"I'm glad you've enjoyed the service here," Luna said smiling as they walked down the hall.
"No hotel or even a Blast from the Past diner had better stuff," Leon agreed.
Ed didn't say anything in response to that, not right away. Leon had a good idea why; the teen, however non-typical he might have been for an Englishman, was a patriot if nothing else, and only the idea of being polite had kept him from saying something to the effect that the Royal Family would have done better.
"You didn't seem as... how shall I put it?" Luna said, looking at Leon. "You didn't seem to wish to grovel, as most of our subjects would in a similar position."
"Yes. And?"
That answer took Luna aback. "I just would have thought, in the presence of royalty - in the presence of three royals, in fact - you would have, well, shown deference."
"Well, that isn't exactly me as an American," Leon said, shaking his head. "No offense, but I wouldn't bend the knee for the President of the United States; why would I do it for anyone else? And I'm not a subject; I'm a citizen. I've never had nobility holding unfair privileges over me. I have the liberty to grow up to be President if I wanted, and had the resources to do it."
She continued to study his face before finally nodding. "It is sometimes difficult to accept that humans come from so many nations, and with so many ideologies. Most species in our world have a single nation of their own; a few wild pony tribes exist, as well as the Crystal Ponies to the north, but that is the extent of our division."
"Don't all the different Zebra tribes count as separate domains?" he countered.
She laughed. "Well, I suppose they do; when you are on the outside looking in, it is harder to see those divisions. They exist, as I know all too well. And the honesty of your earlier answer does you credit." Luna smiled again. "It's so... boring, to see those who me and my sister speak to cringe as though we were pronouncing sentence upon them!"
"You do have that power."
"But normally I wouldn't think of using it! I honestly far prefer being loved over being feared, regardless of what anypony thinks. And although I used to be supportive of a centralized, orderly government - which is to say, strict absolute monarchy, as opposed to the enlightened kind we have today - I have had experiences that have altered my opinions on the matter."
Leon didn't push it. "At any rate," Edward said, "tonight's been great so far. I'm hoping it gets even better." He grinned, though not unpleasantly.
"Oh, I promise that your time here won't have a dull moment, not when I can prevent it," Luna replied. Her smile was infectious. "I am so excited to have my friends here," she said, her voice going into a high pitch for a second. "I haven't had time with companions like this since... well... a thousand years ago and more."
"So you've told us," Eddy said. "Don't the Elements come over for a visit every so often?"
"Sadly, no. They are very busy with their daily lives most of the time. I don't get to spend much time with anyone other than my sister, and while I love her dearly, I think we all need more than just the one source of... er, bonding."
"I guess I can understand that."
Luna opened the door to her gaming room with magic. Her face turned to shock, then anger. "Discord! What are you doing in my room!?!"
"Oh, hello there!" Discord said, waving at them from the couch. "I got bored at my own house and, well, you know how chaos works. I went to find fun at a random place, which happened to be here."
Aw, nuts. Here we go.
"Oh, don't look like that. "I've changed. I really have." The expression on his face almost made Leon buy it. Seeing that Leon and Eddy hadn't bought it, he sighed and did what neither of them had expected; he became serious. "In all honesty, despite all evidence and belief to the contrary, I am not a deity, and I make mistakes. One of those mistakes was trusting someone who offered me freedom from what he portrayed as shackles. I thought he told the truth, that the friendship I'd had meant nothing. It was only after he had betrayed me that I realized what I had done, after it was already too late. And it rocked me to the core when Twilight had freed me even after my treachery. I came to realize that some 'freedoms' are in reality tyranny veiled. While I still love to use chaos, I now know that there is a difference in being able to use a power and whether using it is something that should be done."
Leon found himself surprised. Looking over at Eddy, he could see the Englishman nodding slowly, a gesture he imitated.
Discord perked up a bit. "Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you."
"You're welcome," Eddy answered.
"Well, then," the dragonequus said, brightening up. "It's a pleasure to meet you! Dear Luna can't stop talking about you both. I'm assuming you're Leon and Edward?" When they nodded again, he went on, "I just love to hear of your adventures! Video games create so many chaotic stories; I can't help loving to play and hear about them."
"I'm assuming you're the guy who loves teamkilling and ramming teammates in World of Tanks?" Eddy ventured.
"Oh, don't be daft. The point of trolling is not to get banned while doing it. Flaming isn't the right way to go about it either... unless, of course, it details the current situation. No, I prefer to jam others against a wall and hold them there. Of course, I do love getting O.P. on Minecraft servers and then blowing everything up with TNT, which inevitably ends with me being banned, but that's a different game."
"Wait; I banned somebody last week for blowing up a statue of Homer Simpson somebody made," Leon said. "They didn't get O.P., but..."
Discord raised his right hand. "Guilty as charged. I actually like that show, for the most part, but I really couldn't help it. How else was I going to get him to say, 'D'oh!'" For at last, he turned his head into that of Homer and used that character's voice.
That started a laugh out of the three. "Well, I can't say that wasn't amusing," Leon admitted. "But you're still banned."
"I suppose it deserve it for blowing up one of my favorite characters," Discord said, turning back to normal. "It was worth it, though, just to see the explosion."
Luna shook her head. "I think we can start the game. Just promise you won't do anything stupid," she said to Discord.
"I wouldn't... well, I can't say I wouldn't dream of it, but I won't do anything like that anyway; besides, I'm eager to see how this goes."
Luna used her magic to rearrange the wires as necessary, then picked up a controller and sat down on the couch. Leon sat down on her right, Eddy on her left, with Discord sitting on the top of the couch, somehow not falling off.
Luna used her hoof to turn the game on. For an instant the screen was snowy, then the title of the game came on.
"Hmm, translation of the translation, huh?" Leon said, noticing the words under the main title.
"It's a retranslation of the vulgar fan translation," Luna said. "The Japanese is properly translated, but the wording isn't, well, the colorful and piggish garbage as it would have been otherwise."
"From what I know, the Japanese don't have a system of swearing as we would understand it," Leon added. "They have a system of how rude particular words are, which can be substituted for the intended curse words."
"Such as?"
"Kisama. It's an extremely rude way of saying 'you' in Japanese. If a Japanese refers to you by that word, it's a deliberate effort to be rude and insulting. It's almost the same as saying ' you son of a...' in English. It's the word Tella originally used to refer to Edward - the Edward in the game," he amended quickly."
"Where do you pick up all this useless stuff?" Ed asked.
"First off, it's not useless. Second, history is best subject. Learn it."
"Knock it off, both of you," Luna warned.
"Oh come on," Discord said, disappointed. "I was just starting to enjoy that!"
"I'm starting the game now," Luna said quickly.
The save screen came up. With no previous saves, the only real choice was the new game tab.
"Hold on," Luna said suddenly. "How do we determine who plays first?"
"I've got a penny; we could flip that," Leon suggested.
"How would that work?" Eddy exclaimed. "It has only two sides!"
"Wait a moment," Discord said, reaching into a suddenly existing pocket and pulling some sort of triangular object out of it. "It's a three sided coin," he explained, showing it to them. "On one side is my head, on another is my tail, and the last picture is an oval punctured by my left horn."
"That's a Q!" Leon said.
"Is it? I prefer to think of it as a Dis-Q. Anyway, choose which side you'll be using!"
Leon would have chosen heads, but Eddy called it first. He had to settle for tails, with Luna, most dejected, took the Q-shaped icon.
The dragonequus threw the coin up into the air and caught it on his arm. "Tails."
"Looks like ya won, Leo," Ed said, patting Leon on the back. "Might need that penny of yours now though. We need to discuss turns."
"Well agree to take ten minutes each," Luna said, "after which another will take their turn." She turned her head to look at Discord. "You didn't ask to play."
"I'm fine just resting on the couch. And with all the gameplay between you, the situation will create chaos on it's own."
After flipping Leon's penny - which decreed that Luna would go next, followed by Edward - Leon picked up the controller and selected the new game option.
A martial song blared, and the screen slowly revealed a group of airships flying north. They watched as the view changed to that displaying the crew. Most notable was a man wearing dark armor in the center.
"Captain Cecil! We are about to arrive at Baron!" said a member of the crew. There was no sound to indicate he had spoken; instead, white words on a blue background showed up to display the quote.
"Yeah," Cecil answered. He bowed his head.
"Looks like it's bothering the captain as well," one crewman said to another.
"Even if we were ordered to do so..."
"Taking the crystal from innocent people is..."
The screen switched to what was apparently a flashback. Cecil and the redcoated crewmen stood just beyond the door. In front of them were two black wizards, a white wizard, and an old man in black.
"Give us the crystal of water!" Cecil demanded.
"What have we done?" the elder said.
'The crystal or your life!"
"Never!" one of the black wizards retorted
"Then take the crystal by force!" Cecil ordered. The men moved to do as he commanded.
"Waah!" the black wizards screamed as Cecil's crew punched them.
"Oh, shit," Eddy said as they disappeared.
"No! Don't!" the white wizard yelled.
"Dare to defy us?" the crew said, beating him down too.
"Alright! Take the crystal!" the elder said.
"You should have said it sooner!" A member of the crew forced him to the side to make sure he caused no trouble.
Cecil walked up to the crystal, took it, and walked back toward the door.
"Why is the king of Baron doing this?" the elder demanded. "Why do you pursue the crystals so eagerly?"
Cecil simply bowed his head again, then the scene switched back to the present.
"That wasn't very nice," Discord said, summoning a bucket of popcorn.
"We earned our positions as the Red Wings crew through valor and bravery," one of the crew said right off. "Looting innocent people is an act of cowardice!"
Cecil took a step forward. "That's enough!"
"Captain! Why are we going as far as pillaging a town of magicians who don't even resist!?"
"Listen, everyone!" Cecil ordered, clearly disrupted by the near-mutinous crew. "His majesty has declared that possessing the crystal is absolutely necessary. The people of Mysidia knew too much about the secret of the crystal, and were a threat to the continued sovereignty of our country." He went on, "We are the Red Wings. His Majesty's orders are absolute..."
"Captain..."
"Captain! Monsters!"
"Battle Stations!"
There was a flash as the scene changed to a combat display. Cecil burned all three Float Eye enemies with a Red Fang
Then they were back to the previous scene. One of the crew had fallen down.
"Agh!"
"Are you all right?" Cecil asked.
"There's more of them!"
"Blast!"
Again the combat screen came on, this time with a giant floating bird called a Zuu. This time, Cecil cast out a Blue Fang, which called down lightning and fried the monster.
"Just to be sure," Discord said, "This is a cut scene, right?"
"Yes."
"I guess the graphics weren't as acute then as they are nowadays," the dragonequus shrugged. "Then again, a lot of games now have great graphics but terrible play. I think I prefer this."
"Is everyone all right?" Cecil asked the crew.
"Yes sir! The monsters have been increasing lately, though," a soldier responded. "There's just too many of them nowadays."
"Is something... happening?" Cecil wondered.
"Obvious foreshadowing," Discord said.
The Red Wings landed at Baron. Cecil entered the castle, welcomed by Baigan, the chief of the Guards.
"The Mysidians... They didn't resist at all."
"What are you saying?" Baigan replied, and ushered him into the castle.
Baigan went into the throne room before Cecil and proclaimed to the King (it couldn't have been anyone else - he was dressed in royal robes and a crown, and was seated on a throne) that Cecil had developed a distrust of him.
Cecil was ushered into the throne room, where the crystal was snatched away by Baigan and given to the king.
"You may leave, Cecil!" The King said, still looking at Baigan and the crystal.
Cecil turned to do so, but paused and came back. "Your Majesty!"
Both the King and Baigan turned around, surprised. "Wh... What?"
"Your Majesty, we do not understand your motives. Why is it that you need the crystals?" Cecil asked. "Was it because the Mysidians were becoming a threat? Then why didn't they resist? We do not understand why innocent bystanders had to die. Some have even wondered if your actions are... altogether... honorable."
"Uh oh," Eddy said, gloom in his voice. "I don't think the king's going to take that well."
And he didn't. "So you distrust your own King, Cecil?" The king thundered.
"!! No, I didn't mean that at all!"
"Did you think I knew nothing of your true feelings?" the King said, breaking through Cecil's protest. "To think that I took you in and raised you as a son! Now you can't even trust me. I can no longer entrust you with the command of the Red Wings. As of now, you are relieved of your post!"
Cecil took a step forward. "Your Majesty!"
The King's Guards immediately ran up and pushed Cecil back.
"Your new charge is to eliminate the Phantom Beasts that haunt the upper valley!" The King ordered.
Cecil tried to get past the Guard to continue talking, but they kept him back.
Just then, the door to the room opened and another man in dark armor stepped in. "Please wait!" Kain, the newcomer, said. "Cecil wasn't..."
The Guards shoved both of them back forcefully. The King got up and walked forward. "Kain, if you're so worried about Cecil, then go with him!"
"But your Majesty..." Cecil said, trying to protest again.
"I have nothing more to say!" The King interrupted. "Here! Take this ring and go!" he said, forcing the Bomb Ring on them.
"Your Majesty!"
The Guards shoved both of them out the door.
"Sorry for getting you mixed up in all this, Kain."
"Once you defeat those Phantom Beasts, His Majesty will surely forgive you," Kain answered. "And you will be reinstated as Commander of the Red Wings."
Kain told Cecil to get a good night's rest, and that he would take care of all the preparations.
"Hmm, nice name there... Kain," Discord said, testing the name.
Leon was finally able to control Cecil after Kain walked of the right side of the screen. "Uh, not sure where to go," he said.
"I think you go down a room, then off to the stairs on the left," Luna advised.
Leon moved into the previous room, noticing some chests off to the right. "Hold on." He went and pressed the A button on what looked like a switch next to the door. The door swung open immediately, and Leon quickly took what was inside the chests; 480 gold, an Ether, and a Tent.
"I'm not going to do any more exploration," Leon said. "I think there's one place where the treasure is off limits for now."
"Oh, well, in that case, go down the stairs to the upper left," Luna said.
Leon did so. However, before he could get to the door on the other side, a blond woman dressed in red followed after him and called Cecil's name.
"Oh, how cute!" Discord said, throwing out pink confetti from out of nowhere. "He has a girlfriend, and it's not even ten minutes into the game!"
Leon turned to Luna, who just rolled her eyes as if saying, Roll with it.
The woman, Rosa, apparently didn't have much to say, other than that she was going to visit Cecil's room later. Leon could have done without that bit of knowledge. It could have been innocent. On the other hand, it might not be, either.
Cecil walked out the door to the courtyard, where, on his way to his room, the Engineer Cid called for him; "You're back, Cecil!"
"Wow, he looks like someone who belongs in a motorcycle gang," Ed commented.
"Since when did you know what someone in a motorcycle gang looks like," Leon asked. "I didn't think they had those in Britain."
"Better believe they do."
"By the way, how are my lovely airships doing?" Cid was asking. "I don't want your crewmen abusing 'em... Hey, what's with that face?"
"To tell the truth, Cid..."
"What? Nobody besides you could command the Red Wings! Jeez, what's with the King recently?"
"How did he know? I... er, Cecil, didn't even tell him!"
"Just roll with it, Leon," Luna said.
At that moment, the door opened. Luna turned her head to see who it was. "Ah, dear sister, and the elements!"
"Just coming to see what you were up to," came Spike's voice.
"He was pretty excited about coming back here," Leon heard Twilight say.
Cid continued to get angry about his airships being turned into war machines before finally finishing with, "In any case, you be careful, hear? I'm going home. I've been spending a lot of time at work recently, and my daughter is giving me heck about it!" With that, the engineer walked through Cecil and out the door Cecil had just come out of.
"What a strange man," Discord said, shaking his head. "I think I might actually like him."
"Alright, I think I just go up to the top floor of the tower, and that should be my room," Leon said.
He did so, only stopping to talk to the maid, who was in the way, and after that continued on upstairs, crossing the room to get in bed.
"Can't imagine how uncomfortable it is to sleep in armor," Eddy said as the screen darkened a bit to indicate night had fallen. They watched as Cecil question his and the King's actions, and as Rosa entered the room.
Discord yawned. "Can we get to actually playing the game yet? This love stuff is all cliché." The others sighed.
After that particular scene had gone by, Cecil and Kain met in the morning, leaving through the front gates of the castle.
"Oh no, here comes the description for the game," Discord sighed as the screen changed again.
Leon was on the verge of asking him to stop interrupting the game, but then the following words appeared;
Thus, the Dark Knight Cecil was stripped of his command of the Red Wings. He and the Dragon Knight Kain were ordered to journey to Mist, a provincial village which lay beyond the mountains in a valley encased by a deep fog...
Airships... Flight had long been an unattainable dream of mankind. These vessels gave men the power to soar through the heavens. Soon, like all mankind's gifts, it became a tool of greed.
The country of Baron became the world's strongest military power through their airships, the Red Wings... But why would such a powerful country seek out the crystals? What power do they hold? Why does mankind corrupt every realization of it's dreams? And why are the monsters increasing, even in daylight?
The crystals shed their light silently...
"A rather harsh criticism of humans beings overall," Luna noted sadly. "Most of you aren't that bad."
"Hang on," Discord interrupted. "That's odd. There's more. I thought that was supposed to be it."
For to see the veil unfurled,
you yourself must prevail
against all tests sent your way
and live to fight day after day.
"What the heck does that mean?" Leon wondered out loud.
Suddenly, the controller began shaking between his fingers, and a bright, white light unfolded from the center.
"Drop it!" Luna yelled, shocked.
"I can't! It's like it's glued to me!" he said as he tried to let go.
Eddy jumped up and tried to pry the controller from Leon's grasp himself. "Hold on, mate, I'll get you out of this!"
Spike tired to pull the controller from the front, but no matter which way or how hard it was pulled, it wouldn't come off.
The light engulfed all three of them. Leon felt his head being pulled inexorably toward the controller.
"Ahhhhh.... Ahhhhh.... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
He felt himself make contact, then all faded to black.
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Everyone still in the room looked in shock at the suddenly empty space where two humans and a baby dragon had just occupied. No one, not even the supposed lord of chaos, could find anything to say or do in response. After sucking in Leon, Edward, and Spike, the controller had fallen to the floor with no further effects, as though it had always been that way.
Luna was the first to recover. "Discord," she said in the most dangerous low voice she could muster, "what did you do?"
"Even Discord was still in shock. "Why are you accusing me? I swear to whatever you consider pure that I know nothing of what just transpired!"
"Ah reckon ah believe him," Applejack said, after looking at him seriously. "He ain't playin' around like he usually is."
"Oh my," Fluttershy gasped, pointing a hoof at the screen, "look!"
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The first thing that ran through Leon's mind was that the ground was unduly soft and wet on his faceThe next was that he felt a lot heavier than he should have been.
"Uuugh..." He tried pushing himself up, only to find that he was indeed much heavier than he should have been. It took much more work than he had anticipated to get himself to his feet. He looked down at his arm. "What the... Where did this armor come from?" His right arm was covered by blue-black, shiny metal. So was his left.... and his body, and legs, and feet.
He took a step back, and a visor clanged down in front of his face.
"What...?" he asked himself again. He pushed the visor back up and made sure it stayed there before looking around. All he could see in front of him was a grassy plain. "Okay, this has to be a joke or something. Luna!" he yelled. "Discord! Whatever this is, it isn't funny! Stop it!"
"Ya have to yell?" an English accented voice came from behind him.
"Huh?" Leon spun around. Edward was on the ground as well, also wearing black armor that was, if anything, even more extravagant than his own.
"Where... where in the actual fuck are we?"
"I don't know." Leon took another look around. Not much but desert of to one side, grasslands, some trees to the south... and a big town of to either side of them and a big castle to the north. "You'd have thought somebody sent us to a Final Fantasy Con as part of a joke, but... this feels different."
"What the hell is on my back?" Ed reached his left hand out over his back. It came back holding a spear. "Where did I get this?"
Leon reached down; on his left side was attached a darkly-colored sword and sword scabbier.
"Hold up," he said. "How did we get here, anyway?"
"My turn to say I don't know," Eddy said, removing his helmet for a moment and scratching his head. "Trying to remember..."
"That's right. We were playing the game, and then suddenly the controller went berserk on us."
"I was trying to hold you back, somehow you got pulled right into the bloody thing, and I started to follow. Last thing I can remember."
"I think... I think Spike was trying to help, too," Leon answered. "Can you see him?"
"Little purple guy, green spikes?" Eddy brought his hand to his brow and scanned the landscape. "Nope, don't see 'im."
"So maybe he's okay," Leon sighed. "I hope so. You, know, this place seems awfully familiar..."
Eddy snapped his fingers. "Remember back in Luna's room when the Red Wings came in to land?"
"I think so, but..." Leon froze. "Uh oh."
"Mmm-hmm. I think somehow or other, we got sucked into the game ourselves."
"But that's stupid!" Leon cried out. "Why would anyone make a game where the player gets sucked in without his notice and forces to play the game through in a world where characters can die!? And if we're in the game, why isn't everything in eight-bit 2D graphics?"
Ed chuckled. "Usually I'm the one losin' it." He scratched his head again. "Don't quite know who had the brilliant idea for this, but it probably wouldn't work very well, or be popular, if the players had to be 2D, or run around in a 2D world."
"But how? And who?"
"Don't rightly know, mate. All I can say is, we're in for one hell of a time."
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Back in Canterlot Palace, several ponies and a dragonequus watched the dialogue between the two gamers, now trapped inside the game they had been playing. Everything they said was displayed in a blue box with white text, just as it had eariler. To those in the room, the game, and Leon and Eddy as a consequence, still appeared as it had beforehand, with slight differences; Leon, in Cecil's armor, had skin that appeared lighter than that of the original Cecil, while Eddy maintained a black head of hair.
"How could this happen!?!" Luna asked frantically, looking for something, anything, that would give them a clue about what had just occurred.
"Luna, calm down," Celestia insisted. "We need to be thinking logically."
Luna turned around, ready to argue, but before she could speak, another voice said, "Uh oh. I think I know who's responsible."
Everyone turned to look at Pinkie, who was next to the game and looking at the cartridge. "Look here, in small print," the party pony went on.
Just below the title and the announcement that the game had been re-translated from the J2e version was an even smaller text, saying;
Made and manufactured by the House of Enchanted Comics.
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