Alternate Anon Adventures 1 - Pokémon Vapour Part 1

>It was another sunny day in Equestria. No bad weather was scheduled for the next month.
>Then it started raining Gameboys Colours.
>You explained to the ponies what they were. Since there were so many, everyone took a handheld for themselves.
>There was something unusual about them however. Instead of AA batteries, there was a weird looking power cell. You and Twilight tested the power capacity and found that no matter how long you left the console on, it never drained.
>Eventually, the wow factor wore off. Without any games, they might as well have been blocks of plastic.
>Then it started raining Pokémon cartridges.
>It was a version you had never heard of though: Pokémon Vapour. If that wasn't weird enough, each game had an antenna sticking out of the top.
>It couldn't be possible, could it?
>You plugged the game into your Atomic Purple Gameboy and switched it on. Nothing was different so far until a box came up saying if you wanted to play single player or multiplayer.
>In another universe, millions of Nintendo fanboys simultaneously creamed themselves in mutual joy at your discovery.

>Deciding to test the game, you selected single player. Sure enough, you went through all the usual stuff: a professor introducing you to the world of Pokémon, asking you if you were a boy or a girl and choosing your name. You elected to be a dude and decided to choose a custom name. Funnily enough, you could have a name up to fourteen characters long, not that it mattered. Anonymous is who you were so that's who you were going to be.
>And so begins your journey into the world of Pokémon!
>Your avatar did the classic shrinking thing and you were placed, as was always the case, into your bedroom. After grabbing the potion from the PC, you encountered your mother and received the Pokégear from her, a la Pokémon Gold/Silver. She mentioned, however, that it was the latest model with all the latest functions. Unusual.
>You activated the Pokégear once you leave your house. Time, Phone, Radio, Map. Might as well check the last one out.
>Holy shit.
>Not only was this game set in a new zone, you also had access to all the others. All of them, including the ones from White and Black on the DS. You quickly checked the stats page, more specifically the badges section.
>There were row after row after row of darkened emblems, fifty two hollow pictures in total.
>52 badges to collect.
>Hmm. New zone, new badges, you wonder if...
>You opened the Pokédex.
>There were 800 blank entries.
>The feeling you were experiencing must have been what being on heroin was like.

>You told Twilight your discovery. After her tussle with Link To The Past on your DS, she wanted something new to sink her teeth into. She got her Gameboy out, a Ruby Red model, plugged in her copy and turned it on.
>This is where things took a turn for the strange.
>Instead of a human professor, a p0ny one turned up instead. Her character was a p0ny too. When it came to entering her name, pony glyphs replaced the English alphabet you loved so much.
>For a good portion of an hour, she wandered around the starting town getting a feel for the controls. All the NPCs were p0nies too. After choosing her starting Pokémon, a water type called Aquapan, she headed out along Route 353.
>She was shocked at first when she had to fight her first wild Pokémon but she got over her apprehension soon enough and beat it without too much bother. You hate to think what Fluttershy would make of this game.
>"Hey Anon, how about we try the multiplayer function?"
>You were hoping she was going to suggest that.
>Getting your own Gameboy out, you turned it on.

>Once you set your character up, the world map appeared and the game asked you where you would like to start from. Nostalgia setting in like a heavy fog, you went for the Kanto region. It then asked you which town and you selected Pewter City, not wishing to deal with the trudge from Pallet Town. Once Twilight had gotten ready, you told her to spawn in the same place.
>This was the moment of truth.
>You appeared in the Pokémon Centre. Another difference from the games you were familiar with: the Centre was much MUCH larger, about fifteen times the size. There were also hardly any NPCs wandering around.
>You walked around a while until a purple blob appeared on your screen. You squinted to get a better look to make sure it wasn't a Ditto. The moment it started walking in circles around you was confirmation that it wasn't.
"Twilight, is that you?"
>You look over to her and she grinned at you.
>You were grinning too. It may have been premature but you didn't care. You had in your hands what so many gamers wanted from Nintendo but didn't bother to make.
>A Pokémon MMO.

>A few months had passed since the Gameboys and cartridges appeared. Almost everyp0ny throughout Equestria, not to mention minotaurs, griffins and a certain young dragon that you first shared the magic of gaming with, plays Pokémon Vapour.
>The game is also a lot more complex than you first guessed. Not only could players be trainers but also gym leaders, store owners, nurses at the Pokémon Centres, pretty much anything you wanted to be. This game was like if CCP Games and Game Freak had a drunken orgy and this was their bastard love child. Even Filthy Rich, the businessp0ny who tried to create a 'repair' business for the Gameboys after they first appeared, became an entrepreneur in the game's world, trading goods from one side of the map to the other and amassing a fortune in Pokédollars.
>Speaking of the map, it grew when there were too many players inhabiting a small space. When it did, new locations, routes, towns and gyms were added which were then unlocked in the single player portion of the game. If that wasn't enough, there weren't any level caps on Pokémon either, meaning that it was theoretically possible to have a Lvl. 500 Gyarados or even greater.
>This is your new goal in life.

>Then a few months later, it happened.
>The Incursion.
>Form out of nowhere, players reported being attacked on Routes and even within towns, normally a no-battle zone. Spike, with tear filled eyes, sobbed to you and Twilight that some p0nies in black had ambushed him while he was leveling up his Dratini. After the battle, not only did he forfeit some Pokédollars for losing but his attackers stole his Pokémon from him too.
>The sight of the little guy crying his heart out caused an unfathomable rage to well up inside you and Twilight. The two of you teamed up and decided to do some investigating. From town to town the both of you went, trying to find some clue regarding the identity of the mystery villains. Unfortunately, you didn't find out much. The player formed police force could never catch anyone in the act. Other players reported forming gangs to try and discover where the assailants retreated to after stealing the Pokémon but without success. Whoever these guys were, they made sure not to stay in the same place for too long.
>It was a good thing that you knew how such griefers worked.
>The two of you came up with a plan. Acting as bait, Twilight would wander around some of the less policed Routes, hoping to attract the attention of whoever it was that was causing the trouble. Then you, keeping a far enough distance away, would jump in to help Twilight defeat her attacker and then would hopefully get the information you needed to deal with these bullies.

>It took a couple of days but you eventually snagged a sucker. He rushed in to attack Twilight without even considering it was a trap, so you could imagine his surprise when you appeared from under the tall grass to assault him from behind.
>As the overworld faded into the battle mode, the picture of your enemy appeared. It was a pony as you figured it probably was, though Hephaestus was certain it was a team of Griffins you should have been on the lookout for. Like Spike described, the p0ny was black but he was... deformed. It looked more like a small alicorn but if H. R. Giger had gotten his hands on its design and crossed it with a beetle. He sent a message in p0ny glyphs saying that even with the two of you against him, both of wouldn't stand a chance.
>You sent one back saying he'd better have something worthwhile to make up for all the trouble he made.

>Turns out his bark was worse than his bite. The pair of you completely steamrollered the hapless goon, leaving him at your mercy. Before getting the information you desired, you helped yourself to his cash and items. It was only fair after all the trouble he put you and Twilight through. When you asked him what the point of these attacks were, he responded in a blind fit of patriotic rage that he would never betray Chrysalis, his queen.
>"It can't be, that's impossible." You hear Twilight say.
>As the two of you left the hapless goon to his fate, you ask Twilight what the deal with this Chrysalis character was. She immediately went into great detail about her brother's wedding and the Changeling attack. The attempted coup was all you needed to know that this Chrysalis lady was bad news.
>Now you had another goal: find out what her plan was. The only problem was: where was she hiding?