//------------------------------// // Chapter 5; New world.. or maybe not so new // Story: A Leon, Luna, and Eddy side-story; Final Fantasy IV adventure // by Fireheart 1945 //------------------------------// Luna was frantic. She slipped off her silver-blue shoes and began to bite her hooves; midnight-blue keratin flew in every direction. "Luna!" Celestia exclaimed. "Stop that; at that rate, soon you won't be able to walk!" "I'm sorry," Luna gasped out. "But my two best friends in the world have just been sucked into a deadly video game! They might die at any moment!" She continued hoof-biting. "Please, calm down," Celestia urged, putting a hoof on her sister's shoulder. "We must think logically about this. Twi-" She turned to see Twilight sitting down, staring at the now motionless controller and breathing heavily. "Oh. Spike, too." "W-what do we do?" Fluttershy stammered. Celestia sat down a moment to think, tapping her chin with a hoof. "I suppose the first thing we ought to do is check with the House of Enchanted Comics to find out how to properly get them out. There must be somepony there who worked on the game." She gasped. "If they've made more games like this, others might be in identical jeopardy. Who knows if a pony or human or Griffon hasn't already fallen victim to this?" "First, we all get sucked into a comic, and now this," Rainbow said, frowning and tapping the side of her head with a hoof. "What else could go wrong?" "I wouldn't ask that if I were you, my dear," Discord warned. "People who say that often end up being sorry." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Hmm, all I have is a sword and a shield," Leon observed, swinging the former around a little to get a feel for it. "Can't say I'm pleased with the way things turned out," Edward returned. "I wasn't really looking to spending the next few weeks in a video game, to be honest. Especially one where we might, I don't know, snuff it." "Whoever made this couldn't have been naïve enough to have left out a fail-safe. Not unless..." "Yeah. Who said this... game, I suppose, was official? For all we know, this could have been an assassination attempt on Luna." "Good thing we're armed, then." "Yeah. I really, really hope we don't end up getting killed, but something tells me..." "We have to play through the game, or part of it, to get out." Ed nodded. "Basically." "At least we start armed, then. I say go to the town and try to buy what we need. I think..." Leon reached back; suddenly, he found something that hadn't been there before. "Hmm!?!" He brought the object before him; it was a large, leather bag." "Might be our inventory." "It wasn't there a minute ago." "I think it only comes when we want it to." "Let's see..." Leon reached in, found something, and pulled it out. He was holding a handful of gold coins. "So, that's our currency." "There's all sorts of potions and things in here as well," Leon continued, pulling out a blue bottle and a yellow one. Both had the same shape; only the different colors told them apart. Before he could ask, the words "Potion/Cure 1" appeared under the blue and "Heal" appeared under the other. "Guess that answers that question." "I think we heal if we get affected by something, cure or potion if we take damage." "And how would that work?" "Don't rightly know. I'm hoping we don't find out, but then, I'd say that leveling up is necessary, and the only way to do that is win battles, and..." "Take damage," Leon said unhappily. "That's going to suck. I don't know what it's going to be like, but I know it's gonna suck." "Yeah. Well, I don't know what else there is to say, other than get to it." "I might know something to say," Leon said, feeling a rising sense of mischief in spite of the situation. "Oh, what?" Leon took a deep breath. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "AMERICA, FRAG YEAH!" said the text box as the eight-bit version of Leon raised it's fist in the air. Luna felt an odd urge to laugh, in spite of the fact she hated foul language and that her two best friends were currently trapped in a game. Leon had always had a sense of patriotism that she found both admirable and odd; a steadfast loyalty to both the United States as well as Brittany. To see something partly ordinary about him - however vulgar - was a little calming. She looked down. She could still walk, but her front hooves were going to have to wait until the keratin grew back of it's own accord to look normal without her shoes on. Her shoes were able to hide it, but even a hooficure couldn't make this kind of self-inflicted damage look proper. "Yes," Celestia said into the phone nearby. "They were just playing when they got... Yes, we want to know how to get them out... Wait, what?" She looked up at her sister. "They said they'll have to wait to-" The Solar Princess was surprised when the phone was jerked out of her magical grasp. "Do you know who I am?" Luna asked in a dangerous voice. "P-Princess Luna," said a startled, youthful voice on the other end. "What a surprise! It's an honor to meet your lady-" "Do you realize," Luna continued, cutting through the praise, "that two visitors to Equestria and a citizen of said country have been drawn into a game that your company altered?" "Y-yes, my Lady. Howev-" "And do you also realize that they are three of my closest friends and companions?" she asked, her voice getting lower but all the more dangerous. "I... was... not... informed, no..." "Luna," Celestia warned. However, an unbridled rage had come over the Lunar Princess. "You will tell me, right now, how to retrieve them..." Her eyes flashed white. "OR I SHALL SEE TO IT THAT NOT ONLY ARE ALL YOUR DREAMS AND THOSE OF YOUR CO-WORKERS UNPROTECTED, BUT THAT EVERYPONY WORKING IN YOUR ESTABLISHMENT SHALL HAVE THE WORST NIGHTMARES POSSIBLE FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES!" "Bu-bu-bu-bu-bu..." The voice on the other end gulped, a sound easily audible, even over the phone. "Do you understand!?!" "Y.... Yes, P-Princess," the pony on the other end stuttered; it was clear, from the sound of his voice, that he had broken into tears. "Good." Luna felt surprisingly faint after her outburst. As she set the phone down, she felt tears come to her eyes. Before she knew it, she was sobbing uncontrollably. She felt her sister's wings fold around her, embracing her in a caring hug. "Oh, Luna..." Celestia held her sister tight as she continued to cry and nuzzled her gently. "We'll get them out, I swear to you." After several minutes, the two sisters finally broke away from one another. "Now come on," Celestia said in a reassuring way, "let's find out how to get them back." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eddy slapped himself, hard, in the face, his hand covering his eyes and forehead. "Really?" he asked, slowly sliding his hand down his face. "Really? The only thing you can think of is a moronic super-patriotic meme about a redneck country? Really?" "Yes, really. 'Britain, Fuck yeah' just doesn't have the same flair." "Not least because no one would be stupid enough to say something like that!" Ed shook himself. "Enough of this. Do we go back to town or not?" Leon looked in the inventory bag again. "I think we have what we need for now." "Has it occurred to you that we might die if we don't have all we need?" "Oh, come on. Would they really make a product where somebody using it could actually die?" "How do we know it's official? What if it really was meant for the Princess as some sort of assassination attempt of some sort?" "And they provide us with swords and stuff?" "I don't know why, maybe they're just nutters who want their victim to suffer before they die, like how predators play with their food." "I have my doubts. Who would want a beloved ruler dead?" "The Changeling queen, for one. She seems like the kind who would want something like that." "Whatever the case, staying here obviously isn't working." "Right. So, where do we go?" Leon thought about that. "I think the King said something about the village or land of Mist." "Do you think it's possible that we could go and take over his castle and become kings ourselves?" "Yeah... no. I think anyone who made this, trap or not, would have set safeguards into it so we can't just do whatever we want." Eddy shrugged. "Eh, it was worth a shot. Rightio; Mist it is." "Alright." Leon pulled his backpack out and reached into it. "There has to be a map or something in here... potion," he said, drawing out the item in question. "Life potion." Again, he tugged out the object, then pulled out a bread-like object with something carved into it. "And Dwarfbread." "What the hell is Dwarfbread?" "I don- Whoooaaaaa!" It was an odd feeling. Physically, he knew he was still in the same place and position, but his vision had inexplicably risen above everything, above seas and skies, above the entire world. He could see flashing dots, all with names next to them. He felt his hands, however far below, drop the bread, and suddenly he felt his vision slide back into place. "You okay?" "Yeah." Leon put a hand to the side of his armored head. "That was weird." "What happened?" "Here." Leon handed him the Dwarfbread. "Whoa," he heard Eddy say; the Briton's eyes became unfocused for a moment, then slid back into place as he came back down to Earth. "Yeah, that's what I'd call weird." "I think I glimpsed Mist to our Northwest, with a cave that we have to go through to get there." "Oh joy. I guess there's no avoiding it, though, is there?" "Unless Princess Luna and the others can find a way to get us out, I think we have to play. Kind of like the giant chess game in Harry Potter." "And presumably get bashed around a lot, like Ron did." "Hopefully. The early monsters should be easy, though." "Alright, Northwest it is." The two gamers started walking, each wondering what was to come. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "We made the game to be modeled off our comics, only more so. Upon realizing that it was extremely popular among humans, we decided, after taking a look at the game and it's gameplay, to recreate the magic, and have a game one could play out." "And you didn't think to put a warning on the cartridge?" Celestia asked, the specter of a threat looming in her speech. "We didn't ignore the risk. We added numerous warnings that the player would, after going through the prologue, would be transported into the game itself." Celestia turned to her sister. "Is that true?" "I didn't check, sister. I hadn't assumed anything like this would happen. And few read the manuals these days anyway." Celestia turned back to the phone, not knowing whether to put more blame on her sister or the game developer. "You didn't answer my actual question; did you put a warning on the cartridge itself?" "...No, Princess, we did not." "What about on the box?" "We did." "In small or large print?" "Ummm... s-s-small, Your Highness." "And why did you make that decision?" "Because... well... We assumed that players would take the time to read what was on the box in it's full, as well as the modified manual we added with it." Celestia sighed. "Warnings aside, did you at least ensure a way for the players to leave the game once inside?" Silence. "Answer me!" She heard the voice on the other end gulp loudly. "Um... we thought they'd know what they were getting into." "What do you mean by that?" "We... designed the game... for the players to play it through to... the end." "WHAT?" "We.. we had previously designed our comics for the reader to player through from the point we had them start from, so we assumed it would be sufficient for games as well." Celestia face-hoofed. The clopping sound could be heard throughout the room. "And you didn't consider that it would take days, if not weeks, for those stuck in the game to finish?" "Our... our... our spells would have been... d-d-d-difficult to modify-" "You should have taken the time, then," Celestia said, in a quiet but very dangerous voice. "Tell me how the spell that brings readers and gamers into the media item." "When it was placed on comics, Your H-H-Highness, the spell was activated when a certain phrase was read by the reader. It was a spell that was linear, one that could not be reversed unless the reader went through the adventure and finished it in their own time. It would have been inefficient to try modifying it to break up the adventure into more than one, er, reading." "So because you were lazy and didn't look for other solutions, ponies and other beings without proper knowledge get sucked in and have to hope they can defeat whatever villains you placed in them." "Lazy is a bit strong-" "How does the spell apply to the game?" "In... in a very similar manner. It would have been even harder to get the spell to work over multiple playthroughs if we tried breaking it up so that the player could engage and disengage from it at will." "Is there anyway to disengage the spell from outside the game or book?" Again, silence. "You will answer the question." "We... er..." "You have no idea." "N-no. P-P-P-Princess." Celestia sighed again, much more forcefully. "Then you better try finding one. That's not a suggestion or a request." "Y-y-y-yes, Your Highness." "Another thing; how dangerous would the game be to the actual players who were sucked into it?" "Ah, that. We placed numerous safeguards to ensure that no real bodily harm would come to those playing the game." "What does 'no real bodily harm' entail?" "Well... seeing as we didn't test the thing personally-" "You didn't even TEST it?" "Not p-p-p-personally. We used similar safeguards as in our comics, designed to allow the blow to be felt, but not be fatal or anything close to it. Anyone in the game would be safe." "What about food and water?" "They would find those in the game, as well as other items that would help them." "And what happens if their health should reach zero?" "There... there is a spell that will automatically knock them unconscious until they were brought back by a life spell or life potion." "What if the game were to be turned off from the outside? beyond a save point?" "In that case, they would be teleported back to the last point where they saved, to camp until the game were turned back on. They... they would not die, I assure you, we took many precautions-" "And yet you didn't bother testing the game yourselves." "...No. We thought that it would take a considerable amount of time for the testers to beat the game, cutting down on other projects and making us lose profits as a result." "Again, lazy as all get out. You thought of the money and effort such a test would take as opposed to actually making sure the thing would work as intended when launched. What if the spells that apply well to a comic come under stress or break when applied to a video game?" "That... that c-could not happen." "Which means you didn't think of it." "We didn't believe that the spells we placed for safety could break-" "Why didn't you test them, them? No, don't bother answering that, I know the answer; money and time, and I'm assuming to avoid that oh-so-tiny chance that something could go wrong by leaving it to the gamers to play through it. I'm suspending the monetary assets of your company." "W-what? No! You can't..." "Try me. Furthermore, you will cooperate with my student to find a way to get her assistant and my sister's best friends out of the game. And I would heavily advise that you not try and resist legally, or do something else absurdly foolish. I have more than enough strength to fight you in court and win. The closure of your company and seizure of it's assets would follow. Know that I will be keeping a very close eye on this project, to make sure you do not try to get around the boundaries I've set up." "But how are we supposed to get anything done?" "You have enough to pay your employees. You won't be allowed to spend that money on anything else until you've fixed this problem. Are we clear?" "Y-yes, Princess." "Good." She turned to Twilight. "As I said, you'll be working with them to try to find a way to get Spike, Leon, and Edward out of their predicament." "Of course!" the young lavender unicorn said. "I know you might have strong feelings, considering that your assistant and two friends were sucked into a video game, but I must advise you not to let your feelings get in the way of their extraction. Can I trust you on that?" "I.. I think so, Princess." "Alright then. Get started at once." "We'll help ya, Twi," Applejack volunteered. The other Bearers nodded in agreement. "Oh, thank you," Twilight said, relieved. "Let's get started." "Gotta admit though, their reaction to the Dwarfbread was hilarious," Rainbow said as they left the room. The doors closed behind them, cutting off the rest of the conversation. "I hope Twilight can solve the problem," Celestia said aloud. "I fear that even she might not be able to find a solution," Luna answered. And if not... if not, my friends will have to beat the game in order to win, and some of the enemies are insanely powerful." "We'll save them, sister; I promise." Celestia gently nuzzled her younger sibling, and hoped that her words would prove true. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I hope this doesn't take too long," Eddy said. "I don't think it will..." Suddenly, a shadow descended from above. "Look out!" Leon shoved Eddy to the ground. "What the-" "Move!" Leon picked himself up quick and drew his sword. Before him, two large, flying creatures floated; they were essentially giant eyeballs with wings and claws attached. He heard Eddy get up and draw his weapon as well. "Oh, bugger..."