Chapter Two: War is coming...
"We will close in ten minutes. Please leave the books at the designated tables and take those you want to borrow to the entrance in the next minutes. Thank you."
Luna looked up from the book she had just finished and glanced at the nearest clock.
They're right, it is getting late. I should get back to the castle to raise the moon. I think I got all the important information anyway.
With that thought she got up, enveloped the books in her magic aura and proceeded to walk to the exit. After dropping the small stack of history books on one of the return tables, she left the city library to return to Canterlot Castle.
At the exit she had to suppress a light smile, as the remaining librarian gave her a tired nod and a waving motion with his left hoof, either a wave or a gesture to leave.
If he would know that the pony he had just shooed away was in-fact on of the two princesses, that ran the entire country, he would probably get a heart attack.
But he didn‘t recognize her, just like every other pony she had come across, no matter race or class or profession. Truly a testament to the spell she had cast on herself to change her appearance.
Instead of the tall and easily recognizable alicorn form, she had opted to go as an unicorn. Her fur was a soft black, several tones lighter than the jet black of her times as Nightmare Moon.
Her tail and mane were both of a dark blue, with streaks of lighter colour in a beautifull constellation. Her mane was shorter on her right side, while her left side was made into a pigtail that reached her shoulders.
As a cutie mark, a crescent moon sat on a small field of cyan fur. Along with the bright blue eyes, the mare was beautiful, especially as the moonlight shined upon her and the different shades of blue on her body seemed to glisten and sparkle.
With all her beauty, the mare still carried herself like a normal middle class pony. With that, it was relatively easy to go unnoticed in the city, a perfect disguise for a royal pony princess. The most attention she had received, while undercover as it were, was when a stallion had attempted to flirt with her.
That had been particularly awkward.
Maybe she should change her appearance a bit, when she would go out next time. She really didn‘t need a repeat, it had been hard enough to get the stallion to leave without insulting him.
He had clearly been higher class, only nobles would react with a challenge for a duel, when you told them you were already given away.
But the look on his face, when Luna told him that she had a MAREfriend and not a stallion? Worth it. Needless to say the noble stallion didn‘t stay around that much longer.
With those memories and the results of her studies on her mind, Luna walked into a small alley before teleporting into her own royal chambers. Lifting the disguise spell, she sat down on her bed and began to go through all the notes she had made in the library.
———000———
Apparently, the game box she had found was the Premier Release 1st Edition, the first copy ever to be released. A present from the developers (as the makers were called nowadays) to princess Celestia, on the 700th Summer Sun Celebration.
This simple game had not only started an entire series with dozens of different editions, that were sold over 300 years in all countries around Equestria, but also a trend of Miniature-based-playing.
The good thing, this fact, or accomplishment, had made sure that the history and progression of this phenomenon had been carefully documented.
The bad thing was, with the long time span since it‘s creation, dozens of other designs, themes, complete new mechanics or even entirely new games were developed.
The sheer mass of information had almost overwhelmed her.
At least until she realized that all of this is pretty much unimportant at the moment. After all, Luna wanted to know the history of the box she had found, this extra information didn‘t matter right now. Maybe later, but not now.
Anyways, the original game quickly gained popularity among ponies, which lead to the first official competition event, a so called championship, only a year after the first release.
Surprisingly, princess Celestia took part in this event as one of the competitiors, even though she apparently had had many doubts about the game before its official release. With the theme, it was really no surprise.
Still, over the decades, she competed in 38 different events, earning several prizes for first, second and third place.
This would explain why Celestia had been so anxious about Luna finding out about it. A guilty feeling for playing the game about her sisters downfall must have overcome her, when Luna was finally freed from the nightmares corruption.
As time went on, the overall theme seemed to change from the Equestrian Civil War, to a more global (and rather timeless) war setting. Multiple new nations such as the Griffonian Empire, the Crystal Empire, the Zebra Republik and a lot more were included, while the original factions simply changed into Equestria.
This World War Setting, as some called, along a more in-depth gameplay, helped to expand the series reach into new lands and even into politics. Quite literally.
In 864 A.N.E. (after night eternal, dunno what the actual year calendar is) a big event had taken place after the meeting of several national leaders, Princess Celestia among them. Records don‘t tell who came up with the idea, but all attending leaders decided to partake in a massive game of Solar vs. Lunar World War 2. Edition , taking their respektive nation of course.
The game ended with a draw between Equestria, the Zebras and the Yaks after five hours of playing. That wouldn‘t even be the last time a international match would be fought. Twenty-some years later, a dispute over a province between Saddle-Arabia and the Minotaur Kingdom arose.
Thankfully, through a lot of diplomatic pleas from outside, and no one wanting to start a fully fledged war, it was decided that a official championship consisting of three matches on neutral soil with neutral judges would be held to solve the conflict.
The fatefull confrontation took place in Fillydelphia, partly because Celestia had played a key role in convincing the two nations to stay peacefull, with griffonian and zebrican judges.
In the end, Saddle-Arabia emerged victorious, although they promised to start a more open policy with the minotaurs after that.
This was of course a massive success for the company holding the rights on the game franchise, leading into a big increase of fans and income. For the 900th Summer Sun Celebration, and therefore the games 200th they released a remastered Edition of the original game.
Well, kinda. Actually it was released on Nightmare Night of the same year, along with a huge event and small tournament, even Celestia had been invited.
Some Sources claim the Princess showed up in a Nightmare Moon custom, but even Luna had her doubts about that. Celestia would never do something like this, not with all the fuss she had made about the game itself.
At this point Luna had paused her studies, because she didn‘t want to overstrain her brain. A small romance novel had served to ease her mind until the closedown of the library.
———000———
Luna was again in the streets of Canterlot, again under the disguise spell (although she had made a few minor adjustments, her mane didn’t glitter anymore).
This time she stood before a shop. Well, it seemed to be a shop.
For one, the building was pretty big for a simple shop, standing out between the restaurants and smaller shops like a sore thumb.
The building itself had two big windows that took up most of the forefront. Each of those gian vitrines had up to four stages. While the lowest highest showed a number of boxes, presumably board games, the two in the middle held... figures.
Lots and lots of figures.
Even more astounding was the diversity among them. Creatures of many known races, sapient or sentient, and even more, to Luna unknown beings.
The most surprising thing for Luna was, when she found the miniature of Nightmare Moon in the mess of creatures. Not that it had been hard.
Her old corrupted form was present several times, but always in a different way. There were a couple of rather accurate depictions, except for the massive bat-wings, and some... more creative ones.
The right upper vitrine presented a figure of Nightmare Moon in an armor that could only be described as:
most-over-the-top-evil-looking-armor-in-all-of-recorded-history.
That thing boosted the already tall alicorn to easily double her own size. The extremely thick-looking plates didn‘t show an inch of her coat save for head and everything was painted in a dark purple, the edges of the plates highlighted in silver. Wicked claws sat on each of her hooves, her wings were also covered in metal, looking like they were made of hundreds of blades.
Could somepony even fly like that?
Across the metal body, countless runes and symbols glowed in crimson red, on her chest a full moon with a draconic turquoise eye glared angrily.
Nightmare Moons head wasn‘t that much different in style, another eye painted on her forehead, also her mane had definitely changed. It was a mix of different colours, impossible to destuingish. If one looked closely enough, faces could be seen in the chaos, frozen in a state of horror.
Nightmare Moons own face displayed an insane, demonic grin, showing her sharp fangs. Above her head, a metal half ring sported five spikes, each ending in a small moon in a different state, with the middle one being a full moon.
It looked...
impressive.
With this armor, she could scare Wendigos away.
Or Sombra.
Or even the demons of Tartarus.
Although... there were some pretty demonic looking creatures on the stage, and they looked like they were following Nightmare Moon.
Luna shook her head frantically.
She had come here to take a look inside the shop and maybe learn more about a simple board game.
Not to look at some science-fiction statues of herself and definitely not while standing on the street.
She sighed, turned to the entrance and entered the shop, or whatever this was.