Equestria Online

by FaultyScrewdriver

Vindication

Neydra takes a deep breath to steel herself after the sight and news of this corpse. She mentally prepared herself for this quest.

“Okay then… Did anybody see the stallions that dragged the body here into the ditch?” She wasn’t a professional investigator, so she figured that would be the best place to start.

“Someone did,” says a mare.

“Lyra did!” continues a stallion. “She ran off shrieking and fearing for her life. I think she fled off back to her home, on the east side of town.”

A sudden exclamation mark appeared in the corner of Neydra’s vision, alongside an image of Pinkie’s Encyclopedia. She tilts her head a tad bit before grabbing the book from under her left shoulder and popping it open in her talons.

It opens up to a quest log.

New! Blood on the Streets:

Upon discovering a murder, Neydra uncovers that there were witnesses to two stallions dragging a fresh kill into the business district.She learns one of the witnesses’ names, Lyra. Now her goal is to seek out the mare and gather what information she can.

Neydra reads the log carefully before shutting the book and nodding to herself.

She makes her way out of the business district and heads into town, in search of… she didn’t really know who or what she was looking for. She should have gathered more information.

She sighs and stops a pony on the street, holding up a hand to make them stop. Perhaps the wrong move to do so, as the pony flinched.

“Excuse me, do you know where Lyra lives?”

The stallion gives her an odd look. “Lyra? Oh yes, she lives on the east side of town. In some kind of sweets shop. I can’t remember the name.”

“Alright. Thank you sir, for that information. It really helps me out.” She says, curling up her beak the best she could to make a smile. This was very awkward, as her beak was malleable by cartoonish standards.

He nods and quickly hurries past her. He looked like he was in a nervous sweat, glancing back at her.

“What is a gryphon doing here…?” He mutters under his breath as he leaves.

Neydra sighs and shakes her head before continuing on in search of the sweet shop on the east end of town.

Before long, she stumbles upon a lone, out of place shop in the residential area.

Bon Bon’s Homemade Sweeets

She honestly couldn’t tell if the third ‘e’ in ‘sweets’ was intentional or not, but that was the least of her concerns for now. Seeing as it was a sweets shop on the east side of town, she took it upon herself to walk up to the door and knock once before heading inside.

“Hello?” she calls out as she walks inside. The space was decorated much like a grandmother’s home would be, with old pictures hung on the wall of flowers in pots, a couple of trinkets decorating the blue shelves that sat in front of a hideous wallpaper of what appeared to be a repeating image of grapes across the wall. It was very homely and warm inside, and the sudden introduction of a nearly clear box of glass displaying an array of sweets was jarring, but also a more familiar transition to the more modernized shop back in the real world.

“Welcome!” chimes a sweet sounding voice from behind the counter, which was decorated with all kinds of taffies.

The source was a mare, who was shorter than most Neydra had seen so far. She had cream colored fur and dark blue mane with a pink streak going through it.

“Welcome to my little slice of Elysium!” She greets with enthusiasm. “What kind of goodness are you looking for?”

She pauses a moment, then smiles and gives a wave. “I’m actually looking for Lyra. She’s a witness to a crime that I’m investigating.” Neydra says. “Do you know where she is?”

She blinks and her eyes widen a bit.

“Oh dear… Lyra! Come down here!” She yells out, looking toward a staircase behind the counter.

“No way! Those stallions were bad business!” Another voice echoed from downstairs. It sounded almost musical in comparison to the cream mare’s sweet voice.

She sighs softly and shakes her head, then gives Neydra an apologetic smile.

“Give me a moment. I’m Bon Bon by the way, how rude of me not to introduce myself.” She says before turning and galloping upstairs.

Neydra takes the opportunity, now that she was alone, to look at all of the sweets behind the counter. They were many varieties of swirls, twirls, colors, and shapes. All were labeled with cheesy, yet catchy names for the candy, such as Lemon Lime Twist, Cherry Pop, Caramel Stretch, and a few others to go along with it.

Neydra sighs, not quite sure if she could eat all of that sticky taffy with a beak. Likely not. It was all reasonably priced though. Two pieces of candy for a single bit.

Bon Bon suddenly reappears from upstairs, toting along a mint green mare with a white mane. The visage of the mare reminded Neydra of toothpaste.

“H-hi.” The mare manages to blurt out, slightly hiding behind Bon Bon.

“Such a wimp…” Bon Bon sighs, holding her head in her hoof.

“Right…” Neydra sighs, and looks to the mint green mare. “You’re Lyra, right? Can we talk about what you saw?”

“O… Okay. I didn’t see too much, But I did see that they weren’t ponies like everyone else thought they were. They were too big!” Lyra replies, making exaggerated breaths as if explaining that tired her out.

“And do you know exactly what they were if they weren’t ponies?” Neydra questions.

“No… but they were about your size,” Lyra says.

She suddenly glares daggers at Neydra, which makes her feel uneasy.

“You came to kill me! I’m not dying this young!” She yells before turning and running up the stairs, screaming the entire way up.

Neydra flinches at her words, which she figured were tossed at her simply because she was a gryphon.

“Is she always this dramatic?” She asks Bon Bon.

“No. She’s just frightened right now.” she explains. “I’m not sure if the figures she saw were gryphons, but if it was… I would agree that you should be under some suspicion. Gryphons are a rare sight in town.”

She walks back behind the counter, looking over her sweets.

“I would go ask the guards in town. They would probably know more. Just prepare to be accused.”

She motions a hoof over her sweets. “Want a candy?”

Neydra nod, and then leaves her a bit, grabbing herself a caramel flavored and raspberry flavored suckers for the road.

Bon Bon takes the suckers and wraps them in decorative paper.

The paper falls away from the caramel sucker as soon as Neydra is out of the store, and she sticks it in her beak absentmindedly as she walks the streets in search of a guard.

She was surprised to find just how real the sucker tasted. Most games wouldn’t even initialize tastes like that, yet here she was, tasting what seemed to be a candy made of actual hardened caramel.

A small counter appeared on the bottom left of Neydra’s vision. A simple EXP lettering, written in blue font. Another smaller symbol was present just below the P, a 1.2X, followed by a five minute timer.

Neydra smiles a bit and nods, assuming that gave her an experience buff for a short time. Which also meant the game had levels. She couldn’t wait to see how growth worked in this game.

She eventually makes her way to the business district, where a group of pegasi were setting up a perimeter for investigation now. They kept other ponies away from the corpse, using their own pointed spears and armored bodies to push away and wandering ponies.

Neydra nods to herself, taking a breath before walking over.

“Good evening sirs! I’m here to help with the investigation.” She calls out to them.

They all turned to face her, and then there were a few glances amongst themselves before every spear was pointed directly at her.

“On the ground now! No sudden moves!”

Neydra pauses, not expecting them to get so aggressive that fast, but quickly complies, entering a crouched position to lie down.

“Okay, okay, no need to get hostile…” She tells them.

The guards don’t listen to her. Not even in the slightest. Two guards rush over to her, pressing down on her claws to pin her to the road. The pain of being pressed down upon courses through her body like real pain would.

“You are under arrest on the suspicions of murder and esp-”

“Let the bird go!” Shouts out a much deeper, more commanding voice. The other guards quickly move away, pulling their spears away from Neydra and making room for the stallion that walked into her view.

He was larger than the rest, and almost as big as Neydra herself. He wore armor with gold plating on it, with many dinks and scratches that revealed the iron underneath. He gives her a very unfriendly grin, revealing some of his missing teeth.

“She isn’t a threat to us. Look at her, she’s carrying a sickle, and doesn’t even have a bag to carry her stuff in.” He notes to the other guards. “Much too poor to have any hope of possessing the weapon that made these injuries.”

A guard walks over, grabbing Neydra and forcing her to stand, and look into the cold, calculating eyes of the guard captain.

“What is your name and why are you here?” he asks gruffly.

“It’s Neydra… I’m new in town, I was just trying to investigate the scene is all.” She tells him.

“A vigilante?” He laughs lightly, before looking at her with a smirk. “I like it.”

He sighs and points to the spot where the body used to be, his blood still staining the ground, while a pair of stallion guards moved his corpse into a wagon.

“Poor fella was cut open by a Gryphon Hedjite Blade. The victim was random, no reason the local clock keeper had to die. This leads me to think it was an act of terrorism,” He says.

“Which points all suspicion to a gryphon culprit…” Neydra mutters under her breath. “Do you know if any other gryphons live in town?” She asks him aloud.

”No, none other than yourself are in town,” the Captain retorts. “We’re at war with the Gryphon Empire. So they’re not exactly a welcome bunch. As for yourself, I suggest you get to proving your innocence by finding the real killers. They dropped a key along the path they took when dragging the corpse.”

He presents a key. A rusted old skeleton key with scorch marks adorning the metal.

“You have until daybreak to present the real culprits. Otherwise, you go on the block for murder and espionage. And don’t expect to be leaving town without an escort.” He says gruffly.

Neydra sighs as she takes the key, looking it over. Burn marks, rusted. This belonged to a building that had been the subject of a fire recently. She hoped. It was a start at least.

“Get to work.” The guard says, before returning to the group of guards to assist them with transporting the body.

As Neydra looks the key over, the journal icon with an exclamation point appears in her field of vision, so she pulls the book out from under her armpit again and pops it open.

After discovering the culprit is likely a gryphon, Neydra heads to town square, where she discovers the guard. She was nearly arrested, but the Captain of the Ponyville DIvision of Royal Defenders, Dented Steel, gives her a pass. With the promise of her help in finding the real culprits, she’ll be let go. If she can’t by morning, she’ll be executed. She was given a rusty key covered with ash, soot, and burn marks as a clue.

Neydra sighs and clutches the key tightly before tucking the book back under her armpit.

With not much else to go on, she stops a random pony on the street, a purple mare with horns and wings, similar to the first tall pony she had met. Her dark indigo mane was cut into short bangs, with streaks of violet through it.

“Excuse me miss. Do you know of any burned-out buildings in town?”

The mare hesitates a moment, then nods. “There was the old library that was destroyed ages ago… my library…” she says quietly. She pauses a moment before continuing. “But we uprooted it to add homes there, and used the roots to decorate my home. The husk of the trunk is rotting somewhere on the outskirts of town. Why do you want to know?”

“I’m investigating a murder,” Neydra explains, “could you show me where it is?”

She tilts her head a bit, before giving Neydra a smile and nodding.

“Of course! Just follow me.” She turns and trots westward, toward a forest that hugged the large field just outside of town.

“You’re Neydra, correct?” She asks suddenly, halfway through the trip.

Neydra blink, stunned. She wondered exactly how she knew. Neydra nods in reply to her question.

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“Pinkie Pie told me about you.” She says with a nod. “I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle.” She says humbly. She even bowed in a little respect to her.

Neydra pauses, then stares at her. Dumbfounded by that fact. “You’re a princess? So who are you the daughter of?” Neydra questions, before jumping to conclusions. “That white horse I saw earlier? Is she the Queen here?”

“What!? No!”

Twilight lets out a giggle, before sighing. She looked almost a bit sad, like she had lost something she liked.

“That was Celestia. She’s a princess too. I was… promoted, I suppose. Long story.”

Neydra scratches her head. That made no sense, where they relatives? Did Twilight usurp the position somehow? That isn’t exactly how a bloodline works, and if she usurped, wouldn’t that mean she would be more than a princess?

“You can’t just get promoted to princess. That makes no sense. That’s a royal title.” Neydra says.

“Maybe in your world, but you’re far from home, Neydra.” She says, before giving a knowing smile.

She trots ahead, leaving Neydra momentarily baffled and dumbfounded. She recovers after a second, and moves at a run to catch up.

Twilight leads Neydra into the forest, walking in silence with her until the pair came upon a large tree trunk, which seemed to be in the process of trying to root itself into the ground again. It was impressively more colorful than what a burned tree should’ve been like, and contrasting against the dark forest, one that a little indicator claimed to be the Everfree, it seemed that it was as foreign an object as a fire hydrant in a field of flowers would be.

A scorched door sat in the middle of the trunk, wood starting to grow over it, but scrape marks over the wood indicated someone had tried to or succeeded in opening it recently.

Neydra is quiet as she walks over to the door, careful not to make any sudden noises. She moves the key to the door handle, pushing it into the lock to see if it would work.

It was a perfect fit, and after moving the key just a bit, Neydra heard the soft click of the door unlocking.

She freezes up, feeling a very real shiver go down her spine. She dumps the rest of her stuff into the grass nearby, save for her sickle which she grips tightly in her right talons, before slowly pushing the door open.

“Whoa, wait.” Twilight whispers.

Neydra looks over her shoulder, to see the purple mare carrying all of her stuff in purple coated magic telekinesis.

“What is it?” Neydra ask.

“Maybe we should work together here.” the Princess says quietly, before she levitates all of the stuff into a spare saddle bag and floats it over.

Neydra nods, then smiles before shutting the crack she had opened in the door. She grabs the saddle bags, and straps them down to her sides. Sloppy, but enough to keep them there.

Twilight nods once she was finished with the bags, and her own horn starts to glow. An ethereal bow forms by her side, completely purple in color. A ghostly arrow manifests beside it, and notches itself against the string. Neydra could see that the bow had symbols carved into the bow. A cloud, balloons, gems, butterflies, apples, and her own butt mark, a star.

Neydra blinks. Magic truly was amazing.

She gives Twilight a nod before once again grabbing the door handle, holding the sickle to her side. She opens it just a crack, and takes a cautious peek inside.

As she glances around inside, she takes note of every detail she could. It was a burnt-out library, with scattered books sat about, destroyed and burned. Many of the shelves that had previously been stacked with books now held canteens of water and cans of food. She takes note of an array of tables inside, littered with scrolls and maps.

She takes another careful glance inside, making sure there were no immediate or obvious threats that she had missed. After confirming that it was clear, she walks inside. The wood flooring groans and splinters under her talons and paws.

Twilight glances around, indulging in the nostalgia.

“It’s been so long… oh the memories I have of this place…” She mutters.

Neyra nods, before turning to her. She points at Twilight, then the door.

“Watch it, and stay to the side in case anybody peeks inside.” She whispers to the Princess.

She turns back around, heading over to one of the table and grabbing a map. She unfurls the delicate paper and takes a glance over it.

Twilight quietly shuts the door behind Neydra, before taking her position off to the side.

It was a map of Ponyville, Neydra noted as she glanced over it. Thee scrolls were written in an odd language, likely code, so she passed it to the side and glanced over the map.

There was a single point on the map, marked with a circle, and labelled ‘Castle.’

“Twilight… is there a castle in Ponyville?” She asks without looking up.

“Yes, there is. Why?” The princess asks, looking away from the door and toward Neydra.

“Because they have it marked down on this map.”

Neydra grabs the parchment and holds it up to show Twilight.

The princess's eyes widen, and she lowers her head. Something changed, a moment of sickly movement overcame the Princess as she processed this information.

Realization dawns on Neydra, and her own eyes widen.

“We need to hurry there. Now.” She tells Twilight.

Twilight nods, before swaying a bit and bumping into a shelf. The desolate library echoes with the shattering of ceramic objects

Neydra hushes her, before looking to the object that had fallen.

A little decorative alicorn statue had hit the floor, the head shattering off the body as it had hit the ground. Twilight pales, looking at the figurine, her eyes widening in shock.

Neydra grabs Twilight’s foreleg, and drags her out of the trunk. “Let’s get to the castle, now.”

Twilight stumbles along Neydra, through the town, having her guide the way there. She was accosted by guards, who attempted to arrest her for ‘attempted kidnapping of a royal figure’, but Twilight handled that situation with just a few words.

It wasn’t long before Twilight stopped in front of a large crystalline structure that shimmered with the light of the sun.

It was tall, in the shape of a large tree, composed entirely out of a quartz like Crystal that rooted into the ground. The doors were highly detailed, looking to have be carved, but upon closer inspection, they too were natural formation, the crystals were smooth, untarnished. Twilight pants, looking to Neydra.

Neydra sighs and takes a deep breath.

“Here goes nothing,” she says as she grabs the handle to the crystalline door and pushes it open.

The door opened with a whine and creak, and Neydra flinches. She hoped it didn't give away her cover.

“Where is she? She should be here.”

“I have no idea.”

Two voices, both of which were gruff and deep. Neydra didn’t recognize either of them, and frowns a bit. They were echoing from deeper in the castle, from the main chamber.

Twilight tugs on Neydra hip, and the gryphon looks her way quietly.

The alicorn was shaking a little.

“We should leave.” She whispers so silently, Neydra barely heard it.

Neydra looks in the direction of the voices, then at Twilight.

“Two of them, and two of us. It’s even. Plus, you have magic, that puts it in our favor. We can handle it,” Neydra retorts quietly.

“Something isn’t right…” Twilight mouths.

“What isn’t right?” Neydra asks, turning her attention back in the direction of the voices.

And then she saw it. So many more than just two. There had to be upwards of a dozen walking down the hall, toward the group.

“You hear that?” One asks another.

“I smell it. The alicorn is here.”

Neydra quickly pushes the mare to the door. “Go, I’ll be with you shortly.”

Twilight turns, running to the door, only for it to slam shut, almost directly on her. This causes her to fall onto her haunches to avoid getting hurt.

The room lighting drops around Neydra, Twilight, and the other gryphons. Pitch black lines of string sprout from the cracks in the doorway. They spread along the door, then the walls and ceiling, further developing the dark atmosphere.

A low and sinister giggle echoes across the castle.

“Ahhh, I caught myself a little bird,” a female’s voice calls out, echoing similarly to the giggle.

Neydra looks around, shivering slightly at the eeriness of the situation. She looks toward the oncoming gryphons, only for them to shift out of focus. Something forced her to look upward, toward a unicorn that was dropping from the ceiling along one of the red strings, and then land gracefully on the ground.

Her fur was pure black in color, with a dark red mane that had blacks streaks going through it. Her eyes were blood red, as was her glowing horn.

“Focus on me little bird.” She says in her eerie, yet beautiful voice.

Neydra blinks as she observes the mare, who gives Neydra a smile, showing off four fangs that adorned her row of blunt teeth. Each seemed natural on the strange mare, beautiful even. Yet they were horrendously out of place at the same time.

Neydra shakes her head to snap herself from her fixation on the mare, then draws her knife from her bags

“Oh, there’s no need for that little birdie.” She coos, glancing at Neydra as she advances, starting to circle around her and observe her. “I’m just here to give you an offer that nobody else will… for a small price.”

Neydra growls and keeps her knife pointed at the strange mare. She smiles at the blade, as if acknowledging it, yet closes in still.

“What the hell do you want?”

“To listen. To give you your deepest desire.” She says with a small smile, doing a skirt around Neydra, who’s forced to spin quickly to keep her eyes on her.

Neydra throws a swipe at her with the knife, to force her to back away.

The strange mare takes a hop backward, before shifting and hopping onto a wall. Her hooves stuck to it as if it were just another floor.

“You are so keen on violence.” She says, her voice taking on a tone of offence. “You must be so lonely back home, with a family that won’t ever be there for you. Oh, it must hurt so badly.”

She smiles as she starts to crawl up the wall, leaving Neydra dumbfounded.

“What if I could help you little birdie? Would you help me in return?”

Neydra shakes her head. “This is absurd. You know nothing about me.” She says. She keeps her eyes on the strange mare, tracking her every movements.

The mare starts to walk along the walls, just as an arachnid would, her legs bending almost unnaturally as she swiftly glides across the wall. She sneers at the gryphon, giggling at her uncertainty.

“I’ll offer you one last time. Join me, little birdy, and achieve your deepest desires.”

“You’re working with the gryphons, aren’t you?” Neydra growls in reply. “You’re horrible, condoning the killing of an innocent citizen. I’d never work with somebody like you.”

“Oh, I’m of no allegiance to them. And the same is true of them to me. I came for you.” The mare says with a soft yet creepy smile. “Such brutality is beyond me. I like to lure my allies into a web of satisfaction, and help them achieve their desires, for their loyalty. A more than fair trade.”

Neydra shakes her head.

“Once again, denied. I have a princess to protect now.” Neydra says, before her eyes widen, and finally takes her eyes off of the strange mare

The mare giggles at that.

“You’re kind of late to that. Time’s up.”

Something blunt smacks against Neydra’s head, and she stumbles back, wavering in place, barely holding onto her consciousness. She’s caught just as she hits the ground, and takes advantage of it. She slumps in their grip, feigning unconsciousness.

“This one too boss?” Some voices begin.

“Yes, I think we need to remind them that this little gem was destroyed decades ago.”

A claw holds up a bright purple gem in the air, one that was refined, yet at the same time almost seemed natural in its state.

Twilight suddenly yells out in pain, and Neydra almost reacts to it, but catches herself.

“Shut her up!” Barks one of the gryphons, which is followed by the sounds of a harsh slap and Twilight grunting.

“Get them outside, and bring me my sword. Attis, round up the ponies in town. Gilda, bring that idiot that pretends she’s a gryphon and the princess to the town square.” says a commanding voice.

After being passed around, a battered and bruised Twilight was left on a larger gryphon’s back, and Neydra was being dragged behind, much to her disdain. She constantly tries to fight it, but the more experienced gryphon stops her attempts.

She’s finally dumped on the dirt path in the town square, beside the bloodied and beaten Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight coughs painfully, and looks at Neydra.

“You didn’t… fight…”

Neydra looks away, grimacing lightly.

“I can now…” She mutters. “I can save you.” She pushes herself to her paws and talons, only to receive a powerful punch to the gut that sends her back to the ground, gasping for air. The corners of her vision darken as pain surges throughout her body, her stomach spasming from the sudden injury.

“Please stop.” Says Gilda, moving above Neydra and pinning her down. “I don’t want to hurt you anymore than I need to…”

Twilight lets out another cough, a bit of blood dribbling down her lip after it.

“It’s okay. The black mare. I saw her too. She trapped us.” She says, giving a grimace every few syllables.

“I’m sorry..” Neydra mutters.

Twilight shakes her head, smiling in an accepting way, leaving scrape marks along her cheek from the dirt and gravel.

“No… don’t blame yourself… you were forced into this by the guard… you shouldn’t have even been involved...”

A shadow casts over her before she could finish the sentence, caused by the largest gryphon she had seen yet.

The large gryphon had soot colored fur and feathers, and piercing yellow eyes. He had a long scar that began at his ashy colored beak, and ran all the way down to his gut. His beak was missing the tip.

“You two are pouring your little hearts out. How adorable.” He laughs, ”Gryphons at least die with their words in their throats, not on their lips. Gilda! Get the traitor up.”

“Blacktalon! She isn’t-”

“Did you hear me? I said get her up!” He commands, with a much more stern tone this time, glaring at the bird.

Gildra crawls off of Neydra, and then lifts her up into a standing position.

The dark gryphon chuckles, and then starts to play with that little purple gem in his claws again. “You wanna cry? Beg for mercy little birdy?”

Neydra growls at him, shifting on her talons and paws.

“You’re going to let me go now… before you regret it!” she shouts at him, attempting some kind of threat.

He laughs loudly at her before turning to look at the crowd of gathering and frightened ponies.

“You hear that everyone? The girl has some fight in her yet!”

He suddenly turns, and puts a set of talons her shoulders and draws uncomfortably close to her face. He grins, showing off his razor like teeth in his beak.

“The problem here is that the ones who try too hard end up dying first. I’ll cut you a deal. Kneel to me and I won’t end your little game here, traitor.” He pulls his face away, grinning as he watches her.

Gilda walks toward Neydra’s side, leaning in close to her earhole. “Just kneel… don’t make this hard on yourself…” The gryphon begs, as if she were the one being executed.

Neydra pauses a moment, before suddenly turning and headbutting Gilda in her face, sending her to the ground from the force. Then she turns and yells, jumping at Blacktalon.

Blacktalon sidesteps and catches her by the left paw, throwing her into the ground before gripping her leg tightly and jerking it. The soft flesh shifted violently, a loud and hollow pop echoing in the wind.

The crowd gasps and grimaces as Neydra screams and flails from the sudden flush of pain. Her now dislocated leg thumps against the ground. For the moment, she forgot this was even a game. The pain felt far too real, and it burned like a flame in her joint.

Blacktalon lets out a victorious laugh, and throws down the backwards limb.

“Tricky, but not too smart.” He declares, He rolls the purple gem in his talons for a moment, before he gives Neydra a sadistic grin.

“Gilda, hold her still, arms out.”

Gilda leaps on Neydra again, having recovered from the headbutt. After a moment of struggle, she manages to put Neydra into a position on her back, her arms splayed out above her head and held down by Gilda’s talons.

Neydra grunts, a few tears running down her cheek from the previous pain.

Blacktalon grins as he moves over to stand above Neydra, and the world around her seemingly falls silent. The crowd leans forward, as if wanting to watch whatever would happen.

Then Blacktalon suddenly reaches back, and draws his blade, a wicked looking black sword with razors along the blade. He turns it in his talons, before bringing it downward in a stabbing motion.

The blade effortlessly cleaves through Neydra’s ribcage and flesh, sending a spray of red into the air. Neydra’s eyes widen, and her scream catches in her throat. It was when he started sawing and cleaving upward with the blade that the scream came out, high-pitched and agonizing.

Once he had worked his way back down to the base of her chest, he pulls the blood-soaked blade away, and puts it back onto the sheath on his hips, before flexing his talons.

“Do me a favor and scream for me.” He says sadistically before driving his claws forward, into the carved out hole in Neydra’s chest.

Neydra shrieks again, her vision going blurry as the pain becomes unbearable. It felt like her heart jumped up into her throat, with a new irregular and very painful beat.

“Stop this! Stop this right now!” Twilight shrieks before she suddenly jumps to her hooves, only to get tackled to the ground by two more gryphons.

Blacktalon grins, and looks her way while his talons continue to grip tighter and tighter onto Neydra’s heart, pushing the purple gem into it all the while, sending blood rushing out of her chest and down her feathers and fur. He laughs, mocking her screams, licking his beak as if he had finished a grand meal. He reaches back with his free claw, drawing his sword.

“Ponies! I want you to deliver a message to your silly little princesses!” He shouts. “Blacktalon sends his regards!”

He suddenly brings the blade down toward Twilight, who was still pinned on the ground. The blade cleaves through effortlessly, like a knife through butter.

Twilight’s eyes were wide, and they stayed wide as her head rolled off of her shoulders, and along the stage for a few seconds before finally stopping.

Neydra only very briefly got to watch this scene with her blurry vision before her body gave a death rattle, and then she goes limp under Gilda’s talons and Blacktalon’s claw.

For a moment, Tyler almost unplugged the system, hoping to try again another day, but then he heard a disembodied voice in the pitch blackness of death. One that sounded eerily similar to Twilight’s, with a more motherly tone to it.

“We aren’t done…” Whispers the voice. “They killed us both, then connected us both. They made us one. I see now, what you must do.. What we must do. What I must ask of you, Neydra…”

He hesitates a moment, before calling out into the blackness. Much to his surprise, it was Neydra’s voice that called out.

“What do you need me to do?”

“I want you to help me end this war. Together. No matter how many times we die or fall. No matter what it takes.” The heavenly voice replies.

He was suddenly back in Neydra’s body again.

She groans as she shifts her body against the stone floor, slowly opening her eyes and looking around. A gentle purple light radiated from her torso, where her heart was, which was in one piece again.

Blood still coated her fur and feathers, but the pain was gone. And her injuries had disappeared entirely.

She slowly traces her talong along the purple glow in her chest.

She suddenly jumps as a hoof touches her shoulder. It was cold, like ice, and sent chills through her body like if she had took a dive into a frozen lake.

“We can start with those forty or so books I need to return to you,” says the voice of Twilight Sparkle, which now sounded hollow and distant.

Neydra quickly turns around, looking toward the source of the voice.

The figure behind her was just like that of Twilight, but ghostly and transparent in appearance. She also appeared emaciated, as if she hadn’t eaten in ages.

Before Neydra could get a good word in toward the mare though, the world suddenly went dark.

!HEX SYSTEM DISCONNECTED!

Comments

[Flod]

Uh. Uh.

Uh.
Did he just get locked in the game?

[Dagger445]

8547641
Hmmm, guess you'll have to wait and see sir snek. ;)

[Flod]

8540465
By the way, there are plenty of unneeded ''s' in the latest chapter.

Still grand tho! My mind ignores them on instinct! xD

[Dagger445]

8547668
We will roll through the story and see if we can't fix those up.

[Dagger445]

8556699
Well this is quite the list! When we find the time, I'll go back and fix things up. Thank you for all of your help!