The fate of Asuna and Kirito
Everyone in Ponyville was scared and confused. Mostly confused.
It all started when Princess Celestia mysteriously vanished, and a dark alicorn came out of nowhere, and claimed that she would bring the eternal night.
Then, the new girl, Twilight Sparkle, and a bunch of other ponies, ran into the Everfree Forest to stop her.
They didn’t know what to expect, but then, the sun raised. Apparently, they saved the day. But how?
Now everypony was expecting excitedly to greet the new heroes. Or, have they been killed by the alicorn?
And, of course, the most worried of them all was the dragon the new girl brought with her. Spike. He was worried sick since he woke up in an empty library. Did Twiligth made it? And what about the love of his life, Rarity? Was she gonna be okay?
But finally, the six ponies exited the forest victoriously. Leaded by no other than Princess Celestia, who was holding with her magic an improvised stretcher, made of a couple of wooden planks, tied together by a few vines. And, on the stretcher, was an unconscious blue alicorn. She seemed badly injured, as she have taken the worse part of a fight.
Then, closing the procession, there were three unknown ponies. A dark blue pegasus in a black trench coat, and two swords in his back. A snow white unicorn, in a red and white outfit, with a light blue rapier on her waist. Finally, a small filly with a long black mane, and beautiful and expressive brown eyes.
“Princess Celestia!” called Mayor Mare. “What happened?”
Celestia looked at her sister, and then announced:
“Citizens of Ponyville! Today Equestria was saved thanks to the efforts of this groups of ponies. By saving my sister, they have proved to be the incarnation of the Elements of Harmony!!”
The ponies began to talk among each other, completely confused.
“Sister?”
“What’s going on?”
“The Elements of Harmony?”
Princess Celestia smiled calmly. “With time, we’ll explain everything. But right now, what matters, is that Equestria was saved by this ponies. Applejack Apple, Fluttershy, Pinkamena Pie, Rarity Belle, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle…”
The town began to cheer for their heroes, when Celestia interrupted them,
“Wait! There are still two other ponies we should thank. They took the harder part of this trial, by protecting their new friends with the strength of their love. Citizens of Ponyville, let me introduce you to Kirito the Black Swordsman, and Asuna, the Lightning Flash.”
The young couple made a small, Japanese-style bow, and smiled at the twonsponies; as their daughter hugged them.
“Great job, mama, papa.”
“But I cannot help but feel that this is only the beginning.” mumbled Asuna.
Kirito nodded in agreement. Something strange happened while they were fighting, but he couldn’t tell why.
And walking a little farther from the main group, there was another group of strange ponies. The group from ALO.
Asuna and Kirito wanted to join their friends, but the big NPC insisted that they should join the other NPCs.
“Wait!” called one young colt, white with brown spots. “You helped too?”
Klein smiled, but only to please the NPC. Like the others, he was worried about the strange turn of events during the battle against the Dungeon Boss. Still, his light-hearted nature urged him to please the colt.
“Ehem, yes we did. But only at the very last moment. We didn’t help that much.”
Rarity turned to them. “Oh, don’t be so modest, darlings, if it wasn’t for you, those armors would kill us!”
The colt’s eyes widened in excitement. “So, what are your names?”
Klein looked at his friends, who seemed as confused as he was. In the end, he introduced himself as goofy as he usually was.
“My name is Klein, leader of the Fuunrikazn guild!”
Lizbeth shrugged, and joined Klein as well. “Lizbeth, Leprechaun blacksmith.”
“Leafa from the clan of Sylf.”
“Silica the Beast Tamer.”
“Pina!”
“Sinon, the cold-hearted sniper.”
The ponies began to mumble among themselves, but Princess Celestia urged the second group to join the first one inside the library.
“Anyone else wants to log out?” asked Sinon.
“Well, I’m half curious, half worried about Asuna and Kirito.” said Lizbeth.
The others agreed, and followed the Princess.
“You too Spike!” called Twilight.
And the dragon obediently followed them to the library.
Once they left the ponies celebrating, Celestia put her sister on the center of the library, as the others looked at her, worried.
“First things first!” said Celestia. “Luna! I need to apologize with her. Oh, my dear sister…”
“What happened between the two of you?” asked Twilight.
Celestia sighed. “It was a thousand years ago, when we began to argue. Luna’s anger and resentment have turned her quiet, mysterious, and dark. And one day, out of nowhere she began to tell me that a dark entity was passosesing her, turning her into something dangerous and cruel. I did not believe her. I thought she was making up an excuse to challenge me. And my suspicions get confirmed when she turned into Nightmare Moon and attacked. She tried to warn me, she asked for help, but I turned my back on her… and instead of saving her, I locked her in the moon. Oh, Luna, I could have helped…”
Celestia couldn’t hold it anymore, she began to cry.
But then, the blue dragoness approached to Luna, and used her healing breath over the unconscious alicorn.
The wounds of the Princess of the Night began to heal, but only a little.
Pina smiled at Celestia.
“There you go, she’s better now. Unfortunately, I’m still young, and my healing breath is not that strong.”
Celestia smiled warmly. “But your help is appreciated, young…”
Spike ran to the dragoness, taking her claws on his. “Oh, hi! I’m Spike! What’s your name, beautiful?”
The dragoness blushed, delighted with this newcomer. “My name is Pina. Nice to meet you… Spike.”
Spike smiled happily. “Oh, hi… yes… that trick… was really neat!”
“You don’t have a healing breath?”
“No, but I have messenger breath.”
“Oh, for real? Tell me more!”
And, in this point, they were dragged to a corner by Twilight and Silica.
“I’m glad you two are getting along, but we have a situation between hooves.” said Twilight.
Asuna and Kirito turned to Silica. “Pina can talk?”
“Is the world we’re in, I guess.” said the Beast Tamer with a smile. “I like it!”
“Hey, why are you surprised that a dragon is talking?” asked Spike. “I mean, Twilight says that the real surprise is when I stay quiet.”
Everyone but Sinon chuckled at this. No, she still was staring at Asuna’s and Kirito’s cursor. It was still an NPC’s. She had a really bad feeling about all this, but they had to play along with the ponies, at least for a while.
“She still needs help…” said Celestia, worried.
Kirito exchanged a look with Asuna, and the two of them approached to Celestia, holding a small bottle.
“Here, it’s a healing potion. Cures any injure instantly.” explained Kirito.
“We still have one left from the combat.”
“The combat?” asked Celestia. “Oh, whatever. Thank you for your help. Luna, take this…”
Celestia then took the potion with her magic, and gently put it on her sister’s lips.
Luna opened her eyes, and looked around. Then, she took a good look on herself, and smiled.
“So, it wasn’t a dream! You made it, you defeated her! She’s out of my body! You returned me to my good old self! Oh, but how could you cure me that fast? I received a considerate amount of damage!”
“You can thank our visitors for that.” said Celestia, relieved to see her sister recovered.
“You’re welcome.” said Asuna. “I’m just glad that you turned back to normal.”
“And sorry for attacking you.” added Kirito.
“No, I am the one who is sorry.” smiled Luna.
Celestia nodded. “Now that my sister is safe, let’s focus on the two of you. Who are you? Where did you come from?”
“I think we already introduced ourselves, right?” asked Kirito.
“You don’t understand.” said Celestia. “Until now, we have detected six of the eight Bearers of Harmony. The incarnations of Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, and Magic. But there was no trace of Love.”
“Wait!” protested Applejack. “Yer’ telling me that ya’ already know that we were the Elements of Harmony?”
Celestia nodded.
“Each generation, the Elements of Harmony incarnates in ponies, whose souls represent them perfectly. Part of my duties, as a Princess, is to locate this ponies, and keep an eye on them, in case Equestria needs the Elements. Like today.”
The girls exchanged an excited look.
“So, we’re destined to be defenders of Equestria?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Awesome!”
Twilight looked at her teacher in awe. “That’s why you sent me to Ponyville? To meet them, and become friends? To become the Elements of Harmony?”
“Precisely!” said Celestia. “Without the spark of the Magic of Friendship, the Elements of Harmony would never work.”
“I see…”
“But, what I don’t understand, is what happened with Princess Luna? What was powerful enough to possess no other than Celestia’s sister?” asked Rainbow.
“Myself!” sighed Luna. “Stupidly, I tried to magically get rid of my jealousness, and anger. But, instead of locking them in the depths of my mind, I ended up giving them a mind on their own, and self-awareness. Nightmare was born from my carelessness.”
Luna sighed.
“I should believe you, Luna.” said Celestia.
“And, your dark self turned you into a master in swordsmanship?” asked Pinkie Pie excitedly.
“No, I’ve always loved sword fighting. It’s fun, and keeps me fit!” bragged Luna. “As Tia spends her time stuffing herself with sweets, I train my muscles with the sword. I wasn’t kidding when I said Tia was no match for me.”
“At least we had a bunch of master sword fighters at our side.” cheered Pinkie Pie, as she hugged Leafa and Lizbeth.
Leafa smiled uncomfortably. “Asuna-san and Onii-chan did most of the work. We only helped with the armors.”
“And, if it wasn’t for your help, they would kill us.” assured Celestia. “And we can’t thank you enough for that.”
Lizbeth slowly broke Pinkie’s embrace. “Yeah, we’re good with just ‘thank you’. We don’t need the hug.”
“Aw!” mumbled Pinkie.
Kirito simply asked a question. “So, what you were saying about the Elements of Harmony?”
“Oh, yes!” said Celestia. “The Love was always difficult to track, dince it needd two souls deeply in love in order to bear it. That’s why, in some generations, I’m unable to track it. This time, I thought we would have to deal with Nightmare Moon without it, but thanks Faust you two arrived!”
Yui cuddled with her parents. “You’re great, mama, papa…”
The two warriors stroked their daughter’s mane.
“What brings me back to my question, who are you? Where did you came from? Why you appeared right when we needed you the most?”
Kirito looked at his friends, who shrugged. It was up to him.
Finally, Asuna explained. “As we told the Bearers of Harmony, we came from Aincrad.”
“And got lost in the forest.” finished Kirito.
Princess Celestia nodded. “Please, Kirito the Black Swordsman, Asuna the Lighting Flash, let us see into your memories. We need to understand.”
“Please, we would like to know more about the two of you!” said Twilight, then she clarified. “We do trust you, you are our friends, but we want to know.”
“If, that’s okay with you…” mumbled Fluttershy.
“It would be awesome to watch your adventures!” added Rainbow Dash.
“A good action story would be just fine!” smiled Applejack.
“An epic adventure should give me inspiration for new designs!” said Rarity.
Pinkie Pie just disappeared, and returned with popcorn, chocolates, and sodas.
Asuna and Kirito exchanged a look. They had a bad feeling about it.
But in the end, they nodded. Somehow, something deep inside them was telling the warriors they should know what was coming.
“Okay, go on!”
Celestia’s horn glowed, and a white light covered the two new Bearers of Harmony.
A window made of light appeared on the middle of the library, and the images began to flow.
As the warriors feared, this was no made-up bio for the game. It was their lives, their real lives.
“Are those, monkeys?” gasped Fluttershy.
The window showed the story of a young man, who found out that he was adopted, and the ones he thought were his parents, were, in fact, his aunt and uncle. And the one he always called his little sister, it was actually his second-grade cousin. And soon, he began to look at her differently. He tried to fight this newfound feelings, but he couldn’t. His discovery have changed his perception of life forever.
There was also a story of a young heiress of a wealthy family, chased by her family’s demands. Always scolding her to be perfect in every aspect of her life. The pressure was
Too much to handle, and she desperately tried to look for an escape.
They both find the same escape to their problems: videogames. The MMO-RPGs to be more precise.
Everything changed when they bought the virtual reality equipment, known as the NerveGear. They played a few games on it, but none of the games out there were up to the equipment’s true capability. Until the legendary designer, Akihiko Kayaba, created Sword Art Online. A game that they both purchased without second thoughts.
But the game was a death trap, where no player could escape until the game was completed. They were trapped for years, until they defeated Kayaba himself. A traumatizing experience that marked them both.
The only good thing that came out of the game, was that they found each other.
Luna was fascinated, leaving aside the dangerous nature of SAO, she had to admit the game’s mechanics were fascinating, and the fights were thrilling. She saw the young couple fight against lots of dangerous foes. Since powerful dungeon bosses like the Gleam Eyes, to the Assassin’s guild, Laughing Coffin.
During their countless battles, the young warriors fell in love, and get married inside the game. The newlywed couple bought a beautiful home in the woods, where they found a little girl without memories of her past. She began to call them, ‘mama’ and ‘papa’, much to the warriors’ confusion. But, in the end, they became a happy family.
Later on, they found out that their new daughter was actually a computer program, called YUI-MHCP001. Created by no other than Kayaba himself. In the end, the system tried to erase Yui, but Kirito saved her by turning her into a file on the internal memory of the NerveGear.
Later on, they defeated Kayaba (AKA Heathcliff), their adventure was far from over.
A devious man, called Sugou Nobuyuki, held Asuna, and a bunch of other players, as hostages to use Kayaba’s science, for a mind-control project.
Kirito defeated him, with Kayaba’s, and Yui’s help.
The next part made Sinon shiver, it was the time when a survivor from Laughing Coffin infiltrated inside the shooter game, Gun Gail Online. And Kirito was hired to clarify the mystery. He met a new friend, Sinon, and an old foe, Zaza, from Laughing Coffin.
Finally, the window showed the event that changed Asuna for life. The meeting, and the death of her dear friend, Yuuki Kono. They saw their heartbreaking farewell, when Yuuki granted Asuna with her personal skill, the Mother’s Rosario.
But the strangest part was when the window showed how Asuna and Kazuto (Kirito’s real name) downloaded the game ‘Legends of Equestria’. The window even showed them Nightmare Moon as Asuna and Kirito saw her. With four Bars of HP over her head. Nothing but a Dungeon Boss.
The window vanished, and everyone in the room shivered.
“That’s it, I’m login out!” announced Sinon, as she activated her options screen, and then selected the ‘Log-Out’ button. “And I highly recommend you to do the same.”
Klein agreed, and activated his screen too. “Sorry, but this is way too creepy for me.”
And the ponies weren’t any better. They were as scared as the visitors.
“We do not exist? We’re nothing but a source of entertainment for humans? ALL MY MEMORIES ARE A LIE?!”
“Rainbow Dash, calm down!” said Twilight.
“CALM DOWN, YA’ SAY?” yelled Applejack. “Don’t ya’ see what this means? WE’RE NOT REAL, WE’RE A COMPUTER PROGRAM! A lie…”
Celestia was in shock as well, trying to understand what happened. So, she was nothing but a bunch of… code? And all her memories were made up by a human? Why?
“Onii-chan, Asuna-san, are you coming?” urged Leafa.
Kirito nodded, and made the move that supposedly, activate his player’s menu. But nothing appeared.
“What?” gasped the black swordsman.
Asuna gulped, and tried to do the same. But the result was the same.
“What’s going on?” asked Asuna.
Silica approached. “Are you feeling alright? What’s going on?”
“The player’s menu, it doesn’t come out!” said Kirito.
Yui looked at her parents, and then closed her eyes, trying to get into the system, and figure out what was going on.
Finally, she opened her eyes, and trembled.
“Yui-chan?” asked Asuna.
“Something is wrong, mama, papa…” said the small filly. “I cannot feel any code, or anything that tells me we are inside a game… all I feel is… myself. And I don’t feel like an IA, but…”
“Real?” asked Kirito.
“No, no, no, wait!” intervened Klein. “That’s impossible… right? Unless… unless, I mean, it could be that… but no, that’s ridiculous!”
Lizbeth forced a mocking smile. “Come on, Klein-san, you’re not actually suggesting that… this is a real world. I mean, the AtmuSphere can only takes you to virtual worlds, you know…”
“But even if this is indeed, a real world, how can you explain that all of sudden, Asuna and Kirito have become part of this world as well?” asked Silica, trying to control her fear. “That would never happen! Right?”
Sinon shook her head. “Remember when they defeated the Dungeon Boss? Something odd did happen.”
Finally, Princess Luna intervened. “Okay, so, you are, in reality, aliens who visit this world through projecting your consciousness through a gadget called AtmuSphere, inside a fake body.”
“But that doesn’t explain what’s happening with Asuna and Kirito!” said Lizbeth.
“They turned into the Bearers of the Element of Love.” said Princess Luna. “The Elements of Harmony are the most powerful artifacts in this world. And they can only work when they merge with a soul that represents them. When you were chosen, they may…”
“Dragged our souls into this world… turning us completely… real” said Kirito, paling.
And he wasn’t the only one. All his friends were now pale, looking at him and Asuna in awe.
“But, if our souls transferred here, what happened with our bodies?” asked Asuna.
“SUGU!” called Kirito.
Leafa logged out, and disappeared in a flash of blue pixels.
Five minutes later, she reappeared. She was crying.
“Asuna-san, Onii-chan…” mumbled Leafa.
“What?!” asked Asuna and Kirito.
“Your bodies… don’t breath. You don’t have any pulse. You… two… are…”
Horrified, the warriors hugged their friends, unsure how to react. Then, they turned to the ponies.
“I am sorry.”
“This is too much…”
The two of them dragged their swords and aimed to themselves.
Realizing what they were going to do, Celestia intervened, by knocking them out with a sleeping spell.
“Mama, papa…” said Yui, hugging her parents.
Celestia frowned. “We have lots to discuss, but right now, these two need to rest.”
The visitors agreed.
“This spell would last at least two days, but, when they wake up, we will discuss this.” continued Celestia. “All I know, is that we need to be together. For the moment, I highly recommend you to abandon Equestria, and come back tomorrow. And, I’m truly sorry. If there’s anything I can do to return them what they’ve lost, or at least compensate them, I will do it. I swear.”
Luna shook her head.
“No sister, this is my responsibility. It was me who they fought. If it wasn’t for my madness, this wouldn’t happened. If somepony needs to do something to compensate this ponies that would be me.”