//------------------------------// // Ch. 7 - Blue Moon Birthday // Story: Under the Blue Moon (Revised) // by Gear Works //------------------------------// It has been three weeks since Tidal started attending Canterlot High, and while one week was spend in the hospital and at home due to the shooting injury, his week back was more mixed. Some thought of him as a hero, for taking on that criminal that attacked Rainbow Dash. Others though of him as reckless, because of how he risked his own life in the process. And then there was the fact that Sunset had a hand in saving his life. Some thought that it was more of a stunt so that Sunset could be looked at as a hero, which most were not ready to give her the second chance she deserves. But one thing was for sure, Tidal started to look out for Sunset like a sister he never had. And it was Lyra and Bonbon who was watching over Tidal so that things would be easier for himself. But the week also had… some strange moments. Like the fact that Pinkie Pie had a tendency of coming out of nowhere to ask some strange questions to Tidal. Like, what was his favorite cake, to what car he likes to drive, etc. He knew that his birthday was coming up soon, and something told him that she was planning it for him. But Lyra and Bonbon did their best to get it off his mind and told him that they had something planned this Saturday that he would enjoy. And it took place at the mall. “Wow! Looks pretty busy here,” Tidal said. Lyra and Bonbon took Tidal to the arcade inside the mall. It wasn’t really big, but big enough to house a variety of arcade machines old and new. “We like to come here at times to play DDR,” Lyra said. “Usually to relieve the stress from school,” Bonbon added. “Well, I’m not used to playing DDR,” Tidal explained. “I can only keep a beat with my hands, not my feet.” “Well, we’re sure that there are other games that you can play,” Lyra said. They went in and went to the token machine to purchase some tokens for the arcade machines. Lyra and Bonbon decided to pay for themselves and for Tidal. When Tidal got his tokens, he saw that it was the old Pac-Man design tokens. They then started to look around at the arcade machines on display. They saw a 4-player racing game, but all the seats were in use, with other kids looking around them. There were some other games that were either one or two player games. But that was when Tidal saw a 4-player arcade game that was a couple of decades old. “A TMNT Turtles in Time arcade game?” “You want to play that?” Lyra asked Tidal. “Sure do!” All three of them went up to the arcade unit, which no one was playing. There were four different characters to play on the unit. “So, which character do you want to play as?” Bonbon asked Tidal. “Donny.” “I’ll take Mikey,” Lyra said. “And I’ll go with Leo,” Bonbon said. But before they went to insert their tokens, someone else spoke up. “Can I join in? They looked over to see a boy about their age, with lavender skin and short, dark bluish hair and black rim glasses. He was wearing a yellow turtleneck shirt with a molecule patch on it, and dark pants that were being held up by a pair of white suspenders. Lyra was the first to respond. “Oh. Hi, Micro Chips. You working with your father today?” “Why yes, I am. I’m on my lunch break and figure that I spend some time here.” Bonbon looked at Tidal and said, “This is Micro Chips. He’s in our computer class.” “His father owns the computer repair shop in the mall,” Lyra explained. “Micro, this is-” “Tidal Blue,” Micro Chips quickly responded. “Yes, I heard about what you did a week ago. Not going to bother judging you on your actions. I got my own stuff to deal with. But I was hoping that I could play Donny with you guys.” “Because he’s a tech geek,” Tidal said. “I know. Plus his weapon is the best to use in battle. Be my guess. I can use a challenge as Ralph.” They all went to their characters and inserted a token to each character and started playing. As they kept going through each stage, they inserted another token when they ran out of lives. By the time they made it to the final boss, Micro Chips ran out of lives and tokens. Tidal was able to lend him one to use so they could finish the boss together. By the time they were finished with the game, they placed their initials into the game. “Man was that a rush,” Lyra said. “I didn’t even think we would pass the Stone Age stage. That boss was a challenge.” “Try the hoverboard stage,” Bonbon added. “I was having a hard time with the attack copters.” “At least we finished the entire game,” Tidal responded. Micro Chips felt a buzz in his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He was shocked when he saw the time, which was longer than his lunch break, and who was calling. “Ah man. It’s my dad. He’s wondering why I haven’t returned from my lunch break.” He answered the phone and started to explain to his dad why he was late returning, until Lyra went to grab his phone and started to do the explaining for him. She handed the phone back to Micro Chips to speak before hanging up. “Thanks Lyra. That’s makes it easier for me when I go back.” “No problem,” Lyra replied. “So it’s back to work, as usual?” Bonbon asked. “Almost. He reminded me about something that I think you should see.” Micro Chips escorted the three over to another part of the game room. “Owner was able to buy the arcade unit last month from another game store that closed down when the owner went into retirement. It’s a rare unit that was made over a decade ago, and he recognized it on the spot. Asked my father to test some of the special features on it, and the unit was in great condition.” They came up to a racing arcade unit with a blue seat. The title “F-ZERO AX” was on the top of the arcade unit. And Tidal was completely stunned. “It’s just the standard unit and not the deluxe. But it works just fine. Even the memory card port still works, but I doubt anyone will use it anyway.” “He… was able to get this?” Tidal said, referring to the owner, to which Micro Chips nodded. “My parents were able to keep their GameCube console with several games, and F-Zero GX was one of them. The booklet explained about the AX unit at arcades that can work with the GX file, but those units were known to be hard to find.” “Your parents played video games?” Lyra asked. “Well, they had game consoles back then before they got married. But they kept the GameCube and a couple of Game Boy Advance SP with them, since they were more family friendly than the other systems. After playing on them with my dad, he decided to get me a 3DS and some games for me to enjoy in my free time. I was able to look up more of the retro games that they were releasing and started playing them.” “Which is why you like the older games that were out before your time,” Bonbon said. “Those games were a bit easier to work with, without all the complex stuff,” Tidal explained. “Plus, it’s the final version out of the box. No need to buy any extra stuff to add to it later on.” “Unless it was for the PC,” Micro Chips said. “You can mod those games if you have the right tools to download. And that would be mostly free to do. You should come by my dad’s shop. He works on fixing and selling computers and electronics, plus recycling old computer parts that can still be used. He even sells old PC games that no one else uses. Some people still like the physical stuff.” “And some of that stuff you can’t even download online,” Tidal added. “I’ll think about it one day.” “Thanks. I need to head on back.” Micro Chips stared to walk away from the others. “It was nice meeting you. Thanks for that last token.” With Micro Chips gone, Tidal, Lyra, and Bonbon looked at the F-Zero arcade unit. “So, want to take it for a test spin?” Lyra asked. “I gave Micro Chips my last token,” Tidal replied. “And this one takes two.” Lyra and Bonbon each held up their last tokens. Tidal grinned and took them and went into the unit. He buckled up and inserted the two tokens and pressed the start button. He picked the Blue Falcon to drive and Mute City as his track and started to race. Lyra went to watch over him as he raced. During that time, Bonbon stepped aside and pulled out her cell phone and made a call. A couple of kids came by the unit and saw how Tidal was racing. He just finished his first lap, activating his boost system and started to use his boost while in the recharging lanes. The kids were curious as to how this game worked compared to other racing games. As he made it through three laps, some more kids came by, wondering what was going on. By the time he was finishing his fifth lap, he was cutting it close in time as it was extended. He knew he would have to use his boost more and drain the shields in the process to finish the final lap. He was pushing it, hitting other cars in the process. As time was ticking down, he was coming close to the end. Some of the kids thought he would never make it in time. But with one last boost, he was able to reach the boost pad on the track and make it to the end of the race with a second to spare. “Talk about cutting it close,” Lyra said. “It feels a bit different from the GX version that I remember growing up playing with my dad,” Tidal replied. One of the kids came up to Tidal. “Hey mister. Do you know how this game works?” “Yea. I’ve never seen features like these on the other racing games,” another kid asked. Tidal got out of the seat and decided to point out some of the features that he remembered on the screen while the demo was playing. During that time, Lyra went to check on Bonbon. “Any word?” Lyra asked. “They still need at least an hour before we can come over,” Bonbon replied. “And we’re out of money that Vice Principal Luna gave us for tokens.” “How about Micro Chips’ invite to his dad’s store?” “Sounds like a good idea.” They both nodded in agreement. That was when Tidal came back to join them. “So, what now. We don’t have any tokens left, unless you want to get some more,” Tidal explained. “We were thinking about going to the shop that Micro Chips’ father works at,” Lyra said. “This way, you can tell them about your game experience.” “Well…” Tidal looked at the AX unit and saw another kid playing it with a few others watching. “Since those kids are busy on there, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to run by there.” With that, they left the arcade place and walked down the mall to the electronics store that Micro Chips was working at. They walked in and saw a man who almost looked like Micro Chips, but was older and had a bald spot on his head. “Hello Mr. Chips,” Bonbon said. “Oh hello there, Bonbon. Lyra. And I see you brought a guest,” Mr. Chips responded. “This is Tidal,” Lyra replied. “He just finished playing the new unit at the arcade.” Mr. Chips adjusted his glasses. “So this is the boy that I have been hearing about, from various sources of course.” “Various sources?” Tidal responded, raising an eyebrow. “It’s not just your actions at school from my son, but what you did for the old man’s used bookstore,” Mr. Chips said about Tidal. “Look. I did what I what I thought was just. If you-” “Now hold on there,” Mr. Chips quickly responded. “When he learned about what all happened afterwards, he wanted to make sure nothing like that ever happened again. Wanted to know of some good security service that could make it safer at his store and knew I had some connections in that area when I worked at a security firm several years ago. They got his place secured so that nothing bad would ever happen again. Not to mention it was nice to see him after all these years. I know that running a business on cash only would be risky at the time, but in this day and age, he needed to adjust with the times. And I was glad to help him out with that.” Tidal was stunned at Mr. Chips response. “Now. How was your experience with the F-Zero AX game?” Tidal was trying to shake it all off so he could respond, but Lyra was quick to do it for him. “He finished it with just a second to spare.” “What course and car?” Mr. Chips asked. “Mute City with Blue Falcon,” Tidal replied. “That’s good to hear,” Mr. Chips responded. “Too bad it can’t print out the race cards for you to have, marking off what you were able to complete. But that could be because the servers are no longer active to make it happen.” “Well, we figure we come by and see what you have here,” Bonbon said. “Yea. We heard that you have some old PC games?” Lyra added. “Tidal here is known to some of the… what do you call them?” She looked at Tidal for an answer. “It’s retro, Lyra.” They looked to see Micro Chips walking out from the back of the building. “Finished with what we need for that gaming computer that was requested. Based on the owners’ request, I think we need to order a video card to complete the computer.” He handed a piece of paper to his father. “I’ll look into some places that could have it at a good price. At least we have some time before he would need it.” The other three were wondering what Mr. Chips was talking about. “Someone just called in asking for help with a gaming PC for their gaming tournament in the summer. Having a hard time building one with what they have and asked it I can build one. It’s not cheap, but I know where to find the parts if I need to. But we’re getting off topic. You like to play retro games?” “More like download them on my 3DS system,” Tidal replied. “That would be the more popular ones,” Mr. Chips explained. “Or from licenses of companies that are still around, and were known as big games at the time. Is there a favorite from the group.” Tidal knew of one game that he liked the most. “Crash and the Boyz Street Challenge.” Mr. Chips took a moment to think of the game. “Crash. Trying to think of that game.” “It was created by the same group that created River City Ransom,” Tidal explained. This caused a light bulb to come on. “Now that’s game I have heard of. Was more of a cult classic to play. And a rare game after it came out. I was lucky to play it on an emulator back then when it was the only way to find games like that. Not to mention debugging games like that when it was out there.” “He also got me on playing emulators and roms from the 8-bit and 16-bit generation,” Micro Chips added. “But there are some good physical PC games that are worth playing without having to deal with all the complex workings.” “And we are lucky to have some here.” Mr. Chips pointed to a display stand at the side of the building. “They might be a decade old, maybe two, but they can run on most computers these days.” Tidal, Lyra, and Bonbon went over to the display. They could see games that were in a box, or just the CD case. “Warcraft. Starcraft. Halo? The names sound familiar, but never like this,” Lyra said. “What about these ones,” Bonbon added. “Bejeweled 2. Atari Collection. And Sim City.” “There’s even a game call Fable,” Tidal added. “Now that’s an interesting game if I ever heard of,” Mr. Chips said. “For every choice, a consequence. The guys that made that game put a lot of work to make it happen.” “Why’s that?” Lyra asked. “Each choice that you would make, either good or bad, would affect the outcome of your character, and what would happen down the road in the game. It could make you a hero… or a villain.” That caused Tidal to think about what he did weeks ago. “But you kids aren’t old enough to play a game like this. So maybe you should focus on the “E” rated games instead. I fact, I might know of a game that you might enjoy.” Mr. Chips went to the back of the store and came back out with a CD jewel case with the name, Tetris Worlds. “I remember when it first came on on the old systems in the early 90s. Tetris was know as the greatest puzzle games out there when it was created. And it still is today. This was the first version to come out on PC. I think once you play it, you might just enjoy it.” “How much is it?” Tidal asked. “Five bucks.” “Deal!” Lyra was able to grab the game and pay Mr. Chips. “Consider it your birthday present from me,” she said to Tidal, handing the game to him. Bonbon placed her fist to her sides, furious that Lyra would jump the gun with Tidal’s present. A grin came across Mr. Chips’ face. “So someone’s celebrating their birthday today, right?” “You could say that,” Tidal replied. Mr. Chips looked over at Bonbon and another idea came to mind. “Since Lyra bought a game for you, I might know another classic that you can try, if Bonbon wants to buy that one.” He went towards the display shelf and picked out another game in a CD jewel case to show them. “This one is call Sim Golf. It was created by the same team that made Sim City and the other Sim based games. This one allows you to build a small golf course to run and play on. Different from most of the Sim titles that have been out there. And just for five buck.” Bonbon was quick to react. “Sold!” She took the game and paid Mr. Chips, then handed it to Tidal. “And this is my birthday present to you.” “Well… thanks. I guess this came keep me busy on my computer when I don’t have anything else to do.” “As long as we get to see what progress you have made on the games,” Lyra said. Bonbon felt a buzz in her pocket and stepped aside to check her cell phone for a moment. Once that was done, she rejoined the others. “Well, it was nice to come by here and see what you had. But we need to be going now.” She gave a quick elbow jab to Lyra while displaying a smile. Lyra was quick to catch on. “Oh, oh yea. We do. You know, places to go, people to see. That stuff.” “Well, thanks for coming over and doing business with us,” Mr. Chips said. “And thanks for updating me on playing that arcade game. Nice to know that it was still getting some use.” “It was nice meeting you as well.” Tidal waved goodbye as he and the other girls were leaving the store. As they were walking down the mall, Tidal took a moment to think about one of the games that he saw. “Something on your mind?” Bonbon asked Tidal. “Yea. That one game, Fable. It involves the choices that you make and how it could affect what your future would be, good or bad. What about what I did weeks ago. How would that have an effect on now… or the future?” Lyra placed her arm around Tidal’s neck. “Look, it doesn’t matter what you did. What happens, happens.” “That’s right,” Bonbon added. “Maybe we don’t know what to do when it happens. We just… do it, I guess. It’s just… everything happens for a reason, that’s all. Just forget about it and move on.” “Besides, right now, it’s your sixteenth birthday,” Lyra said, “and we plan to help you enjoy it. And we just know one last place to have it.” “Why do I have a feeling that all those questions that Pinkie was asking me would have anything to do with that.” The trio arrived at The Sweet Shoppe, which looked empty from the outside. Tidal had a feeling what was about to come, but Lyra and Bonbon dragged him inside. Once inside, it was completely empty and quiet. “Hello?” Tidal said. “Anyone here?” “SURPRISE!!!” A group of students, along with Celestia and Luna, appeared from behind the counter and underneath the booth tables. A banner fell from the ceiling saying “Happy Birthday Tidal” written on it. It was the same group of students that he knew since he started attended CHS. Pinkie Pie was quick to put a party hat on Tidal’s head. “It’s your welcome to CHS welcome back from the hospital happy birthday party “Pinkie said in one breath. “Do you ever breathe?” Tidal said, getting a big grin in response. “That’s just Pinkie being Pinkie,” Applejack said. “She’s always like that.” “Not to mention that she’s been waiting so long to throw you a party since you got here,” Rainbow Dash added. “But now that the day is here, we can finally celebrate,” Rarity said. At that moment, Mr. and Mrs Cake came out with a white cake with a black car on it and the words “Happy Birthday Tidal” and the number candles “16” lit up. “Well Tidal, blow out the candles,” Celestia said. “And make a wish too,” Pinkie added. Tidal closed his eyes for a moment before opening them back up and blowing out the candles. Pinkie quickly brought out her party cannon and shot streamers in the air. “So, what you wish for,” Swift asked Tidal. “Silly Swift. You can’t tell your wishes,” Pinkie replied. “Otherwise, it will never come true.” “She’s right, bud,” Clyde added. Mrs. Cake began removing the candles and cutting up the cake in slices for everyone, with Tidal grabbing the first slice. As everyone was enjoying themselves, Luna noticed the two games that he had with him. “So, I’m assuming that you went by Mr. Chips’ store.” “We did,” Bonbon replied for Tidal. “Both of us bought him a game.” “We also went to the arcade and saw Tidal play a racing game that the owner was able to acquire,” Lyra added. “Then maybe he should open this right now.” Tidal saw his cousin, Cynder, holding an envelope in her hand. “Now, now. it’s not the time for presents,” Luna said to Cynder. “But this is big. Open it. Open it!” Tidal took the envelope and opened it, pulling out the card and reading it, along with a piece of paper that was in it. “This… is a retro gaming tournament event?” “Take a look at the gaming lineup,” Cynder said. He looked and saw that it involved three games. One was a platform game, another was a puzzle game, and the third was a racing game. “Hey. Isn’t that like the same puzzle game that I bought you,” Lyra said. “I think so,” Tidal replied. “But this must be the first one that came out.” “It is,” Cynder said. “And Eclipse said that he would pay for the entry fee if you wanted to enter this summer and his birthday present.” “I say go for it,” Rainbow Dash said. “Yea,” Rivet replied. “You seem good at the classic games. Maybe you can make it far in the tournament.” “Go far, Rivet? I say he could go all the way.” Rainbow Dash said. Everyone started to cheer him on in entering the tournament. “Well, looks like I need to learn how to play Tetris, and I should be set… I hope,” Tidal replied. “Sign me up.” Everyone cheered in excitement. The party went on for a few more hours of eating, opening presents, and having fun. As the party was coming to an end, everyone was starting to head out, including Lyra and Bonbon. Besides the Cakes, it was Celestia and Sunset who was busy cleaning up. Tidal went to put his gifts in Aunt Celestia’s car before coming back into the shop and walking up to Sunset. “I was surprised that you would attend my party,” Tidal said. “Well, AJ wanted me to come and help setup,” Sunset replied. “Plus she said that it would be limited to those who are not against me. So I guess that’s OK. Just as long as you had a good time.” “I guess today was a good day,” Tidal said. “Now I got something to look forward to this summer. I just need to start making better decisions.” “You and me both,” Sunset replied with a small chuckle. “I just wish others can look past my one mistake and give me another chance.” “Maybe it will happen… one day.”