“Drink, please,” Sunny requested with a smile. A glass of lemonade floated up in a green aura, and she took a long draw from the straw poking out of the glass before it was lowered to the floor once more. “Thank you,” she said with a gentle nuzzle to her lounge mat.
Silver nuzzled gently in response, the unicorn laying on his belly with a book opened between his forelegs as Sunny laid atop him, reading over his shoulder. She had combined her two favorite activities—cuddling Silver and reading a good book—which left the unicorn little to do but lay there and enjoy the silent company.
“Next page,” she ordered, and he smirked as the book laying on his forelegs shimmered green as a page was turned. The shimmering ended and Sunny continued her reading, catching up on the latest Daring Do novel.
“You know, I can’t help but feel like you’re taking advantage of me,” he said.
She gasped melodramatically. “Oh, Silver,” she said with a pout, “do you really think I’ve got you here just to use you for your magic?”
“Yep,” he replied with a flat expression.
She gave a sigh and shook her head. “That’s not true at all, sweetheart…” She moved her head to whisper into his ear, “I’m also using you for your body.”
Silver snorted and laughed at the silly mare, who giggled and hugged him tight. He stifled his laughter long enough to say, “W-well at least you’re being honest!”
She grinned and nodded, “Yep! In fact, I bet I could replace Applejack as the new Bearer of Honesty!”
He chuckled and rolled his eyes with a grin. “I don’t think that’s how it works, dear.”
“Says you,” she replied, and stuck her tongue out at him.
He gave her a sly smirk, and said, “You know what? I think it’s my turn to get comfy.”
Sunny was just about to ask Silver what he meant by that when the book she was reading shimmered with magic as it was closed and moved aside. Before she could ask him what he was doing, Silver suddenly rolled, bringing Sunny along with him, until she was suddenly laying on her back below him while he laid on her chest.
Sunny sputtered and squirmed under him as he stretched out and gave a sigh. “Ah, yes, much better…”
“Silver!” she said with mock annoyance. “You’d better get off me!”
“Why?” he asked with a cheeky grin, turning his head to wink at her. “You got to lay on me all this time, it’s only fair I got my turn!”
She smirked up at him. “That so?” Her hooves moved up and before he knew it they found their way to his belly, tickling him mercilessly!
Silver could only laugh and squirm, trying to bat the hooves away as his lover worked to tickle every spot she knew was sensitive! “N-no!” he laughed. “Stoppit!”
She grinned and kept at it, the poor stallion laughing and writhing atop her but not giving up his position. “You want it to stop? Then you gotta get off me!” she giggled as she kept up her assault.
“Nuh-never!” he laughed, though his will to maintain the position was faltering at the unending assault that beautiful mare was unleashing on his sensitive belly.
Sunny felt him losing control, and she managed to shove him off her and onto the carpet. The pair lay there for a time, both giggling for a while before they finally quieted down.
They gazed into each other’s eyes with wide smiles, enjoying the silence, before Silver finally spoke up. “You cheated…” he said with a mock pout.
“You know what they say dear,” she replied with a wink, “all’s fair in love and war!”
He chuckled and shook his head, moving over Sunny to cuddle and nuzzle her. “I don’t think that’s what they had in mind,” he said, sharing a tender kiss with the beautiful mare beneath him.
She giggled, and returned the tender kiss as her forelegs wrapped around the unicorn to hold him close, not wanting this moment to end.
Unfortunately for her, it ended much sooner than she would have liked when Silver said, “Seriously though, I’m kinda bored… Cuddling you is nice, but maybe there’s something we can both do for fun?”
She sighed in defeat. “Fiiiine…” She knew that it was only fair to do something he enjoyed too, and a thought occurred to her. “You know, Crystal told me just yesterday how much fun she had with your arcade games last Sunday.”
He smiled at the memory, the day that Sunny’s little sister, Crystal, came over to play his arcade games. “Yeah, it was fun playing with her, and she was pretty good too.”
“Now that I think about it, I never did get the chance to try them out,” she reflected, looking over at the games sitting by the wall. “I think it’d be nice to learn about your hobby. Maybe you could show me how to play those games of yours?”
Silver grinned and nodded, quickly getting up and offering a hoof to get Sunny on her hooves. “Definitely! Oh, we’re gonna have so much fun!” He had enjoyed playing with Crystal, having missed his old arcade and the ponies he played with there. The thought of introducing his beloved to some of his favorite games made him very excited.
Sunny giggled at his sudden enthusiasm, and she held his hoof as she stood up. “So, where do we start?” she asked, looking between the three cabinets as they walked up to them.
Silver looked between the three games, pondering. “We should, hm, start with, uh… this one,” he said finally, motioning to the game on the far right. Compared to the other two, it was a fairly small arcade cabinet, built for only one player. On the top of the machine, it read Aerial Ace. “The artwork on the sides show a little of what the game’s about,” he explained.
“Aerial Ace, huh?” She looked at the sides of the machine, and her eyes widened at the artwork showing what appeared to be a gray alicorn with a red mane and tail wearing sturdy golden armor. “So one of the characters is an alicorn, huh?”
“Oh, not quite. Aerial Ace, the main character, is actually a pegasus wearing enchanted armor, allowing him to fire magical beams at his enemies,” Silver explained.
Sunny nodded, and went to the controls, getting on her hind hooves to look them over. It seemed simple enough, a joystick and two buttons, one labeled “beam” and the other labeled “shield.” On the screen showed a little bit of the gameplay, and scrolling text told the story of how the dreaded Griffin Empire attacked Equestria, and how only famed flyer Aerial Ace could save the day.
“So how do I play?” she wondered, noticing the “Insert Coin” text at the center of the screen. “And do I need to use bits?”
He chuckled and shook his head, motioning to one of two bowls between the three machines, sitting atop small tables, which were filled to the brim with shiny silver tokens. “I made sure to buy special tokens to play with, so nopony needs to spend anything to play.”
He moved to her side, rising up on his hind hooves as well to show her, as he took the joystick with his left hoof while his right hovered over the buttons on the right. “And as for playing, you move around with the joystick, and press the ‘beam’ button to shoot at the bad guys.”
“And what’s this ‘shield’ button for?” she wondered.
“Oh, well, the armor he wears is enchanted to put up a shield, but only three times in each level,” Silver explained. “You get hit once, and you lose a life, but the shield can be used to protect yourself from a few close calls. With practice, you can dodge most of the arrows that the griffons fire, and only need the shield in emergencies.”
“Sounds easy enough,” Sunny replied, moving to take the controls as Silver moved out of the way, using his magic to take a token and insert it into the machine for her. “Wish me luck!” she said, looking at the screen with determination.
“Good luck,” he said, smiling as he watched the game start up.
A heroic tune started playing as a couple griffons were seen flying away from something, only to be zapped by the titular hero as he performed some aerial acrobatics. Sunny couldn’t help but giggle when she saw the griffons were completely bald as they fell from the sky, carried by parachutes.
After that, Aerial Ace went to the bottom of the screen, flying ahead, and the music changed as it gave control to Sunny. “Level 1” flashed at the center of the screen for a moment before a flock of griffons began flying down from the top of the screen, and Sunny began playing, moving Ace to one side as she tapped on the “beam” button to start firing at the bad guys. The griffons went down easily, parachuting down completely bald like their former comrades. “Yeah! I did it!” she cheered.
Silver chuckled at her enthusiasm, and continued to watch as she kept playing, dodging left and right to avoid the griffons’ arrows and firing back at them, zapping a few more before she flew into an arrow and was shot down. “Darn it!” she cried in frustration.
“Yeah, you have to watch where your character is, where the bad guys are, and where their arrows are as well,” he told her.
“It’s a lot to keep track of,” Sunny observed as she got her second try, and kept up her assault against the invading griffons. She grimaced as her eyes moved quickly all around the screen, trying to keep an eye on everything as she played. After shooting down a few more griffons, including tough armor-clad ones, she came across an airship that started firing heavy crossbow bolts at her, and she was forced to dodge left and right while firing constantly at the ship until it exploded. “Yeah! I got it!” she cheered.
“Nice job!” he said, glad to see her making such progress.
More and more griffons attacked, and Sunny did her best to keep up with her assault, dodging them as they came from the left, until a few came by from the right, firing away in the direction she was dodging to, and she ended up shot down once more. “Oh come on!” she shouted in frustration.
Silver winced, worried she could be getting upset with the game, and quickly told her, “You’re dodging away from the shots, when you could try slipping between them to get through those attack waves.”
“Doesn’t help that the game is cheating,” she grumbled as she started on her third and final life.
He chuckled at that. “Well, they’re designed to,” he told her.
Her brow furrowed, and she looked at him. “Wait, seriously?” she asked incredulously.
“Yeah. I mean, the truth of the matter is that these games are made to earn bits first, and be fun second,” he explained.
She opened her mouth to ask something, only to hear the telltale sound of her character being shot down once more while she was distracted. “Oh for-!” she complained, scowling at the screen as it said “Continue?” with a timer counting down from ten.
He winced again, feeling guilty for causing Sunny to lose her last life. “Sorry about that. You can continue playing if you put in another token, though.”
“No, I’m fine,” she said, still scowling at the screen. She brought a hoof up, motioning to her eyes before pointing at the screen, as if to tell the game “I’m watching you,” and Silver snorted in amusement. “Anyway, you’re telling me these games are designed to rip ponies off?”
“Well, not exactly. You see, an arcade is a business where you spend bits for some interactive entertainment by way of video games, and the better you are the more fun your bits get you,” he explained. “But it’s not exactly good for business if your customers can just put in a couple bits worth of tokens for a whole day’s worth of entertainment, and so the ponies who make these games design them to play dirty, hoping to make players spend more bits to play.”
“That’s really rotten,” she replied. It hadn’t occurred to her that the games he was showing her were designed to steal her bits! “And you play these for fun? How could you even afford to play them so often?”
Silver chuckled and nodded. “Well, yeah, I love playing these games, even when they’re being tricky. And as for how I afforded it, well, Mom frequently encouraged me to leave the house, wanting me to go out and get some fresh air, and she’d always hoof me a bag of bits to enjoy myself.” He snorted and shook his head as a memory came to him, and he added, “And after the first few times she sent me out, she forbade me from just going to the book store, so I had to look elsewhere for entertainment.”
Sunny giggled at that. “My little bookworm… So that’s why you went to the arcade in the first place, then? Because your mother didn’t want you just going out to buy more spellbooks?”
“Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Anyway, did you want to try the others?” he asked.
“I dunno,” she replied warily, eyeing the two other cabinets. “Are they going to cheat as well?”
He chuckled and shook his head, telling her, “No, the other two games focus on keeping players in the game just by being fun, or to play against each other.” He motioned her over to the large arcade cabinet to the left, built for up to four players. “This is Epic Equestrian Brawlers: Tournament Edition. It’s a fighting game, and I think you’ll enjoy it after what you dealt with playing Aerial Ace.”
She looked, and saw each of the stations had a joystick and four buttons, the controls colored red, blue, green, and yellow among the four. “It looks pretty complicated… And why do most of the buttons have two different functions?” she wondered, seeing two words above all but one button denoting their uses.
“Some of the functions change depending on if you move the joystick with the button press,” he explained. “This button here can be used to block when you’re still, or dodge when you press it while moving the joystick left or right. You can press this one to attack, or if you move the joystick while pressing it, you can perform a powerful attack in different directions.”
“Sounds even more complicated when you explain it like that,” Sunny lamented.
“It’s actually a lot easier than it sounds. Did you want me to show you?” he asked.
“Sure, play a bit and I’ll see if I could understand enough to try,” she replied.
Silver nodded, and a couple tokens levitated over to be inserted into the machine. Some catchy music played as the screen showed a couple options; “Championship,” and “Versus,” and he chose the latter option. On the screen were a dozen different characters, and not just the standard ponies; included in the roster was a thestral, a diamond dog, a griffon, and even a minotaur, making for a varied cast of characters.
“Wow, is that a minotaur?” she asked, looking at the list of characters as Silver tried to decide which one to use.
“Yeah, there are a variety of characters, and they all play differently. Some are balanced, a couple are best at ranged attacks, and some like the minotaur are slow and powerful,” he told her, selecting an earth pony mare, then he selected the pegasus as his opponent. “One normal match is five lives. Whoever runs out first, loses.”
There was a selection of stages to play on, and Silver chose a swampland stage for his demonstration. After just a few moments, the match started, and he quickly had his character sprint toward the pegasus, landing a powerful smash attack, then a sweeping kick, before grabbing his opponent and tossing them aside.
“Wow, it’s pretty fast-paced!” Sunny observed as she watched the two battle on the screen. “And you make it look so easy.”
“It’s really not that hard. The developers made sure that this game is simple enough for anypony to play,” he told her. He went on to explain the usage of the joystick with the ‘attack’ and ‘special’ buttons, about how the former would become a powerful ‘smash’ attack which could be charged up, while the latter would allow for unique attacks depending on the direction used.
“Okay, so lots of ways to attack… But how do you beat the guy?” she wondered, watching as they seemed to fight on, though she noticed that Silver’s opponent seemed to fly further with each powerful blow.
“Well you see the two colored bars on the bottom of the screen?” he asked, and she noticed that there were indeed two bars, one for each character as could be seen by the names displayed beneath, and she saw that the opponent’s bar was tall and red, where his was short and green. “The way to beat your opponent is to deal enough damage to put their health bar in the red, and then use a powerful attack to knock them out of the stage.”
He demonstrated this by getting close to the opponent, and charging up a smash attack for a moment before striking the character, causing him to fly off the screen where he made a large explosion as he died. Sunny laughed at the absurdity of the character just exploding like that. “Wow, he’s not coming back!” she giggled, though she was proven wrong when the opponent reappeared in a beam of light at one platform. “Spoke too soon, I guess. Still, seems pretty easy,” she said, watching as the fight continued.
“The other half of the battle comes from trying NOT to get knocked out of the stage,” Silver went on to explain. “The more damage you take, the further you’re knocked away with each blow. You have ways of making it back to the stage if you get sent flying, but with enough damage you’ll just be knocked right out of the park.”
“Interesting,” she replied, noticing that as Silver’s character took more damage and took longer to recover from the blows, though he was well on his way to a second knock-out of the opposing pegasus.
“Keep watching what I’m doing, and if you still feel like playing after I’m done, then you can play the ‘Championship’ mode to get started,” he told her.
“Sounds good,” she said, watching as the battle unfolded on the screen. Things seemed to be going well for Silver, until a red exclamation point popped up on the spot his character was battling on. The hydra in the background, who until this point was happy to sit there idle, suddenly lunged one of its heads at that point, and sent his character flying off screen, where she exploded. “Woah! I thought that thing was just part of the background!”
His character respawned, and he continued the fight as he told Sunny, “Nope! Some of the stages have things called ‘level hazards’ which hurt your character if they strike, or kill your character if your damage is high enough.”
“I thought you said this game didn’t cheat,” she said, frowning at the screen.
“It’s just something you have to look out for as you play, and the game warns you in some way before the hazard strikes,” Silver said with a grin as he played. “You just have to keep an eye out for the warning signs, and dodge in time. Skilled players can even use level hazards to beat their opponents.”
She watched him continue to play, fighting hard to beat the pegasus character he was playing against. He was winning at four lives to two, and was working on bringing his opponent down to his last life. “You’re pretty good at this,” she observed.
Silver grinned as he told her, “Yeah, I kinda had to get good at this to stand a chance against one of my old friends back in Fillydelphia. He’s an earth pony like you, talented with video games, so he was always beating me whenever I played against him.”
Sunny frowned as she reflected on his words. “I think that’s the first time you’ve told me anything about your old friends.” She remembered that he mentioned them when she took him on a tour through Ponyville, about how they met and hung out at the arcade back in Fillydelphia, but he never said anything about them beyond that.
He frowned and nodded slowly as he realized that she was right. “I never did tell you about them, did I?” His ears folded as he thought back, and shook his head, mind off the game for a moment as his character got pummeled. “It’s funny, I haven’t thought much about them since I moved here.” He grimaced as he continued playing, knocking his opponent down to one life. “Some friend I am, huh?”
She placed a hoof on his shoulder, rubbing it gently. “You shouldn’t beat yourself up over that, sweetie. You moved here in distress, trying to find a safe place for yourself, and then you got wrapped up in our group that first night.” She moved her hoof down to wrap around his waist as she gave him a soft nuzzle. “Between getting to know us, getting situated here in Ponyville, continuing your studies, and working at my shop, it’s understandable that you’d forget about some things back home.”
“They’re not things, they’re my friends,” he grumbled, finishing off his opponent for the win. “The only friends I had back there, and I forgot about them!” He snorted and hung his head as he thought back to his friends back home, and their relationship. “The worst part is, I think I’m closer with you guys than I ever was with them. We’d mostly hang out at the arcade, playing together, chatting it up, and then I’d go back home to do more studying… I don’t think I ever realized how much they helped me just by being there for me.”
Sunny moved to sit behind her stallion, wrapping her forelegs around his waist to hug him close while she nuzzled the crook of his neck. “You know, when I went to Canterlot to earn my culinary degree, I had several friends at the school. We had fun hanging out, sometimes studying together but usually spending time at the local nightclubs to relax.”
“And somehow you graduated,” he teased with a playful smile.
She snorted and gave him a gentle swat to his ribs. “Jerk… Anyway, we were close throughout our time at the school, but then we graduated and went our separate ways. Most lived in other towns and cities across Equestria, and only one remained there to try making a life for herself.”
She kissed his cheek, and he gave her hoof a gentle caress in return. “I haven’t seen any of them in years, but it happens from time to time; ponies get busy with their lives, and sometimes friendships fade. What you have to remember is that it’s a two-way street; they’re just as much responsible for maintaining the relationship as you are, and if neither of you makes the effort then the friendship won’t last.”
“I… I guess you have a point there,” he said thoughtfully.
She smiled, and said, “If it worries you that much, then why don’t you write them some letters, let them all know how things are going here in Ponyville?”
He frowned. “I don’t know if I even remember their addresses. I hardly ever visited them at their homes, and I don’t think I gave them my new address either…”
“Maybe you could write your parents, see if they know? At least, maybe they could find your friends in the arcade and give them your address so they can write you back?” Sunny suggested.
He nodded, and smiled softly. “Yeah, I suppose that could work. It’s been a few weeks since I wrote to my parents anyway, I’m sure they’re wondering how I’m doing.” He slowly pulled out of Sunny’s embrace, only to turn and kiss her softly. “Thanks Sunny. I love you.”
She hummed appreciatively as she returned the kiss. “Mmm, I love you too.” She looked to the game he’d been playing, and asked, “So, I guess it’s my turn then?”
“Oh, yeah, go right ahead!” he said, looking to the bowl of tokens sitting next to the arcade cabinet, levitating a couple of them to the machine while Sunny got into place at the leftmost controls. “Just press the ‘attack’ button when ‘Championship’ is flashing,” he told her. “You’ll have five lives, but your opponents will only have one each. If you run out of lives, you can put in another couple tokens to keep playing.”
“Got it,” she replied, doing as much to start the game. She looked through the roster of characters, and decided to select the griffon character, and after that she was shown a line of characters, an icon showing her starting at the very first. The match began, and she started playing, constantly glancing down at the controls as she battled her opponent. “What are your old friends like?” she asked, glancing over to Silver.
He chuckled softly as he thought back to his old friends. “Well now… The one I was telling you about is named Brick Breaker. He’s a really nice stallion, very patient with others, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him lose his temper. That’s a good thing, too, because he’s a pretty big stallion, and I don’t want to think about the kind of damage he could do if he ever got angry.”
“Gotcha!” Sunny cheered as she beat her first opponent, all five of her lives still remaining. “Sorry, I’m listening.”
“It’s fine. Anyway, the second member of our group is a pegasus named Cloudy Skies, and boy is he goofy,” said Silver, smirking and shaking his head at the memories that came to him. “I swear, some of the ideas he’d come up with just because he was bored…”
“Like what?” Sunny wondered as she fought her second opponent.
“Well, one time he wanted me to use my magic to make the video game characters real so he could fight them hoof-to-hoof,” he explained. “Apparently he was tired of this one game cheating, and swore he could beat the boss all by himself.”
She snorted and looked at him incredulously. “You’re not serious.”
“Oh I’m perfectly serious,” Silver replied with a smirk. “Not that I could actually do that, mind you, but it certainly didn’t stop him from asking.”
She giggled and shook her head, quickly going back to the game. “Just the two friends?”
“Oh, no, there was a third, a pegasus named Spring Storm,” he told her. “He’s the thinker of the group.”
“More of a thinker than you?” she asked, knowing how smart her boyfriend was. “I find that hard to believe.”
He chuckled and shook his head, telling her, “Differing kind of thinking. I focus on learning about magic, but he was always thinking about philosophical stuff. He’d always question the way the world worked, why things are done as they are, always looking for meaning in the world around him.”
“Bet you two must have had some neat conversations…” said Sunny, concentrating on beating her third opponent now.
“Sometimes, yeah,” Silver admitted. “Because of my knowledge of magic, he’d ask me about how it affected the world around us, why it worked the way it did, stuff like that.” He chuckled and added, “Only time I ever really got to talk about magic in our group, as neither of the others had any need to know much about it, and those conversations always left them bored to tears.”
Sunny giggled. “Oh, I can imagine that. I admire your knowledge of magic, and the variety of spells you can use, but seeing as I’m just an earth pony I simply don’t understand any of it.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t expect you to. If you can’t use unicorn magic then you’re probably not going to know about it.” He stood at her side as he watched her play. “You seem to be picking up on this quickly,” he added, seeing her performance in the game.
“You were right, this game isn’t as hard as I thought it would be,” she replied, and then she grimaced as she lost another life. “Still getting the hang of it though…”
“Want me to get another couple tokens ready?” he wondered.
Sunny shook her head. “Thanks, but no. Whenever I run out of lives, I’ll just move onto that last game of yours.” She was having fun playing the fighting game, but she didn’t want to spend all day on it, not when there was that last game to try.
“Fair enough,” he replied, watching her play.
“So, how’d you guys meet, anyway?” she wondered, fighting a burly Minotaur in the game.
He smiled softly at the memory of it. “Well, I went to the arcade fairly often, spending whatever bits Mom gave me, and sometimes I’d play with other ponies there. There were cooperative games, where players work together, and competitive games like this one, where players fight against one another. Those three were regulars at the arcade, like me, so I’d play with each of them from time to time, not really thinking much about it, until one day we finished an hour-long session of Helmet, and-“
“Helmet?” she asked, glancing at him curiously.
“It’s a cooperative hack-n-slash game,” he explained. “It’s my third and last arcade cabinet, the one we’ll be playing together when you’re done. Anyway, I was going to just head back home to do more research, when they asked me if I wanted to go to lunch with them. Needless to say, I was surprised that they asked; I hadn’t really talked with any of them before, but I decided to take them up on their offer.”
“So you guys bonded over lunch, then?” she asked, moving onto the sixth challenger with her last life.
“Pretty much,” he replied with a shrug. “We talked for a while, got to know one another, and I answered questions they had for me. They were already longtime friends by the time they took an interest in me, so most of the time was spent telling them about myself.” He chuckled and added, “By the time we left the fast food restaurant we went to, it was getting dark, and I knew my times at the arcade would be much more interesting.”
“I remember you telling me that you were a lonely colt growing up,” Sunny said as she played. “Were those your first real friends?”
His smile fell and he nodded. “Yeah, basically. I just didn’t really get along with other fillies and colts when I was growing up, so when I came home that evening, telling Mom that I had made some friends… Well, she was overjoyed. It hurt her to see me so lonely for all those years, and to send me to therapy to deal with it, so it was a huge relief to her to know I could finally socialize with ponies my age.”
He sighed, rubbing the back of his head as he added, “And looking back on my relationship with them, compared to what I have with all of you guys, I feel like I didn’t really value their friendship as much as I should have. Mostly we’d play at the arcade, chat for a while, then I’d go home and do more research; I didn’t really take the time to hang out with them separately, or to ask them about their lives.”
“I’m sure if they had any problem with how you socialized, they would have told you,” Sunny said as the screen flashed “Game Over” upon losing her last life and letting the timer run out. “The way you guys did things worked for you, and you shouldn’t compare it to how things work with our group.”
“I suppose you’re right…” he replied thoughtfully.
“I know I am,” she told him with a warm smile. She glanced over to the last arcade cabinet, sitting between the other two she played, and said, “So, Helmet is the last game then?” It was every bit as large as Epic Equestrian Brawlers, and was also built for four players. Just like the previous game, each set of controls was a different color, consisting of red, blue, green, and yellow.
Silver grinned and nodded. “Oh yeah, this one is really fun. First, you pick what color you want,” he motioned to the controls, “and then you select what character you want to play as. There are four characters; the warrior, the mage, the knight, and the archer.”
“What’s the difference between them?” Sunny wondered.
“They all play differently. You see, the warrior has the strongest attacks, the mage can do mid-range splash attacks that hurt groups of enemies, the knight has the best defense, and the archer can attack at long range.” He smiled at Sunny and motioned to the controls, telling her, “The color of the controls you select will be your color in the game.”
She looked between the four sets of controls, and went to the left set. “Red is a good look for me,” she stated with a wink.
He trotted up next to her, standing at the blue controls second from the left. “I’ll take blue then,” he said.
“So what’s this game about? How do I play?” she asked him, glancing at the controls.
“Well, the game is about a kingdom under attack from a necromancer and her undead army,” he explained. “It features six regions—five inside the kingdom, and the sixth being the necromancer’s territory—and five stages per region, with the fifth being a boss battle.”
“Boss battle?” Sunny asked, looking curiously at Silver.
“A boss in a video game is a large and powerful enemy at the end of a level. You would have encountered one if you had gotten far enough through Aerial Ace,” he told her. “Anyway, the goal is to go through the stages, working together to destroy the armies of the undead and save the kingdom.”
“Sounds pretty straightforward… But what’s the catch?” she asked warily.
He grinned, and told her, “Unlike the other games, you only have one life per two tokens, and lots of enemies and stages to get through if you want to reach the end. You have a health bar, so you can take quite a few hits before you die, but even working together it can still be difficult to get through all those enemies without losing a life here and there.”
“So that’s the scam,” she muttered. Silver was right about one thing; the game didn’t sound like it cheated the players, but it was still designed to take bits!
He chuckled and shook his head. “I wouldn’t call it a scam, but yeah, they’ve got a way of earning bits even without cheating. There’s more to the game, though; for one thing, the enemies will keep coming unless we destroy these runestones that summon them. They aren’t generated quickly enough to overrun us, but they’ll be a real problem if we don’t destroy every runestone we see.”
“Okay, kill undead and destroy the stones… Anything else I need to keep in mind?” she wondered.
He thought for a moment, and added, “Well, something unique about this game is that the stages are randomly generated; every time you play, every stage but the boss stage is made differently. The look and feel matches the region, but it’s a new experience every time.”
“Well that’s neat; you can keep coming back to it without getting bored,” she reflected. “So, how do I play?” she asked, looking at her controls, consisting of a joystick and three buttons labeled “Attack,” “Special,” and “Block.”
“The ‘Attack’ button is your normal attack, ‘Block’ allows you to block attacks coming from your front, and the ‘Special’ button is what you use to do a powerful attack to take out a group of enemies when the magic meter is charged up,” he explained. “When you block, you can hold down the button and turn the joystick to face enemies around you, so you aren’t stuck getting hit in the back, but that won’t help too much if you’re completely surrounded.”
“Got it,” she replied, and Silver levitated over four tokens to drop into their two token slots to start up the game.
Sunny decided to select the warrior, while Silver went with the mage, and the game began, showing a top-down view of a castle under siege by the undead. Sunny charged at the skeleton warriors trotting toward them, swinging her battle axe to cut them down. Silver, meanwhile, fired bolts of magic at the undead which exploded on impact to dish out punishment to several at once.
Between the two of them, the grand hall was cleared out, and they went through the hallways to slaughter the rest of the undead and end the threat of invasion. Sunny was having a lot of fun, enjoying the action the game offered as well as the chance to play alongside Silver. He was happy to play one of his favorite games with the love of his life, glad that this was something else they could enjoy together.
“Yeah, take that!” Sunny shouted as she destroyed another runestone, stopping more enemies from being summoned. Silver just grinned at her enthusiasm, though he too was having fun, his magic supporting her from nearby as she charged at the enemy with her battle axe. Soon enough the castle was cleared out, and a flashing arrow pointed them to leave through the front gate, ending the first stage.
“That wasn’t so hard…” Sunny said as “Castle – Stage 2” showed on the screen.
“Not when we work together it isn’t,” he replied. “Seems like you’re enjoying yourself.”
“I sure am!” she said with a grin as they found themselves fighting through the skeleton army in the castle courtyard, debris and defensive structures making it somewhat maze-like. She wished she’d had this game available to her on a few of those busy Saturdays, after dealing with yet another pony asking why she had run out of her most popular treats.
They navigated their way through the courtyard, slaying their enemies and working to free the castle from the invading army. “So, how long did you want to go with this?” he asked her. “This particular game, I mean. You played the other two with just a couple tokens until your lives ran out, but we could play this all the way through to the end if you wanted.”
She pondered that for a moment, then decided, “How about we play for three lives? Three strikes and we’re out, just like Aerial Ace.” She smiled as they kept up their counterattack against the undead hordes. “I’m having fun with this, but I’m not sure I want to spend our whole evening on it.”
“I can understand that,” he told her as they continued playing. “Well, let’s see how far we can get on three lives!”
= = = = = = = = = =
They got through the Castle region, and defeated the undead knight who led the assault, though they both lost a life getting through that boss. Sunny lost an additional life in the Village region, when she rushed into battle with a wraith, not realizing that only a mage’s magic could hurt it, though Silver at least tried to warn her about it.
“Why is there an enemy in the game that only you can hurt?” she grumbled.
“It’s partially to make bits off of new players, but mainly to promote cooperation between the character classes,” he told her. “To be fair, these special enemies only come up when there are two or more players. You’re not the only one who has to worry, either; there’s a special enemy that I’m weak against, too, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing it soon enough.”
“Oh?” she asked, glancing over to him. “What could scare a mighty mage such as yourself?”
“A minotaur that wears special armor made to resist my magical blasts. You’ll need to slay it before it kills my mage,” he said as they fought on.
She grinned at that, glad to know she wasn’t the only one with enemies to worry about. “Don’t worry sweetie, your big, strong warrior will keep you safe,” she replied, giving the unicorn a playful hip-bump.
They continued playing on, fighting to clear the undead warriors from the village surrounding the castle, and in the confusing layout of the buildings Silver lost his second life to an overwhelming army even as Sunny fought her way through to reach him.
The two of them continued to fight through the village, doing what they could to slay the undead and free the villagers from the necromancer’s dark will. They found themselves halfway through the third stage of the Village region, fighting their way through an inn, and Sunny was happily chopping away at the skeleton warriors who dared to get in her way.
“Is that all you got?!” she shouted as she cut through another skeleton. She had really gotten into the action, much to Silver’s amusement, and he could only grin and chuckle as she taunted the undead hordes on the screen.
Unfortunately for him, in her eagerness to move onto the next battle, she ran through the back door of the inn and into the streets, leaving him behind to deal with a small army of undead and a pair of runestones still in the main hall. “Sunny, I kinda need help here!” he said as he tried to fight through skeleton warriors to destroy one of the runestones, only for the warriors being generated from the other to begin overwhelming him from the other side.
“Sorry love, I’ve got a monster to slay!” she said, fighting a large manticore who swiped at her with its large claws and stinging tail. She would block a few blows, then slash at the monster a few times with her battle axe before blocking the next few attacks. She also had to break off her attack to fend off some skeletons that were coming out of a nearby alleyway.
Unfortunately, between two runestones, Silver found himself being overrun by the undead. He fought valiantly, but because the runestones generated more enemies for more players, he simply couldn’t keep up alone against the skeleton warriors who kept coming. “Nooooo!” he cried out as he fell to the undead horde.
“Don’t worry sweetie, I’ll avenge you!” Sunny declared as she unleashed her own special attack on the alleyway to slaughter the small army emerging from it, only for the remaining skeletons to attack from the inn alongside the manticore. “No, stop! I’m a mighty warrior!” she cried out as the two forces overcame her defenses and slew her. “Oh come on!”
He snorted and shook his head. “Teamwork is key… And seeing as we’ve both reached our life limit, it looks like we’re done for now.”
“Aww… Well, I’m hungry anyway,” she said, turning to him. “You wanna go to the Hay Burger for dinner?”
He smiled and nodded. “Sounds good to me. Lead on, my love.”
They left his house, and started trotting off toward their destination. Along the way, Sunny chuckled, and said, “So, that’s what you do when you’re not studying your spellbooks, huh?”
“Heh, yeah…” he replied. “So, what did you think of all that?”
“It was certainly interesting,” she said thoughtfully. “I can see why some ponies would get hooked on these games of yours. To be transported to a whole new world, getting caught up in exciting events, and unlike books actually being able to take part and forge your own story. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.”
Silver smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I mean, books are fun, but only in the arcade can YOU be the hero of the story!”
Sunny smirked as they trotted along. “And if you have enough bits, then you might just be able to see the ending of said story.” She was still a tad bitter about the first game cheating like it did.
Silver snorted at that. “I’ll admit, those games can be unfair sometimes, and you’re bound to spend a few bits getting through them. You’ll be spending bits for entertainment no matter what you do.”
“Point,” she conceded. “I wouldn’t mind playing again sometime, but I think I’ll stick with my books for now. Less stressful and involved, I think.”
“Fair enough,” Silver replied. “Thanks for trying them out, Sunny. I know they’re not for everypony, but I appreciate you taking the time anyway.”
She chuckled and nuzzled him softly. “There’s no need to thank me for that; I showed you my hobbies, so it’s only fair that I see yours as well. And I had fun playing with you, too.”
“I’m glad to hear that…” he said as they continued along.
Soon enough they reached the Hay Burger, and Silver held the door open for Sunny, enjoying the view of her shapely rump as his reward before following along. The pair placed their order, and waited only a short while before they found a table and sat with their food. They sat side-by-side, enjoying the closeness even if it made chatting face-to-face a tad more difficult.
The two ponies dug into their meals, eager to quiet the grumbling in their bellies, until Silver spoke up. “So, I’m curious what you thought about those games. It didn’t seem like you enjoyed Aerial Ace much, but the others weren’t so bad, huh?”
She shrugged, and said, “Yeah, well, I don’t like how tricky Aerial Ace is… But then again, it was my first attempt at playing arcade games. Maybe I could watch you play, and try again later.”
“I’d be fine with that,” he replied with a nod. “I suppose I could have started you off on one of the others, but I thought Aerial Ace was better to start you off with just so you could get used to handling the controls.” He sipped his drink, then asked, “And what about Epic Equestrian Brawlers?”
Sunny smiled and nodded. “I liked that one, once you showed me how to play. When I saw those controls, I thought it would be a really complicated game, but it turned out to be really easy to get into.” She grinned and added, “I was pretty good at that, and I wouldn’t mind trying it again sometime.”
“Maybe if you get good enough, you could try fighting me,” he suggested with a smirk.
“Oh, you’re on!” she replied with a grin. “And you better not cry when I beat you.”
He laughed. “Oh wow, you’re that confident already, huh?” He shook his head and took another bite of his hayburger. “So, what did you think of Helmet? Looked to me like you were having a lot of fun with that one.”
Sunny grinned. “Oh yeah, that one was great. It was really fun being a warrior, slaying evil monsters to save the land. Kinda reminded me of a Scarlet Sword novel.” She nuzzled him softly and added, “And best of all, I got to play it with you.”
Silver nuzzled her gently, and smirked as he sipped his drink. “Now if only you could learn a bit about teamwork, then we could really make some progress in the game.”
Her brow furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean? I thought we did really well together.”
He snorted and grinned. “Really? I mean, yeah, we did okay at first, but then you let the glory of battle get to your head!”
She scowled and said, “Hey, I was doing just fine. It’s not my fault your weak little mage got overwhelmed.”
He looked at her incredulously before he snorted, rolled his eyes, and struck a heroic pose. “Rargh! I’m a mighty warrior pony! No enemy can stand in my way!” he said in his best imitation of his beloved warrior.
She snorted and barely suppressed a smile as she watched his antics, not realizing a couple ponies were glancing their way.
He kept on teasing her. “Oh, what’s this? My wizard friend needs help? Bah! I don’t have time to slow my slaughter of evil!”
Sunny couldn’t help but giggle at him, giving him a playful nudge. “Oh stop!”
He ignored her though, and continued on. “Oh no, he has fallen! Fear not, puny wizard, for I shall avenge you!” He was really getting into it, waving his hoof like he was swinging an axe. “What’s this? Oh NO, overwhelming numbers, my ONLY WEAKNESS! If only I hadn’t left that pathetic mage to his fate!”
She fixed him a playful scowl. “Alright, THAT’S IT!” Before Silver could react, Sunny reached a hoof around his shoulders and pulled him into a headlock, and she brought her other hoof down to his head to give him a rough noogie!
Silver gave an “ACK!” and squirmed in her grasp from the rather painful roughhousing. “Gah! No! Stoppit! I need my brain for stuff!” he pleaded, but she grinned and kept at it.
“Not when you’re teasing me you don’t!” she laughed. She kept it going for a few more moments, before slowing down when she realized that the diner was rather quiet. She stopped her noogying and he too noticed the quiet, both looking around to see the patrons all looking at the odd pair causing a bit too much noise.
They both started blushing, embarrassed to have drawn so much attention to themselves. Sunny let go of Silver, moving her hoof around his waist to pull him into a hug as she smiled sheepishly to the crowd. A couple chuckled at the display, a few rolled their eyes, and one mare with her foal told the child not to act like that in public, but soon they all went back to their food.
Sunny noticed that Silver still seemed a bit embarrassed at the attention they attracted. She smirked, and planted a kiss on his cheek, which caused the stallion’s blush to deepen, and he smiled at his special somepony.
“Guess we should eat the rest of our food, huh?” he suggested.
She nodded, and they went back to their meal. Before he could take another bite of his hayburger, though, he felt her lean over to nuzzle him gently. “Love you,” she murmured.
He smiled and nuzzled her softly. “Love you too, Sunny.” He turned, and they shared a deep kiss, both lost in the moment.
= = = = = = = = = =
When they returned to his home from the restaurant, Silver said, “So, the night’s still young; what did you want to do?”
Sunny looked thoughtful for a moment, before she smiled and told him, “Well… I wouldn’t mind finishing that chapter of Daring Do and the Ring of Destiny.”
Silver merely sighed and nodded. “Alright…” he said, a small smile on his face as he laid on the floor and levitated the book over to sit between his forelegs.
Sunny grinned and clapped her hooves in delight before she trotted over to where he was laying. She smirked mischievously, and decided to simply flop onto the handsome stallion.
He winced and let out a loud belch at the sudden weight atop him. There was a moment of silence as his cheeks burned in embarrassment, before Sunny snorted and broke into a fit of laughter! “Pfft-HAHAHAHAHA! Oh Celestia, y-you just… AHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!”
Silver scowled as his whole face turned red. “J-Just read your story!” he said, though it would be a while before Sunny finally got over her giggle-fit.