.hack//Secrets of Equestria

by Hallowedsoul

Ch. 5: "Omega: Reincarnated Elusive Lyric Poet"

Chapter Five
“Omega: Reincarnated Elusive Lyric Poet”

Grim Tutor watched through Morganna’s eye as the strange creatures departed with one of Celestia’s wretched Element Bearers.

“What are they?” He asked his savior and she was quiet for a moment before replying.

“They are known as ‘humans’ in their world.” Morganna replied calmly as the eye closed.

“Are they a threat to our plans?”

“No. I expect they have no idea how they arrived here to begin with, let alone what our plan for this world is. Even if they did, their capacity for interference is negligible at best. We have nothing to fear from them, my dear Tutor.”

“Be that as it may, it might be prudent to monitor their activities for the time being, do you not agree?”

Morganna was silent as she contemplated his suggestion.

“If it shall ease your troubled mind, then I will ensure that the humans cannot move without us knowing about it.”

“And how will you accomplish that? If you continue to use your great eyes, they will be noticed in short order.” Grim Tutor asked curiously.

“This is where the first of your gifts shall come into play. Behold!” Morganna replied and the air distorted in front of Tutor as something materialized in front of him.

Grim Tutor thought it was an odd creature. Even as it regarded him calmly, it seemed like it was less a living being and more of a fragment from a beautiful mural that had been carved into a wall. It wasn’t terribly large, maybe just slightly bigger than he was.

“What is it?” He asked his savior and Morganna made some kind of smug noise before answering.

“He is your servant, a mirage that can hide in plain sight and observe the humans for you.” She said gently just as the ‘mirage’ shifted and turned into an exact replica of Tutor, albeit with dull eyes “And best of all, should the humans or anything else attack him, they will not be able to slay him. Are you not satisfied, Tutor?”

Tutor smiled at the creature before him as it shifted once more into a different pony that looked to be an amalgamation of several of the unicorns that Morganna had drained earlier.

“He is perfect…” He murmured calmly and he felt that Morganna was pleased as well.

---

The field was calm, a gentle wind blew across the plains, lazily turning the blades of an enormous windmill. A field such as this would be ideal for many players to visit and relax in with its sunny and warm air. However, the field was currently bereft of such players or even the monsters and items that would normally be scattered across it.

Save for a solitary woman, wearing a flowing prismatic dress and a white shawl, who was kneeling on the ground examining the only other anomaly on the field, which was tear in the graphics of the game that glowed ominously.

‘Here. This is where they disappeared.’ Aura thought to herself, running a hand gently along the edge of the tear ‘I can feel it is connected to something… but where does it lead?’

She wanted to explore it, feeling as though it were connected to the sudden disappearance of the remnants of Morganna’s data. But at the same time, she could not simply disappear; the world outside of the game was still recovering from her mother’s attempt to kill her.

She was stumped as to the course of action she should take, wondering if she should get in touch with Kite and his friends to see if they would aid her once more, but she shook her head in dismissal at the thought.

‘No. I cannot continue to turn to Kite to solve the problems of The World. I am it’s protector and I must handle the situation myself.’

And so she sat there, pondering her dilemma, when she had a sudden idea. However she was unsure as to whether or not she could implement it; she had never tried to manipulate data on this scale before. But she needed to at least try, for the sake of the three who were lost.

And so she focused, examining the data she needed and adjusting it until she finally had a mold for what she needed done. Then she began to construct any extra data needed from her own memories and filled the mold.

‘Now comes the hard part…’ she thought to herself and began to try and coax the data into thought, trying to get it to awaken… to “live”.

It took a lot longer than she had anticipated, but she finally managed to get the data to begin working on its own and to her great excitement, she heard and felt it take its first breath in the digital world. However when she opened her eyes and stood, she felt slight dismay at her results.

What stood before her could easily be called a mockery of Kite of the Azure Flame; its avatar looked stitched together in several places and several large straps covered most of its face, the only parts of it she could see were a pair of dull eyes. It breathed in slow, deep breaths as it stared at her, little emotion flickering in its eyes.

“Do you understand me?” She asked it, and the Kite clone nodded slowly “Excellent. Do you know who I am?”

“Au… ra…” It rasped in a mockery of Kite’s voice and Aura allowed herself a small smile. It wasn’t perfect, but it will have to do.

“And you can speak as well, if only just.” She replied gently, giving the mockery a warm smile “Now tell me… what is your name?”

It said nothing, only stood in place and stared at her which caused Aura to purse her lips in thought.

“If you do not possess a name, then I shall have to give you one.” She said and put a finger to her chin in thought before smiling at the mockery “I believe I shall call you ‘Azure Kite’.”

“Az… ure… Ki… te…” It rasped in response.

“Very good, Azure Kite. There is an important task I need you to do for me now.” She said and Azure Kite stood a little straighter, as though awaiting her command “I need you to go to where this tear leads and find the three players who are lost; I have created a copy of their character information for your memory. Will you do this for me, Kite?”

Azure Kite merely nodded and turned towards the tear, but Aura stopped him before he could leave.

“Oh, before I forget, take these with you.” She said, holding out a small case in one hand and a tiny ball of light in the other “The items held within the container are for the players. Give it to them as soon as you find them, as I fear they may need the power held within. As for the other, I need you to release it as soon as you arrive; it is a fragment of my data and should assume what is considered an appropriate form for wherever you are heading.”

Azure Kite said nothing, only taking the case and the ball of light and turning back towards the tear. It held out its right arm and a copy of Kite’s Twilight Bracelet appeared around his wrist, which the mockery aimed at the tear.

“Gate… Hacking…” It rasped. It and the tear became enveloped in a transparent dome for a moment before Azure Kite disappeared as a set of golden rings travelled down its body.

“Farewell… and good luck, my knight.” Aura murmured before disappearing from the field as well.

---

The newest Captain of the Guard, a pegasus by the name of Skyward Sword, looked around at the grisly scene before him.

‘So much death.’ He thought grimly ‘And not one of them have a single mark upon their bodies. It’s as though they fell over and stopped living. What could’ve done this?’

The investigation team had been on scene before he’d arrived; in fact, it had been them that had contacted him in the first place, saying the crime scene was unusual and very disturbing. They might not have even known there was a crime if the family members of some of these ponies hadn’t gone to the Guard and asked them to check up on their wayward kin.

But to find the missing ponies dead was… disheartening. Death among Equestrians was very rare outside of natural causes, with homicide being near non-existent, but what Sword saw before him was more than simple murder.

It was a massacre.

“What do we have?” He asked a unicorn standing next to him and turning his attention to the only other thing that stood out of place apart from the corpses. The unicorn, a mare by the name of Bella Donna, sighed in frustration before replying.

“Well, apart from the fact that we literally have no idea what killed these ponies, we’re going to have a hay of a time figuring out who’s who in this mess.” She said, rubbing her eyes with one hoof.

“Why’s that?” He asked, still staring at the enormous golden ring that merely sat there doing nothing.

“Because whatever killed these unicorns didn’t just kill them, it drained them of their very essence; their coats and manes have faded to shades of gray. The only way we’ll get a proper identification is by having their next of kin take a look at their cutie marks.” She replied morosely and Sword sighed heavily.

“And today was going to be so beautiful, too.” He said and then pointed a hoof at the ring “What about this thing? None of the corpses are within a few yards of it, so it must’ve been important. What can you tell me about it?”

“Nothing much, I’m afraid.” She replied before consulting the parchment being held in her magic “According to the analysis of Test Tube, he couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary about it; no magical residue, no method of operation, nothing. His only note is that it appears that it can spin in place, judging by the stand, but other than that he said it’s just a large gold ring.”

“That’s not helpful…” Sword growled and Bella shrugged.

“If it is not too much trouble, might I have a look at it?” A regal voice spoke up from behind them. Skyward Sword acted purely on instinct, spinning in place and saluting with one wing.

“Your Majesty.” He stated as Princess Celestia trotted in through the door.

“At ease, Captain.” She said and Sword lowered his salute. Celestia glanced around at the corpses and a sorrowful expression fell upon her muzzle “My poor little ponies… what could have done this to you?”

Bella was about to respond, but Sword cut her off by shaking his head. He knew the Princess had not directed the question at them… yet. They didn’t have to wait long, however, as Celestia glanced at both of them expectantly.

“Tell me all that you have gathered so far.” She said and Bella complied immediately, recapping everything she’d told Sword. She sighed and looked at her Captain “To whom does this home belong to?”

“According to my Guards, it belongs to Grim Tutor, Your Majesty.” He replied and the Princess’ face became alarmed and glanced at the unicorn corpses again.

“Tutor?! He’s not one of the slain, is he?!” She exclaimed in a worried manner, but Bella Donna shook her head.

“No, I don’t think so. I’ve worked with him on a regular basis and I don’t see his cutie mark among any of the deceased. And trust me, I’ve checked and doubled checked all of them.” She replied and the Princess sighed, but then her expression became conflicted.

“I am glad to hear he may yet live, but if that’s the case… where is he? Why didn’t he contact anypony about this?” She asked and Sword opened his mouth to respond, but before he could the golden ring suddenly began to spin in place and an azure field appeared within it.

“Guards, defensive formation!” Sword called out and several Guardsponies filed in swiftly, aiming spears at the gracefully spinning ring.

They stayed that way for a few moments, staring carefully at the ring. Just as they were beginning to think nothing was going to happen, a figure appeared before them as a set of transparent golden rings descended from the ceiling.

“Halt, stranger!” Sword yelled and the figure, a strange alien standing on two legs, turned its largely obscured head to stare at him “Identify yourself!”

The newcomer did not respond, only turning its head slowly away. It held up a strange appendage with digits on the end that reminded Sword of a dragon’s claw and a small sphere of light appeared briefly before vanishing.

“By order of Her Majesty, Princess Celestia, I command you to identify yourself or we will use force!” Sword yelled at it once more.

This time it growled and a pair of wicked looking weapons appeared in its strange claw-like appendages, both had three, sharply curved blades attached to them. It crouched as though preparing to charge while Sword barked a command and he and his Guardsponies braced themselves for an assault. However, just before the strange creature could attack a calm voice spoke from nowhere.

“Stand down, Azure Kite. They are not hostile.”

The figure, ‘Azure Kite’, disengaged its stance and returned to merely standing there in front of the ring. Sword took a tentative step towards the creature when the voice called out to him.

“Do not be afraid. We will not harm you.”

Sword looked around quizzically at the ponies around him, but everypony he looked at just shook their heads as though to say they hadn’t spoken. The voice cleared its throat and Skyward Sword realized the voice was coming from a point lower to the ground, so that is where he looked next.

What he saw made his eyes go wide.

“Hello, denizen of this world.” Said a small alicorn filly with a pure white coat, a wavy lavendar colored mane and tail and what appeared to be a white shawl around her withers “I am Aura, and I am looking for three who are lost.”

Author's Note:

I know it's been awhile since I last updated this. The reason for that is because I'm extremely busy with work, both writing and not, and just recently college (Majoring in English... for now).

But anyway, enjoy this latest chapter!

".hack" is the property of Bandai and "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" is the property of Hasbro, all rights reserved. This work of fiction is intended for entertainment purposes only and I will not profit in any way, shape or form.

Comments

[EmiletheUndying]

Three cheers for Azure Kite!
Hip hip, hooray!
Hip hip, hooray!
Hip hip, hooray!