//------------------------------//
// Part 12: MVCQ 
// Story: DisQord 
// by Midnight Sprint 
//------------------------------//


“What do you know about video games?” Q questioned, still leaning against the chaos entity’s side. Discord chuckled, nudging Q off of him, before walking around in circles. “Oh, what, you mean those little plastic boxes dribbling nonsense out that makes ponies eyes melt and brains turn to goop?” He raised a claw to his chin, standing upright, and shrugged while offering a chuckle once again. “Come to think of it, that IS a pretty funny image.”

“Oh, give it a rest, Discord. We get it. You’re all about nonsense, and love a good shuffle in the deck of reality. You still haven’t answered my question.” Q directed rather forcefully. It was pretty clear to Picard that Q’s power outshined Discord’s own, but the ponies accompanying the captain were none to certain. To be honest, none could be sure just who could defeat the other if it came down to it. The immense reality bending nature of both creatures could easily outright cancel one another out, or even obliterate one another, to say nothing about side effect consequences that could only be guessed at.

“Oh, alright.” Discord finally replied, dropping his shoulders in surrender. If he had things his way the whole time, after all, life would be so incredibly boring. Q smiled, patting the Draconequus’ shoulder. “You see? Not so hard. Now, I understand that there have been a great many games throughout the galaxy… no, the universe! And while we could certainly continue these little trials, but I’d like to paint you into a corner you’ve never been in before.”

Discord narrowed his eyes, shifting closer to the Q. “What do you have in mind?” Discord questioned suspiciously. The Captain circled with the ponies to stand on the side of the two entities squaring off against one another. Twilight was about to inquire as to what sort of guess Captain Picard could even begin to make, until Q began speaking, leaning on Twilight’s shoulder casually, much to Twilight’s disdain.

“Like any game, one round would be anybody’s win on chance alone. Since it’s my turn to put up, these are the rules. Three games of my choosing, and one round per game. While we are in the games, we have to abide by THEIR rules. Meaning no reality changing, and no cheating. And just to make sure, we’re starting now.” Q snapped his fingers, and the ponies and creatures were suddenly whipped through a momentary blast of light and air, finding themselves in a strange location.

Winds lapped around the ponies, blowing manes and forcing squinted eyes for a half of a minute, while the Six, plus dragon and omnipotent beings popped into being upon a grand, steampunk style airship. “Where are we, Captain? Do you know where Q has taken us?” Twilight asked almost rhetorically. Picard wandered to the side rails of the ship, and looked over. The vessel, borne aloft by great helicopter rotors placed with engineering skill about the deck. “I don’t know.” Picard said briefly. “The land doesn’t look familiar.”

Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack ran for the rails beside Picard, while Spike and Fluttershy gripped tightly beside Twilight Sparkle and the central mast. Q stood looking bored, while Discord got a handle on his surroundings. “And what, pray-tell, are we supposed to be doing here?” The chaos beast inquired, sounding genuinely somewhat agitated. Pinkie replied first, however, without actually answering the creature. “Ooohh! We’re on board some kind of huge steam powered ship, but instead of sailing in water, it sails in the sky, and it’s captained by a really cool lady captain who flies around trying to stop evil doers! RIGHT?!”

Twilight and the others, as always, lowered their eyes in exasperation and modest disregard for her outlandish comments. Q however, most amused, smiled. “That’s correct, Pinkie Pie.” To which the the ponies all stared, mouths agape, and even Captain Picard turned and strode beside the Q. “Q. Where exactly have you brought us, this time?” Discord snaked his way aggressively between the two. “Yes, and can we PLEASE hurry this up? I’ve got things to do!”

While the clouds broke apart, giving a momentary break in the foggy surroundings, Q explained briefly. “Long ago… well, long ago for Captain Picard and I, anyhow, there was an overabundance of video games. A kind of game that can be played on televisions, computers, and all sorts of silly devices. This was once one of the most popular!”

“Aaaaaand, you’ve replicated that game, and put us all inside it?” Applejack asked, suspiciously and accusingly. Q grinned. “Of course not, my dear Applejack. I’ve brought us all inside it! Into the very reality that exists by the mere existence of the game itself. Where else would we be?” Discord brought a hand to his face, and shook his head, before speaking his mind. “I swear, this must be how it feels to be you ponies when I’m around.” Picard, Rarity, and Twilight smiled. Even if he didn’t change, at least he now understood how irritating it was to have someone around who was extremely powerful, and wielding their power with the mindset of a whimsical five year old. Q issued a short introduction to how the game would work to Discord while most of the ponies discussed and observed.

“Enough talk!” Q exclaimed curtly. “Have at you!” Without warning, the ponies found themselves on the sidelines, while Discord and Q stood face to face from across a short distance. Down to their side and above their heads, a strange glowing line appeared, as though some sort of HUD on a great, unseen screen. Discord, taking a pause, before assuming the purpose, frowned. “Goodness. If this is how it’s going to take, I insist we break down the amount of games from six, to three!” Q challenged.

“Well it’s about time we agree on something!” Discord hollered, before leaping forward. The two met in the middle, and stood rather awkwardly opposite one another, attempting to figure out some kind of attack pattern. “Maybe you should have picked a better trial for two such as us?” Discord hissed to the powerful entity. Surrendering the point, Q shrugged in silent agreement. It was a rather strange choice of game for two creatures born of seemingly magical omnipotence. Neither bore any particular attraction to physical combat, let alone something such as this.

“Well,” Q said casually. “I guess it’s a good thing we still have this!” He held a hand back, with a glowing white orb forming in his palm, which he hurled like a discus towards Discord. The Draconequus blocked with his forearms, which moderately stung, but mostly only served to knock him back a foot. The little glowing bar above Discord dropped a small notch, emptying the red bar, while a smaller bar that read “Level 1” grew a little. “Ohhhhh. I get it!” Pinkie said, giggling. Fluttershy mumbled something to herself about violence, but was unheard over the winds and mild discussion between the ponies.

“The little red lines are their health! If it goes all the way down, they go-“ to which Pinkie made an over exaggerated ‘bleh’ sound. Fluttershy again, seemed rather concerned. Even as a game, and even between the two such as themselves, Fluttershy didn’t want to see anypony, or anyone, get seriously hurt. She made a mild protest, which went mostly unheard. Q lobbed white energy blast after energy blast, which Discord continued to block, with mostly success. Discord bellowed about cheating, when he found that he was unable to use his powers to break the game to aid in his battle.

“Now now, I told you that we’d be abiding by these rules.” Q dictated. Discord contemplated what he presumed the game to be from the mild description Q had given prior to beginning. Suddenly, unable to see the creature, Q looked around, only to find the being standing behind him. Q, startled for once, exclaimed, “Wait! I thought I said no cheating!” Discord laughed shortly. “If it were cheating, I wouldn’t be able to do it, would I? It was a teleport move. Perfectly acceptable!” He explained, before shoving Q with a very small chaos energy blast. Q’s red Federation uniform turned blue, in addition to the small amount of damage that ticked down on Q’s own red bar.

“I cannot even believe that this is happening.” Twilight said to Spike. The young dragon, resting on her shoulders, leaned around and very seriously said, “I know. Nobody’d ever believe that we were inside an actual video game.” To which Twilight shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Hey now, wait a minute. What are those other bars up there above them for?” Applejack curiously asked.  “Don’t worry about those,” Q began. “We… shouldn’t have to worry about that.”