Chapter 3: Reunion
Ryota was still on the ground, quietly sobbing. Lucky was the first to break the silence.
“I’m… really sorry.”
Twilight looked up at her. Her usual hardened expression looked much more dispirited than usual. They weren’t really the best words, but what do you say to someone whose twin just died right in front of them?
Twilight looked at everyone else, too: Kaiya was staring off into the distance, rubbing her arm uncomfortably, Hikaru was looking down at Ryota, and Kotori’s eyes were closed.
Twilight kneeled down and placed her hand on Ryota’s back. She could feel him tense up at her touch.
His voice was hoarse. “I don’t… blame anyone. But just… just go. Please. Everyone.”
“Ryota, you-”
“I said leave!” He turned around and smacked Twilight’s hand away, glaring at her through the tears in his eyes.
Twilight stood up. Her feet and heart felt like they weighed a thousand pounds each. “All right then…”
She took a few steps back, and the others did the same. One by one, they turned around and started walking away, Twilight being the last one. Twilight thought she saw something shining in Lucky’s eye when she turned. She probably feels so guilty…
Twilight finally turned around and left the boy on the ground. She walked past Lucky and Kaiya, who had hidden behind a tree and were now watching him. “Are you two-”
“Shhh!” They hushed her in unison.
She spoke more quietly, “What are you two doing?”
“Making sure he doesn’t go try and fight the boss again.” Lucky answered concisely, contrary to what you’d expect from her. This wasn’t a time to be joking around, even she knew that. Twilight joined them in their stakeout.
She sat with them for a while. No one said anything. There was an air of sadness surrounding the area. Twilight watched the gentle breeze blow through the grass in the field.
After almost twenty minutes of uneventful stalking, Ryota slowly stood. Lucky tensed up, ready to jump, but Ryota lethargically started walking away from the boss’s field, his head hung low and feet dragging. Kaiya sighed. There was both relief and sadness in it.
“Poor guy… This game isn’t fair.” Kaiya sat with her back against the tree and crossed her arms. “It was just a slime, how were we supposed to know?”
“I feel like it was my fault,” Twilight mumbled. “I was the one who said we could probably take it.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. There was no way you could have known about that. You fell for the same trap everyone else did.”
Lucky spoke up. “Shut up, both of you. It was my idea to fight the boss in the first place. I knew everyone was so underleveled, but I didn’t care.”
Kaiya put a hand on Lucky’s shoulder. “Lucky, you couldn’t have-”
“It doesn’t matter what I could or couldn’t have, did or didn’t know.” Lucky shook Kaiya’s arm off. “You have to be careful in this game. I should have been. I was also the one who tripped. Stupid! Why did he do that?! I should be the one who paid for that, not him!”
“What’s done is done,” Twilight said sternly. “Don’t make his sacrifice be for nothing.”
Lucky stared at Twilight for a moment, her face emotionless. “Right.”
There was a sort of awkward silence. Kaiya kicked some dirt around. “So… do we head back to town?”
Lucky stood up. “I’m going ahead. North, I guess. Towards what I hope is probably the general direction of the Floor Dungeon.”
Twilight grabbed her wrist. “Is that such a good idea?”
“It’ll be fine. I’m only toying with my own life this time.” Lucky gently removed Twilight’s hand from her arm.
Twilight knew she wasn’t going to be able to stop her. “Just… try to be safe. Please. I don’t want another friend dying on me.”
Lucky looked down. “...Yeah. I gotcha.” She opened a map and looked at it for a second, then turned another direction. “See you guys later.”
Twilight watched Lucky walk away for a full minute before turning to the one other person left in the area. “Kaiya?”
“I’m gonna go back to the Town of Beginnings. I want to find some more people I can trust. Come with?”
Twilight’s stomach growled. “Think I’m gonna have to pass. I’m gonna stay around Horunka for a while. Grind some XP, get some food and rest. Then head north too, I guess.” Kaiya stood up and stretched her arms.
“All right then. See you later, Twilight.” She started walking away, leaving Twilight to her thoughts. There were certainly a lot of them.
Twilight scooted over so she was sitting against the tree to collect her thoughts. So, let’s see. Still trapped in a video game. Yup. Threat of death still looming… I have this annoying ring that I still can not take off my finger. Someone I was in a party with just died, everyone else split up, for better or worse… and we also have-
“Twilight?!”
Sunset?! Twilight bolted to a sitting up position at hearing that familiar voice. She turned her head towards the direction of its origin, and there she saw that telltale hairstyle and yellow color with auburn highlight. Sunset started hurriedly walking toward her, and Twilight stood up all the way.
They met with a hug, Twilight both relieved and terrified at the same time. “What are- I mean, wait, um- dang it-” the purple-haired girl stammered, switching back and forth between Japanese and English mid-sentence.
“Just speak Japanese. Everyone else does,” Sunset stopped Twilight, grinning in amusement.
Twilight took a deep breath. “I… didn’t know you do.”
“It’s my foreign language of choice in high school. I’ve been in it all four years, and a few before that, too. More importantly, what are you doing here?!” Sunset threw her arms in the air, expecting an answer out of her friend.
“I could ask you the same thing! There were only twenty copies shipped to America! How did you get one?”
“I waited 54 hours outside one of the two stores that had them. Guess you went to the other one, huh?” Sunset furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “Wait, why did you do that? We live about the same distance from the one I went to. And I definitely did not see you there. It would be pretty hard to just miss you with only 10 people buying it.”
Twilight gave a small nervous-slash-embarrassed chuckle. “I only knew about that one at the time.”
“Oh. Well, too bad we even found out about the game. You know, with the… yeah.”
Twilight was silent for a moment. “Yeah.”
“Hey, you’re a fighter, though. I think you’ll be fine.” Sunset nudged Twilight’s shoulder with her fist lightly, trying to make light of the situation.
“It’s not myself I’m worried about…” Twilight trailed off, rubbing her hand where Sunset had touched her.
“Pft, I’m not just gonna keel over either. You know me. Let’s work together to kick this game’s sorry face in.” The fiery-haired girl punched her open palm with her other hand and wore a smug grin on her face.
Twilight giggled a little. “That was so cheesy.” Sunset shrugged. “So what are you doing here? Like, here, here?”
“I came to scout. Heard there’s a boss around here.”
“Oh. Yeah, about that. I, uh... just fought it... It didn’t go well.” Twilight rubbed the back of her neck.
Sunset covered her mouth in shock and her eyes grew wide. “Are you the only one that made it?!”
“Wh- No! No! Only one person died. Everyone else just… kinda left. Well, I say ‘only’ one person, but-”
“Right, right, sorry... Well, sounds like you’ve got a story for me.”
“Yup.” Twilight’s stomach growled again. “But first, back to Horunka.”
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-
“Question: Why did Lucky seem to appoint you leader?” Sunset had her arms resting on the table, crossed.
“I’m not quite sure myself, really. She’s definitely better than me at this game.” Twilight dug her fork into a piece of (rather dry) chicken and took a bite.
“What does she look like?”
“She’s-” Twilight swallowed. “She’s a really short brunette. Silver eyes. Turtleneck color of choice is a pale red. But, like, not pink. She looks like she’s around 14.”
“Hang on!” Sunset started giggling uncontrollably. “She was- She was cursing out Kayaba? She actually cussed at the sky? A 14-year old?!”
“Yup. She is not afraid to tell you what she thinks of you.”
“Oh my god, that’s just amazing! I need to meet her!”
“Well, she went north, so…”
“Ah, gotcha. I need a break first.”
Twilight set her fork down. “Been grinding for experience?”
“Yup. Done a bit of questing, too. I got a spell that heals party members.”
Twilight nodded. It was silent for a moment.
“So, tell me about the boss.” Sunset’s face looked more serious now.
Twilight took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It… started out as just a giant slime. There were a bunch of regular enemies surrounding it. I was in a party of seven, and we killed the mob before we started on the boss.”
“Was that part any trouble?”
“Not really. I guess that should’ve been another hint that there was still some sort of challenge. So once the slime went down to half its maximum health, it, like… melted away, kind of? And there was this crystallized-slime-knight thing underneath it. It had a sword and shield.”
“What kind of sword?”
Twilight tried to remember. In her panic, she didn’t really think to look. She had a vague mental image, though. “A dao, I think. Wait, was it? That’s not really a sword built for stabbing, but…” She shivered. “A-Anyway. I guess I don’t remember.” I could have sworn, though… “We quickly realized we couldn’t win, so we started to run away. But it… ended up getting one of us.”
“You didn’t even try to fight it?”
Twilight shook her head. “We weren’t ready for that kind of fight. We had a strategy, but that was just for a slime. So we’d have been going in completely unprepared. We’d need more people.
Sunset thought for a moment. “How would that help, exactly? Other than the obvious dealing damage faster thing, how would that make it less likely for people to die? Like in your case?”
Twilight nodded. “Fair question. It’s about dividing the boss’s attention. If it gets too focused on one person, that person is in a lot more danger than someone shooting fireballs at it from fifty feet away. But with more people, if things look dicey up front, you can, say, have a bunch of people shoot magic at it all at once and try and get its focus away from some other people. A boss has more trouble deciding who to attack if there are more targets to pick from, whereas we all have only one target.”
“Ah… So that’s why they’re so strong.”
“It’s also why there are limits on how many people can challenge a boss at once. For a field boss, it’s three parties. And for a floor boss, six. And all parties in a boss fight can have up to seven people.”
Sunset nodded. “Gotcha. Cause if there wasn’t a limit, you could just completely overpower the boss with like, a hundred or more people, right?”
“Yup.” Twilight sighed. “Too bad there isn’t an easy way out of here.”
“Yeah, everything seems pretty well-balanced so far.”
“Uh huh… Do you play video games a lot?”
“Would I have stood in a line for 54 hours if I didn’t?”
Twilight giggled. “Fair enough, I guess.”
Sunset smiled. “It’s good to see you again.”
“Same to you.” Twilight stretched her arms. “I… think I’m good to go. Any destination in mind?”
“Actually…” Sunset put a finger on her chin. “I think there was a dungeon nearby here.”
“Oh? That’s new.”
“New?” Sunset tilted her head to the side. “What do you mean?”
“Uh… new to me. I investigated the area pretty well, but I guess I missed it somehow.” Twilight chewed the inside of her lip nervously.
There was a moment of silence. Sunset just kind of stared at Twilight for a few seconds. Please don’t ask, please don’t ask….
Sunset shrugged. “Anyway, I found it when a wolf knocked me over. It’s not really something you notice easily if you’re not looking for it. It was a really small hole. I’m assuming we can either dig around it, or there’s another entrance somewhere.”
“How do you know it’s a dungeon? It could just be a small monster den or something.”
“I saw a wall of stone brick. I only noticed it cause my head was really low to the ground.”
“Ooh, interesting! Should we check it out?”
“You ready?”
“Yup, batteries recharged.” Twilight stood up.
“Let’s go then.” The pair left the inn and headed out of town. It was quiet. Twilight wondered if Sunset was suspicious.
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-
“Here? I don’t even see anything.” Twilight was looking at the ground as hard as she could.
“Exactly.” Sunset knelt next to a tree and held some tall grass down. Twilight could just see a small hole.
“Oh, wow. Lucky find.”
“No kidding. Help me dig.” Sunset began shoveling some of the dirt away with her hands. Twilight joined her after staring thoughtfully for a moment.
Twilight wasn’t quite sure why she didn’t want Sunset to know she was in the beta. It might have something to do that she may ask questions Twilight didn’t particularly want to answer. Whatever the reason, she wasn’t doing the best at hiding it so far. Sunset might already know. Brilliant job, Sparkle.
After a bit of digging, the hole was big enough to squeeze through. Twilight could clearly see the brick walls Sunset spoke of, a turquoise color, strangely enough. All that was visible was just a long hallway of that brick. The two girls looked at each other.
“Do we go in?” Sunset asked.
Twilight looked down at the hole again. “I don’t think it would be here if it wasn’t meant to be explored. Do you think this is the main entrance, though? Or would we be dropping in halfway through a dungeon?”
Sunset ran her fingers through her hair. “Normally the completionist in me would want to look for another entrance so I can say I explored absolutely everything, but I mean… this is life and death. Or as close to it as we can get in a video game. I think we take whatever edge we can get.”
“Fair enough. Shall we?” Without waiting for an answer, Twilight slid forward and dropped into the hallway, and stepped aside for Sunset to jump down too.
Sunset landed on bent knees and stood back up. “Geez, it’s dark.”
Twilight looked up at the hole they had jumped through. It was the only source of light in the area. It looked to be just high enough for them not to be able to boost each other out. “Hmm. Exit strategy?”
“Cross that bridge when we get to it. Which way do we go?” The hall extended both ways, and both looked to be the same. Not a turn visible either direction.
Twilight stepped toward the wall and knocked her fist on it. It felt like cement. None of the bricks were marked or anything. Nothing to suggest a hidden third path. “It probably doesn’t matter. This way.” Twilight turned and began walking down the hall. Sunset joined her.
It was silent for a while. Well, almost. The pair could hear their footsteps echoing on the walls. As they got farther from their hole, it got darker and darker.
“This is just lovely.” It was too empty here. Twilight wasn’t actually sure if she said that, or Sunset did.
“We’re gonna run into a wall or something at some point, and we won’t even see it coming.” That was Sunset.
“Oh, idea.” Twilight equipped her wand and started reciting the incantations for the fireball spell. There was a dim glow as the magic began, and the words Twilight chanted started appearing around her in a faint light, just enough for the pair to see each other. Twilight spoke slowly to keep the light as long as possible. Once she finished the spell and launched the fireball down the hallway, they could clearly see how far they had left to go before… something else. The hallway opened up into a large room a ways in front of them.
“Well, we have confirmed that this is not just an infinite pointless hallway,” Sunset announced. Twilight started the spell again.
After two more casts and starting a fourth, they reached the room. The room was almost a miniature forest inside, holding many small trees that grew up to the ceiling like thick pillars to hold up the roof of the cave. With their dim light they could make out the winding and weaving vines that grew up the walls and roots that almost tripped them on the floor. Twilight looked around, finding a small dead bush and fired her fourth fireball spell at it, lighting it on fire to illuminate part of the room.
“That shouldn’t spread, probably.” Twilight walked around the room, examining everything. “This is weird. Think there’s anything here?”
“You know what I hope is here? Some other kind of magic. Like, as loot. That fireball is getting boring.” Sunset leaned against a tree and rested her head against her fist.
“Well, it was useful here.” Twilight kicked some grass. “Doesn’t seem like there’s anything in this room, though.”
“We haven’t seen a single monster either. What is this place even for?”
“Well, you were the one who found it.”
Sunset sighed and shook her head. “I was hoping it would be a little more exciting. Like, an amazing adventure to go on with one of my best friends. Not an empty hallway and an underground greenhouse.”
“Yeah, fair enough…” It was quiet for a minute. The tree Twilight had set on fire was almost completely burned up. “Should we press on?”
“I guess.” The pair set off through the other hallway connected to the room. Twilight began the incantation once again, and the words of the spell started appearing again to light their way.
Apparently though, it wasn’t needed, as the second hallway ended rather quickly. The turquoise color in the bricks turned to a gold-like one and opened up to a smaller room than before. Torches lit the room from all four corners. The room was otherwise empty, except for a lone figure standing inside, messing with something on an ornate stone table. It turned around. “Ah, there you are, dear! Kept me waiting, you did.”
Twilight instantly recognized the motherly-looking face that greeted them. “Hey, you’re that-”
“Nice to see you again! And hello to your friend, too!” The same elderly NPC that had given Twilight her rather irritating ring smiled warmly at them. “Sorry I had to leave in the middle of our conversation last time. We were being spied on. Couldn’t have anyone knowing about me.”
“Twilight?” Sunset raised an eyebrow and turned toward her. “Who’s this?”
“An NPC. Um, I think. Her speech is... really complex for not being a player.”
“And she’s also standing right here and can hear you!” the NPC cackled. Twilight gave Sunset a spooked glance. “Oh, but don’t worry your little head over it. You still have the ring I gave you, yes? May I see it, please?”
Twilight held her hand out. “Sure, but it won’t-” the NPC plucked the ring off Twilight’s finger like it was never the least bit stuck. “...come off.” Twilight sighed.
The ‘NPC’ turned back around to the table. “Couldn’t have you going and losing it before I was done with you.”
Twilight looked over at Sunset, who was now leaning against a wall. Sunset waved her hand at Twilight with a look that said You can explain it to me later. So Twilight turned back to the lady.
“Um… what do you mean by we were being spied on?”
“The game was getting suspicious.” The old woman answered simply, as if that was supposed to answer every single question Twilight could possibly think of.
“Right…” Twilight peered over her shoulder and was surprised to see that she wasn’t doing anything like building or crafting something with her hands, and was instead typing on what looked like a keyboard, with the ring selected in some window Twilight had never seen before. “What on earth…?”
The old woman then grabbed Twilight’s arm and put the ring back on her finger, and highlighted it again in that weird window, including her hand too this time, and continued typing on her keyboard.
“Um?! What exactly is going on here?” Twilight almost wanted to pull her arm away. Keyboards and computers weren’t supposed to exist in Sword Art Online.
“I told you I wanted to make you a hero last time, didn’t I, dear? If I’m right about you, I’m giving you the means to become one.”
“Okay, but what’s with the…” Twilight gestured with her free hand to… everything around her. “All of this?”
“Well, surely you’ve figured out by now that I’m not a normal Non-Player Character. I’m not even supposed to exist. But someone took some matters into their own hands.” The NPC shut off whatever she was doing, and the window and keyboard disappeared. “That should do it. Now, one more question. I can’t linger here too long either.”
Twilight’s mind raced. She stammered for a second, before managing to get out “Why me?”
The NPC made a weird face at that, like she was thinking hard. “Different question. Trust me, you don’t want me to answer that right now.”
“What? Why not?” The NPC waved a hand dismissively in response.
“Ask quickly dear, I need to go.”
Twilight scratched her head nervously and thoughtfully. “Ugh… f-fine. Will I ever be able to talk to you again?”
The woman smiled. “Floor 7. You’ll be able to find me there. You’re a smart girl. Ciao!” There was a small flash of light, and she was gone. Twilight sighed.
Sunset pushed herself off the wall she was leaning against and put a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “Well, that was a thing. Care to explain, like, any of that?”
Twilight pinched the bridge of her nose, obviously stressed. “Well, for starters, I have multiple unanswered questions myself. I really would rather have asked one of those, but then I didn’t know if the other ones would ever get answered.” Twilight lifted her hand to show Sunset. “This ring was given to me by that character as a quest reward. It stuck on my hand and wouldn’t come off, and she disappeared before she explained what it did. Now, it-” Twilight blinked a few times. “I still don’t know what it does!” She stared at it for a second before trying to take it off her finger.
It came off fine this time. Twilight sighed, and Sunset took it from Twilight and put it on her own finger. “Weird. No change in your stats or anything?” She handed it back.
“Nope. The equipment menu didn’t even seem to think it was there.” Twilight put it back on her finger and opened her status screen. “Still nothing. Let’s see if…” Twilight tapped on the ring with one finger, attempting to select it so she could put it in her inventory, but the ring didn’t react. “So it can’t go in an inventory either.”
“All right, so that ring is a complete mystery still. What about that woman? A self-aware NPC? Was she really not human? And what did she mean by she isn’t supposed to exist?”
Twilight put a finger on her chin. “Maybe someone on the dev team of SAO programmed a NerveGear so they could act as an NPC or something.”
“Why would they pick you to… ‘make a hero’ then?”
“I tried asking, didn’t I?”
Sunset nodded slowly, digesting this. “Twilight, were you part of the beta?”
Twilight felt her shoulders tense up. “That… came out of nowhere.”
“Mhm… no offense, but you’re a terrible liar.” Sunset crossed her arms. “How is that even possible? You’re not from Japan.”
Twilight took a deep breath. “There was a contest. I’m sure you’ve heard about it. I… I thought you’d be jealous or something.”
“That contest? You entered?” Sunset was silent for a second before nodding, apparently choosing to believe her. “Okay. But jealous? Seriously? How long have we been friends, Twilight? Get real.” There was good intention behind the words, but Sunset didn’t do a very good job at hiding her irritation.
“Uh… Right… S-Sorry.” Twilight dug her foot into the ground.
Sunset sighed. “So what do you think was with the…” She waved a hand at the table, where the keyboard once was. “That.”
Twilight silently thanked every god she could think of for Sunset dropping the beta thing. “Huh… she had to select the ring for part of it… and me. Do you think the ring can modify the game’s code…? What if it can log me out now?”
Sunset shook her head. “Psh, I seriously doubt that. I guess there’s no harm in trying, though.”
Twilight opened her menu and tapped the logout button with a gulp.
Nothing.
She sighed. There was both disappointment and relief in it for some reason. “Well, it’s obviously special for some reason, though at this point that goes without saying…”
There was a full minute of silence while they processed what they learned, and moreso what they didn’t.
Sunset rubbed her head. “Well, should we try and find a way out of here?”
Twilight poked at the stone table, as if the keyboard would come back. She ran her hand over the smooth surface, cool to the touch. “I guess so… Honestly, the biggest thing that bugs me is why an NPC would be able to or even want to modify the game’s code… I’m pretty sure that’s what she was doing, at least.” She stared at the ring on her finger. “Well, better not lose this.” Twilight turned to Sunset.
“Ready?” Twilight nodded in response, and Sunset turned to leave the room. Twilight followed silently.
The pair didn’t say anything for a while as they walked back the way they came. Twilight wasn’t entirely sure Sunset completely believed her about the contest. Technically, she didn’t lie. There was a contest that resulted in a player from America being invited into the beta. She didn’t explicitly say she won it. Technically, she told the truth. Just not the whole truth.
Not that that made it any better.
The words stung.
How long have we been friends, Twilight? Get real.
Sunset was right. Twilight should trust her. But…
Twilight saw for the umpteenth time in her head that boy shattering into pieces. She shook her head and decided to just forget about it.
Eventually they reached the hole in the ceiling they dropped in from. There was now a rope ladder coming from the top.
“Well, that answers that question.” Sunset murmured.
Twilight squinted her eyes down the hall in the other direction. “Do we investigate that way?”
Sunset looked down, seeing only black as Twilight did. “I dunno… Something’s just telling me no. Maybe launch a fireball down there. If we can see anything, we check it out.”
Twilight nodded and cast the spell. It flew for several seconds before exploding on the ground. It was just brick all the way down as far as they could see.
“Yeesh…” Sunset sighed and shook her head. “Maybe another time. Tired of inky blackness. At the very least, I think we need a light spell before we come back.”
“Agreed.” Twilight grabbed the rope ladder and pulled. “This seems to hold fine. Out we go!”
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-
“Do you just wanna head north?” Twilight suggested, idly kicking some grass.
The two girls had done some searching in the area for anything else that resembled a dungeon. Turning up nothing, they were getting bored.
Sunset made an audible exhale through her nose. “I guess so. Maybe there just isn’t a good dungeon around here because it’s floor one.”
“I think ‘because it’s floor one’ can explain just about anything annoying us so far,” Twilight joked. “Still early in floor one, at that.”
Sunset was quiet for a minute. “Well, I can’t think of anything to disagree with. Anyways, yes, let’s press forward. Maybe I can meet Lucky soon.”
“I get the feeling you already like her.” The two of them started walking north after briefly checking the floor map.
“Just a bit.” Sunset grew a wide smile on her face. “A kid like that? Amazing.”
“By amazing, you mean funny?” Twilight raised an eyebrow, though Sunset couldn’t see, being a couple feet in front of her.
“Maybe a little.”
“She probably wouldn’t like hearing you say that. She’s… I wouldn’t say hostile, but…”
“I know, I know. I do want to be friends with her. From what you’ve told me, she seems pretty smart, if a little hotheaded.”
Twilight nodded. “She’s definitely clever, at the very least.”
“Is there a difference? Uh, never mind. Anyway, Hikaru. You spoke about him like you were pretty familiar.”
Twilight made a humming sound. “Yeah, I guess so. I knew him during the, uh… the beta.”
“You like him?” Sunset teased.
“What? No! Not like that!”
“Okay, okay, I'm kidding.” A chuckle was in Sunset’s voice.
Twilight sighed, relieved that Sunset’s mood no longer soured every time she heard the word ‘beta’ come from Twilight’s mouth. But Sunset’s next words did come with an about-face shift in tone.
“Hey, Twi?” They sounded level but forced. Almost like she was sad, like she was remembering something from an early childhood and forcing herself not to cry.
Twilight’s mouth instantly felt dry. “Yeah...?” She tried to look at Sunset’s face to discern what she was thinking. It was really hard to read. She looked completely neutral.
“Are you gonna fight?”
The question was simple, but Twilight understood completely. Was she going to be one of the players who clears the dungeons, fights the bosses, climbs the tower, and fights for everyone’s freedom?
Twilight wanted to answer yes without any hesitation, but she had to stop. She was prepared to. She was ready to fight. To slay countless virtual monsters, build up levels and escape with everyone. She was prepared to risk her life. But Twilight wouldn’t be the only one affected, if something… something bad happened to her. There are so many friends waiting in the outside world. Friends that she knew would grieve. If she were to screw up and foolishly meet her end at the point of a claw, or a sword, or anything else, she wouldn’t be the only one to suffer. She wondered how she herself would feel if something happened to Sunset in this game. Twilight would probably never get over it. Did she want to risk inflicting that pain on everyone?
A part of Twilight wanted to say no. She had already seen someone lose someone important.
But if she fought, maybe she could save someone else from that loss. Everyone else in the game has friends and family outside, too. This game isn’t just about her. The choice was obvious.
“Yes.” Her voice carried an intense determination. “I have to. I can’t stand idly by and watch people get hurt. You know me.”
Sunset slowly nodded. “I do. I knew you’d say that.”
Twilight’s heart still ached. From lying to Sunset, from watching someone die because of her own stupidity, and now this... “Listen, I understand if you don’t want-”
“I’m fighting too.”
“You’re… what?” Twilight gaped.
Sunset actually grinned. “Don’t tell me you’re surprised? I’m the same as you. More or less. And hey, what have I been doing with you for the past couple hours? You think I’m out here because I’m bored? I’ve already started.”
“I… Well… Okay, you make a good point.” She took a long and shaky breath to keep herself calm.
“So… shall we press on?” Sunset opened the floor map.
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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Why isn't there a Sunset tag?
8598452
That was because during the time I was writing the first two chapters, I didn't actually plan to have her take a very large role in the story, and it never occurred to me to change it. It's fixed now.
Loves this so far