PAO: Pony Art Online

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."

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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."

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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.

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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?