Our Equestria

by Nonagon

Lord Cruelty's Indestructible Magika Tank (with Dawn Flower)

It had been two days since the training up in Canterlot, and two days since Archer’s entire life had been turned upside down by the appearance of three lines on her flank. In those two days, she had barely said two words to anyone, unless one counted ‘hmmm’ or annoyed grunts as words.

She spent most of her time now in the Ponyville arcade, stubbornly wearing Sweetie Belle’s cape. Her guard escort had agreed to give her some space, which of course meant that he would simply be somewhere he could see her, but she couldn’t see him. That was fine, though; she didn’t care. The arcade was completely deserted except for her – which she appreciated – with most of the small town still on edge from the last fight. Archer sat on a stool, off in a corner of the arcade, playing her favourite game, Wonder Force Three.

The arcade was comfortably enjoying the revolution of 8-bit gaming, meaning that the magic required to run a single machine for a whole day cost eight bits. There was no skimping on this price; the game machines would only run when fully powered, after which they would happily putt along, regardless of use, from morning until well into the night. On its own, this made gaming quite an expensive hobby, more than most young ponies were able to spend on a regular basis, but ingenuity found a way. By dividing their time and their pocket money, the regulars had quickly devised a system that allowed everypony to play with very little disagreement. So long as the times were agreed on beforehand, four bits split between two foals gave each one the entire morning or afternoon to play, an affordable two bits from four bought several hours of entertainment, and one bit would get a full hour and a half just to yourself, even if sometimes you had to get up with the sun or sneak out at night to capitalize on it. There had been talk for several months about the arcade getting a sixteen-bit machine that could support two players at once, and there were rumours that Canterlot was developing a legendary 64-bit machine that could render 3-D models. It was futile speculation, since all of the foals knew that they would never be able to afford to play on it, but the thought of such a machine used to make Archer's skin tingle. Used to.

On this occasion, Archer had paid the whole eight bits for the day herself. She sat hunched in front of Wonder Force Three, eyes narrowed, hooves deftly moving. On the screen of magically stained glass, Princess Cloud Wonder dodged between cannonballs of darkness that were flying towards her from somewhere off to the right, occasionally retorting with a bright bolt of her own.

Wonder Force Three was unique in its series, and in the arcade. For the first few levels it had the same bright colour palette and ease of difficulty that many games in the arcade shared; nothing that a concerned mother wouldn't be perfectly happy letting her innocent little filly be exposed to. But after the sunflower boss on level four, things changed. Over the next few levels the sun in the background would slowly set, turning the world not to night but casting everything in an eerie red. The harmless clouds and cartoonish blob enemies turned to giant bats and timber wolves. The bosses became the stuff of nightmares and legends, from spiders to centaurs to one that was made of nothing at all, causing the glass to become clear and expose the machine's metallic inner workings. All of it led up to the final level, an empty skyscape of nothing but minute after minute of being bombarded by high-energy missiles. And then came Lord Cruelty.

The attacks stopped. Archer's teeth clenched as a rumbling filled the screen, inches from her face yet sounding like it was coming from far away. A titanic black shape trundled into view, bristling with weapons and filling nearly half the screen. The music intensified, and for a split second the face of a leering pony flashed across the screen. Then the first of the tank's flashing red weak points appeared, and the battle began.

No foal had ever defeated Lord Cruelty. No matter how many weak points were destroyed, another would pop up somewhere else, and the barrage of his cannons was never-ending. In fact, the regulars were divided over whether it was even possible to win. Apple Bytes thought that winning would cause the game to explode. High Score, predictably, believed the fight was unending and only served as a way to get more points. Button Mash liked to speculate about an even stronger monster that lay beyond him. Archer didn't care what they thought. When she saw a flashing weak point, she knew what she had to do. What happened afterwards wasn't important. She just had to win.

Archer quickly moved Princess Cloud Wonder erratically around the screen, dodging every single attack from the tank's weapons. There was never a single second when she was sitting still, which made aiming and firing at the weak points difficult. At the rate that she was going right now, she moved around for five seconds before firing off a single shot, and weak points required a lot of hits to destroy. With Lord Cruelty’s notoriously many weak points, it would take her forever to win at this rate; however, she also wasn’t taking a single hit from the boss either, despite the screen being almost completely white with all of the constant attacks that would damage her if they hit her.

“Uhhm… hello, uhhmm, Archer,” a voice suddenly said from behind her. A voice she recognized, too; she was just surprised that they were here, and that they were on their own. It was Snails. It looked like she wasn’t completely alone, after all. Her face slumped a bit at the thought, but she still didn’t lose focus on the game for even a second.

“What?” Archer replied in a deadpan tone, not taking her eyes away from the screen.

Snails hesitated for a second, awkwardly scratching at the back of his head before speaking up again. “Uhhmm, well, I was just wondering if maybe you wanted to go to Sugarcube Corner. You know, to maybe take your mind off of… you know?” the lanky unicorn colt said, looking away again, awkwardly circling his hoof in the dirt.

“Can’t. Busy.” Those two words were all Archer replied with, moving no part of her face but her lips. She then quickly leaned the joystick as far to the left as it would go in order to avoid an incoming stream of attacks.

“Oh, uhhmm… a-are you sure?” Snails stuttered out.

“Yes,” Archer replied immediately.

“Oh, alright then,” Snails said, his head dipping slightly. He then turned back around to walk away again. As he was leaving, however, he suddenly turned his head back to her and simply said, in a straight tone of voice, “Do a barrel roll. It’s a more efficient way of dodging incoming attacks, and has a chance of reflecting attacks back.” He then turned back around again and continued walking away.

At that little caveat of information, Archer’s eyes drifted back towards him for a split second as he was walking away, and in that split second, she almost failed to notice an incoming attack. Quickly looking back towards the screen, with her eyes wide, not having time to think and the only thing in her mind being what Snails just said, she instinctively mashed the barrel roll button, which not only allowed her to avoid being hit just in time, but also put her in the perfect position to take out the first weak point with a follow up attack of her own.

The first weak point crumbled away into digital nothingness, followed by Lord Cruelty switching his tactics to the next phase. With the first part of the boss fight done, thanks to that new bit of helpful advice, despite her current situation, Archer couldn’t help but crack a smile; the first honest-to-good smile that she'd worn in the last two days.

---

Progress against Lord Cruelty was slow going. It had been ten minutes since Snails had arrived and left, and in those ten minutes, she had only taken out another two weak points. She was still four weak points away from her record, and even then she didn’t know how many more there were after that. However, she still hadn’t taken any serious damage, and was currently doing better than she ever had against this boss before, so she wasn’t worried. She could do this.

“Hey there, Archer,” she heard another voice from behind her again. This time it was Spike. Archer didn’t have anything against the baby dragon; on the contrary, she thought that he was actually pretty cool – he was a dragon – but right now, she just wanted to be left alone. Her frown deepened a bit, but she still didn’t lose focus on the game.

Spike sidled up behind her to see what game she was playing. “Oh, ‘Wonder Force Three’? I love that game,” he said over her shoulder, with a bright smile on his face. He then laughed embarrassingly and scratched at the back of his head. “Even though I’ve never actually beaten it.”

“Yeah, join the club,” Archer replied, with a slight smirk on her face, which was about half way between when she first arrived and when Snails was there. Realizing that Spike obviously had a reason for being there and wasn’t just there to make small talk, Archer decided to just come out with it. “What do you want, Spike?” she said, her focus returning fully to the game.

Spike gave her a comforting look before answering. “I just wanted to make sure that you were handling things alright.”

“I am,” Archer responded, just a little too fast to be convincing.

Spike gave her a knowing look with a raised eyebrow, but instead of giving her a sarcastic ‘Really?’ he instead let out a short sigh and gave her a reassuring, “Really?”

Princess Cloud Wonder took a direct hit, dealing a significant amount of damage to her shields. Archer responded to it by biting down, hard. Moving her avatar to the left to avoid the next barrage of attacks, Archer finally addressed Spike. Letting out a sigh of her own, she simply said, “I’m dealing.”

“Are you sure?” Spike immediately followed up. This caused Archer to bite down again, but this time it was because of Spike. Why couldn’t he and everyone else just leave her alone? She obviously didn’t want to talk to anyone, so why couldn’t they just take the hint? Seeing that he wasn’t going to get another response, he continued. “Look, I won’t claim to know what you’re going through right now and how that makes you feel, but I will be eventually, and unfortunately, that’s not likely to change. So please, I just want to help you.”

Archer couldn’t really shoot down anything Spike said, considering how sincere he sounded, but she still really wasn’t in the mood to argue with him and she just wanted to be left alone. Without turning to face him, she simply said, “Go away,” in what was barely above a whisper, but loud enough so that she knew he heard her.

After a brief pause, with no sound between the two of them but the sound effects from the game, which Archer continued to play throughout, Spike simply said, “Alright then,” and walked away.

All by herself again, and being able to focus completely on her game again, Archer had only one thought in her head at the moment. Darn it, hit again.

---

This time, five minutes had passed before Archer’s alone time was interrupted by yet another voice she recognised. “Hey…” Before they'd even finished a two-word sentence, she already knew who it was.

“Hi, Rumble,” Archer cut him off. “Tell me, are all of you just lining up somewhere, coming to talk to me one at a time, to get me to go do something or to talk to me about my feelings?”

Rumble simply shrugged. “Something like that.” Archer couldn’t tell if he was serious or not. “We are worried about you, though,” he continued. “You do know that, right?”

“And I keep telling you all, I’m fine,” Archer replied.

Rumble let out a sigh and got serious. “Look, you’re pissed, I get it. Believe me, I would be and will be too when I’m in your place, but you have to deal with it.”

“And who says I’m not dealing with it?” Archer responded. She then cracked a sarcastic smile. “In fact, those are the exact words I said to Spike earlier.”

“You know that’s not what I meant,” Rumble argued, with an eyebrow raised.

“That’s all there is to it,” Archer countered.

Hearing that, Rumble simply let out another sigh. “You know what, fine. If you say that you’re doing all right, then I’ll believe you and leave it at that.” He then turned back around to walk away, but turned his head back to face her as he did so. “Just make sure that you don’t have any regrets later,” he added. With that, he walked off again.

With him gone, Archer was able to concentrate fully on her game once again. She performed a barrel roll to the side to avoid an oncoming attack, only to roll directly into a descending missile. She was just about to curse at the machine, when suddenly a health pack appeared. Health packs were few and far between in this game, especially this late, so she pushed aside all other thoughts for now and made a beeline for it, right away.

Back up to full health again, Archer’s mind was once again on the game and nothing else.

---

“Hey there, Archer.” Apple Bloom this time. Archer was really starting to get annoyed with all of these constant interruptions. Knowing that she had something to say to her, (most likely something that the others already said about half a dozen times,) Archer didn’t respond to her greeting and simply waited for her to continue with her little caveat of ‘helpfulness’.

“So, you wanna go over to Sugarcube Corner?” Apple Bloom asked her, with a big, happy, ignorant smile on her face. “I heard that Mrs. Cake just got a new ‘Quintuple Fudge Fudge Brownie’ recipe that she wants to try out. We should go; I bet it’s delicious.”

“Don’t want to,” was all Archer responded with.

“Oh, okay,” Apple Bloom said, coming down a bit, but almost immediately went back up again. “Well then, do you maybe want to go somewhere to train some more to prepare for your fight. I could teach you some of my karate moves,” she said pridefully. “Hi-Ya.” She kicked and punch with her back and front hooves respectively in demonstration.

“Nope,” Archer replied immediately, mashing the button for her main cannons, destroying another weak point.

With only the one-syllable word answers that she was getting from her, Apple Bloom furrowed her eyebrows. “You can’t just spend all of your time playing video games, you know. Come on, let’s go do something… while you still can.” The last part only came out as a small whisper under her breath.

“I told you, I don’t want to,” Archer replied, either not noticing or not caring about the hushed warning. She was now really starting to get annoyed with Apple Bloom’s, and everyone’s, relentless interruptions, when all she wanted was to be left alone and play video games in peace. However, she still managed to keep her emotions in check and…

“Awww, come on, Scootablue…”

And that did it.

The farm girl barely had enough time to duck, throwing herself to the ground quickly in order to avoid a furious rearward buck. “Hey, what was that for?!”

“Don’t call me Scootablue! My name is Archer!” The blue earth pony screamed back at her, her voice full of fury but her eyes glued to the screen. “Quit comparing me to that pathetic, flightless chicken. We’re nothing alike!”

Apple Bloom’s eyes widened at that remark then narrowed. “Hey, don’t talk about my friend like that,” she growled, picking herself up again. Her scowl then faded a little and she turned her head to the side. “She’s dead, show some respect,” she said quieter.

“Well, since I’m essentially dead already, I’ll call her whatever in Tartarus I feel like!” Archer retorted, raising her voice again, not even slowing down. She then unleashed her Mega Torpedo and destroyed another of Lord Cruelty’s weak points.

Looking back at the blue earth pony, Apple Bloom furrowed her eyebrows again, and let out a breath, her anger cooling down a little. "I thought you liked that name," she muttered, trying to regain some composure. "Scootaloo never minded bein' compared to you."

"Yeah, and Scootaloo never had a real cutie mark of her own. You can't know what somepony ignoring that is like."

All Apple Bloom could do was stare. She then simply said, in a cold tone of voice, “You know, you’re a real jerk.”

Archer spared Apple Bloom only a split second glance. “…Whatever.”

With their little argument over with, Apple Bloom walked off, and Archer returned her full focus to the game once again.

All of these unwelcome visitors were really starting to get on her nerves. Archer had never really been popular before, and now she was in the worst possible way.

---

The next time Archer heard hoofsteps approaching, the intruding party didn’t even bother with a greeting this time. "Archer. You're coming with me."

The response was just as flat. "No I'm not."

A torpedo flew with deadly accuracy. Lord Cruelty's eight weak point flared up and went out, and then finally - finally something changed. The entire magika tank flinched backward, and a single row of energy launchers fell from their place - a single crack in the unbeatable lord's armour. Archer set her face as the barrage intensified yet again. There was no fear in her. It was Tornado Bolt who was standing behind her, possibly the only pony left alive who had ever actually asked her about her hobby. She of all ponies would understand. She would respect her enough to leave her alone.

Which made what came next all the more unexpected.

A set of strong jaws closed around the back of her cape. Her hooves kept moving as she was yanked backwards, quickly dancing across buttons that were no longer there, and they kept moving until their owner hit the ground, hard.

The blue sky loomed over her, numbing, chilling. It was the cry of Princess Cloud Wonder taking a hit that snapped Archer back to reality. She tried to scramble back to her hooves, only for a grey hoof to stomp on her barrel, pinning her to the ground. “No, stay down,” Tornado scolded her.

“Screw you,” Archer retorted, squirming furiously. “I'm so close, I've never been this close before, and you interruption will…” Tornado simply smacked her again.

“What in Tartarus is wrong with you?” Tornado shouted at her. “The fate of the world is at stake, and you’re wasting your time playing video games. Seeing how these could be our final days, you could at least try and do something constructive, or maybe for once think of your friends instead of being so selfish.”

“Well, since it’s my final days, I’ll spend them however in Tartarus I want, doing something that I like!” Archer shot back.

Tornado Bolt just scoffed. “Yeah, well tough shit. You’ve got a responsibility, to us and the rest of the world, and we’re all going through the exact same thing you are, so don’t go thinking that you’re special or anything.”

“Well, when it’s your turn to fight, you can do whatever you want beforehoof and I won’t stop you,” Archer barked back.

“You’ll be dead by then,” Tornado almost deadpanned.

“Exactly!” Archer followed up without missing a beat. “Since I’m going to die anyway no matter what happens and I won’t get another chance, I deserve to be selfish right now and try to accomplish something that’s important to just me.”

The two friends stared each other down, glaring hard, neither one of them giving the other an inch. Eventually, with a big huff, Tornado Bolt gave in and left, but not without a lot of bitterness.

With her gone, Archer picked herself up, brushed the dirt out of her coat and her cape, and walked back over to the game machine, and the sight in front of her only served to increase her own bitterness. Because of Tornado Bolt’s interruption, Lord Cruelty had killed her, and even now, she was still being tormented by that stupid Game Over screen, with Lord Cruelty’s skull laughing at her, as if he had actually beaten her this time.

Bucking up, she did the only thing she could do and began a new game and started again from the beginning. She had no more interruptions for the rest of the day and played for hours, well into the evening, until she fell asleep at the machine. But despite her efforts, she never managed to reach Lord Cruelty again.

Author's Note:

As before, almost all of this chapter was written by Dawn Flower, with only minor tweaks from me.

Comments

[Braininthejar]

Now, that's not something I expected to see ever again.

[Random Interest]

Glad someone is continuing this. I missed this story.

[Braininthejar]

7385861 I have also made a chapter for this - now that the previous one has been done, mine might appear too.

[Dragon Turtle]

1118055
Would you say I should read the manga, or watch the anime? I've looked at the synopsis, and I'm extremely interested.

[Random Interest]

7386912 Then I can't wait! Anticipation is overflowing!

[Nonagon]

7386945 I would say absolutely! But which one, you ask? That's a longer answer.

Personally, I prefer the anime more than the manga. I feel that it does an overall better job of telling the story, with stronger characters and better conflicts. Which makes sense, really; the anime came second and had a different director, so it was able to take an already good concept and evolve it in some ways. Also, this feels weird to say, but I find the manga to be needlessly dark. You wouldn't think that would apply, since the story in and of itself is incredibly, incredibly dark, but it still pushes on to find new and creative ways to torture its characters, to the extent that it starts feeling like it's just being dark for its own sake. The anime allows for more moments of hope and levity, and feels, to me, much more natural and enjoyable. Of the two, I would strongly recommend watching the anime first.

However, the strength of the manga is that it's unrestrained by budget or an episodic format. While the anime often has to drastically shorten a robot battle for the sake of a character arc (or vice versa) the manga is free to make each round go on as long as it wants, which allows for much more fleshing out. Every character gets a long and unique buildup to their fight, and each robot is entirely unique and bursting with creativity, even if some of them are, frankly, a load of bullshit. (Javelin is ludicrously overpowered, while Drum is, like, the worst robot. Period.) Once you're finished the anime, I also recommend going back and reading the manga as well, to see the story's full potential and get a taste of what could have been.