//------------------------------// // 1 - Futility // Story: Delicate Hooves // by fishii10 //------------------------------// It was the night of the Summer Sun Celebration. It seemed as though Ponyville was all too quiet on this celebratory night – with reason. “Guess I chose a good time to move in, huh,” Game muttered to himself, noting the collective hoard of voices audible from somewhere in the middle of town. He whipped off his saddlebags, which slammed to the floor and sagged under the force. Game couldn’t help but sigh at this; he was notorious back home in Manehattan for being one of the clumsiest ponies around. He just didn’t know his own strength. This feeling soon diminished, and Game Changer instead felt a huge freedom in his heavy, hurting shoulders. It reminded him of his sanctuary out here in Ponyville, away from the tiresome bustle that was his family’s apartment in Manehattan. He reminisced with relief and gratitude – gratitude that they had finally let him go and take on Equestria on his own. The first thing that his mind cast back to was his older sister, Ribbon Twirl. She had left two years before Game, with little direction. He felt that she was a lot like her peers as a person, but she didn’t seem as strong as he felt he was when in a tricky situation. Ribbon certainly hadn’t thrown herself into things willingly – education seemed to have failed her, or vice versa. One thing she did pour all her passion into, however, was dance. She’d made it to relative fame as a reserve lead for Hinny of the Hills, thanks to her natural vocal talent. Game Changer certainly didn’t revere her weakness of mind, in both emotional and decisional senses. It made her a tricky person. Perhaps not worthy of her heritage as a unicorn. But her job seemed to make her a talking point, and she was pretty close to him at home, so he liked her despite the lack of respect. The next thing that instantly swarmed into his mind, just as a hoard of wasps would, was his younger sister. She seemed to be a living memory of Game Changer himself as a child, at least before his peers’ opinions sunk in – manic, and often rather stubborn. At times he thought she was two different people at once. A short and stumpy pegasus filly, with no end of energy – that was Inkling. Inkling took pride in her fairly terrible art, once having drawn Game a fairly shabby recreation of two of the Wonderbolts for his birthday. He saw it as fairly sweet, but didn’t pay much attention to it. Inkling had potential in Game’s eyes. Maybe if she was a little older, she might eventually see past her stubborn side and burst into Equestria, free of her family, with a verve like no other pony…maybe a little too close to Pinkie Pie. He couldn’t stand either filly sometimes, but part of him wanted to see Inkling and Ribbon Twirl again. The bustle from outside derailed Game’s train of thought, but he didn’t sigh. If he weren’t busy, he would have gone, despite the fact that he didn’t really see the flimflam surrounding the monarchy as something important to him. As a colt, Game read many books, and one of those was the tale of the two sisters, Celestia and Luna. The date on which Nightmare Moon was sealed away was one of those few useless things that had lingered with him, especially during school. However, in the curriculum, the event had been dismissed as the events of a fairytale would’ve been. He’d often get the date confused, but now, for some reason, it sat clearly in his mind. Somewhere around the middle of the year – on the longest day… “…of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about nighttime eternal!” Twilight Sparkle gasped, her hooves stiffening at the thought of eternal night. Twilight was to stand between day and night in a few years to come, though this was unbeknown to her. That said, she would stand between the two sisters tomorrow – the Summer Solstice, the celebration of the victor. Back on the outskirts of Ponyville, in a much more humble home than Twilight’s library, Game Changer thought about the tale. I guess technically it could work...if Celestia represents the sun, then there’s nobody to represent the moon…I suppose it’s a bit tyrannical of Celestia to do such a thing, if she did…no wonder – it’s gotta have been censored! I never thought I’d see scandal like this in a place like Canterlot…something’s seriously up, and I hope someone’s noticed… I suppose I could get word out...but it's not like anyone here knows I exist yet. No rep, not reputable. Huh. I hope someone else in Ponyville’s left that façade behind. I just wish I could do something… As these thoughts crushed the rest of Game Changer’s mental space, he became increasingly guilty - even though it wasn’t really his fault he couldn’t do much. “Damn,” he cursed aloud, stomping to ease the frustration out physically. Crack. Game looked to the floor below him, forgetting his own strength in his frustration. The stallion never wanted to be a sitting duck – he’d always dreamed of defending ponies, or fighting in some huge war, which seemed unlikely given the climate right now. Hell-bent on change, Game would feed this desire by playing games. He found solace in that – especially a certain courtroom series. By creating links in evidence, Game managed to root out the true culprit in a number of cases, and in doing so, he’d earned his cutie mark, a gamepad representative of his ability to direct others to happiness and to take control of a situation. He’d often wondered about himself – what made him feel certain emotions and do certain things. He was aware of his own nature as a shy pony, despite his humble faith in his own abilities. As a colt, Game was fairly angry and vengeful on those who wouldn’t accept him, but his assumption that nobody would accept him had made him shy around just about anyone. Despite this, he tried to be welcoming, and his true side would unmask itself with only the closest friends in perfectly natural moments. Unfortunately, right now he had nobody like that. Game’s mind rested on that notion for a second, hoping that a friend might help him bare the truth…but he remembered that he’d only been in Ponyville for a few hours. Only six of those precious gems of time remained until what would soon be the Summer Sun Snuff-Out. The sun’s flames would be flattened by Nightmare Moon in a matter of hours...