Re-Equestria Online

Chapters

Welcome to Re-Equestria Art Online!
A Battle to Remember
A Little Something for A Little Spike
Wait, What?
No Going Back
And So It Begins
Into The Woods
Into The Dark
Down, Only Down
Thorn In Your Paw

Welcome to Re-Equestria Art Online!

Spike's New Game

Spike walks through the streets, munching on a few gems as he heads back to the Castle of Friendship. He had just got his Nerve Gear and the game that came with it, Equestrian Art Online, after taking a trip to Canterlot, since it is only purchasable there. The doors of the castle creak open and Spike skips through, closing them behind him. He rushes to the castle bedroom and unpacks the Nerve Gear helmet on one of the beds. He fishes it out with his claws and places it on his head, but, something doesn't seems quite right... Spike groans when the realization hits him.

The helmet was made for pony heads! It isn't dragon compatible!

Spike pets the dragon spikes on his head, chiding himself for not predicting something so obvious. "It's not like they're going to make the effort to make a helmet compatible to equine heads along with dragon heads just to satisfy one dragon in all of Equestria..." He mutters grumpily, his mood spoiled by the disappointment.

Suddenly he gets an idea. Spike stuffs the helmet back into the bag, and grabs it, sprinting through the hallways to where he would find Twilight, and as he suspected, he found her in the main room with the Cutie Map, sitting in her chair.

"Hey Twilight!" Spike says and walks up to her, carrying the bag behind his back. "Heya Spike." She replies glumly, obviously bored.

" Well, you look like you have nothing to do, Twilight." He says and innocently looks into her eyes.

"Well, I guess you can say it that way. I finished sorting through the library again, and I already went to visit all the others, but they seemed busy with something. I think it was a new game they were talking about?" She says again, poking at the table. "I even went all the way to see Zecora, but she wasn't even home!" Twilight punched the table in frustration, but then starts waving her hoof around in pain, whispering "Ow ow ow ow..." Spike nods wisely, still holding the bag behind his back where she couldn't see it. "You know, when I went to Rainbow Dash I even suggested to go fly around Equestria! I was willfuly suggesting to go fly! She, she actually said no to that! I quote 'Ya, maybe another time. I just got this awesome new game and I just have to try it!' Then she flew up to Cloudsdale before I could even say a thing!" Twilight said, ending with an exasperated sigh.

"I know just what you mean. Anyhow, seeing as you're bored..." Spike shows Twilight the helmet in the bag. "Wanna try playing this awesome game I went all the way to Canterlot to get?" Spike says and flashes her a smile.

"Spike! You know that such modern technology doesn't interest me! I rather read a book, it's a lot more interesting and entertaining! That game can teach me nothing about friendship, and it's just going to hurt my eyes!" Twilight says, annoyed.

"Come on Twilight! This game does teach you about friendship, you get to meet tons of new ponies and make more friends! This is even the game all your friends are playing, maybe save Applejack, but that's not the point! You can play with them in the game too! Also, it's entertaining, it even has all those boring educational features you love! it gives you the opportunity to live through all the battles and and important events that have happened throughout Equestrian history!" Spike pleads.

Twilight thinks a bit and looks him over suspiciously. "Well, if it's such an amazing game, then why don't you play it? Why are you trying to persuade me to play it?" She says, intrigued at why he would be so desperately wanting her to play a game that he can just play himself.

Spike sighs. "If you look closely at this helmet," He says, pointing with his claw at it, "there isn't any space for my spikes, and it doesn't fit on my head. The fact is, when they probably made this helmet they weren't thinking about that one dragon in Equestria who lives with Twilight Sparkle." He said sadly, pushing the helmet back in the bag. "You see, I thought that maybe if I couldn't play the game, maybe you could for me. Maybe even tell me what it's like." Spike explains, his ears drooping down.

Twilight's expression changes instantly, her mouth agape. Feeling slightly guilty, she closed her mouth and gulped. Looking back at his innocent puppy eyes with renewed thought. Her eyes move back to the bag with the game, coincidentally the one almost all her friends are playing.

"Fine." She groans, picking the bag up with her magic. "I'll play this game, but only because you can't, all right?" She says,looking at the helmet with subtle contempt.

Spike jumps up in delight. "Oh, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!" He shouts, running over to give Twilight a hug. She rolls her eyes in a loving manner, petting his head.

Picking up the bag with her telekinesis, she heads over to her bedroom. Comfortable in her bed, she gives the helmet a look of distrust. Twilight takes out the information pamphlet on the game, and quickly skims through it, wanting to do this as fast as possible, if only to please Spike. She admires some aspects of the game, becoming a bit more interested.

Twilight scrutinizes the helmet. It was made of a flexible metal, and a small curve that fit nice and snug right above her horn, which she guesses must be to simulate the use of magic and a horn in the game, along with a few crystals embedded on the side. "Hmm, so these do the magic here. One transports you into the game and transports the game signals to you, the other must transmit your nerve signals to the game, and I'm guessing this one contains all the information on the game, while the fourth collects information about you. I can't seem to remember what the last one does though."

Twilight takes a deep breath, using her telekinesis to place the helmet atop her head. "Okay, let's get this over with." Twilight sighs.

"Link start!"

A Battle to Remember

Welcome to Equestrian Art Online!

A rainbow of colors seems to assault me, many bubbles in a white space coming for me. A shroud of pink takes over, radiating calm. Words pop up, it seems to be the name of the game, "Equestrian Art Online". It fades after a few seconds, a start and exit button popping up. I push the start button with my will, and it complies.

A random pony appears on my screen, a bubble on top saying "Customize me!". Oh! It must want me to make a pony for me to play as in the game. Hmm, what to choose? Ooooh, it's a randomize button! *CLICK* The pony flashes white, then I see what I got. It had a pale yellow pelt, as well as some poofy purple hair, kinda like Pinkie's but shorter. She had a red swirl going through it. Her eyes were a nice magenta. Yes, I am keeping those eyes! Different hair though, I'm not really into that bubbly style. Maybe like Rarity's? I have felt jealous of it sometimes... The pony's hair flashed white. The hair curled up like Rarity's at the top, but slickened at the bottom just like mine! The tail was my style, I always did like my tail, it's just right. It was still purple with a red curl though, and I'm not rolling with that. Logic, logic... What goes with that type of hairstyle? Hmm, how about scarlet with a stroke of pine green? The hair flashes for the last time, doing just as I asked. Very sophisticated! For the pelt... nah, yellow won't do. How about a nice dark purple! Yes, a bit darker than my normal coat. The body flashes once more, becoming a deep purple.

A bubble pops up, "You will be a mare, yes?" Puzzled, I agree. What type of question is that? Do ponies really want to know how the other gender feels like in a game? It's exactly the same, except you're either male or female. Nothing to it.

A golden bubble pops up, asking me if I'm done. I promptly press the "Yes" button, willing it to continue. Onwards I went, it now asking whether I wanted magic of flight, magic of earth, magic of spells, or exotic magic. Wow, it must have taken a lot of engineering to be able to let ponies of the other tribes feel what it's like to fly and touch clouds, concoct spells and have a horn, have exceptional talent with plants and animals, or talent with exotics, such as exotic plants and animals. It's obviously referring to the three tribes, along with griffons and zebras. The helmet obviously wouldn't fit on a griffon's head, so I guess it's an option for ponies who want to feel what it's like to be a griffon. Maybe they'll make their second version more flexible to fit on griffon head? Or maybe there are two models, one for equine heads and one for griffon heads. Well, I guess there's no "Ultimate super alicorn magic", so onwards I go with magic of spells. Spell magic was always my strong suit.

A purple bubble appears before my eyes, asking about my Cutie Mark. Two options; a new cutie mark of my choice, or to keep my original one. It promptly informs me that this will only slightly change in-game experience, as I will feel like I know my talent well no matter which choice I choose. I choose my cutie mark, obviously. I have always been satisfied with my cutie mark, and i have no wish to try for another talent.

The bubble flashes white, now with different text. "Would you like to continue to Equestria? Have you finished all of your customization? Are you satisfied with your pony?" It asks me, this time I could actually hear it, as if this was important. Yes, yes, yes.

Nothing happens. Maybe I have to say it aloud? "Yes, yes, yes!" I hear myself say. It must receive the signals of my brain that are controlling my vocal cords and mouth, and then simulating my voice in the game.

The bubble pops and everything flashes purple, as if they're aware that such a flash of white has a chance of blinding a pony, or at least stunning them. What wondrous technology we have these days, and almost fully based on magic. Luna must have picked a very talented bunch of unicorns to work with her, along with earth ponies, pegasi, zebras, and griffons as to learn of how their tribe is different and to stimulate such in the game. I wonder how much time they have spent on this project?

Suddenly, I am in town hall. Some other ponies are here with me, and by their confused expressions I can tell they have also just joined the game. Some ponies seem to already know each other and huddle up together. So much for making new friends.

An earth pony mare trots over to me. She has a nice sky-blue coat and a long light green curly mane. "Hey there! You just joined too?" She asks me with a warm smile on her face.

Stuttering I reply, "Oh, ya, umm yes. I have infact joined exactly 1 minute and 4 seconds ago as of now."

The mare giggles. "Oh, that's nice! Just call me blue, it's a lot shorter then the name I was going to use around here!" She says to me, motioning for me to introduce myself.

"Oh, um, me? I'm T-" Wait! No, I can't tell her my real name! There are probably tons of ponies around who customized themselves as famous ponies, probably even as the bearers of the elements of harmony! "-Tango Sparks! Yes, that is to be my name in this game. Though, I rather you call me Sparks for short. By the way, where are we to go now?" I ask.

"Okie dokie, Sparks it is! Ye, I suppose we go into that room, as most of the ponies are headed there. I read in the pamphlet that we are to watch a small video there, which will give us an overview of the game. Ponies who watched it at the opening in Canterlot just go out into Town Square though." She informs me. She must have actually read all of the pamphlet, unlike me!

"So I guess we'll be headed that way?" I ask her quizzically. "Yes, I guess we will." She responds, already walking.

Okay, so how to move? If the game receives signals from my brain, then all I have to do is tell myself to move just like in real life. Move! I will my front hoof forward, then my other front hoof, then my back hooves. Slowly, I begin to catch up to Blue.

We walk in through the door side by side, along with a throng of ponies that pool in around us. We take a seat, and as soon as all the seats were filled a screen appeared on the wall in front of us. Luna appears on the screen, and I can hear her silky voice, she opens the video with "Welcome to Equestria!" and flies into the distance. The screen shows all of the places and cities of Equestria, with Luna's voice echoing each of their names.

The cities recede into darkness, and Luna's voice is heard once more, "In this Equestria, you will be able to do many things! You will be able to see and experience battles and events of the old..." The screen shows a picture of Luna and Celestia turning Discord to stone. "You will be able to experience things in a body that is not your own!" The screen then shows a pegasus flying in the sky, and the the screen splits in two, whereas the second picture shows the same pony as a unicorn, levitating a book. "You can go anywhere, even beyond Equestria!" The screen shows a pony bundled in a scarf at the gates of Yakyakistan, staring at the stone statues in awe. "You can make your dreams come true!" A picture of a pony scaling a mountain is shown, then beside it another with a pony skating on the ice, then another with a clown, then another with a zebra venturing into the Everfree Forest, then another, then another, until the screen is covered with pictures of ponies' dreams coming true. Luna flies into the screen, the pictures as the background. "A world full of possibilities, Equestrian Art Online!" Luna winks at us, and the screen fades to black.

The room erupts in applause. "Wasn't that an amazing experience? Just that video alone, I have never seen anything like it at all! Everything she said we could do in this world, it's so exciting!" She exclaims as we make our way out of Town Hall.

"Yes, I agree, it was very persuasive, and the effect was practically tripled with Luna in the video. This game has now caught my curiosity. Though I just wish Spike could be here to experience it, he would love it!" I say, then suddenly my eyes widen when I realize I just slipped up about my identity.

Blue suddenly stops and turns to me. "What about Spike? You mean the famous Spike The Marvelous Dragon that lives with Princess Twilight? What about him?" She asks, her eyes scrunching up in suspicion.

"Oh, you know, just that he really wanted to play this game and he can't because the helmet wouldn't fit him?" I answer quickly, my eyes anywhere but looking into hers. Her expression visibly relaxes.

"Okie dokie, if that's all, then we better get going! We have to go find our rooms!" She responds, skipping in the direction of a humble brick building. A small bronze bell rings out as Blue opens the door. We walk in and she leads us to a desk. "Hey there, we two just joined, I was wondering if you could give us our rooms?" She asks the stallion behind the desk good naturedly. He nods to her and places two silver keys on the desk. I place my hoof on the key to pick it up, but it fades into blue sparkles.

"Hey, where'd it go?" I look around, befuddled.

"Oh, no worries, it went into your inventory as soon as you touched it." The stallion tells me, and I see Blue touch her key. "Now that you have your key in your inventory, you don't have to take it out to open the door to your room. It will be unlocked for you and anypony you let in." He explains to us, and I can see Blue nodding her head out of the corner of my eye.

"Okie dokie, thanks for the help!" She says, and starts walking up the stairs to the side of the building, and I run to catch up to her. "No problem!" The stallion yells after us, turning back to attend his next customer.

Before I can make a sound, Blue starts talking. "You're probably used to living in a house"- Ha, more like castle!-", but when new players join the game they must take a room at a Switch-Ditch Hotel for their first few games, since the game developers don't want to have a bunch of houses that are taken already but their owner is never online. The Switch-Ditch Hotel was made so that new players could take a room there and try the game for a bit, and if they quit without telling anyone in the game the Switch-Ditch hotel can just give the room to another pony. After a few days of playing, the player gets a choice to take a new home, such as a house or a room in a different house, or just be a 'wanderer'. Now, you may ask why you even need a room or house or home. This is a good place to place a spawn point, unless you want to spawn in Town Hall each time you join the game. It's also a good spot to be at if you need to quickly leave the game and then come back instead of standing out on the street like a statue. Also, it's a good place if you want to talk to somepony in-game privately. Oh! Right, you can ask to buy a teleportation gem and bind it to your room key, so then whenever you want to quickly get to your room or to Ponyville, you can just use the gem. Good place to rest. Any other questions you want to ask?" She stops at a door.

"Umm, yes. First of all, how do you know I wanted to ask that? Also, how did you know all that?" I ask her, dumbfounded.

"That's silly! Of course I know you wanted to ask that, you just would! Also, all that information was available in the pamphlet, and on the poster behind the desk!" She says enthusiastically, prompting me to open the door.

I push it open to find a nice cozy room. A bed to one side with a small table and a lamp beside it, along with a small box and closet to the other side. A window on the wall had a nice view of Town Square, and a small rug covered the middle of the oak floor. It may be plain, but it felt very homely. Blue walked in after me, looking at me with a questioning look.

"So, do you like it? You can change certain things with the Home Tool downstairs. Very useful if you want to colour your room. I'm in the room across from yours, so come over if you need me, it'll be unlocked. I'm going to go customize my room, cha-cha!" She leaves into the hallway, closing the door behind her. How did she know so much about this place? She must have spent at least an hour reading that pamphlet, it was as thick as my foal hood textbook!

I look around my room, deciding to sit on the bed. Okay, I want to get something done in this game today, something that will make Spike happy and will leave me satisfied. Well, I made a new friend, is that good enough? No, that's not exciting enough. I need some sort of milestone in this game, my first big thing. In the video, Luna said something about battles of Equestria... Yes! That is what I shall do, I mean, it never hurts to learn a bit of history!

Trotting out and closing the door behind her, I knock on Blue's door. Blue peaks out the door, looking at me. "You're done already?" She walks out the hallway.

"No, I've just decided to leave the decorating 'til next time. I want to go do something, and well, I was thinking, maybe we could go see and experience a historical battle of Equestria? It would be cool to see one for myself." I look to Blue with a shy smile.

"Hmm, okie! I don't mind going to see some awesome battle. Let's go, I read about this, so I'll lead us there!"

A Little Something for A Little Spike

A Battle to Remember

We wave to the stallion at the desk as we leave the building. Blue leads us by Town Square, and I use the time to look around. There seems to be a fair amount of ponies about, it must be because of the hype of a new type of game and technology. We pass by some familiar streets, and I get an idea where we might be going.

"We must be headed for the Ponyville Train Station, aren't we?" I ask her.

"Yep! I read that you can not only get a ticket for the Friendship Express at the train station, but you can also get the tickets to see events of Equestrian history!" She answers just as we arrive. She heads right over to the ticket booth where an indigo pegasus mare with a short and spiky fiery mane sat reading a book.

"Hello, what do you want?" She asks us without lifting her eyes from the book. I look at Blue with a quizzical expression, wondering if Blue could explain this to me.

"Hmm, well, you see players can choose to do a 'job' to try to get bits, titles, a job at a higher level, or because you just want to. I'm not sure why she's chose that job though, she sure doesn't look like she's enjoying it." Blue tells me. Yep, she could. Why did I ever doubt it?

"Hello, you know I'm right here, right? I can hear you ponies clear as the sky. Just tell me what you want and leave me in peace." She says, rolling her eyes.

"Well, I want to know why you're doing this job if you don't like it so much. This is a game for Luna's sake! You're supposed to have fun." I ask her, my eyes narrowed.

"Ugh, fine. I told this mare that her job couldn't be that boring, and that you didn't need any responsibility to do it, so she dared me to try it. Obviously not trusting me to do it in real life, she made me spend my time on this otherwise awesome game doing this dumb job. I am not giving up though. I will make it 'til the end. I just have to survive this shift. Now, what do you want?" She asks in a monotonous voice.

"Hey, Sparks, you never told me which battle you wanted! Wait, no, don't tell me! I want it to be a surprise!" Blue says, her smile getting bigger.

The pegasus mare shows me a timeline of the battles of the history of Equestria. I point to the third one from the bottom, and the mare nods to me, turning to her strange device that slightly represented a typewriter, except it printed out of the top. She started clicking the keys, peeking at her book as she did so. Pushing a big green button, two shiny square golden tickets came out, and the mare places them before us. The print seems a bit distorted, but what do I know about magical tickets? I touch mine, causing it to turn into golden sparkles, and Blue motions for me to take hers too.

"So, do you need a map to get there, or do you know the way?" She asks me, back to reading her book.

"No worries, I know my way around those parts." I answer, pretty confident in myself.

The pegasus leans over the desk, her mane getting in her eyes. "Oh, by the way, it might be useful for you to know that right now the parts around there are being redevelopped because of some issues, so don't be surprised if it doesn't seem as real as the rest of the game. You won't be able to interact with anything there though, because Luna and her team don't want to endanger players traveling through while it's being tweaked. Be ready for some boring heart-to-heart with your friend there, because there'll be nothing else to do on the way." She says smugly, and delves back into her book, ignoring us completely.

"So, we going?" Blue asks, and I nod in reply. Leading her to our destination, we finally arrive at the Everfree Forest. Blue starts jumping like a mad rabbit, "Ooh! I can tell this is going to be exciting! Onwards!" She says in a high voice, practically bleeding excitement.

"Yes, onwards, Blue!" I reply, a giggle coming from my mouth.

We treck on into the Everfree Forest, but like the pegasus said, it just doesn't seem real. There is no noise at all except for the stomping of our hooves, and my limbs just pass through all the plants and foliage. We saw a snake, but it didn't even react to us, slithering away. "So, you liking the game so far?" Blue asks me.

"Ya, it's fine. A lot like the real Equestria. It's nice and has some very interesting features." I answer vaguely, excited to get to our destination.

"I agree! It's cool to be a different pony and do things you wouldn't usually do in real life. I wonder if somepony that was an earth pony is trying out a magic spell right now? Or maybe a unicorn became a pegasus in this game and is having the time of their life flying in the air and sleeping on clouds?" Blue asks with a wondrous expression.

"Yes, that would all be amazing. I myself have never wished to be something else, and if I ever had, I always had my friends to help me out." I tell her.

We finally reach the bridge, and we cross it quickly. "Oooh, are we going to The Castle of The Two Sisters? I think I might know which battle you chose!" She tells me enthusiastically, rushing into the crumbling castle.

I rush in after her, and lead her up to one of the castle towers. "Okay Sparks, now call up your inventory and give me the other ticket." Blue says. I will this so-called inventory to appear, and a list of the items I carry pops up. Most of the slots are empty except for the first three, which contain my room key and the two tickets. Concentrating on the second ticket, I will it to appear in front of me. It drops onto the floor, and Blue immediately picks it up. It bursts into golden sparkles on contact.

"Okay, so what you want to do, is focus on your ticket and try to 'use' it. Think of fulfilling it's purpose and such. This will be so much fun!" She explains to me, seeming to open her own inventory.

"Our tickets are binded together, so we should experience the battle at the same time. Let's count down. One, two, three!"

I am suddenly flung into another body. In front of me stands Nightmare Moon, cackling as the Elements of Harmony in their stone form float around her. I feel my eyes narrow, and I lean forward, supposedly in the position of charge. Wait, this is my body! Twilight's body!

Her voice rings out, "You're kidding, you're kidding, right?"

my horn starts to glow with purple magic, and I charge at her. She charges at me too, but with a very bored look.

In a flash, I am no longer there. I'm quite dizzy, but I recover quickly. I have teleported myself onto the platform with the five Elements of Harmony, still in their stone forms. "Just one spark." I hear myself whisper, and I lean down, my horn pulsing with magic once more. I close my eyes in concentration and I feel my magic envelope the stone elements.

A spark I get, a spark of pain that is, right from the elements! I'm thrown back and I see Nightmare Moon with her hooves in the centre of the elements, tiny electric bolts connecting the elements together, a smug grin settling on my face, but then it stops. I gasp in surprise.

"But, where's the sixth element?" I ask, obviously puzzled and surprised. She starts cackling, and she raises her hooves high, smashing them against the floor, and all five of the stone Elements of Harmony break with a resounding crack. My mouth agape, my ears laid back, my eyelids fluttering in shock.

"You little foal. Did you think you could defeat me? Now you will never see your princess, or your sun. The night will last forever!" She starts laughing again, a swirling mist of dark blue and white twinkles gathering on top of her.

One of my ears prick up at some voices, and I twist my head to face the staircase. I see my friends' shadows on the wall! The come into the room. My eyes widen and I gasp again, and I realize something.

"You think you can destroy the Elements of Harmony just like that?"- I turn back to face Nightmare Moon -"Well you're wrong! 'Cause the spirits of the Elements of Harmony are right here!" I practically shout at her with the utmost confidence. The shards of the stone elements are picked up in a strange magical aura and float up to Nightmare Moon's head.

"What?" She asks, her eyes flicking to each shard.

"Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of honesty!" The shards of one of the stone elements float to Applejack, swirling around her.

"Fluttershy, who tamed the Manticore with her compassion, represents the spirit of kindness!" Fluttershy flies into the air and the shards follow her, surrounding her as well.

"Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger, represents the spirit of laughter!" Pinkie jumps and lands with her head leaning forward, the shards now floating around her too.

"Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift, represents the spirit of generosity!" Rarity looked down onto her hooves in a bashful way, the strange shards circling around her.

"And Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends for her own heart's desire, represents the spirit of loyalty!" She also flies up, hovering in the air as the shards go on around her.

"The spirits of these five ponies got us us through every challenge you threw at us!" I tell her, loud and clear. "You still don't have the sixth element, the spark didn't work!" She says, narrowing one of her eyes.

"But it did, a different kind of spark!"- I turn around to face my friends with a small smile -"I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see how much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me, when I realized that you all"- With a tear sliding down my cheek, I turn back to Nightmare Moon -"are my friends!" I shout.

I look up, and see a stone Element of Harmony, showering us in a beautiful white light, the sixth element! It floats down to me. "You see Nightmare Moon, when those elements are united by the-the spark, that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth element, the element of,"- I close my eyes and face the sixth element -"magic!" I shout. I can feel the sixth element grow and enveloppe itself in a white light, and a flash goes through the room. The shards around each of my friend's join together and create a necklace, a gem in the middle the shape of their cutie mark. Mine, mine was a beautiful tiara where the shards joined into a gem that topped the tiara, that was also shaped as my cutie mark.

We float closer to each other, and a blinding rainbow of friendship swirls on top of us and shoots off, whirling and churning around Nightmare Moon like a tornado, "Noooo!" Her shouts ring out, her eyes wide open.

In a flash of white, we're all lying on the floor.

So I'm flung back into my body, Tango Sparks.

"Oh, that was spectacular! I still remember it, clear as the sky! Wasn't it just amazing Sparks?" Blue asks me, a giddy smile on her face.

"Oh ya, it was great! Just like the real thing. It was amazing, I was Twilight and I was finally with all my friends." I say, sighing. She looks at me with that strange look.

"Oh, you were Twilight? I was Pinkie Pie. Wonder why that was. But it's strange, shouldn't we have just experienced it in the way like a ghost, you know, like a floating spirit? That's what I read in the pamphlet." She says with a puzzled voice.

"Ye, it was weird. I actually felt a bit of pain when the electricity sparked me and when I landed on the floor, isn't that weird?" I tell her, and then take a look at my ticket again. " I remember seeing that something was wrong with the print on the ticket, isn't that also strange? I think that mare at the ticket booth might have messed up the tickets when she was peeking at her book. I think her friend might be right; she may not understand the responsibility needed for that job. Imagine her giving the wrong ticket for a train in real life, or telling a pony the wrong time the train's to come! Things could go horribly wrong." I say, imagining all the disasters that could come if that pegasus was a real ticket booth worker.

"Maybe then she knows what went wrong? Let's go ask her!" She says, hopping on her merry way down the staircase. "Either way, that was really fun!" She says as I catch up to her.

We finally make it out of the castle and are trekking through the Everfree Forest again, this time it was a little glitchy though. I could see a leaf suddenly turn red and then back after a few seconds. I would see a moth, and then suddenly it's a bat. "You know, this forest here is getting quite glitchy. Oh look! That timberwolf is the size of my hoof! They must be having major problems up there." Blue notes as we near the edge of the Everfree Forest.

"I say we head straight to the train station to figure out what went wrong. I wouldn't want the same thing to happen to some other poor pony if they get into a battle that's a lot more serious than that one." I tell Blue, picking up the pace.

A lot more ponies are out on the streets now, and I can see that it's well after noon. Ponies must have come from all over Equestria to get this game. It seems strange, I wonder how many aren't playing?

"Look! We're almost there! I just hope she didn't finish her shift!" Blue says as we near the train station. We walk over to the ticket booth, sighing in relief when we see that the mare is still here.

"What is it? You again?" She says, still reading her unfinished book.

"Ya, it's us. Now tell us what you did with our tickets and why it was all so messed up." Blue asks her.

"Well, how should I know? Maybe I messed up with the ticket, or the redevelopping of the Everfree Forest messed with the castle. Whatever, my shift is almost over, and then I can actually play this sweet game!" She flips to the next page of her book.

"Well, I guess there's nothing else we can do, Blue. I have to go soon, so let's head back to the hotel." I say, excited to get back to Spike. He'll be so happy when I tell him of all this! Too bad he can't play it.

I see ponies talking on the streets, and it's all nice and stuff, but what about real life? They can talk in real life, and unless they live across Equestria, I see nothing to stop them. A bit disturbing too, is that there a bunch of players who had just customized themselves as celebrites like Photo Finish, or pegasi that customized themselves as Rainbow Dash, even unicorns that tried to customize themselves as Luna or Celestia in unicorn form.

We reach the hotel and I check off everything I wanted to do in the game. Do something cool to tell Spike about, check. Learn what this game is mostly about, check. Make a friend, check? Not sure if Blue counts as a friend, or a new friend at that. She seems kind of familiar. I think this was a good game session.

I hear the bell ring as we walk through the door and the stallion behind the desk waves to us. Blue waves back and we walk up the stairs. Finally arriving at our rooms, Blue turns to me. "So, how do you like this game so far? Neat, eh? I guess you'll be logging out now, there's nothing else for you to do." She says as I open my door.

"Ya, I have to go talk to a friend of mine. Maybe I'll see you next time I log on?" I tell her as I walk into my room.

"Ya, next time. Bye!" She says, and then she walks into her room and closes the door. I close my door too, walking over to the bed.

Well, that was fun. I call up the menu, and choose to "Log off".

Wait, What?

A Little Something for A Little Spike

Twilight opens her eyes and takes off her helmet, leaving it on her bed. Yawning, Twilight leaves her room and walks into the hall. "Spike? Spike?" She shouts, her voice echoing throughout the castle. Just as she thought, she found Spike at the Cutie Map table, munching on gems.

"Hey Twilight! How'd you like the game? Did you meet anypony? Did you do anything awesome? Tell me everything!" Spike says, letting his gem drop drop back into the bowl with the others.

"Alright, alright!" Twilight says and walks over and takes a seat in her chair. "Okay, maybe you were right Spike, it was a pretty good game. Yes, I met this strange pony, she said to call her Blue. She was all energetic and enthusiastic all the time, she reminds me of somepony. Oh, and you wouldn't believe the awesome thing we did! You were right about experiencing battles of the past! Blue and I, we got these weird magic golden tickets and went to The Castle of The Two sisters, but the Everfree Forest was glitchy there for some reason. A pony told us it was because Luna and her crew were tweaking it, but I don't know. Anyways, we went into the old castle and climbed all the way to one of the castle towers, and we used the tickets! It was so cool, just like the first time we fought Nightmare Moon! If you haven't guessed yet, Spike,I chose the first battle I had when we came to Ponyville, which was when we defeated Nightmare Moon with the Elements of Harmony. It was like I was with my friends again and everything was fine! It ended when we defeated her though. I was in my body like it was in real life, and somehow Blue got to see it in Pinkie's point of view." Twilight says, watching as Spike's eyes widen in awe.

"Oh, but do you know what's strange? Blue said we were supposed to see it as if we were ghosts, like we weren't supposed to see it from anyponies' pont of view, just as if we were floating in the air watching it all. I actually felt pain when the electric bolt got me, which also wasn't supposed to happen. The tickets were weird too, the print on them was all distorted. The mare that gave us the tickets said she might have messed up with them, or maybe while they were redevelopping the game it was affecting the castle. I'm not sure though, Spike, what do you think?" Twilight asks him.

"Twilight, I'm so jealous of you! Not only have you proven that the game was better than I thought, but you actually got to see a glitch! I think maybe the mare's right, or maybe she gave you the wrong type of ticket, maybe there's a ticket to let you see a battle from a pony's point of view. You are so lucky!" Spike says, waving his claws about for emphasis.

"Oh, Spike, don't be like that! Don't worry, you'll see, it will all come together." Twilight cooed, not liking to see him in distress. Twilight suddenly got an idea.

"Spike, I need to go to Canterlot for a bit, okay? I'll be back by dusk. I'm leaving you in charge, don't break anything!" Twilight says, grabbing the bag and helmet from her room and heading out he castle.

Flapping her wings, Twilight picks up altitude, and starts heading for Canterlot, slowly increasing her speed. After a few minutes, she spots the castle, soaring down for a rough landing. She lands in the back garden, the guards looking at her with a strange expression. Shaking a bit of dirt out of her mane, she walks over to the guards. "Hello, would you please inform me of Celestia's and Luna's whereabouts?" She says in the most formal manner she could muster.

"U-um, yes, Princess Twlight Sparkle. Princess Celestia is in her throne room. Would you like us to accompany you there?" They ask.

"No, that's all right. I will find my way there, this matter is quite urgent. Thank you for your time." She told them, off to the throne room.

"Celestia!" Twilight exclaims as she enters the throne room, Celestia currently admiring one of the window panes.

"Yes, Twilight? What might you need assistance with?" She asks, unmoving.

"Is it all right if I could borrow a blue print of the Nerve Gear? Even better, maybe meet with Luna and her team of ponies currently working on Equestrian Art Online and the team that worked on constructing the Nerve Gear?" She asks as she trots over to Celestia.

"Oh, yes, and why might that be?" Celestia asks and stands up to face Twilight, already leading her through one of the halls.

"Oh, you know, just a little something for Spike. He has a small problem that I'd like to fix." Twilight answers vaguely, giddy with her idea.

"Oh, that sounds very interesting. I wish you luck!" Celestia says as she leads Twilight through a door and leaves.

Looking around, Twilight notices many cupboards and tables, and many gems and crystals at that. Twilight notices Luna conversing with some ponies in a corner and calls, "Luna? Hello?" Luna turns and sees Twilight, a warm smile on her face. Whispering something to the ponies, she walks over.

"Hello, Twilight. What might lead you here to my humble project?" She asks her.

"Oh, um, I was wondering if I could borrow a Nerve Gear blueprint, and maybe talk to you and your team?" Twilight asks shyly, aware that Luna might have been in the middle of some important task.

"Twilight, it's all right, you can calm down. We won't bite. Now, a blueprint you say?"- Luna walks over to one of the covers, fetching a peice of blue paper and a small sky blue gem -" Here you go, this should do. The gem portrays a holographic 3D image of the blue print for better clarification and should suit you for anything you need it for. Now, you want to talk to me and my team, no problem. Though I can't spare all of my team, as we are working on a very complicated task at the moment, but I am sure we'll have everyone you need. Let's move to the conference room, shall we? It's more comfortable there." Luna says with her soft silky voice, leading Twilight through a dark blue door.

It was a very big room, a U-shaped table taking up most of the space. There were seats all along the edge of the table, and Luna motioned for Twilight to take a seat the beggining of the table; the 'bottom' of the U. Walking over to a speaker phone, Luna pressed one of the buttons, causing the green gem to light up. "Hello? Could team B4, B3, and A6 be dispatched to the conference room please? Thank you." She said, her voice ringing out in the hallway. Sitting down in a chair next to Twilight, she turned to face her. "Now, I want you to know this is not special treatment because you're a princess. Any players, curious ponies or game developpers are welcome to come see me. You're lucky that you came at the right time, since we've just finished one of our huge projects. So don't feel guilty. Many other ponies come see us." Luna explains compassionately, a sigh of relief escaping Twilight's mouth.

"Thank you, I thought I was interupting something important and that you just let me do this because I'm a princess. It feels good to know otherwise." Twilight admits.

A bustle of ponies come into the room, each taking a seat. Luna nods to let Twilight know she can start. "Okay, first of all I want to thank you all for coming here, I really appreciate it. Now, I have a few inquiries about the Nerve Gear if that's okay with you ponies. So, does the size of the helmet affect gameplay in any way?" Twilight asks.

"No, we have tested this with our griffon head model and have proven it does not affect gameplay, but it is slightly heavier or lighter depending on size." A unicorn stallion answers.

"Thank you. Now, does the program and gem-use of the helmet change or is altered for different species or non-equine species?" She asks. Some of the ponies at the table whisper to each other.

"Yes, in fact since the structure of the nervous system is slightly different in each body, as we have seen when creating the griffon model, the Signal-Recieving and Signal-Sending gems are altered and the programming is slightly different." An earthpony mare answers.

"Could I please also borrow a copy of the griffon model Nerve Gear blueprint as well, please?" She asks. Luna nods to an earthpony stallion and he leaves the room. "Was the griffon model successful?" Twilight inquires.

"Yes, it is already being sold at many stores in Griffonstone, and the griffon models are also available in Cloudsdale for the griffons living there." A pegasus mare responds, just as the earthpony stallion Luna had sent off comes back.

"Here it is, along with it's gem counterpart." He says in a gruff voice and hands it to Twilight.

"Okay, last question. Are you currently developping any other in-game species?" She asks, looking at the ponies.

"Hmm, well, we were thinking of having one of the battles be the time you and the Elements of Harmony persuaded the dragon to leave his mountain, and we still have the information on the dragon body and movement algorithms for its movements, though we aren't sure if we will eventually include the battle." A unicorn mare replies. Luna nods to another unicorn mare to fetch a copy of the gem that contains the information, and calls the meeting to an end.

Luna and Twlight exit the room together, Luna leading her to one of the construction labs. "I think I have a feeling what you might be planning so I thought this"- Luna uses her magic to float over a small toolbox -" might help you. It contains all the tools you would need to interact with the gem programming, along with the materials for the Nerve Gear and such. I suggest you come by anytime you need help. I wish you luck." Luna says with a knowing smile.

Twilight heads out, meeting with the unicorn mare for the information gem along the way.

Twlight travels through the throne room, but Celestia is nowhere in sight. "She's probably up in her sleeping chambers or something." Twilight mutter to herself. Making sure that all the blueprints, gems, and the toolbox she received were all in her bag, she flies off to Ponyville. Coming down with a neater landing this time, Twilight opens the doors and enters, looking around for Spike. Closing the doors behind her, she walk through the halls and stopped by the main room with the Cutie Map, Spike already dozing off.

She floats Spike onto her back, walking back to her room. She tucks him into his bed, already hearing his soft snores. Stuffing the bag into her closet, she walks over to her bed, peaking at Spike to make sure he's asleep. "Good night." Twilight whispers, snug in her comfy bed, closing her eyes.

No Going Back

Wait, What?

It's been at least a week, and Twilight has made much progress, both in the game and with her project. Spending more and more time on the game, Twilight has explored many more of the game's features. Of course, she had gone to check on her friends, but most of them either said they were busy, playing the game, or weren't home. She caught Rarity for a few minutes when they crossed paths at a cafe, but Rarity soon had to leave, saying she needs to finish her newest line for Canterlot Boutique. There had been that one time when Twilight saw Fluttershy buying some food for Angel, but she didn't have any time to say hello. The Cutie Map hadn't called all week, so Twilight had all seven days to Spike and herself, and of course her two newest activities.

She brought her little project over to Luna's team yesterday for testing and safety checks. This morning, Twilight had sent Spike over to Fluttershy's house to help with a task that Fluttershy apparently needed Spike for.

Now she had her home all to herself, and the one thing that she had left to do? Yes, play Equestrian Art Online! She had bonded a bit with Blue over the past week, she reminded her so much of another pony, the name was right on Twilight's tongue, but it always escaped her mind. It doesn't really matter though, as long as they have a good time together.

There Twilight was, sitting in her chair at the Cutie Map, making sure it wasn't calling her for anything. Assuring herself that it was silent, she makes her way up to her bedroom where she kept the Nerve Gear. She fishes the Nerve Gear out of the bag, slipping it on and lying down on her bed.

"Link Start!"

~~~---|_ /)'*'*(*_|---~~~

I spawn on the bed in my hotel room. Quickly calling up my friend list, I check Blue's status. Yes! Blue's online!

I run over to her room, and knock on the door. "Just a second!" She calls, and I hear her hoof steps as she walks to the door. "Oh, hey Sparks! You're finally online, not that I just logged on a few minutes ago. I've been looking over Sugarcube Corner's menu for today! They have a few new treats that we can try!" She says to me, bobbing her head.

"Well, why didn't you say so! Let's head over there right now!" I say, caught up in her positive attitude.

"Can do!" She starts running down the stairs.

"Hey, be careful! This may be a game, but running down the stairs is never safe!" I shout, catching up to her at the door. The bell rings as we leave the building, ah, such a familiar sound now.

We make our way through the streets until we reach the beloved Sugarcube Corner. We walk in, most of the tables full. We walk up to the desk, Blue pointing to the menu. "See? I told you! Glazed Apple Cinnamon Tarts, sounds delish! Want to try some? We could take with their new banana maple sundae!" She says, I can tell she would be drooling right now if this was real life!

"Ya, why not? It's always nice to try something new." I say, then turn to the pony who's working at the desk, currently slurping a banana chestnut smoothie drizzled with melted chocolate and mini marshmallows. "Hey, can we take two Glazed Apple Cinnamon Tarts, and I would personally like a Banana Maple Sundae drizzled with caramel and strawberries please. Anything you want to take, Blue?" I ask, not sure if she also wanted a banana maple sundae.

"Hmm, I'd like to have what you're having!" She says to the pony, pointing at their drink.

The pony calls our orders to the kitchen behind them, then resumes slurping their smoothie. A few seconds later another pony comes out the kitchen with our orders and lays them on the counter, going back to the kitchen. "That will be eight bits." The pony informs us, and I call up my inventory, making eight shiny gold bits appear on the counter.

"Sparks!" Blue whines, looking at me with those cute puppy eyes.

"No, it's fine Blue! You usually pay for our treats, and this one will be on me. Kind of like me repaying you for those other meals." I tell her firmly, refusing to look her in the eyes.

"Well, if you say so!" She says, resuming in her usual happy voice, taking our food and leaving out the door, probably to find us a table outside. I follow her out, and we find ourselves at a small table in the shade of a tree. I don't know how it's possible to feel shade in a game, but it was a nice feeling. Maybe it simulated the temperature being a bit cooler than outside the shade? It's nice, and I'm thankful for that. It's been quite hot outside of the game for the last couple of days, maybe because it's the middle of summer.

"Wow, this tart tastes amazing! This game never seems to fail when it comes to simulating taste, especially these juicy treats!" I exclaim, swallowing the tart. It was amazing what you could do in this game.

"Agreed! They must have tasted every single thing in Equestria to have cooking and eating in a game. I wonder if you can make your own food too, and then eat it! That would be nice for trying recipes, and then if it tastes good you can make it in real life! That would be so helpful." Blue says and and starts slurping her smoothie.

I float the spoon of ice cream into my mouth. Telekinesis, what a dreadful spell to have to learn in this game! Even though magic was still my talent here, it forced me to learn spells as if I had the magical capability of a foal! The only spells I've truly mastered in this game are Telekinesis and teleportation, the spells I deemed most useful for this game. I nod shamefully each time I do simple spells outside the game, remembering how much trouble they caused here. So frustrating!

I eat the rest of my sundae, licking the spoon as I watch Blue slurping on her smoothie. It was bigger than a regular smoothie, but then again, she did ask for the same one as the one the pony was drinking.

Suddenly, I see a flash of white and I appear in Town Square. More and more ponies get teleported into Town Square, until they don't. It's so packed here that I can barely move, and for some reason we can't get out. Ponies try to get into buildings, but the doors won't budge. "Blue! Blue? You there?" I start shouting, along with a chorus of many other voices shouting for their friends, or thoughts on what might be going on. I hear some speculate that it's a glitch, while a pony or two shout that it might be an event to celebrate the game's release.

Holographic screens appear in the sky. Nightmare Moon appears on each screen, her cackle heard throughout all of Town Square. "Hello, my little ponies! How unfortunate for you that you have been caught up in this mess, isn't it?" Her booming canterlot voice rings out, and I even notice some ponies covering their ears.

"What's this? Some sort of prank?" A high pitched voice asks.

"Now, I guess you're all wondering why you've been teleported to Town Square, aren't you? Well, I have a special little game planned for you lucky folks! In case you're wondering, this isn't some foal playing a trick on you, no no no! This is Nightmare Moon who graces you with her presence, and no other! You may scream in horror now, if you wish." She says, another cackle escaping her mouth.

"Celestia will save us! Nightmare Moon was defeated twice, I don't think a third time would make a difference!" A silky voice is heard.

"Now, I bet you're wondering what game I have in store, and lucky for you, I'm not the best at keeping secrets! Seeing as you all had so much fun defeating all of Equestria's prior enemies, why not do it again? For the fun of it, the enemies will appear in chronological order, and when you defeat the enemy the next one will appear at its spawn point. The region each enemy's spawn point is located will be locked until the enemy is defeated, all except Ponyville. When you are ready to face each enemy, you are to meet it at it's spawn point. You will face me, or well, when I was weak, in the tower of the Castle of The Two Sisters. To commence the battle you are to use the "ticket", except this time instead of watching the battle, your are to partake in it! You might also be wondering why most shops weren't open today, well, as you'll later see, they were doing a bit of, well you know, renovating, you could say. I'll let you see for yourself. But this time, no cheating! There will be no Elements of Harmony to aid you here!" She tells us in a malicious tone. Ponies start to panic.

A pony shouts out, "We don't have to deal with this! Just log out. Then we can all go report this to Princess Celetia!" Ponies start cheering, and some relieved sighs are heard.

"Oh! One more thing! Since this game wouldn't be fun without any players, you all stay here! Oh, of course, and the most important rule; you only have one life! Seeing as you defeated these enemies already in real life, you could do so with similar circumstances here, is this not correct? You might be wondering why Celestia hasn't caught me or this yet, or why the team of game developers working on this game haven't either. Oh, you know, it's only because I sent myself to the moon! How's that for smart, eh? No flaws in this plan, and no cheating either! I am everywhere, and so I decree the one rule of this game; everything to be as in real life, except without the Elements of Harmony! I see any cheaters, you don't want to know what will happen. I am afraid your friends from outside the game won't be able to help you either, for they aren't even aware you are playing the game at the moment! It is as if you and Equestrian Art Online never existed, and if anyone ever recalls you or an event involving you, it will simply be too foggy of a memory to remember who the pony was, that is, until you beat the game. Fear not, as long as you are alive in the game you are kept alive by a magical gem on your Nerve Gear. Though, I do hope you don't feel like not doing anything and are thinking of just living out the rest of your life in this game, or I might be forced to take immediate action. Now, there's a gift I left in each of your inventory, have a look, will you? If you want to spend the game as yourself, you might make use of it. I hope you enjoy my special game! Good bye, my little ponies!" The screen disappears with the image of Nightmare Moon with her cruel smile stuck in my mind. Ponies start running and panicking, no longer trapped in Town Square.

I call up the menu to see that Nightmare Moon had in fact told the truth. No more Log Out button. I realize I'm in shock, I haven't yet processed the full meaning of all this. I switch to my inventory, and find a "Mirror" item. Using it, I call of the inventory and look around. My eyes catch a green mane, and I start running in that direction. "Blue!" I shout, seeing her looking at her inventory, and we make eye contact. Suddenly, she and I flash white, and Blue is no longer Blue. I look at her, my eyes wide, and her eyes widen too.

Pink coat... Pink bubbly mane... Light blue eyes...My jaw drops. "Twilight?" She asks me, a small and quiet voice.

"Pinkie Pie? You played as Blue?" I ask her, barely pronouncing it right because of the numb feeling in my jaw.

"You've been playing as Tango Sparks?" She asks me.

Simultaneously, we walk over to each other and join in a hug. "We're going to make it through this."

And So It Begins

No Going Back

Silently, we leave for the hotel. The stallion behind the desk nods to us with a grim expression on his face as we go up the stairs.

I open the door to my room, and we walk over and sit on my bed. I close the door again with my telekinesis.

“What just happened?” I ask Pinkie, stunned by the latest event.

“Nightmare Moon came back and trapped us in this game. She is now forcing us to defeat all the enemies we had defeated before with the Elements of Harmony, but now we can’t use them in this game. If we die here, we die in real life. Celestia can’t go defeat Nightmare Moon because she’s on the moon. None of the ponies outside the game know we’re stuck in here. Stores have changed their merchandise. Nightmare Moon is enjoying this game very much. This isn’t fun.” She says glumly.

“Okay, so so far it’s just me and you. We know Rainbow Dash is playing this game, and I’m pretty sure Fluttershy is too. I don’t know about Rarity, and I’m quite certain that Applejack isn’t playing. I could go face Nightmare Moon, but I don’t know where she is and I’m powerless against her while she’s in control of this game.” I say aloud. I hear Pinkie Pie gasp and turn to face her.

“What’s wrong, Pinkie?” I ask, a bit nervous.

“When I tried to look at your status by looking at you like I usually would, instead of just the “Friend” sign and the small menu of options, I see this green bar beside you, along with a green gem on top of your head. It’s really weird, Twilight.” My eyes suddenly widen as I look at her too.

“Pinkie, I think you have it too. Oh no, what are these? This is all so horrible! I just visited Luna yesterday, and she was just fine! I don’t know how this could have happened! I don’t know why she would even do such a thing, even after all the trouble with the Tantabus! You remember what she told us, she was guilty and ashamed of what she did as Nightmare Moon! I just don’t know what went wrong.” I say, practically pulling my mane out.

I walk over to the window, checking what time it was. The sun was between noon and evening, around afternoon. “I wonder what Spike is doing right about now. Probably back at the castle, munching on his gems, wondering where the Princess of Friendship is, but he probably can’t remember who exactly it is. Since Nightmare Moon is in this game, does that mean ponies forgot about her existence, along with Luna’s, too?” I ask nopony in particular.

“Should we check out what Nightmare Moon meant by ‘store renovations’?” I demand, trying to get a plan in order. I have to do something.

“Sure, I guess. Maybe it has something to do with this ‘game’ of hers.” Pinkie replies, trying to bring back her positive attitude.

Her hair lost its buzz for a few seconds, adapting a flat style like her sisters’.

“Pinkie Pie, it’s going to be okay. We defeated them once, we can do it again. We can get out of this cursed game and defeat Nightmare Moon, and everything will be okay.” I tell her, trying to cheer myself up just as much as her. She nodded to me, and takes a deep breath. Her hair poofs back up to her usual mane style and she even smiles at me, but well, it all looks a little forced.

Together we head out of the hotel and onto the streets of Ponyville. It was practically deserted, most of the ponies inside. We reached one of the shops, entering to find a bunch of ponies already there. They’re murmuring amongst each other, looking at the display case. We make it through the crowd and my mind struggles with trying to identify what I see.

It’s a strange item, it looks a lot like one of those spears the castle guards use, but there is more metal on this one, and instead of a long wooden pole it’s two short sticks making a cross. The blade is attached to one of the tips. I focus on it, and a small box appears on top of it. The name of the item is called “Sword”, and its category is… weapon? It says that it does this weird thing, “deals +20% damage”. I don’t understand all this nonsense. The price is written below; Thirty-five bits. Wow.

I hear the sound of when somepony spawns in an item, and I turn around. In the corner of the store, a pony stands with the strange item at his hooves. An earth pony mare walks into the room just as the pony picks up the sword by the cross part, and the metal point comes in contact with the mare’s coat.

“Ow! hey, who did that!” She says, looking around and then notices the pony holding the “Sword”.

“I-I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there. I was just picking up this strange item I just bought. I didn’t mean for it to hurt you.” He stutters, blush in his cheeks.

“Hmm, I guess that’s fine, but it sure hurt! Say, that strange little green bar at my side just went down a pinch. It’s filling up again though, so I wouldn’t worry. Just be careful with that thing, all right?” She says, a hint of confusion in her voice.

The sword bursts into red sparkles, and I assume the pony took it back into his inventory. I walk back to the display case and look at the wall behind it. It was covered in similar items, all with the grim sheen of menace. All the pointy edges and the slick surfaces. There we even a few that looked like they were meant to be worn on the hooves. Next to the sword in the display case stood another item. It was in a strange U shape if you looked at it from the side, and on its tag it says that it’s a “Weapon Grip”. In the description it says that it is used with many weapons, such as swords and “maces” to be held by the mouth when charging. It shows a diagram where the “Weapon Grip” is attached to the bottom edge of the sword, otherwise known as “the hilt”, and the sword is held sideways by the mouth of a pony, as if the pony was to slash through its opponent. Okay, that sounds gruesome. It can also be adjusted so that it is in the “point forward” position.

I turn to Pinkie Pie. “Are we supposed to use these things to fight something? Does she expect us to use these things to fight our enemies?” I ask her, disgusted.

“Sadly, it seems so. On the side of the display case it listed the ‘uses’ for these weapons, specifically: Engaging in battle with the Enemy, Buffs, whatever that means, and trading. It mentions that these weapons can also be modified. I had no idea Nightmare Moon expected us to use this sinister collection of weapons. She must really believe there is no other way we could defeat the enemies in this game.” Pinkie says bleakly.

“Oh, Pinkie, what are we going to do? Are we really going to have to use these horrid things? Is this really happening?” I ask her, panic starting to build up inside me.

“I’m sorry Twilight, I wish this didn’t happen to us. We’re going to beat this game, get back to our friends and live happily ever after. I’ll make sure of it. Now, you probably don’t want to do this, but I need you to buy one of these. Any, more than one if that is better. We need to be ready, and safe for that matter. I want you to have it in the case of an emergency. Now, Nightmare Moon probably thought up a bunch of cruel unicorn battle spells too, but you need to have one of these, just in case.” She says to me, acceptance tainting her words, a small smile on her face.

I nod, for I understand what she’s doing. She accepts that we’re stuck in this game, but she does not accept that this is the end. I admire her for her perseverance, her ability to go on, even in the darkness of times. I guess that the element of laughter isn’t always just about being happy all the time, it’s about the capability to go on, to not give up, to put a smile on your face, not just for yourself, but for the ponies around you and your friends.

I look around, glancing back at the sword in the display case. Calling up its tag again, I chose to see its “history”. Something like this:

In the far lands out of Equestria, the place known as Zebrica was flung into a brutal war. They created weapons so as to be stronger than their Enemy. One weapon they had was the sword. It was then made of stone, for the zebricans had no wish to look for jewels below the earth. As the zebricans travelled, they had come across Yakyakistan, high up in Frozen North of Equestria. There, the yakyaksitans modified it to their own needs, stronger and sharper. They created the iron swords, and other swords of different metals and gems. These weapons were discovered by equestrians, and so was forbidden. The swords are gone, or so we think. Many more weapons were created, different shapes for different purposes.

So, that’s where these things came from. At least I know now that Nightmare Moon didn’t just create them. She recreated them, or at least she did in this game.

I purchase the sword, along with the weapon grip. I wanted to have it, just in case I wanted to multitask. I look around at the walls, wondering if any other weapon would be useful in the case of an emergency. I buy another weapon, it looks like a smaller model of the sword, except the blade is shaped in a different way, it’s called a “Dagger”. I also purchase the strange weapon that is merged with a shoe for the hoof. It can retract and protract small metal claw-like blades on the edge of it, and there is a small pocket in it for a dagger, so I can use it as if I am wielding the dagger with my hoof or I can shoot it in a short distance. Nothing else seems to fit in the criteria of being needed in an emergency, so we leave.

We start walking back to the hotel when we notice a group of ponies huddling together, as if they were having a meeting. We walk over, interested in what they might be discussing.

They barely pay us a glance when we walk up to them. “Hey, what are you ponies talking about?” Pinkie Pie asks them.

“Oh, we’re discussing. You know, what we’re going to do. We met together in this game, and we have a lot that we care about in our lives. So far, we’re discussing our plan of action.” The earth pony stallion informs us.

“Hey, why are you still in your game customization? Don’t you guys want to be in your own bodies since this isn’t that much of a game anymore?” A pegasus mare speaks up, a questioning look in her eyes.

Pinkie Pie lets out a slight giggle, and her and I quickly huddle up to decide what we’re going to tell them.

“So, should we tell them, Twilight?”

“No, I think it would change the way they see us if we do. Let’s tell them we don’t want to do that yet, or something. Maybe that we’re big fans of the Elements of Harmony, or something.”

“If you say so. I’m not the element of honesty, but I still feel a bit bad about lying.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry. I just want to see what’s going on so far, and I want to hear it as if I’m not Twilight Sparkle. We’ll tell them when it’s needed, maybe if they really are trying to do something.”

We turn back to the ponies. “Yes, well we haven’t really thought about it yet, you know? We were always big fans of the Elements of Harmony. This isn’t the time for us to let go.” I tell them with a big smile. Technically not lying, just leaving out some of the truth.

“Well, okay, your choice. You can join us, if you like. We’re still discussing, thinking this through. This isn’t a joke, you know.” The pegasus mare says to us. “Oh, and by the way, I’m Cotton Cloud and the stallion who just talked to you is Grey Quintus.” She introduces us.

We go over and sit with the other ponies.

“Okay, what do we know so far about Nightmare Moon and the battle?” Grey asks.

“She is an alicorn!” “She has strong magic.” “She’s tall.” “She’s the monster of the night.”

“Okay, so I’m guessing we don’t know much. All we know is that she was defeated by the Elements of Harmony. We know that to get to her you need to get through the Everfree Forest, and that the bearers of the Elements of Harmony had to face five challenges to get through. We all know what those challenges were, so let’s not go through that. We also know that she is the first Enemy, so she should be the easiest, and so when we defeat her we should have a hint at how hard the next Enemy will be.” Grey goes over the points one by one.

“Some of us had already observed the battle between Nightmare Moon and the Elements of Harmony, so we have seen a very small bit of what her powers may be, but let’s expect all the tricks that an alicorn would know, and the most basic unicorn spells. I’m afraid that will have to be it for this meeting. Next meeting, I would like it if we had a few more participants and for all of us to have at least basic gear, which includes main weapon and armor. We will discuss further of our plan of action next meeting. I thank you all for attending.” He finishes, and a few ponies nod at him in appreciation. This is not an appropriate event for applause. Lives are at stake.

Pinkie Pie and I walk up to Grey. “I would like you to know that my friend and I are with you. It is very noble of you to do this, and sets a great example for other players. If we work together, we can do this.” I tell him, Pinkie nodding wisely at my words.

“Thank you, I appreciate it. It is misfortunate that we are stuck in this game, but we still have a chance at beating it.” He responds, a twinkle in his eyes.

We leave for the hotel. We nod solemnly to the stallion behind the desk as we climb the stairs. “I think we should go to sleep. I’m not sure if we have to in these circumstances, but it feels natural, and well, normal. This world makes me sad, and a small reminder of our real lives would make it better. Good night, Twilight.” Pinkie Pie says as she recedes into her room.

“Good night, Pinkie Pie.” I say as she closes the door, entering my room and closing the door behind me.

I snuggle into my bed and close my eyes.. What a horrible mess I’ve gotten myself into.

Into The Woods

And So It Begins

I am awake again. It’s not that type of feeling you get in the morning when you’re feeling all groggy and are finally ready to wake up and get out of bed. I’m just awake. It’s like an internal timer inside me went off and I awake. I don’t feel like I just had a great sleep, nor do I feel tired or yearn for more sleep. It’s a strange feeling, I’ll give you that.

I get out of bed, my mane already neat and tidy. I could never get used to this, and I hope I don’t have to. I look out the window to see that the sun is quarter way across the sky, so it should be around nine o’ clock.

A text box appears. “Would you like to switch your wake-up call?” I read. “Yes.” I respond. The text disappears and 9:00 appears instead, with arrows on top and at the bottom of each number. I change it to 6:00, seeing it fit since I won’t feel sleepy anyways. I wonder what would happen if I didn’t sleep?

I walk out of my room and knock on Pinkie Pie’s door. “Hey Pinkie, are you ready to head out?” I ask loudly, guessing that the automatically configured wake-up is mutual.

“Ya, I’m coming Twilight.” She shouts through the door and the sound of her hooves against the floor become louder as she walks over to the door. She opens it with a bright smile on her face and I could see she had a plan in mind for the day.

We walk down the stairs and Pinkie flashes the stallion behind the desk a bright smile. Surprised, the stallion cautiously smiles back.

Walking with a purpose, Pinkie Pie sets a brisk pace and we walk past the Town Hall. A few more ponies were up and about walking around, but there wasn’t as much as before the horrid scene with Nightmare Moon, and the atmosphere wasn’t as happy. It’s a lot more grim and serious, if not a bit sad with a hint of fear. I’m guessing the very fearful ponies are hiding inside their rooms.

We finally arrive at a strange store with a feeling similar to the one that was selling weapons. We enter to find much clothing. Everywhere. It wasn’t the fancy type that Rarity makes, but it wasn’t casual either. It was strange, thick and heavily padded.

“What are we doing here?” I ask Pinkie. She turns to me and her gaze turns serious for a few seconds.

“Well, if we’re going to be doing this without the Elements of Magic, we obviously need some defense, other than those weapons. This clothing is called “Armour”. It’s supposed to protect you."

I walk over to one of these “Armours” and focus on it, calling up its description. “+4 defense”. I’m not sure if that’s a lot or not. Its title is “Low Quality Leather Armour”. I’m guessing it’s not the best if it has ‘Low Quality’ in its name. I walk over to a different armour, this one seems better put together and made with a better material. Maybe Rarity’s lectures did pay off. “+8 defense”. It’s twice as good as the other one, anyways. “Average Quality Beginner Armour” was its name. The “Buffs” section is a bit more interesting though:

If you are currently at Beginner stage (Level 1-15), then the following effects will take place when wearing this armour:

+7 defense points added to the total defense points of the armour

+2 Speed points

You gain 10 extra XP in an event of which XP is given

+10% damage is dealt when using melee weapons

For so-called ‘average quality’, this piece of armour is very appealing. The price is 45 bits. Of course armour is more expensive than weapons, for armour is larger, and this specific piece has buffs. I think this is a fair price.

“Hey, Pinkie, is this piece a good choice? You seem to have read a bit about this already, and I’m not sure how great I would be at deciding what type of armour to get." Pinkie Pie walks over and gives the armour a good look over, along with its description.

“Don’t worry, this is right. Go ahead and buy it. It a great thing you didn’t decide to buy one of those bulky ones, those give you -3 Speed Points, and they seem to be very uncomfortable. I myself chose a piece of armor I think is suitable. Nothing heavy mind you, or else I wouldn’t be able to skip around!” She says with a mocking stern voice.

I laugh at her joke and buy the piece of armour. It felt good to laugh again, especially in this dark world. “Okay, now that we have what we wanted from here let’s get going. Oh, by the way, I got a message this morning from that Grey Quintus, and he said the next meeting was going to be in two days, that is, after tomorrow. You got it too, just so you know. You probably just didn’t check it out yet, or you didn’t turn on your message alarm. I always have mine on! So we have plenty of time to see what this game is made of.” She informs me, bouncing up and down.

We leave the shop and Pinkie leads us on our way again, Pinkie Pie apparently having another place we have to visit.

We arrive at another shop, this one a bit fancier, velvet covers on the windows. We enter the shop and look around. Many shelves crowd the left wall, packed with rolled-up scrolls, and the right wall had many table set against it. The tables are covered with gems and crystal balls, strange charms and many other items I can’t describe. Then I realize. “This is the magic shop! It’s so different now though, twice as large with ten times as many items!” I exclaim to Pinkie.

“Yep. They renovated this place too.” She says, nodding her head vigorously.

I walk over to the unicorn mare at the marble desk in the middle of the room. “Hi there. What happened to this place?” I ask her.

“Oh, well you see I was working here before the, incident, and when I returned it was, as you can clearly see, twice as large and so many new items are added! I looked at some, and to my horror, many of the new scrolls are filled with battle spells, and most of the new items are also battle-related, ranging from healing charms to weapon and armour enchanting gems! Some of the gems have been made to carry spells, such as invisibility, or you can set the spell to go off at a certain time. There are blank ones too so you can add spells yourself. I was simply horrified at half of what the spells are meant to do!” She tells us dramatically, horror in her eyes. “If you must, you may purchase them. I have no doubt that they will help you, no matter how gruesome I may think they are. If there is a gem that carries a certain spell you would like to learn, don’t hesitate to ask me for the scroll.” She says in a helping manner.

We start looking around. I pick out a few scrolls, some of them for healing, some for enchanting weapons and armour, others for improving skills and attributes, and some random ones like a smoke spell, but I’m guessing most of those had to do with battle. I walk over to the tables and buy some charms and gems that we might find useful, a few timed spell gems, an invisibility charm, and some teleportation gems. I made sure to buy a mapping gem and spell in case we would need it.

“I want to give you some spells and items, can you come over here?” Pinkie Pie calls to me. I walk over to her and I get a message telling me that she was sending me a spark spell scroll, a communication gem, and some other stuff.

We wave to the unicorn mare as we leave the shop. “So, Pinkie, where to now?” I ask her, pretty sure there couldn’t be anything else we needed to buy that’s battle-related.

“Hmm, let’s see… Oh, I know! We need to go eat! How about, the Café?” She suggests.

“Sure, why not? It’s been a long time since I’ve been there, and for some reason, I seem to be hungry. I guess you do need food in this game.” I reply, and we head on the Café.

We arrive at the small establishment, walking up to a pony in behind the counter. “Hello! I’d like a dandelion olive grilled cheese sandwich please!” Pinkie tells them with her usual bounce.

“Yes, and I would like a baguette-styled lettuce and tomato sandwich please, maybe sprinkled with cheese on the inside.” I ask, reminiscing the memories of my previous meals in the real Café.

We eat outside at one of the giant mushroom tables. Eating our exquisite sandwiches, however different they may be, we discuss our plan for the next two days ‘til the meeting.

“So, I’m thinking we put on our gear and head on to the outskirts of the Everfree Forest, around where Fluttershy said she found those parasprites. I think we should get a feel on what type of challenges we’ll be facing in the Everfree Forest.” I tell Pinkie Pie. The Everfree Forest glitching was obviously no accident, Nightmare Moon was probably altering it so we would have to fight something on the way there, kind of like the five challenges we had went through when we first defeated Nightmare Moon.

“Yes, let’s do it. We’ll finish our lunch and get our gear on, and then go explore over there.” She replies, quickly finishing the rest of her sandwich. I roll my eyes, and finish mine too. Might as well get to it.

We walk out of town, currently on the fields just outside of Ponyville, but still on the Ponyville side of the river. We put on our armour and I felt lighter already. I “equip” the sword and hoof-claw things, slipping my dagger into its pocket. I learn a few attack spells, including the spark and lightning spells. We used our charms and gems, somewhat raising our defense and damage.

I had found out what the sword description meant by +20% damage, which meant it adds 20% more damage to the current number of damage I deal(including the damage done by the hoof-claws).

We crossed the bridge and circled around the Everfree Forest until we arrived at our destination. “Do we have our teleport gems in check?” I demand.

“Yep!” Pinkie answers, clad in her lightweight part leather and part steel armour. Her weapon of choice were kind of like my hoof-claws, except instead of tiny blades it was a stony layer, most likely for punching and kicking. She also held a short curved sword in her mouth using a weapon grip.

“Pinkie Pie, do you know how to use those?” I ask her, giving a sceptical look to her hoof-rock things.

“Don’t worry Twilight, I learned about it at the weapon store. It taught me how to use them, and anyways, I have a gem that improves my agility. I’m all right.” She says confidently.

We creep into the forest, scouting around. It wasn’t glitchy anymore, sounding and feeling just like the real Everfree Forest. I silently stopped Pinkie Pie, seeing a pair of bright yellow eyes glaring at us. I take the sword with its weapon grip into my jaws and we walk out, waiting for the creature to show itself.

It jumps out of the darkness, hissing at us. I look closely and realize it’s a timberwolf. The wolf charges at us, and by instinct I jump out of the way, but Pinkie has another idea. She places her hoof between her and the Timberwolf, and before it can realize what she was doing, it crashed into her hoof, exploding into dull black sparkles.

I see a text box appear before her, and she reads it out loud. “You have defeated a Timberwolf. You have gained 15 XP and a twig.”

“Well, at least now we know what happens when we defeat something, and that there are timberwolves in here.” i say positively.

We turn to find multiple glowing yellow eyes staring at us from the darkness. Okay, maybe we shouldn’t have spoken so loudly.

“Oh no. You ready Pinkie?” I ask her.

“Well, Now I have to be. We have no other choice.” She says in a humorous manner, trying to make a joke out of the situation.

The jump out at us, and I hit them with my lightning spell. It fries a few of them, but the rest recover quickly and lunge at us. I swipe in a huge arc at them with my hoof, claws flashing, taking out two more of them, and I jump just out of range as they retaliate, biting at the spot where I stood moments ago. I jump over to Pinkie Pie, slashing at another one of the timberwolves with my sword, and spark three others away.

“I should have learnt a shock or blinding spell.” I tell Pinkie regretfully.

“Ya, that would have helped a lot. A pair of newbies, in the Everfree Forest, fighting against a pack of timberwolves. Not the best situation.” She responds and kicks two timberwolves that were trying to attack from the back with her back legs.

We fight back to back, her thwacking them with her hooves and slashing in arcs with her curved sword, I slicing them with my claws and hacking at them with my sword.

We take out a good number of them, almost half. Then one takes me by surprise and swipes with his paw at my back hoof, causing a howl of pain to escape my mouth and my green bar getting shorter, taking on an orange tinge of green.

“Hey, I think I just figured out that that green bar is the bar representing our health.” I grumble and forcefully kick out at the timberwolf. I quickly turn to Pinkie Pie and see that she has many scratches too, and so we continue fighting. The ‘health bar’ slowly fills back up, but not as fast as it went down.

We fight until there’s only four left, and so we switch our position so we can fight side by side and face-on.

I turn my head as I hear a rustle to our side, and a small group of ponies rush over to us and quickly finish off the rest of the timberwolves.

One of the ponies, now that I recognize to be Cotton Cloud, turns to us. “Are you girls alright?” She asks us worriedly.

“Don’t worry, we’re fine. Why are you ponies here?” Pinkie asks her.

“Well, I could say the same for you. We were out trying to raise our levels and scout a bit to find the best route to the Castle of The Two Sisters. So what are you two doing here?” She demands.

“We came to scout a bit of the Everfree Forest, checking what kind of foes we’re going to be up against, and if the forest was still glitching out.” I respond rather diplomatically.

“Well, we’re just glad you’re safe. We heard the sounds of a scuffle and came as fast as we can. Luckily it’s apparently only a few timberwolves.” She replies with a sigh of relief.

Pinkie giggles. “Oh, you think those were the only timberwolves? We were facing a whole pack of them, and not on purpose, I may add. We bumped into a timberwolf and so we beat him, and moments later we were fighting against a pack of timberwolves.” Pinkie explains to Cotton Cloud.

“Ah, so they do travel in packs. Well, since we saw only four of them timberwolves I’m guessing you dealt with the rest of the pack?” Cotton inquires.

“Yes, and by no means was it fun. I have scratches all over my flank!” I exclaim.

“Yes, I can see that. I suggest we go back to Ponyville and head out again tomorrow. That was enough exploring for today, and I’m guessing you’ll want to modify your gear so you’ll be more prepared for next time.” She comments, and together we head back to Ponyville.

As we reach the bridge Cotton stops and turns to face us. “Okay, so our group is heading out again tomorrow around an hour before noon, will you meet as at this bridge?” She asks us seriously,

“Yes, we will meet you here.” Pinkie responds.

We split as we reach Town Square, Cotton and her group going one way and Pinkie and I heading the other. We reach the hotel and wave to the stallion behind the desk, his eyes widening at our scratches and gear. We walk back up the stairs and into the hallway.

“Hey look, it’s almost evening. you want to come over to my room and we could play a board game?” Pinkie asks me.

“Where and when did you have the time to buy a board game?” I inquire quizzically.

“Oh, you know, a few days ago. It’s snakes and ladders!” She sing-songs the last line.

“Deal!” I say. I love Snakes and Ladders! It was the game of my foal hood!

We enter her room, and she takes out the gameboard, setting it out on the floor.

“Okay, you want to be blue pony, red pony, green pony, or yellow pony?” Pinkie asks me.

“Red pony! I’ve never played as red before.” I say, giddy with excitement.

“Hmm, well then I’m yellow. You go first.” She says, just as excited as I am.

“I rolled a six!”

Into The Dark

Into The Woods

Last night was really fun. I won, but I’m guessing Pinkie Pie let me win on purpose, just to cheer me up. It was nice of her. I went back to my room after, and then went to sleep.

I get out of bed, ruffling my mane, trying to bring some sense of reality into this game, if only the logic of having messy hair after sleeping.

This time, Pinkie Pie is the one coming to knock on my door. “Hey Twi, you awake?” I hear her shout.

“Yes Pinkie, I’m coming!” I say as I walk over to the door. She smiles at me as I open it, meeting her in the hallway. “We’re going to meet them at the bridge, right?” I ask Pinkie and we walk down the stairs.

“Yes, but before that, I think we should go eat something and takes some snacks for the journey. I’m quite hungry.” She says to me.

We walk out of the hotel and head for Sugarcube Corner. There aren’t many ponies inside, and surprisingly the same pony that worked the counter our last visit is here once more.

“Hey, can I have some pancakes drizzled with maple syrup and a few scoops of ice cream, oh, and don’t forget the chocolate chips!” Pinkie asks the pony.

“I would like some waffles, also drizzled with maple syrup, and a some fruit salad on the side.” I order.

“Hey Twi, what do you want to take with us for the journey?” Pinkie asks me while the pony calls our orders to the kitchen.

“Hmm, I wouldn’t mind if we take a few oranges and oatcakes with us, maybe a fritter or daisy sandwich would be fine too if we’re kept in the Everfree Forest past lunch time.” I consider.

Pinkie Pie turns to the pony, “Okay, we would like cookies, oranges, a few daisy sandwiches, some marshmallows, oatcakes, and three of every type of fritter you have to go.” She tells the pony.

“Wow, you mares must be going on some journey or something.” The pony observes and calls our order back to the kitchen. Our food is laid on the counter. “That will be thirty bits.” The pony says. Pinkie and I both place fifteen bits on the counter, totalling up to thirty bits.

We eat at a table this time, munching on our delicious breakfast. “So, Twilight, what do you think about facing Nightmare Moon a second time?” Pinkie asks as she takes a bite out of her pancakes.

“Well, it’s terrifying, to tell the least. I mean, it was scary as is with the Elements of Harmony, now imagine it without them, fighting her with these weapon things! Weapons made for war. I bet she’s also going to be way different from when we first fought her. I just hope we succeed.” I say, the actual value of the coming battle unfurling itself in my mind.

“Well, I see you’re already done your breakfast. You eat fast when you’re worried, you know that? Anyways, it’s time we get going.” She says as she quickly devours the last of her breakfast.

We leave the bakery with our snacks in our inventories and head to the bridge. We quickly gear up on our way, Cotton Cloud and her group meet us just as we reach the bridge. This time Grey Quintus is tagging along with them as well.

“Hey girls! You ready? We currently have the general area in mind of the most efficient path, or at least that’s what Grey here is telling us. We’ll be scouting ‘round there so we can mark the best path. We won’t be fighting Nightmare Moon herself yet though because we don’t have enough ponies yet. We’re thinking up some way to gather ponies willing to join our cause. So for now, that’s it.” She greets us with a smile.

“Okay, got it. Scouting out route, getting more ponies. All good.” Pinkie Pie answers.

We head into the Everfree Forest, Grey and Cotton leading us to a certain area of the forest.

“Okay ponies! We have arrived. We’re going to sweep this path here. Everyone, spread out. We’re going in the direction of the castle, right up to the bridge. Everyone understand?” Cotton orders. We all nod, and Pinkie Pie and I go to the side.

We walk onwards, Grey concentrating on some strange gem. I’m guessing it’s the mapping gem they’re using to mark the path.

Nothing bothers us for some reason, and I see a few stones lying around, slightly resembling bugs.

I hear a noise and turn, a strange reptilian tail snaking into a bush. That’s weird. Another noise.

“Ca-cok! Bak-ba-bok!”

I stop and look around. There shouldn’t be any chickens in the Everfree Forest! Something’s wrong. This reminds me of something, come on Twilight, think!

I see the figure of a timberwolf in the darkness, but not its signature glowing yellow eyes. I nudge Pinkie, pointing towards it with my hoof. She just nods and continues walking. I keep the shadow in sight, and even when we have long passed it, the figure didn’t move.

I hear another rustle and I see a bush shake. Then another. I start waving my head back and forth, looking to find the thing causing these sounds.

Suddenly, a mass jumps out in front of us.

Scaly tail and body, the head of a… chicken?

What is so familiar about this? Something that causes shivers to crawl up my spine.

The Stare.

“Oh no! Everypony, be careful! Don’t look into its eyes, it’s a cockatrice!” I shout, covering my eyes.

It lets loose a piercing cry, and I hear it’s wings batting, suddenly a shadow looking over my face. Instinctively, I bat it away with my hoof, almost opening my eyes.

There’s a thudding of hooves against something, and another piercing squawk is heard again. “Okay, we need to get rid of that thing. Everyone, try to get yourself in a line and we’ll try to corner the bird thing. Don’t look at it.” I hear Cotton yell.

I shuffle around trying to pinpoint the cockatrice’s noise. Hissing in my face, it starts to claw me with its sharp talons. Keeping my eyes closed, I sliced my hoof-claws through what I suspect are its wings. Immediately flung off balance, I hear it fall to the ground with a thump.

“Hey you! Get off me!” Pinkie shouts and I hear her hooves batter against the cockatrice’s body.

“I’ve got this!” Cotton commands, and then I hear her running towards Pinkie Pie. I hear her sword slash through the cockatrice, and the inevitable explosion of sparkles.

I slowly open my eyes, still wary. I see Cotton standing next to a wide eyed Pinkie Pie. “How did you know where it was?” Pinkie asks her.

“I opened my eyes. I had guessed that it was kept busy looking at you, and so I took the chance.” She says simply to us.

“You could have been turned to stone!” I tell her frantically.

“I know, but it was a risk I was willing to take. If I hadn’t, I knew somepony was going to eventually open their eyes in hopes of defeating the cockatrice before it could turn them to stone.” She explains.

“Come on, we’re almost there. We just need to record a the rest of the path and we’ll be done.” I hear Grey call to us.

We resume our line formation. I’m so glad nopony got turned to stone. That would have been disastrous, as the only way to turn them back would be for the cockatrice to stare at them again.

I hear howls. More timberwolves? Come on, haven’t we had enough?

They jump out from the woods, in almost the exact same formation as we are, except there were twice as much of them compared to us.

“ Okay, you know the drill! Back to back or diamond dog style!”

Me and Pinkie go back to back, and I see what they meant by diamond dog style. They jump out in one place, slashing at the near timberwolves, then pop up in another place, bashing a few in the head.

I have my sword equipped along with the weapon grip, and I slash at the timberwolf charging at me.

I jump onto my back hooves and claw the onslaught of timberwolves. Using a spark spell to throw the timberwolves up in the air, I let my blade run through their twig bodies as they fall back down.

The number of timberwolves dwindle at a concerningly slow rate, and I take a peek at my health bar to see it’s almost half way down, deep in the orange, not a green tinge to be seen.

“Everypony, circular formation! We have them now!” Cotton orders, and we oblige.

We have them surrounded now, and we slowly walk inward, attacking any timberwolf to come within striking distance.

We dart forward, quickly taking out the rest of the timberwolves.

“Okay, everypony all right?” I ask, looking around. I can see Pinkie’s health bar under mine, and it’s twice as low as mine, already red. “Pinkie! Are you alright?” I ask as I rush to her side.

“Don’t worry Twi, I have a health restoration potion. I found a few in the magic shop where you bought your spell scrolls.” She mumbles weakly, and a glass of some bright green liquid, slightly similar to a lime smoothie, appears before her, and she quickly picks it up and drinks it. The climbing rate of her health bar significantly quickens, and in no time it’s back at green.

Mine’s filling up too, but not as fast.

We walk onward and finally get to the bridge. “Okay everypony, that’s it. Do we all have our teleportation gems? I don’t really feel like going all the way back.” Grey asks us, already taking out his teleport gem.

Pinkie and I both take out our teleportation gems, and I see the rest of the group do the same.

“Ponyville.” I tell my teleportation gem, and I hear everypony else echo my words.

Down, Only Down

Into The Dark

We appear back at Town Square.

“Okay, this is a good time as any to hold a meeting. We have information, and there are probably other players and groups that also want to go back to real life.” Cotton Cloud informs us. “ Let’s meet at our last meeting spot in about twenty minutes. I’m going to go around to see if anypony else wants to join us.” She continues.

Pinkie and I go back to the hotel to change our gear equipment. We enter my room and sit down on my bed. “Okay, I’m going to learn a few more spells. What are you going to do?” I ask her and open my inventory.

“Oh, you know. Just looking over my charms. Maybe I can modify my sword later.” She says in an off-hoof manner.

I look over my spell scrolls, and one catches my attention. Flash spell? Oh! That would have been very useful with the cockatrice, too bad i didn’t learn it… I read the scroll, then focus on casting the spell in a corner of the room. A small flash of white appears there. Well, it’s a start. Ooh, there’s a healing spell! Well, the only way to find out how good it is is when my health is down, so I’ll just wait for now.

“Okay Pinkie, I’m ready. You want to go over early?” I ask her.

“Ya, I’m done already, so there’s no point in waiting around.” She replies.

We leave the room and head out of the hotel. We walk around to the other side of Town Square and find Grey Quintus with a few other ponies already waiting. They wave to us and we walk over.

“ Hey there. We’re waiting on Cotton Cloud with her new ponies, along with the rest of us. We came early as we had nothing better to do.” Grey explains as we walk up to him.

“Ah, that makes sense. For a second there I thought we might have been late.” I reply lightheartedly.

We all turn our heads to the sound of multiple hoofs against the floor. I squint my eyes to see Cotton Cloud with a group of ponies behind her. “Hey Grey! Told you I’d find more of them!” She shouts to Grey affectionately and I turn to see Grey roll his eyes in a mocking manner. More ponies come to join us, and Cotton Cloud walks into a corner with Grey to chat a bit.

More players come and join us, right up until Cotton and Grey return from their talk.

“Hello, everypony, we want to thank you all for coming. I expect you all know why this meeting was called together and what we are planning to do?” Grey calls.

Cheers go up in the crowd.

“That’s right! We’re going to defeat the first Enemy; Nightmare Moon! We’re going to set an example for everypony else, that this is possible! We need to re-instil hope in other ponies, that we can still get out of this crazy game!” Cotton shouts at us with confidence and pride.

“For Equestria!”

“Okay, so far we have you ponies, the most brave and experienced bunch we have here. We’re organizing ourselves into parties. We will have to pass through the Everfree Forest to get to the Castle of The Two Sisters, and that’s part of the battle just as much as fighting Nightmare Moon. We’re going to have two parties take each fight, and then fall back for the next two parties to take the next skirmish. Then, we will stop at the Castle to rest and go over our supplies and choices. Any objections?” Grey asks us as his eyes sweep the crowd of players. No pony speaks up.

“Good. Now, I will explain our battle plan. We will have three groups engaging and distracting Nightmare Moon, while two other groups stay back and observe the fight and Nightmare Moons abilities. A party of unicorns will stay back and aid the engaging group with healing spells and such. When the currently assaulting group needs to bail, they will switch out with the observing group and any other parties currently not engaged in battle. Now, we are not sure if the Nightmare Moon in this game will act as a cunning pony, so the groups not engaging in combat are to stay hidden in any and all ways possible. If anything is to go wrong, don’t hesitate to use your teleportation gems. Any questions?” He finishes.

Everyone nods their head no. “Okay, so it’s all settled. We meet up at the bridge in ten, if you don’t have your ticket yet or you need to get something this is your time. If not, you might as well head on over to the bridge. We will be waiting.” Cotton adds, and the group of players start to disperse.

“Hey, Twilight. We haven’t formed a party yet. I’ll send you an invite.” Pinkie pipes up and a text box appears in front of me.

“Would you like to join Pinkie’s party?” It asks, and I choose Yes.

“This is useful. If we need to we can invite or join somepony else’s party along the way. For now though, it should be fine if at least we’re together in a party. Speaking of which, we should go get our tickets.” I reply, and we start walking to the train station.

We arrive at the ticket booth, a stallion now sitting there. “Hello. What can I do for ya?” He asks us.

“Yes, we would like two tickets to the battle of The Return of Nightmare Moon. By the way, I was wondering, where is the mare that was working this booth before hoof?” I inquire.

“Ah, her? She hasn’t come back since that whole Town Square incident. I had to take her place running this ticket booth, before I was working at the office. Here ya go.” He takes the two golden tickets from the typer-printer device and places them on the counter. I take mine and Pinkie takes hers.

“Oh, that’s weird. Wonder where she went?” Pinkie thinks aloud. “Well, thank you for the tickets!” She says, and we start walking off towards the bridge.

Winding through the streets, we bump into a group also heading for the bridge and notice that they’re already geared up. “Right! We should probably gear up too. You have your healing potions?” I ask and open my inventory.

I put on the second pair of armour I had bought after beating the beginner level, since I’m now on level 17. The journey through the woods had really bumped up my levels, especially the XP raising buff my beginner armour had. My new armour was similar to Pinkie’s, except mine focused more on magic buffs. I equip my sword and weapon grip, along with my hoof-claws which already had a dagger in its pocket.

“Yep. By the way, did you learn that healing spell that you found in the magic shop?” She asks me as we near the bridge, all geared up.

“Well, I think so. I haven’t tried it out yet, but I’ve got it down. It’s practically at the same difficulty level as teleportation, just a bit harder to put into practice.” I reply just as we reach the bridge.

“Okay, is everyone ready?” I hear Cotton shout as the last remaining players trickle onto the bridge.

“Yes!”

“Good! Now, everyone open their inventories. Activate your ticket and as soon as you do you should notice the sky get darker. This means that your ticket is working. As soon as you see the sky darken, I want you to go onto this side of the bridge so we can see if anypony is having trouble.” She orders.

I open my inventory and activate my ticket, and I immediately see the sky darken to a night blue. A giant moon appears in the sky, larger than normal, even for this game. I follow Pinkie as we walk onto the other side of the bridge along with many of the other players, Cotton walking around to the players that are seeming to have trouble with the tickets.

After a few seconds, everything is sorted out and we organize our formation.

“Okay, we need two groups to take on our first obstacle. I am not referring to your parties, just groups. These two groups will be in charge of our battle in the first skirmish. Who would like to take part?” Grey studies us.

“I think we should hold back for now. I want to see what we’re getting ourselves into.” I tell Pinkie before she can speak up.

“Who’s reading minds now, eh Twilight?” She winks at me and giggles. I blush slightly, realizing I did exactly what Pinkie usually did.

Three parties step forward, two made of four ponies and one made of six. Grey splits them into two groups of seven.

“Okay, as soon as we bump into our first problem you are going to take command. If we get into a battle, you are to lead the assault and choose our formation and attack strategy. If we bump into a ditch we need you to find a solution and lead us through. Understood?” Cotton asks them. They nod in apprehension, and we head into the Everfree Forest.

Thorn In Your Paw

Down, Only Down

The two groups lead the way through the forest, obviously accompanied by Grey. Cotton places herself at the back to watch out for danger. Quite brave If you ask me.

It’s a spooky night, feeling just like time I had first defeated Nightmare Moon. Then, it was just my girls and me. Now the only one of my girls I have with me here is Pinkie, and a bunch of other players I don’t know.

Almost all I hear is the rhythm of our hoof steps, as if the forest itself had gone silent. Some of the others chat among themselves, but most of the others focus on our surroundings. I hear a strange sound, the sound of the wind when it passes right by your ear, as quiet as it may be. For a second I think I see a dark, almost indigo wisp floating in the air. The next second, it’s gone.

We approach a cliff side, the two groups huddling together to decide the best decision. They nod to each other and start walking around the cliff side, looking for a safe way down or across. Suddenly one of the ponies put their hoof down on a suddenly unstable spot, and the ground came crumbling down below him. By sheer luck, he ended up being a pegasus. He caught himself as soon as he realized he was plummeting to his death.

“Everypony, be careful! You might not be as lucky as the pegasus, not all of us have wings!” Grey warned us. The pegasus flew into sight, his face almost paler than Rarity’s. He flies over to the back of the group, whispering to some other ponies that I’m guessing are his friends. The two groups carefully get together to figure out a plan. They finally finish and turn to the rest of us.

“Okay, we have put together a plan. One pony, our pegasus friend here, will lead the way. Everypony will step in the exact spot of the pony in front of them. If where the pegasus steps the ground falls, then he will lead another way. We will post four pegasus on sentry duty, they will catch anypony that falls. You, you, you, and you.” One of the ponies from the group points to several pegasi. We move into a line, the four pegasi floating above us. It’s very tense, every step having to be exact as they pony’s in front of me.

I hear a scream and the crumble of eroded earth, the sweep of their wings as they dive for the poor player. The line momentarily stops, our breath baited. I don’t hear the pony hit the ground, but we don’t see them come back up either. Two of the pegasi fly back up to us, going straight to Grey. I don’t hear what they say, so I’m not sure what happened. Grey motions for us to continue onwards, and I’m guessing that the pony’s all right. Thank Celestia, we really don’t need a panic attack right now.

The tension in the air is so thick, I feel as if I could slice my sword through it. We keep walking, and I suddenly hear the roar of an avalanche of dirt. Oh no.

I feel the ground drop under me, and I have the urge to scream. I’m too shocked though, and no sound comes out of my mouth as I silently scream. I feel the dirt roll under me as we tumble down a hill. Many of the other players around me scream, and I see pegasi shooting into the air as their flight reflex kicks in. Well, I guess we’re lucky we weren’t all crowded in a group, else we would all be rolling over each other. That thought doesn’t really help though. I should be thinking about how not to tumble to my death instead of thinking these thoughts.

I frantically look around, seeing most of the others trying to dig their hooves into the dirt or grab a passing root or plant. I drive my hooves deep into the ground, but it only slows my descent by a bit.

The pegasi in the air shake off their daze and start flying to save ponies. I think I see Pinkie being carried up by one of them but I’m not sure. Well, at least that that’s a bit comforting. Okay, okay, I can use my teleportation, that seems like a good idea. Now, where exactly do I teleport? Still going down… Oh no, there’s the edge! Okay, think, think Twilight! Oh no, it’s getting closer! Oh look, there’s a root. Phew, I’m safe. I ponder what to do, my jaw biting firmly into the root. Not to mention a weak one.

I see ponies sliding past me, my eyes wide open. Suddenly, the weak root falls out of the dirt, and I slide down. Right over the edge.

This time I scream for real.

“No! I’m falling! I know it’s obvious, but I’m falling!” I scream as I rush down into the tree tops.

“Gotcha!” A voice calls and I feel myself stop falling. I sigh in relief. Thank goodness.

I look around at the other ponies and pegasi, and I was surprised to see that they were going… down.

“Hey, you need a way down?” I hear a voice behind me and turn my head. A pegasus holding me in the air asks me with a mischievous smile.

“Wait, you mean everypony is down there?” I ask skeptically.

“Yep. We decided that since we were headed downwards anyways, we might as well make it fast. We were all falling down anyways, so we thought, why not?” He says.

“Ya, what a great idea. Why not panic everypony just to tell them that the plans have changed and we don’t have to try to save our lives?” I say sarcastically under my breath. All that worry for nothing.

“What did you say? I didn’t quite catch that.” The pegasus asks as we finally reach the ground. It’s practically the same as any other part of the Everfree Forest, except it’s a bit darker since we’re farther from the moon.

“Oh, nothing. It’s fine.” I say and roll my eyes, searching the crowd of ponies. Not far away a small group huddles around a pony on the ground. I inhale sharply.

“Hey! Over here!” I hear somepony calling to me and I turn my head to see Pinkie Pie trying to get to me through the crowd.

“Oh, you don’t know how happy I am that you’re all right! I was so worried.” I say and let out a slow breath.

“I could say the same! I couldn’t find you in the crowd, I was so worried! I don’t know what I would do without you…” She flashes me a small apprehending smile.

“That’s what friends are for. We’re there for each other and ponies you can trust. We’ll be fine, don’t worry.” I assure her, returning the smile.

“Everypony, huddle up! We’re switching out the lead groups. We are successfully advancing and must be ready for the next obstacle. We have also saved much time by our unlucky, or lucky, landslide. Who would like to join the lead group for the next obstacle?” I hear Grey’s voice loud and clear.

The ponies shuffle around until two new lead groups are formed. Pinkie and I trudge to the side of the march as we walk onwards. Ever vigilant, ever wary.