Game Over

by ThunderCracker

Rating: teen
Tags: Alternate Universe, Human, Romance, Comedy, Adventure
Length: 8670

Have you ever heard of game that didn't allow to respawn after you die? A game that threatens to kill you in real life? Cause' I friggin don't...

It's finally here. The thing that every single brony in the world has been anticipating for the past four years. The VEO, short for Virtual Equestria Online. A game where you can go to Equestria with all of your friends and fend off the evils that want to conquer Equestria. But a MAJOR anti-brony thinks that the creators of VEO have taken it too far, and has a devious plan up his sleeve… and my friends and I just happen to be the victims of this plot.

Additional characters include: King Sombra, Queen Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-04-05 02:14:32 UTC

(March 27, 2018) Our Adventure Starts Now

  I sat there at my table clutching my cup tightly. Everyone sat there in silence just thinking about the situation we're in right now. I mean seriously, who would've thought that we were going to be used as test subjects by being fooled that it was all just a game? Well, it doesn't seem like a game anymore, it just seems like real life all over again. Your die, you never come back, ever. And so far there have been 457 casualties. So everything's pretty much fucked unless someone finds the Elements of Harmony.

  That was the other thing that confused me. Anonymous said that he hid the Elements in different parts of Equestria. Yet Celestia said that she was going to call them... I guess he just sent the Jewelry pieces out instead of the actual Elements. Ah, thank god he was an anti-brony, so he didn't know what the actual Elements were. He probably did little research on the show before he put his plan into action, but what can I say? Not everyone's perfect, and Anonymous is clumsy by thinking that everything really was just a game when we have the actual population of Equestria looking for the Elements right now.

  I slouched back in my chair making it creak as I let out a heavy sigh. I glanced at Celestia, who didn't seem to be paying attention, she looked as if she was just staring off into space. I stood up and walked to her side.

"Something wrong?" I ask.

"No, I'm just worried that something wrong is soon going to happen." Celestia replied.

"Don't jinx it." I muttered.

  Celestia let out a light chuckle before walking off to her balcony, leaving me standing there alone. I smiled a bit, but it didn't last long. I looked around the huge lobby of the palace which all of the players took refuge in. I saw Michael with Mariesa holding hands as they walked about the halls of Canterlot. My heart sank a little bit at the sight. Back then before I acted the way I do now, I always happy and cheerful and didn't have such of stubborn attitude all the time. I remembered having a girlfriend who really cared for me and was always happy with me.

  But then... someone just had to run a red light.... and I'm pretty sure you can tell what happened... I was completely devastated and I felt like my happiness and perky attitude was stolen with my soul added to the mix. I felt like I had just lost the battle against life. And there was no rematch, but Michael, Jared, Ayden and Mariesa were there for me afterwards, always there to try to make me happy and cheer me up. But I was already too deep in my depression, it was almost scary.

  Then just at the last moment, I discovered bronies. I discovered My Little Pony and I found out that Jared, Michael, Ayden and Mariesa were bronies, and my hopes were brought up a bit. But that didn't stop me from forgetting what happened that day. And I just had to end up in this shithole. But hey, I'm in Equestria. It's just that, if everyone just gives up, then what? I might not be able to find another girl to love, or actually meet and love, so what the hell is the point?

  I didn't have time to worry about it, I still had a couple more questions to ask Celestia. I saw still on her balcony looking out to the stars as the moon shone brightly in the sky. I stood by her side, stargazing with her. I kinda forgot about asking her those questions for a few seconds before she took notice of me.

"Is there something you need?" She asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah." I said facing her. "I never asked, what was your reaction when everyone started showing up?" I asked.

"Well, I just thought it was normal because you humans had the technology and power to accomplish such a thing. But then after Anonymous showed up, and you uncovering those other alicorns, I realized that it everyone thought it was just a game and was being used." She replied.

"Ah. So you said that you were going to call the Elements, did you mean the Mane Six? Or the actual Elements of Harmony. Because I don't know if one of them is stuck in a room, or just both of them." I said.

"Well, surely the Mane Six would not succumb to Anonymous, they would do anything in their power to-"

"Celestia!" A familiar voice shouted.

  I looked past Celestia and saw them in all of their glory, The Mane Six. What I didn't expect was Rainbow Dash launching herself at me like a torpedo and crashing into me with a hard impact.

"Who are you and what do you want with the princess?!" Rainbow shouted in my face.

"Well, if you'd stop perforating my ear, maybe I'd tell you!" I shouted back.

"Rainbow Dash, please stand down." Celestia said calmly.

Rainbow Dash looked at Celestia, then glanced back to me.

"You're lucky punk." Rainbow growled in my ear.

  She trotted back to Celestia's side and glared at me. I have no idea what was wrong, but I had a feeling she really didn't like me. I sighed and stood up while dusting myself off. The rest of the Mane Six joined Celestia and Rainbow.

"Sorry about that," Twilight said, "Rainbow can be a bit-"

"Brash?" I cut her off.

"What was that?" Rainbow asked.

"I'm seven feet in front of you, how could you not hear me?" I asked.

"Hey, can you two just stop?" Twilight butted in.

"Well then. I guess I can. Only question is, can Rainbow?" I said with a smug smile on my face.

"You wanna keep talking ya little jerk?!" Rainbow screamed as she lunged towards me.

  I quickly summoned my scythe and hooked the blade around her and threw her to the side without harming her in anyway. She growled and continued lashing out at me. I kept blocking all of her attack and evading her lunges. I swear, I was having a boss fight right in front of everyone. I enjoyed it, because I honestly expected more out of Rainbow. But hey, I still don't understand how we have all of these skills, whats all that about? Oh well, I was more focused on just stepping two feet to the right and watching Rainbow fly past me.

  She jumped at me one last time before I spun my scythe around and jabbed her with the end of the handle, stopping the fight. Rainbow Dash groaned in defeat as I held her to the ground with a smile on my face.

"All right already, can you let me go now?" Rainbow asked.

"Sure can." I replied.

  I dropped my scythe and watched it disperse into pixels and fly into the cartridge in my back. Sighing, I backed up and fell into my chair. Although it was fun, it wore off quickly. I still had the whole, "stuck in Equestria" situation to handle.

"Cameron what're you-" Michael stopped and dropped his cup of water on the floor.

"God dammit Michael you're ruining Celestia's floor!" I exclaimed.

"Oh jeez, I'm sorry!" Michael shouted.

"I'm joking dude." I deadpanned.

"Oh." Michael sighed.

"But you still have to clean it up." I laughed.

  Michael grumbled and I laughed more. I stood up and walked away to get drink for myself. I always kept my eyes glue to the ground as if there I was on a never ending search for something that I lost. But the thing was, I didn't know what I lost in the first place.

Michael's Point of View.

  I dabbed the mop at the floor watching it instantly disappear and threw it to the side. I looked over to Celestia and the Mane Six and smiled. I walked towards them with a friendly greeting.

"Hi, I'm Michael, a friend of Cameron's." I said.

"Hello Michael. Hopefully you can be a bit less smartmouthed than Cameron." Rainbow muttered.

"Yeah, he can be like that sometimes. He's been so depressed ever since..." I stopped mid-sentence. I knew how much Cameron wanted to keep it a secret, and how much he hated it when I told other people about it because they would always go up to him and ask questions about it, because he always tried so hard to forget that moment Elizabeth died.

"Ever since what?" Celestia asked.

"N-nothing. He doesn't like talking about it, nor does he like me telling other people. But all I can say about it was that it was a terrible tragedy, and it's killed everything happy inside of Cameron." I replied.

"Well then let me throw him a party!" Pinkie shouted in the air.

"I don't think so, I think it would give a heart attack, the poor guy..." I muttered the last part.

  If he ever dies here, may god have his soul, and may he be reunited with Elizabeth. Otherwise, Hell and Earth is simply torture for him...

(April 1, 2018) Then I Met Her...

  I strolled around town taking a break from the game. It's good because, you're still in the game, but you're taking a break but you can still do the awesome things you can do in VEO or Equestria or whatever. Everyone in the group were lever 37's now, and we were finally getting adjusted to the game. I often see people going about their days as if they were IRL, but I knew they knew they weren't, because almost nothing in Equestria is the same. But, I can't blame them for being happy. They're in Equestria, a place they thought didn't exist, and now we're all here, but apparently as test subjects. Everyone thought it was a game, but now it's no longer a game, it's sorta apart of our lives now.

  Well, my life is still sorta miserable. I'm losing things to do, more people, sanity, all the good stuff I need in life. Until I went into a bar on the side of town in Ponyville. Everyone and everypony was having a great time, here. Talking, laughing, telling stories about their latest raid on a boss room. But then I saw her, sitting there with a small empty glass, cupped in her hands. She stared at the counter somberly as if someone just died, well, that's probably what happened. But I don't like to count on it, maybe she's like me; depressed, lonely, and likes staring off into space because it helps me clear my mind easily.

  She was quite- no- very beautiful in that fact, almost made me wanna die for her. She had pink hair with a pair of pink eyes. She had a few freckles on her cheeks (adding on the absolute adorableness of her) and she had a white barrette on the right side of her hair. I kinda inched over to her slowly. After a little, I finally made it to a seat and sat down quietly, and awkwardly. I saw her glance over at me before quickly look away.

"Uh, hey." I said.

"Um, hi." She replied.

"Is there something wrong or are you just, staring off into space?" I asked.

"HmM? Oh no, just, rough times." She replied.

"Yeah, tell me about it." I chuckled. "So uh, what do you major in?" I asked.

"Hmm?"

"I mean, what's your highest skill?" I asked.

"Oh, my highest skill is Blacksmithing." She replied.

"Really, do you have a shop?" I asked.

"Actually yes, I just set up shop last week." She answered.

"Hm. By the way, I never got your name." I chuckled.

"It's Lizbeth. You?" She asked.

"Cameron, nice to meet you Lizbeth." I replied.

Well that went surprisingly well...

I sat in her shop watching her create swords and shields and other things. I never took my eyes off her face. She made Blacksmithing seem so simple. But she did max out her Blacksmithing, so I can't complain. She's awesome, and is sorta just like me. We've both lost someone we've cared about in our lives, we're trying to get over some things and we just want to enjoy the game and life.

  Lizbeth sighed and put down her hammer on the anvil and looked at me with a smile. Jesus was it cute.

"So, what would you like? Sword, Shield, Scythe?" She asked.

"Actually I'd like the best Scythe and Sword you have." I replied.

"Well, metal prices are kinda high, but if you want the best, we gotta go get some Crystalites." Lizbeth replied.

"And where can we find that?" I asked.

"Oh, over by the Crystal Empire. Don't worry, they have caves that are out of King Sombra's reach." She winked before turning and grabbing her sword.

"Let's head out shall we?" She asked cheerfully with a giggle.

  God this woman's cuteness will be the death of me. A menu popped up in front of me and it read:

Lizbeth would like to create a Party.

Accept     Deny

Michael's Point of View.

  The group sat at a table eating out veggies (due to the diet that ponies are on), then we saw Cameron walking out of one of the shops with another girl. She looked cute, and they were heading towards the train station.

"Hey, should we go with them?" Mariesa asked.

"Nah, Cameron's gonna be fine." I replied.

  I hope that he finds happiness with this girl. Even if he did just meet her, at least he can have some feelings return to him. Plus he can go back to being himself. Be safe Cameron.

Cameron's Point of View.

  The train hissed loudly and Lizbeth and I leaned back a bit at the force of the train moving. Trees whizzed by quickly as I stared out the window. I saw many people on foot, and a few groups. Sighing, I looked back to Lizbeth, who's eyes were half open with a tired smile on her face.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"Oh nothing, just exhausted. I mean, blacksmithing is hard, and I only mastered it last week, which is when I set up shop. It took a lot outta me, so I think I'll just sleep for now." She slurred as she fell asleep.

  She was leaning towards me during her sentence and she slumped and leaned on top of me. My face reddened a bit, but I smiled lightly. I picked her head up and rested it on my lap and began... brushing my fingers through her hair. It was softer than silk and it smelled fresh, like roses. I felt very weird doing this. I mean we really did just meet, she's asleep, and I'm brushing her hair with my fingers. Seems odd right? Exactly, which I why I stopped and let her be.

  After a while, snow began to fall. And it got heavier every second. An hour later the train came to a screeching stop and I leaned forward a bit before being whip lashed backwards in my seat. I looked down at Lizbeth as she snoozed on my lap. I poked her head a few times and shook my knees.

"Oi, Lizbeth, wake up." I said.

  She woke up and shook her head. She turned to me and rubbed her eyes. I'm dying of cuteness and I haven't even gotten off the train yet.

  We left the train and looked up at the Crystal Empire. There was no more snow, and there was a force field around us protecting us from I guessed King Sombra. But somehow I doubted it because, the Mane Six had put him away again, but then again, Anonymous fucked up the world, so yeah, he might have possibly escaped.

  We made our way around the Empire and saw that there were many players around. I've been here only once before, but I didn't see this much players before. It took us a while to find the Crystalite Mines. Only problem was, there were monsters in it. Fun.

  As we began our descent into the dark hole, I began to see webs, and then those webs got bigger until they were abnormally large. Great, and arachnophobia was beginning to kick in. The elevator began to creak and rock back and forth before we came to a stop. Great, just fucking great. Gigantic fucking spiders plus arachnophobia equals me going head over heels to the elevator and fucking off.

"Well, here we are. Come on let's go!" Lizbeth said running off.

  I didn't move anything but my arm to grab her and pull her back to the elevator. She looked up at me and saw the expression on my face and sighed.

"You've got arachnophobia don't you?" She deadpanned.

I slowly nodded.

"Well don't be afraid, I've been here before, there are no spiders are anything down here. The soldiers of the Royal Guard cleared this out a few days ago. According to Princess Mi Amore Cadenza." Lizbeth muttered.

"Whoa wait, you met Princess Cadence?" I asked.

"Well yeah, she and Shining Armor were impressed with my blacksmith skills and wanted me to make a few weapons for them. So the guards cleared out the mines of all the creatures so I could forge them their weapons." Lizbeth replied.

  I hummed and looked forward. Darkness was taunting me, the only light source was the crystals, luckily they were everywhere, but the didn't really help too much. I took a step forward and then another before I was walking normally through mines.

  I stood there clutching my scythe tightly. My eyes darted everywhere in search of spiders, or anything with more than four legs. Lizbeth hummed as she stood up with an armful full of Crystalites.

"Alright, I got the Crystalites, now we can-" Lizbeth stopped and her mouth hung open.

"What?" I asked.

  She stood there with her mouth gaping, staring upwards slightly. I looked at her completely puzzled before I heard some chittering... right above me. I looked up to see a HUGE fucking spider nearly two inches away from my face. Saliva dripped out of it's mouth and onto my face. It's eyes just stared at me and it's fangs wiggled and squirmed.

"GET THE FUCK OUT!!!!!!" I screeched.

  Lizbeth and I sprinted through the mines while being chased by big ass spiders. I backpedaled as I fired my magic to at least keep em off of us for a while. We saw the elevator and picked up the pace. We skidded to a stop as a spider SEVEN TIMES LARGER THAN THE ONES CHASING US, rappelled down in front of us. A health bar grew and a name dialed over the health bar.

"You're shitting me..." I muttered.

  Aranae the Venomous Spider Queen. The queen chitted and charged at us.

"HOLY JESUS WHORES!!!" I shouted.

  We dived out of the way and Aranae crashed into her spiders, scattering them. Well, that handles that. But the colossal spider was still there. It began spitting acid at us. I cast a magical barrier around us to block the acid. Once the acid disappeared, I saw the spider charge at us once more. I clashed the barrier and drained my mana faster.

"Fucking hell, this bloody spider!" I shouted.

"Cameron! What're we gonna do?!" Lisbeth asked.

  I thought about it for a moment, but then shook away the thought. Even though I am a reaper, it'd scare the shit out of Lizbeth. But I didn't want to let anyone die. Not after her...

"Lizbeth, hide behind a crystal and hit the deck." I said.

"But-"

"NOW!" I growled.

  Lizbeth hesitated for a minute, but then turned and ran. She ran behind a few crystal and ducked down. But she kept her head hig enough to watch me. I sighed and dropped the barrier. I saw more spiders come behind Aranae and they all drooled at my sight. I grinned and got an evil look in my eye, I don't know what drove me to do this, but I think it was because of the skill. I... I have to use it. The spiders closed in on me and my grin grew wider.

"You should all..." the spiders reached out for me, "...run." The last part was deep and echoed.

  At that moment, black smoke exploded around me and the spiders recoiled and backed away slowly. I felt myself becoming more powerful yet corrupt. My scythe formed into two hooks that levitated into my hands. I grasped them and the suit grew around me and the hood fell over my head, completely shadowing my face. As the smoke cleared, I stood up and floated a few feet off the ground with my wings of smoke flared wide. The wings span was quite wide.

  Lizbeth gasped as the two spiders jumped at me. With the flick of my hooks, the spiders split in two, and their parts fell to the ground. I glared at Aranae who slowly backed away. I rushed forward unleashed a flurry of attacks and watched her health bar drop. This is what Death's Shadow does for you. Strength Buffs +20, 400 Health Regeneration per second, and I get to fly until the effects of Death's Shadow, wear off.

  Striking the final blow, Aranae screeched as she slowly burst into pixels and disappeared. At the exact moment, I fell out of my Shadow form. Some of the buffs remained, like temporary invincibility, and a menu popped up on my screen.

Congratulations! You've defeated, Aranae the Arachnid Queen.

Relic Unlocked,

Seraph Wings.

Cool, so what the fuck are they??? I thought.

  A tiny red spark formed in front of me just a few feet away, the spark frew a bit larger and tackled me into the air and held me there. This was the most painful thing I've ever felt in my life. The spark split in two and flew into my shoulder blades. It hurt like a bitch because it felt like something was growing inside of them.

  After a few seconds of agonizing pain, something spurted from my back, which hurt twice as more. I stood up slowly trying not to fall back to my knees. I looked at Lizbeth who was standing there with her hands near her gaping mouth. Was she afraid? No, she has a slight smile on her face. Why is she smiling?

"Cameron that's so awesome!!!" She shouted.

"Huh?"

"Dude! Those are so cool! Can you actually use them?!" Lizbeth asked running up to me.

"What the hell are you-"

"Oh my, god. You can use them! That's awesome! I wonder how they feel!" Lizbeth said giddily.

She reached for my back. "Hey the hell are yo-"

  She was right, the was something on my back. I turned and saw that I had huge black wings. THAT'S AWESOME! Lizbeth wouldn't stop touching them and rubbing them, which felt like ecstasy because my back hurt like shit.

"Awwwww," I sighed, "please continue doing that..."

  She gasped and smacked me upside the head. Welp, that's what I get for acting like a perv... not that I was trying, shut up. We headed back to the elevator and left the mine as fast as we could. The wings were pretty easy to use, I got the hang of them in a few minutes after we got outside.

  I landed next to Lizbeth and we both giggled. I loved these wings, these were going to be my new source of transportation. I looked at Lizbeth and smiled, then I noticed two ponies standing there.

It was Shining Armor and Cadence.

"Hey Lizbeth!" Shining waved.

"Hey!" Lizbeth giggled and grabbed my hand. My cheeks glew a light red tint.

"Hey guys, I want you to meet my friend, Cameron. he helped me get the Crystalites I needed to make him his weapons." Lizbeth said.

"Oh and by the way, you might wanna clear those mines again before he does, because he got his wings from the boss inside there." She said.

"Really? I guess we should, just in case anybody else wants to go in there." Shining muttered.

  Cadence and giggled and looked at me. I could already tell she knew how I felt about Lizbeth, cause she knows love like the back of her hoof. It's even scary just thinking about, but the more I think about the the bigger her smile got. I raised an eyebrow at her and her smile turned to a toothy grin.

Cadence cantered over to Lizbeth and leaned over to her ear.

"Ya know, he's weird, but he's a nice guy for you. He's a keeper." Cadence giggled.

Lizbeth gasped. "W-what?! N-no! It's not like that!" She shouted in embarrassment. Her face burned red as she avoided eye contact with me.

"Let's, just get home, do you have a waypoint around here?" I asked.

Turn around ya dummie." Shining chuckled.

  I turned to see a waypoint sitting there. I sighed and grabbed Lizbeth and unlocked and saved the waypoint before transporting ourselves to Ponyville.

Cadence and Shining looked at each other and shared a giggle.

  I sat in the smithing room with Lizbeth watching her effortlessly pound the Crystalites  with a hammer on the anvil. It flattened out and became a full grown scythe.

"Wow." Lizbeth gasped. "This... isn't even in the info broker yet. It's one of a kind Death's Scythe Legendary." She squeaked.

  I could tell it was Death's Scythe because it had the bones of the victims he's claimed. Which was badass.

"Now for the sword." I smiled.

  Lizbeth sighed, then pouted before putting another Crystalite on the anvil and hammered it.

Lizbeth's Point of View.

Wow, he's amazingly strong. He pulverized that Arachnid Queen without breaking a sweat. And what was that form he was in. I've never seen anything like it. Plus... he is kinda cute. Agh! What am I thinking?! All I'm gonna do is give him his weapons and see him off... though... the way he felt so protective of me. I don't anyone else would've done it. They would've just used me as bait and ran for the elevator. Plus, what Cadence said... "he's a nice guy... for me"?

  I shook my head and continued to hammer the Crystalite before it formed into a sword. I read the description to Cameron.

"The Dark Repulser, also not in the info broker's book. It's the best Legendary Sword I've made so far." I said proudly.

"Nice work Lizbeth, thanks." Cameron said.

"Please, just call me Liz. And your welcome." I said with a light blush on my face. It was obviously visible to Cameron. But, he shared the same blush.

  We both looked away from each other. Cameron held his hands behind his back and I crossed my legs and held my hands together while staring at the floor.

"Ya know Cameron," I began, "you're really not a bit kid. I mean, even though you may have a bit of a jerky attitude sometimes, you've always tried to keep everyone alive. You're the only person that I know who would do that." I found myself drifting slowly drifting towards him.

"A-and, I don't think that I'd ever get the chance to meet anyone like you again. So I wanna kinda save our time together, here, in the mines, with Cadence and Shining, I haven't felt this way in a while, nor have I said this to anyone but..."

  I blushed heavily and tears formed in my eyes and I glanced over to the picture of me and my friends. They began to drop to the floor and I reached for Cameron's hand.

"And I honestly think... that I've fallen in love with you." I finally managed to muster.

  I held Cameron's hand tightly, it was so warm, a warmth I haven't felt in a long time. Cameron took me by surprise and tugging lightly enough on my arm to pull our bodies together. Cameron wrapped his free arm around me and held my hand tightly as our faces, just barely inches away, slowly drifted towards each other. Our blushes and our breathing grew more intense the closer our faces became.

"Liz..." Cameron gasped, before leaned forward slightly...

And then our lips finally met.

  My eyes widened, then closed as I sighed. I felt Cameron's grip tighten around my hand as our fingers meshed together. His lips were soft, and warm, hell, everything about him was warm. I adjusted myself and sighed with happiness. Though I wish this moment would last forever, we both leaned away for air. We both gasped as we smiled and gazed into each others eyes.

  Tears poured from my eyes and I smiled. I rested my head on his chest and hugged him tightly. We both stood there hugging for was seemed to be like hours, but were only a few minutes. I really loved Cameron, even if he didn't do much for me, I still believe in what Cadence said. I tightened my hug and snuggled his chest.

(March 25, 2018) Day One

  I pedaled my bike home as fast as I could from GameStop with a black box the had big blocky letters that said VEO underneath my arm. I saw my house in sight and pulled into the driveway while stumbling over my bike. I burst through the door and ran past my brother and upstairs without saying a word. I shut my door behind me and pulled my phone out of my pocket to check with my friends. I turned on the screen and had six new text messages, letting me know that my friends were home and had he VEO way sooner than I did. Damn my mother not being able to pick me up after school. I tore into the box and pulled out the helmet. The cords tangled around the odd looking device. As I began rummaging through the box, looking through it's contents trying to locate the the hell the instructions were, buried under the plastic, and other useless and unnecessary papers, I heard my phone vibrating.

  I reached over and plucked it off my bed to answer it. It was my friend, Michael. I swiped the screen to the right and put the phone to my ear.

"Hey what's up?" I asked.

"Dude, where the hell are you? Everyone's waiting!" He exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah! I know, I'm trying to get this shit sorted out, I mean seriously did they really need to put all of this shit in here?" I asked.

"Dude, it's 2018..." Michael replied.

"Exactly!" I sighed.

"Well, just deal with it and hurry up for fuck sake!" He shouted as he hung up.

  Well that's, one way to say, "goodbye", or, "see ya there". With a sigh, filled with content, I tossed my phone back onto the bed. After half-an-hour, I finally read the instructions and hooked and plugged in the headset in. I picked up my phone and texted everybody that I was about to hop on. I rolled out my tiny office chair and sat down while strapping the headgear on. I pushed the power button on both the console and my TV and waited. I pulled the goggles over my eyes and was finally transported into the game.

  A tiny menu opened up in front of me, which said, "Loading", and had a magic orb spinning underneath it. Finally the menu was enlarged and it brought up the character customization screen. There were two choices, "Pony", or, "Human". I wanted to see what I looked like as a Pony so I tapped on the choice.

  I saw it slowly form from code, to a full figure. Before me I saw a pale white Earth Pony with a brown curly mane and brown eyes.

Meh. I thought. I like myself just the way I am, so I'm gonna go with a human. I pressed cancel, then the Human choice. After a few seconds I saw myself in front of me. A tall, nice looking guy with short dark brown curly hair and dark brown eyes. Another menu popped up and asked me which class I wanted to be.

  Well, let's see, there was the Scout, which had Dual Flesh-Cutting Blades and the Three-Dimensional-Maneuver Gear, easiest person to get around with and fast moving. Hmm... maybe. Then the was the Reaper, equipped with a Scythe and Dark Magic, one of the strongest classes and can gain HP by consuming the souls of recent kills. Useful. Then there was the Paladin, who was equipped with the Combat Cross, as well as  Light Magic, which allowed me to regain health just by shanking the shit out of someone, and Shadow Magic, which allowed me to deal thirty percent more than my average damage. Yet another power house, sweet. Then there's the Angel, able to use any one-handed weapon and shield, with Holy Magic. Good against undead. Finally, the Hunter, equipped with two one-handed crossbows for medium ranged combat, and one two-handed crossbow for long range dominance, also used for evading as much damage as possible.

  As I pondered at my choices, I chose the Reaper, since I'm all up into that whole soul eating and kicking-ass-with-a-scythe shit. Once it was finished loading, a menu popped up saying, "Please input name". I grinned a bit as I typed in, 'ThunderCracker".

  Yet another menu popped up which said, "Thank you, please enjoy your new VEO. Have a nice day!"

  After that everything was up and running, as I spawned in the world of Equestria. I sighed as I took a deep breath, getting a whiff of that fresh air and marveling at how accurate they made the environment. Some players were Ponies, which meant they were granted the power of flight, or got a superior magic boost as well as the power of levitation.

"Oi! Cameron!"

  I looked to my left to see my friends standing there. I ran over to them and greeted them. They didn't have any armor, they just had a plain T-Shirt with some jeans and shoes. What was funny to me was that they each had a unique symbol for their class. Like Michael, he chose the Angel, so he had a pair of Angel wings on the top right of his shirt.

  His girlfriend, Mariesa, chose the hunter, or huntress. Huh, always imagined her being a huntress, because (not only is she sexy) she's agile as fuck. She had crossed arrows on the top right of her shirt.

  Jared chose the Paladin, suits him well. 'Cause he can be a dick sometimes, but he's always trying to help other people out. He had the combat cross on his shirt.

Then there was Ayden, who had chosen the Scout. He was also agile, and he was always climbing everywhere, plus he's always wanted to know what it's like to fly. He had the Scouting Legion symbol on the back of his cape. Lucky bastard, the Scout's were the only one's to get one.

  Then there was me. I chose the Reaper, and I already told you why. I had (which was badass by the way) a Pentagram on my shirt.

"So, what're we gonna do first? Get weapons then go kill shit and questing?" I asked.

"Uh yeah, what he said, but follow me, because there was a 'Port to Town' quest which allowed us to teleport back to the nearest town whenever we wanted." Michael said.

"Right, where's the weapon shop?" Ayden asked.

"Look on your mini-map moron." I replied with a chuckle.

  We all walked towards a weapon stand which had an ordinary Pony NPC standing in it. Once we were close enough, a menu came up with the different categories, like, "Armor, weapons, consumables", and all that good stuff. I selected the weapons choice and a list of scythes came up. They started you off with Ten thousand gold, enough to buy a weapon and some armor. I bought myself an ordinary Steel Scythe and a leather chest-plate. Unfortunately everybody and their mother had the same idea and trying to preserve money for the future.

"Alright, let's go get some XP and go questing." Michael said.

"Agreed." Everyone said in unison.

  Suddenly, there was a loud voice that even Jesus would jizz his pants over.

"Hello brave warriors, and welcome to Equestria!" Celestia exclaimed.

  Everyone turned towards the solar Princess and cheered. Me and my group all bowed, being truly respectful to the awesome Princess standing before us.

"Oh, come on now, there's no need for that." Celestia giggled and as she came over to us.

  Everyone felt like they were going to drop dead at that moment. "Are you prepared for your quest?" Celestia asked.

The group, including me, nodded.

"Good." She smiled then looked over to me. "Ah, a Reaper, you know, you are the only one whose chosen that class. So I'd use it's power wisely." She said leaning towards me.

I swear to god, she was six inches away from my face, but she didn't seem to look too happy.

"I-is there something wrong wi-with being a reaper?" I stammered.

"No, but they are very powerful, and such power could turn you corrupt. So don't go to crazy with it alright?" She asked with a smile as she leaned away.

  I nodded, returning the smile as she flew away back to the castle. Question, is it weird that I have a tad bit of blood coming from my nose? Maybe that's while she smiled; at my embarrassment. Welp... Day One was fun, let's just see what happens next time...

(March 26, 2018) We Just Happened to be There...

  I panted heavily as I sprinted away from the Alpha Timberwolf that was on my ass. Michael and I had a great plan that- since we were only level nines- we were going to attack a pack of Timberwolves, which just happened to have a level twelve Alpha Timberwolf hidden behind the bushes and trees of the Everfree Forest. I constantly back-pedaled every five seconds after I recovered my mana and planted a few traps down, killing some Timberwolves and doing an average amount of damage to the Alpha. Although I did make a lot of progress with it, Ayden came out of nowhere. With the 3D Maneuver Gear on, he was practically a monkey. The groups split up into the forest after we complete the port-to-town quest and we were level nines with much better gear and loot as before, obviously.

  Ayden caught sight of the Alpha and he jumped on top of it with his epic Spinning Finisher skill. The flames in the Alpha's eyes went dead immediately as it hurled itself into the ground. Ayden tugged his blades out of the nape of the Alpha's neck and sheathed them. We were in a group, so we all gain three hundred experience. Ayden hopped down and walked to me.

"You okay? Your HP is kinda low." Ayden asked.

"Yep, I'm fine," I replied, even thought I had a few scrapes and cuts on my everywhere, "I think Michael went back to town, he was about to die, he might be in the tavern."

  Ayden and I ported to town and saw Michael at the nearest Tavern buying Health and Mana potions. I saw Jared at the Blacksmith getting himself a new combat cross. I looked at my Rare Jr. Reaper Scythe and thought, "I'm not switching weapons for a while". I saw Celestia strolling around greeting all the players. Even if it is 2018, I never thought an NPC could have such raw emotions. I shook off the though when Jared called me.

"What's up?" I asked.

"There's a new quest over at the tavern, the guy wants us to the goblin camp and retrieve the Golden Idol so he can get better weapons- including legendary weapons." he replied.

"Is that the reward or do we have to buy it?" I asked.

"The legendary you have to buy, but he'll give us a Relic for it, I don't know what relic it was but it seems worth it right?" He said.

I nodded, "Round everyone up, we're headin' out."

  We finally made it to the Goblin Camp and positioned ourselves outside the perimeter. Mariesa had her Rare Keen Eye crossbow hiding in one of the trees for support, so was Ayden. Jared, Michael and I were on the inside. We managed to sneak our way through the camp and into the lieutenant's tent. We saw the Golden Idol resting on the trophy stand. I quickly crept over to it and reached out to grab when I heard snoring. I stopped dead and glanced to my right to see the lieutenant, dozing off. I looked over to Michael and motioned for him to take care of the lieutenant.

  I grabbed the idol carefully as Michael went behind the lieutenant and stabbed him through the chair while keeping him quiet. Jared peeked through the tent flaps and saw a platoon pass by.

"Shit! Guys, get down!" He whispered as he hid behind a few crates.

  Michael and I hid behind the chair, dragging the lieutenant with us. One of the goblin soldiers walked in and looked around. I guess goblins are either blind, or fucking stupid because he didn't seem to notice the idol that was missing. He was about to leave the tent before he stopped. He sniffed the air and looked to where Michael and I was.

Fuck...

  It unsheathed it's sword and slowly came to our hiding spot. Just as we were about to be discovered, Jared came from behind and assassinated him. He dragged the goblin behind the crates and we poked our heads through the tent flaps.

  And apparently it wasn't the one goblin that had picked up the scent. The whole platoon of goblins were staring at us with their swords drawn and ready. I summoned my scythe and pushed through Michael and Jared with a spinning slash that took out the platoon, but alerted the rest of the camp.

"Haul ass!!!" I shouted.

  I knew that Mariesa and Ayden heard that because I saw them jump out of the trees and back to town. We ran through the forest dodging everything in our path. One of the goblins jumped on my back and drew his dagger to my neck. He released me when Mariesa put a wooden steak into his head. Damn that girl has some aim.

  After a while of running and fending off a shit-ton of goblins, we finally came to rest at town. The group panted heavily after the work out we just shared with the goblins. We saw the Blacksmith NPC with a green question mark over his head. We turned in the quest and looked at his wares. I've never seen so much good shit like this before.

  Okay, so here's how the loot works. White is easy to find, not very good, blue has magical items, yet easy to find, Yellows are rare, and have some good magical attributes, Legendary is brownish and hard to find, they are second best to Set Items; green items and some the best loot, these have the best magical properties.

  I saw a Legendary Soul Eater, and wanted it... BADLY. It was 50,000 Gold. I only had, 39,476 Gold. Oh well, I could just find a couple of quests and scrape up some gold and buy it. But the only problem was, there were no new missions in the area yet, and farming creatures for gold takes way to long. I thought Celestia might have some quests, and she just so happened to be in town today. I strolled on over to her and greeted her.

"Hello princess." I said.

"Hello, Thunder Cracker." She replied.

"Do you have anything that might need doing?" I asked.

"Well, now that you think of it, I actually do." Celestia answered.

"Wow, I never thought that an NPC could actually create a unique response." I sighed.

"What's an NPC?" Celestia asked.

I raised an eyebrow slightly at this question, "Well," I began, "an NPC is a person or thing in the game that is automatically controlled by a robot or computer, and some of the NPC's have a certain amount of dialogue." I explained.

"Well, I'm not an NPC." Celestia muttered.

Whoa wait... WHAT?

  Just at that moment, the skies went dark and darkness flooded everywhere around us. I instantly summoned my scythe and stood guard in front of the princess, even though I knew she could protect herself, she has gotten her ass kicked a lot more throughout the series of My Little Pony.

  After a few seconds, thunder struck the nearby forest and a large mist rose from the ground forming into a human being. The human cackled as he looked down upon us.

"Hello, players of VEO! This is you captor, Anonymous!" He boomed.

Captor? What the fucking hell? I thought.

"Okay, I'm gonna be straightforward with all of you. I'm basically trapping you all in the game, and taking it as my own. You bronies are ridiculous, with your plushies and watching that stupid little girl show. But I digress, I have scattered your precious Elements of Harmony across Equestria. And I have a little present for you waiting in each element's room. Any of you who try to log out, or have someone take of the VEO headset for you on the outside, will be killed by having your heads fried by it. Oh, and if you die in-game, you get your head fried too, so good luck to all of you! Kay-bye!" Anonymous cackled once more as the mist slowly cleared, but the skies stayed dark and cloudy, and I had a feeling they were going to be that way for a very long time.

"Holy shit, Cameron did you see that?!" Michael shouted to me from the tavern.

"Uh, yeah I think everyone playing VEO saw that shit Michael!" I replied.

I turned to Celestia and asked, "Might you have any explanation for this?"

"Not that I can think of at the moment Cameron, I'm just as confused as you are." She replied.

20 Minutes Later Inside the Local bar...

"Well shit, we're stuck inside a game with no escape unless we find the Elements of Harmony and kick that guy's ass... great." Ayden muttered.

"And this was all done by a fucking Anti-Brony too." I added.

"We must call the Elements." Celestia said, walking out of the bar.

"Hey, wait." I said.

Celestia looked at me, "Let us come with you. You needed something done, we'll be up to the task." I said with a loyal and confident smile plastered to my face.

"Please stay here, it's too dangerous." Celestia insisted.

"Please, your talking to the people who are on the Top Tens of seventeen different games, I think we'll be fine." I replied.

"But this isn't a game, it's your life." Celestia replied.

"But the things that we can do in the game we can't do in the game. Like magic, and our skills, yeah we can't really do any of that in real life." I sighed.

"Then how are you in Equestria?" Celestia asked.

  I was about to ask what she meant when someone burst through the bar doors. They walked over to the counter where everyone could see them.

"Attention users! We have just gained knowledge that the user: Anonymous has hacked into the game and trapped everyone in it. We are currently tracking him down so he will not show up again and change the rules again." One of the admins announced.

"Then why'd you come here?! You know that he said you can't leave once you're in!" One of the players shouted.

"Yes, I know this, but we came here to assist in your quest for the Elements of Harmony." The admin replied.

"Hey buddy," I began, "do you mind telling me what the fuck is going on, because this seems a bit fishy to me. NPC saying that they're not NPC and asking how us humans got to Equestria, and NPC having raw emotions. Doesn't anyone else find that just a tad bit strange?" I asked.

I crowd began to nod their heads and agree with my statement.

"Where in the fucking universe are we?" I asked coldly.

  The crowd's attention turned towards the three admins standing in front of us. Their eyes darted everywhere for an excuse, but they knew they were defeated. The lead admin sighed.

"The VEO was just a test, one of the scientists figured out how to transport between dimensions and the multiverese, be he didn't know how to do it without having one of our subjects disintegrate. So we created the VEO, a device that could safely transport a player to a certain area in the multiverse."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! So you just so happened to figure a way to travel between dimensions in just seconds, but to much of your precious subjects wouldn't stop dying, so you just thought 'Hey, if we make more these and set the location to Equestria, we could use the bronies as test subjects'. Is that seriously what you thought? What the fuck is wrong with you?" I scolded.

"We needed more test subjects for more research on the phenomenon." The admin replied. I could hear the intensity of his voice increasing.

"Yeah well, I'd say you pretty much got half of the fucking world as your test subjects jackass! And oh, look, they're all trapped and dying because of a fucking anti-brony, and guess what that means for you: you lose more test subject you morons! Including your own lives! Look at what you done!" I shouted.

"We didn't know that the anti-brony community would get involved with our research, we were going to cancel the production of VEO once we had enough research, but now Anonymous has hacked into the game and the mainframe, trapping us in here! Don't blame us for this!" The admin argued.

"WHY CAN'T I HUH?! YOU'RE THE DUMBASSES THAT MADE THE FUCKING THING! HOW COULD I NOT BE YOUR FAULT?!" I screamed.

The admin let out a frustrated grunt of defeat. His gaze fell to the floor and he turned to the admin to his left. I couldn't make out what they were saying but a few things.

"...are you serious? It can't be..."

"Of course I'm sure... he's been pissed ever since..."

"...it's impossible, how did he hack into the mainframe...?"

  They moved a bit further away and the conversation continued for about a few minutes. The three admins looked at each other then left the bar. Whatever they had planned, it had to be bad in one way or another. I turned to Celestia and the group with a heavy sigh before pulling up a chair and slumping down in it and burying my face in my hands with frustration. And we just happened to be in this hellhole.

I looked up at Celestia and asked, "Hey do you mind if we stay in Canterlot until this whole ordeal is over? Since we can't leave the game, we're gonna be here for a very long time."

Celestia smiled lightly and nodded. "Of course you may stay. And good job at figuring out what happened and revealing their secrets to the crowd. Now the public would have news of what happened and could probably send them to the moon for a while." She said calmly.

I chuckled slightly. "Yeah we can't do that, but he have something similar to that." I replied.

"What's that?" She asked.

"It's called hell..." I replied, "a place they really need to go."