It was a busy day in Canterlot City Mall, droves of customers were all lined up outside the game shop for newest VR game release called Adventure Quest released by one of the top ranking game manufacturers in the city; Hive Mind Technologies. None were more excited than Sunset Shimmer and her friends who all paid for reserved copies of the game after spending countless hours at their part time jobs. As they continued to wait, a news report featuring the games creator appeared on the stores big screen and the whole crowd immediately quieted down.

"Good afternoon everyone, it is a beautiful day here in beautiful Canterlot City! I'm here today with the creator and CEO of Hive Mind Tech, Madame Chrysallis herself!" The reporter smiled as the camera focused on a woman with raven black hair that had green highlights, she wore a dark green dress and wore green makeup as well to give her a seductive appearance as she winked to the camera.

"Hello and thank you for having me here today."

"The pleasure is ours ma'am. So word on the street is that your newest game release is a hit, care to tell us more?"

"Of course. Adventure Quest is an open world game that players from all across the globe can enjoy, after countless hours of research and development our staff have created the ultimate full dive VR experience and are proud of their achievement."

"I bet they are. Now can you tell us what types of characters are on this game."

"Gladly. Let us begin with the starting characters shall we?"

A small screen popped up between the two as a line of game characters appeared to the audience and a female voice began to explain each one.

Shield Knight: This class mainly focuses on defense and counterattacks that chip away at the opponents health and are often used as tanks.

Sage: a class that focuses on ranged attacks and enhancing the stats of party members while analyzing the types of enemies they face which can be useful in fighting new foes.

Blade Knight: As the opposite of the shield knight, this class specifies in dealing heavy damage to multiple targets and are capable of using many heavy armor and weapons that would normally slow a player down.

Druid: this class specializes in healing and offers elemental and magical resistance to the group and are capable of taming and speaking wild monsters.

"Wow...just wow! I am loving this already!"

"Thank you."

"Now another question. Is it true that convicted felons are unable to play this game?"

"Yes." Chrysalis said in a more serious tone as she explained.

"Hive Mind Technologies spared no expense in creating the finest security programs for our games and this is no exception. As you know, many predators use online games such as this to stalk and capture children, however thanks to our top notch programmers it is nearly impossible."

"How so?"

"Well. While most games allow you to customize your characters gender, age, hair color and height, Adventure Quest takes your actual appearance and plants it into the game so even if a creeper wants to dress as a girl, he'll either have to get plastic surgery or wear a ton of makeup."

The crowd gave a short laugh as the reporter gave one last question to close the interview.

"Now I understand that players can actually get paid in this game. How does that work?"

"Well like any good game company, we found sponsors to help fund Adventure Quest and found a way to repay those sponsors in game. Now it works like this: If you work in a shop like an inn or an item store in the game that bares one of the sponsors names, your in game currency will convert to actual currency provided you have a savings account or parents permission."

"Fascinating. That means players can work hard and play hard in game and in real life."

"Indeed."

"Well that's all the time we have for today! Thank you Madame Chryalis, we look forward to your games success and good luck to all you new players out there!"

As the news cast ended, many customers were already chatting about which character they would choose while others checked if they worked for any of the sponsors mentioned in the report.

"Sweet! Cloudsdale Sports Shop is one of the sponsors!" Rainbow Dash Squealed after checking her phone.

"So is the smoothie shop!" Applejack said.

"Ooh this is so exciting! Are you excited? Cause I've never been so excited! Except for that one time we saved the school twice, stopped a crazy nature lady-OH! And that incident with is forgetting about Sunset shimmer being our friend." Pinkie Pie chattered as the line moved on.

"Oh! Darlings you can even make clothes in this game and look at the designs they made for some of our outfits!" Rarity beamed as she scrolled through the pictures of the starting characters in different outfits.

"Uhh some of these seem...skimpy." Sunset stated after noticing a female blade night wearing what was practically a bra and a loincloth.

"That's the point darling. Most of the players will be boys who like looking at girls in naughty outfits....that gives me a few ideas~."

As Rarity began to come up with ideas for her next fashion line, the group noticed some of the other customers were moving to a different counter in the store and noticed the sign above that read Pre-Order Pick ups. Naturally, the girls followed the crowd since they had reserved copies until one particular female customer began complaining.

"Hey! No cutting in line!" The woman shouted, earning mixed expressions from the other customers.

"Uh oh, we got a Karen." Rainbow Dash whispered to her friends.

"We're not cutting, this line is for those who pre-ordered the game." One customer said while pointing up to the sign.

"Oh that's a fine excuse-LINE CUTTER!!" The woman shot back as she placed her hands on her hips when another female customer walked up to her with arms crossed.

"It seems you left your brain somewhere else so I'll explain this to you." The woman said calmly.

"This line is for the customers who saved up their money and bought the game before its release date and so to help move things along, the store has generously opened up a second counter to help those customers pick up their purchase and leave but because of your idiotic rambling, I had to step over here and tell you how this works instead of picking up a copy for my son!" She glared angrily as the other customer shrunk back in shame while the crowd gave a round of applause.

The customer who diffused the incident wore jeans, a sweater shirt and carried a small purse. As she rejoined the others in the prepaid line. Rarity instantly recognized the woman as one of her best customers and decided to say hello while waiting for the line to move on.

"Miss Cream Heart!"

"Rarity?" Cream Heart said in surprise when as she turned to see Rarity flagging her down.

"Oh my goodness, what're you doing here?"

"Just picking a game up for my son, he saved up his own money for this, I'm so proud. And you?"

"Me and the girls thought this would be a great way for us to get together outside of school. Plus you know how my sister is now that she and little Button are dating~."

"Button...as in Button Mash? The worlds top gaming prodigy?" Sunset asked, looking a bit shocked as they both nodded.

"Oh you didn't know? She and button were good friends in kindergarten but then Cream Heart had to move away for a new job and they didn't see each other for a while. Poor Sweetie Belle was devastated but then one day, the ran into each other cafe and were reunited."

"Awww!" The girls cooed in unison at the little love story they just heard before finally obtaining their copies of the game and headed for home, eager to get started.

Sunset Shimmer was the first to arrive at her home and was preparing to start the game after grabbing a quick snack and feeding her pet gecko; Ray who was always happy to see her.

"Hey Ray, you miss me?" She asked as the little gecko nuzzled her cheek before being put back in his pen.

"I'll put up the screen for you so you can watch."

Sunset turned on her flatscreen television before activating her game system and inserting the disc into the console, as she placed the game visor over her head and laid in her bed. Her body began to feel drowsy as the VR system activated and a series of flashing lights appeared before Sunset awoke to find herself on top of a hill in a grassy field.

"Wow. The graphics are incredible!" She said to herself as she knelt down to feel the grass and breathed in the fresh air as a breeze flowed in.

"It feels so real. If this were an anime I probably would've gotten hit by a truck before waking up here." Sunset joked when a small fairy creature appeared before her and gave her a good startle.

"Hi there! Welcome to Adventure Quest! I'm Flip your fairy guide to through this amazing journey!" The fairy said as he fluttered around sunset with a cute and somewhat annoying voice. Like any fairy, this character was designed with sparkling wings, curly-toed shoes and clothes made from leaves.

"Welcome to The Empire, Adventurer!" He said cheerfully before snapping his fingers making a small screen appear in front of sunset with the title reading Input User Name.

"Okay. Now to think of a name." Sunset thought for a moment and remembered the nickname Pinkie gave her that time at the mall and quickly typed it in.

"Nice to meet you SunShim!" Flip said as a circle of weapons appeared around her.

"Now choose what class you'll be."

Among the assortment of weapons, she saw a sword and spellbook that immediately caught her attention as she checked the stats.

"Hmm Shield Knight. A class that specifies in defense and counterattacks, used mainly as the tank for raid parties. Sounds right up my alley!"

Once her choice was maid, the weapon dematerialized into pixels and reformed in Sunsets hands before she was transported into a bustling town square filled with numerous players both new and experienced.

"Alright adventurer, let's head to the quest board in the center of town to start your journey!" Flip said as he led the way through the bustling crowd with Sunset following closely.

"This is the Imperial City. One of the major cities you'll find throughout the game, here you can find shops, inns and other players to help you level up." Flip said just as they arrived at the quest board where Sunset saw the rest of her friends.

"Well look who joined the party!" Rainbow Dash grinned, appearing in a standard rogue outfit equipped with boots, a scarf snd a hood.

"So you went with the rogue class huh Dash?"

"That's Dashinator to you!" Rainbow frowned as she pointed up to her username.

Sunset quickly apologized before noticing the other colorful names her friends had chosen for themselves. Among the names were Zap Apple, Flutter Butter, Flawless Diamond and Pinkalicious but the name that surprised Sunset the most was the one Twilight had chosen for her character.

"Midnight? That's a surprise."

"I chose an enchantress so it seemed to fit." Twilight admitted while they got a look at their party.

"Okay let's see. Applejack's a Barbarian, Fluttershy's a Druid, Rarity is a...um?"

"A Blademancer darling. I can cast spells as well as sword fight." Rarity explained before enchanting her weapon with ice magic."

"Ooh pretty!" Pinkie said before sunset noticed the large cannon strapped to her back.

"You chose a Cannoneer, Pinkie?"

"Uh, yeah! BECAUSE I GET THIS COOL CANNON!!" Pinkie shrieked in excitement as she showed her friends her large cannon.

The girls shared a quick laugh before turning to the quest board to receive their first mission.

"Okay so, looks like we're heading to a Kobold nest in the forest."

"What are Kobolds?" Rarity asked sunset.

"They're basically these little rat men who like to dig tunnels and they REALLY hate it when you take their candles."

"RATS?!? EEWWW!!" Rarity shouted in disgust while the girls laughed again as they partied with Sunset and set out for their first quest.

"Alright girls, Let's do it!!"

"YEAH!!"

End.

Author's Note

The ratings for this story may change depending on future chapters, I look forward to your support.