Gunsmoke

by Wanderer D

Chapter 25: Blaze

Walking into the music room and looking around, Applejack clicked her tongue. "So, no sign of Sunset today?" she asked.

"I'm afraid not, darling," Rarity replied with a sigh. "Mr. Cranky didn't even ask if we knew where she was, so... I imagine the staff knows what happened to her?"

"I don't like it," Rainbow Dash muttered. "It's one thing for her to... not like me, but to skip class? That's never been a thing with Sunset. Ever."

"Um... I'm sure that she's fine, right? Wasn't she hanging out with Twilight? Maybe we can give her a call to check on her?"

"Ah don't know, sugarcube, but Ah am starting to get worried."

"You, um... don't think she might have gotten hurt by a monster, do you?" Fluttershy asked.

"I think we would have found out about that," Rarity replied, frowning a little. "As much as our relationship is being strained at this time, I don't think either Principal Celestia, nor Vice Principal Luna, or any of the teachers for that matter, would have hidden that from us. They all know we care."

"Well, they certainly aren't telling us as much as they know, that's for sure," Rainbow Dash muttered. "What do you think, Pinkie?"

When no answer came, the girls turned to look at their drummer, who was staring into space with wide eyes and a paling face.

"Pinkie?!" Rainbow Dash rushed to her side. "What's wrong?"

"T-three elbow twitches, knee jerk... t-tickly t-toes, goosebumps on the back of the neck and a shiver," Pinkie stammered, hugging herself. "W-we need to warn everyone. We need to get everyone inside!"

Rainbow Dash was already on her feet, running out of the music room, guitar in hand. "Girls, I'll warn Principal Celestia," she called over her shoulder. "Get ready to cast the shield we've been practicing!"

Principal Celestia frowned at the bills. Reconstructing and reinforcing the whole building was indeed a priority, but the sheer cost of it! She tapped her chin considering the possibility of not-quite-decorative cannons to be placed around the premises.

"No." She sighed. "I couldn't bear Luna's knowing smirk."

She was about to pull up a webpage to place an order for reinforced doors when her office was suddenly invaded by a heavily breathing Rainbow Dash.

"Principal Celestia!" the girl almost shouted, "We have to get everyone to safety! Pinkie Pie almost passed out with her latest Pinkie-Sense! It must be something really bad!"

Celestia's eyebrows shot up at that, and she slid her chair back, standing up. "But what could possibly—"

That's when she felt it. It was as if the air all around them was suddenly heavy, and a slight vibration of some sort tickled at her nerves and made her shiver. "What is that?"

A low rumble that shook the walls made Celestia jump to her feet. She slammed her palm on the broadcast and called out, "All students! Inside! Now!"

Rainbow Dash had already ran out of her office, and Celestia followed her, grabbing her phone on the way. Soon enough, the pair could hear the shouts and cries of horror and confusion as students stampeded into the building, and seeing the thing outside, not yet fully formed, was enough to almost make her stumble.

Such a creature had no right to exist in the real world.

Rainbow Dash had already joined the other Rainbooms, and in seconds, they were already playing one of their songs. Magic flowed around them and tails, ears and wings sprouted quickly. Glittering light encompassed everyone and expanded, covering the building itself, although Celestia didn't take any chances, turning on the emergency security system as soon as she was sure there were no students or teachers left outside.

"I-I have to call Luna..." she stammered, recoiling when the ground shook as the thing outside made its way to her school. "Must get Mirage."

She was shaking so bad it took several tries before she managed to click on Luna's number. It rang once.

Twice.

On the third ring, Luna answered. "Celestia?"

"Luna, you have to tell Sunset," Celestia whispered quickly, cringing when the building shook. "There's a huge monster outside, Luna. I don't know how long we'll last."

She could almost see Luna's horrified face in her mind when her sister answered, "We're on our way."

"Everyone!" she called out, "go to the center rooms and follow the staff downstairs! It's going to be cramped, but you'll be a lot safer! Stay away from the doors once you're inside! We only saw one monster and help is on the way, but I don't know how long it will take them. We need to keep the halls clear, in case something happens and the Rainbooms also have to retreat."

The teachers nodded and soon several students were being escorted to the back, except for Flash Sentry and a few others, who approached Celestia.

"Principal, we'd like to stay here in case the Rainbooms need help moving," Flash said, getting nods from Soarin and Bulk Biceps.

Celestia nodded. "Thank you, stay away from the wall, though, we don't know how strong that thing is."

That was when they heard the air crack around them and Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were blown onto the floor. They quickly recuperated and carried on singing, but Celestia noticed they seemed really shaken. "I might need your help sooner than later."

A second impact made the girls cry out and they collapsed. Celestia felt something intangible around them crack, and she knew immediately the magical shield was down.

"Come on!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she and Applejack helped Rarity and Fluttershy up. With renewed strength, the Rainbooms played again and the third impact felt dulled in comparison to the previous two, although Celestia saw all the Rainbooms recoil from it.

It was then that she heard the gunshots and a sliver of hope found its way to her, soon to be replaced by worry.

Would Sunset be strong enough?

Desert Mirage rushed the monster, which turned to look down at her almost apathetically as her bullets ricocheted off its tough hide. It was having some effect, however, as the monster's life bar reduced slightly.

She had no strategy, no idea whatsoever of what this creature's weak point would be. But it certainly wasn't its armored back.

She took two shots at its arm and jumped up when it made a predictably slow sweep. This gave her some hope. Even if it was so strong, it was slow, maybe she coul—

She came to next to a destroyed tree trunk. Her breathing was heavy and her body ached all over in the parts that didn't burn with pain. Her vision was blurry and tinged in red with several warning messages flashing before her eyes. Mirage gasped and rolled to her stomach, wincing as she forced herself up and spat blood.

She coughed, right hand fizzling in front of her as she scrolled down and activated several stimpacks. She collapsed, watching through hazy eyes as the only clear thing, her health bar, slowly filled up from the one single hit point she had left.

She coughed again, rasping as her eyes made out the figure of the monster smashing the shield around Canterlot High. If GGO's one-hit-kill luck break hadn't saved her, she'd probably be data in the wind. Her luck wasn't that high. She had effectively won the lottery right there.

Slowly as the bar filled out, her breathing calmed and the pain disappeared. As soon as she was able to, she forced herself to stand up, nervously watching the monster.

"What happened?" she whispered.

She had jumped over the sweep of the lower arm and... nothing. She closed her eyes, forcing herself to remember. Wind. Something huge smashing right into her. She hadn't had time to even raise her arms to block it.

She opened her eyes. The monster had performed a double attack. It was so massive she had only noticed the initial one and it had almost cost her her life. Next time a full hit like that went through... she was dead. And being outside of GGO, the remote chance of re-spawning was as close to zero as to be pointless to consider.

Mirage started breathing fast, eyes suddenly stinging with tears. Sound seemed to fade away for a moment as she thought of Luna, of Princess Celestia, both Twilights, her friends... everyone.

"Oh Celestia," she gasped, hugging herself and falling to her knees, trembling. "I don't want to die. Oh goddess. I don't wanna die."

Sound seemed to return with a loud crack that made Mirage look up.

The magical shield had collapsed.

The monster smashed the front of Canterlot High, ripping off the entrance and half the roof.

She heard shouts of horror. She could see a small group of people right in front of the monster. Celestia. The Rainbooms. A few other students.

'I can't...'

'I can't move...'

'I can't fight...'

'If I do... I'm going to die...'

She didn't realize—until she was in the air, a defiant shout escaping her lips as she bounced off of the creature's shoulder and the dual recoil of Twilight and Sunset was shaking her whole body—that she was doing just that.

That she was fighting.

That if she was going to die...

Desert Mirage would die fighting.

Principal Celestia backed away as the front of her school was torn apart by the giant monster. The girls had collapsed, completely spent and were thankfully being helped up by Soarin, Sentry and Biceps. But it wasn't going to be enough.

Six glowing red eyes looked down on them and the whole group froze, not daring to move. The disturbing smile on the monster's face twitched and it raised its arms just in time for a small figure to sprint over it, losing a barrage of bullets straight into its face.

The monster roared and stumbled back, blocking further attacks with its arms and allowing the figure to land gracefully between them and it.

"Principal Celestia!" Mirage shouted over her shoulder. "Get them away from here! This thing is much faster than I thought, and much stronger than me!"

"We can fight!" a voice shouted. "We can cast the shield again an—"

"Dammit, Rainbow Dash!" Desert Mirage growled, glaring at her over her shoulder. "Why don't you shut up for once and follow instructions?!"

"Watch out!"

Celestia closed her eyes and flinched as she saw four huge fists come crashing down on them. There was a crackling sound, and the world seemed to shudder and glow, but when no pain came, she opened her eyes and gasped.

Before the flabbergasted looks of the Rainbooms, Desert Mirage stood, bracing herself and arms extended upwards, with her palms facing out as a flaming shield of energy covered all of them.

Desert Mirage's form was enveloped in a blaze and when she emerged, she drew gasps from everyone around her.

Two deep orange pony ears protruded from within Mirage's red and orange hair which had extended almost all the way down to the floor and resembled an actual pony tail, fiery red wings had formed on her back and a flaming silhouette of a single horn flickered above her forehead.

She growled and, keeping one hand up, reached down to pull up Sunset. She aimed the custom glock and took several magically-powered shots at the monster's face. Each gunshot was accompanied by flames far bigger than Celestia had ever seen come out of a gun and the monster above them felt it.

It staggered back once again, fending off flaming bullets with its four arms until Mirage's gun broke into pieces with one final shot that pierced one of the monster's hands and hit it straight in one eye.

The shock of her gun exploding made Mirage stagger back. She watched in horror as Sunset's pieces fell, only to fade into pixels and then into nothing before they touched the ground.

"Sunset?"

Mirage sighed, looking back over her shoulder at the girls, who were huddled behind her, staring at her in confusion and fear. All except Rainbow Dash, who was looking at her like she had grown another head.

"Yeah," she sighed, turning to face the monster warily and pulling out one of her laser guns. "Yeah, it's me."

"What is this?" Rarity asked. "Why are you... older?"

"There will be time for that later," Principal Celestia interrupted, hurrying up to them. "We need to escape. Sunset... Mirage, can you stop it?"

Mirage took a deep breath. "I don't have a choice. The barrier won't let anypony out. Until I kill it... there's no escape."

She gulped when the monster gave her a vicious look with its remaining eye, and started advancing towards them again. "Girls, you, the guys and Principal Celestia hang tight... keep behind cover. Don't come out even if it seems it's almost dead... they..."

"They change their attack mode, I know," Principal Celestia finished, slowly herding the others away from Mirage. "Stay safe, Sunset."

"Sunset!"

Mirage glanced at Rainbow Dash, who was looking at her with a fearful expression. "Dash."

"Don't you dare die, you hear?" Rainbow Dash forced out. "Don't you dare die before we talk again."

Mirage was about to reply when the monster charged. It was so fast the others wouldn't have time to hide! She started shooting at it again, knowing it was futile.

Just as it was about to smash down on them, its head was violently pushed to the side by a powerful shot. Several smoke grenades landed between her and the monster, who bellowed in confusion as the smoke engulfed everything around it.

"What the—"

"Did you think you could hunt something like that on your own?" a familiar voice asked.

Mirage turned around in a daze staring in confusion at who had emerged from the smoke.

"I honestly didn't expect to have to pull your ass out of the frying pan, Mirage," Surgeon said, smiling. "But, I guess I'll have to accommodate you this time."

Earlier...

Luna jumped into Celestia's car and turned it on, quickly dialing Twilight Sparkle on her phone as she drove away from the school. She quickly typed a message and sent it before she plugged the phone and put it on speaker as she accelerated.

She waited as the phone rang over and over, and then...

"This is the voicemail of Twilight Sparkle, you've almost reached me, please leave yo—"

Growling, she hung up and dialed Cadance.

The phone rang a couple of times and then...

"Hello? Aunt Luna? What's—"

"I need to speak with Twilight, Cadance, it's urgent, is she there?" Luna interrupted.

She could hear thrashing noises, as Cadance replied. "Sure, she's right here! Twilight!" she called out, "Aunt Luna needs to talk to you, she says it's urgent!"

She heard the phone being passed just as she turned the corner. Just a few more blocks and she would be home.

"Vice Principal?" Twilight's voice asked. "What's going on? Sunset's body just started convulsing an—"

"Twilight, a huge, boss-level monster just attacked Canterlot High. I have never seen it before, but I can almost guarantee it's a much higher level than Desert Mirage is."

She heard Twilight gasp. "But... there's no way she can... I—"

"Listen to me," Luna interrupted again, keeping her eyes on the road. "I want you to log in and open a portal from GGO to Canterlot High. Do you understand me?"

"I can't, that wou—"

"Twilight! She's going to die!"

"I know! I know! I don't want her to die either, but I might make things worse if I do that!"

"We don't have a choice!" Luna snarled, doing a tight turn and screeching into her garage. "Mirage can't handle this on her own, and I can't watch her die! And make no mistake, it's do or die, Twilight! I don't want to risk it either, but either she dies alone, or we save her together, and I for one won't sit by and do nothing. If you care at all for her you'll see me in Glocken behind the Night Raid bar. You don't have to like it, but we're her only hope."

She hung up and stepped out of the car, rushing into her house and up the stairs into her room.

Thankfully, she kept her computer in sleep mode, so it was up and running within seconds. Without thinking about it, she had already slid the Amusphere over her head and lied down. "Link start!"

"Well, we're all here now," Coyote said, glancing at Nightmare Moon. "That was some message you sent, Moony. Para que nos necesitas tan desesperadamente?"

The Lion, Thunderbird and Collar all glanced at her, while Surgeon frowned. "I notice the distinct lack of a certain member. Am I to assume this has to do with Desert Mirage?"

Nightmare Moon nodded. "What I'm about to tell you all will seem crazy... but... well, you've all heard of Sword Art Online. You remember what happened."

The others glanced nervously at each other.

"Yeah," The Lion spoke up, "It's hard to forget. They have remembrance dates for the thousands of people that died."

"But that can't happen again," Thunderbird said nervously. "The AmuSphere doesn't allow that to happen at all. The system securit—"

"It's not that," Nightmare Moon interrupted, hugging her sniper rifle close. "Desert Mirage is trapped in her GGO avatar... but... not here."

The others were deathly silent.

"Explain." Surgeon's voice held no hint of amusement.

"Due to some as-of-yet-unexplained accident during an experiment involving opening portals into another world, Mirage was catapulted out of GGO when I opened one to save her life," a new voice said.

The group turned around to stare at the new arrival.

Surgeon's eyes were wide. "Y-you're..."

"Avalon," Nightmare Moon hugged the other player. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

Avalon sighed, shaking her head and took a deep breath. "The problem right now is that Mirage is fighting a boss level monster in the real world. Real people are in danger of dying, and so is Mirage."

Nightmare Moon looked at the others. "We are the only chance they have. We need to take down this boss-level monster and bring her back to GGO so she can go back to her real body." She looked around, meeting each of her teammate's eyes. "This is about saving lives... but I won't lie... there is a chance we will be risking ours too."

"This is crazy!" Thunderbird shouted. "We could die?! That's not what I signed up for! This is a game! Not the army!"

"Yes, it's a game, and our little digital selves are the only thing that can save a whole high school-full of kids and a friend!" Nightmare Moon snapped. "I asked you all here because Mirage, Avalon and I could really use your help to save hundreds of real lives! If you don't want to help, fine, I won't force you, but you are the only ones I can turn to."

Avalon nodded and, palm facing outwards, she concentrated. A shimmering portal slowly formed in front of the flabbergasted gamers.

"I will keep it open," she promised.

Nightmare Moon nodded and glanced around before taking a deep breath and turning to march in.

A hand on her elbow stopped her.

"Moony," Surgeon said with a sad shake of his head. "Haven't you learned anything? We need a strategy for this." He smirked. "Let me go through first and see what we're up against. You and whoever is following take the same formation as when we fought Arachnid King."

Nightmare Moon gulped and nodded quickly, standing aside.

"As for you, Avalon," Surgeon instructed, looking over his shoulder. "Try to figure out a plan on this side as well. We might need to evacuate if that monster proves too powerful."

He faced the portal and chuckled. "Won't she be surprised to see me?"