Once the two words had left Raven’s mouth, his reality soon became a rush of various colors indicating the loading up of the console, until a login screen appears to Raven, which gets auto-filled by the account details present on the VPON-3. Once completed, big letters read out the name of the death game: EQUESTRIAN SAGA ONLINE.

It is at this point that a creation screen comes into play, and a dialogue begins between the program and Raven.

“Greetings, Raven,” The program says.

“How do you know my name? I have not inputted it yet,” Raven asks.

“It is a part of the data sent by your brain, including your age, looks, etc. that were not part of the calibration. Do not worry though, your username is used in the game,” It replies. “Speaking of usernames, what actually is your username? I cannot find a match,” It continues, a bit distorted.

“Karasu..how do you not know that?” Raven asks.

“Now, please choose what role you would like: Warrior, Medic, or Rogue?” It continues normally.

“What? But..I guess a rogue,” Raven responds, knowing that it probably matches him the best, personality-wise, looks-wise, and skillset-wise.

“Very well,” It starts, being distorted once more. “You will start off with a short bla-,” The program continues, before completing bugging out, making random noises, and then going completely silent, the void being the only thing to accompany Raven.

“Error, protocol for new player disabled! Error Code: 703:NTS538-B: Character Create malfunction.”

“What the hell?” Raven asks before being forced to the ground, though not being able to turn around nor move, save for falling to the non-existent floor.

“Hmm, this isn’t right. You shouldn’t be here. Shouldn’t be allowed here more like,” The voice says.

“You..did not..have to..do that,” Raven manages to say, in some pain due to the fall.

“Toughen up, the tolerance level is not lowered that much,” It continues.

“Who are you?” Raven states.

“Were we not just talking before? I am obviously the tutorial agent. Enough of the small talk though, why and how are you here?” It asks.

“None..of your..” Raven begins., before getting hit again, groaning and grunting.

“It is entirely my business, now speak. There are plenty of things I can do to those who do not mind,” It threatens, the void fading away to reveal floor one, them floating in the sky a fair bit above the ground.

“..a mare,” Raven replies, deciding to play it safe, not finding falling a preferable alternative.

“A..mare? My my, sounds like every stereotypical knight in shining armor love story ever. Though I suppose it is a better lovestory than Twilight..” The voice states, musing aloud. “Oh, my bad, I got distracted. How about I do you a favor?” It continues.

“Yeah..right,” Raven says.

“Come now, you act as though I have thrown you around or somet-..oh wait, I did do that. Regardless, I want to help, so let me! Who is the mare you are after?” It asks. “No, I am not going to kill her. You have my word. After all, lying is beyond my purposes,” It continues. At this, Raven thinks it over a bit, to consider whether or not it is smart to provide the name. Opting to trust its word, he chooses to provide it.

“Holly Leaf,” Raven states. When the words leave his mouth, he hears sounds of navigation, like a menu.

“Hm..marefriend?” It asks with a hum of thought.

“Y..yes?” Raven replies, a bit confused by the question.

“Interesting,” It replies with a chuckle.

“What?” Raven asks.

“Oh, nothing. She is quite the pony though, eh? Leading the support team and all of that,” It replies.

“Her? A..leader? I..doubt that,” Raven states.

“For your sake, I hope this is the same mare, as she is the only one of the name left in this game,” It replies, before making some kind of noise. “It appears we are out of time, but this was a marvelous little chat of ours. We should do it again sometime, if you survive where I place you. You see, I am not too thrilled with a foreigner here, but if you manage to survive this, I will let you live. Having another rat would be fun, especially one with such an interesting situation,” It continues.

“What do..you mean?” Raven inquires.

“Sorry, no more time to chat. As the program tried to tell you, all you will start off with is a short blade. However, I also gave you another special item, just for you. Be sure to check that out later. Enjoy, my little pony,” It replies, going to warp Raven out of the tutorial from the menu.

“Wha-,” Raven begins to say, before being interrupted by the error voice again.

“Error, error! Script error on line 103, tutorialroom01.room not present. Reverting raven.pony to standard state!” The error voice exclaims, Raven suddenly feeling a particular force acting upon his body.

“Buck!” Raven exclaims, falling towards the ground.

“Whelp, that was..unexpected. Should probably make sure he does not die on landing..” The conversation voice mutters, modifying some particular parameters for the fall, before going silent.

“What’s the plan, bossman? Hey, that rhymed!” An ecstatic mare with an all-too-creative coat of pale brown and a mane/tail of darker brown asks as her and her companion traverse one of the many paths on Floor one.

“Talk any louder, and you will attract monsters,” The stallion with her, an aging fellow with a white coat and light grey mane/tail replies.

“Wah, you are a meanie, oldie!” The mare says with a huff and a pout.

“Why did we not k-,” The stallion replies, before seeing a falling pony from the sky. “What the hell?” He continues in inquiry, pointing to the pony, the mare with him looking and gasping, looking back at him with pleading eyes. “Hell no, we are not-”

“Bossman~, please?!” The mare asks.

“You are lucky that our supervisor likes you, Hawk. I suppose it is smart though, cannot have a potential follower or otherwise on our trail,” The stallion replies, identifying the mare.

“Yay!” The mare exclaims, before realizing how long they have been talking, and noticing the stallion very close to the ground.

“Methinks the lady doth talk too much. Come on, let us check and see whether or not that poor sap is going to breathing by the time we get there,” The stallion says, before beginning to gallop in that direction, Hawk close behind him.

Why does this crap always happen to me? Raven laments to himself, as he now lays on what feels like grass, a headache accompanying him and a ringing in his ears due to the fall, and being low on health. After a minute in such a position, despite both, he attempts to stand, and is immediately acquainted with the joys of pain.

“Of..bloody..course,” Raven says aloud with a grunt, returning to the ground. He opens his eyes and looks around despite this, seeing the same view from before, but from ground-level: his current grassy field, a clear sky overhead, some mountains nearby, and a large approaching creature.

Wait, what?! Raven thinks to himself, as the creature gets nearer. Oh buck.. He continues, noticing the creature begin to swing, and managing to roll out of the way before being struck, him realizing his ability to hear again after hearing the creature, which appears to be some kind of ogre with a club, hit a rock that was originally behind him. This did not go so well for his headache, however, making him put his hoof to it in pain, not being able to do anything as the creature comes back towards him. Right before the ogre gets a hit in, however...

“Take that!” A voice exclaims, a fiery arrow traveling and hitting the ogre, causing the ogre to turn around to spot the duo that came to investigate.

“Hawk, you know what to do!” The stallion says.

“Roger!” The mare exclaims, taking the skies and flying towards the ogre. When it swings, she does an aileron roll to dodge it, striking him with her blade as she passes, the stallion firing more arrows at the ogre.

“Do not sit there like an idiot, move it!” The stallion commands Raven, who fails once more to get up. “Dang it! Of course you cannot move. Hawk, keep that mini-boss off of us!” He yells, heading over to Raven. Once there, he picks Raven up, grunting. “Be happy I used to be part of the guard, sonny,” He continues, looking at Hawk continuing to do fly-by hits. Eventually, however, the ogre tricks Hawk with a fake strike, and hits her with his club, sending her crashing to the ground where they had entered.

“Ack!” Hawk exclaims as she lands.

“Buck me Hawk, this is why we do not do this stuff..” The stallion says, working double-time to get over to Hawk, depositing Raven onto the ground, and using a health crystal on Hawk.

“The boss..is getting low on health, bossman,” Hawk says as she is healed. “Team strike?” She asks.

“That is our best option, I would imagine. Cannot afford to risk more time nor resources,” The stallion agrees. At this juncture, the two nod, and face the boss once more, which has been heading back to them. The stallion charges up a triple ice arrow shot, and Hawk charges the boss once more, the boss attempting a strike but getting shot by the charged arrows, Hawk striking the center entry point, as to deal additional damage. With that, the boss disappears in scattered pixels floating upwards.

“Not bad my dear, not bad at all. We are certainly a bit out of practice though,” The stallion states.

“Hmph. Well, it is not like we actually DO anything other than our-” Hawk begins retorting, before remembering Raven’s existence. “Oh yeah, what are we doing with him?” She continues.

“I am going to use a health crystal at your expense, since you wanted to come after him,” The stallion replies, using a crystal on Raven, curing him of his headache and ear trouble, and allowing him to more easily gaze upon his two heroes.

“Gee..thanks for the care of one falling to his death,” Raven says with some sarcasm.

“Ha. I like your sarcasm, kid. My username is WhiteSun, and this is SpringFlight, which is all you need to know for right now. However, since I healed you, I think you owe us an answer at the very least: Why was a stay-one like you falling from the sky, without any kind of pegasi or anything around who could have dropped you?” WhiteSun asks, having noticed Raven’s level.

“The tutorial program did not like me,” Raven responds.

“The..tutorial program? Did you just enter this hell?” WhiteSun asks, a bit surprised.

“Indeed,” Raven simply replies.

“Perhaps there is more value to you than we thought there lad, if you have the guts to do something that stupid. I am presuming there is a good reason?” WhiteSun asks.

“I am..trying to find a mare,” Raven replies, a bit flustered telling this to actual ponies this time around.

“Your marefriend? Aw, how sweet!” Hawk exclaims presumptuously but accurately with a grin. “What is her name?” She inquires, still smiling.

“Holly Leaf,” Raven responds, instantly generating a look of confusion on the faces of the two other ponies.

“Is that her username or real name?” Whitesun asks.

“Oh, my bad. Her username is..I actually do not know. She is the leader of the support team though, apparently,” Raven replies, to both of their faces adopting a mixture of realization and shock. “I take it you know of her,” He continues.

“Indeed..and lad, there is something you probably need to know about the queen bee,” Whitesun states.

“What thing?” Raven asks, confused.

“Bossman, now is really not the best tim-” Hawk starts.

“Please, tell me,” Raven pleas.

“You promise not to flip out on us or anything?” WhiteSun asks.

“Sure, now what is it?” Raven asks, a bit impatient.

“Sonny..Holly is..married to somepony in here.” WhiteSun replies, to Raven just looking at him in shock, eyes wide, in silence.

“Are you..” Hawk starts, before Raven’s eyes roll back in his head due to losing consciousness, and begins falling. She swiftly moves to catch him, lest he hurts himself worse.

“Buck. So much for that promise,” WhiteSun laments.

“What did you expect bossman? Also, he technically~ did not break the promise,” Hawk replies.

“He also ‘technically,’ did not follow through on it. Now we have a sack of potatoes to carry with us,” WhiteSun says, humming in thought.

“We could cal-,” Hawk starts to suggesting, WhiteSun being way ahead of her, getting the menu up, and calling for a pickup.

“Yeah, we have a down potential recruit. Take him to the base, do not harm him, and if he wakes up before we return, do not tell him any more than you have to,” WhiteSun says. “Mhm, yep, alright,” He continues, hanging up. “They will meet us a bit down the path, so that we can keep moving,” He says to Hawk, picking up Raven and chuckling.

“Alrighty. By the way..what are you laughing for, bossman?” Hawk asks.

“Oh nothing, I simply find the situation humorous,” WhiteSun says, looking to Raven, and continuing his laughter, as they progress down the path, as some clouds begin to form in the sky.

Author's Note

So my original author note became invalid with a modification I might have(read: definitely did) forget to make to this chapter. Hopefully none of you guys saw the original, though you probably did.

In any case, thank you for sticking with me thus far, and wow! Four upvotes, some favorites, and nothing negative so far! I am grateful for your time, and hopefully you continue to enjoy this tale of mine and my co-author.

Have a blessed one!