//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: The Horde Hungers // Story: The Royal Gamer // by Test4Echo //------------------------------// "Can I finally get off the phone, Luna?" Resonance tiredly asked. "It's three in the morning." "Not yet," Luna said, staring at the menu before her. She heard Resonance groan, and a loud thump. "We have yet to try this 'Ponycraft'. We must first play a round." "You need to know how it works first!" Resonance answered. "Play the tutorials, or the campaign; anything to know how it feels to play it! Look I'm going to bed. I'll see you online in the morning." "But 'tis morning now." Luna stated, moving her cursor over to the suggested tutorials. "You know what I meant!" Resonance huffed. A loud click blasted in Luna's ear, causing her to flinch back from the phone. Had she been talking to Resonance about setting up her computer and games for most of the night? Resolutely shifting to a more comfortable position on her new chair, she hunkered down and began the first tutorial. *** Humming to herself, Nightshine made her way towards Luna's room, greeting a few fellow servants in the hallways. "Much better than my old job," she thought. "Though it has its weird moments. Why did I have to join when the princess had to be going through a phase?" "Good morning your ma--" Nightshine stopped in her tracks. Luna's bedroom was a mess. Wandering through the debris-field of anything that could be eaten in the fridge, she slowly crept on Luna, who was gazing at the computer screen in front of her. Across the screen flashed the words victory, and Luna threw her front hooves into the air, proclaiming, "Ha ha! Thy royal princess defeats thee again cruel Dominion!" Luna spun around in her chair as Nightshine gave a weak cough, the latter noting her slightly bedraggled face and frizzy mane. "Oh. Nightshine. 'Twas only thee." she nervously sighed, spinning her chair back around to face the computer screen. "Is not this another marvel of modern ponykind?" Luna asked as the screen faded to a metallic, futuristic bar, and what appeared to be two main characters having a serious chat. "Have you been on this all night?" Nightshine worriedly asked, picking up the garbage. Luna ignored her. She was watching the ongoing conversation the characters were having about the mission's aftermath. "Your majesty!" Nightshine snapped, grabbing Luna's attention. "Have you been playing on this machine all night?!" Sheepishly laughing, Luna replied, "I suppose so." Spinning around, she fussed, "Wherefore is Resonance; he said he would play with me this morning." "Forget it," Nightshine huffed, floating the giant ball of garbage out the door and directly into a passing cleaning maid's trolley pail. "Perhaps you should get some rest?" she suggested. "I'm sure Resonance" --she mentally growled, still not entirely convinced of his intentions-- "will be on later." "Nonsense!" Luna gasped. "I will await for his arrival. I am Princess of the Night. I have stayed awake for many days on end before." Glaring at Luna, her servant growled, "You'll go to bed and get some rest!" Luna stared blankly at Nightshine's angry look which was futilely trying to order her to follow her order. After another moment of tense silence, Luna said, humoring her servant, "Perhaps you are right." Leaving her chair in front of the computer, she looked in the mirror hanging on the wall near the door, and fixed her mane. Then, all under the glare from Nightshine, slowly settled into her bed. "That's better," Nightshine sighed, turning to leave Luna's room. "I will tell Princess Celestia that you are resting; I'm sure she'll understand." Luna gave a slight mumble of acknowledgement, and Nightshine departed, quietly closing the door behind her. When the coast seemed clear, Luna sprang from her bed, and dashed back over to her computer, put her headset back on, and booted up Ponycraft 2 again. "Where are you?" Luna demanded, searching for Resonance online. A beep in Luna's ear accompanied a message showing that Resonance, again under the name of Test4Echo, was indeed on Ponycraft's servers. Jumping in excitement slightly, Luna messaged him if he wanted to do some matches. "Sure," he replied back, joining Luna's party momentarily. "Thanks for actually letting me sleep." he said over the party's voice chat. Luna chuckled uncomfortably, "I'm sorry. I suppose I was too excited. The singleplayer story is beautifully written." "Yes. Yes it is." he agreed. Before he could suggest a game, Luna began to prattle on about the many things she enjoyed about said story. Sighing forlornly, he interrupted her monologue, "Are we going to fight some foals or not?" "Oh, right. Let us, um, own some 'noobs'!" Luna enthusiastically answered after her brain caught up with the question. "All right," Resonance chuckled at her awkward incorporation of some gaming terms. "But perhaps I should be party leader?" Abruptly Luna was notified that the party was disbanded, and seconds later was invited to a party by Resonance. After she joined, Resonance smacked his hooves together, creating a loud clap to carry over the chat. "'Kay let's do this!" he said, two large popping sounds carrying to Luna's ears. "What was that?" she asked while she waited for the timer to countdown to zero and begin the match. "Neck." Resonance answered, another pop coming in. "Not the healthiest habit, but it's something I do whenever I do a match or two on here: gets me in the zone!" Luna only nodded her head, and saw the pair they were up against were the Dragon race and the Changeling race. Quickly glancing at Resonance's profile marker, she saw that he was using the Pony race, like her. "gl hf" she saw Resonance send out. Before she could even ask, he explained, "Good luck; have fun." "Oh." she answered, sending out one of her own, and beginning to task her worker ponies on the crystal fields. After a few minutes of game-play, Resonance asked incredulously, "You do know how to play multiplayer, right?" "Um... not really," Luna admitted, taking her first few guards to protect her first base expansion. "But it mustn't be much different from the campaign?" "Yes! It is!" he snapped, causing Luna to wince at his outburst. "Sorry," he said a moment later. "I should not have--Wait--" A pinging sound resounded in Luna's ears, a bright box filled with an exclamation point appearing on her mini-map. "They're breaking down the rocks into our base. Get some units over there!" Indeed, there were many Changeling warriors and Dragon grunts slashing and clawing the rocks at the back of their quarter of the map. Luna quickly ordered all her warriors to repel the would-be intruders. "No!" Resonance cried out. "Don't! They're going to--" He stopped, sighing as many more Changeling warriors bolted into Luna's expansion, destroying all her workers in a blink of an eye. Her dozen or so guards, cut off in the open, were soon surrounded by the much faster Changelings and were quickly dispatched. Trying to help, Resonance sent his much more powerful Praetor guards, outfitted in full body armor, to attack the remaining assailants. At that moment, the few units that were knocking down the rock wall broke through, the Dragon grunts slicing through the Praetors with ease, thanks to their unique forearm laser-sword blades. "Give up." Resonance sighed, sending out a good game. Complying, Luna sent out her own good game, and left the match. When the score screen appeared, she gulped, "I'm sorry. I suppose I needed a quick tutorial of how to play multiplayer." "Ya' think?" he replied snarkily. "This time, let me tell you a few basic build orders." *** "So have you got it?" Resonance asked, having just finished a run-through of a few common builds. "I believe so." Luna replied, looking over the replay he sent of the final tactic. "Okay. I'll let you know if you need to transition to something." he said, the countdown timer giving way to the loading screen. Luna gave a small jump. Their two opponents were familiar. The two adversaries' tags were Starswirler858 and Rainboomer78. As the match started, Starswirler typed up, "Wait. Princess Luna? Is that you? It's us: Twilight and Rainbow Dash." "Talk about small worlds." Resonance breathed as Luna replied that it was indeed her on the other side. "Hah! Now I have a chance at beating you this time!" Rainbow Dash said in the chat, obviously still sore about losing to Resonance. "Fat chance." Resonance quipped back. Finishing their banter, the two teams went to work, trying to annihilate the other. Luna decided to go for a rapid expansion. After telling Resonance her plans, she went to work, gathering the needed crystals, and swiftly claimed two more bases. During this time, Twilight and Dash were poking in and out of the icy map's crags, trying to attack where they could. "No!" Luna cried as the two ponies destroyed one of her expansions. Determined to not lose this time, Luna began building up a large army of her basic guards and long-range siege tanks. After thirty minutes of game-time, the two forces were still at a stalemate. "Oh come on!" Dash typed as she sent her lesser equipped forces against the hard wall of Luna's tanks. Luna chuckled slightly. Resonance told her that Dash had gone for a "rush build", and the pegasus's economy and military suffered since it failed. Dash's frustrated attack on Luna's front provided the momentum she and Resonance needed. Un-sieging all her tanks, she ordered her army to push the weakened border. Resonance quickly followed, their combined forces beating their way through Twilight and Dash's forward expansions. "That's two now!" Dash typed in anger before leaving. As Twilight's main base started to fall, she sent out a good game, causing Luna to joyfully jump out of her chair. Once the score screen appeared again, Luna was notified of two friend requests from Twilight and Dash. She readily accepted. A moment later, Twilight popped into her party, in the middle of a conversation with Dash. "Come on, Dash!" she pleaded. Pausing, she apparently was listening to Dash's response. After a few more moments of persuasion, Dash's avatar popped into the party. "Good ga--" Resonance began. "Not. A. Word." Dash cut him off sourly. "Nice to see you again, Test4Echo," Twilight greeted. "Princess Luna, you are trying Ponycraft?" "Yea, Twilight," Luna answered, perusing through the score screen. "And his name is Resonance." "Heh. Yes, Resonance, at your service." he said as the countdown timer began. Dash grumbled something about working with the enemy. "Look at it this way," Resonance informed her. "You have a much better chance of winning now." Luna didn't hear Dash's reply. As the loading screen commenced, she flattened her ears to her skull. One of the opponents was Ponymus Prime. When the game started, she pointed out, "Isn't that the same--?" "Yes," Resonance replied, groaning in disgust. "It's the same guy." "Who?" Twilight asked, starting to construct her Changeling's spawning pool. While Resonance and Luna brought the other two up to speed, messages at the bottom of the screen popped up, telling that the other three opponents had been dropped from the battle. "Well," Resonance said, "looks like here's where it starts." The four began building up their bases, never once being scouted by Ponymus. After a couple of minutes, Luna was informed that her furthest expansion was being attacked, even though she never saw a scout there. "Map hacks," Resonance said, sending his forces to help. As the game dragged on, all four began trying multiple attacks, but Ponymus had defenses at every angle and attacked when they were away from their bases. Minute by minute, their own defenses began to crumble, and Dash sent a final attack against his forces, breaking through, but not crippling him. Screaming in frustration, she left the game, soon followed by Resonance and Twililght. Before she left too, Luna saw Ponymus type up, "Don't mess with the best." Her anger kindled, Luna said, "'Tis unfair. How can he be so knavish?" Without waiting for an answer, she closed the game. Sighing, she was struck with an idea: buy more games! She pondered for a moment how she could, with Nightshine under the belief that she was asleep, it would have to be stealthy. After a moment of thought, she mentally slapped herself. She knew where the electronic store was, why couldn't she just teleport herself there? Furrowing her brow in concentration, she pictured the store, and a moment later a light-blue flash transported her to the electronic store.