The cmc gets in to a video game and there is something dangerous in it.
No pony knows who or why they made a unique system, but it was going to be fun! It was a headwear that sends ponies into a virtual world. Many ponies brought the new game that came along with it, it is a rpg game and so every pony in Equestria got it. The cutie mark crusaders decide to get the game too, hoping they will get their cutie mark. However when they entered, something hacked into the game and calls itself,"THE VIRUS". It cause the nerve gear, the headgear system, to malfunction and traped in the game. The VIRUS gives the players a change to get out... Enter his sick tournament and have your team be the victor. Who will win the tournament? The VIRUS also mention if they died in the game, they died in real life.( this is inspired by the game sword art online)
The year was 2020 and the first new game came out for the new system called the Nerve Gear. A pony, who refused to be mentioned, made the device to introduce the ponies to gaming. However, ponies were still new to video games and didn't have much interest in them. That was when a pony decided to buy the game and try it out. When the pony played for about an hour, he told his friends that it was the best thing he ever played. Soon, ponies started buying the Nerve Gear and the new game. Almost every pony, mainly colts and fillies and a few adults, got the game and started to play it,There are only three ponies that didn't get the gam until today.
"I can't believe we got it!" said a orange pegasus filly excitedly.
"I know, it took a long time but we finally got it."Spoke a white unicorn filly.
"Come on, lets go home and get playing!"Said a yellow earth pony with enthusiasm.
"Remember, lets meet together as soon as possible so we can form a team," the orange filly told the other two.Soon the three fillies split up and head towards their homes.The yellow filly is an earth pony named Apple Bloom, she has yellow coat, a red mane and tail and finally wears a red bow in her mane.Apple bloom lives in an apple farm called Sweet Apple Acres.She ran on the dirt road and rushed through the house into her room.Due to the amount of bits the family earned in the grand galloping gala,she manage to get the Nerve Gear.She set it up and looked at it.The Nerve Gear was a headgear that looks like a black disc that covers half of the pony's head.She place the game disc into the helmet and put it on.Turns out there was a special surprise when every pony was in the game and the surprise started at 12:00. She looks at the clock and waited. 11:59, just two more minutes and she can log in.Five...four...Three...Two...One...
"Log in!"Apple Bloom yelled out and soon she was surrounded by a bright light.After a few seconds,she finds herself in a weird place that is nothing but white,apple bloom wonders if something happen until she heard a voice behind her.
"Hello player"Apple Bloom jumped a little when the voice came out of nowhere.When Apple Bloom turned around she only saw what seems to be a line, the line started to move a bit when the voice came back.
"Please state your name, player."The voiced asked with a monotone.
"Oh, well, my name's Apple Bloom"Apple Bloom told the voice her name and a circle appeared in front of her,it was made of white curved lines turning clockwise.After a few seconds,the circle disappears and the voice came back once more.
"Nice to meet you Apple Bloom,please stand still for a quick body scan."
"Um, why?"Apple Bloom asked the voice with a little worry.
"Do not worry,the bio scan will find the strengths and weaknesses in you.It will also determine the stats you will have and see what race you are."The voice told her,Apple Bloom let out a breath of relief and answered back to the voice.
"Alright , go ahead".Apple Bloom tried her hardest to stand still while the voice scanned her,in a minute the voice responded to Apple Bloom.
"Scan complete,Here are the stats I created to fit you."Soon a screen appeared in front of apple bloom showing the stats she has.It reads eight different things:heath points,magic points,strength,vitality,intelligence,mind,evasion and speed.The numbers next to them are in order of each stat:120/25/8/7/5/4/3/3.
"Are you happy with this?"The voice asked Apple Bloom.She took one last look at her stats and answered the voice question.
"Yes, I am happy with my stats."
"Then are you ready to enter the game?" The voice told Apple Bloom. Soon, a portal appeared next to Apple Bloom and she walked into the portal. The last thing she heard was the voice saying something to her.
"Welcome to equestria online, good luck.". Apple Bloom opened her eyes and found herself in a grassy plains.She looked around and notice what looks like ponyville.
"Apple Bloom you made it!"Apple Bloom heard someone called her name.She turned around and it was the two fillies from before.
"Hey Scootaloo,hey Sweetie Belle!"Apple Bloom waved back to her friends. Scootaloo is a orange pegasus with a purple mane,her wings were very little so she can't fly but she is fast on a scooter.Sweetie Belle is a white unicorn with a purple and pink mane that swirled like a yogurt.They had been best friends when they stood up with apple bloom at a party.All three of them are blank flanks,but they agreed to help each other find their cutie marks.They had formed a group called the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
"So, what do we do now?"Sweetie Belle asked her two friends. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom weren't really sure what to do. Then,Scootaloo came up with a idea.
"why don't we go to ponyville and and get some stuff?"
"Oh yeah, so how much bits do we have?"Sweetie belle asked.The three of them checked to see how much bits they have.
"I got 100 bits."Apple bloom replied.
"Same here"Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle said at the same time.Then they started their walk towards ponyville,soon more ponies started to show up.When the cmc made it to ponyville,they looked quite surprised.Everything looks exactly the same,except the weapon and armor shop.
"Lets go buy some weapons and armor girls."Apple Bloom told the her friends.They both nodded in agreement and walked towards the shop. Inside are a lot of weapons on the walls.Apple bloom notice a stallion at the cash resister and walked toward him.It was a gruff pony and it looks exactly like the pony that tried to cheat Fluttershy out of her bits for cherries.The pony noticed Apple Bloom coming towards him and asked her a question.
"Hi there, what do you want?"Apple Bloom thought for a bit and answered him back.
"I want a weapon and armor."The weapon pony than asked her what she wants exactly. Soon a screen appeared in front of her with a list of weapons and armor.Apple Bloom thought for a bit and decided to pick a short bronze sword,a bronze shield and a set of bronze armor.
"Okay, that will be 80 bits please." The sell pony told Apple Bloom, after another screen appeared with a question. Do you want to buy these? Yes or no?Apple Bloom picked yes and she had lost 80 bits and gained the things she bought.Apple Bloom thanked the pony and trotted away.
"I'm next!"Scootaloo yelled out loud and galloped towards the stand.
"What are you going to get sweetie belle?"Apple Bloom asked Sweetie Belle.Sweetie Belle shook her head as she was in deep thoughts and answered Apple Bloom's question. "I think I am going to buy leather robe, a spell book and a staff just in case."After sweetie belle was done talking, scootaloo finished buying her equipment. Scootaloo was wearing a green cloak, dual bronze daggers on both sides and a bow and arrow on her back.
"Your turn sweetie belle."Scootalo spoked.Sweetie bell then went and brought a blue robe, a spell book and a wooden staff.She then walked to the others.There was a small amount of silence between them until sweetie belle broke the silence.
"so now what?"
"Want to fight some monsters?"Scootaloo threw in,sweetie belle and Apple Bloom agreed.The cmc went out to the everfree forest to fight some monsters,not knowing the trouble they were in.
"TAKE THAT!",Apple bloom screamed out pushing her bronze blade into the timber wolf and it burst into data cubes. Apple bloom put her bronze sword back into her sheath. That was when starts appeared around apple bloom with the words LEVEL UP above her head. She now level 5; thanks to the team work of the cmc.
"That was awesome apple bloom!", Sweetie belle complimented apple bloom. Apple bloom had to agreed with her, she had taken on 3 timber wolfs at the same time. Apple bloom felt mighty proud of herself. Of course, Scootaloo had to break that moment of proudness.
"Yeah, well I could have done that.", Scootaloo said with a small hint of jealously.
"Are you jealous scootaloo?" Apple bloom asked Scootaloo in a joking tone.
"I am not jealous!" Scootaloo yelled at Apple Bloom question. Sweetie Belle decided to rub more salt on the wound.
"Sure you aren't.", Sweetie Belle said with a sarcastic tone.
"No I'm NOT!!!!!", Scootaloo screamed. Apple Bloom watch as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle started to argue with one another. It just go to show even best friends tend to fight the most. She then looked at her build in clock in her menu and it was-
"10:57!? It's way past my bed time!! Granny is sure to be mad when I get home." Apple Bloom yelled out loud realizing how much trouble she was in right now. Apple bloom saw Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo check their clocks as well. Their eyes shrunk.
"I should go home now, mom and dad must be worried why I didn't come home yet!" Sweetie Belle spoke looking worried how much worry she caused her parents.
"Yeah it is getting kind of late so I see you guys tomorrow, okay?" Scootaloo told the other two cmc. They agreed on this until sweetie Belle asked a shocking question.
"Uh guys, where is the log out button?"
"what do you mean, it should be on your menu. Look I'll show you." Scootaloo open her menu and had a shock look on her face.
"Hey, it was here a minute ago.", Scootaloo said sounding quite annoyed but, with a small hint of fear in her voice.
Apple bloom started to worry and check her menu too... Like Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle there was no log off button,"Where is it!?"The cmc look at each other with shocked looks and were freaking out.
"What the hay is going on!? Why is there no log out button!?" Scootaloo swore a little. She had tried her best to not look scared. Sweetie Belle however, was doing a poor job at that.
"Does this mean we can't go h-home?" Sweetie belle asked starting to cry. Apple Bloom was panicking a little but she pushed it aside, she have to get her friends to calm down.
"Listen, there is a good reason why the log out button is not there. Maybe there was a glitch and is already being fix as we speak" apple Bloom told scootaloo and Sweetie Belle with a reassuring voice. That was when they heard an announcement ringing through the whole world.
"ATTENTION, ALL PLAYERS REPORT TO THE TOWN HALL OF PONYVILLE FOR AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE. ATTENTION, ALL PLAYERS...", The voice kept on repeating for a few minutes and it soon stopped. Apple bloom smiled at this knowing for sure that it had something to do with the lack of the log out option. Apple bloom turned to her friends holding that smile and spoked to them.
"See girls, what did I tell you? They are trying to fix this and we just need to go to ponyville. Come on.", Scootaloo got up as well did Sweetie Belle had wiped off her tears from her eyes and put on a smile. The cmc walked out of the forest clearing where they fought the timber wolves and went towards ponyville. When they got there, there were already tons of ponies at the town hall. Apple bloom thought that they are here for the same reason the cmc are here. Apple bloom soon heard a voice she didn't suspect to be here.
"Hey, Apple Bloom!" Apple Bloom turned to the voice and saw it was coming from a purple dragon with green spikes and was wearing bronze armor and has a bronze lance on his back. Apple Bloom knew that dragon anywhere, it was Spike. Apple Bloom didn't knew that Spike had brought the game as well. She guesses that being a helper of a princess can allow him to buy a lot of things, including this game. When Spike caught up to them he began to talk with them.
"Hey guys, so you finally got the game, huh?" Spike asked jokingly, Apple Bloom was going to answer that until a voice interrupted her.
"Well if it isn't the cutie mark failures!" Apple bloom turned around and saw the pony who spoked and it was a pink colored filly wearing a diamond tiara, she has a cutie mark that shows of a diamond tiara. Diamond Tiara also happens to be the filly's name. Diamond Tiara was wearing a pink dress and had a rapier as her weapon.
"If I would have known they were going to be here, I would have never brought that game." Another pony walking away behind Diamond Tiara after saying that. That filly was Silver Spoon, she has a grey colored coat,a little light gray mane and wore glasses. Silver Spoon was also wearing bronze armor like Apple Bloom and had a bronze hammer on her back. These two fillies are bullies that took any chance to taunt the cmc about the fact they still don't have their cutie marks yet. Apple Bloom really did not want to see them at all today.
"What do you want Diamond Tiara?" Apple Bloom asked Diamond Tiara. Diamond Tiara just laugh at Apple Bloom question. Apple Bloom always hated everything about her, but her family taught her not to go as low as her. After she was done laughing, Diamond Tiara answered Apple Bloom's question.
"Every pony knows that there was suppose to be a special event going on and we are going to win it. Since you blank flanks are here, this will be easy." After Diamond Tiara said that, some pony responded to her answer.
"OH YEAH!? Well, we are going to win this, NOT you bunch of spoiled brats!" Apple Bloom turned around and notice it was Scootaloo that said that with a bit of anger in her voice. Apple Bloom turn her attention to Diamond Tiara and saw that she looked annoyed that Scootaloo said that to her. Diamond Tiara's annoyed face disappeared and she put on a smirk and retaliated to Scootaloo.
"Well than what makes you so sure you will win the event? I mean,look at you! A pegasus that can't even fly, a unicorn that can't even use magic right, an earth pony with little strength in the real world and a baby dragon that is not really scary. You guys have no chance to win, so you might as well just give up right now." Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon started to chant blank flank over and over again. Apple Bloom was starting to get annoyed at this and was going to say something to her, until a voice came out from the town hall.
"Now, now, everyone calm down." Every pony turned their attention to the voice. Apple Bloom and the others did the same. Apple Bloom wasn't sure what she was looking at. The creature is wearing a black tuxedo, black fancy pants, black shoes and has a black spiky mane. The strangest thing about the creature was it wasn't anything she never seen before. The creature was stand on it's two behind hooves and had claws on it's front hooves except the claws don't seem to be sharp and he is holding a black cane his his clawed hoof. Some pony in the crowd asked who and what it was.
"Who am I? Well, alright but we should started what I am, no? Well, I am what a certain species calls me a virus. Now you are probably wondering,'what in the world is a virus!?', well a virus, is a powerful strand of codes that can either destroy or even cause dangerous effects to digital programs. They are also not bound to any rules. Now then, to the reason you ponies are here. There is a reason why there is no log out button. That is because you are trapped here!" The virus raised up his clawed hooves to the sky saying that last sentence. Panic started to spread theough the crowd. Even Apple bloom was beginning to panic as well. She turn to see how Sweetie Belle, Spike and Scootaloo were taking it, they aren't taking it very well. Scootaloo had a look of shock after hearing that and was denying that she was trapped here. Sweetie Belle was taking it worse then Scootaloo, she was lying on the ground crying and calling out for rarity to help her. Apple Bloom then looked at Spike, he was looking at the ground with disbelief. Apple Bloom then looked at Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon and they didn't take it well. Silver Spoon was speechless, while Diamond was fuming with anger. After a few minutes, the Virus spoke up again.
"Calm down everyone! Sheesh, first you tell them they are trapped and they panic!? How pathetic and here I thought I was going to tell you the one way out of here." Every pony stopped and looked at the Virus when he said there was a way out.
"What is it!?" A pony yelled out the important question. The virus just stayed in silence for a little bit and began talking again.
"The way out is a tournament, in which a certain amount can enter and when the tournaments are over and someone defeats me, then all of you can go home." Every pony started to relax, but that ended quickly when the virus spoke again.
"However! There are a few changes and rules for the tournament and I will tell you the rules first. Rule number 1:Only a total of 64 teams can enter each tournament. Rule number 2: Each team must have two groups of threes that I will make after I am done telling the rules and changes. Rule number 3:The battle is only won when one team is down for good. Rule number 4:There will be a special boss at the end of each tournament when there is one team left in which both groups must fight together. Rule number 5: when a tournament is over , you must wait six months before a new tournament starts, there will be a total of seven tournaments in total. When all tournaments are won by anyone, you can all go home, but the winning team gets two things and that is they get to create their own country and become alicorns!" When the Virus was done, every pony gasped at the last thing he said. Apple Bloom remember that AppleJack telling her that it is almost impossible to become an alicorn, hearing that six ponies can become alicorns was shocking. Apple Bloom's friends were shocked as well, but not Diamond Tiara. Apple Bloom saw a smile creeping up on Diamond Tiara's face. The Virus continues to speak.
"Now that is out of the way, who wants to hear the changes?" The virus put his odd hoof to his ear and listen for a respond but only got silence, so he spoke once more.
"I'll take that as a yes. So, here are the changes, I looked into the programming and found out if you die, you will go back to the town you last visited and I find that boring and lame. So I tampered with it and made it so, if you die in the game, you die in real life!" After he said that Apple Bloom saw that every pony started to panic after hearing that. While the ponies were panicking, the virus spoke again.
"Yes, yes, you will die for for real but another way to die is if someone try to remove the Nerve Gear and by the looks of whats going on in the real world, a few of you will die now."
Apple Bloom wondered what he meant and noticed some ponies started to turn into cubes. Only a few of ponies turn into cubes and Apple Bloom knows what the cubes meant, the ponies are dead.
"Wow, only a few? I guess not everybody is so worried or even care about you guys yet, any ways I will be listing the teams. One more thing, don't even think about attacking me because I can easily wipe you from existence."
The virus started to list six ponies for the tournament. It had been an hour while he made the teams and soon he said the last six ponies for the team.
"And the last team is Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon and Spike! That are all the teams. Huh, only 500,000,000 ponies are in the game? I didn't know the game was going to be THAT popular! Any ways good bye for now. The first tournament will begin in a week." After saying that, the virus disappears. The ponies here were still very confuse and so is Apple Bloom. Apple bloom turn to check on her friends and saw they had the same expression, except Diamond Tiara and she looks very red with anger.
"Why in equestria do I have to work with a couple of blank flanks!? This is so unfair!" Diamond Tiara yelled to the sky, but Apple Bloom was thinking about something. If they fight other players, won't they be killing them? If that is true, then they will be no better than murderers. Apple Bloom lost her train of thought when she felt some pony holding her shoulder. She turn her head a little to see who is holding her and saw that it was Spike. He was holding on a smile while looking at Apple Bloom.
"Don't worry, we will find a way out of here." Spike tried to offer comfort to Apple Bloom, she look back at the ground and spoke only one thing to what Spike just said.