Equis Art Online

As the train began to move, the group began to make themselves at home. Asuna and Kirito immediately curled next to a window.  Aries and Leafa began to chat, and the rest started do their own thing. Twilight looked at the group with interest. Deep interest.

"They're so tight knit, those two." Twilight thought. "But why?"

"Well, I guess we should start explaining a few things." Kirito said suddenly, and Asuna nodded. "Well, what's first?"

"What's the "Sword Art Online" you keep mentioning? Is it another game?"

When they heard this, everyone looked down at the ground. Kirito sighed, and he began to speak.

"Sword Art Online was in fact, another game. It was one of the most hyped games ever. But it held a deadly secret."

"Deadly?" Fluttershy squeaked.

"Yes. Once you logged into the game, you couldn't log out normally. The only way to get out of the game was to die. And before you asked, there was a penalty to dying. The penalty being you died. In real life. Permanently." Kirito said, and everypony in the room gasped.

"How many died?" Twilight asked.

"10,000 started, barely half survived." Asuna said sadly.

At this, there were severe reactions. Fluttershy began to sob wildly, and Pinkie's mane deflated. Rainbow, Rarity, and Applejack's jaws dropped in a severe state of shock. Twilight just stood there dumbfounded.

"Who...who would do something like that?" Twilight said, now filled with rage.

"A man by the name of Akihiko Kayaba. I respect him, for a different reason. In the book, it says that "an old friend" gave me Heathcliff's ID. In reality, that friend was Kayaba. he also brought Asuna back to life after she sacrificed herself. And me as well." Kirito said.

"And there's another thing. the now-deceased Absolute Sword, who I knew as a close friend, her life was kept going by Kayaba's technology. I just learned that from the hospital staff." Asuna said.

"Absolute Sword?" Twilight asked.

"Yes. Yuuki, or Absolute Sword, was an exceptional player and swordsman. She was the second of a group known as Sleeping Knights. IRL, they were terminally ill medical patients who were playing ALO for medical and rehabilitation reasons. She even beat Kirito, before I dueled her. That match ended in a draw. We had a lot of fun together. When she as about to die in the real world, we logged her in to ALO as a tribute. She died in my arms, viewed by thousands. I still have her original sword skill, Mother's Rosario, with me. In a way, I'm her legacy." Asuna said.

"May she rest in peace." Twilight said, and the group bowed their heads in respect.

"Yeah. She called me her older sister a few times. But, let's get off this. subject. I'm not sure I want to end up like I did last night." Asuna said, and as they continued to speak, Aries noticed Rarity's suitcase was moving, and he drew his longsword, drawing everyone's attention.

"Aries? What's up?" Pinkie said, somehow now holding a pie like a weapon.

"I saw that suitcase move. Stand back."

Aries opened it, and to his surprise, three fillies were in there. They each had very frightened expressions on, and they were even more frightened by the longsword Aries was wielding. They started to stammer wildly, but a wave of Aries's hand silenced them.

"Okay. I can tell you are friends with Rarity, so...WHY DID YOU SNEAK INTO HER LUGGAGE!?" he yelled, and they flinched.

"Misterwedidn'tmeananyharmonlywantedtoseethealiensthatgotridofthedragonintownandscootaloothoughtitwasagoodidea!" the first one, a tan yellow said, and at the last few words, they began to argue.

"Hey! It wasn't my fault! Sweetie was the one that wanted to sneak out!" "Scotaloo" said angrily.

"HEY! You were the one to think it was a good idea to sneak out using my sister's luggage! And besides, Applebloom was the one to tell us about the dragon!" "Sweetie" said furiously.

"HEY!" "The first one to speak said, and they began to argue even more furiously. As the ponies facehoofed and the fairies groaned, Klein immediately burst out laughing, much to Twilight's perplexion.

"What's so funny, mister?" they all said simultaneously, glaring at Klein.

"You three are just the weirdest ponies I've ever seen. And that's saying something." Klein said, wiping away a tear.

"Nevertheless, you three are in BIG trouble. Ever since you got your cutie marks, you've been acting all high-and-mighty. I told you TO STAY HOME.  EXPLAIN YOURSELVES!" Rarity said sternly.

"Well, we wanted to meet the aliens that saved the town from that dragon, so we went over to Twilight's place to see them. Problem is, you had already left for the train. When we tried to convince Rarity to take us with her, she refused, saying it wasn't our business. So we, well, you know the rest. We snuck on in Rarity's luggage." they confessed.

"You three, as I said, are in BIG trouble. Find a spare bedroom and STAY THERE, and you DO NOT want to find out what happens if you eavesdrop on us. Understand?" Rarity said, and the three of them walked out sadly. After they closed the door, the ponies all sighed.

"What was all that?" Aries asked.

"Oh, just Rarity and AJ's little sisters and their friend. They hadn't received their cutie marks until recently. Before that, they were always pulling off insane schemes to get them, often failing. Just so you know, the cutie mark is what shows a pony's special talent. You get them when you find it here." Twilight said.

"Okay. So, back to SAO. After Asuna, myself, and the other players escaped, we had a lot of things set up by the government for us to make our transitions easier. Thing is, Asuna went missing. I didn't know she and 300 SAO players had been captured by Sugou. The book you found, Legends of ALfheim, is basically what happened during my search for her. It doesn't go into much detail of about what happened in the real world. After I reunited with Asuna, the police came and arrested Sugou. When he was in custody, he denied everything and tried to pin everything on Kayaba..."

"That's so WRONG! He knew what he did! Why would he deny it?" Twilight yelled.

"Dunno. But, as I was saying, after they questioned one of the people that Sugou employed, he confessed. When this became public, there was a HUGE outcry. The branch that preformed the experiments was forced to shut down. And the head company, RCT HQ, also took a big hit. With all the other VRMMOs in the pipe for development, their days were numbered, due to all the negative press and public outcry. Thing is, after I visited Asuna at the hospital, I took "The Seed" over to Agil, one of the SAO survivors, and a close friend and expert programmer, and he analyzed it. Turns out, it was a full-dive MMO that he developed, based off a stripped-down Cardinal system that had run SAO. He had modified it so anyone with access to an ordinary server could run it and easily make their own virtual world. That was exactly what the dying genre needed to be revived. ALO was revived under a new company, who decided to keep it up and running. Ymir is still updating it regularly, with a bunch of stuff from SAO, including the floating castle, Aincrad. Aincrad being the castle we had to conquer to escape SAO. A bunch of people we knew attending the opening ceremonies for the game, and it has not disappointed since. But, after a bunch of time had passed, I was asked for help by the Japanese government."

"Why?" Rarity asked. "Why would the government asked you for help?"

"Because there had been a string of deaths attributed to a player named "Death Gun." Basically, they were diving, or playing games with the NervGear, when they died without any known cause. They had recently died in the VRMMO known as GunGale Online, where if they were shot by Death Gun's pistol, they died in real life too. Basically making an atmosphere of fear. Since no one took them seriously, they decided to televise them during the BulletOfBullets tournament, which Sinon and I were participating in. I found out that they were members of the guild called Laughing Coffin, who in SAO, murdered other players. We raided their base, and a lot of them committed suicide rather than face judgement. Even though they were wiped out, a few survived and formed Death Gun. They had killed two people and attempted to kill us during the BoB, but we escaped. After a showdown with the in-game DeathGun, I killed him, and the second one, IRL, tried to kill Sinon. I managed to fight him off, and she escaped. We later found out they were using a drug that stopped the heart instantly, even with a tiny amount, to commit the killings. The founders of DeathGun were caught and arrested. So, whey won't be harming anyone soon." With this, the ponies sighed in relief.

"That's savage!" Rarity yelled.

"Yep. It really is. After that, Sinon and I became friends IRL. When, in ALO, a few people reported they had gotten a quest for powerful weapon in the game, the holy sword Excalibur, we had to get it. After getting a strange quest  from a NPC, we completed it. Klein fell for a guy during that adventure. The girl we knew as "Freyja", from ancient Norse myth, was actually a disguised Thor, the ancient Norse god of thunder, who was represented in game via computer tech. Klein totally fell for her/him."

At this, Klein's face went crimson red.

"Heh. Anyway, I got the sword, thanks to Sinon, who inspired me to keep it. It's in my inventory, so I have it with me." Kirito finished, then he sighed in exhaustion, before leaning back on the sofa and passing out. At this, every pony and fairy in the room laughed. After the laughter died down, Asuna asked how much longer it would be to the capital.

"A few more hours. It's almost nighttime, so we should get some sleep." Twilight said, and as Asuna woke Kirito, the group walked over to the bedroom car. As they slid the doors open, with Asuna bunking with Sinon, and Kirito with Aries, the ponies waved goodnight. But outside, the wind whistling in it's ears, a monster watched from the windows. It's two blue eyes gleamed as it found its targets. As it snarled and flew off, a storm cloud gathered over the train...