> Equestria CD-I > by WorldWalker128 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Equestria CD-i It was a rather pleasant day in the kingdom of Equestria: Clear blue skies, chirping birds, soft, white fluffy clouds, and- “-sweet red wine! What more could a princess ask for?” Celestia thought aloud, taking a small sip from an over-sized purple goblet. She turned her head and gazed from a window, smiling. To her right, her captain of the guard yawned and stood on his hind legs, stretching his front ones. “Gee, it sure is boring around here!” Celestia turned her head and looked at him, blinking in surprise. “My boy, this peace is what all true warriors strive for!” She admonished, setting her goblet down on a small table near her throne. “I just wonder what Chrysalis is up to!” Celestia frowned slightly, recalling the Changeling queen's attempt to seize her kingdom for herself. She had very nearly succeeded, and had it not been for the bond that princess Cadence and Shining Armor possessed she very well might have. Given that knowledge, she supposed it was not odd, nor a bad thing for him to be concerned as to what she might be plotting now. Surely she would not be idle, what with her people's presence now being known and hunted. A sudden gust of wind blew open all the windows in the throne room, startling both herself and Shining Armor, and blowing any loose cloth or dust about. Shielding their eyes with a leg, they did not see a strangely-garbed Pegasus wearing a red robe that hid his Cutie Mark and a bright pink turban with a large red jewel rimmed with green metal where his forehead would have been flap his way in through one of those open windows. He also had a really long gray beard and a mustache the connected to it and extended further to each side. Both Celestia and Shining Armor did, however, hear him set his hoofs down on the marble flooring, and the wind suddenly ceased as soon as it had started. When they lowered the leg shielding their eyes Shining Armor stared at him dumbly, and both he and she approached the intruder. As soon as he had touched the floor the brown Pegasus sank into a cross-legged position and pressed his fore hoofs together and bowed slightly as Celestia came to a stop in front of him, watching him expectantly. “Your majesty, Chrysalis and her minions have seized the island of Unicornia!” Princess Celestia pressed a hoof to her chin and furrowed her brow, frowning rather than looking distressed. Why in the world would she want to take over Unicornia? To her knowledge, Unicornia was little more than a tropical tourist spot discovered by exploring Unicorns over sixty years ago, had a smaller local population than even Ponyville, and was best known for its exotic white-breasted bluebirds. Supposedly, their singing could calm even a rampaging Ursa Major, which, though Celestia had never heard them sing, highly doubted it given that Unicornia did not have any Ursa Majors on it to prove this myth. “Hmm...how can we help?” She asked. Aside from breaking open a can of Sun Goddess whoop-flank on them that might end with the destruction of the island, that is. The Pegasus pulled a yellowed piece of parchment out from under his robe and let it fall open to reveal a bunch of weird red symbols. Pointing a hoof at it and running it across the page, he translated that only Shining Armor (alone, mind you) could defeat Chrysalis. “Great!” Shining Armor exclaimed eagerly, his face breaking out in a grin as he raised a hoof up triumphantly. “I'll grab my stuff!” The old Pegasus shook his head however, and let the scroll drop from his hoofs and roll back up. It did not stop rolling, however, and eventually fell out of the window. He did not seem to notice this and continued, declaring that Shining Armor's sword was enough and jumped into the air, beating his wings and motioning for Shining Armor to come hither. Instead he first trotted over to Luna, who had just walked in, still in her powder-blue rubber ducky pajamas and four matching slippers and yawned, her eyes half-closed and bleary from sleep. Stopping before her and looking up, Shining Armor grinned like an idiot and gave her puppy-eyes, while still wearing the idiot grin. “How about a kiss? For luck!” Luna squinted down at her brother-in-law to make sure that it was in fact him, and then frowned. “Thou surely jests! Art thee not satisfied being in wedlock with one princess already?” Shining Armor's face became embarrassed and he covered his mouth and trotted away to the Pegasus, who pulled a magic carpet out from his robe and laid it on the floor and jumped aboard. Shining Armor did the same and the carpet rose off the ground and flew back out of the window.. “Squadalaaa! We're off!” shouted the Pegasus. Seeing that they were both now gone, Celestia shrugged and walked back to her throne and her waiting wine goblet. “Well, if Shining Armor is the 'Chosen One', then I guess I can go back to my nice day!” She once more thought aloud, raising her goblet to her lips once more while Luna once more fell asleep, this time standing up, a small bubble inflating and deflating at the end of her nose as she breathed. ()()()()() Elsewhere Shining Armor was now lying down on the carpet, his dumb expression changing to one that made him look as high as he was being carried. Looking down below him and both his mane and tail blowing around as if standing in front of a portable factory fan, Link- I mean Shining Armor, pointed a hoof ahead of them, and swept it around to his side as they passed a strange mountain range with a number of ugly faces carved into them. None of them looked familiar to him, and he knew the land in which he lived in quite well. “These, are the faces of Evil! You must conquer each!” Shining Armor made a face of confusion. “But I thought that Unicornia had been taken over. Why are we going off to conquer these places?” The Pegasus suddenly gave him a 'are you fo real?' look. “Oh, I'm not going to conquer them! Just you!” “Huh?” “Squadalaaa!” The Pegasus yelled again, pressing his hoofs gently against Shining Armor's side. You're off!” The bearded Pegasus shoved Shining Armor off the flying carpet and flew away, leaving Shining Armor to fall screaming down to the base of the first Face of Evil mountain. ? ? ? ? ? Just as Shining Armor crashed head-first into the roof of a house on the outskirts of a small village Twilight Sparkle bolted awake and straightened upright in her seat, her gaming controller clattering on the floor next to her couch. In front of her sat her television with a big GAME OVER screen displaying her character lying dead on the ground below the words. As she stared at the TV memories of the previous night came back to her and she laughed at the strangeness of what she recalled of her dream. Yawning and looking to a window she discovered that it was already morning and she turned off both the old game system she'd borrowed from Rainbow Dash for research purposes and her own television and levitated the odd plastic controller to rest on top of the box television next to the game system. “That's the last time that I stay up all night playing retro video games!” Alternate Ending “That's the last time that I stay up all night playing-” A sudden belch from Spike, who had probably still been asleep at the time interrupted Twilight's thoughts and she trotted upstairs and retrieved it, unrolling it with her magic. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head and her jaw dropped as far as the rules of nature and cartoon-land would allow as she read: My most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. It would seem that once again Chrysalis is up to mischief, but there's no need to worry as your brother is already hard at work putting a stop to it. He left less than an hour ago in the company of a brown Pegasus riding a flying carpet. Given that he is your brother as well as captain of the royal guard he has my complete confidence. Cadence wished me also to say hello to you for her, as she is busy hiding from the our mother, who keeps pestering her about grandchildren even though your brother and Cadence have only been married for a few months. Your mentor, ruler, and friend, Princess Celestia P.S., please tell Rarity that Luna loves the rubber ducky pajamas that she was sent for her birthday.