//------------------------------// // Press Start // Story: Steam The Unknown // by Cavedragon //------------------------------// Steam the Unknown by Cavedragon Edited by: JTHENOOB Chapter one: Press Start I know what your thinking, why is a dragon like me falling to his death? Well, that's a very long story, and what a story it is. heh, I guess I have to start my story from the very beginning, and the beginning of my story takes place in San Francisco. . . . I just moved into my apartment with my roommate JJ . It was a two bedroom two bath apartment, with a good view of a Walmart parking lot. The rent was ok and there was free Wi-fi, so I couldn't complain. My alarm clock was buzzing when I awoke to the morning light through the windows of my room. It sucks to be a twenty-one year old guy that has to get up in the morning for work. I groaned as I tryed to slap the snooze button, typically my hand shoved the clock off my dresser. My eye snapped open when the annoying plastic box collided with the wooden floor. A yawn escaped from my mouth as I rolled out of my bed and stretched. The sound of cars coming and going echoed in my room. I went into my bathroom and did my usual routine. Out of the shower, I ex-amend myself in the mirror. I was about 5"9', wire frame, and looked to be about a standard cute gamer, but it didn't bother me much. Fresh from the shower and shaved, I dragged myself to the kitchen. I stumbled over some packed boxes in the small hallway. With some swearing under my breath, I made my way into the kitchen. The sounds of a cartoon show hummed from the living room as I popped a breakfast hotpocket into the microwave. I looked around the corner of the kitchen into the living room to see what was on. My roommate was watching My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic. It was a pretty good cartoon but it wasn't my cup of joe. It was a rerun of the episode of a Blue unicorn that call's herself The Great and Powerful Trixie. I watch the show from time to time with JJ when nothing else is on. When the microwave dinged, I took my steaming hotpocket out of the microwave, sat down on the couch, and watched the end of the episode. "Hey Nick, wouldn't it be awesome to actually go to Equestreia?" he asked. Oh, my name is Nick by the way. I guess I should have told you my name first, but with me falling to my death and everything. But anyway, I just shook my head before answering,"I wouldn't think so." I said, checking my phone for the time. "I have to head in to work man, see ya latter" I got up from the couch. "ya, see ya", he said as he turned his attention back to the T.V, I closed the door. I headed down the the parking lot to check on my car. It was only a steel gray 90 Honda Acord, but it was mine. I made sure all the doors were locked and my stereo was still in it before walking to work. My work was at the local Mall at Gamestop. It wasn't too bad to work there. The mall was within walking distance of my apartment and I get 12% off of everything in the store. It also was a good way to stay in the loop of what's new and what's a good game. Since I'm a heavy gamer, that's a really good thing. Nothing was really interesting that day. It was a slow day, boss was being an ass same old same old. Finally I got off work. It was getting late and some of the stores where closed. So I stopped by the food court and got something to eat. I placed my food on a table and sat by myself. I could see the whole food court from where I was sitting. I saw couples on dates and friends having a great time having a night out on the town. It made me wonder what it felt like to be with people that care about me. I gave out a simple sigh and shrugged it off as I began to eat. At the time I didn't really understand what it was like to have friends. Sure I had JJ but that really didn't count much. I could count him as something like a friend I guess, but we didn't hang much. I just shook my head,' naa enough of that, time to get back to my apartment',I thought finishing my meal and headed for the door. The sun was barely going down. . . . It was when I was walking home that I saw her. She was about around my age, 5'8 ", with beautiful curves, long black hair, slight tan, deep blue t-shirt that looked like a Hot topic special, dark blue jeans, and black Skullcandy headphones. She was walking the cross walk when the light went green. Her attention was on her 3DS, when a truck was barealing down the street with her in its sights.This isn't good, "Hey Lady!" I yelled after her. She didn't seem to hear me. That's when my feet grew a mind of their own, I found myself sprinting after her. My mind racing, heart pounding and my breath was short. Danm I was out of shape. The truck was moments away from hitting her. Everything went into slow-mo. With a midair tackle and my momentum, I knocked her to the other side out of the street, the truck nearly missed my shoes, I could feel the huge mobile metal monster blow pass the souls of my shoes. God, I needed to go to the gym more after this, I couldn't catch my breath. I was doing my best to work air back into my lungs when I looked down at her. She had night blue eyes that shimmered in the right light. She was giving me an awkward look as I laid on top of her. "Why arst thou on top of me?" she asked in confusion with a blush. I didn't know why she was talking like that at the time. I shook off the question, probably a local L.A.R.Per that lived around town. I climbed off her, and helped her to her feet as I explained, " Well, I don't know if your headphones where too loud or what, but you were about to be road pizza so I pushed you out of the way, thus the awkward situation." whoops forgot to breath, I bent over trying to get air. She looked surprised to see her 3DS crushed in the street where the truck had ran it over. " Oh, right... thank you." she looked at me bent over and blushed a little for a split second. " Umm " I said awkwardly trying to find words to say. If you haven't noticed, I'm not very good at talking with girls especially ones that looked as nice as her, being winded didn't help either. "My name is Linda, would you like to get some coffee or something." she said finally breaking the awkward silence. "Umm, sure... I wouldn't mind going for a drink.. but I don't drink coffee but I wouldn't mind getting something to drink with you... oh yeah my name is Nick by the way ". I said, righting myself feeling embarrassed. She smiled and took my hand. If I wasn't blushing then, I was definatley when her hand touched mine. We talked at the coffee house for what seemed like hours. We talked about games we like and what games that we can't wait to come out. We also talked about how awesome Halloween is and different pranks we pulled. It was getting really dark out when she asked me to come over to her place. That was a first for me. Not many people invite you to their house. It's when she took my hand softly in hers when I smiled and agreed. Well, since the main thing we talked about were games, and she was playing a 3DS when I saved her. So what the hay, most Gamers are very honest and friendly .............. right? On the way there, I did my best not to stare at her, but it was very hard to look away from that kind of beauty. I mean its not every day you meet a very pretty girl that loves video games. Also, I didn't know it at the time or reason why but some how she just looked even more beautiful at night. 'Is she blushing at me? Oh god she is.' I gulped and looked away. 'Please don't let her see me blushing.' "Are you blushing?" she asked with a giggle, 'ugh I'm pathetic.' When we where at her apartment, she offered to play Call of duty black ops. I smiled, " Sure one of my favorites". Before she put it in, I made a new profile on her system, she giggled at what I named it. I smiled," What? Got something wrong with Cavedragon92"? She smiled, "No, I just think it suits you. You seem like a dragon". My chest sweld a bit by her comment. I do collect Dragons, and they are my favorite animal. So, I guess she was right. I deflated a little when she giggled at my reaction "albeit a cute one". Whats that supposed to mean? The game started well, we protected each others backs from the zombies attacks and generally camped for the most part. She was awesome at killing zombies. After what felt like hours, we finally got killed and decided to play virus to see who's skills were better. The game was getting tense when I got brave enough to ask her."Would you like to.. umm go out on a date sometime....just food and maybe a movie"? She giggled, "Wouldn't that make your other friends jealous? You dating a girl like me"? She got a head shot on me when I gave a sigh. "To be honest Linda, I don't have that many friends. Almost none at all actually". I got a nice shot on her when she took a pause. "So, you don't know what it means to have friends or friendship?" her voice sounded sad when she spoke. I just gave her a shrug, and kept playing. That's when the weird started. "Since thou have saveth my life, I shall show thee friendship as I have found it". I guess she was back in her L.A.R.P character. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her still playing with one hand, and brought her index and middle finger to her forehead. That's when her fingers started to glow. She tried to touch my face but I dogged her hand," HEY, no cheating!" I thought she was trying to block my vision. Unfortunately, when I looked at her to see why she was trying to catch my attention. I caught a hard sucker punch to the left side of my face. Last thing I felt was my face hitting her hard apartment floor. . . . I thought I might have died from a broken neck or something, because I saw a white light at the end of a tunnel. Harry Dressden was right, this is such a cliche. However, I didn't expect that it would be coming at me so fast. Before I knew it, I was in the sky with soft clouds around me. They where softer then I imagined. I thought I was in heaven for few a short moments, until the clouds parted. I saw the ground awaiting for my impact with the trees, solid earth and maybe sharp rocks," HO, SHIT!" this isn't good for anyone, especially for me. The only thing I could think of is just close my eyes and waited for the sudden splat of the end. That's not what it felt like. My body first hit tree branches being tossed me back and forth along my every part of my body. I ended my descent by perfectly landing on my back with a hard thud. It was not to hard,But it wasn't landing on a huge pillow made of marshmallow either. My eyes slowly opened to the sunlight through the trees. Birds where chirping, a genital breeze blew through the branches and flowers gave the seraunding area a sweet scent. I didn't know where I was. I knew I wasn't in San Fran anymore, it was too ...quiet. Wow, looking back on it now, I just realize when you don't know something was there, until its gone. I gingerly sat up from all my limbs acing at once. My body felt like I was beaten with a Baseball bat repeatedly by the mob. "God, what hell was that all about?", I asked to no one inpaticular. I looked up at the sky, trying to see the tunnel I fell out of, or something. All I could see was a hole in the clouds where I fell, 'That doesn't seem ....normal.' I closed my eyes and shook my head. I reached up and tried to rub my throbbing skull, but it didn't feel like my face. I felt scaly skin, and a long snout. That's when I took a good look at my hands, which didn't look like my hands. It was a dark blue dragon claw. I flexed my hands, now claws, open and closed. All I could think of was, 'is this real?' Doing my best to crawl over to a small stream to get a good look at my face. What I saw in the water I couldn't comprehend. A dragon that looked simaler to the D&D red dragon with midnight blue scales instead of red and with a touch of anime on top. My eyes where slightly bigger, and they where a sapphire blue. I couldn't believe this, I tested to see if it was really me by opening and closing my mouth, but no matter how many times I open and closed my mouth, the jaw of the dragon followed me. So, I felt with my... claws going from the tip of my snout to the tips of my black horns. They where well perportioned for my body size. Even so, my image copied me as I moved my claws. I sat there holding my horns, "This is all a dream", I nodded to myself, "ya, just a dream. This is just one of my cool dreams when I'm a dragon. But its time to wake up". Feeling hysteria coming on, I reached down filling my claws with water and splashing my face. When I opened my eyes, I was still by the stream and not in my bed. I splashed my self again, and again I was still by the stream in some forest. I don't know how many times I splashed water in my face. I think I nearly drowned. None the less, it was not a dream. I sat there looking at my self for the longest time, watching the water drip off my face, before I felt a gerggling in my throat. When I opened my mouth to speak, a small burp of black smoke with dark blue sparkles leapt out. From the smoke came a jet black scroll with a crescent moon and star stamp to keep it closed. " What the", I said with confusion. I might be a dragon fanatic but that's not normal for most dragons. I carefully pick up the scroll and opened it, this was disappointing. The paper was blank. " Whats the point of this? " I turned it over in my claws. " There's nothing on it'. I wouldn't say that. I paused when white words appeared on the page. "umm, ok. Who or what are you?" I asked trying to keep my head from the strange and the weird. My apologies,I should have been more honest with you Nick. My real name is Princes Luna of Equestria. Another awkward pause,"Wait a minute, your Princess Luna? As in one of the legendary princess sisters of Equestrea, The alicorn sister that raises the moon, The symbol of Nightmare night, and the former Nightmaremoon that was defeated by the mane six of My Little Ponies : Friendship is Magic". Wow, I didn't know I watched that much of that show, but how things are going now, I think I'm going to need all I know to help me through this predicament. There was a long pause before she answered. That is...very impressive. You are correct on all you say. I am the Luna of that you speak of, and it is also true that the magical world of Equestria is a T.V show in your world. I took another pause,"There are so many questions but the most important one is what in the BLUE F@#$ am I doing here?" it didn't take much time for her to answer back. I brought you here to show you the meaning of friendship. Even you said that you didn't know what the meaning of friendship was , so I brought you here......and check your language. I didn't know to either be confused or furious, " umm ok...." taking a few breaths and counting to ten to do everything from getting angry, "Now how do I get home?", I asked trying to keep myself calm. With my best effort I am doing everything to keep from loosing my temper. The long pause she took didn't help my nerves. " Anything wrong?" I asked, wondering what was going on on Luna's end. " Can you get me home?" he he... It took a lot of energy to get you here. You see, I had to create a solar eclipse to get you here. However, I kinda couldn't get you here in Canterlot where I am because of the drain of energy it took to bring you here. So I'm sorry to say that you are off near the Northern Fourtys, and I don't have the power to bring you to me now. I didn't have words to say on how I felt. I was far from home, my only chance to get home is out of energy , and I'm in the middle of a forest off near the Northern Fourtys. Isn't my life great? Well, I can't do anything about it but I guess I have to make the best of it. "Ok, I'm guessing you need to rest from all the effort to bring me here. So, the only way to get to you is if I walk myself." She took a minute to reply. Yes, that would be the more logical way of doing things. I wish I could help you further.... But what I can tell you are some guide lines to keep you out of trouble. I shrugged, what other choice did I have? "Ok so, what is it that I need to know?" I asked feeling a bit better about this hole thing. It didn't take her long to reply back. Ok, first of all you have to have a dragon name. This is so that no one gets suspicious about you here. Human names here are not very common. I thought for a few moments, going over some of the good dragon names from books I read. Most of them just seemed too violent for this world and some too babyish for me. "Well, I always wanted to be called Thermite." I asked hopeful. I mean not many dragons are named that here..........right? Well, its a bit long, so the locals will be shortening it to Thermy. So, I would sujust you picking a different name. Something short, sweet, and means something to you. It helps you remember. I had to chuckle at the nickname that would have been my name. So, I gave it more thought about my new name. Well, like most gamers, not much mattered to me but videogames, and girls hence my predicament, and the main place I got videogames like most gamers was from Steam. I grind at that," hehe Steam." That's perfect, your Steam the dragon. A very appropriate Dragon name. I felt a little worm, but other then that I felt normal. " So, witch way do I go to get to you?", I asked interestedly. I have no since of duration, especially in another deamenion. She took a small pause before answering. Well, I don't know really. My best guess is to find the nearest road and follow it to a town and ask for directions. Besides that, I do not now. I need to rest now. I will be in touch from time to time so you don't feel alone out there. Oh Steam, Please keep cursing to a minimum. The locals wont understand much of it. Oh, to help you get by, just think of this adventure as a videogame. Oh, and Steam...I hope you can keep our date. ;P With that last eatery, the scroll disappeared in a puff of black smoke. So there I was, in the middle of the forest with no real detection of as where I'm going, and what did she mean treat this adventure like a videogame? Eh, I'll figure it out latter. I stood up on two still shaky legs and figured out how to walk on them. I know bigger dragons like my body is, can walk on two legs in this stance. I got my balance and started heading in one direction. On ward into the mystery. . . . I walked through the forest for what seemed like hours. The flowers where lovely, and smell was even better. There where plants and bushes that I recognized, some I didn't. However, I didn't care, the colors and aromas where spitaculer. That is until I heard the sounds of roaring and sword play. Kinda sounded like I was in a movie. I walked toward the the commotion to see what was going on. What I saw I couldn't believe. There was one tan brown unicorn wearing what looked like a black fedora fighting off five... What looked like a cross between a lion, a bat, and a scorpion. I think the show called them a Manticore or something. Anyway, the unicorn was doing very well against the creatures. His weapon of choice was a light rapier in a tan aura which I was guessing was his magic. I slowly approached on to the road where the fight was taking place. The tan unicorn wielded the sword over his head and jab the point in the last Manticores nose. When the beast grabbed at its nose, he bucked it hard in the face to send the ugly thing rolling. He yelled and swung his sword at the scard Manticore, " YA RUN YOU LITTLE KITTY CATS, RUN AWAY WITH YOU'RE TAIL INBETWIXT YE LEGS"! He was awesome, that is until he turned his sword on me. The point was between my eyes. "Friend or foe?" he asked in a lower and deadly voice. Never thought a unicorn from a kids T.V. show would be so violent. "umm," I had to come up with something or hes going to run the nice little point into my brain. "I'm not here to kill you if that's what your wondering." I gave a small I'm innocent smile. He smiled and sheathed his sword,"Oh, that's good to know. Oh by the by, have you seen a little blue unicorn and a earth pony and pegasi run by here"? I just shook my head no. He looked down and shook his head with a sigh of exasperation, "ahhh, that little unicorn is always trying to prove herself and its going to get herself killed." He began to walk down the road. I followed next to him. He seemed to know where he is going. He looked at me, "Why are you following me dragon?" he asked in a tired voice. I looked right back at him, "I'm kinda lost and you look like you know where your going. My name is Steam by the way." it just came out of my mouth without thinking. I couldn't say my human name now? He just shook his head and looked back towards the road, "So Steam, what is a short dragon like you doing out in a dark forest like this"? I didn't know how to answer his question. Ok, I was a little peved about him calling me short, but that's was because my horns was barely taller then his hat. "I just woke up here and I couldn't remember anything but only my name." What? That is all I could think of. He just shrugged," That's a new one. My name is Sharp Edge by the way." he began to smile when a loud roar shook the surrounding trees. "What in Tartars was that?" I said feeling my pupils shrinking. Edge's eyes slightly widen in horror , "she wouldn't." he said before running off the path back into the forest. I ran as fast I could to keep up with him. "I don't think its good to run off into the forest when Its about to get dark". It was getting very dark. I shuttered thinking of what horrors await when the sun goes down in the forest. . . . It was pich black when Edge and myself got to where the sound originated from. We hid in the bushes as we saw the spectral before us. There was a very pissed off looking blue unicorn with a mane that was so light blue it could be white, with a torn purple stared cap was fighting what looked like the most colossal bear I have ever saw in my life, but this wasn't any normal bear you would see in the woods. This bear was dark purple with stars all over it in many constellations with a large bright blue star on top of its head. I mean this little unicorn was only half a toe claw big and shes staring it down with her blue magic whipping the colossal beast. She was doing good, every swipe of the purple bears claw, she threw up a blue bearer to protect herself. She did look exhausted from the over exertion, but she look hellbent to beat this monster. I just stared at what was happening in front of me. Edge quietly slid his sword out of it sheath. I looked over at him, "surely your not seriously going to fight that thing"? "I am serious and don't call me Shirley," he said with a deadpanned expression as he leaped over the bushes and cried out "Lets do this LEROY MMM JENKINS!" he yelled charging in his sword tight in his magic. I blinked, "Oh my god he just ran in". The purple bear yelled when he stabbed it's foot. He dodged the claw that swooped at him. He was very fast with his light rapier, but not fast enough to dodge a second paw knocking him for a loop and bouncing him off trees. The unicorn ran over and held up a shield over her fallen comrade. The purple bear continued its clawing at the unicorn shield, doing everything to get inside for its next meal. However, I can see she was out of gass and losing power. I didn't think, I just acted. Without hesitation, I ran over and caught the bears paw just in time when the blue unicorns shield broke. Oh god, I never knew I had muscles there. I knew this bear was stronger than me, but I was doing my best not to let them be crushed. My arms where slowly giving way, my entire body was shaking from the pain of holding the humungous paw of this monster. "I didn't sign up for this..." I said to myself through gritted teeth. "I want to go home." one of my knees buckled under me as the weight of the paw coming down on me got harder to hold up. " I want pavement, I want my roman, I want my hot pockets, I want my mountain dew" I slowly pulled my leg out from under me and started to push back on the paw getting some leeway. "I want my cr@%%* car, I want my sh!&% A$$ apartment... but most of all" I felt like I was getting pissed at it all, and I did want all that back including, " MY MOTHER F yayING VIDEOGAMES!" With that scream, I threw the paw of the purple bear off me. It seemed confused for a split second when my vision went black, and I jumped with a powerful uppercut to the bears face. The purple bear went rolling over trees. Toppling huge trees and creating large gouges in the earth in its path. It got up and roared the same roar that shook the ground. I didn't care how intimidating purple bear was, I was passed pissed off. I roared so loud that it rivaled the bear's. The purple bear rushed me taking that as a challenge. Jaws open showing missing bloody teeth, eyes targeted on me as the cause of its pain. Without thinking, I took a deep breath and let out a jet black flame with white flicks from my mouth. When my flame hit the purple bear, it didn't blow around it like normal flames. It was like the flames itself was alive. The black flame rapped around the large beast quickly, like it was trying to smother the purple bear in its burning embrace. The bear howled in pain and agony as the flame was nearing Its face. The colossal beast fled from the area with some of the flames trying to follow its most needed friend. I stood there panting hevaly, steam flicked off my body where I stood. The black left my eyes, and I was dog tired. The blue unicorn limped up to me panting, " Why did you save me?" she said between pants. I looked at her feeling very light headed," I did what?" my body leaned forward, and the last thing I remember before I blacked out was my face becoming acquainted with the ground once again. ( Author's Note: This was my first Fanfic. So, please be gentle. I want to give thanks to JTHENOOB for editing. Oh, I can't draw that well so fan art would be helpful.)