Adventures In Text

by Glimglam

Chapter 1: Parsing it Out

Chapter 1: Parsing it Out

It took Twilight around five minutes to navigate her way back to the town’s Library. When she arrived, it was clear that Rainbow Dash had gotten here in merely five seconds, if that. And wow, was Rainbow ever cross when Twilight finally showed up.

“What took you so long?!” the pegasus snapped, impatiently stamping the wooden floor with a hoof. “I’ve been waiting here for, like, forever!”

Nearby, a baby dragon was clutching the sides of his head with irritation. “I know it’s been forever for me,” Spike groaned, scowling. “One second, I’m figuring out where the new copies of ‘Equestrian Arts Vol. 5’ go on the bookshelves, and the next, Rainbow Dash bursts in the door and starts yelling in my ear about that Daring Do game and how excited she is about it…”

“Hey! At least somepony around here is!” Rainbow shot back indignantly. Spike just rolled his eyes and walked up the stairs, muttering something about “going back to bed”.

“Hold your haybales Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes with coy amusement. “Do you still have the game with you? Or did you drop it during your little flight?

Rainbow Dash scoffed, and held the box up with her hooves whilst keeping a careful grip on it. “Right here! Who said that I’d ever drop it?” She squealed with glee. “Ohmygoshohmygosh-this-is-so-awesome!! I get to play one of Daring Do’s lost adventures! Eeeeeee!”

Twilight shook her head at Rainbow’s excessive fanfilly-ism, but nevertheless smiled a genuine smile. “Okay, hold on just one second. I need to set up the Mareintosh first.”

While the excited pegasus continued giggling to herself, Twilight trotted into in the basement of the Library. A lot of the science equipment she had commissioned to attempt to study “Pinkie Sense” was still down here gathering dust. She hadn’t much use for it nowadays, even with all the crazy stuff that’s gone on since then. Twilight, apparently, had given up on science to explain stuff by now. But hey, this is Ponyville…

Her storage closet was practically loaded with relics of all kinds. Even after she’d gone and cleaned most of the stuff out, there was still a wealth of amazing (and some not-quite-as-amazing) junk in here. One of them, a box-shaped machine with a glass screen on the front and a keyboard situated below it, caught Twilight’s attention. “There it is!”

It was quite a heavy device, but Twilight was able to heft it with ease (thanks to her levitation magic). With the Mareintosh in tow, the unicorn strode back up the stairs to the main floor, where Rainbow Dash was pacing about impatiently, her wings flared with apparent annoyance.

“What took you so long?!” she exclaimed upon spotting Twilight, and the unicorn just sighed.

“Rainbow Dash, you’ve got to take it easy. I know that you’re excited, but this is something you should really be taking slow. Text adventures are meant to challenge the mind—”

“Yeah yeah, whatever, just set up the thingy already!”

Twilight gave the pegasus a deadpan stare.

“…Please?”

With a sigh, the purple unicorn relented and set the Mareintosh on a nearby desk. Her horn glowed again, and a chair was summoned from afar and set up in front of the desk where the magical computer lay.

“If I may,” Twilight said quickly, using her magic to next pluck the game box out of Rainbow’s caring grip. The pegasus briefly protested, but she trailed off into a soft mumble. Twilight opened the box, removed a small cartridge, and inserted it into a slot on the Mareintosh’s front.

She also removed a small booklet from the box, and placed it in Rainbow Dash’s hooves. “That’s the instruction manual. You may want to read it first, you know, so that you’re not hopelessly confused when starting.”

“Who are you calling ‘hopelessly confused’?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed defensively. “I don’t need a manual to know how to be awesome! And neither does Daring Do!”

“But Rainbow Dash,” Twilight began, a slight smirk forming on her face, “just think about it. The author himself—or herself, who knows—wrote that manual. You wouldn’t want to disappoint them, would you?”

“…”

“And who knows, maybe there are cool Daring Do secrets hidden within…”

“…Okay, fine!” Rainbow Dash said, finally relenting. “But only because the author of Daring Do is awesome!”

Twilight let out a sly giggle, and proceeded to turn on and set up the Mareintosh whilst Rainbow Dash decided to give the booklet a once-over. It wasn’t really that long, so maybe it would okay to spare a moment to read it.

Opening the instruction book, the pegasus flipped to the first page labeled ‘Introduction’, and began to read…

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER DUNGEON!

Are you prepared to embark upon the most daring quest yet? Take on the role of the famed pegasi explorer herself, Daring Do, and navigate your way across the many tricks and traps that your enemies and rivals have laid for you!

Legend tells of an ancient pony civilization, one that existed and thrived long before the founding of Equestria. And at the center of their empire, was a treasure known simply as the Emerald Equine. Long believed to have been the source of their power, the Equine is rumored to be an object of incredible value. Today, everypony believes it to be locked within the ancient ruins of the empire.

And that’s where you come in.

Upon hearing of the mysteries of the Emerald Empire, you immediately jump at the opportunity for adventure, like you always do. Arriving in a small tribal village near the ruins of the ancient civilization, you are nearly prepared to finally embark on your quest. But beware! You old nemesis, Ahuizotl, also has plans for the Emerald Equine, and there is not doubt that he and his minions will get in your way!

Be brave! Be bold! Be Daring! The time for adventure begins NOW!

Rainbow’s interest was most certainly piqued after reading that. It certainly seemed like a pretty awesome setup for a Daring Do adventure, she thought! Not only that, but you actually get to play as Daring Do herself! To her, that alone simply screamed "awesomeness!" She moved on to the next section, which was basically just a “how-to-play” exposition.

HOW-TO-PLAY

-This is a text-based adventure game. To play, you must input a command on the TEXT PARSER, which is indicated by the “>_” symbol. Type verbs like “LOOK AT”, “TAKE”, or “USE”, followed by the item in question. An item must be ‘visible’ in the room description in order to interact with it!

-Moving around is easy! To go in a specific direction, simply type “NORTH”, “WEST”, “EAST”, or “SOUTH” into the text parser. You can also simply type “N”, “W”, “E”, or “S” for each respective direction.(NOTE: The game will inform you which directions you are allowed to go in, to make things easier.)

-To access your inventory of the items you’ve TAKEn, simply type “INVENTORY” or just “INV”. The stuff you are currently carrying will be displayed!

-To save the game, so you can take a break and play again later, type ‘SAVE’ into the parser. Your current status will be recorded! To pick up where you left off, type ‘RESTORE’. You will be put right back to where you last saved the game!

TIPS & TRICKS

-Be sure to examine everything, and check everywhere! Sometimes really important items are hidden in secret places! Sometimes they are just there in plain sight!

-Your name may have the word ‘Daring’ included in it, but better to be safe than sorry! Some places and things aren’t exactly meant to be played around with! Proceed with caution!

-Some items can be combined! Others are used to solve certain puzzles! Even innocuous items might be important, and others might be worthless!

-If all else fails, like when you’re hopelessly stuck with a puzzle, type ‘RESTART’ to try the game over again! Maybe there was a clue or something that you missed!

If one thing was for sure, this game sure seemed… complicated, despite how simple the manual made it sound. Rainbow Dash struggled to memorize the contents, but she eventually managed to get the instructions down pat.

“So, didja learn up on how to play?” a voice asked her. Rainbow jumped at the sudden sound in her ear, and sighed upon realizing that it was only Twilight.

“Uh, yeah…”

“Great! The Mareintosh is all set up and ready to go, so I’ll let you have fun with it,” Twilight said, smiling.

Rainbow Dash smiled as well. “Th-thanks Twilight. You’re a good friend.”

“You’re very welcome. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there were a few things I had to tend to around the library.”

Twilight trotted off, presumably to deal with arranging books or something, and Rainbow Dash was quick to hop on the desk chair and sit on her haunches. The Mareintosh was right in front of her, the six-inch wide screen staring straight at her. The keyboard, which was attached to the computer, had all the keys of the alphabet (which were thankfully wide enough for hooves).

As she sat down, taking in the sights of the Mareintosh and spending a moment processing it all, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but wonder something. ‘This dusty old box is worth 20000 bits?’ she mentally questioned. ‘That’s just crazy! It's just a box with a glowing screen! If it wasn't for Daring Do, I bet it'd be worthless.’ She finally settled her eyes on the screen, reading what was now printed in rather blocky text:

DARING DO & THE SEARCH FOR THE EMERALD EQUINE

Infocolt interactive fiction – an adventure story

Copyright © 984 by Infocolt, Inc. All rights reserved.

Revision 69 / Serial number 072094

You are standing in the main square of a tribal village. The ponies here are intrigued by your explorer garments and hat, but you pay no mind to them. One of the tribals seems to be waving you over.

You can see a tribal, a pair of binoculars, and a map.

>_

“Alright, so…” Rainbow scratched her chin with a hoof. “…what do I do now?”

“Just type something in!” the voice of Twilight called from afar. “Try looking at something!”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Okay…” she mumbled, and began slowly typing in a simple command into the parser. When she was finished, she hit the button that read ‘INPUT’.

>LOOK AT SOMETHING_

What do you want to look at?

“Uh…” The pegasus gritted her teeth as she weighed her options. “The map, I guess…”

>MAP_

The map appears to have fallen out of your bag. It would be wise to pick it back up.

“Okay, um… How do I pick up stuff again?” she wondered aloud. “Oh! Right, I’ll just take it…”

>TAKE MAP_

Taken.

Rainbow Dash blinked. Well, that was easy enough. Now, what next? “Huh, what was this about a tribal earlier…?” Her hooves once again danced across the keyboard.

>LOOK AT TRIBAL_

He is a brown earth pony stallion with a highly unkempt white mane. Judging from his clothing, he might be a figure of high authority in this village. He appears to be waving you over to him.

“Oh… maybe he wants to talk to me?” Rainbow thought aloud again. “Wait, no, he wants to talk to Daring! But… in this game, I am Daring! Cool!”

>TALK TO TRIBAL_

The stallion greets you cordially and bows slightly. As a sign of respect, you bow as well. He then speaks to you in a language that you recognize as Coltec. Thankfully, you are well-versed in that language, and translate his speech as, “Greetings, traveler. I presume you are here to explore the ruins to our north.”

You nod your head and explain your intentions. The stallion nods as well. “I see. Many ponies have come and tried to claim the treasure, though there has yet to be one to succeed.” You make the claim that you will be the first one to find the treasure, and the pony laughs. “I admire your conviction, young traveler. You seem bolder than most. Perhaps you will succeed, who knows.”

The stallion then leans forward toward you, and his look turns gravely serious. “Just keep in mind, my friend, that the treasure you seek is not what you may expect. I will not stop you, but I urge you not to risk the journey. Ponies have ventured in, and never came back.”

With those last words, the strange pony trots away deeper into the village, and you quickly lose sight of him. You aren’t really fazed by this however; you’ve been through worse scrapes before.

You are standing in the main square of a tribal village. The ponies here are intrigued by your explorer garments and hat, but you pay no mind to them.

You can see binoculars.

>_

Rainbow Dash thought long and hard. Of course, it was only natural for there to be a strange pony of some random tribe to warn the brave explorers to stay away from the creepy temples and such. But Rainbow didn’t care, and she knew that Daring wouldn’t either. She’s practically been through Tartarus and back, for Celestia’s sake!

Ready to move on, the pegasus thought it best to grab the last remaining item, according the game: the binoculars. And so, she typed out the command.

>TAKE BINOKULARS_

What’s a ‘binokulars’?

“…Oops,” Rainbow muttered, and facehoofed. Darn misspellings. She tried again, this time making sure to double check her spelling.

>TAKE BINOCULARS_

Taken.

Ah. Excellent. Now, what else was there to do…? “Hmm…” Rainbow Dash wasn’t exactly sure where else she could go. There didn’t seem to be a direction indicated, nor were there any other hints or clues…

…maybe it was time for a little experimentation. And by ‘experimentation’, she meant fun.

>FLY_

Real adventurers can explore the most deadly dungeons without taking advantage of their natural talents. Of course, even if you wanted to, you couldn’t even hope to break the thick canopy of jungle foliage above you anyway. Oh well.

Rainbow Dash frowned. Once again, something had foiled Daring’s attempts at just flying around. Then again, that’s what made her cool. She could explore temples and find the treasures within... without wings. Rainbow was just a little bit envious of that.

Now, she was spending a few words just messing around. But Rainbow didn’t care much about that; she was simply taking advantage of finally being the one in control.

>SHOUT_

AAAAARRRRRRGHHH!!!

You begin to get a sore throat.

“Heehee…” Rainbow couldn’t help but laugh. The developers really do think of everything! She wondered if they even included…?

>DANCE_

This is really not the time for an impromptu display of your less-than-admirable ballet routine. …But oh, what the hay. You sneak in a quick hoof-tapper.

Rainbow laughed again. Whoever made this game… well, the author was supposed to be involved as well, but it was actually pretty funny! Maybe moreso than the books themselves! What else could be done?

She spent the next twenty minutes just goofing around, typing in random commands and interactions (a lot of which didn’t work, though a surprising amount did) to amuse herself. It was amazing how fast time could be lost to an object meant for simple-minded glee.

“So, are you enjoying the game so far?” Twilight asked as she walked past the desk with a load of books in tow. “How far did you get?”

Rainbow’s giggling ceased. In all honesty, she hadn’t even left the village yet. She’d been so sidetracked by just goofing around that she’d forgotten. “…Oh, uh… not that far. I was just… figuring out this puzzle.”

“Oh? What puzzle is that?” the unicorn asked, taking a glance at the screen and squinted her eyes to make out the words. “…‘You now feel at least 20% cooler?’ Huh?”

“I… ah…” Rainbow dash played with her hooves as she stammered nervously. “I typed in ‘become cooler’, and that’s what it popped out… Eh-heh…”

“…Ah. So, just where are you?”

There was a pause before Rainbow Dash quietly answered, “The village…”

Twilight raised an incredulous eyebrow. “…You’re still in the first area? Whatever happened to the super-fast Rainbow Dash approach? Or are you just that stuck?” While her words may have suggested condescension, her tone was genuinely curious and slightly concerned.

“Well, no… I just… didn’t really know which way to go next, and I… well, I just thought I’d play around for a bit.”

“Ohhhh, I see,” Twilight said, nodding with assent. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, I used to mess around a lot while playing that too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I was just a filly then, remember?”

The pegasus’s face fell into a scowl. “Muh. You’re saying I’m playing like a little foal then. Of course. Thanks a ton for the analysis, Twi.” The sarcasm present in Rainbow Dash’s voice was almost to the point of extreme toxicity.

“N-no, that’s not what I meant!” the unicorn defended, waving a dismissive hoof. “What I meant was… that it’s natural to have certain… curiosities about the limits of a game like this.”

“I just suck at this game…”

“No, don’t say that! If you need a little help, I’m more than willing to offer some!” Twilight set down the books she was carrying with her magic and placed a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. “You just need to ask.”

“…” Rainbow sighed. “Okay… fine. Can you please give me a hoof with this?”

“I’d be glad to,” Twilight agreed, beaming. “Now, what were you having trouble with again?”

Rainbow shrugged. “I’m still in the village, and I don’t know where to go next.”

“I see. Have you ever thought about going north?”

“…”

“…You see, since the pony that talks to you even says that the ruins are north.”

“…”

“…”

“…Well, buck. IT WAS SO OBVIOUS!”

And thusly, Rainbow was again clattering her hooves on the keyboard to input the command, while Twilight stood and watched on. ‘Give her time,’ she thought. ‘She might get the hang of this game someday.

“Oh, great. ‘A fallen tree blocks the path ahead.’ NOW WHAT?!”

‘…Might. I dunno.’

=====O======

“Can ya see… inside now…?”

“Not yet! Just a little bit higher!”

“Ugh… Scootaloo… why’re ya so heavy?!”

“Just a little bit more! I’m almost there…!”

“Ah… can’t… hold on… too… heavy…”

“Oh, come on, Apple Bloom! Heave ho!”

“Guhhh… so… much… heavy…”

“…Yes! I made it—AAAAAAAAHH!!”

THUD!

Once again, a potential plot was foiled.

After crashing to the ground, an orange pegasus filly slowly picked herself back up. Stars danced in her vision as she groggily called out, “Apple Bloom… What the hay was that? I was so close to the window! Why’d you drop me?!”

“It weren’t my fault!” the yellow filly with a red mane and pink bow said defensively. “Ya’ll kept shoutin’ at me to boost you up to that there windowsill, an’ Ah just wasn’t strong enough to hold you up!”

“But you’re an earth pony! And your sister is Applejack!” Scootaloo asserted. “How could you not be at least kind of as tough as her?”

“Ah’m still just a filly, Scoots!” Apple Bloom said with annoyance. “Ya’ll can’t go assumin’ that Ah can move mountains an’ stuff! Ah even told ya that Ah can’t life you by myself!”

Scootaloo let out an irritated sigh. “This would be so much easier if Sweetie Belle hadn’t gone to the Spa with her sister… I mean, why even go to a spa? Rainbow Dash doesn’t go to spas!”

“Ugh, ‘Rainbow’ this, an’ ‘Dash’ that!” Apple Bloom spat. “Why are we even here? Ah don’t think we’ll our cutie marks by spying on ponies…”

“Tell that to Deep Cover! He got his cutie mark just last week because he found out, by spying, that somepony was planning to prank somepony else the next day!”

Apple Bloom tilted her head wonderingly. “Who’s ‘somepony’?”

“No one important…” Scootaloo mumbled, a light scowl tugging at the corner of her mouth as she shifted her eyes rather shadily. “…Besides! That’s not why we’re here. We’re here to figure out what Rainbow Dash was so excited about. She rarely gets that excited unless the Wonderbolts are in town… or if a new Daring Do book comes into the library!”

“So… we’re spyin’ on Rainbow Dash.”

“Kind of, yeah!”

“…Because she’s probably readin’ a book or somethin’ that takes her fancy.”

“Uh-huh!”

“…See ya.” And with that, Apple Bloom turned and trotted away, a blank glower comprising her only facial expression.

Scootaloo sighed with annoyance. “Okay, fine! Be that way!” she snapped. “I can climb up there all by myself.” The filly looked back up at the towering tree before her, where the closest window to the floor RD was on was at least twice as high as she was.

“…Uh-huh. All… by myself. Right.”

And so, Scootaloo embarked upon her epic quest to climb the insurmountable wall that led to her ultimate goal. She was to scale the un-scalable, all for the sake of getting to see her one, true idol read a book or something.

…Yeah, that’s totally not creepy at all.

=====O=====

“…What do you MEAN that I could’ve just jumped over it?!”

“It’s not a huge tree; I thought you could’ve easily deduced that!”

“But the game didn’t give me any hints! How was I supposed to figure that out?”

“You could have employed a little creative thinking!”

“The manual never said anything about that!”

“Forget the manual! Just think a little bit, for a change!”

“Agh, fine! I’m thinking now…” Rainbow Dash put a hoof to her mouth and made a face that suggested intense concentration. “…okay, done. There, I thought a little bit. And I’ve completely figured it out.”

“Oh? And?”

“I’m hopelessly stuck. I may need more help.”

Twilight let out a huge, drawn-out sigh of exasperation and slammed her head against the desk.

‘Oh dear, sweet, merciful Celestia… what have I done?!?’

Comments

[Darksteam McRadicalpants]

Oh, Rainbow, you can have smart too, if try.
This looks like fun, so you get 5 cool Dashes.

[CookieMonstar]

... Wow. Rainbow Dash playing a text-based adventure.

I've seen everything.

[The Grey Pegasus]

Text adventure. You've totally got my interest. I guess it helps that arbitary commands are allowed. "Shout" made me laugh.

[ColdGoldLazarus]

Another good chapter; I was rather amused by Dash's experimentation.

[UniqueSKD]

I dread to think what tbe hay Dash might have typed in...

Oh god the possibilities!