Jaden took a drink of Coca Cola and resumed playing through the Halo 3 Campaign on Legendary difficulty, sure it was extremely difficult when a Grunt could take down your shields and almost kill you with a Plasma Pistol but the reward was much greater, the respect you get on completing such a task from other great players like Skullkruncher13 and so on. He came into a large desert area where a scarab dropped down and fired its plasma beam, killing him instantly.
“Damn scarabs and their OP plasma beams.” Jaden muttered, shutting off his Xbox 360 and turning on his computer, responding in the chime of Windows.
He logged in and went on YouTube, checking his inbox. There were dozens of spam videos and friend requests, but one message caught his eye. It was labelled ‘Need help’, his cursor hovering over the link that was in the message, it could be another virus to infect his computer.
What's the worst that could happen?
He clicked the link and his monitor screen turned into a black hole, sucking him into whatever trouble he had got himself into. His world spiralled so quickly it made him want to puke, but his intention to throw up was halted when he fell face first in a
maroon rug. He got up and dusted himself off, coming face-to-face with Princess Celestia.
‘Are you the one called Gamer X?” She asked politely.
Gamer X? She must be thinking of my gamertag...
“Yes, I am Gamer X.” Jaden said proudly like his gamertag actually meant something, adjusting his headphones.
“I have summoned you here to help my little ponies defeat Discord, but he is in the cyber world and I have summoned the best human gamer to counteract him.”
Best human gamer, I‘m very skilled in gaming but that’s pushing my ego too far.
“One does not simply ask for Gamer X’s help…” Jaden said, making that LotR meme so worth it.
“But-“Princess Celestia interjected.
“Chillax, Tia. I’ll help you.” Jaden said.
Princess Celestia was delighted by Jaden’s answer and took him to a conference room with a large metal compartment near the wall. The Mane 6 and Princess Luna were waiting for them, Rainbow Dash looked him up and down like he was less than she expected.
“This is Gamer X?” She asked no-one in general.
“In the flesh.” Jaden said.
“Has my sister informed you of the problem?” Princess Luna asked.
“Discord is wreaking havoc in cyber space and you need my experience as the best human gamer to help you defeat him, correct?”
“Basically, we’ve assembled the Mane 6 and me to aid you in aiding us.”
“And if I fail in said task?”
“Discord will corrupt the outside world of Equestria and Earth if he succeeds.”
“That’s quite the risk but I accept the task and its burden.”
“That is excellent news, any questions?”
“If Discord is packing heat in the virtual realm, I want to know who has the most experience in gaming in general and what genre of said game.”
“Well, I am most experienced in all types of games.” Princess Luna said.
“An all-rounder, that’ll come in handy.” Jaden said.
“I prefer the more intellectual genre, RTS and puzzlers to be exact.” Twilight said.
“I bet you play a mean Age of Mythology, welcome aboard.”
“Name’s Rainbow Dash, shooters are my game.” Rainbow Dash said, putting on her sunglasses.
“Cocky, I like that.” Jaden said.
“I don’t mean to interrupt introductions but Discord could be doing damage to the virtual realm as we know it.” Princess
Celestia said, nodding towards the machine.
“Right you are.” Jaden said, turning on his Walkman and putting his headphones on.
The six ponies, the alicorn and Jaden stepped into the apparatus and a tingling feeling coursed through their bodies, making them fade to unconsciousness. They reawakened in a black and green square endless room, finding themselves disoriented for the moment.
“Where are we?” Applejack asked.
“We are within the very encryptions of virtual reality, AJ.” Jaden said, smelling the non-existent air.
Discord appeared out of nowhere and startled all seven of the ponies, making them rear up in confidence. Jaden stayed perfectly calm, gazing at Discord.
“Why are you not trembling in fear, human?” Discord asked.
“Please, I’ve seen worse creatures made from pixels to the likes of you.” Jaden said, standing strong.
“So we’ve called in the dimensional cavalry, have we Luna?” Discord snickered.
Rainbow Dash flew at Discord but was stopped by Jaden grabbing her tail. “What’s the big idea?”
“We’re in cyber space right now; neither we nor he can harm each other.”
“But I can just beat him up!”
“Not so easy, Dash.”
Jaden walked up to Discord and said “Do you mind?”
“Mind what?
“Demonstration.”
“Go ahead, humans cannot harm me anyway.”
Jaden threw his arm into Discord’s head, only to have it penetrate nothing but pixels. “See?” Jaden removed his arm from Discord’s head, letting the pixels reform his face.
“I don’t understand this…” Princess Luna said.
“We’re in neutral territory right now; our existence is put down to avatars, nothing more.” Jaden replied.
“Are you here to stop me?” Discord asked.
“No, we’re here to watch you destroy cyber space as we know it, of course we’re here to stop you!” Jaden ironically said.
“Well, I arrived first so I choose the genre and the game…” Discord said.
“Get behind me…” Jaden said to the seven ponies and they complied, stand near him.
“What shall I pick, the choices are endless…” Discord said happily.
“I don’t think so, ‘cord.”
“And why is that?”
“Because I’m Gamer X and every human and pony knows that Gamer X is legendary, so you may as well pack up your stuff and go back into your little stone prison.”
“But I can tinker with the rules so I win…”
“Do all your fancy tinkerin’ magic, but I have this…” Jaden said, holding up a metal device.
“And what pray tells is that?”
“Oh, it’s nothing special; it’s just my little game changer.”
Jaden brought up the device and entered codes into it, then casting the information in front of him.
“I, we challenge you to a game of Halo Reach.”
“Challenge accepted.”
“We’re going to kick his digital rear, X!” Rainbow Dash said strongly.
Jaden turned to Rainbow Dash with a look of surprise, “You play Halo too?”
“All the time, X.”
The encryption floated down into the floor, making a wormhole to Jaden's selected game. The eight of them jumped into the wormhole, feeling the strange tingling feeling again as they passed through it, followed by Discord.
Part Two: Sci-Fi Showdown
Jaden’s POV
I landed with a heavy thud as my boots hit the ground, followed by other thuds. I was looked through the HUD of a Spartan helmet, showing shields, base health, motion tracker and ammo counters. I took my helmet off and looked into it, showing my exclusive Halloween Pilot grasped in my hands as blue flames shot up from it. My real-life avatar in Halo Reach was my avatar in here, thank god for Bungie for making armour effects so awesome. Lightning sparked around my armour as I put my helmet back on. I turned to face seven other pony shaped Spartans.
“What is this contraption I am wearing?” Princess Luna said, looking at her armoured hooves.
“Spartan-III armour, Luna. Necessary if you don’t want to die within two seconds of a fire fight.” I said, taking out my game
changer device.
She gulped loudly, “Die?”
“It isn’t real life death; you just lay motionless until you respawn. At least that’s what I think what happens if Discord hasn’t touched any of the rules.” Rainbow Dash added.
“Respawn?” Luna asked.
“You die and you come back to life, of all ponies I'd think you already knew that.” I said.
“Generator Defence on Glacier in three minutes!” The announcer said.
I equipped my primary weapon to find a Magnum, “Lame, let’s switch it up a bit.” I stabbed the device like an A.I chip into my helmet.
“Why do you get lightning sparking around your armour and blue flames coming out of your helmet?” Applejack asked.
“I work for my armour effects, but I can hack some in for you girls too if you want them.” I said, bringing up Spartan traits and changing the default Magnum to DMRs.
The second I changed the trait, all of our Magnums were replaced with DMRs, some of the ponies not catching them and hitting the ground.
“DMR, sweet!” Rainbow Dash said, picking up her weapon with her hooves.
“I can hack this thing like there’s no tomorrow, what’ll your weapons be?” I said, glancing at each pony.
“Why can we see your skull?” Twilight asked.
“My skull?” I asked, taking off my helmet and staring into the bone skull.
“How is your skull in the helmet and your head attached to your body?” She asked.
“Bungie can answer that because I have no idea." I replied, putting my helmet back on.
“I’ll have something that I can use up close.” Applejack said.
“Shotgun for Applejack…” I said, a shotgun materialising out of thin air and dropping into her hooves.
“Do you have a weapon that’s good for long range?” Twilight asked.
A Sniper Rifle dropped from the air and fell into her hooves. “Sniper rifle for Twi.”
“Gimme a Laser.” Rainbow Dash said, taking a Spartan Laser from me as I materialised it from thin air due to my hacking.
“You sure you can handle that thing, Rainbow?” Applejack asked.
“It doesn’t feel heavy.” She replied.
“Alright, who is left without a signature weapon, Fluttershy, Luna, Rarity and Pinkie Pie?”
I materialised the weapons I thought was best for the remaining four ponies: A Focus Rifle for Luna, Grenade Launcher for
Pinkie Pie and a Needler for Rarity. They inspected their new weapons as I crouched down next to Fluttershy.
‘What am I going to do with you?” I asked.
“Are you sure that Discord isn’t just controlling our enemy?” Fluttershy asked quietly.
“No, they were evil before Discord. If you don’t want to fight, you don’t have to…” I said calmly.
“Thank you…”
I spawned myself an Energy Sword, activating the fierce weapon and triggering dual pronged plasma blades to protrude from the handle. I also spawned myself a Sniper Rifle, putting it on my back.
“Generator Defence in 20 seconds!” The announcer said.
“Three generators, eight Spartans, this hardly seems fair.” I said, chuckling at the thought.
“There are eight of us and three generators.” Twilight said
“We have 2.5 people cover each generator, it evens out perfectly.” I said.
“Only we don’t have a half of a person or pony.”
“You and I will snipe and cover all three generators while the others do their part.” I said, wielding my Sniper Rifle.
“AJ and I will go close-quarters.” Rainbow Dash said.
“Rarity and Pinkie will go explosives.” I said.
“But that leaves just me to contend with myself.” Luna said.
“Two snipers are better than one, Luna. I’ll keep your flank from getting owned and Twilight will support the other two
generators with the others,” A thought popped into my head. “Fluttershy, you can go medic.”
“But Halo doesn’t have any guns that heal, X.” Rainbow Dash said.
“Any guns not armour abilities.” I said, spawning all of the armour abilities on the ground.
Luna picked up the hologram, AJ and Rainbow Dash picked sprint, Fluttershy took the drop shield, Twilight and I took invisibility and Pinkie Pie and Rarity took armour lock. All of them looked at me with a ‘what do we do with them’ look.
“It’s very bright, but how does that help us?” Applejack asked.
I demonstrated by taking Luna’s hologram and latching it onto her back.
“This equipment boosts certain abilities, but this is for ponies that haven’t played Halo yet.” I said.
They followed my demonstration and latched the armour abilities onto their armour and dispersed to their generators while Twilight and I headed onto the roof of the ONI building and prepped our weapons, I lay prone and loaded a magazine into my sniper rifle, waiting for the Covenant enemy to spawn.
“Generator Defence starts now.” The announcer said.
“Keep the Covenant from swarming this sector.” Commander Keyes said.
A Phantom appeared out of nowhere and hovered above the ground, dropping a Wraith on the fair side of the map and dropping several Elites down onto the floor.
“When do we start shooting?” Twilight asked me.
*BANG*
“First strike!” The announcer said as an Elite dropped dead, a upside-down pentagon with a purple skull in the middle of it appearing in my HUD.
“First kill is always mine, Dash. Don’t forget that…” I said over the helmet com.
“I almost had that guy too!” Rainbow Dash said.
“Bring an extra clip…” A voice said.
“What did that thing say?” Twilight asked.
Discord is messing with the skulls, oh well; they increase the score multiplier by 2.
“Discord has turned on one of the gold skulls; it makes us lose half our weapon ammo,” I said, noticing my ammo counter for the sniper rifle had dropped to 20 instead of 40. “Gold skull are difficulty multipliers, makes the game much harder…”
“You’ll miss those eyes in the back of your head…” The voice said again.
“Explanation?” Twilight said.
“Turns off our motion trackers in our HUD, but bumps the score multiplier up to 4.”
In our ignorance, the Wraith had fired a plasma mortar and landed a direct hit on both Twilight and I. Our kinetic barriers were critically damaged, flashing yellow sparks and beeping constantly before recharging to full strength with an aura of gold surrounding us then disappearing.
“Dash, now would be a good time to deal with that Wraith.” I said, equipping my Energy Sword and turning invisible, then running to Generator A where Luna was struggling to defend it.
Under the cloak of invisibility, I came up behind a few Elites and assassinated them, getting my shields singed by Luna with her Focus Rifle and dispersing my cloaking device.
“Friendly fire, Luna!” I shouted over the heavy muffle that the module produced when activated.
She acknowledged her misfire and apologised briefly. Generator A was slightly damaged and B and C were at full health.
“Reinforcements!” The announcer said, two Hunter Strike Teams materialising out of thin air in front of Luna and I.
The Hunters charged their assault cannons and shot out bright green mortar blobs, I tackled Luna behind a nearby stalagmite, shielding us both from the explosion that would surely have killed us both. I leaned around the corner and unloaded a magazine from my Sniper Rifle into a Hunter’s plated head, only to have it raise it’s arm shield to block my last three shots.
Damn it, I can't get a clear shot with that shield in the way...
I took two Plasma grenades from my belt and threw them at the Hunter’s feet, after a three second delay the grenades turned bright blue and blew up, disorienting it and spraying orange blood on the snow. After reloading my weapon, I ran out into the open, taking my chances with the odds and my luck in no-scoping. My worries were cut short as I heard the familiar gunfire of a shotgun and the laser shot of a Spartan Laser piercing through the air and two dead Hunters falling over, revealing Rainbow Dash and Applejack in their respective coloured armour.
“Heard you needed help, partner.” Applejack said, reloading her shotgun.
“Thanks for the assist but you missed one…” I replied.
“There was only two of them, not three.” Rainbow Dash said.
I pulled out my knife and ducked down, an Energy Sword belonging at an Elite whizzing through the empty air, I turned and came back up, sticking my knife in the Elite’s throat, rendering his cloaking useless and killing him instantaneously. I pulled my knife from the Elite’s throat, coated in indigo blood.
“Show-off.” Applejack said.
“It was a Hunter Strike Team, not just Hunters.” I said, spawning an Armour Lock ability and replacing my Invisibility module with it.
“How many more in this Set?” Luna asked, coming out from her cover.
“Two more rounds and the Set is over. The scoreboard leader is Twilight for the moment.” I said, bringing up the scoreboard on my HUD.
“Scoreboard?” Applejack asked in confusion.
“A way of showing who has the most points.”
“But we’re fightin’ aliens, why the scoreboard?”
“This is a game, is it not? Scoreboard is a way of showing who is the best player in the current match. Killing enemies gives you points, points equal score and so on.” I explained.
“And I’m winning it!” Twilight called over the helmet com.
“She’s winning something for the first time…” Rainbow Dash mocked.
“And coming in a solid second place is Rainbow Dash, not bad…” I continued.
“Alright, prepare to get kicked off your throne, Twilight!” Rainbow Dash said competitively.
“And Gamer X is coming in third…” I said, wincing at that I just referred myself in third person.
Several small pods shot down from the ceiling and collided into the ground, shooting off the hatches and appearing as ‘Ordinance’ in bright green on our HUD. We all moved to one of the pods, inside was a Rocket Launcher.
“Who likes explosions?” I asked.
“I do, I do!” Pinkie Pie said happily, moving to the pod.
“Go on, take it. Just don’t aim it at any of us…”
Pinkie Pie swapped out her DMR for the Rocket Launcher, bracing it on her shoulder and getting a feel for the newly acquired weapon.
I walked over to a pod with a smaller handgun-like weapon, I swapped out my Sniper Rifle and picked up the Target Locator, then walking back over to the group with the small arm in hand.
“Judging by how big the enemy are, I think that your current weapon will prove ineffective.” Luna said, noticing the Target Locator.
“Sure it matters who's got the biggest stick, but it matters a helluva lot more who's swinging it.” I said.
I've always wanted to say that...
“Now that we’ve settled that, lets stop Discord!” Pinkie Pie said.
“In the name of Equestria!” Twilight said, putting her hoof into empty air.
This was then followed up by Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Luna. They all looked at me like I did something wrong, I then noticed that all of their hooves were in a pile and waiting for me to join in. I hovered my gauntleted hand over the pile and placed it on it.
Rainbow Dash gave me a look, “What, no motivational quote?”
“Really? Fine…,” I took a deep breath “Living is easy with your eyes closed. There will be a day that we will die, that our wives and children will be slaves. But it is not this day! This day we fight!”
I cleared my throat, “Good enough?”
“Where did you hear that from?” Twilight asked.
“Somewhere, first thing that comes to mind when motivation is needed.” I replied, still clutching onto my Target Locator.
Three Phantoms zoomed into my field of view, carrying Wraiths and Ghosts into the fray.
“Look sharp, team. Covenant’s sending in the artillery…” I said, breaking off from the moment and pulling out my Energy Sword, activating it with a hum.
We fought bravely for several minutes, but we became overran and lost Generator A and B, leaving us with C. We regrouped to C, forming a wall of armour and having our weapons face in any direction the Covenant could attack from. We took heavy mortar fire from the Wraiths and if we got close, it would be trying to fight a angry bull while wearing red.
Plasma mortars hammered our shields constantly, weakening us for the infantry to pick us off. I had abandoned my short range Energy Sword for an MA5B Assault Rifle, which was more suited for mid to long range combat. I unloaded a magazine into a Brute Captain, destroying his power armour. I was about to finish him off with another burst of rounds when he was instantaneously cut down by pink needles thanks to Rarity.
I had forgot to mention that we didn’t start with any extra lives; just the one life to start with, so we had to be extremely careful of what to do with that life. Our explosive equipment was rendered useless thanks to Discord meddling with the rules, so Rainbow Dash or Pinkie couldn’t just use their Spartan Laser, Grenade Launcher or Rocket Launcher so our Wraith problem became more dangerous. When our kinetic barriers were destroyed, Fluttershy deployed her Drop Shield to heal any lost base health, but the shield didn’t last long due to plasma mortar fire.
“X, you’ve got the most experience in this certain game, what’s the plan?” Twilight asked.
“I’ve never been under these circumstances, but I’ll think of something!” I replied, wracking my brain to devise a plan to win this Set and be one step closer to destroying Discord.
Then it hit me, not like a small light bulb, but a freight train smashing into you at top speed hitting you idea. But I would need someone’s help.
“Pinkie, with me, everyone stay here and defend the generator.” I said, the pink pony following me closely with Grenade Launcher in hand.
“Pinkie, can you hit that Banshee?”
“Of course, X!” She propped up her Grenade Launcher and aimed it in an arc, making sure to impact it at the Banshee.
“Hold the trigger down when you shoot and let go when I tell you to.” I said nervously, hoping this would work.
She pulled the trigger of the weapon and a small, palm-sized grenade zoomed into the air towards the Banshee, I kicked in my scope and watched the grenade near the Banshee. “Now!”
She let go of the trigger and the grenade exploded, sending out blue sparks and sapping the Banshee of power, descending down near the snow several metres in front of us. I sprinted to the Banshee and killed the pilot, then took control of the Banshee, moving it back into the sky. I gripped the dual handles of the Banshee and shot up into the air, accidentally doing a aileron roll. I directed the Banshee to the attacking Wraiths and shot two plasma mortars of my own, crippling the pilot of the first and destroying the second, sending the Banshee into a nose-dive and jumping out of it. I fell quite quickly and landed on the snow, dispersing my shields and bringing my base health to the last flashing red square, blood coming from somewhere and hitting the snow.
Fall damage, my worst enemy...
“Are you okay from that stunt, X?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Feel like I broke my legs when I hit the ground but I’m fine. Bad news is I’m critically hurt if my HUD serves me correctly.” I said.
“How badly?”
“I’ve one square of base health left.”
A Ghost kicked in it’s thrusters and screamed to me, my instincts kicking in and activating the Armour Lock module. I was engulfed by a thick blue shield layer but I felt the weight of the module kick in as I threw my fist into the snow and was immobilised.
So this is why they lock down, it feels like a million tonnes weighing down on you.
The Ghost zoomed into my locked down armour, exploding on impact and being reduced to purple debris. I deactivated the module as I felt control over my armour returning.
“Are you okay, X.”
“Fine, but I think I won that…” I said, bringing up the scoreboard.
Ranking in at 1st place was ‘Gamer X’ with 10k points, I jumped around in sudden joy that I won.
“Well?”
“Coming in third was Applejack with 8649 points…”
“That’s mighty fine for third place!” Applejack said happily.
“Second is Rainbow Dash with 9426 points.”
“Buck yeah, I rock!” Rainbow Dash shouted joyfully.
“And the first place goes to…,” I paused for dramatic effect. “Gamer X took gold in first place.”
“How many points?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Ten thousand points…” I said.
“Whoa, that’s heaps!” Applejack said.
“Game Over…” The announcer said, our HUDS fading to black.
