Denizens of Equestria play the latest Hero Shooter.
A new competitive multiplayer game has just been released and every creature is excited to play it! Of course with any major multiplayer game, there is always drama, mishaps, and other shenanigans that are involved. How will the game and it's player base build up? Which characters will be popular and which will be scorned?
Please note: This fic contains several refrances to Fallout Equestria, Project horizons, Pink Eyes, and Murky number 7. As such, there are several minor and major spoilers for each. While reading them is not required to 100% understand the context of the fic, someone who has read them will likely get more enjoyment out of this story.
Equestria. Once a land of peace and harmony, was plunged into a bloody war for gemstones and coal. The war ended with a barrage of megaspells that turned the world into a wasteland of irradiation and death. But 200 years after the world was scorched, new battles were fought, and several creatures took part, both pony and non pony. Some of these warriors fought for righteousness and justice, others became infamous villains, destroying and pillaging for their own gain. Each of these individuals had their own unique talent and would play a key role in shaping the future of the equestrian wasteland and beyond….
The sound of hoof steps echoed throughout the large room. Several out of service robots littered the floor, and place that might have had mounted turrets, have been replaced by empty sockets with metal scrap and wires dangling from them. The pony who trotted through the halls above the wreckage, approached a door which lead to an office.
Inside, the pony spotted a wall safe that sparked her interest. Levitating out a bobby pin and a screw driver from her saddlebag, the pony went to work cracking open the lock. It was relatively easy for her to bust as she was an expert in the art of lock picking. With a click and slight screech of the rusted hinges, the pony opened the safe and saw what she had been looking for.
“Thanks for opening that up for us Stable Dweller. Now why don’t you hand over the Talisman?” The voice came from not somepony, but from somegriffon, and she was pointing a black pistol with red engravings right at unicorns skull.
“Listen. I've dealt with threats like yours before, and I am willing to compromise if….”
“Oh I don’t think so Stable dweller!” The griffon interrupted.
“I know about your little dealings with Gawd from the radio. If the wastelands most famous hero is rolling in the caps with the tallons, then I doubt that you are much of a hero at all.”
“Who are you? And what has Gawd done to piss you off?” the stable dweller asked.
“Turn around. Let us talk face to face.”
The stable dweller turned her head to face the griffon. She didn’t recognize her, as the blue feathers at the end of her head pointed it out.
“Henrietta. The griffon stated. I've been sent to recover the Talisman in the safe behind you. Judging from your aliegence to Gawd, I doubt we are working for the same employer.”
The stable dweller didn’t reply, instead she focused her magic to levitate a large box from the side of the room while Henrietta wasn’t looking, and used it to shove her to the side. The unicorn then drew her weapon, a .44 revolver with a scope on it, and fired it into a second doorway that she noticed a red glow coming from.
“Red Eye!” The unicorn mare shouted. “You sent this Griffon to take me down?”
“Not quite.” Replied a different voice.
This wasn’t Red Eye, as the tone did not match that of the slaver war lord. And out of the doorway came a black stallion with a red eye piece. Who was aiming a revolver of his own at the stable dweller.
“Well Little Pip, we meet at last.” The stallion said.
“What are you?! Red Eyes…. Assistant or something!?” little pip asked with anger building up in her.
“His.. Protege, to be more exact.” The stallion replied.
That answer was more than enough for Little pip to continue shooting rapidly.
“So not only do you work for that monster, you are his apprentice?!” the stable dweller shouted at the black pony who was taking cover.
“You have killed way more simply because you claim to have the moral high ground. I wouldn’t exactly call you the arbiter of what is and isn’t right.”
When Little Pip stopped to reload little Macintosh. Henrietta tackled her into another room, pulling the unicorn away from protege. The stallion activated a scanner in his eye piece, causing the world around him to turn a shade of crimson red. He saw Little Pip and Henrietta duking it out a nearby filing room. The griffon was evading filing cabinets and other things being thrown at her by the unicorns telekinesis while welding her akimbo black and white pistols.
Proteges visor flashed a warning that something was nearby, and directly above him. He looked up to see a Zebra up on the ceiling drop right on top of him. The unicorn struggled to throw the zebra from him, as she beat him down to the ground.
“Foul servant of Red Eye! You will meet your end!” bellowed the Zebra.
Protege focused his magic and threw the Zebra off of him. Only for her to lunge back at him and engage in hoof to hoof combat. The unicorn may have had the advantage of magic, but it wasn’t much of a defense against the Zebras superior melee fighting technique. Little pip and Henrietta came back in the room with the griffon turning her attention to the Zebra.
“Xenith! On your left!” Little Pip shouted.
Before the griffon could fire at the Zebra, she flipped over Protege and held him in a choke hold. The griffon responded by pinning down Little Pip, holding one pistol to her, and one to the Zebra. They were in a standoff.
“Give me a reason why I shouldn’t snap the neck of Red Eyes golden pony!” Xenith demanded at Henrietta.
“If you do, I’ll kill the wastelands biggest “Hero!” the griffon stated.
“Hold on. Where is the Talisman?” Protege asked looking at the safe.
Everycreature turned their attention to the safe, and noticed that it was empty. Throughout their fight, none of the four bothered to take the Talisman that they were after. After a few moments of silence, a clatter of cans and other clutter was heard nearby. Everycreature refocused their attention to where the sound was heard, and saw the missing Talisman, and holding it, was a small green stallion.
“Oh fudge….” He stated before darting for an open vent.
Henrietta was only able to fire one shot at him before he got away through the crawlspace. The two ponies, griffon, and Zebra all rushed towards the opening, but the green stallion had already gotten away.
The green pony exited the factory via the same air duct that he crawled through, being greeted by the open sky. Using a grapple hook, the stallion descended to the ground and landed on his hind legs. He had to move quickly however, as others were looking for him and his prize. *Clank!* An iron collar was closed shut around the ponies neck, and was hurled by a chain to another, much larger pony.
“Well well…. What have you got for me Number 7?” The large earth pony said as he yanked the Talisman from the smaller now shackled pony.
“Ma… Master please…. I was only…”
*Smack!*
Number 7 was quickly silenced by a slap across the face.
“You don’t speak unless instructed Number 7! Now… When we are done here… It’s back to…”
*Bang!*
Before the intimidating Earth pony was about to finish his sentence, he was struck by an anti machine round to the side of the head. The smaller pony filled with total shock as his captor fell to the floor. A Pegasus carrying a black and yellow rifle came to the young ponys aid, as well as a blue earth pony.
“Murky. You alright there?” The Pegasus asked.
“No… Not really….” The green pony replied.
The pony next to murky tinkered with the collar around his neck before it came off and fell to the ground.
“Thanks P21...” Murky stated.
“You’re welcome. I can’t believe he treats you like this… And I thought my upbringing was bad….” The blue stallion replied.
“We need to keep moving. Only a matter of time before more show…..”
“Ah..!”
Murky screamed and hid behind the brown Pegasus before he could finish his sentence. He quickly realized why. Around the corner a large metal cyborg pony slowly came from around the corner, with twin auto cannons equipped at his sides. With an angry glare, and glowing red eyes to boot. The blue Stallion drew a grenade launcher with the word, “Persuasion” engraved into its barrel.
“Calamity, you take Murky and go! I'll handle Deus!”
“That thing has a name!?” Murky asked in a panic.
“Right away!” Answered the Pegasus, who picked up murky and flew away because anyone could object.
Deus aimed his cannons at Calamity and prepared to fire, only to be stopped by a grenade round to the face. The impact of the explosion led to a buildup of rage in the cyberpony.
“CUUUUNNNNTTTT!!!!”
Deus let out a loud battlecry while charging at P21. The blue pony jumped out of the way, but in doing so, interrupting the reload of his weapon. Once his charge was finished, Dues took this opportunity to readjust his cannons to fire at P21. Only instead of the blue earth pony being in his line of fire, he saw a massive red stallion with large muscles, and black war tattoos.
WHAM! CLANG! THUD.
Dues was knocked to the floor when the red earth pony punched him across the face with great force.
“I recommend you watch your tongue. As impressed as I am with your strong cursing, it’s probably not best to use it as a war cry.” The pony stated.
“Why do you care!?” Deus asked. “You’re a raider war lord! Manners aren’t your specialty!” Deus retorted.
Behind the two, another explosion was heard. P21 had just fired at a hologram of a dark blue unicorn that was about to back stab the red earth pony. Only for another to appear behind him.
“Gottcha!” the unicorn stated before being kicked in the head by another unicorn, this one being white.
“So… You’re Barb? The gang leader that Brimstone told us about?” the white pony asked while pointing a shotgun at him.
“What?” Barb stated before laughing and turning to face the red stallion.
“You’re working with Security now? Wow… You must be really desperate to erase your raider heritage brimstone! As if one stable hobo wasn’t enough, now we have two of them!”
“At least Brimstone is trying to do better!” Security stated.
“Ah Fuck that!” Barb claimed before teleporting behind the white unicorn and swung a knife at her.
The security pony pulled out a sword to block Barbs strike, which locked the two into a duel of clashing blades.
Deus rose up, and broke out into a hoof to hoof brawl with Brimstone, with sounds of metal and flesh hitting in rapid succession. Although Brimstone was s strong Brawler, with very few being able to stand up to the warlod, Deuses augmentations and robotic enhancements put him on an even playing feild.
P21 readied his grenade launcher, waiting for the perfect opportunity to fire another round at either Barb, or Deus.
Murky clung to calamitys back as the two made their getaway. While they did get away from Deus, Heneritta had noticed the two flying away once she got out of the factory, and went after the two.
“Hold on Murky! We will lose her in the clouds!” Calamity shouted.
Murky had adrenaline rushing through his body as strong winds whizzed past him as well as the occasional bullet. The green pony felt both scared of being caught by the griffon, and ashamed that he couldn’t fly like calamity and therefore wasn't much help in their current predicament.
“Why does this keep happening to me!?!?” Murky screamed.
The constant barrage of clouds made it difficult for Henrietta to keep track of the two pegasi. Eventually, she had to stop and look around. A sea of clouds was all she saw with no sign of the two ponies anywhere.
“Alright! Where are you!” the griffon demanded. Almost on command, a large vehicle hovered right behind Henrietta with propellers alerting the griffon of its presence. As she spun around, a large mini-gun was pointed right at her, being operated by a grey Pegasus with a purple mane.
“Right here bird brain!”
The mini gun revved up and tore into Henrietta with a swarm of 5mm bullets. The griffon fell through the clouds without a hint of recovery. Behind the grey Pegasus stood the two getaways.
“You have the Talisman?” asked the mare.
“Right here glory.” Murky claimed as the prize was handed over to her.
Or at least it would have been, if a loud warning sound didn’t ring from the cockpit. “What in Tarturus is that!?” Glory shouted.
Coming out of the skies were a storm of large white shooting stars, and one of them was coming right at the vertibuck!
Down below, everypony stopped their fighting to see the asteroids, heading right at them. In just a few moments, the stars hit the ground, each detonating their own massive explosion that eradicated everything in their path.
"Hi Everypony! Or, Everycreature! Joystick here, and welcome to my review of Wasteland Warriors! The new FPS by Four Stars Studios! This game just came out a few days ago and it's already become one of my favorite games this generation!
Wasteland Warriors is a hero shooter set in the fallout Equestria universe, which is a semi popular series of books written by Various authors. They aren't as widely known as the Daring Doo books, but it still has a sizable fanbase. Currently there are 20 characters to choose from that are categorized into four different combat roles, similar to Overwatch. Those roles are offensive, defensive, tanks, and support characters, each having five characters.
Game play wise, each character plays differently with a unique load out and fighting style. Some characters such as Henrietta and Calamity can actually fly and reach higher areas much more quickly. Others like Chainlink is very slow and cannot sprint, however makes up for this with his chain weapon which he can use to pull enemies close to him, therefore breaking their concentration.
While you have your usual run of the mill game modes such as control points and capture the flag, Wasteland Warriors stands out from the rest by providing its own unique game modes that go well with the new scavenging system. Such as Arms Race, which has two teams competing to collect resources, and Settlement Assault, which involves one team defending a settlement from the other team.
Oh. I should probably mention the scavenge system. During rounds, there are numerous scrap piles and other clutter scattered throughout the map. Players can salvage these resources and bring them back to their base, which then allows them to purchase upgrades and other abilities for their team. Certain characters are better at salvaging than others since they can loot faster and collect more resources in a single run.
Collected resources can be used to upgrade characters, purchase items, and construct different structures. While the only character that can build things is Scotch Tape, they aren't the most expensive to place down, plus certain characters can upgrade various buildings, with Scotch being able to upgrade anything built. This allows for multiple players with several play styles to help out with base defenses.
By far the most fun part of the game for me are likely the special abilities that each character can use which can turn the tides of a match. I'm not going to go into details, but lets just say that they range from summoning boss like characters, to special power attacks, and huge character buffs. Almost every one of them is a reference to a specific moment from fallout Equestria, which fans are sure to love.
Overall, Wasteland Warriors stands out among the hero shooter sub genre due to it's ascetic and gameplay. Far to many hero shooters have come and gone due to how they always end up trend chasing whatever is popular such as Battleborn and Law breakers, and that trend doesn't seam to be slowing down.
I recommend picking up this gem if you haven't already. It's free to play so there is no real barrier to entry aside from owning a platform to play it on."
The launch of Wasteland warriors was a massive success. Although there wasn't much hype leading up to the game at launch, it still proved quite popular among gamers all over equestria. It started to gain popularity when a predominant twitch streamer, Doziboy, played it during one of his livestreams. Sure most of the players in the match were bots at times, but that was still much more preferable to a nearly empty map when the game was searching for players.
While most of the games player base lived in Equestria and it's surrounding countries, several humans from earth had built a cult following. Earth wasn't exactly a pony friendly place and most games developed by Equestrian studios often sold poorly. Not necessarily due to poor quality (several equestrian games would actually surpass most AAA games from earth in this regard) but because the average human gamer was discriminatory of ponies and considered their culture and lifestyles 'Cringy'.
That didn't stop the several human who did play wasteland warriors from enjoying the game however. In fact, most of these human players found wasteland warriors to be a much more enjoyable experience since it didn't try to force you to buy micro transactions every time you booted it up like almost every modern game from earth did.
"Ah Finally! It's ready!"
Grey clover had been waiting for steam to download his recently acquired copy of wasteland warriors. After playing a few rounds at a friends house, he said that he would pick up a copy so the two can play online. Once the game launched and the four stars logo appeared in a decent animation, he was greeted with the main menu screen. The background was of a large overlook of the equestrian wasteland. Although he couldn't tell where it was the menu was showing, he guessed it was between Manehattan, and Canterlot.
The options that were present on the side of the screen were Offline Skirmish, Online play, Stable, options, Credits, and exit. Clover selected online play and was bought to another screen. This one listed a series of playlists that ranged from specific gamemodes, to team sizes, to ones where specific rules were in place.
Each playlist also had a rather interesting image that popped up whenever the player highlighted it. The playlist for Balefire bomb showed Brimstone Blitz pushing a wagon holding a bomb while Velvet Remedy was streaming some sort of magic to him. Arms race had steelhooves and Morning Glory fighting over a large weapon that both of them had found, and Settlement assault had scotch tape building a barricade that calamity was shooting from behind.
Clover went with the Wasteland tour playlist, which showed Little Pip, Blackjack, and Puppysmiles charging forward into battle.
The screen then transitioned to a player log showing twelve slots, with his username Greystache53 right at the top. The other 11 had 'Searching for player' listed.
It didn't take long for the slots to fill up and for several other usernames to appear below his. Along with three maps and modes to appear in the middle of the screen.
The maps in question were Ponyville, a control point map, Bucklyn Cross, a settlement assault map, and Fun-farm, which was a bale-fire bomb map.
A short 15 second timer started with the words 'vote for the next map' above it. One vote for Bucklyn cross instantly came up.
"Guys vote for Bucklyn! I almost have the achievement for wasteland crusader Manehattan!" The player named 'kingsmeme59' spoke as a speaker icon appeared next to his gamertag.
Instead, several players had voted for ponyville, with one other selecting Bucklyn cross. Fun farm got no votes.
"No come on! I need a win on Bucklyn Cross!" The user spoke again.
The timer ran out, and Ponyville was the winning vote.
Kingsmeme let out a groan that was barley audible.
The screen changed to a loading screen with a backdrop of ponyville, a loading bar at the bottom right of the screen and a loading tip to the left of it. The tip read "As P21, you can rig one of your mines to an enemy by sneaking behind him. Be sure to get out fast though as he will be alerted before he explodes!"
The tip showed P21's character portrait to it's left.
After a few seconds, the game finished loading, and Clover was met with the character select screen. Clover moved his cursor over a couple of the character icons swiftly, each glowing for a swift second as they were highlighted. The last character to be highlighted was Velvet Remedy, the first support character to be listed.
Velvet was right in the center of the screen smiling brightly with her horn glowing and emitting small cross particles. Clover guessed that this was Wasteland warriors take on Team Fortress 2's Medic.
Some of the other character icons began to show Bright blue outlines around them, to indicate that a team mate has picked him or her already, Blackjack being the first to go.
"Oh of course Blackjack gets picked first!" One player uttered.
Not wanting to wait, Clover selected Velvet. He then spawned in what looked like a broken beaten down version of the Carousel boutique. Several dresses and other pieces of clothing that would have been on display were either missing from their mannequins, or torn apart. In front stood blackjack with the username 'Whiskiqueen' above her. The avatar then pulled out a brown bottle from nowhere with her magic, opened it, and chugged it's contents down.
Clover went over to get a good look at the bottle, and noticed that there was a label on it that read, "Wild Pegasus" It wasn't the most High resolution texture, but it was clear enough to read.
"Oh thank goodness! Someone picked Velvet."
Clover turned around and saw another player as a pony wearing heavy power armor. This one named 'nerzz0'
"Hello....?" Clover said.
"Hi." nerzz0 said before walking to what appeared to be a large gate door.
"Mission starts in 30 seconds" An announcer said.
Other player avatars began to spawn inside the room. A dark blue unicorn with a long black mane, a Griffon with a blue streak in some of her feathers, a white pony with red stripes and very pointy armor, were just a few of the avatars that were on screen, each giving a different name when clover looked at them.
"Mission starts in 10 seconds" claimed the announcer.
All the players went up to the gate, several wrecked buildings clearly visible beyond it.
5...
4...
3...
2...
1...
The gate opened and everyone ran out to the sound of a siren going off. Clover could see a control point with a Bright red light emitting from the center as well as a nearby screen that showed a red eye on a black background. On the top of the screen were five dots, the two on the left were blue, the two on the right red, and the middle one was a light grey. The red and blue dots were both crossed out with an X, indicating that they couldn't be captured yet.
Clover moved with two other players, one of which being nerzz0, who was slightly trailing behind him. The other was Whiskiqueen, who was sprinting past the two others. She made it to the neutral point in the center of the map first, only to encounter an enemy player who was a large tattooed earth pony that charged into her, grabbed her, and smashed her into the ground numerous times.
nerzz0 fired rockets into the other player, which caused him to back off. Unfortunately it was far to late for him to save Whiskiqueen.
"Typical Blackjack players...." nerzz0 said. "Always reckless and jumpy...:
"Why what's wrong with them?" Clover asked as the two moved to capture the point.
"They almost always seam to be the most naive..." nerzz0 responded. "Not just in how they play, but also how they act. They claim that blackjack is the best character in the whole series, even going as far as to claim she's part of the original story!"
Other enemy players began to approach. A purple alicorn with a minigun game into view. She fired at nerzz0, forcing him to fall back and halting his capture attempt.
Clover tried to fire his shotgun at the alicorn, but the range was too long for it to make contact.
"Did you read the original story?" Clover asked.
"Yes of course I did!" nerzz0 answered.
"It was the first book in the series that I read. Which is required to get a basic understanding of the universe. Far to many ponies end up reading project horizons first, probably cause blackjack is in it...."
"Oh don't get me started on that...." Another player on their team stated.
Behind them came another player, who was a grey unicorn who was levitating a rifle with stripes on it. Shooting at the players that were trying to take the control point. The character had 'Bananawarrior' above him.
"I've been seeing several artwork for Fallout Equestria where it's the main cast, only Xenith is swapped out with Blackjack..." He said.
"Really?" Clover asked. "Most of the artwork I see if of Little Pip. And..... Occasionally Blackjack...." He admitted.
"Hey at least you picked Velvet Remedy. She almost always never gets picked. Probably because she is primarily a healer." nerzz0 stated.
"AAAHHHH!!! FUCKING FUCKWAD!!!!" Another player screamed over the mic.
"That's the 9th something time I died to one of those pink mist ponies!!!"
Clover and the others had just secured the central point when they heard that rant.
"Must have melee killed a puppysmiles player." Bananawarrior guessed. "That's something you definately don't want to do. She leaves a pink cloud whenever she dies."
"Button! What did I just hear you say?" A woman shouted, slightly muffled, but was clear enough to be heard by the other players.
"You have just lost your gaming privileges for the rest of the day!" The woman stated.
"Mom! MOM! No...!"
"Screaming like that, especially such foul language will not be tolerated under this roof! Now get over my knee this instant!"
"Mom don't! Pleas don't...!"
Before the player could plead, their connection to the game was severed, and the voice stopped abruptly. The message 'Whiskiqueen has left the game' was shown to all the other players.
"Oh ho ho.... He's in trouble now.." nerzz0 chuckled. "Sounds like his flank is going to get real sore!"
"Maybe he will enjoy it when he gets older!" Another player stated.
Clover had just been killed by a sniper-shot while following nerzz0. Once he respawned back at the boutique, he noticed that the area surrounding the point right outside had changed, there were some walls, turrets, and other structures on the path to the rest of the map. There was also a small green earthpony player swinging a wrench at one of the turrets.
"Hey quick question. How many of you are humans?" Bananawarrior asked.
There was no response for 3 seconds.
"Eh.. it's fine. This game isn't well known among humans such as myself."
"I always thought that Humans were scared of us." Clover said. "Once I heard about how several humans screamed for several hours straight when they saw Celestia at one point."
"That's only half true." Bananawarrior stated. "First the only humans what do that are the old and ignorant boomers who forgot how to have fun. Second it wasn't Celestia they were scared of, it was of the statue that is located right in the middle of one of your villages. I think it was of three ponies if I recall...?"
"Oh! You mean the Legion of Doom?" nerrz0 asked. "Yeah that makes more sense."
"Ah.. Got it." replied Bananawarrior.
The match progressed as normal and clovers team had just advanced on the final point, which was located right outside of a ruined golden oak library. Several structures were built around it, which several players were firing from. One amber Pegasus was firing sniper shots from the highest tower.
"nerrzo you think you can knock those towers down?" Clover asked.
shortly after the question was asked, the largest tower was hit with an explosion and came crumbling down, forcing the Pegasus player to re position.
But instead of nerzz0, a different player showed up next to him. A blue earth pony with a grenade launcher, which just finished playing the reload animation.
"P21 is more effective at dealing with structures like those. While persuasion takes longer to fire, it does more damage and travels faster than steelhooves missile launcher."
Clover and the P21 player moved to the side to deal with the other towers, one of which had a laser turret that fired at a flying griffon. Another grenade launcher round was fired at the tower, bring it down along with the turret, unfortunately it was too late for the Griffon player who died before it went down.
Clover pumped healing magic into P21, both holding out until reinforcements arrived. Soon an alicorn showed up behind them, followed by a pink maned unicorn who threw an ammo box at the blue earth pony.
"Move up! This is the last point we need to capture to win!" The alicorn player stated.
The four players moved up to the capture point, and the alicron put up a bubble shield to protect the others from incoming fire. A large cyborg pony followed by a brown earth pony holding a chain came out at began hitting the barrier. The shield turned from purple, to blue, then quickly to yellow before breaking.
The brown earthpony threw his chain at the pink maned unicorn, pulling her off the point, and towards the brute. He then incapacitated her using a whip that he shortly pulled out.
Clovers team all tried their hardest to support the three characters on the point, but the two large ponys were making it difficult for them to hold their ground. The Alicorn was able to down the brown pony using her mini gun, but was quickly taken out by the cyber pony's duel cannons.
"Keep holding! I'm almost there!" nerzz0 shouted.
Another grenade round was fired at the cyberpony, but it wasn't enough to take him down. It kept firing, and took down P21, leaving Clover, who was playing Velvet Remedy, alone against a character that she had no chance of taking down single handily.
Clover switched to his shotgun in a desperate attempt to hold, but right before he thought he was lost, a large static explosion erupted next to the cyberpony, killing him instantly. Followed by a green Pegasus who run up to the point, finishing the capture.
The words, 'Victory' appeared in bright green on the screen, and bellow it, a box with the words 'Winning capture' in it along with pictures of the green Pegasus and velvet Remedy, followed by their usernames.
The screen then transitioned to one of a white pony with red stripes with the caption 'Play of the game' that was spoken by the announcer as the pony looked at the camera smirking while laid back.
A first person view of the character, along with triumphant music played, showing the character using what appeared to be a hoof held chainsword slashing at numerous foes. Near the End, the camera transitioned to third person, showing the pony covered in barbed wire making several slashing motions and animations in a rapid chain, killing multiple enemies in her path.
The screen then went to a list of every player in the session, with 16 on each team. Every player had an icon next to their name, usually it was the cutie mark of the character they were playing as. The background was that of the stable tec logo.
"Talk about a lucky save!" nerzz0 stated. "Good thing that Murky showed up."
"Wait. Isn't Murky one of the weaker characters?" Clover asked.
"He takes alot of skill to master, but you can really mess up the other team if you know what you are doing." That explosion was caused by one of his EMP mines, which he can to only place down, but also detonate on command to stun those around him. It's extra lethal against Deus and Turrets."
Several players were typing 'GG' in the text chat among other things.
"Hey let me add you." nerzz0 stated "That was a good game we played."
"Oh I'll add you as well." Stated Banana Warrior. "Not alot of people I know play this game."
"Sure thing. It will be nice to have others to play this game with." Clover claimed.
Clover accepted the friend requests and waited for the next round of voting to begin. He had a good feeling that he was going to enjoy playing this game some more, and try out the rest of the characters to see which one fitted his playstyle.
"Come on! Come on! I shouldn't be getting hit this much!" Kingsmeme stated as he flew over the battlefield.
An earthpony in power armor then set his sights on the player, and shot around 4 missiles at him. The player tried diving behind cover, but 3 out of the 4 missiles hit him, and he was out.
"Oh come on!" Kingsmeme stated as he threw his controller across the room.
The screen then notified him that his controller had just been disconnected.
"Don't tell me you broke the controller Gallus..." An orange dragon stated as she came into the room.
Gallus sighed and turned off the system. "I did Smolder... Sorry..."
"Ok Seriously!? That was the only way we could play this game properly! Now we will have to get another one! How do you think Silverstream will react?" Smolder exclaimed.
"Again, I'm sorry... Plus I don't think Silverstream wanted to play for a while anyway."
Gallus and Smolder both left the room and came into the living area of the dorm. In it a small changeling could be seen hooking up a device to the nearby TV.
"You two have no idea how hard it still is to get one of these...." The changeling said. "Should've been easier by now, but supply almost seams to be limited on purpose. Do any of these humans know that we have more important things to do than constantly refresh web pages?"
"So... That's why you were on the Computer more often than usual?" Gallus asked.
"Yep. I wouldn't have used it for that long if supply didn't vanish the same minute that it gets in..... And this was only for the Series X! I heard it's even worse if you are going for a PS5!"
A green earthpony just came in from another room with a plate of cupcakes.
"Hey is the setup done Ocellus?" The pony asked.
"Almost..." About to turn the console on now." Ocellus stated.
The changeling then turned on the console and the xbox logo was shown on screen followed by a message.
"Welcome to Xbox Series X. Before we get started, several Firmware updates need to be installed. Please wait..."
A large loading bar that started at 0% appeared beneath the message.
"Ugh..... Installation.... It's a waiting game now...."
"Hopefully it doesn't take too long." the earthpony said.
"Don't get your hopes up, these things almost always take forever...." Ocellus stated.
Soon, a yak and a hippogriff came in through the front door, noticing the loading screen.
"Just started installing?" The hippogriff asked.
"Yep..." Ocellus, Gallus, and Smoulder all said collectively.
"Well... It shouldn't take that long right?" The hippogriff asked.
"Don't bet on it. These things often take forever." Smolder stated.
"But... The school computers update rather quickly though. Shouldn't this be the same?" Said the hippogriff.
"This is a console. Two different things Silverstream..." Gallus claimed.
Ocellus went over and took a cupcake from the plate.
"So I take it that you got a copy of Wasteland warriors to play locally?" Gallus asked.
"Yep. I was worried that next gen consoles wouldn't support local multiplayer, but thankfully they do. For a while it felt like Nintendo was the only manufacturer that still cared. And yes, I was sure to get two controllers." Ocellus said.
"Good thing to, cause Gallus just broke the one we use for the PC!" Smolder stated.
Gallus gave smolder an angry stare.
"I said I was sorry...!" He complained.
"Ok... It would be alot more excusable if Yona was the one to break it but you..!?" Silverstream stated.
"Yona is right here you know..." The earth pony stated.
"Yak not offended. Yaks break Human junk all the time. Very fragile, easy to smash." Yona explained.
"So... While the system is setting up, did you want to talk about that PTSD reaction you had while playing a match? You didn't touch the game for a while even when the others were giving you a turn." Ocellus asked the Hippogriff.
"It's not about the game itself. It's more about..... Well......"
Silverstream felt rather nervous about stating her problem.
"You know that one pony with the chain...?" She asked the crowd.
"Chain link Shackles? What about him?" Smolder asked.
"Well... He's..... Kind of like the Storm King!" Silverstream exclaimed.
"I mean, he does have some similarities, heck he acts even worse if you think about it!" Ocellus stated.
"But, he isn't real...." Gallus said. "Plus I don't think anypony would do the things he does.... Well Maybe Sombra would, but he's dead."
"I know but..... I just freak out when I see him pull my character towards him!" The Hippogriff exclaimed.
"Sounds to me you would really like Murky though." The green earthpony stated. "He's the opposite of Chainlink. I can lend you a copy of the book he's the main character of."
"I don't think Silverstream should read Murky Number 7...." Ocellus interrupted. "Not only is chainlink the main villain in that story, but there are several parts that would send her into an emotional meltdown."
Silverstream's interest was captured however, as she did want to know more about this book that her earthpony friend mentioned despite Ocelluses warning.
"You know.... We should talk about something else. Like... Who's our favorite character to play as...."
"BRIMSTONE!" Shouted Yona before Smolder could finish her sentence.
"Brimstone is best pony at smashing things! Yona always main Brimstone! Always smash other players and their buildings!"
"Ok... Thank you Yona." Smolder said rather bluntly. "Any other creature care to say their favorites.
The room was silent for a couple of seconds before someone spoke up.
"Well.... I really like P21." Ocellus stated. "He's kind of cute. Oh! And so is protege!"
"So.... You just like those two cause they make for good shipping material?" Gallus asked.
"N... No! It's... not.... Just that..!" Ocellus stammered while she blushed. "I often find proteges spotting ability helpful in locating enemies. And P21's grenade launcher is much stronger and has a better impact than Steelhooves missile launcher!"
"Sure......" Gallus said mockingly.
"Why? Who is your favorite?" Silverstream asked.
"Henrietta. Mostly cause she's what I wish more griffons would be like. Confident and caring, rather than stubborn and greedy..." Gallus stated. "What about you Sandbar?"
The earthpony thought for a moment.
"I'm not sure.... I kind of like Blackjack, though I almost never get to play her unless character copying is enabled.... So I usually end up going with Little pip."
"Ugh.... Seriously....?" Smolder groaned. "Almost everypony I talk with goes on about how much they love blackjack! I thought you would like the Zebra character more to be honest."
"Oh no, Xenith is good, I'm just not that good with her, plus her personality isn't as fun as blackjacks." Sandbar replied.
"Well he did say little Pip as a second favorite." Silverstream stated.
"Now for my choice..... Morning Glory. Glimmerlight for a close second. I think it has to do with the energy weapons they use." The Hippogriff claimed.
Everycreature then turned her attention to Smolder, who was the only one who didn't state her favorite character yet. She pondered for a bit before giving her answer.
"Probably Steelhooves. I was pondering between him and Deus, but Steelhooves just feels like a more decent character." The dragon stated.
"Odd, I thought that you would like Deus more. I mean he hotheaded just like you!" Gallus taunted.
Smolder glared at the griffon who just smirked back.
"Says the griffon who broke the controller!"
"Don't break into a fight you two. I don't want you to break the console as it's still installing!" Ocellus claimed.
Upon hearing that, the two then looked at the screen to see how the instalation process was going. The bar had filled up a small amount, and the number changed.
To 5%....
"Ughh....! Is the dorms Wifi Really that bad...?!" Gallus asked.
"Actually no." Sandbar replied. "It's pretty fast, I was actually downloading some files earlier today, and it only took 7 seconds!"
"What files did sandbar download?" Yona asked.
"Just.... Research.." Sandbar stated.
Gallus had a good idea of what it was, but decided to not say anything.
"And how big were files?" Asked the Yak.
"About 4 to 5 Megabytes." The earthpony said. "How large is the install size for the console Ocellus?"
"15 Gigabytes.... And that's just the operating system. several games for this thing can take up to 50 or even 80 Gigabytes...."
Everycreature was baffled.
"That's absurd! Wasteland Warriors only takes about 24 Gigs! Plus the computer didn't take ages to download it!" Gallus exclaimed.
"Maybe it's cause human made games have alot more stuff to do...?" Silverstream guessed.
"I wish..." Sandbar said "I know this one pony from Manehattan who got Call of Duty cold war, and it only took him 6 hours to finish, and he wasn't even playing on the hardest difficulty."
"Well did he enjoy it?" Smolder asked.
"Nope. He said he felt ripped off. Though that might have to do with the fact that his system broke while he was playing zombies."
"Wait wait.... The game, BROKE, his console? Like not even from physical impact or anything it just decided to just..." Gallus made a mimic of an explosion sound.
"Well that's what he claimed happened. Don't know if it's actually true or not." Sandbar stated.
"Nah I believe it." Ocellus stated. "Something similar happened last year with the PS4 when Anthem came out."
Gallus just let out a burst of laughter. Which was shortly joined by Smolder and Silverstream.
"Games that are so bad that consoles just implode when they try to run them!? How is this even allowed...!? Or possible?" Silverstream claimed while catching her breath.
"From what I hear a lot of games from earth tend to launch broken, and gamers there just accept it. It's pretty frustrating if you think about it." Ocellus stated.
"So humans have to deal with broken games and bloated file sizes that take up half the hard drive.... You know. That sounds an awful lot like that story Applejack told us about the Flim flam ponies. Only difference is that their scheme was a total flop." Gallus stated.
"The sad part is, Flim and Flam could probably sell some garbage game to the humans, and nearly everyone there would eat it right up." Sandbar stated.
"Well actually..... It might not work out that way considering Flim and Flam are ponies. And you know... Humans and ponies..." Ocellus stated.
"Do humans and ponies have bad history?" Yona asked.
"They are usually very prideful greedy, and egotistical. Even by dragon standards." Smolder stated. "If they don't like ponies, then I don't even want to know how they will act towards dragons. Not to mention the rest of you."
Everycreature then looked at each other for a moment as they imagined an angry looking human looking down upon them. None of them were pleased by the image.
It had been a solid hour since the installation process began for the Series X. Every creature had gotten bored with waiting and they all went about to do their own activities. Gallus was the first to come into the living room after a short nap, and was greeted by the TV screen. The bar had just turned to 99% prompting him to shout out to the others.
"The system is almost ready!" He called out.
The others quickly came into the room and noticed the almost full loading bar.
"Finally! I was starting to think we would have to wait until tomorrow for this this thing to get ready!" Ocellus exclaimed.
Everyone looked at the screen to anticipate the final percentage to arrive.
One second passed.
Then two.
Then three.
A solid 10 seconds passed, and 99% was still present.
"Oh come on!" Sandbar exclaimed. "It's practically taunting us at this rate!"
"You tell me." Gallus stated. How long has it been?
"About an hour." Ocellus stated. "Doesn't even surprise me at this point."
"Do you think that maybe...."
"ONE HUNDRED!" Yona shouted as Gallus was about to ask something.
Surely enough, the screen read 100% and displayed Finalizing installation bellow it.
"About time!" Smolder stated. "Now can we play?"
"Let me put the disk in." Ocellus stated.
The changeling pulled out the case, which showed a pose of the character Little Pip on the front, and put in the disk. The dashboard then showcased a new prompt with the game title inside, as well as the stabletech logo.
Ocellus selected it and the screen went black.
A few seconds passed before a new prompt was shown.
"Welcome! It seams like this is your first time running Wasteland Warriors on this console. Would you like to install the game now?"
Ocellus selected the YES option.
"Please wait while the game installs."
A loading bar with a 0% was shown below the text.
"Again!? Come on!" Gallus exclaimed.
"Welp.... I'm going back to the Library...." Gallus stated.
"I'm coming with you..." Silverstream said.
Soon the other creatures, minus Ocellus, all followed the two out the door. Leaving the changeling by herself.
Ocellus let out a sigh.
"I hate install times...."
Footnote: Update 1.0.2 released. Crossplay.
Gone are the days of the petty console war limitations. Online play should be enjoyed by everycreature regardless of what hardware they use! Crossplay between Xbox Series X and PC has now been implemented.
The meeting room of the four stars head quarters was occupied by 6 ponies, each sitting at a large table. The pony at the end of the table was flashing lights, head of the marketing department for the studio. Behind him was a large line chart being shown by a projector.
"Thank you for showing up." Flashing lights stated. "As you all know, Wasteland Warriors has been selling really well in Equestria, and even in some of the neighboring lands as well."
Flashing lights then levitated a rod and pointed it at the line graph.
"This line way up here are the total sales in Equestria, following behind is the Zebra empire. Below those two are the other nations. The dragonlands and Yakyakistan are where the most are sold of those nations. However, there is one demographic that isn't on the list, and that's because we haven't been selling well there."
Flashing lights then changed the slide to show the same graph, only a new line had been added to it, which was far below the other lines. In fact, there was a huge gap between the new line, and the one that represented the Hippogriff population.
"This line represents the amount of sales we have on earth. As you can see, we have more players living near mount aries than on earth. Fortunately, I have called in a marketing expert that should help us in selling more copies to humans. He should be here right about now."
Almost on cue, a man wearing a business suit came inside the room, and took a seat near the front of the table.
"Greetings everyone. Thank you for having me in today. I'm Mitchel O'Brian."
Flashing lights returned to his seat and shook hands with O'Brian.
"Now I see that your game isn't selling very well on earth, and I noticed that there are a couple of things that you can do to improve it's appeal. First off, and I think that this is the best thing you can do, you need to establish a mascot."
All the ponies looked at each other in confusion.
"We already have a mascot." One of the ponies said. "Little Pip."
"No. No no...." O'Brian said. "I'm not talking about your main character. In fact most successful mascots aren't the main characters at all. In fact, let me show you some examples."
O'brain then took out a folder and opened it, revealing several printed pictures. Each picture had a particular character from a human made franchise on it. Examples included Baby Yoda from the Mandalorian, Tiny Groot from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Pikachu from Pokemon, and, to one ponies mild disgust, a minion from Despicable me.
"What do all these have to do with increasing sales?" One pony asked.
"If there is anything I have learned in marketing, it's that the average human will always fall for the small cutesy character. You don't even need to make a new one either! I've seen your material, and you already have perfect candidates!"
One pony raised an eyebrow. He had just looked at a picture of Olaf from Forzen, and was not impressed.
"And.... Who would that be, exactly?" He asked bluntly.
"Well I noticed you have this one green pony with the wings and rags. Has a similar color palette to Baby Yoda."
"Murky?" Another pony asked." You think we should make him our mascot?
"He has nearly all the physical characteristics that make him appealing to the average human consumer, he's small and would make great merch, plus he is green, green seams to be a very appealing color to humans." O'Brian said.
"Although he is a little bit dirty and anorexic, but I'm sure that's an easy fix for your department to implement."
All the ponies in the room just looked at O'brian with a puzzled expression.
"Now you are saying we need to change his appearance?" One pony said. "You are aware that the reason he is like that is cause he was a born slave who..."
"Whoa whoa. Stop right there." O'brian interrupted.
"Forget what I said earlier about making him a mascot. Having slavery won't go over very well with specific demographics back on earth, it's a pretty sensitive topic, especially in the US."
All the ponies just looked at each other even more confused.
"You make it sound like humans will have a problem with several of the games themes. And if we were to remove several of them just to appease the human market, it would no doubt upset a large portion of our existing fanbase."
"Oh no no. You don't need to remove the themes entirely." O'brian clarified. "It's just not a good idea to put it at the forefront, as it might turn off alot of buyers."
The rest of the table seamed alright with that suggestion.
"Now back on track with the mascot. I see you have another character who will fit the role without causing much controversy. Care to tell me more about the pink pony with the yellow hazmat suit?" O'brian asked.
"That would be Puppysmiles. She is a Canterlot ghoul child who embarks on a quest to find her mother after surviving a megaspell that leaves her home city....."
"Hold up." O'brian interrupted. "This is a child who goes on a quest by herself in a post apocalyptic world?"
One pony rolled his eyes.
"That would be correct." Another pony stated.
"It's.... Not really a good idea to have a character at such a young age go on by herself in such a dangerous world. I mean humans used to create stories like that back in the day, however these days we are much more sensitive to the idea of children without chaperones."
"How does any of this help us grow a market on earth." One pony asked. "It sounds like you are just giving us reasons why humans wouldn't like our game, plus you are talking as if they are really bitter and easily offended."
"Well.... You see...." O'brian stammered. "On paper you have alot of selling points to your game. However when it comes to the background to the characters that we previously discussed, it might be best to avoid using them in marketing material for now."
One pony looked down at a piece of promotional artwork that he had been making prior to the meeting. Which showcased all 20 playable characters lined up next to each other each doing their own poses. Despite what O'brian had just said, he was not going to adjust it for the sake of appeasing whatever overly offended humans he was referring to.
"Care to tell us what these, Selling points are?" Mentioned another pony.
"Alright then. I did hear that one of your characters is a lesbian, is that true?" O'brian asked.
"Several, actually." One pony answered. "LittlePip, the one on the front cover of the game happens to be one. We also have Blackjack and Glimmer light if they help."
"Ah perfect!" O'brian exclaimed. "Now you will want to be careful about how you present them. While several countries on earth are open to LGBT characters, others are not."
"Here we go again....." One pony muttered.
"Now when it comes to the countries that are Pro LGBT, the cover on the box is fine. In-fact, I would recommend going on Twitter to tweet about the sexuality of the characters you mentioned, particularly in June during pride month."
"But we don't have a twitter." One pony muttered.
"Ah now that's the first step. Social media is a great marketing tool. Just be sure not to tweet anything that might cause anyone to get offended though. Though if you do, you might have to come out with an apology, several in fact."
"Apologize multiple times? Are you telling us that we have to beg for forgiveness over and over again as to not lose customers?" One pony asked looking more annoyed than curious.
"Not completely, just enough so the message gets across." O'brian claimed.
"Also going back to the topic of LGBT characters, you will need to make several adjustments to your game in order for it to be properly sold in specific countries. In it's current state, Wasteland warriors will be just fine for the US, Canadian, and west European markets."
"Fucking Finally...." One pony muttered.
"However, other countries will not be OK with how the game is presented. Lets go over China for example, one of the biggest markets on earth currently. Lots of things will need to be changed in order for it to be sold there, particularly removing LGBT characters, all traces of skeletons, anything questioning government..."
"Stop... Just... Fucking... Stop...." Interrupted one pony.
"I get that you are trying to help us gain a larger playerbase, but all you have suggested is Change this, change that, don't have this in the game, make this more or less prominent. I was hoping you would be able to connect us with an advertising agency or something similar. But instead you seam to want us to change the core game just because a couple of humans are too damn judgmental."
"I hate to say this, but I kind of agree..." Another pony at the table claimed. "We have managed to get players in several places outside Equestria. Even the most reclusive places like the Dragonlands and YakYakistan have been open to us and we haven't had to change anything about our game. Yet you humans always seam to be the most racist, homophobic, and downright bigoted species we have ever met!"
The other ponies in the room readied themselves to hold back the one who had just shouted and slammed his hoof on the table. Of course he calmed down.
"O'brian, maybe your recommendations aren't fit for our company." The pony at the head of the table said. "I'm sure that the humans have different ways of doing business, but at this time we cannot take your advice. Thank you for coming in."
"You're welcome. Sorry things didn't work out. You are more than welcome to contact me anytime though."
O'brian pulled out contact cards and passed them to everypony at the table before he went out the door. The ponies took a brief look at the cards before they put them away most not having looked at them for more than 3 seconds.
"Well that was a bust. Now what? Clearly most humans want nothing to our game if O'brains advice is anything to go by."
Everypony looked at each other and began contemplating new ideas. Although some were considering just pulling the plug on expanding to human markets.
"Hold on a minute..." One mare said. "How many of you know about the game Amoung us?"
"You mean that game my son won't shut up about?" Another mare replied. "Yeah I know it. Mostly cause he sees those dumb spacemen in almost everything he sees."
"Ok.... Well anyway, that game came out in 2018, despite what most creatures claim. It wasn't until 2020 however when the game went mainstream. And I think I know why that is."
"Hello...! Everybody my name is Markiplier and..... I can't believe I am actually doing this.... Yep, you read the title of this video, no this is not an April fools joke. We are actually playing, Wasteland warriors... The pony developed hero shooter from four stars... Why you may ask? Well cause I was sponsored to play! You're probably all tired of seeing everyone endorse raid shadow legends for the 40th time, so here i am playing this... Maybe it will be good, maybe not, but either way I'm getting paid!"
Markiplier loaded up a playlist and immediately got into a match. He was presented with a loading screen with the maps name and look displayed.
"Chapel? Is this some sort of religious estate? Do ponies even have religion? I mean I have heard somethings about treating their ruler like a god but that just sounds like ancient world superstition."
The game loaded and the character select screen popped up.
"Oh boy I'm getting a real Overwatch vibe with this hero screen... Wait a minute...."
Markiplier moved his cursor over Deus.
"Yeesh.... So much edge in one character. It's almost like he is staring right into your soul about to pounce and bite your head off. Then you got this guy..."
The cursor was moved over barb.
"Oh god.... Is this Jeff the killer in pony form? I wonder how many people he has stabbed to death with that knife of his. Actually come to think of it he might be a cannibal. I mean that would make sense being a post apocalyptic world."
The mouse then moved over puppysmiles, who smiled at the camera happily.
"Pfftt..... He he.. Ok, so we go from this..."
Markiplier moved the mouse over Barb before going back to puppysmiles.
"To this. You go from one extreme to the other and it's like a night and day difference. One moment you have murder robot, the next you have cannibal pony, then.... cutesy pony in a hazmat suit. So many of these choices are just so out there you have to wonder what kind of ideas the developers were throwing around the design meetings."
Markiplier then looked over a few more characters, but most he didn't stay on for more than 3 seconds.
"I haven't even selected my character yet and already things are weird."
Eventually Deus was selected and Markiplier spawned in. His attention was drawn to a very high detailed poster on the wall.
"What is this? Some cyberpunk city... Hoofington Rises? The heck? Why is it all green and glowy? You're telling me ponies built this thing? It's like they took Mountain Dew and just spilled it all over the structure..."
Mark then followed a brown Pegasus with an anti material rifle outside where he was his with rain.
"Whoa this rain is pretty good I never knew that...."
His sentence was interrupted when we was killed by an EMP grenade that was thrown at him.
"Oh of course I stop to admire the detail and I get blown up."
After several minutes, Markiplier had a good idea of the general game flow and how it worked. He wasn't planning on taking the game very seriously before he started playing, however he found himself legitimately enjoying the game as it progressed.
"Thought that this was just going to be some cheap pony game but no, there is actually alot of substance here. OH! Flying ponies shooting lasers at me! Well say hello to duel cannons!"
Several moments in the session were caught for the video, and Markiplier got more than he had hoped for with his sponsorship deal.
"Alright I admit, I thought that this was just going to be some dumb gameplay shenanigans video and that was really only half true. This is legitimately one of the best hero shooters I have played in the genre hell maybe even surpassing Overwatch. Shoutout to Fourstars for hooking me up with this game. If you want to check it out there will be a link in the description below. Which I especially hope you do as this game has serious potential to grow. Like and Subscribe and I will see you in the next video!"
Footnote: Patch 1.0.3 released.
Deus can no longer be one shot killed by one of Puppysmiles EMP grenades if Dues has more than 75% health.
