M0re Than Gam3rs

by P3RROHAMBRE


Level 6

M0re Than Gam3rs

Level 6

Denial

The bright morning sun beamed and the blue sky was clear of any clouds. The birds chirped and the small animals that took refuge in the royal gardens scurried about as the Princess of the Night and her gamer friend stood outside, packing her small saddlebag.

“Are you sure you can carry all those Derpy? I could get you an escort if you need it.”

Derpy Hooves stuffed the last banana muffin into her saddlebag and closed her now bulking green saddlebag.

“No thanks, I got this,” Derpy chimed as she threw the bag over her back.

“Are you sure? That looks so heavy though,” Luna observed as she studied the bulking bag filled with epically awesome baked goods.

She felt bad that her friend wouldn’t accept her help but Derpy was a capable mare...most of the time, but she also felt a bit bad for freaking out earlier because of Celestia’s choice of ‘costumes.’ Was it for the fact that her choice of attire was simply not acceptable for Nightmare Night?

Many would think the answer would be yes and she herself thought that would be the answer but to her surprise and a bit of dismay, this was not so.

It wasn’t the attire but the pony that wore it, her best friend. The tidal wave of mixed feelings when she saw that mare in such enticing clothes; uncertainty, excitement, and maybe a hint of lust washed through in those mere seconds. It was so confusing to her...this whole morning had been confusing to her. Snuggling with Derpy, Celestia being kind of a bitch to her by using ‘sexy blackmail’, and then seeing Derpy in panties (something she never even fathomed of seeing), and all these frustrating feelings.

“I carry mail for a living Luna, I think I can handle a bag full of muffins. I may look small but I’m a strong pony.” The mailmare jokingly flexed her leg muscles in a heroic pose as she tried to prove her point with her eyes crossed, making the alicorn laugh a bit.

“I know, I just hate the thinking about you flying such ways with that.”

“I’ll be fine Luna. Promise.” the grey mare said with a smile. She looked out to the sky and spoke with a somewhat glum tone,” Well, I better get going before I’m late. Speedy Delivery hates it when I’m late.”

Luna nodded and gave a small smile  but she really didn’t want her friend to go. Was this another one of her eerie feelings that she had been having ever since this day had began? No, this was actually quite common for the alicorn. She always had so much fun with her friend and loved her company; it was always sad to see her go. It only proved as a reminder that she would have to return to being ‘Princess’ Luna soon.

“Do you think you will get off early enough to get online tonight?” Luna asked with a bit of hope.

Derpy shook her head. “No, not tonight. I’m going to watch Dinky perform in her school play tonight. She got the best part.”

“And what would that be? I don’t hear much about what goes on in Ponyville since I’m usually stuck here.”

“A muffin.”

Luna rolled her eyes playfully.

Of course.

“Alright then,” Luna began, keeping in mind that her friend had more important things than talk to her,” I suppose you better get going before I make you late.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” the grey pony said as she now brought her gaze back to Luna. They both stared at each other quietly. Luna could see in Derpy’s crossed eyes that her friend felt the same way. She didn’t want to leave, just as Luna didn’t want Derpy to leave her, but they were best friends...right? It was normal of friends to feel this way...at least that’s what Luna believed.

“Fly safely okay?” Luna said, trying to break the silence and keeping herself from staring at the blonde pony.

Derpy nodded once more and spread her wings.

“I will Luna. I’ll talk to you later okay?”

“Okay.”

With nothing more to say without being a bit awkward, Derpy gave one last smile and lifted off into the sky and Luna watched as the small pegasus flew away until she disappeared into the horizon, leaving the alicorn alone in the gardens.

You’re already missing her.

Luna heard her own small voice inside her head speak to her, telling her the obvious. Of course she missed her friend, why wouldn’t she? They spent time together, played together...

You slept together.

“Stop it,” Luna said to herself.

Well, you did.

“I know but...”

But what?

She only agreed to sleep with Derpy because she was her friend and it wasn’t like they were lovers of some sort...so why did she feel now like it was? It seemed her thoughts and mind were much louder in her head now that she didn’t have Derpy or her sister distracting her from it.

Did you not hold her close to you this morning? Did you not check her out while you both went to see your sister? Did you not want to kiss-

“Okay!” Luna yelled and stomped her hooves, scaring the birds and some woodland critters, “I did all those things but she’s my friend and that’s it. Nothing more and nothing less, okay little voice that sounds like me??”

Nothing more? Nothing less? I sense denial.

“It’s not denial! It’s the truth! I only like her-”

“Princess Luna?” a voice from behind interrupted.

Luna quickly spun around with wide eyes to meet a pair of light purple ones.

“Cadence?! What..what are you doing here?” Luna asked nervously, realizing that Cadence probably had heard her talking to herself.

“I always come to the gardens in the morning,” Princess Cadence said as a small bag of bird seed appeared before her, “So how are you doing this morning Luna?”

Maybe she didn’t hear me.

“I’m fine,”she said as she tried to regain her bearing,” I was just seeing off my friend that I had over last night was all.” Luna smiled sheepishly.

“You mean the one with the adorable eyes?” The pink alicorn said with a smile as she spread some seed out onto the grass.

They are adorable, don’t you think Luna?

Luna ignored her pestering voice in her head and answered without hesitation, “Her name is Derpy, yes.”

“Derpy huh? That’s a cute name. So that’s the mare that you’re interested in?”

“What?!” Luna blurted, “No! I mean, no.”

Cadence threw more seed out onto the grass, still holding that small gentle smile across her face.

“So what were you talking about with yourself earlier then?”

Crap...she did hear me.

The alicorn thought quickly of some type of plausible excuse that could explain her odd behavior. She could just say nothing and simply walk away and move along her day but that would be rude, and just because Cadence and her really didn’t spend much time together didn’t give her the right to be disrespectful in any way.

“I..uhhhh...talk to myself sometimes,” Luna lied as she tried to run with it, “I sometimes talk to myself to help clear my brain and stuff. A night of video games and drinks can really mess up your head.” Luna tapped her head with her hoof to reinforce her white lie but it was too easy to see through it.

Cadence chuckled, “Luna, it’s quite obvious you have feelings for your friend.”

Feelings?

Luna cocked her head a bit. Of course she had feelings for Derpy. She was her best friend after all.

“Derpy is my best friend and I share feelings for her as her friend if that’s what you mean.”

Cadence shook her head and laughed a bit more.

“Princess Luna, I mean that you may be falling in love in with her,” she stated bluntly.

Luna’s whole body went ice cold but also fiery hot at the same time as she heard the sacred four letter word ‘love’. Luna never have thought that she could be falling in love with the mailmare...she couldn’t be, there was no way.

In love?! I’m not in love with my own friend!

“In love? Cadence, I understand that love is your domain but I think you’re getting this all wrong,” Luna said, trying to be as kind as possible, “Derpy is my best friend and that’s it. We see each other as just that and nothing more. We just spend a lot of time together is all.”

“If you say so Luna,” Cadence said teasingly, like as if she knew something that Luna didn’t.

“I’m serious Cadence. We’re just friends and I’m definitely not falling in love with my own friend,” Luna said, waving her hoof in the air.

“Alright Luna, I believe you. I guess I was wrong,” Cadence said with a nonchalant tone.

Okay, time to change subject.

“So where is your husband? Is he not off duty today?” Luna asked.

 Sunday was the day that Celestia’s higher ranking guards took the day off, such as her captain and with such a high position came a sacrifice that Cadence seemed to be willing to accept. Luna knew that the couple didn’t get to see much of each other when Shining Armor was busy but they seemed to be still very happy, especially with the time they had to themselves.

“Yeah, he’s off. Princess Celestia called him into her chambers earlier for some type of emergency. You know him,” she threw more seed as more birds gathered, “Duty above all else but I love him for it. I like a stallion that truly loves and believes in what he does,” Cadence said as she poured the last of the bird seed to the group of small birds that now circled her front hooves.

Oh....emergency...right.

Princess Luna had an idea of what Celestia would need Shining Armor for. He was a stallion which meant that he had the certain equipment to maybe please his ruler but Luna knew he was loyal to Cadence, but when it came to her sister, loyalty didn’t mean shit. When Celestia wanted something, Celestia got it...no matter what.

“Right, well, I better get going and prepare for my court later.”

Cadence nodded.

“Of course Luna, but can I ask you one thing before you go?”

Luna cocked her brow, wondering what Cadence would need of her.

“Yeah, sure.”

“How do you know you’re not in love with your friend?” she asked with a small giggle.

Yeah, how do you know Luna?

How did she know? Such a simple question that she should have been able to answer so easily was coming off as difficult. Luna never experienced what love was because she never really fancied other ponies in her long life. She had never had any type of interest to pursue a romantic relationship.

“I... I have to go Cadence. I really must prepare for later,” Luna replied with uncertainty and confusion. She couldn’t answer her question and instead was now trying to deflect it.

“Alright Luna. Have a good day and tell your friend the next time you see her that I said hi,” Cadence replied happily, seeming not to take any offense to Luna’s deflection.

Luna simply nodded and turned to take her leave but that question that Cadence now asked was burned into her psyche. That whole thing about her being in love with Derpy rattled her mind and it made her ask one simple question to herself.

Am I in love?

Was these weird feelings she had been experiencing all a result of love? Luna didn’t know and was split in too many different ways to concentrate on one thing at a time, but she did know one thing.

She needed somepony to talk to about it.

 One that she could trust and would maybe explain all this to her, but why not Cadence? She knew about love, more than anypony knew about it, but Luna felt that this was not something to do with love, or maybe she just didn’t want to believe it was. Luna felt it was just her body acting up or some type of thing that only alicorns went through.

She needed a pony that had insight to the workings and feelings of ponies and there was one pony that knew of such things.

One pony that could help her.

****

“Bahahaha! You totally want to screw the living crap out of her!”

“Wha-?!! No! I never said that!” Luna yelled through her mic as her cheeks flustered violently, “All I said was that we slept together and ever since this morning, I been having thoughts that I don’t usually have.”

This was a bad idea...

Luna had thought that maybe Vinyl would be able to help her sort out these weird feelings of hers and give her some type of reasonable explanation for them but it seemed the only thing the DJ got out of her entire description of her morning was that she just wanted to screw Derpy.

“I’m sorry princess,” Vinyl said as her laughter died down in her mic, “It’s just that I never thought that you would dig Derpy, ya know?”

“ Cadence thinks the same thing! I don’t ‘dig’ her, we’re just friends Vinyl. I believe I’m just catching something that only alicorns get or something of the sort.”

Denial, Luna’s pestering voice chimed.

Shut up!

“Luna, you’re totally into her. You said that you held her all mushy type and even thought she was hot when she was wearing, “Vinyl began to snicker and even snort a bit, “ panties. You can’t tell me that you’re not wanting that.”

Luna sighed.

“She’s my friend. My gamer buddy. There’s no way I’m in love with her Vinyl. I can’t be,” Luna said as she adjusted her mic on her head.

“Why not?” Vinyl asked.

“I never been in love before, why start now?”

“Luna, love is not something that you think about and decide on. It’s a feeling. Like, do you get nervous around Derpy? Get like little fluttering things in your stomach and all that shit?”

The alicorn recalled her earlier morning. She did have something that seemed to fly around in her stomach when she was holding Derpy along with a hot fire that seemed to bellow in her. She remembered how fast her heart was beating and how shallow her breathing became.

“Well... yes... I did,” Luna admitted.

“That means you want to bang her!”

“Vinyl!”

The DJ began to laugh hysterically into her mic once again.

“I can totally see it! You and her in your bed just going at it!”

“Vinyl! It’s nothing like that!” Luna pleaded, now becoming a bit frustrated.

“Okay, okay, sorry,” Vinyl said again with a bit of static to her mic as she seemed to gasp for air from laughing so hard, “ But seriously, I’m not really good with all this mushy stuff. When I like somepony, I just go for the gusto and get to the banging part.”

TMI...

“Well I’m certainly not going to be having sex with Derpy, so that’s out of the question. Do you know somepony that could help me then if you can’t?” Luna pleaded. Desperation was beginning to take hold of her and she now only wanted to know what these feelings meant and how to be rid of them.

There was silence over Luna’s mic for a few moments before the DJ spoke again.

“You know what? I might know a pony that could help you out,” Vinyl answered.

“And who would that be?” Luna asked, curious about this certain pony.

“You know my friend that was with us last night? His gamertag was PerrohambreV2.”

The alicorn recalled the name quite clearly. It was the stallion that didn’t speak Equestrian and Derpy was having a hard time understanding what he was saying when she spoke to him.

“He can help explain all this?”

“I’m pretty sure. He talks about love and some other philosophical horse crap sometimes that I barely pay attention to, so I’m sure he can help you,” Vinyl replied with confidence.

Luna’s horn lit up and summoned a piece of parchment and quill and jotted down the name real quick. She would have to see if she could talk to this stallion sometime later to see if he could help her. She hated not knowing something, especially when it was about herself and she needed answers. More importantly, she needed a remedy to somehow make her stop looking at Derpy in such a way that doesn't involve her eyes traveling to the mailmare’s flank.

“Soooo, how about you tell me more about this blackmail that Princess Celestia has on you? I was kind of tripping balls when you said that she blackmailed you. Never thought she was even capable of doing something like that ya know?”

Luna hadn’t only divulged her weird feelings to her DJ friend earlier over Live, which she was now regretting, but also Celestia’s little blackmail that she had on her.

“You don’t have testicles Vinyl...”Luna stated as if she had to make it clear that Vinyl was a mare.

“No shit. It’s a figure of speech.”

“And my sister does a lot of things that many ponies don’t know about, so for her to blackmail me is not something out of character for her. It’s just I hate that she took pictures of me and Derpy in bed together and even setting one of the pictures up!”

““Set one up? What you mean?” Vinyl asked.

Luna looked down at her controller and thought about that one picture that had her and Derpy looking like they were kissing each other.

“Celestia made it look like we were kissing,” Luna stated nervously.

“Damn! Your sister knows how to get some sexy blackmail!”

“You're supposed to be helping me Vinyl, not praising my sister for her shenanigans,” Luna deadpanned, quickly losing her patience.

“Okay, I was just saying was all. So you have to go to this party with her and you have to bring Derpy with you to it? So what? Sounds like a good time to me. Sounds like she just want to have some sister bonding time or whatever.”

Luna shook her head. If only Celestia wanted to just have some sisterly bonding but she knew her sister’s intentions were far from that.

“I wish it was so but I know she only wants me to come and bring Derpy along so she can somehow embarrass me or make me feel uncomfortable. I’m afraid that Derpy will never want to talk to me again because of my sister’s actions if I go to this party.”

Luna believed she wasn’t in love with her friend but just because she wasn’t didn’t mean that she didn’t want Derpy’s company. She loved having Derpy around and enjoyed talking to her about random things and Celestia was going to ruin all that for her; she just knew it in her gut.

“So what do you plan to do if you really think she’s going to buck things up?”

“I have no clue,” Luna answered. She couldn’t form any type of idea to somehow stop Celestia’s little game. Even if she tried, her sister seemed to be always one step ahead of her, as if she knew what Luna was planning and thinking.

“Why don’t you just get rid of the pictures?”Vinyl suggested

Now there was an idea. A seemingly simple idea.

“Get rid of them? Like steal them?”

“Yep, Vinyl chimed, “Just get your hooves on those bitches and burn them. Kill it with fire so no pony will ever know about them."

Luna tapped her hoof on her chin and thought about this idea. She could get the pictures back but she had no idea where Celestia kept them. Only her stars knew where Celestia would keep such damning pictures and when it came to her sister, anywhere was a good place to hide them. Even if meant in certain body cavities if need be.

“I don’t know where she keeps them though. I wouldn’t know where to begin. She wouldn’t just leave something like that out in the open.”

“Start with her room, duh! Just sneak in there at night and snoop around like a ninja. It should be easy for you since the night is like your thing. Just turn into some mist or something like you did as Nightmare Moon-”

“I’m not Nightmare Moon,” Luna quickly interrupted with a bit of malice in her voice.

“Sorry. Anyways, I’m trying to say is that you should do some sneaking around and find where she keeps them and even get some dirt on her while you're at it, so even if you don’t find the pictures, you still got something to hang over her head.”

Now Luna was really liking this idea. The thought of pulling up dirt on Celestia was enticing and she would love to see her sister’s face if she did. For once, she would be able to put Celestia off guard instead of her.

“You think that would make her put an end to this game of hers?” Luna asked.

“I would think so. If not, you’re just royally bucked and your sister is the ultimate troll.”

But I have to stop her.

It was a crazy, simple idea but it had to be done. Luna had to get those pictures back and destroy them or at least get some payback. If Celestia wanted to play this game with her, then she will play and make sure that for once, she would win.

“I’m going to get those pictures back and I’m going to show Tia once and for all that I shouldn’t be messed with,” Luna declared as she resolved to her decision.

“Yeah! Get some payback!” Vinyl encouraged.

And so it was decided within Luna. She would sneak into her sister’s room and find that folder that held those sexy pictures and destroy them and in the process, find anything that would make her sister beg for her not to show to the public eye.

“So when are you going to do it huh?” Vinyl asked with almost an excitement to her voice.

Luna knew the perfect time and smiled devilishly, rubbing her hooves together.



“Tonight.”