Link Start!

Chapters

A New World
Where is Kirito?
What is Asuna Doing?
The Search for Asuna
A Nice Reunion
The Talk
The Search Begins
«The Gleam Eyes»
Restoration and Relaxation
New Friends, Same Family Members
And So It Begins
The Next Hour
Some Extra Things
The Importance of Home
On Their Way
The Real Conversation Begins

A New World

With Asuna

It was over. It was finally all over. The pain of not returning home to the real world, was finally all over. She could finally log out and get to see the one she loved so much. She could finally get to meet him for real. She logged out ever so easily. All the worries, all the problems, all the pain was finally all gone. Nothing stood in the way. It was so close. Everything Asuna and Kirito ever thought of doing together could finally become reality. Finally. It was all really, truly over. Asuna finally woke up, expecting to see a casual hospital room. She was expecting to see Kirito soon. What had happened? She didn't see a hospital room at all. Instead, she found herself waking up in some place entirely different.

This was not home. She was now stuck in yet another dreadful game. Or was it? Asuna began standing. She tried so hard to stand on two legs, but fell failing awkwardly. Questioning herself, she tried one more time, and failed again. After two failed attempts of standing on two legs, she experimented, and tried to stand on four legs. This time she succeeded and felt proud. Soon, that feeling of achievement went straight into confusion as to why she could stand so much easier on all fours. She thought about trying to get her menu open and swiped her hoof- hoof!? She had a hoof, but why? Where was she? This was definitely out of the ordinary. There was one thing that received her a bit. She had her red and white 'Knights of the Blood Oath' uniform on. She checked herself out with her hooves running up and down her body making sure that at least the rest of her body was the same. As she did this, it felt as if she were actually doing this to her actual body. She realized that this was her real body. Her body was a creamish color, and her mane was orange-brownish, and her eyes were a hazel color. She panicked in the slightest way, as she swiped her hoof in a downward motion, the menu did not come up like it was supposed to. The slightest feeling of happiness was mixed with a whole lot of fear was not a good combination.

Asuna couldn't get over the fact that she might never truly get back to the real world, and she might never get to see her family or friends ever again, and worst of all, she might never get to see the one she loved the most; Kirito. Thinking about not ever seeing Kirito again did it. She felt tears threatening to run down her face, as her vision became blurry. Little did she notice that there were two mysterious figures watching the whole thing. They watched her from the very beginning when she was trying to walk on two legs, to the point where they noticed that she was about to cry. At this sight, they stared at each other in confusion. Asuna slowly started to walk forward. She quickly learned how to walk on four legs, and it became a peice of cake for her. Her vision was getting very blurry at this point.

As she scanned the room quickly, she noticed a golden throne with two figures sitting on it. One of them was tall, white, and had a golden necklace of some kind around their neck, and their mane was flowing. The one sitting next to the tall white one looked like the opposite of the white one. This one was shorter, had a dark-blue coat, and it's mane resembled a night sky. There was a black necklace-like thing around their neck, and had the shape of the moon on it. Asuna didn't really care who they were at the moment because she was just looking for help, and didn't care who. She just wanted to get back to Japan, to her family, to her friends, to Kirito.

"H-hey.....can...y-you....p-please.....help m-me.....find....Ki-Kiri-Kirito?" Asuna tried to speak through tears still thinking about Kirito. She was trying extremely hard not to look weak in front of the two figures because right now, the last thing she needed was to be seen as a weak helpless, little-

"Who is this Kirito?" The tall white one asked. That did it. She was done for. Asuna couldn't hold back her tears anymore and broke down crying. At this point she didn't care who was watching. She doesn't even know if he knows that she's trapped somewhere else where he probably couldn't even get to.

"P-please................I need to s-see.........Kiri-Kirito......p-please." Asuna tried to make it clear enough to understand. She knew she couldn't say his name without getting even more sad than she already was. Then, the tall white one stood up, got off the throne and tried to comfort Asuna. It worked a little bit. As soon as Asuna felt a hoof gently resting on her shoulder, she immediately felt better by a little bit. The very presence of the two figures made her feel a better little by little.

"Would you mind telling us your name?" The dark blue one asked. Asuna wiped away whatever tears were still racing to get down her face.

"M-my name is Asuna. A-Asuna Yukki. I'm looking for Kirito." Asuna answered. She had calmed down by now, and could speak a lot better.

"My name is Princess Celestia, and this is my sister Princess Luna. I am the ruler of Equestria, and Luna is the co-ruler." Princess Celestia introduced.

"Now who is this 'Kirito?'"Luna asked curiously.

"He's my uh....he's just a friend of mine. He and I promised each other that we would meet up in the real world after he saved me from ALO." Asuna answered with still a tiny bit of sadness in her voice. She had decided that her relationship with Kirito was none of their business (not to be rude of course, but not everyone needs to know what's going on between her and Kirito.)

"Well, you can stay in the castle for tonight, and tommorow we'll do the best we can to help you find this 'Kirito.'" Celestia said being the kind pony she was. With a wave of her hoof, two brawny guards with golden armor and spears rushed into the room with serious expressions on their faces.

"We'll send two of our guards to assist you in search at 10:00a.m. So be ready to go by then. Alright?" Luna asked as she waited for a response with an un-happy look on her face. Asuna didn't know it, but that was how Luna usually looked. Asuna thought something was wrong, but wasn't sure what to do so she just nodded in agreement, and kept quiet.

Author's Note

Sorry if this chapter seems really short, but I'll have the next chapter up soon.

Where is Kirito?

With Kirito

Kirito didn't hesitate, and took no time at all to log off. He wanted- no he needed to see her. He couldn't stop thinking about her. Then, he suddenly felt as if a bullet from a gun that had just fired entered his head. He winced in pain and shock as the sudden sensation surprised his body. He began clenching his head a bit too tightly with his hands in an attempt to make the pain stop. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful.

The pain went on for about another five minutes. Kirito was almost to the point to where he couldn't take it anymore and let out his warcry, but it came out as a terrible, bloodcurdling, scream of agony. The pain only got worst by the second. Five more minutes went by along with the increasing pain in Kirito's head. He thought that this was the NerveGear's doing, but he had yet to find out what it really was. That of what was really causing this...unbearable agony, was very far off and very different from the NerveGear. The pain had finally stopped after thirty more mere seconds of which felt like an eternity to Kirito. After all, he had been trying his best to deal with it by closing his eyes, and thinking about Asuna. In fact, thinking about her was the only thing that was keeping his strength up enough for him to bare all the pain that had been sitting, and gradually growing in his head. It was finally over, and his long lasting agony had drained out of him all too easily.

As soon as Kirito felt completely relieved of the heavy pain in his head, he shot open his eyes that were vaults with a code that could only be opened by there master. He could immediately tell that he wasn't in his room, on his comfy bed with the glow of the moon to give any light at all. Instead, he felt that he was on a...dirt road?

Kirito took a moment to take in his surroundings barely noticing that the small group of...uh...creatures were slowly, but gradually becoming a crowd. Pretty soon, that crowd had become an insanely large mob. Only then did Kirito finally notice the strange four legged...things.

Suddenly, a purple one, about an inch taller than the rest of the creatures had stepped forward. He could see that it was getting ready to speak.

"What's going on here!?" A strong, but feminine voice asked. She asked loud enough for all the now rediculously large crowd to hear.

"There's a new pony in town, but he's acting pretty strange!" One of the creatures called out. Why did they call him a pony? Surely he wasn't one of these strange creatures that call themselves 'ponies'. Of course, he did know what a pony was, but none of the ones he had heard of or seen had looked like...this.

The purple one looked in the direction of the voice that Kirito (to his surprise and confusion) could understand perfectly.

"Okay. Well let me just talk to him...alone please. None of you know him right? If you do, you can stay, but obviously none of you do, so your all excused. I'm pretty sure you all have better things to do." The lavender 'pony' demanded with obvious, and complete seriousness in her voice.

Just as soon as it had arrived, the huge crowd of ponies had been gone, and left without a trace. It was almost as if they were never there. This didn't bother Kirito one bit though. He just really had to focus on Asuna, and getting to meet her IRL. To his very slight notice, Kirito could feel someone staring at him, but knew who it was. It was the strange lavender pony. Although, something was different about her. She had wings on either sided of her, and a horn. All the other ponies in the crowd had either one of those thing, and some of them didn't have either.

"Hello, and welcome to Ponyville!" the purple pony greeted. She had to look down because Kirito was still laying lazily on the ground.

"Uhm........hi.....thanks.....I guess?......Uhm.......who are you?" Kirito tried to speak through tons of confusion, and the slightest bit of fear in his voice. He tried to sound confident, and strong, but his feelings took over.

Dammit, I blew my chance to make a good first impression. I wonder if it really matters though. I'm sure it doesn't matter though...right? Whatever, I need to find Asuna. It looks pretty late here, but that's not stopping me from getting to her. I sure hope this isn't another game. Where'd my NerveGear go anyway? Never mind that now. Wait a sec, why does this feel like I'm actually here? Like this is the real world? It doesn't make sense. That's not the point right now anyway. Gotta find Asuna. Yeah. That's why I'm here...I hope. Kirito kept the train of thoughts going as it gradually started to gain it's full speed.

"Your welcome. My name is Twilight Sparkle, but you can just call me Twilight." the one that called herself Twilight Sparkle said in an almost way-to-friendly tone as she crashed his speeding train of thoughts in the process. This only made Kirito a little suspicious.

"Thanks....uh...Twilight." Kirito replied with a bit of discomfort in his voice, and a feeling whole lot of awkwardness in his mind.

He looked down at his hooves- hooves!? So its true. He is one of 'them'. At this sight, Kirito pretty much freaked out, but Twilight just stared at him with pure confusion on her face. She couldn't figure out why he was so...awkward to be around, and why he was freaking out so badly. She tried calming him down by resting a thick, gentle, purple hoof on his shoulder.

When Kirito finally calmed himself down, he noticed that was wearing his 'Coat of Midnight,' and had his two swords: 'The Elucidator' and 'The Dark Repulser' resting lazily on his back, there whenever he needed them. He decided to finally just let go, and just go for it.

"Hey....uh...Twilight?" Kirito asked still investigating his new Equine body with his hooves. It felt way too much like he was actually touching himself with these thick, smooth, pale hooves. He was too busy checking himself out, that he almost forgot what was the most important thing of all: Asuna. Kirito's eyes went wide at his mistake. He was so lost in thought that he couldn't hear Twilight now almost screaming out not his name, but another word that didn't even sound close to his name.

"Hey! HEY!!" CAN YOU HERE ME!? ANYPONY HOME!?" Twilight hollered in an attempt to snatch Kirito back into reality.

"Huh?...oh. Sorry about that, it happens sometimes."Kirito replied still recovering from being so violently snatched back into reality.

"Oh. Anyway, what were you going to ask me mister...?"Twilight stopped expecting an answer from Kirito.

"Kirito. Just call me Kirito." he answered with a very slight hint of in-interest in his voice. Unfortunately for him, Twilight could hear that tiny bit of in-interest and raised an eyebrow.

"What's wrong? Did I do something to upset you? I'm sorry if I did."Twilight said starting to feel a bit guilty for expecting that much respect from somepony that didn't even know her.

"No. You didn't do anything. Its just that...I'm looking for...someone. I was going to ask you if you wanted to help me find them. I guess its a too much to ask someone I just met. Its fine. I could just-"

"No, I'll help you, but first, I need to know who this someone is."Twilight said interrupting Kirito.

"Okay, okay. Their name is Asuna. We promised that we would meet up after returning to the real world." Kirito explained in the shortest way possible. Kirito could tell that Twilight was about to speak but moved fast, and cut her off before she could say anything. He knew exactly what she was going to ask.

"Dont ask."

"Alright. We can start in Canterlot, and ask anyone there if they know this 'Asuna' character. After all, its pretty obvious that nopony here knows who you are, let alone this 'Asuna'. I can ask my friends to help too." Twilight suggested.

"W-what!? Why would you go out of your way to help me? Surely you have plans. Right?" Kirito nervously replied as he waved both his hooves in the air. He tried to stand like she did, considering they were pretty much the same species...I think. He only succeeded in failing, and landing awkwardly on top of Twilight.

"Sorry! I'm so sorry!" Kirito nervously reacted as he quickly got up, and tensed up his body (mainly his face) readying himself for a slap on the face as a slight blush had crossed his face. He knew that it would hurt a whole lot more with a hoof than a hand. Two minutes had gone by and he still didn't get the slap he was expecting. When he finally gained the courage to open his eyes to see that Twilight was slightly giggling as blushing real hard, and made it very obvious. She was very bad at hiding her feelings at the moment. Kirito noticed this and giggled a little bit too.

"Oh. That's quite alright Kirito." Twilight replied with a huge, deep red blush on her face.

Kirito tried again, and this time, he was successful (unlike Asuna). He began trying to walk around a bit, and learned almost as quickly as it took him to learn how to fly in Alfheim Online.

"Alright Twilight! When do we start!?" Kirito asked with confidence, and determination in his voice. He was clearly ready to go wherever. It didn't matter what time it was.

"We start first thing tommorow. As you can see 'yawn' I'm very tired. Hey, you wanna stay at my castle for the night?" Twilight requested with a small, shy, humble smile, and a blush. She was slowly starting to get lost in Kirito's obsidian eyes.

Kirito immediately tensed up, and very slightly blushed as he took notice to what Twilight had just asked, and that she was staring straight into his eyes. Almost instantly, memories started crawling back to Kirito. Memories of when he had asked to stay the night at Asuna's, and that punch was not very pleasant. There were a few let's just say, other things that made it slightly less unpleasant. Of course it was wrong and perverted, but guys just can't help themselves can they. Kirito's blush only got a little deeper. Of course, that wasn't the reason why he wanted to stay, so its not as bad as he's making it seem. Plus, that was definitely not the reason Twilight had asked him to stay at her castle. They just met and that would be taking it really fast, and plus, he was already Asuna's and Asuna's alone. Nothing was going to stop him from reaching her, and nothing was going to ever get in the way.

"Hey. Hellooo. Earth to Twilight. Anybody home?" Kirito said gently bring Twilight back.

Twilight immediately snapped out of her trance cast on her by Kirito's obsidian eyes. As she re-entered reality, she instantly looked away, and blushed making it as obvious as ever.

As Twilight and Kirito made their way to Twilight's castle, a question came to Kirito's mind that made him stop in his tracks and blushed as he stared down at the ground. Twilight turned around to check on him.

"What is it now?" She asked with a hint of concern in her voice.

"O-oh...u-uh...its just t-that I couldn't help b-but noticing h-how all of you p-ponies have these strange...marks on your...uh....on your uhm...back...s-side...that's all...I'm sorry if it sounds perveted but I couldn't help it. Please don't slap me....or if you do...please d-dont make it hurt too much." Kirito asked with a huge wave of warmth crossing his face, turning that area an unbelievably deep shade of redish-pink as he waved both hooves in the air defensively. Twilight could only laugh at his reaction to those types of questions and knew exactly how to tease him.

"Oh. You mean these?" Twilight asked as she turned her body to a side view so that Kirito could see her mysterious mark on her...backside better. Kirito instantly looked at anything but that one spot on Twilight's flanks and blushed. That was exactly what he meant.

"You know what? Forget I ever even asked that. Let's just go to the castle and get some rest. Sound good?" Kirito asked with still a trace of a blush left on his face.

Twilight nodded in agreement with a slight blush of her own on her face.

Author's Note

And that's a wrap for now. Please tell me if I got the name of Kirito's blue sword right. I'm not sure. Anyway, see you next chapter. StuffHappens89 out! (Yes I know that this chapter was a lot better than the first, which is why I'm going to update it when I have the chance.)

What is Asuna Doing?

With Asuna

Oh Kirito, I hope I can find you. No I don't hope I will, I know I will. Who knows? Maybe Kirito will find me instead. Why can't we just finally see each other for real? Its not fair. Why are we the only to get trapped here? There's got to be more than just me and possibly Kirito here. Oh well if it is though, there isn't really much I can do about it though. Asuna was left alone to rest on her surprisingly comfy bed with her thoughts. It was just then when she looked at the not-so-modern clock near her bed. She was used to the 24-hour clocks she would see all over Japan. She could see that it was-

Oh no. It was 9:30! She was supposed to be ready to meet the guards in the throne room at 10:00! Asuna usually tahes about 20 minutes to get ready to start the day, and she knew it would take a lot more than ten minutes just to get there at a walking speed.

"Hey guards?!" Asuna called out faintly. Then, there they were. The next time Asuna blinked, two brawny...creatures with wings came to sight. One of them was a very light shade of grey, and the other one was a light shade of brown. They came to her call with the infamous, serious faces that they always had on. It was as if they were wearing masks that were impossible to take off.

Asuna slowly made her way to the guards until she was about two feet away from them. This made both of them blush. Somehow, she had taken off those masks that no one was supposed to be able to take off. She did it ever so easily too. Of course, being the observative person she was, she could easily notice the obvious blushes that the guards were trying to hide on their faces. When she saw this, the smiled her infamous smile, as she slightly tilted her head as she let out a short hum of laughter escape her lips. This only made the guards blush even harder. Asuna didn't have any intention to seduce them though. She was just teasing them. She knew that she belonged to Kirito, and Kirito belonged to her. She would never do anything like that to him.

The guards eventually coughed a fake cough in a successful attempt to get rid of there blushes. Asuna opened her mouth getting ready to speak.

"What's the fastest way to get to the throne room? I have to get there in ten minutes or less.Think you can do that for me?" Asuna asked politely.

"There's a corridor not to far from here that could get you there in about eight minutes. We'll take you there if you like." The grey guard answered with a small blush relaying across his face.

"Sure! Thank you. Well, what are we waiting for? Lets go!" Asuna said with pure determination in her voice.

The three made their way to the throne room running with the spped of sound. Asuna could hear the sound of the armor clanking that the guards were making every time they hit the ground with their enormous, muscular hooves. They made it to the throne room doors in about six minutes, and could not loose anymore time. The guards had opened the insanely large doors way to easily. These doors reminded Asuna of the ones that led to the room of the boss:'The Gleam Eyes'. Asuna gradually, but slowly made her wy to the middle of the room. The guards were watching her for you know, safety of course. Yeah. The guards were watching her for safety reasons. Not because she was beautiful or that they liked her or anything like that of course.

Asuna kept walking down the corridor-like room with determination on her face. Both the regal, and majestic figures, and the guards were staring at her with sincere seriousness on their faces. There were about twenty guards in the room total from what Asuna could count. They were on either side of the room making a straight line with ten on one side, and ten on the other. Whenever Asuna would look at one of them, that certain one would slightly blush and look in the other direction. The two majestic figures let a giggle of amusement escape their lips.

Asuna had finally stopped when she was about seven feet away from them. The tall, white one named Celestia opened her mouth getting ready to speak.

"These are the best patrol guards we have. Let me know when you find your friend, and bring him here when your ready. I want to get the chance to meet him." Celestia kindly said.

"As do I." her sister Luna added.

"Thank you! You don't know how much this means to me!" Asuna thanked as she bowed. It was slightly harder to do so because she was this Equine creature.

"Or how much Kirito means to me." she added under her breath. She made sure that the two majesties couldn't hear it.

"Your very welcome." Celestia said with the gentle, and kind voice she always had.

Asuna walked out of the room along with all of the guards. Including the two that guided her to her destination (yes they're that into her). They soon realized what they were doing, and left in a hurry to where neither one of them would be visible. They talked for a bit, then continued their daily work.

"Where should we look first miss Asuna?" One of the guards asked politely as they stepped forward. This one looked just like all the others. In fact, they all looked exactly the same with just different colors (that rhyme though(oops. Broke the fourth wall. My bad I'll stop)). The only difference was that he was white, and had a blue mane.

"Well, what are the two most likely place that he could be? Wait. How did you know my name?" Asuna asked with a hint of suspicion in her voice.

"Princess Celestia told us about how she needed us to help you search for your friend and gave us your name so that we would know who you were." The same white one answered with complete calmness in his voice.

"Oh. Okay. Well anyway, where are the two most likely places he could be?" Asuna asked in the strong, commander-like tone she used when she was second-in-command for the 'Knights of the Blood Oath' guild. Memories started crawling back to her. Ones about planning boss raids, and fighting, and victories, and defeats that she shared with her guild of red and white.

"That would be here in Canterlot, and Ponyville." The same white one from before had answered.

"Alright. Let's get to it. We'll split up into two groups. One group will patrol around here, and the other will patrol around 'Ponyville'. The group for 'Ponyville' will be group A, and the group that will search here will be group B. I'll go with group A. Report to me when you find who we're looking for, and we'll regroup right here. Sound good?" Asuna explained as she still had the commander-like tone.

"Yes, but there's one thing you missed." this time, a brown one stepped out of the crowd of twenty brawny guards to speak up.

"And what's that?" Asuna asked now curious of what she had missed to tell them.

"What does this 'someone' look like?" the brown one asked.

"He might be wearing a black coat, and his hair looks a bit ruffled and is black. His eyes are also black, and he's a bit taller than I am. And his skin is kind of pale. A little more pale than mine." Asuna described Kirito almost perfectly. The only thing she forgot was that he was her boyfriend.

"Alright! You heard her, let's go!" the brown one ordered.

"C'mon group B. We got work to do." Asuna ordered as her own group followed her.

Asuna kept pacing back and forth. One of the guards rolled their eyes and stepped forward.

"Um. Miss Asuna? Do you need me to lead you to the carriages?" He asked kindly with a very faint blush on his face that seemed like it was never supposed to do that.

Asuna simply nodded, and they were on their way. Most of the ponies in the area around where Asuna and the guards walked stopped to stare (most of them were stallions of course and most of the mares scoffed at the stallions whenever they looked at them). Asuna could easily ignore it and keep walking. She even managed to politely reject the ones that had the guts to introduce themselves and asked to go out with her.

Soon enough they made it to their destination: the carriages. The guards hooked up their heavy armor to a carriage and flew off to Ponyville. They looked like Santa Claus riding his sleigh in mid June. Also, with that many guards pulling one sleigh- I mean carriage (sorry) made it go really fast, and only took about ten minutes to reach Ponyville. Of course Asuna was the one sitting in the back, taking in the view of valley from this height. Even at high speed she could see the beautiful sight.

At the last two minutes, the guards closest to Asuna warned her that they were going to land. And almost instantly, they were on the ground. Not only that, but were already determined to go patrolling like they loved their job (but we all know the real reason why they were so ready).

The Search for Asuna

With Kirito

"Hey, wake up sleepy head!" a familiar voice had greeted.

"A-Asuna?" Kirito mumbled to himself. He had heard Asuna's voice, but was it really hers? No way. It couldn't be. Kirito sprung up, and shot open his eyes and jerked his head left and right in a desperate search for Asuna's smile, or face at least. Sadly, it wasn't Asuna. It was someone entirely different. It was Twilight.

"GAH!! WHAT THE HELL!?" When did you get here!?" Kirito jumped as he said this. His head was still jerking from left to right, still desperately scanning the room for Asuna. He finally gave up, and faced the fact. He nearly fell off the bed that he had slept on that night.

"Watch your language! There's a baby dragon in the doorway!" Twilight said trying to scold Kirito and whisper at the same time, which did not sound too good.

"I have a feeling you don't know how whispering works." Kirito was straight forward, and to the point.

"Sh-shut up." Twilight almost mumbled as she punched his shoulder playfully, and blushed slightly.

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry. You just shocked me. That's all." Kirito said with a tired tone. Twilight kind of reminded him of Asuna when she got mad. To Kirito, it was cute when she did. The way she puffed up her cheeks, and pouted, and sometimes blushed. That always made Kirito laugh.

"Well you should be. Its your fault anyway. Now hurry up and get ready. You wanna find this 'Asuna' character don't you?" Twilight said trying to motivate him to get up.

"Okay, okay. Geez, calm down. And of course I wanna find Asuna." Kirito replied with a slightly annoyed tone.

"Good. Now hurry up. Breakfast is waiting for you on the table. If you want warm pancakes you better not take your time." Twilight said a little agitated by how slow he moved.

Spike was watching the whole thing from the doorway, and giggled a little when he saw Twilight hit Kirito. He thought that she liked Kirito but wasn't sure if his love theory was right so didn't bother to say anything. That is until Twilight came walking out of Kirito's room and Spike followed.,

"Hmmmm?" Spike pushed Twilight to say it. Twilight was most likely going to deny it, that would be the clue that it was true.

"'Hmm' what?" Twilight asked curiously. She quickly caught on though, and knew exactly what she would do. Deny it.

"If your trying to imply that I like Kirito, your wrong. I like him, but as a friend. Not the...other thing. Geez Spike." Twilight defensively responded to a question that had not even been asked yet. She liked him. Spike could tell. He has known Twilight long enough to be able to tell when she's telling a lie. For one, she was horrible I mean horrible at it. In fact, she was so terrible at lying that anypony would be able to tell when she was lying.

"Okay, okay. Whatever you say Twilight. But you and I both know that you like him. Its okay. Your secret is definitely safe with me." Spike tried to reassure Twilight that it was alright as they both walked down the long corridor and kept quiet until they reached the dining room.

"Hey Spike?" Twilight began.

"Ya Twilight?" Spike replied.

"Thanks." she said as she pulled him into a hug.

Spike felt a wave of warmth and accomplishment when he got her to spill the beans. He also felt confidence, and a little protective knowing that he had a secret to protect. It was usually easy for him to keep a secret, and it was a very easy job. Any job can get real hard at anytime though, and spike kept that in mind.
Thirty more seconds went by until the embrace of the two was broken by the sound of Kirito's voice calling out Twilight's name. Twilight could hear that he was having a difficult time finding the dining room and went to go follow his voice until she had finally found him.

"Hey, the dining room is this way you know." Twilight said pointing in the direction from whence she came. Twilight just rolled her eyes when she saw Kirito look at her hoof in confusion. She face hoofed and took hold of Kirito with her magic (much to Kirito's surprise).

"Hey! What are you doing? Put me down!" Kirito demanded. He knew what she was doing but those words were the ones that chose to come out of his mouth.

"You should know. I told you all about us ponies last night. Remember?....ughhh. Nevermind." Twilight groaned as she easily carried him down the corridor against his will.

They finally made it to the place they needed to be, and opened the regular-sized, crystal-like doors. Kirito went to go sit by Spike and ended up eating cold pancakes. He tried to get there in time so that he could have warm pancakes. He decided that he wasn't hungry at all, and need up staring at the saucer-like objects (he had two pancakes).

Later

"I hope we can find Asuna." Kirito worriedly said to himself. Spike heard it though. He also noticed the worried look that started to cross Kirito's face. He didn't know how to approach this any other way. His way of solving worry problems was usually effective. Spike walked up to Kirito's side, hopped on his back (which Kirito didn't really mind), and whispered in a soothing tone:

"Don't worry Kirito, we'll find Asuna soon enough. Besides, as long as you got me with you, no stone will go unturned!" Spike said reassuringly and soothingly.

"Thanks Spike." Kirito calmy said. He gradually eased up his worry-tensed face, and calmed down.

Suddenly, he heard armor clanking in the background and looked over to see two guards that seemed like they were patrolling, but he didn't even notice that there was a feminine figure walking in front them. It wasn't even that though. It was because the guards were so h brawny and huge that the figure could easily be hidden by them. After all, he did only have a backside view and did not want to stare for long (if ya know what I mean 'wink'). But when Spike turned his attention to that area, he had a side view and actually saw the feminine figure walking in front of the two guards. Of course, Spike never got a full description of Asuna. The only information he ever got was that she might be wearing her 'Knights of the Blood Oath' uniform. The colors of it were red and white, and possibly silver (for the breast plate that Asuna always had on with her uniform). Spike wanted to be sure though. He was about to ask Kirito to give him a good, full description of Asuna when he noticed them turn back around to reveal their backsides to him and that only made Spike curious as to why they turned to reveal a side view anyway.

Then, as if it were on cue, he saw a pony walking in the opposite direction of the small group of three.

"Hey Kirito." Spike called out for Kirito's attention and got it.

"Yeah? What is it Spike?" Kirito was still staring at nothing as his thoughts became a running train.

"What exactly does Asuna look like?" he asked he was still stared at the small group of ponies.

"Well, she has orange-brownish hair- I mean mane, and she has hazelnut eyes, and she has the cutest smile- uh never mind that part. Okay? Okay." Kirito said beginning to let a blush cross his face when he mentioned Asuna's cute smile.

"Maybe those guys over there could help us then." Spike said as he pointed in the direction of the guards, and the feminine figure.

"Wait before we go, why did you decide to start the search here in Ponyville instead of Canterlot anyway?" Spike curiously asked.

"Because me and Twilight figured that we were already here, so why not start here?" Kirito answered as he began to eagerly walk over to the little treo of ponies with Spike still lazily sitting on his back.

"I hope they know where she is. I need to find her. I couldn't bare having a life without her." Kirito mumbled to himself. This time, he made sure that Spike couldn't hear him.

Author's Note

All right! And that's a wrap for now. See you guys next chapter. StuffHappens89, out!

A Nice Reunion

With Kirito

I hope these guys can help us. Kirito thought to himself with an eager look on his face. Spike took notice to this, and tried to comfort Kirito by resting his claws gently on his shoulder.

"Don't worry Kirito. This is just a hunch, but maybe they could be looking for you." Spike said reassuringly.

Kirito and Spike were closing in on the guards when the two saw a familiar purple alicorn talking with one of the guards. Or at least, it looked that way. But for some reason, neither one of the guards' mouths were moving. He was about to try and call Twilight's attention to him when she glanced at him.

"Actually, Kirito is right behind you." Twilight said as she ended the conversation, and pointed to him.

When Kirito saw the feminine figure with a 'Knights of the Blood Oath' uniform on turn around to stare at him with hazelnut eyes, Kirito's excitement and happiness had overwhelmed him, but he somehow managed to look calm and speak calmly.

"Asuna? Is that you?" Kirito asked as a spark of joy, happiness, and excitement jolted through his body. In fact, he was so happy that you could see it in his eyes. His face only let on with a small, warm smile.

"Kirito!?" Asuna exclaimed with overwhelming joy in her voice. Her hazelnut eyes shimmered, and sparkled and began tearing up.

"I thought I might never see you again!" Asuna exclaimed with tears now running down her cheeks, as she tackled Kirito. She passionately kissed Kirito as he happily returned it. Their loving embrace lasted for about thirty more seconds. When they finally broke their kiss, Asuna helped pull Kirito up, and blushed as she remembered that there other ponies around. Kirito saw this, and beamed with a short hum of laughter. The two guards gave Kirito a scornful look and turned around, not wanting to see the girl their dreams be some pony else's.

Kirito and Asuna began walking side by side beginning the round up for all the other guards that were still patroling around the small town. Of course, the two guards that were already with them were keeping an eye on Kirito, and stayed closely behind the two lovers.

Later

All the guards in group A were finally rounded up. They then began to hook themselves up to the golden, chariot-like carriage. Asuna and Kirito were the passengers. Twilight and Spike decided that they would catch up with them later.

"So why does Princess Celestia want to see me?" Kirito asked curiously. Apparently he missed something important while Asuna was explaining why they were going to Canterlot because she punched him on his right arm as her cheeks began to puff up, and a frown seemed to cross her face. Kirito found it cute when she was angry. He never told her that though.

"I told you already, but apparently you weren't listening! I told you she wanted to see you because she wanted to meet you when I finally found you. Ughh. Idiot." Asuna mumbled the last part. Unfortunately, Kirito heard it and without warning, was soon hovering over Asuna. He bent down a little and put his mouth close to her ear.

"But I'm your idiot." Kirito whispered causing Asuna to jump a little at the air current near her left ear.

"Oh, don't even start with that." Asuna firmly demanded as she tried to push Kirito away.

"Why not?" Kirito asked with a slightly mischievous smirk on his pale face.

"Because one, there are at least nine other ponies here, and two, we're about to be at Canterlot." Asuna argued.

Kirito just shrugged in defeat as he sat very close to Asuna, almost touching her. In the background, he could hear some of the guards snort, and groan under their breath out of jealousy. He just smiled that infamous smile, and looked at Asuna who was obviously not angry anymore, but still acted like it. Kirito knew that he could easily make her smile and wrapped one of his pale, muscular hooves around her shoulder. Asuna blushed in the slightest and smiled in defeat.

"Fine, but this is the only time okay?" Asuna sighed as she whispered in Kirito's ear. In return, Kirito kissed her forehead as he romantically pulled her closer to him.

Then, almost instantly, the carriage had landed without warning, and skidded to a stop.

"Sorry about that ma'am but we didn't want to ruin your time with him." One of the white guards politely apologized. Asuna knew exactly why they landed like that though. She also didn't really care too much about it. She had who she wanted- no who she needed and that was all that mattered for now.

"Could you guys do me one more favor before you go?" Asuna asked with a warm smile. One of the chocolate-brown guards beat the race with the others to answer.

"What is it?" The guard asked in the politest way possible.

"Could you round up group B and tell them that they can stop patrolling Canterlot now?" Asuna asked politely.

"Anything for you ma'am." The guard answered with pure admiration in his eyes. He bowed down slightly, in an attempt to hide that admiration, and walked back to the rest of group A.

"You know they're all into you right?" Kirito asked in teasing tone.

"Yeah, I do. II even like to tease them sometimes." Asuna answered with a giggle.

"Well, guess we'd better get going if the Princess wants to meet me." Kirito said with his casually chill tone.

"Yeah, I guess we should. Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Asuna said with a determined look on her face.

"Right." Kirito answered as he began walking at Asuna's pace.

Kirito and Asuna earned a few glances and stares from both mares, and stallions. They could tell that they were being stared at, but very easily brushed it off and kept walking. They stopped to ask for directions every now and then just to make sure that Asuna wouldn't get them lost. Soon enough, they were at the palace entrance with at least thirty guards staring at them with spears aiming right for their faces (most of the spears were aimed at Kirito of course. There were only about three to five spears pointing at Asuna (of course)).

A taller, more muscular one suddenly came out of the crowd of guards. His armor was different than theirs, and had the same symbol as his flank. His cutiemark. His helmet was longer, and looked more protected than that of any other guard that either Asuna or Kirito had ever seen before. His coat was white, and his mane and tail were two different shades of blue. His hooves were way more muscular, and looked way more powerful than that of Kirito's. He waved his right oversized hoof in a downward motion and made his way to the two. Now that they both had a closer look, they could see that this one's horn was much longer than anyone else's. Kirito and Asuna both thought that he was their a leader. Maybe their general or something like that. It only makes sense.

"Hello, my name is Shining Armor. Can I help you?" Shining Armor said with sincere kindness and gentleness in his voice. It was such a chill tone that it reminded Asuna of Kirito when he spoke regularly.

"Hi. I'm Kirito, and this is Asuna. Princess Celestia asked to see us." Kirito answered as he introduced him and Asuna. Shining Armor smiled warmly, and held out a humongous hoof towards the door.

"Right this way." He pointed. His plan was to guide them there if they needed it.

The Talk

With Kirito, Asuna, and Shining Armor

"How big is this place?" Kirito asked with pure amazement in his voice. He had been seen the beautiful, and outstanding sights in SAO, but this amazingly huge, and regal palace's beauty was putting that of SAO to the test.

"Oh it's pretty big. That's why I'm guiding you through it." Shining said with a tone of friendliness in his strong, firm, voice.

"Hey Shining Armor? I'm just curious, but, what's your job here?" Asuna asked as she stared at one of the tapestries in the seemingly long corridor. They were smooth, glass that could not easily be hidden by the shadow of the cold, marble walls.

"I'm captain of the royal guard. There isn't really much to do though. We don't get threats here. At least not dangerous ones. The closest thing we do have to a threat currently is a raging heard of insanely mental...bunnies." Shining Armor drooped his head a little, but kept walking. Then, a question similar to Asuna's came to the thick surface of his mind. But before he could ask it, Kirito spoke up.

"That kinda reminds me of you Asuna." Kirito said with a warm smile on his face. Him and Asuna had been really silent ever since they started the rediculously long walk. Sometimes, Shining Armor would even look over his shoulder to see if they were still there. Of course, the clip-clop of their hooves would keep him from doing it half the time.

Asuna turned her head and almost undivided attention towards Kirito. Whatever attention wasn't on him, was on the sights, and beauty, and brightness of the white castle. Soon enough, it was all on Kirito, and hazelnut eyes stared into onyx ones.

"Oh really? How so?" Asuna asked innocently.

"Well, you used to be second-in-a-command for the 'Knights of the Blood Oath' guild." Kirito answered still wearing that same warm, welcoming smile on his face.

"Oh. Yeah. That. Well, I'm not anymore. It was kind of fun though." Asuna said as she felt a slight wave of warmth brush onto her face.

"So you were a high-ranked commander too huh? Of course, I still am, but that's besides the point. That's amazing. What about you Kirito?" Shining Armor sounded more like a child interested in hearing a story rather than a 'captain of the royal guard.'

"Me? Huh. I was just considered a beater- I mean a regular old solo player," Kirito answered, "Some people did call me 'The Black Swordsman' too though." Kirito finished with a sigh. Shining Armor luckily didn't quite catch the part about being a beater as half of his attention was focused on where he was leading the two.

"Oh Kirito, your anything but a regular old solo player. And your the best player I know." Asuna said as she went to Kirito's direction and slightly leaned on him. She was careful as to not lean on him too much, or they could both probably fall on their sides.

"Wait a sec. What do you mean...player?" Shining Armor asked with curiosity taking over his voice.

Asuna sighed a long, sad sigh and closed her eyes as she shook her head. This invited Kirito to explain it instead. He tried to keep it short, simple, and easy to understand as possible, but it still took a long time for him to fully explain it. When he finally finished his explanation, they were already at their destination. The huge, tall doors reminded Kirito of the doors that led to the boss room of <>. He of course, knew that there wasn't going to be a fight like that ever again in a very long time though.

"Well, we're here. Guess I should go now. The princesses are expecting you, so go on." Shining Armor encouraged as he opened the two humongous doors with his magic way too easily.

"Thanks." Kirito and Asuna said in unison.

Asuna entered first, and Kirito entered shortly after. The two walked calmly down the long, hallway-like room and stopped when they were a mere five feet away from the golden throne that fairly stood out to the two. It was a beautiful, golden butterfly caught in a swarm of mosquitoes compared to the tapestries. There was no way to describe it all with just one word. It was impossible. Not even one hundred words could describe the shine, the elegance, the beauty, the amazing golden piece that was the throne. The white figure of Princess Celestia only completed it. Luna however, looked as if she were a trophy on the wrong shelf. The throne was clearly only made for one and that one alone. No other exceptions. Luna was in that particular spot beside Celestia. She, for some reason did not have an elegant throne of her own, but she was perfectly fine with it it seemed.

"Good evening Asuna." Princess Celestia greeted. Luna just stayed quiet and to the side almost as if she was never there.

"Good evening Princess Celestia." Asuna greeted back as she bowed. She immediately noticed that Kirito was not bowing and pulled him down to bow with her. As both Celestia and Luna saw this, they giggled to themselves a bit. Soon enough, they gave the go-ahead to the two to stop bowing.

"So this is Kirito?" Luna asked staring him down. Kirito was slightly intimidated by that stare. Especially since it was on the face of Luna. For some reason, he was actually a little afraid of Luna.

"Yes your majesty." Asuna answered with that strong voice of hers that always made Kirito smile.

"Hello Kirito, I am Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria. And this is my sister, Princess Luna, co-ruler of Equestria." Celestia introduced officially beginning the conversation.

"You may call me Luna if you like." Luna said with that same stare. It was as if she was daring him to mess up.

"Yes your majesty." Kirito responded.

Asuna could see that Kirito's body stiffened a little and walked over to him to help loosen him up. Her way of doing so was just leaning on him slightly as they sat there. She would occasionally whisper in his large pony ear to calm down and that it was alright. Whatever was bothering him. The two majestic figures saw this and realized that they were more than just close friends. They just smiled warmly at the sight until it was over.

After about two minutes, Asuna could feel Kirito's body relax and moved away a little. He locked eyes with her and beamed slightly. His onyx eyes were deep into hazelnut ones as Asuna was about to speak.

"Better?" She asked loving, and caringly.

"Better." Kirito replied.

"So you two are more than friends then?" Luna asked tiredly.

Both Asuna and Kirito blushed slightly at the comment and nodded.

"So that's why he's so important to you." Celestia commented.

"I hope you don't mind but, can we continue this conversation 'yawn' tommorow?" Kirito asked, his voice sounding tired.

"Kirito," Asuna mumbled as she side punched him softly, "You jerk, don't be rude!"

The two royal sisters giggled to themselves at the humorous sight.

"Oh no, its quite alright. You can stay in one of the castle sweets tonight if you like. Tommorow, we will talk for real, and gather some more info on you two. But until then, we all need some rest. Including me." Celestia suggested.

"Thank you, we won't be sleeping here tommorow night though, we plan on getting home soon." Kirito thanked.

In one of the castle sweets

"Hey Asuna, I was wondering," Kirito began as Asuna turned her head in his direction," how will we get back home? I mean, this place is nice, but I'm starting to miss my family and our friends." the more Asuna listened the more longing the expression on her face became.

"Come to think of it, I am starting to miss all of our friends. I haven't seen any of them since SAO." Asuna responded.

"Well, we'll just have to ask the princesses about it tommorow then. But for now, I'm with you. And thats all that really matters." Kirito said with a beam beginning to cross his face. Asuna began to blush at the comment, and looked at Kirito with pure love in her beautiful eyes.

"Oh you." Asuna stated with care in her voice.

Asuna realized that she had no sleeping clothes and was a tad bit angry. And of course there was only one bed in the seemingly five-star hotel room. She didn't know what to do. Then, she saw Kirito climb into the bed naked! She swiftly looked away until she heard the faint sound of rustling bed sheets dissipate. She guessed it was alright since pretty much every pony she saw had pretty much nothing on their backs and every little piece of their bodies was visible. But to them, it seemed to be typical behavior. So, she slowly took off her 'KOB' uniform and climbed into the opposite side of Kirito. She could hear his faint breaths and could feel the covers slightly moving in a rising and falling motion as he did so. Soon enough, she herself had drifted off to sleep.

With Twilight

Twilight was on her way to sugarcube corner because she had asked her friends to meet up there to talk. However, she had to hurry because it was a rather rainy night in Ponyville. She took Spike with her so that he wouldn't be home alone. She always took him everywhere anyways, so no big deal, only this time, he couldn't shut up about Kirito. It annoyed her almost to the point where she couldn't take it anymore. But she knew that would have to keep it in as best she could.

"Man, I may not have known him for very long, but Kirito is so cool! I mean, the way he carries two swords on his back, his black coat, his cool looks. I wish I could be as cool as him one day." Spike kept going on and on about Kirito this, and Kirito that. Twilight was really getting annoyed. Especially since she agreed with more than half of it. This only angered her more. Was she...jealous of Asuna? Or was she just getting all worked up because of Spike's running mouth? Could she seriously still like Kirito even after what she had seen today?

"Hellooo. Earth to Twilight. Hey! Are you listening?" Spike asked as he waved his small hand-like talons back and forth in front of Twilight's face. She eventually snapped out of the trance that brought upon herself. She looked around and realized that she was already at the door of sugarcube corner. Twilight entered the sweet-filled shop only to be greeted with warm smiling faces. As she made her way to her best friends, their smiles only seemed to grow.

"Hey Twilight, so what did you want us all to meet here for?" RainbowDash asked curiously. As she said this, the rest of the group began to say 'yeah' simultaneously.

"Yes, do tell darling." Rarity said with a hint of curiousness in her voice.

"Right. Okay, so there was this new pony that arrived in town yesterday and his name was-"

"HisnameisKirito,andheobviouslyhasneverbeenherebeforeandhewaslookingforsomeonenamedAsunaanditturnedoutshewaslookingforhimtooandtheyeventuallyfoundeachotherandleftofftocanterlot *gasp* Right?" Pinkie swiftly said in a very fast, but surprisingly understandable voice.

"How did you know that?" an awe-struck Twilight asked.

"Just a hunch." Pinkie answered cheerfully.

"Yeah, ahm pretty sure that's not what Twilight here was gonna say." Applejack butted in.

"No, no, that pretty much sums it all up." Spike said calmly.

"So, this 'Kirito' pony. Was he nice?" Fluttershy shyly asked in her normally soft, shy tone.

"Oh yes. He was very kind actually, and a little funny too. Hmm." Twilight said suddenly feeling a wave of warmth surface to her face.

"Looks like some pony has a crush!" Rarity teased.

"Aw dang. Is it really that obvious?" Twilight ruefully stated.

"Yep. As plain as day." Applejack admitted.

"Don't worry Twilight, we won't tell any pony." Fluttershy piped up.

"You like Kirito? Even after you saw how him and Asuna reacted when they saw each other?" Spike said with pure shock in his voice.

"Wait a sec. Twilight," Rainbow began, "how did they react?"

"Well, as soon as Asuna saw him, she tackled him and kissed him...and he kissed her back." Twilight began to finally realized that her feelings for Kirito were forbidden as he was already with Asuna.

"Twilight darling? Are you alright?" Rarity concerning my asked.

Twilight's head drooped majorly out of sadness. But she still answered anyway.

"Yah. I'll be fine. I just have to somehow get rid of these feelings for Kirito. But that's not why I asked you all to come here tonight. I asked you to come here because I want to ask you guys to come with me to Canterlot tommorow morning." Twilight explained as her heavy, drooped head moved back to its original spot.

"Yeah!" The five ponies hollered simultaneously.

"Great! Well, that's all I think. Unless you have any questions for me, I'll be going now." Twilight enthusiastically informed.

"I would like to know more about this 'Asuna' pony that you mentioned earlier darling." Rarity requested.

"Well-" Twilight explained everything she knew about Asuna (which wasn't much) to Rarity as the rest of the group began their own side conversations.

"Hey Twi, what time do we have to be at the train station?" Rainbow asked. She had been patiently, and politely waiting for Twilight to finish talking about Asuna.

"Be there at 10:00a.m." Twilight answered casually.

And with that, RainbowDash trotted back to the rest of the ponies and informed them about it too.

"Alright guys, I'm gonna go now okay? Come on Spike." Twilight called out.

"Bye!" The mini crowd of six multicolored ponies hollered simultaneously as they waved their hooves in Twilight's direction.

Later At Twilight's Castle

Twilight was silently enjoying one of her many books in her labyrinth-like library when a slight spark of light in front of her face caught her attention. It happened to be Spike's green dragon breath that usually meant that Celestia had sent a letter to her. She had absolutely no idea what Spike was doing up this late, and figured he must have been fairly tired.

"*yawn* here." Spike tiredly handed over the letter with a golden stamp on it. It surprisingly had not a scorch mark on it (which was not a surprise to neither one of them).

"Spike, go back to bed. I know your tired." Twilight caringly stated.

Spike happily did so (or at least it seemed. The only thing presented on his face was a tired, lazy look with baggy eyes. Twilight rolled her eyes with a smile slowly crossing her face. She opened the letter easily with her magic. On the cream colored paper read:

Dear Princess Twilight,

I need you and your friends to come to Canterlot immediately. Kirito, and Asuna are both already here with me. This also involves Shining Armor, and Cadence. You will learn more about the situation once you arrive. I've sent a train there and its on it's way.

Yours Truly,

Princess Celestia

The Search Begins

In Kirito's and Asuna's Castle Suite the Next Morning

"Do you think you could probably fight Gleam Eyes without almost killing yourself?" Asuna jokingly asked. Sure she was joking, but there was still a hint of seriousness in her voice.

"Sure thing. Just don't go flying too far away from the fight when you get punched." Kirito threw back with the same exact tone as Asuna.

"Sh- Shut up! May I remind you that my health bar wasn't almost gone...unlike someone I know. My god." Asuna said as she playfully hit Kirito's shoulder.

"So are you ready to go to through with the search today, or does cute wittle Kirito-kun need his beauty rest?" Asuna teased. Kirito just rolled his eyes as he put on his 'Cloak of Midnight' and 'equipped' his to swords: 'The Dark Repulsor,' and 'The Elucidator.'

Asuna took a much longer time to get ready than Kirito because she cared about how her hair looked (unlike a certain black swordsman). Kirito made his hair (or rather mane) look decent but apparently not decent enough according to Asuna because she was brushing his hair a little too much. It looked a little awkward considering she had to do it with her mouth.

"Okay, okay. I get it Asuna, I need to brush my hair 100x more." an annoyed Kirito said as he rolled his eyes. Asuna eventually stopped, but only because she had to finish combing, and brushing her hair (Yeah. I'm just gonna call it hair for the two). Kirito used this opportunity wisely and made a great escape to the hallway right outside the room.

"Kirito!" Twilight greeted as Kirito jumped high up in the air with a slight...let's just say...yelp...yeah...yelp of surprise.

"What the HELL!?" Kirito loudly yelled. He was more surprised than he thought (geez this is sad). Then Asuna heard Kirito's...yelp and came to his apparently much needed rescue (whatever).

"What? What happened?...oh. My god Kirito. Your such a baby. Good morning Twilight." Asuna said with a slightly agitated tone.

"Good morning Asuna. I just came to tell you that there's some breakfast ready in the dining hall. Princess Celestia let us stay for the night too." Twilight informed.

"Are there pancakes?" Kirito excitedly asked.

"Mhm! Different kinds too." Twilight answered as she thought about whatever flavors she was going to eat.

"Ooooh. What kinds of flavors?" Kirito's mouth was starting to water. He didn't even noticed the angered look that over took Asuna's face.

"Well there's all kinds of different flavors. But you should see for yourself." Twilight said as she giggled at Kirito's reaction to such things.

"Wow. That almost sounds better than-," Kirito began as he glanced over at Asuna who was now very intimidating for some reason,"never mind." Kirito finished as he quickly looked down at his hooves.

"Let's get going. Don't want to miss the pancakes now do we Kirito?" Asuna angrily teased.

"Uh. Yeah. Right. Heh. Pancakes." Kirito nervously commented.

In the Dining Hall

"Good morning Kirito and Asuna!" All the ponies greeted simultaneously.

"Good morning everyone!" Asuna happily returned.

"So let's get down to business." Asuna suggested.

"Pancakes?" Pinkie and Kirito asked in unison.

"No!" The rest of the ponies, including Asuna yelled (except for Fluttershy who just watched and giggled in the background). Apparently the gang was having the same problem with Pinkie Pie, as Asuna was having with Kirito.

"Aww, but we're all here." Pinkie tried to persuade.

"Just be patient Pinkie." Rainbowdash said in her usual raspy voice.

"The same goes for you Kirito." Asuna said as she shot him a 'just wait' glare.

"Fiiine." Kirito and Pinkie said at the same time. They were easily planning on how to get around being caught trying to get pancakes earlier than the rest of the ponies.

"So here's what we'll do," Kirito whispered as he began explaining his master plan," you keep them distracted from looking at the table with the pancakes somehow while I sneak as much as I can off of that table. Sound good?" Kirito finished.

"Got it!" Pinkie whispered, and they put their badly-put-together plan in action. It failed miserably and both Kirito and Pinkie Pie had to wait until the rest of the group got their pancakes. Their day started rather lively.

In the Castle Garden

"So where should we start?" Asuna asked.

"How about in that forest I saw near Ponyville?" Kirito suggested. As he mentioned it, the group of six ponies and a dragon trembled with fear.

"Y-y-you mean t-the E-Everfree F-Forest?" Fluttershy fearfully asked.

"Nopony goes in there darling." Rarity added.

"Why? What's wrong with it?" Asuna curiously asked.

"W-well the animals in there fend f-for themselves." Fluttershy stated.

"And the plants grow freely." Applejack added.

"There's mud, and muck everywhere" Rarity also added shortly after Applejack.

"The weather isn't pegasi controlled either." Rainbowdash said. So far, Kirito and Asuna were more surprised to hear the way they do life here in Equestria 1,000x more than the forest because to them, it sounded like a typical forest. They couldn't even approach the idea of understanding why these ponies were so afraid of it. Pinkie was paying 99.9% of her attention to random things, 0.1% to the conversation. Apparently she was in her own little dream world even though she was obviously awake.

"I don't see the problem with it. It seems like a regular forest to me-" Kirito was abruptly cut off by Twilight.

"But that's not all. There are dangerous creatures in there." Twilight commented dramatically.

"Yes! Finally, some action!" Kirito whispered to Asuna who was clearly thinking of something else at the time. But apparently noticed what Kirito said.

"Shut up you jerk! Can't you see that they're clearly terrified of that place? Geez, have a heart for once." Asuna scolded Kirito.

"Why, what did he say?" Twilight innocently asked.

"Nothing, never mind." Kirito quickly responded.

"Well, it does seem the most likely place that Gleam Eyes could be in, but we could start the search somewhere else if you like." Asuna kindly suggested.

"No, no. We've been in that forest plenty o' times, so we should be fine." Applejack admitted.

"Then why are you guys so afraid of it then?" Kirito asked.

"Because just the thought of all those things we said about it earlier combined makes it...absolutely... TERRIFYING." Fluttershy replied.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, me and Asuna will do our best to protect you." Kirito said as he did his signature 'ruffling of the hair' to Fluttershy.

"O-okay." Fluttershy agreed in defeat.

"Wait. You can actually use those things?" Rarity asked astonished.

"I thought they were just there to complete your outfits." She added to her question.

"Huh. I don't know if I can dual weild in this form though." Kirito doubted.

"I can fix that." Twilight said.

"How? Kirito's an earth pony?" Spike piped up (finally).

"With a new spell I've been working on. It can change an earth pony into either a unicorn, or a pegasus." Twilight almost bragged but caught herself before she did.

"It only works on earth ponies though." she added.

"Cool. Well, we better get going." Kirito excitedly said.

"S-so we are starting at the Ever Free forest?" Fluttershy shakily asked as she conitued to tremble at the name.

"Sorry darling." Rarity apologized feeling sympathy for Fluttershy.

"Well, let's go!" Asuna said loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Right!" They all said.

At the Entrance of Ever Free

"You ready?" Kirito asked determined.

"Yeah!" They all confirmed simultaneously.

"Then let's go!" Kirito almost rushed into the forest but before he did, he remembered that it wasn't a dungeon first of all, and second, he wasn't a solo player anymore (he wasn't even a player, and besides, even without the group of ponies and a dragon, he would still be doing this with Asuna by his side), and third, the ponies weren't as recklace, or adventurous as he was when it came to this place.

"Oh. Right. Oops." Kirito quietly murmured to himself.

"Okay. L-lets just hurry up a-and g-get t-this over w-with." Fluttershy began to tremble and shake even more now that she was actually there. She was talking like a broken record player. Asuna was the first to comfort her because she seemed to be one of those kindhearted ponies Fluttershy had ever met (aside from Celestia).

"Thank you Asuna." Fluttershy thanked truly grateful to have met her.

The group of eight ponies (and spike) made their way through the forest never running into monsters of any kind (much to Kirito's annoyance, and boredom). Then, in the stillness, the silence was broken by a near by howl. In fact, the howl was so loud, that it felt like whatever was making that long animal song was right next to the ponies.

"What was that?" Kirito asked with excitement beginning to grow in Kirito's onyx eyes.

"That, Kirito my friend, would be a timber wolf." Applejack shivered.

Yes! Finally! Some action! I've been waiting so long. A battle is about to begin. Kirito thought to himself. Asuna gave him a 'bruh' look and an 'I'm gonna kill you later' glare shortly after. She was happy that she and Kirito might actually be able to fight something but also felt guilty about feeling that way around the ponies (and Spike) who were clearly scared of timber wolves.

Growling and groaning noises began to fill the air in the area as the shaking of the ponies (and Spike...I think you get the point (except for Kirito and Asuna who were reaching for their swords with their mouths).

"Hey Twilight! Now would be a good time to make me and Asuna unicorns now!" Kirito said as he prepared himself for battle. Twilight nodded in agreement, and began to perform the transformation spell (which may I remind you that she hasn't fully mastered yet).

With a lavender flash of light from Twilight's horn, Kirito and Asuna were now pegasi- wait...Pegasi!? (Geez this is sad).

"Twilight! Try again! We're pegasi! Not unicorns!" Kirito shouted desperately as the growls and groans got closer, and closer until ROAR!

There, standing tall on two legs, with a cobra for a tail, and two red piercing glowing eyes, stood <> with the timber wolves who appeared to be his new minions. Twilight saw this, and immediately tried the spell again, and this time, was successful. Kirito asked for a quick lesson on how to use levitation, and him and Asuna learned fairly quickly. Him and Asuna ordered the ponies to either stay back, or keep the timber wolves ready while they took care of the red-eyed beast.

Kirito and Asuna then began to charge it, making a huge warrior cry as they went officially restarting the fight that should have been over so long ago.

Author's Note

I'll have to update this chapter multiple times. Its not that I'm making super long, its just that I have to make more time to write it that's all. Don't worry. I'm sure they'll be fine. By the way, I changed the chapter name since it didn't really have much of Gleam Eyes in it. That will be the name of the next chapter though. StuffHappens89, out!

P.S Don't forget to vote on whether or not I should make an abridged series! Haaave fun with that (and you can only vote once (keep that in mind)).

«The Gleam Eyes»

The Battlefield

Kirito slashed, and dodged <> attacks endlessly, and almost flawlessly. Almost. Sure he got scratched, cut, and nipped at occasionally, (which hurt a lot more considering this was his real body) but that didn't change his mind one bit about beating the beast. I took a glance over at Asuna to make sure she was doing fine, (which she was) until he saw Gleam Eyes punch her like last time they had fought, but he couldn't catch her. He was too far away. This enraged Kirito so much that his warrior cries got even louder, almost reaching Canterlot, and his slashing got wilder, and his two infamous swords began to glow their own color. Gleam Eyes only got more, and more aggressive and upped his skills too.

"Kick that beast's butt Kirito. Woohoo!" Spike cheered in the background.

"So. Awesome." Rainbowdash whispered to herself. The gang had beat the timber wolves, but were too astonished to help Kirito.

"ASUNA!" Kirito stopped his attack and ran over to his wounded lover. Gleam Eyes saw this as an opportunity to get rid of them both. As he made his way over, Twilight tried to put a forcefield around Kirito and Asuna.

Kirito tried to get her up, and back into consciousness, but Gleam Eyes hit her pretty hard, and it might take her a very long time to recover (after all, this was her real body for now). When Kirito failed at his many attempts to bring Asuna back, he let a single tear drop from his eyes that refused to let him be seen like this. Then, something in Kirito snapped.

His anger was overwhelming, and he let out an insanely large cry of rage that could easily destroy his voice, and lungs. It was so loud that it almost reached Canterlot. It got much attention from Ponyville. The ponies there just brushed it off as a strange animal in the 'forbidden' forest though.

Kirito's pursuit became much more violent and powerful, as his intensity grew along with his speed. There was now new found blood dripping down his forehead, mouth, and sides. Gleam Eyes was making a lot of damage to Kirito. But he didn't care. He had to protect Asuna while she was in that state. And when the final hit was made, Kirito fell to his knees as the long tip of Gleam Eyes' Zonbato stuck through the middle of his body. Be slowly closed his eyes in defeat. The ponies watched in complete horror and sadness. Spike was the most upset of all. As Kirito watched his life pass before his eyes, a figure had formed in his head. Asuna's smile. He lived for that smile knowing exactly how much she loved him, as he felt the same towards her.

"Not yet." Kirito mumbled as his will and power returned. He was sitting in a pool of his own blood that he drastically lost. He had plenty to finish the battle though.

"What did he say?" Twilight asked as she and the rest of the group noticed Kirito's eyes that were gradually reopening. Everypony's eyes widened, and Spike's eyes became the size of dinner plates as tears began to form in not only his, but everypony's eyes.

"NOT YET!" Kirito screamed. He wasn't ready to die yet. Not when he was this close to beating the old enemy. And especially when Asuna was hurt. He stood up with the blade still impaling him (which pained him so). He wasn't going to accept this. Not when innocent lives were unexpectedly depending on him. It resembled SAO far too much. Kirito began to walk backwards as the blade slipped out of him. Twilight tried to remember a healing spell for Kirito, but couldn't think of any as she was too shocked to do anything but watch.

"Twilight! Don't you know any healing spells!?" Spike said he turned his attention to a frozen Twilight.

Kirito's wounds began to start bleeding heavier, and he would soon die of blood loss should they not be bound. Kirito didn't care. He dodged as many attacks as he could, and Asuna was still lying there. Unconcous. Fluttershy was by her side trying to help her get better as fast as she could.

Asuna's eyes had then opened wearily, and heavily as she snapped out of her forced trance. She snapped her head up, remembering what was going down, but she was only greeted with a sharp pain that went down her neck, and stopped at her collar bone. She had to be get back into the brawl with Kirito. She had to protect him because he was protecting her. When her vision was less blurry, and her hearing became whole again, and her senses were restored, she glared at the battle andfocused her glare on Kirito. Her eyes widened at the site with her heart pounding, throbbing out of her chest each time it rapidly thumped. Something in her snapped, and she charged forward pulling out her sword as she did so. She leaped into the air and became face to face with the demonic beast, and stabbed one of the red glowing eyes as <> roared ferociously in pain and agony. When she landed, she whirled around to face Kirito as he just now noticed her. He was overwhelmed with joy that she was alright. Or at least, it seemed at the moment. When he turned his attention back to Gleam Eyes, he suddenly collapsed onto the floor and bled out uncontrollably.

"KIRITO!!" Asuna yelped as she ran over to the wounded warrior with tears threatening to race down her cheeks.

I-I'm sorry *hack* Asuna. I-I c-couldn't p-protect.....you." Kirito apologized as tears ran down both of their cheeks.

As Kirito was about to draw his last breath, a blinding light orb hovered gracefully above them. As the light faded, two regal figures became more visible, and their features became more detailed. A tall, white, slender body with a long horn and huge wings stood next to a slightly shorter, smaller one with a coat as dark as the night. It was Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna. Celestia surrounded Kirito and Asuna with a yellow aura that represented her magic. The two sword weilders could feel the everlasting pain pour out of their bodies, as the aura around them seemed to absorb it, or get rid of it somehow. However it was done, the pain was eventually gone. Gleam Eyes just stared in the background dumbfounded and trying to process what was happening. But soon, he didn't care and just charged.

Asuna and Kirito fully healed just in time to counter the charge. The enemies were charging towards each other swords going in for the kill at the same time and the cries of a warrior escaped the 'Black swordsman's and the 'Lightning Flash's' lungs in sync. When their swords made contact, there was the large clanking sound of metal harshly colliding and kicked dust up everywhere. When the dust cleared, the princesses and the ponies watched as Kirito's two swords, and Asuna's were crossing as they blocked the insanely large Zonbota that was Gleam Eyes' weapon of choice that had never failed him. Spike watched the action with true admiration for the two brave warriors (mostly Kirito) in his eyes.

"These two are very protective of each other aren't they?" Celestia asked.

"They sure are! You should've seen Kirito when he saw that Asuna was hurt. He got crazy mad!" Spike said with excitement streaking into his voice.

"Oh trust me, we know." Luna calmly said as she winked at Spike.

"How?" he innocently asked.

"We'll tell you later. But for now, we need to watch the fight just in case those two need anymore help from us." Celestia suggested.

"ASUNA! NOW!" Kirito shouted.

And with that, they both put their swords side by side, aimed for the large gem on the beast's muscular chest. When the swords made contact, the gem got a small crack carved into it, and the crack slowly but gradually grew larger by the second until it finally shattered. For some reason, when Gleam Eyes was defeated, it still stood there staring at 'Kirito the Black Swordsman' and 'Asuna the Lightning Flash' (or just 'Asuna the Flash' whichever one you prefer) with hateful eyes. When it gave a final roar, it then burned to a crisp, but made no sound or indication of pain. And finally. Finally, the battle was over. The blood that was shed had not been for nothing.

When they lowered their swords, they looked at each other lovingly, and sprinted towards each other. They hugged as they absorbed each other's presence and love. Their embrace lasted until their energy was restored.

"You dummy, you almost died!" Asuna cried as tears of joy relayed down her cheeks.

"But I didn't did I?" Kirito jokingly replied.

"But you said that you wouldn't get that close to dying in this battle you jerk!" Asuna threw back.

"Well, I'm still here aren't I?" Kirito asked.

"I don't care what was going on in your head at the time, but whatever it was must have made you crazy." Asuna sort of angrily said.

Kirito just shut her up by kissing her.

"Hey, your more important to me than I am to myself. It doesn't matter what it will take, as long as I'm protecting you." Kirito said as he broke the kiss.

"But if your protecting me, who will protect you, you idiot?" Asuna softly said.

"You will won't you?" Kirito asked.

"O-of course! Did you forget about our promise?" Asuna asked.

"No. I didn't." Kirito responded.

"Good." Asuna said.

Author's Note

Sorry that this chapter ended kinda badly. Oh well. Hey, I hope you guys are thinking about what to vote for. If you want an abridged series of this story, just say so in the comments. If not, still say so in the comments. If I don't get any votes, then I'm just gonna go ahead and start it on Friday, but I won't post any of it until you vote. StuffHappens89, out!

P.S. See you next chapter!

Restoration and Relaxation

In the Living Room of Twilight's Castle

"You guys were awesome!" Spike cheered.

"Ah can't believe y'all risked your lives for us." Applejack thankfully commented.

"No problem, although Gleam Eyes should've been gone a long time ago. I wonder why he came back. Oh well, that's something to find out later, but for now, don't we have to find Shining Armor and Cadence?" Asuna suggested.

The group of ponies agreed with a nod of their heads. Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna said their thanks and good-byes as they left the friends to it.

"So what should we do? If Shining Armor and Cadence weren't there after we defeated Gleam Eyes, then he must've hidden them. Are there any caves in the Ever Free forest?" Kirito asked as he tryed to put the puzzle pieces together in his head. He noticed that something was not right in the battle. Now that he really looked at it, he did see something shiny in the back of the beast, and could tell that Gleam Eyes had a smaller amount of strength and energy than he should have had. He brushed it off as something to figure out later.

"I think there's at least three caves there. Two of them are occupied, but I can't tell the difference which could cause some major issues." Twilight worriedly stated.

"Why? What's in the two caves?" Asuna curiously asked.

"Well, one has a huge dragon living in it, and the other has an Ursa Major and Minor living in it." Twilight said as she started to remember those days (even though they were just one day per event).

"Wait a sec. Aren't Ursa Major and Minor just star constellations?" Kirito doubtfully asked.

"Yes, but here, they are living creatures that look like, and represent the constellations." Twilight explained keeping it as short as possible.

"Oh. That's cool. I guess." Kirito said quietly to himself. Unfortunately, Asuna heard it punched lightly on his side.

"Jerk." She called him. He just couldn't stop slipping up could he?

"You heard that?" Kirito whispered with a tone of regret in his voice.

"Yes, I did. Can you at least try to be nicer? My god." Asuna asked with a hint of aggregation.

"Fine. I'll humour you." Kirito tryed. It at least got her off his back anyway.

"Anyway," Twilight began to notice them easily resolving their own fight (which they started) and tryed to change whatever subject they were on back to the important one: finding her brother, and step sister.

"Right. Missing ponies. So, you think that they could be in the unoccupied cave? I know that gleam eyes is a very strong enemy, but a dragon or an Ursa major and minor would most likely be too much to handle. Even for me and Asuna." Kirito explained.

With that said, Asuna agreed, and honestly did not want to bring up the huge fights that almost killed her and Kirito both (mainly Kirito considering how reckless he was). But that was kind of far off from the subject, so why bring it up in the first place?

"Yeah. That would be the safest way to go, and we don't want anymore near death or even viewing near death experiences for a very long time." Rainbowdash piped up as she winked at Kirito.

"Especially when we have a baby dragon with us." Twilight said in a way more serious tone than that of Rainbowdash's (and I mean way more serious).

"Yeah, Spikey Wikey isn't owd enough two see that kind of stuff is he?" Rarity babied much to Spikes annoyance. Sure he liked her, but at times, she could really just get him to the point where he'd be far more than just annoyed.

In return, Rarity just received an annoyed, scournful look from Spike and shut up knowing that he was upset. She blushed in embarrassment as she moved to sit where she previously was before the babying commenced.

"He doesn't seem like that much of a baby dragon to me. He actually looks like he could be the same age as Y- never mind." Kirito stopped himself from saying that name, and glanced at Asuna just make sure that she didn't catch him saying that name. He knew how much she missed Yui. He missed her that much too and a question that had been long lost in the depths of the deep ocean that was Kirito's mind had surfaced the top again, and rose higher attention than the rest: how are we going to get back? Kirito had to push that question in the back of his mind for now because now was not the time to ask that.

"Well, we should get goin' by tommorow, because Ah don't know bout" y'all, but Ahm' beat from that fight." Applejack said.

"What do you mean your 'beat' from that fight darling? Kirito and Asuna were the only ones fighting Gleam Eyes." Rarity stated.

"Ah meant the timber wolves Rarity." Applejack said allowing warm, friendly smile to come onto her face.

"I suppose so. I guess your right Applejack." Rarity said defeated.

"Hey everyone, I have an idea," Twilight began, "How about we all sleep here tonight?" Twilight had a huge sleepover planned.

"We should have like...ooh! A huge friend sleepover!" Pinkie suggested with her usual playful spirit taking over her tone of voice.

"That sounds like a great idea darling." Rarity complimented.

"Alright. Its settled then. Everypony pick a room, and regroup here when your done. Got it?" Twilight ordered in a friendly tone.

"Oh, and my room is obviously the only one off limits alright?" Twilight informed.

"Right!" The group answered simultaneously.

There were three halls to go down. AJ, and RD went down one hall, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie went down another, and Rarity went with Kirito and Asuna. Twilight stayed behind with Spike because she knew exactly where her room was. She watched her friends disappear into the never ending hallways with a warm smile on her face.

In the First Hallway

"So which room do you want Rainbowdash?" Applejack asked.

"Uh, duh, the biggest one in the hallway of course." Rainbow said in her usual tone of pride.

"But their all the same size." Applejack reminded.

"Oh. Right. I-I knew that!" Rainbowdash defensively said.

"Sure ya did." Applejack smirked.

And with that said, the two competitive friends eventually found two rooms right across from each other.

Second Hallway

"So um, Pinkie Pie. What do you think of our new friends?" Fluttershy tried to start a pleasure conversation with the over energized pink horse, but she wanted to ease into it.

"Oh, you mean Kirito and Asuna? I think their amazing! The way they fight is awesome, and their really funny too. I like them. What about you Fluttershy?" Pinkie fluently spoke, but no where near as fast as she talked when she was a lot more excited than usual.

"I think they're great friends, and that we could become better friends to them than we are now." Fluttershy said softly.

"That's great!" Pinkie responded.

They both found their rooms which was right next to each other, and made their way back to the living room talking about simple things that friends would usually talk about, and every now and again they would giggle and laugh at the other's stories.

Third Hallway

"So what do you like to do Rarity?" Kirito asked innocently. Asuna was just staring at the magnificent walls that resembled crystals, and took in the beautiful sights of the castle that she had past. She was always one to enjoy such a sight of beauty, and magnificence.

"Well, I like to make dresses and outfits for a living. I also like spending time with the others a lot, and helping them solve whatever problems they have. What about you?" Rarity answered.

"I like to play VRMMO's a lot. I also like to spend time with Asuna, and enjoy her cooking. Spending time with friends is important too though." Kirito said as he glanced over at his beautiful girlfriend with a loving smile, and immediately turned his attention back to Rarity.

"Wonderful darling. But I have one question: what are VR...MMO's?" Rarity curiously asked with a puzzled look on her face.

Kirito took a long hard look into his mind on how to explain it without making it complicated. Then, he found it.

"Well, VRMMO stands for Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online. That means that you feel like your actually in the game your playing, and you can play with other people on the same server. There's another genre for it called VRMMORPG's, but that's besides the point." Kirito explained starting to dangerously get into his nerdy-gamer side. Luckily, Asuna began to start paying attention to the conversation and stopped Kirito before he got to the point of no return.

"Oh. Okay. I don't know what 'people' or 'servers' are, but okay." Rarity said feeling guilty for not understanding a word he was saying. Asuna saw that look, and knew what it meant. When she did see it, she made her way over to Rarity and rested a hoof on her shoulder with a warm smile smacked onto her face, and shook her head meaning, 'don't worry about it.'

With that said and done, Rarity found a room not too far from Kirito and Asuna. Kirito was about to walk into the room without Asuna to observe it, but to his surprise, she trailed right after him.

"Asuna, you know this castle is big enough for all of us to have our own rooms tonight." Kirito said nervously as he raised both hooves in the air defensively with a blush rushing to his face. The memory of when he asked to stay at her house that unforgetable night in SAO bounced vigorously back to his ocean of a mind. And when Asuna revealed...things to Kirito, when she gave him that surprised and confused look, and when she punched him...hard. Oh, how he did not want anything similar to that to ever happen any time soon, or ever.

"I-I know! I just...wanted to sleep in the same room as you." Asuna said as her whole face turned bright red and her tone was a little...annoyed?

"But there's only one bed!" Kirito complained.

"Then you'll just have to make room for me." Asuna said in a 'I don't care' tone.

"Ugh. Fine, just don't get mad at me when you hear my extremely loud snoring." Kirito tried.

"Oh come on, I'm not stupid. You think I've never heard you snore before? Sure its loud, but I can still get a fairly decent sleep. So I don't wanna hear another word. Got it?" Asuna threw back.

Kirito let out a sigh in defeat, and pouted. They caught up with Rarity, and made their way back to the living room of Twilight's crystalized castle.

The Living Room

"Everypony here," Twilight began to scan the room, "good. Now let's get started. But let's ease into things." Twilight invited.

"Ooh! I know what we should do! We should get to know each other better! Let's start wiiiiiiiiiiith....hmmm. Oh! How about Kirito and Asuna!?" Pinkie suggested.

"Mhm." The other five ponies (and Spike) strongly agreed.

"Alright, but which one of us do you want to know more about first?" Kirito asked. As he said this, they all lay down on their bellies and held their heads high.

"Both of you at the same time silly!" Pinkie said.

"Uhm, okay. Well, just ask us any questions, and we'll try our best to answer them. Sound good?" Asuna tried.

"Yeah, that'll work." Twilight confirmed.

"Okay, ask away." Kirito said with pure calmness in his voice, and on his face. In fact, he was so calm, that it was starting to become a contagious disease among the group of friends.

"Where did you two meet?" Rarity asked politely.

"Let's see..." Kirito said as he worked off his brain to remember the first place he met Asuna.

"You idiot, you forgot already?" Asuna disappointedly protested.

"Ugh, your hopeless," she added, "me and Kirito met on the first floor of Aincrad, and formed a party for a boss raid." Asuna said as she just reminded herself that they had absolutely no idea of what she was talking about and found herself staring at dumbfounded faces all around the room (with the exception of Kirito).

"What do you mean...'boss raid' and what's...'Aincrad?'" Applejack asked confused. She just received a sigh that meant 'here we go' from Asuna.

"Well, a boss raid is-" Asuna began explaining what a boss raid was, and what it meant when you form a 'party' with someone (much to Pinkie's interest), and also what Aincrad was as Kirito was just watching as he patiently waited for her to finish her explanation (which took like ten minutes). Then, she finally finished and readied herself for another question as Kirito did the same.

After a long while of socializing, games, and activities, and jokes, the ponies went to their rooms without any hesitation. The only hesitation there was was when Kirito and Asuna were about to enter the same room that they would sleep together in.

In the Shared Room

Kirito took off his 'Coat of Midnight' in front of a tomato-red Asuna that stared in complete embarrassment and discomfort. As Kirito saw this, he blushed in the slightest almost forgetting that his infamous coat just so happened to be the only thing he was wearing. It didn't bother him as much as it bothered Asuna though because just about every pony he saw were wearing nothing but the skin on their backs, and the manes on their heads (and tails).

"Asuna?" Kirito nervously asked as he tried to keep a harder blush hidden by his bangs.

"Y-yes Kirito?" Asuna answered as she swiftly averted her eyes from viewing that sight in front of her with her left hoof blocking her vision of the stripped Kirito that was only a few inches away from her.

"I'm gonna..." Kirito tried to stealth his way over to Asuna's right side as he said this just to tease her, "get into the bed first so that you don't have to see me." Kirito finished off the sentence with a light whisper that was only a few centimeters away from Asuna's large, pony-like ear. With that she shivered and slightly flinched as she breathed in sharply.

"K-Kirito! D-don't do that! You almost gave me a heart attack!" Asuna scolded.

"Don't do what? This?"

Kirito's actions were fast (he was the fastest reacting player in SAO after all), and he constricted one of his brawny hoofs around Asuna's collar bone and neck area and Nuzzled her neck affectionately in order to tease her. As Kirito did this, he could see Asuna's eyes start to ease up and open up revealing innocent, hazelnut pupils that shimmered whenever they came in contact with any type of light. As Kirito continued his teasing, very soft moans had escaped occasionally from her throat which motivated Kirito to keep going. When she made a desperate attempt to escape his strong grip, that hinted Kirito to stop because that's all he needed to know that he had won whatever fight that was.

"What was all that?" Asuna shockingly, and a tiny bit angrily asked (she knew perfectly that she liked it when they teased each other like this though).

"All what?" Kirito mischievously wondered. He knew what she was talking about but wanted to see how far he could go with this.

"Y-y-you know! What you just did! You know how I feel about doing stuff like-like that!" Asuna blushed hard as she scolded Kirito for his actions.

"Okay, okay. I get it Asuna. I'm goin' to bed. Well, good night." Kirito said with a yawn to follow.

"Good. If I see you peak once I'll slap you." Asuna said nervously, but strong enough for Kirito to take her seriously.

Of course Kirito was too tired to really think about, or do anything else. He plopped himself onto the bed that was meant for one pony to sleep alone on. He yawned one last time as his head came in contact with the only pillow on the bed. That means that he would have to share with Asuna.

Asuna took off her 'KoB' uniform, and left her braid in because it would be extremely difficult to undo as a pony, so why even try? She gracefully got into bed, and just realized that there was only one pillow on the bed.

"Are you kidding me?" She asked herself scornfully.

She had to think of a way to get some of the pillow that Kirito was using without disturbing him. She saw that he was at least kind enough to leave her a half of the pillow (the pillow was fairly big, so no big deal).
With this, she softly, silently, slowly but gradually closed her eyes, and drifted off into deep sleep. At the same time (seemingly), the rest of the ponies had fallen asleep (as well as Spike). The stillness in the night was peaceful calmness that soothed the sleeping that was happening everywhere around Equestria. The tender, comforting touch of moonlight coming in contact with the Earth was the only light given to the creatures of the living, but it was enough as a breeze swept by houses in a smooth, everlasting air current that could not be disrupted for the sake of the calmness that was Luna's beautiful night that had gone unnoticed.

Author's Note

Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out, it's just that I have so much to do this time around. Again, I'm truly sorry for taking so damn long, but I promise that it won't ever happen again. Thank you, and good night. Stuffhappens89 out!

New Friends, Same Family Members

The Next Morning at the Dining Room Table

"Sleep well everypony?" Twilight asked tiredly. She had still been affected by the deep sleep she was in.

"Uh huh." everypony replied drowsily. Apparently they were a lot more tired than Twilight.

"I'm guessing your all very hungry." Twilight yawned.

"Yeah." the group said with heavy morning voices. Spike was actually beginning to fall asleep again because of tired he was.

"Good. I've been making pancakes ever since I woke up." Twilight said finally waking up for real.

"How long have you been up for Twilight darling?" Rarity asked with a slight yawn.

Twilight didn't hear apparently because she was making her way down to the kitchen to get the fresh pancakes. As she was doing this, Asuna saw how sluggishly everypony moved and how tired Twilight seemed to be. She wanted to help because she wanted to kill the sleepiness that remained in her body. She thought that if she moved around a lot more, her body would make its recovery a little faster than everypony else.

"I'm gonna go help Twilight." Asuna almost barely managed to say. She tried to walk regularly, but the rest of her body was moving slower than her spirit.

"We'll go too." everypony offered. Kirito and Spike just ended up staying at the table to talk for a bit until the mares came back with the pancakes.

When they finally came back, each mare was holding a glass plate in their mouth with at least ten pancakes on each plate.

"Thank you girls." Twilight thanked as all of her friends returned it. They seemed a lot less tired than Kirito and Spike.

"We probably could a used more help from y'all over there." Applejack teased. The rest group of seven friends holding plates full of pancakes agreed by slightly nodding.

"*yawn* sorry, but I'm a little too tired," Kirito said in a casual tone (much to Asuna's annoyance) "well, breakfast is here now, so I guess it doesn't matter right?" he added. Spike just looked at the pancakes with an expression of pure hunger being presented by his eyes and said nothing as his mouth began to water.

"Kirito! Stop being such an ass!" Asuna scolded. It came out muffled though considering she was holding a surprisingly light glass plate with syrupy pancakes on top of it. She was so agitated and angry with him, that she almost let go of the plate and let it drop to the floor. Luckily, she caught herself before she did.

"Asuna! Language!" Kirito said almost sarcastically, "I get that your mad. But you need to calm down." Kirito finished as he got up from his seat, and made his way over to the steaming Asuna who's face was almost tomato red with anger.

Kirito took the plate from Asuna and set it on the table. When he finished this completely simple task, he turned back around to face Asuna and locked eyes. He gently rested a brawny, pale hoof on Asuna's shoulder and brought her in for a small, friendly hug in an attempt to calm her down.

Asuna sighed in defeat and escaped Kirito's embrace.

"Fine. You win." Asuna huffed. The others set their plates down on the table as well and giggled to themselves as they watch the whole thing go down. Twilight just rolled her eyes and huffed mumbling something to herself.

"Alright everypony, let's eat!" Twilight invited.

With that, they all sat at the crystalized round table that was similar to that of King Arthur's. In fact, it was almost as if it were a crystalized replica of the actual thing, and the sight of this gorgeous table had shown the exact same amount of regalness as that of King Arthur's (I don't know how else to describe it (sorry (it sounds kind of over board and off topic (I know)))). Kirito was desperate to taste Asuna's wonderful cooking, but was easily reminded that he was far from it in this world.

"Aww" he complained to himself. Asuna heard this and chuckled.

"Poor Kirito." she teased with a smirk.

"What? What's wrong?" Twilight asked concerned (definitely still likes him).

"Oh, nothing, just that I miss Asuna's cooking is all." Kirito smirked at Asuna as payback for teasing him.

"You can cook?" Fluttershy perked up. She cooks all the time for Angel, and her other animals, she actually has come to love it.

"Yeah, I can cook. Why'd you have to say that Kirito?" Asuna answered with a slightly angered expression directed straight to Kirito and hit him right on target.

"Payback is all." Kirito admitted.

"Anyway, she makes these amazing sandwiches for me, their really, I mean really good. I wish you could try them." Kirito said with his mouth beginning to water at the thought of eating one. Asuna rolled her eyes.

"What's in them?" Fluttershy asked. With that, they both remembered that the sandwiches had meat in them. They just sat there brainstorming ideas on how to tell the herbivores that there was meat in them.

"We can just tell them all the ingredients except for the meat." Kirito whispered into Asuna's ear. Asuna nodded and opened her mouth, getting ready to speak.

"Well, there's-" Asuna trailed off in explanation, and Fluttershy listened to the whole thing with pure interest in her eyes.

"Here we go." Kirito mumbled. Spike just laughed at his idle.

Three Hours Later (French accent)

"Alright. It's settled then. We'll meet back here in half-an-hour when we have all the things we'll need. Ready, go!" Twilight demanded with a determined look on her face.

"Aren't you gonna get supplies?" Kirito asked as he turned his head back around to face Twilight.

"No, I've got everything in my saddle-bag," Twilight replied, "what about you and Asuna?" Twilight added after a short pause.

"We only need our swords, and armor." Kirito casually stated (although his cloak was more like clothes rather than armor).

"You mean to tell me that what your wearing right now is armor?" Twilight asked confused.

"Well, yes." Kirito said.

"What Kirito is wearing is pretty strong armor actually. It almost rivals mine." Asuna pointed out.

"What? Never mind, forget I asked." Twilight didn't even want to confuse herself more than she already had.

Later

"Ready to go every pony?" Rainbowdash asked determined.

"Yes!" They all shouted in unison.

"Wait. Kirito and Asuna darlings, are you sure you want to go in those amazing outfits?" Rarity asked concerned for the clothes.

"Yes, not only are these clothes outfits Rarity, but they're also armor." Asuna said with a warm smile.

Rarity's jaw dropped, and her mind flowed endlessly with half of it drowned in inspiration for new outfits, while the other half was filled with outrageous amounts of worry, and despair for what would come up of the 'armor outfits' that she had adored ever so much after this investigation was complete.

"Don't be too surprised Rarity, now that we know for sure that they are from a whole nother world, this is probably regular for them, and shouldn't b much of a surprise to us." Spike pointed out as he watched his idle's every move with admiration not even giving Rarity so much as aa short glance before turning his full attention to Kirito.

"It's like he barely even pays any attention to me anymore." Rarity mumbled jealously to herself.

"Well, we'd better get going before it gets too dark everyone. It took everypony a lot of extra time to get ready for some reason." Twilight commanded with determination, and a bit of worry for her family members.

"'Bout time we go anyway." Applejack said with her casual western cowboy accent(or in the case, cowgirl...cowpony? Cowmare? Never mind).

With that said and done, the group of nine all went into the Everfree Forest. They searched endlessly for a cave to explore whether it had been occupied, or not. At this point, they didn't even care anymore. As long as they found one, they would be happy.

The Everfree Forest

"How long have we been searchin' for Twilight?" Applejack asked worriedly. She was really starting to worry about the farm now. She wasn't expecting the search to take this long.

"Don't worry. We'll find them. We just need to be little more patient." Asuna said with her sympathy beginning to take over her emotions.

"I know, it's just that I'm worried." Twilight said with a worried look on her face. It was as if somepony pasted it onto her face and that they were the only one that would be able to remove it.

"It's really okay Twilight. I know how you feel when it comes to worry," Asuna looked at Kirito for a short moment (much to Kirito's confusion. He actually had no idea what she was looking at him for because he wasn't even paying attention to the conversation that the two mares were having in the first place) and continued the conversation when she fully turned around,"Trust me. I really do know." Asuna said comfortingly.

"Hey! It looks like there's a cave up ahead!" Kirito called out to every pony that was present.

With that, there was a huge wave of excitement and relief. You could call it a tsunami, or tidal wave even. Twilight was the first to reach the dark entrance of the tunnel-like abyss. She was too desperate to see her family unharmed (if they were even in there). The others rushed after her yelling "wait up!" the whole way.

"Dear Celestia Twilight, calm down." Rainbowdash scolded through pants and huffs.

"I'm sorry, I'm just worried." Twilight said with that same worried look still pasted to her face.

"Well, that just means that we should hurry up and find them." Kirito casually suggested.

As soon as the group began to proceed into the endless black of the cave, Twilight and Rarity sparked their horns for a bit of light. Fortunately, this cave seemed to be very unoccupied at the moment. There was the skreech of a bat, or a sour gust of wind every no and then as a reminder that there were still multiple other things going on at the exact same moment.

"Help!!!" Screamed a feminine voice. It sounded like it was not too far from the eager group.

"That sounded like Cadence!" Twilight exclaimed. With that she sprinted off into the black of the cave with her horn as her only light source in such a place.

"WAIT! TWILIGHT!!!" Rainbowdash called out. She tried to catch up to the lavender alicorn. But for once in her life, she was actually slower (somehow).

"Asuna" Kirito looked over at Asuna and gave her a look that said, 'let's go.' and Asuna nodded and began to sprint with Kirito at speeds that exceeded everypony else's (with the exception of RD).

"Wait guys! Ya can't just leave us here alone like this!" Applejack tried to call out but the two were too far off to hear by then.

Twilight stopped in her tracks in order to listen for the voice that resembled that of Cadence's.

"Help!!! He- Twilight? Is that you? Twilight help us!!" The voice called out even louder. Apparently Cadence could see Twilight, but Twilight couldn't see her.

"Cadence!! Cadence is that you!? Where are you!?" Twilight called out desperately. She whirled her head around frantically in search of the voice's source.

"Over here! To your right!!" Cadence hollered.

Twilight looked over to her right, shined the light coming from her horn a lot brighter than before, and there. Standing, or rather sitting was Cadence and Shining Armor. But something was wrong. They were sitting with their backs tightly pressed against one another. And it was then when Twilight finally realized that they were tied up. She sprinted over to the two of them and quickly began to untie them with a failed attempt. She began to grow frustrated with the rope and tried to burn it off with her magic. But that didn't seem to work either.

"Twilight. Magic won't work. Nothing seems to affect the rope. Me and Shining Armor have already tried." Cadence ruefully admitted.

"It's like it has a forcefield or something on it." Shining Armor added with his soft voice. It sounded a little cracked and raspy though. Twilight assumed that he had been screaming for help at the top of his lungs.

With Kirito and Asuna
"Hey Asuna. Try tracking Twilight. There's something amazing going on." Kirito said with complete sincerity in his voice.

"Okay" Asuna agreed. She tried to track Twilight by looking at the ground as they ran.

To her surprise, there were hoof marks that glowed a neon greenish-yello color.

"Wait. So this means that...Kirito you know what this means?" Asuna said as astonished as ever.

"It means that we can use our tracking skills here. I wonder what else we can do." Kirito said with that serious look still plastered onto his face.

Not a moment too soon, and they had already found Twilight and RD. Rainbow dash had actually just arrived a few moments before them. When they saw the two ponies tied up, they rushed over to try and get the rope off.

"Nothing will work. I've tried everything already. Wait. Where are the others? Oh no. We have to find them!" Twilight said in a worried fashion.

"We'll go. We were the ones that left them in the first place." Asuna confessed.

"Woah, woah, woah. You guys just got here. And you look pretty exhausted. I'll go. You guys just stay here and rest." Rainbow dash pushed. She wanted some of the spotlight too. She wasn't gonna let Kirito and Asuna steel her thunder just because they seem strong and are new to the group.

I'll show you! I can be just as cool as you guys can Kirito and Asuna! I'll prove it! I'll beat you at your own game! Rainbowdash thought to herself as she flew. In the distance she could barely see a faint, cyan orb of light, along with the sound of voices. Familiar voices. There! She thought. And she gradually increased her already incredibly fast speed overpowered with joy, and proudness for being able to find her friends so rapidly.

"Guys! Guys! It's me! Rainbowdash!" RD called out to the light that was just about 20 feet away from her. 10. Then 2 feet away. Then-

"WOAH!!" Rainbowdash hollered as she fame crashing into the source of the light.

Fluttershy yelped and leaped in surprise, ending up clinging to Applejack's side and almost crushing her ribcage. She had already hated that they went into the forest in the first place. What she hated even more than going into the forest was going into this cave of seemingly endless black. Now this. This day just couldn't get any worst for her. Poor thing.

"Oww. Rainbowdash darling could be more gentle with your landing please? I would very much appreciate it." Rarity annoyingly complained.

"Why couldn't I have been on Kirito's back and stuck with him instead of this. Why me?" Spike mumbled to himself.

Rainbowdash just grunted at Rarity's comment and shook it off.

"And how long were you guys stuck with this?" Rainbowdash whispered into AJ's ear as she sluggishly got up and helped Rarity right after.. She giggled and answered as if she were just working a long hard day on the farm.

"For 'bout 20 minutes now. Thank Celestia your here to take us back to Twilight." Applejack answered as she added a question to the end of it.

"Yeah. Alright. So let's get to that. I came from that way, so let's head down there and see if luck is on our side." Rainbowdash planned out.

"M-mhm" Fluttershy managed to at least get that threw the insane trembling she doing right now.

"Well, lead the way darling." Rarity said in sort of a rush.

"Alright. Let's go!"

And with that, they were on their way to regroup with the rest of the gang.

With Kirito, Asuna, Twilight, Cadence, and Shining Armor (half an hour later (French accent))

"You think they got lost?" Asuna whispered into Kirito's ears in a succeeded attempt to not worry Twilight.

"I don't know. I think they- OOF!" Kirito grunted as he fell to the ground.

What had happened was, apparently something bumped into him. Or rather, somepony. He sealed his eyes shut at impact and when he heard extra voices besides the ones he had been hearing the whole 30 minutes of waiting, he opened his eyes, and could feel something laying on top of his belly. Obviously he had fallen backwards. The weight wasn't too heavy, nor was it too light. There was soft and delicate breathing, and he could feel a heart beat beating at almost the same rate as his own. Once Twilight brightened her horn light, she revealed a scene that was quite priceless indeed.

Asuna was lying on top of Kirito's belly in the most awkward position possible. When Asuna finally opened her eyes, it was over for Kirito. He awaited a harsh hoof slap to land on his face. But it never came. Instead, Asuna just turned cherry red, slowly got off of Kirito, and his her face with her bangs to try and hide her intense blush.

"Well, well, well. Looks like we got quite the young lovers here huh." Shining Armor teased as he winked at the two. He had only succeeded in making the two blush even harder than before.

"Spike, you didn't see that right?" Twilight hurriedly stated in worry for Spike to be viewing such things.

"You two should be ashamed of yourselves! Wrong place, wrong time." Twilight furiously ordered.

"But it was an accidentify though!" Kirito shouted as he defensively waved both hooves in the air.

"Dummy." Asuna silently mumbled.

"Anyway, I think I know why you can't get rid of the rope." Kirito began.

"Why!?" Everypony yelled in unison.

"Because somewhere around here...there's going to be a boss battle." Kirito coldly stated.

Author's Note

WOOH!!!!! FINALLY!!!!! I finally have this chapter out! Hope you all enjoy! And since it's that time again, I will have a surprise for you all! Tis' the season and all that good junk about stuff and happy holidays, and a ho ho holy shit. I almost forgot. I am truly sorry for taking so damn long on this. I promise you, that this should never EVER happen again. EVER. Thank you, and good day to you all. Or good night. Or good afternoon? Fuck it. Oh I know, good whenever-the-fuck your reading this. Either way, GOOD. so long for now!

And So It Begins

Within the group of worried ponies

"What!?!?!?!?" Everypony hollered with intense worry.

"You mean to tell me that we're gonna have to fight another beast like The Gleam Eyes!?" Twilight yelled in shock.

"Not we, me and Asuna will handle it. I hate to say it, but your skills- I mean fighting style didn't even put a scratch in Gleam Eyes, so I don't wanna risk it. Just let me and Asuna take care of it. You'll be fine." Kirito comfortingly stated as he rested a hoof on Twilight's shoulder.

"Alright! Show yourself!" Kirito screamed loudly.

And almost as if it were que, a red beast with a lizard-like tail, and a dog like face with an armor helmet on it's head stepped out from the darkness. It's eyes glowed fiery red, and there was absolutely nothing thin about it. There were two light blue diamonds on it's belly, and wore a small cloth that almost resembled shorts to cover certain areas (even though he didn't really need it) It carried a huge battle Axe, and a shield.

"It's been a long time since I've seen you, «Illfang the Kobold Lord»." Kirito said with a smirk crossing his lips.

"Alright Asuna, let's get to it!" Kirito demanded.

"Right!" Asuna agreed.

And with that, they charged straight for the boss that was on the first floor of castle Aincrad. They left the astonished and shocked ponies at a safe distance while still leaving enough space for battle.

"Asuna! Take the sides! I'll take the front!" Kirito ordered.

"Right!" Asuna listened and did so.

He almost forgot about being a unicorn so that he could hold his swords a lot easier, but luckily, Twilight was prepared and casted the spell on him as quick as she could. Fortunately, she succeeded and both Kirito and Asuna had horns.

Illfang was distracted by Kirito leaving an opening for Asuna to perform her signature skill. It did a great amount of damage to Illfang as he roared in fury, and agony. Asuna gracefully transitioned into her next combo landing 8 hits on one spot.

"RRRAAAAAUUUUUUUUGHHHH!!!!!" Illfang howled in pain. It's mouth hung wide open as he completed his scream of agony.

The Kobold Lord turned to face Asuna ready for whatever she had to throw at him. He paused for the shortest time possible and began to frantically swing his Axe. Left, right, left, right. Asuna dodged every swing accurately and reciprocated the red monster.

Kirito intensified in the heat of battle and got ready for a special move.

"STARBURST STREAM!!!!" Kirito screamed with a fighter's might. With that, everypony turned their full on attention to Kirito and wondered what he was about to do.

Before Illfang had the time to turn around, Kirito was striking his back rapidly, and mercilessly. His sides were already covered dark red blood, and deep cuts gushed out an extensive amount of blood.

And once his Starburst Stream was coming to a closing, he began to repeat the same words in his head over and over again.

"Fasteeerrrrr? Gotta go FASTER!!" Kirito yelled. As if on que, his pursue grew intensively in speed.

"HaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!" Kirito loudly screamed his warrior cry as his finale played out perfectly.

"Wow!" Spike whispered in astonishment.

Fluttershy covered her eyes, and could no longer take watching an 'innocent' creature get hurt.

Kirito slashed both his swords down the middle of the belly of the beast (get it? Belly of the beast? I know. You don't care). Leaving a deep cut. Illfang made one last roar of agony as his guts spilled out onto the floor and blood squirted out from the deep cut. The ponies just watched in horror as Illfang used his last breaths to desperately try to put his insides back into their original place. He was losing gallons of blood by the second and would not last another minute. He just gave up, fell forward, and landed on his guts that were resting in his own pool of blood. He bled out, and died a slow, painful death.

The ponies in the room were speechless, and Kirito just hid his eyes with his bangs. He was covered in Illfangs dark blood. He slowly walked towards Asuna as the other ponies just looked at him with fear in their eyes, and collapsed out of exhaustion. Asuna caught him not even caring that he was covered in blood. She just needed him to get some relaxation and get better. The other ponies rushed to help her get him onto her back.

"Are okay with carrying him darling? I mean, I know that you love him and all but, he's covered in blood that isn't even his own. Are you sure you don't want me or Twilight to carry him with our magic?" Rarity suggested. It seemed like her generosity was kicking in. But Asuna refused.

"No. I do care that I could get covered in Illfang's blood, but I care more about taking care of Kirito's well being. I care more about him than I do myself. And he does the same for me. So yes. I am fine with carrying him even when he is all bloody." Asuna said in a 'you expect me to care?' tone.

"Well there y'all have it. You heard her. Come on y'all. We gotta go help Shinin' Armor and Cadence over there." Applejack said as she winked at Asuna who gave a warm smile back as a 'thank you.'

AJ and the gang comforted Fluttershy, and then went to go help with Twilight's loved ones. Twilight failed to untie the rope which greatly frustated her and so she just ended up burning the rope to a crisp successfully. She then helped them to get to their hooves and told her friends that they could all sleep at her castle that night, and that they stay all day tommorow if they like. She also invited Cadence and her older brother to stay the night too. Everypony agreed and they all headed back to the crystalized castle.

Later When Everypony Was Just About to Go to Bed

"Goodnight everypony!" Twilight called out as they went their separate ways in the castle (except for herself, Spike, Kirito, and Asuna as they were all going to be sleeping in the same hallway (by that, they're going to be sleeping in rooms that are in the same hallway).

"Goodnight you two." Twilight yawned.

"Goodnight Twilight." The two of them said in unison.

Right after Kirito and Asuna entered the room, Kirito whispered something into Asuna's ear just to be extra cautious that Twilight couldn't hear it.

"Wha- mhm!"

"Shhh! You're gonna need to be quiet about it at least if your gonna react like that." Kirito whispered.

Asuna's face turned cherry red with an intense blush and followed Kirito to the bed to do what he asked of her.

Author's Note

Oooooh. What's gonna happen next? Hmmm, I wonder. Let's find out next chapter! Sorry if the transitions were bad and if the chapter wasn't as long as it usually is. But I'll make up for it in the next chapter. StuffHappens89, out! ⚠Warning!⚠ Next chapter has a surprise in the beginning.

The Next Hour

In the Two Lovers' Room

"Mmm, ahh. Mhmmm. Ohhh. Mmm, mmm, ahhh." Kirito moaned erratically.

"Shhh! If someone comes in here because of your moaning, your gonna get it." Asuna scolded lowly, almost whispering.

In The Hallway

"What is that moaning? Where is it- I know they are not!" Twilight whispered to herself.

"Mmm, hmmmm, ahhhhh. Mmmm." Kirito's moans sounded even louder now that Twilight's ear was pressed against the door.

"Oh my Celestia. No way. I have to get the others here." Twilight teleported to all the guest rooms in her castle brining a pony back to her room each time she found one. They were all still asleep of course.

Once every pony present in the castle was in Twilight's room, she didn't even have to wake them up. Kirito's moaning was loud enough to take care of that.

"What in tarnation is that?" Applejack asked tiredly.

"Where are we?" Rainbowdash stretched.

"Your all in my room. I teleported you all here a few seconds ago." Twilight answered.

"Oh. Okay." RD said.

"Hey Twi, what's that moaning sound?" Pinkie Pie energetically asked. She had been quiet for far too long, and everypony was actually happy to hear her voice again.

"That's what just about to explain." Twilight answered.

"Twilight are those two doing what I think their doing?" Cadence whispered into Twilight's ear.

"I don't know. But I'm gonna find out." Twilight said.

"Alright Kirito. Way to go buddy!" Shining Armor said to himself. Unfortunately, everypony in the room heard him. When they heard this, they looked at him with one eye brow raised and a frown on their face. It seemed as if they were disappointed in him in some way.

"Oh- my." Fluttershy mumbled with a blush on her face.

"Mmmmm. Ahhhhhh, ohhh, mmhmmm. Ahhhhhh" Kirito's moans became longer and more exotic.

"Honestly, what is going on in there." Rarity gasped.

"That's what we're gonna find out. Okay so here's the plan. I will slowly and quietly open the door slightly so that they don't notice, and then we can all get a peek as long as we're very quiet and careful." Twilight planned out as she went into full on 'nerd mode.'

"Hey, Twily. If they are even doing that, shouldn't you give them their privacy? I mean, it's not like they're the only ones that do that." Shining Armor suggested.

"Well, if they are doing that, it's in my castle so I have the right to know." Twilight shot back. And with that, she led the curious group to the door of Kirito and Asuna's room.

Twilight grabbed hold of the doorknob with her magic, and began to turn it ever so slowly and cautiously so that she wouldn't draw attention to herself.

She then slowly opened the door, and could hear the moans more clearly. She hadn't even taken a peek yet and she was already shocked at what she was hearing at the moment.

"Mmmmm. Ohhhhhh, ahhhh. Mhmmmm, ohhh Asunaaahhhh. That feels so gooooood. Mmmm, ahhhhh, mhmmm." Kirito's moans grew seemingly louder.

"Shhh! I already told you. If someone walks in while I'm doing this, your gonna get punched. I swear."

Twilight's eyes widened, and she couldn't hold back anymore. She had to peek. She had too. Every pony else was waiting for Twilight to peek. They backed out because Shining Armor talked them out of it. So they just stood in Twilight's room, and lay in wait. They could still hear Kirito's unmentionabley loud moans of course. Spike was literally the only one in the entire castle that was ignoring it and sleeping instead. One of the reasons is because he used ear blocks (that are made for dragons apparently. Order yours today. This is reality folks.)

Twilight had finally peeked in, but before she could see what was really going on in the room, she heard something else.

"Now it's Asuna's turn." Kirito said almost seductively.

Twilight really couldn't hold back anymore. She just had to see what was going on. When she finally looked into the room, what she saw next shocked her the most. What she saw next was......

To be continued... (jk jk just keep reading)

Asuna was sitting right next to Kirito who was lying on his back, and she was giving him a massage. Twilight was so disappointed and quietly closed the door and let them carry on with their intimate moment.

"Whatcha see Twi?" Pinkie curiously questioned the purple alicorn.

"Yeah, what were they doing?" Cadence asked. She wasn't one to invade others' privacy, but she had gotten dragged into this, so might as well play along.

"When I looked in, Asuna was just massaging him." Twilight said with a bit of disappointment in her voice.

"Ohhh. I guess that makes sense. But we never moan like that when we're getting a massage." Pinkie added.

"That's true, but we have to remember that they came from a whole other world entirely."Twilight defended.

"Mmmm, ahhhh, mhmmmm, but Asuna's. You haven't had a turn yet." Kirito said through his moans of pleasure.

"Well, if y'all don't mind, I'm goin' back ta sleep." Applejack yawned.

"I'll teleport you all back to your rooms now." Twilight said.

When she was done, she went back into her room and yawned as she climbed into bed. Just before she closed eyes, she heard one more thing.

"Huh- Kirito what are you-"

"I have to pay you back somehow. Don't you want a massage?" Kirito asked.

Twilight just let them be, and went to sleep. She didn't care about what they were doing anymore. Her eyelids fell heavy on her eyes, and she gradually fell into a deep sleep.

In Kirito and Asuna's Room

"Huh- Kirito what are you-"

"I have to pay you back somehow." Kirito stated as he slowly and gently layer Asuna onto the bed.

"Asuna. Lay on your stomach." He commanded. Asuna did so with a very intense blush on her face.

"What are you planning on doing?" Asuna said her face getting more red by the second.

"I told you. I'm gonna give you a massage," Kirito declared, "now let me see your back."

"Fine, but if your thinking of doing anything perverted I'm going to kill you myself." Asuna said in a 'you better watch out' tone.

"Trust me, I'm not." Kirito said as he began to put pressure on Asuna's back with his hooves.

He drew circles with both hooves and was careful not to but too much pressure on her. Asuna just closed her eyes and sighed a long deep sigh of relaxation.

"Mmm, that feels great Kirito. I never knew you could massage this well." Asuna lazily spoke.

"Well, now you know." Kirito calmly said.

"Mmm, ahh, mhmm, ohhh." Asuna moaned.

The massaging went on for a while but when Kirito stopped, Asuna whined a little bit.

"Aww, why'd you have to stop?" Asuna complained.

"Because I'm tired. Goodnight Asuna." Kirito tiredly replied and yawning at the end.

"My god, your hopeless. Goodnight Kirito." Asuna stated with an agitated tone as she rolled her eyes and fell asleep.

Author's Note

Did I trick you? I hope I did. I wonder how many of you thought they were doing something else. Ah well, it's over now. See ya next chapter. StuffHappens89, out!

Some Extra Things

The Next Morning (Kirito and Asuna's Room)

"*yawn*" Asuna yawned. She slowly opened her eyes and expected Kirito to be there. But, surprise, surprise, he wasn't.

"Good morning. You slept like a rock." Kirito said from behind her.

Asuna's reaction time was almost faster than Kirito's and she almost punched him. She stopped herself before she did though. Lucky Kirito.

"W-what did you do w-while I was s-still sleeping?" Asuna tried ask calmly. Her anger was so great, that trying to speak calmly was pretty much impossible at this moment.

"N-nothing! I didn't do anything! I swear!" Kirito defended himself with both his hooves and waited for a punch, slap, or harsh impact of any kind. But instead he got this:

"I know, I trust you enough not to do anything to me while I sleep." Asuna said completely casually as if that whole thing didn't go down.

"Wha Huh?" Kirito made a confused sound at Asuna as if she were something from outer space.

"I was just testing Kirito-kun. Is that so wrong?" Asuna asked innocently.

"I swear, it's like she uses her own innocence and voice as a weapon sometimes." Kirito mumbled quietly to himself.

"Excuse me?" Asuna had heard Kirito talk, but couldn't understand what he was saying (much to Kirito's convenience).

"I didn't say anything. Promise." Kirito quickly responded.

"Whatever you say." Asuna grew a little suspicious but was careful not to care too much about it.

In the Hallway Where Twilight Was Just Leaving Her Room and Bumped into Kirito and Asuna

"Good morning guys. Sleep well?" Twilight asked rather energetically.

"Yes. And good morning to you to Twilight." Asuna bowed.

"Hey Twilight? Are there any showers or anything like that close to our rooms?" Kirito asked innocently.

Twilight nodded and waved her hoof for the two lovers to follow her. They walked for about five minutes before they reached a huge, luxurious bathroom. It had smooth, cold marble tiles for the floor, a large mirror that was almost as tall as Princess Celestia over the sink. The facet and the handles were shimmering a beautiful golden, and the counter was covered in white marble that was cool to the touch. The bathetub was almost as if it was in a whole other room completely. There was a crystalized door that almost glowed a menacing purple, and the wall around it was just the same.

"Wow." Kirito and Asuna both gasped in unison with pure amazement in both of their eyes.

Twilight beamed and showed them where the towels were. After that she left them alone to do their own thing.

"S-so. Uh. Do you w-want to go first, o-or make." Kirito spoke as a deep red hovered over his and Asuna's face.

"I'll go f-first." Asuna said with pure embarrassment.

Kirito nodded with a deep blush remaining on his face as he walked out of the large bathroom. But just before he left, he heard one more thing come from Asuna.

"You c-can join make if you l-like. J-just no funny business. G-got it?" Asuna's whole face turned a tomato red as she said this. She was thinking that this was probably something she might regret later.

"U-uh. Sure? I don't know what answer is gonna keep me alive." Kirito said as he trembled on the inside of what she might say. At this moment he was very terrified of her tsundere side, and could only hope that it didn't take over.

"Either one is f-fine." She answered trying to keep her heart from beating too fast while also keeping a blush at a minimum.

"O-okay" Kirito nervously said.

When Asuna took her 'KoB' uniform off, Kirito quickly averted his eyes and looked at anything besides Asuna.

"Y-you can l-look you know." Asuna said she her blush became very hard to control and her heart was beating at a hundred miles per hour.

"O-okay." Kirito said he slowly turned his head back around. He still tryed keep his eyes off of her body and only looked at her face. With that she began to blush.

"W-well what are y-you waiting for? Get undressed. I-its embarrassing being the only one." Asuna said quietly.

The memories came crawling back, and almost instantly he was thinking of a better way to go about this. Especially since he got punched last time. He was definitely not trying to recreate that. So this time, he had a way to save himself from another painful punch to the face (even though his real body didn't feel the punch last time. So he was actually saved from a very painful impact to the face last time.)

He turned around and slowly took off his Blackwyrm coat. He was cautious not to take too long, and also not to try and draw too much attention to the part of his mind that was encouraging this (because you know, he's that age now. If ya know what I mean).

Once all of his clothes were off, he turned around to face Asuna. They both only kept their eyes on the other's not even bothering to try and look down. Even though they were ponies, and every pony in the town were practically naked all the time, it was still very awkward for them.

Asuna entered the tub first, then waved her hoof almost seductively for Kirito to follow. She had new found determination with this somehow because she knew the Kirito was feeling just the same amount of nervousness as her. Kirito slowly made his way to the door and was cautious not to look anywhere but Asuna's face.

"I'm gonna t-turn on t-the water now." Kirito said trying not to sound like he was longing for this moment. He was still very nervous of course.

He turned the handle bar to hot, as the unusually large shower head began to pour water on both of them, as they enjoyed the warmth.

The tub was meant for one pony, so they had to press their bodies onto one another. Their backs were turned of course. They began washing themselves with the soup and shampoo. They turned around only to wash the other's back. Once they were done, Kirito reached over to turn the water off.

They both walked tryed to walk out at the same time, and ended up pressing their sides onto one another in a desperate attempt to get out of the shower.

"Mm- Asuna. Let me get out first." Kirito struggled to speak as his lungs were slowly being crushed.

"N-no. Ladies first Kirito-kun." Asuna rebelliously responded.

"Fine. Just l-let me pull myself out from behind." Kirito huffed.

Asuna made an affirmative sound and tried to press her side as much into the doorway to make room for Kirito.

"SIKE!!" Kirito flung himself forward as much as he possibly could.

He was fast, but Asuna was faster. Grabbed him by his shoulder, and pulled him back into the shower as she stepped out herself.

"Nice try Kirito, but I outsmarted you this time." Asuna winked as she grabbed her towel and tryed to dry herself off. She was having a rather hard time with this considering she had to do it with her mouth.

"Mmf. How do fey lif like fis?" Asuna's voice was muffled considering she had spoken through a mouth full of towel.

While she was mumbling to herself, she hardly cared to notice the sneaking Kirito behind her. She lifted herself up onto her hind legs and much to her surprise, she could stand like that a lot easier now. Kirito saw this and decided to try it too. He could easily do this, and tried to gracefully set himself back down to four legs as he thought of ways to put this into good use later, as in a few seconds later.

At first, Asuna was shocked to feel slow, calmed breathing that snaked down her neck, but when she felt hooves wrap around her waist, she calmed a little bit.

"Kirito what are you-"

Kirito silenced her with a fierce and passionate kiss. Breaking the kiss only for air. He began kissing her jaw down to her neck as sweet moans were ripped from her throat. They were both completely aware that they were still naked, and Kirito eventually just stopped after a few minutes went by.

He went back to walking on all fours and snatched up his from off the counter with his mouth as he began to dry himself off. Asuna did the same until they were both completely dried off. Then, a question came to surface her mind.

"Hey. Uh Kirito?" Asuna began.

"Yes?"

"Where and when did you learn to do that?" Asuna asked curiously.

"I dunno. I guess I could say that my...uh...instincts took over I guess. Why?" Kirito cautiously answered.

"I was just curious." Asuna answered with a shrug of her shoulder.

"Oh okay." Kirito said casually.

They both put on their infamous Blackwyrm coat and KoB uniform on, and exited the the large bathroom. The first thing that they were met with was a group of eight ponies and a dragon giving them a suggestive stare.

"Well? Care to explain?" Twilight said rather aggravated at how intimate the two seemed to be getting. (Not that intimate, the other intimate. Look it up.)

"N-nothing! We didn't do anything!" Asuna quickly answered defensively as her face turned a completely deep red that was almost the same red as a rose.

Shining Armor walked over to Kirito and whispered something in his ear as he rested a brawny, oversized hoof on his shoulder. When he pulled away they both started giggling.

Cadence and Twilight sighed and rolled their eyes simultaneously.

"Well, who's hungry?" Twilight asked suggestively.

And with that, they all headed towards the dining room and acted as if that whole thing didn't just go down.

Author's Note

Yeah, I know. Senseless fluff, and maybe a little overboard, but I don't think so, so deal with it. Good? Good. Good? Good. Also, I'm sorry I took so long, I've just been busy. Especially on Christmas and stuff. Which reminds me. Merry super late Christmas!

P.S. I know that this is a filler chapter and I'm sorry for that.

The Importance of Home

At The Dining Room Table

The large group of friends sat together, and laughed together as both parties (ponies and the two lovers) exchanged funny stories from the past. Of course nor Asuna or Kirito had even come close to mentioning the time when Asuna fell on top of Kirito and (...well, you know the rest), or about the time when (let's just say) Kirito got punched for embarrassing Asuna.

Every question that was asked (well almost every question anyway) had an answer. And every time Kirito answered, Spike would listen with an expression of pure bliss on his face.

Then a certain question came up. It wasn't too far out of the ordinary, nor was it very relevant to the current topic.

"So I'm just curious, but I don't want to intrude. Is it okay if I ask you this?" Cadence asked rather shyly, but longingly at the same time.

"Go ahead. Ask us anything!" Asuna encouraged with her usual joyful self.

"How did your first kiss happen?" she asked in a naïve fashion.

With this, everypony present began to blush including Spike.

Asuna and Kirito were just in shock as both of their faces turned cherry-red. All of the ponies stared at them with eyes that were starved of answers. This only added to the difficulty of answering.

"Well- uh....Kirito why don't you tell them?" Asuna dumped all the pressure onto him. Which was completely unfair to Kirito.

"Why me?" He mumbled coldly to himself.

"Okay so I'll just skip as close to the kiss as possible. So, I was almost killed by a member of laughing coffin a pking guild. He was named Kuradeel. Asuna managed to save me right before my HP bar hit zero. Right after that, she almost killed Kuradeel but knowing her, she could never bring herself to do something like that. She's too good of a person." Kirito gave Asuna a loving look filled with endless passion and continued on as she blushed harshly on his side and pressed the side of her body against his as she leaned almost all of her weight on him.

The ponies just watched with smiles on their faces. One certain purple face with a horn on her head showed the slightest indications of jealousy. Luckily not a single pony seemed to notice. Spike did though and gave her a glare that reassured her heart of finding some pony else (not to get specific, but I think you guys know who I mean. His last name is Century).

"So when Kuradeel supposedly surrendered, she raised her sword and he acted fast. She was now the one in trouble because he had flicked away her sword with his own and swung downwards at her. My reaction time was just fast enough save her luckily. So instead of her dying, I lost my hand. Much better if you ask me." Kirito continued his shortened story of their first kiss.

As he continued on through it, all the present parties gasped in shock with their eyes widening as wide as dinner plates every now and then.

"We both collapsed to the ground on our knees as I waited for ten minutes for my hand to regenerate. I wasn't looking at her face, but I could tell that she was on the verge of tears. I heard that she was talking about the whole thing being her fault and that she should stay away from me. But I didn't want that. So I turned around, grabbed her by her left shoulder, pulled her in, and kissed her. She was tense at first, but then she relaxed. We remained like that for about thirty seconds to a minute. And that's how it happened." Kirito finished.

"Wow. I never knew." Twilight said aloud breaking the long and awkward silence.

Asuna was pressing her body up against Kirito's as much as possible as she tried to get as close to him as possible.

"Any other questions?" Asuna said as she was still pressed against her significant other.

"Aww you look so cute like that Asuna." Pinkie admitted.

"Mm" Asuna made a faint affirmative sound as she felt a wave of warmth cross her cheeks.

"Eww. Enough mushy stuff. So Asuna. How fast were you in SAO?" Rainbowdash asked with pure excitement for the answer.

"That one is easy. She was so fast, that-"

"I can handle this one Kirito-kun. So sit down, and chill out." Asuna interrupted.

"Well, I was so fast that people would call me-"

"Asuna the Lightning Flash, or Lightning Flash Asuna!" Kirito couldn't help himself. He had to say it. He loved saying that name.

"KIRITO-KUUUN!!!!!!!!" Asuna shouted super loud. She was pissed that he stole her thunder. Sure it was her title, but she had wanted to say it herself.

"Gah- Sorry! I couldn't help myself!" Kirito attempted defense.

"You stole my thunder!" Asuna scolded as she kept hitting Kirito on his brawny pony chest.

"I already apologized!" Kirito protested.

"Sorry isn't enough!" Asuna shot back.

"Well if sorry Isn't enough, maybe this IS." Kirito calmly spoke as he leaned his head in over to Asuna's cheeks. He planted a brief kiss on her right cheek as she blushed furiously.

"We're not alone you know." Asuna whispered into Kirito's large pony ear.

"I know. That's why I stopped myself from going any further." Kirito whispered back into Asuna's oversized pony ear.

"PERVERT!" Asuna slapped Kirito across the left side of his face with her hoof. This extremely hurt for Kirito considering he was hit with a thick, bony hoof instead of a regular human hand. Fluttershy went to hide behind RD at the sound of impact.

"AAAAOOOOOOOWWWWW!!!!!!" Kirito screamed in agony as he held his hoof over the spot that would soon be red because of Asuna.

Asuna gave him that usual angry glare, then turned around. She would be crossing her arms right now if she could.

Shining Armor rushed to Kirito's side as Spike did the same. They grabbed him by his shoulders, and lifted him up (even though Shining Armor did most of the lifting).

"Kirito are you okay!?" Every pony asked simultaneously.

"Asuna did that for a reason y'all, it's okay to give em' sympathy, but for whatever reason, he deserved it." Applejack sided with Asuna as she talked in her usual country accent.

"I agree darling, Asuna must have had a good reason to slap him. She did call him a pervert." Rarity also defended Asuna with her petit voice.

"Or it could just be her tsundere side." Kirito mumbled.

"What was that?" Asuna turned around and gave Kirito a menacingly angry, disturbing stare.

"Nothing!" Kirito was quick to answer as he raised both hooves in the air.

"Hmmf. Whatever you say Kirito." Asuna shot back with suspicion.

"Asuna can I talk to you in the corridor please?" Kirito requested.

"U-uh...sure." Asuna accepted.

With that, Kirito almost fully recovered from the slap with only one thing remaining which was the red mark. He led the way out, with Asuna right behind him.

In the Corridor

"Okay so what did you-"

Kirito turned around and kissed her on the lips. She was a little shocked at the impact at first, but then she grew less tense against him and lost herself in the kiss. They only broke apart for the lack of air.

"I'm sorry I keep making you mad, but I can't do anything about that. It's kinda like a habit of mine. I do something stupid, and you end up mad. I'll try not to make you mad anymore okay?" Kirito apologized as his head drooped slightly.

"It's okay Kirito-kun. Your just like that, I get it. But sometimes I just can't help to react to your almost constant stupidity." Asuna tried to comfort him as she lifted his head with her left hoof.

"That's somewhat comforting." Kirito scratched his head with his right hoof.

"So was there anything else you wanted to tell me?" Asuna suggested.

"We need to get home. We need to tell them that we need to get home. I miss our friends and family. You haven't even seen your family since before SAO. We have to go. Soon. I'm not trying to worry our friends and families anymore then I have to. And I want the real you to be okay. An avatar doesn't tell me anything about your health. And I miss Yui. It's been too long without her." Kirito explained. His face was that of longing. Longing to go home. Longing to meet Asuna IRL. He longed for the very voices of Klien and the others.

Asuna found herself feeling the same way. And when Kirito mentioned Yui, that was it for Asuna. She ran to Kirito and sobbed into his chest. He embraced her as his vision grew blurry.

"How could I forget? I miss them! I miss them all!" Asuna sobbed.

"We forgot. It was something that just popped back into my mind when I finished talking about our first kiss. We WILL get home. I'll make sure we do. I'm not truly home unless your there with me." Kirito declared as he held Asuna until she stopped crying.

"Let's head back and tell them." Kirito suggested calmly. Asuna nodded and let Kirito lead the way.

Back in the Dining Room

As the two lovers reentered the dining room, everypony stared.

"We have something important to tell you." Kirito instantly grabbed Spike's attention when he spoke, as the rest took a little while to give him their undivided attention.

Pinkie stood up right before he was about to speak and sucked in a large portion of air to her lungs.

"*large gasp* whatyourabouttosayisthatyouneedtogethometoyourfamilyandfriendsandthatyoumissthemandwanttoseeyourdaughterYuiandwantourhelpandthatyouwanttogethomeassoonaspossible *gasp* right?" Pinkie explained the whole thing very fast and both Asuna and Kirito were shocked that she even knew what their virtual daughter's name was. The rest just giggled at the two's reaction as they processed what Pinkie had just said.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not the reason" Rainbowdash roled her eyes.

"But what if it is?" Fluttershy shyly spoke.

"Actually, Pinkie is pretty spot on." Kirito said with an almost rueful expression.

"Wait. So you you mean to tell me that you guys are trying to get home when you just got here? And you want our help?" Twilight said with worry and a bit of stress as she massaged her temples while she was deep in thought for solutions to this large problem.

"We can't help you, but maybe the princesses can." Fluttershy piped up from her little spot at the table.

"That'd be great. Thank you." Asuna thanked as she bowed.

Kirito looked towards Twilight, and looked into her eyes. And for a split second, he could all of her true emotions. For a split second, he knew all she was thinking. He smiled warmly at her and made sure that she saw that bright, warm beam across his pale face. She quickly looked in the opposite direction and tried desperately to hide a harsh blush.

"So darlings, shall we get going to Canterlot to meet the princesses?" Rarity asked with her delicate voice.

"Uh, DUH. They said they want to get home as soon as possible. So...I mean.....OF COURSE!!!" Rainbowdash hurried to say.

The rest of the group of friends nodded in agreement with Rainbowdash, and so, they were off to Canterlot.

Author's Note

Its FINALLY UP. I know I haven't been very active, but we are back in business baby! Hooooorrraaahhhhh!!!!!!! Alright. Enough chit chat. Next chapter, coming up as quick as possible!

On Their Way

The Train Station: Ponyville

Kirito, Asuna, and the others all made their way onto the train. They all found seats rather close by to one another. Cadence and Shining Armor had to leave them to get back to the Crystal Empire just to make sure that everything is in the ordinary. They waved goodbye to the group as the train began to make its way to Canterlot.

"Good luck!" were the last two words that they all heard slip through both Shining's and Cadence's mouths in unison.

The train silenced any extra words with its loud sound FX. As the train rolled along the tracks, and its metal wheels were in constant sink with the steel tracks, it blew steam from its top. Trying its best to carry all of its cargo from point A to point B.

"Hey, uh...Spike, come sit over here with me." Applejack offered. She had noticed Spike's undivided attention for the two lovers (mainly Kirito).

It was as if he had glued his very own eyes to them and, try as he may, never get to take his eyes off of them. Not even for a second. Twilight barely managed to pull his attention from them. Even with her magic. There was true interest, and excitement in Spike's eyes. It seemed impossible for him to be able to do that whenever Twilight lectured him or anytime at all. Not even when he was with Rarity. It's as if his crush on her is non-existant.

"Yes Spike darling, do leave them be please." Rarity stated with the slightest hint of annoyance in her voice. She was annoyed that Spike wasn't stuttering when he talked to her, and she was annoyed at his lack of attention for her. She was annoyed that he had barely seemed to notice her now.

Its just for now, and it shouldn't last too long she continuously told herself over and over. Eventually, she began to slowly believe it.

"Oh all right. But only because you told me to Rarity." Spike said as his gaze drifted over to Rarity.

And for that single moment, Rarity was relieved. Relieved to know that he still had something left for her. She could finally relax and settle down.

Twilight just rolled her eyes and took a quick glance over at Kirito and Asuna.

I wish I could have love like that. The purple alicorn thought to herself. She dreamed for it, and hoped that someday, she could find some pony to make valuable memories with. She wished that a love like that, which could last her a lifetime could find her someday. Maybe not very soon. But some day.
Can anypony find me, somepony to love?

And for the rest of the ride, Twilight Sparkle paid no mind to anything, and just kept to her lonely thoughts of hope. She clutched them tight and nurtured them. She didn't want to lose sight of them for her own sake.

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were just in a corner to the right of the two lovers. They were having their own little conversation, and of course, Rainbow was doing most of the talking. Fluttershy just listened. She answered questions and made sounds of agreement of course, just to keep it going. Applejack sort of just sat off to the side of the others, and took a long nap.

Soon enough, night fell. The train was tired, but it pushed itself on. It was pushing itself almost beyond its limits.

In the single train car only big enough for the group of eight ponies and dragon (conviently), all was quiet. You could probably here a snore, or murmur of some pony talking in their sleep every now and then, but not a lot. In the quiet stillness of that single train car, the moon was the only source of light shining down into the interior of the train car casting shadows of the seat dividers. In all of the undisturbed peace, two souls remained awake and, inseparable.

Kirito silently whispered into Asuna's ear and said:

"Hey. Wanna have some fun?" as he giggled to himself. Asuna could of swore that she felt a brief shock that traveled through her body.

"What do you mean by fun?" Asuna slowly, and cautiously asked.

"You know." Kirito winked and gave Asuna a menacing smile.

"God no. Go hump a cactus." Asuna joked. They both laughed quietly to themselves. They were careful not to wake the others. Very careful.

"But for real though. Ya know, I'm at that age now so..." Kirito gave Asuna a pleading look. Asuna saw that look, and saw right through it. She could see he wasn't being serious. But deep down, she knew that he would ask about this sometime soon. But. Why now? Why here? Why in a place where there are others that could wake up and watch? Was he joking? He had to be. Definitely joking.

"OK Kirito, very funny. The answer is still no." Asuna replied.

"Heh heh. I wasn't joking. For real. I'm at that age now. And, well...I think you know the rest. I feel like I can't hold myself together. I'll try to make sure that your ready before I ask again. It'll be tough, but what have I done that was wasn't tough." Kirito sighed in defeat.

"OK. Thank you, you'll make it. You'll make it because I'll be by your side the whole way through. Now be a good lover and gimme a kiss goodnight." Asuna said as she gave Kirito a warm, familiar smile.

"Kay." Kirito said as he leaned over, and gave her a passionate kiss on the lips. But this time, it was a little different. Asuna surprised Kirito and used her tongue that time to give Kirito some form of satisfaction.

The broke apart for air alone.

"Wow. That was...a new thing. What's the word they use? Oh yeah. That was um,...certainly a new experience." Kirito said still a little surprised.

"Yes. I had to satisfy you somehow." Asuna said getting a little more tired by the minute.

"Well, you don't have to go this fast you know." Kirito said as he also got more tired. His eyelids were beginning to get heavy, and it began to become harder to stay awake, so he asked:

"Can we cuddle?" Kirito whispered.

"Of course." Asuna said as she leaned all of her weight onto Kirito's side. He rested his chin on the top of her scalp and breathed in the scent of her hair, then fell asleep with three last words:

"I love you," the two said in unison. And with that, they fell asleep depending on the other for support for their body. Leaning on each other like what a pair of close brothers would do when they crossed their arms and leaned the other brother's back.

The moonlight shined on both of the two lovers' faces. Creating a calm silver glow that emitted off of their faces as they peacefully slept. They were the perfect display of the perfect life. The train seemingly chugged out a smoky goodnight to all of its cargo that awaited for the train to reach its destination. Relying, and trusting in the strength and power of the iron horse that only ever raced on steel tracks.

Chugga-chugga-choo-choo

Author's Note

Sorry I'm so late, but here is the next one. So its not as long as usual, but whatever. It is what it is. Anyway. Have fun not waiting as long for the next chapter as ya did for this one. Until then, sayanara.

The Real Conversation Begins

At the Train Station

"Thank you for coming girls. Sorry that it couldn't wait until morning." Twilight thanked, and apologized.

"Don't worry about sugarcube, we love helping a friend in need." Applejack said as a warm friendly smile crossed her face.

"Yeah! We're always ready for anything!" Rainbowdash declared.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get on the train already!" Rarity rather eagerly said. She was more interested in the less important thing: viewing Canterlot's elegance.

"Rarity's right! We should get going!" Pinkie said in her usually high-toned voice.

And with that, the six friends (including Spike) all entered the train car. The ride to Canterlot was very quiet due to the tired, and exhausted ponies that the train withheld. It was so silent that they could all hear the faint chugging and clanking noises the train made each time the wheels hit the track ever so harshly. The wind howled has brushed up against the glass panes that were train windows. The full moon that rested in the night sky provided a bit of light for the ponies. The clouds lazily rested in their same spots waiting for the pegasi to assign them to another place.

Soon enough, the train made a sizzling noise as it attempted to stop. When the train finally succeeded in the act, it woke the ponies that had apparently fallen asleep.

"I guess we're finally here." Fluttershy piped up.

As she said that, the rest of the gang yawned at almost the same time. As the train conductor walked through the door of the train car he yawned himself. Apparently his night had been interrupted by the princess too (though she didn't mean it (which he knew)). He called out that they were at their destination and almost fell. He had enough strength to stay up though. They all got off in a rather sluggish way considering they'd been sleeping almost the entire way.

"Well, *yawn* we should probably get going then." Twilight said with a tired tone.

They all agreed to that and walked sluggishly (it actually looked pretty funny actually) toward the throne room of Canterlot. Along the way, they could see Luna's night guards everywhere. They apparently seemed to be searching the great city. But for what?

In the Canterlot Throne Room

"I am truly sorry for interrupting your rest, but I happened to notice that you two have swords with you. Do you think you could possibly help us? I know it's a lot to ask, especially when you just got here, and I would understand if you said no." Celestia pleaded, she was almost begging for help (which is something she wouldn't normally do).

"*yawn* Me and *yawn* Kirito would love to-" Asuna slowly drifted off to sleep as she practically fell on Kirito (of course he caught her like he would always do no matter what).

"Asuna, wake up." Kirito whispered. When Asuna heard his voice, she snapped her head up, realizing what she had done, and immediately apologized for it (because yeah. She was really that tired).

"Sorry, as I was saying, *yawn* yeah. Me and Kirito would love to help you. *yawn*" Asuna tiredly accepted.

Asuna was actually so exhausted that she had fallen asleep and almost fell again, and Kirito caught her once again.

"Hey. Think you can stay awake for just a little longer?" Kirito lovingly asked. Apparently he was used to staying up at late times. Maybe that's why he always woke up so late.

"Mhm." Asuna hummed.

"Thank you. Thank you both so much." Celestia thanked.

As soon as she was done thanking the two sword weilders, Twilight and her friends walked in (or should I say dragged themselves in). Spike was peacefully sleeping on Twilight's back, and the others seemed pretty jealous of it though. Hearing Kirito's name did it though. Once he heard it, he immediately snatched himself up just to see his hero the blackswordsman.

Kirito and Asuna turned around to see where the new voices were coming from. Only one of them was familiar, and that was Twilight's. The ponies just stared at the two with tired eyes. Spike however sprinted to Kirito and started started asking him a whole bunch of questions that he never got to ask him before he left. He barely took the time to notice the tired look on his face, as he was too busy in his own world of questions that made it to reality. Kirito just watched him continue, and answered whatever questions he could. Then, Asuna walked over and Kirito introduced her. Of course, she was a bit angry at Kirito for introducing her at such a bad time and slightly hit the side of his shoulder.

When the introduction to Spike was over, the group of six ponies made their to Kirito and Asuna to introduce themselves. Celestia just sat in the background and waited patiently for them to finish.

Applejack, and Rainbowdash grew a little attached to Kirito. They were mainly interested in why he carries two swords around, and less with why he was wearing a cloak. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Twilight all went to go meet Asuna, and talk with her for a bit. Rarity was admiring her 'KoB' uniform, and her hairstyle (so basically her looks). It was that of unique, and she had never seen it before. Twilight stared at her while she was deep in thought about something. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy pretty much bombed her with questions (it was mainly Pinkie who was asking most of the questions while Fluttershy just respectfully listened. She did ask a few though. It was actually amazing considering that they were all tired, but apparently never too tired to meet new friends (I guess)).

"Where did you get this remarkable outfit darling? You simply must tell." Rarity admiringly complemented. Asuna blushed a little in embarrassment, and kindly answered with a 'Thank You' and explained it.

"HimynameisPinkiePiebutmyfriendsjustcallmePinkiewhichyoucantotallydobecausewe'refriendsnowandyoulooklikeyouknowhowtohavefunsowecouldactuallybegoodfriendsandIalmostforgottoaskbut *gasp* what's your name?" Pinkie swiftly spoke to an un-ready Asuna. She could barely understand what the pink pony was saying. She did however catch the last part.

"My name is Asuna. *yawn*" Asuna answered.

"Don't worry about understanding Pinkie Pie. You'll get used to it soon." Twilight said as she patted Asuna's shoulder with a hoof.

"Hello, and what's your name?" Asuna softly asked. She was good with shy people (or should I say pony). Asuna was actually good with people in general (so you could say she's a people person (I guess)).

"I'm...Fluttershy." She silently answered. Fluttershy surprisingly was a lot less shy to talk to Asuna. There was something about her that made Fluttershy comfortable. It could just be the way she spoke to her, but she wasn't sure. Fluttershy could tell when someone's kindness was fake, and Asuna's kindness was real. It was almost as if she were more kindhearted than Celestia (which didn't seem anywhere near possible).

"As you probably heard earlier, my name is Asuna." Asuna said still softly speaking. She could tell how shy Fluttershy was by her body language.

"Are we ready to resolve whatever the problem is now?" Kirito rather tiredly asked.

"Ready as we'll ever be." Applejack answered.

As Celestia was getting ready to speak, the exhausted audience layer down on their stomachs in a listening position. Asuna and Kirito got really close together to absorb each other's warmth. To the rest of the girls' surprise, Asuna rested her head on Kirito's shoulder as he rested his head on the top of hers. They watched their love dovey behavior and their reactions were mixed.

AJ and RD were a little annoyed by it, Twilight just calmly watched, Rarity admired the sight of romance, Fluttershy just watched with a warm smile, and Pinkie wasn't even staring at them. She was lost in her own little world.

"Let's get started. Shining Armor was attacked by a strange creature while he was on his night patrols. Apparently it took him with it to wherever it was going. It overpowered the night guards, and almost ended their lives. Luna is trying her best to find it, and can only seem to catch glimpses of it." Celestia explained with a worried tone, and a stressed face. When Asuna heard this, her face changed to almost the same worried expression as Celestia.

"What did this creature look like?" Fluttershy curiously asked with pure fear in her eyes.

"It was tall, and a little muscular. The head was that of a ram's, and stands on two legs. It has sharp claws, and it's eyes glow red. I was also told that the creature had a snake for a tail, and carries a huge sword around. It wears golden bracelets, and necklaces. Luna and the guards are calling it The Beast With Glowing Eyes." Celestia explained the creature in detail. When she finished she could hear both Kirito and Asuna gasp at the same time.

With that they received confused looks from everypony in the room.

"Do you know the creature? Have you seen it somewhere?" Twilight asked with a hint of suspicion in her voice. Kirito let out a long sigh and began explaining.

"The creature your talking about is a monster. It goes by the name <> and kills whatever it can on sight. I know because I fought it once, and almost lost my life." Kirito explained. When they heard this, they looked at him with a surprised look, and Asuna buried her face into his shoulder as she perfectly remembered what had happened that day.

"You did beat it though...right?" Spike asked believing that Kirito could not go done easily.

"I did, but it was really hard. The sword that Gleam Eyes uses is called a Zonbato. It was huge too. I defeated it with these two swords on my back using dual wielding." Kirito confirmed.

"That's so cool!" Spike and Rainbowdash admired in unison.

"We need to figure out where it is, and defeat it quickly before it harms anybody else." Asuna piped up with her strong, protective, 'second-in-command' voice starting to fight for dominance over the tired one.

The talk continued for about another thirty minutes, and abruptly ended. As soon as it did, Asuna and Kirito were the first to leave, and shortly after, the six mares followed.

Author's Note

The funny part is, I was actually yawning myself whenever the characters yawned. I obviously wrote this chapter at night. I'm sorry if this one ended lamely, but that's the first thing to be fixed in the next chapter. One more thing, before you go, I'm officially announcing a release date for the start of the abridged series of 'Link Start!' on Friday this week. Tell me if you don't want me to do it. Vote for it in the comments, and I will be going by majority rules because that's just how voting works. If you didn't know that well now you know (idiot (just kidding)). StuffHappens89 out!