PAO: Pony Art Online

Chapters

Link Start
World of Ponies
Level Up
The Crusaders
Warm the Hearth
Bounty
Return
Crusaders, Knights, and Giants. Oh my!
Tracking
Hunters
Trapped
Breakthrough
Downtime
Warfare
How Desperate?
Lets Have A Battle
Anniversary
Decommissioned
Campain
Aftermath
It Has That New World Smell
Getting Back to Work

Link Start

Today was launch day. Years of work, failures, successes, all led up to this moment. All one hundred thousand early release copies sold out online within the hour, everyone eager to be a part of a virtual world, and be there for the launch event's unique quest. Sunset and Twilight would to see both their dreams and their company flourish into a reality.

They had the perfect lab to test in. Sunset had just bought a new apartment in the city, with a memory foam bed and the best internet connection to go along with it. All around the bedroom monitors and computers were plugged into the wall sockets, running scheduled checks on both the magical and technological performance of Digisphere, their highly anticipated virtual reality video game console.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Twilight asked, tearing her gaze away from the data charts. "I know you said this wouldn't make you go back, but you've designed Equestrad very closely to Equestria, based on what I hear."

Sunset chuckled. It was true, she always felt torn between the human world and the pony world when she came over, and it only grew stronger after Twilight switched from Crystal Prep to Canterlot.

She took a deep breath. This world, the human world, was her home. She had an apartment, and a lot of friends. In Equestria, all there was was Celestia and some dusty old books.

"I'm fine, Twilight," she confirmed. "I'll log on and test everything while everyone else plays. You're running the diagnostics test from here too. We'll be done in a few hours and then the gamers can have their fun."

Twilight raised her brow and smirked. "You sure a certain rainbow-haired chick isn't going to drag you into a dungeon raid? I hear she's been challenging an apple farmer I know to a race to level twenty."

"I heard about that too," Sunset replied, laughing a little. "But I think I'll beat them to it before lunch time anyways, so they'll both lose."

Twilight chuckled, glancing over at the the helmet resting on the nightstand by Sunset's bed. They've had a lot of success until now, but there was still a lot to be worried about.

Sunset followed her gaze, sensing her discomfort. For the longest time, even the basic functions of the Digisphere wouldn't work.

"We got it up and running in the end, Twilight," Sunset said. She grabbed the helmet and held it in her lap. "It's been a long journey for you and me, but it's only the beginning."

They both stared at the gem in the center of the helmet. The red hexagon shone with a soft glow. They recreated it from fragments of the gems left behind by the Sirens, a group of magic infused creatures who also roamed the human world.

With the fragments left behind after the Sirens disappeared, Sunset and Twilight were able to study the materials in the crystals and their molecular structure, and quickly became able to recreate and alter new gems with different magical properties. They imitated a whole host of different spells and charms with their unique gems.

The next huge breakthrough after that was creating a powerful gemstone that recreated the shared dream spell Princess Luna could perform. As the princess of the night, Princess Luna was Equestria's leading pony on the power of dreams. She aided ponies through their dreams, sometimes linking a few minds to resolve a difficult situation.

But the gemstone Twilight and Sunset created was more potent than Luna herself. It was not not limited by any mental or biological barriers. Over time, Twilight designed a method to power the gemstones and increase their power, opening shared dreams to thousands of participants. That's when the idea of Pony Art Online began.

"Do you think the Princesses really approve of this?" Twilight asked.

About two years ago they found time to meet with the four alicorn princess of Equestria. They presented their plan to use the magic that had leaked into the human world to create their game. The science and magic studies were as thorough as they could be, but it still took a bit of persuasion to get the blessings from all four Princesses.

Sunset nodded confidently. She wouldn't have messed with magic on a commercial scale without first consulting Princess Twilight or Princess Celestia. "They were cautious at first, a lot more than they let on actually. But trust me, Princess Twilight's genuinely excited for us. She's as studious as you are, after all."

Twilight laughed. "Don't remind me. It's still weird knowing there's another version of me. And a pony princess, no less."

Next to them, their phones buzzed in unison from the alarm they set. Only fifteen minutes until the launch of PAO.

Sunset lied down on her bed and fastened the Digisphere on her head. It was a little loose, but it was important that one size fitted all.

"We're aleady here Twilight," she said. "No time for second thoughts anyways."

Twilight nodded, watching the readings on her screen as it monitored the interaction between the magic crystal and the electronic parts. They were stable, even as thousands began initializing their start-up connection.

The minutes passed felt like hours as Sunset awaited her return to a pony filled land. The group chat on her phone fired off a message nearly every fifteen seconds, but everything could be said once they met up in the starting town on Equestrad's first floor.

"Okay, everything's working perfectly Sunset," Twilight said. She typed a few console commands into her computer and on the adjacent screen a news report from MMO Today flashed onto the screen. It showed the countdown to the launch of PAO. Thirty seconds remained on the screen.

Sunset closed her eyes as Twilight quickly typed in more console commands. The Digisphere's display lit up in Sunset's face, showing the countdown until she could connect to their PAO server. Fifteen seconds remained.

Finally, the message popped up on Twilight's phone, confirming the servers were all online. Pony Art Online was launched, and five hundred players were already online.

Without another moment of hesitation, Sunset entered the game to see the world for herself. "See you for lunch Twilight," she said. Sunset directed her voice to the microphone, and initiated the voice command to log in.

"Link start!" she commanded. The Digisphere hummed with magic, and in a flash she was in the game.

===================================================

"Hurry up Applebloom! There's no way you still have chores to do on the farm!" Sweetie Belle called out.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle waited outside Applebloom's home. They agreed to meet at Rarity's house to try out the launch of the newest video game, PAO, on the most talked about platform of the century, Digisphere.

Rarity, Sweetie Belle's older sister, was close friends with Sunset, but not an avid gamer. So she handed off three release copies to the girls who were.

"Hang on, I'm just grabbing my Digisphere," Apple Bloom finally replied. "It's pretty heavy for a simple helmet."

"Well, grab it faster so we can go!" Scootaloo said. "There's only two hours before launch and I don't want to be late to the starting event. I heard the first one thousand to log on get uncommon starting gear."

"Uncommon?" Sweetie Belle interjected. "Twist said it would be rare at the least!"

Scootaloo shook her head. "Those were the rumors. Rainbow Dash mentioned uncommon gear last week when we were talking about it. She checks on the game's progress regularly, so yeah, I'm sure it's just uncommon."

"Well that's killed my hype a little," Sweetie Belle grumbled.

Applebloom came out the door, with her Digisphere in hand. "Doesn't sound that bad Sweetie Belle. Uncommon stuff's still better than the normal starter gear."

Sweetie Belle shrugged. "I guess so. Okay, let's go before we miss the event!"

They grabbed their bikes and raced down the road toward the town. With Sweetie Belle's sister away on a world tour for her fashion line, the three of them had the house to themselves. They had snacks, sleeping bags, and a brand new internet router. They were set for the weekend.

"You're ordering pizza for lunch right?" Scootaloo asked once they reached Sweetie Belle's house.

"I hope it's vegetarian this time," Applebloom grumbled.

Sweetie Belle turned to both of them. "It was just that one time. A mix-up in the deliveries, that's all!"

Scootaloo folded her arms. "You knew we were vegetarians Sweetie Belle."

"Really, it was pretty inconsiderate," Applebloom added.

Sweetie Belle threw up her arms in frustration. "I wasn't my fault! I'm vegetarian too, we're all vegetarian!"

Applebloom and Scootaloo looked at each other. Their friend's reaction was too much to bear, and they were on the floor laughing at her.

Sweetie Belle tried to ignore them and plugged in their Digispheres. "Fine, whatever. Anyways, Pinkie Pie left a cake before she went to join RD and AJ for the launch event."

"Huh? They're trying out PAO too?" Applebloom asked, getting off the floor and fitting the Digisphere to her head.

Scootaloo nodded, laying on the floor to stretch. "Didn't I tell you? Only Rarity can't make it to the launch, but everyone else will be there to cheer on Sunset Shimmer."

Sweetie Belle sat next to Applebloom, putting on her Digisphere and booting it up. "I feel sorry for Rarity," she said, fiddling with the helmet straps. "She won't be back for another week, and by then everyone else will be at least twenty levels ahead, maybe even fifty."

Scootaloo got up and walked over to the kitchen. "She's the most casual gamer I've ever seen. She wouldn't mind being a little bit behind." She drained a juice box and took a slice of the cake Pinkie Pie left behind.

"Still, it wouldn't feel good being left out of such a big event," Sweetie Belle replied, furrowing her brow at Scootaloo. "It's only the biggest thing in MMO gaming, that's just fifteen minutes away, and can't wait for simple things like cake."

Scootaloo glared at Sweetie Belle, staring at her as she consumed another bite of the mango cream cake. The frosting was fresh, and soothingly cold from the fridge.

"Fifteen minutes is plenty time for cake, Sweetie Belle," Scootaloo said, her mouth still full of cake. Sweetie Belle sighed, looking at her phone. It was fourteen minutes until the game's launch.

Applebloom eyed the cake greedily, finally giving in to the glistening frosting. "I reckon we've got a little bit of time to spare," she said, taking off her Digisphere and grabbing a slice for herself. "I don't want to be hungry in the middle of a quest after all."

"About that," Scootaloo said, licking her plate clean of cake frosting, "does food even work in the game? It's not like we'll actually be eating in real life."

Sweetie Belle thought for a moment, remembering something. "Last year, while Sunset was helping me with our physics final, we talked a little bit about their game development. She said the gems in the Digisphere created some kind of 'shared dream,' and it basically worked like a regular dream. I suppose you can feel full after eating in a dream, even though you're just sleeping."

"When I dream about eating, I wake up next to an empty box of cereal most of the time," Applebloom replied.

"In any case, I guess eating in-game makes you ignore real hunger, at least for a while," Sweetie Belle continued, ignoring her friends as they chewed on the cake. She fiddled with the straps on her Digisphere, checking the time on her phone again. Twelve minutes left, but it already felt too long.

Finally, Scootaloo washed her plate clean and slumped onto the couch next to Sweetie Belle, putting on her helmet. "So, do you think we could start a guild by today?" she asked.

"Let met guess, you want to bring the Cutie Mark Crusaders into the game?" Applebloom replied, scrubbing clean her plating and setting it to dry.

Scootaloo nodded, powering up the screen on her Digisphere. "Everyone at school knows about our club, we'll have followers in no time!" she said, looking through the Digisphere's main page. The only game was PAO, and it had ten minutes until it was online.

"Hmph, I don't know," Sweetie Belle grunted. "I kind of want PAO to be a place I can escape from school, and forget all the homework I have to do."

Scootaloo's face darkened. "Oh no, don't remind me. Our English teacher gave us a take home essay over the weekend. I gotta have five thousand words done by Tuesday."

Applebloom sat back down and smirked towards Scootaloo. "You're going to do it all on Monday, aren't you?"

"Of course not!" she retorted, folding her arms defensively and sinking into the couch. "I have English fifth period. I'll probably do it Tuesday morning, and finish at lunch."

All of them laughed. Between their club and school work, there seemed to be barely any time left to relax. Still, the three of them still found ways to squeeze in some fun throughout the week, even if it added more stress later.

"I wonder what MMO Today is saying about PAO right now," Sweetie Belle said. She grabbed the remote off the coffee table and flicked the television on, tuning the channel to MMO Today. As expected, there was just a timer awaiting the launch of PAO.

"Oh wow, look at what Pipsqueak texted me," Scootaloo said. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle leaned over and looked at the picture on Scootaloo's phone. It was Pipsqueak's selfie at the line outside the mall, waiting to get a physical copy of the game.

"Crap, is that the line?" Applebloom exclaimed. "That thing reaches around the mall at least twice!"

Scootaloo chuckled. "I heard some people even brought sleeping bags. They'll need it, the mall's selling fifty thousand copies of PAO and everyone's squeezing in to buy one."

"Think he'll get one?" Sweetie Belle asked while checking the time again. It was nearly noon, only four minutes remained until PAO launched.

Scootaloo shook her head. "No way in hell, there's more than fifty thousand for sure."

"There'll be more though, right?" Sweetie Belle replied. "After the launch event there's no reason to limit the number of copies."

Scootaloo shrugged, flipping through other photos on her phone. "Probably, it's not like Sunset or Twilight have a reason to keep it limited."

The television beeped a shocking alarm that made the three jump. It was still showing MMO Today, and marked the two minute mark until PAO was launched.

Sweetie Belle cheered, with the wait nearly over. "No time to waste girls, the Cutie Mark Crusaders are about to take their next step in a virtual world."

The three of them nodded and booted up PAO on their Digispheres. By the time the intiating sequences were finished, it was time for PAO to be experienced first hand. As their phones ticked over to 12:00, thousands began linking to PAO for their first time. In unison, the CMC jumped into the fray.

"Link Start!" they shouted in unison, and stepped across into a virtual reality.

World of Ponies

Sunset only blinked and found herself at the center of the first floor, in the city built right over the boss dungeon.

"Didn't think I'd make it to Ponyville like this," Sunset muttered to herself while frantically looking around for Pinkie and her friends. She could find their location on her map, but with every player on in the game standing in the city, it was hard to make them out.

All around her players were contacting their friends, or uselessly searching for the logout button. The choas lasted only for a moment though. Above them all, hanging over the city, was a god-like figure, massive in size, looming over them. It was shrouded in a red hooded robe, but the eyes, bright with an orange glow, burned into the minds of every player.

No one could feel the magic around the figure, no one but Sunset. She looked up and immediately felt a part of her become distorted and drained away. She looked down at her menu, open to her admin options. This time the screen was buzzing with static, as if influenced by another conflicting entity. Sunset looked back to the silent figure. She knew it was responsible.

Quickly, the murmurs died down as players noticed the massive figure above them. It was took a human form, with hands, arms, and supposedly legs, hidden under the robes. For a tense moment, Ponyville was silent.

"Welcome players!" a voice boomed from the figure as it stretched its arms out in greetings. "I hope you have all enjoyed the early hours of PAO's fully immersive magic and technology. Undoubtedly, you all have noticed by now that the logout feature is no longer available. This is not a bug. Yes, it is definitely not a mistake."

The shrouded figure folded its arms. Players began to whisper, unsure of what to make of the situation yet.

"There is no way to run away from this world now. Should someone from the outside take off the Digisphere, your minds will remain suspended in a perpetual dream of nothing, like a purgatory in your own head."

The massive form marginally lowered its voice. "But there is no need to worry, only two hundred and eighty-six families have ignored the safety warnings, and attempted to remove their loved ones from the game. They now lie in hospital beds around the world, trapped in a coma."

All around there were gasps from the crowd of players, ready to scream back at the figure, but it was not done. The voice picked up its volume and spoke with a even greater tone, commanding attention with a display of power. "But thanks to their ignorance, be assured that all of you are safe. Reports around the world have identified this disaster and response teams tracked down each Digisphere unit, transporting your bodies safely to the nearest hospital."

A few sighs of reliefs were muddled in with more cries of worry. How long would they be stuck in the game?

"PAO, as you all know, is possible only with the power of magic," the booming voice continued. "But this power must be controlled, properly commanded by its owners. The creators of this world failed to realize that they have no power, in this world or the real one. Their victories are minor and their success a facade."

Barely a squeak was heard from the crowd. Most didn't pay too much attention to the game developers, only the game's features. But Sunset's stare pierced strait into the figure's hidden face. This person, she was sure it was a person, had an vendetta against her, or maybe Twilight. They both had capable enemies after all. Any magical threat from Equestria could fiddle with the magic in the Digispheres, and Crystal Prep graduates weren't the best at sportsmanship, nor the best at handling jealousy, but they were pretty good with technology.

"But you," the figure pointed to the crowd, "could have the will, and thus the power, to surpass this false world. To do this, to see your reality again, you need only do one task: kill the final boss of the game, on the hundredth floor of Equestrad."

The figure raised its hand and opened a its own menu console, different from both the white screen of normal players and green screen of admins. The screen matched the orange glow of the figure's face, lighting up the sky above Ponyville like a sunset. With a few taps on the console, the full design of Equestrad materialized in front of every player to see.

"This world comes with one hundred floors, a hundred different dimensions, with a final boss to each one. This," the figure swiped its hand up, focusing the image of Equestrad in on the highest point, "is the final dimension of Equestrad, the Tartarus Dimension. Kill the boss, and every survivor will be disconnected from Pony Art Online."

Everyone stared. No one, not even the best players, had even began to consider beating a game they knew next to nothing about. No beta tester even passed the fifth floor. It just seemed impossible.

The figure waved away the Equestrad displays, opening its arms again for a final announcement. "As a test of power, and of worth, all forms of resurrection in the game has been disabled. If your health points drops to zero, your avatar will be destroyed, triggering a chain reaction in your Digisphere's magic gem. The malfunction will destabilize the gem, and it will self destruct, taking your head with it. That is all."

Boom, Sunset thought. She pictured herself in her bed, and the Digisphere suddenly exploding. She felt her legs begin to wobble, and her breath shake a little, but she kept herself collected.

The figure folded its arms, its body vanishing into fragments of light, like an item or a corpse expiring in the game.

Disbelief was almost immediately broken by rage. As if they were a single being, every player shouted to the sky, cursing the mysterious figure. Sunset stood frozen, watching the chaos around her.

"Come back and let us out you bastard!" one player called out.

"Fuck you!" shouted several others.

Sunset stepped back, horrified. This was supposed to be her world, her medicine for home sickness. How could it end so badly? Cause so much grief? Around her the younger players collapsed on the floor, either in shock or in tears, but usually both. The older players, stallions and mares alike, flung their weapons at the sky, where the mystery messenger stood only mere moments ago.

At that moment, she saw her friends. Strait through a crowd of heads Rainbow Dash was doing her best to comfort Scootaloo, and the same for Applejack and her sister. Sunset scanned around and found Sweetie Belle lying by Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Sunset didn't need to guess what she was thinking; Rarity wouldn't find out about this for days.

Sunset didn't know what to do. So she ran. She turned her back on Ponyville, on her friends, and fled the city. She couldn't face them, or anyone else. She first planted the idea for this game, and it was her persistence that brought it through. Whatever spoke just now, whatever broke the game and trapped one hundred thousand players in a virtual hell, couldn't have done it without PAO. Everything boiled down to her fault, and she couldn't stand it.

"This is my home," Sunset told herself. "Admin or not, no one knows it better than I do. No one understands its working more than me. I'm responsible for this, and I will act on that burden." She opened her menu and found her party roster. Select Member--> Rainbow Dash--> Select Action--> Make Leader--> Do you wish to demote yourself?-->Confirmed.

Sunset hovered over her character picture. It was a perfect reflection of her pony self, a face she hand't seen in over a decade. She selected it. Select member--> Self--> Select Action--> Leave-->Are you sure you want to leave?--> Confirmed.

It was for the best. If players saw them with Sunset, there was no doubt they'd be targets of hate as well. No one would forgive the creator of their prison, and the same went for her friends. Her friends might not even forgive her. After all, she couldn't.

Level Up

It didn't take long for Fluttershy to discover her role as a beast tamer. She loved her pets, even if they were all just rabbits. But not all were the same. PAO's animals carried various traits, from fire attributes that enhance damage to healing and supporting animals. But while there were countless creatures to befriend, the total levels of the pet, or pets, could not exceed the player's.

"I don't know if I can do it," Fluttershy whimpered, holding her pet rabbit, Mr. Fluffy, in her wings. It was the first pet she had ever tamed.

Rainbow Dash reached out for the rabbit. "It's just a level one bunny." She tried to take the rabbit away to make Fluttershy forget about the thing, but Fluttershy pulled away at the last moment.

"What if something happens and they're not in the stables when I come back?" she asked. "The NPC could be broken like the game, the stable hand might lose Mr.Fluffy. She'd be lost forever!"

Rainbow Dash looked at the rabbit with tiredness. If only it wasn't so damn cute. "If you want to tame a stronger pet you'll need to store Mr.Fluffy in the stables. There aren't any level six animals that can pair with Mr. Fluffy's one level, so just make room for a level seven."

"Maybe there's a way to level up pets-"

"No." Rainbow Dash interrupted, nudging Fluttershy over to the stable hand NPC. "This is how it's got to be."

Fluttershy finally relented, letting out a sigh as she let go of Mr.Fluffy. The skinny hazel colored NPC took the rabbit and placed it into an empty stable. First the tip of its head began to dissolve, followed by the rest of its body, into small fragments of light. A menu popped up in front of Fluttershy.

Mr.Fluffy has been stored. Available pet levels: 7

"Thank goodness he's safe," Futtershy sighed with relief. "I guess I was worried for nothing."

Rainbow Dashed slumped her head into her hoof. "Yep. Absolutely nothing."

===================================================

Silence flowed through the outskirts of the Everfree Forest. The rabbit, glowing blue with radiant healing magic, swiftly darted through the shrubbery. Rainbow Dash flew above the trees, spooking any animals toward the others. Applejack hung back with Pinkie Pie, watching the deeper parts of the forest carefully, in case any Timber Wolves decided to attack.

"You have to be quiet with these animals," Fluttershy whispered to her friends. She blew on a taming whistle made to coax animals toward her.

"Reckon I can't get any quieter than this," Applejack replied. "Maybe you're not using the skill right?"

"I'm using it right," she replied, squinting her eyes as the magical rabbit darted randomly around on the leaves. She blew the whistle harder, keeping sound sustained for five seconds, just as the item description said.

The rabbit's ears stood up and it froze. Turning, it hopped gently over to Fluttershy. Applejack and Pinkie Pie stepped back and gave her a little more space to tame the florescent creature.

Fluttershy held out her wings with the piece of bait once the rabbit got within ten meters. The rabbit sniffed the air and creeped toward her, eventually nibbling the bait. Fluttershy was frozen stiff as a small bar materialized above the rabbit. As it ate, the bar filled up with blue and small hearts bubbled out of the rabbit.

The rabbit flashed away the instant the bar was filled, replaced by a simple message screen in front of Fluttershy.

Animal Tamed- Recovering Rabbit: Level 4

"Yay!" Fluttershy cheered, immediately checking her inventory for the rabbit.

"Did you get it?" Rainbow Dash cheered from above the trees.

Fluttershy called back up. "Yes, but it's only a level four. If I level up I could get another one though. I think I'll name them Angel and Bunny."

Rainbow Dash came back down to the ground, groaning her heart out. "Another one? But rabbits are so boring."

"Don't mind her," Pinkie Pie jumped in, "she'll some around once we level up from a dungeon or too."

Rainbow Dashes face lit up and she drew her sword. "Now we're talking! Forget level eight, we'll hit level ten and jump strait to getting you one of those vicious Timber Wolves!"

"Oh, I don't think I would like a Timber Wolf growling at me," Fluttershy quivered, "I think I'll stick to getting more rabbits. These make great healers."

Just like that, the excitement drained from Rainbow Dash.

===================================================

"Another."

Rainbow Dash let the mug of cider drop on the ground and despawn as the NPC bartender placed a fresh cup right beside her. The recent reports from everyone was being compiled by the bookworms, and the recent death count had just climbed over one thousand.

Players were calling for the heads of the beta players, demanding they do something to progress the game. As if an army of low leveled gamers could shatter Equestrad into a million pieces and free every player, or fix a complex merging of magic and technology, or perform a miracle and poof everyone out of their Digispheres.

"Another."

Cider tasted good, and while the game didn't fully recreate the effects of being truly wasted, at least the taste could take Rainbow Dash's mind off some things.

"That bad?" a player asked. Rainbow Dash didn't react until she was tapped on the shoulder.

She stumbled off her stool a little and turned to see who was talking to her. A brunette with a green coat stared back at her. "Jeez," she said, "didn't think you had that many to drink Rainbow."

"Do I know you?" Rainbow Dash asked back.

"Oh come on, we didn't talk much when we were in high school, but you still remember me, right?" She waited, but Rainbow Dash couldn't find a response. "Really? Captain of the Acting and Improv Club, volunteered at the school garden a lot... we did a chemistry lab together sophomore year."

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "Outside of my friends, I only remember the members of Canterlot High's sports teams, sorry."

"Well, time for a reunion!" she stuck out a hoof and shook Rainbow Dash's very hard. "My name's Sophisticata, but you can me Sophi, and I was just wondering if you'd like to hang out with my friends. I know you like to perform -I saw you during the Battle of the Bands all those years ago- and just thought you'd like to role play as a lute player."

"Sorry, I'm not really into role playing. I just like to play the game."

Sophisticata still insisted dragging Rainbow Dash away from the inn. "Come on, there's more to you than that, you just need to give it a shot!"

Rainbow Dash tried yanking her hoof away, but Sophisticata was much stronger than she expected. "Well, I guess if I'm playing a lute it won't be all that bad."

"That's the spirit!" Sophisticata cheered. "You'll love it, we're going to roleplay a story one of our members wrote. It's a twist on the classic "knight in shining armor" story. Oh, you're going to love it."

===================================================

"The King of Beggars! He's choking!" a peasant shouted, pointing at a large stallion collapsed in the middle of the street.

Rainbow Dash rushed over to him, dressed in a jongleur's outfit, and listened to his breath. "He's been poisoned!" she declared, looking around for the culprit.

It was none other than the wicked warlock Starbeard. He stepped out from the crowd, scepter held with levitation, and tore off his peasant clothes, revealing his true form. "Indeed, it was I all along! And with him out of the way, the nothing will stop the noble court from rightfully buying out these streets. And it will be all thanks to me. Oh I can hear the coin they will spend for my favor already!"

"Not while I stand," Rainbow Dash growled, walking toward the warlock. "Give him the antidote or I'll rip it from your han-" She caught herself at the end of her line, glancing around to see if anyone noticed. "Hooves," she finished. If they did, then no one seemed to show it, and the scene continued normally.

"The court musician? Will you play me a sad song when your filthy king lies dead?" The warlock laughed. "I have magic, you're nothing but a string plucker!"

Rainbow Dash gave a roguish look and put her lute back into her secondary equipment slot. She drew her sword, reflecting light off its blade into the warlock's eyes.

"Ah, that burns!" he shouted. "How could you have a silver sword to negate my spells?"

Rainbow Dash shrugged, letting her smirk come naturally. "Every good undercover witch-hunter knows to bring a silver sword." She lunged at the warlock, ramming in the blade until the hilt touched his chest. Even in town, a PVP safe zone where no player could hurt another, Rainbow Dash knew the sword didn't feel good.

The player made a good effort to ignore the discomfort. "Ahg!" he choked, "You scoundrel, you cretin, you've slain me!"

"That I have, warlock. You'll not bring a plague of pompous asses to the good people of these streets. Impoverished as they may be, they are still better than the undeserving nobles."

The player slid slowly off the sword as the audience clapped, his chest a red patch of blood pixels.

===================================================

Rainbow Dash and Sophi leaned rested on the slope of a hill, gazing up at the stars under the willow tree. The air was fresh and clean from the Everfree Forest behind them.

"Wow, I didn't think that'd be so much fun," Rainbow Dash admitted to Sophi. "I didn't feel like I was acting once we hit the second act."

"Yeah, you were really into it," Sophi replied. "I was surprised, most people do so well when they're out of their comfort zone for the first time."

Rainbow Dash took the compliment and smiled. "I've been told I'm pretty adventurous. I love to try new things, especially when they're a challenge."

"Really?" Sophi asked curiously.

"What, you got something in mind?" Rainbow Dash sat up and looked at her.

"I've had a few things on my bucket list, but I don't think you'd be up for them," she said, glancing mischievously at Rainbow Dash's determined look.

"Just try me, I'm up for anything."

"Okay, but close your eyes," Sophi chuckled. "I want it to be a surprise." Rainbow Dash obliged, closing her eyes for her. There was a moment of waiting, and then Sophi pulled Rainbow Dash down to her and planted a deep kiss on her mouth. It barely lasted a second before Rainbow Dash jumped back, shocked.

Sophi laughed. "Your face looks as if that was a bad kiss Rainbow."

"Um, uh, no, not at all. It was just... er.. weird." Rainbow Dash stammered. "I mean, it wasn't the bad kind of weird, but interesting. I- um..."

"Well, I'll let you figure it out on your own," Sophi giggled, getting off the hill and walking up into the Everfree Forest. "I'll just go and see what else I can cross off my bucket list." She leered at Rainbow Dash. "You can join, if you're up for the challenge."

Rainbow Dash gulped. She felt conflicted, curious, but mostly conflicted. Still, a strange sensation washed over her, and she couldn't help but wonder what Sophi really planned to do. She eventually gave in to the thoughts in her head, and followed her into the forest.

===================================================

Blueberries, rose petals, and a frog's eye. Roseluck mixed the ingredients together in the public apothecary. Her friend stood behind her and watched.

"You sure you can make that?" Greg asked. "You haven't exactly been leveling up, and frog eyes only drop once or twice from dungeons."

"What're you saying Greg?" Roseluck asked.

"I just think you should save the frog eyes for when you're a higher level," he replied, "so you don't waste the ingredients."

"Crafting and leveling don't go together like that Greg," Roseluck told her friend, though most of her attention was on making sure she pressed the buttons on time. Crafting came with mini-games, and while the potions brewed Roseluck had to tap the green buttons on the brewing screen before they ruined her potion.

"Maybe, but I've played a lot of games," Greg continued, "and a lot of MMO's use levels to manage progression."

"Done." Roseluck equipped the potions from her inventory and looked at it. "Three bottles of Diluted Antidote. Don't waste them."

Greg opened his menu and accepted Roseluck's trade request, putting the items into his inventory. "Okay fine, but I still say you should come with us for a dungeon raid. It'll do you good to collect some stuff for yourself for once."

"Or, you could level up," Roseluck said, "and I'll stay safe making my potions."

===================================================

"I now call the first official meeting of the Cutie Mark Crusaders!" Sweetie Belle announced.

The amphitheater was sparsely populated by an assortment of ragtag players, all clapping with half-enthusiasm. Spirit were dropping everyday, and both guilds and individuals were feeling the depression. Some players left their guilds, abandoning what they thought was a hopeless project. Others couldn't stand to watch another friend get their head lopped off by a Diamond Dog, or eaten by a Timber Wolf.

In turn, guilds couldn't fund themselves and pay to protect their members. When the game began, tens of thousands of guilds formed between friends to protect each other. Now there were barely fifty guilds to accommodate nearly a hundred thousand players.

"Our first order of business is to establish a new solution to clearing the boss dungeon," Sweetie Belle told the audience. "Together, me and the other co-founders of the Cutie Mark Crusaders have decided to provide relief to our players, recover the community with philanthropic works, and reform the top players, beta-testers and new players alike, into a designated 'Clearing Group,' dedicated to defeating this game."

It all sounded good, and some hopeful players even sat up to actually listen, but the majority still wasn't impressed with words.

Sweetie Belle decided to show her guild what she meant. She swiped her hoof and opened her menu, tapping the "guild bank" icon on her screen.

"If you all look at what I'm pointing to, you'll notice the withdraw limit for all members have been increased." Sweetie Belle maximized her screen, doubling its size, to show the few player still to lazy to care. "Given current income rates from the smaller dungeons, all members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders are entitled to five thousand gold from the bank."

Everyone was listening now. Five thousand gold was more than a week's worth of dungeon grinding for most players. Rare and legendary items on the auction house didn't even sell for more than two thousand gold.

"With the added funds, we hope players can equip themselves with the best gear for their play style. But," Sweetie Belle paused to present Applebloom and her sister Applejack, "if anyone ever finds themselves having trouble with equipment, my colleagues here would be happy to help."

She sidestepped, allowing the two sisters to speak their piece.

"Now I know y'all are pretty excited right now, but we've only scratched the surface," Applebloom told them. "The past few days have been hard for everyone, I know, but we can't let that stop us now. It might be easy to run from the fight, but I 'reckon folks in the real world don't feel the same. They're doing their best to keep us safe in hospital beds, and it's our duty to do the same here."

Applejack took her turn. "That's why my sister and her friends are counting on each of you to lend a hand in the upcoming scouting raids for the main dungeon." Players started whispering, growing anxious at the CMC's boldness. The last group that tried to figure out how to get to the boss room was a guild called the Red League. Their entire guild was wiped out, and not even a messenger could escape to tell the bad news.

But Applejack insisted that things were going to be different. "The Cutie Mark Crusaders aren't here for the glory of finding the room and beating the boss, and we're not the only ones."

"We are in agreement with the guild called The Slumbering Giants of Korandale," shimmed in Applebloom again, "and we plan to mount a cooperative assault on the central dungeon, along with any other player or guild that would like to join us."

Somehow, that level of cooperation between guilds was a new concept to most of the players. They liked it. It seemed like a sound plan, and the murmurs between the guild members told Applebloom that it was giving them hope.

The sisters stepped back and let Sweetie Belle take hold of the speech again.

"And that's not all of it. Coordination shouldn't just be between a few guilds if we want to survive in this death game. Anyone, whether in a guild, party, or a solo player, with the fortune and skills to be able to thrive in this world, has a duty to themselves and to the community to fight for freedom. It's this duty that should bind the best of us into something other players can strive for, something more than ourselves."

She opened her messages and showed a list of names. They were the players who had agreed to follow the terms of the Clearing Group, and there were dozens of names already. It was overwhelming. Players tended to group up with their friends and work to get through each day, leveling up however they could, hoarding precious rare resources. A coalition of players who would look out for someone other than themselves was exactly what the players of PAO needed, even if they didn't realize it.

One by one, players started clapping and cheering, some even whistling, as the celebrated their leadership. They were convinced that the depression would be over, that there would be a new hope for everyone to one day return home.

===================================================

Fifty-six died in the first week. They were too eager to join the Clearing Group, eager to prove that their gear was worth the five thousand gold spent. Not even a third of the players were at a high enough level to properly raid the dungeon. Level sixes, level eights, they were hopeful but few. Level ten and eleven players, they hurried in droves, overconfident of their double-digit qualification. Most of them simply finished the starting quest line, and some couldn't even tell the difference between the role of a Damage or a Tank.

It was painfully clear that the best was not good enough. They couldn't just combine the top players and expect the to run through the dungeon like it was nothing. PAO may have been made like other MMOs, but virtual reality rewrote all the rules, even for the experienced players. Everything was in the player's face, not behind a screen.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were the first to reach the meeting point after the ceremony for the fallen players. Though everyone left at the same time, the two pegasi made use of their wings and left the sad scene as quickly as they could. Rainbow Dash insisted that she was still calm and collected, that the deaths hadn't shaken her. Fluttershy didn't hide any of it, weeping even for those she never spoke to.

Now all Fluttershy could do was sit in the field outside Ponyville and pluck the flowers from the grass, tossing them aside to despawn, only so that they could respawn in the grass. Lost in thought, she kept pulling the flowers, like a machine without an off switch.

Rainbow Dash napped under the meager shade of Ponyville's walls. Sunset had once told her that the developers she hired took som creative liberties with the detail of Equestria. She wondered why the developers didn't give Ponyville a better wall to rest under and wallow in.

The developers, now there was a thought. Rainbow Dash clenched her teeth. It could have been one of the developers fucking with the game that trapped and killed so many players so far. The more she thought about it, the more she felt like she was at the mercy of a psychopath with a computer. She hated it.

"Fluttershy," Rainbow Dash finally called out when she couldn't handle her own thoughts anymore.

"Yeah Rainbow?" she replied. Her voice was soft, but different. Fluttershy was always a quiet speaker, but now her voice wasn't filled with timidness. In fact, Rainbow Dash didn't hear anything in Fluttershy's voice. It was just a void.

"I don't really want to do this practice run," Rainbow told her, her eyes still napping in the shade. "How about you?"

Fluttershy fluttered over and rested by Rainbow Dash. "I told want to see any more death. I know it's true, what the figure said on that first day. I know that we die in real life when we die here."

"I never considered that it could've been a lie," Rainbow Dash mumbled. "What's got you so convinced?"

"The last look in someone's eyes when their health bar hits zero," she explained, "the panic they feel, the kind of final struggle you only see when there's nothing to cling onto, that's the look of death."

Fluttershy looked over at Rainbow Dash, reaching over and wiping the single tear off her face. "What about you?"

Rainbow Dash opened her eyes gingerly and stared at Fluttershy. She blinked, clearing the watery image. "I was next to the player that died in yesterday's raid. His was the last ceremony we had today."

Fluttershy nodded, patiently waiting for Rainbow Dash give up more. Rainbow Dash swallowed her feelings again. "I was next to him when he turned to me. I tried to give him a potion but he already began to despawn. He whispered his last words to me. Me, a total stranger."

"What did he say?"

Rainbow Dash was trying to keep herself together, but the Digisphere could read her deepest emotions, giving her character tears whether she wanted them or not.

"He told me," Rainbow Dash said, pausing only for a moment, "to help him tell his family once we beat the game. His exact words to me were, 'Tell my wife and daughter that,'" Rainbow Dash stopped abruptly.

"That what?" Fluttershy asked. She seemed to be partially out of her void as Rainbow Dash fell into hers.

"Nothing. He was just lost data by then." Rainbow Dash grabbed Fluttershy and hugged her closely. "He didn't even get to... to finish his last words. He thought of the ones he loved but he couldn't say what he felt."

Fluttershy squeezed Rainbow Dash back. She felt her friend's pain, and appreciated it more because it was coming from Rainbow Dash. She didn't even mind how Rainbow Dash was shouting in her ear.

"The damn game stole that right from under his nose!" she hollered into Fluttershy's shoulder. "I could have saved him if I just paid attention!"

Fluttershy knew how to help. Together, they laid under the growing shadow of the city's wall, venting each other's emotions onto the other, until there was nothing left to cry about. Their friends left them to it, training in some dungeon or drinking in some tavern. So there the two lay, even in the night, until every ounce of sorrow poured out.

===================================================

"Are you sure this is the name you choose? Once it's written, it is hard to lose."

A menu box appeared in front of the zebra.

Are you sure you want to change your name to Phoenix? Of course she was sure. There was no reason to keep her real name as her character name. It drew too much attention, unlike the hut hidden in the Everfree Forest. The NPC Zecora was never seen, she blended well with the shade of the canopy, disappearing before players saw her wandering around her hut.

Sunset wished she could become that invisible. Just vanish into the forest and forget. But she still had a responsibility, one she couldn't accomplish without dissolving her old life first. Like the Phoenix, she needed to burn away her old life and start anew. She tapped the menu, confirming her decision.

"Ah, now that the potion has used its magic, getting your name back would be so tragic."

Phoenix breathed a breath of the Everfree's fresh forest air. It felt like her first breath.

The Crusaders

The first month on the first floor was the hardest on all the players. Over a thousand rushed for the floor boss, desperate to escape. In their frenzy most were trapped or lost in the dungeon's maze, ultimately perishing in it. Another thousand suffered the same fate simply leveling, or learning the game.

Aside from combat, most of the game remained the same, which gave beta testers the upper hand. Aside from Sunset's friends, most beta testers fled for the best exploits, hoarding what they could to prepare for the first boss. Weapons, experience, even gathering nodes, were all monopolized by the beta testers.

But they had their troubles too. There were fewer beta testers, most of them ending up solo players. Alone, many faced death when they became outnumbered by enemy monsters. PAO did not discriminate. On all sides of the community, there were losses.

===================================================

Ever since the day the apparition trapped everyone in PAO, Ponyville has never seen a crowd beyond a handful of people scattered around its streets. Until today, that is.

Gathered at the center of the city, the town hall, was a ready raid of dozens of players. For the whole week they had planned to organize the first unified raid on the first floor's boss. The excitement and tension was electric.

"Okay everyone, settle down," Sweetie Belle beckoned to the group. "As leader of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, I've taken responsibility for distributing our raid plan for tomorrow morning."

"You sure you're not scared, miss?" one player rudely shouted from the crowd. Sweetie pierced her glare into the crowd, but the stallion hid himself back into the group, afraid to take the spotlight.

She decided to ignore the asshole and continued her speech. "Two days ago, the Cutie Mark Crusaders finished mapping the boss dungeon, marking the quickest path to the final boss on the floor. Naturally, it means we have the the means to take our first step to our freedom from this game."

There was chatter all around. Most of the players were male, still unsure of a female player formulating such a crucial raid. But skepticism aside, many were excited to move forward and claim a solid victory for once.

Sweetie Belle pulled a book out of her inventory. "According to what we've been told by scouts and the beta players, the boss is named the 'Lord of Diamond Dogs,' and is classified as a tank class boss, with spears and a shield. However," she opened to a page in the beginning, "it's not as simple at that. Beta players all seem to confirm that its attack pattern changes when two thirds of its health remains. It begins a barrage of ranged attacks by throwing multiple spears, followed by launching its own body into the area with the highest concentration of players. It will be dazed after each leap, so we'll have to attack it then."

The crowd whispered in awe. The boss's attacks focused on player positions, and weren't scripted or random like many other games. Reactions were mixed, some excited to be challenged and some nervous for their lives, but everyone understood the danger presented to them.

But a voice returned a complaint from the crowd. The same voice as before, Sweetie Belle noticed. "How can we trust the beta players? They're looking out only for themselves!" The stallion leaped up from the crowd this time, taking a spot next to Sweetie Belle to warn the crowd.

"This is not the time to-" Sweetie Belle began, but the stallion ignored her, shouting over her protests.

"They knew exactly what quests gave the best rewards, the best regions to level up in, and even hoarded crafting resources for their own gain! These could be lies, a trick to give the beta players an upper hand!" The stallion held up his book, an exact copy of Sweetie Belle's information. "They even dared to mock us by selling their 'special tips and tricks' two weeks after the game began. Two weeks after real people started dying!"

The group remained silent, some looking at their copy of the information booklet. A lot of it was useful information players had to learn themselves just before the book began to enter the player market. But whatever couldn't be confirmed by experience began to look suspicious to many players.

Sweetie Belle was loosing the crowd. But she wouldn't allow the infighting of beta testers and "regular" players to hinder the raid. Activating the first teleporter in Ponyville to the next dimension would give a huge moral boost that could speed up efforts to clear PAO. But a loss would certainly put spirits at an all time low.

But her rescue came as if on cue. "Beta testers or not, nothing in that book has been proven false so far," Applejack said from the crowd. "The chance that there's a trap in those pages are probably none. Just some paranoid thought y'all are using to place blame for the deaths. But if let those thoughts control us, then there will be more deaths, and it won't be the beta testers to blame."

She walked out of the crowd and confronted the stallion. She smirked. His avatar was a telltale sign of his real world age; he was just an upper class an in high school, probably just as big of a pain in class as he was in game.

"I was in that scouting party when we found the boss room," she said to him. "Reckon I got a good look in the Lord of Diamond Dogs' throne room, and as far as I can tell, the book's telling the truth."

The stallion scowled, but couldn't find words to spit back at Applejack. He simply grunted and stepped back into the crowd, avoiding the stares from all the other players.

Sweetie Belle thanked Applejack with a nod before resuming her speech. "To prepare for this raid, the Cutie Mark Crusaders advises everyone present to form a party and restock on potions and scrolls, maybe buy new gear if you have to. Most importantly, find a party you can work well with and report to the CMC commanders to be assigned to a raid position. Going commando on this one's not an option, so don't try to act to macho. Boys won't impress any girls if they're dead."

There were some laughs from the the players, mostly from the female players, as many of the guys suddenly became more cautious with their choice of skills and attributes.

Sweetie Belle released a breath of relief. She had to be honest with herself, she wasn't sure if she could even get the other players to listen to her. But it turned out fine, and she could give her last words of encouragement. "And finally, good luck to all of you for stepping up to the call of valor. Working together, we're guaranteed to meet again in the real world. Good day."

===================================================

"You got guts AJ," Sweetie Belle said, taking another drink of ale. "They could've sniffed you out."

The game had no restrictions on drinking, and only simulated weak effects of intoxication. Sweetie Belle, being only sixteen, intended on taking full advantage of that fact and kept drinking.

Applejack shrugged. "Sure was lucky I'm not as showy as Rainbow. Nearly everyone knows she was a beta tester." She selected an apple pie from the restaurants menu, deducting twenty bits from her inventory. Immediately, an NPC waitress spawned in on the other side of the restaurant and brought the apple pie.

"Damn, I wish things were this fast in real life," she said, forking a peace of steaming hot pie into her mouth. It should have burned her tongue, but the Digisphere barely translated the pain of burning when characters were engulfed in flames, let alone a small hot pie.

Sweetie Belle put her cup down, sighing. Planning the attack had given her plenty of time to think. "I wonder what Rarity's doing right now."

Applejack stopped eating, sitting back in her chair. Most players considered it impolite to bring up anything from the real world, but among friends it was different. Applejack appreciated to have Applebloom with her, but she could sympathize with Sweetie Belle.

"You know how she is," Applejack said, looking into Sweetie Belle's eyes, "she doesn't always like to do hard work, but when she does, she'll stop at nothing to finish it. I reckon she's doing everything in her power to get you back. And, she'd be proud of the generosity the Crusaders have given to players."

"Thanks," Sweetie Belle said, "I guess I've been thinking a little too much lately. It's been nearly two months and we're only beginning to start making progress. With no news from the real world, I've just been worried I won't see Rarity again."

Applejack nodded. "I couldn't imagine what I'd do without Applebloom. I know how much a sister can mean to you."

For just a few seconds, the two shared a moment of silence to think. Sweetie Belle shook her head to clear her thoughts. "Well, we're doing our best, anyways. We should probably find the others and get the party ready." She swiped her hoof, opening her menu to the party screen. On Applejack's side, and invite prompt materialized in front of her. She accepted it.

Sweetie Belle opened the CMC guild page. "I'll send a guild message for Scootaloo and Applebloom, but where should we meet?"

"Fluttershy's grinding with Rainbow up north," Applejack said, checking her friends list. "And Pinkie Pie's outside the dungeon getting players ready for the raid. Food, potions, stuff like that."

"Since she's preparing the raid, we'll meet at Pinkie's location," Sweetie said, marking the location on her map.

Applejack added the rest of the pie to her inventory and got up from her seat. "I'll gallop over to Fluttershy and RD, we'll meet you and the gals at the dungeon as soon as we can."

===================================================

Phoenix couldn't believe the rush for the dungeon. Even with their life on the line, it was still a game to most players. They were excited, celebrating, as if they had already won. They thought they had a plan, but she knew they were going in blind. But no one would ever listen.

There was nothing that could be done about it.

The raid party was already on the move. Fluttershy had made use of the game's taming mechanics and found the best pets to heal everyone, but there was only one other player, a young colt, who bothered to play as a Support. The Tanks strode strong in the front as they entered the tunnels of the Lord of the Diamond Dogs. In the front, Applejack bravely drew the dungeon's NPC to her shield and spear, stunning them with a shield bash so the Damage players could finish them off.

Rainbow Dash was almost always the first to rush into the enemies, combining high attack speed with high damage and killing up to three diamond dogs in one go. But her stamina had limits. To recover, she'd switch places with Pinkie Pie, who's stamina found no parallel in the entire raid. Her damage wasn't outstanding but she kept her damage sustained, weakening enemies for the other players to finish off.

Fluttershy stood in the back, directing her pets to apply health and stamina regeneration buffs, but with the synergy of the Tanks and the Damages, there was little need for her three magical rabbits. They reached the boss room in record time, without any player dropping below ninety percent of their health. To the raid, it went better than they could have anticipated.

But that's where it stopped. The boss room would be an entirely different beast, Phoenix knew it.

Phoenix gripped her weapon with her magic, waiting in the back, even behind Fluttershy. Among the few other solo players, she was the only one prepared to fight on her own. She had her teleport scrolls equipped in her auxiliary item 1, and healing potions in the second slot. Her armor was heavy reinforced cloak, but she balanced her build with a light broadsword. The hood on her cloak also replaced a helmet slot without adding additional weight, giving her additional speed.

"Alright everyone," she heard Sweetie Belle announce to the raid. "We've made it this far but don't think it'll stay easy. Keep your guard up, and if the fight gets hard, then remember to fight harder!"

The other players cheered, their blood rushing from the ecstasy of battle. They were strong willed and lively, yet their raid lacked a strict formation. Phoenix hoped their determination alone would carry them through.

The final room was not how anyone expected. From the outside, it had the look of a dark and sinister palace, but the reality was that the Lord of Diamond Dogs lived in a lavish throne room, with pristine polished marble and fountains of water and wine. But the throne was empty.

"Fan out around the center," Sweetie Belle commanded, directing different parties to their position. "The Lord won't spawn if we stick to the edges, so take the time to get into position."

As planned, the Tanks circled the Lord of Diamond Dogs' spawning area, creating a barrier between it and the Damages. Fluttershy and the colt positioned themselves on opposite sides of the room, maximizing the range of their pets' healing.

From what she saw, Phoenix anticipated Applejack to be the first Tank to Pull the Lord, so she positioned herself just behind her, ready to attack immediately. Every other Tank stood with their shields up and their spears forward, waiting for the first move.

Applejack stepped forward. The tension in the air did not last long. Only after five steps, the whole room shuddered, drawing shards of light toward the center. Only moments after Lord of Diamond Dogs materialized. It stood nearly four times as tall as any of the players, and its spear was just as tall. To add to the appearance, the Lord's shield, while technically a buckler, was an enormous steel wall compared to the players.

Regardless, Applejack laid the first blow. With her strength, she leaped and swung her shield at its head, cracking its nose with the impact. The combination of her movements and target area activated the Shield Slam skill, stunning the Lord of Diamond Dogs before it could offer the first strike.

Phoenix burst forward, striking the Lord in the eye with two-slash ability, adding a blindness debuff on top of the stun. Rainbow Dash followed immediately after, lacerating the boss with a flury of rapid strikes.

The attack was an impressive rush, but the boss retaliated from the stun while the raid was distracted with its attack, slamming its shield into the mob of players. The attack flung back everyone, giving the boss room to attack with its spear.

The first strike damaged a whole party, but their tank absorbed most of the force. The Lord lowered his spear parallel to the ground, and the second strike charged forward into the dungeon's locked doors, crashing into nearly a quarter of the raid before they could evade.

Fluttershy's pets, her three magic rabbits, went to work buffing the raid with health regeneration, bolstering the players' confidence for a second attack. All the Tanks lined up, shields locked together, and pressed forward a charge into the boss. Their shields clashed with its shield, pinning the boss to the wall. With its attention on them, the Damages lined up to skewer the Lord of Diamond Dogs, plummeting it health to sixty percent.

While players cheered, the boss roared, sending the player skidding across the throne room. They tried to retaliate but none of them could move. The Lord had stunned the entire raid party as its roar signaled its attack changed.

Spears flew through the air like arrows, penetrating and crippling players as they laid on the floor helplessly. Before Fluttershy could regenerate their health, the boos leaped, crashing its massive weight onto the marble floor, cracking the white tiles and painting the floor with blood pixels. Everyone looked to their raid roster as five names suddenly vanished, completely removing a part from the raid.

The first to react was Rainbow Dash, rapidly outflanking the Lord's defense with her speed and plunging her sword into its spine. It only managed to shake her off before Applejack the remaining Tanks launched their spears into the right leg of the boss, tripping it over. Above its massive health bar the crippled icon appeared, giving the signal to attack.

Phoenix kept to the edges of the fray, taking light, rapid stabs at the Lord's limbs, refreshing the crippled debuff while the others went for the torso, where the most damage would be dealt.

It was nearly over. The boss was helpless, flailing around as its health dropped below fifty percent, and then forty percent. Finally, Phoenix could smile. The boss was nearly dead, and her paranoia proved to be for nothing. The Crusaders were indeed capable after all, especially with the help of their friends.

They enjoyed the challenge, which Phoenix still couldn't understand, but she appreciated the confidence Pinkie Pie had as she leaped side to side, sticking her sword into the boss with each landing. Twenty-five percent health left to go. Phoenix raised her blade and went in for a charge, impaling a toe with her broadsword. It was a good way to relieve the stress of being trapped in a video game.

Phoenix almost didn't notice the scream that came from her right. By the time she lifted her head to see the cause, two more screams began to come out from the raid. They were player screams, and they were in pain. Her paranoia flooded back in a violent wave, and by instinct she whirled around to block the attack from an enemy behind her.

Diamond Dog Assassin its name plate read.

"Shit, this was the room's trap?" she cursed out loud, parrying the assassin's blade and finishing it with a riposte to the neck. "Tanks, pull them away from the Lord or they'll heal him!"

Applejack whirled around to find the voice. It wasn't a command from Sweetie Belle, and the fighting was too wild to tell where it came from. But she knew that it was the truth, and if she followed the advise the other Tanks would too.

One by one the tanks linked their shields around the boss, slamming their shields into the assassins whenever they drew near. But their defense was far form solid. Already the assassins removed three Tanks from the raid, leaving gaps in the shield wall for them to sneak through.

Damage players teamed up to fill the shield gaps, but they couldn't keep the boss down as well. Phoenix raced for the Lord, aiming her sword tip at the eye of the boss as she charged through a pack of assassins. They struck her on both sides, but she ignored their effects, even as her health hit fifty percent. She thrust her blade forward with her Fleche skill, catapulting herself into the Lord, splattering its eye with the attack.

It cost much of her stamina put it was worth taking down the Lord's health to eight percent. Yet around the boss more assassins just spawned and rushed to the aid of their lord. Two more screams were heard. Two more deaths. Phoenix tried desperately, but a depleted stamina bar reduced her attacks to barely no damage.

"Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, the boss is almost down!" she called out, but there was no use. Rainbow Dash was pinned down with Applejack, both of them losing stamina fast. On the other side of the room, Pinkie Pie was preoccupied with rescuing a small party from a pack of assassins.

Phoenix lifted her broadsword and rammed it as hard as she could into the Lord of Diamond Dogs' throat, piercing into its windpipe and slicing its jugular veins. But the boss was made only of data, and her own limits were set by the number on her stamina. Despite the gruesome effect of her strike, it dealt an insignificant amount of damage.

She grew even more desperate as another player vanished from the raid roster, screaming out for his life. It was the young colt playing Support, overwhelmed by an assassin.

"Dammit, no!" she yelled, but it fell on deaf ears. By the time her stamina regenerated the entire raid would be nearly wiped out. She turned to the Lord, her eyes blurred from tears, and stabbed at its face. Attack after attack, she tore a red gash in the Lord's face, but its health bar only inched down to seven percent.

"Not another life, you won't take another life, you fucked up game!" she screamed with every hit, seeing nothing but blurred red pixels. She couldn't see much, but she could tell the boss had enough of her. Something, presumably its shield, swatted her into the thick fight between the assassins and players.

She struggled up, but paws and hooves tread over her in the fight. She could barely make out a figure standing on top of the boss. Her character was a young mare with a white coat, but she couldn't make out the name plate over her head. But Phoenix could make out the death animation when she plunged her sword into the Lord's chest, depleting its health to nothing.

Then, there was nothing. The assassins the Lord of Diamond Dogs spawned shattered into pieces of light, and the fighting stopped as fast as it began. Eleven players were dead, nearly a quarter of the raid when they entered.

Phoenix shook her head and wiped blood pixels from her face. Her legs felt like jello and each heart beat felt like a punch to the chest, but she was glad it was over. She looked up at Sweetie Belle, standing over the dead boss with a Killing Blow reward on her menu screen. Along with the head of the boss, she got a unique tier item, the highest tier available, with one of a kind attributes and special effects.

Figured it'd end up being one of them, Phoenix thought to herself.

The door at the end of the dungeon opened up, exposing a shortcut to the dungeon's exit. Phoenix tightened her hood around her face and headed for the exit while everyone else was busy sorting out their loot.

But no one was. In fact, no one, not even Sweetie Belle, was doing anything; they just stared at her.

Pinkie Pie was the first to speak up. "Hey Sunset Shimmer! Over here, it's your friend Pinkie Pie! Long time no see!"

Phoenix froze up. No one needed to say a thing to her, she knew what they were thinking. The looks of either fear or disgust came from nearly every player around her. But not her friends. Rainbow Dash was limping with Applejack, but both of them still smiled and waved to her. Fluttershy was speechless, but her tears were definitely of joy.

That was the worse part. Her friends forgave her for bringing them into a death trap, even when she could not. The other players were right to draw their blades at her, she didn't deserve forgiveness. She deserved exile.

And once again, Sunset ran. She ran for the exit, she ran for her freedom, she ran for the edges of the map, where no one but the monsters of her own world could haunt her. They did not judge with viscous eyes.

Warm the Hearth

"No, not him," Scootaloo said, swiping away yet another application from a guild member to become a commander. After a decisive victory at the thirty-second floor boss, the Cutie Mark Crusaders was growing into the biggest, and the strongest, guild in Pony Art Online.

Applebloom dozed on the opposite side of the Guildmasters' room. It was a cozy room at the top of the Ponyville Inn, where the three girls first signed the guild charter to form the CMC. Since then its been their prime spot to hang out and relax. But no such leisure was made available to the three once their guild began to grow.

"What about Twist?" Applebloom finally muttered as she woke from her nap. "She keeps sending her application to us every time we clear another floor."

"What's her level?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Thirty-eight," Applebloom answered. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo traded glances, suppressing the urge to laugh at Twist's expense.

Scootaloo shook her head. "Too low, like always."

Applebloom raised her eyebrow at that. "Damn, you're more savage than usual today."

Scootaloo looked at Applebloom, showing as much exhaustion as possible. "We have to sort through a dozen applicants for a new commander, and three times as many requests to join the guild. I'm tired."

Sweetie Belle stretched out on her bed, simultaneously reading through her own list of messages. "On top of that, tomorrow's Hearth Warming Eve." For anyone else, her tone would have been a complaint like any other, but Applebloom and Scootaloo knew what Sweetie Belle meant, even if she didn't mean to say it. They had Applejack and Rainbow Dash, but Sweetie Belle didn't have Rarity.

Frustrated, Sweetie Belle swiped her hoof across the guild menu, exiting out of the display. "We should celebrate! We haven't had more than a single drink after clearing the last floor. We should get out and do something!"

"Maybe find that massage place on floor fourteen," Scootaloo added. "There's a couple that works there, and I think the husband was a masseuse in real life while his wife was a working chiropractor."

Applebloom shrugged. "It's not like you have any actual muscles that need to be massaged."

"That's what most players think," Scootaloo replied, "but even Rainbow Dash goes there sometimes to loosen up after a fight. Players say the couple knows some secrets to how the Digisphere renders your avatar's body, somehow tricking the game's system to add a buff that makes you feel super relaxed."

Sweetie Belle nodded. "It does sound awfully nice to do something, anything, other than read anymore requests from guild members."

Scootaloo marked a waypoint on her map of the fourteenth floor. "The teleporter's two blocks away, we could pop over to floor fourteen and see if it's as good as they say."

Sweetie Belle beamed, she didn't need to be told twice. "Let's go!" she said, grabbing Applebloom by the foreleg and dragging her out.

===================================================

Floor thirty-two, nicknamed "The Dream Realm," had one of the most surreal landscapes Phoenix could imagine. If she could, she would have spent all of Hearth's Warming Eve on a walk around the map, taking in the everlasting night sky and its beautiful stars and constellations, accurate to the last nebula, courtesy of Twilight. Without any light pollution added into the game, the sky was better than any sight in the real world.

But there was work to be done.

No one notices you. You're just another player in the crowd.

The thought gave little comfort as Phoenix squeezed through the crowd celebrating in the town square. At the center of the crowd, a massive fir tree towered over everything else in the village, decorated with magical, everlasting flames, enchanted crystals, and even a solid diamond pony at the top of the tree. Phoenix could only imagine what players were doing at the floor's central city.

Phoenix would have loved to stay, enjoy the holidays like a normal person would, but her plans were on a ticking time table as it was, and she couldn't afford distractions.

Northwest of The Dream Realm's starting town was a thick forest containing the strongest NPC's in the dimension. But that didn't dissuade Phoenix. In her memory, that was where Twilight suggested to place a Hearth's Warming Eve event, a colossal boss that drew strength based on the players in the dimension.

The idea was to scale the boss up based on all the players, so that everyone would have to join in work together to defeat it. It was a great idea for a holiday celebration, but Phoenix didn't dare think of bringing anyone else in on it. The location was supposed to be secret, as part of a massive hunt for the event. But given their situation, not a lot of players wanted to risk their life looking for an over powered boss.

Phoenix grinned as she cleaved through the monsters in the forest. Unlike any other floor, The Dream Realm had nearly an infinite number of different monsters.

Through the Digisphere, PAO could take fragments of memories, dreams, or plain imagination, and splice the images together to create a never ending variety of creatures. The game may have turned out to become a death trap, but she couldn't deny the amount of effort and detail put into each floor.

Damn, I'm doing it again. Sunset thought to herself.

It didn't take long for her to reach the heart of the forest, where a large clearing in the trees awaited the event boss. Sunset swiped her hoof to check the time in her options menu. She was early. Thirty minutes until midnight, and then it would be Hearth's Warming Day, and there would be one hell of a fight.

"It's a fight you can't do alone," a voice said from up behind her. Phoenix tensed up, reaching for her sword with her magic. But something told her that she was safe. She didn't understand it at first, but her instincts quickly gave her an answer.

"You didn't have to follow me Rainbow Dash," Phoenix replied, letting a stone of guilt drop into her gut, realizing she had almost drawn a sword on her friend.

"We didn't follow, we knew you'd be here," came another voice from the trees, on her left this time. Phoenix dropped her head lower, avoiding contact with the walking mass of pink.

"Why... why are you here?" Phoenx spoke but her words were stuck in her throat. "You all shouldn't have..."

Rainbow stopped her. "Just don't, Sunset. Don't say anything, it was hard enough finding you after you left our 'Friends' list, so just listen to us." She landed behind her, with Fluttershy quietly gliding down to her right.

"We're your friends Sunset," Fluttershy said, walking up. She took her hood off and looked her directly in her eyes. "And we're going to go through this together."

Phoenix shook her head and pushed Fluttershy away. "I'm not Sunset, not here anyways."

"Don't you dare place any blame on yourself sugarcube," Applejack said, taking her stance by Pinkie. "Regardless of what everyone thinks, we know who you are. You didn't want any of this, but getting yourself killed won't change any of it. You are still Sunset Shimmer, and no matter what you say, the truth is, we need you."

"If you found this place on your own, you can manage without me," Phoenix replied.

"What the hell is it with you?" Rainbow Dash shot back. "Why can't you just come back with us so we can be a party again?"

The though of telling them itched at her mind. They couldn't grasp at why she was ashamed. Would they leave her alone if she did? Would they be as disgusted with her as she was with herself?

Pinkie took her turn to say her piece. "Please, Sunset. We were together when it happened, you know whatever's trapping us in this world has nothing to do with you."

Phoenix opened her mouth to say something, but she paused.

"Out with it already," Rainbow insisted. "We've been searching for you ever since floor one, we deserve some kind of answer."

"Fine," Phoenix finally said. "You're all wrong, and that's my answer. This has everything to do with me. This world is my creation, and even if I'm not the jailer, I'm still the one who put down the prison bars that shut everyone in this place. If anyone's going to fix it, it should be me, so no one else has to die."

They all stared at her, like she was crazy. She was suggesting that she could finish the game on her own, after all. They all tried to think of something to say, but finally Applejack just walked up to Phoenix and looked her in the eyes, like she was staring into her soul.

Applejack punched Phoenix.

As an unarmed attack, the Digisphere barely registered anything more than the push of the strike. The pain was internal.

"Don't try to lie yourself out of this one, Sunset, or Phoenix, if that's what you really go by now," Applejack said, yanking her up off the grass. "When you're sincere, it shows like nothing else I've ever seen. You said you change for the better when we became friends in Canterlot High. That was sincere. You figured out how the Sirens could damage even our friendship. That was sincere. You told Twilight she could find a new life with new friends in Canterlot. That was sincere."

Sunset was taken back, nearly staggering over from the words. She didn't think those details, which seemed to happen a lifetime ago, was still so fresh in Applejack's mind.

Applejack didn't seem to notice the weight of her what she said. "So don't give me this 'lone wolf' shit, acting like you have to fix everything on your own. We're ready to help you Sunset, so, just let us help you."

She couldn't keep it in then, not while she was surrounded by the only ones who cared about her in PAO. Sunset collapsed to her knees, burying her head in her hooves.

"I'm sorry, Applejack, but I can't let you help me. I couldn't stand it if you did," she said. She looked up to her friends' faces, taking in their curious looks one by one. She had to tell them, it wasn't a choice anymore.

So she explained it to them. "I've never stopped thinking about all of you ever since the first day. Every moment I looked around and saw a happy party, I remembered all of us together on the hill, right by Starter Town. But when I fell asleep, or got lost in thought, I couldn't help but admire everything around me. And then, I realized that deep down, I'm happy to be here."

Sunset paused to take it in. Her voiced shook and her body trembled. It sounded worse aloud; she sounded so selfish. If she hated herself, how could she expect her friends to accept her?Her friends all took a step back. It wasn't what any of them expected to hear.

Regardless, Sunset felt that she had to continue. "Imagine, the world around us is a death trap for thousands of innocents, my friends are locked in a virtual reality risking their lives just to escape, and I wake up every morning smiling to myself because I get to be a pony! Players, real people, have been dying with every floor, yet somehow, I'm happy!" She paused, taking in another shaky breath. "The past few months have been driving me insane, yet even just now, on my way here, I had the gall to feel proud of the world I had made."

It was Sunset's turn to be surprised. One by one, they embraced her, hugging her close as if the world was at an end.

"I don't get it," Sunset croaked out, "I just said I've been happy...even at you expense, and you still-"

"Understand. We still understand, sugar cube," Applejacked finished for her. "It don't matter if you made this world or not, everyone's had their moments to joy here."

"Yeah Sunset, you should have seen the party we threw over at Ponyville," Pinkie Pie beamed, throwing her hooves in the air for exaggeration. "I bet we had at least ten thousand players celebrating Hearth's Warming Eve, and not a single one of them confused it with Christmas!"

Sunset chuckled at Pinkie's upbeat attitude. "It was Equestria's equivalent of our holidays, so we put the events in."

Our. Sunset's heart skipped a beat. For years she was conflicted over the human world and Equestria, wondering which she really belonged in after she graduated from Canterlot High. Has she really been human for so long, that she felt a part of its world?

"Events like this one?" Rainbow Dash asked. "We had a hunch you'd be here, but we're still not clear on what exactly is supposed to happen."

Sunset waved her hoof in the air, treating it as if it were nothing. "Just a giant boss. Twilight coded it to scale up based on the floor's player population, but I came prepared with a few special scrolls." She grinned, pulling them out from her inventory. "I might have cheated them in on day one when you weren't looking, before my admin controls got screwed over."

"You what?" Rainbow Dash gawked. Sunset just grinned cheekily. "I can't believe you did that. And here I thought you were an honest player."

"The boss is overpowered, so I need to just as strong," Sunset explained. "And besides, I was caught up in the excitement at the time." Rainbow Dash shook her head mockingly, disapproving of the unearned scrolls.

"Sounds cool! What do they do?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Different things," Sunset said as she shuffled through them. There was a red scroll, two yellow, and a gold. "This one causes you to reduce your enemy's health by thirty percent, these two triple your health, endurance, and attack speed. This gold one's the key scroll though. It'll level you up to the level of the boss for ten minutes."

Everone's eyes widened. "That's so overpowered," Rainbow said, staring at the golden scroll with amazement. "Why're you using it now?"

"Because if Twilight made this boss the way I think she did," Sunset answered, "it might give me a lead on how to get out of this game quicker, or at least find out how death in-game got linked to a malfunction in the Digisphere, and how I could fix it. We're pretty low compared to what the boss is going to be, and subduing it, not killing it, is going to be the important part. I need to focus on working out the magic anomaly in its data."

Jaws dropped all around. As her friend, they all knew the impact Sunset could make on clearing the game, but they never thought it would be on this scale, or that she'd be able to break into the system from her in-game character.

"Wait, so the boss scales up if there's a bigger population on this floor?" Pinkie Pie asked.

Sunset stood up, preparing for the event to start. "Don't worry, the population in this dimension isn't what I expected. The players here now won't make it a challenge."

"What if I told everyone in Ponyville that the Hearth's Warming after party would be at this floor's central city?" Pinkie added. Sunset looked at her, completely stunned by what she heard. Ten thousand players would certainly scale up the boss to a troubling level. Sunset quickly reconsidered rushing into it with brute force.

However, it was too late. A bell sounded from the sky, signalling midnight for every dimension of Equestrad. Above the forest clearing, Sunset saw the most horrifying figure she could possibly imagine, and she cursed Twilight under her breath.

===================================================

It was bigger than anything encountered in the game before. The monster towered over the forest, its eyes just peaking over the tree tops. With its massive wingspan, a single flap flung Sunset and her friends back into the thick forest trees. It did little damage for an attack, but it didn't matter. Everyone was dazed, not from the gust, but from the sight before them.

It was Celestia. A massive, bastardized form of Princess Celestia.

"What the hell is that?" Applejack shouted, raising her shield to deflect an incoming blow. As a Tank player, she always drew the first strikes without much effort.

Even in the ever lasting night of The Dream Realm, Sunset could tell that nothing was right with the figure of Celestia. The coat was darkened to a filthy grey, with specks of dirt and moss littered over her fur. Even worse were the eyes; as if they were surgically removed from an iguana and squeezed into its eye sockets, the boss' eyes bulged out of its head, and stared unblinkingly at the players around it. The cracked, bloodshot stare of the eyes erupted its gaze into the everyone's heart like a blistering molten volcano.

Before she could vomit, Sunset turned away abruptly, opening her menu screen to fiddle with its options. Rainbow Dash noticed as she drew her weapons to attack.

"Sunset, now would be a perfect time to use those scrolls," she said, glancing nervously as the monster carved chunks out of Applejack's stamina with each strike of its horn.

Sunset tossed them to Rainbow Dash. "I never expected to kill it, I just need a few minutes with it!"

There was no time to ask. Rainbow Dash opened the scrolls, activating their effects. They misted into sparkles, surrounding Rainbow Dash to apply their special effects. It was nothing she had ever felt before.

With her sword in wing, Rainbow surged forward at the boss, striking it at the base of the hoof. The shock wave cracked through the forest like a thunder clap, ringing in the everyone's ears. But despite the astounding effect, the blow did no visible damage. Despite the level boost, Rainbow Dash could not compare to what a raid could do.

"Rainbow," Applejack called out, "would be nice if you'd hit harder than a filly dozing off on a summer evening right about now."

"The weak spots are the eyes and the wing joints," Sunset advised. She didn't have to look away from her admin menu to tell how the fight was going. But if she wanted to help, she needed to finish her own task first.

Rainbow Dash nodded, aiming her strike at the join of the boss' wing. As enormous as it was, Rainbow's heightened power rocketed her into the air with a single leap. In that moment, it didn't matter that her wings were occupied with a weapon. She flew through the air with more than enough power to land a crippling blow.

On the ground, Sunset worked away at her admin screen. Still broken since the day PAO became a prison, nearly all the commands were interfered with, save for one crucial ability. Like an access port for technology, Sunset could access the streams of magic with her admin commands, provided there was enough magic in the stream. The Dream Realm was the perfect place to start, but only the boss could trigger a massive fluctuation of magic that Sunset could work with.

Behind her, the fight raged on. Still on ninety-five percent health, it was clear that not even Rainbow Dash could sway the fight in their favor. Even with such high speed and evasion, she knew she was lucky to have had only glancing blows from the boss.

Applejack was less fortunate, her health nearly at zero. The others had to safely steer the boss away, which meant Rainbow Dash was the one to do it.

But like everything else in The Dream Realm, the boss knew Rainbow like nothing else could. The gem in her Digisphere read her mind like a map, following her imagination strait to her nightmares. Before she could react, the boss vomited an avalanche of roses and daisies onto Rainbow. The flowers were a simple distraction at first, but the real shock set in as each flower popped open one eye, then another, and stared longingly at RD.

Startled, Rainbow broke her focus on the boss. She regained it in a split second, but she was too slow to avoid the crushing hoof as it dragged across the forest floor, cleaving through the virtual dirt. In that single strike her health dropped to sixty percent. Without the scrolls' buffs, it was painfully obvious how badly the fight would play out.

Fluttershy sent her pet to heal Rainbow Dash instinctively. The bear, enchanted with magic from floor twenty-eight, unleashed a barrage of healing auras that could pull a player to full health in seconds. But with her scrolls active, the difference in power was staggering. Rainbow Dash barely recovered to sixty-five percent health before the monster hurled a blast of magic from its horn.

Sunset didn't like it, but she needed the fight to go on. "I'm almost done getting the data, just keep it fighting a little longer!"

There wasn't much choice. Rainbow Dash leaped up onto a tree branch, bouncing off of it and striking the wing of the boss, interrupting its attack. Applejack followed up, stunning it with a heavy shield bash. It didn't make sense, but PAO was still a game like any other, and Applejack stun still incapacitated the boss for several seconds, despite its overwhelming mass.

Everyone took the opportunity to attack, slashing up at the legs of the wings of the boss. But a combined attack did little more than buy them time. At ninety percent health, the boss looked more enraged than weakened.

"Back off!" Applejack shouted as she taunted the boss. She knew her shield would hold for a few blows, and could only hope to buy enough time for Rainbow Dash to regain enough stamina. Metal ringed as her shield deflected hit after hit, flashing as magic sizzled off its edge. Quickly, however, she had to retreat into the cover of the trees.

Applejack shouted to Sunset. "Reckon I don't have much left Sunset, you gotta do what you gotta do right now or we'll never make it."

Sunset worked as fast as she could, reading the data on her menu screen, analyzing the pattern of magic that fed data to the boss. It wasn't ideal to rush, but there was enough data to hijack the link of magic. Sunset turned to the boss, taking a good, horrified look at it, and uploaded her personal access code to the Digisphere's magic link.

Rainbow Dash raised her sword, prepared to defend against the next attack. But the boss only spasmed. It lost its connection to the system, becoming linked directly to the magic of Sunset's Digisphere.

"What'd you do to it?" Pinkie Pie asked, staring curiously at the mindless construct. It didn't seem at all like the reckless beast is was mere moments ago.

"I used the remaining admin controls I had to gain direct access to the magic the boss used to read and interpret player's minds," she answered. "The boss was designed to be difficult, with the power read thoughts and memories, and use them to customize its way of fighting. The flowers must have been a distorted memory or something."

Rainbow laughed nervously, looking at the staring flowers. "Yeah, probably just something weird." She quickly brushed aside a few flowers at her hooves. "So you're going to destroy it, right?"

Sunset thought for a moment and looked at her menu screen. She shook her head. "Not until I get more out of it."

Applejack raised her brow. "More? You just froze an overpowered boss with a touch of a button, what more can you do?"

Sunset pointed to a point in the data on her menu, an almost incomprehensible point if Sunset hadn't talked about magic to her friends before. "That's a repeating fluctuation of magic, like a line of code for computers, that we use as the base for most of the magical functions in the game. It wasn't designed for resets, but if I tinkered with it I could potentially force every player out of the game by resetting the link between the Digispheres."

Pinkie tilted her head and furrowed her brows. "So... this is literally just turning it on and off again, but safely?"

"Pretty much," Sunset replied, shrugging.

"I don't believe it," Applejack chuckled. "Sounds so easy, but that was one hell of a fight. How long will it take to gain control of the reset?"

Sunset stared at her menu. "I can't really tell. It wasn't designed to do the job of the computer half of the game, so I'll have to fiddle around with it. On top of that," she pointed to the disfigured Celestia, "I can only access the Digisphere's magic through that boss right now, so it has to be alive until I sort it out."

"That'll be a problem," Rainbow Dash said. "I suppose we could just guard it so it doesn't get killed or despawn."

Sunset pondered the thought, sitting around the boss endlessly while she tried to figure out a completely different way to leave the game. Her eyes beamed as she found a different answer.

"I have a better idea Rainbow," She said as she selected sections of magic data and shuffled it around. The others couldn't make any sense of what the data meant. It looked like a pool of neon lights on Sunset's screen, but she used it like a puzzle that a child had completed a thousand times over.

Without warning, the boss began to glow. There was an initial panic, but Sunset's confidence calmed her friends down. They looked at the creature as it glowed, quickly recognizing a difference between the despawning effect and this one. Along the surface there were specks like static on a television, swimming around like fish looking for a new home.

"It actually looks kind of nice," Fluttershy said, admiring the pattern. And she was right; the boss was a beast of staggering horrors, but it was still a masterpiece of PAO that they couldn't help but respect.

As the glow grew more intense, the boss shrank to a normal size for a pony. It bent and twisted, some parts of it melting into a formless mass of light. The process was slow, but Applejack saw Sunset's intentions as it took a new, definitive form.

"You're making that monster into a sword? Is that possible?" Applejack rushed over to Sunset's side, looking at what she was doing in closer detail, but she still couldn't figure anything out.

Sunset simply nodded. "The magic's easier than computer coding most of the times, and it has a lot more different capabilities. The boss was supposed to drop a special weapon when it died, so I'm just using that weapon data as a kind of 'flashdrive' to store the rest of its magic. As long as that weapon is in an inventory, it'll be possible to use it to interface with the Digisphere's magic at any time."

"This is going to turn into that time you asked me to take a computer science course with you, isn't it," Rainbow Dash asked. She rubbed her forehead to clear her thoughts. "For the record, I passed that class without knowing a single thing at the end of it."

Sunset laughed. "I'll try to keep the 'egghead' to a minimum RD."

The boss, subdued into a form of a sword, hummed on the ground in the center of the clearing. Already, the battle scarred terrain had regenerated into its pristine, stoic state. The sword's blade, a meter in length, glistened with its silver hue. The hilt, designed in the likeness of Celestia's wings, hummed softly, as if the boss inside was eager to escape.

"That's so awesome," Rainbow said, reaching out with her wing to pull it out. It vibrated strongly in her wing, but she managed to pull it from the dirt and to inspect it.

"It's heavy for a broadsword. Really heavy," she said, clutching the one-handed weapon with both wings. "Wow, the magic in it is vibrating a lot, like it's gone's insane on the inside."

"It suits you," Pinkie Pie commented, taking a screenshot of Rainbow holding up the weapon with her menu's camera. "It's fierce, threatening, announcing to everyone 'Come and fight, I dare you!'"

"Let's not go too far Pinkie," Rainbow replied, "Sunset needs it, she should have the sword." Rainbow handed the weapon to Sunset, but she shook her head and pushed it back.

"It's better if it stays with you for now. I need time to analyze what I got from it, and I want a good fighter to keep it safe." Sunset opened her menu and clicked open her friends list. It was empty. She entered her friends' name and they all had request messages materialize before them. Phoenix wants to be your friend!

"I guess it'll be best if we stay in touch," she said, "though you might want to keep it a secret. A lot of players out there still hate my guts."

They stared at their screens. Applejack was the first to ask. "How, in the blue hell, did you change your player name?" Everyone turned to Sunset with the same curious look. It had barely crossed their mind when they saw Sunset, but now it seemed to be the greatest mystery in the game.

Sunset blushed a little. She had hoped the name change would throw them off, but it seems her fascination with phoenixes had to be revealed. "There's an NPC on the first floor named Zecora, with a hut in the middle of the Everfree forest. You can buy a potion from her that lets you reset certain player skills and characteristics, including name. It was the first thing I did to hide away from everyone."

"And we thought Fluttershy was reclusive," Applejack snorted, patting Sunset on the back. "You're always one step ahead, which is exactly why we need you."

"Thanks," Sunset answered back, hugging Applejack, "but I should start looking into these weird magic frequencies, and if we're lucky, I might be able to extrapolate a source of the interference of the frequency of Digisphere's magic, starting with the reduction in the sine graph's-"

"Or," Rainbow interjected, "we could celebrate Hearth Warming Day! It's Christmas in real life after all, and I heard the taverns have a special seasonal cider!"

As if by instinct, Sunset slinked back. "I don't know, I haven't done well with crowds of players."

"Don't worry Sunset," Fluttershy reassured. "I know it might feel daunting, maybe a little scary, but most of the players couldn't possibly spot you out in a crowd."

Sunset sighed. If anyone understood a desire to hide from people, it was Fluttershy, and her reassurance was even more impactful than she knew. "Alright, I suppose I can't go sneaking around forever." The rest cheered, taking her by the hoof and nearly dragging Sunset back to the central city. Along the way, Sunset felt something she didn't know she missed. Her anxiousness washed away when she was with her friends, an she was relieved.

===================================================

"We've been searching this forest for hours," Sweetie Belle complained. "I'm almost starting to feel the massage wear off."

Applebloom grunted as she hacked through the thick bushes of the forest. "Our info brokers all confirmed something happened here when it became Hearth's Warming Day in the game. If we get there first we could kill the boss and get its unique item."

"At least wait for the others to catch up," Scootaloo added to Sweetie's whining. Applebloom stopped swiping her hoof to check her map. Behind the three of them there were fifteen dots scattered in the forest, slowly marching toward their location. Even with their selective recruitment, all the members of the CMC had trouble keeping up with their leaders.

"We can wait when we find the boss," Applebloom decided. "We can't give up now and lose our advantage."

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle sighed, trudging behind Applebloom. They wandered through the forest, following the light of moon until they neared the clearing.

"That's it!" Applebloom shouted, checking the map to confirm that they were in the right spot. The clear was a clear patch in the middle of the forest. She had no doubt that the boss awaited. Ahead, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked around the clearing.

Applebloom moved to their side. "Do you see it? Where is it?"

The clearing was empty, devoid of all movement.

"I think we're late," Sweetie muttered.

Applebloom said nothing, but simply slumped onto the ground, leaning against a tree stump. Organizing their guild members to join them took hours. Marching through the forest with no clear direction took even longer. She was exhausted.

She let out one solitary, sustained groan that echoed through the silent forest. "Fuck me...."

Bounty

Phoenix checked her menu. Pinkie Pie had just emailed her a detailed essay on the success of the raid on thirty-five. She smiled.

Ever since Rainbow Dash got the Celestial Blade, the weapon they took from the Hearth's Warming Day boss, the Clearing Group had no problem slaying a floor boss every two weeks or so. She felt relieved Rainbow made excellent use of that sword while she searched for what interfered with PAO's logout function so many months ago.

Still, she wished they could work faster. The holidays were over and it was a new year in the real world. It was almost a year since everyone online became locked within PAO. There was no way they could clear it by March. I thought angered Phoenix, and gave her the determination to track the source even quicker.

She closed her menu. She could read the mail later, right now she had to track down a potential source of information. Floor eighteen was designed after a complex network of ice caves north of the Crystal Empire, if she wasn't careful even she could get lost.

"No hoof prints," she muttered to herself, "but whoever came by recently gathered the osmium ore nodes." She made a mental note of their mining level. Clearly a high level blacksmith if he/she could find and mine osmium ore on a floor as low as eighteen.

As Phoenix delved deeper into the caves she found it harder and harder too see. Already straining her perception skill, the darkness was made to be impenetrable by sight alone. However, if she was going in blind, so was her target.

With one hoof on the left wall of the cave, she followed it, turning when it turned. Eventually, she greeted an icy wall with her face. The cold ice stung as much as bumping into it. She recovered quickly, ignoring the dull pain the Digisphere generated, and reached out for the wall. She lost the wall.

"Dammit," Phoenix swore under her breath. She wondered if the other player was having trouble, or if they had that many more points in perception than her. She swiped her hoof and pulled up her menu, going to her inventory for a torch or a scroll of light. But she needed neither in the end. From down the tunnel she heard an echoing shriek, drowning in other roars and growls of aggressive NPC's.

===================================================

Roseluck's breath was shaky as she ran. Her level was too low to be traversing floor eighteen the way she was, but there was no where else to get the ingredients she needed. All she had to do was hide out in the dark, collect some Crystal Berries from the inner caves, and use a teleport scroll to go back to the safety of town.

Her thoughts turned back to her party, still shocked by what happened. "Half the time, publics have more ego than skill" her gamer friend told her when she went out looking for a group. She should have listened.

Hot on her hooves were the beasts that killed them: massive, white saber tooth tigers chanced her with a voracious appetite programmed into them. Her coat was an ivory shade, her mane was a lively red, and they both reflected more than enough light for the tigers to follow her, even if she was practically blind. If only she could have one moment to grab her teleport scroll.

The dark of the inner caves was itself a wall, about as solid as the caves themselves. Roseluck could barely make out anything in front of her, though it didn't really matter. She didn't care what could be in front of her when she knew exactly what was behind her. So in her panic, it was too late to react to the stalagmite that tripped her over.

In a flash, everything was clear to her. She flinched, holding up her mace in a weak attempt to ward off the beasts after her. Her eyes saw only red, hungry dots, but her mind filled in the rest. The saber tooth tigers would rip her apart and leave her to bleed out the last remaining drops of her health. Then death would free her from her virtual prison.

She forced her eyes shut and screamed, awaiting death to sweep her away. She waited a little longer, her voice tiring from her shrieks of fear. Her throat quickly grew parched long before her life ended.

"You can stop screaming now," a female voice told her. Roseluck gingerly opened her eyes, barely seeing enough to tell that there was a player in front of her.

"Um, thanks, I guess," she said nervously. This player was strong if she could kill a small pack of beasts so easily. She tightened her grip around her mace, the game holding it close to her hoof. The ice caves was an open PVP area.

"I can see you shaking," the voice continued. "But if you think-" she paused. Roseluck looked around, searching for the player's voice.

"I-If I think what?" she stammered.

The voice went silent for a while. Roseluck squinted to catch a glimpse of the other player's menu screen. There was a strange effect on her display, but she assumed her eyes were playing another trick in the darkness.

"You're not it," the voice finally said. The menu closed, and Roseluck suddenly lost her savoir to the shadows once again.

"No, please don't leave me!" she shouted. She felt an abrupt tug on her foreleg as the other player yanked her, dragging her along toward the exit of the ice caves.

She could still barely make out the player's character, but the annoyance was crisp and clear in her voice. "If your perception's so low that you can't see a thing when you're this close to the exit, you don't belong on this level. Go back to floor ten and level up."

Roseluck's eyes widened. She glanced at her level next to her health bar. I'm really in over my head, aren't I? she thought to herself. Roseluck cleared the awe from her throat. "I'm sorry I caused trouble, I just needed Crystal Berries for an alchemy recipe, and I heard they first appeared on this level."

The player stopped her pace. "You're alchemy level's that high?" She sounded incredulous. It was, after all, at least twice as high as it should be for a level twenty player.

Roseluck nodded. "My friend's at a higher level than me, so he did some collecting and buying, but now even he can't get what I need."

The other player thought for a moment, grunting at a tough decision. "What's your name?"

"Roseluck," she supplied.

"Come with me Roseluck," her voice said. As if Roseluck had any other choice. She held onto the other player's tail and followed her. It was hard to keep up pace, but when the light began to return sight to her eyes, she grew increasingly excited to leave the dark caves behind.

Below the cave exit, in the frozen valley under the mountains, lay a small town players used for provisions and trading, before and after exploring the caves. Yet, even with so many players willing to search for new treasures in the caves, the tunnel system took up nearly all of floor eighteen, and there were a lot of unexplored areas.

Roseluck took in the scenery for the first time. She didn't appreciate the climb up to the tunnels, and was too eager to rush in and find her ingredients. But now she had time to savor the sight. She turned next to her and took a good at her savior. She was a strong player, her weapon and armor far superior to anything Roseluck had ever seen before.

Even the character details told a little more about her. Each muscle of her body, though lean, was a well defined bundle of strength and agility. Even the way she moved somehow seemed more natural than others. Roseluck was in awe of it all.

"Take this teleport scroll," she said to Roseluck. "I don't want to have to make the climb down, so we'll head strait to the town with our scrolls."

Roseluck nodded and took the scroll. To Frostshire it read as she opened it. Immediately the scroll glowed, wrapping around Roseluck, showering her pixels and shards of light. It was so bright she had to close her eyes, but when she could open them again the caves were gone and the mountains loomed in the distance.

"Come on," her savior said, yanking her by the tail this time, "we should have chat." They headed to the one place any player would frequent after a trip in the caves: the pub.

===================================================

"Did you see anyone else in those caves?" Phoenix asked. She doubted that Roseluck could've seen anything, but Phoenix had hope that she could help.

Roseluck shook her head. "No one but you," she answered. Phoenix hung her head down. She suspected as much.

"Well, I'm headed back in there as soon as I can, so if you'd like me to get those ingredients for you, I could keep an eye out," Phoenix said, finishing her cider. "Wouldn't want you diving in again like that."

Roseluck looked shamefully into her glass. "I know it's stupid, but I needed that ingredient. I can't ask you to do that for me."

She looked at Phoenix, hoping she'd understand, but Phoenix was stern and resolute. "Then do yourself a favor, and get stronger. That ingredient won't help you if you're dead."

Roseluck opened her mouth to speak, a defense dancing on her tongue's tip, but she silenced herself. Phoenix was right.

Phoenix paid for another drink and pushed it over to Roseluck. "For the road. It'll buff your stamina long enough to get you to the central city in under an hour." She took the drink, tapping open its item description.

Iceblood Runner: +40% stamina for 20 minutes.

"Thanks." Roseluck lifted the heavy mug and drank meekly. She wasn't much for alcohol in real life, and that still held true in a world where she couldn't get drunk. Yet the strong flavor still made her cough.

Phoenix grinned. "Yeah, first time's like that. Digisphere's might not convey much pain, but that harsh burn in your throat's an entirely different beast. Flavor's a huge part of the Digisphere's magic, so everything pretty much tastes as real as it gets, even compared to the real world."

Roseluck raised a brow to her statement. The real world, it felt so far away to her, as if that world was the dream, and she woke up in PAO. "You still think about it. Real life, I mean."

Phoenix paused. She expected her to. Most players didn't even like to mention it, let alone talk about it, and it was just common manner not to pry into real world topics. Many players were traumatized after separating from their lives, their friends, and worst of all, their family. Some even went mad, committing suicide, or just disappearing entirely.

But Phoenix didn't seem upset to Roseluck, she seemed thoughtful, as if the idea intrigued her. "I always wondered what I'd be doing now if all this hadn't happened. Maybe visit my hometown, spend more time away from work."

Roseluck stared at her, astounded. It made her think about her own life, and her own "what-ifs?"

"I would've gotten my English major by now," she said, telling herself as much as she was telling Phoenix. "I always wanted to make a difference, but I wasn't the most focused in high school or college. So I settled on becoming an English teacher."

"Be one hell of a story to tell your students one day," Phoenix replied.

"You really think we'll get out?" She didn't mean to sound so doubtful, but the 100th floor seemed so far away.

Phoenix shot back a look of surprise. "Of course we are! The Clearing Group's the best players in PAO, and they're always working to clear the next floor."

Roseluck blinked. The Clearing Group was the official team of the highest level players. Low levels like Roseluck merely looked to them as celebrities, using their victories as an excuse to get drunk. In truth, you were either a Clearing Group member, or you were part of everyone else.

Then it dawned on her. "You're one of them, aren't you?" she asked Phoenix meekly. Though she was thankful for Phoenix before, she was only that, and saw her as a peer. Now, that thankfulness became admiration in an instant, and explained how easily Phoenix had saved her.

But Phoenix just scowled. "Haven't been up there in a while. Can't return until I'm done down here."

"Why the hell not?" Roseluck replied. "There's nothing down here. You gotta hurry back and fight the good fight, for all of us."

"Not yet," she answered as she rose from her seat, "but I suppose you're right. I need to finish up quickly. I need to go back to the caves." Phoenix headed out the door swiftly, not noticing Roseluck as she trailed behind. Having a chat with a new face was refreshing for Phoenix, but she was close to cornering a key piece in fixing the game, and freeing everyone before more had to die.

"Wait!" Roseluck shouted, yanking back Phoenix for a moment. "It's not safe to go right now, they're probably lurking around the caves."

"Monsters down on this floor don't both me," Phoenix said, tugging free her hoof from Roseluck's grip.

"Not the monsters, but the raiders!" she called out to Phoenix as she picked up her pace. "They're players who'll kill for even a single piece of your gear!"

Phoenix froze. Players. Who else would be up in the caves at the exact same time? She stood in the middle of the street, running through what she knew about her target. Roseluck caught up behind her, waiting for some kind of response.

"A pegasus. Golden coat, amber eyes, grey-white mane color, dressed in light armor dyed maroon, wears a blue bow on her tail. Does that ring a bell?"

Roseluck stepped back. The description was spot on, but how could she walk so confidently if she knew who it was? She stared at Phoenix's gear. Medium armor and a long, heavy sword. A Landsknecht Zweihander, one hundred and eighty centimeters long, player made, by a master blacksmith no less. Maybe she had a reason to be overconfident after all.

If Phoenix noticed Roseluck's stares, she didn't show it. "How'd you come by them?" she asked.

Distracted by her sword, Roseluck answered instinctively. "I partied with a group of four mercenaries for protection in the caves, but they were killed as we entered the caves by an ambush. I knew from their uniforms that they were Coruby's raiders, so I ran when there was no on left to hide behind."

Phoenix took a deep breath to calm herself, but her muscles tightened up as she heard the fates of four innocent people. They did their job and died for it. If Coruby was her target, was the link to the game's malfunction, she wasn't surprised by her depravity. She was just mad.

"That won't stop me," Phoenix said, hurriedly galloping toward the cave entrances. Roseluck stood in a daze, unable to understand how anyone could walk into the caves knowing murderers lurked in its shadows.

But, despite her fear and low level, she couldn't leave Phoenix to face them alone.

===================================================

Roseluck kept her distance, not wanting to draw any attention if Phoenix encountered any trouble. She was also sure Phoenix would just tell her to run back to where it was safe. So she kept to the shadows the mountain rocks cast as the sun dipped below the horizon. With darkness there would be more threats, but Roseluck felt relieved she was well hidden.

Phoenix knew exactly where Roseluck was. Even as she trotted deeper into the caves, she could detect the earth pony skittering around behind her, trying not to be seen. She shook her head, almost embarrassed for Roseluck; the newbies never knew just how low their skills really were.

She wanted to tell her to go back, but as long as she stayed away from the fighting, Phoenix let her follow. She didn't have the time to babysit, Coruby and her raiders could be on the move, headed for another location, or even another floor. Phoenix picked up her pace.

The caves began to get dark, but if she was tracking a group of player killers, they'd stick to the outskirts of the tunnels, near to the entrances. Easier to see, easier to attack. Aside from that, the entrances were the only place raiders could be certain there were players. So Phoenix circled around the edges of the inner tunnel system, sticking to where she expect to be ambushed.

It didn't take long for the first signs to show. Footsteps and soft breaths were the first to come, followed by heartbeats as more and more raiders began to stalk her. Phoenix kept her pace, hiding the fact that her perception skill was far beyond their sneaking. Roseluck was still hanging far behind her, so she didn't need to be worried about.

After a few more turns, Phoenix led herself to a dead end. By that point, the muscle of the murderers approached, barely even trying to mask their clunky armor with sneaking.

"Well, well, another lost adventurer," a stallion walked up behind Phoenix, turning her around to take a good look. "And a damn pretty one too." The other raiders laughed, but Phoenix quickly stepped back. How could he have said that? He was just a player like any other, a human walking in a pony's body.

"Don't worry lady," a lackey spoke behind the stallion. "We'll only have our way after the boss sees ya."

Phoenix swallowed her disgust. "And who would your boss be?"

The stallion sneered and grabbed her roughly by the mane. "Easier to show ya," he whispered in her ear before shoving her into the group of raiders.

Phoenix pushed herself off the floor, turning to face the bastard. "Don't touch me again," she growled.

The stallion barked a harsh laugh. "Oh ho, we've got a feisty catch today lads," he announced, presenting her before the crowd. The players all cheered and laughed, some even whistling their approval. Phoenix noticed the rude stallion enjoyed the attention, coveting the moment as if he had very few.

"Bet she's easier than our bitch Coruby too!" he shouted, raising a hoof as his followers cheered on his audacity. He stepped forward, eyeing Phoenix's gear hungrily, especially her amour. But before he could place his next step down, the crowd died down. The stallion's legs buckled, and he looked down to find a katana pierced through his chest.

"You just couldn't keep your gob shut, could you Daniel?" Coruby muttered into his ear as he collapsed onto the ground.

Phoenix squinted at his flashing health bar. The blade landed a critical blow, especially deadly coming from behind, but Daniel clearly still had a high enough armor rating to keep his health in the green zone. Beside his health bar, an icon appeared, resembling a cartoon lighting bolt.

"Impressive paralysis poison," Phoenix mused, approaching the mare until they could strike each other without taking a step. She fit the description perfectly, down to the blue bow on the tail.

Coruby nodded. "Aye, keeps me a thief, not a killer. Can't say the same for these other sods though." She pointed her katana at her raiders. "But they do get the job done very well."

Phoenix looked around, expecting nothing less from a guild of criminals. They were all marked with a red border around their health bar, signalling that they had killed, or assisted in a kill.

"But you seem like the sensible sort, so I'll offer you a fair deal, mare to mare." She traced the tip of her katana along leather straps of Phoenix's armor. "All your gold and items. You can keep your weapon and armor."

All the other stallions raised their voice in protest, but a single glare and flick of her katana was all Coruby needed to silence them. "You idiots, none of us even use medium armor."

Phoenix noted that. They were a good mix of lightly and heavily armored players, but none of them took the middle path. Coruby herself was a light player, but Phoenix quickly saw that her black and red combat dress was of a far higher grade than what here thugs were wearing.

"Where'd you come by that piece of armor?" she asked, pointing at her dress. "Doesn't seem like a band of criminals could afford that. It has to be legendary at least, if not a mastercrafted or a relic item."

Coruby just shrugged. "Paid with a donation from an anonymous friend. But that's my concern, innit? You've got your own problems. So I'll say it again, hand over everything." She pointed her katana at Phoenix's throat. There was little pain, but she could feel the sharp point nonetheless. It was a good blade.

Phoenix looked at it, and let out a confident smirk. "How about this: you tell me everything about your gear, and I'll pay for your cooperation."

Coruby raised her eyebrows. No one in the lower floors had ever put up resistance before. "Ha! Why would I, when my boys can just take it all." A glance was all that was needed to signal the raiders to draw their weapons.

Phoenix assessed them all in her head. Four earth ponies, two with greatswords and two with warhammers. Another six pegasi and three unicorns drew their swords as well, stepping in, closing the circle around her. All of the sword users, save one of the pegasi, wore light armor. Phoenix guessed that they were probably the stalkers of the group, responsible for tracking players rather than fighting.

Despite their numbers, Phoenix was unconcerned. Coruby smiled at her overconfidence and retracted her katana, leaving her raiders to surround Phoenix. She felt it was a shame to kill off such a bold player, but her stuff was just too good to pass up.

Coruby watched as three pegasi rushed in for the first strike, expecting to hear her shout for mercy when they connected their strikes. But their swords never hit. Phoenix swiftly sidestepped, sending the three pegasi tripping into the walls of the caves. The same when for the next two who attacked, and the ones after.

The sight was unbelievable. She moved like a whirlwind, weaving through the blades like they were in slow motion, never drawing her sword once to defend. One after another, the raiders fell to their knees, exhausted. Idiots, the lot of them. They didn't even save enough stamina to stand up.

"Fuckin'ell, can't believe I've got to do this myself too," Coruby muttered.

Her attack was swift, but it met only air. She had no idea where Phoenix went, she didn't even see her move, but her body reacted instinctively out of fear. She spun around and raised her blade to fight. Some of her stallions rose to attack Phoenix, but they were knocked back down by a single kick.

Coruby glared at Phoenix, as if her eyes could tell a thing about the mare. "What the hell are you?" she asked, preparing herself to defend.

"I would like to ask you the same." Phoenix responded, casually opening her menu screen. "I've been tracking you, picking up every lead I could find. Surprised me with your numbers, but that hardly mattered in the end."

Slowly, Coruby circled Phoenix, trying to get a better angle to attack, but Phoenix didn't seem to care.

Phoenix continued, her menu screen turning to a dark red. "This is what I want from you, the source of your interference with the game." She expanded her menu and pointed to a point on the screen. "Your items are messing with the magic, keeping us from logging out of PAO."

Coruby's wings tightened around her sword. "You're taking a piss! I've got nought to do with that shit, you crazy wench," she spat, pointing her katana at Phoenix.

Nodding, Phoenix closed her menu and faced Coruby strait on. "I suspected as much, but you yourself said that gear was a gift, from an anonymous friend. I aim to find out who." Phoenix drew her sword, holding it in one hoof.

In that instant Coruby froze. Phoenix was a unicorn, and all unicorns had their hand commands translated into telekinesis by the Digisphere. It was unlikely, no, impossible, for the game to register a unicorn as "in combat" if she used her hooves. Moreover, it was nearly impossible for anyone not an earth pony to even figure out how to hold a weapon without fingers.

"That's... not possible. Unicorns have to fight with telekinesis!" Coruby said, her voice shaking.

Phoenix looked at her sword, acknowledging the anomaly. "I see, you're scared. It's how the game's combat stays balanced after all. Pegasi like you can't fly while you hold weapons with your wings, and as a unicorn I wouldn't be able to cast other spells if I was using telekinesis." She flicked her eyes to Coruby and grinned.

The first hit was barely reflected by Coruby's katana. But she didn't have a moment to react to the second attack, and she screamed as Phoenix cleaved through Coruby's armor. However strong it was for light armor, it was still weak when tested against her Landsknecht Zweihander.

Coruby went limp. Already her health was in the red zone, bordering on twenty percent, and to make matters worse, Phoenix had crippled her. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't overcome it. Her legs felt like they weren't part of her body anymore, like she had no control over them.

"Tell me. Who gave you your gear?" Phoenix bluntly asked. She was done messing with her.

"I-I-I don't know, they never showed their face!" Coruby stammered, struggling to distance herself from Phoenix. It wasn't working. "One morning a player was left paralyzed outside the caves, with a note stuck to his back by a dagger. It said if we kept the items he had on him safe, we'd keep getting paid with more loot bodies."

"That's not enough." Phoenix raised a hoof and slammed it down on Coruby's head. "What were you supposed to protect?"

Coruby grunted. The pain was beginning to build up, turning the mild illusions of the game into senses that bordered on reality. But the disorienting effects were frighting enough on their own.

Not wanting to suffer any longer, Coruby gave her information away liberally. "I'm not sure what to call them. Some were trinkets, other were strange ingredients. We though it was just a game some sick fuck made out of us being criminals. We didn't care, a lot of gold came with those paralyzed bodies, even bought this pretty little dress with some of it. But one day, a body arrived only with instructions to use the materials to craft a set of armor and a weapon." Her eyes darted over to her sword.

Phoenix reached down and picked up the katana lying on the ground. "This the weapon you made?"

Coruby nodded nervously. "Armor's not here though, I sent that to my brother weeks ago."

Phoenix opened her menu to view the magic again, and tested out the katana. She swung it around, striking the walls and the ground, and watching its effects on the magic and data. Not to her surprise, the effects showed clearly on the screen. The katana was another set of data stored as an item.

Like Rainbow Dash's sword. Phoenix thought to herself.

"I need the other piece," she growled at Coruby. "Where's your brother?"

The glare she got back was fierce, and Phoenix immediately regretted her direct approach. Of course she wouldn't give away that kind of information. Killer or no, family was still family.

"I won't send you on my brother," she said grimly, "even if I have to die before those words leave my mouth."

Phoenix closed her eyes and let out a sigh. She was so close, she had thought it would be over so quickly, Of course not, she should have known it wouldn't work out that way. Nothing seemed to anymore.

"Fine. I got what I came here for. Or at least part of it." Phoenix whirled her sword around and sheathed it on her back. Forcefully, she grabbed Coruby's hoof and forced open her trade menu.

"What are you doing?" Coruby struggled as she attempted to break free from Phoenix's invisible hoof-grip. Though it was a grip entirely fabricated by the game, it was still as tight a vice, and she might as well had tried to open a boulder with her bare hooves.

Phoenix looked at Coruby with a sly smile. "A trick you won't ever get to use. If you paralyze or stun a player, you can force them to trade, so you won't be flagged for robbery. I would be worried about being flagged as an orange player for assault, but I do believe you and your boy toys over there gave the first strike. So I'm good. Self defense and all that."

Coruby watched as Phoenix grabbed her hoof and dragged it across the trade menu screen, trading the katana for nothing in return. Her gaze shifted to Phoenix's health bar. Sure enough, it stayed completely green, with no criminal or murderer border around it. She wanted to ask more, find out what other exploits she could use, but before her sentence even came out, specks of light began to form around her.

She looked at the scroll Phoenix unrolled on her body. Teleport: Floor 18, Central. The NPC guards in the floor's central city would haul her off to a prison cell for sure, confiscating everything else she had as well. She looked up to Phoenix, begging her not to do it.

"The prisons are so cold-" her voice cut off once she dematerialized. She was in the hooves of the guards now.

With their leader off to face justice, Phoenix turned back to the other raiders in the tunnel. Rather, she turned back to their hoof prints. She scoffed. They were smart to run away. She could have given chase, but after what she did to them, she doubted they'd try to start something anytime soon.

Then came the marching. "I heard the fighting from here!" Roseluck's voice called out. She must have gone for help when the fighting broke out, maybe a little earlier. Phoenix chuckled at the mare's determination, glad she didn't plan to step in alone, even if the help wasn't needed. Though she really wish she didn't have to explain everything to a crowd.

===================================================

"Sunset, what the heck are you doing down here?" Of all the ponies it could have been, it was her. Small world.

"Hey, Sweetie Belle, how's it going?" Sunset moved to embrace Sweetie Belle, but the young mare kept her back with a hoof.

"They said you were hunting for more fragments of PAO's magic, not hunting player killers," Sweetie Belle said. There was no need to clarify who they were, they both knew it was Sunset's friends.

Sunset shrugged. "One and the same, this time. Glad you're here now though, I didn't have time to track down the others."

"Who'd you get?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Coruby, their leader," Sunset answered. "I teleported her over to the central city on this level."

"Good," Sweetie Belle said, looking around the caves. "What about the others? Who are we looking for?"

"Four heavy earth ponies, all two handed burst Damage players, along with six light Damage pegasi and three light Damage unicorns," Sunset answered.

Sweetie Belle noted their numbers and whispered something to one of her lieutenants. He saluted and marched off to another group of Crusaders. Sunset looked around, but Roseluck wasn't among them.

Sweetie Belle didn't need to ask, she knew her friend well enough to read her thoughts. "Roseluck was ordered back to floor sixteen after she led us to you. She might be a Crusader, but it's still not safe up here for her."

She was right to do so. Sunset tried to send her off too, but she had hoped to at least thank Roseluck before they parted. It was nice to get to know someone new, especially after week of endlessly tracking a magical anomaly. That reminded her.

Sunset opened her inventory. "Sweetie Belle, what's your sword skill right now?" she asked.

Sweetie raised a brow, answering curiously. "A little higher than Pinkie Pie's, but I'm still fifty points or so below Rainbow Dash." She looked at Sunset's screen, trying to read what she was doing.

"Perfect." Sunset opened a trade window with Sweetie Belle from her menu and placed the katana on the list. Soul Rend was its item name. "I'm not a fan of these kinds of swords, but I think it suits you better than that boss drop you're using."

Sweetie Belle accepted the trade without hesitation. "Am I right in guessing that this was the mystery interference?"

"One hundred percent," Sunset answered gravely. "Whatever, or whoever, is screwing with the game is crazy good with magic. Better than even Twilight."

Sweetie Belle worked out the next part. "Not a rouge admin, like we thought then. Another beast hell-bent on destruction from Equestria?" She paused. "No offense," she added.

Sunset ignored the last part, agreeing wholly with Sweetie Belle. "Wouldn't surprise me in the least. PAO doesn't exactly hide that it's Equestria in game form. Any one else exiled through the portal would definitely be drawn in. And if they were exiled.... I don't want to know their ultimatum."

Sweetie Belle shared Sunset's worries. Magic from Equestria had proven itself to be a force to be reckoned with, time and time again.

But so have the Crusaders. As Sunset looked around, dozens of players darted around the caves, setting up campfires and barricades, or clearing out the monsters that were spawning in the deeper areas. The little guild the CMC started had grown into the greatest entity in the game. They set the standard for law, they led every dungeon raid and killed almost every boss. Even without powers from Equestria, they've proven the worth of friendship. PAO's warden had better beware.

Sunset turned to Sweetie Belle, and the pride and admiration in her eyes were unmistakable. Not only did her friends pull through with her, but they spread their influence to anyone willing to fight.

"Looks like you don't need my help here," Sunset said, heading toward the cave's exit.

"Going back to the front lines?" Sweetie Belle asked, following her out. "The others miss you. They want you to be there the next time we clear a floor."

Sunset smiled. "Oh I'll be there alright, but not before I take a day or two off. The stress has gotten to me, I feel like my body aching even without debuffs."

Sweetie Belle opened her map of floor fourteen. "Place on this floor that you could check out. Really good masseuse who could fix your aches."

"Maybe I'll swing by, along with a few sights I never got to appreciate in the lower floors." Sunset unrolled a teleport scroll from her inventory. "See you soon Sweetie."

Sweetie Belle looked at her pointedly. "Don't lie, you hardly show your face in the Clearing Group."

Sunset shrugged and put up a hoof in defense before the scroll turned her to light, whisking her away.

Sweetie smiled to herself as she walked back to the caves. At least she got the last word before Sunset rocketed to another adventure. She always seemed to get the fun. Sweetie Belle swiped open her menu and checked her mailbox. Reports from officers, as always. She always seemed to get all the paperwork.

Return

Floor thirty-five was not another glorious grassland dimension like the floor before it. The towns and cities, even the central one, were vast settlements in the trees that stretched out like a spider's web to the edges of the floor's map. As a detailed and expanded version of the Everfree Forest, nearly every part of the floor was shrouded in shadows, save the building built into the canopy itself.

Down below, the beasts became even deadlier. While players still struggled with the sloshing mud and soggy undergrowth, countless snakes, birds, and massive reptiles were programmed to run seamlessly through the environment.

Applejack held her breath. Basilisks were the deadliest creatures on floor thirty-five. Their senses were unusually high for their level, and their poison and paralysis attacks would pretty much spelled her death if they bit. They were hunting the creatures for a quest Scootaloo needed help with. Apparently, it rewarded a dragon-tier item that boosted the blacksmith and armorer skill by one hundred points. Needless to say, they were very eager to help Scootaloo make better weapons.

Rainbow Dash, if you take any longer I'll have to drag you to my grave. Applejack stared down the basilisk, raising her shield to deflect another two strikes from its claws. Her stamina dropped down to sixty percent. She bashed her shield on the basilisk's head, stunning it briefly. She rammed her spear through the monster's heart, yet another brief victory.

But the basilisk would not go down so easy. It returned its own flurry of attacks, further draining Applejack's stamina as she was driven back by the force.

She interrupted its next attack, penetrating its claw with a jab as fast as lighting. The basilisk was quick to recover, however, and delivered another blow to her side. Applejack's shield was too slow to deflect the hit.

She would have flown several meters, had the branches and vines not caught her mid air. But though they had saved her, Applejack was still very much stuck in the thick plants. She looked turned her head up to look down at the forest floor. At least the basilisk could not reach her, though she was sure Rainbow Dash would have a lot to say once she caught up.

===================================================

Back at the central city, everyone was celebrating Scootaloo's brand new anvil, the quest reward for turning in a hundred basilisk scales. Though the floor was still new to them, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had already established a guild hall in the center of the forest dimension.

The guild masters' room was small compared to the great stone fort they purchased on the last floor, but the tree fort, furnished with everything from a barkeep NPC to a sauna, was still the greatest accommodations available.

Applebloom was sat by her sister, still picking out pieces of vines from her mane. Rainbow Dash sat with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, sharing their experience with hunting basilisks.

"And by the time I got to Applejack, she was already stuck in the trees, upside down, hanging over a basilisk!" At Applejack's expense, the others laughed at Rainbow's stories.

"Still talking about that one RD?" Applejack goaded Rainbow Dash. "Gonna skip over the time you crawled into a basilisk nest and came screaming out with a family of five after your tail?"

Rainbow pointed her hoof at AJ accusingly, speaking in a sarcastically slurred voice. "That, right there, is nothing but lies and slander spread by my enemies! Do not believe a word of it! I was so, very, very awesome in killing that nest."

Applebloom looked at RD pointedly. "Don't act drunk Rainbow, the game won't let you get wasted."

Rainbow Dash nodded, swallowing another shot of alcohol. "Exactly why we need to get back to the real world ASAP."

"And you're doing such a fine job of it," Scootaloo said to Rainbow Dash. She raised her glass high for all to see. "To another victory for the Crusaders, and their invaluable friends."

"Yay," Fluttershy cheered, raising her cup tea.

Rainbow did the same, as did the others. "To friends! To victory! To the 100th Floor!" they cried out. Every little thing felt like a step in the right direction, like defiance against the system that trapped them. Every step was worth fighting for, and every fight was worth drinking to.

"Too bad Sunset couldn't be here," Rainbow Dash said, stretching out on one of the cushioned couches, "I bet she'd love a place like this after spending so much time out in the field."

"Yeah, Sweetie Belle messaged me this morning, said she ran into Sunset while a party was out looking for a PK guild." Applebloom opened her inbox in her menu and showed everyone the message. "Can't believe a PK guild got a hold of fragment's of the game's magic data. I'd hate to say it, but they've got a lot of influence over the vulnerable players."

"Not for long," Applejack smirked, testing the point of her spear. "They're killers, but they're not the Clearing Group. If we put our minds to it, every murderer, and every murderer guild, would be brought to justice."

Rainbow Dash grabbed her sword, the Celestial Blade, and flipped off the couch. "Well, we're not making any arrests sitting around here. Wanna upgrade my sword on your new anvil Scoots? We can get some good leveling afterwards."

Scootaloo beamed and hopped out of her seat. "You should have asked sooner RD, I've been dying to try it."

===================================================

Though some weapons found on floor thirty-five were of a higher level than the Celestial Blade, its attributes as a unique tier weapon, not to mention the fragment of magic it carried in its data, made it far superior to any weapon that could be found so far. Still, improvement was available, and the enhanced weapon wielded even greater power once it had left the heat of Scootaloo's forge.

Basilisks fell easily to Rainbow Dash with her sharpened blade. It ignored their resilient scales and cleaved through their health, creating enough damage per second to clear a path through the forest dimension, from the central city to boss dungeon. Most floors had its final dungeon close to the central city, if not below it.

But this floor's dungeon had its entrance at the far left edge of the map, surrounded by a thick, dangerous swamp. What was planned to be days of work and grinding became hours as the Clearing Group all had their weapons enhanced by Scootaloo. And, it didn't hurt that the charge for a weapon enhancement quickly filled the CMC guild bank.

They surrounded the dungeon entrance. Pinkie Pie spotted her friends in the crowd of players, moving over to them. "Hey girls, think it's time to head back to central?"

Fluttershy nodded, gasping as she caught her breath. "Rainbow's pretty hard to keep up with, but I think she's beat too."

"What're you talking about?" Rainbow asked Fluttershy, wiping the sweat from her brow. "I've got... plenty of steam left. Besides, there's nothing to do back at central."

"There's a bed," Pinkie Pie bluntly said, dropping down onto the warm, moist soil. "A nice warm bed, with fluffy pillows and comfy blankets."The other players didn't need to hear it twice. Anyone not sorting through their inventory had already used a scroll to return to an inn or their homes. Even the CMC said their farewells and retired to their guild hall.

"Fine," Rainbow submitted, opening her inventory to equip a teleportation scroll. But as she looked through her menu, she saw a missed message notification on the side of her screen. It was from Sunset.

"Hey check it out," Rainbow Dash said to her friends, "Sunset messaged me while we were fighting."

Applejack hefted her shield and spear onto her back before walking over to Rainbow. "What'd she say?" Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy trotted over to read it as well.

Everything's gone a bit FUBAR on 14, plz come. Don't worry about it, just come soon. Don't tell anyone, not emergency, just hurry. Do not freak out.

"Haven't seen her this worried since her computer science finals," Rainbow mused at her frantic message. "We should go." The rest gave a silent agreement, taking out their scrolls to teleport to the floor's central city, and then using the city's portal to send themselves down to floor fourteen.

===================================================

Floor fourteen, home to the most populated central city, the Grand Bazaar. Despite the desert conditions of dimension, not to mention the difficult terrain of its mesas, it was the preferred location for any player to buy materials, partly because of its massive selection of NPC merchants, and partly because everything was ten percent off.

Rainbow Dash opened her world map. Three blips appeared next to her on the Grand Bazaar's portal, signaling the location of the players on her friends list: Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy. Which left the blip to the Northwest, where Sunset had to be.

"That's where she is," Rainbow said, pointing to her map. "C'mon, let's go see what the deal is."

They all galloped for the western exit, taking multiple detours through the alleyways to avoid the heavy traffic of the marketplace. They left the city quickly, but there was still about twenty kilometers of rough, uneven desert and mesas to traverse. But they didn't stop. Their high stamina let them gallop through the map at a breakneck pace. Dust swept behind them, and any monsters that caught wind of them were cut down in an instant, with barely a moment of thought.

"Remember when this used to be hard?" Applejack shouted over their galloping hooves.

Pinkie laughed back. "Sure do! I thought we'd never make it past this place."

"The rocks are still as though as ever though," Fluttershy added. "I didn't think I'd miss trudging through the mud."

Rainbow Dash just smirked at her friends. "I'd fly over to Sunset, but then I'd outmatch you all in a second." She stretched out her wings, showing off their feathers.

"Reckon my strength and stamina gives enough speed to match," Applejack remarked. "I'd like to take you up on that challenge some time."

Pinkie Pie bounced forward in front of everybody. "I'll be the referee!" she exclaimed.

"Maybe later, after we see what the problem is," Rainbow said to Pinkie.

They quickly saw what it was. In the distance, in the middle of a long passageway through the desert plateau, a battle raged out of control. Pegasi leaped down from the top of the plateau, diving into combat and using their shockwave to disorient their opponents. They were fighting Sunset.

"You girls catch up," Rainbow Dash yelled just before she unfolded her wings and sped ahead of the group. It was a strain on her stamina, but she covered the last stretch of land with a shocking Sonic Rainboom, bursting into the fray with full force.

She was on one of the attackers in an instant, knocking him out as they both crashed into the side of the crevice. She gave the players no time to surround her. Spinning, she ripped through their armor and health until they were wise enough to back away. Sunset took the chance to advance her own attack, swinging her Landsknecht Zweihander unconventionally with one hoof.

It took no less than a minute for the others to reach them, but by then the ambush was over, and the attacking players were wise enough to back away.

"What in tarnation is going on?" Applejack asked Sunset once she caught up.

"They have Roseluck," Sunset said grimly. Applejack didn't know who Sunset was talking about, but anyone held hostage by a group of bandits deserved a chance to be rescued. She drew her spear and shield and took her stance by Rainbow Dash.

"Whatever you need, I've got you covered Sunset," she said, looking over the edge of her shield.

Sunset nodded and turned to Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. "Pinkie, help them hold back the raiders while Fluttershy and I look for their camp."

Fluttershy stepped back, unprepared. "Hold on Sunset, shouldn't I play Support with Applejack and-"

"They can handle themselves," Sunset put bluntly, "but Roseluck's not as high level, they could kill her if your pets aren't there to heal."

Her fear did not go so far as to let her risk another player's life. Fluttershy agreed to go.

"Don't let her get away!" cried one of the bandits. The command was straightforward, and the enemy players rallied around their simple sense of purpose. They rushed forward, testing their weapons against Applejack's shield.

"We have to go," Sunset said to Fluttershy. "I know you're not the best flier but you gotta fly me up to the plateau."

Fluttershy opened her wings and soared up to the plateau, with Sunset dangling behind her. It wasn't the fastest take off, but her level was more than enough to let her outmaneuver the players throwing spears up at them.

Above the plateau, the sun was setting, offering plenty of shadows for cover. On the horizon, Fluttershy and Sunset spotted a small camp. Aside from a few patches of cactus, the camp was fairly open to the elements, and the only danger were the players guarding the tents and cabins.

Fluttershy glided forward first, moving parallel to the ground but staying low enough hide in the cover of the rocks. Sunset followed behind once Fluttershy signaled that everything was clear.

"They're holding prisoners hostage," Sunset whispered to Fluttershy, "and making their friends or guild pay for their return. Roseluck has to be in one of those guarded cabins." She pointed to two large wooden constructs, player made log cabins meant for player housing, that were heavily guarded by two Tanks and two Damages.

"Can't we just rescue them and run for it?" Fluttershy asked, nervously looking around the camp. Though she was at least twenty levels higher than the players in the camp, she didn't intend to fight. She could kill them on accident.

Sunset shook her head. "They targeted weak players, players that they could kill easily. If we're seen, we'll be putting the hostages at risk."

Fluttershy gulped down her anxiety. She could worry later, right now she needed to help Sunset's new friend, and whoever else was taken. Another idea came to her.

"Is there something stopping them from using teleport scrolls?" she asked.

"The bandits took their whole inventory, even equipped armor and weapons," Sunset answered, slipping back behind a rock as one of the guards patrolled by. Fluttershy caught a glimpse of the guard as he passed, and just as she expected, he was a red player. They really would be willing to kill the hostages.

Once the guard was a safe distance away, Fluttershy opened her inventory and showed it to Sunset. "I like to keep a healthy stock of teleport scrolls ready," she said with a sly smile. It was a perfect stack of a hundred scrolls, costing no less than a small fortune.

Sunset realized the plan Fluttershy was cooking. "With just a short distraction, we could teleport the hostages back to the central city, and we wouldn't have to worry about the bandits attacking them."

Fluttershy nodded, moving the scrolls to a secondary equipment slot, keeping it ready to be used. "Just give the signal."

"I've got your back," Sunset replied to Fluttershy and drew her sword, with magic this time. "As soon as I draw away the guards, it's all on you to get the hostages out of there. Make sure Roseluck gets out, please."

Fluttershy gave a nod of agreement, and Sunset sprung into action almost immediately. With just two steps out of sync in their formation, the guards lined themselves up to be knocked out by the initial charge. Three were down before Susnet even turned to the four guarding the cabins.

Fluttershy waited for the guards to charge Sunset before gliding around the camp. Most of the tents were empty, so she rushed quickly behind them and made for the cabins. The doors on the cabins were locked, and the key was probably in the leader's inventory. Fluttershy checked behind her, seeing that Sunset was still toying with the guards.

Fluttershy selected the door, taking her time to read its attributes. The builder's player name was Emer, and though it seemed he was a significantly higher level than the rest of the raiders, Fluttershy was still part of the Clearing Group, and the building's level paled in comparison to her's.

She drew her mace, a shinning titanium weapon Scootaloo had made for her with her new anvil, and smashed in the door. It cracked, and a moment later shattered into fragments of light as it despawned.

One of the guards turned around and saw Fluttershy. "They're freeing the hostages!" he shouted. He raised his spear to launch it at Fluttershy, but Sunset crippled his limbs with a single cleave of her sword.

"Teleport them now!" Sunset shouted, positioning herself between the guards and the cabins. One tried to flank her, but got knocked back by the flat side of Sunset's blade. The other two came up and attacked her, only to find themselves parried by the massive zweihander.

Fluttershy activated her scrolls, handing one to each hostage and sending them back to the central city. "Roseluck? Is any of you Roseluck?" she asked, making sure she didn't miss Sunset's friend.

"She's in the other cabin," a young stallion said. "Please, save her."

Everyone else had teleported away. Fluttershy handed the stallion a teleportation scroll and rushed out the door to open the second cabin. She wondered why Roseluck was such an important player. Maybe he was just another friend who came to rescue her, like Sunset, but got captured in the process.

Fluttershy swung her wing in a wide arc, bashing down the second cabin's door. But as she readied her scrolls to distribute them, a shield forced her down to the side. Some of the raiders were retreating from the fight down in the crevice, returning to their camp, which meant reinforcements for the guards.

The Tank raised a spear one hoof, aiming for Fluttershy's head. She swung her mace at him, striking with a hit strong enough to force back even a heavily armored tank, but he deflected the strike with a shield ability. Fluttershy cursed the game's physics.

But before he could strike, a chain wrapped around the Tank's hoof, dragging him back. It was the young stallion from the first cabin, staying to join the fight. His rope dart weapon wasn't spectacularly strong, but its ability to stun an enemy made up for its lack of damage.

"Get Roseluck and the others out of here!" he shouted.

Fluttershy was already off the ground, handing a scroll to each of the hostages. "Is anyone here named Roseluck?" she asked.

A young mare stood up. Her red mane and rose cutie mark was an obvious sign. "Sunset said she'd be here with her friends," she said to Fluttershy, taking the scroll. "Glad to have the Clearing Group looking out for the underdogs. Tell her I made back to central safely." Moments after her last word, she vanished into a column of light. The other hostage did the same and fled back to the central city.

Outside, the others had rounded up the entire camp of raiders, and Rainbow Dash was sending a message to Scootaloo asking her to send some Crusaders down to escort the players to the central city. They weren't worth so many teleportation scrolls.

===================================================

"To another victory!"

The guild keep was packed. So many Crusaders showed up to celebrate they had to move the party down to floor thirty four, where they had built the largest guild hall PAO had ever seen. Partially into the mountain that loomed over the dimension's central city, players had begun to call it "New Canterlot," after the central city on floor three.

They were celebrating another capture of a player killing guild, the Red Knights. Scootaloo was careful not to mention Sunset's involvement.

"Still not warming up to you, are they?" Roseluck asked Sunset. They sat together in the corner of the room while Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie toasted with the Crusaders. No one had to ask where Fluttershy went to, she always spent time tending to the animals in the garden. Most of them, after all, were tamed by her anyways.

Sunset shrugged. "I don't know. Most of these players are from the Clearing Group. They're hardcore gamers, and would probably love to have a chance to fight the maker of the game, if only to boast about it."

"As if they had a chance," Roseluck chuckled. She pointed to Sunset's sword. "You still haven't told anyone else about that, have you?"

Sunset shook her head. "My friends could probably guess why."

Just as she suspected. "Well everyone in here would think twice about fighting you if they knew."

Scootaloo raised her glass, giving a speech to her guild about the importance of beating the player killers, and thanking the honorary Crusaders who helped out. She also left a no-so-subtle offer for Rainbow, AJ, or Pinkie to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders for real.

"I'll tell them when the time is right," Sunset replied, taking a sip of fruit punch. It tasted cool, with the mix of tropical fruits and berries in it. Again, she couldn't help but marvel at the Digisphere's ability to reconstruct the senses. Similarly, she was thankful it was limited on its reconstruction of pain.

"Well, I can't wait for the party to be over," Roseluck said. "I've been eager to meet your friends for so long. I kind of feel out of place in all of this."

Sunset patted her on the back. "Don't fret Rose. You're leveling up faster than they ever have, so I'm sure you'll be part of the Clearing Group in no time."

"It's not that," Roseluck sighed, "at least, not entirely. I started playing PAO to hang out with my real world friends, but only me and Greg were able to get online. Besides, I still can't believe we all went to Canterlot High and have barely talked."

Sunset raised her brow. It wasn't the first time Roseluck had used her "gamer friend's" real name. "Why do you call him Greg?" she asked.

Roseluck wasn't sure if Sunset was serious or not. She looked at her with a face of confusion. "Why would anyone, let alone me, want to call him 'Taco Coffin'?"

Sunset smirked. She had honestly forgotten about his ridiculous player name. "I've seen worse," she said, pointing at one of the Crusaders. "Saw him in the raid on floor twenty-five's boss. His player name's 'xXTooHotFoYouSonXx.'"

Roseluck laughed. "Each to their own I guess." She got up from her chair and beckoned Sunset to follow.

"Come on, I don't feel like waiting," she said to Sunset, "but I did hear that Fluttershy's out in the gardens right now. I'd love to meet her."

Sunset followed happily, moving around the crowd toward the guild keep's portcullis. "I'm sure she'd be glad to meet you too."

===================================================

The worst part about floor thirty-five's boss room was the atmosphere. It was a terrible mix of humidity and heat, and made it harder to fight with its uncomfortable swamp terrain.

Below the surface, the boss dungeon was like an entirely different jungle, full of strange mushrooms and insects. It had the perfect resource nodes for Roseluck's alchemy skill.

Ever since she teamed up with Sunset and her friends, they had helped her level up so quickly she had surpassed even some of the Clearing Group members by the time the dungeon raid began. She and Sunset hung back, cleaning up the monsters the boss summoned from the swamp. In the front, the heavy hitting Damages and Tanks wrestled with the kraken-like boss, pinning down its tentacles and slashing them off.

It was a messy fight, in the end Sunset had to join in on and tangle with the boss as well, but they were able to end it without a single death, and that was what mattered most.

"Good fight everyone," Sweetie Belle announced. "And that's not just to the Crusaders. Every guild that took part, from our own rivals, the Knights of Yore, to the small groups of friends, fought valiantly." It was a happy sentiment, considering everyone, however it impacted only a few underdogs. Most of the players were from the massive guilds, who were synonymous with the Clearing Group.

Regardless, Sweetie Belle continued. "We've not only opened the gates to a whole new floor, but we've secured the hope that one day we'll all leave PAO and have a real celebration in the real world." The applause was surprisingly enthusiastic, considering how exhausted everyone was after the fight, but Sweetie Belle's talented voice excelled at motivating players to get back on their hooves and work harder toward the next goal.

Applebloom came up next to her, presenting the loot drop of the kraken to the crowd. Its bloody head, though rendered with gruesome detail, brought another round of applause. They'd mount it on a pike next to the floor's portal and open the way to the following floors.

Rainbow Dash came up behind Sunset, patting her on the back. "Good to have you back with us. It hasn't been the same without you."

Sunset smiled and nodded back to RD. It really was good to be back with her friends.

Crusaders, Knights, and Giants. Oh my!

In the span of two months, the Clearing Group had managed to reach up to floor forty-eight. And with the halfway mark in sight, a lot of changes came with the renewed sense of purpose. Guilds began to recruit and train, grinding deep into the night on high level monsters and mini-bosses.

Though the Cutie Mark Crusaders was the strongest guild in PAO, many others were not far behind. Most notably were the Knights of Yore and the Slumbering Giants of Korandale, who were both vying for power to surpass the Crusaders. But, for the sake of unity, the CMC leaders intervened to mediate negotiations.

The meeting would be on floor thirty-four, in the Cutie Mark Crusaders' guild keep.

Applebloom sat at the head of the table, with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo on both sides. To the left of the table were the top players of the Knights, and the same for the SGK on the right. As the last delegate took his seat, Applebloom gave a slight nod to Sweetie Belle to begin the conference. She was the best with swaying people with words.

"Look at us," she began, "the best of the best. The strongest players in PAO, all in one room. This game doesn't stand a chance."

There were chuckles all around at her lighthearted joke. Without knowing it, the delegates had fixed their attention solely on Sweetie Belle, rather than glaring into their opponent's eyes.

As the laughs died down, Sweetie Belle continued. "You all have come to present your case for support and funding from the Crusaders, asking for gear and money because your players will use it the most efficiently. Let us be reminded that we are all bonded by our common goal, and whatever the outcome of this meeting, we will not hinder each other from proceeding in clearing the game."

Proud nods were given around the table, even as Sweetie Belle caught glances of disdain between the opposing guilds. She handed the speech over to Scootaloo, who was tasked with the numbers and figures each guild presented as proof of their strength.

Screens popped up from the table in front of each player, showing every detail Scootaloo had collected, though she kept her own words brief for everyone's sake. "The Knights of Yore's roster shows that they have a current total of nine thousand, eight hundred forty-one players, forty-six of which are in the Clearing Group, and an additional fourteen who show great potential to join the Clearing Group."

Some of the SGK members traded looks with each other, trying to mask that they were impressed by the Knights.

"The Sleeping Giants of Korandale," Scootaloo continued, "have a member count of ten thousand, five hundred six. Thirty-six of these players are in the Clearing Group, and another twenty-six have shown potential for rising up to our ranks."

This time, it was the players of the Knights to feel worried. SGK was arguably the larger guild, both total players and members taken into account for clearing the game. But raw numbers did not tell everything.

Applebloom began the first discussion. "Though SGK may seem like the better choice, the graphs on your screens show just how quickly the Knights have risen compared to the SGK," she swiped up and the screen scrolled down to a graph just below the guild rosters, "and the Knights seem to have greater potential for future floors."

The delegates of the Knights were clearly in agreement, though the SGK delegates had much more to say.

"Lady Applebloom, if I may speak," one chubby delegate interjected, "your graph doesn't include the fact that the Knights have been recruiting from other guilds, taking members already trained up. They're essentially leaching off the hard work of the other guilds. The Sleeping Giants have proven to have a stable leadership and the skills to operate with a larger bank of resources for our players."

Applebloom traded quick glances with her friends, already anticipating what they wanted to say.

She turned to the Knights of Yore. "If what the SGK says is true, we may have to perform a deeper evaluation of leadership within your guilds before we make a decision."

A Knight shot out of his seat to protest. He was a scrawny fellow, even slimmer than Sweetie Belle. But while Sweetie Belle's avatar had the toned muscles of an athlete, the frail delegate looked as if he could barely handle his weapon.

Nevertheless, Scrawny had a commanding tone of voice. "We are on the brink of the halfway mark, we do not have time for such a delay. Evidence gathered from the last floor's boss confirms our suspicions: the bosses are getting harder at a never before seen rate. Resources from the last floor's boss is our solution, its distribution is essential. If we hesitate, we won't be prepared for the boss we eventually wipe on."

Another SGK delegate shot back accusingly. "That's not the point. You can't handle the surplus from the last dungeon. Your two month old guild is still new, a fledgling in leadership despite your numbers."

Scrawny had the immediate response. "Please, Crusaders, don't seriously consider this accusation. We've consolidated guilds that were barely larger than a six player party, we've given them guidance and let them fight with the big raids. Our founders have done nothing less than expand the Clearing Group."

Sweetie Belle whispered to Applebloom. "Our own members can attest to low level guilds vanishing over night. Roseluck still has a lot of connections in the lower floors."

Applebloom acknowledged this, turning to the Sleeping Giants. "We'll overlook this matter, because, regardless of where the Knight's members come from, it's evident they've contributed as much as the SGK has to the recent three boss raids."

Many of the delegates opened their mouths to protest further, but they were silenced by the few other Sleeping Giants who were wiser.

Scootaloo picked up once the SGK delegates had stopped their fidgeting. "The greater matter at hand, or hoof, is the leveling rate of both your guilds. Until the past two weeks, the SGK and Knights of Yore have maintained a fairly equal rate of leveling up. New spikes in leveling, for both your guilds, shows an unclear path now for who has a superior regiment."

"Furthermore," Sweetie Belle continued, "we'd like to know further plans for both guilds. How do you train, and how are you considering changes as times get tougher?" The delegates were taken back by such a sudden request. If the CMC had really required that information before the meeting, they would have asked. Sweetie Belle planned to test them.

Quick to speak up was a tall heavily armored Tank from the Sleeping Giants. "Lady Sweetie Belle, as the Head Drillmaster of our Clearing Group boot camps, I can assure you that my players are being pushed to the absolute limit. We train day and night, and not a single hour is wasted by idling around." The Drillmaster waved his hoof in a general manner, but it was clearly directed towards the Knights of Yore.

Scrawny's partner, a middle aged player by the looks of his pony character, was quick to rebut.

"The Knights have done far more than the SGK would have you believe," he said, quickly swiping open his menu to recent screenshots he had taken. He shared them to the CMC. "These are evidence of our presence in the community, offering aid to both upper and lower floors."

The photos were clear: the Knights of Yore could be seen assisting in charity, raid organization, and criminal investigations. Even some photos of well known arrests of player killing guilds included members of the Knights. But while the CMC were impressed, the SGK's chubby delegate did not agree. He wouldn't let the Knights make off with resources the SGK direly needed.

"If you recall" Chubby said, addressing the middle aged stallion, "we're here to further the goal of clearing our way to the last boss. Time spent with these distractions will slow our long term goals, ultimately prolonging the suffering players face in this world."

The delegate turned to the CMC. "I know these Knights seem noble, and their hearts are in the right place, but entrusting them with a surplus of Crusader goods would only be wasted. Let the skill of the SGK take hold, and fight by the Cutie Mark Crusaders."

The CMC traded more uncertain looks. The negotiations were not as cut-and-dry as they expected, and both guilds seemed to have equally reasonable goals. Finally, Applebloom couldn't handle the gaze of both the guilds while she thought it over.

"I think it would be best if we took a recess to consider our options," she said, "we'll resume this discussion in an hour."

===================================================

Sweetie Belle slumped down in her chair letting her body succumb to gravity. She had been sitting so strait she thought her spine would never feel normal again.

"Why we can't just sell our surplus loot on the auction house? We wouldn't have to put up with the other guilds." she asked Applebloom and Scootaloo.

"I don't think that's the problem," Scootaloo scoffed. "The problem is that neither the SGK nor the Knights sent any female players for their delegates. I could smell the testosterone from my seat."

"Girls, this is serious." Applebloom paced around the room. "We're supposed to show that, as leaders, we are united. Helping the guilds -no matter how tedious it can be- will give us the edge we need to make a stronger effort throughout the game. Auctioning our surplus will only further the ideas of individualistic ego and soloing."

"I know, Applebloom," Sweetie Belle grumbled, "but it's just so frustrating, having to deal with those two guilds. Scootaloo's right, there should be more girls in the Clearing Group."

Applebloom raised a brow at that. "You know, the leader of the Knights of Yore's apparently a woman."

"What the hell," Sweetie Belle exclaimed, "why didn't we invite her? What's her player name, I want to send a complaint."

"I asked Allegretto, but she said she's busy with a personal matter." Applebloom answered. "Probably a falling out with friends or something."

Scootaloo threw her hooves up, swiping open her menu in frustration. "Oh hell no, if we have to sit through this for the rest of the day, she's going to suffer too." She navigated strait to her mailbox to message the Knights of Yore's leader, but Scootlatoo's inbox stopped her in her tracks. In the past few minutes fifty messages had already filled her inbox. They were all from the Knights of Yore.

"Great," Scootaloo growled, "now I'm getting spammed."

Sweetie Belle and Applebloom looked over at Scootaloo's menu before quickly checking their own. They both had just as many messages.

"What could they possibly want?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Applebloom shrugged. "Reckon it's got something to do with the meeting." She tapped on the first one to see what the Knights had to say.

Commander Freelance, Knight of Yore 4th Tank division. Need help, training camp attack on floor forty, fourteen dead. Suspects are members of a murder guild. Please help.

"Look at your messages, what're they saying?" Applebloom immediately asked.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle both looked back with grave faces.

"It's not good," Sweetie Belle replied, skimming through few other messages. They were all the same. Members from every level of command in the Knights of Yore were looking to the CMC for help.

Scootaloo felt like a weight had just sunk in her stomach. "Fourteen dead. I don't believe it."

Applebloom got out of her chair and stormed toward the door. "We're holding off the meeting until we resolve this."

===================================================

The scrawny delegate from the Knights was already waiting outside the Cutie Mark Crusader guild hall.

"Thank goodness, you've heard what happened, right?" he asked.

"Already on it." Applebloom replied without slowing a single step.

"We'd appreciate it if you could join us," Sweetie Belle offered, pausing to talk to him. " Come and help us understand what happened, since it's your guild's training camp."

Scrawny's eyes bulged and he took a step back. "Oh no, I'm not much of a fighter, I'm afraid I wouldn't be much help down there. But my body guard, Grieve Blossom, was transferred from that very same camp, so he'll be able to answer any questions for you."

"Excellent, where is he now?"

"Waiting for you three at the portal on floor forty," Scrawny answered, hurrying away. "I really hope you find who was responsible. I have to go talk to my commanders about this incident, but don't worry, I'll be ready to resume our meeting tomorrow."

Sweetie Belle jogged ahead, catching up with Scootaloo and Applebloom. "Another cowardly politician in place of a real warrior," she mumbled to herself.

Scootaloo's ears stood up. "What was that?" she asked Sweetie Belle.

"Oh, nothing important, really. But before we head over to the training camp, we should meet up with a Knight, he's waiting for us at the portal.

"Alright girls, let's go." Applebloom stepped forward, onto the teleport pad. "Floor Forty!" she commanded, and vanished into the column of light.

===================================================

The camp was completely cleared out. The bodies of the dead had already despawned, and without any player influence, NPC's began to return. The camp was situated as close to the minor dungeon as possible. Though it wasn't as big as the boss dungeon, being on floor forty made it a challenge for any player looking to train up to join the clearing group. Now fourteen players with great potential were lost forever.

Sweetie Belle watched as an NPC walked clumsily around, asking for adventurers to save his family, who was trapped in the depths of the cave. Its problems seemed so distant, so unimportant, to Sweetie Belle.

"It's so empty," Grieve Blossom whispered in disbelief. He walked over to one of the tents, feeling the leathery material. "I was just here a week ago. My buddies had just repeated the dungeon for the fifth time, before I was called to protect some of our delegates headed to your meeting."

"Must be hard, seeing it empty like this." Sweetie Belle said, resting her hoof on his shoulder. "But we'll find who did this, I swear we will."

Grieve Blossom cleared his throat. "I'll be alright, Lady Sweetie Belle, I can despair when I'm off duty." He pointed to the tents all around the camps. "If the structures are still here, we can analyze the building details and see which took the most collateral damage. That should give us a clue of where the murderers came from."

The CMC split up, each of them covering a third of the camp. Grieve Blossom hung back and watched them scan through the building details. He would have helped, but they were a higher level than him, so there was nothing he could see that they couldn't.

"Over here," Scootaloo said, pointing to her tents, "this one's been damaged to fifty percent, and the same goes with the one next to it."

Behind the tent, the entrance of dungeon faced them. "You don't think they could've attacked from the dungeon, could they?" Applebloom inquired. She positioned herself next to the tents, pretending to be the attackers who damaged the tents. She searched around, but there was nothing else that looked significant enough to be considered the starting point.

"If they wiped out the recruits and their trainers, then these killers might be at a high enough level to tough it out in the dungeon," Grieve Blossom considered. "Drillmaster Iceblood was in charge, and he's fought with the Clearing Group."

"Iceblood? You mean that 20-ish year old guy who fights with a bunch of ice enchantments on his gear?" Scootaloo's eyes widened with recognition. "RD mentioned him from our raid on floor forty-two." She turned to her friends. "He's no joke, Rainbow almost considered him as her match in sword fighting after they took down the boss together."

"We'll have to be extra careful," Applebloom said, heading over to the dungeon.

"Hold on, don't you think we should get some help?" Sweetie Belle asked. "I can get Fluttershy here in no time, she said she didn't have anything planned today."

"We don't need to worry the others, or spend time waiting," Applebloom turned back, "we're just going to scout out the dungeon, see if they're any leads on them. Reckon they've ran off to some other floor by now, but they might have left something if they camped in there for a while."

Grieve stepped forward. "I want to come along. I know there were a little more than fourteen here, some must have survived after the fighting, or chased after the killers and lost them in the tunnels."

"Looking for your friends?" Sweetie Belle asked. Grieve Blossom nodded. "Good."

"Hold on, I don't think that's a good idea," Applebloom cautioned. "You'd slow us down fighting the monsters. Better if you leave it to us, we'd cut through the golems in seconds."

"I've mapped this dungeon twice, and completed the quest for it with my eyes closed." Grieve Blossom wouldn't back down, not when there was a chance his friends could be alive. "I know this dungeon well enough to keep up, even at my level."

"I say he can come," Scootaloo added, "so it's two against one Applebloom, we win."

Applebloom whirled around and head into the dungeon. "Fine, as long as we find some clues, I guess it doesn't matter." She turned back and smirked at Grieve Blossom. "Hope he can keep up though."

===================================================

Another three Animated Earth Golems dropped lifelessly onto the cavern floor. Sweetie Belle pulled her scimitar from the last one, sinking her blade into the chest of a fourth monster.

Applebloom raised her shield and shoved a golem into the wall, pinning it to the stone with her spear. Behind her, two golems exploded under the force of Scootaloo's hoof-made warhammer. The polished steel head crumbled the stone to pieces, leaving cracks in the ground as it bashed through enemies.

Grieve Blossom held the perimeter, keeping the golems from running away to heal. Though his weapon and strength may not be able to match the CMC, the weakened monsters were no match for the red katana that split them in half.

"Nice hit," Sweetie Belle commented once the last golem was cleaned up. As each one died and despawned, the tunnels lit up with the fragments of light that the corpses dissipated into.

"Gotta be honest, I didn't think we'd make it this far with you," Applebloom said. She walked over and patted Grieve Blossom on the back. "But, I reckon the Knights have to be good at what they do."

"Thank you, I appreciate being here to-" Grieve Blossom paused. "Did you hear that?"

Everyone's ears stood up, listening through the echoing caverns. A voice moaned through tunnels.

"Grieve Blossom, could that be a survivor?" Applebloom asked, but he was already headed down the tunnels, chasing after the voice.

The tunnel led to deeper caverns, where it became harder and harder to see. Without the cave crystals in the walls, it was possible Grieve Blossom would be going in blind after the survivor.

For a moment, it seemed as if he wasn't getting any closer, but the voice eventually became clearer as he neared the player.

"Whoever's there, I can hear you," the voice called out, "don't try any funny business, or you'll have trouble on your hands."

"It's me, Knight Grieve Blossom, sir," he replied as he ran into the central cavern. In the middle of the floor a massive spider, at least five times the size of a stallion, lay on the floor, ready to despawn once the quest NPC's finished their scene. On Grieve's right, Drillmaster Iceblood leaned against the cavern wall, watching the tunnel for more ponies.

"The hell are you doing here," he said to Grieve Blossom, "you were called up to guard our- ah!" Iceblood flinched, looking down at his gut wound and broken leg. The pain was still heavily dulled in-game despite the severity of the injury, but even so, the injuries did not feel good.

"Don't worry, reinforcements are on their way Drillmaster," Grieve Blossom replied, "they're the best we could have asked for."

"Grieve Blossom!" Sweetie Belle shouted, "is everything alright? Who was calling out?"

"Is that..." Iceblood turned to Grieve Blossom in disbelief.

He nodded back. "Yeah, that's those three."

The sharp pain in his body was suddenly pushed back as Iceblood forced himself up to look presentable. The CMC paused the moment they entered the room. Iceblood's glowing armor, glistening in ice enchantments, was immediately recognizable.

"Holy cutie marks," Scootaloo whispered. "That's... um... that's Iceblood." The others gazed in amazement. They had not expected to meet a player so revered.

The drillmaster saluted, suppressing the urge to flinch as his wound stung again. "Drillmaster Iceblood, Second Training Division of the Knights of Yore. I have a lot to report on the attacker's you've probably heard about, if you could spare a moment."

The CMC traded looks, calming each other down.

"We'd be happy to hear everything, as soon as we get you to a safe zone to recover," Sweetie said, gesturing to his wound. Struggling against his injuries strained his health bar, worsening the effect. Blood pixels began to leak profusely out of the gash, refreshing the crippled debuff every second.

"No, it can wait," he replied. "What happened here's more important than my comfort. The players," Iceblood clutched his side as the crippling effect renewed itself again, stinging more and more. Grieve Blossom reached out to offer support with his shoulder, but Iceblood only waved him aside.

Scootaloo equipped a teleportation scroll and pointed it at Iceblood. "I'm sorry, but I don't think your body wants to wait. Stand still."

Iceblood opened his mouth to protest, struggling to get away from the scroll, but his limbs disobeyed him while the crippled debuff remained.

===================================================

"Take it easy, the bandages don't heal as quickly as potions," Roseluck said. She leaned Iceblood down onto the bed in the Cutie Mark Crusader Apothecary, leaving the CMC to talk to him while she went to brew potions for stress relief. Grieve Blossom followed Roseluck to her brewery, eager to help get the potion ready.

"Take it from the start," Applebloom told Iceblood, taking a seat next to his bed.

Iceblood nodded, closing his eyes and thinking back. "The attack started out of no where -I suppose that is the point of a surprise attack- just after the cadets had finished the repeatable quest. They picked the perfect time: we were tired, I was busy evaluating their performance, and none of us were prepared for a fight. One moment, the tunnel to the dungeon was empty, and the next, we were overran by players, all of them marked as killers. Had to have been at least twenty of them, and by the time they retreated we had only captured four of them."

Scootaloo shook her head with dejection. She couldn't stand the thought of so many killers roam free in the game. As if killing wasn't bad enough, those murderers were such cowards that they took lives from within a video game. Everyone they killed just wanted to go home, but that hope was taken from them.

"I went in after them," Iceblood continued, "hoping to track them down to where they came from, and to find a way to bring them to justice. Turns out they led me into a trap, baiting me into the Spider Queen's cavern so they could ambush me while I fought the boss."

It was a frightening strategy. Most players assumed all dungeons were safe zones, allowing only Player versus Environment combat. But some smaller dungeons allowed Player versus Player combat, usually building it into the quest to create interesting competition. Good game design, but for the wrong game.

"How'd you end up injured in the cavern then?" Applebloom asked. "And what happened to the killers?"

"They ran off, after I injured three of them," he answered. "They carried off their wounded and expected the Spider Queen to kill me, but I hounded them, ignoring the boss to chase them down. That's when my leg got crippled; one of the killers threw a machete at my leg, cutting open my knee. I had a healing potion, but I realized after I drank it that the machete had a paralysis poison coated on it. I had to wait out the effect while the boss bashed by armor to pieces. If these enchantments hadn't frozen her with each hit, I don't think I would have survived long enough to get back up."

Applebloom looked to Sweetie Belle. "Remember when Sun-" Applebloom quickly glanced at Iceblood, "Phoenix got caught up with some bandits when she met Roseluck?"

Sweetie Belle nodded. "Paralysis poison. Not many know how to make it, but do you really think they're related?"

"Maybe." Applebloom said, turning back to Iceblood. "Do you know anything else about the attacker's? Like their motive, or what group they might have belonged to."

Iceblood swiped his hoof and opened his inventory. "I picked up the machete they threw at me, maybe that could help." He tapped on the item name and the weapon materialized into his hoof.

Scootaloo's wing snatched it up immediately, and she looked up and down the weapon before even checking the attributes. "This is made of some really high level stuff. The blade's made of shadow steel from floor forty-two, enchanted a Crippling Black Gem from the Crystal Caves in floor thirty-eight, and even the leather strap wrapped around the handle feels like it's from a though animal on floor forty-five or higher."

She tapped on the blade and opened the weapon's attribute menu. With her blacksmith skill as high as it could be for a Clearing Group player, she had no problem evaluating all the fine details of the weapon. She mumbled the minor things to herself, skimming over the small boosts and drawbacks of the weapon. She clenched her teeth as her eyes settled on the maker's name.

????? -Your blacksmith level is not higher than the creator's. You cannot make sense of this.

The machete clanged, dropping to the floor.

Sweetie Belle gasped. "What's wrong with it?"

"These killers," Scootaloo replied with a shaky voice, "have a player that's as good of a blacksmith as I am, which means that, at the very least, someone involved with them is at the Clearing Group's high-level bracket."

===================================================

The Sleeping Giants was the least of her worries, but while Sweetie Belle and Applebloom went to meet up with Applejack to spread the news, Scootaloo was left to make the final verdict. She wished Rainbow Dash was with her to help her take control of the SGK.

Cool, calm, and collected, that's how RD would do it. Scootaloo held her breath, opening the doors to the delegates waiting outside.

"Now is not the time to show weakness Lady Scootaloo," the chubby delegate immediately attacked, his voice sharp with annoyance. "Supporting the Knights when they've been weakened will only slow out efforts. With the SGK strong, we could offer stronger assistance to the current investigation."

"The decision is made, we already talked it over," Scootaloo answered, pushing past them, eager to get out of the guild keep.

Another delegate stepped in her way. She shot a glare at him that drove him back, but he voice his complaints anyways. "The Knights may still be targets, Lady Scootaloo. Fueling their guild with more supplies would be a risk they cannot afford."

She barged past him and his friends, shrugging off their incessant politicking.

Still, the delegates would not let the day end. "We're still not sure who the mole in the Clearing Group is. If the killing guild knew the Knights so well, they might be working with a traitor within the Knights. Helping them would also help the murderers."

Finally, Scootaloo reached the keep door. Only the portcullis stood in her way.

We're supposed to show that, as leaders, we are united.

That's what Applebloom said after the meeting. It was true, but all Scootaloo wanted was to get messy in the front lines of battle, not negotiate with gamers. But what would the other guilds think of the Cutie Mark Crusaders didn't look united? Could ignoring what the SGK had to say would spark resentment?

One of the delegates mustered the courage to yell over his comrades. "I thought the Crusaders were the champions of the elite, the Clearing Group; are you just taking pity on the underdogs now?"

That answered her question. Scootaloo sucked up her own desires and turned back to the crowd. "This is more than just a statement now. The Crusaders do not do publicity stunts. We will end this game, but we will be neither ignorant nor cruel. The Knights of Yore are our brethren in bonds, trapped in here with us. They suffer from the same forces we do. If they fall, then so will the next guild, and the next, until there will be no one left but you, and when you find yourself alone in this savage world, you will fall too. Last to die or first, it makes no difference. So we will help when others are down, raising them up so that they will not be crushed. We may still suffer, but together we will suffer and live. Apart, we will suffer and die."

The delegates fell into complete silence. Some were lost in thought, others were simply speechless. But Scootaloo had more flair to add. She drew her warhammer, balancing the heavy weapon on her wings, making it look weightless.

"Yet, I feel that some of you still have something to say," she glanced around the group, watching their nervous faces. "If you have the guts to speak it, if that voice in your head is loud enough, then meet me in my office. We can talk, one on one."

Scootaloo marched off, following the stairs back up to the top of the keep. Only the clops of her hooves echoed through the Crusaders' Keep. The SGK delegates traded uneasy looks at each other, glancing over to the stairs as if Scootaloo could burst back any moment. In complete silence, the delegates unanimously agreed; they had nothing to say.

Tracking

Clink

The ringing of iron and stone in the mines struck Phoenix's ears as she walked deeper.

Clank

Her ears twitched with the sharp sounds. Most players grinding ores on floor forty-two likely never even noticed the subtle movement added to the game, only feeling their normal human ears as stand in place on their heads. Even Rainbow Dash, who had experienced the feeling of pony ears when she battled with Equestria's magic in Canterlot High, barely felt the movements.

Clang!

But to Phoenix, there was no difference between her real ears and the game's motions. Every character model and movement had been based off of her, utilizing her familiarity with human and pony bodies. While ear flapping was just an animation for other players, Phoenix felt them as if there was no discrepancy between the virtual world and the real world. Her mind still remembered what it was like to be in Equestria.

"Do you really think your contacts can help us?" Phoenix asked Rainbow Dash. They were headed for a small town in the southern end of the map. Being completely underground, floor forty-two's small towns were nothing more than a single cavern with rickety wood structures built into the walls. Not a lot of players frequented them for anything more than basic food and water.

"Trust me, if anyone can find out what goes on in the black market, its them," Rainbow replied. Her answer still didn't give Phoenix a lot of confidence. They continued down the mine, passing another player gathering shadow iron ore from a large vein.

Crack! went the ore as the pegasus swung the pick into the ore node. It shattered into hundred of light fragments, leaving behind a chunk of raw shadow iron ore.

Unconvinced, Phoenix pressed Rainbow Dash further. "Not to be rude, but how are a few... damn, what did you call them -oh, Role Players, that's it- how are Role Players going to help us find the murder guild?"

"Not just any regular Role Players, Sunset," Rainbow Dash explained, "they're the Trotting Prancers, the greatest acting troupe in the game!"

"Actors? We're getting actors?"

RD nodded. "Most of the Trotting Prancers were members from the Acting and Improv Club in Canterlot High."

"Better be worth it," Phoenix replied, "I'm not about to run around with some acting troupe, doing some kind of spaz errand looking for clues. I want to find these murderers."

"So do I," Rainbow said back, her voice filled with genuine concern, "I mean, fourteen dead, that's not something any of us can take lightly, but really think the Trotting Prancers have the answers we need. They've been all around PAO, shaken hooves with a lot of players, and if there's anyone they don't know, they have friends that can help make the connection."

===================================================

Glow Hole was a bustling center of absolutely nothing. On one side of the cavern a small pub built into the stone walls and its NPC owner waited eagerly for any customer. Stretching up, wooden scaffolds built up to tunnels burrowing into the hard rock, exposing nodes of inherently magical glow metals.

But what drew players wasn't the town's simple lifestyle. In the center of the cavern, a small crowd, no more than a dozen players, circled around the cavern's center, watching a group of actors perform a complicated for of theater. The dreaded Shakespeare.

..."No place indeed should murder sanctuarize. Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes, will you do this, keep close within your chamber. Hamlet returned shall know you are come home. We’ll put on those shall praise your excellence and set a double varnish on the fame the Frenchman gave you, bring you in fine together and wager on your heads. He, being remiss, most generous and free from all contriving, will not peruse the foils; so that, with ease,or with a little shuffling, you may choose a sword unbated, and in a pass of practice requite him for your father."

Phoenix stared at the burly stallion portraying the plotting king, impressed at his memorization of words that was nearly meaningless in modern times. Even his armor, while completely lacking in a practical armor value, matched the scene well enough to look as if it was made specifically for the play.

"Well, they're talented, I'll give them that," she said to Rainbow Dash. Theater was never her passion, but she could respect those who could put themselves in front of a crowd and be someone they weren't, saying words they didn't mean.

Rainbow Dashed walked around the crowd and headed toward the pub. She whispered to Phoenix, beckoning her to follow. "We should wait 'till the end, their performance is pretty awesome in the last act."

She didn't want to wait, but she supposed there was no point in rushing the investigation. The killers were deeply rooted in the community, and if she made too much of a fuss about it, they'd undoubtedly find out and hide themselves even more. With a sigh, she resigned herself to drink with Rainbow Dash.

===================================================

For a small crowd, the Trotting Prancers got a lot of applause. Then again, hooves were a lot louder when clapping.

"Hey, Sophisticata, over here!"

Rainbow waved to the olive mare coordinating the actors and helping clean up the props. The set pieces were player made, and if they weren't returned to a player's inventory they'd despawn pretty soon.

She came over and took a seat next to Rainbow, undoing her bun and letting her brown mane drop down. "Glad you could make it," she said. Her green coat was groomed and clean, and her face kept an upbeat look -easily done since the game kept the characters' faces in their unchanging prime- but her voice betrayed her, and it was evident that Sophisticata was exhausted.

"That was an awesome performance Sophi," RD complimented as she passed a glass of cider over, "I loved how you pulled off the drowning scene with just a bathtub, it was so fun to watch."

She let out a breath of relief. "That part was stressful, I didn't think we'd be able to make it work." She looked past Rainbow Dash and noticed Phoenix quietly sitting, looking through her menu screen. There was a weird green effect on the menu that caught Sophi's eye.

"You didn't mention you'd bring a friend RD." Sophisticata reached out and shook hooves with Phoenix. "It's nice to meet you, I'm Sophisiticata, if RD forgot to mention, but you can call me Sophi, it's shorter."

Phoenix nodded, closing her menu before fully shifting her attention to Sophi. "Rainbow didn't mention you by name, but she says you're the best there is, and you have connections that could help us with our problem."

She understood the issue at hoof. "I heard about it, but I never got to really ask. Was it as bad as they say?"

Phoenix scowled, thinking on it. "We weren't there ourselves, but our friends were pretty shaken from it."

Rainbow Dash had talked to Iceblood as soon as he left the Crusaders' guild keep. "Iceblood was there in person, and said fourteen of his own troops died in front of him. It was a brutal attack."

"Jeez," Sophi awed, staring into her cup. "sounds like things aren't always getting better. But the Trotting Prancers are ready to give any help you need," she paused, holding up a hoof, "as soon as you help us with a small dilemma."

Rainbow Dash stared at her. "Look, Sophi, if it's not as important, can't it wait?"

Sophi simply turned and pointed to a party talking with the Trotting Prancers. They were just kids, the oldest no more than fourteen years old. "They're leader, the Damage with a blue coat, is only level twenty seven. The rest of them are even lower, not even level twenty-five."

Phoenix and Rainbow Dash's eyes both widened. "What are they doing here?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Spoke to them before the play," Sophi replied, "and I asked the same thing. Their leader said that they were looking for a brother of their friend, the level twenty-three beastmaster in the green cloak. His brother's apparently joined the Sleeping Giants to train to become a Clearing Group member, but when all that stuff happened with the Knights, they wanted to make sure he was safe with the SGK."

One thing still didn't add up. "Even if they were conceited enough to come up to here, how'd they get stuck in a small town in the middle of nowhere, instead of the central city?" Phoenix asked.

Sophi answered grimly. "Apparently, there was a mercenary guild in the central city offering protection for exploring, so those kids agreed to a half first and half later deal. The mercenaries led them here to find the SGK training camp, the one that's on the west side of the map, instead not here. The mercenary officer told the kids that they went the wrong way and would need more payment to make the long trip over to the camp."

"Let me guess," Rainbow interjected, her face flustered with irritation, "they took the payment and left those kids here, where there's no way for them to leave without dying, and went back to central."

Sohpi only nodded.

"Has no one even tried to help them yet?" Phoenix remarked angrily.

"No one's even looked their way," she replied, shaking her head. "They paid the mercenaries every last coin. For the past week they've been selling pieces of their gear just to buy food and water from this store. Even if there was a generous soul on this floor to save them, this town's empty almost all the time."

"Accept for when you're here," Rainbow Dash said.

Sophi smiled slightly. "We actually came here because I heard of them through one of my contacts. I thought we could bring enough traffic to find a strong enough player to escort them back. Even if no one came, I was sure we've got enough actors to run then back to central ourselves, even if we're not that high level."

RD patted Sophi on the shoulder. "Well you don't have to worry about that now, me and Phoenix can handle them, you just get in touch with your contacts and see if you can pick up anything involving the murderers."

"Message us as soon as you find a lead," Phoenix added, "we want to stay as close to their trail as possible, before they fade away."

Nodding, Sophi rose from her seat, beginning to head back to actors. "I'll get right on it, I already have a list of players in mind. Just make sure those five get back to their floor safely."

Phoenix sighed as Sophi left the tiny pub. Transporting a bunch of kids wasn't exactly how she imagined herself tracking down a guild of notorious killers. If she knew, she would have remembered to stock up on extra teleport scrolls.

===================================================

They were headed strait for central. Rainbow Dash already messaged the SGK and confirmed that all training camps had been relocated after the attack the Knights faced on floor forty. The brother wasn't on this floor anymore, so the whole party agreed to go directly to the portal.

For a team of helpless low levels, the kids were pretty happy about their entire situation. They happily sat back and watched Rainbow Dash cut through the Stone Golems and Corrupted Miners, taking in every little sight they could.

"This'll be the best story to tell," their Tank said. The others agreed, messaging some of their friends to spread the news.

While Rainbow Dash shattered through the golems, Phoenix guarded the rear and watched for any monsters that hid in the walls. With Rainbow Dash leading the way, she was confident there'd be no trouble, so she took the time to analyze what remained of the data she had stored from the magical anomalies.

After the Hearths Warming Eve event, and after taking out the bandit leader on floor eighteen, she used what little free time she had finding a key to controlling PAO's magic from within the game. Whatever, more likely whoever, caused the game to trap its players was doing it through magic, and the effects were channeling through in-game data, just like the item data that made up the weapons she found.

Being next to Rainbow Dash, who kept her artifact sword even though she had long since out leveled it, made it easy to pull out more data. But nothing Phoenix did now could be completed without the artifact she gave to Sweetie Belle.

On her admin menu, or what was left of it at least, lights flashed across the display. It wouldn't have meant anything to a normal person, even a normal pony for that matter, but Phoenix had mastered reading auras during her studies with Princess Celestia.

Feels like a lifetime ago.

As she thought to herself, Phoenix played around with the auras, rearranging the energies to interfere with the interference. But whenever once frequency of magic was canceled out, another seemed to pop out from no where. Without a complete display of magic from the artifacts, Phoenix didn't think she'd be able to construct a spell from within the game to override the magical interference.

If only I had all my equipment from the real world.

Phoenix shook her head. No, it couldn't be done even in the real world, or at least the real human world. None of her old facilities from Canterlot were in the real world, and technology can only go so far with Equestrian Magic. Even Twilight, the only person in the human world to really take an interest in magic, only managed to grasp more than the rudiments of Phoenix's basic lessons.

Something tugged at Phoenix's armor.

She tore herself from her thought and saw one of the kids standing next to her, watching what she was doing. She shot her attention back to her screen and swiped the magic away, leaving just her regular menu.

"You shouldn't sneak up on people like that," she told the kid. He was the party's leader, she noted, but kept her attention off his awkward stare.

He pointed to her hooded armor. "You're wearing medium leather armor. A lot of Damage players wear chain or plate armor, especially when they use a two-handed sword like yours. Don't you think more armor is better?"

Phoenix mumbled under her breath. "Two-hooved, technically." The kid still waited for a response, not seeming to notice she said anything.

She turned her head to him. "I'm in the Clearing Group, and that's enough. No reason to ask why."

He took in the comment, thinking for a moment. Then, he smirked. "So, why are you letting your friend do all the work? Don't like fighting, Miss Clearing Group?"

He was trying to hard to be a pest, and Phoenix swallowed her urged to punch the kid in his virtual jaw. It wouldn't be wrong, since he couldn't really feel it, but she felt it would be out of place.

"She can handle this," Phoenix answered bluntly, "we've completed floor forty-seven, and most players are preparing to scout out the boss dungeon for floor forty-eight. This floor might be just six floors below the frontier, but Rainbow Dash is way beyond any of the creatures here."

The colt watched as Rainbow Dash struck the eye of an enraged miner. She backed off and let it swing its pick wildly in the air before bleeding it with a gash to its side. The strike knocked over the miner, and it despawned into bits of light after Rainbow Dash plunged her sword into its chest.

No wonder she made friends with a drama guild.

"Looks like she's a better fighter than you," the leader mused. He leaned over to Phoenix and whispered, "Think she'd go for me if we met IRL?"

Phoenix paused, flicking her eyes to the ignorant, though admirably ambitious, child. "Not touching that with a fifty foot spear."

"Why?" he asked, "What's wrong with me?"

"Everything."

"Fuck off," he replied.

Phoenix shrugged. "True though. You're a minor, you're annoying, you're-"

"Bet you were like me when you were young," he interrupted.

Phoenix chuckled. She supposed she was stuck in a pony body too when she was young, though the circumstance was a stark contrast to what he was going through. "Trust me, I was nothing like you when I was a filly."

He walked in silence for a moment. "So you're a Role Player too?" he finally asked.

The question was a wild card, out of no where, and Pheonix didn't understand what he meant. She looked at the leader, confused, figuring out what he was thinking.

"You said 'when you were a filly,'" he explained, "like a lot of Role Players do now. I would know, I help out a lot of aspiring young Role Players on the lower floors. We make a lot of money from our shows."

Phoenix realized that she let that one slip. She hadn't used Equestrian terms for so long, she thought they were purged from her habits for good. Though a year in another body could change a lot, especially when it was her old self.

"No, I'm not a Role Player," she answered back, but she struggled for another explanation.

"Oh, I get it," the kid said back, "you're just a weird lady."

"Exactly how old are you?" Phoenix snapped. It was a bizarre question, but she had to know what kind of age could spawn such nosiness.

"Eleven, or twelve, I lost count of the months, so I don't know if my birthday passed or not," he said. Then he pointed to his party's Tank, a young teen hiding behind his shield as Rainbow Dash danced around four Stone Golems, hacking them to pieces. "The Big Guy over there's fourteen, but he acts really immature for his age."

Fucking hell, that's saying something, coming from him. Phoenix thought.

She couldn't stand the conversation much longer. She sped up her pace to speak to Rainbow Dash. "Hey, think you can stop showing off, make things about twenty-percent less cool, and just kill these golems?" She tilted her head back to the leader. "I can only take so much of this brat."

"Oh come on," Rainbow Dash chuckled, "they're just kids, they need someone to look up to and give them hope."

Phoenix stared pointedly back at Rainbow. "Well, you've inspired them so much that I think their leader wants to date you."

Rainbow Dash's face turned cold in a second, flicking her eyes over to the kid. "These golems are getting out of my way."

She focused her vision down the tunnel, aiming her blade to where the next enemy would be. Everything would have been over if she could fly, but even with her wing wielding a sword Rainbow Dash was fast. Her footwork skirted around the hit boxes of each of the golems, bringing her whole body around and around, cutting down a golem and turning to the next one before the last even dropped to zero HP.

The destruction was a blur, and as one enemy after another fell, Rainbow Dash began to outpace the others in her killing spree. Like a dancer, she spun with amazing speed and accuracy, striking the critical points and ending the golems in one fell swoop. She was in the heat of combat, distracted by its fury. She almost didn't notice the warhammer that struck her in the head.

Rainbow Dash grunted, flying back down the tunnel and into the kids.

"Small world," one of the mercenaries said. "Thought we'd never see you kids again. But looks like our patience paid off. Glad you worked as bait for some richer targets." He walked up to Rainbow Dash, dragging his mace along the ground. Around his health bar, an orange border formed, marking him as a criminal player, and the mercenary seemed perfectly fine with it.

The kids crowded around Rainbow Dash, urging her to get up. Regardless of her strength, the warhammer left a concussion debuff, leaving her vulnerable to the mercenaries' attacks.

First came the hammer guy, then the two sword Damages, an ax, and the Tank's lance. They charged for Rainbow Dash, and the kids instinctively reacted by using her as a meat shield. But the blows struck ringing metal.

Sparks of metal lit up the tunnels, blinding the mercenaries for a second. Phoenix leaped over Rainbow Dash, who was just getting up, and battered the mercenary Tank with the flat side of her Teuflisch Zweihander. It was based off her old weapon, but Scootaloo had crafted it with a lot more attributes, including two complimentary fire enchantments. The first enchantment flared up, blasting back the heavy Tank with a burning explosion. The second enchantment glowed violently, heating the blade until it glowed molten red.

Another mercenary attacked from her left, swinging his cutlass at Phoenix's head, but she caught the middle of the blade, trapping it with the phoenix wing hilt, and twisted the weapon out of his hoof. The molten enchantment seemed to come alive, flooding out of Phoenix's sword and into the cutlass. It hit the ground burning, and before the mercenary could even reach his weapon, it shattered into light, despawning from excessive damage.

Rainbow Dash stood on her guard, positioning herself in front of the kids, threatening the mercenaries with just her glare. But while they were worried by of Rainbow Dash, they were mortally afraid of Phoenix. As if her sword wasn't menacing enough, she, a unicorn, wielded the two-handed weapon with one hoof.

"How the hell is this possible?" a mercenary with an ax asked.

The mercenary who lost his cutlass scowled, turning to the rest of his party. "It doesn't matter, they'll report us if they get away. Fucking kill them!"

The ax mercenary didn't give the command any thought. As the others raised their weapons to strike, he holstered his ax and fled down the tunnel, away from the fight.

The Tank raised his lance and charged, followed by the hammer and sword Damages. Phoenix effortlessly parried the lance, deflecting the Tank over to Rainbow Dash as she side stepped and evaded the hammer. The sword mercenary came around the hammer wielder and struck her shoulder, tearing a hole in her leather armor.

She ducked under his second attack and beat his sword out of the way, following up with a thrust to his abdomen. He dropped a third of his health, but the sword mercenary continued a flurry of attacks, taking Phoenix's health down as well. At close quarters, her sword was too long to block effectively and it was also stuck in his plate armor.

Her health hit sixty percent by the time Rainbow Dash shoved the Tank back into the sword mercenary. The Damage with the hammer charged into Phoenix to get in her guard before she could recover, but she spun around and bucked the player over to Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash swiped her sword across the legs of the hammer Damage, sending him into the wall next to Phoenix, crippling him with a debuff.

The leader, unarmed, backed off as Phoenix pressed her attack on the Tank and sword wielder. The sword wielder barely lasted a few more moments, before fleeing for his own life once his health dropped below twenty percent. The Tank lasted far longer, deflecting blow after blow with his shield, but he could not keep up with Phoenix's strength and speed combined.

His stamina depleted rapidly, and once his shield dropped, the stallion fled to avoid taking any more damage.

Without a weapon and without backup, the leader of the whole group turned to flee for himself, but Phoenix caught up with him without any effort. She caught him by the neck and dragged his struggled body over to his crippled mercenary and dropped him next to the hammer wielder.

===================================================

"I don't know who you're talking about!" the leader shouted.

Rainbow Dash smacked him in the face again. "The ones who attacked the Knights of Yore, you've got to be connected to a shady group like that."

"We're not killers," he scowled back. "Thieves, robbers, those fit nicely, but we've never taken a life to get what we wanted."

Rainbow reached out with her wings and pinned the mercenary leader to the cave wall by the neck. "Then how'd you know we'd be here?"

"Lucky guess," he answered, struggling to breathe. "We figured someone would help those kids, so we waited along this tunnel to see who we'd find. It's nothing personal, it's just business."

Rainbow Dash turned to Phoenix. "Got anything more to ask them?" She glanced at the hammer wielder curled on the ground, staring at Phoenix with eyes full of fear.

Phoenix reciprocated, shooting daggers with her glare. Eventually, she relented. "No, let's just teleport them back to central."

"But we only have our emergency scrolls," Rainbow Dash said, "unless you remembered to bring more than one for yourself and you're only telling me this now."

Phoenix shook her head but opened her inventory anyways. "I don't trust them enough to drag their asses all the way back manually. Don't worry, we don't really need them on this floor."

Rainbow Dash scrunched her face at Phoenix's remark. "We call them emergency scrolls for a reason Phoenix. I'm not using mine, even if that means we have to take them to central the hard way."

The hammer wielder's eyes began to widen as the two talked, but his leader glared at him, telling to be quiet better than words could.

"Fine," Phoenix begrudgingly agreed, "we'll take them to town, but then it's all in the hooves of the NPC guards."

The hammer wielder shot up from the ground. Phoenix reached for her sword but stopped herself when the mercenary didn't make a move to escape. He also knew there'd be no hope of outrunning them.

"No, please, don't let the guards jail me," he begged. "There are players in jail right now who would have my hide if they ever saw me again. Lock me away in something player made if you wish, but I can't face the killers in prison. They know who I am."

"Woman up," Rainbow Dash retorted, "there's no PVP in prison, and for every prisoner added, ten more guards are spawned. You're safe."

"You don't know what they can do," he insisted, "they can't hurt anyone physically, but it's their incessant shouting and howling. We may be stuck in this game for months, even years, and I know I can't stand years of being locked away with a hundred delinquent minds. They never, ever, stop talking."

Phoenix paid no mind to his problems. Only moments ago, the player was willing to smash her head in with a hammer, now he was expecting favors. She silently grabbed him by the neck and shoved him along the tunnel. "There's about ninety-nine problems to deal with right now in this game, but criminals should have to be one of them. You only have yourself to blame for where you're at."

"I'm not the one who locked us in this digital hell!" he shouted back. "It was that bitch of a game developer!"

She felt the sudden urge to lunge out at the player and tear his throat out of this neck, but thought the better of it and clenched his teeth. "If this is hell, then how does preying on the damned help you find paradise? We were once a community of level one scrubs struggling together to survive. But now it seems that when given the time, people will find something, anything, to fight over." She grabbed him by the hoof and dragged him down the tunnel.

===================================================

The walk to central took much longer than everyone would have liked. The kids were a quieter, scanning the tunnels in case more mercenaries ambushed them to rescue their own. But they took every opportunity Rainbow Dash let them have to poke and prod the mercenaries.

The entire way, the mercenary leader glared daggers at his soldier as the hammer wielder struggled and flailed the every step of the way to the central cavern. Phoenix thought he was tired out by they time they were in sight of the light from the cavern's market center, but he had one last trick that caught her off guard.

"Floor thirty-five, about two hundred and thirty-four kilometers north-east from the central city," he told her, dejection heavy in his tone of voice. "We were supposed to meet some players there."

The mercenary leader twitched nervously, but restrained himself, knowing he could not budge while Rainbow Dash grappled him with her wings.

"Meet who?" Phoenix growled, tightening her grip on the hammer wielder's foreleg.

"Ach-" he grunted, the pressure squeezing uncomfortably into his bones. "Two players, stallions, dressed in black hooded robes. They wanted us to find you two, and when we said we didn't know how, they just gave us the plan to take advantage of the kids."

Phoenix shuddered. She knew the stallions had to be the killers that attacked the Knights, and now they were making sure to tie up lose ends. If they knew how to get to Rainbow Dash and her without even showing their hooded faces, then everyone in the investigation wasn't save. The Trotting Prancers, Roseluck, Grieve Blossom, Iceblood, and the CMC especially, could all be in danger.

The thought raced through her mind and she naturally crushed the hammer wielder's foreleg with her grip. It was about as painful as it the game allowed, but it still drew a single tear from him eyes.

"Phoenix, do you think we should check it out?" Rainbow Dash stepped in and asked, loosening Phoenix's grip slightly. "If he's lying, no harm done. But if it's the truth," she paused, waiting for Phoenix's response.

"The Crusaders can question them further, especially now that we know why this one hates prison," she said, nodding at the hammer wielder. He gulped, holding down his stress.

"Right," Rainbow Dash agreed. She turned around with the mercenary leader and spoke to the kids. "Well, the big kids gotta take care of some things, so you head into that cavern and teleport back to where it's safe."

She shoved the mercenary forward. "And say goodbye to the nice stallion, who has a lot of important things to tell us."

"Goodbye!" they shouted, sticking their tongues out at him as they ran cheerfully into the central cavern.

"We can't bring them into the main cavern, or the NPC guards will automatically arrest and teleport these two into prison," Phoenix mentioned, indecisively looking at the teleport scroll in her inventory.

Rainbow Dash furrowed her brow and threw the mercenary leader into Phoenix's inventory screen, wiping it away. "Just message Applebloom to come pick them up. She could probably use a break from raid preparations. Oh, and remind her to bring some extra teleport scrolls."

Phoenix nodded, and wrote a hasty message to Applebloom to pick up their newest leads on the killers.

Hunters

The new weapon flowed gracefully in Roseluck's hooves as she practiced in the training hall. She loved the sword Scootaloo had forged her, but the dragon-tier spear drop from one of the minor bosses on floor forty-eight spoke to her in a way no other weapon had before. She spun it around, following a simple ballet routine she learned as a young girl, adding subtle thrusts of the short spear where she could.

The guild hall was nearly empty that day. No one wanted to linger around and wait to be picked off by a guild of killers, and oddly enough, the recent attack on the Knights only inspired players to try harder to defeat the floor's boss. Preparations would be ready by now if it wasn't for the debacle on floor forty. Now everyone wanted to pitch in and help the Clearing Group get ahead of the game.

Roseluck jabbed one of the targets, landing the hit in an Arabesque position, one rear leg on the ground as her other shot back to balance. Like arms, her forelegs reached for opposites directions, balancing her body further. Her hooves also balanced her spear forward, in the direction she was facing.

But her awe at the game's ability to capture ballet was short lived, and as her character's pony body caught onto the fact it was in a very human-like position she felt the sudden loss of balance and tumbled over.

The training hall door opened. Grieve Blossom rushed in, distracted by a message in his menu screen. He began to talk until he looked up from the screen. Roseluck, not wanting to weigh herself down with armor as she practiced, was stripped down to the default undergarments. Fallen on the floor, her flank was very clearly pointed towards the door

"Fucking hell, knock next time Grieve Blossom!" she shouted at him, hurrying to equip her armor.

Grieve Blossom waved away his menu as he covered his eyes. "I'm so sorry, I was just assuming that..."

" I'm busy! Stop looking!" she yelled back at him, flipping through a list of old gear to find her dress.

"I'm not!" he exclaimed, quickly backing out of the training hall. "I'll just wait here until you're done."

===================================================

"I swear I wasn't looking at anything!" Grieve Blossomed pressed his case as he and Roseluck wandered the streets of floor forty eight's central city.

"You didn't answer the message Scootaloo sent us so I came to check on you, and, well," he shut his mouth before he continued too far.

"Shouldn't you be helping your guild with raid preparations?" Roseluck interrupted, clearly ready to forget what had happened a few minutes ago.

"Yeah, but I asked my commander if I could work with the Crusaders on the investigation," he answered. "Your leaders already said we should work together, so I don't see why the your guild should be spearheading the search for the killers alone."

Roseluck rounded the corner, keeping her pace quick. "Not alone, we have our soloing allies working on it too."

Grieve Blossom took that with a pinch of salt. "C'mon, everyone knows the Clearing Group's elites are close friends with your guild leaders. Applebloom's sister is Applejack herself. They're practically part of the Cutie Mark Crusaders already."

"Fine. Now stop following me," Roseluck put bluntly.

"Lady Scootaloo said she wanted to meet us both in town," Grieve Blossom countered. "Besides, I thought we were friends."

"We chatted after rescuing your commander, I'd hardly call that a strong friendship." Roseluck continued down the street and walked into a dimly lit restaurant. Supposedly it was a night themed business centered around honoring Princess Luna, and it was where Scootaloo wanted to meet them.

Grieve Blossom followed Roseluck and took the seat across from her. When it was clear to Roseluck that she couldn't shake Grieve Blossom, she agreed to let him stay. "As long as she wants you with us on this, I guess my hooves are tied."

She picked up a knife off the table and stuck it out at Grieve Blossom. "But don't get any ideas. You're not my type."

"Would you let that go? It was an accident!" Grieve Blossom pleaded. Roseluck decidedly ignored him, sitting back and crossing her forelegs as if they were arms.

"No."

===================================================

Scootaloo was happy to sit and watch as she had dinner with Roseluck and Grieve Blossom had lunch with her. Something happened, but she didn't need to know. It was only and hour past noon and she had already mediated a trade deal between to smaller rival guilds, helped a few Crusaders clear a dungeon, and read thousands of player reports on the murder investigation.

She wasn't in a rush to sort out another problem. Especially when the two looked so adorably uncomfortable.

"So, Lady Scootaloo," Grieve Blossom started, "why'd you want to talk to us?"

"To get a break, first of all," she said, relaxing in her seat as she drank a cold glass of water. "And to get this investigation steamrolling. Rainbow Dash and Phoenix are already on floor forty-two looking for any clues. RD even said she has some contacts in that mining dimension that could help scour the map."

"So what are we going to look for?" Roseluck asked.

Scootaloo opened her map and switched to the layout of floor thirty-eight. "Remember all the crystals and gemstone on this level?" she asked rhetorically. "A gem from here enchanted the machete Iceblood got hit with, which means our culprits either operate here, or they're connected to someone who does."

"But what if they just bought the gem from the auction house?" asked Grieve Blossom. "They don't necessarily have to be connected if that's how they got it."

She shook her head and clicked open her notepad. She turned her menu screen to show him and Roseluck how she spent part of her morning. "A list of all the Crippling Black Gems sold from the auction house. I sent teams of Crusaders out to monitor all two hundred and twenty-seven buyers. You might be right, and the killers have just used the auction house, but I don't think they'd be so sloppy."

"You checked each player?" Roselucked gasped, unable to comprehend how hard it would be to keep tabs on every possible suspect.

Scootaloo brushed it off like it was nothing. "Well, I am pretty awesome, so don't be too surprised. Besides, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom are preparing the Clearing Group for the raid, so someone had to take the reigns."

Grieve Blossom gazed down the long list of player names, eyes wide with the same astonishment as Roseluck. "So we'll be doign the other part of the search?"

"Strait to the source," Scootaloo confirmed. She rose from her seat. "We've got a lot of ground to cover, so let's get to it!"

===================================================

Floor thirty-eight reminded Roseluck of when she first met Phoenix on floor eighteen. Aside from ice and snow being replaced by sharp crystal fragments, which made the entire tunnel system look like one massive crystal geode, the design of the map almost matched the ice caves perfectly. But this time around she wouldn't be hindered by her attributes.

Grieve Blossom scanned the nooks and crannies of the crystal structures, checking for any sign of player interaction. Empty nodes, discarded loot, anything that looked like it could lead to the killers. He found nothing, but remained diligent anyways.Roseluck walked past him as he crawled into a tight gap between two massive quartz slabs. She was busy cataloging all the ingredients she had for alchemy, writing down what she needed to collect later for the boss preparations.

They remained a few meters back behind Scootaloo, who insisted on dealing with any of the monsters that attacked, just so she could get her blood pumping. Neither of them complained, she was a better fighter after all. They made good time together, stopping only occasionally to check their maps.

Scootaloo noticed the message alert on the mail icon next to her map. "Hold up," Scootaloo called back to the two of them. "Got something from Applebloom."

"What's it say?" Roseluck asked, taking her attention off her menu screen. She walked over to see what it said. "Are they already done getting the raid ready?" Grieve Blossom added something, but he was muffled behind the quarts.

"No," Scootaloo answered. "Apparently RD and Phoenix found a lead on forty-two. An orange player that might be connected to the killers. Applebloom has custody of him now, and she wants me to head back up to the front line to help build a house for him. Gonna lock him in it, and she needs my blacksmith skill to make an unbreakable lock."

Grieve Blossom finally managed to squeeze back out of the quartz and catch up to Scootaloo and Roseluck. "Why not just get the NPC's to put him in prison?"

"Probably going to question him," Scootaloo guessed. "If he knows something about the killers, you can bet Applebloom wants to cover all her bases. Crazy farm girl never leaves a chore half finished."

"So where does that leave us?" Roseluck asked. "Because I don't have any skill points in building stuff."

Scootaloo chuckled. "No, you two can keep checking this floor out." She opened her trade menu with Roseluck and handed over a dozen teleport scrolls. "In case you run into any red or orange players."

Tracking criminals solo, or even in teams of two, wasn't common. Most players formed raid-like parties just to make sure a bloodthirsty murderer didn't take their lives. And though both Roseluck and Grieve Blossom easily outmatched anything in the dimension, players were not as predictable.

But Scootaloo could sense the uncertainty in their faces. "I'm not asking you two 'To do a Phoenix' and solo scout the boss dungeon, or single-handedly bring down the mafia; have some confidence in your skills." She patted them both on the shoulder with cheer, reassuring them.

Roseluck nodded along and equipped the teleport scrolls in a secondary slot. "We'll check out the rest of the place and be back before you know it," she assured Scootaloo. "Right Grieve Blossom?"

The stallion bit down his nervousness and simply nodded along.

"Great!" Scootaloo cheered, pulling out her own teleport scroll. "See you two later at the boss raid! Tomorrow afternoon, don't forget it!" Her last words were almost cut off as the scroll whisked her away back to the floor's central portal.

Grieve Blossom turned to Roseluck. "So, ah, ladies first? Want to take point?"

Roseluck sighed and indulged Grieve Blossom. "Fine, I'll lead the way." She turned and trotted deeper into the crystal caves. "But stick to checking out the crystals. I can feel you staring already."

"I'm not even looking at you! I'm... sorting out my inventory!" Grieve Blossom shouted back.

===================================================

The two continued with barely a change in pace. Together, they dealt with the Ice Trolls that spawned on the shelves of the crystal caves. As they went on, deeper into the tunnel system, everything gradually became darker. Though they could still see where they were going, nothing seemed as clear as before.

Yet, even the darkest places of the map didn't slow Roseluck. Grieve Blossom's heavy armor, however, began to drain his stamina.

"Hold on," he gasped, "I think we should take a look around here, maybe rest for a while."

Roseluck continued down the tunnel, checking for signs of players. "I have spare cloth armor that fights your build," her voice echoed back to him.

Grieve Blossom gave a groan of slight frustration and pushed to catch up to Roseluck. "Thanks, but -how should I put this?- I kinda don't want to, you know..."

"Know what?" she replied.

Grieve Blossom gave an indifferent shrug before exclaiming. "Oh, I don't know, maybe die!"

"Don't be ridiculous," she said, waving his comment away, "you're not a Tank. Besides, Damages can easily run around with light armor and not even get hit."

"Not all of us can switch to a spear and suddenly gain an extra meter in range," he countered. Roseluck still wasn't convinced. I was wear cloth armor from the start, long before I started using a spear. "Just look at Phoenix! She's fights face-to-face with most bosses but only uses leather armor."

"You know, I haven't met Phoenix yet," Grieve Blossom reminded Roseluck. "I've only heard about her when you're talking with your friends."

Roseluck gave a skeptical look. "How do you not know who she is? She's one of the top Clearing Group players, right up there next to Rainbow Dash, and don't tell me you don't know who Rainbow Dash is."

"Of course I know Rainbow Dash," Grieve Blossom said, feeling a defensive. "But I've never met them. I just assume their like your guild leaders."

"Better," she replied.

Another hour passed, and all but inner caverns had been checked. All that remained was the boss room. Roseluck looked around her map, then turned to Grieve Blossom. "Think we should head back to the surface? Nothing left down here."

Grieve Blossom shrugged. "I don't know, I think if a sinister organization wanted to hide any kind of evidence, the boss room might be a good spot."

"Well, we're not so overpowered that we can take on the boss alone," Roseluck replied.

"Maybe," Grieve Blossom mumbled, walking over to the thick quartz door at the boss room. He placed his hoof on the handle, opening a small dungeon menu.

Available Repeatable Dungeon: Kill Sombra. Are you sure you want to continue without a full party?

"Let's just take a quick peek," he said, tapping the green confirmation button. Roseluck didn't answer back.

"Oh come on, don't tell me you're scared already," Grieve Blossom teased again, but Roseluck didn't make any remark. She didn't even make a sigh of despair at his annoyance.

Grieve Blossom turned around to ask again, but Roseluck was really gone. He looked around, worried she had already headed back for the exit. He hadn't heard her use a teleport scroll, but for going on hoof, she appeared to be long gone.

A mare whispered behind Grieve Blossom.

You poor thing, lost your girlfriend?

He whirled around and drew his sword to face the player, but voice had no body. He turned around again, scanning the cavern walls. There was nothing on the crystal shelves. He thought it could be a rare NPC for a moment, but he saw no markers near him as he checked his map.

And they call me clueless.

"What happened to Roseluck?" he shouted into the darkness.

Left you, of course. I mean, what girl would go for a guy like you?

"What are you talking about? We're barely even friends. We're more like colleagues."

That's not how you look at her.

Grieve Blossom grew angrier by the second. He grabbed a scroll from his inventory and opened it. The paper transformed into a stream of liquid fire, lighting up the cavern in fire and smoke.

"Where are you?"

The only reply was a dagger in the back. It only took a fraction of his health away, but Grieve Blossom lost all control over his body, and he collapsed. A paralysis poison.

Here I am. Boo.

Trapped

If she hadn't been distracted by Grieve Blossom's foolish idea, maybe she would have seen the dagger coming. Roseluck shook her head. She couldn't blame him for getting paralyzed, she didn't even see where the dagger came from, as if it materialized out of the air. She looked around, but it was useless. All she could see was her health bar in the corner, and the small blindness and paralysis debuffs next to it.

She could hear and feel though, and it sounded like she was being dragged through the boss dungeon. She could definitely feel the rumbling of the cavern as Sombra began to spawn. But as she was dragged along, it began to sound like she was going down a tunnel or a shaft, to another cavern perhaps.

"Hello? Who is this?" she asked her captor. There was a soft grunt from the stallion, but nothing else. She tried harder to get something out of him. "Please, you don't want to do this. Our friends will come looking for us, and they'll find you. You must be at least an orange player by now, you attacked me after all, so if they find you, you'll get arrested for sure."

If the player was listening to a word she said, he didn't seem to show it. Roseluck figured she was dragged for another minute before getting thrown into some kind of metal cage. She could hear the squeaking hinges, and the smell of rust on the floor. There was another stallion's voice, one not as rough as the disgruntled dragger.

"Ah, thank you, er...hm. Fuck, I forgot your name." the other stallion said. The dragger didn't reply. The only sound Roseluck heard from him was his hooves shuffling along the rough crystal floor.

"Well then, I supposed all that's left is to wait."

Roseluck struggled to turn her body to face the direction of the voice, but she was still paralyzed and she slumped back into an unfortable position. "Wait for what?" she asked dejectedly.

"Well for him to bring along your friend, of course!" the stallion exclaimed. "I hate doing introductions twice. It'd be better if you were both here."

"Please, let us go," Roseluck pleaded.

"But we haven't even had tea yet. You can't leave without some tea." The stallion's tone sounded genuinely disappointed. Roseluck didn't believe it until she heard glasses clicking and water boiling.

"Can you at least tell me why-"

"Introductions later, sweetheart!" the stallion interrupted.

Her heart plummeted to her stomach. What did he have planned? She dreaded to know. She didn't want to know where she was, but above her, the thunderous sounds of cracking crystals shook through the walls. The cage rattled with the noise. In the distance, down what sounded like the tunnel she was dragged through, she heard a door rumble open and hoof steps galloping toward the cavern.

Her heart skipped a beat as she hoped Grieve Blossom had found a way to save her.

She heard his voice in the distance, but it did not bring any consolation. "You fucking bastard! What happened to Roseluck? I'll make you tell me once this debuff runs out!"

"Ah, our other guest!" the stallion said gleefully.

Grieve Blossom grunted, the captor dragging him roughly into the room and slamming him into the sharp crystal wall.

The stallion seemed to ignore the aggression. "You look tired. Sombra give you a spook, big fella?"

Again, the dragger said nothing, but Roseluck could hear his breathing get louder. Whatever was between them was well understood. There wasn't a single exchange as the captor walked back out of the cavern.

"Don't mind him, young ones," the stallion said, "he's just sad because he's got a job to get back to. Poor thing."

Grieve Blossom didn't give the stallion a chance to express himself further. "Let me go, or this will get bad for you," he threatened. "The Knights of Yore won't forgive a murderer like you."

"Who, me?" the stallion gasped. "My hands, or rather, hooves -jeez that still sounds weird- are clean."

"Bullshit," spat Grieve Blossom, "we came here looking for evidence of the player who terrorized our training camp on floor forty, and here you are, kidnapping the investigators. What did you even do to Roseluck you-"

Grieve Blossom suddenly shut up, followed by a horrid gurgling. Roseluck didn't have time to wonder what happened to him, she got her answer just a few moments after.The stallion stuck some kind of potion bottle in her mouth, the contents flowing like hot lava down her throat. Her first reaction was to cough it up, but the bottle pushed deeper as the liquid tried to crawl its way back up. The seconds of agony brought tears to her eyes for the first time in the game.

"Oh I know what you're thinking," the stallion said, terrifyingly calm and stoic with what he was doing. "How can I feel pain? None of this is real, I'm not allowed to enjoy the finer things in life. So, why does it still hurt?" His hoof released the potion and Roseluck forced the glass out of her mouth with painstaking effort.

The blindness debuff, with two minutes remaining on it, vanished suddenly. Seconds later, Roseluck's eyes could see enough to tell when she was blinking. Still, the after effect left her mind drowsy, and her vision blurred.

"Roseluck, is that you?" Grieve Blossom asked, struggling to rise from his paralysis.

She smiled, answering back, "I'm here Grieve Blossom, don't worry about me." She moved her eyes around, but she had been thrown in her cell facing away from where Grieve Blossom was.

"Well, now that that's all in order, we can really have some fun." The stallion walked over and knelt next to Roseluck. She finally had a the chance to take a good look at him. What she saw was just a stallion like any other. A pegasus with a light blue coat and a grey mane, nothing special. Aside from the slight wrinkles that made him look much older up close, he didn't look like the scary killer Roseluck feared he was.

"I'm not screwing around," Grieve Blossom said sternly. "You'll get what's coming to you, and it'll be worse if you don't let us go right now."

The stallion didn't seem bothered, he just smiled warmly. "Well, I can't let you leave without my full hospitality, but I can answer all those questions swimming around in your head."

"Where are we?" Roseluck responded naturally.

"Floor thirty-eight," the stallion answered back, "anything else?"

"Where on floor thirty-eight?" she clarified.

The stallion didn't miss a step in his upbeat attitude. "In a cage! In a cave! A hidden page of the boss room's story!"

"A hidden story?" Grieve Blossom asked, growing increasingly irritated at the stallion's behavior.

"Better if I show you. He'll be here any minute!" The stallion turned to face a large wooden desk on the other side of the crystal room. As he predicted, light fragments began to whirlwind around the desk, filling the shape of an elderly old unicorn.

"You won't stop me! For King Sombra!" the NPC shouted, charging up a blast of magic in its horn. The stallion drew his weapon, a steel whip made of sharp barbed chains, and lacerated the NPC back into sparkling lights.

"Evil wizard bringing back a dead king, heroes come and destroy Sombra, kill the madman, yada yada yada," he frankly explained. "Respawns every time someone triggers the boss room. Poor thing doesn't even know it's in a loop."

"You just showing us this for giggles?" Grieve Blossom asked, grunting as he continued to overcome the paralysis poison.

"Not just for giggles, no," he wagged his hoof. "A special potion can be made from a unique ingredient in this room, and this room alone. Part of the story." He stepped back and presented a chest that was lying next to the desk. "But I've been a strong believer that actions speak louder than words. Now, you shall see, my masterpiece!"

His voice rang through the small cavern and out through the tunnel, leaving the silence to hang. Nothing happened.

"Where is that damn girl?" His voice grew quickly agitated, elevating to a shout. "How can I demonstrate my masterpiece if she's not here!" His mask broke for a split second, and Roseluck saw what the stallion was hiding underneath his joyous facade.

His creepiness seemed to be all she could fear from a maniac in PAO, but his guttural anger was something else. There was more than fear, there was dread.

It all seemed like blind rage for a moment, as he gave incoherent shouts around the cavern. Roseluck glanced around, seeing what she could. The cavern was no bigger than an apartment, there was nothing for the stallion to look for. With her attention trained onto the room, she didn't notice the small vial in her cage until it rolled over and bumped into her.

We may be enemies, but you don't deserve what he'll do.

Roseluck's eyes darted around, but the female voice was formless. However, she didn't have time to think. She was paralyzed and laying on the cage floor, and the vial had rolled strait to her mouth.

Take it, it's the antidote.

"This is not what we rehearsed!" cried the stallion, now swinging his whip around the room, cracking crystal shards off the walls. "Bring it back you bitch!"

There wasn't time to have trust issues. Roseluck opened her mouth and breathed deeply, sucking in the potion until it stuck to her mouth. Slowly, she worked the cork off with her teeth.

Crack.

Roseluck clenched her teeth over the cork as the stallion's whip wrapped around a body right in front of Roseluck's cage. The female shrieked, evidently flailing and struggling to escape. Its barbed ends dug into the player, dripping pixelated blood all over the pony's form.

An invisibility potion? Roseluck thought to herself as the chains dragged the form toward the stallion. The effect, countered by taking damage, vanished and revealed a blue earth pony, about the same age as Roseluck.

"You were supposed to go appear on top of the chest!" the stallion shouted in her face, grabbing her by her lengthy mane and dragging her next to a bookshelf, kicking it over to reveal a set of chains attached to the walls.

"I thought you were sincere when you begged me not to use these anymore, but I guess I can't trust anything from you, right?" He grabbed her hooves with his wings and shackled her to the wall.

Roseluck panicked on the inside, but she remained entirely focused on the potion bottle; it was almost open.

The mare opened her mouth to speak, this time her voice unaltered by the invisibility potion. "Please," the blue mare whimpered, "I just got scared, I was confused." She looked up at him with tearing eyes. "Don't use it on me, it hurts too much to bear."

The stallion shook his head, his face remorseless. He reached into her armor, pulling out two vials of a radiant rainbow mixture. He turned halfway to talk to Grieve Blossom and Roseluck. "You know, pain in Pony Art Online is a joke. It dulls it down until it's nearly non-existent. But the senses," he paused, grabbing a bundle of the mare's mane and smelling it, "is as real as it gets."

He pulled himself away and walked over to the desk, opening a drawer. "However, there are a few ingredients have offer a combination of senses and pain. Spices for the cooking skill, for example, burn like a motherfucker when you use too much of it. Poisons that make you feel nauseous don't hold back on that gut wrenching feeling. Ah! Here it is!"

The stallion found a satchel of syringes in the back of a drawer. He took two, one for each vial of the vibrant potion, and drained the first vial completely dry. "Two doses per vial," he mumbled to himself, "but three guests. It would a shame to waste a whole dose."

He turned back around to stare at the blue mare, and Roseluck shivered as she caught a glance of his face. His face was stretched into an impossibly wide grin, threatening to tug and tear at his own flesh as he smiled.

"It looks like you need to learn your lesson young one," he spoke through his teeth as he brought the two needles up to her neck. Her eyes were wide open, but its was clear that fear had paralyzed her as much as the poison had paralyzed Grieve Blossom and Roseluck.

"You promised," she whispered, her lips trembling as she spoke, "you said you'd help us." He took his time, but eventually the mare shut her eyes closed as the stallion pricked the needles along her skin. A dead silence hung between the two, and Roseluck assumed the stallion was too engrossed in the mare's punishment to notice her open the potion.

Pop!

The potion sound, the one that the game made when any potion was opened, echoed through the crystal room. The stallion drew back, and turned his gaze to Roseluck. She recognized a flicker of realization in the stallions eyes before he spun his head back to the mare.

He slammed his hoof on her throat, pinning her tightly to the wall, and while the strike didn't hurt horribly, she could still suffocate under his shocking strength. She gasped to plea, but her voice croaked and broke under the stallion's thrashing.

"You've done it this time!" he growled. "Don't you get it? Your friends left you to me because you're useless. I thought I could mold you with my methods, but it seems you can't even be tortured right!" He peeled open her eyes with his wings acting as hands, and squished a syringe into each pupil.

Roseluck closed her own eyes, clenching her teeth on the potion bottle and drinking. She hoped the foul bitter antidote would distract her, but the mare's shrieks were like nothing Roseluck had ever heard before. It as if she truly felt the pain, despite the game's restrictions.

The stallion let the syringes despawn, leaving the mare convulsing from the shock along the wall. "A little lesson for you two," he explained while he unraveled his chain whip. "One Basilisk Eye, a piece of Everfree Moss, two Black Water Pearls, a Devil's Flower, and from this floor, a fragment of the Crystal Heart, and you'll get the full package of the senses!" The stallion grabbed his chain whip.

The mare wailed as the first strike from the chain cut clean through her armor, tearing at her coat. The barbed chains, did not whip cleanly. Her skin, and sometimes muscle, tore off in pixelated chunks, despawning before they hit the ground. It was worse the fifth and tenth time too. But there was nothing Roseluck could do. By the time she got out of the cage, the stallion could strike her down with his whip.

He shouted over the mare's cries, unwilling to stop to explain the effects of his concoction. "The Potion of Pain, which I cleverly named myself, creates a mixture of sensations that makes your body highly sensitive to anything else. Like light, smells, or pain." He brought the whip down one more time, cleaving a diagonal red streak across the mare's body, from her shoulder to her leg.

He waited to catch his breath. "On top of that, the game gets so overloaded trying to limit the senses that it can't cover everything. So, when it's too distracted, you get attacks delivering every ounce of agony it should have. High attack speed's the key to this whole art, really."

"You're sick," Grieve Blossom muttered, gently lifting himself up, "but you also got carried away. Time's up on the paralysis you maniac, I'm coming for you." Grieve Blossom drew his sword and swung at the cage door. To his surprise, it opened easily, but didn't take a single scratch.

"It's a part of the room, smart one," the stallion said pointedly, "you don't need to be so dramatic."

Grieve Blossom ignored him and charged at the stallion with his sword strait ahead. But he was an earth pony player, and having no wings or magic to hold his weapon gave the pegasus stallion a speed advantage. Grieve Blossom stumbled over and skidded across the rough crystal floor with a dagger in his foreleg. Once again, the dagger poisoned him and left him paralyzed.

The stallion gave Grieve Blossom little time to react. He stomped one hoof on top of his chest and pulled out another syringe, filled with the rainbow colored potion, and jammed the needle into his throat. Grieve Blossom felt like boiling water had entered his veins, pouring out onto his organs as his back arched back in the initial pain.

"Just stop already!" Roseluck cried out, rushing out of her cage with her spear in hoof. She had the advantage of surprise, but even her spear was not long enough to counter the chain whip as the stallion lashed it across the air, wrapping the barbed chains around the spear shaft, reaching up and around her foreleg.

It didn't stop her though. Roseluck twisted her body as she leaped through the air, wrenching her spear out of the whip, lunging downward onto the stallion. He rolled to the side, dragging his whip with him, and swung it back at Roseluck again. But while the stallion's weapon seemed superior, Roseluck was clearly the better fighter.

With the grace of a dancer she weaved her body through the chains, rotating over and around the whip whizzing by her ears, bringing the point of her spear up to the stallion's head. He was wise enough to move before it made its mark, but nevertheless, it struck his chest as he backed away.

He panicked once the critical hit dropped his health by twenty percent, lashing back furiously with a barrage of throwing daggers from a secondary weapon slot. Roseluck rotated her spear, bouncing each dagger back. But with her focus on the daggers, she couldn't stop the whip wrapping around her leg, toppling over.

In a moment, the stallion was on top her, running the tip of a filled syringe along her back.

"We all don't have a lifetime to spend in this world," he whispered harshly into her ear, each word shooting his hot breath into her face. "The Clearing Group might finish it, the game might kill us, or out bodies might just perish on a hospital bed. Either way, I can finally get away with some real entertainment in this world, and I won't let a moment of it go to waste."

The very tip of the needle pricked through an exposed piece of Roseluck's armor, and she could already feel the effects of the potion in the syringe. The needle stung as if it was real, as if nothing stood between the sensations of the virtual world and the real one. She clenched her teeth, but couldn't stop screaming as the potion burned in her veins.

"Most can barely stay awake their first time," the stallion breathed into her ear as she cried from the pain. He slipped his wings under her armor, tugging at it. "But I really hope you get feel every moment of this."

Roseluck pushed off the ground, trying to throwing off the stallion and grab her spear, but the sudden rush of her senses left her disoriented, and it took all her strength to keep herself from passing out. In her struggle, she barely noticed Grieve Blossom get up from the ground and strike the stallion in the back.

He stumbled off Roseluck, turning to face Grieve Blossom. Roseluck reached to grab her spear, but the burning in her body took control of her limbs, leaving her shaking on the floor.

"Get back on the ground boy, and wait your turn," the stallion said sternly. He thrashed his whip at the floor, slashing up shards of crystals off the ground. Grieve Blossom flinched and stepped back as the pieces stung his face.

The stallion laughed. "You're feeling it at a hundred percent; I'm immune to the pain. Who do you really think is going to win here?"

Grieve Blossom kept his guard up, planting himself between Roseluck and the stallion. "We'll find out when you're dead," he said grimly.

"Confident, aren't you?" the stallion chuckled and pointed to the blue mare chained to the wall. "That's what she said when she started working for me. Now look at her. Poor little Sonata, unwanted by her friends."

Sonata? Roseluck got a grip on herself for a moment and forced her neck to creak and turn to take a look at the mare. She felt like she had heard the name Sonata before, but nothing came to her mind immediately.

Grieve Blossom's sword clashed with the whip, getting entangled with its barbs. He yelled, the chains digging into his skin as they wrapped along his foreleg, but he didn't relent. The stallion had to back up to avoid the wild swings Grieve Blossom delivered, unraveling the chain to defend himself.

They both clashed, slashing each other until they were equaled at fifty percent health. But while the stallion still moved with similar efficiency, Grieve Blossom was feeling the effects of the potion take its toll. Wide lashes across his chest and face no longer ached, but cried out instead.

"Said I would win," the stallion mocked, striking Grieve Blossom once again with his whip. Grieve Blossom raised his sword in defense, but couldn't keep up as the pain began to cloud his vision.

He felt a dagger pierce his armor, striking his chest. He collapsed on the floor, paralyzed again. But the effect was entirely different with the pain potion in his system. It felt like a venomous bite from a snake, paralyzing his heart and his lungs. He gasped as the pressure in his chest drained his breath away.

"Oh, so you've figured out what happens when you mix your drugs together." The stallion kicked Grieve Blossom across the room, into one of the cages. "Well, then it seems there's nothing left for you to learn here."

He raised his whip. "It's time you got out of the way, and let your friend take in some of the lessons." He brought down whip with full force, crushing one of Grieve Blossom's legs. The crippled debuff racked itself against his mind; he couldn't react to the shock as he felt his entire leg shatter into pieces, nor could he give more than a strained moan.

The paralysis poison had suddenly made everything ten times worse, forcing him to lay there and take the full extent of the suffering. Worse, his health had dropped to thirty-five percent by the second hit. The stallion meant it when he said he was done toying with him.

Twenty-five percent. He was going to die, in a cave, as Roseluck lay on the floor and watched. His eyes flicked to the other side of the room, where Roseluck lay twitching on the floor from the potion. Except, she wasn't there. Fifteen percent.

Grieve Blossom's heart suddenly sank. Roseluck must have over come the initial rush of the potion, and if the stallion was busy fighting him, then she could have left before she had to deal with the pain of the chain whip. Part of Grieve Blossom was relieved that Roseluck had gotten away safely, but another part felt alone, betrayed.

Five percent. He was already dead. Grieve Blossom closed his eyes and let go.

Click. Clank. Kachunk.

The sound of cuffs and chains rattled.

Hoof steps lightly echoed around the room.

Grieve Blossom opened his eyes and looked around. The stallion was apparently doing the same.

You never could focus on more than one thing at a time Long Glider. The voice, the female voice, echoed in the room just as it did before Grieve Blossom got captured.

The others won't be happy. But I don't think you'll have to worry about that. Thanks to that little stallion, you're the weak one now.

The stallion didn't give a moment to think, he simply reached for a health potion and swallowed the contents. His health bar climbed back up from fifty to eighty percent. Then a spear pinned his chest to the wall.

I have some help now too.

Attacking brought Roseluck out from the invisibility potion's effect as she raised her spear up and suspended the stallion at the top of the wall.

Like I said, you just can't focus on more than one thing at a time.

Roseluck let go of her spear, but it remained in place, held by the invisible player. Roseluck let the mare thrash the stallion around; she rushed over to Grieve Blossom, quickly grabbing three vials from her inventory and pouring them down his throat. Almost immediately, the pain subsided and Grieve Blossom could move again. He worried about his health for a moment, but Roseluck's potions took care of that too.

Meanwhile, the stallion's health was dropping rapidly. The blue player was merciless, dragging him around the room like a rag doll, beating him against every possible thing. But, without a dose of the rainbow colored potion, the stallion only ever felt a fraction of what he had inflicted to all of them.

"Are you done yet?" Roseluck finally asked, after two satisfying minutes. The stallion lay twisted on the floor, the blue player standing tiredly over him.

She turned to Roseluck and shook her head. "I don't think I'll ever be done. Killing him seems too merciful, but giving him what he deserves is impossible without the potion." She looked back at the stallion for a moment before talking to them further.

"I think I'm supposed to be your enemy," she stated frankly.

Roseluck and Grieve Blossom both looked confused. She sighed and took a moment to collected her thoughts.

"Long Glider didn't seem insane when I first met him," she explained. "My friends left me with him to help him craft all the potions we wanted. Together, my friends and I had a plan, though now I'm sure I was left out of most of it. After we got to this floor, Long Glider found this room, and used it to experiment with potions until he came across the recipe he used to make the pain potions."

"But, why'd he turn on you?" Roseluck asked.

The mare shrugged. "I think he was really insane from the start, and just needed that extra push over the edge. He even said to me, the first time he used it, that it was because we had worked so closely for so long. He legitimately thought it would help us bond."

"So, not to distract from your sad story, but, what was that thing you said, about us being enemies?" Grieve Blossom chimed in. "You kind of glossed over that part."

"I'm not sure, probably something about taking over, getting power, stuff like that. We always do stuff like that." the mare walked over to Long Glider and stared at him. He just laid on the floor, heavily breathing. It could have been so easy to pick up Roseluck's spear and kill him, he was only on one percent of his health. Still, something else stopped her.

"I don't know what role he had in our plans, but he knows where Aria and Adagio are," she said.

"So, you're one of them then," Roseluck whispered.

Both Grieve Blossom and the mare turned to Roseluck with bewilderment.

"You performed at my school once, you and your friends, until everything went down at the Battle of the Bands. That was you three, wasn't it?"

Sonata nodded. "That was a long time ago, and we can't do that kind of stuff anymore."

"Wait, what power?" Grieve Blossom asked meekly. Whatever Roseluck and Sonata had between them, Grieve Blossom was not welcome to know. The two of them kept talking as if he hadn't asked.

"I don't remember the details, but I did hear you three were using some serious power from those gems. The whole concert turned into a magic anomaly."

Grieve Blossom simply stepped away, sat on the floor, and covered his ears. "Fine, if you won't tell me, I don't want to get confused. Blah blah blah, I'll just sit in a corner and be ignored."

Sonata blinked. Of course, Roseluck might have been a student there, but she was far from being part of the conflict. She certainly wouldn't have the same feelings about her as those six would.

Even so, Roseluck seemed a bit cautious. "I don't know what you three planned to do here, but could your friends be evil enough to start a murder guild?"

"What? No!" Sonata was taken aback. "Adagio's a control freak, but not a murderer or anything like that. Aria's a bit meaner, but she'd still prefer to take over rather than fight."

Roseluck apologized. "Sorry, I didn't mean to assume, it's just that we came here looking for a murder guild, and Long Glider just seems to fit the description of someone who might be part of one."

"We weren't the only ones he worked for," Sonata said, looking at crippled the stallion with scorn, "so I wouldn't be surprised if he really was with a murder guild. But that's not us, trust me."

"Well, do you want to come with us back to floor forty-eight?" Roseluck asked. "We're heading back to clear the floor's boss with our guilds. They could help take care of Long Glider, and they'd love to help you reunite with your friends."

"You'd help me?" Sonata looked at her confusedly.

"Of course," she replied, "it's not like your plans for domination or whatever has begun, and it'd be wrong to assume the worst based on Long Glider's reputation." Grieve Blossom glanced over at Roseluck, but she glared at him, and he not to interrupt.

"I don't know," Sonata answered. "I've been here for so long... and... I just don't know what to do next."

Roseluck opened her menu. "Well, you saved my life, so how's this for starters?" A friend request popped up in front of Sonata. She looked at it as if it was completely foreign to her. She smiled and accepted the request. Her friends list popped up, showing the new addition to the list of names. There was only one name.

"Thanks," she said.

Roseluck walked behind her and lifted up Long Glider on her shoulder. "Okay, now that we've sorted that out, could one of you help me with this guy?"

"I'll kill you all," Long Glider muttered, still barely conscious from his vicious beating.

Seeing that the conversation was over, Grieve Blossom uncovered his ears and joined Roseluck. "Yeah, that seems important," Grieve Blossom said, heaving the stallion up by the legs. Together, they carried him out and escorted him back to the central city, staying in the unused alleys to make sure no guards could sense him and send him to prison. They had their own plans, and didn't want to have to tangle with NPC guards just to lock him up on floor forty-eight.

Breakthrough

"Watch for the incoming wave!"

Everyone dodged out of the way, shielding themselves behind buildings and crates as a blast of energy rippled through the streets. Floor forty-eight's boss had done something completely unexpected, and teleported itself out of the dungeon and into the central city, along with the whole raid party. Each player had the home turf advantage, but that meant all their planning had been wasted, and no one knew what to do.

"Applebloom, where's your sister?" Sweetie Belle yelled as the boss, a manticore corrupted by dark magic, charged another blast.

Applebloom rushed to take cover next to Sweetie Belle behind a building just as the next wave of energy shook the whole city. "I saw her charging forward with Sunset and Pinkie Pie, I don't know how close she is though."

"Fluttershy?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Her pets are healing whoever they can and bringing them to the edge of the city where they're safe." Applebloom turned around as the manticore's energy began leaking off the main streets, forming ghost-like apparitions.

The wendigo lunged at Applebloom's shield, bouncing off and dissipating as Sweetie Belle cut through it with her sword.

"We have to regroup," Sweetie Belle said, "everyone's spread across the city right now and there's no way to tackle that thing alone."

It was easier said than done. The pockets of players that remained slowly spread apart as they were harassed by the wendigos. Some fled to the edge of town, while others ran toward the center of town assuming the main force was going to meet there.

As more and more creatures spawned, players stopped checking their maps to find other raid members, focusing all their attention on the hordes of wendigos and magic energy flooring the streets.

In the fray, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom only managed to run into Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash by chance. They collided paths in the residential side of town, where there were the most player houses.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so glad we found you," Rainbow Dash said with a sigh of relief. She whirled around and cut down three wendigos rushing down the street. "These things are getting out of control, we can barely get to the manticore."

Sweetie Belle agreed, but she didn't have a plan to fix it. "Half of the raid is scattered on the edges of town, and the other half's split up around the city."

"Are the NPC's doing anything?" Scootaloo asked. "The town guard should have been triggered."

"They're not spawning fast enough," Applebloom answered.

Sweetie swiped open her menu and checked the names of the raid members. No one was dead yet, but not a lot of players were doing good health wise. On her map, she noticed a group of members meeting up two streets away from the boss.

"RD, get out of combat mode," she said, pointing to the group on her map. "I think some players are planing to hit the boss from here, you need to tell the rest of the raid to head over there." Rainbow Dash sheathed her sword, nodded, and took off to the sky in a flash.

"We need to get moving Sweetie Belle," Applebloom urged. She held back a whole herd of wendigos with her shield, slamming them back onto the main street.

"Scootaloo, help me clear a path through the street," Sweetie Belle said, drawing her scimitar. "And keep those wendigos off our backs Applebloom."

"What do you think I'm doing," she grunted, shoving back the creatures.

Scootaloo took the lead once they got out onto the street, swinging her warhammer and sending piles of wendigos off the street. Sweetie Belle was close behind, using her scimitar and higher attack speed to hack through any thing that tried to flank them. Applebloom followed the two, keeping a whole horde of wendigos at bay with her shield slams.

To the other players they passed, they looked like they were parting a sea of monsters as they marched down the street toward the boss. Slowly, lingering players fled from the alleys and joined up with the CMC, helping them push back the wendigos. The group grew to a system of ten players, dicing up the wendigos like a machine.

"What's the plan?" one player yelled out in the midst of all the fighting.

Sweetie Belle shouted back. "The rest of the raid is grouping up on the other side of the city. We need to distract the boss long enough to give them a surprise attack advantage." As if it sensed someone was talking about it, the boss charged up another wave of energy.

"Behind the Tanks!" Scootaloo shouted.

Applebloom and two other Tanks linked their shields together, deflecting part of the wave back on the surrounding wendigos. It was a powerful blast, clearing a patch in the horde for the players to regroup. No one took damage thanks to the Tanks, but the strength of the blast left their stamina drained.

"Damn it! Our abilities won't work, we're out of stamina," Applebloom shouted to Sweetie Belle.

"Potions?" she replied.

The Tanks traded glances with Applebloom and shook their heads.

"We're all out."

Scootaloo swept her warhammer in a wide arc, launching a dozen wendigos back into their horde. "Well they're surrounding us, so we gotta move."

The other Damage players didn't need to be told what to do. With Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, all seven Damages formed a ring around the Tanks, escorting them through the street.

"When's the next blast coming?" someone shouted. It was a good question, one that the CMC couldn't answer. The manticore seemed to be tearing apart the center of town at random, so there was no way of knowing what to expect.

In the sky, Sweetie Belle could spot the pegasi flying toward the group across town. She guessed that the other players on the ground were doing the same.

"Once we get to the boss, its AOE strikes should clear out the wendigos for us," Scootaloo said, noticing the manticore destroying the town with its giant claws. The group picked up their pace, taking a few scrapes in the back to outrun the horde as a whole. They fought frantically, either killing a wendigo with a single hit or just leaving it to move on. If anyone stopped for a second, they'd be caught by the horde and devoured immediately.

"We're good to go," Applebloom finally said as they neared the boss, "open up the ring."

The Damages were quick to oblige, taking their focus off the back and pressing all their attacks ahead of them while the Tanks forced back the wendigos with their shields. They kept the same pace, but it was much safer with the Tanks covering the back. Together, they reached the center of the city only moments before the boss charged up another wave.

As if aware of what the manticore could do to them, the wendigos ceased their chase and turned back for the streets and alleyways of the city. The city center, originally a wide open park with cobbled walkways, was completely leveled into a shallow crater of dirt and stone.

The group split up just in time for everyone to take cover behind piles of rubble, narrowly avoiding the burst of corrupted energy. This close to the boss, the ground shook as it stomped around, tearing up more trees and grass from the park. Its beams of energy, smaller blasts that it roared from its mouth, obliterated the stone walkways.

Applebloom raised her shield up to deflect incoming rocks, and looked up to see the manticore's full shape. It was a massive beast, at least twice as large as any building in the city. Its bat-like wings didn't seem to give it flight, but was more than enough to pick up leaves and branches with its powerful beats.

Its scorpion tail acted as both a weapon and a shield. Applebloom hurled a Potion of Explosion to catch the manticore's attention, but it simply swiped its tail and absorbed the blast with the hard chitinous shell that armored its tail.

"How are we going to distract that thing?" Scootaloo worried. On her map, nearly everyone not afflicted by a crippling debuff had reached the meeting point, and even the stragglers were closing in. If they didn't attack it soon, the main group wouldn't get its advantage, and a lot of lives could be loss if the raid didn't fight with every asset they could.

"It just looks big," Sweetie Belle reassured. "Under all that teeth and fur, it's just a bunch of numbers. Taking it down should be like any other boss."

"Huh. Didn't think of it like that," Applebloom responded, "considering it's not acting like any other boss we've seen."

"Well, if you read the quest text maybe you'd understand," Scootaloo offered. "It's probably part of the floor's story."

"Reckon that story told us a way to deal with it?" Applebloom asked, aiming her spear at the boss.

Scootaloo shrugged. "Hit it until it dies, I guess."

No one else had any other ideas, so they went with Scootaloo's sound advice. Applebloom led the Tanks, drawing the manticore's blasts of magic and claw swipes while the Damages harassed it from the sides. Their attack barely even scratched the skin of the boss before it roared, charging up another overwhelming surge of power.

Everyone rolled back into cover. They were safe, but so was the boss; they hadn't even make a noticeable dent in its health bar. Still, the manticore turned, and Applebloom felt like she had a huge mark on her chest as the manticore burst her eardrums with a deafening roar.

"You happy now?" she screamed at Sweetie Belle. "We have its undivided attention!"

Indeed, its back was fully turned away from the rest of the raid, and apparently they noticed too.

Led by Allegretto, the Knights of Yore's guild leader herself, thirty-four other players rushed out from the street, hacking through the manticore's legs and sticking daggers into its back. With surprise on their side, their attacks were all critical hits, and consequently, a solid percent of the manticore's health bar disappeared.

===================================================

"Incoming claw!" a player shouted to his teammates. They had already lost most of their Tanks, leaving many of the Damage players vulnerable to attacks.

The claw hit hard, directly flattening two players and tossing aside the others that tried to save them. When the boss turned to face another group of its attackers, the players were no where to be found. Just another two to add to the death count. The raid was slowly beating the boss, but their numbers dropped to a staggering twenty eight. It still had five percent of its health.

Facing the manticore head on was Applejack and Applebloom. They switched in and out, giving each other time to recover their stamina, and consistently kept the manticore's attention away from the Damages. Behind them, Fluttershy kept her pets attentive, healing the Apple siblings with her two enchanted bears, while buffing their armor and stamina with an Ancient Arcane Tortoise.

The manticore raised its wings to blow away its attackers, repeating its attack pattern for the fifth time, and exposed the joints of its wings to be hit. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo leaped up, reaching incredible heights with their strength and agility attributes, and crippled the right wing. On the other side, Phoenix and Rainbow Dash did the same.

Now, only four percent of its health remained.

Furious, the boss unleashed its roar onto Applebloom and Applejack, knocking them back with a barrage of energy blasts.

"This is insane," Rainbow Dash said as she launched an attack on the manticore's paw. "How didn't you know about this Sunset?"

"I didn't write the quest line!" she defended herself. "I only worked on the environment and programming, so blame all this on the other developers Twilight hired."

"Sure, just blame Twilight." Rainbow Dash backpedaled away from the boss, narrowly avoiding getting hit by the manticore's arcing slash. It followed up the attack, using its tail like a heavy bludgeon, but Phoenix managed to drag her away.

"Let's just get this over with," Phoenix said. "Get ready, it's repeating its attack pattern again."

On queue, the manticore opened its wings, and the Damages all made a move for its weak spots.

===================================================

Floor forty-nine wasn't what most of the players expected. Even Phoenix was left with a pleasant surprise by PAO's developers.

The central city was the largest of the floating rocks, surrounded by smaller boulders that were either filled with a dungeon, or plain wilderness. Between each of the floating sky islands were smaller buildings nestled into the clouds, favoring all the pegasi players who had grown accustomed to flight.

Many hadn't gotten a grasp on the skill, still uncomfortable with the extra appendages to control, and were just as helpless as the grounded earth ponies and unicorns.

"This is absolutely..." Rainbow Dash paused, taking in the massive floating islands, and the small cloud settlements. "...awesome!"

"How are we supposed to get around?" Sweetie Belle asked Phoenix.

She pointed to the gliders that were docked along the edge of the sky islands. Next to them, a board displaying a map of all the streams of wind that could carry the gliders around the dimension. "Those gliders should take you anywhere you want. They're automatic be default, but you can change glider settings before you use them to switch into the manual mode."

Rainbow Dash was barely paying attention to the gliders. "Well, while you slowpokes are floating around, I'm going to see if any players want to have a race."

"Ahem," Phoenix coughed.

"What?" asked Rainbow Dash.

Her friends all looked at her and opened their menus. Their inbox was filled with frantic messages sent by friends of the players in the raid. Many of them were panicking, seeing that their friend had vanished from all lists.

Rainbow Dash's faced turned sour, and she covered it with a hoof to her head. "Oh, crap. No, girls, this part's the depressing part. I really don't wanna have to tell players that their friends are... gone."

"I reckon we don't have a choice," Applejack said.

"She's right RD," Pinkie Pie added, "sometimes making someone happy means telling them the hard truth. It's better if they find out now."

Rainbow Dash sighed. "I know... just... give me a moment to think. I'll catch up on my list later."

They all nodded and left Rainbow Dash to herself. Together, they headed back through the central portal to the lower levels to personally tell everyone how bad the casualties were.

Downtime

No pony wanted to rush their way through floor forty-nine's boss. Primary preparations took a whole week of nonstop collecting, leveling, and organizing. But after the first spotting of the massive Roc Lord, a monstrous bird of prey with a wingspan as wide as the central city, players took another two and a half weeks to bolster their strength and grind a few levels higher. By the end of the month, the raid tenderly hunted down and killed the boss, thankfully with no casualties.

By reaching floor fifty, most of the Clearing Group felt that they deserved a break from their fight. Some went to socialize with friends, others worked on personal goals. Scootaloo continued to gather materials to forge the perfect weapon, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash enjoyed a cooling flight around floor forty-nine, and Applebloom and Applejack were busy being sisters. Sweetie Belle was helping Sunset with her investigations into the game's magic. She still carried the artifact Sunset gave her; the old katana Sunset had found on a bandit leader about six months ago still carried all sorts of magic fluctuations that were extremely difficult to bypass.

So Roseluck decided to take some time off too, and since no one had a bigger friends list than Pinkie Pie, she went to her to see what was the best hangouts in Equestrad.

"PAO's got a great party community," Pinkie Pie told her before they headed off for floor thirty-four.

It used to be where the largest guilds built their guild keeps, but ever since moving to floor forty-eight to operate, the old castles and forts had been torn down and replaced with small player-made villages.

"I didn't even know this was a thing," Roseluck said as they walked out of the central city toward the settlement on the west side of the city. "I just assumed these grasslands were barren after the Cutie Mark Crusaders pulled out."

"The Knights and the SGK stayed a little longer, but everything really got exciting once all the guild keeps were cleared out," Pinkie Pie answered. Her eyes lit up as they neared a bustling circle of player-made houses, its inhabitants already celebrating with flashing lights and party supplies.

The two mares didn't need to introduce themselves. Before Pinkie Pie had a chance to introduce Roseluck to the area, a crowd of players gathered around them and cheered unanimously. "Pinkie Pie! Pinkie Pie! Pinkie Pie!"

The atmosphere was electric. As Roseluck looked around, players were drowning themselves in in whole kegs of beer, or dancing the center of the town, or playing some kind of party game with their friends.

Finally, the crowd set the two down at a tavern before resuming their own night of frivolity. Pinkie Pie grabbed Roseluck and dragged her in.

"This place is amazing," Roseluck said. "It's better than the dances the CMC throw at the guild keep."

Pinkie waved her hoof in the air. "That's amateur work. I've been throwing parties in college long before they even went to Prom."

Roseluck laughed. "I would've loved to be at your college Pinkie Pie."

The two sat down and traded a few shadow iron ores with the bartender, a player rather than an NPC, for a large mug of cold cider. It was refreshing on a warm night, and tasted much better than the apples and water they brought along while running through dungeons.

Pinkie Pie was through her first drink, and her third, by the time Roseluck finished her mug.

"I'm super pumped," Pinkie Pie said, leaping out of her seat and cartwheeling toward the door. "Come on Roseluck, the night is young and there's so much to do! Just wait until you see the dance pit!"

Roseluck followed Pinkie Pie into the town, catching up to her at a table where players were gambling their recent loot with a game of cards.

"I didn't know there were card games in PAO. What is it, blackjack?" she asked.

Pinkie Pie shook her head. "It's a three round mini game. The cards are based on the NPC's in the game, and have different strength values. Each player draws twelve cards and take turns playing them to gain the most strength for that round. They only draw one card per round, so you have to be careful managing your cards."

"So most of your odds are based on the first draw?" Roseluck inferred.

Pinkie Pie nodded. "Pretty much."

They watched the game continue, and by the second round the players were tied. One of them had a larger hand of cards, but it didn't seem possible to beat the other player's Wicked Wraith, with a strength value of ten.

"This is my favorite part!" Pinkie Pie squeaked.

The two players glanced at Pinkie Pie, who trained her focus on the table of cards.

Roseluck tried to intervene. "Pinkie, is it really necessary to stare at the cards like that?"

"Shh!"

The player with the larger hand ignored Pinkie, glancing back at his cards. In a moment of realization, his eyes widened as he slammed his Corpse Witch onto the table. The card carried a special effect, glowing as it transformed the other player's wraith into a useless rabbit card.

"Boom bitch!" cried the winning player. "You said I couldn't win with a Necro Deck, well now who's laughing. Pay up!"

Pinkie Pie cheered, congratulating the winner, shaking hooves with him. He accepted the gesture, nervously laughing it off, as he wasn't part of the crowd who had greeted her earlier. Excited, and evidently unaware of the awkwardness she caused, Pinkie Pie dragged the player off his seat.

"Time for the dance pit!" she beamed.

By now, with the moon at its zenith, the center of the settlement was a mosh pit of ponies moving to the music set by a band of musicians. With a combination of the game's acoustic instruments and player modifications, all sorts of sounds blanketed the village, from electronic to rock, and from symphonies to remixes.

===================================================

The rising sun hurt Roseluck's eyes. Whatever she had experimented with last night left her sleeping in a very uncomfortable position in someone's house. She shot up out of the bed, and collapsed back down as she felt her dizziness catch up. Steadying herself against the wall, she gave her head a moment to rest before she looked around.

The excess candy stored in the display cases around the house gave it all away. It was Pinkie Pie's house. For some reason it was weird that Pinkie Pie, of all her friends, had a house. She seemed the least likely to want to stay in one place.

Roseluck continued out the bedroom. It was a one-floor house, with the kitchen and dining table just across from the door. She walked over to find Pinkie Pie, but through the cracked open door she noticed the commotion outside.

"They can't still be partying, can they?" she asked herself, equipping her armor before she left. Roseluck paused, then looked at herself, wondering why her armor was taken off in the first place. She shook her head and pushed the thought aside, heading outside to see what was going on.

A circle of players formed around the center of the village, watching a duel between two players take place. Roseluck noticed that the difference in levels was more than unfair. The winning player, a pegasus clad in light armor, tossed around his opponent without a single sign of resistance. His strength alone more than overcame the other player's weight.

"Come on!" shouted the winning duelist. "The Clearing Group wants some actual fighters. Show me your best, and you might be able to join the Realm of Glory and fight with PAO's finest players!"

The crowd was less enthusiastic. Many of them, content to stay away from the front lines, tossed their junk items at the player, which either shattered into light immediately after hitting him, or satisfyingly splattering all over his armor.

Roseluck came up behind one of the players in the crowd and asked him what was happening.

"He's some hotshot from the Clearing Group," the stallion answered back. "He says his guild, the Realm of Glory, is training new recruits to take the place of the fighters we lost on floor forty-eight. But he's been harassing us all morning, even threatening to drag dissidents out into the wilds."

"What?" Roseluck stared at the pony in the center of the circle. "I've never even seen him in the Clearing Group before."

"Well, I wouldn't go near him if I were you miss," the player cautioned. "None of our players can beat him, or his lackeys." The stallion pointed to a small group of ponies dressed in plate armor, standing firmly behind their leader. One of the players in the group caught Roseluck's eye.

"Greg?" she whispered to herself. "What the hell are you doing here?"

She made her way through the crowd, but whenever she pushed through, more players pushed back. The Realm of Glory leader made everyone tense.

Over the heads Roseluck tried to get a better look of the situation. Some of the low level players were being held in a circle formed by the other guild members. She looked for her old friend Greg, the guy who introduced her to PAO in the first place, and she was sure it was him. From the mane color to his choice of weapon -a long rope dart made of a titanium chain- everything was how he would play.

Out of no where, Pinkie Pie seemed to summon herself.

"Just what do you think you're doing here?" she asked the leader. "This town's not big enough for any party poopers."

"I don't see anyone willing to complain," he replied, drawing snickers from all his followers.

Pinkie Pie simply opened her menu and targeted the leader, challenging him to a duel. There were "oh's" and whistling from the Realm of Glory members, teasing Pinkie Pie and cheering their boss.

"Be a shame to say no to a dance with a girl like you," the leader answered, accepting the duel. The duel started counting down from twenty, and their names appeared above them in large bold letters.

Pinkie Pie versus Deadly Dan

Pinkie Pie drew her mace, a heavy silver weapon made specifically for killing NPC monsters, but it was still a powerful weapon against players. Dan, a light armored pegasus, drew two daggers. They were longer than usual, almost matching short swords in size. Normally two weapons slowed down players, making dual wielding impractical despite the doubled damage, but short swords and smaller weapons barely hindered players, though even a simple sword could outmatch the damage output.

"You know, I'm a fast fighter. Got a lot of points in attack speed and agility." Dan shot Pinkie Pie a wide grin. "So after this, how about I take things a little slower and show you all my moves?"

That explained things. He had a fast build, harassing enemies with a high healing rate so they never had a chance to recover. He must have focused solely on his agility and attack speed attributes. Just like Pinkie Pie.

"Try to keep up," she responded, "I hate taking things easy."

The timer hit zero, and Pinkie Pie smirked.

Dan's first attack was a barrage of daggers. It seemed he had a few extra pairs lined up in his secondary equipment slots, and launched all but two at Pinkie Pie's head. They met nothing but air.

"What the hell?" Dan gripped his daggers staring at Pinkie Pie like some kind of mirage.

Whispers came around from the crowd. None of the players even saw her move, yet the daggers seemed to pass strait through her. Dan though the same, but knew it couldn't have happened.

He shot forward with his remaining daggers, taking precise shots and Pinkie's neck and head. They were both light on their hooves, equipped only with light armor, as they zigzagged around the circle. Pinkie Pie made sure to keep the fighting close to the center, away from the other players, manipulating the stallion with smooth, fluid motions.

It became painfully clear that Dan paled in comparison to Pinkie's level. Still, his rare choice of dual wielding daggers gave him just enough of an edge in the duel for him to catch up for one hit. It was an aimed strike, targeting the center of Pinkie's head.

Somehow, only centimeters away from each other, he still missed. His whole body fell forward, following the force of his strike.

Dan whirled around with his daggers, slashing the sides of Pinkie's armor. She didn't bother to dodge this time, she simply let the weapons phase through her. Dan staggered back, gripping his weapons as tightly as he could.

"How the hell is that possible?" he asked. "What are you, some kind of hacker?"

Pinkie smiled, her silhouette blurring slightly. Dan didn't even see her hit him with the mace, but he took the full force of the blow and tumbled back to the edge of the circle, into the crowd.

He barely took any damage, so small the percentage was still rounded up to a hundred percent. But the speed was impossible.

He expended his rage with words. "What the fuck is going on here you pink bitch! No one could have done that!"

Pinkie Pie explained, repeating the words Phoenix had told her when she began moving beyond anyone's expectations. "I put all my points into speed and agility. A player's reaction time is determined by the game based on those two attributes. You can't react because my speed numbers are higher than yours."

She blurred, suddenly appearing a hair's width away from Deadly Dan, smiling a wide grin. "Basically, I move faster than you can see."

Dan's eyes widened, stepping back to defend himself from the pink menace before him, but Pinkie Pie was behind him before he knew it. She slammed her mace into his back, shooting him back to herself on the other side of the circle. It was a ping pong match between Pinkie Pie and herself, and Deadly Dan was the ball.

Roseluck squinted hard, trying to make sense of where Pinkie Pie really was. But it was impossible. She appeared at eight different points at once, flickering as she ran between each point, bouncing Dan around at random. His health barely dropped with each hit, but after a minute of abuse the damage was clear.

"You hit like a girl," he grunted, trying to steady himself once Pinkie Pie let him stand still.

Those were the wrong words. Roseluck knew it, and braced herself as Pinkie Pie downed a flask of a blue potion. It was a speed potion Pinkie Pie had asked Roseluck to brew in bulk amounts, and now she knew why.

Everyone felt the burst of wind erupt from the players, but their eyes barely caught a glimpse of motion as Pinkie Pie struck five percent off of Dan's health. It was glorious to watch. Given her low attack strength, Roseluck guessed Pinkie Pie had hit the guy ten to fifteen times while everyone was blinking.

The only thing that gave away just how fast Pinkie Pie attacked was her hair. The game's physics loosened her puffed up mane, leaving her hair deflated, almost strait.

"This place is a place for fun," she breathed into Dan's face, with a wide grin. "And like I said, I don't like taking it easy. Now let's play rough, big guy."

===================================================

"What's that one doing?" Sweetie Belle pointed to one of the magical anomalies on Sunset's screen.

Sunset took a quick look at it, moving it over to another section of the screen. "It's an emotion, or part of one at least. It doesn't really matter what it does in this batch, since it's only useful for making lifelike NPC's."

"Really? Because one of the quest givers on the last floor..."

"It was a glitch," Sunset cut her off, still smiling in spite of the embarrassment, "nothing more. Besides, my game can be allowed to have some bugs here and there, I never said it'd be perfect."

"Oh alright," Sweetie Belle said. She watched as Sunset fiddled with another string of colors, twisting it and weaving the aura into another stream.

"I'm glad you're here, Sunset." Sweetie Belle spurted out from no where.

Sunset turned with a raised brow. "Um, thanks. It's nice to hear that."

"No, seriously. We'd be totally lost without you. You're one the best players in the Clearing Group, and you know how to fix this weird magic thing even though your admin abilities were intentionally blocked, and you never shy away from hunting down player killers."

"I don't deserve all that praise," Sunset admitted. "I started bring murderers to justice simply because I had a duty to everyone trapped in the game. And being the creator of the game kind of makes being a good player a meaningless title. You and your friends are the ones who should be thanked. The Cutie Mark Crusaders is the biggest guild in the game, and you're saving everyone by fighting for the Clearing Group."

"It'll be the Knights soon," Sweetie Belle said. "They've been growing much faster after the fiasco on floor forty-eight. They're the liberators now, not us."

"You'll still have the best guild, in my opinion," Sunset reassured.

Sweetie Belle grinned, blushing a little. It was nice to hear that kind of praise, it had been so long since she'd been so close to anyone else. She had her friends, but its wasn't the same as a sister.

Sweetie Belle's mind wandered. When was the last time she had time to think about Rarity? A month, or even two? No, it was much longer than that. It had been nearly half a year since she thought about her sister, and now it didn't even bother her. Rarity felt so distant. After two years, PAO was beginning to feel like the real world, and the other was just a fading memory, a past life.

Two years. That reminded her. Sweetie broke her train of through and turned back to Sunset. "The second anniversary of PAO's launch is in a couple weeks. Pinkie Pie was thinking of hosting a memorial for all the players that we lost on the first floor. Are you going?"

"A memorial doesn't really sound like Pinkie's style," Sunset replied. She sighed, imagining the list of names of those who died from the game. "But I'll be there. It wouldn't be right not to go."

"It's weird, how real this world feels now," Sweetie Belle added.

Sunset pushed her menu screen off to the side. "What do you mean?"

"Well, before I started playing, my whole life seemed to be just preparing for the next test, and then preparing for college. But in PAO, Equestrad feels like a legitimate world. It has its people, its losses, the ups and downs, and everything that gives life meaning."

"But your body is still in the real world," Sunset reminded, "and those colleges that you were preparing for, they're still waiting for you. This game's only as real as the data."

"I know," Sweetie Belle relented, "I'm not saying I want to stay trapped, but I'm a little afraid of going back and feeling... out of place. Like a..." she was at a loss for words.

Sunset, however, knew what she meant. "Like a pony living among humans? Or a lifelong bully trying to make friends for the first time? Believe me, I know how you feel."

"Oh, yeah. You've gone so far since then, sometimes I forget about those times."

Sunset chuckled. "I'm glad one of us did."

Eager to avoid an awkward silence, Sweetie Belle looked at Sunset's menu screen. She picked out a random strand of colors and pointed to it. "What's that one?"

Sunset turned. "Oh, that's just," she paused, taking a closer look. "Weird. It's just very weird."

The colors, a mix of orange and purple arranged in a double helix, bounced around the screen along with the rest of the colors. However, their pattern remained the same while others rapidly changed their arrangements and shapes.

"This is it!" Sunset exclaimed cheerfully. "This is a piece of the interference's source spell! It's only a small fragment of the magic, but I might be able to figure out more of the pattern. I could construct some of the missing pieces, maybe even find a way to end the game!" She grabbed Sweetie Belle and hugged her tightly.

She choked under the pressure of Sunset's excitement, her voice a strained whisper. "Glad I could help."

===================================================

Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash tried to make as little noise as possible as they leaped through the tree tops. Floor thirty-five's dense jungle made the night operation an easy one, but they still didn't take any chances.

Rainbow Dash wanted to glide through the trees, moving with absolute silence through the air, like an owl hunting its prey, but Scootaloo didn't have the same experience with pegasi wings, and was barely able to hover or glide for more than a few seconds. She felt a little bad about being a slow learner, almost every other player with a pegasus character had learned to use their wings, but Rainbow Dash told her not to worry about it. Flying wasn't supposed to come naturally.

Still, with their high agility attributes, the two barely made any noise as they jumped from tree branch to tree branch. On top of that, they had drank the invisibility potions that Roseluck brewed for them, making them unseen on top of being unheard. If it wasn't for the fact that players can see invisible party members, they probably would have lost each other a while ago.

The potion was a blessing for them, since Rainbow Dash's hair wasn't at all suited for stealth, but Scootaloo was still ashamed of the cost to get the recipe.

She cleared her head, refocusing on the task at hand. She looked to her right, and was amazed at the kind of athlete Rainbow Dash was. Rainbow Dash, who spent the whole day flying through the skies with Fluttershy on floor forty-nine, still managed to outpace her in the trees. Exhaustion was present when players were low on stamina, but it seemed like Rainbow Dash's stamina bar was practically unlimited.

Then Rainbow Dash signaled Scootaloo with her wing. They were nearly at the location they were told about from a mercenary Sunset and Rainbow Dash captured. It was totally empty.

Scootaloo looked to Rainbow Dash for a plan, and didn't have to guess what was making the look on her face. She was upset, probably thinking back to when they reported their lead to the other investigators. The SGK sent small party to scout out the location immediately, and alerted the killers waiting there when the mission failed.

But Rainbow Dash still had enough connections to dig up the guilty player killers. Sophisticata, who now directed her acting troupe in secret after an attempt on her life, found rumors of activity in the area. A few players willing to venture deep into the forests and swamps complained about resource nodes always being empty, and fast, hit-and-run players taking out all the monsters that spawned, leaving before they could be seen.

"I don't see anyone," she said. "How about you Scoots, got anything?"

Scootaloo scanned the floor and pointed to a few flowering plants. "Whoever's out here hasn't stopped by to collect those Poison Jokes."

"Think we could set a trap?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Definitely."

They moved to the edge of the clearing that the Poison Jokes encircled, and waited in the trees above. They sensed something was not right. In their entire trip to the location, not a single jungle plant had anything to collect. Now it seemed like the players hoarding the resources weren't interested in collecting more stuff.

After fifteen minutes, Rainbow Dash decided it was useless to wait. "They might have collected everything they wanted," she said.

"It's a big forest RD," Scootaloo cautioned while taking another look around. "They might be smaller than we thought, and they're making their way around the whole map. No matter how fast they are, it takes two seconds to collect resources, and if they're clearing each node of everything, it could take a few hours."

"That's true," Rainbow Dash huffed, leaning back on her tree's thick branch. "We could be here all night, and most of it's going to be so boring."

"If that's what it takes to get them, then I'm with you all the way," Scootaloo replied. She hopped off her tree and sat next to Rainbow Dash.

"Thanks buddy," Rainbow Dash said.

It was impossible to sleep or take shifts, since the low growling of the basilisks under the trees reverberated with loudly all the way up the trees. So the two girls swapped stories, catching up on each other's adventures. Scootaloo remembered the struggle of training Crusaders to level up for the Clearing Group, and how badly they always performed in difficult dungeons. Rainbow Dash responded with her own list of all the times she had to save Sophi and the Trotting Prancers from NPC zombies or mini bosses.

And just as they predicted, they were there for most of the night.

The moon was about to set before they heard the first signs of movement. They were soft steps, but there was a lot of them. Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash both looked down, and their eyes widened in unison. There must have been at least twenty hooded figures moving through the undergrowth. Rainbow Dash looked closer at the health bars next to their heads. Not a single player wasn't marked with a red or orange border.

Rainbow Dash didn't whisper a word, but she pointed a wing at the health bars and nudged Scootaloo, who nodded back, seeing the colored borders too.

Scootaloo turned to Rainbow Dash and followed her signal. They both drank another invisibility potion and followed the players from above. Scootaloo watched as the players picked the Poison Jokes, leaving the one lush area picked clean. Without a word, Rainbow Dash took the lead and glided down to the lower branches of the trees. Above, Scootaloo kept a close eye on the whole group, watching where the farthest players went.

She expected to see them take a turn and head for the next clearing, where there were patches of Fire Saplings used for a number of resistance potions. Instead, the whole group halted their advance, and started setting up a makeshift camp. Basic alchemy and blacksmith workshops were unpacked from their inventories and quickly cobbled together.

It dawned on Scootaloo that they weren't being hoarders, or suffocating the public from vital resources -at least not intentionally. They were preparing to come back with full force, and they were collecting logs and plants to make their camp as quickly as possible. Tents were already completed, and spiked wood walls were being erected around the entire clearing, warning intruders not to go near.

Rainbow Dash leaped back up to Scootaloo, beating her wings slowly to gain altitude without alerting the players.

"This is totally weird," she whispered in the quietest voice possible. "Why would a shady organization set up such a big fortress in the middle of nowhere? I know player building is enabled around here, but there's so much traffic that no one wants to settle a house where everyone's going to be digging around in the backyard."

"I think they're planning another big attack," Scootaloo answered. It's a simple guerrilla tactic: appear out of nowhere and strike, then vanish before the enemy can strike back." She pointed to a drying rack preparing basilisk hides for leather armor and an enchanting table filled with gems. Next to those was the anvil and forge, where two players were hammering out sword blades and chestplates. Scootaloo immediately recognized the shadow iron blades that Iceblood had shown her after the last attack.

"It's a damn supply depot," Rainbow Dash hissed. "They're going for an all out invasion on this floor, and they plan use this place to resupply."

"Why the hell would they want to do something like that?" Scootaloo wondered. "They can't be gaining anything from just slaughtering players, can they?"

Rainbow Dash scowled. "They're all insane. They treat it like a game like any other, as if lives aren't at risk of being magic blasted by the Digisphere."

"Well, we know they're now, but we can't stop them alone," Scootaloo said, putting a hoof on Rainbow Dash's shoulder to steady her. "Let's get reinforcements and come back as soon as possible. Taking down a camp's longer than setting it up. They're not going anywhere."

Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement. "Lets get going then."

===================================================

Deadly Dan left the player settlement in shame. He walked dejectedly out of the town, enduring the empty potion flasks and unwanted common gear thrown at him. His followers did the same, facing less shame than their leader, though there was plenty of cheap tavern goods thrown onto them.

But there was one member of the Realm of Glory that Roseluck wanted to talk to though, and through her demeanor alone, she got him to stay while everyone tossed slanders and stale bread at him.

Thanks to Pinkie Pie, the crowd was eager to celebrate her amazing display of speed, which gave Roseluck a chance to pull her old friend aside to talk to.

"What the hell are you doing here Greg?" she snapped, pushing him into the back wall of the tavern.

"Really?" he shot her a perplexed look. "We don't talk for months and that's the first thing you say to me?"

"Why are you here forcing these people to join the Clearing Group?" she persisted.

He threw his hooves up in the air. "How can you ask that after what happened on floor forty-eight? I was so worried when the word got around. I mean, you could have died!"

"What does that have to do with this?" Roseluck asked, disregarding his concern. "Being worried is one thing, but you're not doing any good by scaring low levels in joining the Clearing Group. You'll probably get them killed."

Greg shook his head. "Not with our leader. With me, maybe, but Dan's a capable leader."

Roseluck stared at him, not sure if he was delusional or overzealous, but no one could have watched Pinkie Pie wipe the floor with that guy and still favor the Realm of Glory.

"Don't look at me like that," Greg said, his voice showing a sign of irritation. "You don't get to judge me after leaving for some strangers in the Clearing Group."

"But they actually know how to beat the game," she replied. "I've never even heard of a 'Deadly Dan' in the Clearing Group."

"He's an ex-member of the Slumbering Giants, he was even injured during the fight with the manticore boss." Greg opened up his menu and eagerly showed Roseluck the homepage of the Realm of Glory. "Look, he even puts the SGK's training program for the public to see!"

"Greg," Roseluck sighed, "The Slumbering Giants of Korandale aren't the guild that they used to be."

Greg cut her off from what she was going to say. "Of course you'd say that. You're running with the elites now, why would you care about the underdogs?" Greg's face was flushed with red. "It's like you've forgotten all our friends, everyone struggling below you to get to the top."

"That's not who any of us are," Roseluck shot back. "The Crusaders are only selective when they recruit because we don't want anyone to die when we go on dungeon raids. And for the record, you were my only friend when we were with the low levels, everyone else was only your friends."

"Yeah, well, congratulations Roseluck," Greg replied, "you left your only friend for some strangers in a video game."

"I once thought I did too," she said, her face softening. She looked at him, and twisted her face with disgust. "But I hadn't forgotten him. I kept waiting, hoping he'd make his way up here when I couldn't find time to go back down."

Greg looked confused. Roseluck tone sounded like she was talking about someone else.

"And now that you're here, I realize that it'll be a long time before I see Greg again. You're not him, you're just another asshole lackey who chose the character name 'Taco Coffin.'"

She pushed Greg aside and walked back out to the town. Greg didn't follow, and he didn't leave. He just stood, with his jaw hanging in the air.

===================================================

After Sunset and Rainbow Dash's encounter with mercenaries, the guild leaders of the Clearing Group went into a criminal hunting craze. With a couple mercenaries already locked in secure, player-made buildings, a few more wouldn't hurt. Very quickly, agents from the SGK, Knights of Yore, and the Crusaders, brought in mercenaries and bandits who were suspected of having connections with the ones who attacked and killed the fourteen player on floor forty.

But there was one other player who didn't match the rest of the new prisoners. He was more than just a greedy player like all the others, he was genuine psychopath.

Sonata sat outside the square building while Grieve Blossom took out his frustrations on the old guy. He had a special mace Scootaloo made for him -bludgeoning damage alledgedly hurt the most- and enchanted it with fire and electric crystals for an added effect.

Grieve Blossom's method of interrogation was getting no where, but Sonata was content to let it run on. With the inside of player-housing a PVP safe-zone, save for a few instances, all Grieve Blossom could do was deal the pain, not the damage. She listened to Long Glider's grunts as Grieve Blossom tossed him around the room. She admired the stallion's persistence, but nothing he could muster up would ever give the bastard what he deserved.

Eventually, his stamina dropped to zero, and Grieve Blossom left the building with a heavy breath. He shut the door quickly, barely in time to knock Long Glider back as he scrambled to slip out of the entrance. The locks reactivated and threw him into the back wall. They expected to hear him scream or bang on the walls again, but Long Glider didn't make a sound this time.

"Well, at least that's different." Grieve Blossom stashed the mace back into his inventory and re-equipped his sword. Sonata shifted to the side and patted the grass next to her, inviting Grieve Blossom to rest. He accepted and dropped his body onto the ground with the full wieght of his heavy armor.

They sat silently together for a time. "He won't tell you anything. Not like this, anyways."

Grieve Blossom rubbed his forehead. "I know, Sonata, but you know what he's done. I can't just leave him here in peace."

"But we can't just do this every day and get nothing to show for it. We need to get him to tell us something, anything," she replied, "If he doesn't, I might never see my friends again. I'm worried about them Grieve Blossom, what if, while I was away, they..."

"No way, you saw the casualty list yourself," Grieve Blossom said, putting a hoof on her shoulder. "They weren't on the list, so they have to out there somewhere. If anyone can reach them, we can."

"You're right," she sighed, relieved to get the thought out of her head, "the two of them can handle themselves. They always were the ones calling the shots."

Grieve Blossom raised a brow at Sonata's comment, for it wasn't her first time making a vague reference to her past. "You know, for the amount of times you've mentioned them since we met, you don't really elaborate much. If they treated you as badly as you say they did, why do you even care if they didn't care about you?"

"It's not something you can understand," she replied. "I'm barely sure that I understand it. We're just... connected. That's all I know."

Grieve Blossom shrugged and let it go, it was about as much as she gave him every other day anyways. He leaned back and put his hooves behind his head. "Well, if that connection ever kicks in and tells us how to find them, just hit me up and I'll be there to help."

"Thanks, but this is a bit too personal to get you involved. I know you want to help, but when the time comes, I want to join my friends by myself." She looked at Grieve Blossom, hoping he'd understand.

He did, slightly, but still looked hurt. "Oh, okay. It's fine, I get it, it's super personal. Okay, cool."

"If only we could just get something out of Long Glider, anything that can help." Sonata picked a pebble up from the ground and chucked it into a tree, frustrated. The pebble shattered into a cloud of light and respawned next to her again.

"You know, we have other sources," Grieve Blossom said, trying to find a different solution. "It might take longer, but Rainbow Dash and Pinkie have a lot of contacts between them, and my guild and Roseluck's guild combined can cover pretty much every part of the game. The Knights of Yore and the Cutie Mark Crusaders are the two best guilds on PAO after all."

He pointed back to the simple cubic house. "We don't have to put up with this psycho."

Sonata sighed. "I know, but I can't let him go, not after everything he's done. I don't just want information, I need..." she paused, looking for the fitting word.

"Revenge?"

She shook her head. "No, it's justice."

Grieve Blossom wasn't buying into it, but he didn't care much for the semantics. He was sure that whatever dreams of revenge he had, Sonata had more. "Well in that case, I think there's one pony who could help us."

===================================================

The inn on floor fifty was quiet compared to what Roseluck had experienced with Pinkie Pie. There were plenty of players, but they were all part of the Clearing Group elite, and they were silently planning their next week of training. The silence was relaxing, especially after a day of nonstop revelry, which made Sonata's request a lot more irritating.

"Absolutely not." Roseluck was adamant about it, but they still pressed her to make the potion.

"Oh come on, it's not that hard of a recipe once you know the ingredients," Sonata insisted, pointing to the list of items on her menu screen. "Everything you need is right here."

"Collecting them's not the problem," she explained. "After we reported back to Scootaloo, the other guilds unanimously agreed to ban the quest you need to collect the Crystal Heart Fragments. All the ones left on the auction house was bought by the Knights of Yore and stored in a private bank."

"Can't we ask the Knights?"

"We could, but it probably wouldn't work." Roseluck opened a message sent out by the leader of the Knights herself. It clearly stated that she and her advisers were in agreement to hold the fragments in a secure bank, away from any other threat that may have knowledge of Long Glider's recipe, now renamed the Agony Elixir.

Still, Sonata was persistent. "We could seek out the bank's owner-"

"Are you even reading this?" Roseluck snapped. "No one but the leadership of the Knights know who has it, and they've made it clear that they won't tell anyone, not even us."

"But-"

"Look, I just got back from Pinkie's insane party, I'm tired, I think I just ended a really old friendship, and I just want to rest." She walked back towards her bed, throwing herself onto the mattress. Her voice was muffled in the pillow. "Besides, Grieve Blossom and I already agreed not to dwell on what Long Glider did or made. We should all just forget about it and sleep."

It was so easy to drift into dreamland. While her character's body was ready to fight, her actual mind had the last say, and it was clocking out for the night. She nearly drifted into deep sleep immediately, if it wasn't for one detail.

"Grieve Blossom actually told me that you could brew the Agony Elixir," said Sonata. Roseluck froze. She wanted to let it slide, but before she knew it, she was marching out the inn with more than just a few things to say to Grieve Blossom.

"You shouldn't follow, Sonata," she snarled through her teeth. "I don't think anyone's one is mature enough to see what I'm going to do to Grieve Blossom."

===================================================

It was midnight at the Knights of Yore's guild hall. After the the Crusaders relocated their guild keep to the fiftieth floor, the Knights were eager to expand into the new and unused plots of land. Grieve Blossom was practicing his sword technique in the newly built training grounds, waiting for Sonata to message her some good news, when everything went wrong.

"Why would you even suggest that I would make that damn potion Grieve Blossom?" Roseluck yelled into his ear.

He backpedaled himself as far away as quickly as possible, defending himself with his sword. Roseluck spun the butt of her spear and smacked the sword out of his hoof.

"Okay, mistakes were made, but I stand by what I said-" He was flat on his face before he could react.

"We had an agreement!" she shouted.

He sprung up, clumsy from fear, and faced Roseluck. "I know. I didn't forget, I just changed my mind. Sonata needs this as a chance to get some revenge for what happened."

"Revenge isn't how we do things Grieve Blossom," Roseluck argued, casually side stepping and blocking his path to his sword.

Grieve Blossom rolled his eyes. "Well maybe we can't all be as aloof as the 'Roseluck the Kindhearted.' If people are willing to be evil and cruel, then it's just karma coming for them when something evil or cruel happens to them!"

"Evil is evil," Roseluck said, glaring into Grieve Blossom's eyes. "Whether the person deserves it or not, it makes no difference. We have to draw the line somewhere, because if we cross over to that level, the lines disappear, and the differences become arbitrary. We can't use revenge torture, or else there's nothing distinguishing us, from them."

"She's not healthy Roseluck," Grieve Blossom said, "ever since we shut him in that house, Sonata's been pacing around it like a guard dog. She's convinced herself that the only way to get to her friends is through him."

"I've noticed that too, but that's not an excuse to make it worse," she replied.

"It won't, but suppressing her feelings will." Grieve Blossom said, his voice exasperated. "If we don't help Sonata... I don't know what she'll do. She could run off and look for her friends on her own, or end up killing Long Glider over it, or... something, anything!"

Roseluck stared with bewilderment. "You're worried she'll kill him but you're willing to let her torture him?"

"At least he'll live, isn't that better?"

"I'm not making that elixir Grieve Blossom, and that's final." Roseluck stepped back and let Grieve Blossom pick up his sword. The keep echoed with her hoof steps as she walked away.

===================================================

"He makes me so angry!"

The clay vase shattered into bits of light from Roseluck's frustration. It respawned almost immediately, only to be kicked over again.

"Hey, why don't recolor it red and grey?" Sunset asked sarcastically. "Helps to get your anger out if you're kicking something that looks like him."

"You can do that?" Roseluck asked, panting with rage.

Sunset nodded, swiping open her menu and switching into the home edit menu. It gave a layout of her house in floor fifty's central city, zooming onto her bedroom as she tapped the screen. The vase changed color as she set its primary color to grey and its secondary to red.

Roseluck grabbed the vase and smashed it against the wall. "That feels better," she told Sunset.

"Good. I don't think you should help Sonata." Sunset closed her menu and looked at Roseluck with a serious face. "You say she's not the same as she was back in Canterlot High, but I saw them close up, and trust me when I say they're a lot more harmful than you think."

"Do you seriously think Sonata's plotting against us?" Roseluck asked, not hiding the criticism in her voice. She still wanted to help the poor girl after everything she's been through, even if she was against the elixir.

"Not Sonata. She was always... the more passive Siren. But her friends are legitimate magic users, and evil ones too. They only want power and control, and they only use it to gain even more power and control." Sunset paused, thinking her words through. "I'm not saying we should condemn Sonata, she doesn't deserve it, but we have to be careful about her friends. Adagio and Aria are nothing like her."

"I get where you're coming from, but I can't tell her that." Roseluck admitted, softening up. "It'll break her heart."

Sunset sympathized she knew what it felt like to help and be helped. But she couldn't shake her memories of the Sirens. "Just, keep an eye on things with her."

Roseluck nodded.

There was a knock at the door. "Sunset, I need your help, I've got some shit going on." It was Rainbow Dash. Sunset groaned.

She flipped opened the door. "What the hell could you want RD? It's three in the morning. And how the hell did you get in my house?"

"I picked the lock, but that's not important. Look, I was with Scootaloo and-" Rainbow Dash paused, looking into her bedroom. It was a mess, with a vase in the middle of respawning and papers and quills scattered on the floor. Roseluck looked back at Rainbow Dash and waved.

"Am I interrupting?" she asked.

"Kind of, what do you want?" Sunset replied.

"Hold on. So, the noise I heard while I was breaking in, with the vase breaking and stuff, were you two..."

Sunset look at Rainbow Dash cautiously. "What are you implying?"

Rainbow Dash stammered a bit as she explained. "Oh, just- uh- I'm simply assuming that- er..." she collected herself and gave it to Sunset strait. "I never would have guessed that you two liked it so rough-"

Sunset uppercut Rainbow Dash strait in the gut. "Take whatever you're thinking about right not out of your mind and burn it, Rainbow Dash. Roseluck and I were just talking and -never mind that, what the hell did you want in the first place?"

"Oh, um," she coughed her surprise away. "Scootaloo and I found some kind of outpost on floor thirty-five, and we think it might be the murder guild that we've been looking for. Even if they're not, they were still all orange and red players, so Scoots and I are getting a team together to make an arrest."

"We'll meet up in a few minutes. Please get out of my house." Sunset said, closing the door. She listened and heard Rainbow Dash climb out of her kitchen window, and she sighed.

Roseluck walked up behind her, regret heavy in her voice. "You know, Rainbow Dash probably thinks we're..."

"Don't say it..."

"...lesbians," she finished.

Sunset groaned. "No, don't even- look, just... get out. Leave and never mention this to anyone."

Warfare

Scootaloo operated the attack from the edge of teams surrounding the enemy base. She couldn't have picked a better floor to stage an ambush on PAO's largest crime guild. Floor thirty-five's dense forest and jungle environment made movement of even a large force nearly invisible, allowing them to bypass the stray player killers that were headed for the enemy fort.

Around her, sections of players from the Clearing Group maneuvered in parties of six, messaging their updates as the enemy players shifted through the jungle. The base of what they suspected to be a crime guild had doubled in size since Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash scouted it out. With a total of fifty players tallied, the Clearing Group only barely outnumbered them with ten parties.

Alpha Team in position, forty meters from enemy base, thirty degrees from the north. Awaiting orders.

Similar messages were being sent to Scootaloo from all the teams surrounding the fort, confirming that they were ready to strike. They remained completely undetected, masked by their superior levels and attributes. Even so, Scootaloo worried about the fight itself. The Clearing Group was not a PVP focused organization. Duels were one thing, but full player versus player combat was another, and she despite the debriefing she still wasn't sure if some of the players were ready.

Aerial teams Kilo and Lima in position. Eyes on targets, identifying twelve incoming players. A hundred meters from the base, one hundred and fifty degrees from the north.

Rainbow Dash had arrived with an additional two parties of pegasi players, scanning the area for more player killers headed toward the base. They were lucky only twelve more were headed for the base, it was just the right amount to counterbalance with the aerial teams. They were still outnumbering the criminals, and they still had the element of surprise.

They were eager to attack, but Scootaloo held them back. If the teams attacked the base too soon, one of the incoming twelve could escape the fight and call for reinforcements. She sent a message out, delaying the assault.

Wait for the enemy to group up. Once their tight together we'll clamp down on them.

No one complained, but she knew Rainbow Dash wasn't the only player who was impatient. They waited, readying themselves as the twelve extra enemies placed themselves into the fortress, and right into the Clearing Group's trap. Any team could have sprung too early and ruin the surprise, and that might have been the biggest worry. But the killers marched into their camp, and everyone stood in their place.

Scootaloo gave the all clear message.

Enemies in sight. All teams converge on the enemy location.

No wasted time. The aerial teams dropped out of flight as they entered combat, crashing down onto the enemy base and tearing a hole in the center of the concentration of players. The ten parties followed in near perfect unison, and they gained a second advantageous moment as the player killers turned their attention toward the aerial teams.

The initial push was strong, incapacitating ten enemy players almost immediately. But pitting desperate players with murderous intent against PVE quest grinders only yielded the expected results. Once the killers regained their footing, the real struggle began in earnest. Scootaloo didn't hesitate to join the fray, leaping into the base and catching up with her friends to fight. Alone, each of the CMC were skilled fighters, but together, none of the enemy players were able to come close to them.

The fight was not without losses, however. In the midst of combat, Scootaloo noticed all too easily the iconic shattering of light as the bodies of players despawned after death. Whether or not they were from the Clearing Group or one of the killers would have to be sorted out later.

But overall, the Clearing Group was thinning the enemy's numbers a lot quicker. Crippled enemies were dropped to the side of the base, while a few were even teleported back to the floor's central city to be arrested by the NPC guards. Scootaloo gave the order not to worry about saving any of the criminals for interrogation: she expected plenty of the enemies to end up crippled or paralyzed for capture after the battle.

She did not expect, however, a counter-attack to trap in the Clearing Group. In a complete role reversal, at least dozens of red players dropped down from the treetops and into the base. The formation that was once trapping the player killers in the fort now wedged the Clearing Group between a group of killers pushing in from the outside, and another group pushing out from the inside.

"Where the hell did they come from?" No one could hear Scootaloo, but they were all asking the same question. The fighting pushed the Clearing Group apart, some players even retreated back to the branches, engaging the killers while leaping from tree to tree.

"We've been set up!" Sweetie Belle shouted to Scootaloo, "We have to retreat and regroup!"

It was the only thing they knew could save the most players, so they fought their way through the crowd, ordering a retreat, until each team was spread thin in the canopy above.

"Golf Team," Scootaloo turned to one of the players next to her, "Foxtrot's barely holding on, take your team and reinforce them." The player nodded, and he grabbed his friends and they leaped through the trees to aid the other team.

"Scootaloo!" Applebloom shouted from the lower branches. "Charlie Team's been completely paralyzed and captured , and Alpha's bogged down trying to rescue them." Scootaloo was on the situation, picking up the Delta team to go drive off the enemies harassing the Alpha Team.

Only three players were left by the time they chased away the attackers, the other half were confirmed to be dead by their teammates. With the rest of the fighting so dispersed, Scootaloo couldn't even spot the nearest groups of players. She had to pull up her map and check on the teams. Their raid party was in tatters, with teams rapidly moving apart as they were chased down by the killers that now outnumbered them.

"What are we going to do?" a member of the Alpha Team, with blood stained across his blue coat, asked Scootaloo.

"Regroup and retreat," she answered back, " we need to the nearest village, or even the central city if we there's no other choice."

"I'm out of healing potions," another player said. "Can't I just use a teleport scroll?"

His hoof reached to swipe open his inventory, but Scootaloo stopped him. "I can't make you continue fighting, but think about the rest of the raid. They can't use their scrolls until they're out of combat, and they're being hounded by those player killers."

"Oh, fuck that shit," another player added. She pulled her scroll out of her secondary equipment slot and opened it. "I'm not risking my life for some strangers I met in a video game." She was gone before Scootaloo could voice any objection.

The other players looked nervous, but they didn't leave immediately. They checked their maps and their messages as more and more players were cut down by the enemy. Some of their friends sent them their last words, requesting for any help before sending an incomplete message.

"Damn, we got to save my brother," said the blue-coated player. The others nodded in agreement. They had friends or family that they wanted to save too.

Scootaloo smiled, relived that she didn't loose anymore fighters. "Good, we better regroup into new teams and rescue who we can."

===================================================

Enemies cutting off our position. Foxtrot broke off to divide the enemy attention, but we're bogged down in the swamps. No where to go.

The message from Bravo Team was concerning. Even though fighting had slowed down throughout the floor, everyone was dispersed, and it seemed the enemy was trapping them in the jungles. She thought of giving the order for everyone to teleport out, if it weren't for the pockets of fighting popping up occasionally, and the fact that the entire Charlie Team was paralyzed and captured by the enemy players.

"We're planning to get them back, right?" asked the blue-coated player. Scootaloo simply nodded, continuing to assess the raid's situation. Ten teams of six and two aerial teams of six gave the Clearing group a total of seventy two. Hotel gone left sixty-six players. Of course, it seemed only fifty-eight remained after the casualties.

"We can't let anyone abandon the fight, we have to help the players in combat right now," she finally said to the reassembled teams. Delta was full with six, the old Alpha had three left, and with herself that totaled ten. They split into two teams of five, Scootaloo and a Delta Team member joining to reinforce the Alpha Team.

"We'll move together, with one team hanging back as reinforcements in case the other gets attacked." Scootaloo drew two circles in the ground quickly, explaining her plan before the game reformed the dirt into its original state. One of the two teams had to take point.

"My team's ready to do it Guild Leader," volunteered the Delta Team's commander.

"Good," Scootaloo said, "Alpha could use the breather."

"Where should we be headed?" he asked. "Rescuing Charlie Team?"

Scootaloo shook her head. "The enemy's probably too concentrated back at their fort by now, at least for a small group like us. We'll need to head a little west and pick up Bravo Team first, they just messaged that their trapped in the area by some player killers."

"Understood, we'll take the lead," he said, signalling his team to jump up to the trees. Scootaloo and the Alpha team followed just a few seconds behind, keeping in sight of Delta without risking getting ambushed together. Strangely enough, Scootaloo didn't feel awkward from jumping from tree to tree while a few other Pegasi players glided through the branches, unlike how she felt with Rainbow Dash. Part of the fact was that some players hadn't fully mastered flight yet and flew a little clumsily, and another part was that there were Earth Pony and Unicorn players happily jumping along with Scootaloo with their strength attributes.

The small comfort around her team helped her concentrate on a solution. Even if Charlie Team was saved, there were other players engaged across the the entire floor. Letting players teleport would jeopardize those players still struggling with the enemy. It was also entirely possible for the player killers to start attacking even more if they suspected players were using their scroll to quit the fight.

The two teams entered a swampier area of the floor as they approached Bravo Team. As they moved deeper into the swamp, Scootaloo could feel the enemies dispersed in the tree tops. She picked up her pace and left Alpha behind to quickly talk to Delta commander.

"I don't like the feeling of this place," she told him, showing him the raid roster. "Bravo Team's not currently in battle, or at least it doesn't look like they are, but they said they were bogged down."

"Hit-and-run?" the commander offered. Scootaloo nodded grimly.

"They're not just brawling with our fighters, these player killers are treating it like war." Scootaloo flicked her eyes back to a shadow that moved in the trees. She swore to herself there was at least one enemy trailing them.

"Do you think Bravo Team's being used as bait for a rescue party?"

That was what Scootaloo assumed to be the worst case scenario, but hearing it made it sound very likely. "I wouldn't be surprised," she answered, "they baited us with the fort, then attacked us just when we thought we were winning."

"I think you should stay back with Alpha, my team will draw enemy fire if they're waiting for us at Bravo Team." Scootaloo would have objected to him trying to be impressive, but his tone only hinted a serious conviction, so she let him lead how he wanted.

"We'll have your back in a moment if it goes bad," she said before slowing her pace, back to the Alpha team.

They met up with Bravo Team over a small clearing made by a collapsed tree. They didn't seem in too much trouble until a couple spears shot from the thick canopy and herded the team back to their perches, hanging over the center of the clearing.

The Delta commander took a safe approach, skirting the edge of the small clearing until his team stumbled into one of the spear throwing player killers. With a standard issued paralysis poison, his followers overpowered the thrower and left him paralyzed on the tree branch.

They continued, with Alpha Team behind them, incapacitating the guerrilla spear throwers. As for Scootaloo's suspicions, the measly enemy team of two may have caused problems for Delta when they tried an ambush from the back, but Alpha team's members were quick to cripple and paralyze them before she could give an order.

"Thank's for the save," the Bravo commander said, sighing from relief as his team caught up with Delta Team. The two leaders paused their teams to rest in the branches while they had a quick chat. Scootaloo did the same and rested Alpha team only a few trees away. After a couple of minutes of rest, the Delta commander directed the Bravo commander toward Scootaloo.

He leaped over to Scootaloo's branch and sat down. "We're going after Charlie Team now, right?" asked the brown stallion.

Scootaloo opened her map, pointing to a team. "Juliet Team hasn't moved from that spot in a long time. They're just Northeast of us, and probably much easier to check on right now."

She swiped her hoof and showed the Bravo commander a message she just received. "Foxtrot and Golf both reported a high concentration of player killers back at the fort, where they're holding Charlie Team. We need to regroup everyone else if we want a chance at saving Charlie Team."

===================================================

Phoenix left a trail of player killers paralyzed as she leaped through the treetops. Even with her level and skill, she was only managing to hold off the flow of enemies coming from the fort. She turned to Roseluck, who was having the same struggle deflecting throwing spears that seemed to be coming from nowhere.

"Wanna switch?" she asked, pushing back another player until he fell off the branches and broke his legs from the fall damage. "I'd rather fight spears, they don't fight back."

Roseluck laughed in spite of their position. "At least you can see enemies coming, these spears are coming out of nowhere." She jumped and twisted her body around two incoming spears, landing on a higher branch. She caught sight of one of the spear throwers as they jumped to level with her, and she lunged out at him the moment she had a strait path towards him.

The enemy player froze up and fell from the trees, paralyzed by the poison Roseluck had on her spear. She side stepped and evaded another spear aimed for her, then retreated back to Phoenix.

"Holding up okay?" she asked her.

Phoenix barely paused to catch her breath. "They just don't know how to quit!"

"Well, if we don't get out of here, Charlie Team's probably done for." Roseluck grabbed Phoenix and switched places with her, knocking back one of the player killers with the butt of her spear.

Phoenix refocused on the spears aimed at her chest. She dodged instinctively, though the first few scraped through her leather armor. She didn't dodge as much as Roseluck, but her Teuflisch Zweihander made up by deflecting each spear. The fire enchantments charged up, blasting back the throwing spears with an added fire effect.

One of the enemy players was struck by the deflected spear and caught fire, falling off his hidden perch in a blazing panic. He headed strait for the ground, his body crumpling as he took a massive hit from the fall damage. He should have been fine, but the added fire took the last piece of health from his health bar, and he shattered into light. The spears stopped for a moment, their throwers staring at the death. So did Phoenix.

But, convictions aside, the battlefield was still a battlefield, and she didn't have the time to repent as more spears came her way. She fought them off as hard as before, but never shot the spears directly back when she blocked.

Despite their success fighting off the attackers, it wasn't them who drove them off. Three other teams appeared out of nowhere, eliminating the throwers in the trees and blocking off the attackers coming from the fort. Alone, Juliet Team could have held out, but there was no chance the player killers could win against the other teams combined.

"Hey Phoenix!" Scootaloo called. "How's the rest of your team?"

"SixSix took Gold-Watch to hide out somewhere in the trees when Gold-Watch got hit by paralysis. Beefluv's on his way back from an emergency herb run for Roseluck's healing potions, and X-Cubed is... somewhere. I think he ran."

"No casualties?" Scootaloo almost sounded surprised. With how the battle was going, she half-expected things to be worse.

"All six accounted for," Phoenix confirmed. Scootaloo nodded and signaled the Delta and Bravo leaders that they could rest their teams.

"I don't know how long we can keep them here Scootaloo," Phoenix worried. "Everyone just wants to teleport out."

"Same on my end," Scootaloo replied, showing Phoenix all the messages from team commanders, threatening to pull out their teams with teleportation scrolls."

"It's still risky to go for Charlie Team, but once we have them, everyone can teleport away." Phoenix tapped her hoof with nervousness. "It looks like it's our only option right now."

Scootaloo shook her head. "We just need to get everyone together. There's only a few more teams left."

"These are video game players Scootaloo, not military personnel." Phoenix reminded her. "If we push them too much they'll quit for sure."

Scootaloo wanted to protest, but couldn't come up with anything to counter Pheonix's logic. They had to get Charlie Team back as soon as possible.

"So, how're we going to attack? The fort's full of enemy players on every side, and there's sure to be some casualties if we charge in with brute force."

Phoenix thought for a moment. "Then let's not charge in," she said, taking Scootaloo through her thoughts. "Their advantage is their numbers, not their levels -we definitely have the advantage in that. So, instead to head in and letting them surround us, we use their hit-and-run strategy against them, with most of our player pulling them around the forest while you and I sneak in and get Charlie Team out of the fort."

"Think the player killers will go for the distraction?" Scootaloo asked, unsure about the idea.

Phoenix was being the optimist. "It's worth a shot. Even if only a few players chase down our teams, it should still give us an opening to get in and out. The fort itself isn't all that complex."

They went over the details of where they should infiltrate the fort, estimating the time it would take to get Charlie Team out, and finally went over the plans with the other team leaders. They were all eager to get back Charlie Team, and went ahead with the plan.

===================================================

They snuck in quietly, invisible with the help of Roseluck's potions, and entered the fort through the north gate. The distraction had drawn out more than they expected, leaving most of the outer area of the fort unguarded.

Scootaloo made her way around the blacksmith's forge and over to the east side of the fort, while Phoenix took the west. They passed cages, special player made traps meant for hunting special monsters, that were empty. In total, they counted one for each team of the Clearing Group.

Phoenix stashed that little detail in the back of her mind. It looked like the player killers even knew how many players they'd be facing. She suspected a mole could have been in the Clearing Group, it seemed like these criminals had eyes and ears everywhere else, and this just confirmed it further. No one would be surprised when they heard the news, but that didn't make it any better.

But there was one cage, in the center of the fort, that wasn't empty. It was built next to a bonfire, where a few player guarded it with shields and spears. Phoenix glanced over at Scootaloo and they traded knowing looks. The enemy left their slow Tanks to guard the prisoners, and with their shields, it would take too long for even the toughest of the Clearing Group to break through with force.

A couple guards were standing farther away from the cage, guarding the large hut across from Charlie Team. Silently, Scootaloo signaled Phoenix to start by taking them out. They creeped over to the hut, weapons tipped with paralysis poisons, and dispatched the two Tanks before they could make a sound. They met behind the hut and dropped them off there.

"We have to move fast," Scootaloo whispered.

"I counted three by the fire, and two patrolling the west side," Phoenix replied, pointing to their general location on the map.

"Three patrols on the east." Scootaloo added. "So let's make the west our exit point."

"How 'bout the south gate?"

Scootaloo shook her head. "The others are bringing the enemy around the fort. They'll reach the south end at the same time we do."

"Okay, west it is," Phoenix agreed.

They move to take out the three Tanks by the fire. Scootaloo make the first strike, paralyzing one player and drawing the attention of the others. Phoenix dropped the second one, out of view of his friend. Sandwiched between the two, the third Tank barely struggled as the two pinned him down and delivered the paralysis to his chest.

Charlie Team watched as two figures materialized in front of them and neutralize three Tanks in less than five seconds. Scootaloo hurried over to check on them while Phoenix got to work on picking the lock.

The team's leader was the first to find his words. "Guild Leader, it's great to see you!"

Scootaloo smiled but hushed him up. "There's still player killers around the fort, keep it down." The leader closed his mouth and listened to the plan. "We're gonna sneak past the guards over on the west side of the cages and make a run for it. Don't worry about the outer ring, we've got a distraction for them. You ready to go?"

"We've got two still paralyzed," he said, pointing to a mare and a stallion lying on the floor. "They took critical hits from some spear thrower. Think we can carry them?"

"No need," Scootaloo said, opening her inventory. "We have an alchemist who knows the antidote for paralysis." She opened the trade menu and handed them over to the leader. He took them and used them on his team members, bringing them back up immediately.

"Wow that's refreshing," gasped the mare. The stallion was still a little dizzy, but chuckled the same sign of relief.

"Lock's done," Phoenix said.

"Alright, let's go -oh shit."

Phoenix turned to see what Scootaloo was looking at. Surprise caught her breath, and she couldn't find the words to express all the emotions she felt. A force of at least ten enemy players, led by a mare dressed in torn leather armor. She drew her greatsword with one hoof, mirroring Phoenix's stance down to the hoof work.

"Let the little ones go boys," she told her soldiers. "We've got something so much better."

Scootaloo told Charlie Team to run and find the others, and they left without hesitation. They both drew their swords, ready to fight their way through. The mare chuckled, nodding her head for the player killers to do their work.

Phoenix tore through the first two that engaged her, dismembering their legs and leaving them crippled on the floor, near death. Scootaloo moved around, expertly tripping over the enemies and crippling them. Phoenix left Scootaloo to deal with the soldiers as she clashed with the leader, staring her down as they locked swords.

"Nice blade," the leader said, pushing back, "I can't wait to take it off your crippled body."

"Always stealing from others Aria. When will you learn?" Phoenix stepped past Aria and swung around to strike. But they were both too quick for each other. Aria parried the blade, but missed the riposte.

Phoenix wondered why Aria, like Sonata, had an earth pony character. The game chose characters for each player based on their counterparts in Equestria, but Aria and Sonata weren't even ponies.

"I never added Sirens to the game," she said to Aria as she ducked under a slash. "So you can guess how unwelcome you are right now." She returned with a thrust of her own, which Aria deftly avoided with a sidestep.

"Finally admitting things, aren't we?" Aria smirked. "Heard the game's creator disappeared into the crowd, never to show her face again. Don't tell me that stupid name you chose fooled a hundred thousand players that you were gone."

"Less than a hundred thousand. So much less Aria, you should know." They locked guards again, now using both hooves, and pushed each other around the fort and into the player made structures.

"You blame me for all those deaths?" Aria took one hoof off her sword and reached for a dagger, sticking it into Phoenix's chest. She grabbed it, taking a hoof off her sword as well, pulling it out of her armor. It barely scratched through, but if it even scraped her skin, the paralysis poison dripping from the blade would incapacitate her immediately.

"Who else should I blame?" Phoenix asked, struggling to get Aria off. "You're their leader, aren't you? You gave the order to kill those players on floor forty."

"And you made the game that killed thousands of others," Aria replied, pressing her weight against Phoenix. They both stumbled over, rolling into the wooden hut in the center. There was a personal chest under a couple decorative shelves on one wall, and Aria emptied the contents of the chest. She equipped one of the flasks and threw it in Phoenix's face.

Phoenix barely had time to orient herself and duck behind a wooden table. She sniffed the powder coming for the flask.

"Concussion powder?"

"Refined concussion powder," Aria corrected, pulling back her hoof to launch another. Phoenix looked around for something to use. Everything was player made, not a static object or part of the scenery. She pushed over the wooden table and kicked it at Aria, slamming her back out of the hut.

Phoenix leaped out with her sword aimed at Aria's chest, missing only by one step and landing the blow to a foreleg. Aria rolled back, recovering her sword and her stance.

"What the hell you even planning?" Phoenix asked. "Why lead a murder guild if all you want is control?"

Aria laughed. "You think I'm like Adagio? Just because we fought with magic in the real world, doesn't mean you know me Sunset."

Phoenix deflected Aria's overhead slash. "Then what's your goal? Why come all this way into my world, and just leave Sonata behind?" She ducked under a wide swing and counterattacked with a thrust into Aria's gut. She dodged with a spin, pushing Phoenix back with a powerful kick.

Phoenix stamped her hooves into the ground, keeping her stance as stable as she could with only three hooves on the ground. She raised her sword, expecting another strike, but Aria didn't make a move. Her face seemed to soften a little, and wasn't full of disgust as before.

"Did you just say you met Sonata? I... thought she was dead."

Phoenix was taken aback, but kept an eye for even the slightest sign that she was lying. Aria felt the glare, and dropped her sword on the floor. The moment of feelings was erased, and she looked at Phoenix with the same cold glare as before.

"Where is she?" Aria asked.

"I don't know, she comes and goes," Phoenix answered warily. "Hanging around with other players takes her places, so I never get more than a moment to chat."

Aria accepted the answer with some disappointment in her eyes. "What did you mean, about leaving Sonata behind?"

Phoenix raised a brow. She didn't know? Her voice like she was being genuine, but given what Roseluck told her, it was hard to believe. "When we found Sonata, she had just been pulled out of some caves in floor thirty-eight by a couple of our top players. They were hunting for clues to track down your guild."

"Well they wouldn't have found anything. We're not sloppy amateurs." Aria grumbled. "Go on."

"Well, I wasn't there for it, so I don't know any more than that."

Aria scoffed at her. "I would've thought you'd want to keep an eye 'ex-villains' like us."

"I do, but I'm not the only one. I have friends to help me, something you clearly need to work on." Phoenix nodded to Scootaloo, who was just driving off the last of Aria's soldiers.

Aria growled. "I'm fine on my own, and if you can't tell me more about Sonata, then I can find out more on my own too." She galloped forward, grabbing her sword and rushing toward Phoenix. She parried Aria's strike, but couldn't catch her as she sprinted past. She chopped down some of the tents around the fort, blocking Phoenix from following.

"Shit," Phoenix said to herself, "How'd I let her get by like that?"

"Don't worry about it Phoenix," Scootaloo reassure, holding her back with a wing. "Charlie Team messaged me during the fight. They caught up with the others and took care of the rest of the player killers. They've got the fort surrounded.

Phoenix sighed, letting her body relax for a moment. With the fort taken, and most of the enemy scattered or incapacitated, she felt that the hard part was over. Or maybe just about to begin. After all, what would the casualties be? She didn't doubt that there was a huge list of deaths for both sides, despite the Clearing Group's attempt at non-lethal attacks. She knew at least one of those deaths was on her shoulders.

Phoenix and Scootaloo spotted Aria outside the fort, struggling to pull herself from under a nest of spears, pinning her down. She seemed angry, but perfectly harmless. Still, no one dared to get too close.

"Guild Leader!" called out Charlie Team's leader. Scootaloo looked up to the player perched on the tree. "Did we win?"

Scootaloo smiled back. "Yeah. You totally carried the whole group." Everyone laughed in agreement, teasing all of Charlie Team as well. Slowly, more players from other teams joined up, hearing that the leader of the murder guild was captured. With the fighting over, everyone wanted to take a break and see it with their own eyes.

Aria didn't seem to care that all the players were humiliating her, she just stared coldly at Phoenix, mouthing silent words at her. "We're going to talk, and you're going to find Sonata for me." Phoenix didn't reply, but she didn't ignore Aria either. She simply nodded, knowing something had to be done. With Sonata free and Aria captured, it left Phoenix with one more problem.

Where is the third Siren? She thought this to herself the entire time they escorted Aria to her own player made prison. Where is Adagio?

How Desperate?

"How long has she been like this?"

"Just a day, but I'm worried."

Hoof steps came in.

"Sorry, I just had to -oh jeez, is she okay?"

"She's in a hospital bed in-game and in-real-life, so take a guess." It was Rainbow Dash's voice. Phoenix's head started to clear as Rainbow Dash talked to the other players. Their voices were only a short distance away, but nevertheless they were blurred.

Finally, she didn't know how long, she regained enough control of herself to grab her head. She had a splitting headache, but no debuff to show it. "What's going on RD? Where are we?"

"Oh my gosh you're awake!" Roseluck rushed forward and hugged Phoenix.

The suddenness shook the room around her, but Phoenix welcomed the embrace, gritting her teeth through the dizzyness.

"Nice to see you too." Her voice was a little rough, it felt dry from a day without a glass of water. "But where are we? All I remember was the Draconequus finishing me off with its sword."

"Are you serious?" Rainbow Dash stared. "You wiped the floor with it. All that fire magic you used burned the boss into a crisp. We barely even had a head left to activate the portal to this floor. It was just a skull."

"This floor? We're on floor fifty-one?" It sounded like a miracle to Phoenix, but Roseluck confirmed with her grin.

Phoenix noticed that by the door of the room was Grieveblossom, dressed in some new plate armor. "Hey Phoenix," he said, smiling. "Glad you're okay after that fight. Wish I was there to see you give that boss hell."

Phoenix smiled back. "I must have missed a lot while I was out. Nice gear."

Grieve Blossom stared down and fidgeted with the armor's straps. "Oh this? Nah, it's just some standard issue stuff. You know, with the promotion and all."

Phoenix stared, waiting for a better explanation, but he didn't seem to want to talk about it. Luckily, Roseluck was happy to fill in. "The leaders of the Knights were rewarding promotions to their lower ranks to make space for new recruits for the boss. Of course, you kind of made their plan redundant. Amazingly though, his lazy ass still gets to keep his new senior member rank."

"Hey, the leaders said I earned it, so leave a complaint in their complaint box," Grieve said defensively.

"Okay you two, we can take this outside," Phoenix interrupted. "I need some fresh air to clear my head."

The three of them stepped out of the way, letting Phoenix take her time getting up. Standing made her head spin, but after a few steps through the door and out of the inn, she got her balance back. The breeze was the most refreshing thing she'd ever felt. It touched her coat and danced through her mane, as real as the real world.

"Better?" Rainbow Dash asked, handing her a glass of water.

"Much better." She accepted the drink and gulped it greedily.

They sat together on the bench outside of the inn, gazing at the endless grassland, and the little NPC monsters spawning on it. Some players were busy grinding the monsters, trying to level up. Phoenix's body was telling her that the fight had ended with the Draconequus, but what she saw was the opposite. They were only half-finished.

"So, you really don't remember how you took out that boss?" Rainbow Dash asked after a long moment of blissful peace.

"I'm afraid not," Phoenix said. "I kind of thought I was dead while fighting that thing."

Rainbow Dash was stumped. "Any idea what happened, like how you got magic powers? None of us got a good look through all that fire you were using."

"It's part of the reason why I haven't used magic until now," Phoenoix explained. "You know those anomalies I've been looking at, the ones that could possibly force the game to end?"

Rainbow Dash nodded. "I still have the one you got from the Hearth's Warming Boss. It reminds me of a simpler time whenever I open my inventory."

Phoenix opened her menu and showed Rainbow Dash what she had compiled from the items. Grieve Blossom tried to lean over and look too, but Roseluck tugged him back.

"Better to stay out of this one," she whispered to him. "It's beyond us."

Phoenix pointed to a section of the magic, zooming in on its pattern. "Proper magic was never added to the game for unicorns, but ever since I started taking apart the magic in the coding, I started piecing together ways to change that. But I couldn't do anything with what I had, not until I got piece of armor from Black Orchid."

"The Nighthaven guy that tried to kill you?"

Phoenix nodded, moving past that fact like it was commonplace. After all, so many other things in the game had already tried to kill her. "The Digispheres read our minds and turns our commands into actions in the game. Most players just move like humans and the helmet's computer has to translate it into actions for a pony. But sometimes, there are actions that don't make sense to the computer, and that's where the magic takes over."

Rainbow Dash didn't understand most of the patterns on the screen, but she knew exactly what Phoenix was talking about. When the game started, she had to reconfigure her Digisphere's settings to use her wings the same way she did in real life. The original setting linked wing motion to human arms, but she could fly with real wings when her magic activated, and wanted to get the same feeling out of the game.

"Using magic and casting spells will always be in my head, no matter how long I live in the human world," Phoenix continued. "The gemstone in the Digisphere can sense it, but it can't recognize it. Messing with the link between my Digisphere and the game's servers allows me to add those action to my character. But it's not so easy."

Rainbow Dash knew where Phoenix was going. "Let me guess, it messes up other thing too?"

"More or less," she replied. "When I cast magic, I'm interfering with our mental links directly. In other words, whenever I do magic I might as well be performing brain surgery with every other player in the game. Forgetting the battle might just be one small consequence, but it's already proof of how much damage I could do."

"C'mon, don't make it sound so bad," Rainbow Dash said, convinced Phoenix was just being dramatic. "I mean, I'm sure you feel like shit, but at least we're alive."

It was a valid point, but it didn't change anything to Phoenix. "You and I both know how dangerous magic can get, especially in the human world. If I use magic again, there's no way to predict what could happen. The conditions will be different, and things could start breaking. Glitches, bugs, game breaking results that could set us back for months. All because of a little bit of magic in a gem. It doesn't do what you tell it to, even if you shove it into a machine. I should have known this, but I was too damn blind to look."

Rainbow Dash patted her friend on the back. "You've got enough on your plate as it is, more than anyone else. Besides, what you did yesterday was badass as hell, there's no reason to beat yourself up over it."

"You're right. It's just... I hesitated using magic because I was afraid of what it would do. I hesitated, and the players from the Realm of Glory..." Phoenix paused, letting the severity of the boss fight catch up. "How many died in the end?"

Rainbow Dash lowered her head and stared at the ground. "Twelve. There were thirty-eight survivors." The surviving number was big, but the original raid was bigger. With fifty players walking in, thirty-eight survivors sounded disparaging. The Draconequus was spitting in Phoenix's face at the flimsy idea of victory. It had succeeded in what it was made for: killing.

"The funeral's in a couple days," added Rainbow Dash. "The Realm of Glory's been invited to come up to this floor and host the ceremony in the Knight of Yore's new guild keep. The raid leader, Spring Razor, she asked for you by name."

"Me?"

Rainbow Dash scoffed. "Don't act so humble, that's obviously my job. Of course she asked for you, if it wasn't for what you did the entire raid could've been wiped out."

"I'm flattered by the gesture but-"

"Just be there on Sunday," she said to Phoenix. There wasn't any better way to honor the dead than to be there for their funeral. Grieving over them but not going would have been hypocritical. Phoenix nodded, wrapping her forelegs around her head. She had woken no more than an hour ago, and she already felt drained.

"Ugh, my head's still swirling. I think I still need more rest." Phoenix got up and started walking back to her room.

"Hold on Phoenix," Rainbow Dash said, catching her at the door. "There's one more thing you missed after you beat the boss. Open your inventory."

Phoenix did so, swiping open the inventory menu and scrolling to the top. A new item icon flashed in her bag.

"Isn't this..." she stared at the icon. It was the Draconequus's sword, a one-of-a-kind drop from killing the boss for the first time.

"You picked it up seconds before collapsing," Rainbow Dash told her. "I didn't get a good look at it, but I bet it's awesome. Go on, try it out."

Phoenix unequipped her Zweihander and added the Shadow of Discord to her weapon slot. It formed pixel by pixel in her hoof, and once it was solid, dropped strait on the floor. It was far heavier than her own sword, and incredibly large as well. Compared to her, she almost didn't believe that it was a scaled down model.

"Holy crap that's a big sword," Grieve Blossom yelped as the blade thunked onto the ground.

Rainbow Dash walked around it as Phoenix painstakingly lifted it up. "Damn, the flat of the blade's got to be at least as wide as a buckler."

"Forget its side, it's twice as long as your greatsword," Roseluck added.

"Really?" Phoenix grunted as she gave it a testing swing. "Because it feels fives time the weight." As it cut through the air, a thick trail of black fog followed it, from the enchantments that activated. But even in the shadows it created, the blade itself still looked blacker. Phoenix tapped on the weapon to find out what the enchantment really was.

"There's two enchantments on this. The first one's called Withering Storm," she read. "It adds a fifty percent chance to corrupt your enemies on each hit, and a hundred percent chance on a critical strike. Corrupted enemies have drastically reduced attributes and armor."

"And the second?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Phoenix scrolled down. "Entropy: Weapon has a two percent chance to kill enemies instantly. Critical hits inflict one thousand percent damage on bosses."

Rainbow Dash's eyes widened. "You really knew nothing about this beautiful thing?"

"I had nothing to do with making this boss," Phoenix mumbled back, staring at the weapon with new found awe. "But I wish I did." She sheathed on her back, magically shrinking its model into a relatively modest size for a greatsword.

She felt like stepping out into the floor's wilderness and trying out her weapon, but just as she took a step forward her head swirled and she stumbled for a second. She decided to turn back and rest for a bit longer.

"I gotta clear my head with some rest. This weapon's just too much to handle right now."

===================================================

Floor fifty-one's central city, an expanded edition of Canterlot, was the largest by far. Built in the mountains, it spread wide between three peaks, three times the size of an average central city. But it could not hold the ceremony joined by thousands of players from every floor below.

It wasn't the crowded streets that stunned Phoenix. It was the silence. No one spoke a word to each other; there was no need to speak yet, everyone already knew who they were going to see. For the lower leveled players, the Realm of Glory was both a harsh commander calling them to war, and an encouraging push to regain their lives. Phoenix didn't realize how many were placing their hopes on the players in the last raid. They took with them more than their gear. As they walked into the dungeon, daring to face certain death, they brought the ideal that ending the game was not a feat only the Clearing Group could do.

Underdogs, that's what they were. And thousands upon thousands had placed their bets on them. If they could contribute, then every other player could do so too, in their owns special way. Well, they had tried to stand for something, and they fell when the Clearing Group pulled the rug from under them.

How many other players did Spring Razor pass on her way to the dungeon? How many of them could have joined and helped out, but instead scoffed at the overzealous low-levels and walked away? The thought of the answers made Phoenix's gut fall.

Sweetie Belle stood on the stage of the amphitheater, but she did not open the ceremony as per usual. Spring Razor was there to welcome the masses.

It was a somber welcome. There were no bodies to honor and bury, but along the amphitheater Phoenix spotted twelve large chests, player built storage items, laid out in the center of the stage.

She began to read out the names, the real names and player names, once everyone had seated.

The first one. "Orielle Pulis. We knew you better as MadHat Extraordinaire, and true to your name, you lived an extraordinary life. You were the most exciting friend and party member I could ever have hoped to have. May you rest in peace in this world and the real one."

Then the second. "Frederick Johannes, the Osmium Knight. If you weren't there when we transformed the Realm of Glory, the guild would not be as it is today. Your dedication to honesty and you never-say-die attitude was the fire of many people's hearts. You told me you never believed in an afterlife, but I still hope you found peace in whatever wait for you now, even if it is just nothing."

The third. "Johnathan Wiles. Your friends always said you'd call yourself Johnny Appleseed even when you were offline, and while you had no apples to spread across the world, you definitely settle with spreading knowledge. I'd always know I was dreaming if I lived a day without you adding a fun fact in a conversation, or correcting a crucial detail for someone else. Today, we mourn for a friend, but we also mourn for the world's loss of a talented genius."

The list went on. With each chest, she spoke her piece and left a token of honor, each token picked specifically for the player. She was not the only one with things to say. The others on the amphitheater's stage, the closest friends to the honored players, had more to say. Stories to tell, last words they never got to say.

It lasted over four hours but didn't feel like a drag in the least. Every story was heartfelt and depressing, or it would be surprising and enlightening.

Yet, out of all the great speeches, one stuck in Phoenix's mind.

A player stood on the stage in front of the MadHat Extraordinaire's chest, leaving a painstakingly crafted dragon-tier sword in it before sharing his story. He stepped forward, and spoke the crowd.

His voice was deep and melodic, and if his pain couldn't be seen in the look on his face, then it could be heard in the words of his song.

I know sometimes we'd have our fights

Most times I knew that I was wrong

But every time we came out alright

I guess this time 'tis I who's wrong

You'll never grow up to see my family

Always thought you would be there for me

Could've been there for you, but this time, I was gone

I feel the pain much more than most, so much more than most

Some can never know the strength we shared

But now in death I see your ghost

I'll never turn my back on you

Every thing I said was always true

oh-oh-oh-oh

I know this is wrong

You've never turned your back on me

I was alone, you helped me be

Now that you're gone, I probably should say:

Tu reste mon ami

Je t'honore

Jamais tu mourras

I remember you

You'll never die

Ton coeur avait raison!

Phoenix admired the language and the voice, though she couldn't make sense of it. It was slow and melodic, thoughtful and perfect for the occasion. But in the corner of her vision she noticed two ponies not as engrossed in the music. Roseluck was with one of the members of the Realm of Glory. She recognized him, but couldn't pinpoint from where.

Maybe a survivor of the raid? Phoenix thought so at first, but Roseluck barely knew the Realm of Glory, and was talking to the stallion with great familiarity.

Holy hell, Phoenix thought as she looked closer. Is that... Greg?

===================================================

"I was so worried when they said the Realm of Glory nearly wiped on the floor boss!" Roseluck hissed at Greg. The ceremony was a block away and they agreed to talk in private, so Roseluck was free to speak with words of acid.

"Well, I'm glad you thought of me," Greg grumbled. "You didn't seem that exited to see me when we last spoke."

She couldn't believe his attitude. "Are you serious? That is irrelevant right now. That was when the Realm of Glory was pressuring people into doing stupid things. Now you've skipped the middle man and gone straight to the stupid!"

"Fine," Greg admitted "my guild used to be dicks. But you still don't get to judge what I'm a part of or what we're a part of. We're willing to risk our lives because we believe in what we do."

"Throwing lives away is not the same as being brave or being noble," Roseluck scolded. "And for your sake, I think you should quit the Realm before they get you into a bad situation."

"Quit? That's what you want me to do now?" Greg asked back, astonished. "We didn't get this far by quitting. Besides, I don't have anywhere else to go. All my friends are in the Realm of Glory."

That stung. Roseluck didn't know if he intended to say that, but it came out so naturally that all remains of their friendship seemed to dissolve. The offer just sprung out of her mouth. "Join the Cutie Mark Crusaders Greg, they'd want a player with your dedication. They'll help you level up and really become part of the Clearing Group!"

"Well maybe there's another way," Greg replied. "Maybe I'm done waiting around for the Clearing Group to save me. Maybe they don't know best, and everyone else needs to pitch in to help. Maybe I'm sick of losing months of life to a fake reality just because the 'top dogs' have a disagreement. Maybe that's why I didn't follow you into the Crusaders, Roseluck. There are other ways to tackle a problem."

"And there are risks that come with that," Roseluck added. "I don't want you to be in those risks. You're still a friend to me Greg, and I want to go back to the real world and hang out with you again."

Greg sighed. "So do I Rose, so do I." Then his face turned hard, and he stared at her. "But right now, it seems like nothing can keep us together for more than a few minutes, and the longer we spend in here, the more we're going to forget each other. I don't want that to happen."

"But it's not," Roseluck insisted.

Greg shook his head. "No, it already started a long time ago." He glanced down the street to the ceremony, where they could hear voices cheering. "Sorry, but I think we should pay our respects right now and come back to this later."

Roseluck tried to slow him down, putting her hoof on his should to keep him for just another moment, but he shrugged her off with his gloom and trotted back to the rest of the players.

===================================================

Sweetie Belle paced around the Crusader's meeting room. "Do you really think they're coming? We've had a lot on our plates with the ceremony and whatnot, I don't know if Allegretto has the time."

"She said she'd be here," Scootaloo said, relaxing on a sofa. With the new guild halls being moved up, there was plenty more space for decorations and luxuries, and while all the guilds insisted they didn't waste resource on unnecessary goods, Scootaloo couldn't help adding a few extra comforts to the meeting room.

"This is serious Scootaloo, we need to deal with the Clearing Group's growth, or lack thereof." Sweetie Belle's hooves tapped rhythmically as she paced circles around the stretched rectangular desk. She had every right to be nervous, especially with the results of the week's recruits. Only two players had joined the ranks, hardly enough to rebuild after the momentous battle with Nighthaven. Her hope was to fix this roadblock in time to beat floor fifty-one before the month's end. A week and a half didn't seem long enough.

The tapping almost got too annoying to bear before the door finally opened. In walked the leader of the Knights of Yore, accompanied by her closest advisers. They dressed modestly for the occasion, but couldn't hide the shimmering quality of the enchantments in their armor.

"Sorry we're late," Allegretto apologized, "we had a little training accident to take care of beforehand."

"Of course, we understand," Sweetie Belle replied as she took her seat at the opposite side of the desk. "But, now that you're here, I hope we can come up with some way to expand the Clearing Group."

"Actually, my officers and I have already come up with a plan," Allegretto told her. "We've thought about it for quite a while, but we've agreed that we need this plan now more than ever."

Scootaloo sat up in her seat, eager to hear the plan and get the meeting over with. "Okay, shoot. We'd love to hear it." She'd rather be training and recruiting than talking about training and recruiting.

Allegretto quickly shared a message with the CMC before explaining. "In that message I sent you, you'll see that we've cataloged all known players who could be candidates for the Clearing Group. With only twelve names, we knew we had to look somewhere else. Then it dawned on me that we already have a huge pool of players easily within the level requirements."

Applebloom raised her brow. "What? Where?"

"Our prisons. We have dozens of players locked up that are high enough to be considered for the Clearing Group."

Sweetie Belle looked at the Knight's leader, smiling nervously. "You're joking, right? We just got done cleaning up those criminals, and now you want them to help us?"

"Not all of them, but I believe some of them can still be saved," Allegretto explained. "Prisons in real life don't even keep criminals forever."

Sweetie Belle slapped her hoof on the table. "But they're not just criminals, they're murderers! And real prison sentences last years for those people."

"It's not ideal, but I think some of them deserve another chance," Allegretto insisted. "Besides, given how desperate both our guilds are to get more Clearing Group members, I don't see any other option."

Sweetie Belle nodded to Applebloom to share their solution with the Knights.

She sent the message, containing a list of equations and functions. "It's a system our guild developed to asses the strengths of players by more than just their level. Our smartest players put those equations together to create a rank system to judge more players."

"I don't see how this is going to get more recruits," one of Allegretto's advisers said.

"We can expand the lower bracket of the Clearing Group by adding other factors: item quality, weapon choice, enchantments, crafting skills. These all add to how good a player is, and the better they are, the more useful they'll be to the Clearing Group." Everything was in the message, just as Applebloom explained it, but the Knights weren't convinced.

"The lower bracket for the Clearing Group is already low enough as it is," Allegretto argued. "If we lower it even more, no mathematical function's going to keep them safe while clearing a boss room they weren't prepared for, or grinding a dungeon they can't handle. Twelve good players from The Realm of Glory are martyrs because of this very idea."

"Okay Allegretto, calm down for a moment," Scootaloo jumped in. "I know exactly how desperate we are. I get to sit around our training grounds with our only two new recruits each day, but before we even consider your plan, you need to have a way to control the player-killers we choose."

Sweetie Belle turned to Scootaloo, shocked that she'd even think about giving Allegretto a chance with her plan, but it was a good point.

Allegretto was a little surprised as well, but graciously accepted the chance to explain the plan further. "We'll only be picking the elite ex-Nighthaven members, they're the only ones with high enough levels to make a difference. They'll be on parole with a party, two ex-Nighthavens per four of our players."

Sweetie Belle still didn't buy it. "What makes you think they'll agree in the first place? It's not like they wanted to help beat the game before."

"We'll entice them," Allegretto replied confidently. "Everyone likes freedom, and not only will they be on parole, they'll be working towards being free from the game entirely."

Sweetie Belle shook her head. "It's too risky. The Knights don't have enough players in the Clearing Group to look after so many ex-Nighthavens, and I'm sure not many of our Crusaders will be happy with fighting with the players they were just fighting against. If nothing else, you should at least understand that. After all, the attack on your training camp was one of the big things that started this whole mess."

"I know, it happened only a few floors ago, and for some, the memory of of our lost players are still fresh," Allegretto told the CMC. "But that's why as the Knights, showing mercy is more powerful than anything else we have right now."

"That's not how we see it," Applebloom countered, "and I reckon neither of us are gonna change our minds anytime soon."

"In that case, perhaps we should take a vote," said Allegretto. "This is, after all, far more important than anything we've discussed before."

It sounded ludicrous, how comfortable she was with letting her plan be put to a vote. After everything that they've done to dismantle Nighthaven, Sweetie Belle was convinced no one would support the Knights' idea. She was cautious about the thought, but it was the easiest way to show Allegretto that her plan wouldn't work.

Reluctantly, Sweetie Belle agreed. "We'll announce it this afternoon."

===================================================

The room Rainbow Dash rented smelled like pine, a fresh pine forest. For the time being, it would be her home on floor fifty-one while she trained, and happily let Phoenix stay after the funeral ceremony.

The smell helped the headache a little, along with the various experimental potions that Roseluck had whipped up to reduce the feedback that was causing the headache. The potions did their best, but the side-effects weren't listed as a debuff, so there was only so much that they could do to stop the raw data stream of headaches.

Phoenix tried to get rid of it herself, swimming through a web of data to find what her magic had done to the patterns. But wherever the data was, it was lost in the other patterns of magic on her screen. Working on the anomalies kept her sane through the day. Roseluck and Rainbow Dash had left to go level up, leaving Phoenix to her thoughts and her issues. Being out of the fight for just a day seemed like an eternity, but she couldn't face field golems and forest dragons if her head throbbed each time she made a sudden move.

So when Grieve Blossom stopped by with a bizarre request from his guild, Phoenix was eager to at least hear about it and feel involved for the day. And then he started explaining the plan to expand the Clearing Group.

"I don't know about this Grieve Blossom, you sure the Knights think Aria's okay for parole?"

"Of course they do," Grieve Blossom said, his voice attempting to mask his uncertainty. "But out of respect for your experience, they want you to be the final judge."

They want a scapegoat if it all goes wrong, probably. She thought to herself cynically.

On one hoof, giving Aria a second chance could help get on her good side, assuming she had one. On the other hoof, she had a huge influence among player-killers and criminals alike. Once she was out, it was almost impossible to guess what she'd do.

But then there was the magic. Aria was a Siren, one of the three being whose crystals became the basis of the Digisphere's magic. No one else, perhaps not even Phoenix, understood the magic better than them. Whether or not the Sirens were the cause of the logout malfunction, which Phoenix still considered to be likely, having one of them help Phoenix complete a reset spell could be incredibly useful. Phoenix thought of asking Sonata, but her mind was always focused on other things.

But it was that magic, that dark power, that she didn't trust. "Did Roseluck ever tell you my history with Aria and her friends?" Grieve Blossom shook his head. She expected as much, Roseluck was pretty good at keeping her private stories private, though Phoenix just wanted to be sure.

"Let's just say our relationship isn't good right now," she told him. "Anyways, why's your bosses convinced Aria's a good candidate for this... Clearing Group expansion plan. Why not some members in Nighthaven's lower ranks?"

"They're not good enough," Grieve Blossom explained. "In fact, most of the players we arrested during the final battle, or after during the investigation, don't fit into the Clearing Group requirements. Aria's just one of a few that do, and the Knights just want everyone they can get. As a plus, she was a major leader. If she goes along with it, then other player-killers might have a change of heart too."

"And if she escapes and rallies Nighthaven, that'll have the opposite effect." Phoenix was sure that was the more likely scenario.

"I know it sounds bad, but you haven't counted the numbers." Grieve Blossom opened a list sent to him in a message. "These are all the remaining members in the Clearing Group. At the start of the month, it was twice this number. We can't afford to lock up some of the strongest players in the game, even if they are criminals."

"But we can't let them go unpunished," Phoenix protested.

Grieve Blossom understood her concern "Iceblood said the same thing, and so did I. But we're not police officers, or the judicial system. Once we get out of the game, then they can be tried for their crimes. In here, killer or not, we're all fighting for our lives. If we don't do this, there won't be anyone left to clear the game, and the Realm of Glory won't be the only ones who die trying to rush the top floor."

Phoenix rubbed her temple, thinking it over. She wanted nothing more than to end the game, but she didn't trust the player killers, especially Aria. It was true enough that they'd still have to be formally tried for murder once they left the game, if they left the game.

If.

That was a powerful thought. If. Phoenix grunted again as her head throbbed a little stronger as she thought of the consequences. A smaller Clearing Group meant more time spent grinding and leveling, and a higher risk of death for everyone. If she didn't endorse this plan, the game could very well do the harm she didn't want, and it would all be on her.

She had to acknowledge she wasn't always perfect. Phoenix realized she was once in the same spot Aria was in. A chance at redemption for atrocious crimes. Dark magic: they both dabbled in that. Murder and enslavement, both horrible acts. Phoenix was even guilty of an attempt at war.

Yes, before she had friends, she wasn't any better than Aria was now.

"I'll talk to her, see how things are, then I'll get back to you," Phoenix told Grieve Blossom.

Grieve Blossom looked relieved. "Thanks. Ever since I got promoted the leadership has been giving me orders directly, rather than trickling down through my commanding officer. The workload's intense, more than anything I could've imagined."

"What are they having you do?" Phoenix asked.

"Handling this Clearing Group dilemma, among other things," Grieve Blossom answered. "Then there's bank management, lower level management, lower level recruiting, and even tax collection."

"Taxes are automatic," Phoenix reminded.

"For gold it is," replied Grieve Blossom, "but since there's less players in the Clearing Group now, the upper ranks decided to get more resources from our low level members."

"Ouch. Sounds like a sucky job," Phoenix said, sympathizing with him. "No wonder things aren't looking good for the Clearing Group's recruitment."

Grieve Blossom nodded. "Membership problems are pretty bad, even in the lower ranks. I got to talk to two more players later today just to convince them to stay in the guild, even if they don't want to keep paying."

Phoenix was perplexed. "If players are leaving, why do they keep taxing?"

"It's only a few players," he explained, "no one's willing to argue against any plan that's trying to free them from a virtual prison. Still sucks though."

"Well, I'll be happy to take this thing off your shoulders." Phoenix closed her menu and got off the bed. Her head still swirled and throbbed, but this time it was weak enough to be ignored. "I'll message you afterwards, so don't sweat about it."

"Thanks again, it really helps." Grieve Blossom took his leave and excused himself from the room. Phoenix caught his should right before leaving the door.

"While we're alone, I also had something I wanted to tell you," she said.

"What is it?"

"I've seen how you stand around Roseluck, and the way you look at her when you think no one's noticing," Phoenix said with a wolfish grin.

Grieve Blossom tripped on his own words. "I, uh... uh no, we're not like that -I mean, I'm not like that... just friends, me and her."

Phoenix just squinted at Grieve Blossom. "I'm watching you buster. Don't you try anything funny."

"I am going to go now," Grieve Blossom said plainly. "Just going to step away, calmly, and slowly, and leave you to it."

===================================================

Aria's cell block was as remote as prisons went. Placed on a flying island in floor forty-nine, it was a modest house at the very edge of the map. The island was small, barely large enough to hold the house, and its size and distance from everything made it invisible to any player that was looking for it.

It wasn't going to be a house originally. The other players, especially those who had lost friends to Nighthaven, wanted her to be chained up in the smallest shed they could build. But Sunset simply couldn't watch someone she knew, even a villain like Aria, get shoved into shed to rot. She told herself it was just basic decency, but in truth, she got the Crusaders to build an acceptable house simply because Aria was an Equestrian.

Inside, Sunset knew her favoritism of the player-killers was wrong, but she couldn't put Aria through the same things as the other killers. Just because she didn't trust her didn't mean she wanted to be cruel to her.

The door creaked open as Sunset entered. Though it was nice as a prison, it was as cheap as houses came. The living room could only fit a sofa for one and a coffee table. There was a kitchenette that linked the living room to the bedroom on the left, and the bathroom on the right.

Sunset walked in, looking around for Aria. She found the Siren curled up on her bed, staring at the wall with her back to the bedroom's door. She looked like a total mess, and seeing her degraded to such a state made Sunset feel uncomfortable, despite how she felt about their past.

"Did you bring Sonata?"

Damn it. Honestly, Sunset had nearly lost track of where Sonata spent her time. While trying to get back into the player community, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had shown her all sorts of partying habits. Fortunately for Sonata, she was able to find all sorts of players to relax with. Unfortunately for Sunset, those sorts were always on the move, always experimenting with ways to have fun.

"No," Sunset confessed. "I tried but-"

"We're done then. Have a nice day."

"Just listen for a moment," Sunset insisted. Aria sighed, and let her continue. "Despite what you tried to do to my school all those years ago, and despite what you have done now, you're other only one I can talk to about our homeland. So, you know, I just thought we could talk." For the time being, Sunset decided not to tell Aria she wanted to use her as the Clearing Group's fodder. Aside from that, all she knew about Aria was her bad side, and she wanted to see it there was any good in her, and not all evil.

"My Equestria was much different than yours," Aria replied. "For one thing, Starswirl the Bearded was still alive. Bet all you had was stories of him."

Sunset picked up a chair from the kitchenette and sat by Aria's bed. Now that was something to talk about. "What was he like?"

"Powerful," she said, refusing to roll around and talk to Sunset face to face. "But also mysterious, in a way. He constantly fought us to stop our power from growing, going to some absurd extremes to do so, but when he finally cast us out, that wild spirit of his was gone. He had so much power that he had to have so much care with it. Even if he didn't show it to the world, he lived like his mind was the lock and key to keeping Equestria safe."

That was much more than Sunset had expected to get from Aria. "Knew him well, I assume."

"Well acquainted, but he was against only the Sirens. He didn't have a personal rivalry with any of us. Still, being the victim of his magic can teach you a lot, even if it was just a fleeting moment."

"You really see yourselves as the victims?" Sunset tried to catch herself at the end, as to not sound condemning, but it couldn't be helped. But Aria didn't seem to notice the tone, or she didn't care at all.

"You could argue we deserved it, being evil and all." Aria chuckled a little to herself. "Funny thing is, once we got to the human world, I thought we could live among better beings. But ponies and humans have so much in common, more than I ever would have guessed."

Strange. Even though there were similarities between their worlds, when she was making the game, the differences between people and ponies was the only thing Sunset could think about. "What do you mean? What did you learn about humans?"

"You were not the first to pick up on us. A lot of people were mad when they found out our power with music, even when we tried to explain our needs. I learned that they'll see a lion eating a carcass and call it nature, but when a desperate beggar attacks someone for food, they'll call it murder."

Sunset wanted to protest this philosophy, but then it hit her. "You don't see yourselves as evil. You were just doing what you know."

Aria finally shifted under her covers, turning to look at Sunset with a blank stare. "Yes, and hypocrisy doesn't care about what species you are, or what world you come from. One of my favorite quotes said by a human says 'When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.'"

"Hedler Camara," Sunset added. "I've read a bit about him."

Aria nodded, her face still a dull mask. "The thing that humans and ponies both don't realize is that the lion and beggar are the same beast, committing the same act. The lion gets off because he gets seen from a distance. When the beggar gets close, and his wrinkled hands grasp for alms, that's when fear take over and makes it all wrong."

"Not everyone's like that," Sunset said.

"Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite." Aria looked at Sunset, expecting her to recognize the phrase. "John Kenneth Galbraith. Both sides of the spectrum, covering nearly everyone, yet the result is the same. Only humans could pull that off."

Sunset couldn't help but smile once she got it. "I never would have guess you cared about economics or politics."

"In truth, I barely understand any of it," Aria replied, sit up on her bed now. "Somehow, humans think their system's great when it rewards them for making money. But with the system they have, I don't see how anyone could be happy with waking up at half-past six, brushing their hair and teeth, taking a piss, force-feeding themselves a quick breakfast, and then spending hours doing work so someone else could make money."

Sunset was quick to counter. "Capitalist criticism? Coming from the Siren who makes everyone competitive with a monopoly on music magic."

Aria shrugged. "We had no choice but to use it, but we still knew it was dark magic."

"Well, it might have been different in your time, but it's more or less how Equestria is now," Sunset told her. "As far as I remember, ponies were happy, and still are. No one really complained. I think ponies just do it better."

"Maybe you just can't see the flaw in your own system," Aria proposed.

"You know, that's probably true," Sunset replied. "Equestria used to seem like the perfect place."

"Used to?" Aria look at Sunset incredulously. "You made a virtual reality in Equestria's likeness. I don't believe you've lost your love for it."

"True, this world's not even real but it still feels a little bit like home." Sunset got out of the chair with a sigh. "Look, I'd rather not dwell on my past mistake. You want some breakfast?"

===================================================

The two of them chatted all afternoon, sharing their best memories of Equestria, and talking down the humans along the way. Sunset realized Aria wasn't just like her, but she also a lot like everyone else, even if she seemed so distant from the world as a Siren.

Part of that distance was her age. She didn't look it, but she was hundreds of years old, and could remember things that Sunset had always regarded as legend. She knew Chrysalis in her early years as Queen, and even remembered when the Griffons were at the peak of their culture. Still, Sunset knew she didn't let the past define her.

While her attitude remained cold and cynical, she was far from being different than everyone else. She talked about smartphones and computers, her favorite television shows and movies. Her time among humans let her live like a teenager again, and experience new joys.

"Probation? You're pulling my tail." Aria didn't believe what Sunset had just told her. It sounded ridiculous that anyone, let alone humans, would bother giving her a second chance.

"I'm not," Sunset assured her. "It's really how they're planning to beat the game. Or the next few floors, at least. And you don't even have to worry about city guards. There's a mechanic in the game where guilds can pay for their members to be temporarily pardoned for crimes."

"So we're basically rushing into your problems to fix them," Aria said, letting her displeasure flow freely. "Nighthaven was a coalition of criminals and killers; our ruthlessness doesn't extend to dungeon raids and party invites. If the Knights and Crusaders can't handle the next boss, then we'll be going in just to commit suicide."

Sunset nodded grimly. "I figured that was the whole idea, to use you as fodder, but I know you can handle it."

"Even if I could do it, and even if I did join this 'suicide squad,' why should I?" Aria asked.

Sunset furrowed her brow. "I just said it. They're offering probation for anyone who-"

"And what happens when your guilds are done with us?" Aria asked accusingly. She didn't give Sunset time to answer. "Once they get their membership up, we'll just end up back where we are."

Sunset pushed back her argument almost without thinking. "I'll vouch for you if it comes to that." She said.

Aria shook her head, not believe a word of it. "No you won't. Not if it'll damage your friendship. Or do you really think they'll let you be biased and free a murderer just because we're from the same world?"

Sunset choked on her own words. Aria was right on that front, Sunset could never get her friends to agree to letting Aria walk free. But, maybe she didn't have to. "You not the villain they think you are," she told Aria. "If you help, I just know they'll rethink everything they think they know about you."

Aria looked at Sunset, considering the offer. It wasn't exactly freedom, but it was much better than curling up in a bed all day. And if she was out of her prison, she could see Sonata on her own terms. "Fine. I'll do what the Knights want. But you have to do something for me in return."

Sunset wasn't surprised, the Sirens weren't one to simply follow others. "I'll definitely try. What is it?"

"I get to see Sonata."

===================================================

On one hand, Grieve Blossom was glad he got the recruits he needed. On the other hand, the request Sunset came back with was not what he wanted to add to his list. Still, it got added to his responsibilities anyway.

"I think this is the right place," he said to Sunset and Aria. "Pinkie Pie said Sonata was headed to a party on this floor, somewhere in the south side of the central city."

"This is an exact replica of Canterlot," Aria whispered to Sunset. "That's not exactly honing in our focus."

Sunset agreed. "Grieve Blossom, can't you find Sonata with your friends list?"

He shrugged. "I thought so, but Pinkie also told me the location's an instanced area."

"Isn't she still on this floor?" Aria hissed.

"You don't play a lot of MMOs, do you?" Grieve Blossom asked, doubling back after running into a dead end. "Instanced areas are separate areas of a map. You can enter them at certain points, but they're not rendered with the floor itself."

"Well if you can't find it, why don't we just ask around?" Sunset offered, walking up to an NPC guard. "Nearly every location can be found by asking one of these guys." She walked up and waved to the guard.

"Hello there, adventurer! Do you need any assistance?" A screen popped up in front of the guard, showing a list of locations to find. Sunset scrolled down, tapping on the "instances" tab. There were three of them in the city, but only one instance on the south side.

"That one!" Sunset pointed. "The Underdome. It's the only place that matches Pinkie's description."

"Then let's go," Aria said, about to take off.

"Hold on Aria, we can't go just yet," Sunset added. "The Underdome only opens to players with the daily quest 'Cave Crystals.' We'll need to head over to the guard captain on the north side of the city to pick it up before we go."

"Fine," Aria said, turning around and hurriedly heading for the palace. "Lets get it and go."

===================================================

The Underdome definitely sounded like the right spot. Drum beats and metal strings hummed through the tunnels, reaching all but the very edges of the instanced region. It was an underground level that stretched below most of Canterlot, connecting to the main cavern below the palace. In the real, there was no path to the caves below, so the instance's entry was just a small portal set up by a wizard who really wanted ten crystal samples.

"Is this what humans call music?" Aria ask in disgust. "Ugh, I can do so much better."

"Yeah, when you have your gemstones," Phoenix remarked.

"Hey, those gemstones were part of us." Aria snapped back, "You try singing without your vocal chords, see how that works out."

Grieve Blossom turned around to the both of them. "Roseluck said I shouldn't care about Sunset's personal life, but it's kind of hard when you two are going back and forth like this all the time. Lets just focus on finding Sonata. I don't like being down here with all these low levels, they're always trying weird shit."

"Like what?" Aria asked, suddenly with a tone of worry in her voice.

"Experimental potions," explained Grieve Blossom, "ingredients that shouldn't go together end up acting like drugs when put in potion. Idiots, they've got a machine sending feedback strait into their brain and they still try to test the limits. I'm no psychologist, but tripping the hell out day in and day out can't be good for the head."

"Sonata's not that clueless," Aria said, reassuring herself more than the other two. "She was good when it came to keeping an eye on her health. Accept for tacos, she could never control herself around those."

The music started to grow as they got to the end of the tunnel. "I think we're here," Grieve Blossom said, picking up his pace. "The main cavern's just ahead."

Where the tunnel ended, the chaos began. Atop a large crystal a rock band worked their instruments down into submission, straining the capabilities of the simple guitars, drums, and flutes of the game. Their instruments were made of metal, and enchanted to produce various electric sounds as they played. Arcs of electricity even sparked and danced along the cavern's walls, illuminating the darkness with streams of color.

"Amazing," Phoenix whispered to herself. It astounded her how players figured ways and means to alter the game into something new and unique.

Below the musicians, the rave raged with the music. Players packed themselves into the cavern, making it uncomfortably hot with their bodies. The participants didn't seem to mind, however, even when a fellow player would step on a tail or trip on a hoof.

But while Phoenix was impressed by the community's creativity, Aria was just plain pissed. "We'll never find her in that crowd, assuming she's even here. No way she'd come to a dump like this."

"This isn't the only cavern," Grieve Blossom told Aria, trying to squeeze around the edge of the rave. "She could be in some of the smaller caverns nearby." Aria and Phoenix couldn't hear him over the music and partiers, but they read his lips well enough and followed.

"I never imagined this place could become a center for pop culture," Phoenix mused, once they had gotten past the cluster of players.

Aria was less impressed. "Yeah, they're so creative. Now lets go find Sonata."

She picked up her pace, taking the lead and checking every cavern around every turn. Grieve Blossom knew it was personal, and didn't want to pry, but he couldn't help himself.

"Hey, Aria," he finally said, "Phoenix told me Sonata's important to you, but I got to know why."

"She's the closest thing to family I have," Aria answered bluntly as they trotted away from another useless cavern. "We've been together for as long as I can remember."

"Hold on," Grieve Blossom paused her for a moment. "Are you that Aria? As in, one of the friends Sonata mentions but never talks about?"

"She mentioned me to you?" Aria asked, surprised Grieve Blossom was only now bringing this up.

"Mentioned?" Grieve Blossom began raising his tone. "You and her other friend were the ones who left her with that psychopath!"

Aria was taken aback by the sudden force of Grieve Blossom's voice.

He got worked up quickly. "I thought is was a coincidence, player names can be very similar sometimes, and I guess I assumed you'd look more... menacing than you are now, but the fact still remains that you let months of her life turn into hell!"

"What are you talking about?" Aria spat back at him. "She left us months ago. I spent all that time looking for her, even using Nighthaven as my personal search party. And only now you're telling me you knew about her all along?"

"No one did!" Grieve Blossom shouted back. "We found her right before clearing floor forty-eight a couple weeks ago. I barely found time trying to console her after the torture that bastard you hired did to her, so don't point your hoof at me for your own shit."

Aria twisted her look to Phoenix. "What is he talking about?"

She sighed, regretting to tell Aria the truth now rather than back in her cell. "I didn't want to mention it after seeing what you were like in your house, and the battlefield wasn't the right place either. Remember when I asked why you would leave Sonata behind?"

Aria nodded. "It's the whole reason we're here."

"Well, there's more than that." Phoenix pulled Aria to the side of the tunnel to talk, and let the party-goers run by without interrupting. "When Grieve Blossom and Roseluck found Sonata, they ran into an insane potion maker living in a secret room in the boss dungeon. He made this elixir that glitched out the Digisphere's pain reduction, and used it to torture players."

"It wasn't just Roseluck and me that day," Grieve Blossom added. "We saw him use it on Sonata, beating her for the fun of it. She was in there for months, working for him and suffering at the same time, because of you!"

"I had nothing to do with it!" Aria defended herself.

Grieve Blossom scoffed at her. "That's not what Sonata thought. She told us the exact opposite, that you and your friend left her to his will."

Aria was seething, about to vent her anger on Grieve Blossom, but her eyes flashed a look of realization at the last moment. Her face twisted in rage as she struck the crystal walls with her hoof. "Damn you Adagio!" she shouted. "I should've known not to trust her."

Phoenix and Grieve Blossom looked at each other, and Grieve Blossom shrugged. "This one's all you."

Phoenix sighed, begrudgingly accepting the responsibility of handling Aria while she was mad. "How's Adagio involved in all of this?"

"She told me Sonata left," Aria growled. Her voice sounded she was telling it to herself rather than Phoenix. "I should have realized something was up when Adagio didn't let me go after Sonata. She didn't even give me a reason, she just said that Sonata left to live her own life. I started looking for Sonata only two days after, but I couldn't find her, and I just assumed she got herself killed." She beat the wall again, harder this time. "Fuck! I'm such an idiot!"

"It's not your fault-"

Aria threw her hooves up, aimlessly directing her rage. "She's an expert planner obsessed with deception, and I just trusted what she told me like some kind of mindless lackey!"

Phoenix was struggling to keep her calm. "Adagio was the one who lied, none of this is on you."

Aria wasn't convinced. "Oh yeah sure, it's not like I could've -oh, I don't know- simply asked Adagio about Sonata."

Grieve Blossom had to jump in to break up the fury. "I think you'd want to take a look at this," he called to them from a cavern down the tunnel. "I might have found Sonata."

They both stared at him. "Might have? What's that mean?" Aria questioned as they caught up with him. Grieve Blossom just stared into the small cavern, barely bigger than Aria's living room, pointing at a pile of ponies stumbling over each other.

"They're way overdosed on some kind of potion," he told them. "They're talking to people who aren't there, like their family members or friends."

"Flask of Dreams," Phoenix supplied. "But they look much worse than players do on floor thirty-two. They could've mixed it with something else."

The cavern was dark, scripted so that none of them could clearly see anyone even with their high-level perception attribute. But the room was small and it didn't take more than a few seconds before Aria dragged Sonata out of the pile of players.

"Give me a hoof," she grunted, "someone's wedged themselves on top of her." Grieve Blossom went over and grabbed Sonata's other foreleg, pulling her out of the pile together.

Sonata giggled as they lifted her onto their backs. "Aria, is that you? What are you doing? We need to be on stage in a few minutes."

"Sure thing Sonata, right after we do this thing." Aria went along with whatever Sonata was seeing. Phoenix walked next to Sonata as she laid on their backs, making sure she didn't fall off.

Sonata turned to her, staring for a solid minute while they walked down the tunnel. Just before they reached the main cavern again, Sonata realized who she was looking at.

"Oh! I know you!" she chimed, reaching her hoof to pat Phoenix on the head. "You... you're one of the... the uh... Rainbooms! Yeah. But you won't win this one, believe me, you won't." Sonata stopped to refocus her thoughts. "CHS is going to... it's gonna... Aria, what were we supposed to do?"

"Just hang on," Aria said, her voice straining as they squeezed around the edge of the dense crowd.

Sonata was barely aware of any of it, slurring her words the entire trip back to floor fifty-one. They needed a place to let her recover from the potion, and Grieve Blossom used it as an opportunity to show Aria her new quarters. Since Aria was to be helping the Clearing Group, Iceblood had a room in the Knights' guild hall opened up for her to live in. It was just one room, actually smaller than her house on floor forty-nine, but it was more than enough for Aria and Sonata.

"Thank you for doing this," Aria said to Phoenix after setting Sonata down on the bed. "Any idea how long the potion's effects will last?"

Phoenix was as clueless as she was. "I've got no idea. The Flask of Dreams has a long effect, but even so, it's not as bad as this. She's taking some pretty strong stuff, and all I can say is that she needs to sleep it off."

"Why'd she take it?" Aria asked, gazing down at the floor. "Why'd she do this to her mind?"

"To remember the good times," Phoenix guessed. "At least, that's what normal users get from it. I've seen how happy they get, seeing loved ones again or reliving a great moment of their life. But..." she turned around and saw Grieve Blossom talking to a couple of the guards at the barrack entrance, "...when I worked on the memory recollection capabilities of the Digisphere, I intended to make it have lasting side-effects, for medical purposes. It was supposed to cure brain illnesses like Alzheimer's , but in this form, it might do more harm than good."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Aria grumbled, glaring at Phoenix for a moment. But then she turned back to Sonata, and her expression became worried. "Damn it, Sonata. We're all we have left."

Phoenix put her hoof on Aria's shoulder. "I'm sure she'll be fine. Even a few doses couldn't do permanent harm. Just make sure she doesn't take anymore of it." Aria nodded, accepting that little piece of comfort.

Grieve Blossom came back from his discussion. "Hey, it looks like Iceblood already cleared this place out for you, and I just informed the guards about Sonata, so you can just make yourself at home, I guess. But, word of advise, the guards outside are a little on-edge since this whole section's going to be for ex-Nighthaven players, so just try not to make too much noise. They're spooked enough as it is."

"Alright," Aria replied, looking back at Sonata. "I think I could use a little rest tonight. I guess I'll see you in the morning?"

"Me for sure," Grieve Blossom told her. "I volunteered to help Iceblood with training, and you got assigned to our party. Don't worry, he's handpicked players who don't have much of a grudge against Nighthaven, so they shouldn't give you too much trouble."

"I'll swing by if I can, but I've got to get back into training," Phoenix added, patting her new sword. "I haven't gotten a chance to try out my new weapon, and I'm probably a level or two behind my friends after today."

"Getting back to it, then," Aria said, with a hint of disappointment in her voice. "I guess that would be the best." She laid her head next to Sonata, resting her eyes. Grieve Blossom had already left, with nothing else to say. Phoenix didn't want to just go, return to her house like nothing had changed, but she there wasn't any reason to stay, either.

It had been a long day, and though her headache was gone, she didn't want to push herself. She really needed some sleep too.

Lets Have A Battle

Floor fifty-one's grasslands wasn't like any of the previous lush landscapes in PAO. Aside from a few regions, most of the map was covered in dry, tall grasses, and sparsely populated with trees. Accordingly, most of the mini-bosses were not locked up in underground caves or dungeons, they were free-roaming beasts of the grasslands. The open fights gave players more maneuverability to avoid attacks, however, as Aria could attest, the high speed beasts were annoying to chase down.

"The field cat's circling around; get up that tree and ambush it." Aria did as Grieve Blossom told, aiming her greatsword down as the party's Tank taunted the massive cat. It was at least twice the size of the stallion's character model, but he stood his ground like he was the one with the advantage.

The beast launched itself at the player, shooting over his shield and spear. It would have been a clean strike to the head had Aria not dropped down and pinned it down through its neck.

The cat threw her off, ripping her blade out along the way. Its health dropped by a tenth; they still have fifty percent to go. The Tank retaliated with a heavy smack from his shield, stunning the field cat long enough for Grieve Blossom and Iceblood to skewer its belly with their broadswords.

Iceblood's signature ice enchantments glowed, flaring up in bright flashes as his sword coated the mini-boss in a layer of ice, slowing it down. Aria took the chance to take a swing at the cat's neck again, chopping a bright red gash at where its jugular veins should have been. Unfortunately, she couldn't land a bleeding strike, and the cat's claws threw her back.

The Tank charged it, but this time the cat was ready and knocked him down with a ear-ringing roar. Aria snarled at the cat. They shou have had an easy time of killing it, but the original plan for a party of four Knights and two ex-Nighthavens got scrapped when the Knights realized they didn't have enough of either. A party of four was the minimum to complete this mini-boss, but with only three Damages and a Tank with no healing support, it was a tall order.

The Tank was wedging his shield into the cat's jaws now, jabbing his spear into its mouth. The critical hits did impressive work of reducing its health, but he had to back of as the cat tried to claw his plate armor off. Aria jumped back into the fight, hitting the cat on its left side while Iceblood struck its right. They held it in place with their swords, wrestling it to the ground as Grieve Blossom leaped down from the tree and stuck his sword in the field cat's eye.

"Finish it off!" he shouted, grunted as the cat clamped its jaw shut on his foreleg and shook him around.

Aria drew her sword from the mini-boss and swung the blade down on its neck, decapitating the field cat. Its head rolled on the ground, breaking into specks of light as the rest of its body despawned. It was almost disappointingly anti-climatic, after chasing down the mini-boss for ninety minutes, tracking it as if they were really hunting it.

Iceblood dropped onto the ground, drinking a health potion to recover from the fight. "Damn, I feel like the game just wants to waste our time," he complained after finishing his potion. "I don't want to think of what it'll be like in another ten floors."

"It'd be easier if we had more players," Aria replied. Even though the group treated her like one of them, she still felt like the odd one out. That, and she did not appreciate working harder just for a lack of volunteers.

"At least you're here," Grieve Blossom told her, offering a bottle of cider from his inventory. "We couldn't have done with without you." Aria accepted the drink quietly. She never even expected kindness from Sunset, let alone random players like Grieve Blossom, and she didn't know how to react. So they sat quietly, letting their stamina slowly recover as they ate their lunch.

While Aria sat silently, Grieve Blossom and Iceblood were sorting through their messages. She never understood how guilds managed to produce so much junk mail. Coordinating Nighthaven was never as time consuming as the Clearing Group guilds seemed to be, which surprised Aria when she considered how much time she spent manipulating them into searching for Sonata. All that time, and she was hidden under some rock no one had heard about. She curse herself as she ate, ignoring the look their Tank gave her as he noticed her self-loathing.

Iceblood dropped his salad. His eyes were bulging as he read the message a fellow officer had sent him. He tapped on Grieve Blossom's shoulder and showed him the message. Grieve Blossom reacted similarly, spitting his cider out in shock and distorting Iceblood's message screen.

"What's the matter?" Aria asked, shooting a look at the two stallions. The Tank was curious as well, and walked up to read the message. He stared for a moment, and then began laughing to himself.

Iceblood and Grieve Blossom looked at each other. Iceblood decided to be the one to say it.

"The Knights of Yore might be in a bit of a bind at the moment," he explained to Aria, "you see, what we've been doing technically hasn't been approved by everyone else. We're doing it only within our guild for now, but judging by the message, that's not good enough."

He walked over and flipped his menu around for Aria to read. She blinked for a moment, clearing her eyes to make sure she read it correctly.

Dear Iceblood,

I was discussing how to revise our training plans for our new allies with Allegretto this morning. One of the leaders of the Cutie Mark Crusaders came by the guild hall right before lunch, Sweetie Belle, I think (the one with the white coat, I know that for sure). She was shouting some profanities and being really pissed about the Nighthaven program. Allegretto tried to calm her down and talk. Something went wrong, because the Crusader leader ended up challenging Allegretto to a duel. The fight's tonight on this floor's Colosseum.

"That's... amazing," Aria mused. From her perspective, a Clearing Group player looking for a PVP fight was a joke. They were renowned for beating dungeons and floor bosses, but fighting a thinking person was a much different than fighting the game's basic creatures.

Iceblood crossed his forelegs. "Amazing fight, sure. But infighting among the leadership won't look good. Plus, if the fight's happening tonight, then the rest of the day's going to be preparations for the event. I don't think anyone's going to train or grind."

"Does that mean we're not taking a break?" the Tank asked.

Iceblood looked back at him and his ridiculous comment. "No, of course we are. It's the fight of the year, and if other players get to watch, then damn it, so do we!"

===================================================

Applebloom and Scootaloo were wise to watch from the edge of their private office. Sweetie Belle was furious at the news they had been given. Eight cells specifically made for high-level Nighthaven players were found empty only two hours ago. Word had already spread about the vote to use the player-killers as extra Clearing Group fighters, leaving the community just as split over the event as the guild leaders were.

Arguments, even small riots, began popping up in central cities across every floor as players stood their ground on the vote. Supporters of the Knights cheered, congratulating Allegretto and her officers for taking initiative, while the other half of PAO's community were horrified that murderers were outright released.

Some took it as a cause for panic, holing themselves up with their friends in their houses or instanced areas to hide from a resurgence of killings. Other players held parties and celebrations to welcome and forgive the player-killers, convinced good-will would foster stronger relations and get everyone out of the game as soon as possible.

Most of this happened in densely populated lower floors, but reports and messages always made their way back up to the Crusaders, and CMC was at the center of it.

"She has to be shitting us!" Sweetie Belle shouted, flipping her desk over. "The votes aren't even done counting, and Allegretto's already going behind our backs. "There's chaos in every level of the community because of this!" Sweetie Belle drew her sword, itching to break something.

Scootaloo held her back with a wing. "Take it out on Allegretto, Sweetie Belle. The table was kind of expensive." Sweetie Belle took a deep breath and relaxed herself.

"Speaking of which," Applebloom added, "why the hell did you challenge her to a duel? The fight's become a public event, and I reckon the whole Colosseum's gonna be filled with players."

"I had to do something," Sweetie Belle said, though regretting her decision already. "It's just how she did it, going behind our backs and letting go so many prisoners."

Scootaloo shrugged, not as worried by the threat as Sweetie Belle "To be fair, we could probably handle eight players, even if they were elite Nighthaven assassins. It's not like anyone's died."

"But what about the law?" Sweetie Belle asked. "We can't just forgive murderers less than a month after they've been convicted."

"We know, but what can we do about it?" Applebloom replied. "It's up to the players to decide now, and with how much emphasis is on the fight, whether you win or lose could define the outcome."

"I can't believe that, not after all friends players have lost to Nighthaven," Sweetie Belle said. She started pacing the room again, imagining what would happen if she lost. Gamers liked winning, and supporting Allegretto's decision, no matter how drastic, would seem like the better bet if Allegretto was the winner. Still, the community would split in two after that. Even if using the player killers became officially allowed, there'd be so many protests from the friends of victims.

The same would go if she beat Allegretto. Sweetie Belle didn't doubt that some players were kind enough to even give killers a second chance. They'd resist the offical decision, and probably try to take matters into their own hands like the Knights.

Both scenarios played out in Sweetie Belle's head, and she liked neither of them. It'd be better to win and get players on her side, but it still wasn't ideal.

Frustrated, she knocked her head against the wall, getting her horn stuck in the wood. "I screwed up girls."

"You sure? We could just pull your horn out," Scootaloo offered.

"No, I mean the fight!" Sweetie Belle shot back. "Any way we play it, I don't think the PAO's community's going to be the same."

It was a true enough statement, but Applebloom and Scootaloo were there to support their friend. "Considering everything we've survived, I don't know if the community can ever stay the same," Applebloom grunted as she and Scootaloo pulled Sweetie Belle's horn out of the wall.

"Things are different from how they were months ago, and things were even more different before then," Scootaloo said, fixing the hole in the wall with a piece of wood from her inventory. "Remember when we first started the Crusaders? Back then, no one thought we'd make it past the first floor."

"Can't forget," Sweetie Belle answered back, "but..."

"We beat the boss after that, and we opened the portal to the next floor," Scootaloo continued, bypassing Sweetie Belle's doubts. "And ever since then, we've been beating challenge after challenge. The game's just harder now, with new challenges to face. But as long as we do it together, we'll be the ones who win in the end."

Sweetie Belle smiled, appreciating the support from her friends. She wasn't fully convinced conflict would be the best choice, but the decision was already made. Now it was just a matter of seeing it though.

"Now, about winning," Applebloom said, "y'all got any idea how to beat Allegretto? From what I hear, she's an unstoppable fighter in and out of the dungeon."

Sweetie Belle wanted to punch herself in the face. She actually hadn't thought about fighting Allegretto until now, and she only had a few more hours until sun down.

But Scootaloo stood there smirking. "Oh, I've seen her fight. She's no Rainbow Dash, but she'll give you a run for your money if you don't watch out for that shield and sword combo she uses."

"Shield and sword?" Sweetie Belle asked incredulously. "That's a stupid combination for a Tank; if she had a spear, she'd get a damage buff from using her shield with it."

"All the Knights say she found a unique-tier shield from a boss, one enchanted to buff swords instead of spears and lances." Scootaloo opened her inventory and equipped a shield and sword herself. "I've been trying to forge a pair that could replicate the combo she does, but nothing I make is as good as that boss-drop. Still, some training against her skills would be better than none, right?"

Sweetie Belle nodded, smiling. "Glad to have you as a friend Scootaloo."

"Yeah, I know, now lets get to the training grounds, we only have a couple hours until the fight!"

They raced out the door, Scootaloo eager to try her painstakingly crafted gear, and Sweetie Belle eager to prepare herself for the fight. Applebloom followed along, happy to watch how the both of them fought and offer a different perspective from a different angle. With her friends by her side, Sweetie Belle let herself hope that she could make the fight turn out the best it could.

===================================================

"Come on Sunset, you're not going to see the fight?" Pinkie Pie whined. "But it's going to be the biggest party we've had in forever!"

Sunset slashed her Shadow of Discord through the tall grass, butchering two elite Roaming Hyenas with a single strike. "I've got to get to the next level just to catch up with you guys."

"You know, you could just let us be twenty percent cooler than you for a while," Rainbow Dash remarked, pulling her sword out of a giant snake as it dissipated. "You had that weird headache, after all. If it took you the whole day, it must have been something serious."

"Yeah, of course Rainbow," Sunset nodded nervously. "I'm just glad I had all that time to fix the feedback, and just the feedback."

"Aw, cheer up sugar cube," Applejack said, patting Sunset's back, "you can skip training for the rest of the day. It won't kill ya."

"No, I suppose you're right AJ." Sunset said, looking down at the floor. "I'll just take out a few more hyenas for this daily quest I picked up and catch up with you all back at central."

"Oh thank goodness," Fluttershy said, taking off with her dragon already. "The last mini-boss really hurt Mr.Shiney, I really need to get him to the stable manager." She paused and turned back to Sunset. "You really should have put in an ability to heal crippled pets Sunset."

"Sorry Fluttershy," she replied, smiling apologetically. "Slipped my mind."

"Well, see ya in few," Applejack waved to Sunset as she chased after Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, who were in turn flying after Pinkie Pie.

Sunset quickly dispatched the rest of the enemies in the field without batting an eyelid. She had actually finished the daily quest about thirty kills ago, but she needed to get away from the crowd of fanatics cheering on the Knights or the Crusaders. Once any sign of movement had been eradicated by Sunset's ridiculous sword, she found one of the few trees in the grassland and climbed to the top to think.

Sunset wished she had asked the Crusaders about Aria, or at least informed them sooner. She wanted to blame the headache, say that the after effects of the magic messed with her emotions, but she felt Applejack's honesty rubbing off a bit to much when it came to this. Her friends trusted her implicitly when it came to magic, abusing that trust to cover her own ass just felt like a guilt to heavy to bear.

Even under the wide leaves and spreading branches, the sun's heat still bore down on the landscape. It was nearing evening and the floor had just barely began to cool down. Sunset laughed in spite of herself. "Serves me right for suggesting "something different" when the developers wanted to remake another ice-themed floor instead. Damn, should've listened." She instinctively wiped the sweat from her brow, even though characters didn't sweat until they were exerting their stamina.

"Oh, right." Another flaw, another reminder that this was not the real world. The real world had more people, more families; more lives that were affected by thousands being locked in a game, and a for a few, dying in it. She wanted to blame Nighthaven, but the truth was that most of the deaths were still from the game itself. The unlucky adventure was all it took to take a life.

Sunset hit her hoof against the trunk of the tree. For the sake of her friends she promised not to let her mistake hold her down, but she didn't want to forget it either. She could never forget how she was responsible, because if she did, how could she still call herself a person?

And now, this chaos over a single decision became her problem too. She didn't know if telling the CMC would have changed the situation overall, but keeping it to herself certainly didn't help. Telling them could have given them time to deal with it instead of rashly rushing the Knights' leader in a contest of personal power, adding to the already enormous fight over voting power.

"Not going to see the fight?"

Sunset whirled her head around and leaned to the side to find Aria sitting on the opposite side of the tree, their backs facing each other.

"No. You?" Sunset asked, not realizing who she was talking to in time.

Aria scoffed. "The Knights aren't bad, but they can only do so much for me. Those little CMC brats would have my head if I stepped anywhere near their turf."

"Oh, right." Sunset shifted awkwardly on her branch. "So, what're you doing here?"

"Iceblood cancelled training for the rest of the day," Aria replied, "but I decided to take a walk instead of going to the Colosseum."

"He let you leave on your own?" Sunset asked, shocked at the Knight commander's audacity.

"Of course not," Aria smirked. "I sneaked off in the crowd. I'll just tell them I got lost in the crowd."

"The deal was that you'd be supervised at all times," Sunset told her sternly. "Don't screw up the system just as it's getting started; you're not the only one affected."

Aria relaxed on the tree, immediately diffusing tension. "You're here. Who better to supervise me than the one who let me out in the first place? And, like I said, no way I'm risking my ass going near that fight."

Sunset nodded and supposed that was good enough. "I don't know if I'm going to go. As far as I know, Grieve Blossom's the only one who knows that I was involved."

"Your friends will forgive you for anything," Aria remarked.

It might have been her constant sour tone, but it sounded like an insult to Sunset. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I hear being a she-demon's an excusable crime nowadays," Aria replied. "Mind control too."

"Being forgiven once is enough Aria," Sunset said, turning around the tree to glare at her. "Friendship works both ways, and if they find out I made another mistake..." Sunset stopped, not wanting to hear what could happen, even from her own mouth.

"Sure, just hide it. Not my friends, not my problem," Aria said, pausing before adding more. "Though if your friends did find out you helped me and continued to lie about it, well, I bet I'd get a kick out of seeing that."

Sunset twisted her face, upset. "You could at least try to show some gratitude. I helped you find Sonata, after all."

"Yes, and she's doing great." Aria stretched out on her branch, letting her body fall off. She landed on the ground effortlessly and looked up to Sunset. "But be honest, this is your problem. I can't help but watch from the sidelines."

Sunset jumped down after her. "Where do you think you're going?"

"The town south of here has some pretty nice carrot cakes," Aria said, trotting along without waiting for Sunset. "You can come if you want, but you're not stopping me from trying one of these cakes."

"I don't really have a choice, do I?" Sunset sighed, following Aria as they galloped south.

===================================================

The atmosphere was electric as thousands of players from both sides of the argument cheered on their champion. Though Sweetie Belle was the one who issued the challenge, the Knights still pulled out all their tricks. Special-edition weapons and armor sets were being sold to the viewers in the stands, while custom banners flew in the crowd, bearing the simple symbol of the Knights. Across the crowd, Sweetie Belle could see fans waving the Knight of Yore's golden shield on a white flag or banner, cheering Allegretto's name.

But Applebloom and Applejack were as hardworking as the Knight. They marketed just as much, selling special potions and snacks. Scootaloo let Applebloom take some of her best scimitars to be signed by Sweetie Belle and sold. Her name was etched across the blade, imbued with a simple enchantment to glow in the dark. It was the perfect effect for the duel, showing Sweetie Belle's name throughout the crowd as the sun dipped below the horizon.

"Quite the commotion you stirred up," Allegretto mocked as they met in the center of the arena.

"This started with you," Sweetie shot back. "No way you could have thought you'd get away with releasing murderers."

Allegretto drew her sword and pointed it threateningly at her. "I'm not so proud as to refuse help when we need it Sweetie Belle. How many players do you think we'll need for the next boss? Fifty? Sixty? We barely have thirty players in the Clearing Group now, and the number isn't growing."

"But we don't just forgive killers," Sweetie Belle said, reciprocating Allegretto's threat with her own scimitar. "We're going to do this the right way, and honor those who died by putting those assholes back where they belong." Sweetie Belle opened her menu and targeted Allegretto, sending a request to duel.

"Then you can say kiss the months goodbye when it takes longer to clear each floor." Allegretto tapped on the screen that appeared before her, accepting the challenge. All around them, the crowd cheered as the last of the players poured in from the portal. They had come from every floor to see the fight, and wouldn't miss it even if it meant cramming themselves into a packed crowd.

To make it even worse, those in the closest seats leaned in to see the details, while those in the back wanted to see what was happening. Everyone squeezed together, eyes locking on two of the Clearing Group's legendary players. Sweetie Belle versus Allegretto, an unstoppable force meeting an unmovable object.

The duel timer ticked down. Ten seconds. In the game, Sweetie Belle gripped her sword with magic, but she could still feel her hand tight around the handle like a vice. Trying harder wouldn't increase her attributes and magically let her hit harder and move faster, but tightening her grip helped her focus.

So she focused on the dagger she carried in her left hand. It floated in the air, suspended by magic, though she could feel its leather grip along her palm. Dual wielding was uncommon, and would normally give a movement penalty. Though after training with Scootaloo, it was clear she needed a different strategy. The second weapon felt unfamiliar, but also gave Sweetie Belle more power, and with it, more confidence.

Five seconds. Allegretto's shield was marked with the same symbol as her guild's banner. A small golden shield was painted over the boss drop, though the unique shield could never conform. Even when it tried to blend with the Knights of Yore's colors, the enchantments still glowed, the runes burning along the edge, red and humming with energy.

It would have been impossible to break the defense with just one weapon. With what Allegretto had shown in past boss fights, she could parry and riposte with incredible accuracy and speed, unhindered by the shield's weight. It was her sword, according to Scootaloo. Enchanted to be lighter and buff her speed, it would let her keep up with a single weapon. Sweetie Belle decided to sacrifice some speed for a dagger, and though the light weapon barely slowed her down she felt it changed her entire fighting style.

Tick, went the game, and the timer struck zero.

Everyone barely saw Sweetie Belle move once the timer had counted down. In the cloud of dust, she was almost as much of a blur as Pinkie Pie. But to Allegretto, the dagger's penalty made just enough difference.

It was harder than she expected, but Allegretto kept up with both weapons, tossing back Sweetie Belle's flurry of strikes. Sweetie Belle still didn't give up. If Allegretto could block forever, then she could attack forever.

Allegretto threw Sweetie Belle. It wasn't a simple toss, she had given her the chance to overextend her attacks and lose balance. With her shield Allegretto easily lifted her off the ground like a pig on a plate, twisting her body and slamming Sweetie Belle back into the dirt. Half the crowd cheered.

Sweetie Belle was quick to get back on her hooves, raising her scimitar and dagger to block as Allegretto charged forward with her shield. The dirt scraped along her hooves as Allegretto shoved her back. She took the force of the blow surprisingly well, reacting fast enough to leaped over a strike from Allegretto's sword.

Landing behind the Knight, Sweetie Belle whirled around and slashed her blades across Allegretto's hind legs and back, stunning Allegretto for a moment even though her heavy armor deflected the blows with ease. Allegretto picked up her pace, treating Sweetie Belle with a larger degree of seriousness.

It seemed they were synchronized, matching each other blow for blow, but it slowly became apparent that the weight of the shield was wearing down Allegretto's stamina quicker than Sweetie Belle's, whose sword and dagger also gave her the chance to land a second attack while the other weapon was being blocked.

Allegretto, however, kept herself calm. Her health had barely dropped, and Sweetie Belle had gotten too confident with her advantage. One slip up, and she was able to duck under the scimitar and knock away the dagger. She pulled back her sword and thrust it into Sweetie Belle's side, puncturing her light armor effortlessly.

Sweetie Belle shifted her stance to maneuver around and retaliate, but Allegretto continued with a direct smack against her face with the shining shield. Sweetie Belle's vision blurred, and she was only able to raised her sword and dagger to catch another strike from Allegretto's sword. But in the corner of her eye, she spotted the edge of the shield punching strait into her shoulder.

Allegretto spun swiftly, delivering another blow to Sweetie Belle's chest with a powerful buck, sending her flying for a few meters. Sweetie Belle rolled and leaped to her hooves, only to be slammed face first back into the arena floor. Allegretto had jumped into the air, letting her weight follow her shield as it crashed down onto Sweetie Belle's head. The blow left her dazed, giving Allegretto the chance to slash a flurry of strikes onto the Crusader's back.

The rule of the duel was the first one to one percent health lost. Sweetie Belle guessed that was her once the duel bell was sounded. She pushed herself off the ground and looked up. The screen in front of her was the same humiliating message that was displayed above their heads for the whole arena to see.

Winner: Allegretto!

Half the crowd cheered, while the other half began shouting every kind of profanity imaginable. Sweetie Belle suspected most of those complaints were aimed at her for losing.

===================================================

Cake was good.

The small town didn't have much else aside from the small shops and patches of generic green grass around it. Beyond that, the tall grasses surrounded the town like they did everywhere else. Aria and Sunset sat on one of the benches in the center of the town, eating their cakes and watching the wind blow through the swaying grassland.

"Are you sure you can't help me fix the game?" Sunset asked once they had finished their plates.

Aria nodded her head. "I am one hundred percent sure that I don't know anything about your programming."

It wasn't what she wanted to hear. Sunset had thought that a Siren could easily help complete the spell to reset the game, especially when the Digisphere's entire magic was centered around an altered form of the Sirens' gemstone.

"It has nothing to do with the programming," Sunset told Aria. "In fact, that's the whole problem. I need to make a spell from my admin console that can directly take control of the servers, while bypassing whatever's interfering with the game in the first place. I've found a few glitched items caused by the interference, but they're not enough to figure out the right spell."

Aria just shrugged. "We may have used magic, but Adagio was the one who knew about magic, and she was no where near to being a wizard. All we understood was that singing made negative energy, and that gave us power."

"Really? You cause mass chaos everywhere you go and you don't even know how you do it?" Sunset folded her forelegs.

"Sorry to disappoint, but it came so naturally we barely even questioned it." Aria looked down at her empty plate of cake and licked it clean.

Sunset figured if magic was a dead end, it would be better to change the topic. "Speaking of the other Sirens, how's Sonata doing?" She knew Aria would open up a bit more about that.

"Sonata's fine. She's settled in a nice town house by the Knights of Yore's guild keep now that I'm with them. She comes by every night after training and we just chat about things. The guards don't like visitors in the 'Nighthaven' barracks, but Grieve Blossom always clears away the complaints."

"Nice to have friends, isn't it?" Sunset was glad to see Aria be able to reform her ways.

Still, Aria rolled her eyes at the sentiment. "Don't start preaching all that. I still know what you did before you met your friends."

Drudging up that fact didn't bother Sunset. "And look at how far I've come. It could happen to you too, if you let it."

"Thanks, but I'd rather be myself," Aria said. She stretched out and leaned back on the bench, enjoying the warm breeze. "Never needed anyone else but the other Sirens. And since I hate Adagio's guts right now, that makes me happy with Sonata."

After everything she's done, Sunset almost felt hurt that she wasn't included. But she took it as Aria acting tough. "So where does that leave Grieve Blossom and me? Grieve was one of the players who got Sonata out of her prison, and I helped you get to this point."

"Grieve Blossom's part of the Knights, which makes him a teammate. And despite what you'd like to think, you and are just acquaintances." Aria swiped her hoof and opened her menu, trying to direct attention away from the conversation. Luckily for her, the rest of her party had filled her inbox with messages.

"Well, looks like I'm needed by the Knights. They're probably wondering why I left the party and ran off on my own." Aria hopped off the bench and started walking out of town.

But Sunset wouldn't let Aria get away that easily. "I'll help you explain. They'll trust that I was watching you if I'm there to say it." She trotted up next to Aria. "Besides, I'd love to hear about how you're bonding with the other Knights."

"No."

"But they're your new team. Which is basically like new friends, when you think about it."

"No."

Aria tried to outpace Sunset, but even as they galloped back towards the central city they moved side by side.

"How about training?" Sunset continued asking. "Do anything fun to build up your teamwork skills?"

"Stop following me!" Aria shouted. She didn't know why Sunset found so much amusement getting her to open up to more friends, but no matter how much she refused to answer, Sunset just kept prodding her social life all the way back to the city.

===================================================

The CMC sat miserably in their guild keep. Not only had Allegretto won, but the public consensus was that the Knights were taking a progressive approach to beating the game, which was a plan worth trying at least. With over a sixty percent majority from the votes collected that morning, just one week after the duel, the other guilds of the Clearing Group would have to follow in the Knights' hoof steps and train their own ex-Nighthaven members.

"I can't believe I lost," Sweetie Belle said, tossing her weapons onto the floor. "I had her on the ropes!"

"Yeah, it was looking like my training worked pretty well," Scootaloo added. "You should have totally beat her."

Applebloom closed her message menu and grunted at both of them. "Well Sweetie Belle didn't, okay? It's time to get over it and do our part in the Knights' plan. We don't want to look like we're not trying our hardest."

"Who cares what the community thinks?" Sweetie Belle exclaimed. "They're all idiots if they think it's alright to start opening positions to murderers and criminals."

"Well, we're already a couple days behind schedule," Applebloom reminded, swiping open her menu again. "I'm already getting messages from my sister and the others asking when we're going to start preparing for the next boss fight."

Sweetie Belle sighed. "We can do the fight without getting player killers involved. I'll send out the alert to wrap up training and begin gather crafting supplies."

"I'll finish up the new weapon upgrades and start forging some brand new gear too," said Scootaloo, already ordering her inventory by the types of metals she had to craft with.

"But we're still just a little short on staff," Applebloom stopped them, "we need thirty percent more of everything if we're going to beat this boss if it's anything like the last one. Fighters, potions, gear, and probably even levels, even the Slumbering Giants are pulling up everything they can get, and they haven't tried for a boss this hard since floor forty-eight."

"Hold on, thirty percent?" Scootaloo paled. "That's going to be at least another whole day of non-stop crafting! I bet the same goes for Roseluck and all our other crafters."

"Yeah, I know. But Sunset brought the Clearing Group up to this floor a little earlier than expected, so now we need everything we can get to be prepared." Applebloom equipped her shield and spear and headed out the door. "I'll go see if I can rally some of the lower level players to do some overtime, but I don't reckon we'll get much farther if we don't play along with the Knights for now."

She left the two to sort out their own jobs. She trusted Sweetie Belle to get a handle on the guild's coordination, and Scootaloo was always great with picking up the pace and getting the other crafters fired up for a raid. That just left the matter of recruiting more players. Applejack and her friends would already be fighting, and they already said they'd rater stay away from complex guilds.

Applebloom shook her head. For a moment, just a moment, she considered going over to the Nighthaven prisons for more fighters. She had almost accepted that the Cutie Mark Crusaders would one day need their own murders, but there was no time at this point. With the rest of the community rallying to the Knights, Allegretto wasn't going to hesitate using the excitement to get more glory.

She considered the alternate plan, the system the Crusaders were going to use to bring lower leveled players into the Clearing Group. Many of the players within their new system would have been in danger for a boss raid so quickly, but more crafters would at least take some pressure off of players like Scootaloo and Roseluck.

The problem was getting a hold of players with enough potential to squeeze into the Clearing Group. There were a lot of low level guilds, but taking big leaps were not their forte. Well, except for one. But with the Realm of Glory hit so hard, Applebloom wasn't sure if any of their members would be up for another risk.

It was possible. She could just offer the help of the Crusaders to whomever needed it. Yet, sounding desperate or suicidal wouldn't be the best impression to give to the other players.

She needed help, she decided. Applejack would just tell her to do what she thought was right, which didn't really help. Fluttershy, sad to say, didn't have any leadership skills to make that call. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were both loose cannons, and probably would go with their gut before thinking it all through.

She wracked her head. It seemed Sunset was the best player to help, but she was so busy Applebloom didn't know if they'd have time to talk it over. As she left the guild hall, the sun was dipping below the grassy horizon. Applebloom chuckled to herself.

"Thinking 'bout Sunset during a sunset. This supposed to be some kind of sign?" Applebloom shrugged. Maybe it was. The fact of the matter was that the day was coming to an end and she needed a solution quick.

"Sunset it is," she said.

===================================================

Sunset was worried, so she cooked. Food made her feel better, and the smell of the fresh vegetables in her kitchen already reduced her stress. Applebloom had sent her a message ahead of time, but it wasn't clear what she wanted. She just wanted to talk, hang out maybe. At least that's what Sunset wanted to think. In truth, Applebloom was probably blowing a fuse over the the Knights of Yore. She paced around her kitchen, finishing up the artichoke and spinach dip she was making for her carrots.

If she owned up to it, what would happen? Sunset imagined how all her friends would take it if she admitted to helping Grieve Blossom recruit Aria. At least it was only Aria, and not a random killer they didn't know, but that hardly made a difference. Anyways, it was too late. The majority of the community agreed with the Knights, and it had nothing to do with what she did.

There was a knock on her door. "Hey there, Sunset. Wasn't sure if you got my message, but I was wondering if we could chat for a moment. Sunset dipped a carrot into the dip and chewed on it, trying not the clench up her teeth. She opened the door gingerly.

"Come on in Applebloom!" Sunset chimed. "I was just making one of my favorite appetizer. Want to try some?"

Applebloom sat down at the dinning table but declined the offer. "I had a bite to eat on my way, but thanks."

She took her seat and ate another carrot. "What did you want to talk about?"

"This might sound weird, but I need some advise on guild stuff, specifically how to get more players for the upcoming raid." Applebloom said. "But there's so many things going on right now, I don't know how to go about it."

"This have anything to do with the Knights?" Sunset asked.

Applebloom snickered in spite of her situation. "Everything seems to have something to do with the Knights right now. Extra Nighthaven fighters are giving them the power to push the Clearing Group's schedule ahead of time. Reckon you can guess how upset Sweetie Belle is about it."

Sunset nodded meekly. She didn't like where the conversation was going already. Applebloom didn't seem to know or care specifically about the Nighthaven decision, but if they talked long enough she was sure she'd say something to give away her involvement.

"You okay?" Applebloom asked. "You've got a look on your face."

Sunset refocused on Applebloom and laughed off her worried expression. "Just thinking of how to help is all, no need for concern!"

"Um, alright," Applebloom replied. "What're you thinking about?"

Sunset searched for a cover. "Well, the first thing that came to my mind was," she paused for a moment, "the Realm of Glory. But given what happened to them, that would be a pretty bad idea."

"I was thinking the same before I came here," Applebloom said. "The Realm of Glory's the biggest guild out of all the lower levels right now, but even they can't keep up with what the Clearing Group needs, at least not combat wise."

"How about crafters?" she asked. "Most of the raid preparation's just getting all the gear prepared."

Applebloom nodded. "That's what's making me consider them a bit more, but still, I reckon more than a few would hate being asked to move forward so quickly, while others might get too excited."

"Then I'm out of ideas," Sunset shrugged. "Unless you think the Crusaders are ready to handle the Nighthavens."

"That's the last resort," Applebloom sighed back, gazing down at the table. "Sweetie Belle especially doesn't like the idea, and frankly, neither do I. It's hard, maybe even impossible, to just forgive so easily."

"Maybe that's how it's supposed to be," she replied. "No one said it would be a quick assimilation, and I don't think anyone expected it to be easy. But it has to start somewhere, and I know for sure there are some people worth giving an second chance. Take me for example."

Applebloom looked at Sunset, forgetting at that moment how she had first met her friends. Canterlot High, and the world, really changed after that Fall Formal. "But you were nothing like Nighthaven. You were just..."

"An other-worldly being hell-bent on domination of her home world by conscripting a human army?" Sunset supplied, curious to see Applebloom's reaction.

"I guess when you put it like that, you did sound pretty bad," Applebloom admitted. "But at least nobody died from what you did."

"That's because I was stopped, remember?" Sunset added. "I saw the full scale of what I was doing and changed for the better. If I had continued, I don't think any of us can say for sure what would happen."

Sunset dipped another carrot in her artichoke and spinach dip. She was out of dip now. "So maybe a second chance for the Nighthaven players could do some good too. Looking at things from their perspective, I bet some of them might not even believe that players are dying in real life. Others might just be confused, or angry. It's hard to think straight when you've had your whole life ripped from you."

"I should've just gotten you to talk some sense into Sweetie Belle a week ago," Applebloom said, imagining how much easier things would have been.

Sunset agreed. "Part of the reason why I don't do guilds. You're mess waiting to happen."

"And you're not?" Applebloom remarked teasingly. "Last I heard, there's no one but you who knows how to work magic. Quite a ruckus you stirred after taking the Draconequus down."

"Don't change the subject Applebloom," Sunset said, "you still need to figure out how to prepare for the big raid. I'd say you've got five days at most, and that's being generous."

"Reckon it's too late to go looking for Nighthavens, 'specially since I don't have a list of them," Applebloom said. She thought for a moment, before coming to a compromising conclusion. "I think it's best to just take some pressure off Scootaloo and the other crafters for now. After the boss is beat I'll have some guild members to help find the right ex-Nighthavens to recruit. Sweetie Belle will probably hate me for it, but at least that gives her some time to cool off."

"Sounds like a good call," Sunset confirmed. "Though I'm not that good at managing, so that probably doesn't mean much coming from me."

Applebloom raised her brow. "Seriously? You owned the company that made this whole game. Not to dwell on it or anything, but all this is pretty impressive for someone who's bad at managing."

"Twilight was the business end of the company," she replied. "So don't give me the credit, because it was more Twilight's company than mine."

"Well, be that as is may, I say you shouldn't sell yourself short," Applebloom encouraged. "You've been a big help, even if Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo might not be excited to hear it."

The two shook hooves and said their goodbyes as Applebloom left Sunset's house and made her way back to the Cutie Mark Crusader's guild hall. Sunset flopped down on her bed. She felt that she should have said something about Aria, that getting it off her chest and facing the reaction was better than wondering what would happen when they found out on their own.

Maybe if another opportunity opened itself up, she could speak up. Maybe, once Applebloom won over the Crusaders and all her friends went along with the Nighthaven idea, then she wouldn't have to worry about going behind their backs. Maybe she just had to sleep on it and put it behind her, like everything else that seemed to pop up in her life.

===================================================

Grieve Blossom and Roseluck walked side by side quietly. The whole raid did. They walked side by side on the path to the floor boss' fortress, a grand stone palace that jutted menacingly out of the grassy fields. Their guilds, the Knights of Yore and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, moved in awkward silence. On one side, the Knights snickered at the Crusaders and their leader's loss. On the other, the Crusaders looked grudgingly away from the Knights and ahead at the fortress, determined to do nothing but spit at the Knights when they defeated the boss.

"This is getting awkward," Grieve Blossom whispered to Roseluck as they entered the fortress. The front of the raid attacked the dungeon's defensive minions, taking them out before the rear players had to get in the fight. Over the sounds of swords clashing and field goblins despawning, no one paid attention to the whispering players.

"I know, but we just have to play along until the leaders get over it," Roseluck replied.

"I don't like it," Grieve Blossom said, ducking down as an enemy NPC flew over his head. "It sucks that we're not training together anymore. I mean, Aria's doing great at leveling up, and Iceblood's a pretty cool party leader, but sometimes I just want to take a break from the day-to-day regiment."

Roseluck agreed. "I hate that our guilds are making us act separately. I thought the whole point was to work together."

"At least your guild looks pretty focused," Grieve Blossom observed. "The rest of the Knights are getting a little too relaxed with training because they think we have more fighters."

"It's so fucking boring, you don't even know," Roseluck countered, quickly peaking back at the fight as two players ripped a mini-boss into pieces. "Preparing for the raid felt so slow. None of the crafters talked, so we just stood in the workshop for hours each day, working."

"Jeez, sounds like you have it worse," Grieve Blossom said, shoving aside his complaints.

Like most dungeons, the outer enemies offered little resistance. It was the boss itself that required both precision and coordination. Everyone had read the quest text this time, and had a good idea of what kind of boss they'd be fighting. The Field Tyrant, who had been mentioned in almost every quest for the dungeon, was supposed to a god-like being who reigned over the grasslands.

Just looking at the boss room, everyone knew not to take the boss' generic description lightly. The Knights and Crusaders went their separate ways, with the smaller guilds trailing behind whomever they supported. They immediately flanked the boss the second it spawned in, crushing it with countless debuffs.

Regardless, it was a long fight. Those unlucky enough to be caught by one of its hits knew better than to get close another time, even with potions restoring them back to full health. Even the Tanks, who stood behind their shields, backed off quickly and rotated to maximize their stamina and efficiency.

Before long, the two halves of the raid fell into a similar sort of synergy, moving the boss around and taking pressure off one another without realizing it. To Roseluck's surprise, she was able to break from her assigned party and reinforce Grieve Blossom's without so much as a complaint from Scootaloo.

They still held their grudge, but discarded it in the face of danger. Despite the best efforts of both sides to prove themselves, both the Knights and Crusaders came to a silent agreement that they'd never be able to beat a boss, let alone the game, without help.

===================================================

"No!" Rainbow Dash screamed as she looked around the town of the brand new floor. Fifty-two was nothing she wanted in a new floor.

"Oh come on Rainbow, it's not so bad," Scootaloo tried to comfort her.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "Why are there so many icy levels in this game!" She shot Sunset a burning glare.

Sunset threw her hooves up in defense. "I'm being totally honest, it's all on the developers at this point."

"That doesn't make me feel any warmer," Rainbow Dash seethed.

Applejack stepped in, pointing to the brightly lit inn by the portal. "All right, I think y'all just need a nice warm cup of cider by a fireplace. That sound good RD?"

Rainbow Dash nodded, folding her wings to block the chilling wind. "I just want to get out of this game and make whoever created this floor to pay."

Anniversary

Aria climbed up the back of the fallen boss and ripped the head off the Lord of the Demonkin, tossing it down to one of the players she was assigned to lead. "Alright, that's a wrap," she announced to her party as well as the rest of the raid. "Get the elite minions cleaned up and we can head up to floor fifty-nine before nightfall. Iceblood has a bet to pay up."

The stallion's ears flicked at the mention of his name. "Technically we tied; forty-seven elite monster kills to both of us." He wrenched his sword out from his forty-seventh dead NPC.

Aria wouldn't let him get away with the bet so easily. "Even if I counted that one, which I don't since you killed it after the boss, you said you could beat my score this raid. A tie doesn't count as beating me."

Iceblood groaned, turning to Aria as the elite demon behind him despawned. "Do you just find loopholes no matter what you do?"

"You should've chosen your words better," she replied. "Maybe next time it won't be so easy, but this time, you're paying for my drinks." Aria smacked her lips mockingly. "And I feel extra thirsty after this boss. It was pretty hard."

"Oh come on, it was barely harder than the last one and you know it," Iceblood said, laughing.

Aria wanted to counter that with her own wit, but nothing came to mind. It was just plain true. Ever since the floor fifty-one boss, the Clearing Group rapidly over-prepared for each boss fight. Players expected things to grow unimaginably difficult, but the reality was that the boss difficulty was increasing no where near the rate the "experts" from every guild expected.

At least over preparedness made it easy. "I can't believe we've crammed seven floors into just a month," Iceblood awed, watching happily as the raid paraded the head of the boss back to the central city's portal to open the way to floor fifty-nine.

"I can't believe I was under arrest about a month ago," Aria added to that, leaping down to Iceblood so they could talk and follow the raid back to town.

"And look at you now, leading your own party in a boss raid," Iceblood said as they trailed behind the rear guard of the raid. "How was it?"

"Pretty bad," Aria put bluntly.

Iceblood shrugged, expecting a similar answer. "They were all transfers from the SGK, what else did you expect?"

"I expected them to stay in formation at least," Aria grumbled. "I had a Damage who always tried to rush in and get himself killed before our Tank could pull the monsters."

"They'll learn to pay more attention," Iceblood assured. "You weren't exactly eager to sit and wait for a plan when you started, but now you're as good as the rest of us, if not better."

Aria accepted his counter argument. "I guess. They better learn fast though; I haven't completely lost my impatience."

===================================================

The party rallied again, stunning the mini boss long enough for Sunset to strike. It was a tough up hill battle, literally fighting up a mountain path to get a trophy for a convoluted quest, but it was a good place to level up. Pinkie Pie and Sunset had both done the quest before, so they hung back a little bit to let Rainbow Dash pummel ahead through the waves of imps, while Applejack and Roseluck charged ahead behind her, leaving the two of them behind to grind up the remaining demons.

"You sure about it Pinkie Pie?" Sunset asked. She couldn't believe Pinkie Pie of all people, had turned down an invitation to the second anniversary party.

Pinkie Pie flicked between two imps, flinging them off the edge of the mountain pass they were training on. It was the easiest spot, since the monsters just fell and died while still giving experience.

"It's just been a tough month Sunset," Pinkie Pie said, "Besides, the real party's when we get out of here. I'll be going all out then. But now, I just don't feel like it's the right time."

"Weird thing to celebrate, huh?" Sunset swung her pitch-black sword and slashed a row of imps off the mountain. "We've done a lot since the first day though, and that at least counts for something."

"And I bet we'll have a ton more fun adventures and quests." Pinkie Pie added. She ran into a horde of imps, spinning herself through them all and catapulting them into rocks or even off the cliff side.

Sunset somersaulted backwards, letting an enemy charge forward and send itself off the side of the mountain. "Still, don't you want to hang out with everyone else? It's so unlike you to skip out." Another imp, this one an elite soldier, lumbered up to Sunset. It was larger than the rest, but Sunset's dark sword was larger still. She turned her sword and deflected its attack with the flat of the blade before taking her turn to cleave a shadowy chasm through the creature. She sliced twice more before it had time to react, killing it and dodging the next imps.

Pinkie kept spinning herself around, knocking over imps left and right with her mace. "I know it's weird," she finally answered once she stopped turning, "but I've made up my mind.

"I've got a lot of things jumbled up in here," she pointed to her head. "I need to sort it out."

Sunset nodded, understanding how conflicted Pinkie Pie must have felt. Everyone agreed that a party was for the best, but it was hard not to look back on the two years and think of the losses. For Pinkie Pie, tainting such a big event with that kind of memory was taboo.

Sunset sheathed her weapon and equipped a teleport scroll from her inventory."Well, I'm headed back to central to meet up with Fluttershy."

Sunset went to her party screen and left the group. "Tell the others I had to go. It's pretty important. She said she found an extremely rare animal that she wants to tame before the party tomorrow evening. If I remember anything about it during development, the taming quest is gonna take all day."

"Sounds fun!" Pinkie Pie swiped her hoof and checked her level. "I should probably keep at it until I level up one more time. I'll catch up with the others and be sure to tell them. But be sure to remember everything, because I want to hear all about it if it's as big of a quest as you say it is.

"Will do," Sunset smiled as her avatar flashed up to the sky in dozens of shards of light.

Pinkie Pie watched as she teleported away. "I wish I could go," she told herself. "But now of all days, I have work to do."

===================================================

Even after two years, Ponyville was still an active floor. Many of the younger players had quickly grown up in their virtual world, almost growing too comfortable in it. Especially among the young teens, their time in the game had left the greatest impressions of their life.

It was here that Pinkie Pie worked. It was Cookie Cutter's birthday, a child now turning fourteen, and he wanted more than anything that to have a party planned by the famous party planner. Pinkie Pie made them laugh at her stand-up comedy and organized him and his friends into a raid. She took them up to some higher levels, directing them to a dungeon on floor twelve and helping them along some of the harder dungeons.

All the while, she'd drop little hints or messages of the real world. Jokes that poked fun at real things, outside of the game. Even during the raids, she'd tell stories as they traveled about what college was like, twisting the truth more than a little to give the kids something to look forward to when they returned to their normal lives as students.

It might have been more fun to mess around with her friends and try out Roseluck's experimental potions, but Pinkie Pie could see the changes everyday. Slowly, young children forgot their old lives. Over a third of the original one hundred thousand players had grown accustomed to the life of fun and leisure, even at the risk of death by a coded monster or dungeon trap. It was okay to be ensnared for a while, but in the lowest levels, where children grew up in a digital realm, they didn't even feel like leaving.

Kids played with each other, making new friends and enjoying what they could. But a couple months ago, it was one group of friends that really opened Pinkie Pie's eyes.

"We should go play outside of town," a little colt said to his friends. "The field's the perfect place for some capture-the-flag."

"We're some of the lowest leveled players," was the reply of one of his friends. He insisted that they continue with their dungeon quests.

"Any day now, the Clearing Group's gonna kill the hundredth boss. Before I go back and start high school, I want to spend my time having fun, not repeating a chain of missions just to get to the next chain of quests." Pinkie Pie heard this, and wanted to tell the young player everything she saw in the top floors. She wanted to tell him how many parties and friendships were ruined just getting to where they were.

But in that moment, she couldn't. Not out of fear of awkwardness, but out of a moment of realization. Would it matter if they did try harder? They were too far behind to make an significant effect in the next few months anyway, and going through such ordeals would only strengthen their connection to the game.

It wouldn't matter, because if they ever left the game, they'd never be happy with their bland reality. Another thing no one had considered, Pinkie Pie thought. Well, she'd make it her business to consider it, and by the time they left the game, everyone, children and all, would be happy to leave.

So the birthday went well. She baked a cake after the kids had killed floor twelve's mini-boss, and let them celebrate however they wanted. There were some party games and roleplaying, usual entertainment. It was all nice, a quiet break from the Clearing Group, and the perfect way to set some problems strait.

===================================================

"Bleh, this punch tastes like a fruit salad committed suicide."

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Thank you, Aria. I'm glad you appreciate my hard work."

"What's supposed to be in it anyways?" Aria asked, pushing her glass away and moving aside as Sunset added more decorations to the room from her house editing menu. She bought the countryside mansion on the riverbanks of floor fifty-nine as soon as the floor was opened. Sunset wanted it to live a bit more spaciously, but it made party preparations a lot more difficult now that Pinkie Pie was gone.

"I had a lot of vegetables collected that I wasn't using, so I thought I'd make some vegetable juice; spinach, kale, lettuce, bell peppers, those kinds of things." Sunset tapped a few buttons on her screen and streamers decorated the walls, spreading a mix of clashing and complementing colors. She moved on to her kitchen.

"Well, if you let me help you out," Aria proposed, "I bet we'd not only get done faster, but have a few improvements to this whole thing. Like better drinks."

Sunset chuckled. "You? A party planner? I don't think so. Pinkie showed me exactly how to make a party look good, so I think I got this."

"Fine," she sighed, expressing her exasperation. Aria opened her own menu screen and checked her messages. There was one from Sonata. "Oh, she say's she just left the auction house with the crystal disco ball. She says the guy who found it was a real snob."

"It's a unique item, pretty much a one-of-a-kind drop," Sunset told her. "Sure, it might not be equipment, but each ball comes with its own randomly generated effects. This one happens to have the perfect colors for tonight's atmosphere." She dimmed the ambient lighting of her kitchen and placed all the dishes on the counters.

Someone knocked at the door.

"Is that Sonata?" Sunset asked.

Aria shook her head as she went to greet the guest. "No, too soon. Probably Grieve Blossom, he said he'd be a little early to help set up the table." The door swung open and Aria was right.

"Oh hey Aria," Grieve Blossom chirped. "Am I the first one here?"

"If by first you mean after me, then yes," Aria said.

"You were here before the party invite was sent," Grieve Blossom countered, "that doesn't count." He walked in and turned down the hall into the dining room.

The wooden table fit nicely with the room's colors. The perfectly square mahogany table blended with the light brown, paisley patterned carpet and the maple floor. The wall was painted a variant of maroon, highlighting the white ceiling and chandelier. To the side, a wooden cabinet displayed plates and ornaments trimmed with gold.

Grieve Blossom quickly examined their detail. The quality of the materials wasn't a hard thing for the game to replicate, but what set these decorations apart as exquisite was the detail of everything displayed. Some plates featured famous portraits in the center, with simple surrounding. Others were decorated by seemingly endless curving lines of gold.

"Fancy stuff," Grieve Blossom said.

Aria nodded, starting to drape the table with silk a table cloth. "Glad you like it. I personally don't care for that sort of thing, but it has its merits."

"Thought this was supposed to be an informal party," Grieve Blossom chuckled, helping arrange the cloth evenly. "But here I am, without a suit."

"It's a nice place, but Sunset still wanted to show off a little bit," Aria explained, tugging the cloth tightly. "I say she's spending too much time with her rainbow friend."

"Too much? What's the matter, feeling jealous over your waifu?" Grieve Blossom teased.

"Ha ha," Aria laughed dryly. "Don't make me kill you."

"Okay, jeez," Grieve Blossom stepped back. "You realize you've actually done it, right? I mean, you sound sarcastic now, but, people were murdered because of you."

"Yeah yeah, sourpuss, now help me get the food onto the table," Aria dismissed him.

Sunset was still finishing up her last few dishes as they entered. "Hey there Grieve Blossom. Glad to have another helping hoof around." She pointed to trays of food on her counter. "Could you set those on the table? You can help yourself, I just finished them."

Grieve Blossom tapped on one of the trays and dragged its icon onto the table, materializing in seconds. Aria helped, shifting all the trays around each time more was added until every centimeter of the table was covered in food.

"How many players are coming?" Grieve Blossom asked when they finished. "Do we really need all this food? I thought it'd just be our group."

"Considering that Applejack eats like the animals she raises on her farms, and Rainbow Dash overworks herself into an appetite, I'd say we need quite a bit," Sunset answered, turning the fire off and completing the last dish. "Besides, you said Iceblood was coming with some guests. From what I've seen of that guy when he's off duty, 'some' probably means almost every Clearing Group member in the Knights of Yore. On top of that, the CMC also brought along their closest advisers and generals."

"Aw no, Twist isn't coming, is she?" Aria asked after the mention of the CMC's friends. "I hear that the girl tries to be sweet, but she's just too awkward."

"I know you don't make friends, but try to be nice Aria," Sunset replied.

Aria insisted on her point. "I'm serious! It's that lisp of hers, I can't hear a damn work she says. Nearly got me killed on floor fifty-six when we fought the boss and I couldn't hear a single warning. The raid's left flank was useless that day."

"Oh no, what would be do without you?" Grieve Blossom mumbled sarcastically. Aria glared at him, which only made him enjoy himself further.

"In any case, Twist's not showing," Sunset finally said. "Don't know why, but Applebloom didn't forward the invite to her. I didn't ask. Now can one of you place this bowl onto the table?" Grieve Blossom and Aria turned from the dining room an looked into the kitchen. The dish was glowing hot, almost like it was molten.

"Why is it doing that?" Grieve Blossom asked nervously.

Sunset explained. "The ingredient I used was supposed to be really spicy, but when it was being put into the game, I didn't really know how to much about spicy food. So, I asked another developer who was a huge chili fan to make it 'as hot as he could imagine.'"

"So why's it glowing?" Aria examined the bowl. Even the space around it was burning.

"I think he took 'hot' to mean its temperature, not its spiciness," Sunset said.

"You want us to take that thing?" Grieve Blossom gaped at the bubbling paneer masala. It smelled delicious, if only he could get past the fact it was in a molten bowl.

Sunset nodded. "Well, since you're offering, thanks!"

Grieve Blossom turned to Aria for salvation, but she had already left the kitchen and waited to hear his screams at the entrance. Sunset stood and watched.

Grieve Blossom reached out gingerly to tap the bowl, drawing closer to the heat. He was sure the pain would be reduced by the Digisphere. However, given that it was literally as hot as lava, there would still be second degree burns at the least.

===================================================

"The hell happened to your hoof?" Iceblood asked, sipping a delicious red wine from one of Phoenix's crystal glasses. He was happily relaxing on a reclining chair before cracking up at Grieve Blossom's burn.

Grieve Blossom moaned, applying a burn salve Roseluck made him when she got to the party. "Don't remind me. I'm going to hate masala for the rest of my life."

"Woah there," Iceblood cautioned, "it's not that bad." He ate another spoonful of the vegetables. "Of course, it helps to surrounded in ice enchantments. And not being dumb enough to grab burning objects."

Grieve Blossom pushed the commander back. "Fuck you," he said.

"I wish someone would," Iceblood replied.

"You're gross."

He shrugged. "You said it first."

"Is this off-duty Iceblood?" Grieve Blossom asked, winding back on the sofa across from the commander. "I thought I'd never see the day."

Iceblood raised his cup of wine. "This is happy Iceblood. The last raid was a huge success, and I even got a dragon-tier drop for the assisting kill on the boss."

"Oh yeah, Aria told me she beat you to it," Grieve Blossom remembered.

Iceblood nodded, accepting the sting of the loss. "I'll admit, she's as good as any other Knight, maybe even better. Her teamwork's still a little lacking but I'm hoping she'll bond with her new party."

Grieve Blossom scoffed, getting up to pick out a drink for himself. "I think I'll need a bit more liquor before I believe Aria can be a team leader."

Iceblood shrugged, and got up to tell him more. "I'm telling ya, I think she could be a great player if she works out well with her team."

===================================================

Two years. Everyday, Fluttershy thought about how long they'd been in the game, and questioned how much longer it would be before they escaped. She accepted many things since the first boss fight. First, she'd have to keep fighting if she wanted to keep up with her friends. Second, the fate of her pets were long out of her reach.

This time, she was stuck daydreaming on Phoenix's porch, gazing out at the mesmerizing stream of water cutting through the green pasture. She hoped that when emergency responders collected every player and had them hospitalized, someone remembered to look out for the pets. Maybe someone with a healthy vegetable garden for Angel, and public park for all her little birds.

Becoming part of the strongest players in PAO was not part of her plan when she agreed to play. Yet, going back to her pets was as much of a motivator as staying with her friends.

Fluttershy's daydreaming took her attention away, and she jumped a little when a voice beckoned her back to the party.

"You coming back or what?" Roseluck asked. "Everyone loves your pet dragon, you should join the fun!"

It was true, all her pets were fun to play with and easy to handle, but they weren't real. She thought she could bond with them and fill the void of her animals, and for a time it worked, but the effect wore off as she saw the same behavioral patterns reused again and again for different animals.

"It's okay," she told Roseluck. "I spend time with my pets all the time, I should let other players see how they like animals."

"You want to take a walk or something?" Roseluck stepped out onto the porch, standing next to Fluttershy. "Here's one of the things I admire about: you might be shy but you're there for your friends. Right now, something on your mind, and walking around should help clear some of those thoughts."

Fluttershy nodded, quietly following Roseluck. "I guess I can't hide being stressed. I want to celebrate with everyone else, but realizing we've been here for two years really makes me think about how much has passed in the real world."

"I know the feeling," Roseluck replied, skipping on some rocks sticking out of the stream. "I used to imagine I could go back and jump back into my life. But I haven't even finished my major yet, let alone a teaching degree. I'll probably have to revise everything I ever learned if I ever want to have a normal life after this. What do you imagine?"

"I keep thinking about my pets," Fluttershy said as she flapped her way over the stream. "I know it sounds weird, but I love all of them, and I know they need me. Two years without anyone to help them can be hard."

"I'm sure they're in safe hands Fluttershy," Roseluck reassured. "No one would just leave a pet without its owner."

"But there are so many of them!" added Fluttershy. "I mean, my little birdies might be okay, but Angel and the other bunnies have no where to go, Mr.Mouse and his family can't live on their own, and the zoo wouldn't keep Harry the Bear without my support for his enclosure."

"Wait you have a pet bear?" Roseluck paled.

Fluttershy nodded. "I worked at a zoo. They had a bear enclosure that they couldn't afford to keep, but I made the argument to keep him around. I just couldn't stand to see the poor thing leave his home. So every time the mention of the budget came up, I'd be sure to put down Harry the Bear as an essential part of the zoo."

"So, without you..." Roseluck didn't have to imagine hard what a zoo would be like without its bears, or what Fluttershy's life would be like without her own pets.

But Fluttershy looked like she had made an offense. "Oh look at me, I'm ruining tonight for you, aren't I? I didn't mean to dump my problems on you."

"No, no, I'm happy to hear it all," Roseluck said. "It's weird, but you all are my closest friends. I didn't have a lot of friends in the real world, at least not any as nice as you all. So, if there's anything I can do to help, I'm up for it."

Fluttershy smiled, blushing slightly. "Thanks, but I still feel bad for keeping you away from all the fun."

"Why don't we just relax for a while under the stars, and then head to the party," Roseluck suggested. "We're not missing anything, really. Might as well take some time to relax and think."

Roseluck found a fallen tree with a perfect clearing above it for star gazing, and sat down with her back resting against the cool bark. Fluttershy followed her and did the same, letting herself go a little and slumping her body against the tree.

Roseluck was a different kind of friend to Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie was extremely ecstatic, Rainbow Dash was extremely active, Sunset was extremely driven, and Applejack was extremely headstrong. Even she knew she was extremely shy most of the time. Roseluck wasn't extreme. She was like everyone else, just a moderate person trying to live their life before getting roped into all the chaos her friends happened to stumble into.

At some point, they must have dozed off under the stars, because they never did go back to the party.

===================================================

Sonata didn't want to say it, because she knew Aria would deny all of it, but their party was working pretty well together. It was unfortunate the last damage player couldn't handle Aria's ridicule and quit, but at least the rest of the team stayed together and now Sonata had an excuse to stay close to her fellow siren.

Phoenix's party was a great rave once everyone started crowing in, but the night was too long to just do one thing. The mansion was in a residential zone, but it was still relatively close to a popular questing area. Yet with barely a day after floor fifty-nine was opened, no one had time to see the all dungeons in action.

The dungeons and their quests changed depending on the time, some by the hour and others by the light of day. Aria, feeling adventurous, found one no other player even had time to look at yet. A dungeon that changed with night and day, and grew even more unpredictable as the dawn creeped closer.

"Eyes sharp," she told her party, "we're the first ones to see this dungeon at night."

They entered the deeper hallway after the entrance, and followed the spiral stairs down into some kind of prison hold. Most of the cages were empty, save for the one at the very end, which was marked by their quest objective.

"I'll go talk to the NPC," Aria said, turning to their Tank. "Block that doorway, I'm pretty sure there'll be enemies spawning from the stairs soon."

The Tank hefted his shield and planted it on the ground, covering the staircase with it and the point of his spear. Sonata and the other Damage drew their swords and on wither side of the Tank, slightly behind to stab over his shield when the enemies came.

Aria activated the quest, unlocking the door for the NPC prisoner. She ran over to her party and waited for the flood of enemy guards to rush down the stairs.

"I'm afraid I can't let you leave," a voice growled from behind them. Everyone whirled around to the NPC standing in the middle of the room. "I haven't had adventurers fall into my trap for years."

The NPC glowed his horn and the doorway sealed shut, barred by a magic shield.

"This wasn't in the quest description," Aria said, clutching her greatsword. "Still, he looks like a wizard of some kind. Get into formation B." Everyone nodded, and the Tank lifted his shield and advanced on the NPC while the rest of them formed a triangle around it. Two fireball spells roared by the Tank's shield. The attack did nothing to the player's health, but the fire blocked his vision long enough for the NPC to knock him down with a bolt of energy.

Sonata lashed at the NPC, driving her sword into its back before it could strike the Tank. The attack staggered it, but didn't pull its attention away. However, there was just enough time for the Tank to raise his shield and deflect the next magic blast. He rocketed off the ground, slamming his shield into the NPC.

Sonata twisted to the side as they rammed into the cages on one side of the room. Downed, the NPC could not defend itself for a few crucial seconds, leaving the entire party free to strike while they could.

"Enough!" it cried, sending a shockwave of magic into all of them. "You may have surprised me with your strength, but this is still my domain!" The NPC jumped to his hooves and shot a spell at the ground, filling the room with a thick cloud of smoke.

A screen appeared in front of everyone: Objective Updated: Find Inferno Blitz the Wicked Sorcerer.

"Looks like this isn't your average monster grind," Aria said, swiping away the notice. She expected the dungeon to be a mosh pit of endless enemies, a good place to grind for loot drops and experience. She felt a little disappointed it was turning out to be a simple hunt for a single villain.

Nevertheless, the magic barrier wasn't going to close until they finished the dungeon. "Start checking for a hidden door or something," she told her party, "and take one of the potions Iceblood issued to us, that shockwave was a strong one."

===================================================

Phoenix moaned. She made a note to herself to remember to thank Sweetie Belle for inviting masseuses from floor fourteen. Aside from the couple who managed the celebrated spa, there were two apprentices who learned directly from the couple, and with the four of them at the party everyone had a chance to relax like never before.

Phoenix and Rainbow Dash rested across from each other, dozing off slightly as their stress slipped off their bodies.

"I'm not one for spa treatments Phoenix, but this was a great idea."

"You said it," Pheonix replied calmly.

"I can't wait to try out a dungeon after this," Rainbow Dash continued, "I feel so loose, like I'm gaining flexibility just lying here."

"Speaking of which, I heard Aria was taking her team to go blow off some steam," Phoenix remembered. It was hard to hear over the music played by the band, but she was sure they were headed to a time-dependent dungeon. "We could join them later."

"I kinda don't want to take away their thunder," Rainbow Dash said, grunting as one of the apprentices loosened up the muscles around her wings. "Besides, her record from the last boss fight is almost as awesome as mine. They'll probably finish before we even get there."

===================================================

"Get back!" Aria shouted, pushing Sonata aside and taking a spear of energy strait to her shoulder. She heard her leather armor give a thick ripping noise as the spell knocked her though a crumbling stone pillar.

They were at the end of the dungeon's quest, facing down an NPC sorcerer unlike any mini-boss they had fought before.

The party's Tank slammed his shield against the NPC repeatedly, but nothing seemed to pull its attention. "Guys, why can't I draw its fire?" The Tank panicked, trying to get in the way of the spouts of fire shooting from the mini-boss' horn.

"Must be time of day," offered the other Damage. "It's almost sunrise, so things should be getting more and more random." He ducked under a beam of light that seared though the loose brick walls of the sorcerer's lair. Sonata took her turn to leap over him and lodge her sword into the NPC's chest, knocking him back into their Tank.

Sonata took her sword and flipped back, giving space for the Tank to send the NPC flying across the room to Aria. Up from the collapsed pillar, she spun with her greatsword, catching the sorcerer by the leg before its stun debuff could wear off, and dragging him into another unstable pillar.

The entire section of the lair collapsed, dropping a fifth of the room's ceiling onto the sorcerer, crushing its health down to twenty-percent. The sorcerer glowed with magic, but everyone knew what was coming already. The Tank charged forward while everyone else jumped back and took over behind the shield.

The shockwave rippled through the room, knocking over books and chairs and collapsing a few other pillars. The whole dungeon shook like an earthquake had just hit, but it could still hold itself for the time being.

"Hurry it up," Aria suggested to the Tank. He lunged forward with his spear, striking it in the shoulder and pinning it a wall. Sonata struck first, then the other Damage player and Aria, aiming their strikes at the exact same spot. Crippled and weakened, the combined critical hits finished off the NPC, shattering it into a mist of light before reforming as the dungeon's loot.

Everyone received their share, and everyone's eyes widened at their inventory screens. For the kind of dungeon they had just completed, their rewards were spectacular. Dragon-tier items were given to everyone, save for Aria, who was rewarded for the kill with a Unique-tier hooded cloak.

"Oh dang this thing is heavy," the Tank grunted as he hefted up his new shield. The metal shimmered blue with enchantments, linking to his spear and charging it with a synergy buff.

Sonata whistled her amazement at the colors, gazing at her weapon as well. It wasn't her preferred weapon, but the Kurusara Kama, a sickle attached to a long chain at the handle, was a hypnotic metallic purple. "I love this floor," she said, hugging her weapon. The Damage nodded, testing the weight of his new dagger and sword combined.

"Sun's almost up, but I bet there's still a bit of party left at Phoenix's place," Aria told her team. "I say we head back and make everyone jealous."

===================================================

An unsuspecting giant vampire fruit bat shattered into light. Creatures like those, flying high in the night sky, were dubbed "too much effort, too little reward." With her weapon, Sonata could launch her kama into the sky and hook the beasts, dragging them down to the ground and nearly killing them from the fall damage alone.

"I think I'm getting the hang of this thing," she said, spinning it around in the air. Aria ducked at the blade of the kama sliced over her head.

"Just get the hang of it without practicing the killing part," she told Sonata. "I do not want to dislodge your weapon from my eye."

The Tank laughed. "Oh, cheer up boss. You got a magic cloak, you'll be fine."

"The defense of this thing is absolute garbage," Aria scoffed. "It's only good for its invisibility ability and the damage boost."

"If you say so," replied the Tank, shrugging.

They were just a short run away from the residential zone when the first player stumbled out from the trees. The Damage spotted the stallion first, and called out to him while Aria and Sonata argued with the Tank over the best types of food in the game.

"Hey, you alright?" he shouted. "The vampire bat get you? We have health potions if you need it."

The player shook his head and collapsed on the floor. "Bandits just jumped me," he cried out. "Please, you gotta help me, they running me down. I'm too low on stamina to fight!"

"This high up?" He drew his sword and dagger, checking the treetops for anyone trying to sneak past. He made his way over to the player, pulling out a health potion from his inventory.

Aria bit his tail and yanked him back.

"What the hell, he needs help!" shouted the Damage.

"Just think," Aria hissed. "For one fucking second just think." She assessed the situation. They were at the edge of the forest, right next to the residential area. Even if the player was attacked, he would have just sprinted back into the safe zone, not deeper into the forest. His health was low and stamina too, but it seemed unlikely anyone his level would leave without enough potions to keep himself healthy.

Aria's sword sparked, ripped out of its sheath as she pushed her party back. "Weapons ready, now!" She twisted back to the player and advanced toward him. "You son-of-a-bitch."

The player's eyes widened with fear. "Wait, no, I don't have any health!" he shouted. "Please, they're going to be here any moment."

Aria thrust her blade directly at the player's head. He swore under his breath as he ducked and rolled out of the way, restoring his health and stamina with a quick dose of a potion. The following attack was automatic, the other bandits ambushing now that their trap had been spotted.

Two attackers descended on Aria, backing up the other player in a tag-team assault. She cut at them, snapping sections of one player's chainmail and scratching the other's plate armor, but she couldn't keep up with all three. While she beat and parried two of the them, the third player bucked her in the face, charging in to pin her against a tree.

Aria yelped as two swords thunked into the tree, penetrating her legs and sticking her to the trunk. Stuck to the tree, she managed to heave her sword and slash the eyes out of one of the bandits. But even as that player fell on the ground blinded, the other two beat her chest and abdomen until she flinched and dropped her weapon.

"Aria!" screamed Sonata from another tree. She was tangled with another player, fighting his rope dart with her chain. There was a marginal difference between their attributes, but it was enough for the bandit to outmaneuver Sonata and hog tie her to a tree branch.

The Tank fared just as bad, bogged down by four attackers. He took no damage from them, but couldn't do anything but block their attacks until he exhausted his stamina and collapsed on the ground.

The attack stifled into a silence as the bandits gathered around Aria. "Get the cloak damn it!" screamed the player on the ground, clutching his eyes. "Just take it and get me out of here!"

"Shut up," grumbled one of the bandits as he walked out from the crowd. He met Aria with a strait glare, giving orders without taking his eye off her for a moment. "One of them escaped. Run him down before he makes it back to the safe zone."

The other players turned and galloped off, some leaping along the trees to gain the high ground. When they had cleared out, the player staring at Aria was left with two guards and the blinded one.

"You just going to stand there all day?" Aria spat, struggling to tear herself free.

He shook his head, with a look that was a blend of disappointment and disgust. "Leader of the biggest Nighthaven cell. Oh, how the mighty have fallen."

Aria squinted hard at the stallion. "Do I know you?"

"Probably not, unless you remember High Raven," he told her. "It was a little town down on floor twenty-two. You had a job there, to assassinate a high profile trader."

"Revenge?" Aria guessed. "What, you're his brother or something?"

"Or something," he replied. "I worked for that trader, in a sense. I'd risk myself in dungeons everyday, and he'd find a way to end up extorting me with some bullshit reason by the end of the week. I nearly died countless times just because he left me with not enough gold to buy potions."

"Weird way to say thank you," Aria grunted. "And you're welcome by the way."

"Don't get me wrong, I thank you for that," said the player. "In fact, I joined floor 22's Nighthaven cell because of you."

Aria raised an eyebrow. "And you're not in jail yet? I find that hard to believe."

Aria's cheek burned as the player hit her across the face. "That's because I wasn't dumb enough to try to stage an assault on a whole floor!" Aria started to reply but he knocked the wind out of her with a hoof to her stomach.

He stepped closer to her, speaking in a softer, lower, tone. "I didn't let the biggest team Nighthaven had turn into sitting ducks in the middle of floor thirty-five." He eyed her up and down. "Now look at you, doing errands for the ones who ruined our organization."

Aria paused to think for a moment before replying. "So, what you're saying is that I was right; this is revenge!"

The stallion stood back, signalling his guards to stab Aria. She flinched, sucking in air through her teeth as the sword blades went though to the tree behind her. At least it doesn't hurt like the real thing, she thought to herself. Her eyes flicked to her health bar, watching it go down to seventy percent. Given the number of weapons stabbed through her body, she estimated they were all eight levels or so below her.

"This is more than revenge, boss," he said, hissing the last word. "This is a new start for what remains of Nighthaven. Not all of us were taken by the Clearing Group, and I'll establish a new organization with a real purpose, one too important for anyone to make fuck-ups like yours."

Aria managed a chuckle from her situation. "You're telling me you've had a revelation, some kind of holy awakening and a sense of duty?"

The player continued, ignoring her comment. "There are some who deserve to die. You who I'm talking about, right? The assholes who plot to make life a living hell, but don't have the decency to just finish it all the way. That's what we'll do: kill not because we were paid to or because they have gold on them, but because they had it coming."

"Like the trader," Aria mused. "So what piece am I in this game of yours?"

"Don't act so aloof," growled the player. "Your 'success' with the Knight haven't gone unnoticed. With you still alive, Lighthaven can never take off. No one would join me in my crusade when they could sit and watch you frolic with the Clearing Group."

"Lighthaven," Aria said, testing the word in her mouth. "How original."

"You'll be eating your words soon enough," he said back, pulling the weapons out of her one by one. Aria fell to the floor, taking on a crippled debuff from her injuries. "Because before I kill you, I'm going to make you submit to me. Then, everyone will see who's the better player, and who should be the one to follow."

"Things don't seem so bad, with your little bandit crew," Aria said, grunting with effort as she tried to fight the debuff. The stallion spun around and bucked her back into the tree, her body flopping onto the ground.

"Mercenaries will do anything for the gold I've saved up since I joined Nighthaven, but they're not one us." The stallion walked up to Aria and looked strait down her pupils as he raised his sword.

Sonata shouted at him. She screamed, taunting him to take his attention of off Aria. The Tank started yelling too, attempting to charge at the Lighthaven founder, though with his low stamina the guards easily outmaneuvered him and beat him back to the ground.

"This is the company you keep now," the player laughed at them, "fitting you should die with trash like them." He turned back to Aria and raised his sword above his head, and brought it down to strike.

Aria reached below herself, ready for the debuff to wear out the next moment. She had hit the tree she was pinned to and landed on the ground by it. She had landed on the ground where she had dropped her sword.

The instant his sword came down, Aria had the chance to react. The player's eyes peeled wide open as his arms, or rather his forelegs, throbbed with pain. His hoof flew up into the trees, scattering into particles of light, dropping his sword on the ground.

The Tank jumped onto one of the guards, dragging them both down with his body weight. The other guard pulled his client aside and swung his sword for Aria's head. She spun on the ground, kicking the guard's legs out from under him and stabbing his chest with her greatsword.

"Thank goodness, you did it!" Sonata cheered. "Could you cut me down now?"

Aria turned back to the player responsible for it all. She grabbed him by the shoulder pads of his armor and lifted him up. "Who else is part of your Lighthaven scheme?"

"Just me," he laughed, "the king, queen, and pawn of this little game we play."

Aria slammed him back into the dirt and plunged her blade though his abdomen, snapping the links in his chainmail armor. "You said there were others, who?"

"Ha! You don't even know my name," coughed the player, "what makes you think you're getting the others?"

Aria grabbed his hoof and forced open his menu screen. At the top read his name: Glass Desert.

"I'll take every piece of information I can to my grave," Glass Desert spat. Aria twisted her sword, pulling it up to his chest. The slow attack delivered a powerful critical hit, hauling his health bar down to ten percent.

"Do it," he coughed. Glass Desert gripped Aria's hooves, pulling her closer. "I wanna look up from hell and see how your new friends react to more blood on your hands."

Sonata struggled with the rope dart tied around her. "Whatever you're thinking of going Aria, don't listen to him!"

"You happy letting me live? So what if I get jailed by the town guards?" He gave Aria a wolfish grin. "You'll be the one setting me free."

"Do what's right boss!" shouted the Tank, still wrestling with the other guard.

Aria shook her head, listening to her own thoughts for a moment. She promised not to kill anymore, even if only so she could be with Sonata, but Glass Desert claimed he had contacted the last of Nighthaven. Capturing the remaining members wasn't high on her to-do list, but it did give her a shot at turning them into a fighting force for the dungeons.

On top of that, there was an even smaller shot at finding anything about Adagio. Nighthaven was spread out now, hidden in the deepest cracks of society. They had to have met Adagio among the seediest parts of the community.

It was too good to pass up. "You're a worthless piece of garbage," she told him, "but you'd be even less if you were dead. You're going to tell me what I want, one way or another."

Aria slid her greatsword out of Glass Desert slowly, careful not to deal addition damage. Sonata let go of a breath she didn't know she was holding. That ten seconds of silence nearly made her think Aria was actually going to kill the stallion.

On his last gasp of health, Glass Desert launched a kick to Aria's ribcage, connecting his chainmail to a soft spot in her armor. Aria flinched and shifted away, twisting her blade in the process. Glass grabbed her with his able hoof and pulled her to his chest, sending her greatsword completely though him.

At their angle, with Aria's back to her party, it was impossible to say what happened. Both the Tank and guard froze with their jaw wide open. The guard couldn't believe his employer had died, and the Tank couldn't believe Aria had killed him. Sonata wore the same look, hoping the stallion was tougher than he looked.

Aria gripped Glass Desert's body like a steel clamp. She had never killed someone she didn't want dead before. The feeling shook her, and though it didn't have any emotional pain, her whole body still tensed up from the suddenness of the kill. The player whispered into her ears, reveling in her shock.

"You murdering bitch," he said, forcing a laugh even as his body broke down into shards of light. "Have fun explaining this to everyone."

Decommissioned

Sunset stretched out on her bed, recalling what she could of the previous night. So many things happened it was hard to keep track. Grieve Blossom fell off her roof, she remembered that.

A lot of players had just left, most of them leaning on each other from exhaustion. It was likely no one would attempt a dungeon today without catching up on some much needed sleep.

But Sunset was wide awake as the sun peeked into her bedroom. She looked to her left and wondered why Sophisticata and Rainbow Dash were sleeping on her floor, but decided to push them out of her room and avoid prying into things she didn't want to mention. She flopped back on her bed and opened her menu screen, swiping the display over to the admin controls.

Just for fun, she played around with the controls, clicking every inch of the screen and hoping there was a button she had missed, before opening her access to the game's magic. From what she could tell, almost half of the spell needed to override computer-driven side of the Digisphere was complete. At the rate she was going, they'd finish the game before she finished the spell.

She heard hooves sprinting up the stairs as she toyed around with streams of magic.

"Phoenix! You awake yet?" It was Sonata's voice, and she sounded panicked. She knocked on her door. "Sunset, are you in there?"

Sonata sounded worryingly frantic, but Sunset had to wonder what kind of trouble she had gotten into. She swiped her menu screen to the housing options and tapped on the door's icon, unlocking it.

"Your awake, great!" Sonata said, only slightly relieved.

"It's early Sonata," Sunset got out of her bed and equipped her armor, "what problem could you have stumbled across in one night?"

Sonata beckoned Sunset to follow her back into the foyer. "Aria should explain it all to you," she said. "She's the one with the right perspective."

===================================================

Sunset swallowed another sip of her tea, rubbing her forehead. "Tell me again, what do you mean 'you didn't mean to kill him'?"

"I swear to you, I had no control over it," Aria pleaded. "He just pulled me in and ran my sword through himself."

It was still to early for her to judge the story well. Sunset got up from her couch and paced around the room. "Okay, just to recap because I fell like I'm missing something here, you went out to a night dungeon, got a bunch of loot that attracted mercenaries, and their leader turned out to be hunting Aria for revenge for Nighthaven. Then, he committed suicide because you beat him?"

"Don't forget about how I got the rest of the mercenaries to hunt me down to somewhere far, far away," added the Damage. He stayed by the door, keeping himself out of something he wasn't present for.

"It sounds stupid, I know, but that's how it happened," Aria said, getting out of her seat because she couldn't handle sitting still anymore. She walked over to Sonata. "As much as I dislike everything else, I wouldn't just kill a player for no reason."

"But you took him down to extremely low health," She reminded Aria. "Why didn't he retreat or flee?"

"He was crazy!" Aria exclaimed, stamping her hoof on the floor. "He was sure he could restart Nighthaven as an extremist group to kill anyone who deserved to die."

Sunset poured herself another cup of tea and drank it, trying to calm her nerves. Technically, it was a problem for the Knights of Yore, but she felt slightly responsible for Aria as well. On top of that, a sick feeling was finally starting to catch up to her, and waking up early was not helping with anything.

"I don't know what to do," she finally told Aria after a few moments to mull it over. "But you definitely can't keep this to yourself. You should go tell Iceblood."

The party's Tank stepped in from the corner of the room. "No way Iceblood's going to let this turn out okay," he told Sunset. "He's a nice guy but he's too 'by the books' sometimes."

"If it happened the way Aria tells it, then there's nothing to worry about," she replied.

The Tank shook his head. "With all due respect Phoenix, I don't think you've been around the Knights long enough to know how we think. Most of us like having ex-Nighthavens around, but when it comes down to the individuals, there can't be any more hate."

He glanced down at the floor for a moment, looking guilty over it. "And considering how the I froze up and let the guard slip away, there's going to be one witness who saw exactly what we saw, and from his angle, I don't think his testament will work out in our favor."

"You're worried Glass Desert's suicide gets painted as a murder, and sends Aria out of the Knights of Yore," Sunset filled in.

He nodded, then turned to Aria. "If it counts for anything boss, I think you've grown from your past. Stories about you in the dungeons circulate, and I have to say it's an honor to be in your party."

Aria blinked at him, unsure of how to react. "Thanks."

"Regardless, most of the members of the Knights of Yore aren't actually in the Clearing Group," Sunset continued, pouring yet another cup of tea. Something was beginning to work, and it was clearing up her senses. "Lower levels were the hardest hit by Nighthaven, and sorry to point out the elephant in the room, but Aria's list of kills is..." she flicked a furtive glance at Aria.

She rolled her eyes and scowled. "You don't need to remind me."

"...more than enough to tip a verdict against her favor," Sunset finished.

Sonata walked up to Aria and took her hoof. "We could run," she offered. "You've done enough for the Knights already, and there's plenty of players in the Clearing Group now, more than there has ever been. We could just leave, maybe vacation to a nice spot in the lower floors."

Aria smiled, "I'd like that Sonata, but I don't know if that's possible. I'm still a red player. The only reason I can walk in the streets is because the Knights burned a ton of gold to the game to make a green player again."

"Your status should have been renewed this month, right?" Sunset asked. Aria confirmed it with a gentle nod. "That leaves three weeks or so until it wears off. If you quit, that'll be how much time you have with Sonata before city guards start chasing you down to put you in the real jail, and no one gets out of floor zero without an admin."

"All of whom are disabled." Sonata clutched Aria just a little tighter, dreading the thought of loosing her closest friend. Aria didn't reciprocate the same action, but the look on her face gave away her own worry.

"So, resolve this with the Knights," Sunset told the party, "and get them to understand that you're innocent. If you keep it to yourself, it'll be worse when it comes up. I'm sure a death of a player will come up some time or another."

Aria slumped her shoulders, conceding to Sunset's argument. She knew she couldn't keep Glass Desert's death a secret no matter how much she wanted to. Not only would the mercenaries be looking for their payment, but one of them was there to see it himself. She knew she should have paid more attention to the guard so he wouldn't run off, but her senses were just not up to it after spilling blood once again.

"Sonata, you can go inform Iceblood," Aria said. "He should be with Grieve Blossom right now, training at the Namgoro Acid Pits dungeon."

"What are you going to do?" Sonata asked.

Aria picked herself up and headed for the door, explaining on her way out. "If I want to get out of this a free mare, I'll have to tell the Knights what happened on my own; Iceblood's just a middleman in the whole system. I need to go have a chat with Allegretto."

===================================================

The Knights had a habit of upgrading their guild keeps as often as possible, moving up almost every time a floor boss was killed. This time, the guild keep did not disappoint. Floor fifty-nine was a host of different dungeon types and environments, with volcanic regions bordered by jungles and deserts. In the central city the massive keep, with its towering alchemy laboratories and busy training halls, seemed to be the only thing with a sense of a normalcy.

Allegretto sat in her meeting room with her council at the top of the Knights' keep. Players of all kinds sat with Allegretto, equally judging the player in front of them who they regarded with disgust.

"We trusted you not to be stupid! Now you come back to us with a lame excuse of your clear, uncontrollable violent nature!" one of the advisers exclaimed. He leaned out of his seat to spit more at Aria, but Allegretto simply raised a hoof to silence him.

"Two hours ago I received a message from a field agent," she told Aria. "In that message, he told me about how he eavesdropped on a group of players discussing their dead leader. Your name came up in that discussion, Aria."

Aria swallowed the churning in her gut, relieved that she didn't try to keep the death to herself. "I promise, whatever he heard was not the whole story," she pleaded, glancing only slightly down to Allegretto's desk. She rarely backed down from anything, but Allegretto's calm expression and absolute control over the room gave her the intimidating edge on Aria.

"I am well aware of that," Allegretto said, "My agent, however adept he may have been, failed to pick up the details. However, I appreciate your willingness to admit to being at least part of the cost."

The adviser to her right leaned over and whispered. "Part of the cost? We haven't heard the whole story, and didn't your agent say he was tracking down the eye witness he overheard?" Allegretto said nothing, but gave a reassuring nod to her adviser.

"But, I'm afraid given the sensitivity of the subject, your participation alone cannot clear any of this up," she continued to tell Aria. "I trust that you won't be any trouble here in the keep, because this is where you'll be staying for the time being until we've heard all accounts and judged for ourselves."

"Ask Sonata and JumboJump, they're with Iceblood right now telling him what happened," Aria added, hoping to get herself out of the keep as soon as possible. It wasn't working on Allegretto.

"Jumbo's the Tank you mentioned in your story, isn't he?" she asked. "And while I'd love to hear his statement along with your friend Sonata's, I'm afraid we'll need opinions that don't come across as bias as they sound."

Aria twisted her hoof into the tile floor, slowly as to not tip off the council, but still with plenty of force. "They won't lie," she told Allegretto.

"I'm sorry, but I have to be fair," replied the guild leader. "Though I do have faith in your words, and trust that justice will come out of this in the end." She swiped open her menu screen and unlocked the double door entrance. "Thank you for your time, you're free to explore the keep as much as you like. Just remember, we do have lookouts surrounding the keep, so don't try anything too alarming."

Aria wanted to say something, anything that could express how helpless she felt, but everything she would have said she knew wouldn't be good. Instead, she turned herself around and swiftly trotted out of the meeting room without another word.

===================================================

For the third day, Aria lounged in the training hall of the Knight or Yore's guild keep. The occasional demon or mini-boss would be spawned in by the notably expensive monster spawner centered in the training hall, but even after a day of practicing on those NPCs she was still two levels behind the rest of the Clearing Group.

Sonata had just finished running through an evening of dungeons with JumboJump and their new party before she decided to watch Aria, hoping to calm her down.

"You should treat it like a vacation," Sonata suggested, sitting on one of the resting benches while Aria rolled under the swinging arm of a stone golem and hacked it in the back until it died.

She wiped the sweat off her brow, taking a seat to let her stamina recover. "When we get out of here, we can take a vacation to anywhere in the world. Just us two."

"What about Adagio?" Sonata asked, raising an eyebrow. "She'll still be with us when this is over, won't she?"

"Even if she's still alive by then, I wouldn't want to walk an eternal life on the same hemisphere as her," Aria said, her words rich with detest. "She lied to me about what happened to you. She told me you left us to live your own life, when you were with that bastard alchemist all that time."

Sonata sighed in agreement. "She told me I would help whatever plan she had if I worked for him. All that time, I thought Long Glider was the one Adagio misjudged. I even thought he did right as a boss, until he began experimenting with pain. I guess it was really Adagio who got too much trust from me."

"I wonder what she thought she would do," Aria wondered, drinking a thick, honey-based liquor from her inventory to recover more stamina. "By now she would have devastated the world with domination or something."

Sonata laughed at a thought Aria put into her head. "Imagine if she was just sitting in a room planning a fool-proof plan that's never going to work. She totally would, wouldn't she? Adagio liked to have things planned out, and I bet this game's got her stumped."

"Serves her right," Aria scoffed. "Always clawing at power the way she did. Didn't you hate the way she treated us?"

"Well," Sonata thought for a moment, "she did buy me tacos all the time. Even in the real world she'd stand in the slow lines to get me one."

"Alright, you should have gotten off those things a long time ago, because it was becoming an unhealthy habit," Aria warned. "And just because you can eat a taco every meal of every day here, doesn't mean it's the same in the real world. You don't know what humans can put in those things."

Sonata simply shrugged. "Anyways, it was the only redeeming thing Adagio had going for her. She was just plain manipulative any other time."

The training hall's door creaked opened on them. Iceblood walked in, followed by two of the advisors Aria recognized from Allegretto's meeting room. The two stood back a safe distance while Iceblood delivered the result of the discussion. After hearing the events from every available source, thirty-eight Knights, who were randomly selected as the jury, had come to a unanimous decision.

"You're not completely out of the Knights," Iceblood relayed to Aria, "but, unfortunately, you are relieved from duty in the Clearing Group for the time being."

"And my player status?" asked Aria. Will it stay green?"

"Surprisingly, it was Allegretto who took your side," Iceblood said. "She tries not to show favor in anything to be as fair as possible, but in this case she seemed to appreciate your contribution to the guild's progress, even if other players were against it. Her good word convinced the guild to keep renewing your pardon as long as you need it."

"That's a lot of gold to spend, you sure you didn't have anything to do with getting me in the good graces of the guild leader?" Aria asked, cracking a wide grin.

Iceblood himself smiled wolfishly. "How do you know I was there to help? Maybe I wanted to get you back for all those lost bets."

"You wouldn't," Aria laughed, "not when I know most of your embarrassing secrets."

"One," Iceblood corrected. "I slipped one, and it's not even that bad."

"Fine, then I'll just Fluttershy know, along with the rest of her friends," Aria taunted, already reaching to open her menu.

Iceblood narrowed his glare and just backed away slowly, conceding the victory to Aria. "Well played. Well played indeed." He turned and whispered something to the advisers. They looked relieved and made for the door as fast while trying to keep a calm composure.

"I suppose you'll need a place to stay, now that you're no longer active with the Knights," Iceblood mentioned on his way out the door. "I know you still have your own house, but we're moving up pretty fast and it'd be nice to have you close by." He swiped open his menu and messaged Aria and Sonata the coordinates of a location on the floor.

"Only nice place on this floor," he told them, "I'd vacation there everyday if I could." The large double door echoed as it closed shut.

With the news received and time to think on all the things she could do, Aria looked down at the location of the map. Floor fifty-nine had very few residential locations worth buying. Sunset had the unfair advantage of remembering where her mansion was placed, recalling the decision to place it where it was way back in the alpha phase of the game. Her mansion was completely isolated, with no space for any other player to settle.

Aria made a mental note to call Sunset out on "not knowing anything about the upper floors" the next time she got the chance.

"Wanna go check it out?" Sonata asked eagerly, excitement clearly on her face.

"Fine," Aria said, "I guess I can take a short vacation." She sheathed her sword and prepared to change out of her combat armor, but Sonata already had her hoof, dragging her out of the training room, then the guild keep. Soon, they were out of the central city entirely with nothing on their mind but hopes for some good times.

Campain

Sunset shone a light down the tunnel from her horn. It was a simple spell, one that seemed nearly useless in most situations, but it was the stablest spell she could create. Even so, analyzing the wave forms of magic, connecting all the parts to track the ripple effects, took time. Time she felt could have been spent finding the spell to break everyone out of the game. Still, the spell was useful in the dark, and anything that helped complete the game was a boon. Her friends thought so more than she did, sometimes even encouraging her to focus on making fire spells, like the ones she used to kill the floor fifty boss.

"I think this is the next spot," Applejack whispered as she lead Rainbow Dash and Sunset deeper into the tunnel.

Rainbow Dash ducked down onto the ground, avoiding the Shadow Swipe ability of a giant vampire bat. "How many more of these things do we have to kill AJ?" she asked, side stepping away from another strike and then stabbing it back. "Beause even I'm starting to get tired of fighting them."

"We're at two hundred and fifty kills RD," Applejack replied, pushing back on two giant bats grappling her shield.

"It's a shame we don't have some magic to clear this whole tunnel, isn't it Sunset?" Rainbow Dash said, twisting her sword as the bat flapped its wings wildly.

Sunset focused her light on the bat, stunning it with blinding brightness. "Back to this? I told you, focusing on fixing the game's a lot better, and a lot safer, than messing with magic." She drew her greatsword, a weapon so immersed in darkness it was clear compared to the dimly lit tunnel. "Besides, now is really not the time."

Sunset plunged into the bat, splattering red pixels across the floor. It shook them around violently, knocking her aside as it crawled from its nook and bit into Rainbow Dash's chest plate. She grunted, bucking the creature into the tunnel's walls and decapitating it before it could react.

"Just sayin', this'd be much easier," Rainbow Dash said before dusting herself off with her wings and rushing next to Applejack. She slashed her sword above the shield and drove off a vampire bat long enough for Applejack to maneuver her lance and push into the larger group.

Sunset prodded from behind, using the length of the Shadow of Discord to stab out the bats' eyes from the rear while distracting them with her light. It was hard work, but not much of a fight with Applejack as the Tank. They made their way down the tunnel, following it until they reached the end of the cavern where the bats were thinner.

"I don't want to have to chase down each bat," Rainbow Dash said, catching her breath.

Applejack raised her brow at Rainbow. "Why are you tired? I'm the one with the shield."

"Oh be quiet AJ," Rainbow waved her away with a wing, "you have too much stamina to feel tired yet."

"Wow, didn't think you could get tired RD," Sunset mused, "or at least admit to getting tired."

"Don't hold your breath," Rainbow Dash retorted, "my stamina recovery's as fast as I am."

Applejack chuckled. She opened her menu screen and checked their progress. "Reckon you can rest just fine tonight Rainbow, we've got two more bats and then we're out of here."

"Great, because as much as I love fighting, I don't like fighting the same thing three hundred times." Rainbow Dash launched off the ground and glided between two giant vampire bats perched on an outcropping of the cavern. They gave chase, but it didn't last long once they were guided strait into Applejack's lance.

"Well played," Sunset said. She opened her menu screen and checked her messages. "I'm heading over to the Knights of Yore to check on Aria, you two wanna come?"

"Oh yeah, what's all that about?" Applejack asked. "Heard she ran into some kind of trouble."

"Fluttershy told me it was about bandits or something," Rainbow Dash added.

"Kind of. I'll explain on the way out." Sunset turned her beam of light back to the tunnel, hopping up a cluster of rocks to get back up to the mouth of the cavern's entrance.

Rainbow Dash glided up behind her. "Alright, but we're buying some cider before we reach central."

===================================================

Are you sure you want to purchase this?

Aria tapped the confirmation button on the pop up screen and dissolved the invisible barrier around the plot of land. It was impossible to imagine such a nice place on a floor so wild and random with its theme.

"We get this whole beach to ourselves!" Sonata chimed as she ran into the water. "Isn't it great Aria?"

Aria opened her menu screen and switched to the edit mode for the landscape, planting a set of coconut trees in the sand. She added a row of beach chairs and a cantina next to the trees, and sat down to bask in the sunlight.

"It's not what I imagined, but Iceblood's got good taste in vacation homes," she said, grabbing a drink from a tray as the NPC from the cantina followed its route around the beach.

Sonata waded out of the water and "We should invite some friends over after they make get to floor sixty. I bet this beach is big enough for a bigger party than Sunset's, don't you think?"

"C'mon Sonata, my deal with them's dissolved," Aria replied. "None of the the Knights have any business with me anymore, and Sunset and her friends don't want to be with us anyways. We can take this time just for ourselves."

Sonata scrunched her face. "I kind of like our new friends, and I don't believe for a moment you don't have some kind of appreciation for Sunset after all she did to get you to where we are now."

"Sunset put up with me because it was what the Clearing Group wanted," Aria explained. "She and her friends wouldn't hang around me longer than they had to."

"Well..." Sonata hesitated to speak, "I'm still going with the Clearing Group to beat the boss dungeon, and after that we'll definitely celebrate. Just think, we're opening the sixtieth floor."

"You really want a party?" Aria asked. Sonata nodded her head eagerly.

It was a petty matter, Aria supposed. Sonata was a much friendlier person, and between them, had all the charm on the other players. She didn't want to bother with the Knights' agendas anymore, or have to put up with the occasional glance or stare, but she also felt that she couldn't make things hard for Sonata.

Parties were fun, and had a lot more people to talk to. Sonata always enjoyed herself at social events, and when Aria wondered whether Sonata would stay with her over a big celebration, she realized she was afraid to hear the answer.

"Fine," Aria grumbled, "I'll buy the beach house and set everything up before the boss is dead, I promise."

"Really?" Sonata beamed. "Won't you need help? You're not exactly the party planning type."

Aria picked up another drink as the cantina NPC passed by again. "I think I can handle a small-"

Sonata rushed to her message menu and cheered as a thought came to her. "I know! I'll get Pinkie Pie to lend a hoof. She loves parties!"

===================================================

The clutter of metal plate armor was ringing in Phoenix's ears. Taking the lead in the boss raid was a role she was more than happy to fill, but with more players in the Clearing Group, that meant walking side by side with the loudest players in the community.

It could have been anyone of her friends, Rainbow Dash was especially eager to take the lead, but the Knights asked that Phoenix be the lead after giving Allegretto and her advisers the impression she had actually scouted the dungeon before. In truth, the things she explained were just her memories of the little contribution she did for this particular floor, and played it off as her own in-game experience to save the trouble of further questions.

On the other side of the Clearing Group, the CMC knew they were not as prepared as they would have liked. But they just followed the Knights, who were sure they could take down the boss before the end of the week, and hoped that Phoenix was involved enough to guide them through.

"How do you do it Sweetie Belle?" she said to her right. "All this clanking is insane!"

Sweetie Belle shrugged. "You get used to it."

The raid created even more noise as they changed the course of their march, winding down a path into a volcano, which also spewed acid along with lava. The volcano's entrance was just north of the central city, and touched every type of environment on the floor. With that, and the floor's theme of absolute randomness, everyone was prepared for the most volatile dungeon environment yet.

"Duck down!" Phoenix called out to the raid. Everyone reacted in an instant, dropping under an arc of lighting bursting from a bubble of lava into a pool of acid. "Stay low, the rest of the entrance isn't going to get any better.

One by one, the players filed into the dungeon itself, relieved to be out of the hazardous trail. Unfortunately, the dungeon was not any better. The underground cavern was vast to the point that it appeared as its own little world. From the entrance, no one could see the end of it.

What they could see were the floating stone platforms bobbing around the cavern. Every pegasus player took delight in flapping over the wide jumps the rest of the raid had to do to travel across the dungeon. Meanwhile, noxious gases seeped up from the bottomless cavern in some places, poisoning a few unlucky players before they even saw combat.

"Test the air near the edge of each platform," Phoenix reminded the raid once the coughing began. "The air feels warmer when they're full of toxic gas."

Progress through the cavern slowed as players maneuvered carefully through the platforms, and it got even worse as they reached the monster infested areas of the inner cavern. Those who were pegasi did their best to lift up anyone unfortunate enough to slip or get knocked off, while everyone else contended with lava golems dripping from the top of the cavern.

"We're getting close," Phoenix shouted to the group, "just head to the dot of light on the other side." It was hard to see among all the fighting, but as they moved closer everyone saw the exit she was talking about.

Phoenix caught a lava golem in the air as it fell on top of her, using its weight to swing it around into Allegretto's shield. It was impressive, Phoenix noted, that Allegretto could keep up in the dungeon. Even her friends and the CMC were lagging a little bit behind. The Knights, she also noticed, rallied behind their leader and overtook the Crusaders in the rush.

The rest zone at the end of the cavern slowly crowded up as the raid reached their destination. The few who still slipped through the poison gas were treated with antidotes, and bandages patched up the minor scrapes and burns from the lava golems.

"Phoenix, Delta team's good to go," Roseluck said, taking care of the the last injuries in the raid. "We can get moving."

Phoenix nodded. "Do we have enough bandages and antidotes?"

Roseluck quickly checked her inventory, then looked confidently back at Phoenix. "I stocked almost twice as much as the last boss raid, we should be fine." She glanced around and subtly pulled her to the side of the zone. "Unless there's something coming we should know about."

Phoenix glanced at her friend with some worry. "Aside from some poison and stun intensive drakes and basilisks, I've got nothing. When I worked on this floor, the dev team just asked me to help add the poison and revise the overall structure. The next part's a short section, but still, anything can happen in that tunnel."

"Great," Roseluck sighed, looking down the tunnel and imagining all the other monsters that could show up, or the traps that could catch an unsuspecting player.

"It'll be tough, but we'll make it," Phoenix reassured. "How bad can it-?"

"Shhh," Roseluck placed her hoof on Phoenix's face, abruptly interrupting her. "Don't ask that question. Never ask that question."

Phoenix paused and looked at Roseluck, who shot a warning look at her. She turned back to the raid and guided them to the next section, assuring them that it'd be a short way to the next rest zone. The CMC picked up the pace, bringing their Crusaders into the leading group. Allegretto hung back warily, even as some of the Knights kept their pace up with their Crusader rivals.

It wasn't long before the march across the tunnel became a sort of race. Monsters were few, limited to only Dire Golems and Acid Fiends, and died quickly with the combined efforts of the raid. The two guilds raced to reach the end first, along with more kills for more bragging rights.

Phoenix kept up with the few players rushing through the tunnel, only to make sure nothing unexpected caught them off-guard. She thought it was foolhardy to be having an impromptu competition in the midst of a boss dungeon, but in all the excitement, she didn't feel like stopping them.

The first to burn was Applebloom, whose armor and and shield were the only things keeping her alive after the sudden wall of lava. Two Knights were crushed under the collapsing tunnel as the lava trap sprung. The heavy stones crushed their legs, applying a serious cripple debuff. However, they were still thankful for their position after a couple moments, as they saw that the rocks pinning them down were the same things blocking them from the lava flowing from the ceiling.

"Applebloom!" Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo shouted. In an instant they were moving, slipping through the edges of the tunnel where the lava wall had not spread. Sweetie Belle dragged Applebloom farther ahead into the tunnel, pulling her away from the slow approaching lava, while Scootaloo healed her with the potions they had left.

Fortunately for the other players rushing ahead, Phoenix reacted just as quick, leaping in their way and stopping them from crashing into the molten stone. She gestured them back with the rest of the raid as the lava crawled along the tunnel floor, covering the cool stone and turning it red hot.

Applejack ran up to Phoenix. "I heard someone shout for my sister," she huffed, "please tell me she's alright."

Phoenix nodded and pointed to the wall of lava. "Her friends got to her on the other side. She's safe and healed up, but they'll have to go deeper into the dungeon to get away from this trap.

"How far will it reach?" Applejack asked, stepping back as the lava began to get closer again.

"Hell if I know, this trap's completely new." Phoenix looked around the huddled crowd of players and spotted Allegretto next to some of her generals.

Phoenix squeezed through a few nervous Tanks and fidgeting Damages and tapped Allegretto on the shoulder. "We need to call off the raid and teleport back to central," she told her. "I don't think we have enough lava resistance potions to get across, if we even have any at all."

"My members are telling me the Applebloom and her friends are on the other side," Allegretto replied. "They made it."

"There aren't any gaps left to jump through," Phoenix said firmly. "They'll have to fight their way to the end and teleport from the safe zone, but we killed all the monsters here; we can all just teleport."

Allegretto refused. "The Clearing Group suffers from ups and downs of morale, and we're at the peak of our morale right now Phoenix. As an unaffiliated player, you might not have noticed this, but for us guilds it's impossible to make progress when players don't have the will to push on. I won't let this be the loss that takes away our morale."

Phoenix gritted her teeth, ready to lash out at the Knights for their recent boldness in rushing up the floors, but the moving lava took too much of her attention as the raid backed further and further away. Instead of turning to their leaders, everyone put their eyes on Phoenix, waiting for her to show them how to overcome the obstacle.

Allegretto gave her a knowing grin. "This is what being a leader is like."

Phoenix looked around the tunnel, scanning the tunnel walls for a loose piece of rock. "I stumbled into a second passageway when I scouted this place," she began to tell her lie, pointing to a small circular stone jutting from the wall. "It might lead to the next section of the dungeon, but from the first few monsters I saw, it's not going to be easy."

Everyone nodded as she went over to the stone button and opened the secret passage. It was an alternate level, for players who wanted to rerun the dungeon with more difficulty once they got stronger. It was part of some story line a developer really liked, though Phoenix had not paid attention to what he wanted to put in exactly. All she knew was that it linked to the final room of the dungeon, and that it was meant for players from floor sixty-two. While it wouldn't be impossible for them to pass through, everyone would have to work in a formation to have a chance of surviving.

===================================================

With four shield walls, two in the front of the raid and two in the back, the players moved in relative safety through the passageway. They all knew fighting each monster would not be effective, and most likely be lethal too, so the raid ran through as quick as they could, passing most of the monsters they encountered.

The front shield wall was packed with Damages between the Tanks, catching a few Earthen Monstrosities between shields so multiple swords and maces could kill it before anyone took too much damage. At the back, Tanks and players who could stun monsters the most slowed down the creatures that followed them. They couldn't hold everything off, but whatever wasn't left was eventually killed.

Phoenix was up in the front line with Allegretto, using the flat side of her massive greatsword to deflect the monsters into the shields of the Tanks. There, the Earthen Monstrosities were pinned down by shields and heavy armor, allowing Phoenix and the other Damage players to finish them off.

In the center of the raid, Fluttershy and couple other beast tamers kept up as Supports, and among all the healing dragons and enchanted birds, Fluttershy's own Vampiric Sabertooth Tiger was the savior of dozens of lives, draining health from the monsters and returning it to the players as they needed it. Roseluck helped too, dousing players with armor enhancing oils and regenerative potions, supporting the players as much as she was killing the monsters.

"I reckon that's the exit, isn't it Phoenix?" Applejack shouted over the roars of dying monstrosities. She stuck her lance through the head of a monstrosity and pointed to the dim green light at the end of the tunnel.

Phoenix rammed the Shadow of Discord through two monsters and threw them over to the rear shield wall. She stepped up next to Applejack and followed her gaze. "Yep, that has to be the exit. No other source of light."

"You heard her Knights!" Allegretto shouted, suddenly fighting next to Phoenix and Applejack. "Give it everything you have, we're almost through!"

The raid rallied from the glimmer of hope, charging forward and skipping a lot more monsters. The Supports shifted their attention from the front to the back, reinforcing the shield wall so they could keep back the tide of enemies chasing them down. Phoenix's sword hummed with magic as its enchantment flared with power, instantly evaporating two monstrosities into a fine mist of bloody pixels.

The raid collapsed as soon as they reached the mouth of the passageway. Dozens of players tumbled on and off each other, all rolling into the safety of a scripted campfire, waiting for adventurers to rest in its zone. The subterranean floor was warm from the fire, and calmed everyone down as the flow of enemies turned back toward the passage, forbidden to go any further by the command of the campfire.

Phoenix sat herself on top of one of the flat stones and unequipped her greatsword to let her stamina regenerate a little faster. Others did the same, letting go of the extra weight to recover faster, while a few players paced nervously around the campfire, clutching their weapons.

They were members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Phoenix noted by the insignia on their armor, and were probably worried about their leaders. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were with them as well, keeping a vigilant eye on the other entrance that linked the cavern to the first tunnel.

"How long could it take them?" Phoenix heard Applejack worry, who was rapping the side of her shield against the stone floor.

Rainbow Dash got to the edge of the safe zone and peered into the foggy tunnel. "I can't see anything in that tunnel. It looks like a cloud of ash and smoke in there. They might be stuck, we have to help them."

She stuck out her sword as if too charge and began flying toward the main tunnel, but Applejack bit her tail before she could get anywhere. Rainbow Dash turned around to get the raid on board, but Applejack simple pointed to the exhausted players. Even though the potions had done their work, many players were still low on stamina. They wouldn't last long in the tunnel before the monsters started playing with them like rag dolls.

Phoenix tried to remember what was put into the tunnel. The lava wall was a surprise, even to her, so she assumed there were a lot more things she couldn't predict. But from what she assumed her developers put in there, she knew fighting through the tunnel, despite its short length, wouldn't be easy for the CMC. If they wanted to get by safely, they'd have to take the tunnel section by section, healing up in between waves of monsters.

She got off the stone and walked up next to Applejack. "I'm sure they'll make it. They didn't become leaders for nothing."

"You're right," Applejack sighed, "but I can't be sure until they get here."

"I hate waiting around like this," Raindow Dash added. "There has to be something we can do. Even if no one else is ready to go, we could go in and-"

She paused as a couple voices echoed from the cave. The Crusaders heard it too and moved toward the edge of the safe zone. The CMC hobbled out of the smoke, Sweetie Belle leaning on Scootaloo and Applebloom as they were chased by a few acid spewing insects. The Crusaders were quick to act, launching themselves at the chasing monsters, cutting off the entrance from the massaive insects and then escorting the CMC in the safe zone.

"Is Sweetie Belle alright?" Phoenix asked once they crumbled to the floor.

Applebloom gasped a heavy breath before giving a quick explanation. "Couldn't block them all. Mini-boss hit her hard with acid."

"Don't forget the fire bats," Scootaloo added, trying to pick herself off the ground. "Pretty bad burns."

"Roseluck! Got any potions left?" Phoenix called out. It wasn't necessary, as Roseluck had made her way through the crowd the moment the CMC had gotten to safety.

"Antidotes are all gone," she began, "but I have some spare ingredients. Chew on them." She stuffed a bundle of leaves into Sweetie Belle's mouth and began looking at the burn debuffs she had.

"Strong burns, but I should have potent enough potions for it," she said, scrolling through her inventory. She tapped on two icons and trickled their contents into Sweetie Belle's mouth. First burn's severity dropped two tiers, down to a lesser tier-2 effect. Following that, the second potion reduced the duration rapidly until it ran out on its own.

"It tastes bitter," Sweetie replied, struggling to get up, "but at least the pain's gone."

"Don't get up yet, you have a pretty strong crippling debuff too," Roseluck told her, quickly crafting a splint with the materials from her inventory. "I don't have anything to fix it completely, but this splint should reduce it to just a tier-1 crippling." Sweetie Belle nodded and rested her head back on the floor, sprawling out her body to bask in the calm glow of the campfire.

Roseluck handed her a couple regeneration potions, and turned to inspect Scootaloo and Applebloom's debuffs. The supports were healing the three as they could, but the debuffs wouldn't go away that easily.

"I'm fine," Scootaloo said, waving Roseluck away. "The poison effect's about to run out soon. Applebloom has it worse though."

"Just a couple bleeding strikes, and a tier-3 poison effect," Applebloom remarked. "Nothing a Tank can't handle. Still, I'll take a potion or bandage if you have 'em."

Roseluck let Applebloom tend to her wounds and talk to her sister for a while. With the CMC taken care of, there was the matter of the raid. Phoenix knew the questions were already boiling in Roseluck's head, and was already sat on a rock at the corner of the safe zone, waiting.

She walked over. "We can't go on, can we?" she asked Phoenix.

"Probably not," Phoenix replied, shaking her head sadly. "I was hopeful that Allegretto could get the morale boost she needed, but it's just too risky. I'm not going to risk anyone's life just to kill a floor boss today instead of tomorrow."

"Alright, see how Allegretto feels about this," Roseluck replied. "You might want to get her to agree before we teleport out, or we'll never hear the end of it."

"True. I'll go do that once everyone's back to full condition." Phoenix looked around the raid. Many players looked like they got the majority of their stamina back, though most still happily rested on the floor to recover. In the crowd where the Knights were talking, Pheonix spotted Grieve Blossom going over some plans with Iceblood a Knight general.

"He's really moving up the chain of command, isn't he?" Phoenix pointed to Grieve Blossom. "Bet a lot of ladies would jump for a guy with that kind of power in his hooves."

"Yeah, then they'll see how average he is and find someone better," Roseluck snorted.

Phoenix just smirked. "Leaving him for you?"

"Ha!" Roseluck laughed, "I'd sooner take RD out to dinner. He's alright, but we work together too much, and he can be a bit boring sometimes."

"Well, don't set your sights on Rainbow anytime soon," Phoenix replied. "Sophisicata's tough competition."

Roseluck turned to Phoenix, then glanced back Rainbow Dash. "Wait, are those two actually..." her voice trailed off, unsure of how not to seem to invasive.

"I have absolutely no idea," answered Phoenix. "They go to parties and hang out a lot, but I stumbled into them one time at central and they looked like they were just friends."

"With benefits?"

Phoenix leered at Roseluck. "I wouldn't know that much. I don't think I want to know that much."

Roseluck chuckled. "Alright, I'll leave it at that. I think everyone should be about ready to head back now."

Phoenix hopped off her seat on the rock and approached Allegretto. She was surrounded by her advisors, clearly in a heated debate, but waved them away immediately she noticed Phoenix. None of the players liked being waved off like that, but for Phoenix, they grudgingly stepped aside and let the two talk in private.

Allegretto greeted Phoenix, prepared to move the raid. "Ready to rally the raid? Just a short march to the boss room from here, right?"

Phoenix dropped her jaw. "Continue? We have no where near enough supplies to finish the boss. Roseluck's pretty much the only player with potions left, and even she can't provide for everyone in the raid."

"Then we call for a supply run," Allegretto proposed, as if she had the plan ready from the start. "There's a few Knights, probably some Crusaders as well, who couldn't join the raid in time. They'll take as many potions as they can and bring anyone else from the Clearing Group to help, and deliver the supplies to us."

"Except they're likely to use a bunch of it just trying to get here," Phoenix countered. "As long as we stay, the lava wall in that tunnel won't reset, and that means they'll have to take the long way around."

Allegretto chuckled for a moment. "You're talking like a solo player, Phoenix. I lead the largest guild PAO has, with the largest well of resources at the tip of my hooves. Lava resistance potions might be expensive, even for guilds, but for the sake of this dungeon, the Knights of Yore can afford to equip a supply run with everything it needs, no matter how many Blazed Drake Scales are needed."

"Even with instructions on how to get to us, there's no guarantee they'll get here safely," said Pheonix. "A smaller supply run would most likely end up in our situation as well before they got here."

Allegretto shrugged. "Simple enough to fix. The CMC are good leaders, and they could use some extra rest. They'll teleport back and guide the supplies through the tunnels. If they made it through on their own, a party or two backing them up shouldn't be too bad."

Phoenix looked over to the CMC, who were still recovering from their trials through the tunnel. No one could doubt that they could lead even a small raid through a dungeon, but she still doubted the chances of success. Unfortunately, Phoenix realized she didn't have much of a choice. She may have been asked to lead the raid, but half of the players were Knights, and they answered to Allegretto only.

"I suppose this is what your advisers were talking about?" she prodded, flicking her eyes over to the Knight generals who conversed among themselves while they waited.

"We did, a day before the raid started though," Allegretto said. "You stepped in as we were going over a 'shopping list,' if you will, for what we wanted to be brought."

"You planned it out this much?" Phoenix asked, disturbed by what was either preparation or premonition.

"Of course," nodded Allegretto, "those who do the most for the guild should be rewarded, and they all insisted on having a personal carrier for the supply run. For instance, Major General Red Rising likes to only drink potions with assigned flavors, like cinnamon in his health potions and lemon for antidotes."

"Did you expect this to happen or something?" Phoenix snapped back. "Did you rush the majority of the Clearing Group into this raid knowing we wouldn't be ready?"

"It wasn't my intention," Allegretto explained, "but I suspected we'd overextend ourselves at some point. However, it was your scouting report that made confident we could succeed."

Allegretto paused for a moment, realizing something Phoenix really wish hadn't be realized. "Your report to the Clearing Group said you scouted the dungeon's structure up to the boss room. How come we weren't informed about the lava trap?"

Phoenix clenched her jaw, her thoughts racing to find a suitable lie. She even considered just admitting to being the creator of the game, and accept whatever opinions the players still had about her, but she shoved those aside quickly before she began spouting words she'd regret. Instead, her mind turned to the quest to kill the boss.

"It might be a quest related trap," she finally answered. "Or a scripted event, like on floor forty-eight when the manticore boss teleported the battle up to the central city. The damage still remained in the city, even after we killed the beast. This might be another scripted thing added to keep players on their toes."

Phoenix felt like a worse liar than Applejack. She didn't know anything about the nature of the lava trap, which meant there was a chance she could be right, though it looked like it was just a generic trap laid out by a developer without her knowing. Regardless, Allegretto accepted her story and refocused on the matter at hand.

"Anyways, you should focus on preparing the raid for the boss fight," she told Phoenix. "Break down the current structure and set up a better formation for the next part of the dungeon."

"I haven't agreed to your plans," Phoenix said, challenging Allegretto's command.

She raised her brows from surprise. "Is there something wrong with it?"

"There's definitely something wrong with pushing a raid beyond its limit," Phoenix answered. "And more players means more risks and coordination, and a higher chance that someone takes a bad hit, or interrupts the formation and gets the in the way of everything. We can't just sit around waiting for supplies like we're laying siege to the dungeon."

Allegretto scoffed at Pheonix, and proceeded to her message menu anyways. "This is exactly what we're doing, Phoenix. This is a war. We might be in a game, but I haven't forgotten that lives are on the line. I take these risks because we're at war, and it's not one we can afford to lose."

Phoenix stepped back for a moment and stood in awe. "These are just regular people, some of them kids who haven't even gone to college yet. You can't treat them like soldiers."

"Too late," said Allegretto, "we've been in this world for over two years now. They've become the soldiers of this world, whether they like it or not." She turned, ending the conversation and walking back to her generals and advisers.

Phoenix huffed and tried to stop Allegretto, but it was evident she would not be heard even if she tried. Anyways, the message, she assumed, was sent for the supply run. As she wondered how the CMC would react, Iceblood made his way over to the three girls and gave them the run down of the plan.

She didn't mean to eavesdrop, but she heard enough to know the CMC were willing to go with the plan, even if they thought it was extreme for a single raid.

Behind her, Fluttershy walked up and looked around at the guild leaders. "Are we going back to central now or what?" she asked. "Mr. Tooth got his fair share of hits back in that tunnel, and I don't think I have enough food to keep him healthy for the boss fight."

"We're going to camp here until a smaller raid comes with extra supplies," Phoenix explained. "The CMC are headed back to central to lead the group to us, so you better talk to them about getting your Sabertooth Tiger some food.

"Oh, okay," Fluttershy replied, disappointed but willing to tough it out in the dungeon if it was what the CMC agreed with. "I better go tell them then." She flapped her wings and glided over to Sweetie Belle, who were just about to use their teleportation scrolls.

As they prepared to leave, more and more players started looking at the conversation, some preparing their own scrolls to get out of the dungeon, and the Crusaders especially turned to Phoenix as their leaders vanished from the dungeon in bursts of light. Phoenix looked back at them, and figured if they were going to keep pushing into the dungeon, then she couldn't focus on what Allegretto wanted to do. She needed to act as the raid leader and do what she needed to do.

She beckoned the rest of the raid around her, explaining the situation. While the supplies were being brought to their location, she'd go over the details of the final section of the dungeon, the maze of tunnels that lead to the boss room. Monster types, the randomized maze structure, and the most efficient formation were reviewed. Though much of the information was still vague at best, Phoenix considered that whatever she could remember about the creation of the dungeon was another advantage the raid had for the final push.

===================================================

"Hurry it up AJ, even Fluttershy's party got the boss's lair," Rainbow Dash hissed as their four player party squeezed single file through the maze. With the randomized aspect of the maze, the raid was split into small parties of four and covered nearly every tunnel until the right path was found.

Applejack grunted as she forced her shield through the passageway. "It's not my fault, I'm not the one who splattered cave troll bones all over the tiny tunnel."

"They'll despawn in a few seconds, just keep going or we'll be the last party to reach the boss," Rainbow Dash said, trying to push Applejack further down the tunnel.

Behind them, Grieve Blossom squirmed as Rainbow Dash's efforts squished him into an uncomfortable position with JumboJump, who guarded the party's rear with his shield. "Not that we don't like behind shoved around back here, but it'd be nice if we stopped the comments and got back into a more comfortable formation."

JumboJump simply grunted an umph in agreement as he stumbled on Grieve Blossom's hoof and collided his head to the rough stone walls.

The entrance to the boss room ahead of them was made of two massive stone arches that connected at a gemstone, forming an elongated semi-circle as the portal. Visual effects rippled from the gemstone as the portal glowed, activated by the presence of players successfully coming out of the maze.

Rainbow Dash and her party arrived almost last, followed only by a mixed party of Crusaders and Knights. With the whole raid present, the portal shuddered and crackled with energy, opening the way to the boss. The thundering boom shook the cavern, but everyone stood their ground.

The raid halted outside the entrance, taking inventory and redistributing everyone's potions to the players who'd need it for the fight. Rainbow Dash trotted over to Phoenix with the potions her party had left and added it to the stock. "How's everything?" she asked. "The supply run bring enough?"

"Hard to say," Phoenix replied, busy counting everything the raid had left, "this dungeon's theme is being randomized, so I'm positive the boss fight will be the same."

Rainbow Dash expected the answer, but that didn't make her feel any better. "I don't know if you paid any attention to the story line of the quest, but the boss is apparently some kind of 'god,' whatever that means."

Phoenix nodded. "That's about as much as I gathered from the quest text."

"We've had some pretty close calls, but do you think we'll make it out of this one?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Phoenix raised her head from her menu screen and looked hard at Rainbow Dash. "What's gotten into you? Lost your ego back in that maze?"

"Oh I know I'll make it," Rainbow Dash remarked, picking up her attitude and wearing it like a mask. "I'm just worried for the rest of you guys. It's hard being awesome all by yourself, you know what I mean?"

"Oh I know loneliness," Phoenix replied. "That's why I won't let anyone go. Not on this boss, or any other."

Phoenix's words made Rainbow Dash feel slightly relieved. "Right, I'm probably just worrying about nothing."

From the CMC, Allegretto broke off from their discussion and quickly spoke to Phoenix. "Ready to go?"

"Everything's counted, I'll distribute it to everyone and we'll head in." Phoenix swiped through her menu screen and began opening trade menus with everyone in the raid.

Rainbow Dash left Phoenix to her duty and returned to her party. They were tired, just like she was, but still eager to finish the dungeon. The general feeling of the raid was excitement layered over nerves, as players began imagining how they were going to spend a well earned day of relaxation.

JumboJump looked across the safe zone at Sonata, partied with a group of strangers from the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They would look after her as a teammate, but what he worried about was if the Crusaders had the skill to do it right. No one, not even Phoenix, would want to be the bearer of bad news to Aria if Sonata did not make it.

===================================================

You mortals live lives far too short. I have seen this battle every hundred years, and I always reign supreme in the end.

The Tanks all raised their shields as the boss unleashed a shockwave onto the ground. It rose from the center of the island they teleported to, from a portal barely large enough for the torso. From the waist up, it appeared before the raid; the "god" was an elemental giant, but rather than a single aspect it was covered in varying effects. An arm of lava and another of acid, a head charged with lighting and a torso built of frost and stone. From his shoulders, trees grew, forming small forests that spawned hellish, mutilated crows. Waterfalls both clear and brown leaked onto the island.

Thankfully, the terrain of the island softened the power of the shockwave. The small parties of four meant the raid could disperse into small cover and avoid most of the damage, making the job for the Tanks much easier. The Damages took their time, waiting for the boss to lodge its hand into the hard island soil, and then they hacked and slashed it until the arm broke off.

"This one's tougher than the past bosses," Iceblood grunted as he backed behind a row of trees with his party. He was guarding Allegretto, and was joined by two of his former commanders turned coworkers.

"Think this is the game's pattern?" asked Allegretto. "A hard boss every ten floors?"

"It would give us something to look forward to," Iceblood replied grimly, rushing from the trees to strike quickly at the boss again.

Across the other island, with the giant's back facing them, Phoenix fought with her friends against the crows that defended the boss. They came in murders, flocking each player three to one at least, though the game's AI seemed to target the strongest players with the most. Phoenix cut down two crows in front of her to find four more attacking from the rear, and Rainbow Dash's party faced the same.

Even Roseluck and Fluttershy stopped their healing and joined the fight with Phoenix, leaving Applebloom to defend Fluttershy's tiger to drain health for the party.

"We can't scratch it from here," Applejack shouted over the screeching crows. She pummeled one into the ground while taking the head off another with her lance. "We have to get 'round to the rest of the players."

"Or," Rainbow Dash offered, "magic." Phoenix didn't have time to glare at Rainbow Dash as she rolled over to Fluttershy and chopped a crow off her back.

Applejack followed Phoenix's lead and shielded them from more crows. "I know this is a lot to ask, but it's been half an hour and the boss is barely below ninety percent of its health."

They all fled to cover as the giant bellowed, churning the ground with another powerful shockwave. The giant turned slightly as it dragged it arm of lava across a quarter of the island. Most were lucky enough to escape, but one party stuck in the center of the area took the full force of the attack. Their health bars dropped dramatically, passing below the halfway mark.

If she waited, to use it, it would be too late. Phoenix didn't want anyone to die, and would not wait until a disaster happened to take action. With magic, there was a risk of horrible damages to everything around her, but without magic the same was more than just a risk, it was a certainty.

"AJ, Applebloom, keep the crows off me for a while," Phoenix said. The rest of them followed suit, killing the crows before they got too close.

She got to work in her menu screen, sifting through the data of magic she had compounded. Just need a stable enough strand of magic to use. Strong enough to hurt, but flexible enough to control and adapt. Not too volatile though. For a moment, she second guessed her decision, but the longer she took the higher the risk became that the boss would kill another player.

It took only a moment to find the most stable set of magic. She bound it to her own magic, and immediately felt the rush of power. It was like being blind before suddenly regaining the sense of sight. The magic flowed through her, connecting her to the system through her Digisphere.

With just a thought, she could reach out and touch the world like the hand of a god. Her horn crackled with energy before ripping fire from the air, churning it into a blazing ball. But for all that power, Phoenix was also scared. She shook instead of moving, and felt displaced, as if she was everywhere and everything at once.

"Hey! I think she's ready," Rainbow Dash shouted. They all jumped back behind her, letting the crows build into a cloud.

The first few crows made it to Phoenix and clawed at her armor, tearing through the leather padding and biting her health. After that, the flow of battle brought Phoenix's full attention to the enemies. By raising her horn she scalded a hole through the crows, and by expanding her attention to the bigger picture she lobbed a fireball that resembled a miniature sun into the cloud of crows.

It would have been impossible for the boss to have missed the surge of power coming from Phoenix. As quickly as her magic flared, it shifted its attention onto her. Its two hands impacted the island harder than ever, striking a shield of magic Phoenix conjured with her magic. Chains of fire licked up from the island's trees, wrapping around the giant's arms like a snake would its prey.

"Everyone kill it while it's down!" Phoenix bellowed, her voice shuddering the island like one of the giant's shockwaves.

The burst of attacks was staggering, even for what the Clearing Group was used to. Before long, all but a few crows were cleared out by stray strikes alone, leaving the fight between the boss and the raid. Unfortunately, burning chains were not ever lasting, and the giant's health had barely changed from the rush of attacks.

Everyone rolled back into cover behind the Tanks and boulders as the giant spewed acid around the island. Most never hit land, bouncing off of Phoenix's magic force fields and into the water, or even back at the boss itself. It staggered from the magic, but recovered seamlessly and aimed its sights on Phoenix.

She felt like a target was painted on her chest, as if she had the only role of Tank in the entire raid. She teleported around the giant, dragging its attention around the island to delay its ham-fisted blows. The first hits missed, though only by a slim margin, and Pheonix didn't have any time to recover before being forced to teleport again.

Yet, as the battle went on, she grew used to the patterns. Together with the raid, they brought it down repeatedly, taking the advantage to strike as hard as they could whenever they could. When the boss was up and fighting, it was on Phoenix to take it down once again.

Slowly, it became a rhythm to Phoenix more than a fight. She didn't have to see the boss, or care where everyone was. She felt the magic run through her and acted on it. More than once she pushed harder and surprised everyone, even the giant, with a new display of power. She teleported into the mouth of the giant, letting loose an explosion that everyone could feel the heat from, even those healing at the edge of the island. Columns of lava followed shortly after, flying from the ground and trapping the arms of the giant.

It felt good to hit something, to truly hit something, for once in her life. The magic was unlike anything she had ever felt. Thousands of players all connected to one system, and she was a part of it. Phoenix drew on the magic harder, until she glowed so bright no one could stand to look at her.

The boss roared, but Phoenix ran along its head, putting a gash in its mouth that wrapped around its head. The giant collapsed again, this time falling deeper and deeper back into its portal, the hole in the center of the island where it came from. Phoenix could sense where it was headed. There was an unmistakable flow of data, both magic and code, that called to her.

The boss wasn't just in the game, it was a part of it. The boss wasn't simply retreating to its digital world, it was following a command; Phoenix commanded it to take her to its realm, where she could touch the system with her own hooves. Forget the voices calling you back to the dull world. The voice was right, her world was a reflection of the true reality.

The boss submerged itself into the portal, and Phoenix could see the magic up close for the first time. It was as bright as a supernova, except completely white and calm. She stood on the giant's head and touched the magic with one hoof, and she could already feel the system's web. She crossed borders and oceans in a fraction of a second, and was there in hospitals around the world, in the Digispheres and the minds of every player left alive. She could almost touch them from the system, unshackle their bonds and remove them from her world.

Her world.

Did they belong in it? All they wanted was to leave, and none of them could ever know the power that came with it. She saw all, she knew all, like being a god in both worlds. She was the system that linked everyone to each other, that formed the one dream each player lived day and night. Even Princess Luna, the greatest dream master could not boast such a feat. Even Princess Celestia could not have such a grip on life and death.

Princess Twilight thought friendship brought harmony, and for it was the strongest magic of all. Phoenix felt true harmony in her Digispheres, and it was far stronger than anything she felt when the Element of Magic purged the demon from her.

Phoenix knew she could do anything with the system, a god from the digital machine. She could make her own Equestria, a true world, not one filled with imperfect characters like humans. Every single NPC, perfect to the last hair, would grow her world. She would be worshiped, she could be loved. Anything was possible.

She could even be knocked out by the Applejack that had climbed onto the giant's head to reach her.

Aftermath

"Are you sure she's okay?"

"What was she saying on top of its head?"

"Stop, she's safe now and so are we thanks to her."

"She almost went with that boss."

"How does she even have magic anyway? What's she hiding?"

"Shut up, you have no idea what happened back there, none of us do."

"I know what I saw, and so do the rest of the Knights."

"Don't you dare turn your back on us!"

Phoenix hated their voices when all she wanted to rest her head. She channeled her magic into an electric field and blasted it away from her, though nothing happened after the effort. She tried again, but this time even the feeling of her magic was gone, and it felt as if she had bled to death.

But she couldn't blame her friends for worrying, even if they were burdensome.

When were they ever a burden? Phoenix asked herself. It was a foreign thought to her, one that made her uncomfortable simply thinking of it. She was glad she could hear them, because that meant that they had beaten the boss and survived, and there'd never be a time when she'd prefer silence over her friends.

If she could laugh she would have. Princess Twilight would probably give an entire speech about friendship if she heard my thoughts just then.

But those images were gone now, along with the power that came with them. Phoenix didn't have much memory from the fight, but what she did know was that she touched the game's system, a network of magic and coding that produced everything in PAO, and connected every player. She wondered if she should have entered it, if it was possible to reset the game from there. But she also asked herself if she could control the emotions that came from the power.

Phoenix heard Fluttershy's voice beside her. "What are we going to tell everyone? We can't tell the community who Phoenix is, at least not while she's like this."

"What choice do we have?" Applejack asked. "I don't like it either but our lie isn't exactly the strongest story out there."

"Oh come on AJ," Rainbow Dash replied, and Phoenix noted her voice was clearly exasperated from arguing, "everyone thinks she's glitched or something because of the weird items we found. I'm still holding onto the first sword we found from the Hearth's Warming event, remember?"

"Of course I remember, but how are a few pieces of broken items going to cover this up?" Applejack made a fair point, to Phoenix's dismay.

"I don't know, but that's the same for everyone else in this game." Rainbow Dash raised her voice at Applejack, determined to win the debate. "How many players in the entire game do you think actually knows how the game's programs work? Or the Digisphere for that matter? I only know one, and she's the one right here in a coma."

"Maybe, but they're not stupid," Applejack said. "At the very least, there'll be some doubts about all this."

Phoenix wished she could smile and tell them she was glad they were worried over her own secret. That said, even she had doubts that every player would simply stop asking questions just because they saw a few items with glitched descriptions, and without the ability to defend herself from accusations, all sorts of theories would begin to take root.

"Oh my gosh I came as I could as soon as I heard!" Phoenix didn't have to see to know who barged into the door. Pinkie Pie's worry was as welcomed as it was unique. Why am I stuck listening? I can hear and think, but not move, speak, or even see?

There was another set of hooves that followed Pinkie Pie, carrying Aria's voice with it. "Look guys, Pinkie didn't really explain whatever she read in the message you sent. So, what's this about... magic sheep?"

"Sleep! Magic sleep!" shouted Pinkie as she rushed to Phoenix's side. "Weren't you listening on the way here?"

"No," Aria admitted, looking around at everyone, "though that wouldn't be a problem if I got a message too."

"We didn't have time," Rainbow Dash said, "Sunset's basically in a coma right now!"

"Quiet down with her real name," Aria hissed, "we just passed a couple Knights and Crusaders talking down the hall. You could have chosen a spot less public by the way. I've already heard a bunch of rumors in this tavern alone, and they're all saying bad things about Phoenix. If you wanted a private conversation, maybe don't choose a place where two dozen players can overhear us."

"RD's just worried, we all are," Applejack said, calming down the situation. "We asked Pinkie to bring you here 'cause we figured you're our next best expert on magic. Well, you and Sonata that is."

"Well, I'm sorry to say I can't really help you there. I'm no wizard or magician, and I definitely don't know what mesh of technology and magic the game's using to do all this." There was a touch of genuine regret in Aria's voice, but it sounded more like she just hated being useless.

"Well, there's got to be something you can think of," Fluttershy pleaded. "She's the only reason we made it out of the dungeon alive."

Aria took a deep breath. "I just told you there's nothing I can do. You are some of the few people who know exactly what I can do, and none of it has to do with Phoenix's problem. The only solution I see at this point is to wait."

"Waiting." Rainbow Dash grumbled "I'm not exactly good at that."

"Same here," Applejack added. "I can't just do nothing while she's like this."

"And sitting here worrying about her won't do any good either," Aria advised them. "How long have you all been here. Six hours?"

"Five and a half," Fluttershy said.

"Right," Aria gestured outside the inn. "While this is all going on the rest of the Clearing Group's cracked down on training in dungeons. No parties, no fun. Turns out losing your only super-weapon starts a pretty big panic."

"They're not the ones with their friend in coma," Rainbow Dash argued.

"We're all basically in a coma Rainbow Dash," Aria snapped. "All of us. These people just want to get out of the game, and who knows, escape might be the only way to help Pheonix. I'm out of the fight, I can wait around with her, but you still need to finish what Phoenix started because she can't do it now."

The others looked around and sighed. They weren't sure how to feel about Aria, but they knew there was something Sunset trusted, enough to let her loose after everything she's done.

"You're right," Applejack said. "We'll get back after a night's rest. We could all use it." Slowly, they said good night to Phoenix and left Aria to look after her.

Rainbow Dash was the last to leave, but not without a final word to Aria. "You can be a pretty good friend. Just gotta put your mind to it."

Aria looked at Phoenix and tried to imagine life in Equestria, with friends and not prey. She shook her head. It wasn't possible.

===================================================

"Boss wants to see you."

Grieve Blossom gulped and stood up. The guard held the door open and waited for him to go through. It was common that players were uncomfortable talking to Allegretto, but it was clear it had been a long day and the guard was getting tired. "Just get it over with."

He nodded and trotted into the meeting room. Aside from Allegretto, it was empty.

"Nice to see you Grieve Blossom," she said, gesturing for him to have a seat. "I've been wanting to speak to you personally for some time."

Grieve Blossom sat down, taking a sip of the water placed for him on the table. "What about?"

"You've worked well with the Crusaders for a very long time, especially with... what's her name? It was some kind of flower, I'm sure you know who I'm talking about."

"Roseluck," he supplied.

"Yes, sorry my mind's just a little tired is all." Allegretto proved the fact by chewing on an ingredient called Night Call. The plant was typically used in pain relieving potions, or more powerful drinks for recreational purposes, but the roots alone were perfect for clearing headaches.

"Popular choice," Grieve Blossom said. "A lot of players have been getting headaches lately."

Allegretto nodded. "Too long in this game is what I say. Others think it's being in pony bodies or simply too much stress." She sighed, spitting out the remains of the root into the fireplace. "But, the bottom line is we have to win. And I think you know how to make that reality come true."

Grieve Blossom was flattered, but just as confused. "Me? I'm just an officer, like any other."

"The Crusaders see you as one of them, despite flying our guild colors," Allegretto explained. "You don't just work with them, you're a part of them. I think you could help unify the Clearing Group into a single force, and to start, I'd like to add you to my cabinet of advisers."

"You mean..." Grieve Blossom's voice got caught in his throat. "That'd mean I'd outrank..."

"Everyone but me," Allegretto finished. "Even your old commander Iceblood."

Grieve Blossom still couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Okay, I know that sounds weird but in reality he's not much older than you," Allegretto continued, seeing he needed a bit more talking to take it in. "And while the other officers might be good players and loyal members, you can be so much more. We may not be able to agree on how to fight through the game, but maybe the Crusaders and Knights could close what's left of the rift between us. We're both big enough to tackle the average boss dungeons on our own. United, we'd end the game in no time."

Grieve Blossom nodded in agreement. They were both the largest guilds in the game, that much was true. But training and loot distribution couldn't make them fully integrate.

"I accept your offer," he finally said, thinking it over only a little longer. "I'll happily help in any way possible."

===================================================

Potion orders were through the roof. Ever since Scootaloo led her own raid party and took down the floor sixty boss on her own, more players were joining the Cutie Mark Crusaders. And that left Roseluck and her fellow alchemists with more work to do.

"Three hundred healing elixirs need to go out for this week's training teams," she told one of the players ranked as her assistant. "I'll start work on the fortification potions."

The guild coffers were rising with enough donations that she didn't have to collect her own ingredients any more. Even the rarest materials that often restricted her work were found regularly and added to the guild instead of being sold at an auction. She filled her inventory full of the ingredients she needed and went over to her own alchemy station.

The brewing process took a while, but that rarely ended up being the factor that slowed production. At the high levels of alchemy, the brewing mini-games went from simple quick-time events to chemistry simulators and complex arcade games.

"I need more Whitestem Leaf," said one of the other alchemists.

Roseluck checked the guild's bank from her menu. Sure enough, they were out. "I'll ask Applebloom about it. Someone must've gotten more from the dungeons."

"And more Onyx Seeds too," added another.

Roseluck nodded. "I'll be sure to message her about that too."

By the end of the day, the list had expanded to thirty ingredients. Some were extremely rare and would take days to collect, even though only a few were needed for large batches. Others were more common, but nonetheless it'd take time to harvest them as well.

"Better get to work," she sighed to herself.

===================================================

Aria stepped out of the inn for the first time in days. Floor sixty-three, a relatively easy battle according to Sonata, had been cleared. Players entered and left the inn happy, most of them joining with friends and talking about the dungeon.

She looked around the streets of the central city, and it looked as if the whole city had come alive. The Clearing Group was headed to the sixty-fourth floor, eager to see what new area awaited them. Aria counted herself lucky. If she fought with the Knights, she would've been in the crowd, waiting in line to teleport up to the next floor. She didn't care what was next in the game. The past two weeks was proof she wasn't needed in the Clearing Group.

But while she didn't need to join anyone to teleport up, she was waiting for someone like all the other players looking for their friends.

A hoof tapped her on her shoulder. "You look bored."

She turned around. "Hey there Iceblood. Dungeon give a good fight?"

He shrugged. "It didn't fight hard enough. I'm still here after all."

Aria smiled. "Don't die. I bet against a couple Knights that you'd live to the end."

"Well, if I die, I'll know I foiled your plans," Iceblood said. He looked down the street to the center of the city, where players were teleporting up to floor sixty-four. "Waste of time. It's just an empty desert environment. Outside of central there's only ghost towns."

"Glad I'm here then," Aria said.

"Go get something to eat. Something that isn't basic inn food." Iceblood turned and made his way into the building. "I'll keep an eye on her while you're gone."

"How long?" Aria asked, catching the door before it closed.

"I dunno, a few hours?" Iceblood looked at Aria. "How long does it take for you to eat?"

"That's not what I meant," she replied. "How long do you think Phoenix will be asleep?"

Iceblood looked down at his hooves. "Don't ask me that Aria. No one want to think about it."

But while Iceblood's eyes looked down, Aria's hard look didn't waver. "It's been two weeks Iceblood. We've gone through this three times already, but it's looking hopeless."

"Yeah, hopeless," Iceblood nodded. "But hopeless or not, giving up isn't Phoenix's way, and it's not our way either. The Clearing Group wouldn't be here if it was."

"I'm not in the Clearing Group anymore," Aria reminded Iceblood, "I don't need to have that kind of optimism." But he just shook his head.

"What happened with the guy you killed, it wasn't your fault," he told her sternly. "I believed what you and your party said happened, and I still believe it, even if the Knights of Yore don't trust you. You're one of us no matter what, and that's what Phoenix saw despite what others thought."

Aria chuckled wearily. "I can't be one of you. Trust me." She could tell Iceblood wanted to argue with her, make her believe she was something better than a siren and a killer, but Aria was tired and she knew nothing would change her mind.

"Be back in an hour," she told Iceblood. He tried to follow her, but she turned a corner and lost him with a few agile leaps up onto the rooftops.

===================================================

Grieve Blossom fidgeted in his new seat at Allegretto's meeting room. They sat at a round table, so that no one was at its head, as they waited for their leader to arrive. While he may have been well known, he was just a commander like Iceblood, and no one considered him special enough to sit as Allegretto's advisers. He suspected half of the advisers envied him for his sudden rise, while the other half thought he wasn't ready for the position. But most of all, they were staring at Grieve Blossom's guest.

Scootaloo couldn't stop tapping her hoof against the ground. "How long is this going to take?" she whispered to Grieve Blossom. He simply shrugged without an answer.

"Grieve Blossom," one of the advisers spoke up to clear the silence, "tell me again why a leader of the Crusaders is here at our meeting?" The other advisers nodded in agreement.

It didn't surprise him. The one who had asked went by the name of GoldenBlade, and made his role in the guild as fitting as possible. He was in charge of guild expenses, calculating the costs of every new guild keep and deciding how high the taxes needed to be. Nothing went in or out of the guild bank without GoldenBlade's supervision, and though he was one of the lowest leveled advisers, his position gave him power over most of the other players in the room.

Grieve Blossom figured the only thing stronger than GoldenBlade's influence was escaping the game. "If the bosses on each floor follow the pattern Allegretto suspects, the Clearing Group needs to be more prepared before we fight our way to floor seventy. Unifying now can help us, and Scootaloo's here to help that happen."

GoldenBlade scowled. "It was Allegretto who got us through to floor sixty. If it were up to the CMC and their friends, we would have retreated and be days behind."

Scootaloo clenched her teeth, she wanted to scold him for placing all the credit on Allegretto even as Phoenix was still knocked out by her magic. But Grieve Blossom reached under the table and nudged Scootaloo, warning her not to widen the rift between their guilds.

It was a relief to everyone when Allegretto finally arrived at the meeting. "Sorry guys, kept trying to get a unique shield from the Direwolf Den Dungeon. It didn't drop, but after five attempts it's gotten personal." She took a seat and everyone turned to face her. Despite being a round table, Allegretto was still at the head, and that was without question. "So, what new?"

Two advisers, the top generals of the Knights, traded looks and shared a message they got from their players with Allegretto. "Team Sigma went rogue a day ago. The full party of six just quit the guild and dropped off the friends list of everyone in the Knights."

Allegretto scanned the message on her menu. "Sounds like they're retiring. Family and friends made them stop fighting, I bet."

"What should we do?" one of the generals asked.

"Simple," she said, swiping her menu screen away, "Send out two parties of five to look for them. Bring them back here and force them back into the guild at the lowest rank. Even if it costs us more time and players, we can't let them abandon their duties. Letting them go whenever they want would just be a sign of disorganization, and that's going to make us weaker in the long run."

The generals nodded, satisfied with the answer, but Scootaloo clearly wasn't happy. "You can't force them to fight for you!" she exclaimed. "We need them, sure, but it's wrong to punish them just because they want to live with their friends. At least ask them to come back first."

"Typical," scoffed GoldenBlade, but a gesture of Allegretto's hoof silenced him.

"I understand your concern for their wishes Scootaloo," she responded, "I knew Grieve Blossom would bring some much needed insight to our discussion. But these deserters are not the first, and I doubt giving leniency will make them the last."

Scootaloo opened her mouth to argue more but GoldenBlade cut her off with his own topic. "While we're talking about Scootaloo's insight, I'd like to discuss the issue of the guild bank, Guild Master."

"Go ahead," she nodded.

"A lot of the basic supplies we need for crafting aren't being added to our coffers," he said. Then he pointed his hoof to Scootaloo. "The Crusaders have often been eager to complete the game's random events and quests, doing so before our players arrive to get their share of the rewards."

GoldenBlade opened his menu and swiped left until it brought up the map of floor sixty-four. A large area in the northern part of the map was highlighted in blue. "Events such as that one offer the bulk of the resources we need to craft new materials, far more than we can get from gathering resource nodes." He pointed to the smaller dots on the map, markers for all the members of the Knights of Yore, all of which were clustered around the dungeons. "Our players are far too removed from open world events to reach them in time."

"Maybe you should play better," Scootaloo suggested. She was shocked when the retort came from Allegretto, not GoldenBlade.

"We're here to discuss ways to succeed together," she told Scootaloo, "not throw insults at each other. Be sure to remember that."

Scootaloo held her tongue and let Allegretto continue discussing with her advisers. "Materials are important, I agree, but our players need to train in the dungeons to prepare for the boss fight. Whatever we need to collect, I'm sure we can purchase it from the rest of the community."

"To make ends meet we'd have to increase weekly dues by three percent," GoldenBlade told Allegretto. Grieve Blossom noticed a few other advisers twitch as he mention the dues. As the players with the most power in the guild, they also invested the most money in the guild by paying higher dues, and a percent increase would hurt the advisers more than any other officer or commander.

"Make it six percent," Allegretto replied to GoldenBlade. "I don't like having the bare minimum of gold in the bank. I want more money stored up in case of future emergencies."

One of the advisers coughed and spoke up. "I don't think that'd be wise, Guild Master. Getting new recruits would be hard if we raise the dues. No one wants to fight in a guild if they can't buy new weapons at the same time."

Of all the advisers, Scootaloo recognized him. Bluefire was the head recruiter for the Knights, and understood more about the players themselves than the rest of the advisers. He was regarded as GoldenBlade's opposite, caring for the people rather than the numbers. He frequently clashed with the CMC when players new to the Clearing Group had to decide which guild to join, but even so Scootaloo respected his concern for the common players.

"Bluefire, we're not simply taking their money," Allegretto told him. "Joining the Knights of Yore means they get services, including the best blacksmiths and alchemists in the Clearing Group. We can't give them that without proper materials."

Scootaloo scoffed inwardly, making sure she wasn't heard. As far as she had seen, she was the best blacksmith in the Clearing Group, and as for alchemists, she was pretty sure that title went to Roseluck. But despite their professions, Scootaloo never encountered a problem with basic materials. The only thing that was ever short in the Crusader's guild bank was rare materials, materials that often dropped from dungeons.

"I have an idea that could fix our problems," she blurted out, cutting into whatever debate she had droned out. GoldenBlade was about to stop Scootaloo, but Allegretto gave a nod to signal Scootaloo to speak. "You have have a problem with the basic materials for crafting beause you're players constantly train in the dungeons. The Crusaders have the opposite problem: we don't have enough rare and relic ingredients, the kind you only find after a day or two in a dungeon."

"A trade then, is it?" Allegretto raised a brow. "So we'll get what we need?"

"Whatever you can pay for." Scootaloo gave a wolfish smirk. She preferred to fight her problems, but she was ready to barter her way to victory if it came to that.

"Excellent," Allegretto said with a satisfied smile. "You can draft the details of a fair trade deal with GoldenBlade after the meeting. For now, we should address the other matters."

===================================================

She lost track of time completely. Sunset didn't even know when she was conscious and when she was asleep. Sometimes she couldn't hear anything, and the silence would almost drive her mad until the sound slowly came back. It was muffled when if did, like hearing things underwater, but slowly she'd drift back to hearing normally.

Aria spent the most time in her room, and she was even the one who decided to take her out of the inn and bring her back to her mansion on floor fifty-nine. It was rough, being slung over Aria's back, but Sunset appreciated the comfort of her own bed. While Aria watched her, waiting for her to wake up, her other friends visited throughout the day and talked to her about what went on. Most times, she could hear them, but she occasionally missed a few details when her hearing faded.

She constantly fought to reach her magic, to tap into the Digispheres and interfere enough to wake her up. It was risky if it worked, she didn't know what would happen, but she knew it couldn't be worse than being completely out of the game while other players risked their lives, continuing the fight.

But today, Sunset lay quietly on her bed, petrified. Aria had gone to the central city for buy lunch and dinner, and no one else was available to take her place for the moment. At least, that's what Sunset expected, until her door opened. Whoever entered her bedroom came in unannounced, and paced around her room freely.

She waited for a while, expecting the player to say something like they usually did, but all Sunset could hear was the sounds of a menu screen. They weren't the normal sounds of inventory management and party invites, there were no buttons being clicked and no screen being swiped around. Sunset recognized the sounds of the faulty admin console, accessing the magic link between every player in PAO.

Who is this? All the admins monitored the servers when the game launched, I should be the only one with that screen. Sunset struggled to open her eyes, even for just a moment, to see who was watching her sleep. Unfortunately she could do nothing.

So it came as a surprise to her when she began sensing the Digisphere's magic, like a web of colored strings wrapped around her head. She moved through the magic with a just a thought, and came across all new patterns she had never seen before. But as she gained access to new data, something was happening to the old.

She tried to touch the links, but found that simply being close to the magic showed her what was happening. They were being drained. Not entirely, some links were already beginning to recover, but it was certainly enough to form a copy of the spells. Sunset realized it was a data swap, whoever was in her room needed her magic, and in the process gave her copies of their own magic.

It was over in minutes, and the player quickly left her house as to not get caught. But the magic didn't leave with the stranger. Sunset moved around the strands of spells, touching each one and seeing all the possible connections. She thought she had all the magic when she fought the giant boss, but all the new magic she gained from the stranger was nearly twice what she had before.

If she didn't have anything to do before, now she had far too much to do.

It Has That New World Smell

Everything was exactly as Sunset remembered. The feel of her tail, the telekinesis of her horn, even the sensation of walking on four legs was amazing. Sunset looked around, instantly picking out all the players who tested the game in its beta phase. Her friends, of course, along with one thousand professional gamers with expert advise on bugs and game design. Everyone else looked lost in controlling their virtual bodies.

The sensory data would help with that problem. It quickly became obvious to Sunset during the game's alpha phase that people didn't move like ponies, and they'd have a hard time learning to fly or use magic if they were pegasi or unicorns. Because of that the Digisphere became equipped with "instinct data," copying Sunset's core brain functions and uploading it to the player.

If they tried to walk, the Digisphere would convert the two-legged motion into four legs. Hands were a thing of the past in the world of Equestrad, but for the sake of convenience Twilight and Sunset agreed to just let items stick to hooves.

"Behind you!" someone, or rather, some pony, shouted from behind. She looked up to see a splash of rainbows hit her from the sky.

Sunset lay groaning on the grass. "So glad we reduced the sensory information for pain. That would've felt horrible."

Rainbow Dash got off her. "You're right. Still, sorry about that. I guess I was a little too excited that I could fly. It's like ponying-up, but at all times."

Sunset nodded, smiling at Rainbow Dash. She looked just like she should in Equestria. Everyone did, in fact. Thanks to the Equestrian magic in the Digisphere's gems, each player's avatar was made to look like their counterpart from the other world.

"The feeling's the same here," Sunset replied, looking around for her other friends. The starting town was still flooded with players logging in, but it was countered by everyone's eagerness to explore Equestrad.

"That's an understatement," Rainbow Dash told Sunset. "I mean, this whole game was made after your home world, I'd say you're much more excited than me."

Rainbow was right, and Sunset appreciated her understanding why this was so important.

Over Rainbow Dash's shoulder, on the top of the hill that overlooked the starting town, Sunset spotted Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy waiting for them. They were scanning the mess of new players, looking for them.

"Lets go meet up with them," she told Rainbow Dash, pointing her hoof toward the hill. For anyone else, they would have felt their arm moving, and the Digisphere would use Sunset's "instinct data" to turn it to pony motion. But for Sunset, it was the real thing, the genuine feeling of using her hooves.

The two raced over to meet their friends. Like Rainbow, they all looked just like their counter parts in Equestria, thanks to the Equestrian magic.

"Hey! Looks like you all got used to your pony selves pretty quickly," Sunset shouted as they reached the top of the hill, waving to her friends.

"Sure helps beta testing with some good friends," Applejack replied, patting Sunset on the back.

"This is really nice Sunset," Fluttershy added, staring at the details of the trees on the hill. "If I didn't know this was a game, I'd think I was dreaming. The trees look so real, and so do the little tiny critters."

Sunset trotted over and touched the tree with her hoof. The texture of the bark was rough and flaky, almost like the real thing. Sunset noted that none of the bark would come off or stick to her fur though.

A little reminder it's fake, I guess. Sunset thought to herself.

She replied to Fluttershy. "We did replicate Princess Luna's dream magic with the Digispheres, so in a way you're right, this is like a dream."

"Really weird hearing Princess Luna instead of Principal Luna," Pinkie said from the top of the tree. Sunset stared up, amazed Pinkie could climb a tree that high without a quest or a climbing region coded in. Sunset had to admit to herself, the scale of PAO's jumping wasn't at all realistic, but nearly all the beta testers felt that the jumping was too small and limiting. She figured they just wanted bigger jumps for stunts and cool tricks, but added it anyways. It actually made some designing easier.

"It was the same feeling when I came over to the human world. I nearly called Luna and Celestia 'Princess' so many times," Sunset replied. She swiped her hoof horizontally across the air in front of her, bringing up the menu screen.

"Well, the launch event should have started," she explained to everyone, "we better equip our starting gear."

"Yes!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "Uncommon starter gear, for the win!"

Applejack scoffed back. "I think we all got the special equipment RD, so don't think you'll get to level twenty before me."

"Alright then everyone," Sunset said, rallying her friends around her, "I know the perfect place to start the launch event."

===================================================

"No way! I'm the one thousand and first player to log in?" Scootaloo screamed, looking at her menu screen. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle couldn't hear her over the excitement of the other players logging in, but they only had to look at her menu dialogue to know.

Both of them immediately checked their menu screens as well. Applebloom was the nine hundred and eighty-second player to log in, and Sweetie Belle was the lucky one thousandth. They both looked at each other with relief before smiling sympathetically to Scootaloo.

"It's only the starter stuff anyways," Sweetie Belle said, consoling Scootaloo with a pat on the head.

Scootaloo sighed. "I'm just a little bummed out is all." She looked down at her hooves in defeat. It took a moment, but her eyes widened when she realized how her body felt.

"My hands! I knew we'd be ponies but this feels crazy!" she screamed, reaching up to look at her hooves. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle looked at their hooves too, but with greater curiosity than shock.

"Weird, I don't feel like I'm walking on all fours," Sweetie Belle muttered, turning around to catch a glimpse of her tail.

Applebloom spotted something more too. "Woah, our CMC badges are even in the game, and they're like little tattoos on our flanks! Look!" She bumped her flank into Sweetie Belle's view to show her Cutie Mark, a little shield with littler symbols for her personality.

"Thanks, just put your butt mark in my face, much appreciated," Sweetie Belle said, with heavy sarcasm in her voice.

Applebloom withdrew herself from Sweeitie Belle. "So it's a little strangely placed, but isn't it weird the Digisphere knows our badges?"

Sweetie Belle thought for a moment. Character design wasn't something anyone asked about, since Sunset insisted that the gems in the Digisphere would handle it. It wasn't well received at first, but people got used to the idea of being themselves in a virtual reality. Still, Sweetie Belle couldn't figure out how it knew what to make as the Cutie Mark.

"We'll have to ask about it when we run into Sunset," she replied.

Scootaloo finally got a grip on her avatar and grabbed both her friends "Come on, we don't have time to waste. Lets catch up with Rainbow Dash and the others so we get this launch event started!"

The three of them raced out of the starting town, checking their surroundings for Rainbow Dash. There were a lot of players, but the CMC knew that if any player could have full control of her pegasus abilities immediately, it would be Rainbow Dash. They just had to look for the flying rainbow to find everyone else.

They spotted her and the others headed northeast of the town, following a narrow path into the forest. The CMC chased after them, confident that they were headed to the best possible spot to start.

===================================================

"This is the place girls, the tunnels leading right under the launch event," Sunset said.

Rainbow Dash rushed in, flying naturally into the dark cave. "Then there's no time to lose!"

The others were about to follow, however, three little voices called out from behind. Applejack turned around to be sure, and smiled when she saw the CMC racing toward them.

"We're so glad we caught up," Scootaloo gasped, exhausted after the chase. Even in the video game, sensory data could be imputed into the player's mind. The Digisphere determined the level of exhaustion to relay based on the players' stamina bar.

"We're just about to head under the launch event, so you're in luck," Rainbow Dash said, patting Scootaloo on the back. "I see you've got a pair of wings too. Don't worry kiddo, I'll show you the trick to flying after this."

Scootaloo looked behind, realizing her avatar was pegasus for the first time. It took all her will power to keep from freaking out again in front of Rainbow Dash. "Thanks Rainbow, it is pretty different, though I bet you're an expert by now."

"You bet," Rainbow replied. "Now lets go, or we'll be late to the event."

Everyone nodded and ran into the tunnel, with Sunset taking the lead. The tunnel system was designed after the stories Princess Twilight would write about to Sunset, using the magic book they kept to communicate between worlds. According to the princess, she and her friends encountered a huge tunnel system near Ponyville one day while seeking out Diamond Dogs.

The tunnels twisted multiple times, splitting apart into countless other paths. While Sunset could remember which way was the best way to go, she also kept a look out for randomly spawning Diamond Dogs. With heavy armor and enormous weapons, they were one of the tougher enemies on the first floor of Equestrad, added to make the tunnel shortcuts a challenge to use.

Only after a minute the first Diamond Dogs spawned in, looking as if they grew from the tunnel walls.

"Um, Sunset," Fluttershy whispered, freezing in her tracks, "this might be a bad thing to mention, but the beta test had combat commands. So, um, how do we fight in this version?"

They all paused for a moment, looking at Sunset. Everyone realized that in their hastiness, the didn't stop to look at the new controls or even ask Sunset herself about the gameplay mechanics.

But Rainbow Dash ignored her inexperience and flew forward anyways, tackling into the Diamond Dogs directly. Her hooves smacked into the heavy iron armor on the dogs, and she ricocheted back into her friends.

"Just reach for your weapons," Sunset answered in panic, "and let the Digisphere translate your actions to your avatar. Try not to think about being in a different body."

Everyone reacted immediately, drawing their starting swords. For earth ponies, like Applejack and Applebloom, they wielded their swords in one hoof, walking with their other three. Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Scootaloo had more mobility, as their characters held weapons with thir wings, like hands would.

Sweetie Belle looked around but couldn't find her weapon. It wasn't in her hoof, and she certainly had no wings. Sunset noticed her confusion, and lifted her own sword to show Sweetie Belle. It hovered in the air, its handle grasped by the magic from her horn. Sweetie Belle's eyes widened, awed by the power of levitation, and looked around for her sword. Finally, she noticed her magic's green aura above her head, commanding her weapon to stand firmly in the air.

"This is the most amazing thing ever," she whispered to herself, swinging her sword around. For a moment, she was lost in her own thought, imagining the possibilities in the game. But virtual reality sprung back at her as the fighting began.

Naturally, Rainbow Dash charged at the front, followed by Sunset and Applejack. They dodged to the side of the tunnel, evading the Diamond Dogs' heavy mace strikes. They swung their blades as the first Diamond Dog was recovering from its attack, cutting its health points down to zero. Two remained.

With the first enemy gone, Pinkie Pie bounced into the fray with the CMC behind her. As she drew the two Diamond Dogs to her, the CMC slashed at the legs of the Diamond Dogs. They flashed red, falling onto the ground. Above their health bars a bright red icon appeared, obviously made to resemble a broken bone.

"That's the "crippled" debuff," Sunset said, decapitating one of the Diamond Dogs with a clean overhead cut.

Fluttershy hung back, clutching her sword firmly with her wing. Everyone looked at her, leaving the Diamond struggling to stand up.

"This is your chance Fluttershy!" Pinkie Pie cheered.

Rainbow Dash followed suit. "You got this Fluttershy!"

Fluttershy stared at the grovelling Diamond Dog. It wasn't aware of the ponies while it was debuffed, but the animation of pain on its face broke Fluttershy's kind heart. But, she swallowed her anxiety, accepting that it was just a game, and gingerly walked over to the Diamond Dog, looking away as she stuck her sword into the enemy's face.

After a moment, Fluttershy regained the courage to look back at the Diamond Dog. She aimed for the center of its head, but missed when she looked away. Instead, she impaled her sword clean through its eye.

"I think I'm going to be sick," she muttered.

But there was no gore, not a single drop of blood from any of the Diamond Dogs. Slowly, each of them burst into shards of light, their bodies expiring from defeat.

"Nice work everyone," Sunset said, checking her experience bar. "These Diamond Dogs are pretty tough, but they give a ton of XP from killing them. We might even level up before we get under the launch event."

Everyone checked to see what she meant. They were in a party, but even the distributed XP covered a fifth of their experience bar.

"Alright, I can't wait to what else is in this dark, smelly cave!" Pinkie Pie cheered, covering her nose. They were deeper into the ground, and the scent of dirt and mold, however mild, was still rendered in by the game and put into their minds by the Digisphere.

The CMC all complained at once. "Oh man, that smell's worse than the locker rooms! Lets get out of here as soon as possible!"

No one complained, and rushed forward with Sunset in the lead again, searching for a way out of the suffocating tunnel.

===================================================

To call the launch event a mess would be like calling the sun a light. Both aren't lies, but they don't convey the whole truth either. The event took place in a fortress at the top of a forested hill. As the center of the forest, the tunnels Sunset and her friends took run right under it. However, by the time they found their way to the ladder into the fortress, the event had already begun.

It was a classic defense quest, only scaled to immense proportions. Tens of thousands of players stood ready to defend the fortress from unending waves of skeletons and demons rising from the forest. With fifty waves, each player had at least a hundred kills to call their own, and plenty more experience and gold to loot.

Already players were upgrading and unlocking new weapon skills as they reached level five or six from the sheer amount of enemy monsters, and the lucky ones equipped items form the advanced, or even rare, equipment tiers.

Exhausted like everyone else, Sunset collapsed onto a bench in the fort. The entire event took an hour, but there was still much more she needed to test for herself. Around her, piles of skeletons clipping into each other slowly vanished into shards of light as they despawned.

"I need to put points in endurance, feeling tired in-game sucks," Sunset said, wiping the sweat from her brow. She was proud that the little details like sweat had its uses, but nevertheless it was just as annoying as real life.

"I feel ya," Pinkie Pie chimed, sitting herself next to Sunset. "Cake? The item descriptions says it give you stamina."

"Oh yes Pinkie, you're the best." Sunset opened her trade menu and accepted the cake. It materialized in her hoof, with a plate and even a single lit candle in the center. Without hesitation, she took a bite of the cake, savoring its taste. More importantly, she gained a recovery buff, restoring her stamina at twice the normal rate.

Sunset swiped her hoof and checked the floor map. On the south west side of the map, two blue dot flickered in the middle of the starting town. Fluttershy and Sweetie Belle were using their gold to buy new gear to play different roles. At the center of the map, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were scouting out the first floor's boss dungeon with Scootaloo and Applebloom.

Pinkie looked up from her plate of cake and glanced at Sunset's map. "What're RD and AJ doing over there?" She pointed to the massive structure in the center of the map.

"That's where the final boss on this floor is located," Sunset answered. "Above the dungeon there's the central town, where the teleporter is located. It takes you to the next floor of Equestrad."

Pinkie got up and stretched her legs out, moving them around with as much familiarity as her own body. "Then I bet you have to beat the boss to use it, don't ya?"

"That's pretty much it," Sunset replied, getting up as well. "A player still has to put the head of the boss at the teleporter to work, but by then, the hard part's done."

Pinkie nodded. She drew her sword, a bright silver blade dropped by a skeleton from the event, inspecting it. The weapon's damage and skill enhancements were displayed above the sword, and its tier could be determined from the blue glow during inspection. For a low level weapon, it was impressive, effectively making Pinkie a level seven or eight while her experience level remained at five.

As Sunset watched, her menu popped up, displaying a health reminder. She had been logged in for almost two hours. It was a safety precaution for players that Twilight insisted on putting in the game, to make sure no one got to carried away. But deep down, Sunset felt as if the warning was made just for her.

"I should probably get back to Twilight and tell her how good the game's going," Sunset said, swiping the menu to the logout screen."We need to get all this data sorted out and see what needs to be fixed. I'm sure a lot of bugs have been flooding the admins' message box."

"You mean like how your menu doesn't have a logout button?" Pinkie asked, gesturing to Sunset's screen.

In an instant, Sunset's eyes focused on her menu. It looked almost exactly as it should, except for the missing icon at the bottom of the options list, the logout icon.

"That's a pretty bad glitch," Sunset said, switching her menu into administration mode. Her whole display switched from a white panel to green, presenting additional options for an admin. A mailbox, console commands, and an emergency disconnect option. Luckily, that hadn't changed.

Sunset glanced at her mailbox before disconnecting. Over a thousand messages had been sent, each probably about the lack of a logout button. If Sunset didn't check with Twilight to fix it, a lot more players would start noticing once they tried to leave the game.

Pinkie tried to reassure Sunset. "I'm sure Twilight's already working hard on trying to fix it. Every game have its glitches."

"Even so, I should go lend a hoof, or hand rather, to help," Sunset replied. She scrolled down her options, passing the admin commands, and slammed her hoof down on the emergency disconnect. A small hour glass appeared over her menu, verifying her admin controls. Pinkie and Sunset tensed up after thirty seconds, and then a minute.

Finally, a message came through. It wasn't at all what Sunset wanted though. In bright, bold, red text, her admin screen returned the message: ERROR: ADMIN ID NOT FOUND.

"What the hell!" Sunset shouted, ramming her hoof into the menu. The display went fuzzy slightly, but the error message simply slid away. Nothing else changed on her admin screen, but Sunset knew that under its appearance, nothing there was working.

"Why didn't it work?" Pinkie asked worryingly.

Sunset threw herself back onto the bench, hooves to her face. Her voice was muffled but she spoke through them anyway. "We agreed to make admin commands require a verification, based on a person's Digisphere's device number. We didn't want a hacker or a computer virus gain control of the commands and possibly affect everyone's minds. But the server isn't verifying my admin abilities."

Pinkie swiped her hoof and checked her menu screen as well. Under the options, it was exactly like Sunset's; it looked perfectly normal until the logout button, or the lack thereof in this case. Pinkie lowered her head, unsure of what to say. There was nothing good to say about the situation.

After a moment of deep thought, Pinkie's mind bloomed with a thought. "Sunset, Twilight must know something wrong, if not she'll figure it out soon! Worst case scenario, she could just take off the Digisphere and-"

"No!" Sunset screamed, but the look on Pinkie's face told her that Pinkie didn't understand why. "The Digispheres magic puts us in a dream like state while we use it, but removing it still won't shut everything off. While its on, the magic is in us, like it's a part of our minds. I specifically wrote in the safety manual that removing the helmet without the user properly shutting it down could trap the user in their magic dream and leave their brain in a coma-like state. "

"Then just turn it off, or take out the battery," Pinkie offered.

Sunset shook her head again. "The gems uses a tremendous amount of power to connect so many players. If you shut down the Digisphere, its computer parts might shut down, but if the gems and their magic gets low on power while so many players are connected, they could be overexerted and become unstable."

Pinkie paused, hesitant for her next question to be answered. "How "unstable" are we talking about?"

Sunset clasped her front hooves together. "Boom," she said, mimicking an explosion.

Gulping, Pinkie Pie sat down at last, her legs shaky from what she was told. It didn't seem real that she, along with everyone else could be stuck in the game, with no clear way out. Their real bodies were still unconscious, sleeping in their homes, waiting to wake up. Anything could happen.

She shuddered at the thought, then got up and looked at Sunset with a serious glare. "We need to get our friends."

Sunset nodded. "Right, they should know what's going on, they shouldn't have to worry and wait while Twilight and the other admins figure it out." The two swiped open their menus, both nervously glancing at the missing logout button as they opened the floor map.

Sunset pointed at the boss dungeon. "I'll head up and get AJ and RD. Applebloom and Scootaloo are with them too so I'll pick them up as well."

"Then I'll run back to the starting town," Pinkie replied.

They closed their menus and began bolting out the event fortress, but not after a few steps were they frozen in place. Lights flickered in a circle around them, rising from the ground. Sunset and Pinkie looked around at the other players lingering around the fortress. The same effect was circling every other player as well.

Sunset checked her health bar, but no debuffs were marked above it. Instinctively, she checked her menu screen, and as she suspected, a notification appeared telling her what was going on: You may not access the menu while teleporting.

"Pinkie!" Sunset shouted, "I think whatever caused this is sending us somewhere, hold on!"

Sunset barely finished her last words when the light engulfed her and Pinkie, sending them away. No player was left in the event fortress.

Getting Back to Work

Sword against sword. Metal rang as Phoenix clashed with an elite NPC enemy. It's design was inspired by Princess Twilight's dragon assistant, but as a bipedal reptile slashing with dual scimitars, the similarities stopped there. It was fast compared to other enemies, but it still couldn't come close to a fight with a live player.

She was soloing again only a week after the battle on floor thirty-five. She was happy to be alone, partly due to the fact that no one wanted to scout the dungeon after what happened with the murder guild, and partly because she needed sometime to herself.

Phoenix was barely through one tenth of the dungeon and she realized the other developers had just gone overboard with the design. Twisting brick paths weaved through an immeasurably large underground cavern, unrealistically suspended in the air. When it came time to do the full raid, half of the danger would simply be getting thrown off the sides of the unguarded paths. They needed to get the first run perfect, because if anyone fell, there was no hope of survival.

Any more losses would only add to the increasing upset in the entire community. Eighteen players from the Clearing Group already gave their lives to end the murder guild. Along with that, the final tally counted twenty-six player killers dead from the fight. Though they were not mourned for, and definitely not given a ceremony, it was still feared that the Clearing Group leadership was growing increasingly vicious.

Forgotten or not, they were still dead, and that didn't make Phoenix feel any better.

The NPC was a strong one, in fact, she coded the attack patterns herself, but it was predictable. Its transitions were clunky and sluggish compared to the Nighthaven members. Nighthaven. Players spat that name after the captured players began identifying themselves as the members of the Nighthaven guild.

An investigation launched, trying to unravel other Nighthaven members and affiliates, and it wasn't as easy as finding the list of existing guilds. Nighthaven was an underground guild, existing between the members, not as an official group registered in the game. Even with the whole community on a lookout for signs of remaining Nighthaven activity, it still took a week before any names were found.

They were Night Born and Haven in Heaven, two guilds claiming to be for casual players, turned out to be the primary contributors to the Nighthaven organization. The connection was only made when someone realized that both those guilds disbanded the day after Aria and her fighters were captured.

But she wasn't affiliated with any of the guilds, not officially at least, so she didn't have to deal with the fallout of the battle. She could solo when she wanted, fighting on her own terms. Phoenix opened her guard, taunting the lizard creature to attack. She rushed in as it charged its blades, skewering it with her enchanted greatsword.

Her health plummeted to thirty percent. Phoenix looked down at her armor, penetrated by the NPC's charged attack. She sighed as it despawned, putting her sword back in her saddle sheath. She turned back and left the dungeon for the day. Grinding monster for six hours strait had left her yearning for a soft bed and some warm cider.

===================================================

Rainbow Dash sat awkwardly across from Phoenix. It was one thing to hang out at the inn or tavern, but another to get invited over for dinner. She appreciated the gesture -Phoenix's cooking skill was surprisingly high, and the food was too good not to appreciate- but considering what she assumed happened between Roseluck and her, things were just a little uncomfortable.

"I'm just saying, there's no need to get defensive about it."

For the fifth time, Phoenix groaned. "Roseluck was upset, and I was there as a friend. No matter what you heard that night, we were just talking. I am not a lesbian. Please just let it go."

"Okay, okay," Rainbow Dash said, backing off. "I just thought, when you invited me over for dinner, you know..."

"I just wanted to ask if-" Phoenix stopped and stared at Rainbow Dash. "Wait, were you expecting-"

"Well, I'm pretty open-minded about these things, so if you really wanted to, you know..." Rainbow Dash paused awkwardly, waiting for Phoenix's reaction.

Phoenix continued to stare back with wide eyes. "Whenever you want Dash, we can stop talking about this."

Rainbow Dash paused for a moment. "So what did you want to ask me about?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to scout the central dungeon tomorrow." Phoenix said.

It sounded like an excessive plan to Rainbow Dash. "We just took down the biggest, perhaps the only, murder guild in the game."

"You make it sound like we've won," Phoenix replied. "But we're only at floor fifty. We've got half the game left to beat, and at this point even I can't predict what's going to happen. I left most of the later part of the game to the other developers. Besides, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo are still cleaning up the remains of Nighthaven."

Rainbow Dash wouldn't let her friend be the pessimist. "Which is why you should totally help us. I know you'd prefer not to show yourself in public, but it's been over a year since I heard anyone talking about Sunset Shimmer." She gave Sunset a humorous look. "However, I've heard a lot about a 'Phoenix' character who solos dungeons in the upper levels."

"Nighthaven was a murder guild, so I'll leave it to the guilds to take care of it," was Sunset's response. She looked across her table at Rainbow Dash. "What?"

"You just don't sound like yourself Sunset," replied Rainbow Dash. "You were the one who started this fight against criminal players. Remember when you first met Roseluck, in the caves where the bandits were hiding with the sword with the magic anomaly."

"How can I forget? Just worked on it with Sweetie Belle the day before the Battle on Floor Thirty-Five" Phoenix said, looking down at her dinner. It seemed so long ago, back when she still knew how much of a game PAO was. She used to remember what real food felt like, and smelled like. Now the game's limited senses seemed to be the only thing she ever knew.

"You got a look on your face Sunset, what're you thinking about?" Rainbow Dash asked.

She shrugged. "I want to help everyone I can, but this will never end if we don't beat the game. I'm not good at dealing with people like this, going around like I'm a humanitarian aid worker."

"But you also can't predict what the rest of the game has for us," Rainbow countered. "You said it yourself, the other developers made it. You're not going to do any better at beating the game as you are with cleaning up Nighthaven."

"At least I know how to play the game," she replied, fixing her dry throat with a sip of tea. "With people, nothing's certain."

"Is that all? Is that why you're abandoning the fight against crime?" Rainbow Dash asked accusingly. "Or do you still blame yourself for making the game in the first place?"

"So maybe I am Rainbow Dash, but is that so bad?" Phoenix snapped back. "What kind of person would I be if I didn't feel guilty at all? You wouldn't want that kind of friend. Ever since day one, I've just wanted to leave this world like everyone else. But now, recruitment's slowing down, less and less players are leveling, and more are settling down with friends to wait out the day that their IV bags stop keeping their bodies alive."

"That's not-"

Phoenix cut off Rainbow Dash, toppling her cup onto the floor as her hoof beat the table. "It is!" she exclaimed, the cup despawning on the floor as if Phoenix's voice had shattered it. "I might be grinding in the dungeons, but I'm not cut off from everything. I see the messages that Applebloom sends out to her friends list, and the updates that Sweetie Belle puts up on the Crusaders' home page. Hell, even Scootaloo asked if I wanted to hang out, because she didn't have any recruits to train anymore!"

"Okay! So the Clearing Group's not at its best," Rainbow Dash admitted. "But that doesn't make you completely right. Nighthaven still needs to be resolved."

"I'm not saying we should completely drop the subject," Phoenix said, placing another cup on her table. "I just would like a break from dealing with other players and just quest in the dungeon with a friend, even for just a day." She sat there, waiting for Rainbow Dash's response.

Finally, she answered back. "It's not easy telling players that their friends were part of a murder guild, and every time we find another remaining member, I somehow end up being the one to talk about it. A break actually sounds kind of nice."

Phoenix began to thank her, but Rainbow Dash held up a hoof to continue. "But, I have to finish what I agreed to do first. I've got a list of names I need to investigate, all likely Nighthaven sympathizers. Help me with them, and then we can take on the dungeon sooner."

Phoenix nodded. "Okay Rainbow Dash, I guess we can help in both ways."

===================================================

"Why is it always a dark place?" Phoenix muttered. "Why can't killers choose a happy grassland floor like thirty-four, or fourteen." Above her the sky was pitch black, lit up only by a sliver of moonlight and the constellations. It was how Floor Thirty-Two always was, a perpetual dreamland, submerged in the night.

"It's your fault for making this floor," Rainbow Dash reminded her. "Should have made it perpetual day if you don't like the spooky darkness."

"I'm just saying that it's all very cliche," Phoenix replied. "I mean, don't you think they'd get bored of the same damn brooding darkness after every single day?"

"It's probably part of their job description, something along the lines of 'must enjoy depressing locations.'"

Phoenix chuckled. "That actually makes a lot of sense. Who else would do what they do?" They followed the road into a small town southwest of the central city, where they were supposed to pick up some updates from a close informant of Rainbow Dash's.

"So, how long until we get to Sophi's safehouse?" Phoenix asked.

"Somewhere on the other side of town," Rainbow Dash pointed with her wing. "She said one of her actors'll meet us in the town square first."

All around them players were chatting to themselves, taking swigs of a potion sold by a unique vendor in the town. It was named "The Flask of Dreams" for its ability to bring back old memories in the form of dreams. Even things players thought they had forgotten could be recalled with crystal clarity, all thanks to the magic in the Digisphere headsets, and Twilight's extensive knowledge of neurology.

One of the players, lost in his own memories, stumbled into Rainbow Dash and Phoenix. "I can't believe we just did that! Oh man, my dad's gonna be pissed!" He grabbed Rainbow Dash and tried to show her something in his dream-memory, but Rainbow Dash just saw him pointing into the night sky.

"Still got anther dozen?" he chuckled, reaching out for something in the air. Rainbow Dash looked at him with pity, simply pushing him off the main street to drag through his past.

"Can't believe there's so many here," she said to Phoenix. "It's awful."

"Another thing I'll never live down," Phoenix sighed. "It was my idea to add those potions when we finished designing this floor."

The two of them talked as they gently pushed past the crowd of players, all of them captured by their own memories. "It was your idea? Why'd you add it?"

"Twilight and I needed funding early on during development of the Digisphere before we could even think of making a game for it," explained Phoenix. "Among other corporations, we got a lot of support from the medical engineering companies when we promised the potential for mental rehabilitation."

"But why put it in the game?" Rainbow Dash asked, pushing a player who was remembering her sixteenth birthday aside.

"Once we began developing the game, our investors wanted us to show practical application of the Digisphere for something other than a video game," continued Phoenix. "But we were low on staff and couldn't work on two things at once, so Twilight suggested we prove what it could do with Alzheimer's by adding the memory features to the game. Medical companies bought thousands of specialized Digisphere models almost immediately after we demonstrated it."

"Alzheimer's, wow. Never would have thought a virtual reality could do something like that." Rainbow Dash looked around at the dozens of players high on memories. She felt even sorrier, that a treatment for a powerful affliction had effectively fallen down to a common street drug.

"Here we are," Phoenix said as they reached the center of the town. "Where's Sophi's actor?"

"Probably on his way," Rainbow Dash replied. "They can't risk drawing attention by waiting out in the open."

"And we can?" remarked Phoenix, glancing around for anyone not stumbling around. She spotted a kid, a player with the character model of a colt, staring at them through a group of friends working off the aftereffects of the Flask of Dreams as their memories faded away. "Hey Rainbow, think that could be him?"

Rainbow turned around and followed Phoenix's gaze. "A kid? Sophi wouldn't use children for a job like this." The young player noticed their stares and beckoned them over. Phoenix and Rainbow Dash traded looks with each other, unsure about him. But the colt kept waving them over, so after a few seconds, they followed.

"You two with the Crusaders?" asked the kid when they reached him.

"Affiliated, not members," answered Rainbow Dash.

"Is that all they could send?" he replied sharply. "A couple of amateurs?"

Rainbow Dash stared back at the kid. "I know Sophi. In fact, your boss asked for me personally."

The kid smirked. "So you two are who we're looking for." Behind them, the players who were still groggy from their dreams suddenly leaped onto Rainbow Dash and Pheonix. They struggled, but with PVP off they couldn't fight the players, and the players outnumbered them easily five to two.

"What the hell?" shouted Rainbow Dash, her voice muffled by the bag being pulled over her head.

The colt just laughed. "Take a guess," he said cockily. "Here's a clue: Sophisticata's not my boss. She's our target."

===================================================

"Are you sure they weren't there?" asked Sophi.

"I waited for half an hour like you asked," replied the actor. "I looked all around, but I couldn't see them. Rainbow Dash should have recognized my outfit too." He was right, he dressed in a multicolored motley costume just so Rainbow Dash spot him out from the crowd.

"I hope they're alright," she said, worried. She was pacing around her safehouse now, a small building she bought on the westernmost side of the town. It was safer than anything player made, but she still felt like she was in a prisoner, trapped by the bars of PVP protection. She grabbed a bowl of soup from her inventory and sipped it nervously. The warmth calmed her a little and helped her to think as she paced around her living room.

"We have to go help them," she finally said.

The actor's jaw dropped open, aghast. "We? Even if I wanted to go out there, which I don't, you've barely left this place for more than an hour at a time before we spot the assassins coming. On top of that risk, we have no idea what happened to them."

Sophi opened her menu and checked her friends list. "I can't believe I forgot about this," she said to herself, tapping on Rainbow Dash's name. It zoomed over to her marker in the Northwest section of the map, at a large clearing in a forest. Sophi let out a sigh, relieved Rainbow Dash was still on the same floor. If she wasn't, the friends list wouldn't have located her, and they'd be stuck not knowing anything.

"Oh..." muttered the actor. "Friends list, of course. That's a thing."

"Don't act like you're not going to come," Sophi said.

"I'm worried about you first, then the others. Rainbow Dash is part of the Clearing Group, she doesn't have to become our problem."

"Indigo Wreath, how dare you!" Sophi scolded him. "She's a friend. We don't just ignore our friends when they need help."

"You're my friend Sophi, I'm trying to look out for you," argued Indigo.

She just rolled her eyes and brushed him off, paying more attention to the potions and weapons stockpiled in the safehouse's chests. "I've leveled up just as much as you have, I can handle myself, despite what everyone else thinks." She grabbed a small shield and a broadsword from the chest, along with a pouch of healing potions, and moved toward the door.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Indigo asked, stepping in front of her.

"It means I'm sick of safehouses, and I'm sick of running from Nighthaven." She pushed him out of her way. "We've gotten a bigger lead on the player killers than we've ever had before, and I'm not going to be the one who stood on the sidelines doing paperwork. You can stay or you can come, but you're not stopping me."

===================================================

"You might not know my name, but I sure as hell know yours," spat the player killer. "Phoenix. Heard you were the one who jailed my sister."

Rainbow Dash and Phoenix sat paralyzed in the clearing where they had "defeated" the special Hearth's Warming eve boss. They were surrounded by a party of players marked with red.

"Who's your sister?" Phoenix asked bluntly.

"Wouldn't expect you to remember her name, especially after you've jailed so many others, but I'm sure you remember what you took from her." He paced around Pheonix, dragging his katana along the dirt. "Please tell me after all this time, you haven't completely forgotten her."

"Probably," answered Phoenix, "but you're not being very concise right now."

"Coruby, damn it!" he shouted. "You ripped her weapon out of her inventory right before handing her off to the NPCs. I haven't seen her for over a bloody year, all because you just wanted to steal her sword."

"You? You're her brother?" Phoenix never imagined coming across him, not when she didn't have the slightlest clue where to start. Now he just showed up, unannounced.

Memories of entering the cave started coming back. The details were blurred, she only recalled fighting off a group of thugs before taking down Coruby. But the katana, the anomaly of magic within the game, that part was still clear. "Do you still have the armor she mentioned?" Phoenix blurted out. It was the last anomaly Phoenix knew about, and with it she could be one step closer to solving how to find an early escape from the game.

"Is that really all you care about?" seethed the player killer. "You took my sister away just from me for some buggy items?" Phoenix didn't reply. She didn't have to justify herself to a player who killed for the fun of it.

He stared at her for a while, but finally opened up a trade menu with her and offered the piece of armor. A message appeared in front of Phoenix, reading: Black Orchid would like to trade with you.

"Take it," he said, "I tried getting rid of it but something's messed up about it." Phoenix was paralyzed, but could still twitch her foreleg, barely managing to tap the accept button. She could feel the magic in the armor immediately, even if it was just in her inventory. It was powerful, humming with energy that other players could never appreciate. Suddenly, the whole situation was starting to look better.

Another murder sprinted into the clearing and run strait up to Black Orchid, whispering something in his ear. He turned and looked at his messenger. "You sure mate? She hasn't left that spot for six days now."

The messenger nodded. "I counted ten of them. We're outnumbered by four."

"That's just fucking great. Bloody fantastic, really." He turned around and beckoned the rest of his party. "We're heading out guys, get your speed potions ready."

Then he turned to Phoenix, grabbing her by the collar. "I was going to do this my way, nice and slow, but that's not going happen anymore." He ran his hoof along the edge of her figure. "I'd ask you to choke on that piece of armor, but you've got bigger problems right now." His knife's blade pierced her lower stomach and cut up to her lungs, spurting out streams of pixelated blood. Beside the paralysis debuff, Phoenix saw a blood drop marker appear, slowly draining her health through bleeding.

"Boss, we gotta go!" shouted the messenger as a spear pierced through his chest, dropping his health by half. Other players descended onto the murderers, chasing them off or engaging in combat. Black Orchid threw Phoenix onto the floor roughly before turning to run. Phoenix couldn't move to see him, but could clearly hear his hoofsteps galloping away before any of attackers could catch him.

"Go after the one in black armor!" she shouted. "He's the leader!" All but one of the players acknowledged the advice and chased him through the trees, jumping off one tree to another in a zigzagging pattern.

That last player dragged Rainbow Dash and Phoenix together to give them both paralysis antidotes, and a healing bandage for Phoenix's wound. It was just in time, too, since her health was dangerously close to ten percent from all the bleeding. The bandage stopped the bleeding immediately, but it would still be a few minutes before the healing effects became noticeable.

"Sophi, what the hell do you think you're doing out here?" Rainbow exclaimed once she had taken the antidote.

Phoenix was stunned to hear that it was Sophi. She herself couldn't tell any of the players apart in their uniforms. They were covered from head to tail in black leather armor, and their face masks barely even gave enough space for the eyes.

"You ruined the fun RD. You're not supposed to reveal the hero after she saves the damsel. That's basic roleplay 101." Sophi playfully said.

"Oh cut the crap, this is serious." Rainbow Dash replied sternly. "You're a target of the Nighthaven, and who knows how many more could be on this floor?"

"I know how many more there are Rainbow Dash," Sophi continued. "Don't forget, I'm the one who's informed the Clearing Group this whole time. Those six were the last of the Nighthaven cell operating here. I got the best fighters from my guild and some mercenaries to track them down and arrest them, so we're all good now."

"That doesn't make me feel better Sophi. The Trotting Prancers aren't exactly famous as fighters."

Sophi shrugged. "That's why I got some mercenaries."

"Well we came here to make an arrest," Rainbow Dash said, not backing down, "so if you're going through with this hunt, then we'll be right behind you to make sure it gets done."

"Aw, it's sweet that you care," Sophi teased. "But we can take handle a couple deadbeats just fine without the Clearing Group."

"Really? Then why'd you tip us off instead of dealing with it in the first place?" Rainbow remarked.

"I gave the Cutie Mark Crusaders everything I knew when they asked for it," replied Sophi. "You didn't have to come out here, but you did. Now I'm out here too, so can we just go already?"

"Fine, but stay close," Rainbow Dash said, reluctant to let Sophi run around while player killers were on the loose. They leaped up into the trees, bouncing between the tall evergreens to catch up with the rest of the fighting. Phoenix followed just behind them, letting her health go back up before getting into the fight herself.

===================================================

The hunt was much longer than Phoenix anticipated, but after two days of cat-and-mouse chasing, they finally caught each of the Nighthaven players, gave them a speedy trial by the Clearing Group guilds, and then permanently sentenced them all to be taken by the NPC guards. Well, all except the leader, Black Orchid. He was the owner of the anomaly that had eluded Phoenix for over a year, and with Sweetie Belle and Rainbow Dash's influence, it was decided that it would've been a waste to simply send him off to be imprisoned by the game.

Instead, he was given a special prison in a remote location on floor forty-nine. With a nice house on a tiny floating island at the edge of the map, there was no chance of him escaping, leaving Phoenix -or anyone else for that matter- free to interrogate him. With the player-killers found guilty and locked away, Phoenix and her friends finally found the time to relax; of course, it wouldn't have been fun if it didn't include scouting the dangerous floor fifty dungeon.

Phoenix didn't plan to take a full party with her, but once her friends asked if they could come, she couldn't have refused. Besides, it was much easier with Applejack Tanking and Fluttershy Supporting with her pet; somehow, she had gotten a hold of a nearly uncontrollable magic dragon that could heal with its fire breath.

As Phoenix and Rainbow Dash took care of the monsters striking at Applejack's shield, Pinkie Pie's blinding speed kept enemy healers stunned with fast beatings from her mace. It looked as if she was teleporting all over the battlefield, interrupting attacks, taking pressure off of Applejack, and knocking monsters off the side of the dungeon's paths simultaneously. Even back in high school they all agreed that Pinkie's hyperactivity was too much to handle, but with her attributes in the game, nothing seemed able to stand in her way.

"Last one," said Applejack as they neared the end of the path. "Looks like a mini-boss is guarding the entrance to the next section."

"I got this one," Rainbow Dash said confidently, charging into the shield of the Ancient Stone Golem. Her sword scratched against the shield, not even hurting the creature itself. It retaliated with a shield bash, throwing her to the back of the party, landing next to Fluttershy.

As Fluttershy commanded her dragon to heal Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were busy confusing the mini-boss. Pinkie Pie outran the golem's capacity to think, evading its attacks simply by running circles around it. Meanwhile, Applejack prodded the golem with the tip of her lance, baiting it with the aggressive marks on her shield. They were special enchantments inscribed by Scootaloo, doubling the effectiveness of Applejack's threats, making her a more effective Tank.

It certainly worked. The golem ignored the whirlwind of pink that was chipping away at its health and sprinted directly at Applejack, pushing her back with a powerful headbutt. She held her ground, grinding her plate-armored boots against the stone path, but the strength of the mini-boss was even greater than Applejack's, and it edged her closer to the abyss below the path.

Phoenix interceded, knocking down the golem with a heavy blow from her Teuflisch Zweihander. Though its armor was solid stone, the enchantments on the sword set fire to its entire body, eating away at its health. Rainbow Dash rejoined the fray, plunging her sword into an exposed weak spot on the golem's back. Applejack followed up with a shield bash, pushing it back into Pinkie Pie and Sunset so they could deal more damage.

The party barely came out of the fight worse than when they went in, largely due to Fluttershy's skillful healing, but also the back-and-forth fighting with the mini-boss, pinging it around like a ball.

"That was a good fight," Pinkie Pie said, dropping on the floor to catch her breath and regain her stamina. Her speed, while impressive, was still limited by her stamina points.

"You bet," agreed Rainbow Dash. "Did you see that sweet shot I landed on its eye? I was surprised it could even hit us after that!"

"It was pretty violent," Fluttershy said, giving some pet food to her dragon. "But in the good way."

"Thanks, I think," Rainbow Dash replied. She stretched out her legs, working off the dull pain from bruises the golem gave when it swung its arms around. "Should we head back? The only thing left is the boss, and we'd probably need the whole Clearing Group to take it on."

"We came all the way here, we should at least take a look inside," Applejack offered, trotting over to the large double doors. It towered above her, touching two stories tall, and it weighed far more than the smaller entrances in the dungeon too.

"Think we should have a peek Sunset?" she asked Phoenix. "If so, I reckon we'll all need to put our strength into this door."

Phoenix looked at it and thought it over for a moment. She agreed to take a look, and walked over to the door to give it a shove. Even with strength as her primary attribute, Phoenix couldn't even budge the door, not even enough to make a single creak.

"Applejack's right," she said. "The devs really made this one a challenge. I don't even think we can get it if we worked together, even with Rainbow Dash's impressive strength points.

Rainbow Dash glared back at her. It was no secret that Phoenix had the upper-hoof when it came to strength alone, and she constantly joked at Rainbow Dash's expense whenever she demonstrated her damage output per second to her friends. Still, Rainbow Dash prided herself on having a delicate, but effective, balance of speed and strength, and was immediately provoked by Phoenix's comment.

"We might not all be so strength-focused berserkers like you," Rainbow Dash said back, "but with me helping out, this door shouldn't be any problem."

Pinkie Pie hopped over with Rainbow Dash to help push the door. "Ooh, this'll be just like that time my family was on a vacation and my sister Maud wanted to bring home a boulder as a souvenir! It was a long trip back to the car, believe me."

"Where'd your family go for vacation?" Phoenix asked, staring incredulously.

"The Stonehenge."

The rest of them stared as well. "Uh, Pinkie," Applejack cautiously said, "I don't think those rocks were supposed to be taken."

Pinkie Pie thought on that for a moment, realizing another piece of that vacation. "Well I thought I saw some people chasing us once we got to the car, but dad drove off before they could catch up."

"How did you get that through the airpo -you know what? I don't want to know." Fluttershy said, still waiting behind them to open the door.

"You could help us out here Fluttershy." Rainbow Dash's voice was strained as they all pushed against the insurmountable weight of the door.

"Oh no, that's okay, I don't have a lot points in my strength attribute," she whispered.

Pinkie Pie piped up, still trying her best to force open the door as she spoke. "You have more than me, I'm nothing but speed. Come on Fluttershy, show this door who's boss!"

Fluttershy looked at the lack of progress and gave in. "Oh, alright. If you think it'll help, then I'll try my best."

They all pushed, gradually cracking open the boss room. A warm gust of air flowed out, welcoming the players into it. But inside, it was pitch black. Applejack put her shield up defensively, taking a step into the room. One by one, the torches began to light up, casting their dim glow on the platform suspended in the middle of the stone room. Pathways made of chains and bricks linked the platform to the walls, but still gave the floor plenty of movement.

"Where's the boss?" asked Rainbow Dash, peeking over Applejack's shield.

"Shh, I think a quest scene's playing," she whispered back, pointing her lance at a small NPC colt walking up to the center of the platform.

The little unicorn NPC cast a ring of magic around the center, chanting in some gibberish tongue. "Finally!" he cried out, "The adults will rue the day they underestimated me!"

A creature rose from the ring, a terrifying beast far larger than the dungeon's own door. Its limbs rippled with bundles of tense muscle fibers, while its horns burned with energy. As a whole, it looked like a mess, like the developers couldn't decide what to make. Different sections of its body were taken from different animals, creating something resembling a zoo that had been grafted into one being.

Despite being a haphazard mesh of animals, it was incredibly powerful. Everyone looked as its health bar grew the more it rose from the circle. It was more than any boss they had ever encountered, by far. The weapon on its back a jagged Zweihander, similar to Phoenix's, glowed with a dark purple energy. Its blade was jet black, so dark that its figure stood out in the dimly lit room simply because it was darker than the shadows themselves.

It roared at the NPC who summoned it. "Trifling colt! Your ambition will be your undoing!" With a snap, the boss transformed the NPC into a stuffed plushie in a flash of magic. It then turned to the entrance and pointed at Applejack.

"You face Draconequus, Entropy Lord of the Chaos Legion!"

Pinkie Pie was long gone before the others began bolting away from the boss room. Understandably, they panicked as they ran from the earth-shattering might of the boss.

===================================================

Even Rainbow Dash didn't seem ashamed at all from running from that boss. "Did you see that health bar over its head? That must have been twice the health of the bird boss on floor forty-nine!"

"I know! It'll probably take a week before the Clearing Group have enough recruits to start training for this boss, maybe even more." Phoenix sat down by the dungeon's entrance and took a sandwich from her inventory to calm her down. The others did the same and took their lunches while they talked over how the Clearing Group could possibly beat the boss.

"Bet Scootaloo'll have a hell of a time making the best weapons for everyone too," Rainbow Dash chuckled. "I know I want an upgrade after seeing that thing."

"You were scared too RD?" Fluttershy asked, surprised by how easily she admitted it.

"Hey, I might be cocky but I'm not stupid," she replied. "And I'm certainly not taking my chances with this boss."

"Damn it," Applejack cursed under her breath, "getting the rare drops for the crafting materials is going take days, maybe even over a week if we can't get more players into the Clearing Group."

"If we tell everyone what the boss was like, we might not get any recruits," Phoenix considered as she chewed on her veggie sandwich. "I sure as hell wouldn't want to go up against that thing as a fresh recruit."

"And don't forget the materials we'll need for potions too," Fluttershy added. "Roseluck's going to need all the drops from plants and monsters we barely ever see. That'll probably add a few more days of work to our timetable."

Pinkie Pie spoke up with cake still in her mouth. "The raid party's going need some serious planning. Might even need a math-wiz to organize it all by attributes and levels."

"Math? For a video game?" Rainbow Dash groaned.

Phoenix defended Pinkie's point. "She right Rainbow, we'll need teams that can switch out at the right moment for both the Damages and the Tanks, and we'll also need to distribute Support players to the teams that'll be taking the hardest hits. Bosses usually have Area of Effect attacks, so it won't just be the Tanks soaking up damage."

"There's no way we have enough senior Clearing Group members for an organized raid like that," Fluttershy worried with extreme validity. Aside from losses from Nighthaven, a few Clearing Group members have taken leave to be with their friends. Facing death at the tip of a red player's weapon tended to make people remember that grinding and questing wasn't the only thing to do in PAO.

They continued their lunch, chatting over more casual topics to alleviate the stress from the boss room. They mainly shared stories, catching up on what they've each been doing when they weren't together. Phoenix was surprised to learn that Pinkie Pie even got Fluttershy to join her for a night of partying, though neither of them could clearly remember what happened outside of trying experimental potions from low-level alchemists and wrecking a player's half-built house.

Applejack stories were, though Phoenix hated admitting it, were as boring as they came. She spent time with her sister, and made a business out of selling rare cooking ingredients.

As they wrapped up their meal and decided what daily quests to do that afternoon, they noticed a large group of players headed for the dungeon. It was obviously a guild's raid: all the players were dressed in similarly themed armor.

"Oh, these guys," Pinkie muttered.

Phoenix turned to Pinkie. "You recognize them? They look a bit like the Knights of Yore, but they're colors are completely off."

"The Realm of Glory," Pinkie Pie filled in, with more than a hint of disgust in her voice. "They're an extremist recruiting guild that practically drafts players into joining them to fight in the Clearing Group. The worst part is that they don't care if they're crashing someone's party to do it."

"They're not any good, are they?" Phoenix asked. She didn't have to get to know the players to see that their gear was at least a tier below the average Knight or Crusader uniform.

"Not at all," Pinkie shook her head. "Last I checked, their leader's their top player, and he's barely in the Clearing Group. He's also a sexist too; The Realm of Glory only has male players."

"Then what the hell are they doing up here?" Rainbow Dash exploded. "They can't be thinking of doing the daily quest for this dungeon, can they? This place will wreck them before they even get close to the center."

Applejack agreed. "I'm with RD. We gotta stop 'em before they get themselves killed trying to prove something."

"I was thinking the same thing." Phoenix walked up and stood in front of the dungeon entrance, waiting to speak to the raid leader. But as they got closer, something looked off to her.

"You said they were a male only guild, right Pinkie? Because that player in the lead, that's a mare." she asked.

Pinkie Pie squinted her eyes at the leader, but she couldn't make out anything significant under the thick plated armor. "How can you be so sure Sunset? I can't tell anything from here."

"Trust me Pinkie. I spent my childhood in Canterlot's Palace, I know what a stallion in armor looks like. That's definitely a mare." Phoenix watched closely as the leader halted her raid of fifty-something players and approached.

"Greetings," she said, extending a hoof. Phoenix reached out and shook it. "Is there any problems with the dungeon, or are you waiting for the rest of your raid to show up?"

"No, we cleared most of it up to the boss room ourselves," Phoenix replied. "We were about to leave when we saw your raid coming. You with the Realm of Glory?"

The leader chuckled. "Oh, I've gotten asked that a lot today. Yes, we're the Realm of Glory's Blitz Legion, and I'm am the one in charge, in spite of previous... requirements for guild membership." She glanced at the others, casting a longer look at Pinkie Pie, who was staring at the soldiers with a fire in her eyes.

"I take it you're some of the Clearing Group's legendary players," she finally assessed. She stuck her hoof out a hoof-shake. "It's nice to finally meet some of you. If it wasn't for the reports after each cleared boss, I would've thought you all were just stories. My name's Spring Razor."

"Sorry to tell you this Spring Razor, but you need to turn your raid back if you plan on going into this dungeon," Phoenix cautioned.

"Um, I'm sorry? I thought players were free to do what they wanted," Spring replied, confusedly. "Is there some kind of process we need to go through to use this dungeon? No one told us anything about it."

"Nothing like that," Phoenix reassured. "It's just... you're raid's not good enough. This dungeon is insanely hard, and it's better if you get more preparation."

Spring couldn't believe what she was hearing. "I get that you know what your doing, but with all due respect Miss..."

"Phoenix."

"...Phoenix, me and the other guild officers have studied the past boss fights from floor forty 'till now. This raid was designed by us to be the best formation for all bosses."

"This boss isn't like the last ones," Phoenix warned. "We got a glimpse of it, it's ridiculous."

"We'll at least test our formation against the dungeon, then. We've come to far not to at least do that," she said, starting to walk around Phoenix. Her friends tried to block the leader but Phoenix waved them back with her hoof.

"What the hell are we doing Phoenix?" Rainbow Dash asked as the raid finished marching into the dungeon. "We can't let them do this on their own."

Phoenix smirked as she followed the raid into the dungeon. "I didn't plan to. I just wanted to show them the difference between what they think they can do, and what we can actually do. Come on."

She waved her friends over and they followed, tracking the raid into the dungeon. Doing the same thing over again seemed boring, but it was worth it to keep an entire raid from plunging to their deaths.

===================================================

"Damn it," Rainbow Dash spat out as she pulled her sword out from the second mini-boss. "We took our eye off those Realm of Glory guys for one second and they ran off already."

"I think they've just been running past all the monsters in this dungeon," Pinkie Pie said, appearing from under an elite NPC's despawning corpse.

"You 'reckon they're making a beeline for the boss?" Applejack offered.

"Let me check!" Pinkie Pie squeaked as she bolted out of the mini-boss lair. It took a while, nearly a minute, for her to check all the possible pathways in the next part of the dungeon. "They're definitely taking the shortest route to the boss, and leaving behind all the enemies for us to clean up. They're held up right now by the next mini-boss."

The five of them sprinted along the same path, with Pinkie Pie far ahead, chopping through the remaining monsters without any difficulty. The elites they left alone, like the Realm of Glory did, to save time and close the distance between them and the raid. They didn't want any casualties just because they were too slow.

Pinkie Pie was the first to reach the room, arriving just in time to help out with the raid's fight. By the time her friends arrived, the mini-boss had already despawned. "What took you guys so long?"

"Pinkie Pie! Where's the Realm of Glory?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, flying in ahead of the others.

Pinkie Pie shrugged. "They let me clean up the mini's elite minions. They went ahead while I was distracted."

"Why didn't you follow them?" Phoenix asked.

"Psh, you know I can catch up in no time," she boasted.

Phoenix thumped her hoof to her forehead. "We've talked about this Pinkie, Rainbow Dash is a bad influence on everyone's ego. Can you just stay with raid and make sure they don't die?"

"Jeez, bossy," Pinkie Pie mumbled halfheartedly, "I'm already gone." She blinked away, tearing down the stone pathway to catch up with the raid.

"Can't believe they've lasted all afternoon," Rainbow Dash muttered, looking around at the cleared room. "even I took a few scrapes running here, that leader must have planned out her raid well."

"Or it's just luck," Fluttershy added. "I hate to sound like a pessimist, but that boss won't be any easier for them."

"Let's go then." Phoenix took the lead, following the path Pinkie Pie zoomed down. Even while sprinting, they couldn't catch up as quickly to the raid. Phoenix could only hope that Pinkie Pie could keep them away from the boss until they got there to snap the Realm of Glory out of their suicide crusade.

She almost didn't see it coming. Pinkie Pie slammed head first into Phoenix, tumbling them both back into their friends.

She gasped out as she squished Phoenix under her. "Couldn't stop them... too determined... tried to help... fighting boss..." Pinkie Pie collapsed onto the floor. Her health was dangerously low, glowing red at ten percent.

"I'll get her back up," Fluttershy said, immediately dragging her next to her dragon to heal. "You three need to get to the boss right now."

Rainbow Dash took off flying without another word. Phoenix and Applejack chased right after. They didn't the NPCs any attention this time, at least the ones they could avoid. When the occasional lizard warrior got in the way Phoenix and Rainbow Dash tore it back down to pixels. Applejack kept herself away from the NPCs, making sure she didn't pull any unwanted enemies.

It didn't take long for them to hear the panicked cries. They didn't sound like dying, not yet anyway, but they definitely weren't close to winning. Blasts of energy came from the boss room, followed by more shouts for help. Luckily, the boss room was left open.

They ran into the room, stunned that the soldiers were holding their own, but also worried by how desperate they were. Only one of them had a pet that could heal, and the bird was not enough to keep up with the damage of the Draconequus.

"Holy fuck, they're here!" one of the Tanks shouted to the raid leader as the boss smashed him and his shield into the ground.

"We'll buy you time to teleport!" Phoenix shouted, drawing her sword.

Spring Razor yelled Phoenix back. "Something's wrong! The boss did something to the room, scrolls and enchantments aren't working." She let out a war cry as she and her team of Damages plunged their blades into the Draconequus's goat leg. The combined attack, eight players strong, didn't even drop the health by a percent.

Damn it Twilight, Phoenix thought to herself as she tried to think of how to get the players out safely. I give you a filly's book about Discord and this is what you get the devs to do?

"Phoenix, if you remember anything about this boss, now would be a good time to say it," Rainbow Dash urged with her sword drawn.

"We can't beat it," Phoenix admitted. "We just need to buy them all enough time to run." She knew it was a tall order. Aside from being incredibly difficult to kill, the Draconquus's powers seemed to have to limit. It teleported itself to its targets, knocking over the players with a wave of its sword. It transformed players into creatures, impairing them for the duration of the debuff.

Applejack took the lead, charging ahead to aid the Realm of Glory's Tank team, whose members were all low on health and stamina. Applejack couldn't take much on her own, but she deflected enough damage to give the other Tanks a chance to drink their health potions. Phoenix and Rainbow Dash lead a strike on the back of the beast, gaining the advantage for hitting its back. Regardless, the boss raised its weapon and continued hammering the Tanks.

"Spring Razor, get your troops out now! We'll grab its attention for you!" Phoenix command was well received, and the soldiers not directly engaged fled for the door immediately. As they reached the door, the Draconequus revealed one last trick. It teleported, blocking the pathway linking the platform to the door. The force blasted the players back.

"What the hell?," Applejack protested.

Rainbow Dash raised her sword, thinking of some way to strike. "I don't think it wants us to leave."

Of course it doesn't, Phoenix thought. I should've known the developers would put a weird one in as the boss for the halfway mark.

She gripped her blade. Facing it any longer would be suicide, but grabbing its attention for just a few moments wouldn't work either. She needed something drastic.

The boss charged forward without giving a moment of warning, barreling past Rainbow Dash and crashing into the crowd of fallen players. They dispersed, most of them getting out of the way, but some were not quick enough. The Tanks were weighed down by their armor and low on health from drawing the boss to them. Now, as the Draconequus set its sights on the remaining players, the raid was down five players.

Their friends attacked first, despite Phoenix's cautioning, flanking the beast to gain an attack advantage. Ten players struck the legs, while javelin throwers tried blinding the boss by aiming for its eyes. The boss raised its claw, a heavy lion's paw rippling with magic. Its swipe didn't connect with anything, it only rippled the air into a rift, a rift that grew into a vortex, consuming a number of players. The lucky ones were spat out forcibly onto the ground, the unlucky ones collapsed with the vortex.

"Stop throwing yourself at it, damn it!" Phoenix shouted at them. She attacked from the back with Rainbow Dash while Appljack tried to draw it to the edge of the platform.

However, Spring Razor was out of options. "We can't run, so what else can we do?"

She was right. Phoenix knew she was right, but doing what she had to do to save them could be even worse. There were so many variables, so many little details that could have unknown ripple effects if they were altered by her.

Two more were flung off the platform by the boss, despawning before their bodies plummeted below the platform.

Their deaths also had ripple effects, ones that Phoenix could be sure of. Friends, family, their whole guild, those people would suffer if she didn't do something.

"Rainbow Dash, Applejack, I just need one minute!"

Phoenix stepped away from the fight, opening her menu. Spring Razor and her guild members didn't notice, nor would they have cared. The followed Rainbow Dash's lead, hitting the boss each time Applejack stunned it with a block. On the precipice of death, the raid worked like a machine. The traded blow for blow with the boss, working as an entity, with Applejack as its shield and Rainbow Dash as its sword.

That was, perhaps, the longest minute of their lives. Each strike could have been a critical hit, and it could have ended their lives. Yet, by the end, they stood firmly.

"Get out of the way, now!"

The raid parted for Phoenix. A path opened, and the Draconequus set his sights on the player in front of him. Crackling bolts of magic, they penetrated its health, blasting a whole through its packed muscles. It was the first thing to make a significant dent in the boss' health.

The other players stared as well. The player, a unicorn, was doing what no other unicorn player thought they could figure out: magic. For the entirety of the game's existence, the idea that unicorns could cast magic was rumored to be true. Just like pegasi players could fly, unicorn players once believed they just had to find a way to use their horn. The idea quickly turned into a myth, and it was held as a myth until now.

Shot after shot stunned the Draconequus, stinging its skin and pushing it back. Shot after shot, the raid gained a little more hope.

"Get out of here!" Phoenix shouted, channeling another stream of magic at the boss.

When they complied and sprinted for the door, the boss reacted and vanished into thin air. But Phoenix was wise to the trick, and teleported as well. They met at the door, colliding with a momentous shudder through the dungeon, shaking the heavy platform at the center of the boss room.

Though thrown back, the other players could do nothing but get up and run again as Phoenix met the boss in the in-between state of teleportation. They clashed as they teleported to the same place, meeting a intangible magic, then vanishing again. Explosions signaled each strike, shaking the whole dungeon more and more.

No one else could know what it was like to fight there, but for Phoenix, it was like second nature. Back and forth, materializing and dematerializing a fraction of a second, the two fought from the depths of the room to the very peak.

Phoenix finally struck the Draconequus out of the in-between, flinging it back into the center of the platform. It was up in a moment, ready to meet Phoenix's blade. Wherever Phoenix swung, it blocked, and vice versa. It didn't matter that she couldn't beat it, only that the players got out while they could.

Of course, she'd have to get out as well.

"Does you friend need some time to get away?" Spring Razor asked.

"No! Don't get yourself in danger, I'm fine!" Phoenix grunted, deflecting the Draconequus's strikes with only a magic field. She'd have to get out on her own, or else everyone else might end up dying on her behalf.

She repulsed the thing with a spell and launched her sword, lodging it in the center of its chest. She forced it in deep, ramming it in with a gust of magic. But the Draconequus felt no pain, and had no concern accept killing. It retaliated with full force, knocking Phoenix back with the flat of its sword. It raised its claw, an hand-like raptor talon, and snapped. The magic gripped the chains wrapped around the pathways, compelling them to live.

Phoenix rolled out of the way, shooting what she could with her horn. The enchanted chains, however, were far quicker that she could keep up with; Phoenix couldn't defend herself from stinging strikes of the heavy metal. They coiled around her limbs even as she blasted them off, and once they got a hold, she was slammed across the room like a ragdoll.

She swore she could feel the boss laughing at her. She felt in her heart. The creator of this world, the closest thing to a god the virtual reality could know, was helpless to defeat her own creations, all because a fault in her system stripped her of her rightful powers. Hubris.

Without her, many more will die.

With the flame of the Phoenix extinguished, no solution to the anomalies would be found.

With Phoenix gone, she'd be without the only people who cared about her. They'd lose a close friend as well.

So many connections. So much to leave behind. But was it worth it? Her dream of living in Equestria turned into a nightmare, and her hopes of internal peace became a seemingly endless struggle, with only a distant end in sight. Would it be worth it to accept she had crafter her defeat?

The Draconequus lumbered forward, dragging its colossal blade, coated in shadows, along the floor. It was building up its finishing move, a strike that would cleave fifty percent of health into nothing. And then there would be nothing. The hospital bed, empty. Her apartment, empty. Her Digisphere, empty.

It struck.

===================================================

When the Phoenix dies, it builds its grave into a bonfire. From the ashes, it rises. It signals the sun rise, a new dawn, and to those who see it, a hope for a new life.

Phoenix didn't have a bonfire. There were no sticks or logs, no oil or coal. The dungeon was made of stone and chains. No, worse. It wasn't material. It was made of C++ and binary.

The only thing Phoenix had was the Digisphere. All the Digisphere had was magic.

Hellfire and brimstone. Those poured out from the Phoenix. It scorched the Draconequus and battered it back, burning it, charring it, hurting it, choking it, damning it. From this hell, the Phoenix rose. She was its creator, its god. She would punish its insurrection. It would fall for thinking it could rise up to its maker.

The Phoenix touched it and it blazed. She grabbed her sword from its chest and it caught fire. She was the magic. It stuck and it battered her but her will persisted. Each step taken, a punishing blow was delivered. Each blow given, the stone got licked by flames. It didn't end until it died.

It didn't end until oblivion.

Oblivion was not enough.

It thought it could kill her.

It thought it could kill me?

It defied her will.

I punished it too lightly.

But the magic had burned. It burned and it left her.

I can get it back. Whenever I want.

It would be back. She was the magic and the magic was her.

I made it. I control it. I am it.

The Phoenix had risen.