Author's Notes:

It lives! also the title of the chapter is just fun to say, there is not Dungon town.

As they entered the dungeon through the main entrance, the girls were a little thrown off by how much it looked like a lobby to a classy hotel. Speaking up, Makarov addressed the surroundings "Looks like some things never change, impressive that even though most stopped maxing out that they managed to keep facilities up and running."

Celestia spoke from the back, her voice lightly echoing from inside her helm. "Yes, well, they did fall into disrepair after the Cataclysm, quite a lot of work went into bringing them back to what they once were. It has taken the better part of two hundred years to bring it back to the same level it once was." Makarov could hear the tone of her voice falling as she spoke. "Much changed when you left, we have been working to fix it. Like it used to be."

Inside his own mind, Makarov was panicking 'SHIT!!! She sounds like she is about to cry, what am I supposed to do here. I'm just a shut-in neet that never talks to people outside of games!!! Okay just calm down, you need to think this through, you have read more light novels than any one man should have, what would the main protagonist do in this situation that doesn't lead to more trouble down the line.'

Thinking for a moment, he came to his conclusion. Steeling himself, he turned around to the warrior clad in gold, the veritable powerhouse of metal and strength, and hugged her. The girls looked on with abject horror in their eyes, this weird thing, who had been turning their heads all morning, had just witnessed him walk up to the Princess' THE PRINCESS' and casually hug her. What shocked them more was when she dropped the massive halberd and wrapped her arms around him in return to hug him back.

She seemed to be crying and saying something, but they couldn't hear it. After a few moments, Makarov pulled back and lifted the visor of her helm. The crowd suddenly found that they couldn't focus on what was happening in the corner anymore. Like the more they tried to look at the pair, the more they were unable to. Celestia realizing what was going on chuckled, unheard by any but Makarov. "You really do spoil us, you know that. Saving me the embarrassment of being seen crying in public, I haven't broken down like that in a thousand years. Not since…"

Placing a finger on her lip to quiet her Makarov, hoping that his protagonist plan was still going to work continued, "That is a shame that you have had to hold yourself back for that long. Everyone needs a moment. You have done well for what you had access to. Don't worry about it, at the very least I have returned, I don't know if others have as well, or if it was just me, but don't worry, I will always come back. Trust me." He gave her a bright smile that was quickly cracked as she kissed the tip of his finger, a spark in her eyes.

"I will have to hold you to that. Luna and I lost you once, we won't let it happen again. I finally got her back and then you returned, Twilight has been everything I had hoped for and more. Everything is falling into place again." Still being a little thrown off by the kiss to the tip of her finger, she pushed away from him and dropped her visor. "Now then shall we be off, I do believe it is time to shake of some rust!"

Finally, shaking himself back to function, Makarov spoke, "Y-yes then. Follow me to the warp gates, I can get us down to a deeper level faster that way. Figure I would start us off at Lvl ten and see how it goes from there." Not only the girls were confused by what he had said, as it appeared that the entire room was now listening in on their conversation. Seeing their confusion, Makarov Looked at Celestia with a questioning look, "Do… do they not know about the warp gates? That's like dungeon diving 10."

Celestia grimaced beneath her helm and spoke in her vibrating voice. "I figured it would build character if they found them on their own. Apparently, nopony has."

Makarov could feel her grin through the visor as he rubbed his eyes. Walking over to a group of rooms at the side of the main hall, they entered to find quite a bit of trash. Almost like it was a staging area before it was hauled off. At least that was the impression, given it was all rather fresh. Looking at the room with disdain, Makarov pointed his staff into the room for a moment before uttering {Incinerate}. An orange glow surrounded the bags of trash before they burst into flames. The intense heat caused all present rather than Makarov and Celestia to flinch back. Once the light died down, the congregation looked into the room to find it spotless. Not even ash was left behind. Walking into the room, Makarov made his way to the pedestal. Looking down as he was filled with confusion as to why such a thing would be so hard to figure out.

Placing his hand on the center of the panel, he waited for a moment before giving it a kick as the entire room lit up with a magical humming. Whispers began in earnest as he did this, many of the adventures were amazed as to what had just happened. Twilight ran into the room and started off with questions, "How did you do that?!"

Makarov just shrugged and pointed at the pedestal "There is clearly a handprint on that thi."

Before he could continue, she shot back "Of course there is, we aren't stupid you would have to be blind to miss that part, but we still have never seen this kind of activity before!"

Rolling his eyes, he looked at Celestia, "Does she always interrupt people when they are speaking, or it is just me that she does that too?" Celestia just ignored him, giving the impression that she was grinning beneath her helm. Sighing he looked back at a sheepish looking Twilight "Before I was so rudely interrupted." she kind of flinched at that and Makarov had to admit that he felt a little bad at lashing out at her continued "There is also a kick plate at the bottom with instructions on it. Never understood why they printed them there but whatever. Let's get a move on, shall we."

Walking over to the panel, he scrolled down just a bit until he hit lvl ten. Seeing the option for Teleport party, he flicked it as the entire group winked out of existence, leaving the room empty as the rest of the Adventures looked on with wonder.

The party found themselves deep within the dungeon, faint light emanates from gems on the wall. Makarov looked over at Celestia to confirm something. "If I remember right, lvl ten normally can have anything from above up to anything from Bebilith to Brachiosaurus correct?" Celestia nodded, attempting to keep the noise down. Nodding to himself, Makarov summarized that the dungeon was still functioning the same way that he thought it would. Again, not only that, the layout might have been the same as well.

Figuring that he would just go with that for now, he directed them forward down the hall until they got to an opening into a larger room, just before entering, Makarov held up his hand signaling to stop. Speaking up, he addressed the group, "I will take this first room as an example. I will stick to using basic moves to show you the utility that you can utilize."

Rainbow scoffed at him "Yeah right, you're an egghead like Twilight. How are you going to show me anything that I can use."

Makarov felt a vein pulse in his forehead as he took a deep breath. "She sure is cocky for a newbie." He muttered to himself. Taking another breath, he calms down before getting an Idea, looking over at Celestia, he asks, "Thrasher or Anthem?"

He saw her jump for a moment when he asked but heard the mischievousness in her voice as she answered, "Thrasher."

Nodding, he stands in front of them as he lifts his staff in front of himself. {Sound Sphear}, {Bridge the gap, perfect rogue}. As the spells resolved, a white sphere of light appeared just above Makarov's right shoulder, a rainbow effect began to splash across its face as strange and aggressive beat began to play. As it began, Makarov began to glow as his equipment changed.

https://youtu.be/wLoYIBEZEfw

Grabbing two daggers that had appeared in the air, Makarov sped into the room as the beat drop. The girls rushed forward to look into the room and were shocked into silence at what they saw. Makarov was running around like a madman as he screamed the lyrics to the dark song. Spinning through the air as he slashed through the thick necks of massive Fire Giants, their screams as they chased him around the room. They marveled at the size and were filled with terror at the sight of the gigantic monsters. Fluttershy passed out once the Bebilith made an appearance, and Rarity was close behind her as the massive spiders began to climb down from the walls. The girls felt for sure that they were going to be overrun when they heard another spell go off as the music changed. {Bridge the Gap, Perfect Monk}

https://youtu.be/V3ADK6gsDGg

They watched as he burst through the back of the massive spider that had begun to make its way toward them, his light leather armor now replaced with robes similar in function to Applejacks, thought of considerably better quality. His fists clad in similar wraps but shrouded with what looked like dragon heads made of flame. As the spider died, Makarov jumped back into the room to take care of more spiders while his spell lasted.

In his mind, Makarov couldn't have been happier. He had never been entirely out of shape in his old life, but he was never at peak condition before this happened. He felt so light, and with the menu aiding him, he felt like he couldn't lose. The current monsters looked scary, but any MMO gamer worth their salt knew that monsters at this level of the dungeon, were all designed to look super intimidating, but weren't really that bad. He recognized that this wasn't a game anymore. Still, after going with some tested tactics, he realized even the power scaling was the same as it was before. Honestly, he figured that the only reason they were also attacking him right now was that he was instigating the combat.

Every hit was a kill, even with swings that didn't utilize abilities or combos, the lvl difference was just too significant to be also kind of fair, but at this point, he was just making one for himself. He had grown fond of teaching new players in the past, but every now and then, a newb would join that needed to be shown how out of their league he was, to prove that he knew what he was talking about.

He may or may not have a folder on his desktop with reaction vids. It was a guilty pleasure when he did this, making them go, and stupid stutter was his favorite. As the second spell wore off, the room had grown quiet. The mobs had been slain, and their bodies had begun to shimmer as they wisped away into light motes. Leaving behind drops and money.

Makarov stretched as he walked back to them, now clad in his mage robes once more. "Whoo, that was great. Good to let off a little stress, not bad for an egghead, right miss Dash?"

He grinned with an evil glint in his eye as she shuttered, "I-it was a-all r-right."

Makarov lasted all of three seconds before he burst out laughing, "HAHAHA! The look on your face was priceless. Looked like you were about to pass out. HAHAHA!" Wiping a tear from his eye, he looked over at Celestia "It reminds me a little of your reaction when I showed you the first time. If I remember right, it was in this cavern too?"

The glow from under her helm was bright enough that it shone through the slits in the visor as an extremely embarrassed Celestia began to stutter out "I-i h-have n-no i-idea what it is t-that you are talking a-about!"

Smirking, he just laughed "I remember it clearly, in fact, I have a recording of it if you all would like to see it." The girls raised their hands all at once to show their support, even Twilight and Fluttershy timidly raised their hands.

Celestia looked at her pupil, betrayal in her eyes, "Et too Twilight?"

Twilight's reaction was priceless, her face broke as she broke down in tears, crying "Nononononononononononononono! Princess, please don't be disappointed with me! I'm sorry I didn't mean it!"

Before she could get any worse, Celestia booped her nose as she stuck her tongue out, saying, "Got ya!" Her gentle laughter rolling over the purple mare as she pulled her close for a hug to override the mild trauma that she had just endured. "Do not worry about it. My dearest pupil. I know that you were just caught up in the moment. To be completely honest, I have no recollection of what my reaction was. It was over six thousand years ago. Though I imagine it was embarrassing enough that I chose not to remember it."

Speaking up to snap them out of their little world, Makarov offered, "Then let's take a look as see what it was, shall we?!" Twilight looked up at Celestia, and she smiled down at her, this time managing to hide the sadness in her eyes. She realized that she had taken the joke too far with Twilight, and was at the same time mad that she had been unable to see it for what it was.

Makarov waived them over to the hallway next to the room after they collected the drops from the monsters so that they could be a safe distance away from monster spawn areas. As they sat in a semicircle with Makarov at the center with Fluttershy to his right and Princess Celestia is flanking his left. Twilight sat next to Celestia with Applejack next to her and Rarity on the outside. Rainbow sat next to Fluttershy with Pinkie on the outside as well. They all looked at the wall as another spell that Makarov used to project the memory.

In reality, it was a menu option so that guilds and parties could share information easier while keeping the immersion up. Players could purchase an in-game hard drive to store clips of things that were important. Most players never changed from the ones that were given from the discovery quest. They let you store up to six hour-long sequences, plenty of time if you are just using it to help you get past a specific area of the world. It let you watch back on what you had done so that you could figure out what happened and how to avoid it. It was possible to purchase through the cash shop an upgrade to the storage, with the most expensive option being unlimited storage. It turned out that it had been a glitch that had caused it to be unlimited, and the store had changed it to limit it to 1000 hour long vids. Still, for the few people that had purchased it before the patch, they had been legally obligated to either refund the item or let the players keep the thing.

Considering that only around nine hundred people in the entire world had been wealthy enough to drop money on an item like that, most of them decided that they would rather keep the thing. The condition was that they were labeled as unique items and were perma bound to your character. To the point that the item was permanently equipped to your character in an individual slot. Again, none of the players minded having this. It didn't take up any available equip slots; it was always available because it was actively equipped, and it didn't show up visually, so it didn't mess with your aesthetic if you cared about that kind of thing. Makarov was one of those people that had purchased it.

The scene before them looked like it was taken not from Makarovs perspective, but from right in front of a young Light pink Mare, her mane cropped short and close to her ears. She wore a tunic and pants that had been smeared with mud. A spear was gripped in the hand that was not holding her sister, a dark blue Mare whose long hair cascaded down her back with elegance. Her robes were patchwork but managed to cover her. A tattered spellbook lay next to her as they watched. Looking out at a scene that was likely close to what the girls had just witnessed. Their eyes glowing with wonder as they watched what was going on before them. The young Celestia clasped her sister's arm as they watched, her eyes wide as she watched Makarov fight. Her lips quivered as her eyes shone with interest. Makarov didn't look to his left, or he would have noticed that Celestia had begun to fidget as she watched a younger version of herself witness the strength of her then teacher.

She grew restless as the memories of something that had happened so long ago began to flow back to her. She was pondering this for a moment before it slammed into her just an instant before it happened. As her horror took her over, her younger self spoke is a hushed whisper, that thanks to the projected image were boosted loud enough to be heard by all, "Selene, sister It feels as if I am in heat, this stallion must sire my foals." Her sister nodded and spoke up, "as well as mine Helios, as well as mine."

To be honest, Makarov had forgotten what their reaction had been. He had been a little creeped out by it the first time he had seen it but choked it up to them being super into the whole roleplay thing. But looking at it now, he realized what that sentence meant. They had never been into roleplay in the game. They had been themselves. That would mean.

His head slowly turned to his left to see Celestia reaching out with her arm, her entire head had lit bright pink as her mane had burst into chromatic flame. Words had failed her at what had just happened. Looking down at Twilight, he was shocked to see her bright red as well and easily as silent, a look that said her brain had shut down, steam pouring from her ears. Applejack had hidden her face beneath her hat, and Rarity had her hand over her mouth.

Turning to his right, he found that Fluttershy had hidden deep into her hair. Under her new hat, Rainbow looked like she was trying to force herself to not laugh for fear of retribution, and Pinkie looked close to exploding.

Deciding to try to act fast to defuse the situation, Makarov spoke up, "Well, that happened a long time ago right. You can't be held accountable for something that happened that long ago. We have all done embarrassing things right? But that's what you do right, you learn from them and laugh at them."

That seemed to be the thing that was needed to burst the dam as Pinkie began to gigglesnort, and Dash lost all composure as she broke out laughing and rolling on the ground. The sound snapped Twilight out of her stupor long enough to look at Rainbow and Pinkie with abject horror that they would be laughing right now until Celestia began to chuckle as well.

It started small but grew as she allowed herself to laugh at such a young version of her. Her full belly laugh was music to the ears of the friends as she smiled at her own expense. "C-can you b-believe how s-short my mane was back then?! I looked like a colt. Hahahaha"

Glad that he hadn't ruined everything, Makarov joked as they all got up. "Yep, have to say it was interesting that you changed from the sporty tomboy to the Hot mom look." Not sure why it had come out of his mouth, he realized what he said as it left his lips, looking back at the Princess he swore the look she gave him was predatory "W-well then, let's keep going." Clearing his throat to sound more confident, he continued, "Ahem, that was just a little example of what you can do someday, and you could go further still if you work for it. The Next room is for you. Allons-y!"