The Rules of the Game
Octavia nauseously woke up to the feeling of being shaken back and forth. Due to the increasingly rapid motion, Octavia found herself fully conscious within seconds. It didn't take her long to discover the source of the shaking.
“Tavi! Tavi! Come back to me!” screamed a white coated unicorn mare. She had her hooves wrapped tightly around Octavia and swung her back and forth in a tight hug.
“Vi-i-i-nyl-l-l Sto-o-o-o-p sha-king me!” Octavia screamed, fiercely trying to escape the unicorn’s hold. It was no use, her body was rapidly going numb. Luckily Vinyl released her voluntarily a few seconds later.
Vinyl dropped her harshly and put a hoof to her head dramatically, crying, “It’s no use! She needs CPR!”
Octavia's eyes shot wide open and she backed away quickly, “Don’t you try it!” Bumping into something, she turned around just in time to be held back by another unicorn.
Lyra called on her magic to tighten her grip on the earth pony. She leaned to the side and glanced mischievously at Vinyl. “Do it! Vinyl! Save her with the kiss of life!” Lyra pleaded.
Octavia fought against her bonds, screaming, “What? Lyra? What are you doing here? Let me go this instant!”
Vinyl put on a seriously look and nodded, seriously at Lyra. Seriously, she whispered, “Thanks, Lyra. I’ll save her. I promise. Just hold her still…"-- she cracked a serious smile--"You know, so I can save her!” Vinyl started trotting over to the still bound earth pony. As she got closer she made kissy faces and smooching noises.
Octavia fought with all her might, but alas, it was no use again the magic of the unicorn that held her. “Vinyl! Stop!" she began pleading. "Don’t you come any closer, or I’ll wipe your hard drive!”
Vinyl stopped momentarily to give it some thought. Eventually she shrugged and said, “Ehh. I’ve got a backup.” She then resumed her kissy faces.
Octavia began to sweat nervously when she began to hear Lyra’s mischievous giggles behind her. “Vinyl I’m not comfortable with this!”
Vinyl leaned into her ear and whispered, “Quiet, Tavi. I’m trying to save you.” Vinyl was right in her face now slowly leaning forward with puckered lips. Octavia closed her eyes, turned her head, and accepted her fate. All seemed lost for her until...
“Alright, that’s enough you guys.” Octavia finally opened her eyes when she felt herself being released. Both unicorns were now hovering above her in the same purple magic aura. Next to her stood the princess of friendship herself, Twilight Sparkle.
“Oh what the hay, Twi,” Rainbow Dash called from a few feet away, “It was just getting good.” She took a hoof full of popcorn from Pinkie’s bag and munched on it.
Twilight turned around and leveled a glare at Rainbow. “Be that as it may, it was blatant sexual harassment.”
Vinyl scoffed and waved a hoof. “Not if she enjoys it. It’s just a little game we play.”
Lyra raised her hoof and said, “It’s true! I’ve seen them do it!”
Octavia blushed before glaring harshly at the both of them. “It is not! What are you talking about?”
Lyra smirked and turned back to Octavia. She crossed her hooves and raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, remember last week when we got together to play Mareo kart?”
Octavia met her raised eyebrow with a deadpan glare. “I remember you restarting the whole match just so you wouldn't come in last... several times!"
Lyra flinched, “Okay, not that last week. I’m talking about when--”
“Um.. girls?” Everypony looked towards the small white unicorn sitting next to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie. Sweetie Belle fidgeted from the sudden attention but continued anyway. “Shouldn't we find out where we all are?”
Twilight lowered Vinyl and Lyra to the ground, turned, and addressed the group of rag tag ponies around her. “Sweetie’s right. We need to find out what happened and why we’re all here.”
Nodding, the group began to examine their surroundings. However, the only thing that they could see was the tiled violet floor and dark blue walls. Nopony could see the ceiling due to the blue mist blocking it from view.
“Alright… that was a waste of time,” Rainbow remarked, rolling her eyes.
“Maybe it’s some kind of secret surprise party!” Pinkie cheered.
Octavia turned in a circle, re-examining her surroundings, this time, in detail. Unfortunately, her reexamination proved useless. “If it was, why are we the only ones here?” asked Octavia.
“Alright. Let’s think,” said Twilight. “We’re in an enclosed room with no discernible exits. How many of you were dragged into your television screens?”
Everypony except Lyra and Pinkie raised their hoof.
Twilight smiled and gestured to the two of them. “Lyra, Pinkie, how did you two get here?”
Pinkie hopped in place and said, “I followed Rainbow Dash in!”
“I got sucked into my computer,” smiled Lyra, shaing her raised hoof.
Twilight frowned and turned back to the rest., “Alright, that’s no help. Next question, how many of you received an invite from Noct-3-rnal?” Her question was met with various confused gazes.
“Noct… three er nal?” Vinyl asked, confused.
Rainbow slammed a hoof to her face.
“It’s Nocturnal!" Everypony jumped when a large floating screen appeared in front of them. Princess Luna appeared on it looking distraught, “It’s Nocturnal with a 3 acting as the e. I was told that it was clever.”
Twilight recovered and gazed up at the screen, “Princess Luna, ‘nocturnal’ doesn't have an ‘e’ in it.”
She pointed at Vinyl. “Neither does ‘pony’, but Vinyl Scratch uses it anyway!” she countered.
Vinyl shrugged, “Hey, mine sounds cool no matter how you say it,” she stated.
Princess Luna groaned in a very un-princess-like manner, “Ugh, I’m changing my name back after this.”
Vinyl chuckled, “Oh I remember that old one. It had all caps but it was so long that nopony could see it. Everypony called you blank because your name didn't appear on their screens.”
Princess Luna reeled back, clearly offended. “Well I for one thought for certain the name I chose accurately displayed my skills to anypony that read it. ~XXX360PRONOSCOPEMASTERCOMBOKILLERPRINCESSLUNATHEKINGXXXPS3~ was a great name!
Rainbow Dash leaned back and, unlike the Princess, did it in shock, “How were you even able to type all that in?”
Octavia coughed in order to regain everypony's attention. Once received, she raised her voice and said, “Alright! We are getting off track here. Princess Luna, were you the one who brought us here?”
Luna shook her head. “I’m afraid not, my little pony. However, I am the one who sent you the invites, and I am the reason you are here.”
“Alright. So what’s the dealio?” asked Pinkie.
“With the assistance of Discord, I have recruited you all into a competition of sorts,” Luna answered, nodding.
“Wait! Discord is involved?” interrupted Twilight. While the spirit of chaos called himself reformed, his constant suspicious actions still sometimes caused a slight uneasiness, a slight suspicion, in Twilight. She could never help but expect something bad when he was involved.
Discord shoved his smiling face against Luna’s cheek. “Hello!” he greeted waving a claw.
Luna immediately shoved him away and glared off-screen. “Rest assured, Twilight Sparkle. Discord is only here to assist now and then. This is all my doing.”
Twilight looked at her suspiciously for a second but didn't say anything more. The Princess turned her gaze back to everypony else and resumed. "Now, the reason I’ve called you here is as I stated previously. The seven of you; Twilight Sparkle, Octavia Philharmonica, Vinyl Scratch, Lyra Heartstrings, Rainbow Dash, Sweetie Belle, and Pinkie Pie. You have all been selected by us to participate in competition of my own design.”
“Um, Princess Luna,” Octavia interjected, “I’m sorry, but I don’t have time for this I have a concert that I absolutely must practice for.”
“Do not worry, Ms. Octavia. Precautions have been taken for each of you. Any and all responsibilities that you had before hand are waived with no repercussions. Your roommates and family have also been notified.”
“So… the concert...?” she asked nervously.
“Has been rescheduled,” Luna finished
Octavia looked around, obviously still nervous. “Oh, alright then.”
Twilight stepped forward, “Alright, but what kind of competition is this?--" she gestured to everypony around her "--Not to mention, I’m pretty sure we didn't agree to participate in this.”
Luna looked shocked, “But you all accepted the invites of your own free will. The terms of the agreement were as plainly stated. Did you not read them before accepting?”
Everypony fidgeted nervously, none able to look directly at Luna’s screen.
Luna turned a weary eye to her sisters formor student. “Twilight?”
“I was talking to Spike at the time," she blurted. "I was distracted. Plus, I had read it at least 74 times before then. I… I just assumed that it was the same as the others."
Vinyl spoke next, waving her hoof off in a nonchalant manner. “I never read those things.” Pinkie, Lyra, and Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement.
Sweetie Belle tilted her head in confusion, “There were terms of agreement?”
Octavia sighed and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Princess," she said, "I normally read them but I was preparing for my rehearsal at the time when Vinyl accepted.”
“It is alright. I will explain it further. Everypony listen carefully. As stated in the invite, none of you are at liberty to leave until you lose or win. As you have probably guessed by now, the common trait between you all is that you are all high level gamers in some category. Therefore, you have all been selected to participate in a competition, where the challenges take place in the video games themselves.”
Vinyl and Lyra gasped and high hoofed. “Alright!” they cheered.
Sweetie Belle raised her hoof, “Um, Princess Luna?”
Luna nodded down at her and answered, “Yes, young one?”
“I’m not high level," Sweetie admitted shamefully. "I only recently got into video games. Are you sure you didn't mean to suck in Button Mash instead?”
Luna grimaced, “No, Sweetie Belle. You were selected specifically. Button Mash’s extensive knowledge of gaming and cheat codes would give him an unnatural advantage in most of the prepared challenges.”
Vinyl's eyes nearly popped through her shades. “Hold up!" she stopped. "We can use cheat codes here?”
“Indeed, Vinyl Scratch," Luna smiled, proud that interests had finally been gained. "Any and all cheat codes that you know of can be used in any challenge should I say that they are allowed. The only exceptions are infinite life, and infinite stamina for certain reasons I will reveal later.
Vinyl hoof pumped and high hoofed Lyra once again, “Sweeeeet!”
“Wait,” said Twilight, “I don’t know any cheat codes!”
Luna shrugged, uncaring, she continued. “As I was saying, each challenge will take place in a different game setting where different rules will be enacted.”
“This sound fun!” Pinkie bounced, “What are the rules?”
“This is the fun part,” Luna smiled, “For you see, I am not alone in this venture. There are four other ponies that have joined me on this side. They, alongside me, are called the Gamemasters. We are responsible for choosing the challenges that you will all compete in, as well as which game world. Before I elaborate further, I would like you all to examine this chart.”
Next to Luna’s screen another appeared. On it sat four columns. Picture, Category, Specialty, and Starting Score. The list was as follows:
Twilight Sparkle. Completionist/Strategist. Strategy Games. Starting score: 90,340
Rainbow Dash. Speed Runner/Rage Quitter. Racing Games. Starting Score: 22,100
Pinkie Pie. Explorer. Multiplayer Games/Platformers. Starting Score: 77,000
Sweetie Belle. Newb/Casual. Exploration/Open World Games. Starting Score: 17,000
Lyra Heartstrings. Hardcore/Troll. No Specialty. Starting Score: 91,000
Octavia Philharmonica. Completionist/Casual. Fighting Games. Starting score: 75,000
Vinyl Scratch. Hardcore/Troll/Speedrunner. Rhythm Games. Starting score: 80,800
“This list represents what kind of gamer you are. Using this information, I have painstakingly calculated an appropriate amount of points to start you off with. In order to win you must either reach the maximum 100,000 points or--”
Rainbow Dash spoke up, “Only 22,000? Why am I so low compared to Twilight? I play at least twice as many games as her!”
Princess Luna conjured up a sheet of score statistics that she had used in creating the scores. “Well, strategy games are known to give more rewards for discovering multiple ways to solve them. Twilight is a completionist by nature so she strives to find every possible solution. You, on the other hoof, basically run straight through most of your games. You don’t stop to explore like others.”
Rainbow wanted to retort, but after thing on it, she realized that he she couldn't find any flaw in the Princess logic. “Alright, but why am I so close to Sweetie Belle? She said it herself that she just started?”
The princess continued to read from her sheet. “Sweetie’s specialty is open world games. Similar to strategy games, open worlds give rewards for exploration and side questing. It also didn't hurt that she was assisted by young Button Mash. Sweetie Belle’s score is only low due to the fact that she’s a beginner. Were she given a few months, I would wager she’d be at least 70 thousand.”
Sweetie blushed from the praise. Rainbow sulked. Lyra raised her hoof, “Princess, I also have a question. Why do Vinyl and I have troll in our category?” Vinyl nodded.
Everyone deadpanned, though Octavia somehow managed to deadpan slightly deeper than the rest. “You know why,” she answered simply. “You two spend more time screwing around and messing with other players than actually trying to beat the game,” Octavia added.
Rainbow flew up to the screen once more, “Then how do they both have such high scores!”
Luna shrugged and put down her sheet. This question was an easy answer that she didn't need it for. “Vinyl plays a lot of solo and rhythm games. Lyra plays a lot of games period.”
Rainbow turned her glare at the two smirking unicorns.
“Sorry dude,” said Vinyl, shrugging.
Lyra, however, felt no shame in her classification. She proudly gestured to herself. “I play, therefore I am; and what I am… is unemployed.”
Rainbow ignored her and turned back to the screen, “Princess Luna these scores are ridiculous!”
Princess Luna looked at her, offended, “They are not! I worked really hard and--”
Twilight spoke up, “Actually, Princess, I’m not a fan of this either.”
Luna and Dash turned to look at her, confused, “Really?”
Twilight blushed slightly, but continued, saying. “Yes. If I win, I don’t want to win because I had an advantage. I’m already so close to the limit anyway.”
Octavia stepped forward, “I agree. I think we should all start of with equal scores.”
Luna lifted her hooves in a pleading gesture. To her, it seemed as if everything was falling apart around her. “But… I.... Lyra Heartstrings, Vinyl Scratch? How do you two side?” Luna asked.
Lyra scrunched her muzzle in thought, “Eh, I’ll side with them. The game’ll last longer if we all start out at something like 50,000.”
Vinyl shrugged once again. “I’m cool with anything.”
Luna turned one more pleading look at the small filly. “Sweetie Belle...?”
Biting her lip, Sweetie Belle nodded weakly, “I’d probably have a better chance of winning… maybe.”
Luna groaned loudly, and threw her hooves in the air. Because of this, random papers flew everywhere. “Do you ponies know how much math was required to get those scores! I had to factor in your gamer level on two different systems with two different rating algorithms. Not to mention, I even had to make one up for Lyra’s pirated computer games. I even factored in gaming patterns and categories and…” she trailed off.
Everypony shuffled awkwardly. None of them felt right for pretty much causing the Princess of the night to rage quit after having apparently spending so much time composinng the scores. Eventually Twilight took a hesitant step forward. “Umm… Luna?”
Luna’s outburst interrupted whatever Twilight was bout to say, “You know what? Fine! Every pony starts out with the median 50,000 points. Happy?”
Everypony once again shuffled shamefully but nodded. Silence reigned for a few seconds while Luna calmed herself. Sweetie broke the silence with a weak voice. “Princess Luna?”
“Yes,” she huffed, still calming down.
“Since gamer scores don’t matter anymore, can Button join in? I really think he deserves it more than I do.”
Luna regained her composure and shook her head, saying, “No. I am sorry, Sweetie Belle, but you were chosen specifically for this. In fact, all of you were chosen by somepony you know.” Four other screens appeared in a circle around the group. Each of them held a shadowy silhouette of a pony. “Alongside me, four other ponies will act as gamemasters. Each one of them had a hoof in selecting you. Your main challenge in this game is to discover the identities of these ponies. Not only that, but you have to accurately guess which of them chose that day’s challenge.
"After each challenge, you will meet with me privately to guess who picked that day’s challenge. If you pick correctly, that pony will be revealed to you and only you. You may not inform the others, nor give them hints as to who it is. By the way, I will be going by a different username. So you will have to guess my new one to be able to pick me. Everypony else will use their regular names. If you reach 100,000 points and have found out all five of our names, you win the prize.”
“Oooh!!” Pinkie squealed excitedly, “What is it! What is it! Is it a lifetime supply of things? I like things! Especially shiny things! But I do like dull things too. I don’t discriminate.” Pinkie surprisingly stopped talking, leaving only a wide smile on her face.
“But seriously. What is it?” Lyra asked.
“The prize, my little ponies, is the grandest thing I can think of.”
“A lifetime supply of wubwiches?!”
“A giant foam finger?!”
“A golden cello with alicorn hair strings?”
“My old treehouse back?”
“The original Sonic the Wonderbolt game?!”
“Button’s hat?!” Everypony looked at Sweetie Belle, confused. “What? I think it’s cute.”
“IS IT THINGS?!”
“Um… no… I think Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash are the closest. The prize is 1000 bits, any one existing video game of your choosing, either now or in the future, and a brand new golden game system. This game system and anything that you get on it shall be free. Online purchases, free. Premium membership, free. Netflix, free. It is also enchanted to play any and all disks that enter it.” By this point almost all jaws had been dropped and all eyes had gone wide. Lyra was literally drooling. Luna continued; she knew that this last one would motivate them even more and seal the deal.
“Also, the winner shall gain the honor of challenging me for control and top rank. Should they defeat me, they have the option of continuing the competition from the beginning with all new players…. Now are you all interested?”
“Hell yeah we are!” Vinyl cheered.
“What’s the first challenge?” Lyra added.
Octavia put a hoof to her chin, hiding the small smirk she gained. “I must admit, I am pretty excited for this.”
“I may not need the bits,” Twilight began, "but I still don’t intent to lose.”
Rainbow DDash hovered in the air and clapped her hooves together. “Bring it!”
Pinkie stood up on her hind legs and pounded her chest twice, “Come at me, bro!”
Sweetie Belle was the only one to shrink back. All of the others’ competitive spirits and confidant demeanors actually managed to lower her own confidence. Luna however, didn't notice. All of the screens besides hers’ disappeared as she clapped giddily. “Wonderful! There are a few more rules, but we’ll cover them in the tutorial.”
“Ehh,” Lyra gagged, “there’s a tutorial?”
“Of course! And what better tutorial, than an old classic.” She faced off screen, “Discord, if you please?”
There was a snap and a flash. After everypony shook off their blindness, they gaped at their surroundings… or rather, the lack thereof. From their point of view the only sight of anything lie in front of them. A straight line of blocks about 3 feet wide, with a few floating in the air. Off in the distance sat what looked like a small mushroom and green tube shooting out of the ground. Further back sat a castle of some sort.
“Oh… my… Celestia,” Twilight breathed, figuring it out, “We’re in a 2-D platformer!”
Pinkie hopped over Twilight, her eyes glittering in delight, “No! Way! We’re in one of my favorite games of like, ever!”
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ones
Money? Any game they want? Golden console? These prizes.... I wish this game was real! It be awesome! :DDDDD
Couple more typos, but in one area:
missing open quote before 'but', intend
Hope you don't mind these, let me know if you do.
Whoever wins this, please recruit me so that i can win a golden console! I cant wait to read the next chapter!
5093367
5093418 No it's alright, thank you.
5093448 It's cool, you won't have to.
I've already wrote it!!
“My old treehouse back?”
Too soon dude too soon
Man, Twilight's comment about her old treehouse back. The feels.
I like how Luna pretty much implied Button Mash was so broken that she wouldn't invite him in as a result. So then, she didn't think to challenge Button Mash to a bunch of games before going into this NGNL mish-mash ಠ_ಠ?
Hold up! A speedrunner doesn't just "blaze through" games... it takes a lot of research and experimentation to find or implement all the time saves. Thus, this line doesn't hold water.
A completionist may play a game through once getting all the content... a speedrunner will play through hundreds of times.