//------------------------------// // New Friends, Same Family Members // Story: Link Start! // by UsefulRamen //------------------------------// The Next Morning at the Dining Room Table "Sleep well everypony?" Twilight asked tiredly. She had still been affected by the deep sleep she was in. "Uh huh." everypony replied drowsily. Apparently they were a lot more tired than Twilight. "I'm guessing your all very hungry." Twilight yawned. "Yeah." the group said with heavy morning voices. Spike was actually beginning to fall asleep again because of tired he was. "Good. I've been making pancakes ever since I woke up." Twilight said finally waking up for real. "How long have you been up for Twilight darling?" Rarity asked with a slight yawn. Twilight didn't hear apparently because she was making her way down to the kitchen to get the fresh pancakes. As she was doing this, Asuna saw how sluggishly everypony moved and how tired Twilight seemed to be. She wanted to help because she wanted to kill the sleepiness that remained in her body. She thought that if she moved around a lot more, her body would make its recovery a little faster than everypony else. "I'm gonna go help Twilight." Asuna almost barely managed to say. She tried to walk regularly, but the rest of her body was moving slower than her spirit. "We'll go too." everypony offered. Kirito and Spike just ended up staying at the table to talk for a bit until the mares came back with the pancakes. When they finally came back, each mare was holding a glass plate in their mouth with at least ten pancakes on each plate. "Thank you girls." Twilight thanked as all of her friends returned it. They seemed a lot less tired than Kirito and Spike. "We probably could a used more help from y'all over there." Applejack teased. The rest group of seven friends holding plates full of pancakes agreed by slightly nodding. "*yawn* sorry, but I'm a little too tired," Kirito said in a casual tone (much to Asuna's annoyance) "well, breakfast is here now, so I guess it doesn't matter right?" he added. Spike just looked at the pancakes with an expression of pure hunger being presented by his eyes and said nothing as his mouth began to water. "Kirito! Stop being such an ass!" Asuna scolded. It came out muffled though considering she was holding a surprisingly light glass plate with syrupy pancakes on top of it. She was so agitated and angry with him, that she almost let go of the plate and let it drop to the floor. Luckily, she caught herself before she did. "Asuna! Language!" Kirito said almost sarcastically, "I get that your mad. But you need to calm down." Kirito finished as he got up from his seat, and made his way over to the steaming Asuna who's face was almost tomato red with anger. Kirito took the plate from Asuna and set it on the table. When he finished this completely simple task, he turned back around to face Asuna and locked eyes. He gently rested a brawny, pale hoof on Asuna's shoulder and brought her in for a small, friendly hug in an attempt to calm her down. Asuna sighed in defeat and escaped Kirito's embrace. "Fine. You win." Asuna huffed. The others set their plates down on the table as well and giggled to themselves as they watch the whole thing go down. Twilight just rolled her eyes and huffed mumbling something to herself. "Alright everypony, let's eat!" Twilight invited. With that, they all sat at the crystalized round table that was similar to that of King Arthur's. In fact, it was almost as if it were a crystalized replica of the actual thing, and the sight of this gorgeous table had shown the exact same amount of regalness as that of King Arthur's (I don't know how else to describe it (sorry (it sounds kind of over board and off topic (I know)))). Kirito was desperate to taste Asuna's wonderful cooking, but was easily reminded that he was far from it in this world. "Aww" he complained to himself. Asuna heard this and chuckled. "Poor Kirito." she teased with a smirk. "What? What's wrong?" Twilight asked concerned (definitely still likes him). "Oh, nothing, just that I miss Asuna's cooking is all." Kirito smirked at Asuna as payback for teasing him. "You can cook?" Fluttershy perked up. She cooks all the time for Angel, and her other animals, she actually has come to love it. "Yeah, I can cook. Why'd you have to say that Kirito?" Asuna answered with a slightly angered expression directed straight to Kirito and hit him right on target. "Payback is all." Kirito admitted. "Anyway, she makes these amazing sandwiches for me, their really, I mean really good. I wish you could try them." Kirito said with his mouth beginning to water at the thought of eating one. Asuna rolled her eyes. "What's in them?" Fluttershy asked. With that, they both remembered that the sandwiches had meat in them. They just sat there brainstorming ideas on how to tell the herbivores that there was meat in them. "We can just tell them all the ingredients except for the meat." Kirito whispered into Asuna's ear. Asuna nodded and opened her mouth, getting ready to speak. "Well, there's-" Asuna trailed off in explanation, and Fluttershy listened to the whole thing with pure interest in her eyes. "Here we go." Kirito mumbled. Spike just laughed at his idle. Three Hours Later (French accent) "Alright. It's settled then. We'll meet back here in half-an-hour when we have all the things we'll need. Ready, go!" Twilight demanded with a determined look on her face. "Aren't you gonna get supplies?" Kirito asked as he turned his head back around to face Twilight. "No, I've got everything in my saddle-bag," Twilight replied, "what about you and Asuna?" Twilight added after a short pause. "We only need our swords, and armor." Kirito casually stated (although his cloak was more like clothes rather than armor). "You mean to tell me that what your wearing right now is armor?" Twilight asked confused. "Well, yes." Kirito said. "What Kirito is wearing is pretty strong armor actually. It almost rivals mine." Asuna pointed out. "What? Never mind, forget I asked." Twilight didn't even want to confuse herself more than she already had. Later "Ready to go every pony?" Rainbowdash asked determined. "Yes!" They all shouted in unison. "Wait. Kirito and Asuna darlings, are you sure you want to go in those amazing outfits?" Rarity asked concerned for the clothes. "Yes, not only are these clothes outfits Rarity, but they're also armor." Asuna said with a warm smile. Rarity's jaw dropped, and her mind flowed endlessly with half of it drowned in inspiration for new outfits, while the other half was filled with outrageous amounts of worry, and despair for what would come up of the 'armor outfits' that she had adored ever so much after this investigation was complete. "Don't be too surprised Rarity, now that we know for sure that they are from a whole nother world, this is probably regular for them, and shouldn't b much of a surprise to us." Spike pointed out as he watched his idle's every move with admiration not even giving Rarity so much as aa short glance before turning his full attention to Kirito. "It's like he barely even pays any attention to me anymore." Rarity mumbled jealously to herself. "Well, we'd better get going before it gets too dark everyone. It took everypony a lot of extra time to get ready for some reason." Twilight commanded with determination, and a bit of worry for her family members. "'Bout time we go anyway." Applejack said with her casual western cowboy accent(or in the case, cowgirl...cowpony? Cowmare? Never mind). With that said and done, the group of nine all went into the Everfree Forest. They searched endlessly for a cave to explore whether it had been occupied, or not. At this point, they didn't even care anymore. As long as they found one, they would be happy. The Everfree Forest "How long have we been searchin' for Twilight?" Applejack asked worriedly. She was really starting to worry about the farm now. She wasn't expecting the search to take this long. "Don't worry. We'll find them. We just need to be little more patient." Asuna said with her sympathy beginning to take over her emotions. "I know, it's just that I'm worried." Twilight said with a worried look on her face. It was as if somepony pasted it onto her face and that they were the only one that would be able to remove it. "It's really okay Twilight. I know how you feel when it comes to worry," Asuna looked at Kirito for a short moment (much to Kirito's confusion. He actually had no idea what she was looking at him for because he wasn't even paying attention to the conversation that the two mares were having in the first place) and continued the conversation when she fully turned around,"Trust me. I really do know." Asuna said comfortingly. "Hey! It looks like there's a cave up ahead!" Kirito called out to every pony that was present. With that, there was a huge wave of excitement and relief. You could call it a tsunami, or tidal wave even. Twilight was the first to reach the dark entrance of the tunnel-like abyss. She was too desperate to see her family unharmed (if they were even in there). The others rushed after her yelling "wait up!" the whole way. "Dear Celestia Twilight, calm down." Rainbowdash scolded through pants and huffs. "I'm sorry, I'm just worried." Twilight said with that same worried look still pasted to her face. "Well, that just means that we should hurry up and find them." Kirito casually suggested. As soon as the group began to proceed into the endless black of the cave, Twilight and Rarity sparked their horns for a bit of light. Fortunately, this cave seemed to be very unoccupied at the moment. There was the skreech of a bat, or a sour gust of wind every no and then as a reminder that there were still multiple other things going on at the exact same moment. "Help!!!" Screamed a feminine voice. It sounded like it was not too far from the eager group. "That sounded like Cadence!" Twilight exclaimed. With that she sprinted off into the black of the cave with her horn as her only light source in such a place. "WAIT! TWILIGHT!!!" Rainbowdash called out. She tried to catch up to the lavender alicorn. But for once in her life, she was actually slower (somehow). "Asuna" Kirito looked over at Asuna and gave her a look that said, 'let's go.' and Asuna nodded and began to sprint with Kirito at speeds that exceeded everypony else's (with the exception of RD). "Wait guys! Ya can't just leave us here alone like this!" Applejack tried to call out but the two were too far off to hear by then. Twilight stopped in her tracks in order to listen for the voice that resembled that of Cadence's. "Help!!! He- Twilight? Is that you? Twilight help us!!" The voice called out even louder. Apparently Cadence could see Twilight, but Twilight couldn't see her. "Cadence!! Cadence is that you!? Where are you!?" Twilight called out desperately. She whirled her head around frantically in search of the voice's source. "Over here! To your right!!" Cadence hollered. Twilight looked over to her right, shined the light coming from her horn a lot brighter than before, and there. Standing, or rather sitting was Cadence and Shining Armor. But something was wrong. They were sitting with their backs tightly pressed against one another. And it was then when Twilight finally realized that they were tied up. She sprinted over to the two of them and quickly began to untie them with a failed attempt. She began to grow frustrated with the rope and tried to burn it off with her magic. But that didn't seem to work either. "Twilight. Magic won't work. Nothing seems to affect the rope. Me and Shining Armor have already tried." Cadence ruefully admitted. "It's like it has a forcefield or something on it." Shining Armor added with his soft voice. It sounded a little cracked and raspy though. Twilight assumed that he had been screaming for help at the top of his lungs. With Kirito and Asuna "Hey Asuna. Try tracking Twilight. There's something amazing going on." Kirito said with complete sincerity in his voice. "Okay" Asuna agreed. She tried to track Twilight by looking at the ground as they ran. To her surprise, there were hoof marks that glowed a neon greenish-yello color. "Wait. So this means that...Kirito you know what this means?" Asuna said as astonished as ever. "It means that we can use our tracking skills here. I wonder what else we can do." Kirito said with that serious look still plastered onto his face. Not a moment too soon, and they had already found Twilight and RD. Rainbow dash had actually just arrived a few moments before them. When they saw the two ponies tied up, they rushed over to try and get the rope off. "Nothing will work. I've tried everything already. Wait. Where are the others? Oh no. We have to find them!" Twilight said in a worried fashion. "We'll go. We were the ones that left them in the first place." Asuna confessed. "Woah, woah, woah. You guys just got here. And you look pretty exhausted. I'll go. You guys just stay here and rest." Rainbow dash pushed. She wanted some of the spotlight too. She wasn't gonna let Kirito and Asuna steel her thunder just because they seem strong and are new to the group. I'll show you! I can be just as cool as you guys can Kirito and Asuna! I'll prove it! I'll beat you at your own game! Rainbowdash thought to herself as she flew. In the distance she could barely see a faint, cyan orb of light, along with the sound of voices. Familiar voices. There! She thought. And she gradually increased her already incredibly fast speed overpowered with joy, and proudness for being able to find her friends so rapidly. "Guys! Guys! It's me! Rainbowdash!" RD called out to the light that was just about 20 feet away from her. 10. Then 2 feet away. Then- "WOAH!!" Rainbowdash hollered as she fame crashing into the source of the light. Fluttershy yelped and leaped in surprise, ending up clinging to Applejack's side and almost crushing her ribcage. She had already hated that they went into the forest in the first place. What she hated even more than going into the forest was going into this cave of seemingly endless black. Now this. This day just couldn't get any worst for her. Poor thing. "Oww. Rainbowdash darling could be more gentle with your landing please? I would very much appreciate it." Rarity annoyingly complained. "Why couldn't I have been on Kirito's back and stuck with him instead of this. Why me?" Spike mumbled to himself. Rainbowdash just grunted at Rarity's comment and shook it off. "And how long were you guys stuck with this?" Rainbowdash whispered into AJ's ear as she sluggishly got up and helped Rarity right after.. She giggled and answered as if she were just working a long hard day on the farm. "For 'bout 20 minutes now. Thank Celestia your here to take us back to Twilight." Applejack answered as she added a question to the end of it. "Yeah. Alright. So let's get to that. I came from that way, so let's head down there and see if luck is on our side." Rainbowdash planned out. "M-mhm" Fluttershy managed to at least get that threw the insane trembling she doing right now. "Well, lead the way darling." Rarity said in sort of a rush. "Alright. Let's go!" And with that, they were on their way to regroup with the rest of the gang. With Kirito, Asuna, Twilight, Cadence, and Shining Armor (half an hour later (French accent)) "You think they got lost?" Asuna whispered into Kirito's ears in a succeeded attempt to not worry Twilight. "I don't know. I think they- OOF!" Kirito grunted as he fell to the ground. What had happened was, apparently something bumped into him. Or rather, somepony. He sealed his eyes shut at impact and when he heard extra voices besides the ones he had been hearing the whole 30 minutes of waiting, he opened his eyes, and could feel something laying on top of his belly. Obviously he had fallen backwards. The weight wasn't too heavy, nor was it too light. There was soft and delicate breathing, and he could feel a heart beat beating at almost the same rate as his own. Once Twilight brightened her horn light, she revealed a scene that was quite priceless indeed. Asuna was lying on top of Kirito's belly in the most awkward position possible. When Asuna finally opened her eyes, it was over for Kirito. He awaited a harsh hoof slap to land on his face. But it never came. Instead, Asuna just turned cherry red, slowly got off of Kirito, and his her face with her bangs to try and hide her intense blush. "Well, well, well. Looks like we got quite the young lovers here huh." Shining Armor teased as he winked at the two. He had only succeeded in making the two blush even harder than before. "Spike, you didn't see that right?" Twilight hurriedly stated in worry for Spike to be viewing such things. "You two should be ashamed of yourselves! Wrong place, wrong time." Twilight furiously ordered. "But it was an accidentify though!" Kirito shouted as he defensively waved both hooves in the air. "Dummy." Asuna silently mumbled. "Anyway, I think I know why you can't get rid of the rope." Kirito began. "Why!?" Everypony yelled in unison. "Because somewhere around here...there's going to be a boss battle." Kirito coldly stated.