//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: Behold My Nine! // Story: Starting Over As A Friendship Bomb // by Carmine Craft //------------------------------// I was sat in my living room in the dream house, drumming my hooves impatiently  as I waited for my guest to arrive. To my left sat a few unfinished icons. Games like Fallout or Subnautica had seemed like a fun way to while away the hours before I remembered that they could be so terrifying, and therefore would be horribly terrifying from a true first person perspective. Minecraft lay abandoned nearby, one of its faces pried off with a screwdriver, menus floating over the directed block from my attempts to ferret out the issues. On my right sat simpler things, box games of Uno, Sorry, and Risk that would be much more fun, and I may even eventually make them more than dream representations of cardboard and plastic. Before me was a book, with actual legible English writing in it, containing the gist of all my magic lessons from Twilight. I had been reviewing that, trying to see where I wasn't understanding things properly when I realized that the thing held my comprehension, and likely wasn't going to be much help, especially when one considered the fact that magic just worked in the dream, so I wasn't going to get any meaningful practice in. An agonizing three minutes of boredom later and I heard a knock at the door. Scrambling downstairs, I skidded across the hardwoods toward the aperture, the pulsing red symbol for a lock at head height let me know the door still hadn't been updated to let in a certain pony. Punching the red circle swapped it for a green one, this time with a key, and the door opened just a crack, wide enough to wedge a hoof in the door and swing it open fully. On the other side stood the expected filly, ruffling her wings nervously.  "Good night, young Argent." She squeaked at me. I regarded her in confusion for a moment. 'She shows up and says goodbye? Oooh wait!' "Heh, never heard that as a greeting before. Good night, Night Strider." I stepped back and welcomed her in with a smile. The blue pegasus smiled in turn, stepping into the house. "How does the night find thee?" She asked as she made herself at home, hopping up into an oversized recliner. I lifted a hoof and tilted it back and forth in a so-so gesture.  "Well enough. Magic is hard and the local language makes no sense! You?"  The filly nodded sagely. "T’is true, the language is quite vexing, however you seem to speak it fluently." "I'm having more trouble with the written word, actually. Be right back." I supplied before scampering back up the stairs. I returned a moment or three later, with a large assortment of cardboard boxes wrapped in a periwinkle glow. "So, how do you feel about board games?" Night Strider looked from me to the games. "Thou meanest games similar to chess?"  "Yeah, I've got one of those in here somewhere."I shuffled the boxes until I came out with a set of the game in question. I set the stack beside the table and hopped into the loveseat opposite the filly. "I wanna take a break from the more complex stuff until I figure out why it drank a gallon of nightmare fuel." The filly nodded again. "A wise decision, thou shouldst not invite such horror into thy dreams." She fidgeted a bit. "Wouldst thou mind if we were to request more of that drink from the other night?"  "Not at all, feel free to pick through the games while I whip up a batch." I motioned with a hoof before hopping back down and making my way to the kitchen. A kettle of water was set to the stove burner to boil while I got out a bag of mix that was totally always in that cupboard, obviously. Two spoons found their way into a pair of mugs just as the whistle of the water started. A dash of milk and a few marshmallows finished things off, and I carried the drinks back in my magic. When I returned to the sitting room, Night Strider had opened Monopoly, Life, and Clue and was skimming through the instructions of the latter. She set the folded paper down and sighed. I booped her nose with a mug of cocoa, getting a squeak from the pegasus. "By the way, what's your story?" I asked by way of greeting, ignoring her glare entirely. "'Our story?'" She asked, raising one regal brow and accepting the mug with her forehooves. "Yeah, what plot are you from? You didn't disappear when I turned the game off, so I don't think you're from minecraft." I elaborated as I retook my seat. "Plot?" She asked, looking even more confused. "Yeah, what's going on, where are you from, how did you get in the game, that kinda stuff." ^ <◇> v 'This is perfect! We spent all morning compiling an identity for Our Night Strider persona!' Luna cleared her throat and straightened up. With a hoof over her barrel, she prepared to regale the filly with her tale. "We art from an Old and most Noble family, although twas once a grand house, we number few in modern times. Our home is in Canterlot, the royal capitol, where Our slumbering form resides. We came to be in thy dream by… happenstance. By tradition, Our family art practitioners of the ancient art of Dream Walking, and We accidentally came upon thy dreamscape." She paused to take a sip of the delectable beverage in her hooves. The pale purple filly blinked at 'Night Strider', glancing down at her hooves and muttering too low for her to hear. "Uhh, okay yeah, I think I got all that." She frowned at the middle distance, ribbing at her chin with her pastern. "So… no grand quest then, alrighty." She spoke in low tones that Luna had to strain a bit to catch this time. "Okay! So, whatcha wanna play while we wait for the day?"  The disguised alicorn looked down at the boxes now littered across the table. "We wouldst like to try this 'Uno'. It seems simple enough." ^ <◇> v "Ha! Behold, Our nine!" The blue filly shouted in joy as she switched the colour to yellow again.  "Why do you have so many of those!?" I whined, going back to the draw pile. The very infinite draw pile, because stopping every ten or so minutes to reshuffle things got boring.  "We hath been blessed by the goddess of chance, and winning!" The pegasus chirped. The first game had gone to me, the second to Night Strider, as she picked up shouting calling me on not saying uno after I snatched victory from her. That she did it loud enough to rattle windows made me glad I couldn't experience burst eardrums in a dream. We were now on our third hand, and had been for thirty minutes. The numbers were three cards left in Night's wings, and thirteen floating before me. Well, sixteen now… 'Oh, okay, thank you random draw deck~' I grinned at the filly like a shark. "Let's see if she blesses you again then." I placed down a plus four, earning a wide eyed look of shock from my opponent. "And let's keep it blue this time." "She hast already done so!" The light blue maned filly cheered, slamming down her own with gusto. "And We desire red!" My Smug grin never left, a third draw four fell atop the pile. "Nah, I like blue." I received the dirtiest look for that, Night Strider synching up her muzzle and narrowing her eyes at me, but her lips quirked up just a hair… "no, We decree that the colour be red!" And another draw four fell from her wings, leaving her with only one card in the left one. "Uno!" "What? No, that can't be right." I drawled, sliding my third card forward. "It's clearly blue~" I tried my damndest not to giggle like a little girl, but the face she made was just too good to resist. "No…" she whispered, holding her singular card close. "Yessss!" I hissed, nudging the drawpile towards her. "You vile fiend!" She slammed both hooves upon the table, hard enough to make it buck and crack the floor.  "Why thank you~" I purred, dragging the table back to its original position, the cards having not left their place. The filly sniffled as she carded through the draw pile with her feathers, drawing twenty in one smooth motion. I threw down a blue two, the Smug feeling of victory inching closer. With a dejected sigh, Night Strider flicked her next card out of her wing. "Behold, Our nine…" ^ <◇> v Checkers was the game of choice now, as it allowed for easier multitasking, such as conversation, or game tweaking.  "What is thy project?" Night asked, moving a red token into a defensive position. "Trying to fix Minecraft, it's too fun to let one unexpected horror keep me from playing it." I informed her as I moved a slider across the small screen, adjusting the block-to-real ratio. I glanced at the board and mirrored her defensive move with my own pieces. "Thou refer to the dream where we met? Thou wish to relive that experience?" She looked at me incredulously, slowly sliding a chip across the board with too much pressure, producing a strangely loud grinding noise. With a flash of blue sparkles, I flipped my black coin over hers, putting the game in my favor. "It wasn't supposed to be like that, hence me trying to fix it, sure the game can get some good jump scares, but it's not supposed to go lovecraftian horror… not without mods anyway…"  Night Strider was quick to snatch up that piece, leaving us even once more. "Thou speak in riddles and oddities… thou maketh less sense than anyone else in this modern era." She complained.  "Sorry, it's the game terminology and pop culture, although it does make us kinda even, you're a bit of a chore to understand." I replied, moving another piece into a defensive position. I reared around inside the cube, pulling out the model for the drowned, frowning at the twisted abomination in my hoof. It was quickly crumpled like paper and tossed in the waste bin. 'I might as well change all the mobs while I'm at it…' The filly fidgeted in her seat. "...We are not well versed in thy modern tongue…" she admitted.  "No, that's obvious, but I'm sure you'll get it, it's just some practice is all. It's your move by the way." I informed her as a great many crumpled balls went in the trash. I pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil and started sketching out some replacement models for the game. "Oh, right, Our apologies." She made a sacrificial move with a token, and chewed on a slice of apple, her brow scrunched in thought. "Thou mentioned thy troubles with the writ word, correct?" I looked up from the pair of stacked cotton balls I had been decorating as a sheep replacement and sighed. I looked at the board for a bit as I sorted out my thoughts, ignoring her bait and moving a piece to the left wall of the board. "Yeah, it's just… why is it that the spoken language is the same, but the written is entirely different?" I confided in the dream character, it's not like they could tell anybody. "How many characters are even in the alphabet? It's all new and unhelpful, especially when you live in a library with a bibliophile, I just wanna read some books and practice magic, forget about the bigger issues until they get a bit smaller." Night was quiet for a bit, silently frowning at the game. "We could teach thee." She offered, scrutinizing her moves.  "Huh?" I noised at her in confusion. "How would that work exactly? This is a dream." "True, but we, that is, thee and I, art conductors of dreams, have thou not noticed thine dreams’ stability, dost thou not remember thy dreams when thou awakenest?" "No, I do, that's not the issue. This is a fun way to pass the time, and you are fun to talk to, but this is still a dream, nothing is in here but what I know or can imagine."  The pegasus filly tilted her head at me so hard it looked like she should have fallen over, the look of confusion on par with telling people you're a flat earther, or that you think the sun revolves around the planet. "We are sorry, but WHAT?! Didst We not tell thee That We art a dream walker? Thou believe Us a figment of thine imagination?!" "I uhh… yeah? Aside from all the thee and thou stuff, nothing you've told me sounds like something I couldn't come up with." I replied with a raised brow. 'What in the…? Oh right! You aren't supposed to tell dream characters they aren't real. Crap, they're already in existential dread mode.' "I mean-" "Fie!" She declared, jumping from her seat onto the table. The light in the windows died, a glance outside showed that the sun had disappeared, replaced with a writhing sea of stars.  'Crap, this is about to turn into a nightmare, isn't it?' "Fine then, if thou cannot see Us for that which we art, then we shalt take our leave!" With a stomp of her hoof, white threads bled brown from the stars and through the window, swirling around the filly and casting a shadow far too large for her small frame. With a tearing noise, a rent in space appeared between us, showing… showing something that is difficult to put into words… it was, kinda like the stars in the sky but… While I gaped like a fish, the filly let out a haughty huff and marched through the tear in reality, which snapped closed behind her. "...well, that happened." ^ <◇> v Luna shot from her bed in the predawn hour, her fair face set in a firm scowl. The nerve of that filly! The ignorance! How could she not recognize a sentient being? Did she truly think the shadows her mind could conjure would be so well formed? She believed her a mere figment? A passing fantasy?! With a determined stride, the reduced alicorn marched over to her desk. In a whirl of magic a roll of parchment lay before her, and a quill found itself ensnared in her midnight blue aura. With a snort, she jotted down a quick message. Then she retrieved another roll and rewrote it, foregoing her name and infusing the ink with a blue incandescence. "This shalt show her."