Equestrian Earth the MMORPG

by Chaotic Note

*Chapter 11 Part 2: Confrontation

A Chaotic Production presents...

Second Arc's Theme Song - Code Geass - Opening 1 (HQ)

The mares were around the same table again, with their mugs of virtual cider and beer to discuss about what in Celestia’s mane had happened. Applejack and Rarity had woken up from the loud disturbance caused by Rainbow Dash and the attacker, but some of them had actually slept throughout the entire ordeal. It struck the cyan pegasus weird at how the other mares were sleeping soundly while she, self-acknowledging to be one of the heaviest sleepers in Ponyville, had woken up in the middle of the night when the mugger was still silent as a cat stalking its prey.

Her cider was still as good as the one from yesterday was, but not even the sweet taste of the apple-brewed nectar could push away the stormy thoughts floating around in Rainbow’s mind. For some reason, she couldn’t get that hacker out of her mind. She was supposed to be the best… so why couldn’t she overcome this bucker?!

“So, you really think last night’s attacker was him?” Twilight asked, cocking her head to the side in confusion, referring to the events in the game last night.

“I’m one hundred and twenty percent sure!” Rainbow Dash replied insistently, waving her hooves in the air irritably. “The player was really strong. Stronger than even a mare like me or Applejack would be, and we already know that hacker we keep bumping into was a stallion. It’s gotta be the same guy!”

“I don’t know, darling. I can tell what the general size of a pony could be just from one look, and this hacker we’ve met before seemed to be a bit more lean than most stallions,” Rarity chimed in, her horn flashed and an image of the luscious shape of the mysterious stallion’s body appeared. She silently cursed the cloak he was wearing for hiding away the eye-candy, but didn’t show it in her expressions, lest her friends would notice the inappropriate thoughts she was having. “Sure, he has some very well toned muscles, but he’s definitely got the Applewood celebrity look. I say that his body actually parallels with you two,” she finished, a hoof pointing to Applejack and Rainbow.

“Wh– what!? Me with a celebrity look?” Applejack sputtered, shooting her friend an embarrassed look. “Consarnit Rarity, whatever gave you that silly idea?”

“What? I’m just stating what I felt was true. Admit it, you've caught a few mares and stallions looking at your way before. I certainly know you’re eye-catching,” Rarity replied, oblivious to Applejack’s anxiety.

Applejack quickly pulled her hat down to cover the angry blush she had, “Ah– Ah don’t believe this.”

Trixie leaned over to Rainbow Dash and whispered conspiratorially, “Looks like the farmer is hiding something from us.” She gave Rainbow a smirk and asked, “Wanna pry?”

Rainbow Dash shook her head, not caring about what Applejack really thought of Rarity. Right now, the only things on her mind were the bedroom attacker and the yellow pegasus stallion. They had to be connected somehow!

“Really? What about last night?” Rainbow asked Rarity, wondering about Rarity’s eye memory. “Did it look like they matched? The hacker we saw at Winsome Falls and last night.”

“Sorry Dashie, darling. I didn’t catch a good glimpse of our ‘friend.’ My eyes were still half-closed when you and that ruffian woke me up with that awful tussle.”

Rainbow crossed her forehooves across her chest and loudly grumbled from the back of her throat, “Whatever. I’ll find this guy anyway.”

There was a stunned silence amongst the few groups of players that were hanging around in the bar. They were all listening to the discussion about the hacker, and to them it was unheard of for a player to pit themselves in an unfair fight. Rainbow’s friends, however, knew Rainbow Dash was a brash mare. She doesn’t walk away from a challenge.

Still, this didn’t mean that it sat well with Twilight. She spoke reassuringly, “Rainbow. I know the stallion we’ve met has been giving us trouble in the past, but I’m still not sure if the Trottingham Hacker is the same guy. I suggest that we move onto the next town and leave it to the game’s officials to handle the problem. You did say Snowy was here, so I’m sure he’ll take care of the situati– ”

“I don’t care!” Rainbow Dash yelled at the top of her lungs. Pounding a hoof on the table she continued, “Twilight, this stallion has been giving you and us a lot of trouble for the past couple of days! He sicced a timberwolf on both you and Pinkie, kidnapped a bunch of players for whatever Celestia-damned scheme he has, and almost killed Fluttershy for her items! I had enough of this sicko! I’m bringing him down, no matter what kind of hacks he has!”

“Rainbow, I don’t think that’s exactly a good idea,” Twilight warned Rainbow, concerned for her friend's safety. She put a hoof on Dash's shoulder and asked, “What if this isn’t the same guy? What if he kills you and steals your stuff?”

“That won’t happen,” Rainbow boasted with the utmost of confidence. She got up from her seat, and stomped towards the exit, “He’ll have to get it over my dead body first.”

“What?! But that doesn’t sound fun!” Pinkie was a bit shocked by Rainbow’s sudden declaration.

The other mares — except for Twilight and Trixie who both shared a concerned look for the cyan pegasus — clamored out to her along with Pinkie, worried for Rainbow Dash’s sake, but she didn’t listen as she dashed out of the inn. Their voices were cut off abruptly as she slammed the door behind her closed.

While she did value her friend’s opinions, her mind was made up. Rainbow wasn’t about to have some cheating punk escape her without finishing the fight. Plus, the total bastard went after poor, little Fluttershy, for crying out loud! That didn’t fly fine by the flying athlete. If Rainbow wasn’t doing this for her own pride, then she was doing this for her shy, best friend.

'Nopony lays a hoof on Fluttershy and gets away with it on my watch!' Rainbow Dash angrily thought, vowing once again to bring the jerk hacker down.

But the big problem was that she had no idea where to start her prowl after the criminal. The only lead she had was by his appearance alone; she doubted that the guy would walk around town in the middle of broad daylight, with or without his tattered cloak. If she remembered correctly, she gave that sucker a few presents in the form of sword slashes, so unless if he fully healed himself he should be covered in bandages or be struggling to walk.

'Then again… he probably has a stash of health potions somewhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if he does, considering that he steals other players’ stuff, after killing them,' Rainbow Dash grumbled as the possible scenarios popped up in her head. If her assumption was true, then this search would be more difficult than she originally thought. 'Well… I shouldn’t waste any time by just standing here,' Rainbow decided, spreading her wings in preparation for takeoff. 'I should probably go back to the white building from before. Snowy might be able to give me a few more clues on where this guy could possibly be.'

With her decision made, she leapt off the ground with her wings spread far apart. She flapped them a few times, before she found herself high enough in the sky to glide effortlessly above the town. The wind under her wings felt serene as water flowing in the river; flying to Rainbow Dash was like swimming to a seapony. It was pretty easy, and felt amazingly natural to her. Because of her strong link to flying, she was able to reach the white building much faster than a strong earth pony would.

Seeing the building coming into her vision, Rainbow angled her descent to land just in front of it. Not skipping a beat, she touched down on the ground and ran around in a circle in an attempt to bleed off her momentum. Steadily, she slowed her run to a slow trot, and then down a simple walk.

Rainbow swept her mane's colorful bangs away from her eyes, so she could garner a better look at the building. As she did, she felt her hoof brush along the multicolored cloth of her bandana, and the silver metal of the adorable, tiny wing pins of the band that were tucked behind ears there. While she did love the amazing speed stats her gear gave her, she felt that her armor could use an upgrade. It’s been a while since she had new, more powerful equipment on her. Rainbow decided to ask Rarity if she could help her out with this. After all, the unicorn fashionista was the group’s main equipment manager, and thus was responsible for providing equipment for each of her friends’ defenses and improving them, as needed.

“I just hope she doesn’t make mine a dress though,” Rainbow quietly chuckled to herself.

She opened the door to the white building, and took a peek around inside it. To her surprise, the building's interior didn’t match with any of game’s old-fashioned style for buildings. The building’s interior strongly reminded her of a corporate lobby. There was a huge, granite topped desk at the front with huge words, “Information Desk,” printed on its face. For some odd reason, the desk rose up to about her height, only stopping a couple inches below her. When Dash walked towards it, she saw that the desk's height was confined to only the front-facing portion.

On the other side of the mini-wall was a couple mares in white uniforms, who were tending to the computers that were lined up on the desks. They were sitting down on chairs, so it gave Rainbow Dash the sense of being taller than she should be when she looked down at them.

One of the mares, not intimidated by the height illusion, looked back at Rainbow and asked politely, “May I help you?”

“Um, can I see Snowy Silvercast? I need to ask him something important.”

“Mister Silvercast is currently not on duty right now. He had important business matters to attend to, so he left. You actually missed him by a couple minutes,” the mare gave Rainbow an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, but is there anything else I can help you with? Maybe direct you to the next available Admin who could help you?”

One of Rainbow's forehooves made its way to her chin as she considered the offer for a bit before she replied, “Sure. Is there anypony else?”

“Well I haven’t checked the list yet, so I’ll have to make sure,” the information desk mare rapidly tapped a few buttons on a virtual keyboard that just popped up in front of her, and then sucked in air through her teeth. “Oooh, I’m sorry Miss… ”

“Rainbow Dash.”

“I’m sorry Miss. Dash, but there isn’t anypony else I can direct you to. Is there anything else?”

Rainbow grumbled, but the mare didn’t notice, “No. I’m fine for now. Thanks anyway.” She turned to leave the building.

“I’m sorry,” the mare apologized sincerely. She hesitated a moment before she called out to Rainbow, “Wait! Is it okay if I can ask you something?”

Rainbow, with a small grumble, looked back at her. “Sure. What is it?”

“Is there a specific reason you came here in the first place? Nopony really comes to a Admin Headquarters, unless if there’s something urgent you need to report. Is there a glitch or hacker you want to report? Or maybe even a disturbance in the town?”

“This is a Admins HQ?” Rainbow took another look at the entire lobby. The modern design of the room certainly did feel out of place from the rest of the medieval game world.

“Yes. All of our headquarters are scattered around in the major cities of the game, where we predicted there will be the highest concentration of players. Trottingham has a decent average of players every hour, so we had one built here. We’ve also built it in response to the recent upswing in hacker spottings around here,” the mare then adopted a serious look on her face. “If you need to report any information about the Trottingham Hacker, I can definitely help you with that.”

“Oh… well actually, I came here to look for information on the hacker. I don’t really know anything about the hacker myself.”

“Are you sure? Any information would be useful to our cause.”

“Well… the hacker had invaded the inn room my friends and I were sleeping in, but he escaped before I could catch him. The inn’s name is The Trotting Mug.” The mare quickly typed numerous keys on the keyboard, jolting the information onto the computer’s database. She issued Rainbow Dash a quick ‘Thanks.’ “There was also this thing out at the WinsomeFalls area. Somepony had a portal that wasn’t supposed to be there. Did Snowy already tell you guys that?”

The mare quickly ran through the folders of reports from the last few hours, and quickly located it. She opened the folder, and ran her eyes though the document. “Hmm… yes. Snowy did report a past incident in the Winsome Falls fields. We’ve had a team of Artificial Intelligence Guards, or A.I.G.s if you prefer, led by Admin Pinpoint. Other than the rubble left behind by the broken portal, we found nothing else.”

“Damn,” Rainbow swore under her breath. “Well… thanks anyway.”

The mare nodded, and turned her attention back towards the computer she tended to. Rainbow heaved a heavy sigh, and turned back to the exit. Maybe she could find the guy as she walked out the door. Exciting things usually happen when the hero least expected it, right?

“Oh my Celestia! Is that Rainbow Dash!?” somepony, another mare in the room, cried out in a tone that Rainbow Dash knew all too well: a fan's squeal.

Rainbow turned around, bracing for the inevitable impact that would pound her body to the ground. A mare tackled into her cyan body at rocket propelled speed, causing the both of them to crash against the polished floor. Rainbow grumbled a bit as she saw stars going around her head, and she felt as if a wrecking ball had slammed into her side. Whoever had glomped her must have been really strong. That’s what Rainbow assumed until she craned her head forward to see who tackled her.

To her slight surprise, the 'wrecking ball' was actually a pegasus smaller than her; she was probably about a head shorter. Her pale blue coat reminded Rainbow Dash of the lake outside of Ponyville, and her fluffy, white mane was similar to a cloud. Rainbow Dash peered around to see the mare had a pair of daggers sheathed on a leather belt strapped around her chest and withers. She turned back towards the mare’s face, only for her eyes to be greeted by a pair of sea-green eyes filled with absolute glee.

“Ugh… um… who are you?” Rainbow Dash asked, slightly unsettled by the wide stare she was receiving.

“Oh! My bad Rainbow Dash!” The mare got off Rainbow and offered a hoof. Rainbow gladly took it and was helped off the floor. “My name is Morning Shower, and I’m your biggest fan! I’ve seen you at the Best Young Flier Competition, and you were absolutely amazing!” She took in deep gasp. “Hey! Do you think you can show me some tricks please? That would be amazing!”

Rainbow Dash chuckled a little. She expected this kind of behavior from Scoots, but never from another mare. She’s small, but Rainbow guessed that Morning was maybe only one year younger than her. She wondered how long Morning had been a fan of hers.

“Wow, I don’t know what to say. Thanks.” Rainbow dusted her coat and wings. “Unfortunately, I don’t exactly have the time right now to show you what I got. Maybe some other time we can hang out. Until then, I’ll catch ya later.”

“What?! Oh please, Rainbow Dash! I’ve always wanted to meet you so badly in person, but you never really come to Cloudsdale!” Morning Shower dove down to get a firm hold on one of Rainbow’s leg with a strong hug. “Please! Take me with you!”

“O– oh come on! I’m really busy right now!” Rainbow tried to pull away, but Morning wouldn’t let go. She was desperately holding onto her leg as if her life depended on it. “How about this,” Rainbow started to offer. “If I become friends with you, will you please let me go?”

Morning’s pupils widened to dangerously cute levels. “Really?! Oh that would be awesome!”

Morning immediately let go, and swiftly brought out her Friends List scroll. She quickly scribbled a name on it, and Rainbow immediately received Morning’s request to be friends with her in the form of a blue panel that popped out of existence in front of her. With what seemed to be the tenth heavy sigh today, Rainbow halfheartedly pressed YES and watched another name appear on her own Friends List as she pulled it out of her inventory. With Morning’s name inscribed on the list, she stuffed it back into her light saddle bags, and turned back to the door for an exit.

Of course, she would have been able to leave if Morning hadn’t taken a hold on her leg again.

“Morning, what now?” Rainbow groaned. “I really have to go do something real quick!”

“But I want to hang out with you!”

Okay, now she felt Morning was asking a bit too much. The clearly obsessed mare would only slow her down on her search for the Trottingham Hacker. With a glace, she took a look at Morning’s Player Stats. The glowing blue profile panel, like a passport, listed all of the numbers that Morning had on her character.

'Rogue, Level 15, more concentrated on defense and health rather than speed and attack,' Rainbow listed off Morning's stats in her mind.

It was clear that this mare had no real idea on how a real Rogue works in the game. Maybe Morning probably wasn’t used to Rogue classes in the first place. Rainbow wondered if the mare was more used to tanky warrior classes, but decided to try out for the speedier style. If the stats could talk to Rainbow, they would be saying “Don’t take this mare! She’ll only hurt herself!” But on the other hoof, the excited pegasus’s eyes were just screaming out loud “Please take her! She really wants to hang around with your awesomeness!”

Pulled by two dominant choices, Rainbow couldn’t choose which one to go with. Leave the mare who obviously adores her, or let her stick around, slowing her down. Rainbow grew more and more uncomfortable as Morning’s eyes starting to well up with tears. They now spoke of nothing but eternal sadness behind their green windows. It broke Rainbow’s heart a bit to see Morning so desperate for Rainbow’s attention. Perhaps she should indulge her fanmare.

“Well… oh alright,” Rainbow finally relented, throwing her hooves up in the air out of surrender. “I suppose you can tag along for a little while.”

Morning Shower let out a huge, excited gasp, and then held Rainbow in her tight bear hug once more. “Oh thank you, thank you, thank you, Rainbow Dash! You won’t regret it!”

“I think I already am,” Rainbow strained to answer, barely feeling her lungs. She thanked Faust that this was just a virtual game.

Morning saw what she was doing to the poor athlete, and quickly released Rainbow from her vice-grip hug. “Oops. Sorry Rainbow Dash,” she nervously giggled, trying to lift up the awkwardness. “So, um, what was this important thing?” she asked, her voice like a happy songbird.

Rainbow struggled to stop herself from grinning a little. Morning sounded really glad to be able to come along with her. She then remembered why she came to the Headquarters in the first place, and frowned. “Well, I’m actually looking for information on the hacker. I’m not sure where to actually start.”

“Oh! You’re looking for him too?”

“… Excuse me?”

Morning stiffened into a stand and gave her a salute that a Royal Guard would be proud of. “I’ve volunteered to be one of the many players to look for the Trottingham Hacker. While other players are strictly advised to not go looking for this trouble maker, a few can sign up here at the HQ so that we can help the Admins find this guy.” Morning stopped the stance for a moment to dig through her saddlebags. She brought out a blue, diamond-shaped crystal from within her inventory, the center of it held a glowing white orb. “I can use this to send an emergency signal to any Admins in the area, if I happen to see the hacker. It’s really exciting to be part of such a good cause!” The mare bounced up and down in pure joy, not noticing the crystal was slipping from her grasp until it was too late. “Oh no!” she shouted out and dove to catch it. It was quite a fumble, but Morning managed to catch the darn thing after it slipped out of her hooves a couple more times. She giggled a little, “Sorry Rainbow Dash. This thing is like soap!”

Rainbow managed to give out a small grin for this one. Morning was, at the very least, kind of funny and amusing to be around. 'I guess it wouldn’t hurt to… keep her around,' Rainbow thought, still hesitating slightly because of her feelings. She still wasn’t very keen on letting the mare go on such a dangerous task with her, but Morning had already signed up for this, didn’t she? 'Well… guess there’s no harm to bringing her along.'

“Morning! What’s the hold up?”

Rainbow looked around to locate who was talking, and saw that it was coming from a paper-white unicorn stallion with a brown, mane and unkempt tail. His black steel plated armor only covered his hooves, chest, and barrel, so his cutie mark of a game controller was showing. Sheathed were his two daggers on either side of his flank. He looked like the kind of guy that would talk a lot when he wasn’t so busy. With his choice of weapons, he was obviously a Rogue. His floating profile also revealed that his real name was Kenyis. Rainbow looked past him and saw that he wasn’t alone.

A light grey stallion, who was also another unicorn, with a spiky, black mane and tail was wearing a long trench coat covered with numerous bandoliers of round lead bullets and a bandolier of red-taped dynamite strapped across his chest. Holstered on his each side of his coat, were two pairs of flintlock revolvers with six barrels each. They looked like the kind of guns Rainbow would expect old fashioned pirates would carry. The stallion, himself, had a silly, gleeful look to him; he somehow reminded Rainbow of Pinkie Pie, if she were crude. Rainbow identified him as Lead Storm, and his class type was simply a Gunslinger. Not a very common choice, as players saw them to be incredibly overpowered, but in reality their guns were just as powerful as crossbows. From what Rainbow heard, gun weapons were also more expensive as well, even in the regular NPC shops.

There was also an earth pony mare by the strange, exotic name of Capricorn. She reminded Rainbow of a hipster-styled Twilight with a whip-thin, black scarf around her neck. Her eyes spoke volumes of her intelligence, but there was also a spark of creativity behind them as well. The black leather armor she was wearing didn’t make any noise at all as the mare moved, but Rainbow could hear the slight ring of chainmail underneath all that padding. Her coat's color was grey, and was accompanied by blue eyes and dirty-blond hair. She was also a classified as a Rogue.

And then… there was the giant, massive guy, Corniger. A towering Minotaur with a pair of great horns, standing on two cloven hooves, grey as stone, and had muscular arms bigger around than her head. Even from a mile away, you can’t mistake this guy as small. Ironically, his style of outfit and class didn’t match his outward facade. Apparently, the Minotaur was actually an Elemental Magus, and a very high level one at that. Rainbow heard that these spell casters can conjure a constant hail of magic to keep their opponents busy, so they were mostly pitted against more powerful monsters to whittle them down, while their teammates handle the weak cannon fodder.

Apparently, Morning really did know these guys as she waved at them. “Oh, hi guys! Look! I found Rainbow Dash!”

Kenyis chuckled. “I know that, but weren’t we going to go looking for the hacker?”

“Of course! I’m just going to go search with Rainbow Dash!”

Kenyis took a small step back, taken aback by her answer. “What? You can’t be serious. I thought we agreed to go looking for him together, and now you’re going to ditch us for some mare?”

“She isn’t just some mare! She’s Rainbow – freakin’ – Dash!” Morning shouted in a loud outburst. She quickly regretted it as she saw her friends’ shocked expressions. Morning clenched her hooves against together, and shook them both towards Kenyis. “Just this once ple-e-ease? It will only be for a day!”

Kenyis didn’t really know what to say. He knew Morning was a huge fan of Rainbow Dash, even though he had never seen her before. Only heard stories, but he assumed them to be exaggerated. He looked towards his companions for some support, but they shook their heads silently. Irritated, he rolled his eyes at them, and turned back towards the pleading mare.

“I… I don’t know, Morning. Don’t you think it’s safer to stay in a group? Why don’t we go with yo– ”

Morning rushed over to him to jam a hoof in his mouth. He let out a yelp before she quickly whispered in his ear, “No! Please! Just me and Rainbow! Please? I need you to understand this.”

Kenyis pulled her hoof away from his lips. “What?” he whispered back. “I don’t get why you need to be alone wi– ”

“Please! I just want to spend a lot of time with her, and honestly, I feel like you guys are just going to ruin my mojo.” Morning gave him an awkward grin. “Sorry,” she quickly added.

Kenyis stared at her with a disproving look, and slapped his hoof against his forehead. “Ugh, fine. You can go with her. Just come back soon, alright?”

Morning beamed a grin at him. “Yep!”

Rainbow, looking from afar at the door, was waiting for Morning to come back. She wondered what they were really talking about. It obviously had something to do with her. Before she could explore what possible conversations they were having, Morning and Kenyis shared a quick, friendly hug and the pegasus came rushing back to Rainbow with yet another gleeful smile on her face.

“You ready to go?” Rainbow asked, opening the door for Morning.

“Yep!” she chirped. Morning looked towards the open door, and her eyes widened again. She realized that the great Rainbow was holding the door for her. “Oh… my… Celestia… Thank you Rainbow!” She gave her a quick hug, and rushed out the door.

Rainbow, rolling her eyes, was about to leave as well, until Kenyis called out, “She can be quite a hoofful, Rainbow Dash! Good luck!”

“Won’t need it!” Rainbow chuckled, looking very confident with her sharp smug. As she left to go after Morning, however, she quietly thought to herself how it was going to be a very long day.

“So, have you seen him?” Rainbow asked an NPC running a potion stand.

The potion merchant propped her chin up with her hooves and leaned over the counter. “I dunno. My mind isn’t exactly capable of remembering things.” She then smirked slyly, “Maybe my memory will be refreshed if I get a few bits.”

“Wait, what?” Rainbow asked angrily. “What the hay?! I’m not going to pay you any bits!”

“I’m just saying… I mean, I might have heard a thing or two about the hacker, but I’m having trouble remembering,” she explained as she shot Rainbow a knowing look.

Rainbow frowned a bit. She had dealt with these greedy kinds of NPCs before. She tried intimidating them before, but she only succeeded in making them run away in fright. Sighing heavily, she dug though her bag of bits. She relented angrily, “Okay, how much do you want?”

“I dunno. Maybe… twenty bits?”

Grumbling, Rainbow dug out the exactly amount of bits, and offered them to the potions mare. Smirking even more, the NPC reached out for it to take the b–

“Hold it!” Morning shouted, swatting away the potion merchant’s hoof away. The NPC’s eyes widened in surprise, and recoiled from her shout. Morning's tirade continued loudly, “You did not just try to take bits away from the Rainbow Dash!” Morning smacked both of her hooves down on the stand’s counter hard and yelled, “Apologize!”

“W– what? Okay, okay, I’m sorry!” she apologized, cowering a bit. “I actually haven’t seen the Trottingham Hacker! I heard he only attacks players! That’s all I know about the guy! Please don’t kill me?” she whimpered.

Morning Shower growled deeply, as if she was a dog who didn’t get her favorite ball. Before she could say anything else, Rainbow pulled her away from the scared NPC, and started comfort Morning by patting her on the head. Although, Rainbow couldn’t help but grin a little at the trembling NPC, watching it squirm a little, but she quickly hid it so she wouldn’t see.

“Sorry about that,” Rainbow apologized to the NPC. “My friend here is a little feisty. She’s just really excited. Um… thanks for the info by the way.”

“N– no problem! Just get her away from me! I would like to be alive today!”

Rainbow nervously chuckled. “Yeah. I’ll do that.” Rainbow started to drag the now-calm pegasus away from the stand towards nowhere in particular. After a considerate distance away from the NPC, Rainbow let Morning go. “What the hay was that for?!” Rainbow asked. “I had everything handled!”

“W– wha?” Morning stammered, looking a bit confused. “B– but that mare wasn’t treating you right. I thought you were really angry about it, so I wanted to… you know… help.”

“Well you didn’t have to do it like that,” Rainbow scolded her as if she was a child. “You scared her!”

“Well… maybe little… but you have to admit that it was kind of funny,” Morning added, her tone almost sounding like she was asking a question.

Rainbow pursed her lips, and then smiled and threw a hoof around Morning's shoulders as she replied, “Okay… maybe it was a little funny.” She frowned slightly and removed her hoof from around Morning, “But don’t do try to threaten others. We might not be so lucky next time if you scare them away.”

“O– okay. I’ll try.”

“Good.” Rainbow looked around to find another NPC or player to interrogate. Finally, she set her eyes on a blue unicorn walking around in white robes and a wooden staff on his back. “Let’s go ask him.”

“Okay,” Morning responded, following her idol.

Rainbow trotted after the stallion for a few moments before calling out, “Hey! You there! We have a few questions!”

The player turned around. “Huh? Well what kind of ques– ”

Before the stallion could even ask, Morning dashed ahead of Rainbow and got up in his face. She looked very serious as if there was an urgent matter, while it was true, it was quite rude.

“Have you seen a suspicious looking pony in a dark cloak running around?” Morning demanded of him, poking him with a hoof. “He’s a dangerous hacker, and we are looking for him to bring him to justice! He’s yellow, and has a scar over his face! Have you seen him? Do you know him? Are you perhaps in cahoots with him?” The stallion, his mouth wide open, couldn’t answer as he was in a bit of shock. He didn’t respond until Morning shouted, “Hello?! Speak up dude! This is serious business!”

“I– I don’t know anything! I just got here!” The player turned around in a perfect 180 degree, and ran away down the road. “Sorry! Maybe next time I’ll be able to help you a bit,” he called back towards them. However, he sounded like he wasn’t really going to keep his promise.

“Um… okay!” Morning shouted after him. “Take care!”

The stallion didn’t respond, not wanting to talk anymore with Morning as he disappeared around the corner of a building. Morning huffed out a sigh of annoyance, disappointed that she wasn’t able to get any information out of him. Maybe she would get a lead from the next pony. She looked towards Rainbow Dash to see what she thought, only to see disapproval written all over her face.

“Morning, what did I tell you?” Rainbow groaned, face hoofing.

“Um… not to look so threatening?” Morning answered, unaware to what she had done.

“Yes, and what did you just do again?”

“What? I wasn’t being a threat! I was just asking him questions,” Morning replied simply.

“And you scared him away!”

“B– but I didn’t mean to!” The lake-blue Pegasus pawed at the ground with her hoof, reflecting back at what she could have possible done wrong. Now that she thought about it, she was being kind of loud. And in his face. With a sad frown and realization, she said mostly to herself, “Oh… maybe I did scare him a little.”

Rainbow sighed, worried that if this keeps up, they would never get anywhere. Knowing that she was a bit short on time, she knew what had to be done. 'I hate to do this,' Rainbow thought dejectedly. 'But I can’t have this mare dragging me down.'

“Morning… ” Rainbow Dash placed a hoof on her shoulder, starting to regret what she was about to say, “maybe you and I should take a break.”

“Huh? A break? But we’ve just started our investigations together!”

“No, no, Morning. Not that kind of break. I’m saying that maybe we should just go our separate ways. You know, divide and conquer,” Rainbow added reassuringly. “We can cover more ground that way!” However, Morning stayed silent, lowering her head so Rainbow couldn’t see her eyes. “Um… Morning? Are you okay?”

“Okay? Y– yeah. I’m just peachy.”

Rainbow knew, though, that Morning was lying. Morning’s voice sounded cracked and high pitched when Morning spoke. It was evident that this conversation was not going very well for Rainbow. The cyan mare cringed when she saw wet droplets falling from Morning’s face, making small little splashes on the ground before the salty liquid was absorbed by the ground. Rainbow cursed under her breath, not sure how to handle the situation. Maybe if she tried to comfort her, everything will be better.

“Oh come on, Morning. Don’t be like that,” Rainbow cooed softly, trying to soothe the tears away from the crying mare. “I– I meant that splitting up to cover more ground was good idea, you know?” Rainbow then immediately face hoofed herself. 'Way to be so smooth, Rainbow Dash,' she thought to herself.

Rainbow waited for Morning’s response, nervous that it would only further this talk down the hill it was rolling across. Unfortunately, she was correct.

“Y– you don’t mean that, Rainbow Dash,” Morning cried softly, her eyes still away from Rainbow’s sight. “You just want me gone, don’t you?”

Rainbow nervously chuckled. This was getting extremely awkward for her. “What? No! I’m saying that you seem like a really awesome mare! You probably would work better without a partner like me holding you down.”

“But I want to be your partner!” Morning cried out louder, lifting her head up towards Rainbow. The Element of Loyalty winced as she finally saw the large river of tears flowing down from Morning’s eyes. Morning sniffed a bit before saying, “I’ve always wanted to meet you for so long! You were my biggest hero, after I saw you save that mare and the Wonderbolts! You were really cool! I’ve always wanted to get to know you better, and I wanted to be like you!” She lowered her head, and continued to sob softly, “I still think you are the coolest… you don’t need a mare like me to bring you down.”

Rainbow, wanting to stop her from crying, attempted to hug Morning. She, however, quickly pulled away from her embrace as soon as Rainbow tried to reach around her shoulders. Immediately, Morning sprinted away from her, too ashamed to even look at her greatest heroine.

“H– hey! Where do you think you’re going?” Rainbow shouted after her, but made no moves to chase after.

Morning didn’t respond, and only disappeared through the crowd of players. Some of them looked at the mare, and then looked back at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow dejectedly sat down in the street, head bowed in shame. Some of them had given Rainbow looks of pity while others were silently judging her. Rainbow, looking up after a few moments, saw their reactions, and she stepped back a few inches before flying away from the scene.

Once again, she could feel the cool air beneath her wings, but it did nothing to ease Rainbow from this stress. She tried to fly after the fleeing mare this time, but she couldn’t see a hair, nor hide of her. It was as if she disappeared out of thin air.

“Damn it,” Rainbow cursed. “What’s wrong with me?”