//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 Part 1 - BioShock Infinite [Sandcroft] // Story: Luna Plays... // by Chaotic Note //------------------------------// So... spoilers. Just warning you. "Yeah, I know Sand, but I'm busy right now. I just got BioShock Infinite." "C'mon Luna, we're all here." "Yeah Luna, don't let us down, we just need one more party member!" Luna's hoof connected with her forehead softly. "Sentinel, Sand, sorry. You know how long I've put this off." Ignoring the two's shouts of protest, she left the chat party they had invited her to. They had wanted her to join them to play a few episodes of Spartan Ops in Halo 4. It was only natural that she would say no, given how she just got the game that cleaned up at E4 when it came out. Without any further hesitation, she popped the disc out and put it in the console. She donned the I.P.V. and waited to be whisked away to the city of Columbia. Princess Luna was standing on a balcony, looking out into a street filled with various ponies lounging and conversing in the sun. The glare from the giant orb bloomed in her vision, prompting her to put up a hoof to ward away its light. Music could be heard faintly playing from one of the stores. A shimmer caught her attention and took it to a sign high up on a building to her left. What had once been an advertisement for a store's prices shifted to be a menu with a few options. She chuckled at its novelty and flew up to press the option that read "Main Game." Another odd sound reached her ears and she looked down to the right. Another sign changed. She flew down and trotted the last few steps in excitement. She pressed the button to start a new game, then let her body be pulled into the glare of the sunlight; the smile never left her face. "The mind of the subject will desperately struggle to create memories where none exist..." The sound of thunder echoed in her ears. The small raft she was in swayed in the storm and water would occasionally splash up over the edges of the wood. She could barely make out a lighthouse spinning in the distance; they were headed straight for it. "Are you going to just sit there?" came the voice of the stallion rowing the boat. He was dressed in a yellow raincoat, the hat of which obscured his face. "As compared to what? Standing?" replied the voice of the mare sitting directly in front of Luna. She was dressed identically to the stallion, including the hidden face. "Not standing, rowing," the stallion said quickly. The two had slightly refined accents, similar to Rarity's from Ponyville. "Rowing? Hadn't planned on it." "So you expect me to shoulder the burden?" the stallion asked. In the middle of his sentence, the mare turned slightly and passed Luna a polished wooden box. A golden placard on the top read "Property of Booker DeWitt, 7th Cavalry, Wounded Fetlock." So Booker DeWitt was her name. Part of the cavalry, apparently; a large honor. And she had learned that the battle of Wounded Fetlock had occurred while she was... away. According to the history books, it wasn't Equestria's finest moment. "No, I do expect you to do all the rowing." The two's bickering reminded Luna of her and Celestia's conversations when they were younger. Perhaps the two were siblings. "And why is that?" questioned the stallion. "Coming here was your idea," shot back the mare. "My idea?" "I made it very clear that I don't believe in the exercise." "The rowing?" "No. I imagine that's wonderful exercise." "Then what?" "The entire thought experiment." This is a development, thought Luna. What exercise could they be talking about then? Her questions took a back-seat as they approached the lighthouse. "Um, excuse me?" Luna held up a hoof. "How much longer?" Her question was ignored by the two, quite rudely she might add, as they continued on with their cryptic conversation. "One goes into an experiment knowing one could fail," said the stallion, quieter this time. "But one does not undertake an experiment knowing one has failed." What could they be talking about? What experiment? And how could you fail before even beginning? Luna tuned them out for a moment as she opened the box and examined its contents. The first thing she noticed was the conspicuous repeating pistol on the top. She grabbed it quickly, loaded a bullet into the chamber, and holstered it. She picked up a picture of a girl and flipped it over. Written on the back in fancy hoof-writing was "Bring to New York unharmed." So this must be my mission. Find the girl. Sitting in the bottom of the box sat a few silver coins, a large, ornate key, and the bearings for New York. On the flip-side of the lid there was a drawing of a scroll, a key, and a sword, with a few numbers scribbled by each. Next to the drawing was a little advertisement of some sort for Monument Island, probably where she would find the girl in the picture. Seeing nothing else in the box, she closed it and set it on the bench next to her. "...greater interest in getting there than I do," came the voice of the mare. They had been talking about her. "I suppose she does, though there's no point in asking." Luna was pleased to see that the game recognized that she was a mare and not a stallion, as the name Booker DeWitt would suggest. Although she hoped that it didn't impede progress of the game. "Why not?" "Because she doesn't row." "She doesn't row?" "No, she doesn't row." "Ah. I see what you mean." Before she had time to wonder what the odd couple were implying, the boat pulled up to a small shack next to the island that the lighthouse was built on. "We've arrived," said the mare, still without turning around. Luna checked she had everything she needed with her, then climbed up the ladder to the dock. She looked up at the lighthouse. It was foreboding, in a sense. The rain pelted her coat, soaking through the thin vest and shirt she wore. She got so absorbed in scrutinizing the lighthouse, that she didn't notice the pair rowing away, saying something about how it didn't matter what they told her. "Hey, wait! Is someone meeting me here?!" she shouted to the departing two. "I'd certainly hope so," said the stallion. "It does seem like a dreadful place to be stranded," added the mare. And they disappeared back into the storm. "Those two are really weird," Luna murmured to herself. She looked toward the steps leading into the lighthouse. "I really hope somepony's inside..." "OF THY SINS I SHALL WASH THEE," read a stitched sign mounted on the main support beam inside the lighthouse. Luna peered into the small washbowl placed on a table below, gazing at her reflection. For some reason, she felt inclined to pass up the washing. Something deep within her screamed that it wouldn't help anything. She walked up the stairs, calling out to check if anypony was there. She heard her own voice echo back to her. As she reached the next floor, she heard a radio playing an old-sounding song. Her eyes glazed over the various maps and pieces of parchment that littered the wall and desks around her. She switched the radio off as she walked by it. Going up the next staircase, she noticed a bloody hoofprint on the wall. Her breath and pace quickened slightly, and she got to the next floor. The area had been ransacked; books strewn about, furniture misplaced, and the walls bare. But what drew her attention was the deceased pony sitting tied-up in a chair, surrounded by a pool of blood. She gasped and ran over. A bag was over his head and a sign hung from his neck that had "Don't disappoint us" written on it in blood. She silently backed away from the scene and walked up the next flight of stairs. "Whoever has sent me here definitely wants the job to be done..." she said to herself. So far the lead-up to the game played up the suspense. She suspected that whatever lied at the top of the lighthouse would take her to Columbia. "3... 2... 1... Ascension. Ascension." Luna was panicking. She hadn't anticipated the fancy chair suddenly turning into a screaming metal death-trap. Now she had lost her pistol and was rocketing into the sky through the storm clouds. She gritted her teeth and held on to whatever she could, despite being strapped into the chair. But then the rough ride stopped and sunlight streamed across her face. And what she saw took her breath away. Columbia, the City in the Sky. Smoke drifted lazily upwards from the chimneys of the flying buildings, intermingling with the puffy clouds that obscured some of the green land far below. Several fireworks burst in the air below her pod and streamed colors across the sky. A suspension bridge spanned the gap between two parts of the city, and a massive golden angel loomed above it all. The pod Luna was in shook suddenly as she heard a parachute unfurl into the air. Her descent slowed as she drifted past a few buildings to land on some sort of platform that lowered her down under the pavement. Through gaps in the machinery she could make out a huge stained-glass mosaic of a stallion holding out a hoof to lead the ponies around him to the glowing city in the clouds above them. "'The seed of the Prophet shall sit the throne and drown in flame the mountains of civilization...'" Luna murmured to herself as she pondered the meaning. She reached the bottom and the clasps holding her to the chair undid themselves. The pod's door burst open with a hiss of steam and clicking gears, then lowered down into the ground. She was in what looked like a church, clearly worshiping the graying stallion Father Comstock. Her hooves splashed through the inch or so of water that covered the stone floors, interrupting the song floating gently in the air. She walked around the chambers she had entered. On the left side was a stained-glass mosaic of a mare, no doubt the mate of Father Comstock. On the right was the couple holding a foal, the "lamb." She walked back to the center and noticed that she was not alone. "Hey, how do I get into the city?" she asked the white-robed stallion. "Only the cleansed may gain passage into the Columbia, friend," he said with an amiable, if creepy, smile. "Ooo-kay." Freaked out slightly, Luna made her way down the spiraling staircase at the back of the room, taking into the windows set into the wall; the sword, the scroll, and the key. She gasped in surprise as she reached the bottom and suddenly dropped in a pool of water reaching to almost the top of her long legs. The section of the stretching hallway she walked down was lined by candles floating in the water, and she could see more white-robed figures making their way to the end of the hall, where a bunch of them had gathered. She increased her pace, curious to see what the commotion was. As she got closer, she began to hear an elderly stallion's voice shouting excitedly. She stopped just outside the circle formed around him and considered her options for a moment. I can't just go in fighting, and there doesn't seem to be any other path to get into the city... She forced her way into the circle and called to the stallion priest. "Is this the way into the city?" "The only way into the city is to be baptized, newcomer! In the name of our Prophet, and the name of our Lord!" "Well, it's either this or getting back on that rocket..." Luna muttered before taking the outstretched hoof of the priest. He yanked her to the side with surprising strength. "I baptize you: in the name of the Prophet, in the name of our founders, in the name of our Lord!" He put a hoof to her forehead and forced her head down into the waters. Luna, taken by surprise from the sudden action, panicked and thrashed around. The hoof disappeared for and moment and she came back up coughing and spluttering. "I don't know, brothers and sisters, but this one doesn't look clean to me!" The hoof came back and shoved her under the water, where she quickly ran out of breath and faded into unconsciousness.