**Chapter 2 - From the Dashboard** [Revised]
Luna opened the ornate doors to Celestia’s room. She looked around the room to gather her surroundings. In the center stood a velvet bed with plushy pillows and blankets suffocating the mattress. A hearth for the fire lied on left side of the room, empty of any flames at the moment. Bookcases lined the walls from top the bottom. They were filled with encyclopedias, scrolls, and tomes of all kinds.
She checked them for the one case that her sister kept the games. She found the source of her objective and pulled a green box with the Haylo Reach title on in. The examined the outside, intrigued about the detailed mini portrait of 5 ponies (or what she assumed to be ponies) on the front. They seemed to be walking away from the lands behind them.
She couldn’t see what it looked like, so she focused her attention on the characters themselves. The center was obviously the leader. He was in front of all the other ponies and had the dignified look of a captain. All of the others were looking around, wary of any signs of danger that could threaten their security. They were clearly soldiers; the way they were heavily armored pointed all clues towards that conclusion. The only mystery about the picture was the objects in their hooves.
She couldn’t put her hoof on it, but she felt like she’d seen them before. Especially the smaller one of the items in the cyan armored pony’s hoof. After several moments of memory searching, she remembered a long time ago before her banishment of the utility gryphons used as weapons. “Flint-locks” they called it. Hand-held cannons meant for anybody with fingers, with the capabilities of eliminating a Manticore with only a couple shots.
Her sister clearly saw them as a threat, and immediately set a rule to have all of the Royal Guards to have an active projectile shield around them. Either the protection would have to be provided by themselves or by another unicorn. After many tense years between Equestria and the gryphon nation Gryphoian, the gryphons agreed to stop the production of weapons.
Luna assumed that ponies today have learned about this. What she couldn’t put her hoof on is how these weapon’s designs came to be. She made a note to herself to ask Celestia if flint-locks were being made again. Despite the fact that they were extremely dangerous, they are certainly more powerful than the standard swords and spears the guards still use today.
She pushed the thoughts out of her head. She was here to have fun, not to focus on the well being of the nation’s security. She opened the box and took out a discus. It was very thin, and had a hole in the middle. Luna couldn’t wrap her head around the idea that a game could be contained in such a small thing, but she didn’t want question her sister’s knowledge of video gaming.
She looked around the plasma television her sister kept in one corner of the room. Tia told her that she kept a certain black box which is needed to play the game. After a minute of searching, she found the box and dragged it out to get a better look. It was sleek, black, and had grills on its sides. A shiny, concave circle was on the front part of the box and a bundle of cables stuck out from the back.
She pressed the shiny circle to turn on the device, and like her sister told her, the box hummed with magical energy. Luna could also sense electricity circulating through the box as well. Celestia told her that a combination of magic and science had created this wondrous tech: the XBUCK-360. She turned on the TV as well to see how the screen had changed. She was greeted by a large number of options and menus. The screen was literally filled with them.
‘This must be the Dashboard Celestia was talking about,’ Luna thought.
Luna didn’t stop there however. She snooped around the cabinet that once held the XBUCK, and brought out two other devices. One was a white, boomerang-shaped object. The sleek surface was smooth to the touch, and it had all sorts of buttons on it, including two padded sticks. Celestia told her it was called the Controller and that it was mainly used to navigate through everything in every game. However, that was not the tool she was going to use today, for there was the second object. The Interactive Pony Visor, a sleek white headset, was held in her right hoof. The visor’s eyepiece was singular, and its tint was a shade of orange. It was large enough to completely cover both eyes of a pony. The temples of the visor connected with each other, forming a complete circle. An antenna stuck out from the top rim on the visor, and an insignia of Celestia’s cutie mark could be seen on the bridge of the visor.
She tried to fit the visors over her eyes, but had some trouble with her horn. It blocked the bridge of the visor, impeding its way. After fumbling around with the visor, she found a switch that allowed her to separate the two temples. After placing the visor over her eyes and reconnecting the temples, she felt around for some sort of ON button. After feeling around the right side of the visor, she felt a bump. She pressed it and immediately a bright light was forming in front of her, or rather in front of her eyes. She blinked as the radiance temporarily blinded her.
When she opened her eyes, her lungs were filled with air as she gasped in awe. She found herself floating in a massive, gradient green space. Surrounding her were wall-to-wall panels, each of them displaying an option for her to choose. What she was impressed with wasn’t the world around her. She’d been to the pockets of space between Tatarus prison islands and the mysterious white gap beneath Canterlot Castle. What surprised her was the fact that ponykind was able to simulate a virtual world similar to an ether dimension. As she looked around, she caught sight of another pony within the virtual space. Curious enough, the pony reminded her of somepony else. As she drifted towards the being, she noticed how the pony looked like her sister. The unicorn mare cheerfully giggled a little and poked Luna’s snout. Her mane was a hue of multiple colors, and her coat was the same blend as a flurry of snow. As Luna tried to touch the mare’s mane, the avatar itself flew away, giggling away as it weaved its way through the forest of panels.
“This place is weird,” Luna concluded.
But it was all very interesting to her. She decided to explore around for a bit before finding a panel option to start the game. Using her wings to propel across the green neo-space, she came across a multitude of panels with icons of shopping bags and various items. A big, white logo stood on top of stacks of boards, displaying the words: ‘XBUCK Live Marketplace’. Luna poked around and chose the shopping bag. Immediately, the panel glowed and a white ball expanded from it. Luna backed off as the ball took shape of a large silver orb. A green X was emblazed on the orb, mimicking the XBUCK-360 symbol. The orb continued to glow as it fired off numerous panels from its depths. A string of neon light connected each option to the orb itself. Luna looked around and saw that every other option available before had disappeared. Suddenly, Luna was worried that she might never find her way out of here. As she contemplated her situation, another panel bumped into her. She looked at it irritatingly, but immediately switched to curiosity. The panel had an open doorway with a pony walking through it as an icon. Above it were the words ‘Exit’. That’s one crisis solved for now.
Luna’s mind wandered as she thought what happened to that mare she met earlier. As she turned around, the night princess yelped as the said mare appeared in front of her. The mare giggled a little and hoof bumped Luna’s nose again. She then gestured to Luna’s hooves, and then pointed to her own nose. Luna didn’t know what the mare was trying to do, but the motion was simple enough. Luna prodded the mare’s nose and a bunch of panels popped up behind the unicorn. The mare performed a happy flip in the air. She seemed pleased. As the little pony flew around Luna, the princess peered at the options the mare seemingly gave. A profile of Celestia was displayed to her. A picture of Tia, her short biography, her likes and dislikes of all sorts, a basic stack of information of the mare, anything that wasn’t confidential about her sister could be found here. Suddenly, the mysterious mare made sense to her. The mare was Celestia herself! Or at the very least, was a small, artificial extension of the sun goddess. The mare certainly did act childish like Tia was back when the two goddesses were both very little fillies. Luna looked at the profile again, and saw a display of a name.
SunnySkiesGalore.
Luna suspected that Celestia went by this persona to avoid unnecessary and awkward conversations with other ponies. It was also certainly a fitting name for Celestia. She looked at the avatar of Celestia again. She was looking very expectantly at her.
“Sunny Skies, is that your name?” Luna asked.
The mare blissfully nodded and did another happy flip. Luna gave a grin of her own as Sunny Skies dancing in the space around her. She wondered if she could have an avatar of her own like Sunny Skies. She doubted that. Luna admitted to herself that she wasn’t exactly the most gleeful of most ponies. Her avatar would certainly be more serious than her sister’s, and definitely the color of blue. Sunny Skies flew around the space and grabbed a few more panels. The gleeful unicorn brought back them back. They were the gateways to the other realms of the Dashboard, all for the Moon Princess to take her pick. She was tempted to discover some more, but she waited long enough. She chose the option to play a game. The world around her dimmed until Luna could see through the visor again. It was like looking at two worlds phasing through each other.
After fumbling around a bit, she grabbed a hold onto Haylo Reach and popped the disc into the now open tray. She closed the tray and waited as the Dashboard world materialized around her again. The panel that allowed her to open the tray changed appearance, and the team of soldiers popped up again as its cover. Sunny Skies tapped the panel, barely containing her enthusiasm. Luna smiled with and tapped the panel along with her. As soon as her hoof made contact, the space of the Dashboard slowly faded around her into darkness.
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All right, 2000 words! Doubling the fun!
831134 Hmmm, mind if I steal your little quote?
Is this going to be a series where luna plays the old and new games? (Meaning lots of chapters) If you are; me loves you forever!
831598 Awww what gave away the idea?
831619
loved this chapter
And it begins...
...I cannot wait to see what insanity will come from all of this!
Just as a suggestion, any chance of seeing Luna playing a DragonBall Z game...I don't know why, but seeing Luna play one of those games is hilarious.
831683 Oh yes, any game will happen, I just need to get the right feel of the video game and watch a lot of playthroughs of said game.
Ace Combat 5 or Command and Conquer (the older ones)....that's all I got!
Its funny, but you need some editors! There are a lot of typos, try to get someone who has English as their primary language to proof read your stuff to avoid mistakes.
Great idea and fun to read though, more please :)
Hey! Cool story! Just one thing I picked up on. your sentence:
"There is doorway to a balcony that opens up to a private section of the royal gardens where both of the royal princesses could soar above without attracting enough attention Luna is allowed in her sister's room and she could do anything she wanted in Celestia's room" needs a punctuation mark in it. I would suggest:
"There is doorway to a balcony that opens up to a private section of the royal gardens where both of the royal princesses could soar above without attracting enough attention. Luna is allowed in her sister's room and she could do anything she wanted in Celestia's room"
Does anypony else see a notice up there by MicTheMicrophone? Cause I'm getting disturbed by it.
I dont see anything but what is it? Anyway, good so far. Are you gonna do a chapter for every mission cause that will get boring for us and you. Or are you gonna skip to the mission, "Lone Wolf" with Luna saying, "That was bull!"
838747 Probably
838747 I've been thinking alot of how to deal with this all night.
MORE STUFF TO READ THAT WILL ENSURE I NEVER CATCH UP TO ALL THE STORIES?
HKAJGDGWUKRTAGYUAFISIQAGFAHIAPQF
One word describes this story: aweshum.
It's like awesome, but slightly more meaningful, because the story is so aweshum it prevents the reader from spelling awesome correctly.
I really want to see her play Animal Crossing.
...
SHUTUPIT'STHEGREATESTGAMEINEXISTENCEOKAY
840626 I'll try to cover as many games as I can in my lifetime.
840639
Don't force yourself to do it if you don't want to.
Halo: Reach? HELL YEAH!
hope Luna stops tghe game to eat something
840749 Well dang, you've caught me at my rush typing times. I was publishing that at midnight.
At some point, do one(or more) of the Fallout series. I will love you forever if you do.
830799
NOOOO Not UMVC3. That game is so broken and such an OTG fest that it's disgusting.
BlazBlue on the other hand yes.
Ooh, Maybe Guilty Gear, Melty Blood or Capcom vs SNK.
Marvel vs Capcom 2 though would be better!
Sorry, bit of a fighting game nerd :P
840782
Umm
I'm not sure if I should be pleased or offended, but I'm leaning toward pleased, and that fact itself offends me.
Your "mother" here.
"Theres too much green of these devices. They should of been the color blue instead."
This lacks apostrophe. Also, that "should of" should be a "should have" and apparently "should've" isn't a word so don't even try that.
"The Office of Naval Intelligence believes deployment of a Spartan team is a gross misallocation of valuable resources. I disagree,", said the uniformed pony.
There's an extra comma after the quote.
"Commander", said the mare.
Unfinished sentences that use a comma at the end have the comma go before the ending quotation mark.
The white stallion and a huge lumbering horse of a stallion turn to look at Luna .
There's an extra space before the period.
"Oooo, such foal language in this game."
I'm going to assume you did this on purpose as angry children tend to curse in gallons.
"I'm not gonna lie to you, Lieutenant", Cloudrain said to Luna.
The same thing as I said earlier: Comma goes before ending quotation mark instead of after. For that matter, a comma is actually never supposed to go directly after a quotation mark.
"Got it, sir", said Luna's Noble Six.
You probably understand the point by now. The one with the commas and the quotation marks.
That said, what is "Halo"?
840914 Okay "mother". You're helping a lot here. but uh could you private message me this?
840954 Hey it's a hard habit to get rid of. I'm trying my best here.
I don't know if this is a glitch or not, but I just got my sixth notification of an update today, and yet there hasn't been an update...My guess is that you're working on a new chapter. Please, write it in Word/Gdocs/*insert word processor of your choice* first and then transfer it over to FIM. That way we don't get spammed with "update" messages, only to have our hopes mercilessly crushed.
841591 Most likely a glitch because I didn't get any notifications
841748 Yeah, I'm starting to lean that way too (grand total is now ten messages). Reason I made that guess was because that's what happened with two other stories that I was watching. They switched over to Gdocs and it hasn't happened again.
841758 same for me, I got 6 messages for this story and two for another. FimFic. has been screwy all day for me though, something about "Bad Gateways".
841853 Yeah, Knighty needs to find out why these are happening and needs to fix 'em. From time to time I get those Error 502's and 504's as well (today was particularly bad). Probably something to do with the site's coding.
love it
840639
While Halo is my favorite series of all time, I'd love to see Luna's rection to the very foal language, disease and melted ponies in Crysis 2/Crybro 2!
amazing
841853 I only WISH I got 6 messages for ANY updates... dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/shrug_Luna_apple.png
I havn't had an email update sent to my email since May 28,
and emails to Knighty have never even been responded to!
It's AGGRAVATING!!!
Seriously??? If anypony has an clue as to what might be going on with my lack of email story update notifications, I'd love some insight, as I can't seem to get ANY TECH SUPPORT from this website's staff! I could fire off another message to the staff... But I never seem to get a reply... EVER...
Preeeeeeeeettty good just my brain is picking up a lot of "She" in this chapter.
My Sparkle sense is tingling.
"She found it and flicks it upward."
Two different verbs with two different tenses in the same sentence!
images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111016141436/mlp/images/2/28/Twilight_Sparkle_Crazy_S2E3.png
(Please, please get an editor. I won't be able to read this until at least most of the sentences are grammatically aligned.)
*Edit*
Oh noes! If this is what an edited chapter looks like, I really don't want to keep going!
Awesome so far. My only complaint is that the Xbuck is the new small one, not the big clunky one we fell in love with.
most destruction she had seen in her life? have her play cod mw3 XD
"What would she refer herself as "Our little princess"."
What's up with this sentence.
Why is the what a why?
Why is this so epic?
Because it has Luna and VIDEO GAMES.
dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Luna_lolface.png
at one point you typed "Cat" instead of "Kat" :)
Sorry to nitpick, but when you described the intro, you stated that Reach is a planet. It's a moon, and it orbits the "Moon" (Planet) that you also mentioned
994735 Just in case you were wondering, I like to add a little fourth wall breaking.
994761 Why did you think I did that?
This statement is redundant. Is redundant.
One image goes into my head
@ 0:42
emile having a thing for knives.
I read the first six or so paragraphs and had to stop.
You have misspelled words, tense switches, subject verb disagreements, incoherent sentences, awkwardly written sentences, misplaced capitalization and more! Please get an editor or at least use auto correct. If you can't buy word than use open office or word pad; it will make your life (and mine) so much easier.
I'll re-read this story when you get an editor or proofreader but for now I have to thumb it down out of principle.