Playing with Power

Playing With Power

A ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’ Fanfiction

Clonehunter

The wood door slammed open and back against the inside wall, nearly causing Bonbon to perhaps quite literally jump out of her skin. There was a deafening crack as the door went back against the wall, followed by the triumphant roar of Bonbon’s turquoise colored unicorn flatmate, Lyra.

“It’s HEEERE!!” she rang out as she marched through the door and past the kitchen like a victorious war hero returning after a decade long war where she was the lone heroic survivor who had single handedly saved her country. But she hadn’t won any wars here, no. Perhaps, something better? Bonbon rubbed her temple as she jumped from her kitchen stool and went to shut the door. The doorknob had left a massive crater in the wall, bits of plaster and drywall falling into a dusty white pile on the floor beneath it as the doorknob was removed from the wreck. Looking over at Lyra as she headed for the living room, Bonbon saw that floating above Lyra’s head encased in magical sphere was nothing more than a cardboard box. Bonbon groaned and shut the door.

“Lyra! How do you suppose we fix that hole? Last I heard Caramel went out of town, and I don’t know anyone left who’s good with this kinda stuff!” Bonbon stormed into the living room to find Lyra huddled on the floor, the box out in front of her bulbous eyes, her pupils giant circles that blocked out most of the eye white, and completely focused on the cardboard cube. Bonbon rolled her eyes and started to talk when Lyra quickly hushed her.

“Shhh!” came Lyra’s response again as Bonbon attempted to speak. Bonbon fell back onto her haunches and decided to wait for what seemed like an hour before Lyra finally started to move. Slowly with one hoof, and being oh-so careful not to avert her eyes from the holy box, she motioned to Bonbon then to the box, and then back to Bonbon, and back to the box again.

“It’s, a box,” Bonbon stated dully. She was surprised briefly that Lyra didn’t try to stop her again. Then slowly, in a whisper which forced Bonbon to perk her ears forward and scooch closer, Lyra finally started to speak.

“Do... Do you...” Lyra stopped, gulped hard, and stopped again when she tried to continue. She gulped again, and looked to be on the verge of tears. Bonbon found herself suddenly concerned for her friend’s mental health. What she was dealing with? Bonbon wanted to comfort her, run up to her and lock her in a caring hug. BUt something about that box stopped her. Finally, Lyra whispered, “Bonbon?” A single lone tear started to crawl down her green-blue cheek.

“Y-Yes Lyra? What is it hun? What’s wrong?” Bonbon raised up on all fours, preparing to dash to Lyra’s aide.

“T-this, box... Do you, know?” Her voice started to quiver with a low, sad note. Bonbon started to feel like crying also.

“No honey, I don’t know what it is... Please dear, what is it? What’s the box?” Bonbon tried to add a happy tense to her words, but it seemed to falter. Lyra sniffed and looked up at her flat mate with big round watery eyes.

“It’s... It’s... a perwrhhoo.” She sniffed again, her watery eyes focused on her tan accomplice.

“I’m sorry Lyra, dear. I didn’t hear you. It’s a what?” Lyra shut her eyes tight, appearing to be fighting off tears. BUt then, as the tears started to flow, she started to laugh, but not a meek sorrowful laugh or downer chuckle. A laugh filled with some sort of happy sobby wobby victory.

“It’s...” Lyra gulped air and finally blurted, “It’s a Power Hoof!” She broke apart laughing, a joy ridden good time laugh that filled the house, all while tears streamed down her cheeks. “Isn’t it beautiful?” Lyra said when she calmed down. SHe sniffed and giggled a bit more, and again had her eyes on the box. “It’s a brand new, totally amazing Power Hoof! From Nintencolt!”

Bonbon sapped herself with a hoof and threw herself into the couch in disgust. And all this time, she thought Lyra was having some nerve wracking, life changing problem. But no! It was just a toy. Some stupid video game. “Lyra, I actually thought this was going to be--”

“Bonbon, look at this, look at this!” Lyra interrupted, jumping onto the open couch cushion next to Bonbon. Bonbon had a brief look at the front of the box before Lyra flipped it over, this side showing off a number of the devices features. “This thing, will change gaming... Forever!” Lyra squeed and doubled over in giggles. She was having trouble containing herself. Bonbon leaned onto the armrest, propping one hoof underneath her head so she could support it and show the front door her grumpy face. “Like, look at this right here,” Lyra said as she threw a hoof down onto the first photo on the box. “Just a flick of my wrist, and a jolt of the tip of my hoof, and I can deliver a roundhouse-kick combo in Donkey Gaiden II! And twisting my whole lower arm lets me pull a super-secret move that is one-hundred percent guaranteed to kick some super amounts of flank in Coltra 3! You gotta see this Bonbon!”

“Lyra,” Bonbon half-grunted, “Don’t you have enough of these silly game things and toys?” Lyra turned towards Bonbon with a frozen face of shock and terror, as if she had just sighted the ghost of Starswirl the Bearded.

“Too much? N--NEVER!!” Lyra slapped Bonbon across her cheek and grabbed by her by the shoulders in order to wildly shake her. “There is never enough with Nentencolt! Never!” She let go and held the box in front of Bonbon’s shaken face. “This my friend, is power! Everything else is child’s play compared to this!” Bonbon shooker head to try and get rid of the dizzy-shaky feel she had received from Lyra’s hoof handling and grunted in displeasure.

“No Lyra,” she said as she rubbed both of her temples, “This is a headache.”

“No, this is going to be great!” Eagerly Lyra began to tear at the package with her hooves, ripping the cardboard apart until she had finally managed to bore her way into the box’s goldmine. “Oh my gosh Oh my gosh! Bon, check this out!” Lyra punched her hoof through the packaging, and a split-second later had it out again, a gray rubbery looking thing in her grasp. Upon unfolding it Bonbon thought that it looked more like an oven mitt than a video game accessory.

“It’s a glove?” Bonbon found herself a bit amused now, but still annoyed with Lyra’s antics.

“Not just any glove,” Lyra beamed as she struggled a bit to get it on her right hoof. “This is the ultimate glove! It will change all of gaming! How you may ask? I’ll tell you--oh wait, one second.” Lyra bit down on the end of the mitt and started to pull on it with her teeth in order to bring it back farther on her hoof. “Just a sec,” she muttered from clenched teeth. Bonbon passively looked at the wall clock and started to watch the second hand tick by. After a few minutes, Lyra had the glove ready on her hoof. “Whew! Finally! Now, as I was saying, this baby is going to change gaming forever! How? By means of of Motion Control!”

“Motion control?”

“Yep! No more will I need to just sit there on the couch like some lazy mule with a little gamepad in my hooves, but now I can be up and about! My arm is the controller! I can see it now, the future: Our Body is the Controller! Everything we do recorded by a little camera bar, taking what we do and putting it in game! This Power Hoof is only a preview for what is yet to come. It’ll be amazing, don’t you think Bon?”

Bonbon shrugged and replied “Sure.” It didn’t really interest her at all really, though if anything it only showed her that technology seemed to be improving. Still, right now it was only in games, and Bonbon wasn’t a huge gamer, though she doesn’t mind playing Super Stallion Bros. every once in awhile on their Nintencolt Entertainment System. But she couldn’t imagine herself using this goofy glove thing to play it.

“Hey, can you flip the TV on while I hook up the Nintencolt? Thanks.” Lyra scrunched down in front of the TV and started to mess with cables and wires as she hooked up the console and glove. Bonbon grabbed the remote and aimed it at the TV.

“How much did that Hoof thing cost anyways, Lyra?”

From under the TV came the muffled response, “Two hundred bits, why?” Bonbon could’ve sworn that her jaw had just dropped into her lap.

“Two hundred bits?! For that rubber? Games don’t even cost 40 bits brand new! Couldn’t you have waited for the price to lower?”

“Nope,” Lyra replied. “This is something that had to be bought now! It’s so new, nothing like this has ever been on the market before!”

“As long as it works then,” Bonbon said worriedly. Even if it did work, she still would think that it was a waste of cash.

“Of course it’s gonna work, Bon,” Lyra said in a mock disapproving tone. “Besides, you really think something like Nintencolt would release some broken toy? Oh no, not them. They’re too smart for that!”

“Alright, alright,” Bonbon backed. “Though that Super Stallion Bros. movie was pretty awful in my opinion.” Lyra waved a hoof dismissively.

“Yah well, Nintencolt didn’t make that directly. A bunch of other lameos messed it up.” Lyra finished with the hook-ups and backed out from under the TV. “Alright, now Bon, it is time to play - WITH POWER!” Lyra grabbed the Coltra 3 cartridge and slapped it into the console and turned it on. As it loaded she configured the motion sensors and attached the remote for the glove, onto the glove. SHe had some trouble with the censor bar, but she eventually got them to stay on the TV set without them falling off. Bonbon yawned as she watched, more than impressed by the display.

“WELCOME PLAYER--” the Coltra voice blared as the menu started to appear. “Welcome to -- COLTRA 3!! ENHANCED POWER HOOF EDITION! NOW -- YOU’RE PLAYING WITH POWER!”

“Whoah!” Lyra exclaimed. “It actually changes the Contra setup, that’s so cool!” The menu appeared, the blinking cursor hovering next to the ‘1 Player Game’ option.

“How do you select things on the--” Lyra pushed her hoof forward and the game began. “--Oh.” Bonbon shrugged and sat back in silence as Lyra started the game. She turned her hoof on a slight angle and the space colt started to proceed forward. Bonbon raised an eyebrow, slightly amused at the simple motions. In fact, it did seem somewhat interesting. But as she watched, Lyra started to struggle.

“Oh-- Hey! What the-- How... How do I shoot?” Lyra’s space colt was frantically moving back and forth, and every slight twitch Lyra made with her hoof caused him to jump, and it seemed that was all he could do. Lyra bent the tip of her hoof down slightly and the colt finally started to shoot his phaser gun... At the ground. “Gaaaah!!” Lyra shook her hoof in anger causing the colt to dart backwards and shoot forward and go prone, all at once. And once he was down, he didn’t seem to want to get back up again! “Come on! Get up you stupid mule!”

Behind Lyra on the couch, Bonbon couldn’t help but giggle at Lyra’s downtrodden luck. In fact, it almost seemed Bonbon had been right all along, hadn’t she? Either way, this heightened amusement didn’t change the fact this toy was a waste of money.

“Oh frak! Darnit Celestia! This stupid thing is total junk!” Lyra ripped the Coltra 3 cartridge out and replaced it with Teenage Mutant Ninja Griffins II. “This glove just wasn’t meant for Coltra 3 I guess. The box was wrong, okay? But it has to work for something.” Unfortunately TMNGII didn’t play much better. And neither did Super Stallion Bros. for that matter, or Pac-Mare, Dig-Dog, or any of the Mega-Mares. Lyra was a bit surprised to find that Top Hoof and Rad Cart-Racer both worked somewhat well, but by this time with her favorite games scratched off the list, there just wasn’t anything really left. She screamed in frustration and kicked the box and wrestled with her hoof until the glove was off.

“Not fair!” Lyra shouted. This was supposed to be so cool! I mean, two-hundred bits! Oh Celestia...” Lyra fell onto her behind and crossed her arms in front of the TV, her face an upturned smile. While Bonbon found Lyra’s struggle with the toy amusing, she couldn’t stand her sulking like this. She removed herself from the couch and trotted over to Lyra’s side.

“Lyra, I’m sorry your Power Hoof didn’t work like you wanted,” she said, her voice filled with contempt.

“Huh? Why - Why should you care?” Lyra asked slightly startled, turning her head to face Bonbon. “You said it wasn’t going to work, and you were right! For once I was wrong, and you were right!”

“Lyra, I had my doubts, but I do with everything. I didn’t know if it would work or not, honest! Please don’t be mad at it. You just got... Pulled into the box, that’s all.” Lyra sniffed and shook her head.

“You’re right, I got sucked into the box. I got sucked into the stupid box! It’s still all my fault, and I wasted all that money!” Bonbon gently rubbed Lyra’s back and nuzzled her neck.

“Well, in that case we all make mistakes. You know I do.” Bonbon made a small smile for Lyra, who managed to return a small smile of her own in response. She wrapped Bonbon in a hug and sniffed again.

“You’re right, Bon, we do all make mistakes I guess. Thanks.”

“No problem, hun.” The friends left the embrace and smiled at each other for a few more moments.

“You know, I guess I was being a bit silly with how great it was and all,” Lyra blushed as she rubbed the back of her neck with a bit of embarrassment.

“Yep,” Bonbon giggled, “You were being silly! But now lets forget that all for now!”

“Alright,” Lyra agreed. Bonbon got up and started to head to the door and stopped briefly to look at the hole in the wall. “Heh, sorry about that...” Bonbon shrugged.

“It’s okay. How about we go look for someone else to fix this, maybe the Apple brother, Big Macintosh. He’s good with his hooves. And you know what? Lets stop at Sugar Cube Corner for some Ice Cream. Sound good?”

“You bet!” Lyra said as she bolted from the floor and too the door, the Power Hoof well forgotten already.