.hack//EQUESTRIA

by NovaSethyr

Rating: teen
Tags: Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Berry Punch, Dark, Sad, Original Character, Octavia, Comedy, Adventure, Crossover, DJ P0N-3, Main 6
Length: 35428

Ponies create a new way to entertain themselves, which changes everything for better or for worse.

The World is an MMORPG, and such a game has never existed before in Equestria. When a new player shows up and befriends other players, however, things suddenly take a turn for the worse in-game and in real life.

Published 2011-11-30 10:14:52 UTC
Last updated 2012-02-26 23:51:13 UTC

Welcome To the World

The World

The single most innovative and immersive game to come out since, well, ever.

Equestria was taken by surprise at the announcement of The World. Nothing like this was even heard of before CyberConnect Corporation was developed and flaunted their beta version, Fragment, and the ALTIMIT Operating System that it ran on worldwide. Through the power of twenty unicorns working together, everypony in Equestria could see and hear CC Corp as they talked about virtual reality and working together with other ponies to beat tough challenges and it was all so exciting and fresh!

CC Corp had chosen around 1,000 ponies to play Fragment to see if there were bugs or anything that could potentially ruin the game before putting out on the market. Before the beta was even finished preorders skyrocketed to the hundreds of thousands, growing every passing day, and CC Corp was hard-pressed to finish the game as soon as possible. The beta went smoothly, and every thing was fine before The World was complete and released nine months later to millions of ponies. The game has been running without a hitch since then and will continue to do so until The World’s servers shut down forever.

That’s the official version, in any case.

Gossip is never kind to the subject of discussion, and The World was no exception. Apparently, word is a few ponies had died while playing the game. Nopony knows for sure, but they were claimed to have all died from heart attacks, and they all died when they were playing. CC Corp quickly stomped down on the rumors, claiming that there were no such deaths during the beta testing. However, one pony was confirmed to have died, though it appeared to be a suicide.

The World was released soon after, selling 4,576,623 copies in the first day worldwide. The first day, the servers were full in the first hour, and they had to be shut down for a few minutes to keep the servers from crashing from the unexpected traffic. Those five minutes were the longest for everypony around the world, where they were staring at their ALTIMIT OS monitors waiting for the servers to start up. Everypony was staring at their black screens, wishing to be part of The World once again.

It’s been a year since then, and I just got my copy.

Every single one of my classmates were saying that it was stunning, amazing, and awesome all at the same time. I normally try not to waste my money, and since The World was pretty hefty on the bill, I hadn’t had a chance to try it at all. But after my small bonus, I thought it was finally time to indulge myself. I had to move a few of the cheap noodle cups on my desk to make room for the OS, and the smell wasn’t going to get better anyways.

The piece of high-tech equipment looked out of place in my shoddy apartment. And it was shoddy; there were even more noodle cups on a table, there were a few clothes here and there, and the place hadn’t been exactly... cleaned, in a while. Possibly never now that I think about it. But then again, what would you expect for a university student? And not any uni student, no, a student of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Another reason my wallet was empty most of the time. I sighed inwardly, thinking of the work I'm going to have to do to keep up with the bills now. Perhaps my roommate could spare a few bits?

But now isn’t the time to wallow in… whatever ponies are supposed to wallow in. I was going on a journey, one of escapism and adventure. And to be prepared, all I have to do is turn on this contraption. The ALTIMIT OS made a loud whirring and it booted up for the very first time. I put on the VR goggles and was greeted with the character creation screen. The first thing I noticed that was odd was the fact that there was virtually no differences between choosing pegasi, unicorns, or Earth ponies besides a few stat increases. A bonus of agility and speed to pegasi, strength and endurance to Earth ponies, and magical attack and defense bonus to unicorns. My guess was so the players could could choose their class without adding complications. It certainly didn't make me think twice about what to choose.

A few tweaks, a few touch-ups, and an hour later, I was ready. My pony had a red robe, with intricate runes etched into the cloth. The vibrant blue mane was long, and could cover his face with just a slight turn of his head. The eyes were a sharp yellow, contrasting nicely with the hair. The coat was a light brown, and the tail was the same vibrant blue. It's pretty cool that CC Corp let you deign your own cutie mark from scratch, it can make for some interesting character backgrounds and skills. My avatar’s cutie mark was one of a spellbook emblazoned with the Eye of Horus, the Neigyptian symbol for protection against evil.

With my pony all dressed-up, I went to choose what class I wanna be. I’ve always wanted to cast awesome spells, which is kind of strange since I’m a student of the Gifted Unicorn school. I can do basic levitation and manipulation, but I’ve never been able to cast more than a few illusions and a few telekinetic spells, and even those was shaky at best. My parents really wanted me in the school, so they paid my way in, and I’ve been a student for the next fifteen years, from the elementary school to the university.

You can see why some ponies hate that place.

Bringing my attention off of depressing situations, I went to the main menu of The World. There were a few options; a board where ponies would gather and discuss events, news, and general talk, The World itself was an icon I could click on to start it up, and an e-mail system that had a unread e-mail in it. I opened it up and it was from CC Corp congratulating me on getting The World and wishing me to enjoy my experience in the game.

I went back to the desktop menu and decided to take them up on their offer, clicking on the icon to start up my hopefully enjoyable experience in The World.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Whoa, that felt weird.

I wanted to look around, and immediately realized that my head was moving around. I thought about looking, and I looked without actually moving my head.

Yeah, definitely weird.

Getting used to this ‘you think it, it happens’ mechanic is going to take a bit of practice, so I decided to test myself by doing one of the most basic functions a pony could do: walking. I thought about lifting my foreleg and placing it in front of me. It was a resounding success, and I celebrated by thinking to move all my other limbs forward in a trot. The thought was met with the marble floor coming up to greet my face. After picking myself up rather awkwardly, I took in my surroundings for the first time.

I was standing just outside a building, and down a flight of steps was a cobblestone plaza with a fountain. All around me, players were talking and just hanging out in general. There were all kinds of avatars, there were wolf-like ponies, ponies with hardly any clothing, ponies with too much clothing, ponies with giant swords that I doubted they would be able to carry in real life, ponies that had two blades at their flank, and ponies with axes across their backs. There were so many choices when making a character, most had opted to make something completely different from what others made. I guess the sheer amount of variety helped the unique characters come to life.

I sat there on my rump, reeling at the player characters, and I didn’t notice when my shoulder was pushed gently at first. The second push was only slightly harder, but it was enough to bring me out of my stupor. I turned at look to who would disturb somepony who was clearly new and just stared.

She was cute, to be sure, but I wouldn’t say she was beautiful. The pony had a bright red mane, which was shorn short. Her navy coat was covered in what I guessed were scars from battle. I didn’t know if you could put scars on from the character creation, but somehow I thought those were all genuine. The dark grey armor she wore was brutal looking the shoulderpads were curved, and the only bit of coat I could see was from her face. There was no horn nor were there wings at her side, so she an Earth pony. Considering her giant axe strapped to her back, I suspected as much. She wore a cocky grin, and the heat of battle was in her dark eyes. While I could see she was acting tough, I noticed that there was a slick coat of sweat on her fur and she was panting rather heavily. I assumed she just recently came back from battling something fierce.

“Playin' with a newbie?”

The voice threw me off, as it didn’t come from the pony in front of me. I leaned to my left and discovered a second pony, a pegasus, trotting up from behind the blue mare. This mare was a little more docile looking, with a soft expression on her face, which was half covered by a golden mane. Her white coat was also covered in sweat, so I could safely assume that this was a friend of the rough pony just to her side. She had on some light armor that hung down her sides, and had a wicked looking curved sword on her back. Her less than threatening demeanor assured me that she wasn’t out to chop my up into itty-bity-teeny-tiny pieces and hide me around the town… I really hated my imagination sometimes.

“Yeah, I’m new. Just started play about a minute ago, in fact.”

The scarred pony look so excited at the prospect of a newbie that her brown eyes lit up in sheer joy. She jumped up in small hops and said, “Oh yeah! We found a newbie who wasn't killed instantly! Can we take him under our wing and train him to be the best there ever was, pleasepleasepleasepleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?”

The white mare sighed and trotted closer to me. “Alright, we’ll take him the next time we go exploring.” She raised a hoof to help me up, and I realized I had my mouth agape and looked like an idiot. I took her hoof and got up as I felt my face redden from embarrassment.

Once I was back on my hooves, the white mare gave an elegant bow. “My name is Refinity, and this is Crimson Axe. A simple name for a simple pony.”

The navy pony gave a small sound similar to a pig with the hiccups. “Simple and to the point, unlike Refinity. Seriously, the whole reason she choose it was because she couldn’t think of anything else.”

“I’ll have you know that I wanted something that would help define who I am, and I am ‘eternity refined.’”

“The eternity part is just a load of hooey. Anyways, we’re getting off track here again. What’s your name squirt?”

As she said the word ‘squirt,’ I felt a little irk that came from an old nickname haunting those who thought they outgrew it. But as I looked up to sum up my thoughts in an appropriate response, I noticed that she could call anypony ‘squirt’ and it would be justified. She was huge, and I only came up to her chin. The huge axe that could slice through a pony as easy as apple pie on her back didn’t help me compose my thoughts, either. I looked up into those fiery eyes and my summed up thoughts escaped my lips all at once. To the standard onlooker it would have sounded a lot like ‘meep,’ but I assure you, it was a well-thought out response. Really.

“Crimson, you’re scaring the poor pony. Let me handle this, go meet up with Berrylicious, will you?”

Crimson gave a huff before bowing her head in defeat and walking off to meet with… Berrylicious? That’s a bit odd for a name. I told Refinity as such, and she responded with a slight giggle. “Oh yes, Berry isn’t exactly the type to care for names, so she choose the first thing that popped in her head. But without her, we wouldn’t have any good items or weapons.”

At my confused tilt of head, Refinity explained that Berry was a Trader; a player whom buys and sells items to other players. A player can run a shop if they wish to, and by taking advantage of the gap between sellback and buy prices at NPC-run shops, player run shops can be a benefit to both the buyer and the seller. Berry really enjoys acting as a traveling merchant in the game, so she runs her own shop. While I didn’t understand most of that, I do understand that Berry likes acting as a merchant and enjoys doing something like that in a game.

“So what is your name?” Refinity asked.

“The name’s Faylin. Nice to meet ya, Refinity.” I raised my hoof.

“The pleasure’s all mine Faylin. Welcome to the ragtag group that just barely struggles to get by. We didn‘t even have enough for a third adventurer.” She took the offered hoof and shook it gently before letting go.

“Huh, but I thought there were already three members? You already have a full party then, don’t you?”

“Well like I said, Berry is our Trader. She much rather stay in her makeshift shop rather than explore with us. And besides, we needed a Wavemaster anyways, heals and ranged support are a must.”

“I’m happy to be a part of the team, then! So, where are your friends? Crimson and Berry, right?”

Refinity pointed down the steps, “There they are now, actually. Come on, let’s get you initiated.”

“I-initiated?” But before Refinity could answer, Crimson thought it would be funny to squish the tiny, weak pony underneath her heavy armor by jumping on him from behind. And she was heavy! Who would have ever thought that a pony that was taller than a cart could be heavier than one? (Hint: I did)

*Gasp* “Can’t… breathe.”

“Hehe, sorry, squirt. Gotta keep you here until Berry can get a good look at ya.”

As if on cue, a mare leaned down and grab my head between her hooves. She moved me from the left to the right, then squeezed me between her hooves as if she was examining a melon to see if it’s ripe. Then she made me face her and stared really hard into my eyes. I just had enough time to admire her robin egg blue eyes before she said “All right, she’s good. Let her up, Crimson.”

Crimson got up and I unsteadily got back to my hooves, and then decided that standing was for chumps and landed back down on the ground unceremoniously. I was helped up by the blue-eyed pegasus - Berry, I remembered. She had a blade on either side of her flank - so she must be a Twin Blade, I think. She had a grey mane, and it wasn’t too long or too short either. She had a cherry red coat, and she was covered in tattoos of some kind. They ran past her eyes, down her back, under her belly, and even went down to her forehooves. The whole thing was a little intimidating, but one look at those gentle blue eyes told me that she wasn’t trying to be scary. Well, I didn’t doubt she could be scary if she wished to be, but I like keeping my head where it is, so I calmed down and raised my hoof to her. “Hi! I’m Faylin, and you must be Berry, right?”

Berry broke out into a grin that nearly ripped her head off. “Yea, that’s me! Ain’t gonna find anypony better at bartering than yours truly! Welcome to the team! And now that you’re here, we can make this an official guild, and my shop will gain more reputation and more players will come by and spend aaaaall of their gold!” Her eyes took on a dangerous twinkle at the mention of making a profit. I had a strange feeling that it wouldn’t be safe to carry any money around when Berry is nearby. My mind agreed with my gut on this one as Berry charged off to make our ‘ragtag’ group into a full-fledged guild…wait… what’s a guild?

Refinity gave me a look that made me feel sorry even though I’m not sure what I did wrong when I voiced my thoughts.

“You didn’t read the instruction book, did you?”

I felt a little relief at that, I had thought I did something much worse, for some reason. “No, I didn’t read it. I set up the game and started to play. I didn’t even know there was a booklet.”

Crimson overheard and trotted into the conversation, “Dude, if you don't read that booklet you won't be able to join our guild! Now you're going to have to spend all of your days alone and without a party because you couldn't take time to read the instructions!”

My look of disbelief made Crimson burst out laughing, apparently. Because she did. And she started rolling on the ground laughing her flank off. I’m not sure if I should be embarrassed that I believed her or that I should be laughing along with her. In the end, Refinity saved me the trouble of having to decide. “Oh, stop teasing the newbie, Crimson! We haven’t even finished a single dungeon with him yet and you already have your way with him!”

“Oh, I can have my way with him? I would have thought you wanted to have him all to yourself!” Refinity's white fur turned into a shade of red darker than Crimson's own mane, giving the Earth pony much to laugh about.

"Oh man, I can already tell that this team is gonna be awesome!" gasped Crimson in between fits of giggles.

I have a feeling her definition of the world ‘awesome’ consists of something along the lines of ‘tease the newbie until he dies of embarrassment’ Yeah, this is going to be fun fun fun for everypony.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AN: Hmm, never done one of these things before. Ah, hello reader. I hope you've enjoyed my first fanfiction. This idea has been bobbing around my head for some time, and it has gone through many changes before now. If you've enjoyed it, then please say so! Leave a comment, give a rating, give me a high-five, whatever you find suitable! If I made any mistakes, please point them out as well.

Monsters

“OK, so basically, a guild is a buncha guys just doing what they want? Then why doesn’t everypony just do that?” I asked, my mind finally snapping out of the daze it found itself in after being ambushed by three random pones. Who could think straight in such a situation anyways?

Refinity opened her mouth and looked like she was trying to find the right words to explain it. “Well, you’re right in a sense. Ponies get together in a guild more often than you would think. What happens is that guilds don’t usually go well between the ponies and they disband, or they get absorbed into a bigger guild if the smaller guild isn't doing as well as they hoped. If the guild has a higher rank, it has more bonuses to grant the members of the guild - there's always more incentive to join bigger guilds than make your own.”

I nodded in understanding. “So eventually everypony joins with one of the bigger guilds and stuff, but then why are you three forming a guild? Wouldn’t you just go and join the other guilds?”

Crimson looked behind her from the lead at us. “I don’t want anything to do with those lunatics! I’d rather work with other people instead of competing against others!”

“Competition is not only the basis of protection to the consumer, but it is also incentive to progress.” Berry walked up to my right with a sly smile on her face and in her robin egg eyes. “Oh, my little silly pony; without competition, there would be no improvement to anything.” Berry slinked away gracefully before joining with Crimson up front. I had a good view of her flank from here, and I examined the strange tattoos that stuck out of Berry's red coat along her sides and hind legs.

“Yeah, what she said.” said Refinity. “Well, we’re here! Our @Home!” Refinity indicated to the large building in front of us, with a spinning disc in mid air. The disc had a large blue screen in it, and it was big. It was about triple my height, but it wasn’t very wide. As I stared at the technological wonder, I didn’t notice when Crimson held a card out under my muzzle. Not getting a response, she promptly decided that the best course of action was to slap my cheek with it.

“OW!” I turned to Crimson with an incredulous look on my face and took the card. It had a picture of a little pig-like creature. It had a snout, and eyes that glittered with intelligence. It actually looked astonishingly enough like… Berry?

“Berry, why are you a pig?” I asked innocently.

“That’s not me, that’s a Grunty. She’s actually our Guild’s Grunty, so she manages the bank and the members and whatnot.”

“Man, I’m starting to wish I did read the instructions.” Crimson let out another gigglesnort in response.

“You can take a look inside Epitaph’s new @Home or wait here for us to finish up our preparations to go into the field. Your choice.” Refinity said as she walked to the spinning glowing disc thingy. How this was supposed to house our guild - Epitaph, was it?- was beyond me. Refinity stepped up to the disc and held up her card to the large blue screen, causing lines of text to scroll across it. A blue aura enclosed the card and its holder as she teleported to some other place.

I froze, and then ran circles around the disc thing. “Wait, what? When could she teleport?! Where’d she go?! Why are you all LAUGHING?!” I yelled as I started freaking out. I was a total newbie, what could I say? Crimson had fallen over on the ground laughing, and even Berry was stifling a few giggles before uproariously guffawing at my antics. “I’m missing something here, aren’t I?”

“Hehehehe, sorry, hehe, but newbies like you are rare these days. Practically everypony is playing this game, so seeing somepony who doesn’t even know what a Chaos Gate is-pfffffheheheheeeee!” Crimson said before she succumbed to another giggle fit sprinkled with snorts.

“It’s alright, Faylin.” Berry said as she composed herself. “Everypony was new at one point, so don’t worry if you don’t understand something. Refinity used her Guild Key to go to our @Home. You try it, see if you can use it like she did.” She motioned with her hoof for me to step up to the floating disc thing. Chaos Gate, Crimson said. I trotted up a bit hesitantly, wondering what teleportation feels like. I mean, being a unicorn and all, I could theoretically teleport, but it’s just a liiiiittle out of my grasp within the realm of magic-casting.

So I was caught completely off guard when I raised the card and waited for some sort of pain, maybe nausea or dizziness, and was met with no difference in my bodily functions. I opened my eyes, and I immediately realized I was scared enough to close my eyes in the first place without my knowledge. My body is more careful with itself than I am, apparently. I looked about the hall, and was once again astonished by the detail put into a game.

I looked into a large room with two staircases on each side leading up to a second floor of the same room. There were a few doors here and there, and I wondered just how big this @Home was. There was a lush red carpet in between the staircases, but standing on a pedestal was the pig thing that was on the card!

In a very high pitched voice, it talked to me. “What’re ya lookin’ at, punk?”

It talked.

It can talk.

WHY can a pig talk? WHY was it talking to ME?! I sat on my haunches again as I just stared at the pig, which seemed to infuriate her - as it was a definite high pitched female voice - further. “What, you ain’t never seen a Grunty before? I outta smack you square in the jaw, you noob.”

“Lil’Berry, stop it. He hasn’t seen one before, so just let your presence be known to him and let’s get on with this,” Refinity said from the second floor, looking down upon us with a small smile on her lips.

Lil’Berry smiled a bit more wickedly than I would like. “So he IS a newbie? Well well well, I think I’m going to have a little fun with you, kid. Welcome to the @Home of the newly founded guild, Epitaph.” I never knew a pig could look so manically evil before now, and I might have a phobia of farm animals from now on. I turned my attention to Refinity, and the Grunty started talking to itself with that creepy smile, hopefully not trying to plot my imminent death.

“So what’s the purpose of this place? Just a place to hang out, or does stuff usually happen here?”

Refinity gave another small smile. “Well, yes, this place is usually used for the members to get together and plan for what they’re going to do. There is also a small shop over there” she pointed with a hoof to the door to the left side on the upper floor, “that the Grunty manages. The inventory and money is synonymous with the Guild Shop that Berry runs, except that this shop here lets the members get a discount and there are a few items that can’t be bought anywhere else.

“Over there we have the Warehouse,” she said as she pointed to a door just to my left, “there we can, well, store items and equipment. The Grunty here has an item called a Ryu Book. In it, we can view all of the accomplishments that the players have performed. How many monsters we killed, how many dungeons we cleared, Player vs. Player battles, total play time for each member, et certera, et cetera. The better the Ryu Book, the better bonuses we get, like a bigger Warehouse, or more items can be put in stock at the Shop.”

I shook my head, trying to retain the information dump that was poured on me. “So…this is the shop Berry runs…with benefits to members? And everything is recorded in that Ryu Book? Which then gives us bonuses for each and every member? Wow, guilds are pretty awesome, in that aspect.”

“BAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

That sudden, instant scream right next to me made me jump out of my skin. Not literally… but that would just ruin my whole day. Not like it wasn’t bad already considering the pony who keeps pranking me like this. After I recovered for what seemed like the tenth time today, I spun to face Crimson and smacked her upside the head. She stopped giggling like a schoolgirl, but still had a smile plastered all over her stupid, grinning, idiotic face. “Worth it,” she said. I prepared a rather lengthy speech that would involve her and her mother before Refinity interrupted.

“Alright you two, stop foaling around. I think it’s time to break our newbie in to battle, don’t you agree?” Refinity to the rescue, much to my speech’s chagrin. I can always store it for later use. Luna knows there’ll be more instances for it’s use.

Crimson was practically giddy with excitement. “I thought we’d NEVER get back to the fighting! Come on, where are we gonna go next? A desert? A forest? A plains? Oh oh oh, maybe a castle?!”

“Settle down, tiger. We’re going to one of the lower level stages first, our new friend here can’t handle himself when fighting monsters at our level. OK, granted, our level isn’t very high either, but it’s higher than his. Let him decide the keywords and we’ll see what happens.” Refinity cantered down the steps as she calmed down Crimson. She turned to me with a glaring look in her eyes. “Do you at least know how to use your class?”

“I stand back, avoid getting hit, and sling spells left and right. I’ve played RPGs before, ma’am.” I grinned widely. I wasn’t a total noob.

“Alright, but you have to keep our health up as well. We don’t want another Goblin King fiasco on our hands, do we Crimson?”

Crimson held true to her name, as her face turned an even brighter red and she lowered her head in shame. “I just wanted to give it a hug.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Berry returned to her shop after Crimson went into the @Home, she didn’t want to leave it unoccupied for too long and sped off into the night... or afternoon, as it t'were. We returned to the staircase where I was first ambushed by the Epitaph guild. What I didn’t notice before was there was another Chaos Gate here, and instead of having one disc spinning lazily around, this one had three. Three discs spinning in different directions, it was rather hypnotizing. I shook myself before I got too entranced by it’s hypnotic... hypnotism.

“Alright, Faylin, you’re up. Pick out three keywords to choose our fight!” Crimson lowered herself, as if to leap out at the Chaos Gate. Refinity trotted up beside her and put a hoof before I could trot to the Chaos Gate.

“Before you choose the words, I’d like to explain them to you so we don’t accidentally end up with monster five times our level.” I grimaced at the thought and motioned for her to continue. “There are three keywords, as you know. Each keywords has power over what type of dungeon or field you can get. The first keyword is the level of the area in multiples of tens; 01, 11, 21, and so on. It can also determine what type of map it is, whether a cave, field, or dungeon. The second keyword can add the area’s level to match yours. So if your first keyword is a level 11, you can use the second keyword to make it a level 17 area. It also determines what kind of mission you are on in the map, from kill the boss to collect X amount of items. And the third keyword can add or subtract a few levels to the area level, but it can also increase or decrease the item levels you’ll find on the map. You got all of that?”

I nodded hesitantly and cantered up to the discs and reached out a hoof. A screen popped out near my outstretched hoof, much to my surprise. I saw three columns, with words that I could change with a flick of my hoof. After thinking about what Refinity told me I picked out what I hoped would be a suitable starting spot. I waved the other two over to look at my selection.

“Delta Buzzing Swift Pure Bred? Alright, not bad. I think you can handle yourself here. I don’t have to worry about saving your sorry flank from a few goblins, do I?” Crimson snickered and I glowered. This was going to become a ‘thing’ between us, wasn’t it? I wasn’t here for more than an hour and already ‘things’ were being made.

“Looks like you can handle picking words. I don’t have to worry about you growing bored if we’re not around then. Let’s get you on your first adventure!”

After a teleporting experience akin to when entering the @Home, we arrived in the most luscious and serene place I’ve ever seen. All around me, there were rolling green hills, vibrant mountains in the distance, sparkling water that looked fresher than any tap water I‘ve seen. There were birds chirping, and I could see insects of all kinds buzzing merrily along the field in search of flowers. I was, in short, in paradise.

That is, of course, if there weren’t goblins roaming the area.

The goblins were rather passive looking, and just barely enough muscle on them to hold their rusty swords. “Are those our enemies? This’ll be more like a slaughter than a battle!” I could hear Crimson squeal with delight just behind me, but I didn’t care. I was admiring the scenery so much, and the antics of an insane Axemare were the least of my worries at the moment. It was so beautiful, I couldn’t just see it. I needed to recreate it. I wasn't much of an artist, but this scenery inspired me to buy a sketchbook right then and there.

The feeling was ruined when I got a light poke from my back. I turned expecting to slap Crimson again, but I saw that Refinity was there with her hoof prodding my back. That gentle, warm smile matched perfectly with the scenery, but there was an urgency in her eyes that clashed with the warmness. “It’s beautiful, I know. We need to keep moving, though. We didn’t come for the scenery.” With that she turned and cantered off, but not before turning her head back. “But, you could always come here at any other time to admire the landscape, you know.”

I wasn’t sure if she was inviting me to admire the scene with her, or just saying what I could do to unwind. Luna knows this is a magnificent place to relax and just enjoy life. I took one last longing gaze at the beauty before me before turning to face the goblins.

The map was arranged like a giant island, you can explore everywhere you like but can’t touch the water that surrounds it. There are narrow pathways for ponies to travel between islands, and each patch of land had about a group of three to four goblins around on them. We walked up to the first batch of goblins and they looked back at us. We had a stare off, we looked menacingly at them while they tried to appear threatening but came off as pathetic to us. Then we charged.

Well, more accurately Crimson charged in screaming bloody murder while I slammed my hoof into my forehead. Refinity just sort of sighed, having already gotten used to such antics. Before she followed her compatriot, she pulled out the very dangerous looking sword that was attached to her back. Now that I got a good look at it, it looked wicked. It had a curve with a small spike jutting out from the apex of the inside curve. Pointing toward the wielder. If she stabbed somepony with it and tried to pull it out, they would tear out most of their flesh and probably cause massive internal bleeding. Luckily, this kind of sword meant it wasn’t for stabbing. Often. The curve allowed it to slice very well, as she did so to one of the goblins who went down easily.

And then I examined Crimson's weapon slicing and hacking through goblins.

Crimson’s huge axe didn’t catch my attention at first, but now that I take a look at it I was scared of this pony. Scared. Of my own teammate. That’s how scary she looked. The blade of the axe was long, it was sharp, and it was blood-red. I imagine that it wasn’t originally colored like that. It had a huge spike on the other side, which could crush someone like me without any sort of force involved except gravity. Crimson had a grin on her face that didn’t just pass into insanity, it built a home and lived in the farthest corners of what could barely be called sanity. She turned to face me with those wide eyes, and that horrible, frightening grin, holding her gigantic axe in just one hoof.

“I take it you haven’t seen somepony in a blood craze before, have ya?”

This insane pony… was in a… a blood craze? I hoped that meant she didn’t lose all sense of reason and just looked like she was going to tear me limb from limb because I had bored her. “N-no, I haven’t fallen into the depths of insanity, if that is what you’re implying.”

Refinity gave a small chuckle before patting me gently on the back, soothing me from my fearful state. “She didn’t go insane, Faylin. She just looks like that to scare her opponents. Usually works too, unless she herself is scared witless from our opponent. Which can happen a lot if you choose the right keywords.”

Crimson gave a gasp as she charged Refinity and shut her mouth with her hooves. “Don’t. You. Dare.” warned Crimson and Refinity gave a large grin, looked to the side and said innocently, “I have no idea what your talking about, Crimson.” She turned and gave a very small chuckle before walking to the next group of goblins, waiting for us. “Oh, and Faylin,” she called back, “you may actually want to fight at some point. We won’t carry you all the way, you know.”

Crimson and I trotted up on either side of her flank. “Hey, Refinity, I think we should sit back and let him do this fight, yeah?”

Refinity again smiled at me warmly. “Yes, that is a fine idea. I think we should let him test out his skills at the game, after all. All he’s done in the past couple of hours is talk and walk.” I blushed hotly at the statement, and while it was true, I was eager to prove myself to these two… friends? Do I consider them my friends now, or just members of the same group?

I shook away my thoughts and pulled out my staff with a hoof. That was another thing about this game, the ability to hold things with hooves. No more holding things in ponies mouths. I looked at my staff; it was a simple oak staff with runes etched into the wood, the blue aura of my magic held it firmly in place. When I planted it on firmly on the ground, the runes glowed bright orange with a hiss before going out again. It was taller than me, just reaching over my head, but it was usable.

I went over my spells again for the hundredth time today. Wavemaster start off with three spells of their choosing. I chose the Fire spell, Vak Don, your basic fireball spell, the Healing spell, Repth, and the Earth spell, Gan Don, which drops a small boulder on an enemies head. I steeled myself, ready to take on this new challenge.

I looked into the enemies’ eyes. There were three of them and one of me. I was sure I could take these goblins... alone. One spell could probably kill them, but you couldn’t be any more careful. I stepped forward and they took that as the incentive to charge. It was the beginning of a battle. I’ve never been in a fight before. What do I do? How do I defend myself? Oh, no, what were those spells again? Crap, here they come!

One raised their sword in an effort to hit me with it, but I saw it coming and I dodged out of the way, coming up on the goblin’s side. The other two were still running at me, and I had to act fast before they all attacked at once. They might be slower, but it’s an awful lot harder to dodge three swords at the same time.

I raised my staff in an act of swift defense, and quickly chanted the first spell that came to mind. Unfortunately my mind was racing at a hundred miles per hour, and I couldn’t think straight. The spell came out as a bunch of ramblings. The staff caught a blow that would’ve hit me had I not raised it, and I hope it didn’t damage any of the runes. In the midst of the battle, a single spell came to me, crystal clear. “VAK DON!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. The goblin whose sword was caught by my staff quickly erupted in flames, and begin to scream in agony.

As the goblin tried to put itself out, I turned to the other goblin who was running up at me, and the second spell came to mind. Instead of shouting unnecessarily loud this time, I said in a quiet voice, “Gan Don.” A boulder the size of my head slammed down onto the charging goblin, and he was out before he hit the ground. His forward momentum propelled him towards me, and I had to duck to avoid being hit by the flying body.

By an extreme stroke of luck, I also avoided getting my head chopped off by the goblin whom I dodged around. I heard the swish of a sword just missing me, probably giving me a trim on my blue hair, too. The body kept moving forward into the goblin behind me, resulting in a tangle of limbs and swords. The body had apparently impaled itself on the other goblin’s sword, and it took him a second to pull it back out and face me.

That was plenty of time for me to set him on fire and watch as he slowly burned to death. I watched him as the flesh melted away and the screams tore at it’s throat. He was clawing at his very flesh and bone, trying to put out the magical fire. But it was too late, he was already dead. The screaming still echoed in the wind, long after he died. I could still hear it, the pain and agony he went through because of me.

I vaguely noticed that someone was calling my name. I looked up and saw Crimson, smiling widely and skipping with joy up towards me. She was speaking but I couldn’t hear her over the screaming. I wonder why she couldn’t hear it? Maybe she could but just ignored it. Refinity trotted up slowly behind her. The small smile was gone, replaced only with a face of utter concern. She walked up next to Crimson and said something to her. Crimson immediately stopped grinning and tilted her head at me, like I was some sort of puzzle she had to figure out. Refinity said something, but the screaming drowned her out. Suddenly, I felt a hard, metal hoof slap me right across the cheek.

Ow. That REALLY hurt.

I turned and looked at Crimson, who raised a hoof again threateningly as she bellowed, “SNAP OUT OF IT, FAY!”

I winced in pain from both the slap as much as the voice that screeched in my ear. “You don’t have to scream like that, Crimson, I can hear you just fine.”

Relief washed over my companions’ faces. “Oh, Faylin! I thought that you wouldn’t recover from the shock!” I was suddenly aware that a pony had wrapped their hooves around my neck and hugged me tightly. Refinity looked like she was about to cry, while Crimson had a look of pride in her face. Weather she was proud of me or the fact that she slapped me back to reality I would never know.

Alright, guys, I think this calls for a little rest. I’m a bit tired after the fight. And yes, I was a…bit shocked from the experience.”

I laid down on the grass, Refinity still holding me tightly. I looked out of the clear blue lake, the azure sky with clouds lazily drifted past, and I stared across the lake in quiet contemplation, not noticing my eyelids drifting downwards as I laid my head in Refinity's white fur.

Who Are You?

I woke up to the sound of a babbling brook.

You know, you always read about how a brook babbles in books and stuff, but I could see what they meant as I listened to the calming sounds of the water moving by. I opened my eyes and got a harsh glare of sunlight in my retinas. This is supposed to be a game, and all, but seriously. Did they have to make the pain so realistic?

I sat up and look around, before realizing that in doing so I now started to feel pain in my neck. How long was I out? I voiced my thought in case the universe decided to grow a mouth and answer me directly. Instead, the universe opted to make my throat extremely dry for speaking. I looked around for the brook that had been babbling quietly to me, and quickly spotted it over to my left.

I shakily stood on my legs before giving the ground a big ol’ hug with my face. Hugging the ground gave me a bruise on my cheek, so I don’t think I’ll be doing that again. Sorry, ground, you just aren’t loved enough. I once again got to my hooves and successfully locked my knees, keeping me upright. Hooray for joint control! I looked around at my surroundings. And that’s when I noticed that feeling.

You know that feeling that something is off about the world but you can’t place your hoof on it? It was kind of that feeling multiplied by about a hundred. I was in a forest, which immediately set off alarm bells in my head but I couldn’t remember for the life of me why. I tried to remember what was wrong with everything when I saw something rustle in the bushes out of the corner of my eye. There, by the creek, I saw a white-furred foal happily drinking up water.

I was reminded of my own thirst as the foal - a filly, from the looks of it- kept ignoring me and drank that clear, cool, refreshing, delicious-looking water. I decided to implore my needs by slowly making my way towards the creek, and then unceremoniously dumping my head into the water. Luckily, the water was just deep enough for my head without cracking my skull open. The loud splash I made must have attracted the filly’s attention by now, but it didn’t stop me from taking a big gulp of water.

And I wasn’t disappointed either, the water was indeed fresh and cool. I must have taken a few mouthfuls before deciding I have had enough. I stuck my head back in the air and let the air rush into my lungs with a long gasp. Thoroughly satisfied, I turned my attention back to the filly.

And it was indeed a filly, no older than nine or ten. She didn’t wear anything, which allowed me to inspect her cutie mark. But alas, she was a blank flank. Foals usually get their marks around the age of six, but it’s not unheard of to have ponies discover their special talent in their puberty years. She stared at me with wide green eyes, and a yellow mane pulled back into a short pony tail.

Her white fur was… wait… it wasn’t white fur. It was a dullish orange color. I looked back at her eyes, and noticed they weren’t green, but a dark brown now. Making sure I wasn’t seeing things, I checked her mane. Sure enough, it wasn’t a pale yellow anymore, but a light red.

In fact, if I can concentrate hard enough, I can see the changes in color being made. It was a slow transition, and if I wasn’t paying attention I wouldn’t be able to see it at all. Her entire being changed colors slowly, but they never stayed on one color longer than any other. It was definitely a strange sight to behold. The alarm bells in my head rang louder, but I shoved them back to the depths of my mind.

I must have been staring at her for longer than I thought. She lowered her gaze after a moment and blushed; from being ogled at by a strange pony, probably. So I decided to break the ice first.

“Heya, kid. What’s up?”

She flinched at being suddenly addressed at. If her look of curiosity made her eyes wide, then her look of utter surprise made them look like dinner plates. I stood there, waiting for her to respond. A few minutes have passed by now, I thi-

You can see me?

HOLY LUNA ON A CARNIVAL RIDE WITH COTTON CANDY!

She decided that using her mouth to speak was a silly idea and instead opted to insert her thoughts directly into my mind. And that was loud. Don’t ask me how it was loud when it was only in my head. It just was. I felt my throat become hoarse, and I realize I was probably screaming in pain. I felt something warm and sticky drip from my ears. Yeah, telepathy hurts.

Oh, I apologize for giving you pain. I have never really spoken with another pony in a very long time and I forget how much I must restrain myself.

I wasn’t sure if she read my mind, or just noticed the blood that came out of my ears or something. I really hoped it wasn’t the former, no pony will be safe in their own mind!

Yes, telepathy does wonders for revealing what a pony thinks what they mean to keep secret.

Great. It was the former. Alright, conversations in my mind, that’s a start. Although I could get used to this, I would like to keep my thoughts to myself and actually speak when I want you to listen, alright? I wet my hoof in the brook and cleaned the blood from my ears, amazed that I can still hear anything at all.

As you wish, Jen.

I don’t think any words could adequately describe what I felt right at that exact moment. Although if I had to guess, it would be along the lines of ‘I really hate telepathy.’

Oh, I apologize again. I’m not too sure how to strictly control myself around ponies, considering you’re probably the first one I’ve met.

Alright, ignoring what that could mean, I focused on teaching her to use her mouth and not invade my mind. I decided to demonstrate. “So you open your mouth and make sound with your voice.” Okay, that was a horrible example, so sue me. I’m not exactly an expert on teaching mind-reading fillies how to talk.

So it would be something like… “th-is?”

The word was barely audible, I actually thought it was more of a squeak than a word. When I realized she actually spoke, I smiled. I actually taught something for once! Where’s my cookie?

“Wh-y wou-ld yo-u g-et a coo-kie?”

She stumbled along her words trying to convey the meaning, and I wondered if a little more practice would help. No harm in having a conversation with a psychic pony, was there? “Well, I’d want a cookie because I’m rather hungry. But enough about my necessary needs to live, let’s talk about you.”

She seemed rather surprised, at first. Then she suddenly stared off into space and her eyes widened in what looked like surprise.

You can’t stay here! They’re coming! I’ll get you back to where you came from, but I’ll have to wipe your memory as well; I can’t let the possibility of them using you to find met!

Wait, what? Who are they? “What’s going on-”

Darkness surrounded me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A splash of icy cold water hits my face and I bolt upright in shock. My eyes cursed me for opening them when I felt the stabbing pain of light. After I adjusted my eyesight I examined my surroundings; the vast blue of the lakes, the rolling hills in the distance, and Crimson Axe and Refinity’s worried faces brought me back to reality. Well, as close to reality as the game can get. Which is, in fact, pretty damn close.

I shivered as the wind made my wet fur nearly freeze me on the spot. I briefly wondered if using the Vak Don spell would warm me up before I remembered that I can’t cast it outside of battle. I would have if I could, I hate being cold!

“Look at him now, Crimson! He’s positively drenched, and now he’s shivering his fur off! I told you; we could have woken him up without having to resort to such a brutish action.”

“Oh come off it, Ref. He’s fine! He just needs to kill a few more goblins to warm himself up!” Crimson gave one of her trademark evil grins at the thought, and I shivered from more than just the wind.

“I don’t think I want to do anymore killing, thanks.” Refinity gave a sad smile at my reply.

“Don’t worry, Fay. Everypony’s acted like you when the game was released. ‘Why do we have to kill innocent creatures,’ ponies asked. Everypony thought it was immoral and senseless violence. Eventually, ponies discovered the hard way that if you don’t fight, you’ll die; as well as the debate of weather it’s ok to kill things because it’s not real. Of course, that debate was settled almost as quickly as it arose. The majority of ponies decided that if no one was hurt in real life, then the game was harmless.”

“Uuuugh, Refiiinityyyyyy, can we please get back to the fighting? We’re almost at the Beast Temple!” Crimson did a little dance to show her impatience, and then bolted off before Refinity could answer her. She sighed the sigh a pony would sigh when a pony you know does something you completely expected them to do. There should be a word for that. I should look it up in a book sometime.

We trotted off after her, but as I stepped forward I felt a sense of vertigo. I fell to my knees and felt pain hit me; like somepony threw a bag of bricks of off Canterlot Castle onto my head. It was only for a split second, and the dizziness and pain were gone as quickly as they appeared.

What… what was that? A concussion or something? I wondered what it could be before I noticed that both of my companions looked back at me with concern written all over their faces. I got back to my hooves and cantered up to them. “Sorry, I just tripped a little. Anything interesting over here?”

They both relaxed a little bit, but Refinity still watched me in case I suddenly tripped again. Crimson turned and looked across the islands. There were only a couple of bands of goblins left, but I noticed that on one of the furthest island, there was a big building that looked very temple-esque. The 10-foot high entrance was flanked by a statue of each side, depicting a pony on it’s rear legs, with a hoof holding a sword high above it’s head, shouting a battle cry.

Crimson noticed my interest in the temple. “That’s the Beast Temple, kiddo. It’s where the treasure that we’re fightin’ for resides. There also might be a boss in there, but I’m not sure. If there is a boss, we can totally handle it!”

And with that, Crimson once again charges headfirst at the closest group of goblins. Me and Refinity quickly joined her as the goblins recovered from their surprise. We kept fighting through the groups of goblins; all the while I was thinking about what Refinity had said. Is it right to kill something that never lived in the first place? What about those screams I heard when I killed those three goblins? Was that just me being the pacifist pony that everypony was taught to be? I mused over these thoughts that buzzed and whizzed around my head like the angry hornet nest I set on fire when I was younger and stupider. Those hornets were mean!

But as a pacifist race, it was only natural that ponies would find something like killing another creature - despite it’s actual non-existence - would be traumatic whether they realized it or not. I was fairly sure I experienced a shock and gave those goblins voices they did not possess. Or I was crazy - both were plausible, after all.

But what was that sensation back there? That feeling of pain and disorientation was real. Why did it happen? And how? I felt it in my normal pony body, still lying on the bed back at the dorm. Oh no, what time was it? I think it was around midnight by now, but who can tell how long I was out? I'm glad I decided to give this game a try during my off days.

Eventually, we fought until we were near the temple, at which point we decided to take a break and heal up. I spotted a small bit of movement out of the corner of my eye, near the top of the hill nearby. A small, rounded creature stood there, before noticing it was spotted and scampered down the other side. I softly cantered to the top with the intent to investigate this new discovery.

The creature was at the base of the hill, where it thought that It was safe from prying eyes. It was a very rounded creature with no arms, four legs, and a white teardrop outline on it’s chest. The more curious thing about it was the light that floated above it’s small pointed ears; it seemed to bob up and down with the creature’s movements.

“Whatcha lookin’ at?”

I jumped up at the sudden intrusion of my personal space and unexpected voice by my ear. “Geez, Crimson! You nearly gave me a heart attack! I really wished you stopped doing such things.”

Crimson chuckled at my expense. “Aaah you’ll live, you filly. So what’cha doin’ up here?” She spied the creature down at the base of the hill. And in Ponyville they say, her eyes widened three sizes that day.

“Oh no way, you found a Chim-Chim! Hey, Refinity! The newbie found a Chim-Chim!”

Refinity trotted up next to me, her eyes also widened with excitement and wonder. “Oh my, you’re right. This is incredible! Oh, Berry will be most pleased with such a find!”

“It’s you and me, Chimmy! CHAAAAAAARGE!” And with that, Crimson ran down the hill at the frightened little creature. It was quick to recover, and ran Crimson in circles to evade its pursurer in any way it can. Crimson soon started having difficulty trying to catch it.

I, on the other hand, just stared out of curiosity at the small little creature no bigger than a filly. “So, what’s a Chim-Chim?”

Refinity gave me another one of those read-the-ruddy-instruction-booklet looks. “A Chim-Chim is a rare creature, Fay. The world is powered mostly by magic and the like, but Chim-Chims have a special property that is neither magical nor an element found in the natural world. It’s a substance that can be used in weapons and armor to make special enchantments more powerful than they normally would. They can also be used to create more powerful versions of items such as health potions, stat increase potions, and potions that can cast a magic spell, much like the ones you cast.”

“Oh, so I can be easily replaced by an item? That certainly makes me feel special.”

“Well, they can only be made using Chim Spheres, those little lights on their head. Finding a Chim-Chim is no easy task, either. They used to be abundant and found in every field, but eventually they were reduced in numbers. I guess CC Corp realized that ponies having that much access to such good weapons and armor could break the game.”

“Huh. So collecting these Chim Spheres can help us improve our equipment? Well, glad we found one.”

Refinity frowned at my words. “Yes… we found only one… they usually are found in groups of ten or more, so what’s this one doing here all alone? And for that matter, I heard they were at least as tall as a dog, why is this one only half the size?”

I felt the gears turn in my head as I tried to explain Refinity’s concern, when I noticed that Crimson had finally cornered the poor creature. She herded it towards the edge of the island, where it swiftly turned to its left. Crimson was quick on the new direction, and started to run at where it was headed, quickly closing the gap between the two. She got the Chim-Chim to run alongside the edge of the island, and the Chim had nowhere to turn. Refinity figured it out quicker than me, and she yelled, “WAIT, CRIMSON STOP!”

Too late. Crimson already reached the Chim-Chim and gave it a swift kick from behind. It stumbled forward and rolled a good few feet before coming to a halt on its back. The Chim-Chim stood up, and the Sphere on its head become dislodged; it floated through the air towards Crimson. Crimson grinned as the light disappeared into her chest, and then started dancing and chanting. “I’ma get an upgrade! I’ma get an upgrade!”

The Chim-Chim stood shock still, and then it fell back down. It’s eyes were starting to water up. No way… it's not going to-

“WHAAAAAAAAAAAHAAHAAAAA!”

It did.

The Chim-Chim’s bawling it’s eyes out. Tears were flowing freely, and it stomped all four legs on the ground as it rolled around on it’s rounded body.

Refinity galloped towards the dancing pony, and I followed closely behind her. I was nearly out of breath by the time we reached the Axemare. “CRIMSON! Do you know what you just kicked! It wasn’t a full-grown Chim-Chim! You just kicked…” Her words trailed as she stared off into the distance, now ignoring Crimson.

“Come on, Refinity, what did I just kick? My ticket to getting an awesome axe, if you ask me. Oh man, Faylin; you’re not going to believe what this Axe that I have in mind can do! I’ve been planning to get one of these for a while and-”

“Crimson,” I said, looking out towards the distance.

“Yeah?”

“I think you just kicked an infant.”

“What?” Crimson turned towards what held our interest so much. Her jaw fell as she beheld the spectacle.

A wave of dark blue charged directly for the crying Chim-Chim, and a second layer of white lights that hovered just over the blue gave them away. There were hundreds of them, and they were speedy. Soon, they had us surrounded, each and every one of them had a look of pure, unhindered rage. One Chim-Chim walked to the weeping infant and gave it a nuzzle. This seemed to calm down the crying Chim, and they quickly all turned to us. As a single unit. It was extremely creepy, watching those eyes suddenly turn to us.

It was at that moment I decided that maybe everything wouldn’t be so bad. It wasn’t like we were going to die or anything, Chim-Chims can’t harm us, right? I certainly hoped not.

Refinity had a look of absolute horror on her face, and she stood there determined to live through all of this. Crimson, on the other hand, looked very, very excited. Her grin could have cut off her head. She readied herself in a battle stance, and was going to charge at any minute.

We just stood there for a long while, I was feeling the tension thicken with every passing second. Any moment now, one of us had to make a move. And I had a bad feeling that no matter what we did, those adorable little creatures were gonna eat me up. I felt sweat dripping down my neck, and I prepared a leg for the inevitable kicking.

We sat there as we waited for the eternity to end.

There was a bird chirping somewhere in the distance.

Refinity shuffled her hooves.

Crimson lowered her head.

We charged.

Waking Up

There are times when one looks back on their memories, reviews all the actions that they had performed, and think to themselves, 'Just how sane was I back then?'

This was definitely one of those times.

"Crimson. If we ever get out of this alive, I'm going to straight up burn you!" I wasn't sure if she heard me, but the message seemed to get across to the navy-blue Earth pony. She grinned and waved her hoof into a salute before she charged into a group of the little buggers.

The Chim-Chims have been swarming all around us, and since they had no limbs of which they could use to avenge their fallen, they resorted to flailing around in a vague attempt to make us fall down. Since they were also smaller and weight lighter than a pegasus feather while floating on a breeze, the creatures just bounced harmlessly off of the three of us. Crimson, Refinity, and myself only found this to be rather annoying, and we all set about to kick every single one of them. I was more exhausted from kicking than anything, and it was such a tedious job.

After we mopped up the army of Chims, we returned to the Beast Temple. All three of us we tried beyond belief after that ordeal, so we weren't up to fighting a boss enemy of some sort. The Temple was huge, probably about the size of the football stadium in Canterlot Castle. There was Gothic architecture prevalent throughout the place, gargoyles and spires high above our small selves. The entire place was a sort of muddled brown, except for the chest near a statue of a large pony - which managed to be a sitting position and looked fearsome at the same time. Refinity had mentioned it being the statue of a god according to the game's lore, but I was too tired to care.

Fortunately, this Temple didn't have a boss. All three of us sighed our relief at the prospect of rest being closer than we thought. Crimson's antics had started to get to me and I desperately wanted to sleep; it must have been around one in the morning by now. My movements have been getting little more sluggish and I had trouble keeping my eyes open.

I opened the treasure chest - much to the disappointment of a maniacal mare - and earned myself slightly better robe than the one I was currently wearing. As I changed my equipment I noticed it didn't change my avatar. That was a sort of a relief to me, I kinda liked how my avatar looked. We returned to the city - Mac Anu, I learned later- and went to Berry to give our haul in our @Home. When she found out that all three of us had nearly maxed out our capacity for carrying Chim Spheres, she nearly fainted on the spot. She took our weapons and started to work on upgrading them. According to Berry, by the time she was finished our weapons will give an elemental bonus to our attacks; and our avatars will have a small change as well. When I asked what kind of change, she just smiled and said that it'll be a surprise.

After I begrudgingly yielded my staff and choose to have a fire elemental bonus to the weapon, I stepped out into the vast expanse of Mac Anu. I really wanted to take a stroll and see the sights of the city, but I was exhausted. After debating for a while I decided that sleep was more important than walking around in a virtual world that won't disappear when I wake up. I thought about opening the main menu, and saw the option to log out. I did so and my conscious started disappeared from The World.

As I was logging off, I felt the vertigo again. No pain this time, just the sense that I was falling when I wasn't. I think I actually started to fall down, I could see my bed coming up to meet my face.

Wait, my bed?

*WHAM*

I immediately sat up and gasped. I felt like somepony poured a bucket of ice water on me, and then threw me into a frozen laze, and then fished me out and let me stand in the freezing winds. The point is, I was cold. I dimly realized that I was on my bed and I hadn't bothered to put something on to keep me warm, but I was too cold to care. Some cruel part of my brain told me how ironic that was, and that I should be a smart pony and get a blanket and go to sleep. My stomach grumbled at that point, and the smaller, smart part of my brain acknowledged fetching something to eat first before sleeping was the priority.

I got up and searched my apartment for something to eat. It wasn't very big, which probably helped contribute to how quickly everything got lost in a sea of messiness. I'd like to think it's more of an 'organized chaos.' I know where things are, kind of. More like where they generally should be in a relative space. That space being the entire apartment. I moved throughout the small rooms, and went into the kitchen. Well, if normal kitchens only contained a mini-fridge, a stove, a cabinet and a sink.

The mini-fridge had a plentiful supply of energy drinks, there was some old cheesecake in the back, and a single, perfect, freshly made daisy and turnip sandwich in a plastic container. There was a note on it, saying:

'Don't touch my coming-back-lunch. I'll be home around seven in the morning on the 19th. Remember, sandwich = bad touch. ~Grey.'

Huh, so Grey was going to be back tomorrow. I had hoped he would be gone for the rest of the week, but my hopes have been dashed.

My roommate, Greyhawk, is a friend I made a few years back. We had almost every class together for Year 12. It was hard for us not to become fast friends. We were stuck with each other for a whole Year, might as well get along with each other, even if he was far superior in using magic than me. Since then, we haven't had a class together. But we did start to rent out this apartment together; neither of us liked living in the dorms. Too cramped and noisy. I had hoped I would have gotten much further into playing The World before he came back so I had a head start. I guess he didn't want to spend too much time with his family.

I brought my mind back to reality and closed the fridge before it lowered the temperature even further. Tomorrow was shopping day, so didn't have anything else to eat until then. I went back to my bed with a sigh, a growl of protest emanating from my ignored stomach. I closed my eyes and let my fatigue engulf me into it's sleepy embrace.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What is reality? Is it a plane of existence where one lives? Or is it just a word ponies used to justify that they themselves are real? How can they tell they are real? What if you are just saying that it's real, but you know that you are lying?

What if the reality you know was crumbing? How would you react? Would you know it's even happening, and drift away into a nonexistence, or would you give your life to protect it? If your reality was somepony's imagination, then why would you fight to protect something that doesn't even exist? To justify yourself as real?

Nihil verum, omnia licita - Nothing is real, everything is permitted.

The idea that while nothing is what it seems, the ability to make things real stands true. If you must fight for your reality, then prove that it exists by making it real.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I awoke to the cheerful shout of a stallion as he flew through the air and landed on top of me. Jeez, he never knew the meaning of subtlety, did he?

"OH JEN JEN JEN! YOU ARE THE BESTEST ROOMMATE EVER!"

There he went, using that silly nickname he always used. Jen, the pet name he gave me because he thought my full name, 'Genesis,' was too much of a mouthful. I always hated it when he used it, I always liked my given name. Sounded really cool. Today, though, it reminded me of...somepony. I can't remember who, though. I looked up to the pony who was grinning unabatedly at me. He had an deep orange coat and short emerald mane, with glasses perched precariously on his snout. The cutie mark of a hawk with a letter in it's talons was obscured from his saddlebags. He was very shaggy, I assumed he left as soon as he can and didn't take a shower. He had a stubble from lack of shaving. I never quite understood how fur can grow into beards and mustaches, but I disregarded that as one of the many mysteries the universe will never let us lesser ponies know. I stuck my head back under the covers. "Ger'off'a me, Grey. I need my beauty sleep."

"Oh, sorry Jen. But you bought 'The World!' How could I NOT be excited?" The stallion got up and started wandering to the ALTIMIT OS, inspecting the device with obvious intent. "So, you put this thing on like a helmet and you'll start playing or something?"

"Yeah, that's the gist of it. Make your own character, by the way. I don't want you to go around and ruin what little progress I've made."

"Yeah, like I'd ever want to play a mage, anyways. It's no fun if you're not in the front lines."

"Says the pony who was all for being a pacifist last month."

"It was the only way I could get some free cake, man."

"And it was delicious. You should be a pacifist more often if we get some more of that."

"I think there's some still in the fridge."

"If you eat that old cake, I will personally make you Commander-in-Chief for Luna's Army of the Brave."

"Celestia forever, you crazy night owl."

"Start playing the game, you dirty sun worshiper."

And with that, the stallion grinned and put on the helmet. Instantly he flopped into his bed, almost like he was going to sleep. I wanted to stay in my own bed for a little while longer, but I soon found that sleep wasn't going to visit me again anytime soon. I stretched and got out from under the sheets.

A yawn racketed my body and made me sit down on the edge of the bed. I smacked my lips and went to see the damage I have to repair in the mirror. When I looked at the reflective glass a crimson mare stared back at me. Her yellow and grey mane was a little more messy, and there were circles under her eyes from lack of sleep. She yawned again and hoped for the evening to come around so she can sleep again.

I inspected the rest of my body, from the mane, to the horn protruding from my forehead, to the cutie mark of a small circle, within a square, within a larger triangle, and another circle surrounding the triangle. The symbol for alchemy, the study of magic and science. It was thanks to alchemy that the ALTIMIT OS ever existed. Without magic, the whole system would just be a mesh of wires, cables, and plastic. None of it would do anything. And without the system, the magic would just dissipate into thin air. The spell was too complicated to be cast on it's own, and the system was too fragile to use without magic. The two properties of magic and science flowed together into one amazing creation as seamlessly as bread and butter. The idea of using technology and magic is a fairly new aspect of thought to many ponies, but the results of such a combination has revolutionized the entire entertainment industry singlehandedly. There had even been products of alchemy already existing and nopony even gave it a second thought, sewing machines were abundant only a couple of years ago and everypony just took them for granted.

Alchemy is a new frontier, and I aim to learn everything I can from it.

I went and took a shower, and then put on my travelling vest and set out to do a little shopping. I told Grey and he just responded by waving a hoof at me and returned to immersing himself into the game. I levitated a basket from some unknown depths of the apartment and walked outside to the morning sunshine. I took a deep breath of fresh morning air, filled with the scent of morning dew. To my left the doors of the apartment complex extended, and went around the corner to continue its journey.

The door to the apartment was next to a set of stairs, and from there it wasn't far to the Market Square of Canterlot. The apartment building was just a few blocks away from the Market, where hundreds of vendors shouted over one another to sell their wares. Everything from trinkets from outside of Equestria to fruits and vegetables were available at the Market

The Market was rather large - the sheer amount of vendors and their stalls and wares had demanded it. It was also very colorful, from the various stalls and their multicolored wares, to the sea of ponies that come here to buy said wares. The Market was in front of a big clock tower, so no matter where anypony went in the market, it wasn't hard to get lost, either the track of time or lost in the ocean of shoppers and sellers.

I pulled out my pouch of bits and inspected how much money I have left. After I spent the earnings I made doing part-time odd jobs around the city for the ALTIMIT OS and The World, I have a little leftover. I was rather lucky I have some, otherwise we'd both go hungry for the rest of the day - unless Grey had some cash on him. The only way we can pay our rent and our food is through part-time jobs or our family. Neither of us wanted to grovel at our parents feet for money, so we stuck to part-time jobs.

I purchased a few carrots, a couple of apples, and a large loaf of bread. This should last us until payday. I hope Grey has money to spare for food, though. Payday isn't for a couple of days, and I would hate it if we had to go a single day being hungry. I started walking back towards the apartment, when I heard a couple of mares enter the Market, arguing very loudly.

"Hold up, so you think we should actually talk to the Elements of Harmony? Why?! That guild doesn't do anything with anypony else but it's own members! Of which there are only seven!"

"Calm down, Vinyl. Berry was only suggesting that we should talk about starting to trade with other guilds, not to adventure with them! The Elements only have seven members, which can mean we mutually benefit if we start trading with them. Especially after that haul you brought in last night. Oooh, I really hope those weapons are finished soon!"

I froze in my tracks. Those voices. No. Not here. Anywhere but here. It's fine if it was online, but not here. Not my home. Out of everywhere in the entire country of Equestria, they just had to be here?!

I stood very still before realizing I didn't need to do anything. Those two don't know what I look like, I could just walk right past them, not say a thing, and go on home. Yeah, no need for awkward encounters or embarrassing revelations! I got the courage to keep moving forward, and walked in a beeline towards safety. Luckily, I made it. I didn't run into those two mares. Not like that would have made any difference, they would never be able to recognize me unless I spoke.

Me and my stupid brain jinxes.

I was just passing the last stall when I bumped my hoof against a barrel. I jerked the hoof back in surprise, as I hoped that I didn't stub it. The barrel, on the other hand, fell over and spilled it's contents all over the ground. This elected a cry of mourning from the vendor.

"MY CABBAGES~!" she screamed at the top of his lungs. She whirled on me with fury in her eyes. "YOU, YOU RUINED MY LAST BARREL OF FRESH CABBAGES! I'LL MAKE YOU PAY, OH YES. THE TOTAL IN BITS COMES TO 240! FIVE BITS PER CABBAGE HEAD!"

It took all of my dignity not to cower in fear at this mare. She was an elder, and shorter than me by half a head.That didn't stop her from giving me the verbal lashing of a lifetime. She even started poking me in the chest to emphasize her already made point.

Eventually I just gave up, lowered my head in defeat and said, "I'm really sorry about your cabbages, ma'am, but I spent all my money on the food I have here." I indicated to the basket still held in my telekinesis. "I'll pay you back when I get paid, but not now. I promise." I looked up to see her reaction, and she had a nasty scowl. It took her a few deep breaths before relaxing as she nodded in agreement.

"Don't you worry none, missy. I didn't mean to snap at ya, I have a bit of a temper issue. If you can pay me back for the lost produce when you can, I'll be grateful." With that, she nodded and walked behind the stand to start packing up. I looked around and noticed that the little outburst had attracted everypony's attention from whatever they were doing. Two in particular caught my eye, a white coated and blue maned pony wearing... sunglasses? Goggles? I couldn't tell which. The other pony, grey coated and black maned with a bowtie around her neck, held herself with more stature. The very essence of refined grace.

I immediately had an educated guess about their identities; actually, I was fairly sure that I didn't need a guess. It wasn't rocket science. They both looked impressed at me, thought the white one was hard to read because her goggle-glasses were over her eyes. I nodded to them and quickly trotted out of there. Since the scene was over ponies began to filter back into their tasks. The two ponies from earlier started talking again, and paid no more interest in me. I sighed, I guess they didn't hear me. Or maybe my voice was too feminine compared to my character's voice.

Other than that, there was no more incidents regarding the two mares. I climbed back up the stairs to my apartment and fished out the key to unlock the door. I picked it up with telekinesis, and then I felt it again.

The vertigo returned with a vengeance. I stumbled and fell against the door, trying to support myself. My magic let go of the basket, dropping the bread and apples bouncing down the staircase. I hope they wouldn't be too bruised. The vertigo increased, and I found myself on the floor, unable to move my legs correctly to get up. Then came pain.

The pain was sharp, and intense. It shot through my head and settled in the very back. It felt like somepony took a drill and started to drill through my skull into my brain from behind. I screamed, screamed until my throat was hoarse. Then I kept screaming, the pain, it was unbearable. Why was I hurting so much? Was this the same feeling that I felt while I was in game? Why is it so much more intense now?

As suddenly as it came, it disappeared. The pain and the vertigo left me empty for a moment. I just lay there, unable to think or do anything. My screaming attracted people out of neighboring apartments to take a look at the pony who was apparently in pain and see if they could help. Seeing I was fine, they went back into their homes murmuring about crazy ponies. I eventually regained my balance, and my hooves were firmly planted on the ground. I went and collected the dropped food and placed them back in the basket.

A few apples got bruised, and I lost two carrots, but it's better than nothing. I opened the door to Grey's room to find that he was still in The World. I debated sending him to get some more food for the week, before deciding to let him play a little longer. His sandwich was still in the fridge, and since we have more food I took the delicious lunch and started eating it. I had to hand it to Grey, he can make some really good food. I wonder if he should've been a cook instead of a student. I grabbed a couple of book and started to read, having nothing else to do today. I finally had time to catch up on a few series I've fallen behind on.

A half-hour passed and still Grey was in the game. I decided to get him out so I could have another go. "Alright, Grey, you've had long enough. Time for you go get us some more food, I'm broke." I shook him to try and get him to come back to reality, and that didn't work very well. He is a notorious deep sleeper, after all. I shook him some more but he didn't respond. It was then that I noticed that the visor wasn't showing the normal display when playing the game. Instead, it was full of static, as if somepony unplugged the game and hadn't bothered to turn off the display.

I gently tried to remove the helmet from his head, and to my surprise it came off easily. I wonder if he fell asleep while playing. I turned the display off and left Grey to his slumber as I put away the visor. I turned back to the sleeping pony. "Alright, sleepy head, time to wake up." I muttered under my breath.

More shaking, a slap to the face, nor did shouting in his ear wake him up. I started to get worried about him, how deep of a sleep was he in? How can I wake him up like this? I'm no medical pony, but he should have woken by now. To make matters worse, his tongue lolled out of his mouth, and his eyes were rolled into the back of his head. I was started to panic a little at the point.

I checked his pulse and was relieved when I felt the blood rushing through his body, albeit rather weakly. He was definitely out of it, but this still didn't bode well. I had no need to break into hysterics, but I did need to get him to a hospital to see what's wrong. I can't carry the poor guy with telekinesis, the nearest hospital was more than a few blocks away, I would quickly tire out after one block. If I contact the authorities they should be here in a few minutes, or an hour depending on how busy they are.

My eye caught the spellbooks on Grey's desk, and a stroke of inspiration came to me.Every student of Celestia's School is taught a basic spell of scroll-sending in their first Year. In case of an emergency, a student can use the spell to send a letter to Princess Celestia herself. She then sends her Royal Guard to help and protect the student from whatever trouble they may be in.

So I did just that. I explained the situation in the scroll and sent it away the scroll disappeared within a red-green flame and whisked itself away towards Canterlot Castle; I had included a request that a medical pony come along to inspect him. I started to pace, the situation finally starting to set in. I always thought I worked well under pressure, but this is my friend. In fact, he was my only friend whom I've known for more than a year. I wasn't going to let him get hurt or sick. It seemed like he just passed out, but he should have come to by now. If worse comes to worse, he could die without treatment.

I wasn't a medical pony by any means, I couldn't tell if he was going to die or just lie there for the next week or so. I had to have a professional opinion before taking any serious action. Too often I read about people acting before they thought things through only to end up in a worse situation than when they started out. An agonizing twenty minutes later, the Royal Guard had arrived.

I looked out the window and saw it, a chariot that normally beheld the Princess was occupied by a unicorn and an Earth pony, both wearing doctor's outfits and stethoscopes. The two Pegasi pulling it were Royal Guards, and they landed the chariot with the skill and grace born from years of practice. The unicorn and Earth pony stepped out of the chariot, nodded their thanks to the Royal Guard, and examined the building.

I opened the door and waved for them to come upstairs. They noticed me and trotted up the steps. It didn't look like anypony here was in a hurry, anyways. From the description I gave, there wasn't a sense that speed was necessary. The only reason they got here so quickly it because of the Pegasi, I guess. The unicorn had a yellow coat, and curly brown hair. The Earth pony had a sky-blue coat and long pink hair. The unicorn had a business feeling about her while the Earth pony looked a bit nervous. I think I could tell which was the professional and which was the apprentice.

The two doctors walked in and inspected my friend. The unicorn moved Grey's limbs around, checked his pulse, looked under his eyelids, looked in his mouth, and even inspected his unconscious reflexes by tapping his knees.

The short amount of tests seemed finished, and the unicorn turned to the Earth pony. "Well, Doctor Bandage; what do you think happened to him?"

The Earth pony jumped a bit in surprise, and she carefully gave Greyhawk another look over before responding. "I think he was... uh... knocked unconscious, and hasn't come out... of it... yet?"

The unicorn gave a small smile before shaking his head. "No, if he was knocked unconscious there would be a bruise or a wound on his head to indicate the force needed to knock him out. He didn't faint either, otherwise he would have woken up by now. It's my belief that he's currently in a coma-like state. We need to take him back to do a few more tests before making any diagnosis."

They were gonna take my friend to test him? I know it's so they can help him get better, but that didn't stop me from worrying. What kind of tests? Would he be in the hospital for very long? When I expressed these concerns to the unicorn, he just said they'll be quick tests to scan for brain activity and hopefully they'll be able to detect and fix the problem using that. This didn't really relieve my worries, but I nodded and let him take my only true friend away. His tongue was still hanging out of his mouth. I smiled and closed his mouth for him, so he wouldn't swallow any bugs on the trip to the hospital.

I watched as my friend was put into the chariot, the Guards waited patiently as the doctors boarded. They took off into the air and flew back towards the Castle, where they would hopefully help my best friend get better.

I grimly thought about how I won't be able to buy any more food until payday rolls around, but I now have enough food to sustain myself now that Greyhawk is gone.

And that realization I finally started to break down and weep. I just sat there outside my apartment crying my eyes out, worried sick for that hardheaded stallion.

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AN: Remember, a comment and a rating saves a poor soul from pony d'aaw underdose!

Conjecture

I couldn't believe it.

My friend that I've known for years is in the hospital, and he might never come back.

I didn't feel any sorrow, not anymore. I spent all of my sorrow when he was taken. Now I'm just... empty. It was like part of my life had been taken away. I never even knew I cared that much for him. Like they always say, you never know what you have until it's gone. I didn't even feel loss anymore, just emptiness where there used to be pain.

I didn't know what to do, I wanted to help my dear friend so badly, but I knew that I couldn't. I wasn't a medical pony, I couldn't figure out what caused him to fall into such a state so suddenly, nor would I be able to help him if I did know. That thought went 'round and 'round my head, and making me feel more and more helpless with every passing second. What could I do? Nothing. Nothing but wait until the doctors to come and tell me he won't wake up.

Of course, there was the hope that he would wake up and everything returns to normal, but how in Luna's name would that happen? Would he just randomly sit up in his bed and say, "I must have overslept again!" and trot right out of the hospital? I gave a small chuckle when I imagined how the nurses and doctors would react to the mystery patient if that happened. I took a deep breath and gave a long drawn out sigh.

I was just exhausted and tired. I haven't had much in the sense of comfort, I haven't even tried going back in The World yet. I don't think anypony could be sad around Crimson, nor would Berry or Refinity allow someone to feel bad when they're around. I thought about the companionship I had forged between three seemingly random strangers. Is this how easy making friends in a game is? I hoped I would be able to depend on more ponies if that was true. But right now I just wanted to collapse on the ground and fall asleep. Having stayed up all night worrying probably helped with that as well.

I've been spending my past day slowing coming out of my shell, so to speak. I've been put in the custody of one of my more generous employers, the librarian at the bookshop, which also conveniently served as her home. She quickly put me to work despite it being the wee hours of the early morning. The chores had to be finished, at any rates. It's been a couple of hours since then.

When I finished my current job - raking up the leaves on the lawn of a public library - the librarian came up to me, worry prevalent in her face. "Genesis, take a break from the chores, you look tired. I'll get the others to work now that they're here." the ashen gray mare had more than a hint of concern in her voice.

What was her name again? It started with a C, or was it an S? Might have even been a Z, who knew.

"Genesis, please. Everypony is worried about you; me, Bookworm, and Ruffled Page want you to take the rest of the day off." It was... GAH! This is going to drive me insane. Se-something-or-other.

"JEN!"

I snapped my head up to meet her eyes. Eyes filled with worry and sorrow. "I'm sorry, Cedar. I didn't mean to space out like that. It's been a couple of rough days." I looked into her eyes; eyes sympathizing with the pain of losing someone close.

"I know, Genesis, the Princess informed me about what happened. I'm supposed to take care of you while they figure out why Greyhawk is in his... condition." She moved closer and gave me a reassuring nuzzle. The warmth of another was comforting, and I leaned in to the nuzzle, thinking about how Greyhawk would comment on how touching of a scene this would be. I felt a few tears well in my eyes, and I let them fall as I recalled how still he was on the bed; how he might not ever recover. I buried my face in the dark mane as I shed a few more tears.

Cedar let me cry for a few more moments before speaking again. "I think the doctors should be finished by now, let's go pay Grey a visit." I nodded an affirmation, and she backed away and into the bookshop. I could hear her tell the others where she will be going. She walked out and back to me, where I turned my head south - towards the Canterlot Hospital and my friend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sterile white walls and stench of medicine are all what anypony remembers in a hospital, whether as a patient, visitor, or a staff member. The clean white hallways that were devoid of any deviation of color didn't really help. Then again, I guess everypony was more interested in actually helping the ponies instead of choosing which color would go well with white. I walked with Cedar to the receptionist, where a beige pegasus behind the counter took one bored glace at me and my companion before she returned to reading a magazine. Cedar spoke up, "We're here to visit a Mr. Greyhawk?"

The receptionist told us to go up the stairs and down the hall till you hit Room 251, all without even a single glace up from her oh-so-important magazine. We traversed the stairs and passed a few grieving people, which didn't help me feel better about the trip at all. I saw the room, 251. I couldn't prepare myself for what I saw, I knew it. I wouldn't like what I saw at all and there was nothing I could do to help.

I looked back at Cedar, she gave me a small smile and nodded towards the door. I steeled myself as best I could and opened the door. It creaked slowly and almost ominously as I walked through the archway. I saw a TV up in the corner of the room, ready to provide entertainment for the bored patrons. The room only had one occupant, I could see him from the door. It looked like he was sleeping, and for all intents and purposes he was.

Greyhawk was on the bed with an IV in his right foreleg. His emerald mane was completely disheveled, but I don't think either of us would have minded. I noticed in the back of my mind how peaceful he seemed, his chest moving rhythmically and deeply. I thought he looked rather content, but that could just be the fact that he wasn't conscious. I trotted towards him, and the morning light streaming through the window added to the atmospheric peace that surrounded the room. The sunlight glinted off of his glasses sitting on a stand, and his orange fur appeared brighter than ever. I felt my sorrow and sadness drain away at the tranquility. The room overlooked the city, and the sun was just fully over the horizon, and I could easily pick out ponies off to work. I wondered if any of the errands I had to run today would mind me taking the day off. My reflection smiled a little.

"We believe he's in a deep coma." The sudden arrival of the nurse said when she walked in made me jump a little. "He doesn't show any signs of awakening, and we will keep him here to figure out how he fell comatose. If you don't mind, may I ask a few questions about him?"

"Uh... sure, yeah, go ahead, yeah," I stammered as I brushed my yellow and grey mane away from my face. I wasn't feeling up to answering personal questions for him, but he couldn't answer, so I patiently waited for the nurse to continue. She asked me questions about his diet, does he exercise, did he have any health problems before, what he did for a living, and all the fun stuff. The she came to the question, "What was he doing when he fell into a coma?" I didn't really know, he was just playing The World while I went out to get food for the week.

I told the nurse and she nodded grimly. She looked like she knew something, shifting uncomfortably and not looking me in the eyes. I stared at her with what I hoped was a pleading face. She rolled her eyes as she gave up at playing keep away, and leaned in closer. Odd, considering we were already alone in a secure room. I think it was secure, anyways. "I'm not supposed to tell anyone this until the press releases the story in the paper, but your friend isn't the only one who fell into a coma while play The World."

I felt my eyebrows shoot up, urging her to continue. "We've had about three in the past few days, they all were in the middle of playing The World, but that's all I know now. Perhaps the CC Corp knows more, they have been questioned as well; seeing as they run the game and know everything that happens in it." She nodded and left the room to continue her work. I looked back at Greyhawk, still sleeping silently. Others who were playing The World, huh?

The emptiness I felt when Greyhawk left was now filled with determination, there was a reason for why ponies were falling comatose. I was going to find out why, and the first step to doing that was to find out about the other coma patients. The nurse said that CC Corp might know something, so I had to go to their headquarters and ask a few questions.

I felt the burning passion everypony gets when they have a goal in mind. The determination to finish it, the drive to get closer with every step, and the will to go forward. I was an empty shell not an hour ago, but now I have an objective I want to complete. I knew, just knew, that if I figured out what was happening to the other patients, then I could help Greyhawk recover.

I faced Cedar, who was waiting patiently outside. "How is he?" she asked. I told her about how The World might have something to do with ponies being put into comas. She reacted with much interest and intrigue; I probably reacted the same way when the nurse told me. Cedar had to return to the shop before the other workers accidentally burnt the entire block down, but if she found anything that could be of some help, she'll stop by my place.

I scanned the hallway, looking for a nurse or a doctor to point me in the direction of CC Corp headquarters. I caught the eye of a dark yellow doctor talking with a tired looking mare in a wheelchair. He gave a quick inclination of his head before returning to his patient. I waited patiently for him to finish talking to the mare before he cantered towards me. "You must be Greyhawk's roommate. I'm his general practitioner, Dr. Strange Love. I assume the nurse has already asked you about the patient's living habits?" I nodded. "Good, well then, is there anything I can do for you?"

I decided to ask about the other patients first, so I asked as much. "Oh dear, I told Ms. Hearty to stay quiet about that until tomorrow. Well, I guess there isn't much harm in knowing a day beforehand to those close to the victims in question. The other patients were all healthy, working ponies with no discernible health problems in their past. The only thing that connects these ponies was the fact that they were all playing The World when they were found. If I were you I'd ask CC Corp for more information about how they're connected to The World. CC Corp should be west of here, near the Market."

The Market - where I went to when Greyhawk fell into the coma. I thought back to my previous visit and the old mare. I'll still have to pay her back, but for now that's put on hold. Getting my friend out of his current condition is top priority right now. I left the hospital with Cedar, and waved her goodbye and we went our separate ways. I started my journey west, with my stomach deciding to voice it's objections. I only had a small breakfast by at Cedar's bookshop, but now I was starting to feel the hunger return with a vengeance.

I walked for about a mile before I arrived at the Market, being not quite as full as the day before despite being the weekend. I looked around the surrounding buildings, hoping to spot the name CC Corp in big bold letters that anyone could easily see. Unfortunately, they weren't able to be spotted. The buildings weren't very tall, so it was impossible to see anything beyond what one could see from the Market.

After asking a few merchants, I found that CC Corp resides in a building just down a side street. I trotted along towards my destination, but not before I got stopped by an old mare selling cabbages. "Oh, it's you again! Come to repay me for the damaged goods?" She grinned happily behind the stall, which showed off a few non-cabbage related vegetables.

I gave a small sad smile, "Sorry, I was just passing through here. I should be able to pay you back by the end of the week, OK?" The mare gave an irritated frown, but nodded anyways. I hoped she wasn't actually a mobster and was going to break my limbs if I didn't pay her back. Then again, I had no doubt that she would be able to do that anyways.

I bade my farewells and cantered down the side street. There was a club off to the side, unopened, and considering it was the late morning it was perfectly understandable. The name had caught my attention though, The Raving Raids. I wasn't sure if there was actually any raiding going on, but it didn't hold the attention for long. It was an odd name, but I wasn't the type of pony to go out and rave-slash-raid all night long.

I moved past it, and as soon as I rounded the corner I could see a sign no taller than the building, CC Corp. HQ I continued on down the new street and inspected the building, It wasn't very big, especially considering how huge the industry had gotten. The building wasn't very tall, but it was as wide as a city block. In fact, I was pretty sure it took up the entire block on it's own. There was a few places where they allowed to have a lawn, and a few trees out front, to make everything look nice and tidy.

I walked up the ramp to the grey building and opened the door to the reception room. Again, it wasn't very big in comparison to the height, but it was about as wide as my apartment. But my apartment wasn't very big even if you took down the walls, so it still wasn't very spectacular. To me, however, it was huge. There was a corner with chairs and a coffee table with old magazines on it, and on my right was a rounded table or some sort attached to the wall, with a mint-green unicorn pony behind it.

"Hello, how may CC Corp help you today, ma'am?" Well, at least they were courteous. I moved up to the reception desk... thing.

"Hi, my name is Genesis. I'm actually here to ask a few questions regarding the recent coma patients." Yup, that's me. Genesis, the master of subtly. The mare behind the desk also appreciated my art by letting her face fill with a little anxiety.

"Coma patients? What are you talking about?" Her smile turned a whole lot faker than it was before.

"Come now, surely you must know that a few players of The World have fallen comatose, right? It's all over the news." Well, it wasn't yet, but she didn't have to know that, right? "You must know that the game is causing ponies to fall into comas, can you tell me why that is?"

"Well..." she let her smile disappear and leaned in closer. What is with these mares and whispering when we were already in a secure place? Maybe they're too paranoid, or I'm not paranoid enough. "I'll have to ask you to leave before security comes and throws you out." Oh... That was a little unnecessary, I thought. I only asked a few questions that may have been confidential or not. And I may have accused them of putting ponies into comas, but I hardly thought that was a good reason to throw somepony out.

I left the building after I gave the receptionist a raspberry while she was furiously pounding away at whatever hidden button was under her desk. After walking outside and into the sunshine, I realized that I don't have anywhere else to go. Well, not exactly. I could always talk to the guys who discovered the victims, but that would only reinforce what I already knew.

I walked back to my apartment, thinking about what I could do. It wasn't until I was trotting the way back home a little after noon before I had a thought. It was so obvious that I smacked myself in the forehead for not realizing it sooner. I galloped the rest of my way home and opened up the apartment door. I was greeted with the ALTIMIT OS, unoccupied and ready for me to get back in the game. Literally.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The reality you know is dying, and the reality you created is innate.
He is waiting for you with breath abate.
Preparing to turn both worlds into realms of anguish
How will you save one, if the other must perish.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jeez, I never got used to that feeling. I had to remember to move with my thoughts, OK, that's down. I remembered how to play again, and I got busy talking to random ponies who just happened to be playing the same game as I do. And would be able to beat me to a pulp if I upset them. Shouldn't be to hard, right? The butterflies in my stomach agreed.

I walked around the city of Mac Anu, and walked up to a couple of people who didn't look like they were in a hurry to be anywhere. A lot of ponies around here were rushing from one place to another, but there was a rather large gathering of ponies around the water fountain just outside the Chaos Gate. A few guild shops were set up here, and I could guess the reason why people gathered around here, chatting away with the store owners and other guild members. I steeled myself and started asking questions.

I quickly realized that talking to ponies here wasn't very different from talking face to face, but I still took quick glaces at the weapons they had sheathed just to make sure they wouldn't try and squash my face into the ground. I gathered a little more information from talking to ponies here, more than I suspected I would get if I investigated anywhere else. A few players have heard of players falling comatose but knew nothing else. One of the players I talked to was friends with someone who fell comatose, but they only knew after being contacted by the victim's family since he actually knew them. I was feeling extremely lucky when I found him, and asked the player for a few more details.

The player in question was a Long Arm, indicated by the huge polearm strapped to his back. He was also a huge Beast; he looked like part-bear part-pony. He would look very ferocious if he took out his pole arm and fought me, but at the moment he looked like a big cuddly teddy bear. He actually reminded me of an old stuffed bear I had as a foal, and I briefly wondered what happened to it before snapping back to attention. "So, what was the victim-"

"JAK."

"What?"

"JAK, that's his username."

"Ah, sorry. Now, what was JAK doing the last you heard from him?"

"Well, he told me he was going to go level up in the area Delta Chasing Cupid's Belladonna. That's where he went to a couple days ago, and I got the message from his folks not a few hours after that." I was a bit skeptical that I would find anything there, but a lead was a lead, and I needed to level myself up anyways.

"Alright, I'll be sure to investigate there. Thanks for your cooperation, you have no idea how much you've helped." And with that, he went off to do whatever Beast Long Arms do. Probably level up like the rest of us. I went to the Chaos Gate and checked the area I was given, and it didn't seem too bad, a level four dungeon. I could probably handle this myself, I was close to level four, after all. But I briefly wondered how Refinity or Crimson would act if I went and leveled without them.

I checked to see if they were online, and to my surprise neither Refinity nor Crimson were online. Berrylicious, on the other hand, was online and probably running the store. She was around my level, so I wondered if she would join me on the little escapade, I hardly talked to her after meeting up with her to give her the haul. I needed to visit the store anyways to get my weapon, I wouldn't do anypony any good without something to defend myself with.

Walking back from the Chaos Gate, I scanned the fountain area for Berry's shop. It wasn't in sight, so she was probably at the @Home. With her midget impersonator. I wasn't prepared to go face that horrible little creature again, but I needed my equipment. After battling with myself whether I would go or just stand there until Berry came back for a few moments, I scampered off to find the Trader.

Thankfully, I didn't have to face that annoying pig thing, Berry was just leaving the @Home when I arrived. "Oh, Berry! There you are, I was wondering if those weapons are done yet!" Berry gave a heart warming smile, and she pulled out my staff. But it wasn't my staff, well, it wasn't my old wooden staff with strange cravings in it; it was now my burning wooden staff with symbols made of flame engraved into the wood. It was spectacular, to say the least.

"Well, you like it?" Berry's smile grew across her face when I nodded enthusiastically. "Refinity and Crimson already got their upgrades, and I had a whole bundle left over so I upgraded my weapons as well." She turned and showed off her Twin Blades strapped on her flanks, and they glowed blue from the water element they've been given. "And look, even my Wave Symbols got the elemental change." She pointed at her tattoos and I could see that they pulsed blue faintly against her red fur.

"Wow, that's pretty awesome," I commented as I took my weapon back. I could feel the fire in it, and I felt the weapon empower me as well. I briefly wondered if I had any tattoos like that on me that would glow red. "Thanks for the upgrade, Berry." Her smile glowed at the praise. "Hey, do you think you can help me through a dungeon really quickly? I mean, we hardly spoke to each other so I thought this could be a good time to get to... uh, know each other?" I hesitated at the end, afraid that she might decline and laugh at the offer.

Instead, she continued to smile like I was one of her customers. "Why not? I'd like to know a little more about you as well, Faylin. Especially since you'll be going on more adventures with the other two, I might not get to go out more often that I'd like." I hoped we wouldn't fight anything too difficult in the dungeon

We traversed through Mac Anu and reached the Chaos Gate. There we prepared ourselves before leaving, buying a few healing and SP, Skill Points, potions. 'Gotta keep the SP up so you can keep casting spells,' Berry says. I wonder why neither Refinity nor Crimson bothered to mention SP to me. We were full on items, a few scrolls for Berry if she needed to cast anything, and a couple of temporary stat-increasing consumables if we were going to face a boss. We were set, and we both turned to the Chaos Gate. "Ready?" she asked. I grinned and entered the keywords. A white light surrounded us, and we were teleported to a new dungeon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This new area was interesting, to say the least. It was a huge shrine with even bigger pillars on the side. The entire ensemble looked extremely impressive, and I had no doubt that a boss would be waiting for us at the end. We entered the shire and admired the interior design; I did, anyways. Berry just walked on by, having seen levels like this hundreds of times.

The granite walls were lined with what looked like steel pillars every few meters on both sides, and there was light coming down from the windows in the middle of the walls. The floor was a hard wood, although I couldn't tell what kind of wood. It was almost sunset, judging by the angle of the light shafts. The room we were in was quite large, with a couple of hallways leading to other rooms. "Alright, let's get started." Berry said with the tone one would adopt when preparing to do some dirty work.

We went around the entire floor, nothing went unchecked with Berry searching for treasure and monsters. We fought and bested every enemy we saw, and Berry let me do most of the work. I had hoped she would be of a little more help, but she didn't want to 'spend healing potions unless necessary.' Of course she started to work a little bit harder in fights after I pointed out to her that I'm a Wavemaster and I can heal us at any time. We fought a couple of new enemies, like floating weapons and goblin mages. They weren't particularly hard, but a few have gotten a lucky hit and I had to use a healing potion because casting Repth would take too long. Eventually, we started to chat while doing our business.

"So Berry, you like to run the shop more than exploring this beautiful world? I mean, have you seen the field levels? It's beyond gorgeous and into spectacular! You can watch the water for days, with the smell of salt in the air, and the sounds of birds chirping making everything peaceful and serine." I finished casting Vak Don and the goblin mage burst into flames, but didn't die. I took a quick hit from the flying sword enemy the game wanted me to call Vak Bezel. "That is, if you weren't too busy fighting goblins and the like."

Berry dodged a spell from the goblin mage and quickly took down a goblin knight with her twin blades. "Well, I was once like you, you know. Loved the scenery, always spent time travelling the different areas to level up and find new things. But that lost all it's luster when I saw it over and over again. You'll eventually feel the same way after a few times."

I prepared a Gan Don, earth spell, to kill the flying sword thing while Berry stood back, wanting me to get the final hit. "But that doesn't explain why you didn't just travel with them. The max party is three members, you could have easily gone with Refinity and Crimson instead of having to mind the shop." The spell was finished and the sword took a boulder to the blade, and it fell over and disappeared in a whiff of smoke.

Berry stood by, waiting for the experience to finish counting up. "Yes, I could have, and when Crimson and Refinity showed up we formed a group almost immediately." We continued on our way through the dungeon, noticing a stairway in the corner leading down. "I started the shop at first as an excuse to clean up all of our inventories, but then I took over management when it wasn't doing as well as I hoped; having an NPC run a player made shop doesn't really help your sales. The players liked having the social interaction with the merchant they trust their wares to come from, and I liked meeting new people and learning their stories and just talking with them. I guess it's similar to my real job, and I liked it."

We came out of the stairwell and was faced with a few more new enemies. They looked like giant lizards with sinewy arms and legs, with fur on the back and tattoos on their skin, the game called them 'Lizard Hunters.' But the strangest thing was that they carried swords in their mouths, like how a pony would if it wasn't for the whole 'control your attacks with your mind' thing. They looked far more dangerous than the goblins and floaty sword things upstairs.

They were rather quick, and they hit much harder than the goblins. When we got into the fight, two of them attacked me at once, and I rolled to my left and narrowly missed getting cut. They had a firm grip on their swords despite it being in their mouths. I'd hate to be bitten by them, I imagine it could crush my bones. Despite them being quick and strong, Berry held her own against one of them fairly easily, and came to my aid before both of the Lizard Hunters could gang up on me again.

Now that I only have one to deal with, my confidence grew slightly. I knocked the lizard away as it charged, and prepared to cast yet another Vak Don. I was really happy that Berry got the upgrade, now my fire spells deal more damage and I get to take less damage from fire-based attacks. If I wanted to hit people with my staff, it'd also do a little bit of fire damage, so when I run out of SP I can just whack enemies to death. The lizard recovered from being knocked around, and charged again. I was ready to release the spell when the lizard dashed around to my right. I had to keep track of it, otherwise I could miss and the spell would be wasted. It kept moving around until it was behind me and I couldn't see it anymore.

I still had the ability to attack, but I listened closely to the sounds around me. I once heard that if you closed your eyes, your other senses will increase to compensate for the lack of sight. So I closed my eyes and listened. I heard Berry and her lizards fighting over to my left, and from the sound of it she had just beaten one of them. I soon could hear my own heart rapidly beating if I ignored the sounds of battle. I listened in particular behind me, where I could hear a near silent scuffle of feet on wood. I waited for it to get closer, a few meters away. A couple of steps away from me, another scuffle, and loud footsteps rapidly closing the distance. It was charging me again!

My spell was ready to be cast at any time, so I picked a spot close to me and waited to time it just right so I don't miss. In a couple of seconds...NOW!

I let the power of my fire spell loose, casting it behind me, only half a meter away. The spell didn't come into direct contact with the lizard, but it was an area of effect spell, meaning that it spread about two meters from where the spell is cast at. The lizard was just caught near the middle, and it burst into flames. It stumbled back from the fire and fell onto the ground, leaving itself wide open to Berry's attacks. The fire coursed over me as well, but my new fire resistance allowed it to pass over me harmlessly, and I sighed my relief just as Berry killed the last Lizard Hunter.

The fight was over, and I was exhausted from the last battle. Not because it was hard, but it was kind of stressful to be put into a situation like that. My back was fully exposed to that creature, and I could have been killed if I didn't gamble with fate and my Vak Don. I wouldn't have tried that if I was casting my Gan Don, the earth spell, because it was only a single hit and I probably would've missed.

I sat down on the ground to calm myself down, whilst Berry roamed the now empty room in search for treasure. She found a new accessory, which she commented would be of better use to me than in the shop. It was a Simple Bracelet, giving me a bonus to my Fire and Wind elements. After I equipped it, the red glow on my staff got a little brighter, proving that it did give me a slight boost.

We explored the second level, finding a few more items for Berry to stock in her shop. I found another Simple Bracelet, so I equipped that as well to my other hoof. We fought more Lizard Hunters, and a few more floating swords. Sometimes they were called Vak Bezel and other times they were Zan Bezel, but I couldn't tell the difference between them. We continued on in this fashion, chatting here and there about our lives, how Berry got her job as a bartender and how tending the shop and talking to the ponies was similar to talking to the customers in her bar, I told the story about how I nearly got my leg chopped off when I was younger because I didn't pay attention to my surroundings and wandered into a construction zone. The pegasi were more than happy to see me leave.

I leveled up to level five by the time we were finished, and I learned a new spell that increased any character's speed for a short duration during battles. We found another stairway leading down. I nodded my head to Berry, "Ladies first." She smiled and bowed her head, taking the lead as I followed her. Was she blushing? I couldn't tell, but I had a hunch that she did blush.

The next floor consisted of a single hallway, leading to a huge room that contained only a single monster. But this monster was the biggest I've seen, almost as tall as the room and with legs longer than a steel bar, it was a giant Lizard Hunter. I guessed that this was the boss, and then afterwards I could search for signs of what happened to JAK. Hopefully I can convince Berry to leave before me, I didn't want to drag her into my personal affairs. But back to the matter at hand, the giant lizard that was going to kill us all. You couldn't really forget about that, can you?

I looked at Berry and she looked back at me. She had a smile akin to Crimson's battle grin, and I could only assume that there was one plastered to my face as well. We both turned to the boss and I circled around to face it's back. Berry caught on to what I was doing and started to charge the huge beast. It saw her coming, and let out a screech before swinging it's mighty forepaw at her. She nimbly dodged under it, pulled out her Twin Blades with just a thought, and started slashing at the beast. It started to defend itself against her attacks, but failed to notice that I was powering up my newest spell, Ap Do. I had cast it on Berry, and she started to glow faintly as the spell took effect. Her attacks sped up visibly, and she started doing major damage to Mr. Giant Lizard even with his defense up.

I kept barraging spells at his exposed back, but it wasn't doing quite as much damage as I liked. Eventually, MGL broke his defense and turned on me. I stopped casting my spell and ran so his back was towards Berry while I drank a defense increasing potion. I turned and put up my standard defense - a yellow shield protecting the front of my body. I let MGL beat my health away even with my shield up. I couldn't cast Repth while like this, so I had to take a few healing potions so I kept my health up. Eventually, it had noticed that Berry was doing phenomenal damage to it and turned to face her again. We nearly didn't make it, and eventually I had started to cast Repth a couple of times when the beast wasn't attacking me.

This strategy went on for a while, me and Berry switching between keeping the thing's attention and causing it damage. Eventually, it was bloody and beaten, and collapsed upon the ground, dead. As with the other monsters, it turned black and dissolved into the ground. We looked to the ground where the giant lizard was, and faced each other, both of us weary from the fight. Then I started to laugh. I laughed at how close we were to dying, and I laughed at how it switched it's attention, and I laughed at the fact that we actually won. My first boss battle, with only two-thirds of a party, and we won! Soon Berry started laughing along with me. I guessed that she thought it was a close one as well.

After the fight we were both level seven - Berry was closer to level eight. And soon we found the Beast Statue looming over us once again. The treasure this time, was some light armor. I couldn't wear it since I was only allowed to wear robes, but Berry gladly took it; whether for herself or for the shop, I couldn't tell. Thankfully, Berry had decided that she was gone from the shop long enough, so she said her farewells and left me in the dungeon all by myself.

If there really was something to give me a clue about what happened to JAK, this was the perfect opportunity to search for it. I searched the Beast Statue for anything I would find interesting or helpful, but the giant statue didn't want to give up any secrets. I huffed in irritation and started to backtrack along the way for something substantial. I went up both floors with a whole lot of nothing to go on. I kept searching, starting to lose any hope that I would find something here, before I ran into a player character.

Now, I wasn't sure that players could join a dungeon that was already cleared, but I thought it was strange to find a single player to be alone and wandering an empty dungeon. If they wanted to come to clear the dungeon themselves, they must be a higher level or just really gutsy to solo a whole dungeon by themselves. I personally hoped for the latter.

The player spotted me and started to come closer. Now that he wasn't so far away I could make him out. He was a dark-furred pony, with a yellow hat, and he was wearing chain-mail armor under a grey short-sleeved vest. He had a large blade on his back, and he was walking towards me with no friendly intention, I could feel that from here. I started to quake a little bit, this pony was scary!

As he trotted forward he pulled out his broadsword, and when he pulled it out, I could see a chain that started whirring and buzzing. This guy was serious business, and he wanted to fight something. But what did he want to fight, there wasn't anything here but... oh. Oh, he wants to fight me? Why? I didn't even know players could fight each other, yet here was one such pony, ready to fight me. He kept approaching me, and I moved over to the other side of the room to see what he would do. As expected, he followed my direction and kept approaching me. So I did the only thing anypony scared stiff in such a situation would do.

I screamed like a baby filly and ran as fast as I could out of there.

I ran until my lungs and legs were burning, I ran into the first floor, and I ran out of the doors towards the Chaos Gate entrance. In hindsight, I could have left the level without having to run, but my instincts were overwhelming and I wasn't thinking straight.

I stumbled back into Mac Anu, breathing heavily. A few players who were nearby looked at me with mixed looks of bewilderment and annoyance.They returned to whatever duties they were doing while I sat down and started to catch my breath. Alright, first things first, I knew you couldn't fight in cities like this, otherwise I would have see full blown battles out in the streets. Second, that stallion knew that somepony was in the dungeon and came looking for me. Or at least I think that was right, it was just speculative conjecture after the most brutal exercise I've gotten in years, even if I was not actually tired - but my avatar was basically me, and I would be tired after such a run, therefore, my avatar is tired.

After I got back up to my hooves, I started to walk back to the fountain square, where Berry would be selling her newfound wares. As I approached the fountain, I spotted a familiar Beast Long Arm character. After I saw him, I stood there, letting the gears in my brain turn for a bit. Eventually, I thought I had a theory, but it was rather far-fetched and half-baked, but I decided to find out if it was true, so I trotted up to him. "Hey, so you said there might be something to find in that dungeon you mentioned, yeah?"

He turned his attention from the current conversation to me. "Yeah, that's where JAK was last seen. If anything could help with your search for what's going on, it would be there."

Still being tired, I waved my hoof to speak. "Well, I met this stranger there."

The Long Arm seemed to be very interested now. "I didn't know players could enter locked dungeons."

"Yeah me neith-wait, what's locked dungeons?"

"Well, locked dungeons are dungeons that in use by players. Say one group of ponies want to do a specific area, and another group wanted to do the same area, the locked dungeons feature allows those two groups to have separate dungeon experiences without bumping into each other. That way, both groups get the full dungeon experience without having to wait for one group to leave so the monsters and treasure can respawn." Huh, that was an interesting little nugget of information I probably could have found if I read the ruddy instruction manual. Note to self: Do that sometime.

"Alright, so that doubles the strangeness factor of this sudden appearance. Now, I want you to tell me if this guy sounds familiar to you." I started describing the pony in question to him, and the more details I gave, the more questioning his face had become. Once I was done with my description, he nodded his head and confirmed my crazy theory wasn't so crazy after all.

"You just described JAK's avatar."

Ponies Will Be Ponies

I think I get the gist, that this one can assist?

Yes, Njeri. If she's determined to save her friend, they'll find her. Nopony can escape his notice, and if she's willing to help our cause that's all the more reason for us to make contact. She's a good pony, and I don't think she can resist helping a pony in need.

Helping a pony in need. If we can help her, however, she must take heed.

You're right, my friend. We need to confront her, explain ourselves to her and tell her of the wary path she treads. We can prepare for the oncoming storm, instead of letting them run around when the lightning strikes. But we cannot be the only two to tell them, we have to find Alpha.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, my day is getting weirder and weirder. I tried not to think about how weirder it could get as I explained my situation to the gang. I had asked Berry to see if Refinity and Crimson Axe could meet me in the @Home. Not long afterwards I found myself, the navy blue nightmare, the delicately white beauty, and the crimson salemare were surrounding a small table with Mini-Berry (thankfully) sleeping peacefully on top.

"So what you're saying is, ponies are in a coma because of a simple game." Berry rubbed her chin with a hoof in thought. I nodded.

Refinity coughed softly, "And that somehow, one of the players is still in the game while being unconscious at the same time?" I nodded once again, feeling the bottom of my stomach start to slowly fill with ice.

Crimson Axe made no attempt to hide her skepticism, "And you're saying that this imaginary figure tried to attack you? Likely story, but I think if you were attacked, you'd be able to fend for yourself."

I felt my brows furrow. "Alright, yeah, I can fend for myself, right? It's not like I'm a low level and would get completely demolished if any other player would decided to pick a fight with me. After all I've only been playing for two days! I'm perfectly fine!" Crimson raised a hoof and opened her mouth, but apparently forgot what she was going to say because she closed it and lowered her hoof.

Berry rolled her eyes. "That still doesn't explain why players would be able to enter locked dungeons, nor how a player is in a coma and still playing! It sounds like a horror movie, if you ask me." There was a visible shudder that ran through Berry as those words were spoken.

Crimson perked her ears up as an idea struck her and she leaned in close to Berry, getting closer with every whisper of a word. "I bet the killer is going to hunt down... one... by... one... until eventually... you're the only one left." Berry started shaking a bit as her imagination took her away on wild horror scenarios, not paying attention as Crimson leaned right nest to her ear, "... and then... he'll come up behind you... and he'll GET YA!" As soon as she shouted, Berry jumped up and hid under the chair quivering in fright.

Refinity glared at the prankster, "You know how scared Berry can get, Crimson. She was even scared of the silly costume you wore for Nightmare Night! She wouldn't come out of her house for hours!" Crimson grinned sheepishly at the memory.

The conversation had drifted off from the important fact of me being attacked and we should probably do something, but it was blatantly clear that they were going to be of no help. I decided to put a pin on the topic in my mind. I looked at the bashful barbarian, then thought about what Refinity had just said. "So, wait, you three know each other outside the game?"

Crimson was about to speak, but was interrupted by Refinity. "Yes, we know each other. Me and Crimson visit Berry in her bar sometimes, as me and Crimson have known each other since we were fillies. We share a room together, in fact. We decided to play The World together one day, and got ourselves two ALTIMIT OS's." Crimson grinned and nodded her head vigorously in agreement. How rich do you have to be to get TWO of these damned things? I nearly had to cut off my own HOOF for one of these!

I looked between the blue and white mares and nearly facehoofed. I had totally forgotten about seeing those two in the Market the day Grey went comatose. Then again, anything that I deemed important was shoved out of my head when you were attacked by a player who wasn't a player and your only friends online don't even believe you! Isn't there some friendship law or something that says believe your friends until proven guilty? Wait, that doesn't sound right...

As I thought about the phrasing of friendship morals, I caught a snippet of the conversation Berry started. "... so we have to met them in their @Home to discuss how we can improve trade relations between our guilds."

Refinity frowned, "It was today? Unfortunately I have a recital to perform tonight, so I'm unable to join you on your visit. But I thought our intentions were clear? We combine our two Guild Shops so we share our inventories and share the profits, correct?"

Crimson was busy entertaining herself by playing with a strand of hair while Berry and Refinity went into some sort of business lingo that I couldn't understand. Something about improshare and supply that one has while the other doesn't and vise-versa and yadda yadda yadda. I never was interested in the business field, I found it a little too stifling. Especially having to wear those formal clothes! I shivered from the memory.

I decided to talk to Crimson while the smart ponies did their talking. "Hey, Crimson. What's up?"

Crimson batted the strand away before giving me a blank stare. "Hey, Fay. Nothing much... I'm just trying to get this strand of hair to perfectly center in between my eyes."

"Huh, cool..." I noticed that neither of us were good at small talk.

"So... what do you do for a living?" I hoped I didn't seem like intruding on somepony's personal life.

Crimson raised an eyebrow, and for a split-second it certainly seemed like I was asking the wrong sort of questions. Then she broke into a grin and started a conversation. I had to resist sighing in relief, "Yeah, I'm a DJ in real life. I work late hours in a club called The Raving Raids. Sometimes I end my shift around three in the morning so I can get back home and sleep, you know? I mean, I love staying up late to drop some heavy bass, but a girl's gotta get her beauty sleep."

I knew what she meant, I used to stay up extremely late reading a good book, exploring the city at night, or looking over some class notes. In fact, I used to have a late night job like Crimson did as a janitor. It was hell to clean up some of the messes, but eventually I found a better job to replace that one.

Huh, something about what Vinyl said stood out to me. The club she worked at, didn't I see it not too long ago? Interesting, she really must have lived close by if she visits the Market and works at a nearby club. And that means Refinity lives around here as well.

"How about yourself? You haven't talked about what you do, have you?"

I blinked at the question. "Me? Well, not much to talk about me - I'm a university student at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, but not particularly proficient at spell casting; except alchemy, which happens to be my special talent. I have a couple of jobs to keep up my rent, but I have to double it now that my roommate is out of the equation, and I enjoy the peace and quiet while reading some fiction books, or exploring the city for something to do."

"Alchemy? I would never have guessed that you have a rare talent such at that field, Faylin." I turned to find that both Refinity and Berry had finished talking and were now listening to our conversation. Refinity raised a hoof and continued speaking, "Isn't that the mixture of science and magic? I heard that alchemy was only recently accepted as a field of magic, as it mostly only researched on inventions that made life simpler."

I waved a hoof and tsked at Refinity. "It's true that alchemy was mostly used to garner simple machines, but what nopony realized was that infused with every single alchemic design was a spell matrix; allowing the machine to perform a task based on what the spell was designed for. This is actually more complicated than ponies realized, but they hardly noticed it at all until recently." I got nothing but only a glimmer of understanding from Refinity and Berry, but Crimson looked like a lost puppy. I sighed and decided to explain alchemy in it's fullest. Lecture mode, activated!

"The easiest example is the sewing machine. Without a sewing machine, a pegasus or Earth pony would normally have to take a thread and needle and use your hooves or mouth to do the job. This task can be virtually impossible even with years of practice, which is why the majority of the fashion industry was unicorns.

"So let's say you're a unicorn designer, you make dresses easily because you use magic to thread the needle through the fabric and you come out with cleaner stitches and a better looking outfit. You look at the clothes you have made and compare them to the Earth and pegasus made clothes, which are dirty and torn because they can't properly stitch, much less hold the fabric gently enough without it getting dirty. This is why Earth ponies and pegasi had rough and simple clothing while unicorns had clean and fancy clothes in the history books.

"Now, you feel like you're cheating, because 2/3rds of the entire population of the world can't even make a simple gown without ruining it in some way. So, you start to make a spell. First, you make the spell hold the needle and thread, then make it go through the fabric and make stitches. You try to make the spell function on it's own, but you quickly realize that without a conduit to hold the spell together, everything just falls apart and the spell fails. So you think to yourself, 'what can hold a spell together and can allow everypony else to use it at will?'

"After many months of testing, you find that when objects combine into a single tool that is specifically designed to perform exactly what the spell is intended for, then the spell is held easily and can be used as many times as you like as long as every piece of the machine does it's job. And thus, the sewing machine - and alchemy- were discovered." I took a deep breath and examined the damage my lecture has done.

To my surprise, everypony including Crimson seemed to get the idea. I didn't expect my long-winded explanation to keep their attention, much less Crimson's, but apparently they found my example and explanation sufficient enough to understand the basics of alchemy. I nodded, satisfied with myself. It was the first time anyone has actually listened to my rants about alchemy and how it's actually been in used years before it was a field of magic. It was actually that line of thinking that got me my cutie mark, the symbol of alchemy.

"Well, that was actually quite helpful. Who knew you were so knowledgeable, Fay?" said Berry. I grinned with pride and thanked her. We started chatting about alchemy, but soon we had to cut the conversation short in order to met with the guild Berry mentioned before. What was it, the Elements of Harmony, right? Are they basing their guild on the recent escapades of the Elements of Harmony, thought to have not only defeated Nightmare Moon but the legendary spirit of chaos and disharmony, Discord? Or are they the actual bearers of the Elements? I hope it's the latter, I've always wondered what it was like to be trapped in Discord's world.

We left just as Mini-Berry woke up, and she was screaming obscenities at us when we teleported out. Refinity said her farewells and left to perform her gig. Berry turned right around and used the @Home portal again, but this time instead of teleporting to our guild hall, we ended up on a large platform, surrounded by a lake. There was a small pathway leading towards the largest castle I've ever seen, including the Canterlot Castle.This place had it all, swirling spires, arching arches, the whole nine yards. The pathway ended in a red staircase that led up to the obscenely huge door.

The small pathway reached the castle, and that's when I noticed the the seven characters standing side-by-side. One of the mares spoke up and introduced themselves. From the left there was: a yellow pastel pegasus with a Wavemaster staff - Fluttershy, a fluffy looking pink Axemare Earth pony - Pinkie, a white and clean-looking unicorn with Twin Blades - Rarity, a dark brown Beast character with spiked gauntlets on his hands - Tiamut, a very bright orange Earth pony with a long and heavy sword on her back - Applejack, a blue as the sky pegasus and a Pole Arm on her back - Dash, and finally there was a purple unicorn Wavemaster - Twilight.

Berry introduced me and Crimson, and Pinkie started hopping up and down, "OH BOY BERRY BROUGHT NEW PONIES! WE SHOULD HAVE A PARTY! Too bad I don't have my Party Cannon in this game, we'd be able to have cake and cupcakes and pie and cupcakes and muffins! OH! AND CUPCAKES!" A hyperactive pony? For a trade relationship meeting? This was going go swimmingly.

After the calming Pinkie down, Berry groaned very loudly. "Guuuuuys! You're supposed to create names other than your real ones! And make yourselves look differently than your normal selves! It just isn't in the spirit of the game!" Wait, she knows them? Interesting, I wonder how many ponies everypony knows outside the game.

Twilight inclined her head to one side. "But if we changed our appearance and names, we'd get confused as to who we are."

Tiamut gave a huff and said in a gravelly voice, "I told you guys to make up new pony identities for yourselves."

Dash gave a snort and stomped her hooves. "I don't need to look or be anypony other than the awesome Dash!" I imagine that she couldn't think of any other pony name or avatar whatsoever.

Rarity drew out a long sigh. "All avatars aside, shall we get down to business?"

Applejack nodded, "Ah agree. The sooner we git this done, the sooner we can expan' our inventory." That's odd, I haven't heard a southern accent like that from anypony I've met in-game. I wonder if that was how the player talked in reality or if that was an addition you could make in-game. I wasn't even aware you could do that in-game! I haven't even scratched the surface of this game, apparently.

We were led into the gigantically huge castle, down an extravagant hallway filled with portraits and art and fancy looking carpet. Berry gasped, and I thought I saw Rarity gave a satisfactory smile. We ended up in a room that was off to one side of the Hall of Wonders, and the decor was just as amazing. Everything was just perfect - the red felt carpet, the way the sunlight made everything seem calm and soothing, and the furniture felt just as comfortable as it looked. It took everything I could not to lay down on the couch as we all found a suitable place to relax in the guest room.

Rarity and Applejack left with Berry, leaving me and Crimson with the other five members of the Elements of Harmony. Crimson and Dash soon hit it off, trying to out do each other in exaggerating stories. Dash was trying to talk about how she once took on a full grown dragon by herself while Crimson told the story of single-handedly defeating the dreaded Chim Army. I had hoped never to bring that that long and grueling moment up ever again.

I wandered around the room for something to do - The other ponies started to talk with each other, and I overheard Tiamut starting to discuss with Twilight about what they were doing tomorrow... cleaning the library? They must either live close or together like Crimson and Refinity or... or me and Grey. Great, thanks brain for making me remember stuff I didn't want to. Figuring what to do next could help pass the time, despite the subject matter.

Alright, well, let's review. I need to figure out what exactly is what caused Greyhawk to fall into a coma. Other ponies have fallen in comas. They were all playing The World when they were discovered, so theoretically it was something that happened whilst they were playing the game. From investigating a little more, I went to where one of the comatose patients was last seen, only to have his avatar appear out of nowhere and attack me. Well, I assume he was trying to attack me, what with his unsheathing of the weapon and striding towards me with a vengeful air about him.

I put a hoof to my chin in thought. Why would he want to attack me? Was I intruding somewhere? The guy is comatose, how is he still playing? Is his mind still playing the game, regardless of the fact that his body isn't wearing the VR visor anymore? It seems like when I try to find answers, only more questions pop up. And why is it that CC Corp doesn't want to bring the comatose patients into discussion? It's almost like they're trying to cover themselves up. Maybe this is some sort of conspiracy made by CC Corp. But if it was what are they trying to cover up? Could they have planned for this to happen? Wait... was I seriously considering a conspiracy theory? This isn't good, I should probably get some sleep soon.

As soon as I brought the idea of sleep up, my body felt week and my eyelids started to drop. How long have I been awake? Let's see, the time is... nearly eleven at night!? I've been playing for hours! I haven't gone to sleep last night, so it's a wonder I haven't collapsed flat on my face yet. I haven't even ate dinner. Again, at the perfect moment I heard my stomach give the longest yowl of misery I've ever heard. I guess my avatar gave the same growl, as everypony suddenly turned and stared at me. I gave a shy smile and returned to my thinking, feeling my face heat up.

I heard one of the ponies trot towards me, so I looked up into the eyes of the Axemare, Pinkie. "HI! Remember me? I was the one that was gonna throw you a party but then Twilight told me to be quiet because this wasn't the time to have a party but it's always time for a party! Oh Twilight, if it isn't party time, why does my watch say it's PARTY TIME?!" She shoved her hoof in my face to reveal a watch that had a pink pony in the middle pointing at where numbers should be on a watch, instead every number was replaced by the words "Party Time."

"Uh, it says it's always party time, though." I knew this was the wrong thing to say the moment I said it. Pinkie giggled in glee, "You silly-filly! It IS always party time!" She pulled out a cupcake and held it towards me even before she finished saying 'party time.' Wow, I never expected to have ever said the words 'party time' so much in such a short amount time. Even the word time is starting to feel overused to me.

I didn't want to seem rude, so I took the cupcake and ate it. It was a cupcake that I wouldn't soon forget about eating, but that isn't hard to do considering I've not had one in a long time. It was moist and chewy while neither qualities deluding the delicious flavor. This got me thinking about how I can taste something in a game. Perhaps it's the same way I can send signals from my mind to control my movements, the spell matrix can sends signals to my brain to fool the senses, and make the game seem even more real. But then that begs the question, is the game real or fake if it can be felt by all the senses?

I started to go off on another tangent from my wandering mind, but Pinkie found that to be rude and started to once again talk. Extremely wildly, too. She went off on so many different trains of thought, her mind is nothing but unfinished train tracks. She was talking about how cupcake-making can take up a lot of time, wait, no, she's talking about an adventure she had about having a party with a dragon? Now she's talking about how she got her cutie mark? I couldn't keep up with this pink nightmare, so I slowly backed away until I was sufficiently far enough so I can start a conversation with somepony else.

The closest pony was the yellow Wavemaster, Fluttershy. I don't recall her saying anything since we arrived here, so it should be courteous to start a conversation with her, right? She was in the corner of the room, staring at her hooves awkwardly. She didn't notice me trot up to her, and when I said hello to her she meeped slightly and hid behind her purple mane and hooves.

It was perhaps the cutest thing I have ever seen ever. It took all of my willpower not to hug her and tell her everything's okay. Anyways, I instead smiled at how adorable she was and started over again. This time I wanted her to warm up to me, so I choose to let her talk about things she might like.

"Hey there, don't be afraid. I was just trying to talk to you. You're Fluttershy, right? What do you do for a living?"

At the question, Fluttershy started mumbling something and I couldn't hear her. She didn't show any signs of stopping, and if it got her talking then that's a step forward in the universe of progress. Eventually taking about whatever she was saying gave her a little boost of confidence. Not much, but enough to raise her voice juuuust enough for me to hear. "...but I really like the small animals, they're just so cute and adorable. I always get new friends to take care of, and when they're all healed or get adopted by other ponies that want pets I always feel sad. I know it's a bit selfish of me, the animals have to leave sooner or later, but I always find myself checking up on everypony to see how they're pet is doing. Oh, but uh, I hope I'm not boring you. I mean, I'm not very experienced talking with...uh, boys, all that well."

Oh-ho-ho? Not experienced with talking to boys? I'm not technically a boy, but I am using a male avatar. Perhaps this would be a good time to use that to my advantage? Now, I live with a guy, so I have a pretty good idea on how a guy should act. Well, a crazy one, but still a male... Actually, now that I think about it, trying to act like Greyhawk would be a VERY VERY bad idea. I might make her run out the door screaming for the Royal Guards. I know ponies that have done that to Grey already.

"Oh, don't mind me. Now, you take care of animals, do you? I used to have a pet bunny as a kid and we always had fun. What kind of animal is your favorite?"

Now that she was comfortable, the question seemed perfectly normal to ask. I expected her to slowly talk about why she likes this kind of animal. Instead, she raised her eyes excitedly, started to bounce slightly on her hooves, and started to talk just as fast as Pinkie. Okay, maybe not that fast, but it was a little faster than a normal talking pace. Unfortunately, this didn't raise her voice and I still had to strain to hear her.

She started talking about how she had a pet bunny named Angel who is the most cute thing I will have ever seen, the misadventures her various animal friends have caused. I didn't want her to run out of breath so quickly, so I took her word on the cuteness factor of every animal in existence, and I promised her that if I ever get a chance to visit Ponyville I had to come visit her cottage so she can see them all and judge for myself how adorable they are.

I sighed in relief, not really noticing that the other ponies have stopped talking and had watched as Fluttershy nearly gave me the life story of every animal she ever met. Even Dash and Crimson had stopped in the middle of a hoof wrestling competition in order to watch the miracle in progress. Fluttershy noticed them as well and walked out of the room in a hurry, her face redder than a cherry. Twilight approached me with wonder in her eyes. "I've never see anypony get Fluttershy to open up like that so quickly. What did you do?"

I thought to what I said that could have gotten her to speak so quickly. Then I recalled that I said I used to have a bunny. "I said that I had a bunny as a kid, and I guess she really likes rabbits?" I honestly had no idea why she did that, but at least now she isn't afraid of me.

Before Twilight could say anything; Berry, Applejack, and Rarity entered the room. "Dear me, I just saw Fluttershy run from here in such a fuss! She seemed quite embarrassed when we passed her, what did we miss?"

After telling the story that occurred between me and Fluttershy, all three ponies eyes widened. "Yew got FLUTTERSHY, the quietest - an' the most awkward - pony outta alla us, ta tell yew about Angel an' her animal friends? AN' yew got invited to her cottage if'n yew ever come ta Ponyville?" Applejack seemed to only want some confirmation of some sort, so I nodded after she fell silent.

"Well, that's quite the accomplishment! I daresay, she never really talked to anypony of the... male persuasion before, so she must have been absolutely scared out of her wits!" Rarity put a hoof to her forehead rather melodramatically at Fluttershy's dilemma at having to talk to boys. It wasn't even a problem, all you have to do is realize that the other gender has different parts than you and that's about it. I always wondered why most females don't understand just how normal most males are. That's what you get for being in a female dominated society, I guess.

Everypony thought I was brilliant at making somepony talk, and apparently that helped the Elements of Harmony make their decision. I didn't quite understand all this business lingo, so they explained it to me as simply as possible. Each guild went about their business, collecting items and weapons and other useful things from The World and put them in their respective Guild Shops. The guilds have a shared inventory, so whatever was put into one Guild Shop is available in the other. If one person bought something from one Guild Shop, both of the guilds split the profit. Also, one guild has the ability to buy something from the other's Guild Shop, and the profits from such a purchase would all go to the Shop where the item was originally stored.

Rarity had thought it was a good idea to make this partnership, while Applejack didn't want any part of it, afraid that we would take their inventory and profits, and the Elements of Harmony's Guild Shop would go under. I called paranoid. My encounter with Fluttershy eased her fears though, as long as I was going to be the representative between the two guilds. My job was simple, I made sure that neither side was going to take more of the shared profits, inventory, or other resources.

Honestly, I don't think either side would be willing to break the deal. We, Epitaph, have a small amount of members, but we go exploring a lot, so out Guild Shop is over abundant with stuff we don't really want or need. The Elements of Harmony have the opposite, they have slightly more members, but the items and weapons they get are squandered for money or otherwise not put into the Guild Shop - and thus have very little to sell. In fact, out of the seven of them, only Dash, Tiamut, and Twilight are the most avid of players, and thus they get most of the inventory. Pinkie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity all have jobs and chores to do, so they don't play as much.

After we got everything settled, me, Berry, and Crimson left the Elements of Harmony's castle and began to return to Mac Anu and go adventuring again. Crimson and Dash were shouting at each other about who won the hoof-wrestling contest, and Berry was shaking her head at the inevitable migraine that came with being with Crimson. I wanted to go back to Delta Chasing Cupid's Belladonna so I could face that guy again, and maybe this time I'd have backup to help me not run away like last time. I was about to suggest that, but I was interrupted before I could even get a word out by the galloping of hooves behind us. I turned and found that Fluttershy had returned and wanted to say something apparently.

Once she reached us, she lowered her head and stared at her hooves for a moment. Then she lifted her head and said something softly to the wind. I leaned forward and tilted my head to indicate that I didn't hear. "Uhm, thanks for listening to me. I hope that maybe we could perhaps... oh, how did Rarity put it? I hope we can work together some more in the future, I mean, if you want to that is... I hope you could visit Ponyville in the near future..." She started to blush and fluster a bit before turning and running back to the other Elements of Harmony.

Beery started to snicker, and it wasn't long before Crimson started chuckling as well. I felt my face get a bit hot as I realized that Fluttershy had taken a liking to me. Sorry, I don't swing that way! I like stallions like any normal pony! True... I haven't had a coltfriend before and the only pony that I would consider dating...

I shook my head to clear my thoughts and ignored as the others continued their laughing. After we exited their @Home and were once again roaming the streets of the city Mac Anu in the night. Despite the late hour, many players were still up and about, lingering around the fountain or otherwise doing things other ponies would do during the day. I would find out later in the instruction manual (See, I DID read it!) that the time of day appears differently for every user. For example, somepony on the other side of the world would have the time of day at around noon, while I'm at around midnight.

I asked my two companions if they were willing to come with me to Delta Chasing Cupid's Belladonna to find the comatose patient again. Crimson declined saying that she has to make Refinity dinner for her return. Berry flat out said she didn't want to waste anymore of her weekend time searching for make believe ponies and left. I understood her argument, though. She already ran through the dungeon with me so it would be rather tedious going through it again so soon. I had to do it, but I'd rather do this with more than one or two ponies. I could either stop playing and eat and sleep or find players who would want to join. Actually, sleep and food sounded really good to me. After making a drop off at the empty Guild Shop, I logged out of The World and entered reality again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I found myself back on my bed again. I wanted to immediately go to sleep, but I wanted to eat something first, so I went to the kitchen to find something of substance. To my misfortune, I had already eaten the rest of the food earlier today and last night. I had just gotten the groceries a couple of days ago but I'm already out? I knew I should have gotten some food from the book shop.

So I left my apartment to scour the city for a place that is open after midnight. It wasn't really hard to find, this is one of the biggest cities in Equestria, so there's bound to be a couple of places open this late. One such place is a little donut shop everypony calls Pony Joe's. It's run by the lone stallion Pony Joe, and is one of the most beloved places of Canterlot. Nearly everypony has gone there before to get a donut and coffee fix.

Once again, unfortunate for me because it's nearly a half-hour walk to and from the restaurant. I didn't mind the walk, but I was worried about passing out from exhaustion in the middle of the street at this hour. Winter is going to be setting in about a week, so I'd likely freeze to death in these temperatures. I only had brought a coat and some warm fuzzy boots, so my head was entirely exposed.

I contemplated getting come coffee and not going to sleep again, but thought that my lack of sleep would become a problem if I didn't get some shut-eye soon. After a few minutes of walking I found my mind wandering back to the Elements of Harmony, and Fluttershy in particular. I wasn't exactly one to date, but Fluttershy seemed to be hinting at the idea. Or maybe it was just me in my sleep deprived state, which seemed all the more likely. I barely knew the girl, the way she acted towards me could be with anyone, right?

I let my imagination run wild after that, trying to clear my mind with thoughts about what I'm going to do when confronted with the comatose patient. Am I going to fight him? It seems like that's the only way to solve this. I'll definitely find out the cause and cure Greyhawk! No matter what it takes! Well, maybe I can put my own well-being in front of Grey's, I can't really save him if I get myself caught in the same trap he was, can I?

After toying around with ideas about what's causing ponies to fall comatose and letting my mind wander for the next twenty minutes, I reached Pony Joe's. The neon lights were flickering slightly, and the lights inside illuminated the diner. There were only two ponies there, Pony Joe and some stallion in the corner eating donuts and drinking coffee.

The tan unicorn owner turned to the bell as it rang the entrance of a new customer. The grey stallion in the corner did nothing and stared in his mug. "Ah, Genesis! Good to see you as always. I'm sorry to hear about Greyhawk, the story is going to be in the newspaper tomorrow." I nodded solemnly. Pony Joe knew everypony, and he also knew everything that happened through word of mouth. It wasn't surprising he heard about Grey.

"S'aight, Joe. Can I get a couple of maple and sprinkled donuts? Two of each, please. Some coffee as well, the usual kind." He nodded and said nothing while he went to fetch the order. I sat at on the stool and leaned forward, feeling the weight of the world pushing me down towards the counter.

Joe returned with the order not too long after I put my head on the table and nearly fell asleep. "You don't look so good, Jen. You should get some sleep tonight, not coffee. You won't help Greyhawk get any better by being sleep deprived." Huh, did he know about my attempt to find out what's causing the comas?

"How'dya know about that?" I asked, hoping that maybe he knew something I didn't.

"Well, Grey is your best friend in the world, you two are nearly inseparable, and neither of you can stand it when the other isn't having fun. I know, I've seen you two in here before." He nodded sagely and started cleaning the counter for closing - it was nearly one in the morning, after all. I finished my donuts and drank my coffee, the sweet maple taste washed down with the hot caffeinated beverage. After I finished drinking the sweet nectar of life, I slammed the mug on the counter and pulled out my bit wallet to pay the stallion.

Much to my and Joe's dismay, I was flat broke. I had forgotten that my payday isn't until a couple of days from now and now I was stuck here with a bill I can't pay. I told Joe my situation and he seemed understanding. He put in on a tab that he would bill me later, after the fiasco with Grey and I get paid.

A walk home, much thought given to wild imagination roaming, and a full belly later, I was back home. I wasn't all that tired anymore thanks to the coffee and the exercise. I knew I wasn't going to be able to get any sleep like this, so I did the only thing I could do. I went to play some more of The World.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I logged back on to Mac Anu, and I wandered around the town wondering how I should go about exploring Delta Chasing Cupid's Belladonna again. I pulled up the main menu and checked all of the contacts that I had added. Contacts are apparently added automatically, and I never even noticed that the entire guild of Epitaph had given me their member addresses so I can invite them to parties or see if they are online. As expected, Refinity, Berry, and Crimson were offline.

What wasn't expected was the new addition to my contacts. Fluttershy had given me her member address, probably when she ran up towards us before we left. But the she wasn't the only one who had given me their address, every member of the Elements of Harmony had given me their addresses. I was astounded, I didn't expect the to give their addresses after one meeting. I guess Fluttershy really did make an impact on their trusting a stranger.

I wonder why Fluttershy vouched for me like that? Before I went off on another tangent, I saw out of the corner of my eye that Dash and Tiamut were the only two that are online. I wasn't too surprised at that, they don't have anything to do tomorrow besides play some more - being the beginning of the work week for normal ponies and all. Dash only had one job and her hours are flexible while Tiamut was an assistant to somepony who stayed up late habitually.

I invited them to the party, and soon they appear together next to the Chaos Gate. Dash was already pumped up, standing on her hind legs and punching the air. "Alright, guys, what're we gonna do for Fay's first party with us? Fight a dragon? Rescue a princess? Save the world?"

Tiamut rolled his beastly eyes. "Those aren't even in the game, Dash. I think we should let the new guy pick, considering he doesn't know our style," he rumbled.

A style? I was curious as to how these two who are about the same level as me developed a style that quickly. "Alright, well I was to investigate something strange in Delta Chasing Cupid's Belladonna. You think you can handle this?"

They looked over what the area is comprised of. "Oh yeah, this'll be a piece of cake!" Dash exclaimed and she ran around the Chaos Gate. She looked back at her wings and seemed sad, perhaps she wanted to fly?

Tiamut seemed a little more skeptical than Dash. "This seems a little low-level for us. Don't you think we can choose somewhere we can get more experience or better items?"

I shook my head. "I need to investigate this place again, I was attacked here by a player who was supposed to be in the hospital, in a coma." Both of them widened their eyes and shot their brows up. I got them interested, at least. Maybe they'll be a little more trustworthy than MY friends...

They wholeheartedly agreed, and we left toward where I would hopefully find the reason why everypony is falling into comas.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One thing is right, they said it would be a piece of cake and it was. I stayed at the back while I let the other two take care of most of the enemies. There was always going to be an extra enemy for me to pelt with rocks and fire. We cleared the first floor easily, and we got the where we fought the lizard things again.

They indeed have a style, Dash would take her Pole Arm and take on two at once, keeping them distracted so they don't attack me. Tiamut would take care of the other one by pounding it with his fists, smashing the opponent into the ground and not letting them get back up. Dash would do an air juggle, where she launched an enemy to the air and jumped up after it, doing a combo that knocked it back and did quite a lot of damage. The enemy would usually land near Tiamut, so now he can keep two enemies on the ground - although usually the first enemy is dead by this point - without them getting back up. Dash launches the last enemy, and we take care of the stragglers.

It was a rather effective strategy, but it was rather flawed it tougher enemies appeared that can't be knocked down or launched into the air. That's where the third pony, whom was usually Twilight, would come in and use spells to keep it weakened or use it's elemental weakness. This way everypony was involved and had an important role to beat the hordes of enemies.

In no time at all we cleared the level and began trekking back to the room where I found the comatose patient. As we walked, Dash and Tiamut were talking about life in Ponyville. As I had hoped, they really were the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. I can't believe I hadn't asked about that back at their @Home, but midst all the craziness, I had forgotten to ask. They talked about they're exploits with the others, and how they saved the world twice from Nightmare Moon and Discord. I was going to ask about how they defeated the spirit of chaos and disharmony, but we had reached the room before I could ask.

As I remembered, it was an empty room, with nothing but me and the others. The only thing that was missing was the comatose player stalking towards me to attack. I was rather baffled, where did this pony go? I was so sure he would be here again if I came back. Tiamut and Dash said that we should probably head back, it was getting latter and latter and we weren't finding anything.

I couldn't accept it though, I had come all the way back just to find an empty room! There must be something here that made the pony come, like some sort of trigger or something. I searched high and low on this room finding a whole lot of nothing. I had just about given up hope, when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye.

It was part of the wall, it was shaped slightly differently from the others. I couldn't do it justice in mere words, but something felt... off about that section of wall. I trotted closer despite Dash's complaints that there was nothing here. There, on the wall. It was a...shape. It was in the shape of... a triad. A red triad. There was two lines going from the bottom-left part of the section and the lines meet at the upper-right section, with a third vertical line intersecting the two. The whole thing could be described as a diagonal A.

I motioned for the others to come here and examine it. They came forward and slowed down when they witnessed this sign becoming more solid against the wall. "Whoa, what the hell is going on here? This wasn't here when we came by earlier." Dash sounded really scared. Tiamut just stood there examining the sign, his brows furrowed together.

After a moment, a smell came to my attention. Apparently the other two could smell it too, I could hear them sniffing.

They were dead silent with a look of horror on their face. I wasn't looking at them, though. I was looking at the sign, where the smell seemed to be emanating from. Nopony said anything so I decided to ask.

"Does anypony else smell cotton candy?"

Double Trouble

Everypony has that feeling; that inexplicable, indescribable, unimaginable terror that one gets when confronted with everything you ever wished wouldn't exist at once. Some call them phobias, and dismiss them as just irrational and aberrant fear - but few forget that fear of something can help a species survive.

Two ponies could be at the edge of a very tall cliff, for example. One doesn't like heights, and is trying to steer clear of the dizzying ledge. The other is standing at the very edge, enjoying the sights. The one standing near the edge can fall down and potentially die, if not become horribly injured; while the one with acrophobia is safe from the dangers of falling.

He also doesn't get to see the beautiful and dazzling view of the world. To truly be in tune with your emotions, especially fear, and be able to control them will turn fear into caution; and the pony comes from the shadows of hiding and terror to enjoy Celestia's resplendent sunlight racing across the world, or Luna's stunning starry sky engulf the night. Most ponies learn this quickly, and learn how to control their fear with ease and grace. This is called 'courage.'

However...sometimes they're faced with something that swallows their control, and turns their fear into a wildfire, spreading across their mind and burns any rational thought. It roots them to the spot, keeps them in place out of sheer terror. The slightest quirk can set the pony running, screaming and gibbering in a pure and abhorrent fear.

But the worst kind of fear is when your afraid of something, but you don't know what or why. In fact, as I stood there feeling my hooves turn into lead weights, I noticed that nothing has changed except the distinct odor of cotton candy and a heavy tension in the stone room. I turned away from Tiamut and Dash, back to the symbol on the wall, and it started to glow. Not a 'gets brighter every passing second' glow either. It was a rhythmic, pulsing glow that could essentially be called a steady heartbeat. Of course, my heart was racing at supersonic speeds, so I was unable to compare it to a resting heart rate.

The pulsing grew, and the whole room shook with the vibration coming from the symbol. Eventually, the ceiling started to drop a couple of small rocks from the sheer force of the room being shaken. This lasted a good minute - or maybe an hour, I couldn't tell with the growing abject terror exactly how much time had passed. In hindsight I could have checked my main menu screen, but that would require the ability to do something besides quivering in fear.

Eventually the pulsing stopped, and the tension that had overpowered the three of us was lifted. Well, it wasn't lifted, but it was more along the lines of 'concentrated the terror in the atmosphere to the pony that stood where the symbol once was.' Oh yeah, JAK was back.

Well, not-JAK. But he was still JAK's avatar. I think.

The World was really confusing.

I was still shaking in my boots, but I was able to run around again. I turned to examine Tiamut and Dash. The giant dark-brown Beast was shaking his head, I'm assuming to clear his thoughts and get ready for the inevitable fight. He lifted his spiked fists of fury and stood in a fighting stance. It reminded me of a couple of movies I saw. It wasn't kung-fu, I think they called it Muay Thai.

The azure pony pulled out her Pole Arm, and it floated next to her as she wielded it with nothing but a thought. She lowered herself, ready to charge at any moment. I looked back towards not-JAK.

He was just as dark as I remembered, except in my haste to run as far away from my imminent doom I failed to notice that he was a straight shade of black. The yellow beret adorned on his head was a bit off center, but he paid it no mind as he drew out his chainsaw/broadsword hybrid of scariness. With a loud whirring, the chain began to move at a deadly speed, making the sharp spikes even more vicious.

I would like to say I readied myself in a position to attack the hostile pony, that I charged a spell at the front of our party and started the fight. But alas, I did no such thing. In fact, I found that hiding behind the two biggest fighters so I don't get hit by a spinning blade of death while charging Vak Don with my horn behind a giant Beast's back was the most rational idea I ever thought of in my life. I just hoped that not-JAK wouldn't notice that I had a glowing horn and a fireball behind Tiamut.

After I prepared my spell, we waited. To see who would make the first move. Us, or him... it? Before I could decide on which pronoun I could use to describe our opponent, not-JAK made the first move. He started to run head-first at Tiamut; who braced himself and raised his fists into a defensive position. Instead of hitting him, not-JAK weaved around him and nimby slashed at his side.

"AAAAUUGH!" it sounded like it must have done quite a bit of damage, "Dude, that REALLY HURT!"

Dash and I turned to face the dark entity, making sure he doesn't get another chance to get at Tiamut. Dash grinned at the challenge, fending off not-Jak. "Aah, don't be such -mmpf- a crybaby, you're supposed to be a -umpf- mighty Beast!" Despite her berating, she had a burning light in her firey eyes.

"Just keep him at bay, will ya?" I said as I stopped attacking and prepared Repth. He moved one hand down to cover the wound. Wait, a wound? Usually when you get hit it doesn't make a physical change to your avatar. If he has a wound, th-LUNA ABOVE THAT'S A SWORD. Not-JAK dodged around Dash as she squealed in surprise and slashed towards my forelegs, trying to cripple me; but I raised them with a whinny, and lashed them out in front of me hoping to catch him. No such luck, he was too quick. He ran off to one side of me and made another swing with his sword, cutting deeply into my flank.

Now, I've been hit by the sharp side of a sword before. Yeah, the game makes every blow feel close to the real deal, but there's always the sense that you never actually moved. You can still feel your body, but The World is so investing and immersive that you don't focus so heavily on your real self. But that feeling of safety still lingers no matter what you do in this game.

This attack kinda ignored that safety barrier and gave me the most excruciating, agonizing pain I've ever felt in this game. I felt the cold steel slice cleanly through my skin, and I felt warm blood escape as the sword left a clean slash across my left flank. This is what I get for not paying attention; I was too focused between maintaining the fire spell and the wound that Tiamut received I didn't notice that not-JAK took the opening I made. The brown Beast had bowed his head and examined his hand, which was covered in a wet crimson with shock written all over his face. I bet my face held just as much astonishment if not more.

Time slowed down. Warmth was trickling down my leg, and I watched in horror as Dash turned to face no-OK I should find a better name for him than not-JAK. I can't really think of anything at the moment, so I'll just call him Shadow. Kinda fits if you think about it, which I don't have enough time to do in the middle of battle. Where was I, oh yes; Dash turned to face Shadow when he pulled his weapon from my side, and charged him head on, "Nopony hurts my friends and gets away with it!" She used her long reach to her advantage, and kept Shadow away from us while we recovered from our momentary shock. Tiamut stood up and protected Dash's sides if Shadow tried to circle around her. The wound was gone, so I guessed that the spell was a success. I pointedly ignored the bleeding and pain in my own flank in order to cast this ruddy spell.

As I felt time reassert itself, and I had a new fire spell that just itches to be cast. I unleashed the torrent of magic toward our midnight-colored adversary, but he saw it coming and dodged, causing the fireball to do nothing but zoom on past and sizzle out. OK, being a bit fast is fine with me, but when you dodge EVERY attack thrown at you; that's just cheating.

Now we were at a stalemate, kinda: Dash protecting our front, Tiamut covering our sides, and me popping off spells like a maniac while Shadow keeps dodging the hail of fireballs and flying rocks as well as Tiamut's fists and Dash's polearm if he gets too close. After maybe the third try, he changed his battle plan. He sheathed his sword and pulled out a Wavemaster's staff. The staff was almost as pitch-black as he was, with sigils that glowed with dark magic. Well, it was a dark color that was very similar to black. I wondered just how many shades of black there was as Shadow charged a magic spell of his own. "OH COME ON!" I yelled, "That's just cheating!"

He has range now, but he also had himself wide open to an attack from a melee fighter. I waited patiently with another rock spell as Tiamut and Dash saw the opening and charged ahead. Dash got the first hit in with a whoop of delight, slicing the knee of his right leg. The sudden attack made Shadow collapse on the weight of his injured limb. Tiamut saw this coming, so as Shadow started to sag he hit him in left ribcage with an uppercut. I swear I heard his bones break as the spiked gauntlets collided with him over the sound of my frantic heartbeat. When Tiamut pulled his fist back, I saw four holes where the spikes stabbed his side.

Looked painful, but Shadow shrugged off whatever pain he felt and continued casting the spell. A dark form appeared in front of him and started to grow in size. Whatever it was, it didn't look good. But it also took a lot longer to cast whatever powerful spell he was using than it took for me to cast Gan Zot.

The earth under Shadow shook, and he noticed. He stopped casting the spell and started to jump to his right, when a giant pillar rose from the ground and caught him midair. Even better, it hit him in that sweet spot where Tiamut broke his ribs. If he isn't down for the count, then he should be injured enough to be immobile. He landed hard on his uninjured side, and even did a quick bounce. He stopped moving and closed his eyes. We waited for him to get back up, but he didn't. It seemed like he really was out cold.

"BOOYAH! That'll teach ya to mess with the DASH!" Dash zoomed around in excitement, forgetting that me and Tiamut helped her in this fight.

"I think your celebration course has come with a side dish of 'preemptive,' little buddy. Check out his injuries!" Tiamut pointed to the wounds we inflicted were closing. But of COURSE, he just had to have regenerative powers. Fast, strong, and he regenerates. Cheater. I groaned in defeat, "Alright guys, looks like we're gonna have to take this to a whole new level."

We wearily prepared to fight the Shadow again, and I prepared another powerful fire spell, BiVak Rom. Dash pawed the ground and snorted, polearm ready at her side. Tiamut raised his fists, but in a more relaxed position. Shadow stood, fully recovered now, and turned to face each of us. His eyes were a deep red, no iris or cornea either, just a burning sensation that Shadow was staring into my true being. Which was probably just me. I hope.

He stared at all of us, Tiamut and Dash each giving their own small shudders and I felt the chill run up my spine. Then, Shadow trotted calmly back towards the wall from whence he came. As he drew near, the "A" symbol appeared again, and the sweet smell of cotton candy filled the air again. A flash of light, and both the pitch black pony and symbol are gone. The smell of cotton candy, however, still lingered in the air. Dash and Tiamut gave each other a look, and put on worried faces. I think a conversation passed between them that I missed.

Well," I said, wrapping my forehooves around the other two and bringing them into a huddle, "We took care of that guy, so let's head back and get some rest, yeah? I know I'm ready to sleep for a lifetime!" I started to walk away when two sharp pains entered my nervous system. One was from the wound I neglected to heal, and the other was the insanely sharp, impossibly intense pain that was in my head before.

I must've fallen down at some point, because my head was resting on the cool cobblestone floor, and I could hear Tiamut and Dash yell things at me. I hear them as if I were underwater, muffled sounds and unable to understand what they're saying.

Searching for you was certainly a chore, I'm glad I don't have to search anymore.

What, what? Was that a voice? In my head? I watched Dash's lips move as she frantically spoke with Tiamut, then said something to me I couldn't hear. AAH, JEEZ, that pain just doesn't know how to let up, does it?

Fear not, young mage. We will heal your wounds, but first we must disengage.

"Disengage? What'chu goin' on about, voice-in-my-head?" I noticed that both of my new friends are looking at with with more than a little worry. I guess talking to yourself isn't considered normal for them. The pain returned with an vengeance, causing me to shout a lot. The content of what I was yelling about seemed to put worry from Tiamut's mind and replaced with wonder. I guess he wasn't exposed to shouting obscenities much.

I closed my eyes to focus on keeping the pain down to a minimum. All my thrashing has set off more pain in my flank, which just added to my current misery. It was when I closed my eyes and focused on myself that I heard the note. A singular note, high-pitched like a whistle being blown too hard. I decided to focus on that note, trying to shut off the stabbing pain of my head and the burning in my flank.

Hold still, and keep up your will.

Keep up my will? Well, it's not like I have any other choice. I concentrated on that note, making it ring inside my head, everything I was hearing faded away as I focused on that one, high note. I felt it pull towards me, and I graciously went towards it. Before I knew it, blackness swallowed me whole.

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Lemme tell you, teleportation was something I only dreamt about. Yeah, I heard of ponies who could do it on command. Even seen it a couple of times. But I never thought I'd ever get to teleport. Much less in The World. In fact, I'm pretty sure teleportation doesn't exist in this game. So imagine my surprise when I regain consciousness, instead of being on the cold cobbled floor, I was lying with my back on a warm surface. I moved my legs and found that they dug right into the ground.

I say, boy, I say, I do believe this is sand. I turned over and got both of my forelegs under me. I pulled myself into a standing position, and noticed that my left flank didn't hurt anymore. Or my head, for that matter. I looked around my surroundings. Yup, I'm in a desert. Looks like another dungeon, too, judging from the monsters I saw in the distance. In front of my was a large stone wall. I'd say about twenty meters across and ten meters high. It was what was inscribed on it that made me do a double-take.

The symbol was there, the red pulsing "A" symbol. And there, staring at the symbol, were two ponies. Well, I'm pretty sure they were ponies. One was striped with yellow and red, while the other was an ocean green. I looked around myself for anything else, then returned my attention to the... oh. They changed their colors, now they were a dark blue and striped green and pink. It wasn't the most pretty of combinations, but I didn't care much for that.

The two ponies watched the symbol intently, not noticing that I had woken up. I crept up next to them and joined them in watching the glowy lighty thing. It was pretty cool to watch, so why not? It was at that time the now tan colored pony noticed me standing just behind them. Welcome back, Faylin.

Oh fun, telepathy. I wonder if they can read my thoughts as well. Don't worry about that. Oh, ok then. Maybe just because they answered the thoughts I had with telepathy didn't mean they could read my mind.

"Heh, thanks for patching me up. But, uh, can you guys tell me what the hell is going on here?" I asked nonchalantly.

The striped one, zebra, I think, turned towards me. We will brief you once Alpha has awoken. Only then will he explain everything. She turned back towards the symbol.

I leaned in closer to the yellow pony. "So what exactly is that?"

The mare smiled. It's called the Tri-Edge. It's a mark Alpha leaves when he visits and leaves the mortal world.

"Wait, so you're saying this Alpha guy is an immortal?" Great, just what I needed. But it sounds like Alpha can help defeating the other immortal creature we just narrowly escaped from. Speaking of which...

"So, why am I here and where are my partners?"

You call all of your friends partners? I swear I saw the pastel-swapping pony give me a disapproving look.

"They aren't really my friends, I only knew them for less than a day." It's normal to wait to call someone your friend, right? Well, they have been rather friendly to me...

When you meet somepony who trusts you enough to go wandering through a dungeon at your request, I think they deserve to be called your friend. Isn't that right? She turned to face me with eyes that were filled of every type of color imaginable, all swirling and mixing with each other to make new colors. Some colors vanished and others sprung up, creating a dance that would dazzle anypony.

It took a while for me to realize I should probably speak up. "Uh, yeah, you're right. They ARE my friends, and I wouldn't want them to think otherwise." I felt a little pride in being able to call Tiamut and Dash, and perhaps the rest of the Elements of Harmony, my friends. They are good ponies, after all.

The symbols began pulsing a little faster, and I could soon hear it beat, feel it's vibrations in the earth. It kept that up for a few seconds before dying down to a smoldering red glow. Now we just need to wait, for Alpha can usually be quite late. The zebra trotted towards the symbol, and sat down with her head bowed.

Maybe it's the blood loss that was never supposed to happen, or being teleported by two random color-changing ponies - one of whom is actually a zebra that is currently praying- to the middle of nowhere to meet this Alpha character, but I realized that I'm not acting surprised at my predicament. Maybe I just grew used to it by being with Crimson Axe for so long.

"So who are you guys, exactly?" Might as well solve a couple of mysteries while I'm waiting.

To put simply, we are the gods of this mortal realm.

There goes simple explanations. "Can you be just a teensy-tiny bit more specific?"

We were great mortals, once. My name was once Laelyn, and I had control of many soldiers. We were to wage war upon the griffons. They were using us as food, and hunted us for sport. We had to fight back, and we could have. We had partnered with the zebras and were going to launch the first attack, when Alpha appeared and showed us the way. We forgave our mortality to serve under Alpha, and began to restore many worlds to peace.

Huh, a bit more factual than I would have liked. Maybe throw in a few dramatic scenes, a couple of tense moments and you could have a really good tale. You wanted the specifics, not the details. Point taken.

THE MORTAL MUST LEAVE. GODS OF EVERYTHING SHINY, MY HEAD. Who knew telepathy can literally block everything you're thinking of and replace it with words? Painful words, mind you. Very, VERY painful. The zebra got up and turned to face us. Her expression is one of anger and hate, probably directed towards me. And what was with it calling me a mortal all the time? I knew I was mortal, but that isn't my name!

But she can help us! You must see the power that she has! Huh, not using my avatar's gender? She's talking about my real self, then? I saw her true potential when I was but a filly! She can make you whole! We can bring peace to the world again! ENOUGH! I WILL NOT HEAR OF THIS! TAKE HER AWAY AND DON'T BRING HER BACK EVER AGAIN! Having two voices trying to dominate each other in your head is a lot more pain than just one. I promptly blacked out before my mind overloaded and exploded. Again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tiamut tried to shake Faylin awake, grabbing him by the shoulders and "Come on! Wake up! Dash, can you do something about her wound?"

"I'm trying, Spike! The blood just keeps flowing! The blood doesn't even clot, he'll bleed out at this rate!" she put her hooves where Fay got stabbed by the strange pony, but the blood flowed past her regardless of her attempts. "If we don't get him some potions or a healer, he'll die!"

Tiamut tried to think of a way to help their new friend. "Alright, if a player dies, they respawn at the Chaos Gate right? Do they lose anything if they die?

Dash, between looking at her blood stained hooves and trying to hold blood in the unconscious Wavemaster, looked up at Tiamut, "Well, they lose their gold and items, and whatever experience they got in the dungeon. This was a rather low-leveled dungeon, so I don't think Fay got much of that. And we can collect the money and stuff when his body disappears." His eyes widened as he got what Tiamut was suggesting. "Wait, are you saying we should just LET him die?!"

Tiamut shifted uncomfortably, "Well, he'll be fine, right? We can meet him at the Chaos Gate and give him all his stuff. Better to wait a bit then try to waste resources on getting him up, yeah?"

Dash had to admit, the plan sounds a lot simpler than trying to drag a bleeding body back to the entrance and trying to get potions or another Wavemaster to heal him. Looking at the party menu, his health is already near it's final moments, so trying to drag him back is a futile effort.

But there was still the fact that she is watching one of her friends die when she could be doing something! It really tore her up, thinking about standing to the side as Fay's life drained slowly to his death. It was inevitable, but still painful. She stood up and wiped her bloody hooves on her coat. She backed up until she stood next to Tiamut; as they both watched the blood escape Faylin's body.

Dash kept flicking her eyes between the body and Fay's health bar. Soon Fay's health dropped to zero, and the body started to disintegrate as he went to the respawn. Fay's sleeping-like form was engulfed in a white light, and soon his whole body was gone in a flash, leaving only his items and a neat and tidy pile of gold.

As Dash picked up the Wavemaster's staff, she still felt her hands covered in blood. "Fluttershy isn't going to like it, letting him die in front of us." Tiamut gave a grim smile and he picked up all the gold.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke with a start, expecting to find myself in my bed ready for some food and sleep. I got up off of the hard, cold floor, which should have been my first clue. I wearily walked towards where I remembered where the bathroom resides to freshen up. It took only a moment to realize this was not my room after I slammed my head into a stone pillar.

I blearily examined my surroundings. I was still in The World. I sighed, I really was tired and hungry. I went to the Logout menu and hit the warmly and inviting button, waiting to return to reality and rest my weary body. Today was a busy day, after all. I waited patiently for my avatar to be engulfed in a white light, when I noticed Dash and Tiamut teleport from the dungeon back here. "Hey guys, what's up? I guess I must've blacked out or something, sorry about that."

Tiamut gave a small smile and waved, while Dash looked concerned and guilty as she looked everywhere but at me. "Heya, Fay. Glad to see my plan worked!"

I looked to Tiamut. "Plan? What plan?" Tiamut put on a wide grin and Dash gave me all my clothes and items, even my Wavemaster staff with the fire runes etched into it. "Yeah, sorry Fay. You were bleeding out from that wound that guy gave ya. I never even knew you could get wounded! Anyways, we didn't have any potions or healing spells, so we waited for you to respawn and collected all your stuff before leaving." Dash nodded her head grimly in agreement.

"So I died? Weird, I was out for the whole thing, so I'm not sure how dying felt. I thought I just woke up in my room. Speaking of which, I'm really exhausted from today and I'm gonna go sleep." I turned to face Dash. Poor kid, she watched someone die in front of her. It really must've scared her, maybe she even thought it could be her someday.

"Hey, Dash? I know it must have been hard to watch me die, but you just gotta remember this is a game! Ponies die all the time here, so it's no biggie!" Yeah, that sounded a lot better in my head. In fact, I think I made Dash feel worse than before, actually. I suck at cheering people up, don't I?

We said our farewells, with Tiamut promising to do something about Dash. I never could stand sad ponies. Always made me sad, too. Maybe I'm just a sympathetic kind of pony? I went back to the Logout menu and was about to push the button when I remembered that I already pushed it. Then I thought about how I didn't log out for the past couple of minutes.

Dreading something was wrong, I pushed the Logout button again. Then again. Again and again and again. Nothing. I wasn't logging out, and I was still in The World. I went and asked a couple of ponies if something was wrong with the Logout button; they all agreed that it was weird that I wouldn't log out, but they logged out just fine.

I was trapped in The World.

And I was really freakin' hungry.