//------------------------------// // Vinyl Bought Equestrian Robot Combat...Oh Boy. // Story: Equestrian Robot Combat // by QuilliamPenn //------------------------------// Vinyl Bought Equestrian Robot Combat...Oh Boy. Vinyl opened the door to her house with a sense of great urgency, practically rocketing through the doorway and her abode; her intended destination being the big, soft couch that was situated in front of her television. As she made her way over to the couch, she quickly took in her surroundings and scanned each room as she trotted by, making sure she was going to be alone. She didn’t want any interruptions; that simply wouldn’t be pleasant. After establishing that she was alone in her home and that her roommate was in fact still out and about, she let out an eager sigh and made her way over into the living room, plopping down on the couch and levitating the large, black box she had brought in with her onto her lap. “Finally…” She breathed softly, levitating her trademark glasses off of her face and setting them to rest on a nearby table. The box read “Equestrian Robot Combat.” In big fiery letters across the front, an image depicting two massive mechanical bipeds; one with red stripes and one with blue, having at one another with a menagerie of different weapons. With a squeal that could have been compared to that of a happy young schoolfilly, Vinyl opened the lid of the box and levitated out its contents. It was beautiful, gleaming black metal polished to perfection, shining like some sort of black diamond, was the ERC helmet. It wasn’t just your average biking helmet however, you see. “Equestrian Robot Combat” or “ERC” was a new video game that had been released only last month, rapidly rising through the gaming ranks and becoming second to none in its popularity throughout all of Equestria. What ERC had that made it really stand out amongst all the other games though, was the almost unfathomable level of immersion and detail the player would experience whilst playing. Upon donning the gaming helmet, the player would be “transported” into the gaming world, the helmet had the ability to simulate senses of touch, sound and smell and graphics that were so high quality you wouldn’t be able to tell them from real life, creating the most realistic and detailed virtual reality game in the history of video games, and even the entirety of Equestria. The premise of the game was based around two teams; Red and Blue, dukeing it out in bipedal robots the size of two story buildings, engaging in staggeringly realistic and intense combat until one side emerged victorious. Of course, Vinyl had been one of the most hyped out of just about everypony upon hearing about such an immersive and intense game, so she was the first in line to pick up a copy when the game was eventually released. Only problem was, the game developers had decided not to let everypony know that the game would cost two thousand bits upon release; a price which most actually paid, and it wasn’t that Vinyl didn’t want to pay that price for it, she just didn’t have the money to spend on the game at the time, and so she had waited; somewhat unwillingly at that, due to Octavia, for the day she would finally have enough bits to purchase the game and bring it home with her to try out. Today she had finally saved up enough to go and buy the game, and she did so without a second thought. “Alright…now how does this work…” She said softly, pulling out the operation manual and scouring it. ---@--- Getting Started with ERC Before getting started, If you wish for others to be able to see what you are seeing whilst playing Equestrian Robot Combat, it is recommended that you attach the wireless HDMI plug into the HDMI port on your TV, assuring that it is firmly connected for the best experience. The wireless HDMI plug is located on the left side of the ERC helmet and will easily snap out. 1. Plug the wireless electrical cord into any electrical outlet within 60 feet, making sure the green light is on and glowing brightly. If the light is blinking red upon plugging the wireless electrical cord in, please contact our staff at ERC and we will do our best to help. 2. Don the ERC helmet and assure the securing straps are comfortable fastened, so as not to interrupt your gaming experience whilst participating in ERC. Make sure the power switch is flipped to “ON” and glowing green before doing so. The power switch is located on the right side of the helmet. 3. You are now ready to begin playing Equestrian Robot Combat! WARNING. Equestrian Robot Combat is an extremely realistic, and immersive combat game in which the player will feel, hear, see and smell exactly what they would on an actual battlefield, the events depicted in the game or that may be depicted during your gaming experience are purely fabrications and will not actually physically harm you. Should you get a hole blown in your massive robotic midsection, or turned into a giant metal slice of Swiss cheese after being riddled with bullets, do not panic! You are not actually hurt and will respawn or go into spectator mode depending on what game mode you are playing. ---@--- Vinyl eagerly read this part of the manual, eventually getting tired of reading it and tossing it to the side. She had enough information anyway, everything else was copyright stuff and all that junk, she didn’t want to read that. It was like the Terms and Conditions stuff, no one ever actually read those. Almost bouncing as she did, Vinyl pulled the both the Wireless HDMI and the Wireless Electrical Cord out of each side of the helmet. She figured she might as plug in the HDMI to her TV, lest Octavia happen to walk in and wonder why in Equestria her roommate was sitting on a couch, wearing a weird helmet, and screaming battle cries and curses at seemingly nothing. That would be a tad embarrassing. After plugging in all that needed to be plugged in, she zipped back over and plopped down on the couch, taking the ERC helmet into her hooves and flicking the power switch to “ON” The inside of the helmet glowed softly as she did, the TV also flickering on at the exact same moment and showing what was playing inside the helmet with a stunning amount of clarity. With a giddy laugh, Vinyl pressed the helmet on and fastened the straps around her head, the helmet then responded by letting out a soft “Hiss” followed by a click as it fastened firmly around her head. All was dark for a moment, Vinyl couldn’t even see the inside of the helmet, and it was as if she was actually closing her eyes. Suddenly, the world around her flashed to life, she was in a large hangar, and the words “Maretari” flashed in front of her, it was as if she could have reached out and touched them, soon after the words faded and were replaced by the words “Speak to enter Screen Name and create new Account.” Vinyl raised an eyebrow at this, but did as directed by the flaming letters. “Uh…Vinyl Scratch..?” She let out uncertainly, pleasantly surprised to find her name soon spelled out perfectly in the floating box. All was dark for a moment, and then the previous flaming text faded away, only to be replaced by the words “Are you sure this is your screen name?” “Yes!” She replied. The box containing her name, along with the text disappeared into a plume of smoke that she could smell, as it floated away. A flaming loading bar then appeared, with small flaming text flashing below it rapidly, Vinyl could barely even read what it said, she was sure there had been something in there about it automatically being linked to her E-mail or something of that sort. And then, without any sort of warning, the loading bar disappeared in another smelly plume of smoke and all was dark again. What happened next made Vinyl let out the most elated giggle she had ever let out in her life; and she had let out a lot of giggles in that time. The world around her flashed to life, and she found herself sitting on the edge of a plain white bed. The room she was in looked much like some sort of military bunker, silvery walls lined surrounded her, their presence interrupted only by the black door at the other end of the small room. There was a desk with multiple papers to one side of her, and a large wardrobe to the other side. Vinyl let out a soft laugh at her new surroundings, if she didn’t know any better she would have thought she was actually in some sort of military bunker. “Woah…” She breathed softly, and was just beginning to push herself up off the bed as a large blue screen flashed up in front of her. Vinyl let out a soft yelp of surprise and fell back on the bed, slightly surprised at this sudden appearance of…whatever this was in front of her. “What is-“ As if on cue, the screen in front of her flashed to life, and four different options were listed in floating, flaming red letters. “Singleplayer” “Multiplayer” “Robot Customization.” “Options.” Vinyl’s lips curled into an almost evil smile, instantly knowing where she wanted to go first. Oh this was going to be fun. Vinyl slowly extended out a hoof and tapped the “Robot Customization” button, and instantly found herself flying through the air, her hair flying as she whizzed through surroundings moving too fast for her to even make out properly. When she finally came to rest again, Vinyl was now inside of the large hangar she had seen earlier on the loading screen, except it was now much clearer and definitely much more occupied. The hangar stretched on for what seemed like forever on either side, gigantic docking stations located on wall she was facing, their forms covered in alternating black and yellow stripes. Yellow lights flashed around her, and the sound of machinery whirring and power tools buzzing away filled her ears. The smell of industrial work wafted into her nostrils. Oil, sweat, smoke and steam all mixing together in an almost overwhelming cacophony of smells. However, all these things were not what really staggered Vinyl, no. What really made her jaw drop was what was resting in the massive docking station directly in front of her. There standing stock still in the docking station on the wall, was a robot of such massive and imposing proportions that it was almost horrifying. “Dude…” The robot was easily twenty feet tall, it looked like it was a decent medium between speed and strength, long goat-like mechanical legs holding an upper body that was sharp and edged looking, an elongated cockpit set into the top of the machine, its arms hung almost below its knees, their armor was sleek and edged. The grey, bland metal plating that covered the robot gleamed in the soft lights that dangled from the ceiling of the hangar, illuminating its form in a rather grandiose and theatrical way; as if it weren’t already both of those on its own. The words “Warrior” floated above the robot in flaming letters, along with a list of stats in the form of a fiery bar graph to the left of the robot. As expected, the robot was well rounded, showing a well rounded list of combat capabilities and recommended uses. The four bars that burned at half full, being named Armor, Agility, Strength and Health. “Wait…warrior…does that mean, there’s other classes?” Vinyl said softly to herself, barely able to contain her foalish squeals of elation at this entire situation. A glowing arrow materialized to Vinyl’s left, gently pulsating in the same fiery way that the words above the robot had. Letting out another squeal of joy, Vinyl tapped at the arrow with her hoof and quickly found herself flying sideways across the hangar, multiple other robots whizzing past her too fast for her discern what they were. When Vinyl came to rest once again, she was now situated in front of a different kind of robot; this one was almost completely different from the previous one. Instead of the longer legs the Warrior robot adorned, this robot was much shorter as far as leg length was concerned, however this didn’t mean it wasn’t lacking in everything else. Despite the short legs, the robot was extremely large, easily ten or fifteen feet taller than the Warrior class, it was heavy looking and bore two pairs of arms, one pair massive and hulking, and a second pair sprouting from its midsection, this pair was smaller and looked useless compared to the rest of the mech. Similar to the cockpit in the previous robot, this bigger robot had a more pill-shaped cockpit built into the front of the body, giving it a large, more rounded look; almost like a massive, upright metal beetle or turtle. Hovering above the robot in flaming letters was the word “Heavy” With a flaming bar graph floating next to it. From the stats it showed it definitely lived up to its name, it had almost nothing in the Agility department, whilst almost completely maxed out in Armor, Health and Strength. Vinyl scratched her chin with a hoof, inspecting the massive robot standing before her, before turning her attention to the flaming arrow on her left. Once more she was whizzing past a multitude of robots, unable to discern what kind they were as she whipped by them. Originally this sensation of flying through the air had been a bit startling to Vinyl, but she had quickly adapted to it; she was the greatest DJ in Equestria after all, she could handle a bit of crazy flying, right? Finally, Vinyl came to a halt in front of the third and final class of robot, slightly surprised to find it drastically different from the first two, and different to such an extent that it looked like it was from a different game. The robot currently in front of her was small, barely topping fifteen feet. It’s limbs were long and spindly looking, the narrow legs only growing even more narrow to the point where they ended in stubs at the end rather than actual feet, it bore one Cyclops-like eye in the middle of a head strikingly similar to a hammer-head shark, and had fins protruding from its thin arms in a manner that made it almost look avian-like. This robot looked like it was meant to move very, very fast. Built for zipping around and attacking with speed rather than brute force and this theory was confirmed as Vinyl laid eyes upon the fiery letters that floated above its head that read. “Racer” The flaming bar graph that floated next to the sleek looking robot reiterated its name and looks perfectly, showing low health, armor and strength, but almost maxed out agility. Vinyl’s smile couldn’t have gotten any bigger, she stood before this marvelous mass of metal and reveled in the awe-inspiring presence it gave off, it was truly staggering how impressive these mechanical marvels were, even the Princesses didn’t inspire this much of a feeling of awe. She let out a long and loud laugh, the only thing she could really do to express her amazement at all of this. It was so real, so large, and so…powerful. All of it was, from the massive machines to the smell and sounds of gears grinding in the distance. Vinyl shook her head, bringing herself out of a sense induced state of happiness and returned her attention to the “Racer” robot in front of her. “What to choose, what to choose….” She said softly, her stupid grin never leaving her face. She could go with this sleek; and kind of sexy looking in her opinion, “Racer” robot, flitting in between enemies and cutting them down with precisely placed attacks, but then she would be going into her first battle with basically no armor. Or, she could go with the “Tank” robot and be an absolute beast; Lumbering around the battlefield and unleashing a hail of raw firepower on any who dare to oppose her, an unstoppable wall of metal and doom-bringing-machinery. However this also meant she would be very, very slow; and while the thought of all that power got her all tingly, she hated the thought of being slow. Then there was the “Warrior” Robot, it seemed like a decent choice, at least to start out as. It was only her first time playing after all, and she didn’t want to get totally destroyed the second she set her giant metal foot on the battlefield. The Warrior was well rounded, had decent stats… That was it, her choice had been made. Vinyl tapped the flaming arrow and whipped back over to the Warrior Robot, the word “Select?” appearing before her in flaming letters. They hadn’t been there before, so maybe the helmet had processed that she had decided she wanted that one? Vinyl wasn’t sure, it wasn’t a totally outlandish assumption though, if she could smell and hear and feel everything around her, magical floating fire-words weren’t entirely out of the question. Letting out yet another soft squeak of excitement, Vinyl tapped the flaming words with a hoof, feeling gentle warmth as she made contact with the flames, but not actually being burned. Everything around her other than the robot directly in front of her blurred softly, her vision forcibly focusing on the robot as new, more colorful flaming images appeared on either side of the hulking metal figure. “What is…?” Vinyl had her question answered before she even asked it, the words “Robot Color” appearing over a palate of multiple colored flames to the left of the robot, and the flaming words “Loadout” hovering over on the right side. Closer to the feet of the robot, in smaller flaming words, Vinyl read aloud. “Aesthetic and Loadout customization unlocked at LVL 5” Vinyl let out a slight huff of annoyance, rolling her eyes at the text. “Just like Maretari, always making you work for the good stuff.” She couldn’t help but smile at how bratty she sounded as she spoke, shaking her head and turning her gaze up to the left side of the robot. As if on command, the “Robot Color” menu opened up to reveal a multitude of colors and choices of specific robot parts to color. “Let's see…” She said with a smile that Pinkie Pie herself would have a hard time topping, beginning her work on the mech. About five minutes later, the once dull grey robot, was now a gleaming white color, “eyes” tinted red and a blue tiger stripe pattern covering the arm, leg and head plating. The newly painted robot gleamed in the hangar lights, looking like some pristine and million-dollar car turned into a deadly fighting machine. What made Vinyl the most happy though, was her discovery of the ability to put custom decals on her mech. She had taken full advantage of this feature and created a perfect copy of her cutie mark and stamped it on the chest and forearms of the robot warrior. A new set of flaming text appeared shortly after, asking Vinyl if she had customized the robot to her liking. She begrudgingly said yes, silently wishing she would mess around with her loadouts and robot appearance and all as she was whipped through the air until she was once again seated inside the small bedroom she had started off in, the familiar start menu burning brightly in front of her. Now, with most games; especially if one has never played said game before, it is often a smart idea to start out trying your hoof at singleplayer mode, getting yourself familiarized and accustomed to the game before delving into a world of combat populated by actual ponies instead of bots that couldn’t aim to save their flanks. Vinyl however, did not think she needed to start out in Singleplayer, no. She wanted to get right into the crap and “Own some noobs” Never stopping to think she was actually a noob herself. “Let’s get it on!” She cried in excitement, pressing the “Multiplayer” button with a hoof. Gently, Vinyl was floated through the hallways and back into the Robot hangar; the slow pace surprised her slightly, but she brushed it off upon noticing she was approaching her war-machine. It gleamed and reflected the hangar lights in just as perfect and flawless of a manner as it had when she left it only a few seconds prior. Slowly, she was lifted up closer to the robot by an invisible force, the cockpit opened with a hiss of air followed by a soft click. Gently as one would set down a newborn foal, she was set into the cockpit and released from the invisible force that had lifted her into her new toy. She was set up in a way that she stood on her back hooves, strange gauntlets and boots materializing out the floor and sides of the cock pit, attached to metal tentacles that most likely would transmit her movement into the movement of the robot. The boots latching onto her hooves and holding her in such a way that she was standing much like the bipedal robot was. The cockpit slowly lowered over Vinyl, sealing her inside with a hiss and another click. A moment later another menu appeared in front of her, one that read “Choose Gamemode” in burning letters, followed by a short list of available game-modes; also written in fire. Vinyl carefully scanned over the list, taking into account each different type of gamemode before finally finding one that caught her eye. “Hardcore Team Deathmatch- 6v6” “Hmm…that sounds rather invigorating!” She said to herself, tapping the flaming words with a hoof and being rewarded by the sound of a shotgun cocking. Then she was falling. The floor opened up beneath Vinyl and both she and the robot she was piloting began plummeting through the sky that she hadn’t even known they were in until that point. The sky was a pleasant blue, almost lovely actually. Fluffy clouds dotted the sky and decorated it with multitudes of shapes and forms. Vinyl glanced downwards and found that there was indeed a ground down there, and that she was rapidly approaching said ground; the form of what appeared to be something similar to Manehattan growing clearer and clearer as she plummeted. The sound of wind whipping by was all Vinyl could hear, the scream she let out as her stomach did flips from the new sensation drowned out by the aforementioned sound, she flailed her limbs wildly in hopes of maybe gaining some sort of control over her robot, only to find it totally unresponsive to her movement, there weren’t even any controls! What was she supposed to do! Despite the rapid descent, Vinyl’s robot was actually maintaining a perfect upright position, metal arms extended out to the side and making motions akin to somepony treading water as they plummeted. As the ground grew closer and closer by the second, Vinyl couldn’t help but feel slightly terrified at all this, wondering exactly what would happen as she plummeted downwards and towards the perfect replica of Manehattan she was to do battle in.