Chapter 1

Over the last decade great advances had been made in the field of conscious manipulation magic. It was a revolutionary concept that allowed users to experience another world. And the day that Rainbow Dash would get to try this new magic for herself.

The NEural Linkage System or NELS went on sale today along with its flagship title, Pony Art Online or PAO. She’d been one of the first to line up for the midnight release, immediately flying home upon receiving her copy.The NELS took the shape of a face obscuring helmet which she don before lying down on her bed.

She said the activation words “Link Start” and waited excitedly as the device whirred to life. Her room disappeared and she was left in utter darkness. Looking down, she realised her body had also vanished. She was beginning to feel a bit nervous when her surroundings abruptly changed.

A city of wide streets and stone buildings, much like Canterlot, materialised around her. Rainbow Dash marvelled at the detail of the buildings and the feeling of stone beneath her feet, it was indistinguishable from reality. Taking flight, she rose until she was high above the buildings.

The city was massive, bigger than any she had seen in Equestria. Hovering over the plaza where she'd arrived she watched, as other ponies began to appear. They looked around excitedly at this incredible illusionary world with cries of shock and delight. However, Rainbow Dash hadn’t come here for the scenery.

After a short search she found what she was looking for, a sign with the shape of a crossed sword and shield upon it. Within was a collection of weapons and armour of all sorts. She eagerly took in the weapons on display.

Browsing through them she stopped at a pair of short slightly curved blades. They had straps on the back to allow them to be fastened to a pony’s limbs. Rainbow Dash eyed them dubiously, how was she meant to put them on without cutting herself? In response to her desire to equip them a floating scroll appeared in front of her. It read ‘Equip Dual Iron Blades?’ above two buttons.

She shrugged and pressed the button labelled ‘Yes’. The blades flashed blue and an identical set appeared strapped to the sides of her forelegs. She waved them experimentally and nodded in satisfaction at their lightness. Heading for the door she passed a suit of plate armour. It seemed like she should probably get some armour too.

She picked out an outfit of brown leather with holes for her wings and equipped it in the same way as before. Rainbow Dash couldn’t wait to get out there and battle some monsters. She galloped out of the store at top speed and ran straight into somepony. They fell in a heap on the ground with Rainbow Dash ending up on top of the purple unicorn.

“Oops, my bad,” she said, and chuckling she helped the other pony to her feet.

“Watch where you’re going next time… Rainbow Dash,” the other mare said irritably.

“So you’ve heard of me,” the pegasus said, striking a pose

“No, the names of ponies you meet are displayed over their heads,” she pointed to above her own head where it read Twilight Sparkle.

“Oh, so you haven’t heard of me,” Rainbow Dash said and slumped a little.

“Didn’t you read the manual?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

“Manual schmanual, those things are for eggheads. I can figure out everything on my own.”

“Is that so? Do you know how to use manoeuvres?”
Rainbow Dash looked at her blankly.

“What do you mean by a ‘manoeuvre’?”

“You can’t be serious!? The manoeuvre system is one of the very cornerstones of PAO.”
Rainbow Dash waved her hoof dismissively.

“What’s the worst that could happen?”

“How’s dying repeatedly to the weakest monsters in the game sound?”

“Not so cool,” Rainbow said and then thought for a moment.

“How about this, you teach me about manoeuvres and I’ll uhh… help you pick out your gear!” she offered.

“No that’s quite all right,” Twilight said but Rainbow Dash paid no attention to her protests. She moved behind her and pushed the purple mare by her back into the store.

“Now then we should probably get you something pretty light. No offense, but you look pretty weak,” Rainbow said and grabbed a single long thin blade from a rack.

“Actually I was thinking something more like-“Twilight began but was interrupted when the blue mare shoved the blade uncomfortably close to her face. She sighed and took the blade from her.

“Okay, now to equip it you just…yeah like that,” Rainbow said as Twilight effortlessly navigated the interface.

“This was in the manual too,” Twilight said, with a know-it-all grin.

“Whatever,” Rainbow grumbled. She then selected a similar outfit to her own, minus the wing holes. This time the unicorn didn’t protest and just put it on. Something light also seemed preferable to her.

“Now that you’re ready, let’s get out there so you can show me these manoeuvres,” Rainbow said and made to leave.

“Wait, there’s a few more things we need,” Twilight said. She picked up a pocketed belt and equipped it across her flanks. Rainbow noticed that each of the pockets contained a narrow piece of sharply pointed metal.

“What are those for?” she asked

“Ranged attacks,” Twilight said. Her horn glowed as she used her magic to lift one and jerked it a few feet through the air.

“That’s sorta awesome,” Rainbow said.

“Now we just need to stop by one more store, if you’ll just wait here a moment …” Twilight said, and walked into an adjacent store. Waiting outside Rainbow noted the bag of money displayed on the store’s sign. A floating bag emerged from the store followed by Twilight. The bag halted by Rainbow’s muzzle, she pulled it out of the air and opened it. Inside were several vials filled with a red liquid.

“What are these?” she asked.

“They’re called potions, you drink them recover your health. Oh and be careful, if you get hit while you’re recovering it won’t heal you. You also have to wait in between potion uses,” Twilight explained.

The pegasus yawned theatrically.

“This is so boring, let’s just go already,” Rainbow Dash said, and started to canter away.

“Wait!” Twilight shouted, before the blue pony got more than a few steps.

“What is it this time?” Rainbow asked.

“You’re going the wrong way.”

“Oh,” Rainbow said, lowering her head sheepishly she followed Twilight.

They passed many ponies running about and chatting excitedly in small groups. After a couple of minutes they trotted out the open gates of the city. A grass covered wilderness stretched out before them, complete with cows grazing contentedly.

“So,” Rainbow said, looking out across the open plains, “where’s the monsters at?”

“You’re lookin’ at ‘em.”

What did Twilight mean there was only… and then the realisation hit her.

“Cows? Are you kidding me?”

“You gotta start somewhere.”

“But cows? That is so lame.”

“Well if they’re so lame you should have no trouble beating one, right?”

“Heh, I could beat one of these dumb things in ten seconds flat.”

“Prove it,” Twilight challenged.

Only too happy to oblige she beat her wings furiously and flew just above the ground right at the nearest cow. Her forelegs crossed for an instant in a blur and then she was past it. Two intersecting red lines appeared on the cow’s neck and it exploded into flecks of blue light.

“What’d I say? Ten. Seconds. Flat,” Rainbow said, landing smoothly behind it.

“I’ll admit it was impressive, but what about the cows behind you?”

She spun around and narrowly avoided getting bitten by the sharp teeth of the cow-monster behind her.

“Whoah!” she shouted, she tried to take off into the air but she couldn’t even get off the ground.

A second cow leaped at her with unnatural speed while she hesitated. She jumped forward and its teeth snapped shut a hoof span from her back leg. Two of Twilight’s throwing weapons flashed past her and struck her pursuers. Though not enough to defeat them it gave the pegasus enough time to recover her wits and gallop over to Twilight. With the advantage of surprise lost, the pair made short work of the cows.

“What happened? I couldn’t use my wings,”

“Ah sorry, I probably should’ve told you earlier. To lessen the advantage of being able to fly the designers made it so you can only fly in short bursts in wilderness areas. You also have to wait in between uses.”

Rainbow took a moment to process all this before responding.

“That’s so lame! How am I meant to do awesome tricks now?”

“By using manoeuvres, of course. Do you see a little icon on the bottom left?”

Twilight lifted her right hoof, pointing to the left edge of Rainbow’s field of vision. Looking at the indicated area, she nodded.

“Press it and then press the button marked ‘manoeuvres’.”

She followed the instructions and another scroll appeared titled ‘list of known manoeuvres’. Despite being called a list there was but a single entry ‘Wolf Fang’. Next to it was an animated figure raising both its blade then slashing downwards.

“Now if you’ll just follow the…” Twilight began, but stopped when Rainbow’s glowing blades slashed downwards leaving two red trails in the air.

“Yes, just like that.”

“I’ll admit that was cool, but I was hoping for something flashier.”

“Don’t worry you’ll learn much more impressive manoeuvres as you defeat more monsters.”

Twilight then said something else, or at least her mouth moved as if she were talking but no words came out.

“Twilight, what’s wrong?” she asked, or tried to.
Her mouth refused to open. There was a blue flash and she found herself back where she’d started in the city’s plaza.

Other ponies were already there looking just as confused as she was. In short order the whole plaza was packed with ponies appearing out of thin air.
The crowd began to chatter nervously amongst itself before being silenced by a thunderclap.
The clouds swirled overhead and began to form into a single great shape.

A face Rainbow realised. As the details became clearer she felt a shock pass down her spine. The face was right out of legend, immortalised in a statue in Canterlot’s gardens. Discord.

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