.hack//EQUESTRIA

by NovaSethyr

Conjecture

I couldn't believe it.

My friend that I've known for years is in the hospital, and he might never come back.

I didn't feel any sorrow, not anymore. I spent all of my sorrow when he was taken. Now I'm just... empty. It was like part of my life had been taken away. I never even knew I cared that much for him. Like they always say, you never know what you have until it's gone. I didn't even feel loss anymore, just emptiness where there used to be pain.

I didn't know what to do, I wanted to help my dear friend so badly, but I knew that I couldn't. I wasn't a medical pony, I couldn't figure out what caused him to fall into such a state so suddenly, nor would I be able to help him if I did know. That thought went 'round and 'round my head, and making me feel more and more helpless with every passing second. What could I do? Nothing. Nothing but wait until the doctors to come and tell me he won't wake up.

Of course, there was the hope that he would wake up and everything returns to normal, but how in Luna's name would that happen? Would he just randomly sit up in his bed and say, "I must have overslept again!" and trot right out of the hospital? I gave a small chuckle when I imagined how the nurses and doctors would react to the mystery patient if that happened. I took a deep breath and gave a long drawn out sigh.

I was just exhausted and tired. I haven't had much in the sense of comfort, I haven't even tried going back in The World yet. I don't think anypony could be sad around Crimson, nor would Berry or Refinity allow someone to feel bad when they're around. I thought about the companionship I had forged between three seemingly random strangers. Is this how easy making friends in a game is? I hoped I would be able to depend on more ponies if that was true. But right now I just wanted to collapse on the ground and fall asleep. Having stayed up all night worrying probably helped with that as well.

I've been spending my past day slowing coming out of my shell, so to speak. I've been put in the custody of one of my more generous employers, the librarian at the bookshop, which also conveniently served as her home. She quickly put me to work despite it being the wee hours of the early morning. The chores had to be finished, at any rates. It's been a couple of hours since then.

When I finished my current job - raking up the leaves on the lawn of a public library - the librarian came up to me, worry prevalent in her face. "Genesis, take a break from the chores, you look tired. I'll get the others to work now that they're here." the ashen gray mare had more than a hint of concern in her voice.

What was her name again? It started with a C, or was it an S? Might have even been a Z, who knew.

"Genesis, please. Everypony is worried about you; me, Bookworm, and Ruffled Page want you to take the rest of the day off." It was... GAH! This is going to drive me insane. Se-something-or-other.

"JEN!"

I snapped my head up to meet her eyes. Eyes filled with worry and sorrow. "I'm sorry, Cedar. I didn't mean to space out like that. It's been a couple of rough days." I looked into her eyes; eyes sympathizing with the pain of losing someone close.

"I know, Genesis, the Princess informed me about what happened. I'm supposed to take care of you while they figure out why Greyhawk is in his... condition." She moved closer and gave me a reassuring nuzzle. The warmth of another was comforting, and I leaned in to the nuzzle, thinking about how Greyhawk would comment on how touching of a scene this would be. I felt a few tears well in my eyes, and I let them fall as I recalled how still he was on the bed; how he might not ever recover. I buried my face in the dark mane as I shed a few more tears.

Cedar let me cry for a few more moments before speaking again. "I think the doctors should be finished by now, let's go pay Grey a visit." I nodded an affirmation, and she backed away and into the bookshop. I could hear her tell the others where she will be going. She walked out and back to me, where I turned my head south - towards the Canterlot Hospital and my friend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sterile white walls and stench of medicine are all what anypony remembers in a hospital, whether as a patient, visitor, or a staff member. The clean white hallways that were devoid of any deviation of color didn't really help. Then again, I guess everypony was more interested in actually helping the ponies instead of choosing which color would go well with white. I walked with Cedar to the receptionist, where a beige pegasus behind the counter took one bored glace at me and my companion before she returned to reading a magazine. Cedar spoke up, "We're here to visit a Mr. Greyhawk?"

The receptionist told us to go up the stairs and down the hall till you hit Room 251, all without even a single glace up from her oh-so-important magazine. We traversed the stairs and passed a few grieving people, which didn't help me feel better about the trip at all. I saw the room, 251. I couldn't prepare myself for what I saw, I knew it. I wouldn't like what I saw at all and there was nothing I could do to help.

I looked back at Cedar, she gave me a small smile and nodded towards the door. I steeled myself as best I could and opened the door. It creaked slowly and almost ominously as I walked through the archway. I saw a TV up in the corner of the room, ready to provide entertainment for the bored patrons. The room only had one occupant, I could see him from the door. It looked like he was sleeping, and for all intents and purposes he was.

Greyhawk was on the bed with an IV in his right foreleg. His emerald mane was completely disheveled, but I don't think either of us would have minded. I noticed in the back of my mind how peaceful he seemed, his chest moving rhythmically and deeply. I thought he looked rather content, but that could just be the fact that he wasn't conscious. I trotted towards him, and the morning light streaming through the window added to the atmospheric peace that surrounded the room. The sunlight glinted off of his glasses sitting on a stand, and his orange fur appeared brighter than ever. I felt my sorrow and sadness drain away at the tranquility. The room overlooked the city, and the sun was just fully over the horizon, and I could easily pick out ponies off to work. I wondered if any of the errands I had to run today would mind me taking the day off. My reflection smiled a little.

"We believe he's in a deep coma." The sudden arrival of the nurse said when she walked in made me jump a little. "He doesn't show any signs of awakening, and we will keep him here to figure out how he fell comatose. If you don't mind, may I ask a few questions about him?"

"Uh... sure, yeah, go ahead, yeah," I stammered as I brushed my yellow and grey mane away from my face. I wasn't feeling up to answering personal questions for him, but he couldn't answer, so I patiently waited for the nurse to continue. She asked me questions about his diet, does he exercise, did he have any health problems before, what he did for a living, and all the fun stuff. The she came to the question, "What was he doing when he fell into a coma?" I didn't really know, he was just playing The World while I went out to get food for the week.

I told the nurse and she nodded grimly. She looked like she knew something, shifting uncomfortably and not looking me in the eyes. I stared at her with what I hoped was a pleading face. She rolled her eyes as she gave up at playing keep away, and leaned in closer. Odd, considering we were already alone in a secure room. I think it was secure, anyways. "I'm not supposed to tell anyone this until the press releases the story in the paper, but your friend isn't the only one who fell into a coma while play The World."

I felt my eyebrows shoot up, urging her to continue. "We've had about three in the past few days, they all were in the middle of playing The World, but that's all I know now. Perhaps the CC Corp knows more, they have been questioned as well; seeing as they run the game and know everything that happens in it." She nodded and left the room to continue her work. I looked back at Greyhawk, still sleeping silently. Others who were playing The World, huh?

The emptiness I felt when Greyhawk left was now filled with determination, there was a reason for why ponies were falling comatose. I was going to find out why, and the first step to doing that was to find out about the other coma patients. The nurse said that CC Corp might know something, so I had to go to their headquarters and ask a few questions.

I felt the burning passion everypony gets when they have a goal in mind. The determination to finish it, the drive to get closer with every step, and the will to go forward. I was an empty shell not an hour ago, but now I have an objective I want to complete. I knew, just knew, that if I figured out what was happening to the other patients, then I could help Greyhawk recover.

I faced Cedar, who was waiting patiently outside. "How is he?" she asked. I told her about how The World might have something to do with ponies being put into comas. She reacted with much interest and intrigue; I probably reacted the same way when the nurse told me. Cedar had to return to the shop before the other workers accidentally burnt the entire block down, but if she found anything that could be of some help, she'll stop by my place.

I scanned the hallway, looking for a nurse or a doctor to point me in the direction of CC Corp headquarters. I caught the eye of a dark yellow doctor talking with a tired looking mare in a wheelchair. He gave a quick inclination of his head before returning to his patient. I waited patiently for him to finish talking to the mare before he cantered towards me. "You must be Greyhawk's roommate. I'm his general practitioner, Dr. Strange Love. I assume the nurse has already asked you about the patient's living habits?" I nodded. "Good, well then, is there anything I can do for you?"

I decided to ask about the other patients first, so I asked as much. "Oh dear, I told Ms. Hearty to stay quiet about that until tomorrow. Well, I guess there isn't much harm in knowing a day beforehand to those close to the victims in question. The other patients were all healthy, working ponies with no discernible health problems in their past. The only thing that connects these ponies was the fact that they were all playing The World when they were found. If I were you I'd ask CC Corp for more information about how they're connected to The World. CC Corp should be west of here, near the Market."

The Market - where I went to when Greyhawk fell into the coma. I thought back to my previous visit and the old mare. I'll still have to pay her back, but for now that's put on hold. Getting my friend out of his current condition is top priority right now. I left the hospital with Cedar, and waved her goodbye and we went our separate ways. I started my journey west, with my stomach deciding to voice it's objections. I only had a small breakfast by at Cedar's bookshop, but now I was starting to feel the hunger return with a vengeance.

I walked for about a mile before I arrived at the Market, being not quite as full as the day before despite being the weekend. I looked around the surrounding buildings, hoping to spot the name CC Corp in big bold letters that anyone could easily see. Unfortunately, they weren't able to be spotted. The buildings weren't very tall, so it was impossible to see anything beyond what one could see from the Market.

After asking a few merchants, I found that CC Corp resides in a building just down a side street. I trotted along towards my destination, but not before I got stopped by an old mare selling cabbages. "Oh, it's you again! Come to repay me for the damaged goods?" She grinned happily behind the stall, which showed off a few non-cabbage related vegetables.

I gave a small sad smile, "Sorry, I was just passing through here. I should be able to pay you back by the end of the week, OK?" The mare gave an irritated frown, but nodded anyways. I hoped she wasn't actually a mobster and was going to break my limbs if I didn't pay her back. Then again, I had no doubt that she would be able to do that anyways.

I bade my farewells and cantered down the side street. There was a club off to the side, unopened, and considering it was the late morning it was perfectly understandable. The name had caught my attention though, The Raving Raids. I wasn't sure if there was actually any raiding going on, but it didn't hold the attention for long. It was an odd name, but I wasn't the type of pony to go out and rave-slash-raid all night long.

I moved past it, and as soon as I rounded the corner I could see a sign no taller than the building, CC Corp. HQ I continued on down the new street and inspected the building, It wasn't very big, especially considering how huge the industry had gotten. The building wasn't very tall, but it was as wide as a city block. In fact, I was pretty sure it took up the entire block on it's own. There was a few places where they allowed to have a lawn, and a few trees out front, to make everything look nice and tidy.

I walked up the ramp to the grey building and opened the door to the reception room. Again, it wasn't very big in comparison to the height, but it was about as wide as my apartment. But my apartment wasn't very big even if you took down the walls, so it still wasn't very spectacular. To me, however, it was huge. There was a corner with chairs and a coffee table with old magazines on it, and on my right was a rounded table or some sort attached to the wall, with a mint-green unicorn pony behind it.

"Hello, how may CC Corp help you today, ma'am?" Well, at least they were courteous. I moved up to the reception desk... thing.

"Hi, my name is Genesis. I'm actually here to ask a few questions regarding the recent coma patients." Yup, that's me. Genesis, the master of subtly. The mare behind the desk also appreciated my art by letting her face fill with a little anxiety.

"Coma patients? What are you talking about?" Her smile turned a whole lot faker than it was before.

"Come now, surely you must know that a few players of The World have fallen comatose, right? It's all over the news." Well, it wasn't yet, but she didn't have to know that, right? "You must know that the game is causing ponies to fall into comas, can you tell me why that is?"

"Well..." she let her smile disappear and leaned in closer. What is with these mares and whispering when we were already in a secure place? Maybe they're too paranoid, or I'm not paranoid enough. "I'll have to ask you to leave before security comes and throws you out." Oh... That was a little unnecessary, I thought. I only asked a few questions that may have been confidential or not. And I may have accused them of putting ponies into comas, but I hardly thought that was a good reason to throw somepony out.

I left the building after I gave the receptionist a raspberry while she was furiously pounding away at whatever hidden button was under her desk. After walking outside and into the sunshine, I realized that I don't have anywhere else to go. Well, not exactly. I could always talk to the guys who discovered the victims, but that would only reinforce what I already knew.

I walked back to my apartment, thinking about what I could do. It wasn't until I was trotting the way back home a little after noon before I had a thought. It was so obvious that I smacked myself in the forehead for not realizing it sooner. I galloped the rest of my way home and opened up the apartment door. I was greeted with the ALTIMIT OS, unoccupied and ready for me to get back in the game. Literally.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The reality you know is dying, and the reality you created is innate.
He is waiting for you with breath abate.
Preparing to turn both worlds into realms of anguish
How will you save one, if the other must perish.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jeez, I never got used to that feeling. I had to remember to move with my thoughts, OK, that's down. I remembered how to play again, and I got busy talking to random ponies who just happened to be playing the same game as I do. And would be able to beat me to a pulp if I upset them. Shouldn't be to hard, right? The butterflies in my stomach agreed.

I walked around the city of Mac Anu, and walked up to a couple of people who didn't look like they were in a hurry to be anywhere. A lot of ponies around here were rushing from one place to another, but there was a rather large gathering of ponies around the water fountain just outside the Chaos Gate. A few guild shops were set up here, and I could guess the reason why people gathered around here, chatting away with the store owners and other guild members. I steeled myself and started asking questions.

I quickly realized that talking to ponies here wasn't very different from talking face to face, but I still took quick glaces at the weapons they had sheathed just to make sure they wouldn't try and squash my face into the ground. I gathered a little more information from talking to ponies here, more than I suspected I would get if I investigated anywhere else. A few players have heard of players falling comatose but knew nothing else. One of the players I talked to was friends with someone who fell comatose, but they only knew after being contacted by the victim's family since he actually knew them. I was feeling extremely lucky when I found him, and asked the player for a few more details.

The player in question was a Long Arm, indicated by the huge polearm strapped to his back. He was also a huge Beast; he looked like part-bear part-pony. He would look very ferocious if he took out his pole arm and fought me, but at the moment he looked like a big cuddly teddy bear. He actually reminded me of an old stuffed bear I had as a foal, and I briefly wondered what happened to it before snapping back to attention. "So, what was the victim-"

"JAK."

"What?"

"JAK, that's his username."

"Ah, sorry. Now, what was JAK doing the last you heard from him?"

"Well, he told me he was going to go level up in the area Delta Chasing Cupid's Belladonna. That's where he went to a couple days ago, and I got the message from his folks not a few hours after that." I was a bit skeptical that I would find anything there, but a lead was a lead, and I needed to level myself up anyways.

"Alright, I'll be sure to investigate there. Thanks for your cooperation, you have no idea how much you've helped." And with that, he went off to do whatever Beast Long Arms do. Probably level up like the rest of us. I went to the Chaos Gate and checked the area I was given, and it didn't seem too bad, a level four dungeon. I could probably handle this myself, I was close to level four, after all. But I briefly wondered how Refinity or Crimson would act if I went and leveled without them.

I checked to see if they were online, and to my surprise neither Refinity nor Crimson were online. Berrylicious, on the other hand, was online and probably running the store. She was around my level, so I wondered if she would join me on the little escapade, I hardly talked to her after meeting up with her to give her the haul. I needed to visit the store anyways to get my weapon, I wouldn't do anypony any good without something to defend myself with.

Walking back from the Chaos Gate, I scanned the fountain area for Berry's shop. It wasn't in sight, so she was probably at the @Home. With her midget impersonator. I wasn't prepared to go face that horrible little creature again, but I needed my equipment. After battling with myself whether I would go or just stand there until Berry came back for a few moments, I scampered off to find the Trader.

Thankfully, I didn't have to face that annoying pig thing, Berry was just leaving the @Home when I arrived. "Oh, Berry! There you are, I was wondering if those weapons are done yet!" Berry gave a heart warming smile, and she pulled out my staff. But it wasn't my staff, well, it wasn't my old wooden staff with strange cravings in it; it was now my burning wooden staff with symbols made of flame engraved into the wood. It was spectacular, to say the least.

"Well, you like it?" Berry's smile grew across her face when I nodded enthusiastically. "Refinity and Crimson already got their upgrades, and I had a whole bundle left over so I upgraded my weapons as well." She turned and showed off her Twin Blades strapped on her flanks, and they glowed blue from the water element they've been given. "And look, even my Wave Symbols got the elemental change." She pointed at her tattoos and I could see that they pulsed blue faintly against her red fur.

"Wow, that's pretty awesome," I commented as I took my weapon back. I could feel the fire in it, and I felt the weapon empower me as well. I briefly wondered if I had any tattoos like that on me that would glow red. "Thanks for the upgrade, Berry." Her smile glowed at the praise. "Hey, do you think you can help me through a dungeon really quickly? I mean, we hardly spoke to each other so I thought this could be a good time to get to... uh, know each other?" I hesitated at the end, afraid that she might decline and laugh at the offer.

Instead, she continued to smile like I was one of her customers. "Why not? I'd like to know a little more about you as well, Faylin. Especially since you'll be going on more adventures with the other two, I might not get to go out more often that I'd like." I hoped we wouldn't fight anything too difficult in the dungeon

We traversed through Mac Anu and reached the Chaos Gate. There we prepared ourselves before leaving, buying a few healing and SP, Skill Points, potions. 'Gotta keep the SP up so you can keep casting spells,' Berry says. I wonder why neither Refinity nor Crimson bothered to mention SP to me. We were full on items, a few scrolls for Berry if she needed to cast anything, and a couple of temporary stat-increasing consumables if we were going to face a boss. We were set, and we both turned to the Chaos Gate. "Ready?" she asked. I grinned and entered the keywords. A white light surrounded us, and we were teleported to a new dungeon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This new area was interesting, to say the least. It was a huge shrine with even bigger pillars on the side. The entire ensemble looked extremely impressive, and I had no doubt that a boss would be waiting for us at the end. We entered the shire and admired the interior design; I did, anyways. Berry just walked on by, having seen levels like this hundreds of times.

The granite walls were lined with what looked like steel pillars every few meters on both sides, and there was light coming down from the windows in the middle of the walls. The floor was a hard wood, although I couldn't tell what kind of wood. It was almost sunset, judging by the angle of the light shafts. The room we were in was quite large, with a couple of hallways leading to other rooms. "Alright, let's get started." Berry said with the tone one would adopt when preparing to do some dirty work.

We went around the entire floor, nothing went unchecked with Berry searching for treasure and monsters. We fought and bested every enemy we saw, and Berry let me do most of the work. I had hoped she would be of a little more help, but she didn't want to 'spend healing potions unless necessary.' Of course she started to work a little bit harder in fights after I pointed out to her that I'm a Wavemaster and I can heal us at any time. We fought a couple of new enemies, like floating weapons and goblin mages. They weren't particularly hard, but a few have gotten a lucky hit and I had to use a healing potion because casting Repth would take too long. Eventually, we started to chat while doing our business.

"So Berry, you like to run the shop more than exploring this beautiful world? I mean, have you seen the field levels? It's beyond gorgeous and into spectacular! You can watch the water for days, with the smell of salt in the air, and the sounds of birds chirping making everything peaceful and serine." I finished casting Vak Don and the goblin mage burst into flames, but didn't die. I took a quick hit from the flying sword enemy the game wanted me to call Vak Bezel. "That is, if you weren't too busy fighting goblins and the like."

Berry dodged a spell from the goblin mage and quickly took down a goblin knight with her twin blades. "Well, I was once like you, you know. Loved the scenery, always spent time travelling the different areas to level up and find new things. But that lost all it's luster when I saw it over and over again. You'll eventually feel the same way after a few times."

I prepared a Gan Don, earth spell, to kill the flying sword thing while Berry stood back, wanting me to get the final hit. "But that doesn't explain why you didn't just travel with them. The max party is three members, you could have easily gone with Refinity and Crimson instead of having to mind the shop." The spell was finished and the sword took a boulder to the blade, and it fell over and disappeared in a whiff of smoke.

Berry stood by, waiting for the experience to finish counting up. "Yes, I could have, and when Crimson and Refinity showed up we formed a group almost immediately." We continued on our way through the dungeon, noticing a stairway in the corner leading down. "I started the shop at first as an excuse to clean up all of our inventories, but then I took over management when it wasn't doing as well as I hoped; having an NPC run a player made shop doesn't really help your sales. The players liked having the social interaction with the merchant they trust their wares to come from, and I liked meeting new people and learning their stories and just talking with them. I guess it's similar to my real job, and I liked it."

We came out of the stairwell and was faced with a few more new enemies. They looked like giant lizards with sinewy arms and legs, with fur on the back and tattoos on their skin, the game called them 'Lizard Hunters.' But the strangest thing was that they carried swords in their mouths, like how a pony would if it wasn't for the whole 'control your attacks with your mind' thing. They looked far more dangerous than the goblins and floaty sword things upstairs.

They were rather quick, and they hit much harder than the goblins. When we got into the fight, two of them attacked me at once, and I rolled to my left and narrowly missed getting cut. They had a firm grip on their swords despite it being in their mouths. I'd hate to be bitten by them, I imagine it could crush my bones. Despite them being quick and strong, Berry held her own against one of them fairly easily, and came to my aid before both of the Lizard Hunters could gang up on me again.

Now that I only have one to deal with, my confidence grew slightly. I knocked the lizard away as it charged, and prepared to cast yet another Vak Don. I was really happy that Berry got the upgrade, now my fire spells deal more damage and I get to take less damage from fire-based attacks. If I wanted to hit people with my staff, it'd also do a little bit of fire damage, so when I run out of SP I can just whack enemies to death. The lizard recovered from being knocked around, and charged again. I was ready to release the spell when the lizard dashed around to my right. I had to keep track of it, otherwise I could miss and the spell would be wasted. It kept moving around until it was behind me and I couldn't see it anymore.

I still had the ability to attack, but I listened closely to the sounds around me. I once heard that if you closed your eyes, your other senses will increase to compensate for the lack of sight. So I closed my eyes and listened. I heard Berry and her lizards fighting over to my left, and from the sound of it she had just beaten one of them. I soon could hear my own heart rapidly beating if I ignored the sounds of battle. I listened in particular behind me, where I could hear a near silent scuffle of feet on wood. I waited for it to get closer, a few meters away. A couple of steps away from me, another scuffle, and loud footsteps rapidly closing the distance. It was charging me again!

My spell was ready to be cast at any time, so I picked a spot close to me and waited to time it just right so I don't miss. In a couple of seconds...NOW!

I let the power of my fire spell loose, casting it behind me, only half a meter away. The spell didn't come into direct contact with the lizard, but it was an area of effect spell, meaning that it spread about two meters from where the spell is cast at. The lizard was just caught near the middle, and it burst into flames. It stumbled back from the fire and fell onto the ground, leaving itself wide open to Berry's attacks. The fire coursed over me as well, but my new fire resistance allowed it to pass over me harmlessly, and I sighed my relief just as Berry killed the last Lizard Hunter.

The fight was over, and I was exhausted from the last battle. Not because it was hard, but it was kind of stressful to be put into a situation like that. My back was fully exposed to that creature, and I could have been killed if I didn't gamble with fate and my Vak Don. I wouldn't have tried that if I was casting my Gan Don, the earth spell, because it was only a single hit and I probably would've missed.

I sat down on the ground to calm myself down, whilst Berry roamed the now empty room in search for treasure. She found a new accessory, which she commented would be of better use to me than in the shop. It was a Simple Bracelet, giving me a bonus to my Fire and Wind elements. After I equipped it, the red glow on my staff got a little brighter, proving that it did give me a slight boost.

We explored the second level, finding a few more items for Berry to stock in her shop. I found another Simple Bracelet, so I equipped that as well to my other hoof. We fought more Lizard Hunters, and a few more floating swords. Sometimes they were called Vak Bezel and other times they were Zan Bezel, but I couldn't tell the difference between them. We continued on in this fashion, chatting here and there about our lives, how Berry got her job as a bartender and how tending the shop and talking to the ponies was similar to talking to the customers in her bar, I told the story about how I nearly got my leg chopped off when I was younger because I didn't pay attention to my surroundings and wandered into a construction zone. The pegasi were more than happy to see me leave.

I leveled up to level five by the time we were finished, and I learned a new spell that increased any character's speed for a short duration during battles. We found another stairway leading down. I nodded my head to Berry, "Ladies first." She smiled and bowed her head, taking the lead as I followed her. Was she blushing? I couldn't tell, but I had a hunch that she did blush.

The next floor consisted of a single hallway, leading to a huge room that contained only a single monster. But this monster was the biggest I've seen, almost as tall as the room and with legs longer than a steel bar, it was a giant Lizard Hunter. I guessed that this was the boss, and then afterwards I could search for signs of what happened to JAK. Hopefully I can convince Berry to leave before me, I didn't want to drag her into my personal affairs. But back to the matter at hand, the giant lizard that was going to kill us all. You couldn't really forget about that, can you?

I looked at Berry and she looked back at me. She had a smile akin to Crimson's battle grin, and I could only assume that there was one plastered to my face as well. We both turned to the boss and I circled around to face it's back. Berry caught on to what I was doing and started to charge the huge beast. It saw her coming, and let out a screech before swinging it's mighty forepaw at her. She nimbly dodged under it, pulled out her Twin Blades with just a thought, and started slashing at the beast. It started to defend itself against her attacks, but failed to notice that I was powering up my newest spell, Ap Do. I had cast it on Berry, and she started to glow faintly as the spell took effect. Her attacks sped up visibly, and she started doing major damage to Mr. Giant Lizard even with his defense up.

I kept barraging spells at his exposed back, but it wasn't doing quite as much damage as I liked. Eventually, MGL broke his defense and turned on me. I stopped casting my spell and ran so his back was towards Berry while I drank a defense increasing potion. I turned and put up my standard defense - a yellow shield protecting the front of my body. I let MGL beat my health away even with my shield up. I couldn't cast Repth while like this, so I had to take a few healing potions so I kept my health up. Eventually, it had noticed that Berry was doing phenomenal damage to it and turned to face her again. We nearly didn't make it, and eventually I had started to cast Repth a couple of times when the beast wasn't attacking me.

This strategy went on for a while, me and Berry switching between keeping the thing's attention and causing it damage. Eventually, it was bloody and beaten, and collapsed upon the ground, dead. As with the other monsters, it turned black and dissolved into the ground. We looked to the ground where the giant lizard was, and faced each other, both of us weary from the fight. Then I started to laugh. I laughed at how close we were to dying, and I laughed at how it switched it's attention, and I laughed at the fact that we actually won. My first boss battle, with only two-thirds of a party, and we won! Soon Berry started laughing along with me. I guessed that she thought it was a close one as well.

After the fight we were both level seven - Berry was closer to level eight. And soon we found the Beast Statue looming over us once again. The treasure this time, was some light armor. I couldn't wear it since I was only allowed to wear robes, but Berry gladly took it; whether for herself or for the shop, I couldn't tell. Thankfully, Berry had decided that she was gone from the shop long enough, so she said her farewells and left me in the dungeon all by myself.

If there really was something to give me a clue about what happened to JAK, this was the perfect opportunity to search for it. I searched the Beast Statue for anything I would find interesting or helpful, but the giant statue didn't want to give up any secrets. I huffed in irritation and started to backtrack along the way for something substantial. I went up both floors with a whole lot of nothing to go on. I kept searching, starting to lose any hope that I would find something here, before I ran into a player character.

Now, I wasn't sure that players could join a dungeon that was already cleared, but I thought it was strange to find a single player to be alone and wandering an empty dungeon. If they wanted to come to clear the dungeon themselves, they must be a higher level or just really gutsy to solo a whole dungeon by themselves. I personally hoped for the latter.

The player spotted me and started to come closer. Now that he wasn't so far away I could make him out. He was a dark-furred pony, with a yellow hat, and he was wearing chain-mail armor under a grey short-sleeved vest. He had a large blade on his back, and he was walking towards me with no friendly intention, I could feel that from here. I started to quake a little bit, this pony was scary!

As he trotted forward he pulled out his broadsword, and when he pulled it out, I could see a chain that started whirring and buzzing. This guy was serious business, and he wanted to fight something. But what did he want to fight, there wasn't anything here but... oh. Oh, he wants to fight me? Why? I didn't even know players could fight each other, yet here was one such pony, ready to fight me. He kept approaching me, and I moved over to the other side of the room to see what he would do. As expected, he followed my direction and kept approaching me. So I did the only thing anypony scared stiff in such a situation would do.

I screamed like a baby filly and ran as fast as I could out of there.

I ran until my lungs and legs were burning, I ran into the first floor, and I ran out of the doors towards the Chaos Gate entrance. In hindsight, I could have left the level without having to run, but my instincts were overwhelming and I wasn't thinking straight.

I stumbled back into Mac Anu, breathing heavily. A few players who were nearby looked at me with mixed looks of bewilderment and annoyance.They returned to whatever duties they were doing while I sat down and started to catch my breath. Alright, first things first, I knew you couldn't fight in cities like this, otherwise I would have see full blown battles out in the streets. Second, that stallion knew that somepony was in the dungeon and came looking for me. Or at least I think that was right, it was just speculative conjecture after the most brutal exercise I've gotten in years, even if I was not actually tired - but my avatar was basically me, and I would be tired after such a run, therefore, my avatar is tired.

After I got back up to my hooves, I started to walk back to the fountain square, where Berry would be selling her newfound wares. As I approached the fountain, I spotted a familiar Beast Long Arm character. After I saw him, I stood there, letting the gears in my brain turn for a bit. Eventually, I thought I had a theory, but it was rather far-fetched and half-baked, but I decided to find out if it was true, so I trotted up to him. "Hey, so you said there might be something to find in that dungeon you mentioned, yeah?"

He turned his attention from the current conversation to me. "Yeah, that's where JAK was last seen. If anything could help with your search for what's going on, it would be there."

Still being tired, I waved my hoof to speak. "Well, I met this stranger there."

The Long Arm seemed to be very interested now. "I didn't know players could enter locked dungeons."

"Yeah me neith-wait, what's locked dungeons?"

"Well, locked dungeons are dungeons that in use by players. Say one group of ponies want to do a specific area, and another group wanted to do the same area, the locked dungeons feature allows those two groups to have separate dungeon experiences without bumping into each other. That way, both groups get the full dungeon experience without having to wait for one group to leave so the monsters and treasure can respawn." Huh, that was an interesting little nugget of information I probably could have found if I read the ruddy instruction manual. Note to self: Do that sometime.

"Alright, so that doubles the strangeness factor of this sudden appearance. Now, I want you to tell me if this guy sounds familiar to you." I started describing the pony in question to him, and the more details I gave, the more questioning his face had become. Once I was done with my description, he nodded his head and confirmed my crazy theory wasn't so crazy after all.

"You just described JAK's avatar."

Comments

[NovaSethyr]

Don't forget to rate and comment on what you liked/hated!

If you spotted anything that needs fixing, you're welcome to point it out and I will fix it.

[Ragnarokia]

Nice idea, I was thinking about trying a .hack//SIGN type cross over myself as well, this should prove to be interesting.

[Festus]

... I'm scared shitless on what's coming soon. I just hope the team could handle whatever/whoever that's causing all this mayhem

[NovaSethyr]

@Festus I never expected to have garnered such a reaction, and you're comments are helping me to continue with this story, thanks mate!