"So, how is this different from logging into Gun Gale Online?" Sunset Shimmer asked, pushing her chair over to study the screen where Twilight Sparkle was currently editing several dozens of mods.
"Well, for one, while Red Dead Redemption VII is a multiplayer of sorts, it's not exactly VR technology of the level you can interact with in GGO." Twilight frowned, looking from her notes to the body-slide on the screen, back to her notes. "For another, this is a private server, so you'll be playing the campaign mode with some mods from yours truly. I think you'll enjoy it."
Sunset tilted her head as Twilight made adjustments. "That lady is going to have lower back problems."
"Shaddup." Twilight cleared her throat. "As I was saying, this is a private server and I can do whatever I want. Also, it will help us test the limits of your abilities to jump into video games."
"Yoshi's Island wasn't enough?"
"As amusing as that was, no. No it was not." Twilight compiled the body modifications and turned her chair to face Sunset. "Since this will take several hours, I want to try something where your full Desert Mirage mode can interact with some immersiveness."
"Hey, I thought God of War was a fun thing to jump into with guns."
"Fun? Yes, I suppose." Twilight leaned in. "But was it… immersive?"
"I think you're taking that a bit far," Sunset said, patting Twilight's head. "The graphics look cool, and it seems um, immersive enough? I read some reviews online of the game and they said that if it was more realistic, the horse-travel time in-game would basically match real life."
"Oh, they tried that in the fifth one, but apparently people couldn't handle it. Too much time and taking care of horses." She huffed. "Did you know that horses need a rubdown after a really long run? Or they die?"
"Yes?" Sunset asked. "I'm a pony."
"Right. Did you ever run so much you needed to be rubbed down or you'd die?"
"Ask Luna."
Twilight blinked, then, as Sunset watched with a small smirk, comprehension dawned in her face and she covered her face. "I walked myself into that one, didn't I?"
"More like a full gallop, but yes."
"Right." Twilight slid her hands down her face and glared at her friend. "I'll get you back sometime."
"Promises, promises." Sunset grinned and pushed her chair closer to the screen. "So… how are we going to do this? The last few times I was sort of a tagalong for the player, but if I'm taking quests then I need to be the MC."
"That's where the mods come in," Twilight said. "I've replaced the flags so that when you jump in, it simply accepts you as the new input for a pre-designed PC. As far as the game knows, you're it."
"Anything I should be careful of?"
Twilight shrugged. "No magic? At least at the beginning. We need to know how the program will handle your presence there, and magic might break it too much. If that happens, it'll be like I unplugged it."
"Great. Make sure you have some ice packs ready in case I land somewhere painful," Sunset muttered.
"Will do." Twilight reached over to click a couple of icons on the screen, without even looking. She smirked as the game started loading. "Have fun, cowgirl."
Sunset snorted, her body transforming into an older version of herself in full GGO equipment. "See you on the flip side."
She turned towards the screen and jumped in. Twilight followed the swan dive into the computer screen.
And then said screen vanished. Along with the monitor itself.
"Oh, crap."
She quickly opened her copy of the magic diary and scribbled a note for Princess Twilight, hoping that Equestrian help would reach her before Vice Principal Luna found out Sunset was gone.
Desert Mirage spat some dirt and grass. "Well," she coughed, pushing herself up from the dry ground where she had landed, "Twilight got the taste of grass right. Brings back memories."
She pushed up and sat back, studying her surroundings as she dusted herself off to the best of her ability. She had landed, rather heavily, in the middle of some lush, green plains that stretched as far as she could see. She kept scanning around until she spotted something that looked like a road.
"Funny," she muttered, pushing herself up to study the landscape with her hands on her hips. "I don't remember the game description featuring so much green." She shook her head, rustled her wings, and started walking down towards the road, hoping it'd give her a hint of where to go. Her HUD only displayed her own equipment, and her map view was impeded by fog of war.
"I wonder if this is one of Twilight's mods? Wasn't this supposed to take place in the Old West or something? I was imagining more arid lands, the occasional cactus, and ramshackle towns with tumbleweeds." She glanced up at the sky, shading her eyes with her wing as she took in just how close the sun was. "Could use a little tweaking with the sky mod, the sun is a little too close for comfort."
She stopped at the road and frowned, then slowly glanced over her shoulder at the pair of golden-red wings that were peeking over them. "What. The. Hell."
She extended her wing, then touched her face, blinking in surprise. "Wait, I'm anthro? Twilight! You didn't tell me you had a mod for this!"
After a moment, she looked up in confusion, tapping her ear a couple of times. "Twilight?"
Mirage checked her HUD, but there were no messages or replies. "Maybe she's busy with Lemon Zest?" She shrugged. If Twilight saw any problems, she'd contact her. Taking a moment to follow the road with her eyes, she decided to head south, and soon enough had reached a fork in the path with a wooden sign that pointed in the direction of "Barren Wood".
With no better plan, she followed the road down to what turned out to be the type of town she had very much expected: a few dozen buildings, one saloon, main road, and a bunch of anthro NPCs walking around. She strode in, taking note of the pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies. She had to give it to Twilight; the details on the anthro ponies were spot on. Pox marks, scars, burns, frayed manes, unkempt tails, she had gone all out.
Mirage smirked, crossing her arms as she took it in. "Not bad."
"Thank you," a gnarled old earth pony said, adjusting the saddle on a giant lizard. He spat. "But she ain't for sale."
Mirage blinked. "Uh… Right. Sorry. Moving on."
"Goddamned boneheads," the pony muttered, barely giving her a second glance before he completely stopped and stared. "A-a-"
Mirage tilted her head. "Are you having a stroke?"
"Alicorn!" the earth pony gasped. "Are you Celestia coming back for us?!"
Mirage reached up to touch her horn. "Um. No, no no. Haven't seen her in like a month, she's been busy, you know?" She grinned. "So uh, go on, and keep up the good work, sir. I'll, uh… just keep walking."
She did as she said, slowly heading into the town proper. It started with some stares. Then mutters. Then groups of ponies dropping what they were doing to follow her. She could hear the whispers.
"Is she real?"
"An Alicorn! Could she be Princess Celestia?"
Grimacing, Mirage opened her HUD again, then turned on the radio. "Twilight? This is not funny. Come on." When nothing came back she grimaced and looked around. The ponies were starting to really crowd around her, and she needed a place to— Ah-ha! She made her way to the saloon and turned to face the veritable crowd that had followed her.
"Ahem. I need a drink, and I'd really like to not be bothered."
"Have you come to give us words from the divine?" an old earth pony mare called.
"Ugh, geeze, I'm not really good at those," Mirage said, raising her hands placatingly. "Really. You don't want my divine grace. I'm as graceful as an anvil on a trajectory to the Louvre."
“The Louver? What’s that? Is it some holy site?”
“It’s called the ‘Louver’! It’s gotta be— Oh, Luna, I just committed blasphemy in front of a princess, didn’t I?”
“Tell us, princess, why have you come?”
“Somepony get Father Feather!”
“I’ve never heard of a Louver.”
“You’ve never seen an alicorn before, either.”
“True.”
“Please, are Celestia and Luna returning?”
“Is the sun finally going to be put back on track?”
“Can I touch your wings?”
“I really like her mane.”
"Alright!" Mirage said, horn aglow as she levitated the small child that had been tugging at her wings over to who was hopefully her mother. "Um, I need to consult… I need to— A lot of unexpected things have just occurred, everpony, so please give me some time. I want to answer your questions, but I really need to think about it, so, please disperse and, and I'll be in here if something super urgent happens, okay? Alright."
Without giving them a chance to retort, she made her way into the saloon, scanning the room and spotting the bartender. "Whiskey. Also, a hat."
To her immense relief, the bartender didn’t bother to look up as he poured her drink into a solid looking mug and set it before her. “May have a hat around here somewhere. Ponies forget their stuff all the time,” he mumbled, marching into a back room. Sunset sighed in relief, knowing the pause would be temporary.
Only then did she notice how… quiet it had become. She dared to glance around and cursed under her breath; no less than eight patrons. All staring right at her. “This isn’t going to go well. Twilight, what the heck were you thinking?”
The forty-five seconds it took the barkeep to return with a worn out, black cowboy hat to offer were some of the longest of her life. She snatched the thing up and stuffed it on her head. It was a little big for her, but that at least made it easier to hide the horn protruding from her skull. Now she was a pegasus… except for the entire street full of ponies and one saloon that all saw her already.
“Oookay,” she muttered. “Best to get out of here sooner rather than later. Find a quest, move on to someplace that won’t recognize me.”
“Four bits for the drink,” the barkeep said, finally deigning to look at her. “Hat’s free. Not like it cost me nothing to get.”
The double negative made Mirage’s eye twitch. Reaching into one of her pockets, she dropped a small gold bar on the table. Only when it made a dull thunk and the barkeep’s eyes shot wide open did she realize that such a currency might not be appropriate in this game. “Uh… Keep the change?”
He snatched the bar away as if she might change her mind. “S-sure. Of course. Right!” Then, with a bit more eagerness, “Anything else I can help you with, miss?”
She took a moment to check over everything. Still static. Still no Twilight. Even her map wasn’t functioning, continuing to show an endless fog of war even in the places she’d already walked through. Something was very wrong, and she was no longer confident that she was in a game. “M-maybe. Is there anything to do around here?”
He blinked at her. “Do?”
Damn. That sentence was a surefire code for getting quests. Either she needed to say something different or… The alternative had her swallowing a lump in her throat. No need to panic. “Yeah. You know, for money? Or, err, other things?”
The barkeep stared at her blankly for several seconds. He pulled out the gold bar, studied it as if trying to gauge how real it was, then asked incredulously, “You’re looking for a job?”
Okay. Definitely not like a normal game. Or like a game at all. “You know what? N-nevermind. I think I’m good.”
He shrugged, pocketing the bar once more. “Suit yourself. If you need any refills or some food, just holler. Heck, I’ll let you have a room.”
A room? A private place to think, away from all the staring eyes? That might be worth her while. “I’ll think on it. Thanks.”
He left. She sat. Her mug stared up at her, oddly enticing. She wasn’t even sure what to do with it. “Okay. So… Normal questing not working. None of my usual tools available. Weird reactions from the NPCs. I hate to think I gave Twilight too much credit, but this is really starting to feel less and less like a game.”
As Mirage sat there pondering the nature of her situation, the doors to the saloon opened. Through them passed a mare that was not like the others, for she was not a pony at all. She wore a plain green dress, the low back displaying a collection of light green scales, and above her curly orange mane rose a single arched, antlered horn. Golden eyes, dull and lifeless, scanned the bar before landing upon the alicorn.
“Okay,” Mirage muttered for the millionth time, finally taking a long drag from her whiskey. “Let’s assume that I’m not in a game. In that case, where am I? Can Twilight even see me?” Another glance at her windows led her to assume the answer to that one was a distinct 'no'. “If this is a real anthro world, then the stakes are a lot higher. I’ll have to find my own way home.” She dared a glance over her shoulder. All the ponies made a crummy attempt to appear as though they hadn’t been staring at her half a second ago. All save for one odd mare with a weird horn and dull eyes. Mirage gulped and turned forward once more, wings shivering.
What should she do in an emergency situation? Looking back to her regular fights, one thought struck her: evaluate her resources. She checked her inventory, which miraculously seemed to be working properly. Weapons. A few pens and a notepad (clearly Twilight was rubbing off on her). A large bullet for something other than her guns (a little odd for a keepsake, but it was Luna’s idea). Her wallet formed in her hands, and she took a moment to examine its contents. Credit cards would be useless. Cash? Laughable. GGO money even more so. Medical insurance card, utterly useless. Membership card to—
Mirage’s eyes widened. It was the Isekai card. If she understood anything about that place – and she was by no means an expert – then it might be the perfect solution. Not that she could use it here. First she needed to find a discreet place. Maybe that room offered earlier would do the job.
Just as Sunset was preparing to get up, that weird mare with the antlered horn sat next to her. Mirage stared at her. The mare stared back. There was no expression on that face, only a dull, uncomfortable stare. Blinking at the mare’s attention, Sunset pocketed the wallet and Isekai card. “Uh, can I help you?”
The mare’s eyes flicked to where the wallet had disappeared to. Then back to Mirage. She reached over and tapped the half-empty mug with her finger.
Mirage watched the motion, utterly perplexed. “You… want a drink?” Not a peep in response. Creepy. “You want to buy me a drink?”
The mare raised a hand and snapped her fingers. The barkeep was back in a flash, looking oddly anxious. She pointed at the mug, then raised two fingers.
“R-right away, ma’am.” The stallion was sweating bullets as he hurried to refill Mirage’s mug and fill another.
“Now, hold on,” Mirage sputtered as the mare took her own drink. “It was a question, not permission.” The only response was a slow, utterly silent sip. Mirage sighed and shook her head. “Not much of a talker, are you?” She didn’t notice how much attention she was gathering again, the clients of the bar now paying just as much attention to the newcomer as to her.
The strange figure raised two fingers to her lips, miming a zipping motion. Mirage cocked her head. “You’re a mute?” At the affirming nod, she blushed. “Sorry. I didn’t realize.”
In a motion that was slow and graceful and yet somehow seemed abrupt, the mare leaned in close, one arm on the countertop and muzzle an inch from hers. Mirage leaned back a little, gripping her mug a little more tightly. “Uh, look, I don’t know what this is, but I’m not interested.”
Little waves of light rippled up the mare’s back scales, rising up to flow along her neck and into her horn. As the appendage gave off a faint glow, Mirage’s newly acquired hat rose just enough to reveal her horn. Her eyes crossed as she took it in. Clearly, Twilight’s warning about not using magic held little sway here. The stranger studied the horn impassively for a few seconds, not a twitch to her expression. The sheer unreadability was really starting to bother her. It was like a full dose of Pinkie’s sister, except with Maud you at least knew that her emotions ran deep and you could read them if you spent enough time around her.
Those golden eyes flicked once more to Mirage’s pocket. Where the wallet had gone. That fact suddenly felt important, and Mirage felt an urgent need to get away.
“She’s in here, Father!”
Mirage let out a groan as a group of ponies burst through the bar door, led by a tall but thin pony dressed in midnight blue and purple robes. One of the stallions from before was right at his heels. “That one, the orange one!”
“It’s amber, you dolt,” Mirage growled under her breath, ignoring how her companion’s ears perked. She shoved the hat back down over her horn, but it was too late.
“By Luna’s Exalted Stars,” muttered the – priest? He kinda looked like one. Very stiff. Mirage shot the mare an apologetic glance and stood, knowing she couldn’t just ignore or dodge them this time. By the time she’d turned around, the new stallion was standing before her. “An alicorn. Here, in Barren Wood?”
“Look,” she started before he could say anything else, “I get it. I’m a rare sight. But I have no intention of becoming one of or interfering with your religious figures. You leave me alone and I’ll be gone before nightfall.”
“Gone?” One stallion was hurrying to her side, wide eyed and alarmed. “You can’t leave! You have to tell us about the princesses.”
The priest – Mirage would continue to assume such a status until proven otherwise – looked to the ponies around him. And there were a lot. Sunset gulped upon realizing that she was truly surrounded. “Calm yourselves, everypony. You’re crowding her.”
Says the guy standing in my personal space.
He turned to smile at her. He seemed affable enough, at least. “Do forgive their excitement, your highness. I am Father Feather, Cleric of the Church of the Night Mother. Might I have your name?”
‘Your highness’, was it? Well, at least he wasn’t prostrate on his knees or anything. “It’s Mirage.” Then, just to clarify, “I’m not a princess.”
“No?” After a moment’s hesitation, he raised his hand towards her, palm down. She stared at it, not sure what the motion was meant to indicate. After a few awkward seconds, he lowered his hand once more. “No, I suppose you’re not. But you have to forgive us; there’s not been an alicorn sighting in Equestria since the Day of Burning.”
Not sure she wanted to hear the answer, Mirage ventured, “And how long has that been?”
“Why, a thousand years.”
Because of course it was a thousand years. Everything was a thousand years ago.
Father Feather leaned a little closer, wonder and uncertainty in his gaze. “How could you not know this?”
Crap, she’d given away too much! “I’m, uh…” The phrase ‘not from around here’ sounded about as bad as saying nothing, but her mind was drawing a blank.
The stallion from earlier shoved his way forward. “If you’re not with the princesses, then who are you with?”
Crap again, now they were trying to pin her to some faction! “I’m not with anypony,” she insisted, trying to back away. That was proving a little difficult given how many ponies there were. She glanced at the strange mare from earlier, but the – pony? – merely watched her with that same inscrutable gaze. No help there.
Father Feather frowned. “That’s not possible. There are only two directions a divine being can go.”
Mirage winced. “W-well, uh, what exactly are my options?” The ponies were already talking, and she didn’t like what she was hearing.
“She’s not part of the Church?”
“Princesses Celestia and Luna are the only alicorns. Maybe she’s an imposter.”
“If she’s not with the princesses…”
“Is she on Discord’s side?”
“Maybe she’s trying to free him.”
“Whoa, whoa!” She waved a hand in the direction she’d heard that infamous D-name from. “I ain’t in cahoots with Discord, alright?” She was mildly surprised there even was a Discord here. “Look, I made a wrong turn, okay? I didn’t even mean to come here. If you let me head out, I promise, all this will blow over.” The number of darkening faces was not boding well on her internal trouble-meter. She began considering means of escape, which she should have been doing from the get-go.
At least Father Feather seemed to have a good head on his shoulders. Recognizing the dangerous turn things had taken, he turned and raised his arms in an attempt to silence the crowd. “Please, everypony! Let us not jump to conclusions. Mayhap her highness is only confused. Is it not unlike the Night Mother to confound us to test our faith?”
“She said she’s not with the princesses,” one mare shouted.
“If she’s not with the princesses, then she has to be with Discord!”
“You’re talking out your tail. She’s an alicorn! Alicorns don’t join forces with chaos.”
“But what if she did?”
“She’s a goddess! She could unleash Discord on all of us!”
The room was rapidly dividing in two, the ponies unable to come to a consensus on Mirage’s place amongst them. Mirage considered just lying and saying she was with the princesses after all, but something told her it was too late for that. If only she’d been a little faster on the ball. Father Feather was struggling to control the situation, but even he was starting to get swept into picking a side. At least it appeared to be hers. Mirage eyed the back door. If she could get her card out fast enough while everyone was fighting here—
She felt it. Just barely. The slightest movement, something touching her and withdrawing as quickly as it had come. Mirage imagined that had she been any less conscious of her surroundings she might have missed it. Her hand whipped down to her pocket. Her wallet was intact. Good, then maybe it was just her imagination and oh her Isekai card was in her wallet, wasn't it? She snatched the leather up and opened it, staring in shock at the lack of a familiar card. Her hand dug back into the pocket, then another, and another. No card. When she looked up again, the ponies appeared on the very edge of a brawl.
And there, moving through the crowd with all the ease of water flowing through cracks, was the mute mare.
“Hey!” Sunset attempted to give chase. “Give that back!” She was promptly pushed against the counter by the mass of ponies. One stallion fell into another. He got shoved back. A fist flew.
Chaos erupted.
She dodged to the side, catching Father Feather as someone shoved him at her, and with a twist, she lifted him up and over the bar to set him down next to the bartender. "Sorry, Reverend, but you might want to sit this one out."
She turned straight into a punch that connected directly with her cheek,snapping her face to the side with the impact. On her HUD, her HP went down… by two.
The lack of reaction gave her attacker a moment's pause before Sunset snarled and kicked him straight in the chest, sending him sprawling back, where he curled into a ball and rocked between the legs of the other unawares fighters.
Another pony tried to tackle her, but she grabbed a barstool and smashed it to pieces against his shoulder. The pony fell, groaning, with pieces of wood sticking to his forearms and slowly tinging his coat red.
The third pony to attack her crashed a bottle on her shoulder, showering pieces of glass around them. Shards cut through her cloak and scratched her cheek, but her armor prevented further damage. She grabbed the hand with the bottle by the wrist, back-slapping its owner so hard across the chin that he crumpled in place.
And then she realized what she was doing, and how bad it could get. These ponies were bleeding, while she was just losing a couple of HP that slowly refilled anyway. She took a step back, raising both her hands to chest level, palms open. "Okay, everypony, calm down! I'm not against the princesses!"
Her shout was ineffective as a mare hugged her waist in an attempted tackle while a brave soul jumped from behind and tried to put her in a choke hold, the combination making her stagger forward as she grasped his arms.
"For the love of—" She snapped her head back, catching the stallion in the snout with a loud crack. The arms around her throat and arm loosened up and she twisted in place, pivoting so his own weight sent him tumbling over her shoulder. Channeling the momentum of his fall, she grabbed the mare at her waist by the shoulders and, with a turning back-step, slammed her face-first into the bar counter. "I said calm down!"
Another stallion, distracted by a punch, was caught under the arms by two ponies who took a running start and threw him across a table to knock down another stallion, who was in the process of repeatedly slapping what looked to be the local constable. All three ponies went down in a tumble of legs, arms and swearing.
Mirage glanced over at Father Feather, who was shouting at everypony yet being totally ignored. As she turned to face the crowd, she could only see them getting worse. This needed to end before somepony got hurt for real. So, when a particularly large stallion tried to deck her, she dodged under his arm, twisted behind him and kicked the back of his knee so he fell down in front of her.
"Enough!" she roared. "Either you stop this senseless brawl right now or Chuckles here will have his brains splattered all over the place!" As she said that, flames danced down her arm to her hand, melting into her gun. "I'm not bluffing! As Celestia is my witness, this will stop, or else!"
She studied the faces of the locals, hoping against hope that they’d buy her bluff. She had brought a gun to a fist fight. By all rights she was in the wrong using this level of violence, but her one ticket out of this place had run out while these fanatics chose to riot rather than back down. Now she had to figure out who the hell that mute mare was and where she could find her.
When the other ponies slowly gave her some space, and even went over to help the ponies she had injured earlier, she kept her cool, thankful that her gambit was working. "I need information. Who was that mute mare? Where can I find her?"
"S-she's not from here, your highness!" Father Feather spoke up quickly, climbing over the bar despite the protests of the bartender. "Please, put your weapon away, we all have had enough violence for today."
He turned to look at the others, nodding and shaking his hands placatingly at them. The ponies grumbled, but looked slightly ashamed at their actions, even making small attempts to clean up the place as Father Feather slowly but surely herded them out.
Mirage released the stallion she had been holding hostage, who whimpered and scampered out of the bar much faster than the others. She shook her head, leaning back on the counter and breathing deeply. She grimaced at the damage the place had suffered, and it was only the return of Father Feather into the building that stopped her from apologizing to the owner.
The old preacher shook his head and sat down on one of the few standing chairs, sighing deeply as he looked up at her. "I never expected divine intervention to be so exciting."
Mirage's lips twitched.
"I apologize for the behavior of the Shade, highness. You must understand, it is… difficult to disassociate a living, breathing alicorn from our faith. Your appearance will be seen as a miracle to many.”
Sunset grimaced. The last thing she needed was ponies associating miracles with her. “Yeah, let’s try not to spread that news around?”
Father Feather chuckled, a feeble sound, and sent an apologetic look her way. “I can safely say that, barring actual divine intervention, it’s far too late for that. It will be impossible to prevent ponies from spreading rumors of what was seen here today.”
Which just made getting the hell out of this wherever she was all the more urgent. Letting her gun dissipate, she righted another barstool and sat, leaning heavily against the counter as she did. “Great. Alright then, what about that mare? Pretty sure she stole something from me right when the fighting started, and I need it back as soon as humanly possible.”
The priest’s brow furrowed as he mouthed ‘humanly?’, but seemed to think better of asking questions. “That mare is not a local. She recently arrived in town with some of the chancellor's men. Appeared to be in charge. I'd say they got here a couple of days ago at most." He hesitated, then rested his elbows on his knees as he rubbed his face tiredly. "Word is that they are after the Bulletproof Heart."
Mirage narrowed her eyes. That name was oddly familiar. Maybe she had heard somepony mention it in town. "So… find the Heart and I find my mare?"
"I suppose. Or you may find a bullet." Father Feather gave her a tired glance. "That anypony would pursue the Bulletproof Heart is concerning. She has a good reputation, but ponies that go looking for her frequently don't come back."
How could a pony who killed those who sought her out have a ‘good’ reputation? Mirage set that conundrum aside for the time being. "So you're saying I'd better be ready for a firefight?"
He shook his head. "I'm saying be careful… highness."
Mirage sighed. "I'm not a princess. Luna is a Princess. Celestia is a Princess. Tw—there are other princesses, I suppose, but I don't… I don't deserve the title just because I have wings and a horn."
Averting his eyes, Father Feather muttered a quiet, “My apologies. It just feels appropriate.”
She grimaced. "It’s fine. Now, how do I find this Bulletproof Heart?"