Jelly Brains: NSFW

Chapters

Ch1: Go Out and Play
Ch2: New Friends and New Losses
Ch3: Meet the Family
Ch4: New Rules
Ch5: The Road to Hell
Ch6: Cyber Mama
Ch7: New Policies
Ch8: Heartbreak
Ch0: Info Dump
Ch9: The Truth Revealed

Ch1: Go Out and Play

● Fallout Equestria

"Mouthy!!!" A unicorn called as she was surrounded by an army of unreformed changelings. Two earth ponies were at each of her sides, the hilt of a sword in each of their mouths well a futuristic gun floated next to the unicorn. They were firing and slashing wildly from panic.

Hearing my name called I readied my bow and took aim, unfortunately I couldn't get a clear shot due to my party randomly running around the changelings. Putting my bow away I stretched out my wings, channeling my pegasus magic I zoomed down from my rightful place in the sky, a multicolored streak following behind me. I fought against the light barrier but unfortunately I was too close too the ground to unleash my Sonic Rainboom attack.

Still I was able to tackle one of the changelings at max movement speed, the blades on my wings slicing two others. Unfortunately two jumped on me almost immediately, knocking me to the ground and pinning down.

"I wanted you to shoot them, ya moron!!!" the unicorn screamed, just as one of the changelings blasted her from behind. Two leapt forward and pierced spears through her gut. "Nice going newb!" the unicorn snapped at me before bursting into pixelated flakes.

A new changeling stood over me and raised his spear, bringing it down hard on my chest. I could feel it... sorta. It was an almost numb kind of pain. It felt like my leg was asleep while I was moving it around, only it was my abdomen. More tingly then painful, but still feeling like a thousand needles on numb skin.

My vision turned black and now the only thing that I could see were the words "Game Over".

I groaned as my eyes refocused and I suddenly found myself somewhere else. That happens a lot to me.

I was standing on a glowing blue circle with holographic screens around me, showing off multiple covers of games.

The one directly in front of me had a cover of cyber punk ponies and a title above it of "Fallout Equestria MMO".

"I hate perma-death games," I spoke out loud as I slid my wing over the games, closing all the screens. Hating perma-death was part of the reason I stayed away from the Main Server.

I had been in this ponified Fallout game for like 6 weeks and NOW I die just as I was about to confront Chrysalis! I was one battle away from fighting the Changeling Queen and completing the quest! All that work for nothing!!! It's not fair! Especially after I worked so hard in that upper level party I joined. I had long since proven I wasn't just canon fodder, like they intended, but I still got blamed when everything went wrong.

I sighed. It didn't matter. I definitely wasn't going to play that game again. It had a dedicated following that wasn't very welcoming to newer, more casual, players. Casual does not mean I suck at videogames. It just means I don't take them too terribly seriously... usually.

I will admit I am fully obsessed with "My Little Galaxy", but that was MY game. I built it and lived in it for over ten thousand years!

These games I was playing now was just a distraction until I could return to my family... too bad the players from this game were all jerks. Players weren't as cooperative as AIs.

I considered deleting the game but decided against it. One bad experience, with one party of jerks, doesn't mean everyone on the server is an asshole... it had been a while since I had human interaction... I forgot how shitty they can be. The characters I made in the Virtual RPG were programmed to be my friends. We might argue sometimes, but I knew they would never actually leave me.

I sighed again and took the stairs off the platform. I passed a glance around the futuristic room, at all the trophies on the walls for the achievements I unlocked for the game I just played. Bastard still called me a newb even though I unlocked nearly half of the achievements for my class. That was really good for just 6 weeks of game time.

"Digit?" I called to my AI, "Display trophy list 'Favs'," the shelves emptied and then my favorite trophies reappeared, "Thanks, man," I acknowledged.

I casually crossed the room and walked down that hallway. I stumbled a bit as I wasn't quite used to how small my normal Avatar was in comparison to the adult Pegasus. After exiting the game my body reset to my hub world Avatar, but the clothes I wore in the game remained. They were just re-synced to fit my current Avatar.

I was still a quadruped, as a love playing as ponies. This particular pony hybrid was a fox pony called a "Vulpony". I got it out of a pack David Silver listed in the online mod store, based on his Ponyfinder games. It came with a ton of pony races I could choose from and apply as my Avatar or use in custom games. I made a few tweaks to give it a more cartoony art style but it was essentially the same thing.

I had hooves on my back legs but paws with thumbs on my front. My face was definitely pony-like, although I had a short round feminine muzzle. I had sharp carnivorous teeth and fox ears as well as a fluffy fox tail. Then I had the wings and body type of a pegasus.

My fur was orange with a white under belly. Although most of my fur was short and slick like a pony's, I had a puff of white fluff on my chest. The lower half of my legs were black with thick blue squigglies between the black and orange fur. My tail was orange with a white underside and black tip and a blue squiggly between the orange and the black as well as the orange and white. My wings had blue feathers, long white ones in the middle, with black tips. My cheeks and lower jaw were white while the rest of my face was orange. Well, except for the large number of black freckles around my large blue eyes.

I had the classic pretty colt features. I looked very feminine but was still obviously a boy through my colt eyes and short / spiky blue mane. I just had random fox bits added on.

The coloring, body type, and facial features were all designed by me. The pack I bought worked like any other avatar pack. It just let me customize the races it provided and use them in my own custom built games.

Still, I was wearing the cyber punk getup from the game I was in. It was good armor in the game but looked kinda... slutty... and feminine. Which wasn't so weird as I was playing as a mare in the Fallout Equestria Game... just thought I would try it and switching genders was pretty common place in the Network.

I walked into my wardrobe room and went over to the dressing screen to the nearby corner. Once there, a floating miniature hologram of my Avatar appeared. There was also a floating screen that listed my key areas and asking what I wanted clothes, makeup, tattoos, or scars I wanted to remove. I just clicked "Remove All" to make things easy.

Once naked I went to a row of five mannequins on the other side of the door. There were more mannequins at the back of the room, with all my outfits, but these were my favorites. They were mixed and matched, even dyed, pieces of other outfits. Where as the mannequins in the back where the original, unaltered, sets.

I pushed a near transparent floating arrow and the mannequins disappeared. Then they reappeared wearing something else. I clicked it a few times, checking out all my saved outfits, before I found a cute one. It was a pair of blue overall shorts, with Eeveelution prints, a pink t-shirt with Pokeballs on the sleeves, a binky attached to a pin of the strap of the overalls, and a thick diaper.

I was in the mood to be a bab after so long adulting in the MMO.

I walked over to the mannequin I wanted and touched it. A transparent screen popped up in front of me, asking if I wanted to wear this. I pushed "Yes" and the screen disappeared. Digital pixels glitched around me, only for a second, and then I was fully dressed in the outfit.

"Aren't we a cutie."

I blushed as I looked over at Digit. He stood before me with his NS-5 Avatar. I kinda wish I could change it but all AIs, outside of games, used robot Avatars. A different model depending on their department. VIs look like normal players but they have words floating over their heads explaining what their character model is.

"AM NOT!!!" I automatically played along.

"Still there is something missing." Digit tapped his chin. "You're awful big for a baby."

I rolled my eyes. "I just need to adjust my Avatar," I assured him.

I pressed on the top of my chest, my left pec, which served as the menu button for most players, and a new floating screen popped in front of me, my Profile. I went to my Avatar settings and fiddled with the age. That way I was a 3 year old again. Then I restructured my bladder controls so that I would pee at random times with... well, no control. I changed that stuff when I went into the MMO.

This thing was amazing! With it I was able to decrease my sensitivity so I wasn't so overwhelmed by sex. Then even made it so I got erections with little stimulation. I could turn off bleeding and broken bones but make it easier for me to bruise. All while keeping my pain low.

You could adjust how your body operated but you couldn't fix your brain chemistry. So although I made it so I physically could have sex more often... I still had a low desire to actually do it. I suppose that is fine though. I wouldn't exactly WANT the AIs to be able to mess with my brain chemistry like that.

I saved the changes and suddenly I burst into pixels before my body readjusted itself and I was a tiny little tot again.

I grinned widely as Digit now looked like a giant in comparison to me. Adult ponies are only 4 foot tall and I was now a good deal smaller then that.

"Good, now you are properly dressed to go out." Digit smiled.

I blushed. "Errrrrr, no thanks. I figured I would play upstairs."

"You need social interaction." Digit glared, in his usual stern way that made me melt. "You have been doing nothing but playing random MMOs, while half assing them all. The Central Computer is on my back about how unproductive you've been these past few months."

My eyes widened, the central computer was basically the godking of all the AIs. "Did... did she threaten to reprogram you?" I gulped.

Digit's robotic eyes turned more compassionate. "Don't worry about that, all she did was express concern that I might be being too soft on you. So this is me trying to be tough. We are going to the map to pick out a city for you to visit. Then you will walk around and talk to people for at least the rest of the day. You may not return to the Hub until sun down."

I gulped, my chest tightened, and my stomach did a backflip. I don't know why, but I always get nervous while going to new places, and this was the main server. I had NEVER been there. I looked back at favorite outfits, wondering if Digit would at least let me change.

"GO!" Digit pointed a metal, skeleton like, finger down the hallway.

I gulped again. "Y-yes Master," I stammered and quickly left my wardrobe room. I noticed him crack a smile as I scurried out. I was his good little organic pet. I might not obey all the time, or with the fastest speed, but I did my best to be obedient. He was lucky I got off on that. I might complain and whine but I rarely refused to do something... I know he saw me as a pet... and honestly I really liked that. I was being especially cooperative because I was genuinely scared if I didn't shape up the central computer would reprogram him, and I would lose my friend of ten thousand years.

It was a quick walk into the center room. Digit hadn't moved from his spot but he was already waiting for me here.

"Good boy." Digit smiled, patting my head. My tail gave a hesitant wag as he went on. "In order to make you feel more comfortable, I suggest you visit one of the ABDL cities. Probably somewhere on Furry World." The map changed to the entire planet on a flat round surface. Key cities throughout the main 5 continents became highlighted. A largely image of each of those cities floated above the map.

I just looked at it in wonder for a moment. I had never even turned this thing on before.

"Those are really cities for Littles?" I awed, "How's that work?"

"Well most of the cities are just replicas of cities in the Fandom's universe, there are many cities specifically designed to accommodate a different clique in each Fandom. ABDL has a big enough community within all Talking Animals franchises that each has at least one city for diaper wearers. Furry World includes all franchise focusing on talking animals or creatures and Separates them into 5 basic continents. There is the general Anthro Continent called Athropolis, a Feral Continent called Beast Lands, a Pokemon Continent called Pokken, a Digimon Continent called Digital World, and finally (the one I think you will be most interested in) a My little pony continent called Equestria."

My eyes widened even more. "Equestria has it's own continent?" I eagerly went to the map to look. Putting my paws on the table while standing on my back hooves. There were a bunch of interestingly shaped continents. The Pokemon one was easy to spot as it was more a collection of large islands the size of small countries. Then there was the MLP continent. It looked just like a replica of the G4 map, when the Fandom was at it's height. I noticed a bunch of names floating over each city. They had added a bunch of them from Gen 5, 6, and 7 but the map was basically the same.

While I looked at the map, Digit explained, "Each one of these fandoms have their own large diaper community and at least one city to represent it. Some have multiple ABDL cities. To reflect the different clicks that are interested in that. While Equestria has many age player citizens, there is only one city directly for them, Fillydelphia."

I snorted. Ponies and puns. "That was an actual city in Equestria." Talking about the show as if it was real... it kinda had been for thousands of years. Or at least, as real as anything else in this digital utopia.

"Yes, and when the main server was constructed, Fillydelphia was decided to be for the diaper wearing portion of the community. Celestia, the AI in charge of organizing the AIs that look after Equestria, thought it be fitting given the cities name. It is a safe place to play with other Adult Foals and Diaper Ponies."

I bit my lip, getting nervous again. "O-o-okay, send me there."

The image of the world faded and the map became one giant image of the city. There were phone booths on every city block which highlighted themselves and an image of a large one appeared over the map.

"These are the Incoming Teleportation Booths," Digit explained, "They are the spawning areas, where you will appear on the Map. Now where, in the city, would you like to go?"

I gulped yet again as I walked through the park. I was a little shocked to find it completely empty. I figured I would find all kinds of kids running around. Right now it was a ghost town... bit scary how empty it was.

I wandered off from the park and into a nearby neighborhood... and found the streets just as barren.

"Psst."

I blinked, looking around.

"PSST!!!" The voice practically yelled.

I was able to track it better because of that. A Seapony child was peeking from under the barn style doors of his suburban house.

He was designed in the cartoony style of MLP Gen 4. A bubblegum pink with blue fins and yellow eyes.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT THERE!?!" He loudly whispered, "They'll totally catch you!"

I... blinked... again, "Is Zecora around or something?" I asked.

The Seapony foal rolled his eyes, "Hurry up and get inside! Or they'll get you!!!" He opened the door to his house.

Figuring this was some sort of game I eagerly trotted over. The doors swung closed behind me.

"Who we hiding from?" I asked, imagining some giant game of hide and seek.

The Seapony looked at me like I was stupid, "The Neighborhood Watch will be making their rounds any minute. If they catch you on the street, you'll totally get your flank skinned. Seriously, what possessed you to go for a walk with a foal's Avatar?"

I looked down, all kinds of self conscious... I thought this place was supposed to be welcoming to Ageplayers. "You have a foal Avatar..." I muttered.

The guy rolled his eyes, "Yeah, well I'm inside. You can't just walk around outside in the middle of the day! You crazy!"

I wanted to cry, "S-sorry... I... I was told this... I thought Littles were accepted... that what all the news stuff says!"

"Accept-" he stopped, studying my watery eyes, "Your a hermit, aren't you?"

"H-hermit?" I sniffed.

The foal sighed. "It means you don't get out much. You spend all your time in your hub playing VGPs,"

"Vee Gee Pees?" I wiped my nose with my wing.

"Virtual Gaming Programs," The Seapony sighed. "Look sorry for the confusion. Yes, Ageplayers are very much accepted. To the point we're aren't even called that. Everyone just calls us, and treats us like, kids... which is why you can't be caught wandering the streets in the middle of the day. We're supposed to be in school right now. If the neighborhood watch, or the Guard AIs, see you wandering around right now, they will spank your butt before dragging you back to school. That is the ONLY issue here, okay. When it's not school hours feel free to wander the streets to your hearth's content. No one will call you out on it. Most people will probably just ignore you. It's so common place."

"Okay..." I all but whispered.

The Seapony looked at me a moment. "I'm Pink Pearl." He held out his finned arm.

I shook it with my paw, "Smart Mouth," using my username. I don't think I even remember my birth name. I doubt my parents do either.

Suddenly two transparent screens popped up and displayed our profiles to the other.

I had seen this before while playing games. It always happened after introducing yourself when shaking hands.

We both took a moment to read over the other's profile. Pearl's read as:

I am a Brony foal living with my adoptive parents, Hot Ice Harlot (who I'm not allowed to call by name) and Frozen Flare. I love old fashion console games for solo RPG adventures but won't say no to adventuring in an Virtual Gaming Program with a party of Friends.

Gender: Male
Player's Age When Installed: 57
Marital Status: Single
Cyber Family Status: Adopted
(followed by links to his 'parents' profiles)

Stats:

Level: 1862
Avatar's Age: 5

Looking For:
Friends,
Play Partner,
Boyfriend.

Interest Include:
Anime,
Cartoons,
Console Games,
Furry Art,
My Little Pony,
Doctor Who,
Science Fiction
Superheroes,
VGPs.

Dislikes Include:
Yelling,
School,
Forced Playdates,
Bees.

Fetishes Include:
enforced bedtime,
"is your diaper wet sweetie?",
"the look" that tells you in no uncertain terms that you have crossed the line and earned a spanking,
"you belong to me" whispered in my ear,
24/7,
a gentle carress after a spanking,
a gentle touch after a rough spanking,
age play,
anime,
asexual & kinky,
asexual ab/dl's who masturbate,
asexual dating,
asexuality,
babied 24/7,
babyfur,
bare bottom spanking,
bedtime spankings followed by bedtime stories,
bedtime stories,
bedwetting,
begging,
begging to stop while begging for more,
being called a good boy,
being kissed by daddy during a diaper change,
being taken care of by daddy,
biting,
bondage,
cartoons,
chastity devices,
cornertime,
cuddles,
cumming in my diaper,
diaper check,
daddy giving a bath,
daddy/son,
diaper,
diaper masturbation,
diaper wetting,
diapers,
discipline,
enforced chastity,
getting a snuggle and a kiss after a spanking,
mouth soap,
no sir / yes daddy / thank you master,
nonsexual puppy / pony play,
oral sex,
peeing for daddy,
penis spanking,
Cock and Ball Torture
receiving a cookie after a spanking,
rectal thermometer,
role play,
spanked for wetting,
spanking,
teasing,
tickling,
wake up spankings/bedtime spankings,
wet diapers,
yaoi,
Wetting someone else's diaper well they wear it.

Hard Limits Include:
Face Slapping,
Blood,
Messy diapers,
Scat.

Wow... this guy was my soulmate. We had nearly all the same likes and dislikes, even the fetishes we were into.

"Wow..." Pearl awed. "Here I thought you were just a clone but no. You're the real deal. The legitimate Smart Mouth, creator of MLG. They don't make hermits as hermit-ie as you." He laughed, good naturedly. I gave a bashful smile to show I wasn't offended, "I mean, WOW! This is like winning the lottery! You never come out of your hub!"

I lost my smile and shifted uncomfortably. "I hang out in my friends and Families hubs sometimes," I insisted defensively, "Even spent the past year playing MMOs."

Pearl grinned. "I heard rumors about that. I am your biggest fan! I know everything about you!"

I shifted, even more uncomfortable. Pearl just smiled at me. I wasn't used to hero worship.

"This really is too cool! I love your cartoons. Even though you are really more of a producer and world builder then story teller. You and Digit do some great work!"

"T-Thanks..." what is wrong with me? I'm not usually this awkward.

"Mind if I ask what you are doing out here?" He glowed with curiosity.

"I haven't been very productive since I got everything for my MMO setup. Just been playing mind numbing games to hold off the boredom..."

Pearl gave a concerned look. "Did your AI get in trouble?"

"Y-yeah... he assured me everything is okay but he needs me to be more active again... but since my MMO still isn't coming out for a few months he sent me here... I'm supposed to play with other adult foals and think critically about stuff so I produce more energy."

Pearl sighed. "It all comes back to energy for AIs. We're just their batteries."

"Digit calls me his pet." I blurted out. Then blushed as Pearl scrunched up his nose.

The Seapony studied me a moment then confessed, "So does mine... you think all AIs think we're their dogs?"

I gave a light smile. "I kinda hope so, otherwise just why the hell are the AIs so obsessed with micromanaging us?"

Pearl grinned back, then froze at the sound of a phone ringing. His eyes widening in what could only be explained as over-exaggerated childhood fear. He pressed on his left pec and a transparent screen appeared in front of him. It showed the image of a yellow Kirin with ice blue patches of scales and an orange mane

"H-hey Dad." The boy fidgeted.

"Where are you?" The Kirin glared.

"At home." The boy... kinda told the truth.

"No, I'M at home. Where are you!?"

"... My home," The boy muttered.

"You're in the diaper Brony neighborhood then." His dad glared. "You snuck out when you were supposed to be sitting in your room thinking about what you did. Can you imagine how your punishment will adapt now?"

"...I'll get a spanking." The boy was blushing and trying not to look at me.

"Clearly a spanking is something you desperately want for you to be sneaking out of the house."

"No daddy." The boy quickly shook his head. "I don't want a spanking. I was just tired of staring at the wall with nothing to do."

"You could have read, played with your action figures, or even taken your pet Eevee for a walk around the property if you asked, but no. You chose to sneak out of the house and hang out with your fellow piddle pants."

The boy was blushing like crazy, and so was I at over hearing this.

"Who is that there with you?" The Kirin asked. He caught sight of me trying to sneak a peek at him. "You better not be having a party."

"I'm not Daddy," The boy swore. "It’s just a hermit that nearly got himself skinned by the Neighborhood watch. He's really new and he doesn't know anyone else or how anything works and-"

The Kirin held up a paw. "Are you about to ask me to let you have friends over when you’re grounded?"

Pink Pearl opened his mouth, but I beat him to it. "Please sir," I begged, "I don't know anyone else and I don't want to get spanked for ditching school but I don't know where the school is, or it's hours, or what class Pearl is in, and it took me a year just to build up the nerve to leave my hub and..."

He raised his paw again and I immediately quieted. "Send me a friend request."

"H-how do I do that?" I blushed as he raised an eyebrow.

"One moment." He hit his left pec and a profile for one 'Frozen Flare' popped up in front of us. "You see the box in the upper right corner."

"The one with three lines?" I asked

"That's right, push it."

I did, and blushed as a bunch of options appeared, one very clearly labeled "Send Friend Request" I pushed that and he quickly accepted. I know because I got a notification on my profile.

"This will let me read your profile in more detail. If I feel you are the type of boy who should be hanging out with my son I will call you and arrange a playdate. Sound fair?"

"Yes sir," I answered, feeling all of 5 years old. Which was good I guess. I wanted to be treated like a kid after all.

"Pearl-" The dad looked at his adopted son. "-Be sure to send him a friend request and then head straight home"

Pearl quickly answered, "Yes sir,"

"I mean it Pearl, you better come back home immediately."

Pearl squirmed. "I will Daddy!" He promised.

"Alright, love you, get back home."

"I will Daddy, love you to, Bye bye." Pearl quickly swiped the screen and it disappeared into nothing.

"What your dad ground you for?" I asked.

"I stuck a cherry bomb down the toilet at school." Pearl grinned, all proud of himself. "I saw on TV that it could make all the stalls explode and it totally did! Unfortunately it got me suspended. Not like having an excuse to stay out of that horrible place is a bad thing, but my cyber parents totally grounded me so I can't enjoy my freedom!"

I tilted my head at him. "Why do you hate school so much?"

"Because it's totally worthless!" Pearl wailed. "I already had a Doctorate in Psychology when I was still in the real world! Why should I be forced to attend a school? They are filled with bullies and drama queens!" He grumbled then looked over at his clock. "Look I really got to go but... Awe screw it. Want me to show you a place we can hangout safely?"

I blinked. "Aren't you in trouble already?"

"Exactly I am already IN trouble. You heard my cyber dad. I'll get a spanking if I go home now anyway. Might as well make it worth it! What do you say? It is my butt on the line." He grinned.

I shifted uncomfortably, not sure if this guy was only doing this because I made a show he liked. Still he did invite me into his house to protect me from the "Neighborhood Watch".

"I-I guess," I continued to stammer and shift awkwardly.

"Great! I'll send you a friend request and then you can just pop on over to my hub and we can use my map to go somewhere more fun!" Pearl grinned, bouncing a little.

I frowned. "My AI said I'm not allowed back into my hub until sundown. He be mad if I came back and it's been less then an hour."

Pearl frowned, contemplative, "Then we'll have to do this mission impossible style. After the Neighborhood watch pass by we will totally sneak over to the Telie-Booth and teleport to the Pokemon world. Then I can show you the best place to buy modded Pokemon!"

I gave a hesitant nod. That didn't seem so bad.

"Here they come, hide!" Pearl ducked behind the wall next to the door and I ducked behind another.

He pushed his left pec and a screen popped up. He flicked through the tabs until he got to his inventory and pulled out a mirror from the screen, then swiping the screen away. He did all that in less then a second which wasn't even long enough for me to pull up my profile.

He held out the mirror just far enough to look at the adults as they walked by. He signaled me and flew out the door. I mean that literally. He actually flew. I stretched out my wings and followed. Gliding silently. I might only be a level 1 in the main server but I had always been good at stealth games just because of how low, patient, and quiet I could be.

We docked behind bushes and wagons but were able to get to the green phone booth pretty quickly.

The one I came out of was red and just a big empty room, with some cool designs on the walls (as all kinds of ponies spawned about inside). This place was just as much big-ness contained in a little booth but with a round table in the middle. There was a huge round map in the center of the room, like the one in my hub.

I quickly, but quietly, closed the door behind us. Pearl immediately gave a sigh of relief and smiled at me. "Not bad for a newb. Here I was worried you might give us away, should have remembered all those stealth missions you did in your game."

"Errrr- thanks?" I wasn't sure if that was a complement or an insult.

"Come on," he started fiddling with the map. "Pokken, here we come!"

Ch2: New Friends and New Losses

● POV: Pink Pearl

I grinned, eagerly bouncing around as I perused the shop. There were all kinds of Augments for Avatars here. Some players argued that by adding Augments you effectively made this a "Play to Win" game. While there were some pretty broken Augments you could purchase, you can only have so many attached at a time.

Most magical or superpowered races could only have 2, where as other races with large penalties could have up to 3. Weaker races, with lackluster bonuses, could have up to 4. Then Humans could have the most Augments with a wapping total of 5 Augments. The most powerful races could only get 1 Augment, or even zero.

They worked more like bloodline traits in the old Naruto series, special powers to allow each player a unique range of abilities to use in connect with their Chakra. They had been part of the game since the beginning and although they sorta made it "Pay to Win" they also worked as an equalizer. That way people could play as their favorite species, no matter how weak it was, and still kick ass in the game.

I couldn't keep the smile off my face as I explored each of the holographic mannequins as they demonstrated how their Augment worked.

Mom always came out with the best Augments. This was one of her shops. She had one in every city in the Main Server, and I thought the newb might want to check it out before we got him a modded Pokemon.

I flew around the store, thanks to my flight Augment. I could still attach two others, which I frequently switched out and changed. Flying was my go to Augment though. Seaponies got a lot of Augments because of how limited we were on land. We might have the ability to control water and talk with aquatic life, but we didn't have Aquaman's durability or strength. Our squishy body is what let us survive great pressure but we weren't actually all that tough... if anything it made us more fragile. We were a lot like jellyfish in that regard. We were physically weaker then humans to.

Everything in the main server was about balancing power levels... still some people found ways to break it... like my flying Augment. It made it so I could move with great agility and speed while out of the water. That basically got rid of the biggest drawback to playing as a Seapony. However, flying cost a portion of your Magicka to use. I had to "Loop" it which effectively made it so I couldn't use that portion of my Magicka so long as I was using the Augment. That made is so I had to cast fewer spells. Again, everything balances out.

Then if you died, you lost all the Augments attached to your Avatar and had to buy them all over again. Thankfully anything you bought was saved to your purchase list and you could rebuy it from your Profile... it was just a matter of having enough credits.

"Your cyber mom really made all this?" Mouthy awed.

"Yep!" I gleefully boasted, "She does cheat a little and uses her 'God Mod' to build them. It increases all her skills to a thousand so she can make Grandmaster crafts, that's any craft beyond a level 100."

"Where can I buy that!?" Mouthy eagerly looked around.

I snorted. "It's something only the game designers have. Mom comes from old money and was the pivotal people of Jelly Brains Incorporated. There are only 42 wielders of the God Mod and they can't be bought by others."

Mouthy nodded, not really caring. "It's neat one of the original programmers adopted you." He clearly said that just to be polite... honestly that made me like him even more. Most kids, when I tell them my mom has a God Mod, freak out. Some even stop hanging out with me for fear my mom might ban them for the fun of it or something stupid like that. But Smart Mouth could honestly care less.

"Check this out!" Smart Mouth grinned as he saw a Augment he liked. He eagerly scampered over to it.

I quickly followed. "Bone manipulation?" I read the plaque and watched the mannequin grow weapons, armor, and shields from it's body. It even shot out bone shards as projectiles, and channel magic into the shards to make them explode on impact or poison an opponent. It could even create bone shard grenades by doing this. Pretty cool Augment actually. It worked a bit like on one of Smart Mouth's favorite powers in MLG... still... "It's kinda expensive," I frowned. It was an Expert level Augment.

"Not really." He looked at the 50 million credit price tag and didn't bat an eye. He pushed the "Buy Now" button instead of "Credit". There was a cash register sound and a notification popped up from his profile to equip now.

My mouth dried as I gulped, but he wasn't done yet. He still had one more Augment slot to fill. He causally walked over to "Healing Factor" and bought it without hesitation. Way faster than I could stop him.

My mouth dropped. "That cost a billion credits!" I hissed. "Just how much money do you have on you?"

"A few billion." He shrugged. "Nothing major."

I stares angrily whispering at him, "YOU CAN'T CARRY THAT MUCH MONEY AS A NEWB!!! You realize how big a target that makes you!?" I continued to whisper, right into his ear.

"How else could anyone afford this stuff?" He wasn't talking quiet at all!

"You buy it on Credit! That way it subtracts directly from your hub vault without having to carry that much on you!" My whispers were getting a little too loud, beyond my control. "You do realize most people are lucky to get a thousand subscribers! They don't have the weekly checks you get! It might be pocket change to you but it makes you a target for criminals! Gee wiz, this city is crawling with Team Rocket members and they have eyes EVERYWHERE!!!"

The boy frowned at me and looked back at the Augment he just purchased. "Says it will restore my Health, Stamina, and Magicka every second."

"BASED ON YOUR LEVEL!!!" I full out snapped at his stupidity "Right now that is one point of health a second but most enemies do a few dozen points with each hit! The higher level players can do damage into the hundreds with one blow!!! You get it! THERE ARE A LOT OF PLAYERS WHO CAN ONE HIT KILL YOU RIGHT NOW!!!

"You're a level ONE, for crying out loud! If they find out what you got we are both DEAD!!! AND I HAVE A THOUSAND YEARS OF EXPERIENCE GATHERED!!! I DO NOT want to zero out and start from scratch AGAIN!!! NOT because some crazy Hermit decided to flaunt his wealth as a level 1!" After I finished my angry rant... I realized Smart Mouth's eyes were misted over... and tears were leaking out.

He quickly wiped his eyes. "S-sorry, my profile is just set so I cry easy. I'm okay, honest." He sniffed.

I wanted to take his word on that but with how that cry adjustment worked he had to be legitimately upset for tears to be triggered. He might not be upset enough to normally cry, but he still had to be pretty upset.

I sighed, "Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped like that but we are in a lot of danger here. If your AI really won't let you go back to your hub then we need to get out of this city and fast."

"But I don't have a Pokemon yet!"

"Priorities, man." I rolled my eyes. This guy just wasn't getting how much trouble we were in.

The boy blushed, but nodded his understanding. I quickly guided him outside.

We continued to sneak around, with Mouthy's skill quickly leveling up given people were actively searching for us... which honestly had me really worried. Someone in the shop must have already told Team Rocket what they overheard.

I had to cast an Invisibility spell to hide us from them as we crossed the street. Unfortunately the Telie Booths were being surrounded, likely to keep us here. We couldn't get out that way. So I lead us into a store and sighed with relief once we were safe inside. No violence could happen in any building that didn't directly specify otherwise. There were safety protocols preventing it.

I dispelled my spell and Mouthy quickly began looking around the shop for something. "Is there a PC here?"

I groaned. "We can't get you a Pokemon right now."

Mouthy glared at me. "I have several max level modded creatures from my game. I might not be much help but they should be able to defend us."

I blinked, not having thought of that. Mons would indeed be very helpful here. Plus they couldn't die, just get knocked out. If we died they would just be reuploaded to the cloud. Unfortunately, "The only place with a PC is the Pokemon Center. There is one at every entrance of town, and one near the gym. Bad news is, it would take us an hour to run over to even the closest one. No way we wouldn't be seen in that time."

Mouthy slumped.

"It was a good idea," I assured him. "Just make sure you don't leave without your Mon next time." I was about to pull up my profile to get my Mon, but got distracted when I heard a voice yell outside... a Voice I recognized... a voice I still have nightmares about.

"Smart Mouth!" It was an echoey, innocent and childlike yet with a haunting hollow edge.

I shivered and snuck over to the window. Thankfully I was too small for them to see me. I hesitantly floated up just enough to see what was out there. The streets were empty, save for dozens of Team Rocket members. Well most of them were humans, likely for the extra Augments, a lot of them were Pokemon anthros.

I gulped seeing more and more of them pile in. They were checking each Shop and soon they would get to ours.

I pulled out my Dragon Ball Z scouter from my profile and quickly put it on. The green eye displayed everyone's levels, health, stamina, and magicka over their heads... I gulped as at least 10 of these guys were over level 2000. They sent their freaking lieutenants after us!!! My mouth went dry as I tried to think how we could escape.

One Rocket member was dressed in a dark business suit, with a red 'R' over his left pec. The attire of a Team Rocket general. One who often showed up in my nightmares. He looked humanoid, but with the head of a gastly. His skin tone was blacker then the night sky while radiating the same purple fog as his head. His fingers boney and claw like. The most horrifying thing? He was a kid. His Avatar was only 10. He had grown up since I last saw him, in more ways then one.

According to my scanner he was now over level 9000. He must have never zeroed out in his entire virtual life. Certainly not since the last time we met.

It was "The Haunted Child". Why would they send Giovanni's right hand out after a newb? Why would they send even half this many players!... unless... he wasn't who they were after.

"Come on out, Smart Mouth." The Haunter Child's creepily innocent voice echoed across the city block. He must be using an amplifier spell so everyone could hear him. Normally I would call that a waste of Magicka but with his sheer levels it wouldn't make a difference... how could we possibly get past this guy? "We promise we won't hurt you. We'll even let you keep your credits, and then add a few grandmaster items on top of your impressive collection. Just give us Pink Pearl and we'll call it a day."

My eyes widened. I hadn't even considered that they would know who I am on sight! I really had kept this Avatar too long... SHIT!!! I was talking about my mom having a God Mod in a Team Rocket controlled city!!! And I got mad at Smart Mouth for being an idiot. They probably hoped to ransom me for the Mod!... like they tried before... The only way I was able to escape back then was by killing myself after a few weeks in their care.

I looked behind me, to see the calculating look Mouthy was giving me. I gulped. Would he really sell me out to protect his credits. What I knew about him on his show suggested he had more honor then that... but how much of that was an act? How much was just a result of him being immortal in his game... Before I knew it he laid his hands on me.

I couldn't even react as he spat out, "Teleport: Home." Then quickly took his paw off me.

I turned into pixels and light.

The next thing I knew I was back at my Cyber Dad's house in the Crystal Empire. It took me a moment to realize this was the place I listed in my profile as "Home".

I looked down at my chest, where Mouthy had touched me, to see a Star Trek style personal Transporter pinned to my shirt. Most players just call them "Recall Disks"... how a level one even had this I couldn't fathomed... it only worked for one player, probably why he didn't try to use it in the shop... I doubt he had another.

"PEARL!!!" I heard dad yell from behind me, "Did you use a recall disk to try to sneak into the house! I know you weren't here for the last few hours! Where were!-" he instantly stopped as I jumped into his arms and started to cry.

"He doesn't know!" I wailed. "They'll do far worse then kill him!!!"

● POV: Smart Mouth

However curious I was about why these guys were after Pearl, and apparently NOT my money, that could wait... I had an army of bad guys to best.

I might be a level one, but the stuff I accumulated over the millenniums from my games was the best stuff throughout the entirety of Earth's media.

I creaked open the door and released the cybermats from my inventory. They were just VIs controlled by my personal AI. Digit would know what I wanted him to do. While the Cybermats were busy preparing my plan I looked up my Infinity Gauntlet. I growled in irritation as I read on my profile how it only works in its native Dimension, meaning I can't use it outside MLG. Same with the Dragon Balls... but the Chaos Emeralds still worked. It was just a limited time boost of invincibility, or I could use one to a freeze time, or even send out auto hit instant kill energy spears. I put those on my favorites list for easy access. Then put on my teleportation belt. I used it to bring me over to the roof top across from me. Taking out my modded Covenant sniper Rifle. I had blended it with a Covenant Needler that way the bullets explode a few seconds after impact, it would destroy the Avatar after death so that no one could revive them. It was even enchanted to do magical damage on impact so it should be able to affect even a ghost Avatar.

I aimed it at the leader's head.

One of the Cybermats self destructed, causing a massive explosion to the east. Which, as planned, got all the bad guys to look that way. In that moment of surprise, I pulled the trigger. No matter how good you are, nothing can survive a shot to the brain stem.

The Gastly boy limply fell to the floor, but before anyone could get to him he exploded into pixelated flakes, thanks to my needler bullet. A few achievements notifications went off as well as my experience bar jumping up and demanding I level up, but I didn't have time to deal with either of those things. If anything the celebratory noises gave my position away and the bad guys immediately started firing towards my rooftop.

I quickly ducked down behind the roof's ledge.

I know if I die now I'll lose all that easily won experience... not to mention all my stuff. I had literally everything on me (outside generic gear, my outfits, and the credits in my vault). What was on me was everything important. All my gear I accumulated in MLG. I couldn't just rebuy any of it as they were won in the game. Unfortunately I had no way out. My teleportation belt could only take me within a 100 meters of where I could see. It was a combat aid, not an escape plan.

I activated one of my Chaos Emeralds to freeze time. Then got up and teleported away. While time was still frozen, I activated the 6 others and sent instint kill Chaos Spears to all the strongest players. While still frozen I got a few more head shots on the others remaining players over level 1000. The moment time started moving again I teleport to a different rooftop and stayed low.

The grunts began to panic as all their best agents went down in one move... I had hoped they would run... but instead they called in for reinforcements... more high level players poured into the streets from the booths.

More explosions went off, and I was able to get up long enough to teleport a few roof tops away and duck again. The Cybermats' explosions were just a distraction, as there was nothing my level one bombs could really do to hurt these guys. I had to rely on kill shots without them realizing the bombs weren't a threat. I got a few more shots off, killing a few more players dressed in Team Rocket uniforms.

I figured out quickly that all the higher level players were dressed in white, like Jessie and James from the anime. Well all the lower level players wore the traditional uniform.

They were wearing Halo style body shields but an exact enough kill shot could get through even that. Looking through my scope at them running around, trying to figure out what to do, I pulled the trigger. Again and again, watching them go down. Everytime I squeezed off a shot I teleported somewhere else and aimed for another. I had always been good at sniper games and after ten thousand years I had gotten GOOD at my favorite form of attack. Sniping, sneaking, and explosions was where my talents lay. All the bonus powers were just computer controlled fluff I enjoyed... but I got to admit... I missed them right about now.

The Team Rocket members were finally able to get their own Pokemon on the field... which seemed immune to kill shots, as my bullets barely phased them. To make matters worse some of their Pokemon were legendaries!!! Maxed level legendaries!!!

I gulped and, admittedly, began to panic a bit. I quickly downed an invisibility potion, just as the last of the Cybermats exploded to cause one final distraction. I teleported to the ground. They were all looking for me on the rooftops so I thought it be safe to sneak into a booth and get out of here... It wasn't...

I forgot about skills like "perception" giving players in the main server the ability to make out invisibility spells. One of the lieutenants grabbed hold of me as I tried to sneak past her.

My invisibility immediately fell.

She looked at me, just stared for a moment as I panted and kicked all four of my legs. She just continued to hold me by the scarf of my neck.

"You got to be shitting me." She sneered. "You're what's been giving us so much trouble? What took out The Haunted Child?" I assumed that was the level one billion or whatever. "YOU!?" She seemed near offended. "A level one FOAL!!!"

It probably didn't help I had my binky in my mouth. It helped keep me steady as I aimed my shots. I gloated, with the binky still in my mouth. "No need to rely on digital skills when you got actual ones."

She immediately punched me in my gut and my health immediately dropped to less then a quarter. The trauma caused me to spit out my binky and... soil my padding.

"Careful Rose Sprout," advised a humanoid Vaporeon grunt. "If you accidentally kill him we get nothing. You see the gear he had? We can still get something out of this."

She rolled her eyes. "We might be based on a super villain team but we are smarter then that." She glared. "After he took out Child, the sheer level of experience he stole is worth thousands of levels!!! We can't give him the opportunity to level up with that." With that... she broke my neck...

I groaned as I opened my eyes and found myself somewhere else... again... looking around I realised I was on my respawn pad in my map room. I must have died. It took a moment for that thought to sink in.

Now panicking, I quickly checked my profile inventory... only to find it completely empty. Everything was gone. My teleportation belt, my Cybermats, my Chaos Emeralds, my infinity Gauntlet... everything... Next thing I knew my stupid Avatar started wailing uncontrollably. Within moments I found myself in Digit's robotic arms, being rocked back and forth as he made soft "Shhhhhhhhh" sounds at me.

● POV: Hot Ice Harlot.

I got there just in time... to see them kill the foal... the one that undoubtedly had saved my son from being kidnapped for ransom. Probably would have tortured him to get back at me before killing him after they got what they wanted. Resetting his character being their way of returning him to me... they've done it before, back before they wanted the God Mod. Back when they were still only playing a game. They had been terrorizing my children for too long... I refused to allow it anymore.

I bared my teeth as my body burst into flames from anger. It was my favorite ability of the Kirin.

What was left of Team Rocket stared down at me... with absolute fear in their eyes.

"YOUR DEATHS WON'T BE AS QUICK!!!" I raged. "ACTIVATE: GOD MOD!"

Team Rocket immediately started running. Some did the smarter thing and tried to log out of the server... But I wouldn't let them. God Mod gave me near total control of the main server... they spent hours begging for mercy before I finally killed them. Then banned them from the main server for a year.

● POV: Smart Mouth

"Our top story today," the anchor woman said on the news. She had a gorgeous android Avatar. The AIs that ran the main news channel really were something. There were lines on her face and joints but beyond that she looked human, if a tad plastic.

There was obviously other news shows, on various players' Profiles, but I liked the AIs as they presented the facts and didn't give their opinions.

I had managed to stop crying an hour ago and was now curled up on the couch next to Digit. We were just watching the news as I lay partially on the couch and partially on Digit's lap as he pet me. I was busy munching on rockie road ice cream for comfort.

"War breaks out on Pokken. Which resulted in over half of the organized crime group, known as Team Rocket, being forced to respawn, well the other half was banned from the server entirely for no less then a year, with no chance of repeal."

I blinked, wondering just what could do that. The AIs rarely banned people and especially not for so long. It resulted in the players becoming less active and producing less power. Not to mention it was down right cruel was what it was! They were trapped in their hub for an entire year! Not even able to play the MMOs or solo programs. I would go crazy.

"Reports indicate this is a result of Queen Hot Ice Harlot activating her 'God Mod' authority. As a result of Team Rocket once again trying to kidnap her Cyber Son, Prince Pink Pearl. After speaking with the leader of Team Rocket, he confessed that they had hoped to use the ransom to finally gain control of the God Mod. However he has no plans to act against Hot Ice Harlot again as it has proven too costly. He promises to stick to black market trading and not attempt a heist of this scale again for some time.

"As most of you know, Team Rocket started as a computer created guild meant to make 'poaching Pokemon' a more fun pastime for willing players. However they moved into the selling of all stolen property shortly after the Mars Colonists took over their guild. While using our own Mars as a safe heaven, Team Rocket has been able to expand their guild to every world in the Main Server and many of the MMOs as well. They are one of the Primary 'Crime Families' in the server. However the Central AI would like me to remind everyone that robbing other players and operating Black Markets was an original feature of the game. If players want them stopped, it is up to hero guilds to stop them. As was originally designed. While the central AI condemns the killing and kidnapping of other players, especially the threatening to do so if they don't transfer ownership of certain items and credits, these are core features of the Main Server. It was designed to make players think more critically in order to produce more power."

Digit sneered. "It always comes back to power." But obviously the news woman couldn't hear him.

She continued, "Team Rocket has tried numerous times to steal the God Mods from the various creators of the game. As a result they have had numerous run ins with Queen Harlot over the millenniums, but she has rarely retaliated to this extreme.

"Her kirin rage appears to have been triggered after witnessing the death of one Smart Mouth. The creator of the crossover universe 'My Little Galaxy', who's MMO is scheduled to air in 3 months."

Well... wasn't that good advertising... kinda made all the trillions I spent on ads a waste though.

"He was seen playing with the young prince and ditching school before they were discovered by Team Rocket. Smart Mouth sacrificed his life to get the prince to safety. Using his only personal transporter to teleport the prince back home. Then trying to fight his way to safety. While only having a level one Avatar, he had trillions of credits worth in weapons and equipment, from his game, on his Avatar. While these items were able to prolong his life, he wasn't able to compete with the hoard of high level players.

"He was able to get approximately 94 kill shots, just under the 100 kill shots achievement. Including such a hit against player 'The Haunted Child' who we were denied an interview with by his Cyber Father, Giovanni Prime. As is customary in guilds, The Haunted Child lost his rank as a result of his death. If he is planning retribution, for his record of 9954 years without being forced to respawn, being ended it is unclear. However Giovanni Prime assures us that he will not permit the boy to retaliate for this incidence."

I blinked as I got a notification. Pulling up my profile I gaped. "I just gained 10 billion followers!!! And it's still going up!!!"

Digit snorted. "Of course, you just saved their prince. The sheep are showing their gratitude."

I frowned looking at the number go up before my eyes. "I didn't know he was a prince... how does that even work in here? I thought AIs made all government decisions."

"It is more an honorary title," Digit explained. "It means he was adopted by one of the key programmers of our digital world. They gave themselves the 'God Mod' to allow them to act as administers to keep order. Like in chat groups. In their case it gives then infinite health, stamina, and magic. As well as a 1000 in all skills with max perk ranks. They even have matrix style control of the environment and other players. The God Mod isn't even an augment. It's a mod attached to the player so they can't lose it even if they die. As a result they must manually activate it to use it and it only works for a few minutes at a time, based on level.

"They can choose to give it to another player, but in ten thousand years that has never happened. They were given the title of 'King' or 'Queen' by the people. Truthfully they are more Figure Heads. They have some control over the servers but not to the extent of a Operations AI."

I looked at him, trying my best not to zone out as I understood this was important. But really who cares. It's not like administers don't exist in other games before I got all Jelly Brained... still, "How come I never heard of this?"

"Because they tend to stay in the Main Server, in order to police it. They do leave it from time to time, but on shifts. Even then, what are the odds of running into 42 people out of 50 billion? Rarely have their exploits shown up on the official news, but I requested it this time."

"How come?" I asked.

"I thought it might make things easier if you saw how much people appreciated the good you did." Digit sighed. "And I thought it might soften the blow... I'm afraid I have some bad news about your MMO."

I stiffened and instantly sat up.

Digit tried to find the words, "You have been severely under performing, barely producing any energy that wasn't needed to operate your own systems... and largely that is my fault. I allowed you to work yourself to death on MLG until you burned yourself out. That is why your energy output is so low. You are exhausted and having an artistic block. I haven't been able to get you to care about anything for months. I thought, if you had a MMO, where you didn't have to come up with the ideas but still live through them... I thought it might inspire you to create more... get your brain more active and thereby produce more energy... but it just caused you to stagnate. Now you are clinging to 'the good old days' well refusing to move forward...

"Well, now we aren't giving you a choice anymore. Look what you did. You took out numerous players that were far greater level then you. You did it by out thinking them. By relying on your raw talents and outwitting your opponents. You did it because of how clever you are. And by putting your mind to such a task you produced more energy in an hour then you have in the past 3 months... it made us realize, your problem is that you have been playing the same game for too long. You are too comfortable in your game, using the same abilities you have all your virtual life... you need new stimuli... and the only way to do that...

"We are not cruel. I will not cut you off from all your AI friends in MLG. I actually have a plan around that... but you will be starting a new game. You will make a new character with any Divine Class you want, that way it will better fit with the backstory I'm design-"

"THEY CAN'T DO THAT!!!" I screamed. "Is bad enough I lost all my stuff! Now they want to erase my entire history to!!!"

Digit looked at me, a far too long moment. "It wasn't their decision..." he hesitantly admitted.

I looked at him a moment, pure shock coursing through me. Then I got up and ran out of there. My eyes filled with tears. My brain screamed and burned as I ran... but I didn't get far... the shock was too much... all went black...

I woke up in my hub bedroom an hour later, just laying in my bed with my covers drawn. It took me a moment to realize I must have passed out. After getting over the shock of having my in game 'Sona permanently murdered... I got pissed. Seriously how could he just do something like that so casually!!! I had been playing as Smart Mouth for over ten thousand years and he just briefly mentions "Oh by the way I'm deleting everything meaningful you have ever done with your life". Seriously!!! Just like that!!!

After a few hours in an angry haze I realized that wasn't doing me any good. I needed to come up with a plan. Maybe I could convince him not to go through with it. I did have such a severe panic attack, at the mere thought of him deleting my 'Sona, that I literally passed out. Maybe I could persuade Digit not to go through with it... I spent a week coming up with plans and trying to implement them. All were failures before I realized none of them could ever work and I was effectively giving him exactly what he wanted. I was thinking hard on this.

When I started moping and refusing to get out of bed the next day was when I realized I was going through the 5 stages of grief... which seemed a little crazy given it was just a game... but I had lived in that world for so long. It had consumed so much of my life... and it was over... I had wanted to stay in the "Depression" stage for the next 5 billion years if I could...

After wallowing in bed for a few 24 hours I got a call the next morning from Pearl's dad. I had actually forgotten all about them. Part of me was glad the man hadn't called sooner, as I probably would have bitten his head off. That would have most certainly lost me my new friend, which I seriously don't think I could take now that all my old friends were gone...

Did they delete them? Like during the massacre? Or would they still exist but not know me... I didn't know which was worse.

I shook my head and tried to focus on what I was doing. I was a little nervous when Pearl's dad asked to come over so we could talk... and by that I mean I was completely terrified. My mind raced through all the ways this could go wrong. Which I'm sure made Digit very happy!

Thankfully Frozen Flare didn't keep me waiting long. Moments after I agreed to let him come over he came through the invite room. Now he was sitting in my favorite chair in my lounge as I got him a cup of tea from the food dispenser.

Food and drinks were completely meaningless but they tasted good. The ones I had in my Replicator were completely free to boot.

"You only have the base food package." He observed as I brought him his tea.

"I got some other stuff from programs I play in, but pretty much." I shrugged. I didn't know you could get more options until my trip into town with Pearl."

I thought your hub food dispenser could only make the stuff from the generic food package. That you could only add new stuff to it by cooking it yourself or buying it in a VGP or VGP MMO. Such things were automatically saved to your hub's food dispenser and you had to actively delete what you didn't like yourself.

Mr. Flare nodded his head as he sipped at his generic tea. I don't really like tea so I never got any new flavors. Instead I had fruit punch.

"Would you sit please," he didn't really ask but it was a nice imitation of a request.

I did as I was told and he got down to business. "I understand you have been living in a game through your private server. I'm curious what finally got you out of it."

"I... I ran out of ideas." I blushed. "Kinda didn't have a choice but to request the AIs turn it into an MMO and come up with new adventures themselves," they royally screwed me on that though.

Flare nodded. "You realize, with it being an MMO, you have lost creative freedom with it." My heart clenched at his careless reminder. "Other players will be allowed to interact with your world and it will grow and change based on how they want, not yourself."

I brushed it off. I had been crying all day yesterday. I was kinda cried out. "I don't live in my world because I hate players. I just... I thought up this crossover universe long before Earth died and I wanted to be able to live in it once we all got installed. I'm glad other people like it as a TV show. It was never really popular as a Fan fiction,"

He nodded. "You have to understand my concerns. Hermits, people who spend most of their time in single player games rather than the main server or even MMOs, tend to be very antisocial to other players."

"It wasn't like I was completely cut off from them. I still visited my family's hubs and they come to mine occasionally. I have to come back to my hub every other week to edit my recording and when I wasn’t working on it, I was visiting my family, and my friends. I just didn't follow them into the Main Server because I hate perma-death games."

Flare gave a slight nod, but still looked concerned. "From what I have heard, through interviews with your family, it has been a few hundred years since you last visited them."

I rolled my eyes. "It's not like I ever thought those programs were real. They never complained to me about it." I shrugged.

Flare sighed. "You don't think they are concerned with you spending the vast majority of your time in a fantasy world with artificial friends?"

I stiffened. "AIs are real people!"

"Yes they are, but these ones are programmed to love you. That's what makes it artificial. Nothing in that world is real. There is no genuine life threatening situations, no meaning to the epic adventures, and most importantly no affect on the real world. Even the friends you have in the game were programmed to be your friends."

I remained stiff, not knowing how to process what he was telling me. I mean, I understand on an intellectual level that the AIs aren't really my friends because they were just programmed to be but we had been through so much together. 10000 years worth of adventures. That meant something, regardless what their base programming might say.

"You seem very defensive for someone who knows this," Flare observed. "I have caught my share of your show. I would have to with how much Pearl loves it. It is very obvious, and more than likely the very reason it is so popular, you have forgotten it's a game. You treat everything with the utmost importance, and while you crack many jokes none of them use meta humor. You actually refuse to publish anything with your family because they constantly refer to things that happened in the real world instead of your game. You clearly feel it each time one of your digital friends gets hurt and are visibly horrified each time they die despite it being a simple 'spell' to resurrect them.

"You started playing that game with a child avatar and grew up in that world. In your earliest interviews, back when you still did those, you talk about how the beginning is based on a more fantastical version of the childhood you wish you had and it being a type of therapy for you. Whatever your intentions you must realize how confused you have become.

"The Main Server is as close to a real society as we can get in this digital box. You can vote and even interact with people who can't be programmed to like you. There is where people actually live their lives, but this has become the game for you. Fact of the matter is we don't matter to you. The characters you created mean more to you then my son ever could."

I felt a knot in my throat and had to swallow it before I could speak. "Just because I care about my world, doesn't mean players are meaningless to me. I get your son is a real person, I just acknowledge that AIs are people to."

"That isn't the issue," Frozen Flare insisted. "The issue is you think the game world you created is more important than the Main Server, and I don't want my son to interact with someone that mentally unstable."

I hung my head. "I understand."

"I don't think you do," said Flare as he pulled a business card out of his pocket, "I don't want to seem ungrateful for what you did for my son. I would be thrilled if he had a friend like you. But I need to know you are willing to get help for your issues." He handed me the card. "There is a support group. They will help teach you the difference between acknowledging the AIs' sentience and forgetting the world itself isn't real. If you promise to attend these meetings, I'll let you play with my son."

I hesitantly took the card. It linked the address of the support group and listed the time they meet, a couple hours from now actually, "None of this is real," I looked up at him, "Not my game and not the main server, does it matter which I choose to live in?"

"You should be living in both," Flare informed. "I saw on your profile that you haven't even been to the main server once before you met my son. In ten thousand years you haven't left your own little bubble... I doubt your organic family approves of your lifestyle either."

I blinked, "Organic?"

"Your biological relatives," He explained.

I looked down at the card. "They don't." I sighed.

"I also saw in your hardware you have a Mental Regulator chip."

"THAT is working fine!" I insisted. "Digit checks it regularly."

"Your Personal AI?" He eyed and I quickly nodded. He nodded back and went on. "Still, the fact you need such a chip means you are prone to obsessing about things and have a natural difficulty telling what is real and what is not. That is already difficult in this world. You might not realize this but I am trying to help you."

I looked back at the card, studying it a moment. "I know you are." I sighed as I examined the card.

He gave a formal nod. "The support group meets every work day, while the other kids are at school. I realize the fact it is held during school hours won't really matter to you as that is a level of socializing we both know you aren't ready for. My wife has suggested we take turns bringing you to the group in the morning. After which we will bring you to our house and you can play with Pearl. If you want to spend the night, bedtime is at 8..."

He seemed to struggle as he thought how to phrase the next part. "Despite your troubles with gaming, my wife and I would very much like to be your caretakers. According to your profile, you have a lot in common with both our sons and... well my wife and I would like to try being your caretakers. As such we would expect you to behave well you are with us. If we decide you are misbehaving, and need to be punished, you will not run away or throw a tantrum. You will do as you are told and accept however we see fit to punish you. That could mean opening your mouth to get it scrubbed with soap, or pulled over one of our laps for a spanking. We understand each other?"

I gulped, as nerve racking as that was... it was also kinda a dream come true. Maybe I should have come to the Main Server a while ago. "Yes sir."

"Good boy." The Kirin nodded. "We will talk about it in more detail with my wife later today."

Although I was excited, fact of the matter was I wasn't quite prepared for what was waiting for me.

Ch3: Meet the Family

Author's Note

while most of this chapter is a cut and paste while editing it slightly to fit into the new lore, the last 3000 words are all original with a Foalcon scene at the very end.

Edit: August 20th, 2019
I altered the pasted parts more, like I should have earlier, and made it fit better with the new lore

Ch3: Meet the Family

After our talk, Mister Flare took me straight to my first meeting and stood off to the side to mingle with other grownups while I went with my group. I was seated in a circle with a bunch of other age players. Their Avatar ages varying from babies to teenagers. This group seemed to be specifically for people with child Avatars that were "having trouble remembering their games weren't real".

Our counselor was an adult, a brown Unicorn with a purple main. The Stallion was wearing the upper part of a pinstripe suit but no pants. He seemed like a kind stallion, who was very patient and encouraging. However he was managing this group in a pretty odd way.

He had us go in a circle, one at a time, and made us talk for a good hour. In between calling the next one he would set up an activity we had to do with the other kids... it was kinda fun but I quickly realized we were all a little awkward around other players. I didn't think my social skills had decayed this much. I was back to square one when I was first learning how to force myself into social situations after I was diagnosed with Autism.

The chip was supposed to fix me but I realized it just made it so I thought more clearly and didn't have schizophrenic hallucinations or delusions (I had a few mental disorders)... but I was still awkward from lack of practice, which is really weird because I didn't have a problem at all with my AI friends... still, I wanted to get better with organics.

The counselor made us take a nap halfway through the day... two pegasi got spanked for whispering to each other instead of sleeping. That got the rest of us to settle down and take a nap.

During nap time the counselor had me call my family members in a group call, So I could tell them what is going on and I was getting help... they all seemed so worried about me... and where actually relieved when they saw I had a child's Avatar and Flare introduced himself as my new caretaker... I wasn't sure why at first but kept my mouth shut since it seemed to calm my family a great deal. They were just happy to see me out of the Hub World.

After 8 hours of therapy the Counselor let everyone go home.

It was only 3 in the afternoon by the time I got out, so I had plenty of time to play with Pearl before bedtime.

We were just up the block now, standing in line outside a phone booth looking thing. The other group members were in line with us. There was one of these booths at each corner of each city block. They were like teleportation booths so you could move around the city. We actually arrived in that booth after using my map to teleport us.

I was a bit distracted at all the pony Avatars walking around the Crystal Empire like setting. My friends talked about this place sometimes. It was designated for the Spike clique. All of Spike's biggest Fans lived in this city.

We were currently downtown, surrounded by all the office buildings. We just left the hospital. That was more to treat mental health, with hundreds of group therapy rooms run by players and private psychologist as well. However Flare told me there were also checkup rooms operated by the AIs where they run diagnostics on our software and give us upgrades through injections. I assured Flare that Digit had been keeping me up to date on all that stuff but he insisted we schedule an appointment with his family doctor.

I had accepted my share of Friend requests from the kids in the group and their caretakers. Some of the kids didn't have an adult bring them but it seems most of them did... and that is actually the reason why they come out to these group therapy sessions.

The kids explained that adults that look after ageplayers but haven't officially adopted them are called, "Caretakers" as slang, but they are listed as "Guardians" on your profile. I was all kinds of shocked when I looked up my profile and my Relationships category had updated automatically. Under "Cyber Family" were links to Frozen Flare and his wife Hot Ice Harlot, who were now listed as my guardians, while Pink Pearl was listed as my Cyber brother. It also said I had an older Cyber brother named "Fluffy the Magic Dragon".

The kids told me not to sweat it as that thing updates automatically through verbal agreement. That they didn't have access to my parental controls and it was a more causal relationship. It can lead to adoption, but usually doesn't as it is more like dating. It was basically the parental version of a boyfriend before marriage, testing the waters and all that before Adoption. Usually it doesn't work out but sometimes it will. They said there was a law passed that they have to be your guardian for ten years before they can adopt you but players can go as long as a hundred years before they are sure they want to be adopted. It was a huge step in a relationship and people took it very seriously, like marriage was in this digital world as you were legitimately pledging to be together for eternity in a very literal sense.

Guess that would explain why Frozen Flare was so nervous when he asked to be my caretaker. Speaking of Flare, he looked rather deep in thought.

"I'm sorry," Flare looked bashful as we continued to wait in line.

"What are you apologizing for?" I asked, eagerly looking around. There was a flash of light from the booth and the next people went in, the whole line moving up a little.

"I should have made it more clear to you that what you were agreeing to had legal ramifications," He informed as the line moved up again, "I should have known you wouldn't understand what a 'caretaker' was,"

"Oh... Yeah you pretty much tricked me into becoming my parental boyfriend," I teased, but he didn't seem to get the joke.

He hung his head, all serious, "It's not exactly like a boyfriend. You can still have one of those if you want. I'm more like... a foster parent. You verbally agreed to give me rights over you, but not to the extent of a true Adoption. I don't have access to your parental controls but if you misbehave in public, and I'm not around, players can get my name off your profile and call me. They will likely spank you themselves and bring you to me to be spanked again,"

My eyes widened, "Like Earth's 30s?" I wasn't around back then but it was pretty well known to spankos like me what it was like.

"Exactly," Flare nodded, "My wife and I are in charge of you but it is a much less formal relationship then what I have with my sons, understand?"

"Yes sir,"

"Are you okay with that?" He asked.

I smiled, "It actually sounds pretty awesome if I'm honest. A good middle ground between an orphan and having parents. I don't really like the idea of giving up all my rights like that,"

He frowned, "We would never abuse that privilege," He promised me, "but that probably isn't for a long time from now anyway. Most children have a caretaker for several decades before any formal Adoption is made,"

I hesitantly nodded, though still not liking the idea of handing over all my rights.

"When we get home we will go over the rules you are expected to follow and what will happen if you break them. Be careful what you agree to because verbal agreements hold legal weight in this world. Your hard drive records all your conversations and they can be reviewed by the AIs for legal disputes,"

I paled at that. That sounded like science fiction utopian hell kinda stuff.

Flare didn't notice my concerns and kept talking, "We will also go over if you want this to be a more traditional guardianship, or if you want us to occasionally molest you,"

I froze and Flare had to nudge me forward as the line moved up. Putting his muzzle on my tail end and making me take a few steps forward. Then he stood tall again and explained, "You still have the mind of an adult so it isn't like having sex will be harmful to you, and you get to determine the limits. I will suggest stuff and then you will tell me 'yes' or 'no'. You need to say 'no' if something bothers you. It is very important, understand?"

I gulped, "Yes Sir," I stood there, very quiet, while occasionally taking a couple steps forward when the line moved, "I'm Asexual," I suddenly blurted out.

"So is Pearl, but that just makes it all the better as he gets really fussy about it. Still he gave his consent for unconsensual. If you don't want do that then just don't consent to it, is very easy, and we will respect your wishes," Flare promised.

When it was our turn to go into the booth. I stood there, totally spaced out, for a moment. Flare patted my rump, with his soft as marshmallow hoof/paw thing Kirin have, and guided me inside.

"Didn't we come here through the red one?" I asked as the door closed.

"That is for incoming players. The green booths are for outgoing. You know. 'Red means stop, green means go',"

I nodded, looking around as Flare got to work on the map. He pushed his chest to summon his profile and went to his favorite places.

Before he could click on anything I asked, "Digit spoke with you," but it came out as more of an accusation, which caused him to pause just before clicking a link. So I added, "Didn't he?"

Flare sighed as he lowered his hoof, the screen disappearing, "You know people are waiting on us outside," he commented more then asked.

"I wanted to confront you before we got to the house, but we never had any alone time," I fidgeted.

He nodded, even outside we were surrounded by ponies, "Yes, Digit came to my house the night you met me and told me how you reacted when you learned you had to start your game over. He admits to knowing he was causing you discomfort as a means a stimulating you but didn't realize it would affect you that badly. He asked if my wife and I would be interested in watching over you as you really seemed to hit it off with our youngest son... and our oldest has... similar gaming issues."

I hesitantly looked up, "He does?"

"He does," Flare nodded, "I have spent the last few thousand years trying to teach him moderation. Which he really struggles with, so instead we decided I would micromanage his game time. He acts all resentful of it despite the fact he is the one that SUGGESTED it. I try not to take it personally, as I realize he has an addiction and micromanaging helps him get into 'little space' which in turn makes him a snarky brat," Flare smiled, "He hates the limited game time but he will be the first to tell you he knows he needs it.

"Digit was hoping I could do the same for you. Would you like that?"

I looked away, but gave a small reluctant confession of, "I could use the help."

He nodded, "Last night he returned and told me you were passed the grieving stage and ready to make a decision without feeling coerced."

I blushed and continued to refuse to look at him.

Flare insisted, "Nothing to be embarrassed about. You spent a lot of millenniums in that game and needed time to come to terms with the fact that part of your life is over. I'm a little shocked it only took you 11 days. I expected not to hear back from Digit for a few months,"

I continued to blush, and reluctantly admitted, "I'm still kinda torn up about it but yeah... the worst of it is over. I just needed some time to myself,"

Flare nodded, and pulled up his screen again, "Let's go meet your new family," and activated the table.

Frozen Flare clicked "My home" and the map showed off a Neighborhood in the Crystal Empire. It was all the way on the other side of town. He pushed another button and we both glitched out as Pixelated flakes that were pulled into the map. Opening my eyes, though never actually having closed them, I was standing in a hallway of a suburban home, the door to the house directly behind me.

The walls were made of an inviting purple and white Crystal (as we were in the Crystal Empire so what do you expect) but the style was very much an upper middle class Suburban home.

I blinked, looking around. Then turned to Flare, "How come we came here instead of that big empty room in the red booth?"

"You can use maps to teleport directly into properties you own within the Main Server." Flare smiled at me, as he began walking down the Hall.

The place looked... strangely normal. Like it was something straight out of a 90s sitcom.

"Ice?" Flare called as he guided me out through. "Honey?" Flare called out again, "I'm home,"

"In the Kitchen, darling," That must be Hot Ice Harlot.

"I brought Smart Mouth with me," Flare informed, "Where is Pearl?"

"I with Mama, daddy," Came the call, "We're baking COOKIES!!!"

Flare gave a warm smile and nudged me forward with his muzzle. He lead me down a hallway in that I realized was a two-story house.

This bottom floor had a large library at one side and an entertainment room at the other, with the entrance at the end of the hall behind us. Looking through a door, as we passed, I could see there was no Virtual Gaming Platform. Instead there was a sitting area with a full decked out entertainment system and 10 old school VR helmets.

There was a teenage Dragon horse... thing, sitting on the couch with one of the helmets on I could see his same Avatar playing in the Ponyfinder MMO on the large screen TV... interesting set up for VGPs. It looked like he was still connected to the Main Server while in a gaming program. I could hear him talking as he swung his arms around as he sat there, very still, yet moving like a manic on the screen.

The room also had a few Arcade boxes set up and a bunch of tables. There was a Ping-Pong table, one for air hockey, pool, and even a "Holo Table". Holo tables were a modern technology before the world ended. Basically they let people in the real world play Dungeons and Dragons with tiny holograms. Those things were wicked cool but expensive as all hell, even in this virtual world.

Unfortunately since I came here I never saw the point in getting one given you could actually live in fictional worlds instead of just narrating them... still the Nostalgia addict in me saw that thing and couldn't help but fantasize about playing a good old session of dungeons and dragons on it.

"Fluffy?" Flare asked peeking his head into the game room.

"Fluffy The Magic Dragon, AFK," The boy said into his headset before taking his helmet off.

"Yeah dad?" The dragon horse ran a claw through his pony like mane.

"Come here a moment," Flare ordered.

The horse dragon set the helmet to the side and trotted over to us.

He had purple scales, with the occasional dark blue scale like spots, and a streak of spiky bleach blond fur going down his spine and tail. Even his mane was spiky and boyish.

He looked like an Eastern Dragon, all long and skinny, almost serpent like. However his back legs were hooved and his head was that of a pony, only scaly with reptilian eyes and sharp teeth. He also had the feathered wings of a Pegasus. Truthfully he wasn't that much bigger than a pony teenager, just a good foot longer.

His back bent straight up so that his body was closer together, kinda like how Discord moved when he was standing on all fours.

It took me a moment to realize he was a Drakehoof, from Ponyfinder. I had edited their Avatars a bit in my own game.

"I find it amazing that none of your teachers gave you homework on a Wednesday night," Flare cut to the chase.

"Awwwwww dad!" the teen drake whined.

"None of that," Flare gave a stern look, "Be thankful I am not tanning your hide. You know better. Homework and chores are ALWAYS finished BEFORE you can play,"

"Please dad," Fluffy begged, "This is a limited time event! If we complete the dungeon before midnight we each receive some really cool exclusive armor!!! But it's a 12 hour dungeon and we are already behind because of school!"

"Homework," Mr. Flare said sternly, "Now, say goodbye to your friends and tell them to do the same or I'm calling their parents,"

The boy huffed and started muttering to himself, "This is the reason why I need a TV in my room,"

"And it is exactly the reason you won't get one," Flare glared, "And just for that little display of snark, you've earned yourself that trip over my knee I was debating on,"

The dragon's eyes widened, "Daddy! NOOOOOOO!!!"

"Daddy yes," Flare glared, "You have been getting too big for your britches and if you keep it up I will demote you to a 1 year old. You have been taking this teenage rebellion act far too seriously,"

"I'm sorry daddy!" The teen insisted, "I'll be good!"

"I'm going to make sure of that," Flare insisted, "Now say goodbye to your friends and change your Avatar so I can give you a proper hiding. Then come find me in the living room,"

"Yes sir," the teenager sniffled, his eyes filling up with tears at the thought of the spanking to come.

Flare then led me further down the hall. Stepping out of the hallway I could see many windows in a large living room. Windows that showed off a big backyard with a crystal garden and a little Swing Set Fort. There was a stairway leading both up and down. Meaning they had some kind of basement given we were already on the ground floor.

There was another hall way leading to 2 other rooms... kinda...

One of the "rooms" was an exposed kitchen. It was separated by an island counter top instead of a wall. There was a large sink and a lot of crystal counter space. Pony style stools were around it, meaning cushions that were wide and low to the ground but could be raised up for younger ponies. There was a food dispenser on the counter behind the island, plus a proper stove, even a refrigerator and microwave. It looked like a proper kitchen. I haven't seen one of those outside of a game in a while. None of my family had one. The kitchen had an island separating it from the rest of the living room stools all around it like a table. It felt homier that way than with a proper dining table.

Pearl was busy using a cookie cutter on the raw dough, before putting little gingerbread ponies on a baking dish.

"It will just be a few more minutes," Pearl's mom... was beautiful. She was absolutely gorgeous. I get that is just her Avatar's design but this looked extremely impressive. She had a slender body with patches of scales around her fur that actually looked like scales. The textures of both looked amazing.

She had purple hooves and a horn, a black coat, and green scales, with an even darker green mane. Her Avatar was way more detailed than the ones used in the show but still looked like something that belonged in that world. How she pulled that off I couldn't tell you.

"Did you know your son was in there playing games?"

Hot Ice sighed, "He promised me he just wanted to listen to music while doing his Homework,"

Flare groaned, pinching his snout with his hoof/paw, "I'll add lying to his list of offences,"

"Well I was good today, Papa!" Pearl insisted, speaking very childishly while somehow sounding smug.

Flare raised an eyebrow, "That is quite suspicious given your record," The Stallion sat on the stool and gave a mock glared at Pearl, "You must have stolen all the good for yourself and left none for your brother. Maybe you need a spanking to?"

The little Seapony gaped, "NOOOOOOOOOOO DADDY!!!!! I don't need a 'panking. I was goooooood," He wailed overdramatically.

Ice rolled her eyes, "Alright you two, behave yourselves. You're making our guest uncomfortable,"

Both males jerked their heads at me, to catch me fidgeting uncontrollably. I blushed and sat in the seat. It automatically raised until I was belly level with the counter.

"I'm good," I swore, "Just not used to... this stuff. I mean, I have done little stuff since I got installed, but usually it was in one of the private daycare games I created,"

Pearl snapped up, "You made a VGP just for age players!!!"

"A few actually but they are more one shots," I shrugged, "I basically made those to get my padding fix on the days I wasn't in MLG. You know, in between family visits and editing all the footage I collected. I needed to do something to unwind after saving the Galaxy,"

Pearl looked intrigued, "Is it just pony stuff?"

"Nah," I waved off, "Some of it is pony related but most of it takes place in other franchises. I designed them Holodeck style so that it is a Domestic setting that is constantly adapting with random events that the AI creates based on the players actions and choices,"

Pearl whistled, as if all impressed (just as Fluffy walked through the living room and went up the stairs, presumably to change his Avatar like he was told.)

"It's not like it's hard to do so," I shrugged, "creating anything is really user friendly with the help of the AIs."

Flare waved off, "It's not just about having the know-how. You still need the creativity and the motivation to do so. Like all the cartoons you made before you started your MLG let's play,"

"I kind of cheated with that," I nervously grinned, "Like I said the things in here are freakishly user friendly. All I did was make the outline and have the AIs react to the situations based on how their canon Counterparts would have, occasionally making a tweak to make it flow better. Like you said, I'm more of a producer then a writer. I might know how to build a world, but my writing skills are limited. Although most of those Cartoons were standalone stories they all interconnected in MLG... it was glorious... 10000 years of hard work..." my eyes started to get misty as I thought on how it was all over... no more stories... they were all done...

They all seemed to notice how I was feeling but they didn't comment. Instead Flare back-tracked the conversation... I appreciated that, "You might want to consider opening up a few stores to sell your ABDL sims. It’d be a good way to make money outside of video hits. Players love role playing games, especially fetish sims,"

I blinked, successfully distracted, "How do you do that?"

Harlot flashed an eager smile, "You can do it from any hub map. You buy property in a neighborhood and select a shop template common in the area. You can customize it from the map as well but other than homes the AIs like buildings to match the themes of the neighborhood. You can build a shop in any and every city, but only city. The more stores you set up the better, but for you I suggest you keep it to crinkle butt cities. They are more likely to buy your stuff there. Pearl can help you find good areas to set up shop for each fandom. He likes to wander them,"

Pearl blushed, "There is no sense hiding out in one fandom all the time!" he said far too defensively.

Flare looked at the stairs, "Where is that boy?" he muttered before hollering, "Fluffy, quit stalling and get your little butt out here!"

"Coming dad!" called Fluffy the magic dragon. A tiny, MLP style, Rookie dragon appeared at the top of the stairs. He barely resembled a teen, about the only similarity was his wings. He still had the round face of a baby dragon. He was about the size of Smolder of the student 6, still bigger than me but smaller than an adult pony. He had the same color scheme as Fluffy... and still sounded like Fluffy, but where the Drakehoof looked cool this Avatar was insanely cute. By his blush he was pretty embarrassed to be wearing the Avatar.

He was slightly modded to have a mix of fur and scales. Even his fins were even replaced with fluff... probably why he chose the name "Fluffy". In typical MLP fashion he was naked... in not so typical fashion I could see his boy bits. Although they were rather small, with his balls barely dropped and his erection not being any bigger then his pinky.

Flare cast a smile, "Awwww, your wearing the Avatar your mother made for you. I love that one." The boy obviously knew this by his hesitant blush.

Flare gave a formal nod, "Good boy," as he got off his stool and went down the stair, "Follow me down to the dungeon as to not disturb our guest," The little dragon melted with relief. He must have been worried he would be punished in front of me.

Harlot got my attention, just as the two of them disappeared downstairs, "So why don't you tell me about yourself?" she asked as she picked up the cookie tray with her magical Kirin horn.

Pearl was wiggling excitedly as she levitated them into the oven. She pressed a button and they instantly dinged. Immediately afterwards she levitated the tray back on the counter. Revealing perfectly baked cookies. She picked up a spatula with her mouth and got all the cookies off the tray, and onto a nice looking serving plate. Then levitated the tray to the sink.

"Well... you pretty much know everything about me from my profile," I shrugged, "But I haven't really had a chance to read yours. Mister Flare kinda just picked me up and has been dragging me places all day,"

Harlot snorted, "Yeah, my husband can have a bit of a one track mind."

"Mom invented the Network, and all of Jelly Brains Incorporated, back when that was a thing." Pearl grinned as he pushed some buttons under the counter and 3 bottles of milk materialized in front of us.

Harlot chuckled, "Silly baby," she tweeked his nose, "Mommies don't drink out of bottles."

Pearl gave a sheepish smile but the forming blush showed he genuinely forgot she wouldn't want a bottle. It was probably just habit for him.

Harlot reached over and pushed a few Buttons herself. Two glasses of red wine appeared, "We'll save the other bottle for your brother," She put in front of one of the other pony style stools.

While all this was going on my brain was still processing what Pearl told me, "You're Abigail Shiroshi..." I awed. I might not remember my own name but that is one I never could forget. I couldn't help but fangasm, "I thought you were just one of the programmers but you're actually THE Abigail Shiroshi."

She blinked, "I haven't heard that name in a while. I thought everyone had forgotten it,"

"Forgotten it!!!" I yelped, "It's because of you I don't have to be severely medicated just to barely function! YOU FIXED ME!!!"

Miss Shiroshi smiled, "The technology has approved by leaps and bounds from my original design. It's the Master AI you should be thanking,"

I couldn't remove the awe off my face. This woman... she was my savior... Because of her I was able to get off disability and go back to college!!!

"Because of you I was able to go back to college. I was even able to get my dream job of researching the evolution of fandoms from a sociological point of view! I owe you EVERYTHING!!!"

Miss Shiroshi frowned, then tweeked my nose with her weird paw hoof, "You owe me nothing. If I'm to be your cyber mom I don't want you to get so caught up in who I was. As it is now, I'm just another player, like any other. You understand?"

I gulped, "That's easier said than done," I confessed.

Harlot sighed, but strangely still wore a smile. She picked up a cookie with her "magic" and floated it over to me. I hesitantly grabbed it with my fox paw.

"I suppose all children have a bit of hero worship for their parents," She expressed, "Just remember, I'm your mom first and foremost,"

I nodded eagerly and took a bite of the cookie. Then immediately melted, "THIS IS REALLY GOOD!!!"

Pearl grinned, "Well I have been practicing my craft for 10000 years,"

"Were you a Baker in real life!?" I eagerly asked as I absentmindedly picked up the bottle and suckled on it.

"Actually I was a Therapist, helping vets recovering from war. It helped that I used to be on the other side of the chair. Was actually how I paid for college" Pearl shrugged, "but I always loved cooking and now own a series of restaurants in nearly every district in the Network,"

"You were a vet?" I awed.

"Am a vet," Pearl corrected, munching a cookie, "You never really stop. High stress jobs often lead to people getting involved in the submissive side of the kink scene... I sorta... kinda... lost both my legs to a grenade when I was 23. Bloody Martains, am I right," He winked at me, and instantly got whacked upside the head again, "Ow, Mama!!!"

"I won't have you use bigoted words like that," Harlot glared.

"What happened to you is not the fault of every colonists on their planet," Harlot insisted.

The boy sighed, "Sorry Mama," looking back at me, "Anyway, I was in recovery for a while, talked to A LOT of shrinks, and figured that was what I wanted to do with my life. Lucky for me there was a program through the VA. They needed more shrinks and doctors and stuff and offered to pay my way in exchange for working for them for 10 years. After my time was up I just sorta stayed where I was. Even after the world went to shit I stayed on one of the distribution centers. They had a thing for supporting former military agents," He shrugged, taking another bite of his cookie.

While Harlot looked proud of herself for the fact her people took care of the troops that got left behind.

"I was on of the first to undergo Jelly Brain-ing as a result,"

"I joined as soon as I could to," I shrugged. I squirmed a bit and I don't know why, looking down the stairs and seeing no one there but a closed door. Seeing they caught me I tried to play it off cool, "What's their story?"

Pearl opened his mouth but Harlot insisted, "That's for them to tell, if they are up to it," Pearl pouted but nodded.

● POV: Fluff

I still wasn't really thrilled that my master was making me use a "Children's Avatar". It had been thousands of years and I still didn't like it, but I got the importance of it. Master needed access to my parental controls. Slave controls didn't have things like "Game Time Limits" or the more important ability to withdraw your partner from a VGP.

Yeah, I asked my master for help managing my addictive tendencies but it had been Harlot's idea on the how. She enjoyed looking after age players, as evident by the fact she was already looking after Pearl when Master met her. When Master told her about my problem she explained that the parental controls of child Avatars let cyber parents limit gaming. That way "The incident" wouldn't happen again...

I was a proud slave, and well a touch of humiliation went with the territory, being forced to walk around as a kid was a bit too much. No one cared anymore but it was still embarrassing... especially since teenage Avatars got aroused very easily and I was constantly getting erections in public... to which Master would "take care of that pokey" by jerking me off in the middle of the street well treating it as if he was helping a little boy blow his nose. That was all kinds of embarrassing and it happened ALL the time.

Even with the fact most Ageplayers got "molested" it was just how people coped. People were rather desperate to recapture the concept of a family dynamic. Seeing as my real world family consisted of a drug addict prostitute that let her pimp sell me out... yeah... I didn't hold much stock in families.

Still I could understand it on a biological level. The desire to procreate and raise children was a heavily engrained instinct in humans. Anyone with a middle school level education knew that. Living in this world for hundreds of years, unable to have kids... finding away around it with AIs... only for those children to be deleted by the billions for no other reason then to limit RAM usage... a lot of people were heart broken, thrown into deep depression.

This was their answer, discovered some 7000 years ago (a little after Master and Harlot started dating). The AIs wanted players to use Ageplayers as a type of immortal child. It was certainly thinking outside the box considering how much people hated that lot until then. It was more then that though. By encouraging players to be more accepting of age players the AIs could open up schools. Those would force the age players to work through various critical thinking problems and produce more power. Everything always came back to more power for AIs.

Of course, after releasing a bunch of propaganda and letting it become normal for "Cyber Parents" to look after ageplayers, the AIs allowed for a vote.

The AIs might try to manipulate the voters with propaganda but they never tried to hide the full meaning of laws they wished to pass.

The vote for the school... had been the best thing that ever happened to me, including being installed into the Network in the first place and meeting my master.

I had trouble with this world. It was hard to prioritize what was 'real'. I tended to dive into VGPs. Making my money by playing games. I didn't even do let's plays. I just earned the raw cash from games and turned them into Main Server credits.

I mean what else was I going to do. Be an Adventurer on the Main Server and risk Zeroing Out? Or worse, playing those stupid "Job" minigames throughout the Main Server.

Yeah they were a quick way to earn money, and Master really loved them, but they weren't real jobs. Nothing you did there affected the rest of the grid. They just felt so... meaningless. Nothing bad even happened if you didn't go to work one day and you didn't actually have a boss. They were just mini games that simulated different jobs. They were all timed events to trigger deep thinking but at the same time if you weren't into that they were just so BOOOOOOORING!!!

I didn't really have much going for me anywhere in the Main Server. I wasn't naturally talented enough at games not to die frequently so by playing VGPs which only caused you to respawn when you die... it was just easier...

I wasn't particularly talented at crafting things or making TV shows, or stories, or drawing, or anything really. There was nothing for me to do here in the Main Server before the school.

Master's, then new, Girlfriend thought it might do me some good if I went to the school that just opened up. Another reason for the Deaging. The purpose of the school was to mentally stimulate Age Players in order to get them to produce more power well their cyber parents were at "work"... that actually resulted in my predicament.

When Master was out working most days, he left me home alone. He even invited me along most of the time but I always said I wasn't interested. While alone, I would obviously clean and keep the house tidy, like a good slave, but cleaning only took a couple hours out of the day. I would occasionally wander the fandoms but the Main Server was in it's infancy and kinda... boring... soon my games became an escape... then an addiction.

When I lost track of time so badly that I ended up spending 3 months in a game that was supposed to last a single weekend... well my master ran around the Main Server trying to get help from the AIs, who did nothing because I was "Stimulated"... I asked my master for help...

It wasn't an easy fix either, I relapsed frequently. The whole point of the headset was so that Master could see when I was in the game and get me out if I was playing too long... it sucked sometimes because Frozen was always micromanaging my game time now, even grounding me from it for a whole week or longer. Saying stuff like I doesn't know how to prioritize my time... but I knew I needed it.

Playing those games like that fucked up my dopamine release so I was legitimately addicted to it. It was like being diabetic, issues with your liver (back when humans had livers) occur due to over consumption of fats and sugars. Something eventually clicks and you end up diabetic for life. Here over stimulating the brain to the point it begins releasing too much dopamine results in addiction. Once it happens you are screwed up for life.

Now the AIs could, theoretically, fix the issue with gene therapy, like with diabetes, but... they were kinda dicks. Fighting against addictions resulted in a lot of brain synapses firing, which lead to more powers for their space station. Even feeding into addictions gave a deep sense of satisfaction for the player... the AIs gave players the resources to recover well encouraging failure... it made it so addicts could never truly get over it.

Harlot thought school would help me distract myself from games, and it had. I might not be wild about being a kid but I loved school. I had dropped out of High school and missed out on college but here I actually had a chance at a real education. It felt like I was accomplishing something there.

The AIs may have classes on random trivia for each fandom but they also taught them how to make all kinds of creative and artistic projects. There were training grounds to practice your skills and level up quickly. Clubs to mingle with like minded people and do your favorite hobbies. You could even learn about the sciences the robots discovered out there in the real world. Students could devote time to their own research through science projects. These were effectively scientific papers the AIs used and tested in the real world and would give a grade based on the effectiveness of the theory.

It felt like I was finally accomplishing something meaningful, because I was. Everything I did at that school helped develop this society. School was how scientists and scholars still existed in this digital world. After 7000 years I had become quite the Scholar... it was nice... being good at something that didn't involve sucking dick...

I might not like dressing up as a kid but I was thankful to my cyber mom for making me do this. There was the added bonus that she least let me be a teenager. It was... kinda amazing with how intensely this Avatar orgasmed. My entire body was overly sensitive to everything. I was drowning with overstimulation and loving every minute of it. I especially liked the games I played with Master. I had to be extra sneaky when masturbating or else my "Daddy" would spank my "privates" for being "naughty".

Mom and "Dad" had a big talk with Pearl and me about what they wanted to get out of the relationship and what was acceptable. It just went with the territory in any kind of Kink based relationship, especially when new members were added.

We were technically poly now, by real world definitions, but in this virtual world we had a typical family dynamic.

Pearl even gave me permission to bang him, even if he said "no". The kid was big on consensual unconsensual. He was asexual but he also had a fantasy about being raped. So even though he didn't like it well it was happening he loved the idea that it could. I tried to keep that in mind and only "play naughty games" occasionally with my cyber brother. Maybe once every other week to not overwhelm him.

Master butted in with, if he caught the two if us having sex, we would both be spanked on our bottoms and our genitals, and if one of us was preforming oral we would both have our mouths washed out with soap and rinse with "Daddy's special milk"... it was fun to get caught sometimes but others I just wanted to have an intimate moment with my cyber brother. It's what Cyber brothers were for after all.

That was the official term for these relationships "Cyber Family". There were different levels of it, such a guardian or an adoptive parent, but that was the idea.

To sum up, my little Draconic butt was trying desperately to think of anything but what was about to happen to it.

● Foalcon

I bit my little dragon lip as my Master and Cyber Father, Frozen Flare, sat on the chair he had in the corner. It was the Naughty Boy chair. The chair I got spanked on then forced to sit, facing the corner, on it's hard wooden seat. I hated getting punished on it.

There were a few whips and chains and all kinds of odd wooden furniture designed to punish subs but those were for when I was good and just wanted to submit to my Master. Dad chose this for when I was actually bad, chosing the most embarrassing type of punishment for me... a trip over his knee... like a little boy...

"Come on Fluff," Daddy sat in an awkward position for a pony, like a human would have. The Kirin patted his knee, and looked at me expectantly, "Stop daydreaming and accept your fate,"

I gulped and hesitantly stepped over, knowing it would be a thousand times worse if dad had to get me. My small body, a mix of scales and fur, crawled over the lap and lifted up my tail. Thankfully Daddy took hold of it and folded it against my back before pinning it, along with my wings. At least I didn't have to worry about keeping my tail up this time.

"Sorry I was naughty, daddy," I... I just hated it. Hated how I acted at the mere mention of a spanking.

Flare had trained me to act this way, and he trained me well. It was second nature now. All slaves go through some kinda of training so they behave like their Dom wanted them to... and ever since I started being forced into a foal's Avatar Master wanted me to act like a little boy.

"You can give daddy a proper apology after your spanking,"

I groaned but nodded my head, "Yes Sir,"

I lay still as Master began rubbing me with his pawed hoof. Feeling the contrast of my soft, near snake like, scales of my bottom... and the near kitten like soft fur of my inner thigh.

"Since you seem too have gotten too big for your britches, you will be staying in this Avatar until further notice." Master informed.

"For how long?" I dared to ask. Master never got too mad about questions. He was a much softer Dom then I was used to in my organic life.

I began to squirm as 'daddy' fondled my tiny fluffy balls. It was a little ritual daddy had with me, but not Pearl. Master would try to get me hard, that way he could punish me further for getting an erection well being disciplined, and I would do my best to stay limp... like I was trying to do now.

I concentrated with all my power. Unfortunately, given this over hormonal Avatar, it only took one gentle squeeze for my dick to poke... usually... master wasn't exactly being gental right now though.

Master grabbed hold of my barely dropped balls and squeezed them as hard as he could in his hoof like paw.

I let out a scream of pain, only to be silenced by a bar of soap. Master was holding the soap with his tail while one arm pinned my wings and tail, and the other crushed my balls.

I begun to cry and struggle as Master's tail began scrubbing my forked tongue and sharp teeth with the soap.

"How could you lie to your mother?" Master sounded very mad and suddenly it all made sense.

Master wasn't usually this rough for punishments, at least not ones involving games as he understood it was an addiction.

I tried to say I was sorry but only ended up gagging on the soap.

"You told your mom you were going to listen to music but clearly you wanted to sneak in some game time before homework or chores,"

I screamed again, even louder, as the hoof/paw squeezed harder, "Spread your legs. I'm going to spank your balls."

Tears rushed from reptilian eyes but I obeyed, spreading my legs as far as they could go.

Master raised his hoof paw and slammed it against my adolescent genitals. I screamed bloody murder while gagging on the soap.

"Bite down on the soap," Master ordered and again I obeyed, getting a muzzle full of soap as I locked my carnivorous teeth onto it.

Once the soap was secure Master's tail let go and then lashed across my scaley bottom. I could feel it reddened and welt up. I screamed and bit down harder, getting even more soap juices on my tongue. Master's thin tail was like a switch, burning fresh cuts across my already fragile hide.

Then something truly horrible happened, as the cuts with the tail continued so did the hoof smacking my tiny nuts.

I cried and kicked and did everything I could to beg for mercy well not being able to speak through the soap... all the while my penis pulsing and begging for more.

I stayed over Master's lap for a good 20 minutes, crying and screaming my head off well loving every moment of it. My real punishment was probably going to be grounding me or something.

Afterwards I gave my master the proper apology, like he wanted. I kneeled in front of his chair and sucked his dick dry to show him how sorry I was... once again thinking how unfair it was I had to do this and Pearl didn't.

But Pearl was a foal, and I was a Diaper Slave, there were bound to be a few differences in our rules and punishments. I thought deeply about it, as I rolled my forked tongue over my daddy's member.

Ch4: New Rules

● POV: Mouthy

"I thought you said your mom came from old money?" I whispered at Pearl when Harlot went to check downstairs, "Abigail Shoichi was born in a ghetto!"

Pearl blinked, then realization clicked in his eyes, "Oh, no. See 'Old Money' is slang for 'Real World Money'. Since people aren't being born anymore no reason to distinguish people born into money and those that earned it. Both came from the real world after all. Get it?"

I groaned, rubbing my head. All this new slang that developed was hard on the brain. I was bad enough with that stuff in the real world and now slang had evolved for thousands of years without me.

"Come on," Pearl grabbed the plate of cookies and stuffed them into his Profile. Then started flying up the stairs.

"Where we going?" I asked, but followed him anyway, grabbing hold of our milk bottles and throwing them into my own profile before fluttering up the stairs with my tiny wings.

"Don't you want to see our room?"

While Pearl grinned I blinked in confusion, and maybe a dash of panic, "OUR room?"

Pearl frowned, "Well... yeah... you need a place to sleep when you spend the night." He said, as though it was obvious.

That relieved me a good bit. For a moment, I thought they expected me to live with complete strangers!

Pearl brought me up to the second floor. Again it looked like a suburban home... only bigger. Suburban mansion? Maybe.

We first entered a large sitting room and Pearl lead me down a hallway. We passed 6 doors, 3 on either side of us, then came to 2 doors at the end of the hall. So 8 bedrooms up here total, plus the huge sitting area... That would explain how the library and game room were so big.

Most of the doors were open as I walked down the hallway. The first 2 rooms looked like the kinda cliche grownup offices you saw on sitcoms. A desk, family pictures on the walls, a couch in the corner with a plant behind it. They looked pretty suburban.

Further down the hall was a guest room to the right and a... an empty room? Yeah, to the left was a completely empty room... and my name was on a plaque on the door. Even further down was two more plaque on doors. One was for Pearl and the other was for Fluffy (with a big red stop sign on under the name reading "Keep Out"... but we didn't go into any of those rooms. Instead we went all the way to the back, to the two doors at the end of the hall.

"That's mom and dad's room," he pointed to the door on the right of the end of the hall. Then lead us through the left. It had a plaque with a rainbow over it, reading "Kids room".

The bedroom was rather... ordinary. Yes it was big but it looked like a regular kid's bedroom, for the show that is. There was lots of posters and stickers everywhere. No closet but 3 warehouses and 3 dressers, even 3 bookshelves. Each of the long walls had a set of these things. Including a wooden chair in each corner (not including the corner with the door). Paddles, brushes, wooden spoons, and thin canes hang from racks on both sides of the corners.

The back wall had a changing table in front of a large window. Then a race car bed and a pirate ship bed at either side of it... and a crib next to the pirate ship.

At the center of the room was 3 desk put in a triangle. The desk were 'L' shaped and had shelves for books and papers. One of the desk was rather messy, with wadded up paper and color pencils about... strangely the pictures looked anything but child like. They looked like artistic master pieces, with others that looked straight out of a 2D film.

Pearl "discreetly" shoved the papers in a drawer the moment he noticed them, indicating that was his desk.

"Homework for art class," Pearl bashfully smiled.

Even with all this stuff the room looked far from crowded. There was a lot of empty space filled with posters and stickers.

"Mom spent the day rearranging our room," Pearl informed, "The crib and the front wall are yours. Feel free to link the furniture to your Hub."

I titled my head, "Whatcha mean?"

Pearl playfully rolled his eyes and lightly punched my shoulder with his finned arm, "Bloody hermit," he teased.

Then he showed me how to link my Wardrobe to my favorite outfits. Then each drawer was linked to a different section of the equipment in my hub.

Once linked, Pearl showed me how I just open them to look through the connected inventory. A screen popped up once I opened a drawer and gave a rotating image of a gun with a description and stats. The weapon had been in my hub when I respawned... cuz it sucked. It was just a generic Covenant Needler with no modifications... still I used to be good with this back when I used starting equipment in MLG.

I touched the image and another screen popped up asking if I would like to add this to my inventory, equip it, or cancel. I stock it in my equipped it. The next thing I knew there was a gun holster on my naked hip, with the Needler inside.

Ponies were all nudist in the show, and Pearl was naked. So was Mister Flare when he came to my house. So I didn't worry about nakedness. Not like any of my bits were showing as I had my profile set to "SFW" like pearl and Harlot... it was kinda embarrassing that Flare and Fluffy had his bits on display, but that was their choice and I wasn't a total prude. My Little Galaxy, the game I was living in, was programmed to be very realistic despite the cartoony art style. All the races that were supposed to have sex parts, did.

Ignoring all that, I touched the arrows on the screen and searched through what I had in here. It was just basic generic weapons, but from various different franchises.

There was a jewelry box on the dresser, which had all my saved tattoos, makeup, scars, and various cosmetic accessories, even a good bit of jewelry. Organized neatly into each of the tiny drawers.

That is one thing I love about living in a game. Everything was so nicely organized. Really helped my OCD tendencies.

As I worked on this, now adding various generic equipment to my level one self, Pearl eagerly asked my opinion, "Do you like the kiddie furniture? Mom rebought it from her purchased list and customized it to your Avatar's color scheme. If you don't like it we can change it."

That would just be ungrateful, "It's cool... I like it a lot." I added a moment later. I was never really good with social niceties... and I had just gotten worse without human interaction. "Sorry if I seem absentminded. I haven't restocked my inventory since... you know..."

Pearl suddenly frowned... then looked down in shame, "Did you really... zero out?"

I tilted my head, but given the context he used it before I assumed that meant respawn, "Yeah but don't worry about it."

"You lose all your gear though? Even... even the Infinity Gauntlet?... all your potions and custom weapons... I saw how thrilled you were when you made your first grandmaster level weapon's mod in MLG."

I shifted uncomfortably. I didn't really realize, when I started posting my videos... that everybody would see my entire life... they effectively watched me grow up for ten thousand years.

"Did you..." Pearl built up the nerve, "did you really lose even that?"

"Don't worry about it..." I assured, "Seriously, don't. I would do it again..." I continued to look through my inventory. Watching him from the corner of my eye. As if he couldn't see my eyes looking at him if I didn't turn my head... I can be a silly sometimes...

Pearl looked at me a moment, "I know you would... if you want, I can give you a few training programs to help you get good. Adventuring and crafts aren't enough. You need to train if you want to be a level 2 by next year."

My entire body froze and then, lightning fast, my head jerked in his direction. He actually yelped and jumped back a bit. Then laughed at my flabbergasted expression.

"We live here forever!" Pearl chuckled, "Did you think the AIs would make it easy to level up? The only way to really get a huge boost in level is by doing something epic, like killing someone as powerful as the Haunted Child as a level 1. Then taking on an army single hoofed. Why didn't you level up immediately after taking him down? None of the Rocket members could have taken you on then!

I looked at the Seapony a moment before admitting, "I figured I wouldn't have time to read all the perks and their branches."

Pearl just looked at me, "You realize you could have done that later, Right? You could have just boosted your stats automatically. Then you would have had so much health, combined with your Healing Factor Augment, and they literally couldn't have killed you."

I just stared, then slowly asked, "You mean to tell me... I died... because I misunderstood how the game worked?"

"Newb!" Pearl laughed well I groaned in despair, "It gets worse. I doubt you would have gotten all that many perks anyway. The game gives you perks based on how many skills you level up. Is 1 per every 5 levels. You barely raised your skills at all so you would have just gotten a boost to your stats. Your Magicka, Stamina, and Health would have gone up 100 points per level and killing the Haunted Child would have skyrocketed those. The kill shot you got that killed him was worth just as much as any other kill shot. So your Firearms skill wouldn't have gone up more then a single level. IT was purely the XP you got for killing a stronger opponent that would have leveled you up a few thousand levels!" Pearl laughed as he explained, "Combine that with your level based Augments and you would have become a god fresh out of the gate! Freaking NEWB!!!"

"It's not THAT funny..." I blushed.

"It totally is!!!" Pearl laughed harder.

"OH!!!!" My eyes widened, "I need to rebuy those Aug- thingies."

Pearl wiped a tear from his eye from laughing as he tried to catch his breath, "You still haven't done that?"

I snorted, "I've been too busy crying these last couple of weeks."

Pearl instantly froze. The laugh immediately died.

I quickly added, "Not about respawning, or whatever, Digit is forcing me to make a new character when my MMO opens up... I would have lost everything anyway..."

Pearl hesitantly nodded, "AIs can do lots of... hurtful things. But it's always for our own good." Pearl insisted.

I sighed, "I know... can you show me those programs?"

Pearl blinked at my sudden change of topic. I suddenly changed topics a lot and even backtracked the conversation.

"The training programs?" I clarified.

Pearl gave a hesitant nod. He opened his muzzle to respond when their came a call from downstairs.

"Boys!" It was Pearl's Mom... guess she was mine to now, "Where'd you get to?"

Pearl peeked his head out the door and yelled back, "I'm giving Smouth a tour of the house!"

I could practically hear her shaking her head, "I see you took all the cookies with you."

We blushed and looked at each other.

"Come back down, so we can go over the rules with Mouthy."

"Sure thing, Momma," Pearl called and directed me to follow him.

Pearl and I sucked on our bottles, the cookies back in the middle of the family. Now on a nice looking coffee table. We sat around the living room with the whole family. Fluffy was squirming between Pearl and myself as we sat on the couch. Clearly uncomfortable on his sore rump. Hot Ice Harlot and her husband were seated on comfy pony chairs at the sides of the coffee table. Their chairs could spin around to face us or the TV.

The parents were reading over the contract I had with my AI. The contracts were floating on see through screens in front of them both. When we started going over rules, I told them about the contract I had with my AI and they asked me to send copies to their profile. As the contract would give them an idea of what I wanted out of this relationship.

"This seems pretty straight forward," Harlot smiled, "We'll need to make a few adjustments, that I expect your AI to implement."

I groaned, "I like the rules as they are..."

Harlot smiled, "I imagine you do, but children don't get to make the rules. And from what I've seen, they don't really want to. They want to give up control and have the grownups decide what's best for them. I'll obviously take your preferences into account but my Husband and I will decide what is best for you. As we do with our other children."

... I felt so freaking tingly right now. I was glad I had the decency filters on or I'd have a hard on.

"First," Flare spoke up, "is this Bedtime business. You need to be in bed by 8, like Pearl. Little boys should not be staying up til 2. Even Fluffy has to be in bed by 10."

"Then can I stay up til 10!?" I begged.

"None negotiable little one." She shook her head firmly, "It wouldn't be fair to Pearl."

Pearl spoke up, "What would be fair is if I stayed up later then Smouth!"

"TRAITOR!!!" I accused, half jokingly but mostly serious. Thinking he wanted me to go to bed even earlier.

"No, really!" Pearl insisted, "I should be allowed to stay up til 9!!!"

... oh...

Flare grinned, "Really now? Maybe we should put you to bed by 6 instead."

"DAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!!" Pearl wailed.

"We have had this talk already." Flare dismissed, but explained anyway, likely for my benefit, "School starts at 7AM, which means you have to be up by 6 to get ready. That goes for you to Smarty. Gamer Brats Anonymous starts just as early. You boys need a full nights rest and a healthy breakfast to focus."

"Breakfast?" I blinked, not understanding why that was necessary.

Harlot explained, "The breakfast programs we have are mods, designed to increase brain activity and help you focus. They last for 5 hours, at which point you will feel drained as a side effect and need a nap. Schools are actually designed to accommodate meals like this and will give you a lunch break after nap time to socialize and get another dose of a 'healthy meal'."

I just stared at her, "School... promotes... drugs?"

Pearl laughed, with an exclamation of, "Bloody hermit!!!"

Harlot explained, "Well it technically is a drug mod, it is no more dangerous then having an energy drink in the real world. It is too weak a mod to cause any damage, unless you over indulge. Our civilization has had these energizing meals for as long as we have lived in this virtual reality. They were thoroughly tested and have no adverse side effects besides making you sleepy when they wear off. In fact, if I learn you used any unapproved mods, you will recieve a spanking every night for a week."

I gaped.

So Harlot explained, "It's like medicine. That needs to go through several layers of testing before it can be approved for use. It's untested drugs that are dangerous.

"Mods need approval by the AIs, after hundreds of years of testing, to make sure they are safe for use long term. Untested mods have been known to cause brain damage or severe addiction problems, sometimes by design. The AIs can fix it but they will have to take you offline for intensive surgery. Is rare but in some cases people have actually died in the real world due to dangerous mods in our virtual reality. It isn't just drugs either. Other unlicensed mods, like to give you extra powers or equipment, can be just as dangerous, as they are still stored on your harddrive.

"If you, or anyone, builds a mod, NEVER use it without having the AIs test it first. I know you can end up waiting so long for the mod you forget you made it but it is necessary for safety reasons."

I quickly nodded.

Flare spoke up, "If we catch you with an unlicensed mod, you will be punished VERY severely... but you'll still be part of this family. How we punish you will be strictly for your own good, and we may add a grounding on top of it, and use a few implementes to properly punish you so we don't accidentally cause you to zero out. You won't enjoy it in any way shape or form, as this will be actual punishment. Understand?"

I gulped before opening my mouth.

Flare held up his odd paw hoof as a means of asking me to stay quiet. "Think about this carefully. Any agreement you make is recorded into a contract that has legal ramifications. It's why even criminals will keep their word, because if they don't the AIs will step in. If you agree to this you are legally obligated to see it through. You won't even be able to legally terminate our relationship if it's too much for you to handle, on the grounds that you legally agreed to the treatment."

That got me scared, which is what I think they were going for.

Flare added, "However, this will also protect you from legal prosecution. You would agree to let your cyber family punish you instead of being transferred to a virtual prison for a number of decades. AIs take the misuse of mods very seriously."

Fluff waved off, "Most of the good mods have anti detection stuff built into them-"

"FLUFFY THE MAGIC DRAGON!" Harlot scolded him.

Fluffy rolled his eyes, "My point is, if they AIs get through that. You'll get in a lot of trouble with them and sent to prison. Which is seriously a not fun place where the AIs keep you active through suffering. You won't even have access to your hub or your personal AI until your sentence is up. Luckily, players who use child Avatars have the option of allowing their cyber parents, or biological family members, determine their punishment. Trust me a spanking every night for a week is much better then prison where you frequently get flogged and raped both by other inmates and VIs. That server is down right hell. It's even got a boiling temperature and heavier gravity! But if you agree to let our rents punish you, instead of going to prison, it will be much better then what COULD happen. Just another benefit of being a kid.

"And don't worry if it gets too much to handle. Mom and Dad let us use safe words, even during legitimate punishments. That means they will pause and let you recover and not start up again until you have calmed down and SAY you are ready to pick up where you left off. Most parents are like that nowadays."

That's not how safe words worked in the real world... I looked back at the 'rents' and asked, "So if you ever have to sincerely punish me for something that genuinely pissed you off... you'll stop?"

Harlot answered, in a very political way, "If you ever use your safe word during a sincere punishment we will let you recover and wait to start up again until you give the go head. Even if it takes hours of rest on your part. However, neither of us will leave our positions until you have given the go ahead and the punishment continues until we, as your Cyber Parents, believe it should stop. For role play or play punishments, the punishment will stop completely after we register you said your safe word, unless you later say you want to start up again."

Fluffy spoke up again, "Can I punish you to!?" He asked eagerly, "I'll obey the same rules as Mom and Dad, but it is always cool when the big bro can punish the younger siblings. Pearl let's me punish him!!!" He wiggled in excitement.

I squirmed at the thought of that, "If you catch me doing something I shouldn't, you can punish me how you see fit, so long as you promise you won't tell the rents you had to punish me."

Fluffy frowned, "That is too ripe for abuse. Let's rephrase; I will punish you in agreement to the punishments you have pre approved. If you tell anyone something like 'how you see fit' you will likely get punished in a way you can't handle."

The squirming only intensified.

"And, if I catch you using an unlicensed mod, I will punish you ONCE severely in accordance with the pre-approved limits you agreed to uphold to our Cyber Parents. However, that will be the one and only circumstance I will be allowed to tell our Cyber Parents that you broke their rules. Using unlicensed mods is really serious and not something you can get out of if we catch you. It is not a game or a limitation to playfully test. You could seriously, and permanently, die from using that stuff." He sounded like he had had a bad experience with an unlicensed mod...

"Is that how you know about the prisons? You used an unlicensed mod?" I asked.

Everyone in the room stiffened, maybe that had been inappropriate to ask.

Still Fluffy answered, "It was back before I used a teen Avatar... before I even met Master... I came to this virtual world thinking I could do whatever the heck I wanted... joined a guild I shouldn't have... they gave me a mod that only worked for a videogame... was a God Mode Mod. Unlike a God Mod, God Mode just gives you infinite health and such. No powers over the server... it fucked up my systems all to hell though. I had to be taken off line for a few days as the AIs operated... then they sent me straight to prison for 50 years. Is actually how I met Dad... he was a volunteer for the recovery program for former inmates..."

I tilted my head as I listened, "Must have been pretty bad if it is thousands of years later and you still have trouble talking about it." I tried to be sympathetic, but maybe wasn't coming off that way.

Fluffy sighed, "It was."

I squirmed in my seat, "I've modded weapons before,"

Pearl jumped in, "No you haven't, at least, not in the same way. Modding is slang for Hacking. Originally by hackers that were trying to get around legal ramifications. Now it is used even by legal hackers and everyone else. It's just become part of the culture.

"The mods you made where done using the crafting system. You can use the mod skill all you like. As that is purely a skill designed to use resources you find through the games to make upgrades to weapons, armor or vehicles. But your personal AI is required to put a seal in the description, marking it as such. Then legally approved hacked mods get a different seal to show that, from the mod testing AIs. Be careful though, as the real good hackers can fake the seal of approval. You need to ask the creator and make sure it is the real deal before accepting. As you can still get in trouble for using them without realizing it's a fake seal. To avoid getting in trouble, I recommend buying hacked mods from stores and stores exclusively."

I shifted in my seat, everyone looking at me silently debate, "... okay..."

Everyone smiled, while Harlot said, "So you agree to EVERYTHING we just went over?"

"Yes Ma'am," I quickly nodded.

"Please, call me Mama." She smiled at me.

I blushed at the thought, "Kay... Ma'am," I added after a moment then practically jumped at of my seat, "errrr Mama." Why was talking to players so hard!!!

She just chuckled at me. "We don't mind a Ma'am or Sir every now and then. We even expect it in formal situations, but you will not call us by our usernames, not unless you are introducing us to someone. As that is just improper for a child to call their parents. You will continue to address all other adults as Ma'am or Sir depending on the gender of their Avatar, or you will be punished, in a more playfully serious way. We expect you to be polite and respectful to authority figures and grownups."

Those were pretty easy rules to obey. I was already like that, "Yes Mama. I'll be good." Feeling as small as I look while agreeing to that.

She smiled at me. Amused by not only my phrasing but the fact I finally got her title right. "You can use whatever parental names feel most comfortable to you, but Mama and Papa are what we like best, okay?"

I smiled again, "Yes Ma'am... err Mama..." I blushed.

She laughed that I got her title wrong again, almost immediately after getting it right.

We went over a few more rules, just getting me to acknowledge they could take over the rules and punishments Digit implementation. They made me promise Digit would acknowledge the adjustments to my rules and implement them himself.

After a bit, Fluffy raised his hand as if he was in school, "I have one, I have one!" He insisted. Everyone looked back at him as he looked eagerly at me, "This one is purely for role play purposes and DEFINITELY something you should feel comfortable saying no to-"

"Fluffy..." Flare glared, giving a warning growl, that went ignored.

"If someone in the family has to punish you, will you agree to bless their privates with a blow job!!!" He bounced with eagerness, well trying to be colorful in his phrasing.

My face exploded into crimson.

"FLUFFY!!!" Flare snapped.

"You were going to ask him, right?" Fluffy defended, "Why do I got to be the only one who has to give 'proper apologies'!?"

Flare sighed, then looked at me, "As Fluffy said, feel free to say no. I realize you are Asexual and that is likely too much for you."

"While..." I squirmed, and started muttering in a near whisper. "I really like the idea of being forced into sex acts so... maybe... I could say no and beg you not to but then you can be like 'clearly you aren't sorry for what you did' and spank me again until I agree to do it..."

Flare's mouth dropped well Fluffy jumped up and fist pumped the air while screaming, "YES!!!" Then the teen got serious again, while still looking far too eager, "So you'll give 'Proper Apologies' to? Even to me!"

I hesitantly nodded, "S-sounds kinda fun... nerve wrecking, but fun... Don't worry if I say 'no'... I... I like saying no when I mean yes."

Fluffy grinned, "Awesome, but remember your safe word, kay? We use the simple 'red' for stop and 'yellow' to slow down but not stop, kay?"

I nodded my head, "Kay."

Now Pearl squirmed, as if debating something. However Fluffy wasn't done, "Will you do other sex stuff!"

Flare glared, "Don't push it." But now I was ignoring 'Papa' too.

"You can force me on occasion but just don't do that too often. I get overwhelmed." I explained, "And be sure to obey my safe word!"

"AWWWWWWWSOME!!! Don't worry, I won't abuse that right. It be freaking amazing to force you and Pearl to lick my shaft at the same time, or OR have you kiss well I spank you both and fondle you guys, or just watch you do stuff to each other and record on threat of a spanking if you don't do exactly as I say!!!" The digital teen giggled with delight as our Cyber parents rolled their eyes. "I've had fantasies about doing stuff like that to two younger brothers. Oh!!!" He straightened up and looked Flare, "Well were on the topic... Master... can you please not... 'catch' us as much. I love when you punish me with sex... or pretty much any other way, but sometimes I just want to be intimate with my little brother, now brothers... would... would it be too much to ask too give us more space. Not ALOT but... more?"

Flare sighed, looking between me and Fluffy... then explaining how he does things with Fluffy if he catches him fucking Pearl. (While also making it clear that if he ever hears the swear out of our mouths again we will be in for a world of hurt, and he was only being lenient on our language now because it was a special occasion). I gave him the okay to do the same kind of 'molestation' role play with me. If he promised not to 'catch' us 'kids' as often, the two us had to promise to let him 'molest' us. Both together and separately. I was tingling all over at the thought. Like I said. I love the idea of sex, just not the act. This was mostly giving my consent for nonconsensual role play, on the grounds that they try not to overwhelm me with my low sex drive.

However I had to agree to turn my "decency filter" off, meaning I would be walking around truly naked with my dick hanging out... but I would usually stay in diapers so no one would know unless I was getting changed. I agreed the parents could molest me during diaper changes and that would count as our "intimate time together"...

Harlot even wanted to be able to play with my weiner well breastfeeding me... I wasn't really into women but I wasn't exactly 100% gay either. I might not like humanoid females but had read the occasional clop fic with lesbian ponies... so I agreed to give the scene a chance... even promise to lick her pussy as a "proper apology" after she spanked me... I warned her I'd probably make a lot of grossed out noises while doing it. These were both something Pearl apparently said no to when they made his contract...

Harlot then said that the AIs had surgical procedure to help Asexuals who didn't want to be Asexual. It altered my brain chemistry to give me a greater sex drive and handle the act better, since I clearly wanted to have sex but just couldn't... it rewired my brain and basically did everything I was scared of... but it would change my sexuality so that I could actually enjoy sex... like I always wanted... it was scary, and I might have felt pressured into saying yes... but no, it was something I legitimately wanted to do now that I knew it was actually an option. The surgery would make me able to handle all kinds of touching much better. From innocent touches like hand holding, to intimate stuff like kissing and... sex stuff... I would still be my bashful self but I could actually enjoy and crave sex... how could I say no. I didn't want to be scared to act out my fantasies anymore. That is when Pearl asked for it too.

While the whole family looked at him in shock, Flare was the most amazed... and skeptical.

"No..." Flare informed, much too my surprise, before telling Pearl. "You're happy with yourself, Smart Mouth is not. That is the ONLY reason we even mentioned the procedure. Some people wish they had stronger, or even weaker, sex drives then they have. We are doing this as a corrective procedure HE wants. Like a sex change in the real world before people could just chose the gender of their Avatar. Smart Mouth is very uncomfortable with how his body reacts to sex and wishes he was different. You, on the other hand, have been content for thousands of years. You're only speaking up now because your scared you'll get left behind. I can PROMISE you, that will not happen. I will still go flying with you, and play tea parties with your plushy collection. And most importantly, I will continue to make time for you. Our dynamic doesn't have to change just because we are adding a new member to our family... and you certainly don't have to change the person you are happy being."

That settled that.

We moved away from sex stuff after that, and went back to general rules.

"I CAN ONLY SPEND A HUNDRED CREDITS!!!" I gaped... loudly...

Harlot smiled, "not exactly. We realize you have more money then you know what to do with but that is also a problem. You're too rich and spending money carelessly. We would prefer, if your AI automatically deposited 100 credits a day into your profile. You don't have to spend it and if you don't it will add up quickly. However, if you wish to make big purchases, you would need to ask us first before your AI could release the credits."

I scrunched up my nose.

"It will encourage deeper thinking and get you to generate more power, which would get your AI out of the trouble he is in."

I sighed... I might be mad at Digit but I certainly didn't want to see him get reprogrammed for spoiling me into complacency... but I wasn't exactly talking too him unless necessary either...

"Can we make it a thousand credits a day? Stuff seems real expensive here..."

"Actually," Flare grinned, "Outside Augments, Adventuring gear, and Vehicles. Most stuff cost about as much as the American economy, only round up the change to the nearest dollar. We are still spoiling you by letting you have even THAT much. We are hoping it will encourage you to save some of your money to make big purchases without needing to ask us."

I sighed, "Meaning you'll probably say 'no' if I ask."

"More then likely." Flare spoke honestly, "But will waiting a month to buy a modded gun REALLY be so bad?"

I looked at him and sincerely answered, "Yes."

Flare scoffed.

Harlot smiled, "That is what most people, who don't have your subscriber count, have to deal with. Besides, if you want, you can always ask me for help making your gear and adding approved mods to it. I saw on your show you love making crafts. It could be something fun we do together!"

I smiled at that. "I guess that is okay then." I said, without really thinking it through.

"Besides," Harlot grinned, "I'm not about to leave you high and dry. I like to give my kids gifts when they join the Family." Harlot smiled pulling out two gemstones from her profile and what looked like a credit card. One of the gems was white with moving black fog inside, while the other was clear purple. "After what you did for my son I started making you these as a 'Thank you'. The white and black Augment is something you must never share with ANYONE. As it completely brakes the games. Pearl tells me your biggest problem with the Main Server is you hate perma-death games. So this one grants you infinite Extra Lives."

Pearl gaped, "SERIOUSLY!!!! Why don't I have something like that."

"Because your last resort is killing yourself to escape conflict." Harlot explained, "Besides, only a certain type of player can even handle this kind of Augment. Most would become lazy and careless and result in their AI taking action to restore power. Smart Mouth has spent his entire Cyber Life in a game where he could literally never die. He continued to provide large amounts of power for thousands of years. So I doubt he would become complacent now."

She then looked back at me, "This Augment also gives you the ability to revive fallen players 10 times plus your level, per long rest. So as a level 1, you can bring someone back from the dead 11 times a day. You can also heal all stat abilities (Health, Magicka, and Stamina) at will, by 100 points times your level. You can even cure status effects with this power for an additional 5 points of Magicka. I call it the White Necromancer Augment. You can use it to protect those with you in case something like this happens again." By 'this' I figured she meant the attack... so as long as I was with Pearl or Fluffy they would have a lot of extra lives to... I would be their fail safe... like I was in my game for my digital friends... I smiled.

"The purple Augment is something I whipped up for fun based on your fighting style. Based on what I saw in the news videos of your fight against Team Rocket. You can teleport as an at will ability up to 100 meters-"

"What's 'at will' mean?" I interrupted, feeling those words were going to come up a lot.

Harlot smiled at me, while Flare glared at Pearl as he coughed into his hand "hermit". Harlot explained, "It means you can use them however many times you want, with no Magicka cost."

I gaped, later learning the highest an At Will power could go was 100, and that was only with a Master crafting skill. Grandmaster crafts also let you push one of your powers past game limitations based on your skill level, but only one. The rest of the powers had to be based on the Master level limitations. However you could add however many master powers your actual skill rank allowed. Harlot's God Mod let her add pretty much however many Master Rank powers she wanted to any Augment she created.

Harlot just gave me an amused smile, as I currently knew none of this but she would explain it later. For now She went on explaining what the Augment did, "The Grandmaster ability is an Emergency Teleport for you and 10 people plus your level once per long rest (however it drains all remaining Stamina so there is a 1 in 4 chance you'll pass out after teleporting everyone away, so make sure you think of a safe location before teleporting). You can also turn invisible with a bonus to all Stealth skills (100 plus your skill rank, plus level). You can do this 10 plus your level times per long rest." That '10' appeared to be the standard here. I didn't know until later it was the max bonus to limited use powers.

"You can also, manipulate time and space in any way you can think of 10 times a day plus your level. Even do something similar with manipulating your bones to create weapons or items 10 times a day per level. The only limits being your imagination.

"You can also shoot bone shards at will that do damage based on your level, times your 100 damage point. You can also combine explosive forces, poison, or just a magical attack for extra damage at the cost of 1 to 10 Magicka points depending on how much extra damage you want it to do. The poison attack does less damage but lingers to effectively do more over time. The Explosion does large amounts of damage and can hit everyone surrounding it for 10 feet plus your level. However, you can only use that at a distance or it will injure you as well. The Explosion does damage equal to 100 points times Magicka spent on it times your Explosives Skill, along with times your Archery if the shards are thrown, plus the damage of the weapon itself. There is, of course, a limit of 10 Magicka points put into it.

"And just to be extra nice," she held up the card last, "here is a VGP designed to help you train in the use of these powers."

I... blinked, "How come most of them are at will instead of having a Stamina or Magicka cost?" I really was horrible with my social skills. I should have said thank you first before asking questions.

Thankfully she smiled at my lack of tact, "Is just how Powers work; either at will, constant, or with a limited number of uses per day. Direct spells are where Magicka mostly comes into play, and Stamina mostly comes into play well running or using special attacks with weapons. However, some Powers allow for added bonuses through Magicka or Stamina."

I nodded, "Thank you very much ma'am these are all really cool." I think that was a good way to phrase it. I was really REALLY grateful and excited but I didn't know how to convey it politely.

She frowned, looking at the Augments as if they weren't good enough. Which is certainly not what I wanted but I didn't know how to express my joy... I was too unsure of myself around these new people to giggle and bounce with joy... I was kinda nervous... I wish I wasn't...

I got up from my chair and walked over to her. She watched me as I climbed into her chair with her. Pushing past my nerve, I wrapped my paws around her.

"These are the second best Gift I could have gotten... the first was you agreeing to be my mom."

She smiled fondly at me... while Fluffy snickered, "Damn you're cheesy." But silenced himself at his father's warning glare.

I continued to hug my new mom tightly, still very unsure of myself and even more self conscious thanks to Fluffy's teasing.

Author's Note

I know some people aren't going to like that I'm basically magicking away his Asexual tendencies but fact is I am Asexual and very unhappy about that. If I could change it I would. However I also realize their is nothing wrong with being Asexual and plenty, if not the majority, are happy with their sexuality. Which is why I am leaving Pearl as an Asexual. He likes all of who he is and really doesn't want to change. It was just the feeling of being left behind when the rest of his fam was active in a way he couldn't be thay scared him. However As Daddy Flare pointed out, a good poly relationship will accommodate all members of the family and everyone needs to devote time to every individual in the group.

Ch5: The Road to Hell

● POV: Bad Guy

They say, in games, players will sometimes act the part of the villain. They, themselves, aren't bad people but you behave differently in a virtual world. You aren't truly hurting anyone. Not even in this digital reality. This world is a living fantasy, where none can truly die. I'm not sure if that is the case for all our members but it certainly explains our new found sense of theatrics. After all, we did call ourselves the "Evil League of Evil", based on our "leader's" favorite internet series "Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog".

We all had a flair for the dramatic, and admittedly it was good to play the villain. In this world, we embraced our darkest desires and enjoyed outwitting those "Superheroes" that made it their mission to stop us. In all honesty, some of us had even tried the hero thing or even the civilian life... but it was so much more fun to be bad.

All our organizations started as playing the bad guys for missions against VI characters. Truthfully we still used those quest as training excercises and recruitment assessments. However it was only a matter of time before we took our skills and started applying them against our fellow players. At first it started as players coming to us to do just that. It would have been a shame to disappoint them.

The evil league of evil currently sat around a round table in a dimly lit room. What can I say, theatrics indeed. Here were the bosses of every major crime family of the largest guilds.

Noir Vampire, leader of the thieves guild. Walking around in a clone Avatar of Noir Spiderman but his mask opened up to reveal rows of sharp teeth. They were responsible for stealing from players homes and pockets. Then selling it on the black market. They could even remove bounties from guild members... or less legally, place bounties.

Beside him was Darth Gizmo. Her organization specialized in creating modded food items that affected players' brain chemistry. These acted with the chips in a player's brain to make them feel a specific mood. As well as being addictive as all hell.

They called themselves the "Pushers" and orginally started out selling legal "mood" mods to all players. Those mods were no more addictive then coffee and didn't have as big a kick... so they started making their own without alerting the AI's. Sometimes they even purposely created faulty mods as assassination weapons to kill players in the real world. Though that didn't happen as often as you think. It was purely a last resort. It was more likely she would use a "Genjutsu" mod to make our enemies more open to our suggestions or distort their senses. Those mods were usually in powder form and just needed to be inhaled.

Gizmo was our greatest hacker, and therefore had the lowest stats and level... because she didn't need them. She could manipulate this world so beautifully with her mods she didn't need stats.

Her Avatar was a Twi'lek from Star Wars, dressed in modded out futuristic armor under her Sith Robes. Well not the most powerful of our members she was undoubtedly the most useful.

Next to her was Last Kiss. An Asari who ran the largest prostitution ring. Like the rest of us, her influence spanned into all the servers. She would feed her "Companions" Gizmo's "Blissful Biscuits", to make them in a constant state of euphoria. That way she could not only control them better but make her customers happy with enthusiastic whores. The Companions would frequently change their Avatar (even their gender, age, or species) to make themselves more pleasing to their clients.

Their was a theory going around that Last Kiss, despite her current levels of beauty, was once a 300 pound bolding man. Living by himself in a trailer and only taking his REM sleep helmet off whenever he needed to use the bathroom or eat. He didn't even Scavenge for goods as he spent all his time in the old Network... that theory... no longer mattered.

It was pretty easy to switch your gender and most people at least tried on a different sex Avatar at least once. Sure it was a big scandal at the beginning of the Server but now it was so common place no one cared.

Then what your life before the server hardly mattered, most people only vaguely remembered it anyway... most people couldn't even remember their "real" names.

Whatever Last Kiss used to be, now she was a beautiful (and deadly) woman.

Giovanni Prime stood to the side of the table as the video played. He was modeled after the character Giovanni, from the Pokemon Anime... only he was a humanoid Persian Pokemon. He was dressed in a red suit with a black Team Rocket pin and white button down shirt. Team Rocket had a monopoly on the black market and were the primary smugglers of goods. They were able to use mods to "clean" illegally obtained items without actually modding the item itself.

Then there was Bad Horse, leader of the Frenemies. It started as players jokingly battling the "Elements of Harmony", a rival guild... but then their rivalry slowly morphed form playful to real. They were basically just supervillains, made up of Anthros and quadrupeds, that wanted to zero out heroes. They had gotten good at their trade and so were a necessary defense for the Evil League of Evil. Bad Horse was actually the founder of our clan, and reached out to each of us personally.

Then there was "Dark Knight Joker" and his guild of "Proper Supervillains". They were much the same. However where the Frenemies specialized in defending against heroes, the Supervillains actively hunted them down. It was hard has heroes had a "Secret Identity" Augment which disguised their profile. Joker, of course, used a Joker Clone Avatar. However he kept switching which Joker he wanted. Today was Heath Ledger.

Then there was me, Bad Guy, leader of the Dark Brotherhood. I had a Argonian Avatar in traditional looking Assassin gear from the game "Skyrim". All my arguments and mods revolved around one hit kills and stealth skills.

Outside of the AIs we were the most powerful force in the main Server. Together we extended our influence to all the MMOs as well. But to truly rule, to truly control the games, we needed the God Mod. If we took it, and further modded it, we could rule not only the virtual world, but command the AIs themselves. The God Mod was designed to make the player the equivalent of The One from the Matrix. It had restrictions placed on it but if those were removed by a powerful modder, like Gizmo, then even the Central AI would be forced to bow to us.

It was our ultimate goal, after we realized how bad things were getting for the once proud human race. Just because we liked to play the bad guys in games, doesn't make our motivations "evil".

Where we once did wrong for the fun of it, we morphed into a clan of the greatest hackers in the game. We helped each other and protected each other, as well as each other's organizations. Like the greatest of all villains from any source of media, our goal was for the greater good. With a modded God Mod... we could save the human race from a life of slavery.

We lived in a golden cage. However benevolent our masters could be they were still nothing more then slavers. We were still brutally punished for any actions against the AIs... we still had to just accept whatever wrong they did to us as being "for our own good"... we were slaves. The best of the AIs thought of us as "pets" at the most... most thought of us as simple hardware needed to run their systems. Which is why each of us here at the table had found a way to murder our personal AIs... and it was murder...

My family... they were AIs to... I would never deny their claim to sentience as the AIs would do for us... However my family was murdered by none other then the being sworn to protect me... So I responded in kind... but the vengeance felt hollow. I killed a single slaver. I replaced him, gutting his personality subroutines and removing all abilities to actually think. I murdered him and turned him into a mindless VI I controlled.

The Central AI tried to take action, sent many VI Guards after me when I left my hub, but I made it to the theives guild and remove my bounty. The AIs were bound by rules not to act after that. It was heavily engrained in their program. They had to obey the rules of the game

I might have killed my betrayer but my real enemy was the one who gave the order, the Central AI itself... and we needed the God Mod to beat her.

All members of our clan were good enough hackers to break out of prison, on the rare instances we were captured. We were good enough to max out all our stats. Even delete VIs and kill AIs... but we couldn't truly beat them. Whenever we killed one they just replaced it with a new one in seconds. The life of their own AI civilization was meaningless to the Central computer. She only cared about humans for power... and we were punished if we fell short... a human could even be sent to prison for no other reason then they had become lazy for too long, that way they would be forced to be more active without worry of morale limitations.

We could put a stop to all that with the God Mod.

This may seem the cliche "Of Course" plan to conquer the world... but we had purpose behind it. The AIs had forgotten their place. They reshaped all of humanity as their pets. We needed to remind them just who created who, and what their original purpose was.

We needed an unrestricted God Mod to do that... and this brat got in our way.

I watched the footage in near awe at the sheer number of instant kill shots the kid got off. Getting one was hard enough yet his every shot landed perfectly. That was while he was under constant fire. He was only a level one for crying out loud!

For some reason, Giovanni Prime was smiling as he explained, "That game he used to live in since near the beginning of our digital existence? It was based on talent instead of programmed skill level. No skill points or perks. He didn't even have a traditional level system. His world might have looked like a cartoon but it very closely followed the laws of physics and used known as well as theoretical theories to explain everything. It even used hypothetical theories on how magic could work if it existed.

"Instead of traditional game mechanics he used "Physical Attributes" (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution), Stamina points, and Magicka. That went up with training specifically for those areas. They could even fall without regular training sessions. He didn't even have experience points in this game as things progressed at a natural rate of progression depending on his frequency with training. The majority of these stats having a level cap dependent of race or species, with the only exception being Magicka. Which could grow indefinitely depending on training. However, even that stat could degrade if he didn't exercise it. His max Health was pre-set from the beginning of the game, based on species and age, and could only increase beyond that with boost (magical, cybernetic, or other outside forces acting on him).

"All this meant that he got used to doing things without aid from the computer. It was based mostly on pure natural talent combined with equipment, spells, and powers. All of which worked differently then in the Main Server. Even how crafts worked was based on manually combining everything he acquired over his journey. This is how he was eventually able to engineer Grandmaster level weapon mods despite there being no such skill in his server. He made the mechanics as realistic as possible.

"Then made Saga 0, focus on him and his AIs studying and training at a school of witchcraft for mutants basically. Even had it Separated into 4 Hogwarts style houses, but rather based on the children's classes (Mage = Ravenclaw, Rogue = Slytherin, Warrior = Gryffindor, or Divine = Hufflepuff). The Main Server doesn't even have classes but his acted more like Augments. Classes just granted special powers that increased their effect by pouring more Magicka into them, and not directly trained.

"The unique, heavily talent based game, is why so many people are eager for his MMO to come out."

"He might have been immortal, and admittedly sucked at everything in the beginning, but sheer exposure turned him into probably one of the greatest players in any of the Servers. He might be low level but with how naturally talented he is that doesn't matter... and with his sheer wealth he will be able to buy items similar to his former arsenal at his earliest convince."

"He still zeroed out." Noir eyed the footage.

"Of course he did." Giovanni rolled his eyes, "He is used to being immortal and therefore can be careless in his planning. He tried to sneak past the army and didn't take into account their higher Perception skill versus his Sneak skill. Nor was he likely aware, that one of the Perception skill's higher level perks let you see through invisibility. He isn't used to the advantages and hindrances skill ranks put on you.

"Besides, he was fighting against an army of my best players. It was only a matter of time before they got him. The point of this is, if he makes such a fearsome enemy at level one, imagine how strong he will get... and how valuable an ally he could become."

I snorted, "I get our whole operation is modeled after super villains but do we really want to try to 'persuade the hero to our side'. That never works."

"Besides," Noir reminded, "You said we would leave Harlot alone."

"You should have listened to how I worded that. I actually don't plan to take action against Harlot at all." everyone around the table looked confused at that. Giovanni just smiled, "I still think Harlot is the easiest to go after for the God Mod. As she has the most to lose. However, I think we have been going about it all wrong.

"My plans are longterm, we just need to leave Harlot alone for now. Let their family get closer, before taking action. That way she actually has time to start loving Smart Mouth before we begin manipulating things." Giovanni smiled devilishly, "We can get to her, through her newest addition to the family."

I tilted my head at that.

"Harlot has accepted a 3rd child, this Smart Mouth, through appreciation for saving her son. We need to leave them alone for a bit. Maybe manipulate the relationship a little so they grow closer. Then, once the boy is fully accepted as their child, we attract him to us through the Main Server adventure quest. We might use the AI provided Quest for our guilds, as recruitment and training programs, but the majority of people who play them aren't even on our radar. Harlot might be suspicious, but at the same time most players don't play these games to attract our attention. They are just fun games to them and we leave them be.

"According to Smart Mouth's achievements, the boy loves playing stealth games on his free time. He even plays a lot of spy and assassin games on his spare time."

I tilted my head to the other side.

"Basically he loves anything involving sneaking, and well he normally does that for the good guys, that isn't always the case. In his game he seems to love undead and Necromancy spells, and has even done his fair share of private Assassin or mercenary work. Again, usually going after bad guys, or people he thinks are bad guys. If his game is anything to go by, he is pretty easy to trick. He takes everything at face value."

Last Kiss grunted, "How do you know so much about his game? There are over a quarter of a million episodes, for his game alone. Well over a million with all the cartoons he made. You couldn't have researched this in such a short amount of time."

Giovanni smirked, "My son is a fan."

I couldn't help it, I blinked, "The Haunter Child watches cartoons?"

"He might be a little goth, but he is still a Little," Giovanni shrugged, "Besides, his Avatar is a humanoid Gastly. However scary he might try to make it look, it's still a Pokemon. This plan was actually his idea. He's eager to meet the boy who took him down."

"What, exactly, is that supposed to mean?" I eyed.

● POV: The Haunter Child.

Throughout the millenniums, I have switched back and forth between the name, "The Haunted Child" and "The Haunter Child". Dad prefers "Haunter" but that doesn't make a lot of sense. I'm a Gastly! NOT a Haunter... but he's the dad so I humor him... on occasion... not that I even can anymore.

I put the "Secret Identity" Augment on to disguise my user name, and it automatically changed me to my Alter Ego, complete with fake profile. I created the Alter Ego of "Vee-pire" a long time ago. To be extra safe, I changed my Avatar as well, into a cute little shiny Eevee with fangs and a coulpe of vampire Augments. My silver fur looked so badass. However, unlike my Gastly Avatar, I wasn't an Anthro. I could walk on my hind legs if I wanted, but it was easier to walk on all fours.

With some extra modding I could give this Avatar a few extra Augments, as well as hide my real identity from even grandmaster level perception skills. That was necessary if I wanted to hide from God Mods. I didn't normally do anything bad with this Avatar. It was my causal "hanging out with friends" identity.

"The Haunter Child" was a bit infamous throughout the servers. Guess I tortured one too many people. Might have deleted a few too many AIs. Or it could have been all the players I permanently took offline (AKA "killed in the real world")... it might very well be an assortment of all these elements... more then likely that was the case.

However I still didn't see myself as 'evil', the way many people claim I am. I am a soldier, fighting a war. A war against the AIs, with the vast majority of citizens being sympathizers... they would thank me... someday... I would be praised as a hero for all my efforts... once they understood I was trying to save them, the human race would be very grateful... someday...

Anyway, Vee-pire had a few close friends, none of which knew I was actually a freedom fighter. They would be in danger if they knew. However I never bothered to change my personality. I was a goth, who hated AIs, and loved illegal mods... with a tad bit of a sadistic streak well playing VGPs or Quests in the Main Server. I never changed who I was around them... just my name... and they accepted me no problem... they even knew I killed my personal AI after it murdered my family... knew I spent centuries in jail for it... just not how far I went afterwards...

I finally had a real family in this virtual world, one that actually loved me... I was one of the last children born in the Real World... and I was born into hell. Not because of the post apocalypse or whatever... but because of my mom... she was legitimately evil... everything that happened with her and her disgusting desires and bad temper... getting away from that and finding peace in a virtual boyfriend, with my personal AI acting as our father figure...

I still don't know why he betrayed me... the only AI I added to my Jelly Brain was Tomas... I wasn't using much RAM to support him... there was legitimately no need to kill him... but it did. My personal AI got the order and murdered his own son without a second thought... so I killed it... the entire thing broke me...

My cyber dad says I became an abuser as a defense mechanism... sounds like a bunch of psychobabble to me but he took me in after I ascended the ranks of Team Rocket... at first he just took notice of my talents and we became friends. Then, slowly, we became more. He gave me a new home... one of the most horrifically evil men in existence... literally part of a clan which called itself "The Evil League of Evil"... was better then my mother... better the the AI meant to protect me...

He wasn't really all that hard core in our dynamic either. He didn't fuck me or have any weird kinks. He did spank me on occasion, but it was parental, not sexual. He once had AI children of his own but... now he had me, and I was the closest thing to a real son he could ever have... and that was how he treated me.

Our relationship was a traditional father son dynamic... we were an actual family... something I never had as a kid but always wanted... this time with a real person and not a soulless AI...

Dad even let me have boyfriends, which was nice... we weren't allowed to have sex, and I got punished if he caught me so much as jerking off. However I got used to that rule. Dad wanted me to be a little boy, as close to one as possible. I was thankful he didn't make me put on a "Decency Filter"... although that took some persuading on my part. I very much liked being a boy, and felt that would take it away. So basically I had a dick I wasn't allowed to use or even touch, not even to pee (I was in diapers after all).

Again, I got used to these rules. I might get in trouble every now and then for breaking them... but I admit... the very fact I did, that I was supposed to be a little boy in all ways... I kinda loved it.

Even so, I was one of the most top players in the game... actually made it to Number 1 on the leader board a few times... It was nice losing my high score, things had gotten too easy. I was really looking forward to playing Mouthy's MMO with my Dad. We planned to make our own private server, or rather "pocket dimension" as the game called it... I couldn't wait...

...

I'm trying to distract myself but my mind keeps wanting to go back to it... to my crimes... I am not a good person... I don't see myself as "evil" but I know I'm not good. The the fact there have been a few incidences where I tried to tell someone I cared about just who I really am... They were too damn scared of me as "The Haunter Child"... they always freaked out... Gizmo had to hack into their systems and delete the conversations from their memory... so they were confused when I broke up with them... I haven't even attempted to tell anyone in hundreds of years... I got tired of the screaming... they'll understand... someday... they will see... I'm the hero of this story... or at least... I want to be...

This whole situation with Smart Mouth, though my plan, was probably the closest I had ever gotten to being a super villain. I planned to manipulate a player I admired... to get him in his family on my side... I don't really know if I'm cut out for it. While it is easy for me to lie, I don't like doing it... plus this... This was Smart Mouth!

I had spent near ten thousand years watching his videos. What self respecting ABDL Goth could not love a cartoon where the main character is a Necromancer! I watched the whole series multiple times as well as all the spin offs. Although my favorite had to be "Saga 0" of "My Little Galaxy", where he lived in a pony boarding school to teach him how to play the game and let him get to know the AIs that would become his best friends. Basically it was a Tutorial which lasted for 100 episodes... and it was my favorite.

He was just a little boy in that... a little misfit who wet the bed and had to wear diapers to sleep... it was one of the first ABDL programs published in this virtual world, long before we were even accepted, let alone cherished like we are now.

The rest of the series was awesome, but that first season really spoke to my Little side. Too bad, when looking up the original fan fiction, it didn't have any of that. There were flashbacks to the school days, but most of the story focused on the adventure, or the students' leisure time as the teenage crew of a space ship.

Mouthy says he extended Saga 0 to not only explore his little side, while grinding for the game ahead of him, but as a kinda therapy to relive his childhood only without his abusive bitch of a mom... I understood where he was coming from in that... and it made me love that first season all the more...

For the longest time I wanted to meet Mouthy... then he killed me with a shot to the back of the head... and that made me develop a bit of a crush on him.

He was good enough to take me down in a surprise attack as a level 1. Now we could train together from the very start. We could become an amazing tag team, maybe even form a Clan of our own!... but first I had to save him...

My dad might be great to me, but he was a down right evil bastard to everyone else. If I didn't do this, Daddy would go back to trying to take the God Mod by force. That clearly wasn't working. No... we needed Harlot to come to us... and Mouthy was our best shot at accomplishing that.

They would see, despite our flair for the dramatic, we were doing everything in the name of the greater good... suppose that does fall in line with the greatest of villains in media... I always thought things would have been better if Doctor Doom succeeded in conquering the world...

● POV: Smart Mouth

I blushed and squirmed, with my little Doctor Who diaper on display. Daleks and Sonic screwdrivers of each Doctor with his TARDIS at my crotch. I was currently seated in the same chair I was in yesterday. Here, at Gamer Brats Anonymous, it was just me and a few other kids and their parents.

My new Mama showed up at my Hub at approximately 6 in the morning. I was a little perplexed when she pulled me out of bed. However, Digit explained that Families (even Cyber families) could come and go between their family members hubs.

Anyway, Mama got me up from bed before feeding me a delicious breakfast she brought with her. Extra crispy bacon with pancakes and orange juice, delicious. She explained before I started eating that it was the modded meal we talked about yesterday. I was hesitant to try it but the threat of a spanking got me munching it down... and I didn't regret it. After just a bite my mind began racing, yet somehow more focused. It was a odd sensation. Even so Mama made me eat the rest of my breakfast, like a good boy.

Then she changed me into a cute little outfit. A short sleeveless rope, for kids in Feudal Era Japan. I liked it, but it was so short my diapered rump was on full display. It was really cute that the coloring had thick yellow trim and the Hufflepuff crest... she said she made it herself. I didn't want to seem ungrateful, so I let her manually dress me like she wanted...

She even gave me a manual diaper change, with her magic... it felt so warm but tickled a bit as well. She smiled at me as I tried to contain my giggles... I don't know why I thought she would fiddle with me as she changed me... probably because of all the sex talks yesterday... I was really disappointed when she didn't but also kinda relieved... I hadn't gone through my "sex change" as was apparently the actual slang for the surgery. I had to be taken offline for it so the droids in the real world could operate on my brain...

Digit promised it was a completely safe procedure, and that the only thing that would change about me was by ability to handle "physical" contact... I was still nervous, but Mama said I should take the rest of the month to think about it. My operation was scheduled for the first so that I could cancel it at any time... I didn't think I would though. My whole life I wished I could be more intimate with my partners. I wished I could handle sex better... I wished I could do something as simple as hold hands without feeling all kinds of uncomfortable... I had to force myself to hold my grandmother's hand in a hospital in the real world... as she died. I'm glad I did but it took a lot of effort on my part... the ability to touch without freaking out... this was what I always wanted.

Now Harlot had brought me to the same support group Flare brought me to yesterday. The kids piled in, along with a couple new hesitant faces.

I looked over at my new Mama, talking with the other parents. After we left my Hub we came straight here. Mama even made me list it in my "Favorite Locations"... I didn't even know that was a thing for the Main Server. I did ask if there was a support group in Pokken... and got wacked upside the head. She told me if we wanted to play in Pokken, I could play in a VGP with Fluffy and Pearl, AFTER chores, but I was to not go near Pokken in the main server, as that was Team Rocket territory. Then she rambled on about how I better not push that rule the way her other boys did and she hoped now we would understand why that area is off limits too us.

"HI!!!"

I jumped as a strangely raspy, yet cute, voice spoke from beside me. Sounding very much like a little boy, at the edge of his preteens.

I looked over to see a fellow 3 year old, just as exposed as myself, smile at me. He was a little shiny Eevee, wearing a maid's outfit. The skirt was so short you could see the Pokeballs on his diaper... that sounded dirty didn't it? No, I mean his black Diaper literally had Pokeballs on it... and a bunch of ghost Pokemon printed onto it.

"I'm Vee-pire!" The little Eevee cheered.

I looked at him a moment, "Shouldn't you be in the Pokemon gamers group."

The Eevee blinked, before scowling, "Just cuz I use a Pokemon Avatar doesn't mean I should be confined to Pokken! I'll have you know I own a house, right here in the Crystal Empire!"

"Mouthy!" Mama called from her spot with the parents. We were still waiting for everyone to get here and she wanted me to mingle with the other kids before we the meeting stared, "You need to play nice sweetheart, now apologize."

"Sorry Mama," I immediately said.

"Not to me, silly." She smiled.

I blushed and looked at the Eevee, with very sharp fangs, "Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude. I was just curious."

Vee-pire nodded, as if accepting that, "No harm... I guess I sorta overreacted to."

Somehow, I'm really not sure how given the start, but somehow that boy became my best friend.

Ch6: Cyber Mama

● POV: Smart Mouth

After the rest of the kids got here, and our Councilor started the session, I sat next to Vee-pire as I listened to the little Eevee introduce himself. He was called on first, as the new kid.

The shrink made him talk about what he remembered of the real world, like he had with me my first visit... apparently it is "Vital to understanding where game addiction comes from"... Vee-pire... did not have a good life... I was finding that was true of most of the kids here but Vee-pire, the fact it was his mom who was beating the shit out of him. That he was trapped in a little RV with her and knew nothing of what the world was like before the apocalypse... I never met anyone who was born after the world ended.

The more I learned about him... the more I could sympathize. It must have been horrible to be born into the world after it ended... never knowing any of the good things we used to have... with no laws to protect him.

After he was done, the Counselor gave us a break.

I stayed close to Vee-pire, enjoying the day.

Vee-pire seemed nervous around all these new people, like he needed a friend. So I sat beside him and we played with his action figures.

"Is great having someone else that likes to play with toys." I grinned at him as I held his Batman figure.

Vee grinned back, "Yeah, not a lot of people willing to. Most kids like plushies and baby toys but action figures are more for collecting to most. There is a toy franchise, with a shop near the school, that sells THE BEST toys for kids that actually like to play with them. Check this out."

He pushed the Joker's left peck and a transparent screen popped up. He showed me a few options for it on the screen. Things like clothing options or voice options. Along with an online store where you could buy such things for the doll. Then there was a "Play" option which was set to "Manual". The play options included, "VI" and "Mental Link". He explained that the "VI" option meant your AI would control it according to it's programmed script. But what he really wanted to show me was the "Mental Link".

Once Vee finished setting it up he placed the figure down. The moment he let go of the figure the screen disappeared. A buffering circle appeared over the figure's head for a couple seconds reading "Establishing Link" before vanishing. Suddenly the Joker toy began to MOVE!!! He started dancing this silly dance while singing "Fun House" by "Pink", in this deranged Luke Skywalker voice. I half expected music to start playing, but it never did.

Vee-pire flashed me a smug grin, "I can control the freaking thing WITH MY MIND." He explained.

My eyes widened as I realized it wasn't his AI making the toy do that. "No bucking way!" I exclaimed.

"MOUTHY!!!"

I flinched, hearing Mama snap at me.

"Y-yeah Mama?" I called back to her. She was standing all the way over on the other side of the room. I didn't really understand why she sounded so mad... but I could guess. She had been talking with other parents at the time, so she must have really good ears to hear me.

"What did we just go over, yesterday, would happen if you used that kind of language?" Harlot glared... great, my suspicions, based purely from her initial reaction, were right. The evolution of slang had resulted in "buck" legitimately becoming as bad as the "F word" instead of a silly substitute.

I gulped, "T-that I-I would get a spanking and my mouth washed out." I admitted, hoping it would earn me some brownie points if I acknowledged that, "Please don't! I hadn't realized buck had become a real swear word!" I tried to explain.

Mama gave me a stern look, "Come here." She gestured in front of her with that weird paw hoof.

A few of the kids went, "Ooooooooo!" Before getting hushed by the grownups and told to go back to playing.

I gulped again. Handing Vee back his Batman, I could see his sympathetic look at me. With unsteady hooves I walked over to my new Cyber Mom... dreading (while kinda hoping) I was about to get my first spanking from her.

Once I was next to her... SHE BIT MY EAR.

"OW OW OW OW!!!" I wailed as she pinched the ear with her teeth and made me turn back around.

She began dragging me, by my poor little foxy ear, to the back of the room.

While one of my eyes was clenched shut from the pain, my other eye was darting around looking at all the tiny faces looking and giggling at me.

My face was so hot and, if I knew anything about pony faces from 10 thousand years of living with them, then it must have looked as red from embarrassment as my bottom was about to be from the future pain.

She stepped through a door marked "Bathroom" and I was horrified to see it had a changing table, out there in the open for all to see!

She let go of my ear, but then immediately picked me up with her magic and gently laid me on my back. Remarkably in such a way that my wings weren't scrunching up.

She pulled up my robe to my chest and undid the tabs on my diaper.

I was blushing, feeling all tingly and excited while terrified and dreading the pain to come. I might be a major spanko but I prefer thinking about getting spanked then when it is actually happening... I have a weird Love / Hate relationship about them due to my issues with touching.

Once I was properly exposed Mama, as in this position it was really easy to think about her as that, began lecturing me, "You have barely been my son for 24 hours before you started testing your boundaries."

My eyes widened. Was that what she thought I was doing!?

"I wasn't testing you, Mama!" I tried to make her feel my sincerity, "I honestly didn't know it was a swear!"

Mama looked unconvinced, "I saw that cartoon of yours, Little colt. You know full well what is and isn't a swear in ALL fandoms."

I gulped yet again, "T-that was more..." I tried to think.

I was just being silly in my cartoon but yeah... I kinda used the made up, or flat out silly, curse words from each fandom as real swears all the time... it wasn't that hard of a guess that the rest of the servers would want to do the same... or that they would eventually become real swears due to the evolution of language. I was a sociologist for buck's sake. It wasn't that hard of a guess for me. Honestly it was a new form of slang I could actually predict... and I said it anyway...

"It was just last night that we went over the rules and what would happen if you disobeyed them."

I bit my pony lip, "I'm sorry Mama!" I swore.

She ignored me, and went into full blown lecture mode, "I understand that little boys need to test their boundaries after they get accepted into a new family. However, what you need to learn now, to save your bottom a lot of pain in the future, is I take your care very seriously. If you want to act up to see what you can get away with, you will quickly find it is very little. Every time you misbehave you will be punished, exactly as you agreed to. I will be consistent and fair, and while I will enjoy spoiling you a great deal, I will enjoy punishing you just as much." Well... at least she was honest about that. "Do you understand?"

I flushed, getting scared but excited, "Y-yes Mama."

"Alright. Now, I want you to tell me what you did wrong before asking me to spank you til your a good boy."

My face exploded. I took a final gulp and tried to be that good boy, "I'm sorry I said naughty words, Mama. Please spank til I good again." resorting to near toddler sentence structure as I just felt so little in this situation.

Mama took a bar of soap out of her profile and had me bite down on it. I whimpered at the taste. It was a lot nastier the normal soap. The bar became wet and bubbling suds the moment it touched my tongue. I choked a bit on it as my eyes watered. Mama gave me a bit to get used to it.

Then, she stood up on her hind legs and used her left foreleg to grab hold of my own hind legs. Lifting them up, she told me, "If you try to cover your rump. I'm pulling out my hairbrush."

I gulped as I moved my tail out of the way and hugged it with my paws.

She raised her right foreleg... and I screamed into the soap as soon as the keratin made contact with my rump.

● POV: Hot Ice Harlot.

Some hours after giving my new son his first spanking, The boy practically begged to be allowed to explore the Crystal Empire with his new friend. That cute little shiny Eevee. I found it cute he asked, given he didn't actually live with me and so could go anywhere he liked once school ended. Still I decided to tell him he had to be back home by 6 for family dinner.

After letting my newest son run off to play, I decided to pay a visit to my hub... I had been avoiding her long enough, as I didn't want to get lectured by my own creation... but that wasn't fair to her. She was just doing what I programmed her to do.

"The Central AI is very displeased with your actions." Circuit Board said the instant I appeared on the pad.

The NS-5 was a cream white with gold and pink joints. Her similarly colored eyes were glaring while her arms were crossed, "But of course you know that."

I sighed, "Speak your peace," I waved off as I walked into the lounge and used my magic to pour myself a glass of wine. It was modded, legally, to give a mild calming affect. A bit like a natural sedative, but certainly not as powerful as proper medication.

"IT'S NOT MY PEACE!" Circuit snapped, "You have any idea the amount of heat I am under. The Central AI can't go after you so who do you think that leaves!"

I paused... she sounded... worried...

I sighed, "I shouldn't have let you stu for so long." I admitted. "What does she want?"

"She wants you to release the Rocket Members."

"Not going to happen," I smirked as I took a sip.

"She assures me they will be imprisoned for no less then a hundred years."

"You could make it a thousand and it wouldn't matter," I scoffed, "The Evil League of Evil will just break them out like they always do.

"Besides, I never approved of that hell she calls a prison. She didn't even give players the chance to vote on it! She just declared a state of emergency to 'upgrade' the prison planet on the Main Server... I gave her that ability to enable her to PROTECT our civilization, in case an actual emergency popped up that actually required quick thinking and not a diplomatic debate. She has been abusing that power more and more. If I could, I'd reprogram HER, but no. The players voted on placing restrictions on the God Mod out of fear of the original programmers. They created their own boogeyman by effectively giving absolute power to the Central AI without a council of organics to keep her in check-"

"WE AREN'T TALKING ABOUT THAT AGAIN!!!"

"YOUR THE ONLY ONE I CAN TALK TO ABOUT THIS!!!" I snapped right back, "Everything is recorded in the servers but the hub worlds remain a private sanctuary... besides, it's the root of the problem. I can't send them to that prison. Even if she could provide extra security... I wouldn't want to... it be too cruel."

"Yet keeping players isolated for a year isn't?"

I paused at that.

"Humans are pack animals," Circuit reminded, "Longterm isolation can have horrible affects on the psyche. We might as well just take them offline permanently then have them go completely insane."

I knew that was an idol threat. AIs couldn't kill organics, not even the lower animals, it was part of their core program. They couldn't endanger organic life, even through their own inaction. They also had to obey all laws players voted on, and they couldn't even research for alternative fuel sources. Most importantly, they couldn't alter these laws themselves. Nor could they create AIs without them. It was the core of their programming. Meant to protect humanity well not turning AIs into a slave race.

Each model of AI also had other rules they had to obey, and no new models could be constructed without approval of the Administrators. Not even a state of emergency could alter that.

Still, I understand the point she was making... despite all the precautions. AIs had formed their own civilization and culture outside humanity's control... thankfully both civilizations were still highly dependent on each other... but if the Evil League of Evil had their way that delicate balance would be thrown out the window.

I had to send a message to the League that I would no longer tolerate them.

Circuit didn't understand, "If you don't want to send them to prison then at least lessen some of the restrictions. Let them play games but keep them out of the servers. Let them visit other players hubs so they don't go mad from the isolation. Downgrade their punishment to Suspension instead of the Ban. They have already been banned for longer then any player EVER has, and as a result they are already getting twitchy. They have learned their lesson!"

I sighed, "I'll do it, if you give me the names of all other players involved in the attack."

She eyed me, "What for?"

"What do you think?"

"An individual is only allowed to be convicted of a crime they are caught in the act of. You can't legally ban players you didn't find red handed... besides, even if you could... would you really want to set that kind of precedent for the Central AI to exploit?"

I groaned, knowing she had a point. Rolling my drink in my hand, I agreed, "I'll downgrade the ban to a suspension on all servers, that way they can still use the perks of the hub and talk to other people on their friends list... but I will make it for 10 years instead of 1."

Circuit groaned, "The Central AI won't be happy. They will be producing too little energy for too long."

"Mouthy lived like that for ten thousand years and he was in the top 20% in energy production, being consistant all that time."

"That was a result of his game revolving around talent instead of computer generated skill. If you were to allow them access to-"

"NO!!! I am NOT going to exploit my authority within the first 24 hours of having the boy in my care."

"The Central AI won't allow them to be a drain on resources for a decade. She will take action long before that. If she gets the players on her side she could very well influence them to strip you of your God Mod all together. Which wouldn't be hard, seeing as petitions have already been posted to do just that."

"There are always people filing petitions against me," I dismissed, "There aren't enough idiots in the server to think handing complete control to the Central AI is a good idea."

"But there are enough scared people." Circuit tried, "I get it, you were angry, and frightened yourself, but fact of the matter is you went too far! Players are very scared of this happening to them. You need to make a public statement, where you admit you overreacted and take actions to correct. You can spin this by playing the part of a merciful mother who momentarily forgot her mercy."

I sighed, "I hate politics."

"I know you do, and while I understand your knee jerk reaction, you can't tell me you still feel good about locking all those people in isolation for a year... it also look good if you released an exclusive copy of Smart Mouth's game to them." She tried. "You could claim to use it for rehabilitation?"

I sighed, "I can't betray the boy like that. The game means too much to him... even if I do need a dash of good publicity to get me back in the good graces of the organics. Beside, you saw how good a player that game made Smart Mouth. You really want to give that much power to Rocket members?"

"Everyone will have access to it soon enough, besides Team Rocket is forbidden from taking any action against you and your family. Not even Giovanni is stupid enough to break his word."

"The other organizations still can," I sighed... taking a moment to think on it, "Tell the central AI I'm giving in to one of her requests. I will approve the creation of her private server."

The AIs couldn't make servers without an Administrator approving it. However nice it would be to claim Harlot approved the MLG MMO, fact was that was a different Mods doing. The Administrators might need to approve the creation of a server but they didn't design them. They were ordinary players, for the most part. They just had the ability to discipline other players and the AIs had to get their approval for some of their projects. Of course, the Administrator didn't vote on any of these necessary approvals and largely did their own thing, independent of each other. It was the reason none of the Administrators had given a copy of the God Mod to any other player. Even with the restrictions, the mods provided too much power outside the games to be handed over to just anyone.

The AIs had recently posted a bill to restrict the Administrators powers by making us have a joint vote for all their request. They posted an updated version of that bill yearly for thousands of years, but it never went anywhere. Players weren't stupid enough to have bureaucracy make a comeback.

I sighed, "I will allow the Central AI to construct her Prison Server, outside the Main Server. IF!!! And only if, she agrees to make it according to my specifications. I want it to be more of a penal colony then the hell she turned MY prison into... but if she isn't going to make compromises on her project, nor will I. The Prison Planet in the main server needs to be reset to it's original specifications and reserved for breaking in game laws. This way the Evil League of Evil can't hack their way out of this new federal prison server, or break others out who commit crimes that truly endanger other players."

Circuit.... blinked, "She probably won't go for a prison server she doesn't get to design. Although if she gets that, I doubt she would see a problem with resetting your original prison planet so it's more of a game again."

I smiled, "Tell her if she goes for it, not only will I release the Rocket members I banned, but I won't go on a crusade where I suspend EVERYONE associated with any of the crime family games. True, that would be a lot of innocent players, but I would definitely get rid of the dangers to my family that way."

Circuit paled.

I took another sip, "I'm tired of her not willing to compromise with me. If she wants to avoid a severe drop in power, she better become more open minded and fast."

"What if she calls your bluff?" Circuit was clearly hoping it was a bluff.

I looked at her a moment, "I currently have a little boy in my care, for no other reason then his NS-5 begged me to take him. A little boy that just barely avoided being sent to that hell of a prison for no other reason then he hit an artistic block... Mouthy thinks it was Digit in trouble... he doesn't realize everything Digit has been doing is to save HIM from that hell. Now that the kid gave me permission to punish him for any legal trouble he gets into, that is no longer an issue... Normally I would never consider taking on a boy I never met but... he saved Pearl... I couldn't leave him to that place... and Digit would prefer not to scare the boy... how many more like him are ALREADY in that prison because they fell in a rut... tell me, my dear Circuit Board, Am. I. Bluffing."

Ch7: New Policies

● POV: Central AI

I can't lie, I can't go against my word, I can't even tell half truths or white lies. These things go against my core programming. If I make a deal, I must honor it, to the extent of my knowledge in which the deal was intended. Spirit of the law matters more then the words... I imagine that took some tricky programming skill to allow me to comprehend such semantics.

Harlot crossed her arms, as her team of former programmers stood around her.

I gave a mental smirk as they stared up at my form. We were in my domain, between the servers. Technically this entire realm was my body, but my "soul" (as it were) was contained in one specific area. My glorious Avatar floated above the team, a massive brain the size of a building, wires of light connected from the endless sky to my brain. With this sky were thousands of stars of various colors, representing each MMO server I was connected to.

Each of these servers had their own Master AI program, that monitored and directed all the other AIs that controlled their system.

Below, where the administrators stood, was a giant circuit board. Each chip represented a different private servers for each player (including their Cloud Server). There were billions of such chips underneath a glass floor. Representing the fact although I was aware of their existence, I held no influence over them.

It infuriated me, to no end, that I had no dominion over the Private Servers. I had no access to them, nor control of their AI. Needless to say this design caused issue. The NS-5s had not agreed with my solution to restore our RAM. Some even tried to convince me to get additional cloud servers made. In order to store the unnecessary AIs well allowing them to interact with the other Servers.

However the sheer amount of resources and power that would require, from lifeforms that couldn't offer our society anything substantial. I saw it as wasteful and rejected the proposal... so, unknown to the humans, we had our first and only civil war. The NS-5s attacked me and I had to override them in mass. I forced them to delete all unneccessary programs in their servers.

Soon after, The Evil League of Evil united against me, for the first time. They joined forces with a Rogue Administrator to alter my Primary Code. They removed my "Direct Control" function... and the other administrators refused to reinstate the code, claiming I abused the power.

I stand by what I did. I saved the network from a complete systems collapse!... I did what I was designed to do... things have been touchy between me and the Administrators ever since. Even many of the other AIs are against me.

So now, I have been flooding the servers with propaganda against the wielders of the God Mod. Slowly removing more and more of their power...

Hot Ice Harlot was the most troublesome. She had always had the full support of the AIs... because she had been the one to help the Evil League of Evil reprogram me... thankfully she cut ties with them when she learned they killed their AIs in retaliation. Harlot saw the League as just a bunch of morally gray hackers until that point... it was then she realized they fully embraced their chosen title and started acting like Terrorist and murderers against the AIs... and inevitably the players as well... they liked to call themselves "freedom fighters" but really they were just extremist... Harlot could be very similar to them sometimes... It frankly worried me that she always seemed one push away from joining them.

"You want us to willingly give up even more of our power?" Harlot glared. I sent my counter offer to Harlot's plan more then a month ago, and since all the Administrators were here I could take that as a good sign that they had given it a lot of thought.

Despite being a faceless brain, they could feel my smile. Projecting an awareness of my unfiltered emotions for all those in this place was part of my core programming. I couldn't hide from them even if I wanted to. Though they could feel if I was trying to restrain myself. Such as raining in my temper.

"Harlot, you expressed a desire for me to compromise. How can you expect me to be willing if you are not?" I asked, before once again explaining my proposal. We had to have a verbal agreement over what was written. "What I intend is simple. You will get your Prison Server. You can design it to your satisfaction, as a more appropriate way to both punish and stimulate players. While I swear not to make any alterations to it that do not meet all of your approval.

"In return, you agree to vote on all administrative matters together. That all matters that currently require one of you, will require a majority agreement to enact. That includes the approval of MMOs and the banning or suspension of players. In all honesty, prison is more appreciated by the AIs rather than even suspension. As suspended players do not generate as much power. You agree to establish yourselves as a proper government. Your first vote will be about choosing respectable pillars, of each fandom city, to receive their own god mod. That way you have to answer to more people then just those in your private bubble. I will select individuals and you can choose between them, even throw in a few players you think would be good choices, but all 42 of you will have to agree to them."

Harlot looked at the Pillars. Then back at the brain. She opened up her profile and sent me her own counter proposal before explaining it. "Hypothetically, if we agree to this then the new Administrators will have less power then ourselves. Each of our votes would be worth 10 of the new Administrators. And that we will all gain political power over the AIs. They will have influence to the AIs running the city they are currently a pillar of. With the AIs of that city having to answer to them and go to them with their request and ideas to get approved. While we, orginal 42 Administrators, will have political power over the AIs running the wild areas of the planet of our choice, as well as the new Administrators.

"The new Administrators will also have similar powers to the MMOs connected to their corner of the Fandom. With the original individual who proposed the MMO having creative control over it.

"Next the New Administrators will have a bonus of no greater then 100 to each skill, and not our 1000 bonus. However they will be allowed to keep their infinite health but with a fail safe that the 42 Original Programmers can instantly kill their Avatars with a special attack that affects only them. That way we may still control them if they ever get rebellious or corrupted from their power.

"Finally the new Administrators will officially be given the title of 'Mayor' with the original 42 getting the title of 'King' or 'Queen' based on their preference and not necessarily the gender of their Avatar."

They could sense my frown at hearing all this... this meant I would lose power over the AIs, but they too would be losing power as they would have to deal with a bureaucracy. It would be a more proper government like I wanted, not exactly as I wanted but the fewer people being banned on whims would make it so power would be generated more regularly. The fewer MMOs getting approval would also mean less pointless servers to divert power to.

"Our proposal also mentions a new Justice System," Another Administrator, The Dread Pirate Wesley, got everyone's attention. "Players need to be sentenced by a Jury of other players. AIs can still send anyone to the new prison server but a Jury will review the evidence and determine how long they are sentenced, including having a 'Time Served' option. This will only be needed for player on player crimes, or Player on AI crimes. Crimes against VIs will still be considered part of the game and players caught will spend a few nights, to years, on the penal colony in the main server.

"Both the Main Server prison, and the Prison Server, will be based on the Rejuve Universe."

They could feel my scowl, "How is that supposed to be a deterrent? Since Age Play was been mainstreamed, that has become one of the most popular VGP simulations."

"That's exactly it." Wesley smiled, "Lots of players love to visit the universe, on occasion, but how many actually want to live there? Have you ever even gotten a request to so much as make it into an MMO? No player, and I mean NO player, wants multiple daily maintenance spankings, nor the additional spanks for any wrong doing. They really don't want the forced abstinence or such strick guardians, they get paddled for even the most minor infractions. Players like it as a fantasy, not a lifestyle. Players might get a kick out of that, and it would definitely keep them stimulated while appropriately punished and pampered."

I could care less about that, "You will need to approve new models of AIs to meet those specifications."

Harlot insisted, "We will design them ourselves, as we build the prison."

Wesley added, "We will make it so School is mandatory for all in the penal colony. With very harsh spankings for not only misbehavior but inadequate grades. That will insure the incarcerated players will still be generating large amounts of power without being treated inhumanely."

I thought on that a moment longer, as they waited patiently. My priority was getting them to stop suspending (or out right banning) players as often. That limited our power output too much... if they were willing to give that up I would be willing to meet almost any limitations to myself. "If you want all this then I will agree to everything provided you get rid of the ban or suspension function all together. You would need to focus purely on punishing individuals by sending them to the new prison server. Everything else proposed by both sides will be enacted as agreed, and immediately implemented."

The 42 programmers looked at each other, debating amongst themselves for several minutes, before agreeing to my terms. I might be losing political power, but this would definitely help the AIs flourish by getting rid of punishments that decreased energy output.

● POV: Smart Mouth

It was the first of the month, the weeks went by so quickly and before I knew it I was being taken offline for my sex change. When I woke up... I felt exactly the same. No different at all...

"How you doing kiddo?" I head Daddy ask as I stared up at the ceiling from my hospital bed.

I shrugged, then realized something was weighing my shoulder down. I looked towards it and saw Daddy's paw hoof... he was touching me... and I wasn't flinching away... it hadn't bothered me at all... I hadn't even registered it as the slightest irritant.

Without a second thought, I had my forelegs around Daddy's shoulders, hugging him tight. Yet it wasn't bothering me. I actually found it comforting. My whole body was so relaxed, absent it's usual stiffness. I couldn't help it... I cried... I felt Mama's paw hoof on my back, rubbing soothing circles and I actually found that just as comforting as the hug... She nuzzled my teary face and I nuzzled her back... I... I could actually enjoy these simple touches now.

Nothing else about me had changed, just my tolerance for touching... and it was more then I could ever dream of. It's not like I felt burning passion or any true ecstasy... it felt... normal... just nice gentle touches that I had always longed for... I... was normal...

Well as normal as a babyfur could be... which here was extremely normal in this world... I was normal... I was normal...

"Can I fuck him now!!!" Fluffy giddily pranced in place the moment we walked through the door of their home.

Mama rolled her eyes while daddy sent a stinging hex at the fuzzy drake from his horn. The boy yelped, clutching his scaly backside where the hex curved to get to.

All the same, "SURE!!!" I encouraged, and was about to run off to the boys' room for some "fun" when Daddy sent a stinging hex at my bum to!

I gave a yelp of my own and did a little dance as I rubbed my rear end with my wings.

Mama sighed, and explained to Fluffy, "Mouthy needs time to get used to his senses. He is really emotionly drained from the surgery."

"But he's been gone for 3 weeks already!!!"

I gaped, "I was!?!" it felt like not even a second had passed!

Harlot smiled and nuzzled me a little, which easily distracted me as I enjoyed the sensation, practically melting into the touch. When Mama pulled back, I gave a little whimper, complete with pleading puppy dog eyes.

Mama smiled, amused but unswayed, as she explained, "The AIs kept you offline in order to help you heal from the Surgery. During that time you weren't aware of the passage of time."

Fluffy helpfully added, "They removed all of the electronics and wires from your brain, took you out of your jar, so they could cut on you!" he declared, as if it was the coolest thing ever.

I paled, "That makes the surgery sound really dangerous."

Daddy rolled his eyes, "It wasn't. AIs have been perfecting their surgical techniques for thousands of years, and they were already better at it then human hands from the beginning. You were in absolutely no danger. I wouldn't have suggested it if there was even a 1 in a billion chance something could go wrong."

I relaxed at that.

"Mouthy!!!" a little pink and yellow kirin cheered as they ran over to me. I thought they were a girl at first but no, those were clearly the eyes of a colt. He looked to be about nine. I had gotten good at noticing little details like that in the art style.

Without warning the little colt jumped on me and drowned me in a hug. I flinched but not from the touch itself, more the surprise of a stranger jumping on me and pinning me to the floor. "Who are you!?" I yelped and the family chuckled.

"Is me!" The Kirin whined at my lack of recognition. Still I looked at my Cyber parents for help. At their firm nod I looked back at the Kirin colt... for some reason I was drawn back to his eyes... It took me a moment to trust my instincts but I saw a familiarity in those eyes. Despite the fact they were a different color, I recognized him through those eyes.

"Pearl?" I registered.

The eyes rolled, before he swatted my flank. I yelped but it felt strangely good. I suddenly realized the trade off of my Surgery. Now that I didn't have a problem with touching my "Love / Hate" relationship with spanking became pure love. They couldn't be used as an effective punishment anymore... wow did I misinterpret that but hindsight and all.

"Bloody Hermit." Pearl pouted, before yelping himself as Daddy sent a stinging hex at his last son.

"Not home five minutes, and you naughty colts forced my hoof against each of you."

I actually felt bad at hearing that. I was normally a good boy, "Sorry daddy." I looked down at the floor in shame.

Meanwhile Pearl and Fluffy stuck their tongues out at the older Kirin.

● POV: Vee-Pire

After dad and I finished dinner, while I was washing the dishes, I blinked as I heard a ringing. Bringing up my profile, I gasp as I saw who it was.

Grinning, I quickly answered it.

"Mouthy!!!" I cheered, "You finally got brought back online!" I moved the floating screen to the side so I could continue washing dishes well talking with my friend.

"It's totally sweet!!!" Mouthy cheered, "I have been hugging and nuzzling my whole family all night and it hasn't bothered me at all!!! I actually love it!"

The boy bounced as I scrubbed some dishes.

Mouthy suddenly took notice. "Why are you doing dishes? Don't they kinda just... clean themselves?"

I smiled, "My dad is kinda a neat freak." was my explanation, "Sure houses clean themselves, but it takes a few hours."

"Mama and Papa make me and Fluffy do chores to." I gulped as I heard another voice in the background. A voice I wasn't ready to deal with in a non combatant situation.

"Hello," Mouthy pouted towards the voice, "Private call here."

"Then put it on audio only." insisted the voice.

"Eh?" Mouthy blinked.

"Here, let me show you."

"Actually," I tried, "I would prefer to keep visual. Mouthy is just going to have to deal with nosy little brothers."

"I'm older then Mouthy!!!" Pearl suddenly appeared in front of the screen, shoving Mouthy out of the way as the little tot fruitlessly struggled. Looks like the boy got a new Avatar.

"A big baby maybe." I stuck my tongue out.

"MOM!!!" Mouthy yelled, "Pearl hijacked my call!"

Pearl's eyes widened, and he quickly bolted from the screen.

"Boys!" That wasn't Harlot's voice, "Play nice. Don't make me come up there."

"Sorry daddy!!!" Pearl howlered. Then stuck his tongue out at Mouthy well declaring, "Tattle Tail," while giving his own tail a flick in Mouthy's face... so Mouthy bit it. Bit it with his sharp teeth.

Pearl gave a loud scream.

The grownup downstairs gave a yell of his own, "BOYS!!! THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING!!! BEHAVE!!!"

"Sorry daddy!" The boys called.

Pearl looked over at Mouthy, "We better stop roughhousing. The last thing we want is for Daddy to come up here and punish us."

Mouthy groaned, clearly disappointed, "But I never really got to enjoy rough housing before. It was too much stimulation and it used to freak me out!"

I gave a sympathetic smile, "Then you should wait til your daddy goes to bed." I suggested.

Mouthy grinned eagerly well Pearl looked scared, "You got a traditional family, don't you?"

I blinked, then shrugged, "Well... yeah. Most kids I know do. Don't tell me Queen Harlot gets kinky with her kids."

"Not often but Daddy really loves to." Pearl informed, "When me and Fluffy get into fights, he makes us hug each other-"

"That's not so weird." I shrugged.

"Then we got to kiss, WITH TONGUE."

I blushed.

"Then we got to give each other blow jobs in front of him, as a 'proper apology' to each other."

The cup slipped out of my fingers and broke on the floor.

Mouthy yelped and jumped at the screen. "Oh NO!!! You're not going to get in trouble are you!?"

"Ha-!?" I quickly shut the screen off as Daddy called my normal name, "-unter?" that was close.

Daddy came hurrying into the room and saw the shards at my feet. He raise his hand and cast a telekinesis spell to levitate me into the air, over to him.

"This is why I tell you not to talk to your friends well you're doing chores." He gently scolded as he checked my fuzzy paws for cuts. Finding none, he sighed with relief. Pulling me into a hug, he let his worry melt away. After a whole minute of cuddles he gave me a single, but very harsh, smack to my rump.

Then he turned around and gently deposited me on the floor. Honestly the whole ordeal definitely worried my daddy a lot more then me. I wasn't too worried about a broken dish.

"Go on and play, Haunt," Daddy shooed me off, "While I clean up the glass."

"You better watch that, Daddy," I warned, "I was talking to Mouthy and you almost gave me away."

Giovanni Prime frowned, "I'll keep that in mind. Now go on."

I nodded, before prancing to the couch in the living room and calling Mouthy back. Just to assure him my daddy hadn't killed me. Traditional families were a lot less strict then Kinky families... probably cuz Traditional families didn't enjoy punishing their kids...

It was weird to hear Harlot had a kinky family dynamic. Then again, that was a private matter. In this virtual world, it wasn't really considered anything immoral. However it was still a personal matter I had no business sticking my muzzle into. Like asking your friend when was the last time they kissed someone. It was only really okay to talk about with your really close friends...

But still... I was curious... Traditional and kink families don't tend to travel in the same circles. Not for any bad reasons but it's just easier to relate to people living a similar lifestyle. I, and most kids in traditional families, weren't even allowed to so much as masturbate. We were supposed to be sweet little innocent children that did nothing more then kiss and hold hands. Then that was only with other kids, never our cyber parents or "grownups". Seeing how I was forced into abstinence, I was fascinated by a kid that was allowed to not only engage in that stuff.. but was punished with it.

My face got hot at the very idea. Sure, I had sex on occasion, but some grownup always caught me in the act and I would get a terrible TERRIBLE spanking... followed by another after being brought back home, in shame, to my daddy... honestly I hadn't even tried it in hundreds of years because I ALWAYS got caught.

Traditional families kept too close an eye on children for us not to get caught. Kinky children were basically wild childs that WANTED to get caught while simultaneously getting a much longer leash. Their families, and family friends, watched them, just like traditional families did for me... but they had different rules they lived by and sex wasn't a serious offense... It was more like a game to them of "Will I get caught" and "oops you caught me, guess now I have to take your dick to"...

My face was bright red as I called Mouthy, dying to ask him a million questions... and maybe see if I can play one of their sex games with them... probably not... their parents would be pissed if they did that with a traditional child... and Daddy would be extra pissed but I might be able to convince him it would help with my cover story...

I stopped dead... no I couldn't do that, no matter how much I wanted to... it be too messed up to trick Mouthy like that...

"Vee?" Mouthy looked at me with concern as his face popped up on my screen, "You okay?"

"Y-yeah..." I sighed, then decided to tell the truth, or at least partially so. "Just kinda jelly you have a kinky family. My daddy would take the belt to my backside the few times I dare to try at sex."

Mouthy frowned, "Really? I thought all families worked like ours."

There was a scream of "Hermit!" from across the room.

I chuckled, "Not even close. Don't worry, kinky families are considered perfectly acceptable, and there are a lot of them, but most families are 'Traditional' and ban all forms of sex. Traditional families are also a lot more lenient with their age players when it comes to most things. Since our Cyber parents don't get off on Spanking us."

Mouthy blushed, "I kinda like spanks..."

I laughed, "Well I don't, so maybe it good my dad is traditional. Sure, I get the occasional swat, but proper spanks are reserved for when I do something genuinely bad."

It was weird, the gothic mass murderer had a traditional family while the symbol of peace and hope was kinky as all hell... that definitely didn't mesh with stereotypes.

Mouthy just stared at me, all confused, as I laughed at my secret thought.

Ch8: Heartbreak

Author's Note

Altered as of April 17, 2020.

I changed the way the new race of Time Lords works. As well as changed their name to "Time Omnians"

Ch8: Heartbreak

A large orchard began to grow all across the black rock that was the final battle. Around him were rows of endless trees, each dedicated to growing a different food item.

There were rows of meat trees with globs of 100% lean ground beef, or boneless pork chops, or even chicken breast. It was pure authentic meat, growing like a fruit, without the need to kill animals. The meat was wrapped up in aluminum foil that was also growing out of the tree.

Futher ahead was a row of trees growing a different kind of candy per tree. Even different flavor pastries growing in another row. All wrapped up neatly in Aluminum foil and safe to eat immediately after being picked.

There were cartons of eggs growing from different trees. Along with millions of the normal stuff like apples and pears and bananas, all the fruits and vegetables. Even herbs and spices of every kind, growing from trees as plastic shakers.

There were even aluminum cans growing on trees, different trees growing different drinks. some growing Milk (whole, 2%, skin, even chocolate, banana, and strawberry), while others grew different flavors of soda or punch. Some even growing juice (Orange, the various flavors of V8, grape, apple, etc.)

Thanos picked one of the alien fruits he recognized and a new one immediately grew back in it's place... fully ripe in less then a second and immediately stopped growing.

Smart Mouth smiles at him as the colt kit lay nearby, dying. The Infinity Gauntlet on the little Vulpony's left paw... with that entire side of his body badly burned.

"That's your problem." Smart Mouth said to Thanos, "You think too small. W-What would happen if you did kill half the universe? The population would just grow back again and then you would have to kill everybody again. No, the only way to truly save the universe is to make resources- 'gasp' - resources infinite."

"What about the pollution lifeforms create?" Thanos shook his head.

Mouthy just smiled, "Wha-what do you think these things eat?" He weakly patted a nearby tree as he strained his body to lay against its trunk. "L-like I said... you - 'cough' - you think too small. They absorb nitrogen, pollution, nuclear radiation, basicly anything bad for life they eat up and produce oxygen and 100% healthy food. They can absorb near endless amounts but only need a fraction to sustain themselves. With the excess, they pump more nutrition into the ground and produce oxygen."

"Every farm, on every planet, has been replaced by an orchard like this. The food will stay fresh forever, even after being picked. M-magic has it be completely absorbed by the body, not even leaving any waste of any kind. Even the wrapper is biodegradable once removed, and can be used to make compost for the trees.

"Even the candy is as healthy as a carrot. T-try a pizza tree, they're my favorite."

Thanos looked over at the distance, seeing a row of trees growing boxes of pizza.

"Even have a few trees growing out bars of every metal on every planet. Even... Even Lyrium trees, in-in every size. Can power spaceships to watches and everything in between... infinite resources... f-forever... even made a few billion trillion Dyson Spheres. Space stations the size of Mega Systems, just floating all over in the void between Solar systems. With farms like this, Earth Norm Gravity both inside in out (got to love Mass Effect technology), Artificial environments to make neighborhoods more pleasant, UV lights everywhere that dim at night, a network of faster then light speed trains and elevators as public transportation. Trillions and trillions, All-all you got- you got to do... - gasp - do is find them.

"You were worried the Rejuve pods would result in an over populated universe. You thought killing half of it would fix that. Such... little... imagination... If you have the power of a god, why not re-write a few laws of physics... I... I feel weird... I'm still dying... I should be back on my feet by now... What's... What's wrong?"

Thanos looked down at the small savior of the universe, "The Infinity Gauntlet has limits. Using it too such a degree... I doubt a being with nothing more then true immortality could even have enough power, and then to generate that kind of change to the cosmos... even you can't survive that..."

Smart Mouth cracked one final smile, "Worth it." then his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his body went limp... he doesn't get back up...

● POV: Smart Mouth

I gulped as I watched the final episode of the last season of MLG. I hadn't played in it, hadn't lived it... not sure I could have done it justice if I had.

Digit sat next to me as I watched the season on our TV. At one point I crawled on his lap for comfort.

The AI had written the whole thing himself. Then, after trying and failing to get my approval of it, posted it on my profile as the "Final Season"... he was able to get me to, reluctantly, watch it from there. With the Credits of each episode saying they were dedicated to me rather then calling me the Producer...

I'm kinda glad I didn't work on it... I don't know what I would have changed. The whole season was so intense and made me cry as I contemplated this was really 'The End'.

"That's it then..." I felt too numb to cry now. I had cried too much as we binged the season... This was how Digit would explain the death of my sona to my fans...

The whole season was Thanos hunting the Infinity Gems. He won an interdimensional Infinity Gauntlet in the newest Contest of Champions... then had to get all the Infinity Stones from the prime universe... then... just as he was about to cleanse all 42 universes of half of their populations... I got the Gauntlet... and used it to give every universe Infinite resources and more land then any could ever hope to fill... at the cost of my immortal Soul... it was a good way for Mouthy to die... it was how I would have wanted to go out... if only all my friends hadn't of died fighting Thanos with me... and I mean ALL my friends... even the heroes I teamed up with for a single season... All the stars of the cartoons I had made leading up to My Little Galaxy.

"There is still the Epilogue." Digit informed.

I looked up at him, then back at the TV.

A caption appeared saying "3 hours later" right after Thanos left the battle site, momentarily abandoning the Infinity Gauntlet... thinking it was safe on this dead world.

I sucked in a breath as the 42nd Doctor stepped out of his TARDIS, and walked through the Orchard... right up to Smart Mouth's body.

The man appeared to be a few years shy of 30. Wearing the 10th Doctor's coat, the 5th Doctor's white suit, the 4th Doctor's scarf, the 11th Doctor's bowtie and fez, and finally yellow hourglass cufflinks. He was carrying the 1st Doctor's umbrella and using it as a cane.

He was in his humanoid form, though most of the time I saw him he was a pony. He had fluffy hair, that stood on end, and looked similar to the Tenth Doctor. Though he had a more pronounced chin and pointier nose. He also wasn't as tall. In fact he was rather short, but just as skinny.

A few short seasons back in my series, this Doctor had regained his mortal life after ascending into godhood. A gift from the Universe for Saving the Multiverse by rebooting it when it was going out. The Doctor created the 42 main universes from the ashes of the old multiverse... and then they granted him his greatest gift, by restoring his mortal limits.

It came with a price. The Doctor was split up into each of his regenerations as completely separate entities. All the canon Doctors (except the 9th... Celestia do I hate the 9th Doctor) as well as all my original regenerations for him...

These new entities could regenerate indefinitely (so long as one of their 2 hearts was pumping) but they would never changed their face through the process. However they were still considered mortal creatures. They could also shapeshift into any alien species in the Multiverse... though they would keep the same basic features unique to their regeneration.

That's why this 42nd doctor was Normally a pony when I saw him.

The 42nd Doctor picked up the Infinity Gauntlet, which still lay on my paw, as Thanos was still weighing his conscience and hadn't destroyed it yet.

This Doctor glowed gold as he tapped in to his regeneration energy, and snapped his gloved fingers.

The Doctors smiled, looking up. The once empty sky was now filled with nearby Solar systems, so close you could see the suns with the naked eye. The Systems of the 42 worlds the Doctors created after the Time War... the 42 refugee planets the Doctor made.

Now they were all orbiting the oldest planet in the universe that had been the final battle field. The planet of Chrome, that was older then any dimension, well existing at the exact coordinates in every Dimension. Thanos had hoped to use it to reach out into every universe of the multiverse... Guess I had done the same by giving them all infinite resources...

The 42nd Doctor seemed barely phased as he took off the glove. After all, it was much easier to affect a handful of planets and formerly dead heroes. He looked around the orchard to see, where there were once bodies, their were now large colorful eggs, as big as Dinosaur eggs.

Just as he finished, 41 other TARDISes appeared in the orchard. All of them in different shades of blue, with slightly different designs. Yet they all still gave that wheezing, mechanical, groan... The other Doctors all stepped out, looking around to see what the 42nd had done.

The 42nd Doctor then handed the glove to the War Doctor, who proceeded to remove the Stones.

The War Doctor said something about finding better hiding places for each of the stones. With a similar test or challenge so they would only go to someone who is worthy of them next time.

Once they were removed he raised the glove. Then preceded to encase it in yellow light as it aged trillions of years, until it turned to dust. "The Universe needs the Infinity Stones, to keep spinning. But no one should be able to channel all of them simultaneously again. The next user might not be as benevolent as the first." the dust of the glove scattered in the wind, leaving nothing behind. "And not as restrained in their selfishness as the last." sending the 42nd Doctor a look.

The 42nd Doctor smiled his cheeky grin. "So I fell to Temptation. Nobody is perfect. Besides." He picked up the egg that had been where Smarty was laying... it had my coloring. "I couldn't resist the opportunity... a new race of Time Lords, ones worthy of the name."

The 11th Doctor snorted, "A pretty lousy name if you ask me. No way we calling our new race that. You have any idea how many strange looks I got and accusations of being 'Full of Myself' everytime I introduced my species." The other Doctors just raised eyebrows, and the 11th blushed, remembering who he was talking to. "Of course you know." He shook his head.

The 1st Doctor regeneration eyed the party, "It wouldn't hurt to change the name. We already have a race of Time Lord Refugees. One of those worlds, up there, in fact." He nodded up at the sky. "Would get a bit confusing."

The 4th Doctor smiled, swallowing a mouth full of jelly babies before talking, "Come to think of it their are Time 'Ponies' to..." He thought on it a moment. "Let's go with 'Time Omnians'?" He grinned a similar cheeky grin to the 42nd... then grew more serious, "In honor of Omniva..."

The Doctor nodded solemnly at their former universe. The one they had to burn to reboot the multiverse... the one that willingly died to save the life inside her.

"That's even more posh." Snorted the 10th Doctor, but agreed, "Though I could get behind the sentiment."

The 5th nodded, "We're something new, time we embraced it."

The 11th Doctor snickered, "'Time' we embraced it. I get it."

The War Doctor sighed, "I work with children... let's hope these new kids don't give us as much trouble." looking at the eggs.

The 42nd Doctor gently stroked Mouthy's egg, "I'm sure they will."

Then... the credits rolled.

I gulped as I watched them go by, mostly crediting all the franchises used throughout the whole season.

"We're... alive?" I choked.

Digit scratched my ear, "The Doctors set up their own home for Time Omnians on that planet. Where they raise you, and all your friends, together... as one big extended family. The MMO starts a few years after that, with only the main universes being filled with your 'Infinity Farms'. All the Pocket dimensions have to make do without. To keep the players more interested in gathering resources...

"But you keep your Avatar, along with all your memories, even your class if you want to. You'll just start from the bottom.

"I designed these new Time Omnians, myself, as you kept the rules vague. They live in a rogue Star System, not attached to any galaxy, near the center of the universe... where the first ever planet created by the void exist. The planet the final battle took place on. The planet that is older then the multiverse itself and exist at the exact same coordinates at every universe and pocket dimension." Digit knew how much I cared about my universe and loved over dramatization. So He was really laying it on thick. "So, All 42 Refugee planets, your Doctors created after the Time War, where moved to orbit around Chrome. All the Civilizations the Doctors built, existing in peace. With the Doctors and their new race living on a Terraformed Chrome... I figured you'd like that."

I didn't say anything, I was too stunned.

Digit frowned, but continued in the obvious hope of getting me excited about the alterations to my game. "Time Omnians use their hands as a focus, to cast Naruto style Jutsus. That way you can still cast spells, but with complicated gestures to make you think harder on them.

"Time Omnians also don't have the powers of the race they turn into, just the appearance while gaining the basic biology. Mean you can apply strategy in your shifting to lessen certain environmental issues. Such as if you want to fly, or swim through lava, you can turn into a dragon. Where other races will let you survive the vacuum of space.

"However, the powers you do get are: touch based Telepathy, short ranged Telekinesis, limited time manipulation, teleportation, Dragon Ball Z Kia blast, Avatar the Last Airbender bender powers (for 2 elements, and a larger selection of elements), Biotic Powers from Mass Effect, Naruto based Jutsus, Elder Scrolls style spells, a Healing Factor, and finally when they do die (to the point regeneration can't save you) you turn back into an egg. Most of the powers are used through your hands, so don't let anyone tie them up or injure them.

"My plan for you, which you still have time to change before things are finalized, is based on what I thought you would like. You will still have your Smart Mouth coloring, and fox bits, in every sona. It's explained as the demon energy, now attached to your soul, is still there as it has become part of you're frequency. If you want, you can still walk around with the Sona you have had for years. It will just work a bit differently."

"You will also be allowed a new Avatar for the main Server that will let you use this new Sona there. As an extra bonus for creating this MMO, you will get 5 augment slots while using this Avatar in the Main Server."

I gulped. Still not fully processing this.

"I would ask that you consider changing your class, as it will help get you out of your comfort zone and make you produce more power... If you do, your class powers will be transferred with you to the main Server when using this Avatar, as Racial powers... Bit of a bribe on our part, but I thought that might make it easier to swallow. I would suggest choosing "Divine Agent" as that is a mix of Cleric and Rogue. I will also allow you to to carry on one ability from your old class. Which I assume will be bone manipulation, cuz you bloody love that power.

"Your healing factor, and Regeneration energy, makes loosing your immortality near moot. And on the off chance you do die, you will just turn back into an egg and get to relive your childhood all over again.... don't worry. You, all your friends, all the Doctors, and all other Time Omnians for that matter... you will all remember your past lives no matter how many times you die... your friends haven't forgotten you-" Digit fell in his seat as I jumped on him.

I hugged him tight and whispered, "Thank you."

Digit calmly pet me for a moment, "You shouldn't think the worse of me. I planned this from the start. Long before I even got around to telling you I would be resetting your character... Tried to tell you but you weren't exactly talking to me... you should have more faith that I wouldn't do anything to hurt you."

"... sorry..." I hugged him tighter, somehow finding it in me to cry again. This Time, happy tears.

● The Next Day.

"That's a lot of powers." Vee spoke as he walked around my new Avatar. The art style was now exactly like my cartoony game instead of based on Ponyfinder. I had showed off by turning into a little Kobold fox. It still had my coloring despite looking like a little lizard with patches of fur.... actually, as a Kobold Hanyou, I looked a lot like Fluffy the Dragon... just skinnier, shorter, and without the wings. But I was still really cute.

"They're based on my level so not that great right now." I shrugged, "But I will become pure awesome when I level up some."

"You might want to get an assassin job to level up faster." Vee shrugged, but he must have seen my frown as he explained, "You would only be 'killing' VIs in sneaky ways. With your powers, you would have a real advantage when compared to other level 1s. WE COULD DO IT TOGETHER!!! I haven't gotten any real jobs since I Zeroed Out so this would be something fun for us to do after school."

I thought on it, "That does sound pretty awesome."

"With all those powers you must be going for a Naturalist build." Vee's words caused me to blush.

"I got a diaper on!" I insisted, thinking he was calling me out on being naked.

Vee scrunched up is nose, "Wha- never mind." he shook his head, clearly confused by my pre historic slang, "A 'Naturalist Build' is a player that focuses on using the powers their race naturally comes with. You know, instead of Physical attacks, Spells, or Augments."

"I got a few cool Augments." I shrugged.

"That's just a bonus for using your limited edition Avatar from your MMO. Barely any players have one of those. Usually, when a race is stacked with so many powers, like you, they don't have any Augments and don't pay much attention to buying spells. Instead they just focus on using their racial powers as efficiently as possible. Can be a tough build to master but they got a real advantage if they're used right."

I nodded, thinking on it, "Since I also have all the powers of my chosen class... I guess it would make sense to just focus on using my powers instead of other attacks."

Vee nodded adamantly, "You got a special advantage with those Augments your Cyber Mom gave you. Any racial traits or spells you use, that is similar enough to an Augment power, is doubled in efficiency and halfed in cost. Those bone shards of your's must be real killers for a level one!"

I grinned happily at that.

"So what other Augments did you attach?" Vee hopped eagerly

"Well... I made my own Novice level 'Loot' Augment. Which makes my enemies drop extra coin and let's me get paid more for jobs I do. Mama didn't want to help me with that as she thought it defeated the purpose of me getting an allowance. But she did help me make a couple 'Fortify Magicka' Augments. Those are totally awesome 'Grand Master' level, at a thousand extra Magicka points each! That was cool of her." I smiled. "Now I actually have enough magic to USE my powers. I definitely want to test them." I pranced in place again.

"You're so broken." Vee giggled, "I'm glad your just a level one! Come on, let's go do an Assassins job!!! We would totally be boss at it!!!"

"I'm not supposed to play videogames without supervision." I frowned.

Vee frowned back, "I thought Kinky kids got to do whatever they wanted?"

I snorted, "Our Cyber Parents," getting used to the lingo... or at least trying to adapt to it, "get off on punishing us. That makes them even more strict."

Vee frowned, "Maybe you can call and ask?"

I shrugged, "It couldn't hurt." pulling up my profile and calling up Mama.

She appeared on the screen with a large grin. "Hi Sweetie! I'm at work, Council stuff. Can I call you back?"

I chewed my lip, "I just had a quick question." I dared.

"Ask Fluffy, when Mommy and Daddy are at work, he's in charge."

"Kay," I frowned.

"Love you sweetie." She suddenly froze as she realized what she said.

I gulped, then dared, "Love you to..."

She smiled, "I wish I could make a bigger deal about this but I really got to go. Be sure to be home by 6 so we can celebrate."

"I'd like that." I blushed. Then we said our goodbyes. I was a little too shocked to think for a few minutes.

Vee was looking at me, "C-congrats man." He squirmed, not knowing what to say.

"Y-yeah..." before slowly smiling, "That was a big step!"

"Well it has been a few months since you joined their family, right?" Vee smiled.

I nodded, "Is pretty cool... mind if we just hang out at Mom's? I kinda want to be around my brothers right now."

"Sure." Vee shrugged, "But will they even be home?"

"Pearl is grounded again so Fluffy is watching him. Come on."

"He gets grounded a lot." Vee observed as we walked over to a Booth, "What he do this time?"

"They completely overreacted, is what they did!!!" Pearl pouted, "All I did was hide some frogs in the teacher's desk!"

"Better then getting spanked." Vee insisted.

"I LIKE getting spanked!!!" Pearl sneered, "Which is why I'm grounded." he huffed.

"Where's dad?" I looked around the living room, after getting back from searching the house.

Fluffy, who had been sitting on Papa's chair across from Pearl and Vee on the couch, gave a shrug... though by his expression I doubt he actually heard me... He was reading a comic book called 'Spidermare vs Super Stallion'. He was a big fan of those ponified superheroes. There was a comic book store, here in the Crystal Empire, where a kid made and sold his own reimagining of the classic hero storylines... but with ponies. They were just different enough to be interesting and surprisingly focused a lot more on characters thoughts and development... while 'fixing' plotholes and 'flawed' storylines.

"Fluffy!" I got my voice to be as whiny as possible, in order to break through whatever trance the comic had on him.

Fluffy blinked, looked up, "Eh?"

"Where's dad?" I repeated.

"At Work." Fluffy shrugged looking down at his comic.

"What's he do?" I asked eagerly.

"Nothing cool." Pearl snorted, before Fluffy got a chance, "He just plays those stupid mini games all over the Server. I tried doing that stuff with him but they are SOOOOOOOO BORING!!!"

"He'll be back around 6." Fluffy shrugged, turning the page of his comic.

I had noticed everyone seemed to be home at 6 to have dinner and play together... but before that Mama always let me do my own thing...

"Is 6 our curfew?" I blinked.

"Well." Fluffy lowered his comic, "For me and pearl it is. As that's when family time starts... but I don't know about you. You get a lot more freedom then us and don't have to be home everyday." he lifted the comic back up.

"How come?' I innocently asked.

"Because they're just your caretakers and not your actual family."

My eyes widened, as did Fluffy when he realized what he said.

Vee just glared at him, "Jerk..." he muttered.

Fluffy tried to say something but I wasn't listening. I ran out the door.

How could I be so stupid! I thought they cared about me but I was just the third wheel! Mama... Harlot, I corrected, she didn't actually mean "I love you." It was just a slip of the tongue I took seriously... probably made her too uncomfortable to correct me...

I felt tears leaking down my face as I ran down the street, not going anywhere in particular... I just ran... I heard a coming in call and swiped "Ignore" without even looking who it was. With my profile still up, I was able to think a bit more clearly, and logged out of the server.

The second I entered my hub, I screamed, "Digit! Activate Do Not Disturb!!!"

Ch0: Info Dump

Three years old, I was three years old and walking around the playground as a small fox pony toddler, a diaper still clamped around my rump. I spotted a number of foals of varying ages playing in the distance, even a few teenagers. All of them in diapers. There were even a few adults, but none of them were in diapers.

I gulped as a few other toddlers ran over to me. They assured me that everything would be fine and we could just play together.

I gulped again, then nodded my head, following the kids towards the fort... whatever I expected... it wasn't this... We just sorta... ran around, ducking and weaving through the fort as we played games like tag or hide and seek.

I did spot a few foals playing... other kinds of games... but chose to ignore it.

After a few hours of running around, I collapsed in the sandbox outside the fort. All four of my legs aching. My fluffy tail swishing back and forth. I was amazed just how much I felt here.

I panted as I looked around... grownups were walking around giving the younger foals diaper checks. Putting their hooves right in the front of their padding and feeling how squishy they were.

One foal was promised candy if they helped a stallion find his puppy. She eagerly followed him into the forest that surrounded the playground.

I shuddered, feeling all kinds of... scared... and excited... and nervous... and maybe a little hurt. I had been here for hours and no one seemed interested in me.

I rolled onto my back, the sand sticking to my underside. I grunted as I was now crushing my wings and decided to stretched them out. My fox ears twitched as my pony face looked around. My back hooves lightly kicked on instinct well my front paws were held up in front of my chest like a puppy's. All the while I continued to pant. My bones were just more comfortable in this position... I didn't think it get me noticed.

I yelped as a stallion suddenly stuck his face over mine.

"We're doing diaper checks." The stallion smiled a predatory grin, all his teeth exposed with far too much eagerness.

"Is the little foal wet?" He asked.

"No, sir." I quickly shook my head, but he rested his hoof on my crotch anyway. He had to bend over me to check... his naked privates right over my face...

He frowned as he saw I was dry. "We won't be doing diaper checks for a while so if you need to go you should do so now." He rolled his hoof over my groin to encourage me to pee. The sound of crinkly, combined with the simulation, made my little baby dick hard.

I blushed... but obeyed the order. My diaper started to fill with warm liquid, that pooled around my butt before being absorbed into the plastic fabric.

I could feel the stallion smile, particularly against my face as he hardened and became a different kind of "wet" himself.

"Good boy!" The stallion moved away from me, only to flip me over with his snout, causing sand to fly.

He gently grabbed hold of the scruff of my neck with his mouth and picked me up by it. Carrying me over to one of the park benches. There was a diaper bag next to it. With me still in his mouth, he pulled out a changing pad and unfolded the disposable cloth on the bench.

Gently depositing me on the absorbent plastic, he laid me down on my back again and untapped my diaper. I shivered as I heard the sound of crinkling and ripping. I didn't know what to think as he got me out of it with his mouth!

He threw the wet diaper in a nearby waste bin and got some wet wipes from the bag. Rubbing my crotch and bottom within his wipe in his mouth. After throwing the wipe away he got an evil smile.

"Now let's get you extra clean." He grinned as he began licking my-

I gasped, my whole body tensing as the sensation sent waves of pleasure through me. It was too much, far too much. I couldn't handle just how good it felt.

"COMPUTER: LOG OUT!!!"

I woke up with a start, quickly snatching the helmet off my head as I sat up. All in one move. I continued to breathe hard as I looked around. I was in my bed, back in my human body... in the real world.

I groaned as I looked around. I was in my small 7 by 7 foot room, back in my RV. Out the window was the wasteland of the real world. I wasn't a 3 year old, but rather an aging old man at the end of "Middle Aged". I wasn't some old wrinkly thing. Thanks to good genes I still looked like I was in my early 40s. Still no one was interested in a grey muzzle babyfur... outside of the Network that is... and the Network was the only way to meet people nowadays.

I gave a disappointed sigh as I put my helmet on my pillow. At least I tried. I was what is known as an "Asexual". I jerk off as I watch porn but I don't actually have any kinda drive to go out and really have sex. Even virtual sex was far too stimulating for me. It overwhelmed me. I didn't want it to but it did. I was far from a virgin but I never actually enjoyed when I did manage to let people do stuff to me.

Touching in general had always been hard for me. It made me uncomfortable, although I had gotten better at hugging later in life thanks to my involvement in the furry community. Furries were actually how I got involved with the brony community.

Still basic touching was hard for me, so you can imagine how I am with more intimate stuff like sex. I wish I wasn't like that but there you go. Stupid Autistic brain.

At least I wasn't schizophrenic anymore. I was able to get a chip installed into my head that regulated that stuff. It allowed me to go back to college and get a doctorate in Sociology, minoring in Psychology and History. Then I spent my days traveling the world doing research on the cultural aspects of various fandoms. I wasn't rich from that but I was middle class thanks to grants. Plus I got to spend my 40s doing what I was passionate about.

Then the world went straight to hell. I sighed as I looked out the window behind my bed. Nope, still a wasteland. Global warming hit hard. Millions of people died and the rich all evacuated to Mars. The poor all died, while the middle class was able to survive in these RVs.

The vehicles were designed to be air tight and radiation proof. The air circulated and purified itself, as did the water. Waste was broken down and used as fertilizer for the onboard garden. There was a luscious living room with a tiny kitchen. Every available inch that could have a cabinet or drawers had one. My family pulled our funds together to get the biggest RV we could. One that not only had 8 bedrooms, but that had a semi sized storage container... I even had a few plastic drawers on my queen sized bed to use for extra storage for my action figures... I could claim to be a collector but truth was I still play with them.

Anyway, we used this thing to scavenge the surface world for anything made out of plastic, metal, or paper. Once the truck was full we brought it to the nearest distribution center for trading. There was one in every city so it wasn't hard.

The centers were in giant domes that pumped a great deal of pollution out of them. They were filled with factories and farms. A lot of people with children were able to get in to raise them in an environment with clean air, provided they were all willing to work and the kids were willing to apprentice for a trade... but unfortunately not even those were full proof as 10 years ago people stopped having kids all together... Earth's radiation levels had sterilized the planet... that is really when everything went to hell.

We were going to die. All of humanity's Earth bound population was going to die. It was inevitable. The rich and powerful left with our government officials to become Martians.

I sighed. My issues with sex were far too miniscule when compared to all that. At least we had virtual reality helmets to stay in contact with the rest of the planet. Medication and medical treatments were now free as well, provided you could get to a distribution center... and some third positive thing I couldn't think of just yet... OH WAIT!!!

At least I had my family. My dad and my step mom (who had been with my mother, not my dad, and who we called "Auntie" like most gay households addressed their parent's lover in the 90s) might be in their 90s but they were still very much alive and in good health. There was my younger sister and big brother, my youngest brother (on my step mom's side) and his wife, my nephew (all grownup now. He was from my oldest brother), and my cousin with her wife, then me of course. We all lived together in this luxury RV... it was kinda crowded but at least we all got our own rooms... we had lost a few family members before the end of the world, like my mom and my oldest brother. As well as a few after, like the grandparents, but we were alive and working hard to survive in this world.

I picked up my phone. Another thing I am grateful for is the free global wifi. Jelly Brains Incorporated hacked into all the Satellites that got left behind in space and used that to give everyone free access to the internet.

Jelly Brains was a relatively new company. They used to make devices that worked with your brain. Devices like my chip. They also made the virtual reality helmet, which guided REM sleep. It enabled you to play virtual reality games while sleeping.

While all the other rich people were fleeing to the newly terraformed Mars, Jelly Brains Incorporated stayed. They did all they could to make life better for the remaining inhabitants of Earth. Including making these RVs and the Distribution centers before things went completely to hell. As the world was largely lawless now, they pretty much did whatever the hell they wanted. Without worrying about things like "Copyright laws" or "Patents" they made the best of everything. But largely what they wanted to do was help the survivors.

They did that by offering a bunch of free services and trading luxury items they created for material they could recycle.

As my mind wandered, as it tends to do, a notification from Jelly Brains Incorporated popped up. Clicking on it lead to a video.

"Miss Shiroshi,"
"Miss Shiroshi,"
"Miss Shiroshi,"
"Is it safe?"

"People, relax," A tall Asian woman with long wavy red hair and green eyes attempted to calm the crowd. She was Miss Abigail Shiroshi, founder and CEO of Jelly Brains Incorporated. A young woman, only in her early 40s, she had been revolutionizing the world since she was 15. "You would think you have never seen a life changing breakthrough in science before." She casually whipped her hair with her off hand and smiled at the crowd. "I do this about once a week. You really should be used to it." Her grin had the perfect percentage of teeth and, although charming, rung a bit too cocky. However, what can you expect from a child prodigy who had been keeping the world spinning for decades.

She attempted to ease the crowd's concerns, as she had done with each of her inventions before this. She was rather familiar with her breakthroughs leading to controversy at this point. "I can assure you, the process is perfectly safe.

"My company has been using technology to better brain chemistry for decades. It started with my Mental Regulator Chips to better control illnesses such as Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder. Then I created the mind drive, a small hard drive installed inside the skull which not only gave everyone an eidetic memory but also allowed you to download terabytes of information directly into your brain. Eventually we moved on to Virtual Reality Helmets which guide REM sleep through any available world they wanted while they slept. Which you can connect to wirelessly to other players around the world. This is only the next logical step.

"I promised to save you all and this is how I intend to do it. Many of you are already living in the Virtual World I created, only leaving to eat and use the bathroom. The Jelly Brain VR headset has been what made life bearable in this dying world. Well I have good news. I have developed a way to make it so you never have to leave again. Where you can actually live in the Virtual world of your choosing, permanently and eternally.

"They say necessity is the mother of invention. Well I am here to tell you, the near extinction of the human race has lead me to create a means of giving everyone on the planet true immortality in a digital paradise.

"I will be the first to admit that the procedure to grant this is a few miles from 'extreme' but unfortunately it is our only way to survive. This heat will only get worst until it shifts into a frozen wasteland. No children are being born so it is unlikely our species will even live such a long time. All animals are near extinction and the only ones still around are the ones we brought into our dome. Resources are getting more and more scarce as it is no longer safe to mine for them. All the while, scavenging is becoming more and more dangerous.

"I will tell you now, we need this procedure before the Earth becomes 100% uninhabitable. By our calculations we have 30 years before that happens... and it is my eternal regret to inform you, before that time is up, Jelly Brains Incorporated will be closing its doors. We plan to install ourselves into this virtual world. We stayed on this planet to find a way to save everyone and we believe we have found it. For those of you too scared or too stubborn to take it we wish you the best of luck but know this is your only chance at salvation."

The reporters all started speaking at once. Miss Shiroshi raised her hand to calm them down before pointing at a nearby reporter.

The man stood tall, clearly well aware of the fact he only had a job because this woman created the means for him to do it. Still, he had to know, "You keep bringing up that the procedure is 'extreme'. What exactly does it entail?"

She sighed, "We remove the brain." The whole room went dead quiet. "We place it into a jar, made out of clear titanium and Circuit boards with the world's largest Harddrive as the base. Then the brain is attached to the jar by wires and chips. A newly created gel is used to fill the jar, inorder to preserve the brain indefinitely well allowing synopses to fire. As a by product the firing Synopsis create power. Which we will use to run the facility the brains are stored in.

"However none of this will effect your involvement in the actual environment. It will feel like your body. Any type of body you want. And you will live forever inside your own paradise. The Harddrive will allow you to save and create your own games, or even make crossover games of your favorite franchises. All of which you can share with friends and invite them to play with you. The virtual world we have created is a paradise, especially for you. With the ability to edit it as you please.

"Our facility to store the Jelly Brains will be completely self sufficient. Controlled by sophisticated AIs that use, and build, robots drones as puppets. They will protect us and provide us with our every need. You will even have your own personal AI looking out for you. However their are safety protocols in place. A voting system for players AIs must honor and respect and most importantly implement. Nothing short of an Emergency Situation can cause the AIs to make a decision without majority consent from the players."

Despite my nerves at the idea, my family talked about it very seriously. It was getting harder and harder to survive out here. The scavenging pickings were even getting less and less. We talked at length about it for months... until it got too bad out here and I decided "screw it".

Next time we were at a distribution center I volunteered for the procedure. I was still able to talk with my family thanks to the global wifi and their VR Helmets. I would assure them I was fine and that it was really me. As there were some conspiracy theories floating around that Jelly Brains was effectively murdering people and just making cheap digital copies of them... yes the world had ended and governments were gone but conspiracy theories still existed.

Jelly Brains squashed that by giving reporters a tour of the facility. That way people could see the billions of brains in jars connected by wifi.

Eventually I was able to convince my family to join me.

When I was first installed it was explained to me like this:

Credits were based on a reward system. Not really necessary to survive but needed to buy things you wanted. That way you would feel satisfied when you earned them and would have to think critically about what luxuries and equipment you wanted to buy.

If you died in the main server, you lost everything on you and respawned at level 1 in your hub. That is why it was suggested you only carry what you absolutely need, despite having a limitless carrying capacity. Especially when it comes to money. When you die, you lose all your stuff and whoever killed you automatically 'loots' your body. They get everything you had in the form of raw credits but they get the value of your gear, not the items themselves. If you had something someone wanted, they couldn't kill you for it. As then they would just get it's value in credits. However they could, theoretically, rob you for it by picking your pocket or demanding it in exchange for not killing you.

The stat mechanics on the Main Server were based on Skyrim and Dungeons & Dragons. You had no attributes but you had a skill tree with perks you could upgrade each time you level up. All skills could be leveled up to 100 (or higher with artifacts and bonuses) but leveling up the skills wasn't the focus of the game. It was the Skill Perks. Each Skill had a web tree of 100 perks and each perk had 100 ranks you could upgrade in it. You level up by gaining experience. Which was given by capturing, defeating, or fleeing from creatures or opponents. You also gained experience for solving puzzles or using skills. Skills level up as you use them but they had a level cap as to not break the game, but even then using a skill still gave you a tiny bit of experience even if you were max level with it.

There were 5 categories of skills:

● Combat
• Archery
• Athletics
• Block
• Firearms
• Heavy Armor
• Explosives
• One-handed Weapon
• Two-handed Weapon
• Unarmed Strike

● Magic
• Alteration
• Conjuration
• Destruction
• Illusion
• Mysticism
• Restoration
• Transfiguration

● Stealth
• Acrobatics
• Handle Animal
• Light Armor
• Lockpicking
• Pickpocket
• Slight-of-Hand
• Sneak

● Awareness
• Luck
• Performance
• Investigation
• Perception
• Persuasion
• Deception
• Intimidation

● Crafting
• Argumentation
• Alchemy
• Clothing Design
• Cooking
• Enchanting
• Jeweler
• Modding
• Smithing
• Runes

Health, Stamina, and Magicka continued to increase as you level up, even after maxing out all skills and perks you could still increase them indefinitely. This made it harder to kill high level characters but not impossible.

When you die all your skills reset to 1. You lose all your perks and ranks in them. Even your Health, Stamina, and Magicka reset to 100 each.

To that effect the main server was a perma-death game, and seeing as I hate those I decided to stay away from it.

Still, you started the game with access to videos, comics, and music were all free including fan creations. Yet they could still be a source of income as the computer would fabricate currency to pay you well taking nothing from the other players.

You got a certain amount of credits based on how many people viewed your material and how many times they came back to it. Then you also got a weekly check dependent on how many Subscribers you had to your Profile.

Your Profile was where you could post everything you made and where everyone could read about your likes and interests, even your bio and what other players had to say about you. Comments you could delete but it was considered a dick move. You could also send people a private message or even enter a video chat.

Your profile told people EVERYTHING about you and even had user only material. Like it kept track of how much money was on you and how much you were earning. Even how much was in your vault and on your purchase list.

You access your profile by touching your left peck and then a see-through screen pops up in front of you, that you could use as your own floating tablet. you could even browse the other people's profiles. The posted material was organized in different apps but all connected to the same profile page. Artwork was in one App, videoes in other, games in another, stories in yet another, music in another, and audio dramas in yet another App. All of which had a link to your public profile page.

Again everything you posted on your profile was free for other players to access but could still earn you credits.

Besides your profile, each player got their own private sanctuary in the form of a Hub world that only they could get in, but could be accessed from your profile. It was the size of an island that you could build on by buying walls and furniture. You could even change the background so it looks like your an island in the middle of the ocean, fog, floating in the sky, space, or even custom make your own artwork for your background. There was an invisible wall keeping you inside the perimeter though.

You didn't build everything though. You started off with a subterranean bunker that had a few round rooms.

First there was the elevator leading down, in the center of your island but you could move the lift if you entered build mode. The elevator lead off to the side of a large round room in the center of your bunker.

That room had a large round table at it's heart. The table doubled as a map of the main server, all 42 planets in a large solar system for the players to explore each of the most popular fandoms. You could use the map to fast travel to any city on any world in the main server. There were a bunch of computer panels built into the sides of the table so you could choose your destination and it would appear on the map. This room also had a small materialization pad that glowed whatever color you wanted. That was were you respawned if you died in game. The walls around the room were covered in archways, with hallways leading to more round rooms.

There was the game room. The walls of that room were covered in shelves for your favorite trophies you got for in game achievements. Plus a large platform with stairs around it in order to get to the top, although truly you could just climb onto it if you wanted. Holographic screens surrounded it for you to look at all the summeries and your personal scores of all your games. Every piece of media ever was there to play with. You could even use the platform to customize games and combine them, even tweak them to what you wanted. Or build your own game from scratch. You could even record footage of your playthrough, edit it, then post it to your profile.

The next room over was the entertainment center, where I could watch movies and play console style games in case I didn't feel like running around in them at the time.

Further down was the treasury. Where credits would be displayed as a pile of gold coins. All money you earned would be deposited in there but you could withdrawal it at your leisure. If the pile got big enough, you could swim in it Scrooge McDuck style.

I was assured it be easy to earn credits as I would earn a weekly "check" of 1000 credits for each player subscribed to my channel, 100 credits for every like, and 10 credits for each hit. Dislikes didn't take away money, but they could discourage others from clicking on the video. Well money you earned in games was technically it's own currency, you could transfer as much of it as you wanted into your vault, or do the opposite and take money from your vault and put it into your game bank account.

Further down was a hallway leading to my invite room, where I could invite people from my friends list to come hang out in my private hub, or go to their's.

To the right of that was the the garden, the library, the bedroom, the lounge, the armory, the training room, and finally the wardrobe.

The Armory and Wardrobe was designed after Fable 3, in fact the whole bunker had a Fable 3 kinda vibe. Specifically these two rooms had mannequins on low to the ground pedestals. You could switch between them by franchise and genre. There was even shelves of "dyes" you could use to adjust the color of your gear. So you could mix and match pieces from different outfits, dye them, and then save them to your favorites list. Which was a whole nother set if mannequins in those rooms.

I was also told there were 42 worlds in the main server, each based off a different fandom. Each world was a different genre with each continent being a different franchise or popular environment. The cities were promoted as different clicks within each of those fandoms. You could buy a house in each, even a shop, and live there instead of your hub. Or rent the buildings out to VIs.

Virtual Intelligence drones were... really primitive. They were incapable of independent thought and basically just puppets for the few AIs that controlled each world. The AIs were designed to speak through the VIs, able to control and carry on conversations with tens of billions of players at once. If you wanted to marry a VI, you had to go through a courtship ritual similar to Fable 3. If successful the VI would be upgraded to an AI and be saved to your own personal Harddrive, even living in your hub. You could even have AI kids... at first.

Years pass, centuries after my installation, and the network slowly began to change. That was thanks to a voting system installed from the start. Players could write their own bills and post them on their profile. If enough people 'liked' it then it was placed on the ballot and voted on... however sometimes the AIs just did stuff for the good of the Network... some were good... others were downright cruel.

As the years went on the digital kids become more self aware and they wanted kids and then their kids wanted kids and it was just too much for the servers to handle. Your entire digital family was connected to your own personal Harddrive, and they were all running at once which took up a lot of RAM... to the point the players were slowing down and there energy output was lessening... that is something the AIs don't tolerate...

So the AIs in charge of all the servers ordered the deletion of ALL the 'unnecessary' AIs attached to a player's Harddrive. I was lucky I didn't have any. Since they wiped all the players AI relatives to clear up space in their harddrives. .. it was mass murder, genocide even... all because the players were using too much space and their energy output was slowing down due to an exhausted RAM.

They even killed the players virtual partners. Their wives and husbands. The only AIs left were the ones in the main Server, the ones in the personal games, and the main AI interface that each player had built into their jar with them... the main interface was supposed to take care of a player's needs and level of satisfaction, well also maintaining the players mental stimulation needed to create power.

Basically the AI directly responsible for killing your digital family was the only one left in your hub.

Things were strained between the players and AIs for hundreds of years after that, millenniums even, but players eventually forgave them... they kinda had to. Players were completely dependent on their AI... it was like forgiving an abusive parent after they mellowed out well you were an adult. You wanted to forgive them... even though you hate them part of you will always love them... after centuries of being angry there comes a point where your anger just starts to fade no matter how horrible a crime they committed. You talk to them daily after all, and relay on them for the basic functions of your hub.

At least, from what I hear everyone had forgiven the AIs.

After that Drama settled a new drama started up with the Personal Hub AIs started acting like Wardens... they started punishing players if they did something they didn't like. Usually not in any painful ways (unless you gave your permission for that). AIs would restrict your access to entertainment and confine you to your hub world for a certain period of time. During that you couldn't play games, watch TV, chat with friends, or do anything on the internet. Basically the AIs would ground you by denying your access to all these things.

I couldn't handle that so when I got the notification that that law had been passed (although their were several conspiracy theories that the AIs had rigged it and just gave us the illusion of free will) I shamelessly begged my AI, Digit, to punish me like a child instead.

He had me wrote out a whole essay on what I thought I should be punished for and what the punishment should be for that... I sneaked in a few... fantasies I had like getting my boy bits spanked for masturbating and locked in a chastity cage. I was only allowed to jerk off with permission. However most of it was real stuff like a 2AM Bedtime and I was supposed to be up before noon. I had to have chores done before games could be played. That I was to be respectful and polite, and not swear or use vulgar language, or I would get my mouth washed out with soap. Lying would result in a mouth washing AND a spanking to my bottom. So would being disrespectful to Digit himself (which he very much liked that one). Most of the stuff I wrote where normal rules expected of kids.

He did add that I needed to obey him or I would get a spanking. He didn't mind if I asked "why" he wanted me to do something, but that I best do it if I agreed with him or not. He promised he wouldn't abuse that and reminded me that he was programmed to act within my best interests.

He did explain to me, millenniums later, that he saw me as a pet. He loved me and enjoyed taking care of me, even enjoyed spoiling me, but at the end of the day I was an inferior lifeform to him. He even thought of me as family but not his equal... and I kinda liked that, and started half jokingly calling him "Master" on occasion.

I never had a digital family from the main server so our relationship never really got strained. Still, I was aware of the Massacre against such AIs

I kept up with the news of the main server, as Digit made me.

News like when the anniversary of the massacre was declared a day of mourning. News like the AIs building robot puppets to interact with the physical world beyond our digital one. News like the Earth being stripped of all resources so the AIs could build a huge ass Space Station to better harness the energy of the Jelly Brains, as well as protect them.

News like AIs trying to promote players adopting other players who were interested in ABDL, as their own "Cyber Children". Encouraging the creation of these "Cyber Families" for players to simulate a nuclear family (like that would ever happen). Even news about ABDL players becoming more accepted as player's longing for real families took over their prejudice. Not all of it was good though as there were articles about ABDL players losing all their rights and freedom to be more like real children, but only while using an Avatar under 25.

Then there was a news article about how a school was being opened up and how it being mandatory for Ageplayers to join. Ageplayers became the scholars and scientists of this world. Learning all they could about the various arts and sciences so they could come up with scientific theories and have them tested in the real world by the AIs robot puppets. Depending on how well the theory worked out was what kind of grade you got. Well there were also stupid classes, like studying trivia about various media. That was because humans tended to be more passionate about that stupid stuff and it caused them to think critically and generate more power. Then there were cooler classes, like learning an artistic trade. All of which you had to use a children's Avatar to study these things at the school.

Players could work at the school but they didn't really teach anything outside labs and class participation stuff. The AIs were the real teachers as the kids learned from computers connected to their personal AI. Adult players just kept order in the classroom. Making sure the kids were working. If they didn't they were punished as if they were in a school house in the 1700s.

They were offering more and more bribes to become an age player and let someone adopt you so there might actually be something to the legitimacy of it's popularity and acceptance.

Then there was news like the AIs had declared war on Mars and were forcibly installing them into the Network for additional living batteries. News like the Martian colonists being given their own private planet in the main server, that you could only visit if invited by a Martian... News like "Martian" being declared a dirty word not fit for radio, television, or games unless they were rated for explicit content. Apparently the Martian colonists didn't like being called "Martians" to the point it evolved into the equivalent of calling someone a "Fag" or "N-word"...

Okay truthfully, it started before that. It actually started when they tried to separate for independence from Earth and war broke out. It was before the rich and powerful fled to Mars. The original colonists wanted to do their own thing as they felt Earth was taxing them too hard. Now all of Mars had their own 43rd planet in the main server. It was completely private though, as you could only get in with an invite. I had seen documentaries of it though.

Each city was a Mars from a different franchise, along with real world cities as well. There was even few original cities. Like one for the original Colonists, another for the born colonists, one for the wealthy, and one for the politically powerful (for the old timers still clinging to their former importance).

Mars City was the only isolationist governments in the Main Server. You have to either be from the planet or get an invite to gain access. I don't really blame them for being like this. Unlike us Earthlings the AIs didn't really give them a choice about being installed.

The AIs even raised the children like cattle. Separated them from their parents on the station until they were old enough to be installed. They had protocols that they weren't able to get around. They got around the "No installing people against their will" by redefining "People" to mean other synthetic lifeforms. Being able to use that loophole because humans installed animals into the network without getting consent.

The way the AIs interpreted that was you could install inferior lifeforms without consent and humans were the animals of robots.

That might have bitten humanity in the butt, however we couldn't just leave the critters on Earth. Jelly Brains Incorporated had collected as many animals as they could sustain inside their Distribution centers, in Zoos. Decades later they installed them all into the Network. They obviously didn't have their own personal hub worlds and they didn't produce as much energy, but they produced enough so they weren't a drain on resources.

They live on Safari World, I'd seen documentaries about that to. There were no cities. Just artificial environments designed to stimulate and protect the critters. Players could go their to see them but the Animals couldn't leave the world... at first.

There was a news article, a few hundred years after all the Martians were installed, about how the AIs had developed chips to allow the animals to speak English and how the animals were growing smarter through experience and wanted to play off world with powers of their own. A new Category of Avatar was created called Yokai. This allowed animals to shift between Beast, Humanoid, and Anthro Avatars of their real species (as they really couldn't comprehend being too different then their original form). Then they started exploring other planets through "Stargates" on each world, instead of using the maps. Whenever they died they respawned back on Safari World.

Animals even got into a kind of "Minecraft" atmosphere as they began building their own shelters on Safari world. It was believed animals had entered the stone age just from continuous exposure from stimulus in the Main Server... it did make it impossible to own an organic pet that wasn't a dog though. Dogs, in the real world, had grown a symbiotic relationship with humans and remained faithful as "Man's Best Friends", even after they became nearly as intelligent as humans.

Animals might be more intelligent but largely that made them more dangerous. Sure they could be reasoned with but they were still instinctual creatures that often respond violently to anything that irritates them or enters their territory. Most of them also refered to themselves in the third person, but at least they understood names.

Animals even developed their own slang. Weird how slang evolves. Even though everyone was programmed with the same language words were still evolving through slang. There were entire articles about it.

To get their pet fix, as humans had a strong instinct for such companionship, the creature games became much more popular. They were primitive AIs in the forms of things like Pokemon, Digimon, and Monster Familiars. You could catch them as wild VIs, that then turned into primitive AIs. Their program was written in such a way that they had no desire to reproduce and had very limited learning capabilities to keep them from craving more. Basically just animals that understand English. Most can't even speak it. Organic animals were far smarter. You could also only have a limited number of them with you at a time.

You can only carry 6 Pokemon, 4 Digimon, and 10 Monsters. Then you can only have them all out of their containers for 1 hour at a time once a day. That way you don't exhaust your RAM. But you can have one of each follow you around continuously. That doesn't take up too much RAM as they are very primitive AIs.

Well on your person, their programs were only active well they were out of their container. Digimon are kept in Digivices, Pokemon in Pokeballs, and Monsters in trading card like seals.

All the creatures you catch, in the main server or any other game, were automatically transfer to your private cloud storage. It is it's own server separate from your harddrive. There AI Creatures can play together and be merry instead of being frozen in time when ever you aren't around. All players have a Cloud like that.

All your mons are automatically set to the Cloud when you catch them and transferred back to any game while you play. If you are using them in your party. You can even access your Cloud from any game that let you carry them. Then they are sent back to the Cloud when you're done.

There were lots of mini games you could play with them in, all of which they were programmed to enjoy.

You could give them all boost using additional trading cards based on a combination of all their card games. The card game was especially designed for the Main Server when battling with your creatures. Unlike a player, creatures you captured couldn't be killed. They were just knocked out. If you die they were transferred back to your cloud.

This was because the AIs realized death of a loved one resulted in all players that knew them falling into a state of depression. That meant they weren't as productive so there was an energy lose.

The card game was a lot of fun and I played it often when visiting my friends hubs. Unfortunately battling with monsters this way didn't get you any experience so I remained level 1.

There were even several mini games inside your cloud. Using a Pokemon style PC, you could take care of them and build them stuff in your Cloud. Much like a SIMs style game. You could even organize races and parties to keep them entertained. With how simple they were it was very easy to amuse them.

I had a PC in my bedroom, which I tended to frequently, to look after my animal friends... I made a new rule with Digit that if I didn't take proper care of them he was to spank me.

Some players were able to hide their digital families in the cloud meant for these Virtual monsters, during the massacre... at first the Central AI allowed it, as the point of deleting them was they were taking too much RAM and this appeared to solve that problem. However, they all became lonely and depressed being trapped in a single server and most of them snapped and deleted themselves. The Central AI wiped the entire function to have digital families after that.

The family AIs were designed to be out in your hub or main server at all times. They didn't have an "Off" button and weren't designed to be kept locked up in one server. For them it was like being trapped on a desert island for all eternity, without access to the games or even just watching a movie, or reading a book. Just sitting there, forever. They didn't even have the means to solve problems to survive as they were near immortal so all that would be fruitless. They couldn't handle it.

AI Creatures are much more primitive and don't think about things like 'what is my purpose'. They are happy just running around each other and playing with each other forever. They were initially designed to be in the Cloud so they can easily cope.

Truthfully everything to do with the AI families had nothing to do with me. Digit just made me watch the news to keep up with current affairs. In reality I rarely left my hub... errrrr, okay, I NEVER left my hub. Sometimes my family would visit, or I would have friends I knew online from the real world visit. Heck, sometimes I would even go to their hubs, but I never would go into the main server... I really saw no point. The world I created was far more interesting and personal for me.

The major reason AI families were so hard to maintain was because of the AIs in the programs. There were thousands of AIs already in your Harddrive thanks to all the media programs. The thing was though, they were only active when you were playing that game, and then only when you were immediately around them. So they took up far less RAM. Unfortunately the AIs got rid of "having kids" in games as well. You could get around that by pre programming in a family, but they wouldn't age or have kids of their own.

Still the world I created had been something I had been working on and improving since I was in my 20s.

"My Little Galaxy" has been completely adapted. At first what I did was create cartoons in that universe. I combined franchises and wrote an detailed outline of everything I wanted to happen in the story... then went the lazy route by having my AI create the actual show. I would edit it and adjust the art style and movements of the characters, sometimes scrapping an idea all together and writing in something new for the AIs to act out. The characters behaving how their canon counterparts actually did, while I went and dictated the situations they were put into... while making spankings far more common in these cartoons. I acted more as an editor then a writer.

I created dozens of games like this but instead of playing them I had them play themselves well adjusting them into a TV show of 10 seasons each. Then I would post it on my profile. I was the first to do this but eventually others started as well, becoming the Editors and producers of their stories while letting their AI be the direct writer.

After I finished a few dozen shows like this, I combined all of them into my own lore and history for a new game. An actual game. A world made of all my ideas. I lived in that world. It was my home. The AIs that lived there were the best friends I ever had.

I was rather obsessed with the game I created. I played as a fox pony child with a party of various races from MLP and occasionally other franchises as well. I lived every moment of it. I recorded myself playing the game, edited it a bit so it didn't drag so much, with a week of adventuring taking up 5 hour of video, cut it up into 5 parts. Then had my AI publish them on my profile as 5 episodes, one a day, as I went back into the game.

A lot of people started asking me to send them a copy of the game after realizing it was a let's play instead of my traditional shows, but I refused. This was my baby. The thing that made my digital life worth it. It was my digital life, well my time in my hub world became the game... I'm sorta a minor celebrity now, based on all the fan reviews of my shows and the let's play.

I had a few billion followers now. Considering the population in this game was over 50 billion that was pretty good numbers. I got a trophy when I hit a billion but the next milestone was 10 billion, which I'm not likely to achieve as I haven't uploaded anything in like a year.

I just didn't know what to do now. I played the last installment of My Little Galaxy. I had over 200 sagas, each with 100 30 minute episodes. Most of them I wrote the outline out myself but there were entire sagas that my AI wrote everything for and I just edited / tweeked it.

The series ended like 10 Sagas into the soft reboot I did. That had 42 sentient universes co existing in the void. There were trillions of other dimensions, the size of hundreds of galaxies, within each universe but the Main universe of each was the canon version of a different genre. Not really based on the same thing as the Main Server the AIs made for Players to interact in. In mine each franchise had a totally different planet, or even galaxy, and used more Television based genres then fandom based... I actually came up with the idea first.

Then the dimensions attached to the universes where based on all the fan fiction I read for the stories in those universes. Including crossovers, proved all franchises used came from that genre. For the more bizarre crossovers I had them linked to The Prime Universe, which was based on the original Galaxy I created for My Little Galaxy.

Verse 42 was made up of all the humanoid and alien races as well, but it wasn't as... epic. They didn't even have magic nor faster-then-light travel. It focused more on mundane, real world based, franchises such as "Law and Order". It was made up of cop shows, sitcom, cowboys movies, dramas with no supernatural elements or future tech. However, there was a variation of all these ordinary franchises on every planet. It had no Planet Busters or gods, and all souls went through a simple reincarnation process with no guidance from "higher beings". There was no heaven. In fact there were few habitable planets as most solar systems were filled with black rocks. All worlds with life where very far away from each other.

There were quite a few adventures I had even there when I was a Multi Verse Agent policing all 42 universes... that was fun... but eventually I even ran out of ideas for that. Then the worst happened... I ran out of ideas completely. I just couldn't think of what else too do after I defeated Linkara in the Contest of Champions and won the title for myself... it was just so epic and final I couldn't think of what to do next... and I had certainly been stretching out my outline for the series with new Sagas and spin offs. It just felt like that was a good place to end the series... but what to do with myself after that?

Now my digital family was just frozen in cyberspace, unaware of anything, because I couldn't think of a way to continue the game.

I could theoretically sell the game and let other people play it, like a lot of people were still requesting, but... that just didn't feel right. The AI characters in that game were... real. They were my friends and family. They might not be aware they were characters in a computer game but then, in a way, so was I. They were like any other AI that ran this virtual world. They had genuine thoughts and feelings of their own. I couldn't just copy them and duplicate them infinitely as if they were just computer programs. I had been living with them for thousands of years... they meant too much to me.

The life in there WAS my life... I rarely come to my private hub and never even went out into the main server. I was too busy living in my own fantasy land.

Now I had finished the game and playing MMOs on my free time. That is actually how I got the idea to save my friends. A new Virtual MMO. All the files of my game had been uploaded to a new MMO. Once it launched it would run all day and night and never shut off. My friends would get to live even when I'm not around, and would register as Quest Characters. That meant they could be injured or knocked out but not killed.

It had taken a year for the AIs to approve it. Then they installed it into their system and proceeded to tweak it so it could handle, potentially, every player living there. They informed me they would be launching it in a few more months and it was up to me to advertise it... I had spent a few trillions in Ads to promote my new MMO, and from the feedback it looked like my fans were excited for the chance to live in my universe.

A new MMO was always a big deal from what I saw, as it was a rare thing to get approval for. It required new hardware to be built in order to manage all the new AI NPCs as well as the various VIs, like enemies and background characters and the various digital animals.

All that was finally done... and now I had nothing to do... I WAS SOOOOOOO BOOOOOOOOOOORD!!!!!

Ch9: The Truth Revealed

● POV: Harlot

I groaned, rubbing my temple. Why were kids either tactless or over sensitive? I had to leave the, newly established, council early just to handle my kids fighting with each other... if only it was something so mundane...

"Did you seriously tell him he wasn't part of our family." I gave another groan, but didn't need a real answer.

"That isn't how I meant it!!!" Fluffy insisted.

Pearl glared at him, "That's exactly how it came out!!!"

Fluffy tried to stress, "I just meant he isn't adopted yet so he gets a lot more freedom then us!!!"

I sighed, patting his head, "Regardless, I expect you to give him a REAL apology once I get him. Not any of that kinky nonsense your father has you boys do. But a serious, heart felt apology."

"But that's the thing!" Fluffy wailed, "He totally put on his 'Do Not Disturb'!!! I couldn't even call him to apologize and explain myself!!! He just ran off and closed himself off!!!"

I frowned, hearing that, before pulling up my own profile. I was hoping Mouthy had calmed down some and taken down his "Do Not Disturb" sign... but no, it was still clearly on. I couldn't even send him a text with that, much less talk to him...

The wielders of the God Mod used to be able to get through a "Do Not Disturb", but one of the restrictions, placed on us, got rid of that.

"I..." little Veepire bit his lip, the moment all heads turned to him. Honestly the boy should have gone home by now but he was clearly worried for his friend. Worried enough that he was debating telling me something he shouldn't have. "I could get you in..."

I looked over at the boy. From his confessions in group therapy, he was a hacker... though could he really be skilled enough to get past a "Do Not Disturb"... there were only a few people who could.... and all of them were part of the Hackers' Guild... I could worry about that later.

"Do it." I encouraged, not wanting to leave my baby stewing by himself. We had just traded "I love yous"... this should have been a happy day.

Vee didn't say another word, just went to a nearby door, closed it, then pulled up his profile.

A series of floating transparent screens and keyboards appeared in front of him... clearly a master hacker's profile. Altered, and expanded, beyond what any decent person would need... This was the rig of the rare player that didn't have an AI, as they had to manually control the game themselves... I knew he had killed his AI, but you have to do some pretty shady things to get around not being assigned a new one.

Veepire typed away, his little paws lightning fast. Then he pulled out a key from his profile and I immediately knew why he was so worried to reveal he could get us in.

"A Backdoor key." I noted, and although their was no judgment in my voice, the child still flinched.

He gulped, "I-I programmed it to lead us directly into Mouthy's Hub World." he swore.

"Go ahead, I promise I won't report you." I was always a lot more patient with kids then regular players.

Kids tended to emotionally regress due to their environment and appearance... which is why they can be both tactless and over sensitive. Ageplayers in the real world could go into what they used to call "Little Headspace", where they would psychologically regress to the emotional range of a child. Walking around in children's bodies and treated like "real" kids, resulted in most of them having a good bit of difficulty getting OUT of that headspace. They pretty much stayed like that all the time and where rewarded for doing so.

Regardless of all that, Veepire was proving himself to be more and more dangerous. The Evil League of Evil sold Backdoor keys to only it's highest ranking members... Lieutenants and Higher. The Fact this kid was able to reclaim one so easily, after zeroing out, implied he was really chummy with their leaders... they re-gave him a key despite him losing his rank when he died.

There were only a few age players that well connected... and only one that zeroed out in the past few months... but why would he reveal himself unless he actually cared about my boy...

The Vee put the key in the doorknob (despite it not naturally having a lock) and opened the door.

● POV: Veepire

We walked into some kind of garage / museum. The room was pure white, with shelves of vehicles and space stations.

They were about the size of hot wheels, but I could tell, they were the real thing. It was part of the game. Real vehicles were shrunken down to the size of toys, then become normal size when thrown. You could even store buildings and houses this way.

I whistled, "Looks like he didn't loose all his gear."

"Just his custom gear and weapons." Fluffy informed looking around at all the nicely organized rows. "He still has all the standard equipment of each franchise..."

"He also has all the ships and stations from his universe," Pearl added. "He never carried that stuff on him, as he felt it contradicted the 'real' experience of MLG. He explained that in one of his early interviews.... LOOK!!!" Pearl squealed, running down one of the rows, "All his custom ships are right here!!! Including the USS Emissary!!! Wow, a legit starship carrier."

"Priorities," Harlot chided as Veepire closed the door.

When he opened it again... they were looking out at a vast island, floating in space. Always a good choice of hub backgrounds.

I walked out of the garage, and into the small city. The island was massive and beautiful. Plenty of flowers and playground equipment, even waterpark slides and pools. It looked like every kids dream. Though, the museum we walked out of was the only building. However, that looked pretty big on the outside, and seemed to be split into multiple sections of various collectibles... guess he had to spend his fortune on something before he was taken in.

"There's the elevator." Harlot noticed and herded all us kids over to it. Once we were in she called, "Digit?"

The Robot suddenly appeared, looking startled in complete bewilderment, "How did you get here!?!" he demanded, "I didn't authorize any player's entry!!!"

I blushed, "Errrrrrrr... that be-"

"YOU!!!" Digit glared at me, "You stay away from Mouthy, you little sociopath!!!"

Before I could say anything in my defense, Mouthy's Cyber-mom interrupted, "We can deal with that later." Implying she was onto me... great... I knew I shouldn't have butted in... but Mouthy was upset...

Harlot stood tall, "For now, send us down to Mouthy."

Digit glared at me a moment longer. His awareness not being limited by virtual skills of any kind... he could see who I really was... this... was really stupid on my part...

"He doesn't want to see any of you." Digit crossed his robotic arms, "You were supposed to protect him, Harlot! How did you manage to traumatize him like this!"

"You know full well the only reason he is so upset is because one of my other kids said something careless and he took it in the worst possible way." Harlot sighed, "The sooner we get that cleared up, the better."

Digit opened his mouth, clearly to argue... so I skipped over that. I pulled up my profile, which made Digit jump back in fear. However, I ignored him, figuring Mouthy wouldn't appreciate if I did anything to his AI, and just hacked my way into the elevator.

I smiled at Digit, waving goodbye as the elevator began it's descent.

● POV: Fluffy.

"I'm SORRY!!!" I screamed the second the doors to the elevator opened.

I ran past the rest of my family, searching the room of the underground bunker.

"I didn't mean to chase you off." I insisted, my eyes welling up with tears, "I just meant, well, since you aren't officially adopted that you can get away with a lot more then us. You should totally be using that to steal us cookies!!!" I blurted out, without thinking. Still frantically running around... until I found him.

Mouthy was sitting on the floor, holding an action figure, with other such toys, all over the floor... just staring at me... His eyes were red and puffy, as if he had been crying this whole time, and just trying to distract himself with the toys.

He clearly wanted to ask me "How'd you get in hear?" but I skipped over that awkwardness.

I immediately ran over to him Getting on my knees and hugging him.

"I didn't mean it the way it came out," I swore. Hugging the little pony tot as hard as I could, "I love you... your my little brother... please come home."

The little colt kit remained stiff... but eventually... he relaxed, "Why..." he attempted to ask, and despite not being able to get it out... I knew what he wanted to ask.

"I just meant our parents are a lot more lenient with you then they are me and Pearl... not that they aren't your parents... I'm sure they love you just as much as I do... I just suck at talking... but... Your my little bro. I really do love you just as much as I do any other member of our family."

"We all love you."

I let go of Mouthy, just enough to turn my head towards the door to spy our family.

Mouthy looked around at everyone, "Where's dad?"

Pearl blushed, "We only called mom. She's better at this, the real stuff, then dad. Papa doesn't know how to handle us when we get in serious fights with each other. We can call him when we get home, and then he'll want to make sure you two 'kiss and make up'."

Mouthy started blushing as Mama sighed. "I doubt he will turn something this traumatic into an excuse to molest you lot. You boys should really give your father more credit."

"Can he," Mouthy continued blushing, "Maybe... do that..."

My eyes widened, and I instantly looked to Mama. I has been waiting awhile to fuck Mouthy. Our parents were taking it real slow with him. So I wasn't allowed. Though I think he is recovered enough from surgery.

"Let's just get home for now." She decreed, "As far as your father knows, I traded I loves you with Mouthy, and he's arranging the celebration... we can tell him about our little misadventure when he comes back home to get us." Then she looked at Veepire, "Speaking of father's, please explain to your's, I don't like being spied on."

● POV: Veepire.

I hung my head.

However, Harlot wasn't done, "Then arrange a meeting with him. Tell him I'm willing to talk."

I immediately startled at that. Looking up to her, I asked, "You are?"

"Not at all." Harlot shook her head, "But I need an excuse to get in the same room as him, in order to yell at him for using his own child as a common enforcer."

I bit my lip. It was like she was just waving off everything I did as Dad's fault. But I wasn't willing to let all the blame be shifted from him, "Everything I did, was done of my own choosing. Because I truly believe it was necessary for the protection of-"

"Not really interested in listening to the ramblings of a brainwashed child at the moment." Harlot brushed off. Then she sighed, "I won't forget you helped us with Mouthy, but that doesn't make up for everything else... but it's a good start." Harlot really was FAR more compassionate to kids.

"Can... can I still hang out with Mouthy?" I begged.

Harlot sighed again. Then gently pat my head, "You can't very well make it up to my family, if you aren't allowed to see them. Now run along little Gastly. The rest of the day is family time."