Title:           Project Pegasus-Chapter 2
Author:          Anonymous
Pastebin link:   http://pastebin.com/ZUa0KRKt
First Edit:      Monday 7th of March 2016 09:53:11 PM CDT
Last Edit:       Monday 7th of March 2016 09:53:11 PM CDT

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is distinguishable from magic."-Arthur C. Clarke
 
When Matt opened his eyes, the lab was gone.  A pale blue sky swirled with clouds that had the unmistakable look of being hand-painted.  In fact, everything, even the ground had an unnatural color about it.  It was so bright.  He tried to raise a hand to rub his eyes but found that he no longer had hands!  
 
    In their place were flat hooves and forelegs covered in light orange fur that ruffled in the slight breeze blowing across the vast plain.  He tried to take a wobbly first step, but only managed to end up on the grass with his feet to the pastel sky and Sarah's laugh ringing in his ears.  
 
   "You ought to see yourself!" exclaimed a pink cartoon pony as it came bounding up to him. Her green mane and tail were accented by a long pointed horn and a vicious looking pair of raptor's wings.  "Here honey, tuck your legs in and roll over to your belly, there you go.  I was just about to tell you not to move at first!  Having four legs takes a little getting used to.  This is why newcomers don't get wings or horns until they've had some lessons!"
 
 
Matt struggled to his feet and took another look around.  Sure enough, he was now a bright orange, blue haired cartoon character.  It took some getting used to, but he managed to get his legs under him.  With some encouragement from his companion, Matt managed to trot by her side as they circled the meadow.  
 
Sarah pointed out a few key landmarks as Matt got used to his new body.  As she indicated a magnificent palace beyond a dense forest he was shocked by the keenness of his vision, for in the real world Matt suffered from near-sightedness and needed glasses.  Even at what had to be two or three miles, he could just see a white figure on a high balcony and it seemed that her multicolored mane sparkled in the sun.  
 
The air was pleasantly warm, maybe high seventies and cool as they left the meadow behind and followed a trail into a wild looking forest.  Sarah filled Matt's ears with prattle about the struggle the team had faced with how to translate the show's signature 2-D art style into a 3-D world. The real problem, she went on, was in the textures.  A television screen only showed so much detail, whereas here they had to sharpen every texture down to the point where the naked eye could no longer see.  
 
Matt was just getting the hang of walking and had long since tuned his partner out.  He was too busy studying the expansive flora in this artificial jungle.  This was nothing like any game he'd ever played. The most advanced games on the market couldn't compare to sheer onslaught of detail that was present here.  
 
Even today's games would re-use models here and there, especially in a forest setting like this.  Here there was none of that.  Every bush and tree was unique as far as he could tell.  That kind of variety could easily melt even the latest processors. How the hell were they doing it here?  Matt decided to inquire of his companion.  
 
"Sarah, this is incredible but how can you pull all this off?  There isn't a machine out there that should be able to push this kind of detail."
 
"Well, the server farm is using GPUs from NVIDIA and the new processors from Intel," she replied. " Zero pie twos or something like that"  Matt's eyes bugged and his jaw nearly hit the dirt, literally.  
"You mean the 'Xenon Phi Two'?  That chip isn't even supposed to exist, it's practically classified! How the hell did we get it?"
 
Sarah explained that over the past two years, their focus had been solely to develop the software. "The servers and emitter/recievers? Well, they won't tell us anything concrete but rumor has it that this stuff was developed by Lockheed Martin. It all came as a package, something like ten or fifteen semi-trailers worth. Maybe they upgraded?"
 
Matt considered this for a moment.  Lockheed had a research facility at the south end of International Drive.  That much wasn't a secret.  Exactly what they did there on the other hand was another story altogether.  If this hardware had come from them, it hadn't come cheap.  Sarah had said that they'd scored a deal, perhaps they'd had a hard time writing the software? He didn't have time to think any further on it when Sarah stopped him with a wing in this face.
 
"Keep your mouth shut and don't move 'til I say." she hissed quietly in his ear.  In the shadowy distance he could hear a rustling that soon revealed itself as pairs of bright green eyes.  "Timberwolves"  Sarah whispered as a faint growling could be heard.  "I didn't realize we'd walked into a combat zone.  It's an area where enemy AI characters can attack.  We put it in as something for the teens-LOOK OUT!" she screamed as a wolf-like mass of bark and foliage burst from the cover.  
 
   Matt braced himself as a beam of light burst forth from his companion's horn with a loud pop not unlike a small shotgun.  Taking a hit in the chest, the thing went down with pink static arcing over its body.  
 
"GO! GO! GO!" she bellowed.  To Matt's surprise, he managed to start galloping.  He could hear Sarah's magic popping behind him.  As he pelted along, following the twists and turns in the forest path he could sense something else following. One of the beasts leapt from the undergrowth and Matt, unable to stop, blundered into the creature and they both went tumbling.  
 
"Use your hooves, fight 'im!" Sarah hollered, blasting at a pair that were circling and dodging just out of harms way.  Sprawling in a ball with the thing trying to bury its teeth in his right foreleg, Matt noted that while it certainly wasn't pleasant to take body damage, it didn't exactly hurt.  With his powerful back legs he kicked into the wolf's belly, throwing it off with a satisfying, woody thunk.  
 
"Hell yeah" he gasped as he got to his feet.  This was fun!  The timberwolf visibly shook off the blow and came at him again.  Matt quickly turned and tried to give a buck, but was knocked to the ground again.  On his back, he found himself squirming as the monster straddled him and snapped for his neck.  The foul thing's breath smelt of mold and decay, choking him.  
 
While he certainly wasn't a trained fighter, he'd watched his share of MMA and tried something he'd seen one or twice.  Digging his back legs into the sides of his foe, he managed to roll it off balance and come up on top.  Swinging his hooves like fists, he pounded away at the beasts head. Wham! Crack! Pow!  With each blow leaves and bits of wood flew, til he managed to knock the bottom jaw of the thing clean off!.  
 
Unable to control himself, he let out a battle cry as he dealt the final blow.  He watched in amazement as the green light from its eyes faded and it vanished in a cloud that smelled pleasantly like a bonfire.  Now that he knew how to fight, he wanted more but was disappointed to see that Sarah had already reduced four of the pack to smoking ruins.  The timberwolf attack was over.  
 
"So much for a kid's game!" he exclaimed.  "That was bitchin!  Anything else around here I can kick the shit out of?"  Matt found himself jumping a little on his front legs as Sarah came trotting up.  It may have been a dream, but he could feel his heart pounding in his chest and the unmistakable sensation of very real adrenaline pumping in his veins. No game had ever given him that before!
 
"Well" she caught her breath. "Like I was saying.  We put combat zones in the more remote areas for our older guests who would want something more exciting." It was obvious that the battle had gotten her heart rate up as well. "My Little Pony isn't exactly the same show it was when we were kids.  There's quite a long list of bad guys that  the hero characters have fought on their various quests. We've brought most of them here to be played with. I had meant to give you a bit warning, but I got carried away and we got ambushed.  Those were a taste of our beginner level monsters.  I wrote their battle routines myself, what did you think?"
 
"I think I'm starting to like this."  They shook off the dust from their coats and carried on.  The path exited the woods and crossed a small creek.  Over some hills in the distance Matt glimpsed what appeared to be a large medieval-style village, which the path was heading towards.  "You got me buying what you're selling now, and I want more.  When can we hunt up some more ass to kick?", he said with a chuckle.
 
"Easy there killer!"  Sarah laughed.  "We'll have plenty of time for all that after you meet some very special ponies and the rest of the team.  They're in the village now, waiting on us.  It's nice to hear that laugh of yours again though."
 
"It's been a while, hasn't it?"  Matt reminisced.  "Fun" wasn't something he'd had a lot of in the past few years.  Alcoholism had destroyed his life.  The depression that followed had nearly taken it altogether.  He had to admit, he couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this good.  
 
It was like being a kid again. It reminded him of something Walt Disney had once said about Disneyland being a place to leave the real world behind.  He felt like he understood that now more than ever, and wonder to himself what Walt might have thought of this place?  
 
"Alright then, I'm ready if you are.  Let's see the village, I'll race ya there!" he shouted and galloped away before Sarah could react.
She muttered a curse that a monitoring algorithm would log as bad guest behavior and bolted after him in a cloud of dust.