PAO: Pony Art Online

"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."

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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

Tu reste mon ami

Tu reste mon ami

Tu reste mon ami

Je t'honore

Jamais tu mourras

I remember you

You'll never die

Ton coeur avait raison!

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?

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"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.

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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."

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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."

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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?"

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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."

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

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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."

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

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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.