Equestrian Saga Online

by JcfRaven

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Tragedy, Dark, Alternate Universe, Sad, Romance
Length: 6137

The year 2030 dawns upon the land of Equestria, the day of the launch of a much-anticipated game of recent Beta Conclusion, Equestrian Saga Online. With some suspicious activities occurring with it though, is there more to it than it appears?

In the year 2027, in the land of Equestria, after many moons of immense technological innovation, a new device was released to the commercial market. The device is known as the VPon-3, which allows for you to go into a sleep-esque state, and going “inside” a game, utilizing your brain functions to control yourself in-game, just like real life. For many moons, however, not much was done with it, until the year 2029, when the company “Starlit Eclipse” announced a project they had been working on, Equestrian Saga Online, set for a beta to be conducted soon after, for a release date of mid-term 2030. One of those testers is that of a teen unicorn by the name of Raven Star, an advocate for the Virtual Reality environment, and a dedicated student to the field of technology. After playing for the time leading up to the release date of June 30th, he’s ecstatic for the first true day of the game, the day where thousands upon thousands of players shall log on for the first time in the land of ESO.

However, despite all the excitement, a dark secret has recently been suspected, that may lead to a lot more than anypony could realize. What's going on? Is it simply paranoia? What is the fate of those logging into this game? All shall soon know..

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, and Sword Art Online, is owned by their respective owners, the only property of mine are my original ideas, characters, etc. present within the story.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-10-26 23:48:29 UTC

Into The Game

Tick, Tock

Tick, Tock

“Just a little while longer,” A single lone unicorn states, spinning in his computer chair. He’s been waiting on the reopening of Equestrian Saga Online, a game of much prominence during Beta Testing, that garnered a lot of attention throughout the year time-frame. To prepare for the major load on the servers, and tie up loose ends, the Beta was officially closed a few days prior. Hoofsteps approach the door to his room, the unmistakable sounds of his father. After 3 knocks of rapid succession, as-per the norm, he opens the door, looking at Raven.

“Good evening, Dad,” Raven says, stretching and yawning.

“Hey son, listen, don’t use that thing too long, we need you back by 9:00PM for dinner,” His Dad explains, referring to himself and his engaged partner.

“Yes sir, I’ll try to keep an eye on it. If I’m not back by then, just keep it out for me, and I’ll eat it once I’m done,” Raven replies, to a nodding of his father’s head.

“That’s fine, but be sure to eat sometime tonight. I love you, I’ll be back after I go do some work,” He says, going over to Raven, and him wrapping his father in an embrace.

“I love you too,” Raven states, before his father leaves the room, and he spins his chair back to his computer screen, looking at the time once more. The time says 17:50, which translates to 5:50PM, ten minutes until the launch. He gets a message notification from EQChat, from one of his old friends, who graduated a year prior, and did a lot of computer-related stuff. A quick conversation ensued between them:

-Chat Window Opens-

17:50- JayGrove: Hey man, you got a minute?

17:50- RavStar: Of course, what’s up? Haven’t talked to you in a bit.

17:51- JayGrove: You were one of the ESO Beta Testers, right?

17:51- RavStar: Yes, I was, why?

17:53- RavStar: Jay?

17:54- JayGrove: Me and some fellows grouped together about halfway through the Beta to try to investigate a little bit, because we were becoming suspicious of a few things we heard were occurring. They appear to be modifying the Default SDK from the VPon-3, making a custom variation they’ve codenamed the “Full-Immersion Script”. We don’t have the details of what exactly it is, but we’re a bit concerned by the title and the nature of it. As a friend, I want to recommend you not load up ESO during the launch, but it’s up to you.

17:55- JayGrove: Crap! I have to go, please don’t load up that game!

-He goes offline-

Staring at the screen for a moment to see if he would come back online, he eventually assumes he won’t be speaking to him anymore tonight. Before he turns off the computer, he messages one of his fellows from the Beta Test, a relatively long-time friend of his, saying to meet him in the PegaSky Inn, and that they would go from there. By this time, the clock was at 17:58, so he shutdown his computer operations, got himself comfortable in his bed, sipped some cold water, and put the helmet on. As he looks to the top-left for the time, printed as 17:59, he can only hear two things in his head:

Tick, Tock

So slow, yet sounding off to one of the greatest moments of gaming history, since the dawn of the home console.

Tick, Tock

Just a little longer, and inwards he and thousands others would go.

Tick, Tock

What about that warning.. He thinks to himself, reflecting on how quick the conversation went, but what he was told.

Tick, Tock

-18:00-

Sighing, Raven shouts the fateful words: “Link, Start!”

Multiple colors flash before the vision of Raven as he’s immersed into the world, a feeling of relative similarity to him, the menus the same as well, as he travels through the logging in process, selecting to retain the information utilized during the Beta. Despite the fact it was mostly the same, something made his fur stand on end, but he decided to ignore it, as he saw once more, the land of ESO.

“Greetings, to Equestrian Saga Online!” The recorded voice of the Project Lead “Starlit Shadows”

“As you’re all aware, this is the launch day of this wonderful world! I hope you all enjoy your time here, and we hope you have fun for a very long time!” She continues, ominously, before the welcoming is over, and the players are released into the world. Looking around, he smiles, looking at the giant castle of which he first step foot into one year prior. It’s fairly big, but the interiors are locked, all except the main square and the four paths which extend from the sides of said square. Deciding to reflect more upon it later, he begins to trot towards the direction of the PegaSky Inn. Upon reaching the end of one of the pathways, he breathes in the warm air, as he looks downwards towards the Town of Wanderers, the beginning area for all players, new and old, reflecting a more medieval style, with modern twists here and there. From the top of the hill, Raven spots his destination, a two-story inn with a sign saying “PegaSky Inn”, with a wing in a circle on the bottom-middle of it.

He begins trotting down the path, into the town, looking at all the other ponies, not recognizing any from the Beta. Some looked scared, but he ignored it, thinking that it was simply intimidation from the giant world they’re now in.

He eventually finds himself at the entrance to the Inn, and trots inside, signalling the bell chime. The mare working there, one of the other beta testers, smiled at Raven, recognizing him from the many time he and his friend both came in to rest, talk, or eat.

“Welcome Raven, happy to be back in the game?” She inquires, smiling at him.

“Indeed I am, Lily,” He responds, smiling back.

“That’s good. I heard some paranoid conspiracy theorists talk about some ‘suspicious modifications’ to the game, do you know anything about that?” She asks him.

“I actually have a friend who joined together with some fellows halfway through the Beta of ESO, due to some things they heard were occurring. They’ve been investigating it since, not finding anything of true note, until reportedly near the time of the launch today. It appears they made modifications to the Default SDK of the VPon-3, making a new script codenamed the ‘Full-Immersion Script’. I highly doubt it’s anything to worry about, but that’s what I was informed of,” He explains.

“Full-Immersion? Odd title, aren’t we already fully immersed?” She states.

“Indeed, perhaps they just wanted to change the title to reflect as such?” He suggests.

“Maybe. In any case, your friend came by and told me to tell you he had something come up, and that he’ll be here in a few,” She says.

“Did he say what?” He inquires.

“He appeared to not have the time, something urgent though, I assume,” She responds, as another customer comes in.

“Talk to you later Lily,” Raven states, smiling once more at her.

“You too,” She replies, as Raven trots over to one of the set-up tables.

Upon sitting down, Raven activates the holographic menu, and starts compiling a message to his friend:

<-------------------->

Hey Crimson,

I heard something urgent is going on, why didn’t you message me? Are you in need of any help?

-Raven

<-------------------->

Quickly after, a notification pops up for a message from Crimson:

<-------------------->

Sorry, in a rush.

Go to Starlit Field.

See you there.

-Crimson

<-------------------->

After receiving that message, Raven gets up and gallops out the door, not hearing the sobbing of Lily behind him. Checking his map as he goes, he hones in on the location of Crimson, and activates a waypoint to the general area. As he’s galloping, however, he ends up galloping into somepony on the same path, causing them both to roll for a moment, before Raven ends up on top of the pony. Noticing as such, he quickly gets off.

“I apologize, are you alright?” He asks, taking note of her looks, a green mane, white coat, and a cutie mark of bells, with holly surrounding it.

“I’m..fine,” The mare replies.

“Are you sure? I galloped into you kind of hard,” He states.

“Yes, I’m sure. You aren’t the first that’s done similar, I’ve dealt with worse,” She explains, giggling. “My name is Holly Bells, how about you?” She continues in inquisition.

“I’m Raven Star, a pleasure to meet you, my dear,” He says formally, a slight bow to accompany it. This makes her laugh more.

“You’re way too formal,” She states, shaking her head and smiling.

“Heh, it’s in my nature,” He replies sheepishly.

“In any case, want to friend me? I’d love to talk to you more later,” She asks, smiling, sending a request Raven’s way.

“Sure,” Raven replies, accepting the request. “Also, I hate to cut this conversation short, but a friend of mine is waiting for me at Starlit Field, so I need to hurry,” He continues.

“That’s fine, go meet your friend, we’ll see eachother again,” She responds, trotting away.

“See you later Holly!” He exclaims, before galloping once more towards his location, looking around at the ponies and shops alike, seeing new user-created stores popping up, alongside seeing some poor chaps being scammed into getting worse equipment for their EQBucks(the currency of the land). Seeing the boundary of the safe-zone in sight, Raven pulls out an unmodified/default version of the sword he had during the Beta. Once he leaves the safezone, he follows a sign dictating the direction of Starlit Field, and sends a swift message to Crimson:

<-------------------->

Hey,

About to be there, where will you be?

-Raven

<-------------------->

Which is met with the response:

<-------------------->

You’ll see me, I’ll be near the path.

-Crimson

<-------------------->

Wondering what could possibly have been so urgent and importance, he increases his speed slightly, and soon arrives at the field, noticing Crimson standing over an unknown pony on the ground.

“Crimson, what the hell?!” He shouts.

“Relax, Raven! This is another friend of mine, he was attacked by some mini-boss, but managed to get away before being killed. He’s weak, but stable, and I need help to ensure that he doesn’t die along the way back to the Town of Wanderers, alright?” Crimson snaps back.

“Why does it matter anyway? All he’d do is respawn,” Raven stated.

“So I should let him get penalized for no reason?” Crimson shoots back.

“Point taken. Still, if you wanted to go, you still could’ve, without having me come all the way. You know this route as much as I do,” Raven replies.

“Even so, there’s been some differences from the Beta that I’ve noticed, I didn’t want to take a chance. Sorry if I concerned you though,” Crimson says.

“Nah, I shouldn’t have been as insensitive and snappy to begin with,” Raven states. “Anywho, let’s get your fellow back to the main town, before we can’t see around the path,” He continues, referencing the setting sun.

“You’re right. Come on, Comet, we need to start moving,” Crimson gently says to his friend, helping him up. For the first time since Raven arrived, he looked at the health bar of Comet, and noticed it was in red, a tiny sliver remaining, the writing showing ‘Health: 5/300’. This took Raven aback, and made him wonder what he encountered, as he didn’t remember it.

“Ug...alr..ight..” Comet weakly said, as he was being supported by Crimson.

“I thought the pain receptors were limited to where one wouldn’t become like this,” Raven said, confused.

“Same here, perhaps they modified it to be more realistic. Wouldn’t be too surprising, honestly. Wouldn’t be as immersive if it wasn’t like that,” Crimson replied.

“True,” Raven conceded, before silence enveloped the two of them. After a minute or so of walking down the lightly-rocky path, he gets a message from Lily:

<-------------------->

Raven,

Something is going on, something very off-putting. I’ve been starting to hear reports of players dying and not respawning like normal, and nowhere to be found. I’ve also noticed, and you may as well, that the logout button is no longer present in the menu. Some people are saying it’s a glitch, but something doesn’t feel right about all of it.

Please don’t let yourself or any other pony die in this game, and get back to the Inn.

-Lily

<-------------------->

After reading that, Raven gasps, and holds his hoof to his head, as he attempts to process it.

Players dying but not respawning? Certainly they’re not auto-logged out, it states that you’d simply respawn at your last save point, or last spawn point. Also, the logout button.. Raven thinks, as he scrolls through and finds that there is indeed no logout button.

Why is that not there? There’s no other method of logging out, and certainly there wouldn’t be that big of a glitch, even if it’s the first day out of Beta.. He continues thinking, before Crimson awakens him from his thoughts.

“Raven! What the hell is going on? Why are you acting strange all of a sudden?” He inquires, fearful.

“Check your logout button, now!” Raven snaps at him, Crimson obeying, before gasping as well.

“What’s going on?” Crimson asks again.

“The logout button is gone, presumably for all players, we don’t know why though. Lily also reported players dying and not respawning. We need to ensure your friend doesn’t die, until we figure this out, and we should get back to the Inn,” Raven explains, his voice carrying nothing but severe sincerity.

“Let’s get a move on then, we’re about halfway. Let’s double-time it!” Crimson exclaims, with a nod from Raven as a go-ahead, as they both work together to keep Comet going, passing wide fields of monsters on their left and right. After a few minutes, and thankfully no encounters with monsters straying from their routes, they arrive at the entrance of the town once more, and into the safezone.

“The Inn should allow him to heal, as long as we don’t disturb him,” Raven says, as they continue to try to hurry throughout the busy street.

“Right. Once we get him relaxed, we need to speak to Lily together, and figure out what’s going on,” Crimson states in response, looking around seeing looks of fear, anger, and sadness alike from some ponies they’re passing.

“You see it too, huh?” Raven asks him.

“You think they know about what’s going on?” Crimson replies in inquiry.

“It’s very much likely,” Raven solemnly replies, before shaking his head. “No matter, we need to focus right now,” He continues.

“Right,” Crimson responds. After a few moments, they arrive at the entrance of the PegaSky Inn, and swiftly enter it, to see Lily waiting for them.

“Oh no, what happened?!” She exclaims, galloping over to check on Comet.

“He encountered a mini-boss, to my knowledge, out at Starlit Field,” Crimson replies, keeping him upright for Lily.

“I’ll take him to the room you reserved, and lay him down. You guys sit down and wait for me,” She explains.

“That’s fine,” Raven and Crimson both say. “Get better quickly there Comet,” Crimson continues. After a few minutes, Lily returns to the lobby, and takes a seat on the opposing side from that of the stallions.

“So, explain again, what’s happening?” Raven asks.

“It’s as I said. The logout button is gone, and ponies aren’t respawning anymore upon their death. I wonder, do you think these were the modifications to the code?” She asks him.

“I wouldn’t like to believe so, for what reason would Starlit Eclipse want to do such a thing?” Raven inquires.

“I have no clue, but it can’t just be a coincidence. Maybe it’s a Social Experiment?” Lily offers.

“I doubt it,” Crimson interjects. “This is too far to be a Social Experiment, and this would bring a lot of negative press on ESO, leading to failing sales. Too much effort was put into the game to risk that, so it’d have to be something else,” He continues with reasoning.

“You’re right. What should w-” Raven begins, before he starts seeing blue flashes from outside, then from Lily and Crimson, and soon himself, recognizing it as a teleportation. Before any of them could say anything, they were randomly placed within a large crowd at the main castle, with it getting progressively bigger as the seconds ticked by. Confusion was on the face of all ponies there, with many reasoning that it was perhaps just another announcement/event, celebrating the launch and the like. Others were casting looks of suspicion, thinking something to be up separate from just some event.

Before they could think too much longer on, a sudden darkness shadowed over the entire area, encompassing everypony, allowing little to no visibility. A few seconds later, a White Light flashes from the center of the square, and once everypony’s vision gets restored once more, an illuminated form of a very recognizable pony is floating within the air, a pony by the name of Starlit Shadows, the maker of the game in question.

“Hello once more everypony!” She exclaims joyfully, smiling around, seeing suspicion amongst the crowd.

“Oh come now, you’re dimming the mood,” She states, faking a frown, before laughing.

“So, you’ve probably figured this out by now, but there’s no button for logging out of this game, as you’ve all so kindly informed me time and time again. Instead of addressing it all individually, I decided to address it with every player! Isn’t that fun?” She explains, still in a chipper mood.

“Tell us what the hell is going on!” A random pony shouts, leading to similar outbursts from the crowd, before she activates paralysis on the crowd, leading to them all to fall to the floor and go silent.

“Since you want to spoil the mood, I’ll just leave this paralysis on all of you for the duration of this chat,” She continues, suddenly very sinister.

“The logout button was never intended to exist post-beta, some of you might’ve heard of the modifications to the game before the launch, codenamed the “Full-Immersion Script”, like some groups have been so kind to relay to many people. What this entitles is pretty simple, and is the true nature of Equestrian Saga Online,” She starts explaining, before filling the whole area with a loud, sinister laugh. Raven, on the ground like the rest, remembered what JayGrove was informing him of, becoming even more angry at Starlit.

“Since the beginning, you might have noticed some players falling to death within the game, and not respawning. This is due to the aforementioned script, which is programmed to emit microwaves to your brain upon your death here, otherwise known as a permanent death, from here and the real world alike, meaning no revival is possible anymore. As international news outlets have been so kind to report, 400 ponies have currently fallen to the clutches of death, both here, and the world of the flesh,” She relays, smirking. At this point, many start crying, especially those whose family or friends have fallen to that fate thus far. Before long, there was only shouting and cries of anguish, before she silenced all once more.

“So, some of you may be asking, how do you get out without dying? That’s pretty simple, really. As you all are aware, 100 main floors are present within this game, however, now, at the end of the game, is the prize of freedom from this land. No tricks, no buts, only one singular goal to reach. There’s no time limit, except the time of your life, of course,” She explains.

“Have fun, and on behalf of Starlit Eclipse, thank you for playing Equestrian Saga Online!” She shouts, laughing, before blinding everypony once more, and removing the darkness from the square, alongside the paralysis holding them all hostage. Raven, Crimson, and Lily all moved to try to locate Comet, since he must’ve been teleported as well, and found him still lying on the ground near one of the entrances, likely trying to get away from the crowd.

“Comet! Are you alright?” Crimson asks, worry seeping into his voice.

“Yes..just...in pain still...” Comet weakly replies.

“We need to get you back to the Inn, and out of here, before the crowd goes too insane. We don’t need anything causing possible damage to you,” Raven states, to everypony’s agreement. They start hurrying out the exit, down the path, and towards the Inn, the roads mostly barren, except for the few who also decided to leave the crowd behind. In a minute or so, they arrived once more at the Inn, and Comet was lied down once more, so he would automatically start healing, and the Inn was closed, the trio sitting down once more.

“What do we do now?” Lily and Crimson ask.

“I guess we have no choice, but to accept that we’re here now, not freak out, and focus on planning our next moves. The one thing still the same is that we’re in a game about levelling up and growing more powerful, so that should be our primary goal,” Raven explains, to the uncertainty of his two fellows.

“Aren’t you upset? Scared?” Lily asks him, to a nodding of his head.

“Of course, but we can’t let that lead us astray. We will only survive this game if we swallow those emotions, and continue on, like we would have normally,” He responds.

“I suppose. We’ll talk more in the morning, let’s rest for the night, and give each other some time. I went ahead and gave you all different rooms, free of charge, here are the keys,” Lily states, levitating the keys over.

“Thank you, Lily,” Raven and Crimson tell her, to see a smile come to her face.

“No problem, goodnight,” Lily replies.

“Goodnight to you as well,” Raven and Crimson both tell her back, before heading up to their rooms, extending their nightly wishes of peace, and parting ways for the night.

*Launch Day

*Launch Day

-Chat Window Opens-

17:50- JayGrove: Hey man, you got a minute?

17:50- RavStar: Of course, what’s up? Haven’t talked to you in a bit.

17:51- JayGrove: You were one of the ESO Beta Testers, right?

17:51- RavStar: Yes, I was, why?

17:53- RavStar: Jay?

17:54- JayGrove: Me and some fellows grouped together about halfway through the Beta to try to investigate a little bit, because we were becoming suspicious of a few things we heard were occurring. They appear to be modifying the Default SDK from the VPon-3, making a custom variation they’ve codenamed the “Full-Immersion Script”. We don’t have the details of what exactly it is, but we’re a bit concerned by the title and the nature of it. As a friend, I want to recommend you not load up ESO during the launch, but it’s up to you.

17:55- JayGrove: Crap! I have to go, please don’t load up that game!

-He goes offline-

Receiving a phone call from one of the members of his group, Jay answers it.

“Hey Greywing, what’s going on?” He asks. It’s not too normal to receive a random phone call, unless it was important.

“I think you should come to the place, there’s another thing we’ve found about ESO,” He replies.

“On my way, give me five or so minutes,” Jay states as he shuts down his technology, hanging up the phone and grabbing his keys. Galloping down the stairs, he opens the door, and heads into his vehicle. When he turns the ignition, he checked the time, 17:58, 2 minutes before ESO’s launch. Deciding it’s better to be quicker than usual, he puts the car into reverse, pulls out of the driveway, and starts heading in the direction of the meeting area.

After about ten minutes, at about 7 minutes post-launch, Jay pulls up at the meeting area, an abandoned building out-of-the-way from the normal City Operations. Seeing the other cars, he decides to head to the door. Upon arrival, he unlocks the door with his key, located on the same keychain as his car. Entering, he sees the worried looks of his fellows, and locks the door behind him.

“Hey guys, what’s wrong? I was told to come,” Jay asks to them. In response, he gets thrown the final blueprint of the in-game menu.

“Look at the Miscellaneous Section,” Greywing states, noticing Jay’s confusion. Jay looks through it, and looks at it confused for a moment, before gasping in understanding.

“Wait, the login button is missing? Why is that?” He asks.

“We have no clue, but it could have something to do with the Full-Immersion Script. We were able to get a copy of the code by running the game on a test dummy a little bit ago, and extracting the data from there, and we find no mention of logging out anywhere there either, but we did find some interesting variables involving the death of a character, though we haven’t looked into them much yet, as we wanted your input,” Another pony says, this one by the name of Yuki Toris. Jay trots over to the examination table, where a paper copy of the script is located, and looks through it, noticing the unusual variables himself.

“I see. Well, we’ll have time to analyze it soon, for now w-” He begins, before a booming knock at the door interrupts his thoughts.

“Virtual Defense Corps., this is the Equestrian Intelligence Agency, open up now, or we shall open it for you!” A mare yells from the other side. Jay, nodding at his compadres, heads to follow the instructions given, the others guarding the varying places inside the building.

Opening the door, he greeted to a suited mare, a holstered pistol to her side, and an armored transport vehicle on the road, guarded by the motorcycles of the Royal Police. She grimly look at him, before inquiring: “Are you Jay Grove, the leader of the Virtual Defense Corps.?”

“Indeed, I am, though I knew not we were of any word of mouth,” He says, a bit surprised.

“News travels fast through our network, we were able to track your connections as you’ve been looking into ESO. You see, we’re of similar goals, I was assigned to look into this game as well, for fear there’s something more going on. I’d like to propose to you, that we join forces, share our resources, and look into this together,” She explains.

“Why is it such a huge deal at this time?” He asks.

“Will you allow me to come in, to explain?” She inquires.

“Even if I said no, you would, so be my guest, madame,” He responds, granting her entry. She trots in, and Jay motions for Greywing to pull up some chairs. As they get settled, the pony clears her throat.

“Now that I’m talking to all of you, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Nightlight, head of the ESO Investigative Unit within the Equestrian Intelligence Agency, tasked with researching the dark rumours that have sprouted up with it. Due to lack of probable cause or evidence though, the launch has gone through, and we didn’t, and still don’t, think we could gather enough material in time to try to figure out what we need to do. Due to such, we tracked the connections regarding a group, your group, who identified as the ‘Virtual Defense Corps.’. Because of lack of anywhere else to turn, we decided to take the risk to come to you,” She briefly explains to the group of ponies gathered.

“Madame Nightlight, we would be honored to assist. We actually have something that needs some thorough investigation, a full copy of the Full-Immersion Script, which I assume you’ve heard of,” Jay relays.

“Indeed we have, and attempts have been done to try to find as such, to no avail. If you would honor our request by coming with us, your research in tow, we can head to the Headquarters, where there’s more resources to do what we shall need to,” Nightlight replies.

“Very well. Greywing, gather the documents, Yuki, gather the testing dummy. Torn Soul, would you mind transferring the computer data to a flashdrive?” He delegates, also talking to Torn Soul, the last member of the group, for the first time since he arrived.

“Glad you finally remembered me,” Torn replies, rolling his eyes. Everyone goes to work, and Nightlight pulls Jay to the side.

“You seem to be too willing, why is that?” She inquires.

“Because I have a friend in that game, and I want to see him come out of it,” He responds.

After everything is packed up, the time now being 18:35, the group starts riding to the headquarters of the EIA. As they approach the main road, they start to see and hear numerous sirens and the like, from ambulances and police alike, causing a bunch of slow traffic.

“What’s going on?” Jay asks Nightlight, who’s listening to her earpiece.

“Multiple deaths have started to pop up at random, all users of the VPon3, all playing ESO, from what we can tell. There’s only approximately 10 so far, but the numbers are starting to rise. They’re currently looking into the cause of death,” Nightlight explains, as she orders the crew to go faster, activating their sirens to clear the streets.

“Jay, do you think they may have to do with the Full Immersion Script?” Grey asks him.

“I have no clue. We haven’t looked into the unknown variables yet, of course, but it’s definitely possible. Once we make it to the headquarters, we should be able to look into it with some experts in the field,” He responds.

“Very well. What’s the ETA on the arrival, by the way, Madame Nightlight?” Grey inquires.

“Well, we don’t know how many more emergency response vehicles we’re going to run into, but it shouldn’t be too much longer,” Nightlight replies, before conversing once more on the earbud:

<-------------------->

Nightlight: “Update me, what’s happening?”

Respondent: “20 confirmed, we’re still unsure why. Autopsies are being run now, but it’ll take a bit to get results. We have one witness stating she tried to remove the headset, and her son stopped breathing, stopped housing a pulse. She’s still in questioning though, we need to ensure we get the proper information from her.”

Nightlight: “Removing the headset?”

Respondent: “Yes, it seems to be locked onto their head, from our observations thus far.”

Nightlight: “Alright, keep me updated. We seem to be 5 minutes off from the Headquarters now, we’ll speak again there.”

Respondent: “Roger that, ma’am. Looking forward to your safe return.”

<-------------------->

They eventually arrive at the EIA, and get escorted into a room dedicated to the investigation of ESO, not too impressive at the current point, due to lack of belief of necessity, but enough for function. The VDC set up their own material, and make copies of the Full-Immersion Script, and the in-game blueprint to distribute. Everyone gathers in a separate room, made into a meeting area.

“Good evening, today is the first joint meeting between the EIA and the VDC, to attempt to try to understand what has started to occurred, and to try to find where to go from here. Let’s start by quickly introducing ourselves, then the VDC have something for us to look at. Sound good?” Nightlight explains and inquires, leading to a group nod.

“Let’s start with my crew. My name is Nightlight, like I’ve mentioned prior. I’m the head of this investigative unit,” She states, and Jay looks her over for the first time in some time, noticing her midnight blue coat, and naturally contrasted purple mane, partially covering the relatively small horn.

“My name is Gruffy Hunt, I’ve been a detective for some time for the EIA, and have always been intrigued by the nature of puzzles and mysteries, which is why I was asked to lend my skills to this operation,” The second pony states, an Earth Pony of green, with a dark green mane to boot.

“And lastly, myself. My name is Wavy Oceans,” The last pony says, a mare of a wavy blue mane, a greyish blue coat complementing the mane, a pegasus.

“A pleasure to meet you all,” Jay states, smiling. “My name is Jay Grove, I’m a fairly fresh graduate from highschool, and have been focused on ESO with these fellows since halfway through the Beta. I think I speak for all of us when I say it’s a pleasure to work with fellows of investigation,” He continues.

“I concur with Jay. My name is Grey Wing, and I hope we can work together to solve what’s going on with this game,” Grey, a winged stallion of grey fur with a slightly darker mane upon in, stated

“Greetings, my name is Yuki Tori, I was a fellow of Jay, graduating alongside of him, and I also hope that our combined efforts will bring light to this darkness,” Yuki, a horned mare of a light yellow fur, with a mane of a variety of the spectrum, stated.

“And last, as-per the norm, is myself. The name’s Torn Soul, I was brought on through a mock application of sorts. I’m glad I was able to come on the team though, so I can help figure all this out with you lot,” Torn, a black-furred Earthpony, with a Whitish-Grey mane, says in greeting.

“Very good, there will be plenty of time for us to further get to know each other later on. Now, for the reason of the meeting. Jay, would you like to take over?” Nighlight asks the implied question.

“Indeed, Madame,” Jay says, before clearing his throat, and adopting a serious expression.

“Me and my fellows, known as the Virtual Defense Corps., have been, as you know tracking ESO since the middle of its Beta. Upon the launch of the game, my fellows here loaded the game up on the test dummy set-up in the other room, and managed to get a copy of a controversial script, known as the Full Immersion Script, for full analysis,” He begins, distributing as such.

“As you’ll find within the script, there is no mention of the ability to log-off, a function mentioned within the original version of it, the SDK of the VPon-3. We also see variables we weren’t able to identify the usage of, given the limited time of it being within our possession before we came here. I think it’s worth looking into, in an effort to find what the modified script is doing to our fair players,” He further explains.

“Alongside that, from the game resources lay the blueprint for the in-game menu of such, which is here,” He begins the second and last point, distributing that as well.

“Within this blueprint, under the Miscellaneous Section, shows that this was definitely no accident, and that something is going on further than the critics of the conspiracy mentioned. I think we all, as a team, can discover what such is, and eliminate it before much more harm is brought upon people,” He finishes, to the light clapping of hooves.

“Thank you, Sir Grove. Now, the meeting is dismis-” Nightlight begins, before the door is forced open, an Earth Pony in detective garb rushing in.

“Ma’am! The results of earlier have been found! The device, under circumstances we don’t completely understand yet, is emitting microwaves to the brain of those playing ESO, leading to their deaths!” He exclaims, to the shock of the ponies in the room.

“Did the witness’ testimony shed any light on one of the circumstances?” Nightlight inquires, to the nodding of the detective.

“Indeed, ma’am. While we haven’t been able to test it ourselves, more witnesses have come forth sharing the same story. Removing the headset yields death to the player,” The detective responds.

“Send a PSA out, quickly, attempt to stop ponies from attempting to do so, and inform CMSgt. Tri-Shadow that it would be in our best interest to start setting up emergency hospital establishments, we don’t know how long this will last, and the ponies under won’t last forever without proper nutrition and the like. Tell him that I shall send him a signed authorization request with further details soon, but that I find we need to begin to do so before I get the time to do so,” Nightlight relays to him quickly.

“Yes, ma’am!” He exclaims, before galloping out of the room, to head back upwards.

Nightlight sighs, looking back towards the rest of the people within the group.

“Mares and Gentlecolts, we have a long road ahead.."