Clever, aren't you? Twist checked the state of her firewalls. Whoever was hacking her data-well was doing it hardcore. They had located the well, avoided the honeypot, and apparently messed with the communication protocols so that all warning messages were diverted elsewhere. If Twist hadn't been in the Web, she wouldn't have even known.

Oh, did you pick the wrong day to target me! She frowned and then set her avatar to stealth mode and input the travel coordinates. In the blink of the eye, the landscape changed. She was now in Crystal Valley sector. Miles and miles of breathtaking crystals extended to the horizon, occasionally spoiled by building clusters. During the early days of the Web, the sector was just as any other — a field of crystals to let Web-users experience the wonder of a second, more beautiful, Crystal Empire. It didn't take long for Starswirl VIPs to ruin that. Officially, anypony was allowed to have a temporary virtual building in the structure as long as they could pay the monthly maintenance rate. In practice, the rate was set so high that only the extremely rich could afford building protocols. As for the Starswirl employees, they received a substantial discount should they choose to maintain property there. Needless to say that a large part of the upper Conglomerate echelon did just that. Twist had personally identified over two hundred and twelve ponies who had benefited. Silver Spoon's brother was among them.

"You've moved," Lily's voice came through chat. "Anything up?"

"Hackers," Twist replied. "Nothing serious. I shouldn't be long."

"Yeah. Call if you need me"

Beneath her avatar, Twist smiled. Lily's presence reassured her. However, she would never call her friend in the Web. Sorry, Lily. The redmane launched four tag-drones. You're a great help in the real world, but in here I have this. Besides, there were a number of prototype protocols Twist wanted to test out. In theory, she could do that any time in one of Starswirl's test zones. It was safer, more practical, and utterly useless. One of the things that the majority of Conglomerate techs couldn't get was that the only way to properly test something was in the field. Hackers and Conglomerate agents were different — like arrows and silk: one pierced its way through everything, while the other entangled its target, rendering it defenseless.

Let’s see how you like some Spider Webs. Twist launched half a dozen. She then surrounded herself with an aether bubble. The yellow glow caused her to flinch for a moment. The memories of the near death experience were still fresh.

"This is the Web," Twist whispered firmly. "Here, I am in control."

A new set of aether windows popped up around her. The hacker had passed through all the firewalls and now was deciphering the data. She had managed to bypass Twist's security surprisingly well. No way this was a one-off job; it had been planned well in advance. The first thing Twist was going to do once this was over was to check the data-well's internal logs.

Setting her avatar's sensors to record, Twist flew straight towards the Crystal waterfall. Strictly speaking, she wasn't allowed to own a vault, let alone a data-well in this sector, yet if Silver Spoon had taught her anything, it was that only the weak followed the rules. That, and also Twist had done a pretty good job keeping the fact hidden. All the more concerning that a hacker found it.

"Time to play, Webber." Twist took a deep breath as she dived through. The water passed over her aether bubble, as did the crystal wall, revealing a perfectly circular cave. Hidden functions. The mare smiled. Got to love them.

There was no sign of anypony else, but Twist launched two more webs just in case. A split second later, three earth pony avatars charged her, each launching a cloud of viruses. Two of her attackers were entangled with ease, while the third, seeing she was outmatched, retreated back down the cave.

"Bubble piercing viruses?" Twist asked impressed. The pesky little things had passed through the aether bubble as if it were air and lodged onto her avatar. The auto-antivirus system neutralized them, but that was quite the wake up call. Twist had become dangerously reliant on Starswirl gear.

"Just for that, I'll bring in the ICE," she hissed, firing two tags at the webbed hackers. The moment they touched the avatars, the captives disappeared in a cloud of particles. Decoys. The hacker was good. "Good trick with the decoys, hacker," Twist shouted. "Still won't help, though."

"Buck you, glomer!" a loud yell answered.

Got you! Twist smiled. Breaking down the voice she sent initiated a comparison search in the Starswirl Audio bank. A match was found in less than two seconds — Harpy, small time hacker, part of the Harpy and DD duo. Wow, I got me a celebrity. In the large scheme of things Harpy wasn't in the big leagues, but her explosive nature definitely made her famous. Both she and DD were every scriptpony's dream.

"Give it up, Harpy," Twist shouted. "If you leave or disco you'll be tagged. Besides, I already know your avatar and gear ID." Both were lies, but good enough to cause doubt. Hackers had no idea what went on in the Conglomerate. The amount of conspiracy theories on their forums was staggering. That was precisely what Twist had used to bluff her way onto the their radar. If it worked for the big fish, it would work on Harpy as well.

"Oh yea?" The hacker didn't sound impressed. "Why don't you pin your tail on a wall and—"

"Language!" Twist interrupted. Oh dear... I've turned into my mother. At least nopony is likely to believe it's me.

"Really?" Unadulterated surprise was heard in the hacker's voice. "Cheerilee is that you out there?"

Crap! How did you find out? There's no way this could be a coincidence. Without hesitation, she readied her destruction protocols. Silver Spoon had warned her only to use them when things got extremely serious. It was difficult to explain how a simple intern had access to some of the more dangerous cutting edge features. The risk of having her identity exposed the same night she was nearly killed, however, more than fit the bill.

"What do you want, Harpy?" The Red ICE protocol was at the ready. "You have five seconds to come out and make a deal. If not, this place will be filled with so much ICE that your backups would get frozen."

"Who the buck do you think you are?" The voice sounded closer. "You glomers are all the same! Just because you have the tech, you think you are so good! The hay with you! Call your bucking ICE! Think that'll matter?"

"Listen, filly, I've done deals with bigger shots that you, so don't you hold that tone with me!" Slowly, Twist moved forward. "Somepony tried to kill a friend I hold dear in the real world, and a few hours later you hack my data-well. See any connections?"

No answer.

"I've read your file. The kids love you." That wasn't entirely true. Harpy had her following, but it was DD who was the center of attention. Even Twist herself had a signed Web-grab from the latter with To Cane, with love written in large pink letters. "Either you picked the worst time, or you are being used. Which one is it?"

The sound of approaching hooves came from the distance. An old Earth Pony build avatar emerged from the darkness. This is Harpy? Twist couldn't help but wonder. Now it was clear why DD got all the attention. The hacker's avatar was an eyesore. No doubt it was optimized to near perfection, but still, a bit of eye candy could have gone a long way.

"No one uses me," Harpy said, defiant. "You weren't bucking about the real world attack?"

"Nope." Twist shook her head.

"Buck it!" Harpy kicked a nearby wall with her hind legs. An earth pony habit. Most likely she was one in real life as well. "I didn't know this was your well. Buck it, I didn't even know it was Conglomerate when I first found it. Thought it was some rich scriptpony's play vault. Only did it for the practice!"

Not many things were capable of making Twist blush, but play vaults were among them. According to the Web user agreement, they were discouraged. However, anypony with a little common sense could see there was no real penalty for creating or using one. As a result the Web was filled. Some "free" sectors didn't even bother hiding the fact, advertising their pleasure vaults as the best in the Web. The Conglomerate referred to them as "Entertainment Spots", though in reality they were nothing less than Dream-Web brothels. Some even provided special avatars, virtual toys, or artificial pony constructs to the pleasure of their clients.

"I'm not into that!" Twist quickly said, pleased the avatar hid her blush.

"I bet, grandma," Harpy snickered.

"Do you have any idea who I am?" Why, you little pest! I swear if things weren't so complicated I'd send a log of this to your parents! What are you? Fifteen?

"What the buck do I care?" Even among hackers, Harpy brought charming to a whole new level.

"Cane." Twist said coldly.

"Never heard of you!"

"Well, I've heard of you." Time to start negotiations. "Did you manage to get any data?"

"Buck you!" Harpy shouted. She seriously was a loudmouth. Her vocabulary, though, was lacking.

"Not with that attitude." Twist frowned. Stars, I hate your type. Loud, rude, and violent. I bet five seconds with Lily in real life and you'll be crying like the baby you are. "Whatever you have, you can keep. But I want a favour."

"Yea, right." Harpy scoffed. "Probably worthless trash. If you want my help, give me something real!"

"What would you consider real?" Was this a good time to offer a pact? It was always useful to have a hacker or two in one's service. This one, however, didn't fill Twist with any amount of confidence. "I want contributor access on the Everfree Forum."

"You serious?" Twist gritted her teeth at Harpy's laughter. "Took me years to get there! What's your level there? Bunny? Kitten? Hay, are you even a user?"

"And I let you go untagged." Twist added. "You don't say anything about this place, I don't say I caught you. Seems a fair trade."

"The buck it does!" Harpy glared at her in anger. It was obvious, though, she was considering it. "Give me a moment to think!"

Got you! Twist smiled.

* * *

"Stop playing around! This isn't a game!"

The same old story. Everypony in the Web thought they knew what was going in. That was a lie. There were probably a few dozen entities that did, and all could feel the chains around their necks.

"If you don't stop at once ... ... ... ..."

Message corruption? Unlikely. Someone had probably found the way to block the communication. Impressive, considering who was sending it.

"Hello, kiddo," a female voice said. "I see your shit, and I'll help. You'll owe me, though."

Arête?!

* * *

"Twist, Twist!" The words felt like a hammer smashing through her skull. "Wakey, wakey."

Twist's first reaction was to try and cover her head with a pillow. When that failed, she begrudgingly cracked an eye open to see who was bothering her at this time of night. As she managed to focus, two things became clear: Lily was standing next to her bed, and it wasn't as early in the morning as Twist imagined it to be.

"How long was I asleep?" she yawned.

"Oh, fifteen hours," Lily said as casually as she were commenting on the weather. "Had a few screams, a bit of crying, fell twice on the floor... Nothing much. Here, take this." She offered Twist a small flask.

Health tonic in the morning? Why not? It tasted bitter, enough to make her to spit it out. That was one of the shortcomings of having a candy cutie-mark — Twist could always tell if something tasted bad, even when others didn't.

"Cleaned for you." Lily took the flask back. "Button broke a few things. Nothing major. Well, other than a chair. Sweetie Belle promised she'd buy replacements. Snips got drunk and started dancing on the table. It held him, though."

Slowly, Twist got out of bed. The room didn't feel her own. Her entire surroundings seemed as one huge dream, a part of the Web that didn't belong in reality. The logical part of her brain shouted that this was a post traumatic experience, but the emotional part didn't give a damn.

"Your mother's here," Lily went on. "Not sure if she was happy or shocked to find me in your room."

"Dear Celestia," Twist groaned. She could see it now — another mother-daughter conversation, just when she least needed.

"AB asked about you a few times after you fell asleep. She was a bit worried. The stallion she was with managed to distract her enough not to insist too much."

"What did you tell her?" At least somepony got something nice from the party.

"That you were sick and I was keeping an eye." Lily opened the window. A pleasant breeze entered, chasing away the stuffy air. "Oh, and Silver said she'd pass by later. What happened in the Web?"

"Standard rubbish," Twist lied, suppressing a yawn. "I met Harpy, gave her some stuff, she upped my user level on the Everfree Forum. No big deal."

In truth Harpy had tricked her big time. Stupid of me to think that cheap pest could be reasoned with! The pesky hacker had gone away with nearly a third of Twist's data archives. The stalling, which the redmane believed to be her doing, had actually worked in Harpy's favour, providing her with the time necessary to decrypt all the data she needed. As a result, Twist had gotten a contact link and an empty promise, while the hacker — everything she had come for.

"Please don't mention this to Silver." Twist scratched her left ear. "You know how she gets when I go behind her back."

"I do." Lily nodded. "You should work out more, by the way."

"You told her, didn't you." Typical of you. And I do work out enough, thank you very much!

Lunch passed relatively well. Twist's mom kept on asking about the party, the ponies, and Lily. It took quite some convincing that Twist wasn't into mares, and even then her mother assured her that "it is okay to be special." Lily wasn't much help either, practically agreeing with everything the older mare had to say. After an hour if that, Twist was overjoyed to see Silver Spoon arrive. The distraction was short lived, with her mother openly asking "is it Silver, dear?" before "making herself scarce."

"What was that about?" Silver arched a brow confused, while Twist sighed, hoof on face.

"Mom seems to have the impression that... You know what? Never mind." The redmane finished her orange juice. At least that was something she could rely on not betraying her. "Did you manage to find out anything?"

"Twist." Silver adjusted her glasses. "I'm sorry. I told you, once he goes we are unlikely to hear anything. I'll try talking to Mother, but don't hold your... don't keep your hopes up."

To be expected. Twist had no illusions, although it was a lie to say she didn't wish to know on the matter. For the moment that would have to be enough. Everyone had their own secrets, after all.

"One other thing." There was a pause, the uncomfortable pause that meant something unpleasant was to follow. "My brother had a talk with me. Apparently some of his friends do not appreciate us... me meddling in real Conglomerate affairs. It wasn't the best experience, but at least we can assume that the idiot doesn't know anything."

"Are you a target?" Lily asked. The manner in which she did that made Twist shuffle uneasily.

"For the moment, no," Silver said, then cleared her throat. She was nervous. "I wouldn't be too concerned. My parents provide me a certain level of protection. Even if there are cultists in the Conglomerate they will not risk harming me. In the meantime..." She gave Twist an annoyed look. "What did I say about going into the Web yesterday? One simple request and what do you do? Pick fights with hackers?"

"Silver, I..." It wasn't a fight. And I didn't pick it, Harpy hacked me!

"I don't want to hear it!" Silver Spoon lifted a hoof in the air. "I have arranged for you and Lily to take a small vacation from school. To be precise, you'll be going to the Crystal Empire. From what you've told me, all the clues lead there. I'll take of things here."

"What?" Twist jumped to her hooves. "Silver, you can't just..." She started paving around. "There will be questions! And what if somepony tries to harm us?"

"You'll only make it easier for them if you stay." Silver wouldn't back down. "As far as we know your attacker might have just wanted to blend in. Personally, I think the cult is after Clairvoyance, not you."

"Clairvoyance is Dreamlocked!" Twist found that she was shouting.

"Then who asked Sweetie Belle to sing for you?" There was a moment's silence. "Even if I'm wrong, it's a speed game now — the faster you find enough for me to get things in the Conglomerate moving, the faster you'll become safe. Besides, you'll be well protected. In addition to from Lily, you'll have the Royal Crystal Guards keep an eye."

Royal Guards? If anypony else had said that, Twist would have thought they were joking. Knowing Silver, however, she suspected it could be true. The grey pony didn't have an ounce of humour in her entire body. Meanwhile, Lily whistled, obviously impressed.

"You'll spend your stay in the crystal palace as guests of Princess Flurry Heart," Silver said calmly as before. "I trust you to keep anything relating to me discreet. Nopony must suspect what your real intentions are."

"Silver, I don't know Flurry Heart." What are you thinking? You can't just send me like that? Sure, I've met Princess Cadence and her husband a few times when they came to visit, but that hardly makes me a close friend.

"You don't have to." Silver Spoon took two posters from her backpack and unrolled them on the table. One was a signed print of Sweetie Belle, the other a dedication from the Boomdrops. "You're friends with them, aren't you? From what I understand, the young Princess is quite the fan."

Just great! A princess fanfilly... Well, at least Lily will be with me.

* * *

"Lily, have you always been tho thtrong?" Twist asked.

The pink filly only shrugged. She was definitely on the shy side — quiet in class, alone at the playground, alone during lunch. Twist had tried to get close to her on several occasions, but had stopped after a dozen unsuccessful attempts. Now that they would be "working" together, she clearly was going to have to try again.

"Want to go to my plathe?" The filly asked cheerfully. "I can make candy caneth. They are really thweet and nithe. Everypony in clath thayth so."

"Okay," Lily replied, more acceptant than eager. Still, that was good enough for Twist, who happily trotted along.

"Tho what do you think of the Web? Isn't it thpethial?"

"It's fine." Another shrug. "I use it to work out. At least then nopony can see..."

"Thatth tho cool!" Twist smiled widely. "How?"

"Err?" Lily blinked, confused. This wasn't a reaction she was expecting. "I set the avatar gravity settings to max. Then I increase the weight value of my saddlebags and bracelets."

"Woooow! You can hack too?" Twist's eyes sparkled, impressed. Finally she had found somepony else interested in exploring the Web.

"No," Lily said, slightly uncomfortable. "Mom is a pilot. I picked up enough math and physics from her to fly the balloon."

"You can fly a balloon?!" Why didn't I know that? Why didn't anypony in class know about that!? If they did, Lily would become the most famous filly in class! More famous than Silver Spoon or Diamond Tiara even!

"Not alone." The pink filly was quick to add. "My mom is Cherry Berry."

That explained a lot, and also made it that much more impressive. Lily has her own balloon! That's so great!

"Can we go for a ride?" Twist asked eagerly. "The weather ith theduled to be thunny today."

"Not sure about that, Twist. Mom is usually busy and—"

"But it will be a perfect thientific exthperiment!" Twist insisted. "I'll take thome candy caneth from home and we can eat them in the balloon!"

"That's no scientific experiment!" Lily frowned.

"Throwing paper planes to explore their aerodynamic propertieth in the real world and compare them to the oneth in the Web ith a perfect experiment!" Twist said in one breath pretty much as she did in class.

"Wow, you really are smart." Lily laughed. "I'll talk to Mom."

* * *

Nighttime. Twist never thought the sun would set. The last few days still felt like thousands of events merged together in one single moment. Staring at the moon from her window, the pony could only sigh at the view. As a filly she would talk to the moon, wishing for friends, a cutie-mark, somepony to love. Now, she looked at it wondering what she could expect from the future. Literally a day ago, she was worrying about not seeing her friends after graduation, her lack of social life, and finding a coltfriend. That was before the unicorn she flirted with had tried to kill her.

Maybe a change is what I need? I can barely stand it here at the moment. And Silver Spoon is probably right — the faster I locate the threat, the faster all this will stop haunting me. Literally and figuratively.

"Go to sleep, Twist." An annoyed voice said from below. Apart from being a good friend, Lily took her job extremely seriously. No doubt she'd spend a second night awake making sure Twist was safe. That gave the redmane a sense of relief. Because of that she could at least attempt to sleep.

"In a moment." She glanced at the moon again. "Please send me calm dreams, Triumvir Luna," she whispered.

Sadly, her wish proved too difficult to achieve. Lying in bed didn't do much, and neither did counting bunnies. Damn it! The mare got up. A bowl of petals was resting on the floor. Twist grabbed some, and then began circling the room. She still didn't feel tired. Rather, she feared going to sleep. Maybe a bit of Web roaming? she thought. A horrible idea, but beggars aren't choosers — if it could distract her enough to get tired, why not give it a try?

Putting her head-gear on, Twist took a deep breath and dived in. The environment around her changed, placing her in the middle of an endless meadow. Instantly giant aether windows appeared in the sky — Warning! Sector 79 will be collapsed in 12:45:02!. Web Tourism Division had received the go-ahead to create another castle sector, increasing the total number to seven. Twist abhorred the idea. There were enough castles as it were, and most of them seemed lacking compared to the real thing. Only New Canterlot had a relative large traction, but even its appeal was limited to first time Web users. Once the numbers plateaued, interest was certain to dwindle. Personally, Twist didn't see it lasting more than a few years, after which the sectors would be collapsed again. Silver Spoon had shared her view, adding that by then there might no longer be a Web Tourism Division.

Black Bear. The thought came to mind. According to Clairvoyance, that was the division that started it all. So far Silver Spoon hadn't managed to find anything relating to it, and Twist was smart enough not to try to search for information on her own. Such things were way beyond her clearance. It was entirely possible for the division to have been reformed or shut down, but in that case what had happened to its employees? Twist had hoped to glean some information from the Everfree forum, but thanks to Harpy's tricks, that option had gone for the time being.

"Hello, Cane, a voice said in chat, startling her. It was a male voice, soft, calm and melodic. All good and well, except Twist had set her chat to "do not disturb."

With a touch of panic, the pony checked her connections status. Everything was as it was supposed to be — her defenses were up and unbreached, there was no indication of her avatar being hacked, and yet someone had opened a direct channel to her.

"Communications block protocol Phoenix Lite," she said, launching several tracers as she did.

"Please, don't be like that." The mysterious voice didn't seem bothered in the least. "I just want to—"

"Emergency override p—" Twist began. If she couldn't block, the solution was to log off.

"Please stay!" The desperation in the voice made Twist pause. "I want to talk to you."

Should she? If what WingClipper had told her about SmokeScreen was true, there was a real danger of her getting Dreamlocked. Staying was pointless and dangerous. And yet why did she feel such a strong urge to do so?

"Clairvoyance?" she asked, her voice trembling with anticipation.

"Yes." The answer made Twist's heart skip a beat. "I heard what happened yesterday. Sorry I got you mixed up in this. I—" Was this hesitation? "You didn't deserve any of it."

"You're supposed to be dead!" No time for mincing words. "Or in a coma. There's no way you should be here. So tell me, who exactly are you?”

"It's not as simple as it seems..."

Stallion. You're definitely a stallion! Only they would explain things away with that horrible phrase.

"For the moment try to stay safe." The voice didn't seem artificial, but with the amount of dream-spells lately, one could never be sure. For all Twist knew, she might as well be talking to a changeling. "They aren't looking for you, but if you continue poking around they will. Stay low for a few months. Party a bit. Forget about the virus."

"Nice try." A rebellious streak made its presence known. "I don't know what you want, but it isn't keeping me safe! You could have warned me about the danger, but you didn't."

"I didn't know about it." Reluctance. Disappointment. Fear? "There are things I can't do. It's hard enough talking to you unnoticed. The more you pursue this, the further down the rabbit hole you'll go. Are you sure you want to?"

Rabbit hole? Curious that Clairvoyance would use that phrase. The very same Silver Spoon tended to use. If she were honest with herself, Twist had doubts about going on — lots of them. So far her curiosity had always proved stronger. Today was no exception.

"I'm sure," she said out of defiance.

"Okay. You'll need this then." A new message appeared in Twist's scrollbox. There was no subject, or sender address. "A gift."

"What is it?" Twist didn't dare open it. "Another song?" There was no answer. "Clairvoyance? Are you there still?" Nothing. Apparently, he had said what he had come to say and left just as unexpectedly as he had arrived.

Cautious, Twist rechecked her avatar's defenses, then disconnected from the Web. Several minutes passed in hesitation. Should she see what the "gift" was, or should she purge het scrollbox externally? Damn you, Clairvoyance! She logged back on and opened the message. It only had two lines. The first was a long string of symbols, twenty-eight to be exact. The second held four words that made her pulse quicken.

Everfree Contributor Access Key

Author's Notes:

Everfree Forum - a collection of linked Web boards, used by Dream-hackers and other Webbers to exchange exploits, unlisted protocols and information (including conspiracy theories). Browsing the forums is strongly discouraged by the Starswirl Conglomerate.

Confidential
Any attempts to disrupt the Everyfree Forum are strictly forbidden. Queries on the matter are to be sent directly to the Star Chamber.