Wade Watts is now one of the wealthiest people on the planet, having found the Easter Egg in Oasis's greatest game ever. But what...is this new game he found?
It was a nice, peaceful day for Twilight Sparkle. No three headed dogs running amuck. No Rivals out to prove their superiority. Nothing to stress or worry about. Just her and a nice book. Then a random pony walks in off the street, breaks a couple of her vases, steals a few of her books, and has the gall to ask "Do you know where the boss monster is?" Then top it off with the fact that the pony just DISSAPEARED right in front of her. Why couldn't she just have a nice day off?
Holy crap, featured on 4/24/15 !
P.S. am I the only one that finds it odd that Cadence is lumped in with the "side characters" and not the "Princesses" in the character tabs?
P.P.S. I have now had two people asking me what this is a crossover with. I guess I can't fault people for not knowing beforehand. This story is a crossover with the book Ready Player One, by the author Ernest Cline.
"Ahhh," Twilight sighed, sipping at a piping hot cup of chai tea. It was either that or coffee, and she wanted to be relaxed, not highstrung. This was nice. Being able to have an entire day to herself, to relax and just enjoy reading a book. Nothing could compare. Not having to deal with vengeful spirits, stircrazy ponies, or even the overbearing tendencies of her dragon. Why couldn't she do this every day? Because she had a schedule to keep. She managed to free up her day by piling her tasks into the week previous. It had been hard, but she had managed it. And by Celestia it was worth it.
Until the visitor came in through the front door.
And immediately picked up a vase filled with flowers and smashed it down on the floor.
"Excuse me? What do you think you're doing?" Twilight managed to belt out, lurching to her hooves. Just what did this stallion think he was doing, coming into her home and breaking her stuff? She had brought that one with her from Canterlot! It was made by her mother...it wasn't that pretty, but it had been made for HER.
The strange stallion simply ignored her, walking to another vase which he reared up and brought his hooves down on it. Twilight let out a squawk of indignation, before grabbing the offending stallion and hoisting him above the ground.
He simply stared at her for a couple seconds, before reaching out a hoof and grabbing a book off the table within his reach. He looked at it for a minute, ignoring Twilights attempts to figure out what he had been trying to accomplish. He then did something that surprised Twilight. He tucked the book behind him, where it disappeared.
"Do you know where the Boss monster is? Or at the very least, where I can find a quest? This game is actually rather boring, seeing as there's nothing to do."
"You come into my home, interrupted my day off, and destroyed a vase my MOTHER MADE FOR ME, AND THIS IS JUST A GAME FOR YOU?!!? Whats wrong with you?"
The stallion had a confused look on his face, as if he was trying to figure out what Twilight was on about.
"Bah. If I wanted to get whined at, I'd play a babysitting sim. I'm out." With that, he swiped a hoof in the air in front of him, and disappeared.
Twilight stood still for a few seconds, her magic dissipating as she lost her focus on it. After a few more seconds, a dam inside her mind broke, and she roared out onto the heavens above.
"FUDGE COLORED STALLION STOLE MY CELESTIA DARNED BOOK!"
Parzival exited the sim, resurfacing within the program node he had found the previous night. It was a hidden within a packet of data that only he, with his new user access could get to. He had the month previous found the Easter Egg of OASIS. This in turn gave him the super user access routines of the maker of OASIS, James Halliday. James Halliday had hidden several strings of code in his personal data, and this was only the first string he had managed to decode. It led to a game within the game, an interface that locked him into a preset world. As of yet, he could only find slight references to the source material.
My Little Pony. A series that had started in the 80's, produced by a toy company by the title of Hasbro. That however, was where the trail had gone cold, seeing as Hasbro had gone under and been bought out by a competing company called Kenner. The toy line had then been phased out, in favor for Kenners more popular Barbie line. This in itself was odd, in addition to the fact that none of the characters he had met so far had matched any of the documented ones. So apparently Halliday had taken it upon himself to revive a dead series, and construct a completely new world around it?
And to compound on that, the personality vectors the NPC's had were some of the best he had ever seen. They dynamically reacted to his actions, and he was hard pressed to tell them apart from a real person. What if Halliday had a dedicated group he entrusted to upkeep that server? Why? What treasures, what information had he hidden in this seemingly simple world?
He'd find them. Whatever he had hidden, he would find. That was his purpose. To uncover what had been lost.
With a smirk, he entered the login code for Equestria.EXE
"I'm telling you, he just walked in, broke my vases, and then when I grabbed him with my magic, he vanished!" Twilight Sparkle told her friends for the third time. "And to top it off, he stole one of my books!" she huffed, gaining a look of amusement
"Are you sure you saw what you thought you saw?" Rarity gestured for her distraught friend to sit down beside her.
"I KNOW what I saw. He was right there!" Twilight waved a hoof wildly at the space where the fudge colored earth pony had disappeared.
As fate would have it, the same fudge colored earth pony they had just been talking about chose that moment to reappear, give them each a nod, and then walk out the front door. They each had a moment of silence, which was broken by a screech from Twilight.
"GET BACK HERE BOOK THIEF!" She zipped out the door, leaving her friends to contemplate the mystery of a teleporting earth pony.
Twilight followed the errant stallion through the streets of Ponyville. His movements were erratic, and it didn't seem like he had a clear goal as to where he was going.
"GOTCHA!" She screamed, teleporting in front of the frightened stallion, watching with dismay as he dodged to the side and jumped over a house. "I...what? How?" How did an earth pony jump over a house? How did an earth pony teleport? WHAT WAS GOING ON?!?!?!?
"AAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!" She screamed to the heavens, upsetting several Pegasi.
Wow. She sounded high strung. Parzival had re-entered the sim right where he had left it, directly in the middle of the library carved out of a tree. The sim had apparently been running without him however, seeing as not only had the purple one been there, but a white one with purple hair, and an orange one with a cowboy hat. Interesting.
But frustrating as well. This sim had an irritating lock set into it, restricting his avatar. It was immediately assigned a new skin(apparently to play in the world of small horses, you had to BE a small horse), which had its own level generator. So yeah, he was back to level one. Which isn't to say he wasn't without his tricks. He might not have access to Hallidays superuser access stats in this sim, but he was able to port over a few relics. Most of them were marked as "incompatible". One however, titled Hermes Greaves was perfectly compatible. 100% code sync. Almost like Halliday made it with the explicit intention of it being used in this sim. He wouldn't put it past Halliday, he had been rather eccentric. Who knows how long he had been working on this?
Hermes Greaves were translated into the sim as two curved, dull brown coverings that went over his avatars legs. They almost perfectly blended in, but if you looked carefully you could see light glinting off the metel. What was really special was the ability they imparted. 30+ to speed, agility, constitution, and doublejump. Even his level one weakling of an avater could manuever with some efficiency. It wouldn't help him out in any early boss fights(sure, speed is a good stat, but when you have to spend half an hour dodging and only doing one damage per hit? It would have been a better point sink to be able to do 20 damage per hit, maybe get hit a few times.), but it sure helped him get around.
At the moment, he was jumping across rooftops, an extremely agitated white pony with flame hair chasing him. What happened to the purple pony? Maybe this was her friend, who apparently was just as miffed he had taken a book as she. Or maybe...
Parzival smiled to himself behind his viser, clenching his hands in his okami-haptic gloves.
"Boss Fight."
He came to a sudden stop on a roof shaped like a carausel(kinda morbid, given the surrounding population) and turned towards the following flame horse. Said horse did something that surprised him. She stopped a good distance away, and YELLED at him.
"GIVE. ME. BACK. MY. BOOK!" Wait, so this WAS the purple horse from before? Why was she following this line so fervently? Perhaps...ah, an activated quest string! That explained it. It was activated when he picked up the book, but wasn't able to be continued because he had put it in his inventory. Therefore a proxy had been activated to get him to take the book back out. The horse hadn't actively done anything to hurt him, having just held him with a field of magic, and yelled at him.
"I wonder how far the string is allowed to progress, though..." He mused to himself, before addressing the purple flame horse. Who was apparently designed to appear obsessed with books. "Oh, you want this book?" He dragged the book out of his inventory(Migratory Patterns of Seagulls; Vol 12. By Velvet Da Capo)
"Yes! I want it! Give it back!"
"Come and get it!"
With that, he jumped off the roof, followed in kind by an increasingly mad purple turned white unicorn with flames bursting out of her head and butt. He couldn't see any new quest markers now that the book was out, and his minimap wouldn't even load. The record and soundtrak programs weren't working either. Apparently Halliday wanted this to be viewable only by the one who won the Easter Egg. Again, why? What was so special about this sim?
He heard a tinkle behind him, so he threw himself to the left, down an alleyway. Just in time, too. The unicorn apparently had an ability similar to Stasis Field, in which she could immobalize a target by holding them in midair. Thankfully, like any well scripted attack or configuration, her activation period was signified by the sound of tinkling bells, along with a slight wooshing sound. As long as he was able to get the warning sounds right, he could dodge any incoming attack.
"NYEAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Came the frustrated scream behind him. It was actually making him feel kinda bad, this girl just wanted her book back. Oh well, to test the limits of this new system, he was going to have to annoy the a.i. as much as he could.
His view suddenly twisted, tumbling as his avatar was tackled and pinned to the ground.
"I got him! Who da best? I da best!" Said the blue lump of pony sitting on top of him. He strained against this confinement, but apparently his strength wasn't high enough. At best he got a defiant wiggle. "Stop that. You're staying right here until Twilight chews you out." Twilight? Oh. Book lass. The characters from the original series had some questionably girly names as well.
Said 'Twilight' walked swiftly up to them, (him squirming and blue lump doing her best to hold him) And grabbed the book in her magic.
"This is MY book, and I'm gonna...put it back in the pile you took it from and read it at some other time." she trailed off. Odd. He could have sworn she had been about to say something different.
"Congratulations," He said, doing his best to emulate a clap with his avatars unwieldy...hooves? "You caught me. Can you get this off of me? I think I'm about to pass out." His intent was to see how they'd react. This...Twilight had already proven that they had some very efficient anger algorhthims programmed in. Was it just because she was a central character to whatever story this sim was based around? Or was it standard?
"Did you just call me fat?" The blue lump asked. Well, it seemed like they had a response for everything.
"Let me just say, Madame Tubbo, that if you were any heavier, you wouldn't have tackled me. You would have dug a ditch when you hit the ground." There, that should be a good enough to elicit a response.
The blue lump surprisingly responded by smashing his face into the ground. Somehow this equated to his avatar gaining the status of "Knocked out". He was still able to see and look around, but he couldn't move his avatar, or his now seemingly spectral self any distance away from the avatar.
"Rainbow Dash! No! What are you doing?!!?" Oh, so the blue lump was called Rainbow Dash? Fit her color scheme. She had hair and a tail that was colored like a rainbow. Guess some nicknames just stick.
"He called me fat!"
"So you attack him? He couldn't move, and you just..." Twilight had a foreleg to his avatars neck, and soon after she breathed a sigh of relief."Thank goodness, you only knocked him out."
"Would have done more if he said anything else." Rainbow Dash said with a huff.
It was remarkable the lengths Halliday had gone with this program. He could have just had it stop once he had been 'knocked out', and then had him 'wake up' at some other point in time. Instead, it seemed as if the sim ran completely in real time. On a hunch, he called up his interface and tried to pause the sim. No dice. He couldn't acccess it though any other means than his avatar interacting with it, it seemed.
Twilight and her violent friend carted his avatar back to the library, securing him on an ugly looking couch. They continued bickering back and forth between themselves. It was amazing how much specialized dialogue these two had. And neither of them had that classic voice warble that an emulated voice would have. That means that both of these had actual voice actors. And that sort of thing took time...The ammount of secrecy surrounding this just kept getting wierder. You'd think that if Halliday had gone around paying voice actors, some small slip of information would have gotten out sooner or later.
His avatar had a counter on it counting downwards from 5:48, meaning that until it ran out he wouldn't really be able to do anything with his avatar. Seeing as he couldn't really do anything, Parzival decided to check up on his stats.
Unsurprisingly, it was pretty dismal compared to what he was used to. After doing the climb to 99 he hadn't really considered the idea that he might have to start over.
If he was to gauge it, he'd have to assume Rainbow Dash's Strength was at least an 18, to so utterly overwhelm his own strength. Twilight obviously had a pretty high intelligence stat, seeing with the frequency she had been blinking all around on the roofs. Maybe unicorns were this games version of magic wielders? Why even bother having an int and mnd stat for his normal avatar then? Maybe it related to his magic defense. If it did, then it didn't equate to much, seeing with the ease she had grabbed him before. Hopefully that wasn't the case though, this would be a frightfully drab game if he couldn't create another hybrid class.
He didn't have any specific 'skills', but his various actions had their own skill trees. There was however a singular skill called 'Friendship'. It didn't have any description, no way to tell what it was or what it did. It was apparent what achieving the next level of it would give, though.
Next lvl -------------- +5 to -------------------
Obviously it imparted an increase to SOMETHING. But what? It could be to a skill, it could be to a specific stat. No way of knowing until he managed to unlock it.
Sooner than expected, the cooldown ended and his avatar regained 'conciousness'. Parzival kept his avatar still as he exited out of his menu, before looking around. Twilight and her friend had noticed his "waking up" and so had taken (for cute pastel looking poinies) threatening postures.
"Well, good morning." Apparently Halliday had anticipated the winner of the easter egg to try to anger the programs to start. They simply had too much flexibility. So why not try the opposite side of the spectrum? "How are you this fine morning?"
Both of them looked surprised, not really sure how to react. The rainbow haired one spoke up, "Don't you try and bamboozle us! We're onto you, buddy!"
"Please, stay off. The last time you got on I blacked out." Allright, so he had been PLANNING to be nice. But she had an impressive track with her aggressive slate.
"Why I aughtta!" She was cut off as Twilight grabbed her in her magic, looking at the both of them with a dissaproving glare.
"What you should do, is calm down. I will not have you assaulting my guests in my house."
"He started it!"
"That it may be, but there is no reason to finish it. And you. Where do you get off coming into someponys home? And where did you get that?"
She was of course referring to the tub of popcorn Parzival was eating hoofulls of popcorn out of. It had seemed comedically apropriate to take out and nom on. It was also a good chance to check what items were able to be ported over. None of his potions or buffs seemed compatible, which only left the items that had real world comparables. One such item was 'tub of buttery popcorn' (regen health 15 points per second, regen mana 5 points per second. 200 points maximum.) They were even hot.~
"Popcorn? It was in my inventory."
The rainbow one was looking at him in fear now for some reason. "Oh sweet Celestia, its another Pinkie Pie..."
"What? No, its popcorn. Not pie, pink or otherwise."
"No no no no no no no no no..." With that the rainbow haired pony flew out the open door, leaving him alone with the over enthusiastic book horse.
"Whats her problem? Want some?" He offered the bucket, but the purple horse just stared at him in slight confusion.
"No, I don't. And you still have yet to answer my question."
"Do I have to answer? I'm not sure I want to."
"Yes, you do! You broke my mothers vase!"
"I'm sorry?"
"You can't just...that doesn't, you sure don't sound sorry."
"How so? Explain to me."
"Well for starters, theres the tone of your voice. It sounds like you're trying to be sarcastic. Then, theres the words you used. You only used the two standard scapegoat words, specifically 'I'm sorry'. You didn't elaborate on how you were sorry, and in the end just sounded like you were trying to appease me."
"Interesting, and how did that make you feel?" Such sentence structure, how far could he twist this before she rubber banded back to the original plotline?
She glared at him for a few seconds before continuing. "You're actually trying to distract me with that psycho-analytic garbage?" Apparently it would take no time at all.
"Distract? No. Test? Yes."
"...testing what?"
"Nope, that'd be telling."
"...Did Celestia send you?"
"I can neither confirm or deny that." Perhaps if he was as vague as possible, she'd lead the quest line along with as little pushing as possible?
"Did...why...I have to prepare!" With that she rocketed up the stairs, and slammed a door behind her.
Parzival was left sitting alone, surrounded by books.
She wouldn't leave him alone. It was the purple haired pony he had seen before in the library, continuously asking about the greaves. Apparently they were 'exquisitely made' and 'artfully portrayed'. It was rather annoying, but she hadn't been rude as of yet. Parzival had given the standard reply of "I don't know' to the majority of her questions, but she kept on asking.
"But you MUST tell me darling! These engravings, the curve and the line of the writ, it all must have taken a master craftsmaker at their finest!"
"Don't know. Just found them."
"Where did you find them? They are rather reminicent of Zebrican, but they also have a flair of Neighan about them..."
"Don't remember."
"Well you MUST remember something..."
Thankfully she was inturrupted by an unfamiliar pony, a wild and frantic look in her eyes.
"Rarity, have you seen Scootaloo? I just went by the cutie mark crusaders club house, and the place was wrecked to shreds!" Well that was interesting. This pony seemed to be this...'scootaloo's' mother. And where ever this club house was, it seemed like there was a quest to be had.
"What? No, I haven't seen her or my sister since she said she was heading over there for their weekly meeting...You don't think something untoward could have happened, do you?"
"I don't know what to think, the door was torn off the hinges, and I can't find my little Scoots anywhere!" She actually seemed to be on the verge of tears. Parzival decided that it was time to step in.
"Excuse me ma'am. Might I ask where this 'club house' is?" She looked at Parzival with a second of confusion, before getting a glint of hope in her eye.
"Its just off the Sweet Apple Acres farm. Why? Do you know something? Do you know where my Scootaloo is?"
"Usually, if you want to get to the bottom of a crime, you have to inspect the crime scene. So no, I don't currently know anything." Parzival gave her what he hoped was a comforting smile. "I'm hoping to change that."
Rarity looked at him with a calculating glance, then spoke. "Are you some sort of guard pony?"
"Of a sort. I view it as my sworn duty to protect those in need, those that can't protect themselves." That sounded appropriately heroic. It had been a long time since Parzival had played any kind of standard heroic adventure, and even longer since he had role played as one. Still, He thought he had hit the 'rogue-ish adventurer' role on the head.
Rarity actually started to look a bit worried. "Do you think something bad happened? This is the Cutie Mark Crusaders we're talking about here."
"Would you ever believe them to destroy their own hideout?"
"Well...no..."
"Then its a safe idea to check, wouldn't you think?" Parzival turned back to the new pony. "If you would lead the way, ma'am."
It was a mess. The door had been ripped off its hinges, and Parzival could smell the coppery scent of blood wafting in through his specially made Okami Olfactory Tower(specifically designed to negate any horrible smells developed by pranksters.). Upon closer investigation, there was a large amount hidden under the various debris that littered the room. And if that wasn't enough, there wer extremely obvious claw marks gouged into the walls and floor. Obviously, this Scootaloo and Rarity's sister had been attacked by some sort of wolf. If the claw marks were anything to go by.
Following the blood out the door, Parzival found himself traveling deep into the forest, Rarity and the mother following at his heels. They were understandably worried, and had all but freaked out at the mention of blood. Caterwalling and wailing about the safety of thier family members. Before long, they found themselves in an extremely bad situation.
They had been surrounded by a group of wolves made out of wood. Parzival could see dried blood on one of them, so he could tell that this was indeed the mob of enemies that had attacked the club house. But he couldn't see any little ponies, dead or otherwise. What had they done with them? If this were a non macabre game world, they could still be alive. Possibly.
Parzival hooked a leg under the barrel of each mare, and lept up onto a high tree branch, out of the reach of the wooden wolves. They raised a fuss, but he couldn't be responsible for their well being. If they got in his way, they wouldn't only get themselves killed in game, but might drag him along as well.
Landing back on the ground, he readied himself. He didn't have any weapons, but his hooves were tough enough that he figured they would function well as an unarmed attack. Indeed, the first wolf that he reared back and struck burst apart with barely any effort. The other three quickly followed suit, after a short exchange of blows. He found it extremely easy to dodge them, with the added stats of the Hermes Greaves. Something was wrong, though. He hadn't gotten a single XP from the encounter.
Soon enough he could see why. The wood wolves had all reformed. They seemed to have some form of invulnerability. Probably against physical attacks. Which meant his non magical earth pony avatar was going to lose against them, if he didn't bend the encounter towards his favor.
Which he could do with a specific artifact. Brand of Prometheus. An innocuous looking tree branch, longer than his body and the twisted end of snarled limbs on continuous fire. He brought it out of his inventory, and equipped it. It was a two handed weapon, which is why he had never carried it around. His other weapons were simply more weight efficient, considering Brand of Prometheus was simply a fire weapon that scaled with level. Ever since he had gotten Hallidays superuser stats, he'd had an infinite weight carry, so he had taken to simply carrying all his artifacts.
Still, a fire weapon was just what he needed here. Fire for wood. Perfect.
Hooking a leg over the Brand, Parzival swung it in a tight arc, striking two of the wolves. They burst into flames, becoming nothing more than ash in only a few seconds. The other two followed suit in short order.
Still. No XP. Parzival's level counter was still stuck at 'Next Level, 200'. This time he was sure they were down for the count though, the ashes werent even moving like they would be in a traditional mmo. And the little ones weren't anywhere to be seen. Had he made a mistake? Was he NOT supposed to fight the wood wolves?
He didn't have time to muse on this, however. With a rushing sound of breaking branches, a large...mass of a semi liquid creature entered the clearing, attacking before Parzival could gather his wits. It was as black as tar, and attacked by shooting streams of itself at him. He could see the struggling forms of three small ponies poking out of the creature, meaning perhaps THIS was the mob he would have to defeat to gain any XP. Fairly annoying, if only certain mobs gave any XP.
Regardless. He swung the Brand at the mass, eliciting a squealing cry of pain. Burning off slab after slab of the creatures black jelly like mass, he was finally left with four small wriggling creatures. Three little ponies, and a wretched amoeba of writhing flesh, oozing a fluid tar like substance.
With a downward strike, he ended the creature.
~-----------------------~
After having gotten the two mares down from the tree(and getting an earful for that), they lugged the unconcious bodies of the little fillies back to town. They kept on profusely thanking him, but he was busy thinking on another matter.
Even after fighting off 5 enemies, and presumably finishing a level 1 quest...he hadn't recieved even a single XP. How was he supposed to progress in this game if his greatest efforts turned up no results? This game truly was baffling.
They had gained an entourage of townsfolk on their way to the hospital(Parzival had agreed to escort them the rest of the way), including the ribbon wearing fillies sister. They had all thanked him for his efforts, but he was barely paying attention. Finally they reached the hospital, and one of the fillies woke up. She was confused as to what had happened, and upon learning that he had saved her she clammed up.
"...Hey...mister... did you really save me?"
"...No. I didn't."
"What? But they just said-"
"All I did was help a nice, frightened lady find her daughter. If I had done any less, I dont think I could live with myself." Parzival gave her a slight smile.
She gave him a wierd look, before bursting into laughter. "You sure are wierd, mister! I think though..." She paused, squirming in her mothers fretting embrace, "I think I kinda like you though, you're a funny guy! My names Scootaloo, wanna be my friend?" She held out a hoof out, awaiting his response.
Parzival froze for a few seconds, unable to form a response. Finally breaking out to into a wide smile, bumping his hoof against hers.
Congratulations! You have begun on your journey to find the magic of Friendship, in the land of Equestria. Having made your first friend, you will have noticed that the leveling system is rather...different. Go out, mingle, get to know the populace. Be warned however, that if you go and try to boost your level by just meaninglessly declaring ponies your friend ( or by just asking them to declare themselves yours) you have a chance to be hit with karma backlash, losing XP and even possibly levels. The system analyzes your reactions, heart rate, breathing and more to determine how truthful you are. And Friendship is a system as old as time.
XP- 275, Next Level -1000
Pegasus form unlocked, switch races from the main menu.
Peagasi are winged ponies, capable of flight among the clouds in the sky. While not as hardy as an earth pony, you will be hard pressed to find a faster species. They fly by manipulating the air around with their magic, using their wings as a focus. They also have the capability to alter and manipulate magic currents relating to air and weather, -Example-=A pegasus can change the composition of a cloud to either create a downpour or lightning cloud.- Recomended Weapon- Spear/Lance.
The description it gave was...lacking. How did it determine how he had befriended an individual? It also felt kinda odd, to try and befriend virtual characters. He had said yes to the orange filly because she had seemed so earnest...but this was so backwards compared to Hallidays final words to him...
"I created the OASIS because I never felt at home in the real world. I didn't know how to connect with the people there. I was afraid, for all of my life. Right up until I knew it was ending. That was when I realized, as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it's also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is real . Do you understand?"
For all of his life, Halliday had been trying to hide from the real world. So why hide something like this? A game focused on making friends...why wouldn't he just release it? He had programmed weirder things over the years... One such thing being a dating sim based around pigeons...
Regardless. If he could just find a maitanance node in game, he could probably craft himself an admin access. He hadn't found anything as of yet to explain its purpose, but Halliday HAD hidden it. So it stood to reason there was a reason for that.
"Are you moping again?"
Wade turned to look at his wife, Samantha. A birthmark covered her eye, but to Wade that just made her all the more beautiful. They had met in the OASIS, fallen in love. Hit a rough patch when Sam was convinced Wade would never be able to love her in real life. They'd worked that out, over time. They had gotten married shortly after the end of the hunt, and Wade could never be as happy as he was that day. Ever since, she was his burning candle, his inspiration, his shoulder to lean on.
"Just thinking."
"Equestria, again?" She asked with a knowing grin, leaning over the back of the couch Wade was draped on, encircling his neck with her arms in a warm hug.
"Yeah. Still haven't managed to sneak a second player slot into it... but I did get my first level."
"Ding?"
"A short trumpet solo, actually. Complete with pop up and bright, vivid green text. Guess how I did it? I guarentee you wont believe it."
"You...killed a monster of some kind?"
"Nope. You apparently dont get ANY experience from killing monsters. And I fought four wood wolves, and some sort of slime. Not a pinnacle of variety, but the results speak for themselves.
"Oh, so it's quest based?"
"Nope, as far as I can figure there isn't a quest system. No Markers, the journal doesn't say anything either."
"Fine, I give up. Did you cut down a magical tree that had skittles in it or something?"
"I made a friend."
"...What?" Samantha had stiffened behind Wade, and when he turned his head to look her in the eyes, he could see a shit eating grin as bright as a neon light. "You have got to be kidding me. Your level is dependant on how many friends you have? That is so...so...well that is kinda you, actually. So, your new fraaaaaand...is she cute?"
"An adorable little pegasus kid. She was part of the group I saved from the wood wolves and the slime thing. She asked if I would be her friend...and... well it was just too precious. I couldn't say no. And then my level went up, and I apparently unlocked the pegasus form."
"...You have got to get me an in to this game, Wade. Its not fair that only you get to play..."
"I'm working on it. I just need to find a way to give myself admin privilges. Then I'll give you an admin account as well."
"You better, if I have to sit on the sidelines any longer I'm liable to pull your plug."
"Aw, I know you better than that. Listen, I'm gonna log back on and hook up with Aech, see if he's dug up anything new on this. Did you know Hasbro actually made a couple episodes for this? They never released, though...none of the characters are the same, either..."
"Dinner's at five. That's two nights in a row you owe me for~" She got up, and slinked away.
Wade chuckled to himself. He'd have to make up for his forgetfulness. Getting up himself, he walked to his immersion room. Samantha didn't really like his lack of hair, so he had stopped using that type of shampoo. In turn, he had stopped using full haptic suits. It was just uncomfortable. Dragging the visor over his eyes, he sat down in his haptic chair.
The stallion showed up out of nowhere, commited minor larceny against her, and then just up and dissapeared. She had written a letter to Princess Celestia, and she had replied that she HADN'T sent him to test her. That in itself was a relief, but then where DID he come from? After the way he acted, he then and went out of his way to not only protect two of her friends, but he also saved the CMC from Smooze infected wildlife. It was regrettable that he had ended up killing the animals. If he ever showed his face again, Fluttershy was going to give him an earful. Scootaloo appeared quite taken with the mystery guard pony, but even she hadn't been able to get his name.
It had been a couple days since that incident, and the talk was starting to die down without anything new to report on. It was all rather frustrating. There wasn't hide nor tail to be seen of the fudge colored stallion! Seriously, how did somepony just show up out of the blue, make a gigantic fuss, and then skedaddle without anypony knowing where he went?!!? This was so utterly frustrating.
She had gone by Rarity's and asked if she had seen anything else, ANYTHING out of the ordinary.
It was on the way back that Twilight came across something EXTREMELY out of the ordinary.
"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" came from a certain fudge colored stallion, zooming across the skies of Ponyville.
"...He's...a pegasus now...No. Just no. I refuse to believe this. That isn't possible."
"How?" She asked the fudge colored stallion who was muzzle deep in the book he had taken off the shelf nearest him.
"What?" He responded, ignoring her to continue reading.
"You know what! You didn't have wings before, and now you do! How!??!"
He put the book down, and looked at his back in mock confusion. "Really? When did that happen?" he returned his attention to Twilight, "I guess I had some bad food poisoning or something." With a snort, the fudge colored stallion returned his attention to his book.
"AAaaaaagh!" Twilight yelled in anger, throwing up the papers she had brought out to document the strange phenomena of the earth pony turned pegasus pony. "Why? Why couldn't this have happened on nearly any other day!??! Faust above, you could have saddled me with this on nearly any day and I would be happy with it, but today? Today was my second attempt at a day off! I was supposed to be relaxing! I made ginseng tea! I never make that blend anymore, it makes me sleepy and relaxed! What!??!" She yelled at the suddenly cowed pegasus, who had crossed the room at her outburst and was trying to console her with a hoof placed upon her shoulder.
"Look, lady...I've always had wings. I've never been an earth pony, regardless of what you say. I'm sorry if the evidence doesn't support your memory, but again," He opened his wings, fluttering one in Twilights direction, "It's not like these are detachable. Face the facts. I am a pegasus. I remember always being a pegasus. Therefor, regardless of the fact that you remember me without wings, it doesn't change the fact that I do indeed have them. Right?"
"Well, no, but-"
"No buts lady, my wings are real, just the same as your horn is to you. Now, I know we got off on a bit of a bad start, what with me getting hit with that spell and acting like a donkeys rear to you. As I recall, I broke a vase of yours?"
Twilights head whipped towards his, and a terrifying grin forming on her fuzzy face. "Why yes...yes you did. That was a vase made by my mother. Irreplaceable. I expect you to pay for it."
"What? Come on, if it was home made, all we have to do is get your mom to make a new one, right? Besides, if it was homemade, it wasn't worth very much, why can't I just buy you another one?"
Twilight let out a snarl of anger, and swatted his hoof aside. "Not worth very much? What the hay are you even saying? Whats wrong with you? That was a vase made by my mother! It might not have much use to a stallion like you- and it might not have been the prettiest thing ever- but it meant a lot to me. All right? It meant a lot to me, and that's all that matters. And you aren't leaving until you pay it off, you got that?"
"What? But its just a vase!"
"It might be but you admitted to breaking it, did you not?"
"I...uh...yes?"
"Then you gotta pay the time for the crime. I hereby charge you with being my second personal assistant till a time as which I feel you have payed off your debt. Or I can just call the guard and charge you with destruction of property. You'll probably be put in the local jail for the night, and then forced to pay for the vase anyway."
Parzival let out a low whistle at the ultimatum. Hanging in the air before him was a text box, which he quickly read through.
Pay for the vase! Twilight has voiced her concerns, and expects you to make amends!
-Quest objectives
Make Twilight Sparkle happy, to the point where she believes your debt to her is payed in full.
-Quest fail
Refuse her offer.
-Rewards
25 bits.
-Additional information
If Twilight Sparkle gains enough respect for you, that in turn might become a friendship link! Regardless if you develop this or not, Twilight Sparkle with spread word of her opinion about you among her friends.
Even the most standoffish individual will warm up to you if their friends seem to like you. It might not always work out, but the possibility of it coming to pass is there.
Parzival re-read it twice, making sure he had the gist of it. If Twilight liked him, that apparently would make opening up other 'friendship links' all that much easier.
"I guess it's in my best interest to accept your kind and generous offer," he said, bowing his head slightly. "What dost thou wish of me, oh my master?" he asked, a smile curling at the edges of his mouth.
"What? Oh, I guess... I need a quill! Go... get me one?" Twilight stammered, obviously not expecting him to be so readily willing to comply.
Parzival looked around, searching for a quest arrow or a text box to give him a little more information.
"I... okay, where can I get one?" he asked.
"You can get one at the Sofa and Quills shop, they should have plenty in stock," Twilight replied, waving him outside. "Heres a couple bits, they shouldn't be that expensive..."
Parzival found himself standing alone outside the library. Looking around in bemusement, he spotted a storefront with a sofa and a quill on the sign out front. Chuckling in bemusement to himself, he entered and payed for a 'single quill'.
The tasks continued in this fashion for the remainder of the day, Twilight becoming increasingly frantic as she realized she didn't really have anything for him to do. She finally sent him off to retrieve a 'party cake' from a place called Sugar Cube Corner.
Certainly an odd name. Not as odd as a 'sofa and quill' store, but with a game like this you had to expect a certain level of insanity.
Opening the door to shop Parzival was met with an extraordinary level of insanity. A pink pony dragged himself inside, and the next few minutes were a whirling blur of pink, confetti, icing, and random ponies faces.
Parzival eventually logged out to the program node, marveling at the eccentricities of the pink bodied pony.
He had even less of an idea how to deal with her than he did before.
At first she had been nothing but smiles, welcome words and offers of various snacks and goodies. She would offer a slice of cake, and the next few seconds would find him somehow agreeing to play some sort of quadruped based party game. 'Pin the tail on the pony' indeed.
It was immediately after she had dragged him over to try out 'bobbing for apples'. Parzival had eaten apples before, but the pink party pony had told him in no uncertain terms that the apples grown by her friend would make any other taste inferior.
There was no way he could properly test this claim, but the scents his tower were sending out certainly were mouth watering. He hadn't had a real organically grown apple in years, not since back when his mother had still been alive. She had... 'acquired a client' that owned an apple tree, and payed her in fresh grown food from their personal garden.
After the pink pony had emerged from dunking her head underwater, she had taken a deep breath to replenish her lungs with fresh air. The 'real life quirks' these simulations had were certainly amusing, as if a program actually needed to breath. For one to take such a deep breath after having had to hold it? These reactions were certainly scripted with deep care.
She had immediately frozen in place, one eyebrow twitching as her hair poofed back into place from the water that had permeated it. She fixed Parzival with a frantic look, quickly closing the distance so there was barely a fingers-breadth between them. She took in another deep breath, a titanic sniff through her nose. A hurt look crossed her face, and she slowly backed away. She was shaking her head, muttering to herself as she went.
"No, you can't... he can't be..."
As quickly as she had spoken, she was gone. An afterimage took her place, slowly fading in her absence.
"What did you do to Pinkie?" Twilight asked, concern masking her features as she took a place beside him.
"I didn't do anything!" Parzival protested, trying to gauge just what the heck had just happened.
"He ain't liein', Pinkie jes came up for air after applebobbing and took a big ol' huff," The cowboy hat wearing pony affirmed, nodding her head along to her speech, "Ain't seen her act like that near a new pony before, I can tell you that. You didn't do nothin' to her before... did you?" she continued, fixing Parzival with a mild but well meaning stink eye.
"Nope, never met her before today. Can't say I like the idea of the ladies running in terror from me from only getting a single whiff," Parzival had his avatar take a thematic sniff from under the crook of one of his forward -again, quadruped, how novel- armpits. "I mean, I just took a shower. Wouldn't think I'd start stinking so bad so quickly..."
This managed to grant him a sparse group of laughter from the ponies surrounding him. If the games NPCs were so easily amused by such substandard comedic talent, then might just make a killing. Art3miss might get a laugh at that. Someone else that actually thought he was the height of comedy.
"Well, nothin' we can do iffin' she's not here," Cowboy hat mused, shaking her head. "I'll go out and take a quick looksee. If I find her, I'll get to the bottom of whats botherin' her. Yall jes stay here, enjoy yourselves, k?"
She left shortly after, leaving him to wonder if her program instructions would even let her find her wayward friend. Seeing as he was the one she had directed her outburst towards, it was more likely a hidden quest line had come into effect. It more than likely would remain unresolved until he went out and tried to fix it himself, or until whatever arbitrary time limit it had expired. Probably would last the night, no reason he couldn't just enjoy himself for a bit, then go out to solve the girls problem. Get a bundle of friendship points.
Pffft.
Friendship points. Sad thing, now that he had dismissed that, that's probably what the server called the games version of EXP. It would just be his luck.
"Want some cake?" a mare with a pale red coat offered, holding out a plate with proffered foodstuff.
"Thank you!" Parzival belted out, taking the desert in one forward facing leg. Balancing back onto ones hindquarters wasn't exactly an easy action to translate out into tactile controls, but Parzival managed without making his avatar look like a flailing idiot. Eating the cake was slightly more difficult. It didn't give him an option to 'eat' it, simply acting similar to the popcorn he had taken out previously. The best way he could figure is that this game was supposed to be acted out in mime as much as possible, to make the player feel like they actually were there in the room with these other friendly looking individuals.
Parzival separated a bite of cake from the whole, and popped it into his mouth.
Wade thrashed in his vertical harness, hurriedly flicking at the interrupt switch on his helmet and hoping it would maybe pause the game in progress. He scrabbled at the front of his suit, gagging at something sweet that had somehow gotten in his mouth.
A hacking cough flung whatever it was to the floor beneath him.
"Lights!" Wade called out, tipping the visor on his helmet back so he could more easily see. The helmet was designed to let the user see the world around them even in game, which was why he had been playing with the lights dimmed. That way if his wife had come in to try to talk to him, he wouldn't have ended up ignoring her.
He stared at the soggy mouthful of food that had landed on the floor, eyes wide and not understanding.
It was cake.
More specifically, it was definitely the exact bite of cake he had taken a bite of, in the game.
Parzival gave a wracking cough, a low sound that tore its way out of his chest. Looking around, he noticed a large number of ponies had gathered around his avatar.
"Oh, sorry," he stated, giving an embarrassed sounding laugh. It was returned with confused looks. "Just something caught in my throat. "
"Are you okay?" a random stallion he hadn't gotten the name of asked. Judging by the mark of a fizzing bottle of soda on his flank, Parzival guessed he'd probably be called something like 'Soda Pop'. "You were just... standing there. Not moving, just creepily staring at the wall."
It seemed that his short sojourn in the real world had not gone unnoticed. A shame the interrupt switch hadn't paused the simulation, but at the very least it had stopped his motions from the real world being translated into the game. Lord only knows what they would have taken from from him spitting out a chunk of cake on the floor.
The cake.
How did the bite he took in the game get into his mouth in the real world? His door was still locked, logs stated that he hadn't been disturbed up to the point where he had left the game. It couldn't have been a form of teleportation, even though the technology was technically viable, the power requirements would tank half the country for a single cubic inch of matter. If anyone had actually managed to make it in the first place, which as far as he was aware no one had yet. no fully functional, anyway. Every once in a while you got some joker saying he had 'done it', but then it came to light they hadn't made it farther than the 'I disintegrated it' step.
So how?
Subliminal suggestions? Maybe he had simply thought the cake was in the real world... wait. That one could actually make sense. You only needed flashing lights to properly jumble a minds processes, and seeing as he had a game visor on, coupled with the fact he was playing an unaltered unedited presumably untested game that Halliday had been only intended for one person to be able to get their hands on, it could very well be that he had put triggers that would persist into real life.
Or trick him into thinking had gone along with him into real life. Had he even actually taken off his helmet earlier? The current trend his thoughts were taking started to make his head hurt. He must have still just been in the game, a simulated space derived from player logs and mental echoes.
Those thoughts behind him, Parzival quickly exited the teeming party. It wasn't that he didn't like the festive atmosphere, but the cool air on his skin felt nice. That and he remembered the issue of the pink tinged one, the one that cowboy hat had gone out to look for. Pazival didn't see the orange one anywhere nearby, but he did have an idea as to where to find the pink one. Maybe if he finished this quest quickly, he could add another pony to his friends list and still get to enjoy the party...
Anyway, he didn't have to be a world class tracker to notice the muffled sounds of crying. Coming from above him. Looking up, he surmised that she had suspected that the cowboy hat toting one would be the one to go out looking for her. So she chose a direction said friend wouldn't either wouldn't be able to go -probably not this one, seeing as she had made it up there somehow- or wouldn't think about going. Pretty smart.
For the setting of a library, a still living tree made for good landscaping. Wouldn't make any sense out in the real world, but he would have sold a lung to be able to live in a place this this instead of the stacks. Parzival was glad those days were far, far behind him.
The greaves bonus stats added plenty of lift to his vertical takeoff, making it so his departure from the ground and upwards was a rather smooth affair. Pretty soon he was clambering up limbs of the tree, swiftly making his way to the top of the canopy. He could have just flown up and landed right on top, but that might alert her to his presence before he got himself situated. The sounds of a distressed female grew ever louder, and Parzival almost stopped with the thought, "Do I really want to try to talk to an emotional girl? Even one just inside a game?"
There really wasn't any choice. Parzival had decided to be a hero, and heroes went and tried to soothe the hearts of distressed maidens. That's how it went. Regardless of how scary crying women were.
"Hello?" he stated upon reaching the top layer, mere feet away from the pink pony who had eloped from the party.
Her head whipped around, eyes stabbing him with an icy glare.
"No! Go away!" she called out, diving into the treetop like it was the deep end of a swimming pool.
Parzival carefully made his way forward, discovering that she hadn't so much swam through the treetop as it had looked like. The leaves remained relatively undisturbed where she had dived through, meaning...
"Teleportation?" Parzival breathed a shocked sigh of respect. So the supposedly magic-less earth ponies could do stunts of this magnitude? Cool. Maybe he'd go back and stick with with the base class if this was the kind of stuff they could eventually get... But as it was, he couldn't follow. Not normally, anyway...
Loki's Crown of Horns.
A simple tiara design of headgear, with two large horns reaching skyward. A bit unwieldy, but they had a very welcome effect. They either allowed their wearer to teleport via line of sight, or allowed them to follow along the teleport trail of another player. That way, even if you teleported into an area that normally didn't allow any players you didn't invite, they could very well come along and say 'screw you' to the rules as long as you had teleported in yourself.
So, situationally useful.
Prodding the area he suspected the pinkette to have 'jumped from' gave him a slight tension in the area pushing back at his hooves. It worked. With a feeling similar to slipping down a slide, Parzival slipped through to fall on the ground.
"What?! How did you... No, just stay away from me!" he heard before he gathered his bearings, just noticing the tip of the pink ponies' tail slipping into a swiftly closing hole in midair.
"Can't do that, madame," Parzival slurred briefly, shaking his head. A quick leap forward saw him through the next portal, just in time to see the ends of the ponys' pink legs disappearing into another one ahead. "What is this, a magical game of tag?" he joked, diving through the next one.
Right into the side of a wall. The portal had been opened right in front of a sturdy brick wall, only about two feet away from its rigid surface. She had played him good, but he wouldn't allow himself to be swayed when he had come so far.
"Wait!" he called out, trying to distract her. Her movements faltered slightly, her head turning back to shout out-
"Stop following me! Just stay away from me you big meanie!"
"No can do," Parzival muttered, quickly getting back to his feet and jumping through the portal left behind her. He had calculated correctly, only being a split second after her. He barreled into her back, sending them both into a boneless tumble on the dusty ground.
"Please... stop..." came the quiet whimper as the pink pony once more tried to make her escape.
"Wait!" he called out, physically huffing as the stamina bar was no doubt balancing dangerously near 'empty'. "C'mon, please! Just hold on a minute! Why wont you talk to me?!"
"Because I hate you!" the pink pony declared, whirling towards Parzival with tears in her eyes. "I hate you, I hate that you're here, I hate the very idea of you, I hate your presence, I hate that you... smell like him," at this she broke down fully into tears, hanging her head towards the ground.
"I don't understand," Parzival stated, wary confusion evident in his tone. No male was ever to truly know the wonder and mystique of the female mind, but he knew full well enough that when faced with a crying woman, you try to comfort her. Minimum words to avoid digging yourself a hole, just enough to let them know you are listening.
"Of course you don't," she sniffled, "Of course you don't..." she repeated, wiping at the still flowing tears from her eye with a foreleg. "Don't you get it? You smell like Holly. That means you're using his identity settings. That means... " she let loose with a body wracking shudder, shaking in place before continuing. "That means you won the contest he was always talking about. You found the egg."
She let out another sob, composing herself before she continued.
"If you found the egg... that only would have happened once he died. When his will was released."
Her head rose, fixing Parzival with teary red eyes. There was no anger there, only pure sadness laced with acceptance.
"The very fact that you're here, your very existence... means I'll never see my Holiday again."
