What happened after I passed out was luckily nothing worth mentioning. I was able to wake up before my mother, so happened to get home and haphazardly clean the mess I made. It was a bit awkward to explain to mother why I had a bruise on my face, but I was able to talk my way out of suspicion.
Nonetheless, there's something else that needed my full attention.
You wouldn't believe what I so happened to have stumbled upon a few minutes ago, this place had video games! Well, very retro video games, but video games nonetheless. Though I do find it funny that these horses have created technology for entertainment systems, and still have yet to create something along the lines of a washing machine.
But as we all know, video games fall first in the list of priorities, and when I so happened to have not taken a small stroll around town by myself and happened to come across an arcade just a few blocks away from my house. It surprised me, I didn't expect this fancy city to have something like an arcade hanging around. Though I shouldn't question it, I should invest and enjoy it.
Well, that's if I had the money to use said arcade, which was depressing for me. I swear I didn't cry, not one single tear left my eyelids after this realization.
I lied, I was heartbroken. Completely depressed at the thought of not being able to play video games again, it just hurt. So I found myself sitting in front of the display window at the arcade in tears, softly rubbing at the glass in sadness. What put a real damper in it was the picture of a pony who looked eerily similar to a certain character in street fighter.
"I've never felt so much pain in my life. "
"The sadness is just taking over."
"I can- keep!"
My bouts of depressive comments were interrupted by something making contact with my shoulder, making me jump and immediately do a one-eighty. Coming face to face with a not-so-familiar pony, or rather another child to be in fact. He was a bit taller than me, a brown coat with orange hair, and he was wearing one of those helicopter cap doohickeys, also he was an earth pony. Not important, but sort of interesting nonetheless.
He looked down at me with a tilted gaze before he spoke.
"Err... are you okay?"
"Yeah, of course, I am, what makes you think otherwise?"
He stared at me for a good few seconds before frowning and lifting one of his hooves to motion at his face, making gestures of tears. Before he stopped, he stared at me expectantly.
"Oh yeah, the tears. Sorry"
"No, it's cool, what made you start crying in the first place?"
I blinked at the out of the blue question of concern, or rather as concerned as a child could be, without being blunt. Before sheepishly starting to tell him about the whole arcade situation, and how I wasn't going to be able to play the machines in there.
This confused me, why exactly was I just telling this random kid my whole reasoning? Speaking of which, why was everyone here so concerned with the well-being of others? It's not that I don't like it, rather it's just something new for me.
"Soo. You can't play because you don't have any bits?"
I nodded before glancing back at the window, my frown still intact.
"Well.. My mom gave me more than enough bits to play here while she attended to some business or something like that... so, you wanna come inside, and we can split the number of tokens I get?"
I widened my eyes before immediately snapping my attention back towards him, a stranger who was just willing to spend money on someone he just met. Of course, it wasn't unheard of back on earth, but still it sorta just befuddled me on how weird these ponies are when it comes to mannerisms!
Though, besides the internal monologue I had for the like hundredth time, I immediately accepted the offer. I mean, of course, I did, why wouldn't I?
"Uh yeah, that sounds awesome actually!"
"Great, so uh, let's go inside then?"
He turned his head towards the side and coughed lightly as he said that, making me slightly confused.
I then realized in my fit of excitement I had pressed myself very tightly against this other child and backed off immediately.
"Oh shoot.. sorry, just got a little excited"
"I-its cool dude.. let's just get inside"
I awkwardly nodded before dusting myself off the best I could, before moving to follow him through the modern-looking glass door, slightly giddy at the fact that I'd be able to experience what kind of games this place had. Wait, shouldn't I technically be the first human to play alien video games? Then that mea-
"Hey uh... I didn't quite catch your name?"
His question broke my train of thought, and I was dumped back into the world of the living, glancing around as I took in the new interior environment. Surprisingly, it didn't look too off from what one back home would look like. Except it was surprisingly empty, like I think we were the only two people here, including the owner of course.
I turned my head away from the wondrous sight of arcade machines and turned to look up at the brown colt, a small grin on my face.
"Speckles.. Speckles the pegasus!"
"Uh... Button, Button Mash... just call me Button though"
Button Mash? That's a pretty peculiar name, then would that mean that- oh it does!
Taking a glance at his cutie mark, which was something I don't recommend doing unless you're a child or as adorable as I am. I found it to be some sort of Gameboy color-looking device, that was another interesting thing to take note of.
I guess since they had arcade machines here, they'd also have some sort of handheld entertainment console.
"I take it, you're good at video games?"
"Uh.. duh! If my cutie mark says anything about It"
I found myself asking the slightly obvious question as we came to a stop just in front of an old stallion standing behind a counter. He sported a graying mane and those exhausted eyes that held experience behind them. But he still held a big smile when he saw the two of us approach, eagerly exchanging to a healthy amount of bits Button dumped onto the counter into tokens. He used a hoof to drag them closer to him, impossibly picking them up with both hooves and placing them in a device. Some sort of coin counting machine was my best guess, seeing as I've seen something like this whenever I went to chuck e cheese.
I took a minute or so, but the coins finally stopped shooting out of the machine, and the stallion slid over two decently sized cups of tokens over to us.
"Here you two young fellows go, hope you enjoy yourselves!"
"Hey thanks, by the way, do you have the new pony fighter game here?"
"Sure do! Just got it installed yesterday, it's right over there if you two would like to take a crack at it"
"Thanks!"
With that out of the way, we both took our cups and proceeded to walk over to where the arcade owner pointed. Of course, the only real way I was able to grab onto the cup was when I grabbed it with my teeth, sounds handier than you think.
"Say speckles, you've played pony fighters before?" He casually asked me as we came to a stop in front of the machine, though it was slightly muffled due to the cup in his mouth.
"Uh.."
I set the cup down just beside my hoof before moving to answer him.
"Of course I have! I love the str- I mean pony fighter franchise"
"Then you wouldn't mind having a little one-on-one with me, would you? To see who's the better player"
"Are you challenging me Button?" If so, prepare to have your flank handed to you!"
"Pfft! Yeah! Right, the last pony who said that got completely flawlessed!"
Oh. Just you wait Button, just you wait.
The both of us immediately pulled a token out of our respective cups and placed it into the machine, positioning ourselves, so we could get our hooves on the controls. As soon as I got to the helm, the very nostalgic screen depicting two guys about to fistfight. Though now recreated to where two ponies are staring each other down, and after a tense few seconds, the pony on the right delivers a strong buck to the other jaw.
Eliciting a small chuckle out of me as the screen move up and showed off a skyscraper, before fading to black and the words "pony fighter II world warrior" appeared. I was amazed for a few more moments at the prospect of more games like this one coming out in the near future.
Then we were thrown into the character selection, which was surprisingly really accurate to the original, with the map in the background and everything.
I glanced to my left and watched as Button moved his cursor around each character before finally choosing one, a white stallion with blonde hair and sporting a red karate outfit. Just Ken, as a pony.
"Hurry and pick a character dude!"
"Yeah yeah, just can't wait to get clapped, can you?"
"Huh?"
"Nevermind"
I just as quickly flicked the joystick upwards and pressed the select button, of course, I picked the pony version of Ryu. He did pick Ken, after all, now for the map, I decided to pick Neigpan before Button could say anything.
The screen faded to black, and our characters popped up in an old traditional Japanese-looking environment, the tell-tale words popped up, and before you know it.
"Fight!"
The button immediately rushed forwards and tried to hit me with a roundhouse kick, yet I countered it with a quick jump into the air. Landing behind him and quickly delivering a Shoryuken to his characters back, sending them up into the air before moving backward and sending out a quick Hadouken.
I heard Button Mash make a noise before he immediately started going on the aggressive once more, coming at me with another roundhouse kick which I quickly blocked. Though he did catch me off guard and was able to get me with a hurricane kick, knocking down my health a good bit.
Though I wasn't about to let him beat me that easily, mind you, so I attacked. Hitting him with a Hadouken, before moving up close to him and using a Shoryuken, letting a grin form on my face, I continued pushing him up against the wall. Hitting him with another Hadoken combo before his health bar dropped to zero, and I won with a k.o.
"Hah, didn't you say something along the lines of the last pony who said that got flawless?"
"Err.. Shut up, I'll get you in the second round!"
With that, I turned back towards the screen just as the match started, getting immediately hit with a barrage from Button Mash. He threw abdomen after Hadouken at my character before I was able to block one, then moving to throw in a Shoryuken of my own. Throwing his character up into the air before performing a hurricane kick, getting rid of the last bit of his health, and winning the round.
"Darn it! Next round!"
I laughed slightly before the next round started, it went the same as the last round, though at the last second I found myself on the losing end. My health bar was draining, and Button had a mad grin on his face, but I felt something within myself say "not today!" And I brought it back, being able to not let Button get a hit in, and finishing him off with a super combo.
"Shinku Hadoken!"
"Noooo!"
With that, I won the match, smiling in content as the screen popped up with both of our fighters looking at each other. Though Buttons character was looking worse for wear, my character pointed before some text appeared.
"You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance".
I then turned to look at Button, who was staring at the screen with a look of shock on his face. Eyes widened in disbelief at what he had just witnessed before he sighed and looked at me. I expected him to be a bit more toxic or at least mad at me for winning, though I was completely wrong in that.
"I guess you are pretty good at this game.."
"Good game?"
"Of course! I've never been able to pull off the special combo in rapid succession like that, that was so cool!"
"Well, I told you, I love the pony fighter games.. Though I did wish they had something like the king of fighters around here"
"Oh, I've got that game at my house! Wanna come over some time?"
"Uh sure, where exactly do you live?"
"Ponyville! Mom just brought me here because I found out pony fighter was here and insisted on coming"
Oh.
---
"You bring me news of a... child?"
"Yes, my Queen, it has co-"
"Are you idiotic?" I sent you and you alone to Canterlot for a very specific reason! And all you have for me is news of a dumb foal!"
"B-but my Queen, you have to understand, this is no ordinary child.. he differs-"
"My child, you have not begun to understand the amount of complete and utter disappointment you have filled me with... you stray away from your assigned mission for a child? A special child at that!"
"I-"
"How is a special child going to help infiltrate a whole different kingdom? Explain it to me, child, explain the logistics of focusing on a damned child instead of infiltrating and bringing back some useful information"
"But it-"
"So help me, if you try and interrupt one more time I w-"
"He's intoxicating!"
"...intoxicating?"
"Yes, intoxicating! Invigorating, arousing everything! The smell, the taste, and the endless amount of love I can sense within him are what drew me towards him..."
"Endless amount of love?"
"Yes, my Queen endless, I can feel it whenever I'm near him.. Whenever I look deeply into his eyes there's something there, it's rich, it's sweet, it's... it's just... I can't access it!"
"What do you mean my child?" You come here bearing news of a child with quite possibly an endless amount of love...and you can't access it?"
"Every time I try, there's just something always there blocking me... it always leaves a bitter taste in my mouth"
"But there's something else.."
"What exactly is this something else?"
"I-I don't know my queen, it.. It just feels as if I'm not the only one watching him."
"It feels like or is it just you excuse the fact that you're trying to dissuade my very growing urge to punish you?"
"N-no my queen! Truly, it feels as if someone else is there... in Canterlot!"
"Some...one?"
"Yes, my Queen, it's not a pony, it's just something... something else"
"Hmm."
"My Queen?"
"What you say leaves me with much to think about.. But if what you say is true then, bring me the child... take another infiltrator with you and have them search for this mysterious presence you speak of.."
"Yes, my Queen, as you order!"
"Good.. Now I shall retire to my bed chambers, do not fail me, my child."
--
After having a bit more fun with Button Mash, I unfortunately had to leave at a bit of an earlier time than I wanted to. Seeing as I remembered, my mother didn't like it when she returned home, and I wasn't there, especially when she didn't permit me to go out.
But video games take priority, and when I heard the news of an arcade around town, I had to jump on the idea! Like I would pass up on the ide-
"Oof!"
I bumped into someone in my deep train of thought.
"Oh dear, are you alright speckles?"
And of course, it had to be her.
To be continued...