Being seniors at Canterlot High has some advantages. For the fall semester, Sunset Shimmer, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle won't actually be at CHS. Instead, the girls made it into a competitive foreign exchange program, which is sending them to Tokyo for the semester! Having taken Japanese as their foreign language credits, the girls joined the exchange program to open themselves up to a broader world.
Among the many experiences the exchange program exposed the girls to is the newest and hottest technology, the NerveGear, which brings virtual reality to a whole new level. Sword Art Online, also known as SAO, is the premier game soon to be released for the NerveGear. With their new friend, Ota Natsuki, they scored limited copies and get to be some of the 10,000 players to first experience Aincrad, but SAO is more than a game.
The girls are trapped, along with the other 10,000 players, by Akihiko Kayaba, the developer of the NerveGear and SAO. To get out, they must conquer Aincrad, floor by floor, until they beat the final boss in the Ruby Palace at it's summit. Then they all will be freed, however, if you die in the game, you die in real life.
The girls must band together with their new friend and face Aincrad, not just for themselves, but for all of the other players who can't take on such a challenge. After all they have been through, beating demons and sirens, a game should be easy, right?
EQG: Sword Art Online - Ruby Palace is not a sequel to EQG:SAO - Aincrad and, likewise, Ruby Palace is not a "rewrite". I chose to follow SOA Canon in Aincrad, placing the girls inside those events. Ruby Palace is a full crossover and Alt-U between EQG and SAO.
The Vignette Arcs are not required reading to follow the story, but they are recommended. The Pilot Episodes are the official start of the story.
Special Thanks to my editor, Void Runner and my beta reader, Cotton Sweet.
Artwork - Wing banners and page breaks are by Drytil.
Sword Art Online is created by Reki Kawahara.
My Little Pony is owned by Hasbro.
Thank you for the story :)
It’s pretty amazing at the efforts they were able to do for their fundraising and the generosity of the donors. But now it’s got me dreading how the donors and all of CHS are gonna feel when SAO starts up and they find out they all were trapped.
YessssssssssssssssssSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!
ITS FINALLY HERE!!!!!!!~
YAAAYYYY!!!
Thank you for putting the story on here!!~
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Yes. It will be tough. They will all feel bad.
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I'm glad it is finally launched! Make sure to follow it as I'll be switching update blogs to Ruby Palace, not Aincrad.
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Already done that
Nice to see this. I was actually reminiscing about your old story earlier, and now this is finally realized. Looks like you posted a lot at once.
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Yep! I compiled all of the blog vignettes, which boosted the size. lol. Not intentionally. But I dropped 7 pilot episodes and 5 regular ones for the release. I made it worth everyone's while.
Does this story have any harem elements in it?
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No. The girls do not become part of Kirito's "harem". Sorry/not sorry. It does not fit their personalities. Also, Asuna is too epic to eclipse certain things.
It looks like a citation note accidentally got left in.
Was this supposed to be underlined?
There were also a few occasions where Mister Saski/Saski Sensi was referred to as "Mister Sensi," which didn't feel like it was right, but I might be wrong.
Minor grammar aside, love the setup so far! Gee, I wonder if Sunset knowing Iaido is going to be at all relevant when things finally kick off. ...Nah.
I think the word "but" was missing here.
It feels like a word got left in here or a grammar mark got left out.
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There aren't even any harem elements in SAO by itself. Those that say there are are gravely mistaken.
Why did you ask that?
That name might be a little early for the pilot episodes.
Looks like this cite note was intended to link to the comment at the bottom, but doesn't seem to link properly, it just refreshes the page.
Gotta love getting ninja'd by a surprise Fluttershy, don't you Sunset?
I totally forgot there was a canon limit to SAO copies, though. Here's hoping that the death count is at least slightly lower as compared to canon!
Sunset got hit with the early name change again in this paragraph and the second paragraph below it.
Argus has some spies around, are we sure they weren't supposed to be named Argo? Still, it does at least neatly sidestep the issue of getting seven copies, so hopefully Nats will go let the guy that spoke to last chapter know not to worry about getting copies any longer without spilling the beans.
Another stray citation link causing some havoc.
Interesting to see Sunset deciding to delve so deep into some of the philosophies of the samurai. Not that it's wholly incompatible with her worldview and experiences anyway, but I thought Sci-Twi was the one with a fantasy of playing a knight-analogue in SAO.
Somehow, someway, I'm supremely unsurprised that Pinkie's starting avatar in SAO has an afro. That's just Pinkie Pie. The genus of apple trees isn't the first thing I think when I read "Malus," but that's a good choice, absolutely. And we need Fluttershy/Doombunny to get a knife and some training with it, stat, so she doesn't end up flailing ineffectively like Silica. Bonus points if her pet learns how to shank people too (we all know Angel Bunny would shank someone🐇🔪).
>Kickoff release of the story
>It's over 100k words
Dude. Holy crap
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Crap! I don't know how I these are old pilot episodes missing some edits!
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Apparently the vignettes added up to way more than I realized. Oops. They are not mandatory/necessary to read. The official start is the pilot episodes. lol. I just compiled them for ease since they were written already.
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I don't know how I missed updating the pilot episodes after our last edits and being beta read, but I fixed them. Thank you for pointing them out. I scrambled to get to them as soon as I could before bed. It's late for me.
You left a lot of fun comments. I wish I could have engaged with them more actively. Yes, Pinkie's original avatar was fun and totally her. Malus is my favorite name because of the double entendre. Angel would absolutely shank someone. It will be a while before Fluttershy gets a companion, but that is a fun pairing. Doombunny will have to learn to use that dagger. Her life and the lives of her friends depends on it.
Introducing Silica is a long way off. A very long way, but it will happen.
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Because it's a running gag that all of the girls fall in love with Kirito. He only falls in love with Asuna, but the follow up series, all of the girls do. Even Lisbeth and Silica fall for Kirito during SAO. After, he stacks up quite a few on the adventures: Sinon, Alice, Alicia Rue, Sachi, and Ronya. To name a few. lol
Woo! It's here!
I didn't reread any of these, since I kept up with the blog posts. I just kept forgetting to say that it's interesting how nothing from SAO is even mentioned in these chapters. This could literally be a lead up to any anime set in modern(ish) Japan. Cardcaptor Sakura, Fruits Basket, Haruhi, Persona, Bofuri, etc. They could've ended up petrified in Japan during the first episode of Dr. Stone, or be there to help Megumi after her friend leaves on a trip to Antarctica in A Place Further Than the Universe. They also could have been part of their school's camping or DIY clubs as well.
It did sound like a good first day. It remindeded me a bit about my trip years ago, although there are some differences. Mine was a match between LABO, a Japanese language club, and 4-H. It was only a month long exchange during the summer, but I did go to school for a couple days.
My experience had all the delegates fly to Tokyo and stay for orientation overnight before departing to see their families the next day. Some took the train, others took another flight, while others met their hosts on site to be picked up.
A private bathroom would be pretty luxurious in a Japanese house. I got the impression that my host family was pretty well off, and they had 1.5 bathrooms, both in public areas. I was always offered the first soak in the bathtub though, since I was the guest. Bathing in general is pretty different between Japan and the Western world. The room with the bathtub has a shower station outside of it, and a stool to sit on. You wash yourself and rinse all the suds off before getting in the tub.
My family had me sleep in the tatami mat room on a futon, which was pretty comfortable. I didn't have any slippers, but socks were fine. The few times I wore guest slippers, my heels would hang off the back, since my feet were too big
I'm guessing Nakamura was created for this story, since there's no one on the SAO Wiki with that name, aside from one of the illustrators. My first thought was that Isoraku worked for the Self Defense Force with Seijirou, since it's mentioned that his job shouldn't be mentioned. Could just be a coincidence though.
My host sister Moeka was part of the Kendo club at her school. I didn't know about laido, and it's interesting what differences there are between the two.
I told myself I was going to pace myself with this story... Then read everything in four hours. Because of course I did. All I can really say is, looking forward to more?
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Ah.
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I'm glad you enjoyed it, even if you didn't pace yourself as planned.
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They really could be. I hadn't noticed that before.
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Yes. The family was invented for the story. It's a common surname in Japan for a reason.
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Kendo is by far the popular one. Iaido is rare to find as a school club.
Oh no, they're zoomers! D: The horror!
Haven't been in Fimfiction as often as I used to, and I guess I missed the vignette with SciTwi. All caught up though, and now it's time for the main event!
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"I don't mean to push a topic, it seems no one breaches for a reason," Subset said, hesitating to calculate if it was worth it.
I think this is a Sunset
Marking research is very expensive, breaking into a new market is even more so.
And I think this is marketing
Very exciting reveal of the NerveGear, let's see what happens next!
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Thanks! Fixed!
Oh here we go again.
Skiping vignetts, have allready read those.
Pilots: nice wormeup to offisial start, oh Shy your Doombuny is showing up erly I see, so Nats is substetuting for Astro maybe a bit erly to tell her about magic but ok, and Sunny has a little crush how cute, and a nice way to figure out the name.
Start: so much time on remaking yourself just for it too be wasted, nice changes to BB now Malus and AFCK now Konpito names, standard first day, why are you hesatating Blade she is one of you now, sleepless nights(but not in seattle), if it is the system and not her magic that created that halusination she should be vary scared, and the Wondercolts are (in)officialy created.
Looking forward to more.
woah, best girl (sunset ofc) is somewhere between 2 years younger and 2 years older than me
Missed opportunity to have Poly Stitch (I think that was her name) cameo in the Rainbow Dash vignette
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Yeah, Nats is way better than Astro in both logic in fitting in the story and how she relates to them all, and being fleshed out as an independent character. Yes, Sunset's crush was fun to throw in and logical. It also was a fun way to work in Sunset figure out her name.
I'm glad you like the new name changes. I put way more thought into fixing them than in the original "only going to be ten chapters" story. Also, great reference. And yes, the Wondercolts are officially unofficial, five chapters in. lol.
You're going to enjoy the rest! Floor one is fun. A lot of adventures to be had!
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Yeah, SAO has a clear timeline, so I had to trace it backwards for the pinning the girls into it.
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I absolutely toyed it with it and chose not to. I know I planned something, I just can't remember what. I have been writing a 30 page paper all week.
Why is there a huge gap (Image linked below):
cdn.imgchest.com/files/j7kzc66wl7m.png
Interesting how you changed Pinkie and AJ’s names for this story! It will be a while before I get used to it since I recently re-read the original story and I became accustomed with Backbreaker and AFCK.
This was AMAZING! I honestly wish we could see this whole concert animated. But we can't so I'll just settle for looking up all these songs!
Although, in that Playlist you gave us the link for, it looks like one of the songs got deleted. What was it?
Oh man, I feel sorry for Mr. Nakamura. He's going to feel awful for getting the Rainbooms the NerveGear rigs and the game copies once the death game starts. Okay, he may not have jumped through hoops to get them, but I still get the feeling he's going to feel some sort of guilt for his role in getting them...
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Yes and it will be fun reading them all.
And thoe it is erly I think I have the perfeckt joke to cap it all of on.... [switch ing to pm]
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Fixed! Not sure why. But I fixed it.
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Yep. They were poorly chosen names when the first story was supposed to be ten chapters long. They were horrible in the long run to consistently write. Konpeito has way more context in this version as does Malus. Also. Malus jus sounds epic. Malus v malice. It just works for AJ. Lol