//------------------------------//
// *Chapter 11 Part 5: True Strength 
// Story: Equestrian Earth the MMORPG 
// by Chaotic Note 
//------------------------------//

A Chaotic Production presents...


The Adventuring Arc


:Rainbow Dash:


Chapter 11 Part 5


~ Not yet edited by ultra1437, but is edited by Genghis


~ Pre-read by RemareShadows and Apuppy120


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








Rock Golems, Rain Spice Bats, Glow Slimes, and Luminescent Giant Musrats were just one of the few denizens of the Winsome Caverns, and none of them were a match for the sharp edge of Rainbow’s blade as she sliced through them all. Experience Points just stacked on top of each other before they could pour into her EXP Bar. The golems’ would attempt to pound her down with their fat fists, but their limbs would be severed off before getting toppled over by kicks. A satisfying crash would happen as she sent their rocky bodies crashing and crumbling to the ground. Rainbow didn’t know exactly where she was going as she blindly fought through the mossy underground, but she never felt lost when she was following the taunts of the hacker.

“Yes that’s right. Come over here, foal.”

“I’m not a foal, asshole!”

They had danced this verbal fight for quite a while since Rainbow was separated from her friends. Every time the hacker spoke, Rainbow would lash back with threats. Her eyes were furrowed deeply, and her nostrils flared with hot air. The most infuriating thing about him was that he kept calling her a little foal. It definitely did not make her a happy pony. According to her clock in the upper right corner of her HUD, about ten minutes outside of the game had passed. Ten minutes is too long, and this jerk was just playing around with her. In his eyes, she was a just a little game piece on his board, and that pissed her off greatly.

“Oh dear Rainbow Dash, it’s certainly fun to see you fuming, but I don’t see why you have so foalish about this. All I did was take an annoying stalker off your hooves.”

“She isn’t annoying,” Rainbow growled gruffly, cutting down a Rain Spice Bat flying towards her. “And she has more balls than your weak flank.”

“You do realize that you’re in my turf right now, foal? This is my hideout, my sea, and the tides certainly don’t take any prisoners. Your ship has set sail away without you as soon as you stepped into my waters.”

“Why don’t you just shut your trap and face me already, or are you too much of a pussy for that?” 

The hacker’s disembodied voice yawned. “You’re a boring foolish foal. It’s time to switch up the verse.”

Before she knew what had happened, Rainbow found herself falling through the ground. She looked up to see a hole had opened up and gobbled her. She soared up, but a new ceiling has formed over her already.

“Nah ah ah. No exits for you. Only forward. F, O, A, L.”

“Graah! I’ll crush you!” Rainbow thrust her sword up high towards the rocky ceiling, but failed to pierce through. She’d almost lost control of her weapon as the recoil bounced into her blade, causing it to shiver violently with a ringing sound.

Faced with no other choice, she rocketed down the narrow cylinder of a tunnel, a growl rolling off her tongue. This guy just loved to get on her nerves. Exiting out of the hole, a dome-like chamber awaited her. As soon as the last of her tail left the narrow tube, the hole closed up as well. Looking around, all she could see was foggy darkness below and the orange torches lined up on the curved walls. The light didn’t seem to want to go any further into the dark than ten feet. So far, she had been flying in the dark, depending on Pinkie’s Nocturnal Vision Potions she drank after the first tunnel she went through, but the torches eased the strain in her eyes.

She fluttered around to get a better look of her surroundings, but before she could take note of her environment, she heard a small hiss from below. Reacting on pure instinct, she folded her wings and dived downward as something huge pounced towards her. Rainbow tucked her legs in and landed a roll on the ground before hastily getting back onto her feet. The hissing sound was uttered again and something was running towards her with heavy steps. It was apparently heavy enough to make the ground shake. Rainbow deeply scowled.

Whatever was in the room with her, it was huge and agile, and that combination of attributes didn’t sound very good for her.

Rainbow reflexively strafed to the right to dodge the creature. She could hear it sliding to a halt and changing direction towards her again. It had good hearing as well. Staying in the dark didn’t seem like a good idea, so she backed off fast into the light. Drawing her sword, she kept her watchful eye on the dark fog of inky smoke, trying to determine where her foes were. It was quite hard to tell though due to the fact that the torches on the other side can’t seem to pierce through the fog, so that means no shadowy outlines for her to see. Although with her hearing senses, she guessed that probably only two of them were in there.

She started to fly around the chamber, careful to not make contact with the fog. She heard more hissing from the dense cloak, followed by the sound of something coughing up. Suddenly, something dark shot towards her from the fog. The first thing that came into her mind was to fly up, and luckily enough she managed to avoid the attack as it smacked into the wall just a few inches below her. It stuck to the wall for a bit before sliding down in a splat. It was a gooey, dark ball of slime. Rainbow choked out a sound of disgust.

Rainbow pointed her sword towards the fog and demanded, “Hey! Quit it!”

A barrage of dark smile balls flew towards her in response. Rainbow felt the wind knocked out of her as one tackled her in the belly. A surprising large amount of her Health dropped, bringing her Health down to 2928. She only had 3510 HP to begin with, which was very squishy compared to other players, so Rainbow can’t really afford to take any more hits.

Another wave was fired, and she zigzagged around in the air, swatting away whatever slime balls she couldn’t evade with the flat of her blade. Even though she couldn’t see into the fog, her ears told her about the creatures moving inside it. A couple or three set of four limbs? That obviously meant she was outnumbered. Despite the odds, Rainbow smiled. There was nothing like a good challenge.

Her smile lasted for only a moment before she bolted straight into the dark fog again, hacking and slashing the best she could at the creatures. She got a couple hits off them, seeing a couple numbers in the hundreds fly into the air before something grabbed her leg. Swiftly, Rainbow was swung around before being thrown all the way against the wall, her left wing feeling the full brunt of the impact. She landed on her legs and steadied herself before testing her damaged wing. She winced as it responded with what felt like a thousand bee stings. Definitely can’t fly now. A roar that rivaled dragons was released, a warning for her to dodge again. She rolled to the side just in time to avoid the monster’s punch. She looked at the wall to see the end of a shadowy, furry limb extending from it. Rainbow traced her eyes from the limb all the way to the owner’s face.

Rainbow grew a small grin, chuckling lightly with a large gulp going down her throat. “Wow. You’re one ugly mother bucker.”

How could she describe this chaotic freak of nature? If a crocodile and a bear were to be left alone… Rainbow got the feeling that this hideous thing would be the product of that. The head of a lizard – resembling one of those cool komodo dragons Fluttershy had once before – and a body to rival Harry the Bear. Mud was caked on its fur hide, and its rancid jaw was missing a couple of jagged teeth. It also had holes in its teeth. Are those worms moving inside them? If there was a dictionary definition of weird and ugly, this guy was it. Of course, Fluttershy would probably slap her if she ever made that comment in front of her, but this guy was definitely born for it.

Baring its sharp rows of toothy weapons in a snarl, the Level 32 Shadow Beazard dragged its right paw across the wall towards Rainbow. She ducked her head down, avoiding the dangerous swipe of its claws, and countered with a diagonal slash, aiming for the nearest limb. A deep gash decorated across the beast’s right arm, letting loose black slime to splatter around. Some of it soiled her armor. The Beazard roared directly at her in anger, and a foul stench of what suspiciously smelled like meat entered her lungs. Flies would have loved it.

“Ugh. What the Tartarus have you been eating?” Rainbow coughed, covering up her nose.

The Beazard roared in reply and snapped its nasty jaws at Rainbow, but she gave it no chance for its teeth to reach her as she thrust her blade up its throat. She pulled away with ease after twisting the blade a little, letting loose a stream of black slime from the stab wound. The Beazard fell to the ground with a large crash, causing the ground to tremble slightly. She rested her blade onto her shoulder pad, striking a confident pose as she admired the sight.

“Weren’t so tough now were you?” Rainbow scoffed, sticking her tongue out and lowering her left eye’s lower lash bed a bit. A classic taunt.

Surely she had won that fight, but her smug demeanor slightly melted as the Beazard struggled to its feet and uttered another bloody roar. It started to charge towards her again. Rainbow swiftly somersaulted over the bear just in time avoid a crushing end, and somehow she managed to stay within the light. The sound of rocks fall along with a pained bellow told her the Beazard probably crashed its cranium into the wall. Using this opportunity Rainbow quickly took a look at her stats. It seemed silly, but Rainbow wanted to confirm what Level she was. She made a swipe with her sword in front of her, and the Stat Window slid into view.

She was Level 28. Just four levels below the monster. “Damn it.” Rainbow sliced at the Stat Window. It closed in a cloud of smoke. “No wonder it was still alive and kicking.”

Just as she closed her Stats, a jabbing, cold sensation hit her hooves. She tried to move, but couldn’t. The slime projectiles had glued her to the ground. Suddenly, Rainbow was tackled from the front and was rammed all the way against the wall. Rainbow squirmed as she felt her body being slowly crushed like a can, her ribs moving in very uncomfortable places. Rainbow Dash mentally facehoofed. In the moment of checking her Stats, she had forgotten all about the other Beazard in the room.

The second Beazard growled as it pushed its cranium against Rainbow. She could feel bars of her HP being chopped off with each second. Somehow, she managed to keep a grip on her sword, and the hoof holding it was free. In a desperate move, she ran her blade through the Beazard’s right eye, a squishy sound coming from it. The beast let loosed a painful roar, releasing Rainbow Dash as it stumbled backwards. She didn’t stop right there though as she used Dash It to cut at the back of its paws, hindering its movement. The Beazard got on its hind legs, rising to an impressive height before swinging its forelimbs around in a wild fashion. It was astonishing, considering she had just sliced into its limbs.

Rainbow used Dash It once more, but this time with the Spectrum Slash buff aiding her. Multiple mirror copies of Rainbow Dash were birthed from the sword as it glowed, taunting the Beazard as they swarmed around it together in a tornado formation. The monster attempted to hit the copies, but it failed to hurt them as they were just illusions. The real Rainbow ran towards the lumbering beast, flanking from its blind side with her blade steady. Within striking distance, Rainbow darted up and jammed the sword straight into the side of the Beazard’s upper rib cage. The Beazard’s HP drastically lowered as a Critical Strike of immense damage popped above it. She must have pierced its heart or something. With a final roar, the Beazard fell onto its side in a giant heap with Rainbow Dash standing on top. In the upper left corner of her HUD, she could see her Health was dangerously in the yellow, just at 59%.

Just when Rainbow Dash felt like she could rest a little, she felt her body being flatten against the dead corpse. While she wasn’t looking, the other Beazard had pounced and body slammed her hard, and it felt like mountains were being piled on top of her body. She was out of breath, and found relief as the monster got up. Rainbow watched with dread as her HP Bar on her HUD dropped down to about 10% of its prime. Only 352 HP left. Rainbow coughed up some blood. Another 13 Health dropped.

“F– fuck,” Rainbow weakly groaned.

Rainbow craned her head around and saw the Beazard lifting one paw high into the air. It was obvious that it was going to crush her underneath its claws. Rainbow, using all of her strength, rolled over to the side to dodge. Although she had forgotten she was on a Beazard and fell a couple feet to the floor, feeling her head knock into the unforgiving surface.

Even when lying in near defeat, she could barely believe it. It only happened in a matter of seconds, and she had failed. Rainbow was going to fail saving Morning, and she was going to be beaten by some stupid freak that was obviously the hacker’s creation. No. She couldn’t give up right now. Rolling onto her back again, she raised her sword towards the bear as it swung its limb down towards her. She made a slight adjustment, to allow the point to be directly in the paw’s path. Just about when the paw was about to be impaled, somepony in the room commanded it to stop.

“Halt! That’s good enough… for now. I want to finish her off myself.”

Rainbow’s eyes regained a bit of fire as she heard the familiar voice, finding some newfound strength to struggle back on her hooves. It was the hacker. At its master’s command, the beast slowly backed off, keeping a careful glare on Rainbow. A gust of wind danced throughout the chamber, pushing away the fog and allowing the torches to flood the room with light.

Rainbow could see right now that the room she was in wasn’t very empty. In fact, it had a live audience the entire time. In the center of the room stood a black stone throne that was slightly higher above the rocky ground, on top of a hill of rock. On each side of the throne were metal cages on floating gem platforms. In the cage to Rainbow’s right, she could see a struggling Capricorn in her tight rope bonds. To her left, Morning Shower also bound. She could see that they both had cloth gags over their mouths, and had purple bruises scattered over their faces and legs.

On the throne, she could see a yellow stallion, his face, shadowed underneath the hood of his dark cloak. He sat with one leg on the knee of the other with his back reclined. It just spoke smugness. “Hello Rainbow Dash. We finally meet. Face to face. Just what you wanted, correct?”

Rainbow glared at him. “You,” she uttered in a growl. “So you’re the one causing trouble around Trottingham? I should wipe that stupid smile off your face right now!” She looked above the stallion to see if there was a nametag floating above him, but there wasn’t one there.

The Beazard growled at Rainbow’s threat, but the stallion hushed it. “Relax, my dear. You shall have your fill of blood soon.” The stallion brought his forehooves together, resting his elbows on the throne’s arms. Rainbow could feel his gaze upon her. “And you’re the mare from last night. You gave me quite a bit of trouble, and I can see that your hold true to your name with that repulsive color splotch you call a mane. Now be honest with me really, did your mother drop you in a rainbow vat when you were born?”

“Shut your tra– ” Rainbow coughed violently with blood; 25 of her Health was dropped.

“Still have a bit of fight left in you? Well no matter. You won’t win anyway. I’ll see to that,” the stallion declared as he got up from his throne.

He spread his wings wide and glided down, landing near Rainbow. The platforms holding the cages lowered all the way to the ground, landing roughly. When the cage settled, Morning wormed her way over to the bars to get a closer look at Rainbow, her pupils shrinking as she saw her captor drawing closer to her idol as he chuckled. Rainbow kept her sword lifted for as long as she could, but eventually she couldn’t endure holding her arm up in such bad condition. At least now she could finally see underneath his hood. He had green hair. Wait a second.

“Hold on,” Rainbow narrowed her eyes, “you’re… you’re not that guy from the library.”

The hacker stopped in his steps. “Excuse me?”

“W– well there was this… ah who am I kidding,” Rainbow spat, looking downward. “You probably don’t know him anyway.”

“Hmm… oh wait. Are you talking about Raynor?”

Rainbow looked towards him again. “That’s his name?”

“Ah yes, Raynor. He mentioned how your purple friend had caught onto his plans, and he unfortunately had to run with his tail between his legs!” The hacker chuckled. He then laughed up a storm. “Oh! And you annoying cunts caught him again just a few hours ago! He couldn’t even clean up his own mess. Just left the portal gate to crumble right in the middle of plain sight! Oh, I never remembered laughing so hard in my entire life.” As he hollered in mirth, a black cane with a red, curved handle and blue flame paint job on the bottom materialized on his back. He drew the cane and pointed the fiery end directly at Rainbow’s face, inches from her eyes. “But because of your meddlings, I was unfortunately assigned to gather information on you and your friends.” He sighed, “Oh, if only you had stayed asleep for just a couple more seconds, my job could have been quick and painless, and I wouldn’t have to waste precious time setting up this trap.”

The flat end of the cane flipped opened up like a cap, revealing the inside of it to be hollow. The cap, still attached to the cane, then transformed into a target symbol. Taking a closer look at handle, Rainbow can see a trigger. Piecing the parts together, Rainbow realized the cane was actually a very strange gun. Her eyes widened.

The corners of the stallion’s lips curled upwards venomously. “We had a fun time together, but I’m afraid this is the part where we part ways. Don’t worry though. While you’re respawning, I’ll just collect whatever data residue is left on your digital corpse, yada, yada. You can blame the programmers for making this a bit complicated. Normally, anywhere else, all I needed was a computer, mouse and keyboard, and access to the internet to steal precious information, but the new kind of programming that came with the creation of virtual reality tech and programs made it possible to put down walls that could even stump the best of hackers. Took me months to come up with a program that can hide my identity here, and I have to continuously update it because the bucking patches they release every single week. Like really, do they even freaking sleep?! Dear gods it is annoying how they… ”

Master Wind continued to rant on about how annoying everything was hard for him to commit malicious deeds on the net thanks to the introduction of VR programming, and at that point, Rainbow felt like being shot would be better than this torture. She then saw Morning banging her head against the bars, and the rage in her heart boiling again.

She shot an iron glare at him. “You won’t get away with this. My friends will be coming soon, and they’re going to kick your sorry ass to the moon.”

The stallion whacked her head with the end of his cane gun. “I’m afraid they won’t get very far. Remember this, Rainbow Dash. Remember the name of the stallion who wiped the floor with you. Your Master Wind.”

The trigger was pulled. A loud shot resonated like one big firework. Damage was dealt. Blood was spilled everywhere. It wasn’t Rainbow Dash’s.



+Ω‡‡¥‡‡Ω+



“Twilight! Behind you!” Applejack pushed Twilight to get behind her and raised her bronze war hammer. 

The Rock Golem, an animated being with two stumpy legs and arms with round boulders for fists, sent a punch flying towards Applejack. She managed to block it with her weapon and counterattacked with a wide swing of her hammer. With every ounce of power, she pounded the flat end of her weapon against the large opal embedded in its chest, shattering it into rainbow colored pieces. With its life core gone, the Golem fell down and crumbled into a pile of rocks.

Two Rock Golems that were camouflaged in the rocky walls pulled themselves from their rest places. A couple more acting as weirdly shaped rock formations got up as well, make it four. They formed a semi-circle around Applejack and advanced towards her. Applejack swung her war hammer towards them like a bat as she awkwardly walked backwards on her hind legs.

“Go on! Get!”

Before the Golems could take another step towards her, four blue, fiery bolts came from behind Applejack and struck them all in their opal life cores. Trixie leapt over Applejack, getting into the center of the Golems. Applejack was about call her out for being reckless, but a bright light shined from Trixie, paining her eyes. She averted her gaze.

Trixie’s staff glowed like a bright star as she spun it over her head. With a confident smile, Trixie shouted, “Moon’s Blazing Fury!”

She slammed the butt of her staff onto the ground and waves of blue flames expanded around her. It was an impressive display of power as the flames danced around her. It was like Trixie had unleashed a miniature hurricane, and she was the eye of the storm. Trixie watched her fire flooded over the Golems and their Health Bars melting away like butter. The heat soon created cracks in their opal life cores before exploding them, and the Golems crumbled into worthlessness.

Trixie brushed away a lock of her mane that was in front of her eyes as she gathered up all the coins that were dropped from the Golems. “Well that was easy.”

Fluttershy peaked out from the hill of rock she was hiding behind from. “I– is it over?”

“Hey! Ah had that all under control!” Trixie turned around to see Applejack stomping angrily towards her. “That was a really reckless move ya made! You could have got yourself killed there!”

Trixie rolled her eyes and slid her staff onto her back, allowing the invisible game mechanics to magnetize her weapon against it. “Oh please. I was perfectly fine thanks to you. You made a pretty good distraction.”

“Distra– Ah’m no distraction!”

“Why not? Aren’t you the Tank of the group? You’re supposed to take hits.”

“Ah’m not supposed to just take hits,” Applejack scowled deeper. “You can see that Ah deal damage as well if you didn’t have your head up so high all the time.”

“Hey, just because I’m better than you– ”

“Enough!” Twilight yelled. “Can’t we just get along just for now? I had enough of your bickering!” She pointed at Trixie all accusing-like. “Trixie! We don’t have anything toxic between us, right?”

Trixie blinked a couple times before turning her gaze away. “Of course, Twilight. I’ve learned my lesson since that duel of ours.”

“Then I want you to stop treating Applejack like that. I don’t know what’s with you, but I know you’re better than that!”

Trixie sighed in a hardy mood. “Sorry, Twilight. I’ll try to not let it happen again.”

Applejack had a smirk on her face until Twilight glared towards her. “And Applejack, I want you to stop fighting with Trixie!”

“Me? But she started it!”

“But you’re also not keeping a cool head on the matter, Applejack. You’re also letting these arguments with her drag on!”

“But Twilight, Trixie doesn’t take anything seriously! She ain’t even concerned about Rainbow Dash or anypony at all!”

“Hey! I’ll have you know that I’m also a pony with feelings. I care about others too,” Trixie retorted, slightly resenting Applejack’s accusations.

Applejack glared at Trixie. “That’s a lie! You don’t care about anypony at all! So far, Ah only saw you caring about yourself!”

Trixie was about to snap back, but then Twilight got between them. “Applejack, I said that’s enough. If you want to settle matters with Trixie, you do it on your own time, but now, we have two mares that are by themselves in a dark dungeon with a hacker on the loose. You’re worried about Rainbow aren’t you?”

“Well yes, of course Ah am!”

“Then focus on that. No more of this fighting with Trixie. After all this, I want you two to make up.”

“Oh come on, Twi!”

“Fight, fight, fight! Kiss, kiss!” Pinkie shouted, bouncing on her tail like a spring. Her lips were then stuffed again by cupcakes.

“No. None of that either,” Twilight said.

Fluttershy, who was staying out of the fight until now, went by Twilight. “Um, maybe we should go take a look around and see if there is a way out. I don’t like this room.”

Twilight nodded. “You’re right. There could be more Golems in the walls. With all these opals in the rocks, there’s no telling if there is more of them.” She looked towards Rarity as she began walking with Fluttershy in tow. “Come on, Rarity. You know more about caves then I do.”

“Well I suppose so,” Rarity sniffed, looking around the cavern with critical judgment. “I don’t like them though.”

The three went on to find any more tunnels exiting the cave room, leaving Applejack and Trixie to be by themselves along with one occupied Pinkie. An awkward silence fell upon them. Trixie wanted to say something, but seeing Applejack’s displeased look convinced her it was not the best idea. Deciding to leave the farm pony to her thoughts, Trixie followed after Twilight. As she did, Pinkie finished up her snack and bounced after Trixie. She stared at Trixie.

Trixie ignored the pink thing for a bit, but found her gaze slightly unsettling. After a few seconds, Trixie turned her head towards Pinkie, still walking. “What do you want?”

“Trixie, where were you after that day?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, I know you were being a big meanie, taking over Ponyville and all, but that’s because that Alicorn thingy was making your mind into noodles! Noodles of eeeevilness and bad things, so I forgave you and everything for stealing my mouth and I wanted to give you the biggest party you ever had, but I couldn’t find you anywhere!”

“… Huh?”

Pinkie Pie giggled, “I wanted to throw you a party, silly! But you weren’t there, so what gives?”

Trixie rolled her eyes. “Well I wasn’t in Ponyville obviously. I couldn’t stay there, even after making amends with Twilight. It was obvious that none of the townsfolk like me there, so I moved on.”

“Why didn’t you stay? I probably could have got Ponyville to like you.”

“After whipping two of their foals, they would never.”

“Don’t ever say never, silly filly! I definitely could have made you the most popular mare in town if I tried,” Pinkie smiled.

There was something weird about this mare. Trixie knew it. “Why are you being so nice to me right now? I took away your mouth and your nose too if I remember correctly. It’s a miracle that you were able to live without breathing somehow!”

“Well I’m Pinkie! I have my ways.”

“Like how did you even?” Trixie was slightly befuddled. “I can’t even begin to imagine what kind of magic Twilight used to keep you alive.”

“Oh Twilight didn’t help me.”

“She didn’t?! But how– ”

“Spoilers, Trixie. Spoilers.”

Trixie was about to rant about how it was impossible for a pony to live without oxygen for more than ten seconds, but decided she didn’t want her brain to turn into noodles. “You know what, never mind. I don’t want to know anyway.”

Out of nowhere, Pinkie pressed a cold bottle against Trixie’s cheek. “Butterbeer?”

“What the?” Trixie took the bottle. “Um, thanks I guess?” She looked at Pinkie once more and yelped as Pinkie was suddenly carrying a Santa-sized bag on her back. She burst out, “What on Luna’s moons do you keep in that? Butterbeer?”

“Yep! I just bought enough to fill an entire tavern!” Pinkie pulled one out of the bag and bit the rim of the metal cap. Somehow, she was able to open it without breaking any teeth, and drank it.

“That’s… how much did it even cost?”

“Used twenty gold bit, and they are worth every coin!” Pinkie finished one and started drinking another one.

“That’s… insane. You’re insane.”

Pinkie laughed, “I get that a lot!”

Trixie chuckled along with her. “I don’t know how Twilight can handle you.” Speaking of Twilight, Trixie could see her, Fluttershy and Rarity were in front of three open tunnels up ahead with a holographic map floating in front of them. “Hey what’s going on here?”

Rarity turned around. “Oh just looking at a map of the Winsome Cavern. Twilight purchased one before we came here, and I’m not liking what I’m seeing. This place is full of twist and turns. If it wasn’t for this map, we’d be as blind as bats!”

“Well actually, bats aren’t really blind. They just use echolocation to help them see in the dark,” Fluttershy said.

Trixie didn’t really care about that bit of animal trivia. She was more concerned with the map. “It’s that hard, even with our own mini-maps?”

Rarity nodded. “Well we would be able to find our way out, but navigating our way towards the hacker will be quite difficult. First off, we don’t even know where he is. Just look at how big this area is!”

Trixie inspected the map. Rarity was right. Like Discord’s mind, the caverns had crazy twists and corners all tangled up in one big mess of pathways and rooms. There were plenty of chambers about which they haven’t entered yet, and it could take several nights to explore the caves.

“And to make matters worse,” Twilight spoke, “we haven’t heard anything from the hacker at all, which means we don’t have a good idea of where to go.”

“Oh, oh, oh! Twilight, I have an idea!”

Pinkie held her hoof up high like a schoolfilly wanting to answer the teacher’s question. A sigh escaped Twilight’s lungs. “Well what suggestion do you have, Pinkie?”

“Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe!” Pinkie Pie smiled as if it was the best idea in the world.

Twilight had an expression that told otherwise. “Please no? We have to make educated decisions here.”

“You mean guess?” Trixie asked.

“I– No! Educated decisions! Make a logical choice and… ” Twilight rubbed her temple. “Oh who am I kidding? We have no choice but to guess at this point. We’ll go with Eeny, Miny, Moe.”

“Yay!” Pinkie cheered as she made a cartwheel to the front. She planted her tush down and started to chant the foals’ rhyme, pointing to a different tunnel with each word.

As they watched Pinkie work her magic, Applejack was walking towards them. “Hey what did Ah mi– Whoa!” She had tripped.

Applejack rolled out of control, crashing into the others as if she was a bowling ball. In a completely mess, they all rolled into a tangled bundle. Applejack found Trixie’s leg propped under her chin. Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse, a large, circle glowed beneath them. It bathed them all in its brilliant blue light, but it didn’t sound very friendly. It made a sound as if some sort of sci-fi laser cannon was charging up. It had intricate curves and patterns inside it. It was a rune.

“It’s a trap!” Twilight struggled to get on her hooves. “Run!” Her warning was too late though.

The ground beneath them cracked as the rune worked its destructive magic into the rocks. It was torn asunder, and revealed a large chamber as the party of mares fell in it. Quickly, Pinkie searched her inventory. “Hang on, everypony! I know I have something for an emergency like this!” She pulled out a white ball. “Aha! Relax, everypony! I have this under contr– ”

“Just do it already!” Trixie yelled.

“Okay!” With all her might, Pinkie threw the ball down below them. It bounced with a thud before expanding rapidly into a plush mattress. Everypony landed safely onto it, with Trixie hugging it tightly. They were all slightly shocked, except for Pinkie. “Whee! That was fun! Let’s do that again!”

“No. Never again,” Trixie said. She looked around to see they were all enveloped in dark fog. In the darkness, Trixie can make out the shape of the rubble that fell with them, but she could barely see them. “Um… is it me, or is this room unnaturally dark?” The ceiling above them glowed with blue numbers before it closed off. “Never mind. I stand corrected. It was brighter before. Can we leave now?” A storm of snarls answered her. “… I guess that’s a no.”

“Everypony form a circle, back to back!” Twilight ordered. “Make sure nothing escapes our vision!”

“How can we even see in here? I really do feel as blind as a bat!” Rarity cried out as she hurried with the others to make a circle.

Fluttershy quivered as she stood next to her friends, quickly saying, “I would like to correct you on that statement, Rarity, but right now I’m d– d– downright t– terrifiiied!”

She started to panic, causing her to go into hyperventilation, but then Pinkie gave her with a paper bag, also rubbing her back with a small smile on her face. “There, there, Fluttershy. Auntie Pinkie is here. Just think happyy thoughts. Butterflies, bunnies, and cute kitties. Think of the adorable kitties.” Fluttershy slowly nodded as she breathed in the paper bag, calming down.

Applejack looked up. “Ah would ‘ave lassoed us a climbing rope by now, but this darn cave is against us too, apparantly.”

Trixie raised one of her eyebrows as she looked towards the sound of Applejack’s voice. “You actually have a rope with you?”

“Well of course I do!” Applejack yelled back. “Ah don’t feel right without something to lasso with! Could never know when rope will come in handy.”

“I think rope should be the least of our concerns right now,” Twilight said as her horn glowed. “Magic Missile! ” She fired the blue spell into the darkness, but to her surprise, the bolt fizzled out faster than a lit match in a rainstorm. “W– what the heck?” She fired off another, but that burnt out as well. “I can’t use magic in here! But Trixie was able to do it upstairs.”

“That’s because my INT is higher than yours,” Trixie sneered. “Didn’t you tell me you kept your SPR and INT balanced?”

“O– oh… ”

Trixie chuckled in amusement with a bit of smugness. “Don’t worry, Twilight. I got this.” To prove a point, she twirled her staff above her again, both ends of it was lit with green fire. “Ashes to Dust!” She then sent her staff flying forward into darkness, the weapon still spinning like a boomerang, but she lost sight of it when the flames were snuffed out. “What the Tartarus?” In the next second, a distinct whirling sound was heard before Trixie was smacked in the forehead by her returning staff. She could see stars dancing around her head, which meant she was Dazed. She suddenly found herself stumbling in random directions. “Ow, that smarts!”

Rarity held her back into the safety of the group, shooting distrustful glares at the darkness embracing them. “Please control yourself, dear. There’s no telling what can happen here, and your magic won’t do so well here. Though I find this impossible to believe, but the Magic Debuff down here is ten times stronger than above! Your INT would have to be in the thousands if you even want to deal the smallest amount of magic damage.”

“Is there anything you can do about this?” Twilight asked.

Rarity shook her head. “Unfortunately I cannot. I’m magic based as well, and so is Fluttershy.”

Trixie glanced at Pinkie Pie and Applejack. “Which means… ”

Applejack noticed how Trixie looked at her, and then started to understand. She took the war hammer on her back and slammed it on the ground in front of her. “Which means it’s us Earth Ponies’ time tah shine!”

“Sweet! Pinkie Pie in the house!” Pinkie pulled out a pair of peppermint-colored shurikens from her back satchel. “Time to get this party started!”

An explosion of action was unleashed as Applejack and Pinkie let loose. Thanks to Applejack’s passive skill, Shining Icon, she gained bonus Armor and Magic Resist once she started swinging, and her body glows brightly as well. It was incredibly helpful in dark places. Once she started shining, Applejack could see that their enemies were Shadow Beazards.

According to the almanac that all players receive once they enter the game, Fascinating Creatures and Their Locations, Beazards were creatures that loved to dwell in caves. However, there weren’t supposed to be any Shadow variations in Blue Zones like Winsome Falls. Shadow Monsters were stronger counterparts of their originals, and they were all supposed to be in the Badlands. Unfortunately, the book did not provide any detailed descriptions of the monsters other than a picture of it and its location on the map. But it did not matter to somepony like Applejack. She felt like she didn’t need to know their weakness. All it took for her is to land a really good smash.

The head of Applejack’s steel weapon steamtrained through the air in an arc as she swung from the hip, crushing against the side of the Beazard’s ugly mug. The devastating blow had it flying off its paws, sending it to the side for several feet. The Beazard got up and charged towards Applejack, but found its jaw hitting the floor again as Pinkie landed her hooves harshly on its head. Pinkie Pie leapt away from the Beazard, leaving a bagful of cupcake bombs lying around it. The fuses ran out, and they detonated a huge explosion, painting the area with frosting..

“Now that is what I call sweet!” Pinkie said, cartwheeling away.

From Trixie’s point of view, it was wrecking her mind to see Pinkie move. To put it lightly, she was all over the place. Sometimes she would be there, but every few blinks, Pinkie would escape Trixie’s sight only to appear somewhere she wasn’t looking at. Candy-colored ninja stars would fly in flocks around the chamber, disappearing in the dark. Somehow, Pinkie was landing her targets in areas where Applejack’s light cannot reach because she could see numbers floating upwards, indicating that damage was being dealt there.

However, she would see the occasional green number pop up, and it would be a huge number. That struck Trixie as odd. How on Equestria were these Beazards healing? There’s no way such wild, crazed monster could heal themselves unless…

“Twilight, did you learn a spell that can scan environments?” Trixie prayed she had.

“Yes I do. Why?”

Trixie sighed with relief. “Great. Can you scan the air?”

“I can try, but I don’t see how it’ll help us right now.”

“Just do it. I need to confirm something.”

With a slight shrug, Twilight performed Insightful Learning and a green cone of light extended from her horn. She moved it around, catching data from the smoky fog. “There. I got it,” Twilight said, stopping the spell.

“Send the data over to me.” Twilight looked through her Inventory Window, scrolling through the list of items until she found it in her Journal Tab. She messaged a copy of the data over to Trixie. Trixie thanked her before reading her findings. With each word she read, her suspicions were slowly being confirmed.

“What did you find, Trixie?” Twilight asked.

“… Twilight? You see the green numbers, right?”

Twilight looked around, and spotted one pop up just now. “Yes, but how are they healing? They aren’t Support-Type mobs, so I don’t see how they could– ”

“It’s the fog, Twilight. The fog is healing them much faster than Applejack and Pinkie can damage.”

“W– what?! But how?” Twilight shouted in surprise.

“This fog is Umbra Mist, and Shadow Monsters thrive in its cold, dark conditions. The fog itself is laced with dark magic. It’s what’s also causing our magic damage to fall like balls of dry rice grains.”

“That’s no good,” Twilight said. “Applejack! Pinkie Pie! Did you hear all that?”

“Ah did, and Ah don’t like it!” Applejack said, facing off a Beazard caked in pink globs of sugar. “This fella won’t stay down!”

“I’m having trouble too! These guys apparently don’t like what I did to their hair,” Pinkie said as ran away from furious Beazards covered in colorful pastries.

“There must be something we can do,” Applejack yelled. “Anything!”

She knocked the Beazard into the air, and Pinkie threw a lollipop battleaxe at it. It had a burning tag on it. Its sharp blade sunk deeply into its back, and the tag suddenly exploded, causing an explosive burst of candy shards to fly. The Beazard’s body hit the ground. It was still alive and kicking like mad.

“Celestia damn it, why won’t it stop!” Applejack roared as she leapt forward and smashed her hammer over its head.

Still. Fucking. Alive. And then… the fog healed it again.

Rarity, at this point and time, was trembling in her suit and held onto Twilight for support. “What can we do, darlings? This battle feels like it’s been going on forever, and we’re just sitting ducks here!”

“Yeah… ” Trixie looked around at the Beazards chasing after Applejack and Pinkie. “So why aren’t we bear food yet?”

“U– um, that would be, um, me.” The three mares looked at Fluttershy who had a sheepish smile on her face. “I had a bag of powder made from the flowers that grow on Skunk Stalks. They smell nice, but I remember reading something from the Cloud Library that certain animals absolutely abhor the scent. Dragons actually hate this scent, so I decided to buy some. Since these Beazards seem to be half lizard, I thought I would give it a try.” Fluttershy pointed at the ground around them. They looked down to see they were standing in a circle of the powder.

“Wow. That’s really clever, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, taking a bit of the powder from the ground and watched it fall away from her hoof. “When did you get it?”

“Just soon after the game. I– it was pretty cheap.”

“Wait… but Spike was with us before. How come he wasn’t repulsed by it?”

“I kept it in, um, a glass jar, Twilight.” Fluttershy revealed the container of the powder. It had the bag inside it, and the jar was sealed tight by an enormous cork.

“Well that was certainly enlightening, Fluttershy, but we’re still in quite a bit of trouble,” Rarity said, still hanging onto Twilight. “I get the feeling that these unruly creatures will gather up the courage to charge towards us sooner or later.” Rarity looked at the group of Beazards that were chasing after Pinkie Pie. One of them had stopped to look back. The corner of its slimy lips seemed to curl into a wicked grin. Rarity shuddered.

Trixie, meanwhile, was scrolling through her list of spells. As a powerful Flame Witcher, almost all of her magic had devastating effects that can turn the battlefield into a frying pan at any moment they are released. Unfortunately, all of them are currently useless here in this stupid chamber. Trixie kicked aside a rock. Any one of her spells will have no effect at all, but there was one that might be worth a shot. Unfortunately, it was also her weakest spell.

“It’s getting cold in this cave. I’m going light us a fire,” Trixie announced. “At least we can stay warm until we die and respawn back into town.”

Twilight frowned at Trixie. “Don’t say that. We need to stay alive long enough to find Rainbow Dash and Morning Shower. They’re currently by themselves and are at the mercy of a hacker.”

“So are we, Twilight.” Trixie sighed as she sat down, cupping her hooves together in the center of the group. She softly spoke, “Ignis Aeternus.” A ball of flame was born in her hooves, small but was warm enough to comfort the small group. The darkness around them seemed to shy away from the new light.

“Wow,” Twilight mumbled. “Do you have to keep feeding Mana into it?”

“Nope,” Trixie answered. “Ignis Aeternus, it means Fire Everlasting in Dratin, the language of the Dragons. It’s a spell that will create this small ball of flames. It exists as long as I want it to. Mostly I use it when I go into cold areas. Sealed it in a jar like Fluttershy’s, but only smaller. It can only deal 1 damage per second if I use it to hit somebody, and the Blaze aftereffect only lasts for three seconds. It’s one of the weakest, most useless spells in the game if not the most weakest.”

Rarity released Twilight and rubbed her hooves together as she brought them closer to the fire. “Well I wouldn’t jump to those conclusions so quickly, darling. Well it’s quite helpful right now. My hooves were starting to become ice cubes for a moment.”

“It’s our only comfort, before our inevitable end of course,” Trixie sighed, “Applejack and Pinkie Pie are strong, but they can’t keep this up forever.” Trixie continued to stare at the flame, loathing at what it signified, and didn’t look up until she grew tired of looking at the fire. Three pairs of eyes were giving her weird stares. Trixie, slightly caught off guard, sputtered, “W– what is it? Does Trixie have something on her face?”

Twilight lifted a hoof and pointed slightly at her. “Did… did you just admit that you think Applejack is strong?”

Trixie’s cheeks bloomed with pink colors. She then gave Twilight an angry glare. “Ssssshhh! T- Trixie did!” Trixie harshly whispered. “But don’t say that out loud!”

“Why not?” Rarity asked, whispering at a softer level. “I think Applejack would like to hear that.”

“I would never say that in front of her!”

“Um, but why?” Fluttershy asked, fitting nicely into the current conversation.

“Trixie’s business is none of yours,” she hissed.

Twilight tilted her head to the side. “I don’t get it, Trixie. Can’t you and Applejack just get along for once?”

“Th- that is impossible for Trixie,” Trixie scowled.

“Why not? It’s not hard to give out a compliment or two– ”

“B– because Trixie doesn’t like to admit there are others better than her yet! You’re an exception, Twilight, as well as the Princesses, but nopony else! Happy?”

“Well… that’s actually a really petty reason, Trixie. Why can’t you just be nice to Applejack? You’re nice to us.”

Trixie crossed her forehooves. “Not as nice as you think Trixie is to you.” She huffed. “Trixie… I have always rode solo ever since I was young. I never really made a lot of friends, and my sisters never liked me.”

“You had sisters?” Twilight asked.

Trixie nodded. “Yes. I was the youngest of seven, and I never really got along with any of them. I was often called the runt of the litter by my siblings, always ridiculed. They would always do it when my parents weren’t looking.”

“I don’t think you’re a runt,” Twilight said.

“S– so do I,” Fluttershy spoke.

“Thank you, but it doesn’t matter now.”

Twilight gave Trixie a look of sympathy. She tried to put herself in Trixie’s hooves, but it was hard to imagine her brother jeering and insulting her. He was her B.B.B.F.F., and Trixie must surely have somepony that cared a lot about her. “Trixie, I’m sorry, but I’m having a hard time accepting this. One of your sisters had to have liked you.”

Trixie pawed at the mossy surface of the cave. “Well… there was one…. ” She didn’t say anymore after that, and her head hung low.

Twilight lowered hers to meet Trixie’s eyes. “What was she like?”

“… She would always tell me… to never give up. She’s sort of like… like Luna and… ”

“And who?”

“… And… ”



+Ω‡‡¥‡‡Ω+



“Flexibility. Being adaptable, and resourceful. Using the surroundings, and what you have on you, to win. Am I right?”

“Well done my student. Using everything you have at your disposal is a sure way to win. If you don’t give it your all, then you can never see victory. Same thing applies to studying and exploring the field of magic. If you don’t take extra measures to solving the problem, then you’ll find yourself stuck in one spot.”



+Ω‡‡¥‡‡Ω+



”What’s wrong, Trix?”

“My project group! They’re holding me back, and we’re going to fail the magic fair because of that! They don’t agree with any of my ideas, even though they’re great and amazing!”

“Well what did you suggest?”

“I wanted to tame an Ursa Major, but they’re complete scaredey cats.”

“Um… Trix, I don’t think it’s a safe idea for you to be around an Ursa Major.”

“But sis, I’m a powerful unicorn! I’m the best at magic in my entire class!”

“He he, I know you are, and I’m sure when you grow up, you’ll tame an Ursa Major of your own.”

“Y– you think so, big sis?”

“Of course, silly filly, but I don’t think you should do it alone.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, an Ursa Major is quite a big and scary creature. You know of the legend of Hearther and the Bear, do you?”

“Of course! Hearther is the bravest knight in all of Equestria, and she wields a big sword called Excu– Exclee– Exu– ”

“Excalibur.”

“Excalibur! And she took down the giant Ursa alone with her sword!”

“I don’t know, Trix. Aren’t you missing something else in your story?”

“Umm… I don’t think so? Did I?”

“Yes. Hearther’s band of warriors, the Knights of the Hay Table. They helped her defeat the scary Ursa Major that was threatening the lands of Equestria. If it wasn’t for their help, Hearther may have never been able to defeat the beast. Do you see what I’m saying?”

“Um… I guess?”

“What is it then?”

“Um… I’m sorry, big sis. I don’t know.”

“Ahaha, that’s okay! That’s okay! The answer is simple: make friends.”

“But nopony at the school wants to be me friend. They all hate me!”


”Now you know that’s not true. You’re a smart filly, Trix. You know that as much as I do, and I know you’re the kindest, sweetest thing to ever exist! I know you’ll make friends someday. Remember that they are there to help you grow stronger, and that you should be strong for them as well. Just like how you should be strong for your team. I’m sure whatever idea they came up with, it’ll be great, but they can’t do it without your support. Teamwork and friendship are the most powerful things to ever exist.”

“Um… okay, big sis! I’ll try to be nice to them.”

“That’s the Trix I know! Now, do you want to go get some ice cream? My treat.”

“Oh yes please! Can we go now please?”

“Ha ha ha, of course, Trix!”

“Yay!”



+Ω‡‡¥‡‡Ω+



“… Teamwork and friendship are the most powerful things to ever exist.”

Twilight blinked. “What was that? I couldn’t really hear that.”

Trixie lifted her head up. Twilight recognized something in Trixie’s eyes. She’d seen it in herself so many times when she looked in a mirror. It was determination. Trixie got up, the small ball of fire in her hoof. “Applejack! You said had some rope, right?”

“Sure do! Why did you ask?” Applejack grunted as she smashed away a Beazard leaping towards her.

“Toss ‘em over here! As much as you can!”

Applejack didn’t question Trixie’s motives and pulled the rope out of her Inventory as she ran. “Here!”

She threw them across the chamber, towards Trixie. She caught them with ease.

“Thank you, Applejack. Pinkie, give me a dozen of your best Butterbeer!”

“Coming right up! Be careful to not drop them! They’re slippery!”

In midair, Pinkie Pie pulled out a sack of Butterbeer from her satchel and tossed it over to Trixie. She caught it by the neck of it with her magic. “Thank you, this will help very well,” she said as she uncapped one. Then she cut a length of the rope with her magic and soaked it in the bottle’s fluid.

“What are you doing,” Twilight asked.

“It’s a simple plan, really, but it’s a plan that will definitely turn the tables.”

On Applejack’s side, things weren’t looking so hot for her. The Beazards kept battering their paws at her with enormous strength that could topple trees, lowering her Health Bar down to the red area. Her wall of Health and Armor was usually enough to last for three day and nights of grinding if she never defended and only attacked. By the end of it, she would still have a good strong 25% of Health, but these monsters managed to cut it down to even less than that in a matter of ten minutes or so!

Pinkie Pie was able to keep three of them on her tail, and her health is still full green, but the energetic pony looked like she was about to actually tire out. Applejack can’t let that happen. The Beazards would tear her to pieces if they ever reached her. As the horrid thought was on her mind, she didn’t notice she was backed into a corner, until it was too late.

“Oh buck.” Applejack started to dart away, but the two Beazards had already trapped her like a mouse. “Celestia fucking damn it.”

No clear openings, no way out. Applejack’s legs were straining to keep her up, and her tail was past its limits, so no balance for her. It was an unfair standoff in the monsters’ favor, and she didn’t like it one bit. She silently declared that Umbra Mist was too overpowered. If only it was gone, her friends would be able to clean up this fight easily.

Keeping her war hammer between her and the Beazards, Applejack grunted, “Looks like this it, fellas. Just you and me.”

“Nope! I’m not gonna let you hog all the fun!” Applejack could barely see her, but she knew the voice belonged to Trixie. She instantly recognized the smugness in her tone.

Soon after Trixie had uttered those words, something small and fiery came into existence from Trixie and it soared high into the air, arcing towards Applejack’s direction. She expected the flame to fizzle out, but somehow it miraculously stayed alive. As soon as the fire made contact with the ground, the shattering sound of glass cried out and soon a puddle of fire was born from where the fire had crashed. The fog in Applejack’s area had disappeared completely, allowing Applejack to see the Beazards and all of their ugliness.

Soon, more fire puddles sprouted throughout the chamber as Trixie threw more of them. One by one, the fire bathed the entire arena in glorious, warm light, burning away the Umbra Mist’s void. In Trixie’s hoof, Applejack can see she was tossing Pinkie Pie’s Butterbeer up and down with a length of rope poking out from it. The end of it was on fire. When Applejack looked at her Health Bar, she saw that the Magic Debuff was completely gone.

“Makeshift molotovs,” Trixie shortly explained. “Thanks to your rope and Pinkie’s delicious drinks, my fire will grow bigger and stronger and forever.”

She tossed the last Molotov at one of the Beazards chasing Pinkie Pie, setting it on fire. The fire grew over the entire monster, consuming it completely. The Beazard separated from the group as it tried to pat the flames away, making it an open target. Twilight’s eyes widened and she took a look at her hooves. A familiar blue glow formed between them. Suddenly smiling, Twilight threw the Magic Missile at the burning Beazard. The spell exploded on impact, knocking it off its paws as well as half of its Health. Trixie boldly stepped out of Fluttershy’s circle, picking up her staff from the ground with her magic and spun it over her head again.

“Ashes to Dust.” Trixie, with all of her might, launched the spinning staff towards the downed Beazard, obliterating it into data dust. “Now it’s our turn to strike!”

Applejack stared at Trixie for a couple seconds before adopting a confident smile of her own. “Right behind you, Trixie!”

At the melody of Fluttershy’s supportive Song Buff spells, the mares unleashed complete devastation upon the Beazards.



+Ω‡‡¥‡‡Ω+



It all happened so quickly. Faster than Rainbow’s eyes could keep track of. In one moment, Master Wind had Rainbow under his boot, ready to shoot. In the next, he was on the ground, lying in a crimson pool of blood with an enormous steel arrow impaled through his rib cage. A river of his fluids ran from the wound, staining the ground. He struggled to get up, craning his head up, but was hit immediately as two more arrows whizzed through the air and buried themselves into his neck. His body twitched for a few moments before stopping.

The chamber then started bursting with flashes of light, followed by multiple loud bangs. The white light had flooded Rainbow’s vision with its glory. “Augh! What the hay?” Rainbow yelled, her eyes pained by the sudden light show. She then felt something grab her shoulder. “Hey! Let go of me!” She fought back against the thing.

A deep voice entered her ears. “Relax. You’re only going to hurt yourself if you keep doing that.”

“Oh yeah, then how do I know you won’t? I bet you’re one of his lackeys!”

“I’m not, now quit your fussing.”

Rainbow felt a sharp stab in the upper part of her right forearm. “Ow! I knew it! You do work for him, you good for nothing piece of– ”

“Calm down! For Celestia’s sake, you sure do like to jump to conclusions.”

Rainbow’s vision was starting to come back to her, white circles left in her eyesight. She blinked them away and saw the player sitting over her. In his hoof was an empty potion bottle with a needle cap over it. Rainbow looked at her Health Bar and saw it was fully restored. Rainbow patted her chest took deep breaths. Her lungs didn’t feel like she was being crushed under an elephant. She looked past him and saw the other Beazard was lying still on the ground with a huge steel arrow sticking out of its back.

“What the?” Rainbow mumbled, slightly confused. “Did you heal me? And you killed that thing?“

He nodded, “Of course I did. Why would I not do that? You were almost beaten down to Tartarus there. I can’t just leave you lying here. Wouldn’t be right.” The player then left Rainbow to go see the cages.

As Rainbow got to her hooves, she could see he was wearing a grey chainmail suit wrapped over his body from neck to the fetlocks of his hooves. He wore green leather armor over it. A brown cloak covered over his back and hind legs, and over his head was a brown hood. Upon quick and careful observation, Rainbow could see small, familiar bumps underneath the cloak on either side of him. She guessed they were possibly wings he was hiding. He also sported green goggles with bronze rims that went over his black face mask. Above him, Rainbow could see his Player Name: Alseer.

Upon reaching Morning’s cage, Alseer touched one of the bars. The cage glowed brightly before it disappeared with a shattering sound, light particles left dancing in its place before they faded away. Alseer did the same thing with Morning’s bonds and Capricorn’s, freeing them.

“There we go. The cages and ropes were preventing you from logging out, so you should be free to exit the game now or use any Escape Items.”

Morning rubbed the sores where the ropes wrapped around her. “How did you know that?”

Alseer chuckled, “A good superhero never reveals their secret.”

Morning looked at him with her jaw hanging open and her pupils wide. “A… superhero?”

“Yep!” He laughed. “Although I think I was pushing it a little too much there? Maybe I should just stick with hero.”

“But why are you here?”

“Oh, well, you see I hunt down hackers and cheaters. The Coders are limited in their operations, so I do whatever I can to help.” Alseer looked at Rainbow. “I’ve actually been chasing this guy down for quite some time, but it wasn’t easy to narrow down his hideout until Rainbow came here.”

Morning’s eyes widened even further and seemed to sparkle. “Wow… that’s so cool.”

Rainbow walked up to Alseer. “Hold on a second, how do you know my name?” She pointed at the Player Name above her. It read RainStreak. “I mean, I can understand it if you were a fan of mine, but you don’t seem to be one. So what gives?”

Alseer looked at Rainbow, then at Morning, then back to Rainbow. He coughed once into his hoof. “Oh, uh, you’re very well known around Equestria, Rainbow Dash. Being an Element of Loyalty does give you quite a bit of celebrity status.”

Rainbow stared at Alseer, doubt and suspicion baking inside her, but then dropped the skeptical look. “Not a lot of ponies that I’ve met in real life seem to care, but I’ll give you that.”

“Of course. Now, I believe there is a certain somepony waiting for you.”

“O– oh right.” Rainbow turned towards Morning, an awkward silence falling between them before it was broke by Rainbow suddenly hugging her, smiling. “Morning! I’m glad you’re okay. You made me worried sick to my stomach, squirt!”

“Y– you were worried about me?”

“Of course I do! It’s my fault that you got kidnapped!” Rainbow released Morning from her life-squeezing embrace. She noticed there were even more bruises on Morning’s body, and that the feathers in her wings were tattered. She felt her voice croak, and a troubled expression grew on her. “M– Morning, you’re hurt.”

Moring looked down at her chest, and saw the bruises. “Oh these? D– don’t worry about them, Rainbow! These are just tattoos I have! Honest!” Morning laughed profusely. Her laughter made her sides hurt – literally – and made her wince tenderly with her eyes shut closed.

“… Morning.” She opened her eyes to see Rainbow was mad, although slightly crying. “Please don’t lie to me. It’s really my fault that this happened to you, and you’re making me feel worse by trying to make me feel better. After all… I’m just a weak coward.” Her expression softened as she soothingly rubbed Morning’s shoulders. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

Morning was about to say something, but then she dropped her gaze. “… Okay. Can we go get Capricorn too?”

“Of course. I’ll carry her on my back and we ca– ”

“Watch out!”

Rainbow Dash turned her head around to see a red energy ball coming towards her at high speed, its burning tail slithering in the air. In Alseer’s hoof, a crossbow materialized and he aimed at the blood lusted projectile. A silver bolt was short forth and pierced through the ball, splitting it in half before the ball exploded. A particle show of red fire and smoldering ashes rained down on the ground, painting speckles on the rocky floor with their bright colors. A trail of smoke was snaking out from the end of Master Wind’s cane. It was quivering as Master Wind struggled to aim.

“I’m –” Master Wind hacked up some blood, staining the ground even further, “– I’m not done with you yet! You bitches are going to pay for what you did to me!”

Alseer started to walk towards him, unafraid of the weapon in his hooves. Master Wind changed his aim over to him and started shooting madly, desperately pulling the trigger multiple times. None of the volatile bullets ever reached Alseer as he simply dodged them with a tilt of his head or side step.

“So you think you’re hot stuff, huh?” Master Wind sneered, despite the blood streaming from his mouth. A holographic panel appeared in front of him and he quickly selected a couple things before closing it. A crazed smile splited Master’s muzzle, his eyes glinting like a madpony’s. “Let’s see you try to dodge somebody with Aimbot and homing projectiles! Die!”

He began bombarding Alseer again, this time his cane automatically lined right at Alseer’s head. Balls of energy were sent flying straight towards Alseer, but the markspony fired off shots of his own and destroyed them before they could get him. With every premature detonation increasing by the number, the path between Master Wind and Alseer grew redder, and Master’s smile was slowly melting into hot anger.

“I- Impossible! There’s no way you can beat me!”

Master Wind kept on shooting until his gun clicked dry. He ran out of bullets. Master Wind, in a frenzy, quickly scrolled through his Menu to log out, but was immediately interrupted by a kick in the face from Alseer. He then pressed a forehoof on Master’s cheeks, his body and Master’s glowed momentarily before he was pulled away.

Master Wind laughed out loudly. “I don’t know what you did, but it’s too late now! I’m gonna log out, and you’ll never catch me again!” He went through his Menu again and his wild grin was dropped when his escape option was completely gone. “W– what the Tartarus?! What did you do to me?”

“The same thing you did to Morning and Capricorn,” Alseer responded. “I simply just gave you a taste of your own medicine.”

“What?!” Master Wind snarled. “Filth! You’re a hacker too then?”

Master Wind’s angry expression melted away into feebleness as Alseer pressed his face against his. It was impossible for him to see past the thick green tint of his goggles. “Call me what you want, but understand that I’m not scum like you and the other cheaters. I hunt you down and bring you to justice. Normally, I would teleport you into the nearest Coder Headquarters right now and have you arrested for online harassment, but I think others would rather like to do that themselves. Enjoy your last moments of freedom while you can.”



+Ω‡‡¥‡‡Ω+



Yellow tape boundaries had surrounded the entire area, around the entrance to Winsome Caverns. NPC Guards and Coders had set up parameters and issued investigation parties to search the dungeon. Other players who had heard of what occurred here had gathered around, only to be kept away by the NPCs. Whispers and talks in the crowds were mostly about the Code Warriors.

Apparently the game makers, Digital Dreamscapers, thought it was a good time to reveal the existence of the Coders about a couple hours ago. With all these troublesome hackers going around, they believed it would be best to have a shining icon for everybody to look up to, and it shook the VR community hard. The forums over on the EE Hubnet, the largest fansite and community for Equestrian Earth, had a torrential burst of threads popping in it, all of them having topics relating to the Code Warriors. It was a mixture of positive and negative feedback, but the Coders kept working on, like nothing happened.

It didn’t really matter to Rainbow, however. She was just glad they got out of that mess, and got some medical attention right away. Apparently, the game also had a staff team of professional therapists to help those who had problems concerning mental health. Mostly though, they just get players who had been playing the game for too long. However, Morning was doing quite well and Capricorn was there to support her.

As for Rainbow Dash, she and her friends had decided to give Morning some time to talk with Capricorn. They went to go rest upon a nearby hill and were retelling their stories of what went down with in the caverns. When Rainbow finished up her story about the hacker and the mysterious pony, Rarity asked a question.

“And he disappeared without a trace? He sounded quite odd, and I can’t imagine calling him a superhero.”

“Yeah. Alseer is kind of weird, but he’s pretty strong. And he just upped and vanished in an instant,” Rainbow said, lying down on the grass. “Kinda irritated me a bit though. I wanted to fight Master Wind myself.”

“But you got your flank handed to you right?” Trixie said, hollering in laughter.

“Hey! I totally could have beaten those two Beazards by myself. It was just the fog that was giving them the advantage.”

Twilight nodded. “I’m pretty sure you can. But this Raynor guy you’ve mentioned… ”

“What? Do you recognize the name?” Rainbow asked, noticing Twilight’s pause.

“Mmm no I don’t. Although it’s a name that we’ll have to remember. I get the feeling we’ll see him again in the future,” Twilight frowned.

“Yeah, and I’ll be the first one to punch him in the face,” Rainbow chuckled.

“And Ah’ll kick him in dah hindquarters!” Applejack laughed along. “Ah’m just glad you made it out alright.”

“Excuse me, ma’ams?” Rainbow Dash looked up to see a stallion in white uniform and beret walking towards them. It was one of those Coder guys. “Sorry to interrupt, but we would like to talk to you about the hacker.”

“Of course. Is there anything we can do to help?” Twilight asked.

“No, no. We have it under control.”

“What’s going to happen to him?” Rarity asked.

“Well normally we would just go with the proceedings to ban his IP address, but since he committed the acts of severe online harassment and holding players as hostages against their wills, he will not go unpunished. In the real world, authorities will come and arrest him. You won’t see him again, I assure you.”

Twilight sighed with relief. “That’s good.”

“Also, there is the question of reward still standing.”

Rarity bulldozed over the mares and stood chest-to-chest against the Coder, her eyes gleaming with money symbols. “Did you say reward?”

Rarity was soon knocked back into her senses as she was magically pulled away from the surprised Coder by the ear. “You’re scaring him, Rarity,” Twilight said. She then gave him an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry about that, sir. It won’t happen again.”

“No harm done,” he chuckled as he reached into his vest. “But yes, we do want to thank you for aiding in the capture of this hacker. It’s a brave deed you all have done, and I believe what we have to offer is not enough.”

The Coder pulled out a small, dull pouch a large enough to fit snuggly into a schoolfoal’s hooves. He tossed it over to Rarity for her to catch. Rarity frowned as she caught it, judging the bag’s appearance and size.

“Well you’re certainly right when you said it’s not enough. I risked my life going into an icky, mossy, muddy cavern ran by a madpony!”

“All of us did,” Trixie added. “Is this some sort of joke?”

He shook his head. “No it is not. Take a look inside.”

Rarity felt all eyes upon her as she loosened the string around the pouch’s neck. A brilliant glow powerful enough to rival the sun’s was unleashed from the pouch as soon as she opened it. “What in the heavens?” Rarity whispered as peered inside. She then screeched out loud, “Five thousand Aetherium Crystals?!” She fainted, keeping a tight clutch on the bag.

“Aetherium Crystals? What the hay are those?” Applejack asked, scratching her head.

The Coder went on to explain. “Well you see, Aetherium Crystals are a special type of currency in the game. They’re only obtainable from Super Bosses and Raid Bosses, and can be used to purchase very special and unique items that can be bought at Canterlot and the Crystal Empire.”

Trixie nodded, “I’ve heard about them. The more powerful the Super Boss is, the more Crystals are dropped. I don’t know much about the items that can be bought by the Crystals, but I know that Princess Luna has some powerful equipment. From what I saw, those weapons are pretty powerful. More powerful than you can imagine.” Trixie pulled on the pouch, but found it quite hard to take from Rarity’s grip. Finally, the fashionista had relinquished her hold on it. Trixie reached inside and pulled out a brilliant diamond-shaped crystal that glowed with the colors of an aurora. Trixie gazed deeply into its colorful depths. “Wow. They look better than I had imagined.”

“Ooohhh, that’s a superdoperifcly shiney biny!!” Pinkie Pie yelled joyfully.

“Quite,” the Coder smiled. “Also, there is somepony who would like to talk to you.” The Coder stepped aside to reveal Morning Shower who had been hiding behind him. Rainbow raised her eyebrows at her. “Well I think I am done here. I shall leave you to your own businesses. Take care.” The Coder walked back to his fellow coworkers.

Nopony dared to speak up at all while Morning and Rainbow stared at each other, with Morning looking slightly more nervous. “U– um, hi Rainbow Dash.”

“Hey kiddo,” Rainbow softly smiled. “How did it go?”

“Pretty well. The therapists say that I’m in good condition to continue playing the game.” Morning slightly blushed as she gazed away. “I, um, just wanted to say thank you for saving me. I thought you’d hate me forever after what I did.”

Rainbow heavily sighed. “There’s no way I would hate you for that. You were just trying your best to impress me. That’s all. And frankly, I don’t think I deserve your gratitude.”

Morning whirled her head towards Rainbow in shock. “But why? You saved me from that dreaded stallion. You came, to save me!”

Rainbow couldn’t bear to look at Morning anymore. “But I was the one that drove you away. If I hadn’t, you probably wouldn’t have gone through that. I’m just a weak coward.”

“But you’re not weak!” Morning insisted.

“Yes I am! I’m an idiot for driving you into Master Wind’s hooves and I know it!”

Morning tried to look into Rainbow’s eyes, but she refused to face Morning, even when she moved around in attempts to get in her vision. After a minute of this absurd behavior, Morning finally had enough and did the unthinkable: she slapped Rainbow Dash. Hard.

“Ow! Why did you do– ”

Morning grabbed her by the cheeks, and then grabbed Rainbow into her embrace.

“Rainbow, listen to me please. I believe in you, Rainbow Dash. If you hadn’t come down there to save me, I probably would have been a goner. What Master Wind said, are all lies. Facing him by yourself took real courage, and admitting to your own mistakes takes even more. Forget what he said about you, because you’re the strongest pony I know.”

“But– ”

Morning slightly pulled back from the hug to place a hoof on Rainbow’s lips. “No buts. You’re brave, strong, incredible, amazing, and fast. You’re the coolest pony I ever had the honor of meeting, and that’s more than I could ever ask for.”

Rainbow blinked several times before her cheeks grew slightly warm. Pulling away from Morning’s hoof, she mumbled, “D– don’t mention it… and thanks.” She smiled at her. “That made me feel a little better.”

“I would hope so,” Morning grinned back. She then got off Rainbow and shyly blushed again. “Um… Rainbow Dash?”

“Hmm?”

“I wanted to give you something, but I didn’t have to chance to do so back in town. Since I have to log off soon, I want to give it to you now.”

Out of her inventory, Morning pulled out two soft and cuddly things. Rainbow gasped sharply when she saw them. “A– are those– ”

“Limited edition plush dolls of Daring Do Adventurer Spitfire and Power Pony Soarin? Yes indeed.” Rainbow squealed in joy without shame, as Morning pressed them into her arms. “It took a lot of time and effort, but I managed to make these items exist in the game. I had to raise my Sewing Skill Level by a lot in order to make them. They also provide helpful speed and critical damage boosts as well.” Morning fiddled with her forehooves. “I also have them in real life. If you ever come by Cloudsdale, I’ll be sure to give them to you personally.”

Rainbow took a second to let the moment sink in. She then gave Morning a hug. “That would be incredible, Morning. Of course I’ll come by and visit!”

“R– really?”

“Really.”

Morning pulled away from the hug. “C– cool! I also have something else for you too!” She reached into her Inventory again and soon, a plush doll of Rainbow’s likeness appeared in her hooves. From the rainbow mane and tail to the blue coat and cutie mark, it highly resembled her. It was also dressed in a miniature Wonderbolts outfit. “I made a real one after I first saw you perform the Sonic Rainboom in Cloudsdale, at The Best Young Flyer Competition. I was so sure you were going to be made into a Wonderbolt back then, and I still do now.”

Rainbow couldn’t believe what she was hearing. To think that there was somepony who believed, so much in her dreams... She accepted the doll, holding it with care.

“Thank you, Morning. It’s awesome.”

Morning beamed brightly as she heard that. “Well I gotta get going now. It’s going to be morning soon.”

“Alright, Morning.” Rainbow hugged her one more time. “I’ll be sure to visit you first thing when I log out.”

Morning giggled, “I'm looking forward to it.”

Rainbow watched as Morning scrolled through the Menu and selected, log out. Rainbow looked up into the sky as Morning disappeared into a blue beam of light and soared high above the clouds. She rested easy as she lay back onto the bristly grass. The sun’s rays felt perfect.

“I’ll see you around, sky mare. I’ll see you around.”



+Ω‡‡¥‡‡Ω+



Time Turner was a stallion of many outfits. He was a famous actor, a genius of mechanical science, a theorist of time magic, historian, and a brilliant programmer. He enjoyed long walks on the beach and the company of close friends. He also enjoyed video games, and Equestrian Earth was by far the most beautiful. It was jaw-dropping for him at how this virtual reality world felt so real to him. Every scent was right on the mark, every color on everything he ever saw were correct, every drop of the rocks, the chirping of birds, the diverse personalities that each NPC had. They all felt genuine. If he was able to, he would love to spend the rest of his days sitting on its beautiful hills, drinking tea.

But of course, the night in the real world couldn’t last forever, but it was long enough for him to enjoy the game. Relaxing on a comfortable blanket with tea and snacks nearby was an experience that Time Turner felt that all queens and kings would strive for. All that was missing was a friend to share it with.

“Hello Doctor.”

Time Turner smiled as he looked up at the player standing over him. “Hello Alseer. How was your night so far?”

“It was good I guess.” Alseer sat by Time Turner on the blanket. “Have anything to eat?”

“I have muffins,” he said, offering one on a small plate to him.

“Oh my favorite! How did you know?” Alseer laughed as he took it, saying a quick ‘thanks.’

“I know you better than anypony else. Muffins being your favorite form of snack and meal is no secret.”

“You know I’m just messing with you, Time Turner,” Alseer chuckled.

“I know,” Time Turner smiled. He looked down from the hill at where Winsome Caverns were at. They were far away enough to not be spotted by anypony from over there, but were close enough to see everything that was happening. “So I guess you just left him there?”

“Yeah. I get the feeling that Rainbow Dash would hate me if I teleported him away, without giving her the satisfaction of turning him in herself,” Alseer grunted. “You know how she can get.”

“Of course I know. I know she can be nice sometimes, but she has a rough brush of brashness on her shoulders.” Time Turner looked away from the Coder operations to glance at Alseer. “Does she know who you are?”

“No, I didn’t give myself away. It would raise too many questions.”

“Yes, yes, right. That was silly of me to ask. By the way, how long are you going to keep that disguise up?”

“Oh sorry,” he said as he scrolled through the Menu.

The face mask and hood were de-equipped, revealing a grey face and blond mane that were hiding underneath them. Alseer moved the goggle lens over to her forehead, revealing a pair of golden, beautiful eyes looking in different directions. She deactivated the voice changer, making her voice from deep to her bubbly self. The Player Name above her changed from Alseer to her real name.

“There. Is that better?” she giggled.

Time Turner smiled. “Much better, Ditzy. Much better.”



+Ω‡‡¥‡‡Ω+





Rainbow Streak (RD) has Leveled Up to Lv 35!
Tier 4 Class: Swordsmare
~ HP Increased: 3500 ⇒ 3575 (+10 from END)
~ Mana Increased: 950 ⇒ 975 (+10 from SPR)
>> 10 Attribute Points are gained; 3 Skill Points are gained <<
Attribute Points Allocation:
>> Auto Distribution Selected <<
~ STR Increased: 124 ⇒ 127
~ DEX Increased: 86 ⇒ 88
~ LUK Increased: 195 ⇒ 200
Skill Point Allocation:
[Warning!] All current skills are already maxed out! Must Ascend to a Tier 3 Class in order to gain new skills!
Recommend Tier 3 Class(es):
― Bladesmare- Sword wielders who rely on equal amounts of attack and defense. Can become a Heroic Captain at Tier 1. Can utilize shields and one-armed weapons.
>> ― Mercenary- Sword wielders who are all about attacking. Can become a Champion Duelist at Tier 1. Can utilizes one-armed weapons or two-armed weapons.
Rainstreak has accepted the quest to become a Mercenary.





LassoLass (AJ) has Leveled Up to Lv 34!
Tier 3 Class: Blessed Knight
~ HP Increased: 4400 ⇒ 4500 (+162 from END)
~ Mana Increased: 1750 ⇒ 1800 (+119 from SPR)
>> 10 Attribute Points are gained; 3 Skill Points are gained <<
Attribute Points Allocation:
>> Auto Distribution Selected <<
~ STR Increased: 111 ⇒ 114
~ END Increased: 158 ⇒ 162
~ SPR Increased: 116 ⇒ 119
Skill Point Allocation:


[Bright Barrier] Lv 3 ⇒ 5 Maxed!
Type ~ Active
Description ~ Singular. Targets yourself or an ally. It casts a spherical light shield around the target and protects them from physical and magic attacks. Cannot defend against traps or trap-based attacks. Disappears after 10 seconds.
Lv 5 - Gives an HP Shield of 400 (+25% of the Blessed Knight’s HP). After the shield breaks or disappears, light will explode around the player in a small radius of 3 feet, dealing 150 Magic Dmg (+10% of the Blessed Knight’s HP).




[Light’s Extension]Lv 4 ⇒ 5 Maxed!
Type ~ Active
Description ~ Upon activation, your weapon deals bonus Light-Based magic damage and gains a bright glow around it. Lasts a time limit of minutes equal to the Skill Level.
Lv 5 - Gives your weapon bonus Light-Based magic damage of 100 (+75% of SPR). Disappears after 5 minutes.







+Ω‡‡¥‡‡Ω+





MagiAdept (TS), you have received a message. Would you like to open it? ([Yes]/No)
>> MagiAdept has chosen Yes.
Your message is from System Notifications.


Dear MagiAdept,
We would like to remind you that you’re now Level 36. All players are free to play in whatever style they want, but it is recommended that players must ascend through more powerful Tier Classes in order to explore more dangerous territory and receive better loot. There are plenty of options for you to choose from. If you’re having trouble deciding which Class you want to Ascend to, you can talk to the nearest Player Guide to help make your choice, or you can ask other players for advice. We hope whatever choice you make, you’re happy with it.
Message End.







= :Rainbow Dash: Mini Arc Ends =