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// Gaming interruptus: Interlude n°2 
// Story: Pony Terrestrial 
// by Arcanel 
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Well I’ll be dammed. I managed to write this my fellow readers! CPM here. If by any chance you were able to guess the game then kudos to you! Otherwise, don’t worry. It wasn’t exactly a very known game anyway sooooo…yeah, if you DID guess it then I salute you XD. Also, just in case, I think I should add a *SPOILER ALERT*. After all, going through the game without mentioning ANY of it and being able to NOT spoil anything well… I’m not god you know? Hell I’m just starting XD. Anyway, let’s see if being away from home, or as I like to call it, my imagination place, doesn’t make any changes to my writing shall we? XD. Also, since a situation has arisen (that is, somebody asking to use Arcanel in his/her story…EEEEEE!), I am putting a profile of Arcanel in my profile, so you go check it out if you want. And talking about my profile, I have also updated that since I thought it was too empty. You will also need it to understand and fully see Arcanel, as, like I said, he is pretty much me. That aside, here comes the next chapter of The misadventures of MLP: FIM around the world, Gaming interruptus: Interlude n°2!

Disclaimer: Look up carsnprognmlp.
carsnprognmlp: The owner of the nothing except a reading of a literature fantasy.
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As I said the words, I went and popped out the CD from the PS2, looked for its case, put it in and looked for the case I was looking for.

“Ah, here it is. You’ll see my dear ponies. Twilight more specifically. If you like to think then this should give you everything you need” I assured said purple pony. This in turn made her ask me something.

“Very well. I do have a question for you Arcanel if you don’t mind. How many of these games do you have?”

“Well…” I trailed of a bit trying to make an estimate. I kinda was expecting the question but it still made me think anyway. “I may have an estimate of…80 maybe 90 games or so” I told her. “However, this isn’t the only console for games. There were and are many others that made people play a lot of different games. Some look better than this game, others look or looked worse. If you were to count the games from every console so far ever since videogames, which is how these games are called, were created 65 years ago, you could count maybe…5000 or more. I think somewhere along those numbers” I explained to them. The magic of numbers once again made them wide eyed and to jawdrop. And I enjoyed every second of it, especially if Princess Celestia herself was like that. Suddenly, a shout came in hearing. And from someone I should have expected after I dropped the number bomb.

“Five…thousand…games! YEEPEE! Then we have a lot to play right now! Come on! Put the next game so we can see the other and the other and the other and the other and the other…” And so she kept on. Prepare ramble interruption in 3, 2, 1…

“Pinkie!” The scream for stop had come from all of her friends. I took this cue and proceeded to try and explain to Pinkie Pie in person that we humans cannot break the rules of Physics and Biology like she does. Or at the most least, like I can and think it will work.

“Um…Pinkie Pie…as much as I would like to show you ALL the games that existed so far….that is kinda impossible. Because 1, I don’t have all the consoles to play them, 2, some games have disappeared from existence, 3, I don’t have all the games, and 4, I can’t get them all here” I explained to her.

“Awwwww” The pink party pony lamented. ‘Must…resist…hugging…impul- oh screw it. Fluttershy wore me down enough. And I can’t resist anymore!’, and with that battle over I went and hugged the hell out of my favorite energetic pony. Only when she hugged me back I got my mind again and released the hug.

“I-eh-uh-muh-duh-sorry! But I couldn’t resist hugging you! Please I’m sorry” I apologized again, dropping my head. I really should have kept my mind in check. Then when I looked at her eyes again, the next thing that happened made smile. So…much.

“Silly Arc, you can hug me all you want! And you tried and made me smile again for that. That was super-duper cute!” Pinkie told me. ‘I think I just died of happiness. Touch any MLP: FIM character, check. Okay hug Pinkie and/or any MLP: FIM character in real life in my 25 thing to do before dying, check. Being given a nickname by said characters, also check. And that is just AWESOME!’ I thought in glee. Then I did a mental note to hit myself when nobody is watching for forgetting that Pinkie is the epitome of hugs and happiness. Shame on me.

“Awwwwwwwww  thank you Pinkie. That makes me happy all the way to heaven and hell like you have no idea. If we can then I WILL show the rest of the games that I have, okay? But we don’t have all the time in the world, even though you appear to be staying for a little time. So I can only show you this and one more game before calling it enough for the day and move on to something else to explain, okay?” I explained to them after one of my happiest moments in life. At the general nod and the “Okie-dokie-lokie!” from Pinkie, I proceeded into putting the game and turn it on.

“Okay then! This game is called Eternal Poison and-“ “By Celestia, why would a game be called like that!?” Once again the interruption came from Rarity. Only this time her insight made every sense of the world. Explaining the concept of a game with whatever name, initiate procedure.

“Oh well…the game is called after the item of the same name which every character in their stories are looking for. Believe me, it has nothing to do with the literal meaning of the phrase. Does that work for you Rarity?” I asked my favorite white pony.

“Well…I guess. But why did they have to call it like such? I mean surely they could have put a much less…obscure name, couldn’t they?” She wondered. Once again she was right. Problem is she does not know of the obscure side of the gaming world and therefore, us humans. This is going to be tough to say without spilling everything out.

“Um…you could say that…but the thing is that the plot of the game is not exactly…pure, for lack of a better word. But please, let it explain it itself in the game. I really don’t like to explain this kind of subject. That and the fact that it isn’t exactly easy to explain something from our without having something to compare it from your world, okay? I would like to explain further but it is somewhat difficult to do so right now” I explained to her. Luckily, she understood, nodded and dropped the subject right there. ‘Phew. Close call n°5 (or something like that. You keep count XD). The irony is, that sooner or later, those close calls will mean nothing if I will have to go and explain them this anyway’ I pondered.

“Anyway as I was saying…” I resumed. “This game is called Eternal Poison and it is what is classified as a grid, turn based role-playing game or grid, turn based RPG. This means that the game is based upon the movements of characters in a certain grid, only having a turn whenever that said character is allowed to, and that the characters will level up and get items and weapons to help them through. Level up means that the character will get stronger and gain new abilities after gaining a certain number of experience that is acquired through many ways. Any questions before we start this game?” I asked after the long explanation. Suddenly a quiet voice reached my ears.

“Ummmm…did you say…w-w-weapons?” Fluttershy asked in her timid tone, a bit of nervousness as well. ‘Oh…fuck. I forgot that’ I thought, already facepalming myself in my mind. Starting the process of explaining violence in gaming…now.

“Well…yes. It is a game that involves fighting, as the characters in the game must battle monsters and such” I tried to explain to her. This in turn made her shrink almost literally on sight.

“M-M-M-M-Monsters?!” She screamed. Well, in her levels of screaming that is. She also went and hid herself behind Twlight…again. 

‘Okay so I may have needed to remember to be more subtle around her in this type of things. STUPID ME!’ I thought discreetly stepping on my own foot as punishment for such carelessness on my part. ‘Arcanel you idiot, you went and scared Fluttershy. You will have the fan mob and yourself trying to kick your ass to oblivion. And I would deserve it. (Sigh) Hopefully I can revert this little situation…somehow’ I concluded in shame.

“Um…Fluttershy? Please, don’t be scared. The monsters are not real. They only appear in the game. Does that make you feel better?” I asked the nervous pony with hope. At my statement she went out of hiding and said.

“Oh…okay. If you say so” I was glad that a situation was avoided. I have had enough of those by now. ‘Nevertheless that was much easier than I thought. Then again I should probably NOT complain, for my sake’

“Okay…with that out of the way, may we start this game?” I announced. And with the question came the ever present general nod. And so began the explanation.

“Well here we are.  I will tell you this though, for the sake of saving time and problems, it would be best if you let me handle the controller, as the game is technically only for one player” I explained. However a claw was quickly raised.

“But didn’t you say that there were multiple characters?” Spike asked with wonder in his face.

“Good question. The game is made so that with one controller you are able to control multiple characters at the same time. Since this is a base turned game, there is only one thing one can do with one turn and therefore, the same controller can act for all the characters” I answered him. With that came his nod of approval and understanding and therefore, allowed me to proceed.

“So you see, this game is divided in several stories that happen in the same place, that is called Besek. This stories have different characters with their different backgrounds and such. However, let me alert you. This game isn’t exactly for those who think that everything will be good and stuff. This means that some of their personalities will be…quite obscure, and others will be normal. Is that okay so far?” I asked to the general audience. Once again, everybody had understood. ‘I have the best pupils…and they’re not even from here! Once again, this…this, is the teacher’s dream’ I pondered in joy.

“In that case, let us start! I will use the this story, which is the one that tells what happens with the characters that are Thage, Ranunculus and Retica (This is the story that I handle the best to tell the truth and the only one I am able to remember well, so that’s why I choose it)” I started. “Let me tell you this now, Thage is quite the…obscure character, Ranunculus is a bit less obscure but takes a lot from Thage, and Retica is different to them, but he isn’t quite the good person as well” I finished. This might as well scare them or produce other negative feelings but it is best to tell them now than in the midst of understanding that.

With that I started the game, put on the “New Game” option, and put on the story of the characters I mentioned before. And then, the game…began.

(Here you go. And yes, I know it isn’t exactly the moment per se, but I thought it would be best if I showed it to you here).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOjGvZOeH-Y

After seeing the stuff from the beginning, it went to the introduction of the characters. The black mage and totally scary Thage (like before. What you don’t know you look up in Google. Ok? I know it cuts the flow of the story but I kinda can’t avoid it by now. Sorry. Also, I’ll try to make the conversation of the characters of the story as scarce as I can okay?), the angry and fluffy Ranunculus, AKA Raki, and the innocent and retaliating Retica in the ever changing world of Besek. As I expected, soon there were comments. Good thing for me was, that I didn’t need to tell them what they were saying in this part, because this part was voiced.

“Oh my Celestia…Why would she do that? She is so…evil. But I wonder what is she along with Ranunculus doing there. Or even Ranunculus being with Thage at all. Or the fact that Retica came in that strange place.” Twilight wondered. ‘And so the questions of the story begins. She is more drawn to the plot than I thought she would, even if it is just the start’ I concluded.

“Why I never. I can’t believe she would do that to that poor child…Although I will admit that the all black dress suits her rather well” Rarity berated/complimented. ’By the ancestors…if it has class, then it isn’t so evil in her book, is it?...Maybe I should get one classy suit if I ever become a villain. Even if I would be a lousy one’ I thought, doing a mental facepalm. Although she IS right about black suiting Thage.

“Ah can’t believe she would just chain that little guy to her like that with that magic thingamajig (man I love to use that word). He didn’t even have a choice! And that wolf…he is worse than the timber wolves alright” Applejack commented. ‘Do not mess with timber wolves, yes. Do not mess with Ranunculus, do not FORGET!’ I agreed.

“…Cool. But what the hay is it with that girl? She is kinda…like Gilda, only worse!” Rainbow shouted. ‘Hmmm…never thought of that to tell the truth’ I conceded.

“She is a big meanie! I should throw a party for the “Super big meanie girl” just because of how mean she is!” Pinkie said. ‘Wow. She would throw a party for the bad guys. I wouldn’t mind been one if I could get one of those, plus Rarity's attention heh heh’ I thought in planning. Maybe becoming a villain won’t be that bad heh heh.

“Thage is…s-scary. But Raki is cute! But he is also scary” Fluttershy whispered. ‘I agree. If it weren’t for the fact that Raki would pretty much annihilate me if I so much as got close to him, I think I would also try and hug the big guy. Hmmm…now I wonder, did Thage ever tried that?’ I wondered to my mind. Although the sole image of Thage hugging Ranunculus is quite…strange.

“Wow. I wouldn’t like to mess with Thage and Ranunculus. Even Retica looks like a guy not to mess with” Spike admitted. ‘Amen to that brother. Amen to that’ I thought.

“Hmmm…is this what humans can be like? As well as the life that is here?” Celestia asked, though I wasn’t sure if it was to myself or to herself. To make sure, I answered her question anyway.

“Well…yes and no. Thage and Retica are like the humans, although it would QUITE difficult to find someone like them. But Ranunculus is an imaginated creature. He does resemble a wolf, but he is not that. You will also find how varied humans can be, as well as our imagination” I explained to her.

“I see. Interesting. I will need you to explain further on another time, if you do not mind that is” She told me.

“Sure, I don’t mind” I answered her, looking and not looking forward to that moment at the same time.

“I cannot believe it. Is that girl heartless? How could she do that?!” Luna gasped. ‘Heh. Thage you are making more people acknowledge you like a bad girl than you think’ I thought with a small smug smile getting to my face.

“Anyway, as you see, the plot to this story seems to be quite…dark” I repeated. The rest of the ponies looked at me with faces that said both “Ya don’t say?” and “I believe you now”. How is that possible, I have no idea. Then again, faces don’t usually have logic, let alone in cartoons, right?

“Well…” I started, a little nervous due to strange yet somewhat frightening faces. “I will now explain how the game works. You MUST listen, okay, because a) not to be rude, but it is LONG and I don’t want to repeat it and b) it is NOT easy to understand. Understood?” I finished, the last word with a somewhat military tone. At this I got a quick nod from everyone, and a salute from Pinkie Pie. I. LOVE. THAT. PONY. Then I took one deep breath…and let the explanation palooza begin.

“Okay, like I said this game is base on turns. The character who has the most speed in their stats will be the one to start first. The other stats handle how the character attacks and defends. Okay so far?” I asked, taking a mini break. However a hoof was raised this time.

“Can we see the stats somewhere? Or do we have to guess?” Twilight asked. ‘Initiate strategist mode’ I thought with mischief.

“Yes you can. Don’t worry I’ll indicate what is what as you can read it but first we should be on the battlefield. Another point is, that to win the battle, you must normally eliminate all the enemies, however, the conditions CAN change. However if the leader of the group is defeated, in this case, Thage, you wil lose. Anybody else can get defeated, so long as the leader isn’t” I answered her. After that, I turned to menu, and put on the start button.

“This is the battlefield. You can consider it a chess board if you’d like” I said, putting on a semi-smug smile face. Since the position of everyone in said battlefield is stationary like in most games, but you know when the other will move, but not what, a chess game would be most appropriate  to compare with. Especially with the grid thing. “Anyway, with each character you can do everything from the menu, so long as it has the moment permitted, except “Item”, which allows you to use any item from the menu, to yourself or any one beside you, and “Move”, which allows you to move in the character any way you want, so long as it is within the range of movement, which you can do any time you want. Then comes “Attack”, which allows you to physically attack the opponent, so long as the range is in within the range of the weapon itself, which varies from these as well depending on them. Below comes the ”Skill” command, which enters all the physical and magical abilities the character possesses, with their respective quantity of usage, and their power, as well as their range. The leader of the group of characters will be the only character to use the command “Lead”, which I will explain when the time comes. Next comes “Open”, which allows to open the treasure chests in the field if there are any, but only when you are right beside them. There’s also the “Wait” command, which is what ends the turn, by making the character choose the side it will end watching. This actually has more importance than you think, therefore, I will also explain later. And finally comes the “Status” command, which opens the status menu to see everything from the chosen character, from their life points, which is like their life source, the experience to pass to the next level, the name, class, stats, and affinities, something I’ll explain later, of said character. From this menu you can also access the status menu from the rest of the characters AND enemies” Before I could continue, I was interrupted by Twilight again.

“Wait a minute. So you can see what is the status of your enemies?” Twilight asked with wonder over the advantage. I am not surprised, after all, it is common sense to ask this.

“That’s correct. Like I said, consider the way to play this game like a chess match. You know everything about the opponent, except what is it going to do. That is why I said, there would be a lot of strategy in this one” I explained to her. After a nod from her I proceeded to keep on burning my throat. I think I’m going to need some Halls after this. (Halls rule! XD).

“Okay, this is the basic from the character menu. I’ll explain the rest after I finished this one explanation and are on the go. Next comes the status menu” I said, with not a lot of enthusiasm after expending my throat as if it were expendable. Suddenly however came a frustrated shout.

“Can’t we just move on to the game and see what happens from then on. My mind is burning!” Rainbow exclaimed. ‘(Sigh) Why didn’t I expected this? Oh well. This is Rainbow Dash after all’ I thought, mentally shrugging. But before I could explain to her why knowing the rules first is more important, another pony got to me first. And someone I should have expected to do it, to tell the truth.

“Rainbow, I know you are bored, but if we don’t know the rules first, then we won’t know how to play, and fully enjoy the game” Twilight said to Rainbow. Once again, the master of rules has spoken. At this, Rainbow simply gave a huff, and sat on her haunches crossing her hooves.

“Thank you Twilight” I complimented my purple thinker. “Now the status menu is very important to understand. First you got the life from the character, and below you have the experience needed to level up. At the right, you can see the stats from the character. The first column has in order from up to down, ATK, which is attack and is the physical strength of the character, DEF, which is defense and is the physical defense, MDF, which stands for and is the magical defense, and MND, which means mind and is involved in the magical defense. On the other column, you have STR, which stands for strength and is involved in the physical attack, VIT, which means vitality and is involved in the magical defense, INT, which is intelligence and is involved in the magical power, and SPD, which means speed and tells how fast the character is. The reason there is no magical power stat, is because the power is already stated in the magic, which is changed by the elemental affinities, which I’ll explain now, the intelligence of a character, and how strong the magic itself is, and will forever stay that way unless any of those three changes. There would also be another stat, MOVE, which tells how many “blocks” can the character move in the grid, but it is only possible to see outside any battle. Next, below we have the elemental affinities. There are six elements here which are in order here from left to right and up to down, Pyro, Water, Terra, Aero, Malus and Sacra. Needless to say, each represents fire, water, earth, air, darkness and light. If you check the numbers it will tell you if it is weak, strong, or indifferent. That is, positive numbers indicate strong against, 0 indicates indifference, and negative numbers will indicate weakness against. The numbers will indicate how strong is that resistance or weakness. Below these, we have the physical resistances. This is because there are three types of attacks. In order from left to right: Slash, Strike, and Pierce attacks. The numbers will once again indicate how weak or strong against those will be, the same way as the elements. To the left, we have three passive abilities, which are from left to right, Evade, which means the probabilities from escaping an attack, Revenge, which indicates the probabilities to counter a physical attack, and Critical, which tell the probabilities from doing more damage than normal in physical attacks. Below all this, you can see the type of attack the character has, as well as if they are wearing something, protection or accessories.After that if you press the right arrow button, you will see the skills the character has, as well as the passive skills, which are abilities that are activated from the moment they enter the battlefield and are active the whole time. This is applied to every character, except in enemies, where the experience bar is replaced by their Overkill bar, something I will explain later, and below this bar it will be indicated if the character moves by ground, which the allies will always have, flies, or phases to the location. This is important in that the flying and phasing grant more mobility to pass obstacles that would normally impede the movement. I think that is all. The rest I’ll explain in the battle. Any questions?” I literally sighed as I gave my almost final breath. 

“Need…air…water…something” I gasped. When I recovered my air a bit I saw that the faces of the others were all in wonder, except Dash who was asleep, cutest image ever, and Twilight who was listening with a lot of attention. Suddenly a voice reached my ears.

“Um…Mr. Arcanel? Would you mind re-explaining the rules again, but slower?” Luna asked with all the shyness and nervousness of Fluttershy.

After that little question, I left the controller in my bed, lifted from my sitting positions, and opened my arms in a Jesus Christ way. And then, the yell of infinity.

“OH GOD WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!?” which after yelling my guts out, ensued a hyper facepalm. Then when the dramatic moment ended, put on a sad face and and simply said.

“Okay…” (I hope you get the reference! Note, it is from the internet).

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And so the strategy palooza…begins! XD. Regardless I hope you will enjoy this side of the gaming experience…for my sake that is XD. I also am sorry for the big bad paragraphs that ruin your eyes XD, but I kinda didn’t know where to cut them down, nor how. That aside I have one question for you guys. Like any writer that has a second purpose to their stories (my first and foremost is of course, write for my entertainment and entertain you readers), sometimes this second purpose is fame. So my question is…Do you think I may be able to reach Equestria Daily someday or sometime with this story? Or maybe with another story? I know. Why the hell I am asking this now? Or even then, why the hell I am asking this at all? Well…I am curious to tell the truth. I want to know if the ever-powerful Sethisto would be interested in posting my story, or if he would be interested in myself as a writer. At the risk of him reading this and automatically lose interest because of asking this. But I really dream of getting there. Only myself and you may make that possible. If anything I didn’t want to ask (look like a jerk, but my mind nags me to ask it). If you want to answer, great! Say everything you want. If not, that is okay. This isn’t the kind of questions to just go and answer now is it? Anyway, aside from that, I have nothing more to say. So with it, the catchphrase comes into place with another modification. Comment, R&R, let your inner Grammar Nazi out, throw WHATEVER ideas you have for me, haters ignored, flamers abhorred, etc, etc.