Chapters A month ago the computer had been invented and Twilight was using it to research all her projects and do whatever she wanted. It was a fascinating device to ponykind and her friends all had one as well, including spike.
Rarity was using it to try to publicize her new designs although Nopony else really had any. Applejack almost never touched the thing, she was always saying how fancy gadgets can’t solve your problems. Fluttershy couldn’t understand how to use it and was always goofing up the typing despite the fact that the keys were enlarged just for her.
Rainbow loved to use the computer to listen to Daring Doo audio books as it gave her the chance to “read” while still flying. Pinkie ended up taking hers apart and using its parts for random things despite promising Twilight that she’d put it back together.
Spike quickly discovered several gaming websites and spent nearly all his time playing on them instead of doing his chores. Starlight was rarely on hers but when she was she liked to look at spell books from the comfort of her own bed instead of having to climb six stories up to get books in Twilight’s Library.
Life was still peaceful in Ponyville but meetings with her friends had dwindled thanks to new technology on Everypony’s faces, leaving Twilight lonely some days when her research had hit a dead end .
She wondered if she could find someway to get her friends together using their devices. The task seemed impossible but then she remembered spike saying he was going to go play games with his friends online. She would need to figure out how he communicated online and then maybe she could find a way to get her friends together more often.
With a plan in Mind Twilight headed straight out of the Throne room with a renewed vivacity in her steps. When she reached her assistants room after a quick jog around the castle she paused, before opening the door revealing the young dragon haunched back in his chair, a pair of headphones on his head. Having noticed the incursion quickly muttered into the microphone attached to the headset. “Hold on guys Twilight’s here” He said before he took his headgear off and spinning around to face Twilight. “Whadya need Twilight?” He asked nonchalantly.
Twilight turned her face from staring at the screen to answer Spike. “Spike, I need to know how to get everybody together online, to like, play a game or something” She asked trying to make her request sound clear.
“Oh, well than that’s easy, just get everyone to play an MMO and all have headsets” Spike answered calmly as if expecting Twilight to understand.
“A what now?” Twilight blatantly responded. “Right, you don’t have as much experience with online gaming,” Spike said, flicking his claw in a superior way before returning to conversation.
“An MMO is a slang word for Massively Multiplayer Online game, It’s basically where a bunch of people go online and play together.”
“Ooh sounds perfect!” Twilight happily clopped her hooves together. “But unless you all are in the same room you are gonna need some headsets to communicate” Spike added quickly before Twilight zipped out the door.
“But where would I get one of those” Twilight asked directing a hoof toward the headset Spike had left on the table.
“Oh, Filthy Rich started selling them a week ago, you can go down there and get them” Spike replied.
“OH! and one more thing spike” Twilight sheepishly added “What games would you recommend?” “Well I like to play World of Warcraft but It’s up to you Twilight” Spike said as he slipped back into his chair and reached for his headset.
“Thanks Spike!” Twilight whispered as she left the young drake to his game and shut the door. As she trotted away she made a mental note to make a visit to Filthy Rich’s shop later that day.
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“Alright” Twilight said as she dumped her bags of headsets down on the table. “Time to find a game!” Twilight sat down on her haunches and began typing up a website Spike had mentioned that let you download tons of games, Steam she thought it was. As Google pulled it up and Twilight clicked on it she found it had to be downloaded. Letting out a small sigh she clicked the download button and fell back deciding to think about how she was going to get her friends to play this game, whatever it was going to be.
She thought maybe she could get Starlight to help her test run it and then invite everyone over but she didn’t know when she was going to find the time, she herself was busy running the School of Friendship and her friends would only be open on weekends. She thought harder as the download bar continued ticking down. “Maybe we could make it a routine thing like a get together at a certain time. Applejack might even like her Computer if Twilight made it like a routine chore. Fluttershy would probably drag the group down, but then again if they were all playing together it could be valuable practice for the shy Pegasus.
As the download bar reached its end Twilight got up and left quickly to go grab a quil an paper, she was going to need a plan if she was going to organize anything with ALL of her friends. A thought nearly struck her dead as she reached for the paper with her magenta colored magic. “Pinkie’s computer is still broken” Twilight muttered angrily to herself. “Well I guess if she wants to miss out on the fun” Twilight slyly said to herself. She then grabbed a quil and started formulating a good excuse to get everyone to the throne room tomorrow.
When Twilight returned to her office the Download was already finished and Steam pulled up on her desktop. “Fantastic!” Twilight whinnied while galloping over and sitting down on her seat. “Let’s see” She said as she started typing in the search bar for World of Warcraft. She didn’t make it to Warcraft before one of the search options peaked her curiosity. “World of Tanks?” She asked no one in particular "What the heck is a Tank?”
Author's Note
Don’t worry The tank part is coming next chapter. I just wanted to give a set up first.
I will be having each character have a different nation to work down so you guys can give suggestions for that in the comments.
As this is my first story, like, ever, Feedback is appreciated!
“Alright now that everyone is here, we can begin” Twilight said in a formal tone, sitting on the crystal throne adorned with her cutie mark,Spike sitting just below her.
“Yea just what exactly ARE we doing Twilight?” Rainbow asked, obviously discomforted. She never was one for staying still for long periods of time.
“Let me guess, yer gonna talk about these new fancy pancy devices” Applejack said in more of a deadpan than Twilight had ever heard from her.
“Well... yes in a way” Teilight tried to say normally. “We’ve all been more separated than ever with these new devices so I’ve found a way we can play together! without having to leave your screens” She meekly added.
“But, But I want to play...” Pinkie mumbles out with a pity face displayed on full value to Twilight.
“You’ll have to fix your Computer than Pinkie” Twilight said with an obvious slyness in her voice.
“Is that a challenge?” Pinkie asked with a surprise turn of attitude.
“Y’know it still freaks me out she can go that fast” Rainbow dash said with a shudder in her voice.
“So um, I don’t mean to interject, but what game are we playing Twilight?” Fluttershy whispered, her face obscured by the Map table.
“Yea” Starlight interjected before Twilight could speak again making her roll her eyes in frustration. “And why am I here? I’m obviously still not part of your “Mane 6” is that what you call it? Anyway I’m just curious” She blurted out almost as quick as Pinkie Pie.
“Darling slow down, let the poor dear talk” Rarity told Starlight with a clear cut emphasis.
“Yes, Thank you Rarity” Twilight calmed herself “ Spike told me about games that we can all play together called MMOs” She finished.
“An M&M what now?” Applejack asked Twilight Dumbfounded.
“Tell her, Spike” Twilight said witha gentle tone, she had learned not to get frustrated that easily by the Farm pony’s ignorance to modern inventions.
Spike let out a sigh before explaining in a clear voice to everyone in the room “An MMO is a massively multiplayer online game where many ponies can get on and play the same game together.”
“Soooooo” Twilight cut him off “I got you all headsets so we can play even when we are not in the same room” She said before lifting 7 pairs of Headsets, including her own to Everypony.
“Wow, did you customize these yourself?” Starlight inquired noticing the teal whisks and stars that adorned her pair.
“Yes, It took me all last night but I finally got designs down for each of you!” Twilight happily announced clopping her forehooves.
“Wow they look a might pretty Twi but this is gonna have to be one heck of a game to get me to play it” Applejack said with a chuckle while examining her Apple-clad headset.
“Yeah!” Rainbow shouted “I need some serious speed and action to get me involved” She finished with an airborn loop.
“Well, I mean, I hope there’s not too much to do, I’m not very good at playing games.” Fluttershy whimpered adding only slightly adding to the commotion.
“Why yes, a certain amount of style is required for these things darling, it has to look and act beautifully” Rarity nodded while brushing her mane for the tenth time since they sat down.
Twilight couldn’t help but smile the whole time. “Well I think this game has something for each of you, although some background knowledge may be useful” Twilight added, slipping a pair of reading glasses on to her muzzle before teleporting a price of parchment from who knows where.
“Welp, here we go again” Applejack and Rainbow groaned at the same time almost as if planned.
“AHEM,” Twilight cleared her throat bringing the two competitive ponies across from her to a standstill. “After consulting Sunset Shimmer on some key vocabulary for this game, I have come across some intriguing articles regarding the game’s main vehicular forms of play” She continues reading completely oblivious to Rainbow’s fake snoring.
“What do you mean Twilight” Spike asked inquisitively. “World of Warcraft is all about magic. You know about that stuff” he added.
“I decided on a different game Spike” Twilight responded, eyes still glued to the parchment in front of her. “Sunset’s World has had multiple wars between themselves over their existence according to some research I did. During one of these wars, One of the sides needed a way to safely carry their troops across the defensive “trenches” of the enemy” Twilight took a breath before continuing.
“These machines that they invented were called “tanks” and they were essentially moving armored hulks with guns attached to them” She continued. “These machines came in several variants and changed the course of future wars especially when two of these machines came face to face on the battlefield” Teilight finished dropping her glasses and with a loud pop, sending the parchment back from wherever it came from.
“That’s all well and dandy Twi,” Applejack picked up. “But what does that have to do with us playin a game?”
“I’m afraid I have to agree darling, while your history lessons are certainly... informing. They just simply don’t apply to the conversation” Rarity butted in.
“Yea” Spike grumbled, still upset after getting cut off by Twilight. “Cut to the chase, I wanna play a game already” He spat out as he slunked back into his chair.
“Ugh” Twilight groaned not wishing to state the obvious “Because, the game we are playing is called World of TANKS emphasis on the tanks” She finished, not noticing the silence that now hung over the room.
“So...” Twilight continued, still blissfully oblivious “I’ll need you all to get your computers and headsets, make sure you Download the game according to these instructions” Twilight told everyone there, passing a small booklet to each of their dumbfounded faces.
“See you all on Sunday next week?”
Author's Note
The tank part is coming next chapter!
I will be handling this story sort of like an anthology with separate stories for each character as they work down their tech tree with some special “platoon chapters” thrown in there as well.
As always Feedback is appreciated!
“Hehehe.” Twilight chuckled as the light from her computer glowed brighter. “I’m gonna get a head start and no one is gonna know till we play next week.” She laughed to herself before going wide eyed as the Microsoft loading sound played. BUM BUDDA DA DUDDA. She had forgotten to turn the sound down and now that might have cost her an edge on her friends.
Carefully peeking around the side of her chair, she saw no movement in the halls nor heard any sound from anypony else.
As Twilight started the game, she was immediately thrown into the Tutorial, startling the mare.
“Welcome to the battlefield commander!” A voice from the screen said in a somewhat serious tone. “First we’ll need to brush up on some basic controls, move the mouse cursor around the screen to move the camera.” the voice continued while Twilight could only nod and moved the mouse over to what looked like a medical carriage.
“Now move your tank to the other marked location highlighted on your minimap. Remember you’re in a tank, you don’t go around obstacles, you go through them!” The voice sounded humorous as Twilight obliged moving directly forward, destroying a watch tower, several vehicles and sand bags that were in her way.
“This is fun!” Twilight laughed as she destroyed more and more things before remembering where she needed to go.
“Now head to the location marked on your map, you will need to cross a marsh to get there, terrain like thIs will slow your tanks speed and maneuverability.” The voice started when Twilight entered the glowing green circle.
“Good to know.” Twilight mumbled as she drove up the hill decorated with a clean red and white lighthouse. She was so distracted by the scenery that when an enemy tank popped up on screen she almost flew out of her seat in surprise.
“Commander, an enemy tank has appeared on your screen! Use right click to zoom in and left click to shoot the enemy! Pay attention to the green bar on the right of your screen, this is your reload speed.” Finished the military-esque voice as Twilight struggled to obey, her hooves still shaking from surprise.
After seeing the enemy tank make no effort to retaliate Twilight happily enjoyed its destruction before obliging the voice’s request to move forward make by mental note of how she was able to push the wreck of the dead tank.
As the programmed Tiger II appeared on screen, Twilight was once again scared out of her seat at its intimidating appearance. “Alright commander we need to take out this tank as well, remember your aiming circle, as it shrinks your accuracy improves. Notice the color of your reticle, these colors represent penetration values, red means no chance of penetration while green means almost guaranteed penetration.” Twilight payed almost no attention to the voice as she was pre-occupied trying to kill the tank in front of her, not noticing how the shells just seemed to bounce off it harmlessly.
“Move your tank to a flanking position commander, tanks typically have weaker armor at the sides and rear!” The voice instructed Twilight as she moved her tank flat on to the side of the Tiger II and put shot after furious shot at the side of it before it burst into flame much to Twilight’s delight.
“Good job commander, you have completed the basic tutorial, if you wish to have more practice select the proving grounds game mode on the main menu. Otherwise select multiplayer and I’ll see you on the battlefield” The voice said as the screen faded to black.
“Alright, now I can play for real.” Twilighy happily whispered as she caught her breath from her hyperventilating experience. “Ok, Germane, Germane, Germane, AH HA!” Twilight yelled before shutting her mouth at the thought of waking Starlight or Spike.
As she selected the flag of Germany and looked at the first tank, she thought it must have been a joke, it looked like a grey hot dog with a pimple on it. “Well, we all start ugly I guess.” Twilight said as she hit the purchase button for, to her relief absolutely nothing of her limited “credits” the game had called them.
She was so excited to get into battle that she didn’t even bother with any it the tabs on the top of her screen before she hit the battle button and loaded in almost immediately.
Malinovka It said on the screen as Twilight scanned the left side of the loading page absorbing as much info as she could before she was chucked into the battle.
“Well that was quick.” Twilight said as she tried observing her team, she assumed they were, based on how they were green and the enemy was red. She knew that much about gaming.
“Look at all of the, weird designs.” She said as her eyes fell upon the K.Housenka before she noticed that it had started moving. So, she put her attention back on her own tank and hit the W key. Immediately she was disappointed at the speed of the tank as it trundled along the plain and slowing as it trudged up a hill. “Come on!” Twilight yelled as she noticed all her friendly tanks pushing on ahead.
As she finally creased the ridge she noticed a red diamond on her screen and instinctively pressed right trigger and zoomed in on it, MS-1 it read above the outline of the turret from 379 meters away. Twilight grinned as she pressed left click and instantly noticed how her gun fired several shots at once flying in several directions, only a few hitting the enemy tank doing minimal damage or none at all.
“We didn’t even scratch them!” A random voice from seemingly nowhere shouted, informing Twilight of the obvious.
“I know that, random voice.” Twilight growled as she waited for her reload before noticing a much closer enemy tank.
Moving her cursor over to it, it lit up as a T1 Cunningham. Grinning she held down left click and watched to her satisfaction as the enemy tank’s health disintegrated into almost nothing.
“Heheheh I think I’m pretty good at this game!” She joked, laughing before seeing her screen turn red as the T1 counterattacked and reduced her HP to 3.
Panicking Twilight rapidly clicked the mouse before she relaxed a little as the T1 burst into flames and her damage counter ticked up. Satisfied, she tried to move on but her own tank suddenly blew up, turret flying a few meters away as her tank fizzled and sparked. Shocked, she watched the camera pan to the MS1 she had shot at earlier, clearly smug at giving her some payback. When a "Return To Garage" button appeared on the bottom of the screen, she solemnly obliged.
Author's Note
I’m so sorry that this chapter was delayed so long, School has been kicking the crap out of me, and I’ve been working on another story to be released after episode 13 of season 8
Once again , sorry for the delay
Finally, I can move on” Twilight moaned as the clock struck 2 a.m. After grinding through a couple more battles of about the same quality, Twilight had finally gotten the last package researched.
“Now, I can get the Pz.II” Twilighy yawned out as she clicked the buy button, then the confirmation button, getting a pop-up congratulating her on buying a new tank.
“Awesome! Now I just need to test it out.” Twilight groggily choked out while clicking the battle button. A quick sip of coffee later and the loading screen had started displaying both sides that would be pitted against each other, snapping Twilight back into reality.
Provkarovka was Spelled out on the top of the screen, and as Twilight looked at the map, it seemed much less complicated than the name.
“So it’s just a big field with a hill?” She asked no one in particular.
“Well then this should be easy!” She exclaimed pushing her tank forward as it sped across the open plain.
She noticed some other unique tanks with triangles and boxes for icons, so enamored with playing she had forgotten their meaning. Before she had a chance to think about it very much however the sound of spotting ribbons being awarded jerked her back into the game.
Twilight was then brutally barraged by nearly everything the opposing team had to offer, even getting hit from things she couldn’t see. Panic rose as she desperately tried to evade the incoming fire, almost making it to the other side of the ridge until...
Artillery broke across her tank, it exploded in glorious fashion, nuked from the sky before she got to fire a single shot.
Twilight muttered while returning to garage. Once there she was pleasantly surprised she could purchase another tank, this one with the triangle symbol instead of a clear diamond. Clicking purchase on the Panzerjager 1 she carefully read the details of the class before it instantly clicked in her mind.
“So I just sit back and camp behind my team? Easy!” She exclaimed whilst hitting the battle button again.
El Haluf read the text on the top of Twilight’s screen naming a large, desolate, seemingly desert like valley with a small village highlighting the center. A path to the north obscured by several sandstone outcroppings creating the perfect battleground for heavys and mediums.
Twilight already had her destination in mind, a small hill at the top of a switchback road leading down the cliffface of a mountain in her corner of the map.
She arrived there relatively quickly as an M2 Light scuttled past her and down the road, only to miscalculate and drive straight off the edge of the road, plummeting toward the certain doom of the dark blue water below.
Moments later a message popped up reading, in green text, "xxxgamergirlxxx drowned" .
Groaning in frustration Twilight focused on her first victim, directly across the valley on a post similar to the one on Twilight’s left lay a Uc-2pdr. Clicking the fire button as fast as Twilights giddy little hooves could touch the mouse, shots rang out from her tank and struck home destroying the minuscule vehicle in a measly 3 shots.
“Ha, that wasn’t so hard.” Twilight cockily laughed, before realizing the danger to her friendly Pz.II on the opposite side of the valley. An FT-BS, an K. Housenka and an M2 Light all charged her poor ally. She managed to put The Housenka down but the FT went unspotted and the M2 went dashing down the slope.
“Well, there goes my targets.” Twilight sighed as she watched them disappear.
4 minutes of uneventful camping Twilights snoring was stopped by the sound of her tracks being blown off. She quickly woke from her power nap and was shocked to find herself as the last member of her team, and the M2 rapidly approaching her rear flank.
Acting quickly, she pulled herself behind the hill and awaited the M2, blissfully unaware of the doom approaching her from above.
BOOM! Twilight’s poor husk of a tank burst into flames, destroyed by the very FT she’d failed to kill earlier.
So infuriated at the thought of artillery ruining her day for the third time, Twilight woefully resigned herself to sleep, passed out on her keyboard.
Author's Note
Sorry for the short chapter, I wanted to get SOMETHING up before bed so I have this for you. Hopefully, possibly, maybe I’ll have RD’s first chapter up tomorrow but for now enjoy Twilight’s first encounters with those filthy clickers
