Apocryphal thoughtsby ShadowboltwriterChaptersSetting the stage part 1Setting the stage part 2Tracing the signalShutting downRealizing your moreSetting the stage part 1It was a beautiful day in equestria. Several ponies were outside their homes enjoying the fresh air. One pony today however was spending his time in his bedroom, trying to think of ideas for his newest work. His white coat and turquoise mane and tail blended in with the sheets he was laying on. He sighed and rolled onto his back. "Alright, so next I can have the three gaurds pulled from their posts by... by..." His eyes started wandering around his room, it sometimes seemed to spark some inspiration out of him. His eyes settled on a guard figurine his older brother, Road Map, had given him as a gift. "Maybe ... maybe by their commander? No... if their going to go on this crazy adventure then... maybe from somepony from even higher command?" He wondered, tapping the pencil he had in his hoof on his horn. His train of thought was interrupted by a voice coming from outside his bedroom door that he recognized as his younger twin sister, Fair Dice. "Wordplay! Wordplay!" Fair Dice shouted through his door. "Yeah sis?" Wordplay asked her while getting off his bed and opening his door, revealing fair dice behind it. Fair Dice was barely younger than wordplay, with them being twins. Fair Dice was a unicorn as well, having a light green coat and a mane with a mixture of bright green and turquoise flowing in it. She also had blue eyes like Wordplay's, but his was a lighter shade. Fair dice stepped towards wordplay as soon as he opened his door. "Come on wordplay, road map is making lunch." Fair dice said while trying to pull her brother out of his room. Wordplay resisted her attempts to pull him away. "Ok I'll come down downstairs, just let me make a note in my notebook real quick ok?" Wordplay asked, getting his sisters hooves off him. "Alrighty." She replied. Wordplay stepped toward his notebook before glancing behind him to see fair dice still standing in his doorway, waiting on him instead of going downstairs ahead of him. Wordplay continued to pick up his notebook he had left on his bed, still open to the page he had been writing on. He picked up his pencil and quickly wrote have the guards called away by very high command before closing his book and set it on a shelf he kept his work on. He then returned by Fair Dice's side and walked downstairs with her. Downstairs the two found their older brother Road Map in the kitchen putting together their lunches. "Hey you two, how are you guys doing?" Road map asked, finishing the threes lunches. "I'm great." Fair dice replied in her usual excited manner. "I'm alright." Wordplay replied in a moody manner. Road Map noticed Wordplay's unusual mood. Wordplay's siblings noticed their brother had been acting strange the past few days. He had always been known to be shy but recently he had oddly recluse and seemed to be bothered by something. "Are you sure? You sound kind of... down." Road Map asked. He didn't like seeing his brother upset. "Oh it's quite alright road map." Wordplay said trying to make a reassuring face. Road Map wasn't convinced but decided he would talk to Wordplay about it later. Road Map picked up one of the plates he had put out for lunch and brought it over to the table. Fair Dice decided to be generous and levitated the other two over, earning a quick thank you from Road Map. The three each picked a spot at the table and started enjoying their lunch. "So Wordplay, I haven't seen you since breakfast, I assume you've been up in you're room working on your next big hit?" Road Map asked trying to change the topic. Wordplay looked up from his plate, of which he had been staring at. "Oh, yes I have." Wordplay said. He hadn't planned on conversing with anypony. "Well... what's it about?" Road Map asked after a brief pause from Wordplay. "Well... At he base of it right now is that three royal guards get called away on an adventure where they either have to rescue somepony or retrieve some sort of artifact or device. I haven't really decided on that part yet." Wordplay recapped. Road Map gave a cheerful smile. "Well whatever you decide to do with it I'm sure it'll be great." Road Map told Wordplay. That feedback cheered up Wordplay. "Yeah... I'm sure it will be. After all it is my talent, writing my little fictional worlds..." Wordplay said, his mood seeming to saden as he spoke. Road Map and Fair Dice shared a look of concern. "Why do you sound so sad about that? You love writing and role playing and all that." Fair Dice questioned. Wordplay let out a sigh. "Well... yeah I do, it's great and all but... am I really that great for much else?" Wordplay asked his siblings. The thought had been troubling Wordplay after it had first entered his head. They were both shocked at their brothers question. "Come on wordplay don't-" Road Map said before Wordplay stood up from his seat. "But think about it. I do great when it comes to writing and creating stories but... am I really good at much alas than that?" Wordplay said, sounding almost desperate. Road Map came up next to him. "Oh come on Wordplay, don't talk to yourself like that. I'm sure there's plenty of others things you're good at, you just... haven't realized it yet." Road Map told him "yeah!" Fair dice said for emphasis. Wordplay gave a weak smile. "I... I guess you're right." Wordplay accepted. "That's the spirit. Now how about we forget about this and maybe play a game of D&D?" Road Map suggested. Wordplay considered his brothers offer. "That sounds like it could be fun." Wordplay agreed "Yeah, come on you two." Fair Dice said before running off into the room they play in. "Fair dice wait we didn't-" Road Map tried to stop his sister but failed before she ran off through the door. "Didn't clean off the table." Road Map finished his sentence. Wordplay smiled at his brother. "Hey, at least she can set it up for us." Wordplay said. "Heh, I guess she can. Come on wordy let's get this cleaned up so we can join her." Road Map said. Wordplay smiled hearing his nickname after such a tense situation. "Sounds like a plan." Wordplay said. ... A few days passed and Wordplay's mood seemed to improve, but his original thoughts still lingered, now accompanied by his brothers words. "Hmm... what could I be good for other than my writing..." Wordplay wondered. He decided to change his thoughts to his next story. He moved over to the computer in his room to look up some pictures to try and get an idea for scenery his three gaurds would venture through. He was about to open the Internet to browse when he noticed he had an unread email. Curious, he opened his email and was surprised to see it was from pixel wavelength, which everypony knew to be the princess of the Internet. "Sent only a few minutes ago too..." Wordplay said as he opened the message and began to read it. Dear Wordplay, Hello my dear friend Wordplay. I am sending this message to you because there is an emergency that has rose to my attention. You may remember a while ago that I asked for your assistance to help me better the Internet. Well now the opportunity has presented itself. I am requesting your help, and several other ponies, to help me face an emergency that threatens the internet. If you accept then I ask you to meet me at an estate of mine, the address is listed below. I would greatly appreciate your help. Signed, Pixel Wavelength Wordplay had to reread the letter. "Pixel Wavelength wants me to help her help the Internet? That's sounds... I don't even know what to think of it." Wordplay said to himself "I... I need to go help her." Wordplay decided. ... Wordplay was currently at a train station, accompanied by his siblings. "Whatever you do, stay safe alright?" Road Map asked. "Yes Road Map. It's only like the fourth time you asked me that." Wordplay responded. Road Map had already asked that question two times on the way. "Third actually. You'll have fun too right?" Fair Dice asked. "Of course I will." Wordplay said. The three ponies shared a nice sibling hug. "Well I think that's about everything. Take care wordy." Road Map told Wordplay. "I will. I love you two." Wordplay said. "Love you too." Both Road Map and Fair Dice said. With that Wordplay boarded the train and found a comfortable seat. As the train started speeding up Wordplay spent his time wondering who the other ponies Pixel mentioned were... Author's Note Oh my gosh I am so happy to finally have this up This was fun to write and probably stills going to be fun writing the rest of it. Anyways be sure to leave a comment, I love to hear feedback from everypony and hopefully you all enjoy what is to come Setting the stage part 2Wordplay was wondering through the streets of manehatten, looking for the address pixel had given him. He was commonly glancing in the windows of various shops, sometimes he could see his reflection rather well. One such time wordplay looked into the window of a shop that had some old knick knacks on display, then he saw another reflection rapidly approach him from his left. Wordplay turned to see the figure of a lavender mare running toward him, then said mare abruptly stopped herself to avoid running into wordplay "oh sorry, I was in a hurry and didn't see you there." She apologized. Wordplay recovered from the mares sudden approach "oh well, uh, that's ok I guess. Just make sure you look where you're going." Wordplay told her. "Got it. Look where I'm going." She responded. Both of them proceeded to continue walking in the same direction. "If you don't mind me asking... why were you in such a rush back there?" Wordplay asked, curiously. He normally wouldn't just talk to somepony random but this mare had peaked his interest. Wordplay could see her expression full with excitement "oh you probably won't believe me, but I got asked by pixel wavelength to help her with a special problem. Cool huh?" the mare exclaimed. Wordplay normally wouldn't believe such a claim, but under the current circumstances, his interest was further peaked "huh, that's odd. I got a message from her too that asked the same thing." Wordplay said. "Cool! You must be one of the other ponies she mentioned. I mean I already know a few of them but you're definitely new to the group." The mare said, seeming to get more excited as she spoke. Wordplay did recall pixel mentioning other ponies in her message. A new thought came to the mares mind "now that I think of it, we're going to be helping pixel and I don't even know you're name yet." She said in a surprised manner. She looked over at wordplay waiting for a response. "Oh, you're right. I'm wordplay." Wordplay told her. "Cool, I'm Buffy." Buffy replied before wordplay returned the question. A few seconds later the two turned a corner to the street pixel had given them. On it were only a few buildings, spread out somewhat far apart, but one stood out from the others. Wordplay had no doubt the house was considered a mansion from its sheer size. The house as a whole was very astonishing to look at, the decorative coloring and a few pillars stood in the front. Both of them stood in awe for a moment. Eventually wordplay returned them to reality, reminding them they actually needed to go to the building. After a few minutes of trotting the two reached the front steps, which wordplay confirmed was pixels estate. When they approached the double doors that we're the entrance they we're greeted by a stallion who had been standing near the doors "hey where are- oh hey buffy." the stallion said. He had a tan coat and an orange mane and tail. "Hiya nova, look you who I brought with me." Buffy said. Wordplay assumed nova was this stallions name "I'm gonna guess that's wordplay with you." Nova said. "Yep!" Buffy responded, confirming nova's answer. "Well then, nice to meet you wordplay. I'm nova blast, but you can just call me nova like buffy did." Nova said raising out his hoof in greeting. Wordplay reached out his own "good to meet you, I guess." Wordplay said. This was the second stranger wordplay had thrust himself into conversation with. He also didn't bother to question how nova already knew his name, he figured pixel had told him "well let's not stand outside, let me bring you two in." Nova said pulling out some sort of card and sliding it through a scanner that was present next to the doors. Nova then opened one of the large doors of the home, motioning for them to follow him. The inside of the house was as luxurious as the outside, decorative pillars supporting the high ceiling and various and rather fancy articles of furniture spread across the room. Off to the left there were two other mares seated at a table, one of which was using one of her legs to spin herself around. The one spinning herself bad a dark blue coat and a white mane and tail, with a single light blue stripe running through them. The other mare had a light purple coat and two shades of darker purple in her mane and tail. Wordplay thought she seemed to give off a fancy appeal. Nova brought wordplay and Buffy over to them "that furniture belongs to royalty, I suggest you stop using it as a toy." The light purple mare said in an authoritative tone. "But I'm booored... oh hey there." the other said taking notice of the trio next to her. Nova stepped in between the two groups "alright, viola and already know buffy so let me introduce you to wordplay. Azura this is buffy and wordplay." Nova said pointing toward each pony as he spoke. "Cool, nice to meet you two. I'm azura peavielle but you can just call me azura." Azura said hoping out of her seat to stand in front of them. "I'm viola, a pleasure to meet you wordplay." Viola said. Buffy immediately moved over to azura and high hoofed her before quickly getting into a conversation. Wordplay felt inclined to respond "uh... nice to meet you too." Wordplay said sheepishly. Nova quieted azura and Buffy before speaking again "well you all get comfortable, I need to go back outside and wait on viridian." Nova said before walking back outside. Azura didn't pay any mind to who viridian was, instead resuming her conversation with buffy. Wordplay decided to occupy himself by writing. He pulled out his notebook and took a seat away from everypony and peacefully wrote for a few minutes. Until azura got curious and decided to come over to him. "What are you doing?" Azura asked wordplay, putting her two front hooves onto the table. "I'm... writing." Wordplay responded, a little surprised by her approach. "Well duh, I can see that. I meant what are you writing about?" Azura asked. Wordplay looked through his pages for a moment "well... im working on a new story of mine. Right now it focuses on these three gaurds and they have to go on this adventure to recover an old artifact." Wordplay said, hoping it would satisfy azura's curiosity. "Do you think it's good?" Azura asked. Wordplay was a little confused at the question "what do you mean?" Wordplay asked. Azura had to think of how to explain her reasoning "hmm... well basically it's like this. I play stuff on the radio and so you wanna make sure you're playing stuff that ponies will like, and that also that can help if you like it." Azura explained. Wordplay took a few seconds to think about azura's statement "I... I guess that makes sense when you put it like that." Wordplay said. Before azura could say anything else, nova walked back into the room. Behind him was a mare with a tan coat and a light green mane and tail "hello everypony." She said in a very joyful manner. Nova walked forward to introduce her "wordplay, azura, this is viridian meadows. Viridian this is wordplay and azura peavielle." Nova said while pointing to each pony as he said their name. Azura brought her hooves back to the floor "hey there, nice to meet ya." Azura said to viridian. "Hey there." Wordplay said. Nova spoke up again "well now that everypony is here, I'm going to inform pixel that you're all here. I'll be back in hopefully a few minutes." Nova announced before he walked over to a door on the other side of the room and exiting through it. It looked dark behind it. Buffy eventually said what everypony was thinking "where do you think he went?" Buffy asked, hoping for responses. "Some sort of research facility?" Viridian suggested. "Some sort of experimental lair..." Azura suggested jokingly. "It's probably just some laboratory." Wordplay said. Everypony was able to agree with wordplay. Around two minutes passed before nova walked back into the room, followed none other than pixel wavelength. Pixel's alicorn structure made her stand out from everypony, her bright blue mane and tail seemed to be a bit unkept, and her pure white coat shined in the room. "Hello everypony, I assume your all familiar with me?" Pixel asked, hoping to go ahead and address their situation. She received nods from everypony "good then. Now as much as I would love to talk and enjoy some time with everypony, you all remember why I asked for you to be here." Pixel said in a soothing but concerned voice. "Some sort of crisis with the internet right?" Buffy replied. Pixel nodded "exactly. Now to start things off I want to show you all something. If you could all follow me downstairs." Pixel said, turning around exiting through the stairs she had entered from. Nova moved and stood next to the door "I'll bring up the rear, you all go ahead." Nova said, motioning for them to go ahead. Eventually everypony filed into a line and proceeded down the dark corridor, with pixel in the front, nova in the back, and everypony else finding a spot in between. The staircase was narrow, with only two ponies being able to stand beside each other. It consisted of two left turns before eventually opening up into a very large room. The room itself was filled with various technologies lined up against the walls, many of them having flashing lights that illuminated the room, and the occasional screen. While most of the group took in the scene, pixel walked over to a large monitor that was hung up on the wall, which seemed to have some sort of document opened on it. Soon the group formed a small semicircle around pixel "now that we're here, this is what I wanted to show you all..." Pixel said, pointing toward the monitor above her "...but I should bring you all up to speed on some recent events." Pixel said before going quiet for a moment, the buzzing of all the machines keeping the room from falling completely silent. Eventually pixel spoke again "a few weeks ago, I received an email in my personal email sent by an anonymous pony. I didn't think much of it other than that they somehow had my personal email somehow. I dismissed it as one of those ponies that are on the internet simply to spread their negativity. Every few days since then I would receive another message from the same pony, saying various things about how I should be listening to them, but the things they were saying along with it just sounded like nonsense... I never took any of it seriously until they sent this last one." Pixel explained. Viridian asked this time what they were all wondering "what exactly happened?" She asked pixel. Pixel paused for another moment "well... I had just picked up my phone and noticed I had a new email so like normal I went to read it and it was from that anonymous pony. I noticed it seemed to have some sort of attachment with it, which was new, but what really surprised and shocked me was the mention of a software that me and nova had been developing and only us two knew about it. They mentioned it's name and that was enough to put me into concern. And as if that wasn't bad enough I foolishly opened the attachment they had sent with it which simply read 'imagine if this got into your whole internet'. I didn't realize what that meant at first, but I eventually realized that my phone now had a virus on it. The damage was so bad that my old phone hardly functions anymore." Pixel continued. Pixel paused once more to make sure everypony was still with her "these are no longer just empty words this pony has been telling me, they are full fledged and very serious threats. If they continue such things they just might compromise the Internet as a whole. I reached out to you all because I felt as though it was the right thing to do. Now are you all with me in this?" Pixel asked. Everypony responded with sayings along the lines of 'yeah' and 'totally' which brought pixel's spirits up "great then." Pixel said. Buffy spoke up next "so what all have you done to stop them so far?" Buffy asked. Pixel raised her hoof to her chin "well so far we've been trying to create something that can combat the virus but... anything we've tried has been unsuccessful." Pixel informed "but we're still trying. I'm sure we'll get something." Pixel added. Wordplay thought of something that he sometimes did, but he was afraid of suggesting it, uncomfortable going against pixel's current intentions "uh... pixel? Can I suggest something?" Wordplay asked hesitantly. Pixel gave him a warm smile "anything wordplay." Pixel told him. "Well... I was thinking since... you're not having any success now you could... try looking at this differently." Wordplay suggested. Pixel tilted her head slightly "you mean like trying a different approach? Did you have anything in mind?" Pixel asked, curious of where wordplay was going with this. Wordplay thought to his writing "well... when I'm writing I sometimes find problems with my stories, like some much needed support for a character isn't there, or there's a big plot hole in it, heck I even had to almost entirely rewrite something once." Wordplay said. "Where exactly are you going with this?" Viridian asked, curious as well. "Oh yeah... so sometimes when something I'm writing just won't work like I want it, sometimes it pays to try a different approach l, even if it's completely different." Wordplay said, seeking to excite himself. Pixel considered everything wordplay had said "that... is actually a great idea wordplay."'pixel said, smiling at wordplay. "You- you really think so?" Wordplay asked. "Of course. Everything nova and I have tried in hopes of combating the virus have failed... perhaps there is another way we can solve this crisis." Pixel stated. Buffy put her hoof up in the air "oh, can I suggest something now?" Buffy asked excitedly. "Of course you can Buffy." Pixel told her friend. "Ok, so I was thinking, maybe you can trace the signal of it? Like they do in movies! They hit all these little buttons like 'beep bop ding' and then BAM! You know where it came from." Buffy suggested. "That's... a wonderful idea buffy." Pixel said. "If we can do that, we can make it so that they can't send out the virus at all." Nova added. "Exactly. We should start working on that." Pixel said, motioning her and nova over to a device that had pixel's old phone laying on it. Azura suddenly spoke up "I know a little about radio signals and what not if that's any help." Azura offered. Pixel turned back to her "any help would be appreciated."' Pixel informed her, making azura run over and join nova and pixel. Viridian came up to wordplay shortly after "that was cool back there." She said. "What I did was cool? Oh I... wouldn't call that much." Wordplay tried to tell viridian. "Are you kidding? Speak for yourself but I say it was cool, just getting out there and sharing some thoughts to help pixel get going again." Viridian repeated. "Well... maybe." Wordplay admitted, shying away from the conversation. A few minutes passed before the group noticed nova and azura share some sort of triumphant moment, so they all assumed something good had happened. Shortly after azura returned to the group and pixel and nova stood in front of them once more "thanks to wordplay's brilliant idea and buffy's great thinking, we now have made some success." Pixel stated. "Can you tell us what it is?" Viridian asked playfully. Pixel let herself snicker "we could t trace the exact signal, but we do know one location that it definitely traveled through, and from the way it traveled, I'm willing to bet that it didn't pass through there through ordinary means." Pixel explained. Buffy spoke up again "are we gonna go and investigate it?" Buffy asked, hoping pixel would say yes. "Precisely. I want everypony to accompany me and help me investigate it." Pixel said, causing Buffy to jump into the air a little. "Yeah! Let's go!" Buffy said running out of the room. "Should we stop stop her?" Nova asked. "You know how she is, she'll probably just run up to the top of the stairs before running back down the to check on us." Viola said. Pixel nodded in agreement "we should follow her anyways. Let's all go up as well." Pixel said, starting toward the exit. "Adventure!" Azura shouted as she ran after buffy while everypony walked behind them. "Already an adventure for me."wordplay thought to himself. Author's Note The gangs all here, huzzah! Anyways feel free to comment on this story, I'm having a lot of fun writing this. Tracing the signalThe group had set their sights on the city of canterlot. The capital of equestria happened to house the location that pixel desired to go to. To pass time while they were all on the train wordplay had decided to continue writing in his notebook, pixel and nova were discussing their circumstances for the hundredth time, Buffy and azura were having a debate about what they should do while they were in canterlot, viola was reading a book she had brought with her, and viridian was asleep. After some time had passed the conductor of the train came through the cars and announced "attention everypony, we will be arriving in canterlot shortly so please be ready to exit the train upon arrival. Thank you." he announced before heading back to the front of the train. His voice had woken up viridian and got the attention of every other pony. The group spent the next few minutes getting their belongs together so they would be ready like the conductor asked. Pixel lead the ponies out onto the streets of canterlot "so how exactly is this going to go?" Viridian asked. Pixel had given a brief description of how they would go about this but said she would explain it better once they got to canterlot. Pixel looked around them for a moment "I would rather discuss this in a place where others are not going to hear us. I would like to keep this incident as isolated as possible." Pixel said, still looking around them. Viola got an idea "pixel, may I make a suggestion?" Viola asked. "Of course you can." Pixel answered. There's a park near here. I don't often see many ponies there so it could make for an isolated location." Viola said. Pixel didn't think twice about the suggestion "that would be great viola. Please, lead the way." Pixel told her. With that viola took the lead of the group and lead the group through the streets of cantorlot. A few minutes later viola lead the group through the entrance of the park that she had mentioned, and as she predicted there weren't many ponies around. Pixel soon motioned them all over to a few picnic tables that nopony was using. Pixel assumed her usual spot in front of them all "alright everypony, I'm going to run you all through our plan is at the moment. Is everypony listening?" Pixel asked them all. Pixel received several nods in return "good, now listen closely." Pixel told them all. Pixel collected her thoughts from the train ride "ok, so the place that we are heading to is a facility that assists with things such as information processing, security scans, and messaging. I want to investigate this place because the signal that carried the virus did not seem to pass through here by normal means. When we enter I want to head to their main server room, it is there I believe that we may find something of value." Pixel explained "does anypony have any questions?" Pixel asked. Wordplay and viridian raised their hooves into the air. Pixel decided to answer wordplay first "what do you want to know wordplay?" Pixel asked wordplay. "Well I was wondering... how exactly we're going to get inside?" Wordplay asked. Pixel thought to her conversation with nova on the train "I plan on persuading our way in. I'm sure that if we must we can explain our situation to whoever we may need. You all can add input if you think it may help." Pixel said. "So we're pretty much just going to ask nicely to come in... not a great plan." Wordplay thought to himself. Pixel turned to look at viridian next "now what was it you wanted to know viridian?" Pixel asked viridian. "I was wondering... what'll we gonna do if we don't find anything here?" Viridian asked. Pixel hadn't considered this before, she was so certain that something would be here that the possibility had not crossed her mind "... we... we will regroup and consider new options." Pixel said. Now that she had said that she was much less sure of herself. Pixel tried to dismiss the thought and returned to her original thoughts "well if everypony is ready then I would like to go ahead and get on our way." Pixel announced. The group quickly rose back to their hooves while pixel lead the group through canterlot again, pixel periodically stopping to look at a map she had brought with her. Eventually pixel stopped, looking down at her map before looking up to a building that stood on the corner of the street. "That's it. That's the facility." Pixel said. Wordplay stepped to the side of the group to get a better view of the building. The whole structure was surrounded by a metal fence that contained a large grey building that had two small tower-like structures that were mostly blue and had black lines that ran across the edges in color and extruded from the top of the main building. Pixel motioned them all forward "allow me to get us inside. I'm sure that the stallion at the entrance will be understanding of us." Pixel said. "I'll be surprised if he let's us in." Wordplay muttered. Pixel lead the group toward the entrance of the facility, a small gate that had a booth next to it. There was an older stallion that was working from inside the booth. He looked up from what he was doing to see pixel and her friends approach him "hm? Who are you all?" He said. His voice sounded deep and gravelly. Pixel decided to introduce herself "I'm pixel wavelength, I'm here with my friends on some important matters. I ask that me and my friends can enter your facility." Pixel said. The stallion eyed her curiously "did ya talk to my boss or something about this?" The stallion asked pixel. "Uh... no I'm afraid not." Pixel said. Before pixel could say anything else the stallion suddenly perked up. "Oh, pixel, pixel wavelength. I thought I recognized you from somewhere, how could I forget. What brings you here to this place?" The stallion asked, suddenly much more enthusiastic toward pixel. Pixel enjoyed the stallions newfound kindness "well as I said before, me and my friends would like entry to your facility, your server room to be specific." Pixel told him. "I can do that. What do ya wanna go down there for?" The stallion asked, disappearing below his desk to look for his radio. "Well we had traced a signal that passed through here and it seemed odd the way it came through so I wanted to investigate." Pixel explained. The stallion popped back up to everypony's view "good enough for me." he said, raising his radio up to his mouth "hey poper, I need you to take a group of ponies down to the server room." He said over his radio. After a few seconds another voice came over the radio "i'm supposed to go on break soon." 'poper' replied. "Oh come on poper it'll only take like two minutes." The stallion said in response. "uhg, fine. You're at the gate right?" poper asked. "Yep." He replied "alright, I'm on my way." poper said before the radio went silent again. "While he's on his way let me let you all inside." The stallion said while pulling a lever that opened the gates to the facility. Three minutes later poper came out from the side of the building and walked over to the gate "so you just want me to take them all down to the server room?" Poper asked. "Yep, that's all." The stallion said. "Alright then. All of you follow me." Poper said. Poper lead the group through the main door of the building and through many of the winding hallways the building contained. Wordplay noticed a lack of other ponies in the halls as they passed through, he assumed many of them were going on break like poper said he was going to. Eventually poper lead the group down a small set of stairs that lead to a small door at the bottom "now I don't know why you all need to be down here but don't damage anything." Poper said while opening the door. "Thank you very much sir." Pixel told him. "You're welcome ma'am." Poper said. Pixel brought everypony inside the server room before poper closed the door behind them all from outside. Wordplay walked back to see if he had locked the door, he hadn't to his relief. Pixel assumed her spot in front of everypony "alright everypony, now that we're here I want you all to spread out and look for anything out of place that could help us. Can everypony do this?" Pixel asked them all. Pixel was once again greeted with several words of agreement "that's great to hear. Now let's not waste any time and get started." Pixel said. With that announcement everypony separated down into the different rows of the server room. The room itself had several rows of lights and switches that regulates the facility's functions. The group split up and down the rows with pixel and viola together, nova and viridian together, and wordplay with azura and buffy. "So what do you two think about all this?" Azura asked. Azura was always curious to see what her friends thought about something compared to her. Buffy answered before wordplay could "I think this is cool. We're like detectives down here." Buffy said. "Cool way to think about it. Hey wordplay, do you think we'll find anything down down here?" Azura asked wordplay, who was eyeing the walls, looking for anything out of the ordinary. "Huh? Oh I think we'll find something." Wordplay said. "Are you sure?" Azura asked. She didn't think wordplay sounded serious. "I trust pixel's judgement." Wordplay said. Azura rolled her eyes "well so do I, but think about it. Pixel and nova are probably the only ponies here that could notice a difference in all these little buttons and lights and stuff." Azura said. "Well... I might be able to." Wordplay said after a moment passed. Wordplay peaked azura's curiosity with that statement "and why's that?" Azura asked. "Well when pixel first messaged me about helping the internet, which isn't this, I got super excited and ended up doing some research on pixel and some of her inventions, so I know some about these kind of things." Wordplay explained. That made sense in azura's mind. "Plus even if we don't know a lot that shouldn't stop us from looking." Buffy added. "Good point. Let's do it." Azura said. The group continued searching through the different rows of machinery. Every so often one of the group would call everypony over because they thought they had found something, but pixel would dismiss it as nothing every time. Eventually the group came together once more around viridian. "Ok so I was just thinking... I'm starting to think that there might not be anything here." Viridian said in a concerning manner. "Oh please viridian, don't think like that. There must be something here for us to discover. We just need to keep looking." Pixel said, trying to sound encouraging. "If you say so. Still though, it is kind of discouraging after going so long without finding anything after so long." Viridian said. Pixel did not reply, she only stared at viridian "um... pixel are you-" viridian was quieted by pixel, who had moved her hoof to viridian's mouth. Pixel walked past viridian to the wall of technology behind her, pixel's eyes fixed on a box that wasn't completely attached to the rest of the technology. "Did you find something pixel?" Nova asked. Pixel pointed into the small crevice between the small box and the technology above it. Nova noticed there was a faint trace of red light behind it. It was so faint that only somepony with as keen of an eye as pixel would notice. "Nova could you please help me remove this box?" Pixel asked. "Of course pixel." Nova replied. The box was soon surrounded by both of their magic auras as they worked delicately to remove the box out of it's containment. Everypony else watched in anticipation and silence as pixel and nova worked. After several minutes the box finally slid free and pixel flipped it around to see a strange device on the back of it. "What do you think it is?" Nova asked, despite the answer being obvious. "I believe it's the device that allowed that anonymous pony used to send that message to me." Pixel said, detaching the device from the box with ease. The device itself was circular in shape in shape and had several small wire-like parts that extended from it. The main part of the device also had a large red light in the middle of it, along with others along it's side. Suddenly the main light on the device started flashing, accompanied by a rather annoying beeping "what is it doing?" Azura asked. Pixel smiled "I believe it's sending another signal to our pony." Pixel said. Nova then realized what pixel was thinking "back to the lab then?" Nova asked. "Back to the lab. Everypony get around me." Pixel told everypony. Everypony got as close to pixel as they could before pixel's horn flashed brightly before they all disappeared in a flash of light. ... Everypony reappeared back into pixel's lab "nova, azura, come with me." Pixel said. Nova and azura acted quickly and followed pixel over to the device they had used before to trace the signal before. Only a few minutes later pixel turned back to the group "well thanks to the fact that this device held almost no resistance to us, we now know the exact location that the device is sending a signal to, a location not far from las pegasus. Let's all act in the moment and head over there soon." Pixel announced. Author's Note Next chapter and that's really all I have to say right now. It's fun writing this though. As usual, feel free to leave a comment Shutting downThe group had once again boarded the train, this time they had set their sights on the city of Las Pegasus. Everypony has once again found something to occupy themselves with for the long train ride. The majority of the group had taken the time to sleep, but pixel wordplay and and viola were still awake. Wordplay had something on his mind that he decided to ask pixel about "hey pixel, who do think that anonymous pony might be?" Wordplay asked. Pixel moved to face wordplay. The question had been in pixel's mind for a while "hmm... nothing has happened so far that really points toward anypony. There's only one pony I can think of that might have anything against me, but I don't think that he would do anything so drastic." Pixel said. Wordplay thought about it. It was more likely that this anonymous pony was somepony none of them knew. Later on the train ride when everypony was awake and closer to las pegasus, pixel decided to go ahead and discuss their plans now because they had gotten lucky with a train car to themselves and there likely wasn't going to be a quiet place they could go to in las pegasus. "Can everypony hear me?" Pixel asked, trying not to let her voice carry over into the other train cars. Pixel received her usual agreement "great then. Now our destination is a location that is a little far from the city of las pegasus, so when we arrive we'll go straight to the location this device has been sending to. Remember, we don't know what to expect when we get there, there could be an old shack, there could be a mansion, or there could be nothing, but we must be careful when we get there." Pixel explained "does anypony have any questions?" Pixel asked. Nopony raised their hoofs this time "alright then. When we arrive I would like to get through the city as quickly as possible if nopony has a problem with that." Pixel suggested. Everypony agreed with pixel on that. Much time passed the train eventually reached the city. They all stepped out and stood in awe at the scenery "let's not stand around and gaze, let's gat moving." Pixel said. Everypony quickly moved to catch up to pixel. After some time of walking, wordplay accidentally showed a reason why pixel wanted to move through the city quickly. Wordplay was walking along with the group, gazing into the windows of the buildings they passed by when wordplay suddenly felt himself collide with a stallion that had been walking in the opposite direction. "Hey what's the problem buddy?" He asked, clearly holding back some anger. "Oh, sorry sir, I wasn't looking where I was going." Wordplay apologized. "You're dang right you weren't looking where you were going!" The stallion shouted. The stallions friend decided to step in. "Hey, calm down dude, he said he was sorry." His friend said. Pixel decided to also step in "we don't want any problems sir. My friend apologized so kindly leave him alone." Pixel demanded. The stallion looked to pixel, then to wordplay, before he gave a huff of air and walked away with his friend. "Let's move on shall we?" Pixel said. The group continued through las pegasus' streets, this time without any incidents. After much time of navigating the city streets the group finally found the edge of the city. Everypony looked toward pixel "this is the direction that the device is sending in... but I don't see anything..." Pixel said. Wordplay recalled a detail pixel had mentioned earlier "didn't you say it was a little far? Maybe a hill or something like that is just hiding it." Wordplay said. Pixel took this into consideration "that's excellent thinking wordplay. Let's all get moving." Pixel said. The group transitioned from walking on the hard sidewalks of las pegasus to the soft grass of the fields around it. After a few minutes of walking the group came to the top of a hill, and like wordplay had thought, the group all noticed something down at the bottom of the hill. "What do you guys think it is?" Azura asked. Azura was as clueless as her friends as to what the structure was, but they all knew one thing about it. "We need to go down there." Pixel stated. The group immediately started down toward the intriguing structure. From what they could see it was completely grey and seemed to be some sort of entrance to an underground room of some sort. The group wasted no time in moving to the front of the structure. For a moment they all just stared at each other and the entrance to whatever the rest of the structure held. Viridian decided to speak up "are we all just going to stare at this place or are we gonna find a way to get inside?" Viridian asked them all. After that they all started examining the two large doors that lead inside, locked of course. "Does anypony have any ideas for how to get inside?" Wordplay asked. Nova was the first to answer "maybe we could just break in the doors in?" Nova suggested. "That may be possible, but I would much rather not have anypony hurting themselves." Pixel said. Buffy suddenly popped up from on top the structure "no need, I think I unlocked it." Buffy shouted to the group. Wordplay walked over to the doors, and sure enough, the doors slid open when wordplay pushed on them "what did you do?" Wordplay asked. "There was a switch hidden in the dirt up here." Buffy replied while running back down to be with the group again. Wordplay gazed into what the doors revealed. All he could see was a dark hallway that eventually led to three other hallways that were properly lit. "That's not sketchy at all." Azura said sarcastically. The group did the only thing they could think of and proceeded down the hallway until they came into the intersection "should we split up?" Viridian asked while walking into the left hall, nova following her in. "That has it's advantages and disadvantages. I'm not sure we should do that." Pixel said, stepping it into the middle hallway with azura and wordplay behind her. "We could cover ground faster if we split up." Buffy said, poking her head into the right hallway. "Splitting up the group in any situation is taking a risk." Viola said, following buffy. Suddenly the whole group heard something that sounded like static. Pixel then noticed that there were speakers built into the ceiling that nopony had noticed before. Then everypony heard a slightly distorted voice but they could all still tell it was a mares voice. "Then why don't I decide that for you?" Everypony heard before they all heard a distinct CLANG of metal slamming into metal. Everypony turned to see that metal gates had shut in everypony's way, cutting them off from each other. "Hey! What the heck? Open these gates!" Azura yelled, trying to pry the gate next to her open. Pixel tried aiding in this, but her magic aura seems to fizzle out. "Wha- what?" Pixel said, confused as to her sudden lack of magical strength. "Magic inhibitors, ever heard of them?" The mare over the speakers said. "I guess that rules out teleporting too." Nova said. At this point the group was beginning to panic, pixel decided to speak up "don't worry everypony, let's just try and regroup." Pixel said. "Oh how cute, you always were one to be desperate pixel." The mare over the speakers said. "And try and find this anonymous pony. I have no doubt that this is them." Pixel added. The separated group quickly bolted down the hallways they had been trapped in. Wordplay was running alongside pixel with azura running ahead of them. "Come on guys, we need to find the others." Azura shouted. "Running ahead of us isn't a good idea in these circumstances." Wordplay shouted in response. Right when wordplay finished his sentence another gate slammed between azura and wordplay "I told you." Wordplay said. "Whatever, just find some other way." Azura said, hiding the annoyance in her voice. Wordplay and pixel backtracked and found another path to continue on. The entire array of hallways was like a maze to everypony. It was probably designed like that wordplay thought. Wordplay and pixel were running down another path that had a left turn in it. Wordplay ran through the turn, only to slam into a gate that suddenly shut in front on him "ow!" Wordplay shouted, slightly disoriented. "Are you okay wordplay?" Pixel asked, concerned. "Yeah, I'm ok pixel. Let's just... find a different path." Wordplay said. When wordplay looked back down the path they had come from, wordplay watched another gate slam in the path "or not." Wordplay added. "Hmm... what should we do now?" Pixel asked. "Oh? Has the great pixel wavelength run out of ideas? I didn't think that was possible for somepony like you." The anonymous mare said in a mocking tone. Pixel was getting annoyed at this pony. Just then pixel saw viola run down the path that the gate in front of them had blocked "viola! Where's buffy?" Pixel asked as viola approached the gate. "Buffy got stuck between two gates, is that what's happened to you?" Viola asked. "Yes, let's try and open this." Pixel said. All three ponies started trying to pry the gate open. "Don't any of you know when to quit? You're wasting you're time!" The anonymous mare yelled from wherever she was. Wordplay noticed something else in their voice this time, worry. "Getting scared up there?" Wordplay taunted. Wordplay could hear the mare shuffle behind their microphone. "Wha- what are you talking about? I'm fine here!" The mare said shakily. Wordplay could tell they were definitely worried. "We're close to you aren't we?" Wordplay taunted. After that the three could here what sounded like the mare start scrambling over whatever they were doing before seeking to run off. Wordplay smirked "alright everypony pull on this thing with everything you've got." Wordplay encouraged. The three pulled on the two sections of the gate with everything they had, eventually opening a gap wide enough that allowed wordplay to slip through, but the gate slammed shut again before pixel could move through "don't worry pixel, we'll get you through." Wordplay said. Pixel pushed wordplay away "no, you two go ahead, stop that pony and come for me later." Pixel told them. Wordplay hesitated before viola pulled him away. "Just do what pixel asked you to and let's go." Viola said sternly. Wordplay complied and ran down the hall with viola. The two continued down another path that viola had passed earlier before finding a single door that they ran through without hesitation. Inside they found a large monitor on the right that had a large loading bar at fifty three percent on it, and several small monitors on the left, presumably cameras. Wordplay looked at the title for what was being uploaded. It had a crazy name but wordplay had a feeling it was more of the virus being uploaded to celestia knows where. "Uh... what do we do? How do we stop this upload?" Wordplay shouted. There wasn't any visible way to cancel the upload. BAM! Wordplay looked over to where the noise had come from to see that viola had smashed her hoof into the main part of the computer "that works." Wordplay said. Wordplay looked over to the smaller monitors. They were still working, he could even see viridian in one "let's get everypony together." Wordplay said. Author's Note Yay next chapter Feel free to leave a comment while you're here Realizing your moreWordplay and viola wasted no time in working to reunite the group. To their relief the controls to several devices in the building that the anonymous mare had been using were running on a different system, such as the gates. Wordplay had told the group over the speakers what they had done and to try and look for the anonymous mare. After nearly thirty minutes of searching everywhere simply couldn't find a trace of her. Afterwards wordplay and viola simply guided the group back outside before heading there themselves. They were met with relief when the rest of the group saw them. "Oh it's wonderful to see you two again. Are you alright?" Pixel asked. "We're fine pixel." Wordplay said, trying to assure pixel. The group was quiet for a moment before viridian spoke up "so what should we do now?" Viridian asked. Most of the group looked toward pixel to see what she had to say "well I for one believe that we've resolved a crisis today." Pixel announced "even though the anonymous mare disappeared from us, I don't believe they will be trying anything else after this incident, and even if they do viola destroyed their computer that they were using and I have the feeling that it was all they could use." Pixel said. "I took an extra step and thoroughly wrecked the room before leaving." Viola added. Pixel gave a quick smile "so I believe that this crisis has been resolved. You've all helped equestria today." Pixel said "let's go back to the lab for a while. Everypony get close to me." Pixel added. Everypony got close to pixel and once again her horn glowed before they all disappeared in a flash of light. ... Shortly after the whole group reappeared in the presence of pixel's lab once again. Everypony quickly responded with words of celebration. "Does anypony want anything now that we don't have a crisis on our hoofs?" Nova asked. Everypony kindly declined the offer. After a few minutes with everypony socializing, pixel noticed wordplay didn't seem as enthusiastic as everypony else. "Is something on your mind wordplay? You don't seem happy as everypony else is." Pixel said while walking over to wordplay, who had moved himself away from the group. "Oh, I'm fine pixel, everypony did a great job today." Wordplay said. "Including you, don't forget that." Pixel said. "Really? I don't feel like I did that much..." Wordplay admitted. This caught the attention of everypony else "what!? Are you joking? You did awesome wordplay!" Azura exclaimed. "You really think so?" Wordplay asked shyly. "Of course you did wordplay, just think about it. When we all first came together and started this adventure, you proposed such a creative idea that set all of us on our path. I wouldn't have ever thought of such a creative idea like you did." Pixel said. "Well I have always been creative when I write." Wordplay said. "Oh come on wordplay, you're creative in plenty more than you're writing." Pixel said. Wordplay thought about it, maybe pixel was right about that. "And you're plenty more than creative!" Buffy said. "Yeah, like when we were at that facility, you were telling me about how you had done all that research about pixel's tech and all that. You're a pretty smart pony when it comes to... well tons of things." Azura said. "I guess you're right about that." Wordplay said. "Yeah I am." Azura added. Viola decided to add her input "I must admit, the way you spoke to the anonymous mare while we were prying that gate open, I never realized you had such a sharp tongue." Viola said. "I guess I do, I just never have to talk like that." Wordplay said. "During that time you also spoke to us in a very motivating way, have you ever taken a class or anything for that?" Pixel asked. "I haven't." Wordplay replied. Wordplay then noticed all the kind and supportive reactions he was getting "wordplay, you're all sorts of things, you're creative, you're smart, and brave, you're smart about what you say, and so much more, maybe until now you just never realized any of it." Pixel explained. Wordplay thought about it, pixel sounded right about everything she told him. Not to mention her words sounded similar to something somepony else had told him not so long ago "yeah... I guess I am pretty great." Wordplay said. Buffy suddenly decided to make herself heard in the moment "yay! Everypony get together for a group hug!" Buffy exclaimed. Wordplay, and everypony for that matter, decided not to fight buffy on the matter, it was a happy moment anyways. Buffy quickly grabbed everypony she could and pulled them into a group hug around wordplay. Everypony she couldn't grab physically she simply used her words "come on, get in her!" Buffy encouraged. Everypony would have joined in eventually even if Buffy hadn't made them. "You all are wonderful friends." Wordplay said under the swarm of hoofs over him. ... Road map watched as his younger brother continued his writing from their living room rather than his room "what's gotten into you? You normally do that from your room." Road map said to wordplay. Wordplay looked up from his notebook "I just felt like being down here today." Wordplay said. Road map noticed his brothers great change in mood when he came back home "you're awfully happy." Road map commented. "I definitely am." Wordplay replied. "I guess that little adventure with pixel was just what you needed, huh?" Road map asked. "It definitely was. I feel great about myself now." Wordplay said. Road map smiled at his sibling. It was great to see him being so happy now. Author's Note Little bit of a short chapter, but a nice one nonetheless And that marks the end of this story, wordplay sees just what he can do and is happy about it, and his siblings are too. I had a lot of fun writing this, hopefully you all had a nice time reading too.
Setting the stage part 1It was a beautiful day in equestria. Several ponies were outside their homes enjoying the fresh air. One pony today however was spending his time in his bedroom, trying to think of ideas for his newest work. His white coat and turquoise mane and tail blended in with the sheets he was laying on. He sighed and rolled onto his back. "Alright, so next I can have the three gaurds pulled from their posts by... by..." His eyes started wandering around his room, it sometimes seemed to spark some inspiration out of him. His eyes settled on a guard figurine his older brother, Road Map, had given him as a gift. "Maybe ... maybe by their commander? No... if their going to go on this crazy adventure then... maybe from somepony from even higher command?" He wondered, tapping the pencil he had in his hoof on his horn. His train of thought was interrupted by a voice coming from outside his bedroom door that he recognized as his younger twin sister, Fair Dice. "Wordplay! Wordplay!" Fair Dice shouted through his door. "Yeah sis?" Wordplay asked her while getting off his bed and opening his door, revealing fair dice behind it. Fair Dice was barely younger than wordplay, with them being twins. Fair Dice was a unicorn as well, having a light green coat and a mane with a mixture of bright green and turquoise flowing in it. She also had blue eyes like Wordplay's, but his was a lighter shade. Fair dice stepped towards wordplay as soon as he opened his door. "Come on wordplay, road map is making lunch." Fair dice said while trying to pull her brother out of his room. Wordplay resisted her attempts to pull him away. "Ok I'll come down downstairs, just let me make a note in my notebook real quick ok?" Wordplay asked, getting his sisters hooves off him. "Alrighty." She replied. Wordplay stepped toward his notebook before glancing behind him to see fair dice still standing in his doorway, waiting on him instead of going downstairs ahead of him. Wordplay continued to pick up his notebook he had left on his bed, still open to the page he had been writing on. He picked up his pencil and quickly wrote have the guards called away by very high command before closing his book and set it on a shelf he kept his work on. He then returned by Fair Dice's side and walked downstairs with her. Downstairs the two found their older brother Road Map in the kitchen putting together their lunches. "Hey you two, how are you guys doing?" Road map asked, finishing the threes lunches. "I'm great." Fair dice replied in her usual excited manner. "I'm alright." Wordplay replied in a moody manner. Road Map noticed Wordplay's unusual mood. Wordplay's siblings noticed their brother had been acting strange the past few days. He had always been known to be shy but recently he had oddly recluse and seemed to be bothered by something. "Are you sure? You sound kind of... down." Road Map asked. He didn't like seeing his brother upset. "Oh it's quite alright road map." Wordplay said trying to make a reassuring face. Road Map wasn't convinced but decided he would talk to Wordplay about it later. Road Map picked up one of the plates he had put out for lunch and brought it over to the table. Fair Dice decided to be generous and levitated the other two over, earning a quick thank you from Road Map. The three each picked a spot at the table and started enjoying their lunch. "So Wordplay, I haven't seen you since breakfast, I assume you've been up in you're room working on your next big hit?" Road Map asked trying to change the topic. Wordplay looked up from his plate, of which he had been staring at. "Oh, yes I have." Wordplay said. He hadn't planned on conversing with anypony. "Well... what's it about?" Road Map asked after a brief pause from Wordplay. "Well... At he base of it right now is that three royal guards get called away on an adventure where they either have to rescue somepony or retrieve some sort of artifact or device. I haven't really decided on that part yet." Wordplay recapped. Road Map gave a cheerful smile. "Well whatever you decide to do with it I'm sure it'll be great." Road Map told Wordplay. That feedback cheered up Wordplay. "Yeah... I'm sure it will be. After all it is my talent, writing my little fictional worlds..." Wordplay said, his mood seeming to saden as he spoke. Road Map and Fair Dice shared a look of concern. "Why do you sound so sad about that? You love writing and role playing and all that." Fair Dice questioned. Wordplay let out a sigh. "Well... yeah I do, it's great and all but... am I really that great for much else?" Wordplay asked his siblings. The thought had been troubling Wordplay after it had first entered his head. They were both shocked at their brothers question. "Come on wordplay don't-" Road Map said before Wordplay stood up from his seat. "But think about it. I do great when it comes to writing and creating stories but... am I really good at much alas than that?" Wordplay said, sounding almost desperate. Road Map came up next to him. "Oh come on Wordplay, don't talk to yourself like that. I'm sure there's plenty of others things you're good at, you just... haven't realized it yet." Road Map told him "yeah!" Fair dice said for emphasis. Wordplay gave a weak smile. "I... I guess you're right." Wordplay accepted. "That's the spirit. Now how about we forget about this and maybe play a game of D&D?" Road Map suggested. Wordplay considered his brothers offer. "That sounds like it could be fun." Wordplay agreed "Yeah, come on you two." Fair Dice said before running off into the room they play in. "Fair dice wait we didn't-" Road Map tried to stop his sister but failed before she ran off through the door. "Didn't clean off the table." Road Map finished his sentence. Wordplay smiled at his brother. "Hey, at least she can set it up for us." Wordplay said. "Heh, I guess she can. Come on wordy let's get this cleaned up so we can join her." Road Map said. Wordplay smiled hearing his nickname after such a tense situation. "Sounds like a plan." Wordplay said. ... A few days passed and Wordplay's mood seemed to improve, but his original thoughts still lingered, now accompanied by his brothers words. "Hmm... what could I be good for other than my writing..." Wordplay wondered. He decided to change his thoughts to his next story. He moved over to the computer in his room to look up some pictures to try and get an idea for scenery his three gaurds would venture through. He was about to open the Internet to browse when he noticed he had an unread email. Curious, he opened his email and was surprised to see it was from pixel wavelength, which everypony knew to be the princess of the Internet. "Sent only a few minutes ago too..." Wordplay said as he opened the message and began to read it. Dear Wordplay, Hello my dear friend Wordplay. I am sending this message to you because there is an emergency that has rose to my attention. You may remember a while ago that I asked for your assistance to help me better the Internet. Well now the opportunity has presented itself. I am requesting your help, and several other ponies, to help me face an emergency that threatens the internet. If you accept then I ask you to meet me at an estate of mine, the address is listed below. I would greatly appreciate your help. Signed, Pixel Wavelength Wordplay had to reread the letter. "Pixel Wavelength wants me to help her help the Internet? That's sounds... I don't even know what to think of it." Wordplay said to himself "I... I need to go help her." Wordplay decided. ... Wordplay was currently at a train station, accompanied by his siblings. "Whatever you do, stay safe alright?" Road Map asked. "Yes Road Map. It's only like the fourth time you asked me that." Wordplay responded. Road Map had already asked that question two times on the way. "Third actually. You'll have fun too right?" Fair Dice asked. "Of course I will." Wordplay said. The three ponies shared a nice sibling hug. "Well I think that's about everything. Take care wordy." Road Map told Wordplay. "I will. I love you two." Wordplay said. "Love you too." Both Road Map and Fair Dice said. With that Wordplay boarded the train and found a comfortable seat. As the train started speeding up Wordplay spent his time wondering who the other ponies Pixel mentioned were... Author's Note Oh my gosh I am so happy to finally have this up This was fun to write and probably stills going to be fun writing the rest of it. Anyways be sure to leave a comment, I love to hear feedback from everypony and hopefully you all enjoy what is to come
Setting the stage part 2Wordplay was wondering through the streets of manehatten, looking for the address pixel had given him. He was commonly glancing in the windows of various shops, sometimes he could see his reflection rather well. One such time wordplay looked into the window of a shop that had some old knick knacks on display, then he saw another reflection rapidly approach him from his left. Wordplay turned to see the figure of a lavender mare running toward him, then said mare abruptly stopped herself to avoid running into wordplay "oh sorry, I was in a hurry and didn't see you there." She apologized. Wordplay recovered from the mares sudden approach "oh well, uh, that's ok I guess. Just make sure you look where you're going." Wordplay told her. "Got it. Look where I'm going." She responded. Both of them proceeded to continue walking in the same direction. "If you don't mind me asking... why were you in such a rush back there?" Wordplay asked, curiously. He normally wouldn't just talk to somepony random but this mare had peaked his interest. Wordplay could see her expression full with excitement "oh you probably won't believe me, but I got asked by pixel wavelength to help her with a special problem. Cool huh?" the mare exclaimed. Wordplay normally wouldn't believe such a claim, but under the current circumstances, his interest was further peaked "huh, that's odd. I got a message from her too that asked the same thing." Wordplay said. "Cool! You must be one of the other ponies she mentioned. I mean I already know a few of them but you're definitely new to the group." The mare said, seeming to get more excited as she spoke. Wordplay did recall pixel mentioning other ponies in her message. A new thought came to the mares mind "now that I think of it, we're going to be helping pixel and I don't even know you're name yet." She said in a surprised manner. She looked over at wordplay waiting for a response. "Oh, you're right. I'm wordplay." Wordplay told her. "Cool, I'm Buffy." Buffy replied before wordplay returned the question. A few seconds later the two turned a corner to the street pixel had given them. On it were only a few buildings, spread out somewhat far apart, but one stood out from the others. Wordplay had no doubt the house was considered a mansion from its sheer size. The house as a whole was very astonishing to look at, the decorative coloring and a few pillars stood in the front. Both of them stood in awe for a moment. Eventually wordplay returned them to reality, reminding them they actually needed to go to the building. After a few minutes of trotting the two reached the front steps, which wordplay confirmed was pixels estate. When they approached the double doors that we're the entrance they we're greeted by a stallion who had been standing near the doors "hey where are- oh hey buffy." the stallion said. He had a tan coat and an orange mane and tail. "Hiya nova, look you who I brought with me." Buffy said. Wordplay assumed nova was this stallions name "I'm gonna guess that's wordplay with you." Nova said. "Yep!" Buffy responded, confirming nova's answer. "Well then, nice to meet you wordplay. I'm nova blast, but you can just call me nova like buffy did." Nova said raising out his hoof in greeting. Wordplay reached out his own "good to meet you, I guess." Wordplay said. This was the second stranger wordplay had thrust himself into conversation with. He also didn't bother to question how nova already knew his name, he figured pixel had told him "well let's not stand outside, let me bring you two in." Nova said pulling out some sort of card and sliding it through a scanner that was present next to the doors. Nova then opened one of the large doors of the home, motioning for them to follow him. The inside of the house was as luxurious as the outside, decorative pillars supporting the high ceiling and various and rather fancy articles of furniture spread across the room. Off to the left there were two other mares seated at a table, one of which was using one of her legs to spin herself around. The one spinning herself bad a dark blue coat and a white mane and tail, with a single light blue stripe running through them. The other mare had a light purple coat and two shades of darker purple in her mane and tail. Wordplay thought she seemed to give off a fancy appeal. Nova brought wordplay and Buffy over to them "that furniture belongs to royalty, I suggest you stop using it as a toy." The light purple mare said in an authoritative tone. "But I'm booored... oh hey there." the other said taking notice of the trio next to her. Nova stepped in between the two groups "alright, viola and already know buffy so let me introduce you to wordplay. Azura this is buffy and wordplay." Nova said pointing toward each pony as he spoke. "Cool, nice to meet you two. I'm azura peavielle but you can just call me azura." Azura said hoping out of her seat to stand in front of them. "I'm viola, a pleasure to meet you wordplay." Viola said. Buffy immediately moved over to azura and high hoofed her before quickly getting into a conversation. Wordplay felt inclined to respond "uh... nice to meet you too." Wordplay said sheepishly. Nova quieted azura and Buffy before speaking again "well you all get comfortable, I need to go back outside and wait on viridian." Nova said before walking back outside. Azura didn't pay any mind to who viridian was, instead resuming her conversation with buffy. Wordplay decided to occupy himself by writing. He pulled out his notebook and took a seat away from everypony and peacefully wrote for a few minutes. Until azura got curious and decided to come over to him. "What are you doing?" Azura asked wordplay, putting her two front hooves onto the table. "I'm... writing." Wordplay responded, a little surprised by her approach. "Well duh, I can see that. I meant what are you writing about?" Azura asked. Wordplay looked through his pages for a moment "well... im working on a new story of mine. Right now it focuses on these three gaurds and they have to go on this adventure to recover an old artifact." Wordplay said, hoping it would satisfy azura's curiosity. "Do you think it's good?" Azura asked. Wordplay was a little confused at the question "what do you mean?" Wordplay asked. Azura had to think of how to explain her reasoning "hmm... well basically it's like this. I play stuff on the radio and so you wanna make sure you're playing stuff that ponies will like, and that also that can help if you like it." Azura explained. Wordplay took a few seconds to think about azura's statement "I... I guess that makes sense when you put it like that." Wordplay said. Before azura could say anything else, nova walked back into the room. Behind him was a mare with a tan coat and a light green mane and tail "hello everypony." She said in a very joyful manner. Nova walked forward to introduce her "wordplay, azura, this is viridian meadows. Viridian this is wordplay and azura peavielle." Nova said while pointing to each pony as he said their name. Azura brought her hooves back to the floor "hey there, nice to meet ya." Azura said to viridian. "Hey there." Wordplay said. Nova spoke up again "well now that everypony is here, I'm going to inform pixel that you're all here. I'll be back in hopefully a few minutes." Nova announced before he walked over to a door on the other side of the room and exiting through it. It looked dark behind it. Buffy eventually said what everypony was thinking "where do you think he went?" Buffy asked, hoping for responses. "Some sort of research facility?" Viridian suggested. "Some sort of experimental lair..." Azura suggested jokingly. "It's probably just some laboratory." Wordplay said. Everypony was able to agree with wordplay. Around two minutes passed before nova walked back into the room, followed none other than pixel wavelength. Pixel's alicorn structure made her stand out from everypony, her bright blue mane and tail seemed to be a bit unkept, and her pure white coat shined in the room. "Hello everypony, I assume your all familiar with me?" Pixel asked, hoping to go ahead and address their situation. She received nods from everypony "good then. Now as much as I would love to talk and enjoy some time with everypony, you all remember why I asked for you to be here." Pixel said in a soothing but concerned voice. "Some sort of crisis with the internet right?" Buffy replied. Pixel nodded "exactly. Now to start things off I want to show you all something. If you could all follow me downstairs." Pixel said, turning around exiting through the stairs she had entered from. Nova moved and stood next to the door "I'll bring up the rear, you all go ahead." Nova said, motioning for them to go ahead. Eventually everypony filed into a line and proceeded down the dark corridor, with pixel in the front, nova in the back, and everypony else finding a spot in between. The staircase was narrow, with only two ponies being able to stand beside each other. It consisted of two left turns before eventually opening up into a very large room. The room itself was filled with various technologies lined up against the walls, many of them having flashing lights that illuminated the room, and the occasional screen. While most of the group took in the scene, pixel walked over to a large monitor that was hung up on the wall, which seemed to have some sort of document opened on it. Soon the group formed a small semicircle around pixel "now that we're here, this is what I wanted to show you all..." Pixel said, pointing toward the monitor above her "...but I should bring you all up to speed on some recent events." Pixel said before going quiet for a moment, the buzzing of all the machines keeping the room from falling completely silent. Eventually pixel spoke again "a few weeks ago, I received an email in my personal email sent by an anonymous pony. I didn't think much of it other than that they somehow had my personal email somehow. I dismissed it as one of those ponies that are on the internet simply to spread their negativity. Every few days since then I would receive another message from the same pony, saying various things about how I should be listening to them, but the things they were saying along with it just sounded like nonsense... I never took any of it seriously until they sent this last one." Pixel explained. Viridian asked this time what they were all wondering "what exactly happened?" She asked pixel. Pixel paused for another moment "well... I had just picked up my phone and noticed I had a new email so like normal I went to read it and it was from that anonymous pony. I noticed it seemed to have some sort of attachment with it, which was new, but what really surprised and shocked me was the mention of a software that me and nova had been developing and only us two knew about it. They mentioned it's name and that was enough to put me into concern. And as if that wasn't bad enough I foolishly opened the attachment they had sent with it which simply read 'imagine if this got into your whole internet'. I didn't realize what that meant at first, but I eventually realized that my phone now had a virus on it. The damage was so bad that my old phone hardly functions anymore." Pixel continued. Pixel paused once more to make sure everypony was still with her "these are no longer just empty words this pony has been telling me, they are full fledged and very serious threats. If they continue such things they just might compromise the Internet as a whole. I reached out to you all because I felt as though it was the right thing to do. Now are you all with me in this?" Pixel asked. Everypony responded with sayings along the lines of 'yeah' and 'totally' which brought pixel's spirits up "great then." Pixel said. Buffy spoke up next "so what all have you done to stop them so far?" Buffy asked. Pixel raised her hoof to her chin "well so far we've been trying to create something that can combat the virus but... anything we've tried has been unsuccessful." Pixel informed "but we're still trying. I'm sure we'll get something." Pixel added. Wordplay thought of something that he sometimes did, but he was afraid of suggesting it, uncomfortable going against pixel's current intentions "uh... pixel? Can I suggest something?" Wordplay asked hesitantly. Pixel gave him a warm smile "anything wordplay." Pixel told him. "Well... I was thinking since... you're not having any success now you could... try looking at this differently." Wordplay suggested. Pixel tilted her head slightly "you mean like trying a different approach? Did you have anything in mind?" Pixel asked, curious of where wordplay was going with this. Wordplay thought to his writing "well... when I'm writing I sometimes find problems with my stories, like some much needed support for a character isn't there, or there's a big plot hole in it, heck I even had to almost entirely rewrite something once." Wordplay said. "Where exactly are you going with this?" Viridian asked, curious as well. "Oh yeah... so sometimes when something I'm writing just won't work like I want it, sometimes it pays to try a different approach l, even if it's completely different." Wordplay said, seeking to excite himself. Pixel considered everything wordplay had said "that... is actually a great idea wordplay."'pixel said, smiling at wordplay. "You- you really think so?" Wordplay asked. "Of course. Everything nova and I have tried in hopes of combating the virus have failed... perhaps there is another way we can solve this crisis." Pixel stated. Buffy put her hoof up in the air "oh, can I suggest something now?" Buffy asked excitedly. "Of course you can Buffy." Pixel told her friend. "Ok, so I was thinking, maybe you can trace the signal of it? Like they do in movies! They hit all these little buttons like 'beep bop ding' and then BAM! You know where it came from." Buffy suggested. "That's... a wonderful idea buffy." Pixel said. "If we can do that, we can make it so that they can't send out the virus at all." Nova added. "Exactly. We should start working on that." Pixel said, motioning her and nova over to a device that had pixel's old phone laying on it. Azura suddenly spoke up "I know a little about radio signals and what not if that's any help." Azura offered. Pixel turned back to her "any help would be appreciated."' Pixel informed her, making azura run over and join nova and pixel. Viridian came up to wordplay shortly after "that was cool back there." She said. "What I did was cool? Oh I... wouldn't call that much." Wordplay tried to tell viridian. "Are you kidding? Speak for yourself but I say it was cool, just getting out there and sharing some thoughts to help pixel get going again." Viridian repeated. "Well... maybe." Wordplay admitted, shying away from the conversation. A few minutes passed before the group noticed nova and azura share some sort of triumphant moment, so they all assumed something good had happened. Shortly after azura returned to the group and pixel and nova stood in front of them once more "thanks to wordplay's brilliant idea and buffy's great thinking, we now have made some success." Pixel stated. "Can you tell us what it is?" Viridian asked playfully. Pixel let herself snicker "we could t trace the exact signal, but we do know one location that it definitely traveled through, and from the way it traveled, I'm willing to bet that it didn't pass through there through ordinary means." Pixel explained. Buffy spoke up again "are we gonna go and investigate it?" Buffy asked, hoping pixel would say yes. "Precisely. I want everypony to accompany me and help me investigate it." Pixel said, causing Buffy to jump into the air a little. "Yeah! Let's go!" Buffy said running out of the room. "Should we stop stop her?" Nova asked. "You know how she is, she'll probably just run up to the top of the stairs before running back down the to check on us." Viola said. Pixel nodded in agreement "we should follow her anyways. Let's all go up as well." Pixel said, starting toward the exit. "Adventure!" Azura shouted as she ran after buffy while everypony walked behind them. "Already an adventure for me."wordplay thought to himself. Author's Note The gangs all here, huzzah! Anyways feel free to comment on this story, I'm having a lot of fun writing this.
Tracing the signalThe group had set their sights on the city of canterlot. The capital of equestria happened to house the location that pixel desired to go to. To pass time while they were all on the train wordplay had decided to continue writing in his notebook, pixel and nova were discussing their circumstances for the hundredth time, Buffy and azura were having a debate about what they should do while they were in canterlot, viola was reading a book she had brought with her, and viridian was asleep. After some time had passed the conductor of the train came through the cars and announced "attention everypony, we will be arriving in canterlot shortly so please be ready to exit the train upon arrival. Thank you." he announced before heading back to the front of the train. His voice had woken up viridian and got the attention of every other pony. The group spent the next few minutes getting their belongs together so they would be ready like the conductor asked. Pixel lead the ponies out onto the streets of canterlot "so how exactly is this going to go?" Viridian asked. Pixel had given a brief description of how they would go about this but said she would explain it better once they got to canterlot. Pixel looked around them for a moment "I would rather discuss this in a place where others are not going to hear us. I would like to keep this incident as isolated as possible." Pixel said, still looking around them. Viola got an idea "pixel, may I make a suggestion?" Viola asked. "Of course you can." Pixel answered. There's a park near here. I don't often see many ponies there so it could make for an isolated location." Viola said. Pixel didn't think twice about the suggestion "that would be great viola. Please, lead the way." Pixel told her. With that viola took the lead of the group and lead the group through the streets of cantorlot. A few minutes later viola lead the group through the entrance of the park that she had mentioned, and as she predicted there weren't many ponies around. Pixel soon motioned them all over to a few picnic tables that nopony was using. Pixel assumed her usual spot in front of them all "alright everypony, I'm going to run you all through our plan is at the moment. Is everypony listening?" Pixel asked them all. Pixel received several nods in return "good, now listen closely." Pixel told them all. Pixel collected her thoughts from the train ride "ok, so the place that we are heading to is a facility that assists with things such as information processing, security scans, and messaging. I want to investigate this place because the signal that carried the virus did not seem to pass through here by normal means. When we enter I want to head to their main server room, it is there I believe that we may find something of value." Pixel explained "does anypony have any questions?" Pixel asked. Wordplay and viridian raised their hooves into the air. Pixel decided to answer wordplay first "what do you want to know wordplay?" Pixel asked wordplay. "Well I was wondering... how exactly we're going to get inside?" Wordplay asked. Pixel thought to her conversation with nova on the train "I plan on persuading our way in. I'm sure that if we must we can explain our situation to whoever we may need. You all can add input if you think it may help." Pixel said. "So we're pretty much just going to ask nicely to come in... not a great plan." Wordplay thought to himself. Pixel turned to look at viridian next "now what was it you wanted to know viridian?" Pixel asked viridian. "I was wondering... what'll we gonna do if we don't find anything here?" Viridian asked. Pixel hadn't considered this before, she was so certain that something would be here that the possibility had not crossed her mind "... we... we will regroup and consider new options." Pixel said. Now that she had said that she was much less sure of herself. Pixel tried to dismiss the thought and returned to her original thoughts "well if everypony is ready then I would like to go ahead and get on our way." Pixel announced. The group quickly rose back to their hooves while pixel lead the group through canterlot again, pixel periodically stopping to look at a map she had brought with her. Eventually pixel stopped, looking down at her map before looking up to a building that stood on the corner of the street. "That's it. That's the facility." Pixel said. Wordplay stepped to the side of the group to get a better view of the building. The whole structure was surrounded by a metal fence that contained a large grey building that had two small tower-like structures that were mostly blue and had black lines that ran across the edges in color and extruded from the top of the main building. Pixel motioned them all forward "allow me to get us inside. I'm sure that the stallion at the entrance will be understanding of us." Pixel said. "I'll be surprised if he let's us in." Wordplay muttered. Pixel lead the group toward the entrance of the facility, a small gate that had a booth next to it. There was an older stallion that was working from inside the booth. He looked up from what he was doing to see pixel and her friends approach him "hm? Who are you all?" He said. His voice sounded deep and gravelly. Pixel decided to introduce herself "I'm pixel wavelength, I'm here with my friends on some important matters. I ask that me and my friends can enter your facility." Pixel said. The stallion eyed her curiously "did ya talk to my boss or something about this?" The stallion asked pixel. "Uh... no I'm afraid not." Pixel said. Before pixel could say anything else the stallion suddenly perked up. "Oh, pixel, pixel wavelength. I thought I recognized you from somewhere, how could I forget. What brings you here to this place?" The stallion asked, suddenly much more enthusiastic toward pixel. Pixel enjoyed the stallions newfound kindness "well as I said before, me and my friends would like entry to your facility, your server room to be specific." Pixel told him. "I can do that. What do ya wanna go down there for?" The stallion asked, disappearing below his desk to look for his radio. "Well we had traced a signal that passed through here and it seemed odd the way it came through so I wanted to investigate." Pixel explained. The stallion popped back up to everypony's view "good enough for me." he said, raising his radio up to his mouth "hey poper, I need you to take a group of ponies down to the server room." He said over his radio. After a few seconds another voice came over the radio "i'm supposed to go on break soon." 'poper' replied. "Oh come on poper it'll only take like two minutes." The stallion said in response. "uhg, fine. You're at the gate right?" poper asked. "Yep." He replied "alright, I'm on my way." poper said before the radio went silent again. "While he's on his way let me let you all inside." The stallion said while pulling a lever that opened the gates to the facility. Three minutes later poper came out from the side of the building and walked over to the gate "so you just want me to take them all down to the server room?" Poper asked. "Yep, that's all." The stallion said. "Alright then. All of you follow me." Poper said. Poper lead the group through the main door of the building and through many of the winding hallways the building contained. Wordplay noticed a lack of other ponies in the halls as they passed through, he assumed many of them were going on break like poper said he was going to. Eventually poper lead the group down a small set of stairs that lead to a small door at the bottom "now I don't know why you all need to be down here but don't damage anything." Poper said while opening the door. "Thank you very much sir." Pixel told him. "You're welcome ma'am." Poper said. Pixel brought everypony inside the server room before poper closed the door behind them all from outside. Wordplay walked back to see if he had locked the door, he hadn't to his relief. Pixel assumed her spot in front of everypony "alright everypony, now that we're here I want you all to spread out and look for anything out of place that could help us. Can everypony do this?" Pixel asked them all. Pixel was once again greeted with several words of agreement "that's great to hear. Now let's not waste any time and get started." Pixel said. With that announcement everypony separated down into the different rows of the server room. The room itself had several rows of lights and switches that regulates the facility's functions. The group split up and down the rows with pixel and viola together, nova and viridian together, and wordplay with azura and buffy. "So what do you two think about all this?" Azura asked. Azura was always curious to see what her friends thought about something compared to her. Buffy answered before wordplay could "I think this is cool. We're like detectives down here." Buffy said. "Cool way to think about it. Hey wordplay, do you think we'll find anything down down here?" Azura asked wordplay, who was eyeing the walls, looking for anything out of the ordinary. "Huh? Oh I think we'll find something." Wordplay said. "Are you sure?" Azura asked. She didn't think wordplay sounded serious. "I trust pixel's judgement." Wordplay said. Azura rolled her eyes "well so do I, but think about it. Pixel and nova are probably the only ponies here that could notice a difference in all these little buttons and lights and stuff." Azura said. "Well... I might be able to." Wordplay said after a moment passed. Wordplay peaked azura's curiosity with that statement "and why's that?" Azura asked. "Well when pixel first messaged me about helping the internet, which isn't this, I got super excited and ended up doing some research on pixel and some of her inventions, so I know some about these kind of things." Wordplay explained. That made sense in azura's mind. "Plus even if we don't know a lot that shouldn't stop us from looking." Buffy added. "Good point. Let's do it." Azura said. The group continued searching through the different rows of machinery. Every so often one of the group would call everypony over because they thought they had found something, but pixel would dismiss it as nothing every time. Eventually the group came together once more around viridian. "Ok so I was just thinking... I'm starting to think that there might not be anything here." Viridian said in a concerning manner. "Oh please viridian, don't think like that. There must be something here for us to discover. We just need to keep looking." Pixel said, trying to sound encouraging. "If you say so. Still though, it is kind of discouraging after going so long without finding anything after so long." Viridian said. Pixel did not reply, she only stared at viridian "um... pixel are you-" viridian was quieted by pixel, who had moved her hoof to viridian's mouth. Pixel walked past viridian to the wall of technology behind her, pixel's eyes fixed on a box that wasn't completely attached to the rest of the technology. "Did you find something pixel?" Nova asked. Pixel pointed into the small crevice between the small box and the technology above it. Nova noticed there was a faint trace of red light behind it. It was so faint that only somepony with as keen of an eye as pixel would notice. "Nova could you please help me remove this box?" Pixel asked. "Of course pixel." Nova replied. The box was soon surrounded by both of their magic auras as they worked delicately to remove the box out of it's containment. Everypony else watched in anticipation and silence as pixel and nova worked. After several minutes the box finally slid free and pixel flipped it around to see a strange device on the back of it. "What do you think it is?" Nova asked, despite the answer being obvious. "I believe it's the device that allowed that anonymous pony used to send that message to me." Pixel said, detaching the device from the box with ease. The device itself was circular in shape in shape and had several small wire-like parts that extended from it. The main part of the device also had a large red light in the middle of it, along with others along it's side. Suddenly the main light on the device started flashing, accompanied by a rather annoying beeping "what is it doing?" Azura asked. Pixel smiled "I believe it's sending another signal to our pony." Pixel said. Nova then realized what pixel was thinking "back to the lab then?" Nova asked. "Back to the lab. Everypony get around me." Pixel told everypony. Everypony got as close to pixel as they could before pixel's horn flashed brightly before they all disappeared in a flash of light. ... Everypony reappeared back into pixel's lab "nova, azura, come with me." Pixel said. Nova and azura acted quickly and followed pixel over to the device they had used before to trace the signal before. Only a few minutes later pixel turned back to the group "well thanks to the fact that this device held almost no resistance to us, we now know the exact location that the device is sending a signal to, a location not far from las pegasus. Let's all act in the moment and head over there soon." Pixel announced. Author's Note Next chapter and that's really all I have to say right now. It's fun writing this though. As usual, feel free to leave a comment
Shutting downThe group had once again boarded the train, this time they had set their sights on the city of Las Pegasus. Everypony has once again found something to occupy themselves with for the long train ride. The majority of the group had taken the time to sleep, but pixel wordplay and and viola were still awake. Wordplay had something on his mind that he decided to ask pixel about "hey pixel, who do think that anonymous pony might be?" Wordplay asked. Pixel moved to face wordplay. The question had been in pixel's mind for a while "hmm... nothing has happened so far that really points toward anypony. There's only one pony I can think of that might have anything against me, but I don't think that he would do anything so drastic." Pixel said. Wordplay thought about it. It was more likely that this anonymous pony was somepony none of them knew. Later on the train ride when everypony was awake and closer to las pegasus, pixel decided to go ahead and discuss their plans now because they had gotten lucky with a train car to themselves and there likely wasn't going to be a quiet place they could go to in las pegasus. "Can everypony hear me?" Pixel asked, trying not to let her voice carry over into the other train cars. Pixel received her usual agreement "great then. Now our destination is a location that is a little far from the city of las pegasus, so when we arrive we'll go straight to the location this device has been sending to. Remember, we don't know what to expect when we get there, there could be an old shack, there could be a mansion, or there could be nothing, but we must be careful when we get there." Pixel explained "does anypony have any questions?" Pixel asked. Nopony raised their hoofs this time "alright then. When we arrive I would like to get through the city as quickly as possible if nopony has a problem with that." Pixel suggested. Everypony agreed with pixel on that. Much time passed the train eventually reached the city. They all stepped out and stood in awe at the scenery "let's not stand around and gaze, let's gat moving." Pixel said. Everypony quickly moved to catch up to pixel. After some time of walking, wordplay accidentally showed a reason why pixel wanted to move through the city quickly. Wordplay was walking along with the group, gazing into the windows of the buildings they passed by when wordplay suddenly felt himself collide with a stallion that had been walking in the opposite direction. "Hey what's the problem buddy?" He asked, clearly holding back some anger. "Oh, sorry sir, I wasn't looking where I was going." Wordplay apologized. "You're dang right you weren't looking where you were going!" The stallion shouted. The stallions friend decided to step in. "Hey, calm down dude, he said he was sorry." His friend said. Pixel decided to also step in "we don't want any problems sir. My friend apologized so kindly leave him alone." Pixel demanded. The stallion looked to pixel, then to wordplay, before he gave a huff of air and walked away with his friend. "Let's move on shall we?" Pixel said. The group continued through las pegasus' streets, this time without any incidents. After much time of navigating the city streets the group finally found the edge of the city. Everypony looked toward pixel "this is the direction that the device is sending in... but I don't see anything..." Pixel said. Wordplay recalled a detail pixel had mentioned earlier "didn't you say it was a little far? Maybe a hill or something like that is just hiding it." Wordplay said. Pixel took this into consideration "that's excellent thinking wordplay. Let's all get moving." Pixel said. The group transitioned from walking on the hard sidewalks of las pegasus to the soft grass of the fields around it. After a few minutes of walking the group came to the top of a hill, and like wordplay had thought, the group all noticed something down at the bottom of the hill. "What do you guys think it is?" Azura asked. Azura was as clueless as her friends as to what the structure was, but they all knew one thing about it. "We need to go down there." Pixel stated. The group immediately started down toward the intriguing structure. From what they could see it was completely grey and seemed to be some sort of entrance to an underground room of some sort. The group wasted no time in moving to the front of the structure. For a moment they all just stared at each other and the entrance to whatever the rest of the structure held. Viridian decided to speak up "are we all just going to stare at this place or are we gonna find a way to get inside?" Viridian asked them all. After that they all started examining the two large doors that lead inside, locked of course. "Does anypony have any ideas for how to get inside?" Wordplay asked. Nova was the first to answer "maybe we could just break in the doors in?" Nova suggested. "That may be possible, but I would much rather not have anypony hurting themselves." Pixel said. Buffy suddenly popped up from on top the structure "no need, I think I unlocked it." Buffy shouted to the group. Wordplay walked over to the doors, and sure enough, the doors slid open when wordplay pushed on them "what did you do?" Wordplay asked. "There was a switch hidden in the dirt up here." Buffy replied while running back down to be with the group again. Wordplay gazed into what the doors revealed. All he could see was a dark hallway that eventually led to three other hallways that were properly lit. "That's not sketchy at all." Azura said sarcastically. The group did the only thing they could think of and proceeded down the hallway until they came into the intersection "should we split up?" Viridian asked while walking into the left hall, nova following her in. "That has it's advantages and disadvantages. I'm not sure we should do that." Pixel said, stepping it into the middle hallway with azura and wordplay behind her. "We could cover ground faster if we split up." Buffy said, poking her head into the right hallway. "Splitting up the group in any situation is taking a risk." Viola said, following buffy. Suddenly the whole group heard something that sounded like static. Pixel then noticed that there were speakers built into the ceiling that nopony had noticed before. Then everypony heard a slightly distorted voice but they could all still tell it was a mares voice. "Then why don't I decide that for you?" Everypony heard before they all heard a distinct CLANG of metal slamming into metal. Everypony turned to see that metal gates had shut in everypony's way, cutting them off from each other. "Hey! What the heck? Open these gates!" Azura yelled, trying to pry the gate next to her open. Pixel tried aiding in this, but her magic aura seems to fizzle out. "Wha- what?" Pixel said, confused as to her sudden lack of magical strength. "Magic inhibitors, ever heard of them?" The mare over the speakers said. "I guess that rules out teleporting too." Nova said. At this point the group was beginning to panic, pixel decided to speak up "don't worry everypony, let's just try and regroup." Pixel said. "Oh how cute, you always were one to be desperate pixel." The mare over the speakers said. "And try and find this anonymous pony. I have no doubt that this is them." Pixel added. The separated group quickly bolted down the hallways they had been trapped in. Wordplay was running alongside pixel with azura running ahead of them. "Come on guys, we need to find the others." Azura shouted. "Running ahead of us isn't a good idea in these circumstances." Wordplay shouted in response. Right when wordplay finished his sentence another gate slammed between azura and wordplay "I told you." Wordplay said. "Whatever, just find some other way." Azura said, hiding the annoyance in her voice. Wordplay and pixel backtracked and found another path to continue on. The entire array of hallways was like a maze to everypony. It was probably designed like that wordplay thought. Wordplay and pixel were running down another path that had a left turn in it. Wordplay ran through the turn, only to slam into a gate that suddenly shut in front on him "ow!" Wordplay shouted, slightly disoriented. "Are you okay wordplay?" Pixel asked, concerned. "Yeah, I'm ok pixel. Let's just... find a different path." Wordplay said. When wordplay looked back down the path they had come from, wordplay watched another gate slam in the path "or not." Wordplay added. "Hmm... what should we do now?" Pixel asked. "Oh? Has the great pixel wavelength run out of ideas? I didn't think that was possible for somepony like you." The anonymous mare said in a mocking tone. Pixel was getting annoyed at this pony. Just then pixel saw viola run down the path that the gate in front of them had blocked "viola! Where's buffy?" Pixel asked as viola approached the gate. "Buffy got stuck between two gates, is that what's happened to you?" Viola asked. "Yes, let's try and open this." Pixel said. All three ponies started trying to pry the gate open. "Don't any of you know when to quit? You're wasting you're time!" The anonymous mare yelled from wherever she was. Wordplay noticed something else in their voice this time, worry. "Getting scared up there?" Wordplay taunted. Wordplay could hear the mare shuffle behind their microphone. "Wha- what are you talking about? I'm fine here!" The mare said shakily. Wordplay could tell they were definitely worried. "We're close to you aren't we?" Wordplay taunted. After that the three could here what sounded like the mare start scrambling over whatever they were doing before seeking to run off. Wordplay smirked "alright everypony pull on this thing with everything you've got." Wordplay encouraged. The three pulled on the two sections of the gate with everything they had, eventually opening a gap wide enough that allowed wordplay to slip through, but the gate slammed shut again before pixel could move through "don't worry pixel, we'll get you through." Wordplay said. Pixel pushed wordplay away "no, you two go ahead, stop that pony and come for me later." Pixel told them. Wordplay hesitated before viola pulled him away. "Just do what pixel asked you to and let's go." Viola said sternly. Wordplay complied and ran down the hall with viola. The two continued down another path that viola had passed earlier before finding a single door that they ran through without hesitation. Inside they found a large monitor on the right that had a large loading bar at fifty three percent on it, and several small monitors on the left, presumably cameras. Wordplay looked at the title for what was being uploaded. It had a crazy name but wordplay had a feeling it was more of the virus being uploaded to celestia knows where. "Uh... what do we do? How do we stop this upload?" Wordplay shouted. There wasn't any visible way to cancel the upload. BAM! Wordplay looked over to where the noise had come from to see that viola had smashed her hoof into the main part of the computer "that works." Wordplay said. Wordplay looked over to the smaller monitors. They were still working, he could even see viridian in one "let's get everypony together." Wordplay said. Author's Note Yay next chapter Feel free to leave a comment while you're here
Realizing your moreWordplay and viola wasted no time in working to reunite the group. To their relief the controls to several devices in the building that the anonymous mare had been using were running on a different system, such as the gates. Wordplay had told the group over the speakers what they had done and to try and look for the anonymous mare. After nearly thirty minutes of searching everywhere simply couldn't find a trace of her. Afterwards wordplay and viola simply guided the group back outside before heading there themselves. They were met with relief when the rest of the group saw them. "Oh it's wonderful to see you two again. Are you alright?" Pixel asked. "We're fine pixel." Wordplay said, trying to assure pixel. The group was quiet for a moment before viridian spoke up "so what should we do now?" Viridian asked. Most of the group looked toward pixel to see what she had to say "well I for one believe that we've resolved a crisis today." Pixel announced "even though the anonymous mare disappeared from us, I don't believe they will be trying anything else after this incident, and even if they do viola destroyed their computer that they were using and I have the feeling that it was all they could use." Pixel said. "I took an extra step and thoroughly wrecked the room before leaving." Viola added. Pixel gave a quick smile "so I believe that this crisis has been resolved. You've all helped equestria today." Pixel said "let's go back to the lab for a while. Everypony get close to me." Pixel added. Everypony got close to pixel and once again her horn glowed before they all disappeared in a flash of light. ... Shortly after the whole group reappeared in the presence of pixel's lab once again. Everypony quickly responded with words of celebration. "Does anypony want anything now that we don't have a crisis on our hoofs?" Nova asked. Everypony kindly declined the offer. After a few minutes with everypony socializing, pixel noticed wordplay didn't seem as enthusiastic as everypony else. "Is something on your mind wordplay? You don't seem happy as everypony else is." Pixel said while walking over to wordplay, who had moved himself away from the group. "Oh, I'm fine pixel, everypony did a great job today." Wordplay said. "Including you, don't forget that." Pixel said. "Really? I don't feel like I did that much..." Wordplay admitted. This caught the attention of everypony else "what!? Are you joking? You did awesome wordplay!" Azura exclaimed. "You really think so?" Wordplay asked shyly. "Of course you did wordplay, just think about it. When we all first came together and started this adventure, you proposed such a creative idea that set all of us on our path. I wouldn't have ever thought of such a creative idea like you did." Pixel said. "Well I have always been creative when I write." Wordplay said. "Oh come on wordplay, you're creative in plenty more than you're writing." Pixel said. Wordplay thought about it, maybe pixel was right about that. "And you're plenty more than creative!" Buffy said. "Yeah, like when we were at that facility, you were telling me about how you had done all that research about pixel's tech and all that. You're a pretty smart pony when it comes to... well tons of things." Azura said. "I guess you're right about that." Wordplay said. "Yeah I am." Azura added. Viola decided to add her input "I must admit, the way you spoke to the anonymous mare while we were prying that gate open, I never realized you had such a sharp tongue." Viola said. "I guess I do, I just never have to talk like that." Wordplay said. "During that time you also spoke to us in a very motivating way, have you ever taken a class or anything for that?" Pixel asked. "I haven't." Wordplay replied. Wordplay then noticed all the kind and supportive reactions he was getting "wordplay, you're all sorts of things, you're creative, you're smart, and brave, you're smart about what you say, and so much more, maybe until now you just never realized any of it." Pixel explained. Wordplay thought about it, pixel sounded right about everything she told him. Not to mention her words sounded similar to something somepony else had told him not so long ago "yeah... I guess I am pretty great." Wordplay said. Buffy suddenly decided to make herself heard in the moment "yay! Everypony get together for a group hug!" Buffy exclaimed. Wordplay, and everypony for that matter, decided not to fight buffy on the matter, it was a happy moment anyways. Buffy quickly grabbed everypony she could and pulled them into a group hug around wordplay. Everypony she couldn't grab physically she simply used her words "come on, get in her!" Buffy encouraged. Everypony would have joined in eventually even if Buffy hadn't made them. "You all are wonderful friends." Wordplay said under the swarm of hoofs over him. ... Road map watched as his younger brother continued his writing from their living room rather than his room "what's gotten into you? You normally do that from your room." Road map said to wordplay. Wordplay looked up from his notebook "I just felt like being down here today." Wordplay said. Road map noticed his brothers great change in mood when he came back home "you're awfully happy." Road map commented. "I definitely am." Wordplay replied. "I guess that little adventure with pixel was just what you needed, huh?" Road map asked. "It definitely was. I feel great about myself now." Wordplay said. Road map smiled at his sibling. It was great to see him being so happy now. Author's Note Little bit of a short chapter, but a nice one nonetheless And that marks the end of this story, wordplay sees just what he can do and is happy about it, and his siblings are too. I had a lot of fun writing this, hopefully you all had a nice time reading too.
