Reunion - Interlude III
Swish.
Of course he would be sweeping the floors, why not? Certainly a degree in electronic sciences wouldn’t merit some more fulfilling work.
Swish.
Forget dustpans this pile of trash would need a shovel.
Swish.
The theme music and sound effects of an arcade game stirred Cross Circuit out of his broom-enabled grumbling. There sat Button Mash pummeling some poor NPC into oblivion.
Cross Circuit opened his mouth to inform the young colt that the arcade was closed but gave up before he even opened his mouth. It was a scolding he’d given often to the young colt, one that never merited more than a grunt from the engrossed gamer.
Cross’s horn lit up and the machine’s system clock sped up in response. Poor Button didn’t even see the fatality coming.
“What!? Aww come on!” Button screamed as he reached to put another token in the machine.
Cross blocked the slot before Button could put the token in. His eyes followed the hoof up until they found Cross’s face.
“It’s three hours past your curfew. I know that because your mother has come and told me when to kick you out three times already. Go home Button,” Cross Circuit said sternly.
“Aww, but the game cheated!”
“Says the pony who beat my high score,” Cross Circuit muttered under his breath.
“There’s no way it could have countered that fast! You’ve gotta let me try again,” Button argued.
“…five times,” Cross muttered. “Button,” he said aloud, “If I let you stay here any longer your mom will kill me, go home and hope she’ll let both of us off because it’s a holiday.”
“Fine,” the dejected button mash said as he left.
Cross returned to his sweeping and grumbling. He had graduated from a modestly sized university in the outskirts of Manehatten a little over 2 years ago and had been lucky enough to get a job at the Ponyville arcade. The peaceful village suited his quite personality even if it did mean his job entailed more than just working with electronics.
Swish.
“Grumble grumble…darn foal’s gonna get me killed.”
Swish.
“Darn foals leaving candy wrappers everywhere.”
Swish.
Cross Circuit didn’t mind foals but did they really have to be so foalish all the time? The entire arcade looked like a battle-zone, discarded candy wrappers made a pile that warranted a shovel instead of dustpan.
Swish.
With the top layer of candy wrappers gathered Cross could begin working on all the dust and sticky soda spills.
Swish.
“Oof.”
Cross regarded the hoof with a look long since perfected by ponies in the service industry. It told the hoof, “buck off we’re closed,” without risking career ending vocalization.
As annoying as its presence was it was a nice hoof. The ornate horseshoe wasn’t plastic or fake. The silvery blue metal was the real deal. Cross could appreciate a well-made costume even if the Nightmare Moon vibe screamed “too soon.”
Cross found the sun as bothersome as any self-respecting code monkey(1) did. It didn’t help that his bedroom window faced east. But when it didn’t rise and Celestia went missing he realized something: getting woken up by the sun shining in his eyes, grumbling, turning over and falling back asleep was the most comfortable routine in his life, even for just a day he missed it.
His eyes traced up the leg the hoof was attached to. There were few stallions that could match the size of this leg, but none could match the look of it, it was large but not out of proportion; it held a powerful yet distinctly feminine build.
His eyes continued upward taking in the polished obsidian vestments, wings, and ethereal mane of night princess’s regal form. Continuing to her face they found her regarding him with a neutral frown. His eyes immediately returned to her hooves as he did a double take of the pony before him.
Fancy shoes: check.
Jeweled necklace thingy: check.
Wings: check.
Ghosty mane and tail: check
Horn: check.
Crown: check.
Yep, I’m screwed, might as well die with some dignity.
Cross Circuit had always hoped he might meet some noble or another, he even practiced his courtly speaking when nopony was around, but daydreaming about having tea with a count or a duke did absolutely nothing to prepare him for seeing a princess while sweeping the floor. For one thing he never accounted for the broom when he practiced bowing.
After confirming that it was indeed Nightmare Moon come to devour him for only pretending to give a candy offering and eating it instead (a truly ridiculous thing to die for, he didn’t even like candy that much) he decided that accepting his fate would be much less effort all around than running through town screaming for mercy.
His fearful bow was cut short by his face running into the broomstick still in his magical grasp.
After rubbing the sore spot he decided that dying with dignity was overrated and looking pitiful and pleading for mercy was really the way to go.
Collapsing on the floor and trembling like a filly seemed appropriate.
His fearful gaze once again found the night princess’s face; it did not hold the mercy he was hoping for. Neither did it hold the terrible grin he was expecting. Instead she looked mildly annoyed like… well like she had just walked into an arcade and the pony sweeping up hit himself on the head with a broom and flopped on the floor in front of her like an idiot.
“C-can I h-help you?” he asked in a voice that completed his impression of a frightened filly.
“Pray tell, art thou the proprietor of this ‘arcade’ establishment?” Her voice was definitely that of a princess, it was unquestionably refined and dignified, although the volume hovered somewhere between ‘painful’ and ‘deafening.’
As the princess looked down at him expectantly Cross Circuit realized he had failed to pick out any words from the overabundance of noise that was the princess speaking.
“Um…beg pardon?” he asked hesitantly.
As she looked away and grumbled to herself Cross Circuit realized two things:
1. The princess, like him, grumbled when she was not entirely pleased with a particular turn of events.
2. SWEET CELESTIA’S SILKEN BEARD he had something in common with a princess!
“Do you work here,” the princess finally said at a much more reasonable volume.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Good, I wish to know how these work,” she said gesturing to the arcade machines around her.
“Yes, Your Highness.” Both ponies looked expectantly at one another for a few moments before Cross realized that the princess was waiting on him.
“Er… there is a machine disassembled for maintenance in the shop, would looking at it be an acceptable starting point Your Highness?” he asked hesitantly.
the only answer he got was a flat stare. Oh…right…she doesn’t know.
“Er…yes…one moment please.” He took a moment to dust himself off and cough nervously before making his way to a door marked “employees only.” Cross had never been a particularly skilled magic user but the flurry of levitation he used to hastily straighten up his work space would have landed him in any magic academy in Equestria.
He took a moment to nod at the workroom, sparkling more from the fading magic aura than any sort of cleanliness, and went to retrieve the princess.
She had the tact not to comment on the highly audible cleanliness that had just occurred and only raised an eyebrow at the disassembled machine on the work table.
“This machine has a blown out power transformer. It is a common problem with older machines, they were built with less efficient power systems in mind,” Cross explained.
From the mess of crystals and wires within the machine he pulled out the faulty part. It did not have the same translucent color as the other crystals instead it was a foggy white that darkened to yellow around a single black mark on one side.
Cross pulled a replacement crystal out of a cabinet behind him and began explaining what each crystalline part did as he connected them to the new transformer crystal.
“Every computer,” he said, “from this old thing to the Numerical Wind Tunnel(2) in Canterlot uses these same basic components.
“Now unless you have any questions, Your Highness…” a slight shake of the princess’s head told him to continue, “Good then that’s hardware covered. Now comes the fun part,” he said plugging the machine, “Software.”
A dashed vertical line appeared on the display with a blocky zero on either side. Two short vertical lines were on the two edges of the screen and between them were the words “insert bit to play.”
“Care for a game Your Highness?” Cross asked with a bit ready to go in the slot.
“Perhaps you should explain how the game is played before we start,” she replied.
“Oh it’s as simple as can be; you control the bumper on the right with this joystick. If I let the ball get past me you get a point, if I get the ball past you I get a point.”
“You say that like I will only score by your error,” the princess said with a hint of challenge in her voice.
“Well I have been doing this for quite a while.”
With feigned innocence the princess asked “Playing these games or taking mares into your work room?”
Cross’s cheeks went from their usual dark mint color to a deep red and he found himself very much unable to breathe for some time. When he finally recovered enough to mumble an embarrassed reply and look at the machine in front of him again he found the princess with a smile that tried to look innocent and the scoreboard showing that she was now in the lead.
“Oh so that’s how it’s going to be?” he asked wryly.
The Princess’s only response was a smirk as the next volley began. As the game continued Cross thought up several forms of retaliation all of which would land him in some form of banishment. He was punished for his lack of attention as the princess scored yet another point on him. To her credit she had held her own remarkably well against a more experienced opponent and as the game point neared she was only trailing by a point.
Cross Circuit was in the middle of trying to score the final point when a dark wing wrapped around his head effectively blinding him. He was only released once the point had been lost, he was now tied with the princess on the final point of the game.
Unfortunately for Cross his competitive side overrode his better senses at this point and midway through the next volley he swung his hindquarters into the princess’s hoping to distract her long enough to win.
Cross’s build could charitably be describes as academic and so when he tried to bump an alicorn with a very significant height and weight advantage he only ended up bouncing off of her. As he stumbled to regain his balance he looked to the display and saw the ball making it past his bumper. He had lost.
“Huzzah! We are victorious!”
Cross couldn’t help but smile at the princess looking down at him with a smug grin. They exchanged smiles for a few moments before the princess’s grin turned to a confused frown.
“We- I am confused. You have lost but you still seem so glad, why?”
Cross took a moment to consider the question, he had just been beaten by a pony who had obviously never played any sort of game before, a total n00b by any definition of the word. He should be raging against his loss and her less than sporting tactics but despite that he had enjoyed himself. It was not every day you got to play with a princess. He had expected her to follow all the rules and lose but he had to admit, being proven wrong was much more fun.
“I enjoyed it,” he finally said, “It’s not every day you get to play video games with a princess, even if she does cheat a little.”
“I did what was necessary to win,” she replied defensively, “It is a concept that few seem to grasp.”
Cross bowed low before speaking, “My apologies, Princess. I did not mean to offend you, but might I make a suggestion?”
After a stiff nod from the princess Cross continued, “Do not develop a strong interest in these games if you are so concerned with winning you cannot enjoy a game where you are not. I have seen ponies work themselves into a rage against opponents that are simply more skilled than them and there is no point to it, there is no consequence to losing worth being so upset. If you cannot enjoy losing the enjoyment you get from winning will not be worth it.”
There was an eerie stillness to the room as The Princess considered his words. Cross dared not rise or even look at the alicorn before him until her voice broke the silence.
“Very well, we request that you teach us how to lose,” she said summoning a sizable bag of bits.
Cross couldn’t keep the devilish smirk off his face or the challenge out of his eyes when he replied. “Gladly,” he said.
The night flew by as he and the princess played every nearly machine in the arcade. They would still playfully try to distract one another during crucial points in the games (even the ones where they were not competing) but each attempt and each game always ended with a smile from both ponies.
The pink rays of dawn brought a close to the night’s revelry. “I am afraid I must leave, my sister will be wondering where I am,” The Princess said. She left him with a still very full bag of bits as compensation and climbed into the scariest looking chariot Cross had ever seen pulled by the scariest looking ponies Cross had ever seen. With a short run and a few flaps of their leathery wings they were gone.
As they faded into the horizon Cross whispered to himself, “Goodbye Princess… wait, what was her name?”
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For what it's worth. I have always seen Celestia as the peacemaker with Luna as the battlemare of the two. The one who took care of beings that could not be reasoned with. Keeping in mind that it takes two to make peace ,but only one to make a war. Now she is back with methods and attitudes that are a thousand years out of date. I think that she is one of the loneliest characters I know.
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Awww and I was hoping you meant Progeny. Well there goes my complete interest in the story.
Just kidding, can't wait for the next chapter.
Interesting introduction of Gamer Luna into this story, but wow does she cheeeeaaaat. I like Cross, so I wouldn't mind seeing more of him.
When in doubt, [Slice of Life] tag. It and the [Adventure] tag are practically Fimfiction's [General] tag! Plus, this story never seemed to get terribly dark.
(Hmmmm... This... was a very nice thing to see from Luna. Both the part where she's used to competition being about winning, and the part where she might not entirely be opposed to learning to compete for fun and self-betterment and not for victory... Hope she takes this Cross Circuit's lesson to heart.)
Yeah, try to bump the Goddess of the Night, who is probably twice your size and weight; nice idea, genius! Still, Luna doesn't seem to mind so much.
I know this is a long time after this chapter was written, but I think the dark tag needs to stay. The parts going over the history of Equestria were pretty dark. Though, it's now taking a more light hearted turn, the dark tag should still stay.
Interesting, but I do think that since there are chapters that are clearly not in the form of diary entries that some sort of text distinction like the chapter headers in some books would be nice to indicate when it is a diary entry.
At long last, Gamer Luna has risen. May all quake before her superiority.
So... I'm guessing it was in Luna Eclipsed where she discovered a love of games in general? Makes perfect sense, come to think of it.