Ponies Playing Doom

by obake

Chapter 1: The Boutique of Doom

Somewhere, deep in the dimensions of Hell, John Romero's impaled head stood pondering. The Pinkys near him garbled and munched on gore spread around the fiery floor, grunting incessantly. Despite the noise, all Romero could think about was the being from his vision. That white coat, the purple mane. She was the strangest thing he had ever seen, and he knew from the moment he saw her, that she was his archenemy...

Scootaloo raced across the road on her scooter, fast enough that she created clouds of dust marking her path. Coincidentally, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon walked out of SugarCube Corner at the same time, giving Scootaloo the opportunity to swerve around and send dirt into their faces.

Diamond squinted through the dust, gritting her teeth. Scootaloo smiled from her wicked victory. But that was just the tip of the iceberg in awesomeness that she felt the day would contain. She was going to show her friend Sweetie Belle something so awesome, it would knock her socks off!

Sweetie Belle, waiting outside the Carousel Boutique, bounced happily at her friend's approach. "Scootaloo!" she shouted.

The scooter nearly skidded into a set of garbage cans before Scootaloo came to a successful stop. "Do you have it?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Do I ever!" Scootaloo replied, spilling the contents of her backpack. A black, rectangular box, fell out onto the still grass. On it's glossy surface were the words "DOOM II".

"Whoa..." Sweetie Belle whispered, in true awe. Below the game's title were demonic eyes, staring evilly above a mouth full of knife-like teeth. Underneath the face were rising flames, with the words "Id Software" spelled out in deep, blood-red letters.

"Let's play it now!" said Scootaloo.

"Okay!" replied Sweetie Belle, "We can use my sister's computer!"

The two little fillies joyfully charged up the stairs while Rarity worked on stitching an dress in the front lobby. "Could you keep it down?" asked Rarity, "I really need to concentrate on making a dress for an important client."

They paid little heed until Rarity took her eyes off of her work. "Hold on," she said, "I want to know what you and your friends will be doing upstairs."

Sweetie Belle came to a halt. "We'll just be playing a video game. We'll be very quiet, we promise." She and Scootaloo smiled innocently. One could imagine halos shining above their heads.

Rarity almost let them go, thinking it would be good if they had a video game to play instead of causing havoc around the house. But she thought to ask "Hold on, show me the game you have first."

The excitement drained from the fillies faces. Scootaloo tried fibbing. "It's just a puzzle game, with pretty pictures."

"Yeah," said Sweetie Belle, "everypony in school has played it."

"Let me see it, now." demanded Rarity.

It was a lost cause for them to try and hide anymore. Scootaloo quietly handed Rarity the game box, with the rating stamped clear on the front: Ponies 17+.

Of course, the grim artwork of the cover did a good job defining itself as something not for young ponies, as well.

"Sweetie Belle," said Rarity, disappointed in her sister's lying, "you know you're not allowed to play these types of games."

"Yes, but-"

"No excuses." interrupted Rarity, "I will leave this on a shelf where I can see it as I work." She turned to Scootaloo, "And you need to go home and tell your parents what you've done. I know they wouldn't approve of this."

"Yes, ma'am." said Scootaloo. Her gaze fell directly to the floor.

"Go, now." demanded Rarity, directing the two fillies downstairs and out the door. "We'll have a talk later, Sweetie Belle."

What had previously been a joyful rush into the boutique, had become a somber march outside.

Rarity resumed to her workstation, placing the game box on a shelf nearby. The stitching process was tedious, and required a lot of time to pull off. Rarity just hoped she could get her mind off of the situation with her little sister until after the dress was done.

Minutes passed by without incident. As Rarity worked, the less her thoughts loomed on talking to Sweetie Belle, and the more they were on the technique she used to create the dress.

But something happened as Rarity glanced up. She saw the game box from a different angle than before. It's coloring, despite being so dark, was intriguing. The fire bordering the bottom half seemed reminiscent of stitched hem lines.

She shook her head and continued back to stitching.

But the box, drew her eyes again.

"Rarity," she said to herself, "you have a very important client waiting for you. You cannot waste any time."

Again, and again, the box would momentarily gain her attention, but Rarity resisted long enough to finish the dress. She admired her hoofwork. "A masterpiece!" she gleamed.

For the first time in awhile, her thoughts were all towards her talent for dressmaking, and the anticipation of seeing her client's reaction towards the effort she put into fashion. Rarity proudly cantered around the room, gathering up the thread and sewing supplies.

As she did so, her eyes once more quickly caught the sight of the black game box. The demon's expression pleaded for attention. Because Rarity was no longer in need to finish a deadline, she paused and stared at the box, just to see if she could figure out why it was so interesting.

It certainly wasn't anything special. Rarity had seen her share of scary art, with all of the Nightmare Night costumes, paintings of The Headless Horse, among other tributes to ghoulish figures of folklore. She had even helped fight villainous tyrants threatening to overtake Equestria on multiple occasions, so she was no stranger to being intimidated.

But, perhaps...

No, no, no Rarity told herself. She wasn't going to indulge in playing the game. It's cover art was entertaining enough to look at, but she certainly wasn't going to stoop down and actually play it. Such things we're not in her tastes. She had paperwork to do, making sure the sale of her newest creation was finalized.

Yet her instincts caved. Rarity sighed heavily, taking the game box down , and setting the disc into her computer. "Let's see what those two were so excited about hiding." she said.

The game started up, a low pitched, drumming tune beginning to play over the speakers. The words Doom II rose from the bottom, followed by the most epic beat in music one could imagine. It set a dark tone. Rarity pressed on, choosing the "I'm Too Young to Die!" difficulty.

The first level started up with no explanation or story, just the view of a pistol staring down a small hallway, where two soldiers stood guard. "What is this?" Rarity asked. She slowly moved forward and fiddled with different buttons. When she left-clicked the mouse, her character shot the pistol straight into one of the soldiers backs.

"Ughh!" he went, both soldiers turning around and beginning to shoot. Rarity hurriedly backed up and went behind a nearby pillar. "I can't believe how violent-"

She jumped in surprise as a soldier circled around from the opposite direction and got right up in her face. His features were ugly, his hair green and his armor stained with blood.

Rarity frantically pressed left click on the mouse until she had exhausted five bullets into his chest, or more like two, in which he fell down, dead. The rest of the bullets carved marks into the brown, tech-ish wall behind him. But Rarity was thinking anything but ammo conservation at this time, as she knew the other enemy was still in her midst.

"It...is...ON!"

Rarity swerved around the pillar and charged directly at the other soldier, blasting him down with multiple shots. She marveled a sigh of relief as she looked over the corpse of the being who had tried to kill her. He had lost his chance for good.

But there was breathing coming from the hallway.

Oh, so cautiously, Rarity moved up the steps, towards the corner. She had no idea whether she would face a friend or foe, so she kept her pistol drawn.

A foe. Definitely a foe!

Four pistol blasts rang out. Rarity could almost see the smoke rising up from the gun. In front of her lied the corpse of yet another demonic soldier. "Think you can get me?" said Rarity, haughty over her victory, "I'll have you know I'm much more than a fashionista. I have both the proper training and the capabilities to defend myself when anypony attempts to get in my way!"

Her determination showed as she walked around another corner. Another enemy, this time a brown, spiked something with red eyes.

Rarity knew from instinct that it was not friendly, so she pumped bullets into its chest. It threw a fireball straight into Rarity's face just before the last shot knocked it on its behind.

"Ow!" Rarity screamed. She was burned, badly. She quickly looked around and saw a room full of blue vials.

Her first thoughts were on Zecora's remedies. Perhaps these were similar. She picked up one of the blue bottles, and felt better instantly. She picked up all of the bottles within the room, until she was back to full strength.

In fact, she felt at MORE strength than she had previously! "Oh, yes," Rarity uttered with a wicked smile, "no demons are going to beat me!"

She pressed on down the hall where the fire monster lay dead. Without any reservations, Rarity preceded to take down a few more soldiers, while another fire monster sat inside a cage next to a door clearly singed "exit".

This time, Rarity was prepared for what got in her way. She dodged the first fireball, then the second. "You dare call me persnickety?" she asked, pumping the last few bullets into the ugly creatures stomach. It fell down with a satisfying groan.

The tension the atmosphere held was now replaced with quiet relief. "I guess I'll be going, then." said Rarity, holding her head up high.

She opened the exit door, relieved to find some ammo lying inside the small room. Once the switch was pressed, the game went to the first intermission screen. Big, red letters indicated her score:
Kills 85%
Items 25%
Secrets 0%

Shocked, Rarity replied "There were secrets I missed?" Thoughts poured into her mind of attempting to find every secret in the entire game. Such a feat would certainly be a nice thing to do on her free time.

All the while, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle moped on a park bench. "I can't believe we got caught." said Sweetie Belle. "Rarity is always too invested in her work to bother us. I guess she just had a lapse today."

"I'm just sad we didn't get to play any Doom." replied Scootaloo, "My cousins have all played it, and they say it's the coolest thing ever!"

Both the fillies lowered their heads, only to raise their eyes again to see Applebloom. "What? Were you going to leave me out of y-your D-doom quest?" her voice shook.

Worry sprouted in Sweetie Belle's expression. "No, no, no. We weren't excluding you..."

Scoot's interrupted more bluntly. "We didn't want you to get scared, like at our Nightmare Night party." The memories of Applebloom's screams at the paper mache ghost, then her looks of sheer embarrassment, flooded back into Scootaloo's mind.

"I told you," said Applebloom, "I was just high-strung that day!"

"The class didn't think so." touted Sweetie Belle, "Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon called us the 'Scaredy-Cat-Crusaders' all week."

"Guys..." Applebloom pleaded . It was apparent from her begging expression that she was really hurt.

Scootaloo sighed heavily. "Alright." she said, "We admit, we shouldn't have excluded you."

"Darn tootin'." replied Applebloom, wiping a single tear from her eye. "Besides," she said, "Applejack already bought me a copy of Doom II, and I was just about to invite you over to play..."

Thus far Rarity had made it level 3, "The Gantlet". She tilted her head. "What's a gantlet?" she asked herself, not realizing she was speaking out loud. Suddenly a new type of soldier appeared. But this kind wasn't in gray or black clothes like the other ones; it was in heavy, rust colored armor. It gave a frightening growl as it lifted its chaingun and began blasting away.

Rarity screamed momentarily, lucky enough not to have anypony else inside the boutique at the time, or else they would have thought she was in danger.

Little did she realize what she was getting herself into...

Comments

[Commander-Strife]

As a huge fan of both Doom and MLP. This Is Awesooome!

[mr. tallyman18]

heh, seems like a pretty funny little fic. Quick question though, is it supposed to be implied that the characters/enemies in their copy of doom 2 are human/humanoid, if so how the heck does that work?
oh well regardless cool fic ^_^

[MS-09 DOM]

Teehee. "Gantlet"

[ViceCityFTW]

I am furious! Why would Rarity ever stop these kids from playing Doom, they need to if they're gonna stay away from shit like COD. Kids need good games in their lives