//------------------------------// // **Chapter 3 - Haylo Reach: Start of a Journey** [Rewritten] // Story: Luna Plays... // by Chaotic Note //------------------------------// Nauseous, like she spent some time in a whirlpool, Luna’s field of vision was filled with light and colors once more. She heard a constant, faded ringing in her ears, and her sight was blurry and she couldn't focus. Of all things, Luna didn’t expect that entering a video game would be so excruciatingly uncomfortable. If she were to compare this sickness to anything else she'd experienced, it would be like the first time she had to the get comfortable with her regal, adult body. While her older sister loved and adored her younger form, with its light blue mane and smaller stature, Luna wanted to regain her wavy, starry mane again and her leaner, stronger body. The process to regain her adult form was slow, and took up at least a week or so; the crucial parts of the procedure also made her nauseous enough to lose her stomach’s contents a few times, and returning to her full, goddess-level strength would actually take longer than that. Originally, this ritual had taken one month. Luna, unlike her sister, was unfortunately not the most patient of ponies in this case. While she had her adult form back, the following weeks were very unkind towards her. Everything she loved to eat wouldn’t stay in her stomach for very long, before it simply came back up, usually into a bucket. The only thing that would stay down her belly was that dreaded alfalfa. Despite spending a thousand years on the moon, facing those horrible veggies was one of the darkest moments of her life. Recollecting her thoughts, Luna shooed away those distracting memories as she blinked away the blurriness. The princess took in a shot of crisp, cool air as she gasped suddenly as she backed away from the edge of the overhanging cliff she found herself standing upon, her eyes momentarily filled with fright. Taking deep breaths to calm herself, she took the moment to appreciate the beauty of her mountainous environment she was set in by the Visors. There was a faded rainbow gracing the grey skies above, indicating that she was perhaps in another strange land, not native to Equestria. She could see other neighboring mountains, sparingly covered in green and bronze forests and vegetation, much like the cliff she stood upon. “Well this certainly is a beautiful area,” Luna mumbled softly to herself as she looked around. As she did, she discovered several metallic pedestals nearby with floating, holographic words above them. “Well, what do we have here?” Walking up to the one titled Campaign, she found a green button its top. Pressing it lightly, her hooves scurried back as the environment around her drastically changed, now placing her in the middle of what appeared to be a small military camp, with strange armored ponies around her. They were the ones from the game’s box art! They seemed to be sizing up the ponies in green, more uniformed attire. She recognized them, as they were similar to the uniform for the guards stationed outside Equestria. Celestia once told her about how some countries needed extra protection, as they didn't have the funds to build or maintain a force of their own, in exchange for some resources that Equestria didn’t have. Luna, however, didn’t like the idea of Equestria playing babysitter. Sure, it’s nice that some of these countries offer some of their resources to her homeland. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder if they were doing it out of respect, or if they feared Equestria invading for their resources. After all, news of the new Elements of Harmony spread around the world like wildfire since Discord’s defeat a few years ago. The last time she took a friendly trip to Saddle Arabia, their co-rulers’ lips couldn’t help but chatter away about how powerful they thought Equestria’s newest band of protectors must be. Their words sounded like exaggerations to Luna, but the night Alicorn believed that they took their beliefs close to their hearts. Not wanting to correct them, she said little about how the Bearers are really just like any upstanding citizen of Equestria, once you get to know them. Of course, the pink one definitely took some time getting used to, and required some hardcore tolerance for her random appearances. It was decidedly not impressive when Pinkie Pie would surprise her with cake while she was brushing her teeth. Luna fiercely shook her head, wanting to push away those thoughts. The more she thought about the outside world, the more she wanted to drive away their tiresome issues. Celestia really wanted Luna to relax, so that is what she decided to do! Relax, have fun, and enjoy this video game. “I hope that this game will be long. Tia promised that games like these can be very distracting to a mind,” Luna mused, her voice filled with high expectations. The process to setting up her campaign was clean and simple for Luna, as she walked among the floating options. First level, beginning of the mission, and easy difficulty, as this was her first time playing. She pressed her hoof through the options of ‘Skulls,’ wanting to check out its settings, but she held her breath as soon as the slight complexity of the pony bones’ nature revealed themselves to her. Luna tilted her head to the side inquisitively as she studied the strange riddles, her brain attempting to quickly process the information laid out before her. However, Cowbell’s “More bang for your buck” made as much sense as The Riddler from Batmare. Just as thought Luna was done, her tail interacted with one of the smaller options, which turned out to be not quite so small, and it revealed customization settings for what appeared to be her Spartan Soldier. Entranced by all the options, her eyes lit up and Luna breathed out, “Oh! This will take a while.” Skimming through the selections quickly, Luna carefully looked at all the choices she had. It seemed that most of the armor pieces farther down the lists were unavailable at the moment, as they were greyed out and had a padlock symbol next to them. Even with a persistent push, the floating model of her Spartan suit refused to change to her will. Softly nickering, Luna decided to focus on its color scheme. After thinking for a few moments, she decided on a navy blue and purple color combination, with blue dominating most of the armor. Pleased with how her armor looked, she backed out of the submenu and pressed her muzzle against Play. Her sight went dark again once more. “Oh no, here we go again,” Luna mumbled, annoyed. Luna’s vision was hazy and foggy at best, when she came to. The earth below her hooves felt incredibly dry and craggy, as if it was torn apart by an earthquake. A dust cloud billowed towards her, spewing into her face with bits of the nasty earth and gravel. Coughing, she dispersed the offending cloud with her wings to get a better view of her surroundings. Luna gasped sharply, as the red scene around her unfolded before her very eyes. The earth was indeed steamy and ruined, just as the soil below her indicated. The mountains appeared burnt red and blazing just like the sky; the tallest of which was split in half, almost as if somebody took a hatchet and hacked down on the tall peak like it was a stack of meat. “By my mother’s mane,” Luna breathed out, the size of her irises pinpricks. She stared, amazed at the destruction before her, “How did this come to be? Only gods could have done this… “ The probability of gods being in the game right now actually seemed fairly high, but the brief introduction on the back of the game's box specifically stated this was Science Fiction. Luna heard about how that genre typically didn't include gods and goddesses into their stories because they were considered to be Fantasy, even though Luna and Celestia were both living proof of omnipotent powers being a reality. Of course, neither Luna nor her sister scoffed at the idea of having stories like these around. Everypony was entitled to experience and create what made them happy. She slowly walked the land, allowing the breath-taking, yet grim sight of the broken world to imprint in her mind, Luna came across a round object lying slightly buried in the red dirt. She was about to reach out for her magic to pick up the helmet, but was concerned. Was it possible to use magic in the game? Luckily, it seemed that the game responded, and allowed her blue aura to bridge a connection with the object. Carefully lifting it from the ground, Luna blew the red dust off the mysterious object. Her heart then immediately sunk as she identified the object’s identity. It was a Spartan Soldier’s helmet, but not just any ordinary helmet. It was her helmet, the one she had just customized prior to starting the Campaign. There was no doubt in her mind that this was hers. What could this possibly mean for Luna? Was she going to die in the game? Her hooves shivering, Luna raised the helmet over her head, desperately wanting to be rid of it. She didn’t want to accept the idea of dying. She never asked for any of this! Instinctually, the helmet was quickly flung away from Luna, released from her magical grip. Just as the helmet was about to crash into ground, where its already cracked visor would break and shatter, its impact never came as Luna recaptured it again. She brought it in front of her again and considered it carefully, before hugging it close to her chest. If her fate in this game was to die, then Luna would stride forward. She had to investigate how this all came to be. The game obviously had a story to tell, and she wasn’t about to deny it the chance. The Princess of the Night continued to embrace her ruined headpiece until she realized the red world around her fading. As the world faded, the loud sound of something humming filled her eardrums, and Luna's world returned. She suddenly found herself sitting in the passenger seat of a green jeep, vulnerable to the cold air flowing through her mane. Luna quickly noticed how her body was wrapped in her new Spartan Armor, and she began to test its capabilities as she stretched her hoof, careful to not drop her now fresh helmet. It was surprisingly comfortable and somewhat flexible. All in all, she thought it was pretty good armor, and felt just as powerful as her own personal set. Perhaps maybe it was even more so. Looking at the helmet once more, she carefully started to put it on, grunting slightly in displeasure as it was a bit of a tight fit. However, she managed to get it covering her head, and soon found herself looking at a strange window, filled with data she didn’t really understand. Of course, Luna knew she would probably learn what all these icons meant, and she was looking forward to it.