Flying for the first time sucks, no matter how much the fans of Peter Pan would protest to that. While I technically knew how to fly and for to the basic maneuvers like taking off and landing, there still was a huge gap in my knowledge when it came to actually doing something other than flying in a straight line. I didn't even have the memories to work with here, Moony was a Unicorn and therefore had no real experience with flight one way or another, this was a whole new field of experience that I had to work through on my own. One good thing was that [Flight] actually counted as Magic due to me actually using Pegasus-Aspect of my Magic to properly fly in Equestria and actually feel the air currents that I had to adjust to while trying not to fall down, and as such fell under the effect of my boosted [Cutie Mark] and gained Experience pretty fast. While I was still rather slow in the air, the progress was being made and in a good direction.

I was high enough to actually see the Ponyville and therefore I didn't need to stumble around to find my way back, the whole thing with me returning to Canterlot also was solved by the simple fact that I could actually see the damn thing from here. It was huge and was sticking from the side of the mountain like a sore thumb, there was no way I would be able to miss something like that without being both blind and stupid. The flight there may be a little too much for me, but if nothing else it will let me get used to the wings and will get me so much needed Experience into that Skill. While flying there I would also have enough time to properly think things through, as my identity as Moon Dancer was all but gone I was in dire need of some place to stay where I can have a reasonable privacy and possibly somewhere close enough to civilization that I wouldn't need to hunt things down to make clothes from their skins and grow my own food. This was really a bleak way of thinking as there literally was no place in Equestria that would let me stay unnoticed by anyone, there was always someone out there who would manage to alert Celestia like a very dedicated Deus-Ex-Machina.

'And then there is the matter of what to do with all the books I now have.' Most of them would probably be useful, but in the same time they were literally useless as almost none of the were Skill Books. I didn't touch any of them, but at the same time I knew that there couldn't be that many of those there as they were very rare in Equestria. I probably could develop some Magic from them, but at the same time I was far more versed in simple and direct Mana Manipulation than any of the complex crap that was mostly written in them. I wasn't interested in most of those Spells as they were pretty much useless for me, maybe some of them could b re-purposed with enough work but it would be just a lot of hard work a not so worthy gain in the end.

On the other hand I was now much better equipped when it came to grinding Skills as of now I had enough Mana to spam them nonstop, [Flight] didn't take much and I regained more than I lost with it so discharging several [Cero] during my trip back to Canterlot wasn't such a big deal. Initially I only wanted to test just how much damage it will do with my new upgrades, and then it was just for the sake of seeing the Golden Oak Library getting torn apart while I flew over Ponyville. Seriously, I literally annihilated the whole place and a chunk of surrounding area with one blast and kept it going until about half of my Mana was gone, the tree-building was fully gone and the surrounding ones looked like a bomb went off nearby with some of them eve collapsing outright. Han Jee-Han did pretty much the same thing with his huge overpowered Rasengan, but he had less Mana than I do and the Skill was different in execution so I was still far less destructive than what he had going for him. Good thing that I only did it while inside the illusion Barrier, or there would've been a lot of dead people involved with some of them being literally disintegrated by the blast.

Now that was what I could call an acceptable starting point for my own little journey, as long as I will stay out of the big picture and keep myself hidden from everyone there shouldn't be much of a problem further down the road. New big thing will be the mess with Gilda, Trixie and then the Dragon that I would need to rob blind while he will be dealing with the Main Six. I didn't know the actual timing, so I would need to somehow find a way to keep myself informed about the happenings in Ponyville and plan accordingly to the events that would be unfolding there in the near future. I was pretty sure that 'The Ticket Master' held no actual value to me as I had no plans to do to the Gala or even be near the Castle at that time, 'Applebuck Season' also was a bit of a waste of time with how it was literally just Applejack being too proud for her own shoes and therefore there literally wasn't any real reason for me to be present there. It gave me about two weeks of time to deal with the matters of my disguise and how to handle the questions about my changed appearance, which was one of the main problems I would be facing during my stay here.

I mentally went over the things that I would need to do before the Gala, including the whole mess with two Dragons, Gilda, Trixie, a Cockatrice and maybe Diamond Dogs if I were to play the whole thing by the ear and get myself something even remotely resembling a digger. I knew that those mutts weren't very bright and I could probably trick or force some of them to dig me a tunnel to the Chrystal Caves under the Canterlot and then start experimenting there, it was a long shot but it would let me get Cadance out of there at a later date and prevent Chrysalis from doing more harm than she would otherwise. And I would need to do all these things before Gala, which would led me to question of I actually could pull something like that off in the first place. Well, it wasn't like I needed to do all this things in that order specifically anyway, these were just the most obvious points that I would need to work with and I honestly couldn't think of anything else before the whole mess with Discord.

As much as I wanted to I had to wait before taking out Starlight Glimmer because I sure as fuck wasn't strong enough to do so now, it wasn't such a big things as she only enslaved a small village for now and technically wasn't hurting anyone just yet. I would need to take her out before she would start to fuck-up the Timeline with her little petty grudge-race, I wasn't sure what would happen to me if she was to be left free to do so as I literally wasn't a part of this World but only this one specific Timeline. Would I be erased? Would I be reinstalled into other ones? I had no fucking clue and no actual desire to find it out. The only other being that would be able to screw me like that was Discord and I was planning to just wait him out inside an Illusion Barrier until everything will calm down, risking him noticing that there was something off about me was as much of a bad thing as Celestia finding out about me being an Alicorn.

'Hm... Will it be worth it for me to interfere with the whole mess during 'The Chrystal Empire'? I could probably score some books there and maybe even get Sombra's horn...' If the whole thing with Nightmare Moon's Essence wasn't a fluke then I was pretty sure I could so something like that with the remains of Sombra and theoretically get myself at least some Skill in Dark Magic. [Gamer's Mind] would work as a buffer that won't let me go insane from use of it and it was an insanely powerful asset not to exploit, there literally wasn't any actual reason for me not to use it other than the whole social view on the damn thing. Did I care about how others thought about me? Not in the slightest. 'Decisions, decisions...'

The train-ride on the train got me to Ponyville in about an hour, my flight back took me three and a half and that was with me pushing myself with what little capability I actually had. I was getting better during the whole thing but I still had no actual way of properly maneuver myself without risking an emergency crash-landing. I finally landed onto the outskirt of the city and just decided to screw everything and used [Teleportation] to get home faster, the distance was small enough for me to actually manage it without fearing screwing up.

I appeared in the main room of Moon Dancer's house and just collapsed onto the nearest chair, it was like a huge weight suddenly was lifted from my back and I finally could take a proper breath. While [Gamer's Mind] did a wonderful job of protecting me from emotional pitfalls, it didn't make me emotionless and even if I could ignore my own distress and perform as if there was none it was still there and I could still feel it. I wasn't really all that worried about the whole trip in the beginning, but the whole ordeal with me becoming an Alicorn made most of my plans be derailed very thoughtfully and without any real chance of salvaging them. I hoped beyond all reason that there won't be any more surprises like this down the road, but I also knew that there really wasn't any chance now that my existence in Equestria will be as peaceful as I originally wanted it to be. That door was closed for me now, but at least several others were still open and if I could just properly use the opportunities...

I collapsed the Illusion Barrier and instantly I could head the sounds of the living and breathing Capital right behind the door, it was only about four in the afternoon and the city was bursting with activity as all the people living here were going somewhere. I could almost imagine the carefree crowd passing the house not even knowing that they were not that far away from the new Alicorn on the block, there will probably be shocked gasps and sound of something breaking as they will probably drop what they were carrying...

"Oh, I didn't hear... What the?!" I could hear a gasp and a chocked exclamation from my left, the sound of something heavy hitting the floor came next.

'Yeah, something like that...' I blinked. 'Wait, what?!'

I turned to my right and saw Minuette sitting on the floor, she wore a sky-blue sleeveless T-shirt and a dark yellow skirt along with white thigh-length stockings and sandals. Her eyes were probably the size of dinner plates as she stared at me with her mouth slightly ajar, strange squeaky noises coming from it as she apparently lost the ability to communicate. She lifted her right arm and with a shaky movement pointed at me with her index finger, apparently this action was suppose to be accomplished by words but all she managed to get out was the sound of mouse farting.

"... I can explain?" It came out most as a question than a statement.

And when I couldn't think of a way it could turn out any worse...

"Oi, Minuette, what is keeping you so long?" Lemon Hearts walked down the stairs. "I know that you... wanted... to... Eh?"

The Empathic girl slowed down to a complete stop as her eyes fell on me, her expression frozen and her eyes also getting as big as it was physically possible. She stood frozen on the last step of the stairs, her expression of curiosity still in place as apparently her mind decided to go offline after facing with the impossible fact of her friend suddenly gaining a pair of wings. She was still in her yellow T-shirt and green jeans from yesterday, the only change were the beach-slippers that she was wearing now.

Minuette answered her with another squeaky release of air from her lungs.

"... Will it make it easier to acknowledge if I will admit that it was an accident?" I asked, [Gamer's Mind] helping me with remaining calm and collected.

"Girls?" Came Twinkleshine's call from the second floor. "Is something wrong?"

I could hear her footsteps as she followed Lemon down the stairs and walked into the main room of the first floor. She wore a flowing white sundress with strange pink drawings on it that were probably meant to be stars but came out looking more like starfishes having a stroke. She looked around curiously, her eyes passing me as she looked from Lemon to Minuette and then back, it took her a couple of seconds to register the anomaly in the scenery as she slowly turned and looked at me.

"... Hi, Shine." I tried.

She nodded slowly and a smile appeared on her face.

"Hi, Moony... Surprise..." Was all she managed to get out before her eyes rolled back and she lost conscious.

I barely was able to catch her before she would've collided with the floor, if not for my improved DEX then there was a chance of her getting a concussion there. I didn't waste any time as I lifted her bridal-style and walked around Lemon and the stairs towards the bedroom.

"If you have any questions then lets go upstairs where we can let Shine rest and recover, it won't do us any good just staring at each other." I said as I reached the second floor and entered the bedroom.

After deposing the unconscious girl onto my bead I just sat near her and waited for the other two girls to finally snap out of it and follow me. I knew that there literally was no way for this day to go any worse, the only thing that was missing now was Celestia showing up on my doorsteps with a full orchestrate and a tiara while proclaiming me the new Princess of Equestria. That would be a disaster of literally titanic proportions and I shuddered from even thinking about what would happen then, getting myself phallically acknowledged as a Royalty will all but chain me down to the spot while at the same to producing an indestructible golden cage around me that will prevent me from ever finding my way home.

Minuette and Lemon didn't run as I actually expected them to, they just walked into the room with the toothpaste-haired girl coming first and they just stared at me. I honestly felt a little bit uncomfortable as their blank faces made me feel as if I was the most fascinating being in the world right now and they simply didn't know how to react to the collapse of the fifth dimension that my existence signified.

"Explain." Minuette was the firs one to break the silence. "Now."

"The short version will be that I pushed myself too hard to move forward, and this..." I motioned to my new wings. "... happened because of it. I honestly don't have a better explanation other than that right now, but I going to be working on one in the near future."

"... What?" Lemon just stared at me, her voice flat and emotionless.

"Imagine it like me overstepping my own limit and my being trying to catch-up to my performance." I smiled sheepishly. "There is a lot more to it than that, but the gist of it is that I did something that pushed me far above the natural limits of myself and as a result I kind of managed to... force myself over the edge?"

I couldn't explain it better than that, my assimilation of an Essence of an Alicorn was what actually did the job but my explanation still was as close to truth as I was willing to go. The Essence did push me over the edge and triggered the Ascension via literally breaking the hardwired limits of my being and bulldozing through them at a rather rapid pace. It was only a guesswork by this point, but with what I felt during the whole thing I could safely say that the crap Celestia spewed about how Ponies become Alicorns was mostly just to make Twilight feel special in some way. I wasn't going to actually run around and tell everyone that they can become Alicorn if they were to push themselves hard enough, because I was pretty sure if I was to push myself as hard as the Essence did me I would die.

'Not a week here and I already discovered something pretty fucking ridiculous... Neat.' I wanted to snort, but didn't as I kept up my calm mask via a very thoughtful use of [Gamer's Mind].

"... They are real." Minuette stared at my wings with blank stare, it was like she was trying to will my wings to disappear so the Reality around her will start making sense again. "You have real wings."

"... Surprise?" I couldn't hold back a little bit of a cheek, it was one of my normal defense mechanisms and I rarely used it like that.

"You're an Alicorn." Blue and white haired girl slowly walked up to me and very slowly and gently stretched out her right hand, her index finger extended to touch my left wing. As the tip touched my feathers I could see her eyes widening even more, she stood there frozen for several moments before her eyes slowly shifted so she looked directly at me. "They aren't fake, right? They aren't some kind of props that you managed to acquire, right?"

"No." I could understand her hesitation about acknowledging my new Status, but we really needed to move start moving forward, at least with baby-steps. "They are real, and not produced by any Spell, Illusion Magic or a horrible reconstructive surgery that worked with stolen body-parts."

"... Moony, you will have to explain it to us a lot more thoughtfully, because this... sound too unbelievable for us to work with." Lemon sighed, closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "You just come out of the blue and become an Alicorn, I'm pretty sure that it's not how it suppose to work! The only three Alicorns in Equestria are the current Princesses and just pop out of nowhere and just drop... this on us is too much even for me to take in."

I was a bit confused by her last comment, but then I remembered that she actually worked in the Castle and therefore had a moderate amount of contact with Celestia. She was probably already used to the presence of the Princess and was able to acclimate somewhat to the whole 'Divine Monarch' thing, Luna's arrival probably managed to kick her out of her usual routine and that's why she was able to take such a prolonged vacation from her job. It wasn't like Luna was unwelcome, it was just the fact that she came basically out of nowhere and the population of Equestria was never good at their reaction to sudden changes that came without even the tiniest shred of warning. Most of the citizens probably just slept on it and moved one, some would probably still need some time to digest the news but for the most part it will just just them whole Nation getting used to the fact that they now have Diarchy rather than Monarchy.

'Celestia sure knows how to drop a bomb, I'm pretty sure she did it intentionally just for the sake of shock and awe that it will produce in the masses.' I honestly wasn't sure if I was impressed with the perfect bombing or amused by the fact that it actually worked with how much the local population resembled a mob of bumbling idiots most of the time. I opened my mouth to answer but stopped when I felt a tug on my left wing, I looked and saw Minuette apparently trying to to remove one of my feathers.

"... Ehem." She stopped moving and looked at me with a rather sheepish smile while looking like a child that was caught with her hand in a cookie-jar. "And what exactly are you doing?"

"Eh..." She blinked and then looked at her hand that was still holding onto the feather. "Testing if it's real?"

"... Right." I deadpanned.

I stretched my left wing just enough to not make it touch the wall, making the girl release the feather, and then with a fast and precise movement I literally slapped Minuette with it. I didn't use any amount of serious force, but even then the strike was strong enough to actually make stumble backwards. Lemon managed to step to the side so the toothpaste-haired girl missed her and then stared at my now outstretched wing in wonder, Moony wasn't very versed on Pegasi's physiology but I was pretty sure that there were some things weren't really normal even for the humanized versions of the mystical winged horses.

"Auuu..." My winged snapped back into a folded position as I turned my head to look at the now slowly awakening Twinkleshine. "... Wah?"

"Shine, are you alright?" I watched as her eyes slowly opened and she raised her right hand to her forehead as her face morphed into a confused expression. "You fainted and really scared us there."

"Moony?" She mumbled and blinked, her eyes still a bit unfocused. "I think Minuette pranked me again. I could swear that I saw you with wings, and with a much more curvier body... and wings... and..." She blinked again and frowned slightly. "And then I don't remember what happened... Did I drink one of her experimental drinks again?"

I grimaced from the memory that floated onto the surface, during the school Minuette tried to make an improvised cider in the chemistry lab and ended up with something that I labeled as an unholy child of hallucinogens and Ecstasy in a liquid state. Shine tried it, good thing that she wasn't physically fit or we would've had a lot more trouble restraining her and preventing her from trying to strip and then eat the chair that she claimed stole her children. Then she curled up in a ball and started mumbling things about how Princess was responsible for her having only one arm and three legs while swearing vengeance against the purple flying toilet that was trying to takeover Equestria with peanuts and rubber-bands. We managed, somehow, to haul her stoned ass into the empty basement and then write to her parents that she will be staying with us while we waited out on her episode. It was a good thing that Twilight wasn't there, the Pet with a capital 'P' would've reported us imminently to the teacher and we would've been expelled.

"No." I sighed and watched as her eyes slowly widened, apparently it took some time for her to fully comprehend the information. "It's all true."

For a moment there was silence, and then Shine slowly got up into a sitting position and stared blankly at me.

"You somehow became an Alicorn." I nodded. "You now have wings." I nodded. "... So you're a Princess now?"

I blinked and then shook my head.

"No!" I waved my hands in denial. "Being an Alicorn doesn't automatically make me a Princess! And even if they would ask I will refuse!"

Shine blinked, then she blinked at me again and then her face morphed into an expression that of child who was told that Christmas was forever canceled.

"Why?! It will be so cool!" I blinked at the girl that not a moment ago was borderline catatonic and not looked at me as if I drowned all of her puppies. "You can be like Princess Celestia and Princess Luna and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza! And we even can be your Maidens and all work in the Castle!"

"I don't think it works like that..." I began but was interrupted by the still devastated girl.

"And then we can go on all those Diplomatic Missions with you so we extend the connections of Equestria and spread the Harmony around the World." Twinkleshine's little flood of fantasies wasn't stopping. "And the, when one of our Allies will be in danger we can swoop in save them, you Royal Presence making others see the Errors in their ways and accepting Peace and Happiness in Friendship!"

"... Shine." Even Minuette apparently managed to snap out of her stupor and try to address the problem on hand.

"And then you will fall in love with one of our enemies, who will turn out to be a Commander of their troops and you will have to fight with your heart while crossing blades with him." My left eye twitched, this was starting to sound borderline retarded now. "And he will feel the same, but you will have to fight and in the end you will come victorious while he will be locked in prison and you will be visiting him from time to time as even the bars of his cell won't stop the flames of your love..."

"Shine!" Lemon interrupted the girl with a firm call. "What did I tell you about all those books and how they will make your brain rot?"

"But.. but... but..." The pink-haired girl stammered as she shifted her eyes from me to the two girls that were now giving her deadpan looks. "But the Love, the Tragedy, the Romance, the Plot!"

"Shine, I'm pretty sure that there will be none of what your described happening in any future that I will agree to live in." I said with even tone. "Your fantasy of my time as Royalty won't come true as I would never accept the position as a Princess."

"... Why?" Minuette asked. "Isn't it like, I don't know, an every mare's dream? I mean, having a crown and living in the Castle, having servants on your beck and call, bathing in all those High-Society creams?"

"Yeah, and the responsibilities coming with it are far more than what I would ever be able to accept, there simply not enough pros to outweigh the cons here." I shrugged. "Princesses... They are the Symbols and they are the Royals of Equestria, but they are also the ones who lead the Country and the ones who are at the helm of everything that is happening around here. Their positions are like that of a very beautiful birds in golden cages, they are the ones that uphold the Country and I'm honestly not selfless or stupid enough to just surrender my freedom for the sake of some rather questionable bonuses."

"... You're telling me that you won't accept your now Royal status because you're lazy?" Lemon looked at me as if I grew a second head instead of wings.

"What? No! It's nothing to do with me being lazy or anything like that, I just don't want the position." I scratched the back of my head in frustration, trying to come up with a proper explanation. "Listen, it's more in terms of me simply wanting to do something else rather than being a Princess just because I'm an Alicorn now. No matter how other gush over it and how everyone think that it's a very prestigious thing and a dream come true, it's not what I really want to do and honestly can't see myself doing at any point in the future."

"I see.." Lemon looked thoughtfully at me and then nodded, as if coming to some very enlightening realization. "You're an idiot."

"... Pardon?!" I honestly gaped at her. "How the fuck did you come up with that conclusion?!"

"Moony! You just told us that you don't want to become a Princess!" She shook her head. "Did you hit your head or something?! This is not something your can just wave off with a 'Don't wanna!' excuse, it's not even something that can be acquired by anyone! You literally passing an opportunity to become the Top of the Ponykind!"

"Because it's not what I want to do in life!" I answered back.

"... Moony." This time it was Minuette that talked. "We're your friends and we're both behind you no matter what you will decide, but are you sure? I mean, it will be awesome for you to become a Royalty but at the same time if this isn't what you really want I can see how the position won't really appeal to you. I can understand how things like that can work out badly, you know how my parents wanted me to become a dentist?" She chuckled. "They even wanted to call me Colgate if I wasn't born a mare, but at least that pitfall was avoided. You don't want to be a Princess? Fine. But can you at least tell us how are you going to hide your... this." She motioned to my wings. "There is no way to avoid being seen like that, you need to leave the house sometime."

We three stared at the usually cheerful and upbeat girl that had a little too much energy in her, the serious tone that she used now clashed so hard with her usual persona that I would've probably pinned her down and call Lemon to checks if she was a Changeling if not for [Observe] telling me exactly who she was.

"... Who are you and what did you do with Minuette?" Also, it didn't mean that I couldn't have a little fun at her expense.

"What?!" She squawked while losing her compose from the question. "Hey!"

"Maybe she's being controlled by someone?" Asked Lemon.

"Hey!" The target of our teasing actually pouted. "I too know when to be serious you know!"

"Sorry." I chuckled. "And I already have it covered."

I knew that I had to do something to earn their agreement, simply disappearing and then not being seen by anyone wasn't an option and to get their cooperation I would need to extend some trust here. I honestly wasn't sure if it was my own idea or Moon Dancer's lingering desire for friendship and fear of loneliness that I still could feel in her memories, but there was only one way to go here without becoming a hermit. Trying to explain it on the other hand would be a much more difficult thing altogether, while in a Harry Potter Universe telling someone that 'A Hologram Deer showed me the Way.' will earn you a respectful nod, here Magic actually was studied and much more in lines of Science than that of a Mysticism. Explaining how Illusion Barrier worked would be a problem, showing will have to do and only then I would need to work on how to properly explain the whole 'spawning monsters on demand'-thing.

I knew that it wasn't a smart idea to tell them, but I wasn't a cretin who thought that I was alone and had to bear my own weight for the duration of my stay here. It wouldn't be like I would tell them that I was some human that was pulling a pretty fucking amazing Scott Bakula imitation on their friend or anything like that. But revealing some of the truth may be an actual boon for me if my idea of how these girls will react hold true. On the off chance that they will react negatively I would just need to leave them inside the Illusion Barrier and find a way to cross that particular bridge without drowning.

"And how exactly are you going to do so?" Lemon looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "Illusion Magic never was your thing and I'm sure you don't know any, so...?"

I sighed and used [ID Create] to deploy an Illusion Barrier while also pulling all the girl with me, I could see by their sudden frozen expressions that they noticed that something was off about the whole thing.

"What...?" Minuette looked around. "Did you feel anything right now?"

"Yes, I did too..." Shine looked at me. "Moony, did you..."

"It's properly called an 'Illusion Barrier', but in reality is has nothing to do with actual illusions." I explained. "Look outside."

Minuette blinked at me but complied, she walked towards the window and glanced outside. It took her several seconds, but she noticed one crucial part fo the environment that was now missing and that actually solved all the problems I would have with moving around the World without being noticed.

"Okay... Where is everyone?" She was still looking, trying to find at least someone out and about.

"What?" Lemon looked at her curiously. "What do you mean?"

"There is nobody there, literally!" Minuette actually opened the window and leaned outside to get a better look at the street. "Not a single pony on the whole darn street!"

"Oh, they are there alright." I smiled a little. "It's just that we aren't inside the same house anymore."

"... Moony, just explain it please, I honestly have no desire to play that game right now." Lemon looked at me with a bored look.

"You're no fun." I snorted. "Well, technically, we're in a pocket dimension that I created just now that copies the original landscape and fully exploitable with an overlaying layout that we have to take into account upon our leave. Basically, it's my personal copy of the world that I can create on a whim and which is overlaying the real one with absolute precision."

"Huh?" Minuette blinked at me from her position near the window.

"Okay, this is just creepy." Minuette said as she looked inside the store that sold writing supplies. "Unbelievably cool, but still creepy. It's like we're walking through one of those 'Ghost Towns' from the books Shine read, but without the whole romance gig going on and us being in need to repopulate the World."

I blinked and looked at the pink-haired girl whose face was approaching the color of her hair now as she walked near me.

"... I don't want to know." I shook my head and turned back to Minuette who now was walking on my left as we made our way towards the Castle. "Well, this basically is a perfect copy of the Real World, but without anyone alive in it, and anything that will happen here won't bring any consequences onto the actual Canterlot. I'm unsure about its actual size as I literally flew from the Everfree Forest to here and didn't need to actually resummon it even once, I was planning to test it sometime later thought."

"Wait, what were you doing in that forsaken place anyway?" Lemon looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "I understand that with this thing you can't be found or harmed, but why go there in the first place?"

"Books, I went to the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters there where I collected all the old tomes that were only collecting dust, now they are at least become of use at least." I smirked as I remembered the other things I acquired there. "They are safely stored inside another pocket dimension of mine that I have attached to myself, it's a whole damn library and I'm really looking forward to studying these relicts of the bygone Era. I'm pretty sure that there are more in these tomes that was actually forgotten by the Equestrian Magical Society over the thousand years that they were just rotting there for nothing."

I noticed how Lemon was looking at me with a deadpan expression.

"You ransacked the Old Royal Library..." She said to me in an even tone. "You raided the ruins of the former Royal Castle that are technically can be considered a Historical Monument and stole every book there."

"Well, when you put it like that it does sound bad." I snorted. "But honestly, nobody would care that some of these books were to vanish, they were there for thousand years and if Celestia never bothered to retrieve them then I'm pretty sure that 'Finders Keepers' applies to this situation."

"... There is no way it works that way." Lemon pinched the bridge of her nose. "Alright, assuming you won't be hunted down for desecrating a Historical Monument, what did you actually get from the whole trip without counting a ton of literature and a pair of wings."

"Well, you do know that Alicorns are like a mixture of all three Pony-Type only better?" She nodded and I lifted my hand, my finger pointing towards one the stores on the right of us, this one sold clothes apparently. "The boost in Power is very substantiation."

My horn came alight as a small orb of Magic started collecting at the tip of my finger, the characteristic sound accomplishing it.

[Cero]

The blast itself roared to life and instantly tore through the shopwindow of the store, I'm not sure what happened next as the Magical equivalent of the famous attack was too dense for me to see through but at the same time I could tell that the building was blasted through without any problem. I let the attack die down naturally and then observed the damage done, I wasn't disappointed as I saw that the roof was there only because it was holding onto the two building on its sides and nothing else. The back-wall was gone as the wall behind it, anything inside was torn to sherds and I was pretty sure that most of the merchandise was simply incinerated by the blast.

"That was awesome!" I almost jumped out of my skin as Minuette appeared on my side. "I know that most Unicorns can blast things like that, it's one of the first things that we do, but that was borderline insane at home much pure Magic was put in there! And you don't even look winded at all!"

She was borderline bouncing on her heels from the excitement.

"Well, no. It wasn't all that draining and I did receive an increase in Magical Power after my Ascension..." I frowned, the blast was actually a bit too cheap even with my boost. "I think that not only I have more Mana now but it's also much more potent than before."

I couldn't actually explain to her about my Skills providing an additional kick to my Mana, there literally was no way for me to do so without sounding crazy or stupid. There was also a very interesting point that whatever crappy proof about my 'The Gamer' I would be able to put together will be simply dismissed as a somewhat obscure Magic or an Illusion. There was simply no way or reason for me to bother trying to tell them about my Power as it won't change anything other than actually giving them the reason to doubt my words or thinking that I'm in need of some serious professional help.

"Damn." She crossed her hands on her chest. "Now I too want to become an Alicorn so I would be able to pull things like that on a whim!"

"Well, given enough time I would probably be able to develop a safe way for you to do so." I said nonchalantly. "From what I understand it's not that hard given certain facts that I managed to gather about my fluke of an Ascension, it will take some work and you will need to actually train really hard to..." I stopped and looked at the three girls that were behind me as they all three stared at me with wide eyes. "What?"

"You're serious, aren't you?" Asked Minuette with a blank look.

"Well, yes." I nodded. "Why wouldn't I be? You're my friends and I wouldn't leave you behind, that will be a very bad thing to do."

I actually never bought that crap that Celestia spewed about how Twilight gained her wings, it was so stupid that I honestly felt that she simply was bullshiting that girl simply to cover-up the real way how Ponies became Alicorns in the first place. My theory was that Twilight simply managed to gain such a fantastic proficiency in field of expertise that she only needed a powerful enough source of Energy to push her over the edge so she could gain her wings and all that crap that came with it. She basically did it through Skill rather than through Power like I actually did, her own version was probably more Natural than the brute-force one that I undergone by absorbing the Essence of Nightmare Moon. I honestly couldn't see anything wrong with finding a way to do it without Bullshit-Spell-Ex-Machina or 'The Gamer' to do the heavy lifting for the person who was going through the process.

"Wait, you're seriously considering just giving us a way to Ascend?!" Lemon's exclamation ended in a rather embarrassing squeak.

"Why not?" I asked. "I know that from the side it looks like a big deal, but I can tell you that it's really isn't." I sighed. "You all think that it's something big and grand and majestic that takes you on a whole new Level of Existence, right?" The girl hesitantly nodded. "Well, that's bullshit and all it was a flash of light and me in need of a new wardrobe due to my wings literally tearing its way through he back of my shirt. Whatever romanticized fantasy you came up with is probably miles away from what it's actually all about, everyone have the capability to perform go through the Ascension and all you need is to surpass what it means to be your particular Pony-Type. Princess Cadenza was a Pegasus for fucks sake and she pulled through no problem without the need to perform some unholy surgery to gain herself a horn so she would be able to cast Magic before Ascending!" In my agitation I involuntarily spread my wings, still needed to get used to these things. "Why would I hide something like that from you three?"

Honestly, I owned them nothing from the personal point of view, but the memories of Moon Dancer and the fact that they lost a friend because of me made me want to somehow earn my stay here so to speak. Damaged memories or not, I knew that these girls were the reason Moony started to pull out from her shell and they stuck with her when she needed them the most, and I took away their friend that they actually cherished and the least I could do was to actually become a good friend to them. Maybe it sounded as a misguided attempt to somehow justify my own presence and Moon Dancer's apparent demise, me stealing her face and all that came with it, but in the end it was my life now and I wasn't planning on simply throwing away people just because they weren't the ones I personally befriended. If they were assholes or some kind of villains I would've dropped them at a first opportunity I would've came by, preferably from the cliff just for the sake of the sake of the Wilhelm Scream. These girls cared about Moon Dancer, and I would feel like trash for the rest of my life if I wouldn't at least try to be a good friend so not to cause them any grief over the loss of one of their friends.

Through the Positive Interaction your Reputation with Lemon Hearts Increased by 2,500.

Through the Positive Interaction your Reputation with Minuette Increased by 2,500.

Through the Positive Interaction your Reputation with Twinkleshine Increased by 2,500.

You're now Revered with Twinkleshine.

'What the fuck?!' It was the only thought that I managed to get out before I was glomped by the pink-haired missile.

I grimaced as I looked over my newly Leveled-Up Skill, apparently I now needed to invent a phone because I fucking called it! The next Illusion Barrier I gained didn't contain Zombies, it didn't contain anything even remotely as awesome as I hoped it would be. There were kicks in the guts like the Night Watch that pissed all over what the book was all about. Then there were kicks like Naruto that literally showed us how fucked up and pathetic a plot can turn out to be with the Author running out of ideas how to make the Main Character that sucks so much that he breaths spunk instead of air defeat the Villains that are so fucking awesome that fucking Reality bow down to them. And then there is this crap.

[ID Create(Active) LV2 EXP: 0.21%]
Used to create Instant Dungeons.
Stronger Instant Dungeons may be created at higher Levels.
Currently Available ID List:
1. Empty ID - Monsters: None
2. Poring Grade-1 ID - Monsters: Porings

I honestly wasn't sure how to react to this. After I spent the rest of the day with the girls, explaining things to them took some time and I had to find my way out of several rather inconvenient situations, I decided to simply grind my [ID Create] as I was pretty sure that now I was ready for at least the first Monsters that it would throw at me. Apparently I was wrong as I was simply too strong to actually gain anything from these little thing as they were borderline nothing from what I remembered they had going for them in Ragnarok Online. They were literally the lowest of the low and had no value other than being the butts of the jokes that were thrown around the Gaming Community during the peak of the Game's popularity. They were also the symbol of the Game and had a very big fan-base in the Internet, the trinkets with their adorable faces were sold almost instantly and there was almost no person who didn't have a small metallic keychain attached to their keys or a mobile phone.

I was a big fan of the whole thing too, played as an Assassin Class and was kind of a big shot due to me being rich and equipped enough to take on almost every mob that I aimed for personally and without any help. This little revelation was like a small breath of the past that somehow managed to stay fresh for decades that went by, while I knew that these things couldn't pose a threat to me due to the fact that I could fly there was a certain warm and bubbling feeling in my chest about seeing these adorable blobs attacking me.

'Eh, I'll take them as they come.' I chuckled and then called out the new Illusion Barrier. Without hesitation I opened my house's door and stepped out, there wasn't anything I could gain from simply waiting and I honestly was interested in seeing what the hell my [ID Create] did to Porings. As soon as I stepped out I was greeted with the very familiar and welcomed sound, it was hard to describe it for someone who never heard it but at the same time anyone who heard it would imminently know it for what it was. I looked around and saw at least several dozens of these little pink blobs jumping around with the characteristic squeaky plops of their jelly-like bodies against the hard surface of the street. 'Damn, they are just too cute to kill, but I need to see how much I can get from them so...'

LV1 Poring

LV1 Drops

I flapped my wings and flew up, and only after rising higher than the rooftops did I fully comprehend the sheer numbers in which these invasion happened. The whole city was covered in the literal sea of pink and light-orange blobs that were literally everywhere, apparently this Illusion Barrier contained not only Porings but Drops too and I now had to eradicate them. Using a quick [Observe] I could safely say that these things didn't even have the smallest chance of ever harming me, they simply were too weak to do so. I lifted my right hand and my horn came alight, a small ball of Mana started collecting over the tip of my index finger.

[Cero]

The beam of destruction impacted the ground under me and I could see the explosion killing the little jello-monsters the size of beach-balls with absurd ease. I didn't stop pumping Mana into my attack and simply started moving may hand over the street and letting the beam destroy everything in its way. Window after Window were popping out in front of me but I ignored them for the sake of keeping up my attack going, there were enemies to defeat and I was going to see if I could at least get something out of this or I should just spend some time grinding [ID Create] until something much more sufficient will be accessible.

Gained 50 EXP.

Well, the haul when it came to Experience wasn't all that big but I wasn't all that disappointed as I simply could m genocide these little guys by hundreds and there will a very good reward coming my way frat that. There wasn't much in a way of knowing what kind of look I will be able to gain here, will it be something like from that Game or will it be something completely different? Only testing will tell and I could probably keep this up all night long and not get bored, simple mindless destruction was always fun no matter what others would say about it. If there was no consequences then why bother holding back when you could let loose and just flex what Power you had? I knew when to stop and [Gamer's Mind] wouldn't let me become insane idiot hellbent on destroying the World around me for shit and giggles, if I would ever find myself in need of taking over Equestria I would do it the smart way and simply use the same methods as many other people used in their time. I will buy it through the ridiculous amount of money I would potentially be able to gain if these little guys dropped Bits.

I only stopped once to spent the Points I gained after killing a bit more then two dozens of them and gained a Level for that, as usual everything went into INT. I didn't stop my attacks after that, all of my small targets apparently saw or heard as their comrades were dying and decided to come and try to avenge them as the streets were literally flooded with wave after wave of Porings and Drops hopping towards where I was hovering. Some of them were dropping from the roofs and some even coming from the building, but they all were going in the same general direction and that was directly towards me as I hovered above the building and watched in fascination as a huge pile of colorful blobs was slowly growing on the street. These guys weren't really intelligent or anything like that, the problem was with them just taking someone on with sheer numbers alone... But against me Quantity didn't work at all against my overwhelming amount of Quality, and because I could fly and shoot doom-lasers from the height they simply couldn't reach no matter what!

'If you aren't cheating, you aren't trying, right?' I pointed downward where the now huge pile of adorable targets gathered for me to kill them for Power... And I know how screwed up it sound and I honestly didn't care. If things were as easy right now as they were going to be later on then I honestly couldn't complain as free things were always welcomed. I kept going with my [Cero] being shot towards the accumulated pile of Porings and their tanned brothers, each time I saw enough of them coming together in one spot I delivered a devastating blow of areal bombardment onto their heads and just enjoyed the gained Experience. This was probably going to take awhile, but I didn't care as there was all night ahead of me and I was reasonably pumped-up for some good killing with how many of these guys were coming at me from all sides.

I also had the time to think about what girls said to me, the whole conversation went in a very strange way that I couldn't exactly properly explain even to myself. They actually wanted to help me, I could guess that they would be eager to hear what I was planning to do about my new Alicorn status, but their desire to help me literally came out of nowhere. I could think of a couple of ideas, simply letting them loose here was one of the ideas I was honestly entertaining as I glanced at the jumping blobs of light-orange and pink under me. They could actually gain Power here, at least if my theory how things worked here was right and I could actually empower them through the Illusion Barrier. My theory was basically that the Monsters that are killed doesn't disappear, but the Essence that they were composed of is absorbed into the body of their killed to reinforce it and that's how I gain Experience from killing them. At least this was what I thought was happening, it could be something absolutely different and my whole idea was pure bullshit pulled out of an ass so the only thing I could do right now was to test of the Boss that will spawn here was as easy to kill as the others little bastards that I killed already too many of.

I couldn't create a Party, I already tried it earlier that day and it failed to react to any command I could come up with. The function of simply teaming up with them was apparently out, so I was going for the option of making them work their asses out and then gain a substantiation enough progress for the whole thing with an Ascension to happen on its own. I wasn't sure how I would do it, but I promised so it was at least something I could do in my free time until the Crystal Empire will re-emerge and I would need to depart there and make sure to clean-up their library too. I wasn't going to fight Sombra, the bastard was crazy and pretty fucking strong from what I saw him do in Canon, and I had no desire to test what he could do with those Black Crystals of his and Dark Magic that made him all but indestructible. Love-Blast-Ex-Machina was bullshit on its own, Ponies actually managed to weaponize Love and turn it into an Energy Bomb, even the Elements of Racism weren't as fucked up as the Crystal Nuke was when you will think about it more thoughtfully and deeply. Well, at least I could hopefully say that even with my rather limited understanding of the working of the Elements I could say that they won't do shit to me, I wasn't Evil and couldn't care less about Harmony if I tried so there was nothing that I had against those Rocks of Pony-Supremacy.

It took me a lot of time to wipe off all the Mobs that were present and by that time I already gained a couple more Levels and finally my INT breached on hundred and I could enjoy the two new Skills that I gained from it.

Since your INT passed 100, you will Gain a Random Ability related to you Brain Function.

New Skill [Magical Sense] Created.

Since your INT passed 100, you Gained the Passive Skill [Medium Mana Capacity].

Since your INT passed 100, you Gained the Passive Skill [Mana Regeneration].

While the second and the third Skills were expected, I was a little bit surprised by the first one as it was different from what Han Jee-Han gained upon his own passage of this particular INT number. It was said to be a random thing doing on, so I probably just got a different number on my dice. And then I actually felt how it was to have [Magical Sense] going in your head and I instantly started praying that it will somehow become an Active Skill, the constant buzz at the back of your head and the fact that you're literally aware of all the Mana around you makes it really hard to actually think clearly. I could kind of shield myself with [Gamer's Mind] and then additionally suppress the damn thing with my own free will, but fuck if it wasn't hard to do so for the first time as I struggled to regain my equilibrium and a proper awareness.

"Pori!" Came a rather squeaky battlecry from below me.

"For fuck's sake, shut the fuck up already!" I screamed at an overgrow Poring that jumped under me along with ten of his little bastard-clones. "For five fucking minutes, keep your trap shut! Wait for five minutes and I'll come down to kill you, just let me get my fucking headache under control!"

LV15 Mastering

'I'll kill you slowly...' I gritted my teach as another wave of dizziness overcame me and almost knocked me down from the sky but I managed to keep myself afloat... somehow. This fucking Skill really needed to come with a manual how to properly operate it without giving yourself a freaking migraine, apparently it didn't have any even ground and either I could fully suppress it or it would be working full-throttle with its range rather large and my mind still not fully adjusted for the intake of information. 'This is going to be a long night...'

Author's Notes:

Well, here is the new Chapter as planned! I hope you will enjoy it!
Also, in my version it will take Five hundred Mobs to die for the Boss to show up.
All your reviews, suggestions and criticism please leave in Comments, I would gladly discuss anything and everything about the Story with you!