The following morning, all the sprites held their breath as Mr. Litwak wheeled in the new arcade machine. As the store wasn't open yet and no one but Stan was in the arcade, the sprites felt free to crane their necks around the edges of their various cabinets to check out the new machine as it was wheeled in.
As Stan wiped his forehead, he chuckled at the sight. "Arcade's still closed for today," he said aloud to no one in particular. "Always nice to give a new machine a day to warm up before it gets played."
The sprites hid their chuckles. They knew what this was. Litwak was giving the sprites from the new game a day to get to know everyone - and for everyone to get to know them - before reopening the arcade. Then again, most of the sprites were still a tad unwell after the events involving Turbo, so an extra day off was a welcome relief.
Besides, it would give Wily a chance to cross code everyone with the new game, just in case.
Leaning down, Stan plugged in the new machine.
Soul Calibur.
Nightmare Moon was the first to go into the new game. She had been bouncing back and forth at the plug point, waiting for it to be connected. Not only was she eager to make new friends, if it turned out to be her kind of world - it was rumored to be another fighting game, but this one with a high magic component - then she wanted Wily to code her in as a bonus character ASAP.
The instant the game was plugged in, Nightmare Moon dove through the connection, flying through the passage to the new game world. What she found felt so like home to a part of her that, for a moment, she could only freeze.
Vast primeval forests stretched to the horizon. Ancient cities stood tall on rivers and shores. Towers reached for the heavens. Rolling plains waited silently as the grass blew in the quiet wind. In the distance, the sound of clashing steel echoed, speaking to an ancient memory as brief flashes of warriors facing each other across the battlefield filled her mind.
Unknown to her, Shadow Man was following behind her invisibly, taking notes on her reaction to be sent back to Dr. Wily regarding possible further details of the 'game' world of her origin. This was unimportant at the moment, however, as such details were not apparent to Nightmare Moon.
After a time of staring around the world from the entry point, Nightmare Moon spread her wings and took off, flying low to the ground as she explored.
It wasn't long before she encountered one of the native sprites of the world. He was roughly humanoid, and towered over her, taller even than Ralph in his silver armor. His right arm was no longer human, looking like it had transformed halfway into a demonic claw. In his left armored hand he clutched the hilt of a sword that was half metal, half flesh, with a demonic eye staring at her balefully. A good portion of the right side of his torso was exposed, showing the demonic transformation his body was undergoing.
"Hail and well met!" Nightmare Moon proclaimed. "Welcome to Litwak's Arcade. By what name do you go by?"
The figure breathed in, then exhaled. "I am Nightmare," it proclaimed in a gravely voice. "Wielder of Soul Edge, the dark demonic blade."
Nightmare Moon frowned. "This will not do," she scolded. "For I am Nightmare Moon, Queen of the Night, bringer of bad dreams and destroyer of day! Through me the night shall last...forever!" She glowered down at Nightmare. "We cannot share the same name! It would cause too much confusion." She lifted her head regally. "I have seniority in the arcade," she allowed loftily, "so you'll just have to change yours."
Red eyes flared from under the helmet. "You dare give me orders?" the figure demanded, the eye of the sword glowing red. "I shall teach you your place!" Yanking his sword point from the ground, he got into a battle stance.
Feeling the world around them change, Nightmare Moon realized a battle had been initiated, and it was her turn to give a battle taunt. "You dare talk back to me?" she proclaimed. "You will rue the day you crossed the Queen of the Night!" She spread her legs in her own battle stance, mantling her wings.
The ground they were standing on rose up in an octagonal shape, leaving a deep pit all around. A voice echoed from the air. "Ready...FIGHT!"
Nightmare lunged forward, swinging his massive living blade in a downward swing. Nightmare Moon side stepped it, dancing backwards and sideways as she dodged the follow up downward swing, and then ducking under the sideways slash. As Nightmare's guard fell from that, she spun on her forehooves and delivered a hard double buck with both hind legs. As Nightmare staggered back, Nightmare Moon jumped into a back flip, bringing her hind hooves down on his head and slamming him into the ground. She then danced back as he returned to his feet.
Nightmare Moon grinned widely as she felt her blood race. In Marvel vs. Capcom, there were so many limitations to what she could do in combat. She had to build up the energy for special moves, work as a team, run back and forth across the stage... This was more pure, more focused. All moves were available as long as she knew how to do them. The stage was small, confined, forcing continuous confrontation. This was fun!
As Nightmare leapt into a diving, spinning strike to close the distance, Nightmare Moon spread her wings and flashed into the air above him as he reached her former location, delivering a blast of lightning - which was not her code damaging lightning - straight down, frying him. As he staggered, she folded her wings and dropped, slamming him into the ground as she landed on his head.
As she leapt back, Nightmare rose quickly to his feet, his sword swinging out and catching her across the barrel, knocking her back. She hissed in pain, glad her armored peytral took most of the impact, so she was bruised rather than bisected. While one side of her thought now suggested caution, she could barely hear it over the pumping of her blood in her veins. She felt electrified!
As Nightmare lunged in again, she teleported behind him and bared her fangs. Sinking her teeth into his demonic shoulder, she flexed her entire body and magic and flung him across the arena. He landed heavily before falling over the side.
"Ring Out!" the voice from before proclaimed. "Winner: Nightmare Moon!"
"What?" Nightmare Moon demanded. "Is that all?" She stomped her hooves angrily. "I've only just begun! Get back up here and fight me again!"
Much to her frustration, the arena lowered back into the ground. Nightmare pushed himself back up, shaking himself off.
Nightmare Moon rushed forward. "I'm not finished!" she yelled, slamming her helmeted head into Nightmare's torso. "Fight me again!"
"Another time," Nightmare growled. After a time, he knelt. "...my Queen."
Nightmare Moon blinked. "...eh? When did that happen?"
"I am the demon who devours souls," Nightmare replied. "I serve only the dark impulse of the heart, the battle frenzy...from this battle, I see you embody it far more than I can...my Queen."
Blinking, Nightmare Moon shrugged, deciding to roll with it. "So...are you the Bad Guy here?"
"...yes..."
"Then you're coming to BadAnon with us!" Moony proclaimed. "Come along!"
Turning, she led Nightmare towards Pac-Man.
Meanwhile, Albert was already in Soul Calibur's code. A new bonus character appeared on the character selection screen.
N. Moon
Yay Moony! She's becoming more like herself....
That's good, right?
Good chapter. I thought it was the game made for nightmare moon at first,
I don't know the Soul Caliber characters or story, but this was still fun to read! Fighting for the name of Nightmare, heh. The guy trailing Nightmare Moon sounds ominous though. Nice update!
Nightmare in BadAnon already gave me a hilarious mental image
6115744
Here's a little summary of Knightmare:
6115744
Go watch this then. It is both informative and epic.
Nice chapter!
holding up hand for high five.
Wait. First an army of unstoppable cyber bug, and a enslaved Turbo; and now Nightmare from Soul Calibur. Did you peek at my Christmas list .
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Doesn't Nightmare wield Soul Edge?
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I believe so - Soul Calibur is the "good" sword I think
6115744 Every dark queen need a dark knight.
Let's see... Knight = Nightmare, Soldiers/Grunts = Cybugs, Slave = King Cybug/King Candy/Turbo......
Quite the evil force our little nightmare is accumulating there....
I approve *insane laugh*
6115744 Eh, Shadow Man aint that bad compared to some of the other MM3 Robot masters.
then again, the game also has doc robots, and his weakness is the worst weapon out of mega's arsenal(unless its in Sm4sh, then its somewhat useful)
A very enjoyable chapter. Great job.
Nightmare wields Soul Edge, not Soul Calibur...he has unpleasant goals for that particular blade since it was forged specifically to kill him and his Master
Loved the update, keep up the awesome work!
6115840 Throws muffin
6115898 Judging by what I know of the story of Soul Calibur V, those are pretty big quote-marks too.
I wonder how Asteroth would get along with the other large bad guys? I wonder because he's my main in the soul caliber series.
6116020
Soul Calibur was reforged from a shard of Soul Edge. Good, it isn't. It just wants to prove its superiority over Soul Edge or something.
6116000 well as long as we're at the Pony version of Lambert's Cafe... Raises hand. Also at least this version of SC doesn't have Night Terror...
6116083
I thought they were two swords created from the same billet. They're supposed to embody the opposite extreme, but they both have personalities that conflict with that, wanting to enforce their nature on the world around them. Even if the world doesn't agree with them.
....figires he gets beat buy a pony LONG LIVE GUTS
6116091 Throws sourdough roll
6115718 I can totally see that being her fight music.
you know I have Idea on how Litwak can explan Nightmare "Growing" so to speak. He can tell the arcade goesers that Nightmare's "age" Is a sign how close her "game" is "ariving" to the arcade. he can also say a "Vires" got into the games she is in and "accivated" the growth "code" to early(which he can say is why the store was closed down yesterday to get rid of the Virus as well as install the new game), but their was no way to restore the oriagal code without closing down for longer so he left it as is
6116083 Yeah, Soul Calibur isn't necessarily 'good.' It's just a little less bad than Soul Edge.
6116172 To be honest, I kinda hated that battle. Guts was not a good match for Nightmare in terms of power. They should've paired him with someone else.
6116172 hell yea
Hopefully the little Nightmare will do a better job as Nightmare Moons Knight then he did against Guts XD.
But this was just unfair, a Demon try to beat the berserk armor ;P not in this life, Guts will survive.
<Blinks and leans back in their chair>
"New chapter?"<Clicks refresh>
"New. chapter?"<Clicks refresh>
"New. Chapter." <Mouse clicks escalate in frequency to a steady whine.>
plz?
Epic fight. Well done.I can't wait to see Nightmare at Bad Anon and around the arcade. Moony is making quite the start on her evil empire, I can't wait to see what new minions/servants she gets next.
Hehehehahah, that was awesome! :D
Good ol Nimmy has another buddy :D
God show chap.
So shortening Nimmy's name, Wily? Marvel vs. Capcom 3 managed to go by with Phoenix and Phoenix Wright,
When i read Soul Calibur instantly i expected a confrontation for names
Ralph: Something seems weird about Link and this Siegfried guy.
Link/Siegfried: *both grunting in exactly the same voice*
Moony: Daddy's imagining things.
not too familiar with the original soul calibur game but I wonder how the sprites will react to Nightmare's origin story
Nightmare Moon, you idiot! You deliberately picked a fight with a fighting game final boss in a game you hadn't been coded into yet! You could have permanently died! You are far more lucky than you deserve.
6117248 No, not really. Possibly even in her mare form, she could have ducked to dodge Nightmare's slashes, and dodge out of the way fast enough with her teleportation. She also had something Nightmare didn't. PROJECTILES.
6115718
Is it bad that my first thought wasn't "Yea, I could totally see that", but instead was "This would be perfect for a Pokemon Champion battle"?
6117537 ...No idea.
Another one, yeah!
SOOOOUL CALIBUR!
6117537 You're missing the point. Yes, she isn't a pushover, and clearly was capable of beating Nightmare, but what would have happened if she hadn't ducked in time? A character in the code would have just re-spawned, N. Moon would have died.
6117839
Wha?
... Shadowman?
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I loved him in Battle Network!
Ahhh she got her first minion, that's adorable.
When I saw "Shadowman", I got confused, thinking about Dr. Facilier from the Princess and the Frog. Man, I gotta get my Disney and Mega Man knowledge straight.
Good good good, everything is chugging along nicely.
Just...a small request...
More Link?
I'm not a Zelda fan, but the way you write the interactions is hillarious!
Awesome chapter! I am enjoying this story immensely I hope you update soon