Games we play

by NiGHTcapD

Chapter 1: Pressing Start

Flare Blitz stretched as the train pulled into Canterlot Central Station. Even now, he couldn’t believe how big the city had gotten. Since the last few attacks had destroyed a good portion of the mountainside city, Princesses Celestia and Luna had decided that some changes should be made as well, and so the entire city had gotten a refit.

Several new areas now existed, like Underside. It was a section below the city, mostly home to research laboratories and homes for ponies that wanted a big city life but still valued their privacy. There was a large agricultural area, the largest farm was run by one of Applejack’s cousins.

The castle itself looked the same though, something Flare was glad for.

“That place was confusing enough the first time,” he said aloud.

“Hmm? You say something?” Twilight asked. The mare walked a little ahead of him but turned one ear in his direction.

“Just commenting on the city is all,” Flare smiled and took a few long strides to catch up to her, nuzzling the back of her head. “So, what do you suppose Luna wants?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea,” the alicorn sighed. “Her letter was kind of vague, but she sounded urgent.”

“I really hope it’s just something simple, like she lost her hairbrush or something…” Flare was done with world-ending dramas at the moment. After everything that’s happened, he just wanted to rest and relax a little.

---

Too bad he wasn’t getting that rest. He just groaned and looked at the Lunar alicorn with an exasperated expression.

“Can you, repeat that Luna?”

“We ah, created a spell to punish Us for our crimes as Nightmare Moon? Or the part where it escaped into the Dreamscape?” At least she looked sorry about it, or so her kicked puppy expression claimed.

Dammit. It was impossible to stay mad at her when she did that. Stupid cute Luna.

“So, how do we fix this then?” Flare asked with another sigh. “Is this spell dangerous?”

“The Tantibus feeds of off dream energy,” Luna stated with a small nod. “I had no idea it could become so powerful though. If it were to acquire enough energy, I have no doubt it would be able to manifest in the waking world.”

“And I’m guessing that’s bad?” Flare sighed. There goes his peace and quiet.

“The Tantibus can alter dreams into nightmares,” Luna nodded. “If it got out into the waking world…”

“The nightmares would be real as well,” Twilight shuddered. She’d had… a few when Flare was in his coma. Very unpleasant ones. “Alright Luna. How do we find it?”

“I’ll set up a Dreamscape, and we can follow its trail from there,’ Luna nodded. “I’m sorry to have to drag you two into this. But you have a lot of experience because of our games…”

“Don’t worry Lulu,” Flare smiled and pat her shoulder. “Let’s do this.”

---

*ring ring*

“Rez, you may want to get that,” Luna says. She seems to be holding back a smirk.

I shrug. I certainly wasn’t expecting a call from any of my friends at this time of day...or night, for that matter. Luna had called me over for another gaming session, even though I thought Sig had one planned for this moment in time...and when I asked him about it, he said “just do it”. (Yes, he linked to that old memetic video. Shut up.) But the fact that no one else was there when I came into Luna’s game room (whatever other features the room possesses are irrelevant to my purposes), along with the fact that she knew about the call...and encouraged it...

She’s up to something.

“Sig, you’re contradicting yourself. This means you’re planning something.”

“Already have it planned.”

“It also involves Jolu and Vic.” Their names are listed as people on the call.

“Yeah...”

“And Luna.” I think for barely a moment, and before Sig can respond, I accuse: “You two are co-DMing tonight, aren’t you?”

Sig and Luna break down laughing simultaneously. This can only mean I’m right. “Dammit man, you’re killin’ me here! How can I keep a secret when you figure everything out so fast?”

“But yes, you’re right,” Luna says.

I never anticipated this kind of communication, but that’s what you get when your best friends are also hackers. “What led up to this?”

“Playing old games while half-asleep. Literally.”

“It’s a shame nopony has created computers yet. Your ‘video games’, even those of your past, are utterly astounding.”

“Which games?”

“Namco’s Tales series. After she saw me playing Tales of Destiny, and I told her that there was more than one game in the series, I showed her a ‘sizzle reel’ of pretty much every main game in the series.”

“Which one are we using?”

“Xillia,” Luna said, “for one reason alone: linking.”

“Neither of us are quite sure how she ended up in my head-”

“Sig, you’re such an insomniac...” Vic interrupted.

“...yeah, yeah, maybe that has something to do with it-but in any case, Luna pretty much fell in love with the game mechanics and wanted to try using it in one of her RPGs. She pretty much told me everything about her games of O&O after that point, and I gave the same courtesy with our D&D sessions, and then we got to planning.”

“And then this. Whatever the end result is.”

“Pretty much. And the ‘end result’ is us playing a realtime RPG with our characters, or new ones, with game mechanics from an old-and-awesome video game RPG in a dreamscape Luna is making while she and I watch the fireworks.”

“Right...” I turn my attention to Luna. “And we’ll be playing human characters this time, right?”

“Most certainly. Now, to begin, we’ll need you to fall asleep first...”

“On it.” For Luna’s gaming sessions, I have found it efficient to already have something set up to force me to sleep. In fact, I was already in my pajamas, now I just have to be in bed with the headphones playing music to a video that my optics are displaying. I can easily assume that the others have had their bits explained to them...something about comparing me to a router, something about magic.

I’ll see them there.

---

Flare lay in the bed in between Twilight and Luna.

This was… both something that felt amazing and highly awkward.

“I apologize for the close proximity,” Luna blushed as she shifted around a bit. “But pulling somepony into a shared Dreamscape is easier if we are close together.”

“Luna… you could do it while Flare and I were still in Ponyville,” Twilight deadpanned and Luna’s face reddened.

“And here we go,” the alicorn of the night said all to hastily as her horn flared with silver light. Luna’s room faded to darkness, and soon the three found themselves floating in a void, filled with aurora-like lights and twinkling stars.

“Luna… we are discussing this later,” Twilight sighed and looked around. “So where are we?”

“We are in the space between Dreamscapes,” Luna explained to her. “An open Void if you will.”

“Oohh~ I want to study this,” Twilight stared around with wide, excited eyes. Flare rolled his eyes and pulled his marefriend closer, kissing her cheek.

“I’m sure Luna’ll let you study this place later. But right now, we need to find this Tanta-thingie.”

“Tantibus,” Luna corrected him. “And yes, locating the dream it escaped to will be easy…” She lit up her horn and a tail of light appeared. “It leaves a rather unique magical signature. But as for the dream itself…”

“What about it?” Twilight asked.

“The Tantibus can control a dream. The longer it stays, the more powerful it becomes and the stronger its control also becomes,” Luna said with sigh. “I did not know it would become strong enough to actually leave a dream for another though.”

“Hey, it’s alright, everyone makes mistakes,” Flare smiled. “Besides, compared to Darkrai, this should be a cakewalk.”

“Agreed,” Twilight and Luna stated with a small nod.

“Well, down the glowy astral road then,” Flare nodded and the three begun their journey. Hopefully they could wrap this up quickly…

---

Within the dreamscape, I ‘woke up’ last, despite having fallen asleep first. I’m positive there are explanations for this, but right now I don't care about knowing why. For once in my life, I feel like actually being physically active, even as I know it's not actually physical. And right now, I don't care.

I stand up and get a good look at myself. Human, male, good. Basic-yet-intricate-looking robes, classy while still leaving plenty of room for athleticism, check. Staff of metal, made for hitting as much as for channeling magic, certainly feels about right for that. Big man in armor with a weapon that works as a shield, blue-skinned girl in robes that somehow evoke both white and black mages while moving at unexpected speeds, and they're both clashing in the plains?

Well, I guess I woke up a lot later than them than I thought. “Trying out the combat system without me, are you?”

“Ask her! She’s the one who demanded to spar with me,” Jolu, or whoever the character is that he’s playing, “Gk...didn't think you’d be a rushdowner...your Artes are all support!"

“My Artes are all for playing with everyone’s health, mine included,” Vic states. I don’t yet know her character’s name either. “You’ll notice I haven’t been using them?”

“As far as I’ve seen, medic classes often have lower attack, sometimes greater agility,” I note. “The speed here is probably to get from patient to patient-but she’s using it here offensively, to keep poking at you.”

“Well then tell her to stop!”

“Try hitting her yourself!”

“I can’t hit a girl!”

“Too bad! The girl is hitting you!”

“Try using an Arte.”

“She’ll stagger me when I try!”

“Normal attacks don’t stagger!”

“Do you really want me to test that?!?”

And then something weird happened. The world...glitched, for lack of any better terminology. The sky trembled and seemed to flicker between night and day, with landscapes shifting rapidly and an immense pressure bearing down on each of us. I think I may have seen Jolu standing the most upright in his armor, which was saying something due to the gravity.

And then as quickly as it started, it stopped. Aside from a message that faded from the quickly brightening sky.

‘THIS. WORLD. IS. MINE.’

...certainly not something to inspire confidence. “Guys...?” I offered.

“Yeah?”

“Our campaign has no sense of subtlety whatsoever.”

“...there isn’t a campaign.” Vic stated.

This confused me. “What?”

“Sig and Luna planned this as a prototype, a beta test. There isn’t supposed to be a mission. Just a combat test.”

“YO DMS!” Jolu yelled to the sky. “THIS ISN’T FUNNY ANYMORE. WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU UP TO OVER THERE?”

There was no response beyond the sky glitching again, and the message soon vanished.

---

Luna had led them through a door, one that opened up into an expansive grassy field. But the moment they stepped through, they changed. From their pony forms into the bipedal forms they often used for Luna’s games.

“What?” Flare looked down, stumbling as he went from four legs to two. “What happened?”

“It would seem that the Tantibus has already started exerting control upon this realm,” Luna said, now in her Athena form.

“Enough to change our forms?” Twilight asked, now Amethyst.

“So it would seem,” Athena nodded. The realm seemed… peaceful. No raging, out of control nightmares. Just the gentle sun and endless blue sky. “This is curious though. Perhaps… the Tantibus used up most of its energy getting here. If so, we may have a narrow window to defeat it before it can move again.”

“Well, no time like the present,” Flare smiled. Well, he guessed he was Aerin now. He looked around, wondering where they should actually start when out of thin air, several monsters appeared. They looked like small birds, but by the way they were glaring at them, before two of them dived at Twilight…

“Enemies,” Flare said as one dove at him. He drew his fist back as some words came to mind. “Blazing Knuckle!” he shouted as his fist ignited in crimson flame and he smashed the bird right in the face, the monster was utterly obliterated.

“Whoa!” Twilight gasped and looked at the mob. “Alright then.” She raised her hands as they glowed with arcane energies. “Lightning!”

Several bolts of electricity formed and rained down on the remaining birds with a small explosion. Twilight wore a smug grin as she dusted off her dress.

“Yes yes, all hail the mighty Twilight,” Flare chuckled. Luna on the other hand, frowned and looked in the distance.

“T’would seem we have drawn some attention,” she said and drew her spear. “Be on your guard…”

---

“...because we got company.”

I’d say that I saw them in the distance first, but that would be a lie. They were making a bit too much noise, and I got the others to stop worrying about the foreboding imagery for long enough to check it out.

Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone hacked into our chat session and learned about this whole deal, but only because I already know plenty of people capable of it. Infiltrating the dreamworld though? That takes other sorts, and these guys are quite possibly too old to get help from...never mind. Point is, I have no idea who these people are, but unless something’s going on that none of us are in on, odds are they’re NPCs.

A boss encounter early. Joy. Or maybe...

“Hey! Who are you and why are you here?”

---

The three turned as they saw another group approach.

“Odd, other inhabitants of a Dreamscape?” Luna peered at them. “They don’t appear to be Figments either. But actually consciousnesses like us.”

“Do you think the Tantibus brought them here?” Twilight asked her. “Does it have that power?”

“No, but by now I wouldn’t be surprised,” Luna said. Flare looked at the mares, before turning to the new group.

“Right, they uh… might be a while. The names… Aerin. Yeah. Let’s go with that.”

---

Aerin was a tall figure, muscular and had fiery reddish-orange hair. The other two, were a short girl with long purple hair and a taller woman, even more so than this ‘Aerin’. The girls hadn’t acknowledged our presence yet at all, but somehow they seemed familiar...

“Bit of a delay there,” Vic muttered, snapping me out of my distracted thoughts. “You’d think he’d know his own name.”

“Maybe the NPCs weren’t fully thought out, or are borrowing from other people’s dreams?” Vic and I glared at Jolu in response, and he shrugged. “Heck if I know how this dream stuff works. Sig’s the one with Luna right now, and they’re not talking right now.”

Then the Amazonian woman stared down at Jolu...and holy crap was she tall. Taller than most pro basketball players...maybe.

“You! What do you know of Dream Magicks!?”

Erm...not the response I anticipated. “You first. What the heck are you doing in our dreamscape?”

“Your Dreamscape?” She frowned and folded her arms.

“Lu… er, Athena?” The other girl spoke up. “Perhaps you’re being just a tad… intimidating?”

Aerin just rolled his eyes. “Sorry.”

Funny as the comedy routine may have been, I wasn’t getting answers, and Vic called them out on it. “Avoiding the question. What are you doing in this dreamscape?”

“Tis nothing of your concern—” Athena started but Amethyst raised a hand.

“We’re chasing down an enemy that escaped from our own Dreamscape. A powerful one created by our worlds greatest Dreamscape Weaver.”

Dreamscape Weaver...I’ve heard the term before, and it only really applies to one. But she’s the DM, but she’s arriving with uninvited help, but if she’s in both places at once then…

“...then you’re not from our dimension. I think I have this figured out to some degree.”

“Really? Explain it to me like I’m five, because I’m not getting any of this.” Gee, thanks Jolu. Way to...actually, he pretty much is the voice of the crowd right now. Nothing wrong with that.

“Gladly, but may as well introduce ourselves first. That’s Jolu, she’s Vic, and you can call me Rez. Now, how about your real names?”

“Figures,” Athena sighed. “These two are hopeless at live roleplaying.” ...well, mostly the fact that the names sound like character names and they’re definitely players...but that’s a part of it too, I guess.

“Hey!” Aerin and Amethyst said and folded their arms. Athena chuckled and held out her hand.

“I am Princess Luna, and these two are Twilight Sparkle and Flare Blitz. The latter being no stranger to other dimensions hmm?”

“I swear to Arceus Luna,” Flare started. “Can’t I just stay in Equestria for one freaking day? That’s all I ask.”

Vic stumbled. “Did he just say ‘Arceus’? Like the god of Pokémon Arceus?”

“...Yes. Yes he did,” I deadpanned. “Where other dimensions are concerned, you really shouldn’t be that surprised. I’m no stranger to alternative worlds myself...I could even list off my encounters in chronological order...besides the point though. What’s important is that us three are natively human, and that this dreamscape is being monitored by another Luna and another human, who goes by Sig. Make sense to you three so far?”

“To me, no,” Flare shrugged.

“So, there is a version of myself here as well?” the other Luna hummed and tapped her chin. “That could be why the Tantibus was drawn here.”

“Have you noticed anything weird in this Dreamscape?” Twilight asked. “You know, more so than usual?”

The three of us just looked at each other funny for a while. On an unspoken cue, we all turned to them and, in our most sarcastic voices possible, yelled “NAAAAW.”

“There was a huge burst of air pressure!”

“The sun and moon went all spazzy, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just in the sky for a bit there!”

“Synesthesia is no excuse for the spinning of the color wheel like that!”

“The ground was all ‘ZIP ZOP ZOOBITY BOP’ and shifting like a 15 puzzle!”

“What’s a fifteen puzzle?” asked Twilight, curious.

That snapped us out of it. “...we’ll tell you later,” Vic offered.

“Are… they addled in the head?” Luna asked Flare.

“Humans usually are,” he replied. “Okay, so it’s a good chance that the Tantibus is here—”

“It is here, I can sense it,” Luna corrected.

“So, the Tantibus is here,” Flare reiterated.

“And it left a message: ‘This world is mine.’ All caps, period after every word. At least it got the spacing and kerning right.”

“Only you would worry about the kerning,” Jolu said. “And we ain’t addled, just a bit excitable.”

“Understatement.” I clarify. “When we get excited, we get HYPE! because that’s just our culture. We’re actually some of the smartest people around, or at least the best at what we do.”

“And what we do isn’t very-”

“No Jolu, this is not the time to reference comic books,” Vic said, facepalming as she did so. “Nice Wolverine voice though.”

Luna sat down and pondered. “Then, the Tantibus intends to use this world as a means to escape… and by now, it could probably affect all of reality.”

“That… sounds bad.” Flare paused and looked at her. “Are we talking Darkrai bad here?”

“Worse,” Luna replied.

“Crap,” Flare muttered. “Whelp, so let’s go punch it in the face and call it a day. I promised Dreamy we’d go out to see the new Daring Do movie soon.”

“Ooh, I’ve been looking forward to that one,” Twilight giggled.

“There’s going to be a Daring Do movie? Geez, the forums are gonna explode if I manage to get footage of that...”

“Rez, stop encouraging them.” Vic said, being the sensible one again. “Before we go any farther off-topic, something you three should know: This dreamscape was intended to be a proving grounds for RPG mechanics, the flavor of the day: Namco’s Tales of Xillia. Important notes are: Normal attacks and Artes, which serve as, well, normal attacks and varied spells, skills, and attacks. IIRC we’re not using TP or AC, so how much you can do is dependent only on how much your body can exert in one chain.”

Jolu picked it up from there. “Guarding, which decreases damage at the cost of not being able to move, except for me because of my innate.”

“And linking.” I clean it up. “Each party member in battle can link to another member, allowing them to attack more as a unit and otherwise be buffed.”

Vic: “Linked partners share innates, so if you’re linked to Jolu you can walk while you block.”

Jolu: “Linked partners can unleash Linked Artes, letting them do massive damage or other powerful effects.”

Me: “And then there’s skits, because why the heck not to have inane conversations while important story is going on.”

A rather large pause.

We could almost hear the crickets chirping as the other three stared at us with almost dumbfounded expressions.

“Did you… understand any of that?” Flare asked Twilight and Luna.

“Not a word,” Twilight nodded. What the heck was TP or AC? And skits? What? Was this some kind of play?

“We art confused as well,” Luna nodded. “Verily, they do seem to be quite addled. Let Us speak to your Luna. We shall get answers from her.”

“Good luck with that. She hasn’t spoken to us since we got here.”

“Better off trying to reach Sig anyways.”

“Besides, it’s not that confusing. It’s just game mechanics, it shouldn’t be too hard to-” A pause. “By any chance, do any of you know what video games are?” Nice job, Vic. I can’t believe I missed that. Do we actually have to explain that too? Because I certainly haven’t seen any over there.

Aerin raised a hand, as did Amethyst. But Athena looked rather confused.

“What in Equestria is a ‘video game’?” the tall woman asked, making air quote with her fingers.

“It’s a bit like the games we play,” Amethyst explained. “Though it uses a screen to display pictures and the like, rather than relying on the ponies imagination.”

“Sounds like a waste of time, not to mention a waste of imagination,” Athena huffed and folded her arms. She looked at the group of humans before them. “Now, it has been a somewhat confusing pleasure meeting you all. But we have an important mission to complete. Aerin, Amethyst. Let us depart at once.”

Amethyst looked at the tall woman walking off and sighed. “Oh dear. Well, it really was nice meeting you Mr. Rez.”

Aerin just nodded at them.

“I really don’t think that’s the best idea,” I then said. “Face it, you’re in our dreamscape right now. Your world maybe, but you’re playing by our rules. Rules that you can maybe adapt to, but probably not quickly enough to deal with this Tantibus. We know the game, we know the gameplay, you probably want us at your side.”

Athena paused. She didn’t want to drag civilians into this matter. But then, she’d already done so by bringing Twilight and Flare along. She turned back to the group and folded her arms. “Very well then. On the condition that when we face the Tantibus, I shall be the one to deal with it.”

“The moment things go south, we’re comin’ right in.” Jolu said that one. Vic and I nod our heads in agreement.

“Wonderful,” Athena sighed and waved a hand.

---

As the group started to head off in a direction Athena had picked. Amethyst moved up next to Rez and Aerin rolled his eyes. He knew what the newcomer was in for.

“Soooo,” Amethyst said with wide sparkling eyes. “Tell me all about the wonderful technology of your world!”

“Well, for starters, this is the second time—”

“Second time?” Amethyst blinked and tilted her head. “We’ve never met.”

Rez didn’t miss a beat correcting her. “Recall that we’re in a dreamscape with a Luna observing it and another Luna inside it. Simultaneously no I haven’t, and yes I have.”

“I am so confused,” Amethyst said.

“Try not to break my marefriend,” Aerin said from over his shoulder.

“The other one probably would be taking this better,” Rez noted. “In any case, my tech is probably lightyears more advanced than anything either of you have seen before. Not literally, of course, but you get the gist, I think. Have either of you knowledge of what a computer is?”

Aerin snorted, he highly doubted that his world was more advanced than his old home. “Yes, I know what a computer is, try being stored inside one.”

“And her?”

“I have the basic understandings of one,” Amethyst replied. “It’s a fairly new technology in Equestria. But I’ve been to two worlds where they are much more advanced.”

“Fair enough. Well, mine are pretty much still governed by Moore’s Law, which is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. Which puts me at a computing advantage because we’ve had them for so long...half a millennium at least. Out of all my world’s technologies, though, there are only a few that matter to me personally: computing, space travel, and bionics. The first because it’s pretty much my job, the third because I use them on a daily basis, and the second for multiple reasons, one of which circles back around to the first. Which do you want to hear about first?”

Amethyst looked like a kid on Christmas morning. This human was a wealth of information and while she loved Flare, he was useless when it came to technology and science. So naturally, she had one response.

“All of it!”

This… was going to be a looooong day.

---

---

Later…

Well, they seem nice.
So much knowledge! I want to pick his brain some more~
As long as they don’t get in the way. We’re here to stop the Tantibus, not play some game.
It wouldn’t hurt to have them along. They might be useful. Meat shields are always useful.
*smack* Flare! Don’t be mean!
Ow! alright, alright. Sorry. Just… a little confused by everything is all.
Fret not Flare Blitz. We shall overcome this trial and return home soon enough.
Speaking of home. Why did you insist on sleeping in your bed for this?
Is that a town up ahead? Let us tarry on longer!
H-Hey, Luna! Get back here!!

Author's Note:

I realize that other games in the series have linking features, such as Zestiria. But to date, Xillia has a versatile linking system with its Artes and substitutions. Plus, despite never having played it myself, Xillia is the game I know best, due to watching a live co-op playthrough on Twitch.
-NiGHTcapD

It’s been a while since I wrote Flare and the gang. And this cross has been in the waiting list for a while as well. Well, onwards and upwards I guess. Let’s see where this crazytrain goes.
-Ausbrony