Stan watched happily as customers continued to pour into his arcade, above and beyond his original expectations. While the initial video of Nightmare Moon vs. Zero.EXE (as it turned out Zero had become, amazing the things that could be shrugged off as coincidence by those in the know and well thought out planning by those who didn't) had, as anticipated, drawn massive crowds, Wily and the other sprites had been leaving him emails ever since, with suggestions on what could draw even more crowds, and sometimes even premade videos. Some were more fight scene demonstrations, others were more basic gameplay footage from different perspectives...and then there was the occasional 'crossover' videos, where characters from one game were shown in another.
This had drawn massive crowds, especially after one day where Fix-It-Felix Jr. showed a sign on the building at the title screen instead of Ralph smashing it. The sign read, "Racing Moony, be back tomorrow." To everyone's surprise and delight, Ralph could be found in Sugar Rush in his kart, Bull Dozer. That was a first time a character from one game left their game for a day to play in another, and in each case left a note where their character would be in their game, saying where they would be for the day.
While any other time, this might have led to players thinking a glitch was going on, two things prevented that. One, they'd already seen Nightmare Moon hopping between games on a regular basis, so they were used to the idea of crossover characters. Two, the graphics never glitched because - unlike when Turbo had tried to take over the other racing game - all the characters had been cross coded as 'unlockable' characters in the other games. This led to several complaints from players about how come certain characters - like Vanellope - never left their games.
Then Stan had the idea of publishing the arcade's "Lore" on the new website. Put together by Wily and patrolled by Zero.EXE and Nightmare Moon, there were never any virus or hacking problems, and the 'stories' of the characters gave depth to the arcade that had interest flooding in. This also led to the idea of posting 'sprite interviews' of the various characters, including a video where Vanellope explained why she couldn't leave her game.
By this point, Stan was very glad that - despite what people believed - he wasn't doing this all on his own. There was no way he would be able to handle it all. Thankfully, most of the emails received were questions addressed to specific sprites, and Stan could let the sprites answer their own mail.
However, the biggest event to come from all this came nearly a year after Nightmare Moon's final growth and Zero's evolution. A unique arcade cabinet had been made for the arcade, one that had the processing power to have 64 players play at a time across 32 screens, which could link up to larger displays or display individual battles. The cabinet was also hooked up to a massive monitor that would display the battles in much the same way. However, much to the surprise of the manufacturers, the cabinet was delivered uncoded, save for a copy of the Marvel vs Capcom 3 base code.
This was the Tournament cabinet, and once Wily and the other sprites had finished encoding the world within and the battle systems, Stan Litwak was able to throw open his arcade's first tournament battle...with nearly every sprite in the arcade as a playable character.
He had posted one small announcement about the Tournament - including the date it would be held, characters available to be selected from, and notification that every character could only be used once during each Tournament - on the site along with a registration form, and the limit of 64 players. Based on the number of sign up attempts, he already had a full waiting list for the next 37 tournaments. He was already arranging to have the Tournament matches recorded and rebroadcast online.
At first, the players were surprised when Nightmare Moon and Zero.EXE weren't available as playable characters during the first tournament. However, they were quickly distracted from that by the scenes of all the various characters leaping into battle. Stan was rather impressed at the ingenuity of the sprites in making the entire experience unique and entertaining, whether the customers were playing or observing.
(On the off chance the event drew a crowd, he had hired a caterer to provide snacks, covered by an entry fee. He was already redoing the plan for the second Tournament to be held outside, if the weather held, along with a lot more food.)
As the first Tournament came to a close, the winner - who had chosen a team of Ralph and Felix - was about to claim his crown...when things changed. The beautiful environment on the screen faded away, leaving behind a massive flat plain made up of 18 equally sized squares in a 3x6 pattern. The left 3x3 were red. The right 3x3 were blue. A blazing moon was the only light source.
A wicked chuckle filled the air. "So you think you have won, puny mortal?"
A lightning bolt struck from the moon into the center blue square, and Nightmare Moon unfolded her wings as she took shape.
"You are in my domain, now," she hissed. "Did you truly think you could claim victory here without besting me?"
To her side, a 'Jack In' animation occurred, solidifying into Zero.EXE as he swung his blade to one side.
"This...is my battleground," he proclaimed firmly.
"Prepare yourselves!" they shouted together.
On the screen, Ralph and Felix visibly gulped.
Instead of the usual 'Ready, Fight!' animation, a new message was shouted from the announcer voice.
"Battle Routine, Set!"
"Execute!" Ralph, Felix, Nightmare Moon, and Zero.EXE shouted together.
Several hours later, with the arcade finally closed, Stan downed some aspirin and cleaned his ears with some Q-tips. He made a mental note to invest in those new sound cancelling headphones to deal with the cheering. As he was relaxing, he turned to the screen. "So did you all have fun?" he asked.
"It was glorious!" Nightmare Moon proclaimed. "All of us fighting together like that...it is the most fun we have had in eons!" She blinked for a bit. "Eons? I...I meant to say years..."
"Don't worry about it, Moony," Ralph comforted, patting her on the back. "We know what you meant." Wincing, he rubbed his chest. "But next time, could you be more careful with your horn? It still stings where you gored me."
"I can fix it!" Felix shouted out, striking Ralph hard enough in the head with his hammer to floor him. "...oops?"