Azrael walks out of the phone booth from a bright green light. He lets out a sigh and looks at the ground for a moment,then smiles lightly as he begins his talk down the street in the Richland district. He was headed to Tabor Park, another old hangout where his faction would go to in the lower level days. As he walked, he watched all the new players that were near him run by or leap overhead, doing their missions or just enjoying the game in general. It made him happy to see Mega City thrive once more. When the game died, there were but a few hundred players left, now, there are thousand gathering in the servers once more.

As he walked along though, he couldn’t help but think of the words that twilight had spoken to him last night, and how she had revealed something he was worried about for awhile, those words ringing ever more in his mind.

This is real, as are my feelings for you.

Azrael closed his eyes for a moment then chuckled lightly.

“Who would have ever guessed.”

He said to himself as he cut across the street, knowing he needed to turn to get to where he was headed. He looked up at the sky and blinked a few times. Seeing that the sun had gone away and rain clouds were gathering overhead.

“Hmm, if it was real rain, i’d go find the local bookstore or coffee shop, but meh. A bit of virtual rain won’t hurt.”

He said as he continued on his way. Eventually he made it to his destination. Seeing the very same large shady tree he and his crew used to sit under everyday. They had their hangouts in every district. So he knew exactly where he could go no matter where he was.

HA! Look guys, we got a ghost twin fanatic here!

Hey come on man, back off. He is a new player and may just be looking for some help.

If you asked me he did a pretty damn good job of making a look-alike..

Yep, this was the first place he had met his factionmates. They were a group of zionists, but as they got to know him and trust him, he became the machine branch leader of Exemplar Triune. And the faction grew ever stronger for it. He smiled to himself at these memories.

“I wonder what the old crew are up to these days...probably off with big successful jobs and such.”

He said as he walked over to the tree and leaned against it. The sound of thunder was heard as the rain began to fall from the sky, the clouds having darkened the sky completely. The amount of rain slowly but gradually increased. He watched the blue pills walk by in the park with their umbrellas and raincoat, trying to either get home from work or wherever it is they were headed. Oddly enough, the tree that he was under was pretty much like a giant umbrella. Its leaves were plentiful and thick enough to act as a cover from the rain, only a few drops came through every now and then, and it was on a small elevation as well, so he was good.

He simply stood there and leaned against the tree. Just enjoying the sound of the rain and the city mixing together. He didn’t understand why, but when it rained in-game, there was a sense of peacefulness. It made him feel like he was back in the late ninetys. Which was when he was growing up, and he’d always stop by the park on the way how from school like this. Just as he was travelling down memorylane, his phone rings. He reaches into his coat and pulls it out and clicks it open, placing it to his ear.

“Hey there Twi. Finally got done with your morning studies huh?”

“Mhmm,I went to come and wake you up, but it seems you have already done so and jacked in. So, I figured I’d come and join you. Where are you? It’s pouring like crazy!”

He chuckled lightly, hearing her get a little excited as if it was real rain.

“I am in Tabor Park..well, the actual park. Take the Tabor West hardline and you will be as close as you can get to me.”

“Alright, I am on my way.”

The line drops. He places his phone back into his coat and just goes back to remembering the good ol’ days before all this change came into play. He eventually hears the footsteps of someone approaching him rather quickly, he looks up and sees Twilight running towards him with her hands covering her head and a look of panic on her face. She runs into him and pushes him against the tree as she collides into him. He laughed lightly when she did this.

“Come on Twi, it’s not even real rain! You silly girl.”

“I know it’s not! But it still feels like I am getting wet!”

She said as she sighs in slight frustration, but smiles up at him and presses into him closer, resting her head against his chest. She clung to him, grabbing at his shirt with both hands.A smile forming across her face.

“But...I am quite happy to be here with you.”

She said as she stared up into his eyes, leaning up to place a kiss on his lips. Azrael could feel her warm and soft curves pressing against him. It wasn’t her rear form, but this one was beautiful as well. After the kiss broke he chuckled lightly.

“Well, it isn’t my favorite mare...but I suppose this form will suffice while I am in here.”

Twilight’s face blushed heavily as he said that to her.

“You truly like my real form more than a human female more?”

He nods in response.

“Honestly Twi, I have always really admired you even before I was taken from my world. But to have the real thing is...well you can imagine why I thought I was dreaming last night. I honestly thought it was too good to be true.”

She nods understandingly, only pressing more into him.

“I...I wanted to show you my feelings before..well you know...when my estrus hits so you know that I am serious about wanting to be with you. You are smart, strong, and even though you never showed it to me, I knew that deep down you cared about me. But I was soooo afraid to tell you last night…”

He lightly runs his fingers through her hair, then runs his fingers over her cheek gently.

“Looks like we were both worried for nothing huh?”

She giggles lightly and nods.

“So it would seem.”

Hey, I got an idea. How about I show you where all the landmark/film locations are in the game? The creators were pretty spot on and very accurate in the design.”

She looks up at him with widen eyes.

“YOu know where every film location is?!”

He nods with a bit of pride in his smile.

“I sure do. The only one they don’t have sadly is the highway that the Ghost Twins chased Morpheus, Trinity and the Keymaker. That would have been pretty sweet though.”

She nods rapidly in response, tugging at his arm in excitement.

“Yes,yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!”

So...god damn….adorable…

Their first stop was Mara Plaza. The walked there together, arm in arm. Azrael had to admit to himself, he was pretty damn lucky. He had both This Twilight and the Twilight outside of the matrix. And he wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of this happiness. They make it to the area in question. Azrael walks out into the middle of it and holds his arms out at his sides.

“Look familiar, Twi?”

She looked around the area and thinks on it for a second, looking at him with a sheepish smile afterwards, having a bit of trouble remembering.

“Hint?”

She asked cutely, Azrael chuckles and mimics Agent Smith’s voice

Yes me...me, me, me. Me too.”

It hit her hard, but she giggled lightly.

“Aaah this is that place isn’t it?! Neo fought all those copies of Smith here!”

Azrael nods and smiled, proud that she figured it out.

“Mhmm, this is indeed the place.”

They explored a little longer around the area until Twilight wanted to go and see the next one. Before the left Mara however, they saw what looked to be a new player. They watched her for a moment from the roof top they jumped on. She wasn’t doing so very well. She was even greener than most new players he had helped back in his day. And what’s more, Twilight new who it was before Azrael could even say it.

“That Princess Celestia! I know that nickname anywhere! ‘Sunny D’, it was an old nickname a former coltfriend of hers gave her. But...why is sure playing this game? Out of all the things i would ever expect from her, this isn’t one of them.”

Azrael grins wickedly and crosses his arms. Watching her from above.

“Not so easy when you can’t just cast your own magic in a world that isn’t yours, huh Sun Butt?”

He said before he jumped down and landed a few feet away from Sunny. The loud “THUMP’ sound making her jump a bit as she turns around and sees Azrael.

“Ah! Hello...you startled me…”

“Welcome to the world of The Matrix. I see you are having trouble handling even the lowest level of enemies.”

He said with his arms crossed and an arch of his brow. The human version of the sun princess shifting awkwardly at Azrael.

“Indeed. You look like a seasoned player though, looking at your stats and level. Might I ask you a few things?”

Twilight knew what Azrael was about to do. A part of her wanted to stop him. But another part of her wanted her to feel the same sting that she made Zeref and herself feel that day when she thought she had lost him.

“Hmmm, I am not so sure I should, after all. You showed hostility towards me when I was lost. Or do you not remember that, Princess?”

She blinks in confusion and tilts her head, a bit hurt by his words.

“I..just started this game. I don’t even know who you are…”

Azrael chuckles lightly and ghost into his ghost form and circles around her.

“It is pretty insensitive of you to forget the sadness you caused your former pupil when you tried to attack her new friend the way you did. You chose to forget about him. If he needed help and came to you, I am sure you would have thrown him out the castle entrance. So tell me,why should i help you in a world that I know like the back of my hand. And yet you,the so called generous and loving sun princess of Equestria brought the mare that is like a daughter to her to tears?”

He continued to circle her in his ghost form. After a while though, it all hit her like a bag of bricks.

“That’s right, you are in my territory now. So no, find your own way in this world. I had to find my own in yours.”

He begins to walk away from her, leaving her jaw hanging nearly to the floor. He turns and grins wickedly to her.

“By the way. Twilight and I are enjoying our relationship. Turns out our feelings for each other are quite the same. So, until you get the guts to come and apologize to me in person for what you did, you are on your own”

As he walks away, Sunny lets out a growl and runs after him, trying to hit him, but nothing is affecting him. He turns around again and turns on his PvP flag.

“Ooooh what’s this? Little mouse wanna roar? Feel like you can take on a wolf?”

He said as he draws out his FM-1500 magnum pistol from his coat. He didn’t specialize in guns, but one shot from this agent gun and low levels died in one hit. He lifts it up and points it directly at her.

“Once you attack me again when my flag is up, you will be pulled in to. Be careful of your next move, princess.”

She backs away seeing the gun he had. Having run into agents before, that gun put fear into ehr, as it did with most players. Even the distinct gun fire sound it gave off meant others needed to run.

“In this world, violence IS the answer, should you bring it upon yourself.”

He said before lowering the gun and turns to walk away. However when he does so, he feels a foot to the back of his back, then the sound of running away from behind him. He laughs evilly and quickly spins around, shooting her in the back of the head as she ran, her RSI body falling to the ground with green sparks surrounding it.

“Never attack a higher level. One of the many rules of this game.”

He said before jumping back on the rooftop and meeting back with Twilight, continuing on with their tour. Hey, it’s not like he really shot her anyways. Though he did get his revenge in his own way. So he was happy, not to mention the mare of his heart was all his to.

Author's Note

There ya have it, a world where Sun Butt has no control over anything. She is a player just like everyone else.

May the darkness grant you peace.