VRMMOEQGRPG

Chapters

Episode One: Beginnings
Episode Two: Horror
Episode Four: Casualty
Episode Five: Unraveling
Episode Six: Regret
Episode Three: Comrades

Episode One: Beginnings

10.25.16 12:50P F#X

Fluttershy knocked on the door of Rainbow Dash's suburban house outside of Canterlot City. Nobody answered, so she had to yell, "Rainbow?"

Although it wasn't a yell, it was more of a loud whisper. Not surprising coming from Fluttershy. She knocked again, and jumped back when it suddenly opened. It was Rainbow Blaze, looking a little tired with unkempt hair, wrinkled clothes, and a cigarette in his mouth.

He looked down at Fluttershy and said, "Oh, it's you. Come in."

Fluttershy didn't expect to be, well, expected, so she just said, "Thank you sir," and hurried inside."

She noticed the tv was on, and on it was an episode of The Doctors. Blaze pointed his thumb at the stairs and said, "Rainbow's upstairs. She's waiting for that new virtual reality game to come out." Without another word, he sat down on the couch and fixed his eyes on the tv, never bothering to wait for an answer.

Being the polite kind of girl she was, she said, "Thank you," and walked up the stairs. She went past the closed doors in the hallway until she reached Rainbow's room. She heard loud noises and Rainbow's voice talking on her cell phone.

"Yeah, only eight more minutes!"

"Come on, don't you have the computer plugged in yet?"

"Don't 'sugarcube' me! I didn't do anything!"

Obviously Applejack. Fluttershy waited until there was a period of semi-silence before knocking. Rainbow opened it and said, "Hey Shy! Did you charge your headset?"

She looked at Fluttershy's hands. "Hey, where is your headset? The game launches in seven minutes!"

Fluttershy looked blank. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Rainbow gasped. "Seriously? It's all that's been going on lately! Principal Celestia even canceled school because of it! You didn't question that?"

Fluttershy sat down on Rainbow's bed. "That's why I came over here. I was at school half an hour early on purpose and no one came."

Rainbow groaned and rubbed her face. "Were you even paying attention yesterday? She announced at lunch that school was canceled so everyone could enjoy playing it on the release date."

Fluttershy hung her head. She had been staying up late for the past week working on several papers, so her mind was pretty bogged down with tiredness and scientific data. She figured getting to school early to hand in the papers would give her attendance scores a boost.

Rainbow sat down next to her. "Look, there's this virtual reality game called Sword Art Online that the whole world has been waiting a full year for. It's a role-playing game where you have an avatar and you can team up with other people from everywhere to go on quests. It's gonna be SO AWESOME!" She squished her cheeks with her hands, causing her face to look like :rainbowkiss: .

Fluttershy didn't really follow, but she nodded anyway.

Rainbow continued, "I got AJ, Sunset, and Pinkie hooked on it, and Rarity got interested in it too. I'm surprised Twilight actually bought a headset and everything. I didn't think she would be the action gaming type."

Fluttershy gulped. "Action game?" She remembered the time she played Super Smash Bros. with Rainbow and Applejack. She picked Yoshi as her character, because he reminded her of her favorite pet lizard. She almost cried when she saw him blow up on the side of the stage.

She sort of blended in with the background and said, "Yeah, I think I'll pass. You have fun, Rainbow."

Rainbow understood, and said, "Okay. See ya tomorrow! This is gonna be SWEET!"

Fluttershy closed the door behind her and went down the stairs. She could have fun with her friends some other way. She waved bye to Blaze, who took no notice, and went outside. She got in her car and screamed. A giant gun-like object was sitting in the passenger seat.

She looked at it and growled. It was a game headset. Her quickly beating heart slowed to its resting rate as she took a few deep breaths. She wouldn't let the action games bother her.

She started the car and drove away.

Rainbow was sweating. Her fingers were twitching as she laid down on the bed. One more minute. She couldn't survive another minute.

Let's hope you make the last hour COUNT!

Another call from Applejack.

She answered it in a rushed tone of voice, "Yeah, AJ?"

Applejack sounded the same. "You ready?"

"Hell yeah."

"Ah already called everyone else. They're just as hyped."

"And for good reason!"

They hung up their calls at the same time as the timer ran out.

5...

4...

3...

2...

1...

Adrenaline rushed through the veins of a million bodies around the world. The countdown hit zero.

Link start!

And the game began.

The sounds were so rich, the colors were so bright, and this was only the startup screen.

Welcome to Sword Art Online!

Rainbow's heart was skipping beats left and right, but she didn't notice. The only thing that mattered was the enthralling sight before her eyes.

She selected her language as English, entered her username and password, and waited. She waited for the best day of her life to begin.

Her virtual eyes adjusted to the sunlight. She stood up and looked around. She was in a giant plaza, and there was no one else in sight. She was the first one to be in the game.

A distant flash of blue light caught her eye. It was a player materializing, a young man that she didn't recognize. It didn't look like he saw her. She thought about catching his attention, when more players began showing up. Soon, the plaza was full of a million people, all of which were lucky enough to start the game on opening minute.

Rainbow immediately saw Applejack in the crowd. Her player character was tall, with a white Stetson hat with blue strings attached to it, a black vest with a ton of pockets, a knee-length tan skirt that had red ribbons around the bottom, black boots with white details and steel toes, and a pair of golden braids going down past her hips. Her sword scabbard was old-fashioned looking, with curvy gold-chrome designs on it. The hilt was faux wood with a golden apple on the tip.

They patted each other on the back, and Applejack said, "Well, Ah did worry that Ah wasnt gonna recognize ya, but Ah shoulda thought better."

Rainbow chuckled and said, "Yeah, I guess maxing out does help to make you stand out in a crowd." Her player character had the same rainbow hair, except it was shaved on the left side and down over her right eye. She had a leather jacket that was partially open to reveal a green t-shirt with the words "TREAD ON THIS" on it. On her hands were yellow fingerless gloves with bronze knobs on the knuckles. She had a necklace with a single thing on it: a ruby skull. Her scabbard was silver with her familiar cloud-and-lightning symbol on it, and the sword hilt had a pointed edge that looked more painful than the blade. Her pants were dark blue, with three pockets on each leg, and her shoes were athletic red-and-black track runners with pegasus wings on the heels.

Applejack tilted her hat back and said, "Ah have to admit, you look pretty badass."

Rainbow gave a cocky smile and said, "I figured someone would say that, but I actually like your traditional look. It suits you pretty good."

"YOOHOO!" A cheerful voice sang out from the enormous crowd. It was Rarity, and for a second the two friends had to shield their eyes.

She was wearing a sleeveless, strapless gray dress with alternating pink and yellow verical stripes. She had armlength transparent yellow gloves that ended with golden cuffs at the elbows. Her boots were open-toe, knee-high, and solid pink with silver buckles on the ankles. Her scabbard appeared to be made of diamonds, transparent enough to see the spotless metal blade inside. The hilt had a massive yellow gem on the tip, probably topaz. On her head was a bandanna that was gray on one side and light gold on the other. Her hair was noticeably shorter, but it ended in three curls; two on her shoulders and one down her back. She had tremendous amounts of silver eyeshadow and lipstick, and everything looked like it was smothered in glitter.

Rainbow and Applejack were in a semi-stupor. Rarity noticed this and said, "What, even in a game it's important to keep up your appearances."

"Uh-huh," Rainbow said without shutting her mouth.

Applejack walked over to Rarity and looked at her fancy getup. "Ah know you want to make a good appearance in this game, but don't ya think this is a little bit overkill?"

Rarity snorted and said, "Don't be ridiculous, Applejack. In fashion, there is never such a thing as overkill."

Rainbow rolled her eyes and muttered, "Good god."

Rarity looked around at all the fellow players. "Have you seen Sunset, Twilight, and Pinkie? They didn't spawn here with me."

Applejack shrugged. "They'll show up soon enough."

A lot of people were heading into the market on the other side of the plaza, presumably either buying food and supplies or socializing. Probably both.

Rainbow said, "Maybe they're looking for us over there. Come on, maybe we can buy some cool crap too." she motioned with her hand, and the other two followed.

The market seemed even busier than the plaza, maybe because there were people selling things and pushing heavy objects down the road. It was pretty hard to believe that all the shopkeepers were just game elements and didn't exist in real life.

A fruit salesman caught Applejack's eye. She could get some apples to take with them. Hopefully they were organic. She asked the man, who looked strangely like Flim of the Flim-Flam Brothers, "How much are your Gala apples?"

The man answered her in a tone that was very unlike Flim's, "You mean individually or by the pound?" He had a deep, gravelly voice that sounded tired and bored. Maybe because he already existed in this game and wasn't experiencing it for the first time.

Applejack thought for a minute, then decided on the best choice. "By the pound. You never know when you'll need to eat on your adventures!" She tried to lighten the man's mood.

His face didn't change. Still scowling, he said, "8¥. That good enough?"

Applejack searched her pockets and found more than enough cash to pay for the apples. She set it down and the man took it. He dumped the apples into a small sack and thrust it at her.

She gently took it and turned away, saying, "Have a good one!"

He grunted.

Applejack shrugged and thought, "Ah well. Some people just ain't into havin' a good mood."

Rainbow was browsing the accessory store, looking for more cool stuff to add to her repertoire. She turned around to get to the stuff on the other side of the street, when someone ran into her at full speed. They both fell to the ground, rubbing their heads. Rainbow looked up and recognized him.

It was the guy that had spawned with her in the first seconds. She noted that he looked pretty handsome. She shook the thoughts away though, knowing he was probably some 40-year-old living in his mother's basement.

He helped her to her feet, saying, "I'm so sorry, I was hurrying."

She rubbed her eyes and said, "That's fine. I wasn't looking either."

They looked at each other for another second before he walked away, with the walk turning into a run.

She called after him, "Wait! Wait up!" but he was out of earshot.

All the rest of the time until she caught up with Rarity and Applejack, she was thinking, "Who is that guy?"

"Hey guys, something weird just happened," she said to her friends, but they were staring dumbfounded at something in a more open spot in the marketplace.

"Guys, what's going on?" Rainbow asked inquisitively.

Applejack spoke in a mortified sort of way. "Ah think we just found Pinkie Pie."

Rainbow followed her gaze and her stomach churned.

There was Pinkie, on a small stage, dressed in almost absolutely nothing. She had a black bra with a loose strap, and matching panties, on both of which said, "COME HERE OFTEN". Her stomach and legs were covered in fishnet material, and she had white flats with blue balloons on the top.

Rainbow breathed, "Oh sugar honey iced tea,"

What was even worse was her head. Her hair was jagged in places, resembling lightning bolts, and she had huge streaks of black eyeshadow covering her eyes and cheeks. She had black lipstick on, as well as what appeared to be a tongue piercing. She was singing the Rihanna song Birthday Cake, which made some of the people laugh, but more of a nervous, awkward laugh.

Applejack regained her motor skills, and stormed up to the stage and grabbed Pinkie's arm.

"He want that cake, cake, cake, cake, caAAAAKE!!!"

Applejack slammed Pinkie up against a wall and shouted to everyone, "Show's over, go back to whatever you were doin'." She turned to Pinkie and stared her right in the face.

"What in the livin' hell were you DOIN'?!"

Pinkie grinned sheepishly. "Well, it was a surprise that I was going to share at the next Battle of the Bands, but this came first so I thought I'd give it a shot!"

Applejack rubbed her face. "You realize if you did that at the Battle of the Bands, you would get expelled, right?" She noticed the tongue piercing was a small ornament with the letters "F A G". Wonderful.

Pinkie's face fell. "Oh, I didn't think about that."

Applejack backed up. "Obviously. Now we have to go find Sunset and Twilight."

Pinkie stopped in her tracks. "Can I put my clothes back on?"

Applejack didn't look back. "Please."

Pinkie went back on the stage and a few guys applauded for an encore.

"Sorry, boys," she said in her forced seductive voice. "The show's over."

They groaned and walked away. Pinkie got dressed and went to see her friends.

"Hey Rainbow! Hey Rarity!"

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE?!" Rainbow threw her hands in the air.

Applejack deadpanned, "She says it was supposed to be an act at a public school event."

Rarity gasped, "Your outfit! It's...it's just DREADFUL!"

Pinkie was wearing a top that was offwhite with a zipper right on the front, over an emblem of a devil emoji. It had sleeves, but very short ones. The top was long enough to cover some of her stomach, but her belly button was visible, brandishing another "F A G" piercing. Her shorts were a dark seagreen, held up by a red braid belt. They were only slightly longer than her panties.

Rainbow grumbled, "I guess you'll never be done humiliating us."

Pinkie answered cheerfully, "Nope. You can call me Punkie Pie!"

Applejack looked up at the sky. The sun wasn't setting anytime soon. She looked at Pinkie and said, "If you're gonna be dressed like this, it's okay IF ya don't sing any more of those songs, IF ya don't make us call ya 'Punkie Pie', and IF ya don't go around actin' like a slutty prostitute. Gotcha?"

Pinkie's effervescent grin didn't fade as she nodded enthusiastically.

"So, how are we gonna find the other two?" Rainbow asked. "There's over a million people here."

"Ah think we just--"

Applejack was cut off by Rarity saying, "I think I see them right over there."

They were there, all right. And something was with them. Something...

humiliating.

Rainbow and Applejack uttered in perfect unison, "Goddammit."

Author's Note

Another one-shot, finished at 2:30am after watching SAO for several hours straight!!! :pinkiehappy: I should probably go to bed soon...

Also, I had way too much fun thinking up their player outfits.

Episode Two: Horror

10.26.16 04:35P F#01

" Excuse me, pardon me."

Twilight Sparkle slid her way through the dense crowd. Following some ways behind her was Sunset Shimmer, carrying an enormous reproduction of a famous statue on her shoulders.

Twilight looked around the crowd and finally saw some faces she recognized. She went over and said, "Um, hi, Applejack. Rainbow. Pinkie. Rarity. I can explain..."

"Yeah, you'd better explain!" Rainbow poked Twilight's chest with her finger. "We just had a horrible time being embarrassed by Little Miss Eminem over here..."

She pointed to Pinkie, who said, "I'm a certified prostitute!"

"...And now we have this." She looked up at the approaching Sunset, and the mortifyingly humiliating statue. "This is our first time playing this game. We want it to be a good experience, not a living version of America's Funniest Home Videos!"

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a clearly fatigued Sunset. "Hey guys. Sorry it took so long. It's a big crowd, and I had...this..."

Applejack took a step forward. "Explain yourself. Now."

Sunset slammed the statue down on the cobblestone street and began, "When we spawned here, we had no idea where any of you were. So we figured you might be in the market somewhere. We browsed around, until we came to this sculptor who specialized in bread art."

Applejack wondered, "Bread art?"

Rainbow wondered, "Bread art?"

Rarity wondered, "Bread art?"

Pinkie giggled, "Bread art online."

Sunset continued, "He said his business wasn't going too well, so he said he would take a request for 80% off of his normal charging price. That's where Twilight got this idea in her head to get this."

Twilight added sheepishly, "I'm kind of a fan of fine art, and I just thought the Venus de Milo would be a nice piece of art to, you know, have around."

Applejack rubbed her face. "You do realize that we don't have anywhere to live in this game, right? If we had a house or somethin', it could go in the front yard or somewhere. But no, we don't have a place to live, and that...monstrosity...really needs to be let go."

Sunset looked relieved. "That's good. It only cost five credits. It weighs a ton and it's awkward." she looked it over. "Although if we had someone stronger to carry it..."

All eyes went to Applejack.

"No!" Applejack yelled. "There is no way in hell Ah am luggin' that humongous piece of bird food around just because it's 'fine art'."

Rarity looked at it. "But you do have to admire the effort that went into making this. I could use it as a model if I open up a tailoring business here."

Rainbow looked at it. "Yeah, there sure is a lot of detail." It was indeed detailed, especially around the more sensitive parts. "Real effort, right there."

Sunset nodded. "The whole thing took him around ten minutes. He had this enormous loaf of something like sourdough behind his tent." She scanned the whole statue, top to bottom. "I'll bet he was thirsty."

The sound of the 5:00 bell interrupted any further conversation. Applejack said, "Look, Twilight. Can't we just leave this here for someone else?"

Twilight agreed with visible reluctance. Pinkie got a pen out of nowhere and wrote "MAKE OFFER" on each breast.

The group headed toward the plaza gate, where they could finally explore the vast world of Sword Art Online. It was already open and a steady stream of players was walking in and out.

Sunset stopped the group, and they all linked arms. "Are you guys ready?"

They all nodded, then took a tandem step onto the dirt road. They were finally starting their quest.

As a few hours passed, the girls got acquainted with some people they met, practice their fighting skills with harmless sword duels, and went for a swim in one of the many lakes. Pinkie insisted on skinny dipping. All around, it was agreed that this was the best game to ever exist in all of history, ever.

Around 7:00, the sun started to sink behind the hills. The sky turned a combination of soft purple and robust orange. They could only gasp at the wonder of it all.

"Whoever coded this game musta trained for decades!" Rainbow said. "You know, he must have started back when the computers were the size of warehouses."

Rarity said, "I have actually seen a computer like that. My mother and father used to own one, before it crashed and burned down the house."

Twilight was shocked. "Your house burned down? What happened? Was everyone okay? Did any valuable property get lost?"

Rarity sighed. "Yes, our most prized possessions were all destroyed, but human life matters more."

Pinkie pretended like no one had said anything and randomly burst out, "Did you notice there's nobody in this whole giant area but us?"

Sunset rubbed her ear and said, "No I didn't, Pinkie, you could have used a normal speaking voice to ask that."

Pinkie was insistent. "I'm serious! We're in this hugegantic open field with floating lakes around it with a beautiful sunset to bask in, and there's nobody else around to enjoy it too!"

Rainbow said, "That's not entirely true. I can see a couple of people over on the other side of the field." She got a visor from her inventory pack and put it on. It acted as a high-powered pair of binoculars.

"Looks like two dudes, one with black hair, one with red hair...looks like they're talking..."

"Ooh, ooh!" Pinkie started jumping. "We should get their attention and see if they wanna join us!"

Before Pinkie could get a voice amplifier out of her inventory pack, they all leaped up and grabbed her arms, preventing her from pulling anything out.

"Aw, you guys are party poopers."

"Nope, we're just trying to save other people's sanity." Applejack said with a smirk.

"The question is, what if Pinkie affects their sanity without ever coming into contact with them?" Sunset smiled.

Twilight didn't get the joke and asked, "Is that possible? How could someone affect another person's mental stability without physical contact?"

Rarity laughed, "It's possible, just get used to Pinkie Pie."

Pinkie dabbed.

"It's getting kind of late," Rainbow noted. "I guess we'd better get back to our real lives, huh?"

Everyone agreed. They did have school tomorrow, even though Principal Celestia gave them all free passes for the day.

"It's been loads a'fun so far," Applejack said. "See y'all tomorrow in the real world."

Rarity said, "Oh yes, positively. And maybe we can come back here on the weekend!"

Sunset said, "You bet." She turned to Twilight and asked, "Are you enjoying this game?"

Twilight answered, "Yes I am. It turned out to exceed my original expectations. Most other games don't let you hang out with your friends all day."

They all shared a laugh and opened their menus to logout.

The logout button wasn't there.

"What the hell?" Rainbow shouted. "Why can't we logout? It's a freaking online game, there's gotta be a way to get out!"

The eight o'clock bell rang in the distance.

"Ah shoot," Applejack said. "Ah gotta help Big Macintosh with the evenin' chores!"

"And I have a piano lesson at 8:15!" Rarity exclaimed.

"I gotta get to my baseball game!" Rainbow said. "I'm practically carrying the whole team on my shoulders!"

"I need to be at my book club meeting!" Twilight gasped.

"I have a pizza coming to my apartment! Its probably there and I don't want to keep the guy waiting!" Sunset said.

"I don't know where I have to be, I just wanna get out of here!!!" Pinkie screamed.

All of a sudden, they felt light-headed. A blue light engulfed them. In about a second, that were back at the plaza again. So were all the other players. There was general commotion going on, with people talking among themselves about what just happened.

Pinkie pointed upwards and said, "Look!"

A red light was flashing in the sky, with a single word on it: WARNING.

It was soon joined by thousands of other identical red lights, until they covered the whole sky, bathing the area in an ominous red glow.

The crowd gasped as some sticky liquid resembling blood started oozing out of the lights. It floated in the air and took a humanoid shape, before transforming into a hooded figure with a long cloak.

"Is that the game master?" someone asked. The figure was silent, until it finally spoke.

It raised its arms and said in an unusually friendly voice, "Attention, players. Welcome to my world."

Rainbow thought, "Your world? Does this world have a king or a god or something?"

"My name is Akihito Kayaba, and as of this moment, I am in control of this world."

Applejack thought, "You're in control? Ya mean we don't get to do our own free will? This sucks."

"I'm sure most of you have noticed an item missing for your main menu, the logout button. I can assure you that this is not a defect in the game. I repeat, this is not a defect."

Rarity thought, "How could it not be a defect? Is this how they're making games nowadays?"

"This is how Sword Art Online was meant to be. You cannot log yourselves out of SAO, and no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the nerve gear from your head."

Arnold thought, "I knew I should have stayed in the real world today."

"If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the nerve gear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain, and ending your life."

Terror struck everyone deep in the gut. Most were too shocked to move. Some general chatter could be heard, usually along the lines of "What?" and "That's such BS."

"Despite my warning, the family and friends of some of the players have already attempted removing the nerve gear. An unfortunate decision, to say the least. As a result, the game now has 213 less players tban when it began. They've been deleted from Aincrad and the real world."

Twilight stammered, "But, but, how would the players' family and friends have known about his warning? Only those who are in the game can see and hear him."

Sunset answered, "I don't know, but let's hope none of our family or friends tries to attempt that." In her head she added, "Man, am I glad I live alone..."

Computer screens showing newly deceased players and their grieving family members swirled around the shadowy figure of Akihito Kayaba. "As you can see, international media outlets have round-the-clock coverage of everything, including the deaths."

Rainbow thought, "Oh god, I really hope my f :yay: king dad saw that whole he was watching tv!"

Twilight thought, "Oh my, I really hope someone tells my parents about this before that try to remove my nerve gear!"

"It's safe to assume that the likelihood of a nerve gear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you comfort as you try to clear the game."

It didn't.

"You must remember the following: There is no longer any way to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the server. Forever. And the nerve gear wil simultaneously destroy your brain."

Many players were on the verge of tears. Rarity was one of them. A single collective thought arose from the crowd: Their death in the game leading to their death in real life. Every last individual felt as if they had been punched in the gut.

"There's only one way for a player to escape now: you must clear the game. Right now you are gathered on Floor 1, the lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you may advance to the next level. If you can defeat the boss on Floor 100, you will clear the game."

"What?!" Sunset shouted. "That's impossible! I've heard this game is even harder than Dark Souls!"

Someone in the crowd shouted, "Why should we believe any of the crap you're saying?!"

Someone else shouted, "Even the beta testers never made it that high!"

While his face was invisible, it was obvious that Akihiko Kayaba was enjoying terrorizing everyone with their lives at stake. "Last but not least, I've placed a little present in the item storage of every player."

Everyone opened their item packs and selected the new "present". It was a simple handheld mirror. Rainbow looked at the reflection of her eyeshadowed face and half-shaven hair and wondered if she had gone overboard with the avatar design. But then, all the mirrors glowed. The plaza was engulfed in a bright light. All the players felt pain in their faces, as if their faces were being moved around.

When the light died down, it seemed like nothing had happened. Until everyone looked in the mirrors again. They were themselves. They now sported their true faces, their true hairstyles, and their true body shape. Rainbow wasn't disappointed, but she did miss her half-shaven hair.

The murmur of "who are you" floated through the crowd. There were quite a lot of rather ugly people in the crowd now, they were trying to hide behind sexy player characters.

The entity spoke again. "I'll bet you are all thinking right now, 'Why? Why would Akihiko Kayabo, developer of Sword Art Online and nerve gear, do this?' Ultimately, my goal was a simple one: the reason I created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of a world of my design. As you can see, I have achieved my goal. Thus ends the tutorial, and marks the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck."

With those words, Akihito Kayaba disintegrated into the sticky liquid again and vaporized. The red sky went away, leaving the once calm setting sun to reign once again.

For a minute, everything was silent. You could have heard a hat dropping from the other side of the plaza. And then realization hit.

"AAAAAAAAA!!!"

"OH MY GOOOOOOOOD!!!"

"I HAVE A MEETING AFTER THIS!!!"

The six girls just stood there with heavy hearts. They were not leaving this game.

In a daze, they walked in six different directions. Rainbow went to an alley where there appeared to be no one. She looked down through it and hung her head. She didn't see the figure rushing towards her.

They both fell to the ground. Rainbow rubbed her head and was about to say something about how people would not stop hitting her, but she stopped.

She recognized him.

Author's Note

YO what's goin on guys? This was quite the entertaining chapter to write, with going back to the first episode to copy down all of Akihito Kayaba's quotes. But I enjoyed it, nonetheless.

And let me know what you thought of all the players' reactions to AK's news. I think I did a pretty good job conveying all the sheer terror and dread they must have felt. Feedback is always appreciated!

Also, I TOLD YA Kirito was gonna be in here! You never doubted it for a second did ya? :pinkiehappy:

Episode Four: Casualty

11.31.16 12:18P F#01

A twig snapped under Sunset's boot as it laid on the dirt path leading up the mountain. Its nonexistent life was taken immediately, but its killer felt no remorse. It was one of hundreds of snapped sticks on the long journey, and there were hundreds more to come.

Sunset paid it no notice, instead keeping on listening to the constant bickering between Kibaou and Anon.

Kibaou growled, "If this walking goes on any longer, I'm gonna pass on before we even reach the freaking boss."

Anon rolled his invisible eyes and retorted, "Then maybe you should have lost some pounds before playing an active game. A lot of pounds."

BURN.

Pinkie said at the back of the group, "Dayum, I wish I could think of good comeback lines like that. Hey Rainbow, think you could teach me how to do good comeback lines? You're really good at it."

Rainbow answered, "Maybe sometime, when we're not occupied with, oh, life and death."

Twilight was bringing up the rear, panting heavily and clutching her chest. "I guess others of us should have lost some weight as well."

Pinkie grabbed Twilight's shoulders. "You don't mean that, do you? Not all of us are fat blobs! I mean look at me! Look at this bodehhh..." she started to do a sexy-dance before Sunset smacked the back of her head.

Kibaou said, "Some things are impractical to some people. Maybe when we're done, you can do that dance again..."

"Speaking of impractical," Rarity said. "I once saw the absolute epitome of impracticality. Derpy once came to school wearing a burgundy top with a light brown skirt! And on top of that, she had yellow shoes!" she shuddered at the mere thought.

Everyone else groaned pretty loudly, but Agil chuckled and said, "Someone actually wore that color combination? That's pretty impractical, all right."

Every head turned to Agil with their jaws hanging down to the ground.

Agil said, "What, I took an interior design class, okay?"

Sunset nodded and said, "Interior designing is pretty interesting, if you know what colors go with whatnot."

A man in Anon's party said, "Like that awesome brown-and-offwhite combo they wear in Attack on Titan? That's pretty dang cool."

Rainbow said, "Oh man, I love that show. Can you believe Armin's scream was the number 1 ringtone of 2015?"

"Ringtones?" someone in Agil's party said. "People still vary with their ringtones? All I've heard recently is that freaking PPAP song."

Applejack said, "Ah will never understand the popularity of that song."

Anon, slightly ticked, said, "If we're all done going off on irrelevant topics, might I suggest we stop and have lunch? We obviously still have a long way to go."

Everyone agreed this was a good idea and all found stones and logs to sit on. The forest scenery was beautiful in the middle of the day, with the sun casting rays through the leaves and the branches.

A spider crawled out of a tree and stopped on Kibaou's sandwich. He immediately hacked them both to pieces, gaining 1 XP, much to everyone's amusement.

During the rest of the time, Anon read from the guidebook, about the different locations of items and details about enemies. Most people paid attention, except for Pinkie, who always found a way to get distracted, and Kibaou, who was fuming about his lost sandwich.

After lunch was over, they packed up and kept walking, although there was less conversation than before.

The massive tower in front of them was imposing enough, but the fact that it was at least ten miles away was just scary. Still, they kept on walking.

Walking as if their lives depended on it.

Which they did.

11.31.16 06:48P F#01

Anon slammed his sword into the ground before him. "Alright everyone, this is it. And before we go in, I have just one thing to say: Let's win!"

All the parties silently agreed, and Anon slowly pushed open the heavy wooden door. "Let's do this."

The door creaked open to reveal the darkness behind it. Nothing moved, nothing made a sound except the twenty pairs of boots walking down the corridor.

Kirito realized he was probably the only one present who had completed this level before. He prayed that his past experience would let everyone advance to the next level, to complete one step to freedom.

A pair of red eyes appeared at the end of the hall. Instantaneously, light flashed through the corridor, causing the walls to glow different colors and slowly ripple as if they were made of magma.

An enormous creature fell to the ground from where it had jumped. Its body resembled Rufus from Street Fighter, while its head was a mix of a bull and a wolf. Its flesh was a dull shade of red that seemed to barely cover the pulsing veins beneath. It wore a red tunic with black leggings, and had a gray diamond marking on its stomach. It carried an iron shield in one hand and a massive battle axe in the other. It had a truly ghastly appearance that, if it had appeared in real life, would make even the bravest of men cower in fear. Everyone wanted to do just that, but they stood their ground with their swords drawn.

Three small sentinels appeared next to it, each brandishing a stone club and wearing knight's armor and helmets.

All four started charging at the ready group of fighters.

Anon thought to himself, "This is what we've all been waiting for. This goes to all our fallen friends." he raised his sword and yelled, "ATTACK!!"

Most everyone immediately rushed at the beasts, yelling their own battle cries. Twilight and Rarity stayed slightly behind, while Sunset, Rainbow, Applejack, Kirito, and Asuna ran at them full force. Anon followed as well, keeping a pretty safe distance to issue orders.

There was a metallic clang as Agil's axe connected with the beast's own. Applejack and Kibaou soon followed, slicing at the monster's axe while it parried their attacks. A man jumped behind the boss's arm to dismember it, but was effectively blocked by the wooden butt of the axe. The turmoil became so chaotic that Anon had to stop everyone before they all killed themselves.

"Squad A and Squad C! Switch!"

The two teams immediately traded their places on the battlefront as the mighty weapon whizzed through the thin air where they had momentarily been.

"Here it comes, Squad B! Block!"

Agil affirmed, and he and his party held their weapons out as the boss's axe came into contact with them. They all were knocked slightly back, but no one was hurt.

"Squad C, keep guarding and get ready to switch! Now!"

Sunset yelled to the others, "Now's our chance!" She, Pinkie, and Rarity took a forward stand in front of the others, who all jumped out of the way and countered another blow. The monster's nostrils flared as its arm flew behind it.

"Squads D, E, and F, keep the sentinels off us! We're going in!"

Kirito said, "Roger that," and looked in Asuna's direction, but she was already off and running. He took off after her and reflected a hit from a club. Asuna kicked a sentinel's breastplate off and cut out a nice piece of its stomach. She then rushed ahead with her sword pointed forward, saying, "Number three!"

Kirito stopped. Thoughts ran through his mind. "I thought she was only a beginner, but she's incredible. She slices so fast I can't even see her blade."

Asuna dashed around a sentinel, blocking its strike and then whipping it over and blasting it to pieces. Her cloak settled around her figure once again.

Kirito smiled slightly and complemented her, "Nice going." He didn't have time to notice if she responded as another sentinel leaped in front of him and swiped its club at him. He parried it and knocked it away with a solid hit.

Rainbow, caught in the fray of fighting the boss, yelled to him, "Kirito! You can do this! We're all counting on you guys!"

Kirito clenched his fist and rushed at the sentinel, blocking each slice it delivered. He nearly stabbed through its helmeted face, but another player beat him to it by cutting off its head in a clean stroke. It died in a burst of glowing triangles.

He and the other player quickly shook hands, then went right back to fighting.

Except there was nothing to fight anymore. The boss had ceased attacking. It threw its axe and shield into the air and they landed with a clank behind it.

Sunset wondered, "Did we really get rid of its three health bars already? We might actually beat this thing!"

Kibaou laughed, "Looks like that guidebook was right."

Anon yelled, "Stand back!"

The group turned around to look at him, but he was running at the currently unarmed beast. "I'll go. I can handle this thing!"

Kirito stopped. "Wait," he thought. "Weren't we supposed to surround it with the entire group? Is this even wise?"

The boss reached behind it and pulled out—a longsword with two points on the end. The exact opposite of a Talwar.

Anon kept running. Kirito thought, "That's not a Talwar, it's a Nodachi! It's different than in the beta test!" He wanted to stop Anon before he got killed, but found himself unable to move. He just gathered all his strength to scream, "NO!!!"

Anon, glowing sword in hand, turned around to look at Kirito, as did everyone else. The beast leaped into the air and wall-jumped off the vaulted ceilings. It was moving almost too fast to keep track of.

And then, it dove straight down and slashed open Anon's chest.

Kibaou yelled, "ANON! NO!" Anon's body flew across the hall and thudded as it came to a stop on the other side. The monster landed in front of the group and roared right in their faces. Pinkie cowered behind Rarity, who was cowering behind Twilight, who was cowering behind Rainbow. They couldn't take their eyes off of Anon's motionless body or the beast that was sure to devour them.

Kirito ran over to Anon, healing potion at the ready. "Why did you try to take it alone?" he asked, putting the bottle to Anon's mouth as the other's health bar was draining. Anon pushed it away.

Kirito gasped. Anon weakly said, "You were a beta tester,weren't you?" This came as a shock. Anon able to figure out Kirito was a beta tester, a fact Kirito was making a point to keep secret.

"You...were after the rare attack bonus item." This was an even bigger shock. The ordinary players had no clue that the bonus item existed. "You mean you were a beta tester too?"

Anon nodded and smiled slightly. "Please...defeat...defeat the boss..." His body began to glow. "For everyone..." With that, Anon disappeared in a burst of light and ceased to be.

The others stared at the scene in horror. No one wanted to believe what just happened had actually happened.

Kirito couldn't bring himself to cry. Instead he thought about how Anon had taken routes he would never have taken. About how Anon always stood by the other players while Kirito only cared about his own survival.

Asuna appeared by Kirito's side. "I'll go too."

Kirito gathered his voice and courage and said, "Thanks. Let's do this."

The beast roared. Kirito and Asuna ran at it like they had done with the sentinels. It was the exact same as the sentinels, only bigger, Kirito was telling himself.

All the other players were on the ground, ready to admit defeat. Twilight couldn't believe any of this had happened. But she noticed that Kirito didn't give up. She admired his courage.

Kirito lunged at the boss with a wide-ranged slash. Its Nodachi glowed and crossed with his sword. Kirito shook it off and yelled, "Switch!"

Asuna jumped high in the air to catch the top of the boss's head, but it was wise and swung its sword at her in midair.

"ASUNA!" he shouted. Asuna's cloak was ripped to shreds, but she was unharmed. As the hood and cape came off, they revealed lots of long brunette hair, shining brown eyes, and a well-developed figure. Kirito couldn't help but stand there and stare. He had given a few thoughts as to what she might look like, but he never would have imagined that she would look so...

...beautiful...

He came to his senses as the boss's sword crashed down a few feet away from him. He spun around and hit the sword multiple times, while each hit was blocked. The monster raised it suddenly, and brought it down. It cut a straight, shallow gash along Kirito's stomach. He launched backwards and knocked over Asuna. His health bar was depleted quite a bit, but not enough to finish him off. That was the beast's intention as it raised its sword once again, ready to dispose of its two attackers.

The blade came down on—another blade. Kirito opened his eyes and saw Rainbow standing there, holding off the heavy Nodachi. The boss fell back, ready to attack again.

Asuna looked at Rainbow, then Kirito. Rainbow looked down at Kirito and said, "We'll hold it off until you recover."

Agil stepped forward and agreed with her. All of his men, and the six students from Canterlot High rushed at the beast with their swords in attack position.

There were several seconds of intense fighting before the boss leaped in the air and thrusted its sword into the ground, causing a shockwave that blasted everyone away. It then rushed at the floored Agil and Rainbow, ready to finish the job. Kirito got to his feet and yelled, "I'll finish you first!"

The two blades crossed again, but this time, Kirito's was glowing. He cut a slash across the boss's upper body, then yelled to Asuna to switch.

She did, and she stabbed through the beast's belly and made a deep gash around the left half of its body. Kirito then cut all the way through its body at the same time Asuna did, causing it to fly in the air. It began to glow a light shade of blue before imploding.

The boss was defeated.

Kirito was exhausted from the sheer agony of the past ten minutes. The difference of this fight and the one in the beta was overwhelming. And Anon...

Asuna put a hand to her racing heart and said, "I suppose we can move on to the second floor now."

"Yeah," Kirito wiped a load of sweat from his face. He got down on one knee and tried to gain his strength again.

"WE DID IT!!!" Everyone started cheering and jumping around.

Pinkie got a party cannon out of absolutely nowhere and shot it. "If there's a party, there's gotta be loads of confetti!"

A small viewscreen appeared in front of Kirito. It read, "Congratulations, you got the last attacking bonus! Coat of Midnight"

Applejack came up and patted his shoulder. "That was some mighty fine swordplay if Ah say so myself."

Agil helped him up and said, "If it weren't for you and Asuna, we would most likely all be dead."

"Well..." the group started clapping before Kirito could finish his sentence. It was quickly stopped by an angry "WHY?!"

They all turned to look at Kibaou. "Why did you let Anon die?"

Everyone gasped. "Let him die?" Kirito was in shock again.

"OF F :yay: KING COURSE! You knew about that technique the boss used! If you had told us about it before we started, he wouldn't have died!"

Everyone exchanged awkward glances. Someone in Anon's party said, "I know! He's probably a beta tester! That's how he knew all the attack patterns! He remembered them from the beta!"

Someone else said, "Come on, any other beta testers here? There shouldn't be, since none of us knew the boss's moveset!"

All the members looked around at each other. The six CHS students knew none of them were beta testers. Others were not too sure.

Kirito was fuming. "This is bad..." He remembered Anon's final words: for everyone. But then he saw the rare item in front of him.

Agil confronted Kibaou again. "Come on, there..." He was cut off by the sound of laughing.

Kirito was laughing. "Beta tester? Ha, don't even think about comparing me to those noobs."

Asuna and Sunset exchanged glances. This was getting weird.

Kirito got up and continued, "The 10000 beta testers were bottom-level beginners who didn't even know how to collect items. All you guys are better than they'll ever be."

Kibaou growled.

"But I'm not like them. I made it to a higher floor than anyone else in the beta test. The reason I knew those attack patterns was because I fought monsters with katana skills on floors high above us. I know more than any guidebook or info broker. Lots more."

Rainbow didn't like this. Kirito was starting to sound evil.

Kibaou thundered, "That's worse than a beta tester! You're just cheating!!" His party members started yelling it with him. "Cheater! Cheats, cheats and cheating!"

"You're a beta tester AND a cheater!"

"BEATER!!!"

The voice of unknown ownership hung over the crowd like a dagger.

"Beater..." Kirito repeated. "I like that. I am a beater. From now on, don't confuse me with all those other testers."

Kibaou's jaw was hanging open. Kirito opened his menu and activated the Coat of Midnight. It immediately appeared over his simple blue tunic: a majestic black cloak with silver studs and a decorated base.

Rarity saw it and fell in love with it at once. If–no–when she escaped the game, she was going to design one just like it. Possibly a unisex version.

Kirito smugly brushed past everyone and walked up the stairs to the next floor. Sunset, Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, Twilight, Pinkie, and Asuna ran after him. "Wait!"

He slowly turned around to face them.

Asuna spoke up first. "When we were fighting the boss, you called me by my name. How did you know it?"

Kirito pointed in the air. "Right about there, you can see an HP bar with the player's name. You can see mine, can't you?"

Asuna looked. "Kirito? Your name's Kirito?"

He turned away again. "Yeah."

Asuna laughed. "Oh, I'm so stupid. It was there the whole time and I didn't notice!"

Rainbow whispered to Applejack, "I saw it as soon as we got introduced. What took her so long?"

Applejack shushed her to let Kirito talk. "If the time ever comes when someone invites you to join a guild, don't turn it down. There are limits to what a swordplayer can do."

"But, you're going solo."

Kirito opened his menu and disbanded his party.

The door opened and Kirito walked away.

The seven girls stood there in disbelief. They weren't sure whether to follow him or not.

They weren't sure whether they would even see him again.

They weren't sure if they would even make it out alive.

Author's Note

YESSSSSSS I FINALLY BROKE 3000 WORDS!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, all that aside, what did you think of this chapter? This was my very first attempt at writing an action sequence, so I apologize if it's not all that good. I will probably get better as the story progresses, since there's a lot more action scenes to come. Also, reader feedback, should they immediately go with Kirito or wait up and meet him again later?

Bonus: try to spot when I started quoting the dub instead of the sub.

Episode Five: Unraveling

5.15.17 1:37P F#08

Several months had passed since the victory in the floor one dungeon. The girls were progressing at a decent rate, occasionally meeting up with Kirito, Asuna and Agil. Kibaou hadn't been heard from in a while, so everyone assumed the worst.

They were on floor eight now. The previous six bosses had been a challenge, but they overcame. With Kirito's guidance, the game was starting to be a little easier and maybe even fun.

This floor had an abundance of good restaurants and cafes, one of which the girls were at. They were seated at a table, talking about the last few months over tea and breadsticks.

"You know, darlings, I find it quite odd that the last boss barely put up a fight. Maybe it's because the creator is being more lenient and changing the computers to make it easier for the players?"

Twilight put in, "My guess it that the software is faulty on that front. Since this is the first version of the released game, there should be a few bugs."

"Ah'm jest hopin' that he don't start releasing patches." Applejack remarked, taking a sip of tea. "If the rest of the bosses are a piece o'cake, that's really good enough fer everyone."

"Mmm...cake!" Pinkie giggled.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "But it was still kinda disappointing that the last boss was so easy. I mean, it was a giant freakin' SPIDER! What the hell! We don't want EASY fights with giant freakin' spiders!"

"You'll find, Rainbow Dash, that most people would prefer their lives over difficult fights with giant spiders," Rarity remarked dryly.

Sunset nodded. "Besides, if we get out of here, we can go play Skyrim and fight all the spiders we want."

"IF??" Everyone glared at her.

"Well, it's true! If we screw up on something or just don't have enough experience, we won't make it out!"

"What a reassuring positive outlook," grumbled Rainbow.

"Well, we won't screw up and we will get enough experience." Applejack said. "Ah've learned one thing, and that's to always assume the best."

A waiter came to their table to refill their tea and give them more breadsticks. Pinkie immediately grabbed two and shoved them both into her mouth, making them look like walrus tusks.

After the waiter left, Twilight asked, "Is it too much to assume that all these creatures that we fight are indigenous? I mean, the creator put them there, but do they respond to climates like real creatures?"

Rainbow laughed. "That sounds like something Fluttershy would say." She immediately thought about how worried Fluttershy must be for all her friends, how she might never see any of them again. The others sensed this too, as it brought a heavy silence down on the group.

No one said anything for a few minutes. Sunset broke the silence after a bit by saying, "Uh, so how many of you have seen the rock garden at the edge of town?"

Rarity perked up. "A rock garden? Oh, I just adore rock gardens! They're so charming and serene, and they're always beautifully arranged!"

Applejack adjusted her hat and said, "Well then, why don't we just go and see it?"

Everyone agreed. They got up and walked out the door as Twilight paid for the food. It was a clear afternoon with fluffy clouds in the air. A gentle breeze was blowing, causing the trees to sway.

On the way to the rock garden, a large snake threatened them, but Applejack stopped it with a well-timed stab to the head. Everyone was a little on edge after that, but the first glimpse of the rock garden eased it.

It was magnificent. There were plants in baskets hanging from the walls, there were birds singing and playing in the trees, and there was a fountain in the center with shiny coins at the bottom.

Sunset and Pinkie sat down on one of the benches facing the fountain, while Twilight and Rarity went to look at the massive flower arrangements. Rainbow and Applejack stood and leaned on the fountain, watching the water splashing up in the cool air.

Rarity was right. The whole area gave off an aura of serenity, which made the girls feel the most comfortable and happy they had since Akihito Kayaba ruined everyone's lives.

They stayed there for about an hour, basking in the peacefulness the garden radiated. When they decided to leave, they joined up and prepared to walk out the door. Sunset heard a faint sound that nobody else seemed to pick up. It sounded like...crying?

She listened again. It was definitely crying, and it was coming from one of the more secluded areas of the garden. "Stay here, I'll be right back," she told everyone. She then walked off in the direction of the noise. The others were confused, but they stayed around.

There were shadows from the afternoon sun cast darkly over a large portion of the area. Sunset followed the crying until it got loudest, and then she found the source.

It was a girl about thirteen, wearing a hooded t-shirt and tight red jeans, and whose brown hair had two large curls on either side of the front. She had a simple broadsword laying at her side. She was sitting in a corner facing away from the main part of the garden, with her head buried in her knees.

Sunset felt a sharp pang of pity at the sight. She knelt down next to the girl and gently patted her shoulder. The girl looked up with tears streaming down her face. From the redness of her eyes, it looked as if she had been crying for a long time.

Sunset introduced herself and asked, "What's wrong? I heard you crying."

The girl wiped her eyes and said, "M...my sister...and the pigs...and that big one...a-and..." before bursting into tears again.

Sunset stroked her head and comforted her, "No no, it's ok, it's ok. You can tell me what happened."

The girl slowed down and gave a big shuddery sigh. She began in a shaky voice, "Me and my big sister had just come here today, and we saw some wild p-pigs. And...she wanted to fight them for fun, but one gave her...a...huge blow to her ribs...and she..." She was desperately trying not to cry again.

Sunset's eyes had tears too, and she said, "No, I understand what happened. I'm really sorry."

"And...she told me...to make it out in one piece...and tell Mom and Dad...that she's sorry-y..."

Sunset wiped her eyes. "I'm so sorry. That must be devastating." She thought back to her own parents, their faces of betrayal as she turned her back on them permanently, as she went into the human world to never return.

She shook the thoughts away and started to help the girl to her feet. She gave her a handkerchief to blow her nose and wipe the tears from her face.

After the girl had calmed down some, Sunset asked, "What's your name?"

The girl sniffed and replied, "Miu Nomura. I'm a middle school student from Japan."

Sunset smiled and said, "Well, I'm glad to meet you. I'm just sorry it had to be under these circumstances."

Miu nodded silently.

Sunset said, "Come on, I have some friends who would probably like to meet you. I'm sure we can take care of you."

Miu nodded and answered, "Oh, that'd be fine."

Sunset held her hand and they walked back together to the waiting group.

"Finally!" Rainbow yelled. "We didn't think you'd ever come back! What were you doing back there, touching your..." she held her tongue when she saw Sunset had company.

"This is Miu. Her sister was killed by a pig this morning." Sunset explained. "And I was back there comforting her, NOT pleasuring myself, as you seem to think."

Rainbow wanted to say something back, but she saw the girl's tear-streaked face and held back.

Eventually, proper introductions had been made and Miu seemed less traumatized by her sister's death. She never smiled, but it was noticeable she was feeling better. The older girls quickly grew attached to her, and they were sure she could have an official place in their friendship.

5.15.17 9:13P F#08

They had only known Miu for about six hours and already they felt like they could teach her all the ropes of swordplay. Even though they knew none of the details. The only things they knew were taught to them by Kirito, who was probably off on another adventure of his own.

Miu had told them more about her life, like her secret crush at school, her best friend's dating experiences, and the fact that she really enjoyed playing the piano. Rarity saw this as a personal bonding moment, and that's where she was now. The rest of the girls were outside the hotel doing various things. Rainbow was smoking a makeshift cigarette, made from a rolled-up piece of leather and some tobacco extract. Twilight walked up and said, "You know, that's not very good for your lungs."

Rainbow shrugged and said, "It won't affect me in real life. There's no age limit for smoking here anyway."

Twilight rolled her eyes and said, "Fine, have it your way."

As she walked off into the semi-busy street, someone else caught her eye. It was a man with blue hair and a blue jacket with lightning bolts on it. He looked like a spitting image of...

"Soarin?!"

The man looked up from his menu. "Rainbow?!"

Rainbow threw away her cigarette and rushed to give her soccer teammate a Dutch rub. "Why, you old son of a bitch! I didn't expect to see you all the way up here!"

Soarin rubbed his head and retorted, "Neither did I! I thought you would be dead at the floor one boss!"

Rainbow socked his arm. "Dry up. So how have things been with you? Is the rest of the soccer team here?"

Soarin grinned. "Yup. They're staying in the inn over there. As far as I know, they're still fighting over the choice of drinks."

Rainbow laughed. "They haven't changed."

"Yeah..." Soarin stopped. "Hey, listen. Umm, if it's not too awkward or anything, would it be too much to ask for, you know...a hug?"

"A hug?" Rainbow had no idea what relevance this question held. "You know I don't do hugs."

"Nuh uh, I've seen you when you're with your lady friends. You just haven't hugged someone of the opposite sex before?"

"Well..." Rainbow was stuck. Her dad never showed her any affection.
"Well, maybe just this once."

Soarin raised his eyebrows and opened his arms. As they embraced, Rainbow felt a strange feeling that she did not expect. It was the same feeling she got when she bought an Xbox One S, but it was stronger.

She pulled away and looked at Soarin. He poked her face and said, "You've got a little...red or something there."

She touched her cheek, which was warm. Was she...blushing?

Soarin turned to leave. "So, you free to go on a quest tomorrow or something?"

"Uhh, yeah, sure."

"Cool. See ya then." He pointed his fingers like guns and made a firing sound before walking back to his inn.

Rainbow went into the hotel, a little dazed. She couldn't possibly have feelings for Soarin, could she?

She cleared her mind and went in the room where all her friends were. They had dinner and settled down for the night. Tomorrow would be a strange day, with Soarin and a new girl.

Rainbow could only hope it would turn out normally.

Fluttershy opened the door to Rainbow's room, where Blaze was sitting there with her. His gaze didn't change as he saw her, instead he said, "I guess you want to see her now."

Fluttershy nodded. Blaze got up and left the room. Fluttershy sat down on Rainbow's bed and looked at her obscured face. The Nerve Gear was still humming, the only thing keeping Rainbow alive. Also the thing that could be the cause of her death.

Fluttershy picked up Rainbow's warm hand and held it in hers. She started crying, her head bending down and touching Rainbow's hand.

Fluttershy didn't notice when a single tear escaped from under the Nerve Gear and rolled down Rainbow's cheek, landing on the soccer-themed bedspread.

It was a moment witnessed by none.

Author's Note

Hey everbodayyyyy!!!!!!!;5):).()-(!!;&"3 You're probably asleep while I'm posting this, but it is finished! (both the chapter and the 7-week wait.) For this one I decided to not focus on the sword slashing and action stuff, and focus on drama and emotion for a change.

This chapter was fun to write, because I tried capturing the emotion of sadness in several different forms. Let me know if I did a good job.

Also, Miu is not an oc of mine, she's a character from an obscure anime called Piano: Melody of a Young Girl's Heart. It's a really good slice of life show, I recommend watching it!

Also, BEWARE, UPCOMING CHAPTERS MAY/WILL CONTAIN SOARINDASH. LEAVE IMMEDIATELY IF THIS OFFENDS YOU. Or you could skip those parts and read the rest of the story. That's what I do with the occasional multichapter clopfic with good story elements.

Well, I'm gonna go to bed now.

Episode Six: Regret

5.16.17 8:00A F#08

The hotel room door burst open as Soarin marched in, tooting a bugle as loudly and tone-deaf as humanly possible.

"Rise and shine mofos!!! We got a root-tootin' rip-roarin' adventure to go on, and—"

Soarin's voice trailed off as he saw the entire female section of the soccer team wearing nothing but their underwear. Revealing underwear. Soarin had no idea Fleetfoot used C-cups. He unconsciously licked his lips.

The girls screamed, covered their bodies up with their sheets, and started to throw things at Soarin. He rushed out of the room covering his head, groaning "Sorry, my bad! Jesus Christ!"

As he left, Spitfire slammed the door behind him so hard that it rattled the windows. The fact that the weak hinges didn't shatter was impressive. After several moments of awkward silence, Spitfire whispered for the room to hear, "The only reason we still keep him around is because he's the only one who can do a recovery powerhouse kick! Got it?

The other girls seemed reluctant to agree, but they nodded their heads anyway.

Spitfire peeked out the door and rolled her eyes when she saw Soarin sitting in the middle of the hallway rubbing his neck. "Serves you right, punk," she sneered, while adjusting her flowered bra.

Half an hour later, the female members of the soccer team were downstairs in the lobby. Fully clothed. Some wore extra clothes just to spite Soarin.

They found him snickering with the guys on the team. Spitfire picked up "milk machines" and "change of pants" before she pulled him up by his ear and yelled in it.

Soarin submitted immediately, followed by a chorus of fake apologies. "Don"t any of you guys get any ideas. You will regret it." Spitfire glared daggers at Wave Chill and Silver Zoom, who cackled like idiots.

Before the battle of the sexes could turn into a cold war, High Winds asked from the rear of the group, "Where's Zelda? He did agree to go with us, didn't he?"

"I'm here, I'm here! Hold up!"

The so-called "Zelda" was Wind Waker, a rather laconic and timid boy of fifteen. He was an astounding goalie, and was announced student of the week six times in the past year.

Fire Streak stood up and rubbed his hands. "Welp, the gang's all here. Now we just wait for Little Miss Hotshot."

Cloudchaser raised an eyebrow. "Who is this Little Miss Hotshot now? I'm pretty sure we all logged on and everything."

Soarin scratched the back of his head. "Rainbow Dash. I forgot to tell you girls."

This elicited a collective gasp of surprise and excitement. If their star player was here too, then they could all beat the game as a team.

Spitfire smirked. "Speak of the devil." They all turned to look toward the door, from which entered Rainbow.

"Heyyy, guys! What's shakin' yall?" Rainbow greeted her old schoolmates with fist bumps and Dutch rubs.

Spitfire gave her an overview of their experiences, as well as their plan for the near future. By the time she was finished, Rainbow's friends had entered the hotel and greeting everyone.

The rules didn't specifically say the players had to use only swords to attack. Several team members had bought rubber balls weighted with a small amount of sand to use as a replica soccer ball, as well as a projectile weapon.

Lightning Dust rubbed her hands. "So, who's ready to get this show on the road?"

Rainbow yelled, "Let's go blow a hit on those motherfu—" she was cot off by Sunset's hand slapping over her mouth.

"There are children present," Sunset growled, gesturing towards Miu. "I would kindly suggest you refrain from your usual profane mannerisms."

Rainbow pulled Sunset's hand off her face. "Okay, geez. It's not like she hasn't heard that shi—um, stuff before. I mean, she goes to freakin' middle school! If you ask me, the kids swore a hell of a lot more than they do now."

Spitfire chuckled and adjusted her glasses. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's because they had just learned they could use those words without their parents' knowledge. Until the principal finds out."

"Sombra? Oh yeah, that guy was pure evil. Remember when he suspended that one kid for a week just for farting in class?"

"Yep. Heard his parents built an outhouse for him so they wouldn't have to bother with his lavatorial duties."

"Hehehe, doodie."

"Um, it's fine if you use those words."

The timid voice of Miu interrupted the crude discussion of the high school students.

"My big sister used them all the time. She did just to spite Mom and Dad." Miu shifted her feet. "I miss her."

Blaze came over and hugged her. "I'm so sorry, dear. That must hurt a lot."

Rarity said, "But you're safe with all of us now, darling." She looked up at the large group of athletes and added darkly, "I think."

Everyone put their hands up defensively.

"Alright, good. Now should we get going, everyone?"

Several people pumped their fists in the air.

They all stepped out the door on another adventure.

5.16.17 12:48P F#08

The group was continuing their long trek up the mountainside. The air temperature was dropping, so everyone started to put on warmer clothes. Except Pinkie, who claimed she wasn't cold in the least. Applejack looked at her in her Harley Quinn-esque outfit and sighed.

The walk became steeper and more uncomfortable as time passed, so the group decided to take a quick breather.

Rarity half-asked, half-pleaded, "Are we almost to the top of the mountain yet?"

Spitfire stepped back and scanned the area above them. "Nope, I'd say we've got at least another half-mile to go. Sorry for you."

Rarity slunk down to the dirt ground, accidentally soiling her fancy getup. "Carry on without me, darlings. I'll stay here, and when you come back you can tell me how it was."

Miu sat down next to her. "I'll stay here with you so you won't get lonely."

This gave everyone the warm fuzzies. Miu and Rarity had formed a surprisingly close bond over the past day and a half. It was shocking, really. The other girls liked her because she reminded them of their dear friend Fluttershy, but Rarity claimed she was just like her little sister Sweetie Belle. Whether this was true or not, they still wanted to protect her to their utmost ability.

Spitfire shrugged. "Suit yourselves." She turned to the rest of the group and yelled, "Alright, losers! Let's get a move on! Christmas Village is only half a mountain away!"

Twilight turned to Applejack. "This Christmas Village, is it true that they celebrate the holiday every month of the year?"

"Yer askin' me? Why don't ya ask Miss Captain over there? Ah don't know why we're even comin' up here."

"Okay. Captain Spitfire, ma'am!"

"What?" she answered, not turning around.

"Why are we going to Christmas Village?"

"I thought we gave you the dirt already. We're after a rare elixir that doubles EXP and attack power for one entire floor. We get it by defeating a reindeer boss that shows up only on the day of the month Christmas is celebrated, which is the sixteenth, for some strange reason."

Twilight adjusted her glasses. "Ah. Thank you."

Soarin added jokingly, "And to eat lots of dee-licious ham aspec."

He received several slaps to the back of his head.

The rest of the walk was relatively quiet, with less wildlife noises. They had reached a layer of thin clouds surrounding the top half of the mountain, and it was snowing lightly.

It felt a little like Christmas, but there was a gloomy sensation mixed in as well. It was all rather eerie.

Pinkie clutched her body with both arms. "Okay, I might be getting a little cold now."

Applejack rolled her eyes and gave her a spare coat out of her inventory.

Pinkie accepted it and grinned sheepishly.

Finally, they all reached the top. And no one expected the beautiful sights they were greeted with.

There were quaint cottages packed neatly on either side of cobblestone streets. The stores had little signs hanging in front of them to indicate the materials being sold there. The people were milling about merrily, with some singing well-known Christmas carols and others riding horse-driven sleighs.

It might have been the middle of May, but they all wanted it to be December again.

As they split up to explore around, they all came together in the middle of the town, where an enormous tree stood. Its branches were sparkling with tinsel and fancy ornaments.

"Whoa momma," Rainbow breathed. "We could have one helluva Christmas party here. If that's what we were here for, that is."

Lightning Dust glanced in her direction. "Well, we're not. Although you do have a good thought, we're after the more important stuff."

It was starting to get dark, and the snow was coming down in big, fluffy flakes. Just like an ideal white Christmas.

Spitfire announced, "We're gonna hang around for a little while longer, then well get a move on. That powerlixir isn't gonna wait forever."

"Miss Rarity?"

"Yes, Miu, darling?"

"I'm getting chilly."

"I know, me too. Maybe we should have gone with our friends instead of staying here. Heaven knows when they'll be back."

Miu nodded slowly. "Miss Rarity? I think I should tell you something."

"What's that, darling?"

Miu quietly cleared her throat before beginning. "I'm a terrible friend. My best friend Yuuki had a crush on a boy at our school and she wanted me to help her win him over. She finally went on a date with him, but then she found out he was already going with a girl in eighth grade. She blamed me and yelled at me and told me we were through. That was the day before my sister Akiko started the Sword Art Online. I'll never see either of them again..."

By the end she was choking back tears and wiping her eyes.

Rarity pulled her in for a tight hug. "I'm sorry, darling. They say friends come and go, but family is forever."

As soon as the words left her mouth, Rarity immediately wished she could take them back. That was the exact opposite of what Miu was feeling. She might not ever see her family again, and the only friends she currently had were the girls from Canterlot High. Rarity knew all of them were in danger of dying at any given time.

Rarity felt a sharp mix of pain, sorrow, and guilt within her heart. She tried to shake the thoughts away, but they remained, seemingly implanted in her very soul.

She knew that her friends could be dying up there. For the first time in a long while, she felt helpless. Afraid. Alone.

With a girl at her side who felt the same way.

Alone.

5.16.17 9:00P F#08

The bell inside the clock tower struck nine. Spitfire looked up from her menu. "It's time."

The rest of the group slowly got up to follow their hotheaded leader. They could all come back victorious and with a rare item, or they could never come back at all.

Sunset, who was striding just behind Spitfire, turned to look at her comrades. No one was smiling. They looked like part of a funeral procession, and they might as well have been.

They entered the dark forest, illuminated somewhat by the fuzzy moon shining its light on the piled-up snowdrifts.

When they were fully in the forest, they stopped in a rather large clearing. Spitfire checked her menu for info, then nodded grimly.

"This is the place."

As if on cue, two bright streaks of light shot across the cloudy night sky. One departed, and they did not see where it went.

The other, however, rocketed downward and impacted into the ground hard enough to shake some snow off of the trees. As the powder settled, a monstrous reindeer towered before them, its nose and eyes gleaming an evil shade of red.

Its nametag hovered above it, revealing the creature's name to be Rudolph the Unchained. A fitting name for such a terrifying creature.

It pawed the ground, steam shooting from its nostrils. Spitfire ordered the group to split in two: One for assault, and one for surprise attacks. Rainbow, Sunset, Applejack, and Pinkie were in the assault team, while Twilight was on the defensive.

Spitfire roared at the monster, as well as her teammates, "FOR THE GREATER GLORY OF HONOR AND OUR OWN LIVES, ATTACK! NOW!!"

The reindeer charged, its razor-sharp antlers colliding with swords as the wielders held it back. Soarin, on the defensive side, ordered his troops to attack from behind, leaving it vulnerable for the assault team to finish it off.

This was easier said than done. The reindeer had a disgusting eye in the back of its head, making it impossible to sneak up on it. Some fools dashed in but were blown back by a fierce kick from the deer's hind leg. They both died immediately.

Soarin screamed, "NO!" before the monster's tail sprouted teeth and grabbed him and another one of his friends, Lightning Streak. They were hurt upon landing, but they were still alive.

The assault team was trying their hardest to defeat the beast, to no noticeable avail. High Winds had managed to clip the right ear, but was impaled by a sharp antler. She was lying on the ground, moaning as her health slowly drained away.

Wave Chill and Surprise had both stabbed into the beast's massive chest, lowering its health and stats. They had both been trampled, though, causing intense pain before the world faded away.

Rainbow had barely noticed the deaths of her friends since elementary school, as she was busy trying to get a hit in to dismember something. Without warning, the beast let out a massive roar, knocking Rainbow, Spitfire, and a few others off their feet. It charged once more, and Rainbow closed her eyes, preparing for the worst. But someone screamed, and when she opened her eyes, she saw Wind Waker, "Zelda", slashing furiously at the monster's face. He cut off a large portion of the red nose, sending blood flying everywhere and tainting the snow.

A hoof brought down on Zelda's body as the beast entered its godmode. Most everyone saw this, and they cried out as the timid, antisocial boy paid with his life saving several others.

They got up and gave it their all, swords swinging, hitting, missing. For their fallen comrades. The area started to heat up as the reindeer began to give off a fiery radiance. It leaped in the air and spread its now blazing hot legs just far enough to take everyone out in one shot.

Everyone put up their swords as a last-ditch attempt to fight. They knew it would be hopeless, and it would all be over.

And then a flash.

A sword came swinging at the reindeer and effectively cut a massive gash in its underside. The beast fell on its side and gave one last roar before disappearing in an array of lights.

Kirito dropped to the ground and sheathed his sword. He turned to look at the battered bodies of the ones who put up a fight.

The powerlixir had been rewarded to him. He got it out of his inventory and three it on the ground in front of him.

"Take care of this. You'll need it from now on."

With that, he turned and trudged off back toward the village.

The ones who knew him knew something was wrong and silently thanked him.

Everyone else was mourning the loss of their friends.

Sunset bowed her head. Their deaths were not in vain.

She was just glad Miu witnessed none of this.

Author's Note

Hey guys, look at this! Another chapter in the same month! SHOCKER!!!
But seriously, though, I had to write this before I forgot it.

The reason is: I was watching the episode where Kirito fights the Santa Claus monster and it got me thinking. There were two bolts of light in the sky, and one Santa. So I speculated and decided a Rudolph monster was the other one. It went from there, and here you go.

Also, there's a BRAND NEW COVER ART designed by yours truly in PowerPoint 2013. I figured this story is reaching the point where it can have a unique cover art instead of some jpg image.

Soarin is not dead. HE WILL SPEND MORE TIME WITH RAINBOW. If this offens you, please leave. And we will see more of Kirito, and Asuna, and the rest of his assorted harem when they appear. This part just happened right after he gave the lifesaver thingies to Klein and went to the hotel to listen to Sachi's Christmas message. I just might build on after that.

So, peace out, everyone, and have a good rest of the day. :pinkiehappy:

Episode Three: Comrades

10.25.16 8:34P F#01

"I'm Husky Blitzer, and you're watching NCN. In today's news, the game Sword Art Online has actually killed some of the people playing it. The Nerve Gear headset delivered an electric shock to the brains of over 600 people, ending their lives. Akihiko Kayaba, the designer of Sword Art Online and Nerve Gear, is unable to be reached for comment."

Fluttershy's eyes filled with tears. "R-Rainbow...?"

Kirito rubbed his eyes. He could have sworn he recognized this girl from somewhere. He was going to say something, but she beat him to it.

"Um, hi, my name's Rainbow Dash. We seem to keep bumping into each other."

Kirito then remembered the previous two times that happened. "Oh, that's quite alright." He stuck out his hand and helped Rainbow to her feet. "My name's Kirito. I was one of the beta testers."

Rainbow cocked an eyebrow. "Beta tester, huh? Lucky stiff. How much did you pay them to let you in?"

Kirito shook his head. "I didn't pay them anything. I sent in a form, like everyone else."

"Oh well. Luck of the draw, I guess. Say, do you have any clue why that Kinky Kahuna guy switched all our faces and stuff back to the way they actually were? Not to mention the dying-in-the-game-equals-dying-in-real-life stuff."

"I don't know. It was never like this in the beta version. We all assumed it would be a really fun casual RPG that you could play whenever we wanted."

"But it still is." Rainbow crossed her arms. "Just with actual deaths."

That comment elicited a small laugh from Kirito. He quickly stopped, due to the severity of the situation. "You see, when we were—"

"RAINBOW!"

Rainbow turned to see Pinkie running up behind her. "Thank God, we thought you had died!!!" She leaped at Rainbow and wrapped her arms around her body in a tight squeeze.

Rainbow managed to get out, "Thanks a lot, Pinkie, but I actually will be dead if you squeeze any harder."

Pinkie released immediately. "Sorry about that. Stimulus-response, you know." She took notice of Kirito for the first time. "Hey, who's your friend here? He's kinda cute." She put her index finger under his chin.

Rainbow made a cutting motion across her throat. Pinkie ignored it and said seductively, "There's some nice motels around here."

Kirito was sweating. Rainbow forcibly pulled Pinkie off of him and chuckled nervously. "This is Pinkie Pie. She's my, uh, acquaintance. She also thinks she's a prostitute."

Kirito mumbled, "Yeah, I gathered that."

Rainbow saw Pinkie become momentarily distracted by her touch menu, so she asked Kirito, "How exactly did the mirrors change everyone's body shape?"

This he knew the answer to. "The Nerve Gear calibration test. Remember when it asked you to pat your body all over?"

Rainbow facepalmed. "Of course. The one obvious yet innocent detail everyone dismisses. Curse you, infallible logic!"

"Hey, sugarcube." Applejack patted Rainbow on the shoulder as she came up. Pinkie here contacted us all and we figure we shoulda stayed together. It's gettin' mighty dark out."

The others were close behind. Rainbow said, "That's fine. By the way, this is Kirito. He was one of the beta testers."

Kirito waved. The girls introduced themselves and immediately began bombarding him with questions.

"Can you stop Kayaba's plan?"

"Can you hack into the system and find a quick way to the top floor?"

"Can you access any online wardrobes?"

"ONE AT A TIME, PLEASE!!"

Kirito's sudden outburst startled everyone into silence. He began, more calmly, "I only played the game to look for glitches and bugs. I didn't design it. And I actually tried to hack into higher floors, but it was made so you couldn't do that."

"Awww," came a simultaneous groan.

"However, if we organize a party, we might be able to clear it together."

Pinkie perked up at the sound of "party".

Rarity slapped a hand over Pinkie's mouth before anything embarrassing came out.

Sunset looked puzzled. "Why are you being so quick to trust us? You haven't even known us for a full ten minutes."

Kirito gave a small smile. "I know trustworthy people when I see them."

A warm feeling arose in everyone's hearts.

Kirito started to walk off. "Come on, I know some really good room-and-board places in town. We've all got lots of big days ahead of us."

The six girls followed their new friend in the direction of the town. Some of them held hands.

"Applejack?" Pinkie whispered from one of the beds.

Applejack grunted and checked her menu for the time. "What is it, Pinkie? It's one in the morning."

"I was thinking, how can Kirito help us clear the game?"

"Ah think we can trust what he says. Go to sleep." She stuffed her head under the pillow.

A few minutes of silence passed, and then, "Applejack?"

"Pinkie, WHAT?"

"Where's the bathroom? I gotta take a shit."

11.30.16 11:28A F#1

Over a month had gone by. The streets of town were busy with people finding out where to go. Near the square was a big circular pit with stairs all around, and a stage in the middle for someone to talk.

The person talking was a tall green-skinned man with a question mark on his face.

"Hello, everybody. Thanks for coming. My name is Anon, and I like to call myself a knight."

The small crowd erupted in laughter. "You call yourself one, but you can't qualify as one!"

Anon looked flustered. "Look, there are no legit jobs in this game, all right? I'll bet any one of you here right now thinks of themselves as an ultimate weapons master, amirite?"

Pinkie said to Rarity, "I'd like that position."

"Anyway, back on track. My party and I have located the boss in the Floor 1 dungeon."

The crowd sobered up at this news. Kirito's eyes widened. He had not remembered the location after the beta testing was over. He was amazed that a new player had found it before any of the testers.

"We need to tell everyone in the Town of Beginnings about this. We need to show them that there is a way to beat this game. Who's with me?"

At first there was silence. Then there were a few slow nods, and then they all started applauding. Pinkie was leaping up and down on the stair. Kirito was in an inward state of ecstasy, although he didn't show it. Now he could gather all the information about fighting the boss, and teach the girls about it. He would make it a point to make sure they got through as far as they could. Maybe he would even cross paths with Klein again.

"Okay then," Anon continued. "Here's how it's gonna work: We all divide up into parties of six. No one party can defeat the boss alone."

Kirito's stomach knotted. He had not been prepared for this. He looked behind him and saw the six girls adding each other to their party list. They would get themselves killed without his guidance, and yet they had forgotten about him already. He sighed, looking around for anyone else who would want to be his partner. He still wouldn't leave his only in-game friends behind. Nobody was alone anymore. But then, he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

It was a cloaked person with a hood concealing their face. Kirito rapidly scooted over to them and asked, "Nobody wanted to be in a party with you either?"

The person spoke in a female voice, "That's not the case. I stayed out since everyone seemed to know each other already."

"The same thing happened to me." He looked dejectedly at the group of happy girls in a party of their own. "You're a solo player, then. I didn't want to be, so do you want to form a party with me?"

The girl didn't respond.

"He said we can't fight the boss on our own. We could party just for this one fight."

She nodded.

Kirito opened his menu and added her to his party list. He saw that her name was Asuna.

Asuna.

Anon scanned the groups of people. "Alright, has everyone formed their parties? Good. Now we—"

"WAIT A GODDAMN MINUTE!"

An angry voice came from above the stage-hole. A heavyset red-headed man jumped down and took the stage. "My name is Kibaou, and I wanna say a few words before we get going."

He paused to let everyone swim in their confusion. "Some of you here need to apologize for the deaths of 2000 people!"

No one knew what he was talking about.

Anon scratched his hairless green head. "Look, man, are you talking about the beta testers?"

"Obviously!" Kibaou snapped back.

Kirito's heart jumped.

"Those beta guys abandoned ship and left us new players alone here since day one! As far as we know, they've already beaten the game!"

Kirito prayed that the girls had forgotten the fact that he was a beta tester.

Kibaou continued, "They took all the good powerups and hiding spots so they could make themselves stronger. They don't give a crap about the rest of us! And I'm damn well sure some of you here right now were in the beta!"

Kirito looked over and tried to listen in on the six girls' conversation. He was relieved when he heard what sounded like, "Those beta testers sound like terrible people. Maybe it's a good thing they're all gone."

"If any of the beta testers are here, they need to fall on their knees, apologize, and give back all the money and prizes they've taken from us. Otherwise, we'd be leaving our lives in the hands of these rats, and they shouldn't be able to trust us, either!"

Kirito was quivering with anger when a very tall man stood up from the crowd. "Can I say something?"

He got down on the stage. He was broad and muscular, brandished a heavy battle axe, and was a good head taller than everyone else.

Kibaou stepped back at the sight of this giant.

"Kibaou, was it? I'm Agil, and there's a couple of things that need to be straightened out."

Kirito heard Twilight tell Sunset, "Is he going to kill him with that axe or tell him that beta testers aren't all bad?"

Sunset whispered back, "I don't know, but I think I would agree with whatever he says."

Agil talked in a rich, deep voice. "So you are saying that all those beginner players died because the beta testers weren't there to protect them. And that those beta testers, who are most likely trying to find a way to make the game easier for the other beginners so they will NOT die, should now down to your wishes and give you all their money and equipment. Is that what you're saying?"

Kibaou adjusted his collar. "Um...well, y-yes. That's what I'm saying."

Agil nodded. "I see. And I assume that you got a copy of this guidebook." He held it up and showed it to him. It was small with leather covers, and it had the words GUIDE BOOK printed neatly on the front. "They were giving these away at the market."

Kibaou stuttered, "Yes, I did, yeah."

Agil stared into the shorter man's eyes and proclaimed, "It was compiled by information collected from the beta testers."

Everyone chuckled. Kibaou now looked like a rambling idiot.

Agil turned to he listening crowd. "Listen up. Everyone had access to this information, yet many still died. We can learn from those who passed on in trying to defeat the boss."

He turned back to Kibaou, who scowled and went to slump over on a seat. He sat down as well.

Kirito let out the biggest internal sigh of his life. He didn't want to be untrusted by his six friends or this Asuna girl he just met.

Anon was the only one on the stage once again. He made sure nobody else was going to interrupt, then spoke. "Okay? Let's keep going, then. The latest edition of the guidebook has information about the boss. Its name is Illfang the Kobold Lord. He is guarded by underlings called Ruin Kobold Sentinels, and he's armed with an axe and a buckler."

Sunset whispered to Rainbow, "This is only the first boss? Sounds more like a final boss to me."

Rainbow said, "Yeah, but if we know what to do, we can kick its ass real good. Where's Kirito?" she saw him sitting next to the cloaked Asuna. She then felt guilty about leaving him out.

She made up her mind to invite him to be the party leader while they followed his directions. After all he knew what he was doing; he was a beta te— Rainbow stopped thinking.

Oh.

Anon was still talking about the boss. "He has four HP bars, and when the last one hits the red zone, he'll switch to a curved sword called a Talwar. His attack pattern changes as well."

Gasps escaped from the crowd.

Kirito was prepared. He had defeated this boss before, and he very clearly remembered the attack patterns.

"When he's defeated, the spoils and money will automatically be divided among all the players. EXP goes to the party who defeated him, and any player who obtains an item gets to keep it. Any objections?"

A Phoenix Wright reference flew through Twilight's mind. No one else said anything.

"Okay," Anon concluded. "We'll leave at ten tomorrow morning. DISMISSED!"

Everyone got up and started head back to their temporary homes to pack for the expedition. Tomorrow was a big day.

Kirito turned around to talk to Asuna, but she was leaving. "Oh well," he thought. "She'll be back tomorrow morning."

He turned again to face his companions. Rainbow apologized. "I didn't remember you were in the beta. There's no hard feelings, right?"

Kirito shook her hand. "It's all fine. Now we'd better get home and lazy around as much as we can. Tomorrow we've got a boss to fight."

Rainbow pumped her fist in the air.

They caught up with the others, and Kirito told them, "By the way, that girl that I was with was named Asuna. She's he other one in my own party. I would appreciate it if you could add her to yours." he pulled up his menu, and the others did the same.

After linking her to their party, Applejack asked, "Why did she have that hood 'n cape on? Ya think she's tryna hide somethin'?"

Kirito stared. "I guess we'll find out sooner or later."

Author's Note

Shit's about to get real :pinkiecrazy:

Btw, in this story, the Equestria girls have normal skin tones, since Technicolor stuff would be too unnatural for a SAO story.
(yes it's actually human Twilight, yes Sunset is the same way)