PAO: Pony Art Online

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.

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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."

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"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."

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"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."

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"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.

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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.

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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.

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"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.

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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.