Every top gamer worth their salt knew about Arête. In general I could ask anypony — Sweetie Belle, Archer, Button, even Shady Daze. If I wanted to get any useful information, though, there was only one pony to see.
Waiting for recess, I casually entered the classroom. Cheerilee gave me a look ranging somewhere between confusion and disappointment, but didn't say a word. This was another mess I was going to have to fix in the near future.
Passing by Scootaloo, I made it appear as if I tripped. It only took a second, but a nod from the sports captain told me she got the message. Few knew, but Scoots and I had one thing in common — we both shared the same Web mentor. Of course, he was teaching her pro gaming, while my interests were more of the hacking variety. The first day we learned about our connection, neither of us could believe it. I didn't know that MaDster took gaming apprentices, and she couldn't believe I was the notorious 'Harpy'. I guess that put me in her cool book, although not to the extent that we would become besties.
"After school?" she whispered, making sure nopony was around to hear.
"Can't," I whispered back. "Sis set me up with Shady." Curses! That came out so wrong. The surprised look on her face clearly showed I had goofed. "Long story," I added quickly in an attempt to save what little remained of my dignity. "Can we do it now?"
"Clubhouse," she whispered, then left the room. Perfect. Now it was my turn. Putting my books in my saddlebag, I passed by the bathroom to collect my new Web gear, then trotted straight for the clubhouse. There was no point in worrying how much trouble I was in at school. If it was serious, I could rely on Amethyst to sort things out for me. That was something she was really good at.
When I arrived, Scoots was already there, leaning against the trunk of a tree. Above her the clubhouse of the Boomdrops loomed - home of some of the best Bolt players in Equestria. I had no illusions — I wouldn't be invited, of course. Gamers were extremely superstitious about everything involving their lairs, and Scoots wouldn't risk the ranking of her team for me.
"How bad is it?" She asked, directly, her minute wings flapping several times. Even now, they were a third the size of normal pegasus wings, yet thankfully, were capable of lifting her in the air.
"Everything is fine," I put on my best lying face. "Just a slight crash and burn, nothing anypony should..."
"You never say things are fine," Scootaloo sighed. "Unless you are in trouble."
"I tell you, I am not in trouble!" I protested. "Not more than usual. I just need info on something, then I'll be off and all. Just name your price, and let's get started."
To my surprise Scootaloo laughed, the mocking laughter she usually reserved for gamer wannabes that failed to impress her.
"We aren't in the Web, Dinky," she said, moving closer. "Here, you are a really bad liar. You miss class, then return and ask me for a meet-up. I know it's not Bolt related because you can't stand the game. Actually, I haven't seen you like any game. What's really going on?"
I sighed. Damn the pegasi with their eye for detail.
"It's DD," I said. "She stumbled upon something... I mean we both stumbled on it. Thing is, it involves something more in your area of expertise."
"That's why she didn't come yesterday," the pegasus kicked some dirt in the air. Like her idol Rainbow Dash, she really hated not being the center of attention.
"Look, we did some stuff you don't want to know about," I pressed on. "Nothing too serious, just weird." The look she gave me could make Celestia feel guilty. "Alright, it might be serious. My avatar got wiped, DD's got reset to factory settings... the thing is she managed to get her hooves on some source code."
"Oh?" Scoots tried to remain cool, but I saw both her tail and ears flick. I could tell she was just dying to hear more. "Something game related, I take it?"
"Sort of. She found some garbled code that mentioned Arête, so I'd like to know what you can tell me about..." I stopped. The usually cool Scootaloo was gaping at me, mouth so wide open I swear my saddle back could fit inside.
"Mother Alicorn of Gamers," she said in a voice that made mine sound assertive.
"Err, right," I cautiously took a step back. "I'm ashamed to say I don't know much of the lore, so was hoping you could help out."
"Who else knows about this?" she asked, looking around nervously. "MaDster? Twilight? Anypony in the real world?"
"No, only me and DD," I lied. Scoots would go ballistic if she found out Silver Spoon was aware. Hay, she would go ballistic if she ever found out DD was Diamond Tiara. It was honestly hilarious how nopony had caught on. Guess the notion of Her Snobbiness hacking was more than some minds could handle.
"We better go inside." Scoots fluttered up to the clubhouse, and to my surprise indicated that I join her. Whatever Arête was for her, it was way more important than game rankings.
The inside of the clubhouse was way different from how I remembered it. Last time I had been here was years ago, when I helped Sweetie Belle carry some materials from her sister's boutique. Back then they were still Cutie Mark Crusaders, but since then quite a few improvements had been made. For starters, the place was set up so it could contain five fully grown ponies, as well as a game room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and knowing gamers' egos — a trophy room. Instantly, I noticed the place was impeccably well kept, too much so for a gamer's lair. With Sweetie Belle living here, I wasn't the least bit surprised.
"Just sit anywhere," Scoots said, and went to a beanbag that had the word 'Wings' written on it in large, fiery orange letters. "And get something to drink if you want."
"I'm good," I said, uncomfortably remaining in the center of the room. As much as I hated to admit it, I did feel slightly starstruck. I never was an avid gamer, but being here, what thousands considered to be one of the holy places of gaming, made me feel somewhat special. Maybe I should let Shady give me gaming lessons? Hay, I could probably reach the top hundred if I tried.
"What do you know?" Scoots asked as she relaxed on top of the beanbag.
"About Arête?" My mind switched back to reality. "Just that she is the Mother of Hackers and Gamers that helps her followers if they are in trouble. They say praying to her before a game decreases lag. I've read lots of other stuff, too, but it’s all bucking stupid."
The moment I said that blood rushed to my face. I really wasn't used swearing in the real world. At least not in front of others.
"That's it?" Scootaloo asked skeptically. "MaDster didn't tell you anything more?"
"Actually..." I smiled sheepishly. "MaDster didn't tell me anything about her. I just learned stuff from the Web. The Everfree forums mostly."
The look on her face could be described with only one word — pity. Flying off the beanbag, she landed right beside me.
"This way.” She led forward. We passed the kitchen and went upstairs into one of the messiest rooms I've seen. It was almost as bad as mine. Apparently not even Sweetie Belle could change that.
The walls were covered in posters: the Wonderbolts, Rainbow Dash, The Daring Do saga, Bolt: Resurgence, to name a few. Quite a lot of posters of her team, the Boomdrops, as well. Strange I was expecting there to be at least one of Princess Luna. She was a Webbers' favourite. Even I had one, signed and dedicated to me. I would like to say she had given it to me personally, but truth was, I had to wait in line at the second anniversary of the Dream Web. The Conglomerate did a huge push to introduce their latest line of products, and somehow managed to get all three Triumvirs to attend.
"If you say a word to anypony about this, I'll never speak to you again," Scoots said, opening the cupboard in the corner of her room. I could tell she was serious.
Cautiously, I went beside her and looked inside. Holy Celestia! This was Scoots' Web shrine! Back home I had one as well, carefully hidden from prying eyes. The only difference was, I had placed mine on the bottom of my bed.
Instantly I recognized a Princess Luna poster, MaDster's logo, along with FLT's, Aethzor's and five other of the big names. Slightly disconcerting, there was a print of me and DD, as well, right next to Sweetie Belle's pop idol poster. Guess I was among her Web friends after all.
"Took me a lot of time and bits to get these," Scootaloo said, her voice full of pride. I almost said that all she had to do to get a print of mine was just ask. It wasn't like I was a big name yet.
"Worth it, though. Especially this." Her hoof pointed to a small picture of a light magenta alicorn. If she hadn't brought my attention to it, I would have hardly noticed.
"Is that Arête?" I asked, moving in closer to get a better look.
She didn't look like anything special, to be honest. Most likely the artist had taken a photo of Luna, changed the colour scheme and added a few details. Her muzzle was a tad sharper and longer, and her eyes were literally drawn as two blue stars. Other than that I could easily describe her as magenta Luna.
"Nice artist rendition," I smiled. "You must give me the name, so I can get her to make some of me and DD."
"That's no artist's rendition," she said, sending chills through my bones. "That's MaDster's Web grab."
"You've something that belongs to MaDster?" The fanfilly in me screamed. Envy and excitement swept through me like a tidal wave. "Wait! MaDster has actually seen her?" I only now just realized. If he had indeed seen Arête, that was proof positive she had to exist.
"Now you get it," I felt Scoots pat me on the back with her wing. "You know, the Dream Web was made as a copy of Luna's dream world. Twilight came up with a set of rules that would allow ponies to create whatever they wished, without harming others."
"Twicode," I nodded. All scripts and protocols were based on Princess Twilight's original code.
"And Zecora created the device that would allow us to enter that world," the pegasus continued. "A Web of Dreams for all to enjoy."
"Yes, two Princesses and a zebra," I went along. "They made the prototype, but the Conglomerate came and messed things up."
"And do you know why they came?" she asked expectantly. "It's not like the Princesses are lacking resources. The reason is that the first Dream Web was a failure."
"What?!" I gasped.
"It only worked as long as Luna was there to maintain it. The instant she left, the whole thing would collapse. Not wanting to have their invention go to waste, the three decided to share the knowledge with all, in the hopes that their dream would become reality. And half a year later it did."
"Are you serious?" I could hardly believe what I was hearing. All this sounded so incredible that it couldn't possibly be true. How could the Conglomerate succeed where the Triumvirs had failed?
"Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and I played in the first prototype," she said, puffing out her chest. "We always were close to Twilight, even before she was a princess. Zecora and Luna too."
"Right," I sighed. I wish I had been close to any of them. How much fun would it have been if I could have helped out with the initial Twicode. Hay, I could have been a legend by now! Instead I had Derpy to foalsit me... talk about disappointing.
"So when the Dream Web launched, Twilight tried it out to see what was going on. She was convinced that the whole thing was a scam. It turned out that it wasn't. The Dream Web could maintain a stable world for an indefinite amount of time and allow thousands of ponies to enter at will."
My expression went blank. Was I missing something? Knowing Scoots, she usually went straight for the point. Why was she being so cryptic today? I knew most of the stuff she had said. Well, maybe not the thing about the prototype failing, but that aside, nothing I'd heard was exactly groundbreaking.
"Don't you get it?" she asked, almost accusingly. "Come on! If it takes a goddess to keep the Dream Web stable, and it has always remained since the Corporation built it, that means...?"
"That there has been a goddess in the Web ever since it was built?" I suggested, based on pure logic. My mind didn't even consider this an option at first. The whole idea was absurd.
"Not one," Scoots corrected me. "Several!"
"Wait, what?" I almost jumped back. Did she say what I think she did? "That’s the gamer lore about the Web goddesses? That they’re prisoners of the Conglomerate, forced to spend all eternity in the Web? Come on, Scoots, you can't expect me to swallow this."
"You're already thinking it," she said with a confident smile. "Otherwise you would have laughed by now and become all sarcastic."
Curse the pegasi and their attention to detail! Celestia save me, I really was considering it. But if it were true, how did the Conglomerate catch them? It was not like they could walk up to a goddess and hit her on the head with a club or something. For that matter, where does one find a goddess? The Sun and the Moon were still rotating, so that meant Luna and Celestia were safe. Twilight I had seen on my way to school. That left Cadence, though maybe somepony would have heard if the Princess of Love had been missing for a few years.
"Tell me about the picture," I demanded, the Harpy in me taking center stage.
"No," Scoots shook her head.
"What?" I couldn't believe it. After everything, after bringing me here to her clubhouse, after showing me her Web shrine, she refused? What the buck had gotten into her?!
"I haven't named my price," she said, polishing her forehoof on her shoulder. "That's what you said, right? Name my price and you deliver, right?"
Sneaky. I had completely forgotten she was a gamer, and gamers played to win. Should’ve known it would come to this.
"Name it," I said, ears flopping. This round was hers and we both knew it.
"I want to join you and DD as you search for Arête this afternoon," she said plainly. "Promise me you'll make that happen and I'll tell you everything there is about the Web goddesses."
"The hay?! How do you even know we'll be going in the Web this afternoon?" I shouted. Unconsciously, I tried to remember if the case of my Web gear was showing from my saddlebag. "Besides, I told you Shady will be coming to my place after school. I can't just log on with him there!"
"You will, if you want my help." Scoots didn't back down. "It's a good deal and you know it. Usually, you'd be begging to get somepony with my reflexes. You and DD might be good with hacks and code, but when it comes to reflexes, you're like sheep in tar."
Damn it, Scoots! I hope you lose your ranking this championship!
"I'll take care of it," I sighed. Celestia, do you hate me that much?