PAO: Pony Art Online

"Are you sure she's okay?"

"What was she saying on top of its head?"

"Stop, she's safe now and so are we thanks to her."

"She almost went with that boss."

"How does she even have magic anyway? What's she hiding?"

"Shut up, you have no idea what happened back there, none of us do."

"I know what I saw, and so do the rest of the Knights."

"Don't you dare turn your back on us!"

Phoenix hated their voices when all she wanted to rest her head. She channeled her magic into an electric field and blasted it away from her, though nothing happened after the effort. She tried again, but this time even the feeling of her magic was gone, and it felt as if she had bled to death.

But she couldn't blame her friends for worrying, even if they were burdensome.

When were they ever a burden? Phoenix asked herself. It was a foreign thought to her, one that made her uncomfortable simply thinking of it. She was glad she could hear them, because that meant that they had beaten the boss and survived, and there'd never be a time when she'd prefer silence over her friends.

If she could laugh she would have. Princess Twilight would probably give an entire speech about friendship if she heard my thoughts just then.

But those images were gone now, along with the power that came with them. Phoenix didn't have much memory from the fight, but what she did know was that she touched the game's system, a network of magic and coding that produced everything in PAO, and connected every player. She wondered if she should have entered it, if it was possible to reset the game from there. But she also asked herself if she could control the emotions that came from the power.

Phoenix heard Fluttershy's voice beside her. "What are we going to tell everyone? We can't tell the community who Phoenix is, at least not while she's like this."

"What choice do we have?" Applejack asked. "I don't like it either but our lie isn't exactly the strongest story out there."

"Oh come on AJ," Rainbow Dash replied, and Phoenix noted her voice was clearly exasperated from arguing, "everyone thinks she's glitched or something because of the weird items we found. I'm still holding onto the first sword we found from the Hearth's Warming event, remember?"

"Of course I remember, but how are a few pieces of broken items going to cover this up?" Applejack made a fair point, to Phoenix's dismay.

"I don't know, but that's the same for everyone else in this game." Rainbow Dash raised her voice at Applejack, determined to win the debate. "How many players in the entire game do you think actually knows how the game's programs work? Or the Digisphere for that matter? I only know one, and she's the one right here in a coma."

"Maybe, but they're not stupid," Applejack said. "At the very least, there'll be some doubts about all this."

Phoenix wished she could smile and tell them she was glad they were worried over her own secret. That said, even she had doubts that every player would simply stop asking questions just because they saw a few items with glitched descriptions, and without the ability to defend herself from accusations, all sorts of theories would begin to take root.

"Oh my gosh I came as I could as soon as I heard!" Phoenix didn't have to see to know who barged into the door. Pinkie Pie's worry was as welcomed as it was unique. Why am I stuck listening? I can hear and think, but not move, speak, or even see?

There was another set of hooves that followed Pinkie Pie, carrying Aria's voice with it. "Look guys, Pinkie didn't really explain whatever she read in the message you sent. So, what's this about... magic sheep?"

"Sleep! Magic sleep!" shouted Pinkie as she rushed to Phoenix's side. "Weren't you listening on the way here?"

"No," Aria admitted, looking around at everyone, "though that wouldn't be a problem if I got a message too."

"We didn't have time," Rainbow Dash said, "Sunset's basically in a coma right now!"

"Quiet down with her real name," Aria hissed, "we just passed a couple Knights and Crusaders talking down the hall. You could have chosen a spot less public by the way. I've already heard a bunch of rumors in this tavern alone, and they're all saying bad things about Phoenix. If you wanted a private conversation, maybe don't choose a place where two dozen players can overhear us."

"RD's just worried, we all are," Applejack said, calming down the situation. "We asked Pinkie to bring you here 'cause we figured you're our next best expert on magic. Well, you and Sonata that is."

"Well, I'm sorry to say I can't really help you there. I'm no wizard or magician, and I definitely don't know what mesh of technology and magic the game's using to do all this." There was a touch of genuine regret in Aria's voice, but it sounded more like she just hated being useless.

"Well, there's got to be something you can think of," Fluttershy pleaded. "She's the only reason we made it out of the dungeon alive."

Aria took a deep breath. "I just told you there's nothing I can do. You are some of the few people who know exactly what I can do, and none of it has to do with Phoenix's problem. The only solution I see at this point is to wait."

"Waiting." Rainbow Dash grumbled "I'm not exactly good at that."

"Same here," Applejack added. "I can't just do nothing while she's like this."

"And sitting here worrying about her won't do any good either," Aria advised them. "How long have you all been here. Six hours?"

"Five and a half," Fluttershy said.

"Right," Aria gestured outside the inn. "While this is all going on the rest of the Clearing Group's cracked down on training in dungeons. No parties, no fun. Turns out losing your only super-weapon starts a pretty big panic."

"They're not the ones with their friend in coma," Rainbow Dash argued.

"We're all basically in a coma Rainbow Dash," Aria snapped. "All of us. These people just want to get out of the game, and who knows, escape might be  the only way to help Pheonix. I'm out of the fight, I can wait around with her, but you still need to finish what Phoenix started because she can't do it now."

The others looked around and sighed. They weren't sure how to feel about Aria, but they knew there was something Sunset trusted, enough to let her loose after everything she's done.

"You're right," Applejack said. "We'll get back after a night's rest. We could all use it." Slowly, they said good night to Phoenix and left Aria to look after her.

Rainbow Dash was the last to leave, but not without a final word to Aria. "You can be a pretty good friend. Just gotta put your mind to it."

Aria looked at Phoenix and tried to imagine life in Equestria, with friends and not prey. She shook her head. It wasn't possible.

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"Boss wants to see you."

Grieve Blossom gulped and stood up. The guard held the door open and waited for him to go through. It was common that players were uncomfortable talking to Allegretto, but it was clear it had been a long day and the guard was getting tired. "Just get it over with."

He nodded and trotted into the meeting room. Aside from Allegretto, it was empty.

"Nice to see you Grieve Blossom," she said, gesturing for him to have a seat. "I've been wanting to speak to you personally for some time."

Grieve Blossom sat down, taking a sip of the water placed for him on the table. "What about?"

"You've worked well with the Crusaders for a very long time, especially with... what's her name? It was some kind of flower, I'm sure you know who I'm talking about."

"Roseluck," he supplied.

"Yes, sorry my mind's just a little tired is all." Allegretto proved the fact by chewing on an ingredient called Night Call. The plant was typically used in pain relieving potions, or more powerful drinks for recreational purposes, but the roots alone were perfect for clearing headaches.

"Popular choice," Grieve Blossom said. "A lot of players have been getting headaches lately."

Allegretto nodded. "Too long in this game is what I say. Others think it's being in pony bodies or simply too much stress." She sighed, spitting out the remains of the root into the fireplace. "But, the bottom line is we have to win. And I think you know how to make that reality come true."

Grieve Blossom was flattered, but just as confused. "Me? I'm just an officer, like any other."

"The Crusaders see you as one of them, despite flying our guild colors," Allegretto explained. "You don't just work with them, you're a part of them. I think you could help unify the Clearing Group into a single force, and to start, I'd like to add you to my cabinet of advisers."

"You mean..." Grieve Blossom's voice got caught in his throat. "That'd mean I'd outrank..."

"Everyone but me," Allegretto finished. "Even your old commander Iceblood."

Grieve Blossom still couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Okay, I know that sounds weird but in reality he's not much older than you," Allegretto continued, seeing he needed a bit more talking to take it in. "And while the other officers might be good players and loyal members, you can be so much more. We may not be able to agree on how to fight through the game, but maybe the Crusaders and Knights could close what's left of the rift between us. We're both big enough to tackle the average boss dungeons on our own. United, we'd end the game in no time."

Grieve Blossom nodded in agreement. They were both the largest guilds in the game, that much was true. But training and loot distribution couldn't make them fully integrate.

"I accept your offer," he finally said, thinking it over only a little longer. "I'll happily help in any way possible."

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Potion orders were through the roof. Ever since Scootaloo led her own raid party and took down the floor sixty boss on her own, more players were joining the Cutie Mark Crusaders. And that left Roseluck and her fellow alchemists with more work to do.

"Three hundred healing elixirs need to go out for this week's training teams," she told one of the players ranked as her assistant. "I'll start work on the fortification potions."

The guild coffers were rising with enough donations that she didn't have to collect her own ingredients any more. Even the rarest materials that often restricted her work were found regularly and added to the guild instead of being sold at an auction. She filled her inventory full of the ingredients she needed and went over to her own alchemy station.

The brewing process took a while, but that rarely ended up being the factor that slowed production. At the high levels of alchemy, the brewing mini-games went from simple quick-time events to chemistry simulators and complex arcade games.

"I need more Whitestem Leaf," said one of the other alchemists.

Roseluck checked the guild's bank from her menu. Sure enough, they were out. "I'll ask Applebloom about it. Someone must've gotten more from the dungeons."

"And more Onyx Seeds too," added another.

Roseluck nodded. "I'll be sure to message her about that too."

By the end of the day, the list had expanded to thirty ingredients. Some were extremely rare and would take days to collect, even though only a few were needed for large batches. Others were more common, but nonetheless it'd take time to harvest them as well.

"Better get to work," she sighed to herself.

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Aria stepped out of the inn for the first time in days. Floor sixty-three, a relatively easy battle according to Sonata, had been cleared. Players entered and left the inn happy, most of them joining with friends and talking about the dungeon.

She looked around the streets of the central city, and it looked as if the whole city had come alive. The Clearing Group was headed to the sixty-fourth floor, eager to see what new area awaited them. Aria counted herself lucky. If she fought with the Knights, she would've been in the crowd, waiting in line to teleport up to the next floor. She didn't care what was next in the game. The past two weeks was proof she wasn't needed in the Clearing Group.

But while she didn't need to join anyone to teleport up, she was waiting for someone like all the other players looking for their friends.

A hoof tapped her on her shoulder. "You look bored."

She turned around. "Hey there Iceblood. Dungeon give a good fight?"

He shrugged. "It didn't fight hard enough. I'm still here after all."

Aria smiled. "Don't die. I bet against a couple Knights that you'd live to the end."

"Well, if I die, I'll know I foiled your plans," Iceblood said. He looked down the street to the center of the city, where players were teleporting up to floor sixty-four. "Waste of time. It's just an empty desert environment. Outside of central there's only ghost towns."

"Glad I'm here then," Aria said.

"Go get something to eat. Something that isn't basic inn food." Iceblood turned and made his way into the building. "I'll keep an eye on her while you're gone."

"How long?" Aria asked, catching the door before it closed.

"I dunno, a few hours?" Iceblood looked at Aria. "How long does it take for you to eat?"

"That's not what I meant," she replied. "How long do you think Phoenix will be asleep?"

Iceblood looked down at his hooves. "Don't ask me that Aria. No one want to think about it."

But while Iceblood's eyes looked down, Aria's hard look didn't waver. "It's been two weeks Iceblood. We've gone through this three times already, but it's looking hopeless."

"Yeah, hopeless," Iceblood nodded. "But hopeless or not, giving up isn't Phoenix's way, and it's not our way either. The Clearing Group wouldn't be here if it was."

"I'm not in the Clearing Group anymore," Aria reminded Iceblood, "I don't need to have that kind of optimism." But he just shook his head.

"What happened with the guy you killed, it wasn't your fault," he told her sternly. "I believed what you and your party said happened, and I still believe it, even if the Knights of Yore don't trust you. You're one of us no matter what, and that's what Phoenix saw despite what others thought."

Aria chuckled wearily. "I can't be one of you. Trust me." She could tell Iceblood wanted to argue with her, make her believe she was something better than a siren and a killer, but Aria was tired and she knew nothing would change her mind.

"Be back in an hour," she told Iceblood. He tried to follow her, but she turned a corner and lost him with a few agile leaps up onto the rooftops.

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Grieve Blossom fidgeted in his new seat at Allegretto's meeting room. They sat at a round table, so that no one was at its head, as they waited for their leader to arrive. While he may have been well known, he was just a commander like Iceblood, and no one considered him special enough to sit as Allegretto's advisers. He suspected half of the advisers envied him for his sudden rise, while the other half thought he wasn't ready for the position. But most of all, they were staring at Grieve Blossom's guest.

Scootaloo couldn't stop tapping her hoof against the ground. "How long is this going to take?" she whispered to Grieve Blossom. He simply shrugged without an answer.

"Grieve Blossom," one of the advisers spoke up to clear the silence, "tell me again why a leader of the Crusaders is here at our meeting?" The other advisers nodded in agreement.

It didn't surprise him. The one who had asked went by the name of GoldenBlade, and made his role in the guild as fitting as possible. He was in charge of guild expenses, calculating the costs of every new guild keep and deciding how high the taxes needed to be. Nothing went in or out of the guild bank without GoldenBlade's supervision, and though he was one of the lowest leveled advisers, his position gave him power over most of the other players in the room.

Grieve Blossom figured the only thing stronger than GoldenBlade's influence was escaping the game. "If the bosses on each floor follow the pattern Allegretto suspects, the Clearing Group needs to be more prepared before we fight our way to floor seventy. Unifying now can help us, and Scootaloo's here to help that happen."

GoldenBlade scowled. "It was Allegretto who got us through to floor sixty. If it were up to the CMC and their friends, we would have retreated and be days behind."

Scootaloo clenched her teeth, she wanted to scold him for placing all the credit on Allegretto even as Phoenix was still knocked out by her magic. But Grieve Blossom reached under the table and nudged Scootaloo, warning her not to widen the rift between their guilds.

It was a relief to everyone when Allegretto finally arrived at the meeting. "Sorry guys, kept trying to get a unique shield from the Direwolf Den Dungeon. It didn't drop, but after five attempts it's gotten personal." She took a seat and everyone turned to face her. Despite being a round table, Allegretto was still at the head, and that was without question. "So, what new?"

Two advisers, the top generals of the Knights, traded looks and shared a message they got from their players with Allegretto. "Team Sigma went rogue a day ago. The full party of six just quit the guild and dropped off the friends list of everyone in the Knights."

Allegretto scanned the message on her menu. "Sounds like they're retiring. Family and friends made them stop fighting, I bet."

"What should we do?" one of the generals asked.

"Simple," she said, swiping her menu screen away, "Send out two parties of five to look for them. Bring them back here and force them back into the guild at the lowest rank. Even if it costs us more time and players, we can't let them abandon their duties. Letting them go whenever they want would just be a sign of disorganization, and that's going to make us weaker in the long run."

The generals nodded, satisfied with the answer, but Scootaloo clearly wasn't happy. "You can't force them to fight for you!" she exclaimed. "We need them, sure, but it's wrong to punish them just because they want to live with their friends. At least ask them to come back first."

"Typical," scoffed GoldenBlade, but a gesture of Allegretto's hoof silenced him.

"I understand your concern for their wishes Scootaloo," she responded, "I knew Grieve Blossom would bring some much needed insight to our discussion. But these deserters are not the first, and I doubt giving leniency will make them the last."

Scootaloo opened her mouth to argue more but GoldenBlade cut her off with his own topic. "While we're talking about Scootaloo's insight, I'd like to discuss the issue of the guild bank, Guild Master."

"Go ahead," she nodded.

"A lot of the basic supplies we need for crafting aren't being added to our coffers," he said. Then he pointed his hoof to Scootaloo. "The Crusaders have often been eager to complete the game's random events and quests, doing so before our players arrive to get their share of the rewards."

GoldenBlade opened his menu and swiped left until it brought up the map of floor sixty-four. A large area in the northern part of the map was highlighted in blue. "Events such as that one offer the bulk of the resources we need to craft new materials, far more than we can get from gathering resource nodes." He pointed to the smaller dots on the map, markers for all the members of the Knights of Yore, all of which were clustered around the dungeons. "Our players are far too removed from open world events to reach them in time."

"Maybe you should play better," Scootaloo suggested. She was shocked when the retort came from Allegretto, not GoldenBlade.

"We're here to discuss ways to succeed together," she told Scootaloo, "not throw insults at each other. Be sure to remember that."

Scootaloo held her tongue and let Allegretto continue discussing with her advisers. "Materials are important, I agree, but our players need to train in the dungeons to prepare for the boss fight. Whatever we need to collect, I'm sure we can purchase it from the rest of the community."

"To make ends meet we'd have to increase weekly dues by three percent," GoldenBlade told Allegretto. Grieve Blossom noticed a few other advisers twitch as he mention the dues. As the players with the most power in the guild, they also invested the most money in the guild by paying higher dues, and a percent increase would hurt the advisers more than any other officer or commander.

"Make it six percent," Allegretto replied to GoldenBlade. "I don't like having the bare minimum of gold in the bank. I want more money stored up in case of future emergencies."

One of the advisers coughed and spoke up. "I don't think that'd be wise, Guild Master. Getting new recruits would be hard if we raise the dues. No one wants to fight in a guild if they can't buy new weapons at the same time."

Of all the advisers, Scootaloo recognized him. Bluefire was the head recruiter for the Knights, and understood more about the players themselves than the rest of the advisers. He was regarded as GoldenBlade's opposite, caring for the people rather than the numbers. He frequently clashed with the CMC when players new to the Clearing Group had to decide which guild to join, but even so Scootaloo respected his concern for the common players.

"Bluefire, we're not simply taking their money," Allegretto told him. "Joining the Knights of Yore means they get services, including the best blacksmiths and alchemists in the Clearing Group. We can't give them that without proper materials."

Scootaloo scoffed inwardly, making sure she wasn't heard. As far as she had seen, she was the best blacksmith in the Clearing Group, and as for alchemists, she was pretty sure that title went to Roseluck. But despite their professions, Scootaloo never encountered a problem with basic materials. The only thing that was ever short in the Crusader's guild bank was rare materials, materials that often dropped from dungeons.

"I have an idea that could fix our problems," she blurted out, cutting into whatever debate she had droned out. GoldenBlade was about to stop Scootaloo, but Allegretto gave a nod to signal Scootaloo to speak. "You have have a problem with the basic materials for crafting beause you're players constantly train in the dungeons. The Crusaders have the opposite problem: we don't have enough rare and relic ingredients, the kind you only find after a day or two in a dungeon."

"A trade then, is it?" Allegretto raised a brow. "So we'll get what we need?"

"Whatever you can pay for." Scootaloo gave a wolfish smirk. She preferred to fight her problems, but she was ready to barter her way to victory if it came to that.

"Excellent," Allegretto said with a satisfied smile. "You can draft the details of a fair trade deal with GoldenBlade after the meeting. For now, we should address the other matters."

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She lost track of time completely. Sunset didn't even know when she was conscious and when she was asleep. Sometimes she couldn't hear anything, and the silence would almost drive her mad until the sound slowly came back. It was muffled when if did, like hearing things underwater, but slowly she'd drift back to hearing normally.

Aria spent the most time in her room, and she was even the one who decided to take her out of the inn and bring her back to her mansion on floor fifty-nine. It was rough, being slung over Aria's back, but Sunset appreciated the comfort of her own bed. While Aria watched her, waiting for her to wake up, her other friends visited throughout the day and talked to her about what went on. Most times, she could hear them, but she occasionally missed a few details when her hearing faded.

She constantly fought to reach her magic, to tap into the Digispheres and interfere enough to wake her up. It was risky if it worked, she didn't know what would happen, but she knew it couldn't be worse than being completely out of the game while other players risked their lives, continuing the fight.

But today, Sunset lay quietly on her bed, petrified. Aria had gone to the central city for buy lunch and dinner, and no one else was available to take her place for the moment. At least, that's what Sunset expected, until her door opened. Whoever entered her bedroom came in unannounced, and paced around her room freely.

She waited for a while, expecting the player to say something like they usually did, but all Sunset could hear was the sounds of a menu screen. They weren't the normal sounds of inventory management and party invites, there were no buttons being clicked and no screen being swiped around. Sunset recognized the sounds of the faulty admin console, accessing the magic link between every player in PAO.

Who is this? All the admins monitored the servers when the game launched, I should be the only one with that screen. Sunset struggled to open her eyes, even for just a moment, to see who was watching her sleep. Unfortunately she could do nothing.

So it came as a surprise to her when she began sensing the Digisphere's magic, like a web of colored strings wrapped around her head. She moved through the magic with a just a thought, and came across all new patterns she had never seen before. But as she gained access to new data, something was happening to the old.

She tried to touch the links, but found that simply being close to the magic showed her what was happening. They were being drained. Not entirely, some links were already beginning to recover, but it was certainly enough to form a copy of the spells. Sunset realized it was a data swap, whoever was in her room needed her magic, and in the process gave her copies of their own magic.

It was over in minutes, and the player quickly left her house as to not get caught. But the magic didn't leave with the stranger. Sunset moved around the strands of spells, touching each one and seeing all the possible connections. She thought she had all the magic when she fought the giant boss, but all the new magic she gained from the stranger was nearly twice what she had before.

If she didn't have anything to do before, now she had far too much to do.