talk to somepony who wasn’t listening. It was always the same thing.”

Rainbow’s grip tightened, cracking a part of the already damaged door frame. “What was it…?” Part of her didn’t want to know. Twilight was missing? Some kind of monster or a demon had destroyed Goldshine’s shop? Goldshine apparently had lost her mind? This was just getting worse by the minute…

“It’s kind of hard to remember, but… It was something along the lines of ‘knowledge of the game’. There was something else after that, but I don’t recall what it was… I’m sorry.”

... Oh no…

“I have to go!” Rainbow leapt out of the building and unfurled her wings, forcing herself into the open air. With a few strong flaps, she had already risen up past the roofs of the nearby buildings.

I need to find Twilight, now!

Author's Note

Extra credit for you readers! The first one of you to tell me which episode of MLP has the word ‘horsentery’ in it, and also where it is SAID in the episode, will win a prize.

That prize? Ask me anything about the fic and I will answer it, truthfully. Most likely not detailed, but I will answer nonetheless. Example: “Vertorm! Vertorm! Will there be AppleDash in this fic!?” My answer? “Get out.”

Just kidding. I love AppleDash.

...Becomes Knowledge of Self

The prison in the town was not difficult for Rainbow Dash to locate. She didn’t even need to ask anypony for directions. As soon as she had flown into the sky and acquired a mid-air view of the towns layout, it had become readily apparent which building the prison was.

It was a large grey mass near the eastern edge of the town. It was multiple stories tall, causing it to quite easily dwarf the buildings resting nearby as most of them were pretty ramshackle to begin with – the second floor of a building wasn’t even a concept most of the ponies who lived here could think about. This was quite obviously the slums… or moreso the slums than the rest of the town was. Advent was pretty low quality already but it seemed that no matter where you went, every borough was destined to have its own shanty-town.

In comparison to the squalor surrounding it, the pristine grey brick of the prison’s outer walls served as a sign. Even Rainbow realized what it meant almost as soon as she saw it. It was tall for a reason, it’s edges austere and defined, with guards constantly stationed on the roof, looking out over the crenellations and keeping a watchful eye. It was imposing, it was powerful, but most importantly, it was hope.

At first Rainbow couldn’t believe it, but after a few hours of mulling over her thoughts and keeping a clandestine profile as she cased the perimeter of the building, it became clear. Hope was the right word. She witnessed firsthand how the over-crowded populace of the slums seemed to revere the prison. On the surface, it almost seemed like a show of respect out of fear that they could wind up there one day, but that wasn’t even close.

Their words carried on hushed whispers, often just barely loud enough for her to eavesdrop. The fact was that it was common knowledge Advent’s thieves guild had the guards deep in their pockets, which meant that the thieve’s guild essentially owned the prison, including whoever was in it. The leader of the criminal gang was Stoneherd, which Rainbow recalled having heard the name from Dirk earlier in the day. Whoever this pony was, he meant business with the town of Advent and seemingly had everypony in his sway.

Time trotted along its path though, and Rainbow found herself having to buy a room at an inn a few blocks down from the prison’s front entrance. She needed to rest, but she also needed a place to her lonesome with which to plot her plan of attack. Somehow she was going to have to break Goldshine out of a prison while under the watchful eye of guards.

Facts about the prison’s defenses and notes scrawled out in her own messy handwriting were laid out atop a massive unrolled scroll, on which she had scribbled out a rough sketch of the prison. She had spent a few hours already going over everything, adding details here as she recalled them and crossing out notes there as they became invalid.

“Alright,” she said at last. “I think that’s everything.”

With a sigh and a stretch, she rose from her position crouched on the ground. She screwed her face up into a grimace as she rolled her arms and twisted her back until multiple loud ‘pops’ echoed forth. A contented smirk and a relaxing wing stretch later, she found herself looking out the window into the outside town.

Night had already fallen during the course of her plotting. She could just see the final dredges of the sunset disappearing in the sky to the west. The moon should be about to begin its own flight through the night, though Rainbow couldn’t see it to be sure – the one window in her room faced west, away from the prison as well. She had tried to get a room on the other side of the building, but they had apparently all been booked.

Rainbow turned and rested momentarily against the frame of the window, the small of her back pressed up to the wood. If her timing was right, she had just about an hour before she needed to begin her plan to rescue Goldshine. She had hoped to rest a bit until then, but unfortunately she had no way to ensure she'd wake up in time. There was no other way than to just remain awake.

Not like I could sleep anyways… she thought, her eyes roving over the one tiny bed in the room. It was covered in all the many pieces of her armor, which apparently had an inner chainmail lining for further protection. Straps of leather and buckles to hold it all together criss crossed over the plates, each one of them completely undone so she could remove it all.

It had felt good to get out of the armor. After a few hours of wearing it, her shoulders had kind of started to hurt from the weight of it. It was even slowing down her own movements. The first thing she had done upon getting her room at the inn was find out how to remove the entire set of armor. It hadn’t been easy, and in fact had been a slow and arduous process, taking well over fifteen minutes.

She turned her head downwards and looked at what little clothes she was wearing. A thought that hadn’t crossed her mind until she tried to remove the armor was ‘What am I wearing underneath…?’ That had been answered by a resounding ‘Almost nothing’. She wore a thin white undershirt which provided no warmth whatsoever, as well as an equally thin pair of black shorts. She wasn’t even wearing underwear beneath the clothing, though she assumed it was for the utility of the armor.

She sighed, once again wishing she had thought to buy clothes when she made her character, and not just armor. I wish Twilight had said something.

“Well, might as well do something while I wait.” She pushed herself off from the window's frame and crossed the room to the wall opposite her bed. Splayed out on the ground there was the entire contents of her backpack. She had needed to take inventory of what she owned before she made a dangerous venture into the prison. Once more the notion tickled her mind; I’m actually about to do something an adventurer would do in one of these games. That’s just so weird!

She crossed her legs and plopped her rump to the floor, scooching slightly closer so as to have all her supplies within arms reach. She idly scanned through them until she found what she was looking for: a bottle of cleaning solution.

Rainbow suppressed a laugh as she stood back up, the bottle in her right hand. She remembered how she had first thought it strange that Dark Sword would own a cleaning solution. She didn’t remember purchasing it on the equipment list. However, as soon as she had wondered about it, she had immediately caught a whiff of something pretty stanky and it didn’t take long for her to find the source: her armor.

She had vowed to clean it before she put it back on, and since she already had to wait around a bit, she decided to get a head start.

“I wish I had a servant to do this for me. This is gonna be so gross…”

Finally, after spending all that time watching and planning and preparing, the moment had arrived for Rainbow Dash to set her plan in motion. She had left the inn through the window of her second story room, being extra careful to avoid detection. With one swift flap of her wings she had taken off from the window sill and flew straight up, her back an inch away from the outer wall of the inn. As her head came level with the roof, she somersaulted backwards through the air, putting her just barely above the roof.

The light from the moon was half masked by some large, dark clouds which had come in from the east. What light did make it through was hardly bright enough to see with, and Rainbow was certain that her black armor and the lack of light on the western facing of the inn had prevented her from being seen. Most ponies were asleep at this hour anyways, so she felt confident in the fact that her plan was already going smoothly.

Dropping silently to the roof, she crept over to the south eastern corner and peered over the waist high wall that surrounded the entire top of the building. The roof itself had a ladder on the backside for climbing down into the alleyway behind the establishment, though Rainbow had no intention of using it. Her eyes instead scanned for the two lone guards that she knew would be on the roof of the prison at this hour. The roof of the inn was lower than the roof of the prison, but not by much. She was just able to see the tops of their heads, illuminated by their torches.

She had needed to give up five gold pieces to a street urchin for the information about the nightshift guards, but it was so far accurate to the detail. The common folk of a town were always the best place to go to learn the local information and gossip, but the pickpockets of the slums always knew the movements of the enforcers, and Advent was apparently no different.

A grin grew on her face as she silently flapped her wings and lifted herself into the air. Up and up she flew, giving herself a high vantage point with which to scan the ground below. Once she felt that nopony could possibly see her in the dark and cloudy sky, she began to fly forwards so as to position herself over top of her target.

She cast her sight about below, once again taking in the prison’s shape and design. The entire structure was one massive building, though a curving wall stretched off from one side and wrapped around the front before reconnecting to the main building, thus creating a sort of courtyard. A lone iron portcullis was at the front of the wall, allowing prisoners and guards access into the compound. The wall itself wasn’t very thick though, and really just served as a show of force. Rumor had it that there were rooms inside of the wall, but they had never been confirmed.

The outside of the prison was lit by torches which were stationed every twenty feet or so along the top of the wall, and above the gate on the inside and outside. The front door of the prison inside the courtyard also had a solitary torch resting directly above it. Each of the guards in the compound had a torch in one hand as well, assisting them in lighting up the darkness surrounding them.

Time to get started.

Rainbow Dash continued to hover at her high altitude as she carefully pulled the strap of her backpack off of her left shoulder. Freeing it from her left arm, the pack then slid to the right as she rolled her right shoulder, causing the remaining strap to slide down to her elbow. She grabbed the bag with her left hand and, keeping the strap wrapped around her right wrist, opened it up and retrieved the item she needed: a small cloth pouch with a drawstring at the top that had been tied securely.

Returning the backpack to its proper place, she took one last glance at the pouch in her hand. The smile on her lips grew a little wider as adrenaline already began to pump through her veins. As soon as she let this go, her prison break would begin for the pouch contained two vials of alchemists fire, as well as three blind-stones which exploded upon impacting a hard surface.

In Equestria, she had never attempted something like this… She and her friends had occasionally fought against tyrants and monsters who wanted to control the world, but this was… different. She couldn’t quite put her finger on how but there was a childish fantasy to the idea of making a life out of adventuring. It just wasn’t something regular ponies did in the normal world. Here though… She was really about to break into a prison and risk her own life in some crazy scheme to save a friend from an unjust fate. That kind of thing really only ever happened in stories…

Her heart pounding in her chest, Rainbow glanced at the pouch one last time before giving it an underhanded toss forwards. She didn’t want it to land on the prison itself, so she needed to throw it in front of her just a little. As high as she was, she was confident that she wouldn’t hit the prison. She watched the bag fall for a few seconds, mentally preparing herself for what came next.

This is it! No going back now!

Her body went into a controlled freefall as her wings stopped flapping, the wind rushing past her face and limbs. Her hair and tail whipped around behind her as she grit her teeth in a fierce smile, a spark of energy growing in her eyes. Within a matter of seconds she had already reached a speed equivalent of a vertical dive. Flipping her body around so that she was facing the ground with her feet above her, she angled herself so that she could easily open her wings and pull out of the dive. However, she couldn’t do it too early; she had to wait for her sign…

Steadily the earth below grew larger and larger, the buildings upon it looking like the teeth inside a gaping maw ready to devour her. Come on, come on…, she thought, her eyes peeled as she anxiously waited for the moment her pouch collided with the ground. As soon as it did, that would be her cue to open her wings again. It should have hit by now, shouldn’t it?

Just as she was about to end the freefall out of fear that her plan had already failed, she saw it. There, upon the roof of a building next to the prison, a bright flash of light accompanied by a lot of green fire burst forth. Even over the din of the wind in her ears, Rainbow could still faintly hear the sound of the burst. Her eyes darted below her, checking to see where the guards on the prison roof were.

Just as she had predicted, they had heard the noise and rushed over to the edge of the building to look down and see what had happened. Their positions revealed on the dark roof by the torches they carried, she easily determined a safe spot to land as she unfurled her wings and began spiraling down silently.

A grin lit up her face as she touched down on the prison roof directly behind the two guards. She didn’t bother to conceal the noise; her next actions would have revealed her presence anyways. Startled, the guards flipped around to look at her. One of them was a brutish looking earth pony, the other a shorter, wiry framed unicorn. Both were wearing light chain armor and equipped with short swords.

“What the hell!?” the unicorn said, his eyes frantically scanning over Rainbow’s body. “Y-you’re under arrest! This is a restricted area!”

“Sorry, I just got a little lost,” Rainbow said, innocently raising her hands into the air in front of her. The grin on her face wouldn’t die down though and ruined the entire ruse, not that she really cared.

The earth pony began to step forward a bit. “Yeah, right. I bet you’re the one that set off that fla–”

He reeled backwards, his sentence cut off by Rainbow’s right fist flashing out and solidly connecting with his nose. Before he could try and regain his footing, Rainbow saw in her mind what to do next. Dark Sword’s combat expertise was once again kicking in, her mind staying calm and allowing her to analyze the fight from a seemingly outside perspective. Without knowing how she knew to do it, she instinctively crouched down onto her left leg, her right leg extended out to her side. As soft as a breeze, she twisted her body and sent her leg into a sweeping arc headed directly for the pony’s stumbling feet.

“Waagh!” he cried out as Rainbow’s leg swept his feet right out from under him. A thud resounded as he hit the ground, his breath being forced out of his lungs from the impact. He lay there, his hands clenched on his armored chest as he gasped, attempting to get any air at all into his body. His torch had flown from his grip when she tripped him, it’s wild arc sending it right over the edge of the roof and to the ground below.

A wild yell reached Rainbow’s ears as the unicorn threw himself at her, his torch also abandoned and rolling away on the roof. Still slightly crouched as she was, there was no way for her to properly avoid his grapple. He wrapped his arms around her and attempted to pin her to the ground.

“Assaulting a guard means execution!” he shouted, spittle landing on Rainbow’s face from the close proximity to his own. “But I’ll kill you here and now! Save us the trouble of a trial!”

Rainbow’s grimace morphed into a predatory grin as she successfully wriggled her knee up in between her and the guard. “Try me!” She kicked out, her hoof planted firmly against the poor pony’s pelvis. His arms let go of her as he was launched backwards, his feet srambling backwards to keep him from falling over.

Unfortunately, he was too close to the edge.

Rainbow pushed herself up, just barely lifting her eyes in time to see what she had done. His face was twisted into a look of abysmal terror as his feet were forced out from under him by the crenellations edging the roof. His arms stretching out in front of him, it seemed to Rainbow as though the world was in slow motion. Only one word was racing through her mind, driving her to dive forwards as fast as she could.

No!

It was too late. She collided with the crenellations, her upper body extending out over the edge as she looked down. The guard was falling, a scream tearing from his lips as he tried desperately to grab onto something, anything that might stop his fall. His hands connected with nothing.

“No…”

A loud crunch filled the air as he collided with the ground, his eyes locked open and staring up at her.

“No…!”

He had landed next to the torch that the other guard had accidentally lost over the edge, it’s flickering light casting a long shadow on the ground from the guard’s broken body. A pool of dark blood mixed with the thirsty dirt beneath his body, reflecting a dull sheen from the light which only made the sight that much more macabre.

“No!“

Rainbow was horrified. She had never meant to kill any of the guards. Her intention had only been to knock them out and leave them up on the roof, relatively unharmed. Nopony was supposed to die!

She twisted around and slumped against the battlements, her eyes staring at her shaking hands. The sound of the other guard still coughing and trying to get up reached her ears, but she didn’t care. She had just killed a pony.

I hadn’t meant to! she rationalized. It was just an accident!

“Oh god… Oh my god…” the earth pony said between wheezes and coughs as he pushed himself up onto one knee and looked over the edge. “You… You killed him… You god damned killed him! You monster!”

No… I’m a murderer.

How quickly it all had changed... Not even a minute ago she had felt actually excited for the thrill of this combat. She was beginning an adventure, a quest of sorts, and it was exciting… It was thrilling… But now? Somepony had died because of it.

But he’s not a real pony…! This is just a game afterall!

It doesn’t matter, it’s real enough. I’m here, aren’t I?

But it’s not my fault! H-he was a corrupt guard! All the guards are evil here!

That doesn’t mean murdering him is okay. I’m not Dark Sword, I’m Rainbow Dash. I don’t kill ponies, no matter what!

No, you don’t understand, he–!

Suddenly she felt herself rolling to the side, hard. It was random and chaotic, causing her mental train to completely derail. Upon finishing her roll and shooting up to her hooves, she saw the reason why it had happened at all. The other guard had just swung his short sword through the very spot where her neck had been a mere moment before. Dark Sword’s combat instincts had forced her to dodge, even when Rainbow’s own mind was in too much of a jumbled heap to think about survival.

“You monster…” the earth pony repeated, his face twisted into an ugly expression of rage. “You killed him. He was my best friend… And you killed him! I’m gonna rip your wings off and throw you off the edge of a thousand buildings before I let you get away with it!”

Rainbow stared at him slack jawed, her eyes wide. Everything she knew told her that this pony was in the right. She really had killed his friend, so his reaction was justifiable. This is how she’d have reacted if he had murdered one of her friends… But Dark Sword’s combat instincts kicked in once more and she found another voice in her head, one that she had never heard before.

You’re not giving up, are ya? Its voice was scratchy and rough, similar to her own but a few octaves deeper. You’re not gonna let this guy kill ya, right?

W-what? she responded, the word coming to her mind almost as easy as saying it aloud.

Look, we can’t die here. Sure, we killed a guard and now your eggs are all scrambled. I get it. The first time I killed somepony, I felt that way too. But our friends need us right now. There’s more important things to be focusing on.

Wait, but-

Just focus on winning. Focus on staying alive and getting the job done. Once this is all over, then you can go ahead and cry and blubber like a sad little filly, but right now is not the time.

Now… is not the time…

Exactly. Enough feeling sorry for yourself. Get going.

“Now is not the time…” she repeated, the words no longer in her head.

“The hell you say!? I’m gonna gut you like a turkey, you murdering bitch!”

Rainbow’s vision returned in full which was slightly disorienting as she hadn’t even realized it was missing. She found herself once more in control of her body, but everything was suddenly… clearer. Things were more in focus. The guard in front of her was charging forward, his short sword held out to his right as he prepared to swing it in a slashing arc.

In her minds eye Rainbow saw the scene unfold in front of her. The battle in her mind was revealing to her what moves she should make mere moments before she copied them in real time. The guard was coming in with a diagonal slash aimed at her left shoulder, so she raised her left hand and caught his wrist while simultaneously stepping forward with her right hoof. His attack blocked and the space between them void, she put all her strength into swinging her right hand up and, with her palm out, cuffed it against the earth pony’s left ear.

“Gaaah!” He instantly dropped the short sword in his right hand and stumbled backwards, cradling his head. Rainbow knew full well how much a discombobulating strike to the ear hurt; when done right, the nausea from it could make a full grown pony puke. Unfortunately for this guard, that’s exactly what happened.

As he sat there, his stomach heaving out its acids, she looked at him with a mixture of pity and sadness. She had no time to waste though. That voice was right… I need to save Goldshine.

Rainbow Dash snapped her right hoof into the air, her front kick connecting square with the guards puking face. He landed on his back, motionless and unconscious, bile dribbling out of his mouth and mixing with the blood from his broken nose. She walked up to him and knelt down on her toes, her arms resting on her knees.

“I’m sorry…” she said, pressing a hand to his chest to ensure he was still alive. “I didn’t mean to kill him. I swear, I never meant for this to happen.” She sniffled softly as she thought about how this pony would feel once he woke up. Sure, he’d have a hell of a headache, but the empty space in his heart that his friend had once filled would never truly heal… and it was entirely her fault.

She reached out and retrieved the keyring that hung from his waist. These keys were why Rainbow Dash was up here. These keys were why that pony died.

“I’m sorry…”

Standing up, she quickly ran over to the crenellations directly above the courtyard and the front door of the prison. Without glancing back she jumped off the roof, unfurled her wings, and glided down to the ground.

“Hmm…” Dirk rubbed his chin idly in thought, his eyes locked on the prison across the street. He was sitting in the living room of a rundown home owned by an old mare named Cauli Flower who lived there by herself. Dirk had been the pony who first handled her fee to the thieves guild, and thus had imprinted himself on her as a force of nature. After the events of that morning with Dark Sword returning and immediately going after Goldshine again, he knew right away whose house he should force himself upon in order to keep a vigilant eye out.

Ms. Flower of course had practically no say in it. As soon as he had showed up at her doorstep, she made herself scarce and over the course of the last six hours he had only seen her once. It was odd though… In the past he would have thought that was perfect. He never really liked the old mare. She dawdled about too much for his tastes. However, today was different somehow… He genuinely felt a little remorseful upon seeing her feeble attempts to protect herself from an assault she thought was coming. Had he really been so cruel in the past that she thought he was here to hurt her again…?

His mind again returned to when Dark Sword had easily bested him that morning, and had decided to not kill him. Well, ‘decided’ was probably not the right word… That would imply she had even considered killing him at all. No, he knew that wasn’t true. He had seen her eyes and despite the fact that he was attacking her, they had held no enmity for him. No malice.

She may have defended herself, but in her eyes there was only concern and empathy.

“What are you up to, Dark Sword?” he whispered, his breath fogging up the glass in front of him. “It’s night time, I thought you’d have made your move by now…”

His eyes roved over the prison walls that were visible to him. He had a decent view which allowed him to see both the front portcullis in the surrounding wall, as well as the western side of the prison and the alley beside it. Tired he may have been after six hours of sitting still and waiting, he wasn’t about to give up. He had seen her determination; he knew she’d be here. But when…?

And what am I gonna do when she shows up…?

The thought had been burning a hole in his head, a painful nibbling that he just couldn’t get to stop. No matter how he looked at it, he was in a state of confusion. He was an Enforcer in the thieves guild of Advent; he had a position and power and by every rule he knew, Dark Sword should be stopped and killed, if not at least brought forward to be punished by his leaders. And yet… her words still rang through his ears.

”Because I wasn’t going to kill you in the first place.”

”Isn’t it obvious? You’re a living pony. I have no right to take that away from you. I’ve never killed anypony before and I don’t intend to start now.”

Dirk snorted, the window once again fogging up and forcing him to have to wipe it clean. The squeaking of his hand on the glass sounded calming somehow, helping him put his thoughts in order. Or at least try to.

“You weren’t gonna kill me, huh…? Just what kind of pony are you, Dark Sword? I mean, what kind of life can you lead with morals like that? Show me your guts, Feathers… Prove to me that your words aren’t just fantasy.”

As though in response to his challenge, a loud bang suddenly echoed forth from across the street, a flash of bright, green light accompanying it. The source was on the roof of the building directly to the west of the prison where a column of green flames licked at the sky for a brief moment before dying down in size, shrinking to the point where he couldn’t see them over the lip of the roof.

His eyes scanned about, looking for anything out of the ordinary. He bit his lip and clenched his hands into fists as he tried to force himself to stay still. That was no coincidence… She did that, I’m sure. Where are you Dark Sword? Show me.

The seconds ticked by aggravatingly slowly as he scanned about, waiting for a sign of where she was located. He was about to give up and run outside when his eyes spied something that made him pause. A guard had just been knocked over the western edge of the prison’s roof before falling all the way to the ground below. The pony didn’t even scream as gravity took it’s toll.

“What the hell…?” His eyes were once again looking at the roof where he saw something he really didn’t want to believe. “Dark Sword…?”

Dirk stood up from his chair, something inside of him beginning to bubble and boil. “You… You…! God dammit!” He wasn’t even sure why it made him so angry. Dark Sword was just a pony after all, and this just proved it. She was just another rotten, lying pony. Why should that upset him? He was right in the end. Nopony was above murdering their fellows.

I guess that… part of me just wanted to believe that her words were true… That somewhere out there, there really is somepony who can live like that.

He scoffed. “Stupid. Don’t know what I was thinkin’. She’s no different than anypony else is this shithole.”

Stretching his arms over his head, he felt his back pop and straighten out. Letting out a content sigh as he rolled his neck a few times, he picked up his empty bottle of hard cider and turned to look at the rest of the room. His eyes fell on an old desk that Ms. Flower had saved from her family’s history; one of the last things she had left of her heritage, or so she’d said.

Briefly, that flash of anger from before resurfaced. The bottle resisted his grip though, his knuckles whitening as he clenched hard on it. He strongly wanted to vent his frustration by just chucking the stupid thing as hard as he could at the ancient desk.

“...No.” He closed his eyes and let out a breath. “That bitch might be a liar, but her words were nevertheless right.” And still, her eyes… She hadn’t faked that kindness…

None of it made sense! Just what the hell was with that damned pony!? She said words sweet as honey which confused and disoriented him, and then went and threw a guard off a roof!? “Augh!” He smashed his hands into his forehead, the bottle still tight in his grip.

“... What the hell am I gonna do…?”

Rainbow Dash opened the door to the prison and stepped inside cautiously. Her information hadn’t covered where guards would be stationed inside the building; it was strictly limited to where the temporary holding cells were located. She found herself in a front waiting room, a few chairs spread to the left and right of the small, cramped space. At the other end of the room was a desk, as well as a guard sitting at it. They were both facing the front door.

For a moment, Rainbow Dash froze. The pony hadn’t moved yet despite her entering the room. At first she felt slightly anxious, her left hand even moving towards the hilt of her weapon before a noise drew her attention.

“... Zzzz…”

“No way…” she whispered, her voice hardly even reaching her own ears. “He’s actually asleep?”

This was perfect. All Rainbow Dash had to do then was sneak past him. The door to the rest of the prison was right behind him. Thinking it through, she decided it’d be best to try out her ability to make active decisions once again. I’m going to move silently all the way to that door.

Sure enough, her body immediately began to move, her eyes scanning about and her feet stepping in all the spots that were least likely to make noise. Her armor was quieter as her deft hoofwork brought her all the way to the desk. However, as soon as she was about to step behind it, her hoof smacked painfully against it’s side.

“Muh, what? Huh!?” The guard was quickly on his hooves, the chair he was sitting on creating a loud screech as it’s legs scraped against the stone floor. “I wasn’t sleeping, I swea–” A fist to the face cut him off before he could continue to splutter his lie. The poor guard fell backwards and landed on his rump, one hand rubbing his broken nose.

Rainbow struck out her left hoof, a sickening crack reaching her ears before the guard went limp on the ground.

“Ugh, shit…” she muttered, one hand pressed against her forehead and rubbing down her face. What the hell happened…? I thought I’d stay silent by doing that ‘action’ thing…

Her eyes scanned over the guards body for a moment as another thought intruded upon her mind. She dropped to her knees and placed her head against his chest. She strained her ears, trying desperately to hear a heartbeat, her hopes falling as she was answered with only silence. Just as she was about to sit back up, she heard it. The beat was faint, but there all the same.

Rainbow Dash sighed as she stood back up. Thank god… I already murdered one pony and had to risk the deaths of two more. I never want to have to do that again...

She pulled out the keys which she had taken from the guard on the roof and proceeded to unlock the door. The creak of hinges desperately in need of oil filled the room as it opened, Rainbow dropping the keys back in her pocket. She crossed the threshold and closed the door behind her, attempting to quietly let the latch click closed.

She wished that she hadn’t needed to attack the guards on the roof. It had resulted in more chaos and problems, but it really was the only way. The information she had gotten did include the fact that the guard in the reception area never had a set of keys on him, ever, particularly because of situations like this. During the day a second guard would be stationed in the room she was in now, ready to unlock the door from the inside if it was ever needed. However, at night time, this room was devoid of life.

Her eyes looked about the room, taking in the furniture and the doors. There was the empty desk where the doorguard would sit at when he wasn’t unlocking doors or escorting ponies about the prison, as well as a set of keys hanging on a hook behind his seat. She didn’t need them though; she already had her own.

Her body carried her almost as though it was on autopilot, taking her to each of the doors in turn. She glanced through the bars at the top of each door and looked down the rows of cells that she could see beyond them. Each one housed a different wing of the building, but all of these rows were temporary holding. Well, except for one, and that specific area was filled with desks and offices for the guards who worked here.

The intel she had was that the first floor was used for processing a prisoner and holding them until they were either released or transferred to a more secure cell. Those were all on the second floor and above. It was simple really; the higher the floor, the more secure the cells. All the worst inmates were at the top floor, and apparently her keys couldn’t even unlock that door.

Rainbow let out a slow sigh. She had no way of knowing which one of the prison cells held Goldshine. I guess it’s just down to looking…

As she unlocked the first door and pulled it open, her eyes went to the torches which were still lit in the row of cells beyond. There was one between each cell, hanging in a sconce above head height.. That’s odd… Shouldn’t they be doused at night time so that the ponies inside could sleep…?

She began to walk in, her head twisting left and right as she looked in each cell that she passed. It slowly dawned on her why the torches were still lit. Her pace sped up, the sound of her hooves clopping on the stone floor echoing about.

“No…” She turned and ran back, going through a different door. The torches were lit in this hall as well. “No…!” Once again she ran down a separate hall, the cells and the torches the exact same as the last two. “No!”

Her voice echoed about the floor a bit as she came to the end of the row. There was no other wings of temporary holding to look through. Each of the cells were… empty.

“No no no!” Rainbow fell to her knees, her hooves sliding out to her sides as she smacked her hands to her temples. “She’s supposed to be here!”

Rainbow let out a scream of frustration, her voice rough on her vocal cords. “Dammit, no! I killed a pony to get here! I’m not letting this end in failure!” She stood back up and turned to head out, deciding that she’d check each of the floors of the prison if she had to. Goldshine had to be here somewhere, she needed to be, because… if she wasn’t…

As Rainbow was running back down the row on her way to the main room where the stairs were, her eyes caught sight of something peculiar. She skidded to a stop and backtracked, looking to see what it was that had caught her attention. One of the cells had something strange about it... She went up to the bars to get a closer look.

On the back wall of the cell, written in large letters, was a single sentence. Only… it wasn’t written just once. It covered the entire wall, possibly a hundred iterations of the sentence, and each one was exactly the same. The words shone red against the stone surface leading Rainbow’s mind to believe that it was written in blood.

“Knowledge of the game... becomes knowledge of self…” Rainbow read, her voice barely above a whisper. “What…? What does that even mean, ‘knowledge of self’? Was this what she was screaming…?”

She reached for her keys, intending to unlock the door and get a closer look. Before she could even grab them though, a voice from the entrance to the hall caught her attention.

“... Rainbow Dash?”

Enter the Blue Magic

“... Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow spun on her heels, her right hand instinctively flying to the hilt of her weapon. Her eyes scanned down the hall, resting on the figure of a pony illuminated by the many sconces lining the walls. The figure stood in front of the only entrance to the hall, its hood concealing its face and the long sleeves of its robe hiding its arms. Rainbow’s grip tightened around the hilt of her sword as she eyed the pony up and down, unable to glean any useful info about the pony’s identity. The flickering light of the hall only seemed to add to the mystique.

A few thoughts flitted through Rainbow’s mind, but only one was important: Everypony in this entire game has been calling me Dark Sword, so …

“How do you know that name?” Her knuckles whitened as she gripped her sword almost painfully.

“That’s–”

“Stand down! Now!”

A voice came from the room beyond the hall, startling both Rainbow Dash and the mysterious pony before her. The hooded figure turned around, taking a defensive stance with it’s arms held up in front of it.

“I said stand down!” the voice repeated, Rainbow finally able to identify it as belonging to a guard. She wasted no time and blasted forwards, intending to bull rush past the hooded pony and take down the new threat.

“Move!” she shouted, the only warning she gave before she slammed through the doorway, knocking the other pony off balance. A cry of pain from behind her reached her ears as she came to a stop directly in front of the guard. She ignored it and put her full attention on her enemy.

The guard was a pegasus like her, except with yellow fur and a blue mane. He wasn’t wearing the typical plate mail of the guards and was instead covered in a complete set of leather armor, studded with metallic sheets. Rainbow’s eyes scanned over his stance as her mind once more jumped straight into combat, revealing to her things that only Dark Sword’s expertise could possibly show her.

Nimble, light on his feet. Strong position, short sword held at a proper angle. Hardened eyes, damaged armor, most likely killed before. Keys on belt hoop imply that he came from an upper floor.

The guards eyes flashed between Rainbow and the pony behind her. “Put your weapons on the ground and hands on your heads! Do it willingly or I’ll have to use force!”

Rainbow concealed a smirk as an idea took root in her head. “Alright,” she replied. With her right hand she pulled out her long sword and with her left she grabbed hold of her shield. She then bent her legs and began to kneel down, her sword and shield in front of her placatingly.

“On the ground!” the guard repeated. His stance softened and his guard lowered as he watched her lower to the ground, presumably in compliance with his order.

Just as Rainbow Dash was about to place her items on the floor, she let out a loud shout and snapped her legs, launching herself forwards and turning her body into a battering ram. She forced her shield straight ahead, connecting directly with the guards shins.

His hooves slid back along the stone floor as his center of gravity was thrown off, forcing his upper body forwards. Rainbow’s head twisted to the side as she saw he was about to land on top of her, his eyes filled with a surprised anger. She had no time to waste and quickly jumped into the next portion of her move.

Having not yet hit the ground, Rainbow thrust her right hand straight down to the floor, opening her palm and dropping her sword in the process. At the same time, her wings extended outwards and flapped down with all their might. The combined actions were enough; Rainbow’s body began to flip forwards, her legs lifting into the air above her and forcing her into a one-armed handstand.

“Raaah!” Her left leg bent at the knee as she threw her hoof towards the guard’s face with all her might. There was nothing he could do to avoid it. The strike connected solidly, the guards momentum forced backwards as Rainbow herself crashed against him as well. The two of them tumbled to the ground in a heap, Rainbow sprawled out on top of him, her shield still on her left arm.

A confident smirk playfully lifted the corners of her lips as she pushed herself to her hooves, certain that the fight was over before it had even begun. Then, her stomach lurched as her legs were suddenly swept out from under her. With a dull thud her head smacked against the stone floor, sending waves of pain and dizziness through her mind. Her hands scrambled to push herself back up as a sickening ball of nausea made her stumble.

A bright light flashed before her eyes as pain lanced through her head, sending her to the floor for a second time. Her vision swam and she barely registered the guard’s own hoof as it lifted from the back of her head. Grimacing waves of pain and nausea gripped at her body, sapping her strength from her muscles. She needed to move, to get back up and continue fighting, but the pain… It was too much. It was all she could do to just keep from falling unconscious.

The guard had other plans, however. As Rainbow attempted to keep her dinner from staining the floor, he had taken the time to stand back up. Even through the haze of pain Rainbow was experiencing, she could still hear the clopping of his hooves as he maneuvered himself to stand directly above her.

“I told you,” he said between labored breaths, “that I’d have to use force.” He snorted as he finished speaking, Rainbow Dash only able to groan in response.

She had to get up, she had to keep fighting, but this pain… It felt as though her head had been split in two. “I… have a hard time… listening to stupidity.”

The guard growled in response as he bent over top of her, one hand stretched down towards her head. Rainbow screamed in pain as he grabbed onto her mane and roughly hauled her up by it, forcing her to her knees. Her stomach twisted as the nausea squirmed through her guts.

“Let her go, now.”

Rainbow Dash whimpered, her eyes screwed shut from a nearly blinding pain. Her hands were weakly fumbling against the guards grip, trying desperately to get free. Without warning, she suddenly felt something incredibly sharp pressed tight against her neck. She opened her eyes, pain stabbing into her pupils and causing her headache to throb even worse. However, there was no other option; she needed to know what was happening.

Had she not been struggling for her life, the very sight before her would have caused her jaw to drop. She had been positioned between the guard and the hooded figure from before, being used as some soft of living shield. A dagger was in the guard’s other hand, pressed tight against her neck as a warning… but the warning wasn’t for her.

The hooded pony was standing before them, its cloak flapping violently in an intangible wind, fighting against the pony’s ankles and wrists. A soft blue light was emanating from the pony, enough to illuminate the entire room.

“I said let her go. I won’t ask again.” Upon finishing the request, the pony lifted both arms and pointed them directly at the guard and Rainbow Dash, the ends of the sleeves sliding back to reveal hands, blue static arcing along them and leaping between each of the pony’s fingers. At the same time, the flapping of the cloak grew so violent that the hood flipped back, revealing the pony’s face for the first time.

Rainbow’s eyes widened as all her pain was momentarily forgotten. The blade against her neck felt like it was a mile away as she stared straight ahead, eyes locked on the one pony that she couldn’t believe she was seeing.

“... Twilight?”

She couldn’t believe it; it really was Twilight. She looked different though, and it wasn’t just because of the weird magic in her hands. There was something about Twilight’s expression… It was harder, stronger; her eyes had changed. They were still soft and compassionate, the same eyes Rainbow used to find herself lost in, but now they held a subtle firmness. A fire burned behind them, fueling Twilight’s actions. Rainbow Dash could only guess what had happened to her in the twenty days she’d been alone here.

“Whatever you’re doing, stop it!” The guard’s tone of voice had shifted; there was less control and more caution. Rainbow couldn’t see his expression, but she was sure that he must be sweating. Nopony would be comfortable with the kind of look Twilight was sending at him.

“You have five seconds to let her go.” Twilight’s eyes narrowed as she shifted her hooves, readjusting her stance. The blue static began arcing between her hands as well as her fingers.

“I said–!”

“Five,” Twilight said, cutting him off mid sentence.

The guard swallowed, his grip on his weapon shaking slightly. Rainbow couldn’t do anything about it though, dizzy as she was and her mane still tightly held in his other hand.

“Four.” A rather large arc of blue lightning lanced between Twilight’s hands.

“Your magic doesn’t scare me!” he cried out, the sound of his teeth clenching reaching Rainbow’s ears.

“Three.” A slight smirk lifted the left side of Twilight’s mouth.

The guard didn’t respond this time, but Rainbow couldn’t see what he was doing. His hands merely continued to shake.

“Two.”

“I’ll cut her head off if you–!”

The room lit up in a brilliant blue light as energy exploded out from Twilight’s hands, a sound akin to a cannon going off rippling through the room. Rainbow Dash screwed her eyes shut and grit her teeth as she waited for the dagger to cut her flesh. Instead of pain, the only thing to reach her ears was the sound of the guard crying out in pain as he released his hold on Rainbow’s mane.

“Ugh!” Rainbow cried out as she fell to the ground, hitting her head against the stone floor for the second time. She rolled onto her side and curled her legs up to her torso as she attempted to stabilize her nausea. Carefully she opened an eye and looked upward.

“...One,” Twilight said, the smirk on her face long gone. “Ponies need to learn not to threaten my friends.”

Once again, Rainbow was reminded of how different Twilight looked now. The way she held herself, the way she frowned, the slight distrust in her eyes. She was still Twilight, but she was ... rougher. Tougher.

Twilight knelt down over Rainbow and looked her in the eye. “With the way he smashed your head to the ground, it looks like you might have a concussion. Can you stand?”

“I… I think so. Let me just try and ...” With a grunt, she put one arm on the ground and attempted to push herself upright. Rainbow grit her teeth however as a sudden pain arced through her mind, shutting off all her perceptions.

Twilight began to fade away before her, her voice muting in the dark void as Rainbow slipped into unconsciousness.

“Dirk, look at this…”

“What is it?”

“I can’t tell. This poor guys armor looks like it was smashed in by something in multiple spots. It must have collapsed in against his lungs.”

Dirk spat on the stone floor, his spit mixing with a pool of blood that was still fresh. While the newbie here was young and inexperienced, Dirk could tell what had caused it without even having to think too hard.

“That’s magic for ya.”

The younger pony stood up, his eyes boggling. “Magic? But there’s no wizards in this town… Well, not any that don’t work for Stoneherd, you know?”

“Yeah, I know.” Dirk’s eyebrows knotted together as he thought about it. Dark Sword was a fighter, not a magician, and she was certainly no magus. Dirk hadn’t met many magic users if he was being honest, but still. He could tell from a mile off that Dark Sword was nothing special in that regard.

“Do you think it was this pegasus o’ yers that we’re after?”

Dirk grit his teeth before he responded. “No.”

“Well then what–”

“She obviously had a friend! It’s that simple!” he yelled as he whirled about on the spot, all of his annoyance and anger ready to boil over. However, as he prepared to knock the lights out of this stupid foal, he suddenly realized that his anger was lowering. A thought entered into his mind, that it was irrational to get mad at somepony for just asking questions.

He sighed. What the hell am I doing?

“Dirk! There’s another problem here!”

“What is it, Firework?” Dirk responded as he began to head over to the hallway that his friend had gone down.

“The bitch is missing!”

“What!? That’s not possible! I watched the front entrance the entire time! Dark Sword never left, and neither did Goldshine!”

“I don’t know, man. Neither of them are here and that nightwatch pony was killed with magic. I think something else happened here.”

“Shit…” Dirk spun around and stormed out of the building, making his way to the courtyard in front of the street.

The cool night air whipped his mane around as the first signs of a storm started to roll in from the north. He looked about, thinking that there must have been something he missed.

“Dammit, Dark Sword…” he muttered beneath his breath as a raindrop hit his forehead. “What the hell happened here?”